Helenliz erects an edifice.

Welcome to my 2020 thread. In 2018 I had castles, in 2019 I had buildings, in 2020 I am going to be using manmade structures that are not castles or buildings. (huh? - it's OK, bear with me) These are things that would not exist without human intervention, and are ways that we make our mark on the landscape. Some are ancient, some are modern, but they all have an attraction to me.

I'm Helen and I'm a quality manager in a small firm that makes inhaler devices for delivery of drugs to the lung. In my spare time I am secretary of the local bellringers association, which is a new addition, having taken the job on in the summer. When not working, reading or ringing, I enjoy crafts. I tend to resort to cross stitich, but have tried quilting and other machine and hand sewing over the years. I also try and keep in some form of shape, as I prefer food to dieting. >;-)

I have more books than I know what to do with, and I could easily build all sorts of sgtructures with them. Let's see what I'm going to build in 2020.

With that, this thread is now safe to enter, so I'll take down the protective tape and you can come in and have a look around..

Currently Reading:


Remnants of Partition (non-fiction)
The Lesser Bohemians (audio)

Library books on loan: To try and keep these under some sort of control!
✔️Flowering Wilderness
Ross Poldark
The Stranger Diaries

Adding book bullets
✔️The Silence of the Girls (Susan) (I'm a sucker for retellings of the ancient Greeks)
The Stranger Diaries (Charlotte & Susan)
Death walks in Eastrepps (Liz - and it's one I can get a copy of!)
Why We Sleep (Jackie_K)
The Great Typo Hunt (Cindy)
Rain: Four Walks in English Weather (Carrie) (Walking in rain is sometimes the best thing ever)
The Century Girls: The Final Word From The Women Who've Lived The Past Hundred Years of British History (Susan)
Alone in Berlin (Tess)
The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle (Stacy)
Cain (Annamorphic)
I will never see the world again (Charlotte)
The Bookish Life of Nina Hill (Charlotte - again).
Whitefly (DeltaQueen)
Fools and Mortals (Birgit)
Wakenhyrst (Susan) (again)
Play It Again: An Amateur Against the Impossible JackieK
You life in my hands JackieK (again she's got me with the non-fiction)
A Jury of her Peers (Liz - and this one's not in the library - or at least not the short story)

The list: 2020

January
1. Maid in Waiting, John Galsworthy, ****
2. Norse Mythology, Neil Gaiman, *** (Audio)
3. Mudlarking, Lara Maiklem, *** (non-fiction)
4. Disappearing Earth, Julia Phillips, ***
5. Orphan of Islam, Alexander Khan, *** (non-fiction)

February
6. Beyond Black, Hilary Mantel, **
7. A Room full of Bones, Elly Griffiths, ***
8. Murder in the Mill-race, ECR Lorac, ***
9. The Adventures of Moriarty, Maxim Jakubowski, ****, (audio)
10. Royal Escape, Georgette Heyer, ***
11. Faces on the Tip of My Tongue, Emmanuelle Pagano, ****
12. This year it will be Different Maeve Binchy, *** (audio)
13. London Transports, Maeve Binchy, *** (audio)
14. She-merchants, buccaneers and gentlewomen : the lives and times of British women in India 1600-1900, Katie Hickman, **** (non-fiction)

March
15. The Silence of the Girls, Pat Barker, ****
16. Wilderness Tips, Margaret Atwood, *** (audio)
17. Letters of Note: Love, Shaun Usher, **** (audio) (non-fiction)
18. Remarkable: Five women who dared to Make a Difference, Lyse Doucet, **** (audio) (non-fiction)
19. The Spanish Bride, Georgette Heyer, ***
20. Watching the Tree, Adeline Yen Mah, *, (non-fiction)

April
21. Flowering Wilderness, John Galsworthy, ****
22. Odd and the Frost Giants, Neil Gaiman, ****, (audio)
23. The Porpoise, Mark Haddon, ***
24. A Thousand Ships, Natalie Haynes, *****, (audio)
25. The Pact We Made, Layla AlAmmar, ****1/2
26. Snow, Dog, Foot, Claudio Morandini, ****

Challenge 1: Nine Ladies Circle - Women Authors



Nine Ladies circle is a Bronze Age stone circle, which has a tradition associated with it is that the nine stones were women turned to stone for dancing on a Sunday. It is part of a wider Bronze age landscape.

It is open at any reasonable time and is managed by English Heritage.

As these are ladies, this makes it the place to put my lady authors. I want to read at least 50% of books by women authors this year.

1. Mudlarking, Lara Maiklem
2. Disappearing Earth, Julia Phillips
3. Beyond Black, Hilary Mantel
4. A Room full of Bones, Elly Griffiths
5. Murder in the Mill-race, ECR Lorac
6. Royal Escape, Georgette Heyer
7. Faces on the Tip of My Tongue, Emmanuelle Pagano
8. This year it will be Different Maeve Binchy
9. London Transports, Maeve Binchy
10. She-merchants, buccaneers and gentlewomen : the lives and times of British women in India 1600-1900, Katie Hickman
11. The Silence of the Girls, Pat Barker
12. Wilderness Tips, Margaret Atwood
13. Remarkable: Five women who dared to Make a Difference, Lyse Doucet
14. The Spanish Bride, Georgette Heyer
15. Watching the Tree, Adeline Yen Mah
16. A Thousand Ships, Natalie Haynes,
17. The Pact We Made, Layla AlAmmar

Challenge 2: Silbury Hill - Classics



Silbury Hill is the largest artifical mound in Europe, which is something when you consider that it is estimated as being built between 2470 & 2350 BC. It's been the largest artiicial mound for a cool 4 and a half thousand years. It also is a mystery, in that is it not a burial mound and it's purpose is unknown. The roman's made use of it as a look out (the road past the base is the Roman origin A4). It has appeared in a Peter Gabriel song as well.

It is open at any reasonable time and is managed by English Heritage.

It is a lovely ageless conical mound shape and that makes it perfect as a construction to house my Classic books. I'd like to read 6 classics this year.

Challenge 3: West Kennet Long Barrow - Heyer Series Read



West Kennet Long Barrow is a Neolithic grave site, where multiple generations were interred in the long barrow. It was used for over 1000 years between 3500 BC & 2500 BC. Remains and burial goods have been found within it.

It is open at any reasonable time and it is possible to enter the barrow. It is in private onwership, but is managed by The National Trust on behalf of English Heritage.

As it was in use for a prolonged period of time, I'm using it as a location to bury my Heyer Series read. I'd like to read 8 Heyer romances this year.

Heyer romances:
(r) Set in Regency Period
(g) Set in Georgian Period
(h) Set in prior historical Periods.

Finished
✔️ The Black Moth (g) 1921 Finished 01Jan18, ****1/2
✔️ Powder and Patch (g) 1923 Finished 05Feb18, ***
✔️ The Great Roxhythe (h) 1923 Finished 30Apr18, ***
✔️ Simon the Coldheart (h) 1925 Finished 7May18, ***
✔️ These Old Shades (g) 1926 Finished 31May18, ***
✔️ The Masqueraders (g) 1928 Finished 17Jul18, ****
✔️ Beauvallet (h) 1929 Finished 08Sep2018, ****
✔️ The Conqueror (h) 1931 Finished 25Dec2018, ****
✔️ Devil's Cub (g) 1932 Finished 31Jan2019, ****
✔️ The Convenient Marriage (g) 1934 Finished 12Mar2019, ****1/2
✔️ Regency Buck (r) 1935 Finished 08May2019, ****1/2
✔️ The Talisman Ring, Georgette Heyer Finished 10Aug2019, ***
✔️ An Infamous Army, Georgette Heyer Finished 13Oct2019, ***
✔️ Royal Escape, Georgette Heyer Finished 14Feb2020, ***
✔️ The Spanish Bride, Georgette Heyer Finished 28Matr2020, ***

To be Read
The Corinthian (r) 1940
Faro's Daughter (g) 1941
Friday's Child (r) 1944
The Reluctant Widow (r) 1946
The Foundling (r) 1948
Arabella (r) 1949
The Grand Sophy (r) 1950
The Quiet Gentleman (r) 1951
Cotillion (r) 1953
The Toll Gate (r) 1954
Bath Tangle (r) 1955
Sprig Muslin (r) 1956
April Lady (r) 1957
Sylvester, or The Wicked Uncle (r) 1957
Venetia (r) 1958
The Unknown Ajax (r) 1959
Pistols for Two (short stories) 1960
A Civil Contract (r) 1961
The Nonesuch (r) 1962
False Colours (r) 1963
Frederica (r) 1965
Black Sheep (r) 1966
Cousin Kate (r) 1968
Charity Girl (r) 1970
Lady of Quality (r) 1972
My Lord John (h) 1975

Challenge 4: The Forth Bridge - Orange Prize



The Forth Bridge is more properly the Firth of Forth Rail bridge, but everyone knows what you mean and no one thinks of the road bridge when you say you're going over the Forth Bridge. It consists of 3 double cantilevers and was, at the time it was built, the largest bridge made of steel. It opened to rail traffic in 1890.

It is still being used for it's original purpose, with trains still using this as part of the East coast main line route from Edinburgh to Fife and the north of Scotland. Network Rail. They are the lucky people who get to paint the Forth Bridge, which used to be a metaphor for something that was a never ending task.

As it is predominatly a rust colour, I'm going to use this to stack up my Orange prize longlisted read. I'd like to read 6 Orange prize nominated titles this year.

1. Beyond Black, Hilary Mantel
2. The Silence of the Girls, Pat Barker
3. A Thousand Ships, Natalie Haynes,

Challenge 5: Hadrian's Wall - Guardian 100 best novels list



Hadrian's Wall was built at the instruction of the Emperor Hadrian to (possibly) keep out the dastardly Picts. Or to provide some edge to the Roman Empire and to limit further expansion beyond what was sustainable. Take your pick really. Built in about 6 years, it was inspected by the emperor in 122 AD, and 122 is the number of the bus that now runs along the military road to transport visitors.

It runs from the East to West coast, from approximately Carlisle to Newcastle, at about the narrowest point in England. At times it has completely vanished, at other is remains highly visible in the landscape. It is not between Dover and Nottingham (that's for anyone taking Robin Hood Prince of Thieves as in any way, shape or form factual!). Covering 73 miles it has various owners, but has it's own website, Hadrian's Wall Country. I've stayed along side it and have walked several stretches of it.

As it is rather long, I'm using this to record my reading from a long list. I have half an eye on the 1001 list, but I'm so far off finishing that extra long list that it's a bit dispiriting. Instead I'm going to concentrate on the Guardian's 100 novels list, where I am a far more encouraging 33% of the way through. I'd like to read 6 of these in the year.

Challenge 6: The Great Court, British Museum - Short Stories



I adore this place. The central rotunda was the British Library reading room, with the surrounding court gradually filled with crates and other detritus over the decades. Once the British Library moved to its new home next to St Pancras station, the British Museum were able to do something really special with the space they now had. The roof of the court makes this a beautiful, useable space and the heart of the museum.

It serves as a covered space to welcome visitors and has a coffee shop in one corner. It forms part of any visit to the British Museum. I've visited this multiple times, it used to have some of the best cake in London.

The roof consists of 3312 panes of glasss, each one different. Like a short story collection, each one is unique, but together they form a harmonious whole. I'm not going to count these.

1. Norse Mythology, Neil Gaiman
2. The Adventures of Moriarty, Maxim Jakubowski
3. This year it will be Different Maeve Binchy
4. London Transports, Maeve Binchy
5. Wilderness Tips, Margaret Atwood
6. Letters of Note: Love, Shaun Usher
7. Remarkable: Five women who dared to Make a Difference, Lyse Doucet

Challenge 7: Ironbridge - New Authors



Ironbridge is one of those places that really did change the world. This is the first wrought iron bridge and marks the birth of the industrial revolution. From 1779 things would never be quite the same again. And yet it still has an aesthetic quality, with form following function.

It is the heart of a series of museums in and around Ironbridge, and more informaiton can be found here.

The birth of the new represented by this bridge makes this the place for me to stack up my new authors. While I have no specific targets here, I'd expect to see at least 1/3rd of books in this category. Half would be very impressive.

1. Mudlarking, Lara Maiklem
2. Disappearing Earth, Julia Phillips
3. Orphan of Islam, Alexander Khan
4. Faces on the Tip of My Tongue, Emmanuelle Pagano
5. She-merchants, buccaneers and gentlewomen : the lives and times of British women in India 1600-1900, Katie Hickman
6. Remarkable: Five women who dared to Make a Difference, Lyse Doucet
7. Watching the Tree, Adeline Yen Mah
8. A Thousand Ships, Natalie Haynes,
9. The Pact We Made, Layla AlAmmar
10. Snow, Dog, Foot, Claudio Morandini

Challenge 8: Cleopatra's Needle - Books in Translation



Cleopatra's Needle is a Egyptian obelisk that was "acquired" by the British after the battle of the Nile in the early 1800s. It took a while to arrive in London, but has been in place on the embankment, complete with a pair of sphinxs flanking it since 1879.

I can't find who owns it or maintains it, so we'll have to resort to Wikipedia.

As an item that has been translated form it's home and is now part of the furniture, this is where I will install all my books in translation. I would like to read 6 of these in the year.

1. Faces on the Tip of My Tongue, Emmanuelle Pagano - French
2. Snow, Dog, Foot, Claudio Morandini - Italian

Challenge 9: Grimes Graves - Book subscriptions



This odd looking landscape, like a green moonscape, is actually a neolithic flint mine. Each hollow is the entrance to a small bell shaped mine. The hollows are where the land surface has fallen in to the cavities below. It is possible to go down into one of the mines, down a rather steep ladder. It is very tight when you get down there, all hollowed out with antler picks and shovels.

The landscape is managed by English Heritage .

The surface does not give away what is concealed beneath and so I will be bringing to the surface my variuous book subscriptions in this category.

1. Mudlarking, Lara Maiklem
2. Disappearing Earth, Julia Phillips
3. Orphan of Islam, Alexander Khan
4. Faces on the Tip of My Tongue, Emmanuelle Pagano
5. She-merchants, buccaneers and gentlewomen : the lives and times of British women in India 1600-1900, Katie Hickman
6. Watching the Tree, Adeline Yen Mah
7. The Porpoise, Mark Haddon
8. The Pact We Made, Layla AlAmmar

Challenge 10: Tarr Steps - CATs



Tarr steps, in the Exmoor national park, is an example of an ancient bridge type that involves large slabs of stone being laid horizontally onto stone piles in order to corss a stretch of water. There is no confirmed assigned date for this bridge, with this being attributed to the medieval period, but it is a type that could be significantly older than that.

The bridge is located within the Exmoor national park.

As a bridge, this is just the kind of thing that a CAT might appreciate so that they don't get their feet wet and so I will be CATegorising my CAT reads in here.

RandomCAT
Jan - A Resolution - Maid in Waiting, John Galsworthy
Feb - published in a leap year - A Room full of Bones, Elly Griffiths
Mar - contains a season
Apr - flowers and showers - Flowering Wilderness, John Galsworthy
May - off the shelf
Jun
Jul
Aug
Sep
Oct
Nov
Dec

GeoCAT
January-Geo Area Asia I Afghanistan, India, Pakistan, Nepal, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan Disappearing Earth, Julia Phillips
February--Geo Area: Europe (Excluding Great Britain) Host: Helenliz Faces on the Tip of My Tongue, Emmanuelle Pagano
March Northern Africa & The Mideast: Algeria, Morocco, Egypt, Israel, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Iraq, Turkey (others) The Silence of the Girls, Pat Barker
April Australia, New Zealand, Oceania
May: Any place you would like to visit!
June: Space: The Final Frontier
July: Mexico, Central America, South America, and the Caribbean
August: Asia II: Japan, China, Korea, Taiwan Southeast Asia
September: Polar & Tundra Regions
October: Great Britain, Canada, US
November: Africa II All countries excluding those from March. Possibilities: Kenya, South Africa, Ghana, Ethiopia and others
December: Catch up month or read another one from your favorite CATegory!

Non-FictionCAT
January - Journalism and News
February - Travel She-merchants, buccaneers and gentlewomen : the lives and times of British women in India 1600-1900, Katie Hickman
March - Biography Remarkable: Five women who dared to Make a Difference, Lyse Doucet
April - Law and Order
May - Science
June - Society
July - Human Science
August - History
September
October - The Arts
November - Food, Home and Recreation
December - Adventures by Land, Sea or Air

AlphaKIT
Jan - A&U
Feb - F&B Beyond Black, Hilary Mantel
Mar - G&C
Apr - S&T A Thousand Ships, Natalie Haynes,
May - L&P
Jun - K&Y
Jul - J&R
Aug - O&H
Sep - M&E
Oct - D&V
Nov - I&Q
Dec - W&N

Challenge 11: White Horse - BINGO card



There are a number of figures carved into the chalk slopes of the south of Englad, with the image being created with the white chalk showing against the green grass. And, bizarrely, they often appear to their best advantagte from the air - an aspect their creators could nebver have accessed. Some are ancient, some victorian. My example is an ancient one, the White Horse at Uffington, which is believed to have been cut in the Bronze age.

This example is managed by English Heritage.

These chalk cuttings are sometimes animals and while I know none that are dogs, this is where I will be storing my BINGO card.

1. Book that's in a Legacy Library Murder in the Mill-race, ECR Lorac
2. Book written by an LT author
3. Book published in 1820 or 1920
4. Book published in the year of your birth
5. Book published under a pen name or anonymously
6. Book set in Asia Disappearing Earth, Julia Phillips
7. Mystery or true crime A Room full of Bones, Elly Griffiths
8. Book involving a real historical event (fiction or nonfiction) Royal Escape, Georgette Heyer
9. Book about books, bookstores, or libraries
10. Book with at least three letters of BINGO consecutively in order in the title (BIN, ING, NGO, GOB, OBI...the letters can cross words but must be in order and be consecutive) Mudlarking, Lara Maiklem
11. Red cover, or red is prominent on the cover She-merchants, buccaneers and gentlewomen : the lives and times of British women in India 1600-1900, Katie Hickman
12. Title contains a pun
13. Book about birth or death (childbearing, midwifery, human aging -- this is a combo of the "childbearing" and "human aging" suggestions) Beyond Black, Hilary Mantel
14. Book with a proper name in the title London Transports, Maeve Binchy, *** (audio)
15. Book published by a small press or self-published
16. Book published in 2020 Letters of Note: Love, Shaun Usher
17. Epistolary novel or collection of letters A Thousand Ships, Natalie Haynes,
18. Book by a journalist or about journalism This year it will be Different Maeve Binchy
19. Book not set on Earth
20. Mythology or folklore The Silence of the Girls, Pat Barker
21. Weird book title Faces on the Tip of My Tongue, Emmanuelle Pagano
22. Book with "library" or "thing" in the title or subtitle
23. Book with a periodic table element in the title
24. Book by a woman from a country other than the US/UK Wilderness Tips, Margaret Atwood
25. Read a CAT

Challenge 12: Spinnaker Tower - Miscellaneous



(No, it isn't a horizontal tower, I can't work out how to get the picture from my phone to turn by 90 degrees!)

There are any number of modern sgtructures that, to some extent, have no practical purpose. The London Eye is probably the first, the millennium seems to have triggered this fashion. Portsmouth's contribution is Spinnaker Tower. It is supposed to look like the main sail of a ship, and is located right on the seafront in the old Royal Naval base (which is now a shopping complex). I like it, I like the daring and flow of it and the way it reacts to changes in the light around it. I've even been up and stood on the glass floor. *wibble*

The exterior is clearly visible form quite some distance, but you can, of course, go up and see the views from the viewing platforms of Spinnaker Tower.

A something that has little purpose of itself, I will pack anything that won't fit anywhere else into this pile, it's the miscellaneous pile.

1. Odd and the Frost Giants, Neil Gaiman

Congratulations on getting your 2020 thread up! What fascinating structures!

Very clever theme! Love the Ironbridge photo. It looks like you have a duplicate photo for 12 and 13.

Looks like you’ll be in for some interesting reading next year.

Great idea for a challenge thread. I love the Horse and have been there. I've also seen the Forth Bridge.

Yay, I've been to Portsmouth and seen the Spinnaker Tower in person! Didn't go in, but saw it from the water when we did a short harbour cruise.

Congrats on setting up your thread!

Congrats on your theme! Those are fascinating structures, I love the stories behind them.

Love your theme!

Love your structures and how you've built your 2020 challenge around them!

Great themes and pictures! Looking forward to following along in 2020.

You always choose the most interesting themes! Congratulations, you've done it again.

I love seeing the different ideas people come up with for a theme. Great job of connecting these structures to your reading.

re: pictures. I was having this problem with my Ipad and someone told me to open the picture, edit, spin it all the way around and save it again. It seems to work for me. Not sure if it might work with your phone.

Great pictures and theme! Good luck in your 2020 reading!

Thank you for visiting the edifice. I hope you found the visit interesting and will come back again (said in her best tour guide voice).

>17 LittleTaiko: thanks - well spotted. Now corrected.

>18 majkia: I've been to 8 of them. Ironbridge remains very much on my to do list.

>19 rabbitprincess: we went up not long after it opened, but only the once. Not sure I need to do it again either. Love a harbour trip, as long as it's not too bumpy!

>24 VivienneR: I might be about to run out of ideas for 2021! Having been through castles and buildings I'm not sure what else I can invent for next time out! >:-o

>25 dudes22: I know I can rotate them on the PC, just not sure how to do it when uploading directly from the phone. Oh well, it'll do until I have some time to do it properly.

What a fantastic theme! Looking forward to your 2020 reads and discoveries!

Love the theme and the explanations for each category!

>28 Jackie_K:, >29 christina_reads: Thank you both.

I love your theme and the wealth of information I just learned!

I think I must have crossed the Forth Bridge traveling from Aberdeen to Edinburgh. I remember a rather long span at one point....

>31 katiekrug: Thanks! I'm a mine of useless information at the best of times >:-) Makes me handy on a quiz team.
Yup, had you gone by train you would almost certainly have crossed the Forth bridge. These days they do so at a reduced speed from normal line running.

>32 Helenliz: Me too! My hubby always wonders how I have so much information in my head. Because of the reading, my dear!!

What an interesting thread! I look forward to following your reading.

>33 JayneCM: ahh, I married a like minded soul. We do make a formidable pair on a quiz team - although get us on music and we're, ahem, limited!
>34 clue: thankyou!

>35 Helenliz: My downfall is sport and celebrity gossip type questions. I don't really care what the Kardashians are up to!

I'm looking forward to seeing your 2020 reviews!

>36 JayneCM: I can understand that! >:-)
>37 mstrust: Thank you!!

>35 Helenliz: My other half and I met at university quiz. He's better at geography, history, and movies, while I clean up on literature, some popular music, and some history. For an engineer he's not the greatest with science questions :P And I too am not aware of a lot of celebrity things or music that was popular in this millennium.

>39 rabbitprincess: At leat you knew you were quiz compatible! He does geography, moves and some history, I do history, literature & some science (despite havong trained as a scientist, I'm useless at anything biology related!). My music knowledge ends with the mid 1990s, he's even less use than that! Mind you've we must do OK, we've won the last few quizzes we've entered. I do get quite competitive at a quiz. >8 Helenliz:-)

Great theme! Enjoy your 2020 reads!

>41 thornton37814:, Thank you! Nearly time to start...

Such creative categories. Best of luck with your challenge.

>43 This-n-That:, >44 BookLizard: Thank you both.
The book subscription was a present to myself last year and I really enjoyed it, but did fall behind a bit. So at least with a category for them, I should try and keep up! The questionaire I had to fill in was quite comprehenisve and must have been effective as I've had books rated between 3 & 5 stars so far. Looking forward to next year already. Even if I still need to catch up on 2019 first...

Found you! Love your categories and their photos, Helen; good luck with your 2020 reading!

>46 lyzard: thank you and thanks for making the effort to track me down. >:-)

>47 Helenliz:

You CATPeople can be a little elusive... :)

Hi Helen, love the categories. What about public art/sculpture or memorials for next year? Just a thought. (I have a picture of the men at Crosby beach you can lift!!) I am always tempted by the idea of categories at this time of year.

Glad your subs continue - I'm looking forward to seeing the next Peirene theme.

>48 lyzard: Love the idea of myself as one of the CATpeople. >:-)
Although perhaps noe one of these cat people:

Looks a lot like one of your pulp covers. Redhead? Tick. Strange font? Tick.

>49 charl08: Thanks. I can't believe I'm actually debating a theme for 2021 on 1st January 2020, but hmm, the idea does have merit. *strokes chin in a meditiative manner*

Oh and I'm sooo far behind on Peirene books. I sucumbed to a few in their last sale, so I already have more than enough to be going on with!

Oh wow, Helenliz. You have such amazing looks into how your reading works for you: how you will catalog your books, what you will read, translations or women authors. You are an inspiration.

Thank you for continuing to House the Hoard and Erect Edifices to it! All good wishes to a well-read 2020.

>50 Helenliz:

Oh, that's hilarious! You almost inspire me to resurrect my Random Redheads. (Like I need another project!?)

I loved reading the descriptions for the various man-made structures. The only structures listed that I have visited are the Forth bridge and the White Horse.

>51 threadnsong:, >53 lkernagh: Thank you both. Hopefully I've added to you must visit list at least a bit.

>52 lyzard: I know, I've been looking for a reason to use it! Can't remember what I was looking for at the time, but it wasn't that. >;-)

So it is the first decision of the year, for the Shelterbox book club. The three options are:

Watching The Tree by Adeline Yen Mah
Adeline Yen Mah was born in Tianjin, and through the conversations and wisdom of her grandfather and aunt learnt a great deal of traditional Chinese thought, history and religion. Through her father's second marriage, to a Eurasian woman, and their subsequent move to Hong Kong, she learnt more about the Chinese attitudes to business and to family, and the strength of the Chinese in exile.
Since living in London and California, Adeline Yen Mah has studied Chinese thought, looking at both the strengths and weaknesses which it gives those who follow it and now, in Watching the Tree, she takes us on a journey through the Chinese language, religions and history, using both Chinese proverbs and her own experiences, to bring to us an understanding of the richness of China and the ways that we can take and use some of the wisdom for ourselves in the West.

Friendly Fire by Alaa Al Aswany
'Friendly Fire' is a novella and collection of short stories from Alaa Al Aswany, author of 'The Yacoubian Building'. As in that novel, Al Aswany dissects modern Egyptian society and reveals with skill and detachment the hypocrisy, violence and abuse of power characteristic of a world in moral crisis.
Here, though, the focus has shifted from the broad historical canvas to the minute stitches of pain that hold together an individual, a family, a school classroom and the relationship between a man and a woman. Can a man so alienated from his society that he regards all its members as no better than microbes wriggling under a microscope survive within it? Can cynical religiosity triumph over human decency? Can a man put the thought of a delicious dish of beans behind him long enough to mourn his father’s death? Alongside these wry questions, other, less mordant perspectives also have their place: an ageing cabaret dancer bestows the blessing of a vanished world on her lover’s son; a crippled boy wins subjective victory from objective disaster. In ‘Friendly Fire’, readers will find again the vivid, passionate characters of today's Cairo, clamouring to be heard.

The Unlikely Adventures of the Shergill Sisters by Balli Kaur Jaswal
The British-born Punjabi Shergill sisters — Rajni, Jezmeen, and Shirina — were never close and barely got along growing up, and now as adults, have grown even further apart. On her deathbed, their mother voices one last wish: that her daughters will make a pilgrimage together to the Golden Temple in Amritsar to carry out her final rites.
Arriving in India, these sisters will make unexpected discoveries about themselves, their mother, and their lives—and learn the real story behind the trip Rajni took with their Mother long ago—a momentous journey that resulted in Mum never being able to return to India again.
The Unlikely Adventures of the Shergill Sisters is a female take on the Indian travel narrative. "I wanted to explore the tensions between tradition and modernity in immigrant communities, and particularly how those tensions play out among women like these sisters, who are the first generation to be raised outside of India." Balli Kaur Jaswal writes.

I'm leaning towards the middle one. any thoughts from the collective? Vote closes Monday night.

I have #2 and #3 on my shelf/Kindle, so I vote for one of those. Helpful, aren't I?

>55 katiekrug: well it's not the least helpful you could have been. That would have been to say you have all 3 and vote for them all. As #2 is where I'm currently leaning, it doesn't contradict my initial instinct.

Just to be awkward, I think I'd go in this order: 3, 1, 2!

I like 1. Not a consensus.

>57 Jackie_K:, >58 hailelib:. An opinion can't be wrong. It can be ignored though. >;-) It's not just my decision, so even if I vote for one of them, there's no guarantee which I'll get to read.
LT ratings has them in order 3, 2, 1.

I would probably choose #3, but they all sound interesting.

My vote would be for 1, though I read 3 and liked but didn't love it. Part of it was based on the title, I was expecting a rather light story and it wasn't that at all.

I'd avoid #1 . Always a bit suspicious of books that claim to share the wisdom of a country. Which bit? Isn't China enormous? (Cynicism set firmly to full on.)

I have the Shergill sisters so would probably join you with that one. (Not sure if that is a vote in favour though?)

I have the Shergill Sisters on my list to read for my India category so would probably go with that.

And we're off! First finish of 2020 and it was a good one to start with.

Book: 1
Title: Maid in Waiting
Author: John Galsworthy
Rating: ****
Where: Library
Why: Because we started the series ages ago (2018?) and I've still not finished it!
Categories: CAT
TIOLI:Challenge #1: Read a book whose number of title words equals the number of names you find in the title

I was concerned about continuing the story of the Forsytes, as the last few books had been very focussed on Fleur and I find her difficult to get on with. She strikes me as rather selfish and not terribly likeable.
This book follows more closely Michael Mont's cousins and the Uncles that seem to tie them together. Dinny is the main character (Elizabeth, but called Dinny throughout) and she has far more about her, her main concerns are he brother and family and she is a much more engaging character.
The are a very different family from the Forsytes, in that they have been landed gentry since the conquest, and have now fallen on harder times. They have in their ranks a judge, scholar, soldier, clergyman and landowner and have the solidity of knowing who their great (times many) grandfather was. They have none of Soames' insecurities about property and origins, probably because they are from a different class. But they are far more class-less than Soames.
I thoroughly enjoyed this, it has significant degrees of light and shade and is a marked imrpovement on the last couple of books. Now looking foward to book 8 and finishing the sequence.

Thank for the choice discussion. I have, in fact, changed my mind and voted for #3. Now to see what I get. I think that >61 LittleTaiko: makes an interesting point, I thought that it would be a bit chick-lit-esque from the title and cover - it is giving off that kind of vibe, which is not usually my thing. But if it is more gritty that it appears, maybe it is the most appealing.

>62 charl08: I can see where you're comming from there. At least 1 review mentions the tone as being a bit patronising, so maybe that's not the pick of the crop.

I will let you know what gets picked and what I think of it when I've read it.

>64 Helenliz:

I'm averting my eyes from your review as I'm much further behind than you are (I started again with To Let, then stalled again when The White Monkey wasn't readily available), but I think I got the gist of your first sentence or two and I heartily concur.

>66 lyzard: for once you're safe, that's an entirely spoiler free review!
I've already got book 8 on reserve at the library, so will be moving on to that quicker than it too me to get around to this. Fleur really had got on my nerves. Sorry, you've got a way to go with her yet!

I love your theme, Helen! And I learned a lot reading through it all - very fun. Dropping my star so I don't miss anything.

>68 Crazymamie:, why thank you Mamie. Thanks for popping by. Not a great deal happens around here (I'm not one of your read 200 or 300 books in a year people) but you're welcome any time.

I dropped off a star a while back, Helen, but I don't think I ever posted anything. So, I'd like to wish you a belated happy new year! And to tell you that I think your edifices are fabulous!

Book: 2
Title: Norse Mythology
Author: Neil Gaiman
Rating: ***
Where: Library
Why: Audio book
Categories: Short stories
TIOLI:Challenge #14. Read a book with a LT rating of 3.8* or more

This was an enjoyable listen. Narrated by the author, who has a voice that is far more comforting than the material. It's amazing how violent and just plain nasty the myths can be. People getting killed left right a centre and Loki's torture at the end is the product of a twisted mind and a half. Our ancestors certainly had things hard if this was the measure of life experience!
It's the Norse myths, or some of them, told in a mildly knowing tone that actually goes quite well with the material. While the narrative arc takes you on a journey from the creation of the world to the end of days, it's not necessarily a linear narrative, there are gaps and omissions. That's partly as there are gaps in what has come down to us through the generations. Listening to these tales reflects their original means of transmission, this is an aural tradition, and it does show in the telling. There is a rhythm to the language and the repetition of certain phrases and descriptions. It's certainly a pleasant way to spend a few hours. The author's introduction is also well worth listening to.

>70 Dejah_Thoris: thank you for dropping the star and popping back to say hello! The more the merrier!!

>71 Helenliz: I enjoyed Gaiman's retelling as well, but I read it in print rather than in audio. The part that cracked me up the most was the explanation for how poetry was created (and specifically bad poetry).

Another resolution is to keep up in 2020 with all my friends on LT. Happy New Year!

>73 rabbitprincess: I know, I thought that was part of what made it so interesting, it had those light moments scattered through it.

>74 PaulCranswick: thanks for popping by, Paul. Happy new year to you too.

>76 This-n-That: Thanks! It was the first time I'd hear Gaiman narrate anything and was impressed at how easy to listen to he was. I could see myself trying more of his work this way.

>54 Helenliz: The results are in. And while the winner was The Unlikely Adventures of The Shergill Sisters. But then there was this in the e-mail, "Unfortunately, we have been unable to secure enough copies of the book from the publisher." Ooops! That's a bit of a fail, Mr Publisher! So we'll be reading the second placed book, Watching The Tree. Which had mixed reactions above, I think it fair to say.

That is a fail on the part of the publisher, Helen. Disappointing.

>71 Helenliz: I love Gaiman as a narrator! I listened to that one several years ago and really enjoyed it. Nice review.

>77 Helenliz: Oh no! Who will nudge me to read my copy now?

>79 charl08: They are putting it back on the list as possible once they think they can obtain sufficient from the publisher, so maybe later.

>78 Crazymamie: I know. If that was the case it would beter have not made the list as a selection. I'm debating listening to more by him, it just needs to be something that fits my listening habits.

>71 Helenliz: Oh, oh, oh, I read this one at the tail (tale?) end of 2019! I have listened to Anansi Boys as an audiobook, and I think that Neil Gaiman narrated it. It was gripping. And Norse Mythology is bloody and lots of people die, don't they?? And how about Thor's appetite! Yowza.

>81 threadnsong: Oh yes, he's not a lad likely to just take the one potato!

All this talk of Norse gods has triggered a random ear worm. When I was at school we did Joseph as a massed choirs thing. The following year we did something similar, but based on the Norse gods. I can remember nothing of it but one snippet. It has a sort of alternating high/low, bouncy tune and goes
"Thor is raging and ramping(?) and tramping around in his great big boots.
Why is he trying to to pull up the trees with their twisted roots?
With a face like his own thunder cloud,
(memory fails here) something and something, something and something
Like ten tigers trapped in a cage"
Can't think of a title of that song or the overall piece. but I can't have been more than 12 at the time, so we're talking early 80s. So it could have been anything!

Book: 3
Title: Mudlarking
Author: Lara Maiklem
Rating: ***
Where: New
Why: MrB's book subscription
Categories: Woman author, new author, Subscription, Bingo
TIOLI: Challenge #6: Read a book where the author’s first initial preceeds the author’s last initial in alphabetical order

This was an interesting book, once I got my head into the author's frame of mind. A mudlark is someone who searches for foreshore for items left in the mud. In the past that would have been for items to sell, nowadays it is morelikely for items of historical value. She starts her tale at the furthest reaches of the tidal Thames and each chapter is based around a stretch of the river until we finish at the Estuary. However each chapter is not set purely in that locaiton, it is a jumping off point for what ever follows, so items found may link to items found elsewhere, her family (both recent and past) and so on. Took me a little while to get used to this, and once I did, it worked. There were some really interesting elements in here, the story of the typeface, for instance, was fascinating and I can see how easily that could become an obsession.
The one thing this book is sevrely lacking is illustrations. There are 2 maps of the river, and an engraving of one of the historic mudlarks mentioned in the text, but that was it. No images of the many items she's discussing, nothing to give you any frame of reference for the topic at hand. It felt like it could have been improved but someone ran out of energy or enthusiasm, I'm not sure which. It's a shame, as it would have made a significant difference to the experience of the text.

>84 Helenliz: Maybe too expensive to include lots of images? I quite fancy the idea of doing this on the Thames, the old things people find sound so interesting. Although I'm sure there must be modern nasties along there too.

>85 charl08: Maybe. The end papers are colour illustrated notes fomr a fellow mudlarker and are quite exquisite. It could have done with a few images, maybe just pen drawings, to describe what a thingy actually is. The modern nasties did get a look in, and that sounded pretty unpleasant.

>83 Helenliz: Hmmm, interesting earworm. I'm not familiar with those words and it's not ringing the proverbial earworm bell for me.

Did you figure out the tune by chance?

Book: 4
Title: Disappearing Earth
Author: Julia Phillips
Rating: ***
Where: New
Why: MrB's book subscription
Categories: Woman author, new author, Subscription,
TIOLI: Challenge #7. Read a book by a woman author you've not read before

First things first, tis book is impossible to review without discussing the ending and the last chapter, so be warned, it will take away all suspense.
This books starts with two younge girls going missing in Kamchatka and the rest of the book covers the next year, with each chapter focussing on a different persons who have some link, in soe way, to the missing girls. During this we discosver the racism inherrent in the society, with the indigenous peoples of the peninsular being shunned and treated prroly by the authorities. This is most evident in the treatment of Lilia, an Even girl, a few years older than the two mssing girls, who vanished from her village 4 years previously. She was assumed to have run away and no more than perfunctory search was made.
The way the differnt people have changed their attitudes as a result of things changing is at the heart of the story. At the end the two mothers come together and they are at different stages of the hope/grief process, but there share a common sense of loss that no-one else can really understand. And just as Marina, the mother of the two girls sems to be comming to an acceptance, we reach the ;ast chapter. And then the author does something that I think is almost unforgiveable - she hints that this is all going to come out in the wash with a happy ending. The last chapter is clearly the older of the two girls telling a story to comfort the younger, while hearing goings on within the house an making reference to Lilia as also being in the house. The chances of missing children being found 11 months or 4 years later is almost nill to non-existant. It is almost nill after 3 days, let alone any longer. I'm not adverse to ahhpy endings, but they do need to rooted in reality, and this struck me as just being unrealistically too saccherine to be real. It's giving false hope, and that strikes me as unforgiveable.
It took a while for me to get into this books and style of story telling but had it ended 1 chapter shorted, I'd be giving it one star more.

>87 threadnsong:, yes the tune for that section of words is intact and present (again). I can't work out how to describe it, so maybe best if I don't try!

>83 Helenliz: No idea! We did Joseph too. I only realised The Elvis bit was an Elvis bit many years later...

>90 charl08: Not just you, even Google is coming up with nothing. I don't believe I imagined it...

Book: 5
Title: Orphan of Islam
Author: Alexander Khan
Rating: ***
Where: New
Why: MrB's book subscription
Categories: new author, Subscription,
TIOLI: Challenge #16. Read a book set in, about, or written by an author residing in a country ending in "stan"

This is not an easy read and, to some extent, stops just as the story starts to get interesting. It is a first person account of a Lancashore child, born of Pakistani father and English mother. As a small child he is taken to Pakistan and doesn;t see her again until an adult. His father dies and he is then in the care of his extended family. What happens next is child abuse, as sanctioned by the wider fmaily and using religion and culture as a means to justify he ill treatment. It is not an easy read. More disturbing is the failure of some of the family to step in and actually do anything about it. He experiences a madrassa, has a marriage arranged and finally returns to the UK.
The story finishes at 16 with the author as a barely educated boy, no qualifications, no skills, working in the corner shop of a relative. How he gets from there is left unknown and that, to me, is the more interesting story, how you re-invent yourself, new name, new job, new wife, the works from a dreadful starting point is surely the more interesting story. Knowing that the author is now married and seems to have overcome his dreadful start in lofe made reading this more bearable. It was certainly a hard read, not relaxing or comfortable. Enjoy is not the word to describe the experience.
I have concerns that this will only serve to reinfornce certain racial stereotypes, that of the honour killing, the religious extremeist, the uneducated minority. That left me somewhat uncomfortable.
This book was provided as part of the Shelterbox Book Club and the author particiapted in the discussion. The follow on story is not necessarily the one we would want to read, no happy ending to this fairy tale.

>92 Helenliz: I might pass on this one, Helen. Sounds like the discussion would have had plenty of food for thought, though.

>93 charl08: if he ever does a sequel, I would think that to be maybe more interesting, but I can't recommend this on the basis of enjoyment. The discussion was good, especially with the author being involved.

A few days visiting a supplier in Eastern Germany sees me having finished a couple of books. travelling for work is not terribly glamorous, but at least a book helps pass the time. 4 hours at an airport waiting for the last flight of the day is not being the most interesting thing to do of an evening!

Book: 6
Title: Beyond Black
Author: Hilary Mantel
Rating: **
Where: Library
Why: AlphaKit
Categories: woman author, orange prize
TIOLI: Challenge #16: Read a book where the authors name contains 4 or more different vowels

This is an odd book. At one level it is incredibly unpleasant, and yet I don't remember thinking about stopping. Spoilers follow...
Alison is a woman built on generous lines and is a medium. She has, as her spirit guide, a thoroughly unpleasant individual known as Morris. She has known Morris in real life, he was one of a set of distinctly unpleasant individuals who hung around her mother's house when she was young. Alison's mother was on the game, and the group of men (known collectively as the the fiends) were her clients, drug dealers and worse. Alison is confused about her childhood, not being sure what happened exactly when or how old she was. What we glean is that she was auctioned off by her mother to the highest bidder, was shared around, abused, cut, beaten and thoroughly degraded by all concerned. She gradually starts to make sense of her childhood and her adult life begins to make more sense and a change for the better is achieved.
In parallel to this we have Collette, who is entirely un-moved by the spirit world. She has just come out of a relationship with Gavin and is seeking meaning in her life. She becomes Alison's business PA, arranging her demonstrations, doing the books etc. they move into a house together (in separate rooms, it's not that sort of relationship) and there is plenty of opportunity for misunderstanding. You could also describe her as completely untouched by the softer arts as well, but that is, to some extent, her purpose in the book, to act as a foil to Alison.
The cover describes this as being darkly humorous. It is certainly dark, about as black as it is possible to be, I think, and while there is wit in here, in some of the situations conjured up, I'm not sure its wit will be what stays with me. My overriding feeling on concluding is that there is a particularly dark corner of hell reserved for those who act as the fiends have done. Alison comes of the book in a better place than she went into it, but that is the only positive I think I can take from it.

Book: 7
Title: A Room full of Bones
Author: Elly Griffiths
Rating: ***
Where: Library
Why: Why not?
Categories: woman author
TIOLI: Challenge #7. Read the next book in a series by a woman author

These are always inventive. In this case there's an array of crimes, but none of them are the one you think you're going to be reading about when you first start reading and Ruth discovers the first body. In this case we have a coffin of an ancient Bishop, some aboriginal skulls, a drug smuggling case and some animal rights activists all mixed up, to varying degrees, in the resolution of the first death. The refreshing thing in this book is that Ruth doesn't run headlong into danger, she has more of an onlookers role in this one. It all gets a bit far fetched, but isn't that part of the fun?

>95 Helenliz: Sorry for the long airport wait. Hopefully there were plenty of seats? One of my worst ever trips I transferred into an airport mid buikding project. It felt like everyone was stuck on a moving walkway for hours, until giving up and sitting on the floor.

I read Beyond Black a while back now (I think Pre LT) but unlike some it's not one I will forget. The spirit world is so realistically done, along with the fakery and the sleaze, that it has stuck.

I have Beyond Black on my shelf, along with a few other Mantels I also haven't read. You're not making me want to grab it!

>97 katiekrug: It's an odd one. Despite it being really unpleasant in some ways, I didn;t think of stopping. So that must say something for the writing, if not the setup. But, no, I can't see me suggesting it to anyone for enjoyments sake.

Book: 8
Title: Murder in the Mill-Race
Author: ECR Lorac
Rating: ***
Where: my shelves
Why: Travel friendly
Categories: woman author
TIOLI: Challenge #12: Read a book that is divided internally by more than chapter headings

This is a mystery set in a small village, where there are layers of mystery and it takes some incommers to the village to get to the bottom of it all. Initially, everything in the village looks rosey, with the new doctor and his wife moving in and making themselves at home in the place. Then a shdow moves across their vista, in the form of Sister Monica, the matron of the local charity children's home. She has, it's fair to say, ideas that were old fashioned when this book was set (post WW2) and are positively archaic now. She is viewed as little short of a saint by the entire community, so it is no great surprise when she ends up as exhibit number 1. The village closes ranks and the local police sergant is sure that there has been a crime comitted can get little that amounts to information from the locals. In order to have a fresh pair of eyes and clear perspective, McDonald is claled in from Scotland Yard. He gets right down to earth and the layers of deceit and secrets are gradually peeled back. It's an engaging mystery as, right from the start, the victim gets your back up, so you're in the pleasant position of being able to view the puzzle objectively and not from a position of sadness. Excellent victim seleciton method. Nice depiction of a vanished time and insular society that barely exists any more.

>99 Helenliz: I've never heard of Lorac, Helen. Great review. Where did you come across the book?

>99 Helenliz: This is the third I've read, they've been republished by the British Library Crime Classics series.
The first one I bought was Bats in the Belfry, mainly because of the title. >:-) Some people might worry that I've not been reading them in order, but I'm not sure they've been republished in order either, so I'm getting out on a technicality there. >:-D

>99 Helenliz:, >101 Helenliz:

Ugh, don't taunt me with that! The very first book in Lorac's (exceedingly long) Inspector MacDonald series is impossible to get hold of, and of course (unlike some people!) I haven't just let myself move on to #2... I keep hoping one of the Kindle companies will revive it but no such luck so far.

>1 Helenliz:

How are you getting on with Royal Escape? I do mean to get back to Heyer's historical fictions but right now I don't need another challenge.

>102 lyzard: I know it;s a long series, this one's apparently number 37! I can live with dipping in and out. I apologise if that's just sent finger nails down the blackboard of someone's spine.

I decided to read all the romances, historic or regency, as that was what Mum seemed to have most of. I literally opened it to put the bookmark in last night, so I honestly have no idea how it's going right now! Heading to bed in a minute & chapter 1, so I will report back later.

>103 Helenliz:

I'll forgive you this time. :D

46 books, according to my notes. I see now that more of them have been reissued than I realised, so I guess there's still hope.

Oops! - caught you a little too early in the 'currently reading' process. :)

>99 Helenliz: I love the covers on these books. And also that the first of those you purchased was because of the title. This is why I read A Severed Head several years ago - I just couldn't NOT read a book with that title.

>105 Crazymamie: I admit to being shallow enough to pick a book based on its title - as a church bellringer, I felt I couldn't ignore a book titled Bats in the belfry! It was too good to pass up - even though it turned out to have nothing at all to do with bells or bellringing .

Hope you've not been blown away Helen. Are there any other good books linked to bellringing? The only one I cold think of is the Wimsey mystery (9 Tailors? maybe?) but must confess to being completely mystifed by all the puzzles.

>107 charl08: Not so far. We're down 1 fence panel and 1 pane of greenhouse glass. I also seen to have taken a sensible pill yesterday and left work to get home when it started to snow, rather than waiting until the dirving conditions were really awful. *proud moment*

The 9 Tailors is the classic ringing related book. There are some others, but I've not actually read very many. If you ever read it again, I'll happily explain what I can.

Book: 9
Title: The Adventures of Moriarty
Author: Edited Maxim Jakubowski
Rating: ****
Where: library
Why: audio
Categories: short stories
TIOLI: Challenge #1. Read a book whose first word of the first paragraph starts with a vowel

This is a whole heap of fun and inventiveness that is indeed mammoth, but is hardly repetitive. As the editor points out in his introit, the devil has all the best lines and there is something highly attractive about a smart, devious, villain. He also points out that Moriarty is mentioned in very few of the Holmes stories, and yet he is inextricably linked with that of Holmes. In this set of short stories a range of authors have taken what is related in the Holmes stories and written a Moriarty story of their own. They are certainly varied. They have different narrators, some of them by Watson, Moriarty himself or other protagonists that appear in the Holmes canon, Irene Adler narrating one story in which things do not all go Moriarty's way... In a number of the stories they look at Moriarty's past, as a school boy or young academic, or into the future, after Richenbach, and what might happen in the next generation. Of these, it is interesting that the next generation tends to be female taking over her father's mantle. Also the one story in which Moriarty is a front, the puppet master is a puppet mistress. Intriguing, as I said.
The tales themselves have different takes on the master villain. In one he is still alive and is the master spider sitting at the heart of the world wide web, in others he has forsworn crime, in one inventive story he is forever suspended in a parallel imaginary world while falling. They are not all straight victoriana, the steam punk telling was particularly inventive (and introduced me to a genre I have read very little of) although my personal favourite is the one which sets the story in the midst of HG Wells' War of the Worlds. That was a thoroughly inventive mashup of two very different stories by placing one person in both stories. Brilliantly done.
At 20 hours, this took me almost 5 weeks to listen to, but it never got dull or boring. The single narrator did a good job of maintaining consistency of accent between people who appeared in different stories. Thoroughly recommended for Holmes fans everywhere.

Excellent review, Helen! I added my thumb to that. And I'm adding it to the List.

Here's hoping your Thursday is full of fabulous!

>110 Crazymamie: Thanks! It was really very good as a listen. I think any Holmes fan should add it to the list. I can't quite believe I seem to be first review.

>109 Helenliz: I'm tempted. I cancelled my audible subscription, but maybe I should undo that!

>112 charl08: Go on go on go on go on go on. You know you want to. I got mine through Borrowbox, which I have a logon for through my library card. Downloads to my phone and I play it through the car while driving. See, you can teach on old dog new tricks. I was inordinately proud of myself the first time I tried that and it worked!

>113 Helenliz: Well, in that case I'll have a look on b-box. My library also has a subscription!

>112 charl08: I cancelled my Audible subscription, also. I now have started to use the library and so far of 20 audible books, 18 were available and I did not have to wait for them. I had to wait 48 hours for the first Poldark book, but I didn't think that was so bad. We can keep them for 21 days and then renew for another 14 if we want.

Making a note that I finished Royal Escape last night. My home town has a walk on part. We don't come out of it well! A touch florid and repetitive, but it's a rip roaring adventure.

Found it on borrow box! Thanks Helen.

>117 charl08: hurrah! Happy to help.
>115 Tess_W: I think I can renew in 3 week blocks, so far I haven't had to renew more than once.

Also finished Faces on the tip of my tongue. That's an intriguing set of interrelated stories that raise more questions than it answers.

A couple of train journeys and a long weekend in a wet & windy Liverpool sees a couple of finishes. I have worked out how to do a simple post on my phone, but not add a review - I can't seem to double click

Book: 10
Title: Royal Escape
Author: Georgette Heyer
Rating: ***
Where: my shelves
Why: Heyer series read
Categories: woman author, Heyer series read, BingoDog
TIOLI: Challenge #13: Read a book that has at least three names of people mentioned on page one

This is a slightly odd book. It tells of Charles II's attempts to leave the country after the defeat at the battle of Worcester. And from that perspective, it is a rip roaring adventure tale. Only there's a few too many occasi9ons when the dialogue is overly florid. And there are just a few too many times when Charles' ugly face is split with his dazzling smile and his charm wins over another person who gets dragged into the mess. It's all very uncritical of him, when at times he makes some poor decisions, or has them made on his behalf. It sounds extemenly improbably, but Heyer has a reputation for historical accuracy, so one can;t doubt that some version of this happened.
I was pleased to note that my home town got a mention, but came off badly, there being no sea captain considered trustworthy enough to take the King to France. The egalitarian part of me can't but help be mildly pleased that we were not up to scratch.

Book: 11
Title: Faces on the tip of my Tongue
Author: Emmanuelle Pagano
Rating: ****
Where: my shelves
Why: Peirene Press book
Categories: woman author, New author, translation, Subscription, BingoDog
TIOLI: Challenge #11: Read a book with a curious, intriguing, provocative title

This is a set of inter-related short stories, rather than a novel. Frequently an incident in one story is related by another person, from an alternate perspective, in another story. They are all related in the first person and, at times, it took a while to work out who the speaker was, male or female, young or old, and older or younger self compared to another of the stories. It was trancelike in its effect, leaving you always peering at the truth through a distorting mirror - what is real and what is not? At times the tellers themselves are not clear in their own mind. The depiction of the roadside looney and his waiting for an event that can never occur is one example of the mental uncertainty that exists here.
The last story in the book was the most isolated, but the most personal, in that it related directly to the act of reading and interacting with other readers of the same books. That was worth waiting for.

How is the Indian women book going? >2 Helenliz: Genius title.

>120 charl08: I know, it makes you think all sorts of exciting things are going to happen. It's arranged chronologically and so far I've read about women who went to India in the 17th & 18th Cenuries. It has a lot to do with the East India Company and their rather dodgy dealings, which I'm not going to pretend to understand. It's quite interesting, and especially interesting that the later Indian Raj is not there at all at the beginning. Women were trading from very early on, allthough if they went as wives and companions they were less well treated.
While I was keen to leave home at the earliest opportunity, I'm not sure that I fancy being at the end of a transport route that meant it could take 3 years to get a reply to a letter!

>119 Helenliz:

Averting my eyes from your review of Royal Escape because I *will* get to it some day, but happy to see "rip-roaring" in >116 Helenliz:. :D

>119 Helenliz: How very interesting, Helen. I have never heard of Georgette Heyer, but your review of this book fits in with a current read of mine, The Image of the King. Having read through books like Hilary Mantel's Wolf Hall series (the first two at any rate) and The Wives of Henry VIII I've become very familiar with Henry VIII's and Elizabeth's reigns; not so much that of Charles I and Charles II.

So while Image is more of a historical thumbnail sketch of who these monarchs were, it refreshes my recollection of high school's lectures about this time period, allowing me to understand your review above much more thoroughly.

>119 Helenliz: Definitely a BB for me. I've gotten to know Charles I and Charles II pretty well in the the last few years!

>122 lyzard: It's difficult to be a spolier when the ending is already known. But, by all means, avert the eyes from the effect.

>123 threadnsong: >:-O well you need to go and read one pronto! She's epic!! But I'd not start there, Royal Escape is a finctional hisotry rather than her usual Regency Romance. She's well worth a read. See >6 Helenliz: for the one's I've read and the list I have left to go!

>124 Tess_W: It's a fun read. I hope you enjoy it when you get to it.

It's that time again. decision time for the Shelterbox book club. 3 to choose from. And they all look good.


Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri
Navigating between the Indian traditions they've inherited and the baffling new world, the characters in Jhumpa Lahiri's elegant, touching stories seek love beyond the barriers of culture and generations. In "A Temporary Matter," published in The New Yorker, a young Indian-American couple faces the heartbreak of a stillborn birth while their Boston neighborhood copes with a nightly blackout. In the title story, an interpreter guides an American family through the India of their ancestors and hears an astonishing confession. Lahiri writes with deft cultural insight reminiscent of Anita Desai and a nuanced depth that recalls Mavis Gallant.

The Pact We Made by Layla AlAmmar
The Pact We Made tells the story of Dahlia who is staring down the barrel of her thirtieth birthday, the age when a Kuwaiti woman from a good family is past her prime marrying years. Dahlia straddles two worlds: one in which she’s a modern woman living in a modern city, and another where she can’t have male friends, or leave the country without her father’s consent. With shades of Kate Chopin’s The Awakening, and woven through with reflections on Ariel’s story from The Tempest, The Pact We Made explores ideas of freedom and the duality of being a woman in Kuwait.

The Madonnas of Leningrad by Debra Dean
In the fall of 1941, the German army approached the outskirts of Leningrad. During the ensuing months, the city's inhabitants would brave starvation and the bitter cold, all while fending off the constant German onslaught. Marina, then a tour guide at the Hermitage Museum, was instructed to take down the museum's priceless masterpieces for safekeeping. To hold on to sanity when the Luftwaffe's bombs began to fall, she burned to memory, brushstroke by brushstroke, these exquisite artworks. She used them to furnish a "memory palace," a personal Hermitage in her mind to which she retreated to escape terror, hunger, and encroaching death. A refuge that would stay buried deep within her, until she needed it once more.

Happy Pre-Tuesday, Helen! Those last two look interesting, but I loved Interpreter of Maladies.

>119 Helenliz: Nice reviews. Adding Faces on the Tip of my Tongue to The List.

Hi Mamie! Monday is going well so far. >;-)
Taking on board your recommendation. And glad to add one to your list in return.

>126 Helenliz: All 3 of them this month sound good, I'd struggle to choose between them!

Interpreter of Maladies is excellent! Pick it! Pick it!

I agree that all three look very good - sounds like you are in for a good read!

>129 Jackie_K:, >131 DeltaQueen50: I agree, I really don't mind this time which one is picked.
>130 katiekrug: OK, that's 2 votes for the same book, my wish is your command. I will see what we get.

>126 Helenliz: I have all three on my future reading list, so I look forward to seeing which one you read.

It seems that we will be reading The Pact we Made which will be a voyage into the unknown, as it currently appears to be in no one's library! Look at me, being a trend setter!!

You go, Helen!! I was intrigued by this part of the description: "...woven through with reflections on Ariel’s story from The Tempest..."

>126 Helenliz: - If it helps your decision any, I read The Madonnas of Leningrad back in 2011 and while I thought it was good, it wasn't a great or excellent read for me. I gave it 3.5 stars.

>136 lkernagh: In that case I'm almost pleased that that's not the book that was picked. We'll be reading The Pact We Made.

>135 Crazymamie: I'm a most unlikely trend setter! I know, it does sound most interesting.

I got caught on Facebook by that challenge to post 7 covers of books. No commentary, just 7 covers of books you've loved. I am finding it hard on 2 counts - 1) just 7 books?! 2) no commentary?! Part of the fun of sharing books is being able to rave about what makes them so fabulous (or awful - reviews of a book you hated are sometimes more fun than the ones you loved!)

>137 Helenliz: - I cheated when I did that Facebook challenge and provided a one sentence reason for picking each book that I did.

>138 katiekrug: - cheat! >;-) I think I'm going to have to do the same for at least one of them.

I entirely forgot that I'd finished this earlier in the week and not written a review

Book: 12
Title: This Year it will be Different
Author: Maeve Binchy
Rating: ***
Where: library
Why: Audio
Categories: woman author, Short stories, BingoDog
TIOLI: Challenge #9: Read a book planning your date with an author

An entirely unseasonable read, but then a lot of these stories are not exactly filled with Christmas spiriti in a positve manner, so I'm not sure that's such a bad thing to be reading it in February. In each story, there is someone (usually a woman) who is either looking at how this Christmas will compare (for better or worse) with previous Christmases, or is wishing that it were different. A number of them revolve around marriages, or single women engaged in affairs with married men and how they are either content (or otherwise) with their lot. Some of them are hopeful, some of them less so. In only a few of them did I feel that the character was in a better place at the end of the story than at the beginning.

The one strange thing I did note was that this was published in 1996, but it felt to be older than that, I'd have said late 1980s. there's little in the way of technology that we see as part of our every day lives, and so it felt to be from an older world and felt dated because of that lack. Not the people, people are pretty much the same, but the way they carry on their lives has changed - the married man no longer needs to sneak up to the second phone on the bedroom to phone his mistress while the wife does Christmas with the children.

>106 Helenliz:, >107 charl08:, >108 Helenliz:

I have no idea if it involves an actual belfry, let alone bell-ringing, but I thought I would let you know that the Dean Street Press will be re-releasing Moray Dalton's The Belfry Murder next month. :D

>141 lyzard: Ohhh! I will be adding that to the list for the next boookshop visit. I have both a birthday and a thingaversary in the near future, both within 2 weeks... Excellent book buying excuses both >:-)

Book: 13
Title: London Transports
Author: Maeve Binchy
Rating: ***
Where: library
Why: Audio
Categories: woman author, Short stories, BingoDog
TIOLI: Challenge #3: Read a book with a cover showing something you can wear on your face

This set of short stories is linked by each taking place at or starting at a particular stop on the London underground/overground network. It works reasonable well as a linking device, for a set of fairly disparate stories. It is, to me, a slightly surprising collection. I always think of the author as a bit fluffy and yet there's a fair amount of steel in the female characters she writes about. There's abortion and a certain feminist strand to some of the characters. The wife swopping one was probably the most overtly funny. It is a colleciton of it's time, in that there's nary a mobile phone here anywhere, but the people themselves seem real enough, even if time has moved on around them. Nothing positively outstanding, but no clunkers either, it's a comfortable type of listen.

Another instance of being first review - go me!

Book: 14
Title: She-merchants, buccaneers and gentlewomen : the lives and times of British women in India 1600-1900
Author: Katie Hickman
Rating: ****
Where: My shelves
Why: MrB's Subscription
Categories: woman author, Subscription, BingoDog
TIOLI: Challenge #3: Read a book with a cover showing something you can wear on your face

This is wideranging study of the role and experience of British women in India from 1600 to 1900. It is interesting to see how differne that experience was over the timeframe. The image that springs to mind is that of the imperial Raj, and yet that was not the initial experice at all.
Telling the stories by their own diaries, letters and memoirs makes this a very immediate experience. the book is arranged in chronological order, with different chapters within each timeframe looking at different experience, be that individual women, or women undertaking a similar activity. The interaction of the Britich women with their Indian counterparts was especially interesting. The change in attitudes of the two parties is also portrayed, the indiam uprising being far more predicatable an event when the lead up of the previous couple of hundred years is taken into account. Not that it necessarily excuses the treatment of women and children at Lucknow & Cawnpore, but it does become less inexplicable with a more rounded understanding of the situation.
The author writes well and usually manages to make her material work for her, some of the women she uses are fabulous characters and she allows them to speak their mind. I also liked that at no point does she refer to the women by their first name alone, as she states in her introduciton "I know of no male historian who refers to EWarren Hastings, as Warren". It's a case of double standards and she refuses to apply it. The author is also not afraid to let her thoughts an dopinions show as well, some of the more personal comments and asides are very witty and don't detract from the tone of the work.
This is also one of those dangerous books that has lots of cited sources, as well as other books for more details about specific areas and people. This was a worthwhile read and lives up to the intriging title.

>144 Helenliz: I love the history of India, so this sounds fascinating.
I agree with a book being 'dangerous' if it has lots of other book recommendations. I always want to look them all up and so my to read list just keeps growing!

Just looked and my library has a copy. Perfect! Adding it to my reading category on India. Thanks for the review.

>145 JayneCM: Excellent! It was a very good read and certainly expanded my image of the situation they found themselves in beyond the stereotype of the lady of the Raj.

Book: 15
Title: The Silence of the Girls
Author: Pat Barker
Rating: ****
Where: My shelves
Why: I'm a sucker for this type of thing
Categories: woman author, Orange Prize, CAT, BingoDog
TIOLI: Challenge #1. Read a book of fiction about a clash of cultures

I'm a sucker for retelling a story from a different persepective. Done well it can bring something new to the original story, and open your eyes to a new view. And this is done well, in fact it is almost done very well, but a few jarring notes crept in.
This is the siege of Troy as told from the perspective of Bresis, who is queen of Lyrnessus, and is awarded to Achilles as a slave for him to do with what he will. And she ends up being his bed girl. She is then taken by Agamemnon to replace his favourite slave, who is sent back to her father and causes the falling out between Achilles & Agamemnon. Only it's not actually about Bresis at all, it's about male power and posturing and they both back themselves into a corner they can't get out of without loosing face.
Telling the story from Bresis' view gives the narrative a whole different spin. through he you hear from the women in the camps, those taken as slaves, the pretty and the not so pretty and how they fare with their captors. It can be pretty blunt at times about the fact that she is having sex (let's be honest - and the book is very honest in this regard - being raped) by the man who killed her husband and brothers. And yet she can see the human side of him, at times in a way that few others can. For the most part, the story is told by Bresis herself, in the first person. And that worked really well, it made it very immediate and took you into her world. You could see the story you knew, but it was as if in a distorted mirror, and that just made it more interesting, the distortion of a close first person narrator telling what is important to them not what was important to the original story. The bits that I felt were jarring were the chapters that were not told in the first person, they were in the 3rd person and told Achilles story, which you needed to understand what Bresis was seeing and experiencing, but it felt like a return to the traditional, male orriented, story, rather than seeing the world solely through the eyes of the one person. I felt that these were at odds with the remainder of the story. And for that reason this doesn't get the 5 stars that it almost deserves. It is a very good read, it is a really good effort to do something different, but I feel that the execution lets it down just on that one point.

Hello, Helen! Great review of The Silence of the Girls - I agree with your thoughts. And I gave your review my thumb.

>148 Crazymamie: Thanks Mamie. I think if the author had been just that bit braver and told the entire thing from Bresis' perspective it would have been utterly superb. As it was, it just fell that little bit short in execution.

Interesting that both this and Circe were on the same Orange Prize short list last year. In some way two similar books, both telling a Greek myth from a female perspective. I think Circe the better of the two, probaby because it did use the one voice throughout.

Yep - I totally agree, Helen. Circe got the full five stars from me.

>147 Helenliz: - Good review, Helen. I put The Silence of the Girls on my list after finishing Circe.

>151 katiekrug: You'll have to let us know what you think when you get to it. I'm with Mamie, this was very good but not excellent. I also rated Circe as 5 stars and haven;t stopped raving about it since. Silence of the Girls does lose out in the comparison.

Things are going less well with my current read. 2 chapters in and she's already annoying me. This could be a very long short book.

>147 Helenliz: Lovely review, Helen. I have The Silence of the Girls (among others by Barker) and look forward to it. I loved Circe.

Had fun catching up on your thread and taking a BB for Faces on the Tip of My Tongue. Also reminded that I need to get to Norse Mythology sooner than later. I read Beyond Black in 2013 - it was the first book I read by Hillary Mantel - and I remembered thinking it was really well done. I gave it 4 stars; definitely not disagreeing with how bad Alison's life was, as it was revealed - it made me a fan of Mantel.

Book: 16
Title: Wilderness Tips
Author: Margaret Atwood
Rating: ***
Where: library
Why: Audio
Categories: woman author, short stories
TIOLI: Challenge #2: Read a book for the MARCH Semi-Rolling Challenge

This is an odd little colleciton of stories. They are set at different time periods, but they all seem to have an air of nostalgia about them, even the most contemporary of the short stories has that air of the best of life having been in the past. While most are set in, or referring to, nature, this is nature raw in tooth and claw, it's not necessarily a safe nature.
There's not a lot that actually happens in each story, but each one has undercurrents and they hint at hidden depths. It's an intriguing set of stories.

>155 LisaMorr: thanks for popping past. That's a good book bullet to be snagged by. The books I've read by Mantel so far are all very different.

Book: 17
Title: Letters of Note: Love
Author: Shaun Usher
Rating: ****
Where: library
Why: Audio
Categories: short stories, Bingo
TIOLI: Challenge #17: Read a book with a Founding Father or Another honored in DC

This was a delightful listen. It is a colleciton of letters on the subject of love. The idea springs from the "Letters of Note" project, which aims to encourage the art of letter writing in an age when it is diminishing by showing great examples from the past and present. They were all introduced so that you knew who the writer and recipeient were, their relationship and the date that it was written. Some of them are beautiful and express the inexpressible in the best ways possible. Love in all its forms is expressed here. The most moving was the most recent, where she wrote a letter to her dead husband, a photojournalist killed in Syria. Others made me smile or laugh in recognition. This was a thoroughly enjoyable way to spend a few hours and I'd love to listen to one of the series (hint hint).

>158 Helenliz: So is the series on a wishlist somewhere, Helen?!

>159 charl08: There are more in the series available on e-book, so I'm hoping they will migrate to audio at some point.

>160 Helenliz: Oh, I see. Thanks for explaining!

Book: 18
Title: Remarkable: Five Women who Dared to Make a Difference
Author: Lyse Doucet
Rating: ****
Where: library
Why: Audio
Categories: short stories
TIOLI: Challenge #14. Read a book about women who broke a glass ceiling

This started life as a series of radio interviews with 5 women who broke the mould in the political arena. It's not a lightweight list either, 2 leaders of the country, an ambassador, and 2 other women who stirred things up in their respective countries. They are each interviewed by the BBC correspondant Lyse Doucet. She has a most unusual accent, but that doesn't detract from the content or the women themselves. As a radio series, each is a set length, when some of them you'd want to hear more of. It works really well in this format and I'm glad I listened to this.

>162 Helenliz: did you listen to an audio book or an actual podcast? It sounds interesting.

>163 Tess_W: I donwloaded it as an audiobook from Borrowbox, which is a platform that allows download of audio and ebooks that I have access to as part of my library card. So I'm counting it as an audiobook. It may be available via other routes, but I can't say for sure.

My next Shelterbox book has arrived, so I'm not going to run out of books while we're all not allowed out. The library has shut and renewed all books until the end of April... That is, I suppose, an excuse to read all the books languishing on the to-be-read pile.

>165 Helenliz: That's what I was thinking! By the end of this, I should have a pile of books to return to the library and I may get my borrowed items down to a manageable level!

>166 JayneCM: I think I'm going the other way: wondering if I should put orders in to some of the little presses I like on the basis that they're probably struggling... Although I ordered two books on A already, so yes, I do realise this makes no sense.

>167 charl08: That is a great idea, but I am not sure if we will be getting mail from overseas. Not sure if closing the borders means to mail as well?! It is constantly evolving at the moment.

Book: 19
Title: The Spanish Bride
Author: Georgette Heyer
Rating: ***
Where: my shelves
Why: Heyer read
Categories: woman author, Heyer Read
TIOLI: Challenge #15. Read a book with a country in the title

This is the true life story of Harry Smith, an officer in the Rifles in Wellington's army in the Peninsular war that meets and marries a Spanish lady after the siege of Badajos. Juana Smith (yes, that does sound very odd) then follows Harry through Spain and the defeat of Napoleon. He is then sent to America, while she stays in England and then returns to jion Wellington at Waterloo. The period of Harry's time in America dragged somewhat, as it is when the two principles are together and lighting sparks off each other that the book is at its livliest.
I can't quite tell if my OK response to this book is the book or the current situaiton we find ourselves in,when the wprld seems to have been turned upside down. I suppose I can only think that at least we're not facing Boney and I'm not likely to be shot.

Book: 20
Title: Watching the tree
Author: Adeline Yen Mah
Rating: *
Where: Shelterbox bookclub
Why: Shelterbox bookclub
Categories: woman author, Book subscription, new author
TIOLI: I don't care enough to try and put it anywhere!

This was just awful in so many ways. Written at about the millennium by a Chinese woman who was living in America and in her 60s (I think) it manages to be incredibly condescending and glib. It starts the introduction by saying that in order to translate between languages it is important to understand both cultures, and yet it feels that she then doesn't really do this herself. She shows a lack of understanding of science more than once, relating Heisenberg's uncertainty to the phrase "Those who know don;t speak, those who speak don't know" by which she puts herself firmly in the second bracket. I just didn't understand her, or her behaviours on multiple occasions. She had one item of her grandfather, a book of the I Ching. And yet having referred to it only once in her life she gives to book to her lecturer, with whom she was engaged on a (probably abusive) affair. I simply don't get it. She clearly has significant issues with the way in which her father and step mother treated her as a child and throughout her life. I once read a quote "You can't blame you parents for anything after the age of 25". She is still, in the final third of her life (her own statement) bearing a grudge that she seems not to have worked through, despite having written a book about that very subject. That is at odds with her characterisation of the Chinese as generally accepting and able to let things go.
The book also lacked a coherent structure. In each chapter there were passages of general interpretation versus personal experience, and they used different fonts to distinguish between. the problem was that the general were too generic and broad brush, while the personal experience didn't necessarily seem to come to any conclusion. they also included entire paragraphs that were in quotes as if quoting speech from her relatives. Yet these conversations would have been at least 40 years ago, and I don't believe anyone can quote verbatim after that time. Each chapter was supposed to be based around a Chinese saying or aphorism, and yet I'm not sure that each chapter did anything to explain how that translates, certainly not in any meaningful sense.
This annoyed me excessively. I'm really not sure why I finished this, apart from right now giving up on things doesn't feel like the right thing to be doing.

>170 Helenliz: Ouch! Well done on taking that one for the team!

>170 Helenliz: - Um, hard pass.

>171 Jackie_K:, >172 katiekrug:. Surprisingly I can't recommend you try it.

>170 Helenliz: So, no then. Noted.

And yet, your review was interesting!

>174 Crazymamie:. Indeed. No.
>175 mstrust: why thank you! In theory it should have been an interesting book, but the tone and detail was just all wrong. And she got up my nose really quickly; there's rarely a return once that happens.

>170 Helenliz: Yup, giving this one a miss! Thanks Helen.

So that's the first quarter done. And a very odd end to the first quarter it has been. But, life does go on, and it helps to retain some structure in one's life, so let's review the first quarter.

First Quarter Review:
Number of books: 20 is reasonable for 80 in the year. Although that's likely to fall short. As I'm now no longer commuting, I'm not listening to audio books, so I would expect the rate of reading to slow based on that. But it was never a numbers race.

The first quarter has been a little variable. I've managed to catch up on things like the book subscriptions (just 1 left now) and keep the library books under control. With no more access to library books, my ability to fulfil the various CATs may well decrease.
No super standouts this quarter. 4 starts went to a number of books, of which The Adventures of Moriarty and Maid in Waiting were the best - that's two very different books. I almost loved Silence of the Girls, but it didn't quite follow through, so I'm left with a feeling of disappointment over that one.
And one real stinker. Watching the Tree is not a book I can recommend to anyone.

Challenge 1: Women Authors: 15 books read by women authors out of 20 books. I wanted to aim for at least 50% so I'm doing more than OK on this one so far. And I'm not really aware that it a conscious decision to seek out women writers.

Challenge 2: Classics: With a target of 6 and none completed sees me somewhat behind here!

Challenge 3: Heyer series read: 2 read in 3 months sees me on track for 8 in the year.

Challenge 4: Orange Prize. 2 read in 3 months puts me ahead of schedule, but I fear this one may suffer the lack of library access.

Challenge 5: Guardian 100 novels list. Hm, none so far. Again, the lack of library access will impede this somewhat.

Challenge 6: Short Stories. 7 in this category so far. With commuting now on hold, i expect this to stay fairly static for a while.

Challenge 7: New authors: 7 out of 20 is a bit lower than last year, but then I've not counted the anthologies and I've read a few series. At 7/21 it is above the target of 1/3 of reads being new authos, so that's doing OK.

Challenge 8: Translation: Just the 1 in here so far, which is a bit low for 6 in the year, but that'll catch up, I'm sure.

Challenge 9: Book Subscriptions: 6 in here so far, some of which is catching up on the ones I didn't read last year... One subscription has been stopped for the time being, so this may well drop from here.

Challenge 10: CATs: I did OK the first 2 months. But these will suffer the same library access issue as mentioned above. In which case, I'll join in where I can , but I'm not going to bend myself out of shape worrying about these.

Challenge 11: Bingo: To make this more challenging, I've decided I will only use female authors this year. And so far I'm at 13 out of the 25. This will only get harder...

Challenge 12: Misc: nothing in here, which I'm not going to worry about.

So that's the first quarter rounded up. It is going to be a very strange next few weeks and months, so I think that there will be a balance between challenge and admitting that at times we all need to curl up and be cuddled in a book. Stay safe out there everyone.

>178 Helenliz: I bit the bullet and bought (re the Prize formerly known as Orange) - Hamnet, although I already had read a couple via the library.

>179 charl08: I have an aversion to the giant online retailer, so I suspect my book buying will grind to a halt. Means I can look forward to celebrating the liberation of restrictions with a book buying binge. I'm due a thingaversary (yesterday) and a birthday (April), so that has to be free rein to buy a good number of books. >:-)

>177 charl08: A wise decision.

Happy thingaversary and good luck with the bookbuying!

Happy thingaversary and happy birthday! Have fun shopping!

>181 MissWatson:, 182, I'm writing a list. I do love a good list. >:-D I keep changing my mind as to what I want and there is a danger the list will just grooooow the longer this goes on!!

I just dropped by to say hi - and now I get to wish you happy Thingaversary!

Belated Happy Thingaversary!

>180 Helenliz: Happy Thingaversary, Helen! Doesn't the words "book buying binge" bring a smile to your face?

>184 Dejah_Thoris:, >185 DeltaQueen50:, Thanks!
>186 VivienneR:, Yup! It's my golden sky at the end of the storm. >:-)

Book: 21
Title: Flowering Wilderness
Author: John Galsworthy
Rating: ****
Where: Library
Why: Forsyte series read
Categories: CAT
TIOLI: Challenge #6: Read a book that has something you would put in a cocktail in the title or author's name

This was just what I needed. Set in a short period in 1930, this centres on the Cherwell and specifically the daughter, Dinny. As seems to be customary with Galsworthy, there's a cast of characters that reappear from earlier books. In this case Dinny meets Wilfred Desert, who we last saw of offering an affair with Fleur before heading off East when she declined. This time he's back with a story attached to him and a poem to set the world alight. Through the book, the story gradually comes to light and the way that Dinny, her family and society in general respond is the main body of the book on this occasion. There are a mixture of responses, and that makes it interesting. If the same were to happen now, the response would, I'm sure, be very different, it's interesting how culture shifts, isn't it?
In the first novels of this series, I had doubts about Galworthy's ability to write women as more than ciphers, but in Dinny he does her justice. She has a solidity that still feels real even though the times we both live in have changed dramatically. Just 1 more to go now.

Book: 22
Title: Odd and the Frost Giants
Author: Neil Gaiman
Rating: ****
Where: Library
Why: Audio
Categories: Misc
TIOLI: Challenge #4. Read a book by an author you have read before

With the lack of commuting, I've not been listening to audio books, and I think I've missed it. So with an afternoon with nothing especial to do, I listened to this, as read by Neil Gaiman, while doing some cross stitching. And it was well worth the time.
The author can write in a most engaging way, being very accessible to younger readers, and he has the most delightful reading voice - I could listen to him read me a story for hours.
This example tells the story of Odd, a young boy whose father is lost on a Viking raiding expedition. Odd doesn't fit into the family that his mother marries into, and so runs away into the forest and his father's hut. From there it takes a strange turn when he meets a fox, a bear and an eagle, who are (and I don't think this is a staggering surprise) 3 of the Norse Gods in disguise. They've been banished by the Ice Giant and the remainder of the book is how Odd helps these three find their way back to Asgard and finds his own wat in life. It's fun, it's engaging and and an accessible way into the Norse myths.

>189 Helenliz: - I enjoyed that one when I read it a few years ago. I imagine it would be a great audio to spend the afternoon with...

>190 katiekrug:, it really was. He reads really very well, and has one of those voices that would probably make the telephone directory attractive!

>189 Helenliz: Oh go on then. Off to Borrowbox/ Audible to investigate.

>192 charl08: I got it from Borrowbox, so I know it's there, if that's any help. And I returned it when I'd finished. >:-)

>193 Helenliz: I think I need to pull out some craft activities. I listened, and was enjoying it right up until I woke up about twenty minutes ago...

>194 charl08: *tries not to laugh*
*fails dismally*

Sorry, I think you might be right. Something to do with your hands while letting your mind pay attemtion to the reading is called for.

Book: 23
Title: The Porpoise
Author: Mark Haddon
Rating: ****
Where: my shelves
Why: MrB's subscription
Categories: MrB's subscription
TIOLI: Challenge #3: Read a book you might not have read this month without COVID-19

I think I understand what he was trying to do with this book, but it feels to me that he was either too ambitious and failed to pull it off, or not ambitious enough and it still doesn't quite work.
This is an attempt to retell the story that is the foundation tale of the play Perecles, Prince of Thebes. In this play, there is a beautiful princess who suffers a rape that makes her ineligible for Perecles to marry, so he heads off and his adventures begin. This princess is nothing more than a vehicle, a seed to start the story, she is given neither name nor voice. In this version, she has a name, and a back story but very little agency and her fate is no better than her nameless predecessor. Angelica is born from her mother's dead body and is cossetted by her father as a result. She grews up in isolation and so the rumours spread about a beautiful maiden holed up in a fantasy house.
Note: There is what can only be termed child abuse as a significant story line in her life and it is slipped into the story so unobtrusively that I had to read the paragraph again to check what I had read. It is not pretty, has some quite dreadful consequences. Some readers might find it upsetting, some might view it as unecessary. And this is where I think he has maybe failed to carry off what he was aiming for. It explains some of what happens next, but not really and fails to really explain some ofthe behaviour of those around this father/daughter relationship.
The rumours of the daughter attract the son of an art dealer who has had dealings with her father and so Darius appears on the scene. After a nasty meeting, he heads off to sea, pursued by the bodyguard and, dueing a storm, finds himself forgetting he is Darous and becomming Perecles. The rest of the story is that of Perecles and his family and there are mere glimpses of Angelica.
It doesn't work really well for several reasons. Angelica is the sole focus of the first 1/4 of the book, and yet as soon as Darous has appeared and been chased off, she appears in only snippets, with her fate being no better than that of the original, nameless princess. If the author wanted to tell the story in a new way, he could at least have treated her with equal merit, and not just used her, and inflicted suffering on her, but done something with her story. As it is he is no better than the playwright Greene, upon whom he bestows a nasty (and thoroughly deserved) fate after death that is worse than death.
The setting fo the Angelica/Darius story is clearly contemporary, or recent past. And yet the entire of the Perecles story is set in an ancient past. That Darius moves form one to another in a storm, but immediately forgets is actual self and becomes Perecles is just too far fetched. If the authoer wanted to retell the Perecles story, it would have been a better book had he been braver and made it all contemporary, rahter than the mixture of timeframes that, for me, didn't work.
Having said that, it wasn't an awful read. He drew most of his characters well and it was the kind of read that dragged you on, wanting to know what happened. Unfortunately for me, the way he went about setting the story up and the tale itself just didn't hang together and the snippets from the present didn't fit with or add anything to the story of the past. Had he been a little less ambitious, and set it purely in a single timeframe, it might have been a better book. Conversely, had he been braver and taken this into a contemporary setting, it might have been a far better retelling of an old story. In the afterward he discusses a version that has the princess as a much stronger character, that would, perhaps, have been the braver story to have told.

>196 Helenliz: That is a great review, Helen. I have the Theban Plays on my bookshelf to read. Your review reminded me that I need to read them! Your review also has me placing this book on my WL with a big ???!

>197 Tess_W: Thank you. I think it would fit well in a read of related materials, but I'd not be telling you to run out and read this one right now. Not sure what that says of it.

Book: 24
Title: A Thousand Ships
Author: Natalie Haynes
Rating: *****
Where: library
Why: Audio
Categories: Woman author, new author, Orange prize
TIOLI: Challenge #5: Read a book in which one of the main characters is blond(e)

This is just fabulous! Taking the idea that in a war the women are just as involved as the men and while they may be less overtly heroic, they also suffer. In fact they probably suffer more in some ways, as the dead can no longer have injury inflicted upon them by the victors. Unlike Pat Barker's Silence of the Women, this doesn't take a single voice, although there are recurring voices, instead it tries to tell the stories of the many many women, on all sides, that get involved. Stretching from the cause of the war in the first place, through the war and on to Odysseus finally arriving home, the women have their tales told. At times it is horrific, but told in a very matter of fact manner. They die in numerous ways, sacrificed, murdered, killed, you name it. Poor Cassandra who sees every misfortune before it happens and yet is not believed. At others there is great humour. The gods behave like toddlers who want the shiny apple and the cause of the war somehow gets lost. Calliope getting annoyed with the poet writing the tale and demanding the muse sing for him is just brilliantly pitched. Penelope writes letters to her husband that get increasingly exasperated with his failure to return home, and yet with the exasperation there's a sense of a lost youth and life together that they should have had. Her final passage is very moving; no-one returns from war unchanged, be they man or woman.
It really is a cast of thousands and they are all women. That some of them barely mention more than a line in the ancient literature doesn't make their voice any less worth hearing.
I listened to this, as read by ther author, and very well done it was too.

>199 Helenliz: Oh good, I added this to the TBR after seeing it in your post up top! Glad to see such a good review.

>200 rabbitprincess: It was one I downloaded almost at random and I'm pleased I did, as it was really very good. Excellent ambition and she marshalled her cast extremely well. I do hope you enjoy it.

OK, team, I need to attend a Zoom meeting tonight with a set of 10 questions. So, go on, hit me with some literary questions!

Quiz questions Helen, or discussion questions?

Also I just ordered A Thousand Ships, totally Your Fault!! :-)

>203 charl08: - Quiz please.
Happy with that - you've hit me with enough bullets that it is only fair I fire one back. I hope you enjoy it. Having raved I'm now worried that other people won't enjoy it. *wibble*

Excellent and thoughtful reviews, Helen. Adding my thumb to both of those if you posted them. You made a direct hit with A Thousand Ships - adding it to The List.

>204 Helenliz: Argh, I lost my first go at the questions.

Authors who have won the Booker more than once?
Age of the prize formerly known as Orange? /
Author (who shares a name with a model) who set up the prize?
How many Nobel winners for Lit have been outside Europe?
Which piece of industrial action led to the founding of the LRB?
Which university is the home of the magazine Granta?
What did T S Eliot 'measure out his life in'?
How many copyright libraries (entitled to a free copy of every book) are there in the UK?

You don't need the answers, do you?(!!!)

>206 charl08:, thank you. And no, but I think it only fair to everyone else that you give the answers >;-)

This is what I came up with:

1 In Pride & Prejudice, which property has been “let at last” at the start of the novel?
2 In the Iliad, Odysseus spends 10 years getting home from Troy. What part of Greece was home?
3 Louise Doughty wrote Platform Seven, in which a spirit haunts a railway station within the Guild, which station?
4 Robinson Crusoe spends 28 years stranded on an island off the coast of which continent (bonus point for the country)
5 Which University is home to the magazine Granta
6 Zadie Smith’s Orange prize shortlisted novel NW is set in which English city
7 There are 6 legal deposit libraries that UK published books are provided to. Can you name where the 6 are located
8 Probably the most famous work of fiction to feature bells and ringing is the 9 Tailors. What is the name of the village it is set in?
9 Which country has the most winner of the Nobel prize for Literature, with 16
10 In the Importance of Being Ernest, a young Jack Worthington was found in a handbag, left at which station?

They got 12, but only by ignoring all the wrong guesses. So that was a smidge too hard. Better try and make it a bit easier next time.

>208 Helenliz: - What do you mean "they got 12"?

Honored to have my question used :)

There are 15 answers (taking the 6 answers to question 7), so they got 12 out of 15 possible answers. But they only got that by me ignoring the wrong answers and waiting until they got the right ones. They went for Lambourne for your question. Just if that helps grade a level...

We're doing it again next week. help!

>204 Helenliz: I feel exactly the same when someone is hit by a BB of something I've reviewed!

Great questions! Hopefully, knowing which questions they got right (and wrong) will help you gauge the level of common knowledge for your group.

I hope it was fun!

>210 Helenliz: - Ah, I see. Sounds like fun!

I have some literary questions for you -

: Name the author who invented the word "chortle" - Lewis Carroll

: In what book would you find the following author-invented words being used as slang - "droogs, skoory, moloko and rassoodocks"? A Clockwork Orange

: What famous novelist was also a Governor General of Canada? John Buchan The 39 Steps

: In Treasure Island what is the name of Long John Silver's parrot? Captain Flint

: Who wrote the line "a thing of beauty is a joy forever"? John Keats

Sounds good, Helen. Maybe a matching type question eg characters to a famous novel? That way you give them limited options. Might work?

Thanks all for chipping in and please continue to do so! I'll be considering carefully - nothing worse than a quiz that's too hard.

I was thinking maybe matching siblings - so

Jane, Elizabeth, Mary, Kitty (the other one I've forgotten) (P&P)
Beth, Jo, Amy, Meg (Little Women)
Cassandra & Rose (I capture the castle)
Julian, George, Anne and Dick (Famous Five)
Gerry (Gerald), Larry (Lawrence), Margo and Leslie (My Family and other Animals)

>217 charl08: oh, that's a good idea, I like that a lot.

>199 Helenliz: A Thousand Ships was just shortlisted for the Womens Prize too. I cannot wait to read this as retellings of Troy/the Odyssey are favourites of mine. I wish the library was open! Othrwise I will be tempted to spend too much money buying all the books!

>219 JayneCM: I borrowed it on audio from BorrowBox, as I have a subscription through my library. I saw it made the shortlist. It's the only one of the list I've read, but I'd say well deserved.

>220 Helenliz: It was a very strong longlist this year. Not sure how they will choose the winner. But the judges definitely said they are only choosing one winner.

>218 Helenliz: I'm getting carried away now - could you do a picture round, where you blur the title but show some pretty book covers? (again, with a list of titles so to increase their chances!)

>222 charl08: In fact, I could do this for you if you want.

>223 charl08: But no pressure if you think it wouldn't work.

Book: 25
Title: The Pact we Made
Author: Layla AlAmmar
Rating: ****1/2
Where: shelf
Why: Shelterbox book club
Categories: Woman author, new author
TIOLI: Challenge #11: Read a book by a female author, dedicated to parent(s) or child(ren)

This is a novel that's not always a very easy read, but is is most certainly worth reading. Dahlia is one of a group of 3 Kuwaiti girls who, as youngsters, agree a pact that they will get married, as their society expects them to. As time goes in, it becomes clear that while her friends have married (with varying degrees of happiness), Dahlia remains unmarried and is now approaching her 30s. We see her mother's attempts to match her with eligible men, and we see Dahlia's resistance to these matches. It is only gradually that we see what lies behind this resistance, she is not just being contrary, she is deeply damaged and is unable to either deal with that damage, or the straitjackets that it becomes increasingly clear her family and their attittude to their society is keeping her in. She has had choices in her life, but has been unable to take them, when she is finally able to take a decision she wants to make, it is irrevocable and tears the family apart.
The novel jumps backwards & forwards in time, so that you don't discover her past at once, it appears through different episodes that gradually piece together to make a coherrent whole. It is a really good attempt to produce a story against the background of a very different cultural norm. Dahlia's society and familial expectations are not those I grew up in, and yet I can recognise those pressure and feel for Dahlia and her need to be herself, and not just something that she is being straitjacketed into being. It's powerful and moving. It is also worth mentioning that this is the second novel I've read this month where there is abuse and that while it is not described in explicit detail, there is sufficient detail and trauma that some people may find this upsetting. I think ti should be read regardless, we don't lve in a perfect world and acknowledging suffering is a step to understanding.

>223 charl08: That is an exceptionally kind offer, which I will virtually bite your hand off in accepting. 10 would be fab, if you can. I'll message you my e-mail address, of that's the easiest way of sending it.
*mwah*

Looks like a fun quiz. I bought a book just before my bookshop closed down as I love literary quiz questions. It is an orange Penguin, The Penguin Book Quiz. I just wish there were other readers in my house to play it with!

>226 Helenliz: Fab! Will have a go this evening (because that's the way my Friday nights roll... (?!)

You missed me up there, Helen, in >205 Crazymamie:, but I'm trying not to cry about it. I am loving all of the literary quiz questions - so fun!

>229 Crazymamie: >:-o oh noes! >:*( mea culpa.
>205 Crazymamie: - I'm liking the hit rate on that one. It was really very good. I do hope you like it.

>228 charl08: Squeeee! Thank you. My friday nights are a bit different, I have two different zoom pubs to go to!

>227 JayneCM: that sounds like a good book to have bought 6 weeks ago! >;-)

https://www.litsy.com/web/post/1916619



Do these need a list of titles too, or is it easy enough as is?

Awesome - there's a few I'm not sure I recognise, so a list would be fabulous.

>231 charl08: Very cool!

No worries, Helen, just letting you know I was here. I wanted to get the audio of that one, but Audible doesn't have it. *sad face*

>231 charl08: SO cool, Charlotte!!

>231 charl08: Sorry! I meant a list of options included in the graphic!

From L-R,

Top row: The Bell Jar, Cuckoo's Calling, Tinker, Tailor Soldier Spy, The BFG

Middle row:
The Tiger who came to tea, The Lion, the Witch..., Gone Girl, Mary Poppins.

Bottom row: The Jungle Book, The Secret Garden, The Time Machine and Treasure Island.

Book: 26
Title: Snow, Dog, Foot
Author: Claudio Morandini
Rating: ****
Where: shelf
Why: Pierene subscription
Categories: In Translation, new author
TIOLI: Challenge #9: Read a book where someone is sick or confined or the title includes an illness

This is a slightly odd book that leaves you perpetually uncertain of what is real and what is not. Adelmo lives high in the valley and is a loner. He comes down into the village to buy supplies, but struggles with interaction with the villagers. At first this might be just because he is so used to being alone that he's not good with people, but it soon becomes clear that he is probably suffering from dementia. He doesn't remember a previous visit, but things seem familiar and then he does remember, but forgets. The confusion that this engenders in him is also transmitted to the reader, we're not at all sure what is real and what isn't. And then it becomes clear that this isn't just a case of occasional forgetfulness, there is more to it than that. And then it becomes, by turns, sad and funny and funny in an if I don't laugh I'd cry kind of way.
He is struggling with life reality, caring for himself and the dog. The ending is terribly sad and leaves you with the sensation that it could have, should have, been avoided, but where is the point that the story could have turned? To be honest it's probably too late even at the start of the book. It struck me as a brave attempt to write about a difficult subject.

>235 charl08: no, I think I'll just read a list, with a few red herrings thrown in for good measure.
Fab, thanks.

>231 charl08: That was a great test. I got 8 out of 12.

Wishing you a peaceful and relaxing weekend, Helen.

>238 PaulCranswick: Good, I'm hopeful they'll do OK.
Weekend was lovely out, thank you. Had a nice long walk and did some gardening. Today has dawned grey and we're due some rain. The garden could really do with it.

>239 Helenliz: Hope it went ok - it was only looking back on it I realised there were 3 big cats featured!

>236 Helenliz: - Ha, I was thinking, "What an odd title" and then I saw your opening comment and thought, "Kind of appropriate, than".

>241 lkernagh: Odd just about sums that book up. Worth reading though, so don't be entirely put off by the oddness. Somehow the words look less random in the original Italian, "Neve, cane, piede".

>236 Helenliz: for some odd reason I'm going to add that to my wish list!

>243 Tess_W: I hope you get to it and enjoy the writing. It was odd, but odd in a good way.

>231 charl08: We had the quiz tonight. I read 16 different titles, some of them intended to be deliberate red herrings. They got 10 of them pretty quickly, got #1 at the second guess, but couldn't get #2. So that's a much better return rate, thankyou.

>245 Helenliz: Sounds good! It was fun to put together.