SusanJ's 75 Books Challenge - Thread 8

Hello, and welcome to my eighth thread for 2015.

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

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

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













Top Fiction Reads of 2014

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

Top Non-Fiction Reads of 2014

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

July reads

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

August reads

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

September reads

155. All Summer Long
156. Boomerang
157. Further Tales of the City
158. Just One Kiss
159. A Fool's Gold Christmas
160. Go Down Together: The True, Untold Story of Bonnie and Clyde
161. Just Like Heaven
162. Anything Goes: A Biography of the Roaring Twenties
163. The People's Republic of Amnesia
164. A Perfect Crime
165. Blood and Roses
166. Guantanamo Diary
167. The Kindness
168. A God in Ruins
169. Black Earth

October reads

170. Babycakes
171. Pirate Hunters
172. The Making of Home
173. Empires of the Sea
174. Worktown
175. The Midwife's Child
176. Delucca's Marriage Contract
177. Rival's Challenge
178. His for a Price
179. His for Revenge
180. Some Kind of Wonderful
181. Redhead
182. Significant Others
183. The White House Mess
184. City of Djinns
185. Christmas Ever After

>3 susanj67: Happy New Thread, Susan. I love your walking adventure of your previous thread. I hope the office moving goes well and you'll find everything on Monday.

Happy New Thread! Today's walk sounds interesting. I would enjoy some of those walks if I ever make it to London again.

The walk sounds great, Susan. Years ago, I did a Bloomsbury walk, which was very fun.

Good luck with your move. And nice new thread.

Ooooooooh, shiny! Happy new thread, Susan!

Happy New Thread, Susan!

Happy new thread, Susan! Your walk sounds lovely!

New thread! Hope the walk went well. Any more sightings of royal boats?

Oops just seen your post on the previous thread. Looks good!

>4 Ameise1: Thanks Barbara :-) I think Monday will be busy, but eventually we'll all work out where everyone is. Mostly we've just moved up to the same offices, higher up, but there are always some changes. I bet there's a queue for the hot water tap, though!

>5 cbl_tn: Carrie, keep them in mind if you do!

>6 BLBera: Thanks Beth. I did tons of walks when I first came over here, but this new company seems to make theirs a bit different.

>7 katiekrug: Thanks Katie!

>8 ronincats: Thanks Roni!

>9 Crazymamie: Mamie! Welcome :-) I did have a good time today. The group was pretty small (only 15 of us) and the guide had a good voice, which meant that I could hear everything. Of course, he mentioned some books that I now want to get...

>10 charl08: >11 charl08: Charlotte, I thought of you when he pointed out the lighthouse. It's tiny but it's still a lighthouse.



156. Boomerang by Michael Lewis

Where I got it: Book exchange
Why I read it: It was right there, also new and clean, and I'd read his Flash Boys and thought it was good

In this book, the author tours Europe in 2011 to try and understand the financial crisis that hit in 2008. Or, as the cover says, "This is the shocking story of how a continent succumbed to temptation and took leave of its senses. Greek monks became playboy financiers. Icelandic fishermen became investment bankers. And Germans became even more German. Then the money ran out." He also looks at Ireland, and at California. It's very well done, and of course the Greek saga is ongoing. But the situation in Ireland looks better than it was at the time the book was written, which is good news. Recommended for anyone with an interest in the crash, and why it happened.

157. Further Tales of the City by Armistead Maupin

Where I got it: Book exchange
Why I read it: It's book 3 in the Tales of the City series

I had a bit of a gap between books 2 and 3 so it took me a little while to remember what the characters had last been doing, but I managed it. I'm still surprised at how fiction about the 80s seems virtually historical, and there are a lot of San Francisco references that I don't get, but it was still a good read. I've reserved number 4.

That leaves only Go Down Together in my hard copy rotation, so today I'm going to add Watching the English and City of Djinns. My office roomie gave me the latter, so I need to prioritise it.

It's a *gorgeous* day here today, and I was almost glad to be woken up at 6.15 by someone buzzing my neighbours, so that I could make the most of it. I've been out and done my steps already. It was cool enough for a hoodie, but not that humid, so thank goodness for that.

Happy new thread Susan! The Footprints of London walks look really interesting - I will have to try to get into London to do some of those.

Sounds like you're having a busy time at work. Moving office is as bad as moving house, I generally found.

We ended up canceling our trip to Dublin and flew back to Boston from London on Friday. Yesterday we drove from Boston to Chautauqua and today I'm trying got rest a bit and catch up on the computer. Having reliable WiFi and my computer, instead of my iPad, is a luxury after 6 weeks without.

I now have a good excuse to postpone Joyce, which I probably with do.

happy new thread >:-)

Happy new one, Susan!

Stopping by to say hello on your brand new thread, Susan!

>14 souloftherose: Hi Heather! There are some great walks on their website - I want to do the Defoe Plague Year walk, which is part of the London literary festival series.

>15 RebaRelishesReading: Reba, I'm sorry you had to cancel Ireland. But I can remind you that you still have the James book tp read if you like - weekly or monthly? :-)

>16 Helenliz: Thanks Helen :-)

>17 scaifea: Thanks Amber! I'm still not catching you up...

>18 lkernagh: Thanks Lori :-)

I love my three current NF books, which I want to read simultaneously, but as that's not possible I'm doing some time on each. I thought Watching the English was was of those stocking-stuffer books about weird things that English people do, but it's actually a proper anthropological study, with the academic words and everything. It's still hilarious, though. And City of Djinns is superb. I can see why my roomie loves it. But meanwhile, on the Kindle, I've read another romance. Fancy that!



158. Just One Kiss by Susan Mallery

Where I got it: Library ebook
Why I read it: It's book 10 in the Fool's Gold series

This one didn't grab me as much as the previous three, but it sets up the characters for this fourth trilogy and the central romance was OK. The heroine seemed a bit sappy, but plenty of the existing cast of characters reappeared. I was annoyed to see a singleton from the last series show up engaged, and then realised that her story was book 9.75, if you please, so I had to get that. Now I'm reading *out of order*!! I hoped the characters would have a whole book to themselves, but their story is a Christmas novella. I'm waiting for 11 and 12 to show up as part of an ebook bundle, which became available on 29 August with 1 patron ahead of me, so I should get it on the weekend.

Everything has shown up in my new office, and I'd take a picture of the view if the windows weren't so filthy. But it will have to wait. I can see the Olympic stadium and the helter-skelter, and altogether it is quite a change from the canteen of the building across the square which I've spent the last 12 years looking at. Also, there were pastries this morning, and one of the catering staff giving instructions on the hot water tap to avoid accidents. But no rubbish bins seem to have made their way upstairs, or paper recycling bins. I wonder if there's some change of policy that I don't know about.

>19 susanj67: Monthly will do I think lol.

>19 susanj67: - When we moved into newly renovated offices a couple of years ago, they had forgotten the trash bins! We were using cardboard boxes for a week or so.....

Do you still have the same office roomie?

>20 RebaRelishesReading: Reba, monthly it is!

>21 katiekrug: Katie, I now have a bin, as there was a mass overlooking of bins so they had to be gathered up and redistributed. I did think about labelling mine last week, but it had stuff in it and that seemed a bit odd. No paper recycling box yet, but I've found the room with the copiers and shredder in it, and there is recycling there. I have the same roomie, but she is on holiday at the moment and not back till next week.

I'm on my second tea from the hot water tap :-) It's a "Banana Bake" black tea from T2, an Australian firm which has recently opened here. And it's delicious!

159. A Fool's Gold Christmas by Susan Mallery

Where I got it: Library ebook
Why I read it: It's book 9.5 (yes, really) in the Fool's Gold series

Normally I'm not a fan of short stories and novellas as part of a series, and that's what the "x.5" books tend to be, but this one was pretty much full-length, picking up the story of Evie Stryker, sister to the three heroes of books 7, 8 and 9, and Dante Jefferson, who is the business partner of the hero in book 7, and tormented nightly by the clog dancing class taught by Evie upstairs from his office. I loved this instalment, and I'm now going to look more carefully at the remaining stories in the series that aren't whole numbers :-)

Hey Susan, I've just reopened Nightwalking after a break (so behind) from non fic and found a section on the joy of walking and thinking. Could be made for the LTers who fit bit!

>24 charl08: Charlotte, if there's a section on walking while sneakily checking your step count, then definitely :-) One of the Footprints of London walks I'm thinking of going on is a "Dickens After Dark" walk, which would fit in very well with the book.

Yesterday I learned a *whole new expression* that I've never heard before, even though I've lived here for 20 years. That's rare! I was chatting to my friend in our library at work, and she said "Well, I don't want to harsh your mellow, but..." I had to get her to repeat it three times because I assumed I was hearing it wrong, but, giggling, she explained that it was quite a common phrase and not some recent cool thing that her teenage daughter had said. And when I googled it, it does seem to be. It means someone ruining your good mood. Weird.

Your thread is always filled with interesting conversation, Susan! I learned that I am supposed to be thinking while I am walking and a new phrase - I have also never heard "harsh your mellow", but it made me laugh. And I love that you googled it.

The Dickens after dark walk sounds fun. Hoping you take that one just so that I can hear about it.

I think our library has those Susan Mallery books in digital format, so I'll have t give them a try. Happy Wednesday to you, dear!

I think checking your steps counts as thinking!

Beaumont's moved onto Wordsworth in the text and I am struggling because I have this idea of him in my head as kind of prissy and Victorian. Ah well.

>26 Crazymamie: Hi Mamie :-) I don't know what we did before Google, I really don't. Try it on your teens and see if they've ever heard of it, or whether it's just a UK thing :-) Do give the Susan Mallery books a try - they're a small town series (always my favourite) with lots of recurring characters, which I love. And I'm pretty sure I've read them all as ebooks. Happy Wednesday to you too! Seeing your post encouraged me to go outside at lunchtime and do 2,200 steps.

>27 charl08: Charlotte, that is the right answer :-) I agree about Wordsworth - there was a lot in the book which surprised me, quite apart from the bits that were too clever for me.

I'm having a mocha from the fancy new coffee machine. Not bad, but maybe a bit sweet. The hot chocolate is *far* too sweet, but it's diluted with the coffee. I think my roomie may bring some teas back from the US so next week could be quite the taste adventure.

I've heard "harsh your mellow" before, but I don't think it's all that common. I identify it with the hippie era of the 1960s/70s....

I've not heard "harsh your mellow" before either and I'm a native!

I'd have thought it was derived from drug taking hippies. No idea though. Never heard anyone say it in real life!

Okay, so I checked with the kids, and they had all heard it before (back when we lived in Indiana). They all knew what it meant but said that no one they know uses it in Georgia.

Personally, I like it, but I want to say "I don't want to marsh your mallow" because it's funnier.

>3 susanj67: Hehe. I have to decide which one of 4 reservations to get Mike to pick up on Friday, will have to leave the others and reserve them again I think, as I think it will be a couple of weeks at least before I finish another library book and I won't be ready to return the very long Grapes of Wrath until October if I finish it before then, as it's a library reading group book for 30 September discussion. I have my own copy, but absolutely no idea where it is and this one is in better nick.

From previous thread, I think I was planning to reserve Ghettoside before, but I really mustn't place any more reservations just now. Thanks for reminding me though.

Measuring steps, I've downloaded a free app on my new phone. So far I'm mostly walking to school and back either once or twice a day but they are making us walk round to the other gate, at least another 200 steps or so (multiplied by 2 or 4).

Tales of the City books - I think I read the first two or three but probably more then ten years ago but hearing them on the radio made me realise I'd somehow missed some rather important bits - I'm a very inattentive reader, clearly. I have the older 6 plus two of the recent ones so if I start rereading/reading them all buying #9 would look more reasonable.

My sister has one of those boiling water taps at her house.

I love unusual, descriptive expressions! I'm going to try to remember "harsh your mellow" for use at an appropriate moment. From time to time I hear a new American expression, usually from the south -- one of my favorites is "I'm so happy I should be twins".

You've definitely sold me on Susan Mallery, in fact, I think I'll look for a book from her at my favorite Sarasota bookstore.

Decided to get an Audible version instead...oh my, how do I chose? Which series do you recommend I start with?

>29 katiekrug: Katie, I'll have to check with my friend whether she has a hippie past :-)

>30 Helenliz: Helen, I'm glad I'm not the only one!

>31 charl08: Charlotte, maybe someone on The Magic Roundabout? :-)

>32 Crazymamie: Mamie, how funny that they all knew it! I also think of "marsh your mallow", and that's what confused me with "harsh" because the "arsh" sound should really be after an m if mellow/mallow follows.

>33 elkiedee: Luci, it sounds like your reserve list is a tiny bit out of control! A familiar feeling. Currently I only have two library ebooks and that's it, but I feel like a slacker. You'll soon get addicted to the step measuring - you'll probably be able to tell when the kids complain about some crazy diversion on the way to the corner shop. I'm trying a hot water from the tap this morning, but I see the coffee machine also does it. So many choices...A friend has a Quooker tap, which is much the same, and says she can't understand why tea and coffee take so long when she visits other people now...

>34 RebaRelishesReading: Reba, I love that saying! I'm still looking for opportunities to use "Boy howdy", which I'm sure I picked up from Trisha's Southern Kitchen, but the new series of Pioneer Woman is taking over that slot next week so I won't be able to test my theory. >35 RebaRelishesReading: I've only read the Fool's Gold series, and the first one in that series is Chasing Perfect. Enjoy!

Anything Goes: A Biography of the Roaring Twenties downloaded overnight from the library, so that gives me two whole library books. It was a pre-order reserve thing. When I saw the email I hoped that it was yet more romance, but never mind.

Our corner shop is all of three houses away so diversion not really an option. There's another shop at the end of the next street, positioned so that we don't even have to cross the road. Though my favourite shop and the one that's open a bit later in the evening is about 400 metres away.

>37 elkiedee: Luci, it's three houses away if you leave your house and turn *towards* it, but how far is it if you turn in the *other* direction and have to go round the block? (or two blocks, or three, or four...this is life as a stepper!)

"Harsh your mellow" - Yeah, I've heard that one before. Definitely a Hippie-Era saying and one that always made me just cringe. A lot of stuff from back then is best forgotten, I think.

Dickens After Dark sounds great, Susan. You must, must, must do that. And then tell us all about it. Sounds really interesting. Wish I could be there to do it myself.

A book about the roaring twenties sounds like fun. Is this the time to mention how much I loved Careless People again? And Singled Out, although roaring accompanied there by those very much not roaring too. (A book my autocorrect wants to be Carless people, so perhaps it hanker after a fitbit too... ?!)

>39 Fourpawz2: Charlotte (US) - OK, I promise I'll do it! I'd love it if you could be here too, although there is always the danger that we'd discover bookshops en route and have to run to catch up, I suppose :-)

>40 charl08: Charlotte (UK) I thought it was going to be about the UK but it turns out to be about America. It does look like fun, although the first chapter was about Al Capone, which wasn't that much fun. Interesting, though. I have to confess to never having read The Great Gatsby as it's one of those subjects (like the Titanic and Marilyn Monroe and the Watergate affair) that is Just Too Huge, what with all the opinions and the spin-offs and the modern reworkings and what-not. A tiny bit like Jane Austen, in fact. But Careless People might be a starting point (although I suppose The Great Gatsby would be another starting point :-) ) I *have* read Singled Out, which I agree was excellent.

I have no books to add to my thread. I did mean to read last night but then I saw that BBC Four was screening Yo-Yo Ma playing all of Bach's cello suites at the Albert Hall, so I watched that instead, and it was lovely until the digital signal packed up and started popping and cracking (so much more annoying than analogue) so I gave up and went to bed. I'll have to check the iPlayer and see if the programme is available on there and watch it again if I can.

There was a huge donation of books to the book exchange today, which I spent lunchtime shelving (sorry Fitbit). Most were crime, and I've had to weed out lots of existing crime to fit them in, which is sort of heartbreaking, except I picked books that I've never seen anyone borrow. But I think I'll scrap children's, horror, fantasy and sci-fi because again no-one borrows them and they're taking up six precious shelves that I could use to expand crime and non-fiction. I can shelve the China Mieville and John Wyndhams in general fiction. And maybe put some of the horror in with crime. If people are dying then that's also crime, right? I've moved the J D Robb Roarke books from crime into romance and saga, because of the romance element but I'm sorry to say that we no longer have any Wilbur Smiths due to space constraints + lack of borrowing. And I weeded out quite a few books where we only had one by an author, in favour of keeping the big series authors going. But seriously, how many books is James Patterson going to write?

Doesn't Patterson have a team writing with him? I read one of his books, found it way too disgustingly violent and have never picked up another one.

>36 susanj67: may have to try the Roaring Twenties one too. We're listening to Bill Bryson's One Summer which is about Lindber's flight in 1927 and everything else that was happening around it. Roaring Twenties sounds like a good companion.

>41 susanj67: I have been listening on catch up to some of the proms. Fascinating every summer to get this taste of so much live classical music. Particularly enjoyed the East West Divan orchestra, not least because the audience seemed so wrapped up in the performance.

>43 BLBera: Beth, yes, a few of them seem to have another author listed. I don't get the love for all the extreme violence but evidently I work with a lot of people who disagree :-)

>44 RebaRelishesReading: Reba, I really enjoyed that Bill Bryson book, and I learned so much! I thought the roaring twenties one was new, but it seems to be new in ebook format - it was originally published in 2008 so check that you haven't read something that sounds similar because it might be this book :-)

>45 charl08: Charlotte, the iPlayer does have Yo-Yo Ma. I half meant to get to it yesterday, but watched the Timeshift episode about the Ordnance Survey, and then the one about dangers of the Tudor home, and then something about Roosevelt and the war. Darn that "you may also like" button - I only intended to watch the first one after it didn't record properly on my PVR :-)



160. Go Down Together: The True, Untold Story of Bonnie and Clyde by Jeff Guin

Where I got it: Book exchange
Why I read it: Wayfaring Stranger, which I read recently, opens with the main character encountering Bonnie and Clyde on his grandfather's property. I thought it would be interesting to read more about them, and a few days later this book showed up at the book exhange, which was surely a Sign :-)

This was superb, and I'm so glad that it randomly came into my life. I knew nothing about Bonnie and Clyde other than that they were baddies, but this book looks at their whole lives, and even the history of their families, struggling to make ends meet and ending up in the slums of West Dallas where their future held nothing more than grinding hard work. Bonnie and Clyde thought saw a way out, although of course it ended badly. The book details all their criminal doings, and their life on the run, which was far from the glamorous existence that the true crime magazines suggested. Highly recommended. And now it goes back into the tiny True Crime section of the book exchange, alongside our lone Jack the Ripper book.

The People's Republic of Amnesia came into the library on Friday so I picked that up after work and I aim to start it this afternoon, as well as read a bit more of the Lucy Moore book. But I'm trying to learn how to do cryptic crosswords at the moment, so I'm spending a fair amount of time staring at my puzzle magazines and feeling stupid. Yesterday I bought a couple of magazines with a "how to" section, so I'm hoping those will help :-)

161. Just Like Heaven by Julia Quinn

Where I got it: Library ebook
Why I read it: Katie's thread reminded me that there were new Julia Quinn books :-)

This is the first in the Smythe-Smith Quartet, in which we finally learn what the Smythe-Smith girls thinks of the dreadful musicales that their guests have to sit through ever year. Two of the Bridgerton sons make an appearance, as does a mysterious but stunningly beautiful governess who I sense we will see again in a future book. These are always fun reads.

>46 susanj67: I really liked that one too. My mother's parents lived very close to where Bonnie and Clyde were ambushed, and it was interesting growing up listening to stories from folks who remembered it happening.

>48 drneutron: Jim, that must have been amazing! Nothing so interesting ever happened in New Zealand :-)

Today is the first day of puffa coat season! Well, it's *my* first day. I wore a raincoat yesterday and shivered at the bus stop yesterday evening, so today I broke out a puffa, thinking that maybe I could wear it without a scarf because it's still September. But walking from the bus to the office, I would have liked the scarf. The Daily Telegraph says it could be the coldest winter since 1950, so naturally my thoughts turned to adding to the coat cupboard.

Puffa coat season!! That does not happen in Georgia! We are finally able to have the windows open in the mornings and evenings, as the temps have dipped to the mere 80s during the day (it is a fabulous 65F right now). I brought my winter coat from Indiana when we moved, but in three years I have never had occasion to wear it.

>50 Crazymamie: Mamie, I feel for you with no puffas :-( Finally I have pockets to put things in instead of having to look through my bag for keys, BlackBerry, travel card, work ID etc. Bliss!

My former office roomie just came in, and asked if I could help out while he is away, with the newsletter he writes weekly. "I've got a rota of Young People to do it..." he started, and I said "And you think I'm young enough for the list! I'm thrilled!"

"Actually," he said, looking like he wished he'd phrased it differently, "I was going to ask you to supervise next week's Young Person."

Humph.

I know, right?!

So you're hip enough to work with the Young People AND responsible enough to supervise.

Susan, you're still quite young but just have enough experience to supervise the children. Can't believe temps have dropped so far in just a couple of weeks. It's 92 degrees (F) and probably 80% humidity here in Florida...I would SOOOO gladly trade with you.

oops...managed to duplicate post...

"So you're hip enough to work with the Young People AND responsible enough to supervise."

Mamie is quite the diplomat - she could probably bring peace to the Middle East if she put her mind to it :)

>52 Crazymamie: Very nice.

Hope the puff jacket is keeping out the chill...

Howdy Susan! I've had my eye on Go Down Together. One of my besties read it last year and highly recommended it.

>52 Crazymamie: Mamie, ha! Yeah, if only...

>53 RebaRelishesReading: Reba, I know - I can hardly believe it either!

>55 katiekrug: Katie, that's so true! I will have to channel Mamie in a difficult meeting I have later.

>56 charl08: Charlotte, it's like a big puffy hug :-)

>57 luvamystery65: Howdy Roberta! I'd definitely recommend it, as quite apart from the main story there was lots in it about Dallas at the time (hey, maybe Katie might like it too!!) and the state of the country during the Depression.



162. Anything Goes: A Biography of the Roaring Twenties by Lucy Moore

Where I got it: Library ebook
Why I read it: It looked good

This is about America in the 20s, but it does still contain flappers, although no Bright Young Things, unless the Fitzgeralds were the American equivalent. Each chapter is on a particular theme, and I liked the way the author wove them together. I think my favourite was the Charles Lindbergh chapter, although it was all interesting, apart maybe from the bit about Jack Dempsey the boxer, but then I'm not a sports follower. Highly recommended for history fans.

>55 katiekrug:, >56 charl08: Ah, shucks. Thanks Katie and Charlotte!

I am very excited that you might channel me in your meeting! Most excellent!

Putting Anything Goes: A Biography of the Roaring Twenties on my list - I have been on a Gatsby kick, and that fits the category.

Sending you positive mojo for that meeting today.

#51 Love it!!! Though I do agree with Mamie :)

Weather is grim isn't it! Saying that it's calmed down this afternoon, but the last few days have been boat cancelling storms and insane winds. Ugh.

>59 Crazymamie: Thanks Mamie :-) I did channel you, and it did go well :-) There's a whole chapter on the Fitzgeralds in Anything Goes so you'll definitely enjoy that bit!

>60 BekkaJo: Bekka, it was very grim here yesterday - floods of rain, and now I am higher up the building it looks wetter, if that makes any sense. I suppose I can just see it raining over a greater distance.

A Perfect Crime has come into the library for me - from one of Charlotte's Guardian summaries, I think, so I'll get that at lunchtime. I'd making my way through The People's Republic of Amnesia but it's not a compelling read at all.

I just picked up A Perfect Crime and found A God In Ruins on the new books shelf, so I snaffled that one too.

Canary Wharf has "Play Me I'm Yours" pianos on the estate this week, and here's a picture of the one outside the library. The cover is knitted, and on the back some of the knitting is objects which stand out, like the books in the top row, and the bacon and eggs. I'm not sure what that's called in knitting but in embroidery it's stumpwork. You can also see little knitted objects along the top of the piano, including a cup and some cakes. The library is to the right of the piano.

Piano from the front, including a stool with a knitted cover, attached to the piano with a knitted cord. The knitted letters spell out "Play Me I'm Yours"



Piano from the back

>62 susanj67: Cute!

Love the pianos. I'm going to have to get ordering, as my outstanding reservations seem to be in limbo.

(Or I could read the books I have out...)

>62 susanj67: That looks great and I like it when people sit down and play.

Darn, Anything Goes isn't available in audio.

Happy weekend, Susan.

>63 thornton37814: Thanks Lori :-)

>64 charl08: Charlotte, how's the reading-the-shelf working out? :-)

>65 Ameise1: Barbara, I do too, but no-one was even looking at this one like they might want to play it.

>66 RebaRelishesReading: Reba, you might have to go back to Ye Olden Days and read it it print!

>67 Ameise1: Thanks Barbara!



163. The People's Republic of Amnesia: Tiananmen Revisited by Louisa Lim

Where I got it: Library
Why I read it: I thought it was a historic event that I should know more about

And I was wrong! This was a real snooze, and I'm still not entirely sure what the protests were for. The author was looking mostly at how any mention of them has been written out of the official history of China, and the lengths that the state goes to in watching relatives of those who died and making it difficult for them to protest. But I think I already knew that (about censorship in China generally, I mean). This would have been more interesting had she discovered who "Tank Man" was in the famous photo, but sadly she didn't.



164. A Perfect Crime by A Yi, translated by Anna Holmwood

Where I got it: Library
Why I read it: It's supposed to be "A shocking investigation into the despair that traps the rural poor, as well as a technically brilliant excursion into the claustrophobic realm of classic horror and suspense", echoing "Kafka's absurdism, Camus nihilism and Dostoyevsky's depravity."

Emperor's New Clothes.

I've just started A God In Ruins, which was on my "get it when I see it" list, and there it was on Thursday. Thank goodness for something I know I'll like. A couple more reserves are in transit but I only have four on my list at the moment so it won't be so terrible if they all come in at once. But I do want to get back to Mount TBR.

In other news, Favourite Hairdresser told me on Friday that she wished she was more of a reading person, and wished that her mother had encouraged her with it (so sad). I said it was never too late, and, when she said that she liked books about real things, I pulled the Bonnie and Clyde book off the shelf. When I finished my rearrangements (horror + fantasy + sci-fi + children's have now gone, with the good stuff from each category shelved with the general fiction, freeing up three shelves) she was reading the introduction :-) The great thing about the book exchange is no due dates, so she can take as long as she wants. And she loved the Malala book :-)

I love that you are introducing books and reading to an adult who wasn't a reader. It is such a rewarding thing to do. When students suddenly discover that there are books they like, I feel like I've done my job.

I love that you're turning Favorite Hairdresser into a reader! If she liked I Am Malala, I think she would probably like The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind as well.

I'll have to look for the Bonnie and Clyde book. It sounds like a good one!

What >69 BLBera: said, but very sad that the fantasy and sf are gone!

>69 BLBera: Beth, it is very satisfying! And a bit nerve-wracking at the same time - what if I pick something she hates and it puts her right off?

>70 cbl_tn: Carrie, I'll have to see if we have that. Maybe it could magically appear, via World of Books :-). Go Down Together really is a great read. I hope you can find it.

>71 ronincats: Roni, I'm sad too as I hate getting rid of anything, but they just weren't being borrowed and space is so tight. I did take out the famous/classic ones and put them in with the general fiction, but we had lots of odd books from series and I suppose if people are into the series then they will either have read them all, or want them all for their own collection. The office moves are still going on, so I'm expecting more donations as people hurriedly clear out all their junk.

I'm really enjoying A God in Ruins, but it's the first episode of the final series of Downton Abbey this evening, so I've put it down for the time being. I wish I could remember who's where in Downton but maybe they'll have a catch-up at the beginning.

>68 susanj67: This is really great news. Fingers crossed she enjoys the Bonnie & Clyde.

(Let us not speak of the shelves of the TBR pile, which is currently colonising the sofa, mid Sort Out)

>73 charl08: Charlotte, I hope so! (I would add more, but we are not speaking of the other thing). Currently my bookcase is missing two volumes, which are sitting on top of an upturned bowl, under which is a giant spider. A deceased spider, I hope, but I can't quite bring myself to turn the bowl over and vacuum up the corpse. Mostly because I'm worried it might still be alive. Every morning I make myself say "The bowl has not moved" but I'm not sure I'm convinced.

I returned my disastrous weekend reading this morning and Favourite Library Assistant came over as I was leaving and asked if I'd seen his display advertising a talk on Saturday about east London suffragettes. I had, but now I have a leaflet and I'll be there at 3pm :-) Apparently there's a film coming out soon and he'd organised the event to tie in with that, but now the release date has been put back a month. He said he'd sourced the books from all over the consortium and I was so jealous of his much bigger library to play with! I don't think there are any suffragette books in the book exchange, but maybe I should go and make absolutely sure...

>74 susanj67: Enjoy your talk on Saturday. That should be interesting for you.

>74 susanj67: but maybe I should go and make absolutely sure... Of course you should Susan! Let us know what you snagged. Let us know how the talk went too.

>75 thornton37814: Lori, yes it should be good. Sylvia Pankhurst did quite a bit of work in the East End with the suffrage movement, although she does sound like a bit of a nightmare.

>76 luvamystery65: Roberta, I checked and we haven't. Nor had anything new been donated. Hmph. I'm tempted by The Cuckoo's Calling which is all new and clean in the crime section, and The Great Gatsby and a few others, but I still have about five to finish from my last borrowing. I don't feel I can start a new Mount TBR for the book exchange :-)

Tonight I'm going to continue with A God in Ruins and maybe dip into City of Djinns again, because it's really good. But vaguely I think there's something good on TV. For UK fans of Phil Rickman's Merrily Watkins series (about the exorcist vicar), "Midwinter of the Spirit" starts on ITV on Wednesday at 9. I love the books, so I hope they stay faithful to the stories.

Hi Susan!
I'm not there with the puffa coat yet. That is still a ways off. However, it is nice and cool today and I've finished knitting a scarf - sort of. (Still have to learn how to finish it off, but I'm sure that's covered in one of the knitting books.) Just love this time of year.

Put the book about the Roaring Twenties on my library list - you are up to a whopping 32 recs. I think I am slow about actually getting them because I am still hoping to buy them, believing that if they are recommended by you they must be books that I will want to own. Anyway the Roaring Twenties book appealed to me because my mother was born about halfway through the decade and her grandparents were married then. Might be nice to actually know something about the era, instead of just thinking that I do.

>78 Fourpawz2: Charlotte, I didn't wear mine yesterday but I'm back in it today - there is monsoon-like rain outside so now I have wet feathers drying on the back of my chair. And wet feet. And wet trousers. But fortunately I had an umbrella so the top of me stayed dry. I'm allowed to call it "monsoon-like" when my roomie isn't here to correct me :-) I'm so pleased I'm up to 32 on your list! (but also a bit nervous in case you get them, hate them and judge me :-) ) My father was also born in the 20s and my grandparents married then, but I doubt there is anything about NZ at that time.

The Samuel Johnson prize longlist was announced overnight, and the details are in this Guardian article with some information about the subjects of the books:
http://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/sep/22/samuel-johnson-prize-longlist-2015-...

The prize website is here, with covers: http://www.thesamueljohnsonprize.co.uk/node/427

Last year I'd read a couple by the time of the announcement, but this year I've not only read none of them, I've only *heard* of one. But now I've reserved four :-) None seem to be available in the Hamlets, although I suppose they wouldn't dare buy the one about Guantanamo.

A friend just got offered returned tickets for the Henley Literary Festival, so we're going to hear Patrick Gale and Polly Samson in conversation. Yay! Patrick is talking about his latest book, A Place Called Winter, which I've just read and loved, and Polly is talking about The Kindness, which I have just downloaded and will have read by the time we go. Excitement!

>79 susanj67: List sounds good. I'm on the reservation list for Landmarks but have been for ages so not holding my breath!

Lit fest sounds good, look forward to hearing how it goes. I've not come across The Kindness at all, so that's rather intriguing too.

Hope you're all dried out now. The joys of Autumn....

>77 susanj67: I just pulled City of Djinns off my shelf last night and was going to start it. It is a re-read for you?

>81 charl08: Charlotte, I hope Landmarks comes in for you soon. That wasn't one I reserved as I live among concrete :-)

>82 Oberon: Erik, no, it's my first time reading it. My office roomie gave it to me a while ago as her favourite book about Delhi and commented recently that I didn't seem to have read it, so I got scared and started. I really enjoyed his The Last Mughal but City of Djinns is more of a memoir with history in it, if that makes sense. It's great, but because I own it I've been putting it aside for library books.

>83 susanj67: Given your 163+ books read so far this year you will probably get through it before I do even if you keep putting it aside. I picked it up after reading several longer pieces in the New Yorker and the New York Review of Books by William Dalrymple.

I do plan to get Anything Goes in paper form and read it (someday) but these days I'm not making much progress on the paper book stack so it will probably be a while. Sounds like you've got some interesting book events coming up. Enjoy.

Also, when you're feel wet and cold, think of us here in San Diego where temps have been in the 30's lately complete with humidity -- "weirding of the weather" describes it perfectly!

Stupid weather. I made the mistake of leaving mine and Will's coats at home yesterday when I took him to school (the day before having been scorching and having spent most of it on the beach). Cue me having to do a 30 min walk up hill with a sodden 4 year old. A grumpy sodden 4 year old...

Suffragette talk sounds interesting - I must read more from that time. I seem to have hit several post 2nd world war London books this year but less from earlier on. *wanders off to look into suffragette fiction*

>84 Oberon: Erik, I'm not sure :-) Those library books do tend to flood in.

>85 RebaRelishesReading: Reba, it seems that perhaps you are taking the hot humid weather *with you* :-)

>86 BekkaJo: Bekka, it was so bad here that people were looking around in wonder and came quite close to *speaking to others*, which never usually happens. If you're looking for suffragette fiction, give Frances Osborne's Park Lane a miss. (But do read The Bolter, which is NF and nothing to do with the suffragettes, but *superb*).

Having said yesterday that there was no sign of Guantanamo Diary in the Hamlets, I found it yesterday in the ebook catalogue, and it was able to be borrowed, so... Confusingly, the main library catalogue sometimes lists e versions of things and sometimes doesn't. I'm 27% of the way through it so far. I picked up Pirate Hunters from the library this morning, and happened to see Worktown, which is about the founding of Mass Observation, so I got that too.

My Samuel Johnson reserves are Black Earth, The Four-Dimensional Human, They All Love Jack, which is about Jack the Ripper, and The Planet Remade. No touchstones for a couple of these yet. None appears to be in transit, which is a bit of a relief as I also have A God in Ruins to finish, and The Kindness before next Thursday.

>79 susanj67: Ooh, the Samuel Johnson prize always adds lots of books to my library list. Heading over to check out the longlist! I will also look forward to your thoughts on the ones you read :-)

The Four Dimensional Human sounds really interesting. Moseying over to the library catalogue...

>88 souloftherose: Heather, it's certainly a diverse list. I hope you find something good!

>89 charl08: Charlotte, I think that one's on order here, so I'm unlikely to get it for a while. I'll be interested to know what you think if you get it sooner.



165. Blood and Roses by Helen Castor

Where I got it: Kindle
Why I read it: The author presented a really good BBC series on this period, and the family at the heart of the book was frequently mentioned.

This is about the Paston Letters, an archive of family correspondence from the 1400s, and the biggest of its kind in the UK. (Apparently there are only four or five other such collections that have been discovered). Here's an excellent blog post from the British Library explaining the collection: http://britishlibrary.typepad.co.uk/digitisedmanuscripts/2015/04/the-paston-lett...

The collection was discovered almost accidentally when someone was asked to go through a room of belongings after a death in the 1700s. He wrote to the requester noting what he'd found, and then mentioned a heap of letters in a corner, which he thought might be worth a second look. Unless the new owner wanted them burned, of course. Even knowing that the letters survived, that's still a "Noooooooo!" moment as you read it. Eventually they were published by someone who took great care in sorting through them, and instantly became the "must-read" of the day. They deal with everything from politics to wayward children to shopping lists of goods for family members in London (because the local shops in Norfolk were apparently terrible). There is also a castle.

The book looks at how the family worked its way up from peasants to gentlefolk, and how they dealt with very complex political situation of the time, which seemed to change almost as soon as the letters relaying the *last* change had reached them. This was the time of Henry VI, Edward IV and Richard III, and it must have been almost impossible to keep up with who was "in" at any particular time, and who had fled to Europe to raise money and troops for the next uprising. There's a lot of politics in it, and at one point nearly everyone seems to be called John (including two brothers from one generation of the family) but it's really well done. In fact, one of the reasons the Tiananmen book took me so long to get through was because I kept sneaking in chapters of this one, to find out what happened next. Highly recommended for anyone interested in British history.

>90 susanj67: - popped that puppy onto the ol' wish list. Gets a 10 out of 10 on the Book Lust scale. Spied a used copy on Amazon for under $2.00. Am thinking Christmas present for self. Maybe will slip Jane a couple of bucks and help her to order.....

>90 susanj67: Totally agree re the archive thing. *Step Away from the letters* Book sounds fascinating. Will have a look for the documentary too.

>91 Fourpawz2: Charlotte, I hope Jane takes the hint and doesn't spend it on catnip :-)

>92 charl08: Charlotte, the documentary series is "Medieval Lives: Birth, Marriage and Death". I've noticed it repeated once or twice so I'm sure it will come back. Helen Castor also wrote (and presented the series on) She-Wolves, about the Queens of England prior to Elizabeth I. And she's got a new book out about Joan of Arc, but French history just confuses me so I've resisted that one at the library.

Sounds good. Have you been watching the doc on medieval monasteries? I got sucked into the second episode that included the history of St Barts as medieval hospital. Really good stuff, I want to find the other two episodes.

>94 charl08: Is that the one presented by Janina Ramirez? If so, then I've seen it before. If it's a new one, I'll have to iPlayer it. Hey, another excuse to use the headphones!

Yep, that's it. I didn't realise it was a repeat, sorry! Have you read any of her stuff?

>90 susanj67: That's an excellent book. I read it not so long ago.

Hi Susan! I can't believe that you have read exactly 100 more books than I have -- how do you do it? (And congratulations!)

Is it still puffa coat season? My girls and I are itching to get out our sweaters, but it has been persistently hot here with no cool-off in sight. We do have nice autumns, but this is fairly unusual.

Love your review of Go Down Together -- sounds like a good one!

*waves cast*

>96 charl08: Charlotte, I haven't read anything by her, but I see she has a new book out called The Private Lives of the Saints, which I have just added to my library wishlist. She did an excellent programme on the Icelandic sagas a couple of years ago, following which I bought The Sagas of the Icelanders, and I really do intend to read it. I think she's a great presenter - really enthusiastic and with a nice voice.

>97 Helenliz: Helen, I'm keen to read more now. I'll have to hunt around and see what else is out there.

>98 AMQS: Anne, I think the answer to all the reading is to have nothing else to do :-) It is still puffa season - I am always reluctant to go back once I've started :-) Walking at lunchtime I take off my jacket and just have a top and the puffa but for mornings and evenings I wear everything. The change of season is really messing with my steps, though - full-on puffa is a bit much for long walks at the moment. I would never have read Go Down Together if it hadn't been for Wayfaring Stranger, so in a way I have you to thank for it!

>99 ronincats: Hi Roni! Sorry the cast is still with you.



166. Guantanamo Diary by Mohamedou Ould Slahi and Larry Siems

Where I got it: Library ebook
Why I read it: It's one of the nominees for the Samuel Johnson prize

I'd never heard of this book before the longlist was published earlier in the week, and it's not a book I would have read had I not seen it on the list. It's a journal written by a detainee at Guantanamo, about how he was detained and what had happened to him up to 2005 when he finished writing it. The manuscript disappeared into classified files for a while, but was eventually released to his lawyers, who arranged for it to be published. Larry Siems is the editor who took the manuscript and got it into shape for publication.

If it's all true, then it's a shocking look at how an ordinary person got caught up in the system and, despite having his writ of habeas corpus granted in 2010 by a US judge, is still there and seemingly no closer to being released.

But is it all true? This is where I struggle a bit. Of course he would present himself as an ordinary person (he admits he did go to Afghanistan as part of a jihad to fight the communists years ago, but that was at a time when the US was also fighting them). But surely, surely, the authorities can't have got it *so wrong*? I think I don't want to believe that they could have. And only time will tell.

Meanwhile, the book is pretty much unputdownable, and there is even humour in it. And that's amazing for someone who's been through torture (which I think is now accepted to have happened). A few times the language was a bit off - in 2005 he uses "I was like" instead of "I said", and I wondered whether "I was like" was around then (I know it's everywhere now). Some of the Amazon.com reviews pick up similar words and phrases. They also complain about all the redactions, as the manuscript was only released with quite a bit of material (mostly names and other identifying details) taken out, although this is done inconsistently, with a name removed a dozen times and left in the next time. So it has been possible for the editor to guess at some of the redactions, and marry up other parts with the transcripts from Slahi's hearing in order to fill in some of the gaps.

I assume, from the prominence of this book in the Guardian's article about the prize, that it's the favourite to win (although I see they have a section of their website devoted to it, so maybe it's just *their* favourite to win). And I can see why, if it does win. But I'm still interested to read some of the other nominees.

I finally finished Nightwalking Susan! I even read some of the Will Self bits!

>101 charl08: Yay! And particularly for the Will Self sections.

Thanks. I needed someone to appreciate the effort!

Hi Susan - Blood and Roses sounds wonderful; I'm not sure about the Guantanamo one...

Yes, I echo Anne in my awe at all of your reading.

>103 charl08: Charlotte, I'm in awe :-)

>104 BLBera: Beth, I think I read so much history that I'm usually reading about things from a viewpoint decades or centuries ahead, so I know what happened. With the Guantanamo book, we're still in the middle of it. I suppose I'm like one of the Pastons, wondering how it was all going to turn out during the Wars of the Roses, and just doing their best meanwhile. The Guantanamo Diary is either going to be the truth, and an important part of the history of the early 2000s, or it's going to be another Hitler Diaries. It's just hard to judge right now.



167. The Kindness by Polly Samson

Where I got it: Kindle
Why I read it: I'm going to hear Polly Samson talk about it at the Henley Literary Festival on Thursday

This was excellent - a real page turner. Very slowly information is drip-fed into the story, so that you finally realise why the main character is doing what he's doing (don't read the LT reviews as one of them is full of spoilers). I thought it was really well done, although I'd recommend getting a hard copy rather than an audiobook as it jumps around in time a lot, and sometimes I needed to refer back to earlier chapters. That was fine as I had the ebook, but I know there are lots of audio fans here :-)

It's another gorgeous day in London, although I can't have the balcony door open because of the spiders. Fortunately there's the roof window, which I am sitting underneath. As I'm going out later to the suffragette talk at the library, I'm doing housework and errands this morning, and next is vacuuming. Joy. But at least the laundry is on and the granola is toasting.

168. A God in Ruins by Kate Atkinson

Where I got it: Library
Why I read it: It's a companion book to Life After Life

I liked this a lot, although it seems that LT opinion is mixed. It's the story of Teddy, the younger brother of the main character in Life After Life, and, unlike Ursula, he doesn't keep on dying, which is something of a relief. But there's still lots of going backwards and forwards in time, which did get a bit confusing when it was done on the same page, with no apparent breaks. It does require concentration :-) As with The Kindness, I think this would work best in print/e rather than as an audiobook.

The talk at the library yesterday was really good, despite one irritating person in the audience who kept interjecting her own thoughts. The speaker dealt with her a lot more gracefully than I would have. I picked up Black Earth, which had arrived from my reserve list, but I managed not to borrow The Thieves of Threadneedle Street, which is about a fraud on the Bank of England. I may cave and get it tomorrow, though...Today I'm going to start each of my three NFs and see how far I get. And do my steps. I had another bad fall-over-splat the Friday before last and it's spooked me a bit, not to mention trashing my knees. But fortunately I was wearing a skirt, so I didn't wreck another pair of trousers. And the puffa was unscathed. Phew!

>106 susanj67: Sorry to hear about the fall. I had a near miss last weekend, although that would have been on grass so nowhere near as painful. At unsteady moments like that I wonder if the time has come to take up Nordic walking.

Glad the suffragette talk was good. We've had a series on local WW1 history running at our library. I can see it's timely but was not sufficiently interested in troop movements to attend.

I'm still unsure about A God in Ruins. May add it to the Xmas list. I'm cracking on with A Study in Murder. Good atmospheric stuff.

Happy Sunday, Susan.

OH no!! Sorry to hear about your fall. I keep doing that lately (past couple of years) and assume it's because I'm old and "chunky" but you're young and very slim... I can certainly relate to how unsure it makes you feel.

I haven't been doing steps since we got back from Europe. It's been hot and I've been busy and it's slipped out of my routine. When this heat wave breaks, however, I must make it a priority again.

*waves cast--one more week!*

Hi Susan! I'm sorry about your fall! I took one a few weeks ago while walking with my husband. Scraped up a fair number of parts, including my chin and my knuckles. Not an unheard-of occurrence for me as I am known to be fairly klutzy.

Keep thinking I must get a fitbit thingy and count steps. With dropping Cass to school and picking will up and living at the top of a hill... figure it would be fun to see how many I do :) Or possibly some sort of family linkup...

Sorry to hear about falling over - I think you deserve a book to calm the nerves :)

>107 charl08: Charlotte, I have wondered about the Nordic walking poles myself :-) A friend's mother uses them a lot. I don't think I would have gone to troop movements either...

>108 Ameise1: Thanks Barbara!

>109 RebaRelishesReading: Reba, my last spectacular outside fall was 11 months ago, but it doesn't seem like that long. I just wish I knew what was causing it. True, the pavements are terrible here, but if I really pay attention then I'm OK (although I end up just staring at my feet and trying to walk in the middle of paving slabs so I don't get caught in the joins. I look like someone who's trying to avoid the cracks...). Maybe my mind just wanders and I don't watch out carefully enough.

>110 ronincats: Hi Roni! I'm just amazed I haven't ended up in plaster with all my trips.

>111 AMQS: Anne, I'm sorry to hear that you're all bashed up too. Ow to the chin and knuckles. I have always been clumsy, so maybe this is just the latest manifestation of it.

>112 BekkaJo: Bekka, you would certainly do well on the flights of steps climbed (going up hills would count). I can't pretend I don't love how flat London is. Now if they'd just apply that to the pavements...

Yesterday I started Pirate Hunters and Black Earth, and decided to stick with Black Earth for the time being, as there's a lot to take in and I'll forget who everyone is if I don't. I'm about a third of the way through so far, and it's pretty full-on (as we used to say in NZ, and maybe they still do) but interesting. The pirates one does look good, though. This morning I returned A God in Ruins and borrowed The Thieves of Threadneedle Street, because I couldn't help myself. Also I have Thursday and Friday off, and on Friday I'm not going out till the evening, so there should be some extra reading time available.

Hi Susan - Sorry about the fall. I'm glad there doesn't seem to be any lasting damage. The Kindness sounds good - I'll check to see if my library has a copy.

Already read A God in Ruins, so you only got me with one this time. I loved A God in Ruins.

>114 BLBera: Thanks Beth. I've got quite a good collection of wound care stuff now, so it's healing quickly.

This just in, from Favourite Hairdresser, who has started Go Down Together: The Untold True Story of Bonnie and Clyde: "It's a really good book. I'm glad you recommended it."

:-)))

>115 susanj67: squeeeeee! (that's in response to the favourite hairdresser discovering reading, not the fall and medicine cabinet - just in case there was any doubt)

>115 susanj67: This story just gets better and better :-)

>116 Helenliz: Helen, that was pretty much my reaction!

>117 charl08: Charlotte, if she finishes it I think I might cry. She's going on holiday in a couple of weeks and plans to take it to read on the plane (!). But for the time being it's kept under the desk downstairs, for down-time (which they don't have much of).

I'm making good progress with Black Earth, which is eye-opening (you know how we associate Auschwitz with the Holocaust and think that most of the Jewish people killed by the Nazis died in concentration camps? Not even close.) But it's a grim read. I had to read a hundred pages of Babycakes before bed last night, to cheer myself up. I should finish it tonight, which is the start of my *long weekend* (woo-hoo!) and means that I can stay up late.

>118 susanj67: If this was one of those books about books, as favourite hairdresser comes to discover the joys of reading, I'd read it.

>119 charl08: :-)

The festival went really well yesterday, and both speakers were excellent. Also, my friend, who is a huuuuuuuge Patrick Gale fan, got to ask a question and got a great answer. We loved Henley too -such a cute place and yet pretty close to London. Not really commutable with any regularity (with our patience levels anyway), but a retirement possibility.

This evening I'm at the Royal Opera House, for a performance of Cheri, which is a modern ballet. I nearly didn't make it (head+neck issues) but I rallied in time. I haven't been to the West End at night for ages, and it's mayhem out there. And very posh in here. When you work all day you forget about all the super-rich and beautifully coiffed - it's like another planet.

The ballet was fantastic last night, and I'm thinking of trying another one. I went to this one because my favourite actress was in it, doing some monologues that explained the story, but I also really loved the dancing!

Today I'm meeting some Kiwis for lunch out in Ruislip. That's quite far, but it's all on the Tube, fortunately, as Thursday was enough trains-with-timetables for a while. I'm going to take the pirate book with me and try and make some progress with that. It's a great story so far, but my attention was mostly on Black Earth. And I've finished it!



169. Black Earth: The Holocaust as History and Warning by Timothy Snyder

Where I got it: Library
Why I read it: It's a Samuel Johnson prize finalist

As the subtitle makes clear, this is a book about the Holocaust, but not just about *what* happened, although that is alarming enough, but also *why*. How was it that Hitler decided to rid the world of Jews and far too many other people just fell into line? It's a very detailed look at how events happened in the late 30s and early 40s, and particularly about how the political chaos made a lot of people stateless, greatly decreasing their protection, and leading to terrible massacres. We think (or at least I've always thought) of German Jews as Hitler's main victims, but in fact far more died outside Germany, in places that had been taken over by Germany or the Soviets, and which no longer existed as nations, thereby stripping their citizens and residents of any rights. That led to Jews being lined up in front of ditches and killed in the hundreds of thousands. And plenty of people knew what was happening, and did absolutely nothing. Jews in countries that were occupied by the Germans but which they still recognised as separate countries fared significantly better.

I thought it worked better as "history" rather than "warning" (coming back to the subtitle). The last, "warning" bit was quite confused, although there was an interesting look at Russia, where gay people are the new scapegoats for everything that's going wrong. But the author got into climate change, and I couldn't see the connection, other than that scarce resources will always lead to someone being blamed by the people who don't feel that they're getting their own share.

It's a really horrible read, in a way, and I found the writing style quite difficult (relatively few case studies, particularly at the beginning, and just non-stop politics) but, having finished it, I'm very glad I read it.



170. Babycakes by Armistead Maupin

Where I got it: Library
Why I read it: It's book 4 in the Tales of the City series

I was pleased when this came into the library for me, as I thought it would be some light relief, but it was quite depressing too, in its own way. And Maupin had evidently been to the UK at some point and seemed to want to name-check every place in London that he'd visited. But it didn't help that I read most of it with a horrible headache, so maybe it was just me :-)

I'm glad to hear that Favorite Hairdresser is still enjoying books!

I took the Tube from Ruislip a few times. I spent a lot of time in Eastcote the last year I lived in England and one of the Ruislips was the closest Tube station. (I can't remember if it was East or West.)

Hope the headache has cleared. And have fun in Ruislip! I don't fancy that Holocaust book: I read Martin Gilbert in school: sufficiently grim to remember the effects all this while. Admire your reading it though!

>122 cbl_tn: Carrie, I added South Ruislip this time. It's a very quick trip from central London, and that far out there's no trouble getting a seat on the way back :-)

>123 charl08: Thanks Charlotte, it was fun! They were staying out there because a relative lives locally, but weren't that keen to do central London in any case (they've been before). And when you've seen one museum you've seen them all etc (I managed not to squeak. I hope). But it was lovely to see them.

I even managed to make some progress on the pirate book on the way there and back, but I'm about 90 pages from the end and they still haven't found the darned boat. It's getting a bit samey. I'll finish it today, though, when I get back from the Maritime Blackwall walk. There's a local protest against a Jack the Ripper museum that's opened in Cable Street, so I hope the rioting doesn't stretch too far. (The protest is by "Class War", which last week hit the Cereal Killer cafe in Shoreditch as a protest against gentrification). The museum was *supposed* to be about women's history, but then turned out not to be although, as they've said, Jack killed women and stuff, so it sort of is. http://news.sky.com/story/1563488/class-war-justifies-serial-killer-museum-prote...

Well, the protest was called off, as the protesters were scared they might be arrested: http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2015/oct/04/cereal-killer-protesters-cancel-j... They said "We would be highly irresponsible to our comrades if we put them at risk of arrest." A commenter under the article said that these must be the first anarchist revolutionaries to have a heath and safety policy, a comment I wished I could recommend x1000. While I share the general local view that the museum owners "pulled a fast one" by changing the topic of the museum from women's history to Jack the Ripper, any sort of museum would be "gentrification" (i.e. not a social housing tower block) so I don't really understand why they were protesting against *this* one on gentrification grounds.

The Maritime Blackwall walk was excellent, and I plan to add it to my list of sightseeing tours for London visitors, because it's a great area and yet not one that's visited very much. (I now have two tours!) The views of the river are superb, and very different from the usual "heritage" views further down towards the City, and there are eateries en route, including Fatboy's Diner at Trinity Buoy Wharf, which is an original diner from New Jersey. http://www.fatboysdiner.co.uk/ Afterwards I walked to Canary Wharf and had lunch at Gourmet Burger Kitchen, and now I may not need to eat until Tuesday.



171. Pirate Hunters: Treasure, Obsession and the Search for a Legendary Pirate Ship by Robert Kurson

Where I got it: Library
Why I read it: Pirates

This is about the hunt for the Golden Fleece, a pirate ship captained by Joseph Bannister, a respectable merchant captain turned pirate in the Golden Age of piracy. A very interesting topic, but it went on and on, and just as the treasure hunters seemed about to find it, someone had to step in and tell their entire life story. I don't love this "gee whiz" style of writing (uber-narrative non-fiction, I would call it) but it's a topic that I'm interested in so I stuck with it. Recommended for the keen. And there are some good sources listed at the end.

I returned three books to the library this morning and only borrowed *one*! I saw Red: A Natural History of the Redhead on the new NF shelf, so I thought I really ought to read it, as I was very red-headed when I was younger. Less so now, and fortunately NZ didn't have the "gingerism" that is so prevalent in the UK (one of the most inexplicable and puerile things I have found about living here) but I still have areas of red in among the grey salt and pepper :-)

I wanted to get People Arise: The People, The King and the Great Revolt of 1381 but I made myself put it back. For now.

I started Worktown last night, which is the history of Mass-Observation (still no touchstone) and it's promising. But Mount TBR is rather fading into the distance, like it's obscured by fog.

Hey Susan! Hope you are having a good day.

Threw the Holocaust book onto the library list, but I've not listed it as one you recommend. Am a little bit iffy about reading it even though I kinda sorta do want to; the tie-in to climate change does not sound as if it would make sense, but we'll see.

A Jack the Ripper museum? Yuck. Glad there was no riot over it.

Am I right in thinking that 'gingerism' is an anti-redhead thing? If so, don't know why a person would be against redheads. I think most red hair is really gorgeous. Much better than hair like mine which is that kind that falls somewhere between light and dark brown and is very blah.

The Maritime Blackwell walk sounds lovely. I would definitely come to you for Walk Recommendations should I ever magically transport to your neck of the woods.

Gingerism really is an inexplicable UK thing! No idea why...

And mostly its not red hair - but the brighter ginger/strawberry blonde end of the spectrum that gets mocked. Possibly it derives from the Irish/England struggles as the ginger colouring is more of an Irish trait? Who knows - though I'm sure there is a book about it somewhere :)

>127 Fourpawz2: Hi Charlotte! I was discussing the Holocaust book with Favourite Library Assistant yesterday, but gave it quite a warning for depressingness. He said that he remembered me recommending the Mary Shelley/Mary Wollstonecraft biography when I'd read it, and would I still? (So nice to find a booky person virtually on the doorstep!). I'm sort of tempted to visit the Jack the Ripper Museum just to see what it's like, but that would be putting money in the pockets of people I disapprove of for going back on their word, so I'm in a quandary. And yes, gingerism is anti-redheadism - most peculiar. I was taunted and picked on at school for all sorts of things, but never my hair colour, although one of the main tormentors for a few years was also a redhead. But over here it's everywhere - just incomprehensible.

>128 BekkaJo: Bekka, I know! So strange! I'm hoping that my book will explain it, but I'd be interested in the reason why it's so prevalent here and yet wasn't (and I hope still isn't) in NZ, which was largely settled by British people. A lot of them were Scottish, though, where it's really common, so maybe that's the answer :-) Somewhere ages ago I read that the red hair gene was a Neanderthal trait, which is sort of like *real life Clan of the Cave Bear* - woo hoo!) but scientists seem divided as to whether there really was intermixing.

Rainy and dismal here today - we're supposed to be getting some or all or none of Hurricane Joaquin later in the week. Or maybe now. I checked the book exchange yesterday and the stacks of rejected books had mostly been taken away, save for a few dozen that were sprawled all over the table looking like a great big mess. Apparently they're being thrown out and were waiting to be collected. I put them into piles for the time being, because why would anyone just leave books in a great big mess?

>129 susanj67: - Well, I don't get it at all. I love red hair. One of the attorneys I worked for last year, whom I've known for years, has the most gorgeous red hair. If it were possible to change major things about oneself I would take her height and that amazing hair. Will look forward to your opinion of the book. I think I'd like to read that puppy.

How nice to have a burgeoning booky-relationship with a library assistant. I've been trying to cultivate one with the people at my library, but it's kind of difficult. Part of it is that I am a little bit face-blind; I often don't recognize people that I have seen before, but not frequently. I do now recognize one of the librarians and hope to have an opportunity to chat with her, but they are surprisingly busy at this library and said opportunity never seems to pop up. Or maybe I am going at the wrong time. Oh, well - I have plenty of time and they have plenty of books.

Hope Joaquin fizzles out and never gets to you. I don't think he would be a pleasant visitor.

How sad - books rejected and slated for disposal. Would that they had never been printed...

(I love red hair, too, and always wanted mine to be so.)

>130 Fourpawz2: Charlotte, I always wanted dark hair and violet eyes. I think I read it in a book somewhere :-) I think I really wanted the skin that would go with hair other than red - i.e. skin that didn't burn at the slightest hint of a sunny day. Skin that might even *tan*. One of the girls at work has the most gorgeous dark red hair - the sort with blue in it rather than orange. Stunning. I could look at it all day, but there's probably some rule against that in the employee handbook. I was more at the ginger end of the spectrum. I don't think my mother was that thrilled (she and my father were dark-haired) but the left-handedness was worse :-) I think Joaquin has changed direction now and will not hit us after all. Nevertheless, the roomie arrived this morning complaining about the "monsoon rain". I asked why it was allowed to be a monsoon when she said it, but not when I did. She said the climate was changing :-)

>131 scaifea: Hi Amber! I wonder if we always want what we don't have?!

Love that the librarian remembers your recommendations.

Both my siblings are redheads. Scene from our childhood:
Older lady comments on the babies in the pram.
"Don't they have beautiful hair"
Looks at me. Silence!

I think the celtic connection has a lot to do with the redhead thing. The gene is apparently becoming less common, although I've also heard of a redheads festival.

I didn't know that you were left-handed. I used to keep a list of actors noting whether they were left-handed or right. I had an idea at the time that there was a preponderance (sp?) of lefties among that group and thought that perhaps left-handedness indicated an artistic bent in a person. I am right-hand dominant, but I can also write with my left. I've also tried writing with my right foot and while it is mostly legible I think I could make it better with practice.

Totally understand the fascination with red hair. I used to stare at the attorney's hair when I got the chance. It was pretty easy as we shared an office and it was a small room. It sounds kinda creepy, but it was a really lovely color.

>133 charl08: Charlotte, I was pretty amazed that he'd remembered it! I hope he likes it now. Pressure!
I did giggle at the pram scenario - maybe you were cute in too many ways to enumerate! Redheadedness is a recessive trait, and apparently about 40% of British people carry the gene, but I suppose as more marry outside the small areas where it's common, it will start to die out. It must have been somewhere in my mother's family tree for me to get it. My father's father had reddish hair so it was clearer on that side. Fun fact: In Australia and NZ, men with red hair are often nicknamed "blue". (This has something to do with the Irish connection although it's not limited to people of Irish descent). Not until a friend of my parents' *died* did I find out that his real name was Stanley.

>134 Fourpawz2: Charlotte, yes, a red-headed leftie. Not a lot going for me as a kid :-) Too tall, mistaken for a boy at times (one humiliating occasion aged about 12 still sticks with me), weird surname - a sitting duck for the haters. Your President is a leftie, as is the UK PM, and also Prince William. Maybe I will get my shot at world domination :-) I'm trying right-handed writing in my crossword magazines, but so far it's lucky that I'm the only one trying to work out what the words are.

My mother always wished I'd had red hair. She tried to dye it once when I was a kid, but she forgot to get something that made the dye stick. Apparently in the 1970s, those kits didn't come with everything you needed for it to work. She never tried again. I guess I eventually got red hair because of a hair dresser who couldn't get my color quite right. I'd become so accustomed to the color because it was just gradually moving that way that I didn't realize how red it was getting. After she did a butcher job on a hair cut, I went to another stylist to get that fixed. It took 3 cuts to completely fix the haircut simply because of the length of my hair. The new stylist looked at my eyebrow color to get my hair back to its natural color. I went to a genealogy conference soon afterwards, and when people said, "You don't have red hair anymore," I realized how bad that old stylist really was.

>90 susanj67: Grr - another one for the wishlist. I mean, er, hi Susan!

>105 susanj67: I thought A God in Ruins was a good book but for some reason found it far too depressing to finish. Which is odd because I managed Life after Life ok and, as you say, Todd dies less often than Ursula did!

Sorry to hear about your fall.

>126 susanj67: I have to read Red: A Natural History of the Redhead! I'm not sure why the UK is so anti-ginger either but obviously I would rather it wasn't. For me, things have got better in that respect but that may be because it's easier to shout rude things across the street at a teenage girl than it is at a 'grown-up'.

There's a lot of red hair in my mother's family but neither she nor I got it. My best friend in school had amazing auburn hair which I would have given a lot for. As a young adult I died my hair a similar color for a while but finally got tired of all the touch-ups, etc. and let it go back to its natural mousy brown.

>137 thornton37814: Lori, I think it's so easy to get a fixed idea of what we look like. I used to have my hair coloured darker to try and get rid of some of the red, but a few years ago I gave up because I didn't want my hair to stay the same while my skin changed, and it really did make quite a difference!

>138 souloftherose: Hi Heather! Glad post >90 susanj67: appeals :-) I'll try and start the redhead book and post some thoughts. I can't imagine what sort of mentality would cause someone to shout at a teenager over her hair colour. Thank goodness it's better for you now.

>139 RebaRelishesReading: Reba, I think any sort of change is a lot of work. And it costs a fortune :-)



172. The Making of Home by Judith Flanders

Where I got it: Kindle
Why I read it: Mount TBR. Also I liked other things I have read by her.

This is a well-researched and entertaining look at our notion of "home" and how it has developed over the last five centuries. The author looks at the different words that various countries use to describe home and comfort, and at how some common pieces of furniture didn't spring, fully formed, into our houses, but evolved over quite a time. Originally there was the chest, for example, but that meant a lot of rummaging for things at the bottom. The chest got shelves. But the shelves still had to be lifted out for access to the lower shelves. So then the chest was opened from the side, and voila! A cupboard. The chest of drawers took still longer. But none of this was nearly as exciting as...the fork. Widely seen as a strange foreign implement that no decent person with a spoon and a knife could possibly need, it took a while to catch on.

I also liked the chapter on how we think of homes in the past, and what they contained and what they were used for. All those replica houses from Ye Olden Times with their multiple rooms, clean floors and quilts aren't really accurate at all. Even the ones painted heritage colours :-) Recommended for anyone interested in the social history of northern Europe and the colonial US.

>140 susanj67: Flanders' book sounds like fun. I remember being quite shocked how late corridors (as opposed to just walking through everyone's rooms) developed. When was at Speke Hall last month they told us with some pride it was one of the earliest examples of a home with corridors! Random.

I tried using a 'spork' whilst camping for a while, (weight saved not worth the faff factor) and on the whole am very glad the knife and fork caught on (eventually!)

Yes , the Flanders book does look good. I've got her The Victorian House which I really liked.

My grandparents' house was one of those without proper hallways on the first floor. I never realized that that sort of arrangement was viewed by most people as being peculiar. It always seemed normal to me. Of course it made sense that there were no hallways to speak of as the various generations just tacked additional rooms onto the original 4 (2 up and 2 down) as needed. This was why there was an outdoor window on an interior wall of the kitchen. Quirky!

>141 charl08: Charlotte, corridors were one of the things Flanders mentioned, and I agree that there is so much we just take for granted these days, even though it must have seemed very newfangled at some point.

>142 Fourpawz2: Charlotte, I thought I had The Victorian House but it's The Victorian City. Maybe I've seen the house one at the library. I must not borrow it. How funny about the internal outdoor window :-) Did it still have its curtains? Maybe that's how the serving hatch evolved!

I started the redhead book last night, and there is quite a bit at the beginning about very olden times, the migration out of Africa and so on. I'm hoping it gets a bit more modern tonight. All the Thracians and what-not are quite confusing. I did learn that in parts of England, redheads were referred to as "Danes' bastards" which isn't an insult that I think has come down the ages.

Nope, heard some awful redhead insults but not the Danish one. I am quite interested in that history of your DNA research, where they can apparently tell you if you have Viking ancestry.

BTW am reading The Digital Human. Gave me a big laugh when in the intro he states that "...Queen Victoria transformed into King Edward". Image of some kind of Dr Who special effect!

>140 susanj67: You've found another tempting book, Susan. Can't keep up with you walking OR reading!! lol

Hi Susan! Just catching up with you. Lots of fascinating books and conversation over here... Carry on!

>144 charl08: Charlotte, I feel that I do have Viking ancestry :-) Funnily enough, talking about redheadness has made me remember an incident in art class when I was 11 or 12. The bullies were in fully hate mode, and I'd tried a rude hand signal on them. The art teacher saw me and said that that wasn't like me at all, and that I needed to work out my redheaded temper instead of lowering myself to their level. She gave me a tub of PVA glue to stir hard, and it worked pretty well!

>145 RebaRelishesReading: Reba, I think I'm back on track with the stepping after the last couple of days of lunchtime walks with my super-fit friend. I was flagging a bit, but I have a steppy weekend planned, and this morning I arrived at the Wharf early, so I did a big circuit around the edge of the estate and got 3,400 steps. It's a beautiful cold but blue-skied sunny day here, and it was a lovely quiet walk for the most part.

>146 katiekrug: Hi Katie! I have got some good books on the go at the moment :-) I started a Christopher Buckley on the bus this morning. I really need a trip that takes more than 30 pages, though.

The Four dimensional Human continues to deliver wtf - favourite so far is a description of our bodies in cyberspace like Mr Tickle's (the extra long arms....). Wow.

It's hot and I'm busy so still struggling to get back on track with my steps. On the topic of Viking ancestry -- I always thought my family was mostly English and Irish with 1/8 American Indian and, perhaps, some Swiss. We had our DNA tested recently and I turned up 38% Scandinavia which I'm guessing came from Vikings who "immigrated" to Ireland (17% for me) and Great Britain (11%). Probably the source of the red hair in my family.

Stopping by to get caught up and envious that you were able to go to the ballet! If there is one live performance type that I never tire of, it is watching ballet.

I love the whole red hair and left-handed conversation. Red hair would never work for my skin colouring, but I happily raise my dominant left hand in salute. I don't know what the genetics predominance numbers are for lefthandedness but I find it interesting how it worked out in my family. Neither of my parents are lefties. They both come from families of 5 children. I have 4 siblings and each of my parent's respective siblings have 5 children of their own. The end result is that there is one (and only one) left handed child in each of the families.

I write with my right hand, but I do almost everything else left-handed. I can eat with either and adjust depending on who is eating next to me or where I'm sitting.

Happy weekend, Susan.

>143 susanj67: - the curtains were on the kitchen side of the window, but it did have all of its wavy glass - which was not that much of an achievement as very nearly all of the windows (35 in all, including skylight, doors and sidelights in the whole house) were original. We called the little room with the exterior window the Hell Room as that was where things that would not fit in other places ended up. As you can well imagine there were not many closets in this house that began life in the 17th century.

>148 charl08: Charlotte, I'm starting to have my doubts about that one!

>149 RebaRelishesReading: Reba, how great to have done the test! I'm tempted...

>150 lkernagh: Hi Lori :-) Neither of my parents were lefties either, although my father said that he could remember being encouraged to write with his right hand at school (in the 1930s) so he might have been a latent leftie. I think my brother's kids are both right-handed - you might think I should know something like that but I couldn't say for certain. Lefties are about 10% of the population, and I will admit to a certain soft spot for trainees who come in to ask me questions clutching their pens in their left hands.

>151 thornton37814: Lori, that adjustability must be very handy! Using the other hand is supposed to be a good brain workout, but I'm still at the "someone is scrambling my brain" stage when I try. Apart from the left-hand mouse, that is. I'm used to that now.

>152 Ameise1: Thanks Barbara!

>153 Fourpawz2: Charlotte, I would love to have seen that house! I can imagine the lack of closets, but there must have been an opportunity for lovely free-standing wardrobes at some later point.

I've really cranked up the steps today, in my survey of Christmas decorations for the tree. I'm re-theming it this year, and I think I've decided, but frankly everywhere was so crowded today that I didn't want to try and squeeze my way around the West End with fragile things. Selfridges was a disappointment, but John Lewis was excellent and Liberty even better, although very cramped and hard to get around. I'm wondering whether they do click and collect :-)



173. Empires of the Sea by Roger Crowley

Where I got it: Kindle
Why I read it: I liked the cover

If your reading about the 1500s is mostly about Tudor Britain (like mine is), you might like this excellent account of the "final battle" (actually battles) for the Mediterranean between 1521 and 1580. There's not a Tudor in sight, save for one reference to Britain being ruled by "a woman and a boy", as the book looks at the conflict between the Hapsburg and Ottoman empires, and how it was played out in key battles, including the siege of Malta. The writing style is very good, and there isn't too much blow-by-blow battle talk (although there is some). The story rattles along, and it's quite a page-turner even though we know how it turned out :-)

Whew! I just got through the Kindle Autumn sale without buying anything. I think the main link on Amazon is wrong - it links to the Kindle Select 25, but I finally got into it via this one: http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=sr_pg_1?fst=as%3Aoff&rh=n%3A341677031%2Cn%3A%2...

Another lovely day here, and I really must make some progress with the library books as Worktown is due back on Wednesday and a "pre-overdue notice" is looming (I might bring up that ridiculous description with Favourite Library Assistant and ask why they don't change it to something less ridiculous, like "Due date reminder"), and The Four Dimensional Human is ready to pick up.

Oh, I am tempted by We are not ourselves. But since I'm thinking I should make November a 'read my own books' month in a bid to clear some space, I might do well not to add to the task with another book!

>156 charl08: Charlotte, maybe we should have a nifty phrase for November, to reflect the "own books" idea. Something beginning with "n" and then November. Nothing immediately occurs to me (maybe No New Books November? but that's not very nifty) I've ditched The Thieves of Threadneedle Street because I just can't be bothered plodding through it, so that's one gone from the library pile :-) And I've finished the Mass-Observation book, *finally*.



174. Worktown: The Astonishing Story of the Project That Launched Mass Observation by David Hall

Where I got it: New books shelf at the library
Why I read it: I've read a lot quoting the material gathered by Mass-Observation, so I thought it would be interesting to see how it came about.

Sadly, it wasn't interesting. The basic idea was interesting, but you'd go a long way to find a set of more self-important egomaniacs (if that's not a tautology) than the men who thought it all up. They were repellant individuals, who amazingly seemed to have multiple women running after them, and who frequently caught them. Not recommended for anyone but the M-O completist. I'm pleased I can take it back.

I just have the Redheads now, and The Four Dimensional Human to pick up tomorrow if I can ever stop sneezing and look respectable. A cold has crept up on me, which is tiresome, but the fresh air this weekend has been good. From tomorrow I'm back to being dehydrated by the air-conditioning.

Oh no. The MO book sounded really promising.

I agree re the snappy name. Sadly, not a clue what it might be.

>158 charl08: Charlotte, think of it this way - one less thing to reserve :-)

What about No!vember - the "No!" being what we have to say if we're tempted to stray. Sort of like Stoptober for the smokers.

Hi Susan! Hope you had a lovely reading. I've enjoyed catching up!

>154 susanj67: - I love free-standing wardrobes - I have this thing about anything that you can put things in - but they would never have worked in Granny's house as the ceilings were so low and many of the bedrooms so small. There were two closets fashioned out of the corners of rooms and several made out of areas created by the eaves upstairs. There was a closet made out of a corner of the dining room (Grandpa's closet before two tiny bedrooms were merged to make the dining room) and the best one of all was a hall closet made by blocking off the staircase to the attic rooms at the south end of the house where the hired girls slept. I used to like opening up that closet so I could look at the stairs to nowhere that were left at the back of closet. In my time Granny had someone build another clothes closet in the former pantry that was part of her art studio. I never really liked that one as it kind of overpowered the room.

I had a Susan moment on Saturday when I went to pick up a book at the library that I'd ordered. I expected only the one, but the librarian handed me two - the second one had just come in. Found that weirdly exciting.

Hope you are having/had a good day!

#159 Love that idea :) I will mostly be indulging in the madness of NaNoWriMo again this year so I suspect my books read total in November will definitely have a 'no' in it somewhere :/

>160 AMQS: Hi Anne! I did have a good weekend, sneezes notwithstanding. There wasn't that much reading, but never mind.

>161 Fourpawz2: Charlotte, I've never lived in an old house, so I've always had fitted wardrobes and cupboards, hence the allure of freestanding furniture. It sounds like your grandparents' house was quite a work in progress! Is it still standing today? I haven't had multiple books at the library for a while, but I did see Favourite Library Assistant this morning. I didn't stop and talk, though, as I was all full of cold and that's never pleasant for either party :-)

>162 BekkaJo: Bekka, I saw on your thread that you were doing NaNoWriMo again - are you going to continue last year's book or start something new?

Today's fun email was from the real estate people selling the new flats at Canary Wharf. Previously I've received the standard "prices from" email, but today's was a price list with the exact prices of the remaining flats (cheapest 1-bed £695,000 OMG), and the service charge (double what I'm paying now, but not as high as I thought it would be) and ground rent (comparable to what I'm paying now, but no details of how often it's revised). And also...drumroll...carpark spaces for £50,000 each. That's right. Fifty thousand pounds (subject to availability). That *does* mean a space in a secure underground carpark, which in fact they are digging out at the moment, but I'm not sure about whether it includes a red carpet to the lift doors. It's like another world. I'll have to think of a reply that doesn't include the words "are you freaking kidding me?" I'll stay on the mailing list, though, because it's entertaining if nothing else.

Well it's been said that Jersey and London prices are similar. But wow! Nope, you have us beat there. 50k for a parking space? *swoon*

And new story I think - though I have toyed with spending my word count finishing the last 4 years worth...

Yikes re the flat prices.

Caught the book serialisation of the new Shakespeare book by James Shapiro last night on R4. As expected, fascinating stuff about the actors the parts were written for, the level of royal demand, and the gunpowder plot (I didn't know Guy Fawkes was an army engineer...).

>164 BekkaJo: Bekka, that *is* the most I've ever heard of for a parking space here. Most of the new buildings now don't even have parking for every flat - there are limits on what the councils will allow, on the basis that everyone should cycle everywhere or use public transport. Even if they're 85 and infirm, it seems. The Canary Wharf flats are likely to be occupied by people who work out here, so the young renters probably won't care, but people buying them to live in during the week and who want to go to their houses out of London at the weekend will need them unless they have parking in their work buildings. The next building is going on sale in the spring, so I wonder how much more expensive things will have become by then.

>165 charl08: Charlotte, I'll have to reserve that book for December :-) I watched the Faerie Queene documentary last night and it was excellent, but there is no way I could read it. Bits were read out during the programme and I couldn't understand a word of it. But the story behind it was interesting.

Oh the chat about left handedness and red / ginger hair is so interesting! I've always been a bit envious of left handed people. Neither of my parents were left handed, but two of my four siblings are left handed . But neither of my two siblings - one of whom has 4 children, the other two children, was able to have a left handed child. One family that I know , mom was left handed and dad was right handed - and all four children were left handed! What are the odds of that. Red heads are pretty rare in Canada, what with the hugely varied background everyone -but my left handed brother and his wife managed to get a lovely looking red headed son! And both parents are brown haired and brown eyed. Little Ben has the most beautiful ginger hair.

>167 vancouverdeb: Hi Deborah! I don't think anyone has ever envied me my left-handedness - my mother couldn't even bear to look when I was using knives :-) It seems that it's not determined by a single gene, like hair colour, but more complicated, so it seems like a fluke that my two right-handed parents had two left-handed kids. That's interesting about the rarity of redheads in Canada, particularly as it started out as British North America - or at least the non-French bits did :-) Do they have the horrible abuse against red-heads over there like we have in the UK, or do Canadians behave like civilised people?

I'm having a little romance binge, which I will fess up to when it's finished. I've also made some progress with the redhead book, but not The Four Dimensional Human. Or Tales of the City 5. I must do better. More accurately, I must stop wasting the evenings with trashy documentaries about teen couples who kill, thank you Your TV, new to Freeview on channel 73 (resist the urge to retune if you haven't already). Honestly, there is no end to the nonsense out there.

Ugh, the axe has fallen on most of the book exchange :-( We can only have three cabinets, of this style:



And I've got far more books than this. I'll have to double-shelve as much as possible, focusing on crime and romance as those are the most borrowed. Non-fiction is going completely, and general fiction is teetering on the edge. The cabinets have drawers at the bottom, so there might be some room in there for smaller paperbacks.

I've got till Christmas to work out what stays and what goes. Boxes are on their way.

Hmph.

>169 susanj67: Oh no!

Yesterday morning when I picked up my iPod Nano to listen to an audiobook while I got ready for work, it asked me if I wanted to use it to track fitness. I hadn't realized it would do that. I decided to turn on the step counter. I totaled over 8000 steps yesterday, and that's on a day when I felt bad enough that I considered staying home from work! (I always seem to get sick whenever the weather changes.)

>169 susanj67: Well that's not good, but better than everything going I guess? What will you do with the leftovers?

I am contemplating abandoning that digital book. I feel like you have given permission (!!)

Too bad, Susan. Good luck with the sorting. Will you have a spot to store things that don't fit on the shelves?

Susan I came to tell the Queen of Non-Fiction that I've started a thread for NF November.

http://www.librarything.com/topic/198771

>170 cbl_tn: Carrie, well done on the stepping! You have the perfect excuse in Adrian to rack up those steps :-)

>171 charl08: Charlotte, the leftovers already go to a book charity that sends them overseas, so I expect that will continue. I'm always pleased to be able to help with the abandoning of things that aren't working :-)

>172 BLBera: Beth, everything will go to charity, but I'm wondering about a cupboard of things that I could swap in and out, to refresh the collection.

>173 luvamystery65: Hi Roberta! Thanks for letting me know :-) I definitely have some NF to get to in November, and it's going to be from my own shelves.



175. The Midwife's Child by Sarah Morgan
176. Delucca's Marriage Contract by Abby Green
177. Rival's Challenge by Abby Green
178. His for a Price by Caitlin Crews
179. His for Revenge by Caitlin Crews

Variously, 1 x secret baby, 3 x marriages of convenience (yes, that's still a thing) and 1 x whatever it's called when the other half of your only one-night-stand ever turns out to be on the other side of the deal you have to do to save the family business. Oops. Lots of fun :-) All this started because I read the Sarah Morgan book, one of my last eight Sarah Morgan category romances, and then thought I'd better eke them out by reading some other authors.



180. Some Kind of Wonderful by Sarah Morgan

This is one of Sarah's newer, full-length novels, and the second in the Puffin Island trilogy. Once again I was saving it, but then book 3 unexpectedly downloaded from the library (i.e. it was early - I did actually click the link to reserve it) so I had to read this one so everything was in order. And it was lovely :-) Book 3 might be tomorrow's treat.



181. Redhead by Jacky Colliss Harvey

Where I got it: Library
Why I read it: I'm a redhead. Originally a lot redder than now, but still a bit

Subtitled "A History of the Redhead", this really is, going right back to the walk out of Africa and looking at how redheadness might have developed and got to all the places it is today. There's also a lot about redheads in art, and the perceived difference between redheaded women (gorgeous, desirable) and redheaded men (not so much). Although it's only a short book, I did get bogged down at times, probably not helped by the last week of reading having been through a cold, so everything seems a bit muffled, if that makes sense. But recommended for all redheads, parents of redheads (yes, it's your fault), siblings of redheads and anyone else interested in how fascinating we are :-) Apparently one in three TV ads contains a redhead, something I can't say I've noticed, but which will make the ad breaks a lot more interesting now.



182. Significant Others by Armistead Maupin

Where I got it: Library
Why I read it: It's book 5 in the Tales of the City series

I liked this one more than book 4, and may have somehow reserved book 6 notwithstanding No!vember looming.

>168 susanj67: I must stop wasting the evenings with trashy documentaries about teen couples who kill, thank you Your TV, new to Freeview on channel 73

Is this an American show called Snapped: Killer Couples? If so, it's filmed here in Knoxville. One of Stella's "brothers" was in an episode a couple of years ago.

>175 cbl_tn: Carrie, yes it is! How funny :-) I see that tonight is a triple bill...It's good to watch while I'm doing my crossword competitions, because they repeat all the salient facts multiple times.

>176 susanj67: My friend's son was in season 1, episode 5 about Tyler Witt and Steven Colver. He played a goth teen in a coffee shop scene. He's very tall, skinny, and has dark hair.

A few weeks ago I had a pedicure next to a Knoxville policeman who has a recurring role in Homicide Hunters, another crime reenactment show filmed locally. Apparently lots of Knoxville cops moonlight on that show.

>177 cbl_tn: Carrie, I checked the episode guide and we're just at the end of the first season, so I missed your friend's son's one. No doubt it will reappear at some stage. I'm not sure we have Homicide Hunters, but it may just be something I haven't found yet :-) Currently there's a marathon of Corrupt Crimes going on, but I'm going to read instead.

183. The White House Mess by Christopher Buckley

Where I got it: Book exchange
Why I read it: I loved Thank You For Smoking

And I kept hoping that this one would be even a tiny bit as funny, but it wasn't.

I now have NO hard copy library books, and only one ebook. Such a novelty! I think I'll start London: City of Disappearances this afternoon, and maybe fit in a bit of City of Djinns.

No library books! This is a bit of a shocker... I'm nowhere near that, although happily I have four to go back tomorrow, so moving in the right direction to read my own books in November (I hope).

>180 charl08: It's pretty unusual! Technically I could be reading *anything*! And yet here I am, playing Gardens of Time. Hmmm.

London library system will probably be sending a search party for you ... :)

>179 susanj67:: I'm tempted to ask, is that not one of the conditions at which the universe implodes and is replaced by something even more improbable?
>:-)

>182 RebaRelishesReading: Reba, I can in fact see someone who looks like Favourite Library Assistant, waving a copy of The Sixth Extinction...:-)

>183 Helenliz: Helen, that's why I'm keeping the ebook for a couple more days. Just in case. I have "Willoughbyland - England's Lost Colony" in transit at the moment, after reading about it in the Daily Mail somewhere I cannot immediately recall. Just the sight of an olde worlde map usually means something I'll want to read.

Susan has no library books. Something is very wrong in the Universe.

I have 2 to go back but am not in a rush as my library's street where the parking lot (ruined by last winter's horrible snow and freezing cold) is located, is all dug up, leaving only the super-busy main street, with it's too few parking spaces, to park in. Will have to brave it at some point this week.

>185 Fourpawz2: Charlotte, it does feel wrong :-) I took the two finished books back this morning and managed not to borrow the book about the Peasants' Revolt, which is back on the new books shelf, or The Invention of Science, which looks *amazing* (Amazon link here: http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Invention-Science-Scientific-Revolution/dp/184614210... Ooh look, it's just £9.51 for Kindle. And Dad will send me an Amazon voucher for Christmas and my birthday soon..).

Then FLA tipped me off about a Council consultation on reducing the opening hours for Idea Stores, so I've found that on the Council's website. They want to close everything on Sundays, on the basis that only about 2,000 people use the libraries on Sundays. But that's still *two thousand people* and mostly, I suspect, teens doing their homework because they're too overcrowded at home. Or people getting their lives together online, because they work on the other days. I will have Something To Say about it even though it doesn't affect me directly, other than taking away a stepping errand.

>186 susanj67: - Only 2,000 people, huh? Sounds like a goodly number of users to me. And it's not as if they are proposing to close down a bar or a restaurant. There are plenty of others of those to chose from, but libraries are a good deal more scarce. You give them a piece of your mind, Susan!

>186 susanj67: As someone who doesn't have a Sunday opening library, something to be treasured.

Have just had another er, polite disagreement with one of my local librarians. I wish they wouldn't introduce discount reservation schemes without setting up software to do it automatically. I feel like each time I talk to a new member of staff I have to explain their systems to them.

The lady in front of me was asking about a quiet working space. Ha! Not in the library that has lego hour (sadly, just for the children...).

>187 Fourpawz2: Charlotte, it sounds like a lot to me too! I've filled in all the boxes on the form, at length :-) I've focused on the young people who use the facilities for their homework, pointing out that the council is always saying that we need to support them to better their lives etc etc. Then I filled in my details for "further consultation". Heh :-)

>188 charl08: Charlotte, that must be annoying. One of my suggestions for finding some additional cash was to start charging for reserves - I can't believe they don't. Heck, if they charged £1 a book, they'd make about £150 from me every year alone, no worries :-) The software must mean they can disapply it to kids or seniors or people receiving council tax benefit if that's why they're not charging. But it's silly that people like me on a decent income can keep reading as much as I want for free (or more accurately the price of my council tax) while access is removed from other resources that low-income people might need (like the internet). That surely can't be how the system is intended to work. And, looking down the list of other potential cost-saving measures it's so sad - old people's community activities, the incontinence laundry service, children's services - nothing about clawing back the money that the corrupt former mayor paid out to his cronies for their dubious schemes. (And, in your library's case, if there's going to be a Lego hour, it should be for everyone!)

>189 susanj67: Sure - our system means seniors don't pay for overdue books. I liked the free system in Edinburgh. I don't think that the discount reservation system here is worth the time or the effort (not least because they barely promote it, and fail to make it automatic on the online system). But I'm not bitter...(ha!)

I'm sorely tempted by the new Galbraith which is on kindle now... Trying to resist....

We pay £1.30 for a reservation, £1.80 for an audio book. And I have no problem with paying that, in fact I think it's excellent value for being able to order anything (almost) that the library has in stock. Some of the books I've borrowed have been fabulously bog/old/large/exotic and all for a token amount. I usually try and stop reserving things so that I can pay my debts - they freeze the account once you run up £15 in debt. I know, I have - more than once!

Never going to complain about my library, ever again, even though they are not open on Sundays and my branch is closed on Fridays, and the road in back of the library is all dug up for road construction, cuz at least everything is free. So far.

>191 Helenliz: Wow. That's a lot! (We get cut off at £5 though).

I do wonder why they don't have a freebie system that benefits people using it for the first time (so your first ten reservations are free - this was how a uni system worked for interlibrary loans and it made sense to me).

>190 charl08: Charlotte, I must ask FLA why there's no charge for reserves, and if they've thought about reinstating one. Our seniors don't pay overdue fines either. I see from your thread that you bought the Galbraith and like it :-) I will have to tell my roomie. Her copy arrived yesterday but she was reading the reviews and said it didn't sound like her sort of thing at all. "It sounds like CSI," she said. "You like CSI," I pointed out. "I like NCIS," she corrected me. "They're different." So that was me told.

>191 Helenliz: Helen, that sounds reasonable to me. Audio books in particular cost a fortune in the wild, as it were. Like you, I'm amazed at what's out there to be borrowed and I'd willingly contribute to the cost, particularly if it meant that the money could be used to save other services. I fear that Sunday closing will be the thin end of the wedge - no Sundays, then no late nights, then no new books...

>192 Fourpawz2: Charlotte, yes, free has a lot going for it!

>193 charl08: Charlotte, that's a good idea. If I get a call for the further consultation, I'll make that point. I also want to take issue with their stated cost of Sunday opening per hour, but didn't think about it in time for my (first) response. They say that every hour Canary Wharf is open, for example, costs £2,300, which seems ridiculous. Half a dozen staff, a cleaner, heating, lighting, the internet - unless the staff are all on time x 10 for their wages, I don't see how they get anywhere near that number unless they're factoring in sunk costs like maintenance and insurance, which I feel sure is bogus.



184. City of Djinns by William Dalrymple

Where I got it: My roomie bought me a copy (accidental Amazon Prime membership = quite a few parcels arriving :-) )
Why I read it: My roomie bought it for me, but I like William Dalrymple's writing so I would eventually have gotten around to it anyway

I loved this account of a year in Delhi in the early 90s. It's a memoir about his Delhi experiences with lots of history woven in, and it's beautifully done. And it introduces some of the topics of his later books (White Mughals, The Last Mughal). I have White Mughals on the TBR pile so I'll try to get to it in No!vember.

Oh a memoir about living abroad! Sounds good.

I'm a bit confused by the roomie's comments. Is she not reading In Order?

(And if not, how are you coping?)

>195 charl08: Charlotte, she's got the new one, and she's read the others, so the Order has been maintained (whew!). She's going by the reviews, though - maybe people are confused and are being misleading. She said it sounded very different from the first two and why change a successful formula. Well, I read category romance, so I can get on board with that thought. Anyway I told her that you were enjoying it and she was heartened.

I just packed up another box of book exchange books for the pile for charity. Ten boxes are going immediately, but the people can only take ten, so then I have to figure out what to keep and what to pack up to go somewhere else. People are donating ridiculous things, though, which is annoying me. I think it's that "can't throw out a book" mentality. Well, you can if it's a Katie Price "novel", or something that looks like it might have fallen in a puddle. Or down the loo. I'm hoping for puddle.

Sounds like a good idea for a poster (When is it OK to throw away a book...?)

I can confirm that so far it is much the same (in a good way) to the other two and that I am still gripped. Hope she enjoys it as much as me.

>194 susanj67: I enjoyed City of Djinns a lot. Looking forward to your review of White Mughals.

I'd say it's cool to have red hair in Canada. Growing up, one of my best friends had red hair - carrot red and I can't say anyone made a fuss one way or another. I think because we have such a diverse population in Canada, and lots of intermarriage, brown and black hair dominates over red and blonde, so you see a lot less red heads then in the past. Yes I'd say we are pretty civilized in here in Canada. :)

Susan, I cancelled two reservations (and the restarted them again) to get rid of two temptations for November. Feeling quite pleased with myself.

>197 charl08: Charlotte, my poster would say:

1. When it's by Katie Price

2. Or about Katie Price

3. When we all got a copy ten years ago and it's been sitting on everyone's office shelves since then, untouched or looked at

4. When it's a volume of legislation which is reprinted every year. Or indeed any volume of legislation, because the book exchange is about FUN reading

5. When the chain-smoking nose-pickers have got to it. Or the puddle. Or...worse.

I told the roomie that you were enjoying the Galbraith, so that cheered her up. She's going to start it over the weekend.

>198 Oberon: Thanks Erik. I liked The Last Mughal, but there is a long list of people at the beginning that I thought would have worked better in hard copy than on the Kindle. But that quibble aside, I'd recommend that one.

>199 vancouverdeb: Deborah, it's good to know that somewhere in the world is a safe place for redheads! I've been watching the TV ads closely to see if there really is a redhead in every third one, and there do seem to be quite a few!

>200 charl08: Charlotte, yay! I'm quite excited about unfettered access to Mount TBR - I started one last night and there was definitely a sense of satisfaction that I was finally getting to it.



185. Christmas Ever After by Sarah Morgan

This is book 3 in the Puffin Island trilogy and it's an "opposites attract" story, which was really well done. As always, I liked the reappearance of the characters from the earlier books. The next series, set in New York, isn't out till April next year, so my stash of back-catalogue books is in great danger of being raided in the meantime.

I've ditched the idea of re-theming my office Christmas tree this year, and bought myself the L'Occitane advent calendar instead. I might buy a couple more ornaments for my "Woodland Christmas" theme, and maybe some little LED lights, but I'm not going to redo the whole thing. So that's one thing ticked off the list already! Now I can't wait till 1 December to open the first door.

Ooh, I'm just trying my first Reese's Peanut Butter Cups. One of the partners brought a big bag of mini ones back from New York. Pretty good!

First ever in your lifetime?
Reese's peanut butter cups are one of my absolute favorites. Love the texture of the peanut butter.

>203 Fourpawz2: Charlotte, yes, first ever in my lifetime :-) I think they're available here now in the expensive overseas confectionery parts of some supermarkets, but they're not an English thing. I just snuck another one, and I'm quite a fan! These are the really tiny ones, about the size of a chocolate. I think normally they're bigger, aren't they?

Yes. The ones I grew up with were about 2 inches in diameter and came 2 to a package. The small ones showed up when I was in my teens and the tiny ones are a pretty recent thing. Seems funny to think of them as exotic overseas candy. I have to try not to look at them at the market checkout every week and just limit myself to imagining how good they are.

>Charlotte, they're one of those very American things to me - like Seventeen magazine and Maybelline cosmetics, both hankered after during my teen years, although only the magazine was available in NZ. One of my friends was the daughter of an Air New Zealand pilot, and they used to go to Hawaii or LA in the school holidays (no-one else we knew could afford to leave the country back then). She'd bring back make-up, chocolate-covered macadamia nuts and once there were even Twinkies. We'd heard of them in US TV programmes, but never actually seen one. Simpler times...

This conference I'm at had a snack break yesterday that was a "candy shop" and you could fill a little bag full of Reese's pb cups, M&Ms, chocolate or yogurt-covered pretzels, malt balls, and dried fruit.

No one was taking the dried fruit which was shocking. Just shocking.

>207 katiekrug: Katie, dried fruit is *full of sugar*, according to the nutritionists. Worse than ordinary fruit because it's all shrunk down so we eat more of it. That was probably why people wisely left it.

Why do I never go to conferences with such cool snacks? A point to ponder.

My mother always had miniature Reese's cups in her Christmas candy dishes. I love them! They would enhance your office holiday decor if you could get hold of a Christmas package. The candy is wrapped in red green, gold and silver foil.

Some of the conferences I attend have started serving ice cream bars at afternoon breaks. :)

>202 susanj67: I'd gladly trade Reeses for those English caramels with chocolate inside (can't remember the name right now) or a bag of Fruit Pastilles :)

>210 RebaRelishesReading: Did someone mention Rolos?

(I think I might have to pop out to the shop...)

>210 RebaRelishesReading: Mint humbugs and chocolate limes for me.

No, not Rolos -- these are caramel on the outside and chocolate inside and they are firmer than Rolos. They come individually wrapped and then in a bag..."Chocolate Eclairs" maybe?

>213 RebaRelishesReading: Yes, Cadbury makes those!

>209 cbl_tn: Carrie, ice-cream would never work at a law conference because the wind-bag speakers always go on way past their deadlines :-)

>210 RebaRelishesReading:, >211 charl08:, >212 cbl_tn:, >213 RebaRelishesReading:, >214 cbl_tn: So many sweets on my thread on a Friday night! Reba, I love those Eclairs (or any eclairs, in fact). Also Rolos. But I do find it hard to get past giant chocolate buttons.

My new thread is up: http://www.librarything.com/topic/201601 See y'all over there!