Kerry (avatiakh) reads to 75 and beyond

image from Gavin Bishop's Aotearoa: the New Zealand story

Welcome to my first 2019 thread. I'm Kerry and from Auckland, New Zealand. This is my 11th year in the group and I hope to keep up with as many threads as I can.
I read widely and while I own many interesting books I always seem to have a large stack of library books to get through by their due date.

Currently reading:

Elysium Fire by Alastair Reynolds - iPod audio
Bridge of Clay by Markus Zusak
HHhH by Laurent Binet

I also participate in the category challenge:

Presenting my 2019 categories -

1) Focus on Scotland
2) Reading Mt tbr
3) Books in translation
4) The Classics
5) Arthurian & Celtic Literature
6) Fantasy & Scifi
7) Thrillers, crime, mystery, spies
8) Short Form - novellas, poetry, short stories
9) Australia & New Zealand Fiction
10) Israeli & Jewish Fiction & Non fiction
11) Nonfiction
12) Vintage children's books
13) Recent Children's books
14) Young Adult & Graphic Novels
15) Family Tree
16) The Extras

Best of 2018:
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Books for the Young:
Piglettes by Clémentine Beauvais
The Dogs of Winter by Bobbie Pyron
The Traitor and the Thief by Gareth Ward - fantasy YA
The Flying Classroom by Erich Kastner
In the dark spaces by Cally Black - scifi YA
Tilly and the Bookwanderers (Pages & Co.) by Anna James
Catching Teller Crow by Ambelin Kwaymullina & Ezekiel Kwaymullina
The Sherwood Ring by Elizabeth Marie Pope

Memoir:
Diary of a bookseller by Shaun Bythell
A table for one: Under the Light of Jerusalem by Aharon Appelfeld

Fiction:
The Lost Pages by Marija Peričić
Boy Swallows Universe by Trent Dalton
Reamde by Neal Stephenson
The Broken Shore by Peter Temple

Graphic Books:
The three Escapes of Hannah Arendt: A Tyranny of Truth by Ken Krimstein
The Marvels by Brian Selznick

Other top contenders:
Also rans were my rereads of the first two LOTR books and also my read of the Fever Crumb series which are the prequels to Philip Reeve's Mortal Engines series. Also the concluding books in Martin Millar's Kalix trilogy and Philip Reeve's Railhead trilogy.

Best of 10 Years in the 75 Group

tba

Ongoing Australia / New Zealand Reading challenge

I'm behind on the ANZAC Bingo challenge I set up in 2017 & 2018. Will keep trying to complete my original selection of books.

ANZAC challenge 2017/8 - links back to last year's thread. I'll be setting up a thread for 2019.

ANZAC Bingo 1x25
1: Read a book set around WW1 - Somme Mud by E.P.F. Lynch
2: Read a dystopian novel - The Quiet Earth by Craig Harrison
3: Read a book published between 1950-1979 - Living in the Maniototoby Janet Frame (1979)
4: Read a book about convicts or forced migration - The Second Bridegroom by Rodney Hall
5: Read a book by a dead author - Towards another summer by Janet Frame
6: Read a book from a 'best of' list - The Secret Chord by Geraldine Brooks
7: Read a book with a rural setting - The White Earth by Andrew McGahan
8: Read a book with yellow on the cover - Between Sky and Sea by Herz Bergner
9: Read a book less than 200 pages - The Severed Land by Maurice Gee
10: Read a book set outside Australasia - The Wild Girl by Kate Forsyth
11: Read a journal/memoir (can be fiction) - Looking for Darwin by Lloyd Spencer Davis
12: Read a book about colonists/settlers - Salt Creek by Lucy Treloar
13: Read a book with a name in the title - The Legend of Winstone Blackhat by Tanya Moir
14: Read a fantasy novel - The Magicians' Guild by Trudi Canavan
15: Read a book about the goldrush - It's raining in Mango by Thea Astley
16: Read an award winner - Chain of Evidence by Garry Disher
17: Read a book with a murder - Trust No One by Paul Cleave
18: Read a book by a young writer under 35yrs - While we run by Karen Healey
19: Read a book with a school/education setting - Picnic at Hanging Rock by Joan Lindsay
20: Read a book published in 2016/17 - Tell the truth, shame the devil by Melina Marchetta
21: Read a book with a # or quantity in the title - Sixty Lights by Gail Jones
22:Read a book about a marriage - Perfect Couple by Derek Hansen
23:Read a young adult book - My sister Rosa by Justine Larbalestier
24: Read a book by an indigenous writer - Mutuwhenua by Patricia Grace
25: Read a book with an animal/bird on the cover - All the green year by Don Charlwood

General plans for 2019

I'm still settling into the fact that it's 2019, but I do have some goals for the year. I'll come back to fill this in.

1) Read some books from Zola's Les Rougon-Macquart Series
2) Read Tom Jones by Henry Fielding (1749)
3) Read books by family members & or set in regions family are from
4) Scotland - read more Scottish writers

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Plans for January:

Finish what I started in 2018 -

Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik
Bulibasha by Witi Ihimaer
The Return of the King by JRR Tolkien
Daniel Deronda by George Eliot
Bridge of Clay by Markus Zusak
Hive by AJ Betts

New for 2019:
The Dark Days Deceit by Alison Goodman
A Winter's Promise by Christelle Dabos
Bone Music: The Legend of Genghis Khan by Katherine Roberts
The Goose Road Glass Town Wars by Rowena House
Cassie Clark: outlaw by Brian Falkner
The Sword and the Circle by Rosemary Sutcliff
The Fortune of the Rougons by Emile Zola

most of above are are library books which will be coming due in a week or so. Hope to clear a lot of the YA quickly so I can concentrate on my 2019 reading plans.

Happy New Year & Happy New Thread Kerry!

Happy New one: striking the topper image. I'll be following along in 2019.

Happy reading in 2019, Kerry!

>6 avatiakh: Hi Rhian - thanks for the greetings
>7 SandDune: Hello Charlotte - I have that home from the library at present, I'm a fan of his illustrations and picturebooks.
>8 charl08: Hallo Anita - I'm looking forward to following your whizzbang reading for this year as well.

I collect a lot of book bullets from the three of you - not always credited as I forget who recommended what by the time I get round to reading the book.

Wishing you and yours a happy and joyous 2019, filled with peace, love, and great books.

My 2018 stats from goodreads where I log all my reading including picturebooks
https://www.goodreads.com/user/year_in_books/2018/1674550

Happy New Year!

Welcome back, Kerry!

Happy New Year, Kerry!

>2 avatiakh: Great reading categories! What are your plans for the Arthurian lit category? That is one of my favourite sub-genres; I took a course on it in university and read some great classic and contemporary texts. A little known but excellent series is by Jack Whyte, which starts with The Skystone. It is about the founding of Camelot a few generations before Arthur, and takes a historical, rather than magical, take on the legend. Very good if you are looking for some long historical fiction!

Looking forward to following your reading this year!

Happy New Year!

>11 Dejah_Thoris: >13 quondame: >14 ChelleBearss: >15 drneutron: >16 alcottacre: >18 The_Hibernator: >19 Berly:
Many thanks for the New Years greetings.

>17 Cait86: I had an Arthurian category last year but gave up on my reading goals when we adopted 3 ginger kittens early in the year. So decided for a rerun, mainly because I have already have quite a few of the familiar Arthurian books lying round the house such as Rosemary Sutcliff, Mary Stewart, T B White and some of the more prominent texts as well. My daughter will be doing an Arthurian literature paper in March, so she'll be talking all things Arthur to me for about 5 months.

That Jack Whyte series looks really good, my library has most of his books so I will give him a try.

Happy 2019
A year full of books
A year full of friends
A year full of all your wishes realised

I look forward to keeping up with you, Kerry, this year.

My best of 2008 is up in post #3. Now i'll have to work on the best of past ten years in LT which will take more time.

Happy New Year, Kerry and Happy New Thread. Have a great year of reading and I hope to see you around, now and then.

Dropping off my star, Kerry!

looking forward to following your reading in 2019!

1) Hive by A.J. Betts (2018)
YA
A great dystopian story set in a closed living environment. I really like these types of reads, The City of Ember was another like this. A sequel is planned for this year.
Hayley has trained as a beekeeper and one day chasing a rogue bee in one of the little used ways she sees a drip fall from the ceiling. This counters all the truths that she has been taught and Hayley begins to seek some answers.
Betts wrote Zac and Mia, about 2 teens battling cancer in the same hospital, which was a great read and is now a tv series.

Happy New Year Kerry! And happy new thread!



Wishing you and your family the best for 2019.

Happy New Year, Kerry!

Happy New Year, Kerry.

>27 humouress: >28 kidzdoc: >29 BLBera: Many thanks for visiting my thread.


Outing from a couple of days ago. I did not end up reading at all, we just talked Beowulf. Daughter has now finished both Beowulf and Tree and Leaf, she's positively glowing with all the insights that Tolkien gives in the essay. I'm thinking of getting her Tolkien: Maker of Middle-earth by Catherine Mcilwaine for her birthday at the end of the month.

2) The Dark Days Deceit by Alison Goodman (2018)
YA

Lady Helen #3. Enjoyable end to the trilogy. Probably not to everyone's taste but I found these highly entertaining, a mix of Buffy with Jane Austen. Goodman does the research so period details are precise. Would love for this to continue.

Happy Birthday Kerry, have a wonderful year with many great books!

The George Eliot you're reading might be something for me. BB caught!

Happy Birthday, Kerry!

Checking in here as I'm catching up on threads!

Happy belated birthday! I hope the day was wonderful.

Happy new year.
I wish, that you may find a good and solid path in 2019

Hi Kerry! Happy New Year. I love the topper. I just received my copy of Aotearoa. It's gorgeous. I have Bulibasha on my to read list. I've just got to get hold of a copy somehow.

>26 avatiakh: Adding that one to the BlackHole. Thanks for the recommendation, Kerry!

>31 avatiakh: I have the first one in that series around my house somewhere. Sounds like I need to get to reading it!

Happy Birthday for yesterday!

Belated happy new year Kerry and happy birthday!

>1 avatiakh: All of the books on your currently reading pile look like real chunksters at the moment!

>31 avatiakh: 'Would love for this to continue'

Me too! I would definitely read the continuing adventures of Lady Helen...

3) Skin Deep by Liz Nugent (2018)
crime
I saw this on the Irish Times best books list and decided to request it from the library despite my mountain of tbr books. It starts with an ex-pat English woman going to an all night party on the French Cote D'Azur, then returning in the morning sunshine to the corpse she's left in her apartment. The book is a whydunit, about how she arrived to this point, starting with her childhood on a remote Irish island. Delia is a fascinating train wreck of a character, seemingly no moral compass, completely selfish, and yet such a compelling story. I couldn't put this down and will be reading more of Liz Nugent.

4) Aotearoa: the New Zealand story by Gavin Bishop (2017)
children's illustrated nonfiction

This is an extra large-sized book, a history of New Zealand, beautifully illustrated and designed by Gavin Bishop. There is an equal balance between European and Maori that similar books have failed to achieve. The book covers many interesting facets of New Zealand, flora & fauna, myths and legends, geography, sport, monuments and the social & political. No photographs only illustrations and snippets of facts rather than pages of text. Only let down by the less appealing portraits of well known New Zealanders.
Definitely one for every New Zealand child to browse through and learn a few facts about their country.
I used part of the cover image at the top of my thread.

>32 Deern: Hi Nathalie - i have to get back to DD, I've not listened to my iPod for a couple of weeks now.
>33 FAMeulstee: >35 Dejah_Thoris: >39 SandDune: Thank you. I had a good day.
>34 thornton37814: Hi Lori
>36 paulstalder: Thank you, Paul
>37 nittnut: Hi Jenn - happy to send you a copy of Bulibasha. We have two used copies in the house. PM me if you want it. I love the Gavin Bishop book.
>38 alcottacre: Oh I remember your black hole of BBs, great that you are back with us this year.
>40 souloftherose: All of the books on your currently reading pile look like real chunksters at the moment! - Yes, indeed, quite daunting. I'm trying for a chapter a day in a couple and pushing for more on Spinning Silver at present, though it's not grabbing me as much as Uprooted did. I think it is the setting, too much like Katherine Arden's Winternight books.

Belated happy birthday Kerry! I'll wish your daughter for her birthday early (because I just know I won't remember).

>42 avatiakh: You make me want to read that even though I never even been to New Zealand.

ETA: I thought there was an old lady relaxing and looking at the sky on the cover; but I did notice the shape of NZ when I first visited your thread. Cleverly drawn.

>44 humouress: Thanks for the birthday wishes. Daughter is on the bus right now returning from her first Tolkien lecture.
Gavin Bishop is a New Zealand treasure. The old lady is Mother Earth or Papatūānuku and looking down is Ranginui , sky father.
I like the Maori myth books by Peter Gossage, he had no Maori heritage but his illustrations are wonderful.

To give them light: the legacy of Roman Visniac edited by Marion Wiesel (1993)
photography

A illuminating collection of photographs accompanied by a preface by Elie Wiesel and edited by his wife, Marion Wiesel. The book showcases the photographs that Vishniac took on his 1930s trips back to East Europe, capturing images of a now lost world of Jewish life.
There are a few books now of his photographs including a more recent extensive Roman Vishniac rediscovered by Maya Benton.
You can read about him here - https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2018/oct/28/roman-vishniac-rediscovered...
Gallery here - http://vishniac.icp.org/

5) Killing and dying by Adrian Tomine (2015)
graphic novel
Six short stories, every one quite compelling. The story I liked most was about the father of a young teen girl who wants to be a stand up comedian.

6) The Goose Road by Rowena House (2018)
YA
This is the novelization of a story published in the War Girls: A Collection of First World War Stories Through the Eyes of Young Women anthology. A sad but also enchanting story of a girl, Angelique, travelling across France to sell her flock of geese during World War One. The family has already lost their horse, cart, cow and pig through the requisition. Angelique and her sick mother must run the farm on their own, the father and son are both at the Front. This selling of the geese is their last chance to save the farm from bailiffs.

Hi Kerry! Saying hello and starring your thread! I was unaware of Tree and Leaf! Will be adding that to the list!

>49 Foxen: Hi Katie, thanks for visiting my thread. I must confess that I haven't read Tree and Leaf yet, or if I have I don't remember. I collected a lot of Tolkien bios and nonfiction at one stage and didn't read it all. My daughter's first reading for her course was Ursula Le Guin's essay 'The child and the shadow'.

fyi: I found the essay online in a reddit forum: https://www.reddit.com/r/Fantasy/comments/42ndlo/the_child_and_the_shadow_essay_...

7) Welcome to Orphancorp by Marlee Jane Ward (2015)
YA
This was one of the winners of the Seizure Viva La Novella Award in 2015. It has won or been shortlisted for a couple of other Australian Awards too. I've decided to read my way through the novellas that won this award as it introduces me to exciting new writers from my part of the world. So far I've read last year's winners, Avi Duckor-Jones' Swim and Anna Jackson's The bedmaking competition.
Orphancorp is a near future nightmare, a corporation that collects streetkids, orphans and other waifs, incarcerates them till they are 18, when they are sent out into the world if they are lucky to survive. A percentage go straight onto Prisoncorp. This short novella is about Mirii, she's been transferred to a new place once again and has to survive just one more week before she's 18 and out the door.
The reading is dark, gritty and dystopian. I loved it, so much grim humanity packed into 116 pages. There is a sequel, Psynode, my library hasn't got it so I might have to buy the e-book.
Next up is The Fish Girl by Mirandi Rowe which is set in Indonesia's colonial past.

Orphancorp does sound like a nightmare. I ration my dystopian reading, but will keep this one in mind.

Some interesting books here! BBed the Visniac boom, the GN Killing and Dying and the NZ picture book, must check if I can get any of them in paper form from amazon.

8) Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik (2018)
fantasy
Took me a long while to get through this book though I enjoyed it very much, it just never caught me in that 'I can't put it down' mode. I think this was more me coming under pressure to finish too many library books.
A fantasy inspired by the story of Rumpelstilskin.

>52 markon: Yes, Orphancorp was a nightmare of a place. There are similar reads out there, the bonus with this one is it isn't 500+ pages long.

>53 Deern: Gavin Bishop's NZ picturebook is really huge, almost poster size. You should find a gallery of Visniac photographs online.

Hi Kerry!

>17 Cait86: I have six of the Arthurian series by Jack Whyte, but not the first. I'll have to order it. Btw, did you ever read the series of books by Patricia Kennealy-Morrison where the King Arthur legend is set in space? Better than you might think, although the author is an odd duck.

>41 avatiakh: From what you write, Skin Deep is a fascinating whydoneit. Sounds grim, but I'm curious after reading your review.

>46 avatiakh: The Visniac books are now on my wishlist. I'll see what my library has.

>48 avatiakh: The Goose Road sounds so sad...

>56 labfs39: I've never heard of those books, but they sound just strange enough to be worth tracking down! Plus the author was married to Jim Morrison - that's cool. Thanks!

Hope you have been having a great weekend, Kerry.

>51 avatiakh: Welcome to Orphancorp sounds really good! And the shorter length a plus. ; )

Intrigued by Orphancorp Kerry - I've just read (very late) The Handmaid's Tale, so will see if this one is available to continue the good dystopian reads (if that isn't a contradiction in terms).

>56 labfs39: Hi Lisa - I'm tempted by both the Jack Whyte books & now the Patricia Kennealy-Morrison books but will be realistic and read what I already own. My daughter is doing an Arthurian literature paper this upcoming semester so I'll be reading around what she reads.
Skin Deep is one of those reads that you can't put down no matter how awful the protagonist is.
The Goose Road was a good read for all the sadness. i find most WW1 novels to be sad.

>57 Cait86: Thanks for posting that tidbit about Kennealy-Morrison, I went off and had a read about her, quite fascinating.

>58 PaulCranswick: thanks Paul. Being summer it is easy to enjoy my weekends.

>59 Berly: >60 charl08: Yeah, worth seeking out if your library has it.
I read The Handmaid's Tale a long while back and remember the original 1990 movie starring Natasha Richardson. I'm a fan of good dystopian novels.

_
A couple of cat photos to show how they've grown these past ten months.

9) Stitches: a memoir by David Small (2009)
graphic memoir

OMG, what an awful childhood this artist suffered through. His father, a doctor, exposed Small to heavy radiation doses in an attempt to fix his respiratory problems, this in turn led to Small having brutal throat surgery for cancer as a young teen. His parents hid from him that he had cancer. His mother was just awful and Small ran away from home at sixteen to become the artist he is today. For all that a compelling read.
David Small has collaborated with his wife, Elizabeth Stewart on several picturebooks, all worth looking out for.

_

10) The Return of the King by J.R.R. Tolkien (1955)
fantasy

A reread of old favourite. LOTR #3. Finished my listen of the trilogy and loved the story all over again. Also followed up watching the last film in the trilogy as well, the two don't particularly mix that well close together I've found. Anyway I first read LOTR back when I was 14, it took me about two days to get through the three books in the school holidays and only took breaks for food and the numerous chores my mum had lined up for me.
I've made a start on listening to The Hobbit but not as taken with how Inglis does the various dwarf voices so I might not continue.

11) Everything is teeth by Evie Wyld (2015)
graphic memoir

I picked this up and the next GN memoir because I was interested in reading some Australian GNs, thinking I hadn't read that many at all.
This is about Wyld's childhood obsession with sharks and shark attacks. Quite interesting but not for the fainthearted reader. The artwork by Joe Sumner is very impressive. Neither Wyld or Sumner are Australian per se, Wyld spent her holidays in Australia, but grew up in London. She's considered an Anglo-Australian and has won awards in both countries for her fiction.
_

12) Hidden by Mirranda Burton (2011)
graphic memoir

Interestingly, Burton is a New Zealander who moved to Australia to study art. This GN chronicles her time leading an art class with adults with intellectual disabilities. The stories are very moving, each chapter focuses on a different member of her class. Well worth looking out for.
_

13) A winter's promise by Christelle Dabos (2013 French) (2018 English)
YA fantasy
La Passe-Miroir #1. The first of 4 in a popular French fantasy series. I'm fairly intrigued by the world rustled up by Dabos and I also like the main character, Ophelia. But, but, but...I felt she spent the whole book without agency, so we just felt miserable for her as she tried to work out what was going on. I'll try the second book but it better be incredibly exciting and fantastic.
Ophelia's family arrange a marriage for her to Thorn, a member of the Dragon clan from a brutal northern Ark. She must travel with her fiancée back to his world and finds herself thrust into a society of political intrigue where no one is safe, Ophelia least of all. Is it likely that there'll be romance and a happy ever after ending?

14) The sword and the circle by Rosemary Sutcliff (1981)
children's
Legends of King Arthur #1. The first of Sutcliff's trilogy on King Arthur. I enjoyed this read about the various knights of King Arthur and their deeds. I'll keep reading the omnibus edition that I have. The next book is The Light Beyond the Forest: The Quest for the Holy Grail.

>63 avatiakh: Stitches: A Memoir is very good isn’t it?

>62 avatiakh: Oh wow - they are getting bigger!

>67 avatiakh: I've seen the lack of agency in the main character commented on by other reviewers too. I may wait to see what you make of the second book before trying that series.

>70 souloftherose: I did like quite a few of the characters, but not sure of any allegiances as yet, 500+ pages and still not sure who to trust? Even those who help might have ulterior motives. The world is quite fascinating though. Ophelia is a reader, she wears gloves because when she handles an object with her bare hands, she can tell the history of who has handled it and what & why they did. The next book comes out in May.

How to be happy by Eleanor Davis (2014)
graphic novel

I didn't much like this one. It's a collection of stories, ideas and whatnot and nothing much really gelled for me. The artwork was varied and some of it worked ok. I love the cover illustration.

From a review blurb: Davis is one of the finest cartoonists of her generation, and has been producing comics since the mid-2000s. Davis achieves a rare, subtle poignancy in her narratives that are at once compelling and elusive, pregnant with mystery and a deeply satisfying emotional resonance. Happy shows the full range of Davis's graphic skills -- sketchy drawing, polished pen and ink line work, and meticulously designed full color painted panels.'

>72 avatiakh: I love the art, but could have done with more of a linking story. For me the one about the sister visiting her sister in a polluted world could have been a whole book. I just went online (for some reason I had her mixed up with the authors of Square Eyes) and she is part crowd funding her next book. I'm tempted. http://doing-fine.com/?p=2596

I've added Stitches and Hidden to the wishlist.

>73 charl08: Yes, some of the stories were quite interesting but just seemed to fizzle out. I also liked that sister story. I also had the Australian GN Home Time out from the library but just didn't feel like reading past the opening pages.
Right now I have Belonging: a German reckons with history and home out from the library but it's another one that looks to be a challenging read as the layout is more of a scrapbook than the usual use of panels.

I haven't had much reading time of late. Last week Dana and I went to two Shakespeare plays at the Pop-up Globe. Groundling tickets are subsidised by a law firm so it only cost $5 to stand right beside the stage. You can get picked on by the actors though and audience participation is expected. Lots of fun and we both got mightily splattered with stage blood during the final battle scene in Richard III. The other play was The Taming of the Shrew. In March we'll be going back to see Hamlet & Measure for Measure.

_
1) Dana at end of Richard III - she loved this.
2) Richard III coronation

__
1) Petruchio arrives to the wedding
2) Petruchio & Kate - wedding
3) audience participation - holding hands with Grumio

Catching up:
>62 avatiakh: They have grown, pictures of your three reds always make me smile :-)

>63 avatiakh: I think Stitches was one themy first GNs I read, so sad what parents can do...

>68 avatiakh: Happy to see you enjoyed The sword and the circle.

>74 avatiakh: Nice pictures of Richard III and The Taming of the Shrew. It that the same place you saw some Shakespeare last year?

Hi Anita
We're still taking lots of cat photos but not as many as before. Max seems to be the one for posing, so he gets to star most of all. They are spending most of their time outside at present, it's so hot and they just lie in shady spots around the garden most of the day. In the evening they are more active.

I can't get over some of the parents in these GN memoirs, but it makes for great reading.

I've got the other two Rosemary Sutcliff books on Arthur and his knights so will keep reading. I just got her book on Tristan and Iseult which is an extended telling of the chapter in her first Arthur book, will leave this till later in the year I think.

Yes, the Pop-up Globe is now a semi-permanent structure on the grounds of a racecourse here in Auckland and they've had a season of 4-5 Shakespeare plays each summer since 2016. I was aware of them when they set up but only started going to their plays last year. They now do seasons in Melbourne and Sydney as well. The actors are recruited from the UK, US and Australia as well as New Zealand. Dana had studied Richard III a while back and was thrilled to see the play and get splattered with blood. Last year she fainted at two of the plays and we missed some of the action, managed to get through these two plays without any of that.

Catching up Kerry. I read the Sutcliff books last year.

Kerry-- I am also catching up here (snowy weekends=LT time!).

I really need to read some of these GNs 1) because I tend to neglect this genre and 2) Stitches looks very sad but oh so good! I also like the look of Hidden.

>74 avatiakh: How fun to have interactive Shakespeare!! Happy Sunday.

>74 avatiakh: Richard III looks fun! Hope you were wearing things that washed well! Richard III is my favourite Shakespeare play and I have seen it quite a few times. The last time was at the Old Vic with Kevin Spacey, which we probably shouldn't talk about now!

Happy Valentine's Day!! ❤️💚💗💙

>77 PaulCranswick: Hi Paul - I've been AWOL on my thread for a few days
>78 Berly: Hi Kim - thanks for visiting. There are a large number of really great GNs, I recommend trying memoirs, there are so many good ones around.
>79 SandDune: Hi Rhian - I've seen a short youtube clip of the Old Vic performance, such great stage presence and a pity about the actor's behaviour that now changes our perception of his acting.
Yes, the blood washed out. Now I'm looking forward to Hamlet and Measure for Measure. A regular playgoer tweeted last night that the Hamlet performance is the best out of all the Pop-up Globe performances she's been to and she's been to every one multiple times. We have to wait till March to go as we're away for a couple of weeks.
>80 ChelleBearss: Thanks for the Cupid!

15) Icarus Down by James Bow (2016)
YA scifi

Quite a thrilling scifi set on an planet with many problems for the humans that arrived there three generations earlier. The 13 cities have been established hanging in deep chasms as the sun burns the diamond lands above and means instant death to any human exposed. There is also an electromagnetic problem that has disabled the tech that the settlers arrived with and they've now adapted to steam and clockwork to power their communities. The fog forests in the chasms is inhabited by strange 'tic toc' monsters. The book starts with young ornithopter pilot, Simon going on his final test flight, but it looks to be sabotaged, his brother, the navigator, is killed and Simon is badly burned.

James Bow is the husband of writer Erin Bow and I enjoyed both her Plain Kate and The Scorpion Rules some years ago.

16) The Goddess of Daisies and Buttercups by Martin Millar (2015)
fiction

This was a real gem to read, very funny and inspired me enough to pick up a book of plays by Aristophanes yesterday only to discover that his Peace play is truly hilarious for all that it was written back around 421 BC.
Aristophanes is preparing to stage his Peace play for the annual Dionysia Festival as talks between Sparta and Athens try to end ten years of war. Everything seems to be going wrong for him as politicians and weapons merchants have bribed his sponsor to give his play minimum money for props etc. Meanwhile Athena sends an Amazonian warrior and a wood nymph to Athens to try to salvage his play and give peace a chance.
Millar has written a highly entertaining novel based around real events and inspired by the humour in the plays of Aristophanes. Recommended.

17) Cassie Clark, outlaw by Brian Falkner (2018)
YA

Action packed thriller for teens. Cassie's father is a successful US politician, he's Speaker of the House in Congress but he has been missing for about six weeks along with a news journalist. Cassie has been in hospital recovering from a hit and run so is only now finding out and decides to do some investigating on her own. She quickly finds that she might be in over her head as people in high places seem to be behind it all.
Entertaining if somewhat far fetched plot, I enjoyed it for what it was. I like this style of YA, big on action and less to no romance or supernatural stuff.

I've hardly been reading this month but have several books on the go and hope to wrap up a re-read (audio) of The Hobbit before the end of the month. We're having a ten day break next week to go south for family history stuff and to visit some museums and exhibitions. I hope to get some reading done in the evenings while I'm away.

I'm enjoying Alan Garner's wartime childhood memoir, Where shall we run to?, I should finish it this weekend. I'm struggling through Peter F. Hamilton's children's fantasy, book #2 of the Queen of Dreams trilogy, just not feeling the love though I enjoyed the first one.
Have a couple more novels on the go that I need to get back to as well - Markus Zusak's latest and Zola's The Fortune of the Rougons.

Kevin Spacey is a great actor whatever his failings as a human being and those failings seem to be beyond the pale.

I want to read something by Hamilton this month but I am struggling to get into his books thus far. Alan Garner's Red Shift is on the pile to be read soon.

Have a lovely Sunday.

>67 avatiakh: I felt Ophelia's agency issue was well handled, given the near total level of her unfamiliarity with the Pole culture and court.

I wish you a blessed weekend - soaring like this jackdaw

Hi Kerry, here we are at the end of the Teens and this is my first visit! Paul Cranswick mentioned he'd been inspired to read a Jamaican YA book by your thread (at some point), it hit me: I haven't seen a single post of yours! So here I am at last. I'm hoping all will be well in your world as we end this complicated decade.

Looking forward to catching up on what you have been reading, Kerry. As RD said on >89 richardderus: I do rather get reading ideas from you.

Have a lovely weekend.

>86 PaulCranswick: Paul - try Hamilton's Greg Mandel series, the books are short, set in the near future and probably more accessible for you. Mandel is an ex-Mindstar Brigade soldier turned private detective investigating sabotage.

>87 quondame: Yeah, I possibly over reacted to Ophelia's situation. I have to admit I'm fairly keen to see where the story goes.

>88 paulstalder: Thank you Paul, a delightful image. I was away from home for a few days at the time you posted, so yes, my weekend was good if not quite soaring.

>89 richardderus: Hi Richard. I've been fairly quiet to no-existent for a long while and so visits to my thread drop off dramatically and so I get quieter. I'm becoming fairly disillusioned with American YA, they seem to becoming too political for my liking. I posted about it on Paul's thread this morning.
I do get to see you on the GR thread when I visit there.

>90 PaulCranswick: I have a fair swag of books to update. Some good ones too.

I'll update my reading and then post a quick update on my time away, I didn't do that much but there's a few interesting things.


18) The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien (1937)
fantasy
Continuing my LOTR reread via audio I finally finished up with this one. I first read The Hobbit as an adult long long after LOTR which I first read when I was about 14. I loved it and couldn't believe I had taken so long to pick it up. Anyway I finished this around the time my daughter sat her exam on Tolkien. I read the last few chapters from the actual book as I couldn't wait for the much slower audio to finish. I also watched the first of The Hobbit films, love the ending of that with Smaug opening his eye.

19) The Hunting of the Princes by Peter F. Hamilton (2016)
children's

Queen of Dreams #2. The second book in the trilogy, I have the third book ready to go. First comment is that I hate the covers, I believe they deter child readers rather than call them in. I don't understand how the publisher ran with them, pure ugly.
Well, I found this one hard to get on with, though in the end I enjoyed the second half quite a bit and look forward to book #3. Hamilton has created interesting, complex worlds or realms, where Earth is considered the Outer Realm. Sisters Taggie and Jemima discovered in book #1 that their parents are from an other realm, royalty in fact which makes them princesses with magical powers. Several princes in the five realms have been assassinated or gone missing, even Taggie has been attacked, who is behind it all and what else have they got planned and what can they do about it.
__

20) Where shall we run to? by Alan Garner (2018)
memoir
Loved this. Garner takes us for a stroll through his earliest memories of childhood in the Cheshire village of Alderley Edge. Nostalgic and rustic, just wonderful. His writing is spare and elegant.

21) The Fish Girl by Mirandi Riwoe (2017)
novella

Riwoe takes W. Somerset Maugham's story, The Four Dutchmen and re-writes it from the point of view of the ‘Malay trollope’. This was a winner of the 2017 Seizure Viva La Novella Prize and I loved every inch of it, though the ending is fairly harsh. A young Indonesian girl goes from her small fishing village to work in the kitchen of a Dutch merchant in the nearby town.
This was my fourth Seizure Viva La Novella Prize novella read, I've liked all of them so far.

22) What the night sings by Vesper Stamper (2018)
YA illustrated novel

Winner of the 2019 Sydney Taylor Book Award for outstanding books for children and teens that authentically portray the Jewish experience. Stamper was an artist who suffered an injury to her arm in a road accident, resulting in partial paralysis which made it impossible for her to continue in her career path. This book is a result of her journey to adapt and combines a limited ink illustration style with a story that grew into a novel.
It's a Holocaust novel that combines the present experience of Gerta in a displaced persons camp after the war with her prewar memories and also her time in Auschwitz, where she survived by playing her father's viola in the 'welcoming' orchestra. Gerta must come to terms with her identity and her grief so her life can begin again.
Just beautiful.

This is a novel that has pictures, though it is an unusual size and from that it looks like it could be a graphic novel, it is not.

_

23) The Order of the Day by Éric Vuillard (2017 French) (2018 English)
historical fiction

This won the 2017 Prix Goncourt and is a very short interesting read about how the German industrialists and others positioned themselves to Hitler before World War 2 began....and how some of these companies are still thriving. How politicians in France, England and Austria allowed Hitler to walk all over them.

24) The Fortune of the Rougons by Émile Zola (1870)
fiction

Les Rougon-Macquart Series #1. I'm hoping to read about 6 of this series this year. There is a shared read going on in the LT 2019 category group. I started reading my library's e-book edition and then noticed Lisa from anzlitlover's review where she revelled in the latest Oxford World Classics editions for their fresh translations, so I bought the first three editions to try. They are fairly inexpensive from Book Depository.
This first book introduces us to the Rogon-Macquart family, who live in the south of France in a town, Plassans. There is one legitimate son to Adelaide and her gardener husband, and after his death, two illegitimate children to her lover, a poacher. The book is about the fortunes of these children and their families at the time of the 1851 coup d'état. Quite dense and political but highly enjoyable for all that.

25) Mud by Emily Thomas (2018)
YA

I loved this, and I think the cover art is quite spectacular. Another book about a mixed up teen who has lost her mother and whose father is in a relationship that leads to marriage. The new wife and children don't move in. In an effort to save money the father moves his blended family to an historical Thames sailing barge in Essex, which is run down, cramped and leaky, a nightmare of a place to live in most ways. It also means changing schools, all things that Lydia doesn't want to do.
Quite a stunning story, fresh and appealing. I loved all the brothers and sisters from both sides of the family. The parents less so. The book is set in 1979.
This has been longlisted for the (UK) Carnegie Medal. Well deserved.

Spoilt for choice with that little lot, Kerry. Thank you for the update and plethora of book bullets.

26) All The Green Year by Don Charlwood (1965)
fiction

At long last an ANZAC read for my bingo up in post #4 - Read a book with an animal/bird on the cover.
This was a lovely read about coming of age in the year 1929 on the Mornington Peninsula, near Melbourne in Australia. Apparently the book has been a set text for many Australians in high school. This is a great read about surviving school and family while 14yrs old and about to sit the all important exam which decides your future. In the meantime there are adventures to be had, including riding a runaway circus camel to school. While Charlie has lots of fun escapades the book has a serious side. Charlie's family move in with their grandfather, a big old house, 'Thermopylae', set right on a cliff above the sea. Grandfather still thinks he's on a ship and often spends the evenings out on the verandah, navigating through storms etc.

>100 PaulCranswick: Thanks Paul, two more reviews to go.

27) Peace by Aristophanes (421 B.C.)
play

I wanted to read this play after loving Martin Millar's hilarious The Goddess of Daisies and Buttercups which has Aristophanes as the main character trying to stage the play way back then.
So I can't believe how great this play is, a little crude at times but very funny and now I'll have to read the rest of the plays in the book, not just this one.

28) Baby by Annaleese Jochems (2017)
fiction

Debut novel by a young New Zealand writer. I didn't love this, another book where it's hard to like any character, but still you keep reading to see what is going to happen next. Cynthia is a young woman, a bit of a train wreck, she has the hots for her yoga instructor, Anahera. The two of them run off together, Anahera wants to get away from her husband so it's convenient to fall in with the childish Cynthia. Cynthia rips off her father to the tune of $16,000 and with the money they travel north to Paihia and buy a run down old boat, 'Baby'....and things happen. Cynthia is addicted to watching reality tv on her solar powered cell phone, so one begins to wonder what is Cynthia's reality. Anahera, a fitness freak goes on long swims every day to a nearby island.
At times crude then sinister and mysterious, the plot thickens. Not a novel I can recommend, though it did get shortlisted in the NZ Book Awards for fiction, so others have enjoyed it. There are layers to the book, I just didn't want to dig deep into understanding this one.

Plans for March

His Excellency by Emile Zola
My sister Rosa by Justine Larbalestier - ANZAC bingo
Bulibasha by Witi Ihimaera - current read
And the land lay still by James Robertson - start reading at least
Folk by Zoe Gilbert
The Faithful Spy: Dietrich Bonhoeffer and the Plot to Kill Hitler by John Hendrix
The bookshop girl by Sylvia Bishop - children's book

other library books i'd like to get to -
The coming of the whirlpool by Andrew McGahan - Ship Kings #1
The Book of Dirt by Bram Pressler
Father & I by Carlo Gébler - memoir
Mind on fire by Arnold Thomas Fanning - another memoir
The gravedigger's daughter by Joyce Carol Oates
Coming Soon: The Flood by Zvi Jagendorf

I look forward to your thoughts about And the Land Lay Still, Kerry. I bought a copy of it during a past visit to Edinburgh, and I'd like to get to it this summer.

>98 avatiakh: New translations! Ooo!! *Ammy cart here I come*

>99 avatiakh: Agreed; that's a lovely cover indeed.

>105 avatiakh: Bulibasha keeps getting autorecommended to me since I bought The Uncle's Story from Ammy some time back. I'll haunt the thread to see if you have had any thoughts.

Hi Richard. My daughter studied Bulibasha last year as part of a NZ Lit paper and really enjoyed it. I was meant to read it then to show some solidarity but never got going on it. There's a 2016 movie out there as well, Mahana, The Patriarch was the international title.

Happy reading! It looks like you have great March plans.

>94 avatiakh: Added this straight to the wishlist - Cheshire is next door, and I love memoirs of childhood like this.

>109 banjo123: I need to get reading. Had a couple of bookless days already.

>110 charl08: I have some more of Garner's fiction to get through. This was a reminder to pull them off the shelves.

29) The bookshop girl by Sylvia Bishop (2017)
childrens
An amusing juvenile read. Property was found as an abandoned baby in the lost property cupboard at a bookshop. She was adopted by the owner, Netty. Property has a terrible secret - she can't read and uses all sorts of tricks to cover it up. When Netty & family win Montgomery Book Emporium in a raffle, it turns out to be a big adventure.

Welcome home, Kerry. I need to read Garner's memoir--I have loved his juvenile books so.

I would love to win a book emporium in a raffle but I dare say I wouldn't quite so easily part with any of the books, Kerry.

>113 ronincats: Roni, it was delightful

>114 PaulCranswick: Hi Paul, story was a bit juvenile but I also would love to win a bookshop in a raffle.



A couple of trips to the library and so many requests have arrived as I unfroze a few holds.
Dear Zealots by Amos Oz - essays
The Book Case by Dave Shelton - children's
Oriori: : A Maori child is born, from conception to birth by Robyn Kahukiwa - I've read this before, Kahukiwa's paintings combined with poems by Roma Potiki - will reread and pass to my daughter who is doing a paper on The Maori World this semester and I remembered being quite wowed by this back when it came out, I wish I had my own copy.
Once we were brothers by Ronald Balson - Holocaust fiction
The overnight kidnapper by Andrea Camilleri - latest Montalbano
The state of Maori rights by Margaret Mutu - one of the recommended texts for daughter's course
The winter of the witch by Katherine Arden - fantasy
The assassination of Brangwain Spurge by M.T. Anderson - his latest for children
Out of the Dark by Gregg Hurwitz - latest Orphan X
Meariki: the quest for truth (The Matawehi Fables) by Helen Pearse-Otene - graphic novel

Wow! Looks like you have plenty to work on Kerry.

Oh goodness, the lineup for the Auckland Writers Festival is fantastic, there are about 20 events I want to go to, now to work out what I will go to. Bookings open tomorrow so I need to get in early.

AnthonyBeevor, Markus Zusak, Douglas Coupland, Sarah Perry, Jenny Erpenbek, Kirsty Gunn, Lloyd Jones & his son Avi Duckor-Jones, Artemis Cooper, Susan Orlean, Andrew Sean Greer, John Boyne, Anshel Pfeffer, Witi Ihimaera, Albert Wendt, Kamila Shamsie, Anne Michaels, C. K. Stead.

many sessions overlap - so decisions need to be made.

>117 avatiakh: I think I'd be sorely tempted to camp out! What a great list of authors. How many will you try and see?

Hi Charlotte - I just edited my post to say that the sessions do overlap so some will be a tossup. I also like to listen to new writers or those I haven't come across before. Several sessions are free so those help balance out the ticketed events.
So far Antony Beevor, Markus Zusak, Anshel Pfeffer, Witi Ihimeaera with Albert Wendt and Vincent O'Sullivan - a NZ Wars historian. Kirsty Gunn might be interesting and also Sarah Perry but there might be conflicts with these.
I used to volunteer and got to see almost anything I wanted as I worked earlier in the week for the school days and then had a pass that got me into everything at the actual festival if a seat was available. I gave up on the volunteering, I found the 6 days just too intensive, then the following year had a boring lineup and I didn't go to a single event. Last year I only went to one event.

Hello Kerry. I hope all is well with you.

Do you have any plans to read the new Orphan X, Out of the Dark?

I think I'd want to hear Jenny Erpenbeck: I've really enjoyed her books and would be interested to know what she thought about her work being translated, and the reception to her books outside Germany.

>120 brodiew2: Yes, I have it out from the library right now.

>121 charl08: I've put her in my slot for Fri, though it means staying late. I've only read one of her books, Visitation.
Patrick de Witt is another guest speaker, I missed him first time round, but will probably go to a free event with NZ writers instead.
There are two chances for Artemis Cooper - either a talk on memory or one that focuses on Patrick Leigh Fermor. I generally chose by who they're talking too as well as sometimes it just follows a script and I'd rather go for a more dynamic experience.

Like Brodie, Kerry, I'm an Orphan X fan. I had fun with that new one.

I just finished Out of the Dark yesterday. It definitely was fun!

>120 brodiew2: >123 jnwelch: >124 drneutron: I was going to read the latest Montalbano first, but you all have convinced me to drop my other reading and go for Out of the Dark this weekend.

30) Mind on fire a memoir of madness and recovery by Arnold Thomas Fanning (2018)
memoir

Wellcome Prize 2019 longlist
This book was mentioned by several Irish writers as a good read in an Irish Times Best of 2018 article I read back in January. Fanning writes about his adventures in mental health when he was in his late 20s early 30s, starting in 1998. He was a fairly successful playwright-filmmaker, and working happily in the theatre world when his life just fell apart at a writers retreat as he suffered from growing paranoia and sleeplessness. His manic behaviour turned away friends, family and acquaintances as he tried several times to pull his life back together, till he hit rock bottom and was living on the streets in London for months.
The book opens with Fanning at Heathrow Airport trying to get on flights to Sumatra and Israel as he's convinced that only he can offer these countries the help they need.
I enjoyed this book for what it was, an honest account of the worst, most despairing and paranoid time in the life of a creative, talented young man, how he became his own worse enemy and yet the right diagnosis of his bipolar condition just didn't happen till it was nearly too late. The other aspect of the book that makes it a worthwhile read is that Fanning didn't rely on his own memory to write this, he went back to the institutions, estranged friends and family etc to rebuild the actual facts of his actions.

'In seeking to tell the story of an individual known to him who had undergone a terrifying descent into madness, the Dublin writer had to crawl his way through piles of police accounts, psychiatric hospital records and testimonies of doctors, family and friends. Being debriefed on the full litany of behaviours and episodes this person had inflicted on themselves and others while in the throes of a severe mental health collapse was distressing for Fanning. Especially as that person was him.
"I discovered things about myself that I had remembered differently," the 49-year-old says quietly. "People telling me I did this, that I actually said this. Some of it was disturbing. Was that really me?"
Fanning wrote the book not because he had mental illness but because he was a writer and writers tell stories. Mind on Fire came about after Fanning's essay 'Rough Sleeper' was published in The Dublin Review Winter 2016-17 edition. When editor Brendan Barrington saw the name, he got in touch to know if this was the noted playwright of the critically acclaimed Roger Casement drama McKenna's Fort. It was indeed, and after meeting to discuss the essay, Fanning was encouraged to expand it into book form.

https://www.independent.ie/entertainment/books/book-news/suicidal-homeless-paran...

31) Journey outside by Mary Q. Steele (1969)
childrens

I picked this book up after reading Amber's review back in January. A community of raft dwellers live inside a cave system, travelling for generations to the 'Better Place'. Dilar, probably about 12 or 13 decides to leave his community's beliefs behind and prove they are wrong. He finds his way out of the caves and goes to explore the world he finds outside.
A good, thought provoking read. My library book had beautiful woodcut illustrations by Rocco Negri.

I'm busy with family research stuff, doing a lot of scanning of photographs and slides at present. I brought home lots of stuff from my mother's cottage awhile back to sort through and digitize so she can find things more easily and I can share digital copies of photos with family. A huge task but made easier with the purchase of a decent scanner that also scans slides and negatives.

Sad to hear about terrorism. Hope you and your Family and Friends are safe.

>128 avatiakh: What a lovely project to do. Family photos are such a treasure, and being able to share them around is really nice.

We are so sad and horrified about the news of the attack in Christchurch. So awful that such a thing could happen anywhere. Thinking of you all.

>129 m.belljackson: Thanks. I got in the car at the supermarket and the radio came on with initial reports of gunshots in Christchurch, story unfolded as I drove home, couldn't believe what a tragedy. The radio host was excellent, realised quickly that the incident was still in progress and kept telling listeners to stay safe, students to go into shops or businesses, but to get off streets, and to do exactly what police tell them and do it quickly.

>130 nittnut: Yes, it has been made extremely easy with my new scanner, an Epson photo V550, bringing all the 1960s slides to life again. I can scan multiple photos at same time and scanner works out what is what for me, I can enhance individual photos through the preview, just wonderful. My mother wrote on the back of most of them, so the captions are time consuming but worthwhile if the photos are going to mean anything in the future. I'm saving them as Tiff files which is maximum size but still working out if that is most useful type for everyday use.
Many with nothing on the back but still fascinating glimpse into the 1920s & 1930s or whenever. My father took lots of photos when he was in the airforce, he was a fitness instructor so lots of gymnastic displays etc.
One of my cousins destroyed all their family photos when she was a child and angry about something so my cousins are eager for anything I can produce, unfortunately it's the side of the family with the least number of photos.
I really like this photo but haven't a clue who anyone is or where it was taken -

Fascinating picture! The expression on the dog's face made me laugh.

I've added >126 avatiakh: to the wishlist. Sounds intriguing.

32) An Iranian Metamorphosis by Mana Neyestani (2014)
graphic memoir
This was picked off the library shelf when browsing their GN section. Around 2005 Neyestani was a cartoonist for the children's section of an Iranian newspaper until his innocent cartoon strip of a boy attacking a cockroach is misinterpreted as an attack on the minority Azeri people and sets off regional riots. He's arrested along with his editor and spends several weeks in an Iranian prison. When out for a short period before his trial and facing a harsh sentence as many people have died in the riots, Neyestani tries unsuccessfully to get a visa for France or Canada, in the end he is able to fly with his wife to Dubai, theoretically for a 3 day holiday, and begins a long process of looking for asylum, a process that takes them to Turkey, Malaysia and China, all without success. All along the way the cockroach haunts his dreams.
Interesting look into the world of people smuggling and how seeking asylum is not always easy for those who really need it as there are many crowding the system and others making a good living by taking their money. An epilogue updates the fate of numerous characters including Neyestani.

>132 charl08: Very appealing photo, just catches the group dynamic very well, some of these photos are quite tiny yet have scanned up beautifully.

Went to another Popup Globe performance this afternoon, Measure for Measure. It was great entertainment and being a groundling is always fun. Just have Hamlet to catch before the season finishes for another year, we were meant to golast weekend but Dana was not feeling great and the tickets are only $5 each.

wandering around the groundling area before the start


A surprise party for the Duke.

singing and dancing with the executioner

>135 avatiakh: Wow, that looks lively!

>117 avatiakh: The line-up for Auckland does look fantastic. I would like to hear several of those. We have gone to the Cambridge Literary Festival for the last couple of years but unfortunately this spring it clashes with us being away.

>128 avatiakh: It’s great looking back at those old family photos isn’t it. My grandfather’s family seemed to have all been very keen on having their photo taken and I’ve got quite a few from before the First World War, which are great. I’m thinking of getting them touched up (they’re a little dog-eared) and making some sort of collage out of them.

>135 avatiakh: That looks like so much fun, Kerry! What a great idea to have Pop Up Shakespeare. We have Shakespeare in the Parks here in the good weather.

Great review of Mind on Fire, Kerry. That may be my favorite book of the year so far (although I've only finished 11 books to date).

>135 avatiakh: Lovely photos of the performance of Measure for Measure! That looks like a blast.

>139 kidzdoc: Hi Darryl - yep, that was a really good read.
I'm hoping to get to Hamlet before the season ends but daughter is feeling overwhelmed by studies and so we haven't booked as yet. Standing for $5 each makes it a very attractive afternoon outing as long as the weather holds out.

>138 jnwelch: Hi Joe - it's a semi-permanent structure made out of reinforced scaffolding. Works a treat for us.

>137 SandDune: Hi Rhian - I still haven't bought any tickets, sort of left my mind after the Christchurch thing. Some years the line-up is very attractive and others I couldn't much care. I'll probably book over the weekend.
Make sure you scan your photos and have digital copies before you mount them into a collage. you never know when an family member will want them for research. I'm almost done with the scanning and now need to work on rebuilding some of my mother's older albums, lots of photos pulled out over the years, so many gaps.

>136 quondame: That was quite the entertaining play.

33) Out of the dark by Gregg Hurwitz (2019)
thriller

Orphan X #4. Excellent entry in the Orphan X series. Lots of action and suspense. Hope he keeps writing these.

34) Awkward by Svetlana Chmakova (2015)
graphic novel

First in a trilogy. Fun story set in a school about the rivalry between the art and science clubs. The main character is quite shy and needs to right a wrong that happened on her first day at the school. The art style is appealing.

35) The overnight kidnapper by Andrea Camilleri (2015 Italian) (2019 Eng)
crime
Montalbano #23. Another that I'd already seen on tv first though that didn't detract from reading this as I had forgotten whodunit by the time I picked up the book. Enjoyable addition to series.

36) Long way down by Jason Reynolds (2017)
YA
A verse novel that's won or been nominated for a bunch of awards; Newbery Medal Nominee (2018), National Book Award Nominee for Young People's Literature (2017), Odyssey Award Nominee (2018), Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Young Adult Literature (2017), Edgar Award for Best Young Adult (2018), Michael L. Printz Award Nominee (2018), Rhode Island Teen Book Award Nominee (2019), Coretta Scott King Award Nominee for Author Honor (2018), Amelia Elizabeth Walden Award Nominee (2018), Lincoln Award Nominee (2020), Goodreads Choice Award Nominee for Poetry (2017), Carnegie Medal Nominee (2019), NAACP Image Award Nominee for Youth/Teens (2018).

...and deserving of all this attention. Set in a tough urban neighbourhood, Will's older brother has been shot and Will is riding the elevator down with a gun stuffed into his pants ready to abide by The Rules and go after his killer, or who he thinks is the killer. Riding the elevator with him is a succession of ghosts which shows how The Rules can keep young men stuck in a cycle of violence and death.

37) Meariki: the quest for truth by Helen Pearse-Otene (2015)
graphic novel

Quite a good short quest story that unites various aspects of Maori myths. Meariki is a slave girl who must seek her mistress who has been snatched by a demon-wizard on the back of a giant hawk.

>143 avatiakh: Can't wait for that one to come out here.

Have a great weekend, Kerry.

>145 avatiakh: That looks interesting!

>144 avatiakh: Oooh! You got me with that one.

>145 avatiakh: Sounds really good - fingers crossed it comes over here!

38) The Winter of the Witch by Katherine Arden (2018)
fantasy

Very fine conclusion to the Winternight trilogy. I loved this and the previous two. Richly embedded in Russian folklore, this trilogy is one of my top fantasy reads ever.

39) My sister, the serial killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite (2017)
fiction
Dark, semi-comic novel about poor long suffering sister, Korede, who seems destined to forever be cleaning up her beautiful younger sister's disastrous affairs. Now her sister has set her sights on the man who Korede's heart secretly desires. The reader scarcely notices that the book is set in Lagos. A quick entertaining read.

>146 PaulCranswick: >147 quondame: >148 Berly: >149 charl08: Hi everyone. I've been terrible with keeping up on my own thread this year, let alone visit others. I've also slowed down with my reading. I've been doing a lot of family history and tidying of the family photographs, quite time consuming but the end is in sight.

I've got the next NZ graphic novel, Arohanui: Revenge of the Fey and hope to read it this week. I'll be away for the next few days visiting New Plymouth, hope to read a couple of books as well.

40) Arohanui: Revenge of the Fey by Helen Pearse-Otene (2015)
graphic novel

The Matawehi Fables #2. This didn't seem as good as the first one. A tribe does a deal with a mystical tribe, in exchange for their chief's newborn, they get the use of the Mauri Stone for 100 moons. The Mauri Stone is vital for them to feed their tribe, it makes the land abundantly fertile. Yet when the time comes to give up the child, now grown to a young man, it is hard, almost impossible to turn him over especially for his twin sister.

41) Brave by Svetlana Chmakova (2017)
graphic novel
Berry Brook Middle School #2
Follows on from her Awkward GN. Set in the same middle school, this GN focuses on Jensen, a tubby boy who is having to deal with making friends and bullying. This was really good, I was impressed. The artwork is very cute.

>152 avatiakh: Wish I was struggling as badly with my reading as you are with yours, Kerry. You've read almost double my total.

Have a great weekend.

42) The Kerry Caravan by Patricia Lynch (1967)
children's fiction
Patricia Lynch is a renown Irish storyteller, I read the biography, Patricia Lynch, Storyteller about 11 years ago and yet this is the first book I've read of hers. I have a few others including The Turfcutter's Donkey and The bookshop on the quay, they do feel a bit dated but also recall a more innocent time in Irish lives.
This one is about two families that travel by caravan from Dublin to County Kerry where they'll start a new life in the countryside.
Delightful reading for the younger reader. I'm going to look out for Secret Lands: The World of Patricia Lynch by Robert Dunbar as well.

43) Wundersmith: The Calling of Morrigan Crow by Jessica Townsend (2018)
children's fiction

Nevermoor #2. The second book in the series or trilogy about Morrigan Crow. Highly enjoyable read set in a magical world. I liked this just as much as the first book.

44) The Assassination of Brangwain Spurge by M.T. Anderson & Eugene Yelchin (2018)
children's fiction

Lovely, lovely, lovely. Anderson has teamed up with Yelchin to produce a fascinating story, with some chapters being solely illustrations. Brangwain Spurge is an elf historian, he's sent into the Goblin kingdom to deliver a peace-making artifact to the Goblin Emperor, unknown to him the artifact contains a massive bomb. On arrival he is sent to stay with the goblin archivist Werfel for a few days before the presentation. Cue massive cultural misunderstandings. From the book description: 'Subverting convention, award-winning creators M. T. Anderson and Eugene Yelchin pair up for an anarchic, outlandish, and deeply political saga of warring elf and goblin kingdoms.'
I loved this, read most of it in a couple of sittings.

45) The Midnight Hour by Benjamin Read & Laura Trinder (2019)
children's fiction

Another magical story, set partly in a dark otherworld London, where all the darker elements of the magical world are stuck by a spell that is caught up in the mechanism of Big Ben.
This was another enjoyable read. I get a lot of my children's fiction recommendations from a blog, Mr Ripleys Enchanted Books. I've just started Quinn Sosna-Spear's The Remarkable Inventions of Walter Mortinson after reading a blog post on the book.

46) Psynode by Marlee Jane Ward (2017)
novella

Orphancorp #2. This dystopian novella picks up right after book #1 with Mirii desperate to find out what happened to her best friend, Vu. She signs up to work at Psynode and finds herself working in some nightmarish Amazon-type warehouse, all the merchandise to be collected is set on outlandishly high structures and the workers must scale the structure like monkeys, with their target times always reducing as they improve their efforts.
Great read and lucky for me, the final third book just published in April so I was able to continue right on.


47) Prisoncorp by Marlee Jane Ward (2019)
novella

Orphancorp #3. The concluding volume, Mirii and her friends are now incarcerated in one of the dreadful Prisoncorp prisons. Stuck out in the desert in the middle of nowhere, there is nowhere to go even if you escape, but escape they must as they'll die before their sentences are up.

48) Killing Commendatore by Haruki Murakami (2018 English) (2017 Japanese)
fiction

A strange read, not as good as his 1Q84 but compelling enough to persevere. A story about an artist who savours a quiet mountain hideaway after his divorce but finds more than solitude once there. The story is very slow paced, some of the characters are mysterious, and Murakami never gives us a full explanation to some of the creepiness that's encountered. This was published in 2 volumes in Japan, so it's a big read.
I still have his Wind-Up Bird Chronicle on my to read pile.

I've been away from home these past two weeks, short trips away, but each one took away from my reading time. I had to pay a fine to the library for keeping the Murakami and another book out beyond their due dates, still worked out cheaper than buying them on kindle though. Anyway I still haven't bought my Auckland Writers Festival tickets so that's my next task.
I got notified yesterday that the Popup Globe will have a removeable winter roof and so they will be putting on performances over the winter, so there will be new Shakespeare productions to go to in July/August - Twelfth Night & Two Gentlemen from Verona plus 1 or 2 others.

Going to use the start of May to clear some library books and finish books that I put aside in the early months of the year -

Father and I: a memoir by Carlo Gébler
Man of the Mist: a biography of Elsdon Best by E.W. Craig
The faithful spy: Dietrich Bonhoeffer and the Plot to Kill Hitler by John Hendrix
The Remarkable Inventions of Walter Mortinson by Quinn Sosna-Spear
Hunter by Jack Heath
Bulibasha by Witi Ihimaera
Daniel Deronda by George Eliot - audio
Bridge of Clay by Markus Zusak

Hi, Kerry.

Good review of Long Way Down. I’ve been seeing positive buzz, but didn’t really understand what the book was about. Adding it to my WL now.

I thought My Sister, the Serial Killer was a quick, entertaining read, too, and placing Killing Commendatorebelow 1Q84 seems right to me. Compelling enough to persevere - yup. I particularly liked what he was saying about the creative process. The Windup Bird Chronicle is amazing. TWBC, Kafka on the Shore, and 1Q84 are my favorites of his (I’m a completist for this guy), and I have a soft spot for his weird and wonderful Hard-Boiled Wonderland.

Hi Joe - Yes, I loved Kafka on the Shore & Wild Sheep Chase. Will move the Windup Bird up my tbr pile, wondering if to make it my next audio if I ever finish listening to Daniel Deronda which I enjoy but is taking forever to get through.
I just finished a graphic novel, Lady Killer, rather fun.

So spent about a lot of time on the Auckland Writers Festival site and have bought tickets to seven events, will also go to at least one freebie as well. A couple that I wanted were sold out, a few clashes and some on too late at night after an early start so I ruled them out. Also ruled out Sunday events.
1) Ann Michaels - second choice for this time slot
2) Vincent O'Malley - NZ Wars: The Michael King Lecture Award
3) Artemis Cooper
4) Markus Zusak
5) 5 NZ Writers - Tessa Duder, Witi Ihimaera, Fiona Kidman, Vincent O’Sullivan, and Albert Wendt
6) Kirsty Gunn
7) Anshel Pfeffer - talking about Israeli politics

Decided not to stay out late for Jenny Erpenbeck and Antony Beevor
Missed morning session panel with Antony Beevor - sold out
Sarah Perry - sold out
John Boyne - I've heard before

Free event - Home & Away with NZ writers - Tina Makereti & Stephanie Johnson
there's two free events on Sunday - maybe I'll go to it - Masters & Mentors with Patrick deWitt, Sarah Perry and Carl Shuker and another event with Joy Cowley. Will decide on the day.

49) Hunter by Jack Heath (2019)
crime

Timothy Blake #2. Good second installment in the series. Timothy Blake has an ugly secret and a past of isolation and abandonment.

Here's an extract from Carpe Librum blog on his first book:
Recipe for Hangman by Jack Heath
Step 1. Take the pace of any James Patterson or Matthew Reilly novel.
Step 2. Add a gruesome yet likeable protagonist; like Dexter from Jeff Lindsay.
Step 3. Make him an anti-hero you can root for like Joe from You by Caroline Kepnes but without the sex.
Step 4. Add a measure of cannibalism from The Silence of the Lambs by Thomas Harris.
Step 5. Combine with the shock factor of Stephen King's writing.
Step 6. Bake for 376 pages and your novel will be ready.
Step 7. Consume Hangman in as few sittings as possible.
Step 8. Enjoy every morsel.

https://www.carpelibrum.net/2018/02/review-hangman-by-jack-heath.html

50) The Poetry Girl by Beverley Dunlop (1983)
children's fiction

This New Zealand book has long been on my shelves, I love the cover and have often picked it up to look at. Finally I've read it. It's a rural coming of age in the 1950s. Narrated by 12 yr old Natalia over two years, it's about her struggles at school and home. Kept back a year due to illness and lack of aptitude, Natalia recites poetry in her head during tense encounters at school and when her parents are arguing.
Receiving no support from the adults in her life and also finding it almost impossible to make friends Natalia finds life particularly grim.
Quite an unusual read as Dunlop doesn't give Natalia a rosy ending, rather just lets her struggle to maturity where she can see an eventual escape from school. The adults are fairly disappointing, with problems of their own.
The cover art is by Lyn Kreigler who I know well from her illustrations of Dorothy Butler picturebooks.

51) Daniel Deronda by George Eliot (1876)
fiction

Listened to the audio. What an engaging story. I listened to this slowly over a number of months and was totally absorbed. Deronda, a serious young gentleman, is caught between two young women who need his help for different reasons. Gwendolyn is from a good family now fallen on hard times while Mirah is a Jewish woman whom Deronda saves from drowning. The book ventures into the Jewish world as well as high society. Deronda has never known who his parents are and that also becomes part of the story.

I've now read three books by Eliot and will be looking out for more.

52) Umbrella Academy Vol. 1 by Gerard Way & Gabriel Bá (2007)
graphic novel

I watched the first few episodes of the tv series on Netflix and then waited a long while for the library's only copy to come to me, quite the queue which is even longer since I put my name down for it. I was keen to read it as I'm a fan of Gabriel Bá's art and I found the tv story quite inventive. I found the GN narrative a bit disappointing, the tv script has fleshed it out quite a bit. Anyway, I'll go back to the tv series now I've read the GN.

And on the subject of Graphic novel to screen, last night I started watching a film, Atomic Blonde, and noticed in the opening credits that it was based on the GN The coldest city which I read last year.

53) Bulibasha: King of the Gypsies by Witi Ihimaera (1994)
fiction

One I've been reading on and off all year. A great story about two rural Maori clans that compete and fight against each other for overall supremacy. The Mahana family is ruled by Tamihana, the grandfather, a strict and dictatorial figure. The story is told by defiant grandson, Simeon, as the clan competes in all sorts of contests, sport and cultural as well as the national Golden Fleece shearing contest against the Poata clan, led by Rupeni Poata. There's a reason for the clash, one that only becomes clear towards the end of the book, several versions of the truth litter the pages before that.
The novel was part of my daughter's NZ literature paper that she did last year. I'll be hearing Witi Ihimaera talk at the Writer's Festival in a couple of days so will take her copy along to be signed by him.

54) Perceval, the Story of the Grail by Chrétien de Troyes (1181)
text

The story of Perceval, one of King Arthur's knights with a little addition of Sir Gwain. Oh, I loved Perceval, such a noble but fairly naive knight. The texts includes some adventures of Sir Gwain.
I read this a few weeks ago.

55) Lancelot: the knight of the cart by Chrétien de Troyes (1181)
text

Interesting long story of Lancelot that shows how his love for Guinevere interfered with his duties as a knight of chivalry.

56) A Distant Father by Antonio Skármeta (2010)
novella

Quiet story set in rural Chile. The young school teacher wonders about his father who has travelled back to his native France and left the son and mother behind.

>171 avatiakh: >172 avatiakh: Thank for mentioning these two books, Kerry.
Despite having read and liked Yvain, The Knight of the Lion, I didn't know there were more by Chrétien de Troyes. They both are available in Dutch translation at my local library, so I will keep an eye out for them.

Hi Anita, the Perceval story is really quite fun, he's such a doofus at the start. I wasn't that in love with Knight of the Cart, Lancelot is very annoying through most of it with his love for Guinevere outruling everything else. The book has a good afterword.
My daughter is studying Arthurian Lit at the moment so I read them to be able to help her discuss some finer points for any assignments. Now I'm reading Sir Gwain and the Green Knight, the Simon Armitage translation. She's having a tough time with lots of anxiety problems so I try to help like this. Today we're meeting up in the city to go to a free talk by C.K. Stead at the Auckland Writers Festival. She has his All Visitors Ashore which she studied as part of a NZ Literature paper to get signed by him.
Tomorrow I have more events to attend and on Saturday a full day.

>150 avatiakh: I finished reading The Bear and the Nightingale about an hour ago. I thoroughly enjoyed it and was hoping the other books in the series wouldn't be a letdown. Then I went on LT, opened your thread, and voila! a rousing recommendation. I'm looking forward to getting the next one.

>178 labfs39: Oh yes, they are all really absorbing reads once you get going. The last book is based around the Battle of Kulikovo in 1380. Book 3 continues straight on from the second book so you'll be able to dive straight in.

I'm not going in to the final day of the Writers Festival today, after two days I've had enough of the crush of people. Unfortunately the venue is in the process of being upgraded and so feels much more claustrophobic than usual out in the public areas - big crush at book stores, bars and cafe had long queues as did the queues for signing and getting into the events themselves, was really difficult to navigate. My daughter came at last minute to two events yesterday and we couldn't sit together for Markus Zusak - I was in the circle and she was up in the balcony - but Markus was a very entertaining speaker with an interviewer who just let him go on long rambles which we all loved. I was very impressed with the presenters this time round, so glad the organisers have moved on from some of the predictable ones from previous festivals.

57) Sir Gawain and the Green Knight by unknown, translated by Simon Armitage (1397)
poem

I loved this. Armitage has brought the poem out of Middle English and into the modern day with a delightful interpretation of the text. The story is full of beautiful imagery as Sir Gwain goes to meet his fate at the hands of the Green Knight.

58) Bone Talk by Candy Gourlay (2018)
YA
Really interesting read, about the arrival of Americans in the Philippines around 1899. The book is set in the Cordillera highlands with the main character, Samkad about to undergo his initiation into manhood.
Ex-pat Filipino writer Gourlay writes about her initial ideas for the novel here: https://www.booktrust.org.uk/news-and-features/features/2018/october/another-sto...

>173 avatiakh: Ooohhh I had no idea what else Skármeta had written besides Paciencia Ardiente! (Il Postino's original title) You've book-bulleted me, Kerry. Oh, and also with Bulibasha but I've had that one for a while now.

Hi Richard - I still haven't read The Postman and picked this one up at the library because it was novella length and I've been enjoying reading novellas of late.
Bulibasha was a good read. There's a movie too, Mahana.

59) Descending Stories: Showa Genroku Rakugo Shinju, Vol 1 by Haruko Kumota (2017 Eng)
manga

Saw someone mention this as a good manga series so had a look at the first one. Interesting to learn about rakugo. Possible that I'll continue to next one.
Rakugo (落語, literally "fallen words") is a form of Japanese verbal entertainment. The lone storyteller (落語家 rakugoka) sits on stage, called kōza (高座).

>165 avatiakh: I have read a couple of Murakami books but I do like to spread them as they are not the easiest of reads for me.

>180 avatiakh: I remember Richard loving that one too when he read it a few years ago. Armitage has just been appointed as Poet Laureate in the UK and I have plenty of his anthologies. A favourite.

Have a lovely Sunday, Kerry

60) The wisdom of dead men by Oisín McGann (2009)
YA

The Wildenstern Saga #2. I read the first book about 8 years ago and really enjoyed it, not sure why it took so long to get to the second book of the trilogy. I enjoyed reentering this steampunk Victorian world once again. The Wildenstern family is different, there is something in their blood that makes them stand apart and gives them advantages and they are now the most powerful and ruthless family in Ireland.

61) The Boxer: The True Story of Holocaust Survivor Harry Haft by Reinhard Kleist (2014)
graphic novel

GN based on the book by Haft's son, Allan Haft. Tells the story of Harry Haft, a Polish Jew who survived the death camps by boxing for the Nazis, then goes to the US after the war looking for his first love. Good telling of a true story. The artwork is quite gauche, like the war comics from the 1950s, and the cover is not appealing at all.

A couple of years ago I read Jean-Jacques Greif's YA The Fighter which is also based on a true experience in the death camps and which I recommend highly.

Reading for June:

I'm continuing on my go slow reading and LT posting, just not sure when it turns around but one can't hurry the reading process, it has to remain an enjoyable pastime.

I have a few library books to get done -

The Last Watchman of Old Cairo by Michael David Lukas - National Jewish Book Award 2018 Fiction
Father & I: a memoir by Carlo Gébler - Gébler is the son of Irish writers Edna O'Brien & Ernest Gébler
A long night in Paris by Dov Alfon - Israeli espionage

also current reads -
Bridge of Clay by Markus Zusak - went to hear him talk at the recent writers festival, I'm a fangirl and have finally pushed through the start which is a bit disjointed with lots of story threads
The faithful spy: Dietrich Bonhoeffer and the Plot to Kill Hitler by John Hendrix - a GN that has lot of handwritten text, making it hard to read
Elysium Fire by Alastair Reynolds - scifi on audio

and a few other TIOLI entries -
The Lais of Marie de France by Marie de France - my Arthurian category challenge read
HHhH by Laurent Binet - long on my tbr
My sister Rosa - Justine Larbalestier - ANZAC challenge read

others out from the library and less likely I'll have time to get to -
The storyteller by Pierre Jarawan - set in Lebanon
Scrublands by Chris Hammer - Aussie crime
The friends of Eddie Coyle by George V. Higgins - crime
Death of a nightingale by Lene Kaaberbøl - crime, #3 in series
The unpunished vice by Edmund White - reading memoir
The secret of Vesalius by Jordi Llobregat - gripping new Frankenstein set in 19th century Barcelona

Gosh, they all sound very tempting. I don't know how you triage them!

Hi Richard - I'm easily distracted but find the crime novels usually quick reads. I request lots of new books that I come across online, twitter is my new place for finding the hype on newly published books, so my library pile always looks interesting but alas I can't seem to read at pace these days.

>188 avatiakh: I hope you get to HhhH, it was a very good read for me. We have recorded the TV adaption and hope to get to it soon.

Hi Anita - so I made a start on HHhH last night following your recommendation. Not my priority read as yet. The Last Watchman of Old Cairo is due back at the library in a couple of days with no renewal and it's quitte a good read so far.


62) Crush by Svetlana Chmakova (2018)
children's graphic novel

Awkward #3. The series follows various students at Berrybrook Middle School. This time it's Jorge, discovering he has feelings for Jasmine. He's helped and hindered by his friends and others. I probably like #2 best, but Jorge is a very endearing character.

>191 FAMeulstee: Echoing the praise for HHhH and hoping you can squeeze it in. I thought it really well done.

ETA: I've visited Lidice, the village that paid the price for Heydrich's assassination. Worth reading about Lidice as an important part of the story that deserves to be known.

63) The Remarkable Inventions of Walter Mortinson by Quinn Sosna-Spear (2019)
childrens

I've been reading this one over a few weeks on my phone. The story is quite magical but ultimately unengaging for me at least, which is why I took so long to finish it.

Here's the blurb which helps understand why I picked it up in the first place - 'In this sweeping and inventive debut novel that’s perfect for fans of Roald Dahl, Neil Gaiman, and Tim Burton, a prodigal inventor flees his home to find his destiny.
In the humdrum town of Moormouth, Walter Mortinson’s unusual inventions cause nothing but trouble. After one of his contraptions throws the town into chaos, Walter’s mother demands he cut the nonsense and join the family mortuary business.'

64) Picnic at Hanging Rock by Joan Lindsay (1967)
fiction

ANZAC challenge. I put this down for my ANZAC challenge about 3 years ago so feels good to have finally crossed it off my must-read list. I had started watching the new miniseries of this Australian classic but at the halfway point stopped while I read the book. It's a quick read and compelling and now I can go back to the miniseries and acknowledge the differences between script and the original.
I alternated between a kindle version on my phone and the illustrated hardback edition.
A group of schoolgirls and their governesses go for a picnic at local landmark, Hanging Rock, on Valentines Day in 1900 in rural NSW. Four girls wander off followed by a governess and only one returns.

>193 labfs39: I'm definitely going for HHhH, I just have a few library books to deal with. I'm determined to finish Father & I as I've had it out from the library a few times already.

Today I picked up a French novel - Animalia by Jean-Baptiste Del Amo, it won the Prix de Livre Inter in 2017 and looks like an interesting read despite the cover.

65) The Last Watchman of Old Cairo by Michael David Lukas (2017)
historical fiction

I loved this. Basically a fiction version of Sacred Trash: The Lost and Found World of the Cairo Geniza which I still haven't read. The book tells three interlinking stories from different points in time all involving the Ibn Ezra Synagogue & its genizah in Cairo. Fascinating blend of fact and fiction with many contemporary issues included as well. A very compelling read.
This won the Sami Rohr Prize for Jewish Literature (2019) & the 2018 National Jewish Book Award.

>197 avatiakh: Sounds really good. I'm wondering if that's the same discovery of papers/records that appears in In an Antique Land?

Yes, he mentions Ghosh's book as one of several that he read before writing his.

>198 charl08: I read In an Antique Land many many moons ago and long before enjoying his books on the Opium Wars.
I will lookout for The Last Watchman of Old Cairo.

>197 avatiakh: I'm torn between reading what seems like a well-written fiction piece and the nonfiction, Sacred Trash, which has been on my TBR pile forever. I would probably get through the fiction piece sooner.

Lisa, the novel covers the 1890s when the Scottish sisters & Schechter arrive in Cairo to negotiate taking the artifacts back to England.

>202 avatiakh: Ok, thanks, Lois

66) Father and I: a memoir by Carlo Gébler (2001)
memoir

I read Gébler's children's book, Caught on a train, years ago and loved it, my son read his The Bull Raid, a retelling of the story of the Táin. So was interested in what sort of childhood he had growing up with two writers as parents. This book focuses on his father, Ernest Gébler, and less on his mother, Edna O'Brien. His father sounds fairly awful, he tried to take credit for O'Brien's first two books which launched her career and then when the marriage broke up made life extremely difficult for his two sons. They mainly lived in London, only going back to Ireland in adulthood.
I ordered Gébler's Confessions of a Catastrophist which sounds more like a literary memoir.

67) The Faithful Spy: Dietrich Bonhoeffer and the Plot to Kill Hitler by John Hendrix (2018)
GN - biography

Tells the story of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, one of many Germans who did not support Hitler. He was involved in the groups that plotted to assassinate Hitler and paid with his life. He could have sat out the war in the USA, but went back to confront the Nazi threat as best he could. He was a pastor and had strong convictions. This was hard to get into as the text is in large hand-lettered blocks. The illustrations are superb. A good read once I buckled down.

__
68) The Light Beyond the Forest by Rosemary Sutcliff (1979)
children

Legends of King Arthur #2/3. This covers the story of the quest for Holy Grail by King Arthur's knights. Simplified for young readers this is still riveting reading.

69) The Road to Camlann by Rosemary Sutcliff (1980)
children

Legends of King Arthur #3/3. Tells of the last days of Camelot and how Arthur's son, Mordred manages to turn knight against knight to the ultimate defeat of Arthur's kingdom. Sad but legendary reading.

70) A Long Night in Paris by Dov Alfon (2019 Eng) (2016 Hebrew)
crime

A great espionage read pitting Israeli intelligence operatives & French police against Chinese agents in Paris. The action all takes place over a long day and night. It all kicks off when a young Israeli man is kidnapped in front of his work friends after arriving at Charles de Gaulle airport for a High Tech fair. Alfron worked in the Israel army unit he writes about so it feels authentic.

71) The Lais of Marie de France by Marie de France (1160) (Dutton 1978 edition)
fiction

I really loved reading these twelve tales and find it hard to choose a favourite. Translated by academics, Robert Hanning & Joan Ferrantte, each story is followed by commentary. there is also a foreward by John Fowles. The translation keeps the stories in poem form and they read brilliantly, I wouldn't want to read the Penguin classics translations now that I've read and enjoyed these.

>205 avatiakh: Not seen this one Kerry - looks good. I'll have a look for it here.
You've had some diverse / wide ranging reads going on, sounds really busy!

>209 charl08: It was an interesting read and I'd never heard of this guy before. A lot of his writings have been salvaged so there was good material to work with.
Last night we watched The Eichmann Show and before that Denial as my middle son is working on an Holocaust denial assignment for his final history paper. His professor gave the class a one week extension which was a relief as he had just handed in a paper on lone-wolf terrorism for his final politics paper.


72) New Kid by Jerry Craft (2019)
GN
Children's graphic novel that focuses on diversity and fitting in to a new school. Craft avoids becoming didactic even when he bring obvious issues of patronisation into play. I enjoyed this one. Jordan's parents insist he attends a poncey private school and although he finds it hard to settle in he manages to make some good friendships through the year.

Ok, more graphic novels. I picked these two up from browsing the library shelves a few weeks back and they're due back in a few days.


73) As the crow flies by Melanie Gillman (2017)
GN

I presume this one is aimed at younger teens. Anyway I found it an awkward read. A black teen girl is bundled off by her parents to partake in an annual Christian camp hike where everyone else appears to be white. She's possibly overly sensitive and yet the leaders and some other girls do seem blind to her discomfort.The hike memorializes some feminist women pioneers who once lived in the now abandoned settlement that makes up the camp headquarters that they set out from. The story ends somewhat abruptly, so should eventually be continued in a second volume. The main character, Charlie (Charlotte) is queer, we know this by reading the back cover rather than any strong indication in the text. The illustration style is pastel with some lovely quiet panels showing the natural world the girls hike through.
This was originally a web comic so best I direct anyone interested to there: http://www.melaniegillman.com/
_


74) Hey, kiddo by Jarrett J. Krosoczka (2018)
GN

A memoir that is quietly creeps up on you and stirs your heartstrings. Krosoczka is known for a TED talk he did, though I hadn't heard about it. Anyway his mother was a heroin addict and did a lot of jail time when he was young, so his grandfather sought custody and he was brought up by his grandparents.

75) My sister Rosa by Justine Larbalestier (2016)
YA

An ANZAC read. In the author notes, Larbalestier mentions that the book was inspired by a 1950s classic, The Bad Seed by William March. Che, a 17 year old, is convinced his little sister, Rosa, is a psychopath. Indeed she seems to be and extremely clever about it, from the first page there is a sense of impending doom. The family have just relocated to New York as the "parental units" are setting up a new business.
I didn't love this, felt that the writer threw too much of her research into the book, and it felt a little too implausible. Still an entertaining creepy read.
I have a couple more of her books to read - Razorhurst and How to ditch your fairy.

So I've made my first 75 though don't think I'll get to do a double this year, I still have a few big reads I want to do including Tom Jones.

Congratulations, Kerry!

Congrats on reaching 75, Kerry!

I liked New Kid a lot, too. One of the things I liked was the way it matter-of-factly showed casual, thoughtless racism, and how the victims looked to each other in dealing with it.

>215 avatiakh: Yes! I have a copy with that cover as well, although I haven't looked at that issue yet. Here's hoping that neither of them has a violent cough or sneeze or moves suddenly while they sleep.

>215 avatiakh: I love it. Reminds me a bit of this image from Goodreads about Hrabal's book Too Loud a Solitude. In the book, his bed would have been inside the cave.

>216 kidzdoc: >217 labfs39: Yes, there's also that sense of dread at just how many books are on Mt tbr. Now I'll have to look up Hrabal's book as well. I just read a book set in Prague.

>218 avatiakh: Too Loud a Solitude is one of my favorite books. It's short, so a quick read; I hope you can get to it. It's the story of a man who loves books, yet whose job it is to destroy them. The big ideas include censorship, oppression, resistance, solitude, and the power of ideas. I think you would like it.

>219 labfs39: I was thinking this sounded familiar - I had read it. Loved this quote:

For thirty-five years now I've been in waste paper, and it's my love story. For thirty-five years I've been compacting wastepaper and books, smearing myself with letters until I've come to look like my encyclopaedias... I am a jug filled with water both magic and plain; I only have to lean over and a stream of beautiful thoughts flows out of me.

>220 charl08: There are so many good, quotable passages. I just added some (including yours) to the Common Knowledge page for the book.

>205 avatiakh: The Dietrich Bonhoeffer graphic novel sound good.

>206 avatiakh: You finished the Arthurian trilogy by Rosemary Sutcliff. I am now reading the Mary Stewart Merlin trilogy. Two down one to go.

Belated congratulations on reaching 75, Kerry!

>220 charl08: >219 labfs39: I've requested it from the library, so will be adding it to my July reading.

>222 FAMeulstee: Hi Anita. I have the Mary Stewart books but first want to read Rosemary Sutcliff's Sword at Sunset. I'm also reading King Arthur: The Making of the Legend, though not picking it up as often as I should.