Kerry (avatiakh) reads some books in 2025

Welcome to my 2025 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.

Currently Reading a bunch of fresh new reads:
When Angels Left the Old Country by Sacha Lamb
The Axeman's Carnival by Catherine Chidgey
Exodus: The Archimedes Engine by Peter F. Hamilton - audio - stalled
The Emperor of Lies by Steve Sam-Sandberg - stalled

My Category Challenge - https://www.librarything.com/topic/367189

1) English Children's Classics
2) Other Worlds: Fantasy & Scifi
3) Israeli Literature
4) The Grand Tour: European Literature
5) Focus Group: 3 writers
6) Clear the Shelves
7) Crime, mystery & thrillers
8) Young at Heart - YA & childrens
9) Reality: Nonfiction
10) New Zealand & Australian Literature
11) Exotic: Asian, Latin American & Middle Eastern Literature
12) Illustration: Graphic Novels, Manga etc

Goals for 2025
Each year I set a reading goal of around 150 books, this includes picturebooks though I don't count them here but do over on GR. I recorded 180 books read in 2024 at GR and 167 read here on my LT 75er thread.
So again for 2025 I'll set my reading goal at 150 books.
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Goals:
1) To finish books I've started in 2024 and before
2) Rereads - I want to reread a few books especially the Obernewtyn series and finally finish it.
Also the Sterkarm books by Susan Price, read the first one but not the other two, so start at the beginning again
3) Paul's Europe Challenge - try to read at least one book for each month
4) New to me fantasy writers - try at least one by Sarah Maas, H.G. Parry, Octovia Butler and Lev Grossman
5) New to me writers - Lavie Tidhar, after being impressed by his Maror & also Naomi Jacobs - my grandmother liked Jacobs' books so I hope to start her Gollantz Family Saga
5) English Children's Classics - I have lots of old paperbacks of Leon Garfield, William Mayne, John Christopher, Rosemary Sutcliff, Geoffrey Trease as well as my ongoing Carnegie (UK) Medal List.
6) Focus - I have lots of books by Mario Vargas Llosa so would like to read at least 5 of his books this year

plus a repeat of my unsuccessful 2022/3/4 goals which includes the books I vouched for over on the Club Read 2022's HOPE TO READ SOON: a tribute to Rebeccanyc. I now have all books on hand and I've started The End of Everything.
Aira, César. The Seamstress and the Wind
Bergelson, Dovid. The End of Everything
Rufin, Jean-Christophe. The Abyssinian
Rufin, Jean-Christophe. The Siege of Isfahan
The 2023 HOPE TO READ thread is here: https://www.librarything.com/topic/346710 - will check if this has been updated to 2025 Club Read group

Paul's Grand Tour of Europe challenge:
January : Prelude - Europe in the 19th Century (European Literature of the 19th Century)
February : The Journey Begins - A Wider Scandinavia (Books by authors from Iceland, Denmark, Norway, Sweden and Finland)
March : Into the Red Zone - Books from authors from Countries which were part of the Warsaw Pact)
April : Scimitar and Cross - Books from authors from European Countries within the Ottoman Empire
May : Interlude - Non National Languages - Books originally written in European languages that are not tied to a particular nation i.e. Yiddish, Regional languages such as Catalan, French, Spanish and Portuguese outside their borders including Latin America, Africa etc)
June : Caesar to Meloni - Books written originally in Latin or Italian.
July : The Germanic World - Books written by authors writing in German from Germany, Austria, Switzerland
August : Anita Fameulstee Memorial Month - Books by authors from the Benelux countries (Netherlands, Belgium. Luxembourg)
September : Interlude #2 - Books About Places in Europe (Travel, Non-fiction)
October : La Belle France - Books by Authors from France
November : The Iberian Peninsula - Books by Spanish and Portuguese authors
December : Welcome Back to the Future - Translated Literature in the 21st Century

Some books i'm considering:
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

Holocaust Literature Group

Holocaust Literature - A few 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 visited several Holocaust museums and memorials on my 2023 travels.
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so many worthy books I've still not read -
Brodeck's Report by Philippe Claudel - Reading
The Cap: The Price Of A Life by Roman Frister
If not now, when? by Primo Levi
Helga's Diary by Helga Weiss
A field of buttercups by Joseph Hyams
Guns and Barbed Wire by Thomas Greve

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

Current Focus:
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:
_
Under Fire by Henri Barbusse - stalled
The Great Swindle by Pierre Lemaitre

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 still to be read-

2024 Joseph Coelho The Boy Lost in the Maze
2021 Jason Reynolds Look Both Ways
2001 Terry Pratchett, The Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents - own
2000 Beverley Naidoo, The Other Side of Truth - own
1994 Theresa Breslin, Whispers in the Graveyard
1991 Berlie Doherty, Dear Nobody
1980 Peter Dickinson, City of Gold and Other Stories from the Old Testament
1976 Jan Mark, Thunder and Lightnings - READ 2025
1970 Leon Garfield & Edward Blishen, The God Beneath the Sea
1969 Kathleen Peyton, The Edge of the Cloud
1963 Hester Burton, Time of Trial - READ 2025
1961 Lucy M Boston, A Stranger at Green Knowe
1960 Dr IW Cornwall, The Making of Man
1959 Rosemary Sutcliff, The Lantern Bearers - own
1957 William Mayne, A Grass Rope - own
1953 Edward Osmond, A Valley Grows Up
1952 Mary Norton, The Borrowers - own
1949 Agnes Allen, The Story of Your Home
1947 Walter De La Mare, Collected Stories for Children
1942 ‘BB’ (D J Watkins-Pitchford), The Little Grey Men - own
1940 Kitty Barne, Visitors from London
1939 Eleanor Doorly, Radium Woman - READ 2025
1938 Noel Streatfeild, The Circus is Coming - own
1937 Eve Garnett, The Family from One End Street - own
1936 Arthur Ransome, Pigeon Post - own

January Reading Plans:

Ambitious as always -
TIOLI:
#1: Read a book which has a least one set of double letters in both the title and the author's name:
Henrietta's War - Joyce Dennys
The Killer Angels - Michael Sharra
The Storyteller - Mario Vargas Llosa
#5: Read a book by a new-to-you author NOT recommended by anyone
Singapore Black - Wiliam L. Gibson
#6: Read a book you acquired in December 2024 without paying for it
Adama (library) - Lavie Tidhar
The Husbands (library) - Holly Gramazio
No one will know (library) - Rose Carlyle
The Radium Woman: a life of Marie Curie (library) - Eleanor Dooley
Time of Trial (library) - Hester Burton
#7: Read a book that has either salt or pepper in the title
Shark's Fin and Sichuan Pepper: A Sweet-Sour Memoir of Eating in China - Fuchsia Dunlop
#9: Read a book F/NF about a forgotten or often overlooked woman in history
Theodora - Stella Duffy
#11: Read a book you acquired in January of 2025
Exodus: The Archimedes Engine - Peter F Hamilton
#12: The "Penny for Your Thoughts" Challenge
The One Dollar Horse - Lauren St John
#13: Life is short: read a short book
Darkness Visible (84pgs) - William Styron
The Practice, the Horizon, and the Chain (126pgs) - Sofia Samatar
#14: Read a book in which a title word begins or ends with an L or a T
The Great Swindle - Pierre Lemaitre
The Torrent - Dinuka McKenzie

Kerry, Where can I find the Holocaust Literary Group?

Happy 2025, Kerry

Great to see your thread up nice and early Kerry. One of my absolute favourite places to get book bullets.

>8 Whisper1: Hi Linda, the Holocaust group is here - https://www.librarything.com/ngroups/23593/Holocaust-Literature

>10 PaulCranswick: Hi Paul - hoping to get more set up but had to get dinner underway.

1) No one will know by Rose Carlyle (2024)
crime
Carlyle's books are very popular and widely promoted but for me, they are forgettable reads that just don't reach the level of a great crime read. I've now read her two books but won't read her next one.
This was set in Tasmania and featured a recently bereaved young woman who has just found out she's pregnant and thinks she's applying for a job as a nanny for a rich couple living on an isolated island.

Happy New Year Kerry! Looking forward to following your reading in 2025.

>3 avatiakh: You reminded me that I wanted to explore more books by Lavie Tidhar. I read one book by him which I didn't quite like, but thought he had great potential. Since I've somehow ended up with a lot of Audible credits, I picked up Maror on Audible.

Happy new year and happy reading, Kerry.

Welcome back, Kerry!

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One last look at my favourite Auckland used books shop which shut its doors at the end of 2024 after 55 years in business. Best wishes for the future to Maud and her family of booksellers. Now I'll be visiting the Hard to Find Bookshop more regularly for my used book cravings.

I hate to see bookstores and needlework shops close their doors. I hope you have a year of amazing reads!

Happy new thread, and

Happy New Year, Kerry!

>18 avatiakh: Looks like it was a wonderful bookstore. It is sad that many are closing. I found a used bookstore recently in the city I work by accident hidden away in the strangest spot. It is stacked with books on the floor, chairs, everywhere. A place to stay a while and hunt for the next hidden gem.

Anyhow, happy new year and happy reading in 2025!

>14 SandDune: Hi Rhian, thanks for visiting.

>15 arubabookwoman: Hi Deborah. I think Tidhar has developed into a good writer, he started out writing scifi and fantasy but has moved on to being fairly mainstream. I hope the audio narrator does a good job.

>16 EllaTim: Hi Ella, thanks for the visit. I've just read your 2025 thread. I started Tyll for Paul's War challenge but stalled early on, must get back to finish it.

>17 drneutron: Hi Jim. Hope you have a good reading year.

>20 quondame: Must get over to your thread.

>19 thornton37814: >21 figsfromthistle: Thanks for visiting. The book shop closed as the lease came to an end and Maud was unable to find suitable premises in the city with a sympathetic landlord. The lease had been with the Law Society and had obviously had benefits that in this current market are no longer possible. Most of our city centre will soon be full of Korean and Japanese eateries, bubbletea etc etc.
The Hard to Find Bookshop had the same relocating dilemma some years ago and were lucky to be offered a heritage building in Auckland Central by the Catholic Church. It's not quite as quirky as their previous premises but does have a great atmosphere.

>22 avatiakh: At least you still have an option.

>22 avatiakh: This bookshop has a premise similar to THE LOST BOOKSHOP.

>23 thornton37814: Yeah, there's that. Several of my favourite places have closed, the bookshops sometimes go online only. I wouldn't even know if there were any specialist knitting shops left in my area, I'd have to go across the harbour to the North Shore where there's a Wild n Woolly Yarns shop.
My local chinese supermarket closed midway through last year, but eventually we discovered it was for a renovation and they reopen next week.

>24 m.belljackson: I've read that book! Hard to Find was in a run down suburb for many years and the building was a former fruit shop. It was delightful with piles of books everywhere, lots of rooms, lots of steps & staircases, alcoves and a mezzanine circling the main area.

2) The Torrent by Dinuka McKenzie (2022)
crime
Kate Miles #1. Dinuka McKenzie was on a list of newish Australian crime writers that Paul shared with me last year and I thought I'd try one of her books. This was quite a good read and I'll keep her in mind. Kate Miles is close to giving birth and in her last couple of weeks working as a Detective Sergeant in a rural area. There's a nasty robbery at a McDonalds and she's also asked to look into a closed case of a drowning during the recent floods.

3) Darkness Visible: a memoir of madness by William Styron (1990)
nonfiction
Only 84 pages but a moving account on how he descended into deep depression, how it felt and how he survived. He discusses the use of medication, the stigma of hospitilisation and the value of support from friends and family.

>27 avatiakh: BB.

I hate it when bookshops close.

Birthday greetings are in order, I believe, Kerry.

Happy birthday my friend.

>30 avatiakh: Thanks Paul. Yes. my birthday and I had a good day overall. We went to our local chinese place, it's a little run down but great food and full of people. The old lady who takes orders always makes us feel very welcome among the mostly Chinese clientele. All three of my brothers gave me a call so that was extra nice too.
Had a relaxing day and read from a few books.

>28 quondame: Hope you 'like' it. The book has made me want to read something else by Styron though not Sophie's Choice.

4) Time of Trial by Hester Burton (1963)
YA
Carnegie (UK) Medal 1963. This was an enjoyable read for me. Historical fiction set in 1801, the background is the war against the French and so the English government does not want disorder on the homefront. Desperately needed social reform is not going to happen even when well meaning men such as Margaret's father writes his provocative New Jerusalem pamphlet that sends the family's lives into turmoil.
The book is full of lillustrations by Victor Ambrus. I saw some discussion of Ambrus on a review and so googled him. He came to the UK after taking part in the 1956 Hungarian Revolution as a student. He was able to study art despite not speaking English at the time, winning a scholarship to London's Royal Academy of Art and eventually became a book illustrator. He was an original member of the tv series Time Team, illustrating archaeological scenes, recreating the past.
https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2021/mar/10/victor-ambrus-obituary
Time Team tribute: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UAIdU8uILek

>31 avatiakh: I'm reading it now. Sophie's Choice is the only Styron I remember having read. Not happy memories to be sure.

5) The Practice, the Horizon and the Chain by Sofia Samatar (2024)
scifi
This novella length story is quite dark, taking place on a spaceship, part of a fleet. There are three classes of inhabitants, the upper classes, then those with anklets who could at any time be denounced and sent to the Hold. Those in the Hold are chained and spend their lives doing hard labour, living in the dark. A researcher rescues a boy from the Hold, he's a skilled artist but finds it hard to acclimatise to the upper decks.
Not sure where I heard about this book but I did put in a library request for it. While I enjoyed the story, it was not pleasant reading about the suffering in the Hold so I'm glad it was a short read and I can now put it behind me.

6) The Whistlers' Room by Paul Alverdes (1929)
novella
Four WW1 soldiers share a room in a German hospital where they are recovering from throat injuries. They all have tubes inserted in their necks through which they breathe, hence the whistling noise. A sensitive story about the casualties of war rather than warfare itself. The introduction by Dr Emily Mayhew, a military medical historian specialising in the study of severe casualty, is an interesting read as well. Alverdes volunteered to fight when just 17 years old and was hospitalised with a severe throat injury for some years.
The edition I read was from the Casemate Classic War Fiction series, there are 11 books. https://www.casematepublishers.com/search-results-grid/?series=casemate-classic-...

7) The Radium Woman: A Life of Marie Curie by Eleanor Doorly (1939)
children's nonfiction
Carnegie (UK) Medal 1939. A wonderful biography on the life of Marie Curie, adapted for younger readers from Eve Curie's biography of her mother. I wasn't aware of the tireless work Curie did during WW1, making sure that portable x-ray stations could be set up to serve the doctors and wounded at the many war fronts.

8) Henrietta's War: News from the Home Front, 1939-1942 by Joyce Dennys (1985)
fiction
Rather a fun read. A series of letters from Henrietta in Devon to her childhood friend, Robert, who is in the army. It describes life on the home front with the fear of a German invasion. This has been a long time resident on my tbr shelves.

9) The One Dollar Horse by Lauren St John (2012)
YA
One Dollar Horse #1. First of a trilogy about Casey and her horse, Storm Warning. A great horse book for fans of these sorts of reads. Casey is 15 yrs old, lives in one of London's poorer suburbs in an infamous residential block with her Dad who recently came out of jail. She has a burning ambition to be part of the showjumping world and compete at Badminton Horse Trials.

Mishka by Victor Ambrus (1975)
picturebook
Fun story of a young boy who joins the circus after learning to play a song on the violin. The illistrations reflect Ambrus's Hungarian upbringing. I requested several of Ambrus's books after reading about him when I came across his illustrations in Time of Trial.

Michael Foreman: A Life in Pictures by Michael Foreman (2015)
nonfiction

Not counting this one as I did not read all the text. I'd have loved to have this book in my collection but missed it when it came out and now it's quite scarce. Foreman is mostly known for his wonderful illustration work on Michael Morpurgo's books but he has done a wealth of other work too. Here is a chronological look at his development as an artist and his work through the years. Beautiful.

I'm dipping into a number of books at present:
The Killer Angels by Michael Sharra - leftover 2024 read
A Case of Matricide by Graeme Macrae Burnet - Inspector Gorski #3
Tales from the Saragossa Manuscript by Jan Potocki - up to third day
The Husbands by Holly Gramazio - due back at library soon
The Full Moon Coffee Shop by Mai Mochizuki - Japanese cats
Singapore Black by William Gibson - Detective Hawksworth Trilogy #1
Like water on stone by Dana Walrath - verse novel on Armenian genocide
and listening to
Exodus: the Archimedes Engine by Peter F. Hamilton

Library pickups:
Thunder & Lightnings by Jan Mark - Carnegie Medal
The Heart in Winter by Kevin Barry
Yeonnam-dong's Smiley Laundromat by Kim Jiyun

11) Hakim's Odyssey, Book 3: From Macedonia to France by Fabien Toulmé (2020 French) (2022 English)
graphic biography
This is the final volume of Hakim's journey from the Syrian Civil War to his new home with his wife and child in France. Toulmé interviewed Hakim with the help of an interpreter and then proceeded to create these books. The first volume was probably the most interesting as it covered Hakim's life in Syria where he owned a tree nursery business and also his time in Lebanon. This volume was mainly about his journey through Europe with his 1 yr old son, his wife was already in France with her family but Hakim and son did not have the right documentation.

Sorry it's taken me so long to visit your thread, Kerry. I was in Florida visiting my dad and taking a needed break from the Internet.

>5 avatiakh: I loved Brodeck's Report when I read it some years ago now. I hope you are enjoying it too.

>27 avatiakh: I remember finding Darkness Visible very powerful when I read it as well.

>35 avatiakh: The Whistler's Room sounds interesting. I have only one of the titles from the Casemate Classic War Fiction series: Mr. Britling See It Through, which I almost started reading on my trip. Under Fire has been on my wish list forever (thanks to arubabookwoman), but I see you've stalled in it?

>37 avatiakh: I found both Henrietta's War and the sequel, Henrietta Sees It Through, quite entertaining. I wrote in my review that "Joyce Dennys was an artist who became frustrated when she married, moved back to England, and encountered strict societal expectations for a mother and doctor's wife. She created the character of Henrietta, her alter ego, and was able to express some of her frustrations through a series of letters that the fictional Henrietta wrote to her cousin, Robert, who was fighting in World War II. These funny, yet telling letters were published as a regular feature in The Sketch, a British illustrated newspaper weekly. The letters and accompanying illustrations were compiled into the book, Henrietta's War, in 1985."

>41 avatiakh: I found The Husbands to be the right fit for my mood at the end of 2024.

>42 avatiakh: I've added Hakim's Odyssey to my wish list.

>43 labfs39: Hi Lisa, thanks for visiting. I put Under Fire on hold as I didn't want to end the year or start the New Year reading something that seemed so bleak. I'll go back to it in a few weeks or so.
I almost gave up on The Husbands but am now well over halfway, there's a shared rea happening in April in this group but it came straight away from the library.
Hakim's Odyssey is well worth looking out for, his is one of many similar stories and works well as graphic memoir/biography.
I got several of The Bloomsbury Group editions back when they were published and Henrietta's War was the only one I didn't get to.

12) The Full Moon Coffee Shop by Mai Mochizuki (2020 Japanese) (2024 English)
fiction
Another in the cozy weird cat or cafe type Japanese reads. This one was quite enjoyable and I liked how by the end all the different characters linked back to each other. Each one ends up at a dreamlike popup cafe run by human sized cats that morph into human shape and back again. They get helpful advice from a horoscope reading and the food & drink has out of this world qualities.
Definitely a genre that I need to stop reading, I have a Korean book out from the library, Yeonnam-Dong's Smiley Laundromat which sounds like more of the same though without cats.

13) The Husbands by Holly Gramazio (2024)
fiction
Not reality as we know it but once you accept the premise that Lauren's attic provides an ongoing supply of husbands then this turns into an entertaining read. Who will she end up with? How can she stop the endless flow of husbands once she finds the one?

Happy New Year, Kerry! 13 books in 13 days is a pretty great start.

>44 avatiakh: I love the look of the Bloomsbury Group books. I have six of them and have read them all. Do you have a list of all the books published in that edition? I would love to have a complete set, but I haven't found a complete list anywhere.

>46 avatiakh: The Husbands was the light and funny book I needed at the time. It hit the spot, but I can see how at other times I would have thought it silly.

>47 norabelle414: Hi Nora, thanks for visiting. I like to get the New Year off to a good start by reading about a book a day for a while. It's summer here and we have the holiday vibe going.

>48 labfs39: I had a look for The Bloomsbury Group editions but it's now too many years since they came out to find a list easily. I read Kid for two farthings and a couple of others at the time. Not ones I held on to eventually as I'm trying to devolve my book collection rather than add to it.
My son, Liam, is now reading all the Greeks and Romans and some philisophy. He's read Plato, Aristotle and Marcus Aurelius among others. He listened to the audio for some such as Socrates as they gave lectures so he thought it a better way to take them in.
He's finished with China for the time after reading through a massive Mao bio and will be going back to East Europe eventually. I'm just amazed that he's stepped up to all this reading as before he never picked up a book willingly and only liked Darren Shan and the Redwall books as a child, now he's our family scholar!

Books from the library:
The Cracked Mirror by Chris Brookmyre - crime
Brother's Keeper by Julie Lee - children's, partly based on Lee's mother's story
The Bookshop Detectives: Dead Girl Gone by Gareth & Louise Ward - crime

I'm enjoying most of my current reads and trying to stick to my TIOLI listings:
Tales from the Saragossa Manuscript by Jan Potocki
The Killer Angels by Michael Sharra - slow read
A case of matricide by Graeme Macrae Burnet - crime
Singapore Black by William L. Gibson - crime
Shark's Fin and Sichuan Pepper: A Sweet-Sour Memoir of Eating in China by Fuchsia Dunlop

14) Tales from the Saragossa Manuscript: Ten Days in the Life of Alphonse Van Worden by Jan Potocki (1814)
fiction
This is the Dedalus edition that covers only 10 of the 65 days that The Manuscript found in Saragossa covers. I found it when sorting through books a few weeks back and put it aside to read for Paul's European Tour January read challenge - to read a 19C European book. I'm pleased that I only had to read 10 days worth of these fantastical ghostly tales of robbers, vagabonds, and other weird beings. I might eventually continue with my Penguin Classics edition that I came across even more recently but wouldn't like to contain my reading to finish in the next couple of weeks.
Recommended for those who like a touch of the grotesque in their reading, several characters wake up between the same two hanged corpses after experiencing a dreamlike evening in an abandoned inn.

Dedalus Books has quite an interesting catalogue of more obscure European writers: http://www.dedalusbooks.com/

>51 avatiakh: I purchased two books from Dedalus for the Africa challenge, one from Cabo Verde and the other from Guinea Bissau. Both were interesting, especially Madwoman of Serrano. I need to keep Dedalus in mind for more frequent browsing.

15) A Case of Matricide by Graeme Macrae Burnet (2024)
crime
Georges Gorski #3. The final in the trilogy and a delightful crime read. This one is more about Gorski than the crimes he's investigating as he ponders on the direction his life has taken where he now lives with his ailing mother above the shop that once held his late father's pawnbroking business and now houses a florist. He's investigating possible crimes, a man whose mother thinks is slowly poisoning her after killing her dog and a suspicious stranger staying at the local hotel.
These books are presented as metafiction with Burnet posing as the English translator of Raymond Brunet, an obscure French writer who died in 1992.

Now I must absolutely finally finish reading His Bloody Project which is Burnet's most well known book.

>52 labfs39: Yes, I'll have to keep them in mind too.

>53 avatiakh: I really enjoyed His Bloody Project, particularly so as we had recently been to the remote part of Scotland in which it is set, so I felt I could really visualise the location. I have the first of this trilogy sitting on my kindle and it has moved up the TBR list recently since I was listening to a radio programme with Graeme Burnet about his influences.

I was so sure I had checked in here already last week, but it seems I just starred and didn’t post (still getting reacquainted with everything LT).
A very happy reading year and very belatedly a Happy Birthday, may many great things come your way in 2025!

>55 SandDune: Hi Rhian - I've really enjoyed these 3 Gorski books. In this one, as 'translator' Burnet describes all the influence of French writers such as Zola on Brunet. Gorski's late father had constantly re-read his collection of Les Rougon-Macquart books declaring that there was no need to read anything else.

Dangerous place this thread, so many interesting looking books that I haven't yet gotten to, Kerry.

>53 avatiakh: I hadn't realized that Burnet had already released the third of his engaging novels. Must look out for that.

>58 PaulCranswick: Hi Paul. I'm trying to clear some of my own books and only read the worthwhile library books.
I requested the Burnet as soon as I noticed that it was out. Fan of this trilogy and must also get back to reading Zola.

16) The Storyteller by Mario Vargas Llosa (1987)
fiction
My first read of Llosa for the year. I read a couple of his books a long way back and then collected his works when visiting used bookshops but didn't get on with reading them. This year I'm focused on reading at least five Llosa books. This one fit Madeline's TIOLI challenge to read a book which has a least one set of double letters in both the title and the author's name.
This was a tad difficult to read as the topic was far from my usual fare, it was also rewarding. The narrator is telling us about the clash between the modern world and the primitive tribes still living in the Amazon region. How they were hunted by Incas and then the rubber barons for free labour, the efforts of the missionaries and now the linguists seeking their languages before they become extinct. The tribal storytellers weave creation myths and stories in alternate chapters. The common thread is his long lost Jewish friend from his time at university who felt a bond with these tribes on his extensive visits to the rainforests. Fascinating.

>60 avatiakh: Interesting. I like the cover too. I've only read one Llosa, Aunt Julia and the scriptwriter and have been meaning to read others by him, starting with three that I own Feast of the Goat, War of the End of the World, and The Dream of the Celt.

Current reads:
The Killer Angels by Michael Shaara - leftover 2024 read that I should finish soon
Adama by Lavie Tidhar
Singapore Black by William Gibson - crime, set in 1890s Singapore but I just don't feel the time era
Tell them of battles, kings & elephants by Mathias Enard - novella
Exodus: The Archimedes Engine by Peter F. Hamilton - audio

others on my TIOLI reading which I want to get to:
The Great Swindle by Pierre Lemaitre
Shark's Fin and Sichuan Pepper: A Sweet-Sour Memoir of Eating in China by Fuchsia Dunlop
Theodora by Stella Duffy

>61 labfs39: I've also read Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter and was sure I'd read another but it escapes me so maybe I've only read one. I have six lined up here to choose from, left a few others on the shelf. I looked at a few 'best of' lists to work out what's worth reading first. I wouldn't have started with the one above except it fitted the TIOLI challenge. Next up I think will be The Time of the Hero which was his first novel.
The way to paradise
The real life of Alejandro Mayta
The Feast of the Goat
The War at the end of the world
The time of the hero
Conversation in the cathedral

>37 avatiakh: It has been a long time resident on my TBR shelves too, Kerry, and I came by to thank you for finally spurring me on to get it read! I enjoyed it as well.

>64 alcottacre: Hi Stasia - Yes, I always felt a trifle guilty when I came across it on my shelves as I had read the others in that series.

17) Cobweb by Michael Morpurgo (2024)
children's fiction

This is another delightful story from Morpurgo, centering around a young corgi/sheepdog named Cobweb. Set during the time of the Battle of Waterloo, Cobweb and his new owner and an older more experienced sheepdog take a large number of sheep and cows along a Drover's Way from coastal Wales to the London markets. It's a journey of several weeks and once there the farmer remains for business and tells the dogs to go on home, which they do. The innkeepers have all been prepaid to give the dogs their meals and they meet up with and travel for some way with two brothers, returned from the Battle of Waterloo, and also on their way home in the north.
Not sure if it was the done thing to send sheepdogs off on their own like this, but it did make for a heartwarming tale and enabled Cobweb to come full circle back to his rightful owner and save her family farm.
More on the Drover's Way: https://www.countrylife.co.uk/articles/drovers-routes-the-ancient-trails-from-fa...

>65 avatiakh: I have not read anything else by Dennys, but I sure would like to read more of the Henrietta's War series. Any that you especially recommend?

>66 avatiakh: Oh, I meant that particular publisher's series which included THe Kid for Two Farthings. They all had similar covers. Lisa recommended the follow up book to Henrietta's War.

>67 alcottacre: There's only one follow up to Henrietta's War that I know of, which is Henrietta Sees It Through. The publisher reprint series is from Bloomsbury in the UK and I presume in New Zealand - I don't know whether they have the rights in the US.

>69 elkiedee: Thanks Luci. I probably bought my books through the Book Depository which is now defunct.

18) The Killer Angels by Michael Shaara (1974)
historical fiction

What a fantastic read. I took my time reading this after starting it for last year's War Room read on the American Civil War. I was keen to read this after briefly visiting Gettysburg in September 2023. My son and I also visited the American Civil War Museum in Richmond and the National Civil War Museum in Harrisburg.
The book covers the Gettysburg Battle from the pov of numerous generals from both sides and conveys majestically how it all unfolds. You take away from the book how battle fatigued everyone was. Brave men on both sides, worn out by the endless pursuit of victory.

Your thread is interesting and enjoyable! I payed a visit to the Dedalus page. Wow. For some countries it’s very hard to find books, but they have it, like the Farœr.

>66 avatiakh: This sounds like just the thing. Going to look for it.

Have a nice day.

19) Tell Them of Battles, Kings & Elephants by Mathias Énard (2010 French) (2019 Eng)
novella
Beautiful writing here. Taking the supposition that Michaelangelo went to Constantinople in 1506 to design a bridge over the Bosphorus. He lacks inspiration and so spends much time just taking in the sights and thinking about a mysterious singer that he encounters at a noisy party one night. The title comes from the first line in Rudyard Kipling's Life's Handicap. Quite a joy to read.
Will be seeking more work by Énard.

Hi Kerry, another year I found your thread and placed books on my TBR list. You've read some great books in January!

>62 avatiakh: Hi Ella, thanks for visiting. Another obscure publisher is Seagull Books in India who I follow on X.
https://www.seagullbooks.org/

I love reading books where an animal is the star and Morpurgo just gets it right in almost every book.

>74 Whisper1: Hi Linda. Welcome to my thread. I need to post on some other threads so LTers know I'm reading them. You are welcome to the BBs, I seem to collect rather a lot in my LT travels.

Well I didn't finish the month that well, I had 3 books I was working on and it all came adrift as I spent a lot of time watching the lead up and release of the hostages in the past couple of days. I discovered that i24 News English app is free again and I can also switch between the English & Hebrew channels easily. I used to watch them years ago till they wanted me to pay. The subtitling is fairly horrendous (AI?) but there are enough English speaking interviews and I know enough Hebrew to make it work.
My husband is a friend of the father of ex-hostage Emily Damari, so we were relieved to see her finally free. Damari's father was the soccer coach at the kibbutz and a supporter of Tottenham Hotspurs since childhood so no wonder it became the club for the whole family.
Watching the footage of Arbel Yehud surrounded by Islamic Jihad fighters and a seething mass of others was so frightening, even via the tv screen.

Overflow into February:
Singapore Black by William Gibson - reading on my tablet so progress is slow but only 100 pages left
The End of Everything by Davod Bergelson - stalled
Shark's Fin and Sichuan Pepper: A Sweet-Sour Memoir of Eating in China by Fuchsia Dunlop - only read a few pages but want to continue
Adama by Lavie Tidhar - reading but slowly

February Reading Plans:

Carry overs from previous months:
Singapore Black by William L. Gibson
The End of Everything by Davod Bergelson
Shark's Fin and Sichuan Pepper: A Sweet-Sour Memoir of Eating in China by Fuchsia Dunlop
Adama by Lavie Tidhar

TIOLI challenges:
1. Read a book with the word "cat" in the book's title, subtitle or author's name or pictures a cat on its front cover
The Enchanted Lies of Céleste Artois (cat on cover) - Ryan Graudin
2. Read a book with the word 'my' in the title
My Israeli Journey: a memoir - Shaul Mofaz - I have a review copy
3. Read a book with a title word that starts with the same letter as your first or last name -
The Air Raid Book Club - Annie Lyons
5. Read a book with a biblical name in the author's name or title
The Button War - Avi
Nine Coaches Waiting - Mary Stewart
6. Read a book with 25 or more characters in the title/subtitle
The Bookshop Detectives: Dead Girl Gone (33) - Gareth & Louise Ward - DNF
12. Read a historical fiction book published after 1980
Brother's Keeper (2020) - Julie Lee
The Emperor of Lies (2009) - Steve Sem-Sandberg - European Tour challenge Scandi read
The Long Night Watch (1983) - Ivan Southall
14. Read a sequel, or the second book in a series - msg #38
Iron Flame - Rebecca Yarros - only because I own this

I'm taking part in the NZ Book Loving Kiwis Feb/Mar Bookpool challenge on GR
I do this challenge every year and my three nominated books:
The Spanish Garden by Cliff Taylor (NZ)
Nine Coaches Waiting by Mary Stewart
The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstein
also from the pool:
Cherrywood by Jock Serong
The Air Raid Book Club by Annie Lyons

Other potential reads:
Thunder and Lightnings by Jan Mark - Carnegie Medal (UK)
Freedom Swimmer by Wai Chim
The Last Wild Horses by Maja Lunde - European Tour challenge Scandi read
Stolen by Ann-Helén Laestadius - European Tour challenge Scandi read
Yeonnam-dong's Smiley Laundromat by Kim Jijun

>68 avatiakh: Well, I am finishing up A Kid for Two Farthings at the moment. I have also read three others from that Bloomsbury Group series. Thanks for the clarification, Kerry.

>69 elkiedee: Thanks for the information, Luci!

>71 avatiakh: I just flat out love that particular book. I am glad to see that you liked it as well.

>73 avatiakh: Adding that one to the BlackHole. Thanks for the review and recommendation!

>78 avatiakh: Looks like some great plans for February. I hope they all work out for you.

20) Thunder and Lightnings by Jan Mark (1976)
childrens
Carnegie Medal (UK) 1976. Well written story about two boys becoming friends. One has newly arrived to Norfolk and the other is a local and crazy about fighter aircraft, especially his favourite the Lightning. There are several busy airfields in the area they live in.
From wikipedia: 'The English Electric Lightning is a British fighter aircraft that served as an interceptor during the 1960s, the 1970s and into the late 1980s'

21) Yeonnam-Dong's Smiley Laundromat by Kim Jijun (2024 Eng)
fiction
Heartwarming read about the locals who end up at this special laundromat where a community of friends builds up, story by story. Each has a difficulty that becomes more bearable after confessing in a notebook left on a table, the responses helping each one. A debut novel.

A very belated happy New Year to you, Kerry! I really enjoyed The Killer Angels when I read it a few years back, and talked my dad (who primarily reads nonfiction) into reading it too. I really should get back to Gettysburg sometime soon - we went on a family vacation when I was a kid, and I remember very little. Now I think I'd get a lot more out of it, and would want to look up where one of my ancestors was fighting.

>82 bell7: The book is a firm favourite here on LT. We visited Gettysburg & Harrisburg while driving from Virginia to New York so had only a couple of hours or so in each place. We had a tight schedule but the Visitor Centre gave us a good information on what to see with such limited time, what hindered us most was the rainstorm. It was a once in a lifetime chance to go there, I remember my husband's messages at the time saying we were crazy to do this detour.

22) Singapore Black by William L. Gibson (2013)
historical crime fiction
Detective Hawksworth Trilogy #1. The book is set in 1892 Singapore and is a very different place to modern Singapore. The story was not too great and Hawksworth is not too likeable but gets the job done. What's interesting is the melting pot of people that make up Singapore, the gang wars between the various groups, the various religions and cultures.
A newly arrived American has been murdered and Hawksworth has the task of uncovering the killer and his motive.
I'll probably read the other two books as I enjoyed the peek into this time period.

>84 avatiakh: I have seen that one in the bookshops here and wondered whether to add it. Guess I will do now then.

>85 PaulCranswick: I'm hoping that the books improve somewhat. Hawksworth is a product of his time and so not to everybody's taste, though I prefer this to having a protagonist who is too modern in their atttude for the time period.

The Bookshop Detectives: Dead Girl Gone by Gareth & Louise Ward (2024)
DNF @40pgs
Gareth and Eloise run a bookshop with a number of eccentric customers. They are ex-coppers from the north of England, escaping to New Zealand due to scary stalkers from their police days.

Well, I wanted to get on with this but am not at all in the mood for this crime novel. Maybe it's a cozy crime novel? Anyway feels like I'm reading a sitcom sketch. Maybe it's that the authors have made themselves the main characters of the book.
I've read and enjoyed Gareth Ward's children's books and have visited his bookshop in Havelock North a few years back, sat in a ginormous library queue for this as well. So this seems to be popular here in New Zealand as I was about #430 in the queue but the book came after a few weeks for all that, so the library must have lots of copies in circulation.

Their actual bookshop, Wardini Books, made the news last year for not stocking a charity cookbook as they did not agree with some 'X' posts of the author. This was controversial as they're located near the region that had been worse hit by Cyclone Gabrielle.

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/hawkes-bay-today/news/wardini-books-in-hawkes-bay-pul...

Library Pickups:
Take it back by Kia Abdullah - BAC Feb challenge
Unreel: a life in review by Diana Wichtel - memoir of a tv reviewer, she wrote for 'The Listener', which I subscribed to for many years.

Library sale table:
I got these a couple of weeks ago but just pulled them from the tote bag
Checkpoint by Jean-Christophe Rufin - had seen this lying unwanted on the sales table for a couple of weeks, already read it but decided to add it to my collection of Rufin books.
Naked Earth by Eillen Chang
The Fall of the Pagoda by Eileen Chang - semi-autobiographical novel
The Fortnight in September by RC Sherriff - Persephone edition

I now own three of Chang's books, the other one is Little Reunions. Quite motivated to read all of these.

>79 alcottacre: I just noticed my copy of The Brontes went to Woolworths from this Bloomsbury series, I don't think I've read it yet so adding to my 'read in 2025' piles.

>89 avatiakh: That's one of the few that I don't have yet. I need to find a copy.

>90 labfs39: The one I remember reading is Miss Hargreaves by Frank Baker. Others in the series that I haven't read are Love's Shadow and Mrs Tim of the Regiment. The Mrs Tim is first in series of five books.

>91 avatiakh: I really liked Mrs. Tim. The first two books are contained within the Bloomsbury group edition, I believe. I borrowed the rest from the library. After the third book, I thought they started to falter, and I was sad the way she chose to end the series, but it made sense for the time. Love's Shadow was a hoot, and I've since downloaded some of Leverson's other books to my e-reader from the public domain, but haven't read them yet.

>71 avatiakh: It's been a long time since I read The Killer Angels, but it's not a book you forget. I'm also very fond of his For Love of the Game, although I suspect it largely appeals to baseball fans. Hmmm...perhaps it's time for a reread of both.

>81 avatiakh: You got me with Yeonnam-Dong's Smiley Laundromat. It's going to be quite a while before my hold comes through, though.

>84 avatiakh: I may give this a try, even though you didn't love it. I'm a fan of Ovidia Yu's Su Lin mysteries, which are set later. Have you come across them? The first is The Frangipani Tree Mystery. I haven't read them all - yet. The 9th comes out in June.

I hope your weekend was lovely!

>91 avatiakh: That era of fiction has so many hidden or half-forgotten gems but the books are impossible to find over here in general terms, Kerry.

>93 Dejah_Thoris: Hi Dejah - thanks for visiting my thread. I'd like to read more on American history after visiting many museums and historic places on my 2023 trip through some southern states and New York.
I'm enjoying reading these Korean & Japanese feelgood books, much better reads than the terrible romance novels I was bringing home from the library last year. I currently have The Healing Season of Pottery, Letters from the Ginza Shihodo Stationery Shop & The Restaurant of Lost Recipes home from the library. I try a few pages and the book either takes or goes back to the library.
I'll try The Frangipani Tree Mystery, it sounds interesting.

>94 PaulCranswick: Hi Paul. I'm lucky that my library has a lot of older books in the stacks that can be called up on request. Also lucky that Auckland Libraries doesn't charge for requests and no overdue fines also. This is to encourage reading across the city, though annoying when you have to wait extra long for a book that someone doesn't return on due date.

Well, I'm making my way slowly through a children's book, The Long Night Watch by Ivan Southall, only to find that I have it marked as 'read in 2016' on GR, though not noted it here on LT. I have no recollection of reading it and it is a bit of a slog, about a Christian cult that settles on a remote South Pacific island during the early stages of WW2.
I'm also reading Avi's The Button War which is set in eastern Poland during WW1.

23) Nine Coaches Waiting by Mary Stewart (1958)
fiction
I read a couple of Stewart's novels set in Greece about a year ago and enjoyed them. I had this one on my own stacks, bought mainly as I really liked the book cover. This was an ok read about a young English woman taking a job in France as a governess. There's a lot of intrigue as her charge is an orphan who will inherit the main estate when he comes of age and the family plots to make sure he doesn't stay alive till then.
The book's wikipedia page is quite interesting once you've read the book, telling of all the literary references Stewart used in writing the book.

24) Brother's Keeper by Julie Lee (2020)
children's
I read this in one sitting, staying up till the early hours. It was on a list of historical fiction for young readers that I looked through a few weeks ago and requested the book from the library. I think The Button War was another from the list.
Lee has taken her mother's story and reinvented it for this survival story of a twelve year old girl, Sora, and her younger brother journeying from North Korea to Busan in South Korea during the Korean War. They lose their parents and baby brother on the first day of travel when an enemy plane bombs a hillside.
Compelling reading with the first few chapters covering life in the north under Communist rule. Recommended.

I think The Enchanted Lies of Céleste Artois by Ryan Graudin might be a DNF for me as well. Just not taking to it though I've only read about five or so pages. I'll plod through a couple of chapters, maybe I'm not in the mood for fantasy type reading at the moment.

>98 avatiakh: Brother's Keeper looks interesting, and it's available in the Maine State Libraries.

>100 labfs39: It's well worth a read. The other children's/YA book I have on hand is Freedom Swimmer by Wai Chim which is based on her father's story. I hadn't heard of the Freedom Swimmers before, another story out of Mao's China.
I loved Chim's YA The Surprising Power of a Good Dumpling a few years ago.

Picked up at library sale table today, King Power: Leicester City's Remarkable Season by Richard III. Can't seem to find who actually wrote this.

>97 avatiakh: I'm very fond of Mary Stewart's romantic suspense novels, and Nine Coaches Waiting is one of my mother's favorites - My Brother Michael takes the top spot. I'm guessing you've read it, given that you mentioned some set in Greece.

I thought about joining you for it for the TIOLI shared read, but I've read it many, many times. Maybe if I need something easy toward the end of the month....

>103 Dejah_Thoris: Yes, I read My Brother Michael and The Moon spinners. My Brother Michael was great right from the start, taking the car and driving to Delphi, and the underlying story from WW2 was interesting. I have a few more of her books on my e-reader app.
I hadn't read any of her romance books before and love the re-issue covers by Hodder publishing. My late mother was a huge fan of Georgette Heyer.

Currently reading The Air Raid Book Club which is for the GR Bookpool challenge, it's a tad bland but ok and due back to the library in a few days. Also back to working on Adama, The Button War & started My Israeli Journey.

25) The Long Night Watch by Ivan Southall (1983)
YA
This won the Phoenix Award (USA) in 2003 which is why I picked it up.
Phoenix Award is for children's literature originally published in English that twenty years previously did not receive a major award at the time of its publication.
Anyway according to GR I read this in 2016, though I never mentioned it on LT and I didn't recall anything as I read it. Quite an interesting read, though I can't recommend it.
An Australian religious cult by the name of SWORD (Society for World Order under Divine Rule), led by a Brigadier, a WWI army hero journeys to a remote South Pacific island to await the coming of the glory. One hundred souls made up mostly of young families wait on the island for almost a year. Unfortunately they set out in 1941 and now the Japaese have come across intelligence about the Brigadier and his SWORD battalion, an advance force north of Australia, so they advance with full strength military to the island.
The teen boy on the night watch, sees the lights advancing and warns of the coming of the glory.
I can imagine this to be a difficult read for the average teen as there are several chapters of back story to why and how SWORD was formed and about the leaders' aims and much less of life on the island.

>102 avatiakh: I did see some wag suggest that it was probably ghost written!

26) The Button War: A Tale of the Great War by Avi (2018)
YA
Set in a Polish village under Russian control during WW1. A group of boys under a bully leader agree to a competition to see who can procure the most magnificent button off a soldier's uniform. The game gets deadly as the Germans advance and take over the village.
This was an edge of the seat sort of read as taking a button from a living soldier's uniform is not the easiest task and apart from Jurek the leader, the others aren't so into the game except that they don't want Jurek to win.

I'm a fan of the films made from the 1912 French children's book, The War of the Buttons so was intrigued to find another book about buttons. I've not been able to read Pergaud's book as I haven't found a copy translated to English as yet. I think there's been 3 films made and they are all excellent.

27) The Air Raid Book Club by Annie Lyons (2023)
fiction
Read for the GR Kiwi Bookpool challenge. A lighter read set in London during WW2. Widow & bookshop owner, Gertie, is encouraged to take in a newly arrived Jewish girl who has come in a kindertransport from Germany. Together and with the local community they both start to thrive, relying on books and shared reading to build rapport with those around them.
Not my usual fare, I've seen lots of these types of books on the shelves at my local bookshop.

I looked up the next Cormoran Strike book, The Hallmarked Man, and so happy to see there will be one out this year in September. Lucky too, to get my request in at the library and am only #104 in the queue to read it when it comes in.

Library pickups:
Never tell anyone your name by Frederco Ivanier - Uruguayan writer for teens/cchildren
When the deep dark bush swallows you whole by Geoff Parks - NZ crime
Queen Macbeth by Val McDermid - saw this in local bookshop
The castle on the hill by Elizabeth Goudge - WW2 fiction
Okiwi Brown by Cristina Sanders - NZ fiction
The Forbidden Book by Sacha Lamb - YA fiction

Hard to Find Bookshop:
I visited yesterday and got Homer's The Odyssey (Penguin Classics), there was a companion volume of The Iliad but didn't buy it. Returned today at my son's urging, but it had already been sold. So have come home and ordered it online.
Also got:
Justice not vengeance by Simon Wiesenthal
I seek a kind person by Julian Borger - Holocaust nonfiction
Green Willow and other Japanese Fairy Tales by Grace James - lovely hardback edition
The Cattle Truck & What a beautiful Sunday! by Jose Semprun - Holocaust literature.
the Cattle Truck is also published under the title The Long Voyage and I own a copy, but this one was in better condition.

>110 avatiakh: I don't think that I have ever seen any books by Simon Wiesenthal on the shelves of any stores I have visited and I believe that his viewpoints must be utterly fascinating.

> 111 Paul - I think his works are only to be found in used bookshops. The paperback copy I picked up is only just ok and was published in 1990.
I read on 'X' that Milei is about to open the Argentine archives on the Nazi ratlines. 'Up to 10,000 Nazi war criminals fled Europe using these escape routes. Javier Milei pledges to declassify files related to how his country settled 5,000 of them'

Satisfying early morning delivery of two packages containing books today.

Impending Crisis, The: America Before the Civil War, 1848-1861 by David M. Potter
Max Nordau, much more than a Tel-Aviv boulevard! by Jonathan Simon
The Odd Angry Shot by Tom Jeffrey - Vietnam War
The Wood at Midwinter by Susanna Clarke - lovely edition novella
Here, and Only Here by Christelle Dabos

For my son who continues to amaze me with his reading of late -
The Dhammapada
The Mahabharata
Leviathan
Ethics
The Nicomachean Ethics

and yesterday we put in another order for:
Hero of Two Worlds: The Marquis de Lafayette in the Age of Revolution by Mike Duncan
Greenglass House by Kate Milford - children
The Iliad
Tao Te Ching: The Essential Translation of the Ancient Chinese Book of the Tao
The Federalist Papers

28) Adama by Lavie Tidhar (2023)
fiction
I'm impressed once again. This book is a follow on from Maror and will be completed with the publication of 'Golgotha' later this year. The books are stand alone reads and cover Israel's gritty history since the founding of the state. Tidhar touches on the underbelly world of gangsters and drug deals and here we have the story of a kibbutz and the legacy of one of its founderss, Ruth. The price this family pays for the kibbutz, and the country is high.

I have Six Lives by Tidhar out from the library and hope to get it read this coming month.

My current reading is:
My Israeli Journey by Shaul Mofaz - a review copy from Gefen Publishing
The Emperor of Lies by Steve Sam-Sandberg - my Nordic Writer read
The Wood at Midwinter by Susanna Clarke - novella
GolemCrafters by Emi Watanabe Cohen - children's

>114 avatiakh: I've read Unholy Land by Lavie Tidhar and enjoyed it anadromous keep meaning to read something else by him.

>116 SandDune: He seems to have evolved as a writer. I remember getting his HebrewPunk out from the library some years ago and then not reading it. Anyway I'm enjoying his books and will definitely read a few more of them.

Today's Library Haul:
Hard by a Great Forest by Leo Vardiashvili
& two cookbooks
Sift by Nicola Lamb - elements of great baking
Dinner Tonight by Meliz Berg - Turkish Cypriot influence

Yesterday I bought the Pushkin Press edition of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland with lovely illustrations by Floor Rieder. Gift for my youngest daughter who collects these types of books.

and from a library sale table:
Eating up Italy by Matthew Fort - culinary travel book
GingerNutz: a jungle memoir of a model orangutan

More library books today:
The case of the lonely accountant by Simon Mason
Nothing left to fear from Hell by Alan Warner
Bad Jew: A Family's Quest from the Minsk Ghetto to Netanyahu's Israel by Piotr Smolar
Live Fast by Brigette Giraud - Prix Goncourt
Plunder: A Memoir of Family Property and Nazi Treasure by Menachem Kaiser
Fly away Peter by David Malouf
Chutzpah Girls: 100 Tales of Daring Jewish Women by Julie Silverstein

29) Panic by Catherine Jinks (2025)
crime
Not my favourite adult read by Jinks. Focus is on cyber bullyed and doxxed young woman who takes up a job offer in a rural setting only to be confronted with a cult of conspiracy theorists who want to live by their own rules.
I almost abandoned this after 80 or so pages but kept reading as the action intensified. Overall not one of her best though better than others on offer.
My next crime read is a NZ one, When the Deep, Dark Bush Swallows You Whole.

30) Where the heart should be by Sarah Crossan (2024)
YA, historical fiction

As usual Crossan excells again in this verse novel set during the 1840s potato famine in Ireland. Nell has just started as a scullery maid in the stately home of the land owner. While all the tenant farmers have no money, no food and blighted potatoes mouldering in the fields, Nell overhears the plans to turf the tenants in favour of cattle farming. There's a love story as well.

31) Never tell anyone your name by Federico Ivanier (2023)
YA novella
Read this because it was by an Uruguayan writer for children & teens. Don't come across that many Uruguayan writers in my travels. This one was quite suspenseful, you know something is going to happen, just not what or when. A 16 year old boy is travelling from Bordeaux to Madrid by train, his connection means an 8 hour stop in a border town where he meets a girl who seemingly captivates him, though it's clear he is still getting over his previous romantic involvement.

I haven't been making much headway in my reading of late. I slowed down on The Familiar as the main character was also a scullery maid, anyway read a small chunk last night.
I picked up Natalie Tan's book of luck and fortune which is a lighter read but I'm enjoying the descriptions of San Francisco's Chinatown culture.

My latest book purchase arrived a day of so ago along with several for my son, The city and its uncertain walls by Haruki Murakami.

Been to the local farmers market in Otara this morning and now waiting to go out again for a coffee and library visit to pick up -
The frontier within : essays by Abe Kōbō , which I decided to have a look at.

My March reading plans are to finishThe Emperor of Lies and The Forty Days of Musa Dagh, both for Paul's European challenge. Also read my Mario Varga Llosa book. Plus get through my TIOLI entries.

I am in a bit of a reading slump and haven't been on LT as much lately. Finally trying to get caught up. Lots of interesting acquisitions lately, and I see your son is expanding his reading yet again. Kudos to him.

>110 avatiakh: The Long Voyage aka Cattle Truck some time ago and enjoyed his use of flashbacks and forwards. They seem to mimic the way our minds flutter when on a boring journey. I started The Painted Bird yesterday. It's such a classic, I wonder why I haven't read it before now.

>123 labfs39: I have a copy of the Painted Bird somewhere in the house, unread of course as are most of my collection.
Son says he'll take a break soon to read some books in Polish as he feels that goal is getting away from him. He read all through the Greek classics and some Roman ones. He enjoyed The Nicomachean Ethics so we ended up getting a copy for his bookshelf.

32) Natalie Tan's Book of Luck and Fortune by Roselle Lim (2019)
fiction
Not sure how I came across this one, but it was an enjoyable lighter read. Natalie has come home to San Francisco's Chinatown on the death of her mother after seven years travelling the world. She determines to re-open her grandmother's tiny restaurant and help revitalise her corner of Chinatown before it gets swallowed up in gentrification.
There's some magical elements to the story and a romance but it's more a story about family and friends and quite delightful.

33) Queen Macbeth by Val McDermid (2024)
novella
Darkland Tales series: 'In Darkland Tales, the best modern Scottish authors offer dramatic retellings of stories from the nation's history, myth and legend. These are landmark moments from the past, viewed through a modern lens and alive to modern sensibilities. Each Darkland Tale is sharp, provocative and darkly comic, mining that seam of sedition and psychological drama that has always featured in the best of Scottish literature. '

I've read & enjoyed Rizzio by Denise Mina so thought I'd try another in the series. This one tells the story of Macbeth's queen along two timelines. The first is in the aftermath of the Battle of Lumphanan where Macbeth met his end and the other is how Gruoch first meets Macbeth and then their life together. I've read King Hereafter which is the story of Macbeth a few years back so it was interesting to re-enter his story once again.
I also have Alan Warner's Nothing left to Fear from Hell out from the library, this is the tale of Bonnie Prince Charlie's final journey across Scotland.

34) The Odd Angry Shot by William Nagle (1975)
novella
This is an Australian classic, a dark tale of four young men barely out of their teens and sent to fight in the Vietnam War. Not all make it back home. This deals with the drinking bouts, the skin complaints, boredom, the letters from girlfriends breaking up with them, the easy deaths of too many of their comrades, the young girls selling themselves in bars when the soldiers make leave.
Very honest and the dialogue rings true if at times rather coarse. Nagle served two years in Vietnam, starting as a cook and then moved into the infantry when he refused an order to make egg custard. The introduction by historian Paul Ham is well worth reading.

35) When the Deep, Dark Bush Swallows You Whole by Geoff Parkes (2025)
crime

A debut crime novel set in New Zealand's King Country. I enjoyed this though I was prepared to take it back to the library when I was about 80 pages in as it was due back and had over 200 holds on the book. I decided to read it quickly as I didn't want to wait through a 200+ queue for the book.
There is some criticism about the characters but the reader must bear in mind that the book is set in the early 1980s when we didn't tend to be so precious about gender issues. What I liked about the book was how Parkes manages to make so many characters suspicious and likely suspects in the case of a missing backpacker who has just finished working in a shearing gang.

Wow at over 200 holds! The queue for Intermezzo topped 100 last year in the system I borrowed it from and the library service ended up buying about 40 copies.

>129 elkiedee: Hi Lucy. That is quite normal for popular books here in our library system and they do buy lots of copies. I got in early for Robert Galbraith's next book and yet I'm still #104 in the queue.
There's already 190 holds on Catherine Chidgey's book due out in May, I'm #124 in the queue.

>127 avatiakh: & >128 avatiakh: Appeal to me, Kerry.

Have a great weekend, dear lady.

I am also impressed by your son's reading which are the sort of things I waded through around my uni days. Couldn't manage it nowadays I think.

Hi Kerry, checking in again after some weeks of absence. Some interesting reads, and I’ll put Lavie Tidhar on my watchlist. Have a good weekend!

>1131 Hi Paul, he's deep into SPQR at present.
I'm finding The Forty Days of Musa Dagh an easy enough read though the subject matter will be sad and then sadder. Just been busy in non-book activities so not getting much reading done.

Library pick ups are slowing down as I'm freezing many of my requests.
Yesterday I picked up djeliya by juni ba - a graphic novel
Last week I went to a bargain book store where all paperback fiction was another 50% off:
The Wide World by Pierre Lemaitre
The Wild Date Palm by Diane Armstrong
Rima's Rebellion by Margarita Engle - YA verse novel
The Leonard Girls by Deborah Challinor - NZ Vietnam War novel
DallerGut Dream Department Store by Mi-Ye Lee


Yesterday we met up with an Israeli couple, the wife is a relative of my husband. They've been touring in Australia and New Zealand for two or three months. I got this Patricia Grace book as a gift as I thought the cover art quite amazing and the writing should suit Liat's interests.
She's written a couple of books and is contracted to write another. I've read her Yahrzeit which is a fiction based on family history. SHe's going to send me her popular science book when she returns to Israel, I can already see it will be a daunting read. She writes in English having lived in California as a child.
___
Today I returned to the bookshop and had a small splurge on YA books:
Bear by Kiki Lightfoot - Winner of the Tessa Duder Award for a YA manuscript 2024
A Language of Dragons by S.F. Williams
Divine Rivals by Rebecca Ross
Darkly by Marisha Pessl

Some wonderful purchases recently. Added The Forty Days of Musa Dagh to my wish list.

>133 avatiakh: I like the NZ cover of Divine Rivals much better than the US one - that makes me want to actually read it

>131 PaulCranswick: Hi Paul. He's currently reading SPQR. We now get copies of the books he really liked reading for his library. Only one shelf so far but quite an impressive one.
I found my copy of The Iliad today, also a Robert Fagles translation but hidden at the bottom of one of my bookshelves, so now we have 2 copies.
I'm getting a little tired of Aussie/NZ crime so have picked up The Interview by Gill Perdue today from the library. I saw her latest book getting lots of praise on 'X'.

>132 Deern: I hope you enjoy Lavie Tidhar when you get to him. I must post on your thread instead of just visiting.

Yesterday I visited a couple of charity bookshops and picked up pristine copies of:
Dusk by Robbie Arnott - still haven't read one of his books
The Safekeep by Yael van der Wouden

Only $4 each and both had their $NZ38.95 price stickers on the back. Looked like unwanted gifts.

I'm not getting as much reading done lately. I'm in the middle of The Familiar which is set during the Inquisition and has magical elements. Not quite my thing, it's a little dark and ugly.
Also making my way through my review copy of My Israeli Journey by Shaul Mofaz which seems to be taking forever, I read and read but still not halfway through. It's interesting and I'm up to a late night visit to Gaza to meet with Arafat in 1996.
I want to get done with these so I can concentrate on the Musa Dagh read.

>134 labfs39: I seem to have been in a buying mood rather than reading.

>135 norabelle414: Australian publishers often go for a different cover or take the UK one. Also titles can be different from the US editions. I didn't mind the US cover for Divine Friends.
The bookshop got me with a sign on the shelves saying that A Language of Dragons was for fans of Scholomance, Fourth Wing and Divine Friends readers, so I had to get it as my daughter and I loved the Scholomance books so much and I'm a sucker for dragon stories. Then I looked up Divine Friends on my phone and thought ,"why not" and then saw the Marisha Pesl book and decided to buy the lot.
I was on a children's literature committee with Tessa Duder, so always buy the award books when they come out, this one looks like a fun read.

>137 avatiakh: The Safekeep for four dollars is quite a scoop, Kerry. I also got it this week when Hani returned from the UK.

>139 PaulCranswick: Hi Paul - I was doing a quiet happy dance on finding both those books. Today is a different story, my car has broken down, luckily I was able to leave it with my local garage and walk home a short distance. It won't get looked at till Monday at the earliest.

36) The Familiar by Leigh Bardago (2024)
historical fantasy
Set during the time of the Inquisition a lowly kitchen maid's slight magical ability is discovered by the lady of the house who sets to use it to her own advantage.
Quite an interesting read featuring Hidden Jews, the Inquisition and heresy.

>140 avatiakh: Hope that your car's travails are neither too serious or too expensive.
I had the opposite experience today as my Honda has been taxed and insured with Hani's return (it is in my company's name and she needed to sign off the paperwork as the other director). Drove it to work today and remembered how much I enjoy the music system in it (it saves and records all the CDs I have ever played in it and there are 3,000 songs to listen to in its database).

I did have to replace the battery first though.

>142 PaulCranswick: I hope so too.
I rely on spotify for when I'm driving. A few years back my daughter asked me to put together an upbeat playlist for her and this morphed into my 'On the Road' playlist which has been modified many times since then and is now over 20 hours long. I also have a Brasil playlist and my latest is an Israeli Kiwi Blend one. I used to listen to audiobooks when driving but have found music is a much more enjoyable driving experience.
We transfered most of our music collection to iTunes back when we used iPods but now I find Spotify an easy alternative.

Today I started a children's book GolemCrafters by Emi Watanabe Cohen, I've read another of hers and found it fun enough.
Diving back into The Forty Days of Musa Dagh as well as Here and only here. Have to pick up the pace as March is drawing to an end.

37) Freedom Swimmer by Wai Chim (2016)
YA
Chim based this on her father's story. Freedom swimmers as they were known were desperate young people hoping to swim through shark infested and patrolled waters from Mao's China to Hong Kong in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Mostly the book is about young Ming's life in a rural village after Mao's Great Leap Forward.

38) The Case of the Lonely Accountant by Simon Mason (2024)
crime
The Finder #2. I had to rush read this one as it was overdue by a couple of days. The Finder is a retired cop who gets called in all across the UK to investigate missing person cases that police don't have time for. In this one a missing person case from the past where a new piece of evidence needs to be explored. Set in Bournemouth the book also touches on Robert Louis Stevenson's time there and his writing of Jekyll and Hyde. Quiet but interesting read.
I have book #1 out from the library and looking forward to reading that one., Missing Person: Alice

March has not been a great reading month and I didn't finish several books that I intended to so will be carrying a number over to April. Hoping to finish My Israeli Journey in the next couple of days, quite an interesting read. I'm up to Mofaz's time as CGS of the IDF in the early 2000s.
Others ticking over:
The Forty Days of Musa Dagh
Time of the Hero
Here and only Here

39) Healer & Witch by Nancy Werlin (2022)
children's
Really liked this one. Sylvie is only 14 yrs old and while her mother and grandmother are healers, Sylvie's gift is even more. Set in 16th century France, during the time of Inquisitions, when it's dangerous to not be ordinary. Sylvie doesn't know how to use her gift and that makes it dangerous, she's already ruined her mother's life so decides to run away and find someone who can teach her about her gift.
I enjoy every book by Werlin that I read.

Djeliya by Juni Ba is a DNF after only a few pages. It's a graphic novel based on West African folklore but did nothing for me and would be a struggle to continue.

>148 avatiakh: Too bad about that one. The premise sounds good.

Too far behind to catch up on you, Kerry, but I wanted to check in. I hope all is well there!

40) The Key is Lost by Ida Vos (2000)
children's
Another Holocaust story from Ida Vos that reflects her own experience in hiding in Holland during the war. The two young girls spend five years in hiding, moving from house to house as their circumstances change. At first with their parents and then just the two girls, they end up living with an older man, an artist puppeteer that they had befriended once when on holiday and staying next door to.
The book is interesting as we see what is happening from a child's POV and so what's important to her is not what perhaps we would expect. The girls are given a poem by their mother as they separate, this poem was written by Vos's mother during the war.

41) Missing Person: Alice by Simon Mason (2024)
crime
Finder #1. A darn good read about re-opening a cold case into a missing 12 year old girl. When Mason's investigator known as the Finder looks into the disappearance of Alice nine years earlier he not only uncovers more details missed by the original investigation but also notes how her disappearance has changed those who knew her.

eta: This time the Finder is reading Henry James' What Maisie Knew which helps him reflect on Alice's perspective on her life. I really like this additional note of the investigator reading a classic book alongside his investigation. In the other Finder book it was Robert Louis Stevenson's Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde.

>151 avatiakh: Sounds like a good one! I will have to see if I can track down copies of Mason's books. Thanks for the recommendation, Kerry.

>152 alcottacre: I think you'll enjoy them.

I've read a few books and need to post about them, but first is to write a review for My Israeli Journey which i have put off for a few days.

Today I visited a couple of bookshops & charity places and came away with a few books. Last week I went with my son and we got two books at Poppies Bookshop. The selection at Poppies is quite good for such a small shop, though I only buy small size paperbacks as the others are too expensive at $38 (NZD).
The Ministry of Time - son's bookclub read
Prophet Song
this week I picked up
James
from the charity shops:
Greeks bearing gifts by Philip Kerr
The Edelweiss Pirates by Dirk Reinhardt - saw this last week and decided to buy if it was still there
The Space Between by Lauren Keenan - NZ historical fiction
Here one moment by Liana Moriarty
Angel of the Dark by Sidney Sheldon - fits a TIOLI challenge, if I get time
Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts - everyone was reading this about 20 years ago, late to the party, but this copy was impressively clean

Some library books of late:
The boy and the dog by Saishu Haise
When Angels left the Old Country by Sacha Lamb
Juice by Tim Winton
The Journey of Simon McKeever by Albert Maltz

Just remembered that yesterday I picked up from the library, Michael Morpurgo's When fishes flew and an ILL, The Long Journey of Lukas B. by Willi Fährmann .
Also from the sale table for 50 cents total:
Quiet flows the Una by Faruk Sehic
Encircling by Carl Frode Tiller
Kingdom of Twilight by Steven Uhly

I picked up some books at a charity shop last week too. A couple of Winspear books and Memed, My Hawk, which was a find for around here. I read Shantaram, and was underwhelmed, especially once I learned that it bore only a resemblance to reality, not the autobiography it was published as. I have a low tolerance for authors who try to spice up their stories to make a bestseller. It worked for James Frey, and to a lesser extent Gregory David Roberts. Pet peeve, I suppose, because the books probably make decent fiction.

Need to update my reading this week, just presently concentrating on getting books read before the month ends.
I picked up Marble Hall Murders from the library just now and 3 of the books I requested this morning are already in transit:
The Star on the Grave by Linda Margolin Royal
Iona Iverson's rules for commuting alt title The People on Platform 5 by Clare Pooley
How to age disgracefully by Clare Pooley

Not read Pooley before but these sound like fun reads.

TV: I've finally watched the first 3 Cormoran Strike tv shows which cover the first three Strike books and end with Robin's wedding which was such a cliffhanger ending when I read the books and had to wait a year before finding out how it all ends. Happy that they haven't bothered to add in all the Charlotte drama. Painful to watch Strike trying to run after suspects with his prosthesis leg.
Also watched the first season of Reacher. I might keep going with this one, Alan Ritchson as Reacher takes a few episodes to get used to. As with Tom Cruise, he's not my ideal vision of the character.
And trying to get through the first episode of Rebus (2024), the Scots accent is quite hard to follow.
Started The Gone, a New Zealand Irish co-production and found the location shots fairly familiar only to look it up online and find the series was filmed in Te Aroha where my brother lives.
Other than that I continue watching some K-dramas and C-dramas which are sometimes really good and others more mediocre.

>155 labfs39: Oh dear on Shantaram, it was on the Whitcoulls Top 100 Books list for many years. Whitcoulls is NZ's oldest bookshop & stationers chain. Lately their Top 100 Books is underwhelming, reflecting the current state of the book publishing world with lots of lightweight books from public voting.
I read up on the writer and his books, so will approach the book with some scepticism.

I have been watching more C-dramas lately too, as I seem to find fewer K-dramas that wow me. The White Olive Tree started slow, but was a very interesting exploration of PTSD from a Chinese perspective, and the scenery too, although not as beautiful as in To the Wonder. I also enjoyed First Frost, having liked Bai Jing Ting since You are My Hero. Despite the fantastic cast in When the Stars Gossip, I thought the story line fell short.

>157 avatiakh: I have noticed that published best of lists seem to veer nowadays from the banal to the determinedly obtuse. Good old fashioned storytelling needs to be valued.

42) My Israeli Journey by Shaul Mofaz (2024)
memoir
I was given a review copy by Gefen publishers completely out of the blue. Anyway this was an absorbing read. Mofaz was born to a prosperous Jewish family in Iran and in the 1950s the father decided to make aliyah to Israel with his young family. At the suggestion of others the family ended up living in Eilat which back then was a small town not the resort it has grown to be. Trying to establish a factory was a disaster and the father ended up as the town's gardener with the family living on the poverty line. Still they pulled together, sent Mofaz to the north to an agricultural boarding school. He excelled and really became an Israeli during these education years here.
On joining the army for his IDF service he persevered to join the ranks of an elite paratrooper brigade, usually the preserve in these years for sons of the kibbutz. This early time of Mofaz's IDF service is full of action as he joined in 1966 and so served through several wars while climbing through the ranks. In 1998 he became IDF Chief of Staff and after he left the army in 2002 he entered politics and became the Minister of Defense for Ariel Sharon's Kadimah party. Later he served as Minister of Transport.
Both in the IDF and in government Mofaz was focused on reforming the institutions he was in charge of. He found politics quite hard work with the various factions all trying to rise to the top.
So many historic moments in this book including Mofaz leading the Sayeret Matkal force during the Entebbe rescue. Mofaz covers the Intifada years when he was Minister of Defense and the difficulty of dealing with Arafat while also being entwined in Israeli politics where he felt left out of major decisions by his PM Ehud Barak.
I found this to be an excellent read, Mofaz during his time in the IDF always made time to visit the serving soldiers and listen to their concerns, his reforms helped transform the IDF for future years. As always the frustrations of political service come across once he left the IDF and became a politician.
There is a bonus chapter which covers the October 07 event.

43) The Forbidden Book by Sacha Lamb (2024)
YA
I enjoyed this one. A young Jewish girl runs away on the night of her wedding to the Rabbi's son. The story is rich in Jewish folklore and set in 19th C East Europe. There are dybbuks and angels, ghosts and a varied assortment of characters all seeking to understand the mystery of a missing thief and the book he has stolen.
I'm now reading Lamb's debut fiction When Angels left the Old Country.

44) Welcome to the Hyunam-dong Bookshop by Hwang Bo-Reum (2022)
fiction
A delightful read about the woman who opens a bookshop and then doesn't seem to run it that well to begin with. This one doesn't feel sentimental, the characters are too well drawn. The barista she hires for the coffee kiosk, the regular customers and friends that drop in and then the book events she starts all add to the charm.

45) Northanger Abbey by Val McDermid (2014)
fiction
A modern day setting for the story of Northanger Abbey, this time instead of Bath it's off to the Edinburgh Festival for the naive, homeschooled Cat. With all the young people posting on facebook it does already feel dated. I found it fairly fun at times, but the Abbey sequence was fairly difficult for both the writer and the reader.

46) The Lost Year: A Survival Story of the Ukrainian Famine by Katherine Marsh (2023)
children's

Well written fiction based on the writer's own family story to bring attention to Ukraine's Holodomor famine from the 1930's. Matthew is stuck at home during the Covid lockdowns with his mum and his 100 year old great grandmother. While helping to tidy up he comes across a photo and so his great grandmother tells a story and the secret she's kept all these years.

47) The Castle on the Hill by Elizabeth Goudge (1941)
fiction
I think this is my first book by Goudge. She wrote this in 1940 during the frequent bombings by German aircraft. The setting is an old English castle in the countryside, almost continuously inhabited by the same family over hundreds of years, now an old historian and his two grandsons, one is a fighter pilot and the other is about to register as a conscientious objector. Goudge keeps reflecting on past battles fought by the family, their crusades and then religious glory as part of the story. She brings to the castle a spinster who has lost her home in a bombing to be the latest housekeeper, also two little girls evacuated from the London Blitz. There's also a Jewish musician who ends up in the town who is known to the girls.
I found this quite dated in style but still happy to have read it.

48) When Fishes Flew: The Story of Elena’s War by Michael Morpurgo (2021)
children's

This one has an awkward structure. An Australian-Greek girl travels to Ithaca to surprise her great aunt but she isn't there when she arrives. While waiting for her to turn up the neighbours take her in and she finds out her family story, helped by a magical flying fish.

49) The Murderess by Alexandros Papadiamantis (1903)
fiction
I read this one for Paul's Grand European Tour Challenge: April : Ottoman Empire
Set on the Greek island of Skiathos, this was quite a bleak read. The island and its people are described so well, also the plight of having daughters when living in poverty. The book was recently made into a film.
Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GXgUUb-UeCo

>166 avatiakh: That one sounds like Mr. Morpurgo getting a little bit carried away, but I have enjoyed pretty much everything of his that I have read and rate his Private Peaceful very highly.

>167 avatiakh: That is a great cover.

50) The Liar's Gospel by Naomi Alderman (2012)
fiction
Quite engaging, set a year after the death of Jesus, four different stories that dance around the stories of Jesus that we have come to know.

I enjoyed reading Polaris' review of the book when I finished reading. Paul is missed from our LT group.

>168 PaulCranswick: Hi Paul - that Morpurgo was quite strange and did nothing for me. I have a few more to read.
The cover of The murderess is, of course, an NYRB one. I have another to read by Papadiamantis.

Catching up on all my reading from the past few weeks. Quite a task.

>158 labfs39: I've only encountered First Frost from your mentions. I haven't finished it as yet, I have many where I watch 4 or 5 episodes and then cast aside for a while. Now started 'You are my hero', slowly watching it. I've seen a few of those rescue and fire type dramas.

I tried a few Indian movies over the weekend but they are mostly too silly. My son informed me about Tollywood & Bollywood. 'Dhoom Dhaam' was fun and silly which I needed while reading something gloomy.

51) Needlework by Deirdre Sullivan (2016)
YA
This one was mentioned by several Irish YA writers in a 'Best of' column in the Irish Times a few years back, so I took note. Not my favourite fare, this is the story of an abused teen. I didn't enjoy reading it though the last couple of chapters made the book a worthwhile read. The girl wants to be a tattoo artist and there are tattoo quotes throughout the text.

52) The Forty Days Of Musa Dagh by Franz Werfel (1933)
historical fiction
Read for Paul's Grand European Tour challenge: March : Warsaw Pact
Werfel was a Czech writer. This is about the Armenian genocide which took place during WW1. The Armenians of Musa Dagh, an area near Aleppo, knew what was going to happen so took to the mountainous area above their seven villages. Their hastily built fortifications held off the military for forty days and they were eventually rescued by a French warship.
The novel follows along similar lines and is well worth reading.
One of my top reads of the year.

53) The Safekeep by Yael van der Wouden (2024)
fiction
I didn't totally fall for this novel but but did like how it was written. The bedroom scenes were quite intense and there were some quite unfriendly scenes. Isabel has lived alone in the family home for years after the death of her mother. Her quiet world is broken open when her brother's girlfriend asks to stay for a few days.

54) How to Age Disgracefully by Clare Pooley (2024)
fiction
A fun read with a diverse cast of characters. Not your average bunch of senior citizens by any means, coming together three times a week to create mayhem for the newly appointed director. When the roof falls in, killing one of her group on her first day, the closure of the council hall is threatened.
Finishing this one I immediately requested more Pooley from the library.

55) Long Journey of Lukas B. by Willi Fährmann (1981)
children's

An interlibrary loan and finally I could read this award winning German book. It's the 1870s and Lukas has grown up without his father who left when he was small. His grandfather runs a carpentry business but times are tough in their small Prussian village and there is a large debt owed to the local Baron by Lukas' father, guaranteed by the grandfather. So he decides to take his carpentry crew to the United States for a couple of years to make their fortunes and Lukas comes along as a young apprentice hoping to follow the clues left behind by his father.
A good read. There are another 2 or 3 books each set a generation or so later following the fortunes of various family members in times of war.

56) Marble Hall Murders by Anthony Horowitz (2025)
crime
Susan Ryeland #3. I enjoyed this just as much as I loved the first two books. Can't say anything, just that you get two books for the price of one with these.

57) Iona Iverson's Rules for Commuting by Clare Pooley (2022)
fiction
Alternate title: The People on Platform 5. I wasn't taken at first by this but ended up enjoying this almost as much as her How to Age Disgracefully. Another diverse cast of characters, people who are regulars on the train into London and never speak to each other but have daydreamed all sorts of stories about one another. Most can't help but to have noticed a crazily dressed oddball older woman and her dog, a regular on the train, her past is a total revelation.

58) The Journey of Simon McKeever by Albert Maltz (1949)
fiction
Not sure how I came across this book but it was a great read. McKeever is old and crippled by arthritis. He lives in a home for the aged which offers the bare minimum of food and care. When he hears about a miracle doctor in Los Angeles who can cure athritis he decides to hitchhike there. This should be a classic.

The film version of the book was never made, it kept falling through despite some major stars backing it. The writer was a well known scriptwriter in the film industry and was one of the Hollywood Ten.

59) GolemCrafters by Emi Watanabe Cohen (2024)
children's
Golem crafting is an art passed down in the family. It sometimes skips a generation which is one of the reasons the children are sent off to stay with their reclusive grandfather. They have dream-like adventures, learn to craft small golems and meet ghost-like family members from through out history. They also learn how to deal with being bullied. I got a tad lost at one stage but it is a good Jewish read. Like the author, the two children have a Jewish father and a Japanese mother.

60) The Boy and the Dog by Seishū Hase (2020)
fiction
A Japanese story featuring a dog (not cat this time) passing through the lives of various people. The dog lost its owner in a tsunami but as he travels from person to person it becomes clear that he is seeking someone. The dog always pivots to face one particular direction. Most of the people he meets are living on the edge of society.
I loved this one too.

61) Like Water on Stone by Dana Walrath (2014)
YA
A verse novel set during the Armenian genocide and based on the writer's family story. Their older brothers are drafted to the army and then shot, their older sister is married and hidden by her Kurdish in-laws, their father says it will never happen to them but it does. The three youngest, lie hidden among the sheep in the hills above their home and become orphans. They must travel on foot through the mountains to reach their uncle in Syria and hopefully on to their other uncle in America. Following with them is an eagle who has lost his mate to a Turkish bullet, and vows to help these three from his home valley get to safety.
Hard to read but necessary. The twin brother was dressed as a girl for the journey.

Wow, a veritable machine gun barrage of book bullets. Fortunately you had already hit me with Musa Dagh. I'm intrigued by your Armenian reading.

>184 labfs39: Hi Lisa - I hadn't updated my reading for a long while and have a few more to add. I want to read more about the closing years of the Ottoman Empire, probably some nonfiction.

62) The Abyssinian by Jean Christophe Rufin (1997)
fiction
Read this for the HOPE TO READ SOON: A tribute to Rebeccanyc Club Read thread which was started a few years ago. I misplaced my copy of The Abyssinian so had to wait while getting another copy.

I loved this one, it was quite the adventure story set around 1700. A French doctor without credentials is sent by the French consul in Cairo to Abyssinia to cure the ruler of an unknown disease and lay favourable conditions for a possible embassy. Not an easy task as Jesuit missionaries have made the ruler extremely wary of foreigners. The doctor has also fallen for the French consul's daughter and their path to love is not going to be easy.
The sequel which I'm now reading is set twenty years later in Persia, The Siege of Isfahan.
I've already read & enjoyed his Checkpoint & Red Collar and also have Brazil Red on my tbr pile. Rufin has had an interesting career, was one of the first members of Médecins Sans Frontières and has held several diplomatic posts including ambassador to Senegal.
https://www.optionstheedge.com/topic/people/cover-story-jean-christophe-rufin-do...

63) Cat's People by Tanya Guerrero (2025)
fiction
I found this quite an endearing read. A stray cat, with a number of names, but known as Cat ends up uniting a variety of needy people in a trendy neighbourhood of New York. There are minor annoyances in the book, such as endless reminders of one of the character's love of vegan food and also barista coffee culture. Guerrero is a filopino writer who has lived in the US & Spain and now lives 'a shipping container home in the suburbs of Manila with her husband, daughter, and a menagerie of rescued cats and dogs.'

Hi! So many book posts! If I don't post about a book asap I'd probably forget I read it.

64) The Empress of Salt and Fortune by Nghi Vo (2020)
fantasy, novella

The Singing Hills Cycle #1 & Hugo Award for Best Novella (2021). This was one of several books I chose to read in May in order to complete my first TIOLI sweep. It's the first in a series of 7 books. Described as a feminist high fantasy, its about the life of a young Royal, sent from the far north of a country resembling Imperial China to make a political marriage. This was difficult to get into but the story became quite intriguing as it went on.

65) The writing on the hearth by Cynthia Harnett (1971)
children's historical fiction
I try each month to read at least one book from my collection of old UK children's classics. This one was set in the 1400s and near Oxford and involves witches and political intrigue. Stephen is a young boy whose future depends on his lord's promise of an Oxford education due to his late father's sacrifice when they were in France in battle against Joan of Arc. An unexpectedly excellent read.

66) All He Knew by Helen Frost (2020)
children's
A verse novel that pulls at the heartstrings. Set around WW2, Henry as a young boy becomes deaf through illness. Though he's really bright he can't communicate and ends up in a home for the mentally deficient, surrounded by boys with a variety of problems. The school is horrible and there is no help for these boys. Then the war breaks out and the staff is slowly replaced with young men who are conscientious objectors who question how these boys have been neglected.
The story of Henry is based on a family story.
This is another beautiful book that should be more widely known.

67) In the Shadow of Papillon Seven Years of Hell in Venezuela's Prison System by Frank Kane (2006)
memoir
This was a book I picked up in a library sale some time ago and my eye caught the word 'Papillon' when I was near one of my bookshelves, it fitted one of the TIOLI challenges to read a book by someone who'd been in prison. I read Charrière's Papillon years and years ago so this was a good substitute.
Kane and his girlfriend are stopped at the airport when leaving a Venezuelan resort island, they are both smuggling cocaine for the first time. Kane ends up spending seven years, his girlfriend serves five years in Venezuelan prisons. It's a battle for survival, forming alliances with leaders of violent gangs, friendships with other foreigners and legal battles with the local UK consul and indifferent courts. He is one of the survivors of the 1997 El Dorado prison massacre. This was a brutal read but well worth it. The book was co-written with John Tilsey, who is a professional writer which definitely helped the structure of the story.

68) The Book Censor's Library by Bothayna Al-Essa (2019)
scifi
Another TIOLI fit, the challenge was to read a book with a title that included a place you would find books. This was an unexpected pleasure to read even though the subject matter was quite dystopian. The Book Censor is new and soon realises he is not up to the job of passing judgment on the books he comes across. At home his young daughter is bursting full of the most imaginative stories, the only problem iis that in this new society imagination is prohibited. I most probably came across this novel on Lisa's Club Read thread.
I now want to read Al-Essa's Lost in Mecca which was translated in 2024.

>186 avatiakh: Top book bullet of the day.

What a pleasure to catch up as you are catching up!

Like you, I appreciated parts of The Safekeep without being blown away. I don't really understand how it has garnered so many plaudits and shortlists.

69) Everyone Knows Your Mother Is a Witch by Rivka Galchen (2021)
fiction

Another TIOLI challenge, to read a book with 'mother' in the title. This was also an interesting read, I didn't realise till I finished that it was based on real historical people, Johannes Kepler and his widowed mother's witchcraft trial around 1619. The structure is what stands out, the book is built on the testimony of his mother's neighbours, people she'd lived beside for decades, yet suddenly they are giving such paltry evidence as she walked past my cow for several days some years ago and my cow got ill but recovered or she looked at me when we passed in the street and I felt a pain in my leg, or I heard from someone that she once talked about something. The mother tells her side of the story to a sympathetic neighbour who has his own problems.
It's impossiblefor her to give a defense as the testimonies are so vague yet collectively they add up to suspicious behaviour. The mother is stubborn and it's obvious that some players in her downfall are after her properties and land.

70) The Wind Off the Small Isles by Mary Stewart (1968)
novella
The prologue is set in 1879 the Canary Island's Lanzarote and features an elopement. Then to 1968 and a writer brings her young secretary to the island to research her next book. A nice interlude on my other reading. I have several of Mary Stewart's romance novels and am slowly making my way through them.

71) Dear Reader: The Comfort and Joy of Books by Cathy Rentzenbrink (2020)
memoir
This is another TIOLI challenge book, Read a book by/with/about joy. I stumbled over this book when looking for a book with joy in the title or author name. It was the only one I felt like tackling at the time as all the Joys seemed to write crime fiction.
Rentzenbrink has spent her career mostly in bookselling and then working in the book world of promotion, publishing and even writing her own memoir. Her life was almost halted when her younger brother was badly injured in a car accident and was in a vegetative state for about eight years before succumbing. In the memoir she writes about the different types of books she's come across interspersed with stories of customers, fellow staff and her family. Her father was illiterate for much of her childhood, only learning to read in his middleage.
She has spent a lot of time in prisons as a volunteer in literacy projects. One memorable anecdote is giving her father Jane Eyre to read and he couldn't get past the first chapter which turned out to be the scholarly introduction. Such are the traps for those new to books.
Overall this was a pleasant read, the first chapter is full of the childhood delight of Narnia. I added several books to my tbr lists.

72) The Rowan by Anne McCaffrey (1990)
scifi
The Tower and the Hive #1. FOr the TIOLI challenge: Read a book in honor of MrMorphy. This was a shared read and not one I'd have picked out myself but I saw a copy come to light in some corner of the house. I loved every one of McCaffrey's Pern novels and enjoyed her Crystal Singer trilogy. This one didn't draw me in as much and I wouldn't read the rest of the series.
The Rowan is an orphaned young girl who has extraordinary mental powers so is trained to be a Talent on her home planet.

I also started listening to the Baroque Cycle's King of Vagabonds by Neal Stephenson for this challenge but I just don't do much audio listening these days so knew I wouldn't finish in time.

73) The Crow Eaters by Bapsi Sidhwa (1980)
fiction
TIOLI: Read a book by a South Asian writer. Sidhwa is a well known writer from Pakistan of Parsi heritage. She died in December 2024 in the US. https://indianexpress.com/article/india/bapsi-sidhwa-parsi-writer-who-took-parti...
Very happy to have turned up this book for the challenge, it was full of comedy and tragedy. A Parsi family moves from the south to Lahore in 1903. The book follows Freddy, the father, and his fortunes and misfortunes, the greatest of his problems is his widowed mother-in-law who lives with them. She seems beset on making his life as miserable as possible...but then as his children grow towards adulthood he is beset by more problems. This was her debut novel.

74) The War Between the Pitiful Teachers and the Splendid Kids by Stanley Kiesel (1980)
children's
I had to read this one, the title is too enticing. Another Inter Library Loan for this one as used copies are hard to come by and too expensive. Not sure how I came across the book in the first place and it didn't totally meet my expectations.
Some non-achieving students end up transformed by a wonderful teacher who manages to inspire and turn them around, but for every example like this there are many who fall through the cracks of the education system. Many end up in depressing institutions where teaching and learning are just a daily grind. Skinny Malinky is one of those kids and he decides to declare war on the teachers.
One small problem I had was Skinny Malinky is a very similar name to Lynley Dodd's Slinky Malinky, a memorable cat from several of her picture book stories.

75) The Magician of Lublin by Isaac Bashevis Singer (1960)
fiction

Read for Paul's European Grand Tour chllenge: May: Non-National Languages
The book was first published in Yiddish. The book cover of my tatty paperback shows Alan Arkin in the 1979 film of the same name. A good read about Yasha, a Jewish tightrope performer & magician, who travels around Poland each summer. He's given himself a complicated love life, stringing along several women. His wife stays home in Lublin, she loves him and accepts his lifestyle. In nearby Piask, Magda, his assistant & lover who is a Christian, he helps support her family, a mother who adores him and the brother. Then he's got another woman in the same town, a Jewish woman, Zeftel, whose husband has deserted her, she wants to travel to Warsaw with him. In Warsaw he's got Emila, a Christian widow who wants to move to Italy for her daughter's health. Yasha has made a lot of promises, too many.
This season his agent has promised that Yasha will be doing something new on the tightrope, a somersault...and so begins the turning of luck for Yasha.

76) The Star on the Grave by Linda Margolin Royal (2024)
fiction
A story based on the writer's family story of escape from the Holocaust. with thanks to Japanese diplomat Chiune Sugihara. The book needs to be read to understand how Sugihara saved the lives of so many, and the story is quite engaging, but I felt it was too light in some ways.
The book is set in 1968 Sydney, and Rachel is newly engaged to an Australian Greek doctor. After family visits and promises to convert to the Greek Orthodox church, Rachel uncovers the family secret that her father has hidden from her, she's Jewish. Her grandmother has kept this secret to avoid her son cutting ties and she now wants to take Rachel to a reunion in Kobe, Japan with the man who saved so many families including their own.

My June reading starts from here.
Books I've added to the TIOLI challenges:
Trafficking in Old Books - Anthony Marshall - DNF -this feels too dated after a few pages
When the angels left the old country - Sacha Lamb
A Question of Honor - Nita Abrams
Hild - Nicola Griffith
The Strange Affair of Adelaide Harris - Leon Garfield
Young Jane Young - Gabrielle Zevin
Silence of the Sea - Vercors
Here is New York - E.B. White
The Mars House - Natasha Pulley
Once was Willem - M.R. Carey - DNF, not my thing
Confessions of a Fallen Standard-Bearer - Andreï Makine
The Ladies Road Guide to Utter Ruin - Alison Goodman
Going Zero - Anthony McCarten
The Word Exchange - Alena Graedon
Silverborn: the mystery of Morrigan Crow - Jessica Townsend
Wolf Totem - Jiang Rong
The Axeman's Carnival - Catherine Chidgey
The Siege of Isfahan - Jean Christophe Rufin

77) The Ladies Road Guide to Utter Ruin by Alison Goodman (2025)
fiction
The Ill-Mannered Ladies #2. I enjoyed the first book and have had to wait months for the next one to come out and now I'm looking forward to book #3 which will be out next year hopefully.
This continues the adventures of two spinster sisters in the Regency world where males rule the domain. I love reading Regency romances and this series comes close, though there just doesn't seem much time for romance in amongst all the action. Still you know it will evenuate.

78) Going Zero by Anthony McCarten (2023)
action

An interesting setup - an IT company has a possible $40 billion deal with the CIA on survelliance tech and the final test is a competition, the winner gets $3 million, ten individuals must spend the next thirty days staying undetected while the tech company hunts them down. Five are professionals and five are randomly picked from ordinary life. The chapters alternate between the hunted and the hunters, midway and with a week to go the story twists.
I found this hard to put down, it was really good but not great.
I've read several by McCarten who is probably more well know for his films - Darkest Hour etc.

Had a lot of new books come into the house of late:
The Wager by David Grann
The delegation by Avner Landes - Israeli novel
Apples Never Fall by Liane Moriaty
The Secrets of Jin-Shei by Alma Alexander
My family and other suspects by Kate Emery - YA
Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin - need my own copy
Firebrand/ Queens Gambit by Elizabeth Fremantle
Cloudstreet by Tim Winton - his books are clunkers so need my own copy
The girl who fell beneath the sea by Axie Oh
The Theban Plays by Sophocles

Other June challenges - Paul's Grand European Tour: Italy
I've lined up Game for Five by Marco Malvaldi & The Prague Cemetery by Umberto Eco

79) Confessions of a Lapsed Standard-Bearer by Andreï Makine (1992)
fiction

I have collected a number of Makine's novels over the years but only read a couple. This one was picked up from a library sale table. Makine is a really good writer, I loved some of his imagery. The book tells the story through reminiscing of two Russian boys growing up in a small town near Leningrad. Their fathers both fought in WW2 and their mothers have stories of their own that they don't want to share with their children. Every summer the boys go to pioneer camp and march towards a radiant horizon.

'All morning a light autumn drizzle had been embroidering the air with its fine grey dots'.

I was in a reading slump through May, but seem to be pulling out of it thanks to David Copperfield, Demon Copperfield and James. No reading slump on your end, however! Glad you liked Book Censor's Library.

>209 labfs39: I decided to try for a TIOLI sweep in May, something I've never bothered with before and that sure gets you reading. Now if only I can break my audiobook lapse.
I picked up a copy of James a few weeks ago, luckily I read Huckleberry Finn some years back.

>208 avatiakh: Very similar experience. I have quite a number of his books too but I think that I have so far only read one of them.

>211 PaulCranswick: Yes, some writers you know you should read but ignore their prescence on the bookshelves. I only read it because it fitted a TIOLI challenge and I wanted it out of the house due to all the library stickers. I like to pick out a couple of random books each month, chipping away at my mountain.