Paul C's Roads Less Travelled in 2026 - 11

This is a month on the Roads Less Travelled celebrating the non-fiction that has been written about Latin America.
Two towering figures of the region.

Opening Words

Good books for me in June



I want to read The Glorious Heresies finally which I have heard so many good things about.



" He left the boy outside its own front door. Farewell to it, and good luck to it. He wasn't going to feed it anymore; from here on in it would be squared shoulders and jaws, and strong arms and best feet forward. He left the boy a pile of mangled, skinny limbs and stepped through the door a newborn man, stinging a little in the sights of the sprite guiding his metamorphosis. Karine D'Arcy was her name. She was fifteen and a bit and had been in his class for the past three years. Outside of school she consistently outclassed him, and yet here she was, standing in his hall on a Monday lunchtime. And so the boy had to go, what was left of him, what hadn't been flayed away by her hands and her kisses."

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

Poetry

I have just read The Earth Compels from Louis MacNeice's Collected Poems
and was reminded of what a fine weaver of words he was.



The Sunlight on the Garden

The sunlight on the garden
Hardens and grows cold,
We cannot cage the minute
Within its nets of gold;
When all is told
We cannot beg for pardon.

Our freedom as free lances
Advances towards its end;
The earth compels, upon it
Sonnets and birds descend;
And soon, my friend,
We shall have no time for dances.

The sky was good for flying
Defying the church bells
And every evil iron
Siren and what it tells:
The earth compels,
We are dying, Egypt, dying

And not expecting pardon,
Hardened in heart anew,
But glad to have sat under
Thunder and rain with you,
And grateful too
For sunlight on the garden.

Books Read (First 75)

Books Read

January:

1. The Place of Tides by James Rebanks (2024) 285pp {Non-Fiction} Penguin/Allen Lane (Completed 1/1/26) 8/10
2. Nazi Literature in the Americas by Roberto Bolano (1996) 204 pp {Fiction} Vintage (Completed 3/1/26) RLT Challenge/ TM Challenge 6/10
3. Girl by Ruth Padel (2024) 107 pp {Poetry} Vintage (Completed 4/1/26) 4/10
4. Shardik by Richard Adams (1974) 592 pp {SF/Fantasy} Oneworld (Completed 6/1/26) BAC/TM Challenge 7/10
5. Antarctica by Claire Keegan (1999) 209pp {Short Stories} Faber (Completed 7/1/26) 8.5/10
6. The Good Father by Noah Hawley (2013) 384pp {Fiction} Hodder TM Challenge (Completed 10/1/26) 7.5/10
7. antibody by Rebecca Salazar (2025) 139pp {Poetry} McClelland & Stewart (Completed 12/1/26) 3/10
8. Things in Nature Merely Grow by Yiyun Li (2025) 172pp {Non-Fiction} 4th Estate (Completed 13/1/26) 7/10
9. The Wizards of Once by Cressida Cowell (2017) 455pp {SF/Fantasy} Hodder (Completed 17/1/26) 7/10
10. Suspicion by Friedrich Durrenmatt (1953) 157pp {Thriller} Pushkin Vertigo (Completed 18/1/26)
11. The Wardrobe Department by Elaine Garvey (2025) 221pp {Fiction} Canongate (Completed 20/1/26)
12. The Hill Bachelors by William Trevor (2000) 245pp {Short Stories} Penguin (Completed 21/1/26)
13. Question 7 by Richard Flanagan (2023) 275pp {Non-Fiction} Vintage (Completed 23/1/26)
14. Before the Fact by Francis Iles (1932) 326pp {Thriller} Pan (Completed 24/1/26)
15. Scaffolding by Lauren Elkin (2024) 383pp {Fiction} Vintage (Completed 25/1/26)
16. Beloved by Toni Morrison (1987) 324pp {Fiction} Vintage (Completed 29/1/26)
17. The War of the Poor by Eric Vuillard (2019) 79pp {Fiction} Other Press (Completed 30/1/26)
18. The Distinctly Competent District Councillor by Jonas Jonasson (2026) 132pp {Fiction} 4th Estate (Completed 31/1/26)

February

19. Love Forms by Claire Adam (2025) 295pp {Fiction} Faber (Completed 2/2/26)
20. The Hunchback of Notre-Dame by Victor Hugo (1831) 501pp {Fiction} Penguin Completed (2/2/26)
21. Acts of Desperation by Megan Nolan (2021) 279pp {Fiction} Vintage (Completed 3/2/26)
22. After by Morris Gleitzman (2012) 209pp {Fiction} Penguin (Completed 5/2/26)
23. What Happened to the Corbetts by Nevil Shute (1939) 245pp {Fiction} Vintage (Completed 9/2/26)
24. The Autumn Throne by Elizabeth Chadwick (2016) 484pp {Fiction} Sphere (Completed 18/2/26)
25. A Manual for Cleaning Women by Lucia Berlin (2015) 399pp {Short Stories} Picador (Completed 18/2/26)
26. Becoming Ella Fitzgerald by Judith Tick (2024) 436pp {Non-Fiction} Norton (Completed 19/2/26)
27. The Separation by Christopher Priest (2002) 405pp {SF/Fantasy} Gollancz (Completed 23/2/26)
28. Poems from an Attic by Iris Murdoch (2025) 155pp {Poetry} Chatto & Windus (Completed 24/2/26)
29. Tales of the Alhambra by Washington Irving (1832) 304pp {Short Stories} Ebook (Completed 27/2/26)
30. Lublin by Manya Wilkinson (2024) 196pp {Fiction} And Other Stories (Completed) 27/2/26)
31. Poor Deer by Claire Oshetsky (2024) 226pp {Fiction} Ecco (Completed 28/2/26)
32. Strange Pictures by Uketsu (2022) 236pp {Thriller} HarperVia (Completed 28/2/26)

March

33. Nobody Asked for This by Charly Cox (2025) 105pp {Poetry} One Place Many Stories (Completed 3/3/26)
34. Only Here, Only Now by Tom Newlands (2024) 388pp {Fiction} Phoenix (Completed 3/3/26)
35. Maurice and Maralyn by Sophie Elmhirst (2024) 258pp {Non-Fiction} (Completed 10/3/26)
36. The Cuckoo's Lea by Michael J. Warren (2025) 277pp {Non-Fiction} Bloomsbury (Completed 10/3/26)
37. The Prince of Mist by Carlos Ruiz Zafon (1993) 202pp {Fiction} W&N (Completed 19/2/26)
38. On Reflection by Richard Holloway (2024) 227pp {Non-Fiction} Canongate (Completed 24/3/26)
39. Fierce Elegy by Peter Gizzi (2023) 61pp {Poetry} Penguin (Completed 28/3/26)
40. Returning by Edna O'Brien (1982) 158pp {Short Stories} Phoenix (Completed 30/3/26)
41. Under the Skin by Michel Faber (2000) 296pp {SF/Fantasy} Canongate (Completed 30/3/26)
42. Lost Children Archive by Valeria Luiselli (2019) 350pp {Fiction} (Completed 30/3/26)
43. Winesburg, Ohio by Sherwood Anderson (1919) 247pp {Short Stories} Penguin (Completed 31/3/26)
44. Vertigo & Ghost by Fiona Benson (2019) 90pp {Poetry} Cape Poetry (Completed 31/3/26)
45. Eugene Onegin by Alexander Pushkin (1833) 273pp {Poetry} Pushkin Press (Completed 31/2/26)

April

46. Supporting Cast by Kit de Waal (2020) 127pp {Short Stories} Penguin (Completed 12/4/26)
47. Water by John Boyne (2023) 166pp {Fiction} Doubleday (Completed 12/4/26)
48. The Correspondent by Virginia Evans (2025) 267pp {Fiction} Michael Joseph (Completed 15/4/26)
49. Cold Spring Harbor by Richard Yates (1986) 178pp {Fiction} Vintage (Completed 20/4/26)
50. Foretokens by Sarah Howe (2025) 80pp {Poetry} Chatto & Windus (Completed 21/4/26)
51. The Others by Sheena Kalayil (2025) 326pp {Fiction} Fly on the Wall Press (Completed 25/4/26)
52. Unruly by David Mitchell (2023) 403pp {Non-Fiction} Penguin (Completed 26/4/26)
53. Bless Me, Ultima by Rudolfo Anaya (1972) 262pp {Fiction} (Completed 27/4/26)
54. The Hamiltons: Official Life in 1830 by Catherine Gore (1834) 367pp {Fiction} Open Library (Completed 27/4/26)
55. The Ode Less Traveled by Stephen Fry (2005) 352pp {Non Fiction} (Completed 28/4/26)
56. Three Days in June by Anne Tyler (2025) 196pp {Fiction} Chatto & Windus (Completed 28/4/26)
57. The Pleasant Light of Day by Philip O'Ceallaigh (2009) 264pp {Short Stories} Penguin (Completed 28/4/26)
58. Belfast Confetti by Ciaran Carson (1989) 108pp {Poetry} Wake Forest (Completed 29/4/26)
59. Gilead by Marilynne Robinson (2004) 282pp {Fiction} Virago (Completed 30/4/26)
60. Gut by Giulia Enders (2015) 263pp {Non-Fiction} (Completed 30/4/26)

May

61. I, Claudius by Robert Graves (1934) 396pp {Fiction} Penguin (Completed 6 May 26)
62. Mama Amazonica by Pascale Petit (2017) 108pp {Poetry} Bloodaxe (Completed 6 May 2026)
63. A Life on Our Planet by David Attenborough (2020) 247pp {Non-Fiction} Penguin (Completed 9 May 2026)
64. Openings by Lucy Caldwell (2024) 235pp {Short Stories} Faber (Completed 9/5/26)
65. The Horse by Willy Vlautin (2024) 209pp {Fiction} Faber (Completed 13/5/26)
66. Luck is the Hook by Imtiaz Dharker (2018) 122pp {Poetry} Bloodaxe (Completed 13/5/26)
67. Valley of the Sun by Louis L'Amour (1995) 177pp {Short Stories} Bantam (Completed 13/5/26)
68. The Wax Child by Olga Ravn (2023) 178pp {Fiction} (Completed 14/5/26)
69. Crooked Plow by Itamar Vieira Junior (2018) 276pp {Fiction} Verso (15/5/26)
70. Good People by Patmeena Sabit (2026) 383pp {Fiction} Virago (Completed 19 May 2026)
71. Homesick by Eshkol Nevo (2004) 374pp {Fiction} Vintage (Completed 19/5/26)
72. The Scent of Oranges by Kathy George (2024) 359pp {Fiction} HQ (Completed 24/5/26)
73. Shroud by Adrian Tchaikovsky (2025) 436pp {SF/Fantasy} Tor (Completed 24/5/26)
74. Excession by Iain M. Banks (1996) 455pp {SF/Fantasy} Orbit (Completed 25/5/26)
75. Viking's Dawn by Henry Treece (1955) 184pp {Fiction} Puffin (Completed 27/5/26)

Books Read (76-150)

May

76. Fire on the Mountain by Anita Desai (1977) 146pp {Fiction} Vintage (Completed 27/5/26)
77. She Who Remains by Rene Karabash (2018) 155pp {Fiction} Peirene (Completed 27/5/26)
78. The Laird's Luck by Arthur Quiller-Couch (1901) 67pp {Short Story} Scribner (Completed 28/5/26)
79. All He Ever Wanted by Anita Shreve (2003) 340pp {Fiction} Abacus (Completed 29/5/26)
80. Frost in May by Antonia White (1933) 208pp {Fiction} Virago (Completed 30/5/26)
81. The Earth Compels by Louis MacNeice (1938) 46pp {Poetry} Faber (Completed 31/5/26)

June

82. Built: The Hidden Stories Behind our Structures by Roma Agrawal (2018) 271pp {Non-Fiction} Bloomsbury (Completed 2/6/26)
83. Taras Bulba by Nikolai Gogol (1835) 197pp {Fiction} Kindle (Completed 2/6/26)
84. Pericles by William Shakespeare (1609) 144pp {Drama} Oxford (Completed 5/6/26)
85. Poetry Please! ed. by Charles Causley (1985) 113pp {Poetry} Everyman (Completed 6/6/26)
86. Charlotte's Web by E.B. White (1952) 184pp {Fiction} HarperCollins (Completed 7/6/26)
87. The Glorious Heresies by Lisa McInerney (2015) 371pp {Fiction} John Murray (Completed 7/6/26)
88. The Open Veins of Latin America by Eduardo Galeano (1971) 308pp {Non Fiction} Monthly Review Press (Completed 9/6/26)
89. Hedda Gabler by Henrik Ibsen (1890) 95pp {Drama} Faber (Completed 12/6/26)

Current Reading

Roads Less Travelled



THE AMERICAN CONTINENTs OFF THE BEATEN PATH

Our tour of the less well traveled pathways of the American continents in 2026.

I will not impinge on the wonderful American Author Challenge and I am not looking to repeat the Canadian author challenges that have featured as this is largely about everywhere else on the continent.

This will be our journey:

JANUARY - CHILEAN AUTHORS: https://www.librarything.com/topic/377059
1. Nazi Literature in the Americas by Roberto Bolano

FEBRUARY - ANGLO CARIBBEAN AUTHORS : https://www.librarything.com/topic/378317
1. Love Forms by Claire Adam

MARCH - MEXICAN AUTHORS
1. Lost Children Archive by Valeira Luiselli

APRIL - HISPANIC NORTH AMERICANS : https://www.librarything.com/topic/383269
1. antibody: poems by Rebecca Salazar
2. Bless Me, Ultima by Rudolfo Anaya

MAY - BRAZILIAN AUTHORS: https://www.librarything.com/topic/384022
1. Crooked Plow by Itamar Vieira Junior

JUNE - NON-FICTION ABOUT THE AMERICAS
https://www.librarything.com/topic/384736
1. The Open Veins of Latin America by Eduardo Galeano

JULY - CUBAN AUTHORS
AUGUST - FRANCO CARIBBEAN
SEPTEMBER - COLOMBIAN AUTHORS
OCTOBER - FIRST NATION NORTH AMERICANS
NOVEMBER - ARGENTINIAN AUTHORS
DECEMBER - OTHER PARTS OF THE CONTINENTS

British Author Challenge (Hosted by my friend Amanda)



January - Cressida Cowell & Richard Adams https://www.librarything.com/topic/376836#n9049588
Shardik by Richard Adams, The Wizards of Once by Cressida Cowell

February - Elizabeth Chadwick & Nevil Shute
What Happened to the Corbetts by Shute
The Autumn Throne by Chadwick

March - Obscure Books
Only Here, Only Now by Tom Newlands (64 LT Members)

April - Kit de Waal & Stephen Fry
Supporting Cast by de Waal
The Ode Less Traveled by Fry

May - MM Kaye & Iain Banks
Excession by Banks

June - The Stuarts
Pericles by William Shakespeare

July -

August -

September -

October -

November -

December -

NON-FICTION CHALLENGE



Hosted this year by my friend Benita.

JANUARY : PRIZE WINNERS - Question 7 by Richard Flanagan
FEBRUARY : JAZZ - Becoming Ella Fitzgerald by Judith Tick
MARCH : RELIGION/SPIRITUALITY - On Reflection by Richard Holloway
APRIL : THE BODY - Gut by Giulia Enders
MAY : TRAVEL - A Life On Our Planet by David Attenborough
JUNE : BUILDINGS - Built by Roma Agrawal

The Time Machine

I will be reading 200 books one from each of the last 200 years, I will read them in date order and limit myself to one book per author.
Starting 2025 and ending 31 December 2026. I am combining this with my 50 Modern Classics from last years and other years I covered last year. The older books I will try to read in sequence

1826 : The Last Man by Mary Shelley
1827 : The Betrothed by Alessandro Manzoni
1828 : Pelham by Edward Bulwer Lytton
1829 : The Misfortunes of Elphin by Thomas Love Peacock
1830 : At the Sign of the Cat and Racket by Honore de Balzac
1831 : The Hunchback of Notre-Dame by Victor Hugo
1832 : Tales of the Alhambra by Washington Irving
1833 : Eugene Onegin by Alexander Pushkin
1834 : The Hamiltons: Official Life in 1830 by Catherine Gore
1835 : Taras Bulba by Nikolai Gogol
1890 : Hedda Gabler by Henrik Ibsen
1908 : The Blue Bird by Maurice Maeterlinck
1919 : Winesburg, Ohio by Sherwood Anderson
1932 : Before the Fact by Francis Iles
1933 : Frost in May by Antonia White
1934 : I, Claudius by Robert Graves
1938 : The Earth Compels by Louis MacNeice
1939 : What Happened to the Corbetts bt Nevil Shute
1945 : The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams
1946 : Comet in Moominland by Tove Jansson
1947 : We Always Treat Women Too Well by Raymond Queneau
1952 : All Our Yesterdays by Natalia Ginzburg
1953 : Suspicion by Friedrich Durrenmatt
1954 : The Fellowship of the Ring by JRR Tolkien
1955 : Viking's Dawn by Henry Treece
1960 : The Great Fortune by Olivia Manning
1961 : Where the Red Fern Grows by Wilson Rawls
1963 : The Experience of Pain by Carlo Emilio Gadda
1965 : Lost Empires by JB Priestley
1966 : Silence by Shusaku Endo
1967 : Rosemary's Baby by Ira Levin
1971 : The Open Veins of Latin America by Eduardo Galeano
1972 : Bless Me, Ultima by Rudolfo Anaya
1974 : Shardik by Richard Adams
1975 : The Monkey Wrench Gang by Edward Abbey
1976 : Blaming by Elizabeth Taylor
1977 : Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson
1978 : The Cement Garden by Ian McEwan
1979 : The White Album by Joan Didion
1982 : Returning by Edna O'Brien
1985 : Poetry Please! by Charles Causley
1986 : Cold Spring Harbor by Richard Yates
1987 : Beloved by Toni Morrison
1988 : The Pigeon by Patrick Suskind
1989 : Belfast Confetti by Ciaran Carson
1991 : The Whitby Witches by Robin Jarvis
1993 : The Prince of Mist by Carlos Ruiz Zafon
1995 : Valley of the Sun by Louis L'Amour
1996 : Nazi Literature in the Americas by Roberto Bolano
1997 : God's Gift to Women by Don Paterson
1999 : Antarctica by Claire Keegan
2000 : The Hill Bachelors by William Trevor
2002 : Crow Lake by Mary Lawson
2003 : All He Ever Wanted by Anita Shreve
2004 : Gilead by Marilynne Robinson
2005 : The Ode Less Traveled by Stephen Fry
2007 : The Burnt-Out Town of Miracles by Roy Jacobsen
2008 : The Museum of Innocence by Orhan Pamuk
2009 : In Other Rooms, Other Wonders by Daniyal Mueenuddin
2011 : What it is Like to go to War by Karl Marlantes
2012 : Nagasaki by Eric Faye
2013 : The Good Father by Noah Hawley
2014 : The End of Eddy by Louis Eduoard
2015 : Gut by Giulia Enders
2016 : Conclave by Robert Harris
2017 : The Pine Islands by Marion Poschmann
2018 : A Lucky Man by Jamel Brinkley
2019 : The Other Americans by Laila Lalami
2020 : The Cold Millions by Jess Walter
2021 : The Heeding by Rob Cowen
2022 : Heart Lamp Stories by Banu Mushtaq
2023 : Stone Yard Devotional by Charlotte Wood
2024 : The Safekeep by Yael van der Wouden
2025 : Nesting by Roisin O'Donnell

74/200

A-Z Challenge

A = 12 Books: Richard Adams, Claire Adam, Sherwood Anderson, Rudolfo Anaya, David Attenborough, Roma Agrawal

B = 12 Books: Roberto Bolano, Lucia Berlin, Fiona Benson, John Boyne, Iain M. Banks

C = 12 Books: Cressida Cowell, Elizabeth Chadwick, Charly Cox, Ciaran Carson, Lucy Caldwell, Charles Causley

D = 8 Books: Friedrich Durrenmatt, Imtiaz Dharker, Anita Desai

E = 6 Books: Lauren Elkin, Sophie Elmhirst, Virginia Evans, Giulia Enders

F = 8 Books: Richard Flanagan, Michel Faber, Stephen Fry

G = 12 Books: Elaine Garvey, Morris Gleitzman, Peter Gizzi, Catherine Gore, Kathy George, Robert Graves, Nikolai Gogol, Eduardo Galeano

H = 12 Books: Noah Hawley, Victor Hugo, Richard Holloway, Sarah Howe

I = 6 Books: Francis Iles, Washington Irving, Henrik Ibsen

J = 6 Books: Jonas Jonasson

K = 6 Books: Claire Keegan, Sheena Kalayil, Rene Karabash

L = 8 Books: Yiyun Li, Valeria Luiselli, Louis L'Amour

M = 12 Books: Toni Morrison, Iris Murdoch, David Mitchell, Louis MacNeice, Lisa McInerney

N = 6 Books: Megan Nolan, Tom Newlands, Eshkol Nevo

O = 6 Books: Claire Oshetsky, Edna O'Brien, Philip O'Ceallaigh

P = 8 Books: Ruth Padel, Christopher Priest, Alexander Pushkin, Pascale Petit

Q = 3 Books: Arthur Quiller-Couch

R = 8 Books: James Rebanks,Marilynne Robinson, Olga Ravn

S = 12 Books: Rebecca Salazar, Nevil Shute, Patmeena Sabit, Anita Shreve, William Shakespeare

T = 8 Books: William Trevor, Judith Tick, Anne Tyler, Adrian Tchaikovsky, Henry Treece

U = 6 Books: Uketsu

V = 6 Books: Eric Vuillard, Willy Vlautin, Itamar Vieira Junior

W = 8 Books: Manya Wilkinson Michael J Warren, Kit de Waal, Antonia White, E.B. White

X = 3 Books:

Y = 3 Books: Richard Yates

Z = 3 Books: Carlos Ruiz Zafon

Total 200

89/200

Books Added in 2026

Jan to March
Books 1-79 : https://www.librarything.com/topic/379636#9150056

April
80. The Hamiltons by Charlotte Gore READ
81. The Merge by Grace Walker
82. Blueprint: How DNA Makes Us Who We Are by Robert Plomin
83. The 33 Strategies of War by Robert Greene
84. We Are Green and Trembling by Gabriela Cabezon Camara
85. The Remembered Soldier by Anjet Daanje
86. Eden's Shore by Oisin Fagan
87. The Unicorn Woman by Gayl Jones
88. Good People by Patmeena Sabit READ
89. Fire by John Boyne
90. The Nights are Quiet in Tehran by Shida Bazyar
91. Artists, Siblings, Visionaries by Judith Mackrell
92. The Others by Sheena Kalayil READ
93. Stay With Me by Hanne Orstavik
94. Lark and Termite by Jayne Anne Phillips
95. Ends of the Earth by Neil Shubin
96. Hayek's Bastards by Quinn Slobodian
97. Gut by Giulia Enders READ
98. The Deserters by Mathias Enard
99. On Earth as it is Beneath by Ana Paula Maia
100. The Charioteer by Mary Renault

May
101. Living Planet by David Attenborough
102. Agatha Raisin and the Murderous Marriage by M.C. Beaton
103. Occupation by Julian Fuks
104. Kingfisher by Rozie Kelly
105. Shroud by Adrian Tchaikovsky READ
106. Excession by Iain M. Banks READ
107. The Scent of Oranges by Kathy George READ
108. Tortoise by Candlelight by Nina Bawden
109. Operation Heartbreak by Duff Cooper
110. Good Dirt by Charmaine Wilkerson
111. Ghost-Eye by Amitav Ghosh
112. Call Me Ishmaelle by Xiaolu Guo
113. The Mercy Step by Marcia Hutchinson
114. She Who Remains by Rene Karabash READ
115. The Director by Daniel Kehlmann
116. The Issa Valley by Czeslaw Milosz
117. The Girls Who Grew Big by Leila Mottley
118. The Witch by Marie NDiaye
119. House of Splendid Isolation by Edna O'Brien
120. The Book of Records by Madeleine Thien
121. The Shetland Way by Marianne Brown
122. How to Be a Revolutionary by C.A. Davids
123. Fox by Joyce Carol Oates
124. The Drunken Forest by Gerald Durrell
125. The Pretender by Jo Harkin
126. Icarus Economics by John Rapley
127. Twelfth Night by William Shakespeare
128. Charlotte's Web by E.B. White READ
129. Atmosphere by Taylor Jenkins Reid
130. The Woman in Suite 11 by Ruth Ware


39 non-fiction
64 fiction
7 poetry
12 SF/fantasy
1 Drama
7 crime / thrillers

By Men 62
By Women 68

Read: 18

Best 100s

Best British 100: https://www.librarything.com/topic/378301#9103389

Best North American 100: https://www.librarything.com/topic/378301#9103390

Rest of the English Speaking World 100: https://www.librarything.com/topic/378301#9103392

Best in Translation 100: https://www.librarything.com/topic/378301#9103393

Book Stats 2026

Books Read : 88
Pages Read in completed books : 22,321

Longest book : Shardik : 592 pp
Shortest book : The Earth Compels : 46 pp
Mean book length : 253.64 pp

Pages per day average in completed books : 139.51

Books written by men : 47
Books written by women: 41

Non-Fiction : 13
Fiction : 41
Poetry : 13
Thriller : 3
SF/Fantasy : 6
Drama : 1
Short Stories : 11

1600s : 1 book
1830s : 5 books
1900s : 1 book
1910s : 1 book
1930s : 5 books
1950s : 3 books
1970s : 4 books
1980s : 5 books
1990s : 5 books
2000s : 8 books
2010s : 15 books
2020s : 35 books

UK Authors : 36
USA Authors : 21
Chile Authors : 1
Ireland Authors : 8
Canada Authors : 1
China Authors : 1
Switzerland Authors : 1
Australia Authors : 3
France Authors : 2
Sweden Authors : 1
Trinidad Authors : 1
Japan Authors : 1
Spain Authors : 1
Mexican Authors : 1
Russia Authors : 2
German Authors : 1
Denmark Authors: 1
Brazil Authors: 1
Israel Authors: 1
Indian Authors: 1
Bulgaria Authors: 1
Uruguay Authors: 1

Challenges :
Roads Less Travelled : 6 books
Non-Fiction Challenge : 6 books
British Author Challenge : 9 books
26 Short Story Collections : 11/26
Caroline Memorial Reads : 1
1001 Books : 4

Awards :
Baillie Gifford Prize : 1
Pulitzer Prize : 2
TS Eliot Prize : 1
Women's Prize: 1

Read : 88 books
Added : 130 books

Change to TBR : +42

January Books : 18
January Pages : 4,689
Pages Average : Per book : 260.50 Per Day : 151.26

February Books : 14
February Pages : 4,370
Pages Average : Per book : 312.14 Per day : 156.07

March Books : 13
March Pages : 2,932
Pages Average : Per Book 225.54 Per day : 94.58

April Books : 15
April Pages : 3,641
Pages Average : Per Book : 242.73 Per Day : 121.37

May Books: 21
May Pages: 5,211
Pages Average : Per Book 248.14 Per Day: 168.10

June Books: 7
June Pages: 1,588
Pages Average : Per Book 226.86 Per Day: 176.44

Dedicated to the England National Men's Football Team, who will try to bring football home to where it all began in the USA/Canada/Mexico World Cup.

We have a good chance but the hot weather will be against us.

Welcome to my 11th thread of 2026

Happy New Thread, my friend, I'm looking forward to lots of BBs...

Thank you Thomas, I will try to assist with the BBs

Happy new thread!

Happy new thread, Paul!

Happy new thread, Paul!

Plan to read Tristes Tropiques this month. Another book I bought, used, many moons ago. If I did so for pretentious display I see that I was foiled, as the spine has bleached to a uniform and illegible white over the decades. Fortunately I arrange my books alphabetically by author, so at least I could find it.

>19 figsfromthistle: Thank you Anita. Currently traversing the old quarter of Melaka before a canal cruise back to the hotel.

>20 Dejah_Thoris: Thanks Princess. A rare moment of time on my phone.to catch up. I'll set up my new thread when I get back to the hotel.

>21 Kristelh:. Thanks book twin!

>22 booksaplenty1949: I am sure that I have a copy of it somewhere (I fear though it may be in Sheffield).

Happy new thread!

>27 amanda4242: Thank you dear Amanda.

Happy New Thread!!

Happy new thread, Paul!

>2 PaulCranswick: Ah, no. Moving away like the same end of a magnet.

Happy new thread, Paul. Enjoy your short break!

Happy new thread, Paul

>29 hredwards: Thank you, Harold

>30 quondame: Good to see you and thanks, Susan.

This one has been very strongly recommended by a number of our peers, so let's see.

>31 Familyhistorian: Thank you, Meg. Almost done and will make the shortish drive back up to KL tomorrow.

>32 ArlieS: Thanks Arlie. xx

Happy new thread, Paul!

Happy new thread, you. Love the poster art up top

>35 drneutron: Thanks DocRoc

>36 TSSTxym: Thank you, Tiss. It certainly caught my eye too!

Happy New Thread. I can recommend The Motorcycle Diaries if you haven't already read it.
>2 PaulCranswick: I hope you enjoy this one.

Happy new one, Paul!! : )

(Phew! I posted on his thread two days in a row. I'm getting back in the swing of things...)

>38 avatiakh: I haven't read it, Kerry. It isn't in my library here in Malaysia but I will keep an eye out for it.

Always lovely to see you here.

>39 Berly: As it is you, Kimmers!
Hopefully will see you tomorrow! xx

Happy new thread, Paul!

>41 atozgrl: Thank you, dear Irene

Finished the short story alphabet with Letter from an Unknown Woman by Stefan Zweig. Now back to A.

>43 booksaplenty1949: Finished with a good one; I like the stories of Zweig.

>44 PaulCranswick: Overtones of Madame Butterfly; are women really that stupid?

>43 booksaplenty1949:, Such a good idea to find a way to get those short stories read. I don't do well with reading a whole book of short stories but one a day and using the alphabet seems like a good idea. I might usurp that one.

>46 Kristelh: It has certainly kept up my interest in a way that reading short stories one after the other doesn’t manage to do.

Happy new thread!

>45 booksaplenty1949: My own experience is that the fairer sex are generally smarter than the alternative though they are often ruled by their heart rather than their genitals as opposed to men.

>46 Kristelh: It is certainly true that it is a good way to read short stories, Kristel and one collection of stories by an author can become a bit tediously repetitive.

>47 booksaplenty1949: To get through the alphabet every 26 days would result in plenty of reading given that the average collection is about ten stories.

>48 foggidawn: Thank you Foggi,

Happy New Thread , Paul! Thanks for stopping by my new thread so quickly! At last I have a bit of time today.

>51 vancouverdeb: Lovely to see you being able to get around the threads, Deb. I am sure that Dave, with your support and taking things steady, will soon be as good as new.

>1 PaulCranswick: I like your initial pictures, although I don't see you as a Fidelista/Castroite - I'm closer to that. I was brought up by people who were passionate about China and other Asian/Middle East countries, but studied Latin America in Y2 at Manchester, then Third World Politics in Y3 (1989/90) - I mention this because this a time of much change in international politics, with the end of the "First" and "Second World" with the Soviet dissolution etc - which seems strangely dated - it must have surely transitioned to Development Politics (Latin America, Africa - I'm not sure the third was actually the whole of Asia, sorry Paul, or just part of Asia like the Middle East. I may find the textbook soon but it I have it it's buried behind too many other books to search for. Because I like books as historical documents (out of date history/geography/travel guides, and many more examples). Perhaps I should have paid more attention at times....

>53 elkiedee: I will say that I was extremely left wing in my early adulthood but I am less so now although my values are still essentially redistributive. For every Ho Chi Minh and Sukarno there was a Lee and a Marcos in Asia so it was certainly not a clear picture, but neither was it in Latin America as every progressive had at least ten "regressive" authoritarians.

>49 PaulCranswick: Well of course these stories where women throw their lives away for some worthless man are actually written BY men, who may actually believe that the women are nobly sacrificing themselves.

>55 booksaplenty1949: Maybe a level of cynicism or misplaced idealism on the human natures of both sexes by writers of a certain ilk. One criticism of authors is that they don't writer characters of the opposite sex at all well. There is some truth in that but I think that the excellent author is able to see that there is a universality to human emotions that is not unique to either sex.

Non-Fiction this month in the Roads Less Travelled Challenge

June 2026 thread is up

https://www.librarything.com/topic/384736

Hi Paul, Happy New Thread mate. Hope all is well with you and Hani and the rest of the family are all doing well. Tomorrow starts the Tests in England for 2026 and hopefully the changes will make their mark.

>58 johnsimpson: I'm not sure what they have learnt John from the humiliation in Australia other than the confirmation that what we have been saying for several years that Zak Crawley cannot cut it is correct. I don't understand the reinstatement of Bashir and I am not happy that Bethell walks into the team despite playing no cricket at all and has an injured hand.

>56 PaulCranswick: Dickens is an excellent author but pretty obtuse when it comes to women and what makes them tick. His own, erm, love life was one of depressing hypocrisy.

>60 booksaplenty1949: I would agree that a lot of Dickens' female characters are one dimensional, idealized and simplistic. Not his strong suit as a writer.

Happy New Thread!

Thank you Silver.

>61 PaulCranswick: Thackeray’s Becky Sharp, on the other hand, sparkles with life.

>64 booksaplenty1949: I also think that some of Thomas Hardy's female characters are excellent: Tess, Eustasia Vye, Bathsheba Everdene and Sue Bridehead.

>65 PaulCranswick: Thomas Hardy, to whom I was over-exposed in high school, remains dead to me although Alan Bennett did kindle my interest in his poetry. Hardy’s personal “love life” also a debacle.

Hi, just hi. : )

>66 booksaplenty1949: So many authors' love lives (male and female) were completely shambolic but I do have to defend his female characters as being way ahead of their time and eminently believable. I do like some of his poetry too to be fair.

>67 Berly: Hi right back at you, Kimmers!

Happy new thread Paul!

Thanks neighbour!

>65 PaulCranswick: In the last few years the BBC has done several radio dramatisations of stories from 19th century classics with woman at the centre - such as Thomas Hardy, Charles Dickens and Emile Zola, very focused on the women in the story. They are interesting, and a way into the story, so long as you understand that they are very different from the novels, written by men, sometimes more detached, sometimes more a different viewpoint.

>71 elkiedee: Emile Zola is my favourite author and I do think that he was pretty good at writing characters of both sexes. Of course I am not inordinately qualified to comment on one more than the other but I think his characters are well drawn. I think that the criticism of some of Dickens' heroines is fair as he has a sort of idealised view of womanhood that makes many of his characters at best opaque or more often cloyingly sweet.

Interesting how women went from being perceived, in mediaeval literature, as the lustier sex, always tempting men from the straight and narrow, to being seen as pure and spiritual guardians of family values, always “pointing upward” like the ghastly Agnes Wickfield.

>73 booksaplenty1949: Not my favourite of Dickens' women for sure.

Hi Paul! Your thread is going at high speed again. I will visit the South America thread for some non-fiction recommendations!

>73 booksaplenty1949: With a nice in-between opportunity of being burned as witches. Whatever happened, one wonders.

>75 EllaTim: Lovely to see you, Ella. It is clear that at least over the centuries some progress has been made!

Catching up with my reviews:

BOOK #79



All He Ever Wanted by Anita Shreve
Date of Publication: 2003
Origin of Author: USA
Gender of Author: Female
Genre: Fiction
Pages: 340pp

Anita Shreve was one of Hani's favourite authors and one of the few that she really likes that I liked to read also. This is, in my opinion, far from her best work but still readable.

In the main protagonist who is looking back at the events that shaped his life and particularly his marriage, Shreve manages to create a thoroughly unlovable character. In relating the story he manages to confess to marital abuse, rape and using his own daughter to make a false accusation against another.

Shreve often got painted as a writer of chick-lit but she was far better than that and although this book doesn't equal her better work such as Eden Close or The Weight of Water, it still kept me turning the pages to the end.

BOOK #80



Frost in May by Antonia White
Date of Publication: 1933
Origin of Author: UK
Gender of Author: Female
Genre: Fiction
Pages: 208pp

I can say that this is a new minor favourite.

Beautifully observed story of a young girl, recently converted in the Roman Catholic church, as was her father who is admitted to the convent school of the five wounds.

She find the repressive and cruel environment she encounters both a test of her conscience, her endurance and her soul. Are they tests that she will overcome?

Apparently based on Antonia White's personal experiences and it smacks of authenticity on every page. Fantastic cover too!

BOOK #81



The Earth Compels by Louis MacNeice
Date of Publication: 1938
Origin of Author: UK
Gender of Author: Male
Genre: Poetry
Pages: 46pp

This is certainly not the best collection of MacNeice but it does hint of the much more elevated things to come and it was his best solo work to that date.

My great six modern poets are Yeats, Eliot, Auden, Dylan Thomas, Hughes and Heaney but if I had to name a seventh it would be MacNeice every time. A writer of crafty rhythm, rhyme and structures and possibly, if I am honest, the biggest influence on my own humble attempts to write verse.

This is possibly my favourite of the poems in the collection:

The Heated Minutes

The heated minutes climb
The anxious hill,
The tills fill up with cash,
The tiny hammers chime
The bells of good and ill,
And the world piles with ash
From fingers killing time.

If you were only here
Among these rocks,
I should not feel the dull
The taut and ticking fear
That hides in all the clocks
And creeps inside the skull —
If you were here, my dear.

Purchased 2666 last year—-a daunting 868 page paperback that didn’t look like a good choice for public transit. But discovered today that it is also available as an audiobook narrated by John Rafter Lee, a gifted voice actor who made all 1,000 pages of The Count of Monte Cristo consistently entertaining. So for the next 39 hours I’m driving the car I will be “reading” 2666.

Here's the next readathon: https://www.librarything.com/topic/384773

BOOK #82



Built: The Hidden Stories Behind Our Structures by Roma Agrawal
Date of Publication: 2018
Origin of Author: UK
Gender of Author : Female
Genre: Non-Fiction
Pages: 271pp
Challenges: Non-Fiction Challenge

It was a no brainer that I would be interested in this but even I was surprised by how well Ms. Agrawal explains her subject.

As someone working in a similar and complementary field I was of course an already converted she was preaching to, but the history of structures, bridges, brick, concrete etc was fascinating and illuminating nonetheless.

Finally, I have to say that Roma Agrawal is proof positive that as an British Asian willing to integrate and make a positive impact to her adopted country she is a splendid example that when migration works well it is a positive improving force for a nation. It is also, for a father of two exceptionally talented young ladies, wonderful to see a woman succeed so magnificently in what had always been seen as a male preserve. There is nothing to prevent females making a huge contribution to engineering except residual prejudice. I would like to think that I have been a firm and steadfast supporter of women in the construction workplace in terms of technical and commercial support and my teams have always had ladies much to the fore as it should be.

Recommended to anyone interested even remotely in the subject.

>80 booksaplenty1949: You may have hit on something there. That could be the way to "take-in" such a monster. I can probably get an hour a day of "reading" whilst driving the car. So I could probably do such a book in a month or so.

>81 SilverWolf28: Thanks Silver. The last one was very helpful to me getting my numbers up.

BOOK #83



Taras Bulba by Nikolai Gogol
Date of Publication: 1835
Origin of Author: Russian (born in what is now Ukraine)
Gender of Author: Male
Genre: Fiction
Pages: 197pp

Although this was originally written in 1835, what I actually devoured was the somewhat expanded and modified version released in 1845.

The short novel is described as "romantic epic" and there are certainly elements of both here, but it is let down by its incredible jingoism. The Poles are depicted as being untrustworthy and anti-Slav (but it is the Cossacks who initially find ways to break the peace). It may also be fairly criticized for its anti-Semitic posturing. The Jewish characters are never portrayed sympathetically although they are not unreservedly condemned either.

But after making some due allowance for the times that this was written in, there is a magniloquent sweep to the proceedings that can offend as well as impress.

>77 PaulCranswick: Interesting that Shreve would come up with such an unlikeable main character, but I love her works, so I may have to read this one anyhow. All He Ever Wanted

>82 PaulCranswick: Of course, you related to this one! : ) But you make it sound like something that will appeal to more than a few of us. Built: The Hidden Stories Behind Our Structures And "built," "build" and "billed" are homonyms my students have to learn to spell/memorize.

>85 Berly: That is interesting, Kimmers. Yes I think it will appeal beyond the obsessed such as I.

>85 Berly: I hope they hear the difference between “built” and “build.”

>87 booksaplenty1949: I hope our arbitrators do as well since much of the dispute centres around when did we actually finish the work according to the contract and its supplemental agreements.

>88 PaulCranswick: Hope they are distinguishing between “built” and “bilked.”

>89 booksaplenty1949: Hopefully whatever the disputes and differences there will be no accusations of bilking.

FRIDAY ADDITIONS

124. The Drunken Forest by Gerald Durrell
125. The Pretender by Jo Harkin
126. Icarus Economics by John Rapley
127. Twelfth Night by William Shakespeare
128. Charlotte's Web by E.B. White

>72 PaulCranswick: and >73 booksaplenty1949: Steps away in case she falls down rabbit holes, but I will be back. Thank you for reply, >73 booksaplenty1949:.

>91 PaulCranswick: I listened to an audio version of Charlotte's Web a while back. Lovely story. I think it was read by Mr. White himself.

>91 PaulCranswick: Charlotte’s Web! ❤️❤️❤️

Happy new thread, belatedly!

Charlotte's Web, Paul, did you read it as a child ? I think my grade 2 teacher read it to the class, and I also read it on my own. I've now finished all 6 of the books from the Women's Prize for Fiction , and a total of 10 , I think, from the Longlist.

>92 elkiedee: And thanks also, Luci, for your always thoughtful and often challenging contributions. I don't want you to fall into rabbit holes either, Lewis Carroll was never a favourite of mine!

>93 hredwards: There is a newly released series of books, Harold, Harper Collins American Classics with very simple classy covers and I couldn't resist adding this.

>94 SqueakyChu: When I was doing my pick one book lists recently, one of our peers chose Charlotte's Web as the pick for one book for the Great American Novel which made me think again about this one.

>95 banjo123: Thank you, dear Rhonda.

>96 vancouverdeb: I don't think I did ever read it as a child, Deb. Possibly English educational snobbery as we would have been drilled on the British children's classics instead. Somehow I never got round to it.

Impressed that you have finished the shortlist in time. I am nowhere near. I will go and study which you liked best and what you think will win.

>97 PaulCranswick: But I like the Alice books a lot. If falling down rabbit holes was that much fun always, it wouldn't feel like a waste of "my precious time" for reading or writing reviews which might help me access other books to read (just Netgalley at the moment, but doing that better would be great).

I found a short story competition listed today. It sounds unusually doable but with a very tight deadline. However, if I don't finish and enter the work in time or it isn't really a short story - over the word limit with no ending, say, just a piece of prose without a structure, then I might have something to work with towards something else.

If anyone else is interested, try the Historical Writers' Association, and look for their short story competition. There are rules, deadline 1 July, entry fee £5, submission electronically, so the fee is less of a barrier for disorganised people like me than getting something in the post. Entries will be anonymously judged so unknowns and even quite famous short story writers may be competing.

>100 elkiedee: As a means of escape I would follow Alice too, Luci!

Thanks for the info regarding the short story competition which is certainly enticing although I don't think I would be able to contribute anything in time.

>97 PaulCranswick: Can you elaborate on your non-enthusiasm for Lewis Carroll? I have generally zero interest in fantasy but I make an exception for Alice.

>102 booksaplenty1949: I don't really know how to express it to be honest. Maybe I caught it at the wrong time and place but I just found it to be mostly quite silly.

>103 PaulCranswick: I can see possible objections, but “silly” is not among them. De gustibus…

>103 PaulCranswick: I think I loved Alice a lot because I had my mother's childhood copy, and I loved that I was reading her book. The Tenniel illustrations were also fabulous.
Alice in Sunderland would be more your thing, Paul.

>104 booksaplenty1949: Perhaps I should go back and reread it to see what I overlooked first time around.

>105 avatiakh: Hahaha possibly, Kerry.

>104 booksaplenty1949: I’ve always associated Alice’s Adventures with the tradition of humorous nonsense I found in Such Nonsense to which silliness certainly applies. That the two books were shelved close to each other could account for that, though. But still, there is a lot of silliness in AiW, as well as a great deal of wit and wry commentary. And of course, adventure, if maybe not a manly sort of adventure.

>107 quondame: Nonsense and silliness are synonymous of course, but I know what both of you mean. I don't think I much favour macho swashbuckling adventures either, it is that this adventure didn't make the mark on me it did with so many others. A defect in me rather than anything else, I am sure, Susan.

I loved reading Alice, but I also read it as a child. Not sure how I would feel reading it as an adult?

>89 booksaplenty1949: >90 PaulCranswick: Some kids actually can't hear the difference between built and build and I'm not even sure they would know what bilked meant! LOL

>109 Berly: I read it in adulthood and perhaps would have similarly benefited from an earlier appreciation.

Tis true that bilked is not the most common parlance these days.

It is funny because I was talking yesterday about how I think it is important to promote and encourage ladies in my industry and on our Google Data Centre Project our Senior Quantity Surveyor (Cost Manager) is a lady (Shidah); my Assistant (Ika) is also a lady and both of them are capable. The only problem is that the two of them intensely dislike each other. Ika wasn't working this morning but she had "corrected" or redrafted a letter from Shidah's colleague which she shared at 1.00 am (my team is hard working) by combining two intended letters to the same subcontractor into one letter. For some reason this caused a major upset between the two ladies and I was forced into conciliating between the two and reworking both letters in the process.

>109 Berly: Knowing what a word means is presumably a big part of hearing it accurately.

>108 PaulCranswick: This reminded me, apropos of our discussion of a writer’s ability or otherwise to depict characters of the sex not his/her own, of the Swallows and Amazons series. I think Ransome depicts the girls and the boys with equal individuality and avoidance of cliché.

>110 PaulCranswick: At least, since they aren’t men, you didn’t have to break up a fistfight.

>111 booksaplenty1949: Quite possibly so. Speech therapy is something that we may need to research a little as a family as Pip is very slow to begin to enunciate properly. She will be three in two months time and it is still not particularly easy to decipher what she is trying to impart.

>112 booksaplenty1949: I like Ransome's books and read them at school. He happens to hail from my home area which is interesting possibly only to me, John, Luci and Tony (group members all) since his books are not set there.

>113 booksaplenty1949: Heaven forfend. We were all in different spots actually so it would have been difficult in all ways. I was in our PNB118 Project Office, Shidah was 30 miles away in our Google Data Centre Site Office and Ika was at home with a Saturday off. The Korean Commercial Head seems to relish the friction between them but did give me a quiet word to step in and resolve it without upsetting either lady in question.

Ika my assistant - no shrinking violet - WhatsApped me to say in her most charmingly feminine ways: "Boss, I fucki@*g hate Shidah".
Following my emailed re-write of the letter I told them "Let's try to communicate nicely on all these matters."

Shidah responded to me by WhatsApp "sorry if i am no (sic) communicate nicely" and then followed it with "if she rude, i'll be ruder".

Yikes, I know why the Korean commercial head asked me to resolve it!

BOOK #84



Pericles by William Shakespeare
Date of Publication: 1609
Origin of Author: UK
Gender of Author: Male
Genre: Drama
Challenge : British Author Challenge
Pages: 144pp

Must be the strangest of all the Bard's plays and even to my relatively untutored eye the stuttering cadences speak of a collaborative effort. An absolutely batshit crazy plotline and utterly improbable denouement, this late work is redolent of something that couldn't work out what it wanted to be. Blackly comedic? Sometimes and oft times awkwardly so.
Tragic? Sort of at times but in a farcical manner.

The play comes alive a little in its later sections until the pretty ridiculous conclusion.

Nothing memorably quotable at first sight but plenty of admirable wordplay nonetheless.

BOOK #85



Poetry Please! edited by Charles Causley
Date of Publication : 1985
Origin of Author: UK
Gender of Author: Male
Genre: Poetry
Pages: 113pp

I have a few books that are always with me and especially four poetry anthologies of which this is most definitely one. I was given it by its editor as an encouragement to continue my own poetry efforts (not come to quite the fruition he may have anticipated) back in the 1980s and it is an anthology I dip into regularly.

I met Charles Causley a couple of times 40 or so years ago and was starry eyed at his repute as a writer of light(ish) verse and as a balladeer. He would not have been described in any way as a modernist which explains the absence here of poets such as Eliot, Heaney and Hughes.

Nevertheless there are gems aplenty here and a reminder of some almost forgotten poets who deserve better remembrance; Arthur Hugh Clough, Jenny Joseph, Laurence Lerner, Leo Marks and others.

This is W.E. Henley and his famous poem "Invictus" from 1875 and a case of a poem exceeding fame over its poet.

Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds and shall find me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate,
I am the captain of my soul.

>114 PaulCranswick: My daughter was pretty much unintelligible at 3. Mike and I and her regular babysitter Jean always knew(or thought we did) what she meant, but when she transitioned from day care to pre-school it caused problems. She balked after a few sessions of speech therapy, then a few months later insisted on it. By kindergarten it wasn't a problem, though she now talks too fast for me to follow normally and I don't find her diction clear. But, I'm the deaf one.

>117 PaulCranswick: One of the many poems my father memorised in school and enjoyed reciting. “Vitaï Lampada” also on the “Greatest Hits” rota.

Three is pretty young; probably Pip's speech will improve soon. But speech therapy is great! We ended up having if for Banjo Jr, and the therapist made it into games.

>114 PaulCranswick: Oooh Paul, you've just reminded me of something. One of Arthur Ransome's former homes was across the road from me, where I lived in my last two years in Leeds, before I moved down to London.

>118 quondame: I guess we will all have to be a little patient, Susan. I can't understand my kids even though they are all articulate enough at speaking at me!

>119 booksaplenty1949: Ah yes "play up, play the game!" - So your Dad enjoying reciting a poem, in part about the Gentleman's Game of cricket.

>114 PaulCranswick: Before my first child was born I came across Baby Sign Language (basically, normal sign language that you use for babies) so I learned some signs like 'milk', 'biscuit', 'more' and so on and discovered that my son signed back. Even my husband learned and used some signs. I believe it prevented our son getting frustrated, since he could express (some of) what he wanted before he could form clear words - and averted a few tantrums.

We did it again with our second son - though I had to convince my husband all over again and he was amazed all over again when our son signed back. Now, our son won't stop talking.

On the other hand, I think I remember people asking if he was slow to start walking. Swings and roundabouts.

>120 banjo123: Yes it is still young, I guess, Rhonda. Isn't it funny how we lose touch with these sorts of things. Yasmyne is a bit worried about her, actually, and the kid's doc does think she may be autistic (Nami not Yasmyne). She is a happy little girl mostly but will fly into tantrums occasionally (so I suppose she is genetically close to her Grandmother!).

>121 elkiedee: Yes I thought of you too, Luci, without knowing that detail, as you are the one who actually hails from the city (John and I are Wakefield boys).
Ransome was a hugely fascinating figure.

>123 humouress: I am really ill-informed in the arena of child care, Nina. I must admit that I didn't know that there was such a thing as infant signing. I should go and learn it and try it on my staff!

>125 PaulCranswick: Ooh - the sign for 'nappy change' was an important one. (I hope you don't need that for your staff.)

If you are going to do sign language, be aware that there is a difference between the sign languages for different countries so if you're investing in books and other tools make sure you get BSL (British Sign Language - since they live in the UK - and not ASL).

I really think the Deaf Associations missed a trick there; all the people who sign could have been nattering away without being constrained by the language of their country.

>122 PaulCranswick: So is “the last man in” supposed to make 10 runs if his team is to win? Is “an hour to play” a short time or a long time in this context?

>127 booksaplenty1949: You'd generally put your most able batsmen in first so the last man - probably a bowler or wicket keeper - would probably be the weakest. I don't know about school matches but 10 runs might be a lot to ask for one. For a school match, I'd say an hour is a long time. I don't know - ask a cricket expert - but if the last man is still standing at the close of play, timewise (by the rules of those days), then the other team can't say they've won?

>119 booksaplenty1949: Vitaï Lampada looks quite moving, very Wilfred Owen.

Paul, as far as Yasmyne's concern about Nami, it might be worth looking into it. My sister's daughter has two children, aged 5 and 7 . Grey, the eldest had a speech delay, and he had speech therapy , and also was diagnosed with mild autism and ADHD. They were told that with therapy his autism should not be noticeable to other by grade 5 or so. The younger daughter also has mild autism , though no speech delay or ADHD and a similar story to her brother - it should not be noticeable to others by grade 5 or son.

>128 humouress: Thank you for the cricket explanation. Personally I don’t think Wilfred Owen would have wiped his shoes with a copy of Newbolt’s poem—cf “Dulce et Decorum Est”, originally addressed to Jessie Pope, author of “Who’s For the Game?” But perhaps I’m too cynical.

>126 humouress: Don't we take our senses for granted, Nina?! My ignorance of issues and remedies or treatments for sensory impairment of all kinds is shocking when I stop to consider.

>127 booksaplenty1949: A cricket team is made up of 11 players and two players can bat (or be on the field to bat) at any one time. The last man is the 11th man who will come into bat after 9 wickets have fallen. So if 10 runs are needed to win and the last man is in then if either of the last two batsmen are out before those 10 runs have been scored the opposition team which is fielding will win the day.
I hope that makes some sense. An hour to play is more than sufficient to get the 10 runs as in an hour a team could bowl maybe 18 overs (108 balls or pitches).

>128 humouress: Nina is right in that your last man in would generally be the weakest batsman unless you had a player injured who was hoping that he wouldn't need to bat in order for the win. Maybe he pulled a muscle or hurt his hand fielding. In that instance the other team would often target his injury and give lie to the premise of it being a gentleman's game!

>129 vancouverdeb: Thanks for that, Deb. She has, I think, looked into check-ups and has been taking Nami to a specialist already.

>130 booksaplenty1949: & >131 booksaplenty1949:

I didn't get much of a Wilfred Owen vibe from the poem other than the Latin title. Kipling came more to my mind to be honest.

Additions after Sunday brunch:

129. Atmosphere by Taylor Jenkins Reid
130. The Woman in Suite 11 by Ruth Ware

The last named is bought for Hani.

>135 PaulCranswick:. Just finished reading Atmosphere. I have not read Ruth Ware. Since I've been reorganizing my spreadsheets, I've come to the realization that I actually have a few poetry books and a lot of short story collections and am contemplating how I might attack some of these works that I don't gravitate towards. I like the Invictus poem but though I may not fully agree with the premise because of my beliefs of God. I do agree that we have to own the consequences of our decisions.

>136 Kristelh: I could have picked any one of a dozen or so poems to quote yesterday but "Invictus" is one of my favourite poems.

>134 PaulCranswick: Yes, definitely. Last stanza of “The White Man’s Burden” comes to mind.

>5 PaulCranswick: Happy new thread!

>138 booksaplenty1949: Exactly so.

>139 ocgreg34: Thank you, Greg!

>98 PaulCranswick: >99 PaulCranswick: I don't remember ever reading Charlotte's Web. Not in school or at home (home tended to be British books) school (I'm not really sure but it was the English language school board in Quebec. Did that make them even more English than the rest of Canada? Something to ponder.)

>141 Familyhistorian: It was one of the picks from our friends for the Great American Novel so when I saw it amongst a new collection of Harper Collins American Classics, I couldn't resist it. It may have been a generational thing but I also don't remember it as a book schools in England promoted pupils to read.

>142 PaulCranswick: Speaking of which:

https://www.harpercollins.com/pages/americanclassics

Would be a great collection to own.

>142 PaulCranswick: I read Charlotte's Web and I may have come across it at school or outside, really not sure.

First came across this unexpectedly moving essay by the author https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1948/01/death-pig/309203/ which caused me to consider reading the book to my kids.

>144 elkiedee: We should have had fairly similar early curricula, Luci, but honestly, I don't remember it at all from schooldays.

>145 booksaplenty1949: Isn't the internet amazing an article from the Atlantic from 1948!

" a tragedy enacted on most farms with perfect fidelity to the original script."

wonderful.

>147 PaulCranswick: To be honest, I first came across this essay in a student anthology, so its literary excellence had been subsequently recognised. But it’s great to be able to share these things with a tap on the screen.

>148 booksaplenty1949: There are a great number of periodicals / magazines that I really enjoy but I cannot of course subscribe to them all. I have at different times subscribed to 'Private Eye', 'New Statesman', 'The Economist' and 'The Spectator' from the UK. 'The New Yorker', 'Time', 'The Atlantic' and 'National Geographic'. That doesn't count specialist magazines on books and sports.

BOOK #86



Charlotte's Web by E.B. White
Date of Publication: 1952
Origin of Author: USA
Gender of Author: Male
Genre: Fiction
Pages: 184pp

I turn 60 in September and I got to this point without reading Charlotte's Web!

Very nicely written with lilting cadences and rhythms that appease the reading palette. The gentle passing of days on the farm hide a more serious sub-plot which is the loss of innocence and more specifically mortality and the eventual acceptance of it.

Can warm your heart whilst making you think. I will read this to Nami for sure and that is clearly praise enough.

BOOK #87



The Glorious Heresies by Lisa McInerney
Date of Publication: 2015
Origin of Author: Ireland
Gender of Author: Female
Genre: Fiction
Awards: Women's Prize winner
Pages: 371pp

Glorious indeed!

What a romp of a novel. By turns hilarious, tear inducing, thought provoking and abstractly romantic.
Is it a love story?
Is it a tragicomedy?
Is it Celtic noir?
Is it a state of the nation novel?

Yes it is all these things and is a debut novel where the sum really is equal to its multifaceted and glorious parts.

>151 PaulCranswick:. I haven't read that one. Perhaps I should. Great review, Paul.

>152 Kristelh: Thank you, Kristel. There is a lot to like. Plenty of expletives driving very realistically zinging dialogue. Some may not like that, but I think it is essential to the novel.

HI Paul, I am a retired Speech Pathologist and find these discussions on your thread interesting about speech therapy. It never hurts to get checked out! That is, making sure hearing is okay and development in other areas too and to give support and ideas to parents of how to promote speech. As you know every kid is different!

>154 mdoris: Thanks for that, Mary, and you learn something new everyday in this wonderful group.

I know that one of the concerns about Nami was about her hearing given that she can literally blank someone completely without making eye contact. As far as I am aware, Yasmyne, has had her hearing checked and the doctor was satisfied that it wasn't impaired.

As a father of three very different children, I can certainly agree with your final comment. xx

I am glad that you enjoyed Charlotte's Web. EB White was definitely an American treasure.

>156 banjo123: I think that I would have had to have been made of stone not to enjoy that one, Rhonda.

>146 PaulCranswick: It really depends. My schooling was shaped by lots of experiments. I don't like the way in which Tory policies and Michael Gove have determined the National Curriculum much, but I do believe in Jeremy Corbyn's vision of a National Education Service. That doesn't mean one size fits all, it would obviously need work over more years than a Labour government could ever stay/ever have stayed in power.

One of the better ideas in my education was 2 or 3 years, one at primary, one or two at middle school when we had separate time for Creative Writing, with its own exercise book. Another at middle school was that all classes had 15 minutes reading time on the timetable. We could read from the class libraries, and of course I pounced like I was somehow deprived of books, like The Ravenous Beast in a story I used to read to my boys (though the beast wasn't into stories), or we could take in our own. In the 4th year a couple of rather scandalous bestsellers circulated round my class of top class 12 year olds (streaming was the experiment that year).

60 in September? Better come home and join the fight to defend free bus fares from the next government. If you come to London you can travel on TfL for free so long as you don't have to do an early shift at a workplace and can rock up later, and you don't have to go to an early morning hospital appointment. Seriously, it's a great idea but those exemptions are irritating. 11-16s and 16-18 (or 19 if still in FT 16+ stage education) get free bus fares and discounted tube/train fares. The people of Romford and the rest of the London Borough of Havering might lose it if their new Reform council carries out its threat to take the area out of Greater London.

Never too late to read a book, so long as it doesn't get banned from your library first.

>158 elkiedee: Yes, I agree with that - Jeremy Corbyn was very unfairly slighted and in the main by his own apparent circle. A man of principle and, whilst I am not aligned with him on every issue, I do think that he would have made a difference for the better had he not been shunted aside for someone who quite frankly appears not to have any fundamental principles at all other than administering a rules based society.

I was very fortunate to have been to a school that give me a lot of scope to develop my creative side. My English and History teachers was way ahead of her time and a tremendous influence on me as a reader and writer as was my headmaster.

Kyran, my son, is now in his early nascent steps as a teacher in Dulwich and is so fired by enthusiasm and good intentioned care for the children in his care that I do have some hope that all is not lost. A better society starts in the home and is developed in the classroom.

>159 elkiedee: Well I think I will be back fairly soon, Luci, and for good. I come, as you know, from a part of the world that had genuinely benefited from Labour social values.

We need continued pride in our public services, including that wonderful if overburdened National Health Service. We need to put care back into communities and take out the selfishness. We need to come together as a people and not be divided by race, gender, class, religion, sexuality or any other box we can be put inside and controlled by.

Many are coming to the view that that is achievable by electing a right(ish) Reform government into office and I think that is both eminently dangerous as well as being entirely wrong headed. The left has to find the voices and the tools to take the high ground and the straight roads on all these issues and show that success will only come together and not by being apart.

>160 PaulCranswick: Has Kyran joned the NEU or another teaching union? What type of school is he working for? Academy stete school, non-academy, private, etc?

I am a trade unionist.

I've been a school governor for 13, years, and am currently a parent governor on a term of 4 years which began in December 2024, when Conor was in his last year. I plan to serve out this term and find a way to stay connected but probably a different way to volunteer as a governor (it's important we remember we are not teachers or senior leadership etc). It's also a good way of seeing everything from multiple perspectives, which I think is important in these difficult times.

>151 PaulCranswick: Love your response to this novel. I felt the same when I read it.

>162 elkiedee: He is working at a State school, Luci. The name escapes me so I have asked him to confirm it.

He is a member of a trade union and I am pretty sure that it is Unison as he is technically still a Teaching Assistant whilst he does his applied training.

>163 avatiakh: Thanks Kerry. We do quite often agree about books, don't we?!

I am going to do an occasional ranking series where I will rank what are my favourite books by a particular author and then invite the comments of my friends.

I will start with an author who divides opinion more than most Charles Dickens.



I must qualify this by saying that I have still to read four of his novels:
Dombey and Son, Little Dorrit, Bleak House and Our Mutual Friend so those who place those books amongst his best will not see them in my list (yet!)

But still I have 12 distinct works to choose from.

Of those this would be my ranking list:

1. David Copperfield
2. A Tale of Two Cities
3. Nicholas Nickleby
4. Great Expectations
5. A Christmas Carol
6. Oliver Twist
7. Barnaby Rudge
8. Hard Times
9. The Old Curiosity Shop
10. The Pickwick Papers
11. Martin Chuzzlewit
12. The Mystery of Edwin Drood

>166 PaulCranswick:

Various other rankings

https://bibliollcollege.substack.com/p/every-novel-by-charles-dickens-from

Has a top five of:

1. The Pickwick Papers
2. David Copperfield & A Tale of Two Cities
4. Bleak House
5. The Mystery of Edwin Drood (the books bookending this top 5 surprise me at lot)

https://www.forbes.com/sites/entertainment/article/charles-dickens-books/

Top Five
1. Great Expectations
2. A Tale of Two Cities
3. David Copperfield
4. Oliver Twist
5. Bleak House

https://themillions.com/2012/08/dickens-best-novel-6-experts-share-their-opinion...

Six "experts" pick their favourites. Two agree with me and David Copperfield. Two go with Bleak House and one each for Our Mutual Friend and Little Dorrit.

https://www.thenewcanon.com/best-charles-dickens-books-top-10-novels-ranked-for-...

Top Five

1. Great Expectations
2. A Tale of Two Cities
3. David Copperfield
4. Oliver Twist
5. Bleak House

There are many others but you get the idea. There certainly is no consensus.

>164 PaulCranswick: That's good. I like the NEU as a teachers' union but I disapprove of them recruiting current TAs without a clear strategy about representing them, Unions have to work together and constant poaching just undermines everybody.

I think TAs should be in the union that best represents them in their local authority area, and this is rarely going to the NEU. I would like to see them all in Unison but of course the union also can't take them for granted and behave like they own a particular group of staff. There are others - mainly the GMB and Unite. There may be history for anything which is different from normal union representation.

>168 elkiedee: He seems very enthusiastic about teaching after having little idea, what he had wanted to do, beyond academia. Good for him.

>167 PaulCranswick: Well, ATofTC is #2 on all four lists. Personally I would put it near the bottom. Reread it in May 2024 for the War Room Challenge, as it was the only Dickens novel I had only read once. Felt my reluctance to revisit it was well-founded. But this is clearly a minority opinion. In the LT list of Dickens’ novels by number of copies entered it is also #2.

>170 booksaplenty1949: Funny because I put it there too!

>171 PaulCranswick: I did read recently that it has had a lasting impact on the British view of the French Revolution. Not a small accomplishment for a novel. Still found it lame. Also don’t have a particularly high opinion of Dombey and Son or The Old Curiosity Shop. He got (much) better as time went on.

>172 booksaplenty1949: I think his midlife work was possibly him at his peak.

Hi Paul. I hang my head, having not been able to keep up with your threads this year. It's not the first time, but I know if I review them, I will find hundreds of books I would like to read.

Thanks for stopping by my much tinier musings. I've lost track of where you and your family are living now. Did you mention a project in Egypt? Is everyone together now? Sorry to have lost track.

>174 ffortsa: It is more than fine, Judy, I love your visits here and I know well that I am a bit difficult to keep up with at times.
Samsung do have a project in Egypt which I am hoping to get moved to sometime towards the end of the year.
Hani is currently with me here in Malaysia but my three kids and my granddaughter are all in England at the moment.

>166 PaulCranswick: I’ve read the top 6 of your list and Bleak House for sure, and possibly Little Dorrit. I might drop aToTC and stick in BH as sixth.

If it weren’t for its opening and the “far, far, better” bit, I don’t feel aToTC would get nearly as much love and attention.

Well, I love TOTC, but I really couldn't rank Dickens, because usually my favorite is the one I've read most recently.

Some how I missed your Dickens ranking.

1. David Copperfield read. I know this one is suppose to be his best but I don't think its my favorite but will wait and see.

2. A Tale of Two Cities I like this one because it is about the French revolution

3. Nicholas Nickleby

4. Great Expectations

5. A Christmas Carol of course this should be a favorite but I also like his other Christmas tales; The Chimes and The Cricket on the Hearth

6. Oliver Twist has some very fun characters

7. Barnaby Rudge haven't read this one.

8. Hard Times I liked this one

9. The Old Curiosity Shop - haven't read this one
10. The Pickwick Papers - haven't read this one

11. Martin Chuzzlewit

12. The Mystery of Edwin Drood Haven't read this one.

13. Our Mutual Friend

14. Bleak House

So my favorites are
1. A Tale of Two Cities
2. Hard Times
3. Our Mutual Friend
4. Martin Chuzzlewit
5. David Copperfield

Not necessarily in that order but these would be my top 5.

>166 PaulCranswick: I decided to read my way chronologically through Dickens in 2012, to mark his bi-centenary. It didn't start well as I failed with The Pickwick Papers but after that it went better. I found the audiobooks were better/easier than print and Anton Lesser is a wonderful reader. I read/listened through Great Expectations, The Old Curiosity Shop, Little Dorrit, Edwin Drood, Our Mutual Friend, and A Tale of Two Cities. And then I came to a halt. I've since read Bleak House and I always read A Christmas Carol at Christmas. I think I read a few at school and, of course, there are many TV and film adaptations. For my top five:
1. Our Mutual Friend
2. Great Expectations
3. Little Dorrit
4. A Christmas Carol
5. Edwin Drood

Having no short story collections by an author starting with “E” I devoted two days to a novella by Stanley Elkin—“Her Sense of Timing”—in Van Gogh’s Room at Arles. A brilliant work. Looking forward to more by this author.

>176 quondame: You may be right, Susan, but it does have some very memorable lines and an easy to follow narrative. I am in the camp that really likes it and it is a book that I have read three times.

>177 banjo123: There is some truth in that, Rhonda. My first Dickens was The Pickwick Papers and I remember enjoying its picaresque episodic style but it was fast obliterated by what came next.

>178 Kristelh: Hard Times gets points definitely because of its relative brevity and (for me) its Northern setting but I think it is his most obvious book at making a point by hanging a novel around it rather than writing a novel which makes a point, if you can see the distinction I am trying to make.

>179 CDVicarage: Edwin Drood seems more fondly thought of than I remember it, Kerry. Of course it was unfinished but I didn't feel that it felt quite Dickensian somehow.

>180 booksaplenty1949: One of my favourite short story collections was written by Nathan Englander and is called What We Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frank.

I have heard good things about Stanley Elkin though.

>183 PaulCranswick: Will look out for the Englander vol. I am trying to read things I already own but alphabet has a few gaps.

>184 booksaplenty1949: I don't think I could easily get through the alphabet without help on short stories either.

>166 PaulCranswick: Ooh, are we ranking Dickens? Of the ones I have read, here are my rankings:

1. A Christmas Carol. There may be sentimental reasons why this is my top, but it’s also the one I’ve read the most, by far.
2. Oliver Twist
3. Great Expectations
4. David Copperfield
5. Hard Times
6. A Tale of Two Cities

I’ve bounced off of The Pickwick Papers and Nicholas Nickleby in the past. I really should read more of his works, as I’ve generally enjoyed the ones I have read.

>182 PaulCranswick:. I went back and reviewed my review of Hard Times. I can see what you're saying but it was still what I liked about the book. I think.

>186 foggidawn: Good books all, Foggi. I know the great man was not for everyone and some of my best pals in the group abhor his writing, but I am enthralled by his wonderful array of characters, brilliant turns of phrase and tremendous plot structures.

>187 Kristelh: No I totally get it, Kristel, as one of the commonest complaints about Chuckles is the tendency towards (and often beyond) verbosity. Hard Times doesn't have that.

Hopefully I can get a few more thoughts on the ranking of the Dickens novels. I am scoring the choices with 5 points for a first place and 4 for a second down to 5th place. I will close the vote this time tomorrow.

Next up I will consider another of my favourite Victorian authors.

We have a close friend visiting us for a few days (Hani's school friend and like minded buddy - they both adore handbags(!)) and Syken (for that is her name) always takes an interest in my books and what I am reading. She has four children of similar ages to my kids - 2 girls and 2 boys. The eldest daughter is a confidant of Kyran and also lives in London and adores English Literature. The youngest daughter is training to run hotels in a "school" in Switzerland and is one of my favourite people outside my own family "Si Kecil" is my nickname for her which translates as "The Little One".

Syken took and interest in the rather careworn book of poems I was reading and which I reviewed in >117 PaulCranswick: above.

Yesterday I was reading the two ladies poems from the collection and they were debating which were their favourites. And then I played them some professional readings (on YouTube) of a number of famous poems and got their views on those too.

Discovered to my immense surprise that Hani likes Philip Larkin and Rudyard Kipling a lot but dislikes Dylan Thomas in almost equal measure much to my regret.

I've read quite a few novels by Dickens, but I can't remember which for certain and I certainly could not rate them, Paul.

1. Our Mutual Friend
2. David Copperfield
3. Little Dorrit
4. Bleak House
5. Nicholas Nickleby

>166 PaulCranswick: I think I've only ever read A Christmas Carol which was our assigned book in the first year of secondary school.

You could use the poll feature in posts for this survey, if you wanted. ↘️

>191 vancouverdeb: Of course I also get the difficulty in rating them, Deb. My top favourites used to change all the time and I still like his different books for different reasons.
Pickwick because it was my first
Oliver because of its wonderful storyline
Nicholas Nick is I think the best page turner
Two Cities is probably the most quotable
David Copperfield is the most satisfying
Curiosity Shop has the most pathos
Christmas Carol is a near perfect novella
Expectations is his most mysterious
Hard Times has realism and brevity
Barnaby has a brilliant ending

>192 booksaplenty1949: Three of the four that I haven't read. I must do better.
The two I have read that you picked are amongst my own favourites.

>193 humouress: Thanks for the idea, Nina.

On your last thread the first author I saw when scrolling down was Émile Zola- whose name I had just seen online when I was trying to figure out which books had been banned in NZ....wikipedia reckons his was the first here to cause a stir :)

In 1888–89, publisher Henry Vizetelly was prosecuted in the United Kingdom for obscene libel for publishing translated works of Émile Zola. This led to an investigation into Zola's works by the Christchurch police in which detectives were sent to local bookshops to enquire after novels by Zola. Five men were arrested, prosecuted, and convicted for stocking indecent books. This was the first prosecution for indecent publications in a New Zealand court.

On another note, I couldn't say I have a favourite Dickens novel....actually, I can! A Christmas Carol! YAY

>196 LovingLit: To imagine Zola being considered "indecent". The Victorians shunned realism for an idealized view of the world which does not sit very nicely with some of their Imperialist practices which I would consider far more indecent than words written by a French author.

It was early in Queen Victoria's reign that Britain fought a war to compel the Chinese government to accept the import and not restrict the distribution of opium. A bit more indecent that Emile, I think.

There’s a scene in L’argent where a man has been tipped off that his mistress has taken a pied-a-terre where she entertains another lover (Saccard, the main character of the novel). The maid sneaks the lover into a closet where he can spy on the couple, and he is able to confront them when the mistress is on her knees in front of the pantless Saccard. I’m not defending censorship, but this is not a scene we can envision in a novel by a British contemporary of Zola. Probably still wouldn’t assign the novel in high school.
Zola was, of course, tried and convicted for his defence of Dreyfus. I don’t think we can hold up the France of the time as morally superior to GB in any general way.

>198 booksaplenty1949: I would never suggest that the French of any age were morally superior to the British - heaven forbid!

What I am juxtaposing as hypocritical are conservative Victorian moral values set against the backdrop of an often rapacious Imperial machine. I have had several fairly feisty discussions in the group about the fact that for its faults the British Empire did an awful lot of good in the world too but some of the wrongs it perpetrated need to be acknowledged also.

>199 PaulCranswick: Apparent resistance of French to cricket suggests deeper problems, certainly.

>200 booksaplenty1949: Hahaha true. Too much of a sticky wicket, I guess.

See the England captain Ben Stokes is in trouble for a nightclub altercation again. I would stand him down for the next test if only they could find a sound stand-in for a game or two (which they probably cannot).

Late to the Dickens discussion. Let's see - I've read
David Copperfield
Nicholas Nickleby
Great Expectations
A Christmas Carol
Bleak House

I tried Pickwick Papers but couldn't get into it. I think that's it. I read Nicholas Nickleby because I was scheduled to see the stage version (wonderful) and wanted to know the story, and became enraptured.

Recently (a couple of years ago) I gave away a set of Dickens I inherited from my mother (who hated the author but didn't get rid of them because they were a gift). They were quite elegant but deteriorating, and took up a lot of shelf space.

>198 booksaplenty1949: Wow, that does sound racy. I would have thought Nana was the cause of the obscenity rating.

I've done a quick trip through your threads this year to pick up about 35 titles, mostly fiction, that you have read and commented on. As I went, I realized that you read a lot of poetry, which I have let fall over the years and which I must reacquaint myself with. No sense having the books if I don't open them. And I discovered again that your threads are very interesting to read, so I will try my best to get here more often.

>200 booksaplenty1949: Well, if they're not playing cricket ...

>202 ffortsa: Solid, Judy. Four of my top five are on yours!

I would like to get a complete set of his works in one single collection as they are presently all shapes and sizes. Zola is my favourite author but Dickens is close to my favourite English author with Greene, Hardy and Maugham for company.

>203 ffortsa: *Blushing*
That is a lovely thing to say. It is all the wonderful contributions from my friends that gives it some interest. xx

I could not live without poetry in my life.

>204 humouress: They are removing the limbs of frogs.

BOOK #88



The Open Veins of Latin America by Eduardo Galeano
Date of Publication: 1971
Origin of Author: Uruguay
Gender of Author: Male
Genre: Non-Fiction
Challenges: Roads Less Travelled
Pages: 308 pp

This book is subtitled "Five Centuries of the Pillage of a Continent".

It is incendiary.
It is hyperbolic.
It is passionate.
It is brilliant.

I cannot conceive of any fair minded person reading this book without becoming incensed in turn. How successive powers mainly the Spanish, the Portuguese, the British and the Americans became richer by impoverishing Latin America. How they manipulated, and repressed; how they usurped and defiled. How they controlled and made fortunes in minerals, sugar, coffee, fruit, oil and gas and via banking and financing controls whilst Latin America were kept subservient.

Galeano was not a disinterested party but that lends authority to his charges rather than undermines them.

Recommended reading.

>207 PaulCranswick: Another book I remember thinking I want to read every time I see the title.

>208 elkiedee: It is really good, Luci. Some may assert that Galeano is exaggerating somewhat but I am not so sure about that as there is more than a ring of truth in his telling.

Dickens results

1. David Copperfield
2. Tale of Two Cities
3. Great Expectations
4. Bleak House
5. A Christmas Carol
6. Our Mutual Friend
7. Oliver Twist
8. Little Dorrit
9. Nicholas Nickelby
10. Hard Times

AUTHOR BOOK RANKINGS

2. THOMAS HARDY



I have read all of Hardy's major novels.

This is my ranking of the best five:

1. The Return of the Native
2. Tess of the D'Urbervilles
3. Far from the Madding Crowd
4. The Mayor of Casterbridge
5. Jude the Obscure

Some other rankings:

https://fivebooks.com/best-books/best-thomas-hardy-books-mark-chutter/

1. The Mayor of Casterbridge
2. Far from the Madding Crowd
3. Return of the Native
4. Tess of the D'Urbervilles
5. The Woodlanders

https://www.penguin.co.uk/discover/articles/best-thomas-hardy-books-and-novels

1. Tess of the D'Urbervilles
2. Far from the Madding Crowd
3. Return of the Native
4. The Mayor of Casterbridge
5. Jude the Obscure

https://harpercollins.co.uk/blogs/reading-lists/thomas-hardys-best-books

1. Far from the Madding Crowd
2. Tess of the D'Urbervilles
3. The Mayor of Casterbridge
4. Under the Greenwood Tree
5. The Woodlanders

https://thegreatestbooks.org/authors/4796

1. Tess of the D'Urbervilles
2. Jude the Obscure
3. The Mayor of Casterbridge
4. Far from the Madding Crowd
5. Return of the Native

https://interestingliterature.com/2015/02/the-best-thomas-hardy-novels/

1. Tess of the D'Urbervilles
2. Jude the Obscure
3. The Woodlanders
4. Return of the Native
5. The Mayor of Casterbridge

Hi Paul, I can't keep up with your threads!

I hope you are well; you are certainly doing some great reading.

Hej Paul, greetings from our rainy photo session in the pre-Alps ... rainy, coldish (10° C), good food, good group ... the topic are 'animals'. We went to a butterfly breeder, a raised bog and a zoo

>213 BLBera: Lovely to see you, Beth, and don't worry about keeping up - I cannot do so either.

>214 paulstalder: Lovely to see you too, Paul. How do you breed butterflies?

>211 PaulCranswick: I think the only Hardy I've read is Tess, though I have others of his waiting on my shelves. So, I'll sit out this round.

>216 foggidawn: At least we know which is your favourite Hardy read to date, Foggi!

>211 PaulCranswick: I know I've read some Hardy but many years ago: I read Jude the Obscure (having seen Robert Powell in a TV adaptation in the early 70s), Tess of the D'Urbevilles and The Mayor of Casterbridge and possibly some others but, like Dickens, they're the books one knows about and absorbs without reading them, so I can't offer you my favourites!

My Hardy ratings
The Mayor of Casterbridge
Tess of the d'Ubervilles
Far From the Maddening Crowd
Jude the Obscure
The Hand of Ethelberta

I still have The Return of the Native to read. Hardy is one of my favorite authors. I like him better than Dickens.

>217 PaulCranswick: Yes, and also my least favorite!

>206 PaulCranswick: Every time I need a laugh I look at this line again.

>218 CDVicarage: Are there books that we absorb rather than read? What an interesting idea, Kerry.

>219 Kristelh: Solid list. Ethelberta is a decent novel too.

>220 foggidawn: Hahaha well, yes, that is true.

>221 booksaplenty1949: It was early in the morning here and I am always likely to type the first thing that comes into my mind.

>211 PaulCranswick: I've read Tess and Far From the Madding Crowd. Others will have to wait.

Hi Paul, I haven't read enough Dickens to do ratings. Looks like I should read David Copperfield in the near future.
I read most of Hardy's books in my late teens but that's so long ago that I couldn't rate them now.

>224 ffortsa: Well you got to the two most famous ones I would hazard, Judy.

>225 avatiakh: Poor old Tommy seems to have fallen from grace now when it comes to a modern readership. I am very much a fan and think that his novels were ahead of their time.

Since most of the Dickens that I've read was so long ago, I can't rank them now. I would need to do a reread. And I really should do that, as well as read his other books. I've got a set that I inherited, so they're available.

As for Hardy, I read two of his books, one in my senior English class in high school, and one in college. I hated both of them, mostly because I strongly disliked almost all the characters in the books. And I can't even remember which two out of Far from the Madding Crowd, Return of the Native, Tess of the D'Urbervilles, and The Mayor of Casterbridge I read. Maybe I was the wrong age for those books when I read them, but I haven't had any urge to read Hardy since then.

>227 atozgrl: You must have really hated them, Irene, if you have managed to blank which one's you read!

As to Chuckles, I am planning to read one per month next year and I intend to read or re-read them in publication order.

>228 PaulCranswick: I was thinking that I might read Dickens in order myself, though I know I can't read them all in one year. Too many other books on the go. But I do want to tackle the Dickens. And I did inherit a nice set, all with the same style binding.

>229 atozgrl: Well you will have someone to read them with, Irene!!

Additions today:

131. White Nights by Fyodor Dostoevsky
132. Hedda Gabler by Henrik Ibsen
133. Land by Maggie O'Farrell
134. The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas

White Nights was a BB from Bayboi

>211 PaulCranswick: I'm with Irene - I dislike Hardy's novels. When I was a teenager, those heady days when I read voraciously but had limited access to libraries (except during school holidays), we were given a boxed set of four of his books and I didn't finish a single one. I'm guessing that they were the first four on your list; the first three certainly sound familiar.

>232 humouress: I am actually surprised at the amount of dislike engendered for Hardy in the group. I don't know why but I had expected more popularity.

The World's biggest sporting event by a country mile the Football World Cup begins in Mexico this evening (early hours of tomorrow morning in Malaysia) as one of the three hosts Mexico take on South Africa.



Anybody care to venture which of the 48 nations will eventually prevail. Football, because of our unique role in "giving" the game to the world allows all the individual parts of the United Kingdom to enter its own team so this team there is my team, England, as well as the Tartan Army, Scotland, featuring.

England, winners in 1966, have a good team and a chance to go all the way, but I think we will struggle in the heat and humidity.

The established favourites; France, Spain, Brazil, Argentina, Germany, Portugal and the Netherlands will fancy their chances.

I have a hope and an inkling that one of the ten African nations will go close this time and I take the solid looking Algerian team to surprise. Ecuador are another dark horse.

The three hosts USA, Mexico and Canada will get a lot of support and won't disgrace themselves but I would be astounded if one of them go on to win it.

My forecast : Spain to win it. Algeria to be Africa's first finalists. England and Ecuador to reach the Semis. All this, a complicated draw allowing.

>234 PaulCranswick: Have the Iraqi team been allowed into the US yet? Or will they have to end up playing their matches in Canada and Mexico. (And what about the top class referre who wasn't allowed to enter the US and had to fly back home?)

We plan to be watching the opening match tonight, at 3am Singapore time.

>235 humouress: I hope the nastiness and pettiness of politics don't spoil the competition, Nina. There are genuine security concerns of course and the various immigration authorities have a job to do, but I would have thought that those concerns were not the players and officialdom (linesmen and referees).
I will watch the game as well possibly.

>233 PaulCranswick: Worst of both worlds: Thomas Hardy rejects the cosy conventions of the Victorian novel for greater realism, but feels compelled to punish his protagonists with horrible fates for stepping outside those conventions.

Hi Paul! Glad to see you keeping up with everything!

The Iraqi team will be playing in the US.

>237 booksaplenty1949: Is there humor or drollness in Hardy? I don’t recall much if any.

>240 quondame: not much humor if any.

>240 quondame: Like D. H. Lawrence, he is a moralist. They don’t do humour well.

>237 booksaplenty1949: Mostly true but not uniformly so. Not all his books a dreary not everyone of them ends in tragedy although mostly they do.

>238 The_Hibernator: I will do my very best Rachel. Great to see you here.

>239 Kristelh: Will be interesting to see what sort of support they get. They will need it probably.

>240 quondame: There is some in often unexpected places but his work could never be described as comedy, Susan.

>241 Kristelh: Well yes, not too much of it, book twin.

>242 booksaplenty1949: He was an unorthodox moralist whose primary aim it seems to me was to look beyond or critique the standard Victorian norms and demonstrate how they legislate against women.

>234 PaulCranswick: Well I didn’t know so I asked Mr SandDune and he thinks France.

THE WOMEN'S PRIZE WINNERS HAVE BEEN ANNOUNCED:

NON-FICTION: Lyse Doucet - The Finest Hotel in Kabul



FICTION: The Correspondent by Virginia Evans

>246 SandDune: In with a chance for sure, Rhian. There are three four players at this world cup from our beloved Leeds United and I will be watching for their progress too.

We have Gudmundsson with Sweden
We have Tanaka with Japan
We have Aaronson with the USA
ETA: We have Okafor with Switzerland

>248 PaulCranswick: Mr SandDune says there is another one as well:

Noah Okafor - Switzerland

>249 SandDune: And he is right, Rhian. In my defence it is 2:46 a.m. and I stayed up to watch the Women's Prize winners being announced. So I am a bit of a zombie.

I will edit above.

A surprise that The Correspondent won the Women's Prize for Fiction , Paul, but a very popular pick on LT.

As for FIFA, I don't really know much about it. But my sister's husband is with the RCMP and one of the people in charge of security for the event. He's on call 24/ 7 for the next while and I will stay far away from FIFA in Vancouver. I am crowd averse and no riots please.

I have not read the nonfiction book but I did read the fiction one and I liked it. I have to say I did not think it would win though.

>233 PaulCranswick: I suspect I need to give him another try, since I am much older now. I might appreciate the writing more. (I'm not sure I'll like the characters any better though).

Here's the next readathon: https://www.librarything.com/topic/384866

>251 vancouverdeb: As you know it is the only one that I have so far finished on the shortlist, Deb, and whilst I did enjoy it, I didn't think it quite up to award winning standards. Good People which didn't get longlisted was a far better and more profound read IMHO.

I second the hope that the World Cup goes off peacefully and without any incident that has no relation to football.

>252 Kristelh: Me too, Kristel. I have Doucet's book on the shelves and will get to it soon. I had been rooting for Arundhati Roy and Mother Mary Comes to Me which I thought was extraordinarily good.

>253 atozgrl: Sometimes we just don't get on with certain authors, Irene. Virginia Woolf is one such for me (except for her brilliant non-fiction).

>254 SilverWolf28: Thank you, Silver

>256 PaulCranswick: That is very true, Paul.

>255 PaulCranswick: I agree, Paul, Good People would have been an excellent addition to the Women's Prize for Fiction ( a good winner, I think as well ). I also hope there is no trouble with the FIFA games.

>257 atozgrl: Psychological and stream of conscience type novels are not really my thing to be honest, Irene.

>258 vancouverdeb: I thought it by some distance the best new work I have read this year, Deb. I do have hopes for Maggie O'Farrell's new novel though.

>110 PaulCranswick: It is always difficult that in male dominated fields, when more than one female is working the women seem to sabotage each other instead of helping together.

Anyhow, hope you have a wonderful weekend!

>260 figsfromthistle: Thankfully our working place is not quite so male dominated. The two ladies in question: Ika (my assistant/ right-hand person) and Shidah (Senior Quantity Surveyor) have been daggers drawn with each other for the last 8 years.

Interestingly Shidah tendered her resignation at the new project on Tuesday. My feeling is (because she is very close to the Company Commercial Manager) that she want to manipulate herself into amended terms of working. Then again I am an unrepentant cynic.

I was surprised that The Correspondent won because I liked it and books that I like usually don't win.

I'd like to be able to avoid Vancouver while FIFA is on but that's not currently possible as my son is in a Vancouver hospital. I'm hoping that it is way out of the zone for football visitors.

>262 Familyhistorian: Well Canada got off to a good(ish) start with a draw against Bosnia.

I liked The Correspondent as well, Meg, but it didn't really blow me away either.