avatiakh (Kerry) reads from her shelves #3

Bookstall in Athens' Plaka market from my brief visit late last year

Welcome to my 2024 #3 thread.
I'm Kerry from Auckland, New Zealand. I read widely though not as prolificly as previous years. I signed up to LT in 2008 and joined the 75 Books in 2009 group. In 2023 I went travelling for three months around the world including time with my daughter who lives in London. While I couldn't get to Israel as planned I did end up with extra time in Bangkok and really enjoyed my time there. This year I'm staying home and hope to include reading books set in many of the places I visited.

Currently Reading:
The Killer Angels by Michael Shaara
Tyll by Daniel Kehlmann - stalled
The Magus by John Fowles (audio)

Really loved looking at the old bookshops and bookstalls in central Athens.

My 2024 Category Challenge
1) Local - Australia & New Zealand
2) UK & Ireland
3) Europe
4) Israel & Holocaust Literature
5) The Americas
6) Africa
7) Asia
8) Scifi & Fantasy
9) Juvenile - children's & YA
10) Illustrated - manga, GNs & picturebooks
11) Nonfiction
12) Dropbox - anything that slips through the gaps

Greek language version of Asterix uncovered in a pile of comics in Athens marketplace

Goals for 2024

Read from my shelves - I must commit to reading more of my own books and slow down my library requests.
Writers I'd like to focus a little on include Richard Zimler, Louis de Bernieres & Mollie Hunter as I own most of their works.
Finish Reading The Children's Book by A.S. Byatt - my epic fail for the past couple of years

plus a repeat of my unsuccessful 2022/3 goals which includes the books I vouched for over on the Club Read 2022's HOPE TO READ SOON: a tribute to Rebeccanyc -
Aira, César. The Seamstress and the Wind - Jan
Bergelson, Dovid. The End of Everything - Mar
Rufin, Jean-Christophe. The Abyssinian - May
Rufin, Jean-Christophe. The Siege of Isfahan - Jul
The 2023 HOPE TO READ thread is here: https://www.librarything.com/topic/346710

No progress at all on these 2024 goals.

Moving on from Greece, we had an overnight stay in Melbourne to connect our flight back to Auckland from Singapore. We did a long walk, crossed the Yarra River and into the Royal Botanic Gardens ending up at the Shrine of Remembrance. We visited the Memorial which commemorates the state of Victoria's war service men & women. This Gallipoli statue was one of several memorials in the surrounding gardens. The Shrine itself has an extensive museum and we spent a long time there.
'This sculpture ‘Man with the donkey’ by Wallace Anderson is a tribute to the stretcher bearers and their donkeys on the Gallipoli Peninsula in the First World War.
Many soldiers wounded at Gallipoli owed their life to the stretcher bearers. They braved enemy fire to rescue men from the frontline and carry them to dressing stations on the beach.
The best known of the bearers was John Simpson Kirkpatrick. He was famous for using a donkey to aid him as casualties grew and manpower was at its limits. Simpson, as he was known, was at the landing at Gallipoli on 25 April 1915 and was killed on 19 May 1915. His story is well known in Australian history.'

Paul's War Room Challenge:
January: The Ancients: The Campaigns of Alexander by Arrian - stalled
February: American Revolution: Susanna's Midnight Ride by Libby Carty McNamee / Ride: The Legend of Betsy Dowdy by Kitty Griffin - na
March: The War of the Roses: The Black Arrow by Robert Louis Stevenson
April: War of Religions: Bar Kochba: The rediscovery of the legendary hero of the last Jewish revolt against imperial Rome by Yigael Yadin / Knight Crusader by Ronald Welch
May: Napoleonic Wars: The Battle by Patrick Rambaud
June: English Civil War: Children of the New Forest by Captain Frederick Marryat
July: Colonial Wars: The Siege of Krishnapur by J.G. Farrell / Monday's Warriors by Maurice Shadbolt
August: WW2: The Jungle is Neutral by F. Spencer Chapman
September: American Civil War: The Killer Angels by Michael Sharra
October: American Follies: Red Haze: Australians and New Zealanders in Vietnam by Leon Davidson
November: WW1: The Secret Battle by A.P. Herbert / Under Fire: The Story of a Squad by Henri Barbusse
December: Spanish Civil War: Hotel Florida: Truth, Love, and Death in the Spanish Civil War by Amanda Vaill

Holocaust Literature Group
_____

Holocaust Literature - A couple of years ago Lisa (@labfs39) and I started a Holocaust Literature group which anyone is welcome to join -
We set this up as a separate place to record and discuss Holocaust related books and media.
I didn't meet my reading goals this past year though I read several Holocaust memoirs and some fiction.
I visited several Holocaust museums and memorials on my travels.

so many worthy books I've still not read -
This Way for the Gas, Ladies and Gentlemen by Tadeusz Borowski
Lovely Green Eyes by Arnošt Lustig Read December 2024
Brodeck's Report by Philippe Claudel
Memory by Philippe Grimbert Read May 2024
The Cap: The Price Of A Life by Roman Frister
If not now, when? by Primo Levi

My Holocaust Literature reading thread: https://www.librarything.com/topic/338441#n8014630

Another Athen's bookshop in the Plaka

Some of the Awards, series and trilogies that I'm concentrating on -

Captain Alatriste by Arturo Pérez-Reverte - 2/7
Latin American Trilogy by Louis de Bernières - 0/3

Crime -
Rebus by Ian Rankin - 25/25
Cormoran Strike by Robert Galbraith - 7/7
Pepe Carvalho by Manuel Vázquez Montalbán - 5/23 - reading what I can find
Kramer and Zondi by James McClure - 1/8
Nina Borg by Lene Kaaberbøl - 3/4
Paula Maguire by Claire McGowan - 3/6
Orphan X by Gregg Hurwitz - 7/10

Scifi
Skyward by Brandon Sanderson - 4/4
Murderbot by Martha Wells 7/7
Prefect Dreyfus by Alastair Reynolds 2/3

Fantasy
Rivers of London by Ben Aaronovitch 6/9 - need to get back to this one
Temeraire by Naomi Novik - 3/9
The Black Jewels Trilogy by Anne Bishop - 0/3

Children's/YA
Swallows and Amazons by Arthur Ransome - 1/12
Lorien Legacies by Pittacus Lore - 1/7

Manga:
Buddha vol.1 by Osamu Tezuka 1/8
Vagabond vol 1 VIZBIG Omnibus Edition Series by Takehiko Inoue 3/12

Prix Goncourt:
I've read books that have won the Award, some older ones are hard to find.
Here's what's on my radar for the near future:
The Battle by Patrick Rambaud - The War Room challenge's Napoleonic Wars - Read 2024
Memory by Philippe Grimbert - Read 2024

also ongoing is my read of the winners of the UK Carnegie Medal in Children's Literature‎.
'The CILIP Carnegie and Kate Greenaway Medals are the UK’s oldest and best-loved children’s book awards.
The CILIP Carnegie Medal is awarded by children’s librarians for an outstanding book written in English for children and young people.'
I like that this is awarded by librarians. The Kate Greenaway Medal is for illustration, so mainly picturebooks win.

Carnegie Medal (UK) Winners update-

2024 Joseph Coelho The Boy Lost in the Maze
2023 Manon Steffan Ros The Blue Book of Nebo- READ 2024
2022 Katya Balen, October, October- READ 2024
2021 Jason Reynolds Look Both Ways
2020, Anthony McGowan, Lark - Read
2019 Elizabeth Acevedo, The Poet X - Read
2018 Geraldine McCaughrean, Where the World Ends - READ 2023
2017 Ruta Sepetys, Salt to the Sea - READ 2023
2016 Sarah Crossan, One - Read
2015 Tanya Landman, Buffalo Soldier - Read
2014 Kevin Brooks, The Bunker Diary - Read
2013 Sally Gardner, Maggot Moon - Read
2012 Patrick Ness, A Monster Calls - Read
2011 Patrick Ness, Monsters of Men - Read
2010 Neil Gaiman, The Graveyard Book - Read
2009 Siobhan Dowd, Bog Child - Read
2008 Philip Reeve, Here Lies Arthur - Read
2007 Meg Rosoff, Just in Case - Read
2005 Mal Peet, Tamar - Read
2004 Frank Cottrell Boyce, Millions - READ 2024
2003 Jennifer Donnelly, A Gathering Light - Read
2002 Sharon Creech, Ruby Holler - Read
2001 Terry Pratchett, The Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents - own
2000 Beverley Naidoo, The Other Side of Truth - own
1999 Aidan Chambers, Postcards from No Man’s Land - Read
1998 David Almond, Skellig - Read
1997 Tim Bowler, River Boy - READ 2024
1996 Melvin Burgess, Junk - Read
1995 Philip Pullman, His Dark Materials - Read
1994 Theresa Breslin, Whispers in the Graveyard
1993 Robert Swindells, Stone Cold - READ 2024
1992 Anne Fine, Flour Babies - Read
1991 Berlie Doherty, Dear Nobody
1990 Gillian Cross, Wolf - Read
1989 Anne Fine, Goggle-eyes - Read
1988 Geraldine McCaughrean, A Pack of Lies - Read
1987 Susan Price, The Ghost Drum - READ 2024
1986 Berlie Doherty, Granny was a Buffer Girl - READ 2024
1985 Kevin Crossley-Holland, Storm - READ 2024
1984 Margaret Mahy, The Changeover - Read
1983 Jan Mark, Handles - READ 2024
1982 Margaret Mahy, The Haunting - Read
1981 Robert Westall, The Scarecrows - READ 2024
1980 Peter Dickinson, City of Gold and Other Stories from the Old Testament
1979 Peter Dickinson, Tulku - READ 2024
1978 David Rees, The Exeter Blitz - Read 2022
1977 Gene Kemp, The Turbulent Term of Tyke Tiler - Read
1976 Jan Mark, Thunder and Lightnings
1975 Robert Westall, The Machine Gunners - Read
1974 Mollie Hunter, The Stronghold - Read
1973 Penelope Lively, The Ghost of Thomas Kempe - Read
1972 Richard Adams, Watership Down - Read
1971 Ivan Southall, Josh - Read
1970 Leon Garfield & Edward Blishen, The God Beneath the Sea
1969 Kathleen Peyton, The Edge of the Cloud
1968 Rosemary Harris, The Moon in the Cloud - Read 2021
1967 Alan Garner, The Owl Service - Read
1965 Philip Turner, The Grange at High Force
1964 Sheena Porter, Nordy Bank - READ 2024
1963 Hester Burton, Time of Trial
1962 Pauline Clarke, The Twelve and the Genii - Read 2021
1961 Lucy M Boston, A Stranger at Green Knowe
1960 Dr IW Cornwall, The Making of Man
1959 Rosemary Sutcliff, The Lantern Bearers - own
1958 Philippa Pearce, Tom’s Midnight Garden - Read
1957 William Mayne, A Grass Rope - own
1956 C S Lewis, The Last Battle - Read
1955 Eleanor Farjeon, The Little Bookroom READ 2023
1954 Ronald Welch (aka Ronald Oliver Felton), Knight Crusader - READ 2024
1953 Edward Osmond, A Valley Grows Up
1952 Mary Norton, The Borrowers - own
1951 Cynthia Harnett, The Wool Pack - Read 2021
1950 Elfrida Vipont Foulds, The Lark on the Wing - Read 2021
1949 Agnes Allen, The Story of Your Home
1948 Richard Armstrong, Sea Change READ 2023
1947 Walter De La Mare, Collected Stories for Children
1946 Elizabeth Goudge, The Little White Horse - Read
1944 Eric Linklater, The Wind on the Moon - Read 2021
1942 ‘BB’ (D J Watkins-Pitchford), The Little Grey Men - own
1941 Mary Treadgold, We Couldn’t Leave Dinah - Read 2021
1940 Kitty Barne, Visitors from London
1939 Eleanor Doorly, Radium Woman
1938 Noel Streatfeild, The Circus is Coming - own
1937 Eve Garnett, The Family from One End Street - own
1936 Arthur Ransome, Pigeon Post - own

Reading Plans for August:
____
____
War Room Challenge - WW2: The Jungle is Neutral by F. Spencer Chapman

TIOLI - try to fit in some library books:
Challenge #3: Inspired by Anita – Title consists of two or three words
The Wolf Hunt - Ayelet Gundar-Goshen
Challenge #6: Read a book that came out in the last 3 years
The Box with the Sunflower Clasp - Rachael Mellor
Defiant - Brandon Sanderson (Skyward #4), had this on pre-order but still haven't read it
We must not think of ourselves - Lauren Grodstein
Challenge #9: Read a book for the Zodiac challenge
The Lost Book of Bonn - Brianna Labuskes

Carnegie (UK) Wnners
1986 Berlie Doherty, Granny was a Buffer Girl

and other library books to be added to TIOLI if I read them in time:
Everyone in my family has killed someone by Benjamin Stevenson
Red Crosses by Sasha Filipenko
The Bandit Queens by Parini Shroff
The Goddess of Warsaw by Lisa Barr
The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store by James McBride

Happy new thread Kerry!

Happy new one, Kerry

I love the photos and stories about your trip, Kerry. Thank you for sharing. Congrats on the Carnegie Medal progress. You are almost there!

Happy new one, Kerry!

>8 quondame: >9 PaulCranswick: >11 drneutron: Thank you for your greetings
>10 labfs39: I took heaps of photos, barely scratching the surface here, though uploading some to LT is tedious. We enjoyed Athens a lot, discovered some great places to eat gyros. We climbed all the hills in the central area and so had marvellous views of the Acropolis. The bookshops were so inviting for a booklover, but alas, mostly Greek titles though I couldn't cram any more books into my luggage anyway.
We bought a large bag of freshly made loukoumi in a weekly market and also ate some local flavours of Greek gelato that were really good. The only museum we visited was the Byzantine and Christian Museum which had sections closed. We spent most of our time outdoors just enjoying being in the city.
I have been to Greece before but so long ago I can barely remember what I did apart from a wonderful week or so on Corfu.

>12 avatiakh: What I enjoyed and remember best from my short stay in Athens were the small savory pastries sold at the bakeries, mostly in the morning. I don't remember finding them but I do remember going out the final two mornings to get them, the last day with plenty of extras to sustain us on our drive to Mycenae. The Agora was pleasant as well, and I was delighted with all the goddess statues on the Acropolis.

Picked up a slim paperback that was in a pile I brought out of a box, only to see that it's another novel, possibly YA, about Shanghai Jews during WW2. With fearful bravery by Lynne Kositsky. So due to its size it will be my out and about read for the next few days.

>13 quondame: Oh the pastries were very good. On our last morning we wanted to eat gyros for last time but alas could only order breakfast menu where we ended up. Ordered an egg dish, possibly strapastada, that was nice but couldn't match a good gyros.
We also got a taste for the gelato too, some unusual local Greek flavours such as mastic, baklava, kadafai etc... and the Greek delight or loukoumi, some great flavours that were hard to pass up.

>15 avatiakh: I was always on the look out for Loukaniko which I did not find until we got to Nafplion. Unfortunately the one I got was spoiled and gave me a rough night. My father(85) had tzatziki for the first time there and it was love at first bite.

Happy new thread!

Glad you are safely home, but the bookstores in Athens look fantastic.

>16 quondame: Loukaniko looks great. My son was obsessed with gyros so that's what we mostly went looking for. He makes a great tzatziki and I will be planting lots of dill next month for the summer.

>17 figsfromthistle: Welcome to my thread!

>18 ronincats: Hi Roni - Alas, most of the books were in Greek. Still a book shop is always a good look.

I haven't done much reading this past week but have managed to finish one book, though not one from my list.

>19 avatiakh: I won't say Loukaniko is to-die-for, but it is certainly worth going out of one's way for. The orange and wine enhanced sausage, slow grilled had me driving 20+ miles (1 way). Unfortunately the most local place serving it closed decades ago, and it's successor significantly to the NW substituted an inferior product before disappearing as disappointing restaurants often do.

>20 quondame: No such luck here in Auckland for Greek food, have to take a plane to Melbourne to find a decent Greek restarant. I had Moorish eggs last week at Mezze Bar and really liked it, a nice change from shakshuka. I've found a recipe online from 2010 from one of the founders of Mezze Bar so will be trying that one out today.

Reading is stil going slowly due to slight depression from one week of neverending shoulder pain that hopefully will disappear in the next couple of days.
About to finish The Bandit Queens and then move forward with The Wolf Hunt and my WW2 read.

>21 avatiakh: Ouch! I do hope your shoulder pain is substantially reduced posthaste. I enforce a couple of stretches on myself daily to avoid a recurrence of mine, and for me that's a drastic measure.

>21 avatiakh: Ugh, I had a frozen shoulder a few years ago, and it was awful. I hope you feel better soon!

Good luck with the shoulder. I hope you feel better soon.

Thanks for sharing your Athens (and other) photos. It sounds like a wonderful trip. And the talk of the food is making my mouth water.

I loved The Bandit Queens. I will watch for your comments.

Happy new thread.

>22 quondame: >23 labfs39: I'm almost mended.

>25 avatiakh: Thanks. I really enjoyed The Bandit Queens.

111) Under Occupation by Alan Furst (2019)
fiction
Night Soldiers #15. Fairly bland WW2 novel about working against the Nazi occuptation of France. I've read and enjoyed a couple of other of Furst's novels in previou yers.

112) The Bandit Queens by Parini Shroff (2023)
fiction
This was a great read, set in rural India and showcasing the life of Phoolan Devi, the Bandit Queen, in the background to a story about the women in a small village and how they band together to rid themselves of some of the more troublesome husbands.

113) Funny Story by Emily Henry (2024)
Romance
I've read two others by her and now this one which will be my last. I probably wouldn't have bothered finishing this one but I started reading it at a cafe after picking it up from the library.
Daphne has shifted to her fiancee's hometown and only knows his friends, when two weeks before their wedding Peter breaks up with her dramatically. He's started a relationship with his childhood friend, Petra, so Daphne has to move out of their house and the only place she can go at short notice is to share an apartment with Mike, Petra's newly ex-ed. Eventually they fall for each other while Peter & Petra fall out.
Silly, predictable but an easy read.

114) With Fearful Bravery by Lynne Kositsky (2014)
YA
About a Jewish girl surviving in Shanghai during WW2. Quite a good read except for the sudden appearance of Freda's childhood friend and now a Nazi in Shanghai. They lost contact with each other around the time he joined the Hitler Youth. Abandoned by their mother in Shanghai, Freda works in a bar where men pay to dance with the waitresses. It's good money and Freda supports her sister and helps her friends as well as a homeless Chinese boy.

I read Kositsky's The Thought of High Windows some years ago and always wanted to read more by her.

115) Grannie Was a Buffer Girl by Berlie Doherty (1986)
children
Carnegie (UK) Medal 1986. Another solid read from the Carnegie Medal winners list. This was set in Sheffield and a 'buffer girl' was the name for the women who polished the steel products such as cutlery in the factories. Jess is leaving home for a year abroad in France, so on her last night the family sit around and tell the stories about how the parents and grandparents met, lived and got on in their working class lives. Delightful.

116) The Wolf Hunt by Ayelet Gundar-Goshen (2021 Hebrew) (2023 English)
fiction
A quite uncomfortable read. Ex-pat Israelis living in San Francisco, the husband works in hi-tech. Everything is from the wife's POV and she seems to spiral out of control while being over-protective of her son, when his classmate dies suspiciously at a party he attends. Very well done.

That was my August reading, not many books. I picked up quite a few other library books but decided not to continue with them -
The Goddess of Warsaw by Lisa Barr - only read a couple of pages past the prologue and decided not to continue
We must not think of ourselves by Lauren Grodstein - Warsaw Ghetto - just think there are better reads on this subject, I read about 50 pages
The Lost Book of Bonn by Brianna Labuskes - might come back to this one

My WW2 memoir pick, The Jungle is Neutral is interesting but I hardly read past the intro and first chapter, so will keep it for September reading.

Finished 17 Years Later & will finish The Ghost Drum tonight, both are overdue library books.

September Reading Plans - none beside finishing a few that I've started through the year. & the War Room challenge
The Jungle is Neutral & The Killer Angels for the War Room challenges - WW2 - August & American Civil War - September reads.

117) 17 Years Later by J.P. Pomare (2024)
crime
A popular podcaster decides to relook into an old case where a family was killed and the killer is behind bars but has always claimed his innocence. The book is mostly set in Cambridge, New Zealand which is a town that I'm quite familiar with.
I didn't enjoy the depiction of racism in one part of the book, though it came from upperclass English people rather than regular New Zealanders, just felt quite off.
The last 50 odd pages had a few good twists.
I've read all Pomare's books except for The Last Guests. I find his work enjoyable especially as most are set in New Zealand. He lives in Melbourne so some are set in Victoria, Australia.

118) The Ghost Drum by Susan Price (1987)
children

Carnegie Medal (UK) 1987. Just found that this is the first in a series of 4 books - Ghost World #1, so have requested the next two from the library. The fourth book came out in 2017 so a long long time after this first one.
A Baba Yaga story told by a cat about the son of a Czar trapped in a tower room for all his life and a young girl taken at birth by a witch to be her apprentice. Their stories overlap as do stories of others. Atmospheric, quite chilling at times. The Czar and his princess sister are both ruthless.

I also noted that Price has written 3 Sterkarm books and I've only read one or two of them, so have noted this trilogy for a reread.

Now reading In my enemy's house by Carol Matas, So late in the day by Claire Keegan & The wonderful thing about Phoenix Rose.

119) So late in the day by Claire Keegan (2023)
short stories
Just three stories in this slim edition, each one quite outstanding. I've read her Foster some years ago and loved her writing style.

120) The Wonderful Thing about Phoenix Rose by Josephine Moon (2023)
fiction
A delightful road trip novel featuring a menagerie of animals. Newly diagnosed as autistic, Phoenix Rose is part of an online support group and volunteers to help a terminally ill member deal with her pets. This means flying from Brisbane to Tasmania where she expects to spend a week with Olga finding homes for the old pony, the old dog and two adult cats, the four chickens. Unfortunately Olga passes on the first night and so Phoenix decides to drive the animals back to Brisbane and find them homes there. With the help of her online friends, her supportive boyfriend back in Brisbane with his own problems, Phoenix sets off.

I pulled Good Dogs don't make it to the South Pole off the library shelves last week and this looks like being another easy read.

Long-haired cat-boy cub by Etgar Keret (2013)
picturebook
Quite a cute story about a boy whose father is not doing a great job of fathering him. On a trip to the zoo, the father has to leave suddenly to close a business deal and leaves his son with some money and instructions for getting home safely. The boy gets his facepainted, eats two hotdogs and then curls up to sleep in an empty cage, then wakes to an adventure.

Just popping by to wish you a wonderful Sunday, Kerry.

121) In my enemy's house by Carol Matas (1999)
children's fiction
A Jewish girl has to pose as a Polish worker in Germany in order to survive after the German invasion of Poland and the loss of most members of her family. Matas always manages to write a compelling story with interesting characters that informs on different aspects of the Holocaust experience. She interviewed several Polish women on their experiences working as servants in Germany during the war years.

>40 PaulCranswick: Waves to Paul - have had a good morning so far, four books picked up from library, reading time in a nearby cafe. About to make sabich for lunch.

Backwaters by Emma Ling Sidnam - about a 4th generation Chinese NZer
Living with our Dead: On Loss and Consolation by Delphine Horvilleur - won a couple of awards in France
Max in the House of Spies by Adam Gidwitz - children's book on espionage in WW2.
Long-haired cat-boy cub by Etgar Keret - picturebook

I'm glad to hear you sounding a little more chipper. I hope your shoulder is feeling better.

>43 labfs39: Thanks Lisa. It's now bearable but still not gone away. Just when I reach forward to type on laptop seems to be when it aggravates most, so am trying different positions for typing.


DNF Good dogs don't make it to the South Pole by Hans Olav Thyvold,
Decided to give it up as felt it was trying too hard for the feel good vibes. I was rather taken with the idea of the book but as it's a library book I don't feel bothered to continue. I picked this from the library shelves when browsing, rather taken by the cover and that it was a Norwegian novel.
It seems to be the first fiction by the writer who otherwise has written bios of Amundsen, Thor Heyerdahl & Fridtjof Nansen, another Polar explorer.

Current reads:
The Lost Bookshop by Evie Woods - mildly holding my interest
Everyone in my family has killed someone by Benjamiin Stevenson - Aussie crime
October, October by Katya Belen - should really leave this till next month!
The Jungle is Neutral by F. Spencer Chapman

Not really far into any of these and might start on The Killer Angels as well for my e-read. Also need to find a slim paperback to keep in my handbag.

Noticed that my Thingaversary has gone by 2 days ago. 17 years on LT. I can order some books!
My son wanted a few books and I topped up an order so we got free postage - the package came this morning -
My books:
The Memory of Babel Mirror Visitor Quartet book #3 - by Christelle Dabos
The Storm of Echoes Mirror Visitor Quartet book #4 - by Christelle Dabos
The Oxenbridge King by Christine Paice - unusual plot that took my fancy
Table for Two by Amor Towles
The Water Margin: Outlaws of the Marsh by Shi Naian
maybe I'll order a few more books, not sure as yet.

Library books picked up today:
Your presence is mandatory by Sasha Vasilyuk
Glorious Exploits by Ferdia Lennon
Lies & Weddings by Kevin Kwong
Tomas Nevinson by Javier Marias - crime
On her own by Lihi Lapid - crime by the wife of Yair Lapid, ex Israeli PM

The Lost Bookshop is still ok so far. I've started Red Crosses as my son is annoyed that I took it out on his library card. Also started The Things We leave Behind by Claire Furniss & Drive your plow over the bones of the dead

Some recent kindle purchases for my Thingaversary -
A House Built on Sand by Tina Shaw - NZ writer
The Memory Keeper of Kyiv by Erin Litteken
Four Jewish Brides: A Novel by Liora Ayalon
My Childhood by Maxim Gorky

Pre-orders:
Buried Deep and Other Stories by Novik, Naomi
Three Wild Dogs (and the Truth) by Markus Zusak

122) Woman, Life, Freedom created by Marjane Satrapi (2024)
graphic collaboration
An interesting look at the past few years of Iranian society and the brave women and young men who protested the repressive Iranian regime. There are a variety of collaborators and the editors are careful to note the freedom of voices from diaspora compared to those in Iran.

>47 avatiakh: I'm curious about Gorky's memoir. I have not read a lot by or about him.

>49 labfs39: He came up when I was reading about a friend of his whose books are too obscure and probably not translated, and now I don't remember who it was I was initially interested in. One of my sons is reading a lot of nonfiction history about Ukraine, Poland, Russia, the Middle East and also about Soviet propaganda, so I have been down a few rabbit holes of late looking at his booklists and which books I can help source. He also wants to read about China so I sent him your reading list as most of those books were recommended by LTers.
I don't think I've read anything by Gorky. I read a lot of Russian literature when I was in my late teens.

>29 avatiakh: I will have to look out for this author when I go on my book hunting expeditions. Kositsky is a new to me author.

>50 avatiakh: Which classes is your son taking that has him reading on these topics? It seems like our interests are similar. I hope he finds some books of interest on the China list. It began with my interest in the famine during the Great Leap Forward and expanded to the Communist and Cultural Revolutions. There's not a lot about the Chinese dynasties.

I read a few short pieces by Gorky in grad school, and most recently read about him in Troyat's biography of Chekhov, but haven't read a major work.

>51 figsfromthistle: I hope you find something by her.

>52 labfs39: My son is self taught, he hadn't been near a book for a long time but started reading when he taught himself Polish and wanted to read in Polish. His interest in China started years ago with The Three Kingdoms but now he's also interested in modern politics & propaganda. I was truly impressed when he read an 800+ page biography of Rasputin recently.
My middle son has been jolted into openly supporting Israel since October 07, he's a history & politics buff and has studied genocide in depth. While politics and religion can tear families apart, ours has bonded and become closer in the past year...not that we agree on everything.

I have some finished reading to comment on and have 4 books I'd like to finish before the end of September:
Red Crosses by Sasha Filipenko - library book
The Killer Angels by Michael Sharra - War Room read
The Maker of Heavenly Trousers by Daniele Vare - memoir of 1930s Beijing
A firehose of falsehood: the story of disinformation by Teri Kanefield - graphic nonfiction

others that have come in from the library that I'd like to read during October are:
On her own by Lihi Lapid - crime
Tomas Nevinson by Javier Marias - crime
My Roman Year by André Aciman - memoir

>50 avatiakh: I recently read his Life of a Useless Man and quite liked it. I won't say enjoyed it because one doesn't really "enjoy" Russian lit!

>53 avatiakh: An 800-page bio of Rasputin is indeed an accomplishment. Have you read Little Red Chairs? I found the comparisons between the fugitive Radovan Karadžić and Rasputin interesting. Has your son read Young Stalin by Sebag Montefiore? That was a very interesting read.

123) The Lost Bookshop by Evie Woods (2023)
fiction
A delightful read about a mysterious bookshop located in Dublin and the story of fated romance. There is a story from the past and how it impacts two people in the present. I slowly fell for the charm of this book.

124) The Iliad by Homer
classic
Penguin Classics, translator E. V. Rieu & narrated by Steve John Shepherd. I spent most of the year with this as my audiobook but I mostly listen to music at present so audiobooks have taken a back seat. I really loved listening to this story when I did switch it on. I read chapter summaries to refresh and also remember the many names of fighters.
Now have two audiobooks on the go - The Honey Guide by Richard Crompton, a crime novel set during the 2007 Kenyan elections & THe Magus by John Fowles.

>54 PaulCranswick: Good to know. I have pencilled in Gorky for next year.

>55 labfs39: I haven't read Little Red Chairs but am slow reading her Mother Ireland at present. I've wanted to read her Country Girls trilogy since I read her Girl.
Liam has jumped around in his reading of late - two by Tarek Osman, a couple on Israel including The War of Return which I'll read as well. He's also read a few by Ann Appelbaum & Timothey Snyder including both their recent publications.
He's taking time out to read about China with The generalissimo : Chiang Kai-shek and the struggle for modern China and plans to follow that up with another biography.

125) Everyone In My Family Has Killed Someone by Benjamin Stevenson (2022)
crime
Ernest Cunningham #1. An Aussie crime novel that I got out from the library as I have #2 Everyone on This Train Is a Suspect on my shelves. I was getting a little tired with the writing style but the wrap up at the end did make it almost worthwhile. The setting was a family reunion at a small ski lodge during a storm which did not conjure up Australia for me.

126) Sanctuary by Garry Disher (2024)
crime
Soo good. Another Aussie crime novel but this time by a masterwriter. Highly entertaining, I really like how Disher takes his petty criminals and makes them sympathetic to the reader as you hope everything works out for them. Two women meet in a rural town and both have a lot to hide.

127) Red Crosses by Sasha Filipenko (2017)
fiction
A Europa Edition which I picked from the library shelves. A good read. Alexander has moved to Minsk from Russia and is moving in to his apartment when he meets his new neighbour, an old woman who tells him she suffers from Alzheimer’s and wants to tell him her story before she forgets it all. Tatiana Alexeyevna's story spans the 20th century, she is also from Russia where she once worked for the NKVD and then spent 15 years in the Gulag.
Will look out for more by Filipenko though I don't think he's had any more of his work translated to English.

That was my September reading, though maybe there's a couple more that I've forgotten about.
I'm busy making beef cigarim and thought I'd found a good recipe though have had to improvise as the ingredients' list has mint, date syrup & chilli flakes but nowhere in the intstructions are they mentioned. Also the instructions mention beef stock & tomato paste which aren't on the ingredients' list! I've improvised and ended up with cigars that family is happy wth.
https://flaevor.com/beef-cigars-with-tahini-yoghurt/

128) Resistance by Mara Timon (2021)
fiction
City of Spies #2. I read the first book a couple of years ago and then found the sequel in a charity shop so have had it rattling around home for a while. I added it to TIOLI for a shared read and found it an entertaining read. Elisabeth is dropped into Occupied France near Caen in the lead up to the Normandy Landings to work with the French Resistance and try to find the traitor who betrayed the last radio operator. Quite exciting and I learnt a bit more about Rommel and London's Inns of Court's Devils Own regiment.

129) The Takedown by Lily Chu (2023)
romance
Quite an interesting read though not really my thing. Not sure how I came across it but I was first in line for the book when it was on order. The main character is a diversity consultant and it was a revelation to read about her work which was one of the main components of the story. The romance was smouldering in the background throughout but the story was more about family dynamics and Dee, herself.
Possibly will try another of her books when I need something light.

130) October October by Katya Balen (2021)
children's fiction
Carnegie (UK) Medal 2022. A really good read. October has just turned eleven, she lives a wild life in the woods with her Dad and is thriving. She doesn't want to have anything to do with 'the woman who is my mother' but when her father is hospitalised after an accident she must move in with her for the forseeable future. Her pet baby owl must go to an owl refuge, October must learn about buses, school, making friends and other ordinary aspects of citylife. It's overwhelming and difficult to cope and everywhere is 'the woman who is my mother'. I loved this and how mudlarking on the banks of the River Thames becomes the salvation of October is especially well done.

I don't have plans for October apart from reading what I've already made a start on and finish some library books. Make time for my own books is beginning to be a focus too.
Current reads:
The Magus by John Fowles - audio
The Honey Guide by Richard Crompton - audio loan -library
The Maker of Heavenly Trousers by Daniele Vare - 40pgs to go
The Paper Girl of Paris by Jordan Taylor - library
Royal Scandal by Aimee Carter - library
The Life Impossible by Matt Haig - library
Buried Deep by Naomi Novik - short story collection

I made one of my last trips to Jason Books in the CBD this last Saturday as they close the doors at the end of the year. I bought 4 books:
Held by Anne Michaels - lucky to get a used copy of this one
The Yellow Cross the story of the last Cathars 1290-1329 by Rene Weiss
Prisoners of hope: the silver age of Italian Jews 1924-1974 by Stuart Hughes - study of 6 Italian Jewish writers
French Tales by Helen Constantine

>58 avatiakh: Snyder's Bloodlands and Applebaum's Gulag: A History are two of my favorite history books. I'll add Generalissimo to my list.

>61 avatiakh: Red Crosses is going on the wishlist.

>65 avatiakh: October October sounds interesting. I'll look for a copy.

>60 avatiakh:, >61 avatiakh:, >63 avatiakh: & >65 avatiakh: All unfamiliar but all caught my eye, Kerry.

>68 labfs39: Yeah, Bloodlands has been read and recommended by two of my sons now, I still have to get to it.
The writer of Red Crosses is from Belarus but lives in Russia, so was interesting that he had his characters as Russians who had moved to Belarus. My husband's paternal grandmother was from Minsk so I'm always up to read a book set in this part of the world.

I had October October lying around here since I bought a copy when it was first published. The author has written some other good books. I really enjoyed October's reactions when she first comes to live in London, she was a wild child.
I have many great future reads on my shelves and yet I persist in reading mediocre stuff from the library.

>69 PaulCranswick: All good reads Paul.
I'm distantly related to Garry Disher, we share 4th great grandparents who came out to South Australia in 1839, my grandmother was a Disher. This was the main reason I started reading his books and now I read them as soon as my library gets them in.

131) The Maker of Heavenly Trousers by Daniele Vare (1935)
fiction
I got this book for my 2017 LTthingaversary from betterworldbooks and came across it when tidying up a few weeks ago. The title is part of the attraction to the book, it's a sign for a tailor's shop in Beijing that the narrator is given and hangs in his home.
The book is set in the 1900s to about 1919 in Beijing and is the story of a young correspondant, writer and collector of silks who lives outside of the European district in a traditional dwelling made up of pavilions. His household is run by the Five Virtues, servants from one family with names that translate as Exalted Virtue, Virtuous Moon, Mountain of Virtue, Ocean of Virtue and Pure Virtue. The book just magics up a lost time of China before revolutions and modernisation. The book is full of the most intriguing people.
He takes in a young girl of Italian parentage who becomes homeless, her father is away working for a railway company and she also spends time with a nearby Russian family.
Recommended.

>71 avatiakh: I have at least one on the shelves, Kerry, which is called Peace. Knowing that familial link will certainly make me want to read it more.

>72 avatiakh: Ooh, that sounds good too.

>72 avatiakh: I read that one years ago so I get to dodge that BB.

Sorry I have not kept up with you this year, Kerry, but I wanted to drop by to see how you are. I hope you have a terrific Tuesday!

>73 PaulCranswick: That's the second in his Paul Hirschhausen series, there are four good reads in this series. All stand alone stories about a lone policeman in a rural area, demoted from the city as he wouldn't play the game with the corrupt.
I have quite a few Aussie crime writers that I try to read. A few years ago we watched several tv series of 'Underbelly' which was dramatised true crime stories about major drug dealers in Australia and New Zealand. Was very compelling and we went on to watch the series set in the 1920s as well. I looked out our Underbelly dvds a few months ago intending to do a rewatch but Netflix & Viki dominate my screen time.

>74 labfs39: Penguin brought out a Modern Classics edition a few years back.

>75 alcottacre: Hi Stasia - I saw that you had been one of the few LTers to have read that one when I was looking to see if I had mentioned the title before.

So trying out a few reads to see if I want to continue:
The Paper Girl of Paris is a light WW2/present day YA book about a 16 year old girl who inherits her grandmother's Paris apartment that the family never knew about. When they travel to France and enter it, it's been closed like a time capsule and the girl starts to google translate her great aunt's notebook that she finds in one of the bedrooms. So two stories across time but neither is that compelling. I've read too many exciting resistance stories to be much taken with this. Cue Robert Muchamore's The Henderson Boys series for YA readers.

Royal Scandal is the second book about Evan, the illegitimate daughter of the King of England. I enjoyed the first one as it was quite different but in the first few pages I wonder if I want to enter this world again.

Living with our dead: On Loss and Consolation is a collection of essays and a French bestseller, so far a good read but on a subject that I usually don't tackle.

Maror by Lavie Tidhar - an Israeli crime novel that I started when I was in Bangkok last year. I read the first part and stalled on the second so I'm making an effort to get going again. I'm liking it a lot, my first by Tidhar.

Mother Ireland by Edna O'Brien - another set of essays, some autobiographical. Enjoying a slow read of this.

The Honey Guide by Richard Crompton - Kenyan crime novel, learning a little about the Maasai people.
...and a few others that I'm dipping into. I entered quite a few reads onto the TIOLI challenge so need to get going on some of them as well.
My Roman Year by Andre Aciman
Buried Deep: stories by Naomi Novik
The Life Impossible by Matt Haig

>76 avatiakh: I also have a few on the shelves, Kerry.,

Apart from Gary Disher, there is Jane Harper, Sarah Bailey, Helen Fitzgerald, Chris Hammer, Terry Hayes, Stephen M. Irwin, Camilla Noli, Malla Nunn, Peter Papathanasiou, Matt Reilly, Peter Temple.

Any obvious omissions from those I already have on the shelves, Kerry, and that you would recommend?

>68 labfs39: Talked a little with son - he likes to find recently published history books so many on my shelves have been ruled out as I like to read older histories, primary sources, biographies and autobiographies so there's that. He's also keen on reading about political propaganda. So while I'm happy with dusty books from the stacks, he's after the new and shiny.
He's keen to read a modern take on China but thought the Generalissimo would give him a good grounding. Today he picked up Syria: a modern history by David Lesch from the library.

I came to say hello and had to duck because of all the potential book bullets! So many titles I haven't heard of, and authors I've delayed reading. Looking at the books we share, I saw that I've read most of the mysteries and almost none of the other books that I already have on the shelf/kindle. It's a little intimidating! But thanks for all the new ideas.

The Garry Disher, Red Crosses and the Timon books all call to me. I will search them out.

>79 ffortsa: Hi Judy - thanks for visiting. I like reading lesser known writers and I also try to read Australian and New Zealand writers, so a different mix to some threads.
...I was in NYC a year ago last September, we flew out from JFK on that day of heavy rain and flooding, we were so lucky.

>80 BLBera: Hi Beth - Garry Disher is a really great crime writer, I've been a fan for some years now.
Red Crosses was a lucky find on the library shelves and Timon's book are light but entertaining.

Slowly reading the Novik short story collection and some other books so not rushing to completing anything at the moment.

I had a kitchen disaster yesterday, I was making chicken stock so we could have a favourite soup in the evening. Unfortunately I cut the head off a bunch of celery and didn't notice when I transfered it to the stockpot that I'd picked up two fresh limes, which boiled away in the stock for over 5 hours. Resultant soup has an extreme bitter taste that I can't doctor away, so we're having a great soup and then having to deal with a bitter aftertaste. Today has not seen any improvement in flavour.

132) Red Haze: Australians and New Zealanders in Vietnam by Leon Davidson (2006)
children/YA nonfiction
Davidson has written 3 nonfiction books on war, two on WW1 and this one on the ANZACs in Vietnam. His books have won a few awards and this is the first one I've read though I've intended to read them for some years.
An informative read that covered both sides of the war, explained New Zealand and Australia's reasons for following the US into Vietnam and also explained the growing peace process back in the home countries.

Read for Paul's War Room CHallenge: American follies

133) The Honey Guide by Richard Crompton (2013)
crime / audio

Detective Mollel #1. The story is set in Nairobi during the riotous run-up to the 2007 elections. Mollel, a Maasai, is investigating the death of a young Maasai woman, a street prostitute with ties to corrupt officials. Quite good, I listened to the audio. There are two other books featuring Mollel and I'll look out for them.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2007%E2%80%932008_Kenyan_crisis

134) We'll Prescribe You a Cat by Syou Ishida (2023 English)
fiction
A delightful read. There's a clinic for people needing treatment for anxieties, the entrance is in a hidden alleyway that only those who really want to find it can see. Each patient is prescribed a cat to look after for 10 days. Is the doctor a cat posing as a human? There's a sequel but not yet translated..

135) Buried Deep and Other Stories by Naomi Novik (2024)
short stories
Most of these stories are set in the worlds of her novels, so it's quite fun to revisit. Most have already been published in various anthologies over the years, so might not be new to avid fantasy readers. Some I really enjoyed and others less so.

136) The life Impossible by Matt Haig (2024)
fiction
I always pick up Haig's latest work, though now I use the library rather than buying. This one is set on Ibiza, a place that Haig knows well having lived there. An older woman inherits a small house on the island from a long ago friend.
Story was just ok and has scifi elements.

137) Midnight and Blue by Ian Rankin (2024)
crime
Inspector Rebus #25. One of my favourite crime series. Rebus is retired and in jail waiting for his lawyers to do their job and get him out. In the meantime his colleague, Clarke, is investigating a missing person, and then there is also a murder in the cell opposite to Rebus.
Rebus, being ex-police, needs protection as there are several hardened crims in his block that he's put inside. Really well done once again.

138) Zevi Takes the Spotlight by Carol Matas (2024)
YA
This is an Orca Currents book for older children with low reading age. I've enjoyed other Matas books, she writes about the experiences of Jewish children during World War 2. This one is more contemporary, about a film crew coming to town and Zevi, who has pyschic abilities, helps save the life of the star actor.


139) EchoStar by Melinda Salisbury (2024)
YA
A Barrington Stoke book for reluctant and dyslexic readers. About a school girl who uses an experimental AI app to help her do well in class, but the app also starts to interfere in her personal life.
There's a sequel where the mother brings home an Alexis-like AI helper.

That was my October reading, I also started a number of books that I didn't finish, some I hope to, others are DNF.
Max in the house of spies by Adam Gidwitz (2024) - children's book set in WW2, Max is a kindertransport child with two unexpected traveling companions, one on each shoulder, a kobold and a dybbuk. This was a DNF as I couldn't deal with the conversations Max was having with these two, just not my thing and too juvenile. I really liked the idea of the book but life is too short.

Plans for November are mainly set around library books and TIOLI challenge. There's a challenge for books I've started before August but not completed, plenty of contenders for this one. Lots of books on my list, hopefully I can get through most.

TIOLI:
The Ledge - Christian White
Belzhar - Meg Wolitzer
The Best Witch in Paris - Lauren Crozier - Text Prize Winner 2023
The Story Spinner - Barbara Erskine
The Seas of Morning - Geoffrey Trease
St Michael and the Dragon - Pierre Leulliette
The Thinking Heart - David Grossman
Calypso Dreaming - Charles Butler
Defiant - Brandon Sanderson
Maror - Lavie Tidhar
A Provincial Newspaper and Other Stories - Miriam Karpilove
Second Hand Smoke - Thane Rosenbaum
The good soldier Schweik - Jaroslav Hašek
The Secret Battle - A.P. Herbert
Under fire : The Story of a Squad - Henri Barbusse
Silver People - Margarita Engle
Precipice - Robert Harris
The Valley - Chris Hammer

Currently reading:
The Valley & The Best Witch in Paris

140) The Ledge by Christian White (2024)
crime
The twist towards the end saved this one. Four school boys take an oath to secret away a deadly crime but a couple of decades later a body is found. The book alternates between the present and the past as written in a diary from the time. My third book by Christian White and worth looking out for the ones I missed.

I am quite far behind so I am just going to say hello :)

>93 figsfromthistle: *waves* to Anita

141) The Best Witch in Paris by Lauren Crozier (2024)
children's
This won the Text Prize 2023. I learnt that the Text Prize for Young Adult and Children's writing is being discontinued and this year's winner will be published in 2025 and that will be it. I've enjoyed reading the winners, only have a couple I've not read as yet.
This is a quite delightful story about witches, their familiars and magic.

>90 avatiakh: Too bad Max in the House of Spies wasn't very good. I think you liked The Inquisitor's Tale.

>91 avatiakh: I'll look forward to your impressions of Under Fire, as I've had it on my wishlist since reading a review by Steven03tx back in the day. Do you know what happened to him?

>96 labfs39: The Max book was quite good apart from those two little people on the shoulders, I should have kept reading maybe. Just overwhelmed by library books at present.

Just now requested Under Fire as an ebook from the library. I'm behind with reading as my two current reads are lacklustre.

Taking back to the library today - Precipice by Robert Harris & Cherrywood by Jock Serong. I want to read both but not able to at present. Precipice is a day overdue.

Paku Manu Ariki Whakatakapōkai by Michaela Keeble (2023)
picturebook
This won the New Zealand Picture Book of th Year Award (2024). I'm not a fan of this one. The title is the boy's name and the text is actually in English though most people seeing it in the bookshops will assume it is a Maori language book as did I.
What I don't like (at all) is that the child says he's Maori like his father, the mother being Pakeha (white) doesn't count. The boy also wants to take back all the land from the English and will help his father do this. I don't know how such a political book that belittles one parent of a child could be considered of the quality to win the award. Books like this will continue to divide us into us and them instead of embracing the boy's heritage. Btw there is no official definition for being Maori, if you have a few drops of Maori blood then you can identify as Maori and join your iwi (tribe) then claim all the privileges - educational scholarships, priority for healthcare etc.
Judge & reviewer comments: "wildly different and original", "just straight-up heartwarming", 'book is relevant because it's for kids who may not find their experiences in other books.'

NB: The Waitangi Tribunal (Māori: Te Rōpū Whakamana i te Tiriti o Waitangi) is a New Zealand permanent commission of inquiry established under the Treaty of Waitangi Act 1975. It is charged with investigating and making recommendations on claims brought by Māori relating to actions or omissions of the Crown, in the period largely since 1840, that breach the promises made in the Treaty of Waitangi. $2.2 billion has been paid out in settlements so far.
Some claims are controversial such as the claim for the entire foreshore & seabed of New Zealand, our air, our water etc etc.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/rotorua-daily-post/news/maori-claim-airspace-and-wate...
https://newsroom.co.nz/2024/05/03/maori-win-customary-title-over-tokomaru-bay-on...
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/politics/government-moves-to-overturn-court-of-app...

Once a tribe wins a settlement for coastal sites, they mostly close off access to non-Maori. I remember an English friend who was married to a Maori guy. She could not go to some places with her husband and children as she wasn't Maori. At the time it was a passing comment but as we've become more divided and political, I'm more and more reminded of this sort of situation for families here.

>92 avatiakh: That one goes on my Hitlist, Kerry. I am just finishing The Dark Lake by Sarah Bailey and it is enjoyable if not exactly groundbreaking.

>99 PaulCranswick: I'm getting a little bogged down with The Valley, another Aussie crime novel. I'm getting tired of the split timeline which has been a feature in several crime novels of late. This time I'm enjoying the present but the back story is a bit boring.

>100 avatiakh: Yeah it does seem a trend that is becoming overused. It also features in Sarah Bailey's book but it doesn't intrude too much on the story.

Midnight the story of a light horse by Mark Greenwood (2014)
illustrated story
A True Story of Loyalty in World War I. Based on a true story of the Hunter Valley, NSW, Haydon family and one of their horses, Midnight. The family was known for breeding magnificant horses and Midnight was from superb stock. He accompanied Guy Haydon to the Middle East during WW1 and was killed during the Charge of Beersheba on 31 October 1917. Guy was badly wounded but recovered.
An interesting story though I was a bit thrown by the death of Midnight and not sure how children would appreciate this one. It is a true story and there is a section at the end showing photographs of Guy and Midnight.
I enjoy reading these stories of the light horse from Australia and New Zealand that served in Egypt & the Levant. The Charge of Beersheba is considered to be the last great cavalry charge in history. The horses had to be left behind when the ANZAC soldiers returned home, some were taken by the British Army but many were sold to Egyptians and ended their days sadly as carthorses etc. Some soldiers shot their horses rather than leave them to this fate.
The Lost War Horses of Cairo: The Passion of Dorothy Brooke is about an Englishwoman who established a charity, Brooke. 'Dorothy Brooke's compassion for war horses abandoned in 1930s Egypt has made Brooke the world's leading equine charity.'

I have another book out from the library, The Last Light Horse by Dianne Wollfer. The blurb says 136,000 Australian horses were sent to fight during WW1, only one came home.
A couple of years ago I read a YA story about a young soldier whose horse bolts as they are boarding the ship for Egypt. The story follows the horse's journey returning to the family farm and the soldier's experience of war. I'll have to look up the title but I very much enjoyed it.

Under the Bodhi Tree: A Story of the Buddha by Deborah Hopkinson (2018)
picturebook
In simple text Hopkinson tells the story of Siddhartha and how he grew to be Buddha. The artwork uses a lovely palette of subtle greens, the illustrator is Kailey Whitmoor.

Writer info: Deborah Hopkinson has a master's degree in Asian Studies from the University of Hawaii at Manoa, where she studied the role of women in 13th-century Japanese Buddhism. She lived in Honolulu for 20 years and practiced Zen Buddhism with the late Roshi Robert Aitken, founder of the Diamond Sangha and Buddhist Peace Fellowship.

Looks like she's written a number of interesting nonfiction books for children.

142) Belzhar by Meg Wolitzer (2014)
YA
One from my stacks, I've owned it since forever and one of those books that catch my eye and make me feel guilty for passing it by so often.
Set in a boarding school for emotionally fragile teenagers, a small group are chosen for a special topic study of Sylvia Plath's The Bell Jar. While writing in their journals each one is magically transported back to their life just immediately before their trauma and get to relive a few hours of a happier time. Eventually they deal with their problems and start participating in the real world just as they complete their journals.
Quite different from much I've read, teens would probably enjoy this one

Priority reading at present is The Seas of Morning by Geoffrey Trease, an interlibrary loan that is due back in a few days.
Also currently reading Beirut Station & The Valley.

>105 avatiakh: I have Trease's Cue for Treason on the shelves. Enjoyed reading him as a child.

>106 PaulCranswick: I read that one about three years ago. I didn't come across him as a child but have collected his work when I came across it in used bookshops in the past. I had The Seas of Morning in an online shopping basket but it had already sold and when I researched the book, found it to be quite scarce and so decided to get it as an interloan before it got culled from the National Library.

>102 avatiakh: The repatriation of Australian war horses is similar to an ongoing issue here with military K9s. There was a big dustup when the US withdrew from Afghanistan about whether the military dogs were left behind. The DoD says it brought home all its dogs, but many contract dogs were left despite efforts to retrieve them. This is a big change from the US policy in Vietnam, when the DoD classified dogs as equipment, and almost all were left behind.

>108 labfs39: The bond between soldier and their dog is so special, I can't believe they were left behind. I'm seeing several posts in my 'X' feed of Israeli military K9 lying on hospital beds, refusing to leave their wounded soldier. Many dogs were killed/wounded in booby trapped tunnels in Gaza.

The sad thing about the lighthorse is that the soldiers signed up with their own horse, so they were already bonded for several years on the farm before leaving for Egypt.
I might start a list of books featuring military animals.

>109 avatiakh: I might start a list of books featuring military animals.

Here are ones I have read or own:
Paws of Courage: True Tales of Heroic Dogs that Protect and Serve by Nancy Furstinger
Dogs of Courage: When Britain's Pets Went to War 1939-45 by Clare Campbell
Judy: The Unforgettable Story of the Dog Who Went to War and Became a True Hero by Damien Lewis

143) The Seas of Morning by Geoffrey Trease (1974)
children's fiction
A good read set around the time of the 1522 Siege of Rhodes. Young Richard wants to join the Knights Hospitallers but he's too young and it involves years of training. His merchant father suggests that he travels to Rhodes to decide if he really wants to devote his life to the order. He'll also gain valuable experience for the family business if he joins his father in the merchant trade when he returns. Richard ends up in Constantinople hoping to rescue his new friend, a kidnapped pilgrim girl from becoming a slave.

Apropos our discussions on good Antipodean crime novels I came across this site which discusses some of the recent releases. I have heard of some of the authors and their books but am unfamiliar with others.

Have you read many/any of the ones listed:

https://murdermayhemandlongdogs.com/aussie-crime-2024-recent-australian-crime-no...

>112 PaulCranswick: Interesting, I sometimes use https://www.austcrimefiction.org/ but mainly rely on the newly released shelf at my local bookshop and follow publishers and writers on 'X'.
I got a copy of Everyone On This Train Is A Suspect when it was being promoted but haven't read it yet because I read his previous book, Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone, first.
I've read all of Chris Hammer's books except for The Seven, tried it but just didn't gel with the story, I'm currently reading his most recent book, The Valley.
Just tried the first book of Gabriel Bergmoser, was a little too violent so haven't sought out his others.
Will take note of Dinuka McKenzie’s The Torrent.
Read a few of Jack Heath, his Timothy Blake series but not his Kill your husbands. I see he has a 4th Timothy Blake book, I might try that.
I read both of Shelly Burr's books earlier this year, really enjoyable.
The others I might have seen but I generally like to read all of one writer as I discover them, so still making my way.

144) Beirut Station by Paul Vidich (2023)
thriller
Set in Beirut in 2006, this follows a young Lebanese-American woman who is CIA. Her mission is to participate in the assassination of a Hezbollah commander. Quite the compelling read with some on the mission with other ideas of revenge so who can you truly trust.

>110 labfs39: Thanks, I'll have a go in a couple of days.

145) The Valley by Chris Hammer (2024)
crime
Ivan Lucic and Nell Buchanan #4. I didn't get on with The Seven and only after starting this one do I realise that it was part of the series so I'll go back and try again.
Ivan and Nell are sent in to a rural settlement to investigate a murder. There are flashbacks to events and people, loosely linked to the place, and this again proves personal to Nell. I was hohum on this one too, mainly due to the flashbacks but once the story started to come together I raced through the last 150pages real fast. Enjoyable Aussie crime.

My weekend reading will include St Michael and the Dragon, A Provincial Newspaper and Other Stories & Under fire : The Story of a Squad. I have a couple of graphic novels out from the library as well.

Picked up an interesting children's book from the library today, I had read about it somewhere, a giant graphic nonfiction book full of imaginative, wacky ideas about unused parts of our cities. Ultra Wild: an audacious plan to rewild every city on Earth by Steve Mushin. Will be one I browse instead of reading every detail.

I've decided to pick up this epistolary YA as an extra read. It has a lovely cover design which flows over to the sides of the book, so you end up with a very special item indeed.

>117 avatiakh: I look forward to your impressions of Under Fire.
>118 avatiakh: What a beautiful book.

China -General History
Great state : China and the world- Timothy Brook
Rebel Island: The incredible history of Taiwan - Jonathan Clements

-Late Qing Dynasty
Imperial twilight the opium war and the end of China's last golden age - Stephen R. Platt
Autumn in the heavenly kingdom China, the West, and the epic story of the Taiping Civil War - Stephen R. Platt
Empress Dowager Cixi - Jung Chang

-Republic of China
Yuan Shikai: A Reappraisal - Patrick Fuliang Shan
Sun Yat-sen - Marie-Claire Bergère
Victorious in defeat : the life and times of Chiang Kai-shek, China, 1887-1975 - Alexander Pantsov
The Generalissimo: Chiang Kai-shek and the Struggle for Modern China - Jan Taylor
The last empress : Madame Chiang Kai-Shek and the birth of modern China - Hannah Pakula
Forgotten ally China's World War II, 1937-1945 - Rana Mitter
The rape of Nanking the forgotten holocaust of World War II - Iris Chang
The struggle for Taiwan : a history - Sulmaan Wasif Khan

-Maoist China
Mao: The Real Story - Alexander Pantsov
Zhou Enlai : the last perfect revolutionary : a biography - Gao Wenqian
Deng Xiaoping : a revolutionary life - Alexander Pantsov
Tragedy of liberation : a history of the Chinese revolution 1945-1957 - Frank Dikötter
Mao's great famine the history of China's most devastating catastrophe, 1958-62 - Frank Dikötter
The cultural revolution : a people's history, 1962-1976 - Frank Dikötter
China after Mao the rise of a superpower - Frank Dikötter
The People's Republic of amnesia : Tiananmen revisited - Louisa Lim

-Xi Jinping
Party of one : the rise of Xi Jinping and China's superpower future - Chun Han Wong
The Red Emperor : Xi Jinping and his new China - Michael Sheridan
The China nexus : thirty years in and around the Chinese Communist Party's tyranny - Ben Rogers
Overreach: How China Derailed Its Peaceful Rise - Susan L. Shirk
China's good war : how World War II is shaping a new nationalism - Rana Mitter
Chip War: The Fight for the World's Most Critical Technology - Chris Miller

>119 labfs39: Thanks, I've barely scratched the first page so far on Under Fire. The Sally Nicholl's book is indeed beautiful, I love her books but sadly this one is from the library so I only get it to enjoy for a few days.
Above is my son's China book list, he wanted your opinion on his choices, whether he's missed any writers. Which are worth prioritising.

The Happiest Hanukkah by Ivor Baddiel (2024)
picturebook
Yes, this is the brother of David Baddiel. A simple story about a happy family celebration of Hanukkah. The children are very young and hear the story about the Maccabees for the first time, the girl aches to be able to light the first candle.


Beanie the Bansheenie by Eoin Colfer (2024)
illustrated story
Sweet story about a young banshee or as the young are called bansheenie. Beanie falls into the water as she is birthing so misses the chance to bond with her human, this means she has a different type of bond with Rose.

>120 avatiakh: Ooh, thanks for sharing this. I've bookmarked it to add to my own list of China want-to-reads.

I love Frank Dikötter's writing and highly recommend Mao's Great Famine and The Cultural Revolution, which I'm half way through. Two books I would also recommend are Hungry Ghosts by Jasper Becker, if he's interested in another book about the famine, and Wild Swans by Jung Chang. The latter is a memoir of the author's grandmother, mother, and herself, and covers the history of 20th century China in a well-researched yet personal way.

146) Yours from the Tower by Sally Nicholls (2024)
YA
A delightful epistolary novel that is mostly the correspondence between three girls who've just graduated from their Victorian boarding school. One goes home to her family and begins work as a junior teacher at an orphanage, one heads to London as the poor cousin for the Season, looking for a rich titled husband so to help her four younger sisters into marriage when they reach marriageble age. The third friend is now a companion to her strict grandmother in a rural Scottish viillage with no young people in the vicinity.

This morning I went to a different library in a nearby suburb and found they had a sale table:
Shakespeare x3 - Richard III, Taming of the Shrew & Hamlet.
35 knitted animals by Donna Wilson - very quirky
Diary of an ordinary schoolgirl by Margaret Forster
The Battles of World War I: everything you need to know by Christopher Catherwood
Cry, the beloved country by Alan Paton - already read this but might have a reread
The Parthenon Bomber by Christos Chrissopoulos - novella
We see everything by William Sutcliffe - YA dystiopian involving drones

147) A Provincial Newspaper and Other Stories by Miriam Karpilove (2023 English))
novella & stories

What a surprise to pick up this book which I bought earlier this year and find on the first page of her recollection, 'My Three Years in Eretz Israel', mention of my father-in-law arriving as a young child to Tel Aviv, with his parents on their return to their home country. Karpilove travelled with her brother & his wife (who was also their cousin) to make aliyah but their attempt was not successful and they returned to the US after about three years. My husband's grandparents were returning to Israel with their son, and maternal grandfather (Karpilove's uncle) who had left Minsk in the early 1920s for the US to visit his children and now vowed to live out his remaining days in Jerusalem.
The story is only of their first few days in Tel Aviv but is great for all that with vivd descriptions of their hotel, the various vendors selling their wares and services, those looking for newly arrived Americans as investors for real estate schemes. Karpilove tells the story of Becky, her cousin now sister-in-law, growing up in Minsk and how Becky came to marry her cousin, a grieving widower. Precious family details for my husband.

The story, A Provincial Newspaper, is novella length and is based on Karpilove's own experience working away from New York in a smaller city, possibly Boston, on a new Yiddish newspaper. She's enticed in with promises and goes despite the low wage offered, but ends up overworked, doing far more than she expected. Being a woman, she's not even given her own office or even a desk. The owner is a Mr Rat and aptly named as almost everyone at the office despises him after a few short weeks.

The rest of the book is a series of very short stories she wrote for The Forward in the 1930s, all very entertaining.

148) For Thy Great Pain Have Mercy On My Little Pain by Victoria MacKenzie (2023)
historical fiction

Not sure how I came across this book but it was a great read. Margery Kempe and Julian of Norwich were the first women to write about themselves and their visions of Christ. Kempe's autobiography is the first known to be written by either man or woman. Their manuscripts have not been lost to time.
The book tracks back and forward between the two women and their visions, culminating in their meeting in 1413. Julian was an anchoress, a term I had not come across before. She chose to be isolated into a room on the side of the church and lived out her life without ever leaving the room or touching anyone. She gave counsel through a covered window to those who came seeking help. Although Kempe birthed many children, her life seems to have been taken up mostly with her visions and she traveled across England seeking help, she fights off several attempts to accuse her of heresy.
This book brings their stories to life and that makes it well worth looking out for.

I have a few more books to try and get read before the end of the month.
So currently reading:
Defiant by Brandon Sanderson
Under Fire by Henri Barbusse
Calypso Dreaming by Charles Butler
The Thinking Heart by David Grossman

I'm looking through my shelves to locate books for Paul's 2025 European Reading Challenge. Choosing books to read is the fun part, I don't always get the reading done.
The Sorrow of Belgium by Hugo Claus
War and Turpentine by Stefan Hertmans
The Emperor of Lies by Steve Sem-Sandberg
The Aenied by Virgil
The Prague Cemetery by Umberto Eco
Jakob the Liar by Jurek Becker
The Case of Sergeant Grischa by Arnold Zweig
The stories old towns tell: A Journey through Cities at the Heart of Europe by Marek Kohn
The Murderess by Alexandros Papadiamantis
The Kill by Emile Zola

149) The Thinking Heart: on Israel and Palestine by David Grossman (2024)
nonfiction
A slim volume of short essays, speeches and articles by Grossman from the past few years finishing with an essay on Israel after October 07 and then a touching poem.
Grossman is on the political left and has always hoped for a peaceful solution for Israel and her neighbours. He is sorely tested first by Netanyahu's government and then by the events of October 07 and the aftermath.

I also have Israel Alone by Bernard-Henri Lévy out from the library which looks at global responses to October 07.

150) Calypso Dreaming by Charles (Catherine) Butler (2002)
YA
This one held up my other November reads as I tried to decide if I should finish it or not. I thought I would be getting a magical type read, but no this one had dystopian horror elements that did nothing for me. I've had the book on my shelves for a long while and picked it out for the TIOLI challenge for a title with a musical term. Anyway I stuck with it today, it is finished and already on the pile of books that are leaving the house.
Butler is a Professor of Children's Literature in the UK and she was a helpful poster on a childlit listserv I was on, so reading one of her books was always going to happen. Her academic book Four British fantasists : place and culture in the children's fantasies of Penelope Lively, Alan Garner, Diana Wynne Jones, and Susan Cooper is also on my shelves.

Now reading Living with our dead: On Loss and Consolation by Delphine Horvilleur which is a library book that got checked in on one of my visits to the library so its current status is available and on the shelves at my local library rather than checked out to me, so I better get on with reading it.

Also started my read of Hotel Florida: Truth, Love, and Death in the Spanish Civil War by Amanda Vaill and continuing with Under Fire by Henri Barbusse.
Other library books started too, a novella Monumenta by Lara Haworth & Chosen for Children by Marcus Crouch.

151) Monumenta by Lara Haworth (2024)
novella
Strange read. A Serbian widow receives notification that her home is being requistioned by the government and will be replaced by a monument to the massacre. What massacre, seems to have been a few, and why her home. She calls her two adult children home for a final meal amidst visits by shady government officials and three architects who each have different ideas on how a memorial should look. I liked the idea of this though the characters all seemed a little weird.

>116 avatiakh: I will read my first Chris Hammer book in December.

>132 PaulCranswick: Hope you like it.
I picked up No one will know by Rose Carlyle from the library today. The book is set in Tasmania.

152) Living with our dead: On Loss and Consolation by Delphine Horvilleur (2021 French) (2024 English)
nonfiction
Horvilleur is a French rabbi and this quietly observant book is filled with reflections and stories on dealing with death and celebrating life. Well worth seeking out a copy.

Some recent acquisitions:
From amazon.au Black Friday specials to include with a book for my son -
Tiananmen Square by Lia Wen - historical novel
The Full Moon Coffee Shop by Mai Mochizuki
Cherrywood by Jock Serong

from Hard to Find Bookshop -
(I sold a couple of bags of culled books and received $100 credit)
A friend of Kafka: stories by Isaac Baashevis Singer
Life with a star by Jiri Weil - very nice edition
The Magic Barrel:stories by Bernard Malamud

Jason Books -
Last time in shop before it closes doors, said goodbye to Maud the owner for 35 years.
Very sad to visit.
The Tomo by Mary Ann Scott - NZ YA
Days of Innocence and Wonder by Lucy Treloar - Australian fiction
Idol by Louise O'Neill

Lucky Bookshop - outlet of Scholastic NZ
Kidnap at Mystery Island by Carol Garden - NZ childrens
The Imagination Chamber by Philip Pullman

Charity Bookshops in Howick:
A soldier's tale by M. K. Joseph - read many years ago, thought I'd reread
The Volcano by Venero Armano
House of Gold by Natasha Solomons
The Book of Pearl by Timothee de Fombelle - YA

Library Books:
Murder at the Castle: Miss Merkel Mystery 1 by David Safier - Angela Merkel becomes a sleuth in retirement
A case of matricide by Graeme Macrae Burnet
Thunder City by Philip Reeve - YA, a new Mortal Engines book
Only this beautiful moment by Abdi Nazemian - YA

153) Israel Alone by Bernard-Henri Lévy (2024)
nonfiction
Published by 'Wicked Son' a PostHillPress imprint for challenging Jewish books. Lévy addresses the aftermath of October 7 and how the global response changed from a few days of initial sympathy on the bloodbath to an 'Israel is attempting a genocide on Gaza' stance. How college students in Western countries take the side of the terrorist group, Hamas, rather than sympathise with the young people slaughtered at a music festival.
Lévy reflects on past times and his own work to try and fathom how the world's response is still so hostile to Israel and Jews in general. How antisemitism has exploded since October 7 and why Western governments have allowed it all to happen.
A really thoughtful read.
I have bookmarked Claude Lanzmann's 1973 documentary, Pourquoi Israël (Israel, Why) to watch on youtube as well as taken note of several French writers.

One and a half million buttons: A Tribute to the Lost Children of the Holocaust compiled by Joy Cowley (2019)
picturebook
Back in 2008 Moriah School in Wellington, New Zealand started a project to collect one and a half million buttons to represent all the lost children of the Holocaust. It took until 2010 to collect the buttons, many came from important people such as politicians, writers and those with ties to the Holocaust. While there were moves on how to display in an appropriate way for children to understand the significance of the collection, the school had to close in 2012 due to the small number of pupils. The button collection was moved to the Holocaust Centre and again decisions had to be made on the display which it was decided needed to be a travelling memorial.
Children's writer and a patron of the project, Joy Cowley, has written about the project and the importance of what needs to be remembered.

154) The Good Soldier Schweik by Jaroslav Hasek (1921)
fiction
My 1937 Penguin edition is for the first three books. I enjoyed this quite a lot. Schweik causes a lot of disruption within the ranks as he travels from place to place and in his simple way keeps getting into trouble with those he meets both in and out of uniform.

155) Chronicles of a Lizard Nobody by Patrick Ness (2024)
children's
I only read this children's book as it's by Patrick Ness whose books I enjoy. This one is firmly juvenile and is set in a classroom filled with a variety of animal pupils. The three lizards are made hall monitors and come across the school bully, Pelicarnassus, a pelican with a supervillain mother. First in a series and quite fun for children.

More pick ups from Howick's library sale:
A thousand shades of blue by Robin Stevenson - YA, sailing in the Bahamas
In Other Lands by Sarah Rees Brennan - YA fantasy
The History of Bees by Maja Lunde
The Women in the Castle by Jessica Shattuck - post WW2 Europe
The Sellout by Paul Beatty

I'm looking for my copy of The Abyssinian by Jean-Christopher Rufin. I have his The Siege of Isfahan on hand, but should read the Abyssinian first. No copies at the library or on kindle so I need to look harder. I pulled it off the shelf a year or so ago and it has been put into a box at some point when tidying up.

The Many Problems of Rochel-Leah by Jane Yolen (2024)
picturebook
Set on a Jewish shetl somewhere in 19C Russia, Rochel-Leah is determined to learn to read. Unfortunately it is not part of a girl's role in life to do this. Eventually she does learn thanks to the sympathetic rabbi and she goes on to become a teacher as times start to change.
A family story for Yolen, retold for a younger audience. Engaging and with sympathetic illustrations.

>140 avatiakh: I had planned to read The Abyssinian for the rebeccanyc tribute, but never seem to get to it. I finally reshelved it. If you love it, maybe I'll finally be inspired to read it.

>142 labfs39: Hoping to get to it towards the end of the month. Have made a start on another rebeccanyc tribute book, The End of Everything by Dovid Bergelson.

Have finished four books yesterday and will comment on the library books first so I can take them back this morning.

156) Murder at the Castle by David Safier (2024)
crime
Miss Merkel Mystery #1. What does Angela Merkel do once retired to a small village in the German countryside. While settling in to her new life out of politics, Angela ends up being in the middle of an unusual murder or suicide, followed by a second one the next day. Angela, her obliging husband and cake-eating bodyguard Mike must solve the mystery so they can go back to enjoying a quiet countryside retirement.
This is full of mild humour and Angela uses all the skills she's learnt over the years tackling politicians and dealng with heads of state. There's also her newly acquired pug, Putin. Overall this was mildly entertaining and not a series I'd rush to complete. I think there are a couple more entries yet to be translated from German.

157) Chosen for Children edited by Marcus Crouch (1977 3rd edition)
nonfiction
An account of the books which have been awarded the Library Association Carnegie Medal, 1936-1975. I saw this on the library catalogue and immediately requested it and have slowly been making my way through the book for the past couple of weeks. Each entry includes a short discussion on why the book was awarded the Carnegie Medal that particular year and the book's merits, followed by a short extract from the book and then the author writes about their inspiration for the book and how it came to be.
This was extremely interesting and reminded me of how good books i'd already read were and how much I'd enjoyed them. Also has me fired up to continue reading these earlier Carnegie (UK) Medal winners. I've requested two from the library to read in the New Year and have pulled The Little Grey Men out from my own stacks.

158) Lovely Green Eyes by Arnošt Lustig (2000)
Holocaust fiction

This one's been on my tbr list for a couple of years at the top of my thread, so I'm very happy to have read it. Hanka has lost her family in Auschwitz and she is able to survive due to her Aryan looks, lying about her age and by serving in an SS Brothel near the eastern front. The story does not focus on the lurid details of prostitution, rather about the conditions of that Hanka and the other women must survive in. The book jumps a little to include short post war clips where Hanka is confessing to a young rabbi and again when meeting the writer, who has fallen for her but needs to wait for Hanka to recover.

159) Hotel Florida: Truth, Love, and Death in the Spanish Civil War by Amanda Vaill (2014)
nonfiction

I bought this when it first came out but shelved it at the time as I'd read too much on the war and couldn't bring myself to read another book on the subject.
I found this quite interesting, VAill focuses on those who came to report or photograph the war and we see it mostly through the perspectives of Capa, his partner Gerda Taro, Hemingway & Gellhorn, Arturo Barea & Ilsa Kulscar. There are so many players in this war, and the book gives a good overview of Russian politiking and the censorship of stories so the world outside Spain does not really get to know the truth, it's embroidered to show that the beleagured government is holding its own right up until Barcelona and Madrid fall.

My current reading is mostly on my tablet as I try to finish several books I started through the year. Digital books are not my thing, though I do love the convenience of them for when I'm travelling or having to unexpectedly spend a few hours away from home.
Defiant by Brandon Sanderson - Skyward #4
Maror by Lavie Tidhar - crime
The End of Everything by Dovid Bergelson - Rebeccanyc tribute read

I also have the latest books by Garth Nix & Philip Reeve out from the library and am also reading An Eagle in the Snow by Michael Morpurgo.
I have a few other book I'd like to finish before the end of year, fingers crossed:
Drive your plow over the bones of the dead by Olga Tokarczuk - Anita tribute read
The Killer Angels by Michael Shaara - War Room
Under Fire by Henri Barbusse - War Room & Prix Goncourt

...and others, though would be happy if I can complete those i've mentioned above.

>144 avatiakh: Looks like it could be a humorous series. I will try the first one.

>149 figsfromthistle: It's worth trying the first one to see if the humour appeals

160) Defiant by Brandon Sanderson (2023)
YA, scifi
Skyward #4. The concluding book in the Skyward series. I've really enjoyed this series and yet, I stalled reading the last book for over a year after purchasing it with a pre-order several months before it came out. Anyway once I got back into the story I couldn't stop reading till I reached the satisfying end.
From Spensa's journey to become a spacefighter in book 1 to the overthrow of the Superiority in book 4 was great entry level scifi.

Not sure if I mentioned my two purchases from the weekend:
The Great When by Alan Moore - fantasy set in London
The Scholar and the Last Faerie Door by H.G. Parry - now I own 3 by Parry, so must start reading them
and yesterday spotted a new book by Isobelle Carmody and had to have it:
Comes the Night by Isobelle Carmody - YA fantasy.

I was also offered books to review by Gefen Publishing out of the blue, so have two to read (and quickly).
My Israeli Journey by Shaul Mofaz
Israel's War of Self Defense by Rabbi Alan Silverstein

Pulled out my copies of Robert Capa: the definitive collection & Gerda Taro: Inventing Robert Capa by Jane Rogoyska and looked through the photographs, many of which were described in Hotel Florida. Robert Capa started as a made up name, a collaboration of Taro & Capa before going to Spain, slowly Capa himself became the more famous part of the name though Taro's contribution was important.

My current read, Maror by Lavie Tidhar, is a really great noir novel. It's the modern history of Israel but told through the crime, corruption and gangs who control the streets. The title refers to the bitter herbs that are on the Passover seder plate. I started this over a year ago and then stalled on it when I finished the first part.

161) Maror by Lavie Tidhar (2022)
crime
I really enjoyed this novel and have lined up a couple more of his books at the library. The book jumps through many decades of crime, drugs and gang murder in Israel while in the background are pivotal events in the nation's history such as the Lebanon War. Characters pop in and out of the novel but always in the background is Cohen, a policeman who works with the criminals and also welds justice when necessary.
I've requested Adama & Six Lives, both look to be good and another, A Man Lies Dreaming, also appeals.

162) An Eagle in the Snow by Michael Morpurgo (2015)
children's
Another children's book from my shelves and another marvel from Morpurgo. The sympathetic illustrations of Michael Foreman are also quite wonderful. WW2 and Coventry has been bombed heavily. A young boy and his mother leave on a train to Cornwall as their home has been destroyed. Along the way the train is being straffed by an enemy aircraft, the train pauses in a tunnel to wait out the plane. A fellow passenger tells a story from WW1 to pass the time in the dark. It's an amazing story about a boy who loved to draw who went to war. The story is based on fact, Henry Tandey was a highly decorated soldier who could have shot Corporal Hitler in the last days of the war, but didn't because he couldn't bring himself to shoot a wounded soldier.
The story does not finish there.
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-28593256

From wikipedia: Lance Corporal Henry James Tandey VC, DCM, MM (born Tandy, 30 August 1891 – 20 December 1977) was a British recipient of the Victoria Cross, the highest award for gallantry in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to British and Commonwealth forces. He was the second most highly decorated British private of the First World War and is most commonly remembered as the soldier who allegedly spared Adolf Hitler's life during the first world war.

Current reads include:
Under Fire by Henri Barbusse
The End of Everything by Dovid Bergelson
The Kamogawa Food Detectives by Hisashi Kashiwai
Thunder City by Philip Reeve
We do not welcome our ten year old overlord by Garth Nix

>156 avatiakh: That one went immediately to my wishlist. Arresting cover.

>158 labfs39: Yes, I love the covers of Morpurgo's books. This one is quite a simple story and the bonus is that it recognises a WWI hero, though liberties have been taken.
Michael Foreman is Morpurgo's main illustrator and has done some marvellous ones on his own. I collected Morpurgo's books for a while and ended up not reading them all so I have at least another three to read, most are about war.

Library books picked up, I'll be reading these in the New Year:
Adama by Lavie Tidhar
The Great Swindle by Pierre Lamaitre - Prix Goncourt 2013 winner

Some great reading here as always, Kerry.

>136 avatiakh: The West does confound me, I must admit - they would rather make truck with those that despise them. Utterly self-defeating. I find some of the international reaction to Israel disgusting to be quite honest. One can have sympathy for the civilians caught up in Gaza and the obvious terror their lives are made of, without sympathizing with the terrorists or with the clear need of Israel to root them out and defeat them. Why are people not speaking of the hostages still there, if alive?

>138 avatiakh: That is a lovely retro cover.

>146 avatiakh: I read Lustig's book a number of years ago and thought it powerful.

>147 avatiakh: I will look out for that one.

>156 avatiakh: Morpurgo is a very reliable teller of stories such as these - I loved his books on WWI : Private Peaceful and War Horse.

Have a lovely weekend, Kerry.

>161 PaulCranswick: Hi Paul. Thanks for visiting. I must agree about the Western governments. Over a year in and the Victorians over in Australia are only now banning masks and Hamas & Hezbollah flags that have been present in most of the protest marches, and only because a synagogue got burnt. I'm stunned that governments haven't made a move against all the anti-Israel protests which have evolved to be anti-semitic hate marches.
I have a couple more books to read on this, though leaving them for the New Year.
I found Hotel Florida interesting, all the players from other countries becoming disillusioned with their comrades.
I found a few other Civil War reads while going through some boxes of books also my dusty old paperback of Hemingway's Death in the Afternoon. Wondering if I'll challenge myself to read all the tatty old boooks in my collection, I have a good number that I can't even put on my shelves yet the books are too scarce to replace.

I saw a new book by Morpurgo at the shops this afternoon, Cobweb, about the Battle of Waterloo by the looks of it.

I seem to be on a bit of a reading slurge, hopefully I can keep it up and get through a number of books i had hoped to read this year.

>162 avatiakh: Isn't there something splendid about reading a ragged old tome when you get used to the feel of it in your mitts and that unique booky smell of it in your nostrils?

>163 PaulCranswick: I felt that way when reading The Good Soldier Schweik, I wonder how many people had read my copy snce it was from 1937. I have piles of books everywhere at present as I'm sorting and cleaning shelves and looking through at possible 2025 reading. Great finds and also some to cull without comment.

163) Thunder City by Philip Reeve (2024)
YA
Another story set in the Mortal Engines World. A ripping yarn to read at pace, I loved going back into this world and it ends with the possibility of more to come.

164) We do not welcome our ten year old Overlord by Garth Nix (2024)
children's

A juvenile scifi read that children will enjoy, me, not so much. Anyway it was quite a good read but for kids. Kim's younger sister takes an object home from the lake that turns out to be some sort of alien sentience disguised as a worn out basketball. Quite a dramatic ending and interesting family dynamics.

165) The Red Towers of Granada by Geoffrey Trease (1966)
children's
Saw this on the shelf and took it down as it fits my TIOLI challenge to 'read a book with some tie to Spain'. Trease manages to give us a highly satisfying story set in 1290, one that educates about leprosy and Edward I's expulsion of the Jewish population from England. The young scholar, Robin of Westwood, who has been denounced as a leper by his village and cured by Solomon the Jew of the rash that caused his troubles, end up travelling together with Solomon's family to southern Spain on a secret mission for Queen Eleanor of Castile, wife of Edward I.
The illustrations by Charles Keeping are magnificent.

Library pickups:
The Republic by Plato - for son
Cry, Mother Spain by Lydie Salvayre
Witnessing the Holocaust: six literary testimonies edited by Judith Hughes
Six Lives by Lavie Tidhar

I spent time at the hairdresser this morning so dipped into a few books on my phone:
Brodeck's Report by Philippe Claudel
Uncle Petros and Goldbach's Conjecture by Apostolos Doxiadis
The Kamogawa Food Detectives by Hisashi Kashiwai

166) The Kamogawa Food Detectives by Hisashi Kashiwai (2013 Japanese) (2024 English)
fiction
I suppose you call these types of books 'Japanese Cozy'. So there's a rundown building housing a small restaurant with no signage in Kyoto, however determined people make their way there. People who remember a certain dish that holds memories for them, forgotten apart from sparse details. The father and daughter who run the restaurant take down details and then investigate and two weeks later recreate the dish for their customer. Each story is quite special and yes, there's a cat that's always trying to gain access to the restaurant.
Delightful and first in a series, next one is The Restaurant of Lost Recipes. Not sure if I need to keep reading these, just too 'cozy' for my taste buds.

I've been reading Under Fire but will put it aside as it is not cheerful Christmas fare. Will come back to it in the New Year.

167) Mother Ireland by Edna O'Brien (1976)
nonfiction
This has been a slow read for me over the past couple of months. Tucked into my handbag, I sometimes pulled it out and read a few pages. It's a nostalgic look at old Ireland and also a memoir of sorts of O'Brien's childhood. I loved parts and other parts were harder to read. The b&w photographs by Fergus Bourke are quite beautiful, showing a way of life that is in the past.

Currently reading:
mostly digital reads
Under Fire by Henri Barbusse - stalled till New Year

The End of Everything by Dovid Bergelson
Drive your plow over the bones of the dead by Olga Tokarczuk - Anita tribute read
The Killer Angels by Michael Shaara - War Room
Brodeck's Report by Philippe Claudel
Uncle Petros and Goldbach's Conjecture by Apostolos Doxiadis

if I need an easy read I'll restart the YA, The Poetry of Secrets by Cambria Gordon, mainly because it is set in Spain.

Thinking of you at this time, Kerry.

Happy 2025, Kerry.