Charlotte's (charl08) graphic (novel) reading (4)

I'm Charlotte, based in the northwest of England. I'm currently "between jobs", but this doesn't seem to have translated into having more time to read, sadly.

I've been based in the cat challenge for the last couple of years, and really value the company of the readers here. I'm also over on Litsy - here's a recent reading shot.


I (like everyone here, I'm sure) enjoy reading. I also try and visit exhibitions at art galleries and museums and (when funds permit) travelling. Most recently this was France, my first time on the Eurostar and Interrailing: but hopefully not the last. Travels usually involve visiting bookshops and difficult decisions about weight allowances and the amount of books I can carry.

Since I joined LT 'talk' I have discovered graphic novels and memoirs (GN's), and now have a small collection. I once persuaded a book group to read Persepolis and another to read Good Talk. Thanks to my library I'm always finding new authors and styles. Each category has a "quote" from a GN here.

From Alone in Space by Tillie Walden.
Categories:

Reading my own books
Familiar Faces
New to me
Prizewinners
Women in translation
Graphic novels / manga
African Writers
History, Memoirs and other Non-Fiction
Books about Art

Plus: Cat reads

From Halley Gullen's This Might Surprise You: A Breast Cancer Story

Reading my own books

From Feeding Ghosts

I want to read more of my own books. Last year I managed around 100, with some dating back to 2013 (although I'm not convinced the book on my shelf is the same one I brought home from a charity shop back then!).

The challenge is to: read 10 of my own books each month *and* to try and read something added to my catalogue before 2013 - Now 2020*.

January
13 books read, earliest (possibly!) 2013

February
8 books read, earliest (possibly) pre LT.

March
2 read earliest (!) 2025

April
6 read earliest 2023

May
7 read earliest 2023 (possibly...)

June
The Things We Never Say (2026)
Wounding Words (2026)
Ancestors: the prehistory of Britain in seven burials (??)

*My records aren't good enough for this, so moved the date forward

From Pearl: a graphic novel

May
The News from Dublin (Colm Tóibín)
The Drowned (John Banville)
The Quiet Mother (Arnaldur Indridason)
Death of the Author (Nnedi Okorafor)
The Hill of Evil Counsel (Amos Oz)

New to me


From Fierce

May
Crossing
Sweet Death, Kind Death
Cherry Baby
Checkmate to Murder
The Great Fortune
That Bonesetter Woman
Days of Contempt
The Fabulous Clipjoint

Prizewinners and nominees

From Florrie

The Geometer Lobachevsky (Walter Scott Prize shortlist)
Hen's Teeth (Orange Prize Shortlist 1997)
Death of an Ordinary Man (Women's Prize NF longlist 2026)
The Best of Everything (Women's Prize fiction longlist nominee 2026)
The Benefactors (Women's Prize fiction longlist nominee 2026))
Artists, Siblings, Visionaries: The lives and loves of Gwen and Augustus John (Women's Prize longlist NF)
Kingfisher (Women's Prize fiction longlist nominee 2026)
Moderation (Women's Prize fiction longlist nominee 2026)
Wild Dark Shore (Ditto)
A Guardian and a Thief (ditto)
Dominion (ditto)
The Others (ditto)
Mother Mary Comes to Me (WPNF)
Heart the Lover (WP fiction longlist)
The Mercy Step (ditto)
The Last Wolf (Nobel Prize for literature)
We are Green and Trembling (Booker International longlist 2026)

Women in translation

From To Broadway

Target(s)- at least one per month, and in at least six languages over the year.

January:
The Paris Trilogy (French)
The Simple Art of Killing a Woman (Portuguese)
All The Lovers in the Night (Japanese)
Diary of a Tuscan Bookshop (Italian)
All Men want to Know (French)

February
Family Lexicon (Italian)

March
N/A

April
Chinatown (Vietnamese)
The Book of Mother (French)

May
The Brittle Age (Italian)
The Barefoot Woman (French)
Imagine Breaking Everything (Colombian Spanish)

June
Wounding Words (French)
We are Green and Trembling (Argentinian Spanish
Bookstore Girls (Japanese)

Graphic novels / manga


From Spent

January
The Joy of Quitting (memoir, reread)

February
Graphic Science: seven journeys of discovery
Fatherland
Daytripper
Woman, Life, Freedom

March
Diaries of War: Two Visual Accounts from Ukraine and Russia
Haddon Hall: when David invented Bowie
Hot Dog Taste Test

April
Dear Historian
Bubble

May
Walking Distance
Chernobyl: The Fall of Atomgrad

June
Room for Love
Sunday's Child
The Crystal Vase

July
Patchwork: A graphic biography of Jane Austen

RIP Marjane Sartrapi

African Writers



From Aya

Aiming for one a month:
January Breaking Milk (South Africa)
February The Woman Next Door (South Africa)
March
April
May The Barefoot Woman (Rwanda)
June Wounding Words (Tunisia)
July Riambel (Mauritius)
Possible reads from my shelves:
And they didn't die
Tales of the Metric System
Mother to Mother
Sankofa
This Fiction Called Nigeria
My Mother's Lovers
Still Life

History, Memoirs and other Non-Fiction
Always a fan of social histories and 'hidden' voices (or as they used to say "histories from below")

From Algeriennes

April
Hotel Exile (history)

May
Alone: on different ways of living (Memoir)
Red Valkyries (History)

June
Ancestors: the prehistory of Britain in seven burials (History)

Books about Art and Exhibition catalogues (new category)


From The Women Who Changed Art Forever

Also aiming for one a month : not doing too well with this!

January: Women in Revolt! Art and activism in the UK
February (missed this month)
March Artists Siblings Visionaries
April / May nada

Possible books to read from my shelves:
The Story of Art without Men
Gluck: 1895-1978
Annie Swynnerton: Painting hope and light
At Home With Irma Stern
Medieval Women: British Library exhibition
Left Bank: art, passion and the rebirth of Paris
Images of Defiance: South African Posters
South Africa: Art of a Nation
Listening to Distant Thunder: the art of Peter Clarke
Portrait of the artist Käthe Kollwitz
Winifred Knights
Berthe Morisot: shaping impressionism

Monthly list

January 25
February 23 (48)
March 23 (71)
April 24 (95)
May 23 (118)

June 24 (142)

1. Every Drop is a Man's Nightmare (New to me)
2. Strange Hotel (Book group book)
3. The Things We Never Say (familiar faces)
4. Wounding Words (Women in translation / African writers)
5. We Are Green and Trembling (Women in translation / prize winners / familiar faces)
6. Pathemata (familiar faces)
7. The Bolthole (new to me)
8. Multitudes (familiar faces)
9. The Keeper (familiar faces)
10. What Happens in Amsterdam (familiar faces)

11. Room for Love (GN)
12. Sunday's Child (GN)
13. The Glass Pearls (New to me)
14. Ancestors (NF - History / reading my own books)
15. Forever in Bloom (familiar faces)
16. Generation GDR (NF)
17. Bookstore Girls (Women in translation)
18. The Painted Drum (Familiar faces)
19. Undue Burden (NF)
20. Roundabout of Death (New to me)

21. The Crystal Vase (GN)
22. Dolly All the Time (Familiar faces)
23. Sublimate (Familiar faces)
24. Children of Radium (NF)

July 13 (155)

1. The Burning Grounds (Familiar faces)
2. The Nights are Quiet in Tehran (Women in translation)
3. Patchwork: a Graphic Biography of Jane Austen (GN)
4. Riambel (African writers/ reading my own books)
5. Doppelganger (NF)
6. The Clues in the Fjord (Women in translation)
7. Devotions: eight stories (familiar faces)
8. Platform Decay (familiar faces)
9. Murder at the Spirit Lounge (familiar faces)
10. Python's Kiss (familiar faces)

11. A Private Man (new to me)
12. The Secret Painter (NF / art / new to me)
13. First and Forever (familiar faces)

Books I'm currently reading (or at least, have picked up and intend to get back to...)

Wow! You have done amazing reading so far this year. Happy new thread. I will plan to start The Painted Drum next week, if that works for you.

>12 BLBera: Thanks Beth.

Bunny spotted today on a walk.

Happy new thread, Charlotte! Your grass is so green! Ours usually is too but this year we've had much less rain.

>13 charl08: We have a lot of feral bunnies, or rabbits. Muffin loves to chase them on a leash. It's one of her favourite activities. I just finished The Things We Never Say and really enjoy it.

>14 Familyhistorian: We've had a lot of rain, as well as unexpected warm temperatures.

>15 vancouverdeb: I used to see a lot of them at work when leaving late, but this was the first one I'd seen in a while. I am going to listen to an interview with Elizabeth Strout this weekend. Motivation to get out and walk (for me, I hope)
https://open.spotify.com/episode/1QulLUlnHyYjU1ojzyxKKu

Happy new one, Charlotte!

Happy New Thread

>17 MissWatson: >18 lowelibrary: Thank you. I appreciate visitors!

The Bolthole (new to me)
Crime fiction series set in Australia, which (true to form) I have picked up in completely the wrong order. This is book 4 and there is a bit of an info dump at the beginning which makes me think you probably want to read them in order. The two investigators are sent to Kangaroo island to look at the disappearance of a very wealthy land developer. He went for a surf and never came back. They are soon faced with a huge number of suspects, as everyone from local eco protestors to the beekeeper has a grudge against the disappeared man.

Mostly enjoyed this, although it sometimes felt over-explained.

Multitudes
My library was closed last week as they put all the books back on the shelves after fixing the roof. I went to another library and picked this up off the new book shelf. I think they have reissued Caldwell's short fiction collections after the success of her novel. The title story follows parents in a neonatal ward, dealing with a life threatening diagnosis. Most of the stories though focus on being a young person, dealing with racism, homophobia and horrible other children. In one heartbreaking story a child tries to make sense of why her lovely neighbour/ babysitter has disappeared. The "Troubles" are never the main focus, but there are oblique references: one character is not allowed to leave her street in the summer, another's mum is unable to get back from a late night when roads are closed.

Here a woman gets delayed at the airport going home to Belfast for Xmas, and starts talking to a guy at a bar doing the same thing.

This is what you will have talked about. You will have told him how you've always felt lonely. You will have told him how they explained in Sunday school that those we'd lost watch over us, and how it was meant to comfort but instead terrified you, the thought of Janey at your shoulder following your every move, knowing your every thought. You will have told him that for a long time you weren't sure where she finished and you began. You only started liking books because of Janey. She had hundreds of books because she'd spent so long ill in bed with nothing to do but read, and you inherited them all, and first you read out of guilt, and then you read out of loneliness, and then you read because it had become a habit. Now you're an editorial assistant at a small publishing house, and you know your parents wonder, although they'd never say it, if that's what Janey would have done.

I have Multitudes TBR still, and Caldwell's following collection Openings but have started reading her newest collection, Devotions because it was a reservation and someone wanted it back. I've now got my own paperback copy - it must have been a review copy or something because it was only published in April. Intimacies was excellent but I still don't own a copy. Wow, that's a lot of work in the last 10 years or so - at least 4 collections, a novel and editing an anthology (one of a series) called Being Various.

>21 elkiedee: I have requested Devotions via the library: I think that might have been what made me notice this one.

Another library request came in at my (now reopened) library: The Keeper. Very tense and I struggled to put it down (although needed to: this is a heavyweight hardback). Third and final book finds Cal and Trey dealing with the death of a young woman connected to an influential community figure. The townland feels real enough to walk around, and the characters are so brilliantly drawn, I found myself worried for them all.

Humour too:

Garda Dennis is at the front desk, and he's spilled something on his keyboard. He's dabbing it carefully with a paper towel and saying minor cuss words at it in a reproachful under-tone. He matches the station: in his spotless uniform, with his rosy cheeks, he's round and neat as a figurine. He looks like he spends his work hours getting himself into humorous predicaments involving rascally stray mutts.

'Afternoon,' Cal says, wiping his feet on the mat. 'I catch you at a bad time?'

I started The Painted Drum. I am only on chapter 3 but am a little disoriented; this is set in New Hampshire, not Erdrich's usual setting. Still, the writing is great:

"Whenever you leave cleared land, or a path, or a road, when you step from someplace carved out, plowed, or traced by a human and pass into the woods, you must leave something of yourself behind. It is that sudden loss, I think, even more than the difficulty of walking through undergrowth that keeps people firmly fixed to paths. In the woods, there is no right way to go, of course, no trail to follow but the law of growth. You must leave behind the notion that things are right."

>23 BLBera: Sounds good! I got distracted by a quick trip to Cardiff, but have picked up the book again.

I went to Cardiff Central Library. It was really striking inside, all staircase angles, but as it was also a centre for social / unemployment council support I didn't feel comfortable taking lots of photos. They had a brilliant adult graphic novel collection (I never even got to the separate teen collection). And amazing views across the city.

I read Artists, Siblings Visionaries the joint bio of Gwen and Augustus John earlier in the year. When I saw this exhibit of Gwen John's work was on in Cardiff I knew I wanted to go see some of her work in person.

Beautiful exhibition - recommended.

The exhibit travels to Edinburgh next and then the US so there are more chances to see it.

https://www.nationalgalleries.org/exhibition/gwen-john-strange-beauties
https://nmwa.org/exhibitions/gwen-john-strange-beauties/

I think my favourites were the quick paintings from sketches she did of other people in church. She did so many you got a sense of the congregation, from children to wealthy older women.

Room for Love (GN)

Very bleak GN centred on a divorced romance novelist and a young homeless man who meet on a London bridge. Improbably, the woman takes him home, and uses him to inspire her writing. He, meanwhile, refuses to say very much about his life, but they have transactional sex. Or at least, he sees it as transactional, and asks questions about what she's getting from him in terms of inspiration.

Not really my thing, but interesting enough to keep me reading.

https://www.selfmadehero.com/books/room-for-love

>26 charl08: That is very cool. I will look to see if it comes here.

>25 charl08: It sounds lovely, the Cardiff Library, Charlotte. My niece is moving to London UK as she got a job with Apple, she works as a computer engineer. She's renting a one bedroom flat in Marleybone, if I spelled that correctly . I have read so many books from the UK , that the names of place sound so interesting to me. We are having a farewell party for her next Saturday.

>28 BLBera: From what I can see, DC and CT. Quite a few of the pictures are on loan from other institutions, so there are other chances to see her work. It made me laugh, the one I love and most wanted to see (The Student) is actually on loan from a museum in Manchester. I hadn't realised (or had forgotten) they owned it.

>29 vancouverdeb: I hope she enjoys her new job, sounds like a big move.

Sunday's Child (GN)
The author reflects on the childhood of her grandfather, who grew up in 1930s/40s Germany. Thoughtful, powerful in the questions it asks about things that are not said.

The Glass Pearls
Picked this up in Oxfam Cardiff, it's by the legendary Pressburger of Powell and Pressburger films. It's a very odd psychological thriller, following a man in 60s Britain who the reader comes to understand, was a Nazi doctor in a death camp. He's been contacted by a former colleague who wants him to join "the Brotherhood" in Argentina. Instead, Braun lives with Jewish refugees from Hitler, whose stories of survival contrast to his own, and who he uses as a kind of camouflage. "Braun" meets a young woman and tells her his life story, eventually convincing her to meet him in Paris for a weekend, against all his previous commitment to frugality and being inconspicuous. But are the mysterious people he thinks are following him, really there? Or just his paranoia?

Pressburger had himself come to Britain as a refugee and lost family to the holocaust. In the light of this, the way he makes the reader take the part of the criminal is even more striking (as the introduction and afterword note). Apparently the novel was not well received in the 1960s. It's worth reading if you can find it, reissued by Faber.

I forced myself to forget about that money in Zürich and I don't wish to be reminded of it. I have lived for twenty years according to self-imposed rules; it wasn't easy and I'm not going to change my ways now. I denied myself everything I used to enjoy most. You said yourself before we parted: "The more you like to do certain things, the more difficult it will be to give them up, but the more useful you'll find doing so to hide your identity. You are a heavy smoker," you said, "don't ever smoke again. You like playing the violin, from now on never touch it. Medicine's your very life - don't even read about it!" I never did. And I'm not going to take any risks now with only a few more weeks to go.'

'What do you mean?' Hein asked as if he wouldn't know.

'The twenty years are up in May. On the 8th May to be exact. The war ended on 8th May, 1945. Twenty years added makes 8th May, 1965. That's exactly twelve weeks and two days from now.'

'Aren't you reading the papers, man? Haven't you heard that they're postponing the date?'

>30 charl08: It is a big move, but she seems quite excited about it. She thought she had two friends in London, but it turned out one moved to New York City and did not tell anyone, and the other friend moved to Oxford UK. But she goes to work 3 days a week and she is an accomplished pianist, and plans to have piano in her flat, so I hope she will find close by friends that way. She is a somewhat solitary person and lived away from home for university, so I think she will do well / okay.
Myself, I am certainly not adventurous like that. Let me stick close to family and friends.

>33 vancouverdeb: Will you be asking her for your royal updates? They are showing pictures of Hackney Lido on the TV (due to the heat) which looks wonderful. Not exactly a typical British summer!

I finished some books.

Ancestors (NF - History / reading my own books)

This has taken me a while, as although it's written in a fairly casual style, it included a lot of technical detail (geology, pre-history) that was unfamiliar to me. Roberts is a familiar figure from TV archaeological programmes, and brings her enthusiasm for the subject here. The subtitle 'a prehistory of Britain in seven burials' tells you what you are getting in the book. She explores ancient graves, some recently discovered, others dug up by the Victorians, and explains how a combination of technology and archaeological interpretation shapes what can (and can't) be known about ancient peoples who lived in Britain.

She explains that when she originally wrote the book she had planned to include the results of a large DNA study on ancient peoples, but the team who were working on this were sidetracked to work on COVID instead. Presumably this leaves room for another book!

...some modern authors have even suggested that Boudica herself was a fiction, a piece of propaganda, directed against the ineffectual Emperor Nero – his power and his provinces being symbolically threatened by this mere woman. But on the other hand, it's clear that Tacitus had access to good sources, and we would perhaps be excessively sceptical to suspect him of completely inventing historical characters. Most scholars trust him on this. It seems most likely that Boudica was real, and she really was a queen. (Although some male scholars seem a little unsettled by this, and have suggested her status was only ever symbolic.) But did she really drive a chariot? The answer to that has to be: probably. Tacitus didn't witness that - but Agricola may well have done.

With written accounts of women driving chariots, holding powerful positions in society, and with archaeological evidence of women being buried with chariots and other high-status grave goods, it would seem obtuse and contrary not to accept that Iron Age British women could have been both competent charioteers, and respected leaders. And there are even more clues from archaeology a female skeleton from an Iron Age cemetery at Rudston in Yorskhire with healed cuts on her face: she may have been a warrior. More persuasively, there are plenty of images of female warriors on Gaulish coins from Iron Age France, holding swords and shields and sometimes riding horses too.

Forever in Bloom (familiar faces)
Romance, part of a series set in a a cosy (fictional) US town around a flower shop. I got a bit annoyed by the end as I was not as in love with the setting as the author clearly was!

Generation GDR (NF)
I am not sure where I came across this one, but very glad I read it. An account of the circumstances leading up to the death in custody of a young man in the GDR. The author found an amazing range of surviving documentation, not just from the authorities but from the young man's friends and family, creating a picture of the clash between two cultures that completely misunderstood each other. Mattz was seeking a reformed GDR, committed to discussion and music, desperately frustrated that he had been prevented from studying at university. The authorities, paranoid and suspicious of any independent thought, condemned him as terrorist and certainly contributed to his death. What makes this so much more tragic (at least for me) is thinking how close they were (in the early eighties) to the collapse of the Berlin Wall and the end of the surveillance state.

The Stasi was supported by an unbelievable network of police officers, teachers, register-keepers, transport police, volun-teer auxiliary police, school headteachers, so-called key people in councils, security officers or managers in enterprises. Hundreds of thousands were involved in oppressing their neighbours, colleagues or even relatives, propping up a one-party dictatorship that the SED celebrated as a liberation from fascism and exploitation. They all played their part in enabling Matz, his friends and so many others in the country to be processed as hostile, negative and decadent - with devastating consequences for their lives.

I was struck by one file in particular, in which a Stasi officer wrote of a young man in Weimar that he championed a more humane society in the GDR. For this reason he needed to be processed. Did the officer realise the absurdity of his comment?

Bookshop Girls (Women in Translation)

Set in a Tokyo bookshop chain, this easy reading novel follows two women, apparently very different. One is single and focussed on her career, looking for a management promotion. The other has fallen into the job through her family connections and just got married. The reader knows they have more in common than they think from the start, so the tension (well, "tension-ish") is how they are going to resolve their misunderstandings. The male characters are mostly cartoonish, enabling the women to resolve their experiences of work discrimination relatively simply (if only!)

I hate the title of this, as the two main characters are adult women. This recent translation of a successful series (and TV adaptation) seems to fit the wider trend of Asian cosy translations (bookshop/laundry/pottery...) with cartoonish covers. This one has no magical realism though.

>34 charl08: I don't think Katie is likely to give me any Royal Updates, much as I would love that, Charlotte . She's just not the type. I am always hoping someone is. I think I had more luck with my nephew when he lived in the UK. He at least bought me some Royal Tea! I'll mention the Lido to Katie, she swims two or three times a week. I'm not sure what pool or Lido might be close to her. I guess you guys are really having a heat wave. Ugh!

I finished The Painted Drum. I liked the story of the drum much more than the framing story. Not my favorite by Erdrich for sure.

>34 charl08: That looked familiar and I do have Ancestors on the shelf. You've inspired me to have a look at it, Charlotte, and it might even get read!

>36 vancouverdeb: Maybe she will surprise you and get interested as she is in London...

>37 BLBera: I'm intrigued how the characters appear elsewhere. Maybe I can pick up the others before I forget this one...

>38 Familyhistorian: Hope you enjoy it. It did remind me I want to go to Orkney, as the archaeology there features quite a bit.

The Painted Drum (familiar faces)

I got stuck in the first third as I really wasn't keen on the characters, a woman having a relationship with her neighbour who seems to have very little to recommend him. She clears houses and finds a ceremonial drum which she feels compelled to take home.

However, after this the story is taken over by another character, and the reader hears about the origins of the drum, and its meaning for the community. This was a lot more compelling. And nerve-wracking I was worried something horrible was going to happen to the three children.

At these times, during the days when he was alone, my grand-father often heard things or saw things that he definitely knew were not there. His low, dark house was only one room with a small window on three sides. It still stands in the bush behind my house, used for chickens, so I know it well. The door on the fourth side opened out where it shouldn't have, west, where the dead go. From his cot, on good days, Shaawano could see out the door into the woods, but he usually kept the door shut to block the ghosts. Even so, some got by, squeezing underneath the sill or sliding through the cracks between the door and its casing. The ghosts were all strangers. He didn't know why that should be. He kept asking for his little girl, but none of them paid attention. Many were from the other side of the lake, and he'd made it a point to avoid people from there ever since that demon Pillager had stolen away his wife. That these unknown ghosts came, rather than his daughter or his own relatives, was a disappointment. My grandfather told me that our family, my ancestors, were clever people, while these strangers didn't seem very bright.

Fleur is a force; she appears or is mentioned in several of the books set on the rez. Tracks, one of my favorites, tells how she was rescued when the Spanish flu killed her whole family. Four Souls is her later life.

I have a collection of short stories, and I think there are some parts of this novel in some of the stories. I should start working my way through it. The Red Convertible.

Faye's and Elsie's stories were the least compelling for me. In fact, I think she could have done without them.

I listened to Bob The Booker on you-tube this morning and he has his predictions/ hope for the Booker Longlist. I am looking forward to Booker Season. I visited with Katie yesterday and she told me it would be best to continue to get my Royal Fix as I do now - the Daily Mail, my guilty pleasure.

>41 BLBera: I was trying to think what they added to the story (beyond an explanation for how the drum was returned). Still thinking.

>42 vancouverdeb: You are so much more with it with the book vloggers. I will have a look at Bob's predictions (he looks as warm as I am).

Stay hydrated, Charlotte!

I think that the book could have started with Bernard's section, when he is told the drum has come back -- then there could have been more about the drum. Yes, I was worried about the kids in the snow...Especially since we already had some child mortality.

So, what do you want to read next?

>44 BLBera: Yes, I agree. Always keen on a shorter book also. I was expecting more of a big reveal about some of the "secrets" eg the drum's sale, the family history of the mother and daughter.

I have cancelled my plans for this evening. It is too hot to be doing anything.
Except read...

More Winterson?

>43 charl08: I have been looking for predictions of the Booker Prize, Charlotte and stumbled across Bob's . I hope it has cooled down there.

>46 vancouverdeb: So many books Deborah! I started adding books to my reservation list...

Undue Burden
I read another book about changes in the legislation around abortion (the previous one I read was The Fall of Roe). This one promised to be more focussed on the stories of individuals seeking to end pregnancies. It is hard hitting because of that, especially the accounts of those whose lives were at risk and had to travel long distances to get care that even considered ending pregnancy as an option.

When the Houston doctor saw her, he was stunned. In his view, every day that she stayed pregnant put her life in more danger; he didn't see how she could safely carry her pregnancy to term. He thought he should be able to provide an abortion. But when he asked his supervisors, he was shocked to learn that the answer was no. Because she wasn't literally about to die, they didn't believe Texas's medical exceptions to its abortion ban would apply here. The threat to Darlene was looming, but not yet imminent enough.

She didn't have any other options, he said. She had to get out of the state as soon as possible, to see a doctor whose hands weren't tied the way his were.

The author shows how in real life eg six week limits don't reflect experience and in effect for most people mean that they don't have access to abortion. As poverty affects access to healthcare, this then has disproportionate effects on some American communities. The legislation enforcing certain types of "counselling" and provision of inaccurate information about the risks of procedures was shocking.

I'm up for more Winterson. You choose.

>49 BLBera: I have Gut Symmetries and Weight on the shelf to read. The second is much shorter.

You choose. I can probably get either. Could we do it August?

>47 charl08: Likewise, I have been holds on books at my library, Charlotte.

>51 BLBera: Yes, August works. Gut Symmetries for preference (it has been on the shelf longer).

>52 vancouverdeb: I think almost all were new to me, and of course interesting to see which are available so far....

I have been putting some requests in for books linked to Ulysses as I thought I would benefit from some supporting materials. I started reading The Most Dangerous Book and went to add it to LT. LT says I read it in 2017. "That must be a data entry error" I thought. I went back to my 2017 thread and found, sure enough, a (short) review about how much I liked it and the interesting material about the links between suffrage campaigners and modernists (at least I'm consistent, I thought this reading the first chapters this go round too). I have no memory of having reading it.

Gut Symmetries it is! I will find a copy.

I am smiling at your comments on The Most Dangerous Book.... Been there.

Some of my colleagues gave me some recommendations on Ulysses companion material. I wlll look for those and pass them on.

That would be great. I have Ulysses Unbound out from the library, and have just started listening to the Reading Ulysses podcast. Very much enjoying all the Irish voices.

https://www.rte.ie/radio/dramaonone/plays/2022/0124/1275562-reading-ulysses/

Too bad you don't have something similar to " Lucky Day" reads at your libraries, Charlotte. Sometimes I feel that they have too many lucky days reads as opposed to those you can put on hold , but then I do get quite a few " Lucky Day" reads. My niece is off , with a stop in Ontario I think at a music camp? I think that is it. I mentioned swimming to her in London, and she said - it's more expensive there, so she wasn't sure. But then my sister told me yesterday that she has a bunch of " shows' - theatre , musicals that she wants to see in London, so go figure. My brother was in town from Edmonton today helping his other daughter move from one rental apartment to another. She is doing her Master's at UBC in Math. He has two other kids, one also at university. They all seem to be mathematically inclined, but then he was big on tutoring them all in Math, like it or not.

>57 vancouverdeb: They do have a 'new fiction' and 'new NF' display, but I think 'lucky day' sounds better!

I used to go to the theatre quite a bit when I was a student/ new to working in London, I can see the appeal of that. She might find when she starts the job that there is some kind of company deal with a local gym with a pool, one of my old jobs had that. I don't get to the theatre much now - every so often I see an ad for something I'd like to see and get annoyed it's not making it out of London at all!

I'm behind on reviews from the end of June.

20. Roundabout of Death (New to me)
Not a cheery read!

Translated from Arabic, the author writes based on his experience of living through the bombing of Aleppo. As the fighting intensifies, he finds himself trapped between the forces of the state and those resisting, as the Syrian government begins to topple. Walking through a city he knows so well, dominated by its history of diverse communities, the short novel shows the narrator(s) sitting in a cafe, going to work, and how things start to shift: troops occupy government buildings, water is cut off, streets are barricaded and bombs obliterate familiar landscapes.

Reminded me a bit of Frankenstein in Baghdad, as the narrative switches between first person and third, and at one point he looks in the mirror and sees horns growing on his forehead. I'm not sure why the magical realism was required, as 'reality' seems strange enough. He describes travelling to territory held by ISIS, a bus route peppered with 'checkpoints' making a journey take twice as long, and requiring passengers to play musical chairs to meet the requirements of the so-called 'Islamist State', women sitting apart, covered up and with a male 'guardian'.

21. The Crystal Vase (GN)
24. Children of Radium (NF)

Reviewing these together as they are both focussed on descendents of holocaust survivors dealing with modern-day Germany. In The Crystal Vase, the narrator has to travel to Germany to clear her grandmother's house. Conflict with her present-day family is front and centre, but there is also the legacy of her family's escape (to present-day Zimbabwe). The art is striking and the depiction of the family falling out over who-got-what and said-what-to-who, not to mention the things people choose to keep had me nodding along.

In Children of Radium the author explores the gap between his romanticised version of the family's past and what he has (chosen?) to ignore: his great-grandfather's role in developing chemical weapons in Germany in the 1930s. I loved the author's mother, who as depicted here takes no prisoners (in the acknowledgements he says - at her request they discussed if she could remain anonymous, until finally settling on calling her mother- which made me giggle).

On his great-grandfather's unpublished (unpublishable?) autobiography:

The foot-high stack of pages then remained in his son Eugen's office for the next forty years, unread and emitting low-level guilt among his descendants, who understood they should definitely take an interest. It wasn't until Eugen was in his nineties and living in a retirement community that he decided to abridge the memoir and translate it so that the younger, English-speaking generations could also feel bad about not reading it. After working on his translation every day for two years, Eugen drove to a copy shop to get it printed and died a week later.

And so, holding this spiral-bound document in both hands, I knew that it was half a century in the making, an end-of-life project for two generations of my family - and this may explain why I immediately put it down again.

>58 charl08: My library has a new fiction and new non-fiction section too , as well as " Find Your New Favourite Book" section and also the Lucky Day Reads, Charlotte. They have covered every possibility it, seems. My niece did mention that she thought her place of work likely had a gym. Like you, I went to a fair few plays, even opera's and ballets when I was younger. I'm not very keen on them now though.

>60 charl08: I started reading Children of Radium a little while ago, but put it down as I wasn’t in the mood. I must get back to it one day.

>61 vancouverdeb: I was listening to a podcast where they discussed going to see a play in the midst of the London heatwave, standing up in Shakespeare's Globe. No thank you!

>62 SandDune: It was a pretty quick read, I thought, especially for NF which usually takes me longer. He made me laugh, so I will look out for the other books he's written in the hope they will do the same.

Catching up with some reviews. I have been a bit busier than usual, volunteering at a book festival.

1. The Burning Grounds (Familiar faces)
I'm not sure how I missed reading the previous book in this series, so there was an even longer gap between my last read of the books. I think the two main characters are so strong that this isn't an issue, though. Wyndham is drinking too much, sidelined by his employers who don't trust him after he helped Bannerjee escape colonial authorities and a (false) arrest. Bannerjee is back from an extended trip to Europe, where he fell in love (and lost). What can bring them back together, when Wyndham blames Bannerjee for not keeping in touch, and Bannerjee is increasingly committed to the independence movement? Why, murder of course.

I heard Mukherjee host a crime event my first day at the festival, he had a great rapport with the writer he was interviewing, and made the audience laugh. He uses Sam's character to be *so* rude about living in Calcutta (now Kolkata), which throws the idealism of Surendranath into sharper relief.

'Where are we?'

He turned and smiled. 'A place called Midnapore. I might step out and stretch my legs.'

'Don't wander too far,' Suren told him. 'The trains here have a tendency to set off on a whim.'

Kemp slid open the door and I watched him head down the corridor like Columbus off to discover the new world. His absence left our little six-seat compartment dangerously empty. With only Suren and me seemingly in residence, it might appear a tempting berth for any newly boarding passengers. I got up and laid my jacket on Kemp's seat.

'To keep it safe for him,' I said to Suren.

He ruminated before speaking. I have never understood your antipathy towards your own kind. It is most confusing.'

"That's rather unfair,' I said. 'My antipathy extends far beyond my own kind. It is catholic in scope and liberal in application and encompasses almost everyone everywhere.'

'What about Miss Grant?' he asked. 'Does it extend to her these days?'

The question caught me like a right hook.

'Why would you even ask that?'

He smiled. 'You remember in the old days, how you would wage that campaign against Miss Grant's suitors?'

I told him I didn't have the foggiest idea what he was on about.

He arched an eyebrow

The Nights are Quiet in Tehran (Women in translation)

But for me, it's a museum of people, preserved and packed away and always there to be called up, involuntarily called up when people come to visit, from Iran.

I've only ever been an onlooker, waiting at the metal barriers in the arrivals hall to meet our guests, having been rold: Amu Mehrdad is coming, you remember Amu Mehrdad, don't you? Or Khale Azar is coming - and feeling pleased. Not because I associated those names with actual people, but because the names had woven themselves into my childhood, had become entangled with the knowledge that there would be presents, and happy parents, and good food, the scent of rice and foreign cigarettes, loud laughter around the sofreh. Exciting, that drive to the airport, like a little trip away, the five of us in the car...

One of those nominated for the international Booker, this reminded me of a couple of other novels I've read recently about Iranian refugees, including Disoriental and (it'll come back to me). Told by different members of a small family, first in Iran, then in exile in Germany, it has all the familiar themes from generational divides to the pain of returning home for brief visits.

When can we start making jokes again, he asked me a few days ago. When can we start teasing each other again without everything, everything always being political? And I said, Peymanjan, we're in the middle of a revolution, even farting is political.

Patchwork: a Graphic Biography of Jane Austen (GN)
I went to see the author speak on an ambitious panel that included an NF work on women who owned enslaved people and a historical novel inspired by the life of Queen Charlotte. Evans is keen to stress her work is NF and there are notes at the end of the book explaining quotes and sources. I loved the way she used fabric reproductions from a patchwork quilt in the family house. This is very much a postcolonial bio: you get the stories of the fabrics and their makers in India and Ireland, as well as those enslaved working on plantations and the role played by money from these profits in propping up Jane's wider family.

Worth a read, although given the price you might want to ask your library.

In making her pitch for the book she talked a lot about originality in using Austen's novels as part of the biography in this format. Since I'd recently read another Jane Austen graphic bio, with lots of references to her novels, I am a bit unsure on this point (but I couldn't work our how to ask this without sounding like Captain Pedantic, so I may well have missed something here)

Several biographers, including Paula Byrne and Lucy Worsley (who was accused of having plagiarised Byrne) have suggested that Bath wasn't really Jane Austen's favourite place.

But the fact that Kate Evans' previous work includes a graphic biography of Rosa Luxemburg does make me more interested in this book. It may mean that one of the libraries I use is more likely to buy it, or that someone else suggests it. And like the Rosa Luxemburg book, it's published by Verso - they sometimes have quite good deals on their publications.

>67 elkiedee: I think you've read too much into the one panel I've shared there. It's not that Kate Ellis is saying she liked Bath, only that there were plenty of books available there.

Hope you can find a copy. I liked Red Rosa even more than this one.

Riambel (African Writers / Reading my own books)

Wherever he goes, he carries with him a tattered satchel that smells of soft, warm leather. The way he holds on to it suggests that it contains things of great value, but I happen to know that he only carries a notebook that he's always scribbling into - whenever he has a spare moment - and a small stainless steel katori containing his lunch. Not that he eats much. He doesn't seem to have time for food. He's skinny as a stick, but there's a glow in his eyes, especially when he talks about Mauritian authors or when he tells us stories about Mama Lanatir or Père Laval. One day, he lent me a battered copy of Les Fleurs du mal by Charles Baudelaire, whose poems had been inspired by Mauritius.

He had asked me what I like to read and why. Anything and everything, I had said, shyly. I read because it allows me to travel and discover places I can only dream of. To open a book is like diving into an ocean glimmering with promises.

A short book from a Mauritian author, told (mostly) from the perspective of a teenage girl growing up in a poor, creole community. Her sister is dead and the only jobs around are factory work or in the houses of the wealthy white landowners. Their grinding poverty, accompanied by the smell of open sewers and fish, seems even more extreme given the beautiful surroundings of the coast. Tourist development has so far avoided their part of the island, but it is coming.

When Noemi meets the visiting young grandson of her mother's wealthy employer, it's clear things aren't going to go well.

This novella lurches into didactic mode at points (Noemi has a couple of inspirational teachers) and includes quotes from Mauritian poets. It felt a bit too much of a moral tale to be enjoyable to me though. Poor Noemi ends up in the hands of the local back street abortionist.

Coming to the end of the literary festival in Bradford, it's been fun to be involved. I was expecting more shifts but have enjoyed the chance to get out and about and see some local museums and galleries.

Today I was helping out with the free activities for families, there were storytellers and crafts in our venue, plus films, bands and plays taking place outside with the theme "under the sea" (pirates, penguins, and of course, Nemo). There wasn't much to do, as it all ran like clockwork, but it was really lovely watching the children engage with the stories, and the parents having somewhere to come that cost nothing and kept their kids busy. (Well, with some exceptions, but there was room to run around too).

I couldn't take pictures of other people's kids (obviously) but here is a giant lobster. Right at the beginning of the day we were asked to "go help carry a lobster". It made more sense when we saw it all set up.

Another lovely thing was the Bradford Story Bus, which was giving away books to the families who came aboard.

Doppelganger
This took me ages! I was aware before I picked it up of the broad brush of the book: Naomi Klein's discovery that she was being mixed up with the feminist writer turned poster girl for the right, Naomi Wolf. I hadn't realised that the book is much more than this, the discussion goes beyond Wolf and her particular shift to the right. Writing about wider crises (covid, the environment) she explores the way Wolf's story exemplifies so many other people's experiences, from those who were convinced that vaccines were some kind of plot to those denying the genocide of first peoples in Canadian boarding schools (and many more). Literary doppelgangers feature heavily, including a fictional version by Philip Roth. She makes the case for paying attention to what the right (Bannon et al) are saying, credits him in particular with bringing together unexpected allies, and contracts this with more fractured groups on the left. If (like me) you've not read her work before, she helpfully summarises her 'greatest hits' from the hidden costs of branding, corporate and state attempts to use periods of "shock" and her work on ecological crisis. I thought her approach was a kind one, seeking to understand apparently illogical lurches towards extremism, rather than writing people off.

I liked the ending especially, which called for collaborative approaches to work for change.

The shift to confronting and reimagining structures requires some-thing else: a recognition that this work is not something we can do on our own, as individuals, with a charity donation or an equity and diver-sity training, or a performance of virtue on social media. Indeed, a central reason why so many of us cannot bear to look at the Shadow Lands is that we live in a culture that tells us to fix massive crises on our own, through self improvement. Support labor rights by ordering from a dif-ferent store. End racism by battling your personal white fragility-or by representing your marginalized identity group in elite spaces. Solve climate change with an electric car. Transcend your ego with a medita-tion app.

Some of it will help-a bit. But the truth is that nothing of much consequence in the face of our rigged systems can be accomplished on our own-whether by our own small selves or even by our own identity groups. Change requires collaboration and coalition, even (especially) uncomfortable coalition. Mariame Kaba, a longtime prison abolitionist who has done as much as anyone to imagine what it would take to live in a world that does not equate safety with police and cages, puts the lesson succinctly, one passed on to her by her father: "Everything worthwhile is done with other people."

>70 charl08: That really sounds like fun, Charlotte! Did you get to attend readings? Who was there?

The Jane Austen graphic sounds fun.

>72 BLBera: It was really good, Beth. Not least because I have found at some book festivals (Hay, Edinburgh) it feels mostly geared towards people who can afford to holiday in those places. This one was very much not like that, and the kids activities both weekends were completely free. Yesterday I helped out at the cinema and science museum, where a procession of kids and their parents went to see Shrek. That was followed by three events celebrating the work of a muslim peace activist. Whilst in the smaller theatre there were a series of events about Marilyn Monroe!

I didn't realise that as volunteers we usually got to sit in the event we were helping with, so I heard a talk about women artists in 19c Paris (I skipped Shrek!). I also sat in to hear a local choir perform songs (loosely) linked to literature. They were amazing, not something I would have thought to book myself though. We got up to ten free tickets so I went to three crime fiction events, an Iranian film, an event about three books linked to "Rebels and queens" (!). I had booked more events but it was so warm on a couple of days I decided I needed to go home and replace some fluids after the shift. I chatted to other volunteers, none of whom I'd met before, and it was such a nice atmosphere.

ETA Went to so many events I forgot one: on "the rise of cosy fantasy".

Volunteering at a book festival sounds like fun, Charlotte. Nice that you got to see some of the presentation. >64 charl08: You reminded me that I haven't gone past the second book in the Wyndham and Banerjee series so I've put the third book on hold at the library.

>74 Familyhistorian: It was so good I am hoping to do it again next year!

I'm hoping to get a copy of The Pinnacle by Abir Mukherjee (author of the Wyndham and Bannerjee books) from the library soon. He was very good at "selling" it from the stage.

>73 charl08: That sounds like a lot of fun.

>70 charl08: The literary festival sounds very enjoyable , Charlotte . I'm glad you enjoyed it.

>76 BLBera: >77 vancouverdeb: So glad I signed up. I've sent off my volunteer evaluation form to say what a good job I thought the organisers were doing. Not easy putting something like that together, and the coordinators were doing long days during the event.

The Clues in the Fjörd (Women in translation)
The author is Finnish but has been living in Iceland for decades. Based in a remote Icelandic town, Hildur has turned a family tragedy into a force for her community, working to finding runaway and lost children and young people. Alongside this she is one of only two detectives, covering a vast rural area. She is joined by a Finnish police intern, on an exchange scheme. They get on well together, despite their differences (Jakob likes to knit, Hildur prefers to exercise almost all the time). After an avalanche obliterates a row of summer houses, the mountain rescue team finds a dead body: but he was dead long before the snowfall found him.

First in a series.

Iceland has always had a close relationship with the United States, so almost everyone speaks English. But some people are too shy, so let's be understanding. If you have any questions at all, ask me or Hildur. We have a very small police station here that's responsible for a rather large area. There are no break-ins or car thefts to speak of, and violent crimes are rare in Iceland.'

'Sounds like Moominvalley,' Jakob said.

Beta and Hildur smiled. Everyone in Iceland knew the Finnish cartoon characters the Moomins, the Hemulen, and Little My.

Devotions: eight stories (familiar faces)

MY GRANDDADDY HAD A STORY about the day he met Jesus. It was round the back of the City Hall, on a Tuesday morning in March.

He wasn't drunk...

This is the newest collection of short stories from Lucy Caldwell, read shortly after two other collections. They are similar to those in that Northern Ireland features heavily, along with Irish migrants living elsewhere, but other than that not repetitive at all. I am not sure which to say that I liked the best. A lovely one about a man recovering from a divorce and the loss of both his mum and his first love, trying to clear his parents' house, that spoke to me as much about the acknowledgement of the difficulty of doing this when you (often) need to, just after someone has died and everything is so raw. One that walks alongside a woman who thinks she is pregnant with a third child, but is in no position to keep it. I am still trying to think through the last paragraph I think in flipping the expected: the narrator is not, in fact pregnant, but has already made all the plans to acquire a pill for an abortion, there is somehow all the more power in the question about the relationship between actions and intent, in a story deep in theological queries. There is a strong theme following artists: an actor wonders if she should give up, a musician travels 'home' to give a talk to young aspiring musicians.

Recommended.

Lou says the most random things have been surfacing lately - things you'd not even call proper memories, really, just flotsam and jetsam, just stuff, and she's not sure what you're supposed to do with it, with any of it.

I just lie there at night, she says, thinking of stupid things like the lids of Clover Crest honey pots, like what is that even about? What is the point of it what is the point of me?

>80 charl08: I read Lucy Caldwell's first novel, Where They Were Missed years ago when I found it in the library - long enough ago that I probably want to reread - fortunately I acquired a paperback copy which is actually shelved properly in alphabetical sequence on the shelves in front of my desk, so is one of the rare dead tree books I can find easily (though some of them are hard to reach without standing on my desk and the top and bottom shelves, near ceiling and floor, are difficult to reach at all).

I'm currently reading Devotions and have Multitudes and two of her novels TBR, and I think I probably want to reread Where They Were Missed.

I'm also reading Dance Move, Wendy Erskine's second collection of short stories. She was once Lucy Caldwell's English teacher, presumably quite early in her secondary school teaching career - she still teaches full time. I borrowed the collection from the library a while ago and have kept renewing them, but it's suddenly in demand - Camden and Islington Library services (two of my neighbouring boroughs) have one copy each.

>81 elkiedee: That's a nice connection! She is one of the blurbers for the latest book.

Hope you can get the Erskine read before you have to return it. I've not read the one you have out, but I did like The Benefactors.

The latest Murderbot has arrived at the library, so everything else is getting shelved.

>82 charl08: I couldn't remember what you thought of The Benefactors, but even if you hadn't liked it, I think that if you like Lucy Caldwell's work, you would enjoy the Erskine stories. I don't know whether you've read anything by Jan Carson, another contemporary Belfast writer who also writes short stories and novels within a similar vein. Serious subjects, social commentary, a certain dark humour (I also have her latest novel, Few and Far Between another library book, on the go).

I had Devotions on my list. Great comments. I loved These Days.
>79 charl08: This looks good as well.

>79 charl08: I like the look of the mystery in Iceland. I'll be on the hunt for that one.

>84 elkiedee: I haven't heard of Jan Carson, thanks for suggesting their work.

>85 BLBera: >86 Familyhistorian: I thought the Finnish perspective on Iceland (and vice versa) was an interesting one: at one point Hildur says how refreshing it is to meet a visitor who doesn't feel the need to endlessly go on about the differences in culture as if they are an expert, and I thought that sounds like the voice of experience....

Platform Decay
I was quite confused in the first couple of chapters, and then there was a Big Reveal and things made more sense. I love Murderbot, and so am thinking it's time for a reread of all the previous ones, following @bell7 's example. On the basis that I won't remember the plot next year: Murderbot arrives with Three on a huge space station that encircles a planet. Everything is undercover and they are very worried about discovery. The complex set up of the space station into different territories, with very limited travel options, makes the operation very difficult. We only discover it is a kidnapping gradually, and only when Murderbot reaches the victims, that they are relations of Mensah's. It is a plot by a former acquaintance to try and force them to help extract their family. But things rapidly take a turn...

Risk assessment was steadily rising, and I couldn't tell why. Threat assessment was holding high but steady. A lot of data was coming in because I had picked up as many security and comm feeds as I could. The whole point of these modules is to apply sorting and priority rating to incoming data so I don't have to (or really because a SecUnit with a governor module shouldn't have the capability). I pulled samples to parse manually but a lot of the alerts were normal low-risk stuff like traffic hazards, petty theft, noise disturbances, etc. I pulled a map of the area to plot the alerts on because I couldn't understand the relevance the modules were assigning to them. If both modules were fucked up now, that was all I needed. And I was also listening to Sofi talk about Honor Princess Detective, which sounded pretty good, actually. I'd download it the next time I had a chance.

Murder at the Spirit Lounge
Second in the series that features former nun Nora Breen. Set in a coastal town in southern England in the 1950s, the first book was centred on Nora's investigation into the disappearance of her friend. In this second book, she's still staying at the same run down boarding house. Searching for a job, she finds work in the local paper (a sure sign it's set more than sixty years ago!). Her investigative skills are soon in demand as a local seance goes horribly wrong. Kidd is ramping up tje romance between her main characters, but it's all rather gentle (despite all the corpses).

>89 charl08: it's all rather gentle (despite all the corpses) - that made me laugh!

Looks like you've had some good reading recently. I'd second the recommendation of Jan Carson. Her first book, Malcolm Orange Disappears, was astonishing for a debut. I also heard her a few years ago do a week of "The Essay" on Radio 3, and I'd love to see those essays published.

>90 Jackie_K: I've requested Few and Far Between so will report back to you and @elkiedee (they didn't have Malcolm Orange Disappears, sadly...

Re despite the body count. I have been thinking about cosy crime as a contradiction in terms. It didn't really register for me until it came up in a panel I went to on crime fiction in Bradford.* One of the writers said the official definition is that the murder happens off the page. I'm trying to pay more attention to the ones I read to see if that bears out.

Eta. Panel was in Bradford, not the fiction.

I'm feeling the effects of lots of gardening yesterday. Being away for a week for the festival and the weather being so warm and dry has meant a lot of my (usually) self sufficient plants looking unhealthy, I am hoping a bit of TLC will see a recovery. (Or death from overwatering. One of the two)
Anyway, I finished Python's Kiss a collection of short stories by Louise Erdrich, each story beautifully illustrated with a drawing by her daughter.

I really liked this collection, a mix of the strange and the fantastical. I think my favourite was Amelia, about the strange town "character" Mr Ponath, and his sister. Told from the perspective of a young woman who meets him whilst she works at the local KFC, it has a particularly satisfying ending. For most of these stories (many published in the New Yorker) I would have quite happily read a book length version.

From a story framed by accounts of four failed marriages.

Even so, the revenges that his tribal girlfriends took on him were legendary.
Sheila from Green Bay had microwaved his precious hair products until they fused with their plastic containers, then she'd hot-wired his blow-dryer to shock him. Angela had drowned his guitar in the bath-nub, left it on the radiator to warp, sliced up his shirts. Wannette had collected a jar of bedbugs and let them loose in his apartment. Later, she sent a note. Randi was a Red Laker and her revenge topped them all. She got him stinking drunk and fake-seduced him, then super-glued him into his bedsheets, superglued his penis to her discarded pantyhose and his precious skinny ponytail to his pillow. She'd also put his new guitar and his fabulously expensive elk-hide cowboy boots inno a wood chipper that she'd bought and charged to him.

Recommended.

>89 charl08: I really enjoyed Murder At the Spirit Lounge. I loved the first in the series too. Sometimes a fun read is just the thing.

>93 vancouverdeb: Yes, a good read!

I've picked up A Private Man to read next.

>92 charl08: I've had her Red Convertible collection on my shelf for years. I need to get to it. I've read some of the stories but not all.

I hope your plants are reviving. Mine are not looking great, not sure if it is too much heat, too much water, not enough water...

>95 BLBera: Some of the folk on Litsy were less impressed, but I loved these.

>96 BLBera: Today feels like the first day in ages it hasn't been too hot for me to stand outside without a hat, so hopefully a chance for them to recover a bit. I'm wondering if I need to think about trying to proof against drought - changing the planting.

>91 charl08: I see that you've already requested Few and Far Between from the library, but I thought I should mention to you and others interested in the UK that it's an Amazon UK Kindle daily deal today, for 99p.

I picked up a copy of Gut Symmetries in Portland, but I have a few others I have to read before that one. Mid August?

>98 elkiedee: Nice one! Thank you.

>99 BLBera: Sounds good to me - thanks for checking.

Hi Charlotte! I'm afraid I lost track of your thread so just checking in now.

>101 humouress: Ha! I never do that (!!!)

A Private Man (new to me)

I (mostly*) loved this, it was such a sweet story. In the acknowledgments the author says it is inspired by her grandfather, who was a priest who left the priesthood. I hadn't realised that the catholic church imposed such punitive measures on those who left in such (relatively) recent times, and I thought that added sadness to what might have felt too** romantic or even idealised. We discover with one of the narrators that his grandfather was a priest, when he attends the funeral of another relative. He's asked to look after his elderly grandmother, now living abroad alone, far from family. In the other narrative, the story of how his grandmother and grandfather met, and the difficult choices they made.

The family flashback approach is a familiar one, an often falls down on the less interesting modern character. I thought Sy-Quia dealt with that well here: there is hardly any of the chapters including the young character alone, he is mostly shown dealing with the (fascinating) elderly grandmother and her failing memory.

Recommended (and thanks to those who reviewed it to get it onto my radar, as I'm not sure I would have picked it up).

Margaret supposed this is what women had always done, when left alone with cloth-based tasks to hand. Knitting. Darning. Weaving. Washing. They gathered, and because of their place in a world of men, the men left them to it. And so it was that they were free, then: to speak at last among themselves. Unattended and uncontrolled. She was standing in the blank space of history. All around her, the damp laundry exuded its semen-smell. This place was deemed an absence, a non-place where nothing of consequence occurred; but that was wrong. It was a rich space, of strength, where women taught each other things. When she plunged her arms up to her elbows into the milky water, when she rubbed salve into her chapped hands, when she saw the other women smiling to each other over the troughs, she felt a muscle memory stirring.

*Sometimes I wanted an editor to remind the author that there are no prizes for deliberately obscure language. I don't think anyone needs to use "punctum" in an english language novel. (Stamps foot pettily) **is such a thing possible? Discuss, with examples.

The Secret Painter (Art / NF)

I picked this up on a whim at the library. The author's uncle, who had been unemployed and lived with his mum almost all his life, was discovered to have painted hundreds of paintings. The (short) book explores how he missed the widening of education opportunities post-war just by a few years, tried a couple of times to break into life as a professional artist, but mostly quietly got on with painting. Since his death, his work has been exhibited, with comparisons to other artists who (mostly) kept quiet about their art, like Lowry. It's a quick read (much of Eric's life remains unknown to his family) and includes a selection of colour reproductions of his paintings. He would draw everywhere and then go home and paint: including at the pub, drawing under the table as he drank.

I had assumed that Warrington now held his paintings, but it seems that's not the case, just one, that won an open competition.

Some of the paintings are shown here: https://artuk.org/discover/stories/eric-tucker-warringtons-extraordinary-yet-ord...

How the original exhibitions were reported:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-50500885

>103 charl08: This sounds really interesting.

>102 charl08: A Private Man was shortlisted for the Waterstones Debut Novel prize, which was won by Rebecca Perry, and for the Orwell Prize for Political Fiction (won by Transcription by Ben Lerner). I've acquired all 3 as Kindle deals at some point - in fact I have all of the Waterstones shortlist after one came up on offer this week, but haven't read any. of them yet.

>104 BLBera: It was one of those books I probably wouldn't have picked up if it wasn't for the library having it on the shelf, so a win for them. Or a double win, because my dad is now reading it!

>105 elkiedee: It was a shiny hardback copy I read, I think the newness helped to get me to pick it up sooner rather than later (that, and the other person who requested it!)

>102 charl08: (Me neither. Most unusual behaviour for me. *cough*)

Re 'too romantic' - sometimes it can tip from 'sweet' to 'saccharine' for me if I'm not in the mood for 'romantic'. Granted I do tend to be cynical more often than not.

>102 charl08: >103 charl08: Both intriguing books.