Paul's Grand European Tour 5

Still in the Nordic world and the beautiful frosted forestry of Finland.

The Opening Words

I am hosting American Muslims this month in the American Author Challenge and on to my third book for the challenge with The Other Americans by Laila Lalami.




"My father was killed on a spring night four years ago, while I sat in the corner booth of a new bistro in Oakland. Whenever I think about that moment, these two contradictory images come to me : my father struggling for breath on the cracked asphalt, and me drinking champagne with my roommate, Margo. "

Interested......................?

Poetry

Aligned to our topper, I will refer to William Carlos Williams and his poem "Winter Woods".





All the complicated details
of the attiring and
the disattiring are completed!
A liquid moon
moves gently among
the long branches.
Thus having prepared their buds
against a sure winter
the wise trees
stand sleeping in the cold.

BOOKS READ IN 2025 (1-75)

By the way my completed dates are using the British system of DD/MM/YY

First Cycle



1. Colonel Chabert by Honore de Balzac (1832) 101 pages Fiction from before the last decade. (Completed 1/1/25)
2. Forest of Noise by Mosab Abu Toha (2024) 77 pages Poetry/Plays (completed 1/1/25)
3. Now Then by Rick Broadbent (2023) 433 pages Non-Fiction (Completed 2/1/25)
4. The Hunter by Tana French (2024) 467 pages Thriller (Completed 4/1/25)
5. Stone Yard Devotional by Charlotte Wood (2023) 293 pp Fiction from the last decade (completed 5/1/25)

Second Cycle



6. The Great Fortune by Olivia Manning (1960) 318 pp Fiction before this decade (completed 7/1/25)
7. Stag's Leap by Sharon Olds (2012) 89 pp Poetry/Plays (completed 8/1/25)
8. The Wild Places by Robert Macfarlane (2007) 321 pp Non-Fiction (Completed 12/1/25)
9. The Reborn by Lin Anderson (2010) 424 pp Thriller (Completed 25/1/25)
10. The Cold Millions by Jess Walter (2020) 337 pp Fiction from this Decade (Completed 28/1/25)

Third Cycle



11. Lost Empires by J.B. Priestley (1965) 308 pp Fiction before this decade (Completed 28/1/25)
12. After You Were, I Am by Camille Ralphs (2024) 71 pp Poetry/Plays (Completed 28/1/25)
13. The Junior Officers' Reading Club by Patrick Hennessey (2009) 327 pp Non-Fiction (Completed 29/1/25)
14. Dying Fall by Elly Griffiths (2013) 390 pp Thriller (Completed 31/1/25)
15. Fen by Daisy Johnson (2016) 190 pp Fiction from the last decade (Completed 31/1/25)

Fourth Cycle



16. In Other Rooms, Other Wonders by Daniyal Mueenuddin (2009) 237 pp Fiction before this decade (Completed 1/2/25)
17. The Power of Geography by Tim Marshall (2021) 356 pp Non-Fiction (Completed 2/2/25)
18. Macbeth by William Shakespeare (1606) 97 pp Poetry/Plays (Completed 2/2/25)
19. Night Blind by Ragnar Jonasson (2015) 210 pp Thrillers(Completed 4/2/25)
20. Take it Back by Kia Abdullah (2020) 373 pp Fiction from the last decade (Completed 5/2/25)

Fifth Cycle



21. Nagasaki by Eric Faye (2012) 109 pp Fiction before this decade (Completed 6/2/25)
22. The Shepherd's Life by James Rebanks (2015) 287 pp Non-Fiction (Completed 7/2/25)
23. Alphabet by Inger Christensen (1981) 77 pp Poetry/Plays (Completed 8/2/25)
24. Alif the Unseen by G. Willow Wilson (2012) 427 pp Sci-Fi/Fantasy (Completed 9/2/25)
25. The Half Moon by Mary Beth Keane (2023) 379 pp Fiction from the last decade (Completed 10/2/25)

SIXTH CYCLE



26. Silence by Shusaku Endo (1966) 201 pp Fiction before this decade (Completed 15/2/25)
27. In the Land of the Cyclops by Karl Ove Knausgaard (2018) 297 pp Non-Fiction (Completed 16/2/25)
28. God's Gift to Women by Don Paterson (1997) 56 pp Poetry/Plays (Completed 16/2/25)
29. Our Fathers by Rebecca Wait (2020) 334 pp Thriller (Completed 16/2/25)
30. The Other Americans by Laila Lalami (2019) 301 pp Fiction from the last decade (Completed 20/2/25)



31. Dart by Alice Oswald (2002) 48 pp Poetry/Plays (Completed 21/2/25)
32. A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman (2012) 294 pp Fiction before this decade (Completed 22/2/25)
33. Afternoons with the Blinds Drawn by Brett Anderson (2019) 278 pp Non-Fiction (Completed 23/2/25)
34. Comet in Moominland by Tove Jansson (1946) 203 pp (Completed 27/2/25)
35. Othello by William Shakespeare (1602) 145 pp (Completed 28/2/25)

Currently Reading

THE GRAND EUROPEAN BOOK TOUR



January : Prelude - 19th Century Europe : https://www.librarything.com/topic/367210 - Colonel Chabert by Balzac

February : Nordic Nations : https://www.librarything.com/topic/368107
1. Night Blind by Ragnar Jonasson (Iceland)
2. Alphabet by Inger Christensen (Denmark)
3. In the Land of the Cyclops by Knausgaard (Norway)
4. A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman (Sweden)
5. Comet in Moominland by Tove Jansson (Finland)

March : Warsaw Pact : https://www.librarything.com/topic/368897

April : Ottoman Empire
May : Non-National Languages
June : Caesar to Meloni
July : The Germanic World
August : Anita Fameulstee Memorial Month (Benelux)
September : Books About European Places

October : La Belle France
1. Nagasaki by Eric Faye

November : Iberian Peninsula
December : Back to the Future : 21st Century in translation

British Author Challenge (Hosted by my friend Amanda)



January - The stage : https://www.librarything.com/topic/366934#8710962
Lost Empires by J.B. Priestley

February - Kia Abdullah : Take it Back & Adrian Tchaikovsky

March -
April -
May -
June -
July -
August -
September -
October -
November -
December -

American Author Challenge (Hosted with occasional assistance this year by my friend Linda)



JANUARY - Pacific North West : https://www.librarything.com/topic/367006
The Cold Millions by Jess Walter

FEBRUARY - American Muslims (Guest Host) : https://www.librarything.com/topic/367970#n8746462
1. In Other Rooms, Other Wonders by Daniyal Mueenuddin
2. Alif the Unseen by G. Willow Wilson
3. The Other Americans by Laila Lalami

MARCH -
APRIL -
MAY -
JUNE -
JULY
AUGUST -
SEPTEMBER -
OCTOBER
NOVEMBER -
DECEMBER

NON-FICTION CHALLENGE



Hosted this year by my friend Benita. Challenge thread is here : https://www.librarything.com/topic/366835

January - Award Winners : The Wild Places by Robert Macfarlane
February - Maps : The Power of Geography by Tim Marshall

Family Photo

Books Added

January

1. Good Material by Dolly Alderton (2023) 341 pp
2. The Fate of Mary Rose by Caroline Blackwood (1981) 224 pp
3. The China Factory by Mary Costello (2012) 156 pp
4. Poetry for Life and Other Chronic Conditions by A.K. Davidson 69 pp READ
5. The Last Samurai by Helen DeWitt (2000) 482 pp
6. Firebrand by Elizabeth Fremantle (2013) 420 pp
7. Selected Poems by Zbigniew Herbert (2024) 249 pp READ
8. George : A Magpie Memoir by Freida Hughes (2023) 262 pp
9. Human Acts by Han Kang (2014) 224 pp
10. Things You May Find Hidden in My Ear by Mosab Abu Toha (2022) 124 pp
11. In Defence of Food by Michael Pollan (2008) 201 pp
12. The Shepherd's Life by James Rebanks (2015) 287 pp READ 2/25
13. Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare (1599) 104 pp READ
14. Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare (1594) 121 pp
15. The Merchant of Venice by William Shakespeare (1595) 98 pp
16. Daughter in Exile by Bisi Adjapon (2023) 387 pp
17. The Nether World by George Gissing (1889) 392 pp
18. Blessings by Chukwuebuka Ibeh (2024) 243 PP
19. The Bullet Swallower by Elizabeth Gonzalez James (2024) 249 pp
20. The Half Moon by Mary Beth Keane (2023) 379 pp READ 2/25
21. Tomas Nevinson by Javier Marias (2021) 634 pp
22. Macbeth by William Shakespeare (1606) 97 pp READ 2/25
23. Coriolanus by William Shakespeare READ
24. Take it Back by Kia Abdullah READ 2/25
25. Restoring the Wild by Roy Dennis

February

26. Martyr! by Kaveh Akbar
27. Diary of an Ordinary Woman by Margaret Forster
28. The Moor's Account by Laila Lalami
29. Tamed by Alice Roberts
30. Henry V by William Shakespeare
31. Hamlet by William Shakespeare
32. Peter Pan by J.M. Barrie
33. Levitation for Beginners by Suzannah Dunn
34. The Sixth Extinction by Elizabeth Kolbert
35. In the Full Light of the Sun by Clare Clark
36. Girlhood by Julia Copus READ
37. The Village by the Sea by Anita Desia
38. Otherlands by Thomas Halliday
39. Canoes by Maylis de Kernagal READ
40. Hard by a Great Forest by Leo Vardiashvili
41. Humanly Possible by Sarah Bakewell
42. Unspeakable by John Bercow
43. A Call to Action by Jimmy Carter
44. Argylle by Elly Conway
45. Regime Change by Patrick J Densen
46. Mountains of the Mind by Robert Macfarlane
47. Burning the Books by Richard Ovenden
48. Siblings by Brigitte Reinmann
49. Bread for All by Chris Renwick
50. The Country and the City by Raymond Williams
51. Confessions by Catherine Airey
52. Private Rites by Julia Armfield
53. Shy Creatures by Clare Chambers
54. Our London Lives by Catherine Dwyer Hickey
55. Blue Sisters by Coco Mellors
56. Nesting by Roisin O'Donnell READ
57. Three Days in June by Anne Tyler
58. Built by Roma Agrawal
59. More Sky by Joe Carrick-Varty
60. Towards Eternity by Anton Hur
61. Inside Out & Back Again by Thanhha Lai
62. Caledonian Road by Andrew O'Hagan
63. Amal Unbound by Aisha Saeed
64. Fire Weather by John Vaillant

2025 Book Stats

Books Read : 35
Pages Read in completed books : 8,855 pp

Longest book : The Hunter : 433 pp
Shortest book : Dart : 48 pp
Mean book length : 253.00 pp

Pages per day average in completed books : 150.08

Books written by men : 19
Books written by women: 16

Non-Fiction : 7
Fiction : 13
Poetry : 6
Thriller : 5
SF/Fantasy : 2
Drama : 2

1600s : 2 books
1830s : 1 book
1940s : 1 book
1960s : 3 books
1980s : 1 book
1990s : 1 book
2000s : 4 books
2010s : 12 books
2020s : 9 books

UK Authors : 18
US Authors : 6
France Authors : 2
Ireland Authors : 1
Australia Authors : 1
Palestine Authors : 1
Iceland Authors : 1
Denmark Authors : 1
Norway Authors : 1
Japan Authors : 1
Sweden Authors : 1
Finland Authors : 1
Challenges :
European Grand Tour Challenge : 7 books
Non-Fiction Challenge : 2 books
American Author Challenge : 4 books
British Author Challenge : 2 book
1001 Books : 1 book
Awards :
Pulitzer Poetry Prize

Read : 35 books
Added : 64 books

Change to TBR : +29

January Books : 15
January Pages : 4,146
Pages Average : Per book : 276.40 Per Day : 133.74

February Books : 20
February Pages : 4,709
Pages Average : Per Book 235.45 Per day 168.19

Welcome to my fifth thread of 2025.

Happy new thread, Paul!

Happy new thread!

>14 drneutron: Wow Jim! Were you ever first here (apart from year beginnings) before? Good to see you buddy.

>15 amanda4242: Thank you, Amanda.

Happy new thread!

Happy new thread Paul!

>3 PaulCranswick: Have you missed winter, these years in Malaysia?

Hi Paul. I'm caught up again.

I've read quite a few of the chunksters on your last thread, but my most recent is Life and Fate, which I had not even heard of until about 10 years ago. Very highly recommended.

Happy new thread Paul!

Yippee! I have a chance to speak before your thread is too long for me even to scroll through! HI, PAUL!!!! Hope you are well and flourishing and looking forward to good reading for this thread!

I LOVE WC Williams! That's a lovely poem. "wise trees stand sleeping in the cold" --- Lovely!

Happy new thread Paul. I know I've missed a couple.

>17 figsfromthistle: Thank you dear Anita

>18 ArlieS: Thanks Arlie!

>19 booksaplenty1949: I miss the idea of winter but not its fraught actuality, its short days, slippery streets and sepia toned visages. I do miss spring and autumn a lot though.

>20 ffortsa: Lovely to see you Judy. I well recall that Life and Fate was our dear late friend, Anita's favourite book.

>21 quondame: Thanks Susan; always a pleasure to have you stop by. x

>22 LizzieD: I am doing fair to middleton as they say in the North of England, Peggy.

WCW doesn't get near enough coverage these days, I think. A great craftsman and has some lines to die for as you nicely spotted.

>23 AnneDC: You are here now, Anne, which is all I ever consider. Always a pleasure to see you posting because I know that we like so many similar books.

Happy New Thread, again, Paul!

>28 vancouverdeb: Thank you, again, Deb!

Soon to return to the UK, I read on Dejah's thread ? That is very good news. High time you got to see Pip and the rest of your family again, Paul. I hope you are there very soon. Keep us in the loop. Any idea when you might be able to make a permanent move ?

>30 vancouverdeb: Thanks Deb, I will of course.

I have slightly better news even. Hani has booked her ticket back here on 4 March 2025 to coincide with her birthday on the following day. I am really pleased. Yasmyne and Pip will arrive on 20 March 2025 for a visit.

I am hoping that I will be able to go back to the UK semi-permanently in April.

Happy New Thread, my friend.
And YAY for the family reunion soon!

>32 SirThomas: Thank you, Thomas.

Happy New Thread, Paul. I love that winter topper. Reminds me of Minnesota. I will watch for your thoughts on Afternoons with the Blinds Drawn. I have not heard Suede in many, many years. I am still making it through my CD collection- currently at the end of the "L"s. This has been a great journey.

Happy new thread Paul. You seem to be keeping up with your reading goals.

Happy new one, Paul.

>34 msf59: I have all Suede's music, Mark. Their sound was unique, I think.

>35 Kristelh: I am a little behind, Kristel but I am not doing too badly.

>36 jessibud2: Thank you, dear Shelley.

>16 PaulCranswick: Just lucky - I happened to be checking threads right as you were making the new one! 😀

>39 drneutron: A very pleasant surprise Doc Roc, anyhow!

Happy new thread, Paul! Congrats on the upcoming visit in March, and hope that all goes smoothly for you to return to the UK this spring.

Happy new thread, Paul!

Happy New Thread!!

There are so many long books to choose from. I have a list of the page counts of the all inclusive 1001 Books if you would like the list.

>41 bell7: Thanks Mary. I am glad that Hani has brought forward her return here although she made me pay to upgrade her!

>42 Carmenere: Thank you dear Lynda. Lovely to see you.

>43 hredwards: Thank you, Harold.

>44 Kristelh: Kristel that would interest me of course. I have page counts of every book in my to read list in my personal library.

Made a whistle stop visit through this and your last thread Paul. I'm hopeless at keeping up with the fast moving threads. Glad you seem to be on the mend though.

I need to get back to Don Paterson. I have two busts (Oscar Wilde and Virginia Woolf) by his brother Steve:

https://stevepaterson.co.uk/

Hi Paul, Happy New Thread mate. It's a bit nip and tuck at the top of the Championship, are you getting nervous for the run in, two or three bad results over the next few weeks would not be good. I am just hoping that the five below us keep on having bad results or we will be dragged into a relegation battle. I have belief in Amorim, once he has a proper pre-season and gets his players in that can play the way he wants, then he can be properly judged. Years of over spending on so called world class players and vast salaries are all contributing. I remember saying after Sir Alex finished, we could go through the same period as when Sir Matt finished BUT sooner or later we have to stick with a manager that will get us back to where we were, Sir Alex had a dodgy first three years before things started to click and Amorim is going to need Sir Alex on his side as Sir Alex had Sir Bobby on his side.

Hope all is well with you, your reading is going well so far mate, keep it going.

>47 Caroline_McElwee: I really like Don Paterson, Caroline, he is a great technician.

I am much better actually although the back is still having its moments.

>48 johnsimpson: I don't think it is so "nip and tuck", John, to be honest. I think we are head and shoulders the best team in the division. We have 7 points on third place Burnley and are unbeaten in 15. We have scored the most goals by a country mile and we have the best goal difference in the entire football league structure.
There is something badly wrong at Man Utd and Amorim has his work cut out. I think he will have to clear out some of the bad eggs in the squad and slowly bring in his own players.

Happy new thread, Paul!

>31 PaulCranswick: This is good news indeed! I'm glad you will see the family again soon. Good luck with the plans to return to the UK.

>50 atozgrl: Thank you, Irene.

I am looking forward to having Hani back here for sure.

Happy New Thread!

>52 SilverWolf28: Thank you Silver!

>1 PaulCranswick: Well, now that looks familiar. It could be here but I see you've identified it as Finland and maybe it's a bit flat to be here anyway but the trees would fit right in.

Happy new thread Paul and great to see that you have plans to semi-permanently be in the UK soon.

Happy new thread Paul! I somehow keep missing them T^T

>54 Familyhistorian: Thank you, Meg. I have it on good authority that that is in the forests of Northern Finland.

>55 louisisaloafofbreb: All ok, Lily, you are here now.

Happy new thread, Paul.

>31 PaulCranswick: Good news! You must be looking forward to seeing your family again.

Nice poem, up there. Thanks for posting them. I’m not a poetry reader, but I appreciate what people post here.

>57 EllaTim: Thank you, Ella. I am excited already that my soulmate is almost on her way.

I love poetry but I am an endangered species these days!

Happy new thread! I must admit to skimming most of the last one, but now I will try to keep up.

I just cannot keep up with you, brother :)

Happy new thread and happy whatever!

>59 foggidawn: Lovely to see you Foggi.

>60 alcottacre: Thank you Sister. x

BOOK #30



The Other Americans by Laila Lalami
Date of Publication : 2019
Origin of Author : USA
Pages : 301 pp
Genre : Fiction
Challenges : AAC

Lalami can certainly write but the several POV approach didn't work so fantastically in this setting - there were simply too many voices and too many saying too many similar things for the coherence of the tale.

Some of the themes were important and I liked the struggle of daughter and father to walk a more secular path in the USA as opposed to the dictates of more orthodox Islamic expression, but some of it seemed a littled forced and trite.

Only very mildly recommended.

Here's the next readathon: https://www.librarything.com/topic/368676

>63 SilverWolf28: Thank you, Silver

I am planning on adding a BIG BOOK CHALLENGE on a monthly basis by which we can polish off one of those challenging books on our wishlist / hitlist.

I will try and coincide it with my other challenges so for March I want to go all Fyodor.

Have you a major work missing by the Russian giant? I have several.
I am thinking of reading The Devils.
You could just as easily go with Crime and Punishment, The Idiot or The Brothers Karamazov.
Maybe Dostoevsky is not your thing so Leo Tolstoy two main epics or either of Vasily Grossman's two war classics would also qualify. You may alternatively want to wallow in Pasternak and Zhivago's Revolutionary rumblelings.

PRIYATNOGO CHTENIYA
.

FRIDAY LUNCHTIME ADDITIONS

36. Girlhood by Julia Copus
37. The Village by the Sea by Anita Desia
38. Otherlands by Thomas Halliday
39. Canoes by Maylis de Kernagal
40. Hard by a Great Forest by Leo Vardiashvili

Hi - you may enjoy HAFEZ Poetry in Club Read.

here's the big books from 1001 combined list;

Remembrance of Things Past, pages 4211, read 2014
A Dance to the Music of Time, pages 3013 read 2015
The Taebaek Mountains not Translated in a language I know. 3000?
One Thousand and One Nights, Pages 2592 read 012
A Dream of Red Mansion, pages 2549 Not read 2016
Monkey: Journey to the West, pages 2346, read 2020
Romance of the Three Kingdoms pages 2340, not read
The Water Margin, pages 2140, not read
Pilgrimage, Dorothy Richardson pages, 2124 partially read 2019
Jahrestage ( Anniversaries) pages, 1668 read 2022
Clarissa, pages 1534 read 2023
Joseph and His Brothers, page 1492 not read 2024
A Suitable Boy, pages 1488 not read 2015
Les Misérables pages 1432 read 2013
War and Peace pages 1392 read 2012
The Tale of Genji 1319 2025
U.S.A. pages 1288 2026 not read, next year, year long read
The Count of Monte-Cristo pages 1276 read 2018
Your Face Tomorrow 1242 2027
The Lord of the Rings pages1216 read 2017
The Man Without Qualities pages 1152, read 2021
Kristin Lavransdatter pages 1144, read 2014
2666 pages 1128, read 2015
Blonde, pages 1110 read 2018
Infinite Jest Pages 1088, read 2017
Against the Day pages 1085 2028
Cecilia, 1056 2029
Gargantua and Pantagruel 1041 2030
Gone With the Wind pages 1037 READ 2031
Tom Jones pages 1024, read 2032
Don Quixote, pages 1023 read 2018
Bleak House pages 1017 read 2017

>68 Kristelh: Speaking personally, I would not recommend reading the twelve novels constituting A Dance to the Music of Time all at one go. Probably true of the thirteen novels of Pilgrimage as well. Page counts of Tom Jones and Bleak House 200+ over my editions.

>65 PaulCranswick: Read my way through Dostoevsky and Tolstoy’s major works a few years ago. Had never read in my youth, because I thought I was going to learn Russian. Turns out it has a different alphabet. So finally read in English; better late than never. Read Doctor Zhivago last century after seeing the movie and thought it was rubbish. Leningrad now on order.

When I read A Dance to the Music off Time. I read one per month. I thought it was the way to go. My Pilgrimage is in 4 volumes. Page counts always very on publisher and media but I tend to use hardback editions as the page count but that is not hard at fast either. The long books are always by yearly reads. I give myself a full year and then I don’t always finish them.

>67 m.belljackson: I have a book of Hafiz poetry, Marianne, and do plan on reading it sometime reasonably soon.

>68 Kristelh: Thanks for that Kristel. Not sure that I would go with all of Proust's books in one fell swoop. Some of the page counts match my editions closely and some don't.

>69 booksaplenty1949: Yes, that's right in that I wouldn't overload Proust or Powell and would go with more digestible chunks!
Yes my Bleak House has 880 pages
My War and Peace has 1,224 pages
My A Suitable Boy has 1,474 pages (close).

>70 booksaplenty1949: Doctor Zhivago was rubbish? Certainly not my absolute favourite but I don't think I have ever seen it thus described before. Oh for the joy of opinions!

>71 Kristelh: Best way with Powell for sure, Kristel.

I always use my own page counts and I always put up the cover of a particular book that I actually read.

>73 PaulCranswick: I refer you to Nabokov’s remarks on Dr Zhivago http://lib.ru/NABOKOW/Inter22.txt I think if had not appeared at the height of the Cold War its reception would have been much different.

"I regard the
book as a sorry thing, clumsy, trivial, and melodramatic, with
stock situations, voluptuous lawyers, unbelievable girls, and
trite coincidences."

Wow, he wasn't sure about it then?!

>76 PaulCranswick: Yeah, tell us what you really think, Vladimir.

>77 booksaplenty1949: I read it long before LT and it didn't blow me away but I must admit that I didn't think it was rubbish.

>78 PaulCranswick: Another POV https://brightstarbookblog.wordpress.com/2020/05/09/doctor-zhivago-book-review/ this time a positive review, but the quotations here reminded me how pretentiously wordy and yet unspecific I found so much of the book. Personally I think the passages quoted would have been more appropriate if the reviewer had been panning the novel.

>65 PaulCranswick: >68 Kristelh:

Cast aside the Big Books!

I just read one straight through for the first time in many, many years:

OUR RICHES by Kaouther Adimi.

>79 booksaplenty1949: Hahaha you are a hard taskmaster!

>80 m.belljackson: Can't just throw them away, Marianne. I have 117 books unread on my shelves in excess of 800 pages.

I have to say though that Our Riches does look like a book I would like.

>81 PaulCranswick: How did you obtain this figure?

You’re full of plans Paul! If a big book coincides with a part of Europe that we are visiting I might manage this challenge. Do you include Russia in the Warsaw pact countries?

>75 booksaplenty1949: The movie was a major hit when I was a teenager, playing in our village movie theatre for ages. I can still half see the big poster. Of course I didn’t have the money to go and watch it. Only much later, and then I liked it mainly because it is visually very nice.

>70 booksaplenty1949: Wow, tis one of my favs!

>73 PaulCranswick: My books within 2-3 pages of yours. I've not yet tackled Seth, but Bleak House and War and Peace are amongst my favs!

>83 EllaTim: Among other advantages, a movie version of a Russian novel allows you to recognise the characters visually, so the fact that they have three different names is less confusing.

BOOK #31



Dart by Alice Oswald
Date of Publication : 2002
Origin of Author : UK
Gender of Author : Female
Pages : 48 pp
Genre : Poetry

This is a groundbreaking long poem that describes and peoples the Dart. It is a Devonian river and Oswald recorded discussions with hundreds of people whose lives were impacted and devoted to that waterway and then she imbues them with poetry.

Not always very easy to follow as her verse and its viewpoints meanders along as does her subject but some of this is very good.

but when you're onto a salmon,
a big one hiding under a rock, you can see his tail
making the water move,
you let the current work your fly

all the way from Iceland, from the Faroes,
a three-sea-winter fish coming up on the spate,
on the full moon, when the river spreads out

a thousand feet between Holne and Dartmeet and he
climbs it,
up the trickiest line, maybe,
maybe down-flowing water has an upcurrent nobody
knows

it takes your breath away,
generations of them inscribed into this river,
up at Belever where the water's only so wide

Recommended.

>85 Tess_W: Given our divergent views on DZ I am probably not a credible spokesperson, but I found A Suitable Boy a charming version of a 19thC British novel in a contemporary Indian context. Greatly enjoyed.

>82 booksaplenty1949: I have an excel spreadsheet of all my unread books.

>83 EllaTim: Yes Ella the territory of Russia was part of the USSR who were a signatory of the Warsaw Pact and all those parts which are within Europe can qualify for next month.

It is one of the rare occasions when the film is superior to the book in my opinion.

>84 Tess_W: I know that there are a lot of admirers of the book too, Tess. I did not hate it but I am sure that I didn't like it as much as you. The movie on the other hand was fabulous and Julie Christie as Lara was perfection.

>85 Tess_W: I have read the opening chapter of Bleak House at least five times and then got drawn away but this year I will concentrate!

>86 booksaplenty1949: Yes you do have a point there. It is interesting that my previous colleague and still close friend Olga from St Petersburg listed as her favourite authors:
Boris Pasternak
Vladimir Nabokov
Mikhail Bulgakov
and
Theodore Dreiser

>88 booksaplenty1949: I have see a lot of love for that book too. Another I must get to soon.

>89 PaulCranswick: I agree. Although I'm not a big fan of the movie Dr. Zhivago, I think it's better than the book. It is visually stunning. I finally read the book a year and a half ago, and I didn't like it very much. I deaccessioned it.

>92 atozgrl: I think it is one of those books/films where so many of us would prefer the film, Irene.

Enjoy your purchases, Paul! I shan't remind of your initial number . Heaven knows the "contraband ' I sneak past Dave , in the way of puzzles, occasional books and an Apple watch, which since is winter and I am wearing long sleeves, he has yet to notice. But a reckoning will come re the Apple watch when short sleeve season is upon us.

>94 vancouverdeb: Hahaha Deb. Enjoy the watch while you can is all I can say!

>90 PaulCranswick: I started this year reading the Dickens oeuvre in order published. Right now it's a chore because the first, The Pickwick Papers is my least favorite and second, Oliver Twist is also not a fav. I also loved the Zhivago movie. I actually liked the book better, as it told a story in much more depth. But the real life Pasternak and his mistress, Olga, is a much sadder, grim story.

>96 Tess_W: I like the fact that we don't all always agree on our favourite books as it would be a dull world otherwise! I actually liked Pickwick but it was my first Dickens and I suppose that its episodic nature can get a bit tedious.

>92 atozgrl: Not a big seller at the annual used book sale I volunteer at. But we can move any number of copies of Ulysses and War and Peace. Clearly with those BMBs people promise themselves “Someday…”

>98 booksaplenty1949: I am not sure how many people buy the books in order to read them or whether they buy them so that visitors can see them on the shelves and be impressed.

>99 PaulCranswick: A combination of motives, I think. Nobody’s buying Doctor Zhivago to impress anybody, I think that’s clear. Cold War relic.

>100 booksaplenty1949: Or they maybe want to see the film instead.

Weakened a bit today as I went to check out a new Japanese bookstore this evening:

41. Humanly Possible by Sarah Bakewell
42. Unspeakable by John Bercow
43. A Call to Action by Jimmy Carter
44. Argylle by Elly Conway
45. Regime Change by Patrick J Densen
46. Mountains of the Mind by Robert Macfarlane
47. Burning the Books by Richard Ovenden
48. Siblings by Brigitte Reinmann
49. Bread for All by Chris Renwick
50. The Country and the City by Raymond Williams

>102 PaulCranswick: The Country and the City has been in my “To Read” pile for a long time although I have read and enjoyed other books by Raymond Williams. Would probably be a good follow-up to my recent reading of Akenfield.

>103 booksaplenty1949: I have not come across it in any bookshop over here before so I was delighted to find it yesterday (it is 5 am here on Monday).

>102 PaulCranswick: Interesting book haul, I don't recognise any titles though there are a lot of books out in the world.
I visited Carter's Presidential Library in Atlanta and seeing the actual Camp David documents and notes was quite thrilling. The current Israel - Egyptian situation leaves much to be desired, there has been an heavy military buildup in the Sinai by the Egyptians that Israel & the USA have not addressed, it's completely against the Peace Agreement.

>105 avatiakh: I thought Jimmy Carter a very good man irrespective of the perceived failures of his administration and I was thrilled to find a book by him on the shelves.

I think that the world needs to keep a careful eye on both Egypt and Turkey in the Middle East and I would not trust either of them if Israel was not to remain vigilant with the support of its genuine friends.

BOOK # 32



A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman
Date of Publication : 2012
Origin of Author : Sweden
Gender of Author : Male
Pages : 294 pp
Genre : Fiction
Challenges : Grand European Tour

I haven't seen either of the movies but I would imagine that this lends itself well to the cinema.

A curmudgeon who has simply had enough after the loss of life but who still grumpily insists on doing the right things.

On occasions Ove is almost cartoonish in his morose attitude to pretty much everything and everyone but his good heart is as visible as it proves to work unreliably.

An enjoyable and deserved success as a debut novel.

BOOK #33



Afternoons with the Blinds Drawn by Brett Anderson
Date of Publication : 2019
Origin of Author : UK
Gender of Author : Male
Pages : 278 pp
Genre : Non-Fiction

Of the plethora of bands that were spawned in the Britpop explosion in the mid 90s, Suede always seemed like outliers. Indefinable and difficult to fit into a particular group or genre. A little bit of Bowie and a bit of Queen but much about them was uniquely them.

There is some of that feel to this hazy memoir too. Anderson is a talented writer but he can be as obtuse and subtle as some of his finer lyrics. Suede may no longer be churning out hits but he has a bright future wherever his personal road may lead him.

Hi Paul! I'm finally catching up with you after I returned from Sydney. Thanks for visiting my thread.

My parents have a cuckoo clock which plays a few bars of the theme song from the Dr Zhivago film; it gets to be an annoying ear worm pretty soon.

>109 humouress: Hahaha I love Lara's Theme but I wouldn't want to hear it all the time!

>107 PaulCranswick: And another BB, one of many.
Thank goodness I've already read it ;-)
Have a wonderful start into the new week, my friend!

>111 SirThomas: Thank you, Thomas. I am in arbitration today giving evidence so fingers crossed for me!

>112 PaulCranswick: If you give evidence with your fingers crossed is that problematic?

>113 booksaplenty1949: it may sometimes be necessary problematic or not?!

>102 PaulCranswick: Weakened a bit ! :-) I don't recognize any of the titles either. As for whether people buy books to show them off or to just read them, I keep mine in such a disarray , I can assure you that mine are to read.

I buy books because I love books, love to read, but I also use them as decor. What better decor than to surround yourself with books.

I buy a lot of (used) books for the cover art/design: Edward Gorey, Paul Rand, Alvin Lustig, James Avati, Harri Peccinotti. Many are books I have already read or have no interest in reading. Keep thinking I would like to display the covers somehow but wall space is at a premium chez moi.
PS Also own many books *about* book covers, eg Seven Hundred Penguins. Very meta.

>117 booksaplenty1949:, That one sounds really cool!

>118 Kristelh: Can also recommend Jackets Required.

The March BAC thread is up.

https://www.librarything.com/topic/368811#

>115 vancouverdeb: I know! I am half way to my yearly aimed total, Deb, and we are not out of February yet!

>116 Kristelh: I can identify myself in those comments too, Kristel. I know that I am a bit of a magpie. With over 5,000 books at home unread I cannot pretend that I have nothing at all to read!

>117 booksaplenty1949: I like buying used books too but second-hand bookstores are very thin on the ground over here.

Books about books are good and books about book covers would certainly appeal. People say "don't judge a book by its cover" but I am often guilty of doing just that!

>118 Kristelh: I agree, Kristel.

>119 booksaplenty1949: I am tempted to go and see if I can order either of those suggestions.

>120 amanda4242: Thank you, Amanda.

I enjoy Durrell and have at least one Norah Loft's book on the shelves.

>122 PaulCranswick: A friend suggested that a professional photographer could create a poster of, say, my James Avati covers or the rather unlikely series of Penguin covers of Edna O’Brien novels with nude photographs by Barry Lategan, the photographer who created Twiggy. (O’Brien noted that the covers had little relationship to the novels, but sales went way up). I stack such pocketbooks up sideways to save space, but either way covers are not on display, so posters would be nice.
PS Love Lategan’s cover for Yoga.

>124 booksaplenty1949: I certainly think that covers help sell books. Nudes on covers is a bit problematic as they would likely be banned or not stocked here in Malaysia. Also not something that you would feel entirely comfortable reading on a train. Artistically, I of course adore the female form and I would be drawn to such covers.

>117 booksaplenty1949: I do this too. I love some of the older Penguin covers. I'm a fan of the illustrations in old children's books, Charles Keeping among others.

>126 avatiakh: I also like the plain orange, blue or green covers too that Penguin have - aged well and look classy.

Finished re-reading Madame Bovary. Had slowed down to a chapter a day because it was just so dark. An absolutely brilliant novel, a tour-de-force, but not exactly likeable.

>127 PaulCranswick: They make a good “spines out” display. I have a full shelf of green Penguins, ie mysteries, in my guest bedroom.

>128 booksaplenty1949: I need to re-read it because it left me cold when I first read it. I feel that somehow I have missed something in not enjoying it.

>129 booksaplenty1949: Yes exactly, I like the Vintage Classics Red covers for that same reason.

The International Booker Prize Longlist has been announced with fancied authors Olga Tokarczuk and Han Kang both surprisingly overlooked. Here is the longlist of 13 books:

Longlist
A Leopard-Skin Hat by Anne Serre
On a Woman's Madness by Astrid Roemer
Heart Lamp by Banu Mushtaq
Perfection by Vincenzo Latronica
Eurotrash by Christian Kracht
Under the Eye of the Big Bird by Hiromi Kawakami
Hunchback by Saou Ichikawa
Small Boat by Vincent Delecroix (no touchstone)
Reservoir Bitches by Dahlia de la Cerda
Solenoid by Mircea Cartarescu
There's a Monster Behind the Door by Gaelle Belem
On the Calculation of Volume I by Solvej Balle
The Book of Disappearance by Ibtisam Azem

>131 PaulCranswick: Hmmm. An interesting list.

>132 figsfromthistle: Only three of them are in any way familiar to me in truth, Anita.

>130 PaulCranswick: https://mikedempsey.typepad.com/.a/6a00e5532538c48833011570cec338970b-popup
https://www.tumblr.com/coverlibrary/74420595238/derek-birdsall-maugham-penguin
Here are links to a couple of pictures of the covers Derek Birdsall and Harri Peccinotti created for a Penguin series of the works of Somerset Maugham. As you can see, when assembled correctly the covers create a splendid montage. Unfortunately a bookshelf cannot do justice to this project.

>134 booksaplenty1949: Clever. I don't remember quite so many bared breasts in the books though!

>131 PaulCranswick:. I’ve seen several of these reviewed on u.tub

>135 PaulCranswick: H.P. Harri Peccinotti cover should give you an idea of Peccinotti’s, erm, artistic interests.

>136 Kristelh: I don't see too much YouTube/Book Tube. I did see one this morning and he got two of the number right.

>137 booksaplenty1949: Well I do like iced lollies, but that brings un-iced lollies to mind, I suppose!

>102 PaulCranswick: I've got Burning the Books by Richard Ovenden on my TBR. Will be interested what you think of it.

>139 Tess_W: Not sure how quickly I will get to it, Tess, but I do like the look of it and censorship is an issue that I feel strongly about.

The Women's Longlist is released on Tuesday in the UK and I always look forward to it with great interest. I think that the award has done wonders this last 30 years both in opening doors fully ajar for female authors as well as assisting readers - men and women alike to broaden their horizons considerably.

What do we think will make the 16 book longlist - my prediction (I never get more than a couple right):

Dream Count by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Confessions by Catherine Airey
Shy Creatures by Clare Chambers
Our London Lives by Christine Dwyer Hickey
All Fours by Miranda July
Creation Lake by Rachel Kushner
Rapture by Emily Maguire
Blue Sisters by Coco Mellors
Nesting by Roisin O'Donnell
Hum by Helen Phillips
The Fertile Earth by Ruthvika Rao
Intermezzo by Sally Rooney
There Are Rivers in the Sky by Elif Shafak
Three Days in June by Anne Tyler
The Safekeep by Yael van der Wouden
The Echoes by Evie Wyld

Let's see how many I manage to guess correctly.

This is the 30th edition of the Women's Prize.
Previous winners:

1996. A Spell of Winter by Helen Dunmore READ
1997. Fugitive Pieces by Anne Michaels
1998. Larry's Party by Carol Chields
1999. A Crime in the Neighborhood by Suzanne Berne
2000. When I Lived in Modern Times by Linda Grant READ
2001. The Idea of Perfection by Kate Grenville
2002. Bel Canto by Ann Patchett READ
2003. Property by Valerie Martin
2004. Small Island by Andrea Levy READ
2005. We Need to Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver
2006. On Beauty by Zadie Smith
2007. Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozie Adichie READ
2008. The Road Home by Rose Tremain READ
2009. Home by Marilynne Robinson
2010. The Lacuna by Barbara Kingsolver
2011. The Tiger's Wife by Tea Obreht
2012. The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller READ
2013. May We Be Forgiven by A.M. Homes
2014. A Girl is a Half-Formed Thing by Eimar M
2015. How to be Both by Ali Smith READ
2016. The Glorious Heresies by Lisa McInerney
2017. The Power by Naomi Alderman
2018. Home Fire by Kamila Shamsie
2019. An American Marriage by Tayari Jones
2020. Hamnet by Maggie O'Farrell READ
2021. Piranesi by Susannah Clarke
2022. The Book of Form and Emptiness by Ruth Ozeki
2023. Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver
2024. Brotherless Night by V.V. Ganesthanathan READ

I have currently read 10 of the past winners. I have all the others on the shelves.

Here's the next readathon: https://www.librarything.com/topic/368860

>142 PaulCranswick:. i don’t zero in on this particular prize but I’ve read 12 of them.

>142 PaulCranswick: I've read 9 of them and enjoyed quite a few of those. I was a DNF on Piranesi, just wasn't in the mood. I loved The Glorious Heresies by Lisa McInerney.

>143 SilverWolf28: Thank you, Silver

>144 Kristelh: Well I do follow it somewhat these days but I have only read 10!

>145 avatiakh: I will bump Lisa McInerney's book up a bit. If you are enthusiastic on it, Kerry, then it is pretty safe that I will like it as well.

My frugality resolutions are in tatters this afternoon as I should not really go to the book store when I have been predicting long-lists!

51. Confessions by Catherine Airey
52. Private Rites by Julia Armfield
53. Shy Creatures by Clare Chambers
54. Our London Lives by Catherine Dwyer Hickey
55. Blue Sisters by Coco Mellors
56. Nesting by Roisin O'Donnell
57. Three Days in June by Anne Tyler

All these have a fighting chance of making the Women's Prize Longlist

58. Built by Roma Agrawal
59. More Sky by Joe Carrick-Varty
60. Towards Eternity by Anton Hur
61. Inside Out & Back Again by Thanhha Lai
62. Caledonian Road by Andrew O'Hagan
63. Amal Unbound by Aisha Saeed
64. Fire Weather by John Vaillant

>148 PaulCranswick: Hmm, good luck with your book buying resolutions for this year, Paul!

>149 Familyhistorian: I know, Meg. Well done, right?!

>148 PaulCranswick: Yep - join America for NO BUY Day!

>142 PaulCranswick: Oh yippee, another list to track (no sarcasm ;) ), I think I have a problem.

I've only read 2 of these Song of Achilles and The Power, but I have 4 more on the shelf.

Just had a sad realization. That Woman's Prize list is 30 years old. I stared at the list for longer than I should have thinking why does it only go back to 1996? D'oh

Damn we're old.

>151 m.belljackson: No Buy day?

>152 mahsdad: I will try to read a few more of them this year, Jeff. You are almost as bad as I am when it comes to lists!

>153 mahsdad: Time flies doesn't it, Jeff? 30 years and 1996 seems a less than distant memory.

>154 PaulCranswick: February 28 = Participating People would not buy anything - retail, online, gas, restaurants...to affect the economy as a precedent
and to feel a start to doing something, to moving past hatred.

Sidelined by the felon freak...

>154 PaulCranswick: A fledgling activist group encouraged U.S. residents to refrain from spending for 24 hours as an act of resistance against what the group’s founder described as the malign influence of billionaires, big corporations and both major political parties on the lives of working Americans. (From USA Today) However, around where I live, there was an anti-boycott group that was 500 strong meeting at 3 different locations to shop, shop, shop. They don't want to hurt people's jobs or the little guy.

>157 Tess_W: I understood that Buy Nothing Day is, or was, Black Friday—-the day after American Thanksgiving and the biggest shopping day of the year in the US.

>158 booksaplenty1949: No, it was today. (Feb. 28) It wasn't successful according to preliminary results.

Catching up and wishing you a happy weekend!
>131 PaulCranswick: I just got the sample of Eurotrash. Haven’t read any Kracht yet, but it fits in with my other reads. I‘ll try to read something of the Women’s Prize list as well.

Edit: I took my time with both Proust and Powell. With Proust I took too much time, a long break between I think books 3 and 4, and had to restart and committed myself to 25 pages a day. There’s one book that‘s basically all tedious soirees, but I loved some of the others very much. It’s the atmosphere, not the plot, that remained with me. I’d love to reread them one day, but that’s not likely.
With Powell I had format issues. Tried audiobooks first and constantly fell asleep. Then I bought a lovely 4 volume paperback edition and read 1 book per month. I liked it, more so towards the ending, but it didn’t leave a special impression. They were quite easy reads, but I often lost focus.

>156 m.belljackson: Sounds like a completely crackpot idea, Marianne. The billionaires are not impacted by something like that only the little guy - the small shopowner will suffer even more.

>157 Tess_W: I don't mind, Tess, exercising my democratic or even my human rights on a point of principle but I won't do that with the specific aim of harming others. Believe me the billionaires - possible exception to a tiny degree of Jeff Bezos - are not impacted by retail sales.

>158 booksaplenty1949: I can sort of get that - a sort of lull or calm AFTER the storm!

>159 Tess_W: Doesn't surprise me, Tess, that it was a failure.

>160 Deern: Lovely to see you Nathalie and the very same to you, dear lady.

I do find focus an issue sometimes with stream of consciousness type books - I desperately want to be told a story.

Powell's books are good but not even in quality in my humble opinion.

BOOK #34



Comet in Moominland by Tove Jansson
Date of Publication : 1946
Origin of Author : Finland
Gender of Author : Female
Pages : 203 pp
Challenges : European Grand Tour

I ended my tour of the Nordic countries in Finland (well sort of anyway) and precisely in Moominland.

Eventually delightful when you get used to the characters with their flaws, foibles and lovable habits. The adventures are nicely realized but I can't help thinking that there is plenty of allegory in their too with the plight of Finland against the Nazis on one side and the Soviets on the others. This is together with the threat of annihilation posed by the comet (nuclear weapons / post war devastation).

This is not a book that was well promoted in schools and libraries where I am from in Yorkshire so I grew up unaware of it. I would have loved this book as a boy and I can still appreciate it now.

>162 PaulCranswick: Read The Rebel Sell when it first came out and recall that it had an explanation of why “Buy Nothing Day”—-even if undertaken on a normally extremely busy shopping day, not some random late winter weekday—-was doomed to miss the target. Will look up, and share if it seems cogent.
PS When is the March Grand Tour post going up?

BOOK #35



Othello by William Shakespeare
Date of Publication : 1603
Origin of Author : UK
Gender of Author : Male
Pages : 145 pp

I'll make it clear that this is my least favourite of the Bard's four great tragedies but great it remains nonetheless.

A play rent to the quick with jealousy, covetousness, envy in terms of sexual feelings as well as those relating to position, power and responsibility. It is also a treatise on race and I commend Shakespeare from the mists of time for being able to portray racism through his most cunning, flawed and unlikable character, Iago and in so doing frown steadily upon it. Misogyny and the status of woman as the property of father and then husband is also a theme that can be gleaned from the play ahead of its time.

One part of the play that did captivate were Othello's last words:


pray you, in your letters,
When you shall these unlucky deeds relate,
Speak of me as I am; nothing extenuate,
Nor set down aught in malice: then must you speak
Of one that loved not wisely but too well”.

>165 booksaplenty1949: I will get the thread for March up later today.

Paul, the Economic Blackout was mainly focused in the USA, but also Canada . I don't think it was a crack pot idea at all, nor did it harm small retailers. The idea was to not purchase from large retailers, like Amazon, Target, Walmart and other big organizations etc. But necessary purchases were okay from anywhere and purchases were fine from small local business, the very businesses we want to protect. I participated it in myself today.

I'll try to find a bit about it.

https://www.npr.org/2025/02/27/nx-s1-5311972/economic-blackout-february-28-expla...

>168 vancouverdeb: Then it is clearly misnamed, Deb and I am very pleased to be corrected. I am anti-globalist to be honest and always try to buy local wherever possible. I am constantly saddened by the demise of small businesses in the UK and in Malaysia (although this is less noticeable) progressive governments in the UK have not cared a jot for them whilst they pander to globalist vested interests.

On the book front, my first read of the month will be Nesting and frankly your enthusiasm for it was infectious!

>163 PaulCranswick: I would certainly agree that Hearing Secret Harmonies was a notable falling-off. Powell’s Thatcherite sympathies were all too evident.

February reading in review

Year to date in brackets

Books Read 20 (35)
Pages Read 4,709 (8,855)
Average Daily Pages : 168.18 (150.08)
Average Book Length : 235.45 (253.00)

Longest Book : Alif the Unseen 427 pp (The Hunter : 433 pp)
Shortest Book : Dart 48 pp (Dart)

Books by men : 11 (19)
Books by women : 9 (16)

Fiction : 7 (13)
Poetry : 3 (6)
Thrillers : 2 (5)
Non-Fiction : 4 (7)
SciFi/Fantasy : 2 (2)
Drama : 2 (2)

UK Authors : 9 (18)
USA Authors : 4 (6)
France : 1 (2)
Iceland, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland, Japan (1) (Australia, France, Palestine, Ireland : 1)

1600s books : 2 (2)
1830s books : 0 (1)
1940s books : 1 (1)
1960s books : 1 (3)
1980s books : 1 (1)
1990s books : 1 (1)
2000s books : 2 (4)
2010s books : 8 (12)
2020s books : 4 (10)

European Grand Tour : 6 books (7)
British Author Challenge : 1 book (2)
American Author Challenge : 3 books (4)
Non-Fiction Challenge : 1 book (2)
1001 Books : 1 book (1)

Book of the month by Genre:

Fiction : In Other Rooms, Other Wonders by Daniyal Mueenuddin
Non-Fiction : The Shepherd's Life by James Rebanks
Poetry/Plays : Dart by Alice Oswald
Thriller/SF : Alif the Unseen by G. Willow Wilson

BOOK OF THE MONTH OVERALL

In Other Rooms, Other Wonders by Daniyal Mueenuddin



Summary:

Pretty satisfied with my progress this month despite another arbitration and severe back pain intruding.

Revised my yearly target to 240 books.

>170 booksaplenty1949: Yeah well being from West Yorkshire and its industrial heartland, I would not be suitable material for a Thatcherite sympathizer.

>159 Tess_W: So what’s the idea? To send a message to Big Retailers that “Hey, if you don’t shape up, we can hurt you?”

>173 booksaplenty1949: The local small businesses and traders need to be nurtured enough that the custom of the populace not only supports their thriving but also that the lack of custom hurts the giants.

Price will hold sway generally and unfortunately it is difficult to muster resistance to the economies of scale.

The Rebel Sell makes the point that not spending your money does nothing to reduce consumerism or help the environment, unless you are keeping it in your mattress. Putting it in the bank (or giving it away) simply means that other people are spending it. “The only way you can reduce consumption is by reducing your contribution to production. Yet somehow an annual Earn Nothing Day doesn’t seem to have the same ring to it.” Of course this is not the same issue as boycotting specific retailers because of their labour practices, etc.

>161 PaulCranswick: I'm in concurrence. Actually, what it turned out to be was an anti-Trump movement and many people are just weary of it. As to the boycott, small businesses were not targeted as long as cash was used.

>175 booksaplenty1949: From Deb's understanding of it, it appears that the idea was to only make purchases from local based stores.

>176 Tess_W: I am a little concerned about the elimination of cash from the retail and personal finance system. What is portrayed as being for the convenience of users seems rather more likely a means for having control over people's finances which is extremely dangerous. It means that anyone who does not conform can have their finances frozen or seized without demur.

Anti-Trumpism is easily explained as he is such a divisive character, but America does need to wake up to the crippling burden of its $36 trillion debt and the fact that it has been running huge trade deficits with most of its trading partners.

EIGHTH READING CYCLE

Nesting by Roisin O'Donnell
Zero Days by Ruth Ware
Agent Zigzag by Ben MacIntyre
Devils by Fyodor Dostoevsky
Selected Poems 1969-2005 by David Harsent

>178 PaulCranswick: Again, Paul, you and I are like-minded! In fact, when I went to the Dr's office last week and my fee was only $5, I went to pay and they told me they could not take cash. Choices: credit card or pay in the app (with entering your bank account number--I don't think so). Except for the Dr., I'm not going to patronize where I can't pay with cash.

>178 PaulCranswick: Anyone with money in the bank could theoretically have their finances frozen or seized, even if they customarily paid cash for everything. I assume that is why there is a demand for money-laundering.

>180 Tess_W: I think back to my late mum - not overly mobile, no computer, no mobile phone, no online banking. Taking her pension every week from the Post Office. She would be completely lost in today's digital banking age. There was no consultation and no aim to give people or serve people in the manner that best suits individual needs.

>181 booksaplenty1949: The over exaggeration of "money-laundering" has been used to curtail individuals' freedoms and right to choose. If cash becomes redundant as is the globalist intention then everyone must conform to the version of the banking system decided for them.

>180 Tess_W: During COVID a lot of retailers etc discovered the convenience of not dealing in cash. No time spent at the end of the day cashing out; no need to decide whether to risk a break-in by keeping it on the premises, or risk being mugged on the way to the night deposit slot at the bank. No opportunity for staff to help themselves. We will recall that there was once a lot of resistance to the idea of paper money—-a mere representation with no inherent value. I believe that is why American notes still say “Will pay to the bearer on demand…” I find that many young people today are barely familiar with cash.

>183 PaulCranswick: But don’t you withdraw your cash from your bank account?

I can get a lower price on many goods and services if I offer to pay cash because the person accepting it will not be declaring it as income.

>184 booksaplenty1949: Yes, that was the plan. The shutting down of the economy allowed, amongst other things the move towards a cashless society - whether intended or not. Now we are being made slaves to our mobile phones and apps. In order to operate my account properly I need to have established my phone banking app properly. Most younger people have no cash at all and merely use applications on their phones to pay for things.

>185 booksaplenty1949: Only very rarely. Everything is done by phone banking via my mobile phone and it is something I dislike immensely. I am often given some application and told to order at a restaurant on my mobile phone "scanning the menu". I always say that my phone is not working and I insist on giving my order to a waiter or waitress - they seem discomfited by that but people like me will actually eventually keep them in a job.

>186 booksaplenty1949: That will be phased out too!

Honestly one of the most superbly executed confidence tricks in history. Provide something on the basis of personal freedom when actually it allows you to take that freedom away.

>187 PaulCranswick: Wait, are you maintaining that COVID was a globalist (or whatever) plot?

>188 PaulCranswick: Well if tax evasion is reduced I can’t really complain.

>161 PaulCranswick: >168 vancouverdeb: People BUY UP on the days before and after the 28th = no one lost money.

More effective will be the upcoming boycott of anti-DEI Target which has already gained momentum.

>186 booksaplenty1949: and >190 booksaplenty1949:

It’s entirely possible that I’m misreading these two texts, but they seem to be in opposition:

>186 booksaplenty1949: One the one hand, you say you can get a lower price when paying in cash, because those providing cash-only services don’t have to declare the money as income. I might be impossibly dense, but isn’t the reason not to declare income, in fact, to avoid the tax man?

But in >190 booksaplenty1949: you seem to be in favor of lessening tax evasion.

These seem to be opposing ideas.

>191 m.belljackson: I’m in favor of using means to lessen the earnings, power, and self-satisfied greed of the ultra-wealthy.

But if people bought, as you say, up to the 28th, and then no one lost money, how did that hurt the billionaires?

I try hard, sometimes unsuccessfully, to monitor where I shop. Not because I think my paltry sums matter, but because I choose not to give what small amounts I have to large greedy corporations and their owners.

I think this is a complicated issue and I wish I knew an effective way to deal with it.

I can sort of see where you are coming from Paul, but I have to admit to being one of the cashless people. I was a (very) earlier adopter of phone banking and internet banking and these days it's not at all uncommon for me to go around with virtually no cash. I usually have maybe £5 or £10 in my purse but I rarely spend it - it just sits there for months. And when I do spend it it can take me several weeks to replace it. I went out for the day the other day and discovered I had a grand total of 15p in my purse!

>192 Matke: Of course tax evasion is why these people encourage cash payments. I’m under no illusion about that. Under the seal of the LT confessional I am admitting that I sometimes collaborate.

>193 Matke: the 28th hopefully set a precedent for not buying at all from the constantly updated Anti-DEI company list.

>196 m.belljackson: We might be cancelling each other out, as I'm not buying from DEI companies.

Hey, brother - I actually received a few books this week. Juan, if you would like to take a look on the 'This Just In' thread, they are posted there.

>179 PaulCranswick: I enjoyed Agent Zigzag when I read it several years ago. I hope you do as well.

Happy whatever! Happy Ramadan (if that is not being sacrilegious. . .)

>198 alcottacre: I think the expression is “Ramadan Mubarak” or similar sentiment in a local language. It is a wish for a “blessed” Ramadan.

If the organizers of the boycotts and others are not looking at them as tests, then I'd be very surprised.
If there is any effective leadership, it will incorporate results of the first few boycotts to define strategies for a real offensive against the billionaires' mega-corps.

>195 booksaplenty1949: Hah! I understand completely

>196 m.belljackson: and >200 quondame:

I hope we can find a way to curb the power of billionaires. History doesn’t make me terribly optimistic though: many have been curbed in the past, but they always seem to come back.

I’m on the side of those who think the income disparity in the U.S. and other countries is outrageous. Just one woman’s opinion.

>202 Matke: >200 quondame: "They also serve who only stand and wait." John Milton

Many are finding the boycotts to be a stand while we wait to support our own Zelensky, Harry Belafonte, Lincoln,
Harriet Beecher Stowe...

>189 booksaplenty1949: No, but I am saying that they took full advantage of it nonetheless.

>190 booksaplenty1949: It goes much deeper than that, I think.

>191 m.belljackson: Then is does seem rather a an exercise in futility, Marianne.

We do not have any such thing as DEI in Malaysia. I am a firm believer in a merit based society although I do accept that some people do not get an even break at the beginning. I believe in equality of opportunity not equality of outcome as this is also incompatible with a fair and workable society. For me social engineering should be aimed at creating an infrastructure where everybody has a fair chance (and I am not saying that currently exists either) rather than some form of quota based system regardless of merit.

>192 Matke: When it comes to our financial affairs, Gail, personal interest and public policy will often not intersect so neatly!

>193 Matke: You make good points here, Gail, and I completely agree with them. I remember a time as a boy when my mum used to do most of her shopping at the village corner shop. She regularly bought her vegetables from the farm at the top of our street. Milk was delivered to our doorstep. The newspaper was pushed through our letterbox in the early morning. The Supermarkets and the Hypermarkets have provided us with more choice but at the cost of the eroding of much of our way of life.

>194 SandDune: Despite my rantings Rhian, I don't currently carry any cash with me either! I got stuck in a carpark last Sunday because it was "unique" in having a cash based ticketing system and I had a RM50 note the machine couldn't change or accept and nothing else. It took me almost an hour to get out of the car park because I had to find a store that would or could change the note to smaller denominations.

My complaint specifically was for the pensionable who often are not tech savvy or don't have mobile phones or computers. My other complaint was that I firmly believe that it is an exercise in state control that is Big Brother, fascist in nature and eminently sinister.

>195 booksaplenty1949: Hahaha and I would have to confess similarly had I any cash to enable me to do so!

>196 m.belljackson: So there will be a publication of companies someone deems as anti-DEI, Marianne? That also appears to have sinister connotations to me and rife for violence against people or organizations who may simply have a different point of view.

You may or may not like Mr. Musk - there are some things I admire him for and some things I find grossly offensive about what he stands for. What I really abhor though is the hypocrisy of those calling for violence to be visited upon him.

>197 Tess_W: I also favour a merit based system, Tess, but then again I live in a country who face different circumstance every day.

I wouldn't know and don't particularly want to know which companies are pro-DEI and which are anti-DEI. My Dutch friend came to visit me yesterday (he and his wife are amongst our closest friends) and he was telling me that his cousin in Gouda who was excellent academically, worked so hard for his qualifications and was in fine physical shape was refused a job in the police force that had always been his dream on the basis that "he was not diverse enough." I am sorry but that is just plain wrong.

>198 alcottacre: I will go and have a look, Juana. xx

I have had Agent Zigzag on the shelves for a while and am taking the opportunity of the NF Challenge this month to finally get around to it.

Thank you for the Ramadan wishes. Not sacrilegious at all of course. I always find the first day of fasting each time the toughest and not having Hani and the team here will make it harder. My Sister-in-Law and her girlfriend made me happy by letting me know yesterday that they will join me for breaking fast today (it is 5.00 am Sunday here).

>199 booksaplenty1949: Exactly right; well done and thank you. The local lingo would use that or the Bahasa Melayu phrases "Selamat berpuasa" and "Selamat berbuka". These mean loosely "Happy fasting" and "Happy break fasting" respectively.

>200 quondame: Let's see, Susan. Disruption and protests obviously have a place in a modern society but should be kept peaceful.

>201 Matke: Reminds me of a nice story (although it was annoying at the time). I was doing some work a number of years ago for a business man who had more charisma than competence and his financial affairs were in a mess. He arranged for his "right hand man", a certain Majid, to meet me to give me an advance on my fees. Majid met me in a coffee shop and passed me RM10,000 in cash (then approximately $2,500).
I met the boss a few weeks later at his intended project together with the aforementioned Majid. Hassan, the businessman, eventually asked me; "Did Majid pass you the RM20,000, Paul?!!

>202 Matke: I couldn't agree more, Gail. And that inequality is getting worse rather than better. My kids generation and beyond cannot afford the things we took for granted already. They are also saddled with the debts that our generation and the ones immediately before it ran up with our lack of care and attention or frugality.

>203 m.belljackson: I hope that too many issues don't get conflated, Marianne, in the earnest desire for change.

One things I bemoan these days is the plangent lack of figures to be idolized or rallied around.

As a young man my heroes were Tony Benn and John Pilger. I don't see many of their ilk today.

>207 PaulCranswick: Paul = anti-DEI Lists have been published for weeks! = Target, Toyota, Amazon, Macy's, Ford...

Your Dutch friend's cousin should be able to sue and win. If there's Sexist, Ageist, etc. lawyers, a DEIist one will exist.

>212 m.belljackson: My point was rather Marianne that I think that the publication of such lists is pernicious and reckless and dangerous. Why don't you insist that the people in those organizations wear identifying badges so that they can be more easily targeted as Hitler did with the Jewish population?

The vast majority of the employees of those organizations will be unfairly stigmatized and the propensity for some nut job to violence and criminal damage is pretty obvious.

Ford for example don't you need certain skills and qualifications to know how to manufacture a motor vehicle or do qualifications not matter? Preference hires can only be justified if the person being preferred can do the job just as well.

No he couldn't successfully because he is a victim of DEI policies and those wrong-headed in-practice policies are protected legislatively.

>210 PaulCranswick: The protagonist in the novel I am reading has a similar experience. Person delivering the payoff needs to take a note back from him, but insists he not mention the amount received. He surmises that the amount to be delivered was twice what he in fact was given. That’s the problem with the murky world of “under the table.” As an enabler one can scarcely get morally indignant

>214 booksaplenty1949: No and I never got the extra RM10k!
Malaysia and Indonesia have entrenched problems with public and private corruption. Skimming is quite possibly a core component of many deals done here!

>213 PaulCranswick: Another problem is that a highly qualified applicant who would have succeeded on an entirely objective basis has to accept that others will assume he/she only got accepted/hired to fill some sort of quota. This is Clarence Thomas’s complaint—-of course in his case those who see him as a “diversity” hire on the US Supreme Court are completely correct!

>208 PaulCranswick: Well, I hope that you survive the first day of fasting despite not having your support team there!

>216 booksaplenty1949: Yes that is true also as it stigmatizes both sides.

>217 alcottacre: I will go into full Gloria Gaynor mode and I Will Survive, Stasia. xx

The Grand European Tour thread is up for March and we are joining the long queues in the Warsaw Pact!

https://www.librarything.com/topic/368897

>218 PaulCranswick: I did counsel “mentees” concerned that they were being given a place as part of some kind of “diversity” quota that they should accept it in the name of a fellow fill in the blank who DIDN’T get admitted/hired solely because of perceived “identity.” What goes around, comes around.

>220 booksaplenty1949: Indeed. Kamala Harris is a prime example. Biden mooted that he would definitely be choosing a woman of colour as his running mate and said he had a good field to pick from. He chose Kamala. She was stigmatized as being a diversity hire as a result.

Was she the best candidate? I honesty don't know but the heralded method of her selection did serve to undermine her authority. I was eventually disappointed in her performance but I was vocally in support of her candidacy before Biden chose her and she was certainly a credible appointment regardless of her race and gender.

>213 PaulCranswick: Why don't those companies offer anonymous ballots for their employees to vote to be DEI or not rather than letting the Bezos decide for them?

The nut jobs for violence have already made themselves available to the Axis of Evil administration!

They have alerted America that they are armed and ready to defend ignorance and infamy.

>222 m.belljackson: Well the calls to violence I have been hearing lately are from the left, Marianne. Specifically against Musk and we have had a series of Democratic leaders calling for people to fight on the streets. The left (of which I myself am a part) undermine their legitimacy entirely when its leaders behave so irresponsibly.

I will never be a supporter of the current administration but they were democratically, if foolishly, elected and they should be beaten at the ballot box and not overturned in violence. I want the best for your country as it leads the so called free world. I hate some of the crass nonsense coming out of the Oval Office about Canada and Gaza being a development opportunity but the answer is not the hate filled violence that Antifa and others visited upon the country a few short years ago.

>221 PaulCranswick: A candidate for election would be an exception to my advice, as there is a further selection process where the perception of unfair advantage would be a handicap.

>224 booksaplenty1949: I think I agree with that.

Double posted for some reason.

>225 PaulCranswick: And of course I would never advise anyone to take a job/place for which they were unqualified. They would be the first to suffer.

>227 booksaplenty1949: I have had a few examples during my career of having colleagues thrust upon me due to familial influences and so on and it can be disheartening both for the person struggling to fit in where they normally would not belong and for those who have to try to still make a success of their jobs.

Hi Paul! Well, I managed this weekend to both only shop in small businesses AND to pay cash. Though honestly, out of preference, not boycott. I think some businesses prefer cash so as not to pay the credit card fees.

Interesting discussions going on here! I use cash a lot, as it means cash will not go out of use. I usually give to the homeless person selling a paper in front of the supermarket. I asked one of them to help me do a job where I needed a young able person to help, and payed him cash. He’s from Nigeria, and that means he is illegally here, homeless, means no bank account too. So cash it is!

I assume that the drugs, weapons, sex etc trades depend on cash transactions.

>223 PaulCranswick: Which Democratic leaders called for people to fight in the streets?

Every day, I read CNN, NYT, and Yahoo - did not see mention of them.

>229 banjo123: Well done, Rhonda. It probably isn't a boycott if your are properly exercising personal choice. xx

>230 EllaTim: Yes of course, those not legally residing cannot have a bank account, and it must be increasingly difficult for them to survive in a digital age. Well done to you, Ella.

>231 booksaplenty1949: Ah quite possibly but they are not worlds that I have familiarity or interest in.

>232 m.belljackson: Oh dear! Well too many of them but Maxine Waters and Hakeem Jeffries amongst them.

https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/us/white-house-demands-apology-after-j...

Oftentimes we see what we want to see but inciting the people to violence is not cool whichever side is doing it.

As promised previously here is the thread for the BIG BOOK CHALLENGE:

March will feature Dostoevsky or any chosen alternative.

https://www.librarything.com/topic/368910#n8777192

In February I managed to get 20 books done and have now read 35 books. How does this compare with my performance in the rest of this decade:

2025
January 15
February 20
Total 35

2024
January 8
February 5
Total 13

2023
January 22
February 15
Total 37

2022
January 26
February 11.
Total 37

2021
January 17
February 13
Total 30

2020
January 14
February 13
Total 27

My best first quarter this decade so far is 52 books in 2022

Number of Chunksters per year:

2025
2024 8 (Longest Battle Cry of Freedom 868 pp)
2023 5 (Longest A Covenant of Water 715 pp)
2022 9 (Longest Tom Jones 877 pp)
2021 4 (Longest The Count of Monte Cristo 1,179 pp)
2020 3 (Longest Pendennis 977 pp)

>237 PaulCranswick: Last year I read 12 Chunksters and finished another 3 which had been started before 2024—volumes containing several works originally published separately. Longest of the former was The Way We Live Now (952 pp) and of the latter The Cairo Trilogy (1313 pp).

>238 booksaplenty1949: I loved the Cairo Trilogy.

>239 PaulCranswick: Me too. Had noticed copies before when working for used book sale but was finally motivated to pick it up for your African Novel Challenge. A high point.

>240 booksaplenty1949: I lived in Egypt (Alexandria) for almost a year early and my career and will always have a fondness for the country and its people. Mahfouz is the greatest African author for me.

>234 PaulCranswick: Okay - I don't read TIMES OF INDIA!

Unfortunately, it may come to violence when you have to Fight Back.

>242 m.belljackson: The Times of India shows how far much of your media has fallen and was just one example of hundreds I could have used. You could also watch them saying it on YouTube.

Your last sentence could have been said by a Trump supporter in 2021.

>243 PaulCranswick: OR Zelensky 3-4 years ago OR Abraham Lincoln after Fort Sumter OR George Washington with a Tea Party

OR The Taino OR the people of Vietnam OR ...

>244 m.belljackson: There is no equivalence whatsoever. I do note though that you would seem to condone intended violence against your elected administration to overturn it.

>245 PaulCranswick: Please do note: IF we had to fight back, yes.

>246 m.belljackson: Ok

CARTOON

It seems that Keir Starmer made a good impression on the American public and let's hope that he can help Ukraine heal the rift between him and the current administration in Washington.

>241 PaulCranswick: I am resistant to prizes and the Nobel for Literature is a particular bugbear but even a stopped clock is right twice a day. BTW, does Malaysia do DST?

>249 booksaplenty1949: Yes if you make a list of who never won the Nobel then I would have to agree with you.

No we don't change the clocks here - not a lot of point to be honest as we don't have any seasons!

>248 PaulCranswick: Many liberals do not want healing - they want impeachment of the Russian Freak in charge of American betrayals.

>250 PaulCranswick: I gather there is evidence to suggest that fiddling around with the clock twice a year is bad for some or all of us.

>251 m.belljackson: Oh God, impeachment again?!

>252 booksaplenty1949: Quite possibly but in Malaysia it would be an exercise in futility given the complete absence of seasons.

>205 PaulCranswick: I'm not enamoured of quotas either.

But on the other hand, I've too often worked for companies where it was clear that I'd need to get a sex change if I wished to advance much farther. Given where and when I was, my solution to such situations was to find a company where you didn't need male organs either to be seen as excelling at engineering, or to be seen as having the ambition and dedication to even want promotion at all.

Theoretically, companies that ignore half the potential talent will do worse in the market place, and eventually be superseded by others. But it generally takes decades for large companies to fail, if they ever do, and their corporate culture often marches on, perhaps in whatever company acquires the remnants.

And when it's not a for profit company, there's no market discipline to prevent it from doing whatever makes its managerial staff happy.

No answers here. Most of my encounters with DEI initiatives have not been happy making. But there needs to be an effective counterbalance to people who regard blacks as fit only for menial labour, or women as fit only for broodmares, servants, and whores.

>254 ArlieS: Yes, I agree with that wholeheartedly, Arlie.

I abhor the fact that someone is prevented from promotion or obtaining a job that they would excel in because of their race, the colour of their skin, their gender, their sexuality or any other "identifier".

I have two brilliant daughters and my blood boils that someone less qualified may get a job in their stead simply because they have a penis or because they are not of mixed race origin.

I just don't think that quotas is the way to achieve the absence of prejudice.

Made a quick gallop through Paul.

>87 PaulCranswick: I've had this unread for years, need to turn it up.

>102 PaulCranswick: I loved Humanly Possible, I've loved all the books of hers I've read, two early ones still to read.

I too acquired Carter's A Call to Action. I saw an interview with him where he said it was the book he was most proud of writing.

>256 Caroline_McElwee: The Bakewell book caught my eye, Caroline, as I the subject matter is something I am interesting in.

I thought Carter a wonderful man who continued doing good long after his ill-starred Presidency and, in fact, up to his last days.

>174 PaulCranswick: AND That is why people are being encouraged to stop shopping mega corps and shop small........

>161 PaulCranswick: This was not directed at all shop owners. This was directed at corporations, like Walmart and Amazon, Target... mega corporations.Apparently this has been misunderstood by a few. People were encouraged to shop small and local. Amazon because of Bezos and his attack on the first amendment as owner of The Washington Post. People are being encouraged to use their shopping dollars to signal their disagreement with these stores dropping their DEI policies at the says of the creature in office.
There are more reasons, but I will stop there as I find it exhausting to try to educate those who don't hear. That is why we have a criminal in the White House for whom cruelty is then point.

>202 Matke: As am I.

>258 mckait: & >259 mckait:

I must start by saying how wonderful it is to have you stop by dear lady.

I am in many ways an anti-globalist which has spawned these mega-corporations and are probably the biggest threat to democracy and personal freedoms right now.

I did misunderstand the original premise although I am still a little skeptical as to whether we have left things too late.

>260 mckait: I think Gail is right to point out the ever widening income disparities across the so called developed world. It is a major problem and it is getting next to impossible for people to get on the housing ladder and in many instances to be able to save anything at all from their paychecks.

>261 PaulCranswick: Thank you for the kind greeting.. I rarely pop in these days. I do often wonder how old friends are doing

It may not be as late as you think, really. Many have been avoiding these large corporations for years, whenever possible. I am guilty of over-using Amazon but have been working to correct that. Some of us have been using our dollars to support or not support corporations or policies since the 70's or earlier.

I recommend using Goods Unite Us to choose where to shop. I was thrilled to learn that the choices I have made over the years, such as shopping direct from certain websites like Lee jeans, Chewy, Skechers, and others were from corporations that align with my beliefs. This is what we all need to do as much as possible.

DEI matters, clearly. Especially as it is now being used to rip persons of color and women from positions where they are eminently qualified but are now being fired by 20 year old use thugs who have no security clearances but now hold all of our information in their hands.

LT is typically a haven in the murk of the internet.....Tim is a great creator and minder.

>263 mckait: That is good information, Kath. The giant corporations are not as dominant over here of course. There was a movement to boycott Starbucks over here because of its apparent affiliations to Israel (I have no knowledge on that but I don't use Starbucks anyhow) and I did notice at least two of its outlets have closed.

I am a firm believer of the equality of opportunity and that sometimes that equality of opportunity needs a helping held. That someone would lose their job that they were performing well and were eminently qualified for is scandalous. I don't believe in quotas although I think HR programs would need some review if the workforce was overwhelmingly of one race or one gender or one creed etc.

Lastly you are certainly right that this is a haven on the internet and that Tim and his team do a simply splendid job.

I think this group (others too like the Book Challenge and Club Read) are beacons - in general terms - of how discourse should be conducted on this type of platform. Respectful and nuanced conversations on issues in the rule not the exception here.