Charlotte's (charl08) reading light(houses) 3

I'm Charlotte, I'm based in north west England and I like to read. I started in the category challenge last year.

I was trying to think of a theme linked to something positive and uplifting (for me) and decided I'd go with lighthouses. I'm a fan. Most of these images won't be mine. Actually, most are mine.

I'll keep the categories from last year, with an additional one for reading my own books. Because that one is so needed!


Image by Quint Buchholz
https://www.quintbuchholz.de/

Books read by month

Lighthouse, Burnham on Sea


January 20
1. I want to be a wall (Manga)
2. Asadora vol 2
3. Asadora vol 4
4. Murder After Christmas (New to me)
5. Days on Fes (Manga)
6. The Crane Wife (Essays)
7. Ex Libris (books about books)
8. Follow Me In (GN)
9. Did She Kill Him? (History)
10. Eileen Mayo (Art / Reading my own books)
11. The Maid at my House (1-11) (GN)
12. Skull-face Bookseller Honda-san (1)(GN)
13. West (New to me)
14. A Guest at the Feast (Lit Crit/ familiar faces)
15. Godmersham Park (familiar faces)
16. A Side Character's Love Story 13 (manga)
17. Seventh Time Loop (Vol 1) (manga)
18. The Madness of Grief (memoir/ my own books)
19. Asadora! Vol 5
20. Mamo (GN)

Library books read in Jan: 9

February 24 (44)

1. Bleeding Heart Yard (crime / familiar faces)
2. Dear Life: a doctor's story of love and loss (Memoir)
3. The Book of Goose (Novel / familiar faces)
4. Georgie, All Along (novel/ familiar faces)
5. Thames Mudlarking (history/ geography)
6. Flèche (Poetry)
7. Jews Don't Count (Politics / antiracism)
8. The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo (Familiar faces)
9. Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow (New to me)
10. Ducks: Two years in the oil sands (GN)
11. The Savior's Book Cafe in Another World 1 (GN)
12. The Savior's Book Cafe in Another World 2 (GN)
13. A Conspiracy of Tall Men (New to me)
14. On Grief: voices through the ages on how to manage death and loss (Literature)
15. Siblings (Women in translation)
16. On Connection (Reading my own books)
17. The Escape Artist (History/ the Holocaust)
18. Euphoria (fiction / new to me)
19. The Quest for the Missing Girl (GN)
20. The Year of Magical Thinking (Memoir)
21. A Side Character's Love Story 14 (Manga)
22. Cocoon (in translation/ my books)
23.There's Been a Little Incident (New to me)
24. Diary of a Void (Reading my own books / Women in translation)

Library books read in February: 13

March 20 (64)

1. Old Rage (Memoir)
2. Hear no Evil (crime / historical fiction/ new to me)
3. Notes On Grief (familiar faces)
4. Summer Fires (GN / in translation Italy)
5. All of You Every Single One (fiction, new to me
6. A Cosmic Kind of Love (fiction)
7. Drama King (fiction)
8. Slouching Towards Bethlehem (Essays)
9. Death of Jezebel (crime)
10. Demon Copperhead (familiar faces / prize longlists)
11. House of the Sun (manga)
12. The Way of the Househusband 1 (manga)
13. The Unseen (Lancaster online bookclub / in translation)
14. Komi Can't Communicate 1 (manga)
15. LDK 1-10(manga)
16. Love Will Tear Us Apart (Fantasy/ familiar faces)
17. Children of Paradise (fiction / new to me / prize longlist)
18. Wandering Souls (fiction / prize longlist)
19. Acting Class (GN)
20. Boy Meets Girl (reread)

Library books read in March: 12

April 18 (82)

1. Fire Rush (Women's Prize longlist)
2. Ayesha at Last (fiction, new to me)
3. Lucy by the Sea (fiction, familiar faces)
4. The Cheat Sheet (fiction)
5. Kiss Him Not Me 1-3 (Manga)
6. Trespasses (Women's Prize Longlist)
7. The Dog of the North (Women's Prize longlist
8. If Only You (Bergman)
9. Bandit Queens (Women's Prize Longlist)
10. Kiss Him Not Me 4-5
11. Scorched Grace (New to me, crime fiction)
12. Two Wrongs Make a Right (Romance / familiar faces)
13. Memphis (Women's Prize longlist)
14. Black Butterflies (ditto)
15. Kiss Him Not Me 6-8 (Manga)
16. FInn Rhodes Forever (Romance, fiction)
17. A Fortunate Woman (NF, biography / social science)
18. The Joy of Quitting (GN/ memoir, reading my own books)

Library books read in April: 5

May 26 (108)
1. Strange Sally Diamond (Reading my own books)
2. The Wrong Mr Right (familiar
faces)
3. Kiss Him Not Me 9-10 (Manga)
4. Shutter of Snow (fiction, new to me)
5. In Your Dreams, Holden Rhodes (fiction, familiar faces)
6. Olga (in translation, fiction)
7. Crumbs (GN)
8. A Side Character's Love Story 15 (manga)
9. This Wild Wild Country (crime, New to me)
10. Doughnuts and Doom (GN)
11. Black Paradox (Manga)
12. The Pachinko Parlour (Novel, in translation)
13. The True Deceiver (novel, in translation)
14. Alte Zachen: old things (GN/ fiction)
15. Chick Magnet (fiction)
16. Forever Your Rogue (fiction)
17. The Ruin of All Witches (history, early US - my own book!)
18. Insomniacs After School (manga)
19. 52 Factory Lane (in translation / Book club)
20. Letter Late than Never
21. The Lives and Deaths of K. Penza (Women in translation/ Malta)
22. Continent (my books/ fiction)
23. Murder Under a Red Moon
24. It Isn't Over
25. Quiet
26. The Takeaway

Library books read in May: 10

June 21 (129)

1. Angel of Rome (short stories)
2. Je Ne Sais Quoi: adventures of a French woman in London (GN)
3. Stolen (fiction in translation)
4. Soft and Low
5. Tokyo Express (Reading my own books)
6. Yours Truly
7. Ladies' Lunch and other stories (Reading my own books)
8. Flying Witch Vol 1 & 2 / Ima Koi Vol 1/ Wolf Girl and Black Prince Vol 1
9. Sisters of the Lost Nation (fiction / new to me)
10. Love Theoretically
11. Practice makes Perfect
12. Armed with Madness: the surreal Leonora Carrington (GN)
13. Time Shelter (in translation)
14. The House of Doors (familiar faces)
15. It's Lonely at the Centre of the Earth (GN)
16. Friends Without Benefits
17. Lost & Found (Reading my books / memoir)
18. Em (in translation)
19. The Many Deaths of Laila Starr (GN)
20. Ima Koi 3
21. A Light Still Burns (Book group/ in translation)

Library books read in June: 9

New to me (authors)

Souter Lighthouse


January

1. Murder After Christmas (New to me)
2. The Crane Wife (New to me / Essays)
3. West (New to me)

February

1. Flèche (Poetry / new to me)
2.Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow (New to me)
3. A Conspiracy of Tall Men (New to me)
4. Euphoria (fiction / new to me)
5. The Year of Magical Thinking (Memoir/ new tomme)
6.There's Been a Little Incident (New to me)

March

1. All of You Every Single One (fiction)
2. Children of Paradise (fiction/ prize longlist)
3. Wandering Souls (fiction / prize longlist)

April
1. Fire Rush (Women's Prize longlist)
2. Ayesha at Last (fiction, new to me)
3. Trespasses (Women's Prize Longlist)
4. Bandit Queens (Women's Prize Longlist)
5. Scorched Grace (crime fiction)
6. Memphis (Women's Prize longlist)
7. Black Butterflies (ditto)

Prize winners (and nominees!)



1. Demon Copperhead (Women's Prize longlist)
2. The Unseen (several prizes! / in translation)
3. Children of Paradise (Women's Prize longlist)
4. Wandering Souls (Women's Prize longlist)

Quarter 2

1. Fire Rush (Women's Prize longlist)
2. Trespasses (Women's Prize Longlist)
3. The Dog of the North (Women's Prize longlist
4. Bandit Queens (Women's Prize Longlist)
5. Memphis (Women's Prize longlist)
6. Black Butterflies (ditto)

African writers (loosely defined)


Harbour & lighthouse Kalk Bay, South Africa

Women in translation

Picture from visit to Lighthouse Books (Edinburgh)


February
1. Siblings Germany (Women in translation)
2. Cocoon China (in translation/ my books)
3. Diary of a Void Japan (Reading my own books / Women in translation

March
1. Summer Fires Italy

April
See Manga list

Reading my own books

Bass Rock Lighthouse


January

1. Ex Libris books about books
2. Follow Me In (GN)
3. Eileen Mayo (art)
4. The Madness of Grief (memoir)

February

1. On Connection (Reading my own books)
2. Cocoon (in translation/ my books)
3. Diary of a Void (Reading my own books / Women in translation)

April
1. A Fortunate Woman (NF, biography / social science)
2. The Joy of Quitting (GN/ memoir)

Graphic Novels & Memoirs



The Lighthouse Keeper's Lunch

Read in January:
1. I want to be a wall (Manga)
2. Asadora vol 2
3. Asadora vol 4
4. Days on Fes (Manga)
5. Follow Me In
6. The Maid at my House (1-11)
7. Skull-face Bookseller Honda-san (1)(GN)
8. A Side Character's Love Story 13
9. Seventh Time Loop (Vol 1)
10. Asadora Vol 5
11. Mamo

February

1. Ducks: Two years in the oil sands (GN)
2. The Savior's Book Cafe in Another World 1 (GN)
3. The Savior's Book Cafe in Another)World 2 (GN)
4. The Quest for the Missing Girl (GN)
5. A Side Character's Love Story 14 (Manga)


March

1. Summer Fires (GN / in translation Italy)
2. House of the Sun (manga)
3. The Way of the Househusband 1 (manga)
4. Komi Can't Communicate 1 (manga)
5. LDK 1-10 (manga)
6. Acting Class (GN)

April
1. Kiss Him Not Me 1-8 (Manga)

History and Memoir


Wikipedia image of J M W Turner's painting of the Bell Rock Lighthouse.
Built by Stephenson, off the coast of Angus, Scotland, it is the world's oldest surviving sea-washed lighthouse.

January
1. The Madness of Grief (memoir/ my own books)
2. Did She Kill Him? (History)
3. Eileen Mayo (Art / Reading my own books)

March
1. Old Rage (Memoir)
2. Notes On Grief (familiar faces)
3. Slouching Towards Bethlehem (Essays)

April
1. A Fortunate Woman (biography/ medicine)

I hope it safe to post, Charlotte. Happy New Thread!

I just finished Wandering Souls, and while I will ponder on it a little more, I think it is my least favourite of the four Women's Fiction Longlist that I read so far. It was an interesting story, but I felt somewhat at a distance from the characters as time went on. It had so much potential. I think it may only get 3 stars from me.

Happy Reading!

Happy new thread, Charlotte!

You are doing well reading through the Women's Prize longlist. Sadly very few are translated yet, I hope some will be published in Dutch translation.
I think I liked The Unseen better than you did. How great to have an online 'bookclub' discussion with the writer!

Happy new one, Charlotte!

As always, I love the lighthouse images.

Happy New Thread! I always enjoy looking at these pictures.

Happy new thread, Charlotte. I love the lighthouses.

Happy new thread, Charlotte. You're making good progress on the Women's long list and making me think that I should find The Bandit Queens in one of my stacks and read it.

Happy new thread! It's always a joy to see those beautiful lighthouses, seas and blue skies.

Happy new thread Charlotte. Happy reading to you too!

>11 vancouverdeb: Hi Deborah - I was hoping / expecting more ghost action, I think.

>12 FAMeulstee: I would hope so too, Anita. I'd guess the big name authors are the most likely though?

>13 katiekrug: Thanks Katie. Hoping to get to see some more soon. I feel like I need a holiday!

>14 MissBrangwen: Me too Mirjam. I really like how different they can be, too.

>15 BLBera: Thanks Beth. Did you ever read The Lighthouse Keeper's Lunch with Scout? I think we had a copy in my primary school.

>16 Familyhistorian: Thanks Meg. I'd be keen to hear what you make of The Bandit Queens.

>17 Jackie_K: The sea and the blue skies don't hurt, do they Jackie? And no wind or spray in your face from the online version.

>18 mdoris: Thanks Mary. And happy reading to us all, I hope.

Currently reading Memphis and Scorched Grace, with 4 books waiting for me at the library. Oops.

Scorched Grace

During the first of countless castigations doled out by Sister Augustine, I discovered that if you pressed your face to Mary's face in the Nativity glass, you could peer right through her translucent eye and see New Orleans shimmering below like a moth wing. On the highest rung of the ladder, my eye to Mary's eye, I saw Faubourg Delassize and Livaudais unfold to the left, Tchoupitoulas Street and the hypnotic ribbon of the Mississippi River to the right. The city was electric at every hour, but at dawn, I was astonished by the wattage of color that vibrated in the silken light. Pink-, yellow-, and persimmon-painted shotgun homes stretched out in the Garden District, long and narrow as train tracks. Purple and green Mardi Gras parade beads and gray Spanish moss dripped from the branches of gnarled oak trees. I watched the streetcar roll up and down Saint Charles, passengers slowly climbing on and off as the metal trolley bell pealed through the air.

I thought I'd like this one more than I did: a crime fiction novel with a rebellious nun as amateur detective. It's the start of a planned series, so hopefully the next one will be a little less busy. Sister Holiday has yet to take her permanent vows in a New Orleans convent. She has a past and not everyone is keen on her place in convent or the attached school where she teaches music. Then an arson attack on her school nearly kills two pupils, and she is motivated to investigate when the police don't get anywhere.

It felt like there was a lot of setting up here: In New Orleans, the small convent, the school community attached to the convent, the less than effective police and oddly disconnected fire investigator. Sister Holiday's backstory in New York, including a failed relationship and career ... But there was enough that kept me reading to make me want to pick up a sequel. Did I mention it's funny, too?

She housed her many expensive sex toys and accoutrements in an antique metal box with a faded print of The Treachery of Images by René Magritte on it. Ceci n'est pas une pipe.

Hi Charlotte! Thanks for posting info about the Jacobsen interview. I told my wife about it, as she is a HUGE fan of the Barry series, and she was happy to hear the details and so jealous of you for getting to hear him speak.

>22 banjo123: Thanks for posting that Rhonda. I can't say I liked this book as much as I did like the one about Ingrid's later life (#3). But I did appreciate this one much more having heard what others took from it. I think I sometimes struggle with books that focus so much on hard rural lives, as it seems to me that there is a risk in romaticising what must have been for many "nasty, brutish and short". But Jacobsen was well aware of that risk: he raised it himself. And he wasn't afraid of pointing out the (contradictory) forces of oil: pushing islanders off their homes, whilst funding an enviable welfare state.

Hearing him made me rethink my attitude to picking up the second book.

Updated Women's Prize reading

Ones I want to be shortlisted
Trespasses by Louise Kennedy
Stone Blind by Natalie Haynes
The Marriage Portrait by Maggie O’Farrell
The Bandit Queens by Parini Shroff
Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver
Fire Rush by Jacqueline Crooks

Not my preference for the shortlist:
Glory by NoViolet Bulawayo
Wandering Souls by Cecile Pin
Memphis by Tara M. Stringfellow
Children of Paradise by Camilla Grudova
The Dog of the North by Elizabeth McKenzie

Still to read:
Black Butterflies by Priscilla Morris (just picked up from the library)
Cursed Bread by Sophie Mackintosh - (borrowed from the library.)
Homesick by Jennifer Croft (out from the library, not started)
I’m a Fan by Sheena Patel (online copy)
Pod by Laline Paull

The shortlist announcement approaches: 26th April!

Memphis
I thought this was a good read but not great. Centred on one Black Memphis family, but jumping back and forward in time. The women of the family are front and centre here, dealing with the effects of Jim Crow, lynching and postwar PTSD on themselves and their children. I felt it could have been a bit more subtle: I'd have liked more about the significance of Memphis as a place. I think comparing this to Jacqueline Woodson's book looking at a NY family with a similar time structure, I'd suggest people pick up the Woodson.

Miriam had grown up with her mother's passion tied around her like yarn: revolution. Ever since Miriam could remember, their house had been filled with leaflets proclaiming the power of Black women, detailing the humanity of Black men. The built-in bookshelves in the parlor were filled with faded spines that still sparkled with gold lettering. Books written by Frederick Douglass, Claude McKay, and Nella Larsen. On Friday nights, the porch and the front parlor would be filled with other young, chain-smoking, and cursing-like-sailors revolutionaries. Women in dark leather jackets wore sunglasses with lenses the size of mason-jar lids, even when they were inside the house.

>24 charl08: You are doing great with your longlist reading. I am lucky my library has so many. I'm going to read The Dog of the North next; I needed something quirky after Trespasses.

Nice comments on Memphis; I think I liked it more than you did, but I don't see it being a candidate for the longlist.

Happy new thread, Charlotte.
I admire your progress through the Woman's prize longlist. I wonder how close you'll be to the shortlist. >:-)

Hi Charlotte, impressive reading and assessment of the longlist books!

I am happy to see that Beth also loved Trespasses. It's my favourite of the four books I've read from the Longlist so far. Like you, I feel that Trespasses must be on the shortlist. I'm also excited about Charles Coronation. To that, my husband told me to " get a life " . Men! My sister gave me a commemorative tin of tea with King Charles on it at Easter!!! :-) Oh so thrilled!

Perhaps some of we Canadians are even more excited by the Charles and the Royal Family than those in the UK. My sister and my mom have been reading Royalty gossip sort of books since before Christmas, I think. Biographies and the like. My sister and friend of mine rushed out to get a 1000 piece jigsaw puzzle of Queen Elizabeth before it sold out! :-)

>26 BLBera: Hope that that Mckenzie is good for you, Beth. My patience was a little thin!

>27 Helenliz: Past experience tells us I will be far, far from the judges' selection.

>28 mdoris: Thanks Mary.

>29 vancouverdeb: I do hope it makes it Deborah, but I won't hold my breath! I was really pleased to see the local chain bookshop had a display of the book in the window. Hopefully more people find a copy.

I'm not too interested in following the coronation. I hope you get to enjoy as much coverage as you'd like to.
I am delighted to have a bonus bank holiday though!

I'm about half way through Black Butterflies, not sure I'll finish in time for tomorrow. It's a gripping read.

Happy new thread!! I've read Demon Copperhead and Stone Blind and am just about to start Trespasses -- thanks for the list! Eager to hear what you think of Black Butterflies...

I am enjoying The Dog of the North, Charlotte. It's a good change after Trespasses.

>31 Berly: Thanks Kim. Hope you like Trespasses. My favourite.

>32 BLBera: Oh, I'm glad Beth. I feel like it's probably a bit of a marmite book.

Well, I guess I'd better get to Pod now!
Sad not to see Natalie Haynes make the list, but not surprised as I think it's pretty impossible to second guess the judges for the last six.

https://womensprizeforfiction.co.uk/2023-prize

I was excited to see the Women’s Prize Shortlist in my Instagram feed! Overall , I am happy . Great reading of the longlist and shortlist , Charlotte.

>35 vancouverdeb: Glad you're happy, Deborah. I've commented over on your thread about Pod. I'll finish Black Butterflies and then probably go back to reading some non-women's prize list books that have been shelved for a bit.

Out of 6, you correctly got 4 of the shortlist, so I'd say that's a pretty good prediction.

Great predictions, Charlotte!

>37 Helenliz: I don't think I'd make any money at the Bookies though, would I?
(I have no idea how that works though.)

>38 BLBera: Thanks Beth. I always wonder how this stuff translates into sales - some years they seem to do much better than others.

So far, Black Butterflies is not available in North America . That is one on the shortlist I’d be interested is reading . I have Marriage Portrait waiting in the wings . Well , I predicted 3 of the 6 on the shortlist . Not bad, and certainly a first for me .

I'm pleased to see Barbara Kingsolver make the list. Maggie O'Farrell is another favourite writer, someone whose new books I add to my wishlists and stalk the library catalogues for, but there are probably now more of those than spaces on most prize longlists, especially among women writers. (I do have some very favourite male writers and some of them are hard to commend for their portrayals of women...) I am also glad to see that the other shortlisted writers are less well known. I think I made successful purchase requests for Trespasses, probably in ebook form, last year, and then bought it on offer at 99p on Kindle last year. I'm now just about to start reading it. I also have her short story collection, The End of the World is a Cul de Sac.

Ordered a soft cover of Black Butterflies from Amazon Com ( USA) . It will take a couple of weeks or so to get there, but I'd like to read it. Hope all is going well.

>40 vancouverdeb: >42 vancouverdeb: Hope it wings (ha!) its way to you quickly Deborah.

>41 elkiedee: Me too, I'm a fan. I read Trespasses online and then bought my own hard copy, as I liked it a lot and felt she deserved the support.

I'm still reading A Fortunate Woman which is just lovely, and is tempting me to go back to A Fortunate Man.

Did I mention it's a bank holiday on Monday? No?

Watched Judy Blume Forever last night. Lovely to watch authors and young and older readers talk about their memories of reading her books. And I didn't know she had a bookshop. Adding it to the visit wishlist.

Recommended.

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2023/apr/18/judy-blume-forever-amazon-prime-rev...

A Fortunate Woman
I loved this book, which I only picked up because I was browsing the buy-one-get-one-half-price table at Waterstones. Morland takes the idea behind Berger's book about a GP and updates it. She happens to have a connection to the same place. Berger's book has become a classic of medical training in the UK (despite some significant omissions, which Morland highlights). So the GP herself was influenced by the book when choosing the type of medicine she would go into (even though she didn't realise the link to the actual practice until after she had connections with it. Berger's book was anonymized to try and protect the community.) I hadn't realised that the original doctor had shot himself shortly after he retired. I think that's significant. The job has changed, relying far more on statistics, guidelines and protocols (and cutting back home visits and being permanently on call). Still, in this small rural valley the doctor goes to work on a bike and seems to know many of her patients personally. It's not romanticized though: it's hard, exhausting work and as much for the emotional labour as the intellectual challenge (not to mention the admin and shortage issues).

Morland researched the book as covid hit, so she is able to show the impact of lockdown on local general practices. The doctor is the star here, a kind, thoughtful and conscientious woman who works hard to do better for her patients. A photographer worked with the author to document the year, and alongside the medical vignettes the images and writing highlight the beauty (and challenges) of living in the valley.

She was taught, and she strives to remember, that this is what general practice is all about, talking to people, listening to their stories, every bit as much as it's about clinical examination. On days when the administrative paperwork piles high, these stories are what keeps her going. They are the raw material of her relationship with each patient and a source of endless complexity and fascination. That's why the doctor keeps a thick hardback notebook in which she jots a line or two about the most interesting case of each day, the one that makes her wonder about people, marvel at them or despair. She some- times says to fellow bookworms (who she knows will find the analogy resonant) that her job is like picking your way through some wonderful library with extraordinary tales on every shelf. Reduce any one of your patients to their affliction, the tumorous breast, incompetent heart valve or lazy pancreas, and it's akin to regarding a book as nothing more than paper and ink.

>45 charl08: I bought this recently in the same Waterstone's deal! I'm glad you liked it so much. What was the other book you got? I got The Stasi Poetry Circle by Philip Oltermann.

>46 Jackie_K: I had to go back to the photo and check. Several others came home with me too.



(I'd already read Vagabonds and Trespasses but wanted my own copy.)

Strange Sally Diamond
I picked this one up in an Oxfam in Kendal, impressed that it was there given how new (ish) it is. (I had an awkward encounter at the shop. I overheard a mum telling a kid that they could only have one of the two books they wanted, so offered to buy it. The mum thought I meant *I* wanted the book, and when she did understand, claimed the point was to get the kid to choose a thing, rather than the cost. I tried, at least?)

Anyhow. The book opens, and Sally is burying her father. He told her to throw him out with the rubbish, so that's what she's doing. Sally's directness makes for funny reading. The account of dealing with the funeral and people trying to console her reminded me of trying to respond appropriately myself.

Everyone in the churchyard went quiet.... Nadine told me she had organized flowers. I thought it was a waste to buy flowers for a dead man but I also knew not to voice all my thoughts. The ruddy-cheeked vicar came to shake my hand. I put them both in my pockets.

He had asked me to visit him the night before, but I told him over the phone that I didn't like meeting strange men. He reminded me that he had met me several times when I was a young girl when I used to go to church with Mum. I told him he still qualified as a strange man, so he agreed to discuss the arrangements over the phone. He asked some questions about Dad and I told him the answers.

'Our numbers are dwindling every year. I don't suppose you would consider attending, even on an irregular basis?' 'No, I'd said, 'it's very boring.'

I stopped reading crime novels where women were locked away (it felt like it was a plot point in every other book,) so I felt a bit conned to find out that is what I was reading, but by the point this is introduced from the perspective of Sally's brother, I was too invested in Sally's life to want to stop reading.

>48 charl08: Interesting exchange in the shop Charlotte.

The book is on my list. I think I discovered it watching 'Between the Covers'.

>47 charl08: Nice haul! Good old Waterstones.

>48 charl08: That reminds me of a few years ago when I was at the library, and I took 6 or 8 books to the desk. A little girl told me in no uncertain terms that I had too many "because you're not allowed to take more than 2 at a time". I was really saddened by that - the limit at the time for children's books was actually 20, but I expect whoever took her to the library was limiting how many books she took. I suppose at least they were taking her to the library, so many kids don't even get that chance.

>49 Caroline_McElwee: I'm not sure if it is just this year, but I was a bit upset by the end of the book (by the spoiler thing). I'm not looking for that in my fiction reading, life is sad enough.

>50 Jackie_K: Oh, that makes me sad. I hope they had lots of books at home.
For my mum, it was definitely about watching the cost (I can't remember much new book buying at all, beyond birthday and christmas vouchers). We did do very well at charity shops, second hand shops and the library (although I do have a very vivid memory of mum being frustrated with me at having read all the 6 books we'd taken out of the library on the Saturday by the Sunday - and they had already made the effort to take me into the town centre library instead of our local one!)

>48 charl08: You got me with Strange Sally Diamond. Sounds interesting. I checked, and it's not available in Canada until late June, I think it was. So I'll have to wait.

Indeed, an unfortunate exchange in the Oxfam shop. I was very fortunate as a child, as far as reading went. I recall my mom taking we kids ( 3 of us ) at the time to the library. She'd push my youngest sister in the stroller ( pushchair) and me and my other sister would walk alongside my mom and my sister. I imagine we could only take out so many books, as we were walking and only had the stroller and our own arms to carry books. But by the time I was 6 years old, my parents would take we kids to the bookstore, and tell us to pick one book out each. My parents are / were avid readers and they both tried to instill a love of reading in we kids, which they did.

One thing I cannot understand is parents and children who do not use the library because " who knows where the books have been?" I don't understand that fear at all.

I think the charity shop exchange could be viewed in 2 ways. Children do need, at some point, to learn that they can't have everything - and that includes books. So it might be that the mother is trying to teach the child that they do have to choose and that they can't have every toy/book in the shop. Some of us (me) still need to learn that second lesson, it is true. So it might not be a bad thing.

>50 Jackie_K: that, however, is sad.

>52 vancouverdeb: One thing I cannot understand is parents and children who do not use the library because "who knows where the books have been?" I don't understand that fear at all. Oh I don't know. I seem to remember having a few books out that had a label from the 50s (?) about what to do if the book had been in a household infected with something nasty (Scarlet fever, maybe?). The book had to be returned and would be fumigated. That does make a library book seem slightly less appealing. OTOH the parents and certainly children are too young to remember that, and it's part of the over clean problem. The old saying goes everyone should eat a peck of dirt before they die - and I think you probably do most of that as a child.

>53 Helenliz: Interesting and thoughtful comment re borrowing from the library and being concerned about germs , Helen . I must admit , with my two sons, I probably did not get books from the library until they were 2 or 3 years old . That was mainly because we purchased a lot of books for our sons . But if I think about it , I would not want my kids to have put library books in their mouths, as very young kids are apt to do . But after the mouthing phase was over, I was fine with library books . But you are correct, during the Covid lockdown, libraries closed , and after they opened, they held on to returned books for 48 - 72 hours so that the Covid virus would die , or something. I think eventually the powers that be realized that Covid was very unlikely to pass via library books . Fascinating that you have run across a book with fumigating instructions for Scarlet Fever. Like you, I am of the opinion that you have to eat a peck of dirt before you die . :-)

>52 vancouverdeb: If you like the more unusual end of the crime fiction genre, you might like this too. I think I am happier in the police procedural end of the spectrum, myself.

I wouldn't have thought much of bugs on books until COVID, and then I think it became a bit more understandable. Hard to know what is a reasonable risk and what isn't, in the context of all the discussion about bugs staying on our shopping bags etc.

>53 Helenliz: I imagine there are many different things that could have been going on: my sister pointed out that at least I tried to give another option, if the £ was the issue. I wonder if there is any evidence of a library book passing on a bug.

>54 vancouverdeb: I like to see the very old books that sometimes pop up when I request a title that's been in storage - they seem to have a history to them. 'If only this book could talk'. Double if it went through scarlet fever!

Hi Charlotte

>48 charl08: I've read Our Little Cruelties a few week ago and liked it very much. I've seen that my library has got a copy of Lying in Wait. Have you read that one?

On library books and infection fears, my partner's sort of boss worked in libraries for many years, from the age of 17 to her 40s, before being elected to run a trade union branch (M is her deputy). So at the beginning of the COVID 19 lockdown, they went back to practices suggested in guidance for previous infections.

A lot of library services here now waive a lot of fines and charges for children, but there may be a concern here about building up charges. I know that if I borrow books for my kids to read, they will probably be safe in Danny's room but Conor is really rough with books, whether his own, the library's or someone else's. He just throws everything on the floor and carelessly damages things without noticing. I keep my own library books together, but a few years ago when I was away for a few days, things got moved around and a book that I'm sure I never took out of the house except to get it reissued totally disappeared (it was in the category of serious non fiction that I got distracted from, but at least it was an in print paperback).

>56 Ameise1: I haven't read them. I thought this book was well done but I think I will stick to gentler stuff, Barbara.

>57 elkiedee: Our one doesn't charge for children but I do recognize the fear around losing a book (and having to pay for the replacement). Mine seemed to walk as a kid. As an adult I suspect this was because I just left things around and expected them still to be there when I came back. It works when you live alone but was a bit flawed in a house of five.

The doctor book sounds good, Charlotte. Nice book haul. I can understand wanting a keeper copy of Trespasses. That was SO good.

>60 charl08: I really liked it Beth. At the same time it made me wonder if the family doctor approach is sustainable for the future.

Shutter of Snow
Short novel in an unusual, almost surrealist style that works well to tell the story of a young woman who's been involuntarily incarcerated in a mental hospital in 1920s New York. Marthe's experiences in the novel echoes the author's own experiences: there's a helpful introduction to my edition that provides context to the story.
After two months Marthe is able to leave with her husband, but it's not clear what will happen to the other women she's met.

I could walk in the water they could show me the water and it would be very easy. The dream is the only thing and in a dance across the pond I would make a crevice for their sighs. She sharpened the pencils, and across the white frailty of the scrap paper went the black strong torrent of her dream.

It had been in the hay with a box of chocolate almonds, in the rain, and a sudden leap from the high cave into the hay. Down into its smell and depth she plunged, down to the settled straw beneath it. And always on the ladder on the other side her father whistled the Mill Song and the Sextette. He would have to go back to the city to push an assured pen across to the end to the period and back again to the period after the M.

Olga
Translated fiction / familiar faces

Schlink tells the story of the 20th century in Germany through the eyes of a young working class woman. Olga loses her parents to typhus, grows up to be a teacher and falls in love with the local landowners son, a soldier and traveller. The story is told in three acts, the first the story she told for public consumption, the second by the child of a family she worked for in later life, and in the final section, in letters she wrote to her lover in the army. As with the other books by Schlink I've read, he's interested in how German people deal with (or don't deal with) their responsibility for the past - and the present. This is more than the Holocaust (although this is clearly central) but the treatment of Herero in Namibia, and also the postwar development narratives of young people. Olga is firmly against any idea of political grandiosity, and her final act makes that explicit.

I'm not sure if I just notice it more at the moment, but grief pops up again here. Olga talks to the young narrator about how to deal with loss: her emphasis seems to be to anticipate it as inevitable.

Crumbs
A sweet magical GN aimed (I think) at YA readers, with beautiful art.

Ray has been training for an elite magical role for years, but a new relationship means she isn't sure if her priorities have changed.

I have been catching up with last week's TLS.
Added new novels by Tan Twan Eng and Linda Grant to my wishlist (and requests at the library, as not on the catalogue there yet).
https://www.the-tls.co.uk/issues/april-28-2023/

Thanks for the visit, Charlotte. ,I've been enjoyed the pomp and circumstance of the Coronation weekend! One of my sister's had made Queen Elizabeth's favourite Chocolate Biscuit Cake in honour of the coronation. I stayed up very late to watch the coronation and my sister went to bed early and woke up to watch the coronation. She had a piece of the cake and a cup of tea at 4:30 in the morning while watching it on TV. I visited with her in the early evening last night while we both had a small slice of the biscuit cake and discussed the coronation. A lot of fun!!! :-)

>65 vancouverdeb: Glad you enjoyed it Deborah. I did watch bits but not the die hard fan you are, clearly.

If you like bookmarks and/ or children's book illustrations you might like this charity auction. Axel Scheffler's contribution is already at £150 but there are many still less than £10.

https://www.jumblebee.co.uk/auction/detail/auction_id/6760

This Wild Wild Country
There's been a discussion over on Beth's thread about novels with split timelines, and their frustrations. I felt this book fell squarely in that category.
In the 1970s, Joanna is a former cop on the run from her abusive husband, also a cop. Glitter has returned to her small town to found a commute on her mother's hotel plot. In the 1930s, Glitter's grandmother is struggling to make the hotel business work following the death of her husband. There's lots here that I would usually like, from the historical crime to the New Mexico location, but it didn't come together as a good read for me. I wanted a novel about Joanna on her own, Glitter seemed like too much of a "type" to me, rather than an individual . Joanna's husband finally getting some comeuppance was nicely done.

Dwayne staggers backward, wide-eyed. He faces her and in one swift, powerful movement, she punches him in the jaw.

Dwayne yelps. He raises an arm, but Moonbeam grabs him from behind, unbalancing him. He stumbles, then falls into the dust. Joanna feels herself being pulled up: it's Lauren, hoisting her to her feet. Then she stands between her and Dwayne, fury made flesh.
Piss off,' she yells. "This a haven of peace, you dick.'

>68 charl08: Sorry that didn't work.

>67 charl08: I will check that out.

Linda Grant has a new novel? I am off to take a look.

>68 charl08: and >69 BLBera:
Linda Grant's new novel is called The Story of the Forest - I have an electronic review copy via Netgalley, and it does look interesting. From the book's Netgalley page

"It's 1913 and a young, carefree and recklessly innocent girl, Mina, goes out into the forest on the edge of the Baltic sea and meets a gang of rowdy young men with revolution on their minds. It sounds like a fairy tale but it's life.

The adventure leads to flight, emigration and a new land, a new language and the pursuit of idealism or happiness - in Liverpool. But what of the stories from the old country; how do they shape and form the next generations who have heard the well-worn tales?

From the flour mills of Latvia to Liverpool suburbia to post-war Soho, The Story of the Forest is about myths and memory and about how families adapt in order to survive. It is a story full of the humour and wisdom we have come to relish from this wonderful writer."

It's new out (11 May). I've just started another Netgalley book (I'm somewhat spoilt for choice) but might look at this one next.

>68 charl08: Looking up Wild Wild Country I've already bought it and the author's previous book last year. I realise you were disappointed but I love novels with split timelines as they feed my historical obsessions, and at least since I've already spent that money....

Women's Prize reading:

Am reading Trespasses - not far in. Sadly I have to return 4 longlist books to the library on Monday as the fines are going to stack up too fast not to, but the one of them I most want to read (and it's shortlisted), Fire Rush came up as a Kindle Daily Deal for 99p so I have that. I will just have to reserve The Dog of the North, Black Butterflies and Cursed Bread again.

>69 BLBera: I got a bit carried away with the site. So much beautiful artwork. Trying to resist making more bids though. It's interesting seeing what has really made a lot of money - and brilliant to see they've raised over £9000 for charity already, with a week to go.

>70 elkiedee: >71 elkiedee: Hope you get some time to catch up with those Women's Prize reads!

The Pachinko Parlour

Low tide. Ducks paddle in the shallow water. The red boardwalks of Itsukushima Shrine flow out over the sand like a carpet of blood. At the entrance, visitors are funnelled past an orange box. A white plastic horse's head sticks out above the box, empty-eyed. I stand on my tiptoes, trying to see the rest of its body, but all I can make out in the gloom is a manger filled with coins.

Fascinating short novel by the author of Winter in Sokcho. Again, Dusapin's protagonist is an outsider. Claire is visiting her Korean grandparents who live in Tokyo and run a Pachinko gambling shop. Claire's Korean is patchy, after being raised in Switzerland. The plan was to visit Korea together, the first time for her grandparents since they escaped Korea after the war. Claire picks up part time work looking after a Japanese ten year old to fill time, who seems similarly dislocated from her family. All a bit odd, unsettled but ultimately, hopeful.

>67 charl08: there are some lovely things in there.

>68 charl08: I'm not a fan of the dual timeline form. I find it usually feels forced in some way. My last one was better than usual, I think because the link between the two timelines was place, not character. The Map of Salt and Stars. I sort of recommend it, but with the aforesaid reservations.

>74 Helenliz: I keep getting sucked back in. So many beautiful pieces of tiny art!

I finished The True Deceiver today after the book group meeting yesterday. I had a bit of a mixed response to the meeting, it was a bit formal for me. However it was interesting to hear from the publisher of the book in the UK. She talked about how such a small publisher worked, in particular how they secured Ali Smith to write the introduction (she's a big fan of Jansson).

Safe in her room, Anna drew up the coverlet, turned on the lamp as the daylight began to wane, opened to her bookmark, and read on. And as she read ... her tranquillity returned, as she had hoped it would.

I felt there were a lot of similarities in the subject matter here and Jacobsen's book, which I read for the same bookgroup last month. This is more than just the brutal weather, in terms of the way both books show people in isolated communities having to cope with tough lives. Smith's introduction talks about the way Jansson uses the two main characters to ask questions about honesty vs creativity, politeness vs distrust. There is a tempting comparison between the writer character, famous for her rabbit drawings and Jansson herself. I'm not sure how far that goes though.

I'm also not sure if I'd pick up another of her novels: I generally like more plot, I think.

>62 charl08: I thought I left a comment here, Charlotte.
I ahve added Olga to the never ending list.

Speaking of grief, how are you doing now?

>76 FAMeulstee: I do enjoy his writing. Although I realised I had him confused with von Schirach (as in they were one person. Oops).

I am not doing so well. My brother and sister have been called in for extra support. I have been told I need to stop taking responsibility for my Dad's social life/ mental health as he is an adult and can do this himself if he wants to.
I find this hard. But to be fair, me worrying about it is not achieving much!

>77 charl08: That sounds like a really tough situation, Charlotte. Wishing you strength and peace as you deal with it! Glad your brother and sister are able to help too.

Thinking of you Charlotte and hoping that you will be feeling better soon. It has not been an easy time for you. Very glad that your brother and sister are there for some extra support and help with your Dad.

I'm sorry to hear you having trouble with your grief and looking after your dad. What a hard time. I'm glad you brother and sister are going to help you out. Best wishes, and hugs to you, Charlotte.

Just catching up here after being away from LT for a while. I enjoyed reading the conversation about children's library books.

Feeling responsible for a parent can be so hard. Big hug!

Sorry to hear you're struggling. While it might seem to be the kind thing to do to slip into that organisational / caring role of your mother to your father, you do need to take that step away and make sure that he does these things for himself.

Sorry to hear of your struggles. Hoping things will resolve themselves or turn around soon.

Echoing everyone else, Charlotte - it's not easy, in these early days, to adjust to the new reality, is it? I'm glad that your sister and brother are able to shoulder some of the load.

>71 elkiedee: Sorry to hear you are struggling Charlotte. Finding the right balance for everyone takes time. Glad your siblings can support you and your dad as you find what is right for you both. It is not uncommon that one person ends up with the biggest load, but hopefully between you that will change.

>78 christina_reads: Thanks Christina. I'm lucky to have siblings I think.

>79 mdoris: Thanks Mary. I am glad to be able to help Dad but finding it a lot of weight.

>80 vancouverdeb: Thanks Deborah. Hope the grandchildren are well!

>81 MissBrangwen: I do love the moments when I see kids in the library. The staff are very good - sometimes I see the kids using the library stamp to stamp their own books, which makes me smile. Thanks for the hug, Mirjam.

>82 Helenliz: Yes, that's exactly what was pointed out to me. It's not sustainable, either: I need more time to myself, including to read and regroup after work, to stay sane.

>83 Tess_W: Thanks Tess. I do appreciate having such a supportive space here.

>84 Jackie_K: No, and I think in some ways it's worse now. I'm not so busy with paperwork, and work is back to full tilt, and I really miss her support.

>85 Caroline_McElwee: Thanks Caroline. I think it's tricky when you're the local one not to take it on. They're going to visit more often, which is much appreciated given that they both have busy lives hours away.

I've mostly been reading "relaxing" books lately for obvious reasons, plus work is also fun just now (!) I'm in my annual "what other job could I do?" spin.

Alte Zachen: old things
I loved this short graphic novel. A mix of black and white/ full colour pages. A jewish grandmother goes errand shopping with her grandson and over the course of the day we learn that she's a Holocaust survivor and her memory of present day New York is not quite what it was: nor is her sense of what should and shouldn't be said in an "outside voice" on public transport. The love between the grandmother and the boy is so clear and touching, and the art is striking. When the grandmother remembers, the images are in colour, vivid memories.



The grandmother reminds me of my gran, who was also a direct talker.

>77 charl08: Worrying is usually not helpful, Carlotte, but hard to let go.

>87 charl08: Glad your siblings offer their help, I hope this will ease the situation for you.

Chick Magnet (fiction)
Forever Your Rogue (fiction)

These two romances were recommended by the NYT romance column. The first one a contemporary with a strong post-pandemic theme, the second an OK regency romance.
Here's the column, unlocked.

>89 FAMeulstee: Thanks Anita. I spent the afternoon in the garden - that helps turn off a bit.

I'm currently enjoying V for Victory by Lissa Evans. I enjoyed the previous books in the series, so perhaps you might enjoy them too? Fairly relaxing reading so far. I received Black Butterflies in the mail on Friday, - a book on the Women's Prize Short List, so that maybe my next read. Happy Week ahead, and I'll wish to you enjoyable relaxing reads and time in the garden.

>92 vancouverdeb: I love Lissa Evans. Hope you are enjoying V for Victory. I had a busy day, so glad to be home!

The Ruin of All Witches
(history, early US - my own book!)

Body and spirit were understood to be a unified conception that linked sickness to sin and found cures in abstinence and repentance. John Winthrop speculated that the wife of the governor of Connecticut had lost her 'understanding and reason...by occasion of her giving herself wholly to reading and writing.'

This took me ages to read, but is a fascinating history of a court case, in a small New England community, Springfield. Gaskill uses the case to explore ideas about religion as well as the migration history of these new communities in the New World. I'm not a big fan of some of the psychological insight he offers: it just seems unknowable to me.
The court records he found are fascinating in themselves, I think. The witchcraft accusations and the methods the community used to try and "prove" their beliefs made for surprising reading. One accusation involved the strange behaviour of a pudding! Some of the detail of religious debate was turgid, but fortunately brief: the extreme reactions to disagreement was pretty eye opening.

...he was tasked with sweeping away Pynchon's dead, tangled arguments, much as the Indians opened forest trails with brush fires, leaving only the healthy trees. This analogy was to be taken literally. The court ordered that a copy of The Meritorious Price be handed to the city hangman. Four days later, on the Sabbath after the lecture, a crowd assembled in the market place to watch the hangman put Pynchon's words on a bonfire.

Insomniacs After School (manga)
Sweet manga centred around two kids with insomnia, trying to find somewhere to nap during the day.

Relaxing is important, hope you find some head space in a busy work life.

>88 charl08: This graphic novel looks really good, Charlotte.

>96 Helenliz: Have a few days off, enjoying a break in the Scottish Borders.

>97 BLBera: I really loved it, told the librarians how good it was too.

So peaceful and lovely, Charlotte. Enjoy your time off. You've earned it!

>98 charl08: That is lovely. Enjoy your time off.

Enjoy your time off Charlotte, a break will boost your batteries. Lovely photo.

>98 charl08: I was on a cruise last week and we were in Scotland; flowers in bloom and so green.

>99 jessibud2: Thanks Shelley. It is very peaceful.

>100 BLBera: Thanks Beth. It's been nice to forget about work for a bit.

>101 Caroline_McElwee: I hope so Caroline. It's been nice to come somewhere new.

>102 mnleona: That sums it up perfectly Leona. Sounds like a lovely visit.

52 Factory Lane (in translation / Book club)

Second book in a trilogy centred around a Turkish family that migrates to Germany as guestworkers. Gül moves to Germany to join her husband, and together they gradually get used to living abroad: whilst dealing with the many differences between their lives in Anatolia and Germany.

"Tuvalet?' Gül asked.
The German word was so similar that Gül just couldn't remember it. She regretted saying it as soon as the word left her mouth. She'd have to find her way back as well. Komm,' Sonja said.
Standing outside the toilet stalls, Sonja made two sounds at once: a low Aaah from her mouth and a loud Pfff from her guts.
Gül stared at her in shock. She'd never heard an adult fart with such lack of inhibition. It was one of those things that simply weren't done. You weren't supposed to cross your legs in the presence of elders, smoke in front of them, or return borrowed plates and bowls empty to friends and neighbours. Women weren't to curse, at least in mixed company, or go out in the street half-naked, and you weren't supposed to break wind in public.
Sonja laughed when she saw the face Gül was pulling. 'Luft,' she said, slapping her abdomen, 'It's just air, you have to let it out.'

Letter Late than Never
Very average romance, part of a wider, multi-author setting. Not an author I'd look to read again: needed more story/plot I think.

The Lives and Deaths of K. Penza(Women in translation/ Malta)
First book by a micropress looking to get more Maltese fiction published. Azzopardi has a story within a story here. The external one, an abandoned daughter is looking for the mother who left home after her twin sister died. Within that is extracts from the crime fiction the sister wrote, about a policeman jailed for corruption. One of those novels, I think, where an introduction would be useful. There's an explanatory note about Maltese history, but it could do with a bit more.

I got to my feet and walked into the kitchen. I sat on a chair, the only one there was. The table was set like a still life. Such detail, macabre yet brilliant. There was a plate with a knife lying across it. Imagine the plate as a clock, and the knife with the handle at six o'clock, the tip pointing upwards... six. Was that the time she'd left home? There were some crumbs on the plate. Something left over, I don't know what. ....I really had no idea what my sister liked to have for breakfast, can you believe it? I mean, I'd never asked, you know? A crumpled napkin next to the glass, a red napkin, and an ashtray. There was an open book, facing downwards. I can still remember the page number, 30-31. The sink was a mess. Two plates were stacked in it, a glass ashtray, a fork, a teaspoon, a mug with a black skin at the bottom, another mug standing upside down, rinsed.

There wasn't a single kitchen cupboard with a door you could close properly. Every shelf was piled high with books. No pots or pans, no plates, no glasses. Just books.

>98 charl08: Very beautiful, Charlotte. I'm really glad you are having an enjoyable break, well earned.

>106 vancouverdeb: Thank you Deborah.

Continent
A book I picked up in a small secondhand bookshop having never come across it before. Jim Crace's first, prize-winning "novel". Seven linked stories, supposedly about a mythical seventh continent, but bear a strong resemblance to a westerner's reflections on "the South".

Here a calligrapher's work is suddenly appreciated in a version of the West. The state wants a cut of the profits.

Word has spread that Americans are buying up shop fronts. Enterprising businessmen have purchased them and are storing them for museums and universities abroad. Old ladies have been digging in their treasure trunks for old marriage certificates marked in gold by my brush. Embassies have placed guards on their gate-plates. The cinema manager is cursing his lack of foresight.

Back-street charlatans have turned their energies from pimping and fortune-telling to forgery. The market is full of false shop fronts: fake greengrocers, tinkered tailors.... The only care the forgers take is with my signature and, because their hands are young, these signatures are now better than my own.

Great photos!

>105 charl08: This sounds interesting. I love the excerpt.

>105 charl08:. That is a great excerpt! So visual.

Love the photos.

I love the photos too, especially the wonderful animals.

>110 BLBera: >111 banjo123: It was an interesting read. I did wonder if it was a way to write about a place he had been without the usual issues. (His bio says he worked in Sudan.)

>112 mdoris: We visited a heavy horse preservation centre. Museum was a bit limited, but the animals were just beautiful.

Murder Under a Red Moon
After spending most of yesterday negotiating the UK rail system (cancellations!) with my dad, it was nice to come back to a rather 'cosy' crime view of 1920s India. I can't say I'll be rushing to pick up another one in this series, but the food descriptions (including recipes) were a winner.

I signed up for the new membership scheme for the Gladstone Library last week, and came home to the promised membership benefits - a tote bag and bookmark, plus a voucher for the cafe/ bookshop. Nice to support this institution which hopefully I hope to visit soon. I was last there over ten years ago trying to finish something or other (!), can't quite believe it.

https://www.gladstoneslibrary.org/contact/support-gladstones-library

>113 charl08: They are so much bigger than expected when you see them in person. Majestic beasts.

>115 charl08: It's a while since I stayed there Charlotte. I think I did 4 visits across 2 years. Time for a return at some point.

>115 charl08: I have looked at that more than once. Tempted...

>116 RidgewayGirl: They were lovely, and the setting is so nice for them too.

>117 Caroline_McElwee: >118 Helenliz: I've been looking at a couple of different reading festivals, including "Gladfest". But I might just dip my toe in with Afternoon Tea with the Warden.
https://www.gladstoneslibrary.org/events/events-courses-list/talk-and-afternoon-...

>119 charl08: That talk and tea looks so much fun! And free tea refills -- excellent :)

>109 charl08: Lovely pictures, Charlotte. It the last picture a Shire horse?

>120 rabbitprincess: Refills should be compulsory, imho. My mum always asked for an extra pot of hot water. :-)

>121 FAMeulstee: I should have paid more attention, Anita. I'm not really sure of the differences, and the centre has different heavy horses. I think they might be Clydesdale?
https://hayfarmheavies.co.uk/animals/#TheHorses

>122 charl08: Probably, Charlotte, the Clydesdale is an other heavy horse breed. The Shire is a bit larger, in fact it is the largest horse breed.

Looking at the page they both have Shire and Clydesdale horses, links are at bottom of the page, and they even have Percherons! (a French heavy horse breed). I have never seen a Percheron in real life, only on pictures.

>123 FAMeulstee: It was a lovely place to visit, the horses seemed very content.

It Isn't Over / The Takeaway
I went through what I thought was Jamie Bennett's entire back catalogue of romance fiction a couple of years ago. Not sure if more of it has been added to kindle or if I just missed some then, but was pleased to find them. "Easy" reading after a stressed out day.

I'm sorry you've been stressed lately, Charlotte. I hope you relax a bit this weekend.

Quiet: poetry
Hard hitting poetry. I dipped in and out.

Dreaming Is a Form of Knowledge Production

Nobody's immune to their ego taking the wheel.
Dreaming is a form of knowledge production
& they don't want it to be that easy for us. As in: lay your head on a pillow
wake up holding
something new. I said what I said, not what you say
I said. Pigs are outside the house, but next door
this time. It's not something our relationship
will be able to survive. He doesn't show it, the cat,
but he loves me so. He has the gene but it hasn't kicked in yet.
Another thousand years. All thinking
& no feeling. Shut up about Freud.

Angel of Rome

Thought this collection of short stories was just brilliant. In places it made me laugh out loud. The story about the guy looking for a care home for his dad that can cope with his smoking and drinking summed up this collection for me. Simultaneously funny and touching.

From the title story, about an American student in Rome who runs into a film crew.

That's when it dawned on me that when I'd said I was in Rome studying Latin, Ronnie had heard Italian. Or worse, that he somehow believed the language spoken in Italy was Latin.
"Wait." I looked into the window at the Angel of Rome. "You want me to talk to her? To say what?"
"Clear up a misunderstanding we had yesterday."
"What kind of misunderstanding?"
He rubbed his head. "Oh man, where to start. Well, see, there's a tradition on TV and film sets. At least in America. A sort of romantic amnesty." He looked for another way to explain himself. "You ever go to summer camp, Nebraska?"
I nodded. The worst week of my life.
"So, you know how, at summer camp, you can just ball who- ever you want, no strings, and it's forgiven? Just a summer camp thing? Girlfriends, boyfriends back home-none of it matters. It's an all-you-can-eat buffet."

Suffice to say, this had not been my experience at seventh grade Catechism Camp.

Great pics!

Stopping by to say hi, and at last I am about 1/2 through Black Butterflies. I'm really enjoying it so far.

>128 charl08: I got to see Jess Walter at a book festival talking about this book and he read part of the short story about the unusual care home. I have this collection and am looking forward to diving into it.

>128 charl08: This sounds brilliant, Charlotte. I love the excerpt. I will add it to my list.

>127 charl08: I will look for the poetry collection as well.

>128 charl08: - That sounds good enough for a BB for me.

>129 Tess_W: Thanks Tess.

>130 vancouverdeb: Hi Deborah. Less than a week to go until the announcement of the winner: any guesses?

>131 RidgewayGirl: I suspect it was your comments that made me look for this from the library, as I wasn't blown away by The Cold Millions. Will now look for his other short story collection.

>132 BLBera: It was a wonderful read, Beth. Perfect lunchtime-at-work reading, too. I was totally involved in each story.
I was very glad the library was able to get hold of Bulley's book for me.

>133 dudes22: I hope you enjoy it as much as I did!

ETA: goldfish memory strikes again. I gave The Cold Millions 4½ stars.

>134 charl08: You posted in April 2021 that you really enjoyed The Cold Millions as well. I'd just heard a discussion/interview with the author on BBC Radio 4's Open Book at the time and thought I had to read this. Elizabeth Gurley Flynn is one of my heroines, and although she's not the main character, she's significant and it does include an interesting portrait of the prejudice she faced as a young woman travelling and active in very male dominated places.

It took me until June 2022 to get to reading it but I did have a period earlier of struggling to read paper books, and before that I think I was reading books that I couldn't renew first.

I had read a much earlier crime novel by him and have Beautiful Dreamers TBR. Must look for his other work some time.

>135 elkiedee: Yup, goldfish memory!

>134 charl08: Any guesses on the winner of the Women's Literature Prize? Well, not really. I did google predictions for the Women's Literature prize and I ran across a UK betting site ," DLBG. There, apparently Demon Copperhead has a 33 % chance of winning, Black Butterflies a 25 % chance of winning, Marriage Portrait and Trespasses both a 12.5 % chance, while Fire Rushes and Pod have a 9.1 % chance.

Personally I think it will go to Demon Copperhead, Trespasses, or Marriage Portrait. How about you ? Any guesses ?

>134 charl08: Popping in to say Hi!! I have only read DC (liked) and Trespasses (didn't like partly because I couldn't understand the accents on audio). I want to read Marriage Portrait and maybe Pod. No clue which one will win!

>137 vancouverdeb: Interesting...stay tuned!

>135 elkiedee: To add (unlocked article)

New Hampshire Honored a ‘Rebel Girl.’ Then It Found Out She Was a Communist. https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/17/us/elizabeth-gurley-flynn-marker-communist.ht...

>137 vancouverdeb: I've not seen the rankings online like that Deborah, fun stuff. Thank you for posting. I don't think I would have a flutter given my past record predicting prizewinners!

>138 Berly: Kim I'm sorry you couldn't understand the accents. Hope that you can get access to a paper copy, as I really loved Trespasses.

Memory issues are on my mind (ha) just now (as mentioned above). I picked up 1000 Coils of Fear from my library pile having no clear memory of reading it before. Then spent the next half hour reading pages and thinking I've read this, it's familiar, skipping forward a few pages to try and work out how far I've got to.

Went for my first acupuncture session this evening. I'd brought a book and I think this may be my favourite kind of treatment now, as I got to read my book for 20 minutes whilst the needles (is that the right term?) were in. I wish I could do this at the hairdresser!

In less exciting news, more sadmin has been uncovered. It just seems to rumble on (although that may be the way I've done it).

I love acupuncture!! I have even used it to get rid of /ameliorate allergies. It is very relaxing, although I usually just listen to music with my eyes closed. What are you using it for (if you don't mind sharing)?

>142 Berly: I injured the tissue in my foot, and it doesn't seem to be recovering so I thought I'd give this a whirl.

Tokyo Express
For me, a rather convoluted mystery set in 50s Japan amidst a corruption scandal. All explained in the last ten pages, there were some nice details about Japanese life 60 years ago, but mostly lots of detail about train timetables. But very readable given that it comes in at less than 170 pages.

>144 charl08: I've read a different book by Seichō, Inspector Imanishi Investigates and it kind of set off my love for Japanese crime novels, which tend to be about procedure as much as they are about the crime.

>145 RidgewayGirl: I'll look for that one, thank you.

I've enjoyed other "classic" Japanese crime but this reminded me of my least favourite Dorothy Sayers Wimsy novel in its level of geeky detail The Nine Tailors.

>143 charl08: Hope the acupuncture helps!

>147 Berly: What Kim said. It does sound relaxing.

Hi Charlotte, thinking of you!

>147 Berly: It was a lovely relaxing time, but I can't see much difference in my foot!

>148 BLBera: Thanks Beth. Not sure if you've travelled on your holiday yet?

>149 mdoris: Thanks Mary. Phew, it's Friday!

Looking forward to hearing about the Women's Literature Prize winner, Charlotte. I finished Black Butterflies a couple of days ago and really enjoyed it. I hope the acupuncture helps your foot, Charlotte. I was chatting with my sister in law today and she has also hurt her foot. She was gardening a few days ago and thinks she may have fractured a bone in her foot. If it is still painful tomorrow, she is going to head into Emergency and get an x- ray to see if she does have a fracture.

That sounds like extreme gardening, Deborah. Hope she feels better soon.

I am also looking forward to the announcement. I was tempted by the link events but they are again in London, and pricey for me. Not many things I miss about lockdown but digital access to usually Londoncentric organisations' events is one.

Ladies' Lunch and other stories
I bought this on a recent trip to an indy bookstore, shopping with a friend. It's her local and it is beautiful, if tiny.

This is a slim volume of linked stories by a New Yorker writer, many of them were published in the magazine before. She writes about ageing and women's friendship. What made me buy the book was her own story, a child refugee from Hitler who went on to live in New York. Some of that migrant background is touched upon in the stories. They're bittersweet and I suspect would reward a rereading.
From a story about the friends meeting during lockdown:

Bessie had an agenda: "Are we, all of us, wanting clean up-to simplify what we leave our children to deal with? I have files of papers that I will never read again but can't throw out because I would have to read them to know that what I'm throwing out is what I would never read again."

Bridget said, "After Lotte died, I was going to erase her entry from my address book, and then I didn't. Could not."

All the little moving pictures on the computer screen nodded their heads up and down....

Ed to fix touchstone.

>153 charl08: I'm not sure your touchstone goes to the book you intend it to! Who is the author? This sounds interesting and I'm always up for another book of short stories.

>153 charl08: and >154 RidgewayGirl: I think it's this book with 9 people including Charlotte having entered it as in their library (or wishlist!): Ladies' Lunch and other stories by Lore Segal - the record didn't have the author's name attached but did show a cover for the book, so I've edited accordingly.

>144 charl08: I'll have to look for this one. Like >145 RidgewayGirl:, I also like Japanese crime novels but have read only a small number as they are somewhat difficult to find in my library.

By the way, I was looking again at your lovely lighthouse pictures and I thought I'd mention that I just finished a ghost story set in a lighthouse: Ghostlight by Kenneth Oppel. This is based on the Gibralter Point Lighthouse in Toronto, reputed to be haunted because its first lightkeeper had been murdered.

>154 RidgewayGirl: >155 elkiedee: Oops. Have fixed this one.

>156 mathgirl40: I like the historian's quote re the murder on Wikipedia. "Your guess is as good as mine."

I seem to be in the middle of a lot of books right now, but just finished this one, Sisters of the Lost Nation. Billed on kindle as horror, although I'm not sure it really qualifies (at least in my mind) - more crime with a bit of the mystical thrown in. It's set on a reservation and I was a bit thrown by the author's note at the end that they had made up the whole community. Not sure if this is more respectful than "taking" a community to be the backdrop to a murder plot, or not. The author says he wrote the book after being struck by news reports re campaigners highlighting the large numbers of missing indigenous women. Idk. Not one I'd rush to recommend.

Well , not to long until the Women’s Fiction Prize is announced! I guess I’ll be asleep when that happens. Looking forward to what book is the winner!

>159 vancouverdeb: I'm tuning in now Deborah!


Demon Copperhead

Where did you tune in to?

They have just announced her win on Radio 4 but I found out from a Women's Prize email in my inbox.

Duh! I guess I don't know the time difference between Pacific Daylight Time ( where I live ) and UK time. Of course I was awake when they announced the winner. I"m pleased with the winner, though I was kind of rooting for Trespasses.

>161 elkiedee: It was broadcast live on YouTube. It was a pretty quick show, nothing like the Booker last time!

>162 vancouverdeb: I was hoping for Trespasses too!

Urgh, heading into my busiest time at work when there is generally little time for reading.
But on the plus side, I've booked some time off to go catch up with my San Diego based friend. But she's got work, so I am thinking of tacking on another trip with (internal) flights, but right now just can't narrow it down.

I see plenty of US guidebooks in my future.

Come to New York!

>165 katiekrug: Tempting. The problem is it's almost all new to me, so it's *all* pretty tempting!

I read some books. Love Theoretically had some great lines about the bonkers bits of academia. Practice makes Perfect made me think that sometimes people are right about not reading books out of order. Armed with Madness is a GN by Mary and Bryan Talbot, looking at the (mostly) early life of the artist Leonora Carrington. It's a fascinating, complex life, so it makes for a great narrative. I loved how they used/ echoed Leonora's use of hyenas and horses in her art in the book to show some of her experiences.

I booked my tickets! Flying into Portland, flying out of San Diego. Can't wait.
Not the only reason I booked the trip, honest.
https://www.undergrounddonuttour.com/portland-downtown-donut-tour

Time Shelter
I don't think I liked this one (international Booker winner) as much as some, but glad I read it. The idea of the recreation of the past for people with dementia is not a new one, of course, but here it is ramped up to 11. The fantastic extrapolation of this: whole states choosing past times to recreate, goes from comic idea to pointed reflection on the return of fascist and totalitarian states.
There's lots here to enjoy, from reflections on nostalgia to literary jokes, but for me the weight of all the ideas overwhelmed the story.

Discontents began breaking off into their own communities and enclaves, marking off small territories and populating them with different times. The local once again became important.

If an uninitiated person were to set out on a trip, they could unexpectedly find themselves in a different time, one not marked in any guidebook: an Eastern European village that had broken away into early socialism, with collective farms and old tractors, a town with late nineteenth century Bulgarian Revival-era houses where preparations for rebellion were in full swing, or a forest with wigwams, Trabants, and East German Indians straight out of 1960s Red Westerns. All sorts of past eras were rolling around the streets of the Continent, fusing together and taking place simultaneously. The old road maps became time maps.

>167 charl08: When are you going to Portland, Charlotte?

Yes, I liked Time Shelter better, probably less overwhelmed. I mostly noticed the (black) humor. Like in the history of Bulgaria, where Constantinopel is called Tsarigrad. Not that the Bulgarian Tsar ever conquered Constantinopel, he only tried... :-)

>167 charl08: Have a fab time!

Portland, Oregon?

Are you going to the famous Powells bookstore?

>168 FAMeulstee: Not until September. I am tempted to get one of those calendars where you cross off the days. This will be my first trip beyond Europe for 3 years.

>169 Helenliz: I am having fun reading the guidebook already. Planning (or rather, reading and then thinking about maybe planning) is at least half the enjoyment for me.

>170 elkiedee: It's on my list! I get two bags for the internal flight, hopefully I don’t have to stuff all my coat pockets with paperbacks this time...

Just been checking out Powell's upcoming events, hoping to get to one or two!
https://www.powells.com/events-update

Ducklings!

>173 charl08: Lovely photo Charlotte.

Happy travels in September too.

>173 charl08: Baby ducklings, so adorable.

Darling ducklings and their parent, Charlotte. I was out walking the other day and ran across a Canadian Goose with is ducklings. The parent sure was protective of it's young. It stood tall and hissed menacingly at me and Poppy, sticking out it's tongue. I'm not afraid of Canadian geese, but in this case, I decided to give the family a reasonably wide berth. Enjoy your trip to Portland! Sounds wonderfu1

>174 Caroline_McElwee: >175 lowelibrary: >176 vancouverdeb: The ducklings are very cute. And much less aggressive than the geese who are also on campus. My favourites are the moorhen chicks though: they look like a ball of black fluff with a red beak. They are too good at hiding for me to get a good picture usually though.

The House of Doors
I loved both of Eng's previous books and have them on the shelf in paperback. Here he explores Somerset Maughan's travel-inspired story telling, an account of a troubled marriage in Singapore. 1910s and 20s Singapore is beautifully evoked, a complex mix of nationalities, religions, cuisines and politics. There's lots here about all that was kept hidden in (only British?) colonial societies, much of it related to relationships between those who weren't "supposed" to love or care for one another.

The rickshaw dropped them outside the squat, grey-stone building of the Chartered Bank and they strolled down Beach Street with its European shops: watchmakers and wine merchants, cafés and tearooms, gentlemen's outfitters and shoemakers. Willie was starting to feel as if he was in Cheltenham on the equator when Lesley led them into the Asiatic quarter. The labyrinthine streets held a trove of Chinese and Hindu temples and mosques; he even saw a forlorn- looking synagogue. The shops sold a bewildering variety of goods - brassware and cloth and biscuits and sesame seed oil and nutmeg and silks and sacks of spices and dried fish hanging on hooks - but there were also mysterious stores where he saw nothing being sold, just one or two old people sitting in the dim and empty interior, gazing out into the street.

..... Itinerant vendors shouted out their wares, piling onto the din of motors and buses and rickshaws.

I will get this one when it comes out in paperback too.

>178 charl08: I have his first two novels on my Kindle. I just picked this up from the library today, but I suspect I'll have to return and borrow it again. If you have listening time I think it's just been on Book at Bedtime. He also did an event at my former local indie bookshop. The Big Green Bookshop has been replaced by The All Good Bookshop, but as one of the partners has moved to Hastings where he runs a mail order business, and the other, Tim, is retiring, I'm not sure what will happen now. It's open for the moment but I'm not sure it will survive without a level of commitment and resourcing....

>179 elkiedee: I'm gutted I missed his book tour: although I've not seen one so far that was anywhere near me, so a bit easier to bear!

Is your bookshop this one? It looks great. I love the idea of being able to buy shares.
https://allgoodbookshop.co.uk/

>180 charl08: That's the one. I'm embarrassed to admit I still haven't been there - I used to buy picture books for my kids from the Big Green Bookshop - obviously they were younger at the time. I also bought some other present books there when I knew that I would see people. I'm really sad that some are now out of print - Conor really treasured a story called Monsters are Afraid of the Moon, that some time later, I realised was by the same author of the rather better known graphic novel Persepolis and used to take it to the childminders and get them to read it to him too.

Simon is still doing mail order under the BGB name from Hastings and I expect the AGB does it too. For you (or anyone else) who might pay a visit to London the All-Good Bookshop is about 5 minutes walk from Turnpike Lane tube on the road the station is presumably named after.

>181 elkiedee: Aw, those sound like some well-loved books. Glad the original booksellers are still selling books, even in a different format.

Some books arrived for me in the post.
The Censor's Notebook: A Novel by Liliana Corobca (a brick of a book, but intrigued by the plot summary, a conversation between a writer and their censor)
Russian Gothic by Aleksandr Skorobogatov(this one by contrast should fit into a pocket of a coat - on a plane, for example)
Em by Kim Thúy
(I loved Rù)
I never promised you a rose garden by Joanne Greenberg
(I read about this somewhere, can't think where now. Also it has the proper penguin classics cover, which I think they are phasing out.)

It's Lonely at the Centre of the Earth by Zoe Thorogood

Young cartoonist records her life post lockdown, with references to depression, suicidal thoughts and social anxiety. It's all very "meta" as she wonders if so much navel gazing will turn off her audience. I liked the multiple versions of herself (as in the image above) used to characteristise aspects of her personality, from depression to childish romantic.

So exciting that you will be in Portland! We have to plan a meet-up.

>185 banjo123: Sounds lovely. I'm hoping the timing works...

Friends Without Benefits
I think the most notable thing about this contemporary romance (trope: second chance) was it gave you a "choose your own adventure" style option re the open/closed door.

Lost & Found
I started reading this after it was mentioned in another book about grief, shortly after my mum died. I had to put it down, despite the beautiful writing, as after the first half it focuses on the story of her meeting her partner (hence "found "). I was feeling pretty crap, and I didn't want to read about someone's delight and lovely life with their new perfect partner. I picked it up again more recently and have finished it. She circles back round to the grief, of course: the relationship, however wonderful, can't replace her father. Some of the most moving parts of the book for me were the discussion of dealing with that absence as the years since the loss pile on.

She and her partner are looking at wedding pictures:

...when we came upon one of my mother and me, standing side by side on the waterfront, beaming. It is a beautiful picture, and the elation in both of us is evident. But looking at it after the fact, all I could see was the vast expanse of the Chesapeake Bay on my other side, a wide blue emptiness where my father should have been. It was the starkest possible representation of the way that grief had reorganized my family; his absence was so obvious that he almost seemed to have been edited out of the picture. I felt a sudden and excruciating double anguish for how much I missed my father, and for how much my father, gone at that point for under two years, had already missed.

That picture has been on the wall beside me the whole time I have been writing this book. After the shock of first seeing it wore off, I came to love it very much, partly for the way it makes my loss visible and beautiful-it feels like the closest thing I have to a picture of my father at my wedding- but chiefly because, in a single image, it honors my joy together with my grief. That seems right to me. Life, too, goes by contraries: it is by turns crushing and restorative, busy and boring, awful and absurd and comic and uplifting. We can't get away from this constant amalgamation of feeling, can't strain out the ostensible impurities in pursuit of some imaginary essence, and we shouldn't want to if we could. The world in all its complexity calls on us to respond in kind, so that to be conflicted is not to be adulterated; it is to be complete.

And another on accepting the limits of "this one precious life".

So many opportunities are out of reach from the moment we are born, ruled out by circumstance, and so many more are eliminated as we age. "It is impossible to have every experience," Virginia Woolf wrote, regretfully; at best we get a glimpse of a sliver of what we are missing- "like those glances I cast into basements when I walk in London streets." Decades later, the poet Louise Glück described this problem as "metaphysical claustrophobia: the bleak fate of being always one person." Every other possible existence, in Idaho or Honduras or Lahore, as a carpenter or baseball player or musical genius, as a sibling if we are an only child or an only child if we are the youngest of seven- all of these variations on the human experience are unavailable to us. We have, unavoidably, only our one lifetime, and no matter how energetic or interested or fortunate or long-lived we may be, we can only do so much with it. And so much, against the backdrop of the universe, can seem so very little.

Em
I loved this. A beautiful novel about Vietnam, the effect of the war and new lives elsewhere. The art is also lovely: tiny figures on the move dot the first few pages. As you would expect given the period and subject matter, the beautiful writing covers some pretty grim topics.

I tried to interweave the threads, but they escaped, and remain unanchored, impermanent and free. They rearranged themselves on their own, given the speed of the wind, the news streaming by, the worries and smiles of my sons. The pages that follow constitute an imperfect ending, with scraps and figures drawn from life.

>187 charl08: I've not read Em as yet, but I did enjoy Ru, so I'll have to see if my library has it. I hope your grief is gradually receding. It takes time. This one precious life , indeed. A totally different thing but Dave will retire next year, and I'm looking forward to it, but it does remind one that one is mortal.

Thanks Deborah. It's weird, I think I'm OK and then it hits me in a wave that she's not coming back. My sister has been visiting with her dog, do that has been a good distraction.

I read Em was on one of the Giller lists, so I thought you would be likely to have come across it.

Hello Charlotte Paul my brother died at the end of November. He lived far away but we were in regular close contact sharing lots about family and books and health concerns. He was 10 years older than me. I can completely understand how your are o.k. and then it hits you like a wave that you mom's not coming back. I can relate completely. I just want to pick up the computer and see him on the screen and have a good old visit!

>190 mdoris: Thanks Mary. Sorry for your loss, too. It is a weird time, for sure. Sending sympathy to anyone else reading this and going through the same.

Thanks Charlotte.

A short round up - I'm going to start a new thread.

19. The Many Deaths of Laila Starr (GN)
20. Ima Koi 3
21. A Light Still Burns

19 & 20 were graphic novels, Ima Koi carrying on a light manga series about a school romance, the other an unusual GN imagining Death is made redundant and (also) made human. But she's not terribly successful at being human, hence the title.

A Light Still Burns is the third in a series of novels by a German-Turkish writer, following the life of a Turkish woman who moves to Germany over three books. Gül in this final novel is looking back on many of her choices and observing those of her children - and then grandchildren. The series as a whole is just a fascinating thing. Gül is a lovely character, so real. She makes mistakes, she loves, she tries. Her experiences in Germany and Turkey, put the personal into Turkish finances crises, the tourist boom, and the rise of the far right in Germany.

We're messed up, those of us who've lived in Germany,' he says.
'We were there too long - we won't be able to integrate here now. Once you've seen more, you can't just close your eyes and forget everything. There are two big mistakes you can make in your life. The first one is leaving your country, and the second is going back.'

He laughs.

'Yearning,' says Gül. 'Our lives were made up of yearning. But the same goes for everyone. Look at all the things they've invented to soothe our yearning and lessen the distances between us, the post, telephones, cameras, aeroplanes.'
He laughs again.
'That's a lovely thought,' he says. 'But I'm going to have to disappoint you. Most of those things are military inventions....'

Now reading Portland Like a Local.