Pilgrim wanders into Winter 2020

December

1. The Phoenix and the Carpet by E. E. Nesbit - 3 stars
2. The Inaccessibility of Heaven (novelette) by Aliette de Bodard - 2.5 stars
3. In Morningstar's Shadow (short story anthology) by Aliette de Bodard - 2 stars
4. Court of Birth, Court of Strength (short story) by Aliette de Bodard - 2.5 stars
5. ♪♪Persuasion by Jane Austen - 4.5 stars
6. The Barbarism of Berlin by G. K. Chesterton - 2.5 stars
7. Trojans by Philip Purser-Hallard - 4.5 stars
8. Mummers and Poppers (short story) by Philip Purser-Hallard - 3 stars
9. Stable Genius (short story) by Philip Purser-Hallard - 3 stars
10. The Fourth Age of Christmas (short story) by Philip Purser-Hallard - 3 stars
11. Jan (short story) by Philip Purser-Hallard - 2.5 stars
12. Tableaux (short story) by Philip Purser-Hallard - 1 stars
13. The X-Mass (short story) by Philip Purser-Hallard - 2 stars
14. Scapegoat (short story) by Philip Purser-Hallard - 2 stars
15. A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle - 2 stars
16. Samhain (short story) by Faith L. Justice - 2 stars
17. Rainbow-Flower (short story) by Valentin Katayev (trans. by Fainna Glagoleva) - 3 stars
18. Honest Citizen (short story) by Mikhail Zoshchenko (trans. by Eric Konkol) - 3 stars
19. About Myself, Ideology and Other Things (short essay) by Mikhail Zoshchenko - 3 stars
20. About Myself by Mikhail Zoshchenko - 3 stars
21. Autobiography by Mikhail Zoshchenko - 2.5 stars
22. The Galosh (short story) by Mikhail Zoshchenko (trans. by Anne Marie Jackson) - 2.5 stars
23. And then - Nina Simone Began to Sing (short story) by Tasha Karluka (trans. by Michele A. Berdy) - 3 stars
24. Chicken Morning, Noon and Night (short story) by Tasha Karluka (trans. by Michele A. Berdy) - 3.5 stars
25. The Origin of the Species (short story) by Viktor Pelevin (trans. by Michele A. Berdy) - 3 stars
26. The Green Man's Heir by Juliet E. McKenna - 3 stars
27. The Strange Career of Jim Crow: A Commemorative Edition by C. Vann Woodward - 3 stars
28. The Green Man's Foe by Juliet McKenna - 4.5 stars
29. Sigmund in a Café (short story) by Viktor Pelevin (trans. by Serge Winitzky) - 2 stars
30. ♪♪A Morbid Taste for Bones by Ellis Peters (narrated by Glyn Houston) - 2.5 stars
31. The Green Man's Silence by Juliet E. McKenna - 4 stars
32. The Little Russian Servant (novella) by Henri Greville - 2.5 stars
33. The Frog Who Would A Wooing Go by Charles H. Bennett - 1 stars
34. Any Way the Wind Blows (short story) by Seanan McGuire - 2.5 stars
35. The Frog Who Would A Wooing Go (picture book) - by Charles H. Bennett - 2.5 stars
36. Signelil, a Tale from the Cornish, and Other Ballads (poetry) by George Henry Borrow - 3 stars
37. ♪♪One Corpse Too Many by Ellis Peters (narrated by Glyn Houston) - 3 stars
38. Goya (poem) by Andrey Voznesensky - 4 stars

January: Average score = 3.44
February: Average score = 3.23
March: Average score = 3.6
April: Average score = 2.56
May: Average score = 2.31
June: Average score = 2.625
July: Average score = 1.9
August: Average score = 2.92
September: Average score: 3.44
October: Average score: 3.08
November: Average score: 3.25
December: Average score: 2.79

My Rating System

1/2 star - this is vile. I regret ever opening these pages.

1 star - this was a complete waste of my time.

1 1/2 stars - either boring, but with occasional flashes of inspiration; or a 2-star book let down by poor writing.

2 stars - OK. It passed the time pleasantly enough, but I don't feel that my life would have been the poorer if I had never encountered this book. In non-fiction, it is an adequate coverage of a topic, but not a good read.

2 1/2 stars - as for 2, but with occasional flashes of quality.

3 stars - I am glad that I read this but I probably won't want to re-read.

3 1/2 stars - either something disposable, but with real flair, or a book let down by poor writing (or translating).

4 stars - a good, really enjoyable book, but not a great one. I will keep, and may well reread.

4 1/2 stars - a great, but flawed book.

5 stars - a book that reading has changed my life a little.

Currently Reading



King Arthur and His Knights of the Round Table by Roger Lancelyn Green
Started: 6/12/2020

Kindle:

The Fatal Jealousie by Henry Nevil Payne
Started: 3/12/2020

The Influence of Old Norse Literature on English Literature by Conrad Hjalmar Nordby
Started: 15/12/2020

Uh oh, my Piffle Powers are telling me this new thread needs some immediate Piffling to happen.

But don't you worry, I'll "Iron Out" the details....

Series in progress

Fiction
Heartstrikers by Rachel Aaron: 1, 2-5 - Bethesda Heartstriker: Mother of the Year
Rivers of London by Ben Aaronovitch: 1-4, 5, 6-7 - The Cockpit; False Value
Dania Gorska by Hania Allen: 1 - Clearing the Dark

Chronicles of Amber by John Gregory Betancourt: P1, 1-10 - Chaos and Amber
Dominion of The Fallen by Aliette de Bodard: 0.2-0.5, 0.8-1 - Against the Encroaching Darkness, Children of Thorns, Children of Water, The House of Binding Thorns
Pieter Posthumous by Britta Bolt: 3 - Lonely Graves
Alpha and Omega by Patricia Briggs: 1-2 - Fair Game
Mercy Thompson by Patricia Briggs: 1-8 - Fire Touched
Sianim by Patricia Briggs: 3-4 - Masques
World of the Five Gods by Lois McMasters Bujold: 1.1, 2 -Penric and the Shaman, The Paladin of Souls
Chains of Honor by Lindsay Buroker: P1-P3, 1-2 Snake Heart, Assassin's Bond
Emperor's Edge by Lindsay Buroker: 1-8 - Diplomats and Fugitives
Fallen Empire by Lindsay Buroker: P-3 - Relic of Sorrows
The Dresden Files by Jim Butcher: 1 - Fool Moon

Holly Danger by Amanda Carlson: 1 - Danger's Vice
Spellslinger by Sebastian de Castell: 1-5 - Crownbreaker
Greatcoats by Sebastian de Castell: 1 - Knight's Shadow
The Daevabad Trilogy by S. A. Chakraborty: 1 - The Kingdom of Copper
Chronicles of an Age of Darkness by Hugh Cook: 1 - The Wordsmiths and the Warguild
The Saxon Chronicles by Bernard Cornwell: 1-2 - The Lords of the North
Sharpe by Bernard Cornwell:1, 6, 8-9, 13 - Sharpe's Triumph
Arkady Renko by Martin Cruz Smith: 1 - Polar Star

Marcus Didius Falco by Lindsey Davis: 1-6 - Time to Depart
Flavia Albia by Lindsey Davis: 1-2.5 - Deadly Election
Priya's Shakti by Ram Devineni & Dan Goldman: 1-2 - Priya and the Lost Girls
John Pearce by David Donachie: 1, 14 - A Shot-Rolling Ship
The Privateersman Mysteries by David Donachie: 1-2 - A Hanging Matter
The Marie Antoinette Romances by Alexandre Dumas: 2 - Cagliostro
The Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas: 1-3 - Louise de la Vallière
Cliff Janeway by John Dunning: 1 - The Bookman's Wake

The Beginner's Guide to Necromancy by Hailey Edwards: 1 - How to Claim an Undead Soul
The Time Quintet by Madeleine L'Engle: 1 - A Wind in the Door

Metro 203x by Dmitry Glukhovsky: 1-1.5 - Metro 2034
The Archangel Project by C Gockel: 1- 1.5 - Noa's Ark
Shakespearean Murder Mysteries by Philip Gooden: 1-3 - Alms for Oblivion
The Earthsea Cycle by Ursula le Guin 1 - The Tombs of Atuan

Forever War by Joe Haldeman: 1 - Forever Free
Benjamin January by Barbara Hambly: 1 - Fever Season
Darwath by Barbara Hambly: 1-3 - Mother of Winter
James Asher by Barbara Hambly: 1-2, 4-5 - Blood Maidens, Darkness on His Bones
Sun Wolf and Star Hawk by Barbara Hambly: 1-3 - Hazard
The Windrose Chronicles by Barbara Hambly: 1-3 - Firemaggot
The Stainless Steel Rat by Harry Harrison 4-5, 9 - The Stainless Steel Rat Is Born
The Paper Magician by Charlie N. Holmberg: 1-2, 4 - The Master Magician

Conqueror by Conn Iggulden: 1 - Lords of the Bow

Alex Verus by Benedict Jacka: 1, 9 - Cursed

The Danilov Quintet by Jasper Kent:1 - Thirteen Years Later

The Jane Doe Chronicles by Jeremy Lachlan: 1 - The Key of All Souls
The Book of the Ancestor by Mark Lawrence: 1 - Grey Sister
The Kalle Blomqvist Mysteries by Astrid Lindgren: 3 - Master Detective

Robert Colbeck by Edward Marston: 1 - The Excursion Train
The Raven's Mark by Ed McDonald: 1 - Ravencry

The Psammead by E. Nesbit: 1-2, 3 - The Story of the Amulet
Moonsinger by Andre Norton: 1-3 - Dare to Go A'Hunting

Giordano Bruno by S.J. Parris: 5 - Heresy
Brother Cadfael by Ellis Peters: 1-2, 3-8, 9-12 - The Rose Rent
The Gaian Consortium by Christine Pope: 1 - Breath of Life
Discworld by Sir Terry Pratchett: 1-15.5 - Soul Music

Divergent by Veronica Roth: 1, 2.5 - Insurgent

The Witcher by Andrzej Sapkowski: 1 - The Last Wish, Time of Contempt
Old Man's War by John Scalzi: 1 - The Ghost Brigades
The Rhenwars Saga by M. L. Spencer: 1 - Darklands
The Raven Cycle by Maggie Stiefvater: 0.2, 1 - The Dream Thieves
The Laundry Files by Charles Stross: 1-2.3 - The Fuller Memorandum
Merchant Princes by Charles Stross: 2 - The Family Trade
The Dolphin Ring by Rosemary Sutcliff: 1, 3-6, 8 - The Silver Branch

The Ember Quartet by Sabaa Tahir: 2 - An Ember in the Ashes
Jem Flockhart by E. S. Thomson: 2 - Beloved Poison
A Connecticut Yankee at King Arthur's Court by Mark Twain: 1-2 - Part 3

Miss Silver by Patricia Wentworth: 1 - The Case is Closed
Aspects of Power by Charles Williams: 1 - Many Dimensions
The Gestes by P. C. Wren: 1 - Beau Sabreur

Non-fiction

The Spiritual Life by Hieromonk Gregorios: 1 - Be Ready

The History of Middle Earth by Christopher Tolkien: ??

Series Completed in 2020

DFZ by Rachel Aaron: 1-3
Dragon Blood by Lindsay Buroker: P, 1-8
Heritage of Power by Lindsay Buroker: 1-5
The Devices Trilogy by Philip Purser-Hallard: 1-3

Series up to date

Paul Samson by Henry Porter: 1-2 - The Old Enemy
The Hitman's Guide by Alice Winters: 1-2
Tom Mondrian by Ross Armstrong: 1
The Folk of the Air by Holly Black: P1-3, 1-3 - How the King of Elfhame Learned to Hate Stories
The Green Man's Heir by Juliet E. McKenna: 1-3

N.b.
(i) This list is still probably incomplete.
(ii) The named book is the next to be read
(iii) Inclusion of a series does not imply intent to complete it.
(iv) I have read some of the series in bold type during this year (2020), others are outstanding.
(v) I have pruned out of this list some series that I began in 2019, but definitely do not intend to continue.

>1 -pilgrim-: Happy Winter Thread!

>5 BookstoogeLT: Thank you for the morning chortles in both this and -pilgrim- 's previous thread.

>6 BookstoogeLT:, >9 clamairy: And a hearty welcome to you both, for helping inaugurate this thread!

>9 clamairy: You're welcome. Piffle, much like The Spice, must flow.

>10 -pilgrim-: Glad to piffle all over your new thread :-D

Over this year I have been noting whether my reading has fulfilled the Helmet Reading Challenge. I was doing reasonably well until November's debacle. Butb the categories remaining unfilled are:

Helmet Reading Challenge 2020

1. The book is older than you (I took this to refer to age of physical copy, not date of first publication)
2. A happy book
3. A book that you have prejudice against
4. There are many people on the cover or in the description of the book
5. A book by a Sámi
6. The book’s title begins and ends with the same letter
7. Someone breaks the law in the book
8. A book that someone else chooses for you
9. Someone faces their fears in the book
10. The book is located in a country that has fewer residents than Finland
11. An alternative history
12. The book has been made into a play or an opera
13. Someone gets lost in the book
14. A book that is related to sports
15. A work of fiction that includes a real person
16. A book plays an important role in the book
17. A book written by a researcher
18. A book on a subject you are unfamiliar with
19. A book that you read together with someone
20. A book on biodiversity
21. You like the first sentence of the book
22. The book has an unreliable narrator
23. The book has also been published in plain language
24. A book by an author who has published more than 20 books
25. In the book, someone is on an island
26. The author’s last name begins with the letter X, Y, Z, Å, Ä or Ö
27. A story written in verse, narrative poetry or a verse novel
28. A book about the future
29. A book or a comic book related to Japan
30. In the book, someone’s life is saved
31. The book depicts life in the countryside
32. A book originally published in a language that you do not know
33. A transformation happens in the book
34. The title of the book contains a word related to nature
35. Someone in the book uses social media
36. A book recommended by someone famous
37. The era in which the book is set plays a key role in the book
38. There is a tree on the cover or in the description of the book
39. Someone flies in the book
40. A book by an author who passed away in the 2010s
41. Someone cooks or bakes in the book
42. There are grandparents in the book
43. A book published as part of a publisher’s series
44. The book contains correspondence
45. The first published book of an author
46. There is a sauna in the book
47. and 48. Two books with very similar titles
49. A book published in 2020
50. A book recommended by a member of the library staff

The challenges in bold are those as yet unmet.

To meet this target, it is obvious that I will need books that fulfill more than one category at a time.

To that end, I invite suggestions from my fellow Dragoneers. Given the extent of my book overspending already this year, suggestions from my. TBR pile are particularly welcome!

Note: Although I list individual short stories amongst my reading, for the purpose of this challenge I only counted books of full size. And where the reference is too the physical appearance of the book, I have required reading the entire book, even if it is an anthology.

Congrats on your new thread! Glad to see you are prolifically posting.

>12 -pilgrim-:
44. Tenant of Wildfell Hall might be more palatable than Pamela. 84 Charing Cross Road is also letters and IIRC pretty short.
40. Are you a fan of Ursula LeGuin? She died in 2018.
11. I think ,y favorite is The Man in the High Castle, but I didn't find it an especially easy read.

Those are off the top of my head. I'll be glad to help more if you get really stuck on a category.

>14 Jim53:
Thank you for the ideas, Jim. I had been wondering about going back to the Earthsea trilogy. ( I loved A Wizard of Earthsea as a child, but got bogged down in The Tombs of Atuan and never finished it.) Or I had been meaning to try some of her SF...

I agree that Man in the High Castle fits the description admirably. However I finished reading it in December 2018, which makes it a bit soon for a reread.

I admit I have not yet had the nerve to face The Tenant of Wildfell Hall. I know that is a classic, but Victorian wife abuse sounds like grim reading. Is it as dour as I am anticipating?

>15 -pilgrim-: I love the Earthsea trilogy, even as an adult. Everything else by Le Guin though? Not so much.

>12 -pilgrim-: for 44 I would suggest The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, I think it would also count for 16, 31, 41, and 42. Also possibly 8 and 10. May also have been recommended by someone famous and librarians. I would be willing to read it again if you want someone to read it with.

For 34 and 38 - how about War for the Oaks?

>15 -pilgrim-: I read A Wizard of Earthsea last year. I didn't love it, I didn't hate it, but my experience with it wasn't enough to bring me further than the first one or two chapters of The Tombs of Atuan. But I have it vaguely in my mind that I might go back to the series sometime.

I've been reading The Tenant of Wildfell Hall since August, and I find it really depressing. Even though it is over 500 pages long and I have been busy on and off, it's been taking me longer than I expected, especially considering that I do find the story interesting. It puzzled me for a bit, until I realised that every time I picked up the book after breaking for an exam, I got so depressed reading it. I'm just not as motivated to pick it up now when I'm also in the middle of a couple other books, although I do hope to finish it before the end of the year.

And, yes, like >13 Karlstar: said, it's great to see you active about GD again.

>12 -pilgrim-: Further to my post in the December thread, here are some thoughts from my own knowledge and collection.

12 and 27. To the best of my knowledge, the operas Boris Godounov, Queen of Spades and Eugene Onegin are all settings of previously published books by Pushkin, all originally in verse. I believe that at least significant chunks of all three are available on YouTube, which would cut the time requirement massively compared with War and Peace!
10. There is, of course, The Lost World of the Kalahari (Botswana), provided your view on verisimilitude is elastic.
29. The Pillow Book of Sei Shonagon? This and one or 2 others used to be available in Penguin Classics.
38. My initial thought was "any tree guide", and that RHS Wisley would have lots. But then I looked at my own collection and the covers showed two whole trees, one leaf, one flower and one shot of fall color (Americanism deliberate: it's an Audubon guide).
40. Anne McCaffrey and Terry Pratchett are possibles.
42. Neville Longbottom's grandmother makes a cameo appearance in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.
44. Helen Suzman quotes not only Hansard but also correspondence extensively in her memoirs, In No Uncertain Terms. There are also some deadly boring volumes of correspondence in the Van Riebeeck Society series.
47 - 48. The title of each book in the Harry Potter series starts Harry Potter and the .... Philosopher's Stone (first in series) and Deathly Hallows (last in series) add only two words each, giving a rough similarity of 66%.
50. Depends on your definition of "the Library". I act as librarian (despite not being an Orang-utan) to the Railway History Society, so if you bend the rules to breaking point any of the above would count.

PS to above:
Railwaysoc has books titled Locomotives of the South African Railways by both Bernard Zurnamer and Leith Paxton, as well as Steam Locomotives of the South African Railways by Frank Holland, all in multiple copies.

>19 Majel-Susan:, >16 BookstoogeLT: I read A Wizard of Earthsea when I was 7. It has a lot of ideas, such as the power of True Names, that are a staple of fantasy now, but I was meeting for the first time then. I don't know how well it would hold up to a re-read. That said, the fundamental concept behind the evil that Sparrowhawk faces is a powerful one, and still memorable.

My vague impressions of The Tombs of Atuan (DNFed halfway through aged about 12) and The Farthest Shore (brief attempt aged about 16) are simply of how gloomy they were.

And you have convinced me to continue to leave The Tenant of Wildfell Hall for "some other time"!

>18 NorthernStar: I had never heard of this before - and it does sound appealing.

>20 hfglen:
I read The Queen of Spades in April last year - I seem to have the knack of reading books that are admirably suited, immediately prior to the Challenge (cf. >15 -pilgrim-:)!

Sir Terry is an excellent suggestion.

And your inventive interpretations have inspired me to go through the books I read earlier in the year, and justify removing a few more Challenges from the list.

Am now trying to remember whether any of the books were a BB from one of our Green Dragon librarians...

>24 -pilgrim-: You could have any Harry Potter except the last, for no. 14 in that he spends a great amount of time playing Quidditch -- so there's another "inventive interpretation" for you. What challenges are left?

>12 -pilgrim-: #4, 31, 34, 38, 41?, 42

There's The Singing Tree (#34) by Kate Seredy. The book typically does have a tree on the cover (#38), and the description would mention multiple characters (#4--I see that LT doesn't give it much of a description, but the blurb on GR does). It's a children's book that I read ages ago so I don't remember much about it except that it was set on a Hungarian farm (#31) in WWI and I was quite fond of it at the time. Grandparents do appear (#42), and taking a glance through it, while there are no cooking/baking scenes from what I can tell, the mother does cook (#41?, depending on how much cooking/baking needs to appear to fulfill this point).

For 12 and 31, Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk District is not too long.

For 40 and 11 I read Malafrena by Ursula Le Guin. It's quite long but the related Orsinian tales, which are linked short stories set in the same alt-Europe would also count.

For 19, I counted the C.S. Lewis science fiction trilogy group read. Did you join us for that?

Seconding the recommendations for The pillow book of Sei Shonagon and War for the oaks. When I read the former a few years ago someone commented that Shonagon was like a "Heian era blogger" which is a perfect description - observations of everyday life, nature, the little details which are all around her.

And as I am a librarian I second Hugh's offer to make a recommendation (I used one of my colleagues to give me the book for this category, which also fit number 29).

For no. 38 there's also The Lie Tree by Frances Hardinge.

And as Claire is a proper librarian and not just a "terrified amateur" (W.S. Gilbert) playing at running a library, I can only bow and stand back.

>29 hfglen: Hugh, I make it up as I go along! It's sheer luck that no-one has noticed yet!

>28 hfglen: Ooh, The lie tree is an excellent choice.

>30 Sakerfalcon:
Claire, that is one of the best kept secrets in life: Nobody has a clue. We are all making it up as we go along.

E.T.A. I attended a presentation by a management consulting guru. (Yes, there are such creatures.) He said at one point, "Every consultant in the world is sitting working at a desk and waiting for a tap on their shoulder and someone to say, 'We're on to you!'"

I think that could be said about more than just consultants.

>27 Sakerfalcon:
Mea culpa. I didn't know that the opera by Shostakovich was based on a short story. Interesting...

Hugh's mention of Pushkin in the opera context made me think of Ruslan and Lyudmila.

No, I missed the Lewis group read. Had wanted to join, but the only online copy I could get was producing too much eye strain.

Does talking BookstoogeLT and Majel-Susan into reading War in Heaven immediately after me count?

Would you count The House of Shattered Wings as alt-history? (I think that it is pushing it, but I also think I can give the librarian the authority on matters of categorisation :) )

>27 Sakerfalcon:
Mea culpa. I didn't know that the opera by Shostakovich was based on a short story. Interesting...

Hugh's mention of Pushkin in the opera context made me think of Ruslan and Lyudmila, which also covers the narrative verse category.

No, I missed the Lewis group read. Had wanted to join, but the only online copy I could get was producing too much eye strain.

Does talking BookstoogeLT and Majel-Susan into reading War in Heaven immediately after me count?

Would you count The House of Shattered Wings as alt-history? (I think that it is pushing it, but I also think I can give the librarian the authority on matters of categorisation :) )

I am frustrated about the "Pillow Book", because I can't access my copy currently, and resist buying duplicates.

Also, I was wondering whether King Ahab - or Falk and Jenny also counts for the countryside Challenge. It mainly concerns the interactions between petty landowners in rural Norway. (And counts for my Sami author.)

And have just discovered that Anthony M. Coniaris died this year. I read one of his theological works in September.

>33 -pilgrim-: I think I would count House of shattered wings as alt-history. It is set in a place which exists in our world, after all, even though there are supernatural elements and events which never happened her. So yes!

King Ahab sounds like a good fit for the countryside challenge.

Along the same lines as pushing others to read War in heaven after you, I was wondering if your nudge for me to read The doomed world would qualify. We read the book at different times but you were commenting as I read it.

Bah, that's annoying about the Pillow Book. Ironically I have read a lot of Japanese fiction this year because of the shared interest with my colleague.

I am stuck on "a book that is also available in Plain Language" as this seems to be mainly handbooks and government documents!

>35 Sakerfalcon: For "a book that is also available in Plain Language", I thought of adult classic novels that also exist in simplified, sanitised versions for children.

The Black Arrow by Robert Louis Stevenson is a good example. The children's Bancroft Classics edition that I read as a child omits a lot rather necessary, since the hero behaves like most men in war of that period, and commits what today would definitely be considered war crimes! Forcing non-combatants into starvation and poverty by theft of their good and destruction of their livelihood was the normal way in which an army supplied itself.

That's a good idea. Not sure I want to spend any of my reading time on this particular challenge, however, when I have so many other unread books! Maybe I can find a Ladybird book that will fit!

>37 Sakerfalcon: As I understood the Challenge, we are not required to read the simplified version, only that one exists. Which classics have you read this year?

Reconsidering the books that I read at the beginning of this year, in the light of the creative accounting suggested by hfglen and Sakerfalcon has helped with my category count considerably.

But I still need a book with a sauna!

My sauna book was The boatman's daughter, a supernatural novel set in the Ozarks where a character has built a sauna. Do the Moomins ever use one? Tove Janson seems like an author who might have included saunas in her work.

>38 -pilgrim-: Good point. Let me check.

>40 Sakerfalcon: I am prepared to count a Russian banya. Now in which Russian classics did someone visit the bathhouse?

>40 Sakerfalcon:, >41 -pilgrim-: Sakerfalcon, in The Doomed City, when Andrei is doing his "voluntary" labour with the proletariat, did he visit the bathhouse with them too?

>42 -pilgrim-: I'm afraid I don't recall. My copy is now in a box in the loft, so I can't check. I can think of several Russian novels where they visit the dacha, but not a banya! Communal bathhouses also occur in Japanese and Turkish cultures, or maybe Roman baths would count as there were the hot and cold rooms.

>43 Sakerfalcon: Those are some excellent ideas. I immediately thought of The Body in the Bathhouse , but (a) that would meaning jumping ahead in a series and (b) the reason that I came to a halt is the inaccessibility of my Falco novels.

I had been intending to read Without the Banya We Would Perish, because Russian folk belief is fascinating, but I doubt that I would finish it in time. It is meaty.

And now I am nearly a third of the way into my December thread, I suppose I should actually review something!

Mummers and Poppers (short story from The Devices Trilogy) by Philip Purser-Hallard - 3 stars

The Devices Trilogy has been one of my favourite reads of 2020, so when I finished Trojans I immediately went looking for further work by this author. Mummers and Poppers is a short story, available on the author's website, set between the first and second books.

So often, short stories like this provide an opportunity to revisit familiar characters, but are rather weak in terms of plot. This does the former, but it also makes a significant story in its own right. It takes place between The Pendragon Protocol and The Locksley Exploit. It requires a prior understanding of characters and world mechanics, so I would not recommend reading it if you have not read the first book.

Here New Year is being celebrated at the Green Chapel.

If one considers the major conflict in The Pendragon Protocol, and the book's ending, then one can anticipate that this date could prove problematic. That conflict - the Green Knight's challenge - takes place in both the first book and the last, but how was it resolved in the intervening period? This short story answers the question.

When I was at school, we celebrated the approach of Christmas with mummers' plays. They vary from place to place, but the one I remembers features Father Christmas.

In America, and by cultural osmosis nowadays in Britain, he seems to be conflated with Santa Claus, or Saint Nicholas. But in English folklore he comes from a much older tradition than Christianity.

I love the way even this short story is filled with the resonances of myth. Both the familiar and those that are almost forgotten....

Mummers and Poppers was part of a collection of short stories. Apparently Philip Purser-Hallard is in the habit of publishing one online every year, at the Christmas season.

So I immediately went to read his December 2018 contribution:

Stable Genius (short story) by Philip Purser-Hallard - 3 stars

This is a political satire, set in Washington D.C., best read on December 28th or 29th. (Matthew 2:16-18)

Whether or not I agree with the political opinions of the author would be totally inappropriate to state here. My star rating refers solely to the quality of the puns.

This may offend some American readers. But it is well executed.

If such readers consider it inappropriate for a British author to set political satire in America, I should mention that he attacks British institutions with equal vigour elsewhere.

The Fourth Age of Christmas (short story) by Philip Purser-Hallard - 3 stars

This story is equally funny, and unlikely to give offence to any (except perhaps Tolkien purists).

Readers who are unfamiliar with the British Christmas panto tradition may be a little mystified though.

Its setting is not stated explicitly, but I get the feeling that it is Glasgow.

This story dates from 2016.

Tableaux (short story) by Philip Purser-Hallard - 1 star

This is a literary experiment. The author believes that however you order the segments of this tale, which consist of 100 words each, they make a coherent narrative. Thus, when you go to this webpage, you are presented with the segments in random order.

I disagree. I don't think that the story that I was presented with held together. But then, if you read this story, you only have a 1 in 720 chance of reading the same story as I did.

This was an interesting idea, but I don't think it worked. The story itself is about how people celebrate Christmas.

It dates from 2013.

Jan (short story) by Philip Purser-Hallard - 2.5 stars

This is best described as romantic fantasy fiction, taking place on New Year's Eve.

The narrator is transitioning from male to female. A New Year is a new beginning, so this is the evening when he decided to tell his boyfriend that Ian was on the way to becoming Janet. Paul did not take the news well.

Jan is therefore rather surprised that someone who he has never met before, lounging in the doorway to the club Jan is just leaving, addresses him by the name that Jan had never used publicly before.

And everything that this stranger says is an antagonym.

The story then follows Ian/Jan/Janet over the events of the subsequent year - and what comes after that.

That the protagonist's name resembles that of the Roman god of doorways, and transitions, is significant. As is the fact that the story takes place on his day.

We are back mythological territory here. This story has the same mix of contemporary urban life and underlying myth as in The Devices Trilogy.

This is very much about the masks people wear, to themselves and to others.

The story has great potential. Unfortunately it was written back in 2012, and shows signs of being an early work. The actual implementation just doesn't, in my opinion, work. MAJOR SPOILER: Some events on the "return trip" just do not work. Getting the"black eye" before you are punched did not fit with the naturalism of how other events are undone. It is an awkward mixture of symbolic reversals and overly supernatural ones.

I found the execution of the opening very powerful, once I worked out where this was going, but the crudity of its implementation was something of a disappointment.

Maybe I am being harsh; this is a writer whom I have come to expect a lot from.

The X-Mass (1955) (short story) by Philip Purser-Hallard - 2 stars

This story was written in 2015 as a deliberate pastiche of a Hollywood science fiction movie of the fifties.

It is set at Christmas, and is allegorical - as a lot of Christmas movies are.

However I did not find it either particularly original, or particularly well done. It is OK.

I know Philip Purser-Hallard used to hang out at Greenbelt, and give talks on relationships between religious themes and science fiction. So I was interested to try his more overtly Christian short stories:

Scapegoat (short story) by Philip Purser-Hallard - 2 stars

This story is set in a contemporary setting, but it is basically just a conversation between the narrator, who is an average liberal Christian, and someone who wants to propose a novel, and distinctly heterodox, theological proposition.

I would find the conversation interesting, but this is not really a story, the narrative is simply the wrapping for the idea.

Philip Purser-Hallard is obviously a very intelligent and literate person, but at this stage in his career, he was not really a good writer. This short story was originally published in an anthology of speculative pieces by different authors.

He has come a long way since then, and I think he deserves kudos for being willing to make his early work available, when a lot of writers tend to try to bury their apprentice works in oblivion.

Nevertheless, this is where I decided to stop delving in his back archives.

ETA: a recent tweet states that he "has not been a Christian for a long time". I think that when he wrote this, he was still exploring.

A Wrinkle in Time (Books of The Time Quintet) by Madeleine L'Engle - 2 stars
15/12/2020

I bought this in a recent Kindle sale out of curiosity. I have long noticed that what American LTers consider "children's classics" that they expect everyone to have read, or at least heard of, are usually completely unknown to me. Even allowing that some of these (like the stories of British author Ronald Dahl) will have been written when I was no longer a child, this complete lack of familiarity has, I think, to arise from children's publishers, at least in my youth, not marketing internationally. Therefore A Wrinkle in Time stands out as an American book that I had at least heard of, although never read, as a child.

Reading the initial setting, I can see why children's books do not travel well. The references to "grades" would have puzzled me when little.

Meg attends high school. When this book was published, high school in England was for ages 11+. It was also academically selective, which would make it impossible for a child attending there to believe she was unusually stupid. So I looked up "American high school", and am now even more confused. Apparently attending one would make Meg at least 14. I had had the impression that this book was aimed at 8-10 year olds, and Meg's mentality seemed to fit her in that age range. She certainly does not seem like a 14 year old to me - although her reaction to Calvin, and bring kissed by him, make more sense if she is supposed to be a (very childish and immature) teenager.

I had been going to praise the book's handling of the idea of the child who does not fit in because they are brighter than the average, and therefore feel stupid because they did things "the wrong way", and "explanations" by bad or mediocre teachers do not make sense to them.

But again, this is applicable to a much lower age group than Meg apparently is: by one's teens, one is usually competent to formulate questions about such "explanations", and realise that if the teacher either cannot or will not answer them, then the fault lies with them. Blaming oneself for not being able to understand flawed explanations belongs to an earlier age range.

I know a lot of children's authors idealise, and idolise, childhood. But the praise of Meg's "flaws" seems particularly inappropriate if she is meant to be a teenager. Her lack of self-control and tendency to take out her unhappiness on inappropriate targets, because they are convenient, may be understandable in a young child. But by fourteen, I agree completely with her self-assessment that she ought be be able to contain her displays of emotion. Her family situation is extremely distressing, but it is even more so for her mother, so her lack of empathy, causing more problems for a burdened parent, is completely selfish. Her desire that her father should solve everything is understandable, but her demands that he should, and attempts to make him feel guilty enough to get himself killed in order to satisfy her tantrums, are so immature as to be appalling. Such bouts of selfish "anger" can barely be excused, the idea that it is a positive, or at least useful, trait in a young adult was something that I found repellent.

And the idea that a loving mother would consider a teenager initiating a physical fight over verbal insults as "understandable" was also disturbing. Meg worries that she is a "delinquent". To have so little self-control, or concept of appropriate responses to verbal provocation, at her age, is disturbing, and likely to put her in danger, and render her dangerous to those around her. (We are shown later how poor she is at judging the motivations of others.)

Charles Wallace, however, was an excellent portrayal of a child prodigy, whose mental capabilities outstrip his emotional maturity, and can thus wrongfoot him. But again, I was confused as to what age he was meant to be. He does not yet attend school, but I found him rather unbelievable as a 3 year old - even a highly gifted one. And surely such academically oriented parents would realise the socialisation value of sending their son to kindergarten? But I suppose that in such a rural setting, one might not be available. As a precocious 4 year old, he is plausible

I also had to look up when this book was written. Its social attitudes seemed to belong to a much earlier era - Mrs Murray may be a genius with two degrees, but her male relatives take it for granted that her scientific work is a sort of hobby that must not be allowed to interfere with her "real work'" of being a housewife. So references to TVs, and universal, casual access to telephones took me by surprise. In a book set in the past, such attitudes would be normal, but for a book that appears to have a contemporary setting (i.e. the sixties, when it was written) was disappointing.

I read a lot of fiction set in the past when I was a child (often because the books were written then), but I do not remember encountering such a patronising tone towards women scientists in anything with a contemporary setting.

The presence of Calvin seemed completely pointless to me. He was a plausible portrayal of the frustrations of an intelligent child from a family where only sporting ability is valued, but he achieved nothing in the story and seemed there only to be the "love interest". Apparently he is necessary to give Meg validation by providing male positive regard. She cannot believe in herself until a boy does.

I liked the inventiveness of the magical set up, and particularly the way that science and mathematics were portrayed as just as exciting. So often children's authors owner to their own preconceptions of children's produces and treat mathematics as "boring, useless and difficult". So it was lovely to see it being treated as equal, as and perhaps equivalent to, magic - a way to make the apparently impossible possible.

But I had a problem with the theological aspect.

Despite coming from a Christian background, I completely missed the Christian allegory in The Chronicles of Narnia on first reading (at least until The Last Battle), because the stories worked as stories. Their correspondence with the Christian story gave them the added depth of resonance, when I eventually realised it, but they work on their own.

Reading A Wrinkle in Time as an adult, it is not surprising that I worked out that the three witches were guardian angels from the scene on Uriel - much earlier than the children do. But from there on, the allegorical aspect of the story seemed incredibly heavy-handed. And the message itself was incredibly trite. The story did not use allegory as a means to explain the more difficult Christian concepts, but simply to state, as a great denouement, the most obvious points - that conformity does not bring happiness and that love is important.

Whereas Lewis (and to a certain extent, Tolkien) created Christian Myth, in the sense of fiction that resonated with what they would understand to be timeless truths, A Wrinkle in Time has more of the blatant didactic intent of a Victorian children's morality tale.

Except that the ethical standards that it attempts to inculcate are incredibly low. According to this story, we must love others (providing they loved us first), and forgive them IF
a) they never actually did anything wrong - Mr. Murray- and we are really just taking out our own bad temper on them, or
b) they have already been kinder and more loving than us, as their usual mode of behaviour.
Actually forgiving those who have genuinely wronged is, apparently, too much to ask.

As is said in the New Testament, "even the pagans do likewise" - so why present in overtly Christian trappings, such a basic concept, as the denouement of the plot, as if it were a great revelation?

Hypocrisy is also portrayed as acceptable. Meg's discomfort at being not conventionally pretty is convincingly portrayed. But her judging another race as "Beasts" and "lower" simply on the basis of their appearance is portrayed as something that is perfectly normal, and something that the race in question should simply accept.

The same hypocrisy is present in the author's behaviour too, of course: Meg's flaws of stubbornness is a Good Thing, which will save the children, but Charles Wallace's is a Bad Thing, that will endanger them. No reason given. No explanation is attempted, it simply IS, because the author says so.

Lewis wraps Christian concepts in a non-specific setting, whereas L'Engle presents generic basic moral concepts in a Christian wrapping.

There was inventiveness and humour here. But I disliked the moral standards and behavioural norms portrayed here, and in a book with so didactic a tone, I think that is not trivial.

I was interested to read this as an adult. As a child I think I would have found it trite and disappointing. It certainly compares poorly with the books that I remember as loving from then.

Edited for appalling AutoCorrect mangling!

Helmet Reading Challenge: 4, 9, 24, 33, 39, 41

>52 -pilgrim-: The cover image for A Wrinkle in Time is also bothering me. None of the females displayed prominently resemble and of the characters from the book.

The girl with the wild hair and glasses could, at a pinch, by Meg - although her her IS long enough to be controlled by putting into plaits, whilst Meg's is explicitly stated to be too short for that.

But the girl is clearly of mixed race, whilst the small boy is not. It is said in the book that Carl Wallace is too young to remember his father properly and therefore Meg has the stronger connection to him not that the children have different fathers which would preclude the previous plot point.

The three adult women shown do not resemble traditional witches at all this negating the point that the Mrs W are playing into stereotypes for their own amusement.

What is going on?

>53 -pilgrim-: The faces on the cover are from the recent movie.

>54 jjwilson61:
Interesting. Do you know what changes they made to the plot?

>52 -pilgrim-: Thank you for your thoughts. I credit A Wrinkle in Time as the book that placed me on the life-long path of reading. I was in third grade at the time, (8 years old). I recall the book fondly as it was my first English-language Speculative Fiction book, (a term that had not yet been coined in those days), but I have not - and will not - revisit it. Too afraid of what The Suck Fairy™ may have done to it. Your comprehensive review has only bolstered that decision.

>56 ScoLgo: Thank you for your feedback. I am glad that I seem to have estimated the intended readership correctly.

I see how the science/magic blend could be inspiring. Did you find it odd at that age to have a book with a heroine supposedly so much older?

>52 -pilgrim-: I did not read this until I was in my early 50s and I thought it was just okay. I think it was a group read in here, so I will try to find the links.

https://www.librarything.com/topic/88511

https://www..librarything.com/topic/88512

>57 -pilgrim-: Honestly, that aspect did not register with me. I read the book so long ago that I don't recall much about the story or how I parsed the narrative at the time. I just remember being pulled into this weird world where kids are magically transported through time & space, and having adventures that were far beyond my own reality and thinking, "Wow! This is really cool!"

My personal life at that time was in a bit of turmoil as our immediate family had just emigrated from Sweden to USA the previous year. I was still settling into school and life in a new country, still learning the language, and my mother had just passed away. I suspect all of these events happening within the space of a few months was catalytic in me getting pulled into speculative fiction. Then, a couple of years later, I discovered The Lord of the Rings, thanks to a very kind 5th grade teacher who loaned me each volume as I finished them - from her personal collection! - and that absolutely cemented my reading journey. Later, I began leaning more toward science-fiction as opposed to high fantasy but in those early days, it was fantasy that started me reading for pleasure.

EtA: >58 clamairy: Thanks for the links! The first one seems to point toward a discussion of World War Z...?

>59 ScoLgo: Ooops. I'll fix that.

Sounds like you went through a lot in a small space of time there. If I could go back in time and offer a big hug I would, but instead I'll just offer a much belated one for what you survived.

>59 ScoLgo: Wow. That was a heck of a lot to go through all at once. No wonder you needed some imaginative escapism.

Like clamairy, I have the urge to send a belated hug.

>60 clamairy: >61 -pilgrim-:

Awww, thanks. I am many decades past it at this point - but I appreciate the thought, though it might require a wrinkle in time to accomplish. (Hah!)

I see you have Spycraft Rebooted. We are the only two people on LT with it. I snagged it as a bargain that popped up. I was a sucker for the topic and the 88p price clinched the deed.

>63 pgmcc: Kindle Unlimited sucked me in.

>64 -pilgrim-: I have not succumbed to Kindle Unlimited. I am too fond of physical books.

>65 pgmcc: I should probably not mention KOLL then, (a.k.a., Prime Reading). No monthly fee. Books can be borrow gratis with no time limit. Titles are limited and Amazon does make it rather difficult to locate them but, should you figure out how, it's a nice way to read books for free that may not be in your local library e-book system.

>66 ScoLgo: just be aware that KOLL is ending in January:
https://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=335518

>67 BookstoogeLT: I thought they were just re-branding it to 'Prime Reading'? The rules seem a bit more relaxed. With KOLL I could only ever borrow one book at a time with a limit of one per month. I'm not 100% sure but I think Prime Reading allows up to 10 or so borrows at a time...? Selection is very limited but I see there are a few titles I've been meaning to read. Another nice feature: No wait lists. I will sometimes borrow a book from Prime Reading if the Overdrive wait list at the library is long.

>68 ScoLgo: Yes, this is better for many of us, I think.

>68 ScoLgo: They are different. Prime Reading is for any amazon member with a prime membership. KOLL was for those who had a physical kindle ereader. They've been running concurrently since at least '16 (see the link at the end) but I guess KOLL just languished so they're ending it.

https://www.amazonforum.com/s/question/0D54P00006zJbugSAC/prime-reading-vs-kindl...

>70 BookstoogeLT: Ah, gotcha... Having both a Prime membership and a Kindle, I had not made that distinction.

>71 ScoLgo: to be honest, I've got both and I didn't make the distinction either. Which is probably why they're ending KOLL :-D

>71 ScoLgo: & >72 BookstoogeLT: I knew they were different as I used to borrow stuff from the KOLL after I first got mine, and return it when I was done. Then I started letting them just sit there unread. :o(

Do any of you take advantage of the monthly free 'soon to be published' books? I think they are now called Amazon First Reads. I've missed a few over the years, but in general I wait until a couple of week into the month and check the ratings of any that interest me here on LT. I don't pay much attention to the book ratings on Amazon. I think in 8 years I've read less than a dozen of the 80 or so freebies. I have to admit that some of them were actually quite good.

>73 clamairy: "Do any of you take advantage of the monthly free 'soon to be published' books?"

I have not. I receive the e-mails, give them a quick scan, usually don't see anything of interest to me, and delete the message. I do subscribe to Book Gorilla and have picked up quite a few freebies via that service.

My opinion on Amazon ratings is that they are not to be trusted except maybe in the aggregate.

>74 ScoLgo: In general these books do seem to be aimed at female readers. Uh oh. I have not heard of Book Gorilla. I get the Book Riot and the Book Bub emails, but very few of their offerings are free.

>75 clamairy: I received Book Bub once upon a time. Not sure why those stopped coming my way...? It seemed to be fairly similar to Book Gorilla so I don't really miss it. With Overdrive available, my TBR doesn't really need the input anyway. ;)

>76 ScoLgo: Most of my best deals come from Book Riot anyway. It's a much shorter list.

Sorry for the highjacking, -pilgrim-.

>66 ScoLgo:, >67 BookstoogeLT:, >68 ScoLgo:, >70 BookstoogeLT:

That was useful information. I have Amazon Prime and currently Kindle Unlimited (on a 99p for 3 months offer). I had never heard of KOLL, despite owning a Kindle - is it a USA only offer?

>74 ScoLgo: I had not heard of Book Gorilla either.

>73 clamairy: I use Prime Reading/First Reads most months. The choice is usually easy for me; there tends to be
1 Thriller
1 Romantic Fiction
1 Literary Fiction
1 Children's book
1 self-help/cookery type non-fiction
1 random
There is usually one, but only one, interesting book for me in the list.

I have discovered some pretty good novels over the years. The Mask Collectors stands out for me as a good, recent one.

>77 clamairy: Not a problem. It was all interesting stuff.

Rainbow-Flower (short story for children) by Valentin Katayev

Since I knew Katayev as a satirist (from The Fatal Eggs and Other Soviet Satire) I was not sure what to expect from this: Russian stories for children can nevertheless be quite grim.

What I got was a really charming fable about a wish-granting magic flower, with each petal a different colour of the rainbow. Zhenya is not as silly, or as selfish as most protagonists in this genre of fairy-tale often are, just a little impulsive. But it when she impulsively make a completely unselfish wish, she gets the best outcome of all.

I am finding concentration on anything difficult at the moment (because of what is currently going on)'so I have been reading almost entirely short stories or episodic children's books this month. I have found this latter less of a relief than I had hoped, because those children's books and to treat mean and selfish behaviours as the norm, and so perfectly "understandable". I don't want my children's literature to moralise at them, but neither am I comfortable at seeing nastiness presented as acceptable.

There is no deliberate nastiness anywhere in this book, and the denouement, where Zhenya uses her last wish too heal a crippled boy so that they can play together is not heavy-handed at all, but a quite natural conclusion that unselfishly helping someone can make a good friend, and making such a friend can bring more happiness than any material item.

This is a really charming book, suitable for very young children, and I heartily recommend it. It came as a much needed breath of fresh air.

>78 -pilgrim-: I'm sure I've heard of KOLL before but I do know I've never used it. Come to think of it, I'm not sure I've ever read any "free" book through one of Amazon's programs.

>79 -pilgrim-: Prime First Read allows you to "buy" the book for free. They is to say, it is added to your Kindle collection permanently.

>81 -pilgrim-: and I just googled first read and now understand why I never have. None of the genres they offer are the least bit tempting. I suspect that is the same reason why I've never tried their various offerings. Sigh...

>82 BookstoogeLT: I use the "free book that does not fill up shelf space" as an opportunity to be more experimental, and investigate things that I would not normally actually buy.

I did not borrow them, so there is no pressure to "read and return". And if, when I do get around to trying them, I dislike them, I can delete without feeling "that was money down the drain".

I have had some pleasant surprises this way.

>83 -pilgrim-: For me, it's more about a time investment in regards to trying out new things. I'm very adverse to trying out new things :-)

♪♪Persuasion by Jane Austen - 4.5 stars

This was a revisit to an old favourite. During the period that I could not see to read, I was listening to a read through of this as a series of BBC podcasts. As far as I could tell, it was not abridged for broadcast.

There are several currently available; this was the audiobook version, first broadcast in 2001.

Unfortunately, from this phone I cannot access any information on who was the the reader, which is a pity, because I thought she did an excellent job. She did not overact, but imbued it with Jane Austen's quiet sarcasm in the appropriate places.

I have always indentified most with Anne Elliot, out of all Jane Austen's heroines.

On this revisit, I had less sympathy with Captain Wentworth than I had had on previous readings. His intolerance of Anne's decision, in placing duty to her family over her personal desires, seemed immature and petulant. As did his mischaracterisation of Anne as "weak", when in fact it takes immense inner strength to make the choice that she did. But at least he is a fool who comes to admit his folly.

I think why I like this book particularly is that there are no really malevolent characters (except perhaps Walter Elliot, the heir). Anne's happiness was ruined by people who were actually meaning her well. Her father's instructions were actually aimed at what he thought was her best interests - by his own, extremely limited standards. And I do not think he, or her sister, were deliberately cruel, just too self-obsessed to notice what they were doing.

The tragedy is that she does have one friend who genuinely cares for her welfare and happiness - and it is that friend who convinced her to renounce her love. It is a valuable lesson. Friends who insist that they know better than you what is best for you and will make you happy, and who demand that you conform to their values, and prioritise them above your own, can be more dangerous than overt enemies. Their good intentions do not benefit you, if the have different goals for you. Captain Wentworth would not have suited Lady Russell, so she decided that he was unsuitable for Anne, whilst the suitors whom she approved of would not have made her happy. Although her love for her godaughter appears genuine, her inability to recognise Anne as a person in her own right, with her own personality, causes many of her well-intentioned actions to have malign results.

Although this story does eventually have a happy ending, it is not trite, or easily achieved. The theme that bad decisions, even when made for the best reasons, do damage that may be irreversible, runs through the book. Mrs Smith's experience is a parallel example. Unlike a lot of the unhappy marriages in Jane Austen, her husband was not a bad person, and they loved one another. Yet his weakness and bring"easily led", left her crippled and in poverty.

I find myself wondering whether the author herself regretted any decisions of her own. She writes movingly of how cruelly the society of her day treated spinsters like Anne - an experience she was of course personally familiar with. But she continues too to portray how "settling" for someone else, out of a desire to be married, does not necessarily bring happiness. Charles Musgrove married Mary, after Anne rejected him. He is a good man, but settling for the younger, vainer sister has resulted in a lot of tension in their marriage, which he did not handle well.

There are still happy marriages though - like the devoted relationship between Admiral Croft and his wife. Jane Austen certainly believes that a happy marriage is possible, even though the societal pressures in Regency England worked so much against it.

I think her ultimate message is the importance of being true to oneself.

I love this novel, but I cannot imagine it being successfully put through a modern update, in a Western Europe or American setting. Its imperatives of duty and loyalty, are too alien to modern culture.

>83 -pilgrim-: Exactly!

>85 -pilgrim-: Excellent review. I was late in life getting around to reading both Persuasion and Mansfield Park, and I definitely preferred the former.

>84 BookstoogeLT: I need new things! Even if that often leads to disappointment, I cannot exist on a diet of the familiar alone.

I have been wondering to myself why I rated Persuasion at 4.5, rather than the full 5 stars, this time.
Possible reasons, in order of likelihood, are as follows:

Audiobooks really are not for me. Perfection cannot be achieved that way.

I was disappointed in Captain Wentworth. Anne deserved happiness, but did he deserve her? (Not a reaction that I had had during previous reads. I was younger then.)

I love this book very much. Therefore I still remembered it, well enough that it lacked novelty. There were no surprises in how the story worked out.

>86 clamairy: I read them both, in close proximity, when I was about 17. I reread Persuasion periodically, but never Mansfield Park. Fanny did come across as too passive for me then - although I always did prefer Edmund to Henry. I would have liked her to be louder, but I did admire her strength of purpose.

Maybe it is time for me to revisit Mansfield Park as well.

>87 -pilgrim-: Well, you can have them :-) At least you don't have to worry about running out of new stuff to try.

Persuasion has always been my favorite Austen story. I'm not sure if it was because the protagonists were both older but it just has resonated with me each time I've read it.

>89 BookstoogeLT: Not strictly true. I spent some very miserable months a few years back because I was housebound in temporary accommodation, with no Internet access.

The memories... *shudders*

>90 -pilgrim-: But there is a difference between running out of stuff to try and having access to it.

I wouldn't want to deal with no internet access, that is for sure. I'd say that most 1st world countries and their citizens have become addicted to it.

>91 BookstoogeLT: The corollary of that experience is to try to always keep my Kindle well-stocked.

I read some absolute turkeys in that period; I only had about 10 books in total, and so had to stick with them just the same.

Unplanned hospital admissions (e.g. for neutropenic fever) are the worst. There is absolutely NOTHING to do, book trolleys are now exceedingly rare (and come around once a week/fortnight), and if you are connected to enough tubes and monitors, or immunocompromised, you cannot even talk to other patients.

I am used to no-Internet intervals. I used to live somewhere where the power regularly went down to winter storms. Beautiful surroundings can have their downsides.

Samhain (short story) by Faith L. Justice - 2 stars

This was a nice enough little piece of historical fiction, set around the time that "bog bodies" went into the ground in Northern Europe. It is told from the point of view of an elderly priestess of the Old Religion, and deals with the coming of the new religion of the Sun God.

There was a conversation in another thread recently (MrsLee's, I think) about the mythologisation of the displacing of matriarchal religions by patriarchal societies, as discussed by Robert Graves.

I remember this theme featuring strongly in several of Rosemary Sutcliffe's novels. The Mark of the Horse Lord deals with this shift in Celtic society amongst the Dal Riada, in a context which dates it to the later period of the Roman occupation of Britain.

The earliest "bog body" dates from 8000 BCE, with most dating from the Iron Age. This would predate the shift in Celtic society.

But recent scholarship tends to discount Graves' ideas of "patriarchy conquering matriarchy", and certainly Celtic pre-Christian society, during the period of historical record, had strongly matriarchal elements.

I may be wrong, but I am not comfortable with the author's grasp of history. Using the figures from what is known regarding Celtic religion, and opposing the Horned God and the Great Mother to the Sun God, appears to be projecting later beliefs backwards.

And my instinctive reactions here are reminding me that do not know enough about this subject. I had been reading Reza Aslan's history of humanity's concepts of religion in God: A Human History much earlier this year. I think that I need to go back to it.

The release of Broadway musicals on YouTube whilst the pandemic is closing theatres is something that I have been aware of for a some time, but today has been the first time that I have been able to watch one.

Kinky Boots is an American musical first performed in 2012, based on a British film, Kinky Boots, released in 2005, which itself is based on the true events at a Northampton shoe factory.

The way a struggling shoe factory revitalised itself by targeting the niche market of drag queens was covered by a BBC2 documentary in 1999. I remember watching that at the time. How the story has travelled and mutated is fascinating.

ETA: The story seems to have been expanded to carry a "message" about according others dignity and respect.

It seems strange that the hero mortgaging a flat owned jointly with his fiancé, without her knowledge or consent, to finance his dream, is presented as a positive act (of self-empowerment for him).

I had noticed early on that at times of stress or self-doubt he seemed to turn to anyone but the person whom he was proposing to make his partner through life. But that could just have been a function of the staging: it is easier to have him talk to someone gave to face, rather than hear half of a conversation down a phone. He has promised to support her dreams, yet did not. To then practice financial abuse in support of his - and imply that she was in the wrong for being upset over this - left a very nasty taste of double-standards for me.

>85 -pilgrim-: Persuasion is probably my favourite Jane Austen novel. I've also enjoyed it in both audio and video versions.

>95 NorthernStar: I also tried a radio dramatisation:



♪♪Persuasion - a BBC "full cast" radio dramatisation by Michelene Wandor of the book by Jane Austen - DNF

First broadcast: 1986
Started: November 2020

It was OK. I thought Juliet Stevenson's performance was good.

But the giving of lisps to the Misses Musgrove irritated me. I do not remember them as being described as lisping anywhere in the book, and the fashion for giving a character a speech impediment, as a clumsy signal to the audience that we are meant to dislike them, has, fortunately, become less common than when these recordings were made.

I never saw Louisa and Henrietta as unpleasant or foolish characters anyway. They are just very young. I think that the point Jane Austen was making was simply that her society's custom for always considering a younger woman more attractive than an older one is foolish, as immaturity is going to match badly with a mature man of any sense.

Listening to this as a play made me very aware of how important the author's voice is in Jane Austen's books. It is not just the story that she tells, but how she phrases her descriptions, that makes them the biting commentary on social conventions that they are.

I have been reading The Fatal Eggs and Other Soviet Satires, in search of my elusive "book involving a sauna" for the Helmet Reading Challenge; I liked the short story by Zoshchenko there, so decided to try another of his:

The Galosh (short story) by Mikhail Zoshchenko - 2.5 stars

This is a satire against bureaucracy - one of the few acceptable targets during Stalin's era. (The author did not manage to stay clear of trouble, despite being avowedly non-political, and in 1946 was denounced, had his worker's ration card removed, and thereafter lived in poverty, eking a living from translation work and shoemaking.)

Soviet society was famously bureaucratic. But although the details could only apply to that place and time, the hero who gets the 'run around' when trying to retrieve his lost galosh could be here and now.

Soviet humour is often dark. I suspect that I did not find this funnier because it is all too real - both then and now. I do not tend to laugh at characters who suffer undeservedly.

And this situation feels all too real.

Having discovered "The Short Story Project" online, I read a couple of short stories by a Ukrainian Jewish author, writing originally in Russian, whom I had not heard of before.

And then - Nina Simone Began to Sing (short story) by Tasha Karluka - 3 stars

This is set in a busy Israeli city (the currency is shekels), and follows a female protagonist who feels disconnected with life and determines on suicide. The first twist led me to think that it was going to turn into a meditation on what is important in life, and what is not. The second gave me the impression of a shallow person, easily swayed by trivialities. My sympathy for her sense of isolation was limited, because it is very clear that this is her choice - she deliberately prevents others from getting close.
Given my position, when it has not been anything that I chose, means that I am probably the wrong person to appeal to for empathy here.
Her reasons for suicide feel trivial;
her reasons for setting suicide as the first option to try are never given (why not try changing some other aspect of her life, before ending it?) - she is young, healthy, employed, and had friends around trying to be supportive.
And her reasons for not - sometimes meaningful (the boy) sometimes trivial (the concert).Her self obsession may be characteristic of depression. But it was difficult to care about a character who cared about nothing but herself.

Chicken Morning Noon and Night (short story) by Tasha Karluka - 3.5 stars

The Ukrainian Jewish protagonist of this story lives in Odessa with her grandmother. She is much younger, about fifteen.

She also feels disconnected from her peers, and periodically contemplates suicide.

But this is a much more rounded story, as she contemplates what her Jewishness means, in the light of her grandmother's sultry, larger than life personality, and her own blonde, blue-eyed appearance.

She desperately wants to know what kissing is like.

This is about growing up, accepting your identity, and about love - the first romance and the last.

It is a much warmer, more rounded little story, and I enjoyed it.

The overlap of background between author (a Ukrainian who emigrated to Israel) and the two protagonists of these stories - the girl's grandmother emigrates to Israel, and she seems likely to follow make me wonder how autobiographical they are.

I feel concerned that I have actually been reading the confessions of someone who suffers from depression. The repeated motif of fantasies of suicide, motivated in both cases by a general sense of malaise, rather than any specific event or problem, worries me.

So I feel it necessary to emphasise that my responses are to how well these stories work as stories, rather than as passing judgment on the protagonists.

The first creates a believable character, but does not explain her responses adequately. The second has a similar personality, but her thought patterns are clearer, they evolution of the story hangs together and it works.

Also from "The Short Story Project":

The Origin of the Species (a short story) by Viktor Pelevin (trans. by Michele A. Berdy) - 3 stars

Whilst on board H.M.S. Beagle, Charles' Darwin's studies led him to formulate his famous work On the Origin of the Species, which uses the principles of "natural selection" and "survival of the fittest" to explain how species evolve and adapt and differentiate.

However "Darwinism" is the label often been to those who apply the principle "survival of the fittest" to social interactions.

This story, with Pelevin's typical humour and perversity, imagines Darwin discovering his actual theory along with "Darwinism" as popularly conceived.

The Green Man's Heir (Book 1 of The Green Man Trilogy) by Juliet E. McKenna - 3 stars
22/12/2020

This was a BB from pgmcc, supported by other Dragoneers. I enjoyed it, but I was a little disappointed; I suspect that was simply a case of overly elevated expectations.

On the plus side was an evident love of wood, both growing and as a material for a craftsman to work with. The descriptions of countryside were lush and vivid.

The protagonist appealed less. He told the reader a few too many times how big, muscular and impressive he was, and - as happened with Peter Grant, as mentioned by Sakerfalcon, about Rivers of London, there was rather too much detail regarding his own "wood". I understand that the sex appeal deriving from his ancestry was relevant to the plot, but the smug fake modesty was a little wearing.

But my disappointment, which was only mild, really lay with the use made of folklore in this book.

It is obvious that the author has read up on her native British folklore, which she mixes with classical. But I felt no real sense of myth routed in place. Standard tropes were being applied; Dan has looked up his folklore in a book, and this author has done so likewise.

Perhaps it was a mistake to read this immediately after a discussion (on libraryperilous' thread) about he works of Alan Garner, the preeminent master of myth rooted in landscape.

Helmet Reading Challenge: 7, 9, 31, 33, 34, 35, 41

Reading Challenge Update: I am not making progress with the Helmut Reading Challenge, despite the excellent suggestions made for above, because my access to reading material is again limited.

I can access only a few physical books, and none of my Kindle library. I cannot get to the shops at the moment, or order online (because of having no electronic device of my own currently working).

I am extremely grateful that I have been able to borrow a means of getting online at all, but it does mean I am mostly restricted to reading their Kindle collection.

Pain levels are affecting my ability to focus on anything, for much of the time, so I have been resorting to short stories.And the ubiquitous Russian bathhouse has so far failed to materialize in any of them!

In Morningstar's Shadow (a collection of short stories from The Dominion of the Fallen) by Aliette de Bodard - 2 stars

I read The House of Shattered Wings by this author at around this time last year (over the New Year, in fact). I was
not particularly impressed; although the world building was interesting, none of the characters were empathetic, individual, or interesting enough to really attract my attention.

However Sakerfalcon
recommended continuing; so I thought I would read this collection of short stories, which take place before the events of the first book, to remind me of the characters, before perhaps continuing.

The Face of Heaven

This first story takes place before any of the events of the first book, during the Great House War, whilst Morningstar is still running his House. It consists mainly of an interview between him and Elizabeth, a human scientist.

One of my main criticisms of The House of Shattered Wings was that although the Fallen are clearly intended to be fallen angels, the fact that they do not remember any of the time before they Fell makes this pretty pointless. They are, in story terms, simply supernatural entities with unspecified capabilities.

This story attempts to give more depth to the portrayal of Lucifer Morningstar, as he was before his disappearance, and the tragedy of Elizabeth's past.

The latter rings true, being typical of many women who live through a war, but it appears here that Morningstar remembers, at least partially, before his Fall, and what he has lost.

Why is that so - when the fact that the Fallen remember nothing of their pasts and do not know what they are being punished for, was a basic premise, stated clearly in the first book?

Paid Debts

A short story set in 1925, that features Imadan, a Fallen, making a very stupid mistake and nearly paying a very high price for it.

It simply reinforced my dislike of Fallen.

What Has To Be Done

This is set in 1958, on the night of Morningstar's disappearance. It is Emmanuelle's point of view, and seems to be intended to make Selene a more sympathetic character, by showing her vulnerable with her lover, and that she "had no choice" other than to become as she became.

It did not change my view of Selene. I respect Emmanuelle's choices a little better.

In all, these stories mostly reinforced what I did not like about this setting and set of characters, rather than drawing me in.

I do not think they would be either comprehensible or interesting for anyone who has not read the novel first.

Helmet Reading Challenge: 30, 37

Court of Birth, Court of Strength (a short story from The Dominion of the Fallen) by Aliette de Bodard - 2.5 stars

After In Morningstar's Shadow, I continued with another short story, that also took place before then events in The House of Shattered Wings. (It was originally published in Beneath Ceaseless Skies magazine.)

It tells how the relationship between Asmodeus and Samariel began. Samariel come out of it fairly well, and there are even some positive aspects to Asmodeus.

Though the usual themes of grim ruthlessness and horrible actions are there, and, as usual, the only character who shows a shred of what could be considered normal decency suffers horribly for it.

I said earlier that I do not see why the author chose to give her characters in this fantasy version of Paris the names and backstory of fallen angels, since she does not seem to make any real use of this. I have started to wonder whether it was a short-hand for "ALL my characters are evil and are going to do evil things". The humans in this version of France seem powerless, and exist mainly to be abused.

It is all very grim and depressing. And, if my hunches are correct, and there is something more behind this than a gratuitous wallow in atrocity, then I really do not like where I think this is going.

The message seems to be that the world is ruled by evil beings, albeit with gradations of evil. But only the most evil prosper. And the only hope a human has is to ally themselves with, and serve, one of these beings; then they may survive - or they mayb suffer horribly anyway, since it is all a matter of caprice.

I hope I am wrong and Aliette de Bodard is not really trying to propagate such a nihilistic worldview. But the alternative seems to be that she simply likes the company of her amoral, cruel creations.

I decided to stop here.

This series is not going to be where I complete Challenge 50 of the Helmet Reading Challenge, after all.

>96 -pilgrim-:, I think the audio version of Persuasion I listened to was narrated by Anne Flosnik, and produced by Tantor Media, if the library information is correct. It was a few years ago, but I remember enjoying it.

>52 -pilgrim-: How'd I miss this review? I think I first read A Wrinkle In Time in the 4th grade, which would mean I was about 9. Every child will vary, but I would think this would most appeal to kids in the 8 - 11 age range. The fact that the kids in it are not exactly 'normal' and are what we'd now call 'nerds' in an affectionate way is likely what appealed to me at that point. Nerds weren't popular back then.

Sorry to refer to such an old post, it is good to see you posting so actively!

>106 Karlstar: Yes, the way that it handled "gifted" children, in a realistic way, was the highlight of the book for me too.

The Inaccessibility of Heaven (a novelette in the Dominion of the Fallen setting) by Aliette de Bodard - 2.5 stars

I quite enjoyed this novelette, which I actually read before the other short stories that I reviewed earlier. It was what led me to consider returning to the world of The Dominion of the Fallen.

Its setting seems contemporary, a long time after the Great War. It is set not in Paris, but a place called Starhollow, which, if the names are anything to go by, is located in an Anglophone country.

The protagonist is a mortal who might be called a witch - although her "magic" is powered by use of angel dust - who has a partnership with one of the Fallen. She runs a "shelter" for new Fallen who are not adjusting well to their new environment. It is the language about her work, with talk about providing them with a "safe space" to work thorough their issues (modelled on those shelters that help the homeless to deal with their addictions) that roots this story in "the present day".

She is a rather more sympathetic character than any others I have met so far, in that her motivation does seem primarily altruistic

The plot takes the form of a murder mystery. Someone is killing Fallen (horribly, of course). And our heroine investigates (having being threatened into being involved).

This makes the book rather faster paced than I found The House of Shattered Wings, and it kept my attention better.

My major complaint with that book, which I read and reviewed in January, was that its choice of angels as its supernatural creature for a bit arbitrary, since they apparently all remember nothing of why they Fell, and behave neither like classic angels nor fallen angels, it seemed rather pointless.

In this novelette we get the backstory of some of the Fallen, both familiar characters and new. It certainly have more depth to the characters, as we actually got to see the motivation of some Fallen beyond immediate survival and power politics. And it gave me a clearer understanding of what the "theology" of the author's world mighty be.

And this would be a major positive point of it were not for this: it contradicts the point clearly made in the first book that the Fallen remember nothing. Maybe something has happened in the intervening years to change this; I do not know. (And since there are two intervening books that I have not read, it could well be possible.) But it felt like major inconsistency in world-building, and since world-building is the major strength of Aliette de Bodard's writing, this is a major issue,particularly since these memories are crucial to the plot of this story.

Helmet Reading Challenge: 11, 33, 49

Honest Citizen (short story) by Mikhail Zoshchenko - 3 stars

This amusing little piece by Soviet author Mikhail Zoshchenko takes the form of a letter from a self-described "honest citizen" to the militsya, denouncing his neighbour for the production of samogon (homebrew vodka). As the letter proceeds, our indignant informer thinks of quite a few other "harmful citizens" that he feels it is his patriotic duty to denounce.

Why is it funny? Because the aggrieved (and thirsty) motivations of the writer are painfully obvious...

Sigmund in a Café (short story) by Viktor Pelevin (trans. by Serge Winitzky) - 1.5 stars

I normally enjoy Viktor Pelevin's humour very much, but this story fell very flat for me. The joke, such as it was, seemed very labored.

I suspect the translation to be at fault. There were several sentences that were not actual English (e.g. waited until the waiter firmly held the ladder from aside, and started climbing up.)

Pelevin is part of the school of Russian writers who find humour in the use of words which have more than one meaning, where multiple of the possible meanings are relevant. Someone whose grasp of the target language is imperfect is almost certainly not up to the task of coping with double entendres in the original.

I had found this story on what I originally thought was the author's own website. It turned out, on further inspection, to be an extremely extensive fan site.

Well, that was a lesson in the importance of a good translator.

The Green Man's Foe (Book 2 of The Green Man's Heir) by Juliet McKenna - 4.5 stars
23/12/2020-24/12/2020

This series is definitely improving. The complaints that I had about The Green Man's Heir's use of mixed mythology did not apply here; this was all folklore firmly rooted in the English countryside.

Dan is now settling in Staffordshire, working on Eleanor's estate, thus appeasing the regards, so that she can go back to postgraduate study in Durham, when one of her relatives asks him to take on the project management of a country house being redeveloped in the Cotswolds, and converted into a hotel. Since this was the house that the Green Man showed him in a dream, along with the deathbed anxiety of its previous owner, he agrees.

Like in the previous book, Dan discovers that he has two problems to resolve. But this is not a "2 monsters in 1 locatio per book" formula; the tone here has shifted. As well as nature-related beings, there are ghosts and witchcraft. And witchcraft here comes in many guises, from the traditional old women, witch bottles, and things hidden in roofs, to black magic practitioners and the followers of Aleister Crowley, to neo-paganism. Tarot archetypes are also touched upon although the user made of those was rather unsatisfying.

The lore was accurately researched, as before. I have read a lot of English folklore, and the traditions described were accurate, not the author's invention. I once read a book about Aleister Crowley and Boleskine House (at the insistence of a colleague who was a Led Zeppelin fan), and the representation of his practices seemed similarly accurate although I doubt the portrayal of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn (under the thin disguise of the Ancient Oriental Temple of the Dawn) will please many Rosicrucians or Freemasons.

This did not feel a random mish-mash, like before. It dealt with English folk traditions and his such beings might interact with modern life.

I enjoyed this a lot, although some of my complaints from the first book still apply. Dan is still going on about (i) what a big guy her is and "I don't like to hurt people, but..." and (ii) far too much detail about the reactions of his genitals, complete with another detailed sex scene that does nothing to further the plot, just to reinforce his masculine prowess. (Whilst complaining (again) about how he does not like meaningless sex, without the context of a relationship, yet cannot get close to a girl because he cannot introduce her to his parents, he neverthess jumps into bed on the first date for - yes, a bit of meaningless, energetic sex.)

Also, oddly, he still seems to be describing every meal that he eats.

For anyone who is concerned with how the topic of witchcraft is handled: (MAJOR SPOILER)It is made clear that the "practitioner" does not actually know what he is doing; he is simply mixing various elements together. His goal is to gain influence over a group of vulnerable teenagers by creating a cult centred on himself. Neither actual black magic nor actual pagan worship takes place.

Helmet Reading Challenge: 7, 16, 30, 31, 33, 34, 35, 39

♪♪ A Morbid Taste for Bones: Book 1 of the Brother Cadfael Chronicles by Ellis Peters (narrated by Glyn Houston) - 2.5 stars
23/12/2020-28/12/2020

This was a 1990 recording of the first Brother Cadfael mystery, which I first read back in the eighties. As far as I could tell, it was not abridged.

The reader was the Welsh-speaking actor, Glyn Houston (full name Desmond Glyndwr Houston). Since the story was set largely in Wales, the choice was very apt; most of the monks from Shrewsbury Abbey were given slightly aristocratic English accents, but for the bulk of narration, as well as for the Welsh characters, his native Welsh accent was used. (Unlike in the audio dramatisation I listened to in November, of another Cadfael story, there was no dialogue actually in Welsh.)

I enjoyed the faithfulness to the historical setting, written by an author who understood that free or unfree was not a binary label of status, and that there was no resentment of the social order, even by those who were doing least well out of it. I particularly liked the portrayal of Sioned, as a young girl who was strong and resolute, whilst working within the constraints of the society in which she lived (rather than anachronistically chasing against them).

Although I only remembered the plot in terms of it being about the translation of St. Winifred's bones to the Abbey, I nevertheless found it easy to work out the culprit.

I still find that audiobooks are not the ideal medium for me. I was listening to this whilst carrying out other tasks, and frequently found myself having to rewind because I had stopped paying attention.

>112 -pilgrim-: your last paragraph is why I just don't do audiobooks. I have to pay twice as much attention and it really ruins the fun for me :-(

Do you think you're going to go through the whole series? I did a couple of years ago and by the end it was too much. I should have spaced them out better.

>113 BookstoogeLT: I actually read about 14 of them during a month of illness in about 1986. By the time I was well enough to go back to work, I had had enough of them.

I went back to the series during another period of severe pain and lack of ability to concentrate in the mid-nighties (starting at the beginning again).

So, I suspect whether I continue will depend on pain levels. The books that I love best are more complex and layered. But when I do not feel great, and want something simpler that requires less focus, the loving historical detail of these novels, combined with their emphasis on the good as well as the bad sides of human nature, is the sort of thing that I need.

But, as you may have noticed, I am usually reading multiple books simultaneously. I suspect that I will continue, but there will be plenty of other reading material mixed in.

There was a BBC TV series Cadfael in the early nineties, based on the books.

I happened to have just finished watching the first episode, which is "One Corpse Too Many" i.e. based on the second book of The Cadfael Chronicles (directed by Graham Theakston and adapted by Russell Lewis).

I rather enjoyed it. Unlike the other portrayals of Cadfael, Sir Derek Jacobi is not Welsh. But his portrayal conveyed Cadfael's warmth, kindliness and faith, song with his shrewdness and forcefulness when required. I also liked Sean Pertwee as Hugh Berengar.


But I now have the desire to read the book and find out in what ways the plot was adapted.

>116 -pilgrim-: I started to watch that series, then couldn't get past them changing the cast from episode to episode. I realize that's a british thing, but when I don't "recognize" Berengar from his face but have to learn all over again what he looks like, it throws my viewing off.

And with me watching so little, even the little things make a big difference.

>117 BookstoogeLT: Sounds like you got the episodes in random order.

As far as I know, they changed the actor between series 1 and 2 . Presumably the usual problem that if you get a big name actor for a drama series, you do not know whether it will be successful enough to make a second series, and meanwhile the actor contracts for other work.

>117 BookstoogeLT: Given that neither of us watch much TV, I am curious as to what you do watch.

>118 -pilgrim-: That wouldn't surprise me. I think a friend gave me a thumbdrive and the episodes were in alphabetical order? It was awhile ago though, so I might be misremembering.

>119 -pilgrim-: Macho man action movies :-D I tend to like stuff that I don't have to pay attention to. It is extremely rare for me to sit down and pay attention to the tv that I've fallen out of the habit of it. Even when I do my monthly movie reviews, I tend to end up watching the movie like 3 times to get it all because I'm always doing other stuff (mainly blogging related) at the same time. It just seems such a waste to JUST watch a movie :-D

>119 -pilgrim-: In a serious vein, I do tend to enjoy a wide variety of movies. The BBC and Dickens or Austen really works for me. I do tend to like the SFF movies or action movies. RED 1&2, Expendables 1-3, John Wick 1-3, Matrix, etc.

Then of course, I like the Bill and Ted trilogy. Man, those guys make me laugh.

And another (rare) post about what I have been watching: a BBC documentary on the life of C. S. Lewis. It was made in 2008, and presented by A. N. Wilson.

I was a little disconcerted when I saw that he was the presenter. I read his biography of C. S. Lewis when it was first published, in 1990. I have discussed before, with haydninvienna, my dislike of the "Lewis industry", in both its hagiographic form, and the converse. This was the book that caused me to swear off reading about Lewis. Its prurience over Wilson's suppositions about Lewis' "sadomasochism" (based on (i) Lewis' teenage letters to a boy of the same age in which they discussed wanting to "spank" a female contemporary who annoyed them & (ii) the snobbish assumption that only masochistic urges could have induced an "intellectual" like Lewis to spend his life with a woman who had no interest in such things), and the amount of space it devoted to speculation about what sex life Lewis was or was not having, was, I felt, more about Wilson's preoccupations than it was about Lewis.

However Wilson's tone had changed considerably over the intervening 18 years. It is perhaps not surprising that a television documentary would give more space to describing Lewis' more popular works, since people motivated to buy a biography can usually be expected to know something about its subject.

But, although it was structured around a thesis that the three pivotal moments in Lewis' life were the loss of the three women whom he loved: his mother, "Minto" Moore and Joy Davidman, it went no further into speculation about his sex life.

Instead it included an interview with an actress who had been placed with Mrs Moore as a wartime evacuee (who was introduced to Lewis without realising that "Jack" was in fact the author whom she idolised!), Joy's son Douglas, and the actor Robert Hardy, who had had Lewis as his tutor at Magdalen. Substituting descriptions from people who had known the women in question for speculation was much more interesting, with Wilson admitting that "whatever their relationship", Janey Moore gave the domestic stability that he needed, and that her motherly nature led her to make many informal "adoptions" over the years.

There was far less mean-spirited sniping here; as such I would recommend it for anyone who simply wants to get an overview of C.S. Lewis' life. (Although he did conclude by staying that although Lewis (he claimed) "presented himself as an intellectual...he was not".)

Since Wilson speculates about others, it seems acceptable to return the "favour": maybe it was his own loss of faith at around the time that he was writing Lewis' biography that made Wilson jealous of a man who had several times lost faith, but each time regained it.

>121 BookstoogeLT: There's nothing wrong with a good action film. :)

However these days, I find that they don't tend to hold my attention. Either they are all action and explosions and no plot, or the plot makes no sense as it was written (and rewritten) by committee - and I don't find the urge to scream at the screen "why are you doing that, you complete and total numbskull?" a terribly relaxing way to spend an evening!

I tend to watch a lot of Russian/ Ukrainian TV these days. Since my Russian is very far from fluent, this forces me to concentrate. (Hopefully improvement in that field will be a useful side-effect.)

Mind you the series that my lodger and I have been watching over the Christmas holidays - Detective Anna- is proving rather problematic. It is set in the 19th century, and is actually an interesting mixture of espionage and supernatural thriller. But unfortunately some of the writers have a rather superficial grasp of understanding the attitudes of the time (in rural Ukraine, schoolgirls who tried to summon the Devil would be in more terrible over that than as suspects in a murder of one of them, for example). Combine with some repeated stupidity on the part of either the hero and the heroine, it is currently generating its own degree of frustration (with either the historical accuracy of the casual breaches in propriety (from us both!))
https://youtu.be/QDlWteTB8e4

>120 BookstoogeLT: I would have thought that watching out of order, unless you are very familiar with both the books AND the history, would cause more problems than character identification! How did you keep straight at what stage various relationships were at, and what the current political situation was? I studied that war at school, and I certainly couldn't have done it by the date alone.

Books awaiting review from January: 1
Books awaiting review from February: 1
Books awaiting review from March: 1
Books awaiting review from April: 1
Books awaiting review from June: 4
Books awaiting review from October: 3

(Manuscript Tradition now reviewed in Spring 2020 thread.)

Apropos of >122 -pilgrim-:, I have just been listening to twhat is apparently the only one of C.S. Lewis' wartime radio broadcasts to have survived. The contents of those broadcasts were later gathered up into the essay collection Mere Christianity. (Here he was talking about (i) how God exists outside time and (ii) that concern about the state of one's own soul is not "selfish", since it is the piece of "equipment" that one is responsible for.)

What I was fascinated by was listening to the man's own voice. After the emphasis placed on his Ulster origins, his own recollections of how "foreign" English voices sounded to him as he was shipped off to school in England, and related references to how "hearty" and unassuming he seemed to those who had known him - Robert Hardy on first meeting had taken him for the gardener - I was startled by the reedy, upper middle class tones.

Whatever his origins, by this time Lewis' manner had assimilated completely into that of the intellectual Oxbridge don.

Any Way the Wind Blows (short story) by Seanan McGuire - 2.5 stars

This is a science fiction short story about an airship from the Cartography Corps, which travels between realities, mapping them.

It visits the Flatiron building in Manhattan, in our reality, the headquarters of Tor publishing, but the perspective is that of the visitors, who come from a city called New Amsterdam. The fact that the Flatiron building persists across many realities, and this appears to be of importance, although why is unknown, is an amusing conceit.

It is a nice gesture celebrating the publishing house, but is not particularly interesting. Maybe if I recognised the figures on the roof, I would feel differently.

A Frog Who Would A Wooing Go by Charles H. Bennett - 1 star

I was not sure what to expect, probably an extension of the poem that I remembered from my very early childhood. I opened this in a fit of nostalgia, remembering my mother singing it to me.

What I got was a short version of the poem, followed by a retelling of the story - in the vient Victorian version, with a strong moral of "obey your mother, because she knows best".

It seemed pretty pointless to me, as in no way improving on the song.

All was explained when I found another version online. Charles Henry Bennett was a Victorian illustrator, primary of children's books. The original book consists of illustrations, the "story" simply identifying the part of the take that is being illustrated in each picture.

So, beware of the Kindle edition. With the illustrations stripped out, it is pretty pointless!

The Frog Who Would A Wooing Go (picture book) by Charles H. Bennett - 2.5 stars

This, courtesy of Project Gutenberg, is the proper version of the book I reviewed above - complete with its illustrations.

The style reminded me very much of Punch cartoons of the period, which is not surprising when Charles Bennett was a regular contributor to the magazine, and on the Punch Council.

Fascinating, as a piece of history, but I would not give it to a modern child.

I love the Cadfael series, both TV version and books. Have not heard the dramatization yet. Derek Jacobi will always be Cadfael in my head, but I would like to hear a proper Welsh speaking one as well.

Signelil, a Tale from the Cornish, and Other Ballads by George Henry Borrow - 3 stars

After reading this, I went to look up the definition of ballad. These conform in the matter if rhyming scheme, and, I think, in metre. But their narratives were, on the whole, shorter than I would expect a ballad to be. (I certainly know a lot of longer ones.)

Signelil - the tale of a pregnant lady's maid, unusual in that it is a tale of premarital sex that ends happily;

A Tale from the Cornish - the best of the lot, this is an intriguing morality tale about a man who leaves Cornwall in search of work, leaving his wife behind - also, to my surprise, ending happily;

Sir Verner and Dame Ingeborg - the former a prisoner in "Linholm's house" awaiting random, the latter, apparently, the mistress of "the castle";

The Heddeby Soectre - a plea to the poet for revenge;

From Goudeli - a shepherd's lament that the shepherdess, Siris, does not return his affection;

Peasant Songs from Spain - two short religious pieces, one of which accuses the apostles (with the exception of St John the Baptist, who sends to be being counted as one of the Twelve) if being unveiling to die for Jesus, and the other describing how Jesus provided an means for "Havanah's dusky daughters" to cross the ocean in order to attend mass.

I am curious about the context and setting for the third piece. I suppose "Linholm's house" could be Lindholme prison in Doncaster, and there is Conisbrough Castle there; but what events gave birth to the ballad?

There is an editorial note to the Heddeby Spectre, pointing out that there was a completely different version published in 1828, and that Borrow explained the earlier version as "a paraphrase".

So Borrow does not seem to be claiming authorship of any of these poems. But are poems 3 and 4 translations or simply collections? Goudeli is in Greece, and the last songs are Spanish, so there is no reason to assume that they are Cornish.

Do they in fact refer to Hedeby and Lindholm in Denmark?

Borrow was a great traveller and natural linguist. He certainly visited France, Germany, Portugal, Spain, Russia amongst other places, and was planning to publish a collection of Scandinavian ballads in 1829.

My suspicion is that these are Danish rather than English.

And I am aware that there seems to be some suspicion about George Borrow's veracity; he seems to be one of the genus of 19th century writers who passed off their own creations as translations or discoveries. But I do not know why he has accrued such a reputation.

>130 MrsLee: There are two versions for you to choose from: Glyn Houston or Philip Madoc.

Having seen Philip Madoc in monastic robes, I would like to have seen him play Cadfael on TV too.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b03tt7k0/episodes/player

>111 -pilgrim-:
The Green Man’s Silence ebook is available on Amazon UK for 99p until clise of play on 31st Dec.

I am glad you like the Foe.

>133 pgmcc: Spotted, purchased and read - thank you (see first entry in this thread). And I enjoyed it nearly as much as Foe. I am just a little behind on my reviewing!

>134 -pilgrim-: Spot on.

The History of the Mayan Ball League by Matthew Hanlon - DNF

So dire that I thought I should post a warning. This is an extremely short, extremely weak attempt at humour. Its point, such as it is, is to write a fake account in the tones of an American sports fan.

♪♪One Corpse Too Many: Book 2 of The Cadfael Chronicles (abridged) by Ellis Peters (narrated by Glyn Houston) - 3 stars

This audiobook was 3 hours long, so it was still an abridged version. After watching the TV episode, as discussed in >116 -pilgrim-:, I decided to listen to this audiobook version.

Two conclusions:

Even though I love Sir Derek Jacobi as an actor, I prefer listening to Glyn Houston's sonorous tones;

the plot was more subtle, and more appropriate to its setting, than the TV drama was able to convey.
e.g.
- The corpses of the executed were not laid out with dignity - the monks had the awful task of disentangling mangled bodies that had simply been dropped from the castle walls when they were cut down.
- Godric's secret was revealed by actions, not by Cadfael being more observant than his brethren.
- The trial by combat - which was one of the most awful movie swordfights that I have seen for a long time, with the actors obviously having no conception of the weight that the real sword would have, and trying to wield a longsword as if it were a rapier! - was, in the book, a carefully described and plausible combat (which also took more than an hour).

Most importantly, a lot of motivation was lost. Hugh Berengar gave a long explanation to Stephen as to why he was coming to serve him, and why he was doing it now (and not before). Without that, I had found it odd that Stephen would hang all those who had opposed him, yet accept (even provisionally) a man whose friends he had just fought.

There was also a lot of lyrical description that naturally was missing from the televised version.

I can see why the TV director made the changes that they made. A lot of them definitely had to be made for the different requirements of a different medium.

But nevertheless, for me the audiobook was superior to TV dramatisation.

I suspect that I would probably rate the book itself even higher. I was having my usual problem with audiobooks, of lapses in concentration. However, having watched the TV version so recently meant that I was not compelled to rewind often. It this worked quite well as something that I could listen to whilst doing other things.

>137 -pilgrim-: "...which was one of the most awful movie swordfights that I have seen..."

Gene Wolfe, in his own inimitable fashion, snidely commented on how unrealistic action sequences in television and movies are often portrayed in Pirate Freedom. I just read it recently and the above section of your post reminded me of this passage from the book:

Somebody started screaming and there were three or four shots. I jumped up, felt around for my belt and pistols, and yelled for Mahu.

He was not there, just a guy with a cutlass coming for me. I could barely see him in the moonlight filtering through the trees and what was left of our little fire: a big guy with a dead-white sling for his pistols that jumped out at you. That, and I saw the gleam of his cutlass.

Just about then, I found mine. If this were TV or a movie he and I would have a big cutlass fight that would last long enough for somebody to go for popcorn, and for sure I would not kill him the same way I killed Yancy. This is real, and that is what happened. I grabbed a burning stick and stuck it in his face, and cut him down when he dodged it. I have never been really sure, but I think my blade must have caught the side of his neck.

After that four guys came for me, and I dropped my cutlass and ran away like a rat.

If I had been a hero I would have fought them and died. If I had been a superhero, I would have killed them all. I am not a hero and have never claimed to be. As for superheroes, that is a sandwich.

>138 ScoLgo: Have you ever read The Pyrates by George MacDonald Fraser? I have never been able to take pirate films seriously after that!

And your comment sent me down the rabbit hole of looking on YouTube for clips of my favourite realistically portrayed swordfights in films.

I love With Fire and Sword, and rewatch it regularly, but the duel between Michał Wołodyjowski and Andrzej Kmicic in The Deluge has got to be the best - it so perfectly portrays the differences in both skill and temperament of the two characters.

I think I am now going to have to include some Sienkiewicz for my reading in 2021...

Today I finished watching the TV dramatisation:

Cadfael: Monk's Hood, directed by Graham Theakston, adapted by Russell Lewis from the book by Ellis Peters, first broadcast in 1994.

I think I have worked out why BookstoogeLT's viewing was so disjointed, as mentioned in >117 BookstoogeLT:. The Cadfael TV series did not file the order of the books!

Monk's Hood was the third book that Ellis Peters wrote, but this was the fourth episode of the first season of the TV series.

Since the abbot of Shrewsbury changes in this episode, I have no idea how to compensate for that.

I found myself distracted by the "eighties hair" of the younger monks, and the glossy locks of the villein Ilfric. However, apartt from that, I think the dramatisation worked better this time (i.e. than Cadfael: One Corpse Too Many, discussed in >116 -pilgrim-:) - I still worked out the guilty party fairly early on, but the historical setting, including the different legal attitudes, were better worked into the narrative.

I did feel sorry for Brother Oswin, though.

And I felt the episode ended too soon - both in that Hugh made a remarkably rapid recovery from his injury, and I wanted to know the fate of the sergeant. After all, he has both shot an innocent man and disobeyed a direct order from the Deputy Sheriff. Was this simply ignored?

I also felt that Brother Cadfael was grossly irresponsible in leaving Hugh wounded and then going where he did. If he had misjudged the murderer, then he would have died - and there would have been no one competent to treat Beringar. Was this a clumsiness in the adaptation, or was he that arrogant and foolhardy in the book?

I cannot agree with Prior Robert that the possible execution of an innocent man is unimportant; I think that by preventing evidence reaching the deputy sheriff, he would be guilty "in the eyes of God", and maybe in the courts of the period as well, of manslaughter, through the obstruction of justice. But I felt that his summary of Cadfael's faults was completely accurate, on the evidence of this episode.

Goya (poem) by Andrey Voznesensky - 4 stars

I read this both in Russian and English translation. I don't think it can really be read otherwise, the structural rhythm of to strong. Each verse begins "Я - го..."

It is angry war poetry. The poet identifies with the suffering of the Soviet people, but also their defiance of the invader.

I found it extremely powerful.

>139 -pilgrim-: I have not but will keep an eye out for it. The description and online reviews of the book sound delightful. Thanks for the recommendation.

>132 -pilgrim-: I will never get my current book finished before the new year with this sort of distraction! Thank you, I am enjoying it.

>140 -pilgrim-: Like you, I recall how disruptive it was that the Cadfael series didn't follow the order of the books. OTOH, at least initially, I was there primarily to watch Derek Jacobi. It took me a while to get into the books, but once I did, I sped through the whole series. (That was back in the days before LT existed and when New York City still had multiple and wonderful bookstores to browse.)

December Summary

Average rating: 2.79

31 fiction:
Novels: 4 urban fantasy, 2 children's fantasy, 1 historical crime fiction, 1 romantic fiction
Novella: 1 historical fiction
Novelette: 1 urban fantasy
Short stories: 5 urban fantasy, 4 satire, 1 experimental, 1 historical fiction, 3 children's fables, 1 literary fiction, 1 romantic fiction, 1 historical satire, 1 romantic fantasy, 1 science fiction

1 short story anthology: 1 urban fantasy

7 non-fiction:
3 short autobiographical essays, 1 essay, 1 political history

2 poetry

Original language: 26 English, 11 Russian, 1 Cornish, Danish, Greek & Spanish

Earliest date of first publication: 1817 (Persuasion)
Latest: 2020 (The Green Man's Silence)

20 website, 9 Kindle, 3 audiobooks, 2 paperbacks

Authors: 10 female, 9 male
Author nationality: 8 British, 4 American, 4 Russian, 2 French, 1 Israeli
New (to me) authors: 11 (8 familiar)

Most popular book on LT: A Wrinkle in Time (31,297)
Least popular: Philip Purser-Hallard's, Tasha Karluka's, or Viktor Pelevin's short stories/The Galosh (short story)/Goya (poem) (only me) (only me)/Trojans (6)

No. of books read: 38
From Mount TBR (books owned before 2020): 2
Books owned before joining Green Dragon: 1
No. of books acquired: 9 (1 physical, 7 eBooks)
No. of books disposed of: 11
Expenditure on books: £7.96

Best Book of December: Trojans
Worst Book of December: Tableaux (short story)/A Wrinkle in Time

The total for December may look impressive at first glance, but the reality is less so. I have been without my own Internet access throughout December and thus relying on borrowing someone else's device for both LT access and Kindle reading. The latter aspect made me reluctant to start long books on a device that I do not own.

Hence this month has been filled with a lot of short stories, poems and novella.

The actual total of full books is around 11 (depending on how you feel about essays and poetry collections).

For the same reason, I have got rather behind in my book reviewing:

Books awaiting review from January: 1
Books awaiting review from February: 1
Books awaiting review from March: 1
Books awaiting review from April: 1
Books awaiting review from June: 4
Books awaiting review from October: 3
Books awaiting review from December: 9

Series Completed in 2020

DFZ by Rachel Aaron: 1-3
Dragon Blood by Lindsay Buroker: P, 1-8
Heritage of Power by Lindsay Buroker: 1-5
The Devices Trilogy by Philip Purser-Hallard: 1-3

All except Dragon Blood were begun in 2020.

Series up to date as of 2020

Paul Samson by Henry Porter: 1-2
The Hitman's Guide by Alice Winters: 1-2
Tom Mondrian by Ross Armstrong: 1
The Folk of the Air by Holly Black: 1-3
The Green Man's Heir by Juliet E. McKenna: 1-3

All except The Folk of the Air were begun in 2020.

>150 -pilgrim-: Same to you, doubled!

>150 -pilgrim-: Best wishes for 2021!

Happy new year!

Happy new year! I hope it is better than the last one in every way.

Happy New Year, -pilgrim-! I'm going to second >154 Sakerfalcon:'s hopes for your year ahead.

>150 -pilgrim-: A day or two late to the game, but wishing you a better twelve months ahead!

Happy New Year!

Thank you >151 haydninvienna:, >152 YouKneeK:, >153 Narilka:, >154 Sakerfalcon:, >155 clamairy:, >156 jillmwo: & >157 NorthernStar:.
A Happy New Year to you too.

Happy New Year, in case I hadn't said that already.

The Little Russian Servant by Henri Gréville - 2.5 stars

This was quite an odd little book. Henri Gréville was the pseudonym of a Frenchwoman who wrote prolifically, but, as far as I can find out, only in French. Yet the eBook that I read was taken from "Neely's Booklet Series" (No. 24), June 12, 1899 issue - with no indication that it is in translation.

Alice Fleury accompanied her father to St. Petersburg, married a French professor whilst she was living there, then returned to France with him, as Alice Durand. Whilst in Russia and in France she wrote stories, often on Russian life.

Although serfdom had been abolished by the time this book was published, it is evident that the heroine is the daughter of a serf, who had been sent away from her village to a Countess, in payment of her father's obrok. (i.e. as a serf, he has made an agreement with his master whereby be can go where he likes, and work however he wishes, as long as he sends the agreed payment to his master, in lieu of his services. He appears to be sending his daughter's labour as payment in kind (not an arrangement that I have heard of before).)

At first she is lonely away from her village, but then she likes working there, and the Countess likes her, and admires her skill in embroidery. And then the handsome young master returns...

I could see all sorts of bad melodramatic ways this story could go. Or, alternatively, a "fairy tale" romance... It does neither. Everyone is kind to the girl. She no longer misses her family, in fact she is sad when sent back to her mother.

This is the story of a happy, contented life.

I could not make up my mind whether the author envied her character her "simplicity", or judged her for not wanting the things that she "ought" to have wanted. There seemed to be a slightly patronising tone, and suggestion that the ordinary Russian people are somehow different from the rest of humanity.

Is there an overtone that she should not have been content with "so little"? Certainly much is made of the abundant wealth of the Countess in comparison to what she has. Given the American publication I did wonder if the there was an undercurrent of republican hostility to such inequality. But the girl is never hungry, or overworked (as, realistically, many servants in that era were, whether their countries were monarchies or republics). No one is unkind.

And a life in which she is never forced to do anything that she did not wish to, and spent doing what makes her happy, and is loved (one assumes) in return.

Really, is she not more blessed than most of us?

Books awaiting review from January: 1
Books awaiting review from February: 1
Books awaiting review from March: 1
Books awaiting review from April: 1
Books awaiting review from June: 4
Books awaiting review from October: 3
Books awaiting review from December: 8

The Barbarism of Berlin by G. K. Chesterton - 2.5 stars

This extensive political essay was fascinating to read, but very hard to rate. Published in 1914, It explodes a lot of myths about attitudes in Britain immediately prior to the First World War - and reveals some others.

Firstly, Chesterton is not addressing a jingoistic audience, eager to fight. His first section is about why the war is necessary.

In doing this he relies on the simple necessity of keeping one's word, and honouring a treaty which one, as a nation, had signed to protect another. This he buttresses with the self-interest sense that (i) you cannot ally with a neighbour who says "let me break this treaty with Belgium, and I will make a new one with you" with any expectation of their treating the new treaty as being any more binding than the first and (ii) of you acquiesced in the first betrayal, then you cannot expect help when you are yourself betrayed.

This is an old-fashioned argument as to why an ethical foreign policy is of benefit to those who practice it.

He then argues to refute pacifism, on the ground that the analogy with the individual (that "more violence is not the solution") falls down because there is no requirement of"the police" that a victim nation can appeal to for justice.

And the "barbarism of Berlin"? This is not the atrocity list that I was expecting. Chesterton acknowledges that some of the reports of German atrocities are true, and that some are propaganda or scare-mongering. More importantly, he acknowledges that atrocities are what happens during a war - and that they are committed by all sides. He may think this war is necessary, but Chesterton is scathing about those who claim that war is glorious or desirable.

What Chesterton is referring to as "barbarism" is an ideology that rejects all the norms of Western civilization.

Chesterton sees civilization as the establishment of norms of social interaction, that respect human rights, and provide non-violent mechanisms of conflict resolution, "the rule of law" and so on.

What he calls "barbaric" is what he describes as the "Prussian" ideology - as developed by certain Prussian professors whom he names - that the Germans, being a superior race, are not bound by the rules that apply to inferior races, and their "superiority" entitles them to more. Being the strongest nation in Europe, they are "entitled" to rule it.

The Prussian innovation consists of:

a desire to destroy two ideas, the twin root ideas of rational society. The first is the idea of record and promise: the second is the idea of reciprocity.

He is respectful of German culture and history. The attack is aimed at an ideology, not a people.

The other opposition that Chesterton is trying to refute is that in allying with the Russian Empire - whose atrocities, particularly in suppressing Polish revolt, were evidently also popularly well-known - Britain is simply choosing between "barbarians".

Chesterton's answer to that is that whilst the brutality of Russian law, and lawlessness, at times is unarguable, that is a hangover from their feudal past, not a goal. Both nations may be committing cruelties, but Russia is doing so less than in their past, whilst Germany is doing it as a policy - "Positive Barbarism" - the idea that such actions are an evolution in behaviour, not a regression.

By adopting this as his grounds for distinction, he therefore places Prussian racial theory at the centre of this argument.

He also discusses the rights of women here. In his view, Americans treat women with respect, by considering them equals, and Frenchmen treat women with respect by revering them, but "only" Germans treat women as inferiors, because they are weaker.

I found this part of the essay a fascinating attack on fascist ideology, written decades before it had that name. It seemed addressed to the Europe of the 1930s, not 1914.

As such, I wondered why it was not better known; the reason for this became clear in the second section.

Here Chesterton argues from ignorance. By basing his reasoning on false promises, he really shoots himself in the foot.

Firstly he mocks the Prussian obsession with blond hair, blue eyes and pale skin - then buttresses it with the claim that "only the white man" makes racial comparisons amongst his own group, or calculates gradations of paleness within it.

Men of two tribes in Africa not only know that they are all men, but can understand that they are all black men. In this they are quite seriously in advance of the intellectual Prussian; who cannot be got to see that we are all white men.

Now this is simply wrong. Africans are not homogeneous, and different groups differ in appearance - and have been known to judge one another on that basis. Likewise there are racist stereotypes between Asian nations and peoples, and skin colour and physiognomy is frequently part of that.

In this section it would be hard to call Chesterton racist. He is explicitly arguing that although the customs of Asiatic peoples may seem strange, and brutal, they are civilised in a way that these new German ideas are not - because they understand and operate on the fundamental principles that Chesterton sees as underlying as society - reciprocity and promise. I.e. the conclusion to apply the same obligations to oneself as to others, and that contracts are binding. And therefore, he argues, the should be no objection in treating them as allies.

Yet he does take as an automatic assumption that there is such a thing as "race"; having argued about the fallacy of trying to make racial distinctions between white peoples, he talks of "white", "black" and "yellow" races as being distinct - and takes for granted the idea that no one from one category would want to intermarry with another.

I also found references to "the inhuman Chinaman" extremely uncomfortable. But the legal system of Imperial China, with is emphasis on collective familial responsibility, is very alien to Western concepts regarding individual rights and responsibilities, and thus the rule of law there would seem strange and cruel. The fear of China may feel odd, but it recognises that Imperial China was a mighty state, with significant power, and a very different set of values.

Chesterton's basic argument is based on a firm belief in the equality and brotherhood of all men, even from very different cultures. He is quite explicit that this applies to all skin colours equally.

His views that some peoples (at the time of his writing) were more "civilised" than others, may sound culturally relativistic - but his actual definition of what being "civilised" consists of, is refreshingly non-specific to his own culture. (ETA: The context is that there should be no objection to involving Sikh or African troops, since they share our civilised values - unlike the Germans we are jointly fighting against.)

In whole, this is extremely well-argued. Its recognition of fascist ideology in the Prussian input into Imperial Germany was fascinating. Its global perspective was impressive.

But some ill-chosen phrases made one cringe at times, and where he argues from false cultural suppositions, where he seems to be quite ill-informed, he actually damages his arguments worry badly.

(Note: I doubt that his comparison of German women's status as being unique was any more accurate than his understanding of African and Asian attitudes!)

ETA: In The Strange Career of Jim Crow by C. Vann Woodward states that theories of racial inferiority or superiority were first developed in the 1880s-1890s. This might explain why they appear to have been so prevalent (or at least noticeable) in Prussian academic circles, and influencing German foreign policy (as Chesterton claims).

Books awaiting review from January: 1
Books awaiting review from February: 1
Books awaiting review from March: 1
Books awaiting review from April: 1
Books awaiting review from June: 4
Books awaiting review from October: 3
Books awaiting review from December: 7

>162 -pilgrim-: I found your commentary very interesting.

>164 pgmcc: Thank you Peter (I think!)
As usual, trying to review a political text neutrally is difficult. I was attempting to give a taste of the directions in which Chesterton was going.

Chesterton is an author whom I usually enjoy, even though I often spend 50% of my time agreeing and 50% mentally going "Hang on! What about.."

There were sections here that were the worst-argued that I have ever seen from him.

But the main points that I got from it were:

the views Chesterton is espousing here are a long way from those he is popularly represented as having;

one cannot know how typical his views were, but by looking at the opposition arguments that he was attempting to forestall, it gave a good idea of what currents there were in popular opinion that did oppose the War;

I was surprised how much the justifications that he gave for the First World War resembled those usually made regarding the Second.

As usual, my rating represents how well-expressed I thought the author's views were, and are not a measure of my agreement or disagreement.

>165 -pilgrim-: I think your commentary on the content is neutral and non-promotional for any particular line of political thought.

Your little disclaimer at the end is a nice touch. :-) It will not keep you out of prison though.

>166 pgmcc: От тюрьмы и от сумы не зарекайся.

(Russian proverb - You did ask for more language puzzles...) :)

>167 -pilgrim-: I do not see much opportunity for gaining more income and I hope the evidence has not been found that could convict me.

>167 -pilgrim-: You did ask for more language puzzles...

ETA: Я?

>168 pgmcc: Is that your translation or your reply to it?

>169 pgmcc: Так точно!
https://www.librarything.com/topic/312253#6948461

>170 -pilgrim-: It is my reply to Google's translation.

>171 -pilgrim-: Я ем свои собственные слова.

How is Google doing?

>172 pgmcc: The сума is a beggar's bag (not money, in this context).

Echoing Croesus: call no man happy while he yet lives.

No one can say that they can avoid poverty or prison. (Russian thought saw no correlation between actual guilt and likelihood of imprisonment.)

Interesting. So, I shall have to move to Watson for translation alternatives. :-)

>173 pgmcc: Понял.
I hadn't actually heard that proverb in Russian before, but Ем свои слова may actually exist as a phrase in Russian.

>175 pgmcc: Watson?

>177 -pilgrim-: IBM’s big AI.

>178 pgmcc: If Watson speaks vernacular Russian, should we be worried?

I posted on the translation thread some interesting reports on issues with Google Translate.

>173 pgmcc:, >175 pgmcc: Checked with a friend whose Russian is better than mine. He has only heard it as a threat - (I'll make you) eat your words! - never as a voluntary offer.

About Myself, Ideology and Other Things by Mikhail Zoshchenko - 3 stars

This was written in 1922.

Here Zoshchenko openly mocks the requirement that a write should be ideologically sound.

I'll say this about myself: I'm not a communist, I'm not an S-R, I'm not a monarchist; I'm simply a Russian. And moreover--politically immoral.

It is gay and whimsical, even if - probably deliberately - rather alarming about the instability of the times, being written during the Civil War.

Here is a dry table of the events in my life:

arrested -- 6 times,
sentenced to death -- 1 time;
wounded -- 3 times;
committed suicide -- 2 times;
got beaten up -- 3 times;

All this happened not because of adventurism, but "just like that"--no luck.

This was written just after the publication of his first book, and should probably been viewed as a publicity piece, showcasing his style amidst the actual facts.

The Serapion brothers, a literary discussion group of which Zoshchenko was a member, was founded in 1922. This can perhaps also be a short of manifesto for its ideology: that a writer should not be bound by ideological considerations.

Books awaiting review from January: 1
Books awaiting review from February: 1
Books awaiting review from March: 1
Books awaiting review from April: 1
Books awaiting review from October: 3
Books awaiting review from December: 6

About Myself (short essay) by Mikhail Zoshchenko - 3 stars
20/12/2020

It is interesting to compare this autobiographical essay, which was published in 1927, when Zoshchenko was well known as a writer, with About Myself, Ideology and Other Things, written five years earlier.

The light, self-deprecating humour is still there, but the content is more careful. He obfuscates, with a joke, the details of his origins, which are insufficiently proletarian. And whilst laughing at the range of jobs he has held, he is also making clear what a good Soviet proletarian he is - including both military service and a skilled manual trade.

And though positioning himself as now a career writer, he is careful not to seen elitist, by describing it as follows:

It seems this will be the last profession in my life. I'm sorry that I stopped on this profession.

It's a very bad profession, the devil take it! The worst of the twelve that I know.

It is a masterpiece demonstrating how an intelligent man tried to navigate the minefield of politically correct attitudes that were necessary for survival in public life in the Soviet Union.

>184 -pilgrim-: Not the approach taken by Vladimir Voinovich.

Autobiography (short essay) by Mikhail Zoshchenko - 2.5 stars
20/12/2020

This essay was written by Zoshchenko in July 1953.

Having been expelled from the Union of Soviet Writers after the Zhdanov denunciation in 1946, he was unable to publish and thus deprived of his livelihood. Since ill health prevented him from performing the heavy manual labour that was the only employment available to him, he has been living in extreme poverty, supporting himself by translating.

He was readmitted to the Union a month before he wrote this. There is nothing witty here. It is a soberly factual account of his life, presenting the facts in a manner to demonstrate his service to his country. Of course, he has to explain his absence from public life by referring to his expulsion, and of course he does not dare criticise the decision that took years from his life.

By this time he had been severely criticised for not serving in the military during the Great Patriotic War (WWII), despite being medically unfit, so he places a lot of emphasis on his earlier military service, for which he has volunteered - both in World War I and for the Red Army in the Civil War.

He is completely on the defensive here, with no room for humour. Seeing a man who had so wittily and ably defended his history in his previous autobiographical statements thus crushed was sobering reading. The comparison is telling.

>185 pgmcc: Voinovich was writing in a much less dangerous era. But what was his approach?

>187 -pilgrim-: When you have read his books you will know.

>188 pgmcc: Is The Fur Hat about him then? Chonkin is evidently not, since he was 2 when the war started.

Books awaiting review from January: 1
Books awaiting review from February: 1
Books awaiting review from March: 1
Books awaiting review from April: 1
Books awaiting review from October: 3
Books awaiting review from December: 4