SusanJ's 75 Books Challenge - Thread 12

Hello, and welcome to my final thread for 2018.

I'm Susan, a Kiwi living in London for the past 23 years. During the working week I'm a lawyer so I love nerdy legal stuff, which crops up in more books than you might expect.

Over the past few years I've started to read a lot more non-fiction, so my reading is now more balanced between F and NF than it typically has been. I think I spend more *time* reading NF than F, but NF books tend to be longer and more complicated than a quick novel.

While I have been reading mostly from the library, I do have a fair few books that I've bought (mostly for the Kindle) and I need to keep my eye on those so that I actually read them instead of just accumulating them. This year I want to focus on reading my own things (famous last words).

Here are my tickers. I aimed for 150 books in 2018 as I wanted to read some NF chunksters and I also wanted to read more magazines and internetty things. I can feel a bit pressured by a stack of library books.

Books read during 2018

January

1. The Women's Room by Marilyn French
2. Snow Blind by Ragnar Jonasson
3. Orientalism by Edward Said
4. Roseanna by Maj Sjowall
5. Testosterone Rex by Cordelia Fine
6. Radical Technologies by Adam Greenfield
7. Long Road From Jarrow by Stuart Maconie
8. Manhattan Beach by Jennifer Egan
9. The Spy Who Couldn't Spell by Yudhijit Bhattacharjee

February

10. Kintu by Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi
11. The Confession by Jo Spain
12. Cure: A Journey Into the Science of Mind Over Body by Jo Marchant
13. In Search of Mary Shelley by Fiona Sampson
14. Pandemic 1918 by Catharine Arnold
15. Artemis by Andy Weir
16. This is How it Ends by Eva Dolan
17. With Our Blessing by Jo Spain
18. Astrophysics for People in a Hurry by Neil de Grasse Tyson
19. Black Edge: Inside Information, Dirty Money, and the Quest to Bring Down the Most Wanted Man on Wall Street by Sheelah Kolhatkar
20. The Mermaid and Mrs Hancock by Imogen Hermes Gowar
21. The Case Against Sugar by Gary Taube
22. The Monk of Mokha by Dave Eggers
23. The Doomsday Machine: Confessions of a Nuclear War Planner by Daniel Ellsberg
24. The Midnight Line by Lee Child
25. The Twelve-Mile Straight by Eleanor Henderson

March

26. Close to Home by Cara Hunter
27. Young and Damned and Fair by Gareth Russell
28. Exposure by Helen Dunmore
29. Reservoir 13 by Jon McGregor
30. Hearts and Minds: The Untold Story of the Great Pilgrimage and How Women Won the Vote by Jane Robinson
31. Twenty Thousand Streets Under the Sky by Patrick Hamilton
32. The Dark Angel by Elly Griffiths
33. The Power by Naomi Alderman
34. Hangover Square by Patrick Hamilton
35. The Clocks in This House All Tell Different Times by Xan Brooks
36. Dark Blood by Stuart MacRae
37. The Almighty Dollar by Darshini David

April

38. Elon Musk by Ashlee Vance
39. Man of Iron: Thomas Telford and the Building of Britain by Julian Glover
40. Common Ground by J Anthony Lukas
41. Flat Broke With Two Goats by Jennifer McGaha
42. The Last of the Greenwoods by Clare Morrall
43. Paradise in Chains by Diana Preston
44. Exceeding My Brief: Memoirs of a Disobedient Civil Servant by Barbara Hosking
45. Reliquary by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child
46. World Without Mind by Franklin Foer
47. The Deep Blue Goodbye by John D. MacDonald
48. Trouble in Paradise by Kathy Marks
49. A Problem from Hell by Samantha Power
50. The Orphan Train by Christina Baker Kline
51. Stay With Me by Ayobami Adebayo
52. The Black Echo by Michael Connelly

May

53. The Ministry of Nostalgia by Owen Hatherley
54. The Circle by Dave Eggers
55. The Net Delusion by Evegeny Morozov
56. Love Story, With Murders by Harry Bingham
57. The BBC: The Myth of a Public Service by Tom Mills
58. Magpie Murders by Anthony Horowitz
59. Wired for War by P W Singer
60. Rules of Prey by John Sandford
61. Lillian Boxfish Takes a Walk by Kathleen Rooney
62. The Disappeared by C J Box
63. The Bone Keeper by Luca Veste
64. The Mesmerist by Wendy Moore

June

65. The Vaccine Race by Meredith Wadman
66. Monk's Hood by Ellis Peters
67. The Future of Humanity by Michio Kaku
68. Arms of Nemesis by Steven Saylor
69. Miss Boston and Miss Hargreaves by Rachel Malik
70. Secret Pigeon Service by Gordon Corera
71. Bookworm by Lucy Mangan
72. MI5 and Me by Charlotte Bingham
73. Slow Horses by Mick Herron
74. Chasing the Harvest by Gabriel Thompson
75. To Be a Machine by Mark O'Connell
76. The Master Algorithm by Pedro Domingos
77. Lonely Hearts by John Harvey
78. Alt-America: The Rise of the Radical Right in the Age of Trump by David Neiwart
79. Charlotte's Web by E B White
80. 97 Orchard by Jane Ziegelman

July

81. The Leavers by Lisa Ko
82. The Romanovs by Simon Sebag-Montefiore
83. Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup by John Carreyrou
84. Proof by Dick Francis
85. If Only They Didn't Speak English: Notes from Trump's America by Jon Sopel
86. The Legend of de Marco by Abby Green
87. The Call of the Desert by Abby Green
88. Murder at the Grand Raj Palace by Vaseem Khan
89. Old Baggage by Lissa Evans
90. Life 3.0 by Max Tegmark
91. The Billion Dollar Spy by David E. Hoffman
92. Damaged Goods by Oliver Shah
93. The Other Woman by Daniel Silva
94. Smoke and Ashes by Abir Mukherjee
95. A Shot in the Dark by Lynne Truss
96. The Murder Wall by Mari Hannah
97. Joining the Dots by Juliet Gardiner

August

98. Sleepless in Manhattan by Sarah Morgan
99. Sunset in Central Park by Sarah Morgan
100. Miracle on 5th Avenue by Sarah Morgan
101. Travellers in the Third Reich by Julia Boyd
102. The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs by Steve Brusatte
103. The Girl Who Smiled Beads by Clemantine Wamariya and Elizabeth Weil
104. Extreme Cities by Ashley Dawson
105. Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng
106. Clock Dance by Anne Tyler
107. Settled Blood by Mari Hannah
108. Mr Norris Changes Trains by Christopher Isherwood
109. Goodbye to Berlin by Christopher Isherwood
110. My Name is Leon by Kit de Waal
111. The Dorito Effect by Mark Schatzker
112. Hangman Blind by Cassandra Clark
113. Bring Me Back by B A Paris

September

114. All The Colours Of The Town by Liam McIlvanney
115. After The Party by Cressida Connolly
116. The Ordeal of Elizabeth Marsh by Linda Colley
117. Born Trump by Emily Jane Fox
118. Small Country by Gael Faye
119. Rough Treatment by John Harvey
120. Warlight by Michael Ondaatje
121. Into the Fire by Manda Scott
122. The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton
123. Texas by James Michener
124. Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata
125. Concussion by Jeanne Marie Laskas
126. Endeavour: The Ship and the Attitude that Changed the World by Peter Moore
127. A Ladder to the Sky by John Boyne

October

128. Washington Black by Esi Edugyan
129. Grey Mask by Patricia Wentworth
130. Hallowe'en Party by Agatha Christie
131. Fear: Trump in the White House by Bob Woodward
132. Still Life with Breadcrumbs by Anna Quindlen
133. Surprise Me by Sophie Kinsella
134. Where The Dead Men Go by Liam McIlvanney
135. I Let You Go by Clare Mackintosh
136. Purple Hibiscus by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
137. Cutting Edge by John Harvey
138. The Fifth Risk by Michael Lewis
139. Anne of Green Gables by L M Montgomery
140. Agent Jack by Robert Hutton
141. Macbeth by Jo Nesbo
142. The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey
143. The Mistletoe Murder by P D James
144. The Girls of Mischief Bay by Susan Mallery
145. The Death of Truth by Michiko Kakutani
146. A Stranger in the House by Shari Lapena
147. Viceroys by Christopher Lee
148. Fifteen Dogs by Andre Alexis

November

149. The Case is Closed by Patricia Wentworth
150. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K Dick
151. Reading Allowed by Chris Paling
152. The Number Devil by Hans Magnus Enzensberger
153. Because of Miss Bridgerton by Julia Quinn
154. Red Clocks by Leni Zumas
155. The Turn of Midnight by Minette Walters
156. The Lightkeeper's Daughters by Jean Pendziwol
157. The Red Velvet Turnshoe by Cassandra Clark

December

158. Rise and Kill First by Ronen Bergman
159. Ma'am Darling: 99 Glimpses of Princess Margaret by Craig Brown
160. A Spark of Light by Jodi Picoult
161. Merchants of Doubt by Naomi Oreskes and Erik M Conway
162. Unsheltered by Barbara Kingsolver
163. The East End in Colour by David Granick
164. Bluebird, Bluebird by Attica Locke
165. The Stranger Diaries by Elly Griffiths
166. Lost Girls by Robert Kolker
167. Past Tense by Lee Child
168. The Apprentice by Greg Miller
169. The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid by Bill Bryson
170. Beautiful For Ever by Helen Rappaport
171. Rex v Edith Thompson by Laura Thompson
172. Christmas: A History by Judith Flanders
173. The Mars Room by Rachel Kushner
174. The Overstory by Richard Powers
175. Women of the Raj by Margaret MacMillan

A couple of years ago I started a new NF challenge, which is to read the non-fiction winners of the Pulitzer prize. I stole this idea from Reba, who was doing a fiction challenge (and has now finished it. Hi Reba!) This is a long-term project, rather than something to be completed in a year or two. If I can't find the relevant non-fiction winner easily in the UK, I propose to substitute the winner of the history category.

Last year I didn't make great progess, so I'd like to read at least five this year.

Here's the full list:





2018 Locking Up Our Own: Crime and Punishment in Black America by James Forman
2017 Evicted by Matthew Desmond
2016 Black Flags: The Rise of ISIS by Joby Warrick
2015 The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History by Elizabeth Kolbert
2014 Toms River: A Story of Science and Salvation by Dan Fagin
2013 Devil in the Grove by Gilbert King
2012 The Swerve: How the World Became Modern by Stephen Greenblatt
2011 The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer by Siddhartha Mukherjee
2010 The Dead Hand: The Untold Story of the Cold War Arms Race and Its Dangerous Legacy by David E. Hoffman





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





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





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





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





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

I have a few series on the go, so in this post I'm going to list them so that I don't forget where I'm up to. Reading in order is important to me :-)

Series I have started and still have squillions to go *happy sigh*

I'm going to list these in date order, because why not.

Steven Saylor's Gordianus the Finder (about 100 BC)

Roman Blood
Arms of Nemesis

Ruth Downie's Medicus (Britannia, 108)

Medicus
Terra Incognita

Priscilla Royal's Eleanor, Prioress of Tyndal (East Anglia, 11th century)

Wine of Violence

Ellis Peters' Cadfael (Shropshire, 1135 - 1145)

A Morbid Taste for Bones
One Corpse Too Many
Monk's Hood

Bernard Knight's Crowner John (Devon, 1190s)

The Sanctuary Seeker
The Poisoned Chalice

Cassandra Clark's Abbess of Meaux (Yorkshire, 1380s)

Hangman Blind
The Red Velvet Turnshoe

Michael Pearce's Mamur Zapt (Egypt, 1908)

The Mamur Zapt and the Return of the Carpet

Patricia Wentworth's Miss Silver (England, 1920s/1930s)

Grey Mask
The Case is Closed

John D. MacDonald's Travis McGee

The Deep Blue Goodbye

Mal Sjowall's Martin Beck

Roseanna

John Sandford's Lucas Davenport

Rules of Prey

Michael Connelly's Harry Bosch

The Black Echo

John Harvey's Charlie Resnick

Lonely Hearts
Rough Treatment
Cutting Edge

Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child's Agent Pendergast

Relic
Reliquary

Harry Bingham's Fiona Griffiths

Talking to the Dead
Love Story, With Murders

Mari Hannah's Kate Daniels

The Murder Wall

Stuart MacBride's Logan McRae

Cold Granite
Dying Light
Broken Skin
Flesh House
Blind Eye
Dark Blood

Manda Scott's Ines Picaut

Into the Fire

Susan Mallery's Mischief Bay

The Girls of Mischief Bay

Series I'm caught up with and waiting for the next one *tapping foot*

Attica Locke's Highway 59

Bluebird, Bluebird

Lee Child's Jack Reacher, obvs
C J Box's Joe Pickett
Daniel Silva's Gabriel Allon
Elly Griffiths' Dr Ruth Galloway
Vaseem Khan's Baby Ganesh Agency
Abir Mukherjee's Sam Wyndham
Lynne Truss's Constable Twitten

Not really a series but I need to keep track of my Dick Francis finishes (Hi Julia!)

Proof

166. Lost Girls: An Unsolved American Mystery by Robert Kolkner

With my library books under control, I've started making my way through my elibrary wishlist, which has 98 books on it. Heh. Anyway, this looked good so I downloaded it. In a strange co-incidence, it's about the same subject as a TV documentary I'm currently watching - the Long Island Serial Killer ("LISK" in the documentary, although this author doesn't use the acronym). The book is about the victims rather than the killer, although there is some discussion about what sort of person he must be, and indeed *who* he might be. The documentary goes further on this subject and Long Island comes across as quite a weird place. It's very detailed, and it can be a bit difficult to keep track of everyone, as they have multiple names depending on who they were advertising as at a particular time, but I read it fairly quickly so it wasn't too bad.

The documentary is "The Killing Season", and is a bit rambling to start with, but follows leads to other parts of the country and uncovers a whole lot more suspected serial killers and looks at why so many get away with it. It does seem to be a very American thing (or maybe "north American" as I think there have been some in Canada). I can think of two here in the last decade or 15 years (the Ipswich one and the Dagenham one) but they are very rare. The documentary makers look at why that is, and it seems to be a combination of too many law enforcement agencies and not enough information-sharing, the sheer size of the US, which means that people can disappear in one state and be dumped in another one and the fact that many of the victims are prostitutes and the authorities just don't care.

Happy new thread, Susan.

>6 susanj67: Thanks Helen!

Happy New one Susan. This year seems to have gone very fast.

That Long Island book sounds a bit grim. You hope that modern communications make people better at connecting the dots of crime, but I guess not necessarily.

>9 charl08: Thanks Charlotte! The year does seem to have raced past.

There seems to be a bewildering amount of places in which information about missing people is kept, none joined up properly. I suppose the US is just so huge that things that make news on one coast don't necessarily make it on the other whereas here, for example, the Ipswich serial killings headlined the national news every night until he was caught. But then again there were those three murders in Dagenham that the police didn't realise were committed by a single person for quite a while...

Today is much nicer in London - sunny and warmer than yesterday by a fair amount. I went out for a walk which turned into 16,600 steps, so go me! I stopped for a coffee (accompanied by a cheeseburger and small fries, if I'm honest) and a paper, but otherwise I kept going until I made it home, despite walking along the bus route for the last part. And now it's time for Jack Reacher :-)

Happy new thread, Susan!

ETA: I was glad to see your positive review of The Stranger Diaries - I have that one on my Kindle from NetGalley. I don't think it comes out here until next year.

Happy new thread, Susan :)

Enjoy the rest of your Sunday!

>5 susanj67: Today? If so, hope you're having a happy one!

Happy new one, Susan. I'm hoping I can keep my thread until the end of the year, even thought it might get a little long.

When is your birthday?

>11 katiekrug: Thanks Katie :-) You'll love The Stranger Diaries. Maybe a Christmas read?

>12 figsfromthistle: Thanks Anita! It's been a good weekend.

>13 RebaRelishesReading: Reba, Boxing Day. But thank you anyway :-)

>14 BLBera: Beth, I get twitchy if my thread goes over 200 posts ;-)

I have started Past Tense, which is just as awesome as I expected, but Elf is on shortly and I've never seen it so I'm going to take a break. Really I want Past Tense to last longer, so this is a way of spinning it out :-)

167. Past Tense by Lee Child

This is instalment 23 (!) in the Jack Reacher series, and I loved it. The LT reviews aren't so great, although one of them is from someone who hasn't actually read the book. Hmmm. Anyway, if you're a Reacher creature, you'll read this in no time, and find yourself waiting impatiently for the next one.

>15 susanj67: That should be easy to remember, it's Hubby's birthday too :) I can relate to the little message you posted with a houseful of December birthdays (including my own) :)

Happy new thread!

Happy new and final thread of 2018, Susan!

>10 susanj67: The inability/unwillingness to share information across jurisdictions, along with jealously guarding one's turf from encroachment by national forces such as the FBI, creates all kinds of problems over here. The Washington Post just did an amazing series on gun crimes, wherein they discovered that there are few or no requirements on local police forces to share statistical data about numbers and types of crimes, which makes it difficult to assess just what and where the problems are. I know we didn't invent parochialism but like so many athletic endeavors we seem to have gone out of our way to be the best at it. :-/

As foI Long Island, I was born and lived there until I was 8. I can't argue with your assessment of "weird", at least based on my relatives who still live there. :-)

>16 susanj67: Just checking my library status for Reacher: 19th on 9 copies at one library, and 68th on 43 copies at the other.

>17 RebaRelishesReading: Reba, I also liked this one:



>18 drneutron: Thanks Jim!

>19 rosalita: Julia, it is quite mind-boggling how many different systems there are, but then again it's a big country and every state also seems to do its own thing. I didn't mean to be quite so rude about Long Island! The book was about the barrier islands along Ocean Parkway, which seemed quite remote. I should read some happier things about the island :-) Jack seems very popular in your library system. I was surprised to get it so quickly but I've never been on a list with that many people. We either have more copies, or fewer readers.

Another lovely day here, which I will mostly spend looking at it out of the window. I am going to the library at lunchtime so I must be on guard against bright shiny things as I have now finished all my hard copy library books. Oooh.

>20 susanj67: My Dad's birthday was 23rd Dec. one year, when I was quite young, I bought presents myself (as opposed to Mum buying them and me writing my name). It was some undertaking, with parents, grandparents, cousins etc and limited funds. Dad was never easy to buy for. I gave dad one sock for his birthday and the other for Christmas. How he summoned the grace to look surprised on Christmas day, I do not know!

>21 Helenliz: Helen, the older I get, the more I realise how hard it must be for parents to keep a straight face a lot of the time!

Today I made my final trip to the library for the year (unless more reserves come in). It's closed from lunchtime on Christmas Eve until 2 January, so I thought I should get a couple of things just in case...I saw Christmas: A History by Judith Flanders in a display of Christmas books (oddly LT says it is "Christmas: A Biography"), and got The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid from the biography section, which is now over next to the reserves. I wanted to check the reserves just in case something was waiting, but nothing was. Pretty restrained for me :-)

>23 susanj67: I'm so relieved that you have fortified yourself against the coming LibraryPocalypse, Susan. I don't know how Thunderbolt Kid will land for you, but as someone living in Iowa and just a bit younger than Bill Bryson, I thought it was absolutely hilarious.

>25 susanj67: Julia, Charlotte (Fourpawz2) has just read it and it sounds like fun. I've enjoyed all the other books I've read by him too. Now I just need my Christmas break to start. It might look bad to draw five large squares on my white-board and cross them off daily though, mightn't it?

>23 susanj67: I checked five physical books before I left the library the other day. I've read one of them. I'm trying to space them out with some physical books from home and some e-books. I'm looking forward to several of them. I know some will be better than others, but that's okay!

>26 thornton37814: Lori, there is something comforting about having plenty to read, isn't there? Even though most of us could stop acquiring books right now and never run out :-)

It's one of the best things about Overdrive, being able to check out more books at 3 a.m. or on Christmas Day. You might have to "settle" for a book that's immediately available, but my wishlist always has at least a few of those.

>28 rosalita: I agree. I won't run out of books because of Overdrive. I usually have good options from my wish list which are available now.

>28 rosalita: Julia, yes. I have 97 things on my Overdrive wishlist and 64 are available right now. The temptation...

>29 thornton37814: Lori, I can have 5,000 items on my wishlist, which is enough to last me forever. I have pruned it a bit, though - I can't remember why I listed some things.

>30 susanj67: I don't keep that many on my Overdrive wishlist, but I've usually got plenty of options. My real wishlist is much larger.

>30 susanj67: Glad to hear about your Overdrive availability because 10 days off with the library closed might get dicey otherwise!!

>30 susanj67: 97? Heh. I have 446 items, of which 175 are available. So, some 5 years of reading... :)

>31 thornton37814: Lori, mine too! I just wish my ordinary library wishlist could be organised somehow. Books don't even appear in the order that I add them - or any order that I can make out.

>32 RebaRelishesReading: Reba, yes, it's always good to have a backup plan :-)

>33 drneutron: Jim, that's actually a manageable number. It's all these new things they keep publishing that ruin my plans...

Happy New Thread, Susan! Glad you have planned ahead for the holiday library hiatus.

>23 susanj67: Your last visit? Yikes.

>25 susanj67: Tempting idea. My advent calendar is helping.

>35 ronincats: Thanks Roni!

>36 charl08: Charlotte, not my last visit as it turned out. The Apprentice: Trump, Russia and the Subversion of American Democracy came in on reserve overnight, and when I went to pick it up this morning I saw The Silence of the Girls on the New Fiction shelves, and it was brand new. And so pretty. So I got that too.

I started the Trump book last night, and it was so engaging that I read 175 pages (! on a weekday evening!)

Part of the reason I stayed up was that I thought the Clompingtons were doing DIY or Christmas decorating as I could hear a tapping sort of noise, and then a hammering, then more tapping...this struck me as odd because it was all coming from the same direction. And then I heard a voice. I got up, switched the fan heater off, opened the living room door into the hallway, and listened. And it was someone knocking/hammering/thumping on next door's front door, begging/demanding to be let in.

I called out that the police were on their way and he needed to leave NOW. But he didn't. He seemed to think that the person inside the flat had spoken, and kept on demanding to be let in ("I have nowhere else to go tonight") And on and on. I said again that he should leave the building.

After a little while (more shouting and thumping and POUNDING) I heard the door to the stairs squeak and thought HURRAH! From my peephole I could see someone standing in the little bit between the two fire doors, and I half wondered whether maybe someone else had actually called the police instead of just pretending that they had. So I went into my bedroom, which looks out on the bit between the fire doors, and looked. The bit between the doors has metal slats down the outside instead of a wall, so it's open to the air on one side. It wasn't the police, as it turned out, but the knocker/banger/thumper who appeared to be emptying out some sort of liquid between the slats and down the side of the building onto the canopy at street level. And indeed that's exactly what he WAS doing. But not from a bottle. At that point, I lost it completely, pounded on the window and used every single word in Anglo-Saxon Vocab 101, some of them multiple times. And finally it did the trick and he left. It is entirely possible that some people creating trouble half a mile away might also have ceased what they were doing and run away, in which case GO ME.

As the young people would say, FML.

What I didn't know was whether there was actually someone at home next door while all this was going on, or not. But then this morning someone left just before 7am, so either the female tenant *was* there and has broken up with the peeing pervert and locked him out, or someone else was there who shouldn't have been and therefore didn't dare do anything, or a combination of the two. I didn't think that I could *actually* call 999 and report a man knocking on a door. Not in London where there are stabbings and shootings daily and the police have proper work to do.

I'm pretty sure he was the same guy who tried to get into my flat by saying that he was locked out and could he climb over my balcony to their balcony. I've emailed the landlady, who I know a bit from years ago, and the managing agent, asking that they be thrown out immediately. At the very least I hope they disappear for Christmas. I'm too old for this nonsense.

168. The Apprentice: Trump, Russia and the Subversion of American Democracy by Greg Miller

This is a well-written, but horrifying, account of Russian influence on the 2016 Presidential election in the US, by a journalist with the Washington Post. If you've followed the dumpster fire events in the US closely, there might not be much in this that is news to you. If, like me, you tune in and out wishing that the madness would just STOP, then this is an excellent account of how it all happened. It seems to end in August 2018, but you don't have to Google to find out what happened to the various people - they're in the news daily, being jailed. So that's helpful. This *will* make you delete your Facebook account, so be warned.

>38 susanj67: Goodness, Susan! You lead a far too exciting life. Hopefully things will be calmer now, and the random shouty man will not be hanging around any longer.

>38 susanj67: OMG, how awful!! Maybe the police would appreciate the opportunity to deal with someone before they do something truly awful. I would certainly call them and give them a chance if it were me. Meanwhile, I join you in hoping they will just move away and leave you in peace...sooner rather than later.

As to The Apprentice...I'm torn between thinking it might help me at least understand how all of the players contributed to this mess and thinking I don't need to be any more upset about all of this and should just pull the covers firmly over my head and wait for the nightmare to end.

>40 Helenliz: Helen, I've been raging all day. The flat owner emailed me and asked whether there was any damage. I wanted to say that if he's doing that in the common areas, God knows what they're doing inside the flat. She said that the tenant is a "single woman", which is interesting because there are definitely two people living there. I'm just not sure whether the pervert is the full-time (now former, it would seem) boyfriend or whether she's juggling two of them. I've seen her coming home at the same time as me a couple of times with a bloke, and she always says hello and he ignores me ostentatiously, so I assumed that he was the balcony-climber. But maybe not. The managing agent is furious and has ordered the caretaker to review the CCTV footage to identify him.

>41 RebaRelishesReading: Reba, it's a tricky one about the police. They would probably have said he was drunk and escorted him out of the building rather than actually doing anything (if they came at all), because being blind drunk is an excuse over here, instead of an aggravating factor. He was hammering on the door for so long that he obviously had no way of getting in, so there was no immediate danger to anyone inside (and they could have called the police themselves). But I can't help thinking about arriving home when it was all going on and finding a loud drunk in the foyer. I actually left work early today so I could get home while it was still light. As for The Apprentice, it will annoy you. But I admire the people who are writing about it all while it's still going on (because they must be busy enough).

Glad to hear the manager is at least upset and trying to do something. Coming home to that would certainly be unpleasant and could be dangerous I would think. Sounds like a thoroughly unpleasant situation for you.

>42 susanj67: good that the managing agent is trying to do something.
In fact, wot she said in >43 RebaRelishesReading:.

>38 susanj67: That is disgusting. Maybe she'll move?

>43 RebaRelishesReading: Reba, I am concerned about someone like that roaming the building. We have little kids in a couple of the flats. One of the residents downstairs has dementia. I'm furious for myself but I also know that I can defend myself - shout, make a scene, hit someone if necessary (particularly someone drunk). The caretaker emailed me this morning asking for a description so he can look at the security camera footage.

>44 Helenliz: Helen, yes, when he eventually got back to me he did seem to be annoyed by it.

>45 BLBera: Beth, I hope so. Writing my description for the caretaker this morning I included his largeish-brightly-coloured backpack, which seemed to be very full. I thought (fleetingly) at the time that it was a ridiculous thing for a grown man to carry. This is London where everyone's bags are black, grey and navy. This one looked like it was a child's (large) backpack. And that got me thinking. If I wanted to pack a bag, I could not pick a child's backpack because I don't have any. Bags...or children. He kept saying that he had "nowhere else to go tonight", which was also interesting. Why "tonight"? If he lived there then he would surely say "I have nowhere else to go" or "Open this door - I live here". Plus it's ridiculous for someone to say they have nowhere else to go *in the middle of London* at 9pm on a weeknight. Of course they do. There are hotels all over the place. There is one a ten-minute walk away from me. Anyone could put a hotel room on a credit card if they had to (he was dressed in a suit, so he's clearly not a pauper). But they might not *want* to if someone else is going to see the credit card statement when it arrives, and query why he was staying in a hotel in London when he'd said he was on a business trip or staying with family after a Christmas party at the office. For example.

I returned The Apprentice to the library this morning. On the New Fiction shelf I saw Ordinary People, which I wanted to get in No!vember but didn't. And Overstory. That left two gaps in the books displayed with their covers out. I picked up The Mars Room, which was shelved spine-out, and went to put that on the plastic stand from which I had just taken The Overstory. But it looked pretty good...Then I thought I should check the New NF, just in case, and found Rex v Edith Thompson, "A Tale of Two Murders".

Ahem.

Harumph, I guess I didn't hit post on my message from this morning (I'm blaming seasonal lurgy for general slowness today: thank goodness for balsam tissues or I'd be rivalling Rudolph). Sorry to hear about the v. dubious gent: that does not sound good. Hope that the building manager can sort it out sharpish.

>46 susanj67: Always relieved to read about someone else reshelving books in the library, I'm not the only one then...
Rex v Edith Thompson sounds v good, btw. Full report required.

My goodness, you've had an eventful few days, Susan. I agree that the incontinent fellow sounds like trouble; hopefully he's not a regular visitor anymore.

I'm glad to see that you've stocked up for the coming library void.

>47 charl08: Charlotte, sorry to hear the lurgy got you. Those balsam tissues are truly excellent. The Edith Thompson book does look good, and the author wrote that recent book about the Mitford sisters (which I bought for Kindle but still haven't read).

>48 rosalita: Julia, yes, I went a bit overboard with the library books, but most of them are novels. (Did that sound convincing at all?)

Gatwick airport is closed because of a drone (which snipers are reportedly trying to shoot down) so Britain's Christmas travel chaos has started already. However, people travelling to Norfolk this morning found that their train service was running perfectly: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-6516087/The-Queen-arrives-Norfolk-ann...

Hi Susan! Hope the Bryson book does not prove a dud for you.

The library shut down for a week? Eek! Ours is closed on Christmas and New Year and only open half the day on Christmas and New Year's Eve, but at least it is open the other days - except Sunday, of course and on Fridays which is when my branch is always closed. Which doesn't, I suppose, mean that it is open very much at all over the holidays. Thank goodness I've got tons of things to read around here. I guess I just hate the idea of being cut off from potential books, even if I wouldn't actually be going to the library. Speaking of which, I picked up Educated today, which I'd had on hold for a couple of weeks. It's actually quite good - kind of like The Glass Castle, but with different, less-maddening parents (so far).

The Apprentice sounds good. I will probably put that on the you-list. I wonder - assuming that life as we know it continues after Trump finally exits the scene - how many books about him and all the wretched mess that he has inflicted upon the world, will be published. Easily several hundred, I should think. I'm still waiting for the Woodward book to get to the top of my 'Holds' list. I think I'm somewhere in the 100s now after starting out somewhere in the 800s back in October.

As for the unpleasant, door-pounding idiot in your building - that is just the kind of drama about living in a condo or apartment building that I know I would not like. And I've always been a little leery about having to trust others not to burn down the building that I might be sharing with them. You can be as careful as can be, but one dumbass with a flaming candle or some forgotten something burning away on the stove and - whoosh! You're homeless and out on the street. Assuming, of course, that one has survived the conflagration. Yup - I definitely have inherited my grandfather's glass-three-quarters-empty outlook on life.

Anyway, I think that it is time for me to shut up and go to bed. Hope you have a good holiday with plenty of time to yourself and lots of great stuff to read!

The closure of the Gatwick Airport made our news this evening along with our devastating wind storm. Your library closes for a long time over Christmas holidays. The library I go to is also downtown and it is only closed for Christmas and Boxing Day.

Sorry to hear about the drama with the disturbing fellow in your building. I hope that the actions taken mean that he won't come back.

>50 Fourpawz2: Charlotte, I'm sure the Bryson book will be good. And even if it's not, it was free :-) A couple of larger branches in my borough have more opening hours over Christmas, but the smaller ones close from Christmas Eve until 2 January. I'm used to it now, and seem to have ten library books anyway so I think I'll be fine.

I wonder about the Trump books - maybe people will just want to forget he was ever President, and move on. But probably not - there is such a lot of write about.

There have been no more developments on the ex boyfriend of the neighbour front. At least he hasn't reappeared. It *is* the downside of apartment living. We've never had a fire there in the 20 years I've been there, though, so that's something. There is no gas in the building (which I have always been pleased about) and some of the flats are only used occasionally, so that also helps. At Christmas it is very quiet. But for the first time ever, I have been quite glad to have Clompington 2 upstairs. He came home on Tuesday after it was all over, but he's been up there Wednesday and last night and I have his number since the leak a few months ago, so I can always text him if necessary.

>51 Familyhistorian: Meg, Gatwick has reopened now, but is not back to full capacity, so there are a lot of angry people. But police have identified some "persons of interest". Sorry to hear you're having storm troubles - I hope it didn't last long.

My library page said that The Great Believers had come in for me, so I scurried over to get it at lunchtime. "I've just put that out!" gasped the lady, as FLA was issuing it for me. I explained that I kept my reserves page open and refreshed it frequently. That may have been oversharing, as they looked at me like I was nuts. Anyway, I told FLA that my friend who reads hundreds of books said that it's one of her top reads of the year, so he wrote it down.

My roomie has gone for the day, and will be back at the end of January. She gave me a poinsettia, which was sweet.

169. The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid by Bill Bryson

I saw this on Charlotte's thread and found it at the library when I was in there looking for something else. It was a superbly funny read - I was giggling much of the way through it, and was sad to finish it. Bryson grew up in Des Moines in the 1950s, at a time before chain stores, out of town shopping malls and everything looking the same in every town and city, and he remembers it all with great affection. It was the perfect cheer-me-up after my ridiculous week.

>53 susanj67: So glad you liked that one, Susan! I giggle-snorted my way through it, too.

>54 rosalita: Julia, it was excellent :-) I particularly liked his use of percentages to exaggerate, and the way that everything (shops, restaurants, the town his grandparents lived in) was the very best example of its kind :-). And the toity jar, of course...



170. Beautiful For Ever by Helen Rappaport

This is the story of "Madame Rachel of Bond Street - Cosmetician, Con-Artist and Blackmailer" and the celebrated cases against her in the 1860s. As ever, I was mostly interested in the nerdy legal stuff, but it also made me very glad that advertising is now regulated and the ridiculous claims people made for their products in Ye Olden Days are no longer possible. Worth a read if you like famous Victorian court cases or the social history of the period. I added this to my elibrary wishlist ages ago, and it's part of my attempt to read everything on the list.

>55 susanj67: Sounds good Susan. I love looking at the promises of old adverts, especially for old cars: your new car seemed to guarantee exciting travel back in the twenties (I guess not much has changed, now I think about it).

I'm still trying to finish Hillary Clinton. Only ten to go!

>53 susanj67: I've found most of the Bryson books I've read to be really funny, including this one. Have you read In A Sunburned Country? That was my first Bryson. We were traveling and Hubby read it outloud to me while I did needlework in the evenings. We both nearly choked laughing. As a former Aussie neighbor you might enjoy it too.

(Or in other words, Happy Christmas, to you and yours!)

>56 charl08: Charlotte, you can do it!

>57 RebaRelishesReading: Reba, I haven't read that one. I've just reserved it, and I'm #3 on one copy so it might be a few weeks.

>58 SandDune: Thanks Rhian!

I started Rex v Edith Thompson this afternoon and it looks good. I'm also reading a chapter of the Judith Flanders every day, and it is good too. Maybe a bit fact-y to read non-stop. I've also just watched four episodes of The Crown :-)

>60 Ameise1: Thanks Barbara! You too :-)

It's another lovely day here, and I walked up into the City this morning to go to M&S and stop at a Pret for a coffee. But there were no Prets open. Vexing. I can, however, recommend the Pigs on a Blanket roll at Leon. Ahem. https://leon.co/menu/breakfast/menu-item/pigs-blanket-muffin Still, it has spinach in it, so it basically counts as a vegetable.

I'm continuing with the Judith Flanders book about Christmas, in between watching the news. Those poor people arrested over Gatwick - what a shambles.

>59 susanj67: Are there new episodes of The Crown out? That was one of the first things we binge-watched when we got Netflix and I can't wait to continue.

Hope you have a lovely Christmas!!

>62 RebaRelishesReading: I don't watch it so can't answer, but someone we know is on the staff at Stowe school and they've had filming recently for some more episodes. Getting my magic ball out, I predict more episodes for you to enjoy in the future...

Hope you have a Merry Christmas!

>62 RebaRelishesReading: Reba, I'm watching series 2, which came out last Christmas, and which somehow I didn't get to during 2018.

>63 Helenliz: Hi Helen! Apparently they're filming series 3 and 4 of The Crown back to back, so that should keep fans busy for a while.

>64 ChelleBearss: Thanks Chelle! You too!

Merry Christmas Susan.

>66 Helenliz: Thanks Helen - you too!

PSA: The John Lewis sale has started online.

That is all :-)

>61 susanj67: I can't seem to get the Leon site to go past the homepage but I am intrigued by the Brit idea of Pigs in a Blanket. Around here it's a sausage wrapped in dough, and quite tasty indeed.

>68 rosalita: Julia, pigs in blankets are little sausages wrapped in bacon, served as one of the "trimmings" of a Christmas turkey dinner. My muffin this morning was pigs *on* a blanket, which was little sausages halved lengthways, lying on a couple of rashers of bacon, with spinach underneath and a cranberry relish on top. I will see if I can rustle up some pictures...

OK - pigs in blankets:



Pigs "on a blanket":

Interesting. As Julia says, pigs in a blanket are little sausages wrapped in dough and baked. The dough is often Pilsbury crescent rolls or some similar more pastry-like dough.

>71 drneutron: Jim, those look excellent! I have always wondered why bacon was described as the "blanket" in the British p-i-b scenario. Dough seems much more blankety.

I am now hungry again.

I adore Pigs in a Blanket (the American version). We have them every New Years Eve, with spicy mustard and ketchup on the side.

Merry Christmas, Susan!

That reminds me, I need to make my p-i-b for tomorrow...

Here pigs in blankets are also the doughy kind, quite often a kind of puff pastry. Beautiful Forever sounds interesting but my library doesn't have it. Is it a recent release? I must have missed it but which Judith Flanders are you reading, Susan?

>70 susanj67: I mean, I'm not saying I wouldn't eat those if they were put on the table in front of me, but the ones Jim posted are what I'm used to. I may have to conduct an experiment ... for the sake of science, you understand.

Happy holidays, Susan

>73 katiekrug: Katie, I can definitely see the attraction of the US version. It's a bit surprising that they haven't made their way over here under a different name.

>74 Helenliz: Helen, I hope all your pigs are appropriately blanketed by now.

>75 Familyhistorian: Meg, search Beautiful For Ever, because LT didn't recognise "Forever" when I typed it like that, so your library catalogue might also be hiding it. It's been on my list for ages, so it's not new. The Judith Flanders is Christmas: A History which is also called Christmas: A Biography, rather confusingly. I'm enjoying it.

>76 rosalita: Julia, what is science without experimentation? Just a bunch of hypotheses, really. I am in awe of your selflessness at putting yourself forward for such important work.

>77 PaulCranswick: Thanks Paul!



171. Rex v Edith Thompson by Laura Thompson (presumably no relation)

This is the story of the case against Edith Thompson and her lover Frederick Bywaters for the murder of Percy Thompson, who was Edith's husband. It is the first book about the case to be written with access to the files recently released early under the 100-year rule. If you've read about the case before, you may have read A Pin to See the Peepshow, which the author says she read as a teenager, when she first became interested in the case.

The case was unusual for two reasons - the author says that it was the "beginning of the end" of executing women (although the practice didn't end until the death of Ruth Ellis in 1955) and Thompson herself hadn't killed her husband. That was done by Bywaters, but the discovery of a cache of letters from Thompson to Bywaters allowed the Crown to argue that she had made him do it by exerting her malign womanly cougarish influence over him (there was an eight-year age gap between the pair).

The book is very well done, although arguably a bit too "editorialised", by which I mean the author doesn't just describe or even comment, but seems like a bit of a Thompson fan-girl, lauding her letters as masterpieces when really the whole thing was pretty seedy. These days, as she points out, Edith could just have left the husband she didn't like, and faced no stigma at all. But even in the 1920s she was the higher earner of the two, and could simply have disappeared with Bywaters had she really wanted to. They could have emigrated and presented themselves as a respectable married couple had they wanted to. Plenty of other people did.

I suppose it's easy to look back and judge people by 2018 standards, but the murder did seem unnecessary. She had family nearby, she had money - she wasn't a downtrodden isolated victim too scared to do anything until finally she cracked. So I'm not as a sympathetic as the author, but it was a fascinating read, with lots of legal nerdery which interested me. It's amazing how quickly they were tried and then executed, in particular.

Glad you enjoyed the Bryson book, Susan. Hope you have been having an excellent Christmas.

>79 Fourpawz2: Hi Charlotte! The day has been very booky, although I also seem to have heard/seen the Queen's speech three times. The actual speech, that is - not the film :-)

Best wishes to you for a very merry Christmas!

>81 AMQS: Thanks Anne!

>78 susanj67: I think I read a novel based on this case Fred and Edie. But I can't get the touchstone to work. Hope you're enjoying your time off. It's very grey here.

>83 charl08: Thanks Charlotte - the touchstone works for me and I see there's a copy available in Bow. It's very grey here too. I was going to go out and do some steps, but it turns out that I can't be bothered :-)



172. Christmas: A History by Judith Flanders (or "A Biography" in most places, although my copy definitely says History)

This is a great seasonal read, which looks at how Christmas came to be as a celebration and why pretty much everything you thought about its ancient traditions is wrong. It's short (244 pp) but very detailed, so a chapter a day over the festive period would be perfect.

Happy Birthday, Susan!!!!

>85 katiekrug: Thanks Katie! I am having a nice day, although I did think about vacuuming a while ago, which was alarming :-)

>86 susanj67: Definitely no vacuuming allowed!

>86 susanj67: Susan! Stop that immediately!! You are not supposed to do vacuuming on your birthday. Wishing you lots of nice things.

Oh, it's your birthday? Well, happy happy and all that. I'm definitely on the no-vacuuming side of the equation.

Happy Birthday, Susan! Many happy returns! Have a great day. Do whatever you want!

Happy Birthday, Susan -- From Reba and MrReba. We hope you're having a wonderful day.

>87 charl08:, >88 Helenliz:, >89 rosalita:, >90 BLBera:, >91 RebaRelishesReading: Thank you everyone! I have not done any vacuuming. Instead, I've watched a couple of episodes of The Crown and finished another book.



173. The Mars Room by Rachel Kushner

I got this from the library because the setting seemed promising - a women's prison in the US. And it was very well done, although it reminded me greatly of Orange is the New Black, because it involved various different narrative threads - prisoners, one of their teachers, and a mysterious diary from someone who lived alone almost in the middle of nowhere. However, I do like OITNB, and I also liked this.

Happy Birthday, Susan! Hoping it has been full of fabulous!

>78 susanj67: No luck, Susan, they didn't have it under Beautiful For Ever either. They have some books by Helen Rappaport but not that one. They do have the Christmas: a Biography by Flanders though, maybe a read for next year?

Happy belated birthday!

>92 susanj67: I think from reading other people's reviews, that I was more impressed not having seen OTNB, and knowing very little about women's prisons.

Hope you had a great birthday!!

>93 Crazymamie: Thanks Mamie! It was a nice day. My brother rang me in the morning and put the nephews on.

"Hi {nephew}! How are you?"
"Good."
"Did you have a good Christmas Day?"
"Yeah. Thanks for my present."
"You're very welcome. What are you doing now?"
"Nothing."
"When does school go back?"
"At the end of January."
"And what do you have planned for the holidays?"
"Um...I dunno."

...

...

"I'll put Mum on now."

I'm hoping they'll revert to being chatty once they're no longer teenagers :-) Anyway, then I spoke to my brother and SIL and we got down to the really important stuff like exchanging Netflix recommendations, so I have a gazillion hours more TV on my list.

>94 Familyhistorian: Thanks Meg! I think the Flanders would work well for next Christmas. Sorry that Beautiful For Ever is proving elusive - the author tends to write about the Russian imperial family, so it's something a bit different for her.

>95 charl08: Charlotte, I'd like to read her other books, so I'm going to look out for them.

>96 ChelleBearss: Thanks Chelle!

Today I walked to the supermarket, thinking I might just do the round trip and call it a day on the steps front, but as I was inspecting the bus app for the whereabouts of the next number 100, a text arrived from John Lewis saying that my order was ready to pick up at Canary Wharf. So I walked home, as the nearest bus was seven minutes away, put my shopping away, collected my library books that were ready to go back and walked to the Chrisp Street branch with them. It's one of the two branches open before next week. Canary Wharf is just a short distance south, and even quicker if you jump on the DLR at All Saints. Just saying. I don't go there very often, but they have tons of new books on display, plus stacks of books by popular authors piled up around the library, which is alluring even though they are not in any sort of order within each series, and may not be an entire series (shudder). But if you want a pile of Lee Child or Susannah Gregory or Jodi Picoult, Chrisp Street is the place for you. They often also have entire series of older books in brand new editions, so they all match. So pretty. So shiny. So...tempting.

I really thought (before I got there) that I might just return my books and walk straight out. Heh. Instead, I borrowed:

The Word is Murder by Anthony Horowitz (the first in a series - I saw the second one in the new books display, so looked up the first one. Unlike Canary Wharf, which has terrible phone/wi-fi reception because it is mostly under ground, Chrisp Street has perfect reception - another plus);
The Murder of Harriet Monckton by Elizabeth Haynes - I saw this during No!vember but resisted it);
A House for Mr Biswas by V S Naipaul, which was one of a new set of all of his books;
The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet by Becky Chambers - I saw the second one in a display which reminded me that I wanted to read this one;
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou - again, the first one in a complete new set of her autobiographical books.

But at least I have done my steps for today :-)

I started The Overstory yesterday and it is very good so far, although I am not very far into it. I stopped to watch The ABC Murders, which the Guardian reviewed as excellent, but I see a row has broken out over John Malkovich's accent and the fact that the plot differs form the book.

I finally figured out that the weird display of LT threads this morning could be cured by logging out and back in.

Anyway, I have read another chunk of The Overstory this morning, which I LOVE. I think my 2019 reads may include things about trees. I'm also trying to remotely wrangle some people in the office who were supposed to have all the documents needed for a project they are working on. But they don't. I should have asked more questions of the person who said "Oh yes, they have everything they need". I might have to go in on Monday to sort it out. I will have to pay close attention to what day it actually is. On Sunday I was sitting in McDonald's and the lady behind me was having a terrible row with someone on the phone, insisting that it was Saturday. "Of course it's Saturday" she said. "Wait, I'll check." I hoped very much that she wouldn't ask me to arbitrate, and fortunately she didn't. But then it made *me* start to doubt what day it was. There's a lesson there somewhere, which may well be to find somewhere different to stop for refreshments when I'm out doing my steps.

>98 susanj67: Ha! This made me laugh. What a weird thing to fight about. I think the holiday makes people a bit crazy.

Still reading Summer Before the Dark (and several others). I think I'm going to have a new list for 2018: I've started, but not finished... (or sort of currently reading, even if I haven't picked it up in months). Still can't think of a thread title.

>99 charl08: It is scarily easy to lose track of the days, I think. I've just been out to get the paper, and walked home secure in the knowledge that it was in fact Saturday because I had the paper *right there*. But I woke up to some work emails sent this morning and for a horrible moment wondered whether I'd counted wrong. And on the book front, um, I think you should pick one and just go for it. Advice I could take myself.

>100 susanj67: if it wasn't for the fact that Radio Times gives the day and the date I'd have no idea what day it was!
We're beginning to plan a gradually earlier alarm clock so that Wednesday is not a complete shock to the system. We've been surfacing around 9 am, a 5:30 alarm would be deeply unpleasant without some aclimatisation.

>98 susanj67: Hah - I also have to remind myself about the days, Susan. Today is Saturday, right?

You were also getting wonky displays on LT? I thought maybe it was just me.

I have The OVerstory on tap. I do want to read it over break.

>98 susanj67: AHHHH Thanks!! I went so far as restarting my computer but did not think to just log out of LT!

>101 Helenliz: Helen, yes, the Radio Times also works if you can remember whether you've turned the page from the previous day :-) I'm also in for a terrible alarm clock shock on Wednesday. I'm dreading it. I'm never up at 5.30, but I have been sleeping in over the holiday.

>102 BLBera: Beth, there is some bug making the pages display strangely. I'm still getting it on my phone, but the PC display is better, although all my photos on my thread have disappeared from view. I can see other people's photos on my thread, though.

>103 ChelleBearss: Chelle, glad I could help. I also read that you can type https:// in front of the www on the affected pages, and that also makes them display properly. Thanks to Nora on Katie's thread for that one! ETA: Not Katie's thread, it seems. But somewhere! I will try and find the bug thread and link to it.



174. The Overstory by Richard Powers

I kept seeing this at the library, so I thought I'd try it. It's "eco-fiction", and would probably also fit the "cli-fi" prompt for the 2019 PopSugar challenge. It's all about trees, and what the modern world is doing to them. But it's also about how amazing trees are and how there is a lot more to them than just pretty green leafy things that are useful for mopping up CO2. There are a number of human characters with different storylines, some of which converge. I loved it, although it is pretty long. It's made me want to read a lot more about the latest science on trees.

Here's a link to the thread discussing the display bug: https://www.librarything.com/topic/301071#6671639

It seems like (a) everyone is getting it, on and off and (b) it may be related to something new required by Google and (c) LT admin is back on Monday, so no doubt it will be fixed then. In the meantime, we may just have to read more :-)

The alarm clock idea sounds a good one. I had The Overstory for Christmas so I’m looking forward to it a lot.

Re: The Overstory, I thought this recommendation from Caroline might be of interest:

https://www.librarything.com/topic/301145#6674490.

>106 SandDune: Rhian, I hope you like it!

>107 katiekrug: Thanks Katie! I've just reserved it :-) Tower Hamlets has four copies listed, which is appropriate as Poplar is in this borough. I was there a few days ago, at the Chrisp Street library.

Superdrug emailed me with quadruple points on my loyalty card for any spending until 11 January. It's a birthday treat so I walked up into the City and bought dull essentials. I'm still waiting patiently for lip colours to stop being matte and then I'll go to town :-) Then I went to McDonald's, where this time the lady next to me seemed to be...watching me. I told myself I was imagining things, but she kept looking sideways at me, and she got up at the same time as I did, and put her rubbish in the bin. Then she said "Excuse me," and asked whether I was collecting the stickers on the cups to put on the loyalty card, and, if not, could she have mine. So I gave her my empty cup and she was happy. This proves two things: (1) always trust your instincts; and (2) the Ludgate Hill McDonald's is a magnet for strange people. I must stop going there.

I started The Great Believers this morning, and it is excellent. I'm going to try and finish Women of the Raj this afternoon, though. And tomorrow I'm going in to the office because I am fretting about the task that the paralegals are doing, not least because I didn't get an update at the end of Friday, which I had asked for, and I need to see what is actually going on. That might be some practice at getting up early. And I can also go to the supermarket on the way home.

Susan, as always your thread is a delight. I read your morning adventures aloud to Abby and Craig, and we all laughed - love how you tell a story!

>109 Crazymamie: Hi Mamie! You are very kind :-) I am helped by the fact that strange is never very far away in London :-) I hope you're all having a good day at the Paradisio.

Strange is also never very far away in the Deep South. Heh. It's all good here so far - we are still waiting to have our roof replaced, believe it or not. We need two full days of no rain in the forecast, so of course it's supposed to rain all week. *sigh*

I was just admiring the challenge you posted over on the PopSugar thread - thanks so much for that, as I like it much better than the 2019 offering by PopSugar. I'm going to join you in using that one for next year.

>111 Crazymamie: Mamie, waiting for repairs must be very frustrating. I hope the weather clears up and the forecasts are revised. We have gone from apparently having the coldest Christmas in years (forecast) to one of the warmest on record (actual weather). I liked the look of the Goodreads challenge, so I'm glad I found it. The PopSugar one just didn't appeal this time - too many categories I'd never heard of, and things I didn't want to read just for the sake of ticking a box. Now we just need the new year to start so we can start the categories :-)

Weather is a very weird thing - we have temps in the 70s, so it does not feel like Winter at all to me. And don't get me started about the humidity.

I am thankful to be at the top of the list for the repairs, but I would love to just have it done already. We have a huge pile of roofing supplies sitting in the front lawn, and we have been parking our cars away from the roof so if they do show up we don't have to worry about incidental damage to them, and I am ready to be done with all of it. On the bright side, it should only take two full days to remove and replace the current roof once they get started - please, please, please let that be true.

>113 Crazymamie: It has been ages since the storm, so I'm not surprised you want it all to be done. Fingers crossed for the rain to move elsewhere!

Mamie's right — I never tire of reading about your quotidian life and its inevitable quirks. More seriously, what IS with the matte lip colors? I don't need a blinding mirror-like finish, but just some soft shine to keep from looking pre-dead.

Also, I think the McDonald's weirdness might not just be in your neighborhood. I think they are magnets wherever they are located.

>115 rosalita: Julia, I can only think that matte lip colours were invented by the Young, like so many things nowadays. I am using up my mattes, some of which came in the Look Fantastic boxes this year, but I put a topper over them, to add a bit of shine. I fear you may be right about McDonald's, but it's just so easy. I have come to terms with the touchscreen order boards now, and got quite good at them. Darn.



175. Women of the Raj by Margaret MacMillan

Margaret MacMillan is probably best known these days for her books about wars, but this is her very first book, published in the late 1980s, about the role of British women in India during the Raj. Strictly speaking, it covers a wider time period than that, as the "Raj" is the period from 1858 to 1947, and she includes women from earlier than 1858. But "British Women in India Through the Ages" doesn't have quite the same ring to it. This is a new edition published this year, and there's a new introduction in which she says she would write it differently today (sadly I can't quote from it as the contents menu in my Overdrive copy didn't work and I couldn't face paging all the way back through the book) but it was still a great read, with lots of excellent sources quoted, and many references to novels of the period, some of which I have already downloaded from Gutenberg.com.

There have been more recent books on the same topic (Anne de Courcy's The Fishing Fleet is one that I enjoyed a lot) but I don't know what was around on the subject in the 80s, when this was written, so it might well have been the first book of its kind. Recommended if you like the history of the British in India.

>116 susanj67: Around here (i.e., not in a city) McDonald's is strictly a drive-thru operation for me. I'd rather eat in my car than amongst a bunch of unpredictable strangers. I know that's not an option for you, though. Maybe horse blinders to avoid eye contact?

>117 rosalita: Julia, I try to sit at the bench seats looking out of the window, but that branch has installed tablets every couple of seats, with kids' games on them, so they're popular with the younger customers. And it doesn't stop people sitting beside me, cruising for stickers. I'll just have to go at quieter times. Or, there's always the advice on how to get a seat to yourself on public transport - you wait till you see someone coming along, then look straight at them, smile broadly and say "Hi!"and apparently they move right on. That could work.

>118 susanj67: Hmm, I could see that one backfiring, Susan.

>119 Familyhistorian: Meg, it's true that I haven't been brave enough to try it. Because you never know.

I'm back in the office today, as I was fretting about the work that the paralegal was doing for me. And rightly, it seems, as he got pulled off it to do something else, but no-one told me. He is back on it now. Shortly we are going somewhere in the depths of the building, to pull files out of boxes. I decided that joining in was the best way to get it done. And then something urgent came in from another partner, so I did that. It is undoubtedly easier with my two big screens than trying to do it at home. Plus it's a change of scenery.

The roofers are here! I would have rather they had pulled up quietly while I was sipping on my first cup of coffee, but instead they surprised me at my bedroom window. It would have been less awkward if I had not been still in bed. BUT, they are here, and making noise like you would not believe - it sounds as if we have elephants on the roof who are moving furniture around. I kid you not. Anyway, I wanted to thank you for crossing your fingers - it worked! Now keep them crossed, please, as there is still rain in the forecast - they must have decided to try and do it all in one day? I have no idea, but I am hoping for the best.

>121 Crazymamie: Mamie, I am delighted to hear that! And they could have found you at a worse time than still in bed, trust me as someone who had scaffolding all summer...:-) If they have indeed brought elephants, they may get it done all the quicker. I will keep my fingers crossed. And also give you this advice for tomorrow: Keep a set of clothes in the bathroom.

Thanks Lori - you too!