avatiakh (Kerry)'s literary travels, part 1

Starting up the engine on a New Year of reading. Will be joining in the GeoCAT South America read in January so...will keep looking for a good image to top my thread

Currently reading:

The widow and the hero by Tom Keneally (iPod audio)
Jennie by Paul Galico
The Dragonbone Chair by Tad Williams
Someone to run with by David Grossman
From the Holy Mountain: A Journey in the Shadow of Byzantium by William Dalrymple

I'm also over in the category challenge group:
http://www.librarything.com/topic/205430

1: Spotlight on Terry Pratchett
2: Time Out 1000 Books to Change Your Life
3: Serious Fiction
4: Hemingwayesque
5: Israel & Diaspora - Jewish & Israeli fiction
6: International Fiction - books in translation
7: Fiction: antiheroes/cult/unreliable narrators
8: Fiction: epistolary, diary or journal
9: Historical / Sagas
10: Favourites - writers, genres, series etc
11: Scifi with a focus on Peter F. Hamilton
12: Fantasy with focus on Dragons
13: Literary Collections - fairy tales, folktales, short stories, essays
14: Nonfiction Light: Travel & Food
15: Nonfiction Heavy: History, Politics & Science
16: Illustrated and books for the young
Overflow

This will be for the GeoCAT, the BAC, and possibly the ANZAC challenge if it appears:

I've got a shortlist to decide from for the Jan GeoCAT on South America:
Andean Express by Juan de Recacoechea (Bolivia)
Blow up & other stories by Julio Cortazar (Argentina)
The Peron Novel by Tomás Eloy Martínez (Argentina)
Near to the wild heart by Clarice Lispector (Brasil)
Money to burn by Ricardo Piglia (Argentina)
News of a kidnapping or Clandestine in Chile by Gabriel García Márquez (Colombia)
The secret in their eyes by Eduardo Sacheri (Argentina) - loved the film

British Author's Challenge:
January
Susan Hill - Strange Meeting
Barry Unsworth - The songs of the kings

ANZAC Jan/Feb
James McNeish - Lovelock
Ronald Hugh Morrieson - Pallet on the floor
Jenny Pattrick
Thomas Keneally
Judith Armstrong
Kate Forsyth

@chatterbox's Nonfiction challenge here:
http://www.librarything.com/topic/208642

January: Biography/Memoir/Autobiography
Possibles:
Memoirs of a Warsaw Ghetto Fighter by Kazik
The unexpected professor: An Oxford Life in Books by John Carey - still reading
February: History
The Reckoning: How the Killing of One Man Changed the Fate of the Promised Land by Patrick Bishop

March: Travel

April: Religion & Spirituality (Easter/Passover)

May: The Arts

June: Natural History/Environment/Health

July: Current Affairs

August: Science and Technology

September: Philosophy/History of Ideas

October: Politics/Economics & Business/Commentary

November: Essays

December: Quirky/Who Knew?

Welcome back!

Great to see that one of my favourite threads will be back for 2016. Book bullets by the magazine full.

Thanks for mentioning Suz's challenge - I hadn't seen that but will definitely add it to my own list of challenges.

Great to see you again, Kerry!

Happy New Thread Kerry. I started writing a message on your current 2015 thread, which got quite long and was interrupted, so will try to get that posted today. Had LOTS of catching up to do!

Will be following you in 2016 :-)

Thanks for the welcome, I should be reading but will make a start on my January reading plans.
Link to Jan TIOLI: http://www.librarything.com/topic/209554

Nonfiction:
Memoirs of a Warsaw Ghetto Fighter by Simha Rotem (Kazik)
Lovelock by James McNeish

my TIOLI Challenge - Read a novella that's been translated to English:
The Mussel Feast (German) - Birgit Vanderbeke
Saving Mozart (French) - Raphaël Jérusalmy
Wonderful clouds (French) - Françoise Sagan

other TIOLI entries:
Checkmate - Dorothy Dunnett
The Light Fantastic - Terry Pratchett

South America GeoCAT:
Clandestine in Chile by Gabriel García Márquez

BAC:
Stone Virgin by Barry Unsworth

Library books:
Lineup by Liad Shoham
The Spring of Kasper Meier by Ben Fergusson
The man who spoke snakish by Andrus Kivirähk - fantasy
I am Princess X by Cherie Priest - YA
A court of thorns and roses by Sarah J Maas - YA
George by Alex Kino - YA
All the light we cannot see by Anthony Doerr
Light Horse to Damascus by Elyne Mitchell

books started in 2015 still to finish:
Arcadia by Lauren Groff
The Reluctant Assassin (W.A.R.P. #1) by Eoin Colfer - children's



iPod audio:
Station Eleven by Emily St John Mandel
The children of men by PD James

and several more so I'll keep adding to this.

Found your thread, Kerry! Looking forward to another great year of following your reading, in both groups.

I'll try to follow through 2016 - Happy New Year, Kerry! :)

Have a wonderful bookfilled 2016, Kerry.

In memoriam for children's writers we lost in 2015
http://www.bookologymagazine.com/article/in-memoriam/

Hi Kerry,
Happy 2016. Looking forward to hearing more about those books you've listed. The novella challenge sounds like a great idea.

>14 PaulCranswick: Not sure how's she's going to read in that outfit (!)

Thanks for the memoriam link, Kerry - and happy new year!

Happy New Year and Happy New Thread, Kerry! Looking forward to another enjoyable reading year and following along with my book buddies.

How is Station Eleven coming?

Happy New Year, Kerry. Dropping a star.

Happy New Year Kerry!



"I wish you never-ending dreams
and the furious desire to realise some of them."
— Jacques Brel

I still owe you a post, which is three-quarters finished, on your final 2015 thread. I'll get to it somehow, but as it is I've been spending so much time on the computer tidying up on final 2015 things and starting 2016! I'm sure you can relate, as it must be the case for most of us!

I really enjoyed All the Light We Cannot See on audio, against my expectations, as I thought American pronunciation of French names would bother me, but didn't in the end. Wonderful story. Hope you enjoy it too.

1) The Boy's Own Manual to being a Proper Jew by Eli Glasman (2015)
YA
One of the reasons I picked this one up is because it's written by an Australian writer and I thought it would be interesting to get an Australian perspective on living in a Lubavitch Orthodox Jewish community. Thebook is one of my 2015 leftovers, I have several to finish.
The story follows a Jewish teen,Yossi, who lives in a strict religious community, he has a predicament, he's gay. As Yossi grapples with how he can still be religious and yet come out as a gay man, we get to see how difficult a decision it becomes for Yossi and those around him. In the end Yossi finds a path of compromise within the religion itself.
'But Glasman doesn't trivialise the issues Yossi confronts as he deliberates with himself, backwards and forwards, in true Talmudic fashion. Around his wrist, he wears a rubber band that he pings every time he has sexual thoughts about a man. This he was instructed to do on-line by a New York rabbi who says the negative associations will soon stop the bad thoughts.
If he prays hard enough, Yossi thinks, somewhere, somehow, an answer will arrive because he's done nothing wrong. "Please make these feelings stop," he begs God. He will, he knows, disgrace his family if he's found out and may also ruin his adored sister's marriage prospects. But if he isn't, he'll have to marry a woman. Despite his efforts to rewire himself, Yossi holds on to his dignity and knows he can't.' sydneymorningherald

'‘When you’re gay, your sex life is on trial. All of a sudden you are being judged for what you do in the bedroom. But Judaism sees sex as a private thing between the two people involved, and God.’

Glasman grew up in a religious family and wrote this debut novel based on the experiences of a friend. He's also written several short stories, a couple feature his own battle with Crohn’s Disease.

Thanks for all the greetings Lori, Nathalie, Diana, Charlotte,Paul, Amber, Mark, Mamie, Ilana
I'll have to visit all the threads later today.

A great wrap up of what was good in children's books in 2015 in this Guardian article, I like that it's children's writers doing the picking: http://www.theguardian.com/childrens-books-site/2015/dec/14/what-are-the-best-ch...

>22 avatiakh: thanks for sharing the Guardian article, I saw Tonke Dragt was mentioned too!

Hi Anita - I added even more books to my 'to read' list while going through the article.

Happy New Year!

Hi Kerry! Happy New Year. Looking forward to seeing where you travel this year. :)

Happy New Year Kerry! Starred you.

Happy Birthday Kerry! I hope you have a lovely day with sunny weather and lots of nice book-gifts!

Hi Kerry! I'm looking forward to following your thread here in 2016 and also at Suzanne's challenge. All the best!

Happy New Year, Kerry!

Happy new year! Nice review of the Glasman book.

Hi Kerry! Thanks for posting on my thread about the ANZAC challenge. And you've prompted me to wander over here and drop off a star. I'm enjoying making the acquaintance of some new folks during these opening days of the new year and your name is one I've often heard out and about. I'm looking forward to getting to know you a bit and following your reading (I won't pretend that I'll "keep up") through the year.

Happy 2016 to you!

>10 avatiakh: I have Saving Mozart on my shelves and have been wanting to get to it. Maybe I'll shoehorn it in for January.

Happy New Year! :D

^Hope you had a great day, Kerry!

2) The Mussel Feast by Birgit Vanderbeke (1990 German) (2013 Eng)
novella
Not sure how I came across this one, though I asked my library to purchase it. It's a modern classic in Germany now and I loved it.
A mother and her two teen children prepare together a feast of mussels and chips, their father's favourite meal. It's in anticipation of news of his expected promotion, but the father is late and as the evening progress, the mother and her children share experiences so we discover that all has not been rosy in this family for a long time.

3) Winter by Marissa Meyer (2015)
YA
This is the final book in the Lunar Chronicles and a bit of a doorstopper in size. I started reading it in December but put it to one side so I could finish up some shorter reads. It was a wrapup that was everything you could hope for, the length meant that all the characters got their share of time on the stage.
Very satisfying. I've also read the novella Fairest and have noticed that she's bringing out a couple of other short works, prequels, about some of the characters.

I've got an interloan I have to finish by tomorrow about the Light Horse Brigade, I thought I was getting a biography but it's children's fiction. Still good just not what I expected.

the Mussel Feast was only $6 on Kindle, so I had to one-click it! Don't know when I'll get to it, though.

Eeek. I got the very first Lunar Chronicles book back when it was first released, didn't get a chance to read it, and now here's the last one. Dangit, I have some serious catching up to do. That said, I'm thrilled to hear that it wrapped up well. That certainly puts the series higher on the priority list.

Happy new year Kerry! I'm hoping to join in with a few for your translated novellas challenge including >36 avatiakh: The Mussel Feast. My library books this month all seem to be chunksters so it will be good to have some shorter works to read too.

>37 avatiakh: I still haven't read any of the The Lunar Chronicles - got Cinder out of the library some time ago but struggled to get into it. I may try again if the series is now finished.

>39 arubabookwoman: Same here - 4.99 EUR, cheaper than the German edition. Bought without testreading. Today is a big day of catching BBs!

Hi Kerry - Happy New Year!

#2 Time Out 1000 books to change your life list - I don't suppose you've got a link? I'm always interested in these lists...

Happy New Year! I'm going to try to do a better job at keeping up this time. (I don't think I even posted about Winter in my own thread after finishing it at the end of December....) I was happy to hear about Marissa Meyer's coming new Lunar Chronicles book, even though I'm not generally a fan of short stories. Faith, you should definitely read the series! I didn't get around to it until last year, and I don't know why I waited so long.

>44 _Zoe_: Geez, six days back into this group and already my TBR pile of "READ THIS IMMEDIATELY" books has tripled. LOL.

>25 ronincats: Thanks for the star, Roni

>26 nittnut: Hi Jenn, travels in Feb, to be unveiled at later date.

>27 SandDune: Hi Rhian, looking forward to following your thread again this year

>28 Deern: Hi Nathalie - I had a relaxing birthday, low key.

>29 labwriter: Hi Becky - lovely to see you back in the group. Two of my nonfiction picks so far have turned out to be fiction. But I have started Memoirs of a Warsaw Ghetto Fighter.

>30 jnwelch: Hi Joe

>31 banjo123: Thanks Rhonda - it was quite a thoughtful read

>32 EBT1002: Same for me Ellen. I'm trying out several new threads, people I've seen posting in other threads and TIOLI. Such a busy place this group. I'm hoping the ANZAC challenge will be followed by a few people. I know that I get overwhelmed from time to time by all the great challenges around.
>33 EBT1002: I've just started Saving Mozart, it's drawing me in, the diary format is a change from recent reading.

>34 dk_phoenix: Hi Faith. Long time no see! Will pop over to your thread for a visit

>35 msf59: Thanks Mark

>39 arubabookwoman: Deborah - I read most of it in one sitting.

>40 dk_phoenix: >45 dk_phoenix: I've really enjoyed this trilogy.

>41 souloftherose: I saw that the TIOLI entry was showing a couple of shared reads. It's a great little story. Yes, novellas make a welcome change from after a couple of chunksters. I need to get started on my Jan doorstopper or I won't get it read.

I do hope you give Cinder another try. The characters are all quite wonderful.

>42 Deern: I hope you enjoy it. I've caught a heap of BBs this week.

>43 flissp: Hi Fliss. The Time Out 1000 books to change your life is an interesting little book I picked up a few years back. It's divided into sections - Birth, Childhood, Adolescence, Adulthood, Middle Age, Old Age, Death. There's lots of short essays by writers, lots of themed lists such as 'Birth and Motherhood in 20 books', 'Illicit Liaisons', 'Food and Feasts in 20 books', 'Men at War, 'Offices', 'Midlife Crises' and lots & lots of book mentions. Also lots of 'A book that changed my life' by a variety of writers.

>44 _Zoe_: Yay, another fan of the Lunar Chronicles. Who couldn't fall in love with Cress.

4) Light Horse to Damascus by Elyne Mitchell (1971)
YA fiction

I interloaned this thinking it was a biography of Mitchell's father, General Sir Harry Chauvel, but actually it's a fiction based on his experiences of the Light Horse Brigade in Egypt/Palestine during WW1. That aside it's a darn good yarn, suitable for all ages. Told from the perspective of one of the horses in the troop, the book covers the entire campaign of fighting to overthrow the Ottoman Empire.
A real pity that this is out of print, I'd love to be able to recommend this to younger readers. As it stands there isn't a single copy in all of Auckland, I had to get it sent up from the National Library.
I'd forgotten how much I love reading books written from the perspective of an animal. I loved I am the great horse which is also about horses in war. maybe next year I'll have a category for this type of read.

Mitchell is well known for her Silver Brumby series for younger readers. If you read horse books as a youngster, no doubt you read at least one of these. A few years ago on the centennial of her birth a beautiful illustrated anthology of her nonfiction writing, On the trail of the silver brumby and also two omnibus editions of all the silver brumby books were published.

For those who haven't seen it as yet, I set up the ANZAC reading challenge here: http://www.librarything.com/topic/211009
I've made it a little easier in that there's a selection of 6 writers to choose from and two months to get your reading done.
For Jan/Feb I've lined up:
Gossip from the forest by Thomas Kenneally & 1 other
Pallet on the Floor by Ronald Hugh Morrieson - I've read all his others
Lovelock by James McNeish - got lots of his work on Mt Tbr
and also hoping to get to
either The Wild Girl or The beast's Garden by Kate Forsyth
maybe
The French Tutor by Judith Armstrong
and
The Denniston Rose by Jenny Pattrick.

All these books apart from the Kate Forsyths have been languishing on Mt Tbr for a long time. The Denniston Rose is one of NZ's most popular books and one I've sort of avoided reading for no reason.
I haven't succumbed to the American or Canadian challenge, but do have the BAC firmly in my sights for this year, so also hoping this month to get to The songs of the Kings by Barry Unsworth.

The Nonfiction biography book challenge has also drawn my attention, so today I started Memoir of a Warsaw Ghetto Fighter which is interesting, the author was interviewed in Claude Lanzmann's documentary, Shoah. I have heaps of biographies in the house, but this one is short and has a habit of catching my eye so I'll feel very virtuous once it's been read.

>48 avatiakh: All goodlooking horse books and none I know, as none of these are translated into Dutch:-(

I've downloaded Kate Forsyth's Wild Girl as a sample and will try to keep up with the challenge. Best intentions...

Nice start to the year Kerry! Happy ... slightly old but nearly still new year

5) Saving Mozart by Raphaël Jérusalmy (2012 French) (2013 Eng)
novella
I grabbed this from the display shelf at my library, the writer's name caught my eye. He's French Israeli, who after aliya to Israel is a rare books dealer. His other book has an intriguing title, The Brotherhood of Book Hunters.
Set around the first years of WW2, an old man, Otto, a music critic, lives in a Salzburg sanatorium, he has TB and hiding the fact that he's Jewish. He's visited from time to time by his friend, Hans, a musician who is organising the annual music festival where everything must adhere to Nazi party standards. When Hans asks Otto for help he sees a possible chance to wreak a little havoc. Told in diary form. The short entries also convey the deteriorating conditions at the sanatorium, so quite a lot packed into a few pages.
I enjoyed this.

6) Resurrection by Mandy Hager (2011)
YA
This is the concluding book in the Blood of the Lambs trilogy and one I had been planning to finish in December, but my reading plans were as usual highly ambitious.
Hager is from a family well known for political activism, her brother Nicky Hager published a book, Dirty Politics: how attack politics is poisoning New Zealand's political environment during our last election that has caused a fair amount of ongoing strife. She fully supports him, as seen by her active twitter account.
Anyway, this is an interesting dystopian adventure, where some catastrophe has befallen the world and on a small Pacific Island the native people have become dominated by the descendants of the passengers of a luxury ocean liner that had been berthed there. A twisted interpretation of the Bible, an awful illness that the elite treat by blood transfusions of the 'chosen' young girls. I thought the second book was possibly the best one, and this third entry tied up all the loose ends very well with lots of great tension. Maryam was a very strong female character. I'd say more but I don't want to give away the plot.
I have about three more stand alone novels by Hager to read, Singing Home the Whale won Book of the Year Award last year.

>50 FAMeulstee: That's a shame. I read a lot of horse books growing up. Have you read Black Beauty?

>51 charl08: The Wild Girl is the one I have down to read. I was lucky too that I picked up an ARC of The Beast's Garden in a charity shop a couple of weeks ago.

>52 evilmoose: Hi Megan, not too late, I'm still mulling NY resolutions.

7) Station Eleven by Emily St John Mandel (2014)
fiction

My first audiobook of the year, and a really good one too. I loved this especially how the plot wove backwards and forwards, before and after. In just a few days a plague wipes out most of the world's population, all the infrastructure breaks down. I didn't have a clue what I was getting into, but this book worked its magic on me.

8) Baba Yaga's Assistant by Marika McCoola (2015)
YA graphic novel

A teenager who has grown up on her grandmother's stories of Baba Yaga decides she'd be better off trying out for the position of Baba Yaga's assistant than staying with her father and his new fiancee and her obnoxious young daughter. This didn't quite work for me.

>56 avatiakh: I really have to read this this year! Thanks for the nudge :)

Karsh: A Fifty-Year Retrospective (1983)

I got this Yousuf Karsh photography book out from the library. I'd never heard of him but he's taken some of the most famous portrait photos of the 20th century. Just google his name and you'll see some fabulous images. I was researching academic Efraim Karsh and made this serendipitous discovery.

>58 LovingLit: Megan, I hope you enjoy it. I've moved on to The children of men.

Enjoy!

Thanks Diana

>57 avatiakh: Well, that one looks... odd. o_O

A book a day so far Kerry! Impressive.

Have a lovely weekend.

9) George by Alex Gino (2015)
children's fiction

I don't think I've read a book about a transgender before and didn't think I'd be starting with a children's book. This is quite wonderful, we are introduced right at the start to a girl with the name George, the fact that George is physically a boy comes a little later. There is a need for books about transgender so those born into the wrong bodies can identify with characters and this is an ideal story. George knows she's a girl there's no second guessing for her, just that she needs to tell her Mum and others and to be acknowledged.
My own concerns with books like these is that the story only works because the protagonist has an accepting best girl friend. For a friendless or isolated child in this situation the book will possibly become that friend.

Station Eleven is on my tbr list. I'll try to read this one soon.

Nine books already! Congratulations.

Adding George to my list - thanks for the review!

Added George to the wishlist!

Wasn't Station Eleven good?

I am hoping to do some of the ANZAC challenges this year -- last year I read one book for the challenge, being overwhelmed with the BAC and the AAC. This year I think I will just dabble in the challenges according to interest, so I am hoping to spread it out more.

>55 avatiakh: Yes of course, Black Beauty, The Black Stallion series, the horse books by Helen Griffiths and many others I don't remember just now ;-)

10) Memoirs of a Warsaw Ghetto Fighter by Kazik (Simha Rotem) (1994)
nonfiction

Kazik gave testimony at the end of Claude Lanzmann's 1985 documentary, Shoah and it was like all the testimony very sad. He was often asked when he came to Israel after the war, how did you survive?, a question which made him feel very guilty for the act of surviving, to the point that he stopped talking about the Holocaust. He was pushed to write his memoir by one of the other survivors, one of the leaders of the ZOB (Zydowska Organizacja Bojowa/Jewish Fighting Organization) who felt that documentation of their actions was important. It's very immediate, in the introduction Rotem makes it clear that he's not a writer, and he related his memoir by dictation, he also says there are incidents he refused to relate, preferring not to bring them to the surface of his own memory. Rotem was very active in helping many Jews in hiding to survive, he fought in the Warsaw Ghetto and escaped through the sewers, and returned trying to rescue more fighters only being partially successful. Later he took part in the fighting in the Warsaw Uprising.
The memoir was the basis for a 1990s miniseries, Uprising.

>71 avatiakh: I must seek that one out, Kerry.

>72 PaulCranswick: Well worth a read, it's not that long. He was only 21 when the war ended.

So my left overs from 2015 reading must continue. I'm reading Lineup a crime novel set in Tel Aviv and still have All the light we cannot see on the back burner. I also have all the challenge reading to get through -
The songs of the kings by Barry Unsworth for the BAC
H is for Hawk for the nonfiction reads
Lovelock, Pallet on the floor and The Wild Girl for the ANZAC challenge.
Plus a couple of novellas.

Just relieved that Station Eleven happened to fit the Orange January which I like to participate in, so did that challenge without even trying. On the audio side of things I'm listening to The children of men.

I also have at least 4 good graphic novels out. I started The story of my tits last night but it isn't really doing it for me, I think I'm under too much pressure to finish some of these other books.

I'm impressed by your ambitious reading, Kerry. The memoir by Kazik sounds very good. I still haven't even received my book for Suzanne's challenge. I keep thinking that it will be here any day now, but I've been thinking that for all of January.

Happy reading!

>65 avatiakh: Interesting. I'll look for that one. It sounds like it still lives in the binary perspective on gender which our trans and gender-queer students are challenging us to question, but it also sounds like a very worthwhile read.

H is for Hawk was an interesting read for me last year and I really enjoyed Station Eleven.

>75 EBT1002: I haven't read much in this area, I just saw a few good reviews of the book which got me curious. The main character was only 9 or 10 so that side of it interested me.


11) Lineup by Liad Shoham (2011 Hebrew) (2013 Eng)
crime fiction
A deeply satisfying crime novel. This is my second book by Shoham and I can say that I'll continue to read all his work as it's translated. A man who fits the description of a rapist is seen loitering with intent in the neighbourhood and is arrested. He's not the rapist, though he has just committed a crime. By the end of the book the real identity of the rapist is almost superfluous to the story.

Stopping by to wish you a lovely week, Kerry and to add Karsh: A Fifty-Year Retrospective to my library list.

12) Clandestine in Chile by Gabriel García Márquez (1986)
nonfiction
Marquez reports on an undercover trip to Chile by film maker Miguel Littín after 12 years of exile. Litten poses as a Uruguayan businessman while secretly filming a documentary about how life really is under Pinochet. Told in the first person it is quite an interesting read.

My English teacher, Ida Gaskin, from many years ago has died. She was an expert on Shakespeare and won NZ's Mastermind challenge on the subject. I remember loving Shakespeare in her class she brought it all to life, she taught at New Plymouth Girls High where I was ensconced for four years as a boarder.
'As news of Gaskin's death spread, Patrick Spottiswoode from Shakespeare's Globe in London paid his respects to Gaskin.
"I am so very sorry to learn of Ida's death," Spottiswoode, the director of Globe education, said.
"Everyone knew that she was indefatigable but I thought she was immortal. She will live on, however, in the minds and hearts of thousands of students and adults who met her wit, her passion and her rugged humanity.'
http://www.stuff.co.nz/taranaki-daily-news/news/75712971/shakespeare-mastermind-....

What a lovely tribute. Sounds like you were very lucky to have her as a teacher.

>80 charl08: She was rather special, very enthusiastic and it rubbed off on most of us.

On the tv watching front, I've had a lovely few evenings watching Jane Austen films with my daughter. So far we've watched Pride and Prejudice (Kiera Knightly version, can't find my Colin Firth one), Emma, Mansfield Park and Northanger Abbey (my favourite JA bk). Anyway on request from the library is Persuasion and also the Lost in Austen miniseries which I remember quite liking at the time. We also watched Miss Potter which is a lovely film.
And I'm two episodes into Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell and very much enjoying it. I read the book when it first came out so only vaguely remember the plot.

I also watched the film of Child 44 though found the start quite confusing and got the lead actors mixed up for a while. Also liked the film Margaret Thatcher: The Long Walk to Finchley which is about her early years in politics.

Hi Kerry. Just dropping by to wish you a belated Happy New Year! and thank you for visiting my thread. I'm off to a slow start on LT since RL is, as always, busy; especially at this time of the year. On the other hand, you're off like a shot!

Welcome to my thread Nina, I can understand how hard it is to keep up to date on LT

13) Human Body Theater by Maris Wicks (2015)
children's graphic nonfiction

What a wonderful way to learn about human anatomy and how your body works. The skeleton puts on a show and invites all the organisms and bodyparts that make up a human body to the show and tell. Full of humour, this makes learning fun. There are 11 acts (chapters) covering the immune system, the endocryne system, senses, the digestive system etc

The fox and the star by Coralie Bickford-Smith (2015)
children's graphic novel

I've waited for several weeks for my library to get this in, one I've been wanting to look at as I considered getting my own copy. Bickford-Smith is a well known book designer for Penguin, she's done those pattern covers that everyone loves. Here she takes those patterns and uses them as an illustrative style for a cutish story.
For me overall this is a book to be admired for its design, production values and the artwork, though the story isn't quite good enough for me and I can't see it appealing to children. It's more of a gift book for adults who love those book covers.
The book won Waterstones Book of the Year.
Here's a short youtube interview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4qiP9qMc-Hg

14) Pallet on the Floor by Ronald Hugh Morrieson (1976)
fiction

My first read for the ANZAC challenge was this novella which can be most easily found in Nine New Zealand Novellas. I've now read all Morrieson's work and have to say I love them all. This one was published in unfinished form after Morrieson's death and while it doesn't get to the standard of the other books, there's enough dark humour in there for a full enjoyment.
Set in a small town where almost everyone is employed at seasonal work at the local freezing works, most characters seem to be alcoholics, drowning in beer or sherry, flagons, jugs, kegs and home brew. There's a death after an attempted rape that needs to be covered up and blackmail follows. All this on the last week of work for most of the men.

>85 avatiakh: I was a bit wary of this in Waterstones - when they are pushing a book with big signs and offers I tend to go in a different direction. But the illustrations do look beautiful...

Yes, I loved the illustrations, but a children's book has to be more than a vehicle for illustrative style. I think children need the story to be strong and I felt this one whimped out in the end. The illustrations are beautiful but for me it's a gift book not a children's one so ultimately not one I can strongly recommend.

>65 avatiakh: From what you have written, seems like the author has good intentions ... but if your language is reflective of the book I would find it problematic, for example referring to someone as 'a transgender' is just odd more likely to hear 'transgender girl' etc & reference to being born in the wrong body, well that thinking is very old even medics don't think like that anymore .... Gender& Sex thanks to those who don't fit our created boxes is becoming accepted as a continuum rather than a either/or binary.

Funny thing is most young kids don't see this a s problem & willing accept friends or even adults - its the adults who have the problems, can I suggest more committed to binary.

anyway hope this doesn't come across the wrong way, its not meant that way .....

>85 avatiakh: seeing a lot of adults loving this book raster than kids, makes me wonder if its a kids fairytale for adults? if that make sense ...

Hi Alex - I would have got the facts wrong not the writer, looks like I need to read up on it more. The book is aimed at younger readers probably around 10-12 yrs and does not use any terminology throughout. You just have George, who everyone says is a boy because he has boy parts, but George knows he is a girl. I read somewhere that the writer spent a few years writing this and did lots of research.

Happy Friday, Kerry! I love those Penguin covers. I finally bought my first 3. Have a great weekend.

>85 avatiakh: I made a comment on your thread in another group that this one was marketed to our library as an adult book. We ordered it through the leased book program as such. It came with an adult call number rather than a juvenile one too.

Have a lovely weekend!

>92 thornton37814: That makes sense. The more I looked at it the more I felt it was a gift book for adults rather than something for children.

>93 DianaNL: Happy Weekend back to you Diana.

Ok, it's now been three weeks since our beautiful black cat disappeared on Christmas Eve and we have now given up any hope of him returning to us. So 2015 saw us lose two family pets, our beloved beagle, Ginny, in July and now Morrigan our black beauty.
_

>95 avatiakh: I am sorry, Kerry, ((((hugs))))

Thanks Anita, Morrigan had also disappeared for 6 days at the start of November. We had to take him to the vet as he had vicious bites from a cat fight. So we're not sure what's happened this time, I'm hoping he's been adopted by another family. Our home backs onto farmland and our cats have 24 hour access to the great outdoors so he had a great time with us for the past 4 years.

We've always had multiple pets but are now down to one cat who dislikes all of us except for my daughter. The cat is extremely friendly with me first thing in the morning but as soon as I've fed her, she won't come near me or let me pat her. Her name is Freya, but her nickname is Friar Tuck as she loves her food.


Last stop on Market Street by Matt de la Pena (2015)
picturebook

This just won the Newbery Medal, probably the first time a picturebook has won the prize so I just had to get a look at it. The writing is sublime, the story is delightful and the illustrations good enough to carry it all off.
While it's sort of disappointing that a worthy novel didn't win, after reading this you can understand the judges deciding to make this call.
A young boy and his Nana take their weekly bus ride to volunteer at a soup kitchen, on the way we experience the neighbourhood he lives in and how it's possible to find beauty in even the more negelcted urban communities.

All good - Hope your cat does turn back up, sometimes they do wander ......

>95 avatiakh: That is sad Kerry. Hopefully Morrigan finds her way back to base somehow and unscathed. xx

>95 avatiakh: So sorry to hear about Morrigan, Kerry. Our first ever cat was an all black one, so I've always had a soft spot for them.

So sorry about your cat going missing. I hope she finds her way home too.

I love the sound of The Last Stop on Market Street.

I am so sorry about the cat! I don't want to feed false hopes, but a friend's cat was found after it had gone mssing for almost 3 months. People had been feeding her regularly and some day they saw one of the "cat missing" notes my friend had put up and called her.
Sending hugs and keeping fingers crossed that Morrigan returns home.

I'm sorry about your cat, Kerry. Thinking of you.

Hi Kerry, I'm so sorry to hear Morrigan didn't make his way back to you. I'll always remember the first time I let Ezra out onto the back alley, when he didn't come back for 48 hours and how worried I constantly was for him. Are you thinking of getting other pets to fill up the house again, or taking a break for a while? Coco is becoming difficult to deal with as he ages, with all kinds of neuroses and major screaming and shrieking fits, and I don't regret for a second having him, but it is very trying at times.

I really love Coralie Bickford-Smith's designs and enjoyed that video a while back (was you it possibly sent me a link to it then?), but somehow can't get excited about her book project. Maybe if they had a copy at the library. On the other hand, would love to get my hands on Last stop on Market Street, so will look out for that one.

I listened to David Rintoul narrate Sacred Hunger this week, and it was a pretty amazing experience. I was already a fan since reading Morality Play in 2013, and have added a whole bunch of his other books to the wishlist.

Hope you've been enjoying your weekend despite the recent losses.

>98 roundballnz: >99 PaulCranswick: >100 SandDune: >101 charl08: >102 Deern: >103 scaifea: >104 Smiler69:
Thank you everyone for your messages. We have accepted that we've lost our cat. He just had one of those exuberant personalities like Tigger in Winnie the Pooh so we all loved him, even the kink at the end of his tail.

Ilana - I'm going to have to seek out the audio of Sacred Hunger, that sounds like an ideal way to tackle Unsworth's book. I keep getting put off by the length and I've got an old paperback edition, rather tatty. I've read 3 of Unsworth's books and enjoyed all of them. I've read a couple of pages of The songs of the kings so will probably keep reading it, hopefully before the month ends.

Sounds like you have your hands full with Coco, our beagle would go through stages where she was really petrified of something outside for a couple of days and then come right. We never found out why.
We won't get another dog, will possibly go for another cat or two later on, will probably adopt an older one. My mother has just got an RSPCA cat who is very friendly and loveable.

15) Lovelock by James McNeish (1986)
fiction

This is a biographical fiction based mainly on Lovelock's training diaries. Lovelock approached running like a science, his diaries covered all nutritional and medical aspects.
New Zealander, Jack Lovelock ran the perfect race to win gold at the 1936 Olympics in Berlin in the 1500 meters, also setting a new world record in the process, New Zealand's first ever gold in athletics. He surprised the field by sprinting the last lap, usually the sprint took place on the last straight.
The book begins in early 1932, Lovelock is a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford in the UK studying medicine. He sets a new British record for the mile at a university race and gets included in the 1932 New Zealand Olympic team for Los Angeles. His inexperience in international athletics shows as he is overwhelmed by the whole Olympic extravaganza, does not place in his race but comes away with his sights set on Berlin.

The novelisation tries to give an insight into the private life of Lovelock, his diaries are extensive about his training, but he also struggled to juggle his medical studies with athletics, suffered recurring bouts of depression & insomnia and was always financially challenged. After he wins gold in Berlin he retires from running and focuses on his medical career, but head injuries and vision problems from two horrific falls from horses do not help. The fallout from these injuries were definitely factors in his death in 1949 when he fell into the path of a subway train in New York. It's an interesting account that tries to get right into the mind of an extremely driven but perplexing personality.
MacNeish also injects the flavour of 1936 Berlin with Lovelock's acquaintance with German runner, Otto Peltzer who had been freed from imprisonment just before the Olympics. Also a visit to jazz clubs and a gay nightclub that gets raided by Nazis. Lovelock, as flag bearer of the NZ team of seven, dipped the flag early by mistake when entering the stadium, thus snubbing Hitler at the Opening Ceremony. There had been talk beforehand between the British, Australian and NZ teams about how to 'salute' the Fuhrer.

Another interesting fact was that from 1935 he worked at St Mary's Hospital Medical School, London and was friendly with Sir Alexander Fleming who provided him with an experimental vaccine for his swollen knee. He injected these vaccines, 'Flem's juice', throughout 1935/36.

I got a copy of As if running on air: the journals of Jack Lovelock by David Colquhoun out from the library which has lots of photos of Lovelock's races and was great as an additional reference.

The 1936 Olympic 1500m race as filmed by Leni Riefenstahl here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nr0ihgPjo3k with excited commentary by Harold Abraham for the BBC.

Also a good short film: http://www.nzonscreen.com/title/lovelock-1992

Hi Kerry. Congratulations on reading so many books thus far. The day the Newbery's were announced, I went to my local library. Sadly, they only had the Newbery and Caldecott books that were in stock before the announcement. There is a freeze on the budget and they haven't been able to buy a single new book since last October. Yikes!

Hi Linda, I was lucky that the Newbery isn't that well known here and so the winner was available and my request came through in a couple of days. Terrible that your library has frozen the budget. Our libraries have reduced hours and closed a number on Sundays. My library is open most of the time as it's in a shopping center and as part of the lease agreement must be open during all shopping hours. It doesn't have a lot of shelf space, lots of space given over to computers and reading rooms, so I mostly get my books from other branches using the free request system.

Kerry, I'm sorry to hear about your cat, and Linda, I'm sorry to hear about your library!

Excellent review of Lovelock, Kerry. That is definitely one for my wish list.

I'm sorry to hear about your loss; I hope that Morrigan turns up soon.

I went back and took time to read all messages. I am so sorry about your cat. Pets are family, and this is a great loss. Hugs to you.

Stopping by to get caught up and saddened to read that Morrigan has been missing since Christmas Eve. Furry companions really do hold a special place in our hearts.

>109 _Zoe_: Thanks Zoe

>110 kidzdoc: Darryl - I found some of the medical work he did quite interesting. His interest in his body and its capabilities also influenced his medical work. Unfortunately the fallout from the concussion and his vision problems turned him into a lesser version of what he could have been.

>111 Whisper1: Thanks Linda. We've accustomed ourselves to our loss, just wish he could have had a longer time with us.

>112 lkernagh: Thanks Lori. We're now at that impasse where getting another cat is neither a good idea nor a bad one. We have more versatility for travel away from the home, but homelife is lacking with only one cat in the house. I will not miss the dead birds, rabbits and rodents that have been laid out on the back verrandah for our approval.

16) The Man who spoke Snakish by Andrus Kivirähk (2007 Estonian) (2015 Eng)
fantasy
I really enjoyed this, another leftover from my December reading. A folk fantasy that is difficult to sum up in a few words so I'm just going to quote from the dust jacket - 'How to describe this book? Imagine it is the end of the world, and Tolkein, Beckett, Mark Twain and Miyazaki (with Icelandic Sagas and Asterix comics tucked under their arms) are getting together in a cabin to drink and tell stories around the last bonfire the world will ever see" - Le Magazine Litteraire
The action does tend to violence from time to time. This was a bestseller in Estonia, one of the reasons I couldn't resist picking it up...what makes a book a bestseller in Estonia? '...the imaginative and moving story of a boy who is tasked with preserving ancient traditions in the face of modernity...' Kirkus

What do you do with an idea? Kobi Yamada (2013)
picturebook
Possibly found this one on Amber's thread. Delightful look at how an idea grows until it comes to fruition.


Emmanuel's Dream: The True Story of Emmanuel Ofosu Yeboah by Laurie Ann Thompson (2015)
picturebook
Tells the inspiring story of Ghana's Emmanuel Ofosu Yeboah who cycled across Ghana to draw attention to the plight of the disabled.


Written and Drawn by Henrietta by Ricardo Siri Liniers (2015)
children's graphic novel
Henrietta draws a story that involves a three headed monster in her wardrobe. Delightful.


The Wonderful Fluffy Little Squishy by Beatrice Almagna (2015)
picturebook
Eddie isn't sure what her sister is talking about but she's determined to scour the neighbourhood and be the firstto bring one back to her mother. More fun than I expected. The shops are all quite French.

Not a book but I've just finished watching the first season of Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell and thought it excellent. I read the book when it was first published so this is a great way to revisit the book.

The series prompted me to get a copy of JS & MN for a reread - got it from the library the first time. Forgot it's quite the doorstop. :) Now to watch the series!

Oh, and nice review of The Man who Spoke Snakish!

>95 avatiakh: I'm so sorry to hear about your pets, Kerry. Fingers crossed for Morrigan to come home.

>114 avatiakh: Interesting The Man who spoke Snakish, it is translated in Dutch... lets see if the library has a copy.

>117 drneutron: Hi Jim. The tv series was so good. I've read enough reviews here on LT to know that I don't want to revisit the book.
The man who spoke snakish is a really good read.

>118 humouress: Thanks Nina, we've accepted that he probably won't return at this point. If he has been adopted by another family, that's good. I hope he's far enough away from us not to have to come across our neighbour's cat at all.

>119 FAMeulstee: Hi Anita. I hope it turns out to be your sort of book.

Yesterday my daughter and I finished our season of Jane Austen dvds with 'Lost in Austen' which is a really fun mini series about an Austen fan from modern day London who switches places with Elizabeth Bennett from Pride and Prejudice. The characters, she finds, aren't always as straightforward as in the book, hilarity ensues as the plot heads off in the wrong directions despite her increasingly desperate attempts at keeping the storyline intact. Great cast.

17) The children of men by PD James (1992)
scifi / iPod audio
Dystopian novel set in 2021 Britain in a world where mass infertility has meant that no children have been born for the last 25 years. Britain's leaders are preparing for the last days of humankind and are brutal in their treatment of the old and the criminal. The last generation, the Omegas, have no hope for a future beyond themselves yet as society breaks down there is resistance to the authoritarian rule.

I enjoyed this, especially since it has lurked on my 'to read' list for so long. I've enjoyed PD James' crime novels in the past.

>122 avatiakh: I've had that one on the tbr for ages. I saw the movie on tv once, not realising it was based on a book. Of course with Clive James and Julianne Moore in the lead, and then Michael Caine too, it couldn't be anything but excellent. Have you see it? I want to read more of her books, as have only read Cover Her Face so far, which I finally picked up in 2014 and quite enjoyed, especially as I have the Folio edition.

18) Would the real Stanley Carrot please stand up? by Rob Stevens (2015)
children's fiction
This would be a middle grade read. Stanley Carrot is 13 yrs old, he has bright ginger hair, is not popular and bullied at school, not sporty at all and he's adopted. His only talent is writing poetry, not exactly a crowd pleaser. On his thirteenth birthday he receives a card from his birth mother who suggests a meeting, but Stanley is a little angry and decides that maybe she will regret the adoption if she thinks he's a super cool kid, so he has to find someone to stand in for him. What could go wrong?
This is a surprisingly thoughtful book that I really engaged with. Stanley's mother had a natural child seven years after the adoption, and little Bruno is loud and attention seeking which gives the impression that the parents have less time for Stanley. Recommended.

>123 Smiler69: Hi Ilana - I've seen the start of the film and decided not to continue till I read the book. That was years ago and now I'll seek it out. It was quite good on audio. I haven't read anything by James for a few years but liked her Dalgliesh novels.

I'm now listening to Susan Hill's Strange Meeting.

19) Filmish: A Graphic Journey Through Film by Edward Ross (2015)
graphic nonfiction
I sort of liked this. It's the exploration of cinema through various themes such as time, architecture and sound. Ross quotes many academics on theory of film which makes this quite an informed read that is illustrated with many well known and lesser known films. I liked that he includes a large number of foreign films. He touches on power and ideology in Hollywood which is quite topical considering the current boycott threat against the Oscars.

20) Wonderful Clouds by Françoise Sagan (1961)
novella
I raced through this enjoying and being repelled simultaneously. It's about a destructive marriage, a young French woman, a free spirit marries a handsome American boy whose love for her turns obsessive. All through the story you are screaming at the girl to 'get out of this relationship', but she doesn't and in the end you have to wonder why you read the darn thing.

Another novella on obsessive love is Sábato's The Tunnel.

Dear Santa, Love, Rachel Rosenstein by Amanda Peet & Andrea Troyer (2015)
picturebook
A picturebook dealing with the dilemma of being Jewish during the Christmas season. Rachel's parents don't indulge their children in the Christmas season and little Rachel would love a visit from Santa like the other neighbourhood children. On Christmas Day, the mother goes to work at a children's hospital as life must go on even on Christmas Day, and the father takes the family to a Chinese restaurant where they find friends from school who also don't celebrate Christmas (Hindis, Muslims and Chinese).
This worked better for me than I thought it would, I had read a few negative reviews.

21) Wyrd Sisters by Terry Pratchett (1988)
fantasy
Fun entry in the Discworld series. This was recommended as an alternative starting point over on Heather's thread. A king is betrayed, the heir is lost and the throne seized by treachery. Only the local coven of three witches can possibly put all this to rights. Add in one king's fool, a ghost king, a travelling company of players and Death with a hilarious walk on part.

Yay! I love when Death shows up in Pratchett's stories. He's just spot-on hilarious. Was the Death of Rats in this one? I find that character even funnier, probably because it's so random and bizarre. :P

>129 avatiakh: Listening to this on the radio at the moment and I love the Witches. Sorry Filmish didn't quite hit the spot.

>114 avatiakh: I have seen that one in the bookstores over here and it has tempted me a little - I won't fight that temptation after seeing what you made of it.

Kerry, wishing you a lovely Sunday.

>130 dk_phoenix: >131 charl08: I'm definitely going to enjoy reading more of these Discworld novels.

>132 DianaNL: Thanks Diana

>133 PaulCranswick: Hi Paul - a great yarn, hard to describe.

22) Strange Meeting by Susan Hill (1971)
fiction / audio
The title comes from a poem by Wifred Owen. http://genius.com/Wilfred-owen-strange-meeting-annotated
I listened to this novel on audio and while I enjoyed the narrator I really didn't like the 'voices' he adopted for the dialogue but persevered as the story was good.
Hilliard, is quite a withdrawn character who is home from the WW1 trenches recovering from a leg injury. He suffers from insomnia and also the optimism everyone around him, family and friends, express about how the war is going. On returning to the trenches, a new fellow officer, Barton, becomes his friend and Hilliard is at last able to express his feelings about home, at the same time he wishes that Barton didn't have to change into another disillusioned soldier.

23) Comedy in a Minor Key by Hans Keilson (1947) (2010 Eng)
novella
A Dutch couple take in a Jewish man during WW2. After several months of hiding him, he dies from complications with pneumonia or some such illness so they must dispose of the body without incurring suspicion. Keilson was a noted German/Dutch Jewish writer who worked for the Dutch Resistance during WW2.
I'll definitely read his other work that's been translated to English - Life goes on and The Death of the Adversary


24) The Lover by Marguerite Duras
novella
This is an autobiographical novella about Duras' childhood spent in Indochina, the main focus is on the period of her fifteenth year when she became the lover of a young Chinese man from a rich family. It was an interesting read though I don't think I would have picked it up if it was novel length. The French parents took their family out to the colonies and the father seems to have died fairly quickly. The mother, instead of returning to France, decides to make a go of it there and ultimately it all fails.

25) All the Light we cannot see by Anthony Doerr (2014)
fiction
Last of my December leftover reads. I started this at the beginning of December but it didn't fit any challenges or category fields so got left behind, again this month it was on the back burner due to all the ongoing challenges.
Engaging story set during WW2 about two young people who are fated to meet briefly. The timeline of the novel zooms backwards and forwards in time as we follow Marie, the young blind girl growing up in Paris and Werner, the German orphan who is forced to become a soldier even though he's only sixteen.

26) Letting it go by Miriam Katin (2013)
graphic memoir
I adored Katin's We are on our own about her experiences as a young child with her mother surviving the Holocaust in Hungary's countryside. This one, I'm not sure about at all. Katin's son decides that he is going to live in Berlin with his Swedish girlfriend and he wants to get his Hungarian citizenship so he has an EU passport. This all stirs his mother's blood, how can he live in Berlin, home of the Nazi leadership? The Hungarian citizenship application brings lots of unwanted memories along with the endless number of forms. Katin visits Berlin with her husband and on their return to New York she decides that she wants to attend the opening of an art exhibition in Berlin's Jewish Museum that includes her work.
The only thing that kept me reading is that I like her illustrative style and also that I saw a similar exhibition in Amsterdam at the Jewish Museum there in 2008.


27) Two Brothers by Fabio Moon & Gabriel Ba (2015)
graphic novel
I loved this story of twin brothers set in Manaus. As I was reading it I thought that it would make a great novel, and coming to the end in the acknowledgements section I read that the GN had been adapted from Milton Hatoum's The Brothers, so I've added that to my 'to read' list.
The artwork in this is stellar, bringing Manaus and the Amazon to life.
_

More about the GN: Two Brothers is a masterful achievement in adaptation: http://www.avclub.com/article/dark-horses-two-brothers-masterful-achievement-ada...

>127 avatiakh: I love these old soft focus covers. I have two Edna OBrien editions looking like that.

I also have a couple more by Sagan with similar covers. I scanned my own cover for this as the one available was too fuzzy.

I suppose there is a fine line between soft focus and not focussed!

Indeed! Oh and you'd possibly like reading these Sagan novellas.

I'm currently reading fire colour one a YA by Jenny Valentine and learning about artist Yves Klein.

I really loved All the Light You Cannot See, although I really had to drag myself to read it, because all the hype had sort of turned me off. But glad I did read it. Lovely and very touching.

I'm looking for a spot on TIOLI to put in The Songs of the Kings, as I've decided to join you with that one. I'll let you know where I've placed it, but if you want to put it somewhere else, let me know and I'll be glad to share the read with you wherever you prefer.

eta: I've put it under TIOLI #11: Read a novel about real events, about which at least one other novel has been written.

Ok, I was thinking of adding it to TIOLI #13 - D or U starts a word in the title or an initial of the Author's name.

28) fire colour one by Jenny Valentine (2015)
YA
This is on the nominations list for the UK Carnegie Medal 2016. Enjoyed this. Iris is disenchanted with her life with her spendthrift Mum and wannabe actor stepdad, so she dabbles as an arsonist. She has a weirdo friend who does performance art. The whole book pivots around art and her real father's scheme to give Iris her inheritance without the Mum getting her hands on any. Iris also finds out the truth about her father and how she was stolen from him.
I also discovered an interesting new artist, Yves Klein, a French pioneer of performance art as well as Minimal and Pop Art. The title refers to one of his more famous works.

I stop by and encounter more great reviews. I particularly liked your review of the Sagan book, Wonderful Clouds. Seems destructive relationships was a theme she used in more than one of her books.

29) Andean Express by Juan de Recacoechea (2000)
fiction
Enjoyed this Bolivian novel, I think this is my first Bolivian read. On an overnight train trip between La Paz and Arica in Chile almost all the passengers of the sleeper carriage seem to be united in their hatred of one of their fellow passengers. Tad drew my attention to this writer a few years back but it took me all this time to finally read one of his books for Jan's GeoCAT South America theme read over in the Category Challenge group.

>147 lkernagh: Hi Lori, after the to and fro with Megan, I picked up another Sagan novella today, similar destructive relationships theme but compelling characters, Those without shadows.

30) Those without shadows by Françoise Sagan (1957)
novellal
I'm enjoying Sagan's novellas, I have another three on my shelves, part of a stack I got a few years back at a book fair. This is about a group of Parisians who appear to be quite cool, falling in and out of affairs with each other, mixing in the theatre and literary scene, but really they are each making a mess of their lives.

31) The secret in their eyes by Eduardo Sacheri (2005)
crime
I was really impressed with the film when I saw it several years ago so picked up the book for Jan's GeoCAT on South America challenge. The story is told through the recollections of Benjamín Chaparro who has retired after a long career in the judiciary system. He decides to write a book based on a brutal murder case that he was involved in. The story is mainly set in 1970s Buenos Aires and follows Chaparro's attempts to get justice for the young husband of the murdered woman, an obsession that ends up involving him in Argentina's dirty war. The film won an Oscar for best foreign language film in 2009 and has recently been remade by Hollywood.

Books I'm taking back to the library unread that I'll have to get out again at some stage -
The pawnbroker: a novel by Edward Lewis Wallant
The cosmopolites: The Coming of the Global Citizen (Columbia Global Reports) by Atossa Araxia Abrahamian
In the skin of a monster by Kathryn Barker - Australian YA

I'm trying this year to rely less on library books and more on reading from the 'tbr' pile. So I've frozen most of my library holds and will release them in dribs and drabs and work harder at clearing a few of my own shelves.

Hi Kerry,

just stopping by to say hello and let you know that I set up my own thread again. I hope, I will be able to stay on board this year. However, as usually I am looking forward following you again, as we do have quite a similar interest in books.

>36 avatiakh: Ahem, I think I might recommended that one to you on goodreads :).
However, I saw that you and Heather discussed that book on her thread and I gave her my clumsy interpretation of what I thought the story was about.

"I read the German edition, but I definitely will read the English edition soon as well, also I am sure that it will be translated well as it was published with Peirene.

It is indeed a tad difficult book. If I wouldn't have read beforehand about the political references I am not sure whether I would have enjoyed the book as much as I did. I am even not sure, whether I really made all the right connections, or whether I am just assuming. However, I am a complete sucker of this particular writing style of long, everlasting, convoluted sentences. I think that's why I quite like Kafka and Saramago so much.

Also the story is set somewhere at the end of the 1960's beginning of the 1970's the book deals more with the beginning of the disintegration of East Germany which started in the 1980's. However, I think it still can be viewed as a kind of political parable.

The control of the father which he has over his family and their quiet acceptance of these rules reminds of the intimidation through the Stasi. In his role he could be the "head of the state". He encourages "telling" on each other, a common practice during the Stasi reign.
It is quite shocking to see how the family is led by this father like marionettes on strings just to maintain the facade of a happy, middle class family.

The increasing dissatisfaction and admittance of their true unhappy and unbearable living circumstances, whilst waiting for him, could be seen a sign of the growing rebellion in East Germany, which ultimately led to the fall of the wall in 1989. There refusal of answering the phone shows the growing resistance and anger of the mother towards the father.

The mussels who were supposed to be the feast and most revered item for the evening get thrown away into the garbage, this kind of could show the growing detachment of the family to the father - or the detachment of the people to the ruler of East Germany at that time.
In my opinion the open ending could demonstrate the uncertain political situation at that time.

Ok, this is what I got out of the story after I read a few interviews and explanations by the author :) . "

Oh, thanks for that explanation, it does make sense. I read Anna Funder's Stasiland a few years ago and also visited East Berlin before the wall came down.

32) The Secret Throne by Peter F. Hamilton
children's fantasy
I really enjoyed reading Hamilton's first foray into children's fantasy. This is the first in the Queen of Dreams trilogy, the next book is due out later this year. When sisters Taggie and Jemima spot a white squirrel wearing glasses in their garden they don't realise that they are about to embark on an amazing adventure in another realm doing battle with the King of Night.

The David Fickling edition has a far more interesting cover.

>151 avatiakh: I didn't realise the film was based on a novel, wI'll have a look for it. I watched Hitchcock today and had the same thing - I had no idea Psycho was first a true crime story.

Have a wonderful weekend!

>156 charl08: I didn't know that about Psycho either. I found The secret in their eyes in a mark down bin, up till then I hadn't known there was a book.

>157 DianaNL: Hi Diana. It's a three day weekend and very hot sun.

I seem to be flying through the books this month, I'm sure I'll be reading less in February as the holiday season slows down.


Robert the Bruce: King of the Scots by James Roberston (2014)
YA illustrated nonfiction
I was checking my library's catalogue to see if they had any of James Robertson's books in digital format and saw this listed as a graphic nonfiction so requested it. It's the story of Robert the Bruce, simply told and illustrated with bold vibrant art by Jill Calder. Lovely. No Robertson e-books so I'll have to dig into my book piles for the elusive paperbacks.


Jill Calder illustration - http://www.jillcalder.com/jillcalder_illustration_people.php

33) The songs of kings by Barry Unsworth (2002)
fiction
I listened to the wonderful narration by Andrew Sachs, he truly made this book for me. Helen has been taken to Troy by Paris. The Greeks have taken up arms, the armies are all ready to sail to Troy, but...the wind won't die down. All the action takes place in those frustrating few weeks spent waiting for the wind. Perhaps a sacrifice will appease the gods and allow them to sail. As leader of the armies, Agamemnon must send for his beloved daughter. The irony that the godly, beautiful and virginal daughter, Iphigeneia, must be sacrificed in order to rescue Helen who has most probably run off with Paris.
What makes this into a minor masterpiece is that Unsworth gifts the band of heroes modern day speech and what they have to say isn't the stuff of heroes.

34) 100 days of happiness by Fausto Brizzo (2015 Eng) (2013 Italian)
fiction
This was a bestseller in Italy and that striking book cover is the reason I pulled it off the shelf at the bookstore, and the fact that it was an Italian writer was the reason I went home and requested the book from the library.
To start with I almost gave up in the first few pages as I didn't get on with Lucio the main character, he cheats on his wife, and treats his infidelity lightly, that is until his wife throws him out. He's living in the stockroom of his father-in-law's bakery, which specialises in doughtnuts, and finds out that those stomach pains he's been ignoring is actually terminal cancer. The rest of the book is Lucio climbing out of the hole that he's made for himself and seeking the forgiveness of his wife, spending quality time with his children and friends. It's delightful, sad and funny. Lucio is quite endearing (eventually), he decides a few days after the diagnosis to give himself 100 good days and books into a Swiss clinic for day 101. I was shedding tears for the last 20 days, my father also died young from cancer and the comparison thing didn't help.
A light read but full of lovely literary references, Italian food, hearty love, zest for life and a road trip.

35) Audacity by Melanie Crowder (2015)
YA fiction
A delightful verse novel about the life of Clara Lemlich. It starts in the Ukraine and continues through the family's journey to the US and Lemlich's work in the sweatshops of New York which led her to organise a union for the women workers. Included is a few pages of historical notes and photographs, an interview with her grand daughter, a glossary and a list of references.
I became aware of this book thanks to the National Jewish Book Award, Audacity was a finalist in the 2015 YA section.
There's a picturebook about Clara as well, Brave Girl: Clara and the Shirtwaist Makers' Strike of 1909.

Hey, I am having a bookshelves purge, there maybe one or two books which take your fancy let me know if interested ... have pics can put up on FB or dropbox

Thanks Alex, always interested. scifi? We can do a swap.

Hi Kerry. Getting caught up after our long vacation. You have read so many books!
So sorry to hear that your kitty hasn't turned up. Sorry it's been such a rough year for pets.

>163 roundballnz: - Ooh can I crash that party? *grin*

>155 avatiakh: sounds intriguing and the cover look amazing.

36) The war that saved my life by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley (2015)
children's fiction
Reason I read this is the recent awards it picked up, both a Newbery Honor (2016) & Schneider Family Book Award (Middle Grades, 2016). It's a wonderful story.
It reminded me of Goodnight, Mr Tom by Michelle Magorian which I finally read last year, in that evacuee children are saved from an abusive London mother. 10 yr old Ada has never left the London room that her mother rents, her younger brother does have more freedom, but Ada can't walk due to her deformed foot and her mother is ashamed of her, calls her useless, locks her in a little cabinet under the kitchen sink as punishment. When her brother is on a list of evacuees, Ada sneaks out early with him (she's spent months learning to hobble across the room) and gains her first taste of freedom.
While Ada's survival instinct serves her well in getting away from her mother, it does make it almost impossible for other adults with good intentions to get close to her. Ada is a tough little nut earning our respect for her determination and loyalty to her little brother. Recommended.

>165 nittnut: Hi Jenn - yes, can't believe how much I've managed to read. I need to read a few library books and then settle down to a slower pace. I've frozen all my library requests and will bring them home when it suits me, my 2016 strategy.

>166 drachenbraut23: Bianca - Hamilton usually writes adult scifi and this is his first (as far as I know) foray into fantasy and children's books. This year I'm planning to read all the Hamilton I haven't as yet got to.

>155 avatiakh: Straight onto the wishlist. Do you know I've never read any of his science fiction?

Kerry, As always, I am so impressed with all you read.

What a great start to the reading year Kerry. Definitely running top five in the reading "league table", I'm sure.

So pleased that Barry Unsworth met with approval.

>165 nittnut: of course pics are on FB are u on there ? If not can share them via Dropbox - let me know

Kerry there are one or two

172> I sent you a PM late last night. Great selection, Day after tomorrow was a really great read wasn't it.

>172 roundballnz: Yup - I'm on FB. I'll pm you.

Kerry - I can't remember if you recommended Amulet to us, but the kids are loving it, and I've quite enjoyed it too. My 9 year old is on book 5 and he devours them. He requests them at the library and then very impatiently waits. I think we've finally hooked him. Bwahaha!

>167 avatiakh: I'm so glad you liked this one, too!

>169 ronincats: I started with his Greg Mandel trilogy, shorter than his massive space operas and enjoyable. Great North Road is a good standalone read as well.

>170 Whisper1: Thanks Linda. I still can't believe how many books I've read in Jan.

>171 PaulCranswick: Hi Paul - always enjoy an Unsworth. This year I hope to tackle Sacred Hunger as well.

>174 nittnut: Hi Jenn, no not a series that I've recommended. That's great when you get them hooked. Deltora Quest used to be a good one for boys of that age, each book is short but packed with adventure.

>175 scaifea: Hi Amber. I thought it was exceptional.

37) The Red Abbey Chronicles: Maresi by Maria Turtschaninoff (2016) (2014 Finnish)
YA fantasy
Ooh, my first 2016 book, hot off the press! I read a couple of reviews late last year and couldn't wait to read this one. Maria Turtschaninoff is apparently quite an established fantasy writer in Finland and this is her first book to be translated to English.
The Red Abbey is on an island and is a sanctuary for women. Maresi is a young novice who came to escape the Hunger Winter which claimed her younger sister. New arrival Jai has come to escape her father and the repressive society she grew up in. The Goddess is made of three aspects: the Mother, the Maiden and the Crone.
Enjoyable and finishes as Maresi is on the cusp of a new adventure.

>161 avatiakh: Well, you got me with that one, too!
And I think I might keep an eye out for The War That Saved My Life for my grand niece.
And The Red Abbey Chronicles, too....

>178 EBT1002: Another one in this genre just caught my eye on my twitter feed - Love in Lowercase is set in Barcelona and about a lonely male linguist...'a charming and linguistically witty story about love, language, Barcelona, and cats.'

I'll be recommending The War That Saved My Life for a long while...and especially good for young horse lovers.

One thing I'll add about The Red Abbey Chronicles is that it's a quick read, some YAs lately have been quite time consuming.

>77 lkernagh: Love this cover - so striking.

I've decided to give up on our endless days for now. I'd decided to read it as LTer @gaskella had it as her book of the year on her blog, but I'm just not patient enough after 40pgs to keep going. It's probably the strange family dynamics that are doing me in.

I'll have two library books and a couple of nonfiction reads to get done before heading off on holiday and once away from home I'll be focusing on ANZAC challenge books and Dalrymple's From the Holy Mountain.

38) Prisoner of Night and Fog by Anne Blankman (2014)
YA

The sequel to Prisoner of Night and Fog was a finalist in the YA section of the Jewish National Book Awards which is how I found out about this excellent historical fiction set in 1930s Germany. And it really is excellent, I've already got Conspiracy of Blood and Smoke on request and hope to get it early next week.
Gretchen's father served in the same unit as Hitler during WW1, they'd spent four years together. Then during the 1923 Beer Hall Putsch her father was one of the ones who died, he pulled Hitler down and shielded him with his body. Now in the early 1930s Gretchen, her mother and brother are living on a stipend from the National Socialists, her older brother is in the brownshirts and Gretchen is often invited to evenings with her Uncle Dolf and is friends with Geli, his half-niece and is best friend with a young impressionable Eva Braun.
When Gretchen is contacted by Daniel, a Jewish reporter, who asks her if she wants to find out the truth about her father's death she is finally forced to question all her beliefs about Hitler, the party and even about Jews, all the beliefs that she has been raised on...and then there is her brother, is he a psychopath?
While Gretchen and her family are fictitious, the book is based on true events, Blankman includes some notes at the end of the book explaining this, plus a fairly extensive bibliography.
What I liked is that when Gretchen finally reads and muses on Mein Kampf, it's Hitler's own writing that begins her questioning his character. Blankman's book is a thriller of sorts but also an intellectual and thoughtful read.

Oh and to add that Blankman's next book, historical fiction set during the times of Charles I, looks really interesting. Traitor Angels ....'the daughter of notorious poet John Milton, Elizabeth has never known her place in this shifting world—except by her father’s side. By day she helps transcribe his latest masterpiece, the epic poem Paradise Lost, and by night she learns languages and sword fighting. Although she does not dare object, she suspects that he’s training her for a mission whose purpose she cannot fathom.'

>176 avatiakh: We have a few of those Deltora Quest books around, though I think my daughter is reading them. It's kind of annoying and kind of funny, if she recommends a book, he won't read it. Lol

Try him with Robert Muchamore's Henderson's Boys series. Not fantasy but set during WW2 about how his CHERUB organisation comes about, I love the CHERUB series though it's probably for slightly older kids.
Anthony Horowitz's Alex Rider series?
Artemis Fowl series by Eoin Colfer

Playing big-time catch-up on your thread.

>95 avatiakh: Sorry about the loss of your cat. Definitely a "Black Beauty."

>97 avatiakh: Waiting on our order of that one to arrive. I put in the request the same day the prizes were announced, but our director was out sick so the purchase order couldn't be made. It took him a couple of weeks to catch up on e-mail. I think we finally have the winners and finalists on order.

>137 avatiakh: I still haven't made it to that one. Hopefully soon!

A trip to the bookshop which is having a promotional sale, I picked up:
_
My sister Rosa by Justine Larbalestier - Australian YA
Anna and the Swallow Man by Gavriel Savit- interesting new YA set during WW2
Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen - my daughter picked this out, she wants her own copy.

also new & noted for future library requests:
____
__
Max by Sarah Cohen-Sali - French YA about Nazi Germany's lebensborn, awful cover
Passenger by Alexandra Bracken - YA fantasy, great cover
The Silver Witch by Paula Brackton - Celtic fantasy
Shylock is my Name by Howard Jacobson- would like to try another of his and this is a rewrite of The Merchant of Venice
The first thing you see by Grégoire Delacourt - French fiction, just see now that this is the one that Scarlet Johansson tried to have banned.
Fever at Dawn by Peter Gardos - Hungarian Holocaust novel - this I would have bought except for the high retail price. I think this has also been made into a movie and I've seen the trailer. it's based on a true story.
Sirius: the little dog who almost changed history by Jonathan Crown - WW2 novel

adding Love in lowercase by Frances Miralles which I came across yesterday.

I think Howard Jacobson must be doing the rounds of a book tour just now as I've caught him twice speaking about his new book. I did the Merchant at school (one of the ones I liked - so much more interesting than Henry V whipping everyone into battle) so will aim to read this. He's written an article for the paper today. http://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/feb/05/villain-victim-shylock-shakespeare-...

>186 thornton37814: Hi Lori - I'm also slowly catching up on threads. All the light we cannot see is well worth the effort.
Still wishing the cat would just saunter back into the house.

>187 avatiakh: Thanks for the link. I liked his Booker winner, The Finkler Question, so many readers didn't.
I came across the book in this article: http://www.timesofisrael.com/how-would-shylock-have-fared-in-21st-century-britai...

>189 avatiakh: added All the light we cannot see and The Finkler Question to mount TBR

Very sad - From DH Lawrence’s home to industrial mills, is regional heritage in jeopardy?
http://www.theguardian.com/culture/2016/feb/07/britain-risks-becoming-cultural-d...

>190 FAMeulstee: Anita - The Finkler Question has not been a popular read here on LT, though a few of us liked it.

I've just watched the film version of Suite Francaise, a good enough adaption but the book is better. Also started the tv series The Leftovers but after 3 episodes I won't be continuing, I've added Tom Perrotta's book that it's based on to my 'to read' list instead.

39) The unexpected professor : an Oxford life in books by John Carey (2014)
memoir
John Carey writes an entertaining memoir about his childhood that becomes far more interesting once he arrives in Oxford to study literature. He discusses student life in the various colleges, books he reads, professors and writers and poets that influence him as he advances to become a professor of literature himself. He writes books, translates and/or edits others and has also reviewed over a thousand books mostly for the The Sunday Times. Overall it is immensely interesting, I feel I have received a mini English lit education.

Other books he's written that I'm now fairly keen to explore are his Faber Book of Reportage which I've owned for a few years, Faber Book of Science and his Faber Book of Utopias, he writes about these all in a compelling way. I also own his biography of William Golding though I want to read more of Golding's work before I read that. He talked about the marvelous resources he had access to, including 20 years worth of Golding's journals that took him 6 months to read.

>193 avatiakh: I've had that one on the wish list for some time. I must get around to it.

Happy Sunday, Kerry! Hope you are having a fine weekend. I see, you are busy with the books. I have Letting it Go, lined up for my next GN. I hope it works better for me. Glad we agreed on Two Brothers. That will be a highlight, all year.

The Songs of Kings also sounds very good. I recently finished Morality Play, my first Unsworth and thought it was excellent.

>193 avatiakh: I do like the sound of this. His writing is lovely - I got a copy of a book on the kindle that was a short article about something bookish that happened that day. Fun.

Happy Sunday, Kerry!

>161 avatiakh: I saw this one in Italy aand thought it might be just some tearjerker. Now I want to read it! Must check the library.

>160 avatiakh: The Unsworth sounded very tempting until I got to "modern day speech". Knowing my issues with historical fiction I'll be careful, but will read the sample anyway .

>193 avatiakh: That one sounds interesting as well.. Let's see if I can find it here.

Ooh, lots of overnight visitors!

>194 SandDune: Rhian - he includes interesting discussions of important writers. I enjoyed reading his thoughts on D.H. Lawrence especially.

>195 msf59: Hi Mark, yes, Two Brothers will be a year highlight. I loved that one. The songs of kings was a winner for me because of Andrew Sachs.

>196 charl08: Charlotte - He came out to New Zealand a few years ago to our annual writer's festival. I saw him twice, once in front of 1000 high school students which was an excellent talk and I was impressed with the level of questions he received from the students too. Also in a panel discussion, he's a thoughtful speaker. Mostly he was talking about Golding as the bio had just come out.

>197 Deern: Ooh, I hope you like 100 days of happiness, you do have to be patient with Lucio as he's quite annoying.
The songs of Kings worked for me as an audiobook, not sure how I'd have felt about it in book form.

My library is stopping a list feature that I was using and starting a new one in another part of the website. I hadn't used it much, but just went through and copied out by hand the list I'd added to over the past few years. Quite a number I've now read and several others don't take my fancy anymore, but a few jumped out as 'read me', 'read me', but I can't request them at present as I'll be away for three weeks in 10 days time.

Ferdydurke by Witold Gombrowicz - 1937 Polish novel deemed subversive by the Nazis
Trains of Thought: Paris to Omaha Beach, Memories of a Wartime Youth by Victor Brombert - coming of age in Paris memoir
The Beautiful Truth by Belinda Seaward - WW2 Poland
A Noble Treason: The Revolt of the Munich Students Against Hitler by Richard Hanser
The Cavendish Home for Boys and Girls by Claire Legrand - YA
Anya's War by Andrea Alban - YA
The old country by Mordicai Gerstein - children's fiction, this one I have requested

40) They Call Me Alexandra Gastone by T.A. Maclagan (2015)
YA
Teen spy novel that's quite appealing. Madagan is from the US but now lives in New Zealand and this is her debut novel.
It's a fairly complicated setup involving a young girl who survives a car crash in Europe that kills her parents, she's sent to live in the US with her grandfather, her sole relative, but she's actually a sleeper agent, an imposter, from a country that borders Iran. Now seven years later she's about to graduate highschool but she's also about to be activated years ahead of time.
Quite good twists in the story that keep you on your toes.

41) The Lie Tree by Frances Hardinge (2015)
YA
This recently won the Costa Book of the Year Prize, an unusual feat for a children's book and last done by Philip Pullman in 2001. The judges described it...'“It is part horror story, part detective story and part historical novel. The tone throughout is extremely accurate, not only is it cleverly the voice of a 14-year-old girl ... but it is also the voice of a precociously intelligent girl within what is a very male-dominated society. We all loved this dark, sprawling, fiercely clever novel that blends history and fantasy in a way that will grip readers of all ages.” ”
I loved this, as I've loved others by Hardinge.

It's set in Victorian times, in the world of natural history, exploration and fossil hunting. Darwin's theory of evolution challenges religion, and our young heroine Faith, who would love to follow in her father's footsteps finds herself stymied by society's expectations of a woman's role in society. Her family suddenly leaves their comfortable home in southern England as some scandal involving her father and a fake fossil specimen becomes public knowledge. They journey to a remote island where he's been invited to join a dig for fossils but dies in suspicious circumstances within a couple of days of their arrival.
Faith is sure it has something to do with a strange plant that she helps her father to hide in a cave only hours before his death.

Nice review, Kerry! I had that one on my list after reading about it in the link that Charlotte posted. Good to know that it delivers.

>200 avatiakh: That one sounds good, Kerry, but I'll be waiting for the translation ;-)

>200 avatiakh: Sounds brilliant! I'm looking forward to reading it. She came across as such a nice person in the interviews when she won.

>201 Crazymamie: >202 FAMeulstee: Very satisfying on several levels.
Anita - have her other books been translated? I've enjoyed at least two others by her.

At present I'm nearing the end of the audio of Bone Gap and am loving the writing in Anna and the Swallow man.

>193 avatiakh: That sounds like an excellent read. Adding it to the pile. Also adding >199 avatiakh: and >200 avatiakh: :) Always dangerous to stop by your thread Lol. Dangerous in a good way, of course.

>200 avatiakh: I've just finished The Lie Tree as well and enjoyed it a lot. I hadn't come across anything by Frances Hardinge before but will be looking out for her from now on.

>204 avatiakh: No, I could not find any books by Frances Hardinge in Dutch :-(
But I hope this one will come, awarded books have better chances to be translated.

>187 avatiakh: Howard Jacobson rewriting The Merchent of Venice? Interesting. If I knew the play well enough it'd make great reading. All I can remember of it is a soliloquy that we were made to memorise at high school :)

I just saw the latest clip "Fetch" from The Essential Tremor on YouTube, like it but my fave is still "Curious" :-)

>203 charl08: I've only read her fantasy so far, but this one is firmly in Victorian times with one fantastical element. I liked how she kept showing us the frustrations for women in many small ways. I didn't realise that a family could be ruined by the father committing suicide, all the wealth and property would be forfeited to the government.

>205 nittnut: Hi Jenn - yes, all those are good.

>207 FAMeulstee: Anita - Fingers crossed that she gets translated. I know you'd like them.

>209 FAMeulstee: Oh I haven't even listened to that one yet. I don't visit FB that often but Alon did say that it was about to be released. The band had a break over summer and get back into it next week.

>208 LovingLit: Hi Megan. I'm looking forward to reading it, but will wait for a few reviews to filter through first.

I finished Anna and the Swallow Man by Gavriel Savit - just wonderful

42) Bone Gap by Lauren Ruby (2015)
YA
This won the 2016 Printz Award for YA. I listened to the audio and while it was a bit difficult to follow at first as the action jumps between various characters I eventually sorted it out. The story is laced through with magical realism and is based on the story of Persephone, love and loss.
Two lonely brothers living in Bone Gap befriend Roza, a beautiful Polish woman who turns up one day in their barn. Then she goes missing again. Finn, the younger brother, sees her abductor but can't describe him.
This is a complex story with lots of threads that only come together towards the end. Yes, there are bees.
Review here: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/10/books/review/bone-gap-by-laura-ruby.html?_r=0


43) Anna and the Swallow Man by Gavriel Savit (2016)
YA
This debut novel is a wonderful read, it starts out feeling like a fairytale, mainly as it is told from the POV of the child, Anna, who is completely innocent in a time of war. It's set in Poland during World War 2. I won't say anything more about the plot and just say this is a story for all ages and will be one of my highlight reads for the year.

From the Jewish Book Council: 'When her father is taken in the purge of intellectuals from Krakow in 1939, Anna is 7 years old and alone in a city with little kindness left to spare. She meets a mysterious man with more promise than those her family once called friends, and together they set off with urgency to go away rather than toward anything....Anna and the Swallow Man is a book billed for ages twelve and up, but as Anna’s father once said, “Men who try to understand the world without the help of children are like men who try to bake bread without the help of yeast.” Readers who have delved deeply into Holocaust literature and history will still have what to discover in Anna’s story.

Part fairytale, part magical realism, and part psychosocial exploration of what it may mean to grow up surrounded by horror, this short novel cannot be contained within its pages. An exquisitely haunting narrative written in prose that dances, Gavriel Savit’s debut will take your breath away.' - http://www.jewishbookcouncil.org/book/anna-and-the-swallow-man

So happy that touchstones are back working.

>212 avatiakh: So am I, Kerry :-D

Have a happy weekend.

44) Adam and Thomas by Aharon Appelfeld (2015)
children's fiction

I still haven't read any of Appelfeld's adult work so this recent publication, a fable for children based loosely on his own Holocaust story, is an easier place to start.
Adapted from wikipedia: Appelfeld was born in the Bukovina region of the Kingdom of Romania, now Ukraine. In 1941, when he was eight years old, the Romanian Army retook his hometown after a year of Soviet occupation and his mother was murdered. Appelfeld was deported with his father to a Nazi concentration camp in Romanian-controlled Transnistria. He escaped and hid for three years before joining the Soviet army as a cook. After World War II, Appelfeld spent several months in a displaced persons camp in Italy before immigrating to Palestine in 1946, two years before Israel's independence. He was reunited with his father after finding his name on a Jewish Agency list. The father had been sent to a ma'abara (refugee camp) in Be'er Tuvia. The reunion was so emotional that Appelfeld has never been able to write about it

This is a story about two Jewish boys, classmates, who meet in the forest in the last year of the war. Their mothers have told them to wait there until the war ends. They are able to survive by building a nest in a tree and foraging for berries and forest fruits, also through the kindness of a young girl, who brings them small amounts of food from a nearby farm. This is all gently told, the harshness of the war is rarely alluded to. They hear shots fired in the distance, help an occasional injured person, but there is no betrayal or cruelty the focus is on kindness and humanity...

Illiustrations by Phillipe Dumas throughout. Discovered this book through the Jewish National Book Awards, it was a finalist in the 2015 children's literature section. http://www.jewishbookcouncil.org/awards/2015-national-jewish-book-award-winners-...

>215 avatiakh: Thank you Kerry for uncovering another hidden gem.

Have a lovely weekend.

Hi Paul. Lovely weekend included mail delivery of three beautiful books from Alex @roundballnz who was culling his library.
Theatre of Gods by Matt Suddain
Buried in Books: a reader's anthology
Religion for Atheists

I also managed to pick up Testament of Youth at the library sale table, the Penguin Classics edition.

My current focus reading is:
The Old Country by Mordechai Gerstein - children's book about a girl who stared for a little too long into the eyes of a fox.
Papers in the Wind by Eduardo Sacheri - Argentina and soccer, I loved The secret in their eyes so have to read another Sacheri novel asap.
The Wild Girl by Kate Forsyth - novel about Dortchen Wild and the Grimm brothers. (ANZAC challenge)
The widow and her hero by Tom Keneally - my current audiobook, interesting so far. (ANZAC challenge)

I also have several e-books out from the library mostly in preparation for the upcoming trip, trying not to overload on paperbacks in the suitcase.
Throne of Jade by Naomi Novik (Fantasy Feb)
From the Holy Mountain by William Dalrymple (BAC)
The Denniston Rose by Jenny Pattrick (ANZAC challenge)
Sirius: the little dog who almost changed history by Jonathan Crown - pseudonym German author, http://www.dw.com/en/dog-shares-world-war-ii-adventures-in-novel-sirius/a-186100...
Jonathan Unleashed by Meg Rosoff - hot off the press
Corner of White by Jaclyn Moriarty - (Fantasy Feb)

45) The Reckoning: How the Killing of One Man Changed the Fate of the Promised Land by Patrick Bishop (2014)
nonfiction
Bishop tells the story of the Stern gang who operated during the British Mandate Period in Palestine leading up to the creation of the state of Israel. After the death of Stern the group adopted the name Lehi (Freedom Fighters of Israel). Bishop also backgrounds the Palestine Police during the 1930s and early 1940s. The book focuses on the parallel fortunes of Geoffrey Morton, the Assistant Superintendent at Jaffa Police Station and Avraham Stern, leader of the Stern gang. It also covers the controversy around Morton's shooting of Stern during his arrest. Over the years there were several court cases in England where Morton sued various publishers as books were published contesting his version of the events.

I was motivated to read this as I visited the Lehi (Beit Yair) Museum last year when I was in Israel, it's located in the actual building where Stern was arrested and shot. You walk through the tiny rooftop apartment where Stern lived in hiding, it's now dedicated to the life story of Stern and includes the original furnishings and some of his poems.
I also visited the Irgun/Etzl Museum which is located right by the sea in a beautiful adapted building. We bought a museum pass that included so many museums that we couldn't do justice to them all. The IDF History museum was also well worth visiting.

Stern was sitting here just before he was shot


Irgun museum


The IDF History museum

Fiction set during this period that focuses on the British presence includes:
The sergeants' tale by Bernice Rubens
When I lived in Modern Times by Linda Grant
Panther in the Basement by Amos Oz

Jerusalem: the story of a city and a family by Boaz Yakin - graphic novel

..and following the museum theme, I didn't get to the History of the Book Museum in Burgos last year, but after seeing this fun promo video I really wanted to:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=puVrOEnDANE&feature=share

Several books you've mentioned are already on my wishlist, so I was happy to read your comments on them. Prisoner of Night and Fog has been on my radar since it came out, and if the library doesn't acquire it soon now I've asked for it a second time, I'll just have to spend an Audible credit on it. Same goes for Anna and the Swallow Man. I see The Lie Tree is coming out on audio next month, and it's another one I'll ask the library to purchase as it sounds really interesting.

I'd been wanting to read William Dalrymple for years now, not really knowing anything about him, but being intrigued by his topics and beautiful book covers by Jeff Fisher, an Australian artist who has been delighting us with wonderful covers for some time now: http://thejeffreyfisher.com. Got diverted from my original point looking up Fisher, but I wanted to tell you I've been greatly enjoying From the Holy Mountain. Definitely an author I'll be following from now on.

touchstones not working for some reason.

Happy Valentine's Day, Kerry!

>220 Smiler69: Hi Ilana. Anna and the swallow man is newly published so it might take a little while for your library to get it. I've been really happy with the number of books my library takes up from my 'suggestions for purchase' requests. I was very taken with Prisoner of Night and Fog and hope that the sequel is as good. I won't have time to read it before my trip as the request took so long to get to my library for pickup. I'll have 4 days when I return to get through it.

Looking forward to my William Dalrymple read. He was incredibly popular when he came to Auckland Writers and Readers Festival a few years ago, I never got the chance to hear him talk and hadn't read his books.

>221 Crazymamie: Thanks Mamie!

46) The Old Country by Mordicai Gerstein (2005)
children's fiction
I loved this folktale about a girl who is warned about looking for too long into the eyes of a fox.

We leave for Chile and Buenos Aires tomorrow. I'll be away for three weeks and will probably check in from time to time.
I haven't managed to finish any books and took Papers in the Wind back to the library half read, so will get it out again when I return. Will finish reading The Wild Girl when I get back as well as it is too heavy to take with me.

Safe travels, Kerry!

Have a great time - hope that you have plenty of reading for the trip.

Have a great trip away - safe travels

Have a fabulous vacation, Kerry!

Three weeks! How fantastic is that. Have an incredible time! Show off your best pictures when you return! :D

Wishing you safe travels, Kerry! Hope you have a fabulous time!

>224 avatiakh: Sounds like a great trip. Have fun!

Have a great trip!

>224 avatiakh: safe travels & have a wonderful time!

Thanks everyone, just about to head out.

Surely 50 books before March, Hope you have arrived safely and I do look forward to your updates and pictures.

Have a lovely time, Kerry.

Have a great trip, Kerry!

Hey Kerry, I got to Bitter Greens - wonderful read. I'll be looking for her other fairytale retelling too.

Kerry, hope your trip is going well. Have a great weekend and update us all when you can. xx

Hi Paul - yes so far it's been really great Hoping to stay awake long enough to to a quick recap and add some photos. First I've got to get the next ANZAC thread up and running.

My trip so far:
Tomorrow is our last day in Chile and we've enjoyed both Valparaiso and Santiago immensely. The people are extremely friendly and helpful everywhere. Santiago feels quite prosperous and has a large middleclass, few signs of poverty here. I talked to a guy at the front desk at the Museum of Human Rights yesterday and he said they've had a lot of economic migrants coming from Peru and Ecuador also a few from Argentina. There are almost as many Peruvian restaurants here as there are Chilean ones. While I'm really loving the Chilean cuisine my husband is favouring the Peruvian, so we alternate between the two.
Peruvian cuisine has been influenced by the Chinese slaves that were brought by colonists in the 16th C and then as a labour force in the 19th century. The fusion dishes (chifa) I've had so far just taste like mediocre to bad Chinese food, though my husband has been more adventurous. Last night I had lomo saltado and for me it was just a beef stirfry with onions and tomatoes served with rice and french fries. I don't eat much shellfish or prawns so that side of it is lost on me, also ceviche is not on my agenda.

Valparaiso is on the coast and the main port city of Chile. It's a little seedy, dilapidated but lots of colourful personality. Nearby is the resort of Vina Del Mar which is modern, chock full of new buildings, bustling modern restaurants and crowded beaches. The metro linking the two coastal cities is modern, very clean and stops at numerous beaches between the two. We loved exploring Valparaiso, the city is built on steep hills and so is served by several ascensores or funicular railways which takes out some of the work of climbing. What I noticed most were the street dogs, it's summer and hot, so they just lie around everywhere. They seem to be well fed, though their coats are quite matted. Everyone just steps around them. We visited Pablo Neruda's house here and his home in Santaigo as well, both are very quirky places.

Ok Valparaiso photo time:

Valparaiso:


book shop

La Sebastiana - Neruda's Valparaiso home

Valparaiso:

Neruda statue



The houses in Valparaiso are a rainbow of colours, these photos don't do them justice.

Thanks for all the photos Kerry. Valparaiso looks like a place well worth a visit.

I'll start a new thread later today, but an update on my completed reading:

Jonathan Unleashed by Meg Rosoff - great canine influenced read
Sirius by Jonathan Crown - enjoyable, not great German canine read
Throne of Jade by Naomi Novik - Temeraire book #2
The Gossip from the Forest by Tom Kenneally - armistice talks at end of WW1
The Denniston Rose by Jenny Pattrick - great 19th century NZ coal mining story

left on plane (minor reading disaster) - The French Tutor by Judith Armstrong - so unfinished till I get a library copy back in NZ

Love the pictures - especially the bookshop. I can make out Hemingway and maybe Marx (or is that just the beard?) on the walls.

>244 PaulCranswick: Paul - it was lovely,just need to be a bit careful after dark.

>246 charl08: Charlotte - Good detective work! I think there are a few Latin American writers there. Here's the link to the image in my photobucket a/c, much larger - http://s811.photobucket.com/user/avatiakh/media/Sth%20America%202016/IMG_1313_zp...
I passed the shop a couple of times but unfortunately there was always a car parked in front so I couldn't take a good photo.

Book purchases:
From Neruda's house I bought an illustrated copy of his 20 Love poems and a song of despair. It's for my daughter who is 19, Neruda was 19 when it was published.
I also got the exhibition guide to Chile Before Chile from the Museum of Pre-Columbian Art. One of the more impressive museums I've been to, the ceramics and textiles chosen for their art rather than their archaeological value which is very pleasing to a less informed visitor.
We saw a short video of the Santiago metro trains covered in fabulous illustrations of his 20 poems, the poems decorating the ceilings inside. The Culture ministry also handed out the illustrated poems on postcards so most of the population of the city ended up encountering Neruda in their daily journeys for a few weeks. This was a year ago, what a fantastic tribute. I can't find the clip but there's this news item which includes parts of what I watched: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O9LAzpuoGo0

Great photos and descriptions of your Chilean holiday, Kerry! A visit there is relatively high on my wish list.

That Neruda tribute sounds inspired. What a great idea to hand out poems to celebrate. I love the tube poems in London. Or almost any public poetry project I've ever come across, tbh.

Love the photos. Thanks for sharing.