avatiakh (Kerry)'s literary travels, part 2

Window display in Santiago

At present I'm on holiday in South America, just finishing up ten days in Chile before heading to Buenos Aires for ten days. I posted some photos of Valparaiso at the end of my first thread and will post some more of Santiago on this one. I'm also trying hard to finish two books by the end of Feb, one for the ANZAC challenge and another for the BAC.

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:

Jan GeoCAT on South America:
Andean Express by Juan de Recacoechea (Bolivia)
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
February
William Dalrymple - From the Holy Mountain - READING

ANZAC
Jan/Feb
James McNeish - Lovelock
Ronald Hugh Morrieson - Pallet on the floor
Jenny Pattrick - The Denniston Rose
Thomas Keneally - Gossip from the forest
Judith Armstrong - The French Tutor - READING
Kate Forsyth - The Beast's Garden
Mar/Apr
Hamish Clayton - The Pale North

@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
February: History
The Reckoning: How the Killing of One Man Changed the Fate of the Promised Land by Patrick Bishop
The Ottoman Centuries by Lord Kinross - try for later in year
March: Travel
From the Holy Mountain by William Dalrymple - carry over from BAC Feb
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?

books I've read and need to comment on:
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 Keneally - armistice talks at end of WW1
The Denniston Rose by Jenny Pattrick - great 19th century NZ coal mining story

and should finish by end of Feb - The Beast's Garden by Kate Forsyth
hoping to finish From the Holy Mountain by William Dalrymple

Looking forward to your comments on the Kenneally, which was a fave of mine when I read it. I don't think I've read a book by him that I haven't liked yet. Shame and the Captives is sitting and waiting for me...

Loved your pictures on the last thread, Kerry!

>6 Chatterbox: Suzanne, I would say I admired this one and as the time passes and I keep thinking back to it I realise what a great feat Kenneally achieved with writing it. I definitely want to read some nonfiction about all this. I can recommend The chant of Jimmy Blacksmith. I too have Shame and the captives on a tbr pile at home.

>7 ronincats: Hi Roni, Valparaiso was very picturesque in a dusty, neglected sort of way. Have to say that I can't get over the dogs taking siestas on the streets everywhere. Didn't see any cats living rough.
We hope to come back in a future trip, the cost of flights to Chile & Argentina are quite competitive.

Love the topper picture. Even when I can't speak the language I love browsing bookshops when travelling. Happy new thread.

So we have had about six days in Santiago and enjoyed this part of our stay as well. It comes over as a prosperous city with several modern neighbourhoods and has the tallest building in Latin America, the Sky Costinera. We stayed in the central downtown after dithering between there and the more trendy Providencia area and haven't regretted. We walked everywhere and felt quite safe. We visited two museums, the Museum of Pre-Columbian Art which was an eye opener with a special exhibition of the textiles from the Paracas mummies in Peru (online catalog here: http://www.precolombino.cl/wp/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/Catalogo-Exposicion-PAR.... As I said in an earlier post the ceramics in the museum have been chosen for their beauty rather than their archaeological value so every display case is quite captivating. You learn just enough about the local Mapuche Indians to want to read much more about them. I bought the exhibition guidebook, Chile before Chile as a starting point. The museum covers pre-Columbian art from all Latin America not just Chile.
We also went to the Museum of Memory and Human Rights which documents the Pinochet years. Everything here is in Spanish, but easy to navigate with an audioguide in English. According to tripadvisor this is the #1 attraction in Santiago though I wouldn't place it so high. We ended with a few questions which the staff at the entry point were happy to discuss with us, we compared notes between Chile and New Zealand and even discussed the Trump phenomena with them. The Museum also houses the archives for the era and serves as a memorial for the missing and lost. Another area for more reading, the staff recommended looking for books about Pinochet's Condor Years, maybe I'll look at The Condor Years: How Pinochet And His Allies Brought Terrorism To Three Continents.
Years ago I read a book about CIA interference in Latin American politics, I need to read it again, it might have been Talons of the Eagle: Dynamics of U.S.-Latin American Relations though that was first published in 1996 which is a couple of years after my Spanish and Latin American history papers but the title seems familiar. Came across this CIA Intelligence Reading List - https://www.cia.gov/library/intelligence-literature
The other book I'll be rereading is Open Veins of Latin America: Five Centuries of the Pillage of a Continent.

We also visited Pablo Neruda's Santiago home, La Chascona which like his Valparaiso home was fascinating for its quirky design and his collections, artworks and decor. Photography wasn't allowed for the interiors.

So even though I'm not a seafood lover, I managed to try the Chilean seabass, hake and their famous conger eel on this trip. I enjoyed it all though mostly I loved the spicy mashed potatoes, the pebre salsa and the Chilean bread, pan hallulla, a sort of cross between bread and an English scone. I finally got to try pastel de choclo at one of the more vintage fuentes de soda (Chilean diners or just 'fastfood), Bar Nacional.
Oh, and yes a few pisco sours, I even had an Inka Gold soda. We ate in several Peruvian restaurants as well, their Salsa de Rocoto can be very fiery and well worth searching out if you haven't tried it before.

Santiago photos in the next post, just need to upload a few more from yesterday.

>9 charl08: I agree, the bookshop was for rare books and I'd love to have stepped inside. I'm looking forward to visiting Walrus Books in San Telmo, BA, it's an English language bookshop, they host writers and run writing workshops etc. I swapped some books there on my last visit, though I've mainly been reading e-books this trip.
When my children were younger, I used to love buying colourful picturebooks in all the countries we visited regardless of whether we understood the language or not. I had some particularly lovely board books in German and Dutch.

Happy New Thread, Kerry! I hope all is well with you. I have had Cold Granite saved on audio, forever.

ETA- Looks like you had a wonderful time in Chile. Looks beautiful.

Plaza de Armas

Plaza de Armas

Allende memorial statue

pastel de choclo - sweetcorn pie

pedestrian street central Santiago

Pablo Neruda's Santiago home

shop in Los Dominicos handicraft market

Mapuche burial statues at Pre-Columbian art museum

pisco sour...yum

Museum of Memory & Human Rights (not my photo)

Providencia neighbourhood

Sky Costanera, tallest building in Latin America. Great views.

cafe cortado - my favourite, an espresso with a little milk & froth

Los Condes neighbourhood, modern commercial buildings, an attractive park and a popular modern shopping centre

Great photos and travelogue, Kerry. I'll have to consider going to Chile in the next 2-3 years.

Happy New Thread Kerry.

>14 avatiakh: I am going off to make my version of that wonderful looking coffee you put up. Great photos - wish we were with you.

Happy New Thread, Kerry. Enjoying your Santiago photos. I'm really glad the BAC and NF challenges proved great inducements to start reading William Dalrymple. I found From the Holy Mountain to be fascinating reading. I'm now a fan, and have just received two of his other books, In Xanadu and The Age of Kali, which, along with City of Djinns are added to the pile of books I can't wait to get to.

Love the photos. Pablo Neruda's house! :) Thanks for sharing your travels!

Loving the travel photos ..... thanks for sharing

>15 kidzdoc: Darryl - definitely a great destination. We are already talking about coming back.

>16 PaulCranswick: Hi Paul - hope you enjoyed your coffee. The cup is small, just a step above espresso size.

>17 Smiler69: Ilana, I'm struggling with Holy Mountain, mainly because I'm tired of e-book reading and want to read real books again after a couple of weeks on kindle and overdrive platforms. And it doesn't read well while on holiday myself. So I've put it on hold till I return home and pick up my own copy. I have a couple of other books by him, got caught up in the enthusiasm of his works back when he visited NZ a few years ago. Everyone seemed to have read his work and enthused.

>18 nittnut: Hi Jenn. Yes, Pablo Neruda's homes were really special.

>19 roundballnz: hi Alex. Adding a few of Buenos Aires. The hotel wifi is sort of only ok, so we'll see when I can get them up.

I've finished a few more books. I also visited Walrus Books in San Telmo, they buy sell used books in English as well as host writers and have writing workshops. I didn't buy anything (had a pretty good browse of their shelves though) but sold them my just read copy of Kamchatka.

Reading update:
The Beast's Garden by Kate Forsyth
Kamchatka by Marcelo Figueras
Cold Granite by Stuart McBride
The Prince in Waiting Trilogy by John Christopher - omnibus.

on the go:
Someone to run with by David Grossman - compelling start
The Dragonbone Chair by Tad Williams - epic fantasy, just getting into it
Jennie by Paul Galico - love this so far
Anything That Isn't This by Chris Priestley - dystopian YA

I've been to Buenos Aires several times so haven't been doing touristy things so much and I've already photograhped it all before. Anyway I snapped these on this trip.

Every time I come there are workers protests, they make lots of noise, close off the traffic on the busiest street and set off loud noise bombs. Here are some of the many drummers. Last time I was here they were camped out for over a week or two on the street. The new conservative government has been trying hard to fix the problems caused by years of rule by the last socialist government, a Kirchner dynasty (2003-2015), both husband and wife became president in their turn. When she lost at the last election, Kirchner spent her last two weeks in office doing as much menace as she could, spending enormous amounts of money on projects, approving bad budgets, appointing officials etc so the incoming president has his work cut out for him.


empanadas are a daily necessity!

San Telmo dog


I've eaten so much steak, all good!

one order of steak (500gm), enough to feed 3-4. You forget how huge the portions are at this restaurant. We had a monster chorizo as well. Had a long walk after this meal.

San Telmo restaurant

restaurant in Palermo district

I also visited El Ateneo Bookshop, there are several branches but the one on Santa Fe Avenue is considered one of the most beautiful in the world. http://www.atlasobscura.com/places/el-ateneo-grand-splendid

Wow, El Ateneo looks beautiful. How do you know where to start?!

The Queen Victoria mural is striking - thanks for sharing these photos.

The empanadas and the steak look to die for.

Thanks for the update Kerry. xx

Have a lovely Sunday.

Happy new thread, Kerry. Sounds like you have been having a great trip. The pictures you have been posting have been wonderful!

Kerry how much longer are you in South America?

Have a lovely weekend wherever you are my dear and stay safe. xx

Hi Paul - I got back yesterday.

Welcome home, Kerry!

Thanks Roni.

I just started listening to Stone's Fall by Iain Pears, but when I went to add the book to my currently reading list over on GR, I read the plot outline and it's a completely different book to the one I'm listening to! So complaint sent in to the library and I'll choose another audiobook as I have no idea what I've been listening to.
A bit of sleuthing - I've been listening to The Reading Room by Ruth Hamilton.

ok, going back and commenting on my last 4 weeks of reading -


47) Jonathan Unleashed by Meg Rosoff (2016)
fiction
Rosoff is well known for her YA fiction. She's an American who lives in the UK and mostly her writing is set in the UK. Here she writes an amusing adult novel set in New York. Hapless Jonathan is working a crap job at an advertising agency hoping to be discovered for his creativity. He's also just taken charge of two dogs for a six month period while his brother is working in Dubai. Having two neurotic dogs in his life forces Jonathan to make changes, reassess his going nowhere job, his relationship with his longterm girlfriend and begin visiting his local vet for support. I enjoyed this slightly madcap romance.


48) Sirius: The remarkable story of a little dog who almost changed history by Jonathan Crown (2015 Eng) (2014 German)
fiction
A bestseller in Germany by a well known journalist, but published under a pseudonym. This tells the story of Sirius a little dog who has big adventures. Sirius is living with a wealthy German Jewish family in Berlin and at the outbreak of war the family moves to Hollywood in California where the father, a well known academic ends up as chauffeur to a movie star. Soon enough Sirius ends up in the movies, he's a big star but overworked and through a mix-up he ends up back in Berlin where he becomes a mascot for the Nazis.
A silly, enjoyable enough read. The end was a little weird, I can't see that Jews would rush back to Germany as the war is ending, the only part in the book which I really couldn't agree with, just felt even for a comic read that it didn't feel right

49) Throne of Jade by Naomi Novik (2006)
fantasy
The second Temeraire book in which the ownership of Temeriare becomes an issue between the British and the Chinese. Laurence and Temeraire must travel with a Chinese delegation back to China to sort it all out. Definitely want to keep reading the series.
A Fantasy February book.

Hi, Kerry! Welcome home! I hope you had a wonderful time in Chile. Looking forward to hearing about, all those books, you squeezed in.

Hi Mark - I was also in Argentina. Yeah, I sort of hit the wall last night doing the comments thing. Will try again today.

50) Gossip from the Forest by Tom Keneally (1975)
fiction
My first Keneally novel since The chant of Jimmie Blacksmith. This one is about the armistice negotiation that shut down WW1 and is quite an interesting read even if it doesn't completely engage the reader. I have to admit to being a bit ignorant of the details till I read this. The personalities especially those of the Germans really stays with you once the book is finished and I am keen to read more on this part of history. Mattias Erzberger was the chief German negotiator and struggled with the harsh conditions that were presented by the Allies, he was later assassinated for signing the Armistice.

From wikipedia: According to the New York Times Book Review's Paul Fussell, Gossip from the Forest 'is a study of the profoundly civilian and pacific sensibility beleaguered by crude power.... it is absorbing, and as history it achieves the kind of significance earned only by sympathy acting on deep knowledge.'

Read for the ANZAC challenge - http://www.librarything.com/topic/211011

Another welcome home from me Kerry. Dropping by to catch up on you and your reading. I mean to fit in Keneally's Napoleon's Last Island soon, especially as Suzanne gave it such high praise. Really loved The Lie Tree last week and look forward to reading more by Hardinge. Also really glad I picked it up sooner rather than later. A future reread in the making for sure.

Hi Ilana. I finished another Keneally on audio the other day and have been finding him rather dry at present. I remember loving the Jimmie Blacksmith book and will try one of his more recent novels next. I have the audio of Napoleon's Last Island on request at the library, I'm promised it in early May.

The Lie Tree was really good, I've read a couple of her earlier books but will be seeking out the more recent ones on my TBR pile.

51) The Denniston Rose by Jenny Pattrick (2003)
fiction
I've had this one on Mt tbr for some years so the ANZAC challenge was again helpful in clearing another book from there. I enjoyed this much more than I thought I would. Pattrick has brought the early years of this small mining town to life in a very human story.
It's set on the West Coast of the South Island and about the bleak life of a small isolated community stuck in the hills and built around a lucrative coal mine. Stuck because the only way in or out was by the coal company's coal wagons via the steep incline. Most of the women never went down the incline again, the trip up was enough for one lifetime.

Here's a poem on the Denniston website that sort of sums up the situation:
Damn Denniston
Damn the track
Damn the way both there and back
Damn the wind and damn the weather
God damn Denniston altogether
ANONYMOUS


A more modern photo from the 1940s gives you an idea of Denniston's isolation

http://www.denniston.co.nz/history
'The Denniston Plateau is home to one of the richest, high quality coal seams in New Zealand. For decades it was the country's largest producing coal mine, with an estimated 12 million ton carried down the incline during its operation from October 1879 to August 1967.
Widely referred to as "the Eighth Wonder of the World", the Denniston incline was recognised the world over as a remarkable feat of engineering. Linking Denniston with the Conns Creek rail head below, the incline fell 510 metres over 1.7 kilometres in two sections, incorporating dramatically steep gradients.

Read for the ANZAC challenge

52) The Beast's Garden by Kate Forsyth (2015)
fiction
A novel set in Nazi Germany that's a retelling of the Beauty and the Beast fairytale. To save her father, Ava marries a young German officer who serves in the intelligence ranks of the hated regime. The story revolves around those who don't agree with Hitler's vision for Germany and is quite a good read though not outstanding.
Forsyth did a lot of research for this and inserts many well known personalities such as Diana Mitford who were sympathisers as well as those who stood up to Hitler. The author notes were quite informative on her passion for this project.
Here are her pinterest pages where she collected online resources: https://www.pinterest.com/kateforsyth/the-beasts-garden/
https://www.pinterest.com/kateforsyth/german-resistance/

Read for the ANZAC challenge - I also started Forsyth's The Wild Girl but the book was too big for taking on holiday, will finish it later in the year.

53) Cold Granite by Stuart McBride (2005)
crime
Set in Aberdeen during a cold wet winter. DC Logan McRae has just returned to work after months off recovering from awful injuries caused on his last case, now he's expected to quickly solve a possible serial killer case, a killer who is targeting young boys.
I liked this debut and will pick up the others in the series when I come across them.

54) Kamchatka by Marcelo Figueras (2003)
fiction
This Argentinean novel is set during the 1976 military takeover of Argentina. The boy's parents are low level left wing activists and at risk so the family suddenly goes into hiding. The boy renames himself Harry and the book is mostly focusing on his experiences rather than giving us an insight into the coup itself. So we follow his adventures with his brother while hidden on a rather bland country home, the problems of toads drowning in the swimming pool, the loss of favourite possessions as the family goes into hiding so suddenly.
The title comes from a place name used in the boy's game of 'Risk' which he plays against his father. Kamchatka, a peninsula in the Russian Far East is a strategic place to hole up in during the game and is also the last word he ever hears his father say (not a spoiler).
I enjoyed this but not possibly as much as other recent readers. Another fairly long term resident of my tbr pile, mine was an uncorrected proof copy so had been there for a while.
I sold my copy to Walrus Books, a used English language bookshop in Buenos Aires. The first thing I was asked was if I'd seen the film, so I'll have to look out for it.

_
55) The Prince in Waiting Trilogy by John Christopher (1970)
YA dystopian
This is three books but I raced through all of them so fast I'll consider it one book, especially as I read them in an omnibus edition. An excellent dystopian story that is more realistic than predictable. The young Luke becomes the Prince in Waiting when his father is chosen to be Prince of their city state and the three books follow the fate of the young lad as he grows into his inheritance.
The story is set in a future England, one that has been ravaged by some sort of technological disaster which has led to the banning of all machines and each small region is a city state, ruled by the strongest.

56) Anything That Isn't This by Chris Priestley (2015)
YA fiction
A dystopian style story that Priestley was inspired to write after visiting Prague. I enjoyed this quite a lot.
Frank's world is dull, there is a greyness that seems to suck the vibrancy out of the surroundings and also the people. He shares his room with a 'student' who observes the family and notes down everything they say, so they are careful not to say anything of note. Now that school is over, he should get a job, and that means employment at the Ministry where his Dad and sister go every day. The setting feels East European, stasi-like and the plot kafkaesque.
Sprinkled throughout are stark illustrations by Priestley which do add to the atmosphere of the tale.
http://www.theguardian.com/childrens-books-site/gallery/2015/oct/18/chris-priest...

57) Jennie by Paul Galico (1950)
fiction
A sensitive story about a young boy named Peter who in the aftermath of an accident slips into the body of a cat. He's befriended by Jennie, an abandoned cat who teaches him how to be a cat and survive on the streets. Together they have numerous adventures. Sounds adorable but it's much more than just a cute story.
Alternative US title is The Abandoned.
It's set at the end of WW2 in a bombed out London, lots of abandoned cats living in the ruins. Peter's father is hardly home, he's in uniform and his work takes him around the world. His mother is a social butterfly, glamorous and never home nor has time for Peter. All Peter wants is attention and a cat, but his Scottish nanny is allergic to them so this is a no go. Rushing across the street to greet a pretty cat in the park, he is knocked unconscious by a passing taxi and wakes up as a cat and thrown out of home and onto the streets by the nanny...

58) The Widow and Her Hero by Tom Keneally (2007)
fiction / audio
Another ANZAC challenge read, this time on audio. Quite an interesting novel, still didn't totally engage me though I appreciated the focus of Keneally with this one. It's based on a real event from the war, Operation Rimau.
The story is told by Grace looking back from her old age to the glory days of the war. She marries the dashing Leo Waterhouse in 1943 and is widowed in the last days of the war. Her dead husband was a hero and over the years she is intruded upon time after time with journalists, Japanese ex-servicemen, a US ex-military who all add to Leo's story whether she wants it or not. The novel tells Grace's story over her lifetime but also gives us the story of Leo's war service and what happened on Operation Rimau.

From the Guardian review by PenelopeLively - 'Commando training, submersibles, limpet mines; the furnishings of Thomas Keneally's 25th novel could make it sound like a conventional tale of second world war derring-do. And, at one level, it is indeed just that; but it is also a subtle examination of the concept of heroism, of what it is that makes young men risk their lives, and why - especially in the climate of that time. (Grace) is tormented by the thought that bravery was its own end, that the purpose was to be brave, even to be doomed. This clever, compelling novel asks some uncomfortable questions.'

Operation Rimau - https://www.warhistoryonline.com/war-articles/operation-rimau-account-top-secret...

59) The Dragonbone Chair by Tad Williams (1988)
fantasy
Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn #1 of 3
Oh, I'm free again. This is classic high fantasy, over 900 pgs, so I was lost in an enjoyable 'Lord of the Rings' style quest for a couple of weeks while I made my way through this. I've had the book on my tbr pile for several years, I was gifted a second copy through the LT Santathing as well, so it's long been on my reading radar.

Simon is the 'castle kitchenboy', he doesn't really fit in anywhere, his parentage is long forgotten but the castle wizard decides to have him as a part time apprentice. Eventually after much scene setting, story backgrounding, Simon goes on his quest, meets a troll with a pet wolf, does a few good deeds, grows up a little etc etc. Meanwhile the Evil influence is gaining power, it's more than just a bad king, it's an old power from hundreds of years before, out of the books of legends and founding myths....can't wait to get into the second book for all the glut of book #1.
I really enjoyed the ending, though it's a bit of a cliffhanger?

Current reads:
Birds, Beasts and Relatives by Gerald Durrell - audio of book 2 of the Corfu trilogy.
Someone to run with by David Grossman - enjoying this, love the premise
The Eternaut by Héctor Germán Oesterheld - huge GN from Argentina
Only Ever Yours by Louise O'Neill - YA sort of Stepford Wives type read, interesting so far - my kindle read
From the Holy Mountain: A Journey in the Shadow of Byzantium by William Dalrymple - travel, on hold till I find my paper copy, I was e-reading from the library while on holiday
Between the world and me by Ta-Nehisi Coates - non fiction

>44 avatiakh: Oooh now you have me excited about The Dragonbone Chair, Kerry. I think that whilst science fiction can be a tad (pun very slightly intended) dry, fantasy on the other hand seems to open up so many possibilities for the imagination. I have that on the shelves and it may not stay there much longer now.

>40 avatiakh: Ah, I remember reading that trilogy as a young adult. Amazing how much they have not dated for being 45 years old.

>42 avatiakh: I adored Jennie, although I did know it as The Abandoned, as a child, crying my heart out every time I read it.

>44 avatiakh: Isn't that a great fantasy story? I need to reread it (it's been a long time) but it is quite a time investment.

>46 PaulCranswick: I'm more a scifi reader than straight classic fantasy. If you already own The Dragonbone Chair then give it a try, keep in mind that it was written almost 30 years ago and so predates some of the more popular ones such as A Game of Thrones.

>47 ronincats: Roni - The Prince in Waiting was very good, I didn't feel it was dated at all. I especially enjoyed the feminist element with the princess from Wales standing up for her rights.
I would have loved to read Jennie when I was much younger, such a beautiful cat story. Explained to my daughter as a book version of the UK tv show 'Life on Mars' but with cats rather than a 1970s timeslip.
I remember a few years ago that @alcottacre (Stasia) was doing a shared read of The Dragonbone Chair with another LTer, though of course she managed to get through it in a day or so. I'll wait a couple of weeks before committing to the next one as I want to read a few books for the ANZAC challenge.

Last weekend my travels around the city included a stop off at The Hard to Find Bookshop in Onehunga, a real mecca for used book lovers. I was fairly restrained and came away with just 4 books plus a credit for my next purchase.
Monsieur Ibrahim by Éric-Emmanuel Schmitt, includes another novella Oscar and the lady in pink
The Duel by Giacomo Girolamo Casanova
High Towers by Thomas Costain - historical fiction
The novellas of Martha Gellhorn

just one corner of this rabbit warren of a shop

“Good as it is to inherit a library, it is better to collect one.” ~Augustine Birrell, Obiter Dicta, "Book Buying"

Love the shelf picture.

Sorry that Kamchatka wasn't such a pleasurable read for you. I really liked Bitter Greens so will watch for your comments later in the year.

>49 avatiakh: Love it! I'd love to visit this store some day. I can imagine it took restraint to keep your haul to four books, Kerry.

>49 avatiakh: Oh God where are my air-tickets to NZ? I would certainly fill my boots!

Have a lovely weekend, Kerry.

>49 avatiakh: Amazing looking bookstore!

The first book by Thomas Keneally I read was called Confederates, which I absolutely loved, and which is about the American Civil War. This was years ago, and I thought at the time it was one of the best descriptions of the horrors of war I had read. (Don't know if that would still hold true). I was amazed to learn after reading the book that the author was Australian. I've since read several other Keneally books, none of which I liked as much as Confederates. I still have Daughters of Mars on the TBR shelf.

60) Someone to run with by David Grossman (1983)
fiction
I loved this right from the first page. Assaf, a 16 yr old boy with possibly Aspergers or mild autism, is working a summer job at the Jerusalem City Council not doing much when he's called in by his boss. There's a dog that's come into the pound and won't stop barking and being disruptive. Assaf's job is to take it and hopefully it will lead him to its owner. The dog takes him on a merry chase all over the city, stopping be greeted by an array of eccentric characters who all recognise the dog. Slowly he realises that the dog's owner is in danger, that whatever she's been doing has led her down dangerous paths. Assaf and the dog need to find her before it's too late.
I can't wait now to see the movie of this book, I'm fairly sure that I got it when I was in Israel last year.

>53 arubabookwoman: I read that Keneally almost became a priest in his youth and that the time he spent in the seminary shows through in the pacifist tone he took with many of his earlier novels. I have lots of his older fiction on my tbr pile as I collected them from used bookstores after being so charmed by The chant of Jimmie Blacksmith.
I'll have to look out Confederates, I have a feeling my copy is so 'used' that I won't want to read from it.

>50 charl08: >51 jnwelch: >52 PaulCranswick: It's an amazing bookshop, I go there 2 or 3 times a year and generally my haul is much larger than just 4 books.

Charlotte - I liked Kamchatka for what it was, but was wanting a book that focused more on the politics of the time. Another The secret in their eyes or The Ministry of special cases.

Thanks for visiting my thread, it reminded me to drop my star on yours, and now I found Someone to run with to add to my TBR! :)

>54 avatiakh: Someone to run with sounds good and it is available in translation at the library! I will look for it when I go there tomorrow :-)

>54 avatiakh: Drat, I have the dvd for Grossman's Book of Intimate Grammar, not Someone to run with. So I'll have to start reading more Grossman.

>56 sirfurboy: Welcome to my thread. Great book and still good even though he wrote it a while back.

>57 FAMeulstee: Anita - I hope you enjoy. I have his Be my knife and now The Book of Intimate Grammar lined up and they are both enticing.

Last night as a follow up to my holiday in Chile and visit to their Museum of Human Rights and Memory I watched the film No which stars Gael García Bernal (mini swoon). At the museum we watched a small tv playing footage from both the No and the Yes campaigns for the referendum which marked the end of Pinochet's reign. It was so surprisingly upbeat after all the displays of disappearance and torture.

wikipedia: The 2012 film is based on the unpublished play El Plebiscito, written by Antonio Skármeta. Mexican actor Gael García Bernal plays René, an in-demand advertising man working in Chile in the late 1980s. The historical moment the film captures is when advertising tactics came to be widely used in political campaigns. The campaign in question was the historic 1988 plebiscite of the Chilean citizenry over whether dictator Augusto Pinochet should stay in power for another eight years.

61) Pax by Sara Pennypacker (2016)
children's fiction
Beautiful story about a boy and his pet fox, Pax. In the first chapter the boy is being taken by his widowed father to stay some months with his grandfather. On the way they stop in the wilderness and release Pax, a decision that the boy immediately regrets and does his best to rectify. In the meantime Pax must survive in the wild. All this taking place in a country at war. Includes delightful illustrations by Jon Klassen.


A good NYT review here by Katherine Rundell: http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/14/books/review/pax-by-sara-pennypacker.html?_r=0

>58 avatiakh: I saw that at the cinema. Great film. I'll swoon in the other direction. I loved the reactions to the (then) new gadgets when he was doing the pre political ads.

Oh yes, the microwave was so 'in' back then. Our neighbour worked in a microwave shop at the time and his wife did all their cooking with one. I also loved the 80s vibe in the film.

Pax sounds wonderful. Will look for it at the library.

>58 avatiakh: I saw this film at a film festival here a few years ago. I loved hearing the Spanish spoken, having lived in Chile for a year it is still a very familiar tongue to me. And so beautiful. The Chileans have in common with New Zealanders our fast talking :)

The Santiago photos take me back! I was there in 2000 most recently.

62) Only Ever Yours by Louise O'Neill (2014)
YA dystopian
I hadn't heard of Irish writer O'Neill till last year when her second book, Asking for it, came out. I decided to read her first novel which sounded interesting in a Stepford Wives sort of way.
Only Ever Yours is truly discomforting. Set in a future where females are bred to become submissive and docile 'eves'. They are raised at an isolated school by 'chastity sisters.' Their only concern is to be the perfect weight, perfect shape and look stunning, all their lives revolve around how they rank in their class of 30. Of the 30 eves, only 10 will be chosen to be companions to the male Inheritants, 10 more will become concubines and the rejects will serve as chastities or just go 'Underground'. #630 or Freida is in her final year, desperate to remain in the top 10 rankings, be chosen as a companion and finally step into the outside world that she's only seen through the tv.

Definitely moving on to Asking for it which is about a girl who is ostracised through social media after being raped by a group of teen boys.

>64 avatiakh: Those sound like disturbing reads. Not sure I will follow you in reading them, although the concept is brave.

>65 sirfurboy: Only ever yours was an interesting take on the obsession with looks and diet in modern society and how we judge people especially celebrities by their appearance.
Asking for it is unfortunately already out there, New Zealand found that out a couple of years ago with the Roast busters teen rape gang. Ironically no charges for the boys as no formal complaints were made. 'It is alleged the teenagers enticed underage girls to get drunk, had group sex with them, then posted details of their so-called conquests on social media.'
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/crime/10674764/Roast-Busters-case-No-charges-to-...

Have a wonderful Easter.

63) Ophelia and the Marvelous Boy by Karen Foxlee (2014)
children's fiction
I loved reading this Snow Queen retelling. Ophelia and her sister accompany their father to a foreign city where he is curating a sword exhibition at a magnificent museum. It's a modern day fairytale, Ophelia must rescue the Marvelous Boy from a locked room so he can fulfill his quest.
Thanks to @scaifea for mentioning Foxlee on her thread a while back.

I need to get a copy of Pax. The illustrations look so delightful. And, a fox. I mean... what's not to love?

Have a great weekend, Kerry!

>67 PaulCranswick: & >68 DianaNL: Thank you

>70 EBT1002: Oh yes, that's what I thought when I saw it was about a fox.

Now I'm thoroughly ensconced in another children's book, The Mystery of the Jewelled Moth by Katherine Woodfine, so am reading that instead of the more literary - The Pale North & The Invisible Mile. I want to finish both of these before the end of the month....so we'll see if I can break away from delightful children's stories for a few days.

Also loving, now that I'm well into it, the graphic novel, The Eternaut. 1950s Argentinean scifi with radioactive fallout and an alien invasion.

Happy Very LONG Easter Weekend. :) I've sent you a hopeful PM. I'll be in Auckland next weekend.

Thanks Jenn. Will check out the message. Hope that the weather holds out for next weekend.

Ha - me too. But we'll be in Tauranga from Monday, so we will have lots of days to choose from for good and bad weather, Lol.

Editor Anna James is currently tweeting a book recommendation for every 'like' she gets, so far she's up to #100 and has over 200 likes. Looks to be a great reading list - lots of children's books along with the adult fare.
https://twitter.com/acaseforbooks

Kerry

Many thanks for all the wonderful photos!!!!!! I appreciate the time it took for you to enter all those.

So glad you enjoyed Pax! That's a beautiful book, isn't it. I think it's one that's going to be beloved for many years to come.

>75 avatiakh: What a great idea. I'll have a look at her recommendations

>76 Whisper1: Thanks Linda. Reminds me that I want to post my photos of El Alteneo Bookshop, the Santa Fe branch.

>77 jnwelch: Hi Joe. Yes, Pax was great, a lot to love and appreciate. I thought the ending was pitch perfect.

>78 charl08: I love these impromptu lists, she's just looking at her bookshelves and taking it from there. Book blogger Simon Savidge is doing it as well, plus I saw he's doing a giveaway of Bailey's longlist books. https://twitter.com/SavidgeReads

64) The Mystery of the Jewelled Moth by Katherine Woodfine (2016)
children's fiction
This is the second in the quartet that began with The Mystery of the Clockwork Sparrow and is lots of fun. Set in Edwardian London this one involves debutantes, the Chinese community in Limehouse, the mysterious criminal the Baron and our intrepid shopgirls, Sophie and Lil, who work in the glamorous Sinclair Department Store. Each book brings us a little closer to discovering the mystery around orphaned Sophie's family.
I'm officially a fan of this series and can't wait for the next outing - Feb 2017 unfortunately.

A last few photos of Buenos Aires, the bookshop ones I took especially for LT consumption.

Typical Buenos Aires dessert: flan with dulce de leche & cream.

El Alteneo bookstore on Santa Fe Ave from third floor looking towards stage which is now a cafe
_

_


This edition of Lord of the Flies had fantastic illustrations, I took the photo in order to discover more about the illustrator

At entrance to another bookshop, this one in Palermo, a bohemian style neighbourhood. I ended up buying an Argentinean cookbook (in Spanish).

Love the pictures. What an amazing bookshop.

Happy Sunday, Kerry! That El Anteneo bookstore looks stunning.

Everyone seems to love Pax. I better put in a request.

>69 avatiakh: Ooof, I LOVED that one! After finishing the library's audio copy, I promptly ordered a print one for Charlie's shelves.

Belated welcome back wishes Kerry!

You've hit me with book bullets for The Prince in Waiting Trilogy, Jonathan Unleashed, Jennie, The Dragonbone Chair

>37 avatiakh: I'm tentatively interested in The Beast's Garden. I enjoyed the writing in Forsyth's Bitter Greens but found the secual violence quite hard to cope with. How would you say The Beast's Garden compares in that respect?

>81 avatiakh: Wow, that bookshop!

Hope you're enjoying the long weekend.

Bookstore and dessert! Double the wonderfulness!

>81 avatiakh: Wow, a complete theatre turned into a bookstore :-D
Thank you so much Kerry, for sharing these pictures!

Meaning to ask you before, but on Pauls thread you said you had seen Cruijff in a play Ajax-Den Haag, you lived there?

>82 charl08: I love going there even though the books are all in Spanish.

>83 msf59: Pax is a little gem

>84 scaifea: Amber, I've amended my post to say I loved it and now I remember it was from your thread that I found out about Foxlee so also given that a mention.

>85 souloftherose: Heather, I think you'll love all those BBs. Regarding The Beast's Garden, I can't remember being put off by anything like that, though as it's set during WW2 there are some rather violent and sad scenes. The marriage is a love match but a reluctant one as he's in uniform and her best friend is a both Jewish and gay (not spoilers as this all happens early on).

>86 lkernagh: I love flan and the waiter insisted I have the dulce & cream with it which I usually avoid. Boy, was it delicious.

>87 FAMeulstee: Hi Anita. My husband and I spent about three weeks in Amsterdam many years back. I found out I was expecting my first child while we were there. We went to the Ajax match and I became a Cruijff fan.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GSe5_giemnE

>88 avatiakh: Re: Foxlee - I recently read her The Midnight Dress and was disappointed, not because it wasn't good, but because I was expecting a more magic-filled fairy-taled story and it was really just a regular old mystery. Ha! The writing was still good, though.

Wow. Both the flan and the bookshop look delicious!!!

>88 avatiakh: Ah, that was a long time ago, Kerry, back then I was living in The Hague with my parents.
Later, when I had moved out to Rotterdam, Cruijff was his last season (1983/84) with "our" club Feyenoord, we won the Championship that year :-)

>89 scaifea: I wanted to try another by Foxlee, though if they aren't fantasy then I'm less keen too.

>90 EBT1002: I'm going to have to make that flan this next week - withdrawal symptons!

>91 FAMeulstee: Yes, a long long time ago.

65) The Walking Dead by Gerald Seymour (2007)
thriller
I picked this up off the library sale table and started it the other day when looking for a battered old paperback that could take splashes of tomato soup. I was drawn in immediately, this starts out on an Iraqi border with the recruitment of youths who aspire to become martyrs. One of the group is chosen for a special hit, a suicide bombing in the UK.
I enjoyed this as the story follows both the players in the terrorist cell, the personnel in the UK authorities that are on alert, and the members of the public who will be there on the final morning who each will play some part.
This was my second book by Seymour, I read The Outsiders a couple of years ago and noticed that I have his The Collaborator on my 'to read' list.

"started it the other day when looking for a battered old paperback that could take splashes of tomato soup."

This made me laugh :-)

>93 avatiakh: I also like Seymour's way of telling a thriller - he always humanises the interplay very nicely.

Have a great weekend and save some of that tomato soup for when I manage to make North Island later in the year if my plans come to fruition.

>94 charl08: >95 PaulCranswick: I often grab a book to read while I have lunch and I'm a bit of an unlucky klutz when it comes to food, drink and books so when it was going to be tomato soup for lunch I knew I had to be proactive.

Paul - one of the reasons I took The Walking Dead off the library sale table was because it had a blurb on the cover from The Daily Telegraph: 'The finest thriller writer in the world today.'

I've got a few books finished to update. Also decided to stop reading The Invisible Mile by David Coventry, shortlisted for the NZ Book Awards as it's due back at the library in a couple of days and I'm only 50pgs in and just don't feel like pushing for it. I'll have to wait a long while to get it out again.
I have quite a few e-books out from the library that I'd love to get read. I'm enjoying Mrs Hemingway and The Marriage of Opposites has just come into my Overdrive a/c and I'd like to get that read this time round.

I'm also listening to Geraldine Brooks' Nine Parts Desire and have her The Secret Chord to read for the ANZAC challenge.

I've also started reading A death in Valencia by Jason Webster as I really enjoyed the first in the Max Camara series over a year ago.

I have many books ruined by chocolate. I really liked The Secret Chord - one of those books that completely transported me to a different place and time. Hope you enjoy it.

I've not come across Jason Webster at all.

_
Came across these 'Ladybirds' when browsing the shelves at the local bookshop today - they're exactly in the style of the children's Ladybird range.

>98 charl08: Yes, chocolate can be dangerous. I'm on a 'go slow' with my reading and only had 50% of the Brooks audiobook loaded on my iPod for some reason so I still haven't picked up The Secret Chord, I do want to.

Regarding Jason Webster I've read one nonfiction and the first Max Camara book. The nonfiction was interesting travel/culture sort of book, he's a bit of an Arabist so interested in the Moorish history and ongoing implications in Spain. He's married to a flamenco dancer and lived in Valencia for several years, I think he's back in England now. The crime novel was really good, he based it on bullfighting, local politics and the Las Fallas Festival all in Valencia. I read it when I was in Spain last year. I'm halfway through the second Camara novel right now, slowed by watching too much Gilmore Girls on dvd with my daughter.

>97 avatiakh: I was happy to see that Chappy was also shortlisted for the NZ Book awards.

I hope you have a great weekend, Kerry.

All caught up Kerry.

Wishing you a lovely weekend. xx

Hi, Kerry, just checking out what you've been up to, both in books and RL.

Hi everyone, my reading has been fairly dismal of late and bound to continue as I've been given a second 2 week free trial at ancestry.com which means I have to squash a year's worth of research into 14 days. The past 24 hrs have been great for research on my husband's side. A lot of his family moved to the US & Israel and changed their names, so it is a slow process of 'needle in the haystack' but we're making progress.
I also want to untangle an awful mess of my Irish ancestry. The notes my mother made talking to family on her trip to Ireland a few years back don't fit the records I can find.

I gave up on my April Autism listen, Dear Miss Landau, it's a memoir that wasn't appealing, so now I'm listening to The Paris Architect and will probably switch over to the book form for the second half as I can read faster than the audio. I'm also reading a couple of manga and have The Secret Chord by Geraldine Brooks lined up to start.

Good to see you back, Kerry.

Our son did the DNA-based look into his ancestry, and got back 50% Russian (my wife's side), and 50% UK and Western Europe (my side). My wife was interested and thought she might try it, but our son quickly pointed out that she already knows all she needs to - his 50% Russian is her 100%!

>99 avatiakh: They published those Ladybirds here before Christmas last year and I did pick up a few for friends and family - they are very funny and all the pictures are taken from the original children's Ladybird books.

ancestry.com obviously still has you very much in thrall, Kerry. Hope it is productive but that you'll be back to us soon as I am missing those very regular book bullets.

Have a lovely weekend.

>105 jnwelch: Joe, my husband has been completely bitten by the dna approach and it has helped him with his research in some ways. So many immigrants changed their family names on entering the US. My dna result was bland to say the least, we did the FTDNA one and I'm mostly Western European, even my Celtic heritage is muted. I started this by giving my son a DNA test for his birthday present last year, the results excited my husband to insist we did our own. He's an only child of two only children (his mother died when he was 4 & his father when he was 23) so finding family has become important to him.

>106 souloftherose: Heather, I must go back to the shop and read through the hipster one. My son is growing a rather masterful beard and I have suggested he looks up mustache grooming on google.

>107 PaulCranswick: Hi Paul - Yes, I'm going to be posting all my April reading today. I've also signed up for a new LT account to catalog all our dvds. We have a rather extensive collection, many foreign films and can never find the ones we want to watch. At present there is a debate in the house on whether we own the Battle Royale dvd. I'm convinced that in the past lots of our action and scifi dvds have been 'borrowed not returned' by childrens' friends without our knowledge.

The research has been rewarding, I've finally built the link between myself and crime writer Garry Disher, we share the same greatx4 grandparents who settled in South Australia in 1839. It was finding how he joined back up to them that was the challenge. It's fun to do the research, especially finding out about the various ones. I found one distant relative who died in the Second Battle of Gaza during WW1, he was in the Australian Light Horse. I've recently read about the Light Horse regiments so this was of great interest.

Hi, Kerry. Looking forward to your reviews.

Time to catch up on my April reading now that May has begun.


66) The Eternaut by Héctor Germán Oesterheld artwork by Francisco Solano López (1957-9 Argentina) (2015 Eng)
graphic novel
This was a richly rewarding classic scifi. I'd seen the street graffiti on various trips to Buenos Aires, it's all over the place but didn't realise that those images were the main character of this classic homespun tale. The fate of writer, Héctor Germán Oesterheld, and his daughters remains unknown, they were disappeared during Argentina's military dictatorship and the illustrator fled to exile and lived in Spain.

I was fully immersed in this lengthy graphic novel which is about surviving what at first looks like nuclear fallout and then becomes clear is an alien invasion. Our hero doctors a homemade diving suit to go out and explore the ruins of Buenos Aires.
I could go on and on but recommend instead that you read the Guardian review which gives all the political allegory info: http://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/dec/15/the-eternaut-hector-german-oesterhe...

__
street graffiti

67) Birds Beasts and Relatives by Gerald Durrell (1969)
memoir / audiobook
This is the second in Durrell's Corfu Trilogy, the books are narrated very well by Nigel Davenport and I've started the third one now. Just as much fun as My friends and other animals, I won't go into too much detail as you want to enjoy these for yourself. I can't understand why I didn't read this trilogy when I was a teen, oh well, better late than never.

68) The Pale North by Hamish Clayton (2015)
fiction
I loved his debut novel, Wulf and have been looking forward to this one which I read for the Mar/Apr ANZAC challenge. This time he's gone for style over story and delved into art especially photography and the creative process. Quite intellectual stuff and built into a two-part structure that I won't give more away on as you want to discover all this while reading.
A man returns to Wellington, some months after a devastating earthquake has changed the city forever. As he wanders the ruins he ruminates on his past life here as a student who fell in love with the vibrant art scene, and became besotted with one particular photographer's style.
Not a pageturner, more a meditative novel that worked well when I disciplined myself to read a set number of pages each day.

69) There will be lies by Nick Cave (2015)
YA
I've now read three of Cave's novels and enjoyed them all. This one is shortlisted for this year's UK Carnegie Medal. I especially recommend his Haiti one, In darkness.
Shelby's led a protected life with her mother. She's homeschooled and only goes on one outing a week, to the library, then for some icecream and back home. When she's knocked down by a car outside the library, Shelby's name is entered into the computer and her records don't match up. Her desperate mother takes her on the run away from the authorities and then Shelby finds out her whole life has been made of lies.
Ok, what sets this apart is Shelby's dream world which is set in some form of North American Indian folklore. Shelby's friend is Coyote who is sometimes the attractive young librarian she had a crush on, but sometimes a real coyote, and Shelby must rescue the child before it's too late.

70) Nine Parts of Desire: The Hidden World of Islamic Women by Geraldine Brooks (1994)
nonfiction
I listened to the audiobook edition which included a short recap of how things had progressed in the ten yrs after she wrote the book. Brooks was the Middle East correspondent for The Wall Street Journal from about 1986 and traveled all over Africa and the Middle East chasing stories. Along the way she met many women, some in positions of power, others just mothers or American women who've married and embraced Islam in an Arab/Persian country.
Brooks has written not only about these women, her experiences among them and their stories but also about the first women of Islam, the wives of Muhammad and tried to draw parallels between the old and the present day. She shows how women living in Iran have perhaps more freedoms than those living in Saudi Arabia, though from a Western viewpoint it is all perhaps less free. This is a great introductory text.

71) A death in Valencia by Jason Webster (2012)
crime
The second Chief Inspector Max Cámara novel. The Pope is about to visit Valencia, there is a body on the beach and a story involving fraud and abortions going back into the past. Oh, and Cámara is made homeless due to corruption at the time his apartment building went up. Another intriguing mystery set in Valencia and giving us an insight into the corruption of the local politics.
I picked up the third book in a library sale so will be tackling that soon, it's about the saffron mafia operating in La Mancha.

72) Kimi ni Todoke: From Me to You, Vol. 1 by Kimi ni Todoke (2006)
manga
First in a series about a young highschool student who doesn't fit in though the popular boy does want to be friends. Sawako is your average girl except she's not, she tends to not smile and can look a little creepy at times. My daughter loved this series though I found this first book a bit saccharine.


73) Library Wars: Love & War, Vol. 1 by Kiiro Yumi (2008)
manga
(Library Wars: Love & War #1)
Not bad and probably will get better as the series continues. Involves battles against media censorship where the libraries employ trained personnel to protect their books.


74) Bakuman by Tsugumi Ohba (2009)
manga
(Bakuman #1)
Really liked this and will probably continue reading the rest if I have time. Follows a couple of highschoolers who have dreams of being manga artists. The series continues after they leave school. Good because it covers the question of what manga is, what are the skills of a manga artist and some other technical stuff.

75) The Paris Architect by Charles Belfoure (2013)
fiction
Set in Paris during WW2 this is basically about an architect, Lucien, who designs hiding places for Jews using his skills to make them completely undetectable.
My problem with the book was that I never really got on with Lucien, he's really reluctant at the start and only does it for the money. So by the end of the book when he's a 'hero' I was still not completely feeling the love.
For all that it's a good read in the style of Ken Follett and you do get to appreciate the grandeur of the buildings in Paris.
This is the debut novel for Belfoure who is an architect.

76) Mrs Hemingway by Naomi Wood (2014)
fiction
I liked this. The book is divided into four parts for the four wives of Hemingway. Each part alternates chapters between the beginning and the ending of the particular relationship, with the encroaching new wife moving in. So while in part one your sympathies are with Hadley losing Hemingway to Fife (Pauline), by the end of part two you realise just how much Fife loved Hemingway and so on.

____
Thought I'd try a May reading lineup so I can see how I fare during the next few weeks.
I'm reading for a few challenges including TIOLI, ANZAC, Murder & Mayhem May and the BAC

On the go:
Kickback by Garry Disher - ANZAC
Stone of Farewell by Tad Williams (Memory, Sorrow and Thorn #2) - slow cooker book
Garden of the Gods by Gerald Durrell (Corfu trilogy #3) - audio

Stalled:
Conspiracy of Blood and Smoke (Prisoner of Night and Fog #2) by Anne Blankman
From the Holy Mountain: A Journey in the Shadow of Byzantium by William Dalrymple

Planned Reading:

ANZAC challenge
Kickback by Garry Disher
Paydirt by Garry Disher - ANZAC
Lovesong by Alex Miller
Spinners by Anthony McCarten
Daughter of the Forest by Juliet Marillier

BAC:
Robert Goddard - several to choose from
A long way from Verona by Jane Gardam

Murder & Mayhem May:
The Anarchist Detective by Jason Webster

TIOLI
Thomasina by Paul Gallico
Scruffy by Paul Gallico
The Red Collar - Jean-Christophe Rufin

Library Books:
includes some of the above as well as -
The Art of Reading by Damon Young
The Safest Lie by Angela Cerrito - children's
Princess JellyfishVol. 1: Stinging by Akiko Higashimura - manga
Lena Finkle's Magic Barrel by Anya Ulinich - graphic novel
Girl at War by Sara Novic
Ferdydurke by Witold Gombrowicz
Half Lost (Half Life trilogy #3 by Sally Green

also several e-library books though I'm having trouble doing the downloads at present -
The Marriage of Opposites by Alice Hoffman
The Fourth Secret by Andrea Camilleri
The Darkest Minds by Alexandra Bracken - YA scifi

Some fascinating books here Kerry. I had to add The Art of Reading to my wishlist straight away - I hope that it will be published/ distributed here as it sounds so tempting.

I have Nine Parts of Desire in the pile from the library here following the discussion in the non-fiction challenge. Looking forward to it a lot.

The Eternaut sounds fascinating. I think those dreams of future past are intriguing, and more so given the political situation you've referred to. Will see if I can get hold of it here.

Congrats on reaching 75!

Thanks for the tip on The Eternaut, Kerry. I'm going to follow up on that.

>120 charl08: I love the cover art for The Art of Reading, very appealing.

The Eternaut when I first got it was rather overwhelming, just the size of the book, but once I was engrossed in the story I could have kept reading and reading.

>121 FAMeulstee: Thanks Anita

>122 jnwelch: Joe - it's your sort of read.

77) Kickback by Garry Disher (1991)
crime / ANZAC challenge
The first in the Wyatt series. Thoroughly enjoyable crime caper starring Wyatt, a seasoned criminal, who bankrolls himself a rather nice though fairly frugal lifestyle. Just does the occasional job in order to stay in funds, but this current one just goes from bad to worse.
These early Wyatts were quite hard to source but recently became available as e-books.

78) Paydirt by Garry Disher (1992)
crime / ANZAC challenge
Wyatt #2. This picks up where Kickback finished off, Wyatt is organising a payroll hoist in a remote rural area where a gas pipeline is being built. He has a hitman after him and there's a chance he's being doublecrossed.

79) Princess Jellyfish Vol. 1 omnibus 2-in-1 by Akiko Higashimura (2016 Eng) (2008 Japanese)
manga
I really liked this one. I noticed it on a list of must read manga and then had to wait for my library to get it in as it has only just been published in English. My daughter devoured it in a couple of hours and when I picked it up this morning I was quite entranced by the characters and also finished it quickly.
I suggest you venture to the book page and read the review there by LTer @PhoenixTerran if you want to know more about this than just that the main character, Tsukimi, is obsessed with jellyfish and lives in a home with other geek girls who all have quirky obsessions. Tsukimi chances to meet a stylish young girl who is everything the group would normally shun, the girl in turn becomes obsessed with the group. Not a girl but a young man who chooses to wear women's clothes, heterosexual, but insists on defying normal societal expectations. It's a fun read and Kuranosuke, the boy-girl is a great character.
There's a glossary at the end that explains all the Japanese terms such as this type of gender melding behaviour.

Well done Kerry for leaving 75 way behind.

Oh, I missed it! Congrats on blowing past 75!!

>127 PaulCranswick: >128 drneutron: Thanks, I've slowed right down after my whizz-bang start to the year.

The Only Child by Guo Jing (2015)
picture book
This is a wordless picturebook cum graphic novel that shows the influence of Shaun Tan, but doesn't quite have that magnetic pull for me. I liked this, the dreamy quality of the fantasy segment, the limited colour palette etc etc but I wasn't totally charmed either. Maybe I'm growing too cynical in my old age!

Guojing has based this on a particular incident from her own childhood experience as part of the 'one child' policy of the Chinese government. Her lonely life, one of isolation and being left alone at times by a busy mother who worked.
A young girl, at home alone, decides to visit her grandmother but gets lost on the way and ends up in a fantasy world in the sky.

Congratualtions on powering right past the 75 book mark, Kerry!

Hi, Kerry! I see you are steadily reading. A person after my own heart. I was just on vacation and got very little reading in. I have some catching up to do.

Hope all is well with you.

Those illustrations look beautiful Kerry. Shame it didn't work altogether for you.

>131 ronincats: Thanks Roni

>132 msf59: Hi Mark, just not in the mood to pick up a substantive read right now, though I did manage a small chunk of The Red Collar while out for a coffee and want to keep reading so there is hope my funk will end soon.

>133 charl08: Hi Charlotte. Yeah,one of those times when it's more me than the actual qualities of the book. The illustrations are delightful, I think there's a bunch of them on various blogs.


80) The Safest Lie by Angela Cerrito (2015)
children's fiction
Not a particuarly compelling cover on this book. Cerrito knew once she heard about Irena Sendler in 2004 that she'd have to write a book that would commemorate in some ways the heroic actions of Sendler in managing to smuggle over 2000 Jewish children out of the Warsaw Ghetto during WW2. She travelled on a fellowship to Poland and managed to meet Sendler who was 98 at the time. She also did a lot of research, reading the testimonies of the many Jewish children who had been farmed out to Polish households and survived the war.
Many couldn't cope with the idea of being Jewish without any surviving relatives and just wanted to return to their host families where they had lived pretending to be Catholic. This was especially true of the youngest ones who had no memories of their parents.

Anna is 9yrs old when she learns Catholic prayers and her new identity before she's smuggled out from the ghetto. She lives in an orphanage run by nuns for many months before arriving to a Polish family who live in a small village. Her host family have lost their young daughter to the Lebensborn or Generalplan Ost programme (involved taking children regarded as "Aryan-looking" from the rest of Europe and moving them to Nazi Germany for the purpose of Germanization, or indoctrination into becoming culturally German).
Anna comes to love her new family, though she tries hard to remember her memories of her own real family. As the war ends she is eventually collected by a Jewish group and taken to give her testimony and learn about the fate of her parents. All she wants is to return to her host family.

I enjoyed this having watched the film, The Courageous Heart of Irena Sendler, last year it was a good followup. My husband was contacted last year by a woman who said she was probably a distant relative. She had been a baby when her Jewish parents left her with a Polish young woman during the war. Only her father survived and when he went to collect his daughter, the Polish woman was so reluctant to return the child that they married, she converted to Judaism and they moved to Israel. The cousin never knew her 'mother' wasn't her true mother till after the father died and the mother confessed to her. There are many Poles who are only now discovering that they have Jewish heritage as one of their parents was one of thesw hidden children during the war who lost their identity. http://unitedwithisrael.org/young-hidden-polish-jews-rediscover-their-jewish-her...

What a family history story Kerry. I've just read a group of short stories by a Polish writer focused on the experiences of children removed from their parents in Life from Elsewhere. Powerful stuff.

ETA Hanna Krall - I've added her to the work page.

I've read about Life from Elsewhere online somewhere, have noted it again and will ask my library to get it if they haven't already.

My copy of First Light: A Celebration of Alan Garner arrived this morning. I forgot that I had supported the project through Unbound.co.uk which is a site that pitches book ideas. Anyway it is an attractive hardback that I'm looking forward to reading.

>137 avatiakh: Oooh, looking forward to your comments on it!

>136 avatiakh: I looked for her books, but although available in English they're pretty expensive on kindle. Will have to wait for splurge or a sale!

>134 avatiakh: I suppose that the cover is suitable for the book Kerry as it is hiding its truer story?

Have a lovely weekend.

>138 ronincats: Lots of interesting contributors to this

>139 charl08: My library is getting this one at least after I put in a request

>140 PaulCranswick: Hi Paul - probably, though I like children's books to have compelling covers and this one doesn't do it for me.

I got a pile of ex library books at Albany library yesterday. I had a great time picking over their sales trolley. Albany is just to the north of Auckland. When I lived on the North Shore years ago Albany was a village surrounded by orchards, now it's been swallowed up by light industrial zones, a university and a shopping mall. Just the road names remain as I drive around and remember where I used to buy apples etc.

My haul:
The rough guide to The USA - love the rough guides & my husband loves reading travel books
The rough guide to Provence & the Cote d'Azur
The rough guide to Portugal
Blue guide Crete
Fodor's Moscow & St Petersburg
Adelaide 2011 street directory - useful for genealogy

White Storm 101 years of Real Madrid by Phil Bell - for my husband
The Secret Agent: inside the world of the football agent by anon - no touchstone

The children of lovers: a memoir of William Golding by his daughter by Judy Golding
Tartan Tragedy by Antonia Fraser
Cooking with Colleen McCullough
The folklore of Discworld by Terry Pratchett
The gourmet: a novel by Muriel Barbery

from a charity shop:
The New Tsar: the rise and reign of Vladimir Putin by Steven Lee Myers
Edinburgh & the Borders: landscape heritage by Ian Whyte - genealogy resource
Village School by Miss Read
Outliers: the story of success by Malcolm Gladwell

The Seville Communion by Arturo Perez Reverte
The Nautical Chart by Arturo Perez Reverte
Murder in Passy by Cara Black
The Son by Jo Nesbo

81) The Red Collar by Jean-Christophe Rufin (2015)
fiction
I enjoyed this Europa editions read. About a French soldier, a hero, jailed at the end of World War One for an act of disrespect. The Major who is sent, on this his last case, to pass judgement wants to find him not guilty, but the soldier continues to insist he is guilty as charged and deserves to be shot. Outside the jail, his loyal dog who has followed him everywhere through all the fighting is waiting.

82 The Garden of the Gods by Gerald Durrell (1978)
nonfiction
This is the final book in The Corfu Trilogy and was as entertaining as the first two books. It ends with a birthday party for their favourite guest. I listened to the audiobook version.

83) Conspiracy of Blood and Smoke by Anne Blankman (2015)
YA
This is the sequel to Prisoner of Night and Fog which I read at the beginning of the year, not sure if she'll continue to write more on Gretchen & Daniel. It's 1933 and Daniel returns to Germany around the time of the Reichstag Fire and when he goes missing Gretchen also returns to look for him. Gretchen & Daniel, with the help of a German Ring group (German-style mafia) try to uncover the motives for a suspicious murder before Hitler's Enabling Act is passed.
I liked this as we are shown what life was like in Germany as Hitler rises to power and the signs are all there that he is preparing for a war.

84) Asking for it by Louise McNeill (2015)
YA
Definitely not a comfortable read but also a very necessary book. Emma isn't a likeable character, it's clear from the first few pages that she feels the world's her oyster and she seems to be quite promiscuous. However when she gets out of control at a party, drinking too much and then taking pills her friends don't step in and look after her. She's woken by her parents who've found her lying in the full sun on their verandah when they arrive back from a weekend away. She's terribly sunburnt, wearing no knickers, her dress is on backwards and she's hurting and got grazes everywhere. Louise has no memory of what happened the night before but everyone else in the world does know as a facebook page has been set up in her name with explicit photographs, tags and comments. Trial by social media commences. And when an official investigation begins it looks like the four responsible young men will have the backing of the community as she was just 'asking for it', her reputation is known and she did dress and act provocatively.
The book looks at the aftermath of the incident, how Emma is shunned, the effect on her parents and older brother as well as herself.

I'm still reading rather slowly, I seem to be steering clear of any e-books and audio is also suffereing.
My current reading includes:
The marriage of opposites by Alice Hoffman - e-library book
Terminal World by Alastair Reynolds - audiobook
Scruffy by Paul Gallico
The Bombs that brought us together by Brian Conaghan
The Anarchist Detective by Jason Webster
Spinners by Anthony McCarten

Just launched - Academy of New Zealand Literature - http://www.anzliterature.com/

I just looked at the crime fiction article on the ANZ lit website. I don't think I've heard of any of the authors mentioned, so will look out for their work.

Your current reads sound diverse. Look forward to hearing more about them.

>142 avatiakh: I like the sound of The red collar, Kerry, and my library has a copy :-)

The Red Collar sounds interesting, Kerry. I have his earlier book Brazil Red, but I haven't read it yet.

>148 charl08: Charlotte, I'm familiar with most of the names and read a few of the books. I've read Ben Sanders' first book and have him in the Nov/Dec ANZAC list, I want to read his latest one set in the States and then I'll go back and finish the NZ series.
I finally read Paul Cleave's first book The Cleaner last year and enjoyed it and want to read more of his as well. We had Paddy Richardson in the Mar/Apr ANZAC list but I've not read her and didn't even know of her existence till she was suggested back in January.

>149 FAMeulstee: >150 kidzdoc: Do read it. I've requested his The Abyssinian from the library.

>147 avatiakh: Thanks for putting up that link, Kerry. I have books or have read books by 6 of the 15 fellows and have books or have read books by 20 of the 120 writers listed in the alphabetical list.

Have a lovely weekend.

85) The Anarchist Detective by Jason Webster (2013)
crime
Chief Inspector Max Cámara #3. Enjoyed this. Cámara is on extended sick leave and is in his birth town of Albacete to look after his only relative, the ailing Hildago, his grandfather. The Civil War, the Spanish saffron industry and a murder of a teen girl are all stirred into this plot.

The saffron scandal that Webster based his novel on:
According to figures released by Spain's ministry of industry, the country exported 190,000 kilos of saffron in 2010, a sale that netted £40 million.
But local production of the tiny filaments from the purple crocus blooms amounted to only 1,500 kilos...barely one per cent of saffron labelled as Spanish is actually grown in the country, the rest being made up of poor-quality imports from Iran, Morocco and Greece.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/spain/8293582/Spanish-saffron-s...

>151 avatiakh: Thanks Kerry. I've got lots of ideas there.

>153 avatiakh: After a disastrous German crime novel, this sounds like a good change of pace. I'll have a look for it.

Charlotte - I really enjoyed the first in the Camara series which focused on the bullfighting industry and Valencian politics. I've already got book #4 from the library as I like to get up to date with at least one crime series each year.

Currently focusing on Thomasina by Paul Gallico, charming though a little sad so far.

_
86) Thomasina by Paul Gallico (1957)
fiction
Thomasina is the beloved pet of a young girl with no mother. Her father is a brusk, no nonsense country vet who has become even more brusk and no nonsense since the death of his wife. The novel follows his redemption when he faces losing his daughter over the death of her cat, her broken heart and accusation of murder.
Sounds rather dire but this is a lovely story about faith, one is sure throughout that the cat hasn't quite died, surely not because who is the new feline companion of the one the local children call the Red Witch.
This was made into a film, The Three Lives of Thomasina, starring Patrick McGoohan & Susan Hampshire in 1963.

Hi Kerry, I got The red collar from the library and will read it soon.
The Anarchist Detective sounds good too, but sadly there is no translation available (yet)...

Oh, I hope you enjoy The Red Collar. I'll have to visit your thread as you've probably read it by now, I've been so away from the threads this week.


87) Spinners by Anthony McCarten (1998)
fiction
Read this for the ANZAC May/Jun challenge. I've enjoyed the two other books by McCarten that I've read and many years ago we took our staff to see his play Ladies' Night which was highly entertaining. Anyway I loved this one too. Set in a small Taranaki beachtown the story revolves around the fallout when 16yr old Delia declares that she was abducted by aliens and that the abduction included some form of interspecies' intercourse. Eventually she discovers that she is pregnant. She's so sincere and her story is believable when a nearby barley field is discovered with a flattened dead cow and a perfect burnt circle that could only have been done by some form of landing craft. Then two more teen girls declare their pregnancies. All this when the mayor has begun an ambitious waterslide pool project to bring in tourism, the local freezing works announces the loss of most of the jobs in the town by replacing workers with technology and the long defunct town library is reopened by the mayor's nephew who has just been discharged from the army for a violent offence.
Hugely entertaining with a very 'human' cast of characters, the truth is a long time coming here.

88) Deathdeal by Garry Disher (1993)
crime
Wyatt #3. Continuing the series and enjoying them for what they are. Professional crook, Wyatt, is still recovering from the bad luck and fallout of the last couple of jobs. Now there's a chance to score a cool $2 million from a bank, what could go wrong?
Read for the ANZAC challenge

As usual Kerry your reading usually results in me scrambling to see if something is available in the shops or whether I can order it.

I am not really a cat person (despite having three very different feline creatures tag along seemingly half heartedly with the family unit) but Paul Gallico is someone I have meant to read for a while. Spinners also looks a good, if hard to find locally, tale.

Hi Paul, I'd suggest starting with either Gallico's Flowers for Mrs Harris or Scruffy which I'm still theoretically (put down for challenge reading) reading.

McCarten is definitely an author worth trying, you'd probably more easily find Death of a Superhero which is just wonderful or the standalone-ish sequel In the absence of heroes. There's a NZ and a subsequent UK edition of Death of a Superhero, I read the UK one before I knew about it, the story is the same, just the location moved from Wellington to the UK Midlands.
He's more known for persevering and getting the film rights to Travelling to Infinity from Hawking's first wife which resulted in the the rather brilliant film, The Theory of Everything.
I'd offer to mail my copy of Spinners but as soon as I cracked it open the pages started to fall out, so not even a reading copy now.

89) Crosskill by Garry Disher (1995)
crime
Read for the ANZAC challenge. Wyatt #4. Wyatt finally comes back to Melbourne to get revenge on the crime family that fouled up his payroll heist in book #2. He's just after the money that's 'rightfully' his after all. Crooked cops feeling the heat add to the plot and make this a highly enjoyable outing.

My next Wyatt fix will have to wait as I'm #2 in the queue for The Wyatt Butterfly which is an omnibus of the next two in the series. So I've dropped back into Valencia and the Max Camara series, reading #4, Blood Med by Jason Webster.

>161 avatiakh: The one definitely on my hitlist was Mrs 'Arris Goes to Paris but I like the thought of buying a book titled Scruffy.

Oh yes, that's the same book and followups are Mrs 'arris goes to New York and one I recently picked up in a charity shop, Mrs 'Arris, MP.

90) Blood Med by Jason Webster (2014)
crime
Chief Inspector Max Cámara #4. A great installment dealing again with the corruption of Valencian local politics. Cámara is back at his job, the newly promoted boss, his hugely disliked rival, Maldonado. There are going to have to be cuts in the homicide department and Maldonado pits Cámara against his partner Torres in two murder investigations, the onus is on each of them to perform or lose their job. Cámara is saddled with the newly arrived and ambitious head of the Sex Crimes division.
Again I really like how Webster gives you a good look at how Spain actually works what with the political corruption, all the varying activist groups, unemployment problems etc etc.

_
91) Smith's Dream by CK Stead (1971)
fiction
Read for the ANZAC challenge. I've long wanted to read this book that the film Sleeping Dogs was based on. I found it fairly dated but still an interesting read. Having spent a week in the Coromandel last year it was interesting to read about guerilla warfare taking place in familiar locations.
A politically naive New Zealand population is hoodwinked into a fascist dictatorship by a wiley politician. When the protesters are found to include some communist sympathisers the US sends in their military to help subdue a growing guerilla movement. Smith, an innocent bystander, gets caught up in the action when he is mistaken for a rebel spy when in fact he's left the city for a back to basics rural life after a failed marriage.
I'll probably rewatch the film at some stage this year, it was the first New Zealand feature film I saw at the cinema and launched Sam Neill's career.

>166 avatiakh: I will look out for that one, Kerry. I recently read Risk and he can certainly write.

Hi, Kerry! Big waves from the states. Haven't stopped by in awhile but I see you are busy with the books. Hope you are doing well.

>166 avatiakh: Not heard of either of those Kerry - intrigued to hear about Sam Neill's first film though.

>169 charl08: I loved Sam Neill in Reilly Ace of Spies back in the day.

Have a great weekend, Kerry.

>167 PaulCranswick: Paul - The plot of Risk doesn't appeal, though I have several others of his. Penguin have just come out with a new range of award winning NZ fiction in hardcover and one is Stead's The Singing Whakapapa which I'd never heard of before though it won the NZ Award for Fiction back in 1995. Described as a compelling historical detective story.

Others in the range that I've read and enjoyed are Let the River Stand by Vincent o'Sullivan and The Book of Fame by Lloyd Jones. Another that I hadn't heard of before was The burning boy by Maurice Gee, thought I was aware of the titles of all his books, though this one is new to me, won the 1991 NZ Award for Fiction.

>168 msf59: Hi Mark. Busy in RL and not reading as much at present. I'm a lurker on your thread.

>169 charl08: Hi Charlotte. Both film and book came out in the early 1970s and the film was the first NZ one to actually make money at the cinemas, getting both Sam Neill and Roger Donaldson (director) a start at their international careers. Most NZers know the film though the book is much more obscure here.

>170 PaulCranswick: Paul, he's in a local film by Taika Waititi based on a Barry Crump book, Hunt for the Wilderpeople, that's currently doing well, the trailer looked rather fun. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n8Xvsjy57X0

Looks like you are racing through New Zealand authors, Kerry!

92) Echo by Pam Muñoz Ryan (2015)
children's fiction
What a great read. There's a whiff of enchantment to hold the plot together, apart from this the book tells three stories of children with great musical talent who all find themselves in dire predicaments. What's in common is a particular harmonica. The stories are set around the 1930s & 40s. One in Germany about the rise to power of the Nazis, the other two in the US, one is about orphans during the Depression and the other about a Hispanic family in California managing a small orange grove farm for the Japanese owners who have been interred in a camp.
I really loved this and the 500+ pages just flew by.

>173 avatiakh: I liked that one, too - I'm happy to see that you enjoyed it!

93) Lost on Mars by Paul Magrs (2015)
YA scifi
First in a trilogy. I had noted this when it came out last year and seeing the cover for book 2 was enough to send me to the library website to grab this e-book a couple of days ago.
Lora and her family are homesteaders on Mars. They make a weekly trip to Town to get supplies. However people have started disappearing, and the rumours are that it's the Martians that are taking them. It looks like the family will have to move on once again if they want to stay safe. This is quite the imaginative scifi, I definitely want to read The Martian Girl, I think it comes out in the next couple of weeks.

>175 avatiakh: Interesting concept. I'll check a sample on my Kindle.

>175 avatiakh: Also checking out the sample on my Kindle!

>112 avatiakh: this one sounds like a goodie. A little close to home perhaps...I have seen it somewhere, maybe it was talked about when it was published here.

>166 avatiakh: harrowing cover on the right!

>174 scaifea: Amber, I did feel a slight annoyance when the first story ended in mid-air and we went on to the second one. The book is such a great read once you accept the structure of the plot, which happens quick enough as you get swept up by the second story.

>176 brodiew2: & >177 ronincats: I can't say much about the plot but definitely a good one.
'Paul sees Lost on Mars as a blend of the best of classic children’s fiction like Laura Ingalls Wilder’s Little House books, and Golden Age space operas such as Ray Bradbury’s Martian Chronicles.
‘I wanted to to make my own contribution to the children’s science fiction genre ... going back to elements in the books that I read as a child and celebrating them,’ he says.'
Magrs has also written several Dr Who novels. and Diary of a Dr Who Addict.

>178 LovingLit: Hi Megan. Only half of what I wrote got posted above. Weird as I had a long paragraph in answer to your comments. So to start again.

While I was reading The Pale North I did think that it would probably appeal to you, more from the creativity of art aspect than the earthquake one. I have a feeling that he was already writing the book even before the Christchurch earthquake, as there was quite a long wait for his second novel.
Here's a link to a good interview with him: https://griffithreview.com/articles/interview-with-hamish-clayton/

And that cover of Smith's Dream, yes, quite a touch of tough love. That's Ian Mune being pulled out of the water while they're on the run. A love-hate relationship between the two men that's not so explored in the book. Have you seen the film?

The Return of Bernard Lewis by Martin Kramer (2016)
The Return of Islam by Bernard Lewis (1976)
essays
Not a book but two essays that I read recently when Bernard Lewis celebrated his 100th birthday on 31 May. Kramer said that Lewis considers his 1976 essay The Return of Islam a landmark in his long career, so it piqued my interest. A very interesting read looking back to where the Islamic world was 40 years ago and how promising a lot of it looked to be.
Both articles are well worth reading if global politics is your thing. I'm probably going to tackle Edwad Said's Orientalism later this year, Said and Lewis sparred considerably after the publication of the book, just google the two names together. Anyway I need to read Said so I can form my own thoughts on the subject.
http://mosaicmagazine.com/essay/2016/06/the-return-of-bernard-lewis/
https://www.commentarymagazine.com/articles/the-return-of-islam/

some articles on Said:
https://www.amherst.edu/media/view/307584/original/The+Question+of+Orientalism+b...
http://www.lehigh.edu/~amsp/2004/09/introduction-to-edward-said.html
http://www.worldaffairsjournal.org/article/enough-said-false-scholarship-edward-...

>173 avatiakh: I loved that one as well. Pam Munoz Ryan is one of my favorite authors.

ETA: I am clearing out some books. Do any of these interest you?

A History of Their Own: Women in Europe from Prehistory to the Present
The Picture of Dorian Gray (Dover thrift edition - my son's school reject)
Blossoms and Shadows

off my shelves:
The Kingdom of This World
Close Range
Justinian's Flea (Penguin edition)
Frenchman's Creek

>182 nittnut: I was thinking of reading Said's memoir Out of Place sometime soon.

Hope your weekend

>182 nittnut: Hi Jenn. Thanks for the offer, Justinian's Flea looks like a good read. My son is studying history & politics so that looks highly interesting for both me and him. So yes, I'll nab that one. Do you still have my address?

>183 PaulCranswick: Hi Paul I think your message got cut off. I have a couple of Said's books, but will start with his best known.

Good luck with Orientalism. I loved Said essay on learning Arabic (title escapes me) but found Put of Place hard going and abandoned it (aiming to return to it at some point: haven't done yet).

Picturebook update:

Beard Boy by John Flannery ill by Steven Weinberg (2016)
picturebook
This is a cheerfully comic look at men and beards via Ben who wants to have a beard and knows alot about beards it seems. Not much on this subject for little ones apart from the hilarious The Twits by Roald Dahl which is for a slightly older age group and a little subversive if I remember rightly. Anyway if little boys want to emulate their hairy fathers then what can a father do. Illustration style is suitable zany.

Dusk by Uri Shulevitz (2013)
picturebook
Lovely look at dusk, the setting sun and advance of evening through to the city lights coming on. It's set during Hannukah, the Jewish Festival of Lights and also the Christmas festive season, both festivals aren't commented on but are just there on the page. The illustrations are delightful.
_

One city, two brothers by Chris Smith ill. by Aurelia Fronty (2007)
picturebook
This came up in a library search when I was looking for something quite different but it caught my eye as a founding myth for Jerusalem. Smith's story is based on a Palestinian Arab not Jewish folktale that was told about King Solomon. After reading the tale I did some online research and found that the tale originated in India and travelled through Arab lands and was adapted to be a founding tale for Jerusalem. It was picked up by Jewish folklorists in the 19th century and added to collections.
The story is simple, about two brother having to resentfully divide the land of their father between them on his death. In this version after some years both brothers feel the need to help out the other after one harvest so each sneaks over at night and deposits 3 sacks of grain in the other's shed. So their grain stores remain the same even though they've given away 3 of their 20 bags of grain. After 3 or 4 nights they meet on the path, each with 3 bags for the other, they become friends again and later the city is founded on the hill where they lived.
In the original Indian version they actually stole from each other!
There is an asterix by King Solomon's name each time it's mentioned to remind Muslim readers of the book to add in the 'may peace be upon him' blessing.

I had one big problem with this book and that was the illustration of Jerusalem on the opening page. It's in the time of King Solomon (990BC approx) so why is the Jewish Temple drawn as a replica of the current Muslim Dome of the Rock (built 691 CE) and why are there crescents (symbol of Islam) on top of the Dome and a tower.
Smith is a storyteller who has spent a lot of time in Gaza and the Palestinian territories, Fronty is a French illustrator who is inspired by traditional art.

>188 avatiakh: Kerry, I had read that book, during a period when I borrowed a bunch of books illustrated by Aurelia Fronty from the library. Very pertinent comments about the Jerusalem illustration; I obviously wasn't paying close attention, as hadn't noticed the anachronisms before.

Hi Ilana. The illustrations are quite lovely and the storytelling itself is fairly neutral, but in the opening sentences Smith mentions the Temple that Solomon built and that he lived in a palace. So one does cast an eye to the illustration looking out for those as distinct landmarks. I couldn't not comment on it. I'm really surprised that the editors didn't pick up on this detail. Still it was interesting to read online about the origins of the folktale and how it came to be included in Jewish collections.

So I've finished another book, Planesrunnerl by Ian McDonald, not one I planned to read but one of the so many lying around here unread.
I also picked up 3 books at my local charity shop yesterday.
Underworld by Don DeLilo - really heavy paperback
storyman by Victor Kelleher - child abduction set in Australia
The Little Paris Bookshop by Nina George

Now back to pushing through Daughter of the Forest by Juliet Marillier which I'm enjoying but haven't made a priority read. Also trying now to finish Terminal World by Alastair Reynolds which is exciting scifi that is lasting forever, the end is almost in sight.

Love the beard book illustration. I sent it to the ginger bearded member of my family!

Charlotte, that beard book was one I saw promoted on twitter and thought it worth a look. One of my sons has a very bushy beard at present and can't decide whether to keep it or not.

94) Planesrunner by Ian McDonald (2011)
YA scifi
Everness #1. Didn't totally fall for the charms of this one, though I'll probably read book 2 as I loved his The Dervish House.
The book starts out with Everett Singh seeing his Dad kidnapped right in front of him on a London street. From there we discover that his Dad has been working on a secret project relating to parallel universes and that he's hidden the clue to unraveling a map in a message to Everett. Stand by for adventure and mayhem as Everett goes searching for his father.

95) Terminal World by Alastair Reynolds (2010)
scifi
This is a stand alone novel and not part of his Revelation Space series which I just adore. I listened to this as an audiobook narrated by my longtime favourite, John Lee, and I really stretched this one out over a few weeks.
So the plot - 'In a far distant future, an enforcement agent named Quillon has been living incognito in the last human city of Spearpoint, working as a pathologist in the district morgue. But when a near-dead angel drops onto his dissecting table, his world is wrenched apart.'
The plot quickly leads into a captivating adventure story and while on one hand you're eager for the action to continue on the other it is a fascinating exploration on a futuristic civilisation breaking down. I've seen this described as steampunk scifi.

96) Daughter of the Forest by Juliet Marillier (1999)
fantasy
Sevenwaters series book #1
Read for the ANZAC challenge. This was a charming fantasy story bringing the folk tale of the six swans to life in a Celtic setting. An Irish chieftain who wages constant war against the Britons who invade a nearby holy island (Isle of Man) has six sons and the seventh child, a daughter. When he brings home a new bride who seems to have enchanted him, it's quickly clear that she intends to bring chaos and ruin to the whole family.

I have to quickly decide my priorities for the rest of the month.

Current reads:
Scruffy by Paul Gallico - put aside for most of the month
Port Vila Blues by Garry Disher (Wyatt #5) - recent pickup from the library
A body in Barcelona by Jason Webster (Max Cámara #5) - ditto
The art of reading by Damon Young - not picking this up as much as I should
The Great Fortune by Olivia Manning (Balkan trilogy #1) - iPod audio, just started
Zac & Mia by A.J. Betts - The Text Prize (2012) - TIOLI shared read, I read all the Text Prize winners but this one has slipped by me till now
Stone of Farewell by Tad Williams (Memory, Sorrow and Thorn #2) - reading this on my mobile and I've hardly glanced at it for a long while.
the life-changing magic of tidying up: the Japanese art of decluttering and organizing by Marie Kondo - very popular library book

Want to read in June:
The secret chord by Geraldine Brooks - top of Mt tbr
A constellation of vital phenomena by Anthony Marra - my 75er Xmas gift that I wanted to read this month
I for Isobel by Amy Witting - ANZAC challenge
Robert Goddard
From the Holy Mountain by William Dalrymple
H is for Hawk by Helen MacDonald - Suzanne's nonfiction challenge

so better get off LT and pick up a book.

Good luck with all that reading! :) I only have two I really need to finish this month. One for the non-fic challenge and one for the DeweyCat. They are both fairly short, we will see how it goes.

>195 avatiakh: Glad you finally read Daughter of the Forest.

>196 avatiakh: That is a lot of reading you have planned for the remainder of this month ;-)

>197 nittnut: >198 FAMeulstee: Don't worry, most of those reads will spill over to July. I've decided to concentrate on Zac & Mia which is a shared read on TIOLI and Scruffy which I've been carrying around in my handbag and not reading at all for a long while.

>183 PaulCranswick: Ooops sorry about that, Kerry. I think you knew full well what I was going to say even as I quite failed in the telling.

97) Zac & Mia by A. J. Betts (2014)
YA
Winner of The Text Prize in 2013. I'm now up to date with all 8 of the Text Prize winners, this one had slipped through and I read it now to join a shared read on TIOLI.
It's a book about two teens, patients on an adult cancer ward. Mia is in denial and angry while Zac is in isolation after a bone marrow transplant and more accepting of his situation. He can't leave his room but 'meets' Mia through the loud voices & music from the next room. I really liked this, it's about cancer but concentrates on the courage you need to be a survivor.
Is it similar to The fault in our stars? Here's The Guardian on that - 'Before you immediately view the synopsis of this book and compare it to The Fault in Our Stars, please don't. Yes, they both share the same premise but they are completely different. The Fault in Our Stars is a love story in which the characters happen to have cancer, whereas Zac and Mia is a cancer story where they happen to fall in love. The emphasis of this book is the cancer and the way the characters deal with it-not the love story.'

The 2015 Text Prize winner will be published in October, The Book of Whispers. The prize is awarded to a manuscript for young readers.

Well, Scruffy is well underway though I doubt I can finish by the end of the month as the print is really small and takes ages to get a few pages done. I'm enjoying it, Scruffy is a real beast but the humans are fun.
I'm flying through the audio of The Great Fortune and enjoying it too. My current crime reads are both doing well and I have some more library books to get done.
I've been really bad with all the challenges such as BAC & the Nonfiction one, I have been fairly good withthe ANZAC. I can never decide whether to catch up on my reads from earlier months or concentrate on the current ones. Anyway here's the list of all the books I've been wanting to read but never get to from these challenges:

from last year's BAC:
The Razor's Edge & The Moon and Sixpence by Somerset Maugham

Nonfiction:
H is for Hawk by Helen Macdonald
The Ottoman Centuries by Lord Kinross
Ways of Seeing by John Berger
Last chance to see by Douglas Adams

BAC 2016:
From the Holy Mountain: A Journey Among the Christians of the Middle East
Hand in Glove by Robert Goddard
A Long Way From Verona by Jane Gardam
The Secret Agent by Joseph Conrad

ANZAC:
The Secret Chord by Geraldine Brooks
The French Tutor by Judith Armstrong
I for Isobel by Amy Witting
Lovesong by Alex Miller

>202 avatiakh: I can never decide whether to catch up on my reads from earlier months or concentrate on the current ones.

Now there is a predicament I share.

Thank you Kerry for your kind words over on my thread earlier. xx

98) The Great Fortune by Olivia Manning (1960)
fiction / iPod audio
This is the first in the Balkan trilogy. I read this trilogy years ago and thought it time for a revisit. Last year I watched the dvd of miniseries, Fortunes of War, starring Emma Thompson & Kenneth Branagh so I was quite familiar once again with the plot. The audio is ok, I didn't like the whiny voices the narrator, Emilia Fox, gave to Sophia and Yakimov.
Harriet is newly married to Guy and they arrive in Bucharest just as WW2 is about to break out. Guy Pringle is a teacher of English at the University. The Pringles, especially Guy, have a hotchpotch of interesting and annoying friends. Qute fascinating.

That's it for June. I'm on the closing pages of Scruffy but will finish it in July. I'm building a new thread today.

Kerry, were you aware that the Emilia Fox version of the audiobook is the abridged edition? I think those are ok when you want to revisit a book you've already read, so maybe that's why you picked it? I listened to the unabridged version narrated by Harriet Walter, and I had the same problem with it: very whiny. It actually negatively impacted my reading experience, so I've since gotten the series in print to make sure I enjoy it fully. That being said, I've listened to Harriet Walter narrate Brazaville Beach by William Boyd and really enjoyed her performance on that one. I also like Emilia Fox, but it's true enough she can get quite whiny sometimes.

Also, been meaning to tell you I've been having trouble loading your thread. This is often the case when your threads reach a certain number of posts, I guess because of all the pics you share with us.

Thanks for that info Ilana, I hadn't been aware that it was abridged though thought I flew through the audio really fast. I'll pick up the paper copy for the others in the trilogy. I download the e-audios from my library and didn't notice the dreaded word 'abridged', this is the first in a long time to slip past me.

I knew that my thread was top heavy with images, was just waiting for the end of the month. My new thread is up though still a work in progress.