Smiler's Balancing Act - Part 5

 
From my ever-growing "Reading Love" Pinterest board: "My Eldest Daughter, Suzanne with Milk and Book" by Carl Larsson (1904)
and "Girl with Pigtails", Sir Samuel Henry William Llewelyn (1858-1941).


Table of Contents:
• Reading Plans
• Books Completed in May-September
• Books Completed in January-April
• AAC, BAC, ANZAC Reading Challenges
• Reading Stefan Zweig
• Picked for Me! Challenge
• Booker Prize Books
• A Century of Books!
• Reading Bingo
• Ongoing Series

Currently reading, listening to, and occasionally browsing through:

✔ All the World's Birds: Buffon's Illustrated Natural History General and Particular of Birds by Georges-Louis Leclerc
✔ Slightly Foxed: No. 3: Sharks, Otters and Fast Cars by Gail Pirkis, Hazel Wood (Editors)
✔ Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie
♫ Everything That Rises Must Converge by Flannery O' Connor
♫ The Potter's Field (Inspector Montalbano 13) by Andrea Camilleri

        

http://pics.cdn.librarything.com/picsizes/5a/c4/5ac4fd5918885ad596f4f426851434f4...



Favourites of 2015: (★★★★½ and up, by reading order)
Bitter Greens by Kate Forsyth (review)
The Blind Contessa's New Machine by Carey Wallace
The Hare with Amber Eyes by Edmund de Waal ★★★★★ (review)
Babette's Feast by Isak Dinesen
Clockwork by Philip Pullman (review)
Lamentation by C. J. Sansom
The Scapegoat by Daphne Du Maurier (review)
The Gift of Rain by Tan Twan Eng
Small Gods: Discworld #13 by Terry Pratchett (review)
The Buried Giant by Kazuo Ishiguro ★★★★★ (review)
Fräulein Schmidt and Mr Anstruther by Elizabeth von Arnim (review)
The Real Jane Austen: A Life in Small Things by Paula Byrne
Mansfield Park by Jane Austen (reread - tutored read with Liz)
Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie (reread)
The Bloody Chamber and Other Stories by Angela Carter
The Grand Sophy by Georgette Heyer
The Leopard by Guisepe Di Lampedusa
Ross Poldark by Winston Graham (review—sort of)
The Red Queen by Margaret Drabble (review)
The Accursed Kings: The Iron King (Part 1) by Maurice Druon
The Accursed Kings: The Strangled Queen (Part 2) by Maurice Druon
The Accursed Kings: The Royal Succession (Part 4) by Maurice Druon
Sea of Poppies by Amitav Ghosh (reread)
All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr (mini-review)
Nothing Like the Sun by Anthony Burgess (review)
The Garden Party and Other Stories by Katherine Mansfield
Parle-leur de batailles de rois et d'éléphants by Mathias Enard (review)
Oscar and Lucinda by Peter Carey

Favourites of 2014:
The Garden of Evening Mists by Tan Twan Eng ★★★★★ (review)
Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë
Rogue Male by Geoffrey Household (review)
The New York Stories of Edith Wharton by Edith Wharton
Lady Susan by Jane Austen (review)
Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth by Reza Aslan (review)
Restoration by Rose Tremain ★★★★★ (review)
The Quick by Lauren Owen (ARC) ★★★★★ (review)
Miss Buncle's Book by D. E. Stevenson (review)
Dissolution by C. J. Samson (review)
The Unstrung Harp: Or, Mr Earbrass Writes a Novel by Edward Gorey ★★★★★
Treehorn Times Three by Florence Parry Heide & Edward Gorey
Merivel by Rose Tremain (review)
A Café on the Nile by Bartle Bull (review)
Amsterdam by Ian McEwan (review)
The Waiting Game by Bernice Reubens (review)
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
Vanessa and Her Sister by Priya Parmar (review)
Love-Letters Between A Nobleman And His Sister (Volume II) (tutored read)
Breakfast With Lucian: A Portrait of the Artist by Geordie Greig (review)
The Ruby in Her Navel by Barry Unsworth ★★★★★ (review)
Not My Father's Son by Alan Cumming (review)
Mrs Palfrey at the Claremont by Elizabeth Taylor
Le joueur d'échecs / Chess Story by Stefan Zweig ★★★★★
La Petite Bijou by Patrick Modiano

My rating system:
★ - Hated it (May or may not have finished it)
★★ - Has some redeeming qualities (Just ok)
★★★ - Enjoyed it well enough (Good)
★★★★ - Loved it! (Very good)
★★★★½ - Favourites of the year (Want to read it again!)
★★★★★ - All-time favourite (Would read again, and again... and again!)

⅛ ¼ ⅓ ½ ¾ ⅞

♫ = audiobook
✔ = off the shelf
❉ = library book
ⓔ = eBook
☀ = TIOLI
* = Picked for Me



Reserving first 10 posts for organizational and planning needs.

Reading Plans for September:
✭✔ The Bone People by Keri Hulme - ANZAC, ACoB! (1984), Booker Prize Challenge, TIOLI #13: contains the word 'September", 'Sept' or 'Ember' in the narrative - Unfinished
✪♫❉ La vérité sur l'affaire Harry Quebert / The Truth About the Harry Quebert Affair (Goncourt des lycéens 2012) by Joël Dicker - TIOLI #10: At least 3 vowels in alphabetical order in the title - COMPLETED
✪*♫ A Town Like Alice by Nevil Shute - picked by @DeltaQueen50, ACoB! (1952), TIOLI #6 - COMPLETED
*✔+♫ A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry - picked by @kidzdoc
✭*♫ My Antonia by Willa Cather - picked by @jnwelch, TIOLI #6 - COMPLETED
✭*♫ Falling Angel by Tracy Chevalier - Picked for Me! (by @Fourpawz2), TIOLI #2: A title which includes "Autumn", "Fall", or "September".
✭♫ A Dead Man in Deptford by Anthony Burgess - ACoB! (1993), TIOLI #13 - COMPLETED
✪✔ The Fortnight in September by R. C. Sherriff - TIOLI #2: A title which includes "Autumn", "Fall", or "September" - COMPLETED
✪♫ Cranford by Elizabeth Gaskell - TIOLI #1: a one-word title containing one set of duplicate letters - COMPLETED
✪♫ Venetia by Georgette Heyer - TIOLI #1
✪♫ Orfeo by Richard Powers - Booker Prize Challenge, TIOLI #1
✪♫ The Tiger in the Smoke by Margery Allingham - TIOLI #16: about or by a novelist from the Golden Age of Detective Fiction - COMPLETED
✪♫ Lord Edgware Dies by Agatha Christie - TIOLI #18: Read a book which ends with a question mark - COMPLETED

September Series & Sequels Possibilities:
✭♫ Wild Strawberries by Angela Thirkell - TIOLI #9: Read a Series Book that has a 2 Word Title - COMPLETED
✭♫ August Heat by Andrea Camilleri - TIOLI #9 - COMPLETED
✭♫ Grave Peril by Jim Butcher - TIOLI #9
✭♫ The Likeness by Tana French - TIOLI #9 - COMPLETED
✭♫ Men at Arms by Terry Pratchett - TIOLI #6
✪♫ Imperium by Robert Harris - TIOLI #8: set in the ancient world
✪♫ The Silver Pigs by Lindsey Davis - TIOLI #8 - COMPLETED
✪❉ Death in the Clouds by Agatha Christie - TIOLI #16 - COMPLETED

Spur of the moment:
✭♫ The Wings of the Sphinx by Andrea Camilleri (Montalbano #11) - TIOLI #20: Read a book in a series - COMPLETED
✭♫ The Track of Sand by Andrea Camilleri (Montalbano #12) - TIOLI #20 - COMPLETED
♫ The Potter's Field (Inspector Montalbano 13) by Andrea Camilleri - TIOLI #20 - Listening

***

Reading Plans for October:

✭✔ Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie - BAC, Booker Prize Challenge, TIOLI #7: a book where the main character is a child - Reading
✭♫ Everything That Rises Must Converge by Flannery O' Connor - AAC - TIOLI #6: a word in the title starts with any of the six central letters of the English alphabet K,L,M,N,O, or P - Listening
✪✔ Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury (reread) - AAC, TIOLI #1: author's last name contains a three-letter combination which is an English word if spelled backward
♫ The Siege by Helen Dunmore - BAC
✭♫ The Colour by Rose Tremain - TIOLI #2: Read a work written/first published, set during or about the years of Queen Victoria
✭♫ The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Brontë - TIOLI #2
✭♫ Queen's Gambit by Elizabeth Freemantle - TIOLI #5: a real person as a character of a novel (Catherine Parr, Henry VIII)
❉ Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell - BAC
? ⓔ The Midnight Bell by Francis Lathom - Tutored read with Liz (this month?)
✔ The Children Of Dynmouth by William Trevor - Booker Prize Challenge, ACoB! (1976)
✭♫ Claudine à L'école / Claudine at School by Colette - ACoB! (1900), TIOLI #2
✪✔ Blaming by Elizabeth Taylor - TIOLI #3: Read a book whose title contains no repeated letters
✪✔ The Arrival by Shaun Tan - TIOLI #4: Read a book about the immigrant experience
✪✔ Pnin by Vladimir Nabokov - TIOLI #4

From the Library:
✭❉ Le fou de Bergerac / The Madman of Bergerac Maigret #16 by Georges Simenon - TIOLI #1
✭❉ The Long Song Andrea Levy - BAC, Booker Prize Challenge, TIOLI #6



* = Picked for Me challenge
** = Picked for Me challenge extra picks
♫ = audiobook
✔ = off the shelf
❉ = library book
ⓔ = eBook
✭ = TIOLI
✪ = Shared TIOLI

Books completed in September
126. ♫ The Silver Pigs by Lindsey Davis ★★★
127. *♫ My Antonia by Willa Cather ★★★
128. ♫ A Dead Man in Deptford by Anthony Burgess ★★★★
129. ♫ The Tiger in the Smoke by Margery Allingham ★★★½
130. ♫ Lord Edgware Dies by Agatha Christie ★★★★
131. ♫ August Heat by Andrea Camilleri ★★★★⅓
132. ✔The Fortnight in September by R. C. Sherriff ★★★½
133. ♫ The Wings of the Sphinx by Andrea Camilleri ★★★★⅓
134. *♫ A Town Like Alice by Nevil Shute ★★★★
135. ❉ Death in the Clouds by Agatha Christie ★★★★
136. ♫ The Track of Sand by Andrea Camilleri ★★★
137. ♫ The Likeness by Tana French ★★★★⅓
138. ♫ Cranford by Elizabeth Gaskell ★★★★⅓
139.
140.

Unfinished
✔ The Bone People by Keri Hulme

August
111. ✔+♫ Oscar and Lucinda by Peter Carey ★★★★½
112. ♫❉ La mort du roi Tsongor / Death of an Ancient King (Goncourt des lycéens 2002) by Laurent Gaudé ★★★★⅓
113. *✔ The Brontes Went to Woolworths by Rachel Ferguson ★★★ (review)
114. *♫❉ The Last Picture Show by Larry McMurtry ★★¾ (didn't enjoy)
115. ♫❉ Le soleil des Scorta / The House of Scorta by Laurent Gaudé ★★★★
116. ♫❉ Pas Pleurer by Lydie Salvayre ★★★
117. ❉ La bibliothèque idéale RTL edited by Bernard Lehut ★★★★½
118. ♫❉ L'étranger / The Stranger by Albert Camus (reread) ★★★★
119. ✔ Travels With My Aunt by Graham Greene ★★★★
120. ❉ Matin Brun by Franck Pavloff ★★★★
121. *♫ The Bell by Iris Murdoch ★★★★
122. ❉ Meursault, contre-enquête / The Meursault Investigation by Kamel Daoud ★★★
123. ♫❉ Dead Man's Land by Robert Ryan ★★★★ (review)
124. ♫ The Accursed Kings: The Lily and the Lion (part 6) by Maurice Druon ★★★★⅓
125. ♫❉ La vérité sur l'affaire Harry Quebert / The Truth About the Harry Quebert Affair by Joël Dicker ★½

July
87. ♫ All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr ★★★★¾
88. ♫ Nothing Like the Sun by Anthony Burgess ★★★★½ (review)
89. ♫ L'échappée belle / French Leave by Anna Gavalda ★★★½
90. ♫ A Natural History of Dragons: A Memoir by Lady Trent, Book 1 by Marie Brennan ★★★★
91. ✔ The Garden Party and Other Stories by Katherine Mansfield ★★★★½
92. ♫ Orlando by Virginia Woolf ★★★ (review)
93. ❉ River of Smoke by Amitav Ghosh (reread) ★★★★⅓
94. *✔ Catharine: and Other Writings by Jane Austen ★★★★
95. ❉ The Tombs of Atuan by Ursula K. Leguin ★★★★ (review)
96. ♫ Evelina by Fanny Burney ★★★★⅓
97. ♫ The Collectors by Philip Pullman ★★★★
98. ♫ Lettres by Madame de Sévigné ★★★★
99. ♫ Parle-leur de batailles de rois et d'éléphants by Mathias Enard ★★★★½ (review)
100. ❉ Le Port des brumes / Maigret and the Death of a Harbor-Master #15 by Georges Simenon ★★★★ (review)
101. ♫ Fifth Business by Robertson Davies ★★★★½
102. ♫ Rue des boutiques obscures / Missing Person by Patrick Modiano ★★★½
103. ❉ The Strange Library by Haruki Murakami ★★★½
104. ❉ Unterzakhn by Leela Corman ★★★★
105. ❉ My Favorite Things by Maira Kalman ★★★½
❉ The Day the Crayons Quit by Drew Daywalt ; pictures by Oliver Jeffers ★★★★
106. ❉ⓔ Flood of Fire by Amitav Ghosh
107. *♫ Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel García Márquez (reread) ★★★★⅓
108. ✔ Slightly Foxed: No. 46: Grecian Hours by Gail Pirkis, Hazel Wood (Editors)
109. ❉ The Uncommon Reader by Alan Bennett ★★★½
110. ♫ The Diary of a Nobody by George Grossmith ★★★★

Unfinished
♫ Circling the Sun by Paula McLain (review)

June
75. ♫ The Fair Fight by Anna Freeman ★★★¾
76. ♫ The Strangled Queen (The Accursed Kings, Part 2) by Maurice Druon ★★★★½
77. ✔ Sea of Poppies by Amitav Ghosh ★★★★½ (reread)
78. ♫ Babbitt by Sinclair Lewis ★★★½
79. ♫ The Accursed Kings: The Poisoned Crown (Part 3) by Maurice Druon ★★★★⅓
80. ✔ Master Georgie by Beryl Bainbridge ★★★★⅓ (review)
81. ♫ The Accursed Kings: The Royal Succession (Part 4) by Maurice Druon ★★★★½
82. ❉ Maigret chez les Flamands / Maigret and the Flemish Shop #14 by Georges Simenon ★★★★
83. ♫ Angle of Repose by Wallace Stegner ★★★★
84. ♫ The Accursed Kings: The She-Wolf of France (Part 5) by Maurice Druon ★★★★
85. ✔ Slightly Foxed: No. 33: A World of Shining Beauty by Gail Pirkis, Hazel Wood (Editors) ★★★★
86. ♫ The Whale Rider by Witi Ihimaera ★★★★

May
62. ✔ Slightly Foxed: No. 31: The Return of Grouse by Gail Pirkis, Hazel Wood (Editors) ★★★★
63. ♫ The Grand Sophy by Georgette Heyer ★★★★½
64. ♫ The Parasites by Daphne du Maurier ★★¾
65. ♫ The Lost City of Z: A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon by David Grann ★★★★⅓
66. ✔ Castle Rackrent by Maria Edgeworth (group read)
67. ♫ The Leopard by Guisepe Di Lampedusa ★★★★½
68. ♫ L'Affaire Saint-Fiacre / Maigret Goes Home #13 by Georges Simenon ★★★★
69. ✔ Ross Poldark by Winston Graham ★★★★¾ (review—sort of)
70. ♫ The Fatal Flame by Lyndsay Faye ★★★⅓
71. ✔ Slightly Foxed: No. 32: At Home with the Pewters by Gail Pirkis, Hazel Wood (Editors) ★★★★
72. ♫ Child 44 by Tom Rob Smith ★★★★
73. ✔ The Red Queen by Margaret Drabble ★★★★½ (review)
74. ♫ The Iron King (The Accursed Kings, Part 1) by Maurice Druon ★★★★½




My rating system:
★ : Hated it! (May or may not have finished it)
★★ : It was just ok...
★★★ : Enjoyed it (Good)
★★★★ : Loved it! (Very good)
★★★★½ : Loved it—must read again! (Excellent)
★★★★★ : Brilliant!—will read again, and again... and again! (All-time favourite)

⅛ ¼ ⅓ ½ ¾ ⅞

♫ = audiobook
✔ = off the shelf
❉ = library book
ⓔ = eBook
☀ = TIOLI

Books completed in April
45. ✔ Slightly Foxed: No. 28: Happy Ever After by Gail Pirkis, Hazel Wood (Editors) ★★★★½
46. ❉ Anya's Ghost by Vera Brosgol ★★★★⅓
❉ Ah-Ha to Zig-Zag: 31 Objects from Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum by Maira Kalman ★★★★
47. ♫ The Real Jane Austen: A Life in Small Things by Paula Byrne ★★★★½
48. ✔+♫ Of Human Bondage by W. Somerset Maugham ★★★★⅓
49. ✔ Mansfield Park by Jane Austen (reread - tutored read with Liz) ★★★★½
50. ♫ The Round House by Louise Erdrich ★★★½
51. ✔ Slightly Foxed: No. 29: An Editorial Peacock by Gail Pirkis, Hazel Wood (Editors)
52. *♫ I, Dreyfus by Bernice Rubens ★★★★⅓
53. ❉ Maigret Mystified / L'Ombre chinoise by Georges Simenon ★★★★
54. ♫ Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie (reread) ★★★★½
55. ✔ The Bloody Chamber and Other Stories by Angela Carter ★★★★½
56. ♫ The Magician by W. Somerset Maugham ★★★★
57. ✔ Slightly Foxed: No. 30: A Personal Landscape by Gail Pirkis, Hazel Wood (Editors)
58. ♫ Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood ★★★★⅓
59. ♫ The Thirty-Nine Steps by John Buchan ★★★★⅓
60. ✔ High Rising by Angela Thirkell ★★★★⅓
61. ♫ The Painted Veil by W. Somerset Maugham ★★★★⅓
✔ The Love of Erika Ewald by Stefan Zweig (short story)

March
31. ♫ Lamentation by C. J. Sansom ★★★★¾
32. ♫ Whispers Under Ground by Ben Aaronovitch ★★★
33. ♫ The Scapegoat by Daphne Du Maurier ★★★★½ (review)
34. ✔ Slightly Foxed: No. 27: Well Done, Carruthers! by Gail Pirkis, Hazel Wood (Editors) ★★★½
35. ♫ What Angels Fear by C.S. Harris ★★★★
36. ⓔ The Gift of Rain by Tan Twan Eng ★★★★½
37. ♫ Small Gods: Discworld #13 by Terry Pratchett ★★★★½ (review)
38. ⓔ Great Granny Webster by Caroline Blackwood ★★★★⅓ (review)
39. ✔ Slightly Foxed: Part 45: Frankly, My Dear by Gail Pirkis, Hazel Wood (Editors) ★★★★
40. ♫ The Buried Giant by Kazuo Ishiguro ★★★★★ (review)
41. ♫ Jamaica Inn by Daphne du Maurier ★★★★⅓ (review)
42. ⓔ Fräulein Schmidt and Mr Anstruther by Elizabeth von Arnim ★★★★½ (review)
43. ♫ Elizabeth is Missing by Emma Healey ★★¾
44. ♫ Guards! Guards!: Discworld, Book 8 by Terry Pratchett ★★★★⅓

Unfinished
♫ Thief of Time by Terry Pratchett
♫ Perdido Street Station by China Mieville

February
16. ❉ An Artist of the Floating World by Kazuo Ishiguro ★★★★⅓
Rêves oubliés (Vergessene Träume) by Stefan Zweig ★★★★⅓ (short story)
Printemps au Prater (Praterfrühling) by Stefan Zweig ★★★★⅓ (short story)
Un redoublant by Stefan Zweig ★★★★⅓ (short story)
Babette's Feast by Isak Dinesen ★★★★½ (short story)
17. ❉ⓔ Can't We Talk About Something More Pleasant? by Roz Chast ★★ (review)
18. ♫ Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J. K. Rowling ★★★★⅓
19. La Guinguette à deux sous / The Bar on the Seine (Maigret #11) by Georges Simenon ★★★★
20. ♫ The Europeans by Henry James ★★★
21. ♫ Decline and Fall by Evelyn Waugh ★★★★⅓
22. ♫ The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion ★★★★⅓ (review)
23. ✔ Slightly Foxed: No. 26: A Nightmare on Wheels by Gail Pirkis, Hazel Wood (Editors) ★★★½
24. ♫ Affinity by Sarah Waters ★★★★⅓ (review)
25. ♫ Vol de nuit / Night Flight by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry ★★★½
26. ♫ Clockwork by Philip Pullman ★★★★½ (review)
27. ♫ A Handful of Dust by Evelyn Waugh ★★★★⅓
28. ✔ Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh ★★★ (review)
29. ✔ Diary Of A Provincial Lady by E.M. Delafield ★★★★
30. ♫ Beyond Black by Hilary Mantel ★★★

January
1. Slightly Foxed: 44: My Grandfather and Mr. Standfast by Gail Pirkis, Hazel Wood (Editors) ★★★★½ (review)
2. ♫ Bitter Greens by Kate Forsyth ★★★★½ (review)
3. ✔ Schindler's Ark by Thomas Keneally ★★★★ (review)
4. ♫ Chocolat by Joanne Harris ★★★★⅓ (review)
5. ♫ Dept. of Speculation by Jenny Offill ★★★★⅓ (review)
6. Slightly Foxed: No. 24: A Pash for Nash by Gail Pirkis, Hazel Wood (Editors) ★★★★½ (review)
7. ♫ Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel ★★★½ (review)
8. ⓔ Moon Tiger by Penelope Lively ★★★½ (review)
9. ✔ Slightly Foxed: No. 25: A Date with Iris by Gail Pirkis, Hazel Wood (Editors) ★★★½
10. ♫ Murder as a Fine Art by David Morrell ★★★★⅓
11. ❉ⓔ The Assassination of Margaret Thatcher: Stories by Hilary Mantel ★★★¾
12. ✔ The Blind Contessa's New Machine by Carey Wallace ★★★★½
13. ♫ The Black Dahlia by James Ellroy ★★★★
14. ❉ Reflections in a Golden Eye by Carson McCullers ★★★★⅓
15. ♫ The Hare with Amber Eyes by Edmund de Waal ★★★★★ (review)

American Authors Challenge (AAC)
January: ❉ Reflections in a Golden Eye by Carson McCullers - COMPLETED
February: The Europeans by Henry James - COMPLETED
March: ❉♫ The Sportswriter by Richard Ford - wasn't up to it
April: *ⓔ The Round House by Louise Erdrich - Picked for Me! - COMPLETED
May: ♫ Babbitt by Sinclair Lewis - COMPLETED
June: ♫ Angle of Repose by Wallace Stegner - COMPLETED
July: ❉ The Tombs of Atuan by Ursula K. Le Guin - COMPLETED
August: *♫ The Last Picture Show by Larry McMurtry - COMPLETED
September: ♫ Everything That Rises Must Converge by Flannery O' Connor - Listening
October: ✔ Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury (reread)
November: ♫ Flight Behavior, ✔ The Lacuna or ✔ Prodigal Summer by Barbara Kingsolver
December: ✔ Ragtime by E.L. Doctorow

***

British Authors Challenge (BAC)
January
ⓔ Moon Tiger by Penelope Lively - COMPLETED
❉ An Artist of the Floating World by Kazuo Ishiguro - COMPLETED
February
*♫ Affinity by Sarah Waters - Picked for Me! - COMPLETED
✔ Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh - COMPLETED
March
*✔ Jamaica Inn by Daphne du Maurier - Picked for Me! - COMPLETED
♫ Railsea by China Mieville - wasn't up to it
April
✔ The Bloody Chamber and Other Stories by Angela Carter - COMPLETED
✔ Of Human Bondage by W. Somerset Maugham - COMPLETED
May
✔ The Red Queen by Margaret Drabble - COMPLETED
♫ The Zone of Interest by Martin Amis
June
✔ Master Georgie by Beryl Bainbridge - COMPLETED
♫ A Dead Man in Deptford by Anthony Burgess - COMPLETED
July
♫ Orlando by Virginia Woolf - COMPLETED
August
♫ The Bell by Iris Murdoch - COMPLETED
✔ Travels With My Aunt by Graham Greene - COMPLETED
September
✔ Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie
❉ The Long Song Andrea Levy
October
♫ The Siege by Helen Dunmore
❉ Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell
November
✔ The Mandelbaum Gate by Muriel Spark
✔ An Ice-Cream War by William Boyd
December
♫ The Giant, O'Brien by Hilary Mantel
✔ Carry On, Jeeves P. G. Wodehouse

***

ANZAC Author Reading Challenge 2015
April: Once Were Warriors by Alan Duff - lost at library, will try to get somewhere else.
May: The Garden Party and Other Stories by Katherine Mansfield - COMPLETED
June: Whale Rider by Witi Ihimaera - COMPLETED
July: Oscar and Lucinda by Peter Carey - COMPLETED
August: The Bone People by Keri Hulme - Reading
November: Phryne Fisher mysteries Kerry Greenwood

***

Tutored and Group Reads
February: ✔ Diary of a Provincial Lady by E. M. Delafield - shared read with Liz - COMPLETED
March: ✔ Mansfield Park by Jane Austen - tutored read with Liz - COMPLETED
July: ♫ Evelina by Fanny Burney - Group read - COMPLETED
✔ Fifth Business by Robertson Davies - shared read with Ellen - COMPLETED
November / December: ✔ Cecilia by Fanny Burney - Group read
???: ⓔ The Midnight Bell by Francis Lathom - Tutored read

***

Reading Stefan Zweig
I discovered Stefan Zweig in April 2012 and found a soulmate. I've since acquired a treasure in the form of a luxurious La Pléiade leather-bound two volume collection of his complete novels and stories in French translations. I'd like to read at least one of his short stories or novels per month. I'll list what I've read here:

January: Dans la neige (Im Schnee), 1901
February: Printemps au Prater (Praterfrühling) & Un redoublant
March: Deux Solitudes (1901), Le Voyage (1902)
April: L’Amour d’Érika Ewald / The Love of Erika Ewald (1904)
May: L'étoile au-dessus de la forêt / The Star Over the Forest (1903)
June:
July:
August:
September:
October:
November:
December:



* = Picked for Me challenge
♫ = audiobook
✔ = off the shelf
❉ = library book
ⓔ = eBook

I'm running this personal challenge for the fourth year in 2015. It's a real treat reading something that was specifically chosen for me from my TBR by this wonderful bunch of passionate readers, and of course helps reduce that pile which I seem to never stop adding to. I asked participants select a book from my "To Read" collection then tell me, in a few words why you they though I should read the suggested work. I really look forward to the following bunch this year:

1. ♫ The Black Dahlia by James Ellroy - picked by @Ameise1 - COMPLETED / January
2. ✔ The Blind Contessa's New Machine by Carey Wallace - picked by @luvamystery65 - COMPLETED / January
3. ✔+♫ Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts - picked by @lunacat
4. ⓔ The Midnight Bell by Francis Lathom - picked by @lyzard (tutored read)
5. ♫ I, Dreyfus by Bernice Rubens - picked by @avatiakh - COMPLETED / April
6. ✔ The Brontes Went to Woolworths by Rachel Ferguson - picked by @LizzieD - COMPLETED / August
7. ♫ The Last Picture Show by Larry McMurtry - picked by @msf59 (August - AAC) - COMPLETED / August
8. ♫ A Town Like Alice by Nevil Shute - picked by @DeltaQueen50 (ACoB!, 1952) - COMPLETED / September
9. ♫ The Lost City of Z by David Grann - picked by @drneutron - COMPLETED / May
10. ⓔ The Round House by Louise Erdrich - picked by @Donna828 (April - AAC) - COMPLETED / April
11. ♫ Affinity by Sarah Waters - picked by @PaulCranswick - COMPLETED / February
12. ✔ Catharine and Other Writings by Jane Austen - picked by @souloftherose - COMPLETED / July
13. ✔ The Art of Looking Sideways by Alan Fletcher - picked by @LauraBrook
14. ♫ The Bell by Iris Murdoch - picked by @sibyx (August - AAC) - COMPLETED / August
15. ♫ The Leopard by Guisepe Di Lampedusa - picked by @Ireadthereforeiam - COMPLETED / May
16. ✔ The Memory Keeper's Daughter by Kim Edwards - picked by @jolerie
17. ✔+♫ A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry - picked by @kidzdoc
18. ♫ Falling Angels by Tracy Chevalier - picked by @Fourpawz2
19. ♫ Chocolat by Joanne Harris - picked by @Crazymamie - COMPLETED / January
20. ♫ My Antonia by Willa Cather - picked by @jnwelch - COMPLETED / September
21. ♫ Jamaica Inn by Daphne du Maurier - picked by @Cee- (March - BAC) - COMPLETED / March
22. ♫ Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel García Márquez (reread) - picked by @cameling (ACoB!, 1985) - COMPLETED / July
23. ✔ The Dog Who Wouldn't Be by Farley Mowat - picked by @Deern

Extra Picks (optional)
ⓔ A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith - picked by @lunacat (reread)
✔ Dessins d'écrivains by Pierre Belfond - picked by @Cee-
♫ The Curse of Chalion by Lois McMaster Bujold - picked by @Cee-
✔ The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame - picked by @Cee- (reread) (ACoB!, 1908)

♫ = audiobook
✔ = off the shelf
ⓔ = eBook

Booker Prize Books

Read in 2015 (in reading order)
Schindler's Ark by Thomas Keneally (Booker Prize 1982)
Moon Tiger by Penelope Lively (Booker Prize 1987)
An Artist of the Floating World by Kazuo Ishiguro (Shortlist 1986)
Beyond Black by Hilary Mantel Longlist 2005)
The Gift of Rain by Tan Twan Eng (Longlist 2007)
Great Granny Webster by Caroline Blackwood (Shortlist 1977)
Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood (Shortlist 2003)
Child 44 by Tom Rob Smith (Longlist 2008)
Master Georgie by Beryl Bainbridge (Shortlist 1998)
Oscar and Lucinda by Peter Carey (Booker Prize 1988)



On my TBR
Bruno's Dream by Iris Murdoch (Shortlist 1970)
*Fire From Heaven by Mary Renault (Shortlist 1970)
¹⁴The Elected Member by Bernice Rubens (Booker Prize 1970)
¹⁴Mrs Palfrey at the Claremont by Elizabeth Taylor (Shortlist 1971)
¹⁴The Siege of Krishnapur by J.G. Farrell (Booker Prize 1973)
*The Conservationist by Nadine Gordimer (Booker Prize 1974)
*The Children Of Dynmouth by William Trevor (Shortlist 1976)
Quartet in Autumn by Barbara Pym (Shortlist 1977)
¹⁴A Five Year Sentence by Bernice Rubens (Shortlist 1978)
¹³The Sea, the Sea by Iris Murdoch (Booker Prize 1978)
¹⁴A Month in the Country by J.L. Carr (Shortlist 1980)
*Earthly Powers by Anthony Burgess (Shortlist 1980)
¹³Good Behaviour by Molly Keane (Shortlist 1981)
Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie (Booker Prize 1981)
*An Ice-cream War by William Boyd (Shortlist 1982)
*Waterland by Graham Swift (Shortlist 1983)
*Small World by David Lodge (Shortlist 1984)
The Good Apprentice by Iris Murdoch (Shortlist 1985)
The Bone People by Keri Hulme (Booker Prize 1985)
¹³The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood (Shortlist 1986)
The Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie (Shortlist 1988)
*Nice Work by David Lodge (Shortlist 1988)
¹⁴Restoration by Rose Tremain(Shortlist 1989)
The Book of Evidence by John Banville (Shortlist 1989)
Cat's Eye by Margaret Atwood (Shortlist 1989)
¹³The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro(Booker Prize 1989)
Possession by A.S. Byatt (Booker Prize 1990)
*Two Lives by William Trevor (Shortlist 1991)
¹⁴The English Patient by Michael Ondaatje(Booker Prize 1992)
*Sacred Hunger by Barry Unsworth (Booker Prize 1992)
Under the Frog by Tibor Fischer (Shortlist 1993)
¹³Morality Play by Barry Unsworth (Shortlist 1995)
A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry (Shortlist 1996)
*Last Orders by Graham Swift (Booker Prize 1996)
¹⁴Amsterdam by Ian Mcewan (Booker Prize 1998)
¹³Disgrace by J. M. Coetzee (Booker Prize 1999)
Death of Vishnu by Manil Suri (Longlist 2001)
*Family Matters by Rohinton Mistry (Shortlist 2002)
Astonishing Splashes Of Colour by Clare Morrall (Shortlist 2003)
Brick Lane by Monica Ali (Shortlist 2003)
¹³What Was She Thinking?: Notes on a Scandal by Zoe Heller(Shortlist 2003)
The Master by Colm Toibin (Shortlist 2004)
Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro (Shortlist 2005) - reread
The Accidental by Ali Smith (Shortlist 2005)
¹⁴The Ruby in Her Navel by Barry Unsworth (Longlist 2006)
*Black Swan Green by David Mitchell (Longlist 2006)
Mother's Milk by Edward St. Aubyn (Shortlist 2006)
The Inheritance of Loss by Kiran Desai (Booker Prize 2006)
¹⁴Mister Pip by Lloyd Jones (Shortlist 2007)
A Fraction of the Whole by Steve Toltz (Shortlist 2008)
¹³The Secret Scripture by Sebastian Barry (Shortlist 2008)
The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga (Booker Prize 2008) (reread)
Heliopolis by James Scudamore (Longlist 2009)
The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters (Shortlist 2009)
Trespass by Rose Tremain (Longlist 2010)
Skippy Dies by Paul Murray (Longlist 2010)
¹⁴Room by Emma Donoghue (Shortlist 2010)
Jamrach's Menagerie by Carol Birch (Shortlist 2011)
¹⁴The Garden of Evening Mists by Tan Twan Eng (Shortlist 2012)
A Tale for the Time Being by Ruth Ozeki (Longlist 2013)
Almost English by Charlotte Mendelson (Longlist 2013)
The Lowland by Jhumpa Lahiri (Shortlist 2013)
¹³The Testament of Mary by Colm Toibin (Shortlist 2013)
¹³Harvest by Jim Crace (Shortlist 2013)
¹³The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton (Booker Prize 2013)
*Orfeo by Richard Powers (Longlist 2014)
*The Blazing World by Siri Hustdvedt (Longlist 2014)
*History of the Rain by Niall Williams (Longlist 2014)
¹⁴The Narrow Road to the Deep North by Richard Flanagan (Booker Prize 2014)

¹³ = read in 2013
¹⁴ = read in 2014
* = recent additions

(Much more on the wishlist of course!)

A Century of Books! 1900-1999
I stole this challenge idea from Heather/souloftherose. I'm trying to read a book published in every year of the 20th century; I've been at it for a couple of years already, so obviously haven't set myself a time limit to complete it. Hopefully I'll put a good dent in this one in 2015!

1900
1901
1902
1903
1904 The Cherry Orchard by Anton Chekhov
1905
1906
1907 Fraulein Schmidt and Mr Anstruther by Elizabeth von Arnim
1908 The Magician by W. Somerset Maugham
1909
1910
1911
1912
1913 O Pioneers! by Willa Cather
1914
1915 Of Human Bondage by W. Somerset Maugham
1916
1917
1918 The Return of the Soldier by Rebecca West
1919
1920 In Chancery by John Galsworthy
1921
1922 Babbitt by Sinclair Lewis
1923
1924
1925 The Painted Veil by W. Somerset Maugham
1926 These Old Shades by Georgette Heyer
1927
1928 Lord Peter Views the Body by Dorothy L. Sayer
1929 Journey Into the Past by Stefan Zweig
1930 Le Bal by Irène Némirovsky
1931 Maigret and the Enigmatic Lett by Georges Simenon
1932 Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons
1933 High Rising by Angela Thirkell
1934 Miss Buncle's Book bu D. E. Stevenson
1935
1936 The Dark Frontier by Eric Ambler
1937
1938 Epitaph for a Spy by Eric Ambler
1939 Rogue Male by Geoffrey Household
1940 Native Son by Richard Wright
1941 Reflections in a Golden Eye by Carson McCullers
1942 Le joueur d'échecs / Chess Story by Stefan Zweig
1943 Le Petit Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
1944 Dragonwyck by Anya Seton
1945 Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh
1946 Miss Pym Disposes by Josephine Tey
1947 Wolf Story by William Mccleery
1948 A Russian Journal by John Steinbeck and Robert Capa
1949
1950 Smallbone Deceased by Michael Gilbert
1951 My Cousin Rachel by Daphne du Maurier
1952 A Town Like Alice by Nevil Shute
1953 The Unstrung Harp: Or, Mr Earbrass Writes a Novel by Edward Gorey
1954 Bonjour tristesse by Françoise Sagan
1955
1956 The Accursed Kings: The Poisoned Crown (Part 3) by Maurice Druon
1957 The Scapegoat by Daphne Du Maurier
1958 10146::The Leopard by Guisepe Di Lampedusa
1959
1960 The Great Fortune by Olivia Manning
1961 Franny and Zooey by J.D. Salinger
1962 Cover Her Face by P. D. James
1963
1964 Black Hearts in Battersea by Joan Aiken
1965 Going to Meet the Man by James Baldwin
1966 The Jewel in the Crown by Paul Scott
1967
1968 A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin
1969 The Elected Member by Bernice Rubens
1970 Fifth Business by Robertson Davies
1971 Mrs Palfrey at the Claremont by Elizabeth Taylor
1972
1973 The Dark is Rising by Susan Cooper
1974 Greenwitch by Susan Cooper
1975
1976
1977 Great Granny Webster by Caroline Blackwood
1978 A Five Year Sentence by Bernice Rubens
1979 The Bloody Chamber and Other Stories by Angela Carter
1980 A Month in the Country by J.L. Carr
1981 Codex Seraphinianus by Luigi Serafini
1982 Schindler's Ark by Thomas Keneally
1983 The Woman in Black by Susan Hill
1984
1985
1986 An Artist of the Floating World by Kazuo Ishiguro
1987 Moon Tiger by Penelope Lively
1988 Night Soldiers by Alan Furst
1989 Restoration by Rose Tremain
1990 The Light Years by Elizabeth Jane Howard
1991 The Six Wives of Henry VIII by Alison Weir
1992 All the Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy
1993 A Dead Man in Deptford by Anthony Burgess
1994 The Shape of Water by Andrea Camilleri
1995 Snow Falling on Cedars by David Guterson
1996 The Terracotta Dog by Andrea Camilleri
1997 Jane Austen: A Life by Claire Tomalin
1998 Amsterdam Ian McEwan
1999 Chocolat by Joanne Harris

One last category to go!
I got this card from the 2015 Catergory challenge, where there are three fun designs to choose from. Unlike last year, I'll count any book that fits the criteria, as opposed to counting only books that I rate 4 stars and up, to give myself a chance to complete the challenge...



✭1. With a protagonist of the opposite gender: Schindler's Ark by Thomas Keneally ★★★★
✭2. Chosen by someone else: Chocolat by Joanne Harris ★★★★⅓
✭3. That I've owned for more than one year: Moon Tiger by Penelope Lively ★★★½
✭4. With scientists: The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion ★★★★⅓
✭5. On a subject I'm unfamiliar with: An Artist of the Floating World by Kazuo Ishiguro ★★★★⅓

✭6. Translated from a language I don't speak: Babette's Feast by Isak Dinesen ★★★★½
✭7. With a natural disaster: Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel ★★★½
✭8. About Autism: The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion ★★★★⅓
✭9. With an LGBTQ character: Reflections in a Golden Eye by Carson McCullers ★★★★⅓
✭10. Set in a country other than my own: Dept. of Speculation by Jenny Offill ★★★★⅓

11. About language:
✭12. Published in 1915: Of Human Bondage by W. Somerset Maugham
✭13. Category Challenge - FREE Space!
✭14. That reminds me of my childhood: The Bloody Chamber and Other Stories by Angela Carter ★★★★½
✭15. Where prophecies or portents are part of the plot: The Gift of Rain by Tan Twan Eng ★★★★½

✭16. Based on a fairy tale or myth: Bitter Greens by Kate Forsyth ★★★★½
✭17. Inspired by another piece of fiction: Murder as a Fine Art by David Morrell ★★★★⅓
✭18. With correspondence or letters: The Blind Contessa's New Machine by Carey Wallace ★★★★½
✭19. By an LT author: A Natural History of Dragons: A Memoir by Lady Trent, Book 1 by Marie Brennan ★★★★
✭20. Where an animal is of importance: Small Gods: Discworld #13 by Terry Pratchett ★★★★½

✭21. With a mythical creature: Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J. K. Rowling ★★★★⅓
✭22. Centered around a major historical event: The Thirty-Nine Steps by John Buchan ★★★★⅓
✭23. Whose author shares an ancestor's first name: The Hare with Amber Eyes by Edmund de Waal ★★★★★
✭24. That is a Genre Bender: Beyond Black by Hilary Mantel
✭25. That is completely outside my comfort zone: Can't We Talk About Something More Pleasant? by Roz Chast ★★

Ongoing Series
An idea Heather (souloftherose) borrowed from Liz (lyzard), which caught on like wildfire. Ongoing series that I am more or less actively reading; this doesn't include series I have in my TBR but haven't started reading yet (that is covered in the next list!)

❉ African Trilogy - Next up: No Longer at Ease by Chinua Achebe (2/3)
ⓔ Alan Grant Mysteries - Next up: The Man in the Queue by Josephine Tey (1/6 - read out of order)
♫ The Australian Trilogy - Next up: Tommo and Hawk by Bryce Courtenay (⅔)
ⓔ The Balkan Trilogy - Next up: The Spoilt City by Olivia Manning (2 of 3)
*♫ Barsetshire Books - Next up: Wild Strawberries by Angela Thirkell (2/29)
♫ Bartimaeus Trilogy - Next up: The Ring of Solomon by Jonathan Stroud (Prequel)
Bernie Gunther - Next up: A German Requiem by Philip Kerr (3/9)
♫ Bloody Jack Adventures - Next up: Curse of the Blue Tattoo by L. A. Meyer (2/12)
✔ Border Trilogy - Next up: The Crossing by Cormac McCarthy (2/3)
❉ Cannery Row - Next up: Sweet Thursday by John Steinbeck (2/2)
♫ Cazalet Chronicles - Next up: Marking Time by Elizabeth Jane Howard (2/5)
♫ The Cemetery of Forgotten Books - Next up: The Angel's Game by Carlos Ruiz Zafón (2/3)
❉ Chief Inspector Armand Gamache - Next up: A Fatal Grace by Louise Penny (2/10)
Chocolat - Next up: The Lollipop Shoes by Joanne Harris (2/3)
♫ The Chronicles of Barsetshire - Next up: Doctor Thorne by Anthony Trollope (2/6)
♫ The Chronicles of St Mary's - Next up: A Symphony of Echoes by Jodi Taylor (2/4)
✔ Claudius - Next up: Claudius the God by Robert Graves (2/2)
♫ La Comédie Humaine - Next up: Le curé de Tours by Honoré de Balzac (31/88 - read out of order)
✔ Commissario Brunetti - Next up: Acqua Alta by Donna Leon (5/23 - read out of order)
*✔ Commissario Montalbano - Next up: The Potter's Field by Andrea Camilleri (13/19)
❉ Corfu Trilogy: The Garden of the Gods by Gerald Durrell (3/3)
♫ The Cousins' War: The Red Queen by Philippa Gregory (2/6)
✔ The Dark is Rising Sequence - Next up: The Grey King by Susan Cooper (4/5)
♫ Daughter of Smoke and Bone - Next up: Days of Blood and Starlight by Laini Taylor (2/3)
❉ De Luca Trilogy - Next up: The Damned Season by Carlo Lucarelli (2/3)
✔ The Deptford Trilogy - Next up: World of Wonders by Robertson Davies (3/3)
♫ The Dresden Files: Grave Peril by Jim Butcher (3/15)
❉ Dr. Siri Paiboun - Next up: Curse of the Pogo Stick by Colin Cotterill (5/10)
*♫ Dublin Murder Squad - Next up: Faithful Place by Tana French (3/5)
*❉ The Earthsea Cycle - Next up: The Farthest Shore by Ursula K. Le Guin (3/6)
♫ Easy Rawlins Mystery - Next up: White Butterfly by Walter Mosley (3/11)
ⓔ Elizabeth and her German Garden - Next up: The Solitary Summer by Elizabeth von Arnim (2/2)
✔ Empire Trilogy - Next up: The Singapore Grip by J. G. Farrell (3/3)
❉♫ Erica Falck and Patrik Hedström - Next up: The Preacher by Camilla Läckberg (2/9)
❉♫ Flavia de Luce - Next up: A Red Herring Without Mustard by Alan Bradley (3/7)
♫ Forsyte Saga - Next up: To Let by John Galsworthy (3/3)
❉ Green Town - Next up: Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury (2/2)
❉ The Harlem Cycle - Next up: All Shot Up by Chester Himes (4/8)
♫ Harry Potter - Next up: Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix by J. K. Rowling (reread) (5/7)
*♫ Hercule Poirot - Next up: Murder on the Links by Agatha Christie (2/39 - read out of order)
Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Dramatization - Next up: Tertiary Phase (BBC Radio Collection) by Douglas Adams (3/5)
♫ The House of Earth Trilogy - Next up: Sons by Pearl S. Buck (2/3)
*The Ibis Trilogy by Amitav Ghosh - COMPLETED in August
❉ The Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place - Next up: The Unseen Guest by Maryrose Wood (3/4)
Inspector Yashim Togalu - Next up: The Snake Stone by Jason Goodwin (2/5)
♫ Isabel Dalhousie Mysteries - Next up: The Right Attitude to Rain by Alexander McCall Smith (3/10)
♫ Jack Reacher - Next up: The Enemy by Lee Child (8/20)
✔ Jackson Brodie - Next up: When Will There Be Good News? by Kate Atkinson (3/4)
♫ John Russell - Next up: Lehrter Station by David Downing (5/6)
Joseph O'Loughlin - Next up: Shatter by Michael Robotham (3/7)
♫ Kenzie & Gennaro - Next up: Darkness, Take My Hand by Dennis Lehane (2/6 - read out of order)
♫ Kurt Wallander - Next up: The White Lioness by Henning Mankell (3/11)
*♫❉ Lady Trent's Memoirs - Next up: The Tropic of Serpents by Marie Brennan (2/4)
The Last Lion - Next up: Winston Spencer Churchill, Alone 1932-1940 by William Manchester (2 of 3)
* Leo Demidov - Next up: The Secret Speech by Tom Rob Smith (2 of 3)
♫ Leviathan - Next up: Behemoth by Scott Westerfeld (2/3)
♫ The Lord of the Rings - Next up: The Two Towers by J. R. R. Tolkien (3/4)
✔ Lord Peter Wimsey - Next up: The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club by Dorothy L. Sayers (5/15)
*♫❉ MaddAddam Trilogy: The Year of the Flood by Margaret Atwood (2 of 3)
*❉ Maigret - Next up: The Madman of Bergerac by Georges Simenon (16/76)
ⓔ Mapp and Lucia - Next up: Lucia in London by E. F. Benson (3 of 8)
*♫ Marcus Didius Falco - Next up: Shadows in Bronze by Lyndsey David (2/20)
♫ Matthew Shardlake by C. J. Samson - Next up: Awaiting publication (7/7)
Miss Marple - Next up: The Body in the Library by Agatha Christie (2/12)
❉ Night Soldiers - Next up: Dark Star by Alan Furst (2/13)
❉ The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency - Next up: In the Company of Cheerful Ladies by Alexander McCall Smith (6/15)
♫ The Obelisk Trilogy - Next up: Tropic of Capricorn by Henry Miller (2/3)
Oxford Time Travel series - Next up: Blackout by Connie Willis (3/4)
Parker - Next up: The Mourner by Richard Stark (4/24)
✔ Philip Marlowe - Next up: The Long Goodbye by Raymond Chandler (6/9 - read out of order)
ⓔ Phryne Fisher Mysteries - Next up: Death at Victoria Dock by Kerry Greenwood (4/20)
* The Power Of One - Next up: Tandia by Bryce Courtenay (2/2)
The Prairie Trilogy - Next up: The Song of the Lark by Willa Cather (2/3)
✔ The Raj Quartet - Next up: The Towers Of Silence by Paul Scott (3/4)
♫ Ranger's Apprentice: The Icebound Land by John Flanagan (3/12)
❉♫ The Raven Cycle Next up: The Dream Thieves by Maggie Stiefvater (2/4)
*✔ Richard Hannay - Next up: Greenmantle by John Buchan (2/5)
*❉♫ Les Rois Maudits - Next up: Quand un roi perd la France (7/7)
❉ Les Rougon-Macquart - Next up: La joie de vivre by Émile Zola (12/20)
♫ Ruby Trilogy - Next up: Sapphire Blue by Kerstin Gier (2/3)
✔ Sally Lockhart Mysteries - Next up: The Shadow in the North by Philip Pullman (2/4)
*♫ Sherlock Holmes: The Hound of the Baskervilles by Arthur Conan Doyle (5/9)
♫ A Song of Ice and Fire - Next up: A Dance with Dragons by George R. R. Martin (5/7)
❉ Sookie Stackhouse - Next up: Club Dead by Charlaine Harris (3/14)
❉ The Spiderwick Chronicles - Next up: The Nixie's Song by Holly Black & Tony DiTerlizzi (6/8)
♫ Tales of the City - Next up: Further Tales of the City by Armistead Maupin (3/6)
♫ Tales of the Otori - Next up: Brilliance of the Moon by Lian Hearn (3/4+prequel)
*♫ Thomas De Quincey - Next up: Inspector of the Dead by David Morrell (2/2)
❉ Three Men in a Boat - Next up: Three Men on the Bummel by Jerome K. Jerome (2/2)
Timothy Wilde Lyndsay Faye (3/3) - COMPLETED in June
♫ Tom Ripley - Next up: The Boy Who Followed Ripley by Patricia Highsmith (4/5)
❉ Victor Legris - Next up: La disparue du Père-Lachaise by Claude Izner (2/11)
Wolf Hall Trilogy - Next up: The Mirror and the Light by Hilary Mantel (awaiting publication) (3/3)
Wolves Chronicles - Next up: Nightbirds on Nantucket by Joan Aiken (3/11)
❉ Wyoming Stories: Bad Dirt by Annie Proulx (2/3)

***

First in Series on my TBR
♫ Albert Campion: The Crime at Black Dudley by Margery Allingham (1/19)
✔ The American Trilogy: American Pastoral by Philip Roth (1/3)
✔ Aristide Ravel Mysteries : The Cavalier of the Apocalypse by Susanne Alleyn (1/4)
✔ The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation: The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Volume I: The Pox Party by M.T. Anderson (1/2)
♫ Aubrey-Maturin: Master and Commander by Patrick O'Brian (1/21)
♫ Avalon: The Mists of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley (1/7)
✔ The Book of Lies - Twins Trilogy: The Notebook by Ágota Kristóf (1/3)
✔ The Borrible Trilogy: The Borribles by Michael De Larrabeiti (1 of 3)
*♫ Captain Gregor Reinhardt : The Man from Berlin by Luke McCallin (1 of 3)
✔ Carl Webster: The Hot Kid by Elmore Leonard (1/3)
♫ Chief Inspector Adamsberg: The Chalk Circle Man by Fred Vargas (1/9)
♫ Cicero: Imperium by Robert Harris (1/2)
♫ A Dance to the Music of Time: A Dance to the Music of Time: First Movement, Spring by Anthony Powell (1/4)
✔ Danzig Trilogy: The Tin Drum by Günter Grass (1/3)
✔ Empress Orchid: Empress Orchid by Anchee Min (1 of 2)
*✔ Eustace and Hilda: The Shrimp and the Anemone by L. P. Hartley (1 of 3)
✔ Hank Thompson: Caught Stealing by Charlie Huston (1/3)
✔ Haroun: Haroun and the Sea of Stories by Salman Rushdie (1/2)
*♫ Harry Hole: The Bat by Jo Nesbø (1/10)
✔ Henrietta's War: Henrietta's War: News from the Home Front 1939-1942 by Joyce Dennys (1/2)
✔ The Hummingbird's Daughter: The Hummingbird's Daughter by Luis Alberto Urrea (1/2)
*♫ The Inheritance Cycle: Eragon by Christopher Paolini (1 of 4)
♫ In Search of Lost Time: Swann's Way by Marcel Proust (1/8)
♫ James Bond: Casino Royale by Ian Fleming (1/14)
♫ Joona Linna: The Hypnotist by Lars Kepler (1/3)
ⓔ The Kingkiller Chronicle : The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss (1/3)
✔ Latin American Trilogy: The War of Don Emmanuel's Nether Parts by Louis de Bernières (1/3)
♫ Leonid McGill: The Long Fall by Walter Mosley (1 of 4)
✔❉♫ The Magicians: The Magicians by Lev Grossman (1/3)
♫ McCaskill Trilogy: English Creek by Ivan Doig (1/3)
✔ Micah Dalton: The Echelon Vendetta by David Stone (1/4)
♫ Michael Forsythe: Dead I Well May Be by Adrian McKinty (1/3)
✔ Mistress of the Art of Death: Mistress of the Art of Death by Ariana Franklin (1/5)
✔ On Foot to Constantinople: A Time of Gifts by Patrick Leigh Fermor (1/3)
♫ Outlander: Outlander by Diana Gabaldon (1/9)
♫+ⓔ Patrick Melrose: Never Mind by Edward St. Aubyn (1/5)
✔ The Psammead Trilogy: Five Children and It by E. Nesbit (1/3)
*♫+✔ Quirke: Christine Falls by Benjamin Black (1/6)
♫ Revelation Space: Revelation Space by Alastair Reynolds (1/7)
*✔ Sacred Hunger: Sacred Hunger by Barry Unsworth (1 of 2)
*❉♫Sean Duffy: The Cold Cold Ground by Adrian McKinty (1/4)
♫ Shanghai Girls: Shanghai Girls by Lisa See (1/2)
*♫ Small Change: Farthing by Jo Walton (1/3)
♫ Sprawl: Neuromancer by William Gibson (1/3)
♫ Swallows and Amazons: Swallows and Amazons by Arthur Ransome (1/12)
♫ Sword of Honour: Men at Arms by Evelyn Waugh (1 of 3)
The Vampire Chronicles: Interview with the Vampire (reread) by Anne Rice (1/10)
❉♫ The Wolves of Mercy Falls: Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater (1/4)
♫ World War II Saga: The Winds of War by Herman Wouk (1/2)



✔ = in my TBR
♫ = audiobook (in my TBR)
❉ = library book
ⓔ = eBook
* = recent changes

Next one's all yours... Welcome! :-)

Hi!
Just wanted to pop in and say I really love the "Girl with Pigtails" painting. Haven't seen it before so thanks for introducing it to me (or me to it...)

>12 PawsforThought: Hi Paws! Glad to introduce you to each other. :-)
Thanks for dropping by!

Latest update: Really loving Flood of Fire by Amitav Ghosh, the last book in the Ibis Trilogy which, in treating of a serious subject (the Opium war), doesn't shy away from good bawdy fun along the way.

Very glad a shared read with Ellen (@EBT1002) provided me with the impetus to revisit Fifth Business by Robertson Davies, one of my favourite authors and a book I loved the first time, and enjoyed even more the second time around. A new review is forthcoming, though the original one I wrote in 2009 is still valid—though I've upped my rating from 4 to 4.5 stars, even if the audiobook wasn't quite as good as the voice of Robertson Davies which exists in my head.

Currently revisiting another old favourite with Love in the Time of Cholera by García Márquez, which I'd originally read around 1990, when just barely 20 years old. Once again, the occasion was provided via my "Picked for Me!" challenge, with Caroline (@cameling) doing the picking.

Overall, it's been a great month on the reading front. I've also been very productive on my drawing project and as of this week, have started a new exercise routine; 20-30 minutes of exercise from my many workout videos (mostly yoga and pilates), at leat 3x/week. Had my second workout today and I'm certainly feeling the effects, but muscle memory is better than my brain memory somehow!

Happy New Thread, Ilana, you organizer among organizers!
I'm very happy to hear that the last *Ibis* lives up to the other 2. I would think about rereading #1 before going on to 2 if only my copy had a glossary; neither does my #2 copy, doggone it.
You people are going to talk me into rereading R. Davies sooner rather than later.
AND I loved *LitToC* first time through, and I bet I'd like it even better now. So ---- I wonder why I don't just read what you're reading and have done with it.
Hooray for exercise too! I don't look it, but I'm pretty fit for my age and happy to try to stay that way. You go, Girl!

Eeeyowhee!! I am exhausted just from reading through all those booklists. I may just immediately turn out the light and sleep.

Lovely "reading love" illustrations up there, Ilana. Happy New Thread! The booklists are impressive. I just finished H is for Hawk, and can recommend it to you.

As always you have used lovely pictures to open with. I was checking out your Century of Books - you getting very close to completing it!

Happy New Thread, Ilana! Love the "reading" toppers. Hope all is well.

Happy new thread Ilana! Love girl with pigtails and how well you're doing on your challenges :-) The Ibis trilogy is on the list but I do not seem to have much reading brain this summer - perhaps autumn will be a better time for me to dive in to that series.

Ok, I did joke about your thread-topping book list, Ilana. But I am serious when I say I like those two lovely ladies up there above the list. I wonder what each is reading?

Thank you so much for all the visits. I've been quite unwell for the past few days. Horrid and very debilitating migraine since yesterday. The day before that, I had some mild form of food poisoning... all this to say I'm not in the best of shapes to be a good LTer. But I'm still able to read! Thank heavens for that. Will probably spend the better part of the day on the couch as I did yesterday. I'll respond to individual messages soon. Always lovely to see I'm not forgotten!

I'm sorry that you are "under the weather" and that this will pass soon.

>22 Smiler69: Really sorry to hear about your migraines :-( Sending you one of Joe's (>24 jnwelch:) doggy with an ice-pack in the hope that helps.

Sending gentle hugs in the hope that tomorrow will be a better day, one that is pain free. And, by the way, I am very impressed with your pintrest page. I know so little of pintrest and must learn more.

Hope you wake up in the morning a LOT better on all fronts.

I finished Flood of Fire last night and must say I have mixed feelings about it. I will definitely put down further thoughts about it when my head clears a little.

Thank you so much for all the kind words—I am slightly better, but still in quite a lot of pain. I took Joe's advice yesterday and did set myself down on the couch with a large ice-pack on my head, which provided a bit of relief and also helped with the sweltering heat we've been experiencing. While I was at it, I got through several books I'd borrowed from the library which had been languishing: The Strange Library by Haruki Murakami, which is as expected a strange story and a with a very original book design; Unterzakhn by Leela Corman, a graphic novel which was originally recommended by Kerry (@aviatakh) about Jewish twin sisters at the beginning of the 20th century trying to make their (unconventional) way in the world; My Favorite Things by Maira Kalman, wherein she illustrates some of her favourite objects from the Cooper Hewitt museum, which she also did with another book, Ah-Ha to Zig-Zag: 31 Objects from Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum, only in this case she also takes us on an autobiographical journey; and finally, The Day the Crayons Quit by Drew Daywalt and illustrated by Oliver Jeffers, a very fun little children's book which tells the story about the day a little boy's crayon collection decided to send him letters to tell him why each colour crayon decided to go on strike. Very cute, with fun childish illustrations.

Struggling quite a bit still, and I'm grateful Pierre is being patient and understanding and giving me all the space I need, while also being around so we can eat great meals together and have our pleasant evening tea and dessert.

Been having fun this afternoon with the TIOLI challenges and trying to fit my planned reading as well as picking out even more books which other people have listed. My reading plans are firming up and constantly being updated in >2 Smiler69:.

>15 LizzieD: I wonder why I don't just read what you're reading and have done with it.

That made me smile, Peggy. I sometimes feel the same way about other LTers, but then with the TIOLI, it's easy enough to match reads, or at least PLAN to, which is as close as I can get to reading along with others these days.

I started my exercise routine with good intentions and definitely plan on continuing, but with the migraines at their worst, the last thing I want to do is move around more than absolutely necessary, so I'll be resuming my schedule when the pain lessens a little more.

>16 weird_O: Hi Bill! I can't imagine actually reading through all those lists in one sitting... no wonder you were overwhelmed! It took me months and years to perfect my system, which I now just need to keep updating and copy/paste from one thread to the next. I refer to those various lists a lot over any given month, so they're actually handy working tools. Hope you had a good sleep! ;-)

>17 jnwelch: Hi Joe, I see lots of people have been taken by H is for Hawk, and I had actually requested it from the library around the time it came out... still waiting for it. In the meanwhile I also got curious about the book Helen MacDonald refers to, The Goshawk by T. H. White. I'll eventually manage to get to them both.

>18 DeltaQueen50: Hi Judy! I've put an emphasis on the Century of Reading challenge this year, since it's been dragging on for quite a while, and am always trying to fit in books for it in my monthly planning. It's been a fun challenge, and since I enjoy reading classic fiction so much, there's a good chance I'll try to tackle the 19th century when I'm done with the 20th.

>19 msf59: Hi Mark, thanks for dropping by. Everything is as well as can be, all things considered.

>20 souloftherose: Heather, I encourage you to just read whatever suits you at any given time. Summer isn't the ideal time to tackle big books, so I'm not sure how I managed to get through the whole trilogy so (relatively) quickly. In the past I've made lots of room for illustrated children's books and graphic novels, but this summer I'm taking in a bit of everything.

>21 weird_O: I wonder what each is reading?

Good question, Bill. I tried to have a closer look, and there is definitely some kind of writing on the book in the "Girl with pigtails" painting, but I don't think there is enough there to make out what it is. I guess leaving it to the imagination is half the fun! Have you come up with any likely contenders?

>23 catarina1: Hi Catarina. I'm just alway so grateful, when the headaches are at their worst, that I don't usually have to suffer such bad ones most of the time, and they are thankfully usually more manageable. All the same, I do look forward to menopause as the likeliest relief from this constant affliction. That being said, I just started on a new kind of medication a couple of days ago and am hopeful it'll bring some relief when I start taking the full therapeutic dose. It always takes some time to go on/off any kind of medication, so it'll be a few weeks at least. That being said, I was taking another form of medication when this bout started, so obviously the other stuff wasn't working, which is why I made the switch.

>24 jnwelch: Thanks so much Joe. As I mentioned above, I took that photo as a great suggestion. Think I'll head for the couch with an ice pack again shortly...

>25 souloftherose: Thank you Heather. xx

>26 Whisper1: Thank you dear Linda. I didn't know much about Pinterest either when I got on it, and just discovering what I can do with it as I keep using it. I love having an excuse to look at lots of lovely images, but I know some people use it for all kinds of more concrete projects.

>27 LizzieD: Wish your wish had come true this morning Peggy, but it wasn't to be this time. Still, the pain is incrementally better, which is better than nothing, and at least I'm well enough to be able to answer all my lovely visitors who've been keeping my thread alive so far. So thanks for being among them. :-)

Glad that you are a bit better today. Thanks for mentioning Maira Kalman. It sent me on a trip through the internet, to her past NYTimes blogs, etc, ending with my local library which, alas, does not have much by her. Guess I'll have to head to Amazon now. My BFF in NYC is good friends with Ms. Kalman and several years ago her daughter interned with Tibor. I guess that means its a small world.

>30 Smiler69: Glad that was a helpful idea, Ilana. :-) Hope you start feeling significantly improved.

The girl on the right at the top reminds me of Anne of Green Gables.

Happy New Thread, Ilana!!

BTW, I can imagine that the head would exacerbate the migraines. Ugh. I hope you feel better soon.

Quite a lot going on, despite the fact that I was nearly completely disabled during the better part of last week between crippling migraines and debilitating heat. I had my reading and drawing to keep me sane, and thank heavens I can still manage the two, even at the worst of times. Glad to say yesterday and today (so far) have brought manageable levels of pain. Pain-free altogether would be ideal of-course, but even my neurologist says the best I can hope for is a reduction in the overall level of pain, so I'll take what I can get.

I started and quit Circling the Sun by Paula McLain (my review follows a few posts below). Switched over to a bit of humour with The Diary of a Nobody by George Grossmith, which was short and thoroughly enjoyable. I completed The Uncommon Reader, which I was fully prepared to delight in, but in the end left me a tad disappointed, no doubt because of exceedingly high expectations and a style of writing that left me stumped a bit too often (no doubt an audio version would have settled that problem). Now have started on Oscar and Lucinda by Peter Carey, which I meant to get to in July for the ANZAC challenge, and am now both reading the print copy at nighttime and listening to the excellent audio version narrated by Steven Crossley in the daytime, so I can finish it within a reasonable period.

Drawing: have made progress on my "Mr Abercrombie", which I posted on FB a few days ago and will post here as well, but now put it aside for a bit while I work on a tribute drawing for Cecil, the lion who had captured many hearts and has made people cry out in anger at the illegal, unsportsman-like and brutal manner of his slaying. I'll post the first steps of that drawing here too.

***

>31 catarina1: Hi Catarina, I love that you are within much less than 'six degrees of separation' from Maira Kalman, how cool! I've enjoyed quite a few of her books. Sorry you don't have access to her works via the local library. Might you make purchase suggestions? I really enjoy her books, though am happy to just browse and return most of them, the exception so far being the edition of The Elements of Style Illustrated by her, which I just HAD to have. Now to actually read it! :-)

>32 jnwelch: Joe, so many of my friends tell me they go for the ice pack during migraines, but since mine are more or less constant, I've rarely bothered. But since I was reduced to immobility on the couch for a few days, I figured it could only do good, and it did bring a measure of relief, and was quite welcome during the heat wave, which has also thankfully broken since yesterday. Can it be a coincidence that I've felt better ever since??

>33 thornton37814: I haven't read that classic Lori, but I've of course seen many images of her, and can see why a red-head with braids would remind you of her! :-)

Mister Abercrombie, latest progress report:

      

Tribute to Cecil, Steps 1 and 2 (4 hours all told so far). Lots more to go... but he's emerging slowly but surely.

    

RE: Circling the Sun review: I posted it on Audible and meant to copy/paste it here, but silly me... forgot to paste it in a placeholder and meanwhile it's "pending approval" on Audible, so will have to wait for them to approve it before I can copy it here. Ah well. Hopefully they won't sit on it all weekend...

eta: Off to work some more on Cecil and listen to Oscar and Lucinda while I'm at it.

Love the drawings! Cecil looks great!

Love the drawings as always, Ilana, and >38 Smiler69: is lovely.

I hope today is a headache free one for you.

>40 connie53: Thanks Connie, I'm really inspired about my Cecil drawing. Feel a mixture of conflicting thoughts as I work on it, but it's all in the service or art!

Here is what it's looking like now, as seen on FB:



>41 souloftherose: Thanks so much Heather! xx

>42 Whisper1: So far so good, Linda, only a 4-5 out of 10 right now, though last night it ended up building up as it often does in the evenings, but thankfully the Fiorinal worked that time, so it's all very tolerable at the moment. Best stop thinking of it NOW however, because it always perks up when I give it any thought at all!

Audible has just approved my review so I can finally copy/past/edit it onto my own thread!




Unfinished: ❉ Circling the Sun by Paula McLain
Source: Audible.com
Edition: Random House Audio (2015), Unabridged MP3; 12h16

I'd been looking forward to this book because of it's main protagonist, and pretty much jumped on it shortly after it was released on July 28th. Not sure I got a whole lot of it other than this:

Pro: It made me want to read West With the Night.

Con: I wanted more from this book, which perhaps wasn't fair since I'd been content enough with McLain's "The Paris Wife", even though it had all the elements which properly limited it to the Women's Fiction bestseller category. But here is a daring woman of adventure, Beryl Markham, who braves being abandoned by her mother, a father who mostly ignores her, a lion attack, marriage to a drunk macho settler and becoming Kenya's first woman to be licensed as a horse trainer, all by the age of 18, and what we get for the first half of the book, is a nicely dressed bodice ripper. I had to quit halfway through, leaving Beryl to pine away for the love of her life, Denys Finch Hatton, who also happened to be her friend Karen Blixen's great love (as played by Robert Redford in the movie version of Out of Africa). But disturbingly enough, Paula McLain's description of Beryl's lion mauling and her first experience of bedding Finch Hatton, whom she actively and literally pursued on horseback, read in a similar sentimental semi-erotic vein:

“Paddy’s jaw closed on my thigh above the knee. I felt his dagger teeth and his wet tongue. The strangely cool feel of his mouth. My head swam as I smelled my own blood, and then he released me to bellow.”

“The night beyond the window had hushed itself as well, and there was only the fact of our two bodies rippled with shadow. We pressed to get closer, to push through something. . . .”

I should specify that the first quote describes the mauling incident and not the lovemaking, for those of you who may (understandably) confuse the two. The second quote comes a few chapters on, when we get a sampling of Markham and and her lover going at it for the first time.

I wanted to ignore the niggling voice that said I couldn't take McLain's writing seriously, and tried to engage with the "real" Beryl presented to us as the writer saw her and just flow along with the story, but passages like the ones above made me cringe too much, so halfway through, I decided to call it quits. Besides, I've had "West With the Night", Markham's 1942 memoir, sitting on my shelf for much too long. This is the same memoir that reportedly made Hemingway spit with jealousy, prompting him to write to his publisher “But this girl, who is to my knowledge very unpleasant and we might even say a high-grade bitch can write rings around all of us who consider ourselves as writers.”

I think I'll be better served with Beryl's story in Markham's own words.

>43 Smiler69: Love this drawing

>44 Smiler69: Those two quotes alone are enough for me to understand why you ditched the book, then the Hemingway quote is another compelling reason to go with the original.

I found my copy of The truth about the Harry Quebert Affair, it's a big book. I'm not sure how I'll do with it, it gets such mixed reviews.

Ilana, I so much respect your determination to have your life on your own terms. When I'm in pain, the pain has me, and I put myself at its mercy. Next time, I'll think of you and do better.
I have Markham and haven't read Markham either. Lord, please give me years and years of eyes and brain.

Thanks for posting your drawing/tribute to Cecile. I've already decided that, if I ever get another cat, I will name her or him Cecil.

I finished Oscar and Lucinda by Peter Carey last night. I'm so glad I finally read it! I'd had the physical book on my shelves since 2010 and the movie for quite a bit longer than that, but didn't want to watch till I'd read the book first. A very strange tale. I should write more about it. Will. When? Soon. Pierre and I took advantage of beautiful weather today to go to Westmount park and read a little. Coco was being a pest and whining the whole time. He just can't handle not being the centre of attention. I had brought The Brontes Went to Woolworths by Rachel Ferguson, a book I'd been much looking forward to, and somehow couldn't make heads nor tails out of it. Read the first 7 chapters and was ready to call it quits. I'll try a couple more chapters tonight, when there are no other distractions and decide at that point whether I'll keep going or not.

Really happy to be in week 3 or my exercise regime. The first week got off to a shaky start because we had incredible heat and I had incredible migraines, but I've been exercising every other day since, yoga and pilates. Got a couple of Trudy Styler videos which are really great and perfect for my intermediate level.

Drawing of Cecil progressing nicely. I'll post an update to FB tomorrow maybe, and will post it here too when I do.

Life is good. Could do with less migraines, but otherwise all is quite very fine!

>45 avatiakh: Hi Kerry! The Cecil drawing has progressed quite a lot since that version. I'm really loving staring at him for hour every day. What a sublime creature he was. I've already lined up a photo of a giraffe I want to work from next. I'll have to find a way of working on both the animal and metro series side-by-side.

I would indeed not bother with Circling the Sun if I were you, unless you're up for some pure chick-lit/romance stuff, in which case it's more than fine, I'm sure. I'll try to fit in West With the Night soon. Maybe we could do a shared read next month?

The Truth About the Harry Quebert Affair is indeed rather long. I have the original French version on audio, so shouldn't take too too long. I'm rather looking forward to it. We should keep each other posted on it!

>46 LizzieD: Peggy, thank you for your very kind words. I don't know that I do things much differently than anyone else, i.e. take what comes my way and try to handle it as best I can, which means I don't do so well a lot of the time, but try to keep myself busy and interested through it all. Maybe we can all give Markham a push next month?

>47 EBT1002: Cecil seems like a perfect name for a cat Ellen. When you getting him? I wonder what he'll look like? You do realise you'll have to choose a cat who fits with the name, don't you? ;-)

Uh oh.....sorry that Brontes didn't work for you from the start. It hit me just right, and it's one I know I'll want to re-read.

>50 LizzieD: No worries Peggy, I read a couple more chapter in quiet last night and though I'm still rather bemused by it all, I've decided to stick to it and see where it all goes.

The Brontes Went To Woolworths is a pretty odd book, though, so if you can't make head or tails of it at first, it doesn't necessarily mean you're not making head or tails of it. :)

The drawing of Cecil brought a lump. Well done.

And I love the boy's extended foot, which appears slightly blurry? In motion? Am I nuts?

Oh, poor you, enduring Coco's extreme behaviour at the vet. Miraculous that they got the x-ray they needed! I suspect Posey has a little of something similar. Not enough to be a worry now, but maybe when she is older.

Hope the change in the weather has helped your head ache less.

I had to WL a couple of things. Sigh.

I loved The Brontes Went to Woolworths - worth sticking with, esp. as it is short!

>9 Smiler69: you just need one about language! Do you have any plans for the last one?

Cecil is looking very majestic in your artwork, I love how drawing something really gets you knowing the subject well. Right now I am drawing an enlarged version of a tiny, smaller than a postage stamp, sticker that features on half the CDs in this house. A 2nd hand "condition guaranteed" sticker....I am drawing it to scale on A4 paper. So, ten times the original. its a bit of a local icon, as the music shop is gone now

"Life is good." I'm so glad to hear it.

I'm thinking an orange tuxedo cat would take very well to the name Cecil, yes?

Regardless, Abby is very clear that there will be No. New. Cats. Not while she is still ruling the house. She still misses Edgar (and that is neither projection nor anthropomorphism) but does not want another sibling.

Book #113: *✔ The Brontes Went to Woolworths by Rachel Ferguson ★★★
Source: ChaptersIndigo.com
Edition: Bloomsbury Publishing (2010), Paperback, 208 pages
Read for: Picked for Me! (by @LizzieD), July TIOLI #1: A book with an insect named on page 33
Original publication date: 1931

I'm glad I stuck to this book so I could see where the story was going, even though a shaky beginning had me wondering whether I should. I can see why this story would appeal to some readers, and it might have appealed to me more as well, at some other time. The story is about a family of three sisters and their mother; bohemian sorts who have fun play-acting as though various people they may or may not personally know take part in their daily lives. Am I not explaining this clearly? This may be because I had a bit of difficulty grasping this myself. I mostly had trouble differentiating between what was 'real' and what was 'play'. I know in my own family we gave complex personalities to our dogs, or pieces of furniture and an antique wood-stove which even had a name—Gertrude. We pretended they had feelings and made conversation with us, or random observations about life. So I'm not sure why it's such a stretch for me to imagine that the Carne family did this with real people, such a judge Toddington, whom they are positively enamoured with and like to pretend calls on them every day, going into great detail about what his daily life with his wife and assistant must be like. All this flight of imagination comes up against a bit of a hurdle when they actually meet their beloved "Toddy" in person and truly become friends with the judge and his wife, at first having to adapt to what the real people are like, though Deirdre Carne, the eldest, goes on to explain to them who much they have been part of their lives already, at which the judge and wife decide to play along. There is a governess in all this who ends up losing her mind, especially when the Brontë sisters—that is, their ghosts—actually show up in the Carne house one night while the family is away. All good fun, but very confusing to me, and then there were what seemed like lots of inside jokes or references to things purely English maybe (?) of simply very much of the time the book was published (1931)?. Not sure. I know Peggy loved this book, which is why she picked it for me Picked for Me challenge, and I'm glad she did because I'd had this book sitting among my endless piles for ages, and now I know what it's all about, sort of. Perhaps I should hang on to it; now I know the gist of the story I may want to revisit it sometime when I'm in the right mental disposition to get more out of it.

>52 lyzard: Thanks for piping in Liz. Certainly an odd book, yes. Definitely had me scratching my head... ;-)

>53 sibylline: Hi Lucy! You remind me I ought to post more recent versions of Cecil as he's come along quite a bit in the last week.

You are NOT nuts, because yes, the boy's foot is indeed in motion. I'm not sure how well I managed to convey this, but perhaps once the drawing is finished and one sees everything else is clear and relatively sharp the blurry effect will come off better. Glad you noticed it!

Head has been better the last few days, but this may only be because my lower back has decided to take over. A pinched nerve I think, so I've been wearing a hot-pack which I can tie around my middle whenever possible, and had to stop doing my exercises these past three days since any movement exacerbates the pain. Thankfully I've got an appointment booked with my acupuncturist Wednesday at mid-day, and I trust he'll be able to do something for me.

Glad I got you wishlisting stuff, which means I've done my job, somehow, even though I've been horribly neglectful about rewiews! I do wish I'd gotten into the spirit of The Brontës more, but you never can know how those things will go.

>54 LovingLit: Hi Megan! I haven't planned any of my reading in terms of the Bingo Challenge—I just sort of fill it in once in a while when I realize stuff I've read fits into various categories. But now you bring it up, I probably should plan for a book so I can finally complete the thing, as books about language don't seem to be on the menu these days. Will have to think on that.

I love how drawing something really gets you knowing the subject well.
Well put! It's been a joy working on Cecil for that reason; he was such a majestic beauty. Brings about lots of mixed feelings obviously.

>55 EBT1002: An orange tuxedo or tabby cat would be perfect for the name Cecil. I know orange tabbies are incredibly affectionate to the point of being wussy; I had one many ages ago who was always getting tangled in my legs wanting to get picked up and petted. Wish I could remember his name now... lost in the black vortex that is my horribly poor memory (do forgive me, this is over 25 years ago!). Maybe it'll come back to me... was it Boris maybe? Yes, Boris. Speaking of which, I got a great shot of Ezra sitting on me getting stroked yesterday. Will post it shortly.

Abby sounds like she's got lots of personality. :-)

Only have one hour to go on The Last Picture Show audiobook and I'm sorry to say I can't wait to finish it and not have to live with these characters anymore. Apologies to Mark, because I know he loves this book, as he recommended it to me several years ago and picked it for my Picked For Me challenge as well. I'm getting teenagers obsessed about sex mostly, one of which is an A-class B**** who uses sex to manipulate people. Larry McMurtry did a great job creating convincing characters, but I think I'd rather spend my time with Augustus McCrae from Lonesome Dove, given the choice!

Here's what my Cecil drawing is looking like right now, as I'm about to start my next drawing session:

And here's a photo of my cat Ezra being his laid-back self on Sunday:

Great drawing of Cecil, Ilana. I am so impressed with your talent.

And Ezra, has he learned how to take a selfie? such a cute cat.

>59 Smiler69: Great work.

>58 Smiler69: Having finished "Last Pic" yesterday, and presently thinking over the novel, I know exactly what you mean. It's a coming of age story. Boys and girls learning about sex, often from so-called grown-ups. Damn! They are all dysfunctional.

Hi Ilana, I saw your Cecil drawings on fb when Stasia liked them and since I couldn't "like" them there, I had to come back over to LT and say how much I like them! Just gorgeous!

Not to mention your series up in >37 Smiler69:!

Ezra is a cutey!

Yes! Yes! Yes!
And I'm happy that *Brontes* was not a complete bust for you. ONWARD!

>44 Smiler69: Oh, thanks! I read West With the Night the same time period as Out of Africa. Out of Africa remains one of my favorite movies. I think it is Meryl Streep at her very best. Beryl Markham was indeed quite a woman. For curiosity sake, I will read Circling the Sun.

Again, I have to say it, your artistic talent is beyond words. To say you are incredibly talented, or to say your art is awesomely beautiful, just doesn't express the joy I have in studying your art.

Hi, Ilana! Just a quick check-in. Hope all is well. I also LOVED West With the Night. What bothered you so much with Circling the Sun? I have that one saved on audio.

>61 catarina1: Hi Catarina, thanks for the compliment on my Cecil drawing. Now I'm getting closer to finishing it, I'm getting nervous about HOW to actually finish it.

It does look like Ezra took that selfie, doesn't it? Maybe he did... ;-)

>62 weird_O: Bill, I'm glad to see I'm not the only one who feels less than thrilled about The Last Picture Show. I finished it last night and was SOOOO glad to get to the end! Dysfunctional is fine, makes for interesting stories a lot of the time, but this one just seemed so hopeless somehow, and you just knew the characters weren't ever going to change much. God how I hated Jacy!

>63 Copperskye: Hi Joanne, so sweet of you to come over with such nice comments! I had no idea friends of friends could view posts when they're 'liked'. Neat! Lots I don't understand about FB. Ezra is my first furkid among my current brood. I've had him since he was barely 8 weeks old and he's given me plenty of trouble, but I'm sure glad to have him in his more mature years.

>64 LizzieD: Onward! Yes! I've picked up a new audiobook, the 2004 Goncourt winner called Le Soleil des Scorta / The House of Scorta by Laurent Gaude. I really loved the first book I read by him, another Goncourt winner (Goncourt des lycéens 2002), La mort du roi Tsongor / Death of an Ancient King. I should take the time to write reviews about these books, especially as they are available in English translation and don't seem all that well known.

>65 Whisper1: Thanks so much Linda, I'm glad my artwork gives you joy to look at, that's really something! I look forward to reading both West With the Night and Out of Africa. I'll be sure to watch the movie after I've read the later, as I just love Meryl Streep and I believe Robert Redford wasn't too hard on the eyes back then either... ;-)

>66 msf59: What bothered you so much with Circling the Sun?

Mark, you are incorrigible! If you scroll up a little to message >44 Smiler69:, you'll see I took the time to write a review saying exactly what bothered me about the book. I write so few of those lately, would be nice to know they're actually getting read! ;-)

They don't call me Incorrigible Mark for anything. Sorry, I did not see the review, I just saw your comments preceding it. I did like her book, the Paris Wife and find Beryl Markham fascinating, so I'll probably give the book a try.

LOVE both Cecil and Ezra!

And yes, Abby has lots of personality. She is quite a flirt, really.

>56 Smiler69: Hmm, despite my deep admiration for Peggy, I'm thinking this book is not for me.

>68 msf59: Mark, I enjoyed The Paris Wife well enough, I guess because I didn't have any expectations and we've heard little about Hadley Hemingway. I was just wanting her to do more than a bodice ripper on someone as gutsy as Beryl Markham. I'm sure you'll enjoy the book though, since you are an ENJOYER! :-)

>69 EBT1002: Hi Ellen! Always nice to have a visit from you since I know how busy you are. Abby and Ezra might get along since Ezra is always working hard to get my attention and charm me into petting him. Never thought of him as a flirt because he can also be very solitary, but I guess he is in his own way! :-)

***

Off to an acupuncture treatment. My therapist just contacted me to say he's free half an hour earlier than planned, and I definitely need his services; have had a pinched nerve in my lower back since Saturday which ended up putting me in a foul mood by yesterday. As if dealing with constant migraine wasn't enough! I've learned to separate my mood from the pain with the migraines, since I have no choice but to live with them till we find a treatment that works, but any additional pain is definitely NOT welcome! The needles have worked for back pain before, so hopefully they should do the trick this time.

Much enjoying my two ongoing books, The House of Scorta, a short novel and a wonderful family saga I'll be finishing today, and Graham Greene's Travels With My Aunt, which is a pure delight!

My Cecil drawing is nearing the finish line...

>71 Smiler69: "Like!"

>71 Smiler69: and >72 jnwelch: Me too!

I hope the acupuncture treatment helps!

>72 jnwelch: >73 EBT1002: Thanks guys!

Ellen, the acupuncture treatment will take a little while before I get the full effects. He wants be to go for another treatment on Saturday, and possibly a third too, because the nerve was badly inflamed. The essential thing is I'm hurting much less today than before, so yay to that!

>71 Smiler69: - I just have no words for how amazing that is. I am constantly floored by your talent, Ilana.

>74 EBT1002: Thanks Charlotte, your comment warms my heart.

I've had this backache for over a week now, and after two acupuncture sessions, it's still bothering me, but I'm hoping a tiny bit less pain today means I'm on the mend. Another session on Wednesday, and if that doesn't bring complete relief I guess I'll have to go see my family doctor. Hoping not to have to. I've been feeling sorry for myself all week with this reduced mobility. Constant migraines, I don't like obviously, but I'm used to dealing with by now. Any additional pain just feels like an unjust punishment somehow. There. I've gotten that off my chest.

Am finally ready to return La bibliothèque idéale RTL to the library after consulting it for over a month. It features recommendations for 600 books available in French language, of which I've retained over 100 on my wishlist and have already read/listened and loved one of them, La mort du roi Tsongor / Death of an Ancient King by Laurent Gaudé, which won the Goncourt des lycéens 2002. I've listened to another Gaudé novel, also a Goncourt winner and have discovered a new favourite author.

I should take a few minutes to review his books to help spread the love here on LT. The local library has virtually all the books recommended in stock, several of which are also available on audiobook so that I have 10 of the recommended books in my tbr now, among them The Falls by Joyce Carol Oates and Italian Shoes by Henning Mankell, to mention two non-French authors. This being said, many of the French books suggested have been translated into English, though most of them are not widely known. If anyone is curious, you can click on my Rec'd by La bibliothèque idéale RTL link to see all 105 books which were of greatest interest to me.

Hey Ilana! Just catching up a bit. I'm sorry you're dealing with back pain as well as migraines and hope the acupuncture starts to work.

I LOVE your drawing of Cecil and have been following your progress on facebook.

I'm sorry you didn't like Circling the Sun. I think I will take that one out of the library.

>71 Smiler69: Also like.

>78 Smiler69: So sorry to hear you're in pain at the moment - hoping your acupuncture session tomorrow gives you some more relief.

I went to see my family doctor on Monday after all, who found no cause for worry regarding my back ache but gave me a prescription for a stronger dose of muscle relaxant. This does not seem to be much more effective, but pain today has been tolerable. Tomorrow acupuncture again... keeping my fingers crossed as I'm really missing being able to do my little exercise routine every other day, which I had grown very fond of doing.

Finished Travels With My Aunt by Graham Greene for the BAC last night. I'm so glad I finally read this book—it had been on the radar for me for years and now I'm finally familiar with the story. A fine entertainment from Graham Greene, and I do look forward to reading much more by him as the tbr is well-stocked with his titles.

Been working on my Mr Abercrombie drawing again for the past few days as I seem to have reached an impasse with my Cecil drawing. Somehow not sure how to complete it at this point, though I suspect it probably doesn't need much more work, but I've put it aside for now so I can look at it with a fresh perspective again soon.

***

>79 phebj: Hi Pat! So lovely to see you over here. Thank you so much for your comments on the Cecil drawing. I'm hoping to make something of that drawing, though not sure what direction to take it in when it comes to marketing. I think it has potential to bring in some income, a portion of which I would give to animal charities, but I am NOT a business head and it's all a bit beyond me at this point.

I hope you end up liking Circling the Sun better than I did. It seems like most folks on Audible are loving it in any case, because it's gotten high ratings thus far.

>80 souloftherose: Hi Heather. I hope the acupuncture helps tomorrow too. The last thing I need is for this back thing to become a chronic problem as well, but I trust I'll get better in coming days.

>81 Smiler69: Flexeril helps my muscle spasms. I hope you find relief soon. Back pain is wicked.

>82 Whisper1: Thanks for the tip Linda. Hopefully this session of acupuncture I'm going to shortly will help relieve the pain, but I'll keep your recommendation in mind and if need be, get some at the pharmacy this week. Apparently Flexeril is known as Rexall here in Canada. Obviously I'm hoping the problem will go away, but I might get some in case the pain comes back (which it seems to do a couple of times a year). Poor you, would WOULD know all about pain. Wishing you well my dear. xx

Hi Ilana! Hoping you're doing well (though I see you have back spasms - ouch)! Lovely, beautiful work on your Cecil drawing. Your talent amazes me.

I found acupuncture worked well when I had arthritis in my hip as a 28 year old. It was odd, as I couldn't connect the dots as to how it would 'work' but it seemed to.

>84 LauraBrook: Hi Laura, thanks for dropping by. I took a break from Cecil for a few days so I could look at it with fresh eyes to decide how to finish the drawing. I should be getting back to it next week. Thanks for your very kind comment! :-)

>85 LovingLit: Hi Megan! I've found acupuncture is a bit of a hit or miss with me, depending on when I try it and for what purposes. It couldn't do anything for my migraines, which in any case seem to resist any form of treatment. I tried it for a similar back ache last winter and it seemed to solve the problem right away, but this time is proving more difficult. I have no idea how it works either (or very little of one), but I've sort of adopted as my alternative therapy of choice for the past couple of years.

***

I just finished listening to The Bell by Iris Murdoch. An interesting story about individuals who are part of a lay religious community, but I think ultimately the overriding religious theme kept me at some distance from it. All the same, a fascinating character study. And that's all I can manage lately as far as commenting on anything I've read. This being said I have lots more Iris Murdoch on the tbr to look forward to and she always makes for interesting reading. Thanks to Lucy (@sybix) for picking this book for me.

I DO look forward to finishing The Meursault Investigation tonight, which I'm finding is heavy going. This isn't surprising given the topic is the brother of the arab Meursault kills in The Stranger by Camus making a case for the fact the Arab wasn't even given a name or an identity and via this narrative device also tells us about what the situation for native Algerians was like under French colonial rule. I'm learning a lot, but dealing with the brothers (well-founded) anger is not the sort of thing I'm really up for right now.

Not sure what I'll pick up next to listen to. Maybe something for sheer entertainment value. I've just finished one session of drawing and will start another in a little bit until Pierre comes over for tea and dessert.

eta: I've decided to listen to Dead Man's Land by Robert Ryan which series came highly recommended by Susanne.

>86 Smiler69: Glad you made it through The Bell, Ilana. I don't think I will, unfortunately. I didn't like the characters, and that particular overriding religious theme just didn't work for me.

Have you read Claire Tomalin's biography of our friend Jane Austen? I suspect you have. I'm really enjoying it, but I think you probably need to be a JA fan to appreciate all the extended family background she gives in the beginning. It was fun to find out she had family members who lived in Islington, as that's the part of London where we stay.

Hi Ilana, I am slowly trying to catch up after being away for a bit. I notice you are listening to Dead Man's Land which I read earlier this month. I liked it well enough that I will be continuing on with the next book. Of course, I was already a fan of the author's as Robert Ryan has written some great war stories.

I must admit I liked Murdoch's earlier novels - some of the later ones were extremely complicated.

Good to see that both Greene and Murdoch seem to have made a decent impression.

Missed you, xx

How I love getting messages!

Health update: back is getting better, veeeeeeerrrrrryyyy slowly. But there is a marked improvement this week. One more acupuncture treatment on Wednesday and the tiny exercises my therapist gave me should have me back to my exercise routine within a week, or so I dearly hope. On the other hand, punishing migraine today. Boo!

Spirits are good all the same. My most recent project is figuring out ways to market my Cecil tribute drawing, as I'd like to make it available for purchase on various mediums and donate part of the proceeds to animal conservation groups. Right now I'm in communication with a t-shirt sight which looks promising. I'd like to make it available as prints (on paper, framed, and on canvas) and coffee mugs too. All this takes research and it's all sort of bewildering, since I'm the typical artist... i.e. want to work on my art and profoundly dislike marketing myself, but this is for a cause I believe in and also a good step toward making my art a source of revenue. Any comments on the topic are welcome and appreciated.

Reading: almost finished Dead Man's Land which has progressively grown on me, so that I'm really happy to already own the second book on audio, thanks to the National Library, which acquired it following my request.

Making slow progress on The Bone People in the last three days, since I get to bed very late and have little energy to read, so I'm only about 60 pages into it, but it's also growing on me.

Answering posts next, and then off to an appointment.

>87 jnwelch: Joe, I can certainly understand why you decided The Bell wasn't for you. A few years back I might have given up on it too because of the religious topic, but tutored and group reads of works such as The Warden it's follow-up, as well as quite a lot of 20th century British fiction have made me become more comfortable with religious themes. Also, I've developed a great admiration for Murdoch based on the first two books I read by her (A Severed Head and The Sea, The Sea), so I'm willing to put up with a certain degree of discomfort while I make my way through her bibliography. This is a long-term project, goes without saying, because she does require the reader do quite a lot of work, but I find it pays off in the end.

I'm glad and not surprised you're enjoying Clare Tomalin's Jane Austen, since you are such a great fan of the latter. I did read it, last year in fact, when Charlotte (@Fourpawz) kindly sent me her own copy of it. As I think you might remember, I also very much enjoyed A Life in Small Things this year. I have many more Austen-related books on the tbr, not to mention various editions of her works, which I'm hoarding for many future rereads!

>88 DeltaQueen50: Lovely to see you here Judy! I decided to pick up Dead Man's Land this month when I saw you'd listed in in TIOLI, so you do regularly have an influence on my reading choices! As I said above, it's been steadily growing on me, but/and as I read more and more Sherlock Holmes-inspired work, I'm constantly reminded I need to read up more of the original mystery stories themselves! I'm more or less halfway through the original Conan Doyle series, so have quite a bit more to go! And then must reread them so they get inscribed into my memory.

>89 PaulCranswick: Hi Paul, another lovely visitor! It had been quite a while, but I understand RL getting in the way. Really been enjoying the BAC as an excuse to pick up so many books already on my TBR and read works by some of my favourite authors and discover new ones I'd been wanting to read for a long time. I do hope you continue this challenge into 2016.

***

Must be off if I don't want to be late as usual!

>92 jnwelch: Well said. Maybe some day for Iris M.

I did read A Life in Small Things; I'm pretty sure it was based on your recommendation. Loved it. I've since recommended it to others.

>92 jnwelch: Joe, I remember well your excellent review of A Life in Small Things. I thought for sure I had thumbed it, but now see forgot to, so have fixed that oversight. As you say, not enough thumbing going on in this group for all our reviewer's efforts!

Iris Murdoch will be there for you if and when you're ready for her. There was a time some years back when I thought she was beyond me; probably too deep and complex and highbrow, but I've found she has a way of describing people and their strange inner workings wonderfully. In other words, I was obviously ready for her at this time in my life.

Book #123: ♫❉ Dead Man's Land by Robert Ryan ★★★★
Source: National Library OverDrive collection
Edition: Simon & Schuster Audio UK (2015), Unabridged MP3; 14h16
Read for: July TIOLI #1: A book with an insect named on page 33 (shared read)
Original publication date: 2012

Finished Dead Man's Land yesterday, which I found excellent. I wasn't all that sure at first, because I felt having John (Dr) Watson as a protagonist was a bit of a stretch, especially here when we encounter him as an old man who has decided to join the First World War effort to bring his skills as a doctor to good use, by introducing the new science of blood transfusion. This was my first Robert Ryan book, and I had seen he had written quite a few war books, and must say his descriptions of this particular war and what soldiers experience at the front and while behind the front lines seemed very realistic. He's also made Watson a very well-rounded character and had him interacting with an interesting cast of characters, not least of which Mrs Georgina Gregson, a VAD (part of the voluntary aid detachment), who denigrated by the nurses and sisters in charge as being a workhorse lacking skills, is chosen by Dr Watson as his assistant. It doesn't come as a great surprised that Mrs Gregson had been involved with the suffragette movement and her murky past comes to the surface as the story unfolds, adding another layer to this wartime murder mystery. The mystery Watson is attempting to solve involves the use of a horrible poison which leaves the victims looking like gargoyles in death, grinning horribly with expressions of dreadful fear and pain in their eyes. It seems someone is not content with the death toll this war of attrition is taking on the troops and has decided to hasten the death of some individuals, ensuring they experience as much suffering as possible. The mystery is solved without the aid of the great Sherlock Holmes, though he does make the occasional appearance in the course of things, as does Winston Churchill, and while all this might have seemed like a mere sideshow, it all ends up making for a convincing story and quite a page turner. It seems the next book might continue exploring what took place in this first instalment, since Watson is not satisfied that the murderer has explained his motives sufficiently. Looking forward to part two in this series.

My shelves are finally up!

Pierre is more in my good graces than ever for putting them up (which is saying a lot since he is so good for me all the time). I waited over 18 months for these shelves to be put up, when I asked a carpenter neighbour to do this project for me and he found every reason in the book to delay doing the work, to the point where it became insulting, then funny, then insulting again because he kept saying he'd do it and WANTED to do it, but never followed up with any action and even made the thing drag on from one day to the next when I asked he to just give me the materials I had paid for and he had kept in storage. So Pierre finally installed these six shelves over the weekend in my living room and bedroom. It might not seem like much, but it was a major production to install them, especially for someone who isn't a professional carpenter and doesn't have all the right tools, because NOTHING is straight or to code in my apartment which makes any handiwork a major undertaking. Many, many stacks of books now have a proper home! They aren't currently organized in any specific order—something I'll have fun working on in future weeks and months—but I did put most of my nicer editions out on display. The beautiful cabinet was also a gift from Pierre earlier this year and now houses a good portion of my paperbacks. The only downside? I already need MORE shelves because... why else? too many books!

  

Sorry the book titles aren't visible... not enough light to take a really clear picture.

>95 Smiler69: I like the colour of the wood in the shelves. Also, really like the many matching books/series you've got going on.

Sorry that it took so long but it is such a nice looking display - obviously done by artists.

Oh, new book shelves, I bet you had fun sorting through and setting your books on display! Great review of Dead Man's Land and well deserving of my thumb!

I love your new shelves, would love/need some of my own.
Regarding merchandising your art, I recently read a colourful New Zealand birds picturebook that markets the art through society6, the item that appealed to me most were the tote bags. https://society6.com/vanwijk/bags

>96 PawsforThought: Pawz: we used medium density presswood, which is lighten in colour when uncoated, but becomes a nice rich colour when varnished. It was a complete coincidence that the colour ended up matching that of the cabinet, but I'm certainly very happy about it! I guess I should consider arranging all my books in alphabetical order, but I like arranging them by publisher too since it ends up looking so nice on the shelves. I guess I'll be having fun trying to find any one specific title! ;-)

>97 catarina1: Thanks so much catarina. I spent a few hours arranging and transferring books from piles on my coffee and side tables to the new shelves and cabinet. Making any sort of logical arrangement was beyond me at that point, but I did try to make my shelves as visually appealing as possible. The books in the cabinet on the other hand are in an unholly mess!

>98 DeltaQueen50: Judy, I basically took out all the beautiful books I had stored in the cabinet and put those on my shelves, to hide away the softcovers. As I said above, I have quite a bit more work ahead of me trying to put those in some sort of order.

>99 avatiakh: Kerry, thanks for the suggestion. I've been looking at Society6 for the past week or so, looking at the wide variety of merchandise they have on offer and trying to figure out what the profit margins are for artists. There's a good chance I'll go with them for prints and mugs (and possibly tote bags, now you mention it!), but I'll probably deal with another site for t-shirts since S6 takes 90 of profits, while this other site enables an artist to make up to 40% of profits by becoming affiliates. These are all considerations I don't like spending my time on, but I guess it needs to be done! They do have a lovely web site don't they?

Beautiful shelves for your books and engagingly arranged. Oh yes, I can't help but wish I could see the titles!

Glad you appreciated The Bell. I'm thinking it is the only Murdoch I've read to be quite that religiously oriented, but IM's deepest interest is in the nature of good and evil, so religion is bound to come into it. Dora, refreshingly, is quite immune to all of it, eh?

So sorry to hear about your back woes. I've been having neck trouble, so I am very sympathetic.

The Ryan is WLed as a potential audio listen!

I'm sure I've missed other things, but those are all I can hold in my head at this moment.

Love the bookshelves, Ilana. Pierre did a fine job.

I plan on starting The Bell next week.

New bookshelves! Oh, Me-nummy-num! (This was my cousin's reaction when he was a baby and tasted ice cream for the first time.)

>101 sibylline: Hi Lucy! I might attempt to take a picture of the shelves again on a day when there is more light, but I won't count on that, since I don't get that much light in my apartment to begin with and they are placed on walls which are usually quite shaded. Good for the books (to avoid faded spines), not so much for rewarding curious readers.

I think Dora definitely made the book much more approachable, as the outsider who doesn't buy into all their notions. Also interesting that she ends up sticking it to the very end.

Back is behaving much better today. The acupuncturist gave me breathing exercises I'm supposed to do about ten times per day to help develop my lower abdomen muscle (traverse abdominis), which in turn should help support my back. I did them religiously for a couple of days, but as I'm about to get my monthly visit which brings on lots of cramping, I thought it best to give it a break and resume the exercises in a few days.

I think/Hope you'll enjoy the Ryan when you get to it.

>102 msf59: Hi Mark, not sure what you'll make of The Bell, but I'm very glad I read it and look forward to lots more Iris Murdoch in my reading life. I can't tell you how happy I am about finally having those shelves up!

>103 Fourpawz2: :-)

The only thing is now of course I'm consumed with desire for yet MORE shelves, because of course I still have boxes and piles of books which are shelf-less. Pierre and I agreed I wouldn't bug him about it for another year, but I didn't actually make a promise, I don't think, so we'll see about that. ;-)

Reading:

Finished the sixth book in the The Accursed Kings series, The Lily and the Lion by Maurice Druon. I absolute love this 14th century saga about the kings and queens of France and England. Just one last book left to go, and I just might take advantage of Series & Sequels September to get to it.

About a third of the way into The Bone People. It's an engaging, though not easy read, with complex characters and difficult themes, such as child abuse, but I must say I'm quite wrapped up in it at this point.

Making plans for September reading, aided by the new TIOLI challenges going up since yesterday. Love this part of the process!

Oh yes, should also mention that I started the audio of La vérité sur l'affaire Harry Quebert / The Truth About the Harry Quebert Affair by Joël Dicker, which is a shared read with Kerry. It's rather a long book, so will most probably take me into September.

Ah.... I've caught up on my Fire, but I'll have to return later to comment more than this. Hope your back is even better today!

>106 LizzieD: 'Fire'???

eta: and yes, back is not bothering me today, for once. Hope it stays that way...

eta2: do you mean Kindle Fire maybe??

Here are my

Reading Plans for September:
✭✔ The Bone People by Keri Hulme - ANZAC, ACoB! (1984), Booker Prize Challenge, TIOLI #13: contains the word 'September", 'Sept' or 'Ember' in the narrative - Reading
✪♫❉ La vérité sur l'affaire Harry Quebert / The Truth About the Harry Quebert Affair (Goncourt des lycéens 2012) by Joël Dicker - TIOLI #10: At least 3 vowels in alphabetical order in the title - Listening
✭✔+♫ Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie - BAC, Booker Prize Challenge, TIOLI #13
✪❉ The Long Song Andrea Levy - BAC, Booker Prize Challenge, TIOLI #6: An author whose two initials form an two-letter acronym for a well-known phrase or name
✪♫ Everything That Rises Must Converge by Flannery O' Connor - AAC, TIOLI #6
✭*♫ A Town Like Alice by Nevil Shute - picked by @DeltaQueen50, ACoB! (1952), TIOLI #6
*✔+♫ A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry - picked by @kidzdoc
✭*♫ My Antonia by Willa Cather - picked by @jnwelch, TIOLI #6
✭*♫ Falling Angel by Tracy Chevalier - Picked for Me! (by @Fourpawz2), TIOLI #2: A title which includes "Autumn", "Fall", or "September".
✭♫ A Dead Man in Deptford by Anthony Burgess - ACoB! (1993), TIOLI #13
✪✔The Fortnight in September by R. C. Sherriff - TIOLI #2: A title which includes "Autumn", "Fall", or "September", or a word which can be descriptive of the season
✪✔Haroun and the Sea of Stories by Salman Rushdie - TIOLI #5
✪♫ Cranford by Elizabeth Gaskell - TIOLI #1: a one-word title containing one set of duplicate letters
✪♫ Venetia by Georgette Heyer - TIOLI #1
✭♫ Orfeo by Richard Powers - Booker Prize Challenge, TIOLI #1
✪♫ The Tiger in the Smoke by Margery Allingham - TIOLI #16: about or by a novelist from the Golden Age of Detective Fiction
✪♫ Lord Edgware Dies by Agatha Christie - TIOLI #18: Read a book which ends with a question mark

From the Library:
✭❉ Le fou de Bergerac / The Madman of Bergerac Maigret #16 by Georges Simenon - TIOLI #16
❉ The Birthday Boys by Beryl Bainbridge
❉ An Awfully Big Adventure by Beryl Bainbridge - Booker Prize Challenge

September Series & Sequels Possibilities:
✪♫❉ The Tropic of Serpents: A Memoir by Lady Trent, Book 2 by Marie Brennan - TIOLI #5: title includes something you might find on a map
✭♫ Wild Strawberries by Angela Thirkell - TIOLI #9: Read a Series Book that has a 2 Word Title
✭♫ August Heat by Andrea Camilleri - TIOLI #9
✭♫ Grave Peril by Jim Butcher - TIOLI #9
✭♫ The Likeness by Tana French - TIOLI #9
✭♫ Men at Arms by Terry Pratchett - TIOLI #6
✪♫ Imperium by Robert Harris - TIOLI #8: set in the ancient world
✭♫ The Silver Pigs by Lindsey Davis - TIOLI #8



* = Picked for Me challenge
♫ = audiobook
✔ = off the shelf
❉ = library book
✭ = TIOLI
✪ = Shared TIOLI

Kindle Fire it is, Ilana.
Megan and I read The Bone People together. I think that we were both blown away. Powerful, beautiful writing!

As just posted on FB:

Absolutely punishing, 10/10 on the pain scale migraine today. I'm just grateful my daily migraines don't reach that level too often. Better now thanks to Fiorinal, so I can actually do things with my eyes open for short bursts.

Ouch! Hope it lets up on you soon, Ilana.

>94 Smiler69: I've seen a lot of praise for Dead Man's Land around the threads lately. Will try and get hold of that series from the library.

>95 Smiler69: Hooray for Pierre! The new shelves look lovely

>108 Smiler69: I hope you like The Tiger in the Smoke - it's one of my favourite Allinghams. Very atnospheric.

>110 Smiler69: Sorry to hear you have such a punishing migraine. I hope the Fiorinal continues to work and it eases soon.

I just saw a beautiful book, part of an essay series and have to share the link - My Katherine Mansfield Project by Kirsty Gunn
I bought one, The Invader Wore Slippers, when I was in London a couple of years ago. They're expensive though.
Look at all these beautiful books on the header image - https://twitter.com/nottinghilleds

Better than yesterday on the pain scale, but that's not saying much because I'm still in a whole lot of pain and somehow dealing it much less well than I managed to yesterday. Bad mood and general fed-upness being the order of the day. O well. Tomorrow's another day.

>109 LizzieD: Of course you're right about the powerful and beautiful writing in The Bone People Peggy, but I also find it's a hard read because of the subject matter and characters that are hard of approach. Glad I'm finally reading it and as yet can't at all say how I feel about it.

>111 jnwelch: Thanks Joe, me too!

>112 souloftherose: I wouldn't say Dead Man's Land is an easy read Heather, and I realise now I left that part out of my review. It all takes place close to the front during WWI and since we're on the medical end of things, there are lots of badly injured men and general wartime atrocities abound. Not to mention the murders themselves result in rather gruesome cadavers. Just thought I'd put that out there for you, because I know you're a temperamental reader like me and might want to approach this one when you feel prepared to deal with that side of the story.

>113 avatiakh: Oooh! I was immediately tempted to get My Katherine Mansfield Project, since I discovered her in the past couple of years and absolutely adore her. Yes, the books are rather expensive and I wouldn't know what other ones to get, but there's a good chance I'll at least get that one. Beautiful and tempting little books, thanks for letting me know about them Kerry!

Reading

I finally finished Harry Quebert last night... at x2 speed, which in and of itself is saying a lot about the quality of the writing, I think. I wrote some comments about it to my mum in an email this morning, but I think I'll have to add more to that blurb to make for an intelligible review. Head right now is very bad and thinking is not a good idea at the moment, so I'll go through that exercise when a bit of relief has come my way.

>95 Smiler69: Nice shelves!

>110 Smiler69: Oh ugh. 10/10 sounds brutal. I'm so sorry!

Hey, I've been sort of falling in love with Maltipoo puppies lately. I hope I don't offend little Coco if I ask: does he happen to be a Maltipoo? Or...?

Listless, not to say completely exhausted and depressed today. Second day that I get up in the morning and then go back to bed for a couple of hours more. I think the constant head pain is really wearing me down, and no hope of relief at least until my neurologist is back from vacation next week, and even then, goodness knows when he'll return my call.

Also, my reading choices aren't exactly making me soar with joy either. The Bone People is depressing, not to say bleak, and I just started My Antonia today, which I'm also somehow finding depressing. Gorgeous writing in both cases, but that somehow doesn't lift my spirits any.

***

>116 EBT1002: I'm sure Coco isn't offended, but I doubt he can give you a satisfactory answer. There is no knowing what mix he is. Could be crossed with a Bichon, could be a Maltese, could be just about any small dog, because various pet owners of different small breeds have shown me pictures of their dogs who look a lot like Coco and they all seem like likely brothers and sisters. I tell people he's a magic mix.

Three-quarters of the way in, I decided to give up on "The Bone People" by Keri Hume last night after putting off my reading session for as long as I could, then being confronted with an incredibly gruesome death scene when I picked it up to read 'just a page or two'. It may have won the Booker prize and it certainly has many fans, but I experience enough of my own kind of suffering on a daily basis lately not to be confronted to it in my literature as well. So that's that.

eta: I've just tagged the book "Depressing as Hell", a tag I reserve for books I can't finish for that very reason. I've got Wally Lamb's She's Come Undone under that tag, as well as Franzen's The Corrections (two authors I never want to read again). Interestingly enough, Blindness by José Saragamo really ought to be included in there, but I must have read it at just the right time, because I ended up loving it all the same. Timing is everything, I guess.

eta2: Oh yeah, just added The Bell Jar to that list, though I did finish it way back when.

>117 Smiler69: & >119 souloftherose: Sorry to hear your head pain is so debilitating at the moment :-( I would definitely be behind giving up on depressing books whilst you're feeling this way. I did enjoy My Antonia a lot when I read it but it's not exactly cheerful. As you say, timing is everything so don't push yourself.

>119 souloftherose: Hi Heather, so sweet of you to drop by!

I've neglected my thread awfully this past week and haven't added anything to it save from updating my current reads up top. I should probably have looked at my last (quite depressing) post and put up some sort of update. The headaches are back to a more tolerable level now and I'm able to have a normal life again. The back ache is all gone, but I've got daily stomach breathing exercises I need to keep doing indefinitely to strengthen my stomach muscles and provide better support for my lower back. I'll start up my exercise routine (yoga & pilates videos) again in a week or so, when I feel my back is really solid again and can take it.

I picked up A Fortnight in September right after dropping The Bone People over a week ago. I'm enjoying it, but am finding it hard to really get into for some reason. On the other hand been quite enjoying various murder mysteries, such as The Tiger in the Smoke, my first book by Margery Allingham. I should probably have started with the first Albert Campion book, which I have on my listening tbr, but as this one had been released by The Folio Society last year, who greatly touted it of course, I was very curious to get to it first. Next up was Lord Edgware Dies by our trusty old Agatha Christie, which really hit the spot. Now I'm onto August Heat in the Mobtalbano series by Andrea Camilleri and quite enjoying that.

Just finished my latest metro drawing last night, "Mister Abercrombie" which I need to photograph so I can post it on FB and here... will try to get that done tomorrow if there is enough light, which wasn't the case today with very overcast and rainy skies. Will be starting on a new drawing shortly, though not sure yet what that will be since I have lots of subjects I'm considering working on.

YAY for finishing "Mister Abercrombie"!!! I can't wait to see what you finished and what you left.
I'm glad that your head is back to normal - just wish that normal were completely free of those headaches. My own back is threatening to go out, so I've been careful for the past couple of days. The swim and hot tub today definitely loosened it.
I'm impressed that you made it through ¾ of *Bone People* now that I think about it. Something about the horror of the subject matter and the gorgeous writing made it un-put-downable for me. On the other hand, I have tried and tried to appreciate M. Allingham, and I just can't do it. I sort of like Lug, but otherwise, she leaves me cold.
Does *Lord Edgeware* have an alternate title in the USA? Off to investigate!

>120 Smiler69: Andrea Camilleri always lifts my spirits, dear lady. I must say your ringing endorsement of The Bone People has me quaking a little.

Have a lovely, pain free, Sunday. xx

>121 LizzieD: Peggy, I went the whole nine yards with "Mister Abercrombie" and drew in absolutely everything, down to the last tiny detail that probably nobody but I will notice. I tried taking a shot of the finished piece just now, but the sky is very dark today and there's not enough natural light to work with, so it'll have to wait.

I was saying to Ellen just now that I might try to pick up The Bone People again from where I left off when I feel strong and able to deal with its harsher elements. I liked, but didn't love The Tiger in the Smoke, and I'm not sure if it was because of the narrator of the audiobook (whom I've enjoyed a lot for other books) gave Albert Campion what I felt was a bit of a goofy voice, or because the story itself didn't really excite me much, or if it was because I picked up the series right in the middle, which I usually avoid doing. In any case, I have the first two Albert Campions and will be able to decide once I've listened to those. PLEASE tell me what you mean by "Lug", because I tried to figure it out and can't for the life of me! I can't see any of her more popular books bearing a title that might be reduced to those three letters... I know one single interpretation for that acronym, and it's probably both obscure and a bit offensive to some ("Lesbian Until Graduation"), and I'm ABSOLUTELY certain that's not what you meant to say!

Lord Edgware Dies is titled Thirteen At Dinner in the US, which is a bit funny because someone in the book actually says at some point: 'Wouldn't "Lord Edgware Dies" make a wonderful title?' or words to that effect. I can never understand and rarely approve of it when publishers decide to change titles for different markets.

eta: back to you, Peggy (@LizzieD): Please, oh teacher who would be a perfect source of knowledge for these things; tell me when one should use single and double quotation marks?!? I can't seem to keep it straight!

>122 PaulCranswick: Hi Paul, lovely to see you in these parts. I want to thank you again for the BAC; it encouraged me to read my first Anthony Burgess novel (Nothing Like the Sun) which I ended loving, then A Dead Man in Deptford, which at first was a bit strange and obscure to me but proved both entertaining and educational. I'm looking forward to getting to his Earthly Powers, also on my tbr which I've seen both you and Joe warmly recommend more than once.

I don't know if completely 'pain-free' is in the offing for me today, but so far, so tolerable. :-)xx

>120 Smiler69: "On the other hand been quite enjoying various murder mysteries..." Sometimes, those are exactly what a reader needs, especially when not feeling well. I hope the pain continues to ease down to zero.

>124 EBT1002: That's the great thing about having a nearly endless tbr covering so many types of literature and genres: reading choices for every kind of mood.
Since my moods tend to change a lot, I tend to jump around in my choices a lot too. :-)

Catching up with you Ilana. I'm sorry to see that you are still troubled by your migraines. I do hope you find something that can keep them under control.

I was so touched by your drawing of Cecil. I followed the progress on FB and it is absolutely beautiful. You are so talented.

Love your book shelves. Three cheers for Pierre!

I saw way up top you reread Love in the Time of Cholera a pick for you by Caroline and it was your pick for me this year. I love your picked for me category. It's fun to see what people pick for you and why.

>126 luvamystery65: Hi Roberta! Thanks so much for taking the time to catch up with me!

Yes, unfortunately constant migraines are still very much a daily reality for me, and I've just in fact swallowed a couple of Fiorinal tablets, because what was bearable pain all day just turned into a punishing experience about 5 minutes ago and I'm very much hoping the pain killers will do their job. I'm due to see a specialist who does Botox treatments, but waiting for them to call me and give me a time and date for the appointment. Getting to see specialists in Quebec is usually a matter of around 6-month wait time. That'll just be for an initial evaluation to decide whether I'm a candidate for that treatment, though my neurologist who gave me the referral to begin with thinks I am for sure. Hopefully that'll be of major help. If not, we'll keep looking for that magic bullet!

Thanks for your comments on my Cecil drawing. I was seriously considering marketing it in some way to help raise funds toward animal charities, but I'm sort of wussing out this week. I like the "making art" part of doing artwork but would rather not deal with the marketing part of it. I'm starting on a giraffe drawing any day now, which I'll post on FB too. Some people have expressed interest in a t-shirt of the giraffe drawing, so I guess the wildlife series drawing project is still very much alive.

I remember picking Love in the Time of Cholera for you precisely because I was due for that reread, and was hoping to read it at the same time as you, but then you picked it up at a point when I wasn't really up for it. I'm glad I waited because I did enjoy it again by the time I was ready for it. I'm sure I'll read it again at some point, though I've got other as yet unread books by García Márquez I'm likely to pick up first.

I'm so pleased about those bookshelves! Unfortunately though, I already need more because several stacks of books are still lying around, and Pierre said he'd be willing to do them within the next few months, even though I'd promised him not to bother him about more shelves for at least another year. The man is practically a saint—at least as far as bookshelves go! ;-)

I'm afraid that never enough bookshelves is one of the basic rules of human existence - at least it's true for me. My compliments to St. Pierre of Shelving!
Lug is Campion's man ---- isn't that his name? After a bit of research here, I see that his name is Lugg (Magersfontein Lugg to be precise). Sorry to confuse you. It's been a long time since I read Allingham.
I'm also afraid that I can't help much with the " vs ' question. The Brits and Australians (and Canadians?) prefer the single mark for the main quotation. Americans prefer the double. I think the really important thing is to be consistent and to use your second choice for quotations within a quotation. Mary said, "I only know that Jane said, 'I wouldn't wear that to an interview if I were you.'"

Hooray for reduced pain and finishing 'Mister Abercrombie'!

>127 Smiler69: Just saw your migraines have flared up again - boo. Hope Fiorinal and Botox can help.

I hadn't posted progress on my "Mister Abercrombie" here on LT for a while (to see the latest post: >37 Smiler69:), and since I finished it a few days ago, I thought I'd share it here as well as on FB (by all means friend me on FB if you care to see my regular updates!). I wish I'd kept track of my hours on this one, but it must be something like 150 or more. It was my most complex drawing to date, beyond a doubt! I'm sure other artists could have done it in a day or two, but I have my own pace and really enjoy the process itself (maybe a little bit TOO much?)

Am about to start on Metro Series #8: My neighbour Sophie, 15. Also: a giraffe is inching its way to my drawing board.

On the reading front:

lots on the plate at the moment, including Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie, which I'm reading for the BAC. I actually read three-quarters of it many years ago, I think before I joined this group and somehow couldn't finish it. I've since gotten a gorgeous illustrated Folio edition, but since I can barely read 30 pages each night, I'll eventually also tack on the audiobook, borrowed from the library to help speed things along a bit for this VERY long book.

I had intended to start listening to A Town Like Alice, which I'll be getting to this month for sure, but then felt like some comfort reading in the form of crime mysteries, so lined up two Montalbanos in a row, August Heat and now The Wings of the Sphinx, Nos 10 & 11 in the series, which keeps growing on me. I wasn't as keen as some, such as major fan Joe with the first few, but am really falling more and more for the characters and the back story with each book.

Also felt like taking in more Agatha Christie, and have picked up Death in the Clouds, which is presumably a reread as I seem to recall reading it first in 1982-83 or thereabouts, when I'd first discovered Christie and fell in love with her golden age mysteries. Both Montalbano #11 and this book were unplanned this month even though I had plenty of awesome selections in the original plan (see >2 Smiler69:).

I also got the first two books in Catwings series by Ursula K. Le Guin from the library recently, short and very sweet stories about, yes, kittens with wings! This was recommended by Heather/@souloftherose and they are absolutely charming! Have requested the last two books and hope to get them soon.

>128 LizzieD: I'll make sure to pass on your compliments to St. Pierre of the Shelving, Peggy! :-)
And yes, never-enough-shelvingitis is definitely a chronic ailment among us crazy booklovers!

Sorry I missed your reference to Lugg... is it possible that he doesn't appear in The Tiger in the Smoke?—But no, I see him listed there among the characters on the LT page, so my bad for failing to take notice. Obviously I wan't paying as close attention to proceedings as I should have.

Sort of relieved about the quotation marks situation. It's all especially confusing to me since, as I've told you on your thread, I missed so much of the lessons on spelling, grammar and syntax as a child, and as I do read a lot of fiction from both sides of the Atlantic, it's hard to figure out what the actual hard and fast rules are, and which are left up to the writer! So you have indeed helped me sort out ONE mystery of the English language at least!

>129 souloftherose: As you can see Heather, I've posted the finished piece above, though you may have seen it on FB first? Migraine tolerable again these last few days. Annoying, but tolerable and I really can't ask for much better than that at the present juncture. I do hope to hear from my neurologist and the botox clinic soon though!

>130 Smiler69: Excellent!

Hi, Ilana!

Very sorry to hear about your migraines, and very glad they're back in the "tolerable" range. You're making great progress with your art, though, it's amazing! :)

I wanted to touch base you regarding The Midnight Bell, which we had lightly pencilled in for next month---is that still on the agenda, or shall we let it go for a bit? No problem either way, I'm just sorting out next month's reading (being, as it is, halfway through this month!).

You beat me to the punch with Agatha but I have also listed Death In The Clouds for TIOLI - cheers for a shared read!

I know I've said it before, but it bears repeating, your talent is incredible. I cannot draw a straight line with a ruler, and thus I can only imagine the joy you have in working through a unique image from beginning to end.

Congratulations!!!!!

>133 weird_O: Thanks Bill! :-)

>134 lyzard: Nice to hear from you Liz! The amazing thing I figured out a few years ago when I was taking regular art classes was that the only time I was more or less free from pain was when I was concentrating on making art, which might explain why I've been relatively productive on that front these last couple of years!

I'm easy on The Midnight Bell. You remind me I should start the early stages of October planning myself. Do I sense a wish on your part of put off TMB till later? I think I'll let you make the call since you are the one who is much sought after for countless tutorials and reading groups. Next month is fine with me—some other month is fine with me too. How's that for decision-making? :-)

I was surprised when I didn't see Death in the Clouds on the TIOLI, since you'd mentioned it on your thread, glad to see we're both on board. I've been really enjoying it. Agatha Christie really seems to be hitting the spot this month!

>135 Whisper1: Hello my dear Linda. You know, the ability to draw straight lines is not a pre-requisite for developing a taste for drawing. Neither is the ability to render subjects realistically. Some of my favourite artists would probably be described by some as "not being able to draw". Just thought I'd put that out there. :-)

***

Finished Wings of the Sphinx, Montalbano #11 last evening and resisted the temptation to start on Montalbano #12 (since this is Series & Sequels month...) to start on A Town Called Alice. So far so good. The part I'm at is a retelling of the Japanese invasion in Malaysia as seen from the British women and childrens perspective, and as it was written in 1950, is has a somewhat softer approach than The Narrow Road to the Deep North by Richard Flanagan, which I found to be a hard read for being unrelentingly brutal (i.e. realistic) in its description of the treatment of the prisoners of war.

Hmmm. There's not being able to draw but doing it creatively and not being able to draw. I look with pleasure, but hand/eye stuff just isn't there. *sigh*

>136 Smiler69:

Next month is fine with me—some other month is fine with me too.

That's exactly where I am too! We can wait a little longer to make a call, if you like, maybe when you're further along in your planning? I'm easy either way, just let me know. :)

That's very interesting about your art acting as a pain mitigater.

Your book shelving looks fantastic, well,ore like the books and the way they are arranged. Way better excuse to buy series by the lot! I am fond of the Faber modern classic ones lately, at only $15 each, they are half the price of a normal edition here, and pretty

>130 Smiler69: Wonderful!

Nice to see you reading some Agatha Christie. Her books are like comfort food for me.

>137 LizzieD: Peggy, there are many, many things I can't seem to do in compensation for this gift for drawing I received. It takes all kinds, as we all know! I often wish I had a really great imagination and could make really creative artworks, but it seems I'm mostly good at drawing and painting from observation, and not much else so far. The good thing is I like doing that too, so all is well. :-)

>138 lyzard: We can wait a little longer to make a call, if you like, maybe when you're further along in your planning?

I like that idea best Liz. I've yet to start making my October reading list, but I'm tempted to do so starting today, or v v soon at least. I guess it'll depend on how many physical, or in any case, eye-reading books I'll have on the October stacks.

Making art has many therapeutic benefits for all kinds of aches and pains, not so surprising that colouring books have become so popular as a stress-reducer these past couple of years!

>139 LovingLit: Megan, my beloved books series are one of the main reasons I opt against shelving my books in a more logical manner, i.e. in alphabetical order, for example. I'll have to do that in my book cabinet, as they are all stuffed in there willy-nilly for the moment, which makes it nigh on impossible to find any one specific title. I'm really fond of the NYRB editions because of their lovely colour spines and cover images, so that collection keeps growing. I'm trying to keep all the Folios together, sorted by colour on the other shelves I got a few years back, though we'll have to extend those to accommodate that ever-expanding collection too!

Glad you found a collection you like and is actually affordable for you.

>140 jnwelch: You're right about Agatha Christie providing perfect comfort reading Joe. I must be in the mood for murder mysteries this month, because I've just started listening to Montalbano #12 with A Track of Sand last night. That particular series really grew on me over time!

>130 Smiler69: I think the 150 hours put into Mister Abercrombie shows! Not convinced other artists could have done it in a couple of days and got that level of detail.

And so glad you like the Catwings books - aren't they adorable? (And do you find yourself wishing real cats had wings?) That reminds me I still haven't read the last book, Jane on Her Own.

Coco was extremely sick yesterday, waking up in the wee hours and throwing up repeatedly, then as a capper, he had bloody diarrhea and was moaning and howling and making sounds I'd never heard him make before. Needless to say I was beside myself with worry and hurried him to the vet, while crossing my fingers and hoping it was just a temporary bug and he only needed a few shots and pills to get him better again. The vet I saw was not my regular gal, and she painted a very bleak picture, seemed to think the worst was a probability and wanted me to do a battery of tests (blood screening and x-rays to start, which alone cost around $800). I was reasonably freaked out. Reasonably, because I decided to be optimistic and hope that this WAS just a passing bug, so we gave him an anti-vomiting shot and an antacid shot and subcutaneous saline solution to rehydrate him, we got the antibiotics and the PRObiotics and special dog food for his weak stomach. Bill was $250. Definitely ouch on the wallet, but nothing like the damage it would have been had I bought into that vet's scare tactics. I have no doubt she was being conscientious and wanting to check all bases, but I'm glad I made the decision I did, because he seems much better tonight after a solid night of sleep for both doggie and I (though I took a sleeping pill to calm my frayed nerves. But I think I'll cancel my order of the collector's edition of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, which I'd posted about on Facebook recently. Ah well, some things in life come even BEFORE books, such as our beloved pets health and wellbeing.

>142 souloftherose: Heather, I wish I'd kept track of my hours on that drawing, because 150 hours is just an guess based on the time I spent on a few others in the same series, but I think I probably under-evaluated my time. It probably took as long as my woman with the headscarf, in terms of detail and complexity, and that's another drawing I didn't keep track of. Not that it ultimately makes a difference, but it's nice to have an idea of how much of my life goes into those pieces.

Your remind me I should read the second Catwings book since the last two are on their way to me at the library.

Oh, Ilana, I am so sorry to hear that Coco hasn't been feeling well. Sounds like there has been an improvement so fingers crossed he continues to improve. What a scare for you.

September has turned into a crazy month for me and I haven't been around the 75 Group as much as I would like. I did see that you were going to start A Town Called Alice and I hope you are enjoying it.

>143 Smiler69: Hi Judy, thanks for dropping by! Coco seems MUCH better than yesterday, thank heavens! It was a very very scary time for both of us, I think. I'm also glad I didn't have to dish out major dollars this time around, though of course $250 buys quite a lot of books, but I'm glad to invest it into Coco's well-being.

I enjoyed A Town Called Alice quite a lot. A very heartening story. I don't seem to be in the mood or have the brain-power for reviews these days, but I am glad I read it, so thanks for the recommendation!

Hope next month is a bit more restful for you. I've been enjoying this month as an excuse to catch up on my ongoing series!

Glad to hear that Coco recovered ok, it is an expensive adjustment to one's budget and you come across many news stories of outlandish amounts spent on pets including a recent one on a pet goldfish. We recently took one of our cats to the vet as she was limping and in pain, a $120 bill and two weeks of meds for a vicious cat bite on a leg joint, though the vet couldn't find the actual bite mark. Within two hours of the first med she was better.

I'm about to dive into the latest Montalbano #19.

Coco in the park this evening.

>146 avatiakh: Hi Kerry. I've lost so many goldfish over the years, I figured we just weren't compatible. A visit to the vet is never good on the wallet, but I think I made the right decisions yesterday, opting for treatments that were likely to help him recover and delaying all the (much more) expensive tests for a day or two down the line, if things didn't improve. Things might have turned out differently of course, but needless to say, I super-relieved my instincts stirred me in the right direction this time.

I saw you mention the latest Montalbano, I think on the Series & Sequels thread. I've put in a request at the library for them to get the last three audiobooks, and just today received a notification that they were willing to purchase them. Now the waiting begins—sometimes they get things right away, other times... not so quickly, if at all. But I'll get my hands on them one way or another when the time comes, as I'm a real fan of the series now!

I started on The Likeness by Tana French a couple of days ago, and listened to about 5 hours of it yesterday. What a captivating premise!

Oh, I'm so glad that Coco is feeling better now. That is so scary when they are ill and they are unable to tell you exactly what is wrong. I've lost my four elderly cats in the last 18 months so I understand fully your worry about him. I hope that he continues to improve.

So scary about dear Coco! Glad he is better today.

Mr. Abercrombie is amazing - but then all of this series' drawings have been so wonderful. Never get tired of seeing your work.

Just finished Death in the Clouds this afternoon. I much prefer Miss Marple to Poirot, but this was a very good one, I thought. As ever, I had no clue who dunnit.

Don't really care if authors use " or ' - just so long as they use one or the other. Have always had a problem with those books where the author chooses to go without either. In those instances I can't keep myself from thinking as I read that everyone is just thinking things and not saying things out loud. VERY irritating to me and it always takes away from my enjoyment of whatever it is I am reading.

How wonderful it would be if this new treatment turned out to be your 'magic bullet'.....

I just saw the most beautiful slipcase of 'Complete Works of Primo Levi' over on amazon.com.

So sorry to hear about your scare with Coco but glad he seems to have recovered.

>145 Smiler69: A Town Like Alice has also ended up on my list after being mentioned in Slightly Foxed recently so glad to hear you also enjoyed it.

Ilana I loved The Likeness so much! I'm right in the middle of Faithful Place right now. It took me awhile to pick it up because I really loved Cassie in the first book and her back story in the second book was fantastic. I also liked the premise.

Have you seen those Facebook challenges where you try to find your doppleganger? Very interesting and reminded me of this story where these two Irish girls won a particular challenge. Reminded me of Cassie!

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-3039487/Student-finds-STRANGER-matchin...

>149 catarina1: Catarina, I'm so sorry for your loss; that's a lot of loved ones to loose in such a short amount of time. Do you have other pets/cats at the moment? I'm indeed very relieved that Coco's ailment was seemingly just a 24-hour thing, or less. I'm keeping a steady eye on him, but as far as I can see, he seems fully recovered, thank heavens.

>150 Fourpawz2: Hi Charlotte! Lovely to hear from you. Sorry I haven't dropped by myself in a while. I'm so so so relieved Coco is doing well, as you can well imagine I'm sure. Thanks so much for your comment on my latest completed drawing. I'm making steady progress on my latest project; "Metro Drawing #8: My Neighbour Sophie, 15". I've posted a couple of updates on FB and will post one here on my thread as well asap.

I also find it annoying when authors do away with punctuation of any kind. Lack of quotation marks is especially distracting and makes it difficult to keep a regular reading flow going.

>151 avatiakh: Kerry, your link ended up not leading anywhere, but I looked it up on Amazon and agree it seems pretty cool. Which reminds me, I have yet to read any of his work.

>152 souloftherose: Thanks Heather, I'm certainly Coco's health scare was what seems like just a passing thing at this point. I wouldn't hesitate to spend whatever amount of money is needed to help him recover if it was anything serious and treatment was going to give me more quality time with him, but of course I'm not eager to prove my dedication to him by getting into even more debt than I'm in already...

Re: A Town Called Alice, looking up my tags, I found that Slightly Foxed: No. 31: The Return of Grouse, which I completed back in May also had an article on Neville Shute's works, including ATLA.

>153 luvamystery65: Roberta, I'm about in the middle of The Likeness at this point and find the whole notion of her living among the dead girl's closest mates completely nail-biting. It really makes for the audio equivalent of a page-turner! I wish I had better recall and could bring back to mind In the Woods, because it's all very vague and I don't remember much of it at all, which is very annoying.

Very cool link about the dopplegänger thing on FB. It seems I must have several of them, because I can't tell you how many times I've been supposedly spotted in different places when I was nowhere in the vicinity. This from friends and co-workers and once even my former boss, who was offended one day when I came into work because she'd supposedly seen me at a restaurant the previous evening and said hello to me, and "I" had only given her a blank look. Sort of freaky, that!

I fixed the link. I love those collected works slipcase editions for the shelves though for reading I'm all for the individual paperback.

>155 avatiakh: Any reason for your preference for paperbacks Kerry?

New month tomorrow, time to start a new thread, now I can!