Kerry (avatiakh) travels the literary world, part 2

Welcome to my 2026 thread. I'm Kerry, from Auckland, New Zealand and a member of the 75er group since 2009. I read widely, love books for the young and translated works. Happy to relax with a romance or crime novel from time to time, scifi and fantasy also getting a look in.
No particular focus this year apart from participating in a few challenge threads.

The photo is of The Hard to Find Bookshop in Auckland. They lost their lease last year as the Catholic Church decided to sell the historic building they occupied and I just found out that they have moved a street away to a bigger shop that is a little harder to find. They can house most of the stock of 250,000 books instead of having books hidden away in storage containers. Photo is of new premises and I'll update it with one of my own after I visit there in the next few days.

Currently Reading:
A field of Buttercups by Joseph Hyams
The Book of Dirt by Bram Presser
Guns and Barbed wire: A Child Survives the Holocaust by Thomas Geve - stalled
Elric of Melniboné by Michael Moorcock - audiobook - ongoing

My 2026 Category thread is here: https://www.librarything.com/topic/376477
I'll list my 12 + 1 categories later today.
I've volunteered to host a Cat & 2 Kits -
Decade CAT - April: 00 years
The Book of Splendour - set in 1601
The Tokaido Road - set in 1701
SFFKit - July: Humorous SFF
Skaredy Kit - October: The Occult

The picture is of a hobbit house in Hobbiton, Matamata, one of the film locations for Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings. It's about a 2.5 hour drive from where I live but I still haven't visited.

Goals for 2026
Each year I set a reading goal of around 150 books, this includes picturebooks though I don't count them here but do over on GR. I recorded 186 books so far read in 2025 at GR and hope to finish around 3 more books by year's end.
So again for 2026 I'll set my reading goal at 150 books.
_____
1) To finish books I've started in previous years
2) Rereads - I want to reread a few books as I round off some fantasy scifi series such as the Sterkarm books by Susan Price.
3) Paul's Americas Challenge - try to read at least one book for each month
4) The British Authors Challenge - again 1 or 2 books each month
5) Tidying up - finish up reading my Graham Greene paperbacks and others
6) New to me writers - still exploring Lavie Tidhar works & want to try more of Joseph O'Connor
7) English Children's Classics - I have lots of old paperbacks of Leon Garfield, William Mayne, John Christopher, Rosemary Sutcliff, Geoffrey Trease as well as my ongoing Carnegie (UK) Medal List.
8) Focus - The Big n' Ugly books in my collection - read them and turf them

plus a repeat of my now more successful 2022/3/4/5 goals which includes the books I vouched for over on the Club Read 2022's HOPE TO READ SOON: a tribute to Rebeccanyc. Only two books left.
I started The End of Everything in 2025 and hope to finish it in 2026.
Aira, César. The Seamstress and the Wind
Bergelson, Dovid. The End of Everything
The 2025 HOPE TO READ thread is here: https://www.librarything.com/topic/371043

Paul's Americas Challenge in 2026

January - CHILEAN AUTHORS
The House of Spirits by Isabel Allende
February - ANGLO CARIBBEAN AUTHORS
The Lonely Londoners by Sam Selvon
March - MEXICAN AUTHORS
Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel
April - HISPANIC NORTH AMERICANS
nada
May - BRAZILIAN AUTHORS
June - NON-FICTION ABOUT THE AMERICAS
July - CUBAN AUTHORS
August - FRANCO CARIBBEAN AUTHORS
September - COLOMBIAN AUTHORS
October - FIRST NATION NORTH AMERICANS
November - ARGENTINIAN AUTHORS
December - OTHER PARTS OF THE CONTINENT

Picture is from my 2016 trip to Chile & Buenos Aires, I need to delve into my digital files and find some more photos.

Holocaust Literature Group

Holocaust Literature - A few years ago Lisa (labfs39) and I started a Holocaust Literature group which anyone is welcome to join -
We set this up as a separate place to record and discuss Holocaust related books and media.
I visited several Holocaust museums and memorials on my 2023 travels.
_____
so many worthy books I've still not read, yes this list is the same as 2025, I read other Holocaust books instead of what I'd picked out for myself -
Brodeck's Report by Philippe Claudel
The Cap: The Price Of A Life by Roman Frister
If not now, when? by Primo Levi
Helga's Diary by Helga Weiss
A field of buttercups by Joseph Hyams
Guns and Barbed Wire by Thomas Greve

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

Ongoing Focus:

Prix Goncourt:
I've read books that have won the Award, some older ones are hard to find.
Here's what's still on my radar for the near future:
_
Under Fire by Henri Barbusse - stalled
The Great Swindle by Pierre Lemaitre
Watching Over Her by Jean-Baptiste Andrea

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

Carnegie Medal (UK) Winners still to be read-

Next up is The Borrowers 1952 winner

2025: Margaret McDonald Glasgow Boys - READ 2025
2024 Joseph Coelho The Boy Lost in the Maze
2021 Jason Reynolds Look Both Ways
2001 Terry Pratchett, The Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents - own
2000 Beverley Naidoo, The Other Side of Truth - own
1994 Theresa Breslin, Whispers in the Graveyard
1991 Berlie Doherty, Dear Nobody
1980 Peter Dickinson, City of Gold and Other Stories from the Old Testament
1976 Jan Mark, Thunder and Lightnings - READ 2025
1970 Leon Garfield & Edward Blishen, The God Beneath the Sea
1969 Kathleen Peyton, The Edge of the Cloud
1963 Hester Burton, Time of Trial - READ 2025
1961 Lucy M Boston, A Stranger at Green Knowe
1960 Dr IW Cornwall, The Making of Man
1959 Rosemary Sutcliff, The Lantern Bearers - own
1957 William Mayne, A Grass Rope - own
1953 Edward Osmond, A Valley Grows Up
1952 Mary Norton, The Borrowers - READ 2026
1949 Agnes Allen, The Story of Your Home
1947 Walter De La Mare, Collected Stories for Children - own
1942 ‘BB’ (D J Watkins-Pitchford), The Little Grey Men - own
1940 Kitty Barne, Visitors from London
1939 Eleanor Doorly, Radium Woman - READ 2025
1938 Noel Streatfeild, The Circus is Coming - own
1937 Eve Garnett, The Family from One End Street - own
1936 Arthur Ransome, Pigeon Post - own

Reading Plans for April:

I'm hoping to spend time on finishing books I've started already and clear some library books as well. I'm hosting the April CAt: Decades 00 years in the category challenge and have two books I'd like to read for that challenge.
The Book of Splendour - Francis Sherwood
The Tokaido Road - Lucia St. Clair

TIOLI Listings:
Keeping the World Away - Margaret Forster
1985 - Dominic Hoey - Kiwi BookPool challenge on GR
The Many Assassinations of Samir, the Seller of Dreams - Daniel Nayer
Elric of Melniboné- Michael Moorcock - audiobook for past three months, I don't listen that often
There are Rivers in the Sky - Elif Shafak
Alien Son - Judah Waten
The Crimson Thread - Kate Forsyth - Kiwi BookPool challenge on GR
Avi Cantor has six months to live - Sacha Lamb - novelette
The Book of Splendour - Francis Sherwood - Decades challenge
The Scent of Lemon Leaves - Clara Sanchez - read half in January
Simulation Bleed - Martin Millar - read some in February
Requiem for a Wren - Nevil Shute - started in February
Song of a Blackbird - Maria van Lieshout
The Reading List - Sara Nisha Adams

I'm also reading the manga - Ōoku: The Inner Chambers and have finished 3 volumes and requested two more for later in the month.

65) Aya: face the music by Marguerite Abouet (2023)
graphic novel
Aya #8. I'd be quite happy if the series ends here. It was a good read and I liked it more than the previous one, maybe because I had the characters more in mind this time. Anyway a great series set in the Ivory Coast about the fortunes and misfortunes of a diverse group of teen friends, Aya being the most sensible one.

Happy new thread, Kerry!

I hope I can keep up with your new thread better than I did the last one, Kerry, lol.

Have a good one!

Happy new thread!

AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 SPIRITUAL PLACES has a feature on HOKIANGA, NORTH ISLAND's Waipoua Forest, with the incredible kauri trees!

I'm using the excuse of a new thread to jump back in and say hello. I'm still trying to get caught up after my trip.

>9 quondame: Hi Susan. I caught up on your thread a couple of days ago, I'd not starred it for some reason

>10 alcottacre: Hi Stasia - I haven't been great at keeping up on all the threads this year despite my good intentions.

>11 Dejah_Thoris: Thanks.

>12 m.belljackson: I've seen those kauri trees and love the Hokianga area. There's a car ferry to get across the harbour there, otherwise it's a very long drive. I'll look through my photo collection.

>13 labfs39: Hi Lisa - I imagine you have lots of catching up to do, not just on LT.

I'm currently reading two books which are not page turners - The Scent of Lemon Leaves which is about some old Nazis living the good life first in Norway and now on the Costa del Sol.
The Book of Splendour is set in 1601 and chapters alternate between a Jewish woman and her community and the Emperor Rudolph and his entourage of mathematicians, alchemists and astronomers.

Library pickups today are glorious newly published ones that I was first in line for:
Bridge of Storms by Philip Reeve - a Mortal Engines story
Hot Chocolate on Thursday by Michiko Aoyama
Howl by Howard Jacobson
The Truth about Ruby Cooper by Liz Nugent

I bought Patrick Ness's latest as well last week: Piper at the Gates of Dusk.
Took note of Sarah Crossan's latest YA - Gone for Good & Sara Pennypacker's The Lions' Run, While the Storm Rages by Phil Earle & I know what you're hiding by Jack Heath.

>1 avatiakh: So glad your bookstore was able to find a new site. From your comments I gather that is a photo of the old shop -- looks like a lovely place.

Wish I could come and see the new one in person.

>16 RebaRelishesReading: No, that's their new premises. Looks lovely and uncluttered, we're going next Saturday for a look. We already lost two great used bookshops in the past 3 years - Dominion Books in Herne Bay, open 37 years closed in 2023 due to rent increase. I loved going there, it was small but had a good selection.
Jason Books - open 55 years. I'd been going there since I moved to Auckland. Also had a great book selection.

A delightful homage to Dominion Books and used bookshops in general by Steve Braunias here: https://newsroom.co.nz/2023/05/29/dominion-books-closes/
and another by Braunias about Hard to Find finding a new home: https://newsroom.co.nz/2026/02/02/hard-to-find-rescued/

I spent some time over the last few days trying to sort an author profile which is generated by Bowker here on LT and at some libraries. The author was born and grew up in Wellington but her bio says she's Australian. LT Tim responded to my query almost immediately and said it's quite difficult to get Bowker to change their data.
Anyway I've managed to put the author and Tim in touch with each other and he'll try on her behalf. I was quite annoyed when I saw that even her home library system had her posing as an Australian. She's a kiwi through and through as can be seen by this article about her and husband who have re-wilded their farmland and kiwi have been rehomed there. https://www.nowtolove.co.nz/celebrity/wellington-author-ruth-paul-kiwi-backyard/

Always a pleasure to go slowly through your setup posts and add to my own list of targets.
Happy new thread, Kerry.

Hi Paul - I hope to keep you on your toes.

A couple of weeks back I went to a free workshop on street photography at my library. The guy had taken lots of photos in Colombia and Chile. First only about 6 of us attended and most seem to already know the photographer. It wasn't a workshop more of a quiet talk where I struggled to hear what he was saying. He showed off his range of retro cameras that he is still using and his sneaky technique for taking photos on the streets.
I didn't say anything but remember being completely snap happy with my phone in Santiago & Valparaiso ten years ago and also in Argentina & Brazil. I never felt any hostility and people waved & smiled if I included them in a photo. I really love taking candid photos as I walk about. I love being able to take lots of photos as I recall travelling on a budget back when I used film and I had to ask myself before each one, do I really want this as I was on a strict budget.
The best part of the 'workshop' were the refreshments, all South American oriented.

I'll add some street photos later on as I need to upload them to LT first.

...and as I have only 60 pages left in The Scent of Lemon Leaves and still not feeling any love I'll mention a Japanese show I watched last week on Netflix that I really enjoyed.
Based on a book by The Travelling Cat Chronicles writer, 'Public Affairs Office in the Sky' (2013) is a lovely drama with lots of comedic moments and solid cast. I don't think the book has been translated.

>21 avatiakh: I'll check out Public Affairs Office in the Sky. I haven't watched as many Japanese films as Korean and Chinese. Silence with Meguro Ren and Kawaguchi Haruna was a good one. I like seeing how sign language is portrayed in different languages.

>22 labfs39: I'll have to check out Silent. I'm not familiar enough with sign language to note the differences, just assumed it was an international language.
I've mostly watched Japanese Netflix legal dramas: 99.9 Criminal Lawyer, Ichikei's Crow, Divorce Lawyer, Ishiko and Haneo: You're Suing Me, Inheritance Detective. Each episode shows a different glimpse of Japanese life. While most shows tend to have an over-the-top character, I try to ignore the overacting.
I also watched the first episode of Fumochitai (The Wasted Land) (2009) which was interesting about a Japanese officer sentenced to 10 years in Siberia at the end of World War 2, finally coming back to Japan which has changed so much under American influences. It's based on a novel by Toyoko Yamasaki, The Barren Zone. Didn't want to watch the rest as it's mostly set in the corporate world but that first episode was good.

Happy now to have The Scent of Lemon Leaves behind me. It was not a page turner. Finding The Book of Splendour to drag a bit also. The chapters around Emperor Rudolph and his alchemists not much fun.
Chris Hammer's Legacy makes for a good alternative at present. Learning about the flood plains in Australia is fascinating.

Library pickups today:
One Little Goat: A Passover Catastrophe by Dara Horn
Dinner at the Night Library by Hika Harada - more healing fiction
Never Forget: six extraordinary World War II stories of courage, survival and hope by Jo Bailey - ANZAC Day on the 25th April

Wikipedia: Anzac Day is a national day of remembrance in Australia, New Zealand and Tonga that broadly commemorates all Australians and New Zealanders "who served and died in all wars, conflicts, and peacekeeping operations" and "the contribution and suffering of all those who have served". Observed on 25 April each year, Anzac Day was originally devised to honour the members of the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC) who served in the Gallipoli campaign, their first engagement in the First World War (1914–1918)

Link to a recipe for ANZAC cookies, a traditional homebake: https://edmondscooking.co.nz/recipes/biscuits/anzac-biscuits

66) The Scent of Lemon Leaves by Clara Sánchez (2010)
fiction
I picked this up a few years ago in a library sale. The plot is interesting and set in Spain's Costa del Sol. The story is told by Sandra, a young Spanish woman who is taking a break during her pregnancy to decide if she wants a relationship with the baby's father and Argentinian Julian, an elderly retired Nazi Hunter who has come on a last mission after receiving a tip off from a dying friend. While Sandra is befriended by a retired Norwegian couple, she also gets to know Julian who advises her that they are part of a network of old Nazis of high rank who deserve to pay for their past crimes.
The story moved slowly and while Sandra seemed less motivated due to a lack of knowledge, Julian was too old for the spying game but hungered for revenge. Resolution was reasonable but overall the book was more cerebal than thriller.

Author's end note notes that many Nazis enjoyed life on the Costa del Sol in post war years, some making a success of property related businesses.

'Following the Spanish Civil War, approximately 10,000–30,000 Spanish Republicans who fled to France were deported to Nazi concentration camps, primarily Mauthausen. Labeled "stateless" by the Spanish Franco regime, they were forced into slave labor, with over 7,000 passing through Mauthausen and more than half dying there.'

67) The Teacher of Nomad Land by Daniel Nayeri (2025)
children
A wonderful story set in Iran during WW2. Two children have been orphaned and decide to run away from their relatives' homes. Their father had been a teacher to the nomads who camped near their town during the summer months so they decide to travel with them to the northern pastures for the winter.
It's dangerous territory as the British and Soviet armies are there, German spies are in the area and there's even a Polish Jewish boy on the run.

Happy new thread!

>26 drneutron: Thanks Jim.

Today's library pickups:
The Nine Moons of Han Yu and Luli by Karina Yan Glaser - childrens book
Gramercy Park by Timothée de Fombelle - graphic novel
I think these were both mentioned on LT threads

Currently reading and enjoying Legacy by Chris Hammer and also reading but not so enjoying The Book of Splendour.

68) Legacy by Chris Hammer (2025)
crime
Martin Scarsden #4. This was a thumping good read set in the Australia outback. I really enjoy Hammer's books, I've read most of them. He has a second series, Ivan Lucic & Nell Buchanan , with the protagonists from both series having walkon parts in each other's stories.

Happy Birthday to me: Mini Whinny by Stacy Gregg & Ruth Paul (2018)
picture book
First of four cute picturebooks about foal Mini Whinny. In this one Mini wants her own birthday and is annnoyed that all horses celebrate their birthday on the same day. However it's always better to celebrate with others rather than alone.

Books into the home today:

48 shades of Brown by Nick Earls - Australian YA that my library didn't have
The Undead Fox of Deadwood Forest by Aubrey Hartman - childrens
Wild Dark Shore by Charlotte McConaghy
The Edge of the Word by Marcella Polain
The Correspondant by Virginia Evans
Crash of the Heavens by Douglas Century

Today's books:
part of yesterday's order, arrived today
Supercute second future by Martin Millar - read the first one last year
Library:
Vagabond omnibus #4 Books 10-12 by Takehiko Inoue - second attempt to find time to read this
Gone for Good by Sarah Crossan - her latest YA verse novel

I have too many library books out at present and will probably return a lot and request them again later in the year.

Currently reading:
The Book of Splendour - not what I expected so a slower read
City of Vengeance by D.V. Bishop - more my thing, 16th century Florence

>29 avatiakh: The Chris Hammer books benefit from wonderful covers, Kerry. Read and liked the opener in the series.

>33 PaulCranswick: The one I haven't read is The Seven. Started it but wasn't in the mood for it. The covers are great.
Today I noticed in the local bookshop Reacher: The Stories Behind The Stories by Lee Child, must do a library request.

>34 avatiakh: Both his Garry Disher and Peter Papathanasiou both have great book covers too.

Have a great weekend, Kerry. I hope the weather is manageable on North Island right now.

>21 avatiakh: I enjoyed Public Affairs Office in the Sky very much. Thank you for the recommendation. It didn't feel 13 years old. Old Korean dramas typically do. PAO was especially interesting to me because I dated an F-15 pilot who could no longer fly due to an injury. He went on to teach. In addition, when Hurricane Michael hit the panhandle, it went right over Tyndall Air Force Base, and many planes were lost and the base had to be largely rebuilt. So I could very much relate. I didn't know anything about the SDF in Japan, so I'm doing some internet follow-up.

>35 PaulCranswick: Yes, Disher & Papathanasiou also share the great Aussie crme covers. I'm ready for more outback crime.

>36 PaulCranswick: We've had great weather this weekend. I managed a trip to the city both days and got to visit two used bookshops.

>37 labfs39: Oh Lisa - PAO seems to have been made for you. I loved so many aspects of that series.
The writer intrigues me, she's written such different genres, a shame that those earlier ones aren't available in English. My daughter is a fan of the Library Wars manga, I think Arikawa wrote a novella that the manga is based on.

Today I got to visit The Hard to Find Bookshop in their new situation. The shop is really big and there's glass panels showing their huge storage area which is also full of books & bookshelves. We also went to the nearby Green Dolphin Bookshop where I have credit from trading my books late last year.
We brought home a few books:
Dominion by Tom Holland - copy for our bookshelves
Martin Luther: Renegade and Prophet by Lyndal Roper
Holocaust Testimonies: the ruins of memory by Lawrence Langer
All but my life by Gerda Weissmann Klein
The Complete Stories of Alan Marshall
Fly away Peter by David Malouf
The Seven by Chris Hammer

other books I noted:
Kings in Grass Castles by Mary Durack
The Bridge of the Golden Horn by Emine Sevgi Özdamar
Disenchantment by C.E. Montague
Brighter than 1000 Suns by Robert Jungk

My photo below is identical to Hard to Find's own one!

Current reading includes:
The trick to time by Kit de Waal
The Crimson Thread by Kate Forsyth
There are Rivers in the Sky by Elif Shafak

Hard to Find looks like a great place!

69) The Book of Splendour by Frances Sherwood (2002)
fiction
Read for the 00's Decades challenge in the LT Category challenge group which I'm hosting this month. The book fits as it's set in 1601 & also was published in 2002. I've had the book on my tbr pile for some years.
Set in Jewish Prague and featuring a golem, I was surprised to find so much of the book actually about Emperor Rudolph II and his court. The English alchemists John Dee & Edward Kelly have arrived and work on an elixir to give Rudolph eternal life. Sherwood weaves real life characters into her fantastical story. An interesting read but was a bit of a slog to get through.

_
70) Ōoku: The Inner Chambers, Vol. 4 by Fumi Yoshinaga (2008)
71) Ōoku: The Inner Chambers, Vol. 5 by Fumi Yoshinaga (2009)
manga
Continues the story of the early years after the plague that has decimated the male population which is now back to about 25% of the female population. The Shogun's main role appears to be to produce an heir. I'm enjoying the political maneuvering that's taking place around the Shogun and other nobles.
Requested the next 3 volumes from the library.

72) The Trick to Time by Kit de Waal (2018)
fiction
Read for the BAC April challenge. Quite a sad story, Mona is turning sixty, she makes dolls and their clothing and has a small shop where she receives orders from all around the world. We get the back story to how she has arrived to this lonely point in her life and the final resolution is a relief. I warmed to this one even though Mona's story is so sad.

Hoping to finish The Crimson Thread before the end of the month. I started City of Vengeance but don't think I can manage to get to both books. My April TIOLI reading has stalled.

73) The Crimson Thread by Kate Forsyth (2022)
fiction
This is about Crete during World War 2. Two Australian soldiers are among the many left behind during the 1941 evacuation when the German troops arrive. They have both fallen for a young woman who helps them. The research is impressive and the story is a good introduction to what happened during the Nazi occupation. Overall I didn't quite take to the story though I loved the many literary references. Forsyth doesn't give a bibliography but does mention finding initial inspiration from Mary Renault's The King must die.

I'll be looking out for another read about WW2 Greece, especially Crete, there are so many books on this topic covering resistance, espionage, repercussions & sabotage.
The dressmaker and the hidden soldier by Doug Gold, NZ is on my tbr list.
John Mulgan and the Greek Left by C. Dimitris Gounelas, NZ & Greece
The Rabbit Hunter by Christopher Worth, NZ
The Cretan Runner - George Psychoundakis
Ill met by Moonlight by W. Stanley Moss
The Ariadne Objective by Wes Davis
Crete : the Battle & the Resistance by Antony Beevor

The more books I find, the more I start to appreciate how much ground Forsyth covers in her book.

Double Cross in Cairo: The True Story of the Spy Who Turned the Tide of War in the Middle East by Nigel West
Report on Experience by John Mulgan, NZ

>46 avatiakh: I read Doug Gold's The Note Through the Wire, which is his in-law's story. I hadn't realized that he had written more books.

I also have The Cretan Runner on my shelves, sadly unread. My edition is translated by Patrick Leigh Fermor.

>47 labfs39: Gold has written 3 or 4 books. There was quite a lot of local press around The dressmaker and the hidden soldier when it was published, so I took note at the time.

Psychoundakis & Patrick Leigh Fermor were both in The Crimson Thread. Forsyth wrote in the notes that she wanted to portray the roles that the Cretan people played in the resistance as many books focus on the British & ANZAC soldiers and operatives.

Other books of interest : A. B. Yehoshua’s Mr. Mani

An interview with Greek Jewish poet, Iossif Ventura: https://worldliteraturetoday.org/2016/january/exile-sea-desert-his-mouth-convers...

I'll come back to this post

Found this on one of my 2010 thread
A Q & A that's doing the rounds:

1. The last book you gave five-stars to: Where the mountain meets the moon
2. The last book you were unable to finish: Death at La Fenice
3. The last book you bought: Down the Garden Path by Beverley Nichols
4. The last book that made you cry: The Boy with the Cuckoo Clock Heart sort of
5. The last book you borrowed: Death of a Dutchman
6. The last book you received as a gift: Tales of the ten Lost Tribes from an Israeli bookfriend
7. The last book you found disturbing: The Lacuna - the politics
8. The last book you read that made you laugh:Rounding the Mark by Andrea Camilleri
9. The last book you really felt you got lost in (the good kind of lost): Silverhorse and went straight into the sequel Midnight
10. The last book you reread: I hardly ever reread but a couple of years ago I reread Genesis by Bernard Beckett

2026 update:
1. The last book you gave five-stars to: Legacy by Chris Hammer
2. The last book you were unable to finish: The Writing Desk by Di Morris
3. The last book you bought: The Collaborator by Diane Armstrong
4. The last book that made you cry: Requiem for a Wren by Nevil Shute - almost
5. The last book you borrowed: Reacher: the stories behind the stories by Lee Child
6. The last book you received as a gift: The Sympathizer by Viet Thanh Nguyen
7. The last book you found disturbing: Max by Sarah Cohen-Scali
8. The last book you read that made you laugh: Simulation Bleed: Complete collected serial by Martin Millar
9. The last book you really felt you got lost in (the good kind of lost): A catch of consequence by Diana Norman
10. The last book you reread: Under the Domim Tree by Gila Almagor

May Reading Plans:
BAC challenge MM Kaye & Iain M. Banks
Death in Zanzibar
Inversions - waiting for library copy
Americas Challenge: Brazil
The Captains of the Sands by Jorge Amado
City of God by Paulo Lins

TIOLI:
Dog - Yishay Ishi Ron
Moshie cat - Helen Griffiths
Super-Frog saves Tokyo - Haruki Murakami
Gone for Good - Sarah Crossan
The Truth about Ruby Cooper - Liz Nugent
Death in Zanzibar - M.M. Kaye
Melnitz - Charles Lewinsky
The Spinoza Problem - Irvin D. Yalom
Inversions (Culture) - Iain M. Banks
In the Unlikely Event - Judy Blume
The Tōkaidō Road (1991) - Lucia St Clair Robson
The Correspondant - Virginia Evans
Captains of the Sands - (Brazil) - Jorge Amado
City of God (Brazil) - Paulo Lins

also on the go:
Golgotha by Lavie Tidhar
Howl by Howard Jacobson

Library pickups:
Inversions by Iain M. Banks
Ōoku: The Inner Chambers vols 6,7,8 by Fumi Yoshinaga

Purchased books delivery:
I know what you're hiding by Jack Heath -YA
A Light in the Darkness: Janusz Korczak, His Orphans, and the Holocaust by Albert Marrin - YA
The Paris Bookseller by Kerri Maher
The Lost Pages by Marija Peričić - time for a reread

>46 avatiakh: My grandfather was in Crete during WWII, I think with the NZ army. He had come from New Zealand to study at Oxford in 1936, so signed up at the outbreak of war. His Irish father was unhappy at him joining the British army and Dan said he was signing up to fight fascism, not for Britain, and promised to transfer to the NZ army, which he did after about a year.

>52 elkiedee: That's interesting. I've read about Crete in WW2 before but too long ago now. There seems to be a lot of memoirs etc from Australian & New Zealand soldiers who fought there.

74) Death in Zanzibar by M.M. Kaye (1959)
crime
Read for the May BAC challenge.
This was an entertaining read, even with the number of deaths. I found it a little dated but enjoyed reading about Zanzibar when the travellers finally arrived there. Dany has to travel under an assumed name when her passport goes missing the night before her trip to her stepfather's villa in Zanzibar.

75) Super-frog saves Tokyo by Haruki Murakami (2000)
short story/novelette
This is a beautifully illustrated edition that I bought for my daughter. The cover really catches the eye. The story is quite off-kilter in a Kafkaeque way. A fun read.

After listing my May reading plans above I decided to start The Poppy Wars as I have a ticket to the R.F. Kuang event at the upcoming writers festival. Enjoying it.

Current reads:
The Captains of the Sands by Jorge Amado
The Poppy Wars by R.F. Kuang
The Tokaido Road by Lucia St Clair Robson
The Crystal Vase by Astrid Goldsmith - GN memoir

And as we're doing Brasil this month I'm enjoying listening to my Brasil playlist over on spotify, I put this together during Covid. My husband has a 65hr playlist on Brasil, so I gleaned the songs from a more expert listener.
My Brasil: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/3eb7Jnc240vvLRoTjj4YTB?si=c29c41cd8e344e5b

76) The Crystal Vase by Astrid Goldsmith (2026)
graphic memoir

This graphic memoir touches on the Holocaust. Goldsmith is left with her father to clean out her late grandmother's apartment in Freiburg. The belongings are sentimental and also well travelled. The GN covers the various journeys of family members escaping Germany and Europe at the start of WW2. Goldsmith's grandparents met in Rhodesia and came back to Germany in their later years.
Poignant for all the memories brought by the various items uncovered in the packing.

>55 avatiakh: I love this cover. It reminds me of Yasunari Murakami's illustrations in the 999 Frogs series

>56 avatiakh: I enjoyed The Poppy Wars last year. You might find this thesis interesting: https://studenttheses.universiteitleiden.nl/access/item%3A4253795/download

>58 labfs39: Lovely. My daughter loves all things frog, so I had to get the book as a gift when I saw it.

>59 labfs39: I'll have a read. Yesterday when I was looking to see if the book had won any awards I noticed the controversy around the Hugo Awards in the past few years. I don't follow these awards so it was all news to me.
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2024/feb/15/authors-excluded-from-hugo-awards-...

>56 avatiakh: I put The Poppy Wars into the category of books where the main character makes too many stupid mistakes for me to want to continue reading - I pearl ruled the second volume. I adore book where the competence - and general good will - of main characters is showcased in effective ways, so it was 180° off for me.

>61 quondame: I agree that Rin is not a heroic or particularly likable character, but I think that's a feature of grimdark fantasy. I wrote this in my review:

Some readers have disliked the protagonist, because she is not heroic or particularly moral. This is a key element in grimdark fantasy however, along with violence and an emphasis on one's choices rather than fate or destiny. Bad things happen because people choose to do them, for reasons that seem logical to themselves. Even in a world of fantasy populated by the gods, it is humans who bring calamity on themselves and their fellows through their own choices. Going into a grimdark fantasy expecting to like and admire the protagonist is probably setting oneself up for disappointment. That said, I didn't dislike Rin. In her worldview, she was doing what she needed to do. Some of her arguments at the end of the book mirror justifications uttered by the US at the conclusion of WWII.

Not that I think you need to like The Poppy Wars, it's wonderful that we all have different perspectives. Learning about grimdark fantasy helped give me needed context.

>61 quondame: >62 labfs39: I haven't read enough of the book as yet to make any judgements, though the academy setting is familiar ground. I read that she wrote part of it while still in school, a bit like Isobelle Carmody's first Obernewtyn Chronicles book. I like all types of fantasy so I shall read and hopefully enjoy it enough.

I hadn't come across the term, grimdark fantasy.

77) One Little Goat: A Passover Catastrophe by Dara Horn (2025)
grapic novel
A Passover story about a missing afikoman (the matza cracker that's hidden for children to find). As the family is locked into a neverending seder meal until the afikoman is found, the Passover goat comes to help the eldest son find it by travelling through time and meeting endless famous rabbis and figures from the past all sitting at seder.
The illustration style was simple line drawings in a 1970s style. A fun read that went on a little bit too long.

They all saw a cat by Brendan Wenzel (2016)
picture book
A clever picture book showing a cat through the different eyes and view of various animals, prey and insects.

_
mouse view of cat

>57 avatiakh: Golddsmith won the Guardian 2021 award for a short graphic story. The four pages form the opening of her 2026 graphic memoir The Crystal Vase.
Graphic story: A funeral in Freiburg: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2022/jan/30/graphic-short-story-a-funeral-in-f...
Guardian story: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2022/jan/30/the-outrage-had-been-percolating-t...

>62 labfs39: >63 avatiakh: Ah, well, I didn't peg it as grimdark, and probably would have skipped it if it had been bannered as that. Kuang certainly has employed academic settings and culture in her writing. I find her a worthwhile but flawed as a writer. And not nearly as much to my taste as many other current writers.

78) The Apothecary Diaries, Vol. 15 by Natsu Hyuuga (2025)
manga
Now that I have to wait 6 or 7 months for each volume to appear in English it's probably better to put the series aside for a couple of years so I can read a few at once.
This continues the story of Maomao's abductuon with little resolution.

79) Gone for Good by Sarah Crossan (2026)
YA
A verse novel like all Crossan's others. A satisfying read about a reform school that takes their treatment of the students to another level. Connie is kidnapped at night from her home and arrives in the middle of nowhere to a nightmare boarding school. She finds that her father & his fiancee have arranged her stay there, thinking she needs a jolt to start behaving in a normal manner. There is a mystery around the disappearance of a student some weeks before Connie arrives there. This was different from Crossan's previous work which is generally set in Ireland or the UK, this one is set in Virginia.

Taniwha by Gavin Bishop (2025)
picture book
Extremely large hardback edition. A really beautiful book that tells the tales behind some of New Zealand's taniwha. Taniwha are supernatural monsters taking many forms and their existence can explain the landscape, how lakes, rivers or mountains came to be.
The text is excellent, Bishop thows in a lot of Maori words but the glossary helps explain these.
The most famous story would be that of Pania.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pania

A few days less busy on the threads and you have passed 75 books already!

Congratulations, Kerry and have a great weekend.

>71 PaulCranswick: Thanks Paul. I was happy to get to 75 with Super-Frog.

80) The Captains of the Sands by Jorge Amado (1937)
fiction
This was a great read about a gang of street kids in Salvador de Bahia. They are a family for each other, spending their nights in an abandoned warehouse on the waterfront. Their only other options to a life on the street is the brutal reform school or for the younger ones, the orphanage.
Now I want to read some of his other Bahian novels.

Current reading:
Howl by Howard Jacobson - due back to library
The Tokaido Road by Lucia St Clair Robson
Golgotha by Lavie Tidhar
Death of a Foreign Gentleman by Steven Carroll

81) Death of a Foreign Gentleman by Stven Carroll (2024)
crime
Stephen Minter #1. The covers of the two books in this series caught my eye and the review for book #2 over on the anzlitlovers blog. I hadn't come across Carroll's books before but he's a writer I'd like to read more of. In the acknowledgements he references the character of Pinkie from Graham Greene's Brighton Rock, also one of the characters from The Third Man, there's a Blue Flower cafe, pointing to Penelope Fitzgerald's book. Martin Heidgger and Hannah Arendt are inspirations for the two German philosophers in Cambridge.
Set in postwar Cambridge, the hit and run death of a visiting German philosopher is investigated by policeman Stephen Minter.

I'll read the second Minter novel and then try The Lost Life, the first in his Eliot Quartet, books based around T.S. Eliot and his poems.
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2022/mar/20/ts-eliots-wife-vivienne-died-in-an...
https://www.killyourdarlings.com.au/article/in-conversation-with-steven-carroll/

Decided to stop reading Ōoku manga for now, so taking the next 3 volumes back to the library. I'm reading The Tokaido Road which is set in Japan of a similar period and really enjoying it. The author mentions a 19th century book, Shank's Mare by Jippensha Ikku which is a comic novel set on the Tokaido Road, so I'll want to read that one as well. That means no time for manga.

I have a new mobile phone finally after weeks of struggling with my old one which had a battery melt down.

Sorry to hear you've been having phone troubles. I recently bought a new phone due to battery issues as well. I am loving the zoom lens on the newer phones.

>77 labfs39: I haven't used the camera as yet but intend to learn up on making the most of it. Such a joy to have a reliable phone again.

My current reading is Howl & The truth about Ruby Cooper as both are due back to the library.

Today is my day at the Auckland Writers Festival so I'm off early. My daughter can't make the session we were going to together but my son has tickets to a couple of the same events as me.

Have fun!

Will give an update in the morning.

Translating Shakespeare - Daniel Hahn in talk with Kate de Goldi.
This talk was really interesting, I had booked the session as my daughter is a Shakespeare buff but she pulled out due to feeling sick.
Hahn was excited to be doing the session with Kate as his main love is for children's literature.
While he grew up in England, English his mother language, his mother is from Brazil and his father is an Agentinian Jew. So while he didn't speak either Portuguese or Spanish he was surrounded by those languages all through his formative years and now translates from those languages to English. After the session I realised I'd read several of his translations.
Kate steered the conversation to his latest book, If this be magic: The Unlikely Art of Shakespeare in Translation and about the many difficulties but also opportunities in translation. He interviewed several translators of Shakespeare from around the world to get their perspectives.
'Some of Shakespeare’s best-known lines can prove the most difficult to capture, like Henry V’s “We few, we happy few, we band of brothers.” Even something seemingly simple like Lady Macbeth’s “Are you a man?” may be tricky to translate when the word “man” carries different connotations in different languages. Hahn dives into the challenges and rewards of translating Shakespeare, exploring not only what is lost in translation, but also what is gained.'
from podcast: https://www.folger.edu/podcasts/shakespeare-unlimited/the-translators-art-and-sh...
He talked about his childhood love of Asterix and then about how great the English translations by Anthea Bell were, how Asterix in English is perhaps even slightly better than the originals. He used a couple of examples including the name of the dog, Dogmatix.
From wiki: Dogmatix is a pun on the words dog and dogmatic. In the original French, his name is a pun on the expression idée fixe ('fixed idea'), meaning an obsession.
A thoroughly rewarding conversation, I'd like to look through his book which is hard to find and wasn't available for sale at the festival bookshops when I had a look.

Anthea Bell had an amazing career as a translator - here's an interview from 2012.
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2013/nov/16/anthea-bell-asterix-translator-int...

Kate was an excellent chair as usual, so thorough in covering the topic.
Worlds of Wonder: Celebrating the Great Classics of Children's Literature by Daniel Hahn

"Fail Again. Fail Better?": Mick Herron & Catherine Chidgey in conversation with Petra Bagust

Using the topic of failure with writers could have been quite awkward but this was a fun session. Chidgey had a thirteen year gap between books, mainly due to problems with infertility alongside writer's block. Mick Herron wrote several books but couldn't get published, was in a failing relationship and hated his job. From both these standpoints they both achieved success and moved on. Herron said he got a great new job, new relationship, bought his first apartment. A new editor at a publisher that had rejected his book, Down Cemetery Road, decided it was worth publishing. He deletes failed writing, entire books, says he only saved two words from a previous manuscript - Clown Town. He was writing prolifically during this downtime with the idea of 'failing faster' which was not a winning prescription to his problem.
Chidgey had just missed out on New Zealand's major fiction prize a few days previously (I bought the winning book at the festival bookshop). She talked about the frustrations with writing The Wish Child during the period of infertility which led to having a child via surrogacy.
She's a pefectionist, sets unattainable goals for herself and then works hard to meet them.
Failure is sometimes the building blocks to success.
She read from an early draft of The Wish Child, stopping to explain what was wrong with the approach and what small bits made it to the final novel.

We had a lot of laughs and Petra was a great chair, able to crack jokes and keep the conversation on point.

Sounds like a couple of good sessions, Kerry. I'll have to follow some of the links in your first post, as I am always interested in perspectives on translating.

Rebecca K. Kuang with Rosabel Tan

This event filled the main Kiri Te Kanawa Theatre. My son also went but as he bought his ticket only a few days ago, I was in the Circle seats and he was up in the Balcony.
We were both impressed by Kuang, she discussed why she has written such different books. She's matured and coming into different situations in her own life and wants to write about them. She said she was only 19 when she signed a three book deal for The Poppy Wars and it was difficult to complete the third book as she'd changed so much by the time she was 24.
The conversation was lively, intellectual and stimulating.
She told us about throwing a paradox party for her husband's philosophy department while writing Katabasis - 'I’m not a philosopher, but I’m married to a philosopher and we host a lot of department parties. Having just done a magic system that was based on linguistics and history in 2022’s Babel, which are much closer to my comfort areas, I wanted to do something that I had no expertise in. I had to learn about classical logic. My husband and I actually threw a paradox party where we invited all the logicians in his department and everybody had to present a logic paradox that could feasibly be a magic spell that the characters use. We had a whiteboard in the living room and they would write out their paradox and explain it, and then we would argue over whether it was a paradox or not—so, my ideal kind of party. That’s how I came up with most of the spells.'

She talked about putting off talking with her grandfather about his life, all his wonderful stories, because she wanted to be more confident and fluent in Mandarin. She spent time in Taiwan doing an intensive Mandarin course but unfortunately her quest ended as her grandfather passed away before she could have her time with him. She went into a long grieving period.
She talked about the diaspora where people who don't feel at home in their culture, are judged down because they don't speak the language well and struggle to fit in.

All in all a great session with Rosabel Tan doing an excellent job in directing the conversation.

Another good change was with audience questions - now submitted via a QR-code so the Chair can pick and choose which questions to ask. In the past you either got the naive 'How can I get published?' or political awkward questions for the writer, but with this change the chair is able to pick out the best ones.

>83 labfs39: So pleased I went to Hahn's event. I knew nothing about him and really enjoyed listening to him and then researching Anthea Bell who he praised over and over through the session. I've read quite a few books that Bell had translated over the years as well.
One of his books is Catching Fire: A Translation Diary which might also be of interest.

I have read three of Bell's translations: All for Nothing, Austerlitz, and The Pianist. I have a couple others too that I haven't read yet. She's been extremely prolific in her translating.

Amitav Ghosh with Simon Wilson

This time I sat in the stalls, closer to the stage. The conversation was more traditional with Simon asking about each book. The details bogged down and didn't really go anywhere. He kept coming back to his questions rather than pursuing an interesting path that could have opened up. I haven't read any books by Ghosh and am not familiar with the Benghal region so this session was quite boring for me at times, as they talked about characters' backgrounds, motivations etc. and I zoned out a few times. Still I came out wanting to read his historical fiction about the Opium Wars.
The audience questions were good, there was one that Simon was convinced came from Ghosh's wife who was in the audience.

I was going to do a separate post on books mentioned by the writers. Ghosh mentioned Patrick Radden Keefe's book Empire of Pain about the opoid crisis and how he referenced back to the history of the opium wars. Keefe was also at the Festival promoting London Falling: A Mysterious Death in a Gilded City and a Family's Search for Truth.
He also mentioned Demon Copperhead as one of his favourite 2026 reads. He's reading Joseph Roth and really liked his Radetzky March. Also Ruth Prawer Jhabvala who is one of our August BAC writers.

>86 labfs39: Interesting that the author of The Pianist asked for the English translation to be made from the German edition. I'll have to look at what I've read that she's translated.

Bora Chung with Paula Morris

I had bought a 5 ticket bundle and when the Charlotte McConaghy's event sold out early, I went for this one. My son had also got a ticket and said continually 'she's crazy'. Over the years, I've enjoyed sessions with Paula Morris in the chair. This was in the smaller Limelight Theatre but as I was in the back row, I could only see Paula and had to bend down to get a glimpse of Bora through only 3 rows of audience so relied on the tv screen mostly.
Bora has a PhD in Slavic literature and knows Russian and Polish well. She talked a little about what attracted her to 19th century Russian literature, lighting up when talking about Gogol. She talked about the freedom in writing that came with the 1917 revolution which was eventually censored during the Purge. She's a fan of Andrei Platonov who I'd not heard of before. He was a star and then censored, his son was sent to the gulag as punishment for his father's writing.
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2010/feb/18/andrei-platonov-robert-chandler

She talked a little about Han (한) and women ghosts seeking justice. Also on her late marriage during Covid where she moved from Seoul to live in Pohang. She talked about visiting nearby Gyeongju, ancient capital of the Silla Kingdom and seeing the tiger stautes and reliefs, but thought that they are really just cats.
https://untranslatable.substack.com/p/han
https://sunnydayswithjuliette.com/2025/02/11/gyeongju-best-things/
https://www.travelthewholeworld.com/traveling-south-korea/gyeongju/

A lot of the session was about Korean politics, Chung is a proud activist and loves protesting, all her friends are activists searching for equality and rights for individuals agaisnt the power of the state. She mentions she learnt little about the modern history of Korea, the massacres from the 40s & 50s until after high school. She talked of how South Korea moved from military rule to democracy in the 1990s, the lifting of censorship enabled a lot of freedom for artists, musicians and film makers thanks also to government funding for the arts. She talked about the power of the various big businesses and corporates and when asked what she feared most - said 'capitalists'.
Overall I enjoyed this session, it had many funny moments. Chung learnt English during her father's year long sabbatical in the USA when she was quite young so no interpreter was necessary.
I haven't read anything by Chung, though wouldn't mind trying her latest The Midnight Timetable: A Novel in Ghost Stories.

A woman I sat beside at another event said the session she attended to hear Mieko Kawakami speak was stilted by the need for an interpreter for every word spoken.

Some of the books mentioned during the talks:
Daniel Hahn: Asterix. His favourite Shakespeare play is Twelfth Night and his favourite Shakespeare character is Falstaff.
Mick Herron: Brother of the More Famous Jack by Barbara Trapido
RK Kuang: She said she looks at the canon when starting to write a particular type of book to learn from other writers.
Writer Kazuo Ishiguro and especially his The Remains of the Day
Ben Lerner's Leaving Atocha Station - one that she mentioned when talking about her Taipei Story.
Amitav Ghosh: Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver
Radetzky March by Joseph Roth
Also books by Ruth Prawer Jhabvala

I bought the winner of the fiction prize at the 2026 Ockham New Zealand Book Awards, Ingrid Horrock's All her Lives: nine stories.
https://newsroom.co.nz/2025/11/13/book-of-the-week-one-winner-of-the-pm-award-re...
https://anzlitlovers.com/2026/04/26/all-her-lives-nine-stories-2025-by-ingrid-ho...
https://www.ketebooks.co.nz/reviews/review-all-her-lives-by-ingrid-horrocks

>90 avatiakh: Thanks so much for your summaries. I am really enjoying them. I am rereading Amitav Ghosh's Sea of Poppies right now so that I can finish the trilogy. I like his writing-style which is description- and character-driven rather than plot-driven. He has a vast array of characters, all coming from different classes, religions and locations. His books are not quick reads, but they are worthwhile.

>92 rhondak101book: Thanks. I enjoy writing them and revisit my older festival posts from time to time. I stopped being a regular festival attendee about eight years ago. I had also been a volunteer for some years. This year's lineup was very enticing and I bought tickets for writers I had not read. When I was a volunteer I was able to attend all the events for free when my work was done and I found I enjoyed going to sessions to discover new to me writers.

I have a couple of Amitav Ghosh's books and when the time is right I hope to tackle that trilogy. Sounds like I'll like them.

>87 avatiakh: I've read three of Ghosh's books and own several more. I loved Sea of Poppies, and I thought The Hungry Tide was excellent too. I was less enthralled with River of Smoke. I lost steam and didn't read the last volume, now I would probably have to reread the first two in order to get back into the story.

I agree with him that Demon Copperhead was amazing, but the one book by Ruth Prawer Jhabvala that I've read, Heat and Dust, didn't blow me away.

>88 avatiakh: That is interesting. Did he say why?

>89 avatiakh: I haven't read anything by Bora Chung, although I've heard about Cursed Bunny.

Thank you so much for your Festival posts - they're fascinating!

>5 avatiakh: I sometimes drill down on a topic with my reading, and a few years back now I read a few books that addressed the Holocaust...tough reading but I remember it quite well as a sobering period of my life!
In one of the gluts I read All Rivers Run to the Sea: Memoirs by Elie Wiesel, The Envoy: The Epic Rescue of the Last Jews of Europe in the Desperate Closing Months of World War II and Story of a Secret State: My Report to the World by Jan Karski. But Primo Levi, who I read later, I found quite profound.

>94 labfs39: I feel the same! I read Sea of Poppies and loved it and then got diminishing returns after that :)

>96 LovingLit: I thought Story of a Secret State was fascinating.

It's too bad that the sequels didn't live up to the first. I liked The Hungry Tide a lot too. You might try that if you want to read more Ghosh.

>94 labfs39: I''ll find my copy of Sea of Poppies and put it in my tbr soon pile which is groaning under the weight of too many books.
M priority has to be reading books I started but put aside for various reasons. At present I'm finishing up on my overdue library books.
My son liked Demon Copperhead which he read for his bookclub. He's hard to please. They're currently reading The Man who Spoke Snakish which I had recommended a fair while ago. Anyway Demon Copperhead is also on my tbr pile. Ruth Prawer Jhabvala will be the British Author Challenge book in a couple of months and I'll finally read Heat and Dust.

I just saw that mentioned somewhere about the translation, not sure why.

I had Cursed Bunny out from the library a year or so ago but didn't read it at the time. I would have bought one of her books and gone to the signing but it was late in a long day and I just wanted to go home.

>95 Dejah_Thoris: Thanks. I like writing about them and enjoy coming across older Festival posts when I'm looking at my earlier threads from years ago. I like the pairing up of chair with writer as this can make a really good session or sometimes a mediocre one.
A few years ago I went to see Neil Gaiman and the chair was totally lacklustre in his line of questioning.

Fyi: Steve Braunias reviews all three days of the festival for Newsroom where he's the literary editor of ReadingRoom and I like his take.
https://newsroom.co.nz/2026/05/16/auckland-writers-festival-day-1-review/
https://newsroom.co.nz/2026/05/16/day-2-of-auckland-writers-festival-reviewed/
https://newsroom.co.nz/2026/05/18/ardern-ecstasies-at-auckland-writers-festival/

>96 LovingLit: I'm also a big fan of Karski's Story of a Secret State. I read Primo Levi a few weeks before visiting Auschwitz.
I try to read a number of Holocaust related material each year. There are still stories that need to be told.

I finished Howl and am now immersed in The Truth about Ruby Cooper. Both were overdue, Ruby Cooper still is.

Library book pickup:
The Book of Chameleons by Jose Eduardo Agualusa, translated by Daniel Hahn
The Afterlife of Harry Playford by Steve Carroll
Mr Kafka and other tales: And Other Tales from the Time of the Cult by Bohumil Hrabil
Dancing Lessons for the Advanced in Age by Bohumil Hrabil

>98 avatiakh: I started Demon Copperhead when it was first released and didn't get far but I am almost ready to try again.

>99 avatiakh: I try to read a number of Holocaust related material each year. There are still stories that need to be told.

I completely agree with that!

>100 avatiakh: I own The Book of Chameleons. Maybe one of these days I will actually read it :)

>100 avatiakh: I thought Dancing Lessons for the Advanced in Age was great. I would recommend not reading the introduction first, however.

>101 PaulCranswick: I think having David Copperfield fresh in your mind when you read Demon Copperhead is helpful. What she does with the names and events is truly inspired. Although it's a good book without knowing the details of David, I think it's even better with a refresher. I had last read it decades ago, so I listened to the audio before starting.

Thought I'd posted this a few days ago, but no. Must have closed the tab.
>103 labfs39: Is the book really one sentence?

I might have to read David Copperfield before I start on Kingsolver's book

I've finished a few books and will comment on them by the end of the month.
My genealogy group had their AGM on Sunday and then the committee's planning meeting was last night. I'm the secretary so am involved more than most. It's really hard for us to grow the membership, so I'll have to keep doing the minutes etc for some time to come.
Anyway I'm fairly busy at present doing some research for the group.

I've misplaced my library copy of Dog by Yishay Ishi Ron, a story of how combat officer battles PTSD and heroin addiction. I have it on my kindle app so can keep reading, but I asked the library to buy his books and now must hunt down the copy in my home. It's a slim volume so easy to get lost and I had taken it out to read so have gone through all my shopping bags and searched the car to no avail.

Library pickup:
The World belongs to the Children: The powerful lessons of a childhood under the shadow of war by Raya Goldtwig - Australian Holocaust book, it has beautiful endpapers of wildflower water colours. I might have asked the library to buy this as well as I was first in the queue for the book

Retail Therapy:
Decided to splurge a little at our chain books & stationery shop -
Stepping Up by David Hill - wonderful NZ writer for young people
The Valley: crime and punishment in a New Zealand city by Asher Emanuel - NZ nonfiction, read a great review and he was also at Auckland Writers Festival
Song of the Saltings by Rachel King - NZ YA or childrens
The Odyssey by Homer, new Penguins Classic translation by Daniel Mendelsohn, now there are several different editions in our house.

>104 avatiakh: Is the book really one sentence?

Yes, but I followed it easily enough. Do you have the NYRB edition with the introduction by Adam Thirlwell? I found it very helpful in understanding "palavering".

>105 avatiakh: Some interesting books here, Dog in particular. I'm most of the way through Emily Wilson's translation of the Odyssey, and my niece just finished a novel study of Gillian Cross's juvenile version. Cross made some interesting choices for adaptation. I have Lattimore's translation from my college days. I'm curious as to your thoughts on Mendelsohn's when you get to it.

>106 labfs39: I have a different edition - Harcourt Brace & Co 1995 Hardback. I've read a few pages so picked up on the one long sentence. Will try to read it in one or two sittings.
Currently engrossed in Golgotha which is so far set in 1882 Palestine.

Dog is a hard read, mainly due to the drug addiction but still worth sticking at. I hope to finish it before the end of the month.
He's written another book, The Girl Who Rode the White Lion, due to come out next month. My library has it on order, thanks to my request, it looks like a good read.

I like Gillian Cross's children's books. I'll probably do The Odyssey by audio if I can ever get through my current listen. It's the 2003 Penguin Classic translated by E.V. Rieu.
I don't do audiobooks as much as I used to, have switched to music in the car. I got the latest traslation for my son as he's halfway through The Iliad and this new edition is a much lighter book to carry around.

This morning I made a visit to The Hard to Find bookshop. I chatted to Shalon, the manager, as I tried to find the name of a writer on my LT thread. It was Alan Collins, an Australian writer. Anyway I told her that I'd been to an event at the writers' festival - Mike Herron & Catherine Chidgey. She was really upset to have missed Herron, it was quite funny as the topic was failure and she'd failed to even know he was in Auckland a couple of weeks ago. So I must read another of his books as she was quite passionate about him.
I bought two nonfictions:
The Fig Tree by Arthur Zable
The Broken House: Growing up Under Hitler by Horst Krüger

82) Howl by Howard Jacobson (2026)
fiction
Quite a daunting read. Draxler is a Jewish primary school headmaster, living in London. The book is about the ongoing crises he experiences after the October 7 massacre by Hamas. He's shocked, saddened and in a form of grief, yet around him everyone seems to find justifications and excuses or simply supports the actions of Hamas. Even his own daughter joins the pro-Palestinian marches. It seems to be typical Jacobson and that means the book will turn off some readers but for others it will be a gratifying read. Here's a writer who doesn't mind to express his cries of anguish to the world.

83) The Truth About Ruby Cooper by Liz Nugent (2026)
fiction
I've read all of Nugent's books after discovering her work a few years ago. I loved last year's Sally Diamond book. This one isn't up there as a favourite but it's still a good read.
Ruby is the younger sister and is jealous of all the attention her older sister gets from their parents and boyfriend. Ruby wants some of that too, especially the boyfriend. What happens next changes everyones' lives for many years.

84) Vagabond Definitive Edition, Vol. 4 by Takehiko Inoue (2025)
manga
Finally getting back to this manga series. These Definitive Editions are currently being published and replacing the omnibus paperback editions. I love the artwork, the story is of Musashi, the legendary swordsman.

85) In the Unlikely Event by Judy Blume (2015)
fiction
This is based on Blume's own highschool days in 1950s Elizabeth, New Jersey. In late 1951 and over the next 90 days there were three plane crashes, each one taking lives and almost crashing into the local schools and orphanage. The airport was closed and rumours began of what was causing these crashes.
Blume tells it from the POV of a highschooler, a Jewish girl who is falling in love with an Irish orphan.
This was an ok read, I didn't find it too compelling but can imagine the rumours spreading among the young people.

https://www.nj.com/entertainment/arts/2015/05/how_three_planes_crashed_in_elizab...

86) The Tokaido Road: A Novel of Feudal Japan by Lucia St. Clair Robson (1991)
historical fiction

I loved this book. Robson did a lot of research and it really shows in the immense detail, the quoted poetry, the side characters from all walks of life. The story is based on the 47 ronin incident of 1702. Cat, the daughter of the late Lord Asano, has been reduced to life as a courtesan, but now her life is in danger and she must use her wits and travel the dangerous Tokaido Road from Edo to Kyoto while being pursued by the hired ronin of her father's enemy.

87) Moshie Cat by Helen Griffiths (19669)
children
I came across Helen Griffiths' books on Anita's thread a few years ago when she was rereading quite a number of them. I read a couple and always wanted to read more.
This one is about the life of a feral kitten on the island of Majorca. The kitten is treated roughly by some children and rescued by a neighbouring family who adopt him along with other cats that adopt the family. A lovely story.
https://www.helengriffithsauthor.com/

88) The Correspondent by Virginia Evans (2025)
fiction
This is a popular read that didn't do as much for me as for other readers. An epistolary novel with the main character an older woman who has retired. Through her correspondence we discover her life, her family and her secret. The book is well plotted but I just didn't care much for what unravels.

89) Golgotha by Lavie Tidhar (2025)
fiction
Maror #3. The concluding book in Tidhar's trilogy about the state of Israel. Another good read. The book is in two parts, the first deals with The Foreigner who is a mercenary in 1882 Palestine. As he travels from Jerusalem to Jaffa and then into the Galilee he sees the changes, the Thomas Cook tourists from England, the missionaries from the US, the Jews coming from all parts of Europe and the East. The beginnings of the zionist dream of rebuilding the country. He sits at a table with Laurence Oliphant & his secretary, Naftali Imber (writer of Hatikva poem). The Foreigner has been paid to find a man and the treasure map he's found.

The second part is set in the very last days of the British Mandate in 1948. We follow a British policeman, Burton, as he investigates a murder in Jaffa and the kidnapping of a British young woman. This also is concerned with the treasure map. We meet Moshe Dayan and Yigal Allon, both were keen amateur archaeologists but currently more concerned with the birth of the new state and the war to come. As Burton crosses from Haifa to Tiberius and Safed, he's seeing the different factions readying for war.

>114 avatiakh: I liked it, Kerry, but it didn't absolutely blow me away either as it seemed to do with some of our peers.

Reading in June plans:

Trying to finish some books I have on the go already.
II won't do the BAC challenge this month unless I pick up a Shaespeare play which is unlikely.
The Americas challenge is nonfiction and I've already finished one book for that.
The Little School: Tales of Disappearance and Survival by Alicia Partnoy

TIOLI:
Bloom - Kelly Ana Morey - started
Dog - Yishay Ishi Ron - started
A sea of lemon trees: The Corrido of Roberto Alvarez - María Dolores Águila
Girl of the Mountains - Trish McCormack
Stepping Up - David Hill
Professor Penguin : discovery and adventure with penguins - Lloyd Spencer Davis - stalled
The Book of Dirt - Bram Pressler
A field of buttercups - Joe Hyams - started
The Matchmaker of Périgord - Julia Stuart
Dallergut dream department store - Miye Lee
The Grandest Bookshop in the World - Amelia Mellor
The Seven - Chris Hammer
Tongues of Serpents - Naomi Novik - started
After the Roundup: : Escape and Survival in Hitler's France - Joseph Weismann
I can jump puddles - Alan Marshall
The Only Street in Paris: Life on the Rue des Martyrs - Elaine Sciolino
The Paris Bookseller - Kerri Maher - started

Others:
Bridge of Storms by Philip Reeve - (Mortal Engines) - started
Dancing Lessons for the advanced in Age by Bohumil Hrabal

90) A Sea of Lemon Trees: The Corrido of Roberto Alvarez by María Dolores Águila (2025)
children
A verse novel about the 1930-1931 Lemon Grove Incident where the local school board tried to create a substandard separate school for the children of Mexican workers. Some families were deported. Alvarez was the school boy chosen to represent his fellow students in a court case against the school board.
Interesting historical event that I'd not come across before.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lemon_Grove_Incident

91) The Little School: Tales of Disappearance and Survival in Argentina by Alicia Partnoy (1986)
nonfiction
Read for the Americas challenge: June Nonfiction.
Vignettes of the experiences of some disappeared, mostly Partnoy's own. She was taken to Bahía Blanca's holding prison, the Little School. The prisoners were all blindfolded for several weeks and forbidden to move or talk. Her friend gave birth in captivity and she was never seen again, along with her husband. The baby was taken and raised by one of the prison guards. Partnoy was held for a couple of years before being released to exile in the USA. She was reunited with her young daughter at the airport.
Devastating times, I read a few books many years back on these times. On one of my first trips to Buenos Aires in the late 1980s I remember seeing large numbers of The Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo walking around the square.

>116 PaulCranswick: Yes. I have to admit that it held my attention enough that I read it late into the night (end of month TIOLI pressure). Overall I came away thinking I've read more captivating stuff.

92) Dancing Horses by Helen Griffiths (1981)
children
Gaviota #2. One I read in May for the TIOLI 'Dancing' challenge. I now have to read the first book, though there's no problem as they are fairly standalone reads. This one is set post Spain's Civil War and features a young orphan discovering his calling while working in the stables on a breeding farm near Seville. A really lovely read with lots of tense moments when boy, horse and horned bulls and cows are in the ring.
Griffiths spent twenty years living in Spain and writes with authenticity on the business of training horses for the bullring. Marvellous stuff.

On Monday last I joined my son who has been self-learning Polish for a number of years. We went to a photography exhibition and talk about the Polish/NZ photographer, Boleslaw Augustis.
'In 2004 in a shed in Bema Street in Białystok, two boys found a collection of photographs and negatives, which was then secured by the members of the group Zero-85, who happened to be rehearsing nearby.' https://culture.pl/en/artist/boleslaw-augustis
He had a photography studio and took thousands of candid street photos in the years 1935-1938 before being taken by the Russians to Siberia along with many other Poles. After the war he came to New Zealand and did not continue with photography as a career. Białystok was destroyed during WW2 and these photos give a wonderful glimpse into pre-war Białystok .
The talks were interesting, we got three perspectives on the historical value and also a talk from his son. Rafal Siderski talked of the project along the border with Belarus and in Belarus itelf where they knocked on the doors in many villages and asked to digitise any old family photo albums. One old woman had a precious album that had been buried for twenty years at one stage as it held photographs of family members in their military uniforms. They couldn't let the Bolsheviks get their hands on it.
They recommended that people print out important family photos as they'll be locked in the cloud or in unuseable hard drives in the future. What doesn't seem important today could be important in the future.
The numerous found archives of photos that have been discovered was also covered in particular -
Vivian Dorothy Maier: https://www.vivianmaier.com/
Henryk Ross: https://mjhnyc.org/exhibitions/memory-unearthed/
Stefania Gurdowa: https://www.lensculture.com/articles/stefania-gurdowa-negatives-are-to-be-stored

>122 avatiakh: Wonderful photos, thanks for sharing the story and the links.

>123 labfs39: Thanks. I forgot to add that my son went to the opening ceremony as well and the Polish Ambassador to NZ was there to give a speech. I got a glimpse on Monday as he arrived again when we were leaving. Liam went mainly to try his conversation skills in Polish as many Polish New Zealanders attended, though they mostly only spoke English.

I was lucky to catch another found photo archive about 10 years ago in Paris, we had one night there before a flight after arriving from London and were able to catch 'The Mexican Suitcase' exhibition at the Jewish Centre. I had read quite a lot about Capa, Taro & Chim's photography and was so delighted at the chance to see these lost photographs.
https://www.npr.org/sections/pictureshow/2010/12/28/132051886/mexicansuitcase

I seem to be reading from about ten books at present, so I need to refocus and concentrate on 1 or 2.

Library pickups:
Dreamt I found You by Jimin Han
Lost Lambs by Madeline Cash - debut novel with buzz
The Deckston Story: The story of Annie and Max Deckston, Jewish philanthropists, who saved twenty Polish Jewish children from the Holocaust by Steven Sedley
https://www.holocaustcentre.org.nz/uploads/1/2/2/4/122437058/annie_and_max_decks...
Resilience: A Story of Persecution, Escape, Survival and Triumph by Inge Woolf - NZ Holocaust memoir. Woolf founded the Holocaust Centre of New Zealand in 2007.
https://www.jewishlives.nz/our-people/inge-woolf-life-dedicated-tolerance-divers...

I've also picked up some manga volumes, luckily my daughter reads them first and I realise I don't need to so back they go.
I told her that I so want her to read The Tokaido Road. I'd love to see her do some illustrations based on the story.