World of Penguins: charl08 travels the shelves #7

From Leanne Shapton's book Toys Talking.

Books read
This month: 24
Last month: 24
Total: 154



June 24
Death in a Desert Land (M, UK, fiction)
Disturbing his Peace (F, US, fiction)
Say No to the Duke (F, US, fiction)
The Border: the legacy of a century of Anglo-Irish Politics (M, Ireland, history/ politics)
Comradely Greetings: The Prison Letters of Nadya and Slavoj (Joint, Russia / Slovenia, politics / philosophy)
The Heavens (F, US, fiction)
Erotic Stories for Punjabi Widows (F, Singapore, fiction)
Why Women have better sex under socialism (F, US, history/ politics)
An Ungrateful Governess (F, Canada, fiction)
Say Nothing: a true story of murder and memory (M, US, history)

The Chai Factor (F, Canada, fiction)
The Cleaner (F, Germany, fiction)
Throw Me to the Wolves (M, UK, fiction)
Lady in the Lake (F, US, fiction)
Is there no place on earth for me (F, US, biography/ health)
Fix Her Up (F, US, fiction)
Fatal Crossing (F, Denmark, fiction)
Parental Guidance (F, US, fiction)
Black City (M, Russia, fiction)
The Library Book (F, US, history / true crimes)

Circe (F, US, fiction)
The Flat Share (F, UK, fiction)
Worked Up (F, US, fiction)
Death of a Nightingale (Multiple, Denmark, fiction)

May 24
Mr Mac & Me (F, UK, fiction)
The Feral Detective (M, US, fiction)
Bottled Goods (F, Germany/Romania, fiction)
Tokyo Ueno Station (F, Japan, fiction)
When a Duke... (F, US, fiction)
Berlin Now (M, Germany, travel/ history/ politics)
Regency Buck (F, UK, fiction)
I will never see the world again (M, Turkey, memoir)
David Sedaris Diaries (M, US, diaries)
Normal People (F, Ireland, fiction)

Here in Berlin (F, US, fiction)
Berlin (M, UK, history)
The Innocent (M, UK, fiction)
The Murder of Harriet Monckton (F, UK, fiction)
Jokes for the Gunmen (M, Lebanon / Iceland, fiction)
The Ghost Factory (F, UK, fiction)
The Pine Islands (F, Germany, fiction)
The Oyster Thief (F, Canada, fiction)
The Years (F, France, fiction)
The Aviator (M, Russia, fiction)

The Friend Zone (F, US, fiction)
The Bear Pit: Damian Seeker (F, UK, fiction)
The Last (F, UK, fiction)
The Island (M, Iceland, fiction)

June totals
Gender F 17 M 5 Multiple 2
Country/ Region UK 3 Europe 5 US & Canada 14 Africa 0 Latin America 0 Asia 1 Austalasia 0 Multiple 1
Type Fiction 18 Poetry 0 Non-fiction 6
Origin Library 10 Other (incl mine) 14

Netgalley 4

Running totals
Gender F 112 M 33 Multiple 9
Country/ Region UK 39 Europe 30 US & Canada 69 Africa 3 Latin America 3 Asia 4 Austalasia 1 Multiple 8
Type Fiction 124 Poetry 4 Non-fiction 27
Origin Library 60 Other (incl mine) 96

Netgalley 19

African writers

(this is going to be very loosely interpreted, with inclusion rather than exclusion being the focus)

Hiding in Plain Sight (Somalia/ South Africa/ US) Published by Oneworld
My Sister the Serial Killer (Nigeria) Published by Atlantic (UK)
Zeina (Egypt/ US) Published by SAQI (UK

Europe (b#$%* Brexit) and beyond- authors in translation

Chester zoo penguins

Austria: The Second Rider Translator Paul Mohr
China: Stick Out Your Tongue Translator Flora Drew
Columbia: The book of Emma Reyes Translator Daniel Alarcón (Spanish)
House of Beauty Translator Elizabeth Bryor
Denmark Lone Crossing Translator Charlotte Barslund
Death of a Nightingale Translator Elisabeth Dyssegaard
Egypt: Zeina Translator Amira Nowaira (Arabic)
Finland: Mr Darwin's Gardener, Children of the Cave and Things that fall from the Sky Translators Emily and Fleur Jeremiah
French Canada: We Were the Salt of the Sea Translator David Warriner
France: The Prague Coup Translator ??
The Years Translator Alison Strayer
Germany: Dreamers when the writers took power, Germany 1918 Translator Ruth Martin
You Would have missed me Translator Jamie Bulloch
Berlin Now Translator Sophie Schlondorff
The Pine Islands Translator Jen Calleja
The Cleaner Translator Bradley Schmidt
Latvia: Soviet Milk Translator Margita Gailitis
Lebanon: Jokes for the Gunmen Translator
The Netherlands: Bird Cottage Translator Antoinette Fawcett
Norway: Out Stealing Horses Translator Anne Born
Russia: The Aviator Translator Lisa Hayden
Sweden: The Forbidden Place Translator Rachel Willson-Broyles
The Wolf and the Watchman Translator Ebba Segerberg
Until Thy Wrath Be Past Translator Laurie Thompson

Beyond Europe


Lost Children Archive (Mexico/US)
Confessions of Frannie Langton (Jamaica/UK)
The book of Emma Reyes (Columbia/France)
Stick Out Your Tongue (China/ UK)
Convenience Store Woman (Japan)
House of Beauty (Colombia)
Tokyo Ueno Station (Japan)
I will never see the world again (Turkey)
The Aviator (Russia)
Black City ditto

Happy new one, Charlotte. I hope I'm not too early?

Women's prize

Shortlist
✔️Milkman Anna Burns
✔️The Silence of the Girls by Pat Barker
✔️My Sister, the Serial Killer Oyinkan Braithwaite
✔️Circe Madeline Miller
Ordinary People Diana Evans
An American Marriage Tayari Jones

Longlist
✔️Normal People by Sally Rooney
✔️Bottled Goods Sophie van Llewyn
✔️Remembered by Yvonne Battle-Felton
✔️Ghost Wall Sarah Moss
✔️Lost Children Archive Valeria Luiselli
✔️Number One Chinese Restaurant Lillian Li
✔️Swan Song Kelleigh Greenberg-Jephcott
Freshwater Akwaeke Emezi
Praise Song for the Butterflies Bernice L. McFadden
The Pisces Melissa Broder

>6 BLBera: Never, Beth. Hope you had a good trip?

Happy new thread! I entirely know where the penguin in >1 charl08: is coming from...
Hope the lurgy is diminishing and you've been able to enjoy at least some of the weekend.

Happy new thread, Charlotte! I also hope you're feeling better for pre-Tuesday, as no-one needs lurgy *and* a pre-Tuesday.

Happy new one, Charlotte! Glad to hear you're feeling better.

Happy New Thread, Charlotte!

I think the only one I read from your around-the-world list is Convenience Store Woman, a quirky one that I liked a lot.

>9 Helenliz: It was such a cute book. I was tempted.

>10 susanj67: Thanks Susan. Feeling much more human. Helped getting out and about yesterday.

>11 katiekrug: Thanks Katie. Are you packed for your trip yet?

>12 jnwelch: Cheers Joe. I think you would like the Turkish book: the author writes about his experiences of prison - but continues to hope for political change.

May summary - reposting here for ease of access!

Books read 24

I caught up with 4 Netgalley books, but promptly requested more. I don't think I'll make 80% reviewed any time soon.
15 of the books I read this month were by women.
20 were fiction.
I read a lot by European authors (b#@$%* brexit):
UK 8 Europe 8 US & Canada 6 Africa 0 Latin America 0 Asia 1 Austalasia 0 Multiple 1
Roughly equal library and my books read:
Origin Library 11 Other (incl mine) 13

I went on holiday (briefly) to Berlin this month, so my reading (or some of it) took on the theme.
Berlin Now - a journalist writes about his city, Here in Berlin a US novelist writes a novel about a novelist visiting Berlin and speaking to locals about their memories - amazing, and also counts as a blame it on Librarything,
Berlin - more snapshots from history, from hundreds of years back to the recent past. Is it history, or is it faction? And a McEwan novel about a CIA tunnel under the Berlin wall (The Innocent.
I also went to see a MacIntosh and art of the Glasgow four exhibit, and read a book linked to his life that has been languishing on my shelves for some time. It was very good: Mr Mac & Me.
I read another one from the Orange prize longlist
Normal People which I loved.

Blame it on librarything
Regency Buck
The Murder of Harriet Monckton

Blame it on the Guardian reviews
I will never see the world again
The Years
(Both were very good)

The trip was great, Charlotte. It went by all too fast.

>4 charl08: I like your list of works in translation. I'm trying to do better.

>5 charl08: Another good list.

>13 charl08: - LOL, no not packed yet! I'm not that organized. I leave on the 20th...

Happy new thread Charlotte. i received a picture of my granddaughter (5 months old) who lives in Iceland and what was she wearing? Of course it was sleepers with penguins on it. I thought of you!

Happy new thread!

Happy new one, Charlotte.

>14 charl08: As ever, impressive reading stats. One thing though - you read 24 books but only named 22 books in terms of the nationalities of the authors?

Sorry to be eagle-eyed on a thread that celebrates a different but literarily more important bird!

>15 BLBera: Glad it went well, Beth. Hope the luggage turns up soon. I am envying Scout her new kitten - how lovely.

>16 katiekrug: It was rather an unfair question given everything else going on, Katie!

>17 mdoris: Aw. I'm sure she is very precious.

>18 figsfromthistle: Thanks!

>19 PaulCranswick: Fixed (sort of) Paul. I should probably keep a spreadsheet, its the only way I could reliably check my workings...

Read plenty of bits of books yesterday, but nothing completed. I'm finding Nicole Flattery's short stories hard to get on with, and finishing up the short book on gender and socialism Why women have better sex under socialism. Her examples of gender politics in communist states are really interesting, but the women leaders don't seem to have had a great time of it, either in terms of purges, illness or being transferred out of the way if any meaningful decision-making.

Happy new thread! What an interesting topic - gender and socialism. I hope you loved it.

I returned the Nicole Flattery. I read two of her (long) short stories and decided it just wasn't working for me. I was hoping for Lorrie Moore or Roddy Doyle, and instead got something that just felt quite grim - fiction that made no connection with me.

>22 The_Hibernator: It's a bit less substantial than I was expecting, Rachel: but she includes lots of reading recommendations, so I can always follow up!

>7 charl08: I'm impressed with your progress through the entire Women's Prize longlist. I've managed to read the whole shortlist, but this was entirely due to having read all the novels except one before it was announced and for reasons other than the prize. And then I finished Ordinary People this weekend. It was fine, but perhaps the weakest entry in the shortlist.

Happy new thread!

>25 RidgewayGirl: I'm about half way through Circe and I think it's my favourite so far. Love it!

>26 drneutron: Thank you!

In surprising news, my phone turned up this afternoon in a carefully packed parcel from Berlin.

>27 charl08: - Were your photos still on it, Charlotte?

>27 charl08: wow, that's amazing Charlotte.

Excellent news on the phone arrival. I loved Circe, so glad to see other people feeling the same love.

So glad the phone found its way home!!

Happy new thread, Charlotte. So how is your phone?

>28 katiekrug: Just waiting for the phone company to cancel the block Katie, to see.

>29 Caroline_McElwee: I was very surprised!

>30 Helenliz: Yay for Circe: I have my fingers crossed for the prize announcement.

>31 RebaRelishesReading: I may have to rethink my glass half empty philosophy, Reba. Hope your trip is going smoothly.

>32 Familyhistorian: Looks to be the same as when I last saw it: down to the much missed all inclusive Berlin museum and public transport pass tucked into the case.

Book haul:

No hard feelings: emotions at work (it has pictures)
When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit (and the other two books in the trilogy)
Ways of Curating (work book)
Lagos Noir - I read the intro to this by Chris Abani last night was hooked.



Also reading an ARC of Eloisa James latest in the "Wildes in Love" series. I'm a fan.

Happy new thread, Charlotte!

So happy to read your phone found its way back to you!
If the photo's are still on it I still want the one you took when my camera was down :-)

Excellent news about the phone, Charlotte! I hope the phone company unlocks it quickly and it has all your photos.

>36 FAMeulstee: Thanks Anita.

>37 susanj67: It is, isn't it!

I finished the ARC of the new Eloisa James. I was very happy to get an ARC because I buy her books if I see one. This is the fourth book in the Wilde family series. I like the romance and the background characters are always fun. In this one the Spinster Aunt is the comedy star, and a sweet cameo by one of the character's father.

I have yet to start the Wilde series, Charlotte. I think the first 2 are on my Kindle. Maybe some vacation reading?

>39 katiekrug: Sounds perfect, Katie.

The Border: The Legacy of a century of Anglo-Irish Politics

Well, it's not often I think that a book should have been longer, but this one, racing in at just over 140 pages (plus references) to cover over 100 years of extremely complex and controversial histories, definitely needed more as far as I was concerned. I "did" Irish history as part of A Level history (Liberal government partition of Ireland) and then again in courses at university on nationalism in the UK and a short course on the Troubles. Then add growing up listening to Gerry Adam's being dubbed on the TV reports, and the sense of relief when The Good Friday agreement was announced. Even with that context I was at points thinking What? Let me read that again as he whizzed past TD's, diplomatic manoeuvres and civil "unrest". Ferriter includes a wide range of authors and voices, so it's certainly possible to use the book as a starting point, but I was disappointed that this felt so rushed. There are lovely points about how fluid the border was becoming in the wake of peace, anecdotes suggesting resilient histories of smuggling, and mind boggling accounts of how ignorant Westminster remains about Irish realities (including economic ones) but there never seems to be room to develop the points in terms of what might happen next, in the context of the history he has written.

I was just congratulating myself on having returned >41 charl08: to the library, when this happened:

Trick
Black city
Women who blow on knots (I can't quite believe there are two books with this title in LT's catalogue)
Death of a nightingale and The cleaner.

>42 charl08: Oh well. I suspended my library holds while I was gone, Charlotte, so I'm expecting a bunch to come in at once.

>43 BLBera: Sounds like fun, Beth!

Lithub has a list! These are the ones I want...
https://lithub.com/lit-hubs-most-anticipated-books-of-summer/

Robert MacFarlane, Underland
James Polchin, Indecent Advances
(Counterpoint, June 4)

T Fleischmann, Time Is the Thing a Body Moves Through
(Coffee House, June 4)

Jean Kwok, Searching For Sylvie Lee
(William Morrow, June 4)

Catherine Chung, The Tenth Muse
(Ecco, June 18)

Kate Atkinson, Big Sky hurrah!
(Little, Brown, June 25)

Harmony Holiday, A Jazz Funeral for Uncle Tom
(Birds LLC, July)

Lisa Taddeo, Three Women
(Simon & Schuster, July 9)

Amanda Lee Koe, Delayed Rays of a Star
(Nan A. Talese, July 9)

Laura Lippman, Lady in the Lake - I've got an ARC of this!
(William Morrow, July 23)

Jess Row, White Flights
(Graywolf Press, August 6)

Sara Stridsberg, tr. Deborah Bragan-Turner, Valerie

Laura McHugh, The Wolf Wants In

Téa Obreht, Inland

Rachel Cusk, Coventry: Essays

"Jones’s fourth novel An American Marriage won the £30,000 award on Wednesday night. With fans including Oprah Winfrey and Barack Obama, the novel follows ambitious newlyweds Celestial and Roy. “We’re not your garden-variety bourgeois Atlanta Negroes where the husband goes to bed with his laptop under his pillow and the wife dreams about her blue-box jewelry. I was young, hungry and on the come-up. Celestial was an artist, intense and gorgeous,” it begins."

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2019/jun/05/womens-prize-for-fiction-tayari-jo...

I should probably read this then.

Hi Charlotte! I'll try to be back properly in the next while. At least I can say that I read An American Marriage . I enjoyed it, but I would not have predicted as the Women's Literary Prize winner. It's good, but I still miss the fact that the Ghost Wall was not on the short list. I did watch Simon Savidge and another you tube book tube person who made possible prediction about who might win and I think both of them floated the idea that An American Marriage might win. Who knows what the judges are looking for in prize book. It's a worthwhile read and very accessible. Who can figure?

I just read the newspaper article that you linked from The Guardian in which Tayari Jones says she does not care / or does not want Trump to read her book, but is honoured that Obama and Oprah did. I am sure you and Susan and most of the rest of the UK will be glad to see Trump leave the UK. I've been enjoying the humourous news from the UK regarding Trump's visit. Trump has only visited Canada once and for that it was hosted by our PM in very out of the way area , so as to prevent protests here in Canada. Even so, Trump tweeting his usual nasty stuff at our Prime Minister as soon as he boarded Air Force One . The guy is such a huge headache. Of course the whole Bre!it thing must be a terrible headache for you folks in the UK.

>44 charl08: Some good ones, here, Charlotte.

>45 charl08: I read this one so long ago, but I am a little surprised. Still, it's very good. I still have a couple more from the list that I would like to read.

Just a quick visit to catch up. Lost more than a week to end of school year hoopla. Twins graduating, then turning 18 two days later. Their sister advancing from middle school to upper school. Quick visit with our daughter. Did get to eat out four nights in a row.

But no reading. Just getting back into that.

Cheers for the newish thread.

>46 vancouverdeb: I had a bit of a giggle last night as they reported that Trump had gone for a break to a village in Ireland where everybody loves him (he pays the wages of the whole town - another golf course hotel). I didn't get on with the digital version of An American Marriage but the paperback is out here now, so...

>47 BLBera: I have more of the list to read too: especially got to finish Circe.

>48 weird_O: Sounds like a good week, Bill! Congratulations to all the family. No new book purchases to report?!!

I'm reading Lady in the Lake: no, not that one.

Comradely Greetings
This was a recommendation from Megan: letters between one of the PussyRiot protesters from jail to a celebrated Slovenian philosopher. I do admire her courage in continuing to protest in the very harsh Russian prison system. I was surprised (again) at the Christian faith she refers to repeatedly. More about my assumptions than anything else.

Argh - two more books have turned up on the reservation shelf - Erotic Stories for Punjabi Widows, about which I have heard good things about it being funny, which I hope to be true for me too (waves at Katie). Also Say Nothing: a true story of murder and memory which will fit well with my recent reading on the Northern Ireland border.

Just booked to go to the Gladstone library for a bookish weekend in March: how exciting!

>52 charl08: - I've wanted to do that ever since I heard about it (here on LT several years ago...)! Jelly!

There are still rooms available Katie!

>52 charl08: I love The Gladstone's Library. It's been a couple of years since I was last there, but it's the perfect place for an LTer. You will have a great time Charlotte.

>55 Caroline_McElwee: I'm looking forward to going without having my submission date hanging over my shoulder, Caroline (which is why I went last time).

>54 charl08: Excuse me, while I wipe the drool from my mouth. :)

The Heavens by Sandra Newman
Dystopian fiction, but with time travelling at its core. Half way through it made me laugh as I was once again reminded of the kid in my English class who said so scathingly for 12 years old "of course, they go to Elizabethan London and *have to* meet Shakespeare..." (I just liked the story. Then and now.).

Hey Beth. It's wonderfully quiet too. I felt bad for typing too loudly last time (I'm going to try and remember not to do big gusty sighs...)

Yup, me too on the drool worthy look at the Gladstone Library. How fun that you get to visit next March. I've just had a peek at their website.

Thanks Mary - it's a great place to visit, easily accessible by public transport. (I'm not on their PR team, honest).

Guardian Reviews - Fiction
Lots more via www.guardian.co.uk/books


City of Girls by Elizabeth Gilbert reviewed by Sam Baker
"...unquestionably a sexy, glamorous romp, its similarities with vaudeville end there. The plot bristles with moral intent: Vivian’s fall, when it inevitably comes, is complete and damning and utterly gendered, its repercussions shadowing the rest of her life. Yet Gilbert wouldn’t be the woman she is ... if she was to allow her female characters to be destroyed by society’s disapproval. And it’s at this point that the novel’s true heart is revealed."

Hmm. Not sure.

The Atlas of Reds and Blues by Devi S Laskar reviewed by Nikesh Shukla
"It paints a horrifying picture of the realities of the American dream if you’re from an immigrant background. And there she is, crumpled on the ground. The present moment is described in ambient, almost blackly comic fragments, as the police search her invasively, looking for ID and crack jokes with emergency service dispatchers. They make generalisations about her life, her identity, her body, as they begin to understand what has come to pass."

Sounds like a book for a time when I have the chance to focus: clearly not a light read.

Gun Island by Amitav Ghosh reviewed by Alex Clark

"....brims with implausibility; outlandish coincidences and chance meetings blend with ancient myth and folklore, tales of heroism and the supernatural set in a contemporary world disrupted by the constant migrations of humans and animals."

I'm not sure, not read much by Ghosh.

The Polyglot Lovers by Lina Wolff reviewed by Joanna Kavenna
"...Wolff is exuberantly tasteless and cynical..."

Hmm.

A Modern Family by Helga Flatland reviewed by Hannah Beckerman
"... English debut of Helga Flatland (she comes heralded as “the Norwegian Anne Tyler”), is narrated alternately by sisters Liv and Ellen. Liv, a journalist, is the eldest and thinks of herself as her mother’s primary confidante, despite the evident friction between them. Liv is a woman for whom repression and rug-sweeping have become her comfort zone, as she blinds herself to the tensions around her, whether they are with her siblings, between her parents, or with her own husband, a relationship that becomes increasingly strained as the novel progresses."

Intrigued to read a Norwegian Anne Tyler, so will look for this one.

Saltwater by Jessica Andrews reviewed by Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett
"This is a courageous book dealing frankly with youth, puberty, mother-daughter relationships, class, disability and alcoholism. There are difficult truths, but no wallowing."

Mixed about this one - might order it at the library and see how it reads.

What Red Was by Rosie Price reviewed by Rowan Hisayo Buchanan
"Her interest lies less in the interior lives of her characters and more in an analysis of what it means to be a woman in a world saturated with masculine aggression."

Another one I feel I ought to read (but am not sure I can bear to).

The Heavens by Sandra Newman reviewed by Benjamin Evans
"...a heady onrush into how dreams and delusions intertwine in romantic love. From Aeschylus’s Cassandra onwards, Kate joins a line of literary soothsayers whose visions are disparaged by society at large."

One of the two reviews on the book page here at LT says don't read reviews before you pick this up - I think they're right! Great book.

Happy belated new thread, Charlotte!

Happy Saturday, Charlotte. Happy New Thread. Sorry, for the delay getting over here. Amitav Ghosh is an amazing author. Glad to hear he has a new one coming out.

Thanks for the reviews, Charlotte.

>58 charl08: That is pretty funny. I'm picking that one up from the library today. City of Girls and Atlas of Reds and Blues also sound promising. I'm on the fence about the others.

Thanks for the tip on The Heavens, Charlotte. That looks awfully good. I just grabbed a copy, although it'll have to wait a bit. I loved her NF Western Lit Survival Kit.

>70 Carmenere: Thanks Mary!

>71 msf59: I've not had much luck with Ghosh although liked his book on the Jewish archive. Must try harder?

>72 BLBera: Hope you like it: I did think it would be ia good fit with your dystopian theme.

>73 jnwelch: I don't think I've read anything by her before, Joe, so good to know.

I finished the marvellous Erotic Stories for Punjabi Widows. This had me laughing in a public place. Thumbs up to Katie for the recommendation.

>75 charl08: I will add that to the top of my list. I love books that make me laugh out loud.

>75 charl08: Laughing in a public place - you got me with that, Charlotte. Erotic Stories for Punjabi Widows is now on my library hold list.

>76 BLBera: It was a fun one, Beth. She has a new one coming out soon, so I shall look for that too.

>77 Familyhistorian: I hope you like it Meg: it's a fun idea for a book, with some deeper themes too.

Visited the beautiful 'Arts and Craft' house, Blackwell, near Windermere yesterday. It was full of stained glass.



https://www.blackwell.org.uk/

From the NF challenge thread (I'm not counting it in my totals as it is so short: effectively an illustrated poem)
Blackwell within I picked this slight catalogue up yesterday at a visit to the house in the Lake district. Beautiful black and white photos of the house by Graham Murrell accompanied by a poem by the writer Sarah Hall, who is known for her links with Cumbria. (Her novel Haweswater is brilliant - the gallery attendant and I agreed on this, so it must be true(?!)).

inside are orchards
reflections above the mantle
eel tail handles and oak glades
anemones and rowans
birds perched in the windows
birds on the sills
on the walls
at wing
or singing to the piano
songs of the unidentified sky

>79 charl08: I want to move in Charlotte. Lovely.

>81 Caroline_McElwee: Me too, Caroline, especially as the cake in the tea shop was heavenly, so you could just read, look at the view and eat cake!

>79 charl08: Beautiful!

>83 rosalita: It did remind me of the Mackintosh exhibit Julia, I was tempted by a book on How to look at stained glass.

Why women have better sex under socialism

I found this a very quick, light read for non-fiction. Ghodsee is an academic researching women's lives in former socialist states, but in this book creates an accessible summary of research into socialist feminism. I did have a bit of a snigger at the references to "coitus", which was the same at the GDR museum in Berlin (they had a recreated East German house, complete with bedroom, with projected stats comparing frequency of "coitus" in the East and West)- in the East, more often, more orgasms, and more divorces. That word just makes me think of Sheldon in the Big Bang Theory. I liked her references in each chapter to the lives of significant figures in Soviet reform, including the first female foreign minister Ana Pauker; Nadezhda Krupskaya, credited with creating mass education in the USSR and expanding their library system; August Bebel, who wrote Women and Socialism and is credited as being the first political figure to deliver a public speech for gay rights; Alexandra Kollontai who was a social theorist of women's rights and tried to introduce a new communist sexual morality, as well as reforms to support working women.

Her final chapter is reserved for reasons to lobby for change and to get involved in democratic change, including a reference to the #repeal19th movement, which had entirely passed me by. How anyone can think that restricting women's vote is a thing, just boggles the mind. A big push to get organised.

Ooh, Mick Herron's first five failed-spy books are on a 99p sale on UK kindle.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Slow-Horses-Jackson-Lamb-Thriller-ebook/dp/B00X61MZQC

Finished Say Nothing - what a brilliant piece of history writing.

I can't wait to get to it, Charlotte.

Really so good, Beth. I hadn't realised the disappeared woman case was linked to the Boston College project too, so it fulfilled all my interest in archive politics too. The picture he paints of Gerry Adams gives a lot to think about.


I've only got some, but how can I resist those penguins?

>89 charl08: - I got all of them (thanks, in part, to Google) except the last...

>90 katiekrug: Argh! I'm so bad at these!

>91 charl08: - I probably had to Google at least half of them.

And I got the last one with help from the Talk thread.

>92 katiekrug: Oh, I'm rubbish even with Google and the talk thread! But I've added several books to my wishlist that I'd not heard of before, so no worries.

Reading The Chai Factor and waiting impatiently for the release of the new Jackson Brodie.

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2019/jun/11/big-sky-kate-atkinson-review-jacks...

>89 charl08: Yes, it was a fascinating portrayal of Adams, wasn't it?

>94 charl08: Thanks for the link, Charlotte. I'm going to save it until after I've read the book.

>95 RidgewayGirl: I'm still wondering about the Twitter feed with teddy bears.

>96 rosalita: Me too. I've pre-ordered it, so less than a week to wait.

The Chai Factor
I thought this was rather marvellous: a romance set in Toronto where the heroine is a Muslim woman engineer going cold turkey on social media after a horrible online reaction to her campaigning. And a barbershop competition! What's not to like?

>98 charl08: - That sounds great! I've put it on my Amazon wish list and recommended my library purchase an e-copy.

Hope you like it, Katie.

Now reading The Cleaner - thriller about a crime scene cleaner.

Well, my library has The Chai Factor. Hey, it's a Canadian author, so of course the library has it! :-) I got all of the rainbows. Fun treasure hunt . I'm also looking forward to Big Sky. I'm number 4 on the library wait list. I'm trying to be good.

>101 vancouverdeb: Glad to hear your library has a copy Deborah! I hope the other three readers of Big Sky read quickly so you don't have to be too patient.

Shocking failures to learn from Grenfell highlighted today, via projections onto buildings that still aren't safe, two years on:
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2019/jun/13/this-building-has-no-sprinklers-...

I found these images upsetting. A note to read something about this.

This sounds really good (Noble Savages) - have added it to the reservation pile at the library.
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2019/jun/13/noble-savages-the-olivier-sisters-...

>89 charl08: I'm not good at these things either, Charlotte. If I get five, I am satisfied.

>98 charl08: This sounds good.

>105 BLBera: Yes, I'm aiming for a badge and anything beyond that is a bonus!

Fun times at the library: the baby answered someone's phone to much amusement. I wish there was a way to put together mums and toddler groups and refugees: babies are amazing therapy.

Just a few books out at the moment (!)

Queenie
Black car burning
Frederick Douglass : prophet of freedom
Death of a nightingale
The chosen
Women who blow on knots
Black city : the further adventures of Erast Fandorin
Throw me to the wolves
The dollmaker
Goodbye Lucille
You will be safe here
Before the deluge : a portrait of Berlin in the 1920's
The Parisian
The wife's tale : a personal history
The dreamers
You don't know me
Katalin Street
The cleaner
Machines like me and people like you
The surreal life of Leonora Carrington

>107 charl08: - Good golly!

I say return Queenie unread. It was disappointing.

>107 charl08: Oh my word! Once again I had to scroll to see that whole list :-)

>108 katiekrug: Oh, but it got such a great review. Tempting though, as The Library Book is sitting on the reservation shelf, waiting.

>109 susanj67: I'm trying to read faster. Honest!

The Cleaner
Very murky crime. Judith is a crime scene cleaner who grew up in a home in East Germany. She's asked to clean a flat where a woman was killed, and discovers strange links to her own past that dig up old spies and secrets that are still buried despite the end of communism.
I enjoyed this, but I'd have liked it even more if it had been 50 pages shorter.

The DVD series "Mr and Mrs Murder" from Australia about crime scene cleaners is wonderful. Do you know about it? It is on our subscription service through Acorn TV.

>111 mdoris: Ooh, interesting. I don't watch a lot of TV these days outside of 'catchup'. Not a job I would want!

Guardian reviews (non-fiction)


On the Red Hill by Mike Parker reviewed by Simon Callow
"...extraordinary, ambitious, many layered memoir ..."

No Visible Bruises by Rachel Louise Snyder reviewed by Amy Bloom
"The most dangerous place for an American woman to be – the most dangerous place on Earth – is in her own home. "

Mother Ship by Francesca Segal reviewed by Hannah Beckerman
"...a compelling and emotionally taut exploration of what it means to be a parent in unexpected and challenging circumstances. From the opening pages, when Segal describes her feelings about the psychological aftermath of her C-section and the immediate removal of her babies to intensive care, we know we are in unflinching territory..."

Homing: On Pigeons, Dwellings and Why We Return by Jon Day reviewed by Alex Preston
"...(a) beautiful book about unbeautiful birds..."

I need encouragement to get enthusiastic about pigeons - they walk all over my garden squashing things. Maybe this could transform my attitude?

Dressed: The Secret Life of Clothes by Shahidha Bari reviewed by Rachel Cooke
"...I am unable to summarise her arguments for the simple reason that I’m not sure she has any. Her book consists largely of long, rather overworked accounts of paintings, films and novels in which certain clothes appear..."

Ouch.

Mescaline by Mike Jay reviewed by Ian Sansom
"The book ends with the author’s account of his own participation in an elaborate and mystical peyote ceremony, though his account of an earlier rough-and-ready experiment with some boiled cactus and cane sugar is perhaps rather more revealing, as well as off-putting: “Languorous muscle relaxation combined with tremors, restlessness and nausea; fizzing euphoria with the ominous sensation of a fast-rising fever; a thrumming vibration in the chest with a cold heaviness in the limbs.” The warm glow from a swift half after work or a stiff G&T this is not."

I love the cover!

>41 charl08: sounds like a good succinct read though, if you haven't got the time to read a hefty tome!?

>107 charl08: you will be busy!!!!

>119 LovingLit: Ironically, I think I read >87 charl08: more quickly, and found it easier to follow, even though it was much more substantial. I haven't written a review but I'm sure everyone will have seen Mark's rave!

Happy Saturday, Charlotte. I hope you had a good week. Have you started the Frederick Douglass bio yet? That one is high on my NF list. I have heard great things. For some reason, I really like that cover of Homing. Smiles...

>121 msf59: Hi Mark, I started, and then I put it down. It's one I'm tempted to buy on kindle as it is such a brick.

My dad has just beem telling me about this hostel/hotel in Japan. I'd like it, if I could book the whole place. No matter how great the books, I'm not sure about sharing space like this!
http://bookandbedtokyo.com/en/tokyo/index.html

Love Jarvis. Couldn't resist this one.

Thanks for posting the reviews, Charlotte. I'll pass on the domestic abuse one, but >115 charl08: looks good.

>107 charl08: That is quite a list. I'd say you could return The Dreamers; it was very disappointing.

>110 charl08: This sounds like a good one. I understand the feeling that the author needed a good editor. It seems there are a lot of those around - long books that is -- these days.

>124 BLBera: Well, that's two books I can strike off the list, now, with the one Katie has already read for me. Very efficient.

I'm struggling to keep my eyes open (as per, the theory that taking small people swimming would tire them out only seemed to work on me instead!). Theoretically I'm reading Throw Me to the Wolves.

>103 charl08: I found the article on the status of at risk buildings very concerning, Charlotte. Too bad that the government doesn't seem to feel the same concern.

Sad about Dressed: The Secret Life of Clothes. I like reading books like that, but only good ones!

>125 charl08: I hear you, Charlotte. Yesterday Scout and I spent three hours at the park. I told her mom she would probably be exhausted, and guess who fell asleep on the couch at 9 p.m.?

>126 Familyhistorian: Apparently lots of shifting the blame: the government says contractors should pay, contractors push back... Disturbing stuff.

>127 BLBera: Ha! I hope you both slept well, Beth.

Charlotte, I hope you had a good sleep and are wide awake now :-)

Throw Me to the Wolves proved more than good enough to keep me awake - I read until the end. It's kind of a crime novel- the hero is a police detective- but it's about a lot more than that, reflecting recent cases where a 'person of interest' to the police has been vilified by the public and the press even before any trial. The book is also steeped in the aftermath of the acknowledgement of historic sexual abuse in care homes, schools and other places where children and other vulnerable groups should have been safe. So solving the crime isn't as much of a focus as the reaction to the process. The flashbacks to the boarding school were properly creepy.

There's also lots of black humour and a fatberg that becomes a bit of a metaphor.

I feel like the whole country is vomiting back the seventies and eighties and we're the ones cleaning it up.

I loved the bit when the hero teacher came in to rescue the boys from the sadist one. Kind of wish fulfillment for anyone who had ever wondered why someone didn't just *do* something.

Happy Sunday and happy belated new thread!

>130 charl08: As one who was there (albeit not all that old), the 70s and 80s were bad enough first time around. Let's not have to relive them again...

>123 charl08: Clicked. I really enjoyed a documentary Jarvis did years ago about architecture, Charlotte. It's what made me go to see Gaudi's Sagrada Famillia.

And any member of the London Library is ok with me. Not seen him there so far.

>122 charl08: Interesting, but I'm not into communal kipping either.

I've made note of Throw Me to the Wolves.

>131 ChelleBearss: Thanks Chelle!

>132 Helenliz: I think that sums up the characters' wishes on the subject too, Helen!

>133 Caroline_McElwee: I aspire to be a member of the LL, Caroline. Maybe I will treat myself on my 50th! (NB I should probably start saving now). Jarvis mentions a documentary on Carson McCullers, and I am hoping it might still be listenable in the BBC archive.

>134 RidgewayGirl: Noted!

Lady in the lake
This was a netgalley that I picked up because I had read some books by the author and the summary was intriguing. A married woman leaves her husband and starts investigating the disappearances of a child and a young woman in Baltimore in the 1960s. She's struck by the attention the missing white child receives compared to the black woman, and enthusiastically tries to get involved, partly for her sense of justice, but mostly because she sees a way to change her life. This was a fascinating picture of a city on the verge of substantial change, from the new opportunities for black policemen to young Jewish women trying to break away from the rules on marrying within the community. It felt real, perhaps most when the women characters talked about their problems getting into careers, and how they coped. I loved the picture of the hard bitten reporter who had taken over one of the women's bathrooms and converted it into her own office to find a way to adapt in an unwelcoming newsroom. It just didn't seem to have much of a sense of direction, and I got distracted from it several times by more pacey reads.

Feedback ratio now 43 %
I only need to read 21 books to make it to 50% (ha!)

Now reading Eat Sweat Play about women accessing sport. One of those books where I am expecting someone to make a sarcastic remark about me reading it (I am not much of a sports fan or player).

ETA in RL, not on LT, to clarify ;-)

Arriving tomorrow. ..



Taps fingers...

>138 charl08: - Nice!

Does your Amazon have the stop by stop tracking where it alerts you when it's about 10 stops away and then you can follow it on a map? (Not that I've ever been that obsessive, you understand....)

>139 katiekrug: Nope. Although one of the parcel companies did that, and the routes they took made no sense to me whatsoever. They were near my house, but then went all the way over the other side of the town. Not that I was watching it...

Bit of a dilemma. A job I would quite like to have has come up in Edinburgh. I don't really want to live so far away from my folks again, but it would be good to have more of a "career" than I do at present. And I did love living in a city with so many cultural options.

>141 charl08: - Not that you asked for advice, but mine is to go ahead and throw your hat in and see what happens. Doesn't mean you have to take it if it gets offered, so you still have time to weigh things...

>142 katiekrug: I agree with the remarks of the previous speaker. Applying for it doesn't mean you have to take it. You never know what is just around the corner, but if you never try it, it'll never happen.

Agreeing with the above, Charlotte. And Edinburgh's a great city.

P.S. Can't wait to hear what you think of Big Sky. I never thought she'd come back to writing Jackson Brodie books.

Just a reminder that this exhibition comes to Liverpool, from tomorrow until August. I think it will be right up your street.
https://1stwomenuk.co.uk/

>138 charl08: My copy should be waiting for me when I get back from vacation. And the new Denise Mina, the week after that.

Regarding the job: I agree with everyone that you should give it your best shot. Somewhere along the way you'll know exactly where you should be and can make your final decision accordingly.

>135 charl08: that was when I became a member Charlotte. Don't forget, you can pay monthly, that's what I do. But you have to commit to a whole year. They are considering different rate/useage options, which hopefully they will decide on later this year.

I don't use it as much as I'd like, but it was a lovely refuge when I took a year off. I need to go more often on a Saturday.

>138 charl08: harrumph, one of those blank boxes, what's arriving???

Ooh, Edinburgh. I really like that city and it would be a great place to live and work, especially if it is a job that would give your career some direction. Nothing ventured, nothing gained. Go for it!

>142 katiekrug: Hi Katie, I think I am conscious that having made the effort to apply I would find it difficult to turn down, although that rather assumes a lot. I suspect there are a lot of people who will be applying.

>143 Helenliz: Very true, Helen! I have been reading (funny that! ) about "emotions at work" and one of the subjects the authors talk about is making decisions. Apparently some people go with the future regret technique (trying to think about the attitudes of the future you).

>144 jnwelch: Hi Joe, yes, I liked it a lot. It would be quite a schlep back to family though, and trains aren't cheap.

>145 Helenliz: Thanks Helen, it's on my radar, along with the Keith Haring at the Tate.

>146 RidgewayGirl: Sounds like you've got plans, Kay. I'm sensing a theme with the job advice.

>147 Caroline_McElwee: You reminded me that I used to use the National library of Scotland in a similar fashion, Caroline. I'm waiting for the new Jackson Brodie book.

>148 Familyhistorian: I like it a lot, but I am also aware of some of the issues with the cost of housing and also the dominance of banking and the universities. It was not a great place to try and find temp work, so I am a bit wary of getting "stuck".

Is there no place on earth for me
Susan very kindly gave me her copy of this book, which looks at the experiences of one woman in the 1970s in and out of the state mental health system in New York. The author, a journalist, followed 'Miss Frumkin' as she cycled in and out of manic states, had paranoid delusions and fought with her family, her carers and her doctors. Overwhelmingly it was a narrative where no-one seemed to check the case notes before prescribing, which was beyond scary.
Highly recommended.

>138 charl08: Nice, Charlotte. I have to wait for my library copy.

>152 BLBera: I read the first chapter and decided I might wait until the weekend. Not sure what was wrong but am feeling much better today.

I'll watch for your comments, Charlotte. I hope you feel better.

The sun's been shining, which definitely helps!

How many moorhen chicks?
(From work this afternoon)

(From Orkney library twitter account: I want to go visit the library there)

>156 charl08: That's the edition I read from the London Library Charlotte.

I too would love to visit Orkney sometime, I think you already have?

>157 Caroline_McElwee: I've not been to Orkney - been to Mull, which I'd love to go to again. Looking at the map it looks really close to the coast, but in my memory it was a long ferry.

New book, from the exhibition in Berlin.

>157 Caroline_McElwee: >158 charl08: We have spent two week holidays on Orkney: one around 1997 and one in 2003. One of my favourite places - visited mainland, Westray, Papa Westray, Rousay, Hoy, Shapinsay, South Ronaldsay and North Ronaldsay (that's the one with the sheep on the beach). I'd strongly recommend it - very green considering how far north it is.

Our last trip there in 2003 was when J was very small. On the way home he'd insisted on packing a stone which he'd found on the beach in our luggage. Appparently, stone is indistinguishable from plastic explosive when scanned by airport scanners (who knew) and we had to unpack our luggage for airport security to make sure we weren't terrorists. They were very nice about it, though.

>159 charl08: And was this the package >138 charl08: you were waiting for?

>159 charl08: Looks very interesting.

>160 SandDune: Sounds good Rhian. Except for the rock! Do you think you'll go back again?

>161 FAMeulstee: No, that was the new Jackson Brodie - I wasn't expecting this catalogue to come so quickly, but they sent it by private parcel company. It's a beautiful catalogue, and amazing to me that they produced editions in English as well as German. I still get grumpy when I think of all the books in the bookshops that looked so very beautiful and I couldn't begin to read!

>162 Oberon: I liked the way the exhibit thought about connections and debates between "western" and "African" art, rather than segregating the two, although it's easy to be cynical about the reasons for this exhibition taking place this year. While we were there two major museums were undergoing renovation work, and one of them will hold, when open, the African collection (again, partitioned or separated off from the other art collections).

>163 charl08: Orkney is somewhere I would like to go back to, but if we go up that way in the near future it would more likely be Shetland as that is somewhere that I have never been. And of course we watched Shetland on the TV and really liked it, and I do like bleak and windswept places. But Orkney is surprisingly green and fertile looking and well worth a trip...

Funnily enough, my Dad spent some time in Orkney in the Second World War and loved it too. He always meant to go back, but never made it. His war was a rather unusual trip around various islands: Orkney, Isle of Wight, Isle of Man, Trinidad.

>164 SandDune: I'd like to go there as well. Maybe one day!

Sounds like your dad moved around a bit. My mum felt the need to remind me repeatedly during the D Day coverage that one of her uncles help build the artificial harbour. Not sure exactly what he did as part of that though.

Guardian Reviews Fiction


This Brutal House by Niven Govinden reviewed by Suzi Feay

"....a group of Mothers are staging a silent protest outside City Hall. ....In their forties and fifties, feeling around 80 in gay years, they describe how they took in young men who had been rejected by their parents and community, fed, clothed and moulded them into the peacocks and divas who strut by night, gaining kudos for their houses. But their “gurls”, some of whom work the streets, have been going missing..."

I was tempted until the bit in the review about the repeated instructions to "walk" for 8 pages. I think this might be too innovative for me.

She Would Be King by Wayétu Moore reviewed by Sara Collins

"Three strangers with supernatural powers meet in Liberia’s capital Monrovia in the middle of the 19th century."

Has me ordering it in the first line of the review!

Dancer from the Dance by Andrew Holleran reviewed by Andrew McMillan
".... the 1978 novel by Andrew Holleran, a pen name of Eric Garber, is being revived by Vintage, with a new introduction from Alan Hollinghurst. It charts a life that Garber knew well, the club and cruising scene of 1970s New York, a space he’d immersed himself in while trying to become a writer.... a cult gay classic."

The cover looks like a Hockney painting.

This Storm by James Ellroy reviewed by Anthony Cummins
"...litany of sextortion rackets, punishment beatings and other grisly incidents, including the murder of a Chinese restaurateur found fried to death on his own hob. Life here is breathtakingly cheap."

Hmm no.

Travellers by Helon Habila reviewed by Edward Docx
"This is the answer to the question of what contemporary fiction can do, and the reason I laugh whenever people say (as a character declares ironically in Travellers) that the novel is dead."

I have this as an ARC, got half way through and then lost my phone! Time to start again.

Vivian by Christina Hesselholdt reviewed by Rachel Cooke
"In 2013, she was the subject of an Oscar-nominated documentary, Finding Vivian Maier, and now we find the bare bones of her life at the heart of a playful, tricksy and sometimes exasperating novel."

Hmmm. Had a mixed experience with Fitz translated editions.

Thrillers!

The best recent thrillers Alison Flood
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2019/jun/17/those-people-the-missing-years-nev...

Those People Louise Candlish
The Missing Years Lexie Elliott
Never Be Broken Sarah Hilary
Joe Country Mick Herron
"If you’ve not read Herron before, start at the beginning, with Slow Horses, but do start: this series is bitingly intelligent, light of touch and frequently hilarious."

>167 charl08: - I went to a panel with historical fiction writers at the lit festival I attended a few months ago, and Wayetu Moore was one of the speakers. She was really interesting and I put this on my WL. It's been out in the US for a year or so, I think.

None of your review excerpts have tempted me much, but you've reminded me I need to get back to the Mick Herron series, so there's that! Thanks for the roundup, Charlotte.

>170 charl08: just dropped this into my shopping cart Charlotte.

I'm just about to start Kirsty Wark's new novel The House by the Loch.

>165 charl08: Sounds a bit like my Mum watching "A Bridge too Far" pointing out my great uncle. Repeatedly.

>164 SandDune: that's 4 islands you don't usually see listed together! Looks almost like an odd one out quiz. Trinidad, it's the warm one, is my guess.

Thanks for the reviews, Charlotte. The Moore and Habila both look good.

I'd like to visit Shetland as well...

I have a copy of She Would be King on my tbr. How have I not gotten around to it yet?

I will have to look for Eat Sweat Play for my daughter. She is currently totally immersed in the Women's World Cup.

^174 What Julia said, Charlotte. I went and put a hold on the next Herron at the library after reading your post.

>173 katiekrug: I thought I had come across it before, Katie. I was surprised it had been out for so long with you. I wonder why.

>174 rosalita: I am a bit annoyed at myself for having raced through the series now! Hope you enjoy them.

>175 Caroline_McElwee: I've not read her fiction, sounds like I should give it a try.

>176 Helenliz: Family, eh?! I was struck by how many people talking about the period said their family hardly ever mentioned it.

>177 BLBera: I really like Habila. He's one of my favourite writers. I wish he would write more about Nigeria though.

>178 RidgewayGirl: All the other good books waiting to be read, possibly?!

>179 banjo123: I'm thinking she might update it in the light of the last couple of years - but still an interesting read.

>180 Familyhistorian: Hope you like it too! The humour is very cynical but always entertaining.

The Black City
Erast Fandorin is back. As the book opens, he's in Yalta avoiding his wife, before heading to Baku in the Caucasus to try and catch a bolshevik plotter. It's 1914 and Russia's oilfields are hotbeds of wealth, corruption and strikes. Can Fandorin keep the Russian state from losing all its oil supply and slipping into chaos?

I read these books as historical crime, although they are also supposed to be read for criticism of the state (there is a reason the author now lives in London.) I did wonder if some of the comments about Fandorin's exercise regime were a dig at Putin.

From the garden:

Far too much rain this month for the garden, but the sunny day yesterday meant some flowers opened.

Charlotte, yes, I would recommend The Widows. Also look at a couple of books by Wiley Cash. He is an American writer , and has had some very good ratings here on LT. I read The Last Ballad and it was a excellent read about women back in 1920's Appalachia , fighting to organize textile mills. I also read A Land More Kind than Home by the same author. I think in Canada there was less resistance to unionizing , and some of those books about American .

I have She Would be King out from the library, but as I mentioned on my thread, I have three book that just came in from library holds. One that is still waiting at the library is Big Sky, then new Jackson Brodie. The library had shown me as #4 on 1 copy, but instead the library got in 8 copies and today a email came to let me know Big Sky is waiting!!! :-)

Best wishes on your decision as far as deciding about the new job. I must admit I am a bit of a homebody, so I can understand how you feel undecided. Sorry about you losing your phone in Berlin. What a thing to happen. Also, oh no, Boris. What a nutjob. Not as bad as Trump, but bad. Br*!lt.

Ohh, gorgeous flowers, Charlotte! We have the opposite problem here, no rain. Not that I really want rain, but for the sake of the water supply, grass etc, some rain would be good.

>186 vancouverdeb: Thanks Deborah, I shall have to see if that one is available here too.
I still haven't decided yet re the move and the application. Planning to go to catch up with friend who still lives in the city, see if that helps make a decision.

>185 charl08: They are lovely Charlotte.

>184 charl08: Erast Fandorin sounds good, I added the first book to my library wishlist.

>185 charl08: Lovely rose and Astrantia major. We had a nice mix of rain and reasonable temperatures, so the roses did well. First bloom is over now, and the last ones will go fast in the heatwave that is expected.

>185 charl08: Lovely.

>189 Caroline_McElwee: This rose bush makes me think that maybe I'll just dig up the other four we've got, that have never done very well, and start again. It was a gift to my mum, and despite only being in a pot (which have replaced with a bigger one) it has more flowers ever year so far (three).

>190 FAMeulstee: I don't remember planting the Astrantia, Anita, but I was delighted to see it.

>191 BLBera: Thanks Beth. Although it was too much rain, it was nice to have a break from watering!

Hi Charlotte. Just cruising through, checking out what you're reading and the Guardian reviews. Lovely flowers despite the rain. We have been enjoying the clematis planted by our house's previous owners. They are exuberant (the clematis).

>156 charl08: Those are lovely editions! I definitely have another visit to Scotland in my future and I would love to get to some of those northern islands. I'll start following the Orkney Library on Twitter so I can remember to keep a visit in mind.

And >138 charl08: cracked me up. I'm assuming you've received and read it by now. :-)

>172 charl08: I have Slow Horses by Mick Herron on my shelves. I really must get to it as his name is popping up more and more.

Hi Ellen - I amused how many of us would like to visit Scottish islands. Maybe time for a LT Library tour?!

I was surprised the clematis did pretty well this year, and has come back (one flower at a time) in the past few weeks.

I liked Mick Herron's Slow Horses, but I was unsure about continuing with the series. Sounds like I should?

>195 jnwelch: No pressure, Joe. I have enjoyed them, though. Each book gradually reveals a bit more about what's going on in HQ. Also the Boris Johnson character is pleasingly skewered, much needed these days.

>185 charl08: - Gorgeous! What is the bottom picture? I don't recognize that one. Which reminds me, I had planted a clematis against the trellis in my front yard years ago. It grew and climbed fairly well but never really flowered much. A few flowers here and there over the years but that's about it. Imagine my shock - and surprise - when I got home from Montreal 2 weeks ago to find it full of flowers! From pale lavender in colour to deeper purple. I don't know if clematis always takes forever to come to full bloom or if mine was just a (sorry) late bloomer but it's spectacular!

>197 jessibud2: Anita informs me of it in >190 FAMeulstee: ! Congrats on the clematis. I like the idea that one day this one might go bonkers and be full of flowers.

I am reading The Library Book which is marvellous. Ray Bradbury, stats on library collections, interviews with librarians...

>185 charl08: Those are gorgeous garden pictures. That is perfect rose and I think that is astrantia (masterwort) that is perfect too.

I am loving the Orkney talk on your thread. It is bringing back memories of when daughter #2 did a Masters in Edinburgh so of course we had to visit her and than we all explored Mainland/Orkney in early April when no tourists were there. We had the place to ourselves and it was wonderful with lots to explore. P. really wanted to see the grave of John Rae (arctic explorer).

>196 charl08: :-) Thanks.

Count me in on the LT Scottish Island tour! In which of the Slow Horses series does Boris Johnson get skewered? Must get to that one soonish (he rubs me the wrong way and I don't even have to live in the same country.) That is a beautiful rose, Charlotte.

>199 mdoris: That sounds like a very sensible thing to do. When I lived in Edinburgh, I felt like I had loads of time to go visit places, and consequently, pretty much didn't. Whereas my friend from the US went on weekly bus trips with the international society, and could list castles I'd never even heard of!

>200 jnwelch: Didn't want to pressure you to add to the TBR there, Joe.

>201 Familyhistorian: My memory's not that good, sorry! Maybe someone can help me out here? I think he appears in more than one though... And of course, er, you should always start on the first book in a series, and read them in order (actually, that's good advice for this one, because the author is a bit Games of Thrones-ish and knocks off characters unexpectedly). Not that I've read or watched GoT, just seen the Sean Bean meme.

I quite fancy this walk, but think I might just give them the money rather than worrying about sponsorship

https://www.booktrust.org.uk/support-us/challenge-event/

"Get your walking shoes on for Marathon Walk London on 28th September and support BookTrust in getting children and families reading.

Challenge yourself this September by taking part in a one-day 26 mile walk around world-famous sights and less well-known corners of the capital - all for a great cause.

Setting off early from the event hub in Bloomsbury Square Gardens in Central London, this walking challenge will take you through the capital’s peaceful parks, along waterways, and past iconic landmarks, including St Paul’s Cathedral, Big Ben, Buckingham Palace and the London Eye before returning to Bloomsbury Square Gardens.

Alternatively, you could consider the half marathon option of 13.1 miles should you prefer, which takes a shorter route past the same notable landmarks and through parks."

>203 charl08: Goodness, that seems to come with a lot of rules and regulations. The FAQ is Very Bossy Indeed. There are marshals! And checkpoints! And lunch is provided, when surely the best part about walking 26.1 miles is the guilt-free experience of popping into a McDs for anything you want *and* a McFlurry. Maybe twice :-)

I just read the first paragraph " This is not something you should consider without being totally committed to a great deal of training"

Oh dear. Maybe not then...

>194 charl08: I'm up for it, Charlotte! When do we leave?

>203 charl08: I would love to, unfortunately my diary is already busy that day. Typical. I've been known to walk 20 miles on no training at all, but I couldn't move the next day. When I ran* 26.2 miles I trained for 18 months... I suspect something in the middle would work for walking that distance.

>202 charl08: when I lived in London Mum nagged me to get out and about, so I took a few hours every other Wednesday to go to a museum or something. I sent her a postcard each time, and she kept them all. So I now have a record of where I went in 4 years. I went to some places more than once and was known to send the same postcard more than once! Didn't realise at the time, but it must have been the same images catching my eye.

* well sort of ran. Covered the distance on my feet at an average pace faster than walking, but not by much. 5 hrs 6 minutes and 29 seconds. you have no idea how badly those 6 minutes and 29 seconds rankle.

>206 BLBera: I'd jump on a plane any time, Beth. It's not a cheap thing though: I was surprised how much a flight is from near me.

>207 Helenliz: I haven't done a lot of walking in the past few years, but even when I did I'd stop around 14-15 (at most). I love the postcard idea - how nice that your mum kept them.

The Library Book
I loved this: the eclectic history of the LA library, plus the true crime story of the case against the young man accused of burning it down, plus stories of contemporary librarians and their work.

I want my own copy!

>209 charl08: Wasn't it great? It was one of my favorites from last year.

I am reading When All Is Said, which I think I heard about from you. I am loving it. It is beautifully written although definitely a tear jerker.

>210 BLBera: Yes, I've just pushed it through the slot back to the library. One of those books I wanted to write a note to the next reader, saying I hope you like this as much as I did. I took so many page pictures for quotes I wanted to remember, I can't choose between them.

I remember the cover of When All is Said but had to go back to the book page to remind myself of it. The first review that appears ought to have a big 'Spoiler' notice on it! Yikes. I was reminded that I loved the way it was written, how I could imagine the way the character spoke (partly because one of the reviews complains that the story is 'convoluted', which I think I read as reflective of a particular way of speaking, like an accent).

I picked up Circe again last night - wow, what an amazing book. She drew me straight back into the book, despite putting it down weeks ago.

>209 charl08: £2.89 for Kindle.

*runs away*

>212 susanj67: It's such a lovely hardback, Susan!

(She says, ungratefully). Thank you Susan!

Circe
Oh, I loved this story of a god who doesn't fit in. Beautifully written and a great companion to Pat Barker's recent one (which I also loved).

He does not mean that we are not frightened. Only that: we are here. This is what it means to swim in the tide, to walk the earth and feel it touch your feet.

>209 charl08: I really enjoyed that too Charlotte.

>216 Caroline_McElwee: One of the few books I've put down and picked up again weeks later and been almost immediately gripped again.

Now reading Grand Hotel : the first stamp on this book says it was due back 27th September 1967...

>215 charl08: Glad you enjoyed it, I've tried to stop raving about it, but I jusr adored it. I have the Pat Barker ready to read as well.

>211 charl08: Regarding the review, I KNOW, Charlotte. What was the person thinking? It becomes fairly obvious soon in the novel, but really.

Maurice's voice is amazing.

>213 charl08: Just to have another strong opinion here -- books on the kindle are great, but when it comes to a book to keep and love over the long haul, well, a physical copy is required. One simply cannot get the same satisfaction from an ebook as one can from seeing that book's spine in a tidy row on the bookshelf.

>215 charl08: I just picked Circe up again after switching from the audio to print. Loving it!!

>221 RidgewayGirl: I agree completely. I love seeing the cover everytime I pick a book up to read, and I love the different fonts, deckled pages, even the weight (unless they are a tome) of a book. Kindle is great for travel and books I know I won't treasure forever.

I have some books I collect in paper - Persephone and Virago - some I'm trying to resist collecting in paper if available on Kindle, even though they look very lovely - and lots that I willl probably never be able to get on Kindle or which don't come up on offer. So I'm quite happy to hoard books as ebooks. Though I sometimes borrow and read a book from the library. particularly if there are pics. It did seem appropriate to borrow The Library Book from the library.

>219 Helenliz: I just got completely swept away by it - I put it down after the first half partly because I didn't want it to end. Just her surviving everything that partly appealed to me, but also her doubts and struggles. And the beautiful language. And the possibility of a happy - but real - ending. So not 'just' at all, really. Rave away here, happy to hear it!

>220 BLBera: I do love it when you feel you are getting hold of a particular kind of English through a novel - Roddy Doyle came to mind.

>221 RidgewayGirl: I am a sucker for the physical copy. And I say 'sucker' because whenever I think about moving, I wonder what I'll do about the books!

>222 Berly: Glad you're liking Circe - I thought the cover on this one was a particularly good argument for a physical copy. Although I've got nowhere with the biography of Frederick Douglass, and am leaning towards getting a kindle copy just because it is So Heavy.

>223 elkiedee: I started collecting orange penguins, and have (mutter mutter, erm, quite a few) and then I started getting bowled over by the new penguin classics. Although now I'm trying to limit both a bit (without much success). And also I don't like it when the orange ones are ridiculously expensive (I've seen some for £10 for second hand ones, which to me counts in this category).

I really like the look of this series, and am very tempted.

https://www.penguin.co.uk/series/vinvoy/vintage-voyages.html

(Friends are getting married, have refused wedding gifts, and are into travelling/ adventurous activities. When they said no gifts, they surely didn't mean books, right?)

The Flatshare

There's just something fundamentally try-hard about tulle.

I liked this, an ARC I picked up to read after a nudge from a rave review on Litsy. Modern romance with a darker side: Tiffy is getting over a rather strange ex, Leon has a brother inside. Desperate to survive London's crazy rent prices, they come up with a novel solution. (Except it's not really novel, but I'm going to pretend it is here because otherwise I'm that boring history person who just goes on all the time about how Everything has Happened Before). So they're sharing the house as she works 9-5 and he works nights, and start up an endearing conversation via post it note. Leon's voice reminded of Bridget Jones (not a criticism) - made me laugh out loud in places. Warning for Susan, there is an account of criminal legal stuff in here, which I suspect may not be Entirely Accurate.

She has started singing really quite loudly and doing some sort of castle dance (which is quite hip shaky), and though we have ascertained that there are no senior members of staff in the kitchen, you never know when they'll show up. It's like that thing people say about rats - there's always one six feet away from you at all times.

I'm hoping he's too technologically incapable to scroll to the comments section on the Daily Mail, because some of the comments are really quite X -rated. There's obviously a few racist ones in there as well, this being a comments section on the Internet, and everything briefly descends into an argument about global warming being a liberalist conspiracy, and before I know it I have circled my way into the plughole of the internet and wasted half an hour following people's outlandish opinions on whether trump is a neo-Nazi and whether Leon's ears are too big.

>225 charl08: turning my back, not looking....

>225 charl08: I'm quite happy to buy Oxford and Penguin Classics on Kindle too, but am tempted by good condition secondhand pbs where I don't have the Kindle editions, and am probably hanging on to a few "classics" in pb that I have on Kindle in case my 12 year old wants to read them in a few years time and is still attached to reading on paper as he seems to be at the moment. Particularly stuff like George Orwell's 2 most famous novels which I read in my teens. Actually I should probably give him some of the John Wyndham pbs that we have on Kindle now - I read them at D's age and think he might like some now and M (my partner, his dad) will be happy with the electronic version.

>226 charl08: I really enjoyed The Flatshare too, still need to write a review.

>227 Caroline_McElwee: Probably very wise.

<202> I've already read the first two of the Slow Horses books and haven't come across Johnson yet. Will see what I can find in the third book.

>225 charl08: The vintage voyage penguins look interesting but I have far too many books already although you can never have too many books.

The Flatshare looks good and I am now waiting for the library reserve. Might be a while as the book is on order.

>227 Caroline_McElwee: Let me know how that strategy works for you, Caroline (I might have to try it!)

>228 elkiedee: I do get really annoyed when I read a really good book on kindle and can't share it! And some books are just so beautiful to hold in the hand.

>229 Familyhistorian: Too many books? Surely not. Hope you enjoy The Flatshare -a bit of humour was good timing for me.

I saw this story in the Guardian about the revival of a Japanese text used by women.

Shōnagon’s list of “infuriating things”: “Thinking of one or two changes in the wording after you’ve sent off a reply to someone’s message.”
This list, her messages, and her Pillow Book in which they’re recorded – a sparklingly acerbic, blog-style frolic through the lives of Heian-era aristocrats – were written using kana, a Japanese script mainly used by women for nearly a millennium to write literature, arrange secret assignations and express themselves freely within the confines of court life.

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2019/jun/26/saving-woman-hand-the-artist-rescu...

I heard there might be inaccurate legal stuff, so I had to visit :-)

>226 charl08: That does sound like fun, Charlotte. I've added it to my fast-growing library wishlist. I have categories now. Quite a few categories, as it turns out...

>231 charl08: - Many years ago, in a literature course I took, I did a paper on Sei Shonagan's *Pillow Book*. Thanks for the link to this blog!

>232 susanj67: Categories? Yikes. That sounds like a whole new level of complication.

>233 jessibud2: That sounds like a great course. And a fascinating art piece!

I'm reading Curatorial Activism for work stuff, it's a beautiful book with examples of the works featured in the exhibitions she reviews.

I love paper books and lovely editions are just icing on the cake, right?

I am also loving Circe -- hard to put down.

>235 charl08: I wish my work reading was as attractive. EU regulations tend not to have pictures in them. They're also not written to be the most understandable of documents. *brain ache*

>236 BLBera: Yes, exactly, great read!

>237 Helenliz: I don't know how all the EU documents I've come across make English feel like my second language. My books don't usually have pictures in them - this made a nice change :-)

Now reading Death of a Nightingale. I'm half way through, and I have no idea where it's going... We're in Denmark, there's a Ukrainian woman on the run, a flashback to Ukraine in the 1930s, and two Danish officials mixed up in it somehow. Hopefully it will make sense by the end.

Oh, hang on, it's book 3 in a series. Nothing to see here...

Death of a Nightingale
This all fit together eventually, although I'm really not clear how this can possibly be book 3 in a series - how much crime can one nurse get involved in? The book links Ukraine's Soviet past and not-great-human-rights present, as the former wife of a journalist attempts to claim asylum in Denmark. I think I'm gradually painting myself into a corner with my crime reading: along with the kidnapped woman thing being a big no, no thank you, I'm adding the 'child who knows much more than she says because she is Traumatised but miraculously talks to the Kind Hero' to the crime cliche list that makes me want to drop the book.

Wondering if we're going to get the promised heatwave here - clouds on the horizon (I'm not complaining, it was properly sticky yesterday. Urgh).

Guardian Reviews Non-fiiction


On Chapel Sands by Laura Cumming reviewed by Blake Morrison
"The drama of Betty’s disappearance makes a brilliant opening chapter. But Cumming’s mother (now in her early 90s) has no memory of her first three years and didn’t learn about the kidnapping for half a century. The real story of the book isn’t how she was taken from Chapel Sands but what was taken from her: the truth about who her parents were and why she was adopted; the reason a woman approached her in her teens and said: “Your grandmother wants to see you,” when the only grandmother she had known was dead. The book is a series of revelations..."

Intriguing!

Last Witnesses: Unchildlike Stories by Svetlana Alexievich reviewed by Tim Adams
"As is often the case with translated Nobel laureates, her books have appeared in somewhat random order. This latest – which brings all of her books into print in English – documents the memories of children who survived the sieges and deprivations of the long struggle against Nazi invasion on the eastern front of the second world war, and was first published in 1985. It was a companion volume to Alexievich’s The Unwomanly Face of War, which told the story of that terrible conflict in the voices of women. The books were both bestsellers in the Soviet Union, in the first years of glasnost....works by accretion. There are more than a hundred accounts of childhood, each told with a familiar, blunt poignancy. "

I'm not just going to buy this because the cover matches The Unwomanly Face of War, honest.

The Pandemic Century by Mark Honigsbaum reviewed by Robin McKie
"...riveting, vivid history of modern disease outbreaks, there is nothing like armed insurrection to bring infectious mayhem to a continent."

Having recently read about 'flu, not sure I fancy dipping into this territory again!

The Making of Poetry by Adam Nicholson reviewed by Freya Johnston
"But as Wordsworth increasingly sought to dedicate himself to quarrying his memory, and argued for a conception of poetry as faithfully committed to the palpable truths of the real world, Coleridge strove all the more ardently for an apprehension of the divine and supernatural. Each came to define himself against the other; both of them were often in pain. From this sometimes agonised recognition of difference sprang two of the most arresting and celebrated English poems ever written..."

Caroline has already added this to her list, which seems like a more than good enough reason to pick it up.

The Adventures of Maud West, Lady Detective by Susannah Stapleton reviewed by Kathryn Hughes
"No matter how tricky the situation or dastardly the foe, West insisted that she was never less than in total control. On one occasion an angry blackmailer burst into her Bloomsbury office with a triumphant cry: “I am fortunate in finding you alone Miss West.” At which point West coolly picked up a loaded revolver from her writing table: “‘Oh, not quite alone,’ I responded with a laugh.” It was now that the baddies usually gave up, ruefully admitting: “Good Heavens, we are nobbled”, before meekly handing themselves over to the firm but fair hands of a detective like no other."

This shouts 'future tv series' at me.

Promise Me You’ll Shoot Yourself by Florian Huber reviewed byRichard J Evans
"Huber tells the shocking stories of ordinary German suicides with literary power and skill.... But after the first 130 pages or so, the book comes badly unstuck. Instead of setting these stories more deeply in their context, and exploring the less immediate factors that lay behind Germans’ decision whether or not to kill themselves, such as religion, gender, age, generation, political beliefs and so on – factors that determined the widely varying incidence of suicide between different groups of people – he launches into more than 100 pages of a banal, unvarying narrative of the Nazi years. This is designed to show “the Germans’ unbounded admiration for Hitler” and their happiness and fulfilment under his rule. Only in this way, he says, can we understand why so many of them killed themselves when the dream fell so spectacularly into ruins.....If this was really the case, then why weren’t there more German suicides, especially in the western parts of the country, which was overrun not by the Red Army but by the western allies? .... Nor is it as original as the publishers claim; the assertion that this is “one of the last untold stories of the Second World War” is very much wide of the mark. In particular, Christian Goeschel’s Suicide in Nazi Germany, published by Oxford University Press in 2009, and translated into German two years later, covers much of the same ground..."

Ouch.

Notes from a Public Typewriter reviewed by PD Smith

"Literati’s logo is a typewriter and his grandfather’s Smith Corona is proudly displayed by the store’s cash register. On the lower level of the shop, they set up a light blue Olivetti Lettera 32, inserted a clean sheet of white paper and left it there, “the world’s smallest publishing house, waiting for an author”. Gustafson admits that they did wonder whether people would even know how to use it. But at the end of the first day he saw the words “Thank you for being here”."



I love this idea - and you can follow the typewriter on twitter.

Happy Publication Day to Notes from a Public Typewriter (@publictypewritr)! This collection of notes left on the typewriter in @LiteratiBkstore is confessional, hilarious and heartbreaking. pic.twitter.com/O2tzYIo9TE

— Scribe UK (@ScribeUKbooks) June 13, 2019

Follow Me, Akhi by Hussein Kesvani reviewed by Burhan Wazir
"Kesvani interviews Muslim women like Saira who use marriage apps like Muzmatch; and Instapoets such as British-Somalian Abdi, who combine messages from the Qur’an with the black politics of rappers KRS-One and Rakim. He also interviews Muslims who have joined alt-right online movements. One area where digitalism has had a knock-on effect in the opinions of Muslims is in conversations about gender roles. Muslim women have responded to sexist behaviour with websites such as Side Entrance, which juxtaposes photographs of extravagant prayer spaces reserved for men with the usually dismal basements set aside for women. In 2018, women used #MosqueMeToo to share stories of sexual assault and abuse in places of worship. Kesvani also writes about how once taboo subjects like abortion are discussed on Tumblr."

Sounds good!

NMG (not my garden)

>247 charl08: - Oh, this looks like fun! It would make a perfect companion piece to a terrific documentary film I saw (twice!) and loved last year called California Typewriter, narrated by Tom Hanks (who is a collector of typewriters). Absolutely delightful film.

>247 charl08: This is such a cool idea.

Thanks for the reviews, Charlotte. It does great things for my WL.:)

On Chapel Sands, Last Witnesses and THe Making of Poetry all sound good.

>249 charl08: Nice anyway.

>250 jessibud2: It does look good. I wasn't tempted by the typewriter book until I heard he narrates the audio!

>251 BLBera: The twitter account included tweets from UK bookshops which had "guest" typewriters for independent bookshop week. I don't know if there's one near me...

>244 charl08: That tripped through my letterbox last week. It kept The Uninhabitable Earth (David Wallace-Wells) company. I don't think books should be allowed to travel unaccompanied.