PAUL C INTO THE ROARING 20S - Part 21

Home is where the heart is and the books are!

Poem

Frosted Fields

So these are the veils of the morning,
the last gift to be given
by air and into air,
and by the slow sun
heavy with all the days of the year.

To say I can't get close enough
to this cold chemistry
is wrong; nor am I close
to its distance; for each way of saying
creates another veil.

So these are the veils of a landscape
that luxuriates the thought of you
as you tilt your face towards me,
looking and looking
for that shiver of peace.

Rachael Boast from Sidereal

BOOKS READ FIRST QUARTER OF 2020

January

1. Mothering Sunday by Graham Swift (2016) 149 pp - BAC Challenge
2. Paper Aeroplane by Simon Armitage (2014) 232 pp
3. Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit by Jeanette Winterson (1985) 171 pp - BAC Challenge
4. The Goalie's Anxiety at the Penalty Kick by Peter Handke (1970) 133 pp - Nobel winner
5. The Worst Hard Time by Timothy Egan (2006) 312 pp
6. Absurd Person Singular by Alan Ayckbourn (1972) 93 pp BAC Challenge
7. I'm Not Scared by Niccolo Ammaniti (2001) 225 pp
8. Death Walks in Eastrepps by Francis Beeding (1931) 252 pp
9. Deaf Republic by Ilya Kaminski (2019) 78 pp
10. Talking to the Dead by Harry Bingham (2012) 377 pp
11. James II : The Last Catholic King by David Womersley (2015) 99 pp
12. The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett (1911) 313 pp
13. The Waste Land by T.S. Eliot (1922) 41 pp
14. England and the Aeroplane by David Edgerton (1991) 172 pp

February

15. Loyalties by Delphine de Vigan (2018) 182 pp
16. The World's Two Smallest Humans by Julia Copus (2012) 52 pp
17. The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros (1991) 110 pp
18. The History Boys by Alan Bennett (2004) 200 pp BAC Challenge
19. Dregs by Jan Lier Horst (2010) 310 pp
20. On Grand Strategy by John Lewis Gaddis (2018) 313 pp
21. The Last Wish by Andrzej Sapkowski (1993) 280 pp
22. The Roominghouse Madrigals by Charles Bukowski (1988) 256 pp
23. Reading in the Dark by Seamus Deane (1996) 233 pp BAC Challenge
24. As it Was by Fred Trueman (2004) 397 pp
25. The Siege of Krishnapur by J.G. Farrell (1973) 314 pp BOOKER WINNER
26. Varina by Charles Frazier (2018) 353 pp AAC
27. A Timbered Choir by Wendell Berry (1998) 216 pp AAC

March

28. Past Tense by Lee Child (2018) 461 pp
29. Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead by Olga Tokarczuk (2009) 266 pp NOBEL
30. Over the Moon by Imtiaz Dharkar (2014) 155 pp
31. The Road by Cormac McCarthy (2006) 287 pp PULITZER
32. Witness : Lessons from Elie Wiesel's Classroom by Ariel Burger (2018) 255 pp
33. Meditations in an Emergency by Frank O'Hara (1957) 52 pp
34. The Story of My Teeth by Valeria Luiselli (2013) 183 pp
35. Ivanov by Anton Chekhov (1887) 58 pp
36. Snowblind by Ragnar Jonasson (2010) 252 pp
37. Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen (1811) 374 pp
38. The English Civil War by David Clark (2008) 154 pp
39. The Thief by Megan Whalen Turner (1996) 280 pp
40. The Librarian by Salley Vickers (2018) 385 pp
41. The Holy Fox by Andrew Roberts (1991) 414 pp

BOOKS READ SECOND QUARTER OF 2020

April

42. The Females by Wolfgang Hilbig (2010) 129 pp
43. Long Day's Journey Into Night by Eugene O'Neill (1956) 110 pp
44. Look We Have Coming to Dover! by Daljit Nagra (2007) 55 pp
45. Icarus by Deon Meyer (2015) 360 pp
46. Girl, Woman, Other by Bernadine Evaristo (2019) 452 pp
47. The Summer Book by Tove Jansson (1972) 172 pp
48. Behind the Sofa : Celebrity Memories of Doctor Who by Steve Berry (2013) 216 pp
49. Please Sir! by Jack Sheffield (2011) 336 pp
50. American Sonnets for My Past and Future Assassin by Terrance Hayes (2018) 82 pp
51. The Sea Gull by Anton Checkhov (1896) 68 pp
52. The Memoir of an Anti-Hero by Kornel Filipowicz (1961) 70 pp
53. Divided : Why We're Living in an Age of Walls by Tim Marshall (2018) 288 pp
54. Frozen Moment by Camilla Ceder (2009) 378 pp
55. North by Seamus Heaney (1975) 68 pp
56. Cambridge by Caryl Phillips (1991) 184 pp
57. Rotherweird by Andrew Caldecott (2017) 456 pp
58. The Gallows Pole by Benjamin Myers (2017) 363 pp

May

59. The Drought by J.G. Ballard (1965) 233 pp
60. A Man For All Seasons by Robert Bolt (1960) 163 pp
61. The Village Witch Doctor and Other Stories by Amos Tutuola (1990) 115 pp
62. Tales of Long Ago by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (1922) 186 pp
63. Fidelity : Poems by Grace Paley (2008) 87 pp
64. Atlantic Fury by Hammond Innes (1962) 308 pp
65. The Shoes of the Fisherman by Morris West (1963) 375 pp
66. The War Hound and the World's Pain by Michael Moorcock (1981) 208 pp
67. Boomerang by Michael Lewis (2011) 212pp
68. Field Work by Seamus Heaney (1979) 56 pp
69. The Citadel by A.J. Cronin (1937) 401 pp
70. Unstoppable: My Life So Far by Maria Sharapova (2017) 289 pp
71. Selected Poems by Marianne Moore (1935) 109 pp
72. The Cold War by John Lewis Gaddis (2005) 266 pp

June

73. Murder in the Cathedral by T.S. Eliot (1935) 88 pp
74. The Bookshop by Penelope Fitzgerald (1978) 156 pp
75. Golden Hill by Francis Spufford (2016) 340 pp
76. The Great Impersonation by E Phillips Oppenheim (1920) 221 pp
77. Selected Poems of Odysseus Elytis by Odysseus Elytis (1981) 115 pp
78. Zonal by Don Paterson (2020) 68 pp
79. Staying On by Paul Scott (1977) 255 pp

BOOKS READ THIRD QUARTER OF 2020

July

80. Marina by Carlos Ruiz Zafon (1999) 296 pp
81. Serve the People! by Yan Lianke (2007) 228 pp
82. The Expedition of Cyrus by Xenophon (c370 BC) 225 pp
83. Morvern Callar by Alan Warner (1995) 204 pp
84. Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett (1953) 91 pp
85. The Seeker and Other Poems by Nelly Sacks (1970) 399 pp
86. The Five People You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom (2003) 208 pp
87. Deathless by Catherynne M. Valente (2011) 349 pp
88. Castle Richmond by Anthony Trollope (1861) 757 pp
89. Winnie-the-Pooh by AA Milne (1926) 161 pp
90. The Dark Film by Paul Farley (2012) 55 pp
91. Eight Hours from England by Anthony Quayle (1945) 228 pp

August

92. Sitting Bull: The Life and Times of an American Patriot by Robert M Utley (1993) 314 pp
93. The Janus Stone by Elly Griffiths (2010) 327 pp
94. The Dead and the Living by Sharon Olds (1983) 80 pp
95. Dominicana by Angie Cruz (2019) 319 pp

September

96. A Captain's Duty by Richard Phillips (2013) 286 pp
97. The Kingdom by the Sea by Robert Westall (1990) 255 pp
98. Pygmalion by George Bernard Shaw (1914) 119 pp
99. I am Sovereign by Nicola Barker (2019) 209 pp
100. Station Island by Seamus Heaney (1985) 121 pp

BOOKS READ FOURTH QUARTER 2020

October

101. The Ways of the World by Robert Goddard (2013) 525 pp
102. The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde (1895) 75 pp
103. Selected and Last Poems, 1931-2004 by Czeslaw Milosz (2011) 325 pp
104. The Corners of the Globe by Robert Goddard (2014) 499 pp

Currently Reading

READING PLAN FOR 2020

I always start out ambitiously but not having made 100 books in the last two years I am going all out to read 20 books a month next year and go well past 200 for the first time since my University days.

20 Categories for 2020 which will also give a nod to my other challenges and longer term projects.

The twenty categories are :

1. British Author Challenge
2. British Poetry
3. Contemporary British Fiction
4. World Poetry
5. 1001 Books
6. Plays
7. American Author Challenge
8. Non-Fiction
9. History
10. Current Affairs
11. Booker Nominees
12. Nobel Winners
13. Scandi
14. Series Books
15. Thrillers/Mystery
16. Classic Fiction
17. 21st Century Fiction
18. World Literature
19. Science Fiction / Fantasy
20. Pot Luck

BRITISH ISLES AUTHOR CHALLENGE 2020



The general thread can be found here : https://www.librarything.com/topic/315141

January: Jeanette Winterson & Graham Swift

February: The 1990s - https://www.librarything.com/topic/313878#6991758

March: Jane Austen & Walter Scott

April: Bernardine Evaristo & Caryl Phillips

May: New Wave Sci-Fi : Michael Moorcock, J. G. Ballard, & Brian Aldiss

June: Penelope Fitzgerald & Patrick Gale

July: Elly Griffiths & Winston Graham

August: The Brontë Sisters : Charlotte Bronte, Anne Bronte & Emily Bronte

September: World War II - https://www.librarything.com/topic/313878#6999459

October: Joanne Harris & George Orwell

November: Fay Weldon & John le Carré

December: The 2010s : https://www.librarything.com/topic/313878#6999620

Wildcard: Playwrights - https://www.librarything.com/topic/313878#7000002

AMERICAN AUTHOR CHALLENGE



January Charles Frazier - Varina
February Grace Paley - Fidelity : Poems
March David McCullough
April Francine Prose
May E. Lynn Harris
June Jean Stafford
July Wendell Berry - A Timbered Choir
August Robert Penn Warren
September Dawn Powell
October Ward Just
November Ann Petry
December Tony Hillerman

My last decade of reading (probably my worst since I started reading).

Total Books Read : 1,145 books

1 book every 3.2 days

Best Reading Year : 2013 with 157 books

Worst Reading Year : 2019 with 76 books

My Books of the Year on LT:

2011 : Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
2012 : The Road Home by Rose Tremain
2013 : Birthday Letters by Ted Hughes
2014 : Plainsong by Kent Haruf
2015 : Winter King by Thomas Penn
2016 : The Orenda by Joseph Boyden
2017 : The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman
2018 : Country Girls by Edna O'Brien
2019 : The Silence of the Girls by Pat Barker

Personal Reading Challenge: Every winner of the Booker Prize since its inception in 1969

1969: P. H. Newby, Something to Answer For - READ
1970: Bernice Rubens, The Elected Member
1970: J. G. Farrell, Troubles (awarded in 2010 as the Lost Man Booker Prize) - READ
1971: V. S. Naipaul, In a Free State
1972: John Berger, G.
1973: J. G. Farrell, The Siege of Krishnapur - READ
1974: Nadine Gordimer, The Conservationist ... and Stanley Middleton, Holiday - READ
1975: Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, Heat and Dust - READ
1976: David Storey, Saville - READ
1977: Paul Scott, Staying On - READ
1978: Iris Murdoch, The Sea, The Sea
1979: Penelope Fitzgerald, Offshore - READ
1980: William Golding, Rites of Passage - READ
1981: Salman Rushdie, Midnight's Children - READ
1982: Thomas Keneally, Schindler's Ark - READ
1983: J. M. Coetzee, Life & Times of Michael K
1984: Anita Brookner, Hotel du Lac - READ
1985: Keri Hulme, The Bone People
1986: Kingsley Amis, The Old Devils - READ
1987: Penelope Lively, Moon Tiger - READ
1988: Peter Carey, Oscar and Lucinda
1989: Kazuo Ishiguro, The Remains of the Day
1990: A. S. Byatt, Possession: A Romance - READ
1991: Ben Okri, The Famished Road
1992: Michael Ondaatje, The English Patient ... and Barry Unsworth, Sacred Hunger - READ
1993: Roddy Doyle, Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha
1994: James Kelman, How late it was, how late
1995: Pat Barker, The Ghost Road
1996: Graham Swift, Last Orders - READ
1997: Arundhati Roy, The God of Small Things READ
1998: Ian McEwan, Amsterdam - READ
1999: J. M. Coetzee, Disgrace - READ
2000: Margaret Atwood, The Blind Assassin
2001: Peter Carey, True History of the Kelly Gang - READ
2002: Yann Martel, Life of Pi
2003: DBC Pierre, Vernon God Little
2004: Alan Hollinghurst, The Line of Beauty
2005: John Banville, The Sea - READ
2006: Kiran Desai, The Inheritance of Loss
2007: Anne Enright, The Gathering - READ
2008: Aravind Adiga, The White Tiger - READ
2009: Hilary Mantel, Wolf Hall - READ
2010: Howard Jacobson, The Finkler Question
2011: Julian Barnes, The Sense of an Ending - READ
2012: Hilary Mantel, Bring Up the Bodies - READ
2013: Eleanor Catton, The Luminaries
2014: Richard Flanagan, The Narrow Road to the Deep North - READ
2015: Marlon James, A Brief History of Seven Killings - READ
2016: Paul Beatty, The Sellout - READ
2017: George Saunders, Lincoln in the Bardo
2018: Anna Burns, Milkman
2019: Margaret Atwood, The Testaments, and Bernardine Evaristo, Girl, Woman, Other

READ 31 of 55 WINNERS

Pulitzer Winners

As with the Bookers, I want to eventually read all the Pulitzer winners (for fiction at least) and have most of the recent ones on the shelves at least. Current status.

Fiction

1918 HIS FAMILY - Ernest Poole
1919 THE MAGNIFICENT AMBERSONS - Booth Tarkington
1921 THE AGE OF INNOCENCE - Edith Wharton
1922 ALICE ADAMS - Booth Tarkington
1923 ONE OF OURS - Willa Cather
1924 THE ABLE MCLAUGHLINS - Margaret Wilson
1925 SO BIG - Edna Ferber
1926 ARROWSMITH - Sinclair Lewis (Declined)
1927 EARLY AUTUMN - Louis Bromfield
1928 THE BRIDGE OF SAN LUIS REY - Thornton Wilder
1929 SCARLET SISTER MARY - Julia Peterkin
1930 LAUGHING BOY - Oliver Lafarge ON SHELVES
1931 YEARS OF GRACE - Margaret Ayer Barnes
1932 THE GOOD EARTH - Pearl Buck
1933 THE STORE - Thomas Sigismund Stribling
1934 LAMB IN HIS BOSOM - Caroline Miller
1935 NOW IN NOVEMBER - Josephine Winslow Johnson
1936 HONEY IN THE HORN - Harold L Davis
1937 GONE WITH THE WIND - Margaret Mitchell ON SHELVES
1938 THE LATE GEORGE APLEY - John Phillips Marquand
1939 THE YEARLING - Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings
1940 THE GRAPES OF WRATH - John Steinbeck
1942 IN THIS OUR LIFE - Ellen Glasgow
1943 DRAGON'S TEETH - Upton Sinclair
1944 JOURNEY IN THE DARK - Martin Flavin
1945 A BELL FOR ADANO - John Hersey ON SHELVES
1947 ALL THE KING'S MEN - Robert Penn Warren ON SHELVES
1948 TALES OF THE SOUTH PACIFIC - James Michener
1949 GUARD OF HONOR - James Gould Cozzens
1950 THE WAY WEST - A.B. Guthrie
1951 THE TOWN - Conrad Richter
1952 THE CAINE MUTINY - Herman Wouk
1953 THE OLD MAN AND THE SEA - Ernest Hemingway
1955 A FABLE - William Faulkner
1956 ANDERSONVILLE - McKinlay Kantor
1958 A DEATH IN THE FAMILY - James Agee ON SHELVES
1959 THE TRAVELS OF JAIMIE McPHEETERS - Robert Lewis Taylor
1960 ADVISE AND CONSENT - Allen Drury
1961 TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD - Harper Lee
1962 THE EDGE OF SADNESS - Edwin O'Connor
1963 THE REIVERS - William Faulkner
1965 THE KEEPERS OF THE HOUSE - Shirley Ann Grau
1966 THE COLLECTED STORIES OF KATHERINE ANNE PORTER - Katherine Anne Porter
1967 THE FIXER - Bernard Malamud
1968 THE CONFESSIONS OF NAT TURNER - William Styron
1969 HOUSE MADE OF DAWN - N Scott Momaday ON SHELVES
1970 THE COLLECTED STORIES OF JEAN STAFFORD - Jean Stafford
1972 ANGLE OF REPOSE - Wallace Stegner ON SHELVES
1973 THE OPTIMIST'S DAUGHTER - Eudora Welty ON SHELVES
1975 THE KILLER ANGELS - Jeff Shaara ON SHELVES
1976 HUMBOLDT'S GIFT - Saul Bellow
1978 ELBOW ROOM - James Alan McPherson
1979 THE STORIES OF JOHN CHEEVER - John Cheever ON SHELVES
1980 THE EXECUTIONER'S SONG - Norman Mailer ON SHELVES
1981 A CONFEDERACY OF DUNCES - John Kennedy Toole ON SHELVES
1982 RABBIT IS RICH - John Updike
1983 THE COLOR PURPLE - Alice Walker ON SHELVES
1984 IRONWEED - William Kennedy ON SHELVES
1985 FOREIGN AFFAIRS - Alison Lurie ON SHELVES
1986 LONESOME DOVE - Larry McMurtry ON SHELVES
1987 A SUMMONS TO MEMPHIS - Peter Taylor
1988 BELOVED - Toni Morrison - ON SHELVES
1989 BREATHING LESSONS - Anne Tyler
1990 THE MAMBO KINGS PLAY SONGS OF LOVE - Oscar Hijuelos
1991 RABBIT AT REST - John Updike
1992 A THOUSAND ACRES - Jane Smiley
1993 A GOOD SCENT FROM A STRANGE MOUNTAIN - Robert Olen Butler
1994 THE SHIPPING NEWS - E Annie Proulx
1995 THE STONE DIARIES - Carol Shields ON SHELVES
1996 INDEPENDENCE DAY - Richard Ford ON SHELVES
1997 MARTIN DRESSLER - Steven Millhauser ON SHELVES
1998 AMERICAN PASTORAL - Philip Roth ON SHELVES
1999 THE HOURS - Michael Cunningham ON SHELVES
2000 INTERPRETER OF MALADIES - Jumpha Lahiri
2001 THE AMAZING ADVENTURES OF KAVALIER & CLAY - Michael Chabon ON SHELVES
2002 EMPIRE FALLS - Richard Russo ON SHELVES
2003 MIDDLESEX - Jeffrey Eugenides ON SHELVES
2004 THE KNOWN WORLD - Edward P. Jones ON SHELVES
2005 GILEAD - Marilynne Robinson ON SHELVES
2006 MARCH - Geraldine Brooks
2007 THE ROAD - Cormac McCarthy
2008 THE BRIEF WONDROUS LIFE OF OSCAR WAO - Junot Diaz ON SHELVES
2009 OLIVE KITTERIDGE - Elizabeth Strout ON SHELVES
2010 TINKERS - Paul Harding
2011 A VISIT FROM THE GOOD SQUAD - Jennifer Egan ON SHELVES
2013 ORPHAN MASTER'S SON - Adam Johnson ON SHELVES
2014 THE GOLDFINCH - Donna Tartt ON SHELVES
2015 ALL THE LIGHT WE CANNOT SEE - Anthony Doerr ON SHELVES
2016 THE SYMPATHIZER - Viet Thanh Nguyen ON SHELVES
2017 THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD - Colson Whitehead ON SHELVES
2018 LESS - Andrew Sean Greer ON SHELVES
2019 THE OVERSTORY - Richard Powers ON SHELVES
2020 THE NICKEL BOYS - Colson Whitehead ON SHELVES


16 READ
38 ON SHELVES
39 NOT OWNED OR READ

93 TOTAL

NOBELS

Update on my Nobel Prize Winning Reading:
1901 Sully Prudhomme
1902 Theodor Mommsen
1903 Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson
1904 Frédéric Mistral and José Echegaray y Eizaquirre
1905 Henryk Sienkiewicz
1906 Giosuè Carducci
1907 Rudyard Kipling - READ
1908 Rudolf Christoph Eucken
1909 Selma Lagerlöf
1910 Paul Heyse --
1911 Count Maurice Maeterlinck
1912 Gerhart Hauptmann
1913 Rabindranath Tagore - READ
1915 Romain Rolland
1916 Verner von Heidenstam
1917 Karl Adolph Gjellerup and Henrik Pontoppidan
1919 Carl Spitteler
1920 Knut Hamsun - READ
1921 Anatole France - READ
1922 Jacinto Benavente
1923 William Butler Yeats - READ
1924 Wladyslaw Reymont
1925 George Bernard Shaw - READ
1926 Grazia Deledda - READ
1927 Henri Bergson
1928 Sigrid Undset
1929 Thomas Mann - READ
1930 Sinclair Lewis - READ
1931 Erik Axel Karlfeldt
1932 John Galsworthy - READ
1933 Ivan Alekseyevich Bunin - READ
1934 Luigi Pirandello - READ
1936 Eugene O'Neill - READ
1937 Roger Martin du Gard
1938 Pearl S. Buck - READ
1939 Frans Eemil Sillanpää
1944 Johannes Vilhelm Jensen
1945 Gabriela Mistral
1946 Hermann Hesse - READ
1947 André Gide - READ
1948 T.S. Elliot - READ
1949 William Faulkner - READ
1950 Bertrand Russell - READ
1951 Pär Lagerkvist - READ
1952 François Mauriac - READ
1953 Sir Winston Churchill - READ
1954 Ernest Hemingway - READ
1955 Halldór Laxness - READ
1956 Juan Ramón Jiménez
1957 Albert Camus - READ
1958 Boris Pasternak (declined the prize) - READ
1959 Salvatore Quasimodo
1960 Saint-John Perse
1961 Ivo Andric - READ
1962 John Steinbeck - READ
1963 Giorgos Seferis
1964 Jean-Paul Sartre (declined the prize) - READ
1965 Michail Sholokhov
1966 Shmuel Yosef Agnon and Nelly Sachs - READ
1967 Miguel Ángel Asturias
1968 Yasunari Kawabata - READ
1969 Samuel Beckett - READ
1970 Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn - READ
1971 Pablo Neruda - READ
1972 Heinrich Böll - READ
1973 Patrick White
1974 Eyvind Johnson and Harry Martinson
1975 Eugenio Montale
1976 Saul Bellow - READ
1977 Vincente Aleixandre
1978 Isaac Bashevis Singer - READ
1979 Odysseas Elytis - READ
1980 Czeslaw Milosz
1981 Elias Canetti
1982 Gabriel Garciá Márquez - READ
1983 William Golding - READ
1984 Jaroslav Seifert - READ
1985 Claude Simon - READ
1986 Akinwande Ouwoe Soyinka
1987 Joseph Brodsky - READ
1988 Naguib Mahfouz - READ
1989 Camilo José Cela - READ
1990 Octavio Paz
1991 Nadine Gordimer - READ
1992 Derek Walcott - READ
1993 Toni Morrison - READ
1994 Kenzaburo Oe - READ
1995 Seamus Heaney - READ
1996 Wislawa Szymborska - READ
1997 Dario Fo - READ
1998 José Saramago - READ
1999 Günter Grass
2000 Gao Xingjian
2001 Vidiadhar Surjprasad Naipaul - READ
2002 Imre Kertész - READ
2003 John Maxwell Coetzee - READ
2004 Elfriede Jelinek - READ
2005 Harold Pinter - READ
2006 Orhan Pamuk - READ
2007 Doris Lessing - READ
2008 J.M.G. Le Clézio
2009 Herta Müller - READ
2010 Mario Vargas Llosa - READ
2011 Tomas Tranströmer - READ
2012 Mo Yan
2013 Alice Munro - READ
2014 Patrick Modiano - READ
2015 Svetlana Alexievich - READ
2016 Bob Dylan - READ
2017 Kazuo Ishiguro - READ
2018 Olga Tokarczuk - READ
2019 Peter Handke - READ

READ 70 OF
116 LAUREATES

LIT HUB'S 50 CHUNKSTERS & MY 20 ALTERNATIVES

These are the 50 Literary Hub Must Read Chunksters:

1. The Overstory by Richard Powers OWNED
2. The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin
3. The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco OWNED
4. Pachinko by Min Jin Lee OWNED
5. Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell OWNED
6. The Witch Elm by Tana French OWNED
7. The Robber Bride by Margaret Atwood OWNED
8. All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr OWNED
9. Little, Big by John Crowley
10. Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides OWNED
11. The Last Samurai by Helen DeWitt
12. Possession by A.S. Byatt READ
13. Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel READ
14. The Queen of the Night by Alexander Chee
15. The Secret History by Donna Tartt READ
16. The Parisian : A Novel
17. Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie OWNED
18. Fingersmith by Sarah Waters READ
19. The Wind-up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami OWNED
20. Tree of Smoke by Denis Johnson OWNED
21. Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie READ
22. American Gods by Neil Gaiman READ
23. The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Klay by Michael Chabon OWNED
24. The Grace of Kings by Ken Liu OWNED
25. The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen OWNED
26. Skippy Dies by Paul Murray OWNED
27. A Naked Singularity by Sergio de la Pava
28. An Instance of the Fingerpost by Iain Pears
29. A Brief History of Seven Killings by Marlon James READ
30. Life After Life by Kate Atkinson OWNED
31. The Bonfire of the Vanities by Tom Wolfe OWNED
32. A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara OWNED
33. Winter's Tale by Mark Helprin OWNED
34. JR by William Gaddis OWNED
35. Almanac of the Dead by Leslie Marmon Silko
36. Mason & Dixon by Thomas Pynchon OWNED
37. Dhalgren by Samuel R. Delany
38. The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett OWNED
39. The Stand by Stephen King OWNED
40. Underworld by Don DeLillo READ
41. The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton OWNED
42. Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke READ
43. Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry OWNED
44. 2666 by Roberto Bolano OWNED
45. Sacred Games by Vikram Chandra OWNED
46. Ducks, Newburyport by Lucy Ellmann OWNED
47. Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace OWNED
48. Parallel Stories by Peter Nadas
49. Women and Men by Joseph McElroy
50. A Suitable Boy by Vikram Seth OWNED

& My Alternative 20

A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry (1995) 624 pp
The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon (2001) 544 pp
The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova (2005) 720 pp
The Far Pavilions by MM Kaye (1978) 960 pp
Earthly Powers by Anthony Burgess (1980) 656 pp
White Teeth by Zadie Smith (2000) 560 pp
The Sunne in Splendour by Sharon Kay Penman (1982) 896 pp
Saville by David Storey (1976) 560 pp
To Serve Them All My Days by RF Delderfield (1972) 672 pp
Captain Corelli's Mandolin by Louis de Bernieres (1994) 533 pp
Sacred Hunger by Barry Unsworth (1992) 640 pp
Birdsong by Sebastian Faulks (1993) 528 pp
Sophie's Choice by William Styron (1979) 656 pp
Sea of Poppies by Amitav Ghosh (2008) 544 pp
The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver (1998) 626 pp
A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving (1989) 656 pp
The Singapore Grip by JG Farrell (1978) 704 pp
Magician by Raymond E Feist (1982) 864 pp
The Prince of Tides by Pat Conroy (1986) 672 pp
A Chain of Voices by Andre Brink (1982) 512 pp

BOUGHT AND READ IN 2020

These are the books that I have added this year. My new rule is that any book I buy I should read before the end of the following year!

1. Submarine by Joe Dunthorne (2008) 290 pp
2. I Heard the Owl Call My Name by Margaret Craven (1967) 158 pp
3. The Ascent of Rum Doodle by W.E. Bowman (1956) 171 pp
4. The Spare Room by Helen Garner (2008) 195 pp
5. Look We have Coming to Dover! by Dajit Nagra (2007) 53 pp READ APR 20
6. Hame by Annalina McAfee (2017) 577 pp
7. The Holy Fox by Andrew Roberts (1991) 414 pp READ MAR 20
8. The History Boys by Alan Bennett (2004) 200 pp READ FEB 20
9. Himself by Jess Kidd (2016) 358 pp
10. Lazarus by Morris West (1990) 375 pp
11. Judith Paris by Hugh Walpole (1931) 757 pp
12. The Small House at Allington by Anthony Trollope (1864) 665 pp
13. The Seventh Cross by Anna Seghers (1942) 398 pp
14. The Gallows Pole by Benjamin Myers (2017) 363 pp READ APR 20
15. The Unwomanly Face of War by Svetlana Alexievich (1985) 331 pp
16. The Light Years by Elizabeth Jane Howard (1990) 578 pp
17. Eight Hours from England by Anthony Quayle (1945) 228 pp READ JULY 20
18. Dregs by Jorn Lier Horst (2010) 310 pp READ FEB 20
19. Loyalties by Delphine de Vigan READ FEB 20
20. The Story of My Teeth by Valeria Luiselli READ MAR 20
21. The Last Wish by Andrzej Sapkowski (1993) 280 pp READ FEB 20
22. War and Turpentine by Stefan Hertmans (2013) 293 pp
23. Deviation by Luce D'Eramo (1979) 344 pp
24. Caging Skies by Christine Leunens (2019) 294 pp
25. The Hunters by James Salter (1956) 233 pp
26. The Watch by Joydeep Roy-Bhattacharya (2012) 310 pp
27. The Memoir of an Anti-Hero by Kornel Filipowicz (1961) 70 pp READ APR 20
28. Darius the Great is not Okay by Adib Khorram (2018) 312 pp
29. The Night Tiger by Yangsze Choo (2019) 466 pp
30. Love Story, With Murders by Harry Bingham (2013) 441 pp
31. Letters to Alice on First Reading Jane Austen by Fay Weldon
32. Selected Poems: 1950-2012 by Adrienne Rich
33. The Alice Network by Kate Quinn
34. Divided : Why We're Living in an Age of Walls by Tim Marshall READ APR 20
35. The Cold War by John Lewis Gaddis READ MAY 20
36. Pachinko by Min Jin Lee
37. Witness : Lessons from Elie Wiesel's Classroom by Ariel Burger READ MAR 20
38. Lucy Church, Amiably by Gertrude Stein
39. Shadow Tag by Louise Erdrich
40. The Village Witch Doctor and Other Stories by Amos Tutuola READ May 20
41. After You'd Gone by Maggie O'Farrell
42. The Librarian by Salley Vickers READ MAR 20
43. Temple of a Thousand Faces by John Shors
44. Parable of the Sower by Octavia E. Butler (1993) 311 pp
45. The Drought by J.G. Ballard (1965) 233 pp READ MAY 20
46. The Age of Miracles by Karen Thompson Walker (2012) 391 pp
47. Clade by James Bradley (2017) 297 pp
48. Far North by Marcel Theroux (2009) 288 pp
49. The River by Peter Heller (2019) 253 pp
50. Ivanov by Anton Chekhov (1887) 58 pp READ MAR 20
51. The Sea-Gull by Anton Chekhov (1896) 68 pp READ APR 20
52. Uncle Vanya by Anton Chekhov (1900) 44 pp
53. The Three Sisters by Anton Chekhov (1901) 58 pp
54. The Cherry Orchard by Anton Chekhov (1904) 50 pp
55. The Females by Wolfgang Hilbig (2010) 129 pp READ APR 20
56. The Other Americans by Laila Lalami (2019) 301 pp
57. Lost Children Archive by Valeria Luiselli (2019) 350 pp
58. Lanny by Max Porter (2019) 210 pp
59. Late in the Day by Tessa Hadley (2019) 280 pp
60. Murder in the Cathedral by TS Eliot (1935) 88 pp READ JUNE 20
61. The Shoes of the Fisherman by Morris West (1963) READ MAY 20
62. Fidelity : Poems by Grace Paley (2008) READ MAY 20
63. The Citadel by A.J. Cronin (1937) READ MAY 20
64. Golden Hill by Francis Spufford (2016) READ JUNE 20
65. American War by Omar El Akkad (2017)
66. Saltwater by Jessica Andrews (2019)
67. Unstoppable : My Life So Far by Maria Sharapova (2017) 289 pp READ MAY 20
68. The Great Impersonation by E Phillips Oppenheim (1920) 288 pp READ JUNE 20
69. The Collected Stories of Jean Stafford by Jean Stafford (1969) 488 pp
70. Odysseus Elytis :Selected Poems 1940-1979 by Odysseus Elytis (1981) 112 pp READ JUNE 20
71. Lolly Willowes by Sylvia Townsend Warner (1926) 203 pp
72. Black Moses by Alain Mabanckou (2015) 199 pp
73. Zonal by Don Paterson (2020) 68 pp READ JUNE 20
74. The Porpoise by Mark Haddon (2019) 304 pp
75. Tram 83 by Fiston Mwanza Mujila 2014 210 pp
76. 1934 by Alberto Moravia (1982)
77. Blue Moon by Lee Child (2019)
78. A Burning by Megha Majumdar (2020)
79. Hurricane Season by Fernanda Melchor (2017)
80. Henry, Himself by Stewart O'Nan (2019)
81. Woods etc by Alice Oswald (2005)
82. The Death of Murat Idrissi by Tommy Wieringa (2017)
83. The Adventures of China Iron by Gabriela Cabezon Camara (2017)
84. The Last Man by Mary Shelley (1826)
85. Remembered by Yvonne Battle-Felton (2019)
86. Castle Richmond by Anthony Trollope (1860) READ JULY 20
87. The Seeker and Other Poems by Nelly Sachs (1970) READ JULY 20
88. Not a Day Goes By by E Lynn Harris (2000)
89. Potiki by Patricia Grace (1986)
90. Cane River by Lalitha Tademy (2001)
91. Boy Swallows Universe by Trent Dalton
92. Diary of a Murderer by Kim Young-Ha (2013)
93. Girl by Edna O'Brien (2019)
94. The Princesse de Cleves by Madame de La Fayette (1678)
95. The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead (2019)
96. The Five People You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom (2003) READ JULY 20
97. Born a Crime by Trevor Noah
98. The Overnight Kidnapper by Andrea Camilleri
99. The Uninhabitable Earth by David Wallace-Wells
100. At the Jerusalem by Paul Bailey
101. The Emperor's Babe by Bernadine Evaristo
102. Sincerity by Carol Ann Duffy
103. Winnie the Pooh by AA Milne READ JULY 20
104. The Body Lies by Jo Baker
105. The Heartbeat of Wounded Knee by David Treuer
106. The Three-Body Problem by Cixin Liu
107. Death is Hard Work by Khaled Khalifa
108. Nightblind by Ragnar Jonasson
109. Black Out by Ragnar Jonasson (2011)
110. The Street by Ann Petry (1946)
111. 10 Minutes 38 Seconds in This Strange World by Elif Shafak (2019)
112. Disappearing Earth by Julia Phillips (2019)
113. Weather by Jenny Offill (2020)
114. How to be an AntiRacist by Ibram X Kendi (2019)
115. Dominicana by Angie Cruz (2019) READ AUG 20
116. This Mournable Body by Tsitsi Dangarembga (2018)
117. Blue Horses by Mary Oliver (2014)
118. Pygmalian by George Bernard Shaw (1914) READ SEP 20
119. To Rise Again at a Decent Hour by Joshua Ferris (2014)
120. Stag's Leap by Sharon Olds (2012)
121. Trafalgar by Angelica Gorodischer (1979)
122. The Carpet Makers by Andreas Eschbach (1995)
123. Man's Search for Meaning by Victor E Frankel (1946)
124. The Shadow King by Maaza Mengiste
125. Burnt Sugar by Avni Doshi
126. The Discomfort of Evening by Marieke Lucas Rijneveld
127. Dimension of Miracles by Robert Sheckley
128. Felicity by Mary Oliver
129. Real Life by Brandon Taylor
130. Axiom's End by Lindsay Ellis
131. Survivor Song by Paul Tremblay
132. Big Sky by Kate Atkinson
133. The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde
134. Salome by Oscar Wilde
135. An Ideal Husband by Oscar Wilde
136. Lady Windemere's Fan by Oscar Wilde
137. A Woman of No Importance by Oscar Wilde
138. Before the War by Fay Weldon
139. The Rose of Tibet by Lionel Davidson
140. Ape and Essence by Aldous Huxley
141. At Freddie's by Penelope Fitzgerald
142. The Lost Memory of Skin by Russell Banks
143. Conclave by Robert Harris
144. Rules for Perfect Murders by Peter Swanson
145. Second Life by S.J. Watson
146. The Death of Mrs. Westaway by Ruth Ware
147. The Women at Hitler's Table by Rosella Postorino
148. Inland by Thea Obreht
149. Deep River by Karl Marlantes
150. The Butterfly Girl by Rene Denfeld
151. Trust Exercise by Susan Choi
152. The Ditch by Herman Koch
153. The Narrow Land by Christine Dwyer Hickey
154. A Crime in the Neighborhood by Suzanne Berne
155. I am Sovereign by Nicola Barker READ SEP 20
156. The Mars Room by Rachel Kushner
157. The Five: The Untold Lives of the Women Killed by Jack the Ripper by Hallie Rubenhold
158. The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern
159. Final Cut by S.J. Watson
160. Mrs Warren's Profession by George Bernard Shaw
161. Arms and the Man by George Bernard Shaw
162. Candida by George Bernard Shaw
163. Man and Superman by George Bernard Shaw
164. The Girl with the Louding Voice by Abi Dare
165. Apeirogon by Colum McCann
166. The New Wilderness by Diane Cook
167. Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart
168. The Catholic School by Edoardo
169. Kaddish.com by Nathan Englander
170. The Mirror and the Light by Hilary Mantel
171. Who They Was by Gabriel Krauze
172. Such a Fun Age by Kiley Reid
173. Redhead by the Side of the Road by Anne Tyler
174. Love and Other Thought Experiments by Sophie Ward
175. How Much of These Hills is Gold by C Pam Zhang
176. The Fall of the Ottomans by Eugene Rogan
177. Lords of the Horizons by Jason Goodwin
178. She Would Be King by Wayetu Moore
179. Underland by Robert MacFarlane
180. The Bridge by Bill Konigsberg
181. Blue Ticket by Sophie Mackintosh
182. The Second Sleep by Robert Harris
183. Normal People by Sally Rooney
184. Poetry by Heart edited by Andrew Motion etc
185. Stay with Me by Ayobami Adebayo
186. Stand by Me by Wendell Berry
187. Lord of all the Dead by Javier Cercas
188. Vernon Subutex 1 by Virginie Despentes
189. Frenchman's Creek by Daphne Du Maurier
190. Small Country by Gael Faye
191. The Last Banquet by Jonathan Grimwood
192. Paladin of Souls by Lois McMaster Bujold
193. A High Wind in Jamaica by Richard Hughes
194. Dance of the Jakaranda by Peter Kimani

169 books added
35 already finished

BOOKS OF THE YEAR



Another resolution is to keep up in 2020 with all my friends on LT.

Another resolution is to keep up in 2020 with all my friends on LT.

NEXT IS YOURS

Happy new one!

Happy new thread!

First again Anita! xx

>22 PaulCranswick: Ha! You just happen to make your new threads when I am winding down for the day :)

Happy new thread, Paul!

Happy new thread!

>23 figsfromthistle: It is a happy coincidence for me anyway, Anita. Three threads in a row I think.

>24 bell7: Thank you Mary.

>25 amanda4242: Thanks Amanda. xx

A bit slow setting up today as work got in the way!

Lovely to enter your book filled room this morning Paul.

Happy new one, Paul! Lovely topper.

Happy new thread, Paul!

Happy New Thread Paul! Lovely bookcases.

Cheers to your new thread, Paul!
Stunning topper!

Hi Paul and happy new thread. It makes me happy to look at those book shelves. Beautiful and peaceful looking room, pleasing to the eye.

From your previous thread:

I’m sorry to hear about your FiL’s illness and congratulations on #100!

>28 Caroline_McElwee: Always my pleasure, Caroline x

>29 jessibud2: Thank you, Shelley. Keeps a tidy home does SWMBO

>30 harrygbutler: Nice to see you here, Harry, thanks.

>31 SandDune: Thank you, Rhian. Is Mr SandDune enjoying the start of the EPL season?

>32 Carmenere: Thanks Lynda. It is wonderful to have good friends to virtually share my home with.

>33 karenmarie: I suppose it beats all the piles of books everywhere, Karen, but I do sort of miss that too!

Fingers crossed the FIL has had a couple of good days.

Happy new thread, Paul

Happy new thread!

Happy new thread, Paul!
Love your book shelves and the beautiful rooms.
Enjoy it!

Hi Paul, happy new thread mate.

It looks like I happened along just in time to catch a new thread! I am inspired by your bookshelves up top. And also by your booklists which I'm tempted to copy and make into my own checklists.

Happy new thread Paul! Your bookshelves look wonderful and organised. Nowhere a book hiding in a corner anymore?

Happy new thread, Paul, and congratulations on your 100 reads!

>37 Matke: Thank you, Gail. I see you made a new one too and I'll be there soom.

>38 drneutron: Thanks Jim.

>39 SirThomas: Thank you Thomas. I am well looked after herr, I must say!

>40 johnsimpson: Thanks John. I hope the ECCB get their act together and plan a decent cricket season. 20/20 sunday league a knock out competition of 50 overs per team and a revamped county championship.

>41 AnneDC: What a lovely surprise to see you post, Anne. Feel free to make use of any list you like.

>42 EllaTim: Thanks Ella. Did put some thought into the shelved but i think I still need three more.

>43 Familyhistorian: Thank you, Meg. I was treading water for a while there so it is nice to get to the 100 milestone.

Had lunch with SWMBO and Belle and after added the remaining books that make up the Booker longlist to my shelves. The aim is to read the entire longlist this month and pick my own winner.

Here are the remaining additions:

170. The Mirror and the Light by Hilary Mantel
171. Who They Was by Gabriel Krauze
172. Such a Fun Age by Kiley Reid
173. Redhead by the Side of the Road by Anne Tyler
174. Love and Other Thought Experiments by Sophie Ward
175. How Much of These Hills is Gold by C Pam Zhang

I am still a little shocked that Mantel wasn't shortlisted but hopefully I can give my own humble opinion by the end of this month.

>49 PaulCranswick: Great list of acquisitions, Paul. Good luck with the longlist.

Reading Plan for October:

First and foremost I want to read the Booker longlist.

I have The Ditch and The Rose of Tibet to finish

I want to read some poetry (maybe Milosz for my Nobel reads), watch and read one play, read some George Orwell for BAC and I also fancy reading Robert Goddard's "The Wide World" trilogy. As ambitious and possibly unattainable as usual.

>50 charl08: Thank you Charlotte. Which is your favourite so far?

Happy New Thread, Paul!

Nice poem up there in the Frosted Fields.

>53 jnwelch: Thanks Joe. Rachael Boast is a very accomplished poet.

Happy new-ish thread! I'm falling behind on visits so I'm trying to get caught up.

Happy new thread, Paul. I'm interested in your opinion of The Mirror and the Light, I'll be watching out for it.

>55 thornton37814: As am I falling behind, Lori. I hope to make a full sweep of threads this weekend.

>56 VivienneR: Thank you and lovely to have you drop by, Vivienne. I am looking forward to the conclusion of Mantel's trilogy but it looks so much bigger than the other 12 in the longlist!

>57 PaulCranswick: If it's any good you will race through it.

>58 avatiakh: To be honest, Kerry, my favourite book of hers is A Place of Greater Safety which was just as long as this one is and I don't remember it taking an age to read.

Hi Paul, I'm late to wish you great reading and so forth on this thread.
Such an ambitious plan for further reading. I can't do that because then I am so intimidated by trying to keep up with the plans. Are loneliest Booker titles fulfilling reads for you these days?

I really admired your dining area with the bookshelves. Or is that actually a library room with a reading table?

Edited ~ how did *longlist* magically become ' loneliest' after I clicked Save message? I even remembered to use the preview button first.

>60 SandyAMcPherson: Lovely to see you, Sandy .

I am good at making ambitious plans but less certain in successfully carrying them out. The Booker list this year is a little controversial so I thought it timely to jump in and see what I thought myself. In some ways it is the most inclusive list with 9 ladies out of the 13 and multiple ethnicities and sexualities represented, but I remain a little bit sour about the absence of writers from the commonwealth in the list especially considering that, until 2013, only the old Commonwealth countries were included. (Pakistan, South Africa and Ireland counted as old Commonwealth as previous constituent parts of the old Empire).

It is our dining area and my reading corner. I have more shelves in the corridor and in our Master room.

>61 PaulCranswick: I am not up to date!
I thought the Booker could have only Commonwealth residents submit book titles?

>62 SandyAMcPherson: No unfortunately (well that is my thinking) it was opened up in 2013 to any novel written in English first published in the UK in the particular award year. The most obvious inclusion therefore being US writers. My own view is that the US has enough awards of its own for its writers.

Happy Weekend, Paul! Happy New Thread! I like that Frosted Fields poem up there. Have you have writing any poetry?

Happy new thread, Paul!

>64 msf59: Thanks Mark. I do like the Rachael Boast poem up top. I am always scribbling down fragments of poems and often one will appear fully formed when I am least expecting it.

>65 FAMeulstee: Thank you, Anita.

>59 PaulCranswick:
I read (completely finished) Place of Greater Safety and found it a slog. It took me over a year to read it. I simply didn't like the switching in format that she did throughout the book. I wanted to shout at her "For God's sakes woman, pick a narrative format and stick with it!" The switching tense, style, and format got worse towards the end of the book and it really rattled me as a reader. I appreciate what she was trying to do, but I think she ruined a good story. At the time I thought there was no comparing it to the superior A.S. Byatt book Possession. (I read both books about the same time.) It takes a very good author to make the characters of Robespierre and Danton likable. What I really appreciated was the fact that she made major places in the book for the women in French Revolution.

I have to say, that reading experience has put me off of reading anything more by Mantel. I have NOT read a single one of the Thomas Cromwell books. Besides, I already know how the story ends no matter what kind of spin she puts on it.

Paul - from the slightly darker side: "Our thoughts and prayers go with the virus."

You have a great weekend too!

>49 PaulCranswick: I'm in what seems to be the minority that didn't think much of the Wolf Hall trilogy. I decided to give the last book a miss since I found the style of the first two stultifying and the characterizations so weak that I could barely distinguish who was who.

>67 benitastrnad: It is funny isn't it what we take from books, Benita? We do agree on a number of authors but her book on the Terror of the French Revolution blew me away whilst I found Byatt's book turgid.

>68 m.belljackson: I have to dissent on this one, Marianne. I want the voters to end him not the virus.

>69 amanda4242: I would admit (and as is obvious in recent posts) her style is not for everyone, Amanda, but she does get my thumbs up.

>70 PaulCranswick:

Well, I'd like to see both ended!

(My reaction to the quote was that the virus was finally bringing him to the end and so the writers
were "thanking" it by gently mocking the effusive and often hypocritical outpourings.)

>72 m.belljackson: Don't get me wrong, Marianne, I am not looking hourly for updates on his health condition, but I would like the voters to pass their verdict on his dreadful tenure. I don't want another death from this awful virus - even his.

>73 PaulCranswick:
Yes, Redemption would be welcome.

Hi Paul and happy new thread, belatedly.

>70 PaulCranswick:
It is an interesting conundrum about reading - isn't it? I fully appreciated Mantel's efforts in Place of Greater Safety and it did force me to look at the French Revolution from a different angle, but I found the continuous change in writing style wearying and in the end annoying. If asking the reader to make leaps of perspective is the goal of an author, then Mantel succeeded in Place of Greater Safety. But if it is to provide that perspective without consternation and bafflement on the part of the reader, then I think that Mantel missed her mark. I left the book thinking that she was trying to signal something with the constant shifts in style, but I missed what that was. I do think it a worthy read - or I would never have finished it.

I would not use the term "turgid" to describe Possession. I found it romantic - in the sense of Schubert or Mendelssohn, more than the style of Wagner - which I would describe as turgid. Even though Wagner's work could be described as turgid, I still enjoy it. But I get that it is over-the-top and out-of-fashion for some. I really enjoyed the romanticism of Possession but I also know that the literary convention of stories within stories annoys people in the same way as I found Mantel's book to do to me.

I also think that both books deserve their accolades for all the reasons stated above. It is just that I am not ready for another confusing ride from Mantel at this time. I am sure that I will read the trio of books about Thomas Cromwell, but just not now.

>74 m.belljackson: November to signal the power of democracy in sending the Chump back to his tower and his tweets.

>75 banjo123: Thank you and lovely to see you as always, Rhonda.

>76 benitastrnad: What a well considered post, Benita. I can of course understand the difficulty of Mantel's approach but it worked for me. I almost felt as if I was letting myself down by not really enjoying Possession - maybe classical music is not always to my taste!

I've hurried through the thread, Paul, and I'm happy to see the varied views here.
As to potus - I'd like him ill enough to be thoroughly frightened but not enough to add to our current chaos. (My DH, btw, proposed the possibility that he's not sick at all but orchestrating an escape from the next debate. We're both appalled that we could even consider such a thing.)
I'm just a sucker for Mantel and can't criticize no matter how much I had to concentrate to get through *Greater Safety* and the first two T. Cromwells. I'm afraid to reread Possession. It was my book of the decade, and I don't want to lose that awe.
Enjoy the rest of your weekend!

>79 LizzieD: DH could well be right. Nothing is at it seems nowadays.

I really must re-read Posession to see what was it I missed first time around.

Heigh ho neighbour! It's been a while since I dropped by, not because I'm ignoring you but I seem to be going slow on social media these days. I've had to skip a couple of your threads to catch up.

Happy new thread! (while I can still say so)

>81 humouress: My pal across the causeway!! Lovely to see you anytime. xx

>82 PaulCranswick: Well, if the welcome is going to be so enthusiastic I'll try to drop by more often.

By the way, I can't see your topper. Have you fallen foul of the 'not secure' criterion?

>83 humouress: Yes the topper has just disappeared. Computers deciding what is safe and secure to show is getting on my nerves.

Newish thread orisons, PC, and good luck reading the Booker list! Plenty o' pages there.

>85 richardderus: Thanks RD. Especially in one particular book. I have started The New Wilderness and it seems a deserving choice so far.

Likely there is no sane person in America who still wakes up and wonders "Can this get worse?"

>87 m.belljackson: - I am not in the USA and I wonder the same thing....

>87 m.belljackson: It could get a lot worse - bugger could win again or lose and force a constitutional crisis. Don't think that either will happen but it is a scary prospect.

>88 jessibud2: Let us all - non USA citizens too - hope that they get things right soon.

You read quite a lot off books over the years. This is a major accomplishment considering how stressful your job can be!

All good wishes.

I own, but haven't read Possession. If I can locate it somewhere amid all the books I have, I'll give it a go.

Regarding American politics right now, I think the US has gone mad. The debate last week was a true disaster.

>90 Whisper1: Yes, dear Linda, if I look back at University time when I could comfortably pass 200 books to now when I am triumphant passing 100, then I guess that circumstances do indeed dictate.

The only thing missing last week in the debate were mud pies. Whilst the rancour and dislike Chump generates is enormous, Biden also irks me somewhat too. Just like four years ago the better of two bad choices.

>89 PaulCranswick: - The only way things will be right is if he is gone. Last night he said it's "no big deal" and "vaccines are coming momentarily". Not only is such a statement incredibly disrespectful to the more than 200,000 who have already died, but also to those who are suffering now and can't afford the kind of medical attention he got, but it is also blatantly untrue. Everything that comes out of his mouth is untrue and anyone who can't see that, I guess, deserves him. The guy is mentally unhinged and not fit, in so may ways, to be where he is. To be honest, I have my doubts he actually had the virus at all, and that this is nothing more than a very desperate plea for sympathy votes because he knows he is in trouble, politically. I find it difficult to believe that so many professionals would put their reputations on the line to go along with such a hoax but t-Rump is such a liar and a con, that it truly wouldn't be beyond belief for him to pull off such a thing. And if it's true that he did have covid why didn't they simply refuse to release him, for the protection of the rest of the population, since he is now a super spreader. He is not wearing a mask now at all, just as before. There is something so very wrong with this picture.

>92 jessibud2: What is truly amazing is that he ever got elected at all, Shelley. The quality of people in public life there is a sad indictment of an otherwise wonderful country. Would be interesting to see if he really did have the virus - wouldn't be at all surprised if it was "fake news"!

Some additions today.

I am watching Resurrection : Ertugrul on Netflix which is about the birth of the Ottoman Empire and is enthralling. So much so I will probably soon be fluent in Turkish! It coincided nicely with the Non-Fiction challenge this month which is about the Ottoman or Byzantine Empires. Couldn't resist so I added:

176. The Fall of the Ottomans by Eugene Rogan
177. Lords of the Horizons by Jason Goodwin

and I will read one of them all being well. I also added:

178. She Would Be King by Wayetu Moore
179. Underland by Robert MacFarlane

I am also thinking of reigniting an old challenge:

Around the World reading challenge. This was piqued by adding a book by Wayetu Moore who was born in Liberia. I am not going to do it as an Around the World in 80 Books Challenge this time but as a progressive challenge the same as I do with the Bookers, Pulitzers and Nobel winners.

>93 PaulCranswick: - We will probably never know, Paul. But fake news sounds exactly like what it all is.

>95 PaulCranswick: - On my other book site (Bookcrossing), I once participated in a round the world challenge called the 666 Challenge. I even managed to make a spreadsheet for my elf, completely surprising myself with the ability to do that. I have since forgotten how and would probably just draw it by hand if I were to do it now, but basically, this is how it worked and it was fun, if somewhat tricky: You read 6 books, from 6 different countries on 6 different continents. Somewhere, I have a good link to the countries on all the continents because some of them are harder to know than others. I didn't actually complete it but did get a fair number of them done.

>96 jessibud2: That sounds like an interesting challenge but the countries of Africa, Europe and Asia far outweigh the numbers in North America, South America and Oceania.

>97 PaulCranswick: - True but that's half the fun!

>98 jessibud2: There are 12 countries in South America. Which would mean you could knock off 72 books doing your 666 challenge twice. Problem would be to find books from some of the smaller Oceanic countries.

Dunno why, but your lovely book room is just a white box now :-(

>100 Caroline_McElwee: I will try to reload it, because it still looks the same in RL!

>100 Caroline_McElwee: It should be restored now, Caroline?

>94 PaulCranswick: Thanks for those Ottoman suggestions, Paul. The non-fiction book challenge is reading about Byzantium this month, and I'm waiting for my copy of Sailing from Byzantium to arrive. You'd be welcomed with joy if you wanted one more group to deal with!
Underland has been calling me since it came out. I have access to a copy but no time to read it yet. I read The Old Ways (and really enjoyed it} hoping that it would satisfy my Macfarlane curiosity. Nope. I really want *U'land*.,

>102 PaulCranswick: yes, thank you Paul. I hate those white boxes.

>103 LizzieD: I will join it this month, Peggy, and will read Lords of the Horizons which looks splendid.

>104 Caroline_McElwee: So do I, Caroline. xx

I love the picture of your new bookshelves. We are moving into our new condo and had to purchase new bookcases too. I’ve unpacked and shelved about 40 cartons of book (I gave away/disposed of about 1500 books before we left Seattle.) I feel so good finally being able to see my books again after nearly 2 years!

>105 PaulCranswick:
I read Lords of the Horizons back in August of 2008. That was back in the day soon after I had joined LT. I really enjoyed it and learned a great deal about the Ottoman Empire. After that I read Lord Kinross's biography of Ataturk. Both were good authors, but I also read all of Goodwin's mysteries. His detective is Yashim the Eunich. The books are set in the 1820's - 50's and all take place in Istanbul. They are full of information about the severe decline of the Ottoman Empire and the rise of the Young Turks and all the factors that contributed to that. Plus - this is another detective who is obsessed with food. Yashim ranks right up there with Donna Leon's Brunetti, Agatha Christie's Pierroult, and Andrea Camilleri's Inspector Montalbano. So much so that Goodwin wrote a cookbook of Turkish food based on all the recipes featured in the five Yashim books. It was one of the first Turkish cookbooks to be published. It is now out-of-print but it is a cookbook I would like to have in my collection someday.

Oh - and Goodwin wrote five Yashim novels and then announced that he was done writing about Yashim and the series was concluded. His fans were disappointed.

>106 arubabookwoman: There is something so comforting, Deborah, at having all your books around you. Glad to see you settling in and I hope your husband's health is continually improving. x

>107 benitastrnad: I read the introduction yesterday and was enthralled, Benita. He writes so well and I am sure that I shall track down the detective series as well - your recommendations on this score have credence with Deon Meyer!

Chiming in a bit late on the new thread, Paul, but I also love your bookcases at the top!

>109 ronincats: Always welcome, Roni.

I am a frequent admirer of your tomatoes and pottery and accessories so it is nice to have my bookshelves to at least show off!

PC, the first Jason Goodwin mystery was The Janissary Tree...very very good story, also well-written.

>111 richardderus: That one is on a list of target books of mine, RD. His writing makes for absorbing history.

I usually speculate wildly on who will win the Nobel Prize for Literature and am always way off mark.

I am quietly satisfied that a fine poet has been recognised this time Louise Gluck being honoured with the prize. Not a bad choice this year in all fairness. The first American poet to win, excluding TS Eliot who sort of was British as well as American and was a British citizen when in won.

https://www.thebookseller.com/news/us-poet-louise-gl-ck-wins-nobel-prize-literat...

I like the distinctive immediacy of Louise Gluck and will look to read her first four books which are collected in one (when it arrives as I already have it on order).

Great for me for a poet to win as the poet's voice has been on the wane in the last generation. Is Gluck the best living poet? Maybe not but she does not have many peers.

This is her poem "Vespers" from the Wild Irises collection which won the Pulitzer.

In your extended absence, you permit me
use of earth, anticipating
some return on investment. I must report
failure in my assignment, principally
regarding the tomato plants.
I think I should not be encouraged to grow
tomatoes. Or, if I am, you should withhold
the heavy rains, the cold nights that come
so often here, while other regions get
twelve weeks of summer. All this
belongs to you: on the other hand,
I planted the seeds, I watched the first shoots
like wings tearing the soil, and it was my heart
broken by the blight, the black spot so quickly
multiplying in the rows. I doubt
you have a heart, in our understanding of
that term. You who do not discriminate
between the dead and the living, who are, in consequence,
immune to foreshadowing, you may not know
how much terror we bear, the spotted leaf,
the red leaves of the maple falling
even in August, in early darkness: I am responsible
for these vines.

Hi, Paul. How are you, sir? I tried Gluck at one point but didn't connect with her. I will have to try her again. Poetry can be tricky.

I am enjoying Utopia Avenue. You would like the 60s music references.

>115 msf59: She is well known for changing styles but, of American poets, she is one of my favourites. I like Sharon Olds better and Billy Collins is more accessible but I am quite pleased with her win.

I do normally enjoy David Mitchell's books anyway so the sixties references would only help me to enjoy even more.

I applaud your ambition in attempting to read the Booker long list, Paul, especially when it includes one of the Mantel Cromwellian door-stoppers. I stalled out on the first in the trilogy although I have the other two hiding somewhere around here.

>117 Familyhistorian: I'm certainly going to have to get a move on Meg!

Never had the Glück to hear of Gluck, and my library hasn't got one single book by her (yet). Wish you a good reading when her book arrives.

>115 msf59: Count me as another who is eating up Utopia Avenue. It's not a thing like his latest foray into new weirdness {if that's correct classsification) with Slade House and The Bone Clocks although I enjoyed those too. I haven't read Thousand Autumns Jacob de Zoet, but Jasper de Zoet is a member of the band. Good stuff!! I was just saying to Karen that I'll listen to the Beatles a bit differently from now on.

>114 PaulCranswick: Can’t say I’d ever heard of Louise Gluck either, but then I’m not very well informed on poetry. But I quite like that poem.

>120 LizzieD:
So far Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet is my favorite Mitchell. Number 9 Dream should have stayed a dream. Ugh! It was an ugly read.

>119 paulstalder: Thanks Paul. I'm quite pleased to see a poet recognised again.

>120 LizzieD: The Beatles are always worth listening to on so many levels, Peggy. I will look out for that one.

>121 SandDune: I like the immediacy in her writing, Rhian.

>122 benitastrnad: Hahaha Benita. I can always trust you not to mince your words!

Just breezing through to say Hi, Paul. I really like your opening picture, makes me want to drop by and browse your shelves!

Hi, Paul! I'm just stopping by to say hello and to wish you happy reading!

>125 DeltaQueen50: And you would be so welcome, dear guru!

>126 tymfos: Lovely to see you active, Terri. xx

>124 PaulCranswick:
Oops! I made a mistake. The Mitchell book I had so much trouble with was Ghostwritten. It was his first novel. Like all of his there are characters in it that show up in his other novels.

I will forgive David Mitchell for Ghostwritten since it was his novel, but thank goodness he improved and gave us Cloud Atlas as his next one. Or maybe it was his third. At any rate, he got better. I think it took me three months to read Ghostwritten. I kept thinking that since the book had received so many accolades I should finish it. I did, but it was a long haul and not what I expected. I haven't read a Mitchell novel since.

Hi, Paul!
>128 benitastrnad: Thanks for that, Benita. Wikipedia has Cloud Atlas at #3. I have *Black Swan* and *Jacob de Z* on hand, and will read the latter first.

>128 benitastrnad: I read Ghostwritten a good while ago and thought that the first half of it was wonderful but that it tailed off badly. Genuinely a first novel. I have all but his latest novel on the shelves and have also read The Bone Clocks which I thoroughly enjoyed.

>129 LizzieD: I did feature Mitchell very early on in my BAC challenge, Peggy. Plenty to go at too for a reasonably young author.

Hi Paul, just drifting through again... is there a national festival or celebration marking something in KL for Autumn?

>131 SandyAMcPherson: We have so many festivals in Malaysia but none of them really seasonal as unfortunately we don't have four seasons. With Malay, Chinese and Indian (islam, buddhist, hindu) cultures we celebrate each others festivals and the Christian holidays too.

I'm looking forward to the new Mitchell but I'm going to have to be patient as the library reservation system hasn't moved at all this week, and I have too many piles of books to be able to justify the hardback purchase... (I still have Ghostwritten on the shelves and can't say I'm tempted from the comments, now). Shuggie Bain has come in on the ebooks though, and I've started that. A bit grim reading though.

Hi Paul! I hope you've had a great weekend.

Somebody upthread said they'd love to browse your bookshelves and the idea stuck with me. For a whole bunch of reasons, that would be absolutely wonderful.

>133 charl08: And I will wait for it to hit the stores in the size I like, Charlotte. I see it is in the shops in the oversized version I try not to buy too often.

>134 karenmarie: It would be lovely to have SWMBO cook us up a feast while you and I rummage my shelves. xx

>1 PaulCranswick: So have you shelved all your books now or do you still have the stacks on top of your wardrobes? Myself, I'm reorganising and re-stacking all my own bookshelves so I'm over on the cataloguing side for the nonce.

>134 karenmarie: Imagine if Paul had catalogued all his books on LibraryThing ... ;0)

>136 humouress: No, but I do still have some in boxes and some stacked on the floor.

Not as daft as you think, Nina, as I am sure that there are quite a few still not catalogued.

Happy new thread, Paul! I am not much of a poetry reader but "Frosted Fields" is lovely. Thanks for sharing. Wishing you a wonderful week ahead.

Well, Monday looms large here without the festive hoo-hah of Thanksgiving but *with* 45's ongoing existence.

Where is the justice, I ask you.

>114 PaulCranswick: I like that poem!

And happy Sunday, Paul!

>138 lkernagh: Nice to see you, Lori. I too like that poem.

>139 richardderus: There should soon be justice of a sort, RD, when he is routed in the election.

>140 banjo123: Happy Sunday, right back at yer, Rhonda.

>114 PaulCranswick: Paul, I'm another who was unaware of Louise Gluck. The poem you included will push me to get a copy of Wild Irises.
Love your bookshelves. It's nice that you are able to shelve so many in one area. Mine are sadly all spread out over the house.

>143 Oregonreader: I have 8 shelves in the dining area, 3 shelves in the corridor, 3 shelves and a reading stand in the bedroom. That is about 8,500 books "shelved" - I also still have books boxed and several sizeable piles in the bedroom waiting for still more shelves.

Louise Gluck will, I hope, help to refuel and interest in poetry in America. You have some interesting poets even if I do prefer some of my British and Irish compadres. Paterson, Duffy, Armitage, Oswald are, I think, the leading poets of today.

>144 PaulCranswick: Have you considered opening a book store? 😂

>145 drneutron: Can you *even*?! It'd be Black Books in Malaysia!

😂

>145 drneutron: I couldn't bear to part with most of the Jim.

>146 richardderus: Maybe a friends library, RD. I'm not sure that I have proved to be the most reliably successful of businessmen.

>147 drneutron: Don't encourage RD, overly, Jim!

>148 PaulCranswick: Hi, Paul! Just dropping by after a long absence. I can understand the reluctance to part with your books; I'm giving some thought to selling off some of mine, but I keep balking at doing so in fact.

>150 harrygbutler: I have given away plenty over the years, Harry, and I am sure that I will give away more in future but I cannot be left with empty shelves now can I?

>151 PaulCranswick: No, of course not, though I understand there are people who do use shelves to hold other objects.

>146 richardderus: - *brightens up at the mention of Black Books!* Love that show.

Hi Paul!

>152 harrygbutler: Those who mistakenly gave away their books, Harry!

>153 lkernagh: Grow him a beard, give him so specs and 30 kilo and there I am - Bernard Black!

Very sad to see the passing of another wonderful poet; Belfast born, Derek Mahon.

This is his poem "Spring in Belfast"

Walking among my own this windy morning
In a tide of sunlight between shower and shower,
I resume my old conspiracy with the wet
Stone and the unwieldy images of the squinting heart.
Once more, as before, I remember not to forget.

There is a perverse pride in being on the side
Of the fallen angels and refusing to get up.
We could all be saved by keeping an eye on the hill
At the top of every street, for there it is,
Eternally, if irrelevantly, visible —

But yield instead to the humorous formulae,
The spurious mystery in the knowing nod;
Or we keep sullen silence in light and shade,
Rehearsing our astute salvations under
The cold gaze of a sanctimonious God.

One part of my mind must learn to know its place.
The things that happen in the kitchen houses
And echoing back streets of this desperate city
Should engage more than my casual interest,
Exact more interest than my casual pity.

An exact technician in an age of free verse chaos. RIP

Thanks for posting poems, Paul.
I was surprised to find the Nobel went to a poet I've actually read--not a lot, mind you, but I have the Wild Irises collection and quite like Gluck's voice.

No to empty bookshelves--though I could do with some empty space on at least some of my shelves to support future acquisitions.

>156 AnneDC: I am still looking at future planning, Anne!

Louise Gluck is one of the few left with enough gravitas to possibly justify an award.

There was an article in this morning's Straits Times about the Library of Unread Books, currently residing in Peninsular Plaza. I must visit ...

>158 humouress: Let's get this bloody MCO/ CMCO lockdown done and dusted and we can visit it together!

Malaysia declared their own form of reinstituted lockdown for Kuala Lumpur from tomorrow for 2 weeks. We will be able to work with a letter of authorisation and we can buy essentials (2 persons per family allowed). We cannot travel between states and restaurants, bars, cinemas, schools etc will be closed. I am going to my bookshop after work to ascertain whether the bookstore will be closed!

Oh dear. Auckland just came out of lockdown last week.

>161 avatiakh: A smidgeon of good news at least. The bookshop will remain open from 10.00 am to 8.00 pm daily!

Hi, Paul.

I'm glad your bookshop is remaining open! It seems like we're seeing a resurgence of covid in a number of places. Debbi thinks our state will get locked down soon, although we've done pretty well so far.

I'm going to get a collected Louise Gluck soon, too. It's good to hear you have a high opinion of her work, as I've only read a few along the way.

I don't know the work of Derek Mahon, but that's a nice one you posted. RIP

The only David Mitchell I haven't read so far is Ghostwritten. I'm going to, just to be complete, but I feel properly forewarned by you and Benita.:-)

>163 jnwelch:
Ghostwritten wasn't a horrible book. I did finish it, but it wasn't nearly what I expected from David Mitchell. It's his first and it shows, but there are some of his reoccurring characters in it. I think it sort of gets lost in all the things he is trying to do, so it is muddled.

>155 PaulCranswick: Very sorry to learn about Derek Mahon’s death. His work is lovely and can be very moving.

>163 jnwelch: Lovely to see you, Joe. It appears that the present strain of the virus is weaker than it was as it is not taking as many lives as previously God willing. Where is that much vaunted vaccine?

Would strongly recommend the work of Derek Mahon.

I think what disappointed me most about Ghostwritten was how good it started.

>164 benitastrnad: I agree with that assessment braodly, Benita. It is very much a first novel.

>165 Matke: Yes he was, Gail. I have only some of his work in wider anthologies so I will look to order something specifically by him as there is no possibility of finding a book of his in Malaysia otherwise.

Some more additions:

180. The Bridge by Bill Konigsberg
181. Blue Ticket by Sophie Mackintosh
182. The Second Sleep by Robert Harris
183. Normal People by Sally Rooney
184. Poetry by Heart edited by Andrew Motion etc

I went ostensibly to make sure the bookstore wouldn't be closed for the next two weeks and whilst there..........

>1 PaulCranswick: ok, I admit, I am jealous. What a great space for your books!

>169 Whisper1: Hopefully one fine day, Linda, you can browse the shelves in RL. XX

Paul. That would be great! I've attended some meet ups, and it always feels as though the group members knew each other for a long time.

>171 Whisper1: I don't think I have ever had a meet-up that disappointed me. I do feel that the personalities of the group members are slowly but surely teased out by their posts over time. I am sure that we will meet up sooner or later Linda whether stateside or elsewhere.

>159 PaulCranswick: Holding on, but not holding my breath.

>160 PaulCranswick: Oh no! Please keep it there - Books K goes on sale next week. And apparently, the Big Bad Wolf booksale is finally making it across the causeway to us. Bad news, though; two more pharmaceutical companies have suspended third stage trials of their vaccines.

>173 humouress: Since we have gone back into lockdown then you are wise not to hold your breath.

I am hoping that Malaysia is playing over safe.

Hi Paul! Love the picture of the shelves up top!! Wonderful. Sorry you are back in lockdown, but at least you have a leader who is smart enough to do that. Crossing my fingers for the election results here in three weeks!!!

Sorry to hear you are back in lockdown, Paul. It doesn’t seem that long ago that you were allowed back to work. I see you have your priorities in the right place, checking that the bookshop remained open.

>168 PaulCranswick: I had to smile when you went in to check if your bookstore was open and bought five books!

>168 PaulCranswick: Well, buying books helps them pay the rent, so you really were doing your part to help them stay open!

>175 Berly: We are not really sure if we have a leader or not, Kimmers. The present Prime Minister assumed power by ousting the incumbent via an assemblage of Members of Parliament apparently giving him a majority. This was in February. Now it seems he doesn't have the numbers anymore and he could be gone in days. The present increase in Covid19 numbers here is due to/being blamed on State elections in the Borneo state of Sabah with politicians flying to and fro there willy nilly. Sabah accounts for 70% of the increase in cases and the politicians have apparently helped to spread it across the mainland. Luckily Kuala Lumpur numbers are still low (less than 20 cases daily) and the restrictions are intended to stop the spread across State lines but the Government is being blamed for the "second wave".

>176 Familyhistorian: One's priorities in such a calamity say much about the person. I was horrified that I might have another extended period away from my temple but thankfully not!

>177 Oregonreader: Nice to see you, Jan. It was quite natural since I had walked 20 minutes to the book store that I would help myself to something whilst there!

>178 amanda4242: I am quite the philanthropist if you look at it like that, Amanda!

>179 PaulCranswick: Well, your leadership is much more uncertain than I knew! Good luck. And stay well.

>179 PaulCranswick: I think you'd survive nicely on your stash, Paul, if you had to endure an enforced absence from your temple. Of course, like me, I think a lot of the thrill is in the acquisition and not just the reading.

I hear Anwar Ibrahim has been to the king and plans to be your next PM. I think he would be good in the job and good for the country - if he's ever allowed to try.

>181 Berly: It is a bit of a game of musical chairs as to who can be Prime Minister at the moment, Kimmers. Incumbent Muyhiddin Yassin was doing ok until his ministers brought Covid-19 back to the mainland from Sabah with them. Tun Dr. Mahathir is still waiting in the wings at 95 and his old nemesis and recent buddy Anwar Ibrahim has already been to see the Agung (King) to inform that he has the numbers to form a government.

>182 humouress: As in so many things, Nina, the chase beats the catch!

Anwar is the most divisive character in Malaysian politics. His term as Education Minister was a fiasco and his tenure as Finance Minister controversial. For all that he is charismatic and clever which cannot be said of the plodding Muyhiddin.

Book #101



The Ways of the World by Robert Goddard

Date of Publication : 2013
Origin of Author : UK
Pages : 525 pp

I was wondering how do I get my reading mojo back and I realised what better way than my favourite modern thriller writer, Robert Goddard.

This is the first in a trilogy featuring ex-World War 1 fighter ace James "Max" Maxted who investigates the death of his father - a functionary at the Paris Conference / Versailles Treaty talks in 1919 - originally ruled a accident but uncovered to be something much more sinister.

As usual there are multiple twists and turns and the story ends nicely set up for the second in the series.

Satisfying read.

Currently Reading

The Corners of the Globe by Robert Goddard.

Book 2 of the Wide World Trilogy

Not sure about the new layout of the threads yet - the sudden change in fonts and layout was a bit disconcerting at first as I thought that there was something wrong with my computer!

It is Friday so some more book additions at lunch time:

185. Stay with Me by Ayobami Adebayo
186. Stand by Me by Wendell Berry
187. Lord of all the Dead by Javier Cercas
188. Vernon Subutex 1 by Virginie Despentes
189. Frenchman's Creek by Daphne Du Maurier
190. Small Country by Gael Faye
191. The Last Banquet by Jonathan Grimwood

This time out we have two writers from Africa - one nominated in 2017 for the Women's Prize and the other from Burundi which will help my round the World reading challenge. Old favourites in homespun Wendell Berry, romantic Ms. Du Maurier, and the enlightening Javier Cercas. Then the much heralded ribaldry of Ms. Despentes and the rollicky historical fiction of eighteenth century France by Grimwood.

>183 PaulCranswick: In that case I take back my estimation of his fitness; I haven’t followed his working career.

Politics annoy/ bore me especially when my husband insists on having the US news channels on first thing in the morning if there’s anything big happening over there. It’s all gamesmanship and personal opinions, rather than analysis, and a chance to poke fun at the opposition.

>187 PaulCranswick: There are a couple of books there that I would like to read. Starting with the Javier Cercas! This was from your favourite book shop again?

Have a good reading weekend Paul.

Happy Weekend, Paul. I hope you and the family are doing well and you are enjoying those books.

Those Goddard books look good! You got me there.

Really awesome content.

>188 humouress: He certainly has a core of support, Nina, and is a smart fellow for sure. I was sickened today by the police again very pointedly questioning him ostensibly over the names of his supporters in parliament - he quite rightly refused to tell them (so that they can be bought by someone else) and then shamefully he was jibbed about more sodomy allegations which seem a rotten grasping of straws to discredit him.
I am not entirely sold on his manner of politics but things like that would drive me towards him than away from him.

Political discourse on the TV is pathetic - surely we can all agree about that! ?

>189 EllaTim: Cercas has a very distinctive voice, Ella. Almost journalistic in the way he inserts himself as a writer into his novels.

My Fridays are invariably at the Kinokuniya store in the KLCC Suria Mall.

>190 msf59: Thanks Mark. I am trying to encourage SWMBO to read the Booker shortlist this year - she is currently snoozing by a blaring TV!

>191 drneutron: He is a good storyteller, Jim. If I'm not mistaken my latest ongoing read is my 25th of his and I don't think that I have ever been disappointed.

>192 samr895: See you joined today Samir. I don't remember seeing any members of the LT community from Nepal before. Welcome here and I do hope you stay and tell us all about yourself and what books you like to read, etc.

Cercas and Marías are "the Javiers" in my mind, sort of Spanish-language DFW/Franzen/Eugenides in my literary taxonomy.

Have a good reading weekend.

>196 richardderus: Trying to figure out whether that means ya like 'em or not, RD?

Hi Paul!

>135 PaulCranswick: A feast of books and food – wonderful thought!

>152 harrygbutler: and >154 PaulCranswick: I have sacrificed one shelf to “Sentimental Things” in the Sunroom. It’s worth the sacrifice for me.

>174 PaulCranswick: I’m sorry you’re back in lockdown. The virus vs. commercial survival vs. human nature is just not going well right now in the world, is it? Glad to hear your bookshop will remain open.

>198 karenmarie: Three of my favourite things together - friends, food and fiction with a fourth, family, making up an aliterate quartet.

The lockdown isn't too severe this time.

As mentioned in my last thread I am going to restart my around the world in books challenge. I want to see how many countries I can cover without limiting myself to a specific deadline.

From 1 October 2020

1. United Kingdom - The Ways of the World by Robert Goddard EUROPE
2. Ireland - The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde EUROPE
3. Lithuania - Selected and Last Poems by Czeslaw Milosz EUROPE


Create Your Own Visited Countries Map

Oh dear... sorry to learn about the lockdown, Paul. At least your will not be lacking for reading material. Nice new book acquisitions.

>201 lkernagh: Thanks Lori. I still have to work under licence (company letter of authorisation signed by the police).

We are slowly starting to have restrictions being put in place as our cases are rising. So far pubs and indoor dining are closed however ,shopping malls are open. On the plus side, I discovered a really cool used bookstore with old world charm. So many books, that they are stacked on the floors. It made my day.

Have a great weekend

>203 figsfromthistle: I can stare down this damned pandemic so long as they allow me to plough the furrow of my trusty bookstore. xx

Book #102



The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde

Date of Publication : 1895
Origin of author : Ireland
Pages : 75 pp

Must be one of the most quotable plays ever written mostly coming from the irascible mouth of Lady Bracknell. Witticisms abound and still as fresh in its eloquence today as it was 135 years ago.

"The amount of women who flirt with their own husbands is perfectly scandalous. It looks so bad. It is simply washing one's clean linen in public." ......brilliant.

>205 PaulCranswick: I love that play!

>206 amanda4242: Me too, Amanda. Genius is an overused word but Wilde was certainly a genius.

Today is Kyran - my one and only son's 21st birthday.



May life be filled with happiness for my son.

Best wishes to Kyran on his first day as an adult world-wide! Well except for the auto-insurance thing. At least here they hold off decent rates until after 25.

>209 quondame: Ha Susan, you hit upon the one thing he cares not a whit for. He follows me in having a trepidation of learning to drive. Work commitments forced me to it at 26 years old and I'll be surprised if he learns any faster.

Book #103



Selected and Last Poems by Czeslaw Milosz

Date Published : 2011
Origin of Author : Lithuania/Poland
Number of Pages : 325 pp
Nobel Prize Winner : 1980

Milosz dedicated his life to his oeuvre and specifically the Polish language. He painted the tragedy of Middle Europe in the 30s, 40s and 50s wistfully but clearly. He also sought solace in poetry to affirm his faith and to reveal his foibles and all are on display in this career retrospective.

Difficult reading as great poets can be but I am changed somewhat by the experience.

Milosz in October

The October birch trees are naked;
Leaves stripped from their homes
By the icy teeth of Siberian wind
And the forests beyond of Vilnius
Are silent tonight.

As the people are emptied and gone;
Along the rattling trams of Poznan
From a time that gave no shelter.
Mournful that the faiths conspired
To allow the faithless to oppress.

Polishing his Polish for poezja;
Echoing rain-wet streets of Warsaw
And the leaden skies of Krakow -
Elegies to peace not full daunted
By the wry hand of God's kingdom.

Around the World Book Challenge

From October 2020

Europe

I took Milosz for Lithuania which may be a little convenient based on his birthplace since he is considered the most Polish of poets. Still needs must.


Create Your Own Visited European Countries Map

>208 PaulCranswick: Happy 21st Kyran!

My 16 year old tells me he's already taken my car out for a spin (!) when we took our London trip a couple of years ago and left the kids to their own devices for a couple of weeks. Mind you, Singapore drivers aren't quite as crazy as drivers in other parts of Asia and we don't live in the city centre. Still. I may not leave home again until after the kids have grown up - say another 10 or 20 years.

>213 humouress: Yikes, but Singapore is pretty strict. If he had gotten caught it could have been a problem. Still no harm done.

I cannot see my kids growing up in even 20 more years!

>214 PaulCranswick: Yes - shh! He'd have been in more trouble if the car's owner had caught him though.

True; maybe 20 is too short. I'll think about it in 50.

ETA: He does have a lot of facial hair, which I'm not too enthusiastic about, but it makes him seem older. His school does encourage the boys to shave but at the moment they can't really see it all under the masks.

>214 PaulCranswick: Hahaha, Considering how little actually happens in Singapore, it could have made the daily news there!

Happiest of birthdays to Kyran!

>205 PaulCranswick: A masterpiece, and very funny. I have seen some good Bracknell's including Dame Dench. Missed David Suchet doing her though. Hard to beat Dame Edith Evans in the early movie.

>208 PaulCranswick: Happy birthday K.

A belated happy birthday to Kyran, and hoping you're having a nice Sunday, Paul.

>208 PaulCranswick: Many happy returns of the day to Kyran! The start of a long and happy adulthood, I hope.

A belated happy 21st birthday to Kyran mate, hope he had a really great day.

>210 PaulCranswick: Well my daughter was in no hurry, but living in Los Angeles puts the pressure on so she did learn before leaving for college.

Even if never used, it can be welcome to have a Driver's license
in case a person is the only one available in an emergency.

>208 PaulCranswick: Happy 21st birthday to Kyran!

Happy birthday, Kyran!

>217 scaifea: Thank you, Amber. He seems to want a saxophone for his birthday. He is quite a talented musician in that he can play piano, keyboards and guitar all quite passably. He is full of hot air anyway so he could be suited to the sax!

>218 Caroline_McElwee: Thanks Caroline. The version I watched was with Joan Plowright in the role. She did a decent job, I think.

>219 bell7: Wasn't belated, Mary - it was just in time! We had an Italian meal at our favourite restaurant and, with the lockdown rules keeping most people at home, we had the place to ourselves!

>220 richardderus: Thanks RD. Not sure that he, or we, are quite ready for his adulthood.

>221 johnsimpson: Thank you, John. He seemed to have a good time.

>222 quondame: Much the same, Susan. I think he will only learn if he feels he really has to do so.

>223 m.belljackson: I couldn't agree more with that, Marianne. I had a friend - a Malaysian - who had a quite serious accident as a student in the UK and it scared him from driving henceforward. His wife was a chronic asthmatic and in the middle of an attack she died on the way to the hospital as the taxi called to pick them up was 20 minutes late whilst the family car was unused on the drive.

>224 FAMeulstee: Thank you, Anita

>225 drneutron: Thanks Jim.

There is his desert from last night.

No one's ready for adulthood! It just...happens one day. No age requirement. Sorta like puberty.

Happy birthday to Kyran!

I'm scared to drive as well. I know that the fear itself is not helping me, as it makes for bad reactions, but I can't help it. So I'm all for just taking one's time when needed.

>231 richardderus: I can concur with that too and that sometimes it is a changeable state. I often relapse back into childhood.

>232 EllaTim: I took my own time too, Ella, so I won't be chasing him along. His mother raises the issue frequently and points out that his sister gained her licence six years ago already.

>234 PaulCranswick: Ouch! I take it that doesn't help much...

>229 PaulCranswick: What a shocking story. It sounds like something from a book - in fact I know exactly where in exactly which book.

Best wishes to Kyran!

>235 EllaTim: Actually, Ella, I don't think he cares!

>236 quondame: I'd be interested to know which book as then art imitates life. Poor chap now drives his daughter around. We are no longer friends due to a business fall out but his story is very real.

>237 jessibud2: Thank you, Shelley.

>238 PaulCranswick: It's The Curse of Chalion, where Cazaril explains why teaching young women to swim is a good idea - he was present when one drowned - with her unborn child. So no, it's not exactly the same, but same idea. In another work the author had rebels try to crash planes into government buildings.

>240 quondame: Interesting Susan. Not really my genre to be honest and I hadn't heard of it or read it. I think it was Heather that recommended one of her books to me but I haven't read it yet and it wasn't that one.
As an asthmatic it made me very aware of needing to keep a functioning inhaler with me at all times. In fairness, mine isn't as bad as H's wife's was but it scared me almost to the same extent that it saddened me.

The new layout of the threads has taken a little getting used to but I am starting to be more comfortable with it.
One interesting addition is the number of participants per thread. I don't really know what it means but if I look at the last completed thread of the top twenty threads in overall posting numbers it throws up quite a few differences.

1 Paul 51 participants last completed thread
2 Beth, Mark, Kim 42 participants
5 Joe 41 participants
6 Roni, Mamie 40 participants
8 Ellen 38 participants
9 Richard 36 participants
10 Katie 35 participants
11 Karen 34 participants
12 Anita 33 participants
13 Meg 32 participants
14 Charlotte 31 participants
15 Amber 29 participants
16 Susan, Mary 25 participants
18 Sandy 23 participants
19 Liz 15 participants
20 Harry 12 participants

>241 PaulCranswick: Asthma is pretty frightening. I had to have an inhaler for a few years after a bout of pneumonia and then later when I was pregnant. I have occasionally felt like I'd like a spritz or two, but it hasn't gotten past uncomfortable to panic since.

>243 quondame: I think that, after a while, it does get psychological. I always seem to run short of breath if my inhaler is empty and I don't have one immediately to hand so nowadays I double team them at least.

>208 PaulCranswick:. Your children are growing.. 21 years old! Kyran is quite handsome...like his parents.

>245 Whisper1: Linda, I really don't know who Kyran looks like! He is some 5 inches taller than I am and doesn't really share either of our features. I suppose I can see a little bit of my mother there and SWMBO reckons a likeness to her paternal grandfather who I never met.

>234 PaulCranswick: Well, tell Hani she may be having the opposite effect to what she intends. My dad still is very possessive about his cars and would never let us drive them (and my mum only gets to drive his car on random breath test days - when she has no choice in the matter) - we are permitted to use my mum's car in extremities. Or walk. But both my sister and I got our licences as soon as we could (not that we could use them much until we got our own cars).

>240 quondame: >241 PaulCranswick: You really should read Bujold Paul. She's one of my favourite authors and writes very well.

>247 humouress: I don't see her allowing any use of her car, Nina, either!

random breath test days - I love that!

I would consider you, Heather, Rhian, Morphy, Roni and Susan all experts in the Sci-Fi/Fantasy fields and always take note of which books you recommend. I will take the plunge and read something of hers. Where should I start?

>249 SaraRawson: Shame. Thought we had a new member.

Belated Happy Birthday wishes to Kyran, Paul. 21 years old - my parents had no hold on me at that point, and I suspect they worried constantly. You let them go, and hope, right?

Good poem from Czeslaw Milosz. "By the wry hand of God's kingdom." Love that. Once upon a time, I read a lot of his. I'm going to check on whether I have that collection.

>251 jnwelch: I'm flattered Joe, because I wrote that not Czeslaw Milosz!

I had already left home at 18 and didn't take a penny piece from my parents ever since but I am thrilled for every day the family are with us. Kyran is still finding his way - he didn't really take to the law -as the two of us did (me more humbly than you, I must add) but looks set to change to International Relations when the University allows.

Paul -

Join Kyran with a Google search explaining why
The Saxophone is - !
"The Best Instrument to Play!"

From Sopranino to Bass, he will have an incredible range of choices.
If he's intrigued, as is your Malaysian amigo,
there are many great New Music Hot Spots on You Tube.

To keep mouth limber and focused,
he could lead the avant garde by mastering The Traverso.

Is there a practice studio in your home?

>252 PaulCranswick: I also thought the poem was from Milosz but rereading the title showed me where I went wrong. But praise goes to you. I really liked the poem

>248 PaulCranswick: Are we talking about Lois McMaster Bujold? If so, I haven’t read her Chalion books (although I understand they are very good). I have read most of her Vorkosigan series and I think I would start with The Warrior’s Apprentice as the best introduction to the series.

>253 m.belljackson: He hasn't got it yet but I think he is going for an alto.
No practice studio so we will all need to be brave.

>254 Oregonreader: The clue was in the title of course, Jan. I wasn't trying to pass off my own humble scribblings as the work of the laureate though as I often do my reviews of poem anthologies with a poem of my own.

>255 SandDune: Yes, and glad that you stopped by just as your expertise was needed! I'll take note of your recommendation.

>248 PaulCranswick: If you have a preference between fantasy and science fiction -

Fantasy - The Curse of Chalion
Science Fiction - The Warrior's Apprentice

Neither is typical of the field, and but both are unquestionably in the field. Shards of Honor is also a good SF start as it's the first 'Vorkosigan' book, but it is in some ways even further atypical - and while good, not nearly as much fun. Bujold has a polymorphous humor which goes from slapstick to black to witty with agility, but her books have real heart.

I applaud Kyran's desire to take up the Sax. I played the Alto all thru HS in marching and symphonic bands. In college I switched to the Bari and played in our school's jazz band. I played a bit in my "adult" life in a local community band for a while, but sadly I haven't played for about 25 years. I should pick it up again.

Don't worry about the noise too much. I'd say there'll be some squeaking early on, until he figures out the embouchre, but once he gains some control it can be a mellow instrument.

Here's me playing tenor back in the mulletty early 90's

>256 PaulCranswick: Cool! I played the alto sax since grade 6 ( Jazz only). He will have a lot of fun!

>258 quondame: I would say I prefer fantasy to Sci-fi, Susan. Thanks for that.

>259 mahsdad: Wow, Jeff - David Sanborn eat your heart out!

>260 figsfromthistle: Anita, I didn't realize what a talented bunch of pals I have!

Book #104



The Corners of the Globe by Robert Goddard
Date of Publication : 2014
Origin of Author : UK
Number of Pages : 499 pp
2nd in the Wide World Trilogy

Thoroughly enjoyable second part of James "Max" Maxted's travails to uncover the killers of his father and the German spymaster Fritz Lemmer.

There are very distinct echoes of The Thirty-Nine Steps here with Goddard even having one of his characters reading Buchan's classic on the train out of Scotland. The derring-do would have done Richard Hannay proud and the twists and turns are vintage Goddard.

I saw a little bit of a complaint about the abrupt ending of this instalment on its unresolved cliffhanger but I think that Goddard escapes criticism as he had billed this one early as the second part of his trilogy.

Predictable addition:

192. Paladin of Souls by Lois McMaster Bujold

Only one of two of hers in store.
and also

193. A High Wind in Jamaica by Richard Hughes
194. Dance of the Jakaranda by Peter Kimani

>192 samr895: You'll want to read Curse before Paladin - while the plot is not a complete sequel, the world building certainly is and the situation very much dependent on the resolution of the first book.

Trombone player here, so can’t share any experience with sax. But any instrument takes a bit of time to learn. My best advice is to get a decent quality instrument as soon as he decides to stick with it. Makes all the difference in the world!

Hi Paul!

>208 PaulCranswick: Belated happy birthday to Kyran.

So many ‘youngsters’ these days don’t seem to feel the need to learn to drive. I’m glad my daughter embraced it and is a safe, confident driver. I got my license the day I turned 16. It was a right of passage in Southern California.

>242 PaulCranswick: I saw the new stat but didn’t pay any attention. Another 8 for me = 11, 34 = 1*(1+3+4) = 8.

Good luck to Kyran with a saxophone.

>266 drneutron: My daughter plays trombone – started at age 10 and played continuously through first year of college, so 9 straight years. She bought a saxophone from a friend and although the two are as different as night and day got fairly proficient at it, but only in the privacy of her bedroom. I agree, good quality instruments are important.

Hey again , Paul, RM plays Selmer -
if Malaysia has other brand choices, he will be happy to give a recommendation.

>266 drneutron: I think you are right, Jim. He has a decent keyboard and I bought a very serviceable piano for the family years ago (Kyran and Belle can both play) and he has a couple of guitars.

>267 karenmarie: I knew you'd find an eight there somehow, Karen!

My brother and sister both got licences at 17 which is the youngest age in the UK (or was?) but I was a laggard. I have done more than enough driving in the 28 years I have had a licence though!

>268 m.belljackson: He is presently studying the options available to him and will let me know shortly how much "damage" it will cause my bank account!

Good luck to Kyran with learning the sax! Charlie is making really good progress on his and is loving it, which makes me happy.

He's also told us many times that he doesn't want to learn to drive. I haven't pushed the issue because I suspect he'll change his mind in time, but the US isn't the best place not to have a license and access to a vehicle. Public transportation, outside of a few major cities, is abysmal here.

>271 scaifea: At Charlie's age I wanted to read all the books in the world (not really changed), sing every lovely tune I listened to (I still have that and my voice can still hold most of 'em), kiss all the pretty girls in the world (reality and 24 years of marriage has calmed my ardour and at Charlie's age I had never thought beyond kissing! ) and play football (your soccer) for Leeds United and England (time's cruel hands have squeezed that one from me).

>264 PaulCranswick: Yay! Although I agree with >265 quondame: Susan; read The Curse of Chalion first.

I thought about taking up the saxophone when I was about Kyran's age but I never did. Maybe I'll try it now.

>264 PaulCranswick: I've only read Bujold's Penric and Desdemona novellas, but I adore them.

>273 humouress: I will look for that one, Nina. Seems the obvious place to start.

Kyran should take well to the sax as he has proven adept at blowing his own trumpet.

>274 amanda4242: Thanks Amanda. Looks like I have been missing a trick with Bujold.

Probably time for another new thread.

>276 PaulCranswick: Excellent timing as the continue topic bug has just been fixed!

>275 PaulCranswick: Isn't that just the way with all teenage boys?

I can't really catch up, but cheers for all the good stuff going on here and wishes for patience with pandemic restrictions!
I've wished Kyran a happy birthday, but as a neophyte fiddler with a cello, I wish him much success with the sax!
I hope that you will read Bujold too, Paul. Whether you pick scifi or fantasy, you can't really go wrong.

>277 amanda4242: And I didn't even know!

>278 humouress: Especially mine - he certainly doesn't lack in self-confidence!

>279 LizzieD: Thank you dear Peggy. Cello always looked overly cumbersome to me but I do very much like the sound it makes.