SusanJ's 75 Books Challenge - Thread 7

Hello, and welcome to my seventh thread for 2016.

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

Over the past couple of years I've started to read a lot more non-fiction, so my reading is now pretty much half fiction and half non-fiction although I'd like to make it one-third to two-thirds. I typically aim for 150 books, although I revised my goals down to 100 earlier in the year. It's back up now, though. This year I want to read at least 50 books from Mount TBR (which counts as anything bought before the end of 2015) instead of maxing out my reserve slots at the library. I wonder how that will go :-)

* = book from Mount TBR

January

1. A Notable Woman
2. The Grand Duchess of Nowhere
3. The Worst Hard Time*
4. The Night in Question
5. Nicholas and Alexandra*
6. The Happiness Industry*
7. How the Other Half Lives*
8. The Book of Unknown Americans
9. The Making of the Atomic Bomb

February

10. A People's History of London*
11. The Queen's Man*
12. The Tenderness of Wolves
13. Some Luck
14. My Brilliant Friend
15. Missing Microbes
16. Captain Swing*
17. That's Not English
18. After You
19. How Music Got Free
20. Early Warning
21. Isaac's Storm*

March

22. Spillover
23. No Such Thing as a Free Gift*
24. The Plutocrats
25. Rising Tide*
26. The Year of Living Danishly
27. The Button Box
28. Land Grabbing*
29. The Soul of a New Machine*
30. White Mughals*
31. The Making of the President 1960*
32. No Way to Treat a First Lady*
33. The Reproach of Hunger*

April

34. Liar, Temptress, Soldier, Spy*
35. No God But Gain*
36. The Great Partition
37. The Buried Pyramid
38. The Forest of Myrrh
39. Stand on Zanzibar
40. Midnight's Children
41. The Boy With The Topknot
42. A Strange Kind of Paradise
43. The Field of Reeds
44. Mecca: The Sacred City

May

45. Tamas
46. Partitions
47. Incarnations
48. My Grandmother Sends Her Regards and Apologises
49. Black Water Rising
50. Pleasantville
51. Keeping Their Marbles
52. Survivors
53. This Orient Isle
54. A Life Discarded
55. A Very English Scandal
56. The Days of Anna Madrigal
57. Off The Grid
58. The New Prophets of Capital*

June

59. The Private Lives of the Tudors
60. Disaster Capitalism
61. Lean In
62. The Glorious Heresies
63. Ruby
64. The Long Weekend
65. Negroland
66. Track of the Cat
67. Black Flags
68. Never Go Back
69. It's All In Your Head
70. We'll All Be Murdered In Our Beds!

July

71. Vinegar Girl
72. The Run of His Life: The People vs O J Simpson
73. The Little Stranger
74. Elizabeth: The Forgotten Years
75. Power Games: A Political History of the Olympics
76. A Murder in Time
77. Kitchens of the Great Midwest
78. Empire of Things
79. Guidebook to Murder
80. Not My Father's Son
81. Britain's Empire: Resistance, Repression, Revolt
82. Free Speech: Ten Principles for a Connected World
83. Golden Hill
84. The Big Burn: Teddy Roosevelt and the Fire That Saved America
85. American Assassin
86. Where The Shadows Lie
87. The Secret World of Oil
88. Eligible
89. The Black Widow
90. Blackberry Pie Murder
91. Red Notice
92. The Hobbit

August

93. Work Like Any Other
94. Kill Shot

This year I'm starting a new NF challenge, which is to read the non-fiction winners of the Pulitzer prize. I stole this idea from Reba, who is doing a fiction challenge. Hi Reba! This is a long-term project, rather than something to be completed this year. But I've read three of them already :-) If I can't find the relevant non-fiction winner easily in the UK, I propose to substitute the winner of the history category.

Here's the list:



2016 Black Flags: The Rise of ISIS by Joby Warrick
2015 The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History by Elizabeth Kolbert
2014 Toms River: A Story of Science and Salvation by Dan Fagin
2013 Devil in the Grove by Gilbert King
2012 The Swerve: How the World Became Modern by Stephen Greenblatt
2011 The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer by Siddhartha Mukherjee
2010 The Dead Hand: The Untold Story of the Cold War Arms Race and Its Dangerous Legacy by David E. Hoffman



2009 Slavery by Another Name: The Re-Enslavement of Black Americans from the Civil War to World War II by Douglas A Blackmon
2008 The Years of Extermination: Nazi Germany and the Jews, 1939-1945 by Saul Friedländer
2007 The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11 by Lawrence Wright
2006 Imperial Reckoning: The Untold Story of Britain's Gulag in Kenya by Caroline Elkins
2005 Ghost Wars by Steve Coll
2004 Gulag: A History by Anne Applebaum
2003 A Problem From Hell: America and the Age of Genocide by Samantha Power
2002 Carry Me Home: Birmingham, Alabama, the Climactic Battle of the Civil Rights Revolution by Diane McWhorter
2001 Hirohito and the Making of Modern Japan by Herbert P Bix
2000 Embracing Defeat: Japan in the Wake of World War II by John W. Dower



1999 Annals of the Former World by John McPhee
1998 Guns, Germs and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies by Jared Diamond
1997 Ashes To Ashes: America's Hundred-Year Cigarette War, The Public Health, And The Unabashed Triumph Of Philip Morris by Richard Kluger
1996 The Haunted Land: Facing Europe's Ghosts After Communism by Tina Rosenberg
1995 The Beak Of The Finch: A Story Of Evolution In Our Time by Jonathan Weiner
1994 Lenin's Tomb: The Last Days Of The Soviet Empire by David Remnick
1993 Lincoln at Gettysburg: The Words That Remade America by Garry Wills
1992 The Prize: The Epic Quest For Oil, Money & Power by Daniel Yergin
1991 The Ants by Bert Holldobler and Edward O Wilson
1990 And Their Children After Them by Dale Maharidge and Michael Williamson



1989 A Bright Shining Lie: John Paul Vann and America in Vietnam by Neil Sheehan
1988 The Making of the Atomic Bomb by Richard Rhodes
1987 Arab and Jew: Wounded Spirits in a Promised Land by David K Shipler
1986 Common Ground: A Turbulent Decade in the Lives of Three American Families by J Anthony Lukas
1986 Move Your Shadow: South Africa, Black and White by Joseph Lelyveld
1985 The Good War: An Oral History of World War Two by Studs Terkel
1984 The Social Transformation Of American Medicine by Paul Starr
1983 Is There No Place On Earth For Me? by Susan Sheehan
1982 The Soul of A New Machine by Tracy Kidder
1981 Fin-De Siecle Vienna: Politics And Culture by Carl E Schorske
1980 Godel, Escher, Bach: an Eternal Golden Braid by Douglas R Hofstadter



1979 On Human Nature by Edward O Wilson
1978 The Dragons of Eden by Carl Sagan
1977 Beautiful Swimmers by William W Warner
1976 Why Survive? Being Old In America by Robert N Butler
1975 Pilgrim at Tinker Creek by Annie Dillard
1974 The Denial of Death by Ernest Becker
1973 Fire in the Lake: The Vietnamese and the Americans in Vietnam by Frances Fitzgerald
1973 Children of Crisis, Vols. II and III by Robert Coles
1972 Stilwell and the American Experience in China, 1911-1945 by Barbara W Tuchman
1971 The Rising Sun by John Toland
1970 Gandhi's Truth by Erik H Erikson



1969 The Armies Of The Night by Norman Mailer
1969 So Human An Animal by Rene Jules Dubos
1968 Rousseau And Revolution, The Tenth And Concluding Volume Of The Story Of Civilization by Will and Ariel Durant
1967 The Problem of Slavery in Western Culture by David Brion Davis
1966 Wandering Through Winter by Edwin Way Teale
1965 O Strange New World by Howard Mumford Jones
1964 Anti-Intellectualism in American Life by Richard Hofstadter
1963 The Guns of August by Barbara W Tuchman
1962 The Making of the President 1960 by Theodore H White

One of the activities for the corporate wellness challenge that I'm currently doing is "balance", and every day we have to write down what we are thankful for, and send a thank you card to someone. Here's today's card:

Happy new thread Susan.

>4 susanj67: Made me laugh. I never know what to say in response to 'I don't have time to read.' Does Not Compute... (I'll ignore the times in my life when this has applied here, as I like to think of them as an aberration!)

Happy new thread! What a lovely card. I've found there is always time to read. If nothing else is handy, I've been known to read the back of a cereal box. It's surprising how much I've learned that way!

Happy new thread Susan.

Interested to see what you read for number 75.

Happy new one, Susan! Your thank you made me laugh. And it was also lovely. I am thankful for you thread, which never fails to make me smile.

>4 susanj67: My sentiments exactly!

Happy new one, Susan! And the card in >4 susanj67: is perfect! I am glad to be part of your bookish world :-)

Hi Susan! Happy new thread. I love the card (just what I've often thought), and I'm intrigued by your corporate wellness challenge. Some days, I think reading is the one wellness-boosting activity that I accomplish! Maybe sprinkling in a few more wouldn't hurt.

Happy New Thread, Susan! Love the card--you've certainly broadened my horizons!

>5 charl08: Charlotte, well, precisely. There are always occasional times when we can't fit in reading, but we recognise those times as an aberration, not a normal state of affairs.

>6 cbl_tn: Hi Carrie! I did ensure I picked up a copy of the Waitrose magazine before I got the bus home today, just so I had something to read. I also bought some kiwifruit, as I'm pretty sure you can't just go through the checkout with the magazine (which is free to loyalty card holders). Or at least I didn't have the nerve.

>7 PaulCranswick: Hi Paul! You don't have much longer to wait - it's below :-) I will confess to finishing it before something silly I'm reading from the library, just so number 75 was respectable.

>8 Crazymamie: Thanks Mamie :-) Maybe I could be thankful for individual threads fr the next week or so. Thursday I was thankful that "It's nearly the weekend" and Friday I was thankful that "It's Friday!". They say the answers aren't shared with anyone, but still...

>9 drneutron: Thanks Jim :-)

>10 katiekrug: Katie, I am delighted that you are part of my bookish world :-) Sorry you're having a horrible time right now. I hope those five-year-olds don't get on your last nerve.

>11 porch_reader: Thanks Amy! Yes, reading is definitely one of my wellness activities, and not just because I can do it sitting down. Although then again...Most of the challenge is steps - we're supposed to do a minimum of 10,000 per day, but there are other sections like nutrition and sleep, and balance. I've just unlocked a new section which is breathing exercises.

>12 ronincats: Thanks Roni! I think we all learn something from each other :-)



75. (ta-dah!) Power Games: A Political History of the Olympics

As Rio 2016 will shortly be starting, I thought I'd read a book about the Olympics. When London 2012 was on I read one about the 1948 "Austerity Olympics", but this was quite a different sort of book, looking at the political controversy that has followed the modern Olympics around since they were first staged in 1896. It's a good history of the various different Games, although the timeline jumps around a bit occasionally, and I learned a great deal about the protests over the years, and the way the Games have turned into a fabulously expensive corporate monstrosity.

Having lived in London while the 2012 Games were on, I was also interested in what the author had to say about those Games, four years on. And yes, they were expensive, and too much of the money spent on them went into the pockets of private companies, but at least all our venues are still being used (unlike those in a lot of other cities, which are now crumbling ruins). Of course, it was only four years ago and there is room for crumbling yet.

The author also looked at how the Games are used as an excuse for local and national law enforcement and security services to ramp up surveillance and oppressive rules against protest, which sometimes don't disappear again. London has had a ton of CCTV for years, so I'm not sure we saw anything particularly new there, but there was a bit of controversy when the papers reported that the military were going to put rocket launchers on the tops of blocks of flats. I'm pretty sure that never happened or, at least that they're not still there. The author says that a further illustration of the "militarisation" of the Games was provided in London when soldiers had to take over a lot of bag-checking and general crowd control because the private company G4S just didn't have enough people to do it. But I disagree with him there. They were soldiers, true, in uniform, true, but they weren't *armed*, and a lot of visitors said how nice it was to see a polite, cheerful squaddie doing the job. That military "intervention" was actually very popular. A number of them were billetted just up the road from me and they put on a sports day for the local kids in one of the parks, and were very well-received.

He discusses Rio and the problems they were having cleaning up waterways (still an issue, if a quick Google news search is anything to go by) but it was either written before Zika, or Zika didn't fit with the "political" aspect of the book (which is fair enough). But, as more athletes are dropping out because of it, I wonder what will happen in Rio.

The book ends with the author's suggestions for how to make the Olympics better, as in not costing such a fortune, using existing venues, ditching "elitist" events like equestrian (!) and the pentathlon and splitting events between different cities in the host country, or even between different countries. I'm pretty sure that some of the London events took place out of London (the rowing in particular was out near Windsor) but he gave the example of Rio constructing an entirely new golf course and wiping out a lovely biodiverse area when they already have golf courses, and I think that's a very sensible solution. Recommended if you're interested in the Olympics, or if you're not but your city is thinking for bidding for one of the future ones and you want some protest tips :-)

Congrats on finishing #75, and with such a timely book, too!

Here's a bit of trivia for you. Tennessee actually hosted the canoe slalom events for the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, on the Ocoee River near Chattanooga.

Congrats on reaching 75, Susan! WahHOO for you!

Let's see, things to be thankful for:

When I woke up this morning, I was still breathing.
I was able to get out of bed all by myself.
The sun rose.
We have indoor plumbing.
And air conditioning.
There is food in the refrigerator.
And wine.
There is more wine in the garage refrigerator.
The last time I checked, my heart was still beating.
My wireless headphones are charged.
So is my Kindle.
The sofa still works - I just checked it.

And that's just up 'til now. Let me know if you need more.

>14 cbl_tn: Thanks Carrie! And that *is* interesting about Tennessee and the Atlanta Games. A different state, if not a different country. I wonder how much research he did on that point about events outside the host city.

>15 Crazymamie: Mamie, HA! That was a laugh-out-loud moment :-) Particularly "And wine. There is more wine in the garage refrigerator" :-) I think it's easy to lose sight of the "big picture" reasons to be thankful (health and, you know, the sun rising and stuff) - I tend to take them for granted, but I should be more mindful.

I'm going to pause the worthy non-fiction now, and start Kitchens of the Great Midwest. I'm slightly ahead of my page requirement for Empire of Things and Free Speech is a shorter book.

Congratulations on hitting the 75 book mark, Susan!

Wow 75 -- good on you!! I'm not even sure I'm going to make 75 at all this year, let alone in July.

Congrats on the 75 books.

Re the Olympic book - agree re the army. I am not a big fan of the state military in general but the soldiers I saw (checking bags for the equestrian event when we went to the maritime museum during the fandango) were polite and non threatening. The timing for Rio is awful the way their economy has tanked. Not good.

The Rio Olympics look to be quite the sh*t show - political unrest, tanking economy, Zika, polluted water, etc. etc. Apparently the local police union has been staging "welcome committees" at the airport for athletes coming in to train with giant banners saying "Welcome to Hell." And I saw somewhere that a disembodied foot washed up near the beach volleyball venue.

So that sounds fun.

(I'm quite the ray of sunshine lately, aren't I? Sorry. I'll crawl back into my misanthropic hole now....)

Happy new thread and lovely card. We thank you for hosting us on your sofa and providing wine from the refrigerator.

Am I excused, our drinks fridge is in the kitchen, not the garage, please don't shun me on that account.

Edit - BTW what sort of fitbit do people use? I'm considering one to try and persuade myself not to be quite such a sofa bear.

Congrats on the 75, Susan. Gak! What an ugly cover. I alternately hate and like the Olympics. I kind of think it would better if they could stage events in multiple countries. Track and Field here. Gymnastics there. Sailing someplace else (someplace without body parts and/or acres of garbage in the water, preferably), etc., etc. The whole Olympic fellowship part would be shot to hell of course, but surely it would cost less, wouldn't it? We can all watch it on TV. That's pretty much what most of us do anyway.

Love the hound. So happy!

Happy new thread, Susan, and congrats on reaching 75. The Olympics book sounds fascinating. I'll have to look for it. A disembodied foot? Yuck.

Happy new one, Susan! LOVE the thank-you card! *smiles*

>17 ronincats: Thanks Roni! It's been very slow for me this year. I blame the Netflix.

>18 RebaRelishesReading: Thanks Reba. And I'm sure you will. All this stepping is supposed to give us more energy!

>19 charl08: Thanks Charlotte. Although I can't say I read the sports news, I haven't seen that much about Rio. Of course, I'm comparing it to 2012, when it was impossible to escape. But I would have expected some backgrounder pieces on what's going on. I only seem to read announcements that people aren't going any more, because of Zika.

>20 katiekrug: Katie, ew, a foot :-( I think with all Brazil's problems there must be a lot of opposition to having the Games. When a country has that level of poverty you have to think that the money would have been better spent elsewhere, particularly as research shows that tourism (always touted as a benefit of having the Games) *falls* in Olympic cities during the year of the Games, because people are scared of being ripped off and/or think they won't get accommodation anyway.

>21 Helenliz: Thanks Helen (although it's Mamie's wine. I have ice-cream, if that helps). I have a Fitbit One, which is the little clip-on one, and it's fine for me (although none counts stairs properly). Most phones etc have access to Fitbit apps, so you check your stats on the go, and see just how far behind Mamie you are at any given time (Hi Mamie!)

>22 Fourpawz2: Thanks Charlotte. The book is published by Verso, and they see all the world as a miserable place, so their covers are pretty grim. I said I WAS NOT going to watch any of the London Olympics, but somehow found myself yelling excitedly at the TV when Jessica Ennis and Mo Farah were winning their events. And I watched things like wild swimming, and the pentathlon. Unexpected :-)

>23 BLBera: Thanks Beth! I'm reading Kitchens of the Great Midwest at the moment and I LOVE it, so thank you so much for the great recommendation. I almost don't want to keep reading it this evening because then I'll have finished it. Quite the dilemma.

>24 scaifea: Thanks Amber! I picked the dog one because I know there are lots of dog-lovers on LT :-)

Today I've done 20,000 steps! Woo-hoo! I walked up to Liverpool Street and got the tube out to the Westfield over the other side of town, and walked all the way back to Green Park. The traffic was so bad and ill-mannered along Notting Hill Gate that I decided to get off the main road and go down Kensington Palace Gardens instead. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kensington_Palace_Gardens It's one of the most expensive streets in the world, but ordinary people are still allowed to walk down it, although there are gates at both ends and signs saying "No photography". Fortunately they don't say "No gawping", because it would be very hard not to gawp. It's all huge gorgeous mansions, many now embassies but some still privately owned. I particularly liked the giant one at number "15A", like it was masquerading as a basement flat for postal purposes. I'd seen a couple of police motorbikes parked at the Notting Hill end, but no actual policemen. As I got to the Kensington end I did see a policeman, standing outside one of the houses chatting to another policeman, who was armed. Then I noticed that there were bollards in front of the property, all along the grass verge by the road and across the pavements at either end, with just enough room for a pushchair or wheelchair to go through. They're designed to stop vehicle bombs getting too close. Nice. I thought that perhaps, in light of all this (mostly the GUN) I might be best to walk on the edge of the road, outside the bollards, but the unarmed policeman saw me and waved that I should keep walking down the pavement, saying "You're fine." I snuck a look at the sign outside as I passed, and it was the Israeli embassy. It was like being in a Daniel Silva novel.

>25 susanj67: Your post to Helen made me laugh out loud! I am always happy to share my wine, unless it is the last glass. *blinks* This has never happened at the Pecan Paradisio, and if it does you will be sure to hear me kickin' up a fuss.

>21 Helenliz: Helen, I have a Fitbit Charge, which I absolutely love - I think Reba also has this model, and Katie has the Fitbit Alta, which she loves, so it's really just a matter of what fits your personality and your lifestyle. If you do get one, and you ant to join our Fitbit group for LTers, just PM me - I need your email, and then I can send you an invite to join our group.

Hello, Susan!! Happy Sunday to you! Hooray for your 20, 000 steps!!! And that is quite the exciting walking story. Much better than my..."so today as I walked an endless circuit inside my own home, I noticed once again that we need to vacuum. There are still 16 steps up to the second level of the house, and once I have completed my round of the upstairs hallway, there are also 16 steps back down to the main level, which needs to be vacuumed..." Does that sound repetitive? Boring? Yep. It's like you are there with me.

Wow, that sounds like a really great walking route...except maybe for armed police and bomb guards. That doesn't sound so great. I've got to go and see how far I've dropped in the stats with your 20,000 and Mamie's heaven-knows-how-many. I'm spending the afternoon in the basement room doing laundry and setting up our new printer ... plus it's pretty warm today (lots cooler than it has been but still warm) and it's lovely and cool down here. Not so many steps happening, however.

(you're right Mamie, I have the Charge)

Congrats on 75!

>16 susanj67: I actually went to the canoe/kayak events for the Atlanta Olympics in Tennessee. I came across some digital photos I'd taken of the winners getting the medals not that long ago.

>26 Crazymamie: Mamie, I was pretty excited about the steps : ;-) But ah, vacuuming. I think the trick is not to look too closely, not least because you might also see skirting boards. I finally got Former Office Roomie to put in his *27 days* of missing steps and we are now in Iraq (from Ireland. No, I don't get it either). I sent him today's thank-you card. Next we go to Petra.

>27 RebaRelishesReading: Reba, armed police are still very much the exception here, although you will have seen them at Heathrow, and I think they're at some of the big rail stations (sometimes, anyway), But seeing one in the street is a bit of a "whoa!" moment. I hope the printer behaved itself.

>28 drneutron: Thanks Jim :-)

>29 thornton37814: Lori, that always looks like an exciting event, in a "I'm glad I'm not doing it myself" sort of way.



76. A Murder in Time by Julie McElwain

I borrowed this as an ebook for the Overdrive "Big Read". FBI agent Kendra Donovan is on the trail of a baddie in an English castle when somehow she ends up in 1815, just as a young woman has been found murdered, and she realises that she's on the trail of a serial killer. But how can she explain the concept to Georgian toffs and their gormless servants? How, indeed, can she explain her own presence in the castle at all? There are things to like about this book. Kendra is a great heroine, with a good line in snark and 21st-century lingo which puzzles her hosts (they put it all down to her being an American). Trying to set up a situation room with only a chalk-board and a pastel sketch of the victim is also a challenge. And I did have to keep reading to the very end, even after the murderer had been exposed. Its main weakness is how the characters' speech is written. The toffs seem to have swallowed an entire Georgian slang dictionary (each), and the servants' speech is written almost phonetically, in a weird mix of West Country and Cockney *in the same sentence*. As the castle is four hours by coach south of London, neither of those accents would have been right for that place at that time. So the speech annoyed me. I thought the ending was good, and resolved the story well, but now I see there's going to be a *series*! I do want to find out what happens to Kendra next, but I really hope someone goes through the next book and e.g. stops people saying things like "Duke wants us to investigate." THE Duke might, but "Duke" is not a first name, and so on.

Hi Susan - OK, slow down. Trying to keep up with you is going to kill me. It's HOT here today with really high humidity, so I won't get 20,000 steps in. :)

A Murder in Time sounds good, but the dialog might be too annoying... I'll have to think about that one.

A line in snark? Where is Katie?!

Also - walk fast. Iraq does not seem like a good place to be walking in.

*raises head*

Did someone say snark?

>30 susanj67: - Duke wants us to investigate. That makes me think that a dog named Duke wants some investigation done. Made me laugh. I wonder how he conveyed this desire to the humans...

>30 susanj67: it isn't just the "armed" part but what they were armed with. Unfortunately, as an American I'm totally used to police having guns but they are pistols not automatic rifles...usually anyway. I've seen cops on patrol with big weapons in other countries but it always makes me uneasy.

>31 BLBera: Beth, I have slowed :-) I got my steps in yesterday, but nothing heroic. I think, with all the decent fiction you read, A Murder in Time might be like fingernails down a blackboard.

>32 charl08: Charlotte, we're in Petra now. Whew! The Iraq stop was a fundraiser thing for Unicef. There was another one at some point but I have forgotten where it was now. I was sad to miss Iceland, but we whizzed through it. Next up is the Arabian Desert.

>33 katiekrug: Katie! Snark *was* mentioned!

>34 Fourpawz2: Charlotte, yes, the poor Duke, being referred to incorrectly so often. There weren't any dogs in it that I can remember, though.

>35 RebaRelishesReading: Reba, for me it's more like "I must be somewhere really dangerous if there's a police officer with a gun". And outside the Israeli embassy definitely qualifies! I'd never seen an armed policeman until I visited Rome in 1995, and I was pretty terrified. NZ police aren't armed either, although there is a special Armed Offenders Squad, which is probably called something different now.

I only managed 30 pages of Empire of Things last night, but somehow had no problem finishing the final 140 pages in book 77:



77. Kitchens of the Great Midwest by J Ryan Stradal

I read Beth's great review of this book, and borrowed it from the library immediately. And I *loved* it. LOVED. Each chapter is about the influence of the main character, Eva Thorvald, on the lives of various people, from the time she's a baby until she becomes a famous chef in her 20s. I see the LT reviews aren't stellar, but y'all should listen to me and Beth instead, and read this book!! Thanks Beth for a great recommendation. I never reread, but when I finished this I really wanted to start it all over again as there are so many connections between the various characters, and funny little details.

Oh dear, sounds like a BB --

>37 RebaRelishesReading: Reba, yes! Definitely, definitely, definitely. Get it right now, if not sooner :-)

I just requested that from the library, Susan! I had put it on the list when Marianne recommended it to me, but now I am thinking I need to get to it soonish. Nicely done!

>36 susanj67: Yes boss. *heads off to library catalogue*

>39 Crazymamie: Mamie, you do! And thanks :-)

>40 charl08: Charlotte, that's exactly the sort of reaction I hope for from the trainees. I'm obviously doing something wrong here...

I'm thinking of finishing part 1 of Empire of Things, and returning it so I can reserve it again. I feel stressed at having so much to read before it's due back next week, and that's not supposed to be how it works. I'd hoped to take tomorrow off (1.5 more days of leave to use up before the end of July) but I don't think that's going to happen now.

Susan - I'm so glad you loved Kitchens of the Great Midwest - I think it's the kind of book that you have to be in the mood for - it certainly hit me just right.

I loved the gentle fun being poked at the extreme foodies, too.

>36 susanj67: I tried Kitchens of the Great Midwest almost a year ago, and didn't get very far. Looks like I should go back and give it at least another look. Sometimes it's just the mood I'm in that decides whether a book appeals or not.

When I lived in London, I always thought it was odd whenever it was mentioned that the policemen there don't carry guns. The guards at Buckingham Palace and Windsor Castle sure do!

>42 BLBera: Beth, I was definitely in the mood for it! I want to see what he writes next, and reserve it :-)

>43 tututhefirst: Tina, maybe another shot if it's easy to get hold of? But if it just didn't grab you at all, then I'll let you off :-)

>44 cbl_tn: Carrie, they're very proud here (and in NZ) of the unarmed police, although there are periodically calls for them to be armed. They have tasers, but there have been some unfortunate incidents with those which suggest that a lot more training would be required before all police could carry weapons.

I've decided to keep going with Empire of Things. It's a lovely new copy, and if I take it back and reserve it again it might have visited the chain-smoking nose-pickers before I get it back. Last night, despite walking home, which is usually The End for reading, I managed 90 pages without even being a little bit tired. I can do it! Yes, I can! Seven more nights, and 250pp. Also the weekend days.

I get freaked out by the guys with the big guns too. I am not convinced they help - I'd rather not be collateral damage whilst waiting for my plane or sightseeing at the palace. Harumph.

Good luck with the Empire book deadline. I have three spaces on my card currently. This is some kind of record (I only have 17 out. Ha!)

>46 charl08: Thanks Charlotte. I read another chunk last night with Sky News on mute in the background. Periodically I had to un-mute it to listen to who'd been made what in the new cabinet.

I've never lived in a country with a female PM before, so it's quite exciting. Mrs Thatcher had left office by the time I came to the UK, and Helen Clark took over in NZ in 1999, after I left. So Theresa May is my first female PM, and I am hoping for some girl power. I'm assuming she made Boris Foreign Secretary because it will keep him busy, out of the country a lot and his every word and deed will be recorded by the incredulous media following him around, so all she'll have to do is read the press cuttings over breakfast. Possibly a genius move. I see the White House is cross about it, but they may not have read what he said about the Turkish president. http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2016/jul/14/boris-johnson-life-xenophobic-ga...

Switching topic completely, for royal-watchers here's a sweet article about the Queen going out for dinner at a pub:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/07/13/queen-surprises-pub-goers-by-dropping... I love the TripAdvisor review from the stunned customer at the next table :-)

I've been there! It's got a random skittles run in the basement (I just stuck to dinner and a beer, as we had walked through snow to get there!). Lovely pub.

>48 charl08: Charlotte, that may actually make you a royalist. Or something :-) I bet they notice quite an increase in customers now.

I've now got one eye on the Guardian's live blog of the cabinet appointments. Wow. Lots of changes.

>47 susanj67: I love the article about the queen! It will be a memorable event for the other diners!

>50 cbl_tn: Carrie, it certainly must have been! At least they recognised her. There's a lovely story about a tourist who met her walking in Windsor Great Park or somewhere similar, failed to recognise her and asked whether she had ever met the Queen. She answered (truthfully) that she hadn't.

>51 susanj67: This made me laugh. Thanks Susan.

Sunshine here (finally - so damp I actually found mushrooms in amongst my plants yesterday!)

Hi Susan - Lots of news from your way.

>47 susanj67: Thanks for sharing the article, Susan!

>51 susanj67: Too funny!

Happy Thursday to you! Feels like a Friday to me, so we'll see what happens tomorrow.

>47 susanj67: - I like your theory as to why Theresa May chose Johnson as Foreign Minister. Add to it that he'll probably say or do something so out of bounds that she can fire him rather quickly and no one will fault her. I assume she had to give him something since he was the leader of a movement that was successful...?

>38 susanj67: Our cable and internet went down on Tuesday and just got repaired this morning so I had to wait a bit but it's now on its way to me via Amazon :)

Love the article about Her Majesty's dinner :)

>52 charl08: Charlotte, were the mushrooms at least an edible variety?

>53 BLBera: Beth, yes, it's a challenge to keep up with it all :-)

>54 Crazymamie: Hi Mamie! Thursday is finally over, by which I mean I am home. Yay.

>55 katiekrug: Katie, I think Boris is one of those bright people who is easily bored, and then it all ends in tears (someone else's, anyway). The new PM probably wants to keep him busy, on the basis that the devil makes work for idle hands, and he will otherwise plot against her for the top job himself. But she made an even better appointment later in the morning. As background, Theresa May was on the ballot against Andrea Leadsom, a pro-Brexit candidate (May was Remain). They were supposed to battle it out till September, but Leadsom gave an interview to The Times on the weekend in which she said that she would make a better PM because she had children, and therefore a stake in the future of the country, which May did not have. As a result of this (and partly because she denied having said it, only for The Times to release the recording of the interview) she dropped out on Monday, leaving May unopposed, which is why she's become PM so quickly. This morning May *promoted* Leadsom to Secretary of State for the Environment. One of her main jobs will be explaining to all the farmers and other landowners why their generous subsidies under the EU's Common Agricultural Policy will come to an end. I like to think that May ended the interview by saying "And good luck with that, Andrea", but I suppose we'll never know :-) But it does prove that revenge is a dish best served when you have a cabinet to reshuffle.

>56 RebaRelishesReading: Reba, yay! You'll love it.

The steps have been good today (I walked to and from work) but the reading not so much. I didn't get home till 8.05 and barely had the energy to toast a hot cross bun. On the corporate challenge, we are now in the Arabian desert, but there's a "spin the wheel" challenge for today and the next two days, so I spun it and my target for today was 12,700. No problem :-) Tomorrow is 10,800 and Saturday's is 15,000-and-something, which should be OK as I'm going on a National Trust guided walk of Croydon (for the 1960s brutalist architecture) and that runs for an hour and a half.

Heh. I kind of like the sound of May. I had heard about the "no children" comment and took umbrage as one who has chosen not to have any!

>58 katiekrug: you & me both. Leadsom is the local MP for where we used to live. Some of our friends have less than nice things to say of her and her intellectual capacity.

Boris at the Foreign Office gives me some concern, but I am guessing she's thinking he's better on side than one the edges sniping. But I note that she's given someone else the EU Brexit negotiations job.

>58 katiekrug: You're not the only one Katie. Harumph.

Look forward to photos of Brutalist Croydon!

I hadn't realised Newsom was Environment. Ha. Evil laughter.

Such interesting politics going on there, Susan.

>58 katiekrug: Katie, I hope she'll be good. She's made a lot of changes already, including abolishing the Department for Energy and Climate Change, and merging it into the new Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, which has not pleased the environmentalists but, since businesses are the ones using most of the energy and doing most of the polluting, there must be an argument that it will promote "joined-up thinking".

>59 Helenliz: Helen, yes, Boris doing the negotiating might have been a step too far! But then a fortnight ago everyone thought he would be the new PM...

>60 charl08: Charlotte, yes, that did make me giggle too.

>61 ronincats: Roni, it is all very interesting, and I'm not even really a follower of politics. I think if they put it all in a TV series, people would complain that it was too far-fetched.

Today Amazon has a "Big Deal" on its Kindle books (different from the Daily Deal) and it's travel books. I've snagged William Dalrymple's In Xanadu, Eric Newby's The Last Grain Race (should I get more of his? They have A Short Walk in the Hindu Kush) and Around the Coast in Eighty Waves.

Hi Susan! So glad to see that you loved Kitchens of the Great Midwest! I just bought it this week to give to my mom based on a "staff pick" at the Tattered Cover, so I am thrilled to see it loved by you and Beth!

>63 AMQS: Hi Anne! I'm sure your Mum will love it. Make sure you borrow it back!

Today was the National Trust walk around Croydon, to look at some of the 1960s architecture. Here are some pictures (pinched from the interweb):



Here we have "Number 1, Croydon", by Richard Seifert and Partners, who also designed Centrepoint in London. This is an office building, but I think it would make lovely apartments.



And here's St George's House (the one in the background), more commonly known as the Nestle Tower. The guide pronounced it "Nest-lay" about half the time, and "Nestles" (to rhyme with pestles) the rest of the time, just how we used to say it in New Zealand :-) This *is* being turned into apartments



This is Lunar House, which is currently the main Home Office immigration building, known for its queues around the block.



And this is Apollo House, in the same street.



Here's Corinthian House, which is another Richard Seifert building.



By Jim Linwood - http://www.flickr.com/photos/brighton/6354011431/, CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=20542780

And lastly, Fairfield Halls, an arts complex with a theatre and concert hall, which closed down for refurbishment yesterday. It was designed by the same person who did the Royal Festival Hall, and shares many of the same features. Inside, there was advertising for one of the sponsors, the Whitgift Foundation, "providing education for the young and care for the elderly since 1596". I *love* olden days things like that :-) We were able to go inside with the marketing manager, who gave us a great tour through the building, including backstage at the theatre, and the royal box (and royal toilet, complete with the original 1960s wallpaper).

It was super-interesting, and there were a few locals on the tour so they added bits and pieces too as we went around. The area has lots of buildings still going up or being refurbished, and there's a HUGE new Westfield development planned, which will pretty much gut the centre of the shopping part if it goes ahead. The shops in the two malls are having a lots of closing down sales, but I'm not sure whether it's got the final green light yet, or what the population is supposed to do while the new mall is being built.

On the train there and back I even managed to finish my pages for this month for the Penguin History of the World so it was a successful outing. This evening I am going to devote myself to Empire of Things after dinner, which is going to be orzo pasta with roasted courgette, tomato sauce and plum tomatoes (yum!).

78. Empire of Things by Frank Trentmann

Yes, I finished it! Yay! This is an excellent book, but it's very long (690pp of text) and would benefit from being a reader's main focus, rather than part of a stack of library books with the due dates always approaching. It's subtitled "How we became a world of consumers, from the fifteenth century to the twenty-first" and it's in two parts. The first is a historical survey. The second takes current worries about consuming and looks at whether they are actually new, or have existed for longer. They include food miles, whether "things" have won against religion in the battle for people's attention, fair trade and waste. It's very well-written, but there are lots of facts in it, and it requires concentration. It might be OK paired with a light novel in terms of other reading, but I had too much other NF and the situation was stressing me out. But now I'm down to just one other library book, and I am looking forward to a calmer time.

Belated happy new thread. Have a wonderful Sunday.

Just dropping in :) Once again trying to de-lurk more. I shall succeed!

Boris in the foreign office. I find it abhorrent. But not as much as Hunt staying in health. We will see - baring the Boris decision I have no issues with May so far. Brexit - well I never ever believed it would happen in the first place and now I still find it hard to take. I just sat there at work the first day watching the markets fall and feeling shock. now I'm just hoping against hope it'll all work out in the end :/ Political rant over :)

The 1960's architect is not for everyone is it! I like the No.1 but some of the others leave me cold. We have a few bits here that are shoved incongruously between beautiful old buildings.

I previously worked for Hall and Kay many moons ago who were part of Staveley Industries PLC headquartered in....Croydon. Probably went to the HQ three times in three years but I don't recall the building being an inspiring one.

Boris was an ok Mayor of London and, if he was to be given a brief at all, the Foreign Office was probably the place to put him. The US and our European friends don't seem too happy with the choice but then again we would certainly not have shortlisted Hillary or The Donald. Philip Hammond must have been the most abjectly boring Foreign Secretary in recent memory - I can just imagine the barrel of laughs his budget speech will be.

Have a great weekend, Susan.

Your walk sounds worthwhile Susan. I don't like that style of architecture but hearing about how buildings came to be built and what for...

I returned the big Civil war book (English not American) unfinished so should probably hold of the a big Books for a while. Although >65 susanj67: Sounds good.

>66 Ameise1: Thanks Barbara!

>67 BekkaJo: Bekka! No, the 1960s buildings aren't for everyone, and they're not really for me, but I was interested to learn a bit more about what was behind the designs, and all the politicking about pulling things down and putting new things up. We passed a few 1980s monstrosities, which I think have aged even less well.

>68 PaulCranswick: Paul, one of the tour guides said that he'd worked for Rothschild's in the City many years ago, and there was a joke that if they messed up they'd be sent to Rothschild House in Croydon...I liked hearing about how the area had developed, and what had been planned for it and how it turned out in the end. The new Westfield will be a huge change, but I wonder whether it will happen.

>69 charl08: Charlotte, yes, I like the history of it all (I shouldn't say that, as I was born in the 60s). Architecture is always an interesting part of the social history books about the various decades that I read. The Civil War book! Gosh, I had forgotten about that. I must finish the free speech one first. Must. Golden Hill is waiting at the library for me tomorrow, so that will be a change of pace.

I did a vast amount of steps today, in the horribly muggy/sticky weather. I came home via Waitrose, mostly so I could dally in the fridge aisle, and chill out. (Ha! I kill myself). Oof. But tomorrow is not going to be steppy, as I have to take the giant library book back so I can't walk in, and I have yet another workshop to run for the third vacation scheme, so I won't be able to go out at lunchtime.



79. Guidebook to Murder by Lynn Cahoon

The library got a whole lot of new ebooks, and I noticed a lot in what seemed to be a series. This is the first one in the "Tourist Trap" mystery series, set in a small town in southern California. It was just OK. I might try the second one to see how things develop, but I don't want to rush to download it right now. I much prefer the Hannah Swensen mysteries, set in Minnesota. That reminds me that I must see where I am with those, and look at getting the next one.

80. Not My Father's Son by Alan Cumming

I saw a lot of LT love for this book, and then it popped up in the library's ebooks. It's a pretty fast read, and a brave thing to write. It's set around Cumming's appearance on Who Do You Think You Are?, and looks back at his difficult childhood in Scotland, and in particular his father, who ruled the house with terror. It's odd to think of Cumming as Scottish, as I only know him from his role as Eli Gold in The Good Wife, and he sounds so American. But he's evidently done a lot of famous things, so maybe I should pay more attention :-)

Bad news from the Book Exchange - it looks like it will soon disappear altogether, due to a refit of the restaurant floor to fit in the 4,000 new people who will be taking up space in the building from September. We have to shrink it down to three cabinets immediately (from six) and there is no space allocated for it once the refit is complete. I suggested that we just call it a day now, but there is a meeting to discuss it. People do love their meetings. I just don't see the point of reducing it and *then* getting rid of it, particularly as it's a quiet time and it's not likely to be used much anyway for the next eight weeks or so.

Yesterday was the hottest day of the year so far, and today is going to be EVEN HOTTER. The weather map on the TV has turned ORANGE. Orange! We never get orange. We're expecting 33C (which is 91.4F). Yet again, Sky News has reporters in coastal hot spots, reporting on just how hot it is. Yesterday people were being warned not to go outside. I walked home and regretted it and I couldn't face walking in this morning, not least because I didn't want my face sliding off when I had a day of work to get through. Thunderstorms are forecast for tonight, though, so fingers crossed.

Yup I've just got back from the plot and it was already cooking. Ice cream weather.

Someone has made off with the second lot of blackcurrants (curses!) so we ended up doing other things instead of just picking. Much too hot for this kind of nonsense. Going to lie down in a darkened room now, probably with a book...

I recently listened to Not My Father's Son and loved it (and him) - glad you enjoyed it, too!

Love me some Alan Cumming!

And boo! to the end of the book exchange :(

Have a lovely week Susan.

Also another boo to the end of the book exchange. That sucks they can't fit you in somewhere else.

>72 charl08: Charlotte, do you mean actual thieves? People are awful. The darkened room sounds like a good bet for this weather. Or, put water + ice cubes in a bowl, and stand a fan heater behind it so that it blows air over the bowl and onto you. I picked up that tip from a friend in Queensland, where it is always hot.

>73 scaifea: Amber, your thread must have been one of the places I saw it :-)

>74 katiekrug: And Katie, I know yours was! I know about the book exchange. Even though someone vandalises it every single day, I still like putting things in order.

>75 GeezLouise: Thanks Rae! You too.

>76 charl08: Charlotte, I know. But the building will be under a lot more space pressure from September. And the new people will be sharing the canteen, which alarms us all (the other sub-lessees don't). The canteen is closing for six weeks to be souped up (no pun intended) but what they really need is to realise that 12 noon is lunchtime, and have everything actually ready for then. Currently the book exchange is in the coffee bar part of the restaurant floor, and I think they're putting something else in there too.

Today is another baking hot day. We're all over it now. This is day 5. I am half-dressed for a possible client meeting later (by which I mean I am fully dressed *in clothes*, but just not a jacket). If I don't have to go to the meeting, which will involve taking the tube (no, no!) I have another outfit to change into. Needless to say I had to get the bus to work with all the clothes.

Sorry you're losing your book exchange. That's a bummer for everyone. Also sorry you're having a heat wave. We've had a hotter, more humid, summer than I've ever experienced at Chautauqua but the past two days have been perfect -- 70ish (2ish), sunny and not too humid. We get another one like it today :)

>76 charl08: What Charlotte said.

The heat. *shakes head* I hear you. I am ready for winter.

>78 RebaRelishesReading: Reba, my favourite booky work friend emailed me last night to say she'd just found a biography of Georgia O'Keefe in the book exchange that she'd been looking for without success. She's sad about it too. I should know more after the meeting later, but I'm not hopeful.

>79 Crazymamie: Mamie, me too! Well, maybe not actual winter, but just the end of 30C. It was overcast with a bit of a breeze this morning so I walked in, and amazingly my face stayed on.

The corporate wellness challenge "sleep" phase opened yesterday, so last night I found my Fitbit wristband and set it going when I switched my Kindle off. It's amazing! You get a little chart showing when you were asleep, and when awake/restless, and it matched what I dimly remembered. Also, if you have to get up at all, it counts steps, so I had 52 when I woke up properly this morning :-) I am going to keep using it. It showed that I got a fair amount of sleep, which doesn't explain why I am permanently exhausted, but knowledge is power etc.

I'm currently trying to finish Britain's Empire: Resistance, Repression and Revolt - if you hate Britain then this is the book for you, as the author certainly does. He writes from the point of view that Britain is wicked and evil and no other people have ever done anything wrong since the beginning of time. I've also got Timothy Egan's The Big Burn as an ebook from the library, and American Assassin by Vince Flynn, which is the first one in a new thriller series, as I'm nearly all caught up with the Jack Reacher books (sob). Plus the giant free speech book in hard copy, which is just too heavy to think about in this heat. I mean literally - I can't sit there with a giant book resting on a cushion in my lap.

Glad you've got some breeze - must make the walking a bit easier. The cats took the night off last night for which I am very grateful. You asked about who took the berries - the honest answer is we don't know. Hope it was birds because people are much less predictable.

I'm jealous of the Georgia O'Keele bio. Will you go to the Tate exhibit?

Did you see the New Zealand nature doc that was on the night before last with Sam Neill narrating? It was so beautiful, especially the dolphins and whales bit. Oh, and the rainforest penguins, of course!

Georgia Ok'Keefe had a most interesting life. I'm happy for your friend that she found the biography of her and hope you'll be able to save the book exchange.

>81 charl08: Charlotte, I saw the advertising for the Tate show, so maybe, although I hate the Tate Modern. I didn't see the documentary, but it sounds like a BBC thing so I will look for it on the iPlayer. (Yes, I see it is, googling it. How did I miss that? How? Thanks for the heads-up!) I had such a crush on Sam Neill at high school (Reilly, Ace of Spies had just come out). I was going to become a make-up artist, and then I would meet him and we would get married (of course). My friends said that Sam wouldn't marry a make-up artist. So I did something else, and he married...a make-up artist.

>82 RebaRelishesReading: Hi Reba! I've tipped the friend off about the imminent closure, and told her to take whatever she wants. There are a few things there that I mean(t) to borrow - I may have just worked out how to get rid of all my loose change :-)

>83 susanj67: lol -- and you're probably much better off

Bummer about the book exchange, such a pity!

>84 RebaRelishesReading: Well, Reba, I don't know...:-)

>85 ronincats: Roni, yes, it's a shame, but based on the money collected for the charity that it supported, people were only borrowing two books a day. They're replacing the funding from another source, but the books were all packed up yesterday, to be stored till the refurb is done, and then I think they will disappear completely. Hey ho.



81. Britain's Empire: Resistance, Repression, Revolt by Richard Gott

A long potted summary of wickedness in the empire, against native peoples who lived in peace and harmony before the evil British arrived. It did refer to lots of other things I'd like to read, and I've decided to try and read more about Sri Lanka, which I have always thought of as about as big as the Isle of Wight, even though it's pretty big on the map. I think the intricacies of the civil war there have consigned it to the Too Hard basket (where it joins the French Revolution and most things about the Middle East) but there must be something about the history of it out there. And I've downloaded a Parliamentary select committee report on "Aboriginal Tribes (British Settlement)" which looked at some of the concerns of the public (and politicians) in Britain about what was going on. "Aboriginal" is not confined to Australia in this sense - it used to mean native people more broadly. But I can count Britain's Empire, and it's a Mount TBR book, so finally I can add a book to that ticker. Yay!

I'm having a day off today, to make up for the one I had to cancel a couple of weeks ago. And it has *rained*! It is cooler. I am planning a trip to the big Tesco at Surrey Quays, and I also want to make some more progress with the free speech book. The author keeps referring to all the wonderfulness in the "post-Gutenberg" version of the book, so I get the feeling the ebook is a better reading experience, but never mind.

82. Free Speech: Ten Principles for a Connected World by Timothy Garton Ash

This was an excellent read. Although I got off to a slow start due to All The Books, I read more than 200 pages yesterday and finished it. The first section looks at the "connected world" and the second at the author's ten principles which he says everyone should commit to. As well as all the thinky stuff, there are lots of anecdotes/references to news stories etc and I really liked that. I picked up some great new material for my talk to high school kids about social media and the law, and I've reserved a book about young people and the internet, which sounds good. Very highly recommended for anyone who spends a lot of time online.

I also started Golden Hill (excellent) and read a couple more chapters of The Big Burn, so it was a good day for the books. The steps suffered, but never mind. I'll do some more today, although it looks very hot and sunny so I'll wait a while and then walk to Canary Wharf for a few bits and pieces.

Glad you have had a good reading day to make up for the last one. I'm still taking a breather after the grim accounts of the sex trade in Pimp State. Although I've also got Missoula in the pile, I think I'll wait to start that one.

>86 susanj67: Mmm the glorious empire, Susan.

My wife's gran who passed away a number of years ago used to tell the tale of the Japanese coming into Singapore and the British old colonials were making haste for the few berths available at the docks. One car swept around a bend at Kallang narrowly missing her but mowing down an old man selling nasi lemak (rice cooked in coconut milk with spicy sauce) at his stall. The man was grievously hurt and the Malay driver for the Tokay stopped to give aid. As he opened the door his boss screamed at him in english (Hani's gran didn't speak the lingo) and the old man was left to die as they rushed to flee the Army of the Yellow Peril. Shocking.

Have a great weekend, Susan.

>88 charl08: Charlotte, yet, it was. I saw that review on your thread and decided not to add that one to my list. OMG! That's a first!

>89 PaulCranswick: Paul, that could happen anywhere, though, and any time, even now. One person lacking basic decency doesn't mean all British people are like that. Other people are doing worse things at this very moment.

Oof, another hot one here. 27C (no laughing from the US south now...). I went for a walk around the Isle of Dogs this morning which was lovely, but I took the shady route, and bought some water from Tesco for the walk. I finished up at the Wharf, where I went to Marks & Spencer, and then got the tube home. I'm about a hundred pages from the end of Golden Hill, and I've started the tobacco book again (not from the beginning, just after not having read it for a while. Fortunately the story moves so slowly that it's easy to pick up again). The new Daniel Silva book is waiting for me at the library - I'm pretty sure I checked the page before I left this morning and it wasn't there, or otherwise I could have picked it up. But the rush of books has calmed down a bit.

I realise I'm the exception here, but I'm loving the heat. I feel the cold so badly that I spend 6 months of the year in two jumpers. I shocked my colleagues by removing my cardigan earlier this week.

I'm reading Into the Silence which must be the most unseasonable book ever. >:-)

>90 susanj67: No laughing here. I've experienced that kind of heat where you are, and I'd much rather be here than there in temperatures that high. It's much easier to stay cool here with air conditioned houses, cars, and offices. I spent the most miserable night of my life in an Oxford hotel room without air conditioning.

>91 Helenliz: Helen, *no cardigan*? My goodness :-) I travel to work in short sleeves, but I have all my knitwear in the office now, for putting on as soon as I get into the air-conditioning. Your book choice makes me wonder whether I should read a Christmas romance novel set in the US. There's snow on the cover.

>92 cbl_tn: Carrie, last night wasn't too bad, heat-wise, although I could have done without the thing with the thrumming motor out in the street for most of the night. I couldn't see it, but it sounded like a generator of some sort. We're still better-off than the Kuwaitis, though, where it was 54C yesterday. That's 129.3F, y'all. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/kuwait-swelters-record-break... Yikes!

I got a fair amount of The Big Burn read during the night, because I kept waking up. I should finish it today. And Golden Hill. I'll head up to Whitechapel for their 11 am opening, to get one of the Guardian-reviewed books from Charlotte's thread, and then do a circuit around the area to take in Waitrose, which has a very cold fridge aisle :-)

83. Golden Hill by Francis Spufford

I reserved this after seeing it on LT (in the Guardian reviews on Charlotte's thread, I think, and then when Charlotte read it.) It's set in 1746 New York and I loved it. The sense of place seems very real, and there is a suitable amount of mystery over the central character and what he's doing there. And the writing is gorgeous. Highly recommended. Thanks Charlotte!

I'm back after doing my steps. There was no sign of The Allegations at Whitechapel library, so I got Eligible instead. Well, I couldn't leave empty-handed, could I? I spent the better part of an hour looking for my Fitbit before I left, and the house really isn't that big. Eventually I found it in the kitchen rubbish. D'oh! I must have scooped it up with other stuff last night. A narrow escape as tomorrow is rubbish day. Fortunately it was fine, so that's £70 I don't have to spend getting a new one. Yay!

I'm glad you found the Fitbit! When I lose something, I always worry that I've accidentally thrown it away.

>95 cbl_tn: Me too.

Glad you liked Golden Hill Susan. I loved the copy I got from the library: one of those hardbacks I'd like to own for shelf decoration.

YIKES to almost throwing away your Fitbit. I have Golden Hill in the stacks, and you are making me want to get to it. Next month, maybe...

84. The Big Burn: Teddy Roosevelt and the Fire That Saved America by Timothy Egan

I really enjoyed Egan's The Worst Hard Time when I read it earlier this year (I think) and I noticed that the elibrary had this one, about the huge fire in the Bitterroots Mountains of Montana/Idaho in 1910. It may not have been one of my better ideas to read a book about a huge fire when it's so HOT, but it was very well done, and looked not just at what happened on the ground, but also at all the politicking, and the beginning of the US National Parks, and the Forest Service. It definitely helped to have Google Maps open at the beginning, to see where all the towns were, and I mostly managed not to hop into the maps to explore the towns as they are now. Mostly... Highly recommended.

>95 cbl_tn: Carrie, I'm usually more careful. But it did remind me of the time my mother misplaced the middle-sized kitchen knife. It was eventually found in the green-waste bin outside, with the silver-beet stalks she'd been using it on.

>96 charl08: Charlotte, yes, it was a lovely book. I hope he writes more fiction. His NF looks a little bit weird for me. BTW, I just logged into the elibrary and the Howard Jacobson Shakespeare retelling popped up on their always-different front page. I'm tempted...

>97 Crazymamie: Mamie, I'm very glad not to have lost my steps for the time it would have taken me to get a new one. Plus the £70, of course :-)

Right, some of the tobacco book now, and then maybe Eligible. And it's finally cool enough to do some laundry. Tomorrow seems very close.

The Big Burn is now on the second you-list.

Hating the weather here. So hot yesterday that I found it hard to concentrate on my reading for very long at a time - even though one of the books is about the Arctic with lots of freezing temps and beaucoup ice of all kinds. And I'm living in one of the more decent parts of the country.

I think there is something wrong with any AC system where, in order to function comfortably in it, a person has to put on a sweater. I once worked in an office where we had to wear winter clothing in the summer and - though I did not last beyond the end of the summer - I was told that the winter required summer clothing be worn in order to be at all comfortable. I did not doubt it.

>100 Fourpawz2: Charlotte, today is much better, and last night there was an actual cool breeze, possibly linked to the fact that I had the balcony door and the bedroom window open. I don't usually like leaving the balcony door open, but so far burglars haven't got me. They would have to climb up six storeys, or around the wall that separates my balcony from the Queen of Shopping's balcony, and there is quite a fall into the tide from there :-) I hope your situation improves, but I know what you mean about it being too hot to read. Sometimes it's just too hot to be bothered doing anything.

I took the free speech book and Golden Hill back to the library this morning, and recommended them both to FLA. Then I picked the brand new Daniel Silva novel, The Black Widow which I reserved ages ago, although it has only just been published so I think I might be the first reader. Excited! I love this series. I looked at the English Civil War book mentioned on the other Charlotte's thread, but the library copy is grimy and disgusting, so that one won't be coming home. I'll have to see if I can get one from Amazon. Oh, yes I can :-) 1p + £2.80 postage. Bargain. And from Better World Books, who always send books in great condition. I wonder why my "Inspired by your browsing history" is all dog products, though, given that I don't have a dog, and have never browsed for food or toys or Dentastix. But I did look up Spencer Quinn's Chet and Bernie books - maybe that's it.

I read 60 pages of the tobacco book last night (350pp into it, and it's just up to the time I was born) and started American Assassin and The Secret World of Oil, which is my last Verso book. They didn't have their amazing mid-year sale this year, possibly because people like me were stocking up and not buying things at full price. Ah well.

Laughing re your amazon recommends. I did some research for my dad on some diy products and for ages it seemed convinced that what I really wanted to buy was a chainsaw. (I am far too clumsy to be in charge of a chainsaw).

Hope you like the civil war book. It was interesting, but also intimidatingly big!

Good Afternoon, Susan! Your Monday is closer to being over then mine, so I am a bit jealous. Your Amazon recs made me laugh. Audible keeps recommending Hemingway books, and you know how I feel about him. *sigh*

>102 charl08: Charlotte, I've put it in my basket, for when I've made a bit more progress with the tobacco book, which I seem to have been reading all year (it's a Pulitzer winner). I could never handle a chainsaw either. I'm considering doing an online cookery course, and week 2 is "Knives and knife skills", which is giving me pause for thought, as I have no knife skills and I'm not sure, after decades of not having them, that I can gain them in a week.

>103 Crazymamie: Mamie, it is - it's now after lunchtime, so that's virtually 5.30. Virtually. I can only think Amazon must have picked up the Chet and Bernie books, which is very silly. I suppose it makes a change from Station Eleven, which was chasing me all round the internet last week after I looked it up to send a link to a friend on the other side of the building (and then found it in the book exchange!). Speaking of the book exchange, I had thought they were packing the whole thing up on Friday, but no. Just three cabinets, so we now have L - Z of the crime, and all of the General Fiction and the Non Fiction. Durr.

L-Z of the crime!! Oh, dear!

>105 Crazymamie: Mamie, I know...But in a way it didn't surprise me. Sigh. I wish they'd taken it all, because the people planning to snag the Robert Galbraith that amazingly stayed on the shelves for quite some time are really going to be annoyed now.

Have a wonderful week Susan.

Ooof - catching up. Sorry to hear about the exchange :/

We had the hottest July day on record last Tuesday - I think it was 34.5 (or something like that). It was so out of the blue that it was horrific! Everyone came in on Wednesday looking wiped because no one had had any sleep - it was still 29 at 11 pm. Urggle.

Warm today - but mid 20s warm. We're off on hols on Saturday so actually I'm now egging the nice weather on. It's going to rain on me, isn't it?

>107 GeezLouise: Thanks Rae! You too :-)

>108 BekkaJo: Thanks Bekka. The other three cabinets are apparently being packed today, so L-Z of the crime won't be there to annoy me for much longer. I think you had an even hotter time than we did last week! It sounds better now. And the rain...probably. But, looking on the bright side, if you're going to France again, you won't have all the nightmare queues at Dover :-) I've just been reading a briefing from Mourant Ozanne on the effect of Brexit on offshore. I love the way that such disparate territories are all just known as "offshore", and everyone understands it :-) I'm going to walk home to get some more steps in, but I am keeping my cardi *on*, at least till I take it off.

85. American Assassin by Vince Flynn

I'm looking for another series of the same sort as Jack Reacher, and the elibrary seemed to have all the books in this series, so I gave it a go. Mitch Rapp, the hero, is part of a CIA black ops unit, and shaping up pretty well to be a good central character. This is the first book in the chronological story, but number 11 in the series (y'all can imagine the dilemma this presented me with). And the second book in the sequence is number something-else-that-freaked-me-out. But then I think it runs in order. Phew! This one was pretty slow to get going, but then started rattling along. I've downloaded the next one already :-)

There must be a support group for the reading out of order but in chronological order...

(Or maybe this *is* the support group?!)

Reading out of order?! *gasp* Does chronological order trump written order? Is there a rule of thumb? Guidelines?

Hello, my name is Mamie and it has been two months and five days since I have read a book in a series out of order...

>111 charl08: Charlotte, this *is* it. There. It's official.

>112 Crazymamie: Mamie, LOL! Yes, when I saw it was number 11 as I went to add it to my LT books I actually said "WHAT?" out loud, and un-reclined myself, because somewhere I had read it was first. But yes, I think chronological order trumps written order. But then I would say that. I don't know why these authors can't think very carefully right at the beginning about how much of the character's story they want to tell, and start from that point instead of ducking and diving. One of the Jack Reacher books went all the way back to the beginning after five or six books in the series, but I didn't realise that before I started, which gives me a pass.

Five reserves are in transit, and I'm next in line for two ebooks. And yet...no books.

Hi Susan - Lots of great walking and great books here. I think I may have read a Cahoun and decided I didn't need to pursue the series.

Your comments reminded me that I do want to read Not My Father's Son. The Egan sounds good, too. I loved The Worst Hard Time.

Too bad about the Book Exchange. :(

Is this not the thread to admit that I'm reading my collection of Heyers in a random order, with a hint of the aalphabetical thrown in? They are on the shelf in alphabetical and unless one jumps out at me, I'm taking the next in sequence.

Sorry, I realise you're all heartily offended and will leave now before I cause any further upset.

>;-)

>114 BLBera: Hi Beth! Yes, the Egan was excellent. The book exchange was finally packed up yesterday so it's all gone. I will have to find something else to put in order. I've been reading about your family get-together on your thread. How lovely to have readers :-)

>115 Helenliz: Helen, the Heyers are fine because they're stand-alone novels (I think). Only series with recurring characters must (MUST) be read in order, or the character development makes no sense.

I have today, tomorrow and Friday as holiday. Yay! The carried-over holiday deadline is Friday, so I wanted to use my final half-day, and then I thought another 2.5 days might be nice too :-) I've already been down to Tesco, but it's not a very steppy trip, so I'll go to Waitrose later to get some more steps. I love my stocked-up cupboards after a few days of holiday.

Howdy Susan! I am all caught up now. For how long? ;-)

>116 susanj67: Hope you enjoy your time off Susan.

Do you have a Plan?

>117 luvamystery65: Hi Roberta! I don't imagine anything exciting will happen, so you're probably caught up for quite a while :-)

>118 charl08: Thanks Charlotte. I don't have a Plan, which may explain why I've had a bit of an undecided day. But I have read a lot :-)



86. Where The Shadows Lie by Michael Ridpath

The elibrary also has a series by this author, so I checked out this first one. It's a straight police procedural rather than a thriller (which is what I was hoping for), but still pretty good. Boston cop Magnus (an Icelandic national, conveniently) is sent on secondment to the police in Iceland until some baddies in the US go on trial and stop trying to kill him. As soon as he lands he's drawn into a murder which ends up involving an undiscovered Icelandic saga, and a gold ring with rumoured special powers...I liked it even though Magnus is no Jack Reacher, and I'll definitely get the second one to see what happens next. I've also reserved The Hobbit. No, I have never read the books. Or seen the films.



87. The Secret World of Oil by Ken Silverstein

An interesting, but depressing, look at the corrupt world of oil, and how some people make billions while citizens of the oil-producing countries live in poverty. This is a fairly quick read but could easily have been twice as long and still a good read, as I think there are a lot more stories to tell.

Hi Susan! Loved your review of The Big Burn. I have that one in my pile somewhere.

>69 charl08: Paul, what an awful story! I can't say I'm surprised, but I feel just terrible.

Susan, I hope you're having a great week. Has it cooled down a bit>

>120 AMQS: Hi Anne! Find The Big Burn when it's colder, and read it then :-)

I'm on the second day of my little holiday, and had all my errands run by 9.30. Go me! It feels hot and humid again today, but the weather forecast suggests that it is only 18C (66F) with 60% humidity. I've got my doubts. I'm going to finish Eligible shortly (LOVE it) and then do a bit more of the tobacco book. I read about a gazillion pages yesterday and we're up to 1970. Sigh. I think I'll start another of the Pulitzer books to read alongside the tobacco one, for a change of subject.

Wow. Even without the plan you're a machine of productivity. I on the other hand stayed up late to try and finish a book (Everyone is Watching) and am now feeling like going back to bed. I have watered the plants though, so that counts as a chore achieved? (I hope!)

>122 charl08: Charlotte, I like to make the most of any day off :-) Plant watering definitely counts as something achieved though!



88. Eligible by Curtis Sittenfeld

I've seen this being discussed on LT and opinion seems to be divided. But it was right there on the shelf on the weekend and I couldn't find the book I went to the library for, so I got it instead. And loved it! What a fun read. I'm not a big Jane Austen fan (meaning I've read the books, but not more than once) so I wasn't offended by any differences from Pride and Prejudice. I just liked it for what it was, and essentially it was a romance novel :-) The writing style reminded me of Kristan Higgins, whose books I adore, so I loved the style, and all the ways in which single women can still be a disappointment to their parents two centuries after the original Bennet sisters. And Mr Bennet, in particular, was a delight. I enjoyed this author's American Wife and hated Prep, but now I'll look for her other two books.

Hi Susan - I thought Sittenfeld made some interesting choices in Eligible to update P&P. It was a fun novel. I read Sisterland, which I really liked. Very interesting novel. That's the only other Sittenfeld I've read so far. One of my cousins loved Prep.

>123 susanj67: Thanks for the insight. I've got it on the shelf, so should be making a go of it eventually. A little backed up on some ARCs to read first, though.

Congrats on a lovely string of days off and with having accomplished your errands so quickly! Makes the rest of the day so much sweeter!

>124 BLBera: Beth, I've seen Sisterland somewhere, and looking up the library catalogue I see there's a copy at the branch near work. Hmmm... I also liked the updating of P&P, although I didn't think the Lydia situation quite worked, in comparison to the original. I'm recommending it to friends, though :-)

>125 michigantrumpet: Marianne, yes, today has seemed nice and long, and I've spent the whole evening reading :-)



89. The Black Widow by Daniel Silva

This is book 16 in the Gabriel Allon series, and it might just be the best of them all. This time the plot involves ISIS, and Silva is cuttingly accurate about the lily-livered Western security forces who refuse to get a grip, and have let Europe be overrun with criminals. Very highly recommended, although if you're unfamiliar with Gabriel Allon, you have 15 books to read before this one :-)

One of the Hannah Swensen mysteries has come in as a reserve, so I might make a trip to the library tomorrow, to return the two gorgeous new hardbacks that I've just finished, and pick up two or three other things :-) I think I have about nine reserves in transit if I count the hard copy and ebooks. Maybe the trick is just not to count.

Maybe the trick is just not to count.

Yes. I endorse this message.

Me, too.

>127 charl08:, >128 Crazymamie: Yes, I think I'm going to go with that :-)

I have no Plan for today! It's an open book (ooh, books). I should probably make one, although I did enjoy yesterday, just gorging on the Daniel Silva novel and ignoring everything else for the whole evening. I might aim for two chapters of the tobacco book, which would be a good amount, and then something new.

I made it to the library, where I picked up Blackberry Pie Murder, and I also found a copy of The Hobbit. There was no sign of Sisterland, and Remarkable Creatures, which I thought I'd get after seeing Beth's review, was too grimy to come home. So I got Red Notice instead, after seeing it on Erik's thread recently. (Seriously, why does the touchstone machine think that it's Pilgrim's Progress?) I've just had a cauliflower steak for lunch, with rice, so the holiday is continuing to go well :-)

>130 susanj67: That Putin one sounds good. I'm reading a graphic novel about Rosa Luxemburg, which apparently has gone missing and been reordered. Nice new book. I said to the guy how many of them get stolen, and he said not all the missing ones are stolen. Hmmm. Perhaps expensive graphic novels are walking out of the libraries I order them from?!

I love no plan days!! Happy Friday, Susan!

>130 susanj67: Charlotte, I think you should set up your own surveillance and solve the mystery of the missing graphic novels.

>131 charl08: Library books sometimes "go missing" because they get mis-shelved. A friend of mine used to volunteer for the San Diego library and her job was to scan the shelves for lost books and get them back to where they belonged.

>133 RebaRelishesReading: In a previous library in which we worked, we apparently had a student worker who was dyslexic. I got pretty good at figuring out where the books might be and could usually find them. It was usually just a case of certain numbers being switched.

>133 RebaRelishesReading: Maybe I should be a roving GN shelver? I'd like that!

>131 charl08: Charlotte, it's sad to think that people would steal from libraries, but those GNs seem to be very popular.

>132 Crazymamie: Thanks Mamie! It's worked out well so far.

>133 RebaRelishesReading: Reba, this happened at the book exchange too. I would often find things in the *strangest* places. It's like people don't see how the alphabet is relevant to a library.

>134 thornton37814: Lori, my library used to have some books shelved by the author's first name instead of last. They check the shelves carefully now, so it's better, but I would always look for a novel by last name of the author, then first name, then title (just in case) and then all the various categories (general, sci-fi, crime etc). The current people are better than the previous ones.

>135 charl08: Charlotte, you could totally do that! I always re-shelve things I see out of place. Yes, I may have Issues. I do it at Waterstones too.

#109 Indeedy - we are offshore and onshore and terribly confusing/confused. I work with MOZ from time to time - I used to work for them back when the law firm and admin firm were all together (Mourant du Feu & Jeune).

And yes - off to France tomorrow. Huzzah!

Your reading is eclectic and inspiring as always :)

>137 BekkaJo: Bekka, yay for your holiday! I hope the sea is calm and the ferry is swift :-) Don't forget books! I believe they are in a different language in France, so you don't want to run out.



90. Blackberry Pie Murder by Joanne Fluke

This is another instalment of the Hannah Swensen cosy mystery series, although it would more accurately be described as a cheesy mystery series. But I love it :-) This book sees Hannah in court for vehicular homicide, and there's a giant cliffhanger at the end, which has made me reserve the next one immediately. There are also lots of cookie recipes, and I have just made a batch of Yummy Yam Cookies, swapping the yams for sweet potato and the dried papaya for dried apricots, as the recipe suggested. But I had the pecans! The test cookie was excellent, so now I have something snacky for the office that is not an ice-cream from Marks & Spencer.

July has turned out to be my top reading month by quantity of books - 20! I've revised my tickers back to 150 books for the year, as that seems do-able now.

The Dog Stars has turned up on reserve, after being recommended by booky work friend who loved it. I'll pick it up on Monday. In the meantime, I'll try and read The Hobbit, which I might take out with me tomorrow. I have to spend hours on trains because I couldn't think of an excuse quickly enough. I'll definitely be taking something.

Hi Susan, after being away for a couple of weeks, I am now caught up here. You sure read some very interesting books. My wishlist grew a few inches as I scrolled through.

>138 susanj67: I've read that one. I appear to have missed the next one but read the one after it.

>139 DeltaQueen50: Hi Judy! I am a bit of a magpie when it comes to the books. I sometimes wish I could concentrate on one thing.

>140 thornton37814: Lori, have you been reading out of order?! I'm hoping the next one comes soon.

Today has been very steppy, which has made up for some of the slacking on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. I may even beat my personal best for the corporate challenge (which is quite pitiful, so nothing to boast about). I've also read a hundred pages of The Hobbit on my travels, and it's a terrific read.

And I've just enrolled for the Forks Over Knives cookery course, as the discount for early enrollment runs out tomorrow. It's a vegan course, but I'm interested in (a) skills and (b) learning about what to put with what for proper nutrition. I don't have to get it perfect as I'm not vegan and can have eggs and yoghurt-based dressings and cheese for protein, but at the moment I have a pile of magazines and no clue, really. But tonight's cauliflower rice and roasted vegetables worked out well, even if the vegetables came ready-prepared from Tesco :-)

Have a lovely weekend Susan.

>142 GeezLouise: Thanks Rae - you too! I'm glad the A/C is fixed :-)



91. Red Notice: How I Became Putin's No. 1 Enemy by Bill Browder

There's a quote from Lee Child on the front cover of this book: "Reads like a classic thriller...but it's all true, and it's a story that needs to be told." And that just about sums it up, although in many ways it's even more outlandish than a thriller. The author was one of the first foreign investors in Russia, and built up a hedge fund worth billions. But, as he started to criticise what was going on in the country, he discovered that the authorities were out to get him, and the people who worked with him. One of them was his lawyer, Sergei Magnitsky, whose death in custody started a big international campaign for sanctions against the officials responsible for his death, and the latter part of the book is about Browder's human rights campaigning. Very highly recommended, and thanks to Erik for another great recommendation.

>141 susanj67: I read some of the earlier ones before LibraryThing. I really thought I'd kept up with the more recent ones, but I guess I missed Double Fudge Brownie Murder. I'll have to go back and read it. So - I guess I have been reading out of order. It was not intentional though. I really though I'd read it. I guess I saw it sitting on the bookshelf in the library and had seen it enough times I thought I'd read it.

>134 thornton37814: I think it's also sometimes members of the public who take down a book and then reshelve it incorrectly because they don't care or because they forgot where they got it or because they don't understand the system.

I have no Plan for today! It's an open book (ooh, books). Those are the best kind of days!

You got me with Red Notice. Wow. My husband had a... um... warm conversation this morning with his mother and stepfather, who just returned home (to Cyprus) after several months in Russia (the stepfather is Russian, and both of my husband's parents studied in Russia as there were no universities in Cyprus at the time). They LOVE Putin. To them, "democracy" means "order and safety," and they feel that Putin has delivered. It's hard for them to understand how others of us, and likely many Russians, don't see him as the herald of glorious democracy they do.

>146 AMQS: I have Red Notice on the shelves and it looks like i should dust it down soon.

>144 thornton37814: Lori, I'll let you off, in that case :-) The titles are quite confusing, what with all the pies and cookies. I think the real mystery is how the inhabitants of Lake Eden don't all have diabetes, with the amount of cookies they eat!

>145 RebaRelishesReading: Reba, or understand the alphabet...

>146 AMQS: Anne, I suppose compared to the life a lot of Russians had before, Putin has changed things for the better because things were just so grim. But his foreign policy is very worrying, and it seems that anyone who tries to take on the state is still treated very badly.

>147 PaulCranswick: Paul, it's definitely worthwhile. And it's so gripping that it takes no time at all.

One of today's Kindle Daily Deals in the UK is The North Water, which is on the Booker longlist. I was pretty surprised to see it so cheap so I thought I'd better buy it quickly :-)

Today I am planning more steps, with a walk around the Isle of Dogs and then home again probably, as the bus route home is suspended today for a cycling race. There's always the tube as a backup, though, in case it all gets too much :-) Then I'm going to try and finish The Hobbit, and that will mean Friday's library books are ready to go back tomorrow.

>148 susanj67: One of today's Kindle Daily Deals in the UK is The North Water

Thanks for that, Susan, I have snapped that up. And discovered in the process that my Kindle Daily Deal emails (along with several other emails that I want) have suddenly started going into my Junk box! Who knows why.

>149 SandDune: Rhian, those emails are a bit random, I find. Occasionally I just don't get them at all for a few days, and then they're back. His Bloody Project, another Booker book, is £1.99 if that appeals. It's the unknown crime novel that suddenly everyone thinks is wonderful :-) I was looking at your OU list on your thread. You're in for a busy year! But how great to be just one year away from finishing.

92. The Hobbit by J R R Tolkein

I have never read any Tolkein *guilty confession*. But, after the recent Icelandic mystery which involved a long-forgotten saga and a gold ring (and frequent references to Tolkein, who was thought by the characters to have based Lord of the Rings on the saga) I thought I probably should. Naturally I had to start with The Hobbit, what with it being the first one and everything. It was a great read, and finally I know what people are talking about when they say "my precioussssss" (I knew where it came from, but not why). Next up is The Fellowship of the Ring, which my library seems to have in hard copy, but which I might prefer in a nice clean e-version once I have some elibrary hold slots left. I have been next in line for three books for AGES. Sniff. Where are they? I now have no library books, except for one ebook thriller. I could read that, I suppose.

>119 susanj67: My library has got this series. Sounds good. I put it on my list.

>126 susanj67: It looks like I should go back to this series. I like it but haven't recently read a book of it.

>143 susanj67: My library has got a copy of it. I put it on my list.

Hi Susan, I wish you a great start into the week ahead.

>152 Ameise1: Hi Barbara! The Icelandic novel took a little while to get going, but it was worth it in the end. And yes to Gabriel Allon! It's my very favourite series. I hope you enjoy Red Notice too. And I hope your week goes well. I am back in the office after my little holiday, but I did take a detour to the library on the way in.

I returned Friday's books (Friday's! It's like the olden days of reading heaps). As I feared, The Fellowship of the Ring is too grimy to come home, but I found Sisterland on the shelf this time, as well as Work Like Any Other and The Dog Stars, which had come in as reserves. FLA said thank you for the Golden Hill recommendation. He's 3/4 of the way through it and really enjoying it. So I have to pass on the thanks, as it was on LT that I found out about it :-)

>153 susanj67: I have a spendid week. We are on holiday in the French Alps until mid August.

Hi Susan - What, only one ebook? You're slipping. Have fun with the Tolkien.

All caught up here, Susan! I love your range of reading - seems a bit of everything. Red Notice is moving up the list...

I am off all next week and considering trying to set up A Plan. Stay tuned!

Glad to hear you're spreading the Golden Hill love. That's one I'm hoping will get a lot of readers. Pleasingly I just checked my library catalogue and almost all the copies are out or on the way to a reservation :-)

>154 Ameise1: Barbara, that sounds lovely. Enjoy!

>155 BLBera: Beth, I know! I suppose the three "next in line" ones will all come in at once. There's always the Penguin History of the World, though, which I am reading at 100pp a month with Katie, Mamie and Jenn.

>156 katiekrug: Katie, yes, I can't seem to resist a bit of everything. How great to have a whole week off. And a Plan! I will have to tell my Dad that I have convinced the US to adopt Plans :-) I will stay tuned.

>157 charl08: Charlotte, I'm sure it will. One of my reserves wouldn't check out on the machine yesterday, so FLA did it for me at the desk and we had a bit of a chat about Golden Hill. We agreed that there is a very strong sense of place about it, if that's the right word. New York in 1746 seems to spring off the page. Well, as much as we can tell, anyway :-)

I read about half of Work Like Any Other last night, and I like the structure a lot. The writing is also beautiful. I'm not sure it's quite "different" enough to win the Booker, though. Last night I found a great page on Amazon that has the Booker longlist and all the previous winners, but I can't find it again this morning at the office. I'll post a link tonight because it's a good resource for anyone wanting to see all the winners and buy them in an instant. For example, I noticed that last year's winner, All The Light We Cannot See is available for just £1.99. And bought it. Darned clever website people.

>158 susanj67: I'm hoping they turn it into a film. The bit on the roof would be great.

I've got eight books waiting at the library, despite picking one up earlier. Possibly I got a bit carried away ordering fiction by African authors I'd been meaning to read for ages...

>159 charl08: Charlotte, goodness me! Eight books! I am, of course, jealous :-) I have maxed out my hard copy and ebook reserve slots, but still no books. Well, apart from yesterday's three books.

Here's the Amazon link I mentioned with all the Booker winners and this year's longlist: https://www.amazon.co.uk/b?node=8323158031&pf_rd_i=1471151247&pf_rd_m=A3...

And some of those links down the left-hand side of the page look pretty good too.

Crumbs that's a very tempting page Susan. Did you get many?

>161 charl08: Charlotte, so far just All The Light We Cannot See. But the one by V S Naipaul reminded me that I wanted to get his book about his first trip to India, so I reserved it.

Two library ebooks arrived this morning. They check out automatically, but I had a look at my elibrary page just to make sure everything had gone to plan. There is an "add to app" button, to put it into the Overdrive app on my Kindle, and also a "read in browser" button. Amusingly, however, only three of my current four books have the "read in browser" option. Nineteen Eighty Four was "add to app" only, presumably so they can track exactly how fast I read it, and which bits I linger over :-) I'm now next in the queue for two others, and yet I can only have five. gaaaaargh. I must read faster.

93. Work Like Any Other by Virginia Reeves

I reserved this after seeing it on Charlotte's thread (srsly, I need a keyboard shortcut for that sentence). It took a while to come in, but was a pretty quick read. It's set in 1920s Alabama, and I liked it, but I still don't think it's "different" enough to win the prize, as they seem to go for "different" (Marlon James's book last year, for example). I'll definitely read what the author writes next, though. I took it back this morning and managed not to borrow anything else, which is just as well given all the ebooks that have arrived. I am now pleased that I didn't borrow the new Roger Crowley one about Portugal. I do have Nineteen Eighty Four and Battling the Gods: Atheism in the Ancient World. Plus a thriller, and 419.

>163 susanj67: Different things aren't they (I liked it vs it's new enough to be worth it for the prize judges). There is something about what it must be like to read that many novels all in one go. Must make you go for the unusual.

(I'd still like to try it though. Can I self nominate to the prize committee?!)

>164 charl08: Charlotte, there should definitely be "ordinary readers" on the prize committees! I'm sure the celebrity judges can't possibly have time to read all the books properly.

Well, I tried to open Nineteen Eighty Four last night, but Overdrive told me that the book wasn't supported by my device. Stranger and stranger, as all their other books are just fine! But that's one less thing to read right now. I am a little bit relieved as I now have room for the two "next in line" books. Phew! I read the introduction and the first chapter of Battling the Gods last night and it looks excellent.

Today's Google doodle is a delightful piece of ambush marketing for the Olympics - well worth checking out. https://www.google.co.uk/

I adored The Fellowship of the Ring when I first read it at 12 years old Heather and have re-read it twice. Scary with a brilliantly driven plot. The other two are not a patch on the first volume IMO.

Have a great weekend, Susan.

Have a great weekend.

Weird that Overdrive has a book that it can't open. Hope you're enjoying the ones that got bumped up in line. Happy weekend! Are you going got get some serious reading time in?

Cute Google doodle, though that water looks awfully clean ;-) We didn't get a fun one today...

>126 susanj67: Hello Susan. I am please that you gave this book a good report. I bought this beautifully gold hard cover earlier this week for $.50 if you can believe it. I was in a thrift store in Seaside, Oregon and there is was sitting on the shelf in like new condition. I have not read a Silva since The Confessor, but could not pass up this deal. It's now on the TBR list.

>167 DianaNL: Thanks Diana!

>168 PaulCranswick: Thanks Paul. I have The Fellowship of the Ring reserved as an ebook, but I've suspended the hold for the time being, as a couple of chunksters have come in.

>169 GeezLouise: Thanks Rae! You too, and I hope your Mum is feeling better.

>170 RebaRelishesReading: Reba, I have to do a bit more stepping this weekend for the corporate challenge, so there won't be *serious* reading, but there will be some :-)

>171 katiekrug: Katie, today's Doodle is just a picture, which links to Olympics coverage. Not very subtle :-) I want to see the opening ceremony, because I've seen some still pictures which look amazing. Oh, and a little bit on the news just now. I'll have to see if it's available on catch-up TV. Or I suppose it's on the internet somewhere.

>172 brodiew2: Hi Brodie! That is a great bargain! I never seem to find things like that. I know you'll love it if you're a Gabriel Allon fan. I thought it was one of the best.



94. Kill Shot by Vince Flynn

This is the second in chronological order, but one of the last to be written in the series. I thought it took a long time for anything to happen, but maybe that's a bit harsh, because eventually it was a good read. I've added book 3 to my elibrary wishlist but I am exercising restraint for the time being (get me!).

Barkskins came in yesterday as an ebook, and I've already read 10% of it. I love the setting. Once again, Google maps helped me to orient myself at the beginning. That's going to be my focus for the weekend, as there are a lot of characters to keep track of.

I've done my steps - yay! As it was Saturday, the little library down by the supermarket was open, so I popped in to see whether they had Rush Oh!, which I couldn't find last time. And they did! Then I thought I'd check my library reserves page to see if anything had come in at my usual branch. And FOUR books had arrived since last night. Ruh-roh. I detoured to get them (getting in a few more steps) and this is the new hard copy haul for today:



It's Complicated is a book about the social lives of networked teens, so I will read that one first as I have another talk to give to high school students about social media and the law. I thought it would help if I actually understood what they do with it.

Now I am going to poach my first ever egg. I bought some silicon "poach pods" at Lakeland on Thursday night, as I have always been too scared to do it the other way.

Ooh poached eggs. Love them. Am hopeless at cooking them though.

Great haul of books too.

Re social networking - Scott and Bailey last series had a case where the daughter of a police officer was going to be charged for having am indecent image of a minor on her phone. Despite the image being of her boyfriend (same year at school but as under 16). Said she faced being put on sex offenders' register. No idea if it was based on 'real' law though.

>175 charl08: Charlotte, the egg was a great success! I usually fry or scramble, but poached is a change.

That fictitious case is indeed based on real law - it's section 1 of the Protection of Children Act 1978. I ask the kids to read through the section and think about why a law from 1978 might still be relevant these days, and relevant to social networking. It was aimed at pervs with cameras, but it applies to anyone, and a "child" for the purposes of the Act is anyone under 18. This means even if teens can get married at 16 and see one another unclothed, it is still an offence for them to send such a picture of themselves to their husband/wife. And there's no carve-out for teens of the same age sending things to one another, even though I'm sure it wasn't originally aimed at that type of situation. Most of the questions I get asked during the talk relate to sexting, usually of the "what if someone..." variety. There was also some discussion of what counts as "indecent" last time (a questions from the class) I also cover defamation, contempt of court, data protection and duller things like that :-)

Wow. Bet there are some kids coming out and quickly deleting their photos! What a mess. Glad that wasn't something I had to even be aware of at school.

>177 charl08: Yes, I think that's at the top of their mind by the end of the session. One boy asked "What would happen if someone was sent a picture but he hadn't asked for it and he wasn't going to do anything with it?" "Then he would not come within the terms of the offence," I said, "but he would want to be VERY CAREFUL that none of his mates grabbed his phone and sent the picture on, "for a laugh". Because how would he prove that he hadn't done it, if it was his phone?" There was squirming in the audience.

>178 susanj67: That not doing anything was the thing in the Scott Bailey case that was so 'wait, what?' to me. The girl was in a relationship with the boy, and there was no question that the pictures were being shared beyond that, but because the boy's mother was against the relationship it became a thing.* Seems to mess with the idea that if two consenting adults (or near adults of a similar age) are doing something in private that hurts no one else it's none of the law's business.

*What could I have been doing with the brain cells used to hold onto this info? Something useful?!!

>173 susanj67: - I watched the Opening Ceremony. There was one bit that was kind of neat and then it was pretty boring. I did a lot of commenting on it in real time on Facebook. There were giant cheese graters (?) spinning around at one point. Very odd. And I was kind of hoping Gisele would trip and fall during her walk across the stadium floor - heh.

The saving grace were the flag bearers for Bosnia and Hungary - very easy on the eyes :)

>174 susanj67: poach pods work but don't be afraid of the "other way". I was afraid of it for years but finally got the courage and it's SO simple. Get the water boiling, stir it to star an eddy and drop the egg(s) in. They automatically form up and you just have to spoon them out with a slotted spoon.

Congrats on your steps. A friend told me she had heard of corporate challenges here but she also heard people were putting their Fitbits on their hamsters or dogs. You do that and you can read too :)

I have also never poached an egg, Susan. I await your reflections on it.

>180 katiekrug: I am laughing because I was commenting about Bosnia's flag bearer last night. Ahem.

I have an electric egg poacher--no brain cells required.

>179 charl08: Charlotte - :-) I think we're just used to retaining a lot of information due to all the reading :-)

>180 katiekrug: Katie, I saw little clips of Giselle on the news. No falls :-) I tried to watch a bit of the ordinary coverage yesterday and happened upon a rowing heat involving a Kiwi. The British commentators said that he had a Maori first name (which sounded like "Ma-hay") because it meant that he was a strong person. I had my doubts, as it is (or at least was) pretty rare for white NZers to have Maori names. At the end of the race, I saw his name on the screen - Mahe. That is not a Maori name by any stretch of the imagination. (Mahi might be). The another commentator chipped in and said that actually he was named after an island in the Seychelles that his parents really liked. So the first guys were just making up nonsense. Grrrr.

>181 RebaRelishesReading: Reba, I'm still scared of the "other way" :-) I can just see the failed eggs piling up. And those people who put their trackers on the dog are only cheating themselves *stern look*. We do wonder, though, how one of our teams in India is so far ahead of everyone else, given the heat situation over there. My hopeless team is missing 29 days of step entry - goodness knows where we'd be if people just synced their devices regularly.

>182 Crazymamie: Mamie, it worked well! Although apparently it's more like coddling, as the water never touches the egg. But anyway, it was a nice change.

>183 ronincats: Roni, that looks like quite a space-age solution!

I'm having a day at home today, as my neck has decided to play up and cheat me of my steps. Stupid headache. I'll try and read, but I keep getting notifications of new Netflix stuff, so I might have a day with "Slow Knitting", or Person of Interest, as some new episodes are available.

>183 ronincats: I have that! But I haven't poached any eggs yet. We have just used it to make boiled ones.

Happy Sunday, Susan! Congrats on your successful poaching coddling. Perhaps it was a coddled poaching. Ha!

Congrats on the book haul from the libraries. I have eaten a poached egg, but I have never attempted to cook one. Scrambled and fried eggs (with all the varieties such as over easy, sunny side up, etc.) are more popular here in the States. I love omelets when they are made properly. About the only time Americans really have poached eggs is when they order Eggs Benedict.

>184 susanj67: Yes, that's definitely it. Maybe.

I had no idea there was a special poached egg makimg machine. Tempting. I try the swirling boiled water method but it is unreliable (or it is the way I do it).

Hope your neck is feeling better. I am being lazy today. Mr Drill-Hammer-Crash next door has put up a for sale sign and taken the day off the endless DIY. Peaceful reading, but: Who will we get next?!

I'm finding all this poached egg conversation interesting. It had never occurred to me that poached eggs weren't equally as common as fried or boiled eggs! We probably eat more poached eggs than any other sort.

>186 thornton37814: Yep, it's for Eggs Benedict that I make them. >184 susanj67: try one egg Susan, just one...you'll see how easy it is :)

Hi Susan. My knee and back are bothering me today, so I might fall a bit behind with the steps. :(

Nice haul of library books.

Susan I hope your neck gets better soon.

I loved poached eggs!

What Icelandic book/series were you reading that mentioned Lord of the Rings?

Hi Susan! Another poached egg fan here. I have an insert for one of my saucepans that will hold four egg cups for poached eggs. I lived on poached eggs and toast for weeks before I had my gallbladder removed. It's been a while since I've made them, though. Maybe I'll poach some eggs for breakfast in the morning!

>185 Crazymamie: Mamie, whole new eggy vistas may open up in front of you :-)

>186 thornton37814: Lori, I thought I was maybe the only person who had never poached an egg! It's funny that there are so many of us. The canteen at work has poached, fried and scrambled eggs (and occasionally omelettes) but I rarely have breakfast down there and haven't tried poached. I don't think my mother poached eggs either, which might be why I'm a stranger to them.

>187 charl08: Charlotte, I've taken the day off work as the headache is still with me and I can't face the thought of sitting at my desk all day. My back feels like someone's hammered it all down the right-hand side, so that's where the headache's coming from. And yet I don't remember any violence being perpetrated upon me. Ooh, new neighbours! If he's done all the DIY then maybe they will just move in and live peacefully, reading books in the garden.

>188 SandDune: Rhian, do you think that's because you grew up with poached eggs? I liked the one I tried, and may have one later :-) When I fry them I always seem to break the yolk or overcook them, but in the poach pod that doesn't really matter, because they don't dry out in the same way.

>189 RebaRelishesReading: Well, Reba, I might :-)

>190 BLBera: Beth, I got no steps yesterday, so you are still winning :-) I hope your knees and back are feeling better.

>191 luvamystery65: Thanks Roberta! The book was Where the Shadows Lie by Michael Ridpath. I liked the Lord of the Rings twist, even though I haven't actually read that trilogy.

>192 cbl_tn: Carrie, maybe you've had enough to last you a while :-)

I'm about half-way through Barkskins now, and I'm really enjoying it. But the Overdrive file refuses to remember where I'm up to, and usually opens at the chapter I started with the time before, so I have to say out loud where I'm up to when I stop, in the hope of remembering next time (me, that is, not the Kindle). I suppose one way of overcoming this would just be to complete it without stopping. It's very long, though. But I hope to make some more progress today. Yesterday I managed 2 x Person of Interest and 3 x Gilmore Girls, plus a lot of the competition crosswords from my new magazine, but I also tried to sleep a lot, at least until my back started hurting from all the lying down. Maybe I need a little walk to Waitrose, and lunch at Pret on the way.

"...whole new eggy vistas may open up in front of you" So true!

Sorry to hear about your headache, Susan. A walk to Waitrose and lunch sound like just the thing. And more Netflix, of course. Hope you are feeling better very soon.

Susan - I hope your back is feeling better.

>193 susanj67: Good! Please report back :)

Ugh that not remembering the chapter thing sounds frustrating.

Hope you feel better.

Sorry to hear that you're under the weather. Get well soon.

>194 Crazymamie: Thanks Mamie. In the end I went out mid-afternoon and had a frappe at Pret. Yum! And there was quite a bit of Netflixing...

>195 BLBera: Thanks Beth. It's getting there, but at least the headache is gone.

>196 RebaRelishesReading: Reba, yes ma'am! Not tonight though, as I am doing the pasta with courgette thing and marinara sauce, with enough left over for tomorrow's lunch. The ongoing canteen refurb is not good news for the reduced lunchtime food choices, which are pitiful. Also I think "pearl barley salad" should have more in it than just pearl barley. Like, maybe, the "salad" part.

>197 charl08: Charlotte, the chapters have never behaved so badly before. Vexing.

>198 Ameise1: Thanks Barbara :-)

I picked up another reserve today - Staircase Girls, (also known as The Bedders according to LT) which was reviewed in the Guardian, but which looks like a shawl-and-clogs special from W H Smith. I'm considering not bothering with it. But that leaves only seven hard copy reserves to come in, so that's something.

Well, yes!!! I like pearl barley but not on its own!! I await the outcome of the great poached egg experiment with bated breath.

We were a boiled egg household. Boiled egg & soldiers. mmm. I will poach eggs using the fryingpan & water method, but never for anyone else. They are not, maybe, the neatest looking eggs in the world...
A work colleague has a thingy for poaching eggs in the microwave. They always look a bit odd, if I'm honest.

>200 RebaRelishesReading: Reba, it won't be soon, as I need new eggs (plus I'm a big baby). But I will get there. I have brought lunch to work today for the first time I can remember. I didn't really cook enough last night for lots of leftovers, so I have supplemented them with a peanut butter sandwich. That should work :-)

>201 Helenliz: Helen, yes, I had a childhood of boiled eggs too. Marmite on the soldiers. Occasionally egg mashed up in a plate when I wasn't well, with plain toast. Looking back, I suppose I am just copying what my mother used to cook, in much the same way I have my kitchen drawers arranged like hers. I scramble eggs in the microwave and they turn out fine, but I could just be lazy. There are no burnt saucepans, though, so there's that :-)

Thread 8 is up! Please join me for more books, eggs and what-have-you.
https://www.librarything.com/topic/228733