PAUL C'S SECOND HOME - PART 7

SCENES FROM MY BOOKS

The Line of Beauty by Alan Hollinghurst.

Booker Winner and for the British Author Challenge this month:

POEM

Everybody who visits here regularly knows that Seamus Heaney is one of my favourite poets. This is his deceptively simple "Scaffolding"

Reading Record

JANUARY

1. Plague 99 by Jean Ure (1989) 218 pp
2. Tom Brown's Schooldays by Thomas Hughes (1857) 309 pp
3. A Lear of the Steppes by Ivan Turgenev (1870) 117 pp
4. A Fall from the Sky by Ian Serraillier (1966) 78 pp
5. The Overnight Kidnapper by Andrea Camilleri (2015) 262 pp
6. Dove on the Waters by Maurice Shadbolt (1996) 198 pp
7. A Portable Paradise by Roger Robinson (2019) 81 pp
8. The Other End of the Line by Andrea Camilleri (2016) 293 pp
9. The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead (2019) 208 pp
10. Swallows and Amazons by Arthur Ransome (1930) 501 pp
11. Carrie's War by Nina Bawden (1973) 211 pp
12. Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart (2020) 430 pp
13. Judge Savage by Tim Parks (2003) 442 pp
14. The Mirror Crack'd from Side to Side by Agatha Christie (1962) 280 pp
15. Charlotte Sometimes by Penelope Farmer (1969) 227 pp
16. Jazz by Toni Morrison (1992) 229 pp
17. A Question of Upbringing by Anthony Powell (1951) 230 pp

FEBRUARY

18. Junk by Melvyn Burgess (1996) 278 pp
19. The Great Fire by Monica Dickens (1970) 64 pp
20. At Bertram's Hotel by Agatha Christie (1965) 265 pp
21. A Room of Own's Own by Virginia Woolf (1929) 153 pp
22. Bury the Dead by Peter Carter (1987) 374 pp
23. Rivers of London by Ben Aaronovitch (2011) 390 pp
24. Around the World in 80 Days by Jules Verne (1873) 242 pp
25. Woods, etc. by Alice Oswald (2005) 56 pp
26. Did You Ever Have a Family by Bill Clegg (2015) 293 pp
27. A Burning by Megha Majumdar (2020) 289 pp
28. Moon Over Soho by Ben Aaronovitch (2011) 373 pp
29. What is History? by Edward Hallett Carr (1961) 156 pp
30. A Buyer's Market by Anthony Powell (1951) 278 pp

CURRENTLY READING

READING PLAN
Reading Plan

1 British Author Challenge - set this year by Amanda in the 75er Group

2 1001 Book First Edition - Ongoing

3 Booker Challenge - Read all the Booker winners; I may get close to completing that in 2021

4 Nobel Winners - Read all the Nobel Winners

5 Pulitzer Winners - Read all the Pulitzer fiction winners

6 Around the World Challenge - Read a book from an author born in or with parents from all countries - I reset this challenge in October 2020.

7 Queen Victoria Challenge - Read a book from every year of Queen Victoria's reign (1837-1901) with no repeat authors. Started December 2020

8 Queen Betty Challenge - Read a book from every year of Queen Elizabeth II reign (1952-2021) - British authors only and no repeats.

9 Dance to the Music of Time - One a month all year.

10. The 52 Book Club Challenge - A book a week from these selected categories https://www.the52book.club/challenges/2021-reading-challenge/

11. A Dent in the TBR - I have approaching 5,000 books in my TBR so I must read some of the 250 books I have bought in 2020 that end the current year unread.

12. Poetry - My first love in many ways and I am still something of a scribbler of lines to this day.

13. American Author Challenge - Linda came up trumps.

14. Series Pairs - I will choose one favourite series and read the next two books in that particular series I have slightly fallen behind with.

15 Great British History Writers - One classic work per month from a great British historian.

16 New Fantasy Series - I may take a couple of months over each so six may be the most I manage this year.

BAC



January: Children's Classics https://www.librarything.com/topic/326122#7317610

February: LGBT+ History Month https://www.librarything.com/topic/326122#7317871

March: Vaseem Khan & Eleanor Hibbert https://www.librarything.com/topic/326122#7318561

April: Love is in the Air https://www.librarything.com/topic/326122#7319432

May: V. S. Naipaul & Na'ima B. Robert https://www.librarything.com/topic/326122#7320231

June: The Victorian Era (1837-1901) https://www.librarything.com/topic/326122#7320541

July: Don't judge a book by its movie https://www.librarything.com/topic/326122#7321220

August: Bernard Cornwell & Helen Oyeyemi https://www.librarything.com/topic/326122#7321374

September: She Blinded Me with Science https://www.librarything.com/topic/326122#7321899

October: Narrative Poetry https://www.librarything.com/topic/326122#7322840

November: Tade Thompson & Elizabeth Taylor https://www.librarything.com/topic/326122#7323772

December: Awards & Honors https://www.librarything.com/topic/326122#7325017

Wildcard: Books off your shelves https://www.librarything.com/topic/326122#7325595

AMERICAN AUTHOR CHALLENGE



Please see:
https://www.librarything.com/topic/327669#7354831

January : Keep it in the Family : F. Scott Fitzgerald
February : Ethan Canin

BOOKERS
Personal Reading Challenge: Every winner of the Booker Prize since its inception in 1969

1969: P. H. Newby, Something to Answer For - READ
1970: Bernice Rubens, The Elected Member
1970: J. G. Farrell, Troubles (awarded in 2010 as the Lost Man Booker Prize) - READ
1971: V. S. Naipaul, In a Free State
1972: John Berger, G.
1973: J. G. Farrell, The Siege of Krishnapur - READ
1974: Nadine Gordimer, The Conservationist ... and Stanley Middleton, Holiday - READ
1975: Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, Heat and Dust - READ
1976: David Storey, Saville - READ
1977: Paul Scott, Staying On - READ
1978: Iris Murdoch, The Sea, The Sea
1979: Penelope Fitzgerald, Offshore - READ
1980: William Golding, Rites of Passage - READ
1981: Salman Rushdie, Midnight's Children - READ
1982: Thomas Keneally, Schindler's Ark - READ
1983: J. M. Coetzee, Life & Times of Michael K
1984: Anita Brookner, Hotel du Lac - READ
1985: Keri Hulme, The Bone People
1986: Kingsley Amis, The Old Devils - READ
1987: Penelope Lively, Moon Tiger - READ
1988: Peter Carey, Oscar and Lucinda
1989: Kazuo Ishiguro, The Remains of the Day
1990: A. S. Byatt, Possession: A Romance - READ
1991: Ben Okri, The Famished Road
1992: Michael Ondaatje, The English Patient ... and Barry Unsworth, Sacred Hunger - READ
1993: Roddy Doyle, Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha
1994: James Kelman, How late it was, how late
1995: Pat Barker, The Ghost Road
1996: Graham Swift, Last Orders - READ
1997: Arundhati Roy, The God of Small Things READ
1998: Ian McEwan, Amsterdam - READ
1999: J. M. Coetzee, Disgrace - READ
2000: Margaret Atwood, The Blind Assassin
2001: Peter Carey, True History of the Kelly Gang - READ
2002: Yann Martel, Life of Pi
2003: DBC Pierre, Vernon God Little
2004: Alan Hollinghurst, The Line of Beauty
2005: John Banville, The Sea - READ
2006: Kiran Desai, The Inheritance of Loss
2007: Anne Enright, The Gathering - READ
2008: Aravind Adiga, The White Tiger - READ
2009: Hilary Mantel, Wolf Hall - READ
2010: Howard Jacobson, The Finkler Question
2011: Julian Barnes, The Sense of an Ending - READ
2012: Hilary Mantel, Bring Up the Bodies - READ
2013: Eleanor Catton, The Luminaries
2014: Richard Flanagan, The Narrow Road to the Deep North - READ
2015: Marlon James, A Brief History of Seven Killings - READ
2016: Paul Beatty, The Sellout - READ
2017: George Saunders, Lincoln in the Bardo
2018: Anna Burns, Milkman
2019: Margaret Atwood, The Testaments, and Bernardine Evaristo, Girl, Woman, Other
2020: Douglas Stuart, Shuggie Bain READ JAN 21

READ 32 of 56 WINNERS

Pulitzer Winners

As with the Bookers, I want to eventually read all the Pulitzer winners (for fiction at least) and have most of the recent ones on the shelves at least. Current status.

Fiction

1918 HIS FAMILY - Ernest Poole
1919 THE MAGNIFICENT AMBERSONS - Booth Tarkington
1921 THE AGE OF INNOCENCE - Edith Wharton
1922 ALICE ADAMS - Booth Tarkington
1923 ONE OF OURS - Willa Cather
1924 THE ABLE MCLAUGHLINS - Margaret Wilson
1925 SO BIG - Edna Ferber
1926 ARROWSMITH - Sinclair Lewis (Declined)
1927 EARLY AUTUMN - Louis Bromfield
1928 THE BRIDGE OF SAN LUIS REY - Thornton Wilder
1929 SCARLET SISTER MARY - Julia Peterkin
1930 LAUGHING BOY - Oliver Lafarge ON SHELVES
1931 YEARS OF GRACE - Margaret Ayer Barnes
1932 THE GOOD EARTH - Pearl Buck
1933 THE STORE - Thomas Sigismund Stribling
1934 LAMB IN HIS BOSOM - Caroline Miller
1935 NOW IN NOVEMBER - Josephine Winslow Johnson
1936 HONEY IN THE HORN - Harold L Davis
1937 GONE WITH THE WIND - Margaret Mitchell ON SHELVES
1938 THE LATE GEORGE APLEY - John Phillips Marquand
1939 THE YEARLING - Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings
1940 THE GRAPES OF WRATH - John Steinbeck
1942 IN THIS OUR LIFE - Ellen Glasgow
1943 DRAGON'S TEETH - Upton Sinclair
1944 JOURNEY IN THE DARK - Martin Flavin
1945 A BELL FOR ADANO - John Hersey ON SHELVES
1947 ALL THE KING'S MEN - Robert Penn Warren ON SHELVES
1948 TALES OF THE SOUTH PACIFIC - James Michener
1949 GUARD OF HONOR - James Gould Cozzens
1950 THE WAY WEST - A.B. Guthrie
1951 THE TOWN - Conrad Richter
1952 THE CAINE MUTINY - Herman Wouk
1953 THE OLD MAN AND THE SEA - Ernest Hemingway
1955 A FABLE - William Faulkner
1956 ANDERSONVILLE - McKinlay Kantor
1958 A DEATH IN THE FAMILY - James Agee ON SHELVES
1959 THE TRAVELS OF JAIMIE McPHEETERS - Robert Lewis Taylor
1960 ADVISE AND CONSENT - Allen Drury
1961 TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD - Harper Lee
1962 THE EDGE OF SADNESS - Edwin O'Connor
1963 THE REIVERS - William Faulkner
1965 THE KEEPERS OF THE HOUSE - Shirley Ann Grau
1966 THE COLLECTED STORIES OF KATHERINE ANNE PORTER - Katherine Anne Porter
1967 THE FIXER - Bernard Malamud
1968 THE CONFESSIONS OF NAT TURNER - William Styron
1969 HOUSE MADE OF DAWN - N Scott Momaday ON SHELVES
1970 THE COLLECTED STORIES OF JEAN STAFFORD - Jean Stafford
1972 ANGLE OF REPOSE - Wallace Stegner ON SHELVES
1973 THE OPTIMIST'S DAUGHTER - Eudora Welty ON SHELVES
1975 THE KILLER ANGELS - Jeff Shaara ON SHELVES
1976 HUMBOLDT'S GIFT - Saul Bellow
1978 ELBOW ROOM - James Alan McPherson
1979 THE STORIES OF JOHN CHEEVER - John Cheever ON SHELVES
1980 THE EXECUTIONER'S SONG - Norman Mailer ON SHELVES
1981 A CONFEDERACY OF DUNCES - John Kennedy Toole ON SHELVES
1982 RABBIT IS RICH - John Updike
1983 THE COLOR PURPLE - Alice Walker ON SHELVES
1984 IRONWEED - William Kennedy ON SHELVES
1985 FOREIGN AFFAIRS - Alison Lurie ON SHELVES
1986 LONESOME DOVE - Larry McMurtry ON SHELVES
1987 A SUMMONS TO MEMPHIS - Peter Taylor
1988 BELOVED - Toni Morrison - ON SHELVES
1989 BREATHING LESSONS - Anne Tyler
1990 THE MAMBO KINGS PLAY SONGS OF LOVE - Oscar Hijuelos
1991 RABBIT AT REST - John Updike
1992 A THOUSAND ACRES - Jane Smiley
1993 A GOOD SCENT FROM A STRANGE MOUNTAIN - Robert Olen Butler
1994 THE SHIPPING NEWS - E Annie Proulx
1995 THE STONE DIARIES - Carol Shields ON SHELVES
1996 INDEPENDENCE DAY - Richard Ford ON SHELVES
1997 MARTIN DRESSLER - Steven Millhauser ON SHELVES
1998 AMERICAN PASTORAL - Philip Roth ON SHELVES
1999 THE HOURS - Michael Cunningham ON SHELVES
2000 INTERPRETER OF MALADIES - Jumpha Lahiri
2001 THE AMAZING ADVENTURES OF KAVALIER & CLAY - Michael Chabon ON SHELVES
2002 EMPIRE FALLS - Richard Russo ON SHELVES
2003 MIDDLESEX - Jeffrey Eugenides ON SHELVES
2004 THE KNOWN WORLD - Edward P. Jones ON SHELVES
2005 GILEAD - Marilynne Robinson ON SHELVES
2006 MARCH - Geraldine Brooks
2007 THE ROAD - Cormac McCarthy
2008 THE BRIEF WONDROUS LIFE OF OSCAR WAO - Junot Diaz ON SHELVES
2009 OLIVE KITTERIDGE - Elizabeth Strout ON SHELVES
2010 TINKERS - Paul Harding
2011 A VISIT FROM THE GOOD SQUAD - Jennifer Egan ON SHELVES
2013 ORPHAN MASTER'S SON - Adam Johnson ON SHELVES
2014 THE GOLDFINCH - Donna Tartt ON SHELVES
2015 ALL THE LIGHT WE CANNOT SEE - Anthony Doerr ON SHELVES
2016 THE SYMPATHIZER - Viet Thanh Nguyen ON SHELVES
2017 THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD - Colson Whitehead ON SHELVES
2018 LESS - Andrew Sean Greer ON SHELVES
2019 THE OVERSTORY - Richard Powers ON SHELVES
2020 THE NICKEL BOYS - Colson Whitehead


17 READ
37 ON SHELVES
39 NOT OWNED OR READ

93 TOTAL

NOBELS

Update on my Nobel Prize Winning Reading:
1901 Sully Prudhomme
1902 Theodor Mommsen
1903 Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson
1904 Frédéric Mistral and José Echegaray y Eizaquirre
1905 Henryk Sienkiewicz
1906 Giosuè Carducci
1907 Rudyard Kipling - READ
1908 Rudolf Christoph Eucken
1909 Selma Lagerlöf
1910 Paul Heyse --
1911 Count Maurice Maeterlinck
1912 Gerhart Hauptmann
1913 Rabindranath Tagore - READ
1915 Romain Rolland
1916 Verner von Heidenstam
1917 Karl Adolph Gjellerup and Henrik Pontoppidan
1919 Carl Spitteler
1920 Knut Hamsun - READ
1921 Anatole France - READ
1922 Jacinto Benavente
1923 William Butler Yeats - READ
1924 Wladyslaw Reymont
1925 George Bernard Shaw - READ
1926 Grazia Deledda - READ
1927 Henri Bergson
1928 Sigrid Undset
1929 Thomas Mann - READ
1930 Sinclair Lewis - READ
1931 Erik Axel Karlfeldt
1932 John Galsworthy - READ
1933 Ivan Alekseyevich Bunin - READ
1934 Luigi Pirandello - READ
1936 Eugene O'Neill - READ
1937 Roger Martin du Gard
1938 Pearl S. Buck - READ
1939 Frans Eemil Sillanpää
1944 Johannes Vilhelm Jensen
1945 Gabriela Mistral
1946 Hermann Hesse - READ
1947 André Gide - READ
1948 T.S. Elliot - READ
1949 William Faulkner - READ
1950 Bertrand Russell - READ
1951 Pär Lagerkvist - READ
1952 François Mauriac - READ
1953 Sir Winston Churchill - READ
1954 Ernest Hemingway - READ
1955 Halldór Laxness - READ
1956 Juan Ramón Jiménez
1957 Albert Camus - READ
1958 Boris Pasternak (declined the prize) - READ
1959 Salvatore Quasimodo
1960 Saint-John Perse
1961 Ivo Andric - READ
1962 John Steinbeck - READ
1963 Giorgos Seferis
1964 Jean-Paul Sartre (declined the prize) - READ
1965 Michail Sholokhov
1966 Shmuel Yosef Agnon and Nelly Sachs - READ
1967 Miguel Ángel Asturias
1968 Yasunari Kawabata - READ
1969 Samuel Beckett - READ
1970 Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn - READ
1971 Pablo Neruda - READ
1972 Heinrich Böll - READ
1973 Patrick White
1974 Eyvind Johnson and Harry Martinson
1975 Eugenio Montale
1976 Saul Bellow - READ
1977 Vincente Aleixandre
1978 Isaac Bashevis Singer - READ
1979 Odysseas Elytis - READ
1980 Czeslaw Milosz
1981 Elias Canetti
1982 Gabriel Garciá Márquez - READ
1983 William Golding - READ
1984 Jaroslav Seifert - READ
1985 Claude Simon - READ
1986 Akinwande Ouwoe Soyinka
1987 Joseph Brodsky - READ
1988 Naguib Mahfouz - READ
1989 Camilo José Cela - READ
1990 Octavio Paz
1991 Nadine Gordimer - READ
1992 Derek Walcott - READ
1993 Toni Morrison - READ
1994 Kenzaburo Oe - READ
1995 Seamus Heaney - READ
1996 Wislawa Szymborska - READ
1997 Dario Fo - READ
1998 José Saramago - READ
1999 Günter Grass
2000 Gao Xingjian
2001 Vidiadhar Surjprasad Naipaul - READ
2002 Imre Kertész - READ
2003 John Maxwell Coetzee - READ
2004 Elfriede Jelinek - READ
2005 Harold Pinter - READ
2006 Orhan Pamuk - READ
2007 Doris Lessing - READ
2008 J.M.G. Le Clézio
2009 Herta Müller - READ
2010 Mario Vargas Llosa - READ
2011 Tomas Tranströmer - READ
2012 Mo Yan
2013 Alice Munro - READ
2014 Patrick Modiano - READ
2015 Svetlana Alexievich - READ
2016 Bob Dylan - READ
2017 Kazuo Ishiguro - READ
2018 Olga Tokarczuk - READ
2019 Peter Handke - READ
2020 Louise Gluck - READ

READ 71 OF
117 LAUREATES

AROUND THE WORLD CHALLENGE
Around the world in books challenge. I want to see how many countries I can cover without limiting myself to a specific deadline.

From 1 October 2020

1. United Kingdom - The Ways of the World by Robert Goddard EUROPE
2. Ireland - The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde EUROPE
3. Lithuania - Selected and Last Poems by Czeslaw Milosz EUROPE
4. Netherlands - The Ditch by Herman Koch EUROPE
5. Armenia - The Double Bind by Chris Bohjalian ASIA PACIFIC
6. Zimbabwe - This Mournable Body by Tsitsi Dangarembga AFRICA
7. United States - Averno by Louise Gluck AMERICA
8. Australia - Taller When Prone by Les Murray ASIA PACIFIC
9. France - Class Trip by Emmanuel Carrere EUROPE
10. Russia - The Three Sisters by Anton Chekhov EUROPE
11. Denmark - Fear and Trembling by Soren Kierkegaard EUROPE
12. Democratic Republic of Congo - Tram 83 by Fiston Mwanze Mujila AFRICA
13. Canada - I Heard the Owl Call My Name by Margaret Craven AMERICA
14. Italy - The Overnight Kidnapper by Andrea Camilleri EUROPE
15. New Zealand - Dove on the Waters by Maurice Shadbolt ASIA PACIFIC
16. India - A Burning by Megha Majumdar ASIA PACIFIC


Create Your Own Visited Countries Map

QUEEN VIC CHALLENGE
Regarding my Victorian Era Challenge which I started this month with the aim of completing it by the end of 2021. 64 years. 64 books. 64 authors.

From Dec 2020

1843 FEAR AND TREMBLING by Kierkegaard
1850 PENDENNIS by Thackeray
1857 TOM BROWN'S SCHOOLDAYS by Hughes
1870 A LEAR OF THE STEPPES by Turgenev
1873 AROUND THE WORLD IN EIGHTY DAYS by Verne
1881 PRINCE AND THE PAUPER by Twain
1900 THREE SISTERS by Chekhov

7/64

QUEEN BETTY CHALLENGE

From December 2020 70 Years 70 Books 70 Different British Authors

1952 A Buyer's Market by Anthony Powell
1961 What is History? by EH Carr
1962 The Mirror Crack'd From Side to Side by Agatha Christie
1966 A Fall from the Sky by Ian Serraillier
1969 Charlotte Sometimes by Penelope Framer
1970 The Great Fire by Monica Dickens
1973 Carrie's War by Nina Bawden
1987 Bury the Dead by Peter Carter
1989 Plague 99 by Jean Ure
1996 Junk by Melvyn Burgess
2003 Judge Savage by Tim Parks
2005 Woods, etc. by Alice Oswald
2011 Rivers of London by Ben Aaronovitch
2013 A Delicate Truth by John Le Carre
2019 A Portable Paradise by Roger Robinson
2020 Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart

16/70

52 BOOK CLUB CHALLENGE

Based on this challenge suggested by Katie & Chelle

https://www.the52book.club/challenges/2021-reading-challenge/

January
Week 1 : Set in a school : Tom Brown's Schooldays by Hughes Read 2 Jan 2021
Week 2 : Legal profession : Judge Savage by Tim Parks Read 28 Jan 2021
Week 3 : Dual timeline : Charlotte Sometimes by Penelope Farmer Read 29 Jan 2021
Week 4 : Deceased author : Jazz by Toni Morrison READ 30 Jan 2021
Week 5 : Published by Penguin : Junk by Melvyn Burgess READ 3 Feb 2021
Week 6 : Male Family Member : Rivers of London by Ben Aaronovitch READ 12 Feb 2021
Week 7 : 1 Published Work : A Burning by Megha Majumdar READ 19 Feb 2021
Week 8 : Dewey 900 Class : What is History? by EH Carr READ 28 February
Week 9 : Set in a Mediterranean Country :
Week 10 : Book with discussion questions :
Week 11 : Relating to fire :
Week 12 : Title Starting with D :
Week 13 : Includes an Exotic Animal :

SERIES PAIR CHALLENGE

January First Half : Andrea Camilleri - MONTALBANO DONE
January Second Half : Agatha Christie - MISS MARPLE DONE
February First Half : Ben Aaronovitch - PETER GRANT DONE

BRITISH HISTORIANS

As if I don't have enough challenges! I want to polish up on my reading and re-reading of the British historians who either inspired me as a student or who I have since come to greatly admire

The French Revolution by Thomas CARLYLE 1837
The Age of Improvement by Asa BRIGGS 1959
The History of England by Thomas Babington MACAULAY 1848
The Making of the English Working Class by EP THOMPSON 1963
Fifteen Decisive Battles by EDWARD CREASEY 1851
What is History? by EH CARR 1961 READ FEB 21
The Course of German History by AJP TAYLOR 1945
The American Future by Simon SCHAMA 2009
The Face of Battle by John KEEGAN 1976
The King's Peace by CV WEDGWOOD 1955
The Age of Revolution by ERIC HOBSBAWM 1962

FANTASY SERIES CHALLENGE
Ten New (for me) Fantasy Series to go at:

I will concentrate on one series every two months

N.K. JEMISIN - The Inheritance Trilogy

TAD WILLIAMS - Memory, Sorrow and Thorn

C.J. CHERRYH - Chanur Saga

GENE WOLFE - The Book of the New Sun

DAVID EDDINGS - The Belgariad

DIANA GABALDON - Outlander

READ MORE THAN ACQUIRED

Last year I added 300 books but read 50 of them. In addition I have another 4,500 plus on the TBR.
The challenge is not to make the situation of my TBR worse.
So I must read or remove from my wider TBR more than I acquire this year and I will gauge this against last years "new" TBR and any future incomings. Therefore the older TBRs don't count against this challenge.

The figure at the start of the year is 250 books and this number must be smaller by December 31. These are the 250 books:

1 Stay with Me Adebayo
2 American War Akkad
3 The Catholic School Albinati
4 The Unwomanly Face of War Alexievich
5 Saltwater Andrews
6 Big Sky Atkinson
7 At the Jerusalem Bailey
8 The Body Lies Baker
9 The Lost Memory of Skin Banks
10 Remembered Battle-Felton
11 Springtime in a Broken Mirror Benedetti
12 A Crime in the Neighborhood Berne
13 Stand By Me Berry
14 Love Story, With Murders Bingham
15 This Thing of Darkness Bingham
16 The Sandcastle Girls Bohjalian
17 The Ascent of Rum Doodle Bowman
18 Clade Bradley
19 The Snow Ball Brophy
20 Paladin of Souls Bujold
21 Parable of the Sower Butler
22 The Adventures of China Iron Camara
23 The Overnight Kidnapper Camilleri READ JAN 21
24 The Other End of the Line Camilleri READ JAN 21
25 Lord of all the Dead Cercas
26 Uncle Vanya Checkov
27 The Cherry Orchard Checkov
28 Blue Moon Child
29 Trust Exercise Choi
30 The Night Tiger Choo
31 The Mirror Crack'd From Side to Side Christie READ JAN 21
32 At Bertram's Hotel Christie READ FEB 21
33 The Water Dancer Coates
34 The New Wilderness Cook
35 Hopscotch Cortazar
36 The Illumination of Ursula Flight Crowhurst
37 Deviation D'Eramo
38 Boy Swallows Universe Dalton
39 The Girl with the Louding Voice Dare
40 The Rose of Tibet Davidson
41 Dhalgren Delany
42 The Butterfly Girl Denfeld
43 Vernon Subutex 1 Despentes
44 Postcolonial Love Poem Diaz
45 Childhood Ditlevsen
46 Youth Ditlevsen
47 Dependency Ditlevsen
48 Burnt Sugar Doshi
49 Frenchman's Creek Du Maurier D
50 Trilby Du Maurier G
51 Sincerity Duffy
52 Sumarine Dunthorne
53 The Narrow Land Dwyer-Hickey
54 Why I'm No Longer Talking to White People About Race Eddo-Lodge
55 Axiom's End Ellis
56 Figures in a Landscape England
57 kaddish.com Englander
58 Shadow Tag Erdrich
59 The Carpet Makers Eschbach
60 The Emperor's Babe Evaristo
61 Small Country Faye
62 To Rise Again at a Decent Hour Ferris
63 At Freddie's Fitzgerald
64 The Guest List Foley
65 Man's Search for Meaning Frankel
66 Love in No Man's Land Ga
67 Norse Mythology Gaiman
68 The Spare Room Garner
69 The Kites Gary
70 Gun Island Ghosh
71 Vita Nova Gluck
72 Trafalgar Gorodischer
73 Potiki Grace
74 Killers of the Flower Moon Grann
75 The Last Banquet Grimwood
76 Guapa Haddad
77 The Porpoise Haddon
78 Late in the Day Hadley
79 The Final Bet Hamdouchi
80 The Parisian Hammad
81 Nightingale Hannah
82 Coastliners Harris J
83 The Truths We Hold Harris K
84 Conclave Harris R
85 The Second Sleep Harris R
86 Tales of the Tikongs Hau'ofa
87 A Thousand Ships Haynes
88 The River Heller
89 Dead Lions Herron
90 Real Tigers Herron
91 War and Turpentine Hertmans
92 A Political History of the World Holslag
93 Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine Honeyman
94 The Light Years Howard
95 Promise Me You'll Shoot Yourself Huber
96 A High Wind in Jamaica Hughes
97 Ape and Essence Huxley
98 Me John
99 Nightblind Jonasson
100 Black Out Jonasson
101 How to be an Anti-Rascist Kendi
102 Death is Hard Work Khalifa
103 Darius the Great is Not Okay Khorram
104 Himself Kidd
105 Diary of a Murderer Kim
106 Dance of the Jacakranda Kimani
107 The Bridge Konigsberg
108 Who They Was Krauze
109 The Mars Room Kushner
110 The Princesse de Cleves La Fayette
111 The Other Americans Lalami
112 The Curious Case of Dassoukine's Trousers Laroui
113 Fish Can Sing Laxness
114 Agent Running in the Field Le Carre
115 Pachinko Lee
116 The Turncoat Lenz
117 The Topeka School Lerner
118 Caging Skies Leunens
119 The Fifth Risk Lewis
120 The Three-Body Problem Liu
121 Lost Children Archive Luiselli
122 Black Moses Mabanckou
123 Blue Ticket Mackintosh
124 A Burning Majumdar READ FEB 21
125 The Mirror and the Light Mantel
126 Original Spin Marks
127 Deep River Marlantes
128 The Return Matar
129 The Island Matute
130 Hame McAfee
131 Apeirogon McCann
132 Underland McFarlane
133 Hurricane Season Melchor
134 The Shadow King Mengiste
135 The Human Swarm Moffett
136 She Would Be King Moore
137 The Starless Sea Morgenstern
138 Poetry by Heart Motion
139 A Fairly Honourable Defeat Murdoch
140 The Stories of Vladimir Nabokov Nabokov
141 The Warlow Experiment Nathan
142 The Left-Handed Booksellers of London Nix
143 Born a Crime Noah
144 The Private Joys of Nnenna Maloney Nzelu
145 Girl O'Brien
146 After You'd Gone O'Farrell
147 Henry, Himself O'Nan
148 Inland Obreht
149 Weather Offill
150 Dept. of Speculation Offill
151 Stag's Leap Olds
152 Blue Horses Oliver
153 Felicity Oliver
154 Will Olyslaegers
155 Woods, etc Oswald READ FEB 21
156 Night Theatre Paralkar
157 The Damascus Road Parini
158 Empress of the East Peirce
159 The Street Petry
160 Disappearing Earth Phillips
161 Arid Dreams Pimwana
162 Peterloo : Witness to a Massacre Polyp
163 Lanny Porter
164 The Women at Hitler's Table Postorino
165 A Question of Upbringing Powell A READ JAN 21
166 A Buyer's Market Powell A READ FEB 21
167 The Acceptance World Powell A
168 The Interrogative Mood Powell P
169 Rough Magic Prior-Palmer
170 The Alice Network Quinn
171 Where the Red Fern Grows Rawls
172 Such a Fun Age Reid
173 Selected Poems 1950-2012 Rich
174 The Discomfort of Evening Rijneveld
175 Jack Robinson
176 The Years of Rice and Salt Robinson K
177 A Portable Paradise Robinson R READ JAN 21
178 The Fall of the Ottomans Rogan
179 Normal People Rooney
180 Conversations with Friends Rooney
181 Alone Time Rosenbloom
182 Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone Rowling
183 The Watch Roy-Bhattacharya
184 The Five Rubenhold
185 Contact Sagan
186 The Hunters Salter
187 The Seventh Cross Seghers
188 Will Self
189 Moses Ascending Selvon
190 The Dove on the Water Shadbolt READ JAN 21
191 10 Minutes 38 Seconds in This Strange World Shafak
192 In Arabian Nights Shah
193 The Caliph's House Shah
194 Mrs Warren's Profession Shaw
195 Arms and the Man Shaw
196 Candida Shaw
197 Man and Superman Shaw
198 Dimension of Miracles Sheckley
199 The Last Man Shelley
200 Temple of a Thousand Faces Shors
201 Year of the Monkey Smith P
202 Eternity Smith T
203 Crossing Statovci
204 Lucy Church, Amiably Stein
205 Rosencrantz and Guilderstern are Dead Stoppard
206 Blood Cruise Strandberg
207 Shuggie Bain Stuart READ JAN 21
208 Three Poems Sullivan
209 Rules for Perfect Murders Swanson
210 Cane River Tademy
211 Real Life Taylor
212 The Queen's Gambit Tevis
213 Far North Therous
214 Walden Thoreau
215 Civil Disobedience Thoreau
216 Survivor Song Tremblay
217 The Heartbeat of Wounded Knee Treuer
218 The Small House at Allingham Trollope
219 A Nest of Gentlefolk Turgenev
220 A Quiet Backwater Turgenev
221 A Lear of the Steppes Turgenev READ JAN 21
222 The Queen of Attolia Turner
223 The King of Attolia Turner
224 Redhead by the Side of the Road Tyler
225 Outlaw Ocean Urbina
226 Plague 99 Ure READ JAN 2021
227 The Age of Miracles Walker
228 The Uninhabitable Earth Wallace-Wells
229 Judith Paris Walpole
230 Love and Other Thought Experiments Ward
231 The Death of Mrs. Westaway Ware
232 Lolly Willows Warner
233 Second Life Watson
234 Final Cut Watson
235 Letters to Alice on First Reading Jane Austen Weldon
236 Before the War Weldon
237 Lazarus West
238 Educated Westover
239 The Nickel Boys Whitehead READ JAN 21
240 The Death of Murat Idrissi Wieringa
241 Salome Wilde
242 An Ideal Husband Wilde
243 Lady Windemere's Fan Wilde
244 A Woman of No Importance Wilde
245 The Salt Path Winn
246 The Natural Way of Things Wood C
247 East Lynne Wood E
248 A Room of One's Own Woolf READ FEB 21
249 Interior Chinatown Yu
250 How Much of These Hills is Gold Zhang

BEGIN : 250
READ : 15
ADDED : 55 (Nett after deducting those already read)
CULLED : 0 (AGED TBR)

PRESENT TOTAL : 290

THIS YEAR'S ACQUISITIONS

1. Some Experiences of an Irish R.M. by Somerville & Ross
2. Swallows and Amazons by Arthur Ransome READ JAN 21
3. The Warmth of Other Suns by Isabel Wilkerson
4. The French Revolution by Thomas Carlyle
5. The Black Corsair by Emilio Salgari
6. The Prime Ministers : Reflections on Leadership from Wilson to Johnson by Steve Richards
7. The God Child by Nana Oforiatta Ayim
8. Arturo's Island by Elsa Morante
9. Coningsby by Benjamin Disraeli
10. The Secrets We Kept by Lara Prescott
11. The Light in Hidden Places by Sharon Cameron
12. Death's Mistress by Terry Goodkind
13. The Mermaid of Black Conch by Monique Roffey
14. Small Days and Nights by Tishani Doshi
15. Clear Light of Day by Anita Desai
16. Desert by JMG Le Clezio
17. For the Record by David Cameron
18. The Only Good Indians by Stephen Graham Jones
19. The Guardians of the West by David Eddings
20. Boy, Snow, Bird by Helen Oyeyemi
21. The Council of Egypt by Leonardo Sciascia
22. Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris
23. The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms by NK Jemisin
24. The Midnight Library by Matt Haig
25. Rupture by Ragnar Jonasson
26. White Out by Ragnar Jonasson
27. The Age of Capital by Eric Hobsbawm
28. The World Turned Upside Down by Christopher Hill
29. The Wretched of the Earth by Frantz Fanon
30. Modern Times by Paul Johnson
31. The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers by Paul Kennedy
32. The Warehouse by Rob Hart
33. On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong
34. Pawn of Prophecy by David Eddings
35. Queen of Sorcery by David Eddings
36. Magician's Gambit by David Eddings
37. Midnight Never Come by Marie Brennan
38. In Ashes Lie by Marie Brennan
39. The Broken Kingdoms by N.K. Jemisin
40. The Flight Attendant by Chris Bohjalian
41. Dragonfly in Amber by Diana Gabaldon
42. At Lady Molly's by Anthony Powell
43. Casanova's Chinese Restaurant by Anthony Powell
44. The Kindly Ones by Anthony Powell
45. The Financier by Theodore Dreiser
46. Still Waters by Viveca Sten
47. Toilers of the Sea by Victor Hugo
48. The Europeans by Henry James
49. Vice Versa by F. Anstey
50. A Thousand Moons by Sebastian Barry
51. The Scarred Woman by Jussi Adler Olsen
52. Closed for Winter Jorn Lier Horst
53. News of the World by Juliette Jiles
54. Bright Dead Things by Ada Limon
55. A Teaspoon of Earth and Sea by Dina Nayeri
56. Death in the Tuscan Hills by Marco Vichi

56 added
1 read
55 nett additions

RESOLUTIONS

BOOKS OF THE MONTH

January : The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead

READING INFLUENCE WINNERS

A book for the book bullet that made the biggest mark on me that month. Only one win per person each year.

January 2021 MARK (msf59) for THE ONLY GOOD INDIANS by Stephen Graham Jones

BOOK STATS :

Books Read : 30
Books Added : 56
Nett TBR Addition : 26

Number of Pages in completed books : 7,515
Avergae per day : 127.37
Projected Page Total : 46,491

Number of days per book : 1.97
Projected Number : 185
LT Best : 157

Longest Book read : 501 pages
Shortest Book read : 64 pages
Mean Average Book Length : 250.50 pages

Male Authors : 20
Female Authors : 10

UK Authors : 21
Italy : 2
USA : 3
NZ : 1
Russia : 1
France : 1
India : 1

1001 Books First Edition : 3 (307)
New Nobel Winners :
Pulitzer Fiction Winners : 1 (17)
Booker Winners : 1 (32)
Around the World Challenge : New countries : 3 (16)
BAC Books : 10
AAC Books :
Queen Vic Books : 4 (7/64)
Queen Betty Books : 15 (16/70)
52 Book Challenge : 8 (8/52)

Next is yours

Happy new one, Paul.

>25 Ameise1: You are busy today, Barbara! Thanks for being first up. xx

Happy new thread, Paul.

Your threads are moving fast!

>27 FAMeulstee: Thanks Anita. I am going to have to think of a way of reducing the introductory posts but I do make use of them.

Happy new thread, Paul!

>29 bell7: Thank you, Mary. I bought a book today that I noticed you gave a very enthusiastic review of some time ago. More later when I get set up.

Happy new one, Paul! I am still catching up on your previous thread, but I thought that I would quickly snag a seat here.

>31 Crazymamie: Pull up a pew, Mamie, you are always welcome in this humble abode.

Happy new thread, Paul. You do have quite a few introductory posts, but they are great reference material.

>33 AnneDC: I wanted to add a couple for the history books I have planned as well as the fantasy series I want to venture into. Can't help thinking that I keep taking huge bites from this apple and I'm likely to choke on the pips at the core.

I am so pleased to see you back regularly this year so far. x

Happy new thread!

>35 drneutron: Thank you, Jim.

Happy new thread!

Another week, another thread--happy new one, Paul!

>37 amanda4242: Nice to see you Amanda. About to start my other February BAC read The Line of Beauty, let's see if I liked it more than you did.

>38 kac522: Haha I suppose it is, Kathy, but I don't see me keeping this going much longer. It is fun though. xx

Happy new thread, Paul!
>2 PaulCranswick: I like that one.

Went off to Kino this lunchtime to see if I could find my Fantasy series openers (those I didn't have) and was frustrated that I couldn't get them. They usually had Books 2 & 3 but not the first book!
I did however buy:

23. The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms by N.K. Jemisin
24. The Midnight Library by Matt Haig
25. Rupture by Ragnar Jonasson
26. White Out by Ragnar Jonasson

I bought the Jemison because I decided on a whim to read her earlier series before the Broken Earth one.
I bought the Matt Haig book because there have been BBs flying all over the group for that book.
I bought the two Jonasson books because it is a series I have started and the succession of the remaining books needs to be studied.

>40 Carmenere: Thank you, Lynda. Seamus Heaney can be challenging sometimes as he can be an allusive poet and one steeped in his own locale but I think that one needs absolutely no explanation or footnote!

>39 PaulCranswick: It's not that I didn't enjoy it, but it's one of those books that I admire more than I like.

Happy new thread, Paul.
Cool - I managed it to visit you the same day and under 50 - even if not age-related ;-)

Happy New Thread, Paul. Thread 7

Happy New Thread!

Happy New thread from me. I enjoyed The Line of Beauty but I know it isn't for everyone.
Good luck with your fantasy reads, I still haven't read anything by Jemisin.

Happy New Thread, Paul!

>1 PaulCranswick: Which one is Ringo? (kidding)

>2 PaulCranswick: "Like"

>11 PaulCranswick: My mom and I both loved I Heard the Owl Call My Name, back in the day. Our tastes tended to meet in the YA category.

The Belgariad: my sister has wanted me to read this for ages, and I was unable to get any traction. I'm looking forward to your comments; they may help.

Happy new thread!

I hope Hani is feeling better and you get good news about your mother.

It only took me a weekend of mostly avoiding the computer to get way behind on your thread. Back on the last thread, I did not chime in on the music and reading issue. Music is very distracting to me--more so than TV. In other words, I can read, or I can listen to music, but I can't do so at the same time!

Happy New Thread Paul!

Happy new one!

>42 PaulCranswick: I really want to read the Midnight Library and have it on my WL.

Happy new thread, Paul. I love the Seamus Heaney poem above. I don't read a lot of poetry books but tend to jump around a bit. I have my own little "book" where I list my favorite poems. This one will go in there.

>44 amanda4242: I have a hardback edition of it so it is going to be heavy to lug around. I bought it in a sale.

>45 SirThomas: I wouldn't mind being 45 again Thomas!

>46 connie53: They do characterise my eyes somewhat at the moment, Connie. xx

>47 mahsdad: Thank you Jeff.

>48 avatiakh: He was always going to win the Booker Prize at some stage but from what I understand his book that year was certainly not a unanimous choice with the judges.

>49 jnwelch: How does it feel to be one of the beautiful people?!

There has been much wonderful literature come out of Canada in my lifetime, Joe, including - I think the best novel of the last 50 years - A Fine Balance.

I will of course review the fantasy books as I go but I cannot promise to inspire.

>50 quondame: I have good news on both counts. Susan.

Firstly SWMBO is fighting fit (just wish that she wasn't fighting quite so much!)
Secondly my mum's breathing is much improved and she will be allowed home today.

>51 thornton37814: I do find that many people will be ok with TV, Lori, but not music. I would have thought that the urge to see what was happening would be far more distracting.

>52 SandDune: Thank you, Rhian.

>53 figsfromthistle: I couldn't resist it, Anita as it was on 30% discount in hardback. So I got a new hardback edition for $12 which I am happy with.

>54 Oregonreader: That is a wise approach, Jan. I would recommend you a very general anthology. One book I regularly turn to this year is Poetry by Heart edited by Andrew Motion. The range and quality of what is contained is wonderful.

Happy New Thread, Paul! Number 7?? Wow! I have been wanting to read The Line of Beauty for many years. Fortunately, I have a copy on shelf. I will bookhorn it in this year. I also did not realize there was a film adaptation. Dan Stevens too?

>57 PaulCranswick: Oh my I loved A Fine Balance too Paul.

>61 msf59: Thanks Mark. It was a TV adaptation I think.

>62 brenzi: Isn't it brilliant, Bonnie. I may look at a re-read challenge next year - one per month only as I have so many books on my TBR - and that would certainly feature.

WHICH BOOKS WOULD YOU RE-READ AS PART OF A RE-READ CHALLENGE?

(Not the ones you regularly re-read anyway like Stasia's almost constant In-Death re-reads.) For me:

A Fine Balance would be a definite
Shame possibly
Sour Sweet maybe
Ethan Frome could be
Half of a Yellow Sun yes
Plainsong would probably have to figure

Happy thread, Paul, since it can hardly be called *new* at this point.

>64 PaulCranswick: A tough question as I regularly revisit books. Hmm...discounting books I've read more than once:

The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton
The Quiet American by Graham Greene
The Painted Veil by W. Somerset Maugham
The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco
The 13 1/2 lives of Captain Bluebear by Walter Moers
The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas

Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell would have been on the list, but I re-read it a couple of months ago.

Happy New thread Paul!

Some things I've been thinking about rereading anyway:

Perdido Street Station by China Miéville
The Anubis Gates by Tim Powers
Geek Love by Katherine Dunn
The Housekeeper and the Professor by Yoko Ogawa

Also I'm stealing Captain Bluebear from Amanda. Love Walter Moers.

>67 swynn: Given the first two are among my favorites, I guess I should check out Geek Love and The Housekeeper and the Professor. The later I'd heard of and intended to check out, but I'd only been a bit aware of the former.

Ok I'll bite:

A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
The Custom of the Country - Edith Wharton
Stones for Ibarra - Harriet Doerr
All Quiet on the Western Front - Erich Maria Remarque
Testament of Youth - Vera Brittain

>64 PaulCranswick: I have lots of books I intend to eventually re-read, but many are series such as the Fairacre and Thrush Green series by Miss Read which probably fall into the like Stasia category. I haven't re-read them, but I want to revisit them sometime. I'm not certain I could do so at the moment without placing a lot of Interlibrary Loan requests so I will probably wait a bit.

One book that comes to mind is Chaim Potok's The Chosen which was the best book of the year for me a couple years ago. I'll have to think on it some more.

>65 jessibud2: Thank you, Shelley. Only ten hours old to be fair!

>66 amanda4242: Greene and Maugham were my favourite authors in my early adult years and I read every novel and short story that either of them have written. Both would be great re-reads for me.
How Green Was My Valley and Fame is the Spur are other novels I adored in my younger days.

>67 swynn: Love that Steve because I haven't read any of them even the first time so I need to keep them in mind. I have the Mieville book on the shelves.

>68 quondame: This could be quite the way of looking for Book Bullets, Susan.

>69 brenzi: The first one we agree upon and maybe could do a joint re-read. I have been toying with - at some stage - re-reading the entire Rougon MacQuart novels of Zola. That would be quite the undertaking and I would have to track down what I have done with some of my copies which Hani or Yasmyne might or might not have given away to orphanages or school libraries over the years.

I rarely reread books. Once I read them - they go out the door. I think the only two books I have ever reread are Gaudenzia: Pride of the Palio by Margurite Henry and Witch of Blackbird Pond by Elizabeth George Speare. Both of these are children's books and I reread them about 10 years ago just to see if they were as good as I remembered them.

Happy new thread, Paul!

If you want epic fantasy, one series that no one has mentioned yet - so I'm a bit hesitant to, but I really liked it - is Robert Jordan's/ Brandon Sanderson Wheel of Time. I haven't actually finished reading the series myself (14 books + prequel) because I was waiting so long for the last books that I lost track so I have to go back to the beginning (and I've found my re-reading speed recently is worse than my reading speed) but the first book, especially, I thought was really good.

And then, of course, there's Game of Thrones; but that's still unfinished and I, personally, stopped reading because it was too bloodthirsty for me.

>75 humouress: I think most of us who have read Tolkien, Brooks, Eddings, Williams, and Feist have also read or at least started Wheel of Time and Game of Thrones. I rather like both and have read all the books, but, well, I noticed none of us putting forth contenders included either. One reason is that they come semi late in the epic fantasy time line and both drag on, in the case of Martin's series literally, forever. Jordan's series is an odd, sometimes ill-fitting mixture of light and heavy and can be a bit icky about spankings and fun with torture. And Martin is bloody, sometimes for the sake of being bloody.
No one mentioned the recently completed The Queens Thief which has become the new best beloved. And wow, it's by a woman!

>76 quondame: Of course, Queen's Thief! I've acquired all but the last book and have just recently read the first in the series.

Happy new thread!

I think for me some of the rereads would be:
Annals of the Former World by John McPhee
The Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkien
Beloved by Toni Morrison
The Resurrection of the Body in Western Christianity by Caroline Walker Bynum

If Jemisin's Inheritance Trilogy doesn't do it for you, I'd still give The Broken Earth a go—I liked both quite a bit.

>74 benitastrnad: I'm not a great re-reader either, Benita. Some Hammond Innes & Alistair MacLean & Eric Ambler. Greene and Maugham. I have re-read the following several times:

Of Mice and Men
Lord of the Rings
The Hobbit
Moonfleet
Great Expectations

>75 humouress: I was looking at that one only yesterday on the shelves Nina (Robert Jordan that is) and wondered why it had never warranted a mention.

>76 quondame: I thought it was because they were perhaps a little obvious, Susan.

I didn't include the Thief series because I have started it already and it is very good, isn't it? I will be reading two more of the series shortly in my series pair challenge. Possibly in Mach.

>77 humouress: The same as me, Nina. I read the first one in a single sitting and thought it was wonderful entertainment.

>78 false-knight: John McPhee is someone I have often considered, Emery, but his books are like gold dust over here. I will give N.K. Jemisin every chance.

So glad your Mum is breathing better - fingers crossed for her getting home soon.

My comfort re-read (every few years) is all the Julian May books from Saga of the Exiles and Galactic Milieu Series. May, in fact, be nearly time for another run through. Also ties into the fantasy discussion :)

>82 BekkaJo: I didn't realise that there were so many fantasy writers I had sort of heard of but haven't yet read.

Mum is home!!

>82 BekkaJo: I have read the Julian May books more than once, and am considering a re-read. The first time I read them I knew nothing of Keltic myths, and all the (obvious) references to Lugh and others went by me. Each reading I enjoyed those more.

I used to read The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings every 4 or 5 years.

Happy newish thread Paul.

I re-read Pride and Prejuidice basically every year. Other than that I like to re-read some of my favourite Jill Mansell books when I need a pick me up, nothing better than fluffy chick lit for that.
I was contemplating recently re-reading The Night Circus, I really enjoyed that the first time around.

>83 PaulCranswick: Excellent news :)

>84 FAMeulstee: Ditto - there are just more and more bits to them to uncover! I really love her characters too.

>84 FAMeulstee: As a Celt then I should also read Julian May, Anita.

>85 fairywings: I have seen so much debate, Adrienne, on which is the best of Austen's six major novels. I have only read three of them I must admit and not P&P. My mini ranking for what it is worth:

1 Northanger Abbey
2 Mansfield Park
3 Sense and Sensibility

I have heard great things about The Night Circus.

>83 PaulCranswick: Oh, I missed that happy news at first, Paul, glad your mother is home!

>87 PaulCranswick: It starts with The Many-Colored Land, it is fantasy with a touch of SF.

>88 FAMeulstee: I will have a look for that, Anita, thank you. xx

I have had A Fine Balance on my shelf for a while. I read Family Matters eons ago and enjoyed it. I shall have to read a fine balance soon.

>90 figsfromthistle: Family Matters is a good novel but A Fine Balance is a great one IMHO, Anita.

>87 PaulCranswick: Oh, Paul--only three Austens, and IMHO you've missed out on the best ones! (I rank Pride and Prejudice and Persuasion at the top, depending on my mood, followed by Emma. Sense and Sensibility has always been my least favorite.)

There are some books I reread regularly: Lord of the Rings, Jane Austen, and favorite childrens books.

For a reread challenge, I would read:
1. The Brothers Karamazov - Fyodor Dostoevsky
2. The Cairo Trilogy - Naguib Mahfouz
3. Gilead - Marilynne Robinson (and Home and Lila)
4. Trollope's Barsetshire novels
5. Beloved -Toni Morrison

>83 PaulCranswick: Oh, what a relief that your mum is well enough to be home.

>64 PaulCranswick: On re-reading--I re-read often. I think that only one reading of a great book is almost like a disservice to the author on my part--I can't absorb, understand or appreciate everything the author is trying to do in just one reading. I can just imagine that some writers spend years working on their creations, and a few days' reading by me seems like I'm slighting their efforts. And many re-readings have proved that to me, as each re-reading reveals something new or something I missed the first time around.

I've re-read all of Austen and Middlemarch and Jane Eyre multiple times throughout my life. I often find re-reading a great novel via audiobook helps me hear the language of the book that I missed while reading the paper book, because I already know the story, so I can concentrate on the nuances of the writing.

Currently I'm trying to finish reading all of George Eliot's novels, and hope to go back to re-read others that I read years ago (besides Middlemarch).

For a challenge, I would probably re-read these that I loved, but I haven't yet re-read:
--War and Peace -- I'm sure I missed loads the first time around
--Trollope's Barsetshire and Palliser novels

And I agree with >92 AnneDC: --you haven't read the best Austens! Lady Susan is also a fun read, and short!

>92 AnneDC: The Cairo Trilogy is such a good pick. I think that the first part of the trilogy Palace Walk is one of the best novels written in the post war period and Mahfouz deservedly got recognition with the Nobel prize as a result.

Looks like I read the wrong Austens!

>93 kac522: I would have thought that a re-reading of the entire Barsetshire novels would be a real struggle, Kathy but you are in line with our ex PM John Major who apparently is a regular re-reader of all things Trollope.

GREAT news that your mother is home, Paul! I hope that she's in for smooth sailing for a good long while!

I love to reread and would seriously consider rereading almost anything that I liked the first time. Nobody has mentioned Connie Willis, and Doomsday Book is one that I have reread with pleasure.

I liked Line of Beauty and loved something else you mentioned above that I can't call to mind now. About Jemison - I was not particularly happy with The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms but am really, really enthusiastic about *Broken Earth*. AND I've barely started *Wheel* #12, the first of the Sandersons, so I can't say how he compares to Jordan in my mind. You may also mark me another lover of *P&P* and *Persuasion*.
Ain't personal taste fascinating?

Great news that your mother is home, Paul.

There are so many fantasy writers, a few of my favorites are Brandon Sanderson, Tad Williams, Anthony Ryan and Michael J. Sullivan.

>80 PaulCranswick: I can't say why others didn't include them. I do/did enjoy them and re-read the Jordan books regularly before diving into the next volume, but after A Memory of Light, I think I'm ready to move on. I know I've re-read Game of Thrones the initial book, but the other books just once. They are interesting, just not my kind of fun. Should GRRM finish while I'm still reading I may have another go at them.
I'd just say that in value/page you can get more elsewhere. At the time they came out I wasn't paying attention to all the great fantasies women were writing - (Robin Hobb, Kate Elliott) because I had replaced parenthood and working overtime with running the SF club library. Though I was reading whatever Le Guin, Jo Clayton or Sheri Tepper published, just not adding many new authors, and the number of women writing fantasy between the 1990-2010 were legion.

>94 PaulCranswick: I recall hearing/reading (?) that Churchill was a Trollope afficionado, too. Wouldn't be a struggle at all, Paul. I'll fly through them, once I set my mind to it.

Good to hear about your mom being home, Paul.

I ditched Emma - forever - a couple of weeks ago and I don't care to read P&P again, but I would take on Persuasion (my favorite Austen) and Sense and Sensibility again. And i think I would like to read Lorna Doone again. I have fond memories of reading it over the course of a month in the early, early hours (like 3 AM and 4 AM early) a number of years ago. Read Geek Love this January, just past, and cannot imagine going there again, ever.

For Fantasy series - What about the Joe Abercrombie books and that new one the Witcher series. I think Abercrombie has at least two series and there are lots of guys who like his books. There is the Iron Druid series and the Jim Butcher series. I really enjoyed his Aeronaut's Windlass book. The sequel to it is coming out soon.

I loved the Mary Stewart books about King Arthur - Hollow Hills, Crystal Cave, etc. etc. There were four books in that series and they were wonderful. I like the Naomi Novak books. All of them.

I didn't care much for the Game of Thrones series either. I read the first two and have not read any more of them. Too bloody.

There are some really good YA fantasy novels. The Queen's Thief series is excellent and it is YA. There are the books by Laini Taylor. She has two series. I liked the Truthwitch series, but it has not ended yet, and so I am eagerly awaiting the next installment in that series.

>79 PaulCranswick: I'm always rereading Paul, so this year a couple of Penelope Lively novels.

Of course annually: The Great Gatsby.

I'm leaning towards a reread of Olivia Manning's The Balkan Trilogy and The Levant Trilogy, but I only reread them four years ago, but the tickle is there.

Also, it's about 10 years since I read War and Peace in its entirety, it was my fourth attempt, I started two young at 14, having watched the BBC series with Antony Hopkins as Pierre, then tried about once a decade, getting about 2/3rds through each time.

>100 benitastrnad: Lots of good stuff there, though I was under impressed with the one Laini Taylor book I read. Iron Druid is more of a hardcore fantasy in our timeline sort, though it pulls some epic plots.

>95 LizzieD: Thank you Peggy. She actually sounded quite good yesterday for the first time in a while.

I find it fascinating that we all have so many different takes on some of these classic books.

>96 connie53: Thanks, Connie. I haven't read any of the authors you mention but will start Tad Williams sometime at the end of next month.

>97 quondame: Robin Hobb and Kate Elliott are definitely authors I will look for, Susan.

>98 kac522: We definitely know from the Churchill society that he liked reading English literature's classic novels. According to them he spent most of the 1950s reading Trollope, the Brontes, Hardy and Walter Scott.

I do enjoy reading Trollope but I find the books slow moving.

>99 Fourpawz2: I don't think I have ever read Lorna Doone, Charlotte. I read a lot of classics in my youth but I'm pretty sure that wasn't one of them.

>100 benitastrnad: I have a book by Joe Abercrombie on the shelves, Benita and, if we are calling the Arthurian legends fantasy which I suppose many will, then I also have T.H. White and Marion Zimmer Bradley to start.

Paul, I love reading all the lists you have! You are incredibly organized! Winter is here. A Fox was in the yard this afternoon and in the woods, on the crest of the hill were four deer.
The animals are hungry!

>101 Caroline_McElwee: As you probably know, Caroline, Penelope Lively for reasons not only to do with her excellent novels, is a favourite author of mine.

I don't re-read very much and that is probably because I simply have too many unread books in the house, but my main period of re-reading would be authors active 1930s-1950s (Greene, Maugham, Priestley, Spring, Ambler and etc).

>102 quondame: The only one I can chip in with, Susan, is Megan Whalen Turner and she is certainly worth reading.

>106 Whisper1: Lovely to see you dear Linda.

I used to do poetry writing exercises when I was younger looking out my window or (later) sitting on my balcony and sketching in words what I could see. Your foxes and deer reminded me very much of that. xx

I'm not big on rereads either.
In the past I have frequently reread Lord of the Rings, Georgette Heyer and the various Jane Austens.
After all the banter recently on Roni's thread I would consider rereading the Lymond Chronicles and after finishing Alan Moore's Jerusalem last year I said it demanded a reread, but I wouldn't consider these for a challenge as I'd take my time with them.

Possible Rereads:
1) My family and other animals trilogy by Gerald Durrell - full of humour
2) The Borribles trilogy by Michael de Larrabeiti - subversive fun
3) As I walked out one midsummer's morning trilogy by Laurie Lee - delightful
4) Sons and Lovers by D H Lawrence - read this during my Lawrence phase when a teen
5) Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie - more than twenty years since I read this & Freedom at Midnight in tandem.

Fun question, on rereading. I reread books often, but mostly when I need a comfort read. But I have read a lot of books when I was a teenager. That's a long time ago. I remember loving The Grapes of Wrath, I would like to do a reread of that one. Hoping I will still love it of course!

Glad your mother is doing better.

Of your new additions, Paul, I've only read The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms, and I hope you'll like that one. If it's not quite your jam, I'll echo others and say still give the Broken Kingdoms series a try. The first one especially bowled me over.

I reread a fair amount - it's about 10% of my reading most years - if only because I read a lot of fantasy and it's sometimes necessary to reread to remind myself what happened before the newest book came out. The Queen's Thief is a regular reread like Stasia's In Death, plus Howl's Moving Castle, A Christmas Carol, and Jane Austen's books.

So, to really answer your question, I think I'll mention the books I read for the first time over the last year or so that I feel at this moment I'd be most likely reread soonest. I'll go with:

The Night Tiger by Yangsze Choo
A Song of Wraiths and Ruin by Roseanne A. Brown
Lilac Girls by Martha Hall Kelly
Legendborn by Tracy Deonn
The Murderbot series by Martha Wells
A Deadly Education by Naomi Novik
the Jodi Taylor time traveling historian series (I got about four or five in before stalling, and I want to reread it all and then continue the series)

Edited to add: I meant to say, so happy to hear that your mum is back home!

So glad to hear about your mother!

McPhee is pretty thin on the ground outside the USA in general but absolutely worth the search.

Bit late to the epic fantasy party but I'd like to toss a couple more hats in the ring—Tamora Pierce (if you don't mind YA) and Jin Yong/Louis Cha. A Hero Born was just a blast to read.

>58 PaulCranswick: Congratulations on the good news! I hope your mum continues to build up her strength in the comfort of her home.

>64 PaulCranswick: Books I've been contemplating rereading (all in my collection and wondering whether to keep or purge):

Two in the Bush and The New Noah by Gerald Durrell
Realm of the Green Buddha by Ludwig Koch-Isenburg
I enjoyed these in childhood and have toted them around ever since. They definitely shaped my childish ambitions for adulthood.

Neuromancer by William Gibson
Ariel by Steven R. Boyett
Winter's Tale by Mark Helprin
These made a big impression on me in my youth, and I recently acquired discount copies because of it.

The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith
I read this when it first came out, enjoyed it but wasn't wowed, and thought no more of it. But now the series has gone on to more than 20 novels and associated works and gets lots of great reviews. So I wonder if I would feel differently now, at a different age and with a different perspective.

Anna and the King of Siam by Margaret Landon
Another childhood book (with a movie still for the cover art). It's a period piece with a host of issues. But it made an impression on me the same as Memoirs of a Geisha and other books that illustrate so painfully how women's characters warp and spirits crush when coerced and constrained by society into sexual roles with no self-determination permitted and any sense of personal agency allowed expression only through meanness and spite and other ugliness. So I dunno how I feel about it and thought that rereading it now might bring some clarity.

Beyond pragmatic considerations, books I would love to reread for their own sakes:

the Mars trilogy by Kim Stanley Robinson - a tour de force of research and exposition with a multigenerational cast and plotline

The Quest for El Cid by Richardr Fletcher
English Bread and Yeast Cookery by Elizabeth David

The Iliad and The Odyssey and other classics from freshman humanities

>113 justchris: I remember falling under the spell of the movie El Cid as a teenager. Sophia Lauren was so, well, so much. El Heston was a block of wood, but it suited the role. And the sound track music I played and replayed while my mom muttered about horsy music. Apparently all the sound tracks I had to have were horsy.

>114 quondame: I don't know that I ever saw the movie. But I know the references. It's just that era of Spanish history is my area of focus. The taifa period is just so amazing. And Fletcher's book is so informational yet so accessible for a general audience.

>109 avatiakh: Only the second one you listed, Kerry, is unfamiliar to me. All the rest I have read and would make splendid re-reads. I had my Lawrence spell too!

>110 EllaTim: I do find, Elle, that Steinbeck is worthy of re-reads because there is usually some nuance not picked up on before or something you really should have remembered!

>111 bell7: A Christmas Carol is one of the books I have re-read the most - it is a seasonal thing I suppose. I haven't read any of your others listed but I do have The Night Tiger on the shelves.

>112 false-knight: I have made me a spreadsheet, Emery, to keep note of all these fantastic suggestions I keep getting!

>113 justchris: That does raise a very interesting point, Chris, about what is the motivation to re-read.

a) To reacquaint with a favourite read from youth or long since read;
b) To re-read a longer and complex book to see whether something was missed originally; or
c) To re-read something you read before and didn't get along with to see whether your reading tastes have changed.

I'm more inclined towards a) and Moonfleet, A Fine Balance etc fit that one
For b) Some of the Trollopes and Steinbeck or the non-fiction stuff would fit
For c) The Great Gatsby or Don Delillo would fit because I never saw what the fuss was about either.

>114 quondame: Film replays! The Searchers, Get Carter, The Witness would probably be my top three (I have watched half a dozen times each).

Glad your mum's home, Paul.

Yes, Hobb's Farseer Trilogy is good; though I have the entire Realm of the Elderlings series on my shelves, I've only got about halfway through reading them. There are so many series - you're welcome to peruse my catalogue to get more ideas.

Hmm - Julian May; looks like I should investigate further. And Lorna Done - recently I've been thinking that if my mum still has her copy (which she won as a school prize), I should try and snaffle it from her.

>92 AnneDC: We rank the Austen's quite similarly although I think Mansfield Park is my least favourite.

>119 humouress: I have seen the movie, Chris, and I agree with Susan - Charlton Heston was a complete wooden-top but one suited to that role. Sophia Loren though, oh my, what a lady!

>119 humouress: Robin Hobb is definitely one I should look at, Nina.

I definitely preferred it to Sense and Sensibility which for me showed far too little of either sense or sensibility!

>118 PaulCranswick: Your comments on why we re-read brings me to wonder about other art forms, like:

--re-reading favorite poetry
--re-watching favorite films
--listening again to favorite songs/albums/pieces of music
--re-viewing favorite works of art at a museum

I think most of us do some or all of the above, so it's hard for me to understand why some folks don't re-read beloved books. Is it just the time involved or is it something else about literature that makes it less desirable to re-visit?

>122 kac522: I wonder, Kathy, whether our collective yen for nostalgia or a form of deja vu experience is a direct side effect of the COVID lockdowns?

re-reading poetry - So often - Eliot, Dylan Thomas and Betjeman the most obvious for me but the WW1 poets and a couple of anthologies - Poetry Please! and Albemarle Book of English Verse seem to be the ones that I go most often back to.

re-watching films - as I mentioned The Searchers, Get Carter and The Witness are my top three

listening again to music - I really have too many but recently Joan Armatrading, Electric Light Orchestra and Van Morrison would probably feature most often.

re-viewing works of art - never quite my thing to be honest but I do love the Van Gogh museum in Amsterdam and have been a couple of times. The Tate is also always worth a visit.

I would also add
re-visiting old places - Cornwall, South Island of New Zealand and Amsterdam would probably be my three picks.

re-runs of old TV series - Auf Wiedersehn Pet, Fawlty Towers and Blackadder.

Sense and Sensibillity was my least favourite Austen, Marianne's antics drove me crazy.

P&P and Persuasion are my favourite to re-read, with Mansfield Park and Emma coming closely together. I have only read Northanger Abbey the one time, I'm thinking that the time I read it was chaotic in my life because I just couldn't wrap my brain around it. I have however been thinking of re-reading it to give it another chance. That would probably fit into your category c) reason for a re-read.

>124 fairywings: It is so long since I read it (30 years at least) that I cannot remember why I liked Northanger Abbey. I must admit that I do not have much ardour for an Austen reread.

>122 kac522: That's an interesting comparison! I do all of this, and I reread.

When it comes to music I think it's insane to want to hear music only once. You miss so much when you do that! When it's a bit more complex it often will get better every time you listen again. Relistening can drive you crazy when it's too much of course and it's a simple song. One summer I had to listen to " In the Summertime" by Mungo Jerry something like a hundred times a day, I started to feel like wanting to throw the radio against a wall when that song started again.

So generally speaking the more complexity the more reason to listen again, read again etc?

I did a reread of War and Peace last year. Had read it when I was sixteen I guess. Then my attention went to the girls in the book, the relationships. I sort of skipped the war parts. This time I could take those parts in as well, making for a different reading experience.

>103 PaulCranswick:, Than you have to read the series that starts with Stad van gouden schaduw first, Or De oorlog der bloemen which is a standalone book.

>107 PaulCranswick: I don't re-read much either. To many books on the shelves and not much time to read them in left. I made an exception for Outlander.

I’m also not much of a rereader - so many new shiny books put there!

Hi Paul! 208 messages since I visited on the 14th. Whew.

From your last thread,

>258 EllaTim: 8th, 587 posts. 8*5 = 40. 40*8 = 320. 320* 7=2240. 2+2+4 = 8.

>259 PaulCranswick: 61st, 9 books. 6 * -(1-9) = 48. 4*8 = 32 = half of my lucky number, 8, squared.

Happy New Thread! Congrats on #7.

>58 PaulCranswick: I’m glad to hear that your mum is breathing better and home by now.

>64 PaulCranswick: From my list of books read starting January 1, 2008.

The Murder of My Aunt by Richard Hull, read in March of 2008
The Killer Angels by Michael Shaara, read in October of 2008
The Rapture of Canaan by Sherry Reynolds, read in August of 2009
11/22/63 by Stephen King, read in November of 2011
Resilience by Elizabeth Edwards, read in June of 2012
Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders, read in March of 2017, already re-read once
Shoeless Joe by W P Kinsella, read in May of 2017
Hollow Kingdom by Kira Jane Buxton, read in November of 2019
The Motion of the Body Through Space by Lionel Shriver, read in October of 2020
Mrs. Caliban by Rachel Ingalls, read in December of 2020

>118 PaulCranswick: I’d add 'To re-read for comfort' to your list, which I consider different than a favorite read. My list above didn’t include any of my comfort read authors: Christie, Stout, Sayers, Heyer.

>129 karenmarie: Definitely most of my rereads are for comfort.

Heh. I consulted with a feng shui person before buying my condo--I wanted a different perspective in terms of choosing flooring and countertop materials and paint colors and the like. She met me at my apartment, walked in the door, took a look around, and asked if I planned on taking all this with me. Then asked if I had thought about having only a dozen books in the house at a time and relying on the public library.

Ha! That's like asking someone why don't they limit themselves to 10 friends, and when they get tired of them, get some new ones to replace the old. Not to mention that my nonfiction is mostly a personal reference library suited to my particular interests.

>130 justchris: She sounds deranged! I hope you immediately showed her the door!

>131 amanda4242: I second that!

A belated happy new thread mate.

>126 EllaTim: Couldn't listen to individual songs that you liked just the once, Ella. I think Kathy was thinking more along the lines of albums.

I still haven't read War and Peace and I guess that there aren't that many people who have actually succeeded in doing so twice!

>127 connie53: I will start with The Dragonbone Chair, Connie, since I have it on the shelves already.

>128 drneutron: We have the same issue with re-reads Jim and in my case a strong sense of guilt with nearly 5,000 books on my TBR at home.

>129 karenmarie: I haven't read a single one of your potential rereads even the once, Karen.

I guess comfort re-reads would then by d) on my classification. Point taken. xx

>130 justchris: That is an interesting story, Chris, and I suppose she said the one thing guaranteed to lose her credibility with you.

>131 amanda4242: Hahaha Amanda, trust you to have no opinion on the matter! xx

>132 connie53: I would have certainly wanted to know what else she had to say and then probably have done the polar opposite.

>133 johnsimpson: Hey John!
Rotation policy came home to roost in Chennai. We needed Bairstow and Anderson badly in that game. Ali took eight wickets and had that brilliant cameo but we need to find an off spinner who can actually run through a team. It is high time that Amar Virdi got a chance as he really does turn the ball.

>134 PaulCranswick: I was surprised last time I read it at how catchy War and Peace was. It is a chunkster, but not as bad as you may be thinking.

Here's the next readathon: https://www.librarything.com/topic/329902

>138 EllaTim: I think I may need to change my version of the book, Ella, as I have a very cheap Penguin edition which will probably not enhance the reading experience.

>139 SilverWolf28: I will be back again Silver!

>140 PaulCranswick: No certainly not. I read an e-book version, not really nice either, but at least readable. It does deserve a nice hardcover edition.

>141 EllaTim: I think I will scout for a better version of it before I have a proper go at it, Ella.

>131 amanda4242: and >132 connie53: Ha! I shared it with Roni when it happened, and her immediate reaction was "You fired her, right?"

>136 PaulCranswick: and >137 PaulCranswick: I actually met with her twice. I was intrigued to hear what she had to say. Partly because I'd been reading about feng shui and using the compass and personalizing the recommendations based on the person and the location and all the geomancy involved and wanted to find out more. Partly because she was Anglo, and I wanted to know how deep into feng shui practice she would go.

Well, she followed the principles in a Marie Kondo simplify your life sort of way. It was hard to get her to stop giving me her pitch for why I needed to downsize my possessions. Like, lady, you don't need to educate me--I am well aware of my situation and the reasons and the benefits of changing it. But I'll do it in my own time in a way that works for me. She didn't ask for my birthdate or anything like that, so she definitely wasn't a geomancy person.

It was kinda funny that we were at loggerheads much of the session. We had done an initial phone interview where she asked me about my goals for the space, and I talked about how I was hoping to bring more contemplation and creativity into my life. She seemed to interpret that as wanting a monastic lifestyle--so she kept talking about simply and subtle and an environment that soothes and doesn't draw attention. Ha! My life is not simple, and while I want more contemplative *space* I'm not planning a contemplative *life*. And I need reminders in my environment that it's okay for me to take up space and be visible. Loud even.

We never got around to paint colors. But I did follow her suggestions for the orientation of my bamboo floorboards, and the colors of floor, cabinets, and countertop. The laminate countertop is just a temporary measure anyway until I can get the recycled glass counters installed. I'm looking forward to that!
Plus, I didn't get cork flooring in the bedroom as I originally planned. Just as well, given how many times I've knocked over the water glass while in my reading nook. We disagreed about the grout color for the porcelain tiles in the bathroom. She didn't even try to talk me out of the pattern I had already chosen.
The other funny thing is that I bought the whole kit of glass counter sample chips to consider my options. The one she picked out is not one that I would have chosen--too neutral and subtle, whereas I really liked the pops of color and brightness. But when I ask visitors which of the 2-3 chips they like best for the space, they invariably pick the one she selected. And it does tie the room together in terms of the colors present in the space. So she's not wrong.

One of my neighbors consulted with her too. I could definitely tell because he had interesting paint choices and talked about the purpose they served--grounding the space of a gardener living on the third floor, etc. He confirmed it when I asked.

Maybe just as well we never got to paint colors. I was already set on medium periwinkle for the bedroom (my designated contemplative space) with a maroon area rug, and I opted for a golden-orange color for my main room (designated activity space)--apricot without the pink tone. The window wall in that room ended up minty rather than apple green, so I have to repaint it now that I have the correct color. The kitchen has red-toned accent rugs, while the living room has a red/pink area rug. The bathroom is going to be a nice aquamarine, with the laundry alcove probably some sort of bold red (cranberry? burgundy? crimson?). It has indigo accent rugs, navy towels, and gray/taupe shower curtain and laundry totes.

So in the end, I have followed her suggestions so far. Not about the books of course, that's just ridiculous. I remain undecided about the kitchen counter. Bathroom counter is already chosen per my aesthetics, not hers. All in all, it was an interesting experience.

Sorry for the essay. I can really get going when it comes to colors. And hilarious interactions.

>143 justchris: Loved your informative post, Chris!

I think the most important point with asking someone to advise us on something - especially something as subjective and personal as the instant case - is that ,whilst the advise is welcome, there is no obligation to accept any or all of it and you can cherry pick as you are comfortable.

I like cosy spaces whereas SWMBO prefers open planned spaces and we have tried to meld our differing comforts by having a basically open plan concept but one which has little pockets or nooks in it that I can be a squirrel and make my own.

I generally leave decisions on colours and interior design to her not primarily because I think that she has better taste per se (although perhaps she does) but simply because she has firmer opinions on the issues and spends much more time at home than I do.

Despite staying in the Orient we have never really consulted anyone about feng shui, even though its practice is more prevalent here than it would be in the UK. Hani does like to think she knows the basics and would never take a unit at a cross roads or intersection and avoids sharp edges.

In the final reckoning it is all about what you are comfortable with - the point of the advice is to give you that comfort and I suppose you take from it what you will in order to do that. x

>144 PaulCranswick: Like Paul, I've read your post with interest, Chris.

Hi Paul, Happy Friday!

>143 justchris: - Chris, I use a plastic water bottle next to my bed at night, for that very reason, to avoid spills on the floor!

>145 connie53: Hi back at you, Connie

>146 jessibud2: I don't have water next to my bed. SWMBO does but she puts it in a plastic water bottle like you do, Shelley.

Finally got around to answering your fantasy question on my thread, Paul, and am copying it here.

Paul, I cannot argue with The Dragonbone Chair, very classic epic fantasy, but my strongest suggestions would be the Vlad Taltos series by Steven Brust (Start with Jhereg--this is a series that must be read in publication order at least the first time through), the Thursday Next series by Jasper Fforde, the Lady Trent series by Marie Brennan and the Paksennarion series by Elizabeth Moon. There are of course many more--for a short course, read The Curse of Chalion and Paladin of Souls by Lois McMaster Bujold for another excellent series.

>148 ronincats: Trust you Roni - never heard of Steven Brust and will go and investigate! xx

oh Paul, you would love the Thursday Next series, lots of classic book characters running around causing chaos.

>150 avatiakh: I will make room for it then reasonably soon, Kerry. You usually know what I will like!

>151 PaulCranswick: Note that that was one of the four I recommended in >148 ronincats:, and I thought it would be particularly appealing to someone British in background.

>152 ronincats: I did see that, Roni. A few others have mentioned Marie Brennan to me also but I don't recall seeing the name of Elizabeth Moon before here.

>148 ronincats: >153 PaulCranswick: Steven Brust has a remarkable body of work, but somewhat off the beaten path of fantasy in scope, usually narrower, and attitude, mostly wryly intelligent and mostly a bit too cerebral for me to love. I love Marie Brennan's dragon books, but not excessively and like Jasper Fforde. I do love the first three volumes of The Deed of Paksenarion excessively and am quite fond of the rest of her books.

>154 quondame: I will be interested to see what books, if any, by Brust and Brennan Kinokuniya have on their shelves. Hopefully I can report on this tomorrow.

>155 PaulCranswick: >140 PaulCranswick: >104 PaulCranswick: >41 PaulCranswick: Oh, good Paul. You don't have enough books - fantasy books, that is. I'm so glad to see you're redressing the balance ;0)

BOOK # 27



A Burning by Megha Majumdar
Date of Publication : 2020
Origin of Author : India
Pages : 289 pp

Challenges :
Around the World Reading : 3 (16)
52 Book Club Challenge : Single book published 7/52

A nameless state in India but Bengal is indicated is a state where the minority muslims are downtrodden, oppressed and would be best accepting their lot in life quietly.

Jivan is a young lady from the slums. She has set about improving herself despite hiccups. She can read and has a job and is slowly gaining a little independence. A careless social media post will result in her destruction after she is falsely implicated in a terrorist attack on a passing train.

PT Sir is a school teacher of Physical Education for girls. He falls under the sway of a new and radical Hindu party which will have him question his scruples for the power it offers him.

Lovely is a trans budding actress who can provide an alibi to Jivan.

The book is a sometimes crude examination of corruption and the corruption of power as well as the impotence of the have-nots in India told largely from the differing perspectives of the three main characters.

There is much to admire in this debut novel and Ms. Majaumdar is someone whose forthcoming work I shall look out for. That this debut was flawed and had parts which could have perhaps been expressed better is true but on balance this is still a very good book, telling an important story.

>156 humouress: When I study the shelves, Nina, I probably have more than I thought I have, but I will remedy the holes in my collection soon!

Happy reading weekend, Paul! How's your mom and your family doing? Are there news on the moving front?

>159 PersephonesLibrary: Nice to see you as always, Kathe. My mum is doing ok and I will be calling her a little later.

Aim is still the same with the move and I am slowly working towards making it happen.

Happy weekend, Paul!

We seem to be keeping neck and neck on our challenges and books finished! I finished #27 yesterday as well, although I probably won't finish another until next week now that I'm home with the kids for the weekend

I'll go and have a look how you are coping with the 52 Book Club Challenge. Must say that I am enjoying it, Chelle.

>148 ronincats: I strongly agree with the Vlad Taltos books by Steven Brust. I think you would like them a lot, but I agree with Roni, need to stick with publication order and start with Jhereg.

>157 PaulCranswick: I'll be reading this one with my book club in a couple of months, so I read your review with interest. Nice to know to keep my expectations measured.

Also wanted to add that Thursday Next is madcap adventure fantasy/sf but I do think you'll like all the literary references. Some are more blatant than others, and it's always fun to find the smaller Easter eggs, it just added to my enjoyment of the series.

>163 SandDune: I will have a look in Kino tomorrow, Rhian and see what they have.

>164 bell7: Mark, I remember, loved it and I liked it especially as it is a first novel with lots of promise.

Hi Paul! I have power again, so I am trying to get caught up (ha! is that ever a thing?) on LT. Glad to hear your Mum is home again. Love your new monthly friend award (way to go Mark!), and, of course, all the book talk here. I am not much of a rereader--shiny new covers draw me in! Love that you read Did You Ever Have a Family with me and that you enjoyed it. You are a wonderful reading buddy. : )

>167 Berly: Great to see you back bringing happiness along with you, Kimmers! On the reading buddy - touche!

>107 PaulCranswick: I rarely reread also, and also due possibly to the tbr pile calling to me!
I have, however, reread My Name is Asher Lev just to confirm if it was my tip top all time favourite book (it is), and I have accidentally reread a Barry Lopez book (it took me til half way in to realise why it was familiar!!).
Um...there is also The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, which I love, and The Great Gatsby (ditto), and The Time Machine (once in print, once audio), White Noise, and Resilience (a personal account of a mother's journey with her son's mental illness). Oh, and I also reread Moral Relativism as I didn't understand it the first time :)

>169 LovingLit: Yeah I'm the same, Megan, as there are simply too many news ones calling but I do think it is right to remember some of the greatest books we've read by re-reading them as well as trying to see if a book we didn't get along with years before was really so bad or whether we were just in a bad frame of mind back then.

>167 Berly: 'trying to get caught up' is always a thing on LT. 'Getting caught up' - nah.

Re-reading: I do try to. Partly because that was my justification in buying my own books in the first place.

Well too much talking about books has done what it always does to me. The coast was clear as SWMBO was off at a wedding (I was excused because of social distancing, yippeeee) and I rushed instead to Kino and made a Cranswickian pig of myself thus:

27. The Age of Capital by Eric Hobsbawm
28. The World Turned Upside Down by Christopher Hill
29. The Wretched of the Earth by Frantz Fanon
30. Modern Times by Paul Johnson
31. The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers by Paul Kennedy
32. The Warehouse by Rob Hart
33. On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong
34. Pawn of Prophecy by David Eddings
35. Queen of Sorcery by David Eddings
36. Magician's Gambit by David Eddings
37. Midnight Never Come by Marie Brennan
38. In Ashes Lie by Marie Brennan
39. The Broken Kingdoms by N.K. Jemisin
40. The Flight Attendant by Chris Bohjalian
41. Dragonfly in Amber by Diana Gabaldon

The first five books are all history and/or social commentary. Hobsbawm and Hill were favourites of my student days whilst Johnson was once a centre left but now is considered an extoller of the right. His and Kennedy provide the sweeping histories that I so enjoy. Frantz Fanon is someone I have wanted to read a goodly while.

I have been waiting the Ocean Vuong novel arriving to these shores and Bohjalian provided possibly my favourite read last year. The premise for Hart's dystopian thriller looks interesting.

The rest are group - this group inspired! I got the first three Belgariad books in one omnibus edition and the Marie Brennan books were recommended by Susan and others. Jemisin is next in the series I chose as is Gabaldon.

'Cranswickian pig' Is that what they're calling it these days? I see you laid your hands on Pawn of Prophecy.

I did say you were suffering from a paucity of books. But ...

>172 PaulCranswick: You've been having fun!

I've been wanting to read Frantz Fanon as well, I'll be interested in your review.

Happy Sunday, Paul.

>173 humouress: I did feel a little guilty, Nina. 15 books is not an absolute necessity after all!

>174 EllaTim: Let's see when I can get to it, Ella.

>175 Ameise1: Thanks Barbara,

>172 PaulCranswick: Hey, who among us? Great way to kick off a Sunday, in my opinion. Enjoy the new books!

>172 PaulCranswick: That's quite a haul Paul. Doesn't it feel good to indulge like that occasionally?

>178 false-knight: Thanks Emery. Thinking about some slight changes to my ordering on my shelves. Presently everything is ordered alphabetically by author with the exception that poetry and plays are separated and ordered similarly. I am thinking of separating non-fiction from fiction to make things easier and so that all my history books are together. Of a near 5,000 TBR, almost 700 are non-fiction.

>179 Caroline_McElwee: It felt great, especially as SWMBO wasn't there and I knew I wouldn't get caught!

>172 PaulCranswick: Nice haul, Paul. I love the way you sneaked in the books. I do that too. When I was still working I had them delivered at the school I worked. And sneaked them into the house. Now it's more difficult because we are both home the whole day and I can't buy books in the store because they are not open yet. At least not the one I can visit when doing groceries.

>172 PaulCranswick: Ha! Love the phrasing.

I went to the big charity warehouse shop thingy on Saturday - mainly because we are replacing the single bed in the spare room with a single futon (it's only rarely used) so that I can make that room into my office (hint: there will be book shelves!), but of course I had to peruse the books.

Cue my daughter disgustedly telling me that I had plenty and did not need any more. Yeah right. Like that's a thing? It's not a thing is it?

I mean I only got 5 - massive cost of £2.50 the lot. Four good condition, one a bit ratty - but it reminds me of my Grandparents - Mist over Pendle.

hej Paul, your thread is growing faster than my reading abilities ...
please, correct my name in your statistics, its stalder (not stadler)

>181 connie53: Actually this time she knew where I was going but not the extent of what I was doing! Sort of like hiding in plain sight, Connie!

>182 BekkaJo: I would guess that I am proof that you can never have enough books, Bekka. Either that or I am entirely the wrong person to ask. When I peruse such sales the one I really want is always the sorry looking dog-eared varmint that I have wanted to read for an age.

>183 paulstalder: It is also growing faster than my typing abilities allow, Paul, as evidenced by the excruciating typo on your name which I must have repeated time over number. Will correct it immediately.

>181 connie53: I was lucky. Peet had just left for his appointment in the hospital for a hearing-test when the deliveryman came to the door!

>186 connie53: Hahaha for sure Connie the poor fellow never heard the books arrive!!

Nice surprise when I came home today.

In January I ordered my anniversary books on line with Book Depo (11 books for 10 years) as the lockdown was in force and the bookstores were closed.

It is not true to say I had forgotten about them but I was pleased to see the arrival today of:

Dance to the Music of Time : II Summer by Anthony Powell comprising:

42. At Lady Molly's by Anthony Powell
43. Casanova's Chinese Restaurant by Anthony Powell
44. The Kindly Ones by Anthony Powell
and
45. The Financier by Theodore Dreiser
46. Still Waters by Viveca Sten

Obviously 42-44 are for my Dance to the Music of Time 2021 Challenge (12 books in 12 months).
The Financier is my Russian colleagues favourite book and everybody has raved about Viveca Sten (impossible to find here.

>176 PaulCranswick: Not pushing you at all, Paul!;-) We all know you have enough to read. (Maybe I should look for the book myself)

>190 MelissaHerbert: Well, hello, I suppose.

>191 EllaTim: No worries at all, Ella, I enjoy a push when it comes to reading!

I was quite impressed with A Burning too, Paul and I also look forward to seeing what she does next.

>193 msf59: Yours was one of the recommendations I remembered about the book before I read it. I picked it up last year though mainly because of its wonderful cover. Whoever came up with that for her and the publisher earned their fee.

Hi Paul!

>180 PaulCranswick: Re-ordering of shelves is fun, isn’t it? Of my 2,195 TBR, 636 are nonfiction.

Yay for your Book Depository Thingaversary arrivals and your Kino stealth-attack while Hani was away at a wedding.

Hi, Paul.

I read The Brothers Karamazov twice, which one guy in my life couldn't believe, but I don't even want to think about re-reading War and Peace. He really aggravated me with those two epilogues after all that reading. I won't re-read Anna Karenina either, although I wouldn't mind reading about Levin and Kitty again. I wanted someone to put Anna K. on modern meds to level her out - blasphemy, I know.

The two Austens I regularly re-read are P & P and Persuasion, which I noticed was true for one of your other post-ers.

I never have to sneak anything into the house because - let's face it - Jane does not give a damn what I bring home as long as I bring home the Fancy Feast. I bet having to sneak in such a massive haul must bring its own special kind of thrill.

If Covid allows for the great big book sale to go ahead this July I am looking forward to bringing home a similar number of books - which, for me, is still kind of thrilling.

>181 connie53: Ha! The only time I ever had to sneak books I was living with my parents and I had intercepted the ILL that both my dad and I wanted to read. But dolls, those were delivered to work (and there were still two outstanding that I never got) and brought home late at night. Nowdays I have cultivated shamelessness in my purchases. Not perfectly, but it will do.

>23 PaulCranswick: I absolutely have to steal this idea, and make my own summaries. With a few differences based on what interests me about my own reading, of course.

Also, your thread is scary. After catching up I have 11 tabs open with books to consider reading. Plus 3 from catching up on drneutron's thread.

I'm feeling like a very slow reader ;-(

>195 karenmarie: Approximately 15% of my unread shelves are non-fiction whereas yours, Karen, is closer to 30%. I am slowly juggling the shelves because I know that the exercise will not be a popular one at home if it is undertaken in one fell swoop.

>196 jnwelch: I have read Anna Karenina but a long time ago in the days I had more patience, Joe. I have only read half of the Austen books so re-reads are not on the menu until that is achieved.
My most regular re-reading is poetry. I normally 'mark' certain poems in a collection and often go back to them.

>197 Fourpawz2: Oh I do get a huge thrill book shopping which is possibly something I should analyse more carefully!
I hope you get your book sale, Charlotte. xx

>198 quondame: SWMBO is reading more again this year and I do have the situation often that one of my unread books will catch her eye and she'll read it before me.

>199 ArlieS: Feel free to 'borrow' and tweak as you wish Arlie.

It is entirely my pleasure if my thread can provide the odd hint to your own future reading - one of the points of the group, right? x

As to pace of reading, I also don't consider myself particularly speedy. When I look at the readathon threads I often compare how long my peers say they are reading and it usually seems less than I am but they are reading more books!

Good to see that your mum is out of the hospital again. She certainly has been through a lot.

Interesting stats on your previous thread, Paul. I really should keep up with my book reviews. Not a priority right now though.

I've cracked the covers of The Warmth of Other Suns. I'm about to start part 3 but have barely made a dent.

>203 Familyhistorian: Thanks Meg.

I will also try to get to The Warmth of Other Suns shortly but I am struggling to make headway these few days because of work.

>204 PaulCranswick: No worries, Paul. It's not like I don't have other things on the go and I'm not trying to keep up with a thread that grows by leaps and bounds!

Hi Paul, just popping in to see what you are reading and trying to keep up with the pace some threads have.
Here it's promising to be a nice 'warm' day with temps up to 19C. So I will be reading my R.J. Ellory book outside in the garden.

>204 PaulCranswick: Hahaha I don't know what you mean! I am bogged down by my international arbitration on the much earlier failure of the raft foundation at the PNB 118 building (it has since been replaced). I will be working in the Asian International Arbitration Centre in Kuala Lumpur for a Tribunal sitting in London with legal counsel in Singapore, witnesses in New Zealand and Korea and a counsel of our own from Vancouver. A plethora of time-zones and connection challenges.

>207 PaulCranswick: Good luck with all that.

>206 connie53: Wow, that is a remarkable turn around from freezing to sitting out in the garden in a little over a week.

>208 avatiakh: Well I came home at 11 pm and managed to fall asleep on the sofa until 4 am which is less than perfect, Kerry.

Your place is strangely quiet....Too quiet. What kind of caper are you planning over there. :)

Happy Friday (over there) to ya.

>211 mahsdad: Hahaha Jeff. No skullduggery!

I am in the midst of my international arbitration hearing so most of my reading is cause papers, authorities and witness/opening statements. The hearing commences at 4 pm and runs through to 11 pm so I really have little chance to LT or even to read!

The hearing will run into most of next week so I hope my pals will forgive me for only being myself at the weekend.

One nice surprise on my return from the arbitration centre last night was a delivery of two more of my thingaversary books (I ordered and I now have 7 of them delivered)

47. Toilers of the Sea by Victor Hugo
48. The Europeans by Henry James

both of these books added for my Queen Vic challenge.

>212 PaulCranswick: Wow, that does not sound like fun. Good luck!

Here's the next readathon: https://www.librarything.com/topic/330097

>215 mahsdad: It is tough on my body clock, Jeff. The problem is also that the Arbitration Centre doesn't have much in the way of refreshment facilities these days because of the lock down and the lovely hotel situated over the road from the place is closed down - whether temporarily or permanently I am not too sure.

>216 SilverWolf28: I will be trying to make up for lost time this weekend, Silver, after a very heavy working week.

>217 PaulCranswick: Oh; I assumed you would be sitting through arbitration in the comfort of home.

>207 PaulCranswick: Yowza!
>212 PaulCranswick: I hope you're able to get lots of rest during the grueling days ahead.

>172 PaulCranswick: Cranswickian pig is certainly memorable. Duly noted as unit of measurement henceforth.

>219 justchris: No. 'Cranswickian pig' is not a unit of measure that normal people should be using or even thinking of achieving.

>218 humouress: Unfortunately not, Nina, the set-up we need with three screens etc makes it impossible for me to do it from home.

>219 justchris: It is quite a coordinating feat, Chris. We all log in to an operating system called OPUS 2 that guides the technology side of things. We can draw up documents on the screen for witnesses and so on - it is way beyond my ken to be honest. I am one of two co-counsels to the main insurance lawyer we have engaged out of Singapore (I advise on matters of law relating to the construction contract and the performance thereof) and the other is in Canada who has been engaged as a second opinion counsel on the insurance largely because he won one of the most famous cases similar to the material facts in our own case. It is fascinating but very challenging trying to plan strategy on things like cross-examinations of experts and factual witnesses being so spread apart but it is great when it seems to work well. The three of us seem to be working well together and as the claim is a substantial one ($40 million) there is much at stake.

Only problem is that my reading and posting has suffered this last week!

>220 humouress: I take that not being normal in this sense is a compliment?!

>222 PaulCranswick: Yes. An abnormally high book acquisition rate is your superpower. :0)

Good luck with your arbitration, Paul.
Have a wonderful weekend with lots of recreation and books.

Wow! And I thought I was having a busy week. Hope you get to relax soon.

>172 PaulCranswick: LisaMaria_C has written a nice review of 'the Johnson one' from your Cranswickian book haul ;) I, like this reviewer, sometimes like to read non fiction books written from alternative perspectives to my own, just to compare and contrast, as well as to know how the other half think.

There are so many social commentary/nf books I want to read! I was thinking just today that I love books that are called, or are about 'the social history of {insert topic here}'; I love hearing about the loves of others.

>213 PaulCranswick: >214 PaulCranswick: I was reading the afterword of Ethan Frome today and learned all about the friendship between Henry James and Edith Wharton. I love literary conenctions!

>209 PaulCranswick: It's now back to normal February temps but still sunny. So I put on a sweater and visit the garden in the afternoon.

>213 PaulCranswick: I really enjoyed Toilers of the Sea Paul.

Long days for a while then. Ha, can't imagine a UK court running to those hours.

>223 humouress: I have a superpower and have never worn my underpants outside my trousers!

>224 SirThomas: Thank you Thomas. I am on a break after a difficult cross-examination of one of my Korean colleagues giving factual evidence on the failure of the raft foundation. I am aware that the QC (Queen's Counsel) engaged by the Respondent is known to be extremely aggressive with his witnesses so I advised my colleague to insist upon an interpreter. It seems to be doing a great job of throwing him off his stride. He does look quite irritated.

I am going to need the recuperation time.

>225 BekkaJo: Thank you, Bekka. There has to be something to slow me down over here and stop my reading. :(

>226 LovingLit: His world view is certainly not my world view, Megan, but I shall be very interested to see how he puts a spin on certain things.

My 700 ish TBR of non-fiction includes some real potential gems.

>227 connie53: Times do indeed change, Connie. I certainly cannot remember a time when I was in the UK in February and sitting reading in the garden!

>228 Caroline_McElwee: Victor Hugo was such a giant of French letters (if you know what I mean) in his age that I wanted to read one of his slightly lesser known novels. The printing of the novel in interesting because it is on split page layout like news print.

The arbitral board is composed of three eminent London QCs who are happy to run time as they will be billing in the same manner. It is very interesting to see the jousting between the Chairman of the tribunal and the Respondent's QC as they famously do not get along. I had to take the re-examination of our witness on Quantum this evening and think we scored one or two good points.

>83 PaulCranswick: Fantastic news!

>232 leperdbunny: Thanks Tamara. It certainly is great news.

>172 PaulCranswick: Awesome choices, Paul! If I am in need for another BB, I will just look that up. :) I'd prefer a Cranswickian day in a bookstore to a Kafkaesque one for sure. Have a lovely weekend - hopefully with reading material that's not only focused on the hearing!

>229 PaulCranswick: Smart move Paul, that interpreter! I can imagine how that would make it a lot harder to be aggressive.

Hoping for some relaxation for you this weekend.

>231 PaulCranswick: - As an aside, Paul, today happens to be Victor Hugo's birthday.

>234 PersephonesLibrary: You have some more to consider, Kathe, because I added a few more yesterday and got my remainder of my Thingaversary books delivered.

>235 EllaTim: I discussed it extensively with the team, Ella, and we decided to say that the witness would try to answer in English but with an interpreter on hand to help him if there were things he didn't understand. It made it seem like less of a ruse and gave more credibility to our witness. The tribunal were grateful for the help of the interpreter occasionally too as the witness is a little accented - but the ploy did work well for the most difficult part of the cross and I could see their Counsel appear visibly frustrated.

>236 jessibud2: That is really interesting, Shelley. Of course, I would have insufficient candles to do justice to his cake.

Yesterday's additions:

49. Vice Versa by F. Anstey
50. A Thousand Moons by Sebastian Barry
51. The Scarred Woman by Jussi Adler Olsen
52. Closed for Winter Jorn Lier Horst
53. News of the World by Juliette Jiles
54. Bright Dead Things by Ada Limon
55. A Teaspoon of Earth and Sea by Dina Nayeri
56. Death in the Tuscan Hills by Marco Vichi

Books 49, 52, 54 & 56 were my balance Thingaversary books.

>237 PaulCranswick: Heh. Who doesn't love some good courtroom drama?

Happy weekend Paul!

>240 justchris: The initial cross was very interesting, Chris, as their QC is a particularly eminent one and to be pitting wits against him is a privilege as well as a bit daunting. My re-examination on quantum went quite smoothly and I will have one more day in the sun with the re-examination of our quantum expert.

>241 The_Hibernator: Lovely to see you, Rachel. I will get around the threads this weekend to give my good wishes back to you. xx

BOOK # 28



Moon Over Soho by Ben Aaronovitch
Date of Publication : 2011
Origin of Author : UK
Pages : 373 pp

Challenges :
Series Pair : 3/26

Second instalment of the Peter Grant which tore me between incredulity and amusement. I'm not sure that I will be able to read all ten books currently in this series as the lead character's world view can be faintly irritating.

Interesting plot, albeit more than a tad daft, see Grant investigating the supernatural killing of jazz musicians. Seeing as his dad is a jazz musician it may be a good idea to set him up as bait for the jazz vampires.

Light and fun but not splendid.

Paul, your updates on the trial are fascinating. Thanks for sharing.

Hello there, Paul!

Ta-da! I caught up to your posting, and it was an enjoyable time! I have gotten so behind with the 75ers, and am determined to catch up.

You’ve been doing some great reading, and lots of it! I like your challenges and themes, and have been doing some of that myself.

Take care!

Karen O.

>244 Oregonreader: You are welcome, Jan. Unfortunately these two weeks it is consuming all my time. Read only one book this last week and my thread has slowed to a crawl.

>245 klobrien2: Lovely to see you, Karen. My challenges are difficult this month because of RL but I do hope I can complete another two books today before the end of the month.

I'll get across to a fair few threads this weekend, though.

Hi Paul, I am enjoying read about the case but I don't envy you at all. It's got to be harrowing. Good luck to you my friend.

>247 brenzi: It is stressful, Bonnie, because it really is a case that could go either way and the consequences of losing and having to pay the other side's legal fees and the arbitrators' costs fills me with dread.

Harrowing also seeing my reading numbers falling!

My eldest Yasmyne has turned 24 in the last day. Currently in Norway and I haven't seen her for over 18 long months. Miss her and lover her to bits.

Here she is as a naughty toddler:

This is her slightly more up to date:

And this one is right up to dat:

Happy birthday Yasmyne!

>252 humouress: Thanks Nina. Of course she looks just like me!

I hope you and your oldest are reunited well before her next birthday!

>253 PaulCranswick: I see the likeness Paul.

>254 quondame: We do miss her terribly, Susan.

>255 humouress: I hope your tongue is not set too fast in your cheek, Nina.

Haven't had a great end to the month reading wise - although I have made up for it by purchasing new books furiously and putting paid to my read more than add ambitions for now!

Planning March.

I will look to revitalise my reading and I want to get to 50 books in total read in the first quarter putting me still on course for 200 this year.

Likely books:

The Age of Improvement by Asa Briggs for my history challenge
The opening two books of the Belgariad
Books 2 & 3 in the Fiona Griffiths series
Four continents to read for the around the world challenge
Five books in the 52 book challenge
Four books for my Queen Vic challenge
BAC Challenge Jean Plaidy
My poetry will be Ada Limon
Booker Winner
Nobel Winner
1001 Book Winner
Pulitzer Winner and
AAC book winner
Book 3 in the Dance to the Music of Time

With some duplication of challenges my minimum target is 20 books.

Happy birthday to Yasmyne, Paul!

And happy reading next month.

>258 EllaTim: I have over indulged a little this month in book additions Ella and I must read more to reduce the overspill.

Happy birthday to Yasmyne. Shame you've had to have so much time apart. What is she up to in Norway?

>260 Caroline_McElwee: She is working in Oresund, Caroline, but her boyfriend is unsurprisingly Norwegian!

Happiest of birthdays to Yasmyne! I do hope you get to see her again soon, Paul.

Hi Paul!

>229 PaulCranswick: Excellent strategy of using the interpreter to break up the QC’s examination.

>249 PaulCranswick: >250 PaulCranswick: and >251 PaulCranswick: Happy birthday to Yasmyne. Excellent photos, thanks for sharing. This not seeing our kids is terrible – I haven’t seen my daughter for 14 months and she’s only 2.5 hours away. Covid and all…

>262 scaifea: Thanks Amber. You and me both!

>263 karenmarie: It did the job with the QC to some degree, Karen. Not exactly Rumpole of the Bailey but a reminder that little tricks can sometimes afford an advantage.

The separation of families is very hard on everybody, isn't it?

BOOK # 29



What is History? by Edward Hallett Carr
Date of Publication : 1961
Origin of Author : UK
Pages : 156 pp

Challenges :
Great British Historians (1/12)
52 Book Club Challenge : Dewey 900 Book (8/52)
Queen Betty Challenge : 15/70

A collection of five lectures that Carr prepared for the Trevelyan Cambridge University Lectures in 1961 posing the question "What is History?"

The simpler answer is to first make clear, as Carr does, is what is is not. It is not as earlier historians had posited the mere assemblage of facts. The selection of the facts to include and those to leave out will skew the telling of history. Nor should the influence of the individual be over exaggerated - he recognises some obvious sheen created by the great and good and bad but favours societal causative influences over individualistic ones. Fate and mistakes play their role and Carr does see some predictive element in history whilst believing it to be scientifically challenging due to complexity.

Overall though Carr is positive and sees history as a record of progress although I would suggest that such progress is not always immediately obvious.

Enjoyable for a student of history.

A belated happy birthday to Yasmyne, Paul.
May you meet again soon.
I wish you all the best for next week.

Hope Yasmyne had a great birthday! She is such a beauty!

>265 PaulCranswick: Glad to see you got this week's 52 book in! I struggled with this one as I don't love NF, but I managed to make it work.

>266 SirThomas: Thanks Thomas. I have been missing her quite a bit recently.

>267 ChelleBearss: Thank you, Chelle.

The 52 Book Challenge and the Queen Betty Challenges are the ones that I am doing best with so far.

I am almost used to scroll down to get to the new thread, Paul. :) I am glad I am not that far behind.

>265 PaulCranswick: Uh, I like that. If you write "student" of history - is it difficult for a non-native speaker to read it?

Yasmyne's childhood pics are so adorable - and she is a stunning, young woman now. I can imagine that you must miss her when she's so far away. I hope you had a nice weekend!

OK so my Tardis has landed, I missed quite a bit here, but as always thank you for all your stats. I am happy to see that you have started the Riverside of London series, even if you are not loving it as much as me. Peter takes a little getting used to. He and the books amuse and frustrate me in equal measure, I finished the 5th installment today and was a little disappointed with how it ended though I think it was just a set-up for the next in the series. I will keep going as I am invested now.

>269 PersephonesLibrary: Carr's book is readable but at 156 pages could not have been much longer. He does give a fairly interesting assessment of many of the European historians but I would have thought it a fairly tough read if English is not your native language.

When Yasmyne comes to my mind, that naughty little girl with her cheeky grin and very agile brain comes first to mind. We have always been close and I miss having her to talk to but I do have Number 2 and Number 3 still with me at home so I am blessed really.

>270 BBGirl55: Good to see you and the Tardis re-materialising here, Bryony!

I already own the first four Grant books so I will read at least that far.

BOOK # 30



A Buyer's Market by Anthony Powell
Date of Publication : 1952
Origin of Author : UK
Pages : 278 pp

Challenges :
A Dance to the Music of Time (2/12)
Queen Betty Challenge (16/52)

You will not find and have little expectation of finding fast paced action or even much of a very clearly defined plot. Powell is all about elegant prose, wry observation and the slow placid hum of thoughtful characterisation.

Part two finds Jenkins in the later part of the 1920s believing himself in love, attending dances and dinner parties in shabby faux-lavish homes and recalling small reminisces with his oft recurring acquaintances.

Somehow one can feel the layers being laid to prepare a tableau of the middle part of the last century from a Middle England genteel point of view.