Charl08 reads words with pictures in 2022 #5

I'm Charlotte, I'm based in north west England and I like to read. I started in the category challenge last year.

I've not had much of a chance to get to galleries or museums due to Covid (I guess like most people in the group). I do love going to art galleries, and taking pictures and buying books when I'm there. I've enjoyed finding out more about women artists in recent years, so thought I'd focus on that for 2022.

This book arrived! I'm looking forward to reading it.


I've been doing fairly poorly on the group / bookgroup reads. Here's a reminder of what I've got coming up, and we'll skim over the ones I missed.

Bookclub books & group reads
(Still life "groups of things" by women artists)



Bouquet de roses 1936
painting by Suzanne Valadon
Borderless Bookclub (now monthly) https://borderlessbookclub.com/
September Thirsty Sea
October

Work bookgroup
October People Person

Last quarter's reading

Bride of the Sea, Eileen Agar

April 20 (Total 98)

1. Salt Lick (Prize nominees)
2. The Bread the Devil Knead (Prize nominee)
3. Parks and Provocation (New to me authors)
4. Our Lady of Mysterious Ailments (Prize nominee)
5. The Lady Doctor (GN)
6. In Case of Emergency (Women in translation/ Book groups & challenges)
7. The Book of Form and Emptiness (Prize nominee)
8. Ten Trends
9. Incredible Doom (GN)
10. The Master Key (Women in translation)
11. Creatures of Passage (Prize nominees)
12. Dien Cai Dau (Prize nominees)
13. These Days (Prize nominees)
14. This One Sky Day (ditto)
15. Strangers I know (Women in translation)
16. Memories from Limon (GN)
17. The Island of Missing Trees (Prize nominees)
18. Lena Finkle's Magic Barrel GN
19. The Slowworm's Song (Authors I've read before)
20. Concerning my daughter (in translation)

Library books read in April: 9

May 12 (Total 110)

1. Bless the Daughter raised by a voice in her head (Authors with links to Africa)
2. Black Drop (New to me authors)
3. Kim JiYoung, Born 1982 (in translation)
4. Book Lovers (familiar faces)
5. Winter Counts (New to me)
6. The Long Song of Tchaikovsky Street (History/ memoir)
7. Phenotypes (Book group reads)
8. The Bone Readers (New to me authors)
9. The Village of Eight Graves (familiar faces)
10. What are you going through (familiar faces)
11. Homesickness (New to me)
12. Repentence (New to me)

Library books read in May: 7

June 16 (Total 126)

1. Sorrow and Bliss (Women's Prize shortlist)
2. Antarctica (Prizewinner)
3. Talk Flirty to Me (New to me)
4. Wilder Winds (Women Non-binary people in translation)
5. The Devil's Dance (read my books/ Book groups)
6. Women in the Picture (Reading my books)
7. Secret Lives of Church Ladies (New to me)
8. Love for Beginners (Familiar Faces)
9. Kalmann (Bookgroup books)
10. At Night all Blood is Black (Links to Africa)
11. Goodbye, Ramona (Women in translation)
12. Witches (Women in translation)
13. A Thousand Mornings (Familiar faces / Reread?)
14. The Berlin Exchange (Familiar faces)
15. Joan is Okay (New to me)
16. Zorrie (New to me)

Library books read in June 6

Between the Two my Heart is Balanced 1991
Lubaina Himid (b.1954)
Tate

July 17 (Total 143)

1. Summer Light Then Comes the Night (New to me)
2. Horse (familiar faces)
3. The Essential June Jordan (New to me)
4. Fault Lines (New to me)
5. The Things They Carried (Prize winners)
6. Olga Dies Dreaming (New to me)
7. The Half Life of Valery K (Prize nominees)
8. His Only Wife (New to me/ African connections)
9. Persuading Annie (Familiar faces)
10. Women who kill (in translation)
11. Drive Your Plough Over the Bones of the Dead (Prize winners: Nobel)
12. The Siege of Loyalty House (History)
13. How High We Go in the Dark (New to me)
14. If they come for us (New to me)
15. The World of Yesterday (New to me)
16. Sex and the City of Ladies (history)
17. The Illustrated Woman (New to me)

Library books read in July 9

August 21 (Total 164)

1. Maps of our spectacular bodies (Prize nominees)
2. Beginner's Luck (familiar faces)
3 Ethel Rosenberg: a cold war tragedy (history)
4. Below Zero (familiar faces)
5. Booth (Prize nominees)
6. After Sappho (Prize nominees)
7. Case Study (Prize nominees)
8. Yell Sam, if you still can (Women in translation)
9. Luck of the Draw (familiar faces)
10. Intimacies (New to me)
11. Squire GN
12. The Con Artists (GN)
13. Best of Luck (Familiar faces)
14. All Walls Collapse (Bookclub books)
15. Wake (New to me)
16 . Dreamin' Sun: Vol 1 Vol 2 & Vol 3 & 4 (GN)
17. Bad Actors (Familiar faces)
18. The Colony (Prize nominees)
19. Chivalry (GN)
20. The Last Children of Tokyo (Women in translation)
21. The Whalebone Theatre (New to me)

Library books read in August: 11

Herring Girls 2020–2021
Emma Stothard (b.1971)
Khyber Pass, Whitby, North Yorkshire

September 24 (Total 188)

1. The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida (Prize nominees)
2. The Trees (Prize nominees)
3. Maggie Moves On (Familiar faces)
4. No such thing as an easy job (Women in translation)
5. In search of equilibrium (New to me)
6. You Again (familiar faces)
7. Thirsty Sea (Book group/ Women in translation)
8. The Partisan (New to me)
9. Sylvie (GN)
10. Glory (Africa/ Prize nominees)
11. The Wolf of Baghdad (GN)
12. The Wolf Den (New to me)
13. You are not too late (New to me)
14. 1989 (Familiar faces)
15. No One Else (GN)
16. Crying in H Mart (Memoir)
17. Act of Oblivion (Familiar faces)
18. Woman Running in the Mountains (Women in translation)
19. The Waiting (GN)
20. Straight from the Horse's Mouth (Women in translation/ African authors)
21. I Walk Between the Raindrops
22. The Way it is Now
23. Ms Marvel: Beyond the Limit GN
24. Asadora: vol 1

Library books read in September: 17

October 32 (Total 220)
1. The Employees: a workplace novel of the 22nd century (New to me)
2. The Marriage Portrait (Prize winners)
3. A Proposal they can't refuse (New to me)
4. Whatever Happened to Interracial Love (New to me)
5. Several People are Typing (New to me)
6.-16. Sweat & Soap Vol 1-11 (GN)
17. A Prayer for the Crown Shy (Familiar faces)
18. Where You Come From
19. The Five Lives of Hilda Af Klint (GN)
20. The Radio Operator (Women in translation)
21. The American Roommate Experiment (Familiar faces)
22. Ao haru ride. Volume 1 (GN)
23. Like a Prisoner (Group book club books)
24. Stone Blind (Familiar faces)
25. Alison (GN)
26. Set on You (New to me)
27. Ao haru ride. Volume 2 (GN)
28. Part of Your World (familiar faces)
29. Mud and Stars: travels in Russia
30. Violets (Women in translation)
31. People Person (Book group book)
32. Fictions and Lies (Women in translation)

Library books read in October: 8

November 47 (267)
1. Scattered all over the earth (Women in translation)
2.-12.Ao Haru Ride Vol 3-13
13. Comrade Aeon's Field Guide to Bangkok (familiar faces)
14. Chronicles of a Cairo Bookseller (New to me)
15/16/17/18/19/20/21/22/23. Abe Kun's Got Me 1-9 (GN/ Manga)
24. Snowed in for Christmas
25. Talk to My Back (manga + academic review essay)
26. Vagabonds! (New to me/ African authors)
27. Maigret, Lognon and the Gangsters (reread)
28. A Little Resurrection (Poetry)
29. Homelands: the history of a friendship (Memoir / history)
30.-40. A Side Character's Love Story 1-10 (Manga)
41. The Darkness Knows (familiar faces)
42. Mona (Women in translation)
43. The Killing Hills (New to me)
44. Our Missing Hearts (New to me)
45. A Side Character's Love Story (Vol 11)
46& 47. Our Precious Conversations 1& 2 (Manga)

Library books read in November: 11

Graphic novels and memoirs

Art by Colleen Doran


1. Esther's Notebooks
2. Okay Universe
3. Turtle in Paradise: the Graphic Novel
4. Stone Fruit
5. Over Easy
6. Cruel Summer
7. Year of the Rabbit
8. The Fade Out: Act One
9. The Contradictions
10. Parenthesis
11. Blame This on the Boogie
12. The Roles We Play
13. Lady Doctor
14. Squire
15. The Con Artists
16. Dreamin' Sun : Vol 1 Vol 2 & Vol 3 & 4
17. Chivalry (GN)
18. Sylvie
19. The Wolf of Baghdad
20. No One Else
21. The Waiting
22. Ms Marvel: Beyond the Limit
23. Asadora: vol 1

Women in translation (International artists)

Virginie Demont-Breton (1859–1935)


1. Brickmakers (Argentina)
2. The Mad Women's Ball (France/US)
3. To the Warm Horizon (South Korea)
4. Punishment of a Hunter (Russia)
5. Wild Thorns (Palestine)
6. In Memory of Memory (Russia)
7. The Woman with the Knife (South Korea)
8. In Case of Emergency (Iran)
9. The Master Key (Japan)
10. Strangers I know (Italy)
11. Concerning my daughter (South Korea)
12. Wilder Winds (Catalan/Spain)
13. Goodbye, Ramona (ditto)
14. Witches (Spanish-Mexico/US)
15. Yell Sam if you still can (France)
16. The Last Children of Tokyo (Japan)
17. There's no such thing as an easy job (Japan)
18. Thirsty Sea Italy
19. Woman Running in the Mountains (Japan)

Prize nominees (women artists who have been nominated for and/or won prizes)

Helen Marten former winner of the Turner Prize
See: Bluebutter Idles https://artsandculture.google.com/asset/bluebutter-idles-helen-marten/ewF0mpAISw...

1. Small Things Like These (Author has won the inaugural William Trevor Prize, the Rooney Prize for Irish Literature, the Olive Cook Award and the Davy Byrnes Irish Writing Award 2009)
2. Matrix (Groff was a finalist for the 2018 National Book Award for Fiction)
3. The Sentence (Erdrich won the Pulitzer for her last book)
4. The Kids (Lowe won the 2021 Costa book prize)
5. Build Your House Around My Body (Women's prize 22)
6. Salt Lick (Women's prize longlist 22)
7. The Bread the Devil Knead (Women's Prize longlist 22)
8. The Book of Form and Emptiness (ditto)
9. Creatures of Passage (ditto)
10. Sorrow and Bliss (ditto)
11. Antarctica (Edge Hill short story prize)
12. The Things They Carried (author is National Book Prize winner)
13. Maps of Our Spectacular Bodies (Booker longlist)
14. Booth (Booker longlist)
15. The Half Life of Valery K (Times book of the month)
16. After Sappho (Booker longlist)
17. Case Study (Booker longlist)
18. The Colony (Booker longlist)
19. The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida(Booker shortlist)
20. The Trees (Booker shortlist )

Books by authors with links to the African continent, loosely defined


Zanele Muholi
Via https://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-modern/zanele-muholi
1. Library of the Dead (Author is Zimbabwean)
2. Teaching My Mother How to Give Birth (Author is Somali, born in Kenya, lives in London)
3. Ancestor Stones (Sierrra Leone / UK)
4. A Blood Condition (Author born in Zambia, now UK)
5. Bless the Daughter raised by a voice in her head (Somalia/Kenya/UK)
6. At Night All Blood is Black (Senegal/ France)
7. His Only Wife (Ghana/ Liberia / UK)
8. Glory (Zimbabwe / US)

Familiar faces - authors I've read before
(Favourite artists: Georgia O'Keeffe)


Lake George

1. Deep as Death
2. The O Zone
3. Real Estate
4. Who Will Run the Frog Hospital
5. The Inheritance of Solomon Farthing
6. The Serpent's Tale
7. All Grown Up
8. Walk the Blue Fields (short stories)
9. Lady Violet Investigates
10. Lady Violet attends a wedding
11. Lady Violet finds a Bridegroom
12. The Swimmers
13. Lady Violet Enjoys a Frolic
14. Enemies Abroad
15. All Systems Red
16. Artificial Condition
17. Exit Strategy
18. These Precious Days
19. Fugitive Telemetry
20. Lady Violet Holds a Baby
21. Lady Violet Goes for a Gallop
22. Book Lovers
23.The Village of Eight Graves
24. What are you going through
25. The Berlin Exchange
26. Horse: a novel
27. Beginner's Luck
28. Below Zero
29. Luck of the Draw
30. Best of Luck
31. Bad Actors
32. Maggie Moves On
33. You Again
34. 1989
35. Act of Oblivion

Keeping things interesting i.e. first time authors & new-to-me authors ('new' artists under 40)

Photography by Sayuri Ichida
https://www.sayuriichida.com/

1. We Run the Tides*
2. The Appeal
3. Index of Women*
4. Network Effect*
5. Often I Am Happy
6. Native: Dispatches from a Palestinian-Israeli Life*
7. Black Drop*
8. Winter Counts*
9. The Bone Readers*
10. Homesickness*
11. Very Cold People
12. Talk Flirty to Me
13. Secret Lives of Church Ladies*
14.Summer Light Then Comes the Night
15. The Essential June Jordan
16. Fault Lines
17. Olga Dies Dreaming *
18. How High We Go in the Dark *
19. If they come for us
20. The World of Yesterday
21. The Illustrated Woman
22. Intimacies*
23. Wake
24. In search of equilibrium
25. The Partisan
26. The Wolf Den *
27. You are not too late *

*= Would look to read this author again

Histories & politics (early artists: Sofonisba Anguissola)


Self Portrait
2023 exhibition of her work in the Netherlands
https://www.rijksmuseumtwenthe.nl/content/3287/nl/sofonisba-anguissola-portretti...

1. The Mirror and the Palette (art history)
2. Devil in the Grove (civil rights)
3. Kingdom of Characters (history / linguistics)
4. The Long Song of Tchaikovsky Street (Russian history/ memoir)
5. The Siege of Loyalty House
6. Sex and the City of Ladies
7. Ethel Rosenberg: a cold war tragedy (biography)

Happy new thread, Charlotte!

Happy new thread, Charlotte. I love your art!

Gorgeous thread topper for your previous quarter's reading! Happy new thread.

Happy new thread!

>12 katiekrug: Thanks Katie.

>13 BLBera: Thanks Beth. I nearly got to a gallery today. But got derailed by a bookshop visit instead.

>14 rabbitprincess: Thanks RP!

>15 Jackie_K: Cheers.
Continuing from the previous thread: still thinking about doing the daily post of an unread book from my shelf. Am I brave enough?

From a coastal walk yesterday.

>16 charl08: That happens, Charlotte.
Nice photos

>16 charl08: I think it would be more of a faff than brave, but then I did spend more time than is probably sensible writing them all out on little slips of paper to put them in the Jar of Fate :)

>17 charl08: Very nice! I was surprised how atmospheric Crosby beach was with the Gormley statues. I liked it there a lot.

Happy bew thread, Charlotte!

You found some beautiful art to accompany your book lists.

>16 charl08: I'm interested in the Litsy daily post. What is the hashtag?

I read your post and thought "oh how fun, but I couldn't make a full year" and then checked. I own 399 unread books. Oops.

Happy new thread, Charlotte.
>17 charl08: Lovely pictures. I grew up by the sea, I miss it.

Just stopping by to say hi and happy new thread, Charlotte.

>17 charl08: Brings back happy childhood memories of that coastline on long summer days together with my Gran.

I'm behind on the reviews, replies to follow.

In search of equilibrium (New to me)
I think this was on a poetry list I picked up linked to a protest that the DWM needed to be put back into the curriculum. The poet is young and this is her first collection. She writes about the dementia and death of her grandfather, funeral traditions (she is British-Nigerian) and mourning. So it's not a very cheery collection!
Listen to her read her poems here: https://www.theresalola.com/work/poetry

Thirsty Sea (Book group/ Women in translation)
This wasn't cheery either. The narrator blames herself for the death of her sister (when they were both small children), and thinks that other people blame her too. She's in a terrible relationship, and regards her job (ordering presents for people) as pointless. The book builds to a 'reveal' which isn't really one, that she decided to have an abortion, rejecting her previous definition of herself. So possibly hopeful, but still, bleak.

The Partisan (New to me)
Reminded me a bit of a thriller at the cinema where miraculously the box office draw survives despite all the guns / knives / state power the 'baddies' throw at him/her. Parallel stories gradually come together, including a partisan in wartime Lithuania, a Mossad agent chasing down ex-Nazis around post-war Europe and a young chess whiz competing against European opponents (including Russians). Plenty of the ingredients I like (Soviet Russia, spies), but ultimately felt a bit paint by numbers.

>18 BLBera: I had too many books to lug to the gallery (that was my excuse, anyway).

>19 Jackie_K: I don't like admitting how many books I buy with good intentions, I guess?

>20 FAMeulstee: I was going for a 'sea' theme, but then struggled to find ones that weren't just of boats from the 19th century!

>21 ELiz_M: I don't know, and now I can't find the post in my feed. I will come back and edit this if my brain spits it out later on.

>22 Helenliz: It was such a lovely day, I was lucky with the weather.

>23 PaulCranswick: Hi Paul, thanks for visiting. What a lovely place to be as a kid. Probably more coffee shops now though!

Happy New Thread and beautiful photos!

>27 MissBrangwen: Thank you. It was a lovely day - and it's rained pretty solidly since!

Sylvie
A GN aimed at a younger age group. Fairly gentle coming of age story of a young girl who loves art. Plenty of universal themes (conflict with parents, siblings, uncertainty over study choices) mixed in with the character's experiences of antisemitism and other prejudice.

Happy new thread, Charlotte! Lovely photos!

Some lovely art over here Charlotte.

>17 charl08: looks like a very nice walk. i spy an Antony Gormley sculpture.

>29 charl08: That looks like a good one.

>30 MissWatson: Thank you!

>31 Caroline_McElwee: Every time I start picking I am amazed at how many artists I've not come across before.
And yes, a Gormley, part of Another Place at Crosby

>32 BLBera: I was a bit surprised by some of the reviews which were quite critical. I don't think it's claiming to be Bechdel, but it quietly told a story.

I read Glory (thanks to the library) one of the shortlisted Booker books for 2022. Like Animal Farm, the book uses creatures instead of people to tell a human story. Jidada is Zimbabwe, collapsing under the weight of Mugabe's corruption as the story opens. Attempts to replace the leader and remove corruption make things even worse. This is personalized by a returned emigrant, who attempts to find out more about her family's history. It's labeled at dystopia on some of the LT tags, but I'm not sure how much a book can be dystopian when so much mirrors "what actually happened", from hyperinflation to unpaid teachers quitting schools to sell goods on the street.

If I don't write this book then one day animals calling themselves the Real Liberators and True Patriots will call us ugly names and then erase us from the story of the very country we sacrificed so much for because now that the war is over many will be perceived to be of the wrong ethnic group, the wrong clan, the wrong gender, the wrong clique, the wrong politics, the wrong whatever else they decide consti tutes authentic Jidadaness. If I don't write, then who will I blame when I wake up one day to find myself in the belly of a crocodile that calls itself History, that devours the stories of everyone else and goes on to speak for us?"

At the end of the book fantasy steps in, and the Dead claim revenge, Mugabe faces divine retribution and communities come together to acknowledge their own role in supporting the corrupt state for so long. It's hard to begrudge an exile the hope for change, of course. This despite the wish fulfillment element of it all that stands in contrast to the authentic feel to neighbours discussing the state earlier in the book (where no one agreed!)

>34 charl08: I'm not sure about this one, Charlotte, although your comments seem positive.

>34 charl08: "If I don't write, then who will I blame when I wake up one day to find myself in the belly of a crocodile that calls itself History, that devours the stories of everyone else and goes on to speak for us?" Wow. That sounds like a really good one.

>35 BLBera: I was glad I read it, it's a powerful book. But as with a lot of books I'm reading lately, I did wonder if it could have been just as powerful 100 pages shorter.

>36 Berly: There were some very pointed comments about the power of stories. I'd like to hear her speak about this book.

Another list!
From the (US) National Book Awards

Winners in all categories will be announced live at the National Book Awards Ceremony on Wednesday, November 16.

2022 Longlist for the National Book Award for Translated Literature:
Mohammed Hasan Alwan, Ibn Arabi’s Small Death
Translated from the Arabic by William M. Hutchins
Center for Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Texas at Austin

Jon Fosse, A New Name: Septology VI-VII
Translated from the Norwegian by Damion Searls
Transit Books

Shahriar Mandanipour, Seasons of Purgatory
Translated from the Persian by Sara Khalili
Bellevue Literary Press

Scholastique Mukasonga, Kibogo
Translated from the French by Mark Polizzotti
Archipelago Books

Mónica Ojeda, Jawbone
Translated from the Spanish by Sarah Booker
Coffee House Press

Olga Ravn, The Employees
Translated from the Danish by Martin Aitken
New Directions Publishing

Samanta Schweblin, Seven Empty Houses
Translated from the Spanish by Megan McDowell
Riverhead Books / Penguin Random House

Saša Stanišić, Where You Come From
Translated from the German by Damion Searls
Tin House Books

Yoko Tawada, Scattered All Over the Earth
Translated from the Japanese by Margaret Mitsutani
New Directions Publishing

Olga Tokarczuk, The Books of Jacob
Translated from the Polish by Jennifer Croft
Riverhead Books / Penguin Random House

Hello Charlotte, loving all the photos and paintings on your new thread, very beautiful!
I have been a long time fan of Nikki McClure and just read Old Wood Boat and loved it! She must be a swimmer as she does seem to love water. i see you are a fan of You are not too late. i have asked the library to purchase it! With thanks.

>39 mdoris: I don't think I've come across her work before, but I am now very tempted to get one of her calendars.

11. The Wolf of Baghdad

Somewhere between a graphic memoir and a graphic novel, imho. Isaacs recreates a ghostly form of the Jewish community living in Baghdad before WW2 and antisemitic violence led to emigration. It's beautifully done, each page takes a short quote from a community member about their life in Baghdad. She writes in the epilogue about how she went about recreating the architecture and memories of those who shared their memories. A reminder of the fragility of apparently cosmopolitan and "tolerant" communities, perhaps.

12. The Wolf Den (New to me)
Weird book coincidence, picking up two books with 'wolf' in the title in a row. This one was pretty grim reading, although also gripping. The author recreates / reimagines the lives of a community of slave women working in a brothel in Pompeii. Amara knew a better life in Greece, but financial circumstances meant she was sold into slavery. One of the questions that lies behind the book: is it better to have always been a slave, and not to know what you're missing? I found it compelling, wanting to know if Amara would escape her awful pimp, but also if she would be able to retain any of her pre-slavery values.

13. You are not too late (New to me)
As mentioned by Mary above - the artist author has created a beautiful art book with full page illustrations of nature, the author's family, and her reflections on life in what (sounds like) a beautiful part of the world. From wild swimming to sledging to raspberry picking, it's a year full of treats.
http://nikkimcclure.com/work/
(quite tempted by her umbrella for Planned Parenthood)

>40 charl08: I have had this "Congregate" print hanging outside under cover at my door for years now and I love it!
https://buyolympia.com/Item/nikki-mcclure-congregate-print

>38 charl08: I've only heard of a couple from this list - I am going to have to live forever.

>34 charl08: Your review makes Glory sound like something I want to read but perhaps for a few months in the future - too much just now for my present mood. So I will probably return the hardback to the library and borrow again when they have more copies available. My favourite library service in particular tends to start with 1 copy if they're not sure, 4 copies if there's a lot of demand, and more if the queue gets to be huge. This includes various prize winners, shortlist and really popular longlist titles that lots of people want to read whatever the judges think, and sometimes fluff works, eg Malibu Rising. Then at some point it's really quite easy to borrow in hardback, paperback or digital ebook and audio, and everyone who stalks the new books like us has either read them, acquired their own copies and returned library ones, or lost interest!

>38 charl08: Interesting list, Charlotte.
I have heard of Jon Fosse, and the Olga Tokarczuk is on my list.
I have read Where You Come From, it won a Dutch prize for translated fiction last year.

>41 mdoris: I think I would put it near a shoerack... but maybe that's too obvious.

>42 BLBera: You mean retirement isn't the solution to the TBR pile? My hopes are dashed.

>43 elkiedee: I found reading it, and one book about antisemitism and another about historical slavery a bit of a grim combination. The art was a welcome relief, even though it did mention lockdown(s). I hope the timing with loans works out for you. My library tends to cull books fairly efficiently, so you have to make sure you don't leave things too long, especially with series books.

>44 FAMeulstee: I've read other books by the authors of the last four, but not the others. Tawada's new book sounds fascinating, another dystopia. I have had good intentions re reading Scholastique Mukasonga, though these haven't actually turned into actually reading her books yet. Maybe this is the nudge I need?

1989
Second in McDermid's new series featuring Allie Burns. I do like a lot about these books but get a bit frustrated with the historical detail. I feel familiar (or I think I do, as McDermid points out in her acknowledgments section, not always reliable) a bit about events of this period. So some of the discussions of the HIV/AIDS crisis felt a bit heavy handed. Once the story got going, this was less jarring. And I thought the discussion of witnessing the Hillsborough Disaster was pretty moving. I wasn't sure about the Maxwell storyline. Given Ghislaine Maxwell's recent conviction, and what she was convicted of, the fictitious use of the father-daughrer relationship was an "interesting" choice. I'd like to hear the author talk about why she made it, as I respect her.
So a recommendation with caveats.

>46 charl08: Re feeling frustrated with the historical detail, I did feel that in 1979, books were being mentioned in a way that felt like they were there as era-appropriate set dressing rather than as the character's reading preferences, if that makes sense.

>46 charl08: The McDermid series is one I am interested in. I have the first one on my shelf. Your comments prepare me.

>45 charl08: And no, retirement hasn't magically increased the amount of reading I do!

>43 elkiedee: Pressure to cull library stock is a problem, but I think if

(a) the actual book has been shortlisted for the Booker/Women's Prize
(b) there are quite a lot of copies around
(c) the library service has a proper reserve section and you don't have to pay a fortune to request it

you have some chance.

I recently had to query a book which had disappeared which was only published in, I think, 2018 or 2019! I had been unable to borrow the library's one copy of Scottish/Sudanese author Leila Abouleila's book Bird Summons since March 2020 since as soon as libraries reopened, Central Library closed for refurbishment and the stock was unavailable for reservations. I'm not sure it was culled, I think it may have been lost or damaged or otherwise disappeared. The stock acquisitions librarian who responded to my stock suggestion wasn't sure (the system has a space for further comments which I use to say why I think other readers might be interested too). The hardback is already out of print. I now have the paperback in my library pile.

Lyrics Alley appeared to be her breakthrough novel, and I thought her next book The Kindness of Enemies was even more interesting, but it became unfairly overlooked. It's a dual narrative novel, past and present, but instead of being in the same big house or certain very popular abroad settings, the historical bit is set in 19th century Georgia, then a part of the Russian Empire (?) but with its own hereditary dynasty of Georgian rulers. It's fascinating and the research must have been a bit of a challenge, to say the least. (I am of course writing this without looking it up, and I haven't looked for interviews with the author about this book.

>47 rabbitprincess: There are more books mentioned here too, RP. I was quite pleased to see the Gillian Slovo crime novels mentioned as I've been reading those recently.

>48 BLBera: I wondered how much of it was about writing for young people who weren't around at the time (or hadn't had a chance to come across it since) but also if she was writing for an international audience who might not be so aware of events in the UK in the 80s. But some of those had an international dimension so - I'm not sure.

>49 elkiedee: Yes, I think standalone ones are safer. And my library does ILL too for ones we don't have in the reserve collection. I think the main reason I don't wait is impatience though! I want to read all the books as soon as possible.

I like Leila Aboulela, but have a couple in the TBR pile I haven't read, including the one you mention. Despite the resurgence of interest in Black authors here (and better stock in the shops) I'm still thinking like it's 20 years ago and buying copies when I see "less popular" African authors. Especially women.

Crying in H Mart
Not sure where I'd come across this - maybe Litsy? I'd missed that the author is also quite a successful singer-songwriter and that this book came from an essay she wrote about food and grief. The book describes her sometimes fraught relationship with her mother, and her death from cancer. Her shared memories of cooking and food (hence the H Mart reference) were the most interesting to me. Zauner covers home cooked, restaurant and "convenience" Korean food, becoming like a travelogue in parts as she remembers summers in Seoul with her family. Unsurprisingly, the book is a lot harder to read as she describes her mother's illness and (far from pain free) death. I thought she was quite brave to talk about her reactions to her mother's terminal diagnosis and care as (to me) these reactions often seemed quite shallow (Although to be fair, she acknowledges this at points in the narrative.)

At night Eunmi Emo would phone in orders for Korean fried chicken and a growler of Cass draft beer. We'd sink our teeth into the crackly skin, hot oil gushing triumphantly from its double fried crust as we broke into the glistening dark meat, and finished with a cold crunch of the pickled cubes of white radish that came with every delivery.

After dinner, we'd tuck our legs under the low table in the living room and Eunmi would help me with my Korean homework. On weekends we would sit in cafés and fancy bakeries on Garosugil and people-watch.

>50 charl08: I think buying fiction by Black women writers who are not guaranteed bestsellers, especially writers who fall into several categories and are harder to pigeonhole and who step out of fiction which might or might not be autobiographical and/or which is set in their own country of residence/origin/more obvious ancestry, is a great thing to do. Especially as when you do read them you write about them and every little bit helps tell people there is more to African women's writing than Chimamanda Ngozie Adichie (!) or black American and black British writers (whatever that means). Aminatta Forna and Leila Aboulela in particular are both African and British writers. I am borrowing books from Islington which should be more available in the area I live in, but like everywhere right now, our libraries have issues, like money and politics etc and decisions being taken under pressure by people who don't know or choose to pretend not to know the implications of their actions.

>52 elkiedee: I still get surprised when I go into the same bookshop in a different city and find a completely different range of books. I love Waterstones Manchester but they don't compare (or didn't, pre-pandemic) to the one near SOAS / Bloomsbury. There's still a bit of that FOMO when I pick up a book in a shop. I do miss (although it's been nearly a decade) the African writers bookgroup I was in - both a prompt to find and to read new authors.
(And wine.)

Another list.

https://lithub.com/the-ultimate-fall-2022-books-preview/

of those mentioned, I'm adding to the TBR pile...

Namwali Serpell, The Furrows
Kate Atkinson, Shrines of Gaiety
Maggie O’Farrell, The Marriage Portrait
Cormac McCarthy, Stella Maris
Barbara Kingsolver, Demon Copperhead
Matthew Perry, Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing
Kamila Shamsie, Best of Friends
Lynn Steger Strong Flight
Jonathan Escoffery, If I Survive You
Rachel Aviv, Strangers to Ourselves
Lydia Millet, Dinosaurs
Siddhartha Mukherjee, The Song of the Cell
Baek Sehee, tr. Anton Hur, I Want to Die, but I Want to Eat Tteokbokki
Elizabeth Strout, Lucy by the Sea
Alice Wong, Year of the Tiger: An Activist’s Life
Kate Beaton, Ducks: Two Years in the Oil Sands
Elizabeth McCracken, The Hero of this Book
Annie Proulx, Fen, Bog & Swamp
Margaret Wilkerson Sexton, On the Rooftop
Jasmine Guillory, Drunk on Love
Ernesto Mestre-Reed, Sacrificio
Laura Warrell, Sweet, Soft, Plenty Rhythm
Ryan Lee Wong, Which Side Are You On

>53 charl08: Well, this is a chance to spend an hour or two looking at books to add to my WL. Thanks? Charlotte.

>54 BLBera: I feel like I've deleted some that I want to add back now, as well. So many good books!

I've added many of the same ones that you had listed.

Not yet looked at the link because I need to get back to actually reading some books so I can get to what I already have to hand some time soon!

Have read, loved and need to review Shrines of Gaiety. The Marriage Portrait was published here on 30 August and I was able to pick up a pre-order library reservation this week, but I will probably have to take it back and borrow it again if I don't start it very soon and finish it by the due date.

Barbara Kingsolver, Demon Copperhead - a favourite author, October, reserved at the library
Kamila Shamsie, Best of Friends - not sure of publication date - am checking library catalogues to reserve
Elizabeth Strout, Lucy by the Sea is Lucy Barton #4 - and I still haven't read #3, Oh, William! although I placed and cancelled several reservations at the library - I would reserve when I thought I was at the back of a huge queue and it kept coming through really fast! I now have it on Kindle and have decided to reread #1 and #2 first.
Alice Wong, Year of the Tiger: An Activist’s Life - interesting title
Elizabeth McCracken, The Hero of this Book - I enjoyed her earlier volume of short stories Thunderstruck, have several novels TBR and would really like to read her more recent story collection The Souvenir Museum. I also have at least two other novels by her TBR. maybe I'll fill in a suggestion form for both Souvenir Museum and The Hero of This Book, but not until I've read and returned several books which I suggested for purchase earlier. It's often difficult to find a copy of a short story collection to borrow and they don't come up as frequently on offer as the same authors' novels.
Annie Proulx, Fen, Bog & Swamp - I really want to read Annie Proulx, some time, but think this is a book for me to look out for longer term
Jasmine Guillory, Drunk on Love - Netgalley TBR
Ryan Lee Wong, Which Side Are You On - there is a much covered song about strikes and not breaking them of that title, written in the 1930s in Appalachia by Florence Reese. Best known here: Billy Bragg version, my favourites are perhaps the scratchy online versions of the original, and Natalie Merchant. Anyway, I clearly need to look the book up!

>53 charl08: Thanks for posting the list!

>56 BLBera: >57 elkiedee: >58 mdoris: I've maxed out my reserve options. Sadness.

I've realised that the Annie Proulx is non fiction, and it's BBC Radio 4's Book of the Week at the moment, so presumably available to listen to in the UK for at least a few weeks via Sounds.

I'm a little late in wishing you a happy new thread, but happy wishes all the same! I have Crying in H Mart home from the library for the book club with my sister-in-law (as opposed to the work one), and I'm hoping to read it soon.

>60 elkiedee: Sounds good!

>61 bell7: There were so many amazing sounding dishes. I wanted to try them all, the book made me so hungry. I'll look forward to hearing what you think.

Act of Oblivion
One of the reviews on the work page describes Harris as a "safe pair of hands" and I think that sums it up. You can feel confident that you're going to get a well-written, thoughtful and gripping novel, whether you're in ancient Rome or Bletchley Park. This book centres on the aftermath of the Restoration, and the moves by Charles II to hunt down those who signed his death warrant. There are lots of grudges, and plenty of near-misses. The chase even extends to the colonies of New England.
I found the period of the setting really interesting, I've read a few crime novels set in this period. It makes for a good conflict, the dramatic shift back after the radical changes of the Protectorate. But I hadn't thought about the impact over the Atlantic.

That must be Harvard College, where they produced the stern sectaries who spread their dour religion across New England. A strange country this, he thought, where two such conflicting races and philosophies, heathens and fanatics, existed side by side. What good could ever come of it?

Great quote.

>64 BLBera: It felt like a bit of a wink at the reader!

The Waiting
The second GN by best-selling Korean author Kim Seuk Gendry-Kim I've read. Here she looks at one of the continuing legacies of the Korean war. Supported by the International Red Cross, a small number of the thousands of families separated by the border are given a chance to meet. Gendry-Kim's black and white illustrations describe the experience of thousands of Koreans through a focus on one family. Despite decades, separated wives, husband's, parents, children, continue to hope for a reunion.
Grim reading, another part of those histories that somehow schools find hard to include in the curriculum.

Straight from the Horse's Mouth
This novel is by a Moroccan author now based in France. The main character is a prostitute in Casablanca, with a temper and a sense of humour about her life. She's kept her job secret from her mother, who lives in the country. Told in the first person, as if to a confidante, we gradually learn how she came to be selling sex.
Things change thanks to a "bin ou bin", a film director who was born in Morocco but now lives in the Netherlands. The weird double standards surrounding prostitution are exposed, from the high rates of trade at Ramadan to the repeated police raids that only affect women. Jmiaa is unflinching, from her views on other women stealing her trade to customers in American diners.

I ordered a latte to drink. They have a crazy system here. When you order a coffee or a Coke or any you thing to drink-except alcohol-they refill you and refill you until you can't take it anymore. When finish your glass, the server comes to ask if you want more. You could have twenty refills if you wanted. They do it because the people here are idiots. Even when they're in a group, they all order drinks, rather than having one and sharing it.

I do love a happy ending, even if it seems unlikely.

>67 charl08: I picked this up thanks to Kay's (Ridgewaygirl) review on her thread.

I walk between the raindrops
A collection of quite dark stories, filled with failing men: fathers who abandon their children, refuse to work, drink and fight too much. My pick from the collection would be the story of the man who covets a neighbour's fancy flat. He agrees to pay the elderly lady who owns it an advance monthly fee for her flat until she dies, only to find that the challenge of getting her money's worth acts as a spur to longevity. I think this is based on a true story? It certainly sounded familiar.

She had torn a sheet of paper from her notebook and stuck it squarely in the middle of the door with four reinforced strips of Scotch tape, as if it was meant to last. She'd inscribed a quotation on it in her careful back-sloping script, attributed to an animal rights activist whose name was basically anathema in med school. "We have to speak up," it read, "on behalf of those who cannot speak for themselves."

>67 charl08: This sounds good, Charlotte. I'll look for it.

>46 charl08: Yeah, read the first and let it go. Not sure whether I will continue unless it turns up in a cheap Kindle deal.

>70 BLBera: As always, I recommend Kay's review.

>71 Caroline_McElwee: I thought that maybe it was just "first novel of a series" thing. But probably not for me, really. Although I may have forgotten that when the next one comes out...

I 'found' another list, this time of GN's. A few here that I've read already, but plenty that I'll look for now. (Or Now-ish)
https://bookmarks.reviews/category/graphic-novels/

Goodbye, My Havana: The Life and Times of a Gringa in Revolutionary Cuba
Drawn to Berlin
One Hundred Saturdays: Stella Levi and the Search for a Lost World
A Career in Books: A Novel about Friends, Money, and the Occasional Duck Bun
Keeping Two
Crushing

The Way it is Now
Latest Gary Disher Australian crime fiction. Disher tends to focus on police officers with problems and it's no different here. Charlie is still grieving for his mum who went missing 20 years ago. His dad, another police officer, was never charged. His brother believes his dad did it, cutting off ties with him. The anniversary comes at tough time, as he is suspended from his job after an argument with his boss. But this leaves plenty of time for him to investigate his mother's case himself.

This was a pacey read, with plenty of local context (a small coastal community). I am hoping that he will continue his outback series for his next book though!

The Employees
Innovative short novel in translation that details a collapsing colony far from Earth. In the form of short accounts from the workers, some human, others not quite, the reasons how and why things have gone wrong emerge.

Sometimes the humanoids are very quiet. They've started sitting at the same tables together in the canteen. They sit in a row and take in their nourishment. It's as if without a word being said between them they've some how agreed to be silent. Only a fool should believe that silence is consent. Their keeping quiet seems more like a conspiracy than a willingness to serve. Yes, that's correct, I'm nervous about it.

The Marriage Portrait
I think I've liked everything Maggie O'Farrell's written*, and this is no exception. Like her previous book Hamnet, this is historical fiction, but unlike Hamnet we're now in Italy instead of Shakespearean England. The book reminded me of Sarah Dunant writing about a similar setting, which I also enjoyed.

There was a whole room just for weapons, she said, with swords and armour lined up along the walls, and another full of books. Book after book, she told them, as she rubbed their faces with a washcloth or buttoned their smocks, filling shelves that stretched far above her head. It would, the nurse said take a whole lifetime to read them all, maybe more.

In The Marriage Portrait, O'Farrell picks up the story of a real person, Lucrezia, the daughter of a renaissance Florentine ruler, who was forced into marriage as a teenager, and (historically) died shortly after in mysterious circumstances. The book takes off from this bare outline, creating a detailed picture of a creative young women who observes everything around her. The historical detail is rich and made me want to go (or want to go even more) look at paintings and architecture in Florence. Although given how restrictive the controls were on Lucrezia's life by first her parents and then her husband, time travel is less attractive. I couldn't work out how O'Farrell could take the story of this young woman's short life and make it compelling, whilst avoiding misery-lit type fiction, before I picked it up. She does though.

*NB Usual Goldfish Memory Exception applies here.


I loved it, I suspect I'll still be thinking about it for several weeks, and I hope it finds its way into lots of readers' hands.

>76 charl08: I thought what she did with Hamnet was excellent. I will pop this on the look out for list.

>76 charl08: Charlotte, that does sound good. I'm in the queue for it at the library.

>76 charl08: This is sitting close to the top of my pile. I've heard good things, and, well, Maggie O'Farrell.

>76 charl08: I've just started reading The Marriage Portrait - I'd reserved it months ago. Actually I'd reserved it at more than one library and bizarrely my reservations have all become available rather quickly. It's a bit embarrassing but I've picked up the most recently available copy as then I start the 3 week clock again. I'm not making a special journey to return the other but might well take it in or ask Mike to do so this week, whoever's going to get to a borough library branch next.

I've been reading Maggie O'Farrell since the beginning of her career, but think she's taken different directions in her most recent books and really grown as a writer in her late 40s (she's turned or turns 50 this year I think!)

For those who've not read the book, what I'm posting might sound like a spoiler but it's actually in the book as an epigraph, and then it's quite clear why when you turn to the very first page of the novel.

I still remember the English lesson when the teacher got us to read My Last Duchess, a poem by Robert Browning (which is quoted at the beginning of The Marriage Portrait and then talked us through the grim story behind it. Maybe I can blame my fascinations with unreliable narrators and crime fiction on him!

>77 Helenliz: I'm still hoping to find a nice second hand copy of Hamnet to add to my shelves. Although perhaps given that I've got nowhere to put it that delay is a good thing.

>78 mdoris: Hope you like it Mary.

>79 BLBera: It can be a bit of an anticlimax sometimes reading an author I like so much, but not in this case.

>80 elkiedee: I'd not come across the poem or the painting before seeing the reviews of this book. I was really happy to get it from the my library: lots of reservations, but happily also lots of copies.

Whatever Happened to Interracial Love

I'd heard a lot about this slim collection of short stories, published posthumously (the author was also a filmmaker). Infused with the author's own experiences of protest and politics. There's a strong theme of the failure of youthful hope, whether in relationships or in terms of social change.

Henry is unquestionably endearing. With the softest voice you ever heard. Charlotte (her roommate) is considering supporting him for life. He could write poetry, she could work. It is not a particularly political dream-Henry is not about to go south and sit in, he is not even interested in voter registration, and his poems are curiously apolitical. It is really a romance, which will eventually pop (if one is willing to admit that romances are a bit like balloons). Charlotte found she didn't like working. Even for poetry. Henry read about her wedding in the New York Times...

>82 charl08: This definitely goes on my list.

>82 charl08: I've added it to my Saved List at the library. I've only recently discovered this catalogue feature rather than just reserving everything. Unfortunately the buttons are next to each other and it's so tempting to "reserve" but at the moment I need to only place reservations if books aren't published yet and/or the number of reservations is a multiple of the number of copies in the system, so I can make space on my library card(s).

I was wondering why my hold list at the library wasn't growing in leaps and bounds. I should have realized I was way behind on your thread, Charlotte. My hold list is a lot fuller now!

>84 elkiedee: We have that feature too, it's handy. I have one list for books that are in the library branch already. If I have space I can look up books I want to read.

>85 Familyhistorian: I was listening to the author of The Trees on the radio this week, and was reminded I've read some good books lately.

Several People are Typing
This made me laugh, a novel told entirely as if in a conversation in Slack. Gerald gets sucked into the system but his colleagues think it's just a "bit" to try and wfh.

(Doug is the boss)

In other reading news, I fell down a manga rabbit hole, or to be more precise Sweat and Soap books 1-11. This rather trashed my book budget good intentions. But I can now almost automatically read "backwards" which I'm taking as progress.

A Prayer for the Crown-Shy
Gentle novella that picks up where A Psalm for the Wild-Built left off. Sibling Dex returns to more populated communities, as Mosscap finds out more about humans and their choices. I still hope that Chambers picks up the Wayfarer series again, but am enjoying this new series too.

"I love how different the pictures are from what I see," the robot said, happily flicking through newly captured images as it walked. "You can really tell that my optical lenses and the lens in this computer's camera aren't the same at all. Makes you think, doesn't it?"
"Makes you think of what?" Dex panted.
"Of how any sighted individual's perception of the world is entirely based on the way the structures in their eyes receive light." Mosscap smiled at Dex. "I wish I could borrow your eyes for a day, see what that's like,"
"Please find a less creepy way to phrase that."

Where You Come From

Relative pronouns. A country whose language you can speak is not necessarily more your country...

In the evenings, your war comes on for a little while. You change the channel: Die Hard with Bruce Willis. Bruce Willis speaks German. You understand Bruce Willis just fine. But things aren't going too well for Bruce Willis, physically. "Yippie-ki-yay, Schweinebacke," he says, and you get out your vocab notebook.

I didn't believe the blurb that said this book, about growing up in Germany after escaping through collapse of Yugoslavia, was funny. It was, despite bleak moments, and essentially narrating the narrator's grandmother's decline, dementia and then death. Difficult to see how much of this is fiction given the overlaps with the author's childhood. In the book, the narrator traces the history of his "mixed" family. As Yugoslavia crumbled the merged Christian/Muslim family became a risk. The child survived, then thrived, whilst his parents took on the typical wages of migrant workers (lower skilled work, less security).

As an adult returning to visit his grandmother, small interactions with those who remained make clear those attitudes survived beyond "peace".

You've long since learned the days of the week and the months, although it takes a few before you make any friends. They are easier to find with a shared language. You can under stand which soccer team they like. Olli from Eppelheim likes a team from Hamburg. His father takes him and you along to a game in Karlsruhe. It's the first time anyone in Germany in vites you to anything. Olli's father screams at the ref. You learn a new vocabulary word: "youmotherfucker." He buys you and Olli bratwursts at halftime. You sing along to "Hamburg boys, Hamburg boys, we're all Hamburg boys." For ninety minutes you're a Hamburg boy. Your team is named Hamburger SV. Hamburger SV loses. You'll get used to it.

The ending is brilliant.

>89 charl08: I liked Where You Come From too, Charlotte, but didn't like the ending. That was probably because in my e-book the pages didn't match, so I couldn't read it the way it was intended.

>90 FAMeulstee: Oh no! Although after reading the way I was 'supposed' to, I then went back and read the bits I'd missed. Which is how I used to read the Choose Your Own Adventure books, too. This is one of those where I want my own copy again. I think I'll just have to move into a library. And find a sponsor for all the books I want to buy / read!

The Five Lives of Hilda af Klint

Colourful, fantastical recreation of the life of the Swedish painter, in a GN format. Made me want to read more about her life, which is convenient, as the afterword points out the biography comes out in English this year.

20. The Radio Operator
Translated from German. This is a complex, thoughtful novel that paints a picture of a German migrant, Josef, living in New York City who becomes part of a spy ring before the US enters WW2. Told from the "after" picture as well as the wartime one, there's a sense of the impossible choices Josef faces - and the complex political games going on above his head.

>93 charl08: I have never even heard of this book, thanks for alerting me to this. Interesting change on the title, in German it's "Der Empfänger" which is the receiver...

>94 MissWatson: Yes, the title change is an interesting choice, the translator talks about the double meaning of the original title (amongst other things) in a short afterword.
It's often surprising to me which books get translated and those that don't make it. (I always hope for more translations!)

Like a Prisoner
Fascinating book that I picked up yesterday as the meeting is on Thursday. The author spent time himself as an Albanian political prisoner, with the focus on the 70s and 80s before Hoxha's death. Each chapter focuses on a different prisoner. Ones that stuck out for me: the elderly man who had been imprisoned before the war by the king, then by the fascists and finally after falling out with other Communists. In another a man clings on to a belief in his own genius after being held on death row before finally having his sentence commuted - with no explanation. The theme of pointlessness of the incarceration applies to all the stories. Many of those in jail have just tried to leave the country. The prison is overcrowded, poorly heated, and some prisoners are forced to work for the state in a poisonous mine. It's grim, but there's some relief in the resistance of those imprisoned, and the conversations they tell to keep going.

'If you're interested in the language of prison, you'll find no better expert than me because I've been in prison under three regimes.'
'Why do you say language and not slang?' I asked, pricking up my ears to listen.
'Because slang is the language invented by the prisoners, but the words that the guards use too are a part of the Albanian language, describing the prison. They're like the words to describe cars, which we've borrowed from the languages of those who have brought us cars. For instance, we've taken motore, carrozzeria and cofano from Italian. During my first sentence, I remember that the majority of words about prison came from Ottoman Turkish: we called the prison itself hapsanë more often than burg which is a word used for castles in the West. Then Slavic words came in during my second spell in prison.'
'Is that so?' I exclaimed, for this sort of etymology had never occurred to my mind. 'Do you know where the word pendrek comes from?'
'No.'
'It's what they call a truncheon in Serbo-Croatian.'
'So what about pajtos?' I asked, my curiosity roused.
'It's written pajdos, not pajtos. This is also an Ottoman word that perhaps they took from the Greeks. When I was a child, I remember it was used for breaktime at school, or the lunch hour for people who worked in the afternoon. But it's also used in the sense of ceasefire. Now it survives only as the hour of fresh air in prisons, like a kind of ceasefire in the war against evil that we fight in the cells.'

Reading Natalie Haynes' new book Stone Blind before a book event where she'll be speaking, in a couple of days. So looking forward to it.

>97 charl08: This looks so good! Have a wonderful time at the event.

>98 rabbitprincess: It was! I just finished it and can't wait to hear her talk about it.

Stone Blind
I loved everything about this book, from the voices she chose to include, to the characterisation of Perseus.

The only good thing about Zeus's sexual incontinence, his wife Hera had often thought, was its extreme brevity. His desire, pursuit and satiation were so short-lived that she could almost convince herself of their irrelevance. If only it didn't invariably result in offspring. More and more gods and demi gods, each one appearing for no reason other than to confirm to her that he was virtually indiscriminate in his infidelity. Even she, a goddess with an almost limitless supply of spite, could barely keep up with the number of women, goddesses, nymphs and mewling infants she needed to persecute.

Again, grateful to my library for getting hold of a copy so quickly.

They had looked forward to her talking. But now Sthenno felt there should be more time between a child beginning to speak and a child asking questions of every single thing she could see or not see, from the birds in the sky to the wind in her hair. Why, why, why. Sthenno had tried to tell Medusa she didn't know why cormorants flew closer to the shore than other birds, or why their sure-footed sheep liked eating grass when it tasted bad to Medusa, or why the sea was colder than the sand when the sun shone equally on both. Sthenno had never even noticed these things. But a lack of answers didn't deter Medusa from asking more and more questions.

Oops, as I rarely watch anything much before 7.30, and hadn't put it in my e-calendar I missed the Gaude talk grrr. I hope there will be a way to see it later.

>100 Caroline_McElwee: I do that all the time. They have a channel, in case interesting?
https://youtube.com/c/TheBritishAcademy

>101 charl08: Thanks Charlotte, I'll check it out.

>99 charl08: I got a pristine copy from my library as well. Must get round to it very soon.

I can't wait to read Stone Blind, Charlotte. You are so lucky to get to hear Haynes. Her podcasts are great. I imagine she'd be a great speaker.

>102 Caroline_McElwee: I should have said: may cause book purchases (because it did for me).

>103 Helenliz: Isn't a new copy lovely? I better get it back to them before I mess it up.

>104 BLBera: It was a rare moment of planning ahead. Looking forward to it!

I've got a few books out to read from from the library. Anyone any clues (or recommendations) where to start?

Peaces Oyeyemi, Helen
I give it to you Martin, Valerie
Tyll Kehlmann, Daniel
The killing hills Offutt, Chris, 1958-
All of you every single one Hitchman, Beatrice
Comrade Aeon's field guide to Bangkok Larkin, Emma
Undreamed shores : five women who sought out the world Larson, Frances, 1976-
Carrie Soto is back Reid, Taylor Jenkins
Either/or Batuman, Elif, 1977-
Small bodies of water Powles, Nina
Vagabonds! Osunde, Eloghosa
The nowhere man Markandaya, Kamala
Chronicles of a Cairo bookseller Wassef, Nadia
All I ever wanted : a rock 'n' roll memoir Valentine, Kathy
Mona Oloixarac, Pola
The secret life of books : why they mean more than words Mole, Tom, 1976-
Scattered all over the earth Tawada, Yo¯ko, 1960

Either/Or by Elif Batuman is currently at the top of my reading pile. I hadn't realised until I started reading it that it's actually a sequel to the author's first novel The Idiot published a few years ago. It's about a Turkish-American college student in the 1990s, and may have some autobiographical content. I'm enjoying it but suspect that some readers will find this really annoying. Perhaps I like it more because student days seem so long ago for me now! I've had her first book, a non fiction book about travelling in Russia, presumably some time in the 1990s, for ages. Her fictional character Selen has also been studying Literature and Russian at Harvard.

I'm also intrigued that the novel includes a trip to Europe through the Let's Go student travel guides publishing operation, where American students get some money to travel around a European country. I still have my Let's Go! Europe 1991 from when I went to Czechoslovakia for a few months - presumably researched, written and published in 1989 and 1990 and I keep it because I'm assuming it's fabulously out of date. I certainly wouldn't lend it to friends or family for their travels, not that I imagine that anyone would want to borrow it for such a purpose.

*******

I've read two of Helen Oyeyemi's more recent novels, Boy, Snow, Bird and Gingerbread and have most of her earlier ones somewhere, and I've had Peaces out as a digital loan for ages.

Think I might have a couple of others TBR. Kathy Valentine was in the Go-Gos and Mike likes the band, and I've had her memoir on my TBR for ages but I'm not aware of it being available from any of the libraries I use. Will have to have a look but I need to spend more time reading and less time browsing library catalogues for either print or digital collections (yeah, right!)

Some of the others sound familiar, others don't but they sound intriguing (oops).

>106 charl08: Only one I have read, Tyll. It is a nice take on the story of Tyll Eulenspiegel, set in the Thirty Years' War.

>107 elkiedee: I think I need to return Either/Or by Elif Batuman as I just can't seem to feel any enthusiasm for picking it up.

I also keep travel guides that I used for past trips. They're a bit of a memory box as far as I'm concerned.

I had a clear out of my Helen Oyeyemi books and I regret it.

>108 FAMeulstee: That explains it, Anita. I wasn't sure where I'd come across it.

Last night's book events were really good, I was so glad I booked ahead.

Natalie Haynes, as you would expect given her performance background, held the room. I almost felt like the host was unnecessary, as she was able to talk practically unprompted and her passion for the work shone through. She gave strong hints that she wasn't done with the Medusa character, and also mentioned several books remaining on her contract. I'm looking forward to those. She talked really movingly about her work with a state school in London which teaches Latin to kids in their lunchbreak. Audience question of the session: if you were a siren, who would you want to be on the first ship to pass?

George Saunders was just lovely, I could have listened to him talk all night. There were, it seemed, many hopeful writers in the audience, and he talked kindly about approaches to editing and writing. He shared his own experiences of failure in a way that didn't come across as humble-bragging, but was genuinely funny. And he was just lovely about how much he enjoyed working with students at Syracuse and their talent. I thought the host was an odd choice though, one of those occasions where I was glad I had nothing to do with the organization of an event. ('Questions' of the five year old variety, not much development from "my favourite story was this one...")

>109 charl08: I think it's a good idea to return a book for now that you don't feel like picking up. Although my memory of The Idiot is very hazy, and it was published in 2017, I think that it should be read first. I think these books are a bit like or loathe - I like this ditzy young character agonising over everything but I found the last part of Either/Or quite disturbing, as a young woman travelling round Turkey seems to end up agreeing to lots of stuff which sounds like a seriously bad idea. There appears to be an autobiographical element, and it's probably quite realistic about what it's like being 19/20, but I don't want this intelligent, funny young woman in the novel to be facing another 10+ years of young person mistakes before she feels able to start asserting her identity and make better decisions about relationships/non-relationships/sex.

I still have her non-fiction memoir about reading/studying Russian literature TBR. Maybe one to fit into my 2023 reading plans, as I'm going to continue prioritising library books until at least the end of this year and I suspect that The Possessed: Adventures with Russian Books and the People Who Read Them might turn out to be a rabbit hole book (one which offers its own further distractions).

>106 charl08: The only one of your list that I've read is Small Bodies of Water. I liked it, it's a very gentle and poetic memoir (and I remember thinking that the chapter on periods was excellent, as well as unexpected!).

>112 Jackie_K: I was looking up Nina Mingya Powles, the author of Small Bodies of Water, trying to work out why I remembered the name. This title sounds familiar but also I think a previous book, a collection of poetry called Magnolia (actual published title also contains two Chinese characters - wondering if this is Magnolia in Chinese - perhaps I'll ask a couple of the people I know who read Chinese at a more respectable time of day/night than 1 am?)

>111 elkiedee: I think I might return it unread. I read the first one but for some reason this one is not calling to me.

I also have her book on Russian writers, but haven't got very far with it.

>112 Jackie_K: >113 elkiedee: Yes, I came across her poetry through online readings as part of the Forward Prize. I also enjoyed her slim memoir about food and family, connected to her time as an exchange student in China. She's published in a range of formats for such a young woman.

I'm way behind on reviews

25. Alison Lizzy Stewart (GN)
This fictional GN is presented like a memoir of a woman artist, mentored by a much older man when she was a young woman, just starting out (in the 70s). She looks back over the development of her career. Beautifully drawn, but the MeToo reflection felt like it was underdone.

26. Set on You (New to me)
Romance
Social media/ self image romance. A bit too try-hard for me. More story, less message, please.

27. Ao haru ride. Volume 2 (GN)
I still don't really "get" manga, but this series is quite cute.

28. Part of Your World (familiar faces)
Long distance/ fish out of water romance. Not sure what the credited sensitivity reader was reading for here.

29. Mud and Stars: travels in Russia
I got stuck half way through and then picked this up again a couple of days ago. Accessible look at Russian writers, linked to the author's travels around modern Russia to find the authors' memorials, former homes and the places they wrote about. On one hand fascinating about the writers, but the modern travel didn't feel as insightful, perhaps because since published the war on Ukraine has meant my awareness of Russian attitudes and politics has increased a bit? For me most interesting when talking about the lesser known authors (rather than Tolstoy or Chekhov).

30. Violets (Women in translation)
A book that centres on a young woman's attempt to get out of a crushing job and isolation in Seoul. It's not light reading, despite being a short book. The afterword makes clear the context in which the author was writing- although only translated last year, it was originally published back in 2001. From the crass builders to the pestering customer at the flower shop, the book focuses on Korean women's experiences of patriarchy.

>111 elkiedee: Sounds like you should take back Either/Or. Maybe you could try it again in a few months. I wrote a sort of review on Librarything overnight, as I'm going to return my read copy this afternoon, and tried to work out how I felt. I like the character but looking back at my own late teens and early (and mid) 20s, I just think, oh please, don't make Selin suffer through years and years of stressing about boys/men/life/whatever, even if that's realistic, even if that's what you did yourself. Give her a break. Comparing Selin's story to the information about Elif Batuman available online is quite interesting.

>115 charl08: I loved Sara Wheeler's book on travelling in the Arctic, and her one about the Antarctic and a collection of articles and longer pieces previously published elsewhere, but Mud and Stars was more interesting on Russian writers than on the travel.

Although her books on travelling in post Soviet Russia must be over 15 years old, and the journeys might have been closer to 20 years ago, I found Dervla Murphy's accounts of her travels in Russia in the early Putin years really interesting, especially the second book, Silverland. The first is Through Siberia By Accident.

Peter Pomarentsev has written two books about his experiences of living and working in Putin's Russia - I found the first one quite entertaining and it's more recent than Murphy, though I suspect her political perspectives were closer to mine.

I also enjoyed Charlotte Hobson's memoir of her experiences living in the Soviet Union in 1991, Black Earth City. It may be partly that this was the same year that I spent a few months living near and in Brno, Czechoslovakia (now Czechia).

Thanks for the British Academy link, Charlotte. A brief look netted a lot of interesting possibilities.

>116 elkiedee: I don't think I'd pick up Sara Wheeler again. I am not a fan of Dervla, although it's been so long since I decided that I can't remember why. I've not read Pomarentsev, but like you I enjoyed Hobson's memoir.

>117 Familyhistorian: Yes, it's a tempting place, isn't it!

People Person


Accessible novel that work's book group have chosen for (UK's) Black History Month. Five children of one all-but-absent father meet for the first time with no warning as children, most not knowing about each other. As adults they're brought together again by a crisis. With very different mothers, attitudes and experiences, can they be a family? And do they want to be? I liked this novel, full of humour and charismatic characters.
Visiting their ill grandmother, Delores:

Her eyes were nearly closed, and her skin was sallow. The biggest thing about her was the baby-blue bonnet on top of her head.

"The las' time mi see yuh, yuh was big as a house,' Delores said.
Dimple didn't know what to say to that. What was there to say? Yes? Thank you? I've slimmed down since then, maybe, and hopefully to your preference? What kind of house do you speak of? Semi-detached or a small cottage?

>99 charl08: The quotes you include intrigue me, Charlotte. I may have to look for Stone Blind after I get my library stack back under control.

I haven't read any of the books you list in >106 charl08: but my vote would go to the books about books 😁

Edited to get touchstone to work

>110 charl08: This sounds great. I am anxious to read Haynes' new one.

>120 bell7: I hope you can find a copy (and the time to read it). I thought the book was brilliantly done. She was so passionate about her subject. For some reason I'd not listened to her podcast, Natalie Haynes Stands up for the Classics. But it does mean I've got several series to listen to whilst I wait for the next book.

And yes, always the book about books.

>121 BLBera: I was really glad they were so good because the hotel I stayed at wasn't stellar. It felt worth the effort. I'll try and make more of the Manchester events next year I think.

I've been thinking my work bookgroup was struggling (we rarely make more than 4 or 5 of us, and several former members have retired from work). We're a bit unusual I think for a book group in that we meet in a lunchtime, so no booze. (But perhaps that's just my assumption.) Yesterday I was the only person to turn up apart from the organizer, so she's going to reschedule. It's such a shame as I think the group is a lovely way to meet people outside of your job role, but everyone just seems too busy to do it during the work day.
I'm wondering if it will carry on.

>123 charl08: I’ve been thinking that with my own book group. Over the COVID period we were meeting online and several members have got into the habit of only attending if they haven’t got anything better to do. And several are now retired and are spending a lot of time away, but expect the book club to be there for them when they are back. We’re consistently getting small numbers, which is very frustrating.

Are the groups open to new members/actively promoted?

My library group doesn't have alcohol, though I know of a group run by a library worker but not an official library reading group and they do meet with drinks and refreshments in one of London's big libraries. They often read really interesting books. I have been and I'm still on the contact list for the group, and if it was on this side of London I'd be tempted to go. The problem is that though Brixton is a fairly quick and easy journey by tube because it's on one of the best, most convenient and fastest train lines for me, the fares come to nearly £8 now even I walked to and from the tube from home, and if I get the bus to and from my second nearest station it's up to the max fare including the tube - about £9.

My book group didn't have booze, but we always had cake! (we met in coffee shops after work). Have to say I probably remember more about the cakes than about many of the books we read, but it was a lot of fun, and even though I've moved away now I'm still in touch on facebook with several of the group members.

Charlotte, my book group started by people who mostly worked in the same department, so we've always met over lunch -- and here we still are, 20 years on! We generally have five to eight people attend.

>123 charl08: Our work book group is also having the same struggle, and the organiser has now left. Someone did agree to pick it up, but I haven't seen anything yet. It was only a quarterly group.

My other RL book group is hanging in there, I've been a member for 15 years, but have taken a break for the rest of the year. Too many books on the current list I have already read, and only a couple I'm happy to reread.

>124 SandDune: >125 elkiedee: >126 Jackie_K: >127 BLBera: >128 Caroline_McElwee: Really interesting to hear everyone else's experiences. We do a lot of promo as the group is supported by work. Maybe I should suggest cake, though!

Fictions and Lies
The author, who was a writer and dissident in Soviet Russia herself, sets her story in 1960s Moscow's writing community. The state's attempts to control writers goes beyond bugging and paying informers, to enforced psychiatric hospitalization and honey traps. Alongside that is corruption and young people's attempts to get the right pair of jeans.
I do think I'd have read a novel just about Auntie Xenia though: an older lady with medals for her heroism during the blockade of Leningrad. Living across the hall from one writer, she finds an ingenious solution to a state official's demand that she spy on her neighbour.

Remember when they'd left his name off the list, and the authorities took two ghastly days to establish under which category he came? And the rations, which were never enough! Of course it was his own fault that he was growing. He should have stayed as he was, and nobody would have noticed. Then there were the Germans, who were coming from the west to get him and his mother. They had been told in the children's home that the Germans did not think of Russians as human beings. Just Russian pigs. People from the occupied territories, they were told, even boys, were sent off to German farms. He did not realize at the time that this meant slave labour, he decided that it was for meat. Pork to be eaten. Later he under stood the truth, but the childish fear remained.

October report (I don't always remember to do these, but here goes)

I read 8 library books of the total 32.

I really enjoyed Several People are Typing, a bonkers story about getting stuck in a Slack workspace.

I loved Maggie O'Farrell new one, The Marriage Portrait. It fits in well with my thread theme too.

I think Like a Prisoner was the first Albanian book I've ever read. I also heard the author speak as part of a radio programme: his account of prison life was from his own experiences, and yet he seemed so mellow.

I loved the way the stories in Whatever Happened to Interracial love conveyed a (brief) period of 1960s optimism for a different future.

I read Stone Blind in time to hear Natalie Haynes speak. She was wonderful, definitely recommended if you get the chance to hear her promote her latest book (or anything, really).

GNs / Manga
Sweat & Soap Vol 1-11 (GN)
The Five Lives of Hilda Af Klint (GN)
Ao haru ride. Volume 1& 2
Alison

Familiar faces
A Prayer for the Crown Shy
The American Roommate Experiment
Stone Blind
Part of Your World

Prize winners:
The Marriage Portrait

New to me:
The Employees: a workplace novel of the 22nd century
A Proposal they can't refuse
Whatever Happened to Interracial Love
Several People are Typing
Set on You
Mud and Stars: travels in Russia

Women in translation
The Radio Operator
Violets
Fictions and Lies

Book club books
Like a Prisoner
People Person

Not on a list
Where You Come From

Scattered All Over the Earth
This is the second dystopian novel I've read by the author. The perspective is skewed though, its never entirely clear what has happened to Japan so that the protagonist can't go home (or contact her family). Trying to avoid being deported to the US as an English speaker (from nordic countries), she's invented her own language, Penska.

At the same time, strong hints are dropped that Japanese influences have been absorbed and then their source forgotten. Japanese foods are misattributed to other cultures, for example. Gradually a small group comes together trying to track down another 'native' speaker of Japanese. Beyond quirky, they narrate alternating chapters, offering insight into a new Europe and enabling Tawada to reflect on language, nation and cross- cultural relationships (among many other things).

Ao Haru Ride
Quite surprised by how much grief and loss there is in this (YA?) manga (13 volumes) set in a high school.

>131 charl08: What a great variety of reading you've been doing, Charlotte. I like reading people's summations.

>132 charl08: This sounds interesting.

>134 BLBera: I thought of you when reading the book by Tawada, Beth. I am consistently surprised by the diversity covered by the label "dystopia". It was as if the population was gradually forgetting Japan ever existed, without even needing the push of any kind of censorship or other force.

>89 charl08: I have just ordered this book and hope to read it in the beginning of 2023. It was one of the four novels on the list for the new course I teach (maybe you remember my posting on Tauben fliegen auf (Fly away, pigeon) by Melinda Nadj Abonji. I did not choose it because I decided to go for the female writers, because most of the courses focus on male writers, but I do want to read the novel and maybe use some excerpts in my lessons or use it for the exams.

>97 charl08: Straight on my wishlist! I think that Medusa is one of the most fascinating mythological figures.

>131 charl08: I took loved Several People are Typing. It is indeed bonkers but there's so much truth in that book too!

>136 MissBrangwen: I really liked this book, I want to read his earlier one (which is also translated into English, so no excuse for me not having picked it up already). I love hearing about literature courses. My friend is retraining and has done a lit degree course with the amazing Open University. I am quite jealous (until I remember how much of your "free" time it takes up).

>137 mathgirl40: Oh yes, there were many laughs of recognition from me. The boss in particular. Great idea for a book.

Comrade Aeon's Field Guide to Bangkok (familiar faces)

Loong Pradit keeps trying: 'Work or no work, commoner or high-born, you I will always be a m'lady to me, m'lady'
Yai Sunan ignores him, keeps her eyes on the screen because the theme tune has started and she knows the last episode of any soap opera is the most important one. It's the episode in which all the reckonings are made - in which the good guys are rewarded and the bad guys are punished. And sometimes, if you haven't been following along properly, a character you thought was good is revealed as a baddie, or the other way around. Whichever it is, it's always satisfying and she sleeps well afterwards knowing that all has been made right, at least in the little world behind the screen.

I loved the author's NF (on Orwell and Burma) and loved this new novel too.
The books opens with the Thai state opening an empty shipping container that has been found underwater. The official channels deny any bodies have been found. It's clear the public have doubts. This is a narrative with multiple viewpoints, from across Bangkok society including an expat bored housewife, a slum landlord and a foodstall-owning senior. All are trying to manage "normal" life but are sidetracked by the claims of the dead.
The subsequent discovery of a mass grave in a patch of "jungle" in urban Bangkok has everyone on the move. As in the quote above, this is accompanied - juxtaposed? - by the developments in a plot of a TV soap opera, written by one of the characters.
I thought this was a great novel and am surprised it doesn't have more readers on LT.

Chronicles of a Cairo Bookseller (New to me)
I think this was more honest than I was expecting about the challenges of working in Egypt over the past twenty-years or so. The author was part of a partnership with two other women establishing modern bookshops in Cairo. Wassef faced challenges in her own personal life as well as dramatic economic and political change in the country. Each chapter looks at this through the theme of a particular kind of book, from classics to self-help. I most enjoyed her reflections on the particular context of bookselling, from the need to explain to the censors that Jamie Oliver wasn't literally "naked" to the shifting attitudes to 1001 nights. Interesting too that some of the customers encountered were familiar from bookish memoirs from elsewhere, including interior designers spending a fortune to decorate with books.

Books, especially books about transcendence, were antidotes to burnout. We'd been watching the news too much in the fevered years following the revolution. There was a sense of impending failure. The Arab Spring had unspooled into the endless winter of our discontent. Suddenly, everyone seemed to be buying the 2008 translation of Rhonda Byrne's The Secret, a book about manifesting one's desires through the power of thought. After my tryst with Paulo, and at Nihal's behest, I picked it up, read the first few pages, and instinctively understood what it promised. The Bible made a similar vow, in the Gospel of Luke, "for everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks the door will be opened." The Alchemist and The Secret spoke to a quintessentially human habit: dreaming. We wanted to make our dreams real. But what happens after that? When your dream comes true, outgrowing what you've imagined, what then? There's the problem of classification. A dream cannot materialize, or it no longer is itself. Maybe the entelechy of dreams could be called loss.

>140 charl08: Comrade Aeon's Field Guide to Bangkok goes onto the WL! The other one is there already :-)

Hope you like it as much as I did.

I really must remember to check LT before I buy something in a bookshop.
I opened The Feral Detective and it seemed familiar. Turns out I read it in 2019.

Snowed in for Christmas
I do like Sarah Morgan's books, but at this point it feels like she could write this kind of festive family reunion novel in her sleep.
Comfortable Xmassy romance.

ETA Not impressed that the kindle copy actually finished at 90% to give a 'preview' of the next book. Grump.

>143 charl08: I just added a few of Sarah Morgan's novels to my audible wishlist. I had never heard of the author, but was looking for a few Christmassy novels.

Not impressed that the kindle copy actually finished at 90% to give a 'preview' of the next book. This was the case with several of the few kindle books I have read so far. It's annoying, isn't it?

Comrade Aeon's Field Guide to Bangkokgoes on my WL, Charlotte. I did enjoy the Cairo Bookseller one as well.

>144 MissBrangwen: She's written a lot, so if you find you like her books you'll have a lot more to choose from!

I was quite annoyed: as I've been caught out before, I do sometimes look at the contents page to check page numbers, but I forgot this time.

>145 BLBera: I wasn't sure how many people would have read Larkin's book about Orwell in Burma, but that one is really good as well. I think it was recommended to me by Mamie.

Talk to my Back
Newly translated, but originally published in Japan in the 1980s, this fascinating manga reflects on Japanese women's position through the experience of one housewife. The protagonist is at home with two small children while her husband barely comes home from work, and when he does expects to be waited on.
The accompanying essay outlines Yamada's life and experiences, placing these in the context of gendered manga.
Recommended.

Just read that there is a new Cash Blackbear book out (#3). I've put a library request in for Sinister Graves by Marcie R. Rendon. Fingers crossed!

Vagabonds!
A queer, magical realist vision of a Lagos where some of the Dead rise again. These are benevolent spirits (at least for those who haven't got a guilty conscience). Different sections of the novel focus on diverse characters, perhaps the most memorable to me featuring a young man desperate for a job. On the advice of a friend he applies to be a driver for a successful criminal. He signs away his voice in exchange for a fat salary, but then finds the penalties for changing his mind are unbearable.
There are some lovely quotes about the power of books, too. A group of young women (or former young women) keep a watchful eye on at risk girls. Sometimes with book recommendations.

Isn't that why we send them help? Because we wished someone had told us, or had seen our worry and offered a solution? Like a book, a dream, a look, some advice. Look, the alarm wouldn't be going off on her if she didn't need our help, would it? She needs us."

One of the girls gasped from the back of the garden. It was the quiet one, the one they called the brain of the group.
"I think I know the book for her," she said.
"Of course you do. What's it called? Who's it by?"
"The author's name is Jamaica Kincaid. And the book is called Annie John."

This was her favorite thing to do: find the book that would work. Just the week before, she'd helped a girl called Tolu by putting Akwaeke Emezi's Pet in her best friend Tani's schoolbag, because some stories won't come directly to you; they go through someone who loves you. Tani still didn't know who had blessed her with the book, but as soon as she opened it, she didn't need to. What mattered was that she saw that world.... Her stomach fell with Redemption's in that library scene because she understood.

>149 charl08: Oooh, that sounds compelling and I love the quotes! (even better that they're real books...) Onto the TBR list it goes.

>150 bell7: I would be keen to hear what others make of it, Mary. I'll look for a paperback copy for my shelves (when it comes out).

Maigret, Lognon and the Gangsters
Or in which Charlotte reads a whole book that she read back in 2017 and has no memory of it whatsoever.
I was reminded of Maigret by an article I read online about Simenon and his collaboration with the Nazis. Immediately after the war he left France and spent a lot of time in the US.
His character, Maigret, also visits the US, but this novel focuses on the arrival of US mobsters in Paris. The criminals' presence is only discovered when a French policeman accidentally interrupts a crime and then disappears. Or has he been "disappeared"?

It was pretty comical imagining the assistant district attorney in a stolen car! These people, whatever side of the fence they were on, behaved in Paris as if they were at home. The crowd in the streets on Monday had no idea they were witnessing a Chicago-style chase. And if it wasn't for poor Lognon, huddled by the fence of Notre-Dame-de- Lorette, busy with a small-time cocaine dealer, no one would ever have known what they were doing.

>152 charl08: I have several Maigret's on my TBR because they came highly recommended. Hmmmm!

>153 Tess_W: I enjoy reading them: they're atmospheric. However, I don't remember much about them!

>149 charl08: This sounds interesting, Charlotte. Great quotes.

>147 charl08: Love this.

>152 charl08: >154 charl08: I also have great difficulties remembering the plots. It's the way that Maigret goes about solving them that is the attraction for me.

>152 charl08: SO I am not the only one who forgets books I've read! LOL. Thanks. I needed that. : ) Happy weekend!

>155 BLBera: I sometimes find magical realism a bit hard to get my head around, but I thought Vagabonds! was a rather lovely expression of how many people in Lagos (and other places) are desperately hiding themselves. At one point she references Jeanette Winterson's memoir Why be happy when you could be normal?. Which sums that up nicely.

>156 MissWatson: I am very aware of this as a sign of age, as I feel like I used to be very good at remembering films and books. Recently I have started watching a series about a Japanese restaurant, having watched it through during the first COVID lockdowns. I would have sworn I remembered it well, but most of the episodes seem new to me. My mum mentions her memory sometimes but I'm not sure it's any worse than mine. She's definitely much better at all those memory puzzles.

>157 Berly: Thanks Kim. If I had your schedule I'd be struggling to remember where I left my belongings (always a sign I'm trying to do too much).

A Little Resurrection
An example of one of those weird book serendipities, I ordered this collection from the library because of a Guardian review. Nwulu's work here is heavily influenced by the BLM protests, the 'hostile environment' of the British state (and the deaths, trauma, pain so caused), and also her own experience of second-generation immigration. Her poetry picks at the scab of the Windrush Scandal, asks how we can fly when others take the same flight shackled to a seat or a guard. Another talks of the lightness she spotted in her father, a Nigerian who worked for years in the UK, when he chose to "return home". There are notes in the back for those not so familiar with the delights of British migration politics, or as in the poem below, oil companies' policies in Nigeria.

BACK FROM THE DEAD
Maybe it should come as no surprise
that Lazarus grows tumeric on his farm
in Bodo. Given his namesake in the Bible
was brought back to life, how apt
that Lazarus should speak of rebirth,
bringing Ogoni soil back from the dead.
Tumeric grows in defiance of neighbouring
lands, fallow and bereft but for oil welts
slick with stagnancy, Nothing destined
to survive. But for Lazarus, a harvest
of golden root, gnarled resilience, living.
Tumeric, a blessing that soothes
and heals, despite its bitter taste.

The serendipity being that I am also reading Homelands: the history of a friendship, which in the course of tracing the migration story of the author and her parents, with that of two friends who escaped the Nazis, also highlights often uncomfortable truths about Britain's history of 'welcome' for refugees and migrants.

>158 charl08: I have a terrible memory for books, but I always could reread most Agatha Christies with no idea of whodunit, apart from those books where the reveal stands out for people who've read the book(s) or in some cases have seen the film. I don't think my memory of what I've read is worse at 53 than it was at 13, actually. If I read a book spread out over too long a period I may have forgotten the first chapters before the end! I'm also generally not very bothered for myself by spoilers but don't want to mess things up for people with a better memory.

>152 charl08: That also happens to me, Charlotte. That is why I always write something about the books I have read, so with help of those few lines I usually can bring back the story to my mind.
I always thought I had a perfect memory, until we moved here in 2005. A rose was flowering when we first saw the house and garden, and in the months after I was sure I had seen a yellow rose. Next season it turned out to be red! Ever since I know my memory is far from perfect ;-)

>159 charl08: Ooh, both sound great. Onto the list they go.

>160 elkiedee: Oh, I do mind spoilers, despite the lack of memory. I've even been mad with myself for accidentally reading the last page (usually due to trying to check where the ending is on a kindle).

>161 FAMeulstee: My gardening memory is shocking, I convince myself plants have died and then they flower somewhere completely different to where I *thought* I planted them!

>162 BLBera: Hope you like them, Beth.

I just finished Homelands: the history of a friendship whilst waiting what feels like ages for a ***** video edit to download. I love technology.

On a more positive note: this is a lovely book which manages to weave together two very different families' experiences of migration. I'm not sure how much my love for the book reflects the author's base in Edinburgh. She walks the city and mentions cherry blossoms, cobbles, the gardens... all rather nostalgic.

I'm also not sure much is new for anyone who has read a lot about the Holocaust (or about the experience of first generation migrants), but I found it charming and touching (her mother dies during the course of writing the book, and the family has to do their mourning in the middle of lockdown).
Ramaswamy shows how timely and important thinking about migration and refugees of the past continues to be, as she writes about the fall out from Brexit, the government's policy of a 'hostile environment' and the elderly Wugas continued commitment to holocaust education for young people, even in their late 90s.

>163 charl08: Oh I really want to read Homelands: the history of a friendship. I love Chitra Ramaswamy's writing - I thought her book Expecting: The Inner Life of Pregnancy, about her first pregnancy, was amazing.

>164 Jackie_K: I hadn't come across her work before this book, but hope you can find a copy.

I meant to post this quote, too. Better late than never? On her choice of reading to take to her mother in hospital.

In my bag is an old sweet-smelling copy of Carry On, Jeeves by P. G. Wodehouse, one of my parents' favourite authors. Like many Indian immigrants of their generation, born if not like Salman Rushdie's fictional Midnight's Children on the stroke of independence then within its peripheral timeframe, they are as British as they are Indian. Possessors of what Rushdie calls the 'partial and plural perspective of the migrant', an outlook written on the spines of their often vertically arranged bookshelves. Agatha Christie, Georgette Heyer, Miss Read, Dickens, the Bhagavad Gita, Somerset Maugham, Ruth Rendell, D. H. Lawrence, Arundhati Roy, the Upanishads, a book of reflections on love by Sister Wendy Beckett, and many, many more written in Kannada, my parents' mother tongue, which I can neither read nor speak. I grabbed the Wodehouse off one of their shelves before I left that morning, perhaps in some strange premonition but also because books are companions in hard times. And it is difficult to think of a more cheerful consort than Wodehouse.

>152 charl08: I've done that. I didn't even realise I'd read it until I went to post a review and discovered that I'd already posted one a few years before.

ETA: both times, I borrowed it as a library book.

>165 charl08: Great quote. You have sold me on Homelands: the History of a Friendship.

Drama
I ordered this as it popped up in my library catalogue when I searched for GNs. What a sweet story, I thought, about a middle school drama club. The I posted a picture on Litsy and it turns out it's regularly banned! I don't get it.


A Side Character's Love Story

Sweet manga that follows two anxious college students very slowly deciding to go out with each other. Lots of coming of age angst, from dealing with customer problems and annoying co-workers at the supermarket where they work part-time to trying to work out career plans.

>166 humouress: I think I should post reviews to help me remember. Not sure I will though. It doesn't sound like it works for you, or do you think that was just a one off?

>167 BLBera: Despite the heavy topics, it was very readable (if that makes sense as a statement).

Makes sense to me. Good to know.

>169 charl08: That was just a one-off. But if I posted a review I can see what I thought of another book by an author or refresh my memory about a book in a series if I've left it too long before continuing.

>168 charl08: Did you ever find out why it's banned?

>170 BLBera: Thanks!

>171 humouress: I sometimes go back through the threads to do that. But I'm sure a review is quicker to find!
The comments on Litsy suggest protestors object to the book showing kids realizing they're LGBTQ+. Which just seems a terribly sad reaction to a lovely book.

>132 charl08: I'm in the middle of this one now. I'm liking it better than I liked The Emissary, I think. I don't remember a ton about that one except that it was deeply weird.

>173 ursula: It doesn't seem like the author is worried about conventional ways of telling a story. But lots of ideas to process about language and change.

The Darkness Knows
I didn't realise until I got to the end of the book that this one is effectively setting up a new series. A body is discovered by tourists, frozen for decades in an isolated spot but uncovered due to environmental change. A retired policeman is called in after the main suspect linked to the man's disappearance, refuses to talk to anyone else.
There's a lot of back story to introduce and at times it felt like there was more back story than crime solving. But the main character's reflections on how Iceland "used to be" kept me reading.

It had been a while since Konrád had last walked down Lindargata. Once, he had been a frequent visitor, not only because it had been his childhood home but because there used to be a Ríki - one of the very few state off-licences in Reykjavík - on the street, and he had regularly shopped there. In those days, self-service had been unheard of; instead the alcohol had been kept behind the counter and the place used to be packed with a heaving throng on Friday afternoons, before it closed for the weekend. An orderly queuing culture was something that Icelanders knew only from pictures taken abroad. The crowd used to spill out onto the pavement, and people would push and shove until the crush at the counter was almost unbearable.

>175 charl08: Glad to see the first book in the Konráð series is available in English now, Charlotte.
I loved some of his Erlendur books, and liked the others. I think this series is even better. The 4th book is just published here, and I am looking forward to read it.

>176 FAMeulstee: Wow, book 4. We're behind. I'm surprised given how much scandinoir gets published here.
I generally don't like the first book in a series, so I'm not put off by my lukewarm reaction to this one - I'll look out for book 2 when it comes.

My mum has had another reaction to the medication she takes for arthritis (diagnosed as Long Covid). Worrying weekend whilst they worked out it was two clots causing the new symptoms. Relieved that she is now on a new medication and the doctors are keeping a close eye on things, but still!

>177 charl08: That is scary with your mother, Charlotte, even when doctors keep a close eye.
I hope her health improves soon.

OHh, sorry to hear about the complications for your mum. That is scary. Hope it's sorted now.

I hope your mom does well on the new meds. Fingers crossed.

>177 charl08: Scary indeed Charlotte. Glad they seem to have a better grip on things. I hope your mum is comfortable now.

>177 charl08: Best wishes and I hope your mom is better now!

Wishing your mum the best Charlotte.

Hoping that the medication is sorted out soonest.

Wishing you and your mom the very best with her health issues. I hope that everything is sorted out very soon and things will be well. Always scary when a loved on is unwell . So glad that the doctors are keeping a close eye on her.

Thank you Anita, Katie, Caroline, Beth, Mirjam, Nina, Helen and Deborah. It seems that the NHS has specialist clot teams so she has been seen by the one at our local hospital, hoping that it (and the other issues caused by the arthritis drugs) will be resolved when she stops taking them. She's normally a very active person, and not someone to moan, so so worrying when something stops her in her tracks. I want a magic pain wand.

The Killing Hills
Short atmospheric crime novel set in rural Kentucky, starting a new series. A local sherrif asks her brother for help with a murder case, as no one is talking to the official authorities. Mick is on leave from the army, where he Investigates internal crimes.
The plot revolves around internal community rules around revenge and family. Atmospheric, but quite slow paced.

"Then why shut it down? Looks like they'd use it for drunks.'
'Money,' Linda said.
'Cost too much to run it?'
'No, they sold it for three million dollars. The college is going to open a branch here.'
Mick nodded. It was about like the state to start a school in a building with no windows, no grounds, and no private bathrooms. One of the local mandates was to educate ex-cons but he couldn't imagine anybody wanting to take classes in the same building where they'd served time.

I hope your mom feels better soon and gets everything sorted. Pain can really impact quality of life; I've seen it in my mother.

>188 charl08: This one sounds interesting. I love the quote.

>187 charl08: 💗 I hope your mum is well on the way to a full recovery by now Charlotte.

This year my mum discovered she can no longer digest fibrous food, which further restricts her already limited diet. My dad, on the other hand, is quite happily munching away on all kinds of unhealthy snacks and is a dedicated couch potato, which of course impacts his health. *sigh* It's not easy.

>188 charl08: I like the quote too.

>189 BLBera: >190 humouress: Thank you. She's had some scans, we're waiting (2 weeks!) for the results. I am not sure if my worrying helps much: I was encouraged to stick to my plans to go away for the weekend (!)

I went to catch up with a friend in Edinburgh. Discovered a beautiful new bookshop by the seaside and bought her oldest little one a lovely picture book about mountains (hopefully will also appeal to his dad, who read to him from several books whilst I visited, including their collection of technical climbing route books!)
And a few for myself. Of course. (Not mountain related.)

I finished up my month's reading with more manga and the wonderful new book by Celeste Ng. I've got lots of books in "currently reading", so I'll aim to clear some of these in time for 2023 (which still sounds like a science fiction date to me).

>191 charl08: Two weeks is a long wait, Charlotte.
I hope the weekend away will clear your mind a bit.

Thanks Anita. Someone must have moved things along, she has just heard she now has an appointment with the consultant on Monday.

I'm going to start a new thread and see if I can cheer myself up a bit with art.

>191 charl08: Ooh, was that Portobello Books? I've only bought online from them, but it looks gorgeous.