SandDune's reads in 2016 - part 4

Welcome everyone to my fourth thread of 2016, and to my fifth year doing the 75 Book Challenge. I'm 54 years old and currently the Finance Manager of a local charity, but I spent most of my career working in the City of London. I fell off the wagon rather when it came to LT in the latter part of last year, partly caused by me changing to full-time working after 8 years of working part-time, but I'm hoping to remedy that in 2016. I live about thirty miles north of London with my husband (aka Mr SandDune), who is Assistant Principal at a local secondary school, and our 16 year old son (aka J), who attends the same school. There's also our 4 year old Staffordshire Bull Terrier Daisy, and 13 year old cat Sweep, who have an uneasy (although improving) relationship in which Sweep permanently has the upper hand. I'm originally from Wales rather than England, so I do have an interest in all things Welsh (although I can't speak the language - at least only a few words) and I tend to get huffy if people call me English rather than Welsh! I read mainly literary fiction, classics, science-fiction and fantasy and tend to avoid horror, detective fiction, chick-lit and thrillers, although in 2015 I read a lot more non-fiction than I have done in precious years. All the family are avid readers, although Mr SandDune doesn't get time to read as much as he would like: J has inherited a love of reading science-fiction and fantasy from me and a love of reading history from Mr SandDune so our books are increasingly shared. I read hardbacks, paperbacks, on kindle and listen to audio books particularly when driving or walking the dog. Apart from reading I love travelling, eating out, going to the theatre (something I did much more of in 2015) and I'm doing a part-time degree with the Open University which keeps me pretty busy.

I've been pretty bad at keeping my thread up to date over the last month or so (busy and then on holiday with poor internet connection, but I'll try and be better in August.

Favourite reads for 2015:

The Spire William Golding *****
Girl in the Dark: A Memoir Anna Lyndsey *****
Where Memories Go: Why Dementia changes Everything Sally Magnusson *****
The Remains of the Day Kazuo Ishiguro *****
Why be Happy when you could be Normal? Jeanette Winterson ****1/2
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? Philip K. Dick ****1/2
Rebecca Daphne du Maurier ****1/2
The Paying Guests Sarah Waters ****1/2
The Painted Veil Somerset Maugham****1/2
Etta and Otto and Russell and James Emma Hooper ****1/2
The Health Gap: the Challenge of an Unequal World Michael Marmot ****1/2

Reading Plans for 2016:

I'm intending to participate in both the Canadian Author Challenge and the British Author Challenge this year, and read one book a month form each of them. Here are my chosen authors. I haven't got as far as choosing actual books as yet though.

Canadian Author Challenge

January: Ru Kim Thúy
February: The Frozen Thames Helen Humphreys
March: Anita Rau Badami
April: Michael Crummey
May: Emily St. John Mandel
June: Through Black Spruce Joseph Boyden
July: Pierre Berton
August: Mordechai Richler
September: Miriam Toews
October: Lawrence Hill, Jane Urquhart
November: Michael Ondaatje
December: Alice Munro

British Author Challenge

January: The Quality of Mercy Barry Unsworth
February: City of Djinns William Dalrymple
March: Ali Smith
April: George Eliot
May: Jane Gardam
June: Joseph Conrad
July: Bernice Rubens
August: The Dark Lord of Derkholm Dianna Wynne Jones
September: Laurie Lee
October: William Golding
November: Rebecca West
December: TBA

I am also a member of a RL book group and our current choices are below:

February: Our Endless Numbered Days Claire Fuller
March: A Prayer for Owen Meaney John Irving
April: The Shepherd's Life James Rebanks
May: Burial Rites Hannah Kent
June: Gilead Marilynne Robinson
July: Sweet Caress William Boyd
August: no meeting
September: Mukiwa: A White Boy in Africa Peter Godwin
October: Shirley Charlotte Bronte
November: Headlong Michael Frayn
December: The Japanese Lover Isabel Allende

1. Names for the Sea: Strangers in Iceland Sarah Moss ***1/2
2. Ru Kim Thúy ***1/2
3. Kraken China Miéville ****
4. The Quality of Mercy Barry Unsworth ****
5. Life of Galileo Bertolt Brecht ****
6. Countdown City Ben Winters ***1/2
7. Our Endless Numbered Days Claire Fuller ***1/2
8. World of Trouble Ben Winters ****1/2
9. Fifteen Dogs André Alexis ****1/2
10. The Lie Tree Frances Hardinge ****
11. Foxglove Summer Ben Aaronovitch****
12. City of Stairs Robert Jackson Bennett ****1/2
13. Rebecca Daphne du Maurier ****1/2
14. The Frozen Thames Helen Humphries ***
15. Cuckoo Song Frances Hardinge ****1/2
16. A Prayer for Owen Meany John Irving ****
17. City of Djinns William Dalrymple ***1/2
18. The Ghost Road Pat Barker ***
19. Soul Music Terry Pratchett ***1/2
20. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep Philip K. Dick ****
21. The Shepherd's Life: A Tale of the Lake District James Rebanks *****
22. What Matters in Jane Austen John Mullan ***1/2
23. Railhead Philip Reeve ****1/2
24. Gut Giulia Enders ****
25. Jhegaala Steven Brust ****
26. Nod Adrian Barnes ***
27. Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail Cheryl Strayed ****1/2
28. Burial Rites Hannah Kent *****
29. The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet Becky Chambers ***1/2
30. The Last Chronicle of Barsetshire Anthony Trollope ****1/2
31. A Face like Glass Frances Hardinge ****
32. Agnes Grey Anne Bronte ***
33. The Mountains of Mourning Lois McMaster Bujold ***1/2
34. Mirror Dance Lois McMaster Bujold ****
35. Hogfather Terry Pratchett ****
36. Respectable: the Experience of Class Lynsey Hanley ***
37. Orca Steven Brust ****
38. Gilead Marilynne Robinson *****
39. Through Black Spruce Joseph Boyden***1/2
40. Fingers in the Sparkle Jar Chris Packham ***
41. An Unnecessary Woman Rabih Alameddine ***1/2
42. Uprooted Naomi Novik ****1/2
43. Mother of Eden Chris Beckett ***1/2
44. The Steerswoman Rosemary Kirstein ****
45. The Outskirter's Secret Rosemary Kirstein ****1/2
46. The Lost Steersman Rosemary Kirstein ****
47. The Language of Power Rosemary Kirstein ***1/2
48. A Five Year Sentence Bernice Rubens ***1/2
49. Binti Nnedi Okorafor ****
50. Plan B Sharon Lee Steve Miller ***1/2
51. The Drowned World J.G.Ballard ***
52. The Light Fantastic Terry Pratchett ***1/2
53. City of Blades Robert Jackson Bennett
****
54. The Essex Serpent Sarah Perry ****1/2
55. The Country Wife Thomas Wycherley ***
56. As you Like It William Shakespeare ***1/2
57. Julius Caesar William Shakespeare ****
58. Much Ado about Nothing William Shakespeare ***1/2
59. Hamlet William Shakespeare ***1/2
60. Case Histories Kate Atkinson ****
61. The Dark Lord of Derkholm Diana Wynne Jones ***
62. The Unknown Ajax Georgette Heyer ***1/2
63. Seraphina Rachel Hartman ****1/2
64. Shirley Charlotte Bronte ***
65. Issola Steven Brust ****
66. Hot Milk Deborah Levy **1/2
67. The Gathering Anne Enright ****
68. The Japanese Lover Isabel Allende **
69. Black Light Express Philip Reeve ****
70. Shadow Scale Rachel Hartman ***1/2
71. Grass Sheri S. Tepper ****
72. Barchester Chronicles Anthony Trollope ****1/2
73. The Underground Railroad Colson Whitehead ****

As I mentioned we've been on holiday for two weeks in Greece, more specifically on the Pelion peninsula which is on the east coast about half way between Athens and Thessaloniki. It's not a popular British holiday destination so slightly counterintuitively we had to fly to the island of Skiathos (which is a popular British destination) and get a boat back to the mainland.

Our first week was in Horto, in the southern part of the Pelion, which has the traditional Greek island scenery of olive trees and little beaches. Our second week was in the much more mountainous northern area, which was very wooded - lots of oak and chestnut trees - and had some very attractive old villages.

This is Horto (where we stayed for our first week) and the Southern Pelion:







And this is the Northern Pelion:

Happy new thread, Rhian :-) Your holiday sounds lovely.

Gorgeous pictures. Love what they've done with those bikes.

And happy new thread.

>5 SandDune: Well those are quire lovely places to escape to. I'd go north if faced with a choice.

Happy new thread, Rhian. The photos are beautiful. I want to go to Greece! Did you enjoy it?

Happy new thread, Rhian.
Greece looks as delightful as I have always imagined it to be and good to go there and improve in whatever small way we can their parlous finances! xx

>6 susanj67: >7 charl08: >8 qebo: >9 BLBera: >10 PaulCranswick: Hi everyone! Greece is definitely my destination of choice when it comes to a relaxing holiday. We didn't do very much: read books, snorkelled, sat on the beach and played games most of the time, as well as some walking in the north. There wasn't a lot of specific sightseeing to be done but it was a lovely area. We liked both areas fairly equally. While the north had the more dramatic scenery but the south had really sheltered beaches for snorkelling (I love snorkelling but can only do it if the sea is like a millpond).

One thing that was really nice about the north though, was that we were staying quite high up (about 600m) but we could get down to the beach in 15 minutes. So we always had cooler evenings and nights which was much more pleasant

Hi Rhian! LOVE Greece, and love your photos. I'm glad you had such a lovely time.

Fabulous holiday photos, Rhian!

Happy new one, Rhian! Love all the photos here.

Great holiday snaps Rhian!

So this week Mr SandDune is having a major project clearing our back garden. There are a lot of overgrown shrubs in there that have gone pretty leggy and we've decided to remove a lot of them, and replant. Which has meant that for a couple of days until the skip arrived we had a large pile of prunings in the middle of the garden which Daisy seemed to regard as the best source of sticks ever! She spent most of Tuesday on top of the pile attempting to retrieve the biggest sticks, or very helpfully taking branches from Mr SandDune as he was cutting them down!

Sweep is in a rather more agressive mood, and keeps trying to kill any wildlife disturbed by the chopping. We've had to rescue two toads from her, or possibly one toad twice. Unfortunately, she did manage to kill a bird yesterday but that was unrelated to the gardening activity. A bird managed to fall out of its nest in our honeysuckle, and landed right in front of her: I rescued it within two or three seconds but it was too late. I wondered if it was a fledgling that hadn't quite got the hang of its first flight as it was clearly having problems before she got hold of it.

Edited to add: Sweep is now sitting outside the back door clearly waiting for more birds to fly out of the honeysuckle that she can kill. Luckily she is not very good at all at catching them.

Other news is that I have been having some dental problems. The week before we went away I started having some tooth pain and had to have a hurried dental appointment to sort it out. It was an old filling that was very close to the nerve that needed replacing with a root canal filling, so the dentist did a temporary fix before I went away and finished it off this Monday. My dental appointment was Monday morning and Monday lunchtime a piece fell off the same tooth, which I was not very happy about. So back to the dentist yesterday to fix that temporarily, but I still need to get the tooth crowned. I had the filling done privately as I needed to get it done quickly before going away, but I nearly had a heart attack at the cost of the private crown, so I am having that done on the NHS. But now I need to see my normal dentist to have an NHS assessment so that means another appointment next week, and then another one or two to do the actual crown. Not fun!

Lovely holiday pictures, that looks quite idyllic. Hope you had a fabulous time.

I can sympathise on the tooth front. My saga also involves root canal, where the dentist managed to reduce me to tears and that was with local anaesthetic. Currently I have a 2 hours appointment next week to finish removing the (evidently still alive) nerve and then fill the roots.
And then I need a crown on another tooth, after a bit fell off.
I can see why previous generations used to have them all pulled out and have a complete set of dentures!

>12 AMQS: >13 kidzdoc: >14 Crazymamie: >15 lauralkeet: Hi Anne, Darryl, Mamie, Laura.

>18 Helenliz: Helen, to be fair to the dentist I had no pain at all either during or after the filling, so I can't really complain about that. I am just very cowardly about going to the dentist and tend to put it off rather more than I should!

Good luck with the dentist, Rhian. I have a mouth full of crowns, so I understand what you mean about the cost. I think my mouth may have cost more than my car.

Lots of reading completed on holiday, mainly Sci-fi and fantasy as I'll be starting my new OU course in the autumn and there's some much heavier stuff on the reading list for that:

Uprooted Naomi Novik ****1/2
Mother of Eden Chris Beckett ***1/2
The Steerswoman Rosemary Kirstein ****
The Outskirter's Secret Rosemary Kirstein ****1/2
The Lost Steersman Rosemary Kirstein ****
The Language of Power Rosemary Kirstein ***1/2
A Five Year Sentence Bernice Rubens ***1/2
Binti Nnedi Okorafor ****
Plan B Sharon Lee Steve Miller ***1/2

Particular mention goes to Uprooted and Binti which I enjoyed greatly, as well as to the Steerswoman series which I tore through, although a bit disappointed that it was still unfinished.

Nine books during your holidays is good going Rhian.
I hope you will get through your dental issues - not fun at all.

>21 BLBera: My mouth definitely cost more than my car, Beth! I also have a mouth full of crowns!

Sorry about the dental woes, Rhian. Not fun pretty much sums it up.

I just read Binti and thoroughly enjoyed it, too, Rhian, and I'm a big Liaden Universe (Plan B) fan. For some reason Uprooted didn't grab me the way it has others.

>21 BLBera: >24 Crazymamie: I'm certainly hope I don't have to pay more than for the car! I've checked online and NHS crown treatment is £233 but they won't pay for white crowns unless it is for your front teeth. Usually you can have NHS treatment but pay a bit extra for the more cosmetic material, which is what I am intending to do. The receptionist thought that this would work out about £450 rather than the £950 I was originally quoted.

>23 PaulCranswick: We did have a lot of lazing about! I was a bit worried that J might get bored on such a quiet holiday but it seemed to be just what he wanted. He was really worn out after working hard for his GCSEs.

>25 jnwelch: I'm enjoying the Liaden universe books as well - this was my third one - but I was a bit disappointed that Plan B came to such a sudden end. I'm not good with books that end on a cliffhanger. Both me and Mr SandDune really liked Uprooted - quite unusual that we both enjoy the same book.

>26 SandDune: You have many fun Liaden reads ahead, including what comes after Plan B. I've gone back to re-read those early ones. You and Mr SD have lots of company with Uprooted, which won the Nebula.

Thought I'd list the set books for my next (and final) OU course. A lot heavier going than my summer reading:

Jane Austen Persuasion
Jane Austen Pride and Prejudice
Shakespeare Julius Caesar
Thomas Kyd The Spanish Tragedy
Arabian Nights' Entertainments
John-Jacques Rousseau The Confessions
Shakespeare As You Like It
The Misanthrope, Tartuffe and Other Plays
Jonathon Swift Gulliver's Travels
Shakespeare Hamlet
Lady Mary Wortley Montagu The Turkish Embassy Letters
William Wycherley The Country Wife

>26 SandDune: LOL! Rhian, Beth and I meant the total amount of work done cost more than the car - I have had three root canals and have a mouth full of crowns.

>28 SandDune: Oh! I love all of those Shakespeare and Austen reads!

Final photos from Greece. I thought people might appreciate some cat photos! You can't see it in the photo but the last cat is balanced very comfortably in the flower bed with a twenty foot drop on one side of him!

>30 SandDune: My cats were chasing each other through the house this morning. One of them was running from the other and gave me a scare as he approached the place where a drop-off to the stairs is. He stopped dead in his tracks right before he got there. I guess he knew danger awaited if he kept running. Amazingly the other cat didn't "catch" him. He seemed to be glad the one stopped.

>31 thornton37814: In my experience cats have no fear of heights at all. I once had to very carefully encourage our first cat (Edward) in from the outside window sill which he was sunning himself on. Wouldn't have been a problem but we lived on the third floor at the time! And our old cat Ruby, managed to fall out of J's bedroom window. I'd heard some unusual scratching noises and I was looking out the sitting room window to see if I could see what was causing it, when what should I see but a plummeting cat falling past! The scratching must have been her trying to hold on just before she fell. I picked her up from the flower bed where she seemed a little shocked but didn't seem to have done herself any damage.

Sweep doesn't tend to do anything that acrobatic these days. I can't remember if I'd mentioned it but she has a cataract in one eye, which is causing her vision in that eye to be quite restricted. So I don't think she can judge distances very well any more. It could be operated on, but the vet recommended that for a cat of her age (she's 13) it would be best to leave it alone as the operation does have risks. If the other eye has problems we may need to reconsider, but it seems unaffected at the moment.

Happy New Thread, Rhian. I love your holiday photos. Sorry to hear about your tooth problem. I hope it gets solved soon. Wishing you a lovely Sunday.

Hi, Rhian - Happy New Thread! Lovely holiday pics, hope you had a great time. :)

>28 SandDune: Some heavy stuff there, Rhian.

Have a lovely Sunday.

Happy new thread Rhian, looks like you had a nice time in Greece, at the pictures it is very beautiful!
Sorry about the dental problems, like you I never like to go the dentist... I hope it will be over soon.

>28 SandDune: I'd love to take a class featuring those reads! Even though I'm not familiar with the last two.

Happy new thread Rhian. Glad to hear you had a lovely holiday but sorry to hear about your tooth issues.

>22 SandDune: You've reminded me that Roni had recommended the Steerswoman series and I should really get round to trying them.

>33 Ameise1: Hi Barbara, we had a lovely Sunday actually. We want to Aldeburgh on the Suffolk coast and had a nice day out playing on the beach with Daisy. She was so tired yesterday after spending hours fetching sticks from the sea.

>34 lyzard: >36 FAMeulstee: Hi Liz, Anita

>35 PaulCranswick: >37 jnwelch: I think this might prove to be the most difficult course I have done. I'm pretty familiar with the Jane Austen books, and have seen all the Shakespeare plays, but the rest of the books are completely new to me and not the sort of thing I usually read. Some of them are real chunksters as well! There is poetry as well - erotic poetry of the seventeenth century apparently (should be interesting) and eighteenth century Romantic ballads - but that is included in the course materials. This is my last course for my English Literature degree. I forgot to mention, as the results came through on the first day of my holidays, that I got a distinction in my last course, which means that if I get a good result in this one I will get a 1st class degree overall, so I intend to be working hard!

>38 souloftherose: I liked The Steerswoman series a lot. Interesting way in which it started out as one genre and ended up as something different.

51. The Drowned World J.G. Ballard ***

For someone who likes dystopian fiction it's perhaps surprising that I've never read anything by J.G.Ballard before, and to be honest I only got this one as I was trying to spend a £10 voucher with Audible and all Ballard's books were £4.99 each, so I got The Drowned World and The Drought.

Following a change in the activity of the Sun, the Earth has entered a period of intense global warning: most of the planet is uninhabitable due to the extreme temperature and the remnants of humanity have retreated to the relative coolness of the Arctic. The melting ice caps have transformed most of the world's cities into flooded swamps patrolled by crocodiles and giant iguanas, where the mutated vegetation grows to monstrous proportions. James Kerans is a biologist attached to a military survey currently investigating the remains of a London where only the tallest building protrude from the waters. The survey team are plagued by dreams showing them memories of an earlier epoch in the Earth's history, a previous age to which the rapidly evolving flora and fauna of the Earth seems to be returning. Embracing rather than fighting these dreams, Kerans decides to stay in the flooded city, when the departs for its base in the Arctic.

I have mixed feelings about this book. The description of the flooded London is wonderful, but the plot leaves a little to be desired. In part, it reminded me of the sort of cozy catastrophe written by John Wyndham: the population of the Earth may have shrunk to less than 1% of its former size, but it seems to have done so with remarkably little change in the social order. Written in 1962 the account of the expedition reads rather more like something from World War II than from any likely future period. The characters are not particularly well drawn either. The tentative love interest Beatrice Dahl, who seems to have been living alone on the remains of her grandfather's wealth doing nothing but sitting by her pool and drinking cocktails all day, is particularly unsatisfactory.

So I'll probably try another Ballard, but from this experience not altogether sure that he's for me.

>39 SandDune: Dogs are like small kids. Long enough playing at the beach and they sleep. ;-)

Good news on the dental front. Apparently I can get the white crown on the NHS after all so it will cost £233 in total and I will not have to pay any extra. Much better than the £950 I was going to need to have to pay privately!

We took Daisy to vet yesterday as she has been having what I can only call panic attacks, usually brought on by some noise or other but sometimes for not very obvious reasons. She has always had them occasionally, but they seem to have been getting much more frequent since the beginning of the year so we thought we would see if anything could be done. According to the vet, staffies tend to be fairly highly strung and slightly prone to that sort of thing which I hadn't realised. Anyway the vet is recommending that we try to develop calming and relaxing behaviours that Daisy can do whenever she is anxious - not quite sure how that is going to work but she is going to provide us with full instructions on what we need to do. She is hopeful that we can sort out the situation without any medication.

Hooray for the good tooth news.

I'm looking forward to hearing more about this training.

>42 SandDune: & >43 Ameise1: Me, too (on looking forward to hearing more). Tuppence, our Border Collie, gets less and less tolerant of loud noises as she ages. And thunderstorms? Forget it. I keep telling Tomm that we need to invest in a thundershirt, but it's a bit like putting the bell on the cat: once she's agitated, I don't really want to try wrestling a tight shirt on her...

>39 SandDune: That is great news Rhian. I am sure that those difficult books will bring out the best in you and that you will achieve your goal.

Have a great weekend.

>43 Ameise1: >44 scaifea: We should have our report next week so I will let you know. Sounds like we are going to have some quite detailed instructions! The vet was saying that dogs that have anxiety over something almost always get worse with age as each time they remember that they were frightened before and that makes them more frightened in a sort of vicious circle.

>46 SandDune: Rhian: Poor pups. That makes sense, though, about the remembering.

Hi Rhian - Good news about your crown.

I'll have to check out the Ballard; it sounds like one I would like.

What a nice list of reading for your OU course.

Mr SandDune and J have gone to the Lake District for a few days for a spot of hill walking, and I have taken advantage of their absence by trying out a new exercise video. (Thought it would be better first time round with no audience). I didn't allow for Daisy who is not used to me doing anything energetic and keeps trying to join in. When I was putting my arms in the air she was standing on her hind legs and putting her paws in the air! Quite cute.

And I have got a replacement Fitbit for the one that broke quite some time ago. This one is a Fitbit Alta which I liked the look of because it was slimmer but it is a bit more fiddly than my old one.

>49 SandDune: - I have an Alta, too! It took a bit of getting used to in how to tap it just right to get the display to come on, but now it's no problem at all.

I love that image of Daisy exercising along with you!

>50 katiekrug: It took a bit of getting used to in how to tap it just right to get the display to come on

Well I only got it yesterday so I suppose I should give it a longer trial before pronouncing judgement!

>48 BLBera: One thing that really irritated me (I listened to the book on Audio so not the book's fault) was that the narrator read the introduction first as well. And the introduction gave away rather a lot about the book. Very irritating, as while you can ignore the introduction in a print book it's a bit more difficult to sort out if you're driving at the time!

Hi Rhian. I was going to ask what course you were doing - that looks like a nice list of books - but a whole degree may be more than I want to take on right now. Keeping my fingers crossed for you. It sounds like J really deserved a break; your holiday photos look nice. I can't help with advice on the animal front, though Daisy's exercise routine does sound cute. If we do eventually give in to the boys' pleas to get a dog, I'm now thinking of an Irish setter, since I've discovered I'm allergic to Weimaraners, (which I've admired for decades) :0(

Oh - happy new thread and welcome home :0)

Rhian, Daisy could become a YouTube star: http://iheartdogs.com/just-watch-what-her-german-shepherd-does-when-she-exercise... (scroll down to the second video). Good news about the Fitbit, too!

>53 humouress: It's an Open University course and this is just one module. To get the full degree you need to do six modules so it usually takes at least 6 years. This is my last module, and I think it may well be the hardest!

>54 susanj67: The trouble with putting Daisy on You Tube is that you'd also have to put me on YouTube and me exercising is not a pretty sight!

Mr SandDune and J came back from the Lake District last night. It's nice to have them back - the place was really quiet with me on my own!

This morning was taken up having my hair cut and doing a few bits and pieces in town, but this afternoon was a bit irritating as I had to do the cleaning. Our normal cleaning lady is on holiday, and the replacement had had a car crash (no-one hurt but her car was out of action for a few days), so there was no choice but to do it ourselves. Mr SandDune has promised to do upstairs tomorrow if I did downstairs today - I think he is still a bit tired from all the walking.

Something else that was a bit irritating was that Mr SandDune discovered a fraud on his credit card. Funnily enough it was for a booking at Travelodge for hotel accomodation - we'd been thinking of making a booking at Travelodge to go and see my mother but we'd changed our minds and it was for quite a similar amount that we would have paid. So we had five minutes of conversation along the lines of 'I didn't book the Travelodge, are you sure you didn't book the Travelodge by accident?' until Mr SandDune thought to phone up the company and discovered that the booking had been made under a completely fictitious name two hundred miles from where my mother lives. And they'd also added on £140 worth of take-away's. So he had to spend about an hour on the phone before it was all sorted out and it got taken off his card.

Ugh. and Ugh again. Sounds like you had a rather irritating day. :( Hopefully you get it all cleared (and cleaned) up soon!

>56 SandDune: Oh no! That's really not nice.

>56 SandDune: Glad you got the fraud refunded. The takeaways - how do you eat that much worth of food? Bizarre.

Looking forward to hearing more about your OU literature course reading. I did a social research module with them years ago and it was so beautifully well organised.

In honour of the Olympics I thought I'd share this photo of London 2012 with a (much smaller) J wrapped in his Union Jack. We'd had a great day out at the Olympic Park: we'd been to see the handball, and then watched Mo Farah win the 5000m on the big screen in the park.



I must say that, for someone who was brought up on fairly dire British performances in the Olympics, the successes of the last few Olympics seem slightly astounding!

>60 SandDune: I know what you mean Rhian. I remember the 1976 Games in Montreal where we were really also rans and then in 1996 in Atlanta we only won one gold.

Five Gold medals today is extraordinary and two in gymnastics - since when were we any good at that?
Murray, Rose, Wiggins, Kenny, Whitlock and the magnificent Mo Farah - what a group indeed.

Go Britain!

Hi Rhian - I hope you got your cleaning sorted. I need to go post-vacation cleaning. I'd like to have a tidy house before school starts.

I hope you don't have any further problems with the credit card.

I'd like to have a tidy house :0/

>60 SandDune: I was thinking that myself. I can understand the US and China being in the top three for medals--they are huge and can draw from a big, diverse population, but Great Britain? What an achievement!

>60 SandDune: It does make a change! I like the biker's strategy of marginal gains....

>61 PaulCranswick: >62 humouress: >63 BLBera: >66 charl08: What I say is - we should give the management of the NHS to whoever is in charge of GB cycling! It got off to a slow start but have really been enjoying the Olympics over the last week - it makes a difference I think that J and Mr SandDune are at home now so I've got someone to watch it with. Very funny comment from J yesterday who was watching the golf: 'She's put the ball on a little shelf - is she allowed to do that?' Turned out he meant the tee - you can tell not much golf is watched in our household! J is very jealous of his friend who's just come back after a couple of weeks in Rio (he's got an aunt there apparently) and Mark Cavendish and Greg Rutherford were on the same flight - I'm not sure J's too interested in Greg Rutherford but he is deeply jealous about the sighting of Mark Cavendish whereas his friend wasn't too interested.

The Olympics from 2000 have one very special memory for me. J must have been about five or six months old and I was still on maternity leave. I remember sitting on the sofa watching the women's gymnastics waiting for Mr SandDune to come home from work. It was the beam exercise, and J just laughed and laughed whenever anyone did a somersault. Even at that age he's obviously learnt that people just didn't go around doing that and he thought it was very funny!

>63 BLBera: >64 humouress: We have a cleaning lady booked in for tomorrow so we won't have to do it ourselves this week, but unfortunately I managed to double book the cleaner for the day I'd organised the carpet cleaning man to come on, so now that has been postponed! Our normal cleaner is back from her holidays next week so we should be back to normal thank goodness.

Having read City of Stairs earlier in the year and really enjoying it I decided I'd read the sequel City of Blades which J has got on his kindle. Easy I thought, I'd delink from family sharing with Mr SandDune and link up with J instead, and the more I thought about it the better idea I thought this was, as I frequently really enjoy the same books as J. And then I found out that if I delinked form Mr SandDune I had to wait 180 days before sharing with someone else. Kindle obviously has no concept that someone might want to share books with their teenage son. It's possible to share with a child (well anyone under 18) as long as the adult takes complete control of the account and pays for all the books, but that really isn't going to cut it with J. In the end I realised that I could deregister my kindle, register under J's account, read the book, and then reregister it back under my account again. So that's what I've done. Actually J has got quite a few books I like the look of so I may stay in his account for a while.

>67 SandDune: Kids, eh. Love it!

>68 SandDune: Ooh, sneaky. One way to raid the bookshelves. I didn't even think about sharing accounts. Mind you, I have the only Kindle at the moment.

Hmm; it might be an idea for my 7 year old in future, but I think my kids have more than enough electronic screens to look at. Ironically, my husband loves it that our youngest always has his nose in a book, whereas I'm starting to see my parents' point of view! :0)

>69 humouress: J has had a kindle for some time but has only recently that he's used it frequently -he does still prefer paper books. Sharing accounts is handy - especially useful as Mr SandDune and I belong to the same book club - it's just a shame that it can't be extended to more family members.

I have been known to tell J 'Just put that book down for 5 minutes'. Mainly because he's trying to lay the table while reading, tidy his bedroom while reading, get dressed while reading ... You get the general idea!

At least he's doing things while reading. Mine is not doing things while reading.

Nice weekend this weekend. We went to a friend's wedding yesterday - it was the second time for both of them (she was widowed and he was divorced) - and it was a really lovely event. And then a good dog walk with Daisy this morning at a local National Trust property Mr SandDune had a slightly surreal experience with some German people who didn't speak good English (although better than Mr SandDune's German) and who he though were asking directions 'for ashes'. He decided that they were wanting the local crematorium (why they'd want a crematorium in the middle of a wood, I'm not sure) or maybe somewhere to scatter ashes ... Luckily I came back from the shop and reminded him that the 'Four Ashes' pub was a mile or so away ...

I've finished (and enjoyed) Terry Pratchett's The Light Fantastic, a follow-up to the first book in the series The Colour of Magic, and a much better book in my opinion.

52. The Light Fantastic Terry Pratchett ***1/2



The Light Fantastic takes up where the first Discworld novel The Colour of Magic leaves off, with Rincewind, Twoflower and the Luggage escaping from certain death at regular intervals. But it's an improvement on the first book in that it does have some sort of plot, unlike The Colour of Magic which seemed to lurch from one amusing incident to the next. In this one, the ancient spell from the Octavo that has been lodged for years in Rincewind's head turns out to be there for some useful purpose, as the Discworld approached an ominous red star that threatens to destroy it utterly.

Not as good as the later books in the series, but a fun read nonetheless.

>73 SandDune: Agreed. I think it takes a couple of books for him to really get into his stride. I know this might be considered heresy, but I'm not sure I suggest the first book as the place to start in that series.
*takes cover*

>74 SandDune:, >75 Helenliz: Not heresy at all, Helen, as I think most devotees of Sir Pterry would agree with you. The first two books were designed as spoofs of specific fantasy and science fiction books, and it is not until at least the third that he starts to develop a cohesive view of Discworld and integrated plots--and then it just keeps getting better and better!

>75 Helenliz: >76 ronincats: I would definitely agree that The Colour of Magic is not the place to start. I read it years and years ago first and it put me off Discworld novels for about twenty years.

>77 SandDune: Ha! That's the one I started with, too, Rhian, and I'm still trying to find a good entry point. I loved Good Omens, but with Gaiman involved, that doesn't really count. I've read Mort, but that didn't really do it for me, either.

>78 jnwelch: I really enjoyed Mort, and followed it up with Reaper Man Soul Music and Hogfather, all of which I found enjoyable. Maybe Terry Pratchett just isn't for you?

It's been so hot here today - around 32 or 33 degrees C, which is far too hot when you're in a office with no air conditioning, especially when most of it has been spent in a smallish meeting room having some training which requires concentration. It's just as hot at home - there's been a thunderstorm but it hasn't really cleared the air. J for some reason, keeps coming out with comments like 'I don't know why you two are so hot, I'm not hot at all'. That's what you get when you have virtually no body fat, I suppose.

>79 SandDune: Yikes. That comment from J would be sufficient to justify homicide, or at least a severe thrashing. ;-)

>80 kidzdoc: He just doesn't seem to feel the heat very much. The day before (which was almost as hot) he was lounging around in the evening wearing jogging bottoms and socks. Not the coolest outfit in the world!

Sorry, I'm with J, I'm enjoying the heat. I have caused some consternation in the office by removing my cardigan a few times. I'm still sleeping under the duvet and I don't own any shorts as it never gets hot enough to wear them.
However - I spend the entire winter looking like a Michelin man, wearing 4 layers and still being cold. So you will have your revenge, you'll just have to wait for it.
My husband is the complete opposite, he'd feel your pain.

>28 SandDune: That is a heavy book list for one course, Rhian. Are OU courses in-person or online?

>79 SandDune: I on the other hand feel every degree increase in temperature. I am hoping for coolish weather in September.

We've had a rather stressful few days here. J's GCSE results came in, and rather than the straight A*s with a few scattered As that everyone was expecting he got three A*s (Chemistry, Biology, Physics) and five Bs (History, RE, English Lang and Lit, and Italian). It's a complete mystery to us, to J's teachers and to J himself. He was forecast A*s, he got A*s in his mocks and he worked hard so we are at a complete loss. Overall they are still decent results, with the exams he's done already he's got five A*'s and five B's, but nowhere as good as they should have been. The one that's completely puzzling in History: I just cannot see how J could have got anything other than an A* in History. Mr SandDune thinks (in his professional opinion) that if he wanted to do History at Uni he should think about applying to Cambridge and then he gets a B? J knows more history than anyone I've ever come across, bar Mr SandDune. The only things we can think of is that either the examiner couldn't read his writing (something I have worried about to be honest) or he's gone off at a complete tangent and written an interesting response to not exactly the right questions. Italian is another one: he's got A's and A*'s for all papers except his written assessment where he's been given an E for a piece of work that his teacher had informally graded an A*/A. I saw it as well, (I can speak some Italian) and there was no way it was an E, which is the sort of grade you get if you can't string more than three words together.

Anyway the good thing is that his grades are good enough to let him stay in his current school for IB, which his best friend's weren't, so that's something. Mr SandDune's consulting with the teachers but we will probably get several remarked, so at least we will find out what the issue is.

Hi Rhian - I'm sorry for your disappointment about J's grades although they still seem very good. It's too bad our system is so tied to them; from what you say, it sounds like he is a curious and engaged student. And, as you say, he seems well informed on a wide variety of topics.

Sorry to hear the results were disappointing, but glad he's able to carry on where he wants to study. The report of grades going down overall I read as suggesting it was the marking advice not the kids that have changed. So hard on students like your son.

There was a fascinating article I looked at a week or so ago looking at remarking and how only some schools can afford to do it. I didn't realise finance was a question in this - I know my school did make these requests (as well as make quite strategic choices between exam boards back when this was possible), but their worry was apparently repeated requests were frowned upon and could affect the school (but this is a long time ago now! )

>86 BLBera: As you say, they are good results, it's just that it's really not what he was expecting. Other students who he's consistently outperformed have got better marks than he has, which he finds very frustrating. And I do know that he studied hard, so it's not a matter of him being overconfident.

We had drinks with friends last night who had a much more stressful time than we did. The two schools that their son had applied to both required at least at B in English to study any subjects at A level, and he came away with a C, so she had a frantic couple of days trying to find another local school that would accept him. He didn't even want to study English but it was a prerequisite of getting into the Sixth Form.

>87 charl08: All remarks have to be paid for - I think it's around £50 per paper if you want a copy of the script back or a bit less if you don't. We have to pay for it, although the fee is waived if there is any grade change. J's school analyses the results as a matter of course, and suggests remarks if the results are within a few marks of the next highest grade boundary, or if there any unexplained anomalies, either for individuals (as in J's case) or for particular paper, but the parents have to pay, which is discriminatory against those who can't afford to. Mr SandDune has done GCSE marking in the past, and he thinks it's worth at least getting some redone. The original marker sees a scanned copy of the paper on screen and doesn't get very long to look at each one which may exacerbate handwriting issues. The remark is done by a senior marker looking at the original paper apparently.

How frustrating for you all, Rhian. It also seems like an awful lot of pressure on teens.

53. City of Stairs Robert Jackson Bennett ****



A follow-up to the City of Stairs that I read and really enjoyed earlier in the year, although its focus is on the character of General Mulagesh, who was rather more peripheral in the original story. The general is forced out of retirement by the prime minister. A Saypuri agent has disappeared in the city of Voortyashtan, while investigating the discovery of a previously unknown ore which conducts electricity faster than anything else ever discovered. Voortyashtan is the fabled City of Blades where, before the destruction of the gods by the Saypuri invaders, the inhabitants had worshiped the goddess of death, and had become feared and magical warriors that had kept Saypur in slavery for hundr dos of years. Now with all the gods destroyed, Voortyashtan is a ruin most of which lies under water, and it is Signe, the daughter of the warrior Sigrud (from City of Stairs) who is in charge of the civil engineering project to clear the harbour and reinstate the city as the major port it once was. But when Mulagesh arrives, she finds a more complicated situation that she is expecting. The locals are reselling against the Saypuri rule, some particularly gruesome murders come to light, and it seems that Signe's motives are a little more complex than at first appear. And why does proximity to the new ore cause Mulagesh to remember events that had happened forty years previously, events that she would far rather forget ...

Another very enjoyable book combining the excellent world building with the mystery of the missing agent. I'm looking forward to the next one in the series.

55. The Essex Serpent Sarah Perry ****1/2



I first saw The Essex Serpent in my local Waterstone's and as I hadn't heard of it before and Waterstone's is less than a mile from the border with Essex, I'd put it down as a 'local interest' book, albeit one with a very beautiful cover. But then it appeared on my Audible recommendations, so I thought I'd try it. And I'm very glad I did, as this is a very rewarding historical novel set at the end of the nineteenth century that delves into many different areas: the place of women in society; the conflict between a religious and a scientific world view; developments in medicine .... Together with a beautiful portrayal of the desolate marshes of coastal Essex this all adds up to a book that it well worth reading.

Cora Seagrave, recently released from an abusive marriage by the death of her husband, glories in her new found freedom. She dreams of being taken seriously as a scientist, and on hearing of the discovery of some interesting new fossils, takes her son Francis and companion Martha to the Essex town of Colchester, close to where the discoveries have been made. From there it's but a short step to the village of Aldwinter, on the Essex marshes, where mutual friends introduce her to the local vicar, William Ransome, a man who is distrustful of her scientific viewpoint. So when Cora hears the locals talk of the mythical 'Essex serpent' that has returned to terrorise the village, she is convinced that she can discover a creature previously unknown to science, while Ransome believes equally fervently that it is the product of the villagers vivid imaginations. Cora is pursued into Essex by the doctor who failed to save her husband, the brilliant surgeon Luke Garrett, who dreams of extending the possibilities of surgery, and who becomes afraid that Cora's friendship with the married Ransome is not as platonic as she insists...

The Essex Serpent is largely divided between the village on the edge of bleak and desolate Essex marshes, and a bustling London where Luke Garrett pushes back the frontiers of surgery, while Cora's companion Martha is equally determined to address the problem of inadequate housing for the poor. Both locations are equally well realised.

This isn't a book for those that like a nice neat ending, but otherwise very highly recommended.

>91 SandDune: Hmm, that sounds interesting... BB.

>82 Helenliz: I always enjoy the heat when we're away. It's just that we never seem very well set up for it in Britain.

>83 Familyhistorian: We get specially written course books (usually two or three per course) and a fairly detailed timetable that guides you as to what you should be doing when, and you're expected to work through those yourself, as well as get through the course books. Then there are face to face tutorials usually every month or so. Online there are forums that you can join in with if you want to but it's not essential. Then there are also online library services, so that students can access the academic journals that the University has access to, or e-books. There is an actual physical library as well, but it's a bit far away, but I believe you can get reciprocal arrangements to use other university libraries if you want to, although I've never fine that. Then we have about six assessments per course (usually 2000 word essays for literature) and either an exam or another assessment at the end.

>92 qebo: I was in Cambridge yesterday and bought her first book After Me Comes the Flood which had been vaguely on my radar, although I hadn't realised they were by the same author until I finished The Essex Serpent. Looks a very different style of book though.

Hi Rhian - You got me with The Essex Serpent; it sounds wonderful.

>93 SandDune: That sounds like a big commitment that will take up a lot of your time, Rhian. I have an idea how hard it is as last winter I just finished a program that was 21 courses long. Six assessment sounds like a lot but at least you don't have to give a presentation. I had to do those and group projects a lot through the program. Not my favourite things. I am sure you will be glad when it is done. I know I was.

Went back to the dentist today to have the crown fitted on the tooth I had the root canal filling on - or at least getting a temporary crown put in place until the proper crown is made - and I did not like it one little bit! I've got to go back in three weeks time to have the permanent crown fitted.

I hated the whole experience of getting a crown, too, Rhian. Ptooey!

We've had three of J's five remarks come back and two of his B's have been upgraded to A's: English Language and English Literature. He was awarded 18 extra marks in one paper and 22 extra marks in the other. I'm not impressed by the quality of the marking at all!

J seems to be settling OK into sixth form except he's debating whether he's made the right choice of science subjects. He's doing higher level Chemistry and Biology which go together very well, but he's debating whether he could drop Chemistry for Physics. And then the debate becomes whether he can do higher level Physics without doing higher level Maths. IB maths is supposed to be very difficult - mainly because it's a worldwide qualification so they have to cater for all the kids in Singapore and Shanghai who are better at maths than anyone else - so the advice is not to do HL maths unless you are very keen. And he's a good mathematician but he doesn't love it.

Question for any Brits watching the Paralympics. Three guesses as to which well known Paralympian is one of the bridesmaids in this picture of my nephew's wedding back in 1989?

Ooh Sarah Storey?!

>101 charl08: And the gold star goes to Charlotte! Can't say I actually remember meeting her at the wedding though. And she was only twelve at the time!

>99 SandDune: - My head is swimming! Some day I will buckle down and try to learn the UK system. It seems like the decisions he makes now have ramifications straight on down the line through university - is that right?

>99 SandDune: two of his B's have been upgraded to A
Yay!

>103 katiekrug: It does have ramifications. To be honest J's not doing the normal British system which is to do three or four A levels which takes two years between 16-18. But the subjects that are taken very much influence what can be studied at university. Most science degree courses would want at least two science subjects at A level, for instance.

J's doing the International Baccalaureate which isn't that common here. He needs to take English, a foreign language (he's doing German), Maths, a science subject, a humanity (he's doing history), and a sixth subject (he's doing a second science). Three of them are done at Higher Level and Three at Standard Level. At the moment he wants to keep his options open as to what sort of course he does at University, hence he's doing the two higher level sciences and higher level history. I'm sure that's all clear as mud!

>99 SandDune: Those are really shocking discrepancies on the marks. If marking is that far off it makes me wonder what happens to the students whose families can't pay for remarks.

>98 katiekrug: very glad to hear about J's new marks. I was leaving on holiday when you made your first post, so too busy to comment, and I'm very happy to see it all turned out okay. But it's disappointing that you had to go through the time, cost, and stress.

>104 qebo: >107 lauralkeet: He is very pleased, especially as the two that have changed are the two English exams, so fairly fundamental ones to get right.

>106 Familyhistorian: That's exactly what I think. I could forgive a few marks here and there, but that is far too much. They're not supposed to change the marks if there's a mere difference of opinion either, only where there's a clear error on the part of the original marker.

I've been going through my Shakespeare plays for my OU course this week on audible. So far I've listened to As you Like It, Julius Caesar and Hamlet. I've always liked Julius Caesar which I did for O level, and As you like it is growing on me, but I think I'm going to work hard with Hamlet - it's not really grabbing me at the moment. I think I've seen all of them on stage at one time or another - the one that springs to mind is a production of JC a few years ago set in an unnamed African country with an all black cast that worked really well. I've also listened to The Country Wife. I'm not rating or reviewing any of these - it's difficult to get a true sense of a play from an audio production I think - but I am adding them to my list.

Really? You like Shakespeare on Audible? I tried that once and it didn't work. But it may have been a poor production. It had commentary thrown in there, too, which was really weird.

Hi Rhian - Great news on J's marks - and that sounds like a poor system. There should not be that much discrepancy, especially when so much depends on them.

I have to admit I love Hamlet; I've taught it a lot and there's so much there. The downside is the fact that it is long...

>85 SandDune: Congratulations to J on his results!

But, wow, Rhian. That's so odd From an A to an E is such a discrepancy, it's worth getting them looked at again. It's a shame about the fees; I suppose it's to discourage everyone trying to pile in and change their grades even when it's not justified.

>88 SandDune: What a weird system for marking. Obviously markers are under time pressure, but the results affect our young people's futures.

Best of luck with that. I'm glad J got to stay in his school, but it's a shame his best friends don't.

>99 SandDune: Oh, yay. Frustrating, but I'm glad it came out right.

>109 SandDune: Maybe suggest a Shakespeare tutored read?....

Caught up Rhian and I share the frustrations that the often fairly arbitrary examinations system seems to result in in non science subjects. The subjective nature of the marking system and the pressure on those doing that marking throws up anomalies which really ought to be avoided. Kyran did OK in his exams but much less well than he deserved to do IMO. He won the school award for art in a school that regularly sweeps the board locally results wise but only got a B in his IGCSE. He was pretty devastated and equally as disappointed in his English results. I am sure that handwriting does play a factor as his is messy and masks the fact that he is as articulate a young man as I know.

In these sadly competitive days we are forced to look around us and wonder how some with obviously less talent did better in exams and I do think a neat and non-smudging pen as well as a strategy to play safe pays off.

On the plus side J will obviously benefit from the IB format which is less exam orientated/dependent. Kyran will be looking to do something similar but is edging towards the Canadian version.

Hi Rhian, I was absent several weeks on LT but I try to do better. I read all your post about J's exams. I learned a lot because we don't have your system.

Have a lovely weekend, Rhian

Hope all is well you you and family, Rhian!

Hi Rhian! I read and responded to your post on Darryl's thread about the new independent bookshop in Saffron Walden:

in the 2000-2004 timeframe there was a nice bookshop called Harts. Towards the end of that time they split off their stationery section into another shop and when I visited 10 years later there was, as you noted, no bookshop. The town itself however had improved from a shopping perspective, so I'm glad to see there's now a bookshop as well.

I just did a little googling and discovered that the "new" bookshop is a reopened, rejuvenated Harts. I was so sad to see they had closed and this news makes me very happy.

>117 lauralkeet: Laura I have been missing in action for a very long time. It's quite hard combining my new course with working full time and we've got some rather stressful stuff going on at work at the moment. I did think the rejuvenated Harts looked a particularly nice bookshop and it was fitted out to a pretty high standard, as well as having a good book selection. And they let Daisy in, as well. Actually they let several dogs in, as after I asked if Daisy could come in another two people with dogs that were clearly waiting outside for their partners decided they could go in too. Anyway, Daisy was happy, as she attracted the attention of a very pierced (slightly scary looking) gentleman who obviously had the knack of exactly where to massage her between her ears to send her into a sort of ecstatic trance! And I was happy as I bought When the Floods Came by Clare Morrall and Out in the Open by Jesús Carrasco.

Sorry to hear about the work stress, Rhian and completely understand the demands of juggling everything on your plate. We've missed you, though!

Harts was my go-to source especially since at the time I was not familiar with contemporary English authors, and had only just discovered the Booker Prize. So I was often faced with a puzzling array of unfamiliar books but came to learn I could trust what Harts had on their shelves. And I'm delighted to hear they allow dogs! In general, shops in the UK are infinitely more dog-friendly than in the US (except for service dogs, around here you can generally assume they are not allowed). I could imagine some dogs would wreak havoc in a bookshop, but I'm sure Daisy was a model of good behaviour.

>119 lauralkeet: My local Waterstones has to win the prize for dog friendliness. Not only do they allow dogs in the shop, but they also allow dogs in the coffee shop area and provide them with water and biscuits!

That's brilliant.

>114 Ameise1: >115 PaulCranswick: >116 ronincats: Hi Paul, Barbara, Roni! I is settling in well to his IB course in the sixth form. He'll be doing a week's work experience in Munster, Germany In February, and then a two week science trip to Croatia in July so he has plenty to look forward to.

I am in Mr SandDune's bad books at the moment as it is his book club tonight and I havn't read his book (Headlong Michael Frayn). To be fair it's not really my fault. He took ages to read the book himself (he didn't finish it until last Wednesday) and since then we've had visitors over the weekend and I've had to do my first OU assessment. And to be honest, he was moaning about it so much as he was reading it it didn't make me keen to buy another copy, especially as the one that he was reading was a book that I ought in the first place.

66. Hot Milk Deborah Levy **1/2

My RL book club has decided to jump back into the Booker Prize shortlist and read the books in time for a meeting in March. Hot Milk is my first foray into the shortlist, and I'm afraid I'm not impressed. I enjoyed Swimming Home by the same author when that was shortlisted a few years ago (although to be honest it isn't a book that has stayed with me) but this was a disappointment.

Sofia Papastergiadis is accompanying her mother to a clinic in Southern Spain, in a final attempt to find a cure for her controlling mother's illness, which may or may not be psychosomatic. The clinic, run by Dr Gomez, may or may not be genuine. Sofia thinks about a relationship with a weird lizard murdering German woman, which may or may not happen. She makes a sudden trip to Athens to see a father who walked out on her when she was five. She gets stung by jellyfish a lot. And I really didn't care very much about any of it.

So I'm definitely not recommending this one!

67. The Gathering Anne Enright ****1/2

This Booker Prize winner from 2007 was much more to my taste than my last read, although looking at the average rating on LT I may be a bit of an exception here.

Veronica's brother Liam has been found drowned on Brighton seafront, no question of it being suicide with his pockets full of stones. As she goes through the practicalities of telling her mother, travelling to England to arrange for his body's transfer back to Ireland, she thinks back to their childhood for clues of what went wrong with his life. And then she finds herself looking further back, to the Dublin of the 1920's, to the meeting of her grandmother Ada with her future husband, for the original source of what went wrong with the Hegarty clan. Veronica herself initially seems to have a happy and prosperous life with a husband, two daughters and a five bedroomed house that is a million miles away from the cramped home in which she was brought up, but as the months pass after her brothers funeral it is clear that everything is far from well in her life ...

This is a complex book, jumping in time from the 1920's, to Veronica and Liam's own childhood in the 1960's and 70's, to the twentieth-first century and back again. Veronica was one of a family of twelve, and all of those brothers and sisters make an appearance (at least all those who are still alive, and sometimes ones who are already dead). And just how reliable are Veronica's conjectures about her family's history? And how reliable is her memory of what happened in her own childhood?

This is a book that packs a lot into a short volume. Highly recommended.

Happy Weekend!

>125 The_Hibernator: Hi Rachel. Trying to ease myself in to posting more regularly after a bit of a gap.

It's been a fairly quiet weekend. I had an OU tutorial yesterday where we discussed Hamlet and I think I'm getting into it a little more. J had a Model United Nations event yesterday so was out most of the day, and the evening was spent mainly reassuring Daisy, who was getting traumatised by fireworks. She's been a lot better this year than last year, she seems to cope with the more distant ones, but we had a couple of fireworks parties nearby and those really freaked her out.

Now I want to watch the new series The Crown on Netflix which is being greatly hampered by the fact that I can't find the Apple TV remote control, which is just too small, in my opinion!

Work is fairly stressy at the moment, for reasons that I can't really go into, so I'm appreciating the relaxed weekend. I'm also trying to convince Mr SandDune that going to work every single day of the week (which he has done for the last three weeks of term time) is not good for his health.

Oh I totally understand the AppleTV remote issue! I think there's a Remote app for the iPhone that also works, so that might be worth investigating. Or you can look under every sofa cushion ...

Sorry about the work stress, I know that situation too. Hope things begin to improve for you.

>127 lauralkeet: Laura - well we made up for not being able to watch The Crown by watching the new BBC wildlife programme Planet Earth II which was wonderful. Baby marine iguanas have now replaced baby turtles as the baby animals I feel most sorry for, as they are apparently pursued by hordes of snakes the minute they hatch.

>124 SandDune: I was one of those not enamoured by The Gathering, Rhian. Maybe a re-read sometime in the future for reappraisal is now justified.

I've started listening to The Japanese Lover which is my next book club choice. I'm really not that enamoured with it so far, I don't like her style at all. It's a real contrast to The Gathering which drew me in immediately.

Feeling sympathy for all those LT'ers who were supporting Hilary Clinton. I'm obviously not in the US but the US president has such a long reach worldwide, that it's very difficult to ignore the election of someone as unpredictable as Donald Trump seems to be. Virtually all of the people I was speaking to in work today were feeling very worried about the future given this result, and find it slightly incredulous that Donald Trump was even a serious candidate.

J got up in the middle of nights see the results come in, and is feeling slightly shell shocked as well.

>131 SandDune: Thanks. Let's hope that the losing side can manage to minimize the finger pointing and find ways to move forward together.

Some thought on recent political events ...

Ever since the Brexit vote in June I've been dealing with a sense of what can only be described (at least in the first few weeks) as grief, at the thought that the country could vote for something, that in my view, and in the view of the vast majority of my relatives and friends, was a course of action that was so clearly not in the best interests of the country, and also so at odds with how I saw the world at a whole. Not only that, I felt personally rejected by the winning side, feeling that as a relatively privileged middle class woman with a good education, especially as one who used to work in the City of London, I was viewed in some quarters as a embodiment of everything that was wrong with Britain. And as someone who has never voted for the political party which would have benefited me financially, who has voted for the party that would put up higher rate taxes when I was a higher rate taxpayer, who thought local authorities should be building council houses rather than bringing down council tax, and who has always supported welfare spending, that really hurt. And like what's happening in the US now, it's very easy to go from that feeling to demonising the other side in the argument, to portray the other side as completely alien, completely 'other' and uneducated at the best or motivated by xenophobia or racism at first.

And now the US election has brought all those feelings back, multiplied by the fact that the differences in culture and politics between the two countries means that the election of Trump perhaps seems even stranger here than it does to some people in the US. And clearly some people there are feeling exactly as I did back in June. But because it's not my neighbour or coworker or relative who have voted what I consider to be the wrong way, although I was very upset and worried by the vote, I perhaps don't have the feeling of personal rejection that I did back in June, so I've been thinking logically a little more. And what seems to me important at the moment is that we have to stop demonising the opposition (and I've been as guilty as that of anyone.) Thinking about all the people I know the person who has done to most to help people in dire need is a local Brexit voting Conservative party politician, someone whose political beliefs are completely at odds with my own. But she has done more than anyone else I know to give practical help to people in need: tirelessly working to find accommodation for people who are homeless, setting up a winter shelter for people on the streets, and positively welcoming people of different nationalities into the local community and into her home as friends. Despite my protestations of higher moral ground when it comes to politics I haven't done any of that. Everything at the moment seems to be putting us into our own little boxes, we are friends with people like ourselves, we meet similar people at work, we read the news that reinforces our own beliefs, and meet like-minded people on the Internet. All of which makes it much more difficult to put a face to someone who might vote differently, and still be a decent person ...

So I've decided I've got to stop being depressed about the state of the world in general and do something more positive. I spent last night researching charities that are working in the fields that I really care about (environment, literacy, poverty) and set up some regular donations. I'm going to spend an hour or so each week campaigning on things that matter to me. And I'm going to try and get outside my comfort zone and talk to more people who might hold different views. None of this means that my opinions on the Brexit vote or Donald Trump's election have in any way changed, I still think that both are the worse outcomes for our respective countries) but I do think that the more separated we are the worse the situation becomes.

Wow, Rhian. So well said. Along similar lines, one good thing to come out of this election for me is that it has really helped crystallize what is important to me and what I care about most and caused me to think about how I can have a positive impact on those things.

The similarities between Brexit and Trump's election are very striking in a way, and my biggest take away is that there are large swathes of people in both countries who feel marginalized and like their voices are not heard. I'm not talking about the hard core xenophobes and racists (they should be marginalized), but neither of these votes can be attributed solely to hate. I don't know how to solve that, but I think your idea of getting out of our comfort zones and to perhaps try to cultivate some empathy might be a good place to start.

>133 SandDune: I'm seeing similar reactions here. Very worried about negative consequences, but since we can't rely on the national government, the burden is more upon whatever can be done either locally or through non-profit organizations. Also the Democrats have clearly lost a formerly solid constituency of white working class that sent an FU via Trump, which is forcing some soul-searching.

Very well said, Rhian. I like the idea of throwing yourself into dealing with the problems in a hands-on way. I've seen similar calls to action here and am hoping there will be a groundswell of support as people begin healing their election wounds and channeling energy into helping our communities.

>134 katiekrug: Katie, there's an interesting article here about the similarities and differences between the Brexit and Trump vote. Seems the vote in the UK was much more polarised in terms of educational level and income level, but less polarised in terms of race.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/election-us-2016-37943072

68. The Japanese Lover Isabel Allende **

I've read Isabel Allende in the past Eva Luna certainly, and maybe The House of the Spirits as well, and I'm pretty sure that I enjoyed those books, but I certainly did not enjoy The Japanese Lover. in fact it probably rates as one of the least enjoyable books of the year.

The basic plot is this: Irina Bazili, a twenty-three year old immigrant to the US from Moldova, starts work at Lark House in San Francisco, a home for older residents who require varying amounts of care. Into her life comes Alma, a new resident of the home, whose wealthy background single her out from most of her home's old people, and also Seth, Alma's adult grandson. As the years progress, Alma's true history is revealed, while Seth, who becomes more and more besotted with Irina, discovers that she also has secrets in her own life. And it's the back story of Alma and Irina that forms the backbone on the book, and as neither both women have led uneventful lives on the face of it this seems a good basis for the story ...

The first problem is that the writing is incredibly flat (apparently Allende writes in Spanish so I can only hope that it sounds better in the original) and the story is told in a monotone that varies very little from character to character. There is little dialogue and what there is sounds nothing like anything would ever actually say. Allende crams in so much historical detail that what should be moving events that grab at the reader's heart strings are rushed over in a couple of sentences. Alma's parents dispatch to a Nazi concentration camp is rushed over in a paragraph in the most unmoving account I have ever heard. And every single ill of the twentieth century that can possible befall a character seems to have been included. The impression is that Allende has a checklist somewhere and is ticking things off. She has also an annoying habit of assuming that the reader doesn't know anything about the history of the twentieth century, so all the time we have little snippets of information like this one about Che Guevara:

she assumed that Hans Voigt would never have heard of the guerilla leader who fifty years after his heroic exploits was still worshipped in Cuba and by a handful of radical followers in Berkeley, where she was still living

Personally, I think if you're worried about your readers not knowing who Che Guevara is, you're probably better putting someone else on the front of your heroine's T-shirt. And if you are going to put little explanatory facts in, then the least the author can do is get them right. It was certainly news to me that the WW2 in Europe began 18 months before Pearl Harbour, and I suspect to most historians as well.

But the worst thing about the book, which at its heart is a love affair between Alma and Ichimei (the eponymous Japanese gardener), is that it's impossible to understand what it is about either of them that causes the other one to be so much in love. Allende keeps telling us what a great love affair it is, but there is precious little showing of it.

So a book I really had to struggle to finish, and would probably have put down after the first fifty pages or so, if I hadn't been reading it for my RL book club. So, NOT recommended.

>133 SandDune: Thank you for sharing those thoughts, Rhian. They were at once salutary and uplifting. xx

Even though I was not as euro convinced as you I was very cautiously on the Remain side of the argument and find it most striking that there really doesn't seem to any plan for the actual Brexit. There were obvious flaws in both sides of the argument very poorly conducted by both and I really believe that the positive case for Remain never got made allowing instead a sort of negative holding and frankly complacent response to the more aggressive Brexit campaigning which promised and distorted and misrepresented and won.

There in essence the similarities between Trump and Brexit are manifested. HRC ran a largely "safe" campaign concentrating on why people should not vote for Trump rather than setting out the progressive agenda which may have enthused a very disconsolate electorate. She allowed the agenda to be set by the pugilist and was extremely complacent in the lack of attention paid to Michigan, Iowa and especially Wisconsin losing the electoral college in the process. Trump, in the same way as the Brexiteers, promised, distorted and misrepresented and won.

Have a lovely weekend.

>139 PaulCranswick: agenda to be set
There was a whole lotta media complicity in this. But yes, by the time of the convention Bernie Sanders had managed to insert much of his agenda into the platform, but the followthrough was insufficient.

>140 qebo: Katherine I don't think the media is that much to blame on this one. HRC had ample opportunity to take him down and the media certainly covered in detail and, without sugar coating, this man's very worst excesses - the British media especially so. Her speeches were covered, the Presidential debates where there is a belief she was fed questions (she certainly was to help her beat Bernie), but through all that she didn't get her message across and concentrated on playing his game of negativity and rhetoric without prescriptions. I thought her smarter than that. It wasn't the media that kept her out of Wisconsin which is something akin to the fiddling while Rome Milwaukee burned.
I think the media did its job. They showed him to be a bully, a bigot, a misogynist and a liar repeatedly and it was not exploited because the Democrats picked the wrong candidate and failed to be positive.

>141 PaulCranswick: There's also a relentless daily barrage on TV news and commentary. The negativity has been utterly exhausting.

>141 PaulCranswick: wasn't the media that kept her out of Wisconsin
Agreed. But she was in Pennsylvania and we screwed this one up too. I lived in Philadelphia in 2008, and my neighborhood (about 50:50 black:white) and students (predominantly black) were positively giddy when Obama won. Clinton was never gonna get that kind of enthusiasm to run up the numbers, and apparently the campaign didn't compensate. How they could've, I don't know.

>142 qebo: & >143 qebo: Yes, you are right Katherine; negativity rarely works when practiced by progressives. Obama IMO brought a fervent message of hope to America and the wider world and, I believe that he partly delivered on that. He would have been more successful with a supportive Senate and Congress and better world order when he took office. He brought dignity, humour, class and fierce intelligence to a role that fit him like a glove.

History will be kind to Obama and America can be proud of itself for electing him just as it may be kicking itself over his successor.

>144 PaulCranswick: We're in the finger-pointing stage now, and it too is discouraging when it's done by people who are essentially on the same side. (For the record, I was ambivalent about Bernie Sanders as president, but voted for him in the primary to apply leftward pressure. I am more positively disposed toward Hillary Clinton than you are, but I'm in exactly the right demographic.) Of course more is obvious in hindsight. There's plenty of blame to go around, and some of it is long term and systemic and not the fault of individuals. If you had to design an anti-Obama from scratch, Trump would be it.

>144 PaulCranswick: Yes. The Democrats have to go into a huddle, behind closed doors and come back stronger. Elizabeth Warren has it right that the good things - support - but the bigotry and other nonsense should be fought tooth and nail. I don't know who will emerge and some of the best on the left are getting too long in the tooth, but I am sure that a cathartic event like last Tuesday will eventually bring some cohesion to them.

>146 PaulCranswick: Democrats have to go into a huddle
They are well aware of this. And locally, a call has been put out to people who might be interested in running for office, to provide support and feed fresh faces into the pipeline; if it's happening here, then I'd bet it's happening all over. The D's have lost some die-hard Bernie supporters, but 3rd parties are difficult to build with first-past-the-post elections. Maine passed a rank-choice voting measure that I hope will provide a model for other states and eventually the nation.

I saw a much different campaign than described in >141 PaulCranswick:. Clinton's ability to stay on message and not stoop to Trump's level and to not take his bait every day made me more positively inclined towards her. The second debate where she was calm and cool under pressure while he loomed over her and kept trying to distract her actually made me excited and proud to vote for her. I don't think she was overly negative - not 100% positive, of course, but no candidate is (not even everyone's beloved Bernie).

She was not a great politician like an Obama or a Bill Clinton with a natural affinity for connecting with people, and I think people expect that more of a woman, so she came across as cold and almost inhuman.

Most Americans aren't going to follow the British media, and it sounds like its coverage was much different from the American press.

Wow, I've not checked in for a while and Paul and Katherine have certainly been keeping the thread alive. I'm probably not familiar enough with US politics to have any useful comments as to what the best thing to do is there. In the UK, I'm struggling with my party affiliation. I've been a consistent Labour voter since my early twenties, and after the Conservative victory in 2015 I joined the Labour Party. I didn't vote for Jeremy Corbyn as leader, but was prepared to give him the benefit of the doubt. Over the last year I've come to the conclusion that he's a disastrous choice, who will never widen Labour's appeal to the voters it needs to get elected. Whenever I see him on TV he looks totally out of his depth unless he's in front of an audience who agree with him 100%. Effectively, we haven't got a credible opposition at the moment. And rather than trying to agree on positions that unite the party under Corbyn's leadership it's busy tearing itself apart. It seems that the purity of the faith is more important than actually gaining power. In the end I'll probably still vote Labour, but people like Mr SandDune who has also been a consistent Labour voter since god knows when, probably won't, because he won't vote for Jeremy Corbyn.

>148 katiekrug: and it sounds like its coverage was much different from the American press. From a British perspective a Trump victory seemed even more unbelievable than it seemed in the States and I think the press reflected that. We were actually just talking about it over dinner, and decided that Hilary Clinton being a woman wouldn't have been anything like such an issue here. When Theresa May took over as Prime Minister back in the summer the fact that she was female wasn't really mentioned at all. And we don't have the religious right complicating matters.

>148 katiekrug: made me more positively inclined towards her
Me too, and also acquaintances who had been Sanders supporters and highly critical of Clinton; one of them bought a "Nasty Woman" t-shirt to wear under her pantsuit on election day.
The relentless Clinton emails versus Trump 1000000 horrible things drained everyone and detracted from efforts at positive messaging.

>148 katiekrug: I would have to bow to your knowledge and crucially experience of American media. I watch the satellite channels mainly the BBC and Sky and you could not have failed to perceive Donald Trump as Donald Chump from them. I also do watch a fair bit of CNN and thought them quite critical and disbelieving of him too, but obviously as HRC won the popular vote the damage was done at local levels.

>149 SandDune: We are in a very similar position over Labour with Mr. Corbyn. I have been a member since the 1980s and was so disenchanted by the party abandoning its grass roots that you may recall I was even flirting with the idea of looking towards the liberals to deliver social justice! Corbyn's idea of grass roots involvement is, however, certainly not mine. I believe him to be an inept and somewhat dangerous leader. We need to reengage with our traditional constituencies in Northern England, the Industrial Midlands, in Wales and in Scotland and look towards the delivery of a programme that brings jobs, hope, opportunity and fairness back into their lives. We have allowed the SNP (who were the only party who actively voted Brexit in the 1970s referendum) to steal our clothes and with it any chance of power. The Labour Party must be in power in order to deliver on any programme of anti-austerity and there is little hope of that at present. Corbyn, in my view, was the most responsible of all British politicians for Brexit because his apathy and negligence made it clear that he was a secret sceptic and his failure to deliver labour voters cost us dearly.

There are some marvellous politicians still in Labour. I am proud to be in a party that includes Hillary Benn, Alan Johnson, Andy Burnham and Angela Eagle but they are being marginalised along with our chances. I am sticking with it as that is the way to ultimately prevail but I share your exasperation.

>150 SandDune: I agree with you on Mrs Clinton, Rhian. I don't think her gender would have been as great an issue in the UK. I am not sure how much it had impact in the USA but I would like to think that the US will soon elect a lady as President and that it will be Elizabeth Warren in 2020.

Happy Sunday, Rhian.

>128 SandDune: Oh, weren't the snakes terrifying?

>133 SandDune: Well said. I will have to give your comments some thought to consider what I can do personally.

Rhian - Your comments on the US election and Brexit were thoughtful, which I appreciated. I also agree that perhaps each of us leaving our comfort zone to help those in need is a good thing.

Great comments on reading. I was less than thrilled with The Japanese Lover as well. Allende's best work is her historical fiction set in Latin America, I think.

I also liked The Gathering. I liked Hot Milk more than you did, but it certainly won't make my top reads this year.

Not a good start to the morning today. Went to start my car and it wouldn't! Didn't make much sound at all in fact. Luckily Mr SandDune had walked to work so I could take his car to my work.I was late out at a meeting this evening, but Mr SandDune tried starting the car again. It did start, eventually, but is not sounding healthy. I wasn't sure if we had home start included on the breakdown policy (it came with the car) but it seems we do so they are sending a mechanic out tomorrow morning to look at it. So Mr SandDune will have to do some more walking to work as I can't get to work at all without the car.

>152 PaulCranswick: I've been very impressed with Hilary Benn recently. Trouble is, where I live it doesn't make a blind bit of difference who I vote for, it's never going to be anything over than a Conservative MP! Our district council is 100% Conservative as well!

>153 Ameise1: >154 souloftherose: >155 BLBera: Hi Barbara, Heather, Beth. More luck with the car today. the Skoda man came out first this morning, the car of course, started first time, he spent about three quarters of an hour looking at it, and then pronounced it OK! You feel so stupid when that happens though.

Not a relaxing start to the weekend. J announces (with about an hour and a half to go) that he is going to his friend's party as Julius Ceasar and what do I think he ought to wear? We are not the sort of house that has the sort of things that you make costumes out of readily available. Anyway, just about managed it.

Glad you managed it, Rhian. I would think all you needed was a large white bedsheet, but then remind myself that even I don't have those anymore...

>159 FAMeulstee: all you needed was a large white bedsheet - unfortunately at first I thought we didn't have a flat white bedsheet in the house, only fitted ones, which wouldn't be very toga like. Eventually, we found one at the back of the cupboard. And we had to do bloodstains, similar search for something to do those with eventually came up with a very dried up felt tip pen that I managed to energise!

>158 SandDune: Wouldn't J have been safer going as Brutus?

Have a great weekend.

>161 PaulCranswick: LOL.

Hi, Rhian. I'm just cruising through, catching up. And I, too, appreciate your thoughtful comments about the US election and Brexit. Interesting times in which we live....

Have a wonderful week ~~~

>158 SandDune: wow. He really needs to plan ahead. But I'm glad you just about pulled it off!

We had J's GCSE presentation evening last night which to be honest I enjoyed a lot more than I thought I would. I'm not very good about making small talk with people I don't know very well, and as Mr SandDune teaches in the same school, he frequently switches into 'professional' rather than 'parent' mode, and wanders off to network. But I got into conversation with the mother of one of Jacob's friends, who I'd spoken to before but only pleasantries, and discovered she was a journalist dealing with culture and travel. I knew her husband was a journalist but I hadn't realised she was as well, but it turns out her speciality on culture is contemporary Russian fiction. So we had a nice booky conversation, where I felt quite pleased that I had at least heard of one of the books that she was recommending (S.N.U.F.F. by Victor Pelevin). And J had a nice time catching up with his friends who've gone to different schools for sixth form.

>164 SandDune: I have some books by Victor Pelevin but not that one. I have The Life of Insects and note that he is a bit of a recluse.

I reckon S.N.U.F.F. would be just your cuppa as it apparently melds SF with literary fiction.

Happy holidays, Rhian.

My wish for you and the world during this season and beyond.....

Wouldn't it be nice if 2017 was a year of peace and goodwill.
A year where people set aside their religious and racial differences.
A year where intolerance is given short shrift.
A year where hatred is replaced by, at the very least, respect.
A year where those in need are not looked upon as a burden but as a blessing.
A year where the commonality of man and woman rises up against those who would seek to subvert and divide.
A year without bombs, or shootings, or beheadings, or rape, or abuse, or spite.

2017.

Festive Greetings and a few wishes from Malaysia!

Happy Christmas, Rhian!

Merry Christmas, Rhian, to you and yours ...

Merry Christmas, Rhian!

Best wishes, Rhian!

Merry Christmas Rhian! I hope your holidays are full of joy!

This is the Christmas tree at the end of the Pacific Beach Pier here in San Diego, a Christmas tradition.

To all my friends here at Library Thing, I want you to know how much I value you and how much I wish you a very happy holiday, whatever one you celebrate, and the very best of New Years!

Rhian, best wishes for Christmas to you and the SandDune family, and a happy 2017.

Merry Christmas, Rhian.

Merry Christmas, Rhian! Hope you enjoy the holidays with the family!

Happy Christmas, Rhian. All the best to you and yours.

I missed my Christmas round this year, but am back in time to wish you and your family all the best for the New Year and a "Safe Slide" (Guter Rutsch) into it!

Belated Merry Christmas and happy New Year!

Looking forward to your continued company in 2017.
Happy New Year, Rhian

A very Happy New Year to all visitors. Please follow me over to the new thread here ...

http://www.librarything.com/topic/244548