Charlotte (Charl08) swims with the penguins (6)

I'm Charlotte, I'm dipping my toe into the Category Challenge for the first time this year after a couple of years in the 75ers.
I enjoy reading a wide range of books, from romance and crime fiction to literary fiction, not to mention non-fiction (although less of that). I try to read fiction from different places, and in 2020 joined an online book group that just reads translated fiction.

I am keen on penguins, both of the publishing and bird kind. Inspired by a recent documentary I'm organising my categories by penguin type - but advance warning, it gets pretty tangential.


Photo by Long Ma on Unsplash

Galapagos penguin (fiction ETA and NF in translation) 38
African penguin (books by authors with links to the African continent, loosely defined) 8
Yellow-eyed penguin (Keeping things interesting i.e. first time authors) 12
Chinstrap penguin (Graphic novels and memoirs) 23
Little penguin (Familiar faces - authors I've read before) 13
King penguin (books with links to feminism) 4
Great auk (histories) 5
Southern Rockhopper penguin (new-to-me authors) 17
Adelie penguin (prize nominees) 14
Macaroni penguin (genre fiction) 114
Emperor penguin (catch all category - everything else) 12

November 9 (Total 260)
October 14 (251)
September 27 ( 237)
August 24 (210)
July 25 (186)
June 23 (161)
May 25 (138)
April 31 (113)
March 29 (82)
Feb 29 (53)
Jan 24

All images via wikipedia unless otherwise stated.

Galapagos penguin (fiction and NF in translation)



1. The Inspector of Strange and Unexplained Deaths (France)
2. Sidewalks (Translated from the Spanish, although author now writes in English and is based in the US)
3. London under snow (Catalan)
4. The Eighth Life (German)
5. Zero (Norwegian)
6. House on Endless Waters (Hebrew)
7. Not a Novel (German)
8. Abigail (Hungarian)
9. Paula (German)
10. Bookshops (Spanish)
11. The Book of Jakarta (Indonesian)
12. If I Had Your Face (Korean)
13. Crocodile Tears (Spanish - Uruguay)
14. Nordic Fauna (Swedish)
15. Slash and Burn (Spanish - El Salvador)
16. Snapping Point (Turkish)
17. Havana Year Zero (Spanish - Cuba)
18. The Slaughterman's Daughter (Hebrew - Israel)
19. Tomorrow They Won't Dare to Murder Us (French)
20. All Men Are Liars (Spanish: Argentina)
21. Vivian (Danish)
22. Distant Sunflower Fields (Mandarin: China)
23. Childhood: the Copenhagen Trilogy: 1 (Danish)
24. The Gold-rimmed Spectacles (Italian)
25. The Disappearance of Stephanie Mailer (French: Switzerland)
26. Fresh Water for Flowers (French)
27. The Library of Unrequited Love (French)
28. Elena Knows (Spanish: Argentina)
29. The Basel Killings (Switzerland)
30. The Blacksmith's Daughter (German)
31. Forty Lost Years (Catalan)
32. Sweet Bean Paste (Japanese)
33. A Bookshop in Algiers (French / Algeria)
34. Eyes of the Rigel (Norwegian)
35. What You Can See From Here (German)
36. Love in Five Acts (German)
37. Winter Flowers (French)
38. Tonight is Already Tomorrow (Italian)

Books from the shelves to be read

The Enlightenment of the Greengage Tree (Iran)
In the Twilight: stories (Russia)
Ankomst

African penguin (books by authors with links to the African continent, loosely defined)


Photo by Lizel Snyman De Gouveia on Unsplash

1. Adua (Author is Italian-Somali)
2. Girl Called Eel (Author born in Comoros, based in France)
3. Transcendent Kingdom (Author is Ghanaian-American)
4. Lightseekers (Nigerian author)
5.La Bastarda (author from Equatorial Guinea)
6. Speak No Evil (author lives in Lagos/ New York)
7. The Fortune Men (author is British/ Somali)
8. The Promise (South Africa)
9.
10.
11.
12.

Possible reads from my shelves:
To Hell with Cronje
Kicking Tongues (African Writers Series)
Segu
Occasion for Loving (VMC)
Dust
Homegoing
The Loss Library
This Mournable Body
Orchestra of Minorities

Yellow-eyed penguin (Keeping things interesting i.e. first time authors)


Had never come across these penguins before until I saw the BBC documentary last week.

1. Strange Beasts of China
2. Citadel (Poetry)
3. Keeper
4. Greetings from Bury Park
5. These Ghosts are Family
6. The Private Joys of Nnenna Maloney
7. A Dutiful Boy
8. How the One-Armed Sister Sweeps Her House
9. A Net for Small Fishes
10. The Sweetness of Water
11. The Conductors
12. Missing Words

Possible reads from my shelves:
Kintu
Love and Other Thought Experiments

Chinstrap penguin (Graphic novels and memoirs)



(Photo by Eamonn Maguire on Unsplash)
Because these penguins seem to appreciate graphic design...
1. Strong Female Protagonist
2. Britten and Brülightly
3. The Golden Age: Book 1
4. Ms Marvel : Stormranger
5. Palimpsest: documents from a Korean adoption
6. Petty Theft
7. Taxi! Stories from the back seat
8. Couch Fiction (2020 edition)
9. Shadow Life
10. I Know What I Am
11. Moms
12. In: a Graphic Novel
13. Teen Titans: Raven
14. Ms Marvel: Army of One
15. Sad Ghosts Club
16. The Secret to Superhuman Strength
17. Hole in the Heart
18. I Parrot
19. Josephine
20. YuanYuan's Bubbles
21. The Village Teacher
22. Bad Island
23. Kinderland: a childhood in Berlin

Possible reads from my shelves:
On Ajayi Crowther Street

Little penguin (Familiar faces - authors I've read before)


Saw some of these guys at Phillip Island, about a million years ago now (it feels like).
1. The Haw Lantern
2. More than a Woman
3. Why Be Happy When You Can Be Normal?
4. The Pull of the Stars
5. Deacon King Kong
6. Hullabaloo in the Guava Orchard
7. The Galaxy and the Ground Within
8. The Silver Collar
9. Daughters of Night
10. American Mules
11. Light Perpetual
12. Whereabouts
13. The Constant Rabbit

Possible reads from the shelves: Divisadero
Summer
Rodham
Underground Railroad

King penguin (books with links to feminism and gender)


King penguin creche
1. Hag: forgotten folktales retold
2. Laura Knight
3. Eileen Agar
4. What Comes Naturally
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.

On the shelves
Invisible Women
Voyaging Out

Great auk (histories)


1. The Berlin shadow : living with the ghosts of the Kindertransport
2. The Emperor's Feast
3. Molotov's Magic Lantern
4. A Fatal Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum
5. Stranger in the Shogun's City
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.

Currently reading:
Burning the Books

From the shelves to read
Last Witnesses
Endeavour
Black and British
A Handful of Shells: West African History
The Bad Ass Librarians of Timbuktu

From the library to read:
Mutual Admiration Society

Southern Rockhopper penguin (new-to-me authors)


1. Interior Chinatown
2. Akhmatova: Poems
3. Blue in Chicago and other stories
4. Hieroglyphics
5. The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue
6. The Cold Millions
7. Unsettled Ground
8. Incomparable World
9. 13 Ways of Looking at a Fat Girl
10. Out of the Easy
11. Bright Dead Things
12.The Fat Lady Sings
13. Northern Spy
14. Asylum Road
15. Outlawed
16. Heating & Cooling: 52 Micro Memoirs
17. Stories of your life and others

Possible reads from the shelves/ library requests:
How Beautiful We Were

Adelie penguin (prize nominees)


1. The Bells of Old Tokyo (shortisted for Stanford Dolman Travel Book of the Year)
2. The Historians: poetry (winner of the Costa Prize poetry category)
3. A Village Life (Louise Glück won the Nobel for Literature 2020)
4. Luster (Women's Prize Longlist 2021)
5. Piranesi (Women's Prize Longlist 2021)
6. The Vanishing Half (Women's Prize Longlist 2021)
7. No one is Talking About This (Women's Prize Longlist 2021)
8. Detransition, Baby (Ditto)
9. The Night Watchman (Pulitzer Fiction )(2021)
10. Second Place (Booker Longlist 2021)
11. A Town Called Solace (Booker Longlist 2021)
12. The Undocumented Americans (National Book Award Finalist)
13. Great Circle (Booker 2021 shortlist)
14. A Passage North (Booker 2021 shortlist)

Possible Prize winners to read:
Booker 2021 longlist ones I want to read:

A Passage North by Anuk Arudpragasam (Sri Lankan) out from the library.
The Promise by Damon Galgut (South African) out from the library
An Island by Karen Jennings (South African)
China Room by Sunjeev Sahota (British)
Via
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2021/jul/27/booker-prize-reveals-globe-spannin...

Macaroni penguin - genre fiction

Macaroni penguins are the most numerous penguin (according to wikipedia!)
For the full list 1-69 see previous threads.

70. Still Life (c)
71. Love Story, With Murders (c)
72. Isn't it Bromantic? (r)
73. Hands Down (r)
74. The Royal Secret (c)
75. Welcome to Temptation (r) plus (c)
76. Charming Puck (r)
77. Bet Me (r)
78. Tell Me Lies (r)
79. Puck series: 5 (r)
80. Grumpy Player Next Door (r)
81. Riley Thorn and the Corpse in the Closet (c/r)
82. Who Watcheth (c)
83. Crazy for You (r)
84. The Cinderella Deal (r)
85. Man Hunting (r)
86. Fast Women (r/c)
87. Unexpected (r)
88. Battle Royal (r)
89. Anyone but You (r)
90. In the Month of the Midnight Sun (c)
91. Cold as Hell (c) (in translation)
92. Charlie all night (r)
93. What the Lady Wants (r)
94. City of Ghosts (c)
95. Always Only You (r)
96. A Corruption of Blood (c)
97. Strange Bedpersons (f)
98. Faking It (c/r)
99. The Ex Hex (r)
100. The Monastery Murders (c) audio
101. The Newcomer (r/c)
102. Tools of Engagement (r)
103. The Heron's Cry (c)
104. All Rhodes Lead Here (r)
105. The Wall of Winnipeg (r)
106. Savannah Blues (r/c)
107. Clark and Division (c)
108. Miss Miranda Cheever (r)
109. The Night Singer (c)
110. Wait for it (r)
111. The Dead of Winter (c) audio
112. Mistress of the Art of Death (c/r)
113. Babylon Berlin (c)
114. A Rogue in Winter (r)

Emperor penguin - ruling over everything else



1. A Rustle of Silk (audio)
2. From Crime to Crime (Law, Memoir)
3. I carried a Watermelon (Memoir, humour)
4. All the Young Men (Memoir)
5. Life Mask (Poetry)
6. Being Heumann (Memoir/Disability activism)
7. When We Rise (Memoir/LGBT activism)
8. Many Different Kinds of Love (poetry/ health)
9. Surfacing (nature writing)
10. Pandora's Jar (classics)
11. Algiers: third world capital (memoir)
12. On Seamus Heaney (bio/ lit crit)

Booker list- still to read
A Passage North by Anuk Arudpragasam (Sri Lankan)
The Promise by Damon Galgut (South African)
Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro (British)
An Island by Karen Jennings (South African)
Bewilderment by Richard Powers (American)
China Room by Sunjeev Sahota (British)
Great Circle by Maggie Shipstead (American)

Read (in order of preference)
A Town Called Solace by Mary Lawson (Canadian)
The Sweetness of Water by Nathan Harris (American)
Light Perpetual by Francis Spufford (British)
The Fortune Men by Nadifa Mohamed (British/Somali)
No One Is Talking About This by Patricia Lockwood (American)
Second Place by Rachel Cusk (British/Canadian)

Shortlist is due in two weeks.
https://thebookerprizes.com/fiction/2021

>11 charl08: I am waiting for the shortlist, although I have read Klara and the Sun and am waiting for a library hold for Great Circle. My library just doesn't have most of them yet!

>12 JayneCM: My library did very well (especially after I requested half of them - I think it helps that the Booker list comes out in the first third of the financial year) Realistically I think I will probably only get to the ones I have on the shelf now.

From those I've read, I really hope that A Town Called Solace and The Sweetness of Water get shortlisted.

Happy new one, Charlotte.

Happy new thread!

Happy new thread, and hello again excellent penguins!

>13 charl08: I'm very impressed that you've read so many. I have a few in my various TBRs (Kindle purchases, Netgalleys, library loans in print and eloans) but I'm still rather spoiled for choice, including my ridiculous numbers of borrowed books.

Happy new one, Charlotte! I really like how you have all your stats together up there in >1 charl08:. I'm going to keep this in mind for next year, as it's lovely to see at a glance how many you have read in each category.

I have Second Place, Klara and the Sun, and The Sweetness of Water out from the library. Also The Secret to Superhuman Strength, which I added to The List after reading your thoughts on it.

happy new thread!

Happy new thread Charlotte!

I just finished another Netgalley read, and as I discovered that I have a Netgalley review copy of The Sweetness of Water a few days ago, I just started reading it tonight. So I will have read at least part of one longlisted title by the time the shortlist comes out. Not likely to catch up with you though!

Happy New Thread, Charlotte! I hope the week is off to a good start.

Happy new thread, Charlotte!

Hello to you and your new thread!

Happy new thread, Charlotte. Good to see that your mum is doing better. I hope that you and your dad are still symptom free.

>14 katiekrug: Thanks Katie. Hope the rest of the week's PT sessions go well.

>15 Helenliz: Thanks Helen.

>16 Jackie_K: They are excellent. I have been looking at Arctic (Antarctic?) cruises that promise views of them. Not sure I could handle the seasickness though.

>17 elkiedee: >21 elkiedee: Very handy to get an ARC for that one. Lucky you!

>18 Crazymamie: I think I picked up the Bechdel after reading Ellen's review of it. I do like how we all are passing on the (bookish) favour!

>19 banjo123: Thanks Rhonda.

>20 humouress: Thanks Nina.

>22 msf59: Thanks, Mr Newly-minted-grandpa.

>23 FAMeulstee: Thanks Anita.

>24 mdoris: Thanks Mary.

>25 Familyhistorian: Thanks Meg. So far, so good. I think it will be the schools going back after the summer break (this week) that will prove interesting for our rates.

Goals for September Reading

Well, I don't usually do this, but I'm keen to move on with some of my slower categories. At the same time I'd like to move some books off the "currently reading" pile.
Some of these should be more accurately described as in the "put down and forgotten about" pile.

History
Burning the Books: A History of the Deliberate Destruction of Knowledge by Richard Ovenden

Africa? History? Gender?
Algiers, Third World Capital: Freedom Fighters, Revolutionaries, Black Panthers by Elaine Mokhtefi

Gender / History
Stranger in the Shogun's City: A Woman’s Life in Nineteenth-Century Japan by Amy Stanley
Gender
Tomorrow sex will be good again : women and desire in the age of consent

Everything else pile
The Living Mountain (Canons): A Celebration of the Cairngorm Mountains of Scotland: 6 by Nan Shepherd

History?
In Memory of Memory by Maria Stepanova
On Seamus Heaney (Writers on Writers) by Roy Foster

>28 charl08: I really liked The Living Mountain and On Seamus Heaney Charlotte.

Stranger in the Shogun's City and Burning the Books are near the top of the tbr mountain.

So many books, so little time.

Happy new thread, Charlotte. As always, I love the penguins.

You're doing well with the Booker list. Are you planning to read all of them?

Looks like a good assortment of goals for September. If you get to Stranger in the Shogun's City I'll be interested in your thoughts -- Japanese history is less familiar territory for me and I'd love to learn more!

Also happy new thread :)

'At the same time I'd like to move some books off the "currently reading" pile.
Some of these should be more accurately described as in the "put down and forgotten about" pile." I have this same pile!

>29 Caroline_McElwee: I need to pick them up again, Caroline.

>30 BLBera: They make me smile, Beth. As for the Bookers - maybe all of the shortlist? I don't think the Powers is out here yet.

>31 rabbitprincess: I'm about half way through and would already recommend it. The author has a talent for making an unfamiliar context accessible. It won't appeal to everyone: lots of "she must have felt" but it's all rooted in original correspondence.

>32 Crazymamie: Solidarity! Thanks Mamie.

I picked up some crime fiction from the library. Plus a short GN, based on a Chinese author's science fiction. YuanYuan's Bubbles is a rather lovely story about a lifelong passion for blowing bubbles.

I like the cover.

>35 BLBera: I wondered if it might fit your dystopia themed course, Beth. It's an interesting project in terms of GN approaches, too. 20 different authors taking translated stories by this one major Chinese sci fi writer and adapting them for GN format.

That goes on the list, Charlotte.

>37 BLBera: I've asked the library for another one, 'the Village Teacher'. I will report back - my library system has a tempting range on the shelves.

Is it the weekend yet? Oof.
I have some new books (well, new to me) on the way. At least two of them I'm blaming on LT.
The Emigrants
Dorothy Parker: What Fresh Hell is This?
A Bag of Marbles
Sweet Bean Paste

In the month of the midnight sun
This was an odd one. A powerful man sends his son-in-law north to investigate a strange series of killings in northern Sweden. It's 1856 and in an isolated rural community no one is talking about why a Lapp would murder three settlers. Alongaide Magnus is his sister in law, sent from home after years of rebellion.
Atmospheric, but a bit too conveniently supernatural for my taste.

Cold as Hell

'And you want to analyse and compartmentalise, like you're carrying out a police investigation.'
'I'm not sure about that,' Daníel said, thinking to himself for a moment. 'I'd like to know if she feels the same, if she senses the charge as strongly as I do.'
'You'll feel better when you realise that, in reality, the fundamentals of existence are totally incomprehensible and chaotic, completely crazy,' Lady said. 'And nothing fun or beautiful comes of anything that can be organised.'
'As usual, I haven't the faintest idea what you're talking about,' Daníel said.
'No, you aren't the sharpest chisel in the toolbox,' Lady said, sniffing with disdain...

Icelandic crime fiction. Áróra is based in Scotland as the book opens, working as a financial investigator. She grew up in the UK, but her Icelandic dad took them "home" every summer. She resents the country: too small, and she never felt as though she fitted in.
Her sister, who has chosen to settle in Reykjavik, has stopped speaking to Áróra after an argument over a violent boyfriend. Then the sister disappears.
Just to keep busy (!) Áróra decides to investigate a dodgy hotel owner too.
This was an interesting beginning to a crime series, with lots of Icelandic detail.

How do you do those quote box thingys? 😊

It's simple - just < blockquote> at the start of the quote and </blockquote> at the end.
(And then, if you're me, edit the message because you forgot to put the "/" before the second blockquote, and your whole post is now a quote...)

More info on doing fancy stuff in your posts here:
https://wiki.librarything.com/index.php/Basic_HTML_/_How_to_do_Fancy_Things_in_Y...

>42 charl08: thanks!

Hi, Charlotte. Just checking in. I like all the penguin photos. I recently finished Alison Bechdel’s new one, The Secret of Superhuman Strength, and enjoyed it. It might not be as ground-breaking as Fun Home, but I liked it as much or even more.

>40 charl08: Cold as Hell sounds good, Charlotte. And I do need another series. ;)

>43 VictoriaPL: No worries. I am hoping at some point to get better at embedding links. Although with all the hidden link issues elsewhere I also think there are advantages to link addresses being explicit.

>44 jnwelch: Me too, Joe. I especially enjoyed all the scenes she created in her (garage? loft?) amidst all the sports and activity kit she'd picked up over the years.
And the footnotes, of course. But that's kind of a given for me.

>45 BLBera: Of course you do Beth, like most of us here, I think!

Stranger in the Shogun's City

For Tsuneno and for the other travellers on the road, the six blocks of Hongō merged into one thoroughfare - from the miso wholesalers in Hongō six, setting out their barrels filled with deep maple reds and pale wheat golds; through the well-known pharmacist in Hongō five, who specialised in remedies for children; to the landmark store Kaneyasu in Hongō three, which had sold tooth-polishing powder for generations. The store's advertising strategy was famous: employees stood in the road screaming at the top of their lungs, extolling the many virtues of 'milky fragrant powder'.

#5 for History category
This one could have also been under the feminism category (women's history).

I thought this was really well done. An accessible, readable history of a woman's life in 19c Tokagawa Japan, in the period immediately before the arrival of US ships and enforced international trade with 'the West'. Tsuneno lived a relatively affluent life as the daughter of a Buddhist priest. She gave most of it up, however, in search of a different life in Edo (now Tokyo). Her story is documented in surviving family correspondence, as she wrote to her brother asking for help. Stanley places this individual story in the context of the major changes going on in Japan in the 19c. From fashions inspired by kabuki performers to the ways to get around the check points set up to control travellers, the book is rich in historical detail.

I liked that she was very clear about the gaps in the record. Her references to contemporary artists and theatre have sent me off to art museum websites. Despite her warnings that little of Edo survives (now Tokyo) I am adding a historical tour to my tourism wishlist.

... the new plays captured something important about life in Edo: they drew attention to the mechanics of deception, which everyone employed, in different ways, to survive. People used their silk jackets and their money, or their paper robes and tattoos, to project an image of invulnerability, but it was never entirely convincing. Maybe, under their clothes, all the people in Edo were like the heroine of the kabuki play Yotsuya Ghost Story, an obedient wife who began a descent into disfigurement and madness when her greedy husband tore off her kimono and plucked out her hairpins, intending to exchange them for cash at a pawnshop. Maybe everyone in Edo was maintaining an illusion of sanity with clothes and hairpins.

>47 charl08: Glad that was a hit Charlotte, I want to get to it soon.

Happy Sunday, Charlotte. Is Seek You: A Journey Through American Loneliness on your radar? I know you enjoy a good GN from time to time. I thought this was a deep, thought-provoking read.

>48 Caroline_McElwee: I think you might like it, Caroline. I've been looking at the info on the V&A (London) Japanese room and wondering if I might make a visit this year. (I also looked at US collections, and one in Japan, and then fell down the rabbit hole of Google's new Art & Culture app...)

>49 msf59: I was tempted by it, Mark, but I had mixed feelings about her previous book (Imagine Wanting Only This).
I'm hoping that the library will get hold of a copy rather than me having to buy it. Thanks for the nudge though!

Whereabouts
I am a big Lahiri fan from pre-LT days, so was very pleased to have this short novel on my shelves to pick up when the mood struck. I was feeling just exhausted yesterday: I have moved offices and yesterday felt like the first time everyone was back at their desks. I am now on a corridor which gets a lot of foot traffic, with lots of new people. The "social performance" required has gone up 200%
Reading this book reminded me a bit of Brookner - the main character occupies a closed off space, with plenty of distance from other people. Sometimes that's melancholic, but it also felt reflective and peaceful. Given my current sense of stress, this was perfect for me.

>51 charl08: As much as I occasionally miss seeing my colleagues in 3D, the social performance aspect of the office is something I do not miss. Glad the book hit the spot for you.

>52 rabbitprincess: Yes, the irony of missing colleagues previously vs very quickly realising when back in the midst of things, how some quiet time does help to focus.

Forty Lost Years

I got on with Francesc. I mean we got on in a special way. He seemed to need my affection, and I needed his flat.

Another book for the translated fiction book club. This one is by a Catalan author, and though it's newly translated it was originally written back in 1971. Like the author, the main character lived through the civil war, trying to escape as a refugee to France and then buying a ticket for a boat to Mexico. Unlike the author, the main character is a seamstress, first as an apprentice then trying to make it on her own. She has a fierce independent streak, despite an expectation to marry and settle down. The book does feel quite unbalanced, as the first section is so powerful. Laura's life is settled, if impoverished, but normal life is suddenly interrupted by the civil war. In contrast, the later half of the book describes a pragmatic life as an employer and company owner. One of the reviews describes this as evoking the dullness of life under Franco. But it's hard, I think, to distinguish between evoking a dull life and actually being a dull read. It comes alive again towards the end of the book, where in her fifties she finds herself considered past it (!) and meets up with an old friend from the civil war era. The afterword in my edition talks about the similarities between Laura's life and that of the author. This was written towards the end of he author's life. Her rage against being written off as a no longer young woman is a powerful thing.But I think it is the shock of the civil war that will stay with me from this book: the reminder that your certainties can so easily be swept away by events outside your control.

Have you heard?' he asked him. 'It's looking very iffy. The colonial troops, Moors and Foreign Legion have rebelled in Morocco and it looks as if they're intending to land on the Peninsula. They say there'll be a revolt in Barcelona too, be cause it's simmering fit to burst.'

I remembered that Pere had gone to Melilla only a fortnight before to do his military service. It was a quarter to midnight. People were strolling along the pavements of the Parallel, cheerfully jostling and laughing, not suspecting a thing.

Nothing much to add here except a big HELLO!! And thanks for explaining how to block quote--now I don't have to go look it up! LOL

Hello Kim!

I finished another Cruisie, Charlie all night, which despite the title was not about a crack dealing ring.

Susannah Clarke won the women's prize with Piranesi, which was not my favourite of the list, but well done to her.

I'm now reading Sweet Bean Paste as my enthusiasm for South Korean and Japanese food has spread to books.
Has anyone had this? I can't imagine the taste.

Booker prize - no further books read, hoping the shortlist includes some of the ones I've read.

From the list of books I wanted to finish in >28 charl08: I've finished one. Must try harder!

>9 charl08: re your: Adelie penguin (prize nominees) category. I could spend the rest of my life only reading Booker longlists (I'd probably read those from the times prior to "letting the North Americans in" first). I feel I would have enough reading material to last me through the apocalypse.

>56 LovingLit: Not me, I need the genre fiction!


Sweet Bean Paste
Slight, melancholic novel translated from the Japanese, that attempts to answer a big question with confectionary.

Speaking of genre fiction, Charlotte, do you plan to attend any of the Bloody Scotland festival events? They are doing online again this year as well as in person, and I am tempted to buy a ticket and binge watch author sessions.

>58 rosalita: I hadn't realised they were doing some of it in person, Julia. I like Stirling, so quite tempted. Or I would be if it wasnt mid week! Extra tempted by Around the World in Eighty Deaths.

>53 charl08: That sounds like a book I would like to read, Charlotte. Sadly, like all your recent reads, not (yet) available in Dutch.

>58 rosalita: >59 charl08: It's such a shame that I'm not into crime fiction *at all*, given that I live in Stirling! A few years ago though rabbitprincess came to Bloody Scotland and we met up and watched the England vs Scotland crime writers football match which was great fun!

>61 Jackie_K: That was so fun!!

Forty Lost Years sounds great, Charlotte.

Good luck being back in the office. There isn't much traffic by my space, so I am enjoying seeing more people back. We've already finished three weeks of classes.

>60 FAMeulstee: Hopefully there's one in the works Anita? I wondered if Brooklyn being made into a film had made him a bigger name internationally.

>61 Jackie_K: >62 rabbitprincess: Great that a lit fest enabled a meetup!

>63 BLBera: Thanks Beth. I think it will be better when we are more "normal" and having meetings out across campus. At the moment I just feel a bit stuck.

Algiers: Third World Capital
Fascinating memoir by an American woman who got involved with the FLN (Algerian independence movement) and then the Black Panthers. She's quite clear eyed about the flaws of some of those she worked with, and makes it clear where she disagrees with the accounts of others who were also there. It just seems a completely different world. Particularly surreal are the descriptions of hijackers arriving in Algiers, given the recent anniversary.

More tempting books!
https://www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/news/shortlist-announced-for-the-british-aca...

"In Islands of Abandonment: Life in the Post-Human Landscape, the award-winning writer Cal Flyn, who lives in the Highlands of Scotland, explores the ecology and psychology of abandoned places. In this important and timely work, she asks what happens to those places where humans no longer live and how far our damage to nature and wildlife can be undone.

With Begin Again: James Baldwin’s America and its Urgent Lessons for Today, Eddie S. Glaude Jr., chair of the Department of African American studies at Princeton University, presents a searing indictment of racial injustice in America, inspired by the life and work of the American essayist, novelist and playwright James Baldwin. A New York Times bestseller in the time of the Black Lives Matter movement.

In Neither Settler nor Native: The Making and Unmaking of Permanent Minorities, the Ugandan academic and author Mahmood Mamdani sets out the powerful and original argument that from the New World to South Africa, to Israel to Germany to Sudan, the nation-state and the colonial state created each other. Mamdani describes the study as “an in-depth inquiry into political modernity, colonial and postcolonial, and an exploration of the roots of violence that has plagued postcolonial society”.

Colonialism is further explored in Waves across the South: A New History of Revolution and Empire by the Sri Lankan-born Cambridge historian Sujit Sivasundaram, by approaching the era from the perspective of indigenous peoples in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. In this maritime history of empire, Sivasundaram tells the story for the first time, from the viewpoint of Aboriginal Australians and Parsis, Mauritians and Malays, showing how people of colour asserted their place and their future as the British Empire expanded."

>64 charl08: I ment the Catalan book Forty Lost Years, Charlotte. I am afraid there is little chance on a Dutch translation of it.
I do expect that the newest Colm Tóibín will be translated, most of his works are available in Dutch.

>68 FAMeulstee: Given how long it took to get into English, I am not that surprised, Anita.

>67 charl08: Mr SandDune has read Islands of Abandonment - he says it’s very good.

>70 SandDune: I want to read all of them, but...

>67 charl08: Those look great, Charlotte, all of them. Sigh.

>72 BLBera: I think I'm going to try and read the Booker shortlist (famous last words, given that at least one is not yet available - or wasn't when I last checked), so can't see any of these making the 'currently reading' stack for some time. Sadness.

Saying hello, Charlotte, before I get too far behind on your thread!

Thanks Mary!

City of Ghosts
I've been picking books up and putting them down again this week, but finally finished on. This is a pretty grim crime novel set in a police (militia) investigation in postwar Leningrad. They find five bodies on a train track and things go rapidly downhill from there. There are threats of the gulag, detailed torture and overcrowded communal toilets. I had heard this before, but even when reminded find it bizarre that communist state denied murder as a criminal possibility.

Lots of books to choose from this weekend...

Sovietistan This has to go back as I've maxed out my loans....

The conductors Interesting take on the underground railroad (magic!)

What you can see from here
This was an impulse loan.

A bookshop in Algiers
As was this.

The bell in the lake
Half way through this, wondering if it's too creepy for me. Isolated Nordic village with a new reform-minded pastor.

Amnesty
I couldn't get a copy of the author's new one, so thought I'd try this.

The creak on the stairs
Icelandic police procedural with large italic chunks. Not that impressed.

A passage north
Booker shortlist (and someone else wants it, so I can't renew it!)

The promise
Booker nominated - I've started...

Tonight is already tomorrow
A memoir I would like to read

L.E.L : the lost life and scandalous death of Letitia Elizabeth Landon
Fascinating looking, but also an intimidating chunkster.

Fugitive pedagogy : Carter G. Woodson and the art of black teaching
This one I asked the library for. Interested in research about teachers vs the state.

This lovely city
The Manningtree witches
The Butchers
Not sure!

The great mistake
Hopefully not one.

Great circle
Booker.

I really liked The Bell on the Lake Charlotte. First of a trilogy, looking forward to part 2 next year.

The Butchers by Ruth Gilligan won the RSL Ondaatje Prize - this year think this is for books that evoke a sense of place in the setting but I could be mixing it up. I think This Lovely City was shortlisted for the same award but if not, it was longlisted. I have both TBR.

I've bought The Manningtree Witches and seen various reviews of the book, and I think it might be the one which features the same 17th historical character as The Witchfinder's Sister. Think I've read something about The Great Mistake recently too.

I've just discovered Islington Central Library is about to close for refurbishment and the book stock won't be available for reservations. Although I'm using a different branch at the moment, it will make it much harder to access anything newish for another few months. As fines are reinstated next month, it's also going to be annoying that I'll almost certainly have to return some unread books without even the consolation that they will be available to other readers.

>76 charl08: I both liked Sovietistan and The bell in the lake (not creepy imho), Charlotte, I can't say anything about the other books.

When you have space in your library queue, check out Sovietstan again. I really enjoyed it and have her newest on my Christmas wish list.

That's quite a lot of library books!

>77 Caroline_McElwee: I think I've rather overdone the scandi lit bleakness in the past week and they're all running into each other. Probably not the fault of this book that it isn't quite for me. I usually am in the market for some historical darkness.

>78 elkiedee: >79 elkiedee: Thanks Luci.
Sorry to hear about the library branch being closed: hopefully it will look better afterwards?

>80 FAMeulstee: Thanks Anita. I think I will look for my own -second hand- copy of Sovietistan. It's the kind of thing my mum likes too, so I can justify it that way (ha!)

>81 RidgewayGirl: Thanks Kay. Thanks to Netflix "if you like this..." feature, I have been binging Korean series drama, otherwise I think I might have made more of a dent in these!

>82 Helenliz: If someone offers me 20 loan spaces, it seems ungrateful not to try and use them. Possibly where I am going wrong?

I got a notification that a shiny new copy of A Corruption of Blood was in the library waiting for me (I knew it would be shiny and new, because it has only just been published). So despite all plans to the contrary, I read this past my bedtime last night.

>84 charl08: I like your style!

> 84 I'm going to pinch the gratitude argument for maxing out my library cards so often.

>84 charl08: Ooh, the new Ambrose Parry! Will have to get the library to purchase it (and let my mum know to look for it at hers -- we both like this series).

>76 charl08: You do have lots of choices. Enjoy.

>85 Helenliz: >86 elkiedee: Thanks for the vote of confidence.

>87 rabbitprincess: It was great! Hope you can get your hands on a copy soon.

>88 BLBera: I certainly have that, Beth.

GN The Village Teacher: Cixin Liu Graphic Novels #3
In a plot which reminded me of the Vogons in Douglas Adams' H2G2, at the macro level, a massive galaxy war means earth is under threat.

Somewhere in rural China, a one-room schoolhouse teacher tries to impart as much knowledge and care as he has in him. This reminded me of why I went through a phase of only reading class Golden age sci fi: the killer line at the end of the short story that has something Political to say.(One of the aliens says to another how can they be a sophisticated civilisation without automated generational knowledge transfer? How indeed?)

In Translation # 33.
A Bookshop in Algiers

September 29, 1937
Advertisement in L'Écho d'Alger. Two little lines between a cypress tree for sale and a lady living on her own looking for a lodger. SALE secondhand classics and detective novels. Les Vraies Richesses, 26 Rue Charras.
People keep telling me they've seen it. I try to connect the advertisements. What if I bought the cypress tree and gave it to the lady who's looking for company? Maybe she has some detective novels. Maybe she's a beauty. With soft, smooth skin. I'm straying.

From the cover (and the title, a shift from the French original) I thought this might be one of those lovely, sweet books about the power of books. Instead, I got a 100 year whirl through Algerian history, via a (real) bookshop set up in the 30s and a (fictional) student sent to clear it all away to tick a box on his CV in 2017. The author has mined the real life of the founder of a bookshop and subsequently publisher of Algerian firsts (including Camus) to create a book that both mourns a past age of print and asks if it was ever really something worth keeping.

And the silence of the Parisians. Another charge. People on the ground. Blood everywhere. Ambulance sirens. More blows, and bodies in the Seine. A pogrom in 1961. Purify France of its Arabs. Disinfect the avenues. Slaughter the assassins. Repression. Tragic. Starting in the morning, Paris kills. The police, the riot squad, and the gendarmes are reinforced by the Auxiliary Police Force: brigades made up of Harkis, who fought with the French in Algeria. Zero tolerance. The arrests began even before the demon stration. Insults, blows, harassment. Made to swallow whole cigarettes. Water mixed with bleach. Brutal roundups. Blood on the Arab face. Broken legs. We hit, we unleash the dogs. We line the brownskins up against the walls. We pack them into police vans. We grab them in the street by their curly hair. We hunt the type. We throw stones. We drown them. For a whole month after, bodies will be pulled from the water. The killing will go on for days. Corpses in the Seine.

A Corruption of Blood

I really like this series set (mostly) in a doctor's practice in filthy, Victorian Edinburgh. Hard to review though without enormous spoilers for the previous two books. -Sarah is off to the continent with her new independence, trying to get some advice from Elizabeth Blackwell about breaching the medical professional's gender barriers. Raven meanwhile has found someone new (how could he?) in her absence. However, it's not really clear why her father isn't blocking their relationship. Soon however, Sarah is back in Edinburgh with her Hope's dashed, a reminded that it was not only gender that blocked professional aspirations, class could do it too. And a major figure in local politics, with enemies in every direction, is found dead. Why does Raven's new fiancee want him to exonerate the accused man? And does it have a connection to why Raven, scarred and impoverished, is considered good enough to be her suitor?

'Careful there, Wattie,' Raven said as he dodged out of the way. Walter was a sweet-natured child but, as with all children of his age, he seemed to be permanently covered in an adhesive substance that defied definitive identification. Jam, perhaps. Raven was relieved that in his well-scrubbed state he had avoided any direct contact, but as he approached the front door, Walter's older brother, David, leapt out at him and jabbed him with another umbrella. Raven cursed his naivety for thinking Wattie would be alone. They tended to hunt in pairs. They also tended to be even more boisterous when their father was from home, and with the professor gone to London, he should have known to beware.
'We're pirates!' David yelled, prodding Raven again for good measure.
Jarvis appeared and handed him his hat. The butler wore the same inscrutable expression that he always did. Not even marauding pirates could dent his equanimity.

>92 charl08: I'd better resist the spoiler as #2 is still a TBR for me - I very much enjoyed #1 earlier this year.

A Bookshop in Algiers sounds wonderful, Charlotte.

I'll have to check out the Corruption of Blood series.

>91 charl08: I have a Netgalley of A Bookshop in Algiers in my digital TBR collections as well.

>84 charl08: I never get to my 20 (physical) books from the library, Charlotte, I am usually stuck around 10 books. But then I also can have 10 e-books, those are nearly always all in use.

>93 elkiedee: Good plan! I am glad I read these as they came out as I don't think I would have been able to resist. I don't know how the authors manage to write together, but it works for me.

>94 BLBera: It's a lovely book. I ordered one of the French novels it refers to- claims to be in a parallel French/English edition, so I am interested to see what appears.

>95 elkiedee: I liked being able to read the paper version, but that was thanks to my library.

>96 FAMeulstee: I don't read so many on my library digital collection - but was very glad of it during lockdown.

Woke up this morning feeling very odd and have slept most of the day away. Negative Covid test though.

Read Eyes of Rigel which was really rather bleak, as you might expect given the plot. Ingrid travels from her remote island home to try and track down her child's father. It's 1946, he was a Russian POW, and everyone is keen to forget as much as possible.

Bad Island
I really love linocut art and this short GN uses this style (I'm not sure if he actually used the original techniques or a more technological version). All in black and white, almost all the same size image on the page, the book tracks an arrival on a prehistoric island. No words at all.
Although this is big picture stuff, watch out for the mice!

>98 charl08: Oh that's a cool technique! How are you liking it? The description in my library catalog sounds pretty bleak.

>99 bell7: I found hope in the reappearance of the mouse, but yes, definitely in a bleak style. It wasn't a long read, Mary, so if the style appeals, maybe worth a borrow.

What You Can See From Here
Translated fiction #35

"The House of Contemplation," I offered. Years ago, a widow in the neighboring village had converted her farm into an inn, which she mostly rented out on weekends to therapy groups. When I was a child, primal scream therapy was in vogue. Sometimes, when Martin and I were passing through the neighboring village, piercing screams echoed from the House of Contemplation and the shutters of all the surrounding houses were closed tight. Amused, Martin and I screamed back as loud as we could until the owner of one of the houses came out and said despairingly, "Please, not you, too."

I loved this German novel: bittersweet, reminded me of A Man Named Ove. I think this is probably one of those books where the less about it you know going in, the better it is.

Charlotte, you are doing great with translated fiction. I think I need to make more effort next year. What You Can See From Here sounds wonderful. I loved the quote.

>102 BLBera: It has magical realism in it and I still liked it. Not so usual for me. I ordered a copy for myself because I liked it so much: the end covers fold out (I forget what that is called) so you get the other halves of the okapi too.

(I don't understand why the picture looks fine on my phone but is enormous on the computer screen: I apologise. When I put the code in to shrink it, it looks terrible on the phone so I am not sure what's going on)

Heating & Cooling: 52 micro memoirs

Loved this! Really short "genre-defying essays" as the back blurb says, that shift between the funny to the thought-provoking to memories of grief. I think this would be perfect commuter reading, as lots of self-contained perfect gobbets.

In every book my husband's written, a character named Colin suffers a horrible death. This is because my boyfriend before I met my husband was named Colin. In addition to being named Colin, he was Scottish, and an architect. So you understand my husband's feelings of inadequacy. My husband cannot build a tall building of many stories.
He can only build a story, and then push Colin out of it.

>104 charl08: poor Colin!!

>104 charl08: That's hilarious! I've added this book to my wishlist.

>105 Helenliz: Indeed. Or even poor Colin*s*

>106 Jackie_K: I posted the quote on Litsy and someone said they give this book regularly. I am in the position of being torn who to send it to, there are several friends I think might like it.
(And also, unsurprisingly, I want to keep it myself!)

>104 charl08:: Are these published books? Is it just me wondering who this author is?

>108 elkiedee: No clue!

Kinderland: a childhood in East Berlin
Chunky GN that takes a child's POV on the fall of the Wall. Our hero is a tiny weakling, bullied and trying to keep quiet about the fact that his "piano practice" is actually confirmation class. A ping pong tournament proves central in his battle with the bullies: far more important to him than the fall of the Wall (as it turns out), despite his parents' attempts to convince him otherwise.

>104 charl08: You got me with this one, Charlotte - onto The List it goes! She is married to Tom Franklin who wrote one of my favorites Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter. Together they wrote The Tilted World, which was also very good.

>111 Crazymamie: Thanks Mamie. I'll stick The Tilted World in the wishlist (and keep an eye out for any Colins...).

Faking It
(Kind of) sequel to Welcome to Temptation featuring Sophie's brother Davy. I think my Crusie (campaign? charade? cruise?) has come to an end (i.e. I can't find any more to read.Gah.).

The Conductors
This was a fascinating idea for a story, taking the underground Railroad and adding magic. However, the copy I had had weird editing issues (regularly missing small words from sentences). It also took a long time to get going: it felt like there were two or three books worth of plot here. At the heart of the book is what happens after manumission, and for me that's a fascinating question, but we kept getting sidelined with flashbacks to rescues and discussions of the different kinds of magic. The way really good writers manage to show and not tell this kind of complex world building is sometimes taken for granted, I felt this book showed just how hard that is to do. However, I could see this being a series, and I generally dislike all the exposition involved in the first book, so this might still be worth picking up.

"Trust me, I know far better than you ever will," Beulah said. "What do you think happened to those that stayed behind? Many suffered the sins of a few. All these conductors. They were looking for a fight and didn't care about the harm it caused, and they still are. Pushing people to vote, staging protests, making too much noise, attracting too much attention, and then they die."
"Nothing changes if we stay quiet and don't raise our voices," Hetty retorted.
"If you stay quiet, you live to see another day."

Hello, Charlotte! Sorry that you have reached the end of Crusie, but what a great ride. Faking It was worth the read for me but could not compare to Welcome to Temptation, which remains my very favorite. I reread it every few years, and it always makes me laugh out loud.

>114 Crazymamie: I even went on her website, but it seems she only publishes when the book is finished, so...
The blog is fun reading though.
https://arghink.com/

...but it seems she only publishes when the book is finished, so..." This made me laugh, Charlotte! And thanks for the link!

>67 charl08: That looks like an interesting list. I'll wait to see what you think; besides, I have to catch up on my ROOTs reading, so no more library books.

>84 charl08: I'm only borrowing library books on Overdrive and as I'm selecting from three libraries there's no point in me maxing them out because they automatically get returned when the loan period is over. Sometimes I do remember to renew them in time but there have been some where I have to wait for them to come around again. And, besides, ROOTs

>104 charl08: Wonderfully funny.

Darn it, woman, that's two BBs already. I said no more library books for now ...

>104 charl08: That is hilarious. I'll look for that one.

>104 charl08: Yep, I agree with >118 BLBera:, I put this book on the BB list.

>116 Crazymamie: Glad it made you laugh Mamie. *I* knew what I meant... (I think!)

>117 humouress: I ordered the Mamdani last night. Although not only do I not think it's a new argument, it sounds remarkably like (my memory of) his previous books, so interested to know what's new (or more likely, what I've misremembered).

>118 BLBera: It's really good. This one also comes with my mum's endorsement.

>119 ffortsa: Hope you enjoy it, Judy. I'm going to look for her other writing too.

The Ex Hex
Magic and romance: the legacy of a bad breakup comes back to haunt two witches in a town with a magical past (and present).

Charlotte, conversation on Karen's thread has reminded me of a book I think you might like - in the same vein as Jennifer Crusie. It's called Savannah Blues, and it's by Mary Kay Andrews - Abby and I both adore this book, and it's one I have read over and over again. There is romance, a mystery and loads of humor. It always makes me laugh out loud. Plus, if you like it, there are three more books in the series.

>121 Crazymamie: Sounds good Mamie. Thank you!

Thanks to Mamie's recommendation, I've passed 100 books in the "genre" fiction category.

#100 The Monastery Murders
I listened to this on audio. The two investigators are sent to a strict religious house in isolated Yorkshire. A violent murder has taken place and help has been requested to find the culprit. When the King's investigators arrive, the monastery is all but cut off by snow. Powell provides lots of detail which the afterword relates to northern English communities of the period (now long gone). There's a split between the monks and the lay brothers, conflict between the senior monks who wanted to be abbot, and those in the nearest village are not impressed at the growing wealth of the abbey. But given how far away the community is from the beaten track, and the extreme winter weather, how could an outsider break in? And will they do this again? What do you think?
ETA LT tells me I read this back when it came out in 2018 via Netgalley. Clearly it is really memorable (!)

#101 The Newcomer
Mamie recommended this author but I couldn't find a kindle copy of the specific book. However, this one is new and set (largely) in an old style small hotel on the Florida. There's lots of sea and sunsets. Plus some murder and fraud.
I may be googling Florida old style holidays next. Warning: the cute muppet rating on this one is high, so if that is not your thing, you might want to skip this one.

Hello, Charlotte! I predict you will love Savannah Blues more than The Newcomer (which I haven't read) - her older stuff is much better than her newer offerings.

Adding that monastic murder series to The List - you had me at "all but cut off by snow".

>124 Crazymamie: I ordered a copy but it's coming from the US. So it might be two weeks. Sad face.

Weird connections between unconnected books. Reading Ted Chiang's short stories, and a linguist trying to process the death of her child. Then picked up Love in Five Acts which follows stories of interconnected women (I think: only read 3 so far) and opens with a woman just beginning to live with grief, years after the death of her daughter from SIDS.

Love in Five Acts
I really liked this novel by a German writer. The stories of five interlinked women are told in five separate chapters. The first is grieving a child, but her husband has moved on. The second is a doctor, with a sceptical attitude to the men she meets online. The links are relatively slight: the doctor has a patient who is a writer, her story follows. All are centred on relationships, from a breakdown following infidelity to choosing not to be a parent. I'll look for the one of her earlier novels which is translated.

It was the day the swifts suddenly appeared, as they did every year. Flying from south of the equator they arrived in the first week of May, tearing along the streets at breathtaking speed. Their shrill cries rang out in the evening and could even be heard through the closed windows.

Paula went into the living room and sat on the window sill. For a few minutes the evening sun was reflected in one of the windows opposite. Her three-quarter profile was cast like a paper cutting onto the curtain that divided the room, the shadows of the swifts darting over it and away.

Stories of Your Life and Others
I picked this up on a recommendation and agree it was completely brilliant. Science fiction short stories which explore mathematical ideas, beliefs around conception, and non-linear ideas of time. Just brilliant stuff.

The existence of free will meant that we couldn't know the future. And we knew free will existed because we had direct experience of it. Volition was an intrinsic part of consciousness.
Or was it? What if the experience of knowing the future changed a person? What if it evoked a sense of urgency, a sense of obligation to act precisely as she knew she would?

>127 charl08: These both sound great, Charlotte. Slow down!

>128 BLBera: I'm reading a chunkster now Great Circle, Beth, so things are moving pretty slowly.

Caroline posted a link to poc author recommendations, most that I have not come across, let alone read. So lots to choose from!
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2021/oct/03/akala-bernardine-evaristo-ben-okri...

A Broken People’s Playlist by Chimeka Garricks (Masobe, 2020) Chosen by Hari Kunzru

The Joys of Motherhood by Buchi Emecheta (Allison & Busby, 1979) Chosen by Bernardine Evaristo

A Visitation of Spirits by Randall Kenan
(Grove Press, 1989) Chosen by Tarell Alvin McCraney

Redemption Ground: Essays and Adventures by Lorna Goodison (Myriad Editions, 2018) Chosen by Margaret Busby

When We Ruled by Robin Walker (Every Generation Media, 2006) Chosen by Akala

Night Haunts by Sukhdev Sandhu (Verso, 2007)Chosen by Johny Pitts

Heart of the Race by Beverley Bryan, Stella Dadzie and Suzanne Scafe
(Virago, 1985) Chosen by Yomi Adegoke

Night Theatre by Vikram Paralkar (4th Estate, 2017) Chosen by Oyinkan Braithwaite

Storms of the Heart: An Anthology of Black Arts & Culture edited by Kwesi Owusu (Camden Press, 1988)
Chosen by Diana Evans

Ark of Bones and Other Stories by Henry Dumas (Random House, 1974) Chosen by Musa Okwonga

The Silent Traveller by Chiang Yee (Various, 1937-72) Chosen by Yiyun Li

Introduction to a Poetics of Diversity by Édouard Glissant (Trans Celia Britton, Liverpool University Press, 2020) Chosen by Guy Gunaratne

I Wonder As I Wander by Langston Hughes (Vintage Books, 1934/1994) Chosen by Anita Sethi

Search Sweet Country by Bernard Kojo Laing (Heinemann, 1986) Chosen by Michael Donkor (and on my shelf)

Hellfire by Leesa Gazi (trans Shabnam Nadiya) (Eka Westland, 2020 ) Chosen by Tahmima Anam

The Nakano Thrift Shop by Hiromi Kawakami
Chosen by Bryan Washington

London Calling by Una Marson
(First performed at the Ward theatre, Kingston, Jamaica in 1937) Chosen by Winsome Pinnock

The Tunnels Below by Nadine Wild-Palmer (Pushkin, 2019) Chosen by Jasbinder Bilan

Labyrinths by Christopher Okigbo (APC, 1971) Chosen by Ben Okri

The Masterpiece by Ana Schnabl
Unfortunately titled bookclub choice. It isn't (or at least, it isn't for me). Two people having an affair in Yugoslavia in the 1980s.
DNF

>131 charl08: What a perfect two-word review for that book!

>132 christina_reads: I skipped the meeting as I didn't want to be all negative about the book.

I still haven't finished a book but I have acquired two new books:
The Constant Rabbit (to add to my Fforde collection) and
The Heron's Cry (because the queue at the library was Long)
I also took a small bag of books to the charity shop, so there may even be space for the new ones on the shelves.

I'm keen to read The Constant Rabbit, but having come to Fforde quite late I haven't yet finished the Thursday Next series, and want to do that first.

I've borrowed The Constant Rabbit twice from the library, but both times I had to return it before I got a chance to read it. I do still want to read it, though.

>134 Jackie_K: I think I've read most of them: but I do like Thursday best.

>135 rabbitprincess: I am looking forward to reading it. He can be relied upon to make me laugh.



I went for a walk but went a bit further than I meant to, so will mostly be napping for the rest of the day.

>136 charl08: Such a great photo, Charlotte! Good for you with the walking - I really need to get back to that.

Oh, I was looking at the Fforde in the bookstore yesterday, but it didn't come home with me.

>131 charl08: Thanks for not adding another one to my list.

>130 charl08: This list does look interesting.

>131 charl08: the cover is kinda cool though...shame it wasn't a hit for you.

I've been following along in lurk mode, Charlotte, so thought I'd just say hello!

>137 Crazymamie: It was a lovely day but I am rather red faced today.

>138 BLBera: I am hoping the Fforde is as good as I am expecting.

>139 LovingLit: I wanted to like it. The description made me think I would like it, I usually can be relied upon to enjoy something about spies and stasi like organisations, not to mention books about writers!

>140 katiekrug: Thanks Katie. I am pretty much lurking on my own thread these days...

>133 charl08: I also skip my book club if the book was so bad I didn't finish it or I think I can't say anything positive -- I don't like it when someone spends the time complaining about a book I liked. My book club meets tonight and the book was abysmal, like wading through oatmeal, and yet I do plan to attend, but I will try to keep my comments brief, if scathing.

So who did I bump into? I've been lurking, too.

>143 RidgewayGirl: I am hoping that the coordinator puts out the recording of the translator chat soon, as I am keen to find out what the "official " take on it might be!

>144 humouress: Mystery. Who could it be?

The Heron's Cry
I was less taken with this one than the first book in this new series from Cleeves (of Vera / Shetland fame). I think this might partly be because I have been exhausted in the days since it arrived on Saturday, and also because they started advertising the new TV series. The actor they've chosen to play Venn (a rather dour character) is a super-handsome guy who in addition must be ten years younger than my image of the character. I found it messed with my idea of the character in the book too. So I might park this series and not pick up the next one.

Great Circle
It took me so long to read this I felt guilty at having the book out from the library and ended up reading a kindle copy. The kindle copy was a lot easier to carry to work, so it wasn't a bad call. I really loved it, especially that she didn't kill off Marian at the end. All that and penguins too.

Antarctica has a trickster's spirit. In certain lights, a mountain a mile distant turns out to be a shoulder high heap of snow fifty feet away. Dozens of tall, black figures marching toward them out of the fog turn out to be only five knee-high Adélie penguins, magnified and multiplied by some atmospheric illusion, stretched along an invisible horizon like an army.

>146 charl08: Ooh, interesting that they're making a TV series of the new series already. Too bad about the inappropriately aged Venn. I wonder if we'll get the program here. Sorry to see that you didn't like the second in the series as much as the first.

>147 Familyhistorian: I have since wondered if it's my age: the actor is roughly my age, I think, and therefore cannot be 'old' enough to play the character (!)
Ahem.

I have lots of books out from the library at the moment, but these are the ones that are making me wish for the weekend and some uninterrupted time to read (and sleep!).

An island
Migrations
A passage north
The promise
Harlem shuffle

I've just read and enjoyed Harlem Shuffle, and it's the Radio 4 Book at Bedtime (actually noon and 10.45 pm each weekday/night at the moment and presumably available on Sounds for at least a few weeks.

Look forward to hearing your thoughts on the other books.

I'm very upset with my libraries at the moment. They've cut the borrowing limit back to pre pandemic levels - actually, I don't disagree with having a lower limit as I have way too many books out, but we were given fair warning on other changes. On this, oh, this change is because things are "going back to normal" - things aren't yet going back to pre COVID normal and I think it's insulting to tell me when I'm ill that they are. Perhaps they never will. We thought about emailing but no one reads the emails. This is in an email replying to my email, and my suggestion was actually that notice was given on the website as for other changes like opening hours/fines etc. They haven't tried emails. They keep sending out overdue letters by post - waste of time and money and I haven't opened for books I can't renew because I have too many out.

>148 charl08: cannot be 'old' enough to play the character (!)

Well, obviously not.

>149 elkiedee: How annoying.

My husband always makes fun of the kids' school for sending out e-mails about every little thing but they must have got e-mail exhaustion too; last week, despite telling us to look out for a confirmation e-mail about our 12 year old returning to school after home based learning, there was nothing.

>15O Some of our school emails are really confusing but I'd sooner get them than not, generally. We have had that thing of being told to look out for emails which don't appear. At least we get the emails - I don't get to see written communications. What did schools do before emails?

>151 elkiedee: Gave the kids notes which parents found shredded in the bottom of their schoolbags at the end of term :0)

>136 charl08: What a lovely picture, Charlotte, with the clouds and the geese flying over.
I hope you have recovered from that long walk by now ;-)

>149 elkiedee: Someone else has requested Harlem Shuffle and I've not even picked it up yet. Argh.

>150 humouress: >151 elkiedee: >152 humouress: Yeah, I was not great at passing on papers, so sympathy to the small people. Although the extreme end of the communication scale - institutions that let you watch the kid on camera - not sure why, but makes me feel a bit uncomfortable. Feels like the kid should be able to watch you at work / home too. (Maybe they can?)

>153 FAMeulstee: Thanks Anita. I'm still reeling from the revelation that there are steep walks in the Netherlands.
Illusions shattered...

Well, I didn't get much reading done at the weekend. Trying to read Winter Flowers and finish up The Underground Railroad for book group meetings this week.

The Underground Railroad
I'm not sure what my book group will have to say about it, but I'm really glad that the meeting forced me to finally pick this one up. What an amazing book.

The book will get him killed, Fletcher warned. Caesar hid Travels into Several Remote Nations in the dirt under the schoolhouse, wrapped in two swatches of burlap. Wait a little longer until we can make the preparations for your escape, the shopkeeper said. Then you can have any book you want. But if he didn't read, he was a slave. Before the book the only thing to read was what came written on a bag of rice.

>156 charl08: Wasn't The Underground Railroad a good one? And I have Harlem Shuffle in my queue, too. Someday I'll get to it!

>156 charl08: I liked that one, too.
Hi Charlotte. 🤗

>154 charl08: Sorry to have broken your Dutch illlusions, Charlotte, but I assure you these are only in the eastern/south-eastern part of our country.

>156 charl08: Glad you like Underground railroad. Have you read any others by Colson Whitehead?

>157 Berly: Someone else had requested Harlem Shuffle so I better get reading.

>158 Ameise1: Hi Barbara. A wonderful book.

>159 FAMeulstee: Ha! Thanks for the assurances Anita. Next you will be telling me that you can't skate on the canals every winter?!

Talking of flat walks: walked on the beach on Saturday and that was nice and flat for me. We picked up three bags of litter, which made the large pub lunch after seem justified.

I really liked Whitehead's book The Nickel Boys: powerful stuff about a (real) children's home for supposedly law-breaking Black boys. That one has stayed with me. But I should look for his other ones too.

Winter Flowers
This was a lovely Peirene book that I read for the bookclub tomorrow. Told (mostly) from the perspective of a young woman waiting for her injured husband to come home from a military hospital in 1917/18. It's beautifully written and translated, with the French "home front" with its poverty, rationing and rumours vividly evoked. This is despite it being such a short book (less than 200 pages).

This quote is from a section of the book where the author gives the words, written in letters between the couple, their own life to express their distance from 'real life'. Powerful stuff.

They surrendered no true facts about life at the front. And if they silenced the nightmare of his world, it it wasn't only down to censorship, which proscribed any criticism, anything alarming. The words simply offered up to the reader whatever could be tolerated back home.
And they kept coming, faithfully, unfurling through the air. Thinking of her.
They waited for her letters. They said thank you. They sent kisses. And these words were usually, mostly, in the best of health.

Highly recommended (and it won lots of French prizes when first published).

https://www.peirenepress.com/shop/new-releases/winter-flowers/

Argh double post.

The book group questions this week are:

How does Winter Flowers compare to other First World War narratives you may be familiar with? Was it what you expected? Did you find it an original take on the conflict/period?
What did you think of the portrayal of Jeanne as a protagonist/heroine, as a working woman and as a mother?
How did you feel about Toussaint's character, given that the novel is very much from Jeanne's perspective? Did you feel sympathetic towards him? Frustrated? Both?
How does the novel handle grief and loss in their different forms? How is Jeanne's experience contrasted with that of her neighbour, Sidonie?
How does the novel deal with injury and disability? Did you feel that the reaction towards the soldiers' disfigurement still resonates with the way these injuries are treated in contemporary society?
What did you think of Villeneuve's writing style?

>161 charl08: That sounds like a wonderful read. Making a note of it...

Hello, Charlotte! I'm adding Winter Flowers to The List, so thanks for that.

>160 charl08: I think I liked Nickel Boys and Harlem Shuffle more at time of reading - earlier this year and in the last few weeks respectively, plus Harlem Shuffle is the current radio serial and I'm picking up things that maybe I overlooked.

I don't think this preference is about the relative quality of the books though, it's just sometimes I miss too much or life gets in the way and I don't get out of a book what I might do on another occasion - I'm sure there are times when it's not the book, it's me.

>156 charl08: It is an extraordinary read Charlotte. I have his new one near the top of the tbr mountain.

>161 charl08: I agree. A fine novel.

>163 charl08: Interesting questions. I'll ponder on those myself.

>164 MissWatson: I don't know if it's just because my reading is so anglocentric, but I really appreciated the chance to read about WW1 from a French perspective.

>165 Crazymamie: Hope you like it as much as I did, Mamie. I am now reading Savannah Blues, which came in the post yesterday, so thanks for that one.

>166 elkiedee: I really thought Nickel Boys was amazing, but in the group discussion yesterday someone described it as a 'man book'! Talk about each book being new to each new reader.

>167 Caroline_McElwee: My challenge to myself is to read Harlem Shuffle this weekend. But I also want to go on a long walk, and that usually leads to a long sleep, so we shall see!

Book group yesterday was really good, and I even managed to avoid being Dr Pedantic about the difference between the end of the slave trade / trade in people and an ongoing economy based on the enslavement of people. As mentioned, we discussed the other books we had read by the author, the links to other works (both Morrison and Walker came up) and how good he was at writing women (see 'man book' comment above). Unknown histories came up, and this has sent me down a rabbit hole to the (now digitised) Federal project for slave narratives on the LoC catalogue.
We didn't talk about the links in the book to Gulliver's travels though.
I wanted a pat on the back for this, so I feel a bit robbed.
Yes, I am aware of how childish this is!

Charlotte, I am hoping you enjoy Savannah Blues as much as I have. I reread it every few years. Abby loves it, too.

>161 charl08: Winter Flowers sounds wonderful. Good questions, too. And, it has a beautiful cover! I have a copy, which I'll move to the top of the pile.

>169 Crazymamie: Thanks Mamie. It is cold and windy here, with leaves falling and endless rain: so the book's setting is perfect escapism.
Bar the murder, of course.

>170 BLBera: I asked if any of the author's other books had been translated: it seems the answer is no (not yet). As she focuses on untold women's stories, I hope they will be. Apparently her latest looks at Helen Keller's mum from a fictional perspective.

>168 charl08: Then I'll give you a pat on the back for finding links to Guilliver's travels, Charlotte :-)

Happy Saturday, Charlotte. I am glad to hear you loved The Underground Railroad but not at all surprised. I also loved The Nickel Boys and I am looking forward to The Harlem Shuffle. Whitehead has been on a roll.

>172 FAMeulstee: Thanks Anita. I feel seen...

>173 msf59: I just started Harlem Shuffle, intrigued where it's going to go.

Finished Savannah Blues due to a bizarre dose of 4am sleeplessness Friday morning, and polished off Well Matched just now which, er, was released yesterday. I may have had it on autobuy since I finished the previous one in the series. Possibly.

The main character in this one is April, who is not much of a one for a party.
This sums up something I was trying to explain to someone recently.

"Last weekend," she explained. "We had a thing. At Jackson's."
"Oh." I took a second to absorb that and tried to decide if I was sad to have not been invited. Plans were the worst, honestly, and I loved when I could decline them. But to not have been invited in the first place still hurt. That made no sense, but I had no explanation.

Hi Charlotte! Glad that you read Underground Railroad; it was so good.

>176 banjo123: Yes, yes it was. And one I was glad to discuss with the group too.



Bookhaul from yesterday (not shown: tiny Adrian Tomine which is already on the read shelf)

A Glove Shop in Vienna (Lovely edition, and an author who I have read, but only her children's books. I want to try her writing for adults)
Missing Words (love these little books that fit in your pocket)
The Fortunes of Francis Barber
Preparing for the perimenopause and menopause
The Secret Diaries of Miranda Cheever (a reread)
Burntcoat (signed! Almost makes up for the f2f event being cancelled due to COVID)
Laura Knight: a panoramic view (the infection rates rising mean I don't think I'm going to get to exhibit itself...)

>177 charl08: Great haul!!!

How did you like Savannah Blues?

Excellent book pile.
I have Winter Flowers on the shelf to read. Must get to it sooner, based on your review.

>178 Crazymamie: Very readable Mamie, thank you for the recommendation. Perfect for the wet Lancashire weather, too. I could imagine myself somewhere else entirely!

>179 Helenliz: I think one of my favourites Peirene (so far). But I may change my mind with the next one they send / I get round to reading (!)

>177 charl08: Ooh, an Eva Ibbotson book I haven't read! Off to add it to my To Read list...

>177 charl08: How funny, I just bought that lovely edition of A Glove Shop in Vienna myself Charlotte.

Looking forward to your thoughts on Harlem Shuffle. I started it about a month ago and put it aside-for-now because I realized I wasn't paying very good attention to the whole set up, and I want to go back and read it when I've got some time to concentrate a little better.

>181 christina_reads: It's a lovely edition. Almost too pretty to read.

>182 Caroline_McElwee: Ooh, that's a bit spooky, Caroline.

>183 bell7: It might be a while. The main urgency was that someone else had requested it at the library. However, all the other copies (there are about 60 branches in our library system) have now come in...

I am not doing very well with my Booker read A Passage North. Lots of very long sentences were already annoying me from the beginning. The middle section is a long description of a doomed relationship, and I just don't have the patience.

So instead I'm reading a Swedish crime novel The Night Singer.

>184 charl08: A Passage North is the kind of book you have to be in the right frame of mind to fall into. Definitely both requires and rewards patience and I don't blame you for setting it aside.

>185 RidgewayGirl: It certainly has proved so for me!

I've set aside A Passage North but am not getting much further with The Promise (which I have to say is not particularly surprising given my previous experience with Galgut's writing).

Penguin emailed me about their collection of 'Modern Library Torchbearers' and I cracked and ordered three.
American Indian Stories (Modern Library Torchbearers) by Zitkala-Sa
The Selected Poetry of Edna St. Vincent Millay
Mrs Spring Fragrance


I am sorely tempted by several other books in this series though...
https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/series/D74/modern-library-torchbearers

Nice book haul.

>187 charl08: Ooh, I'm quite intrigued by Edna St Vincent Millay - she sounds like an interesting writer/woman.

>187 charl08: Nice haul Charlotte.

>189 elkiedee: She is Luci. I like her poetry, and there is a good biography too: Savage Beauty: The Life of Edna St Vincent Millay by Nancy Milford.

>188 BLBera: Thanks Beth. There are some lovely ones, including one introduced by Edwidge Danticat Love, Anger, Madness
A Haitian Triptych By Marie Vieux-Chauvet

>189 elkiedee: >190 Caroline_McElwee: Yes, definitely interesting. I want to read the biography.

Booker list - final winner announcement on 3rd November.

I've now read four of the six from the shortlist.

Great Circle by Maggie Shipstead
The Fortune Men by Nadifa Mohamed
The Promise Damon Galgut
No One Is Talking About This by Patricia Lockwood

I never picked up Richard Powers' Bewilderment, and have stalled on Anuk Arudpragasam's A Passage North.

From the shortlist Shipstead's book is my favourite. I'm still sad Mary Lawson didn't get shortlisted though.

https://thebookerprizes.com/fiction/2021

The Promise
This was a bleak read. Galgut takes us in 200 pages through over thirty years of the recent South African past , from "communists" and "terrorists" to AIDS denial and environmental crises (water and power shortages). He has a lot of fun with hindsight in the earlier sections of the book.

After the long dark car has gone, Andile and Lukas resume their labour. Much easier to fill a hole than to dig it, but still it's toil, man is doomed to live by the sweat of his brow, or at least some men are. Some women too. Just the way it is, apparently, or so everyone in these parts seems to believe. What do you expect, a revolution?

There's also a comment about being "as good as" Wilbur Smith that made me laugh and then wonder if he'd been on the end of it in the past.
Ultimately it was just so bleak. I didn't buy in to the meta references to the characters' choices and things that might (or might not) have been possible. I also found the perspective shifts between the characters interrupted my involvement in the story. Not for the faint hearted (including me!)

I'm just finishing A Town Called Solace with 10 pages to go (and I've skipped ahead to see how it ends) and also reading The Fortune Men noI've had an excellent few days of reading and ATCS looks like being my 4th 4.5* book finished in a row. I also loved Great Circle.

>192 charl08: I've only read Bewilderment Charlotte, which I loved.

I have The Fortune Men in the tbr mountain.

>187 charl08: oh la la. I love that first cover.

>194 elkiedee: You skipped ahead? Shocking behaviour. More seriously, I did love that book. It struck a chord with me (although I did see one review saying nothing happened!)

>195 Caroline_McElwee: I should get over my Powers antipathy. But the last one I read of his was So Long, it felt like a slog.

>196 LovingLit: They're very pretty aren't they! I might ask for a few more for Xmas.

I find that if I skip ahead to sort of check! the end, I can focus better on reading the rest the book peroperly. I do it with crime novels too!

Charlotte, I wanted to let you know that I read and loved Winter Flowers. Thanks so much for your comments on it that made me pick it up right away.

>198 elkiedee: I think that's interesting. I sometimes find that I enjoy a book more the second time around as I can focus on the way we reach the end, rather than worry about how it is going to end. But I don't skip ahead and read the end on a first read. Maybe that's why I love a retelling, I know the shape of the story, so can concentrate on how we get there. I'm aware that I'm a mass of contradictions!

>198 elkiedee: I do, and feel, the same.

>198 elkiedee: Nope, definitely don't do that Luci (beyond wanting to know how many pages the book runs to), but I certainly enjoy the pleasures and benefits of rereading favourite books.

Hi Charlotte, Do you know the kid's book Lost and Found by Oliver Jeffers? It is about a friendship of a young boy and a penguin. I think you would like it!

>198 elkiedee: I'd never thought of it like that. I do get caught up in reading for the plot, so I can see how that might work. Not enough to try it though, I don't think.

>199 Crazymamie: Glad you liked it Mamie. I hope it finds lots of readers, as I want them to translate more by the author. Seems mad that she is so popular in France and not translated before now.

>200 Helenliz: Interesting stuff Helen. I think for me with retellings I'm wondering where they are going to diverge from the known version.(So it's still plot!)

>201 FAMeulstee: For every reader a different book? I like this.

>202 Caroline_McElwee: I hadn't related this to rereading before, Caroline, but it's a great point.

>203 mdoris: I do! Love his books. Thank you for mentioning him.

>204 charl08: I was also surprised that nothing else she had written had been translated into English.

>204 charl08: I love his books too. I just bought his Halloween one about ghosts and it is fantastic, so creative!

>205 Crazymamie: The translator said she has pitched one of her other books.... so maybe in the future?

>206 mdoris: I'm a bit of a halloween refusenik, so I might just pass on that one. I do love his pictures though.

Enjoying the reading in A Small Silence

She ran into a pop-up sale of second hand books by the Yakoyo canteen.

I'll come back for this one later," she said, pointing to Nawal al Saadawi's Woman at Point Zero. The bookseller nodded. There was a distant look in his eyes, and she felt he would have already sold it when she returned. It made her sad. On the days she got a good price for books, from authors she loved, she walked with a bounce...

>207 charl08: Perhaps it's not strictly Halloween but is about ghosts, so maybe you will have a peek at it. I thought it was very clever.

>207 charl08: Crossing my fingers!

>209 mdoris: I'm sure it's lovely.

>210 Crazymamie: Exactly.

Missing Words
Gentle, old fashioned feeling story about a woman who is facing big changes. Her daughter is moving out, her only friend at work is retiring, and she can't quite work out what she's going to do about it all. Working in a postal sorting office in Portsmouth, she finds a postcard with a romantic message. But the sender forgot to include the full address. She is inspired to try and reunite the card with the addressee, and takes the ferry to the Isle of Wight.

"She used to be curious about the people who sat alone in pubs and cafés, wondering if they were lonely and wanted company; if they were friendless by choice or irritable and irksome by nature and good at driving people away. But now she sees that there's a freedom in being unknown and alone, with time to think unhindered by conversation and other people's thoughts. She can sit here as long as she likes, eating as slowly as she likes. No one is going to start drumming their fingers on the tablecloth, urging her to hurry up.

Part of the Fairlight series of "moderns", lovely novellas that are extra portable.

Booker announcement.
Well, so much for my opinion!
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2021/nov/03/damon-galgut-wins-booker-prize-the...

Tonight is Already Tomorrow

Translated from the Italian, a novelisation of he author's husband's experience. Born in Genoa, he witnesses the gradual expansion of antisemitic policies. His family debate what to do: hold out or run? In the face of restriction the community organise schools, use connections to try and resist. Gradually things get worse and worse. Narrating predominantly from the perspective of a young teenager, Levi also shows the motivations of his family. Even though this was a familiar story, it was a gripping one.

On his return to Genoa, Alessandro started attending the Saturday rallies at Piazza della Vittoria again. He didn't know what was happening to him, though. Everything around his was the same, but something inside him had changed. The parts of his body no longer seemed to communicate. It felt as though his feet and hands had gone to sleep and had stopped obeying any commands. His uniform was soaked in sweat, even when there was no sun. His thoughts were trammeled and unable to get out even in confused fragments. Finally, he understood. The monster paralyzing him was boredom. Waiting hours and hours in a square where someone was supposed to arrive, without even knowing who. Maybe they didn't exist. They might never arrive.
One Saturday, he took a step towards the edge of the piazza, then another, faster one. Once he was around the corner, he started running.
He never went to the rally again, and nobody noticed.

Some books from my "currently reading" shelf on LT. Some have been there for months! Goal for this month: to make time to crack on and finish up a few.

>214 charl08: ack- me too! I need to seriously finish some, or remove them from the 'currently reading' shelf. Also, I need to get some back off family members who have borrowed them *while I was reading them*. :)

>215 LovingLit: Yes, I have some family members who get up to that too!

Weird thing when books speak to each other when you are reading them at the same time.

From On Seamus Heaney

Significantly, Heaney did not follow Friel's suggestion of incorporating T. S. Eliot's reflection (arising from a consideration of Polish history): 'whether a culture can survive systematic destruction from without depends less upon its forces of active revolt, than upon the stubbornness of the unconscious masses, the tenacity with which they cling to habits and customs, their instinctive resistance to change'. The message he wanted to send was not one of dogged resistance to conquest and oppression but a more hopeful indication at a dark time.

Vs A Passage North

...and how could the average person in the northeast afford to actively cultivate their memory of a world now gone when there were so many more urgent concerns, how to make ends meet, how to rebuild their homes, how to educate their children, concerns that filled up all their mental space? The truth was that eventually most people would have ceased remembering the past anyway, even if all remaining traces of the Tigers had been left untouched, for the truth was that all monuments lose their meaning and significance with the passing of time, disappearing, like the statues and memorials in Colombo dedicated to the so-called independence struggle against the British, into the vast unseen and unconsidered background of everyday life. Deliberately or not the past was always being forgotten...

A Passage North
Really mixed feelings about this book, which I picked up after it made the Booker longlist (and the the shortlist). I liked the first section, got annoyed with the middle and then found the last section the most compelling. Set in Sri Lanka after the civil war I was interested in the history as two schoolfriends were children of Tamil refugees.
The strength of the book for me was the account of the ongoing impact of the Sri Lankan government's suppression of separatist campaigners (including the Tamil Tigers) from the physical landscape (bulldozing their cemeteries, rebuilding railway networks) to the mental health of those bystanders caught up between the two sides.
For me the least interesting section explored the relationship between the main character and a former partner. The account of an all encompassing, but ultimately limited relationship I found dull and overwrought rather than insightful. Your mileage may vary!

I do like a list!

17 titles have been longlisted for the fifth annual award of the Warwick Prize for Women in Translation:

☆Nana Ekvtimishvili, The Pear Field, translated from Georgian by Elizabeth Heighway (Peirene Press, 2020)
Annie Ernaux, A Girl's Story, translated from French by Alison L. Strayer (Fitzcarraldo Editions, 2020)
☆Jenny Erpenbeck, Not a Novel, translated from German by Kurt Beals (Granta, 2020)
☆Yan Ge, Strange Beasts of China, translated from Chinese by Jeremy Tiang (Tilted Axis Press, 2020)
Hiromi Kawakami, People from My Neighbourhood, translated from Japanese by Ted Goossen (Granta, 2020)
Mieko Kawakami, Breasts and Eggs, translated from Japanese by Sam Bett and David Boyd (Picador, 2020)
☆Esther Kinsky, Grove, translated from German by Caroline Schmidt (Fitzcarraldo Editions, 2020)
Camille Laurens, Little Dancer Aged Fourteen, translated from French by Willard Wood (Les Fugitives, 2020)
Scholastique Mukasonga, Our Lady of the Nile, translated from French by Melanie Mauthner (Daunt Books Publishing, 2021)
☆Duanwad Pimwana, Arid Dreams, translated from Thai by Mui Poopoksakul (Tilted Axis Press, 2020)
Olga Ravn, The Employees, translated from Danish by Martin Aitken (Lolli Editions, 2020)
Judith Schalansky, An Inventory of Losses, translated from German by Jackie Smith (MacLehose Press, 2020)
☆Adania Shibli, Minor Detail, translated from Arabic by Elisabeth Jaquette (Fitzcarraldo Editions, 2020)
Małgorzata Szejnert, Ellis Island: A People's History, translated from Polish by Sean Gasper Bye (Scribe UK, 2020)
Maria Stepanova, In Memory of Memory, translated from Russian by Sasha Dugdale (Fitzcarraldo Editions, 2021)
Maria Stepanova, War of the Beasts and the Animals, translated from Russian by Sasha Dugdale (Bloodaxe Books, 2021)
Alice Zeniter, The Art of Losing, translated from French by Frank Wynne (Picador, 2021)

Via https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/cross_fac/womenintranslation/shortlist2021/longlist202...

I've read the ones with ☆

Mistress of the Art of Death
I enjoyed this one: the crime details were quite gory, but balancing that out was the historical detail, the lovely fenland setting and a heroine to root for who isn't TDTL.

Ain't like the old days when his ma and uncle Stephen were warring with each other,' she'd said. 'Hangings? A baron'd come galloping up - didn't matter which side he was on, didn't matter which side you was on - he'd hang you just for scratching your arse.'

Quite right, too,' Adelia had said: 'a nasty habit.' The two of them were beginning to get on well.

Refreshing to see a character actually think before going into a ridiculously dangerous situation (weird mining tunnel in chalk hill) alone.

I loved Mistress of the Art of Death!

>218 charl08: Nice list. You've made good progress.

i really enjoyed Mistress of the Art of Death, but even more I liked some of her earlier historical novels written under her own (married) name of Diana Norman.

>202 Caroline_McElwee: I'm with you; while I enjoy re-reading, if I skip to the end (apart from counting pages) I don't really enjoy the rest of the book and I try to fit it to a shape which incorporates the ending without knowing the middle. Re-reading is different - but these past couple of years I've found that my re-reads seem to go more slowly.

>219 charl08: I should send that quote to my husband.

>220 BLBera: I was trying to work out which one was my pick - probably The Pear Field, which was a fascinating read.

>221 elkiedee: This is the first book I've read by her Luci, thanks for the recommendation.

>222 humouress: I desperately try and avoid it: whilst (when on the kindle) also trying to have my cake and eat it by checking out how much of the remaining % is the actual book vs the other stuff at the back. I've accidentally read the last page a couple of times...
I enjoyed the humour in Mistress of the Art of Death!

>219 charl08: I enjoyed it too, but it remains the only book of hers I've read.

>218 charl08: I have A Girl's Story from the library and we own An Inventory of Losses. The Erpenbeck Not a Novel isn't translated yet.

>218 charl08: I've added An Inventory of Losses to my wishlist. I loved her Atlas of Remote Islands.

>224 Helenliz: I read the blurb about the next book in the back of my copy, and am tempted to race straight on with the next in the series.

>225 FAMeulstee: I liked Not a Novel: hope the translator is hard at work.

>226 Jackie_K: I am very tempted by that one. Have requested a copy online when it comes out in paperback.

I am super tired at the moment, not sure what's up. Coming home and teying not to just conk out after dinner and dishes. Anyway, enjoying the humour in The Constant Rabbit (is this a Le Carré reference? I'm hopeless at puns). Fforde imagines some rabbits have become weirdly human due to some kind of unexplained phenomenon. Afraid of being taken over, fifty years later a right wing party has come to power based on an anti-rabbit platform.
There are no prizes for guessing what's being satirised here. It's funny too though.

'Never touch the stuff. Have you tried dandelion brandy? Distilled from root. Makes you piss like billy-o and has the kick of a mule.'
I read something that described dandelion brandy as 'the diabolical three-way love child of methanol, crack cocaine and U-Boat fuel'. I'd been warned never to even go near the stuff, let alone drink it.
So I said, without so much as a pause:
'Yes, I'd like that very much.'

>228 charl08: Haha, that quote is brilliant! I really want to read The Constant Rabbit (I assumed there was a nod to Le Carre there too), but I need to finish the Thursday Next series first (still several to go in that).

>229 Jackie_K: I love his footnotes. They are so Pratchett-like but so different too.

On Seamus Heaney
This took me a good long while, partly because I got really bogged down in the middle period where critics were being critics and there was a lot of analysis about what x said about y interpretation of z poem. I found the final chapters much stronger, as Foster explored Heaney confronting his own mortality through his writing. Plus he had a big long quote from Colm Toibin, always a winner for me.
Now tempted to go back to District and Circle and reread the poetry.
Tempted too by a National Library of Ireland visit:
https://www.seamusheaney.com/listen-now-again
And I think this wall (and the moment it captures) is something to treasure.

Peirene is having a sale! (£5 off the annual subscription)
Today only
https://www.peirenepress.com/shop/

Having fun looking at the LT stats page.

Can't work out why half of the fiction in translation isn't showing up here, despite me going into the individual book records and updating the original language.
Boo.


https://www.librarything.com/stats/charl08/overview

>1 charl08: Penguins are lovely to watch.

Happy Saturday, Charlotte. A Passage North seems to be getting a lukewarm response. I will skip it. I got a Penguin Drop Caps edition of Swann's Way from the library. Lovely look to it. I may buy my own copy if I like the book, which I will start today.

>234 ladydazy: Not so great if you are close enough to smell them though. Hello, and welcome to my thread.

>235 msf59: Mark, those drop cap editions are lovely. I have so far resisted them. Hope you enjoy the Proust.

>233 charl08: Thanks to a pointer over on Litsy, my language pie chart looks a bit more accurate.

There was a story on the radio news earlier about someone finding a penguin on a New Zealand beach. The finder initially thought it was a toy rather than the real creature. It was in some difficulty and was fed and rehydrated until it was well enough to be released back into the sea.

>217 charl08: maybe you should read Farthest North: The Epic Adventure of a Visionary Explorer by Fridtjof Nansen, which is what I continually confuse with A Passage North. ;)

I love the LT stats page :)

>238 elkiedee: Sounds like it is in good hands now.
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/animal-news/antarctic-penguin-waddles-ashore-new-ze...

>239 LovingLit: I keep thinking it is The Narrow Road to the Deep North.

The stats page is a can of worms. I am tempted to download the data so that I can systematically "fix" the wrong "original language" info on individual books. Why?!

Reading the TLS.Reminder that I want to pick up The Island which I have out from the library (one of the booker longlist).

Damon Galgut's review of Small Things Like These makes me want to read that too.

There's a combined review linked to the new exhibition in the Walker Gallery. I will try and get there too.
https://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/whatson/walker-art-gallery/exhibition/sicker...

I read a lovely biography by Jenny Uglow so am tempted by her new joint biography of two artists Sybil Andrew's and Cyril Power Sybil & Cyril: Cutting through time. Gorgeous looking cover.

I'll see if the library can find a copy of Free: Coming of age at the end of history. This is the author's memoir of an Albanian childhood as Hoxha's regime collapsed.
Relieved to find I don't need to read Tunnel 29, as I listened to the podcast and the review suggests the book doesn't add much.
Not sufficiently tempted by the lengthy discussions of Dostoevsky (200 year anniversary of his birth) and (even more) books on censorship and free speech.

https://www.the-tls.co.uk/issues/current-issue-5/

>241 charl08: An Island is near the top of my book mountain too Charlotte.

I've nearly finished Sarah Moss's The Fell, almost read in one sitting, but gave up at 3am! A good read.

That is a nice cover. Adding to list. Not familiar with those artists.

>242 Caroline_McElwee: I’m sure there’s something wrong with that, geographically speaking.

>242 Caroline_McElwee: Sounds like Moss' new one is a winner, Caroline.

>243 humouress: Ha!

Puzzle.
Intrigued by the original language field on my book records, I've been going through and trying to add the correct original language.
But: no sign of Farsi in the list of optional languages (even the "full" list). Also no sign of Greenlandic. Not sure what to do.

>244 charl08: Greenlandic is called Kalaallisut in the extended list, and Farsi can be found as Persian.

>237 charl08: Ooooh, that's really cool! I'll have to check out my own now.

Have a good weekend, Charlotte!

>237 charl08: Charlotte, thanks so much for mentioning this! I looked at my own, and I was surprised by how many of the translations do not have original language filled in. I fixed mine, which was relatively easy as I have only read ten translations this year. My goal for next year will be to beat that.

Small Things Like These looks lovely - another to add to The List. Of course, I want to read it Right. Now. I really do need to finish up some of what I already have going first - wonder if I can make myself do that. *blinks*

^I thought you would get a kick out of this, Charlotte. I paid a visit to Jackson yesterday and look what he was wearing? 😃

>245 FAMeulstee: Thanks Anita. I wouldn't have found either of those.

>246 bell7: The pie charts are my favourite.

>247 Crazymamie: Right Now is my default setting. By the time the library request comes in, I am usually wondering where I found the recommendation / heard about this book. Me and my Goldfish memory.

>248 msf59: Ooh! How cute is he? ❤

Time for a new thread!