Elkiedee's third 75 in 2010

As I finished 150 books a few days ago, time for a new thread....

Here's my first thread: http://www.librarything.com/topic/82341

And here's my second: http://www.librarything.com/topic/89459

151. D E Stevenson, Miss Buncle's Book

152. Angela Carter, Fireworks

153. Robert Lewis, The Last Llanelli Train

154. Barbara Kingsolver, The Lacuna

155. Shannon Burke, Black Flies

156. George Pelecanos (ed), DC Noir

157. Robert Lewis, Swansea Terminal

158. Irene Sabatini, The Boy Next Door

159. Robert Lewis, Bank of the Black Sheep

160. David Nicholls, One Day

161. Sara Paretsky, Hardball

162. Rowan Coleman, The Happy Home for Broken Hearts

163. Diana Evans, The Wonder

164. Karen Russell, St Lucy's Home for Girls Raised by Wolves

165. T H White, The Once and Future King

166. Sarah Dessen, That Summer

167. Gaile Parkin, Baking Cakes in Kigali

168. Alan Bennett, The Uncommon Reader

169. Lauren Liebenberg, The Voluptuous Delights of Peanut Butter and Jam

170. Peter Lovesey, Upon a Dark Night

171. Gabriella D'Ambrosio, Before We Say Goodbye

172. Linda Grant, The Clothes on their Backs

173. Margaret Elphinstone, The Gathering Night

174. Geraldine McCaughrean, Stop the Train

175. Geraldine McCaughrean, Pull Out All the Stops!

176. Helen Dunmore, The Siege

177. Elizabeth Jolley, My Father's Moon

178. Helen Dunmore, The Betrayal

179. Joan Aiken, A Small Pinch of Weather

180. Jonathan Coe, The Terrible Privacy of Maxwell Sim

181. Elizabeth Jolley, Cabin Fever

182. Ruth Adam, I'm Not Complaining

183. Elizabeth Jolley, The Georges' Wife

184. Azar Nafisi, Reading Lolita in Tehran

185. David Roberts, Sweet Sorrow

186. ed Neal Pollack, Chicago Noir

187. Elizabeth Cambridge, Hostages to Fortune

188. Andrew Taylor, The Anatomy of Ghosts

189. Katherine Paterson, Jacob Have I Loved

190. Vita Sackville-West, All Passion Spent

191. Georgina Harding, The Spy Game

192. Angelica Garnett, Deceived with Kindness

193. Daniel Pennac, School Blues

194. Bernadette Strachan, Handbags and Halos

195. Catriona McCloud, Growing Up Again

196. Said Sayrafiazedeh, When Skateboards Will Be Free

197. Suzannah Dunn, Tenterhooks

198. Annabel Davis-Goff, The Fox's Walk

199. Joe Treasure, The Male Gaze

200. Winifred Watson, Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day

201. Aita Ighodaro, Sin Tropez

202. Angela Carter, Heroes and Villains

203. Mollie Panter-Downes, One Fine Day

204. Alison Wong, As the Earth Turns Silver

205. Kate Ellis, Playing With Bones

206. D E Stevenson, Mrs Tim of the Regiment

207. Cynthia Harrod-Eagles, The Foreign Field

208. ed Peter Spiegelman, Wall Street Noir

209. Penny Vincenzi, An Absolute Scandal

210. Frances Towers, Tea with Mr Rochester

211. Rachel Cusk, The Lucky Ones

212. Jill Murphy, The Worst Witch

213. Jan Struther, Mrs Miniver

214. Joan Aiken, A Harp of Fishbones and other stories

215. Jean Webster, Daddy-Long-Legs

216. Tishani Doshi, The Pleasure Seekers

217. Ruth Sawyer, Roller Skates

218. A S Byatt, The Children's Book

219. Mark Macauley, The House of Slamming Doors

220. Emma Donoghue, Room

221. A Little, Aloud

222. Gerald Seymour, The Collaborator

223. Nawal El Saadawi, The Essential Nawal El Saadawi

224. Malcolm Pryce, Aberystwyth, Mon Amour

225. Jean Webster, Dear Enemy

151. 8/7 D E Stevenson, Miss Buncle's Book 4.7

Persephone reprint of a novel first published in 1934. At first I feared this might be a bit too cosy and twee for me, but I enjoyed it very much. Barbara Buncle writes a novel drawing on her observations of the village life around her. She finds a nice publisher who is totally charmed and the book, published under a pseudonym, is a great success in sales terms, but some of her neighbours are outraged by their portrayals in the novel and aren't placated by the name changes, and they have meetings where they discuss what to do.

There are 3 other books about this character, but mostly they're out of print. However, Miss Buncle Married has recently been reprinted in a Large Print edition and I've found a library copy. Persephone don't seem to do series, unlike Virago and Bloomsbury, sadly.

Found your new thread. I look forward to hearing what you thought of The Lacuna which I hope to read later this month.

Miss Buncle's Book is on my Persephone wish list. Thanks for the review. Persephone sometimes will publish another book by an author already on their list. I think it depends on the popularity of the previous book. The Downes books may count as a series or at least sequels.

152. 8/7 Angela Carter, Fireworks: Nine Profane Pieces

My Virago Modern Classic read for the month, and entered in the TIOLI challenge as it has an ISBN ending in 4.

I like reading Angela Carter but didn't find any of the stories in this collection very memorable or attention grabbing.

153. 10/7 Robert Lewis, The Last Llanelli Train, 3.8*

TIOLI - book about a private eye

I first read this book 4 years ago when I was going to a crime fiction convention in Bristol (UK), because it's set there. I don't remember plots though so I have no problem rereading crime novels. I discovered recently that it's now the first volume in a trilogy - I'm reviewing no 3 for the Bookbag.

Like a lot of PI novels written on this side of the Atlantic, this book plays with the stereotypes. There are lots of fictional PIs who are alcoholic loners, but Robin Llewellyn has gone a bit further - his chronic drinking is destroying him and his life and business. His latest case involves finding out about a husband's infidelity, but can he actually get it together to do so? Rather depressing but also darkly witty.

Interesting, you are reading D.E. Stevenson, and so is Tad, if I recall correctly -- but different series! I may have to check these out...

Bloomsbury has published the first of her Mrs Tim books in paperback on both sides of the Atlantic, Suzanne. I have it as a lovely online friend on Mumsnet won a set of their books and had two copies of this one so offered to post it to me. I also have the second of that series out of the library, I reserved the first for a book group discussion in November/December but didn't receive it until April/May.

Found you again, Luci!

#11 "Rather depressing but also darkly witty" - I'm not usually much of a crime fiction lover, but have you read The Long Midnight of Barney Thomson? (it's the "darkly witty" that makes me suggest it...). I'm trying to think of how to describe it without giving the plot away... I'll see if I can find a review somewhere...

I love reading books about places I know well, so maybe I should search out The Last Llanelli Train and give it a go...

OK, here's the publisher's review:

"Barney has never had the knack of talking drivel to complete strangers, and it irks him. Certainly, he can talk about the weather with the best of them, but when it comes to uncompromising, asinine bollocks, he just doesn't have it...

Barney Thomson's success as a barber is limited. It's not just that he's crap at cutting hair (and he is); it's because he has no blather. He hates football for one thing. He hates most people. He hates his colleagues most of all, and the glib confidence with which they can discuss Florence Nightingale's sexuality or the ongoing plight of Partick Thistle.

But a serial killer is spreading terror throughout the city. The police are baffled. And for one sad little Glasgow barber, life is about to get seriously strange..."

154. 8/7 Barbara Kingsolver, The Lacuna 4.7*

Orange July/TIOLI book and one I've been wanting to read since I like her other books and also because I'm interested in reading anything that has Lev/Leon Trotsky and Frida Kahlo as characters.

As a young man, Harrison Shepherd, brought up in Mexico by his Mexican mother, works for Frida Kahlo and her husband, and when the Trotskys come to live in Mexico, for Lev Trotsky. Kingsolver's portrayal of Trotsky is more about the difficulties of living in exile and knowing all too well that he might/would be killed, and of also knowing how much his children have suffered (most of them predeceased him).

It's made me want to read The Poisonwood Bible and some of her non-fiction books I've not read, and go back to the other novels that I have read.

#17: I am reading that one this month as well. I am hoping I like it as much as everyone else in the group has!

I have read several of Kingsolver's books of essays, Luci, and they are very good. If you get a chance, you might give one of them a try.

Caught up! Glad you enjoyed The Lacuna so much, I'm hoping to get to that one later this month. I think yours is the third recommendation for Miss Buncle's book so I should really look out for that one.

155. 10/7 Shannon Burke, Black Flies 3.7*

Bookbag review book

Ollie Cross has failed to get into medical school. While he thinks about what he plans to do, he takes a job as a paramedic on the tough streets of Harlem, New York City, and finds his whole perspective on life and death beginning to shift.

One of the first lessons for him is the importance of teamwork, and of building up a good working relationship with his colleagues, and particularly his partner on the shift. At first Rutkovsky just seems hardened, cynical and uncaring, but Ollie gradually gains an insight into what makes him tick and develops a sort of friendship with the older man.

The rest of my review is here at The Bookbag:

http://www.thebookbag.co.uk/reviews/index.php?title=Black_Flies_by_Shannon_Burke

Souloftherose, if you're a library user and your library doesn't get Persephone books (though this is worth considering buying), Miss Buncle's Book and Miss Buncle Married have both been reprinted in Isis Large Print this year, and that might be a way of getting them. Though my reservation for #2 is showing up in transit but doesn't seem to be arriving. Processing reservations seems to be a real casualty of the last round of library cuts, and I hate to think what's going to happen in the next round.

>21 elkiedee:: I hate to think what's going to happen in the next round.

Our librarian says our "next" is stopping all forms of ILL. You'll be able to reserve a book at another library and drive and pick it up, but books won't be sent between libraries.

#21 My library definitely has the first one (although in another branch) so I'll borrow it before deciding whether to get my own copy.

I find it normally takes my library about a week to process a reservation, move it to my local branch and then notify me that it's arrived (assuming there isn't a waiting list) which I can cope with. Have you had cuts announced?

#22 :-( That's not good! My libraries charge a small amount for an ILL (50/60p which is about $1) but that's still cheaper than bookmooch or secondhand bookshops. It's more expensive to reserve a book from a library outside the county.

This isn't inter library loan - here, each library service has a number of branches, eg there are about 12 (although some might get cut) in a borough under the same council. There won't be a copy of most books at all branches in the system, unless they're very popular and then probably only while they're new and in demand. And two of my libraries charge for reservations, and still don't process them - the library that doesn't charge seems to be the best at the moment, I've actually received two of the books I've asked for.

No new cuts announced but the libraries in the area where I work have just had a restructure, put self service machines in all the branches and seem to have far less staff on duty at any time. The queues if you need human help, eg you're returning books which were issued before the machines were installed and the books were tagged so the machines will know what they are, or the machines don't work, or you need something the machine can't sort, are horrible.

Also everyone who has built up working relationships with a particular group of users is cut off from them, and people's jobs have changed in a negative way - one woman who ran a popular Rhyme Time session with kids is being moved to a backroom job in the basement of another branch (there's been lots of correspondence in the paper). Some library staff don't even like working with kids and given the way in which the changes have been done, they've probably given those people the jobs with the big children's libraries and the popular Rhyme Time sessions. (This has been reported in some detail in our local paper).

#25: Not good news at all.

#25 Mystifying....

#25/27 - mystifying? I'm not sure what you mean. I work in a public library, and our budget is the lowest it's been in 10 years while our circulation keeps going up. Doing more with less means let the machines handle all the easy transactions so we don't need as much staff. As the Indigo girls say "It's not nice, but it's reality."

I think it's mystifying to assign someone who is good at and enjoys a specific job to something else, while replacing him/her with another human who isn't good at it and doesn't enjoy it. Nothing to do with automation in this particular instance.

I've put Miss Buncle and Mrs Tim in my basket at Amazon.co.uk, to purchase late this month when I feel rich. Hopefully they will reissue the next books in the series, as well...

For folks looking at the Persephone reissues, I can heartily recommend Mariana by Monica Dickens. I first read it back in 1977; it charmed me then and continues to do so today...

I really enjoyed Mariana earlier this year, too, and apparently Persephone are reprinting another Monica Dickens, though I have a feeling I used to own the Penguin copy and foolishly discarded it some time ago.

I have kept all of my Dickens novels, although Mariana was the standout. Have just had to re-order a copy of The Fancy however, as I wanted to re-read it and have been unable to locate it anywhere!

156. ed George Pelecanos, DC Noir 4.6*

Maybe I'm biased because of my love of the editor's own writing, but this was one of my favourites of the series so far. I've read 7, and I also particularly liked Baltimore Noir edited by Laura Lippman, but I've found all of them worth reading and none of them rated lower than 4 for me. I will have to come back to this post with something intelligent to say about a few specific stories later.

#28, 29 Sorry for being unclear. As chatterbox says, I meant it was mystifying to assign the librarian who was good with children to a back room job and put the librarians who don't like children in charge of the children's talks.

157. 13/7 Robert Lewis, Swansea Terminal 4.1* Robin Llewellyn no 2

After a disastrous case in Bristol in the first book, Llewellyn is homeless and living rough in Swansea, where he somehow gets involved in the activities of a local gang. He has also been diagnosed with terminal lung cancer.

Many fictional PIs have some unhealthy habits (drink, smoking), but this is the first series I've read where the protagnist is dealing with the conseuences in ssch a result.

#29,30,31 - Monica Dickens! Haven't heard that name for about 30 years... I enjoyed some of her horsy children's books (The House at World's End and Follyfoot).

I finally manged to collect my copy of Miss Buncle Married today - the librarian had to retrieve it from the pile of letters to be sent (the previous deputy manager who has moved knew they could just email or phone me, much more efficient than snail mail).

158. 15/7 Irene Sabatini, The Boy Next Door 4.6

Two teenagers who were brought up next door to each other become friends, then meet again after a few years apart fall for each other. But this is Zimbabwe in the 1980s and 1990s - Lindiwe is a black woman (though in fact she has a white father herself) and Ian is a "Rhodie" and often expresses attitudes and opinions of someone who enjoyed the privileges of an upbringing as a white Rhodesian. Both of them have difficult, complicated family histories as well as their other differences to divide them.

I really enjoyed this novel once I got into it properly (it starts off a little slowly). It's told from Lindiwe's point of view and I liked the way that her views of various characters in the story keep shifting.

#37: I already have that one in the BlackHole after seeing multiple good reviews here in the group. Glad to know you liked it too, Luci.

I'm glad that you also enjoyed The Boy Next Door, Luci. This is a great example of why I've become fond of the literary awards that include longlists and shortlists (Booker, Orange, IMPAC Dublin, Independent Foreign Fiction Prize, etc.); I may not always agree with the selection of the winner, but almost invariably I'm introduced to new authors and books that I greatly enjoy.

Will catch up on writing up my reading properly when back in London. We're in Yorkshire, visiting my mother in Ilkley, though she's struggling with the feeling terribly ill stage of chemotherapy. (Any thoughts appreciated).

Today I went to the Harrogate Crime Festival, though I only went to one event, a panel of writers who set their books in the past or future.

Paul Johnston's Quint Dalyrymple series is set in the independent city state of Edinburgh in the 2020s (not so far away now). It's a few years old and I caught up on it a while ago, I recommend it. Quint is a sort of PI, in fact. He also has 3 books set in Greece in which Alex Mavros looks into cases with roots in Greece's troubled 20th century history.

Other writers were S J Parris, Richard Morgan and R S Downie. I will try and find them all at some point, I might even buy a book or two when we go back tomorrow. The panel was chaired by Laura Wilson, whose quite recent-historical crime novels (3 of them in the 1940s, with another coming out next month) I like a lot.

On the way back, changing trains in Leeds, I bumped into writer Stella Duffy on her way to Harrogate. She recognised me enough to ask wasn't I going there?

Sending good thoughts/vibes in the direction of Ilkley... (let's hope the GPS is working properly...)

I loved Paul Johnston's Quint Dalrymple books -- excellent & imaginative. I mostly liked his Greek books, but didn't at all like his two recent thrillers, which I found obnoxious.

I read S.J. Parris's Heresy this year, and found it a bit "meh". Good, but not great. Haven't read anything by Ruth Downie as yet. Laura Wilson's books I quite like, though they are never comfortable reads.

#40: Sending your mother all good thoughts, Luci!

I hope that your mother starts to feel better soon, Luci.

Sorry to hear about your mother. Nothing helpful to suggest, other than send you all my best wishes.

Stella Duffy was the facilitator at a work-related event I went the other week and I went to see the improvised production she was in at the Lyric Hammersmith last week - she was excellent in both roles. I haven't actually read any of her books yet but will do soon. Do you recommend anything in particular by her?

Also sending best wishes etc. to you and your mother.

I lived near Harrogate for a couple of years, but never went to the festival: hope you're enjoying it. Some of those books sound very interesting.

Very sorry about your mother. This is something I do have personal, current experience of, so if you want to have a private conversation, let me know. Or if not, know that it does get better.

Sending good wishes your way.

Thanks for all the messages.

Today I didn't get to any of the ticket panels, but I did go to the readers' group. The Crime Festival has had a Reader in Residence every year which before now was Ann Cleeves (who was a reader development librarian for another library service in Yorkshire) - they run reading group sessions in local community centres and pubs in villages around North Yorkshire.

This year it was Martyn Waites, and he focused the discussion around two crime writers he thinks deserve more attention - Zoe Sharp and Charlie Williams.

I've bought Charlie Williams' earlier books including the one under discussion, King of the Road - part of a trilogy with Deadfolk and Fags and Lager and I've been reminded that I really should read them some time - they're about a psychopathic doorman in a small town called Mangel (based on Williams' home town, Worcester, which is sort of south of the West Midlands). I also bought a newer one today as I wanted to get something I didn't already own.

Zoe Sharp writes about a tough woman who had to leave the army and runs her own security consultancy, Charlie Fox. She has about 7 books in the series so far, but the earlier ones had been out of print for a bit, and Second Shot was the topic of today's discussion. I've read the first two or three and own a couple I haven't read, again the discussion reminded me of needing to catch up. The discussion was of her as a character, the use of violence in the books, how it's dealt with, the fact that people don't bounce back so easily from gunshot wounds, and some weird stories about real life cases echoing what has happened in Sharp's books.

Martyn Waites has written 3 books I've read about journalist Stephen Larkin, Mary's Prayer, Little Triggers and Candleland, again, I think some have been reprinted, two other books set in the north east of England where he comes from, and 4 books so far about Joe Donovan, starting with The Mercy Seat - yet more books that I really need to catch up with!

Continuing from the last post, we then got lost in Harrogate's huge park, The Stray and took the boys paddling, then headed for home. I had thought about going to the 3.30 event that was part of the festival, but actually, we had fun anyway though I made it to very little of the Festival. I did manage to slip into one charity shop, and came back with 8 books. Unfortunately, I also managed to leave my cardigan with my Family railcard and train tickets to London as well as Ilkley in the hotel where the Festival was held. Fortunately they found it and called me back, but we're going to have to get a lift over tomorrow to collect it.

My mum's friend from student days Debbie came to supper here, partly to see me as well as to visit my mum, so that was lovely.

Tomorrow we're going out for the day with my stepdad and his wife (my parents split when I was born) and then coming back and my brother is coming out to see his nephews, then we head home on Monday. So quite a hectic weekend, and much less time for reading (apart from The Very Hungry Caterpillar 100 times and Room on the Broom).

Enjoy the time with your family, Luci. The books will wait :)

Adding my best wishes for you and your mum to everyone else's. Glad you had a good time at the Crime Festival.

"I did manage to slip into one charity shop, and came back with 8 books." - That always seems to happen to me as well!

Don't diss The Very Hungry Caterpillar! That is one great book. My older daughter is just about to leave for university, and we were clearing out her room when she found a copy - she debated seriously whether to take it with her, but her younger sister came in and said she couldn't. The other one they argued over was Jasper and the Beanstalk.

The Very Hungry Caterpillar! Oh, that was one of my favourite books when I was tiny. I was quite disappointed when my dad found a box of my old books that had been packed away for 15+ years and that one wasn't in it. :(

Re Stella Duffy's books - I have all but the latest one which is just in hardback - there are 5 Saz Martin mysteries about a lesbian PI living in London, and I really liked Calendar Girl and Wavewalker which are the only books by her I've actually read. She's published about 6 other novels and I own 5. The Room of Lost Things sounds particularly appealing, I'll have to work out a way to fit it into the TIOLI challenge.

I know one of her books was longlisted for the Orange Prize a couple of years ago - I think it might have been The Room of Lost Things so that would fit with the Orange category this month.

Greetings elkiedee, the TIOLI frog extraordinaire! My you're quite a prolific reader on your thread as well, 158! Congratulations!

I've actually finished 166 books so far this year, I'm a bit behind on writing them up!

I've read most of Zoe Sharp's crime novels, and quite enjoyed them. There was a big gap there for a while, and now I need to catch up . There is violence, and they are gritty, but it's not gratuitous -- it fits into the story. Her heroine, Charlie, is tough, but she's also a well-developed character who has to deal with her own history and with her ongoing relationships, as well as being a self-defense expert.

Just caught up on your thread.
I'll send some good healing vibes/thoughts across the Atlantic to your mother. And some warm wishes/thoughts to you as well.
When my father was going through chemotherapy and RT he had some success combating nausea by drinking Rooibos (red bush) tea. Fresh loose tea that we bought at tea or herb shops worked better than tea bags.

I'm just catching up too, Luci. I was wondering about your mother's progress this afternoon and trust that she and you are coping. (That's so you'll know that pledges from VMC carry on and over!)

Another WOO! for The Very Hungry Caterpillar from over here :o)

...and lots of sympathy for your mum - I do hope things start to improve for her soon.

Thanks for your thoughts - my mum was feeling a little better and was able to spend a bit more time with us towards the end of our stay. I'm still very anxious, of course. It's my aunt's 70th birthday party on Sunday (her older sister) and she's coming down for that, as is my baby brother, and it will be in her week between rounds of chemo.

159. 17/7 Robert Lewis, Bank of the Black Sheep 4.1* - Robin Llewelyn no 3

Robin Llewelyn wakes up in a cancer hospice. He soon learns he was about to be facing a court trial for some crime he can't remember, and that before that he used to be a PI. He is being let off because he has cancer and has about 2 months left to live. After a few days coming off morphine and remembering some of what happened before in his life, he leaves the hospice to find out what happened and go after a possible large sum of money.

It's hard to explain why I like this book and this series but I really do. Llewelyn is quite the most disastrous PI ever, and his situation is grim, but perhaps it's a more logical outcome of the lifestyle led by many fictional PIs and some of their most famous creators than just boucing back to do another case.

My review for the Bookbag is here:

http://www.thebookbag.co.uk/reviews/index.php?title=Bank_Of_The_Black_Sheep_(Rob...

160. 17/7 David Nicholls, One Day 3.9*

The story follow two friends through the years after they graduate - in yearly visits on 15 July. I was interested in the premise, especially as they graduated 2 years before me so were living through the same era. I thought this book got better later, I didn't like Dexter much to start with. Good escapist reading, but just because it's written by a man doesn't necessarily make it worthy of being taken more seriously than chicklit...

Might write more about this at some other point, when I've caught up with my recent reading but more importantly with my reviews - 3 for the Bookbag including one to read, 2 for Early Reviewers including one current read, and a Waterstones Cardholder free book to review (current read).

161. Sara Paretsky, Hardball 4.3*

The latest in one of my favourite series - I bought this in hardback and was determined to read it before the paperback came out for once. I partly suggested the PI TIOLI challenge to give myself a push to read this book.

VI's cousin Petra comes to town to work on an election campaign. She's enthusiastic but more than a little irritating (to VI and me). VI Warshawski is asked to take on a case dating back to the civil rights movement and a black man who may have been framed. Trouble and danger seem to be following VI around including people being killed before they can pass on crucial information. And this case seems to touch on VI's own family history - will her memory of her beloved dad, who was a Chicago cop, be tarnished.

Not my favourite in the series, but still a great read. Amazon suggests the next book may come out this year though the information is a bit confusing, and it seems Petra is going to be a character in this one as well.

162. Rowan Coleman, The Happy Home for Broken Hearts 4.0

Reviewed for the Bookbag.

TIOLI (body part in title)

A widow faced with the threat of losing her home takes in lodgers, but it seems their arrival may help her and her son Charlie out with more than the finances, as they bring fresh insight into her problems and the solutions. Rowan Coleman is superior chicklit.

Here's my review:

http://www.thebookbag.co.uk/reviews/index.php?title=The_Happy_Home_For_Broken_He...

#66: I admit I have never heard of Rowan Coleman. I will have to see if my local library has any of her books. Thanks, Luci!

#64 - I have One Day home from the library at the moment, but will probably not read it now I've seen your comments. It was the premise that attracted me to the book as well.

I didn't mean to put you off One Day - I quite enjoyed it in the end, and would suggest giving it a go before you take it back to the library. I read it expecting it to be an enjoyable chicklit type novel even if it happens to be written by a bloke, and it was, which is fine. I think I was trying to be snarky about the way in which books are treated differently solely on the basis of the author's gender, rather than criticising the book.

Don't worry - I'm looking for reasons not to read my library books! I have so many unread books I own that I should be tackling instead. I'll keep it on my tbr list.

163. 23/7 Diana Evans, The Wonder 4.0

To be reviewed for the Bookbag

Lucas lives with his sister Denise on their London houseboat. Their mother and grandmother died and their dad disappeared years ago, and Lucas sets out to find out why. Lucas's story is interwoven with that of his father, who came to live in England from Jamaica, and became a dancer.

I thought the writing of this was very good and I liked reading it, but the novel ends a bit up in the air.

I've had her first novel, 26a for ages and this has reminded me I'd like to read it.

164. 24/7 Karen Russell, St Lucy's Home for Girls Raised by Wolves 4.8*

This caught my eye because of the title and I couldn't resist a couple of months ago. The TIOLI 20 under 40 list challenge was my excuse for picking it up.

There are 10 stories in this book, about teenagers in difficult situations. Other than the title story, two of the best titles are ZZ's Sleep-Away Camp for Disordered Dreamers and The Star-Gazer's Log of Summer-Time Crime. The stories are pretty good as well.

165. 25/7 T H White, The Once and Future King 3.5

I really enjoyed The Sword in the Stone which I'd read before, but I didn't like the rest of the book as much as everyone else. The author's comments on parallels with the events of his present day were interestng, but I found his Guinevere to be irritating and nasty, I think the women characters put me off.

#72: I have had that one in the BlackHole for a while now. I really must read it soon!

I think my mum has a copy of One Day so I might try and borrow it (otherwise I'm sure the library will have a copy) and the Karen Russell book sounds intriguing.

I think The Sword in the Stone is still my favourite out of The Once and Future King but I liked the later books more on my reread.

Re One Day, didn't you feel that the ending was a bit pants though?

SPOILER ALERT I don't know, it is, as you say a chick lit novel, so shouldn't it have a happy ending? It felt like he was trying to make it more than it was END SPOILER ;o)

...anyway, I much preferred Starter for Ten...

#72 That's certainly a great title! Glad the stories were good too.

166. 25/7 Sarah Dessen, That Summer 4.0

TIOLI challenge (book with Summer in the title)

Haven's dad is getting married again. Her big sister is also marrying, and her mum is considering selling the house. Everything in Haven's life is changing. Then her sister's ex, who got on with all the family and who was around before everything went wrong with Haven's family, reappears.

Apart from bringing back bad memories of how horrible being 15 can be, I quite enjoyed this YA novel and look forward to reading more Dessen.

167. 28/7 Gaile Parkin, Baking Cakes in Kigali 4.2

TIOLI challenge - first heard of this book here (it also would have fitted well under the Culinary title challenge)

Angel has moved to Rwanda from Tanzania with her husband - she is caring for 5 grandchildren by her dead son and daughter. She bakes cakes and hears the stories of the customers who commission her work and the neighbours where she lives, many of them from the West or from other African countries and working for aid organisations.

I enjoyed this more than I expected - there are echoes of Mma Ramotswe in Angel's creative problem solving skills and in some cases methods of righting wrongs, and in the warmth and humour. It's quite easy reading, sort of intelligent henlit (grown up chicklit) though it touches on some quite hard issues - but I think there's a place for such writing about Africa alongside the more literary stuff.

#79: 'Henlit'! I love it.

I'm very excited, I've had an email from the owner of the Bookbag website saying that she's posted the new book by one of my favourite crime writers, The Anatomy of Ghosts by Andrew Taylor, to me. It's a historical one, so I will even be able to count it as a TIOLI read. All I need now is to work out how to squeeze it in...

81- Cool!

#81: I will be interested in seeing what you think of it. I have only read one of Taylor's books, Bleeding Heart Square, but I really liked it.

168. 28/7 Alan Bennett, The Uncommon Reader 4.4

TIOLI challenge: Book about Books

Somehow the Queen comes across the mobile library bus visiting Buckingham Palace one day. She starts reading, a habit which becomes of ever increasing importance to her, much to the dismay of those who surround her.

Very witty and enjoyable.

#84: I have read that book 3 years running and still enjoy it. I am glad you did too, Luci.

#84 Glad you enjoyed The Uncommon Reader: I really liked that one.

Howdy. Wondered why there was only one post on your thread, and now I know why! LOL

Are you hoping to have 300 by year end? Regardless, I enjoyed this set of threads -- yes, I did read them.

Glad you got to visit with your mom, but am sorry for the reason! Praying.

Blessings!

I just read The Uncommon Reader last week, and loved it.

I don't expect to get to 300 - at rate so far (175 books as of this morning), perhaps, 250 books.

169. 28/7 Lauren Liebenberg, The Voluptuous Delights of Peanut Butter and Jam 3.7*

TIOLI: culinary words - I could have also put it in the Orange Prize category or the one for books I first heard of here on LT (indeed on this group)

Two sisters close in age are growing up in what is still white Rhodesia, under Ian Smith, with their parents and their grandfather, a tyrannical but interesting man. A little boy who is related to them comes to live there, and turns out to be a very disturbed sadist.

I thought this was beautifully written and there were some bits I found quite moving, but I had some problems. First, I found the position of the family as a white family supporting the Ian Smith government got in the way of my view of the book, although that's background and not what it's about.

I much preferred three other books about growing up in Rhodesia/Zimbabwe:

The Boy Next Door by Irene Sabatini, this year's Orange New Writers winner, about a mixed race young woman in Mugabe's Zimbabwe.

Nervous Conditions and The Book of Not by Tsitsi Dangarembga about a young Shona woman and her cousin, I think mostly before Mugabe comes to power.

#90: I already own the Liebenberg book and the Sabatini book is already in the BlackHole, but I am adding your recommendations of the Dangarembga books to it as well. Thanks, Luci.

170. 2/8 Peter Lovesey, Upon a Dark Night 4.2

Peter Diamond #5, and started as a TIOLI book (Night or Day) but obviously didn't finish it in time.

Diamond is a grumpy police detective who lives in Bath - I really enjoy Lovesey's writing. In this, a farmer has been found murdered. A young woman who has lost her memory is claimed from the local homeless person's hostel by a woman claiming to be a relative, and another woman from the hostel dies at a party. Their friend starts hounding the police to look into all the suspicious things, but how do they connect? Really enjoyable reading.

171. 2/8 Gabriella Ambrosio, Before We Say Goodbye 3.2

Italian children's book in translation. Waterstones has a loyalty card and a cardholder scheme a bit like Early Reviewer where you can get advance review copies, and this was my first book.

The story of a few hours in the life of its characters - Israeli Jewish Myriam is moping after the death of her friend Michael, and Palestinian Dima is also reflecting on things. A short novel written for children/teenagers about the impact of the conflict on ordinary people on both sides. Commendable effort to present both sides of the story (though I'm not so objective about it), but I was a bit bored. Other reviewers liked it a lot more though. My review is here:

http://www.waterstones.com/waterstonesweb/products/gabriella+ambrosio/before+we+...

#93 I got The Gargoyle through that scheme. Unfortunately it arrived while I was on holiday, so I was late with the review - I don't think they're going to send me any more :o( Sounds like one to avoid anyway...

172. 3/8 Linda Grant, The Clothes on Their Backs 4.4*

Vivien has grown up with her refugee parents in London. Her dad's brother comes to see them and is sent away. Later, she seeks him out and lies to him about her name and identity, and he offers her work helping him to write a memoir. It's always clear he knows exactly who she is.

He has been a pimp and a slum landlord and has spent time in prison for it, hence her dad's denial of him. Grant makes this man who has done many reprehensible things seem rather sympathetic.

A note at the end says the character is based on Rachman, London's notorious slum landlord in the 1960s. He came to London as a Jewish refugee and was still searching for surviving relatives.

I really liked the moral ambiguity of this novel, I'd heard lots of negative stuff but I'd forgotten how much I like this author's writing.

I am so glad that you enjoyed The Clothes on their Backs, Luci. So did I! It got me out of a reading funk last year, and I'm grateful for that if for no other reason. But I too appreciated the moral ambiguity and the fine writing. Yay!

173. 3/8 Margaret Elphinstone, The Gathering Night 2.9*

Early reviewer book

This story is told from the alternating narrative viewpoints of a number of different male and female family members. It is set in Mesolithic Scotland (the Mesolithic era or middle stone age was from about 8500-4000 BC). The family are hunter-gatherers and they travel to different places at different times of year.

A young man, Bakar, disappears and is clearly dead, but why and how. His mother sets out to find out.

There was a lot of interesting stuff in this book and it made me want to know more about the way of life at the time, though I'm not clear how much was based on research and how much was speculative or imagined. In a very brief Afterword, the author explains something about the setting, acknowledges some sources and tells us about some of her choices, eg the characters apparently have Basque names - although we don't know what they really might have been called, the Basque language Euskadi is the only one that goes so far back. I would have enjoyed a much longer afterword.

As a historical novel, this falls into a common problem of offering a mass of historical detail (whether real or made up). Though the characters tell their story in the first person, I didn't feel a sense of any of them as real people.

I was interested in the parts of the narrative about baby-rearing and naming etc, but I wondered if gender roles were generally as fixed at this time as they are portrayed as being in the novel. It seems unlikely that the research going that far back can establish this, as there aren't the written records that have come down from later periods. I thought that at times the novel reads as though lots of mid 20th century assumptions and ideas have just been plonked a few thousand years back....

I am curious about the history, but this didn't work for me as a novel.

Hmmm. I think I would have had a hard time suspending my disbelief with a premise like that. Interesting review...

#97: OK, I will skip that one! I hope you like your next read better, Luci.

My next 3 reads and 1 of the 5 after that were 5 star books, and the others were very excellent indeed too.

174. Geraldine McCaughrean, Stop the Train 5*

I sent this review to the Bookbag but since it's my own book (ie not a publisher's review copy) I'll post here too. I started reading Pull Out All the Stops and remembered I had another book by the same author, it turned out to have many of the same characters.

REVIEW:

Cissy and her family have come to set up a grocery store in the brand new town of Florence, Oklahoma, near the railroad. She quickly makes friends with a very chatty, kind boy called Kookie, short for Habbakuk. Other people come to stake their claim on plots of land, and open up businesses. It is all very exciting but the settlers of this new town soon discover they have a serious problem. The railroad company wanted the land the town is being built on, and when everyone turns down the cash they are offered to give up their claims, the railroad boss announces his trains will not stop in Florence. The railroad is the reason for the town's existence, and without it Florence will collapse before it is properly started.

How the townsfolk of Florence get together and stop the train is the story of this delightful historical novel for older children, set in the US in the 1890s. What really made this such an enjoyable read was a vibrant cast of characters. As well as Cissy and Kookie and the other children, there is Herman the Mormon signwriter, who has a moral objection to money and wants to get to Salt Lake City, Utah, where most Mormons live, but has only been able to trade his services for a ticket to Florence.

My favourite adult character, though, is Mrs Loucien Shades, a widow who answered an ad for a wife but when someone else is offered that position, agrees to become the town's schoolteacher. She has no formal teaching qualifications and possibly rather less formal education herself than might be expected, but what she lacks in technical expertise, she makes up for in other ways. She loves the children and they love her, and she has some inspired ideas for keeping the curriculum interesting, for example getting all the adults in town to come in and talk to the children about their work or other subjects they know about.

I love to read historical fiction with very strong but believable female characters. Girls and women in this time and place must have been tough – they would have had to be to survive the trials and tribulations of pioneer life.

I also liked the way in which the novel shows that the people of Florence need each other, the need to get together and plan collective action to achieve their goal. They are full of bright ideas and enthusiasm, though some of their plans don't quite work.

Although written for children, this very funny and touching historical novel is a great read which many adults would enjoy too.

#101: Added to the BlackHole although my local library does not have it yet. Thanks for the review and recommendation, Luci!

Sounds like a winner! I'm going to go look for Stop the Train. Thanks, Elkiedee!

Karen O.

>97 elkiedee: Made me think of when my hub and I would joke about when was Jean Auel's cave lady going to invent the electric toothbrush. I loved the first couple of her books but then they sort of went off the rails......

Stop the Train sounds good. I like the idea of a book championing collective action for a change.

Do you read children's books? I can bring Stop the Train and the sequel Pull Out All the Stops, along with Reading Like A Writer if I'm able to get to come and see you next week.

I'm planning a bit of a spree at Amazon - after nearly 7 years, though most of my activity has been in the first and last of those, I've claimed my "earnings" from an opinion website. (I don't recommend this as a way of making money, it's possibly fun, but the earnings aren't worth it - I prefer free books for reviews and am currently pursuing a couple of extra sources for those).

I may well buy other things entirely, but what would you spend £52 on (or about $75)?

#107: I may well buy other things entirely, but what would you spend £52 on (or about $75)?

I would buy the Landmark Herodotus and Landmark Thucydides that I have had my eyes on forever now. That would take care of $75 in no time flat.

#101 Great review and what a great book for your 175th read!

#107 I just did an Amazon spree and ordered the new Terry Pratchett book and two books by Gail Carriger which have just been released in the UK (young adult, paranormal romance type thing). Not sure any of those would be your cup of tea though.

Lately I've been trying to keep a list of books that aren't available from the library or that I don't think are likely to turn up second hand so that when I have my sprees I can spend the money on those.

175. 6/8 Geraldine McCaughrean, 10216863::Pull Out All the Stops! 4.9 *

A sequel to 218306::Stop The Train, almost as fabulous, set a year on. There is diphtheria in town Cissy and her friend Kookie go to stay with their former teacher and the travelling theatre company. Lots of mishaps and adventures.

Reviewed for The Bookbag, and it's due out here in October in hardback, so highly recommended for future wishlists.

http://www.thebookbag.co.uk/reviews/index.php?title=Pull_Out_All_The_Stops!_by_G...

#110: My local library has several of McCaughrean's books, but not that one and not Stop the Train. Rats.

176. 8/8 Helen Dunmore, The Siege 5*

I read it now because the library came through with a copy of The Betrayal which was the most appealing Booker longlist book very quickly, and this is about the same characters.

Will update more later, I'm currently a week and 8 books behind on commenting on my reads, and I want to write something tonight about another book before it has to go back to the library.

Stasia, no one's local library is going to have Pull Out All the Stops! now, it isn't actually published here until October. Does your library have any of her other books? - she's written loads. The Bookbag has a review of The Death Defying Pepper Roux and I have A Little Lower than the Angels out of the library.

#112: I loved The Siege and think The Betrayal is just as good.

#113: My local library has several (looks like mostly retellings of myths and fairy tales), but not any of the titles you mentioned, Luci.

Hmm, with all these glowing reviews of The Siege I'm not sure I can hold out until next month. I might have to take a peek at it this week.

#106 - I don't usually, but this sounds so good. I'd love you to bring me those 3 books whenever is convenient for you. Thank you so much.

177. Elizabeth Jolley, My Father's Moon 4.7*

The first book in the Vera Wright trilogy, recently reprinted as one volume, review to be written for the Bookbag. Apparently these books had a lot of autobiographical content. A woman looks back on her time as a very young woman working as a nurse, and her relationships with family and friends. There's more about her mother than her father despite the title.

I read some of Jolley's work from the library nearly 20 years ago, and the trilogy has made me want to reread/read more. A lot of her work is out of print but I have 3 of her other books and a secondhand one on order, and Persea is about to reprint more.

#117: Good! My local library has that one. Thanks for the recommendation, Luci. I have never read anything by Jolley, so I will give it a try.

178. Helen Dunmore, The Betrayal 4.7 *

TIOLI: Booker longlist

I thought this was almost as good as The Siege. It's the early 50s and Andrej and Anna are still living in their Leningrad flat, with 16 year old Kolya. Andrej is a paediatrician, and as soon as he gets a referral for a sick child he knows to be alarmed - xrays have shown something very wrong and the boy's father is a very important person. Beautifully written and very disturbing, and I plan to expand my comments on this and The Siege.

I'm now 13 books behind in comments.

I'm feeling very sorry for myself because I dropped my Ipod in a cup of tea this morning, and a lot of the music on it is no longer backed up anywhere, as there is something very wrong with the hard drive where most were stored on my computer.

#119: I am glad you enjoyed the Dunmore books, Luci. I thought they were both terrific.

ETA: Sorry to hear about your IPod. I hope you can recover the music from it once it has dried out.

I take it from your message that the data on the hard drive of your computer isn't backed up to an external hard drive or other device. I believe that there are stores or companies that specialize in extracting data from damaged hard drives, so you may still be in luck with getting the data retrieved from it.

If you've purchased music from iTunes, I think that you should be able to download those songs to a new device using the same account without charge.

I'm glad to hear that The Betrayal was excellent. I'll probably read The Siege in the next week or two, and then read it next month.

Oh, Luci, ipod and hard drive at once, what a disaster. I know it's true that things can sometimes be recovered, but in my experience no matter what happens it always takes more time and money than it seems like it should. Fingers crossed for you.

I've found an internet tip about putting ipods and phones dropped in liquid in a container of uncooked rice to draw out the moisture. I have nothing to lose so the rice container now has my little toy in it.

A lot of the music is from emusic, some from Itunes, lots from my CD collection. Some may be backed up elsewhere but I don't think I've backed up anything downloaded in the last 3 years. What makes it worse is that Mike's ipod and one of his laptops also got stolen about a week ago. But what's available from emusic changes, as some labels withdraw their music from the site or get taken over. Apparently he has about 7,000 songs on his replacement ipod, but that will include some rubbish he likes and I don't, and I had nearly 24,000 on the drowned device.

Eek - so sorry to hear about the iPod. Hope the rice container idea is successful.

It hasn't worked so far. I'm using Mike's when we're at home (I don't take mine out and about much except if going away) but I'm going to have to replace it and start trying to reconstruct my library as best I can. What's on this computer (still most stuff up to artists/bands beginning with M but not ones with a The in their folder name, plus new downloads, or on Mike's laptop, or on the plug in hard drive if there's anything will be a good start. Then there's my own CD collection, and some free downloading from emusic. Then I will probably have to pay for some replacements for some stuff, but when I get the replacement, I'll just try to do a bit of work a day, and also put it all on to a spare hard drive, particularly as I don't know how long I will be able to make this computer last - before this I bought a new machine every 3 years, but this one is more than 5 years old and I am having lots of trouble with it.

Technology - what a pain. Hope it works out one way or another.

"fiction places people where they belong in society. There is no such thing as a dated novel. The novel set in a particular time gives a picture of that time with all the details of life as it was lived then. In any case he said human beings have not changed except outwardly in fashion where clothes and food are concerned and in the equipment they have learned to use. Love and hate and revenge, ambition, jealousy and grief are all as they have always been".

This wonderful quote comes from Cabin Fever by Elizabeth Jolley, the second book contained in The Vera Wright Trilogy. It sums up why I like reading novels about women's lives in the 20th century so well.

#128: Love that quote, Luci! Thanks for sharing it.

I'm catching up on a month's worth of messages here - you've been reading some great books! I shut my eyes at some of the crime authors I haven't heard of - I have too many on the go already. I hope your Mum is feeling a little better, and the rice trick works on the ipod...

I've just received The Clothes on their Backs from a bookmoocher, so was really happy to see the good comments. I really liked When I lived in Modern times a few years ago.

And Room on the Broom is one of our favourites!!! I must find it. At the moment we have What the Ladybird Heard by Julia Donaldson most nights.

Look out for her new book, Cave Baby by Julia Donaldson, pics by Emily Gravett, it's really gorgeous.

179. 12/8 Joan Aiken, A Small Pinch of Weather 4.9

TIOLI: Weather title

A collection of her delightful stories which mix up magic and the everyday in a really fun way - this contains several stories about her recurring short story characters Harriet and Mark Armitage, to whom magicy stuff is always happening. A childhood favourite which is even more fun to reread now.

180. 13/8 Jonathan Coe, The Terrible Privacy of Maxwell Sim

Maxwell Sim presents himself as a rather pathetic character. He has been off work for some time suffering depression, his marriage has collapsed and now he is flying home from Australia after a disastrous visit to his dad. He tries to start a conversation with the man next to him on the plane, and launches into a monologue about the advantages of living in Watford, not noticing that the other man is not listening....

Two of my favourite Jonathan Coe novels tell the story of a group of friends growing up in 1980s Birmingham (The Rotters’ Club) and then in the sequel (The Closed Circle), as adults in the Blair years. Coe’s latest novel is set in the present, or at least early 2009, after the financial crash, and includes not only very modern day technology and references, but also a perspective on some very contemporary concerns, as the narrator’s new job is as a salesman selling more ethical toothbrushes.

Although Maxwell Sim is portrayed as a terrible bore, the novel is far from dull. I found it a very fast, engaging read, with real warmth and wit. I don’t know if this portrayal of the Brown years will have the lasting appeal of some of his previous work – will we ever feel nostalgic about the Noughties? – but the contemporary references now are great fun, as this lonely man begins to think of his SatNav as a friend and be comforted by her voice. I was also amused by the use of one of my favourite websites, Mumsnet, in a story I find all too believable – Max has ended up finding out about what his ex wife is doing with her life by making up a female identity to befriend her online. This is just one example of the novel questioning how we develop a sense of self.

The story contains several other stories within it, such as a short story supposedly written by Caroline, various letters and diary extracts. Coe uses lots of plot devices, but this novel never becomes inaccessible, it stays quite easy to read. The denouement of the story will probably annoy some people intensely but I found it quite interesting.

This is not Coe’s best work but I found it quirky, sad, witty, engaging and very readable.

Someone else in the group just read one of Coe's books and recommended it. I am going to have to seek out some of his work.

I've enjoyed most of Jonathan Coe's books and hadn't realised he had a new one out - I will have to get hold of it soon. I loved What a Carve Up The Rotters Club but was a bit disappointed with The Closed Circle

181. 13/8 Elizabeth Jolley, Cabin Fever 4.8*

TIOLI: Classics (a modern classic reprint)

The second volume of The Vera Wright Trilogy. Pregnant Vera leaves the hospital where she has been working before all her colleagues realise she is pregnant. She takes a succession of jobs which include somewhere to live for her and her young daughter before finding a surprising happiness, and more, with Mr George and his sister in Glasgow. I just think Vera's a fascinating character, and although there are sad bits here, there's a lot of dry humour.

I wrote a review of the trilogy as a whole for The Bookbag:

http://www.thebookbag.co.uk/reviews/index.php?title=The_Vera_Wright_Trilogy_by_E...

#136: I am hunting for the Elizabeth Jolley books as well as Talking About Jane Austen in Baghdad that you mentioned in your Bookbag review (I have already read the Mary McCarthy book. Thanks for the recommendations, Luci!

182. 14/8 Ruth Adam, I'm Not Complaining, 4.7*

TIOLI: No Es, also a Virago Modern Classic

A very enjoyable read about a Nottinghamshire teacher in a 30s Depression hit industrial town. Madge faces unruly pupils and colleagues, gets caught up in a riot at one point. She is very judgemental at times, but she's funny with it, though sometimes I felt sympathy with other characters and not her, usually she reengaged me. I can imagine Madge as a friend I'd frequently disagree with but would still love. (I actually have a friend who is a bit like Madge though 25 years older, it's just occurred to me).

#138: I have another of Adam's books, A Woman's Place, already in the BlackHole. I will have to add I'm Not Complaining there too.

183. 15/8 Elizabeth Jolley, The Georges' Wife 4.3*

After some years living in Glasgow, and having another daughter outside marriage, Vera has trained as a doctor while Miss George and her mum help bring up the little ones. Much of this novel is taken up with Vera and her now husband, Mr George, emigrating to Australia, and her friendship with another unconventional, maverick woman.

My ratings are those from when I was reading, the trilogy as a whole is more than the sum of its parts and when I reviewed it for the Bookbag I upped my rating from 4.5 to 5 *, there's something special about it that I became more aware of thinking about it.

That Jolley quote is incredible -- I've put it in my quote file. Thankyou! I haven't read the Vera Wrights but I know I have read something and liked it..... and the Jane in Baghdad is now in the wishlist.......

The Elizabeth Jolley trilogy has gone on the wishlist, they definitely sound like interesting reads.

Sorry about your iPod Luci. I don't know if this will help at all, but I have a bad habit of droping my mobile etc in all kinds of wrong wet places and, following someone elses's advice, I've managed to rescue nearly every one (yes, that is plural dunkings) by putting the mobile in question ontop of a radiator overnight to dry out properly. It helps if you can remove the battery so that the inards can dry out fully (I don't know if you can do that with an iPod as I don't own one).

The only time it didn't work fully was when I dropped my mobile in a glass of wine (don't ask) - and even then, I managed to get everything except the no. 4 working ;o)

Worth a shot if the rice thing doesn't work anyway...

#135 Me too with The Closed Circle - I was very disappointed - to the point at which I wish he had left the story as it was at the end of The Rotters' Club, which I enjoyed very much - in fact possibly half the reason The Closed Circle disappointed me so much was because it just didn't live up to my very high expectations following The Rotters' Club. Didn't he also write a book about a sleep clinic hospital type place? I can't remember what it was called, but I remember liking it.

#136 (Cabin Fever) - that sounds not dissimilar to The L-shaped Room by Lynne Reid Banks - have you read it?

I read and loved The L Shaped Room when I was young, but they're not that alike.

Oooh, I could read The House of Sleep for the TIOLI this month. I'm desperately short of ideas, you see, only 20 library books that would fit the challenges and perhaps another 20 books people have listed that I could join in, and various others!

184. 15/8 Azar Nafisi, Reading Lolita in Tehran 4.5*

TIOLI: Character name in title, would have also fitted non-fiction book set in another country. Several other people were reading it and it's something I've been meaning to read since it was published 7 years ago, so this was a good chance.

I really liked this rambling memoir - I was interested in her account of student days abroad in the US and would like to read more about that, but this book is about discussing literature in Iran. The discussions on the books made me want to reread/read Henry James' work (I've read Portrait of a Lady and Daisy Miller many years ago) and perhaps F Scott Fitzgerald though not Lolita. I'm interested in literature and politics and so everything here really interested me.

I've borrowed her other book by her which looks to be focused on her relationship with her mother from the library, as it was on the return trolley when I took something else back.

If anyone is still reading it or wants to give it a try it would fit the Back to School challenge as it's about education of various kinds.

185. 16/8 David Roberts, Sweet Sorrow 4.1* Edward Corinth/Verity Browne #10

TIOLI: historical mystery

This is apparently the final volume in a historical mystery series set in 1930s Europe, mostly England. Roberts is clearly a Golden Age mystery fan, and there are lots of echoes of classic mysteries, particularly DL Sayers, but it's different too. Verity is a journalist and was until recently a member of the Communist Party, and her job has taken her to report on events including the Spanish Civil War and events in Germany. Now WWII looms and Edward and Verity have married after a long friendship finally turned into something more. They have moved to Sussex. A poet is killed - he's not the most likeable man. Leonard and Virginia Woolf make quite a lot of appearances in this novel, Dylan Thomas appears briefly.

A good read and I'll miss the series.

An error describing Dylan Thomas as in his mid 40s, he could only have been in his 20s I think at this point as he died aged 39 in the early 50s - he might have looked a lot older...

#145: I just read that one for the August TIOLI as well. It was a third read of the book for me and I still enjoy it. I am glad to know you did too.

#146: Looks like a series I would enjoy although it is highly unlikely that the local library has them.

Glad to see you've had so many good reads since my last visit.

186. 16/8 ed Neal Pollack, Chicago Noir 3.5*

Another of the Akashic Noir collections of crime stories. This was fine but nothing particularly stands out.

187. 17/8 Elizabeth Cambridge, Hostages to Fortune 4.3*

TIOLI: Beginning with H

Persephone

During WWI, Catherine marries a country doctor (whose profession maybe protects him from call up) and they settle down and have 3 children. The novel follows their lives between 1916-1933. A very honest look at an experience of motherhood, with some good times and some boredom.

188. 19/8 Andrew Taylor, The Anatomy of Ghosts 4.4*

TIOLI: Historical mystery

Historical crime novel set in Jerusalem College, Cambridge in 1786. Another I liked more when I got down to reviewing it for the Bookbag:

http://www.thebookbag.co.uk/reviews/index.php?title=The_Anatomy_of_Ghosts_by_And...

#150/151: Both of those look good, Luci. I am adding them to the BlackHole.

189. 19/8 Katherine Paterson, Jacob Have I Loved 4.4

TIOLI: Authors appearing at Festival

Louise and Caroline are twins growing up on an island in the 1930s, and Louise always feels that Caroline is more loved than she is. A touching coming of age story.

#151 Is that the same Andrew Taylor who wrote Bleeding Heart Square? (which I still haven't read). The Anatomy of Ghosts sounds interesting anyway.

Jacob Have I loved is also going on my wishlist.

Yes, the same Andrew Taylor - I asked Sue at the Bookbag if it would be possible to get a copy for me.

190. 19/8 Vita Sackville-West, All Passion Spent 4.2*

TIOLI: Classic - Virago Modern Classic

I've been wanting to read this since it was serialised on the radio last year. When her husband dies, Lady Slane turns down the idea of staying with her children and rents a house to enjoy living alone. When she was young she wanted to be an artist, but she made a successful marriage and was the wife to a diplomat/politician herself. Beautifully written social comedy about her horrible children, and a lovely look at how she spends the end of her life now she can finally do what she wants to.

191. 20/8 Georgina Harding, The Spy Game 4.2*

TIOLI: Book about spies, spying

One winter day in 1961, Anna's German mother apparently dies in an accident. 8 year old Anna and her brother have an alternative idea of what happened to her, developing a theory that she was some sort of spy. Was she killed, or did she in fact just disappear?

Some time closer to the present day, Anna now has teenage children of her own. She has travelled to where her mother came from, a town which came within the Soviet Union's borders after WWII.

An atmospheric, thought-provoking novel, I'm not sure I understand all that happened but I had to give the book back to the library.

#156: I really must locate my copy of that one!

#157: I will have to see if my local library has that book. It sounds interesting.

192. 21/8 Angelica Garnett, Deceived with Kindness 4.2*

A memoir by the daughter of Vanessa Bell and Duncan Grant, although she grew up believing that Clive Bell was her father. I read some stories by her in January and wanted to read her actual memoir. A touching account of the adults who brought her up.

#159: My local library has that one, so I will give it a go. Thanks for the recommendation, Luci.

The Man Booker Shortlist is announced:

Peter Carey - Parrot And Olivier In America

Emma Donoghue - Room

Damon Galgut - In A Strange Room

Howard Jacobson - The Finkler Question

Andrea Levy - The Long Song

Tom McCarthy - C

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/booker-prize/7986789/Man-Booker-Prize-2...

Have you read any of them? I haven't (I hadn't read anything on the longlist either though). I want to read some of them before the winner is announced but don't know where to start - especially since it will probably mean buying them in hardback.

No, I bought The Long Song for £5 from the Book People months ago, but still need to read it. I have already reserved Room at the library but am in a queue. I'm interested in the Jacobson after comments here but don't know if the others appeal that much.

193. 21/8 Daniel Pennac, School Blues 4.6*

TIOLI: non fiction set in antoher country

French writer Daniel Pennac is a former teacher and a successful novelist (at least some of his novels have been translated such as a series of crime novels which includes The Scapegoat and The Fairy Gunmother. But he struggled at school and was considered a dunce. This book puts forward some ideas from his experience as a failing pupil and later a teacher about how pupils can be helped to learn, and why it's so important to do it.

Very readable and highly recommended.

Reviewed at much greater length for the Bookbag.

http://www.thebookbag.co.uk/reviews/index.php?title=School_Blues_by_Daniel_Penna...

I'm adding School Blues to my tbr list, I liked his The Rights of the Reader. Btw, that Scapegoat link goes to the wrong book.
Regarding the Booker list, I also have The Long Song sitting around unread for ages and have the Jacobson home from the library, but not sure if I want to read it just now.

#164: School Blues looks like a good one. Thanks for the review and recommendation, Luci.

194. 22/8 Bernadette Strachan, Handbags and Halos 4.1

TIOLI: Title beginning with H

Nell decides to leave her boyfriend and as she then has nowhere else to live, moves in with her wealthy grandmother. Her boss in a PR agency threatens to sack her unless she pretends to be the new girlfriend of a celebrity client, and she takes up voluntary work. Sounds a bit messy but it's a really fun light read.

195. 24/8 Catriona McCloud, Growing Up Again 3.9

TIOLI: no E in title or author's name

Janey somehow goes back in time and finds herself living in 1981 as a 15 year old, though she has memories of what's to happen in the future. She sees an opportunity/need to stop various awful things happening, such as Diana's unhappy marriage to Prince Charles.... Perhaps a bit silly but terrific fun. I'm marking it down slightly for the ending, of course I can't explain why, but it was clever but ticked me off.

Seems the TIOLI is a good way to choose one's next book... And from the variety I've seen many of my choices would fit one of the stipulations. Too lazy to find the thread!!

196. 24/8 Said Sayrafiazedeh, When Skateboards Will Be Free 4.3*

TIOLI: Non fiction set in another country

A memoir of growing up with parents who were members of the Trotskyist Socialist Workers' Party in the US - his parents split up when he was very young - initially his father was off fighting for the revolution but actually he established a new household. Sometimes very funny, sometimes very sad. Some real jaw dropping moments.

This is well written, and I found it sad that his mother was apparently so self sacrificing a lot of the time, although very strict on some of her principles. I was shocked that he was left alone in the flat when she went to meetings, but especially that she stopped him watching the TV for company while she was out.

I think this would appeal more to people who have some knowledge/symapthy for the politics involved, which I have, although some people who are political might find this book too frivolous/vacuous - Sayrafiazedeh isn't politically engaged. This is in a growing pile of books I mean to write a proper review of some time.

197. 25/8 Suzannah Dunn, Tenterhooks 4.1*

TIOLI: only a few copies on LT

Before her success as a historical novelist, Suzannah Dunn published several more literary novels and collections of short stories - many of the stories in this collection are about young girls, growing up, family relationships.

I own most of Dunn's other books, not this one which was from the library and I think was a reread. I do mean to read the historicals some time, but this made me interested in rereading/reading her early and less well-known work.

#168: I already had that one in the BlackHole but it is not available at the local libraries. I just checked and found out it is available for the Nook though!

#169: I have never read anything by Suzannah Dunn. Thanks for the review and recommendation, Luci!

#162 School Blues sounds interesting so I will look out for that one. Nice review!

198. 26/8 Annabel Davis-Goff, The Fox's Walk 3.7

TIOLI (August) - Walk in the title

I really must catch up with these write ups - I'd nearly fallen off the second page as I haven't posted on my own thread since Sunday (and 5 books ago).

Novel about childhood in a posh Anglo-Irish family. Readable but not as good as I'd hoped.

199. 27/8 Joe Treasure, The Male Gaze 3.4

TIOLI - less than 25 copies on LT

I reviewed Treasure's second novel, Besotted, which I liked much better, a few months ago, for the Bookbag, and borrowed this from the library at that point. I was trying to get some of my long outstanding books read.

The main character and his wife are living in LA, and finding it quite bizarre. He wanders into a strange series of events and people he's not even sure he likes, but when something horrible happens he feels unable to just walk away from them.

Readable but not that satisfactory.

#174/175: I think I will pass on both of those.

I hope you find a book that is satisfactory soon, Luci. Your last couple seem to be duds.

200. 28/8 Winifred Watson, Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day 4.2

TIOLI: Persephone reprint of a forgotten classic

A governess down on her luck is sent for a new job, but due to a mix-up finds herself meeting a nightclub singer with no children. But as it turns out, these two women from very different worlds have a lot to offer each other. A delightful and enjoyable story, though I'm not sure about books which portray 40 as middle aged (now I'm 41!)

They weren't so bad, really, but there are many much better books around.

Only 20 books behind to write up now!

#177: I have already read that one, so I can dodge that particular book bullet.

#179: Good grief! You may be here for a while.

40 (or 41) is definitely not middle-aged! I'm 49, and I'm not there yet. I might acknowledge middle age when I hit 50 in March, when the AARP (American Association of Retired Persons) application is mailed to me.

40 -41 - middle-aged ??? Well, literally speaking, this is right as the average age of death is 82 or something (over here anyway), but middle-aged... really ... (sigh)

I loved Miss Pettigrew too.

And of course the life expectancy was lower when the books was written. Not really low, of course. 70, maybe. So 40 was probably closer to middle-aged then than now.

20 behind? Goodness.

#174/175 I think I will probably also skip those.

#177 I have heard lots of good things about Miss Pettigrew but still haven't read it...

20 behind!

Now 25 (not 225!) behind - will continue with this thread while I try to get them written up, with a simple list of further reads, but details of those further reads wll transfer to new thread. Hopefully a bit more time over next few days to write up.

Next 15

226. Helen Walsh, Once Upon a Time in England

227. Beth Pattillo, Jane Austen Ruined My Life

228. Muriel Spark, The Finishing School

229. Peter Robinson, Bad Boy

230. D E Stevenson, Miss Buncle Married

231. Petina Gappiah, An Elegy for Easterly

232. E Nesbit, Five Children and It

233. Alan James Bradley, The Tolpuddle Boy

234. Curtis Sittenfeld, Prep

235. Leila Rasheed, The World Turned Upside Down

236. Hilary Mantel, Learning to Talk

237. D E Stevenson, Mrs Tim Carries On

238. Laura Wilson, A Capital Crime

239. Katharine McMahon, A Way Through the Woods

240. Cathleen Schine, The Three Weissmanns of Westport

201. 30/8 Aito Ighodaro, Sin Tropez 3.0

Reviewed for WH Smith - someone there will send free books if you send them your details on Twitter. Copies of 2 books I've bought myself and one I'd love to read have been sent to other reviewers, Before I Fall, No and Me and Truth by Peter Temple. I got this.

Blurb on website:

Abena wants a career. Natalya wants an oligarch. Tara just wants to party. When a billionaire lothario invites best friends Tara and Abena to stay on a super-yacht in St Tropez, the promise of riotous hedonism and reckless adventure proves too intoxicating to resist. Meanwhile, for Latvian model Natalya, the invitation is a long-awaited opportunity. Dazzlingly beautiful but haunted by her childhood, she's looking for an oligarch who can fund her future - and help her forget her past. Soon all three are sucked in to an exhilarating world of sex, immorality and wild excess. But when Abena becomes embroiled in a passionate and dangerous affair, Tara's partying spirals out of control, and Natalya discovers the dark consequences of getting what you wish for, the jet-set lifestyle starts to look a lot less glamorous. Can each girl find what she's looking for, without losing herself on the way?

My review:

Three young women go to a glitzy, glamorous party in a resort favoured by the super rich, St Tropez. This novel follows their lives over a few months. Tara is from a supposedly impoverished aristocratic family but is still quite spoilt by the expectations of wealth. She has been best friends with Abena, an ambitious young woman with Ghanaian parents, since their days at Oxford University. Natalya is a Latvian model now living in London.

I enjoy some chicklit but prefer stories in more realistic settings and probably wouldn’t have been attracted to this novel about a big party hosted by a tycoon. A lot of the characters and goings on at the party sound pretty revolting and I couldn’t really understand why educated, intelligent women would want to be there, even committed hedonists like Tara could probably find more enjoyable dos.

Aita Ighodaro does create quite appealing young female protagonists, though and I liked Abena, Tara, their friend Sarah, and Natalya enough to read on and find out what happens to them. The writing is quite clunky, but I think fans of Louise Bagshawe’s work would quite enjoy this.

202. 30/8 Angela Carter, Heroes and Villains 3.9

TIOLI - H in title, and others were reading it so thought I'd try and read some shared reads

A short, strange novel set in a near future society which has broken down. A young woman, Marianne, ends up in a relationship with a barbarian young man whom she saw kill her brother - she also lives with his family. Calm has written a short review which sums up my feelings also too (though she got the name wrong), though I did like Marianne's relationship with her mother in law.

203. 31/8 Mollie Panter-Downes, One Fine Day 3.7

TIOLI - weather

A very short novel in which a woman reflects on her life and marriage. I was a bit disappointed after the collections of her short stories reprinted by Persephone, but might go back to this one and give it another go.

204. Alison Wong, As the Earth Turns Silver 4.2

I heard of this one from a couple of people here, and then got a review copy for the Bookbag, as it came out in a mass market paperback edition, though with a sadly inferior cover to other editions (the trade paperback's cover is really striking).

This is a historical novel set in New Zealand a century ago, and the central characters are a widow of English origin and a Chinese shopkeeper. There's probably too much social history packed in for a work of fiction, but as it's about racism and the struggle for women's rights at the time I found it fascinating.

My review is here:

http://www.thebookbag.co.uk/reviews/index.php?title=As_the_Earth_Turns_Silver_by...

205. 2/9 Kate Ellis, Playing with Bones

Sept TIOLI 1, Challenge 1 (ing)

#2 in the Joe Plantaganet series

Enjoyable police procedural mystery, although not as good as the first in this series. Plan to return to her first Wesley Peterson series if I can find books 8 onwards in the library - my libraries tend to have quite recent books and be a bit tricky for previous entries in the series.

I've won a copy of Charlotte Bronte's selected letters in a Twitter competition this afternoon from Oxford World's Classics. I'm quite excited to have won something. And I have a sentimental attachment to OUP imprints because my grandfather worked for OUP and edited an edition of selected Katherine Mansfield stories.

206. 3/9 D E Stevenson, Mrs Tim of the Regiment 3.8

TIOLI: Title with a title in it

An enjoyable read giving a look at the life of an army officer's wife in 30s Britain. Not as much fun as Miss Buncle though!

This was an online "group read" discussion at the Mumsnet.com website last year - the winner of a draw for a set of Bloomsbury reprints gave me the copy she already had of Mrs Tim as she didn't need two.

#192: Cool beans! Congratulations, Luci. How wonderful that you have the connection to OUP too.

#193: I need to get to that one soon.

#185 "Now 225 behind" Please tell me that was a typo - I know you read fast but still!

#190 That one was on the wishlist thanks to a recommendation from someone earlier this year but I really enjoyed your review.

#192 Woo! I really like the new covers Oxford World Classics have brought out. I quite liked the old cover designs (the coloured bands at the top) but the new ones look lovely. Charlotte Bronte's letters will hopefully be interesting too.

#193 I think that one's also on the wishlist, along with the Miss Buncle books.

So now you're 20 behind again? I'm only 5 behind but it feels like a lot and I'm going on holiday for a week with no internet access and hoping to do lots of reading so it's only going to get worse!

I'm 7 reviews behind but plan on getting to them today. I read As the earth turns silver earlier this year and also thought it had a really interesting plot. It won the NZ Post Fiction Book of the Year Award a few weeks ago.

225 was indeed a typo - I'm now 22 behind.

I was going to write a website review for new books mag but got distracted when I logged into read it swap it for their review guidelines (I can't find the newbooks mag ones) when I checked my feedback and discovered someone has not only given me really bitchy feedback but has complained about me in about 4 forum posts (for a slight delay in posting which I apologised for).

Don't let the bitchy commentators get you down, Luci... Some people get their kicks finding something to gripe about, and if it hadn't been you, it would have been the person behind the counter at the local shop, or the dog, or... The Internet just gives them an additional outlet.

Sorry to hear that Sweet Sorrow marks the end of the David Roberts series; I've been reading them all as they have come out and will miss them. That said, I imagine that the kinds of issues he dealt with via the mysteries would be hard to continue in wartime Britain. Though I think it would be fun to send Verity on a journalistic mission to the Soviet Union in 1942 or so... Stasia, if you want to borrow these books, let me know. I'm pretty sure I can track them down.

For the record, I refuse to admit that being in one's 40s makes one middle-aged. Talk to me in another decade. By which time, I'll be in denial about 60-plus being "old".

#198: I sent you a PM.

On the upside, the owner of the Bookbag sent us all a lovely message about how good we are. Apparently she's turned down the last 20 reviewers. I'm sure though that the UK 75ers who post here wouldn't be turned down if any of you are interested (the cost, timescale and unreliability of posting outside the UK is too problematic, I understand).

207. 6/9 Cynthia Harrod-Eagles, The Foreign Field 4*

TIOLI: Chunkster

#31 in the Morland Dynasty series

I've read this series from the beginning, starting for me in the mid 90s, about a posh English family with a family home in North Yorkshire, starting in the 14th century. The first few books span a long period of time but the more recent ones are often no more than a year at a time, this is one of several set during WW1.

The writing is often clunky with historical details just plopped in, but I enjoy reading them, and CHE has made me care about the characters over time, much more so in the Victorian and Edwardian books.

#201: Number 31 in the series?! That is some series!

I've just started As the Earth Turns Silver and am happy to see you gave it 4.2 stars (I'm going to save the review till I've finished it!).

Sorry to hear about the bitchy stuff on Read it Swap it. I would be really upset if I got that on Bookmooch and figure eventually I will really get up someone's nose!

Hi! Just stopping by to visit the person who's really soaring through TIOLI challenges. My, you are quite the reader! 207 books and it's only the end of September, what a feat! Happy reading!

I think I've now finished 232 books, and will probably finish at least one more before I go to sleep tonight - I can list it in October TIOLI if it's the wrong side of midnight (when I get home we're focusing on feeding and settling the kids and I usually fall asleep for a few hours with Conor and then wake up and stay up really late).

Thanks for the sympathy CMT, actually she emailed me last night wanting to try and make amends and has now changed the feedback (which is a 5 star rating and she'd dropped 2 stars, I think 4* would have been fair enough but it was her forum posts and feedback comments which upset me most, it was my only poor rating so it probably wouldn't have made much difference). I'm getting to like BM much more than RISI, at first there didn't seem to be the books but I've since managed to nab some great ones, I don't have to have something they want to swap, just points, it's a bit like going to a charity shop, you never know what you might just pick up today.

Will be interested to know what you make of As the Earth Turns Silver.

Do you ever post on Mumsnet? I came across some posts there from a bookworm who had had to get rid of lots of books before moving to Switzerland yesterday.

Ha, no that's not me but I post on the New Zealand equivalent sometimes (everybody.co.nz), especially the board for mums of kids with food allergies.

I *love* Bookmooch. It went off for a while, but I have found some great books lately. Just got a Grk one in the mail for our son today. (Grk is his new thing, and it beats Captain Underpants!)

I keep trying to start that Harrod-Eagles series (I'm quite drawn to her mystery series, featuring Bill Slider, and like her trilogy set in 19th century Russia) but never really have managed to get very far. I think she started publishing them around the same time that I was in college -- nearly thirty years ago! I WANT to read them, but I bog down 1/3 of the way through and that's it... I SHOULD like them, as English history/historical fiction are solidly my areas of interest, so it's baffling and frustrating.

I enjoy the series but I'm not sure I'd recommend starting at the beginning. My memory is that the first few books weren't that great - I first discovered them when I was unemployed and according to a diary of the time I discovered, reading about 2 books a day - I would get to a point when I felt I'd read everything of interest in a library quite regularly. Of course, no internet to find out about further books. It seems qutie extraordinary now.

Exactly! I remember how Amazon changed my life... not only could I order US books while living in London (and vice versa when I moved back to NY), but I could look ahead and see what was going to come out, and when I discovered Alibiris, I could get new copies of old faves long since vanished.

I confess I did become less reliant on any library -- and built up my own! I blame it on living in Belgium as a teenager. There were two English language bookstores, and the books were about $8 each (for paperbacks) -- a massive amount in the mid/late 70s. The only libraries belonged to my school (very banal) and the English Council and the American equivalent of that. Compared to the years when I had easy access to public libraries, before and after, I certainly discovered a lot less in the way of new books/authors. (Although that's when I first ran across Rumer Godden.) I did end up devouring a lot of romantic fiction, like the Angelique novels, simply because they were available!

209. 10/9 Penny Vincenzi, An Absolute Scandal 4*

September TIOLI: chunkster

Vincenzi's books are always really long but they're real page turners. The characters in this one are affected in different ways by being involved with Lloyds of London. This was sold to wealthy people as an investment, but what they do is insurance underwriting, and suddenly as asbestos among other things became a huge issue, Lloyds Names learned that they didn't just have a mark of financial privilege and status, they learned the meaning of unlimited liability.

Vincenzi is good at creating really enjoyable trashy novels with convincing characters, though in real life I wouldn't feel sorry for some of these very privileged people, I did enjoy it.

#211: That one does not look like my cuppa at all, so I think I will pass for now. Glad you enjoyed it though, Luci!

208. 10/9 ed Peter Spiegelman, Wall Street Noir 4.2*

TIOLI: books about money

I'm aiming to read an Akashic Noir anthology every month, and this was the one which fitted a challenge

A lot of the stories in this are about people working on Wall Street and/or in high finance, I thought the writing was mostly excellent and was surprised by how much I liked this anthology. There are also some internationally set stories.

210. 11/9 Frances Towers, Tea with Mr Rochester 4.2*

Persephone book and TIOLI: Title in the title (Mr)

A collection of short stories

211. 12/9 Rachel Cusk, The Lucky Ones 4.2*

5 linked long short stories - one character in each seems to meet at least one character from another. There is also a theme of motherhood. I quite like this and wish I could review more satisfactorily, it had to go back to the library to make space on a library card.

#214: That one is already in the BlackHole. . .

#215: . . .but I am adding this one :)

212. 12/9 Jill Murphy, The Worst Witch 4.8*

September TIOLI: School story

Children's book. Mildred is at a school for witches, but she makes a lot of mistakes, the teacher seems to hate her, and she has problems with the spiteful star pupil. Delightful story with fun illustrations, really aimed at kids of about 7/8. I now have all 6 books in this series and plan to read the others soon.

213. 12/9 Jan Struther, Mrs Miniver

September TIOLI - title in title

Anecdotes about family life during war time. I read them a few weeks apart but it's interesting to compare with Mrs Tim Carries On - and then there's the novels about women in wartime with a totally different attitude (I've read a lot of books set in this period recently) such as the mother in Saplings and Deborah in To Bed with Grand Music.

I do quite like Vincenzi, trash and all! She manages to corral all her characters and put them in a bigger/broader context sometimes. The Lloyd's one was quite good, as was a later book where the characters found their lives altered by a massive motorway accident. They alway sound more pulp than they turn out to be in practice, and certainly are a great way to pass rainy days. (Days, plural, because not even I can devour an entire Vincenzi in a single day...)

#218: I still need to get to that one. Thanks for the reminder, Luci!

214. 12/9 Joan Aiken, A Harp of Fishbones 5*

Reread of a childhood favourite, rating is partly based on sentiment but still an excellent read. Another collection of Aiken's wonderful short stories for children about magic colliding with reality, and several appearances for Mark and Harriet Armitage.

241. Geraldine McCaughrean, A Little Lower than the Angels

242. Joan Aiken, Moon Cake

243. Joseph O'Connor, Ghost Light

244. Irene Nemirovsky, Dimanche

245. Willa Cather, The Song of the Lark

255.

#222: I am not going to try and figure out what that message means. I suspect it is in 'Luci' code.

It's the next bit of the books I've read list, Stasia.

I really liked Mrs Miniver when I read it last year. I've added the others ones you've mentioned to my wishlist (I think the Mrs Tim books were already there) - I enjoy books about women set in Great Britain during the war.

#224: I kind of figure that but did not understand why there is a 12 book jump between two of them.

Not all the numbers have been put in yet, as I have yet to read books 243-255 - I do my list in chunks of 15 as 5 x 15 = 75. This list will get copied over to my 4th thread. There's method in my madness, honest, as well as madness in my method.

If you say so :)

215. 13/9 Jean Webster, Daddy-Long-Legs 4.7*

TIOLI: School challenge and shared read

Judy is rescued from an orphanage by a mysterious benefactor who pays for her to go to college, on condition she writes to him about her education. And so she does, writing witty, chatty and sometimes impertinent letters. A fun read and also an interesting account of turn of the century (19th/20th) education for women.

I read this years ago and had a tatty old copy, but when I looked for Dear Enemy online I discovered there was a Penguin Classics edition of the two books in one volume with an introduction by feminist literary critic Elaine Showalter. I couldn't resist.

#229: I had never read it before so I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed that one.

216. 14/9 Tishani Doshi, The Pleasure Seekers 4.2*

This was serialised on Radio 4's Book at Bedtime here and I was intrigued enough to seek it out. Indian Babo comes to London to study in the early 1960s where he falls in love with a Welsh girl, Sian. This is the story of their lives together and those of their children over the years. I liked the characters and found the writing evocative, and will be looking out for anything she writes in future.

217. Ruth Sawyer, Roller Skates 5*

TIOLI controversial read

This was a reread of a childhood favourite. I recognise it may not be perfect but my rating reflects nostalgia, and I do still love this book. Written in the 1930s and set in 1890s New York City. 10 year old Lucinda's parents leave her staying with friends for a year as her mother visits Italy for health reasons. Lucinda is free when not at school to explore the city on her roller skates and make friends. She makes a wonderful mixture of friends including an Irish policeman, an Italian fruit seller, a Chinese princess, a Polish immigrant family with a beautiful 3 year old daughter. I enjoyed this as a child but there's plenty for the older reader to enjoy here as well. Lots of funny moments and some which made me cry as a child and still bring a tear to my eye.

This would fit in well to this month's old fashioned book challenge.

#231: I have not heard of that one before. Thanks for the recommendation, Luci.

#232: I will see if I can locate a copy of that one for this month's challenge. Thanks again.

The Pleasure Seekers is quite a new book. I seem to end up wanting to read most of the books I hear serialised on Radio 4, which could account for most of my reading time on its own.

#234: I found a used copy available for less than $3, so I hope to have it in hand soon. I hope I enjoy it as much as you did, Luci.

218. 15/9 A S Byatt, The Children's Book 4.3*

TIOLI - I started it as a chunkster but then moved it to the title with an apostrophe for shared read purposes

Novel about a group of intellectual and creative types in Victorian/Edwardian England. Olive Wellwood writes children's books but what is happening to her own children, and those she is bringing up as her own? A good read but there were bits I felt I didn't completely grasp what was going on. Apparently Olive is based on E Nesbit and I'd really like to read something biographical about her. It has made me want to reread Nesbit and I also read Five Children and It last month (another TIOLI shared read).

I am reading Five Children and It and The Enchanted Castle both for this month's TIOLI challenge. I will get back to The Children's Book when I finish those two.

219. 16/9 Mark McAuley, The House of Slamming Doors 3.7*

A story of a boy just entering his teens in a dysfunctional Anglo Irish family in 1963. Well written but didn't live up to the mentions of Molly Keane on the back cover. Reviewed for The Bookbag:

http://www.thebookbag.co.uk/reviews/index.php?title=The_House_of_Slamming_Doors_...

I would definitely read more by him given the opportunity although this wasn't so great.

Interesting observation about Olive in The Children's Book, Luci. I just read E. Nesbit's page on Wikipedia, and the similarities are quite obvious. I enjoyed The Children's Book too, although I also got bogged down at certain points.

Finally caught up with your thread Luci, having quickly scampered through from early August to now.

Too many interesting reads to comment on, but re recent books, I was interested to hear your thoughts on The Children's Book, which I read back in about March. I wrote quite a detailed review at the time, but somehow didn't manage to save it when I posted it, so lost the whole thing :(. I did enjoy the story and all the detail about the different movements in the arts, literature and politics of the time (and as someone who went through a phase of reading all William Morris's writings, it was interesting to read of characters reading them when they were hot off the press). But it sometimes seemed that Byatt was too prone to showing off her research, so that in parts it read more like a history book than a novel in my view.

220. 17/9 Emma Donoghue, Room 4.9*

I wanted to write a proper review of it but had to take it back to the library, though I have another copy waiting for me (different library, free reservations) in the hope of writing a review.

I was initially quite wary of reading this one because of the subject matter, but decided that I liked some of her previous books a lot and I trusted her not to write about abuse etc in a tacky way.

The novel falls into two parts, seen through the eyes of a 5 year old boy - his life with his mother in captivity, and how Jack and Ma try to adapt to the outside world following their escape. Very sad and disturbing in places, but also often moving and even funny, as small children's observations can be, only more so.

#241: I have got to get hold of that one! I have seen nothing but good reviews of it here in the group.

221. 18/9 ed Angela MacMillan, A Little, Aloud 4.2*

Reviewed for New Books Mag

http://www.newbooksmag.com/reviews/3039-9379/review.php

This lovely anthology comes from The Reading Organisation, a charity which runs read-aloud groups for older people, people with health problems, prisoners, recovering addicts and excluded children. It is packed with short stories, extracts from novels and poetry on themes including childhood and old age, relationships between couples and within families, deception and many others. The choices are quite literary in nature and mix well known classic writers like Charles Dickens with writers whose work may have been forgotten and newer work.

All the writing included has been used in groups. Each section includes a prose piece of about 10 pages with an approximate read aloud time at the beginning, a poem and a page of Reading Notes including some questions discussed by groups, and a couple of interesting comments made by other readers.

Sadly, I haven’t had a chance to try reading aloud, or having someone read the pieces to me, yet, but maybe I will in future. I haven’t heard of The Reading Organisation or its work before but will try to find out more about it. I really enjoyed reading many of these pieces, even silently to myself, and it made me want to revisit familiar writers and try more work by new ones. There are Suggested Reading Notes at the back, though I think these could usefully be included at the end of each piece of writing or section instead, where more readers would look at them.

The book is nicely presented with a little illustration by Mary Lundquist for each story, the Reader Notes and a foreword by Blake Morrison, an introduction about the work of the Reader Organisation and suggestions on How to Use this Book.

This is aimed at a particular type of reading group and I’m sure it would work well for a group which wanted to discuss a short piece regularly, rather than everyone having to read a longer book each month.

222. 20/9 Gerald Seymour, The Collaborator 3*

Review for WH Smith website

http://www.whsmith.co.uk/CatalogAndSearch/ProductDetails.aspx?productID=97803409...

Eddie is in love with a young Italian woman he met in a park. Generally he is an easygoing guy, earning his living teaching English to speakers of other languages. When Mac disappears without warning, he follows her home to Naples. What he doesn’t know is that Immacolata is from a gangster dynasty, and that she isn’t thinking about him when making her decisions. She has decided to inform against her family, and give prosecution evidence in a trial, because she has learned that her best friend died of an illness caused by the activities of her family. When her family find out they take Eddie hostage, but Immacolata is not turning back from the course she’s started on.

I found The Collaborator to be a quick, undemanding read, and I was curious to see how it all turned out, whether Eddie would survive the story. However, I thought the book was too long, and that I was merely curious not riveted. The main characters are vaguely likeable but I didn’t feel the suspense that I would expect to feel when reading a really good thriller. I felt I was asked to accept a lot of rather implausible things at the start of the story – Immacolata has been brought up in a criminal family, so why is she so shocked by what she is told about the death of her friend, and why does she so totally accept the view of Marianna’s family that the leukaemia was directly caused by the Borellis? Surely a woman with her upbringing would be a bit more sceptical. Eddie also seems a bit naive.

A readable but formulaic thriller.

223. Nawal El Saadawi, The Essential Nawal El Saadawi 4.5*

LibraryThing ER book edited by Adele Newson-Horst - various translators from Arabic

Nawal El Saadawi is an Egyptian writer whose literary career spans more than 60 years and comprises more than 40 books, though the bibliography here is of those which have published in English translation and is of just 20 of those. This selection of work includes articles, essays, fiction, poetry, drama and interviews with the author.

Zed Books has published this reader as the first in a planned series of Zed Essential Feminists – I was very excited to receive a copy of this introduction to the work of a controversial and very political writer. In her writings across all genres she is outspoken about the rights of women and the working poor, and in her opposition to Western imperialism, Islamic fundamentalism and the oppression of women and others.
El Saadawi is a doctor as well as a writer, and has opposed circumcision of female and male children on religious-cultural grounds. She was director general for public health education in the Egyptian government from 1963 to 1972, when she lost her job because of one of her controversial books on Women and Sex. Many of her books have been censored in Egypt and she has been imprisoned, for criticising President Anwar Sadat in 1981. She has lived in exile because her name was on a fundamentalist death list after she published a novel which criticised Islam, The Death of the Imam. However, her writings are as critical of Western governments and of Christianity as they are of those in Africa and the Middle East and of Islam.

This collection is divided into sections – nonfiction, fiction and poetry, drama, interviews, but actually, much of her writing is a mixture of genres. Some of the material is really topical such as writing on the 2008 US presidential election, before and afterwards. Some of my favourite pieces were the autobiographical ones, such as First Trip Outside the Homeland and God Above, Husband Below. I found her writing about her mother and grandmother very moving – she would prefer to be known by her mother’s name, Zaynab, than as she is, by her father’s name.

I would like to read more of her short stories – there are only a few here. Some appear to be more pieces of memoir, but can’t be - the narrator of My Ideal Mother is unmarried and childless, unlike the author. Other “stories” include “The Impact of Fanatic Religious Thought” and “Death of An Ex-Minister”. I was impressed by these but they are as polemical and political as any of her essays and articles in section 1 of the book.

This reader was interesting, thought-provoking and sometimes unsettling reading, and I would like to read some of her books extracted here, and perhaps some which aren’t.

http://www.librarything.com/work/8989052/book/63358821

#245 -- another reminder of how many authors there are out in the broader world that I just don't hear about! So many books, so little time...

I remember the Ruth Sawyer book vividly -- I really enjoyed it as a child. Not sure I still have the book, though. It just crossed my mind -- is this the same Ruth Sawyer who wrote The Way of the Storyteller, which I greatly enjoyed as an adult? It hadn't really crossed my mind before, perhaps because Roller Skates had slipped to the back of my mind.

According to LT, it is, but I can't find much about the book or the author.

It's a great non-fiction book about the art of story-telling, if I recall correctly. Literally, from oral storytellers (think Homer, societies with no writing telling stories around campfires, etc.) to the art of the novel. I remember really liking it.

The Way of the Storyteller looks like a good book too. I will have to look for it. My local library has Roller Skates so I already have that one in the BlackHole.

#245 - I have been interested in Nawal El Saadawi for a while, but didn't know where to start - this seems the perfect place!

I'll have to make a list of books that you'd like to borrow, Janet, including this one - I know you wanted to read Reading Like a Writer, there's some Geraldine McCaughrean children's historical novels - I reviewed Stop the Train and Pull Out all the Stops a couple of months ago. I also found one of El Saadawi's novels (for 50p!!!) at the amazing Marie Curie shop on Green Lanes on Sunday. And is #4 in the Elvis Cole series, Free Fall by Robert Crais of any use?

Thanks! Definitely Reading Like a Writer. The Robert Crais would be great, too. The others aren't on my "sooner rather than later" list, so I would have to keep them too long. I really have to get to that Marie Curie shop, seems to have great stuff.

224. 22/9 Malcolm Pryce, Aberystwyth Mon Amour 4.1*

September TIOLI (Challenge 1)

A first in series mystery I've been meaning to read for years, I like British noir mysteries in rather unlikely small town settings and the titles in this series really appeal to me.

225. 22/9 Jean Webster, Dear Enemy 3.8*

September TIOLI: School story - it has an educational setting although not strictly a school, it's an orphanage

Judy's college friend Sallie takes on running the orphanage that Judy was brought up in, and has to write letters reporting on it to Judy and her husband. She doesn't mean to stay long but finds a vocation in this new job. I found an omnibus edition of the two books with an intro by feminist literary critic Elaine Showalter and couldn't resist.

I would have rated this higher, for enjoyable reading probably about 4.3*, but I had one real problem with it - some moments when Sallie quotes dodgy eugenicist theory.

Webster's politics were quite radical for her time, and I was intrigued to see that she and her friend supported Eugene Debs' election campaign (he and Webster were avowed socialists), but unfortunately some socialists of that era had an interest in eugenics which really makes for distasteful reading today. There's a suggestion that there is heredity in character/behaviour traits of some of the orphans and their families.

There is a lot that's interesting in terms of education/child rearing theories of the time, and sometimes they are of the time, or of the author perhaps? and I would still recommend reading this more than my rating probably implies, my docking of half a star at least is probably a very personal reaction.

Will start a new thread tonight for my next reads (I may even get to 75, I would only need to finish 53 more books this year which I'm on course for at the moment).

#253: Highly unlikely that my local library will ever have that one, but I will add it to the BlackHole anyway.

#245 I've heard of Nawal el Saadawi but haven't read anything of hers. That sounds like a useful starting point.

Here's my new thread:

http://www.librarything.com/topic/100468