Resisting Everything Except Temptation: CarolineMc Reads in 2017

Favourite spot in Kew Gardens


(C) dad

Aged 8 or 9 - Brockwell Park

I inadvertently wandered over to the 75ers and set up shop, so here is where I'll lay my reading head for 2017.

If we've not met before my name is Caroline and I'm a London sparrow with an addiction for books, ceramics, scarves and handbags (well you need something to carry your books in!). Just passed midway of my sixth decade, and looking forward to continued adventures in life and literature.

Art, theatre, film, travel, photography (snaps - most of the photos on this thread will be my own, unless otherwise attributed), are also passions, as well as occasional writing.

Summing up and stats 2016

I read 69 books in 2016 (17,693 pages)

25 N/F
37 Fiction
7 Poetry

33 Male writers
33 Female writers
3 m/f (as in various)

For me it was the non-fiction that ruled this year not in quantity, but in quality. Among my favourite books were those by Olivia Laing (and I still have her Bloomsbury one ahead of me!). I really enjoyed her rigour and edge; and the mix of biography, psychology and autobiography. They put me in mind of hard glass marbles, addictive to own, every one an individual, good in the hand, but once rolled they knock against each other making multitudes of connections, and will definitely be future re-read’s.

Of the fiction A Country Road, A Tree by Jo Baker stood out (a library loan that will definitely migrate into my collection). I felt by the end I knew Samuel Beckett in a new light, not an easy achievement . I was also surprised how much I enjoyed Kate Atkinson’s Life after Life although was slightly less inspired by its follow-up. All 10 of my favourite novels of the year will stand up to a re-read, or a dive further into each writer’s work.

I started off well on poetry, but not much escaped from January! The thing that stood out was the number of wonderful immigrant stories in the volumes I read, giving a real insight into mixed cultural life.

It was great that the male/female split was almost equal, without striving for it, it’s something I like to achieve. There were a number of new writers I met this year, and David McCulloch and Ivan Doig stand out particularly, as does Colson Whitehead.

Non-Fiction

The Greater Journey: Americans in Paris (David McCullough) ****1/2
Gratitude (Oliver Sacks) *****
On the Move (Oliver Sacks) ****1/2
A House Full of Daughters (Juliet Nicholson) *****
The Lonely City (Olivia Laing) (Kindle) ****1/2
James Baldwin in Turkey (photographer: Sedat Pakay/ text various) *****
The Trip to the Echo Spring (Olivia Laing) ****1/2
Bowie/Collector (Various) *****
Unforbidden Pleasures (Adam Phillips) ****1/2

Fiction

The Noise of Time (Julian Barnes) ****
1984 (George Orwell) (reread) ***** ROOT
The Whistling Season (Ivan Doig) AAC ****
The Red Chairs (Edna O'Brien) ****1/2
The Martian Chronicles (Ray Bradbury) ****1/2 ROOT
Life After Life (Kate Atkinson) ****1/2
A Country Road, A Tree (Jo Baker) (LL) ****1/2
The Underground Railroad (Colson Whitehead) ****1/2
Speak (Louisa Hall) ****
Golden Hill (Francis Spufford) (Kindle) ****

Poetry

Loop of Jade (Sarah Howe) ****1/2 (poetry) – Winner of TS Eliot Prize

Last year's thread:
https://www.librarything.com/topic/234011

Reading plans for 2017

I think I want to keep this quite simple this year, with limited commitments, but the story goes like this:

Most of this year's reading must be ROOT (Read Our Own Tomes)/Library book reading.

MORE POETRY. I really don't know why I don't read more poetry, I've loved it all my life. It does require more concentration and attention, and I prefer to read it in quiet conditions I suppose. Anyway, my goal in 2017 is 1 volume of poetry a week plus one anthology a month - 63 52 volumes in the coming year!

Read as much of John Berger's oeuvre as possible.

LT Challenges

Non-Fiction Challenge 2017 (Ellie's baby) - aim for a full house
American Author Challenge (Mark's baby) - aim for 4-6 reads including at least 3 writers not read before
British Author Challenge (Paul's baby) - aim for 4-6 reads including at least 3 writers not read before

I tend to manage 8 of the 10 local reading group reads.

Otherwise I will be dancing around the bookshelves as my mood takes me.

Currently Reading

Reality is not what it seems (Carlo Rovelli)
The World-Ending Fire: The Essential Wendell Berry
The Unseen (Roy Jacobsen)
Authenticity: Clearing the Junk (The Venerable Yifa)

The Vanishing Futurist (Charlotte Hobson)

White Beech (Germaine Greer)
The Fire This Time (ed Jesmyn Ward)
The Vanished Man: In Pursuit of Velasquez (Laura Cummings)
Immortal Diamond (Richard Rohr)
The Confessions of Nat Turner (William Styron)
23 Things they don't Tell you About Capitalism (Ha-Joon Chang)
Citizen: An American Lyric Claudia Rankine (Poetry)
War - What if it were here? (Janne Teller)

Lapwing and Fox (John Berger and John Christie)
Ways of Seeing (John Berger)
The Invention of Nature (Andrea Wulf) (N/F 2017 challenge)
Portraits: John Berger on Artists John Berger
The Rattle Bag (Various/eds Seamus Heaney/Ted Hughes)

Read in 2017

Non-Fiction

The Invention of Angela Carter (Edmund Gordon) ****1/2
A Florence Diary (Diana Athill) ***
A Jar of Wild Flowers: A Celebration of John Berger (Various) (Essays) ****1/2
Cataract (John Berger/Selçuk Demirel) ****
The Saffron Road: A a Journey with Buddha's Daughters (Christine Toomey) ****1/2
Smoke (John Berger/Selçuk Demirel) ****
Utopia For Realists: and how we can get there (Rutger Bergman) ****1/2
The Dark Romance of Dian Fossey (Harold Hayes) ****
Insomniac City (Bill Hayes) ****1/2
Soul at the White Heat (Joyce Carol Oates) (essays) ****1/2
Just Mercy (Bryan Stevenson) ****1/2 (book group) ROOT
Plot 29 (Allan Jenkins) ****1/2
On Tyranny (Timothy Snyder) ****
The Stranger in the Woods (Michael Finkel) ****
Dust Tracks on the Road (Zora Neale Hurston) AAC ***1/2
Politics: Between the Extremes (Nick Clegg) ****1/2
The Thoughtful Gardener (Jenny Blom *****

Fiction

Kindred (Octavia Butler) (AAC) (Kindle) ****1/2
A Gentleman in Moscow (Amor Towles) ****1/2
The Mangan Inheritance (Brian Moore) **** (LL)
The Gustav Sonata (Rose Tremain) **** (Kindle)
Judas (Amos Oz) (21/02/17) (274/2,866) ****
Emily, Alone (Stewart O'Nan) ***1/2 ROOT
The Golden Age (Joan London) ****1/2
South and West (Joan Didion) ****1/2
High-Rise (J G Ballard) **** (Kindle) (book group)
The Round House (Louise Erdrich) ****
The Harbour Master (Daniel Pembrey) (Kindle) ***
The Invisible Man (H G Wells) ***1/2
Larchfield (Polly Clark) ****
I Saw A Man (Owen Sheers)**** (book group)
Persuasion(Jane Austen) ****

Poetry

Say Something Back (Denise Riley) ***1/2 ROOT
Life on Mars (Tracy K. Smith) ***
Collected Poems: John Berger (John Berger) ***1/2
Selected Poems: Emily Dickinson ****1/2 ROOT
The Simple Truth (Philip Levine) ****
The Beauty (Jane Hirshfield) **** ROOT
Imagining Alexandria (Louis de Berniéres) (poetry) ***1/2

TOTAL READ: 39

Pages: 9,321

Great tagline for your thread Caroline and I am getting strange looks from Hani as to why I suddenly have an inane grin on my face in the wake of seeing you start a 75er thread.

Love the photos in >1 Caroline_McElwee:. We could have been twins in the level of concentration our young selves put into our reading although I went in for dodgy home-knit jumpers in lieu of your skit-suit ensemble.

Will be a regular of course.

Ha, good to see you peak round the door Paul. As for where I lay my hat, I tripped...

Yeh, I blame the 60s and 70s for the apparel.

A little snack to keep you going until the new year.

I won't be competing with Joe's cafe though...

Well look at you joining the 75ers! Welcome, Caro. :)

>1 Caroline_McElwee: Lovely picture! It's been years since I went to Kew Gardens.

Hi Laura. As I said to Paul, I tripped:-)

Thanks Rhian. It's been a couple of years since my last visit, but I tend to go most years.

I love the name of your thread! Look forward to following your reading...

Oh, that looks good! Welcome back!

>11 Caroline_McElwee: Stumbled surely is more accurate, Caroline.............right into the arms of the 75ers. xx

>12 katiekrug: I'm afraid I began the thread with a theft from Oscar Wilde Katie, I only steal from the best!

>13 drneutron: >14 PaulCranswick: :-)

BOOK BULLETS
Keeping note of where I've been hit!

So I don't lose last year's BBs:
Galore (Michael Crummey) (Sassy & Chris) (LL)
The Greater Journey David McCullough (Linda) (C) - read
The Unwinding: An Inner History of the new America (George Packer) (LL) (Arubabookwoman - Deborah)
Blue Latitude (George Packer) (Chris)
A Labyrinth of Kingdoms (Steve Kemper) (Erik)
The Prophets Eternal Fjord (Kim Leane) (Guardian Review - 15/01/16)
Something Like Flying Backwards (CD Wright) (Darryl)
Famous Works of Art and How they Got that Way (John Nici) (Lois's bullet) (C)
'This is London' (Ben Judah) (Guardian Review - 23/01/16)
Last Bus to Wisdom Ivan Doig (Linda) (C) (02/02/16)
The Ten Thousand Things (Maria Dermoût) book bullet Monkey (10/02/16)

(R=read/L=library loan/LL= LondonLib has it/C= caved in and bought it)

2017 Book Bullets

The Beak of the Finch (Jonathan Weiner) - Non-Fiction Challenge thread.
London Under (Peter Ackroyd) - Meg - Non-Fiction Challenge 2016
New York 2140 (Kim Stanley Robinson - Michael (Dukedom_Enough)
The Jungle of Stone (William Carlson)- Erik
Three Day Road (Joseph Borden) - Vivienne

Happy New Year, Caroline!

Hi Diana, Happy New Year to you too.

My summary and states for 2016 reading has been updated here: >2 Caroline_McElwee:

I am part of the group.
I love being part of the group.
I love the friendships bestowed upon my by dint of my membership of this wonderful fellowship.
I love that race and creed and gender and age and sexuality and nationality make absolutely no difference to our being a valued member of the group.

Thank you for also being part of the group.

Happy reading in 2017, Caroline!

Thanks Rachel, Paul, Anita and Frank. Nice to see you all peaking round the door.

Lovely sentiments Paul.

HAPPY NEW YEAR to all my reading pals, I shall be looking forward to all those book bullets coming into land, and hopefully firing off a few myself.

>Lovely thread topper. Happy New Year.

Thanks Erik. Good to see you about.

Finally set out my reading stall for 2017 >3 Caroline_McElwee: above

Did you get lost? :) I found you. Is this where I should look for you this year?

Happy reading Caroline.

>26 Caroline_McElwee: Nice to see you getting settled. I will always have poetry on the agenda every month but one volume a week will be interesting. I am reading the 100 Prized Poems : Twenty-Five Years of the Forward Books this month and reckon it will be a keeper.

>27 NanaCC: Nice to see Colleen straying a little far from the nest. xx

Hi Collen, yes, I set my hat down here for this year. Thought I'd see what the cushions were like. Nice to see you peek round the door.

Paul, the INTENT of a weekly volume is strong, but we will have to see. I'm pretty sure that volume of Forward poems will be acquired soon.

I'm reading Denise Riley at the moment, and wonder how on earth I missed her until now. I read her long poem 'A Part Song' twice this morning, and will read it again before progressing forward. A deeply felt exploration of grief and loss.

>30 Caroline_McElwee: Oh, now I can see that this will definitely be a problem as I am about to hit "Post Message" and scuttle off to seek out Denise Riley.

One day in and already floored by a book bullet.

***TANG*** sound of bullet hitting bucket, dent made :-)

>28 PaulCranswick: I do stray afield once in a while, Paul. I could chat all day, but I'd never get any reading done. I am amazed at the number of books some folks are able to do in a year. I'm interested to follow your thread in Club Read. I might actually be able to keep up. :)

>29 Caroline_McElwee:. I'll be popping in Caroline. I'm always interested to see what you've been up to.

hullo, Caroline! what fun. i rejoice in your inadvertence.

love the Kew Gardens shot and your Dad's Brockwell Park in spring shot. you were a very serious reader. how special that he thought that moment photo-worthy.

a volume of poetry a week? heaven save us.

London sparrow? i looked to see about that and ended up reading about Gladys Aylward and discovered there's a book about her entitled The London Sparrow. your inadvertence is catching.

>8 Caroline_McElwee: i'm just going to take a closer look at one of those whatsits. a really close look. mmmmmmm. what are they?

Happy to see you in the 75ers, stumble or no. :)

The Invention of Angela Carter, you say? Sounds interesting. I've only read two of her books but I'm intrigued by her.

>1 Caroline_McElwee: I accidentally read "sixth grade" instead of "decade".
:)
Either way, happy new year. I'll try to follow along!

Hi Caroline. I'm new to the group this year and just browsing the threads. I've had The Lonely City on my Kindle for a while now but haven't got round to reading it - think I'll give it a go this year.

>34 mirrordrum: Ellie, they are Proustian Madeleines, bought from the prize winning bakery in Paris that year. The have an annual competition for the best Madeleines.

>35 ursula: She was quite an intriguing figure Ursula. I was very aware of her in my late teens and 20s. I need to do some rereading of her work. I learned she spent much of her life living not very far from where I lived and worked.

>36 LovingLit: I would not like to go back to sixth grade Megan ha!

>37 harvey.g: Hi Harvey, I'm new to this group myself. I don't think you will be disappointed by The Lonely City if you like edgy writing, and writing about the creative spirit.

Lovely to see you all poking your heads round the door.

Hello Caroline

I missed your comfy reading chair over in Club Read, so glad you provided the link and I can follow you here. Kew Gardens is a comfortable place to plop down and read too, but it doesn't have that rainy day comfort your reading nook promised.

Happy New Year, Caroline! I look forward to seeing you in the spring. I'll have to see what's on in the London theatres in March and April.

>39 SassyLassy: Hi Sassy - I'm sure I'll sneak my chair in down the line. Good to see you, I'll drop by to your new place soon.

>40 kidzdoc: I'm so behind with what is on at the moment Darryl. I'll keep my eye out for interesting possibilities. Good to see you about.

>34 mirrordrum: was it Madeleines dipped in the lime blossom tea? no, probably not. like everybody else, a scene i treasure so you'd think i'd remember but i got hung up on the lime part. i do want one but it shan't come to pass.

>40 kidzdoc: nifty, Darryl! Happy Rooster Year.

So very glad to see you here, Caro. What a fortuitous trip! I look forward to seeing what you get up to this year, both in books and visits to interesting places.

Hope you are getting plenty of reading done this weekend Caroline and that you'll come and tell us all about it very soon. xx

>42 mirrordrum: I will have a look and see if there are any available in the US, there is one company who import them here. They aren't as good as fresh, but they are pretty near.

Here you go: https://www.amazon.com/Chocolate-Madeleines-Bonne-Maman-Madeleines-Chocolat/dp/B...

I haven't had the choc dipped ones, but these are the one's I buy here.

>43 tiffin: Good to see you visiting Tui.

>44 PaulCranswick: Your wish is my command Paul. I am overdue some reviews to say the least.

Despite how much I read, I never feel I have enough time to read - familiar?

I've been pondering this weekend about my plans above >3 Caroline_McElwee:, and think they are a pretty good balance, but I've decided to ditch the 1 poetry anthology a month in favour of reading as much of John Berger's oeuvre as possible, and have started with Portraits: John Berger on Artists. And I've already broken (take that smirk of your faces) my intention not to buy many books, by ordering four by Berger, and one celebration of Berger. OK. Aside from spending a book token card I received at Christmas, no more books this month ... probably!

1. The Invention of Angela Carter (Edmund Gordon) ****1/2

I remember Angela Carter and her work very strongly from my late teens and early 20s. I hadn't realised she had spent much of her life living not that far from where I lived in South London. This is a very readable first biography (rather than criticism, of which there are volumes and volumes), with a strong narrative drive, that leads you in the footsteps of a complex woman and writer who broke down many boundaries as a means of self-exploration and de-mythologising (she hated being known as a myth maker, as she saw herself more as a myth breaker).

As with any biography, there are chances that you will learn things that are likely to dent your image, for after all we are made of flesh and blood, but for me, this was a rare occurance. The book led me to believe that I would enjoy her company, had I found myself in it.

2. A Florence Diary (Diana Athill) ***

Long a fan of Athill's straightforward and interesting explorations of her life and the lessons learned in it. This is a little diary that was discovered in a box of her mother's possessions, added to by an introduction about her general pleasure in travel. The Florence of the late 1940s has changed in many ways, whilst in others it has not. There were many moments that took me back to my own visits. An enjoyable little bite of a book.

3. Say Something Back (Denise Riley) (Poetry) ***1/2


I am surprised that I have never come across the work of Denise Riley before. This is an extraordinary volume that includes the long poem A Part Song, which is full of loss and grief and the undertow of these things. This is the theme of this volume as a whole.

I make no bones about the fact that there are many poems I do not yet understand. This short volume is as weighty as any tome, and not everything shakes to the surface with 2-3 readings. I will certainly re-read the volume again later in the year.

I think many people are outfaced by poetry for this very reason, they won't always understand it, it can require more effort. These are among the pleasures of poetry for me. Of course, understanding is the ultimate goal, and many writers will take you to a deeper understanding of familiar things, or be able to articulate for you things that you had been unable to put into words yourself. Poetry is also about atmosphere, feeling and tone, and often I can read a poem and understand something that I can't understand in words, but in feeling, in sense I can. It does not leave me alienated, it leaves me with the intention of returning. Its a bit like having a few words of a foreign language sometimes, and travelling on your holidays you overhear conversations on a bus and get a sense of what is being spoken of, without understanding the whole.

For the most part Riley does amazing things with simple/plain words.

I have found your thread and I'm dropping off a star. I look forward to following your reading in 2017.

Hi Ellen, good to see you stopping by.

Dropping a star, Caroline. Your comments over on the Reread Challenge thread made me want to seek out your thread - I was so thrilled to see someone who loves the Great Gatsby as much as I do! Welcome to the 75!

I think those comments on the Re-Reading Challenge thread solidified my desire to re-read The Great Gatsby this year!

*happy dance*

Hi Mamie and Katie, good to have you stop by. Always a joy to share my passion for The Great Gatsby, and Fitzgerald. I even managed to get a mobile cover of the Gatsby's original cover! Yup, that obsessed!

>45 Caroline_McElwee: Doing amazing things with plain words. Isn't that what we mortals always strive for and come up short?
I will look for her work for sure.

Since I will always think of you and Joe as amongst my poetry buddies - especially here - I am debuting my sestina in these hallowed groves.

ART OR ARTISAN? (A SESTINA)

The trick is to write in eleven syllables -
Six stanzas by six and make virtue of sense.
Then construct all the ending words in order
Such that something of beauty is created.
Modernists don’t bother with the form tradition,
But if a thing’s to be done, it must be right.

To give a proper flavour, to make it right
I had to think around pesky syllables
While not forgetting poetic tradition.
Not be left with a pile of words and no sense
That merely fit the formulae created
Sitting on the page made as if to order.

Art is memory that we cannot order
Instinctively knowing the wrong from the right –
That oversees what the unconscious created,
Guides that metered pendulum of syllables.
Is it common sense or maybe a sixth sense
That ghostly practitioner of tradition?

If I were to eschew Petrarch’s tradition
Then I would only need to mind word order
And so afford laxity to wring out sense.
Who am I to say that it would not be right
Not to bother with eleven syllables
Surely it is about what is created?

But then again better men had created
From the Roman Petrarch, a great tradition
Of metered verse with eleven syllables.
That honed and defined in established order
Which Camoes and de Tyard held as right;
Good enough for them is surely common sense.

That time moves on need not disavow all sense,
But rather allow stock of past deeds created
In reaching to find what today is good and right.
We ought to keep what is best in tradition
In this, the making of a new world order
Yes, they matter those eleven syllables!

It behoves us to see tradition as right
Where we have full sense of what is created
Placing in order eleven syllables.

Still needs a bit of polishing but I am not entirely devastated by the result of my word juggling.

I think you should be very proud of your word juggling Paul. I'll have a reread later. I never only read a poem once!

>54 Caroline_McElwee: Thank you, Caroline. xx

>53 PaulCranswick: I think I forgot ( if I ever knew) the rule about 11 syllables. Lots of work in that! Happy polishing.

>56 ffortsa: There are some modern amendments using 10 syllables for all but the opening line but I thought I would keep it classic in slavishly following Petrarch and Dante in their syllable counting.

>53 PaulCranswick: Nice crafting with words, Paul, I am sure I don't *get* all of it, it does sound good in my head.

>53 PaulCranswick: What Caroline said, Paul. Fun to see the play with Petrarchan tradition in a sestina. :-)

Now I have to go look up Camoes and de Tyard.

>58 FAMeulstee: The main point was to consider firstly the value of tradition against the push of modernity but also whether in trying to stick to a very restrictive format we remove art and it becomes mere technique. This is probably the thrust of the move towards a freer style of poetic writing which now largely prevails. As you can see I come down slightly on the side of tradition but not without my hesitation.

>59 jnwelch: Camoes of course is to Portugal and Portuguese what Shakespeare is to English. His sestinas took up the mantle from Petrarch and Dante. The sestina form originated actually in what is now France and was sort of reintroduced into the language by Pontus de Tyard. Many of his sestina also rhyme!

>60 PaulCranswick: ha, rhyming sestina's oh my.

>61 Caroline_McElwee: I know Caroline. I like a challenge but, seriously?

4. Life on Mars (Tracy K. Smith) (Poetry) ***

I fear this volume has fallen foul of following a particularly fine volume of verse. Although one or two of the poems resonated with me, and I would say the last third of the book engaged me more, on the whole it didn't hit the spot with any consistency. I will dip into it again later in the year.

5. Kindred (Octavia E Butler) ****1/2

Not sure how I managed to miss Octavia Butler. Read this novel for the AAC, and thank you Mark. What a great find. I will be reading more of this writer's work.

An unusual Sci-Fi novel where a young woman in the 1970s is pulled back into the slave era by an old ancestor, every time his life is in danger. A clever way of telling the slave story by forcing a modern character to experience it - cautious enough to make it clear that that character is in some way 'favoured' so her treatment, seemingly horrific, is not as bad as others would be.

There is an interesting mismatch in time, as in hours, at maximum days pass in the 'modern world' part of the story, where as months and years pass in the slave era.

Someone in another thread said this would be a good companion book to Colson Whitehead's The Underground Railroad and I would agree.

I'm very late here but just wanted to share the love for A Country Road a Tree (from your intro post). Mine was also a library copy but I have my eyes out on stalks for a paperback copy.

Hi Charlotte, good to see you in here. I think I read that book in two bites, and it will soon get a reread as there were things to be thought more about. I'm a big Beckett fan. I'm preparing to sink myself into the first volume of his letters soonish. Girding myself more for the footnotes!

I'm sorry that you didn't enjoy Life on Mars, Caroline. I do want to read it soon, but I can't seem to find my copy of it.

Hi, Caroline. I'm also sorry that you didn't enjoy Life on Mars more. I was quite taken by it.

You've persuaded me on Kindred. I've read others by her, but not that one. Adding it to the WL. I suspect you'd like her Parable of Talents and its predecessor, Parable of the Sower.

>66 kidzdoc: >67 jnwelch: I will certainly be dipping again into the volume Darryl and Joe. As a mood reader, sometimes that can affect things. Its not getting the boot at the moment anyway.

Thanks for the tip about those two volumes Joe, I might slip one in later in the year. I hope you enjoy Kindred when you get to it (both of you).

*peek* Checking what you're reading. *poof* Disapparating.

6. Collected Poems: John Berger ***1/2

I'm enjoying a love affair with John Berger at the moment. A great polymath.

These are poems written mostly between the 1960s to 1990s and the cover most of his life-time preoccupations: art, philosophy, society, migration and emigration, nature, love. There are some shapely poems, some beautiful metaphors, and touching in memorium's to cherished and lost friends.

The illustrations are by his son Yves.

>69 tiffin: Hi Tui, next time plump up a cushion and take the weight from your feet. A book....?

Time for some flowers in here.

I'm glad you enjoyed Kindred. I also loved it when I read it a couple of years ago. I recently finished Lilith's Brood which was also very good. I read Life on Mars last year and liked it well enough although I was just starting to explore reading poetry ~ new for me ~ so I didn't even rate it. It definitely did not resonate and move me as much as did Bright Dead Things by Ada Limon.

I'm going to have to check out Ada Limon, as both you and JoeW have rated her, Ellen.

I'm making a hopeless start at abstaining from buying books this year, 17 paper so far (and 5 ebooks, though I don't count those as they don't take up space). So much for one a week and one for luck - I like odd numbers.

>73 EBT1002: I bought the Limon on Kindle Ellen, I don't usually read poetry that way, but thought I'd give it a try. If I love it, it will graduate to paper.

>75 Caroline_McElwee: Oh good! I plan to reread it this year. It is one I got from the library and then promptly went out and purchased a copy for keeping.

>72 Caroline_McElwee: How beautiful!

I will finish reading Kindred today or tomorrow. I'm enjoying it, but not loving it, so I don't think I'll rate it above 3 stars. I am eager to see how she winds it all up, though. That may change my assessment.

>75 Caroline_McElwee: I am doing much better this year at not buying books but I did buy one today, a hardback for Mark's AAC next month.

I will be in the UK at the end of next week Caroline. It will be mainly a business trip, cum daughter catch up so I am not sure that we'll have the chance to get down to London. March though should see London permanently closer for me.

Have a wonderful weekend.

I shall be watching your purchasing habit this year Paul, and definitely improving mine! Last year I bought only (!) 25% of what I bought the year before, which is still a lot in any non-LTers eyes. I doubt I'll manage to keep it to the 53 planned though. Maybe at least keep it to double figures. I count three slim poetry books as 1 volume, is that cheating?

Will look forward to our poetry binge in March, or whenever you are here with time on your hands Paul.

>79 Caroline_McElwee: It is of course cheating but I subscribe to similar methods when pushed. :D

I will let you know whether I can make it down to Olde London town this time or whether it will be post March.

lucky you folks, meeting up.

I've been pretty successful in not buying books, at least the physical books. In fact, the last one I scrambled to buy at the Strand somehow got LOST! Oh no! I've ordered another one used from Paperbackswap, but I still can't understand where it got to.

That said, I've been going crazy on Kindle. Every time I spot a sale book that I think I'll be interested in, I hit 'buy'. Good thing those pixels don't weigh much.

>80 PaulCranswick: will look forward to it either way Paul.

>81 ffortsa: Hi Judy, I do that a bit on Kindle too, though rarely read a lot on it. It's that itch to have something you might want to read I suppose.

I went to see the film ‘Jackie’ last night. Although I had hoped it would not just focus on the assassination, and open up the woman she evolved into, I thought it good. Possibly for the first time it made me realise that none of us can ever understand what it was like to have the brains of your lover splattered all over you. I doubt she ever stopped seeing/feeling that. Maybe the only person who could understand is a veteran. I’d also forgotten she had lost two children already by that point. We can’t really know how near the truth any bio pic comes, and Caroline was probably too young to remember much. Worth a viewing though. Natalie Portman gave a fine performance.

Lapwing by Stephen Ferguson

7. A Jar of Wild Flowers: a celebration of John Berger (various, essays) ****1/2

A wonderful essay collection. On this reading the essays I enjoyed most were those that really focused on Berger, and the connection that the writer may have had to his life. He was a man who sustained many deep and meaningful friendships over years. About 50% of the collection though was focused on writing the kind of essays that focused on the activism that Berger supported, and I know I will get more from these on rereads. One or two seemed just to be contributions that existed before the collection was conceived, and were also interesting but a less cohesive part of the collection. I had intended to make a few notes as I went along on particular essays, but failed on that!

8. Cataract (John Berger/illustrated by Selçuk Demirel) ****
Thoughtful musings on sight, after Berger underwent cataract surgery, amusingly illustrated by his friend Demirel. A sip of Berger. An essence. He undertook a number of collaborations throughout his work, and made firm friends with the people he collaborated with.

9. A Gentleman in Moscow (Amor Towles) ****1/2

I’ve really been looking forward to Amor Towles’s new novel, as I loved his debut, Rules of Civility. I wasn’t disappointed. Another quality page turner, this time following in the footsteps of Count Rostov in his life-time house arrest in the garret of the Hotel Metropol in Moscow. With a quirky supporting cast the Count keeps us entertained throughout the novel.

If I have any tickles of concern, it is more about how the novel keeps its buoyancy against a historical background of horror. Although some of these events graze the lives of the characters, the Second World War for example is simply skipped. I did question the ethics in doing this. However, that said, a more invasive history would have turned this into a totally different novel.

My sense at the end was the door has been left open for continuing tales of the Count.

10. Selected Poems: Emily Dickinson ****1/2

I’ve dipped in and out of Dickinson over the years, but enjoyed this short selection of her poems. They possibly weren’t all her best ones, but there were certainly some fine poems included. I found I could go quite a few pages without engaging whatever with the poems I was reading, not having a clue what her intent was, and then suddenly she had me. I don’t know much about her beyond the basics, but I do have a couple of books that will remedy that, so I’ll probably put one of those on the ‘to read soon’ list.

***

So far I have kept to my plan of reading one volume of poetry a week. I’m running late on completing January’s 2017 Non-Fiction Challenge - The Invention of Nature - and the BAC Challenge The Mangan Inheritance, but am enjoying both and the latter will be finished by Friday. If only someone would slow down time. I’ve always said I’d like an extra six hours in the day, 2 for extra kip, and 4 for extra reading and cultural pleasures!

One of my favourite museum’s in Paris is the Guimet musee, a photograph of its library – reminding me a revisit to Paris should be had sometime in the next year or so:

>84 Caroline_McElwee: Love the bird picture and the library. I could use to read more poetry than I currently do.

>84 Caroline_McElwee: We've had a LOAD of lapwings in a field next to TheBF's house. He said he never noticed them before, and there certainly weren't any around in that field this time last year.

>85 Oberon: I know Erik, it can be so easy to get out of the habit, or forget the pleasure and value of reading poetry.

I now have quite a collection of Stephen's bird paintings, but this was my first. The rest are small commissions. Mostly birds, but I also asked him to paint a series of primates. I'll post a few more in the coming weeks. They are small, and painted mostly on driftwood.

>86 lunacat: how lovely Jenny. I don't think I have seen a real one before. I imagine all sorts of species will start turning up in unexpected places due to climate change. I live on the edge of the urban jungle that is London. When I moved to this apartment 23 years ago there were always geese flying over in the mornings and evenings. I loved the low *Honk*, it always made me smile, but the last seven or so years I've hardly seen them.

This looks like a school outing, I took it a few years back, they were crossing the road near where my uncle lived, and I took it from his window:

The Peacock collection



The bottom right is based on a photograph I took of a peacock I see whenever I'm at Kew Gardens. He lets you get very close, though I've never seen him with his fan open.

I love the bird photo in >87 Caroline_McElwee: -- that's a great angle. And peacocks are so vibrant, I know they are noisy and can be a nuisance but I can't help admiring them.

I can hardly wait to get my hands on A Gentleman in Moscow and, coincidentally, I purchased Emily Dickinson: Selected Poems today!

And I love the photo in >87 Caroline_McElwee:. Love.

I love the images in >88 Caroline_McElwee:, too, by the way. :-)

>88 Caroline_McElwee: Love the peacocks, caroline. The Peacock is the traditional emblem of Leeds United, my team, so I always like to see pictures of the proud bird.

>87 Caroline_McElwee: I love the goose gang :) how delightful to see all of them.

Peacocks are wonderful. We've got some where I keep my horse - it's a story I shall come back and tell as I'm about to dash out to the garden while it's not raining!

11. The Mangan Inheritance (Brian Moore) ****

I read this as part of Paul’s British Author Challenge. I had read a lot of Moore in the 1980s, but had not come across this one before (and there are several others on the shelf in the library that that applies to).

Jamie Mangan’s marriage has just begun to crumble, and dramatic events lead him to go in search of a mythologised potential ancestor whose daguerreotype (early glass photo) turned up in his father’s photo collection, so he takes himself to Ireland, where nothing is predictable. I don’t want to put any spoilers here, so I’ll let you find out for yourselves what happens.

An interesting, page-turning read, that makes me what to revisit Moore some more!

>89 lauralkeet: >93 lunacat: Hi Laura and Luna, yes, one of those delightful serendipitus events.

>90 EBT1002: I don't think you will be disappointed by A Gentleman in Moscow Ellen.

>92 PaulCranswick: I've always loved peacocks Paul (except their screech and their poo - I once volunteered at a monkey sanctuary that also had a couple of peacocks, and hated the poo scraping duty!). There used to be a beautiful white peacock in Avebury in Wiltshire, called Percy, after the poet Shelley.

>93 lunacat: Look forward to your horsy story Luna.

I had read a lot of Brian Moore in the 1980's too, and I have The Mangan Inheritance on my Kindle, but was putting off reading it because I feared maybe Moore wouldn't hold up, or it would be dated. Guess I'll move it up the TBR list.

Brian Moore is not familiar to me. Your comments about The Mangan Inheritance sounds interesting.

ETA: I love (sort of) when this happens. I looked and I have a copy of The Mangan Inheritance on the shelves. I think I bought it a couple of years ago when I went on a buying binge of books in the NYRB series.
So, now I just have to read it!

Deborah and Ellie, The Mangan Inheritance is a bit of an odd duck, but I did enjoy it.

I'm reading quite a bit, but taking bites out of several books, so not finishing anything fast.

I know that feeling, Caroline. We've had some good reading time in New Orleans. I've been going through Georgette Heyer books like potato chips, I mean, crisps.

>97 EBT1002: That made me smile, Ellen. (what memory?!)

I have just finished a collection of poems by the 1984 Nobel Laureate Jaroslav Seifert, Caroline and I have to say that I was mightily impressed.

Have a wonderful weekend. xx

Nice to see you passing by Paul.

I'm behind on reviews, but it will be a few days before I get to them.

>100 jnwelch: Hi Joe. I must pick up a Heyer again soon. It's great when you like a writer enough to gorge yourself on.

Just thought I'd bring my reading chair over here.

Will try and catch up at the weekend.

I went to see the wonderful Vanessa Bell exhibition at the Dulwich Picture Gallery in London at the weekend. It is probably the first gallery I ever went to, as we went there a lot when I was a child.

http://www.dulwichpicturegallery.org.uk/whats-on/exhibitions/2017/february/vanes...

I always feel I am walking in so many famous footsteps, including those of Vincent Van Gogh who made two visits we know about when he lived in England.

Vanessa of course is one of the Bloomsbury's, and sister of Virginia Woolf.

The painting above was one I hadn't seen before, because it is in a private collection, that of the singer Bryan Ferry.

>104 Caroline_McElwee: Bryan Ferry was/is a creature of taste.

I have just finished a collection by Kamau Brathwaite which was interesting. Half of it I cannot pretend to understand and some of it was borderline unpoetic but there was a tremendous intense wordsmithery about some of the poems which lifted it above the normal. Have you read anything by him?

Not read any Kamau Brathwaite, Paul, but will look out for some. I do like a good bit of wordsmithory. I'm not phased by not understanding something on first reading, if there is enough to bring me back, I'll whittle away at the intension. Sometimes the intension can be discovered without total understanding I have found.

Thanks for the Y in Bryan, it looked odd as I had it, ha. I saw him at the Albert Hall in 1977 playing with the amazing guitarist Chris Spedding.

Hi, Caroline.

That sounds like a wonderful exhibition. She's an artist who appeals to me. I've never read about their relationship, but how unusual to have that much talent (Vanessa and Virginia) in one family.

Woman reading - Anna Speshilova

The only problem with not writing up reviews soon after reading a book, is you forget some of your key thoughts. I’m dropping this here for now and will revisit with more detail when I have cogitated.

12. The Simple Truth (Philip Levine) (poetry) ****

Mark from the American Author Challenge introduced me to Levine, and I will certainly be revisiting this volume and others. It’s hard to say what especially it was that got me, but I really liked this poems.

13. The Beauty (Jane Hirshfield) (poetry) ****



I really enjoyed Hirshfield’s poems, first time I have read her work, and will certainly be reading more.

14. The Gustav Sonata (Rose Tremain) ****

*pending

15. Judas (Amos Oz) ****

*pending

16. The Saffron Road: A Journey with Buddha's Daughters (Christine Toomey) ****1/2



I really enjoyed The Saffron Road I can't remember now how I stumbled upon it. Like many books with spirituality and mindfulness at their heart, the reading of them tends to bring the reader a calm, thoughtful state of mind.

In many instances the women who became nuns were drawn to it because of harrowing life experiences, but far from all. There were nuns who became nuns as early as ten years old and as late as their sixties. Toomey travels and meets with nuns of all Buddhist stripes, and hears about contemplatory orders, or active orders in the community.

Aside from a couple of instances, the nuns found their lives to be deeply satisfying, with only a small amount of discontent about inequalities rearing its head here and there. The fact that in some orders becoming a nun is not necessarily a lifetime commitment, offers more women the opportunity to undertake periods of deep contemplation without feeling they are committed for life.

17.Imagining Alexandria (Louis de Berniéres) (poetry) ***1/2



Some evocative poems in this volume.

18.Emily, Alone (Stewart O'Nan) ***1/2



Another fine novel by O’Nan, if not quite up to Last Night at the Lobster his acute observation of domestic detail lets you into Emily’s head as she pursues her daily life. Though I did feel the novel slumped a bit in the middle.

19.Smoke (John Berger/Selçuk Demirel) ****

The second of Berger’s collaborations with Notting Hill Editions, and with his friend the illustrator Selçuk Demirel. You can tell they had fun with this, as with Cataract. You can feel Berger smiling, but although much is humorous, there are always serious undertows to be found.

20. The Golden Age (Joan London) ****1/2



Mostly told through the eyes of Frank, a 13 year old Hungarian boy who resides in a home for children with Polio in Australia. Frank’s family are migrants/refuges from Europe who have settled in an alien environment. Simple, beautiful prose. You are sitting on Frank’s shoulder as he observes the world and the people around him.

>107 jnwelch: - I've long been a fan of the Bloomsbury's Joe. Some people perceive them to have been an elitist bunch, but personally, although undoubtedly they could all show snobbish qualities at times, they were invigorating and invigorated, they were amongst the moderns, and they tried to make other peoples lives better, either with their art or their actions. Roger Fry was responsible for bringing the Impressionists to the UK and was lauded and slandered for doing so. What a coterie they were. I love being a fly on the wall reading them, and about them. I think Vanessa's letters will come off the shelf soon.

This exhibition really showed the full scope of Vanessa Bell. She can be perceived as 'behind' Virginia, but Virginia saw her in front, and admired her greatly as an artist and a person.

>109 Caroline_McElwee: I know some about the Bloomsbury group, Caroline, but not as much as I'd like. I'm glad Virginia saw Vanessa in front, and admired her like that.

>109 Caroline_McElwee: That's John Maynard Keynes in the center. He was of course one of the most influential economists of all time, yet was also a leading figure in the artistic Bloomsbury group. He married a ballerina. As an economist he was immersed in money and finance, but he believed that once people had achieved a relatively modest level of income they would work less and spend their time reading, writing, and painting. Today we have the aggregate income Keynes predicted, so economists speculate why we aren't enjoying greater leisure time.

Cobalt and yellow
by Caroline McElwee

Dutch man,
buried in France.
Did you dream in cobalt
and yellow?

Were your nightmares treeless?
Fields and villages barren
of their blossoms and
the maps of their trunks.
Maps of rivers and streams.
Leaves, leaves floating on the
air.

How did you ensnare
in pigment a voluptuary
of time in ten years?

Were I a painter I’d have you
exhumed and roast your bones
over a fire on a cold night.
Then I’d gather your ashes
and knead them into pigment;
stir them into
cobalt and yellow.
Paint you onto my
canvas; talking all the time,
asking you questions as
I used you as my medium
to explore the world through
light and colour.

Each sitter, person, tree,
landscape, was your lover.
Sometimes you were
monogamous. Often not.
But in your way you were
faithful.

I can feel the hardness
of the brush in your
hand when you clasp mine
and draw me towards you.
‘Here, look here – can you see?’

I am looking. Looking.
Never too much looking.

And your letters. Letters from
Vincent. How I dream of finding one
in the mail. One where you describe
the scene you plan to
nail to a canvas, a drawing
showing me perspective,
marked with the names of
the colours you will use.

I once saw a little bag you
drew in a letter, was it
your bag? I’ve never seen
it since. Where is that
worn old bag? Paint splattered
perhaps, in its crevices crumbs of bread
and cheese and pencil lead.

CJM 2014

Posting this in conversation with Joe's poem.

https://www.librarything.com/topic/251181#

>106 Caroline_McElwee: I hadn't noticed my "Bryan" was in fact a correction - I was just excited seeing Ferry getting a mention!

>108 Caroline_McElwee: I liked especially Philip Levine's What Work Is which includes some tremendous poems.

>112 Caroline_McElwee: Remarkable. Just remarkable. xx

>111 bkinetic: Hi Lyle, lovely to meet you. Yes, Keynes. I've wondered why his theory has not come to being as the situation seems ripe for the possibility, and has done a number of times. Going forward too, with robotics taking more jobs from people another thing that would suggest increased leisure, while still offering a living. I wonder if the wealthy world, encouraged by governments and business has just become too greedy.

>113 PaulCranswick: Thanks Paul. Glad you like it. I'll look out for that Levine too.

>112 Caroline_McElwee: I love this one, Caroline. How great to end with his worn bag like that.

>112 Caroline_McElwee: ooh, that is absolutely beautiful.

Thank you Joe and Laura.

>112 Caroline_McElwee: I know which Dutch man you are thinking of ;)

>118 LovingLit: he was certainly a one-off Megan.

Great poem, Caroline! You and Joe certainly have a gift in that regard.

>112 Caroline_McElwee: Caroline, your wonderful poem above reminded me that I had written something on one of his contemporaries a goodly while ago. My humble little effort is below which is more typically cynical as is my wont than your majestic lyricism.

Strickland on the Page in Tahiti

In what gaudy colours
did he daub your life?
The moon, a sepia hued sixpence
cast a tepid pastiche.

Rather than those furrowed lines
upon his face you painted
the native ladies of Papeari.
Were your daubings primitive,
or were you smeared?

The artist's hand placed heart
upon canvas.
The author's pen entertained
with half-truths.

PC 1998

>114 Caroline_McElwee: Yes good to meet you Caroline. I enjoy your contributions. Keynes saw the wealthy as the potential vanguard of a more civilized arts-based culture in which aesthetic values would supplant economic motives. Yet even in his paper "Economic Possibilities for our Grandchildren" he was disappointed in the progress of the wealthy of his time toward his vision. As you suggest, the problem may have become even worse.

The painting of the Bloomsbury gathering is much like I had imagined, except that the are all sitting so close together, almost knee-to-knee. Perhaps this helped their discussions.

Not as good as I'd like, but purchasing of books this year so far is at 39 paper/20 Kindle. If I can keep paper purchases to 50% that in the next 3 months, then might be back on track. I want to keep additions to the physical library to under 100 this year (I may have said 50 elsewhere, but ahem, that isn't going to happen it would seem!).

The New Novel - Winslow Homer

One of my favourite paintings of a reader!

>124 Caroline_McElwee: "Like!"

I'd never seen that one before.

>123 Caroline_McElwee: Interesting that are quite so many Kindle books. I don't use the Kindle I have access to so all of mine are in paper. Perhaps I should learn to love the Kindle as it would be much easier to conceal my book buying from my wife.

>120 kidzdoc: glad you peeked round the door, and enjoyed the poem Darryl.

>122 bkinetic: I don't think I've seen much Strictland, Paul. I like a spoonful of cynicism.

>122 bkinetic: I've probably been in the room that was painted in Lyle. I've visited Charleston House several times. Looking at their ages in this work, I'm pretty sure it is there. I think the physical space, and the composition probably dictated the nuzzling knees.

>124 Caroline_McElwee: isn't it great Joe.

>126 Oberon: If I'm honest Erik, I read a tiny % on my kindle and rarely pay much, so most of those purchases were under £1. But I love having a library in my pocket when away, or when I need to keep my bag light. It's also great always to have my absolute favourite reads handy.

>124 Caroline_McElwee: I have never seen that painting before, Caroline, thanks for sharing. I think it is now my new favourite book painting :-)

>127 Caroline_McElwee: My poem was of course written immediately having read The Moon and Sixpence by Maugham in which his character Charles Strickland was a poorly disguised front for Paul Gauguin, one of V V-G's contemporaries and sometime buddy.

Have a great weekend. xx

Aha, I think I was thinking of an Australian artist by that name, but had Gauguin in mind at the same time Pffft. Not read that Maugham book yet Paul.

>130 Caroline_McElwee: You ought to Caroline, it is one of Maugham's best novels.

David Hockney Iphone drawing.

I went to see the Hockney retrospective at the weekend. Long a fan, but especially of his middle to late work, and love the fact that he continues to experiment with new medium.

21. Utopia for Realists: and how we can get there (Rutger Bregman) ****1/2

I think everyone in power should read this book. As should everyone else. His core plank is about ‘The Basic Income’ ie everyone over the age of 18 should receive a basic income, whether working or not working, and asks if finally it is now its time (the Fins are currently seriously trialling it). Throughout many chapters of the book he talks about studies and experiments exploring the viability of the basic income. He also ties it in with the Keynsian idea that everyone should be working no more than 15 hours a week by 2030, yet have sufficient money to prosper, with the basic income and their earnings.

I was fascinated by the opening case study done in the City of London with 13 homeless men in 2009. They evaluated what the cost of supporting these men who were on the street and came up with the figure of £400,000 per year with all the support services that paid into supporting how they lived. It was decided that they would each be given £3,000, no strings attached beyond reporting how they spent it and how it impacted on their lives. At the end of the year it was established that 8 of the 13 no longer lived on the streets, had found some kind of accommodation and some kind of productive work. The cost of the experiment had amounted to £50,000. 1/8th of what the cost had been to support them on the streets. It also said that many of them had even got some savings (this would not be just from the money given, but from earnings made).

The thing that most surprised me was the revelation that in the US, Nixon very nearly came to endorsing the Basic Income in the 1970s, except an advisor who was against it came up with the one case study (from the 1800s) that appeared to disprove its viability, and Nixon backed away from the prospect. The case study has subsequently been proven to have been badly analysed and the findings incorrect.

One of the obstructions to the basic income ever having been brought successfully into play is a kind of moralistic sense that working people have about giving away free money, despite that they themselves would receive the same amount, and despite the fact that from almost every experiment/case study it has been proven that great savings will ultimately be made. If there is a downside, the employers of the workers may potentially attempt to reduce pay as everyone receives the basic income.

A fascinating book. I read elsewhere it is at least being thought about in the UK, but I think likely we are going to be watching what happens in Finland.

The article I read earlier in the year: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/jan/12/universal-basic-income-fin...

22. South and West (Joan Didion) ****1/2

Mainly South and very evocatively so. Obviously in areas like New Orleans there will have been great changes, as this notebook was written in the 1970s, but I really felt the sense of place, and it melded with other books (Tennessee Williams’s for example) that I’ve read about this part of America over the years.

>131 PaulCranswick: - I do have it buried somewhere Paul, I'll nudge it up the mountain!

>132 Caroline_McElwee: Good review of Utopia for Realists, Caroline, I have added it to mount TBR.

Great review of Utopia for Realists, Caroline. I'll look for it when I visit London next month.

I trust that you weren't in Westminster this afternoon.

No Darryl, I was working at home, and am doing so today as well. Very sad day yesterday.

>133 FAMeulstee: >134 kidzdoc: I don't think you will be disappointed in this book Anita and Darryl.

>135 Caroline_McElwee: Happy to see that you are safe and sound Caroline.

We have a good friend whose daughter schooled with Yasmyne and who is studying know at Westminster Uni. Her parents were in a complete tizz as they couldn't get hold of her. I don't know whether they were relieved or displeased that she was spending the study time in Birmingham with her boyfriend and apparently wasn't even aware of the incident! O' to be young and a student again and think that the world begins and ends with where you are!

Have a lovely weekend. xx

23. The Dark Romance of Dian Fossey (Harold Hayes) ****

It is years since I read about Fossey, and the book confirms much of what I learnt before, but there are also some things that weren't in the earlier book. It also confirms that as much as I admire her for what she did for the Mountain Gorilla, that she would be quite a difficult person to be around, especially after her years in relative isolation.

Fossey and her fellow gorilla protectors were certainly the good guys (although Fossey used some questionable methods - but she used what she had), and the poachers were the villans, although it is hard to be totally judgemental of them. We are talking about a world in which there was very little to sustain people, and although I hate what poachers did to the gorillas, mostly, from their perspective, they were just looking after their families. Now in many developing countries, in order to protect the wildlife, many of the local people are given jobs as protectors and paid for their work, which reduces the need to prey on the wildlife, especially where it is already endangered.

24. High-Rise (J G Ballard) ****

I read this for my local book group. It is probably the 5th Ballard book I have read. He is never a comfort read, always challenging and often pretty grotesque, which I found especially in this novel. However, the books are always well written and thought provoking.

I'm not sure I agree with one of the (male) participants in my book group, that Ballard deliberately wrote for men, although I will acknowledge that men certainly appear to get more pleasure from the books, and that there is an element of pornography to some of the books, but I don't think they exclude women as readers, or as subjects, even if the latter are portrayed 'of their time' 70s/80s England generally. There is definitely an element of voyeurism in most of Ballard's books, which I put down to his childhood raised in a prison camp, where everyone is living huger-mugger, and young boys peep and overhear all that is being said around them.

I did see the film made last year, and like the book felt it was well done, but pretty gross. I think I prefer to read Ballard off the page (despite Tom Hiddleston!).

>138 Caroline_McElwee: I sort of had the best of both worlds with this one - I listened to the audio version, read by Hiddleston!

>139 scaifea: ha Amber, should have thought about that. Actually, I unsubscribed to audible, because I so rarely sat and listened to anything.

>138 Caroline_McElwee: I've read a few Ballards (I think 3? at this point - High Rise isn't one of them) and I really love him. I agree totally with everything you said. Ballard definitely writes with the male gaze, but that's part of what I find interesting about his books, I guess. It's an overt male gaze, as opposed to the kind that's un-self-aware and prevalent in literature.

I like your idea as well about his childhood influencing the presence of voyeurism. Interesting, and I can see how that could be related.

I'm very much enjoying the art images here, Caroline. I especially like >124 Caroline_McElwee:. I have not seen that Winslow before.

I appreciate your balanced thoughts about the book about Fossey and the dilemma of poaching. I wholeheartedly approve of working to find ways for people to sustain themselves and their families, building communities that work and that don't therefore need to rely on destruction of other vulnerable species. I remember seeing the movie, "Gorillas in the Mist," and I was sobbing so hard at the end that I couldn't leave the theater for a full 20 minutes.

I still haven't read any Joan Didion....

>132 Caroline_McElwee: iPhone drawings! Interesting.

Bought a nice little poetry collection yesterday, Caroline - Modern Poets 2 which is a Penguin collection sub-titled "Controlled Explosions. It contains (as do all the series) a selection of work from three poets. This time Michael Robbins, Patricia Lockwood and Timothy Thornton. Are you familiar with any of them?

Have a wonderful weekend.

>142 EBT1002: Thanks Ellen. It's rare a film leaves you so moved isn't it.

>143 LovingLit: I love Hockney's IPad drawings Megan. I do the odd iPad doodle myself. Not of DHs standard by a long way, but enjoyable to do.

>144 PaulCranswick: I've not heard of any of those poets Paul, I look forward to your thoughts. I've slipped off the weekly volume for a few weeks. I'll aim to finish the volume I'm half through, today or tomorrow, and get back on track.

Coming home via Brixton today, I remembered to take a photograph of the Bowie mural:

>146 Caroline_McElwee: Alladin Sane will be sorely missed. Bowie's early 70s output was wonderful wasn't it?

Yes Paul, great artist. I didn't get to see him on stage until The Thin White Duke, but I've rarely seen anyone control a massive audience the way he did.

25. Insomniac City (Bill Hayes) ****1/2

Long a fan of the work of Oliver Sacks, and having read his fine memoir, I was immediately into this double memoir written by Hayes, who was Sacks's partner in his final years. A writer and photographer, with a naturalness that permits him into the lives of strangers. A sharp eye, and a warmth of character, we follow him as he moves to New York after the death of a long-term lover, as he explores the city, and finds himself in the life of Oliver, or O, as he is called.

At this point O has been celebate for over thirty years, and claims that Billy is the first person he has truly been in love with. This is a touching account of a love affair, and a burgeoning affair with the city that is New York. It is also the record of the concluding years of a fine life well lived.

Hayes's street photos are peppered throughout.

Happy Easter to you too Diana.

Happy Easter, Caroline.

>146 Caroline_McElwee: Awww. Nice one.

You know, Debbi performed a story in Brixton a couple of years ago, at Upstairs at the Ritzy.

Enjoying your theater exploits. Are we going to see any pics of the LT gang?

26. Soul at the White Heat: Inspiration, Obsession, and the Writing Life (Joyce Carol Oates) ****1/2

Another fine volume of literary essays from Joyce Carol Oates, containing many of her recent reviews, as well as an examination of the creative life, the imaginary faculty. The biggest problem with such a volume is that it inevitably leads you to the purchase and consumption of other books. I added a biography of Alfred Steglitz and a volume of letters between him and Georgia O'Keefe (the latter, at least, was on my list of potential acquisitions)!

I am a bit curious though about why literary ladies of a certain age (JCO and Joan Didion) appear to have such a fascination with boxing (32 pages - 3 essays at the end of this volume!).

>152 jnwelch: Hi Joe, it is years since I went to the Ritzy, but I used to go there a lot when I lived in Streatham Hill (the next town down from Brixon, where I lived for many years.

I dropped a photo on Darryl's thread of yesterday's get-together.

Say Hi to Debbi for me. I hope we can catch up again if you are in London this year.

>154 Caroline_McElwee: Debbi says to give you her very, very best.

Because we're going to Barcelona this year, we unfortunately won't be in London. It's hard! We miss you and everyone. We'll be back the following year.

You will love Barcelona Joe. London will just have to be patient for your return.

Way behind but wanted to chime in that I am also a huge David Hockney fan. At a recent exhibit at the Seattle Art Museum, a piece by him was on display. It was HUGE and beautiful! There is no way this will do it justice, but:

I've seen that piece Ellen, it's a favourite. What a stunning eye for colour he has.

>157 EBT1002: Love!

>158 Caroline_McElwee: Yes!

This lovely portrait of Seamus Heaney was painted by Northern Irish artist Ross Wilson. I bought it in the annual 'postcard' gala from the Portrait Gallery (its large postcard size) - just back from the framers in its new jacket. Wilson has a number of portraits on show at the National Portrait Gallery, London. He was a friend of both Heaney and Arthur Miller.

I'm well behind with reviews, but will catch up next week.

I've started doing some Ipad Doodles again, maybe 2-3 a week get kept. Here's today's, the view from my desk in the Reading Room of the London Library:



Shouldn't really post it after a painting by a pro, but nevermind!

>160 Caroline_McElwee: Good portrait of the great man, Caroline.

Wishing you a wonderful weekend and looking forward to my relocation so that we can get that poetry raid on the bookstores of London under our respective belts. x

>162 Caroline_McElwee: You're good, Caroline! That seems way beyond a doodle to me. Plus I like the idea of your being in the Reading Room of the London library. :-)

>162 Caroline_McElwee: Thanks for the view out the window. It seems to pose a question.

>164 jnwelch: you flatter me Joe, but I do enjoy doing them.

>165 bkinetic: funny Lyle, I only saw that when you pointed it out.

That's a pretty cool doodle! My doodles don't turn out anywhere close to that!

>162 Caroline_McElwee: Nice, Caroline!

>162 Caroline_McElwee: Nice!

>166 Caroline_McElwee: Joe is right, Caroline, it is way beyond doodling.

Just finished a selection of poems by Norman Nicholson. Have you had the pleasure?

Thanks a Colleen and Paul. I've got quite into IPad doodling.

I'm spending a week in Lyme Regis, Dorset, which is lovely, restful. I love being by the sea.

Norman Nicholson rings a bell, Paul, maybe I've read some in an anthology, or I'm just muddling him up with artists, writers with the Nicholson name.

>171 Caroline_McElwee: Persuasion! I've wanted to see Lyme Regis ever since reading it.

I've started a ritual Joe, I spend my birthday week here, this is the second year. My sister joins me for part of the week too. She had to go back to work today for a couple of days, but is back Friday afternoon. My birthday was yesterday. Like you and Debbi in London, I rent an apartment, and mix eating out with cooking myself.

And I've still to read Persuasion, but I have read The French Lieutenant's Woman which is also set here (and the film with Streep and Irons filmed here), John Fowles lived in a house that over looked the Cobb.

Ah, I'd forgotten about The French Lieutenant's Woman, Caroline. I read it (liked it a lot) and saw the movie, too. I remembered that Tracy Chevalier's Remarkable Creatures, involving the discovery of fossils, also was set in Lyme Regis. (One of her good ones).

Happy Belated Birthday! What a great way to celebrate it.

Thanks for the felicitations Joe, I'm always a celebrater. Yes, I enjoyed Remarkable Creatures too. I had planned to go to the Mary Anning museum, but it is under renovation, so that will have to wait until next year.

>173 Caroline_McElwee: What a nice ritual to keep, Caroline. Happy birthday week. xx

Happy belated birthday, Caroline!

Belated happy Birthday, Caroline.
Your birthday week sounds good. I rarely celebrate my birthday, the best ones were spend away from home.

Caroline, I trust that you will have a splendid weekend. I seem to have almost resolved one of my financing issue (another three to go) that are precursors to me getting back to the UK permanently. I must say that I am looking forward to occasional trips to the UK for shopping and gossip with certain like-minded pals in poetry shops/ book stores and for having a little more time to concentrate on said poetry.

I'm glad your ducks are getting lined up, and hope the potential obstructions fade away Paul. I too shall look forward to some book-hunting with you once you have resumed residency in the UK.

I am very behind with my reviews, but I'll make a start, and they will be short and sweet:

26. Soul at the White Heat: Inspiration, Obsession and the Writing Life (Joyce Carol Oates) ****

More wonderful essays and reviews from JCO. I am never disappointed by her essays, and often find something I missed in a book she reviews.

I'll come back to this later as there were a couple of pieces that stood out.

27. The Round House (Louise Erdrich) ****

Like most people who read this novel, I was very impressed with it. The story had quite a bit of impact, if the language less lyrical than in some of her other novels.

28. Just Mercy (Bryan Stevenson) ****1/2

You cannot fail to be moved by the stories of Stevenson's life working primarily on death row for African-American prisoners. You read on in disbelief about how such circumstances exist, persist, and how corrupt the system is (in this area we have been in Trump-reality for a long while). I am though heartened at Stevenson's Organisation and the increasing support and expertise that is building. A tough, heartbreaking (and as Joe said elsewhere, necessary) read.

29. Plot 29 (Allan Jenkins) ****1/2

An interesting and beautifully written memoir from the editor/journalist Allan Jenkins about his complicated early years in foster care and as an adopted child, tracing 'family' birth and otherwise, and processing the impact it has had on the man he has become, and how the thread of gardening and tilling an allotment plot helped his sanity, and brought him deep love and friendship.

30. On Tyranny (Timothy Snyder) ****

A fine summary of the things we need to do to dig ourselves out of the hole we have found ourselves in. Needing a reread, before adding more.

31. The Harbour Master (Daniel Pembrey) ***

An interesting romp around Amsterdam's crime scene with Detective Henk. Intricate plotline, but something didn't quite hit the mark for me.

32. The Invisible Man (H G Wells) ***1/2

Proof that being invisible is probably not what you might hope. Short, tightly written, well plotted story by a master of the other-worldly.

Phew! Up to date.

Lyme Regis: The Cobb and Harbour - the Jurassic coast



Low tide heading Charmouth way


Meze lunch at River Cottage Canteen, Axminster – Hugh Fernely Whittingstall’s gaff! (you wouldn't forgive me for not taking a photo Darryl).

I'm in the middle of Just Mercy right now, Caro. I agree with your assessment. Powerful stuff.

Nice photos from Lyme Regis, Caroline! Thanks for the obligatory food photos.

You've been reading some good books lately.

I really enjoy Hugh Fernely Whittingstall's food programmes, Caroline - is his food as good as it looks on the box and on your thread?

Have a lovely weekend. xx

>183 lauralkeet: I read your review on your thread Laura, and totally agree. I missed my reading group session on it, but hear there were contentions, more over the writing. Writing quality is major for me, but the subject overroad any quibble about that for me.

>184 kidzdoc: Thanks Darryl. It was a lovely restful place to visit.

>185 PaulCranswick: Paul, yes, his food is really good. I use his cookery books a lot, especially Hugh's Three Good Things. The celeriac gratin above was wonderful, I'm probably going to make some today.

>186 Caroline_McElwee: I hadn't thought about it until you mentioned it, but the subject was so engrossing that I forgot I ever had quibbles about the writing.

33. Larchfield (Polly Clark) ****

A fine literary debut. Set in Helensborough in the 1930s and the current time, a young poet relocates to the town with her new husband, but things don't run as smoothly as planned. Early in her stay she learns that the poet WH Auden taught in the local school in his twenties, and her life becomes entwined with the telling of his story.

34. I Saw A Man (Owen Sheers) ****

A page-turning psychological novel which sometimes takes you into surprising territory, from the homes of 2 neighbours in Hampstead. Ethics of several kinds are ranged across the telling of what starts out as a simple tale.

It's only flaw for me were more clunky sentences than I'd expect from a poet.

35. A Stranger in the Woods (Michael Finkel) ****

An intriguing telling of the story of Chris Knight, a man who walks out of his life aged twenty, and walks into the woods, to be seen only fleetingly, twice, in the next 27 years, but whose methods of survival require him to repeatedly steal sustenance and supplies from the local community, creating the mythological Hermit man, whose skills at avoiding detection are extraordinary, until technology catches up with him.

Simply written, by a man who had relatively limited contact with Knight after his capture, exploring the subject of solitude and isolation, and the world of the hermit.

I read this book in a day.

>187 lauralkeet: not many books distract us to that degree Laura.

The Stranger in the Woods is one of those books I urge on people, as the story it tells is just so extraordinary. I wish I could have shared it with my Dad, who was not a great reader, but would have got caught up in this one, I'm sure.

It was fascinating Linda. And solitude is something that interests me. I liked the bibliography at the end, and was pleased to see how many of the books I'd already read.

I guess I've maybe managed a week of total solitude back in the pre-digital age. Nowadays, maybe 48 hours a couple of times. Although the Gladstone Library is quite a solitary life experience, you do meet for meals, and have technology.

My sister did a ten day retreat where you spoke only to one guide every other day, if you needed to, and your technology was in a lockup. I don't think they were allowed books either. That would be tricky for me.

But I totally get the value of solitude, and the heightening of your senses.

Oh, no...solitude without books is punishment. With books, it's a retreat in which you can choose to leave them alone for a while.

>192 laytonwoman3rd: Agreed.

ETA I just remembered that my worst punishment in young childhood was not being sent to my room, which had plenty of books, but to my parents' bedroom, which had no picture or children's books!

>192 laytonwoman3rd: exactly Linda.

>193 kidzdoc: Very smart parents there Darryl!

>193 kidzdoc: Yep.

BTW, meet up plans for next month are currently in high gear on the Facebook Messenger thread.

36. Persuasion (Jane Austen) ****

One of two Austen's I hadn't yet read (Mansfield Park being the other).

I bought this little pocket edition in Lyme Regis, where some of the book's action takes place. This was Austen's final novel published posthumously, and is perhaps quieter and more grown up in many ways, as you might expect. Much enjoyed.

37. Dust Tracks on the Road (Zora Neale Hurston) ***1/2

I really enjoyed this autobiography, I thought I'd read it before, but I'm not sure I had. Written both very personally, but also quite anthropologically too. She often puts her own behaviour under the microscope, whilst also subjecting the world around her to the same.

If I have a criticism, then occasionally she takes a story on longer than she might; and there was too much repetition from the main book, in the first couple of essays of appendix, the latter no doubt being a lazy publisher's act.

Oh I love reading a book about a place in that place : I'd love to do that with Persuasion. I like your description of the story as 'quieter and more grown up'. Some of my favourite parts are in Lyme- the discussions around the dinner table with the navy men. Not my original thought, of course, but a sense that they were the conversations - or the kind of friendly, open meals - that Austen might have had with her sailing family and their friends.

Charlotte, the Lyme now is still very recognisable in the book. And after a programme last night, I know exactly where Jane's lodgings were. She may have thought them poor, but what a view she had.

I love Persuasion. I agree it's very different from her other books, but I think it's my favorite.

>198 Caroline_McElwee: Was that the Lucy Worsley one? I'm avoiding it as we're going to a talk by Lucy Worsley on Jane Austen in July and I have a feeling it might cover same of the same ground. I have been very much steeped in Persausion for the last two months, as it was one of the texts that I used for my last two OU essays. It's definitely one of my favourites.

Yes Rhian, that was the programme. I'm sure you will enjoy her talk. I've managed (not sure how really) to not see much of her work before, so I have some catching up to do, as I enjoyed her passion for the subject.

38. Politics: Between the Extremes (NIck Clegg) ****1/2

A very clear evaluation of our current political situation and its problems.

Clegg was the leader of the Liberal Democrates when his party was in coalition with the Conservatives. He does not shy away from either recounting the errors he made, or saying that he still made the right decision in going into coalition.

He is a remainer, with experience of working in EU organisations, and highlights its areas of strength and weakness.

He suggests why Brexit will not work for us, and offers guidance on how working in coalition in future may be improved as an experience for the weaker party.

This isn't a 'settling scores' book, though he does point out where the Conservatives have subsequently appropriated Lib Dem policies from coalition years.

A fine read, and no doubt a book I'll revert to in time.

Nice review of Politics: Between the Extremes, Caroline. What is Nick Clegg doing now?

He's standing for re-election as an MP again Darryl.

Ah. Now that I've arrived in London I'll start paying close attention to next week's elections.

>203 kidzdoc: And of course he lost his seat in Sheffield Hallam. I am not a Liberal (in the British sense) but I do have a soft spot for them and would be happier if their representation in Parliament more fairly reflected their level of support in the country. (About 60 seats instead of 12). I thought Clegg an articulate and generally principled politician and I am sorry that he won't be in the House this time. Angus Robertson was another who I will miss. I am in favour of keeping Scotland in our Union but I must say that Robertson was a very good leader of the Scottish Nationalists in Westminster.

Have a lovely weekend, Caroline. xx

Hi Paul, yes I was sad to see Clegg lose his seat, I didn't expect that. He will inevitably go on to do something fine and useful.

>202 Caroline_McElwee: I'm adding Politics: Between the Extremes to my wish list, Caroline. It looks quite interesting.

And I've not yet read Persuasion. I like your description of it as "quiet and more grown up" than some of her earlier works, which does indeed make sense.

I am also quite interested in solitude. I'm rather extroverted but I relish time all by myself (and I cannot imagine 27 years of solitude). When we were in Fairbanks last August, we saw a film in the visitors' center about a man who dropped everything and went into the Alaskan wilderness and built himself a cabin and lived there, sustaining himself almost exclusively on what he could grow, catch, kill, or create (I do think he had stores flown in once a year or something). Anyway, he kept journals and I was tempted to buy published editions of them but didn't. The short film was fascinating and I can't remember his name.

I sometimes think about going on a silent meditation retreat. I wonder how the experience would be.

I'm on the cusp Ellen, but my extrovert side is totally dependent on my solitude being sufficient. Most people perceive me as an extrovert because I'm open, and talkative. But I'm no good in big groups and hate parties. I can happily spend days on my own with just the limited connection of others whilst doing errands etc.

Hmm I have reviews outstanding, and should probably start a new thread... soon.

>208 EBT1002: & >209 Caroline_McElwee:

Many may see me as an extrovert but I am too shy to agree! Like you Caroline, I don't feel comfortable in a group that is too big as I always feel aware of the attention not getting shared around evenly. As a lover of politics, history, english and especially poetry I am in the unusual position of owning a Professional consulting firm and a construction company that seems ill-fitted to my interests but resonates somehow with my personal skill sets. Still I like nothing better after work than getting home and curling up in my room with my books, my LT and my abundant imagination.

>208 EBT1002: Ellen, was the film called Alone in the Wilderness? It's been hugely popular on PBS especially as a pledge drive program (my husband used to work in development for the PBS affiliate in Philly). The man's name was Dick Proenneke, more info here:
http://www.dickproenneke.com/

His story is pretty fascinating. And that's some serious solitude.

By Dutch artist Ellen de Groote

>212 Caroline_McElwee: A beautiful painting that captures their harmoniously coordinated attention and friendship.

A rare moment captured Lyle.