Charlotte's garden of reading in 2024 #3

Hi, I'm Charlotte, based in the north of England. I like to read (like all of us here, I'm sure) and enjoy using the categories to try and nudge my reading along a bit out of the usual tracks.

Plants are starting to flower in the garden.


I'm recycling categories from last year:
Familiar Faces
New to me
Prizewinners
Women in translation
Graphic novels / manga
African Writers
History / Memoirs
Reading my own books
Plus books bought / books given away

Familiar Faces
I've got foxglove seedlings I planted a couple of months ago, hoping they will survive to be successful in 2024


1. How to Rule an Empire and Get Away with it (fantasy)
2. Two Masquerades and a Major (romance)
3.The Vaster Wilds (Historical fiction)
4. Double or Nothing (romance)
5. The Bookseller of Inverness (Historical fiction)
6. Normal Rules Don't Apply (short stories)
7. Strictly Business (romance fiction)
8. Strictly Pleasure (ditto)
9. The Wake-Up Call (romcom)
10. Chenneville (Historical fiction)
11. Held (lit fiction)
12. The Fall back plan (romcom)
13. Julia (literary fiction)
14. Dear Roomie
15. Lady Violet Pays a Call
16. Disturbing His Peace
17. Wifedom
18. The Home Child
19. A Side Character's Love Story 17
20. Canadian Boyfriend
21. Mrs Gulliver
22. Bad Blood
23. To swoon and to spar
24. Three Little Words
25. Next of Kin
26. In Which Margo Halifax Earns her Shocking Reputation
27.Romancing the Grump
28.Diary of an Invasion
29. The Rule Book
30. Less than a Treason

31. Funny Story
32.Lost and Found Sisters
33. In Which Matilda Halifax...
34.James
35. In Which Winnie Halifax...
36.The Execution of Justice
37.Blessed Water
38.The Shadows of London
39.Fangirl Down
40. The Cameraman

41. Blank Pages And other stories
42. The Rom-Commers
43. I Want! I Want!
44. Never Nicola

New to me (authors I've not read before)

I do like it when the first bulbs come up.
1. The Pit (crime fiction)
2. Girlhood (poetry)
3. Persephone in bloom (romance fiction)
4. Devil's Breath (crime fiction)
5. The Invisible Web (crime fiction in translation)
6. Reykjavik (crime fiction in translation)
7. The Lazarus Solution (crime fiction in translation)
8. Wound (autofiction, in translation)
9. The Tattoo Murder Case (crime fiction in translation)
10. Love in the time of serial killers (romcom)
11. The Dead Romantics (romance/ magical realism)
12. River East River West (literary fiction)
13. In Defence of the Act (ditto)
14. Death in the Blood (journalism / politics)
15. Returning to Reims (memoir / theory)
16. Nightbloom (literary fiction)
17. The Blue Beautiful World (speculative fiction)
18. The Maiden (Historical fiction)
19. With Love from Cold World (romance fiction)
20. Soldier Sailor (lit fiction)
21. Brotherless Night (lit fiction)
22. Clinch (crime)
23.The Painter's Daughters (fiction)
24. The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi (fiction / fantasy)
25.Exciting Times (fiction)
26. The Missing File (crime fiction)

Prizewinners (and nominees)

If I was going to give a prize to anything in my garden, I think it might be this miniature apple tree. If anyone has any unusual apple recipes, I'd love to hear them.

1. The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store (Pretty sure James McBride has a few awards on his shelf!)
2. The Treasure of the Spanish Civil War French original won Boccace Prize
3. Cahokia Jazz Author won the Costa First Novel Award, the RSL Ondaatje Prize and the Desmond Elliot Prize and was shortlisted for the Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction, the Rathbones Folio Prize.
4. River East River West (Women's Prize longlist)
5. In Defence of the Act (Women's Prize longlist)
6. The Years (Nobel)
7. Nightbloom (Women's Prize longlist)
8. The Blue Beautiful World (ditto)
9. Enter Ghost (ditto)
10. The Maiden (ditto)
11. Wifedom (Women's Prize for NF longlist)
12. Soldier Sailor
13. Brotherless Night
14. I Remain in Darkness (Nobel)

Graphic novels / manga
I love the vivid colour of these geranium


1. Hungry Ghost (YA)
2. Monica (horror?)
3. Insomniacs After School 2 (manga, YA)
4. Asadora 6 (manga)
5. Aya: Claws Come Out (GN)
6. Tsubaki Chou: Lonely Planet 6
7. Disaster Dates and Lucky Escapes
8. A Side Character's Love Story 17
9. The Russian Detective
10. A Side Character's Love Story 18

11. Young Hag

African Writers
This kniphofia did not last long in the garden. I think too damp. But maybe this year?


1. So Distant from my Life (Burkina Faso)
2. Season of Migration to the North (Sudan)

To read from my shelves in this category:
The House of Hunger by Dambudzo Marechera
The First Woman
Palace Walk
The Cry of Winnie Mandela
Three Strong Women
Going Down River Road
Beyond The Rice Fields
Season of Crimson Blossoms
Segu
Tales of the Metric System
This Mournable Body
House of Stone

History / Memoirs / Politics
I love these sweet peas. They smell amazing.

1. Still Pictures (essays / memoir / photography)
2. Shakespeare's Book (books about books)
3. Black Spartacus Biography
4. Some People Need Killing Memoir
5. Death in the Blood (Journalism / politics / history of medicine/ memoir)
6. The Years (Memoir / French history)
7. Wifedom (Memoir / feminism / literary history)
8. Diary of an Invasion (Journalism/ politics)
9. A Flat Place
10. Human Rights, Robot Wrongs

11. In Search of Berlin

Plus
Women in translation


1. What you are looking for is in the library (fiction, Japanese)
2. The Postcard (autofiction, French)
3. Deep Dark Blue (crime fiction, German - Switzerland)
4. Almond (YA, Korean)
5. Wound (Autofiction, Russian)
6. The Years (Memoir / history, French)
7. I Went to See My Father (fiction, Korean)
8. Un Amor (fiction, Spanish)
9. The Details (fiction, Swedish)
10. Thirty Days of Darkness (crime fiction, Danish)
11. Brothers and Ghosts (fiction, German)
12. Confrontations (fiction, Dutch)
13. The Communist's Daughter (fiction, Spanish)
14. The Bleeding (fiction, French)
15. I Remain in Darkness (memoir, French)

Reading my own books
Plus books bought / books given away

Restarting this category as I've kind of got lost with it over the past few months.


My own books read:
Diary of an Invasion
Books bought:

Books given away:

Books by month read (for an overview so I don't miss adding them to the categories)

April 19 (94)

1. Season of Migration to the North
2. Dear Roomie
3. Lady Violet Pays a Call
4. Clinch
5. Disturbing His Peace
6. The Blue Beautiful World
7. Enter Ghost
8. The Maiden
9. Wifedom
10. With Love from Cold World

11. The Home Child
12. Soldier Sailor
14. A Side Character's Love Story
15. Canadian Boyfriend
16. Mrs Gulliver
17. Bad Blood
18. Brotherless Night
19. To swoon and to spar

Library books read: 6

May 21 (115)
1. Three Little Words
2. Address Unknown
3. Next of Kin
4. I Went to See My Father
5. The Maid
6. Un Amor
7. The Lover of No Fixed Abode
8. In Which Margo Halifax Earns her Shocking Reputation
9.Romancing the Grump
10.Thirty Days of Darkness
11. Diary of an Invasion
12. The Details
13. The Rule Book
14. The Drowned City
15. Less than a Treason
16. Funny Story
17. The Russian Detective
18. A Flat Place
19. Human Rights, Robot Wrongs
20. Lost and Found Sisters

21. Stone yard Devotional

Library books read this month: 6

June 23 (138)
1. The Painter's Daughters
2. In Which Matilda Halifax...
3. Brothers and Ghosts
4. James
5. In Which Winnie Halifax...
6. The Execution of Justice
7. Confrontations
8. Blessed Water
9. The Shadows of London
10. The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi

11. The Communist's Daughter
12. A Side Character's Love Story 18
13. Fangirl Down
14. The Cameraman
15. Blank Pages And other stories
16. The Bleeding
17. Exciting Times
18. The Rom-Commers
19. Young Hag the graphic novel
20. I Want, I Want

21.The Missing File
22. Never Nicola
23. I Remain in Darkness

Library books read this month: 9

July 28 (166)
1. A Young Doctor's Notebook
2. In Search of Berlin
3. How to Solve your own Murder
4. The Virginity of Famous Men
5. My Lucky Charm
6. Lily
7. My Love Story with Yamada Kun
8. Not in Love
9. Monsters
10. A Possibility of Violence

11. Nora Goes off Script
12. Crookstown
13. Angle of Pursuit
14. Hello Stranger
15. Lucky Red
16. The Friend Zone
17. Countdown
18. Mirror of Our Sorrows
19. House of Stone
20. Scandalized

21. The Best of All Possible Worlds
22. The Trouble with Love
23. Everything's Fine
24. Mayflies
25. Table for Two
26. Rocky Start
27. The Last Word
28. Change of Heart

Library books read this month: 6

Favourites so far this year:

Familiar Faces Wifedom
New to me The Dead Romantics
Prizewinners Brotherless Night / Soldier Sailor
Women in translation I Went to See My Father
Graphic novels / manga Aya: claws come out
African Writers Season of Migration to the North
History / Memoirs Some People Need Killing
Reading my own books Enter Ghost

Bookshops from my recent visit to Portugal



From L-R, Top to bottom.
Almedina bookshop, Bookish bag for sale with De Beauvoir quote, Sanzaia bookshop, A copy of 'Art e Feminismo em Portugal no contexto post-revolucao' (sadly not available in translation in the shop!)
Livros Escolaires (I think an academic bookshop, sadly not open each time I passed), below that shelves in one of the more 'commercial' shops I dipped into, the view from the mezzanine floor across the reading room's lighting display in Serralves, an art musem / sculpture park / culture centre, a display of books in Portuguese translation I recognised in a branch of FNAC, a second-hand bookshop display.
A second-hand bookshop interior, plus three more window displays.

Waiting for the women's prize winner announcement (due 13th June).

https://womensprize.com/prizes/womens-prize-for-fiction/

Happy new thread, Charlotte.

Happy new thread Charlotte. Love all the book ideas here!

Happy New Thread, Charlotte. I'm just waiting for my turn with Soldier Sailor.

Happy new thread,

Happy new thread, Charlotte. I'm hoping to get through the shortlist before the announcement. We'll see. I love your flowers.

I just finished Soldier Sailor, Charlotte, and I liked it, but I think Brotherless Night is the best of the bunch so far. I just have to read River East, River West and then I will have completed reading The Women's Prize Shortlist for this year. I haven't created any review for Soldier Sailor so far. Like you , it took me a while to get into it. but about 1/2 through it grabbed me.

Happy new thread, Charlotte!

Happy new thread, Charlotte.

>13 katiekrug: Thanks Katie.

>14 mdoris: Thanks Mary.

>15 RidgewayGirl: Look forward to hearing what you make of it!

>16 lowelibrary: Thanks April.

>17 BLBera: Thanks Beth. I tried to do some gardening this weekend but even just doing a bit of editing the plants that have overgrown others was exhausting.

>18 vancouverdeb: I loved the humour in Soldier Sailor. I'm not sure what else she's written, or if this is a first novel. I should find out.

>19 FAMeulstee: Thanks Anita.

>20 Helenliz: Thanks Helen. Hope you've recovered from the bellringing extravaganza.

Well, the cold flu thing I thought would be cracked by the weekend has not, so I had today off work and slept for most of it.
I thought it might be covid but the test came back negative, so...

>18 vancouverdeb: and >21 charl08: According to LT, Soldier Sailor is Claire Kilroy's 5th novel. I've read All Names Have Been Changed but can't tell you much more about it and I have a copy of Tenderwire.

Happy new thread, and get well soon!

I hope you feel better soon, Charlotte!

>23 elkiedee: Thanks, although that wasn't meant as a hint someone should answer my question! Sorry.

>24 Jackie_K: Thanks Jackie.

>25 katiekrug: Thanks Katie.

I finished Diary of an Invasion the book of Andrey Kurkov's columns (and personal writing) from the point of Russia 's invasion of Ukraine. It has suited my not-very-with-it brain over the past week as it is organised by date and each section is short. At points it clearly is partisan and at others limited by word counts into generalisation (and the limits of information in wartime). But he's mostly sceptical or even gently mocking about his own government (President Zelensky in post-war James Bond films). It felt the strongest when he is talking about the impact of conflict on himself, his close family and friends. The daily grind of decision-making about safety and then living in exile.

On February 24, we were awakened at 5.00 a.m. by the sounds of explosions. They will forever remain in my memory. We walked around the historical centre of Kyiv, near to where we live, to find the nearest bomb shelters. They are also old, almost ancient - Soviet-made, built in case of war with N.A.T.O. Before this, we had not thought about leaving Kyiv. We could not imagine that Russia would bomb the Ukrainian capital. But it had already happened. I do not think we were naive. Our shock at the actions of our eastern neighbour is evidence of modern people's unpreparedness for horrors that have no place in contemporary life. I admit I should have known better. My own compatriots, those living in the eastern areas of the country, have been experiencing attacks like these for eight years. I even wrote about it in Grey Bees. But still I was unprepared. And now here we are, refugees in the foothills of the Ukrainian Carpathians.

Feel better soon, Charlotte.

I've just added Diary of an Invasion to my wishlist.

Happy new thread, Charlotte, and I hope you feel better soon!

Thanks Beth, Jackie and Birgit. I just can't seem to throw off this bug, it's driving me up the wall. No energy, headache, brain fog, breathlessness, coughing fits, sore throat, sinus pain, fever. Just grim.
Although clearly in comparison to >27 charl08: even conplaining about such a common thing feels ridiculous.

In between naps finished The Details, one of the Booker international shortlist for this year. Some lovely writing but a bit too much young-person-angst for my taste. It did feel very Swedish, I could have done with some cardomon buns whilst reading. The (fictional) narrator describes her own life through four people close to her, her first girlfriend Johanna, unpredictable Nikki, stage dancer Alejandro and finally her own mother, Birgitte. This comes in at 158 pages (including the translator's note) so one of those books that feels like you can finish it without too much commitment! There's lots of discussion of books here, from first reads to those covers that take you back years and years later to a certain time and place.

Literature was our favourite game. Johanna and I introduced each other to authors and themes, to eras and regions and singular works, to older books and contemporary books and books of different genres.

We had similar tastes but opinions divergent enough to make our discussions interesting. There were certain things we didn't agree on (Oates, Bukowski), others that left us both unmoved (Gordimer, fantasy), and some we both loved (Klas Östergren, Eyvind Johnson's Krilon trilogy, Lessing). I could tell how she felt about a book based on how fast she worked her way through it. If she was reading fast (Kundera, all crime fiction), I knew she was bored and rushing to be done, and if she was going too slow (The Tin Drum, all sci-fi), she was equally bored bur had to struggle to reach the last page. She thought it was her duty to finish a book she'd started...

Sorry you are still suffering Charlotte. I had a cough and throat infection for 4 weeks. Apparently must lurgies are taking longer to shrug off these days.

Take care of yourself, Charlotte. A lingering illness is no fun and it's far too easy to think that it's time to get things done and over-extend oneself. Take the time to heal.

Dang. I hope you feel better soon. Happy new thread!!!

Happy New Thread, Charlotte!

>31 charl08: My husband and I have been feeling like that on and off for weeks, and many people at our school have the same thing. Sometimes only half of the students are there, something that usually only happens in the winter months. Many of our colleagues have it, too. I don't know what it is with this bug/infection!

I hope you are soon feeling much better, Charlotte.

Thanks Caroline, Kay, Kim, Mirjam and Deborah. I just about started feeling human again so went out into the garden to try and make a start on making things tidy. I overdid it and my back went again. So now I'm coughing with an added "ouch"! But I'm back in the office and feel like I can at least string a sentence together, which is a step forward.

I finished a book The Drowned City, a historical crime novel set in Bristol during the reign of James 1st. A young man is freed from prison in London on condition he goes and investigates a supposed catholic plot. There's been a catastrophic tidal wave at the port and the city is reeling.
Lots of atmosphere (cockfights! Anti-catholic riot! Whorehouse! Den of thieves!) but at 400 pages plus I thought I would have appreciated it even more with 50 less.

(But this is my standard complaint...)

Ouch indeed Charlotte. Hopefully full recovery from both things soon.

>37 charl08: Putting this on my watch list. Sounds interesting, but I also have a continual problem with books that are slightly too long!

>38 Caroline_McElwee: Think I'm getting better, but probably will have to be a bit more careful in the garden for a while yet.

>39 Tess_W: I do enjoy these immersive historical novels, but with only so much reading time I do sometimes wonder about the role of the editor (but maybe the original was even longer!)

I read Emily Henry's new one Funny Story last night. I think I should just hit autobuy for all her books in future.

Sometimes at night, from the other room, he texts me live updates as he listens to the audiobook of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, things like i want to live w the beavers and wat is turkish delight and edmund needs 2 chill.

Glad you're feeling more human. There's been a lot of coughs going around this year, some really hard to shift. And yes, coughing with a sore back is just double the misery. Hope you feel properly back on form soon.

I'm glad you're feeling better. Take it a little easy!

>40 charl08: Oh, I love the passage you quoted!!! Adding this book to my wish list!

And I'm glad to hear that you are a bit better.

>41 Helenliz: Thanks Helen. Unsurprisingly there has been a lot going round at work too. I'm glad I had the vaccinations last winter.

>42 BLBera: Thanks Beth.

>43 MissBrangwen: I think Narnia is peak childhood book nostalgia for me. It fits: Henry's books feel so warm generally. Thank you for the good wishes.

The Russian Detective
I loved this, a beautiful graphic novel inspired by 19th century Russian crime novels (many of them now lost). Charlotte "Charlie" Fox is removed from her crime beat for a big city paper and sent to cover a big society ball. Instead of covering fancy frocks, she finds herself at the centre of a murder enquiry when an heiress is murdered.

>44 charl08: Looks lovely, Charlotte. Russian, 19th century, prefect and the drawing suits very well.

I do hope you got some better by now. Coughing and backpain are a bad combination :-(

>40 charl08: Oh I like that quote. Emily Henry's Book Lovers is my favorite of what I've read so far, but I'm hoping to get to Funny Story this summer.

>45 FAMeulstee: A really nice one, and with a helpful reminder of her back catalogue listed at the back of the book, so I need to go hunting for the rest of her books. I'm walking to work again, so nearly there back-wise.

>46 bell7: I was impatient and got the kindle version. Although now I'm wondering about a paperback copy for the shelves, as I suspect I'll probably reread at some point. But really no space for this at all!

>44 charl08: This one looks fun! I love the dog!

Hi Charlotte! I've finally found you. I hope you're well on the road to recovery by now.

>40 charl08: I intend reading more Emily Henry books, too; thanks for (another) reminder.

>44 charl08: 'Daily Balalaika' - obviously a serious newspaper :0)

There seems to be more illness going around these days. I never used to get sick after travelling but it happens more often now since we had that time when we stayed away from travel and each other. Hope you are feeling better soon, Charlotte.

>48 BLBera: Yes, it was quirky and entertaining. Recommended.

>49 humouress: Hi Nina, thanks for visiting. I'd missed the Balalaika reference. Now I can't get the music from the Third man out of my head (which is odd, as that's the zither...).

>50 Familyhistorian: It was properly unpleasant, hoping it's a one off for me (and that your future travel is also clear).

I finished two books, both of which have been floating around for some time.

A Flat Place is one I picked up due to the women's prize non-fiction list. It is both a memoir and an exploration of British flat landscapes, from Norfolk to Orkney. Masud weaves in her own experience of growing up in Pakistan with an abusive, controlling father. She describes the way that the flat landscapes speak to her emotional state, often struggling to connect with others due to complex PTSD from her childhood. The book made me want to visit the flat places she describes, with the exception of the Lancashire walk across a bay. That one I don't want to do, as the thought of it rather freaks me out (you're only allowed to walk the route with official guides, as it's so easy to get stuck in unstable sand.)

And this was only Nuns Moor. If you kept going, the moor did too. I'd lived in Newcastle for a year already: the moor started minutes from my front door, and there was so much of it, lying unexplored. That was fine with me. Nuns Moor would do me for now, and perhaps always. I liked going to the same places, again and again.

I walked round the edge of the moor, and then diagonally back across the middle, returning to my starting point. Night was beginning to fall. Starlings gathered there, clustering in the trees and shrieking to each other, breaking free of the land as I approached and scattering themselves across the sky. That rhythm of moving and bursting felt like a compact between me and the birds and the sky. It felt like a sign that the landscape was coming into itself flinging itself upwards, into shapes without meaning.

Human Rights, Robot Wrongs
This was pretty terrifying. The author discusses the way AI is currently used and breaks down the implications of this for human society. From the problems of training models on dodgy internet data to the people in developing countries being paid a pittance to watch horrendous content so that it can be accurately tagged. The amount of water used to run tech to the way chatbots have been linked to crime with vulnerable people. I had no idea that chatbots played a role in crime (eg this story:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-67012224 ). Just arghhhhhh.....

>52 charl08: Sounds like the Alegre book is something we should all read Charlotte. Adding to my list.

>53 Caroline_McElwee: I would recommend it, despite the fact that it made me worried / angry. It's really clearly written, and has a straightforward argument: we need to think about AI as a tool that needs to be carefully managed to make life better for humans rather than getting blinded by the possibilities of technology. I really liked her focus on human rights as a way of evaluating the implications of AI.

Found this stat mind-boggling:

In its latest environmental report, Microsoft revealed that it had used 6.4 billion litres of water in 2022, up from 4.2 billion in 2020. By 2023, the average European is expected to use 3 litres of water through their computing use every 24 hours: more than they drink.

I am now reading Stone Yard Devotional: about half way through and think this might be my book of the year.

>52 charl08: I've got A Flat Place and really hope I can get to it soon. I've heard so many good things about it.

>54 charl08: That stat is mind boggling Charlotte, and although I did know about the tech water link, I suspect many don't.

At the end of a collection of essays by Stephen Hawking published posthumously, one of the things he said we needed to do most urgently was regulate the development of AI so it couldn't become the enemy of humankind.

>56 Jackie_K: I'd love to know what you think, I've not seen so many reviews here.

>57 Caroline_McElwee: After posting it I started to wonder how much water we use in other areas too (washing, toilets etc). More reading required I think.

Gift access to the NYT best books of the hear (so far) list https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/24/books/best-books-2024-so-far.html?unlocked_ar...

>58 charl08: Stacey Dooley did a documentary about water in the making of denim. It was eye opening. It's years since I wore it and not much, but I'd have given it up after seeing that programme (unfortunately it is no longer on IPlayer).

>59 Caroline_McElwee: Thanks Caroline. I do wear denim, sounds like I need to pay more attention.

Lost & Found Sisters
I keep thinking I must have read all of Jill Shalvis' contemporary romance, and then get a nice surprise in finding one I missed. This one focusses on a move to a small town prompted by the discovery of a new relative.

Stone Yard Devotional
I loved this novel. Reminded me of Rachel Cusk. An environmental campaigner who's lost her belief in the cause heads to an isolated retreat in a nunnery, located near where she grew up in rural Australia. Initially hit by the strangeness of the community, she gives up her job and joins them.

The apparent isolation of the community provides space in the book for the narrator to reflect on her grief for her parents, particularly her mother, a kind of campaigner herself. The visit of another nun, who went to the same school, prompts further reflection on childhood (and the community's) choices and silences. Alongside this, the community is hit by a (biblical?) plague of mice, described in great detail. Their initial squeamishness about killing the animals turns into an acceptance of the daily death toll as ordinary.
For me, one of those books that leaves more questions than answers - but by no means meant as a criticism.

Thanks to those who reviewed this - I wouldn't have picked it up otherwise!

Simone saw me at the tall glass-fronted 'library' in the sitting room, looked at the book in my hand and snorted. 'You know there are good books in those shelves, don't you?' I did know. Dorothy Lee, Edith Stein, Joan Chittister, Simone Weil, Ariel Burger. Arendt, Nussbaum, Hitchens, Robinson, Merton. But Simone had caught me engrossed in Stories of the Saints. A children's book, I suppose - or, if not, a book compiled by or for a simpleton. The stories are fantastical, infantile.

St Brigid, for instance. When she was a baby, according to the book, she vomited up the food an old druid gave her because he was impure. A red cow with white ears turned up instead, and fed her. Why did I choose Brigid as my confirmation saint? I don't think I knew about the vomiting or the cow; I was under the impression she just helped the poor. Learned too late that my classmates had chosen their saints based on how the name sounded with theirs. (Heather Hibberd chose St Jessica, one of those who found Jesus' empty tomb, which even then seemed to me an outrageous cheat.)

This reminded me of a book I had as a child, full of equally violent stories about saints.

>54 charl08: >59 Caroline_McElwee: As I sit here playing on my computer in my jeans with a glass of water. : O

I've heard a lot of good things about Stone Yard Devotional , so maybe I will get to it one day. I still have River East, River West to read, and I have 3 holds coming in from the library, which is a lot for a slow reader like me.

>61 Berly: Yup, and me.

>62 vancouverdeb: I really liked it - the librarian asked me who it was like and I could not remember her name at the time, but it has come back to me (!) - Rachel Cusk.

I did a bit of reading over the weekend, interrupted by experiments with new window cleaner gadget (mixed results) and my new addiction to NYT's Spelling Bee. (I can't cope with losing my Queen Bee status, which I realise is ridiculous, especially since I need most of the clue help to get to this).

Anyhow. I read

The Painter's Daughters
A fictionalised look at the life of Gainsborough's children, one of whom had some kind of mental illness (they're not sure what). Howes imagines in a key detail and creates a fascinating story. Interesting to read in the light of the struggles of women to become painters - those that did often had a supportive dad. Gainsborough is not enough of a support, here.

In Which Matilda Halifax... Second of series, which fills in some of the blanks from her sister's stories. Middle to high steam rating, I've seen Vasti's books recommended for readers of Tessa Dare and that works for me.

Brothers and Ghosts
Picked this up in Waterstones Manchester, thought I was the only person reading it on here. Should have realised that (of course) the original text readers on LT got there first. Translated from German, Pham's vaguely autobiographical look at a Vietnamese-German family that is reunited with the US branch on the death of the grandmother. Told between a contemporary narrator and the older, Vietnamese migrants, the story suffered, I thought, from a quite annoying modern narrator (Kim). In meeting up with the US branch of the family, it becomes clear that there was a major fall-out over politics. It's not that clear that there might not be another one, as their host is a Trump supporter.
Whilst the book was interesting, I did think it suffered in comparison to Viet Thanh Nguyen, for example.

James
I loved this, a reimagining of Huckleberry Finn from Jim's perspective. I want to go and read all Everett's back catalogue now.

"Heating and cooling it like that will harden the steel," Easter said.
"Metaphor," I said.
"That's nearly all we have," Easter said.
I reached into my pocket and pulled out the pencil, showed it to Easter.
"Well, I'll be damned," he said.
"Young George stole it for me," I said.
"You can write." It was not a question or an accusation, more a discovery, perhaps a call to duty.
"I can write," I said.
"Then you had best write."
"I will," I said.

>64 charl08: Even if you were not completely convinced by it, I am taking a BB for Brothers and Ghosts since it is German. I hadn't heard about it before.

>64 charl08: - I am a devotee of the Spelling Bee, too, Charlotte, so I understand :)

>58 charl08: Oooh, thank you for sharing! I... have not read any the books listed. Ah well, I've only read 6 books so far that were published this year, so I guess it's not that surprising.

I'm glad that James is such a good read so far. I do want to read that at some point.

>65 MissBrangwen: I think I could have been kinder, it's an ok read. It wasn't helped by the blurb on my paperback copy, which made it out to be amazing. I was going to offer to send my copy before realising that's not much good!

>66 katiekrug: Thanks Katie. I appreciate the understanding.

>67 bell7: I have finished James, I just couldn't think of anything useful to say about it! I hope it finds lots of readers.

>64 charl08: I'm reading James now and it has been a long time since I have been so immediately captured by a book.

>64 charl08: I am very eager to get to this.
>65 MissBrangwen: Same here.

>69 RidgewayGirl: I suspect I would be a lot more captured by James than I was by The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn!

>69 RidgewayGirl: I don't want to unpick it, I think partly because it just absorbed me and I don't want to think about how it was done!

>70 MissWatson: I'd be really interested to hear what you make of Brothers and Ghosts, I always wonder with translations about the differences between the original.

>71 Jackie_K: Hope you like it as much as I did Jackie. I want my own copy!

>71 Jackie_K: I loved The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn as a child. We'd go on vacations requiring long car trips as a child and my parents would hand me the biggest books they could find.

>73 RidgewayGirl: I suspect I just read a bowdlerised / condensed version of HF, as this seems to have been the case with most 'classics' I think I read as a kid. I should add it to my list but realisticalyl I'm not sure when I'd be picking it up.

The Execution of Justice (ed to give the right title)
I liked the Inspector Barlach centred book by the same author, but found this one a slog. The unreliable narrator at the centre of the first two thirds of the book is unpleasant, circular and (self-described) drunk at the time of writing. The sentences are long and verge into both melancholia and existential debate.

A mystery is introduced that isn't really a mystery (a man is shot in front of many witnesses) and then is unravelled as if many witnesses don't matter at all.

In the final third this is all unpicked by the author as narrator, but for me this didn't redeem the first two thirds of disappointment (I should have just reread the book I did like!).

I believed that playing along was nothing more than a harmless technical matter, with no consequences. I imagined the game would be played in an empty room, solely in the mind of a blasphemous man. His game had begun with a murder. Why did I not realize at that point that it would inevitably lead to a second murder, to a murder that would have to be committed not by the Dr.h.c. but by us, the representatives of the system of justice with which the old man was playing?

Confrontations
Translated from the Dutch original.

The narrator is living in a young offenders ' institution (at least, this is what I'd call it in the UK) in the Netherlands after a violent attack on two men. As the story progresses Salomé's reasons for the "attack" become increasingly clear. The institution doesn't come out well, shown as dealing poorly with the young women's emotional mood swings, incapable of keeping the young women safe and at best well intentioned. Salomé's compulsory sessions with a counsellor are painful, shw is forced to speak to a man who is unable to acknowledge his own limitations. However Salomé is all too aware of them given that he participated in a realiry tv "living experiment" in Africa.
Salomé is a reader and on her first time outside the institution she goes to visit a library.

We enter the library and it's quiet, in that lovely way I remem- ber from the past, when Miriam and I went on Saturdays with Mum, and eventually on my own. First the reading desks and magazine racks, then the rows and rows of books. Children's books, thrillers, archaeology, translated books, English. I don't even know which titles I want to pick up. I see a few copies of Little Crumb, the children's book about the abandoned boy who has to earn his keep in the streets before he's allowed back home again. In the poetry section a thin volume stands by itself on the shelf, its cover facing me. Vasalis. I think Mum has something by Vasalis. I pick it up and leaf through the poems. Savanna leans against one of the bookcases and observes me, as if I'm an actor and she my audience. I move on and look at the covers with empty cots, silhouettes in the street, dancing people, paintings, enormous screaming letters or very ornate ones, photos of landscapes, birds, lambs. I stop at a book with a bunch of cows and a cloudy sky as its cover. The Twin, it says.

A woman goes over to the desk to the right of Savanna and me and whispers a question to the man sitting there. He answers in full voice.

'That's in Philosophy, at the back.' He points. My fingers glide along the covers.

>76 charl08: Glad to see this book is now available in English translation, Charlotte.
It was a tough read, especially the racism always lingering beneath the surface.

>77 FAMeulstee: Yes, I thought the author's depiction of discrimination and prejudice made the character's reactions completely understandable.

I'm really loving River East, River West, Charlotte. My last read from the shortlist. I'm looking forward to the finding out who the winner of the Women's Prize for Fiction. Not long now.

>79 vancouverdeb: I liked that one a lot Deborah.

I have had a few messages about women's prize events going on, they were all very tempting (but fortunately in London, so quite an easy 'no' for me).

Blessed Water
I liked the first one of these (a crime-fighting nun in New Orleans) but I think it probably benefitted from me thinking 'first book, give it some leeway for setting up the characters'. I found the introspection and reflections of the main character annoying and a bit repetitive this time round, and don't think (despite liking the setting and the concept a lot) I'll be carrying on with the series.

The Shadows of London
This one, on the other hand, I continue to be enthusiastic about, despite it being book 6. Lots of historical detail, Cat and Marwood are still dealing with the after-effects of the Great Fire of London. After the struggles of the earlier books Cat is finally in a more independent position, and apparently financially more stable, enough to take on a large job rebuilding burnt-out almshouses. So the discovery of a body, and the block to their work caused by the need to investigate the death, is a worry. As with all these novels, the death is more than just a death, but linked to political machinations at the highest level. The narrative follows Cat and Marwood, but also Louise, a young French woman who the King 'favours'. The author in his afterword talks about the impact of #MeToo on his writing, alongside reading Mistresses an NF book about Charles II's relationships.

>81 charl08: Oh, I haven't heard about that series (Cat & Marwood) before - it looks really interesting! I haven't read many novels set in that specific period of time so far.

>82 MissBrangwen: I enjoy the historical setting a lot. Plenty of detail about terrible travelling conditions, for example. They're not short books, but this one had enough plot to sustain that, I think.

The adventures of Amina Al-Sirafi
I loved this, a fantasy novel about a forty something female pirate, forced back to her ship for "one last job". Cue the struggles to get the band back together plus a vengeful ex and Amina's on course for adventures on the high seas. Whilst the clichés are here (large sea monster, overlarge pirate henchman, scary caves) Chakraborty's modern sensibility, from nods to childcare to ageing injuries made it a fresh read.
Apparently this book kicks off a series to follow (not yet published).

Now, listen... I'm not an easy woman to shock. I'm a sinner very much relying on the "Most Merciful" aspect of my Lord. I'm a former pirate-do you know some of the things I've seen in my career? I'm aware, as well, how common the small magics are in everyday life. A pendant with a wolf's claw and a bedtime rhyme to keep djinn away. Auspicious letters and numbers set in squares to bring good fortune. Dream inter- pretations and love knots. I've not gone near any of it since Asif's death. (Well, no, that's a lie . . . Like most desperate new parents, I was not able to resist the siren call of the spells and talismans people swear will help your baby sleep. All failed. Fussy babies answer to no authority.)

However, this... my eyes grew wider as I ventured deeper into the library. I had never seen anything like this collection in my life

>84 charl08: Hmm ... tempting. But I remember her Priory of the Orange Tree was a doorstopper (by my standards, anyway).

James is in my TBR soonest pile!! : )

>85 humouress: Yes, my paperback is 400 pages+
Unlike some books I didn't feel like this one needed some judicious cuts though.

>86 Berly: Hope you enjoy it as much as I did, Kim.

The Big Announcement of the Women's Prize is soon upon us! Fingers crossed!

>84 charl08: OK that's tempting.
I don't mind long books that need to be long books, it's overlong books that annoy me.

>88 vancouverdeb: That seems to have come round very quickly, Deborah. Although I've still managed to forget the shortlist, and had to go back and check which one I was hoping to win. Although I didn't hate any of them, so that's a plus!

>89 Helenliz: Yes, I feel like I've read a few in that overlong category. Although both the chunksters I've read recently were worth sticking with.

>85 humouress: I think you may be mixing up authors? Shannon Chakraborty vs. Samantha Shannon -- unless they are the same person, which I suppose they could be! Just wanted to point it out in case you were letting impressions of one author keep you from trying the other.

Yay, congrats to Brotherless Night
https://womensprize.com/prizes/womens-prize-for-fiction/

The Communist's Daughter
I headed to the library yesterday and picked this short novel up off the shelf. By a Spanish author, translated into English, it is the first person account of Katia, a young woman in East Berlin who is persuaded by a young western man to join him over the wall. The second half of the book picks up her life in the West in a small rural town and in the final chapters, her ultimate return to Berlin.

What makes the novel different is that Katia's parents are Spanish communists, so their place in the German communist experiment is a fragile one. There are evocative descriptions of missing Spanish food whilst cooking cabbage, queuing in the snow for bread, travelling across Berlin's borders for illicit mail before the wall was built. She creates a picture of what it might have been like to be part of a tiny Spanish minority community in East Germany, unable to live in Franco's Spain but not a great fit in the DDR either. In her acknowledgements the author thanks those who shared their memories of Berlin with her. The price Katia's father paid for their place in Berlin, and then for her escape, is only clarified at the end of the book. It feels inevitable but is no less shocking for that.

Like a ghost, she wanders through neighbourhoods that have all been occupied: now, the buildings are open laboratories for artists and punks. A new symbol appears on their façades, an A inside a circle: the city rebelling against any kind of rule, an adolescent running away from home. Katia, just a shadow moving through the noise. On his statue, they've painted a sign between Lenin's hands: Keine Gewalt, no violence.

I'm going to put this free library magazine here so I don't forget about it: https://issuu.com/incite_magazine/docs/incite_magazine_volume_45_issue_2

>91 christina_reads: Oh, you're right. The cover styles are similar too, which helped to throw me.

I read the first of her Daevabad trilogy but didn't continue with it.

>92 charl08: Yay! I was hoping for it to win.

>92 charl08: I had a voucher for my birthday last month (amazingly not spent yet) and will purchase both winners of the prizes, as well as maybe one other from the non-fiction shortlist, probably All that She Carried.

>96 Caroline_McElwee: A book voucher not spent? I'm not sure I understand...
I have All that she carried still to read. Tempted by the NF winner.

So sad to read Frank's post this morning that Anita had died. We met in Berlin before covid, and I so enjoyed hearing about her art gallery visits, and walks (as well as books). She was very kind.
https://www.librarything.com/topic/361457#n8558924

A Side Character's Love Story 18
This latest edition of this quiet series about a young couple popped up on kindle unlimited. Here the young couple continue to grapple with the implications of their long distance relationship.

Fangirl Down
Sports romance - I think this is the first one I've read with golf at the centre. Fortunately not that much golf. Plenty of steam.

The Cameraman
I picked this up after having a browse at the library, something I hardly ever do any more as I tend to just pick up reservations. I enjoyed Kneale's last book, and loved English Passengers. Travel is again a theme here, but this novel is set in the 1930s. Julian is released from a mental institution to travel across Europe with his family. He is far from as well as he has claimed to be, and his family are unsure that they want him along on the trip. His stepfather is a blackshirt, his half sister a nazi sympathiser. As it is 1934 there are plenty of opportunties for them to express this preference.

As they travel across Europe, Julius meets sympathisers and witnesses the violence that underpins the authoritarian regimes. Julius changes his mind about politics when he realises what lies behind the apparently welcoming crowds, but he also becomes increasingly unwell. The skill here is that Kneale made me care about the character Julius: we're shown how he is more than his magical thinking, that his "crazy" thoughts are not his whole personality. It helps that some of his awful family demonstrate how not to support someone going through a mental health crisis. As a reader you (I) was definitely on Julius' side.

Into his thoughts came Dr Zannoni, sitting in his studio in Rome, books lining the walls, as he watched Julius through his small, round glasses. 'You know better than this, Julius. What do I always tell you? What do you need to ask yourself?'
Where's the evidence?
'And?'
There's none. With a faint feeling of disappointment, Julius brought the marble back towards his pocket. But it's not just me, Dr Zannoni. What about all the soldiers I've seen before a battle, twisting handkerchiefs between their fingers, or rubbing a special coin, or mumbling a lucky phrase, or making a prayer. How is this any different?
'I never said it was only you. Don't worry about them. Just worry about yourself.'

Blank Pages And other stories
This collection of short stories by Bernard MacLaverty I picked up as I loved one of his earlier novels. I think this might have given me unfair expectations. All the stories here were compelling. I particularly liked the account of a daughter caring for her mum with dementia. The balance between love and exasperation was beautifully done.

Vera went to the window and opened it a fraction to let some air circulate. Might help her mother avoid cloth-mouth in the morning after all that whiskey. She became aware of the honeysuckle from next door. The smell stronger, sweeter at night. She heard Mr Kincaid, returning from his walk, twirling and tapping his stick. He looked up at her briefly. Probably saw Vera the way she'd glimpsed the woman earlier, pulling curtains. A tiny onscreen trailer. She found it difficult to believe Mr Kincaid thought anything about her or her mother. Men. Could he imagine anything of the life that was going on two doors up from him? He would have no insight, could never deduce what had just happened between her and her mother. Was a Zimmer frame in the attic any worse than a pram in the hall?

The Cameraman sounds interesting. Matthew Kneale's mother Judith Kerr and her family were refugees from Nazi Germany - they left as Hitler came to power (when she was 9). Initially they spent time in France - probably better for her father Alfred Kerr's work but then friends helped them move to London (before the war and before it became apparent that France wouldn't remain a safer place to live.

I have English Passengers and Pilgrims TBR, and want to read one of his non fiction books as well.

>100 elkiedee: It was an interesting read, although quite different from English Passengers and Pilgrims, I thought. Although it's been a long time since I read the first one.
The last chapter made me rethink what Kneale was doing with the focus on a family with such extreme views. And I quite often hate fictional depictions of people struggling with severe mental health conditions, but I thought this one was well done.

I was fortunate enough to have When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit as a class reading book when I was about 8 or 9, it's long been a favourite. I remember our teacher reading it to us, and the impact it made.

I think Kneale and Kerr did a Guardian family piece together? I was quite surprised when I realised the connection with Judith Kerr, although I can't articulate the reason for that.

>99 charl08: I'm the same -- I usually just go into the library to pick up holds, but it is fun to browse now and again and bring something unanticipated home.

>98 charl08: So sad about Anita's sudden passing, Charlotte. And you even met up with her. Yes, she was so kind. I had a great browse at the library today and picked up lots of books, so I hope something will strike my fancy. I am sure something will.

>102 RidgewayGirl: I do like browsing, and enjoy the displays the library puts up. Their current one that really pleases me is shelves recommended by your librarian and small piles of books next to the names of staff. I am always nosy about other people's reading (of course).

>103 vancouverdeb: Yes, and looking at the many reactions to Frank's post she had made such an impact here.
My browsing worked well for me, I finished two books I'd picked up. Hope yours worked too!

I'm now reading one (The Bleeding) that I can't remember how I came across. I had thought it was a straight historical novel, but it's got a modern police procedural bit set in Quebec too, so that has surprised me.

I am also nosy about other people's reading too, Charlotte. When I was at the library, I was at the main branch and I looked to see if my sister had any holds in. She often does , but not this time. I'm so proud of my niece. She is 22 and a grad from Princeton, but that is not what make me proud. She is living with my mom and sister while she works a computer engineer job from home, but she moved her from her parents as you can only live in a couple of provinces to work at the job ( don't ask me why ). Anyway, one of the first things she did was get a library card and she reads library books! I find so many young people ,with or without a post secondary education don't read books and especially library books. I think my browsing did go well and I even got a book in the mail from Blackwell's today, so that is cheering.

>105 vancouverdeb: Ah, viewing the holds are a touchy issue, Deborah. Apparently someone in our library system (which is quite big) was lifting reserved books from the open shelf, so all the libraries have been told they have to put them behind the staff desk.

I quite like that it means I now talk to the librarians (I quite often didn't want to bother them when they were with someone else and the auto machines were free).
It does also mean I can't see what anyone else is requesting, which was often intriguing.

A map of Lancashire libraries

As the image half says, the original map image is copyright.
The source is here: https://www.lancashire.gov.uk/libraries-and-archives/libraries/search-for-a-libr...

I finished The Bleeding, which was quite an unexpected book. Lots of witchcraft, in three separate timelines from 1890s to 2002.
It opens with quite a conventional police procedural attendance at a bloody crime, and the story then veers off into unexpected tangents.
I'm being quite vague as I liked not knowing much about what was going on. It's (mostly) set in Quebec and is translated from French, and is the start of a series.

Absolutely beautiful hardback, with decorated edges. I was quite sad to stick it through the library chute this morning!

Quite pleased with the books read in translation:


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

>106 charl08: We will be up in that part of the world next month as Jacob has his graduation. I'll quite miss going up to Lancaster as it was a lovely part of the world.

>106 charl08: "...all the libraries have been told they have to put them behind the staff desk."

As it should be, in this librarian's opinion. Privacy is a crucial part of good librarianship, and open hold shelves are a serious violation, no matter how hard you try to disguise the identity of the person who's requested each item.

>106 charl08: Oh wow, isn't that too bad that people were lifting the holds. Here, all of the books have an little " thing" that would set off an alarm if you left the library without checking out the book, just as most stores do. That's too bad. I can't see what anyone has on hold as the library puts a paper around the spine of the book, with your name on it. I mean I could take the paper off, but why ? Great job with the books in translation.

>109 SandDune: Hi Rhian, Hope you have a lovely time at the graduation. Work does a picnic meal for the grads and their guests, it's a nice time of the year. I like the feel of the campus with all the proud families. It's especially good when it doesn't rain/ have a terrible heat wave. Fingers crossed for this year...

>110 KeithChaffee: Hi Keith, welcome to my thread (apologies if you've been here before and I've not said that!) My library is a busy branch so I'd have to be pretty committed to connect the abbreviated names to particular individuals. But I appreciate views on privacy differ, thanks for sharing yours.

>111 vancouverdeb: Hi Deborah, I was surprised as well, as we also have the alarm system.
Thanks re the translated books. I've just remembered I've not picked up the one I'm supposed to finish for Monday's book group. Whoops.

>106 charl08: When you say 'lifting' does that mean 'stealing from the library' or 'checking them out when someone else already has a hold on them and is ahead in the queue'? I somehow assumed the latter.

>113 humouress: Stealing. You can't check them out because the system blocks you from borrowing a reserved book.

>110 KeithChaffee: That hadn't occurred to me and you make a good point. Especially here in the US where who reads what book is an increasingly fraught question, as though the First Amendment wasn't a thing.

>115 RidgewayGirl: That's a frightening implication, Kay.

Exciting Times
I liked this, which I picked up from my shelves after a nudge from another reader's review. I liked it, but I thought the (blurb) comparisons to Sally Rooney didn't really make sense for me.

The novel is the first person account of Ava, an Irish young woman who moves to Hong Kong after university. There's humour in her depressive reflections on her interactions with Hong Kong expats, mostly wealthy men in finance and transient TEFL workers. Lots of introspection and bad choices, and then a (not particularly credible) happy turn that was a shift away from the tone of the rest of the book..
This is the author's first book though, and I'd like to see what she writes next. ED. Which LT tells me was out in 2023: The Happy Couple.

The skies were thick and bronchial. Joan had said to cover my head when it rained or I'd get acid on my scalp. She claimed the bad chemicals blew in from China, but you smelled them coming out of lorries and idling buses on the street. I downloaded an app to check the air quality each morning. A happy face meant it was safe, a blank one that the health risks were moderate, and an angry one to stay inside. After seven consecutive angry faces, I deleted the app. I did not need that negativity in my life.

Urgh. Have just put together the paperwork for my dad to send off on what I hope is the last bit of "sadmin" for my mum. I continue to feel really annoyed about how difficult companies make it for people to deal with finances after someone dies. If my dad had been on his own I wonder what would have happened. Avoiding fraud shouldn't mean making something difficult for elderly people to deal with the resources of their late partners.

The Rom-Commers
Romantic comedy fiction based on two people re-writing a screenplay. Despite the tone, manages to pack in plenty of issues of a more serious nature including caring, survivor guilt and cancer. I think I've read a few of hers now so the kindle recommends feature is on to me.

Young Hag the graphic novel
Another familiar author for me, Isabel Greenberg. I picked this up on a recent trip to Manchester after seeing it in the GN section in the enormous Waterstones branch there. I really like how she manages to take 'traditional' tales (in this case, the knights of the round table) and make them more interesting for a contemporary audience.


I Want! I Want!
Also familiar to me, I saw Vicky Feaver give a reading a long time ago. Also picked up in Manchester, where I was less impressed with the poetry displays (a lot of dead white men). Feaver is now approaching her eighth decade and the poems riff on ageing, relationships with partners and family and reflections on choices. There's some retelling of fairy stories too (to link things to Greenberg). I especially liked the poem about the hedgehog child and another about a dying cherry tree.
Some of her poems are collected here: https://www.scottishpoetrylibrary.org.uk/poet/vicki-feaver/

I was sure the tree
would outlive me:
sap rising up the trunk
long after I was ash.
But now, strangled by ivy,
it's weakening, too.

Only this moment is certain,
both of us here and alive:
a cherry tree flowering;
a woman gazing at branches
clotted with pink blossom
and searching for words.

I'm sorry that you still have sad min to do for your dad. It sure does seem to be a lengthy process. Your dad is fortunate to have you. My sister works for a lawyer and does probating and wills mainly. At least she is familiar with sad min. When my my dad died 17 years ago , it was her and my brother , who almost became an accountant, but ended up being a pilot, so between the two of them, they handled the sad min. My mom has asked my brother to manage her finances since my dad passed. I know my mom doesn't know how to work a computer , so online banking and a lot more are not things she can do. She is extremely hard of hearing, so my sister who lives at home handles a lot of things for my mom.

Hi Charlotte. Your reading in translation is inspiring. I have a bunch of Pereine editions on my shelf and need to dust them off and read them.
Stone Yard Devotional is on my WL.

>119 vancouverdeb: Thanks Deborah. It must be good to have professionals in the family!

>120 BLBera: Thanks Beth. I like how easy the Peirene ones are to fit in, although as you've probably come across, they've added some longer ones recently. I think they're reliably unusual, too (but maybe that's just because a lot is new to me?)

>118 charl08: I too saw Vicky Feaver some years ago Charlotte. Funily enough I picked the volume up not long ago, it was one of those volumes with 3-4 poets in.

>123 charl08: Sounds good Caroline. You've reminded me I've not looked at the Penguin moderns recently. I love how these books are so slight and easy to carry around.
https://www.penguin.co.uk/series/PMP/penguin-modern-poets

The Missing File
When I remember, I pick up Around the World in 80 Books, and this crime series set in Israel was recommended. My library didn't have the first one but a copy on biblio.com was cheap so I picked it up. I've hardly read anything this week as we've been doing our big annual event. This one though was easy to pick up and follow the narrative. A teenager has gone missing, his mum comes to the police station to report his disappearance to Detective Avraham Avraham. The detective tells her that her teenager will come back soon, that there's little point in looking as its so unlikely something criminal has happened to him.
Of course, there's more to the story.

I've ordered the next book in the series.

'Is that it? Is there anything else you need?' Avraham dared to ask.
'Yes, there is one small thing, in fact - a surprise I prepared especially for you,' replied the youthful voice. 'Are you ready? A little birdie told me that you were interested in the question of why Israel doesn't produce detective novels. Is that true? Am I right or not?'
Avraham felt a shudder go through him. Surely the Shin Bet doesn't bug police interview rooms or tap the phones of police investigators. That's impossible. Someone from within the police must have told him.
'What?' Avraham asked. 'I didn't get that.'
'Yes, a songbird. So listen up. We held an urgent team meeting to discuss the matter, and we have an official answer for you.
Would you like to hear it?'
No, Avraham said to himself. I don't want to hear it.
'The answer is that the police in Israel are responsible for trivial investigations that no one would bother reading or writing a book about, and also because most of the police investigators aren't particularly bright. The Shin Bet handles the important investigations, and no one knows anything about us. And those who do know aren't allowed to breathe a word. Did you get that get that?'

Final two books of June were Never Nicola and I Remain in Darkness.

The first was romance fiction, in the category of books with first person narrators that appear to be somewhere on the spectrum. I liked Jamie Bennett's other books so the Amazon algorithm did me a favour here.

I Remain in Darkness I'd picked up in Manchester's Waterstones. A very slim collection of Annie Ernaux's diary entries in the last years of her mother's life. They had a fraught relationship. Ernaux reflects as much on their past misunderstandings as her current circumstances, gradually losing herself.
Heartbreaking stuff, some specific to dementia, other reflections that felt similar to my own experiences.

. I offer her a chocolate but she shakes her head, raising her ugly, puffed face. It breaks my heart. So does the following scene: as I bend forward to check the safety catch of my mother's wheelchair, she leans over and kisses my hair. How can I survive that kiss, such love, my mother, my mother.

How is your garden blooming Charlotte?

>126 Caroline_McElwee: I'll post some photos Caroline. All the rain helped.

A Young Doctor's Notebook
Translated from Russian, Bulgakov's short stories based on his time working as a young doctor before the revolution. The practice is very rural, and he is the only doctor for miles. This collection included the short story Morphine, where Bulgakov fictionalises his own addiction.

When she lay, quiet now and pale, covered up with sheets, when the baby had been placed in a cradle beside her and everything put in order, I asked her:

"How did that happen, mother, couldn't you find a better place to give birth than on a bridge? Why didn't you come with a horse?"

She replied:

"My father-in-law wouldn't give me the horse. It's only five versts, he says, you'll get there. You're a healthy woman. There's no point in using the horse for nothing...

Quick trip north as I had some flexi time to take. Two bookshop trips included, and just one very wet day.

>129 charl08: Is it really even Scotland if it's not raining?

>129 charl08: LOVE the photos.

Hope you had a good time. Just 1 wet day is probably a bit of a win!

>130 RidgewayGirl: I've had some lovely sunny days recently, so definitely due some rain.

>131 BLBera: Thanks Beth.

>132 Helenliz: Yes, I was expecting more general wetness having checked the weather forecast!

In Search of Berlin
I've been reading this one for a while, NF exploring Berlin through its history. Lots about memorialisation, the buildings and statues that have survived conflicts. I added plenty to my list of places and areas I'd like to visit.

Fascinating pen portraits of some of the historical figures who have lived in Berlin, from unknown city planners to Dietrich.

Very readable: I picked up pages here and there in breaks and when travelling rather than in one go.

He rarely took part in global or German affairs because they didn't concern him. He knew few Germans except for his various landladies, local shopkeepers and immigration officials to whom he had to infrequently report. Instead, he confined himself to the minutiae of life in the city. And like so many Berliners he rarely ventured out of his neighbourhood, which for him was Charlottengrad, plus some sauntering after butterflies in the Grunewald forest. Not for him the gritty working-class districts in the East where the street battles were being fought. 'Nabokov's Berlin', as it came to be known, was circadian street scenes, life on the trams, the funfair of Lunapark and matches at the Sportpalast. He played football, as a goalkeeper, occasionally coached boxing and gave regular tennis lessons at a club just off the Ku'damm, sometimes ten a day, as his main source of income. None of these venues exist now.

Some of the flowers in the garden right now.

Lovely!

The flowers are beautiful. Thanks for sharing!

>129 charl08: >135 charl08: Lovely!

>135 charl08: Very pretty Charlotte. I love the lush green too.

>135 charl08: This really is the most abundant time of year when it comes to flowers.

>136 MissWatson: >137 mdoris: >138 humouress: >139 Caroline_McElwee: Thanks all. We have had a lot of rain, so I have been relieved of some of the watering duties usually at this time of year.

I am feeling sorry for myself after spending the day in bed with some kind of bug. In the conscious bits I finished How to solve your own murder a rather gentle introduction to a new crime series set in a surprisingly dark rural village. Anna, a would-be writer, is invited from London to a meeting with her aunt Frances about her will. Frances has been convinced she's going to be murdered since she was a teenager. She's now an elderly lady and has alienated most of the village with her accusations. But shortly after Annie's arrival, she's been found dead. Who did it? The real estate developer, the creepy nephew or the lawyer who seems to know more than he's saying?

>141 charl08: Is there something you're trying to tell us? ;0)

I'm a bit under the weather too, so I'm moping around the house today.

>142 humouress: I couldn't possibly comment on that!
And hope you feel better, of course.

I've been to vote, although I went with my dad, so I suspect we cancelled each other out. My area has had a massive labour majority for years, so it generally feels a bit pointless anyway. But the principle of the thing. The ten minute walk made me feel like I was running a marathon. Blurgh.

More sickbed reading.

The Virginity of Famous Men
I picked up this copy on biblio.com after seeing Kay's reviews of Christine Sneed's stories. Finished the last ones today. So much humour here. I laughed out loud at the story about the woman who decides to have a non-wedding with her partner after working out the thousands of dollars she spent on other peoples' weddings.

From the story about the mother going on holiday with her awful son.

....she had to stop thinking like that. She was not the only woman in the world with a teenage son. Millions of other women had survived the same affliction. Just barely, she thought bitterly. She forced herself to sit by the pool for another hour, reading and rereading the same two pages in her library book, her mind a bubbling morass.

My Lucky Charm
Hockey romance. Grumpy / sunshine with added moppet.

Lily
Nineteenth century orphan story, billed as a 'story of revenge' on the cover. Reading Monsters the author talks about working out what the author is trying to do (making me wonder if I should read Lolita). I just could not work out what Tremain was going for here. It just seemed so clichéd. Lily's time in the orphanage is terrible in all the predoctable ways, her time working on wigs doesn't really seem to go anywhere, and the eventual escape seemed complete wish fulfilment. I finished it because I wanted to give the book away, but that was it. I loved Tremain's books about historical gardeners though. If someone else has read this and loved it, I'd be keen to hear from you.

My Love Story with Yamada Kun
Manga I picked up because I thought it sounded a bit like Love is Hard for Otaku. The story doesn't really get going in this first issue, but it's definitely not as clever/meta as that.

>135 charl08: I love the red and pink flower with the heart-shaped petals! So pretty.

Sorry to hear you're not feeling well. Hope you're able to shake off whatever it is soon!

>145 rabbitprincess: Not sure what it is - I don't think it's COVID, but similar (if milder) symptoms. I've passed it on to my Dad, so very glad he seems to be recovering quickly.

ETA I see that flower as orangey/peach coloured. Not sure if that's the camera or colour perceptions? (I have a bit of a thing about pink in the garden, after inheriting lots of pink plants!)

Not in Love
Another Ali Hazelwood, with all-too-real seeming academic politics alongside a romance plot. I wonder what AH's academic colleagues make of these books' critique of ivory tower ethics.
(Probably envious of the revenue!)

Monsters
I've been reading this book in small chunks, taking my time. I really enjoyed following the argument made by Claire Dederer, who from her perspective as a cultural critic asks what art consumers should do with art by 'bad' people. She uses memoir powerfully here, particularly in terms of her experience of AA and its narratives of a possible redemption for all. I found myself relieved at her conclusion that the question of valuing creators and making consumer decisions based on this (personal) evaluation is just another attempt by capitalism to shift the blame and avoid genuine system change.

Was interesting to be reading this at the same time as starting This Dark Country, very different styles in assessing the art, but similar conclusions in terms of the conflict many women artists have faced between motherhood and their work. I'm still not sure I want to pick up Lolita (though she almost convinced me).

I sat for weeks and weeks by my dying father's bedside, reading. I chose books that were light, so I could hold them in one hand, my other hand gripping my father's gnarled claw, the ventilator whooshing rhythmically in the background.

I read a thousand thousand thousand books.

I read books when I woke and books when I slept, and I carried a book with me all day every day.

My books kept me from loneliness, all my life.

As I mentioned earlier, for a dozen years I lived on an island. My island was not a metaphorical island. It was an actual island you got to by ferryboat. And there I was cloistered away. Most of my friends lived across the water, in the city. That happened on purpose. I wanted more aloneness, and I certainly got it. I'll put it this way: I got to know a lot of really great trees. But my island solitude was crowded, of course, with books. This is what has saved me from myself since I was a little kid. Reading is an unambiguously good thing in a life that's been filled with mixed blessings.

A Possibility of Violence
Second in Israel-set police procedural series. I like the way the author continues to disrupt the idea of the detective ever knowing exactly what happened for a neat resolution. Kind of weird reading given everything that's happening in the region right now. I wonder what the main character would make of current politics.

Nora Goes off Script
A screenwriter for (sounds to me very like) Hallmark films uses her recent marriage breakup for research for a much darker filmscript, and finds herself hosting the star after location filming ends. One of those plots that worked fine speedreading, but as I updated my LT record, I read a couple of reviews and realised -ah yes, it was a bit precarious and reliant on non-communication between the two leads (and more weirdly, all their friends/ family), so if this kind of behaviour has you shouting at the page, you might want to skip this one..

Crookstown
More Jamie Bennett, redeeming a character who seemed pretty irredeemable in a previous book. Flukily another grumpy/sunshine, I don't usually pick these up.

>144 charl08: I'm so glad you like Christine Sneed's short stories.

I'm sorry you are not feeling well, Charlotte. It's really not nice at all, is it. I'm so glad to be feeling better and was out for a walk today. I'm glad you are feeling up to some sick bed reading. Feel better very soon!

Sorry you're not feeling great.

>148 RidgewayGirl: Thanks for highlighting her books, Kay.

>149 vancouverdeb: Glad the FODMAP is helping, Deborah, and thank you.

>150 Helenliz: Thanks Helen. I have been admiring the Ducks on your thread. Very cute!

>151 charl08: they're a nuisance to stitch, but they are, indeed, very cute.
Hope you're on the recovery stretch.

>146 charl08: Oh that is pants Charlotte, but a lot of whatever it is about. Glad you dad is on the mend. The trouble is with some things you are contagious before you even know you are ill.

>152 Helenliz: I'm sure the Ducks will be much appreciated by their owner.

It rained a lot yesterday, and my taller plants have struggled. I was trying to work out what looked different, and it took me a bit to click that the tall purple things (Monk's Hood) had fallen over, this despite the plant supports. I have propped them up again. Really hoping they survive this indignity...

Finished two more romances, Angle of Pursuit and Hello Stranger. Judging by the justification in the afterword of the second, the author has had some questions about plot plausibility.

Belatedly realised work's next bookgroup is two weeks away and I don't have the book, so when it arrives, Mayflies is next up. Although I haven't finished Mirror of Our Sorrows or the other 12 books on the "currently reading" pile yet.

Also reading All Souls Day in memory of lovely Anita.

>154 charl08: I loved Mayflies and it'a a quick read. It took me back to the music I listened to in high school although the book does make fun of OMD. I will have to raise that issue with Mr. O'Hagan if I ever meet him.

>155 RidgewayGirl: Too righ! OMD is still the best gig I've been to. It was awesome. I was right down the front and I don't think my feet touched the floor all night.

>153 Caroline_McElwee: I think he's getting better, my sister has been keeping the tea coming so he's done quite well.

>155 RidgewayGirl: Thanks, I was a bit worried about ploughing through a bookgroup book I knew nothing about. Then I remembered I was keen to read new books instead of just the ones I'd suggested (and read). Clearly no pleasing some people....

>156 Helenliz: I'm going to put my head above the parapet and admit that I can't name a single song by them...

>157 charl08: Perhaps you're a bit young to remember OMD? Though the only song I can think of by them, offhand, is Enola Gay - another 80s anti-nuclear bomb classic.

>158 elkiedee: we'll be charitable and go with that... >;-)
After Enola Gay, Sailing on the 7 seas, Electricity & Joan of Arc are probably the next ones you might know.

Electricity https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y43XLVqjytQ
Enola Gay https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d5XJ2GiR6Bo
Maid of Orleans (Joan of Arc) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vmwMhjbThKg
Sailing onthe 7 seas https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lMST3H69-Os

You can drag me out of a YouTube rabbit hole in an hour or so...

>159 Helenliz: There's also "If You Leave," which was on the "Pretty in Pink" soundtrack!

>159 Helenliz: Don't forget So In Love!

>158 elkiedee: >159 Helenliz: >160 christina_reads: >161 RidgewayGirl: Nope, I've been rattling through their back catalogue on Spotify but no bells ringing. I am very patchy on 80s/90s stuff generally despite having (wasted) a year of Sundays volunteering for hospital radio. (Pity the poor patients.) I would have played non-stop Aretha if it was up to me. I didn't like to study with music and I think I read in silence too, which now seems Really Odd.

OMD and Power Station was my first concert back in 1985.

Well, Charlotte, I am getting all geared up for the Book Prize Longlist announcement. It's not until July 31 st I think, but I've been listening to youtube predictions. I guess time will tell.

>163 lowelibrary: Has anyone read their book? Pretending to see the future.

>164 vancouverdeb: You're ahead of me Deborah. Any possibles you'd like to mention?

My copy of Mayflies has arrived in time for weekend reading so plenty of time ahead to get this read before the bookclub at the end of the month.

Finished Lucky Red a queer western that definitely should be made into a film (imho). 'Red' of the title (Bridget) is abandoned by her fairly useless dad, and finds herself in 19th Dodge City. After running out of cash, she is taken in by two local madams. She's selling 'pokes' and feeling a lot less hungry shortly after.
The community in the brothel is lively and entertaining, and the plot twists keep coming. Right from the start you know that she's going to end up lighting out on her own, but the how she gets there is entertaining.

Through the doorway, a parlor with high-backed chairs, side tables that I would polish every week, heavy curtains to keep out drafts in the wintertime. Upstairs, a high wooden bed - surely Jim would want something substantial- piled with quilts and pillows. Everything I pictured was orderly and solid, the type of house a good woman could keep well, but it only looked nice when I wasn't in it: floating like a ghost through this imaginary home, I felt twinges of longing for the life it represented. But as soon as I placed myself inside that house, the chores pressed back in: who but me would scrub that table, brush those curtains, make that bed?

Picked this one up after a browse in Edinburgh Bookshop.

"What do you do that for?" I asked her one time, after a couple of weeks of watching her flip some novel open and shut eight or nine times a night. We'd found a few minutes for a break and were out behind the Queen, sheltered in the alley between the street and the outhouse. The wind in Dodge never let up, and even such a rank shelter as that was a welcome alternative to either the smoky fug of the saloon or the whipping blasts off the plains.

She looked up at the navy-blue sky, just a strip between the roof- lines, and thought a moment before answering me. "Some time ago, when I was a little younger than you are now, I realized I've only the one life to live. It rankled me then, and it rankles me now," she said. "At least this way I can taste a few others."

I made a list:
https://www.librarything.com/list/45680/NYT-100-best-books-of-21st-C

>167 charl08: Thank you for making the list Charlotte. It is much easier to peruse!

>168 mdoris: I do love a list! Already interesting (at least to me) with just small numbers using it, seeing which books are LT favourites. Nice to see Small Things Like These.

Well, the possibles for the Booker Longlist are just that, Charlotte, possibles. But I've heard buzz for James, Caledonian Road: A Novel,This Strange Eventful History,My Friends among others. I guess we will have to wait and see.

Thanks Deborah, I've added This Strange Eventful History to my wishlist.
Looking at 2024 books on there already, I've heard good things about The Road to the Country, Clear and Martyr! but no idea if they fit the eligibility criteria.

I finished some books over the weekend.

The Friend Zone
This was mentioned over on Nina's thread, and I was looking for a romcom so took a punt. The not talking thing was frustrating by th end.

Countdown
More of an essay, written by Ghosh after the retaliatory nuclear testing by India and Pakistan more than 20 years ago. In some ways it's dated (North Korea) but in other ways some of the concerns are very obviously still present, not least in terms of Russia and Ukraine. The assumption that nuclear weapons can be treated like a fictional object (as a threat noone ever would consider using) is, as Ghosh makes clear, not one with much room for error.

Mirror of Our Sorrows
French novel in translation, the author interweaves the stories of very different individuals caught up in the flight from the German invasion in 1940. It took me a while to get into this, as the initial story seemed purely for shock value, but as the connections between the characters became clear things pulled together. The author's afterword explains that even the most unlikely events in the book were based on true stories (and cites the historical texts he drew upon).

House of Stone
This has taken me a long time, it felt very dense. Zimbabwean novel that explores the violent putsch by Mugabe on his political rival, supporters and villagers of the same ethnicity after the collapse of Smith and the Rhodesian government. Swept under the carpet, the survivors continuing trauma is the focus of this book. A mysterious character has inserted himself into a family's life, and worms away at their secrets. Powerful stuff, but I felt it took a long time to get to the denouement.

>172 charl08: Ooh, The Friend Zone made me mad! I hated how the heroine's whole issue was that she could never have kids, but then she magically got pregnant in the end. I know it's medically possible, but it still really annoyed me! I felt angry on behalf of the infertile women who picked up this book, hoping to see themselves represented, only to be shocked by the miracle-child ending.

>173 christina_reads: Yes, I could imagine that might well annoy.
I do know someone this happened to though...

>144 charl08: She was not the only woman in the world with a teenage son. Millions of other women had survived the same affliction. Just barely, she thought bitterly. So there is hope for me still? I'm about to travel for a couple of months with my eldest.

I'm glad to hear you and your dad are better.

>155 RidgewayGirl: Makes fun of OMD? 😱

>157 charl08: >158 elkiedee: Well, okay, I couldn't name a song by them off the top of my head either - but that's normal for me. I do remember I liked them.

>172 charl08: >173 christina_reads: I had the same issue as Charlotte. I also thought Kirsten's solution made sense but I thought she could have trusted her friends to be more supportive.

I am pleased to see you have The Coast Road to read, Charlotte. I really loved it, and it's a possibility for the Booker Longlist, according to one vlog I watched. I hope you enjoy it too.

>171 charl08: Yes, Martyr, Clear and Road to The Country all fit the book longlist criteria and I have heard buzz about all of them. I was at the bookstore and purchased My Friends, which I have also heard Booker Longlist Buzz about. It won the George Orwell Prize for Political Fiction, not that I had heard about that award before.

>175 humouress: Hope your travels go well.

>176 vancouverdeb: >177 vancouverdeb: It seems like there will be plenty of books to keep up with when they announce the longlist, Deborah. I'm hoping I might have read one or two.

Finished some books over the weekend. The next couple of weeks are going to be really busy so I might not be reading so much. Then am taking my Dad to Cape Town in September, so will be packing Lots of Books! Looking forward to some quiet reading on the verandah.

Scandalized
The Trouble with Love
Two romances by authors I liked that I had missed picking up before. The first one was fictional 'celeb' based which I don't usually have a lot of time for, but this was OK.

The Best of All Possible Worlds
I read the third book in Karen Lord's series The Blue Beautiful World and liked it (even though I hadn't read this one). I thought this one was wonderful and would like my own copy. She says in the afterword that the book was inspired by reading accounts of the 2004 Tsunami where fishing villages had been left with major gender inbalances due to women's particular vulnerabilty to the disaster. Lord takes that initial idea and imagines a planet welcoming to refugees, that takes on a group of (mostly) men who have been sent to set up a new 'colony' after their planet was poisoned. The story centres on an outsider sent to help the refugees settle in, including a tour of the planet to try and find similar communities for, relationships for all these single young(ish) men.
A really thoughtful book about culture clashes and understanding.

"The End of the Laughter. I recognize this one," said Joral "Is this the adaptation of Enough, the taSadiri tale of a man who kills his unfaithful wife and her lover?"
"No," said Tarik, shaking his head firmly. "You have made a common error. In this one, he kills the man that he mistakenly thinks is her lover while her real lover gets away. This is an adaptation of the Ainya play Deception, not Enough."

"Okay, not meaning to muddy the waters," I said, "but I'm fairly certain that what we have here is a version of Otello, one of the old Terran standards. Kills his not-unfaithful wife on the say-so of a man who was out to get him."
Lian approached the poster more closely and read the fine print at the bottom out loud. "Based on the Italian opera Pagliacci."
We crowded around the poster. "Who dies?" asked Tarik with interest. "And was the infidelity real or alleged?"
"Is there some other production we might attend which does not illustrate that dysfunctional pair bonding is endemic in most cultures?" asked Dllenahkh with heavy disapproval. I sighed and rolled my eyes. "Everyone's a critic. Come on. Let's go in."

Everything's Fine
Apparently in some areas this has been billed as a 'romance' which I think stretches the genre definition more than a little. I picked it up because Curtis Sittenfeld recommended it as part of her list for the NYT 21st C books. It's more than a little sharp, centred on a young Black woman at an elite college and then making her way in finance in New York. Jasmine is consistently forced to live with the uncomfortable consequences of not being white and male, despite being more than capable of beating her boss and everyone else in a maths game (that I still don't understand). The novel's funny and sweet in places but then the hard bits really seem sharper (and reminded me of Sittenfeld's work in this way). Like in American Wife, the author is interested in how couples who can feel so differently about politics (and many other things), might stay together. The final pages, where a reunited Jasmine and Josh watch Trump's inaugural speech was just brilliant.

When she shared the initial data with Dax, he said, "Well, that's depressing. Fascinating, but depressing," and it was, a little, the idea that people weren't agents, fully, of their own destinies, that the world chose for them, before they were even born. But Jess saw it differently. It was satisfyingly explanatory. The answer to a question that had been weighing on her. The perfectly rational reason why an entire relationship could unravel under the weight of a simple asymmetry. Love conquers all, except geography, and history, and contemporary sociopolitical reality.

>179 charl08: I read Everything's Fine via Netgalley last year, and agree about it not really being particularly romantic - Amazon also describes it, somewhat bizarrely, as a "juicily addictive summer read". I do owe a review, and feel that I should write one saying that I think it's worth reading but needs a certain level of warning. Not a very escapist read for anyone troubled by current election coverage....

Wow, Amazon has introduced an AI generated summary of reviews (I was looking for the previous cover as the lime green paperback cover and purple text hurts my eyes):

"Customers find the book enjoyable. However, some find the characters believable while others find them ridiculous. Opinions differ on the content, with some finding it funny, romantic, and thought-provoking, while others say it's ridiculous."

I wonder if this summary changes according to further reviews posted?

>180 elkiedee: Those AI-generated summaries always make me laugh. "Some people liked it, but others didn't." Well, gee, that really clarifies things!

>180 elkiedee: >181 christina_reads: Yup, think those robots have got a bit longer before they take over publishing...

I feel the same, Charlotte. I hope I have read a couple of the Booker Longlist books when they announce the prize. Lot's of potentials to be announced.

>183 vancouverdeb: It will make it a lot more manageable. I hope James gets a nod as it was such a good read, too.

I finished Mayflies which I really enjoyed reading.

Kudos to my work reading group for suggesting it.

The first half is the memory of growing up in a small, impoverished community in Scotland, and a group of friends travelling to a music festival in Manchester in the early 80s. It's comic as the characters try to make sense of Manchester, led by the charismatic Tully, who lives for a joke but is also socially conscious, collecting tins for the striking miners and speaking out against community racism. The second half is framed around a terminal illness, which I read with mixed feelings and can't really talk about without endless spoilers.

I had very little sympathy with Tully's wife, who opposed Tully going to Dignitas in Switzerland to end his life despite the terminal diagnosis. I felt I was supposed to be 'torn' as to what the 'right' decision was, whereas I just thought 'get on with it'. I think because my mum was in so much pain in the last weeks / months of her life and we struggled to give her the fabled 'good death. Notwithstanding that take (which I appreciate is a very personal vp) I thought it was beautifully written. The descriptions of the Italian holiday made me want to book a trip (or at least buy a bottle of Italian wine) and the love of the music of the 80s shines throughout the book.

I will be interested to hear what the group make of the book when we discuss it. Hopefully the discussion will be as interesting as the book.

Above my desk is a small sketch by Madame Mohl, who had a famous salon in Paris in the 1860s. She attracted writers and painters to her apartment, which overlooked a garden off the rue du Bac, the same garden you find in Henry James's novel The Ambassadors. It is in this 'spacious, cherished remnant', this garden, that a young character receives some advice, and we are told of faces appearing like ghosts at the windows above. James was a frequent visitor to Madame Mohl's, and one of those faces had to be his own, looking down and seeing the people of his imagination, and those characters turning, through the ether of time, to look up at their author standing there at the window. The sketch hung on the wall through everything that took place that year, and I would glance at it, feeling it said something true about all of us.

I so delighted you have put The Spoiled Heart on your wish list, Charlotte. I really loved it - 5 stars and I hope you do too. It's another Booker eligible book. It's not long now until the Booker announcement and I'm trying to a few possibles under my belt. I don't plan to read them all, but I always enjoy the list and trying to get to quite a few of them read. I finally am getting into My Friends. I been trying to reading it for several days , but found it was such a slow start I wasn't sure. I think today it has finally caught me, though I think I'm only on page 62 or something. I'm glad you enjoyed Mayflies. I have a hold on the library on Caledonian Road, so I will likely get to that first. Yes, another Booker potential. Sigh!

Reading The Last Word

As a teenager he'd had a serious Agatha Christie habit. Once he tried giving the books up for Lent only to weaken on Palm Sunday - of all days! - and open The ABC Murders. Whilst training to be a priest, he'd turned to Charles Dickens and Wilkie Collins. He justified them to his conscience (an annoyingly intrusive presence) as Literature but, really, he was obsessed with the detectives: Inspector Bucket in Bleak House, Sergeant Cuff in The Moonstone, the intrepid Marian Halcombe in The Woman in White. When he entered the monastery, he gave up fiction altogether. At the time, it had been harder than giving up sex (which, to the young Benedict, had been a purely theoretical concept). He traced the first stirrings of his Doubts to buying a copy of Gaudy Night by Dorothy L. Sayers at Waterstones in Bradford, whilst supposedly on his way to a retreat. He remembers the shop itself, as beautiful as any cathedral, appearing like a cornucopia of temptation.

>187 charl08: That's an excellent paragraph. I can't even begin to think of giving up fiction!

>167 charl08: Thanks for the list, Charlotte.

I loved The Best of All Possible Worlds. I'm now reading The Galaxy Game, which is not quite as good, but still I want to see where things are going.

>187 charl08: What a wonderful paragraph.

>188 Helenliz: Me either, Helen!

>189 BLBera: I've added The Galaxy Game to the wishlist, hoping that the library will be able to help me out.

>190 RidgewayGirl: I really loved this book. I got a bit bored of the will-they-won't-they of her other series (plus how many archaeological murders are there in Norfolk, really?) but this one was a plot as an excuse for her comedy asides (at least, that's how I read it) about books and living in the UK.

And now for a new thread, for I have been putting this off some time, despite all the scrolling.