Helenliz turns a second 50 pages

I'm Helen and I'm a quality manager in a small firm that makes inhaler devices for delivery of drugs to the lung. And in 2022 (somewhere in this thread) I turn 50. Gulp. That's a nasty shock to the system I can tell you. I don't feel how I think 50 feels (well apart from sometimes when I feel about 150). I'm not sure what to do about turning 50, whether to go all out and embrace it, or ignore it and hope it goes away. Probably the latter...

This year's challenge is taken from other things that were newsworthy, for some reason or another, in 1972. Or they simply happened in 1972, when I got a bit stuck.

The challenge categories have had a bit of a streamline, with a few low counting categories removed and a new one just for 2022 added. I intend to try and read a book from each decade and from as many different years I've been alive as I can in 2022. So this will be fun, I wonder if they've all aged as well as I have (no laughing in the back there).

And, I note, that today is my thingaversary, having joined 9 years ago. So happy thingaversary to me.

Currently Reading


Currently reading
Midnight's Children
The Body in the Library (audio)

Loans: To try and keep track of the library books I've got out.
Library books on loan:
✔️Demelza
Matrix
The Plague
✔️The Black Prince
The White Tiger
Elizabeth is Missing

Borrowed from Cathy
The Stone Circle
The Dark Angel

Book subscriptions: To try and make sure I don't fall tooooo far behind
Tyll (MrB's May)
Outlandish (MrB's September)
Unwell Women (MrB's October)
Cloud Cuckoo Land (MrB's November)
Conjure Women (MrB's December)
Still Life (MrB's)
Rutherford & Fry's Complete Guide to Absolutely Everything (MrB's)
Hare House (MrB's)
We are Displaced (Shelterbox)

Book Bullets Who got me, with what, things I want to try and find at some point.
✔️A is for Arsenic (Mamie got me with this one)
Love and Other Thought Experiments (The radio & Caroline)
The Man Who Walked Through Walls (Pam)
Death walks in Eastrepps (Liz - and it's one I can get a copy of!)
Why We Sleep (Jackie_K)
The Great Typo Hunt (Cindy)
The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle (Stacy)
Cain (Annamorphic)
I will never see the world again (Charlotte)
The Bookish Life of Nina Hill (Charlotte - again).
Whitefly (DeltaQueen)
Wakenhyrst (Susan) (again)
Play It Again: An Amateur Against the Impossible JackieK
Your life in my hands JackieK (again she's got me with the non-fiction)
A Jury of her Peers (Liz - and this one's not in the library - or at least not the short story)
The Seventh Cross, (Charlotte - a prolific bulleteer!)
Rummage: A History of the Things We Have Reused, Recycled and Refused to Let Go by Emily Cockayne (another hit by Susan)
From Crime to Crime by Richard Henriques (Deadeye Susan) (check title)
Life in a Medieval Village (Tess because it's local)
Endell Street (Susan)
What is not your is not yours (Elizabeth M)
The Dictionary of Lost Words (Richard D)
Light Perpetual (Susan)
A Fatal thing happened on the way to the forum (rabbitprincess amongst others)
Migrations (Caroline)
The eternal audience of one (Richard D)
How Iceland changed the world (RP)
The Echo Wife (RidgewayGirl)
The Fell (Caroline, after she caught me with Moss' previous novel)
56 Days (Richard D)

The List

January
1. Murray Walker Incredible!, Maurice Hamilton, ***
2. To Serve Them All My Days, RF Delderfield, ***
3. The Chalk Pit, Elly Griffiths, **.5
4. A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens, ****
5. The Girl in the Train, Agatha Christie, ****
6. The Affair at the Victory Ball, Agatha Christie, ***
7. Things Fall Apart, Chinua Achebe, ***
8. The House at Pooh Corner, AA Milne, *****
9. The Hidden Girl and Other Stories, Ken Liu, ****
10. The Incredible Theft, Agatha Christie, ***
11. Romeo & Juliet, William Shakespeare, ***
12. Hamlet, William Shakespeare, ****
13. Royal Escape, Georgette Heyer, ***

February
14. Macbeth, William Shakespeare, ***1/2
15. Julius Caesar, William Shakespeare, ****
16. Black Mamba Boy, Nadifa Mohammed, **
17. The Color Purple, Alice Walker, ****
18. The Winter of the Lions, Jan Costin Wagner, ***
19. Mythos, Stephen Fry, ***
20. A is for Arsenic, Kathryn Harkup, ****
21. Marzahn, Mon Amour, Katja Oskamp, *****

March
22. Richard III, William Shakespeare, ***
23. Revolting Rhymes, Roald Dahl, *****
24. Dirty Beasts, Roald Dahl, ****
25. Three Apples Fell from the Sky, Narine Abgaryan, ***
26. The Short, the Long and the Tall, Jeffrey Archer, ***
27. My Lord John, Georgette Heyer, ***
28. Much Ado About Nothing, William Shakespeare, ****
29. Letters of Note: Art, Ed Shaun Usher, ***
30. Ariadne Jennifer Saint, ***
31. The Wombles, Elisabeth Beresford, ***
32. A Single Thread, Tracy Chevalier, ***

April
33. Winter Flowers, Angelique Villeneuve, ****
34. Bridget Jones's Diary, Helen Fielding, **1/2
35. Julian of Norwich, Janina Ramirez, ***
36. The Wandering Wombles, Elisabeth Beresford, ***
37. Girl, Woman, Other, Bernardine Evaristo, ***
38. Pericles William Shakespeare, ***
39. An Atlas of Extinct Countries, Gideon Defoe, ****
40. The Sea, The Sea, Iris Murdoch, ***
41. The Winter's Tale, William Shakespeare, ***
42. The Wombles at Work, Elisabeth Beresford, ***
43. The Wombles to the Rescue, Elisabeth Beresford, ***
44. The Tempest, William Shakespeare, **

May
45. Demelza, Winston Graham, ***
46. A Bird in the Hand, Ann Cleeves, ***
47. The Black Prince, Iris Murdoch, *
48. The Midnight Library, Matt Haig, ****
49. The Lost Spells, Robert Macfarlane, ****
50. The Crow Folk, Mark Stay, ****
51. Titus Andronicus, William Shakespeare, ***
52. Sweet Bean Paste, Durian Sukegawa, ****
53. A Damsel in Distress, PG Wodehouse, ***
54. The Body in the Library, Agatha Christie, ****
55. Othello, William Shakespeare, ****

June
56. Midwinter Murder, Agatha Christie, ***
57. Midnight's Children, Salman Rushdie, ***

Challenge 1: 50 years of reading

Me, aged 4 months. Taken in 1972.

I probably won't manage to read 50 books, each published in a different year of the last half century, but it will be interesting to see how far I do get. It will also be interesting to see what it tells me about the last half century.

1972 To Serve Them All My Days, RF Delderfield
1973: The Wombles at Work, Elisabeth Beresford, The Black Prince, Iris Murdoch
1974: The Wombles to the Rescue, Elisabeth Beresford
1974
1975: My Lord John, Georgette Heyer
1976
1977
1978: The Sea, The Sea, Iris Murdoch
1979

1980
1981: Midnight's Children, Salman Rushdie
1982: The Color Purple, Alice Walker, Revolting Rhymes, Roald Dahl
1983
1984: Dirty Beasts, Roald Dahl
1985
1986: A Bird in the Hand, Ann Cleeves
1987
1988
1989

1990
1991
1992
1993
1994
1995
1996: Bridget Jones's Diary, Helen Fielding
1997
1998
1999

2000
2001
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006
2007
2008
2009: The Winter of the Lions, Jan Costin Wagner

2010: Black Mamba Boy, Nadifa Mohammed
2011
2012
2013: Letters of Note: Art, Ed Shaun Usher, Sweet Bean Paste, Durian Sukegawa
2014: Winter Flowers, Angelique Villeneuve
2015: Three Apples Fell from the Sky, Narine Abgaryan,
2016: Julian of Norwich, Janina Ramirez
2017: The Chalk Pit, Elly Griffiths, Mythos, Stephen Fry,
2018
2019: A Single Thread, Tracy Chevalier, Girl, Woman, Other, Bernardine Evaristo,

2020: The Hidden Girl and Other Stories, Ken Liu, The Short, the Long and the Tall, Jeffrey Archer; An Atlas of Extinct Countries, Gideon Defoe, The Midnight Library, Matt Haig, The Lost Spells, Robert Macfarlane
2021: Murray Walker Incredible!, Maurice Hamilton, Ariadne Jennifer Saint, The Crow Folk, Mark Stay
2022: Marzahn, Mon Amour, Katja Oskamp

Challenge 2: Women authors


Rose Heilbron was the first woman judge to sit in the Old Bailey in January 1972. She was a bit of a trail blazer, also being the first woman to lead a murder trial. She retired in 1988 and died in 2005. Her daughter, also a Barrister, wrote a book about her life, Rose Heilbron. Into this category will go my books by woman authors.

1. The Chalk Pit, Elly Griffiths
2. The Girl in the Train, Agatha Christie
3. The Affair at the Victory Ball, Agatha Christie
4. The Incredible Theft, Agatha Christie
5. Royal Escape, Georgette Heyer,
6. Black Mamba Boy, Nadifa Mohammed
7. The Color Purple, Alice Walker,
8. A is for Arsenic, Kathryn Harkup
9. Marzahn, Mon Amour, Katja Oskamp
10. Three Apples Fell from the Sky, Narine Abgaryan
11. Ariadne Jennifer Saint,
12. The Wombles, Elisabeth Beresford
13. A Single Thread, Tracy Chevalier,
14. Winter Flowers, Angelique Villeneuve
15. Bridget Jones's Diary, Helen Fielding
16. Julian of Norwich, Janina Ramirez
17. The Wandering Wombles, Elisabeth Beresford
18. Girl, Woman, Other, Bernardine Evaristo
19. The Sea, The Sea, Iris Murdoch
20. The Wombles at Work, Elisabeth Beresford
21. The Wombles to the Rescue, Elisabeth Beresford
22. A Bird in the Hand, Ann Cleeves
23. The Black Prince, Iris Murdoch
24. The Body in the Library, Agatha Christie
25. Midwinter Murder, Agatha Christie

Challenge 3: New Authors


There are plenty of other people with whom I share a birth year. Some of them are even authors. The gentleman pictured is Jan Costin Wagner who was born in 1972 and is not an author I have read. I will put that right and put other new authors in this category.

1. Things Fall Apart, Chinua Achebe
2. The Hidden Girl and Other Stories, Ken Liu
3. Black Mamba Boy, Nadifa Mohammed
4. The Color Purple, Alice Walker,
5. The Winter of the Lions, Jan Costin Wagner (yes, that's him in the picture!)
6. Mythos, Stephen Fry,
7. A is for Arsenic, Kathryn Harkup
8. Marzahn, Mon Amour, Katja Oskamp
9. Three Apples Fell from the Sky, Narine Abgaryan
10. Ariadne Jennifer Saint,
11. Winter Flowers, Angelique Villeneuve
12 Bridget Jones's Diary, Helen Fielding
13. Julian of Norwich, Janina Ramirez
14. An Atlas of Extinct Countries, Gideon Defoe
15. The Sea, The Sea, Iris Murdoch
16. A Bird in the Hand, Ann Cleeves
17. The Midnight Library, Matt Haig
18. The Crow Folk, Mark Stay
19. Sweet Bean Paste, Durian Sukegawa
20. Midnight's Children, Salman Rushdie

Challenge 4: Translations


Thomas Cook, the travel agent, started with a rail excursion in 1841 and grew from there. It opened its first shop on Fleet Street in 1865. It was nationalised, along with the railways, in 1948 and returned to private hands in 1972 (which is how come it fits here - I said they might get a bit tenuous). If you're my age you'll remember the jingle for their adverts, "Don't just book it, Thomas Cook it.". The firm went out of business in 2019. For years this was how Brits traveled abroad. I will use this to collect books traveling in the reverse direction - those translated into English.

1. The Winter of the Lions, Jan Costin Wagner
2. Marzahn, Mon Amour, Katja Oskamp
3. Three Apples Fell from the Sky, Narine Abgaryan
4. Winter Flowers, Angelique Villeneuve
5. Sweet Bean Paste, Durian Sukegawa

Challenge 5: Book Subscriptions


This is a first day cover. They're a presentation envelope with all of the series of special stamps that are issued for a limited period of time and franked on the first day they were available to buy. I had a whole collection, as my Grandad used to work at the Post Office and he arranged me to receive them by post. As my book subscriptions come by post, this is where I will store those books that I don't pick.

1. Black Mamba Boy, Nadifa Mohammed
2. Marzahn, Mon Amour, Katja Oskamp.
3. Three Apples Fell from the Sky, Narine Abgaryan
4. Winter Flowers, Angelique Villeneuve
5. Sweet Bean Paste, Durian Sukegawa

Challenge 6: Heyer Series Read


I'm reading Heyer's romances and period novels in publication order. Lady of Quality was published in 1972 and is one of very few of the Heyers on my shelf that is younger than I am - I inherited Mum's almost complete collection.

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

Finished
✔️ The Black Moth (g) 1921 Finished 01Jan18, ****1/2
✔️ Powder and Patch (g) 1923 Finished 05Feb18, ***
✔️ The Great Roxhythe (h) 1923 Finished 30Apr18, ***
✔️ Simon the Coldheart (h) 1925 Finished 7May18, ***
✔️ These Old Shades (g) 1926 Finished 31May18, ***
✔️ The Masqueraders (g) 1928 Finished 17Jul18, ****
✔️ Beauvallet (h) 1929 Finished 08Sep2018, ****
✔️ The Conqueror (h) 1931 Finished 25Dec2018, ****
✔️ Devil's Cub (g) 1932 Finished 31Jan2019, ****
✔️ The Convenient Marriage (g) 1934 Finished 12Mar2019, ****1/2
✔️ Regency Buck (r) 1935 Finished 08May2019, ****1/2
✔️ The Talisman Ring, Georgette Heyer Finished 10Aug2019, ***
✔️ An Infamous Army, Georgette Heyer Finished 13Oct2019, ***
✔️ Royal Escape, Georgette Heyer Finished 14Feb2020, ***
✔️ The Spanish Bride, Georgette Heyer Finished 28Mar2020, ***
✔️ The Corinthian, Georgette Heyer Finished 17Jun2020, ****
✔️ Faro's Daughter, Georgette Heyer Finished 25Aug2020, ****
✔️ Friday's Child, Georgette Heyer Finished 10Oct2020, ****
✔️ The Reluctant Widow, (r) Finished 24Jan2021, ****
✔️ The Foundling (r) 1948 Finished 21Apr2021, ****
✔️ Arabella, (r) 1949 ****1/2 Finished 19Jun2021
✔️ The Grand Sophy, (r) 1950, **** Finished 25Jul2021
✔️ The Quiet Gentleman (r) 1951, ****1/2 Finished 24Sep2021

To be Read
Cotillion (r) 1953
The Toll Gate (r) 1954
Bath Tangle (r) 1955
Sprig Muslin (r) 1956
April Lady (r) 1957
Sylvester, or The Wicked Uncle (r) 1957
Venetia (r) 1958
The Unknown Ajax (r) 1959
Pistols for Two (short stories) 1960
A Civil Contract (r) 1961
The Nonesuch (r) 1962
False Colours (r) 1963
Frederica (r) 1965
Black Sheep (r) 1966
Cousin Kate (r) 1968
Charity Girl (r) 1970
Lady of Quality (r) 1972
My Lord John (h) 1975

Challenge 7: Non-Fiction


Mastermind is surely a key leader in fact based quiz shows. Not frills or fuss, 90 seconds on a specialist subject, 2 minutes general knowledge - what do YOU know? It was first broadcast in 1972 and is still going strong with Clive Myrie the latest presenter (although Magnus Magnusson remains a soft spot in the memory). I will put all my non-fiction in here.

1. Murray Walker Incredible!, Maurice Hamilton
2. A is for Arsenic, Kathryn Harkup
3. Letters of Note: Art, Ed Shaun Usher
4. Julian of Norwich, Janina Ramirez
5. An Atlas of Extinct Countries, Gideon Defoe

Challenge 8: Short works and other stories


The statue is John Betjeman, and is standing on the concourse at St Pancras station. In 1972 he was made the Poet Laureate. As poems tend to be short works, I will put any poetry, short stories or other short works in this category.

1. The Girl in the Train, Agatha Christie
2. The Affair at the Victory Ball, Agatha Christie
3. The Hidden Girl and Other Stories, Ken Liu
4. The Incredible Theft, Agatha Christie
5. Revolting Rhymes, Roald Dahl
6. Dirty Beasts, Roald Dahl
7. The Short, the Long and the Tall, Jeffrey Archer
8. Letters of Note: Art, Ed Shaun Usher
9. An Atlas of Extinct Countries, Gideon Defoe
10. The Lost Spells, Robert Macfarlane
11. Midwinter Murder, Agatha Christie

Challenge 9: CATs


When googling things to do with cats in 1972 I came across this epic piece. IN 1972, Marvel comics launched a new character, The CAT. Not sure how long she lasted, it seems only until 1973, but this was just too good to miss! I will put any CATs and KITs I decide to read into the category.

AphaKIT
January: R and H Murray Walker Incredible!, Maurice Hamilton; To Serve Them All My Days, RF Delderfield; Hamlet, William Shakespeare; Royal Escape, Georgette Heyer,
February: A and B The Color Purple, Alice Walker, A is for Arsenic, Kathryn Harkup, Marzahn, Mon Amour, Katja Oskamp
March: P and S Richard III, William Shakespeare, Three Apples Fell from the Sky, Narine Abgaryan, The Short, the Long and the Tall, Jeffrey Archer, Much Ado About Nothing, William Shakespeare, Ariadne Jennifer Saint, A Single Thread, Tracy Chevalier,
April: L and J Bridget Jones's Diary, Helen Fielding, Julian of Norwich, Janina Ramirez
May: O and D Demelza, Winston Graham, Sweet Bean Paste, Durian Sukegawa, A Damsel in Distress, PG Wodehouse, Othello, William Shakespeare, ****
June: Q and C: Midwinter Murder, Agatha Christie
July: E and T
August: M and F
September: K and I
October: V and N
November: G and U
December: Y and W

RandomKIT
January: Home Sweet Home. The House at Pooh Corner, AA Milne; Royal Escape, Georgette Heyer,
February: Cats. The Winter of the Lions, Jan Costin Wagner
March: Hobbies: A Single Thread, Tracy Chevalier,
April: Rain: Pericles William Shakespeare
May: Flowers: The Lost Spells, Robert Macfarlane, Sweet Bean Paste, Durian Sukegawa
June: Cooking: Midnight's Children, Salman Rushdie

Challenge 10: Bingo Dog


Having found something so brilliant for CATs, it was only fair that I try the same for BingoDog. And so we have the cover of the last album by the Bonzo Dog Doh Dah Band (yes, really), released in 1972. This will house my BingoDog card.

The categories are:
✔️1. An Award Winning book The Color Purple, Alice Walker,
✔️2. Published in a year ending 2 Revolting Rhymes, Roald Dahl
✔️3. A modern retelling of an older story Ariadne Jennifer Saint,
✔️4. A book you'd love to see as a movie (maybe starring your favourite actor) The Midnight Library, Matt Haig
✔️5. A book that features a dog The Wombles, Elisabeth Beresford
✔️6. The title contains the letter Z Marzahn, Mon Amour, Katja Oskamp
✔️7. Published the year you joined LT Letters of Note: Art, Ed Shaun Usher
✔️8. A book by a favourite author My Lord John, Georgette Heyer
✔️9. A long book (long for you) To Serve Them All My Days, RF Delderfield
✔️10. A book you received as a gift Murray Walker Incredible!, Maurice Hamilton
11. The title contains a month
✔️12. A weather word in the title The Winter of the Lions, Jan Costin Wagner
13. Read a CAT
✔️14. Contains travel or a journey The Girl in the Train, Agatha Christie
✔️15. A book about sisters or brothers The Hidden Girl and Other Stories, Ken Liu
✔️16. A book club read (real or online) Black Mamba Boy, Nadifa Mohammed
✔️17. A book with flowers on the cover Winter Flowers, Angelique Villeneuve
✔️18. A book in translation Three Apples Fell from the Sky, Narine Abgaryan
✔️19. A work of non-fiction A is for Arsenic, Kathryn Harkup
✔️20. A book where a character shares a name of a friend Richard III, William Shakespeare
✔️21. A book set in a capital city A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens (London)
✔️22. A children's or YA book The House at Pooh Corner, AA Milne
✔️23. A book set in a country other than the one you live Things Fall Apart, Chinua Achebe
✔️24. A book by an LGBTQ+ author Mythos, Stephen Fry,
✔️25. A book with silver or gold on the cover The Chalk Pit, Elly Griffiths

Happy new thread! I love that picture of you as a baby - I think we all had dresses and booties like that back in the day!

Happy new one, Helen. Great progress on your Bingo card!

Happy new thread! You're doing a great job with all your challenges and CATs!

Happy second thread!

Happy New Thread! I'm sure you've heard/read me say before that I love looking through the beginning threads when someone starts a new one. Now that LT flips you to the bottom, it's a chance to review what someone's read.

Fun new thread. Who is the reader on Bridget Jones's Diary? Is this a reread for you?

Book: 32
Title: A Single Thread
Author: Tracy Chevalier
Published: 2019
Rating: ***
Why: CAT
Challenge: woman author, CAT,
TIOLI Challenge #1 Read a book with a three-word title, BUT one of the words (in rolling order!) MUST have six letters

This manages to combine 2 of my hobbies, embroidery & bellringing. I'm not sure that it works entirely, though. Violet is one of the "surplus women" after the end of WWI, and faces a future of staying at home and looking after her cantankerous mother until she flees her home and goes to live in Winchester. As a single woman, she struggles to maintain a lifestyle and these struggles are made plain - the accommodations that need to be made in order to survive. She starts to get involved in the life of the cathedral and joins the Broderers. From there her friendship with Gilda drives a lot of the rest of the book.
While parts of this were very interesting, I'm not sure it worked as a whole. Felt a tiny bit too much as if the author had done her research and you were going to read it whether it fitted the story or not. The struggle to make ends meet, the perils of the single woman on her own, what a woman did for male company, all of that felt that it told a story. Some of the rest - the bellringing and the Jack Wells element felt to have been shoehorned in.
The last chapter came like a bolt out of the blue, both upsetting everything and providing instant resolution which felt remarkably unlikely. I'm not sure this hung together as a cohesive whole.

>14 Jackie_K: I think it was all the rage, I seem to have lots of pictures of short little dresses and frilly knickers at that age! Not a look I'll try and pull off now.

>15 katiekrug: Thank you. Struggling with one of them, should be OK on the other 4.

>16 mstrust:, >17 rabbitprincess: Thank you

>18 dudes22: I know what you mean, the chance to review the thread from the top is quite nice.

>19 Nickelini: read by Imogen Church. I've never read Bridget before, and have managed to not see the films either - she just passed me by. I'm alternately being amused by her and being exasperated by her. I think I can see why I didn't bother before and won't be bothering again.

>12 Helenliz: I'd missed this one the first time around, what a cover!

>20 Helenliz: I've not read much of her work. I'm always intrigued by this period, but not sure if I'm tempted or not given your review!

>12 Helenliz: It's something, isn't it?

I suppose the main quibble I had was the entire bellringing element felt like it had been shoehorned in. I didn't really make any material difference to the story. All the technical detail was reasonably correct, but it felt unnecessary. Had that not been there it would have been, for me, a stronger book. Having said that, the remainder was perfectly readable.

Happy new thread, Helen. Your Bingo card looks good, congrats on that!

>20 Helenliz: - I liked several of Chevalier's earlier novels but her more recent ones don't seem to be as good...

Happy new thread! I am enjoying following along with your yearly reads. Have you read any of Ruth Rendell's mysteries? See had some really good ones published in the 1970s and 80s, in particular, A Demon in my View 1976, and A Judgement in Stone 1977.

Happy New Thread, Helen!

>23 Helenliz:

Meanwhile I criticised The Nine Tailors for not having enough technical detail so there's that. :D

Happy Thingaversary, Helen! Did you buy a book or ten in celebration?

>27 lyzard: Thank you, Liz. It gets a lot right, but there are a few rather obvious errors.

>28 RidgewayGirl: Not yet. But then I haven't read all of last year's purchases yet either. It's my birthday in a fortnight, so I tend to combine the two. I may go on a spurge after that. >:-)

First Quarter Review:
Number of books: 32 books in the quarter is a remarkably high number for me. Helped by listening to a number of stand alone short stories, but even so. That would equate to over 90 in a year, which I can't see happening.

And 2 books rating 5 stars means it's been quite a positive rating quarter as well. The somewhat varied The House at Pooh Corner and Marzahn, Mon Amour both won that accolade.

At the other end of the scale, the books to earn less than 3 stars were Black Mamba Boy and The Chalk Pit

Challenge 1: 50 years of reading. I seem to have made good progress at either end of the scale. Lots filled in of the 2010s, a few 1970s. A bug gaping hole in the 1980s to 2000s... But with 13 out of 50 in a quarter it's going to be tight to finish in the year.

Challenge 2: Women Authors: 13 books read by women authors out of 31 books is over 1/3rd, but it lower than I've achieved in recent years.

Challenge 3: New Authors: At 10 out of 31 I'm holding steady at about 1/3rd.

Challenge 4: Translations: Just the 3 in here at the moment, so that's going well.

Challenge 5: Subscriptions. Just the 3 in here is more of a problem - I got behind last year and I am still behind. This isn't helped by the monthly subscription being new books when I am trying to read across 50 years. hmmm.

Challenge 6: Heyer series read. None in here yet. I did read My Lord John but that was out of sequence and doesn't count.

Challenge 7: Non-fiction: 3 in here is good going - averages one a month.

Challenge 8: Short works. As discussed previously, boosted by a couple of stand alone stories, this is sitting at 8, which is quite good going.

Challenge 10: CATs: I've cut my CAT commitments to just 2 this year - and have completed each of them in the 3 months.

Challenge 11: Bingo: Which is going remarkably well. I has helped that I've opened it up to male authors as well as women this year. I have 5 left, and a fair idea for 3 of them. Square 4, a book you'd love to see as a movie, is going to stump me.

So what's the first quarter been like? Probably fairly promising.

>30 Helenliz: Why not 90? Go for it!

(I'm also not sure why Lord John doesn't count: is it just because it's out of order? Will you make yourself read it again?)

>31 charl08: Because 90 feels like an awful lot! Apart from one year when I managed 113 (no, I have no idea how) I tend to hover around the 80s. And I don't want to to end up being a number count thing.

My Lord John doesn't count because I set myself the task to read Heyer's historical and regency/period romances in publication order and that one was out of order. Liz wanted to read it to finish her read of Heyer's historical works in order, she's previously read the romances in order.

Will I read it again? hmm. difficult. Probably.

Book: 33
Title: Winter Flowers
Author: Angelique Villeneuve
Published: 2014 (in French)
Rating: ****
Why: fits several challenges!
Challenge: 50 years, woman author, new author, Translation, Subscriptions, Bingo
TIOLI Challenge #10. Read a book with fewer than 100 members listed on LT

This is a real mixture of a book, both sad and a struggle, but it ends optimistically, if with no real certainty that they will live happily ever after. . It tells of Jeanne, whose husband returns from WW1, but has a terribly facial injury. It tells of her struggles to survive the war alone, the food shortages, the lack of fuel, bringing up her daughter all the while trying to keep them fed with her occupation making artificial flowers. Set along side er struggles are those of her neighbour, Sidonie, who has similar financial struggles, but a different outcome of her son who went off to war.
It is, at times, terribly bleak. It is, at times beautiful, almost poetic. There were a couple of incredibly startling chapters, one contrasting her flower making and his operations.
It is a fact that those that returned were not supported in a way we would not expect the state to support now. Not every returning soldier had physical scars, but for some the mental scars never healed. And that took a terrible toll on the families they returned to. This makes not attempt to look at the long term picture, this is the initial readjustment to a man returning who is not the same man who went off to war. The book ends on Armistice day and it feels like there has been some progress made on their readjustment to each other and a life together rather than the separate lives they had been leading with the memory of each other.
This is an inventive book, telling of war and the aftermath from a female perspective, we see very little of his war, only through his letters to Jeanne. We see different aspects of the conflict and its wider reaching effects, the population all suffer to some extent.
I can't help feeling that the road ahead will be tough for both of them, despite the first glimmers of hope that the final chapters bring.

>32 Helenliz:

I didn't realise I'd made you read things OUT OF ORDER! In that case thank you doubly for reading along with me. :)

BTW I was poking into some old threads the other day to link to some old reviews and found the first time I was thinking about reading Heyer's historical fiction! It was, um, quite a few years ago... :D

>34 lyzard: I can cope. *mops brow in dramatic fashion*.
At least it got it finished - that's always to the good.

Had a weekend in Norwich, staying with friends. We will skip over the fact that the thank you bottle of wine we took with us was undrinkable.
Went for a mooch around the city and found the memorial to Sir Thomas Browne in ST Peter Mancroft church.

Book: 34
Title: Bridget Jones's Diary
Author: Helen Fielding
Published: 1996
Rating: **1/2
Why: year published.
Challenge: 50 years, woman author, new author, CAT
TIOLI Challenge #12. Read a book set in a country that is a member of the British Commonwealth

I didn't read this, or watch the movies, when it came out. It didn't appeal then and I'm not sure it really appeals now. In 1996, when it came out, I was mid 20s but had a lot more of my life sorted than Bridget does. I've never really obsessed about dieting or weight - I've always been built for comfort, not speed - and it's never really bothered me.
Listening to this now, it has not necessarily aged well. The cultural references and the apparent lack of mobile phones make it seem a period piece. Bridget herself amused me, but she annoyed me a lot more. I'm not going to be going back for more.

Book: 35
Title: Julian of Norwich
Author: Janina Ramirez
Published: 2016
Rating: ***
Why: Impulse purchase
Challenge: 50 years, woman author, new author, Non-fiction, CAT
TIOLI Challenge #10 : Read a book with fewer than 100 members listed on LT

I have a copy of The Revelations of Divine Love to read, but I figured that this would be a good start, putting the lady and her writing into context. I've seen a programme by Dr Ramirez on Julian of Norwich. It is interesting, we don't know much about her apart from what she chooses to tell. Her work is compared to some other English mystics of the same period in terms of the themes and language used in the book. The survival of the text itself is a mystery, in that it treads a fine line around being heretical and managed to survive the upheaval of the Reformation before a copy in a nunnery of English Nuns in France survived the French revolution.
This is a short introduction to whet the appetite.

As an aside, I love the cover design, with an image of Julian visible through the J shaped aperture of the front cover. A picture of her face is on the inside page. As an anchoress, she would have spent her time peering out at the world through a window this feels rather apt.

>36 Helenliz: Great pic, thanks for posting!
And everybody and their brother are making wine nowadays so it's easy to end up with something you don't like. When I find a good one I'll take a pic or write down the name and winery. I may not find the exact wine but I'll find a good one from the same producer.

>39 mstrust: This was not just "not very good" but "well beyond its drink by date". Rather vinegary. ewww.

Oh, gross!

Book: 36
Title: The Wandering Wombles
Author: Elizabeth Beresford
Published: 1970 (before I was born - it's a plan)
Rating: ***
Why: There's a plan, trust me.
Challenge: woman author,
TIOLI Challenge #11. Read a book published in the 1970s OR aimed at the under 8s

Well I have read every page that my poor battered old copy has, but that's not all of them. About half the pages have long since detached from the spine, some still glued in little bundles, some loose. Pages 107 and 108 are missing, as is a bundle from pages 153 ti 168. But I think I get the gist.

All is not well on Wimbledon Common, the increased heavy lorry traffic is causing the burrow to sink as the earth is being moved by the lorry vibrations. Again, I am struck by how far ahead of their time these books are. So the Wombles set out to find an alternative burrow. Bungo & Orinoco set off North and encounter MacWomble the Terrible (who is a lot less terrible once Miss Adelaide gives him the look usually reserved for small wombles in the womblegarten). Tomsk & Wellington explore the gardens at Buckingham palace - and draw a bit of a blank there. But shy, bookish Wellington remembers reading something and so comes up with the idea that provides the solutions. The end of the book sees them leave Wimbledon Common for a new burrow.
I'm not sure how the Loch Ness womble thing resolves itself, as that chapter is in the missing bundle, but as the last page has Bungo back home, I assume it all comes off fairly well.
The edition I read was illustrated, but this time the illustrations were of creatures that matched the TV series, and it all looked a lot more familiar.

I was made aware of the Wombles just a year or two ago when their theme song played on a podcast I listen to. Seems they were quite the thing in the U.K., something along the lines of the American Banana Splits.

>43 mstrust: They were definitely a thing! There was a stop motion animated series for children that ran for what felt like all of my childhood, Womble albums, they even made a hit song of the theme tune and several albums (which I will admit to owning!).

I understand they've not long started a remake of the series. I've not seen it myself.

From memory, the Banana Splits were rather anarchic, I'm not sure I'd bracket them together.

>44 Helenliz: And way ahead of their time for their recycling message.

(Earworm again: "underground overground...)

>45 charl08: That's really clear to me on this re-read.

(... wombeling free, the wombles of Wimbledon Common are we)
I could go on and on and on... >;-)

>45 charl08:, >46 Helenliz:

...making good use of the things that we find
The things that the everyday folk leave behind...

We're all showing our age, aren't we? :D

I'm just catching up with your thread and noticed the beautiful cross-stitch piece in your earlier thread. Is that a Mirabilia design?

>47 lyzard: too damn right we are!!
Although there is a newer version available so we're either old or pre-schoolers. >:-)

I'm officially old, I'm 50 today. Although my kid brother did make me smile sending a badge with 5 on it.

>48 mathgirl40: Yup. They have that look about them, don't they? Wisteria fairy from the Pixie Blossom series designed by Nora Corbett.

>49 Helenliz: When I was 21 I thought that 25 was old, but these days old is over 80. When I'm 80 I'll probably think that only people over 90 are old.

It's the judgements of younger people that make you feel old. When I booked into the hotel on my last trip away, the woman at reception congratulated me for remembering the registration number of my own car!

Happy Birthday!

Happy birthday Helen. Hope there will be cake?

There will be. I have arrived at work to find a bottle of Bolly on my desk. Not sure if I'm supposed to start that now or leave it until later? I've bought macarons in and I believe there is cake. We also went to a meeting last night and had cake. Victoria sponge with a Ferrero Rocher (about which I have rather a thing) and buttercream filling. It was really very sweet (on both senses)

>50 pamelad: That's true. A couple of years ago I got into a standoff with a van trying to go down a one way street the wrong way. He yelled "You stupid old c***" at me. I decided the word that upset me most was "old"!!

Happy birthday, Helen!

Happy Birthday, Helen!

Happy Birthday, Helen!

Have a wonderful birthday!

Woohoo, happy birthday!

Thank you all!
We had cake, 2 varieties, and macaroons. I bought the bottle of bubbly home for another day. Several cards, some skirting around the 50 issue, some not. My brother went with a card with 5 on it!
And a box of Ferrero Rocher from the husband, who knows the way to my heart is always through hazelnut confectionery. >:-)

It could have been a much worse day than it was.

Happy birthday Helen! Welcome to the 50s club, where all the cool kids are :)

>50 pamelad: You're absolutely right. My mother-in-law (mid-80s) hates going into hospital for many reasons, but one of them is because when she's there she's "stuck with old people". And I remember when I was at school and we worked out how old we would be in the year 2000, and I thought "31 - I'm NEVER going to be that old!" Now of course I'd absolutely love to be that old!

Half a century is something to celebrate!

Happy birthday! Ferrero Rocher (and oh yeah, the bubbly) sounds like a birthday-worthy treat.

Happy birthday!

Happy Birthday

Happy Birthday! Celebrate every year!!

Happy birthday! Cake and Ferrero Rochers and macarons sound like a perfect combination.

Happy birthday, Helen! My husband calls it a "birthday week" as an excuse to celebrate for seven days. Go ahead, try it!

Thank you all!

>66 VivienneR: We have taken to having a birthday meal on the weekend nearest, so we had a joint of lamb on Sunday and a rather nice bottle of red to go with it. My choice for both.

>59 Jackie_K: I'll join the cool kids then. >:-)

Book: 37
Title: Girl, Woman, Other
Author: Bernardine Evaristo
Published: 2019
Rating: ***
Why: TIOLI
Challenge: woman author
TIOLI Challenge #9. Read a book Longlisted for the Women's Prize this decade

Told in 4 triads, this is a set of interwoven stories, with the women, all telling their life, their circumstances, where they are and how they got there. It is interesting how often you see the same events from more than one perspective and that people present themselves in a way that isn't always what they think.
There were a lot of interrelations between the women. Amma's best friend from school was Carol's teacher, for example. It didn't always work. Meghan/Morgan, for instance, felt like an opportunity to lecture, but it did mean that we got to hear Hattie & Grace's stories, so I could live through Meghan/Morgan to get to them.
The after party felt like a co-incidence too far. I could manage the interrelations of the various story tellers, but that most of them ended up in the same room at the National to see the opening night of a play that the first story also starts with was stretching credibility a touch too far. I did like the acknowledgement that not all women feel the same on any subject and that the trans population is a minefield. I'm not sure that the strident very oppositional approach , as represented by Meghan/Morgan, necessarily works, I find myself with Dominique there. But as Amma reminds her, she is not young any more and neither am I.
I listened to this and it was read very well. I understand that the text lacks punctuation, which I find incredibly annoying to read so this probably was the best mechanism for me to read this. I'd interested to know how the dialect portions are written. I find reading dialect hard to get into, so again, maybe audio was the best means for me in this case.

Happy Birthday Helen! Congratulations on making it to 50 and on your new thread. Ferrero Rocher and wine sounds like a perfect way to celebrate.

And also kudos on the cross stitch piece - thanks for confirming with >48 mathgirl40: that it is a Mirabilia. I still have to stitch the beads onto one of hers before it is officially "done."

I have read several of Tracy Chevalier's books and some of them are great, some more meh.

>69 threadnsong: Thank you.

As this is for a charity that makes cross stitch pieces up into quilts for sick children, no beads. I just did a colour substitution. I think it was reasonably successful.

I'm getting that impression of Tracy Chevalier.

Book: 38
Title: Pericles
Author: William Shakespeare
Published: 1609 (before I was born)
Rating: ***
Why: Shakespeare kick
Challenge: CAT, Shorts
TIOLI Challenge #13. Read a book with a maritime setting

It's a retelling of an older story, as so often with Shakespeare, but he distills it down, then adds his own particular twist to the action. Pericles arrives at Antioch to pay court to the King's daughter, and is faced with a riddle that he has to solve in order to win the daughter. The answer is perilous and so he prevaricates, then runs away, pursued by a Lord of Antioch engaged to track him down & kill him (he doesn't try much beyond Act 1). Pericles leaves Tyre, to avoid pursuit, and arrives at Tarsus, bringing grain to the starving populace. From there he again sets sail and this time is shipwrecked. A group of fishermen save him and also drag ashore his armour form the sea. They tell him of a tournament being held by the local king and Pericles resolves to enter. He does and wins the daughter of the King, Thaisa.
They set sail again (sensing a theme here? Maybe the theatre had bought a job lot of blue material) and encounter a storm. Thaisa gives birth and seems to die. The sailors insist that the corpse be thrown overboard. From here on in it is a divergence before act 5 serves to tie the whole unlikely thing back together.
Thaisa isn't dead, drifts ashore, is found, revivied and, fearing Pericles dead, serves as a priestess to a temple to Diana.
(fast forward 14 odd years) Marina (the daughter) is left with Creon and his wife, only she outshines their daughter and so the resolves to send a man to kill her. He's foiled by a bunch of kidnapping pirates. Marina gets sold to a brothel owner, then manages to charm or cajole her way into keeping her virginity against all the odds. Creon & wife claim Marina is dead when Pericles visits (unclear quite what hes been up to all this time, Kinging in Tyre, we presume) he sets sail (again) in grief.
He arrives in Ephesus, mute in his grief, and is met by the local governor, who has previously been charmed by Marina (we'll gloss over the fact he was in a brothel and planning on deflowering a virgin. like you do). Marina is bought to Pericles and by telling their stories, they realise who the other is. After a dream sequence, where Diana appears to Pericles and tells him to go to the temple at Ephesus, Thaisa is also brought back into the fold.
There are plenty of characters and plenty of them are identikit. The ones that stand out are the common people, whose scenes have the feeling of the everyday, rather than the lords and ladies that populate the rest of the piece. The fishermen, the brothel keeper & his wife all feel like they are recognisable to the London of the time. They feel like a comic interlude to bring the tone back down to earth, they provide it with an earthiness.
This is a good listen.

So where am I with project Shakespeare? So far I have listened to all of them, and this has worked well for me.

Done: 11
A Midsummer Might's Dream
Antony and Cleopatra
Hamlet
Julius Caesar
Macbeth
Much Ado About Nothing
Pericles, Prince of Tyre
Richard III
Romeo and Juliet
The Taming of the Shrew
Twelfth Night

Plus the Sonnets

On loan: 3
Othello
The Tempest
The Winter's Tale

Available from the library: 6
Henry IV, Part 2
Henry VI, Part 1
Henry VI, Part 2
Henry VI, Part 3
The Two Noble Kinsmen
Titus Andronicus

hmm, gaps: 19
All's Well That Ends Well
As You Like It
Coriolanus
Cymbeline
Edward III
Henry IV, Part 1
Henry V
Henry VIII
King John
King Lear
Love's Labour's Lost
Measure for Measure
Richard II
The Comedy of Errors
The Merchant of Venice
The Merry Wives of Windsor
The Two Gentlemen of Verona
Timon of Athens
Troilus and Cressida

HOWEVER: Looks like a fair number of the gaps are available through LibiVox, so this might actually work. How exciting. A project I might actually see to a conclusion.

Looks like your Shakespeare project is going swimmingly! I remember enjoying Pericles much more than I thought I would.

Book: 39
Title: An Atlas of Extinct Countries
Author: Gideon Defoe
Published: 2020
Rating: ****
Why: Non-fiction
Challenge: New author, non-fiction, Shorts
TIOLI Challenge #1: Read a book with a title in which the middle letter is also a letter in the word APRIL

This is both fun and educational. I also think that while it was fun to listen to, I hope that the paper version is illustrated with maps and flags and so on to illustrate the text.
It tells of any number of countries that were and are no more. Some of them persisted for a long time, others for less than 24 hours. For each country there is a description of its date, size, currency, capital, and language before its origin, history and demise is explained. It is all done in a rather amusing tone, with much poking fun at various tin pot dictators that have set up a country for a variety of random reasons. There is then a short section on flags and anthems of various counties, in case you were thinking of setting one up.

>73 christina_reads: Thanks. I'm slightly surprised at how many I have got through. Usually I can listen to one in a return commute, so they;re not all that long. It's just getting them to fill in the gaps that might be interesting.

I knew the general outline of the story, so was able to enjoy what was going on, rather than need to follow the plot. I;ve found reading the synopsis first helps in that regard.

>74 Helenliz: - That sounds kind of fun.

>76 katiekrug: it was and at not much over 4 hours, quite a short and snappy listen.

>74 Helenliz: I like the sound of that one, going to put it on my wishlist.

>72 Helenliz: Free access to the plays sounds great. I wondered if the British Library might have any stage recordings in their digital collections?

Book: 40
Title: The Sea, the Sea
Author: Iris Murdoch
Published: 1978
Rating: ***
Why: filling in the 1970s.
Challenge: 50 years, new author, woman author.
TIOLI Challenge #8: Read a book with a repeated title word

Bleurgh. This is both good and awful at one and the same time. Charles Arrowby has retired from the stage to a coastal house (in my head Cornwall, but it's not made explicit). He intends to write his memoires in some form, and starts with writing a diary. We hear a reasonable amount about the women in his life, from his first love Mary (called Hartley to distinguish her from the many other Marys in the class) through Clement, Rosina, Lizzie and others. In this sense he is a thoroughly bad hat. Just when you think that you're going to read his memoirs, the diary format gets derailed by his coming across Hartley, a now married woman who has also retired to the same locality. At this point he conceives the idea that he still loves her and the rest of the book is a set of ridiculous attempts to win her back (he fails, as he dammed well deserves to) . He is pretty thoroughly unlikeable. He takes it into his head that Hartley's marriage in unhappy and that she is a fantasist, I think the pot is calling the kettle black there. In my estimation, Hartley is the only woman who left him, he seems to have tired and moved on from all the others, and this is at the root of his scheme.
He ends up alone, and deservedly so.
Having said all that, the writing and description is really impressive. The descriptions are vivid and she really gets inside Charles' head - it's just not a very nice place to be. He was a chore to read, the prose less so. A compromise 3 stars.

>79 charl08: good thought. I also wondered about the BBC sounds app, but from the little I have used it, finding what you want seems quite difficult.

Book: 41
Title: The Winter's Tale
Author: William Shakespeare
Published: 1611 (before I was born)
Rating: ***
Why: project Shakespeare
Challenge: short works.
TIOLI Challenge #2: Read a book with a tie to a book you read in the first quarter.

This has quite a long set up, then a fairly predictable, if unbelievable, payoff.
The kings of Bohemia & Sicilia had been friends since boyhood. For reasons unexplained (and inexplicable) he decides that his wife, Hermione, has been unfaithful with his friend, casts out his friend and imprisons his wife. Hermione then gives birth prematurely and the child, a girl, cast out to die. She's taken by a faithful retainer and is left on the shores of Bohemia, where he is eaten by a bear and the child found and brought up by shepherds.
Time passes. 16 years, we're told. Bohemia's son meets out abandoned girl, and falls in love, knowing nothing of her parentage. One thing and another leads the whole motley crew back to Sicilia and we discover the truth about Perdita. We then discover that Hermione is also not dead but has been hidden as a "statue" these last 16 years. Like I said, it's a long build up to an unbelievable payoff.
The most fun is clearly had by the lokel yokels. The shepherds, the sheering party, the packman cum cutpurse all have the better of it. They steal the scenes they are in, even if they do feel a bit like a front of curtain act while someone's changing the scenery behind the scenes.
It was fun, but leave credulity at the door when you come in.

Book: 42
Title: The Wombles at Work
Author: Elisabeth Beresford
Published: 1973 (I told you there was a plan)
Rating: ***
Why: 50 years
Challenge: 50 years, woman author.
TIOLI Challenge #7. Read a book whose title includes at least three one-syllable words

The Wombles are back, doing their thing. In this we have a swan that Tomsk saves and then become devoted to, Bungo tries being a hippy, Wellington discovers something, Orinoco solves an odour issue and the "ghost" makes himself felt.
It is charming enough. If one were to criticise it would be that the gentle environmental issue is pushed a little harder on this occasion, with pollution gaining a capital letter and being divided into sub-classes.

Book: 43
Title: The Wombles to the Rescue
Author: Elisabeth Beresford
Published: 1974 (I told you there was a plan)
Rating: ***
Why: 50 years
Challenge: 50 years, woman author.
TIOLI Challenge #??

The Wombles are back in the burrow in Wimbledon, after the traffic rules in London are changed to prevent the large lorries that were affecting their burrow from passing that way. I can't imagine that was the main aim of the traffic planners.
Bungo and Great Uncle Bulgaria are missing through most of the book, as they are away at a Womble conference in the US. That gives some of the other Wombles a bit more space. We meet Alderney and Shansi (I can't help feeling a bit uncomfortable that a Womble who takes a Chinese name takes on characteristics of that country. Shansi uses an unusual word order, she is speaking as if she were Chinese, when she isn't it's just her name). Apart from that, the Wombles get inventive with various schemes to manage with less rubbish being left on the common. The way that they replace the front door with plastic is interesting, it's litter that is viewed as the problem at this stage, not plastic itself. There is a certain level of mild threat here, life is not certain, even underground.

Book: 44
Title: The Tempest
Author: William Shakespeare
Published: 1611 (before I was born)
Rating: **
Why: project Shakespeare
Challenge: CAT
TIOLI Challenge #13: Read a book with a maritime setting

I admit to being somewhat confused by this one. It was difficult to get my head around the many and varied characters by voice alone. I think this one may improve on viewing rather than just listening. It is very male dominated, Miranda and a couple of sprites is the limit of the female company. This is categorised as a romance, but there's barely any romance to note. Miranda falls for the first man she sees, Ferdinand falls for a pretty face, but does at least come out of it with some sense of honour intact. The business with Caliban is very confusing. What exactly is he and what happens to him thereafter? Ariel, also, encounters freedom at the end, but freedom leads to what?
The presence of Prospero's brother and the King of Milan feels like we might be about to witness revenge served as a cold dish, but he rises above himself.
I'm not sure that this was the right medium for a play I only have a passing familiarity with.

Just dropping in to see how your 50 years of reading is going. I have the most difficulty filling the 80s and early 2000s. I suspect you might be finding the same.

And if I haven't already mentioned, your baby photo is adorable.

>86 VivienneR: It's patchy! I had a concerted go at the 1970s last month and that's carrying on, with a couple more to go. Revisiting my childhood book shelves has been a bit of a sneaky solution to the problem. I have several on order from the library for the 1980s for this month and probably into next. I'm thinking the 1990s I can just re-read Terry Pratchett. All of him would see me clear off most of the 1990s and 2000s. And I can think of worse ideas!

>87 Helenliz: I have a decades category, and have put some of Edith Layton's romances in the eighties as a place holder until I find something more interesting. Perhaps some prize lists will be helpful. Strange to have a missing decade.

>87 Helenliz: My challenge was limited by my rule of using a unique author each year or I could have almost filled the list with Agatha Christie and Ian Rankin! Revisiting childhood bookshelves is a great idea. After all, they must have been favourites, never to be forgotten.

>88 pamelad: The idea of prize lists made me wonder what was nominated in the 1990s. From the late 90s Women's prize list I loved Fugitive Pieces (1997) and read (but don't remember much about) Larry's Party (1998) and When I lived in Modern Times (2000). The Booker shortlists for the 90s have quite a few I've never got to, and a couple I've loved Sacred Hunger, Possession, Such a Long Journey.

Although a decade of Pratchett sounds fun!

>88 pamelad: I've been using the 1001 list to try and find some ideas. Not always enjoyably (Iris Murdoch isn't going on my favourites shelf any time soon!) Prize lists are relatively limited that far, either they didn't exist or finding the short or longlists is difficult. The Orange prize didn't start until the mid 1990s, for instance.

>89 VivienneR: that's just for added challenge, I set myself no such restriction. Fortunately! I'm not above a series re-read to fill in some gaps. Just found that the detective series Brother Cadfael starts in 1977, with book 2 in 1979. That will fill in a gap or two as well.

>90 charl08:. Once the Orange Prize starts that might be easier, I have the longlists already in a spreadsheet to help pick. Fugitive Pieces placed on reserve at the library on your recommendation.

>91 Helenliz: Well, it's not a chunkster, so at least if you hate it, it won't take up too much of your time!

>91 Helenliz: wikipedia has NYT bestseller lists for every year since 1931. You may be able to find some ideas there:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lists_of_The_New_York_Times_Fiction_Best_Sellers

Also, there are pages for years in literature, with a section of books published that year:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1986_in_literature#New_books
(you can either replace the year in the url or the box on the right has adjacent years)

>92 charl08: well that's a glowing endorsement!

>93 ELiz_M: ohhh! The best seller lists I did know about. The books published per year I did not. That will certainly be useful, thank you.

>85 Helenliz: There is a splendid movie released of The Tempest that has Helen Mirren cast as Prospero. That one choice of adding a powerful woman to the powerful magician role turns the whole plotline on its head.

All that said, my hat is off to you for listening to the audio versions of Shakespeare's plays. I read them when I can, saw plays in the Before Times, and they are difficult for me at best to remember who is who especially in his comedies. Your reviews are great and I enjoy them.

A couple of days travelling with work sees a couple of finishes. It's a long was to go for a meeting, but on balance it is worth it - sometimes. A few days away also sees an awful lot of posts to catch up on!

Book: 45
Title: Demelza
Author: Winston Graham
Published: 1946 (before I was born)
Rating: ***
Why: I read books 1 and had good intentions...
Challenge: CAT
TIOLI Challenge #1. Read a book by an author for whom you have read ONLY ONE other book by that same author before

It's amazing how much time you can find to read when travelling on business. One return trip to Germany sees this finished. The concentrated period of reading worked well as it gives time to get swept up in this. It covers a relatively short period of time and Demelza is the pivot upon whi9ch the story turns. At times she is headstrong, at times very dedicated and loyal. the social history element makes the background against which this is set terribly bleak. The french revolution is rumbling over the channel, there are riots and the miners in the district are going hungry. The rich are not, of course. Ross & Demelza are an odd couple in some ways, coming across this class divide form different sides and now at home in neither world entirely. It has the tine of a soap opera at times, with much scandal and such goings on. Worthwhile read.

Book: 46
Title: A Bird in the Hand
Author: Ann Cleeves
Published: 1986
Rating: ***
Why: 50 years...
Challenge: 50 years, new author, woman author
TIOLI Challenge #4. Read a book first published in the 1980s or set in school/college setting

This doesn't quite work, but I'd struggle to put my finger on exactly why. A bird watcher is found dead in the marsh on the Norfolk coast. The father of another teenage birdwatcher asks George (a former Home office something - what is never made exactly clear) to investigate. George and his wife, Molly (former social worker), start to investigate in the village and the birdwatching community. The Police remain almost invisible throughout. I found the ages of some of the protagonists hard to pin down, they seem to be both too old and too young at times. The dashing around the country left me unsure where they were at times. They make a good pair, and it is a positive portrayal of a couple in early retirement. I's nice to see that it's not a one-sided relationship.
This was her first novel.

One book I am very glad to see the back of. I'm not sure Iris Murdoch is for me.

Book: 47
Title: The Black Prince
Author: Iris Murdoch
Published: 1973
Rating: *
Why: 50 years...
Challenge: 50 years, woman author
TIOLI Challenge #5. Read a book that was published within 10 years before or after your birth year

This is literary fiction at it's most up its own arse. Not my thing. I accept that may well be my failing, not the book's.
I've read two books by Murdoch now and enjoyed neither. This might be the last one.

>98 Helenliz: I think you had to read Iris Murdoch in the seventies, which would have been hard for you! I've read and enjoyed quite a few, but not for ages.

>99 pamelad: ha! Yes, that would have been rather problematic! I feel I've given her a go, and she's seemingly not for me.

>99 pamelad: Or not. :) I recently started reading Murdoch (was too intimidated to try her in my 20s, even at the urging of a friend that loves her work) and have really enjoyed her take on the foibles of humanity and the unexplained, strange elements in some of her stories.

>80 Helenliz: Apparently I less minded being in an unpleasant person's head and simply loved the writing.

Murdoch has never interested me, probably because my older sister loved her. Heh.

>101 ELiz_M: Yes, there is good writing, but it seems to me to be about such unpleasant people that I don't want to spend time with it. I've tried 2 in relatively quick succession, the first one I got through, the second was a real chore. That's not what reading should be. So I'm calling it quits.

>102 katiekrug: I can't tell you you're wrong...

>98 Helenliz: "This is literary fiction at it's most up its own arse"

Love it! That's exactly what I think of Murdoch!

Book: 48
Title: The Midnight Library
Author: Matt Haig
Published: 2020
Rating: ****
Why: 50 years...
Challenge: 50 years, new author
TIOLI Challenge #2. Read a book with the word "library" or "libraries" in either the title or subtitle

It's a simple enough surmise, that there is a space between life and death. In this space, where you are neither living nor dead, you get to try all the other parallel universes that exist, each one generated by each decision you have made or not made. In Nora's case, this presents itself as a library, with her school librarian, Mrs Elms as spirit guide and guru. Each possible life is a book and as she picks a book and starts to read, so she enters that life.
It's very effectively done. Nora gradually explores other lives, reversing decisions she made along the way. In not all of these lives does she find that she is happy. And that's the thing about regrets, you can never actually follow the other path, you can only think that your life would have been better if you had made different decisions. Some of the lives are great, some of them bizarre and any number of them are no better than the life she had been living. But it is interesting to sample these other lives and try them on for size.
My only slight concern is with the ending and the return to the life that was depressing is overturned. Depression can be a deep dark pit that you can see no way out of, I'm not sure that this necessarily represents the truth of that.

Book: 49
Title: The Lost Spells
Author: Robert Macfarlane
Published: 2020
Rating: ****
Why: 50 years...
Challenge: 50 years, short works
TIOLI Challenge #3. Read a book where every word in the title starts with a different letter

I feel sure that I missed something in listening to this, as I know from The Lost Words that the illustrations will be beautiful. However, listening to it gave a different beauty to the words. These are in the nature of poems, incantation or spells, there is something that tugs at a deep wellspring. The spoken word was supported by a soundscape reflecting the nature of the poem.
As in The Lost Words, each is a plant, animal or bird and the language invokes the subject by its alliteration or rhyme scheme as well as the descriptive nature of the text. The Oak tree, for example, is described as the waiting tree and used a repeating refrain, 300 years to grow, 300 years to thrive, 300 years to die, 900 years alive. The Jackdaw used a very attacking rhyme scheme to summon up their nature.
I am now hankering after a look at the hardcopy, to see what I missed for the eye having enjoyed it through the ears.

>104 VivienneR:. *fist bump*.

>105 Helenliz: I thought he got a bit preachy at the end. There's enough of that in MH settings, no need to add to it.

>108 charl08: I think that fair. Depression doesn't work like that, you can't necessarily see a positive, or make a change for the better. It can be debilitating; physically, mentally, the lot. The ending just left me feeling uncomfortable. It just felt a bit to easily tied up.

Book: 50
Title: The Crow Folk
Author: Mark Stay
Published: 2021
Rating: ****
Why: Recommendation from JackieK for a book involving bellringing.
Challenge: 50 years, new author
TIOLI Challenge #6: Read a book with a flying animal in the title or author's name

This is really very good. I approach books with magic with some degree of hesitation - too often it is used as a get out of jail free card when the author has written themselves into a plot corner and can't write their way out - cheating, in other words. I needn't have worried, in this world, the magic is the cause of the problem, but not necessarily all of the solution. This was recommended to me as it includes bellringing as an essential plot point - and it does. It also contains some rather good descriptions of elements of the art. Writing about a subject on which a lot of people know nothing and a few people know a lot - and getting it right - is a skill and the author has pulled it off here. There are some questions that the expert could pose, but in the main the emotion and the hair on the back of the neck element of ringing is fully captured. The timing, just as the ban on bell ringing was introduced is also interesting, in that it is the start of a series of measures, along with rationing, which has only been introduced for certain items at this point, that are part of a tipping point in 1940 between the phoney war and the blitz.
This feels like a book aimed at the YA market, the protagonist is 17 year of Faye and she seems a typical teenager - leaps into everything without looking and barely engaging brain first. but she's not insufferable, she does have her thoughtful side and moments of self doubt. The 3 witches of the village are an unlikely bunch and they all have their foibles. The setting, at the start of WW2 is also interesting, there are elements of foreshadowing, but not enough to be irritating. It is certainly humorous, and the characteristics of the villagers are well drawn, if slightly caricatured.
While I enjoyed this as a one off, I'm not sure I'm committed enough for the rest of the series. I'm glad I read it though.

Book: 51
Title: Titus Andronicus
Author: William Shakespeare
Published: 1594 (before I was born)
Rating: ***
Why: being a completist (that'll learn me)
Challenge: Short works.
TIOLI Challenge #7. Read a book whose title comes from a Shakespearean play, by an author who shares their first name with a Shakespearean character OR that is set during Shakespeare's lifetime

My godfathers, this is bloody! The cast count at the end is barely a fraction of the beginning. I can imagine actors eyeing up how far they survive rather than a measure of how many lines they get.
Titus Andronicus returns to Rome with the Queen of the Goths and her sons as prisoners. He has lost 21 sons in the 10 years at the wars, and his first act is the sacrifice the Queen's eldest son to the gods and honour his own dead. It doesn't really get a lot better from there on in.
I listened to this and it was actually really easy to follow because the characters have a habit of announcing themselves by name, so that it's usually pretty clear who our of this predominantly male cast was speaking. The subject matter is so very grim that I can't imagine that this is easy to watch (I barely coped with seeing the King Lear eye scene, this would have been worse). Difficult to rate, it's so terribly violent that it almost becomes cartoonish. I suggest some of the others as better plays and more enjoyable subject matter.

>110 Helenliz: I'm so glad you enjoyed The Crow Folk! I know the author, his wife is really into bellringing so he had good access to someone to tell him if he'd got it wrong (he said he was really keen to get it right, as he's so used to her huffing and puffing when she reads poor writing about bellringing that gets it wrong!).

Book: 52
Title: Sweet Bean Paste
Author: Durian Sukegawa
Published: 2013/2017
Rating: ****
Why: Shelterbox book club
Challenge: 50 years, new author, translation, subscriptions, CAT
TIOLI Challenge #3. Read a book where every word in the title starts with a different letter

This is a story of what gives life meaning. It is set in contemporary Japan, and that background colours the story. Both the main protagonists might be said to not be useful members of society, one being a released prisoner, the other had been held in a sanatorium for decades, having had leprosy. They come together over sweet bean paste, which forms a component of a sweet delicacy.
Sentaro is working making Dorayaki, he does as little as he needs to get by. He wanted to be a writer, but is now in a dead end and is feeling trapped by circumstances and life. Tokue approaches him, asking to work for him and she makes the Sweet bean paste. So Sentaro begins a reluctant education into the art and mystery of making something relatively simple really well. At this stage you think this is going to be a tale of master and reluctant pupil and Sentaro's journey to master craftsman. Business booms, Sentaro starts to take pride in his product and in making the sweet bean paste himself. But it takes a darker turn, with Tokue's leprosy rearing its head and business falling away. The background and facts to this are dreadful, but it doesn't shy away from the hard truths. The encouraging thing at this point is that Sentaro doesn't just give up, he now takes pride in his product and keeps his shop going. The final portion has another turn if pace again, with Sentaro and a young girl who used to come to the shop visiting Tokue and learning more about her life and her philosophy of life. It doesn't end happily, but it does end hopefully.
The author's note at the end was very revealing.

>113 Helenliz: - That one sounds interesting. I'll have a look for it.

>111 Helenliz: You are right - it is a violent and bloody play. My husband and I took our then-teenage niece to see this play, and boy were we aghast as the events unfolded on the stage! She took it in stride and had no lasting damage from seeing this play, but yes the blood was everywhere. I still remember several scenes, like *the* dinner.

>115 threadnsong: That would be a nasty surprise! I think that this one might be a pass for me on stage.

>113 Helenliz: Good to be reminded of this book, you've thought a lot more about the pacing and structure than I did. My grandad worked for a medical charity focussed on leprosy. Hearing about the experience of those with the disease in Japan was eye opening.

>114 katiekrug: Do! It was something I don't think I'd have picked up, based on the cover or blurbers. But it was worth a read.

>117 charl08: It was good, wasn't it? It also didn't turn out the way I thought it would at the beginning.

I read Titus Andronicus a few years ago, having no idea what it was about or the history before I started it. My reaction was very similar to yours. It's incredibly violent, much more than any Shakespeare I'd read, and some of the dialogue didn't seem very Shakespearean to me. So I posted about it in the Shakespeare thread and learned of this play's history, that it's widely assumed that Shakespeare wrote part of it, and a man named George Peele wrote part. A collaboration, but you can definitely tell who wrote what.

Book: 53
Title: A Damsel in Distress
Author: PG Wodehouse
Published: 1919 (before I was born)
Rating: ***
Why: Light relief!
Challenge: It doesn't.
TIOLI Challenge #8: Read a book with a word in the title implying a number

After Titus Andronicus, this made for a nice change of pace!
Maud thinks herself in love with an American she met in Wales last summer and finds herself limited to the grounds of the ancestral castle. After a bit of admirable sneaking, she finds herself in London and sees her brother Percy. IN order to avoid him, she dives into a taxi and begs George Bevan to save her. As it turns out, George is a man in need of some diversion in life to give it some interest. He turns knight errant, saves the damsel in distress and falls in love. Just like that.
From there, the action moves to Belpher castle and its environs. George contrives to get a message to Maud, via a page boy with an eye to the main chance.
Along the way, Reggie Bing's love life is also resolved, with a lot less fuss and bother than Maud's. Her story resolves itself in a nicely different way, with the girl deciding what she wants and going for it. All very empowering.
There are the usual array of characters in here, a bumbling Earl, the rather annoying aunt, the very annoying heir to the throne, a chorus girl and so on. All present and correct in a Wodehouse comedy.
I note that the description of Belpher village bears a lot in common with my home town, where PG Wodehouse lived for a number of years. So I'm claiming to be a resident >;-)

>119 mstrust: As a play, it's actually quite easy to follow - which with largely male casts on audio is harder than it appears at times. So from that perspective it was good. I can cope with the idea that one person didn't necessarily write all of the works attributed to him, I'm still going to listen to them all, just for completeness. Shakespeare did write violence (King Lear and the eyes thing springs to mind and turns the stomach) just he reined it in later in his career.

From Titus Andronicus to Wodehouse is an Olympic jump!

>122 VivienneR: Yes, I was thinking along similar lines. A change is as good as a rest.

>122 VivienneR:, >123 charl08: It was rather! After Titus I did rather need a change, and in Wodehouse you can be fairly sure that no-one is going to be killed and baked in a pie. No-one was. The worst thing that happened was Percy's top hat was knocked off and he hit a policemen and ended up in jail for the night. >:-)

Sounds like a fun Wodehouse, but is there such a thing as a not-fun Wodehouse?

Book: 54
Title: The Body in the Library
Author: Agatha Christie
Published: 1942 (before I was born)
Rating: ****
Why: Why not?
Challenge: Woman authors
TIOLI Challenge #2: The "My Happy Place" Challenge: Read a book with the word "library" or "libraries" in either the title or subtitle

I listened to this, as read by Stephanie Cole, this time around. I first came to Miss Marple in my early teens, so I have certainly read this before, and seen the TV adaptation, probably more than once.
The thing about listening to a mystery when you already know whodunit is that you can see the way that the clues as the the actual solution are scattered through the book, and how they are missed in the first instance. the first time through, the clues are missed as you are following along with the detection, such that the solution is a surprise. the second time through you already know the end point, so can pay more attention to the journey.
Miss Marple, as ever, manages to put her finger on the nub of the problem, even if she does need a little prompt from an unlikely source to the solution.

>125 katiekrug: if there is, I haven't read it yet. >:-)

Book: 55
Title: Othello
Author: William Shakespeare
Published: 1603 (before I was born)
Rating: ****
Why: Shakespeare kick
Challenge: CAT
TIOLI Challenge #7. Read a book whose title comes from a Shakespearean play, by an author who shares their first name with a Shakespearean character OR that is set during Shakespeare's lifetime

I enjoyed this, although it's pretty dark. I'm not sure Shakespeare ever wrote a villain who is so dark hearted as Iago. It's the way he manages to manipulate everyone else to achieve his ends. On the other side of the coin, Othello is persuaded a fraction too easily of the truth of Iago's lies. It all ends exactly as badly as you'd expect, and it ends before Iago faces justice - but you can't help feel that his schemes are not ended, even yet.
I listened to a production from the Donmar Warehouse and I feel sure that Ewan McGregor had a whale of a time playing Iago - it certainly sounded like he got his teeth into it.

I think Othello is my second favorite Shakespeare, after Macbeth. It probably depends on which I've seen/read/heard most recently. Oh, and King Lear! Those are definitely my top 3.

>129 katiekrug: I think I'd put Hamlet as my favourite, it's the one I know best, having done it at school. This was good and I would quite like to see it at some point, to get the full picture, as it were.
I saw King Lear at the Globe, which should have been fabulous - only I've never quite got over the eye scene. *shudder*

Vile jelly!

>131 katiekrug: I have a bit of a thing about eyes. For years my donor card said you can have any of it except my eyes. I once watched a film of laser eye surgery. Well I watched the first 5 seconds, then hid behind my hands.
*shudder*

>128 Helenliz: Iago - such a villain. Such a terribly, perfect villain. I remember in studying "Othello" the balance between Othello's purity and goodness and Iago's vileness.

King Lear is also amazing, and one summer I saw 2 different productions. I have to say, you need an old, not an older or middle aged man, to really get that cry Lear gives at the end. Somehow the extra years give extra weight to the tragedy. And yeah, I'm with you on the eyes.

I re-read a short book of essays on the "Video Nasties" last month for your 80s challenge and in one of them there's a story about how one of the anti-censorship people caught out the pro-censorship brigade by solemnly recounting the plot of what they took at first to be an example of these "disgusting new horror films" that should obviously be banned, but which they eventually recognised as Titus Andronicus... :D

>134 lyzard: ha! I can well imagine! It is very grisly.

>133 threadnsong: Iago is brilliant, in that he does seem to be one of Shakespeare's villains that has no redeeming spark of goodness anywhere.

Not sure I'm ever going to be ready to see another version of King Lear. *shudder*

Book: 56
Title: Midwinter Murders
Author: Agatha Christie
Published: 2020
Rating: ***
Why: I ordered it in November!
Challenge: Women author, short stories
TIOLI Challenge #12: Read a book that fits a category on the Seattle Public Library 2022 Summer Reading bingo card

I can't help but feel that this is a bit of a misnomer. Of the stories, I would say that few are definitively set in Mid Winter. There are a few that seem to be included on far more tenuous grounds. It's a mixture of tales, Miss Marple and Poirot feature, as do Tommy & Tuppence. The two that were the most intriguing were those that featured Mr Harley Quinn. I'd not come across either before.
Always a pleasure to spend time with Agatha, regardless of the looseness of the collection's theme.

Book: 57
Title: Midnight's Children
Author: Salman Rushdie
Published: 1981
Rating: ***
Why: 50 years thing (try not to pick the longest in future!)
Challenge: 50 years, New author
TIOLI Challenge #8. Read a book in which something currently impossible or miraculous happens

Well! That was, um, long. I know it has won the Booker Prize and the Booker of Bookers, but it is not going down as a favourite of mine.
I's inventive enough, Saleem is born at the stroke of Midnight on the day India gained independence. Through the book, his story is entwined with that of the country itself. A little bit like Forest Gump, he manages to get involved (almost accidentally) with the various events of the country.
He also, along with the 1000 other children born in the first hour of independence, has various magical powers. Like I say, inventive, but it left me cold. Saleem is a most unreliable narrator, he freely admits that certain events of memory cannot have happened in that order, and yet he still recounts his story form memory.
It's inventive, there's a fair turn of phrase, it feels like he does get under India's skin and there a rather odd lack of commas in lists, but I can't say I feel anything more that relief at getting to the end of it. Just not for me.

It's been a bit busy around here. Not a lot of reading has been done. Saturday was our Bellringing Guild AGM and muggins here is secretary. So that took quite a lot of effort and brain power in the lead up and then writing minutes. Which I'd done by Monday evening, so at least that's out of the way for now. Plus the Rushdie wasn't exactly grabbing me and a chapter a night was the most I wanted to do.

I've also spent the last 2 days on a training course about label printing. I now feel I know everything there is to know about labels, artwork, IFU, cartons etc etc etc. And the myriad of symbols that need to be applied to them...
Fortunately we finished early today, so I had a sneaky hour to finish up the Rushdie.

Should get a load of reading done Saturday, having my hair coloured. Have been told to bring lunch and a good book with me. That won't be a problem. >:-)

>138 Helenliz: - Well done on getting the minutes done so quickly. I was, um, not known for that when I was responsible for Board minutes :-P

I had to read part of Midnight's Children for a political science course I took in college (uni) and I liked what I read but never went back to read the whole thing. Maybe someday. Maybe never.

>139 katiekrug: I'm rubbish at taking notes, so if I don't do them straight away, I lose the memory to support the random scribbles. I need to learn to not try and write down *everything* that is said, as I simply can't keep up.

I can't say it's a book you must read. I'm not a fan of the unreliable narrator nor of magic, so this was probably never going to land a score with me. But I've read it and can move on. It did feel to take ages.

Hair cut today, with a smidge of added colour. It's just the underside that's Purple & Blue so that it just peeks through rather than shouts about it.


PS: do you have any idea how difficult it is taking a picture of the back of your own head?!

I love it! Looks great 👍

How fantastic! Looking good :)

Love the purple, nice choice.

>141 Helenliz: Ooooh very nice! Love it :)

>141 Helenliz: Love your hair Helen! And the blue/purple is a good highlight (is that the right word?) to show a little fun and dazzle but not screaming out loud.

I love your hair!

Very snazzy! I like the original colour too!

Thank you all. I'm very pleased with it. >:-D

Book: 58
Title: Hello Mum
Author: Bernadine Evaristo
Published: 2010
Rating: ***
Why: 50 years thing
Challenge: 50 years, Woman author, short story
TIOLI Challenge #2. Read a book first published in the 1990s OR set in East Anglia, Texas, Nottingham or London

This is terribly sad. A teenage boy form a London Estate writes a letter to his mother, explaining how the vents of the final chapter came about.. It can never be delivered to her and she'll never actually know the truth. It feels like an awful waste of a life.

>141 Helenliz: I love the pop of color!

Book: 59
Title: Fugitive Pieces
Author: Anne Michaels
Published: 1996
Rating: ***
Why: 50 years thing
Challenge: 50 years, New author, woman author
TIOLI Challenge #1. Read a book by a new-to-you author whose last name starts or ends with the letter "S"

The first part of this was incredible, the final third jolted me out of the lyrical place I found myself and it just didn't, for me, work as a whole.
Jakob Beer is a Jewish, Polish boy who is found hiding in an iron age bog site by a Greek Archaeologist (and all round polymath) called Athos. Athos saves Jakob and takes him home to Zakythos. Here Jakob learns about history, geography, language and scholarly pursuits. But he also learns about love and loss and how to continue with life when all he knew has been stripped away. he struggles to deal with the loss (presumed death) of his sister, Bella, and she haunts the book.
The first 2/3rds are narrated by Jakob, and we hear about life in Greece under the Nazis, the hardships but also the friendship, loyalty and solidarity that hold the community together. After the war, life moves to Toronto, and Jakob has a new place to refind his feet. He meets his best friend and, in a mirror to Athos and his best friend, Maurice and his wife play a life in Jakob life and after his death.
The final third of the book is written by Ben, a person also scarred by the holocaust, but as the child of survivors. It is a different dynamic, with a different voice and it jolted me badly. Ben is tasked with finding Jakob's journals by Maurice, he's going through a bad patch in his marriage and through exploring Jakob's house and writings he finds something out about himself. It felt contrived, especially in contrast to the first 2/3rds. Maybe I didn't warm to Ben. To me he felt self centred and as if he was making a mountain out of amole hill. He was jealous of his wife's relationship with his parents, parents that it felt like he never really understood himself.
This was excellently written, the language lyrical, the thoughts expressed profound. If this had ended at 2/3rds distance, I'd have been giving this 4 stars, if not more, but the final third felt like it didn't fit. Jakob has his afterlife in his writing, I felt he didn't need Ben poking around in it.

>151 RidgewayGirl: - Thankyou!

Next up is Trainspotting. I read the first paragraph last night, I really don't enjoy reading dialect. Wish me luck...

>152 Helenliz: - I read this one recently(ish) and while I liked it overall and rated it highly, I totally agree about the last third and Ben.

ETA: Re: >154 katiekrug: - When I read something like that, it helps me to read some of it out loud so I can hear what it's supposed to sound like. Then I have that in my head while I keep reading (not out loud)...

Seconding Katie. Trainspotting is easier to get into if you read at least some of it aloud. Of course, you might want to take a look at who might hear you before you begin.

I had a friend who was good at accents read the speech about Scotland being conquered by wankers and it was brilliant.

>153 Helenliz: I loved Trainspotting but I had seen the film first so I had a good idea of what was going on and I did listen to an audio version which really helped me understand the speech patterns.

I find with dialect books that I need good stretches of uninterrupted reading time: there's an adjustment at the beginning of each session when my brain has to get into the rhythm of it, and then it "hears" the dialogue; but it doesn't work if I'm putting the book down and picking it up.

It's almost the end of June, so almost time for a new thread. Seeing I have a lazy Sunday morning, I've used it productively and have made a new thread. Come on in, we're all ready to go for the third quarter.