PGMCC explores the Biblioverse in 2023: Chapter 4

Books completed in 2023

Title; Author; Status; Start/end date; Number of pages
The Family Jewels by Caimh McDonnell 28/12/2022 - 02/01/2023 276 pages
Novelist as Vocation by Haruki Murakami 02/01/2023-12/01/2023 208 pages
The Tattoo Murder by Akimitsu Takagi 12/01/2023- 20/01/2023 377 pages
Once Upon A Tome by Oliver Darkshire 21/01/2023 - 23/01/2023 247 pages
Stranger Times by C. K. McDonnell 23/01/2023 - 31/01/2023 441 pages
The Three Evangelists by Fred Vargas 01/02/2023 - 05/02/2023 304 pages
Under The Duvet by Marian Keyes 03/02/2023 - 674 pages
The Charming Man by C. K. McDonnell 06/02/2023 - 13/02/2023 498 pages
Love Will Tear Us Apart byC. K. McDonnell 15/02/2023 - 25/02/2023 448 pages
Richard Harris Raising Hell and Reaching for Heaven by Joe Jackson 24/02/2023 - 357 pages
Hopeland by Ian McDonald 26/02/2023 - 10/03/2023 648 pages
The Warden by Anthony Trollope 11/03/2023 - 19/03/2023 238 pages
Escape from Victory by Caimh McDonnell 19/03/2023 - 20/03/2023 66 pages
The Artful Dickens by John Mullan 20/03/2023 - 428 pages
The Thin Man by Dashiell Hammett 20/03/2023 - 23/03/2023 223 pages
Beyond the Reach of Earth by Ken MacLeod 23/03/2023 - 31/02/2023 334 pages
The Return of The Thin Man by Dashiell Hammett 01/04/2023 - 05/04/2023 ? Pages
The Adventures of Amina al-Siraf by Shannon Chakraborty 05/04/2023 - 12/04/2023 482 pages
The Ability To Kill by Eric Ambler 12/04/2023 - 16/04/2023 220 pages
Leviathan Wakes by James S. A. Corey 17/04/2023 - 25/04/2023 561 pages
Dog Will Have His Day by Fred Vargas 25/04/2023 - 06/05/2023 256 pages.
Faithful Place by Tana French 06/05/2023 - 13/05/2023 400 Pages
The Culture Series of Iain M. Banks by Simone Caroti 19/05/2023 - 277 Pages
Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia 23/05/2023 - 25/06/2023 320 Pages
Titanium Noir by Nick Harkaway 25/05/2023 - 30/05/2023 235 pages
A Kind of Anger by Eric Ambler 30/05/2023 - 03/06/2023 268 pages
Caliban’s War by James S. A. Corey 04/06/2023 - 12/06/2023 595 pages
The Amberlough Dossier (Amberlough) by Lara Elena Donnelly 25/06/2023 - 10/07/2023 for first part 398 Pages
Abaddon's Gate by James S. A. Corey 10/07/2023 - 26/07/23 539 pages.
The Amberlough Dossier (Amberlough) by Lara Elena Donnelly 27/07/23 - 06/08/2023 400 pages

My next read list: https://www.librarything.com/topic/345713#8000096

Congrats on the new thread!

Happy New Thread!

Happy new thread!

>2 Karlstar:, >3 clamairy: & >4 Narilka:, thank you.

Happy new thread, Peter!

Happy new thread!

What, another new thread! Aren't you the busy soul, sitting there in a French chateau with your wine and cheese and croissant. Glad to see you are emphasizing the important parts of retired existence.

I am conscious that many people have wished me well with my new thread, thank you all for that, and that apart from post #1 I have not mentioned books. That is because, as >8 jillmwo: has pointed out, I am sitting here in a French chateau with my wine and cheese and croissant, and am emphasising the important parts of retired existence.

>7 hfglen:, thank you for your good wishes.

>8 jillmwo: I have also been reading, but as you point out, my other activities have taken up a lot of time.

My current read is Faithful Place by Tana French. This is the third book in her Dublin Murder Squad series. It is shaping up well.

I finised Dog Will Have His Day by Fred Vargas. This is the second novel in her The Three Evangelists series. I was very good and I can recommend it to anyone who likes murder mysteries. It is set in France and is a translation from French. It is obvious that I have a liking for things French and this book is excellent in presenting social life in France and showing something of how French police investigations go.

Caught up on the last thread and starred this one!

You can post photos of cheese anytime, it's one of my favorite foods that I still can eat.

>10 fuzzi: and wine too, please!

Happy new thread! I am glad it finds you well and accomplishing your mission of consuming cheese, wine and books!

>9 pgmcc: Have you not read Tana French's Dublin murder squad series before? I found several of the books quite uneven, but there were things to enjoy in each one.

>13 Jim53:
I have been reading them slowly over the past couple of years. This is my first time reading them. As I have said elsewhere, I am very impressed with how she has captured the reality and nuances of Dublin and its different areas.

I have another cheese (& wine, Hugh) report to make, but you will have to wait.

I have finished Faithful Place by Tana French, the third book in her Dublin Murder Squad series. It was good but probably not as good as the first two, but still well worth reading.

I am reading the Dublin Murder Squad books in sequence. They are standalone stories with each book dealing with a case involving a character from the previous book. While it is not essential to read them in sequence from a story point of view it is still recommended from a character development angle.

Again, French managed to capture real Dublin, both in terms of the city locations and its social environment/ nuances.

>15 pgmcc: Dude, that's just click bait! :) Wait, there's nothing to click on yet.

>17 Karlstar:
Keep on playin’ those mind-games forever…

Sounds like you are throughly enjoying retirement! :)

>19 catzteach:
I believe your inference to be correct.
:-)

Having finished Faithful Place I tried a few books before settling back to my interrupted read of The Artful Dickens. I am finding it entertaining and engrossing. It took me some effort to pull myself away to give this update.

ETA: Hmmmm! When discussing a point, such as the use of smell in the Dickens novels, John Mullan appears to not know when he has given enough examples. This issue also arose with Dickens’s use of “as if”. Mullan makes good points but has a tendency to over-document the examples.

>16 pgmcc: Faithful Place was definitely my least favorite of the series. I think that had more to do with painful content than it did with the quality of the book.

>22 clamairy: To date, I have only read the first three Dublin Murder Squad novels. Of those, Faithful Place was my favorite. Yes, the content is quite dark but I found the characterization to be superior to the first two installments. The premise was also more believable than The Likeness, (I had trouble buying into Cassie portraying someone so convincingly that Lexie's close friends were unable to tell). At any rate, I also enjoyed finding myself rooting for Frank Mackey as I had really disliked him in The Likeness; that is sort of the point of these books though, to first make the reader hate a character only to turn around and make that character more sympathetic as the protagonist in the subsequent story. I expect the same treatment for Scorcher Kennedy as MC of Broken Harbour.

I really need to pick up that 4th book soon...

Taking a jerk and making him more relatable in the next book is something French did with Frank in F.P. and then with Scorcher in B.H. Neither is actually likable, but you can understand why they are jerks a bit more. Overall I liked B.H. a bit better because of the relationship she created between Scorcher and his newbie partner, Richie. There is a trade-off though in the form of Scorch's mental case sister. She got on my last nerve. Kind of like Frank's family did in F.P. A pack of cannibals - if they can't dominate, they'll just eat their own. The crime itself in B.H. is more difficult to take though and many found it surprising although I twigged very early on as to what actually happened.

The next two, Secret Place and Trespasser were disappointments for me because I just don't like Antoinette, the lead detective. She was part of and operated in the same murder squad as Cassie, but the chip on her shoulder was so big that she was unbearably defensive and antagonistic. I'd rather have had Stephen as more of a focus for the second novel rather than more of Angry Woman.

And that's where it's come to an end and I guess it's ok since I can't think of any characters she could bring to the fore next. Resurrect Rob? That could be interesting. Maybe O'Kelly, the boss? I didn't like her last stand alone very much so I hope she goes back to the old crew next time out.

>22 clamairy:
I felt it was one of those books in which none of the main characters are very likeable. Frank’s younger brother was probably the most likeable, and his wife was high up there too.

The more you learned about any individual the more you realised they all had their failings.

>23 ScoLgo:
I am looking forward to reading Broken Harbour soon.

>24 Bookmarque:
A word of warning: The Searcher, her latest novel, is a big disappointment. Her Murder Squad books (well, the three I have read so far) and The Wych Elm, all demonstrate how well French knows Dublin, its people, its prejudices, and the recent history of corruption cases. The Searcher is set in rural Ireland and I am afraid she did not show the same level of understanding of the country communities as she did of Dublin and its people.

All you lucky people in the U S of A will be able to read Nick Harkaway’s new book, Titanium Noir tomorrow.

>28 pgmcc: My pre-order of the Titanium Noir hardback was shipped from Blackwell's last week. I expect arrival by later this week or early next.

>29 ScoLgo:
I hope you enjoy it. Spare a thought for the person who will not get his hands on his copy until 24th May.
:-(

>30 pgmcc: That's only nine days. I won't have read it by then. I'm too enmeshed in Terra Ignota at the moment...

I have started reading The Culture Series by Iain M. Banks: A critical introduction by Simone Caroti.

I was going to wait until I finished the book before commenting but I find myself in need of issuing a warning. If you are goingvto read this book be dure you have read all Iain Banks’s novels and stories, both Science Fiction and Mainstream*. Caroti gives away key plot twists and reveals of some of lain’s mainstream and Science Fiction books. He said he wanted this book to be a introduction to Tgr Culture novels and Banks’s work in general. I know gad I read this book before read Iain’s books I would not have enjoyed them as much as I did as Iain’s reveals were all part of the fun.

*Usual caveat about referring to his “Mainstream” books as Mainstream.

I have been up at 5am (awake at 4am anticipating 5am start) for the past two days. We have returned home after Mission French Vacation and I am tired. One, two, three: AWWWWWWW!

This is the excuse for only a short update post which will not contain the promised cheese (and of course, wine) report mentioned in >15 pgmcc:. You are still going to have to wait for that. This post will be about reading.

Once I finished Tana French's Faithful Place I looked around at what I should read. The Artful Dickens is a book I had started reading, so I went back to that for a while. I now find it will not hold my attention for a full cover-to-cover read, so I will read it in bits and pieces.

I then picked up The Culture Series by Iain M. Banks: A critical introduction by Simone Caroti. It is obviously someone's dissertation* for a degree. As such it is relatively, well, rather, dry. Also, it contains a significant amount of quotation from reports of interviews, other papers and articles about Banks's works, and precious little else. Everything he says in the first chapters is "What he said about Banks; What Banks is reported to have said in an interview with a reporter; What someone who knew Banks said about him in an interview". Caroti had planned to meet Iain at the 2014 Worldcon in London to conduct an in-depth interview, but we all know why that plan sadly did not happen.

I may continue reading Caroti's book, but I am not thinking I will get much out of it. (That probably means I will not finish it.)

Having basically abandoned the Banks book, I sampled a few other things but did not settle until I read the first chapter of Mexican Gothic. Several people here have praised this book and I think I will be reading on. However, there is one happy event that may put Mexican Gothic on hold for a few days. That event is my getting my hands on:

Titanium Noir by Nick Harkaway!

I am too tired to do serious work on this book this evening, so I will wait until tomorrow before getting down to some serious reading. I might even lock myself in The Reading Room and have a good old reading session.



*Presumably Simone Croti's, which is most likely the case as their name is on it and I have not come across anyone suing him for theft of their work.

I hope you settle in, and that George (eventually) forgives you.

>33 pgmcc: Rest up from your vacation! A report is due soon, I believe.

>33 pgmcc: Glad your mission was successful! I enjoyed the photos on facebook; what a beautiful place. I wish you a peaceful time reading the Harkaway while you recuperate.

Now it is time to process those happy halcyon days of vacation; and since you are retired, you have time to do that!

As we drove through the gates at home on our return from our trip to France we were greeted by our Chilean Lantern Tree in full bloom. I thought I would share this image here.

>38 pgmcc: Worth swapping the wine and cheese for!

>38 pgmcc: Very nice!

>34 clamairy:; >35 Karlstar:; >36 Sakerfalcon:; >37 MrsLee:

I appreciate all your good wishes and advice to relax and synthesise my experiences, but life is not letting me take much time to read or relax. My wife has decided to attend a conference on Women in Public Life tomorrow in Cork. She currently has a slight problem standing or walking for more than ten minutes at a time, so her decision to attend the conference necessitated a number of things:
1. Visit to Decathlon to purchase a small stool she can carry with her to enable her to sit down whenever she feels the need.
2. Visit to IKEA to have lunch, because it is near Decathlon. (I also managed to pick up two bars of Marabou milk chocolate in IKEA. It is very nice.)
3. Persuade my sister-in-law to accompany my wife to Cork on the train.
4. Book the train tickets on-line.
5. Get up at 5am tomorrow morning to bring my wife and her sister to the train station to catch the 7am train to Cork.
6. Go to the railway station at 8pm tomorrow night to pick up my wife and her sister and bring them home.

Other activity today involved visiting LIDL to do a grocery shop and taking my wife and son to a local pub to have dinner to celebrate our return.
Confirming the number of guests attending our 40th anniversary lunch in the local hotel. (17 adults and three children for those interested.)

In addition to the early and late train station trips, my son and I will be meeting a friend in town for lunch, a lunch which, based on experience of meeting this friend for lunch before, would go on to about 5pm.

I have managed to read a few pages of Titanium Noir and it has grabbed me. I am heading to bed now hoping to read a few more pages before the sandman pours his grains of sand into my eyes.

>34 clamairy: George is thawing and approaching us for cuddles and petting. Pictures will appear here shortly.

>35 Karlstar: There will be multiple reports. The cheese report contains a tragic event that will strike fear and dread into everyone's hearts.

>36 Sakerfalcon: I will be producing some of those pictures, and more, here for the delight of people in the pub. I have to share the nice places we visited.

>37 MrsLee: Being retired appears not to guarantee I will have the time to process those happy halcyon days of vacation. I will be doing my best.

>41 pgmcc: I'm not sure I'm ready for a traumatic cheese story!
*attempts to gird loins*

Congrats on hitting 40 years! We went on a Road Scholar to some national parks out west for ours. Celebrating #45 pretty low-key in a couple of weeks.

>41 pgmcc: Oh no, don't tell us you ran out of cheese. The anticipation is terrible.

>41 pgmcc: & >43 Jim53: Happy Anniversaries!

>42 clamairy: Is it too personal a question as to what cheeses (I’m assuming) you would use for the girding?

>46 2wonderY:
I am looking forward to hearing the answer to this one.

>46 2wonderY: & >47 pgmcc: I was thinking more along the lines of something akin to Kevlar.

>48 clamairy:
That is definitely the toughest cheese I have ever tried.

Today witnessed the acquisition of three books.

Independence Square by Martin Cruz Smith was the first volume to come into my possession early this afternoon. It is one of Smith's Arkady Renko novels and I have enjoyed those I have read. I think there are only three, excluding this one, that I have not yet read.



I bought it in Eason's on O'Connell Street as I waited for my friend to arrive.

Later I went into Hodges Figgis and did not buy a book. Shame on me. I was more interested in going around the corner to The Duke, a local pub, getting myself a coffee and a pint of Rock Shandy (a mix of fizzy orange and lemon drinks with ice-cubes; a very refreshing drink), and reading my copy of Titanium Noir. This is what I did and I found it most relaxing and it was great fun to read.

After the Duke I went to Books Upstairs and ended up buying to Folio Society books by Anthony Trollope; Barchester Towers and Can You Forgive Her?

I just ordered the latest Renko book, but don't have it yet. I've always had a soft spot for old Arkady and have read all the books, the early ones over and over.

>51 Bookmarque:
I have enjoyed them. Each one is a bit different.

>50 pgmcc: I came across some Folio titles by Trollop on my shelves this past week. One was He Knew He Was Right but the title of the second one is eluding me. At any rate, it seems as if you had a good day in the city. (The Rock Shandy sounds refreshing.)

>53 jillmwo:
A Rock Shandy is very refreshing. I was fading fast and wanted drinks that would freshen me up and keep me from falling asleep.

I find the Folio Trollops very nice. As you know, I have read Barchester Towers before but plan to re-read it having just read The Warden. Re-reading it with a Folio edition appeals to me, not that I had any problems with the paperback I used the first time.

>54 pgmcc: I'm trying to be good about my purchasing these days with regard to even used copies of Folio titles. There was a title earlier this week that I was sorely tempted by...

>55 jillmwo:
I am concerned about your definition of "good" in the context of acquiring books.

>56 pgmcc: Don't be. I'm one of those people who think they're going to do a dry January. marching proudly past the bar as of the first day of the year, but who have yielded the high ground by the third day in. The number of bookshelves don't increase but the inventory of titles does.

>57 jillmwo: I am so much reassured by your admission of human quality.

>50 pgmcc: That sounds like the perfect day, apart from not buying a book at Hodges Figgis. I'm sure you will remedy that on a future visit.

>57 jillmwo: You have clearly been observing my behaviour.

I have just finished Titanium Noir by Nick Harkaway and it was excellent. Everything you would expect from a Noir book, a Harkaway book, and plenty of cross-genre fun and amusement.

US cover below:

>58 pgmcc: and >59 Sakerfalcon: You know things are out of hand when one has to write out a list of what's been ordered from which bookshop and the specific geographic locale. (I learned my lesson about ordering from Canada.) Today a book arrived in the mail. My husband asked mildly what I might have ordered from Ireland. I told him I couldn't recall the specific title because when ordering from ABEbooks, I don't always register the name or region of the actual seller. But I am doing my bit in support of international trade!!!

>61 jillmwo:
I am proud of you.

Let me know the bookseller. Ireland is a small place.

T.J. will vouch for that.

>62 pgmcc: Does this ring any bells? MW Books Limited. Registered at 70A Renmore Road, Galway, Ireland.

When I went back to look at the order, the initial posting made it seem as if I was ordering from someplace in New York. It was the length of time they warned me it might take to arrive that suggested that the seller might not actually BE in the U.S. (Ordered on May 24th, but the confirmation mailing warned that it might take until June 25th before it was received. To further complicate matters, any returns have to go to an authorized representative situated in Houston, TX.)

Hmm. It's also interesting that all of the previous owner's penciled-in annotations are in German (including a clipped article from a German newspaper, used as a bookmark.)

>63 jillmwo:
I have bought books from MW Books in the past. It is a relatively new, i.e. it started up only a few years before COVID struck, secondhand online bookseller. My understanding is that it was started up by a group of young people who saw a great opportunity in selling secondhand books online.
They have a large warehouse in The Wesht. (That is the colloquial pronunciation of “West”. “The Wesht” is how Irish people would refer to the rural West of Ireland, where the land and people are wild and rugged, and the warehousing is cheap. :-) )

I am glad they are still in business. COVID may very well have helped them with the growth in online book sales it triggered.

You might remember that one of the retirement gifts I received was an annual membership to The Du Bray Reader's Year, a scheme under which I receive a book, selected for me by a member of staff in the Du Bray bookshop chain, each month for a year. The second book arrived today and I am very happy with it.

>65 pgmcc: I have never heard of that book or author before, but it looks amazing.

>65 pgmcc: This is on my TBR pile (although not such a nice edition)!

>38 pgmcc: Beautiful!

>60 pgmcc: I am intrigued ...

Last Friday you might remember that I ventured into Hodges Figgis bookshop and did not buy a book. SHOCK! HORROR! GASP!

What I did do on that occasion was talk to a friend who works in the bookshop and is also a member of the Octocon committee. Octocon is an annual Science Fiction convention held in, you might have guessed, October.

Well my friend tried to encourage me to buy a membership for this year’s Octocon. By way of tempting me she said a new guest was about to be announced and that I would be really pleased at this person's appearance a the Con. She refused to tell me who it was as it had been kept secret by the committee. She did say we had talked about this person before and she knew I liked their work.

This friend is reliable, so I went home and bought a membership for the convention. Sidebar: It is the first membership for anything I bought at the concession price for Old Age Pensioners. :-)

I checked my e-mails about fifteen minutes ago and there was a guest announcement from the Octocon committee. The new guest is:

Caimh McDonnell aka C.K. McDonnell.

YAY!

I am now officially looking forward to attending Octocon.

Nick Harkaway did not disappoint.

Would I read another book by this author?
Most definitely yes!

Would I recommend this book to anyone?
Yes.

To whom would I recommend it?
Anyone who likes an intriguing, funny and noir detective story, and anyone who wants to enjoy a good read.

Did this book inspire me to do anything?
Yes. I started looking up detail on some of my favourite private detective noir movies which I now want to watch again.

Nick Harkaway has captured the essence of the noir detective story and has cast it in a near-future socio-economic world in which the ultra-rich have access to advanced medical procedures that are life extending and almost death-defying.

Harkaway’s treatment of this tale of murder and corruption brings to life characters who would feature perfectly in a Humphrey Bogart movie. I will not give away the detail, but fans of black and white noir movies are in for a treat.

The book does have a serious side as it can be interpreted as a commentary on the present day privilege of the ultra-rich and their wildly self-indulgent extravagant spending on super-yachts and private trips to space while appearing to not care about the masses experiencing poverty and hunger in a world of escalating costs.

My advice to you is to get this book and enjoy it.

>69 pgmcc: Color me green. How exciting!

>69 pgmcc: WooHoo!

Cheese Report #3

It is now time to give you my third and final Cheese (and wine) Report based on our adventures in France during April and May.



In an attempt to explore new cheeses I searched the shelves and came up with two I thought might be worth trying. These were:
- Beaufort A.O.P. &
- Tomme de Savoie
I have already described how smitten I was by Pavé d’Affinois, so the appearance of this cheese in the picture is due to my replenishing stocks.

The 15 month Compté was bought to see how it compared to the 24 month Compté we get at the Amboise market.

Beaufort A.O.P.
This turned out to be a delicious mature cheese with a strong flavour that is distinctively different from the 24 month Compté and Gruyere. We liked this cheese and will buy it again.

15 month Compté
This was nice but did not compare well to the 24 month Compté or Gruyere.

Tomme de Savoie
I am sorry to say this proved a disappointment. It is a very bland cheese and did not garner any favourable comments.

Wine Report
We did not explore a range of new wines. We stuck with what we know and like. In other words, be bought boxes of Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon; wine on tap.

The final days
As we approached the final days of our stay in France we turned our thoughts to the journey home…and cheese.

With great deliberation we decided to acquire some cheeses to bring home. We bought some Pavé d’Affinois, a 300 gm block of 24 month Compté, and some Munster. The Beaufort A.O.P. was added to the homebound list.

On the morning of 23rd May we left our accommodation at 6am so that we could get to Cherbourg by 1pm to check-in for our Ferry to Ireland. The 22nd was when all the packing and most of the preparation for the journey took place. It was 6:10am when we got away and the journey was tiring but we did not experience any unnecessary or unexpected delays. We arrived in Cherbourg as check-in was starting and were soon in receipt of our cabin keys and in the line waiting to board the ship.

That was when we realised the magnitude of the catastrophe that had befallen us. We had left the cheese in the fridge. ☹

>66 clamairy:

Nor had I. I read the first page and it looks like a book I will enjoy.

>67 Sakerfalcon:

I am pleased with the first two books selected for me by the Dubray Books team.

>68 libraryperilous:

Beautiful
Thank you. I like the Chilean Lanterns. They are very impressive when they flower. I think their shape is totally different from any other flower I know.

I am intrigued...
It is a great read. Good fun and an interesting murder mystery.

>71 MrsLee:
I will report events. It will be like you are there. Ring-side seat.

>72 clamairy:
Indeed!

>73 pgmcc: What a dreadful realization.

>77 jillmwo: I knew you would understand.

>73 pgmcc: Oh, the humanity...

Thank you for the cheese notes and photo.

>73 pgmcc: Well, someone will have a feast from it anyway. But oh dear! Sincere condolences.

>79 clamairy: You are welcome.

I was thinking, "Oh, the humility!", was more appropriate to the situation.

>80 haydninvienna: My daughter and her family will be there in about a week. They are in Paris today visiting the Eiffel Tower. Then they have a few days at the Disney park.

The cheese may fall victim to their appetites.

If they do not eat it we will be there in about two weeks' time. Hopefully it should still be ok.

I have been doing some thinking about how I pick a book to buy or how I reject a book for acquisition. The cover often has the effect of drawing my attention to a book but the cover only becomes a deciding factor if I am choosing between editions of a book I have already decided to buy.

Once my attention is drawn to a book I will read the description on the cover to see if that interests me. If it passes that hurdle then I will open the book and read a few paragraphs to see if it appeals to me.

This last step has piqued my interest as to what it is about the first few paragraphs of a book that will influence my decision to select or reject a book. In thinking about this I have started documenting the first few paragraphs of books I have loved and books I have rejected or hated, and am in the process of analysing what it is about these paragraphs that has such a significant influence on me. Also, have my decisions on accepting or rejecting books in the past been a good indicator of how much I ended up liking or loathing a book*.

I hasten to add that this is about "my" preferences regarding the books I read. My rejecting a book on the basis of the first few paragraphs does not mean the book is a bad book, or that it should be cast into the fire, or that the author should learn how to write. It simply means that I have rejected a book on the basis that I do not want to read it for some reason or other. Other people may love the book and that is no reflection on them, the book, or me.

*The people who are not sleeping in the back row will realise the logical error here. If I have rejected a book on the basis of its first few paragraphs how will I know if it was a book I would actual end up loathing or liking. The fact is that for various reasons, one being a book might have been selected for the book club, and although I would reject the book left to my own devices I have found myself in the position of reading it anyway.

I make no claims to statistical significance of my findings or to the validity of my approach, but I am looking forward to carrying out the exercise and finding out what it says about how I select a book to read.

Watch out for my posts in my series on: "Opening paragraphs that put me off books straight away, or led me to reading a tedious book I did not really want to read in the first place." Sub-heading: "Opening paragraphs that brought me into a wonderful book experience."

Coming soon in a thread near you!

>82 pgmcc: A worthy project. I look forward to seeing what you come up with.

>82 pgmcc: Oh! I can’t wait! I too have a passion for outstanding first pages and have kept them various places. Here’s one thread:

https://www.librarything.com/topic/133541#

But here’s a group made to order for the activity:
https://www.librarything.com/ngroups/6003/Book-Quotations

>82 pgmcc: Hmm...Opening Paragraphs. Sounds like a great book title to me.

Marian Keyes is an author I did not pay much attention to until I happened to see her interviewed on television. She came across as a very interesting and entertaining person and I determined to read some of her work. She has written a lot of articles for newspapers and magazines. I picked up a collection of her articles in the library and dipped into them. It was an enormous book and it was not the type of book you could read from cover to cover, so I had only read a few of her articles before having to leave it back to the library. They were the type of articles that highlight the absurdities of everyday life and make fun of unnecessarily pompous or bureaucratic situations.

At the point I decided I would read one of her novels and thought it would be good to start with her first, Watermelon. When I found it in a bookshop I read the opening paragraph.

"February the fifteenth is a very special day for me. It is the day I gave birth to my first child. It is also the day my husband left me. As he was with me at the birth I can only assume the two events weren’t entirely unrelated."

I did not feel like proceeding beyond that. Perhaps I will read another of her novels, but that was too negative for me to want to read on.

The book club picked The Sportswriter by Richard Ford one month.

Opening paragraphs:

“My name is Frank Bascombe. I am a sportswriter.

For the past fourteen years I have lived here at 19 Hoving Road, Haddam, New Jersey, in a large Tudor house bought when a book of short stories I wrote sold to a movie producer for a lot of money, and seemed to set my wife and me and our three children - two of whom were not born yet – up for a good life.

Just exactly what that good life was – the one I expected – I cannot tell you now exactly, though I wouldn’t say it has not come to pass, only that much has come in between. I am no longer married to X, for instance. The child we had when everything was starting has died, though there are two others, as I mentioned, who are alive and wonderful children.”


Again, a negative start. It struck me a book that started with misery and piled more misery on top. I did read on for a few chapters, but the misery just kept piling up. That is not what I want when I am reading.

By the way, I admit to prejudice by saying the second sentence of the first paragraph could have been enough to put me off the book.

Yet to come: opening paragraphs that persuaded me to continue with books that I loved. Books covered in this category will include The Wind-up Bird Chronicle and City of Brass.

>83 Jim53:
I hope you enjoy the results.

>84 2wonderY:
Thank you for the links.

>85 jillmwo:
We will have to have an editorial planning meeting about it.

>73 pgmcc: The tragedy! Hopefully the cheese will be saved. Thank you for the report, though it made me wish I had some of those cheeses.

>86 pgmcc: >87 pgmcc: Thanks for the opening paragraph examples. I think I would have had the opposite reaction, then likely had to put the book down later when they indeed continued to be that miserable. The sportswriter part wouldn't have bothered me. :)

>82 pgmcc: If I read the first few sentences (or pages) and think I might like a book, I also skip to the middle and read a few sentences. If I still like the author's writing style, I'll try the whole book. I'm a bit of a suspense wimp, and there are certain things I won't read. I check the endings of books with those elements to make sure all turns out well. I especially do this if the book involves a cat after getting burned by Paul Cornell once.

I tend to distrust opening chapters (with the initial paragraphs you're thinking about) these days. The function of the opening chapter has shifted once we got Amazon's "Look inside the Book" feature. It's a sample, yes, but less indicative of the whole than it once was.

Like >92 libraryperilous: I tend to look at something more towards the middle of the book. Or I'll look at the front matter. Is there a ToC that tells me anything? (Books that only list chapters one, two, three, etc. irritate me. Use chapter heads, folks!) If it's non-fiction, I'll look at the index as well. Where is that focused?

For fiction, I rely heavily on recommendations from people (here and in virtual groups), but I do tend to trust fiction more if it's been out there for a while in some format.

And to be entirely fair to Marian Keyes, @pgmcc, you aren't the market demographic for her content. From a literary standpoint, you could legitimately say that shouldn't have any bearing on the question; whether "chick lit" or some other genre, quality writing should be universally appealing. I'd agree to a certain extent, but that opening paragraph is a signal flag to a young woman (target audience) that the narrator is going to have to rebuild her life in the wake of these two massive life changes. That's what the publisher (as well as the author) of the novel believes will draw that particular reader population into the story. To you, it's a negative but to that potential audience, it's an invitation to a different kind of adventure. (Honestly, Keyes isn't my cup of tea either but I think I understand what the intent is behind the two factors introduced there in that opening paragraph and who it is intended to signal as a buyer.)

>93 jillmwo:
I totally agree with you on Keyes. This is my point exactly; what is in the opening paragraphs that influence my decisions. I have great admiration for Marian Keyes and enjoy her articles.

My focus in this exercise is solely fiction and is an analysis of what affects me, not people in general. I am well used to loving books others hate and to hating books others love.

My next posts on the subject will focus on opening paragraphs that have enticed me to read further and that are from books I ended up enjoying, even loving.

I have occasionally glimpsed at the middle pages of a book I was considering buying, but that is the exception for me.

“The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle” by Haruki Murakami

Opening paragraphs:?

When the phone rang I was in the kitchen, boiling a potful of spaghetti and whistling along to the FM Broadcast of the overture of Rossini’s The Thieving Magpie, which has to be the perfect music for cooking pasta.

I wanted to ignore the phone, not only because the spaghetti was nearly done but because Claudio Abbado was brining the London Symphony to its musical climax. Finally, though, I had to give in. It could have been someone with news of a job. I turned down the gas, went to the living room, and picked up the receiver.

“Then minutes, please,” said a woman on the other end.

I’m good at recognizing people’s voices, but this was not one I knew.

“Excuse me? To whom did you wish to speak?”

“To you, of course. Ten minutes, please. That’s all we need to understand each other.” Her voice was low and soft but otherwise nondescript.

“Understand each other?”

“Each other’s feelings.”

I leaned over and peeked through the kitchen door. The spaghetti pot was steaming nicely, and Claudio Abbado was still conducting The Thieving Magpie.

“Sorry, but you caught me in the idle of cooking spaghetti. Could you call back later?”

“Spaghetti? What are you doing cooking spaghetti at 10.30 in the morning?”

“That’s none of your business,” I said. “I decide what I eat and when I eat it.”

“Fair enough. I’ll call back,” she said, her voice now flat and expressionless. A slight change in mood can do amazing things to the tone of a person’s voice.

“Hold on a minute,” I said before she could hang up. “If this is some new sales gimmick, you can forget it. I’m out of work. I’m not in the market for anything.”

“Don’t worry. I know.”

“You know? You know what?”

“That you’re out of work. I know about that. So, go and cook your precious spaghetti.”

“Who the hell –“

She rang off.

Comments

These opening paragraphs are full of mystery, full of intrigue, and full of humour. Also, there is a great pull at the senses and feelings. Cooking spaghetti does not imply much in the way of aroma, but it implies there will be other ingredients to tempt the olfactory centres. Also, the mention of cooking spaghetti will get the reader thinking of food, and that is always a powerful effect.

We have the mention of a specific piece of music which gets the readers thoughts going on trying to remember the air of The Thieving Magpie. If one does not know that particular piece they might be thinking of another piece by Rossini, or they might just be thinking of someone in a kitchen cooking pasta while they are relaxed, whistling, and enjoying the music.

There is conflict with the telephone ringing and the cook now has to decide what to do and what his priorities are.

Then we have a mysterious voice on the telephone; a mysterious voice belonging to someone who appears to know a lot about this man in his kitchen.

The caller proceeds to criticise the cook for cooking spaghetti at 10am in the morning. More conflict.

These paragraphs left me with so many questions, and also with the desire to read on to solve all the mysteries. They left me with questions, and every sentence introduced another twist or a reveal. This extract rattles along at a pace that is conducive to a fresh and breezy approach to life. Every sentence begged a question. Every other sentence sidestepped the question and posed its own question(s).

These paragraphs are full of information presented in a bright and breezy.

I really loved The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle.

>73 pgmcc: I saw that ending coming, having done something similar in the past. Crestfallen was my mood when it happened to me. We did not have the hope that our family could enjoy it in the future. May there still be a happy ending to your cheese story.

I like your paragraph samples. The sportswriter thing would have put me off as well if I had not read any Harlan Coban novels. He was a big surprise for me as I never would have voluntarily picked one up since they all have a sports theme.

Back when I still bought and read paper I was definitely attracted by nice covers, and blurbs on the back from other authors I admired. Once I joined LT and I had a phone that could pull up book stats I started looking up ratings in here, and used that almost exclusively as my guide for any unknown author or book. (I still do this. Anything under a 3.7 LT rating I will not purchase unless someone I know has recommended it.)

THE NEXT INSTALMENT OF OPENING PARAGRAPHS

“Angelmaker” by Nick Harkaway

At seven fifteen a.m., his bedroom slightly colder that the vacuum of space, Joshua Joseph Spork wears a longish leather coat and a pair of his father’s golfing socks. Papa Spork was not a natural golfer. Among other differences, natural golfers do not acquire their socks by hijacking a lorryload destined for St. Andrews. It isn’t done. Golf is a religion of patience. Socks come and socks go, and the wise golfer waits, sees the pair he wants, and buys it without fuss. The notion that he might put a Thomson sub-machine gun in the face of the burly Glaswegian driver, and tell him to quit the cab or adorn it… well. A man who does that is never going to get his handicap down below the teens.

Comments
The first thing that grabbed me was the name, “Joshua Joseph Spork”. I liked it straight away. What was it I liked about the name? I do not know. The reasons would have to include the rhythm of the name, the alliteration in the first two parts, the strength of the surname; Spork!

Then there came the questions.
Why was his bedroom so cold?
Is this an interesting place?
How much of a crook was his father?
Is Joshua Joseph Spork a crook?

By the third sentence we have the hijacking of a lorry full of golfing socks. What is this all about? Was this a heist gone wrong? Did Spork the elder want to rob a truck load of golfing socks?

We move on to the identification of golf as a religion and this indicates humour against golfing, which is often a crowd pleaser.

The last sentence contains a nice matching of two things one would not normally think about; a lorry hijacker trying to get their golfing handicap down.

This paragraph promised lots of mystery and fun later in the book I could not but read on.

It was interesting to think about >93 jillmwo: while I scrolled this month's LT list, Favorite First Lines. I didn't know the look inside had influenced opening chapters, but it makes sense. Art and commerce respond to one another.

Incidentally, I didn't have to scroll far to find my favorite, from The Go-Between—a book I've never read but whose first line I think of often.

Edited: corrected erroneous spelling correction

>98 pgmcc: That definitely makes me want to read the book! Now where did I put my copy ... ?

I have just finished Caliban's War by S.A. Corey. This was a fast action, intriguing second volume in the Expanse series. I am told the subsequent books do not lose any of the pace or good characterisation. This I can well believe and am looking forward to reading the third book in the series, Abaddon's Gate.

For now I will return to my read of Mexican Gothic.

Just popped in to update you. We are sitting in the little private garden attached to our hotel room in Tours. It is quiet, cool and relaxing. Shortly we will be making our way to a local restaurant and enjoying a delicious meal.

I know; it’s a tough life, but if we didn’t live it who would?

>102 pgmcc: Thanks for taking one for the team. :)

>103 PlatinumWarlock: I have always been one to sacrifice myself for the greater good. I hope I will continue to be this selfless.

>102 pgmcc: So, was one of the goals of your retirement to never be in a single domicile for more than six consecutive weeks? So you sit in Tours sipping wine and nibbling on cheese in order to achieve your goals...

I am astounded at such gallantry and esprit d'corps.

>105 jillmwo:
Off to Nantes tomorrow to maintain this gruelling pace of self-sacrifice.

>106 pgmcc: But what about the orphan cheese from the previous trip? Do we get to hear the end of its story?

>107 MrsLee:
We are back in the vicinity of that fridge on Saturday evening. Stay tuned for an update.

>107 MrsLee: I was concerned about this myself! >108 pgmcc: Glad to hear it.

>102 pgmcc: Looks like your new job as a location scout is going well. :)

>106 pgmcc: and >107 MrsLee: and >108 pgmcc:. Yes, the cheese story cries out for a decent resolution, whether in Nantes, Tours, or some other locale. As a matter of fact, I think @libraryperilous is onto something when she suggests that you're out scouting for film locations. It's a great cover story.

Update time
Reading:
None. You will understand when you have read the updates below.

Travel:
My last post, >108 pgmcc:, was written on a Tours tourist train as I waited for the driver to satisfy herself that everyone had a ticket, all the safety devices were in place, and get on the road.

Tours is a lovely old city with plenty of history going back a long way. We had walked through parts of the old town early in the morning which served us well when it came to the guided tour on the Tours tourist train. :-) I love repeating myself.

If you are ever in Tours I recommend you take the Tours tour on the tourist train. I will post a few pictures when I am back in range of a laptop. That could be a while. There will be some on my Facebook and Twitter pages for those over there.

After the tour of …, we had lunch in that gourmet restaurant with the golden arches*. We both had Caesar salads.

Then we caught the train from La Gare de Tours to St. Pierre de Corps, an eight minute trip from one Tours station to its other station. That left us nineteen minutes to catch our train to Nantes. On arrival at St. Pierre de Corps we discovered the train was delayed for forty minutes. My wife had been very worried that our first train would be delayed and we would miss our connection. That turned into an anxious time worrying about any possible additional delay that could leave us late getting to our hotel.

There were no further delays, we arrived in Nantes, found it easy to use the local trams, and got booked into our hotel in good time.

*See my earlier posts regarding my selflessness.

TBC

…continued

Food:
Breakfast in Tours was a croissant and coffee in a local Tabac. It was very good.

I have already mentioned lunch at the golden arches.

Dinner was at a posh place called La Cigale. It is on the square opposite the opera house. One can buy a magnum of Champagne there for as little as €330 if you want to. As it happened we did not want to and we had the very reasonably price Menu de Jour which was delicious. We had the three course version which consisted of Salmon Gravlax starter, a delicious second course of sea bass, and a red-berry soupe with ice cream. It was delicious.

Today we had the hotel breakfast which was perfect. Boiled egg with cheese (I will check type tomorrow) with baguette, fresh croissant, wide selection of spreads (jams of different types, chocolate spread, et al.), yoghurt, and a selection of fruit. It was just perfect for us.

Lunch today was at Le Café Plantes beside Jardin des Plantes, the botanical gardens.

TBC…

…continued

Sight-seeing:
Early up, breakfasted and out. We caught the tram to Jardin des Plantes and spent a couple of hours admiring the plants until we got hungry. I forgot to tell you our lunch consisted of le plat du jour which was tails of monkfish that proved excellent.

After lunch we made a brief stop at a nearby chateaux, but later we went to my primary target for the day. The Jules Verne Museum.

>113 pgmcc: The suffering continues! How can you stand it? :)

Sounds like a great trip. How is the museum?

>114 pgmcc: It all sounds delightful, but I'm very confused about the fish tails... How is that prepared?

ABANDONED CHEESE REPORT

We have arrived at our little piece of France having ridden trains, flown in a flying machine, been driven in a car, driven a car and been carried on the back of an elephant.

I went to the fridge first thing. It appears to be good news…so far.

The Beaufort A.O.P. is gone. It would appear to have been esten by my daughter and her husband.

A similar fate must have happened to the Pavé d’Affinois. I found the box intact…but empty.

The packet of Munster was unopened, but it has become deformed due to the way it was sitting in the fridge. I have the impression it may have dried up, but that could be just my glass-half-empty side tugging at my sleeve. All will be revealed when I open it.

All in all a good result. It looks like the cheese was not wasted, which was my biggest concern. (Yes, of course my next biggest concern was that I was not the one to eat the cheeses.)

EXTRA! EXTRA! READ ALL ABOUT IT.
LATEST UPDATE ON ABANDONED CHEESES STORY.

News has just reached us, i.e. I have just bitten into some baguette and Munster cheese, and I can report the Munster is in good shape and tasting great.

In other news, we are sitting on the veranda, drinking kir, and munching on baguette, Munster and paté while birdsong fills the air. Also, a coypu has been spotted swimming smoothly along the far shore of the lake. All is peaceful and delicious at chez nous.

>118 pgmcc: Awesome. I am sorry you missed some of the cheese, but at least it was not wasted. Enjoy!

Sharing this video at Peter's request, in case anyone else was curious about the fishtails:
https://fb.watch/ldspWB2_S1/

>120 clamairy:
Thank you, Clare.

A little tern is flying back and forth over the lake and is plunging into the water every so often to snatch up a fish. It is very pleasant to watch.

ETA: …unless you are a fish.

>118 pgmcc: ...we are sitting on the veranda, drinking kir, and munching on baguette, Munster and paté while birdsong fills the air...

I want your life, Peter. 😊

>122 PlatinumWarlock: I believe I had precisely the same thought. >118 pgmcc: Is the coypu friendly? I had to google it to see what one was...

>120 clamairy: Thanks!

>117 pgmcc: & >118 pgmcc: I'm happy your orphaned cheeses found a home, and at least one of them made it back to you, or you made it back to the cheese as it were.

>117 pgmcc: >118 pgmcc: Is it fair to say that the ending of this happy story will be where you... buy more cheese?

>119 clamairy:
It is great that it was not wasted.

In anticipation of the cheese having been consumed, or having “gone off”, I picked up some Munster at the supermarket before getting to our place. Ironically the Munster was the one tgat was still intact. The Pavé d’Affinois will have to wait until we are at a bigger supermarket. It is harder to find.

Yesterday was at 31C and today is expected to reach 29C. It is currently 25C in the shade at 11am. We decided to give the market a miss this morning.

>125 Karlstar:
Jim, as you can see, we are working on that happy ending. :-)

>122 PlatinumWarlock:
Welcome to The Green Dragon, Lavinia. I hope you enjoy your time here.

In relation to your wanting my life, I must inform you that it is currently occupied, but let me reassure you that the incumbent is enjoying it very much. :-)

>123 jillmwo:
Jill, you have a knack of asking questions that lead me into a ramble. Here goes:

I had no idea what a coypu was until about ten years ago when I spotted two little creatures swimming amongst lilly pads. My wife and I were walking along the side of the lake and these two creatures, which turned out to be juvenile coypu, were having the time of their lives swimming amongst the lillies. They dived under the pads, swimming backstroke at the surface, and chasing one another. They were right beside us, i.e. coming to within a couple of feet of where we stood. Not a care in the world.

We looked out from the bank and spotted two adult heads in the water watching us from about twenty feet away. Obviously the parents.

Swimming in the water they look like beavers. On land you can see they have a straight tail.

My research revealed they are vegetarian, were brought to Europe to be bred for their fur, and that the wild population is the result of escapes from fur farms.

Over the weeks that followed I spotted more of the coypu. It turns out they are quite prolific and soon there were many coypu visible at dawn and dusk. Some even ventured out during the day.

I have viewed videos of people enticing coypu to come close to them by feeding them carrot. They love carrot, I am told.

I have been fascinated by my sightings of coypu, but not everyone shares my fascination. The name for coypu in France is “ragondin” and they are considered a pest. People here regard them with the same distain shown to rats. The main complaint against them is that they burrow into river and lake banks leading to bank collapse. For that reason the lake owner organised a hunt and wiped out the local population.

For a few years I saw no coypu in the lake, but recently I have spotted a few discreet individuals going about their business and avoiding human contact. I have told no one. It is in my training; whatever you say, say nothing.

I am very fond of these little creatures and do not like seeing them hunted.

By the way, I have come across articles describing how good they are to eat. That might explain the hunting with accusations of bank burrowing being used as the excuse for a delicious meal.

>124 MrsLee:
I am happy how the cheese saga ended. I would have been happier if had brought the cheese home, but it was not wasted.

We are flying this trip and will not therefore have space to bring cheese home. I will just have to eat it here before we leave. :-)

>115 Karlstar:
The museum is good. I had read the introductory booklet, downloadable from their website, and it talked about inviting the visitor to experience the world on Jules Verne’s imagination. It did not inspire me very much, so my expectations were not very high.

We bought our tickets for the museum at the door. At only four euros per person it was cheap.

At the entry level there are exhibits of some personal effects of Jules Verne, and several exhibits about his life, technology of his time (e.g. he was born just before the invention of photography), and the experiences he had growing up that developed his interests in science and technology.

There were models and pictures of boats on this floor.

The next floor down has many first editions of his works. There is an interactive display for you to explore images and text from several of his most famous stories. This floor also contains models and pictures of machines from his stories.

On the next floor down there are posters from stage performances of his works, posters and photographs from the many movies based on his books. Kirk Douglas and Maurice Chevalier feature in these, of course.

On the lowest level there is a small cinema in which we watched the old classic Georges Méliès film about a trip to the moon. This film is a lovely piece of history. You will know an image from it. It is the image of the man in the moon with a spaceship stuck in his eye.

I would recommend a trip to the museum. It is very good value.

>127 pgmcc: ...the incumbent is enjoying it very much... As we all are reading about it.

There is a detail of our visit to Nantes I was waiting until I had a few minutes to write the post carefully. I believe those few minutes may have arrived.

When we checked into our hotel, the proprietor was keen to give us information about Nantes, what there was to see, the locations of the places we planned to visit, and what the facilities were near the hotel. He was really friendly and helpful.

The last thing he mentioned was that there was a public, open-air screening of an opera in a nearby square, Place Graslin, which was only about two hundred metres from the hotel. This is an annual event and it coincided with our first night in Nantes.

The opera on show was L’ELIXIR D’AMOUR by Gaetano Donizetti.

I thought @haydninvienna would be interested.

We had time to get something to eat and get to the opera. This is how we ended up dining in a posh restaurant beside the square where the opera was to be shown. The Nantes Opera House is on the square. It is an impressive building.

When we got to the square it was packed and people were sitting on the ground waiting for the opera. The atmosphere was wonderful. It is obviously a much anticipated annual event and we could see families and groups of friends were planning on making a night of it. People living in the apartments overlooking the square were out on their balconies to watch the proceedings. Even people in apartments behind the screen who could not see the opera were on their balconies watching the spectacle of the crowds in the square. The balcony residents all appeared to be drinking something sparkling. :-)

We stayed for the first twenty minutes of the opera and then spent some time looking at artist photographs of comedians in a nearby square where we could still enjoy the music.

It was a lovely evening and a nice introduction to Nantes.

>132 pgmcc: Now that's a memory to treasure.

>131 haydninvienna:
I think post, >132 pgmcc: might be of particular interest to you.

>132 pgmcc: Just seen it, Peter. Dare I ask why you didn't stay for the whole performance? I'm not a huge fan of Donizetti but rather Donizetti than Wagner any day.

>135 haydninvienna:
We had a long day travelling and not the best of positions in the square to read the subtitles (which were in French, naturally). It was enough for us to experience the atmosphere and enjoy the art in the neighbouring square, where we could still enjoy the music.

>127 pgmcc: That’s really all we can hope for! 😁

>137 PlatinumWarlock:
Thankfully things are going good at the moment. I hope that is happening for you too.

At some stage I am going to have to start talking books. I am currently reading Mexican Gothic. My adventures in the real world have kept from read for the past couple of days.

>130 pgmcc: >132 pgmcc: Those both sound great.

I'm glad you continue to make the most of your retirement. You really are setting an example to aspire to. Is your aim to spend more time away than at home? I look forward to living vicariously through more updates.

>140 Sakerfalcon:
I believe that is Caitríona’s plan. I just follow after all the arrangements have been made.

I read your review of Graveyard Clay this morning. Nicely done! I never caught the idea that the "Trumpet" of the graveyard was the oldest resident there. I thought it was a sort of god-like figure or Death. Interesting.

>142 MrsLee:
I am glad you liked the review. I enjoyed and understood the comments in your review.

By way of distraction, I am posting an update on my reading. :-)

As stated before, my RL adventures have left me without the opportunity or energy to read. That being the case I am only about 30% into Mexican Gothic. I enjoyed the first chapter but felt tge second was a bit derivative. I felt the lady running High Place was just a copy of Mrs Danvers in Rebeca.

I am now, however, getting into the book and enjoying it.

A mini Cheese Report will follow.

Quick Heads Up >144 pgmcc: You might want to check the spelling of the novel mentioned behind the spoiler tags because the touchstone isn't going to the title you actually mean...

>145 jillmwo:
Thank you, Jill.

I have just finished Mexican Gothic which I note was a BB from @Sakerfalcon.

I took some time to select my next read and started The Amberlough Dossier. This is another BB from @Sakerfalcon. Claire, you are slipping up that BB chart. I must check the records and see how close you are to catching @jillmwo at this stage.

I enjoyed Mexican Gothic. While I had a good idea how the ending would go, the author did keep me on the edge of my seat to the very end. Also, as with all good horror stories, the reader is left with doubt as to wether the horror has really passed.

>147 pgmcc: I'm glad you enjoyed Mexican gothic. I'm always here for books with horror fungi. I hope you enjoy Amberlough as much as I did.

I have The mask of Dimitrios on my TBR pile, which is a BB from you. So you are not so shabby at aiming either!

>147 pgmcc: I always enjoy competitive reviewing! And @sakerfalcon is particularly reliable with her BBs.

>148 Sakerfalcon:
Thank you for Mexican Gothic. I thought the fungi element was interesting, especially given recent interest in how mushrooms are involved in the interconnectedness of all things.

The Mask of Dimitrios is the first Ambler I read. I recall the aspect I liked most was the glimpse into inter-war Europe and how the lives of WWI displaced person were a real thing at that time. I love how Amblers books were published very quickly, so the attitudes and political situations he presents are contemporary to the timeframe of the story. It is not someone looking back and trying to think through the attitudes of the time. It is the author talking about what he knows at the time with no interference by the passing of time.

ETA: I am indeed enjoying The Amberlough Dossier. It is a bit more explicit in moments of intimacy than I had expected from a campanologist’s recommendation, but it is all part of a very well drawn complex story of intermingled politics and espionage. It is very atmospheric and the characters are well presented. I could see it being a cult movie.

I cannot but feel it is an allegorical tale about management of a political situation in which right-wing politicians are hoping to sway the voting actions using populist policies. Of course nothing like that could ever happen.

>150 pgmcc: The Amberlough books are extremely up my alley, especially the one set on a tropical island, but I had to DNF because I tried the series during the previous US administration.

>151 libraryperilous:
I am only about five chapters in but I can see how that could be the case. Even at only 7% in I can see where it is heading. By the way, this type of thing is not confined to only one country..

>151 libraryperilous:, >152 pgmcc: I read Amberlough as channelling Weimar-era Germany but it's clearly applicable to so many places and eras. *sigh*

I'm glad you are enjoying it so far.

>153 Sakerfalcon: I can see exactly what you say.

And yes, I am continuing to enjoy it. I think the characters are well written. The text gives me a real feel for them and their motivations.

>153 Sakerfalcon: yes, that was my read on it as well. Unfortunately, it hit a little too close to home in the moment I tried it. I left it on my TBR to try again in a few years.

>155 libraryperilous: I totally understand that.

>150 pgmcc: I am three chapters into The mask of Dimitrios and enjoying it a lot. The sense of time and place is very vivid. It is also interesting to revist Smyrna, which was the setting for The silence of Scheherazade, a historical novel set before and during the fall of that city.

>156 Sakerfalcon:
You are having the same reaction to Dimitrios as I had, and it is the same sense of time and place I had with Ambler’s other books. His writing his stories contemporaneously with the timelines of his tales, and the rapid publication of his books, adds a great feeling of authenticity to his works in my mind. I feel I am getting Ambler’s immediate sense of the place and people, and that his political intrigues are his recording of what was going on at the time. I feel he was following the approach advocated by the saying, “If you want to tell the truth, write fiction”.

>156 Sakerfalcon:
By the way, do not think I did not notice your sneaky little BB shot. I am not admitting injury just yet, but I think it is one of those situations when I enter a state of slow motion as I watch a mug tumble off the table and it is taking its time hurtling towards the tiled floor, just beyond the extremity of my grasp.

I am sure someone will have fun parsing my last sentence to identify the various mixed metaphors and internal contradictions contained therein, but do I care? :-)

>156 Sakerfalcon:
OK! You can chalk it up as another hit.

It was Father's Day while I was in France. My youngest son was at home and was frustrated he could not give me the gifts he had bought for me. He gave them to my this morning.



Having listened to my reading extracts from these books I believe he is starting to regret buying them for me.

While in France I bought Daniel Pennac's Au Bonheur des ogres. I have read this in English and want to try to improve my French by attempting it in French.



The title in English is, The Scapegoat, and is about a man working in the complaints department of a department store in Paris. (I have no confirmation of which store, but I think I know the particular shop Pennac modelled his department store on.) His duty in the store is to handle complaining customers. His approach is to sympathise with the customer and to start complaining about his own conditions and how he is treated. In this way he gains the sympathy of the customer and, realising their complaint is nothing in comparison with his predicament, they drop their complaint. It is a very funny book, but also contains social commentary about prejudice and discrimination.

E.T.A. I bought it at a car-boot sale in Chaumont-sur-Loire.

>160 pgmcc: He must have known what he was in for when he bought them!

>160 pgmcc: I know that whichever son gave his father the Pub Trivia book for a Christmas gift is on my particular "black list".

>161 pgmcc: I once had to use a book written entirely in Spanish for research in writing an art history paper. I wrestled with it adequately some 47 years back, but wouldn't feel any too confident about doing so now. Even if you have already read Au Bonheur des ogres in English, I laud your willingness to labor through it in the original. (Although translations are always handled with a eye to what the new audience will understand and find to be of interest.)

>162 Karlstar:
Like you, I put the blame on him. :-)

He starts his first full-time job tomorrow and is saying he is delighted that for five days a week he will not be here to listen to my telling jokes because, "I am going to be at WORK".

>163 jillmwo:
Even if you have already read Au Bonheur des ogres in English, I laud your willingness to labor through it in the original. (Although translations are always handled with a eye to what the new audience will understand and find to be of interest.)

Your comment in brackets is one of the reasons I want to look at the original; it will be interesting to see how much the English varies from the literal. I must also check who did the translation.

>164 pgmcc: I find your humor mostly delightful, but then I am not subjected to it for hours at a time in person. Unless he has a job he really loves I suspect he'll be singing a different song soon enough.

>166 clamairy:
His first job offer is his dream job. He will be working as a developer in a games company. How jammy is that?

>167 pgmcc: That is wonderful news. Maybe he won't miss your jokes after all.

>168 clamairy:
I’m not feeling the love here.

:-)

>160 pgmcc: I have seen some of Delaney's standup work on facetime and he's pretty funny sometimes.

>170 Jim53:
I was flicking through the book and came across jokes I have seen within the past few days; some on facebook and some on our very own “bad joke” thread.

Unfortunately some of the jokes verged on the unacceptable in this day and age. As my friend who wrote his scholastic philosophy thesis on humour said, the majority of jokes are not victimless. Some of the jokes in this book pick on minorities and vulnerable people. Still, there are some great ones there too. I will have to be selective.

Books acquired today, and why:

Perplexing Plots by David Bordwell. Title extension: "Popular Storytelling and the Poetics of Murder (Film and Culture Series)"



This was an urgent alert from @jillmwo who is familiar with my penchant for the tools and techniques behind storytelling. She is also aware that I am interested in murder, in a purely fictitious fashion I hasten to add.

Shrines of Gaiety by Kate Atkinson



I read Transcription by Kate Atkinson and liked the writing style and the way she told her story. Emotionally Weird is another of her books that resides on my shelves awaiting attention. It was my intention to read this as my second Atkinson book, but the pretty cover of Shrines of Gaiety was a shiny thing and it caught my eye. Also, I am currently reading and very much enjoying The Amberlough Dossier which is full of cabaret and decadent lifestyle. When I saw the cover of Shrines of Gaiety and read the blurb, I felt this book has a lot in common with the atmosphere of the first part of The Amberlough Dossier and I am inclined to remain in that sleazy world for a while longer. I have @Sakerfalcon to thank for directing me into the squalid world of night clubs and cabaret that is found in The Amberlough Dossier. Claire, you are credited with the BB-hit for The Amberlough Dossier. I think you can take credit for at least 50% of the Shrines of Gaiety strike. It is basically a ricochet. Had I not been reading The Amberlough Dossier I may not have been as forcibly driven to the Atkinson book as I have been.

>172 pgmcc: Enjoy! I am a huge fan of Atkinson's books. (I've read six so far.)

>173 clamairy:
That is a positive note. One of my book club colleagues has read a number of Atkinson’s books including Transcription and said my liking it did not guarantee I would like her other books. I am betting I will like more of her books. Your post reinforces my confidence in this belief.

>174 pgmcc: Yes, Life After Life wasn't anything like her Jackson Brodie series, but I enjoyed them all.

>175 clamairy: Good to hear.

BTW, at 20:20hrs my son arrived home from his first day at the new job. I think he stayed on to minimise the time he is exposed to my humour. Now I am picking up the books he bought me and will read to him as he has his chilli for dinner. :-)

I have finished the first book, Amberlough, in this trilogy. It is a powerful book that traces the lives of several individuals during the time their country is being taken over by a fascist regime.

At this point I am going to pause reading the Amberlough Dossier to read something else before coming back to read the second installment, Armistice.

@Sakerfalcon, thank you for putting The Amberlough Dossier in my path.

Seen while browsing at Home Sense:

>178 clamairy:
Once you are Elephant Aware you realise that there is always and elephant.

Thank you for that additional evidence.

I have started Abaddon's Gate by James S. A. Corey. This is the third book in The Expanse series.

>177 pgmcc: I'm so glad you enjoyed Amberlough! You are making me want to reread the trilogy.

>172 pgmcc: Emotionally weird is my favourite of the Kate Atkinson books that I've read. There are sections in it that never fail to make me cry with laughter. Anyone who has ever been a poor student living the grungy frugal lifestyle should relate to it.

>181 Sakerfalcon:
You are making me want to reread the trilogy.

I can understand that. It is a great atmosphere, and you get to know the characters very well. Donnelly really gives the reader the feeling of living in that environment with trust being betrayed and individuals never knowing whom they can rely on. Hope is dashed, and you can feel that for the characters in the book.

Peter, did you know about this?

It looks like it should be amazing!

>183 Sakerfalcon:
Thank you for that. Looks very interesting.

I have just finished reading Abbadon's Gate which is book 3 in the Expanse series. As reported by many people on LT and GD it keeps the quality at a high standard. The characters are well drawn, the story is well presented, the authors have painted a full canvass and all the elements in the picture blend well together. I have six more books to read in this series and am looking forward to them all. My worries about how I would take to the books having watched the screen adaptation count for nought. I am enjoying the books as much as I enjoyed the screen version.

It took me from 10th to 16th of July to read this book. That is more to do with what was happening in the Real World than any fault on the book's part. We were getting our son ready to go to San Francisco for his first business trip in his first full-time job. We were travelling to the West of Ireland to spend a week in a holiday home with our daughter, her husband and their three children (yes, we were the live-in babysitters). We were having fun in the West of Ireland, and we are now recovering from the exhaustion following a week with three children aged 7, 4 and 2.

I am thinking I will return to The Amberlough Dossier to read the second part of the trilogy, "Amnesty".

>185 pgmcc: Wot, no stories about your adventures in the West?

Best wishes to the boy for his trip.

>186 haydninvienna:
Well, now that you come to mention it...

The forecast was for a week of rain and wind. Achill Island is renowned for its rain, wind and mist. We drove down on Saturday in the rain, only to find the Sun coming out as we approached Achill Island. We had good weather from Sunday to Thursday while the rest of the country had rain, wind and mist. Friday and Saturday (the day we came home), were miserably wet.

Highlights:
Good chowder in Masterson's Golden Strand bar and restaurant by Golden Strand Beach.
Nice chips and monkfish chunks from the Ár Bia Mara (Our Seafood) caravan in Keel.
Lying on The Silver Strand beach enjoying the Sun.
Playing football with our seven year old granddaughter and Willow, or dog.
Taking photographs of the beautiful countryside and sea cliffs. (Some will appear here in due course.)
Catching hare on video.
Visiting a craft fair and buying a locally knit Aran Sweater.
My cousin and her husband joining us in Achill for a visit.
Our eldest grandchild opening a yoghurt only to find an elephant printed on the inside of the cover.
Our eldest grandchild picking a card from the deck in a game called, "What am I?", which turned out to be an elephant.
Receiving a phone call from our son in San Francisco while we were near The Golden Strand.

Lowlights:
My cousin's visit being on Friday, the wettest and most misty day of the week.
Getting wet unloading and loading the car at both ends of both journeys.
Coming home with a rotten cold that has had me in bed for two days (Tested negative for the dreaded C-19, but still a pain in the...head.).

>187 pgmcc: On balance, I'd call that pretty positive, as long as the cold doesn't hang about too long. If you were asking, I'd prescribe lemon, honey and some good whiskey. But you knew that already.

You'll notice that I didn't mention the elephants. How do you know you have elephants in your fridge? Footprints in your yoghurt.

>188 haydninvienna:
How do you know there are two elephants in your fridge?
You can hear them talking.
How so you get four elephants into a mini-car?
Two in the front and two in the back.
How do you know there are three elephants in your fridge?
You can't close the door.
How do you know there are four elephants in your fridge?
Empty mini parked outside.

>187 pgmcc: Sorry about the sickness, hopefully you have time to rest and get better before your next adventure.

>190 MrsLee:
Thank you. The symptoms are receding, so I should be fighting fit by the weekend. I even put the bin out this evening. I must be on the mend. :-)

The next adventure is having the three Irish based grandchildren with us for two nights and the related days while their parents go away to celebrate their tenth wedding anniversary. That will be next week.

>187 pgmcc: This all sounds wonderful, except for the cold you picked up. I hope you mend quickly.

>192 clamairy:
Thank you, Clare. It is on the mend and it is not Covid, so just a matter of time.

I am delighted your fever is gone and you and your daughter are making progress in the right direction.

I couldn’t read until last evening and ended up reading in bed up to 5am. Finished the book this morning.

>187 pgmcc: Sounds like a great trip, sorry about the cold.

On balance the good from your trip far outweighs the bad. I am not surprised that you found elephants. Glad you are getting over the cold quickly, in time for your grandchildren to visit. I'm sure you'll all have a wonderful time together.

As promised on @haydninvienna's thread, some photographs from my back garden.


This is The Royal Jordanian Falcons passing over my house.

They flew over in formation and then swung round individually to land.

I do not know who these people are, but like The Royal Jordanian Falcons, they too flew over my house in formation and then landed one by one.

The biplanes that were used by the wing-walkers were my favourite planes today.




Yes, that is the roof of my house in the first picture.

This seaplane is apparently kept in the air by the efforts of enthusiastic volunteers. It is called "Miss Pick-up". Not a name I would have expected to see in this day and age.

You can see the corner of my neighbour's roof in this one.

>196 pgmcc: ->199 pgmcc: Count me impressed, especially by the Catalina. It’s apparently G-PBYA on the UK register, and lives at Cambridge. (https://www.catalina.org.uk/our-catalina-g-pbya/).

ETA and according to its FlightRadar24 history, that aircraft was in Dublin as of 28 July.

>199 pgmcc: Awesome pictures, thank you! 👌
I used to live near to one of the yearly locations of the Red Bull Flying shows. They were usually smaller airplanes (I think Cessnas) and they were usually flying solo, but it was still an awesome (and free) experience. 🛫

>196 pgmcc: ... >199 pgmcc: Awesome! Thanks for the pictures. What a great location to have all those planes flying over!

>200 haydninvienna: Thanks for the info, that was a great history. I didn't know there was another manufacturer for PBY's.

What great photos, and what luck for you to have such a great view of these planes.

Those are great photos! What a cool sight!

Love the airshow!

>201 Lighttower: My dad used to fly a Cessna in our local airshow. I loved to go up with him and do the loops and turns with him. Funny that I would get carsick, but not airsick. My mom was the opposite.

>202 Karlstar: Re the manufacturers of the Catalina/Canso: there were at least 5. Consolidated originally, plus Boeing Canada, NAF, (effectively the Navy itself), and Canadian Vickers, and there was a Soviet one as well.

>199 pgmcc: You remind me that when daughter’s family moved into their Price Hill home several years ago, I thought the commercial pilots were using that Cincinnati neighborhood street grid to guide them on take-offs from the airport across the river. I haven’t noticed that air traffic this past year.

>207 2wonderY:
My daughter's up in Finneytown. We will be visiting in September.

>200 haydninvienna:
My searches led me to an article about Miss Pick-up touring the Scottish loughs and having some technical difficulties. It had to have an engine replaced while at one of the loughs before it could proceed South to have the repairs thoroughly checked out.

>200 haydninvienna: Curiously, there is an inlet on what I still call Lake St. Lucia (iSimangaliso World Heritage Site, between Durban and the Mozanbique border), called Catalina Bay. Apparently a squadron of them was based on the lake for patrol duties against Japanese and German U-boats, and one sank there.

>196 pgmcc: Amazing photos! My parents' house is near Biggin Hill airport and we used to see the aircraft flying over during the annual air show there. I think they were at higher altitude though; I would never have managed to get such good photos.

>211 Sakerfalcon: I have just checked on Google maps and our house is less than 500m from the end of the runway, to the planes to tend to come in fairly low over our house. We do not notice a plane going overhead unless it is an executive jet. They tend to be fairly few and far between.

Why, you might ask, were houses built so close to a runway?

The answer to this involves local politicians and payments for favours. It has been well documented, accusations made and proven, and reputations lost with some people serving time in prison. Bottom line, our houses should not have been built here.

>212 pgmcc: We used to own a house in Jerrabomberra (suburb of Queanbeyan New South Wales) that was under the approach path for Canberra Airport. The suburb was developed over the fierce objections of the Civil Aviation Safety Authority after the developer leaned on the local council. As far as I'm aware there have been no problems. CASA's main objection was because of the possibility of noise complaints, not the obvious safety issue.

>213 haydninvienna: The aerodrome beside us has been in place since 1931. It was one of the two airfields used as bases for the aircraft used in the filming of the movie The Blue Max starring George Peppard, James Mason, Ursula Andress and Jeremy Kemp.

The runway is too short for aircraft bigger than an executive jet. It also crosses the county boundary between counties Dublin and Kildare. While the owners have been trying to get the runway extended to be able to take larger aircraft, the opposition from locals in both counties, and the administrative and bureaucratic difficulties of dealing with two county councils, have meant this objective has not been realised. We live in hope that it will never be realised. We quite like the smaller planes and the buzz around the Bray Air Show, but would not care for 24 hour operation and the arrival of DHL freight aircraft at all hours of the day and night. Yes, I am standing in the way of progress. :-) One can get quite entrenched when the value of one's house is under threat.

Armistice – Book 2 of “The Amberlough Dossier” by Lara Elena Donnelly



Armistice is the second book in The Amberlough Dossier, a trilogy about the rise of Fascism in a fictitious country, Gedda. The first book, Amberlough, presents life in the capital city of a state that is the target for takeover by the Fascist political movement, The Ospies. It tells the tale of several people in the capital city, and how their lives are affected by the actions of The Ospies, and how life becomes more restrictive and conservative as the Fascists begin to exert influence by foul means, including bribery, intimidation, vote rigging, and violence, over life in the city. The main characters in Amberlough are a drag queen, a stripper, and a member of the secret police.

The second book, Armistice, is every bit as good as the first, and is possibly better. It takes place a few years after the events of Amberlough. The Ospies have taken control of Gedda, and some of the characters have escaped to lives beyond the Gedda borders. This book deals with Gedda’s troubled relationships with neighbouring countries, and shares news of how opposition and resistance to The Ospies is performing. There is a lot of political intrigue, and a lot intricate weaving of the lives of the characters involved.

After reading Amberlough I thought the book deserved a four-star rating. On reading Armistice I feel the second book deserves a four-star rating. However, and I will have to wait until I have read the third instalment, Amnesty, I suspect the overall trilogy will warrant five stars.

Donnelly’s writing is smooth and easy to read, albeit containing a few words I had to look up*. The characters are very well developed and each has a full canvass life-story that is maintained throughout the first two books, and I anticipate the same in the third. Emotions and empathy are stirred, particularly where the Ospies methods to influence people are concerned. Motivations for actions by characters are shown to not always be simple and straightforward, and how they can often be taken against the individuals wishes.

The story line is intricate and fascinating. Plans do not always work as first thought out, but the resilience of the characters is presented in a realistic fashion. People are portrayed as people, and this is part of the great character building and character development found in these books.

*This is not a criticism. It is a comment on the quality of the writing.

NOTE: The Amberlough Dossier is a BB from @Sakerfalcon. Thank you, Clare.

I have started Chapter 5 as this thread exceeds 200 posts, some of which have photographs that may make it slow to load for some people. See you in Chapter 5.