AlisonY - Here for the Craic in 2026

Happy New Year! Welcome, LT friends, old and new, to my 11th thread on CR.

If we've not 'met' on LT before, I live in Northern Ireland, work in Operations within the health IT sector, and am in the middle of what I prefer to call a midlife awakening rather than a midlife crisis (although I admit they're effectively the same thing). Life is short, so I'm appreciating the joy in the everyday, keeping active (whilst keeping my physiotherapist in employment with an ever growing catalogue of injuries) and trying to say yes to occasional scary things much more than I used to. Outside of books, I enjoy training at the gym and hiking when time permits.

In 2025 I read 50 books, helped enormously by my new discovery of audio books in January on my commute to work, which added around 14 books to my total. The downside of that is that the kind of books I enjoy tend not to be readily available in my library audio book collection, so my 2025 book collection featured a few strange (and frankly not great) choices. When choice prevails, these days I'm reading almost as much non-fiction as fiction, enjoying essays, memoirs, popular science, health and personal development books. Fiction-wise I read mostly literary fiction.

I hope you'll pop by every now and then for a yarn.

(Editing my thread topper photo as I wanted to pick an artist for the year for my thread but was a bit unsure when I set up my thread. I've since come across the art of the wonderful Nikki Monaghan, a Scottish artist whose paintings I find so joyful. She was kind enough to give me permission to use copies of her paintings on my thread this year. You can see more of her art at: https://www.nikkimonaghan.co.uk).

Reading progress:

January
1. There Once Lived A Mother Who Loved Her Children Until They Moved Back In: Three Novellas About Family by Lyudmila Petrushevskaya - read (4.5 stars). 1988-2002.
2. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald - read (5 stars). 1925.
3. Stone Yard Devotional by Charlotte Wood - read (3.5 stars). 2025.
4. The Fun Lovin' Criminal by Huey Morgan - read (3.5 stars). 2025

February
5. The Trees by Percival Everett - read (4 stars). 2021.
6. The Race Against Time: Adventures in Late-Life Running by Richard Askwith - read (3.5 stars). 2023.
7. Hagstone by Sinead Gleeson - read (4 stars). 2024.
8. Deceived With Kindness: A Bloomsbury Childhood by Angelica Garnett. 1984 (updated 1995)
9. The Rest of our Lives by Benjamin Markovits - read (3.5 stars). 2025.

March
10. Winter by Christopher Nicholson - read (4 stars). 2015.
11. A Frozen Woman by Annie Ernaux - read (3 stars). 1981.
12. Travelling in a Strange Land by David Park - read (4 stars). 2018.
13. The Hour of the Predator: Encounters with the Autocrats and Tech Billionaires Taking Over the World by Guiliano da Empoli - read (4.5 stars). 2025.

April
14. Dance, Dance, Dance by Haruki Murakami - read (4 stars). 1988
15. Hare with Amber Eyes by Edmund de Waal- read (3.5 stars). 2010

May
16. Butcher by Joyce Carol Oates - read (3.5 stars). 2024.
17. Quiet Chaos by Sandro Veronesi - read (4 stars). 2011.
18. Literary Places by Sarah Baxter - read (3 stars). 2019.
19. Killing Time by Alan Bennett - read (3 stars). 2024.
20. The Safekeep by Yael van Der Wouden - read (3.5 stars). 2024.
21. Class Trip by Emmanuel Carrère - read (4 stars). 1995.

June
22. Seascraper by Benjamin Wood - read (4 stars). 2025.
23. The Art of Life Admin: How to do Less, Do it Better, and Live More by Elizabeth Emens - read (1 star). 2019.
24. Gotta Get Theroux This: My Life and Strange Times in Television by Louis Theroux - read (3.5 stars). 2019.
25. A Single Thread by Tracy Chevalier - read (4.5 stars). 2019.
6. The Path Made Clear: Discovering Your Life's Direction and Purpose by Oprah Winfrey - read (3 stars). 2019.

Non-fiction - 10
Fiction - 15
Poetry -
Audiobook - 9

Published year:
2026:
2020-2025: 11
2010-2019: 9
2000-2009:
1990s:1
1980s:4
1970s:
1960s:
1950s:
1940s:
1930s:
1920s:1

Happy New Year, Alison. I look forward to following your reading in 2026. I hope the year is good to you and yours.

I had google “Craic”. I live the word. Love the opening quote too. Wish you a great 2026, with less injuries.

>3 BLBera:, >4 dchaikin: welcome, welcome!

>4 dchaikin: Yes, very much different to 'crack' - that's a whole different ballgame :)

Ha. Please more craic with wine 🍷 , less crack. The wine is probably cheaper

I wish you a healthy and happy New Year filled with many exciting books. May all your wishes come true.

Happy New Year, Alison! I hear you with the whole midlife thing. I think I missed the memo that would have prepared me for it. Ah well, life. What can you do besides pick up another book?

Happy New Year! And happy reading in 2026. I didn't get married for the first time until I was but 6 weeks shy of my 50th birthday. So I always joke that while other guys were out buying motorcycles, my "midlife crazy" was finally settling down! It certainly has been an adventure. (Not to mention saying "yes" to a scary thing!) All the best!

>9 rocketjk: i love this comment Jerry. 🙂

Happy new year, Alison! And I love how you're welcoming the changes of attitude and perspective these years bring us.

Hi Alison!

>12 dianeham: Happy new year Alison. Dropping a southern star on your thread.. for some reason I thought I’ve already wished you happy new year maybe in my current state I did it on your 2025 page.

>1 AlisonY: Hello again. I do love me a good yarn, so looking forward to your year.

>7 Ameise1:, >8 labfs39:, >9 rocketjk:, >11 RidgewayGirl:, >12 dianeham:, >13 kjuliff:, >14 SassyLassy: Thanks for stopping by!

1. There Once Lived A Mother Who Loved Her Children Until They Moved Back In: Three Novellas About Family by Lyudmila Petrushevskaya

I'm convinced I got a book bullet for this collection from someone in CR but I don't see any CR reviews against the book (note to self - figure out a way in 2026 to record whose review encouraged you to buy / borrow a book).

This was an incredibly interesting collection of three novellas to start 2026 off with a bang, with an equally interesting back story. As the introduction (by the translator) expands on, Petrushevskaya wrote these 3 novellas between 1988 and 2002, but because they lay bare the hardship, brutality and often tragedy associated with every day domestic life in Russia, it was many years before they could be published due to Russian censorship. "She spoke for all those who suffered domestic hell in silence, the way Solzhenitsyn spoke for the countless nameless political prisoners".

Petrushevskaya doesn't hold back in these three novellas: the domestic lives she describes in each are violent, bleak and depressing, yet she has fun with them too, and as a reader you reach the end quite discombobulated, not sure if it's right to have enjoyed something so monstrous quite so much.

The longest novella is The Time is Night, in which the protagonist, an ageing poet tries desperately to survive in her own home as her grown up son and daughter exploit her and her apartment in every which way they can, whilst she also deals with her mother in the sanitarium. In Chocolates with Liqueur, a husband applies his ready violence towards getting rid of his family so he can move on with his new love interest, and in Among Friends a mother commits an unspeakable act in a demonstration of the strength of a mother's love.

I really enjoyed this collection, not just for sheer readability, but also because they give an insight into life behind many a closed Russian apartment door. Petrushevskaya takes the stories to the extreme, but her writing was fuelled by the every day troubles and tragedies of the average Russian on the street, living in overcrowded identical State managed dwellings and dealing with violence and alcoholism as part of the fabric of every day life.

4.5 stars - a collection that does absolute justice to the hallowed reputation of the Russian short story greats.

>16 AlisonY: Great review, Alison; that book sounds very interesting!

>17 kidzdoc: It was a great read, Darryl (if you can take the bleakness that often typifies Russian writing).

Next up - Stone Yard Devotional by Charlotte Wood. BBs from Kate and Dan on this one from memory. When the snow clears and I get back to going into the office, I'll also be doing a reread (listen) of The Great Gatsby on audiobook in memory of Caroline, who read it for the 47th time last year.

>16 AlisonY: well that sounds fantastic.

>18 AlisonY: yay, on SYD! And very interesting about Caroline and The Great Gatsby. I wasn’t aware she did that.

>19 dchaikin: Yes, she had a major thing for the writing of Virginia Woolf, but The Great Gatsby was her absolute favourite and she read it again every year.

>20 AlisonY: i now really wish i had followed her.

>21 dchaikin: If you check out her library (which is linked at the top of that memorial thread) you can check out her Woolf reviews as you get through your project.

>22 AlisonY: I’ll spend some time on that

>16 AlisonY: That sounds like a fabulous collection, Alison. What a great start to your reading year.

I have Stone Yard Devotional on my "read soon" list as well.

>24 BLBera: We'll compare notes ;)

>16 AlisonY: This sounds like a really interesting collection, and I love the title.

Happy new year! I like "midlife awakening", I might adopt that.

I was a fan of Stone Yard Devotional too, hope you enjoy it!

>25 AlisonY: It's a plan!

>16 AlisonY:

note to self - figure out a way in 2026 to record whose review encouraged you to buy / borrow a book

This is how I do it.

>18 AlisonY: Another fan of Stone Yard Devotional here.

>16 AlisonY:
Great title to a set of novellas, and great review!

>9 rocketjk: At first, I misread that as "I didn't get married for the first time until I was but 6 weeks old" :-D

>16 AlisonY: Wishlisted! It's intriguing, and I like novellas (and short novels in general).

I have Stone yard Devotional up next in my library queue. And I reread The Great Gatsby last year and loved it again. It has fantastic imagery.

>16 AlisonY: There Once Lived a Mother sounds right up my alley. I will definitely look for it.

As for tracking book recommendations, I have a tag, "rec by...". You could also use the private comment field.

Midlife crisis, midlife awakening, whatever works. :)

>16 AlisonY:, >30 lilisin:, >31 Dilara86:, >33 labfs39: if you enjoy the classic Russian short stories this is a great modern collection that hasn't fallen far from the tree.

>27 wandering_star:, >29 rhian_of_oz:, >32 japaul22: Stone Yard Devotional is hitting the spot. I love a novel that doesn't take long to grab you.

>29 rhian_of_oz:, >33 labfs39: really appreciate the tips on options for recording who recommended a book to me. Will look into this.

>27 wandering_star:, >34 ursula: I read recently about the notion of thinking of it as a Midlife Leap, when you can take everything you've learned up until now and use that to catapult to some new greatness. I like the idea of that. Hopefully I can leap out of my crappy job sometime soon.

Good luck with your leaping!

>16 AlisonY: I always think I need to read more Petrushevskaya and I keep pushing her back on my TBR. Nice review!

>37 AnnieMod: Well now I need some recommendations on her from you!

>38 AlisonY: Well... some of what I had read had been in Russian or Bulgarian and I have no clue where it may have been collected in English. But I had always found her fairy tales more inventive than her straight prose (don't get me wrong, I like her in almost all her writing but there is something in the tales that just works). If you are in the mood to try some, there are a few online:

https://www.nplusonemag.com/issue-3/fiction-drama/two-fairytales/ - "The Father" and "Two Kingdoms" (I think the first is collected in "There Once Lived a Woman Who Tried to Kill Her Neighbor's Baby")

https://shortstoryproject.com/stories/like-penelope-2/ - "Like Penelope"

They are different in tone from the ones you just read but you kinda can hear her tone despite them being fairy tales (and nope, they are definitely not for children IMO).

>35 AlisonY: "I read recently about the notion of thinking of it as a Midlife Leap, when you can take everything you've learned up until now and use that to catapult to some new greatness."

So then this would be your leap year?

>39 AnnieMod: Oooh - thank you!

>40 rocketjk: Well, it would be nice if it was, i.e. involving leaping away from the stress of my job.

I like to put some art in my topper, but wasn't sure who I wanted to feature at the beginning of the year. I've now updated it with the art of the amazingly talented Nikki Monaghan. I defy you to not feel joyful looking at her paintings!

42 That's beautiful and very cheery. Lots of movement

>42 AlisonY: love it!

>42 AlisonY: I love it!

>42 AlisonY: Yes, that's a wonderful painting. I (and probably most people, come to think of it) tend to separate are that I like into two groups. Art that I'd like to have hanging in my living room, and art that I enjoy looking and appreciate the intention and craft that went into it, but that I wouldn't want to look at over my sofa every evening. The painting you've provided is definitely in the former category.

>42 AlisonY: I love your thread topper, and the artist's website! That painting would make a lovely jigsaw puzzle, too.

>1 AlisonY: Happy New Year! I really like this painting, and am glad to discover Nikki Monaghan's work through you. I'm glad you enjoyed the Petrushevskaya book - she is one of my favourite short story writers and I think should be read more widely.

>43 labfs39:, >44 dchaikin:, >45 BLBera:, >46 rocketjk:,>47 susanj67:, >48 rasdhar: glad everyone enjoyed the art as much as I did. I much add different ones from time to time.

I have to add my voice to the artwork comments. Ilike that particular painting; it has a Scottish vibe.

I think I might have missed that happy new year greeting but it’s not too late. It’s still January so I can still say it. Happy new year, Alison.

2. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Audiobook read by William Hope

This is possibly the first book I've reread in adulthood, and I got a lot out of it. First time around I read this as part of my A Level syllabus, and although I've returned to Scott Fitzgerald via other books since, I've never come back to his ultimate classic. For once I was delighted to have the memory of a goldfish, as I couldn't remember the plot at all, save for the fact that Gatsby gave great parties. Sadly, I remembered the symbolism we had to remember for A Level more than anything.

This time around I read it via audiobook, which isn't my preference for this type of book, but it enabled me to fit it in around physical books on my TBR.

Each time I had a window to listen to it, I was struck by how each sentence in this novel is so purposeful and masterful. Often when listening to audiobooks my mind wanders to thoughts about work or the traffic, but if my mind wandered for even 30 seconds with Gatsby I had to rewind, as every sentence felt pertinent to the story.

I've thought about what makes this book a masterpiece and find it hard to describe. He just manages to nail it all. The sense of place and time, from the blue lawn of his exquisite Art Deco mansion to the oppressiveness of the heat of NYC on a hot summer's day (with that imagery I learnt so well 35 years ago that seeps into your subconscious and turns everything 4D- the billowing white references, the colour blue). The characterisation, especially Gatsby himself - we're kept on the edge of our seats wondering who is this guy? What's his real story? Is he genuine or fake?

I loved it all over again with fresh eyes, and it was a great reminder of F. Scott Fitzgerald's writing genius.

5 stars - dedicated to the wonderful Caroline McElwee, who read this an amazing 47 times. I now understand why she did - when it finished I wanted to start it all over again, and I'm quite sure it would have given me yet another experience. I won't get close to Caroline's figure, but I can see me reading this again in the future. Good taste, Caroline. Sleep tight.

3. Stone Yard Devotional by Charlotte Wood

I knew very little about this novel before starting it, and it pulled me in quickly with its gentleness and wondering what had driven this woman to seek mental refuge in a religious community of nuns. The quiet is disturbed firstly by a plague of mice, and then by the arrival of the remains of an ex-member of the community.

It was shortly after this that alas the book began to lose my attention. Firstly, I have a profound fear of mice and rodents in general, so reading page after page about them was literally the stuff of nightmares. Secondly, I kept waiting for something more to be revealed about the purpose of the protagonist cloistering herself away with this community, but it never really was addressed. All in all, for a chunk of the book it seemed to just a bounce between the mice and the uncomfortable woman from the past who'd accompanied the remains back, and whilst Wood does give us flashbacks to the past to fill in part of the backstory, it didn't feel as if it properly answered the question on why our narrator had chosen to hide herself away.

The last 20% of the book pulled me in again, but still I feel all I will really remember are the mice.

3.5 stars - enjoyable enough, but ultimately disappointed me a little.

Currently I'm reading the memoir The Fun Lovin' Criminal by Huey Morgan and on audio The Trees by Percival Everett.

>51 AlisonY: I never warmed up to Gatsby or Fitzgerald. Although I also had not tried to read the book (or any Fitzgerald) since I was in my early 20s. Maybe it is time to try again. I enjoyed reading your thoughts about the book.

PS: And I really like the art piece up in >1 AlisonY: - it is exactly the level of quirky that still works for me without being too modern (I am in the "if you want to show me a cow, show me a cow" camp with art).

>51 AlisonY: What a great review Alison, about a book I’ve never read. Thank you so much for drawing my attention back to the book form. I’ve seen a couple of films based on the novel and so far the one where Mia Farrow plays Daisy will never leave me. So I will have now to choose one of the many audio versions available.

>52 AlisonY: A fun review, Alison. I guess Stone Yard Devotional will always be associated with mice. I’m not scared of mice, but I did tire of hearing about them although I enjoyed the book overall. I didn’t really understand why the mice were there, the point of them.

>51 AlisonY: this is a lovely and inspirational post on revisiting Gatsby

>52 AlisonY: interesting experience. The quietness pulled me in. But i forgave her her obscure reasoning. 🙂

>53 AlisonY: enjoy The Trees! Google Money, MS

>56 kjuliff: i have lots of mice explanations/ideas…

>57 dchaikin: Dan I’d love to hear your ideas on the mice.
>53 AlisonY: The Trees is one of my favorite books of this century. I just know you will appreciate it. I liked liked it more than James.

>58 kjuliff: regarding the mice in Stone Yard Development, this is from my review where i quote someone’s fb comment:

On our Facebook group one person suggested "To me, the mice are a metaphor for the constant anxiety about death lurking and surprising us at every turn. No matter how much we try to banish the thoughts, it's hard to eradicate them because life thrusts it in our faces over and over. It's omnipresent. Like the mice."

I like that idea so much. These mice are certainly constant and insistent reminders of something. Maybe anxiety about death. Maybe - also/or - anxiety about something else. And now that she highlighted that, I can see it throughout the texture of the book. Our narrator is hiding from something. Yet it’s always there scratching away, no matter what it is she is thinking about.

>54 AnnieMod: I'm not one for pushing an author on someone if he doesn't work for you, but for sure you may get a different perspective on Gatsby now with more life experience behind you. I think he's such a clever writer - every word has to earn its place on the page. For something quite different, his short stories in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button are a lot of fun (and I'm not a short story lover).

I'm glad you enjoyed the art too - I must post some more.

>51 AlisonY: There should be a good few narrators to choose from for Gatsby, Kate. Even though it's a classic (which I generally prefer to read on the page), I did stay hooked on audio. Not sure I would rush to recommend the reader of the one I read, but he wasn't bad.

>52 AlisonY: I need to know if mice plagues are actually an Aussie thing.

>53 AlisonY: I think I was disappointed with Stone Yard Devotional because I got hooked so early and really thought it was going to go somewhere, but for me it was a treading water experience for a lot of the book. And yes - the mice. I certainly can see the correlation with anxiety!

Thanks for the Google tip on Money, MS. It's good to have that background context.

>58 kjuliff: I'm loving it - really not what I expected. I've got a stinking cold and didn't go into the office today as usual, so I missed getting the next hour of it today as planned.

A few more Nikki Monaghan paintings on a winter theme:


'An Edinburgh Winter Wonderland'


'Cattle and Stirling Castle'


'A Frosty Day in Culross'

>60 AlisonY: Probably will. My late teens/early 20s self had very particular tastes which had expanded a lot since. It’s just a question of priorities. I am trying to balance classics I never warmed up to, classics I want to reread because I liked them and want to revisit and new books. :)

>61 AlisonY: Pretty.

>61 AlisonY: I love the winter art.

I read The Great Gatsby in high school and was not impressed. When I reread it the first time in my 20s, I was stunned by how great it is. I've since reread it a couple more times, and can see why people consider it a masterpiece.

Hm, I'm wondering if I need to try Gatsby again. Like many, I read it when in my late teens and didn't like it.

I've read The Great Gatsby 3 times. I really love it. I think the symbolism is really well done. And some of the phrases and images are unforgettable - I love when he describes Daisy's voice as sounding like money. Interestingly, I read Tender is the Night and really hated it. That has happened to me with other others, though, too (ahem, Charlotte Bronte).

I think I'm going to skip Stone Yard Devotional. I feel like I see both raves and mehs. I'm really turned off by the thought of reading about the mice, so I think I'll just skip it. So many other things to read.

>61 AlisonY: I love Cattle and Stirling Castle - such a cold mood evoked by the blue, and yet the expected white is reserved for the castle itself.

>62 AnnieMod:, >63 BLBera:, >64 labfs39: My point of reference is that I absolutely hated Virginia Woolf's To the Lighthouse when forced to read it as a teenager, but I fell in love with it when I read it nearly 30 years later.

>65 japaul22: If you're also not a mouse lover it's possibly not a bad idea to skip it, as they feature a lot. I genuinely had a bad mouse dream on the back of it...

>66 ursula: Me too. There's so much blue in the picture yet it still works. She doesn't paint masterpieces, but I find her pictures so joyful in a lovely quirky way.

4. The Fun Lovin' Criminal by Huey Morgan

I don't profess to have ever particularly been a Fun Lovin' Criminals fan, but my pal and I went to see Huey Morgan in conversation at the Cheltenham Lit. Festival in October, and he came across as such a fun guy we just had to buy his memoir and have a chat while he signed it (or sort of signed it - his normal writing hand was in a cast). The Cheltenham Lit. audiences can be a very stereotypical white, middle-class, home counties set, and his event was a blast of fresh air in that he was 100% what-you-see-is-what-you-get, with zero pretensions and 20 f-bombs a minute.

Morgan certainly had a colourful past, and his memoir picks up from the point when he left the Marines and returned to living in some not so great neighbourhoods in NYC, hanging out with some shady people, taking a lot of drugs and suffering from poor mental health. His story takes us on a potted history of rebuilding his mental health through the pro bono work of a kindly therapist, getting involved with the Mafia, and eventually forming the band, getting their first gig breaks in some of the clubs in New York where he worked the bars.

Given he's someone with a big personality and persona, it's hard at times to know where the truth ends and embellishment begins, but I guess that's the poetic licence of anyone who writes a memoir. Between the lines of the bravado, I wondered if this is the story of someone who struggles to believe he's good enough. I say that because he often needed to point out to us readers when he'd done something good or well, as if we might not know he has a talent or positive virtues if he didn't spell it out to us. For instance, he takes 2 or 3 pages to explain how he should by rights have requested 70-100% royalties on some of their songs, but regardless of individual contributions he wanted the takings to be split equally between the 3 band members from the get-go. Is he trying to convince us or himself that he's a good guy? With other people in the public limelight this usually comes across as ego, but behind Morgan's big talk the fragility was obvious.

That aside, it's an interesting enough read, and I enjoyed reminding myself of some of the band's tracks while I was reading it. They were an interesting mix of hip-hop and rock; despite being a US band, they never quite broke America but did well in the UK and across Europe.

He's a very likeable guy in the flesh, and we enjoyed the few minutes we had chatting with him. He gives off a strong impression of still being that same guy from the darker side of NYC who can't quite believe what he's achieved.

If you enjoy music, he used to have a much revered slot on BBC Radio 6 but has recently moved to the 10am - 2pm weekend slot on Virgin Radio in the UK. I've listened a few times and it's great - he's a proper old school DJ who is all about the music, and he plays some fantastic tracks that span all eras and music tastes. I listened to it for a few minutes on Saturday when I was out in the car, and enjoyed hearing Prince's 'Alphabet Street', which I haven't played in years, and also Van Halen's 'Take Your Whiskey Home'. It made a marvellous change from all the homogenised crap of the 2000s that seems to dominate the airwaves these days.

3.5 stars - a fun enough read, two thirds of which were more about the underbelly of 90s New York.

>68 AlisonY: Great review, Alison.

>1 AlisonY: >61 AlisonY: Well, you've sent me down a Nikki Monaghan rabbit hole. I really like the posted images, but at first I couldn't reconcile her blue skies in my mind with any skies I'd seen in those areas; I kept looking for grey, or mauve, or a different blue. I did find some grey ones online. There is something really fun in her work though, and I guess grey just doesn't belong with that kind of joy. That leaves me to ponder "Is blue joyful?" I better stop now:)

>70 SassyLassy: I get your point, and I suppose blue is more joyful than grey. I think her vibe is that cheery, homely, chocolate box vibe from cheerful colours.

It's not complex art, but every time it pops up on my Insta feed it makes me smile.

Another rathole for you is that her art looks far better in the pics on Instagram than on her website for some reason.

>64 labfs39: Well, I reread it a few years ago (in my 60s) and still disliked it. I just don't care for the characters or the time period.

>61 AlisonY:, >70 SassyLassy:, >71 AlisonY:

Love the art too, and I'm surprised by the blue. It looks quite happy, and not the grey I expect.

>68 AlisonY: Such an interesting review Alison. But I’m nor much into Huey Morgan so will probably not be reading the book. The “underbelly of 90s New York” interests me though.

>72 WelshBookworm: I can definitely see how The Great Gatsby isn't for everyone.

>73 Nickelini: Is it because it's a nice bright blue that reminds us of those lovely crisp winter days? Not that we get many of those in NI - I'm so tired of grey skies and rain. January was our wettest January for years due to some weird jet stream positioning.

>74 kjuliff: I can't say I'm into Huey Morgan either, Kate. Not a book I would shout to recommend, but I got something out of it.

>75 AlisonY: Crisp winter days sound amazing to me too. I miss Denver, there were a lot of those.

>68 AlisonY: I will be seeing him and his band soon, on the NZ leg of their tour. I don't know anyone who would want to come, so will be going solos- just as I did when I saw them in Amsterdam 20-something years ago!I had no idea he had a book out :)

Also, >63 BLBera: I disliked The Great Gatsby on my first read, but then stoically tried again (and since then again and again) and now it it my most reread book! And i love it.

>77 LovingLit: Oh cool! Huey's in Belfast (this month I think) doing one of those 'conversation with' evenings. I'm almost tempted to go as I thought he was a lot of fun at Cheltenham, but it's on Monday which is one of my days in the office, so not sure I'll make it as office days are a bit of a rush. I always think their sound was quite niche - doesn't quite fit in with the rockers and neither the pure hip hop folks either.

>78 LovingLit: Was your first read when you were a teen?

5. The Trees by Percival Everett

Warning for those who loved this book - this is a mixed bag opinion review!

For those unfamiliar with the novel, it's a fictional story set in modern day Money, Mississippi, where Emmett Till was murdered in 1955 for allegedly wolf-whistling at a white woman at a store. Out of the blue, a series of copycat violent murders begin to take place in the town. In each, a white man is brutally killed and is found alongside the corpse of a black man who appears to have been dead for some time. Two black special detectives are sent in from the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation to take over the case from the local redneck sheriff.

Firstly, what I loved - which carried me for more than half of the book. When I began this novel, not really knowing what to expect, it hugely surprised me. Here was a fictional novel examining in retrospect a truly terrible time in history, and yet - it was funny. Astonishingly funny at times, given the subject matter. It felt utterly daring, yet it completely worked. It didn't take away from the monstrosity of Emmett Till's murder or the numerous lynchings that went on in the area decades before; to the contrary, it highlighted just how ludicrous the minds of the white people involved in these acts where, and how racism so often comes from a place of ignorance and, well, stupidity. The white people in Everett's novel are small town rednecks, and he enjoys poking fun at their idiocy through the characters he creates (Hot Mama Yeller being a classic trailer trash type stereotype - what a great character name). The black characters, by contrast, are intelligent, well qualified in their fields, measured in their actions and informed by facts. This really stood out to me, and I have to applaud Percival Everett for it, as I don't think I've read a novel before that has been bold enough to take such a position. Let's face it, most of our literature is still dominated by white protagonists.

I also learnt more about this part of America's civil rights history from this novel, as in the UK we only studied it for a short time at school. I had never realised, for instance, that many Asian Americans had also been lynched (or otherwise murdered). I read the book via audiobook format, and it was very powerful when the names of so many of the people killed in the area were read out. I'm glad these were included.

So the history backdrop, the characters, the humour all worked for me... initially. And then, about two thirds of the way through, I just started to get a little bored. Thrillers / whodunnit novels are not my bag ordinarily, and whilst The Trees didn't feel like that kind of novel to begin with, after a while once the surprises with Everett's approach wore off, it started to feel very much like (and forgive me - I realise I sound like a horrible book snob here) mass market thriller fiction. The characters began to feel like caricatures, and as the murder toll began to rise my attention waned in parallel. It felt increasingly formulaic (which it absolutely hadn't to begin with - I loved its originality), and everything was just too neatly closed off at the end.

That said, overall I enjoyed this book, and I thought about the history around it a lot in between readings. It's a book that needed to be written, and I take my hat off to Everett for doing it with such aplomb.

4 stars - a hugely original modern day piece of fiction based on an important and dark part of history. I just wished he'd kept me surprised right to the end.

>79 AlisonY: I'm excited about seeing FLCs now :)
My first read of The Great Gatsby was in my late 20s!

>80 AlisonY: this is an interesting review Alison. It’s been awhile since I read. The Trees , and unfortunately, I can’t remember the ending. I know that it was one of my favourite books 2024. I remember most of it especially the amusing bits. I don’t remember being completely engrossed in the writing. I’ll have to go back and look at the end now.

Fabulous reviews of The Trees, Alison. You perfectly captured what I did and did not like about it.

>81 LovingLit: I'm sure it will be a fun concert.

>82 kjuliff: I had a week's gap in my listening, Kate, which probably didn't help, but for me it definitely became a bit formulaic.

>83 kidzdoc: Glad it's not just me, Darryl!

6. The Race Against Time: Adventures in Late-Life Running by Richard Askwith

I'm not overly sure why I actively put this book on my wish list given I don't really run anymore, but for some reason I do enjoy reading about other people running, and I thought there might be some general titbits of advice for generally keeping going with exercise as you get older.

The book centres very heavily on the stories of a number of older runners, particularly those running in their 70s, 80s, 90s and 100s. One or two of these stories would probably have been inspiration enough, but Askwith uses them to pad out his book a fair bit. However, they were incredible stories to read about, such as the New Yorker Ida Keeling who only started running at 67, tricked into it by her daughter to help lift her from a black depression, and kept running until running her last competitive race at the age of 102.

Inspiring as these stories were, I'd hoped the book would have more in the way of tips to avoid injury, etc. as an older athlete, or ways to adjust your training regime. These are mentioned in passing, and I'm guessing the truth is there isn't any secret sauce out there.

I therefore probably wouldn't go out of my way to recommend this book, as it did become repetitive at times, but there were some good lessons for life for any of us to take away as we age - keep moving, it's never too late to start, and it's never too late to have a go competing, even if you've never competed in sports in your life before.

3.5 stars - interesting enough, but I'd have appreciated less anecdotes and more training advice.

* As a little aside on the topic of it never being too late, although I've been a regular gym trainer for nearly 4 years, I've always hated the erg cardio machines with a passion. A gym buddy suggested I do 5 minutes twice a week on the indoor rower back in July 2025, to see if I could improve my cardio in a month. Despite being pretty fit, even 5 minutes was wrecking me, so my coach stepped in and set me a programme which included 28 minute rows, which I nearly had a heart attack over. But I stuck to the programme, and when it ended 8 weeks later I asked her to set me another one, as somehow or other rowing had become part of my routine twice a week. I aimed to finish in December, and wanted to mark my commitment to the cause somehow, so I applied to row in the British Rowing Indoor Championship in Birmingham in December. At the grand old age of 52, having only been rowing for 5 months, I therefore somehow found myself competing as a masters athlete in the middle of one of world's biggest rowing events, attended by Olympic athletes (not competing in my section, thank goodness!). The last time I competed in a race was honestly in school sports day at the age of 10. I did abysmally in one race, but took home a medal at the second race, so I can honestly say it's never too late to try something new. I'm sure my PTSD from the experience will wear off soon...!!

>85 AlisonY: More power to your elbow Alison

I think it is certainly true that you need to be more aware of your physical condition when you get older, especially if you have not done any serious training in your younger years. I am surprised in the lack of advice in The Race against Time

Alison, I love your rowing story. I was introduced to it as part of a sampler class at my gym, and even though it destroyed me, I loved it! You remind me that I need to go back to it.

Great comments on The Trees; you captured my feelings about it.

Thanks for sharing your rowing story, Alison. You are an inspiration!

>85 AlisonY: I always just look at the rowing machines - they intrigue me but I have no idea how to even start (especially without leaving myself flattened for a week afterwards).

Congrats on doing the race, and especially getting a medal! I have only done one race (running), back in 2017. I didn't do particularly well, but I did finish it in spite of it being almost twice the distance I'd ever run. It is definitely a unique experience!

>80 AlisonY: very interesting review of The Trees. Everett is, of course, playing with mass market fiction tropes. That feeling you had was author-intentional, except he was hoping we would all find it clever, funny and moving. The book confused me. The horror and humor pulled in two different directions and I had trouble reconciling them. :)

>85 AlisonY: kudos on your rowing. Very inspiring.

>90 dchaikin: I’ve noticed this”confusion” a lot in reviews of novels and film in America. Recently I was reading an article I was quoted in the 1990s in the New York Times.Id only recently arrived. Here is what I was reported as saying in an interview at the time.
“ i think the mix of humor, and high emotion be it sadness or happiness, perplexes many Americans,'' she wrote on Sept. 5. ''This may account for the poor reviews for movies such as 'Angel Baby' and 'Muriel's Wedding.' The Time Out reviewer of 'Muriel's Wedding' was particularly aghast at the fact that a movie billed as a comedy had suicide and cancer themes along with the obvious humorous situations. If a movie's a comedy, then everything in it must lighthearted.”

>80 AlisonY: This is a great and nuanced review of The Trees. I've been reading his short stories and I've noticed that he seems to prefer the trail-off ending after making the point quite early, I think it is just his style which can feel a bit unsatisfying.

>85 AlisonY: I'm making a note of this, 2026 is definitely, 100% the year I start running (I say this every year).

>86 baswood:, >87 BLBera:, >88 labfs39:, >89 ursula: The rowing machine has grown on me as so much about it is getting the technique right, plus it tackles so many muscles without putting strain on the joints. I struggle with leg power, though - not sure if that will come with time or if not.

>90 dchaikin:, >91 kjuliff: Interesting comments. I can see how the humour and horror is difficult for many sitting beside each other, although for me it worked (despite my surprise that it did). That said, if someone wrote a black humour book about The Troubles, I can imagine having a problem with that.

>92 rasdhar: Maybe he does just chase those mass market fiction tropes as Dan suggests.

Go for it with your running. The Nike running app is a good free app to get you going or the couch to 5K. Just go slower than you think you need to.

>91 kjuliff: entertaining about Muriel’s Wedding. I didn’t have any issues with the humor tragic stuff mix there.

>93 AlisonY: it worked for me too. My comment was about it being in an American thing to dislike or puzzled by the juxtaposition of humor on tragedy.

>85 AlisonY: wow- this sounds like an incredible read...well, a read about incredible people maybe. I've never been one for running :) (also, I love the cover!)

>85 AlisonY: I'm in awe of your rowing story! That's fabulous.

I recently started a new exercise program, working under the guidence of a kinesiologist. On my second day, I picked the rower for my cardio. I've used them a few times in the past and I remembered liking them. I absolutely loved it, and it's going to be a key part of my routine going forward. I'd love to have a rower in my home, but I don't have a place for it. They are so large! Maybe when my daughter graduates from university and moves out, maybe I can take over her bedroom?

>89 ursula: I always just look at the rowing machines - they intrigue me but I have no idea how to even start (especially without leaving myself flattened for a week afterwards).

They are actually not difficult, once you get started. You just strap your feet in, and then pick up the handle thingy, and push back . . . I find it really relaxing, while working out so many muscles. Last time I was noticing how I was feeling it in my obliques (side of my waist -- I had to look up what muscle this even is). It's been years since I felt those muscles working!

Like a treadmill, or a bike, you can put as much or as little you want into it. I told my trainer that I was imagining a nice row on a pond on a Sunday afternoon.

When I mentioned how much I enjoyed it at the end of my session, my kinesiologist said that a lot of people were intimidated by it and didn't want to give it a try, and she wasn't sure why. But you're definitely not alone in your reaction.

>97 Nickelini: That's great that you've got the rowing bug too! I'm trying to row 1 million metres this year, but it's already becoming a bit of a slog on top of other training (code for I think I'm wearing myself out!). I caved in and bought a secondhand Concept2 off FB Marketplace over Christmas; my gym is run as a class, and it was getting increasingly difficult to find slots when I could slip in and row while a class was on, so it's nice being able to row when I want to now. I agree they are huge - mine's currently in my sun room, and as my husband quite rightly pointed out, if it had been the other way around and he'd bought something so massive and ugly to sit in there I'd have gone mad. I'm hoping that come the better weather it can go out in the garage. They do fold in the middle, but they're still bulky.

I have a Water Rower and I really love it, though I haven't used it much lately because I've been into strength training, HIIT, and walking. (I've had it for probably a decade and I go in and out of using it regularly)
I like the water rower because it has the satisfying sound of the water swishing. It also stands up really easily and is sturdy standing up, so it lives in the corner of our workout space when it isn't being used regularly.

>97 Nickelini: Okay, maybe I'll be brave and give it a shot!

I tried canoeing once, but I didn’t realise that the canoe had to be moored before stepping onto dry land. I sunk down into the deep water like a rock and pop straight back up like a cork, to the amusement of the picnic-makers on the grass.

Guess it's time to get off the topic of rowing and back to books...



7. Hagstone by Sinead Gleeson
Audiobook read by Tara Flynn

Nell is an artist living alone on the remote Irish island. A free spirit, she's unbothered by the relative solitude of her existence, or by what the other islanders think of her. Her focus is on the multitude of creative ideas constantly swimming around in her head, inspired by the raw natural elements of the island and its folklore.

An unexpected affair with a man who has returned to the island after several years away disturbs the rhythm she is used to. Both are fiercely independent and distrustful, unsure of what the other wants from this thing, nor of how much they are willing to give of themselves.

When a surprise invitation for an artistic commission comes in from the Ionians, a mysterious commune of women who have cloistered themselves away from life in their remote clifftop house on the island, Nell finds herself thrown into another world that forces her to question both the intentions of the community and her own life choices.

I didn't expect much from this audiobook, but it gripped me early on and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

4 stars - an impressive fictional debut. Recommended to those who have enjoyed books such as The Colony.

>102 AlisonY: A remote Irish island will always get me in.

>103 kjuliff: Me too - what's that all about?!

I think you might like this one, Kate.

>104 AlisonY: I tried to get it but it’s not available on audio in the US. But there are other books available by Sinead Gleeson so I might try one of those.

>105 kjuliff: I think her previous book was non-fiction, Kate, but it won an Irish award so possibly still worth a listen. From what I see on Amazon, her other titles seem to be part of Irish story anthologies.

>102 AlisonY: Remote Irish island was all I needed to add this to my list, Alison. I loved The Colony and, more recently, Whale Fall. What is it about islands?

Thanks for this!

>107 BLBera: The reviews on LT aren't great, but I really enjoyed it, Beth. Plus the narrator was excellent, which is always a big audiobook plus.

8. Deceived With Kindness: A Bloomsbury Childhood by Angelica Garnett

Like many who enjoy literature, I've always had a fascination with the Bloomsbury Group; that heady combination of intelligence, avant-garde creativity, fluid interpersonal relationships, and of course the big name shape-shifters that made up the group. Virginia Woolf and her artist sister Vanessa Bell have always been particularly interesting to me - I adore Woolf's writing (even though it took me a few decades to warm up to it), and also the artistic style of Vanessa, who had perhaps the most brow-raising domestic set-up of them all. It was therefore inevitable that I would read her daughter Angelica Garnett's memoir - who better to spill the tea than someone who grew up in the middle of the Bloomsbury madness.

Angelica Garnett's life was destined to be bohemian and dysfunctional from the moment she was conceived. Vanessa Bell (although married to Clive Bell), was deeply in love with the homosexual artist Duncan Grant, who she considered to be the great love of her life. Persuading him to have a sexual encounter with her to solidify their bond through a child, Bell became pregnant with Angelica, and went on to live domestically (but not in a sexual relationship) with Grant for 50 years (whilst still remaining married to Clive Bell). Angelica believed Clive Bell to be her father until the age of 18, and in this memoir she talks much of how Clive Bell had the capacity to be the father she wanted yet was constrained by knowing that Angelica was not his child, whilst Grant, although always amiable, was not cut out for fatherhood, and never attempted to lay down the fatherly boundaries she was searching for. Although shocking, in many ways it's not surprising that Angelica went on to marry Bunny Garnett, friend of her mother and sometime lover of her father, who pronounced when he saw her for the first time in her cradle that he could marry her, despite their 26 year age gap.

Angelica Garnett's life was therefore a hot mess of domestic and romantic arrangements, with this dysfunction played out in the spotlight and infamy of the Bloomsbury Group. She writes with skill and finesse in this memoir, and it's a shame she only published another couple of works beyond this. Her prose is often dense and required careful reading, so I never read large swathes of this memoir at a time, yet I never bored of the insights into her most dysfunctional upbringing.

In an updated preface ten years or so after the original publication in 1984, Garnett questions if she would write the same book again if starting from scratch, and happily concludes that she would. Her relationship with Vanessa was oppressive, and to give Garnett her due at several points she's at pains to point out that this is just her perspective. Vanessa clearly loved her dearly, and reading between the lines in many ways too much. There was no such word as no to Angelica, and as soon as she hit any obstacle in her education Vanessa insisted she was removed from the subject of difficulty, such that she never reached her academic potential. Despite all the freedom, what Angelica desperately sought was structure, which Vanessa was incapable of giving, yet she was a formidable influence over Angelica, a shadow that she never felt she could escape from. I had sympathy for Vanessa at times, as parenthood never comes with a handbook and clearly her intentions were good, yet the harder she tried to more she seemed to alienate herself from Angelica.

This is a memoir that probably appeals more to those already with an interest in the Bloomsbury group, otherwise I expect it could be a bit of a slog at times (although it's relatively slim), but I thoroughly enjoyed this fly-on-the-wall insight into the strange lives of part of this famous family.

4 stars - probably a niche read.

>109 AlisonY: An interesting review, Alison. I am putting this book on my list.

>109 AlisonY: Excellent review, Alison.

>109 AlisonY: I read that years ago and felt similar to you. And yes, a niche read

>109 AlisonY: Great comments, Alison. I will add this to my list.

>110 kjuliff:, 111, 113 I hope you enjoy it if you read it. It's definitely quite dense to read (not helped in physical form by ugly font with narrow line spacing).

112 - I read you review while I was mid book. I always like to read CR opinions!

9. The Rest of our Lives by Benjamin Markovits
Audiobook read by Eric Meyers

This is one of those books where afterwards I struggle to assimilate my thoughts for a review on the basis of not finding it a particularly thought-provoking read. If I want to be positive about it, words that spring to mind are 'enjoyable enough'. If my negative Nellie side comes to the fore, I'd say it was a bit bland and lukewarm. I guess what I'm trying to say is that I feel a bit ambivalent towards it.

Our male protagonist and narrator is in his mid-fifties, and the novel opens as he and his wife prepare to wave their youngest child off to college. He had found out his wife had had an affair some years before, and she is aware that he'd decided to put off any decisions about the future of their marriage until both kids have left home. Now the empty nest beckons, and after dropping his daughter off at college, our narrator finds himself on an impromptu road trip with no clear destination or outcome.

The opening of the book and its finale make up around a quarter of the novel, and those were my favourite parts. Whilst Tom is on his road trip in between these sections, the novel is mostly an introspection as he thinks back to various stages in his life; time with friends, a relationship with a previous girlfriend, meeting his wife, the affair. He stops off for a night or two with a number of these key people from his past as he traverses the country, but really there's no major storyline or plot twist attached to these encounters - they just bring a reality check to his memories. We always look in the rearview mirror with rose-tinted glasses on.

I wanted to really connect with this novel. I'm in a similar age-bracket, and my oldest is probably going to fly the nest later this year. It does force you to think about the next stage in your life (I think of it in thirds - life before kids, life with kids at home, life after kids have left home). Are you prepared for it? Is your marriage solid enough for this next stage without the distraction of the kids after 20 years? What does this next stage look like? There is a lot to unpack there, yet this novel never grabbed me by the heartstrings or had me chewing over thoughts long after I'd shut the cover. It felt like it needed an injection of drama somewhere, or a plot twist or two added in. There wasn't enough colour to his thoughts to pull me in.

Yet again, I have to roll my eyes at why this was considered strong enough to be Booker long-listed, but I've long given up on figuring out how they come to ease decisions.

3.5 stars - worth a read, but very forgettable.

>115 AlisonY: Great review, Alison. Your comments remind me of the main reason why I no longer follow the Booker Prize closely.

10. Winter by Christopher Nicholson
Audiobook

Winter is an historical fiction onion of a novel. From the outside, it appears to be focused on Thomas Hardy's (entirely fictional) increasing obsession with the daughter of his muse for Tess of the D'Urbervilles, a woman whom he wishes to take the lead in the first London theatre production of Tess. Yet as you get deeper into the novel, you realise that's not the point of the book at all. That plot line is merely a vehicle for peeling back the layers of the marriage of Hardy and his second wife Florence, and that's where this novel really opened up for me.

Nicholson approaches the novel with chapters from differing narrative voices, the main ones being that of Hardy and Florence. Taking the plot line of Hardy's attraction to Gertrude, the amateur actress who depicts his beloved Tess so well, we see their differing perspectives, with Nicholson nailing perfectly how an issue can take on such seismic differing proportions depending on people's individual viewpoints. Whilst Thomas Hardy views his appreciation of Gertrude as an old man's harmless and unrequited private fantasy in his later years, as his wife's suspicions arise it becomes a catalyst for hysteria and pulling apart the wider fabric of their marriage.

Their relationship is one of stereotypical gender imbalance born out of traditional gender roles. Hardy, the 'important writer', wants to be left in peace to his musing about Gertie and his poetry, whilst Florence, 'bad with her nerves' (or more likely perimenopausal and at her wits end living a subservient life with a husband who has likely married her more out of affection and usefulness than love) begins to question everything about their marriage. It's a classic 'Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus' dynamic. In Hardy's head their life is good, and he wishes to stay in the calm of the cave that is his study. Meanwhile, in Florence's head their marriage and her world has exploded, and the more she runs into the cave after Hardy seeking solace, the more he retreats into its depths. It's a superb depiction of the ramifications of poor communication in a marriage, and how resolvable issues can become so impacting.

Winter is a melancholic novel, but one that feels very sympathetic to its era. The narration in this audio version was superb, and I felt like I was listening to the audio of a dramatisation of a classic period novel. Its plot is totally fictional, and I listened to it not as a book about Thomas Hardy, but more as general fiction about a famous writer and his second wife.

4 stars - this was a joy to my weary ears to listen to on my way home from work. It may be too sombre for some, but if you enjoy books that really get into characters' heads it's terrific.

>109 AlisonY: the Angelica Garnett memoir sounds fascinating

>115 AlisonY: did you pick up the Updike Rabbit homage? I think you’re a Rabbit reader?? I obviously liked it more than you, although my initial reaction was along your mindset. It’s only when i started thinking about it more - what was he doing? What was driving him? - and that it hung around a long time - that i started to appreciate it more.

11. A Frozen Woman by Annie Ernaux

Eek. For a relatively slim novel I positively laboured over this one.

Although it reads like a piece of fiction, this book is an autobiographical account of Ernaux' coming of age through to marriage with young children. As a young child, Ernaux's household is unusual for the era (1940s), where both parents work and this takes precedence and importance over non-essentials such as housekeeping and developing cooking skills. As she grows older, friends begin to open her eyes to embarrassments she'd never noticed before in her own home, namely the 'shame' of her father sharing domestic chores and her mother's disinterest in how the house is kept. Resolving to fit more neatly into the expected female gender mould of late 1950s / early 1960s France, Ernaux becomes increasingly disillusioned and unhappy as she attempts to 'have it all', juggling conforming to the stereotypical homemaker duties that crush her soul whilst trying to continue with her studies and ambitions.

On paper this sounds like just the kind of book I would normally love, but I found it a grind. I don't mind philosophical musings in books I read (in fact, I usually enjoy it), and this book touches all kinds of themes that hugely resonate with me - the crushing boredom that no mother likes to admit to of looking after a toddler, the exhausting juggling act of the many balls of work, home and motherhood, where you feel you're doing no role well, etc. etc. However, it felt like feminist polemic on every page. Barely a line was wasted in reinforcing the gender imbalances that she grew up with and her raging frustrations with the roles women are expected to take on, and whilst I agree with all her points and rage regularly myself at how women are still often left to carry the heavier share of the family mental and household load, I just didn't need to hear it in every sentence. Every time I picked the book up it made me weary and I only got few a through pages at a time as a result.

3 stars - I'm with you all the way with your frustrations, Annie, but boy - you're hard work.

>119 AlisonY: i get that. Sometimes a book pushes a point well beyond necessary. I get impatient. I liked The Years a lot.

>120 dchaikin: Exactly. Let the story breathe too.

>119 AlisonY: I find that I'm not a fan of a sermon, even when I agree with the preacher.

>122 RidgewayGirl: Couldn't have put it better.

>119 AlisonY: It feels like there's a very fine line to have someone empathize with the struggle and to make them relive it and this one ended up on the wrong side of that.

>124 ursula: Yep. For me anyway. I needed some space to just figure out the themes myself.

12. Travelling in a Strange Land by David Park

My second road trip novel in the same month - what's going on?!

Travelling in a Strange Land is written by a Northern Irish novelist who's penned over a dozen novels and lives in the same county as I do, so it feels terrible that I know very little about his writing and have never read anything he's written before.

In this quiet novella we accompany Tom as he travels from his home in County Down, NI, to collect his sick son Luke from his university accommodation in Sunderland, England, bringing him home in time for Christmas. Heavy snow is covering the UK (not 'the world', as the book jacket erroneously suggests), and as UK airports are closed Tom must make the long road journey via ferry to Stranraer in Scotland.

With nothing to do but concentrate on the road for long hours, Tom is forced to confront feelings about circumstances surrounding his eldest son Daniel, which he's tried hard to keep buried for the sake of the family. On his journey to pick up Luke, we feel the driving snow pressing in from all around, mirroring the entrapment of the family in their memories and the stifling pressure of Tom's guilt at not being able to rescue Daniel in the way he is about to 'rescue' Luke.

It's an atmospheric book, and I enjoyed the familiarity of the Belfast road names and landmarks. I'll likely be making a similar journey over on the boat this year to bring my son over to study in England for the first time, and I could relate to Tom's wife's panic of wanting her boy brought back when he wasn't well, and a mother's wont to worry an absent child's cold or flu into meningitis proportions or worse (my worry radar's already increased and he hasn't even gone yet).

4 stars - it's not a book that will stick with me for especially long, but I enjoyed the atmosphere Park created in this short novel, and the tension around trying to parent a wayward teen.

13. The Hour of the Predator: Encounters with the Autocrats and Tech Billionaires Taking Over the World by Guiliano da Empoli

Another slim book, and thank goodness it's a short read as its subject matter is so alarming I'm not sure I'd want to spend days dwelling on it.

As a former senior advisor to Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi, Guiliano da Empoli has been a fly on the wall at enough global political events to speak with some authority on the frightening shift of global politics we now find ourselves in, where the carefully drawn up engagement rulebooks of post WWII are being torn up in a return to a survival of the fittest approach to political supremacy and domination, where he who dares wins. It's not just the defensive framework of bodies such as NATO that are getting pushed to the side, but also democracy being pushed aside by modern autocrats, legitimately voted to power by democratic elections but who then go on to dismantle those checks and balances (does anyone especially come to mind here...?).

We are in a new political era where action is king and the new world tyrants, dictators and strongmen draw strength from instability, unpredictability and aggression. As da Empoli puts it (talking about Trump and how he won't read even half a page or a single line of notes from his advisors):

But why should that matter, when the truly important thing is action? Because knowledge is the enemy of action. A chaotic environment demands bold decisions that captivate the public attention and shock his adversaries

Referring to the United States, da Empoli notes that a key transfiguration is that rather than new ideas coming from the centres of global power as has traditionally been the case, now many of the new wave of policy decisions are coming from ideas seen in small territories on the fringes, the kind of ideas that come with questionable moral substance.

Da Empoli focuses not just on the US in this slim book, but also on the tactics employed by the likes of the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia and Nayib Bukele, president of El Salvador, who both used quick force to bring to heel adversaries (social as well as political).

Despite the subtitle, perhaps only a third at the most of the book looks at the influences of the tech billionaires of today on politics today. Much more frightening is how out of the reaches of government control these mega tech frontrunners are. The technology of the future being designed today is not understood by policymakers, and cosying up with these tech giants to use data mining to win campaigns (Obama is called out here as an early adopter of using social media to reach voters based on individual preferences) blurs boundaries and relationships further.

The two most frightening thoughts this book left me with are that (1) it's much, much cheaper in today's world of warfare to attack than to defend (e.g. expensive missiles need to be deployed to take down relatively cheap bomber drones), and (2) AI is utterly out of control. The order of control and supremacy in the political food chain is now irrelevant. The technology being developed by these AI leaders is completely out of governmental control, and the very people building it no longer understand how it makes the decisions it does. It's way beyond a scenario of the monkeys running the zoo - the whole zoo is evaporating into a digital simulation.

4.5 stars - a quick, easily digestible read. Prepare to be terrified.

>126 AlisonY: I enjoyed your review of Travelling in a Strange Land.

>127 AlisonY: well, that's a terrifying review. It feels like a confirmation of our worst fears

>102 AlisonY: >126 AlisonY: I am struggling to catch up with commenting, but have been greatly enjoying your reviews. I have a particular interest in Irish writers and am always happy to discover ones I am not yet familiar with. Sinead Gleeson and David Park are now on that list. My TBR collection thanks you!

>126 AlisonY: Excellent review and I'm eager to read this now.

>126 AlisonY: Great comments, Alison. I love books with a strong sense of place. I will look for this.

>127 AlisonY: Absolutely terrifying.

>128 dchaikin: We are living in scary times.

>129 Linda92007: I used to hate reading books by Northern Irish writers as it was all too familiar, but now I actually enjoy the familiarity. I hope you enjoy either book if you get to them on your TBR!

>130 RidgewayGirl: It's a quick read, but I enjoyed it.

>131 BLBera: Hope you enjoy it, Beth. Yes, current day politics are terrifying, but then I guess through history there have always been plenty of nutters at the helm.

>127 AlisonY: Goodness, that one sounds terrifying. I must look for it. Have you watched AI Confidential With Hannah Fry on BBC2? It's a three-parter on various AI issues, and one of them is deaths from driverless cars running people over. There was a case involving Uber, in which the Uber employee was prosecuted for not doing her job properly in the car (which was in training mode at the time) but the readout of what was going on in the car showed that it had failed to recognise a human crossing the road with a bike, because she wasn't on a pedestrian crossing. The company itself wasn't prosecuted, and there seemed to be a "Well, it's AI, what can we do?" attitude to it, overlooking the fact that a company had designed the poor quality product and was just as responsible as the human in the car. If I had a dangerous dog that killed someone I'd rightly be in court on a manslaughter charge, but it seems if I was a tech bro promoting a vehicle not fit for purpose there would just be shoulders shrugged and no-one would care.

>133 susanj67: That's a horror story right there. I love Hannah Fry - I'll look for this. Thanks!

14. Dance, Dance, Dance by Haruki Murakami
Audiobook (13 hours)

I don't like magical realism, I'm on the fence about Japanese literature and I don't listen to audiobooks that go into double figure listening time, yet - surprise! I really enjoyed this book (eventually).

This is book #4 in The Rat series, but I was coming into the series cold with this last book. I'd read that it wasn't necessary to read the other books, but having read more around this after finishing Dance, Dance, Dance I think it would have been useful to have at least red #3 A Wild Sheep Chase, as apparently it sets the context of why the narrator is so alone, and who The Rat was.

The magic realism aspect was a very part of the novel, so that was a win for me. The novel starts with our novel being drawn to go back to The Dolphin Hotel (which I believe would have made more sense had I read A Wild Sheep Chase) in search of Kiki, the ex-girlfriend he'd gone there with previously. There's a pull that he can't quite understand, but all he knows is that he has to sideline his work for a while in pursuit of this calling. I don't want to give the plot away from there, but what I will say is that this starts a journey in which the narrator becomes involved with a host of offbeat characters, such as a moody 13 year old girl lacking proper parental care, high-class call girls, a one-armed poet and an ex-high school peer who's become a B movie / advertising actor.

It's a weird ride of a novel - you're not sure where it's going, who can be trusted, why our narrator has been drawn to them all, and what they have to do with the mysticism of the original Dolphin Hotel.

It definitely took me quite a while to warm up to it, mostly because I find Japanese literature can be quite bleak. It's different to British bleakness in novels, which often feels more melancholy; for me, Japanese novels can often have an air of hopelessness and resignation that life is terrible. Once the novel left the confines of The Dolphin Hotel I started to enjoy the novel more - I knew then it was opening up and wasn't going to be stuck in the mysticism surrounding the hotel, which somehow felt quite depressing.

This is my first Murakami book, and had #3 in the series been available on audiobook I would have started right into it after finishing Dance, Dance, Dance.

It's one of those books I'm not sure if enjoy is the right word because it felt tinged with so much bleakness, but I'm glad I persisted with it as I got a lot out of it in the end. It's weird and a bit crazy in places, but I enjoyed its uniqueness.

Are there other Murakami books people would recommend?

4 stars - weird and wonderful (in a slightly depressing way)

What I'm reading at the moment -



On audio:

>135 AlisonY: I absolutely loved Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World, which I read in 2000 or 2001. That was my first Murakami, and I was completely hooked on him from then on.

>137 kidzdoc: Thanks Darryl - will note that one.

>135 AlisonY: My favorite is Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage. It's one of his few books (that I know of at least) that isn't magical realism (or nonfiction), but rather realistic fiction. I've also read 1Q84 and Wind-Up Bird Chronicle.

>135 AlisonY: I've only read one novel by Murakami ,Kafka on the Shore, which fits the description for the one you read. It was weird, but I really liked it. I did feel like I missed some popular culture references, but I would definitely.

I read a memoir, which I didn't like quite as much.

15. Hare with Amber Eyes by Edmund de Waal

My personal laptop wouldn't stay switched on, so I'm a bit late with this review.

Hare With Amber Eyes is considered Edmund de Waal's seminal book, and I was keen to read it having enjoyed Letters to Camondo, a later publication.

In middle age, de Waal is bequeathed hundreds of Japanese netsuke - small, intricate carvings - from a much loved great uncle. The netsuke form the narrative thread of this book, as de Waal traces their origins in his family, back to the 1800s, but they're a plot device as much as anything, a reason to tell the story of his Ephrussi ancestors and their arrival in Vienna and Paris.

It's a fascinating family history of a Jewish family from Odessa originally who made their fortune in grain before turning to banking, and with his natural artistic eye (de Waal is a potter first and foremost) he carefully reimagines for us the insides of those gilded interiors, the artwork on the walls and the daily lives of a powerful and privileged family. We feel the rise of anti-semitism in Vienna before WWII, and then the inevitable stripping of all that wealth as the Nazis come into power. They were somewhat luckier than others in that the immediate family avoided the concentration camps, but still they paid a heavy price as the family was split across Europe for a time, and wider friends and family lost their life in the camps.

I've not read before an account of the extent of the financial impact of anti-semitism on such a powerful Jewish family as this, and it was extremely affecting. The Ephrussi family were considered to be the second wealthiest in all of Europe (second only to the Rothchilds), and the house in Vienna was akin to an enormous state building, decorated with the best of materials and extensive art collections. After the Anschluss in 1938, the Nazis quickly took over their house, forcing them to also sign over their banking shares and other assets, before they fled Austria altogether.

Resettling eventually in England together, after the war they attempted to recover some of their assets, but very little of it was returned. The banker's partner of over 30 years didn't recognise any further claim on the bank, the grand palace was eventually returned to them in a state of ruin around 1949/50 (and had to be sold for only around $30,000), and very little of the art was recovered. The netsuke were one of the few things to be retained, smuggled out gradually by their devoted housemaid during occupation of the house.

I enjoyed this book, but it was in a similar style to Letters to Camondo (tales of another wealthy Jewish family who were friends in Paris), which perhaps took away a little of its magic. My attention did drift a little in places.

3.5 stars - Edmund de Waal is a superb writer at bringing family history alive. Just a little too samey for me, but this would likely have been a 4 star read if it had been my first book by him.

16. Butcher by Joyce Carol Oates
Audiobook

Butcher is an unsettling novel, dramatising the real-life medical horrors afflicted on women by surgeons in the mid-1800s.

The fictional protagonist, Silas Weir, is an unattractive man who fails to excel at school, obtaining a medical degree from a mediocre university and seeming inevitably destined for life as a lowly country doctor. Through happenstance, Weir gets the opportunity to carry out gynaecological surgery on some indentured servant inmates at a psychiatric hospital, and when the cards all remarkably land in his favour and he ends up director of the asylum, his ego overtakes his medical capabilities at speed. Thus begins his reign as butcher of the hospital, performing increasingly barbaric gynaecological and other surgeries on other indentured servants whilst self-promoting himself as the pioneer in 'gyno-psychiatry'. Weir solidly believes in his own greatness, murdering women and babies in his quest for further scientific experimentation, and it's interesting to have much of the novel narrated by Weir himself through his memoirs, book-ended by the perspective of his son and his favourite deaf-mute albino Irish servant girl who served as both nurse and scientific subject for Weir.

It's an interesting premise for a book, which although fictional is based on many historical documents of such atrocities. However, it could easily have been 50 or so pages shorter. Certainly my interest was waning in the last few hours of listening.

3.5 stars - not my favourite JCO, but was worth a listen.

17. Quiet Chaos by Sandro Veronesi

Quiet Chaos, translated from Italian and winner of Italy's prestigious Strega literary award, is a reflective novel on life, death, family, work and the social norms that both bind and tie us.

The novel opens with the protagonist Pietro saving a woman from drowning, unknowing that at the very same time his wife is dying of an aneurism not far away in their holiday home. Bringing his young daughter back to school in Milan for the first time since the funeral, he decides on the spur of the moment to commit to waiting outside the school all day until she is finished, and then not just to wait that day but for every day that follows in anticipation of the onslaught wave of grief that has yet to hit either he or his daughter.

A top executive in a television company, his employer allows him to work from his car and the park outside his daughter's school, but not indefinitely. Pietro, feeling no discernible sadness for his wife, believes that he is not grieving but simply appreciating a new perspective on what's important in life, and as he waits outside the school day after day, week after week, a host of characters come into his new 'office'. Sensing the freedom of Pietro's unconventional choices, his family and work colleagues inevitably end up unburdening themselves to him about their work and family troubles, while Pietro increasingly finds it easy to simply not worry about what tomorrow brings and to focus only on the here and now.

Quiet Chaos is a book that appears simple and straightforward yet also has many layers of depth. I enjoyed it, yet it's one of those books where I was also glad to reach the end, and a culling of 100 or so pages would have done it no harm (I seem to be in a culling frame of mind with my last two reviews!).

4 stars - enjoyable, but I was often glad to put it down again often after a reading stint.

>135 AlisonY: I'm late to this but I started off with The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle and honestly, nothing else he wrote ever quite reached that height for me. I have liked a number of his books, but that one was something special for me.

>144 ursula: Thanks for this - bookmarking it immediately for the teetering wish list.

18. Literary Places by Sarah Baxter

This was a filler that falls in the category of a pretty book to gift but nothing groundbreaking in the writing. Sarah Baxter has taken 25 books renowned for their geographical settings and given a brief 2 or 3 page overview of each with the landmarks in the city or area that relate to key focal points in the books.

I'm not sure what I expected from this book, but whatever I had in mind this didn't quite hit the spot. I think I hoped to finish it with a nice little list of interesting literary places to add to my travel bucket list, but nothing as described whet my appetite beyond what I already know. I got the impression Baxter perhaps did no more than Google a few facts from the safety of her armchair.

Lots of pretty drawings, though:



3 stars - lacking substance.

19. Killing Time by Alan Bennett

This novella was a grab from a recent library book sale, which I dithered over picking up - Alan Bennett is one of those authors I tend to put in the 'not my gig' bucket, yet somehow I still end up reading bits and pieces by him. His writing reminds me of Howard Jacobson's, and I think my issue with both of them is that they write about an age group I've not yet reached with quite stereotypical British eccentric characters that I find a bit twee. A little 'Last of the Summer Wine', if you know what I'm talking about.

Anyhoo, this slim book was a short bit of fun (with a small f) about the goings on of residents in a home for elderly. Really not a lot happens in it - it's just a little vignette of the different characters that come and go in this otherwise dull place to live.

3 stars - there were a few amusing lines here and there, but not my cup of tea really.

20. The Safekeep by Yael van Der Wouden
Audiobook

A novel I feel conflicted about (and one I definitely don't think meets the standard for The Booker long list, but nothing new there).

The first half of the book pulled me in relatively quickly. The protagonist (Isabel), a forthright and rather acerbic spinster, lives alone in the family home in the Netherlands that belonged to her parents until her brother sends his latest girlfriend to live with her while he is away on business. Determined to make her feel unwelcome, Isabel is unprepared for meeting her match with Eva who will not be cowed, and as a battle of wills unfolds between the women they are unprepared for what comes next.

I need to vent about this book now, so I won't spoil it if you've not read it. The shagging! Oh my days... for a good section of the book it just went on, and on, and on. I know Isabel was late coming to the lesbian party, but good Lord she made up for it once she got going. I was listening to this on audio, and it took up three-quarters of one 30 minute walk I took, and then the next night when I did my next walk they were still at it. I've never wished more for a fictional couple to split up just so I could be spared reading any more about their sex life.

My second gripe is that the twist felt too formulaic and improbable. I admire authors who have the confidence to feel they don't have to hit all the beats of the classic plot blueprint. This novel gave away its debut credentials by keeping to all the classic story points. Three-quarters of the way in? Oh, it must be time to drop the 'all is lost' moment for the protagonist.

As far as these kinds of books go (I guess that's what fills the mass market shelves) it was a good read that keeps your attention, but I just wish the author had dared to hold back on the plot a little and to resist tying everything up in a neat little bow at the end. (And that someone had edited out half of the shagging...) .

3.5 stars - this could easily have been a strong 4 star read for me, but the things that irritated me annoyed me enough to dock half a star.

>148 AlisonY: I really enjoyed your review of The Safekeep Alison, and agree with your “Gripe 2” especially. I was glad to see that I wasn’t the only one who was unhappy with this book, although I gave it four stars albeit reluctantly, as I felt I was meant to like it.

My own review started with
This is a strange book. Is it a mystery? Is its subject erotica, theft, OCD? Or is it about family and friendship, WWII, homosexuality or all of the above. Or perhaps it’s about a house.

I feel some books exploit the Holocaust and usually research them thoroughly before deciding to read, though with this one it wasn’t obvious from the cover.

>149 kjuliff: I still enjoyed it, Kate, and if a different editor pushes her in a different direction she could be an author I'd really enjoy, but I doubt that will happen.

>143 AlisonY:
A Quiet Chaos sounds very interesting. I get what you mean about books being too long though. I get frustrated with that.

>146 AlisonY:
Literary Places may be a waste of time, but the art you posted is lovely

21. Class Trip by Emmanuel Carrère

This was an enjoyable French translated novella from 1995, which also won a prize in film at the Cannes Film Festival in 1998.

The novella opens with Nicholas arriving to his school ski trip by car with this overbearing father, on the back of his father's paranoia about the safety of school buses. When his father forgets to leave off his suitcase, timid Nicholas' anxieties multiply, and when a young boy in the area goes missing Nicholas is sure he has been taken by the organ thieves his father has warned him about.

I enjoyed this slim novel, which had great atmosphere and a suitably dark ending.

4 stars - a quick but fun read.

>152 AlisonY: I've liked everything by Carrère I've read, but finding his books here takes some luck.

>153 RidgewayGirl: I must admit I'd not heard of him before, although appreciate I should have done as he's clearly a big cheese in the French literary world.

>148 AlisonY: "I just wish the author had dared to hold back on the plot a little" - couldn't agree more! I think this can also be a trait of first novels. Does the author think, I've got three ideas and they're all good so if I put all of them into the book it'll be great!?

>155 wandering_star: Reminds me of the musical play from several years back, "Don't Start Me to Talking or I'll Tell Everything I Know."

>148 AlisonY: your spoiler is so funny. I mostly agree with and Kate ( >149 kjuliff: ). But it was listed on numerous awards

>155 wandering_star: Surely that's where a good editor should came in? But I think a lot of mass market fiction readers enjoy books that nicely sew up endings. I always imagine books like The Safekeeping as films for that reason - lots of movies like to have a neat bow at the end too.

>156 rocketjk: Indeed, lol!

>157 dchaikin: Wasn't quite what I expected to listen to on my strolls, Dan! I'm no prude, but it just went on. And on....!

22. Seascraper by Benjamin Wood
Audiobook - read by the author

I finished this a while back but I'm having very little time to go onto my laptop for LT these days. Life's busy, between work, training, kids and life admin, and I'm becoming allergic to going onto my computer in my free time when I'm on it for 9 hours most days at work. Apologies for being a poor poster on other people's threads, but I'm loitering when I can.

Seascraper was positively reviewed by many of you recently, so it went straight to the top of my audiobook listening list. It's a lovely quiet book where the characters and the landscape are key to the narrative, so was right up my street. It reminded me in many ways of Hagstone with its story of an American film-maker coming to a quiet backwood, although it had a more period setting than that novel.

Benjamin Wood did a fantastic job with the reading on this audiobook, and is to be applauded for not feeling he had to tie everything up neatly for the author at the end (Yael van Der Wouden - take note!!!).

4 stars - probably not a book I'll remember too far in the future, but I enjoyed reading / listening to it.

>159 AlisonY: glad you enjoyed Seascraper. Wish you a break. 🙂

>160 dchaikin: Thank you, Dan. Nothing out of the ordinary - life just gets busy sometimes.

23. The Art of Life Admin: How to do Less, Do it Better, and Live More by Elizabeth Emens

Some years ago, I heard on the radio a story about some university researchers who had been paid good taxpayer money to identify the perfect amount of butter to put on a slice of toast. Elizabeth's Emens studies into life admin at Colombia University, of which this book is an output, is not far behind on that scale of ridiculousness (in my humble opinion). Proper life admin hacks could be a really productive output, but sadly this book was the equivalent of being asked to write 200 pages on the feelings of an apple seed.

This was a library sale acquisition, and as someone who hates life admin with an absolute passion I thought perhaps there might be some tips to glean. It took me a while to dare to open the front cover, so bad is my life admin resistance, but once I committed to the read, well - I committed. Who knew - there could be just the nugget of information I need to free myself from my yearly tax filing panic attack hiding in the next chapter.

So I endured chapters such as 'What is admin?', 'Admin Personalities', 'Who Does Admin', thinking 'wow - this Elizabeth knows how to pad out nothing into something', but like a good girl I persisted into Part II: Admin Surprises, and such nuggets as 'Admin Judgments' and 'Admin to Win Friends and Influence People'. I stayed the course, telling myself I only had to get through a few pages at a time, that it would be worth it for the new me doing my tax return laster in the year. Part III brought 'Admin Futures', when the innovative Emens, who'd run out of padding many, many chapters before, brought us her utopian future of admin ideas. I can't even waste the energy to type the words to tell you what level of utter drivel that was.

But, I'd come this far. Surely the Appendix A of 'Ideas to Try' would bring just the gold I was looking for, and make the previous waste of hours of my life worthwhile....

'My Favourite Ideas to Try - the Urgent List'

Here we go - pens at the ready...

1. Forget the search for a magic tool and embrace a simple to-do list

People, I almost wept.

1 star. I guess the positive is my tax return must surely feel a little smidgen less boring by comparison.

>162 AlisonY: "Forget the search for a magic tool and embrace a simple to-do list"

Sounds like good advice. Too bad you had to go through 200 pages of drivel to get to it. I feel your pain.

>163 FlorenceArt: It was a very long 200 pages to get to the non-revelatory power of a to-do list!

24. Gotta Get Theroux This: My Life and Strange Times in Television by Louis Theroux

An autobiography of Louis Theroux would probably not make it onto my personal book wish list, but this was squashed in a box amongst Catherine Cookson's and Danielle Steeles at the library sale in April, and having enjoyed his documentaries I thought 'why not?' and threw it into the library issue tote bag.

As I said, I've enjoyed his documentaries over the years; how he manages to get people to open up by coming across as being very non-threatening and letting silences have space to be filled by the words of the interviewee.

The first part of the book was probably the section I enjoyed most, learning about how his childhood suddenly jumped up the privilege scale when his father's (Paul Theroux) writing career took off. Boarding school at Westminster and then a first class degree from Oxford, followed by some post-university travelling - Theroux seemed to enjoy an early freedom of choice that only money can buy, but credit where it's due - he also is clearly very intelligent and articulate.

Much of the book is of course about how he got into making his documentaries which have covered everything from inside the porn industry to a film on Scientology and and two documentaries about Jimmy Saville (if you don't know who he is, in a nutshell, he was a creepy peroxide-haired DJ who wore lurid tracksuits and smoked massive cigars and was most famous for his TV show 'Jim'll Fix It', to which just about every kid in the UK in the 1980s wrote into with a dream they wanted him to grant. He raised huge amounts of money for charities, in particular Stoke Mandeville Hospital, which in turn gave him carte blanche access within the hospital wards, and he was awarded a knighthood for his fundraising. Whilst there had been whispered rumours about him for decades, to which a blind eye was turned because of his position of power, after his death in 2011 the floodgates opened on an enormous sexual abuse scandal, and he was outed as a prolific sexual predator, who used his position to assault and rape hundreds of girls, boys and women over the years).

Back to Louis' book, I enjoyed the behind-the-scenes glimpse into how these kind of documentaries are made and the issues they encounter along the way. The middle of the book dragged at a little - once his career was solidified the personal story diminished, there was really only the documentaries to keep talking about, and the book visited the issue of Jimmy Saville three times from different points which was too much Saville for me.

Overall, it was interesting though. Louis Theroux is very candid and honest about his own shortcomings in the book, and as with this documentaries, he comes across as very personable for that very reason.

3.5 stars - well written, but it felt like he over-compensated on more Jimmy Saville reflections than were needed. Perhaps he felt like the book was running out of steam with 'and then I made another documentary'.

>162 AlisonY: I'm sorry you wasted hours of your life on this book, but oh, what a fun review to read. :-)

"Life admin" is a new term for me. Who dreams up these needs and resolutions?

I did enjoy your review though.

>162 AlisonY: Kudos to you for persisting with this one. Your comments were great though, probably better than the book. Maybe you could draw them out a little and get to 200 pages...

25. A Single Thread by Tracy Chevalier
Audiobook narrated by Fenella Woolgar

Many moons ago, I completely fell in love with Tracy Chevalier's Girl With a Pearl Earring, therefore it's faintly criminal that I'm only getting back to her as an author again now.

This was a very different book to Girl With a Pearl Earring, but it was fabulous. I'd describe it as a cross between Iris Murdoch's The Bell mixed with Penelope Lively, Barbara Pym and Margaret Drabble. It's a modern book (published in 2019), but is exquisitely written to feel like a book written in the mid 20th century.

Set in 1932, Violet Speedwell has moved to Winchester to escape living with her mother who has become a particularly difficult woman post the death of her husband and especially since the death of her son, Violet's brother, in WWI. Violet herself lost her fiancé in the war, and as such is starting from scratch again as a spinster in a new town where she knows few people, and where unmarried women have limited opportunity of finding a man post the war. Visiting the cathedral one day during a service to commemorate new kneelers embroidered by a local team of broderers, Violet finds herself drawn to join the local broderer group, which opens up new friendships and an impossible romantic interest with a local bell ringer for the lonely Violet.

I just loved this book from start to finish. Tracy Chevalier is such a talented writer - her writing is tight throughout, and at no point did the book lose my attention. The characters and setting are depicted superbly, and although it's a quiet book in many respects, I was hooked from beginning to end. It was over 11 hours as an audiobook listen, and I could have easily kept going with it for another 11.

4.5 stars - highly recommended. Perfectly executed.

26. The Path Made Clear: Discovering Your Life's Direction and Purpose by Oprah Winfrey

This was a filler book acquired during a recent library sale, and not something I would have bought under normal bookshop circumstances. I have huge admiration for what Oprah Winfrey has worked to achieve, but I'm not a wild fan of billionaires and this different world they orbit in, so I wouldn't have chosen this book ordinarily.

It's a pretty coffee table type book with quotes from famous people across all walks of life set on attractive nature photographs. There's nothing in here you won't have read with much more substance elsewhere, and I wasn't always in the mood for the celebrity tales of 'look how well I've done in the face of adversity', but that's probably just me being a little jealous.

3 stars - one of those books that's pretty to gift, but there's nothing startling to take from it.

>169 AlisonY: This sounds lovely -- and I own it on my e-reader! Win, win.

>171 BLBera: I hope you enjoy it as much as I did!

>169 AlisonY: A Single Thread sounds fascinating, thanks for this review.

>159 AlisonY: I'm becoming allergic to going onto my computer in my free time when I'm on it for 9 hours most days at work. Apologies for being a poor poster on other people's threads, but I'm loitering when I can.

This is me too, and I'm taking the long obnoxious-holiday too-hot-to-garden weekend to catch up a little and pop into folks' threads and say hi. So... hi!