Charlotte's (charl08) reading light(houses) 4

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. My mum died in January so I'm finding this year pretty tough: less reading, more sadmin, looking after my dad, trying not to let everything slip at work. Looking forward to a holiday in Portland and SD in late August/September. I can't wait. There will be books and wine. Probably not in that order.

I'll keep the categories from last year, with an additional one for reading my own books. Because that one is so needed. Ed. But I've not managed much here.


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

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)

May
1.Strange Sally Diamond
2. Shutter of Snow (fiction, new to me)
3.This Wild Wild Country (crime, New to me)
4. The Pachinko Parlour (Novel, in translation)
5. The Ruin of All Witches (history, early US - my own book!)
6. The Lives and Deaths of K. Penza (Women in translation/ Malta)
7. Murder Under a Red Moon

June
1. Stolen (fiction in translation)
2. Tokyo Express (Reading my own books)
3. Ladies' Lunch and other stories (Reading my own books)
4. Sisters of the Lost Nation (fiction / new to me)
5 Time Shelter (in translation)
6. It's Lonely at the Centre of the Earth (GN)
7. Lost & Found (Reading my books / memoir)

July

1. Blood Sugar (fiction)
2. For thy great pain have mercy on my little pain (fiction)
3. Early Morning Riser (fiction)

August
1. A History of Burning (Historical fiction)
2. Knockout: the true story of Emile Griffith (GN/ history)
3. Tsubaki-chou Lonely Planet Vol. 1 2, 3 (manga)
4. A Treatise on Shelling Beans (in translation / reading my own books)
5. The Man in the McIntosh Suit (GN)
6. Did Ye Hear Mammy Died (memoir)
7. How to Build a Boat (fiction, booker longlist)
8. Western Lane (Booker longlist)
9. Geiger (fiction / crime / in translation)
10. This Other Eden (Booker)

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)
7. The Ruin of All Witches (history, early US - my own book!) (Wolfson History Prize)
8.Time Shelter (International Booker)
9. Em (Giller nominee)

Quarter 3

Paradise (Nobel winners)
A treatise on Shelling Beans (Polish Nike prize)
Old God's Time (fiction, Booker longlist)
How to Build a Boat (fiction, Booker longlist) Western Lane (Booker longlist)

African writers (loosely defined)


Harbour & lighthouse Kalk Bay, South Africa

Paradise (Tanzania)

Women in translation

Picture from visit to Lighthouse Books (Edinburgh)


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

March
1. Summer Fires Italy

April
See Manga list

May
1. A Side Character's Love Story 15 (manga)
2. The Pachinko Parlour
3. The True Deceiver (novel, Sweden)
4. The Lives and Deaths of K. Penza (Women in translation/ Malta)

June
1. Je Ne Sais Quoi: adventures of a French woman in London (GN)
2. Stolen (fiction in translation) Swedish
3. Flying Witch Vol 1 & 2 / Ima Koi Vol 1/ Wolf Girl and Black Prince Vol 1 (Japanese)
4. Em (Canada / French)
5. Ima Koi 3 (Japanese)

July
1. Things Remembered and Things Forgotten (short stories, Japanese)

August

1. Miss Kim Knows (Korea)

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)

May
1. Strange Sally Diamond (Reading my own books)
2. A Side Character's Love Story 15 (manga)
3. The True Deceiver (novel, in translation/ book club)
4. The Ruin of All Witches (history, early US - my own book!)
5. Insomniacs After School (manga)
6. 52 Factory Lane (in translation / Book club)
7. The Lives and Deaths of K. Penza (Women in translation/ Malta)
8. Continent (my books/ fiction)

June
1. Tokyo Express (Reading my own books)
2. Ladies' Lunch and other stories (Reading my own books)
3. Lost & Found (Reading my books / memoir)
4. Em (in translation)

July
1. The Talk (GN)
2. Foster (fiction)
3. Things Remembered and Things Forgotten (short stories, in translation)

August

1. Paradise (African writers)
2. A Treatise on Shelling Beans (in translation)
3. Geiger (fiction / crime / in translation)

Graphic Novels & Memoirs



Hello Lighthouse

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)
2. The Joy of Quitting
May
1. Kiss Him Not Me 9-10 (Manga)
2. Crumbs (GN)
3. A Side Character's Love Story 15 (manga)
4. Doughnuts and Doom (GN)
5. Alte Zachen: old things (GN/ fiction)
6. Insomniacs After School (manga)

June
1. Je Ne Sais Quoi: adventures of a French woman in London (GN)
2. Flying Witch Vol 1 & 2 /
3. Ima Koi Vol 1/ 2/3
4. Wolf Girl and Black Prince Vol 1
5. Armed with Madness: the surreal Leonora Carrington (GN)
6. It's Lonely at the Centre of the Earth (GN)
7. The Many Deaths of Laila Starr (GN)

July

1. The Talk (GN/ memoir)
2. Wolf Girl and Black Prince vol 2 (manga)
3. Bauhaus: a graphic novel NF

August

1. Knockout: the true story of Emile Griffith (GN/ history)
2. Tsubaki-chou Lonely Planet Vol. 1 2, 3 (manga)
3. The Man in the McIntosh Suit (GN)
4. The Boxer (GN)

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)

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

Previous Quarter
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 (fiction)
24. It Isn't Over
25. Quiet (poetry)
26. The Takeaway (fiction)

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

This Quarter

July 20 (149)

All this could be yours fiction
Anger Bang romance
Newcomer crime fiction / translated fiction
The Talk (GN/ memoir/ my own books)
Wolf Girl and Black Prince vol 2 (manga)
Marple (short stories)
Exhalation (short stories)
Behind the Net (fiction)
Blood Sugar (fiction / new to me)
For thy great pain have mercy on my little pain (fiction/ new to me)

Her Big City Neighbor (Romance/ fiction)
Early Morning Riser (fiction, new to me)
Bauhaus: a graphic novel
Foster (fiction / my own books)
Malice (crime/ in translation)
The Girl By the Bridge (crime/ in translation)
Stuck with you (romance)
Not the girl you marry (romance)
The Heart Principle (romance)
Things Remembered and Things Forgotten (short stories, in translation)

Library books read in July 10

August 20 (169)

1. A History of Burning (Historical fiction)
2. Knockout: the true story of Emile Griffith (GN/ history)
3. Paradise (African writers/ my own books)
4. A Death in Tokyo (crime / in translation)
5. Tsubaki-chou Lonely Planet Vol. 1 2, 3, 4 (manga)
6. A Treatise on Shelling Beans (in translation / reading my own books)
7. The Man in the McIntosh Suit (GN)
8. Kairos (fiction, in translation)
9. This is Happiness (fiction)
10. Did Ye Hear Mammy Died (memoir)

11. The Boxer (GN)
12. Old God's Time (fiction, booker longlist)
13. How to Build a Boat (fiction, booker longlist)
14. In Your Dreams (fiction, familiar faces)
15. I am Homeless if this is not my Home (fiction)
16. Western Lane (Booker longlist)
17. August Blue (familiar faces)
18. Miss Kim Knows (in translation)
19. Geiger (fiction / crime / in translation)
20. This Other Eden (Booker)

Library books read in August 15

September 16 (184)

1. Everyone in this room will someday be dead (fiction/ my own books)
2. Inspector Imanishi Investigates (fiction)
3. The Cake Tree in the Ruins (short stories)
4. Red Paint: (Memoir)
5. Indelicacy (fiction / reading my own books)
6. Ghosts of Spain (history)
7. A Feather on the Breath of God (autofiction)
8. The Naked Tree (GN)
9. Your Monticello (short stories)
10. The Gangster we are all Looking for (fiction)

11. Codename Charming (romance/ familiar faces)
12. Between the World and Me Memoir
13. Echo on the Bay
14. Metamorphosis BL Vol 1
15. The Boyfriend Candidate (romance fiction)
16. Day's End (crime fiction, familiar faces)

Library books read in September: 1

What a wonderful new thread Charlotte. Love all the photos and the books listed. Great reading!

Happy new thread.

Happy new one, Charlotte. Lovely to revisit your lighthouses...

Happy New thread, Charlotte. Wishing you many good reads ahead. I hope you have a wonderful and relaxing trip to Portland in August / September. I've never been to Portland, but I have been to Eugene, Seaside and other places in Oregon. It's a beautiful place, and we saw a lot of Lighthouses on the shore line.

Happy new thread, Charlotte. The graphic in >7 charl08: isn't showing. Nice that you have your ticket booked for a trip to Portland. Something to look forward to.

Happy new thread, Charlotte!

Happy new thread!

Happy new thread, Charlotte. I see you are going to Portland. I am going in November; I wish our visits coincided. :(

Happy new thread! Enjoy Portland, it is a lovely city. Will you go to Powell's? And South Dakota? How did you decide on there?

Happy new thread, Charlotte, and safe travels!

Happy new thread, Charlotte!

Happy new thread, Charlotte.

Happy new thread!

Thanks for the good wishes everyone. I'm organizing/ supporting an event at work and the books will have to wait until Saturday.

I did read All this could be yours though. Attenburg's take on a dysfunctional family. It made me laugh out loud several times.

It wouldn't have kept him coming back," said her mother, still technically married to her absent husband. Not bitter, just factual.

"Access to a vagina guarantees nothing," said Cora, three years away from moving to Hawaii, on a whim, and settling down with another mainlander, an older woman, a grower of things, near the base of a volcano. The woman had bookshelves for miles, it seemed, and they would read to each other at night before bed, and it was then that Cora understood romance, at last.

>24 charl08: - I love Attenberg. I'm reading that one later this month/early next for my RL book group.

>11 mdoris: Thanks Mary.

>12 lowelibrary: Thank you!

>13 katiekrug: Thanks Katie. I was hoping to add a new one, but I've not quite got there yet. Maybe next quarter...

>14 vancouverdeb: Thanks Deborah. I am looking forward to discovering new places.

>15 Familyhistorian: Fixed, Meg. Thank you.

>16 FAMeulstee: Thanks Anita.

>17 Jackie_K: Thanks Jackie.

>18 BLBera: I'm sorry too Beth.

>19 RidgewayGirl: Hi Kay, I looked at walkable cities, and places that were very different to San Diego (the other place I'm going). Portland looked fun.

>20 MissWatson: Thanks Birgit.

>21 bell7: Thanks Mary. How is your garden doing?

>22 Helenliz: Thanks Helen.

>23 Tess_W: Thanks Tess.

Edited to fix the references.

>25 katiekrug: I was pleased my library had this available, I really liked Saint Mazie. I think it would make for a good book group discussion BTW.

Eta to fix book group

>24 charl08: Great quotes!

>30 BLBera: Thanks Beth.

I'm free! For a whole week!
(Well, sort of. A vocational exam to study for.)

>28 charl08: Yes, San Diego makes more sense as a vacation destination!

>32 RidgewayGirl: Tbh, just going because my friend is living there. It looks like we might head over the border after I arrive.

Fun stats:

Enjoy your week off! I hope you get lots of good reading done and just relaz.

>34 vancouverdeb: Thanks Deborah. I finished two books (concentration still not what it was, hoping this improves. Obviously!)

Anger Bang
The book's as direct as the title. I picked it up having liked Avery Flynn's previous Harbour Lights series. This one was (kindly put) insta-love adjacent, but the reality tv wedding setting was believably intense to make that less of a bonkers notion than a more humdrum context. I quite often miss the first in a series like this as the author is setting up characters all over the place for the rest of the series, and it can feel a bit busy to me. I've ordered the next one in this case.

The Newcomer
Reckless reading out of series order here. Police procedural that sits in the "outsider policeman who everyone else thinks is weird, solves the case" trope.
"Weird" clothes? Check.
Strange priorities that make no sense to colleagues? Check.
Baffled witnesses asked about things that appear irrelevant? Check.
All neatly tied off in the end? Well that would be a spoiler, right?

What made it a bit different was that each chapter is from the perspective of a different person in the community, a historic shopping district of Tokyo. Detective Kaga is new to the precinct. The shopkeepers, family and friends of the murder victim think he's odd. He's sloppily dressed for a detective and buys large amounts of products during informal questioning of witnesses. For me, less about the solving of the murder than you might expect. To me it seemed to be as much about Kaga's intuition as his vaunted willingness to keep pursuing unexplained aspects of the victim's life and last days. But the detail around the little family shops was fascinating, from traditional toys to sweet pastries.

>31 charl08: hope the study week is productive.

>36 Helenliz: Thanks Helen. I can't say it's gripping stuff, but hoping it might be career useful, at least.

The Talk
Powerful graphic memoir that takes "the talk", the point at which a Black child is told by their parents about living with racism, as a central theme. I particularly admired the way Bell shows the different ways his family members approached explaining racism, reflecting their own experiences and choices.

Enjoy your week off Charlotte.

Thanks Caroline. It is, of course, whizzing by.

Marple
I listened to the audio book of this collection of short stories inspired by Christie's Marple, and got hold of the paperback to fill in the bits I slept through. Here she is reimagined, and yet much the same. She is very busy, staying with friends, visiting new places. Always there is murder around the corner. I think I best liked those stories that took a different approach. Elly Griffiths story imagining the killing off of a beloved detective, is brilliantly done. I also enjoyed how Kate Mosse's story centred on knowledge of gardening. Some of the stories do seem much better at capturing Christie's tone, but overall a fun, light read.

>39 charl08: I have this in hardback to get to.

>40 Helenliz: This was almost "comfort" reading for me, which seems an odd comment for a collection of murders.

I went for my third acupuncture appointment today, and had the weirdest sensation in my legs whilst sitting with the needles in. I do feel like the foot/ ankle is less swollen. I'm always a bit skeptical, but think I would go again.

The therapist asked me if I'd finished the book I brought last time. Two weeks ago.
I just nodded.

>41 charl08: :) I have gotten used to people in my book club whose only reading is our selection for the month...

>42 BLBera: I never know what to say in this situation!

Exhalation
I am now a Ted Chiang fan I think, this is the second collection of his stories I've read. They're brilliant, thoughtful and the kind of sci-fi that I could anticipate thinking about beyond the close of the book. It seems like they are also popular in my library system, as the hardback copy I've borrowed looks very well read. The cover is practically falling off.

Difficult to pick a favourite story, but I especially liked the one where he imagined a world where archeological evidence confirms the anti-evolution theory. Fascinating, from what fossilised tree rings might look like, to the discovery of ancient navel-less peoples. The range here is impressive though, and the book comes with notes by the author on inspirations and influences to each story. Two stories are almost novella length, one exploring ethical behaviour towards AI creatures. Another takes on time travel in an ancient North African world otherwise quite similar to our own. How much is fixed: what could we ever change?

From a story looking at a technology that would "remember" your past for you.

"Forgive and forget" goes the expression, and for our idealized magnanimous selves, that is all you needed. But for our actual selves the relationship between those two actions isn't so straightforward. In most cases we have to forget a little bit before we can forgive; when we no longer experience the pain as fresh, the insult is easier to forgive, which in turn makes it less memorable, and so on. It's this psychological feedback loop that makes initially infuriating offenses seem pardonable in the mirror of hindsight.

What I feared was that Remem would make it impossible for this feedback loop to get rolling. By fixing every detail of an insult in indelible video, it could prevent the softening that's needed for forgiveness to begin. I thought back to what Erica Meyers said about Remem's inability to hurt solid marriages. Implicit in that assertion was a claim about what qualified as a solid marriage. If someone's marriage was built on-as ironic as it might sound-a cornerstone of forgetfulness, what right did Whetstone have to shatter that?

I've considered Marple: Twelve New Stories but have not yet read it, Charlotte. Nice comments. I'll let you know what I think of Our Hideous Progeny when I finish, which should be tomorrow. When I purchased Her Lost Words, I had to decide between that and Love and Fury: A Novel of Mary Wollstonecraft . I imagine the latter is the one that you have on your shelves?

I'm glad the acupuncture is helping. Like you, I'm a bit skeptical, but also afraid of a bunch of needles being stuck in me. You are braver than me.

>44 vancouverdeb: Marple is yet another book that I can thank the library for, Deborah.

The needles were just like when you stick yourself when sewing: nothing like the hospital, if that helps? (I look away in both situations though!)

I read about a translation prize today (Premiere), for books being translated between German and French. I was thinking "none of these books make it into English!" and then realised that I recognised one I've read (in English translation) Straight from the horse's mouth.

I read the blurb about another one set in South Africa, about orphan children being adopted in colonial states after WW2. I got all optimistic about my French reading skills. So now I have a copy of Les Orphelins winging its way to me.

I also decided I'm not going to get to the Berthe Morisot exhibit at Dulwich, so ordered the catalogue.

I'm trying to put together a list of books to look for when I'm on holiday: Drinking from Graveyard Wells, newly shortlisted for the Ursula le Guin prize is published by the U of Kentucky Press, and is expensive here.
https://www.ursulakleguin.com/prize23

Currently reading (or in my case more accurately "currently haven't given up the idea that I will finish these books!")


https://www.librarything.com/catalog/charl08/currentlyreading

>46 charl08: ! I could never keep all the stories straight!

>43 charl08: I need to dig that out Charlotte.

>46 charl08: At least half my currently reading fits that description!

>45 charl08: Thanks for telling me about this prize (apparently awarded for the first time), there's lots to be discovered here!

ETA: I found an old post about it, first awarded in 2021. So even more to discover.

>46 charl08: >49 rabbitprincess: Mine too!
>46 charl08: I got The Story of Art Without Men for my birthday and am looking forward to getting to it, eventually.

>47 BLBera: Yes, that can be an issue. But most of these are so different it's not a problem.

>48 Caroline_McElwee: I think he's amazing, Caroline. I'm hoping for another collection.

>49 rabbitprincess: I'm not alone!

>50 MissWatson: I wondered how much would be new to a German / French reader - would love to hear more from your perspective.

>51 Jackie_K: I got to the 1930s and put the book down: fatal mistake. It's such a lovely object, I think. If I had a coffee table I would stick this on it.

>46 charl08: And I thought I was an outrageously polyamorous reader! I'm only reading four currently (five if you count the book I had to return to the library partially read as someone else wanted to read it. I'll get it back in another week.)

>53 RidgewayGirl: I may have started another book...

>54 charl08: Ha! So did I.

>46 charl08: Wow! I could never read that many books at once! I do good to read one tree book and one audio at the same time!

>45 charl08: That does not sound bad, Charlotte. Perhaps I could manage it. I don't watch needles being put into my arm or elsewhere, though I don't mind watching when the take a blood sample or put in an IV. The idea of injections kind of scared me prior to covid, but now that I have had 5 jabs over the last while, it's no problem. But I don't look either.

August 1 st is the announcement of the Booker Prize Longlist. I've been watching some youtube videos and getting some ideas of what people are predicting might be on the list. Demon Copperhead seems to be on most peoples lists, and surprisingly to me , Wandering Souls. I don't see Wandering Souls as Booker worthy. Any ideas that you have?

>55 RidgewayGirl: I even managed to finish it. Phew.

>56 Tess_W: Well, not all of them have been picked up recently (or even this month). I have good intentions though.

>57 vancouverdeb: It was worth if for me to try and see if my foot/ ankle would respond. I'm glad your fear of needles has improved.

I haven't heard anything about potential nominees for the Booker. I hadn't realised it was coming up: I will look forward to hearing more.

Blood Sugar
This made me read past my bedtime. Fortunately it was a Friday night!
Ruby grows up in Miami with a strong personal sense of justice. From the very start of the book the reader knows that she takes this much further than a "normal" person, drowning a small boy who bullies her sister when she is just a child herself. Now in her early thirties, Ruby is interviewed by the police on suspicion of murder, whilst she looks back on her life. This isn't so much a "whodunnit", the jeopardy is whether Ruby, a likeable character, is going to get caught.

The other thing I noticed after his death was that no one, aside from members of my own immediate family, used the word dead. They used softer words and phrases like passed away, passed on, left us, went to heaven, met his maker, in a better place now, crossed over, perished, resting in peace, departed, returned home, and, close but still padded with sensitivity, deceased. I asked my mother about this too. "Duncan is dead. He died. But no one will say the dead word but us. Why?"

She turned to the E section of the wise and heavy dictionary and showed me the definition of euphemism. Then she quoted Voltaire: "One great use of words is to hide our thoughts." She explained that people are afraid of death, so they keep themselves safe by hiding the actual word. But that's so dumb, I thought. So immature. The word doesn't cause the thing to happen. Cancer and overdoses and airplane crashes cause the thing to happen. People like me cause the thing to happen.

We looked up denial next.

A very readable thriller, if perhaps not as clever as it aspires to be. The "twist" was not terribly twisty. For me at least, Ruby is never so corrupt a character as to make the reader feel that she needed to be jailed. I'd pick up the author again for the humour and for the setting (Miami). I don't know the city, but it felt like the author knew it well and loved it.

For thy great pain have mercy on my little pain

MARGERY
When I told my neighbours that Christ had shown himself to me, they laughed. 'Why would he show himself to a woman?' they said. 'Do kings speak to you also? Does the Pope creep into your room at night and whisper things only for your special sacred ears? Ha!'

Almost a novella, this first novel alternates between Margery Kempe and Julian of Norwich, telling their life stories. Kempe doesn't do well from the comparison, but the approach of first person narration centres their perspective on lives limited by gender, motherhood and sickness. This despite both women's affluence. The profound impact of grief (yet again) hit me hard. I was reminded of the massive losses many faced through epidemics long before covid.

JULIAN
After the death of my husband and child, my mother and I wept together. I thought of Simon and Elizabeth, and she thought of my father and William and Bethy. I understood then that they had never left her thoughts and never would. Grief marks a person, changing them for ever, like a tree struck by lightning. The tree may keep growing, but never in the same way.

The book shows the power of religion to offer both women a way to navigate their lives despite being penned in by medieval expectations. Kempe sailed much closer to the wind by speaking in public about her visions, risking being burnt at the stake for heresy.

I hadn't realised how precarious the survival of both autobiographical texts, which inspired this novel, had been. MacKenzie highlights this in her epilogue.

Recommended.

>60 charl08: Hit by a bullet there Charlotte, thanks.

>52 charl08: The only name on the longlists I had heard before was David Diop. But since the prize is about the first book of the authors being translated into German, it's probably not so very surprising. I am using it rather as an inspiration for the next time I find myself in a French bookstore, I want to read more modern authors in French.

>61 Caroline_McElwee: I hope that you like it Caroline. I do find anything about anchorites fascinating, and most things about early religious women too. Something about how they made an unusual choice for the time? Not sure.

>62 MissWatson: Ah, I hadn't realised that was the focus, but the name makes more sense now. Good luck with your reading ambitions in French too. I have stalled on my latest attempt to read in French, a dual translation of a long poem. It's fascinating, but I'm not sure how useful more broadly as it's about a historical expedition by a west african leader. How often do pirogues come up in everyday conversation?!

Last day of revision today, exam tomorrow and then I can get back to reading nice books instead of summaries of managing project risk. I feel like if it was written as a story, I might have some chance of remembering it all. Not sure how you'd make it interesting though. As demonstrated below.

PM as thriller:
"Sophie was sure the risk assessment was oddly incomplete: perhaps the project sponsor had been bribed to overlook the obvious major opportunity? It seemed the next project gate review meeting would be a tense one...."

PM as romance:
"Their eyes met across the table. But a relationship would break company policy on management abuse of power. If only their organisation ran on a project structure instead of a traditional functional one..."

PM as historical novel
"Her aunt's photographs documented the building of the bridge, and the installation of the first toll box. The family company had accepted the risk of the building costs in exchange for a share of the toll fee. Had it been worth it ?"

Yes, I'll stick to the day job!

>63 charl08: Haha, I enjoyed your different genre treatments -- I'd read all of those books!

>60 charl08: This sounds fascinating, Charlotte.

>64 christina_reads: A bit of light relief, at least!

>65 BLBera: It was very impressive for a first novel, I thought.

My Dulwich catalogue arrived. Small bug photobombed my attempt at a flower picture.

>66 charl08: I was tempted by the catalogue, but it was too large & heavy for the handbag I had that day.

>67 Helenliz: Very sensible.

I have put aside my project management book (at least, for the six to ten weeks when I find out if I need to do a resit.) Reading comic novel Early Morning Riser, making me laugh/ snort out loud. Probably not a commuting book.

I finished Early Morning Riser
I loved this book. It kept me laughing all the way through. I was also attached to the characters, rooting for Jane as she tried to deal with the slings and arrows of life. Part of what I liked about the book was the unexpectedness of Jane's life, so no spoilers here.

Glenn seemed like the most delicate of swan girls in her pearly pink, long-sleeved leotard, her auburn hair smoothed back into a low ponytail, her skin glowing softly from exercise.

"I know you can do it," she said sweetly to Patrice, “when you're older. You're just too little now." When had Glenn learned to be passive-aggressive?

Patrice pushed out her lower lip and began to breathe heavily. She wore a dark purple bodysuit with an uneven taffeta skirt. With her round face and stocky build, she looked like a very small Russian peasant woman, and right now, like a Russian peasant woman who'd just gotten the news about the Mongol invasion.

Bauhaus: a graphic novel
This is great. The kind of book that gives just enough info to make picking up another book to find out more, seem a good next step. Interesting choice to make "Bauhaus" the movement the narrator.

>70 charl08: Looks like I will need to pick up a copy of this! I have often read the term, Bahaus, while studying German history, but other than looking up the term in the dictionary, did not give it much thought. Thanks for bringing this term back to my mind!

>71 Tess_W: I am wondering about a more detailed NF book: the edited bibliography includes some intriguing titles.

Elizabeth Otto and Patrick Rössler, eds., Bauhaus Bodies: Gender, Sexuality, and Body Culture in Modernism's Legendary Art School, New York 2019
Elizabeth Otto, Haunted Bauhaus: Occult Spirituality, Gender Fluidity, Queer Identities, and Radical Politics, Cambridge, MA 2019 Magdalena Droste/Bauhaus-Archiv, Bauhaus: 1919-1933, Cologne 2015 Michael Siebenbrodt, Bauhaus Weimar: Designs for the Future, Ostfildern-Ruit 2000
Nicholas Fox Weber, The Bauhaus Group: Six Masters of Modernism, New York 2009
Patrick Rössler, Bauhausmädels: A Tribute to Pioneering Women Artists, Cologne

>72 charl08: All my textbook(s) say is that it was a modern school of architecture that flourished in the Weimar Republic and influenced the rest of the world. The Nazis suppressed the Bauhaus School as they believed it had communist and Jewish connections. The text goes on to say, though, that its influence was so strong that some of its modernistic elements were incorporated in Nazi state structures, although they do not mention or picture any specifically. They mentioned the school was closed in 1933.

>73 Tess_W: I always find it interesting the gap between policy and practice.

>69 charl08: Great quote! I enjoyed this novel, too. I read it when I was in Spain, and it captivated me. I thought about it for a while after reading it, too.

>75 BLBera: Oh I wondered who recommended it! Thank you. Such a fun read.

Just found I had a book on the wishlist about Bauhaus Walter Gropius: Visionary Founder of the Bauhaus by Fiona MacCarthy. Maybe now is it's time...

Foster

Thanks to Helen for nudging me to buy this.

Thanks to the excellent service of my local Waterstones I picked up my copy of this beautiful novella yesterday afternoon and read it with a lovely iced caramel latte. Perfect book with coffee. Shame about the weather, a mizzle that I'm sure they'd appreciate in Rhodes right now.

'Strange things happen,' he says. A strange thing happened to you tonight, but Edna meant no harm. It's too good, she is. She wants to find the good in others, and sometimes her way of finding that is to trust them, hoping she'll not be disappointed, but she sometimes is.'
He laughs then, a queer, sad laugh. I don't know what to say.
'You don't ever have to say anything,' he says. 'Always remember that as a thing you need never do. Many's the man lost much just because he missed a perfect opportunity to say nothing.'

Malice
I first read this in 2014. Remembered nothing about it. Interesting to put it together with the other book about Detective Kaga I read recently. I also liked the twist.

Osamu Nonoguchi did indeed quit teaching and become an author; yet it remains unclear what he really thought of being a teacher.

My only insight comes from something he told me once: "The relationship between teacher and student is based on illusion. The teacher is under the illusion that he is teaching something, and the student is under the illusion that he is being taught. What's important is that this shared illusion makes both teacher and student happy. Nothing good is gained by facing the truth, after all. All we're doing is playing at education."

One wonders what could have happened to make him think such a thing.

The Girl By the Bridge
I am reading other stuff as well as crime, but the other stuff is pretty weighty, so I'm not getting very far...

Here our lugubrious Icelandic hero Konrad is contacted by a friend of his late wife's. Their granddaughter has gone missing. She's a known drug addict, but they're worried about her. Alongside this, a contact from his past gets in touch about a strange childhood memory. It's all pretty grim, procedural and kept me reading.

>69 charl08: You got me with your review of Early Morning Riser. Onto the wishlist it goes.

>78 charl08: I'd say the same about this, but it's been on my wishlist long enough to have been brought home last week.

>79 charl08: This was my favorite Konráð book, Charlotte. Indeed pretty grim, also very well written and plotted.

>80 RidgewayGirl: I really liked it, hope it finds plenty of readers.

>81 FAMeulstee: I was not sure how the medium's daughter storyline would work, but I thought it was done well.

Stuck with you (romance)
Not the girl you marry (romance)
The Heart Principle (romance)
Three very different romances. First one a novella by academic and recent fiction celeb Ali Hazelwood. Like all her romances I've read so far, the heroines are STEM specialists in one form or another (here, an environmental engineer).

Not the Girl You Marry brings the author's own experiences of identity (self-defined) as bi-racial. Micro-aggressions (and not so micro) in dating almost outweigh the HEA here.

The author of The Heart Principle continues her neurodivergent theme in romances with this, her latest book.

I thought it was interesting to read her acknowledgments: she talks about seeking advice from more experienced authors. She credits them with her decision to embrace similarity (a theme) in her novels, and to see it as a strength. The discussions of diagnosis were powerful stuff.

When my therapist described autism to me, when I read about it, I felt understood in a way I've never been before. I felt seen, the real me, and accepted. All my life, I've been told that I need to change and be . . . some- thing else, something more, and I try. Sometimes I try so hard it feels like I'm breaking. Like my music right now, no matter what I do I can't get it to be more. Being told that it's okay to be me, it's . . ." I shake my head as words fail me.

Things Remembered and Things Forgotten (short stories, in translation)
I picked this up in a lovely small indy bookshop, having not come across it before. The stories reflect Japanese history and "traditional" beliefs. The ghosts here are mostly benevolent, only wanting a chat with the living.

Tonight is when they are reunited with the living and taken home to reside in the ancestral altar for the duration of Obon."

It struck Satsuki that monks said some extraordinary things.

With that the head priest bade them goodnight and the three of them set off, Satsuki urging along the children, who were engrossed in conversation. Did you want to eat a dumpling? Nope, they looked yucky. What do they taste like? I wouldn't know, I've never eaten one. I bet they'd taste good with some sweet bean paste. I hear these ones are just for dead people... Listening to them, Satsuki pictured herself as a child chattering away....

Hi Charlotte - I loved Foster! Keegan can keep writing novellas forever! Things Remembered and Things Forgotten sounds good as well. I will look for that.

I just started one that I think I heard about from you, Diary of a Tuscan Bookshop? It is charming so far.

Well, Charlotte, the Booker Long List is being announced at midnight tonight, my time , and I'll be awake and ready to find out!!! How about you? I have a few books on hold at the library that Book tubers think might be on the list. and a couple on my amazon wishlist. I'll only read books that appeal to me, but I am excited.

>84 BLBera: I think if past experience is anything to go by we might be waiting a while for the next one. I liked that this one was a new printing: reading about writers' struggling you (I) do worry that we might lose wonderful writers to the need to pay the mortgage.

>85 vancouverdeb: I just finished a wonderful Canadian novel A History of Burning that I think is eligible (I got it from a GoodReads list). Have you read it? So good.

A History of Burning
A wonderful book.
Canadian author Janika Oza follows an Indian family from indentured railway worker in Kenya, to Uganda, then their forced re-migration due to Amin. I don't always like stories like this where we move on from characters but here I thought it was well balanced. The threads of Oza's story tie together, from the richness of the Ugandan Asian community, to the mis-connections and heartbreak of leaving "home" for a new country.

Wherever Mayuri turned she saw someone she knew, every inhale heavy with perfume and incense. The circles of revellers danced around the clay lantern burning at the centre of the room, a flurry of pinks and greens and sequins, dark hair and brown limbs. Though everyone danced on Navratri, it was the women who had always drawn Mayuri's eye, alive and radiant as on no other night, as if worshipping not just Durga but their own divinity.

Kiya had disappeared with a gaggle of her friends, Ma dancing with Varsha-foi. They had coincidentally both worn blue outfits, appearing like a pair of peacocks as they dipped their necks. When they'd emerged into the courtyard of the Gur nu Ghar in their matching skirts, they'd trilled about being twins in a past life and then linked elbows and carried on, silently deciding that neither would change. Ma was not a graceful dancer, always slightly out of step with the beat, but she seemed not to care, head thrown back and arms untethered to her body, the final effect bewitching.

Tarn Hows. Went with my dad and sister. Rather bittersweet as my mum loved it here.

>87 charl08: This sounds great. I will look for it.

>88 charl08: Lovely.

Booker longlist

A Spell of Good Things by Ayobami Adebayo on the library's reservation shelf already :-)
Old God's Time by Sebastian Barry reserved
Study for Obedience by Sarah Bernstein no copies in the library - put a request to order it.
If I Survive You by Jonathan Escoffery - reserved
How to Build a Boat by Elaine Feeney - reserved
This Other Eden by Paul Harding - reserved
Pearl by Sian Hughes (not in the library and given the subject matter I might wait until the shortlist is announced)
All the Little Bird-Hearts by Viktoria Lloyd-Barlow - reserved
Prophet Song by Paul Lynch - not out here yet (later in August)
In Ascension by Martin McInnes - reserved
Western Lane by Chetna Maroo - reserved
The Bee Sting by Paul Murray (Not a fan, might pass for now)

Read
The House of Doors by Tan Twan Eng

>89 BLBera: It was really good. I will look for the paperback I think (if the overflowing shelves haven't stopped me from leaving the room by that point...!)

I've read A Spell of Good Things and Old God's Time and have a reserved copy of The House of Doors which came through at the library this morning (1 week to pick up). I think I have Study for Obedience and Western Lane as Netgalleys. Was just looking up the Elaine Feeney and discovered I bought it on 7 June (presumably it was a Kindle bargain).

I feel I've got rather a lot of sought after library books TBR and more on reserve, and there's not much point in joining any new queues of less than about 25 (ie if they come through in October or November that would be better!)

Looking forward of what you make of the Booker shortlist. I'll never get around to reading them all, so I'm happy to do it through you!

>87 charl08: A great review. Placed on my WL!

>92 elkiedee: Sounds like you've also got lots of reading to do there...

>93 Helenliz: I don't think I'm going to get through them all (but I can try...!)

>94 Tess_W: I am hoping lots of people find it, it was such an immersive read for me.

>90 charl08: I'm reading The Bee Sting now, so that's a happy coincidence. I really liked Western Lane and I hope the judges respond to such a quiet book. And I'm happy for Jonathan Escoffery. He must be so thrilled.

>88 charl08: That is beautiful Charlotte.

>90 charl08: I hope The House of Doors gets on the shortlist. I've read Sebastian Barry and Paul Harding before. The others are all new to me.

I envy you in the UK, Charlotte! I think only Old God's Time and The Other Eden are available in North America as yet. I ordered a Spell of Good Things from the UK quite a while ago, so I'll have that to read. Oh yes, and of course, Old God's Time is also available here. I'll look forward to your thoughts on the Long List.
Sorry you are missing your mum so much. (((hugs)))

Yes, I do think A History of Burning looks like a good book, and I have it on hold at the library. Glad you enjoyed it.

>96 RidgewayGirl: I too am pleased I can tick a book off the list without trying (well, that's not quite what you said, but it's what I took from it!)

>97 Caroline_McElwee: Yes, stunning even on a soggy day. It rained on and off, and there was no pub at the end of the route for my dad to be motivated by, so progress was slow! I'd wanted a long hike but will try and do that by myself soon.

>98 vancouverdeb: I've just ordered one from the bookshop which will come in at the end of the month. I said to the lady who manages it that I'd tried to order it on the app, but it wouldn't let me pick them up at the branch (I prefer this as receiving a parcel can be a bit hit and miss). I think I was expecting some kind of effusive thanks, but it was not forthcoming (and frankly, why should she, really? Unrealistic expectations on my part.)
Thank you for your kind comment. I still find it odd how I can go days feeling "normal" and then get hit with a wave of the loss. My dad has not been very well so that has compounded things a bit - mum was very good at looking after him. The GP was wonderful though, I went in and said I was worried and they gave him an appointment the next day.

>99 vancouverdeb: Hope you like it too. All power to Canadian Lit!

Belated July reading summary

I keep forgetting to do this! I read a lot of fiction this month, I'm not really in the market for NF at the moment (although I do have two travel books about Portland that I am dipping in and out of. I can't decide which donut tour to book).

I thought The Talk was a really powerful look at Black male identity in an accessible way. Exhalation made me wish the author published more often, as did Foster. Of the new-to-me authors I read, I will look out for the next books by Victoria Mackenzie and Katherine Heiny. I continue to read plenty of romance and crime fiction, although the crime seems to be mostly in translation at the moment. I can't see that changing much as I'll try and finish the Higashino series next month.

My reading will probably shift to the "prizewinner" category more for August, as I have most of the Booker longlist on request from the library.

I'm not tracking gender by month but the pie chart is looking OK, I think.


Categories:
Manga / GN
The Talk (GN/ memoir)
Wolf Girl and Black Prince vol 2 (manga)
Bauhaus: a graphic novel

Fiction
All this could be yours fiction
Anger Bang romance
Marple (short stories)
Exhalation (short stories)
Behind the Net (fiction)
Her Big City Neighbor (Romance/ fiction)
Foster (fiction)
Stuck with you (romance)
Not the girl you marry (romance)
The Heart Principle (romance)

New to me
Blood Sugar (fiction / new to me)
For thy great pain have mercy on my little pain (fiction/ new to me)
Early Morning Riser (fiction, new to me)

In translation
Newcomer crime fiction / translated fiction
Malice (crime/ in translation)
The Girl By the Bridge (crime/ in translation)

In translation (works by women)
Things Remembered and Things Forgotten (short stories, in translation)

Knock out: the true story of Emile Griffith
This GN focuses on the life of a Black LGBTQ man born in 1938 who was a boxer more due to the lack of other sporting options rather than anything else. I loved the sections showing him making hats (for a time, his day job). I'm not a fan of boxing, just can't see the appeal, but this was still a fascinating read. Kleist conveys in a few short frames so much about Griffith's life. The sections on his life after boxing, including his work in prisons, made for a less conventional narrative than rise and fall. Kleist shows him enjoying working with prisoners, and a well-known part of his local community. He lived long enough to see major changes for the LGBTQ community.

There's a detailed academic essay about his life in context of others' experiences. I skimmed this.
Some images (and a much more thoughtful review) here:
https://www.brokenfrontier.com/knock-out-reinhard-kleist-selfmadehero/

>101 charl08: Your chart is looking way better than mine, Charlotte.
My gender chart of 2023 is the opposite of yours with 108 male, and 39 female...

>103 FAMeulstee: I do love these pie charts Anita!

Please don't go away,' Yusuf said, and something intimate in his voice made the old man hesitate. Mzee Hamdani waited a moment and then allowed the taut muscles of his face to slacken. He nodded impatiently, reluctant as always to suffer anyone's words. Get on with it.

'Why did you refuse your freedom when she offered it to you? The Mistress?' Yusuf asked, frowning at the old man as he leaned forward, annoyed with him.

The old man waited a long time, looking at the ground. He smiled, his few teeth long and yellow with age. 'This is how life found me,' he said.

Yusuf refused to be palmed off with what he thought was an evasion and he shook his head urgently at the old gardener. "But you were her slave... are her slave. Is that how you want to be? Why did you not accept your freedom when she offered it?'

Mzee Hamdani sighed. 'Don't you know anything?' he asked sharply, and then paused as if he would say no more. After a while he began again. 'They offered me freedom as a gift. She did. Who told her she had it to offer?'

I finally finished Paradise a book I took into work months ago in the optimistic hope that I would get to finish during my lunchtime. It didn't happen in June or the beginning of July but reading a few pages here and there has finally paid off. Nobel Prize winner Abdulrazak Gurnah covers a lot here. It's an unusual bildungsroman that manages to cover Islamic school, indenture in the place of debt, slavery, child marriage and the arrival of Europeans with colonial aspirations in Tanzania. My favourite section was the merchant caravan into the interior. Yusuf watches carefully as the politics of the caravan, including porters, musicians and the powerful trader running the whole operation, interact on a disastrous journey.

A Death in Tokyo (crime / in translation)
Third in the series, and I am really enjoying how they all touch upon the idea of education, something that comes up quite a bit at work. Here Detective Kaga is investigating the stabbing of a businessman in central Tokyo late at night. He was stabbed in an underpass, but struggled on to die on a historic bridge.
What is the significance of the 'kirin' statues on the bridge where he died?

Photo of Nihonbashi Kirin by Phlizz shared on Wikipedia (CC)

I do like when reading a crime novel when the details make it specific to the setting: it seems very much as though it couldn't happen anywhere else.

The main gate of Suitengu Shrine shuts at five o'clock, but there is a nighttime entrance that is open until seven. One evening, around six months ago, the man had been checking the shrine precincts before locking up for the night when he noticed a big bunch of paper cranes sitting on the offertory box.
"I say 'big bunch,' but there weren't a thousand cranes. There turned out to be exactly one hundred of them when counted. A nice yellow color."
"Yellow?" Matsumiya and Kaga exchanged a look. "All of them?"
"Yes. All the same matching yellow. The color would change every month."
"Yes?"
"There was green, there was blue, there was purple, but always one color at a time. And there were always exactly one hundred of them."

"New Voices Dominate Booker Prize Nominations" NYT on the Booker longlist
"Last year, the Sri Lankan author Shehan Karunatilaka won the prize with “The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida,” a satire exploring the trauma of his country’s civil war. After the announcement, the book’s sales jumped to more than 100,000 copies and it has now been translated into 19 languages, the Booker Prize Foundation said in Tuesday’s news release."
(article access should be free via this link)
NYT Booker link

A Treatise on Shelling Beans
A long, rambling book told as though to a visitor to a caretaker of some holiday cottages in Poland. Gradually the narrative builds into a life story, from life in a state orphanage, living through the end of the war with partisans, being a young man working with building crews, and touring with a dance band. It's full of digression, so hard sometimes to make connections, but the style creates an absorbing narrative of Polish life over nearly a century.

In his spare time he read. In that respect he was an exception, because everyone else drank in their spare time. Even before he went to sleep, however exhausted he was, he'd always say he had to take up his book and read at least a couple of pages. One time when I'd climbed the scaffolding to where he was, he said to me that books are the only way for a human not to forget that he's a human. Him, in any case, he couldn't live without books. Books are a world too, a world that you choose for yourself, not the one you've come into. He kept trying to persuade me, till in the end I started reading too. I thought to myself, it's no skin off my nose, I'll give it a try, especially because I liked him.

>105 charl08: I need to take a look at this series; it sounds like one I would like. As always, great comments.

>107 charl08: sounds wonderful! Off to locate a copy!

>108 BLBera: I hope the last book gets translated soon.

>109 Tess_W: I wish I could send you mine, but the price of postage is just bonkers.

The Man in the McIntosh Suit (GN)
Intriguing GN that seems to be the start of a series (judging by the "to be continued " at the end). A Filipino migrant working in agriculture in the early 20th century heads to San Francisco after receiving a message that his wife has arrived in the US. What follows is kind of a homage to Sam Spade combined with an account of the discrimination new migrants faced in the "free" world.

>110 charl08: - I also just finished a GN about the immigrant experience, this time of Vietnamese. It's called The Best We Could Do and was quite well done. Not a series, though. Seems lots of people are folowing this trend in recent years, for example, George Takei, John Lewis, Mira Jacob, and I'm sure others I don't know about. It seems a good way to present a memoir.

>111 jessibud2: Yes, there are some great graphic memoirs out there, and I think the format offers an opportunity to point out some pretty hard truths to white readers who might not pick up something more conventionally framed.

I liked The Best We Could Do. I find the generational gap between migrant families interesting, no doubt partly because it's a personal one for me.

However, my comments should have been more explicit about genre. Although the story reflects the author's heritage, it's fiction. Thanks for highlighting this.

>107 charl08: I really liked A Treatise on Shelling Beans, Charlotte, and his Stone Upon Stone even better.
I have his book De horizon ready for this month to read, seems it isn't available in English translation yet.

>113 FAMeulstee: I have you to thank for the book, Anita. Good to challenge my commitment to more straightforward linear narratives!

Both my parents thought the title was funny, and commented several times (it was in the reading pile for a while).

Just dropping in to de-lurk...

>115 katiekrug: Thanks Katie. I have been enjoying your university challenge conversations.

I guess it is not too long until you head to Portland and San Diego, was it? Any progress with the Booker Long list ? I had already read Old God's Time and am currently about 1/2 through A Spell of Good Things. A Spell of Good Things seems promising but it's been a slow start. A History of Burning came in on a hold from the library, as did A Most Agreeable Murder, so I am not sure if I can both read before they are due back. I'll have to check the hold situation on the books.

>117 vancouverdeb: I've not got anywhere so far Deborah! My sister was visiting as my dad had another eye procedure, so he's a bit under the weather. As my sister had to go back home I've been dog-sitting my sister's rather attention-seeking dog. It has not turned into been very conducive to relaxing and reading.

I’m sorry to hear that your dad had another eye procedure and is feeling under the weather , Charlotte . Dogs can be quite a lot of work , as we have one . I had fun this evening meeting my Edmonton brother and his family and their two new dogs .They were fun , a Golden Retriever and a Cheasapeake Bay Retriever. Since they live in Edmonton, it is the first time I’ve met the dogs . A very long drive for them , about 12 hours through the Rocky Mountains and onto Vancouver . I did finish A Spell of Good Things . It was a bit of a slow start , but very gripping and powerful once it got going . A lot of the Booker Long List books are not available in Canada so far , but I have what I can find on hold at the library. I hope things are soon more relaxing for you , Charlotte .

>119 vancouverdeb: Sounds like you have been busy too Deborah. I have a copy of quite a few so am hoping to catch up this week.

I did finish Kairos but did not enjoy this as much as I have her other books. The focus on a relationship between a young woman and a much older man almost stopped me picking it up in the first place. It's set in the last years of separate German states, and the (fictionalised) account of dealing with that change was more my thing. One of the bits of blurb on the back talks about the ending being like a bomb going off. I didn't find it that way. I could see that the fictional author's work for the security services (and then being spied upon himself) would affect a person. But it didn't change my distaste for his actions in the relationship. All in all, not my favourite of her books!

A week later, Katharina is standing next to Rosa in a field, slicing off the heads of cauliflowers. It's nice that they're all together again for harvest duty, just as in their first year, in foundation. Katharina, Rosa, Uta as well, who wants to be an industrial designer, and Robert, the sculptor. Somehow it's ridiculous, says Robert, us chopping cauliflowers, while in Berlin people are being arrested. And clack, another head goes on the conveyor belt. After the incidents of October 7 and 8, the political economy lecturer brought up the protests and spoke of "counterrevolution," and Katharina and eight or nine others got up and walked out in the middle of the lecture. Their names are bound to be on some list now.

This is Happiness
At the rural chemist:

The shelves were well-stacked, the multitude of things that could go wrong arranged chasteningly under broad rubrics, Head, Ears, Nose & Throat, Eyes, Teeth, Joints. Because they were a sex that concurred with Aristotle, having more to them than the sum of their parts, in their own category: Women.

Furthest from the counter, as ordained by general backwardness in matters of the body, a small shelf: Men. Beside the Men, Animals.

Lovely book by the author of The History of the Rain which I also admired. Narrated by a young man, "Noe" who has lost his vocation and has been sent to his grandparents' farm in rural Ireland. The town has made it onto the electrification list, and one of the workers comes to stay on the farm. Christie is nearing retirement and seeking opportunities to right wrongs, including to the woman he stood up at the altar.
Meandering, with a distinctive Irish tone and humour, I wondered what had taken me so long to pick up another by Niall Williams. I can see from the reviews page I have LT to thank for picking it up now.

When you try and lift your mother it's not the same as lifting another human being. The moment you do it you know you'll never forget it for the rest of your life. You know there's no frailty, nakedness, nor tenderness either, quite like this, and know that the moment you have her in your arms the feeling of it is entering you so profoundly that from here on it will form part of the knowledge of your blood and brain and soul too, whether you believe in souls or not.

>121 charl08: My library has both of these books - the writing looks beautiful.

>121 charl08: Hi Charlotte, I really liked that one too. i am a big fan of this author.

>122 JayneCM: It is really lovely. I'm tempted to go order up the whole of his backlist but will try and space them out a bit instead.

>123 mdoris: It's funny how sometimes an author can drop off my radar, and then someone else mentions a book by them and I think "Oh, how did I miss that?" I am very glad that LT mentions meant I looked for the book - and of course, it helped that the library system had a copy.

>124 charl08: - I feel the same way. A mention of an author or book that I've read or meant to continue is often the impetus to get back to them.

>121 charl08: I enjoyed this one too Charlotte. Planning to get to The History of Rain in the autumn.

>125 dudes22: Yes, just far too many books to get to! I've not counted recently but I suspect my wishlist is way beyond my time left to read, unless some kind of bionic living is invented, of course...

>126 Caroline_McElwee: It was such a lovely read. I was a bit hit by the cancer diagnosis at the end of the book, given the experience with mum this year. Despite the historical setting the desire to keep things low key from the patient was very familiar! The reverse Sherherazade effect: Christie telling stories like it would keep his former love alive was just heartbreaking. But it was beautifully written.

Did Ye Hear Mammy Died
A memoir by a comic writer that despite the subject matter manages to be brilliantly funny: it had me laughing out loud. I picked this up after hearing the author on the radio talking about what it was like growing up as one of eleven in the 1990s. The book makes the most of that, as well as the tragi-comic sides of losing his mother before he was old enough to understand. (The title comes from what he asked people attending his mother's funeral.) O'Reilly grew up on the border between Ireland and Northern Ireland, calculating at one point their back fence made up some tiny percentage of the national border. His memories of how his siblings and his father coped with the loss are described so well, full of love, sadness but also self-mockery. In places they are so familiar. He describes the failure to realise the gap between reality and film, as in wanting to build a treehouse without any experience or guidance and wondering why it didn't work. Also the sheer boredom of childhood before tech made constant contact with friends and entertainment possible. Of course, other experiences more unique, including growing up with the everyday acceptance of violence in the "Troubles".

Living under a cloud of bomb threats and extrajudicial murder doesn't necessarily leave you in a state of constant fear. What can break your spirit is the deadening trudge of small humiliations and the steady expectation of petty inconvenience. It's life being interrupted by a hundred things outside your control. These were things that parents - our parents - tried to hurry past without mentioning to us. Subjects were changed and plans for the day amended. Everyone in my class had a story of their mum rapidly abandoning some expedition and being really nice all of a sudden. Yes, they'd say, we were supposed to be going to the swimming baths. Yes, we're going a different way now. Yes, we can stop for a treat on the way. Certainly, these 'incidents' increased immeasurably the prospect of us getting ice cream or a Lucky Bag for no reason. For those sugary treats and cheap plastic toys, we all had the Provisional IRA to thank.

>128 charl08: - I loved this one, too. I listened to it, read by the author, and had to keep pausing it, as I was laughing so much.

>128 charl08: That sounds great - I think I'll get the audiobook with next month's credit.

>129 katiekrug: I could imagine the audio would be great.

>130 Jackie_K: Hope you enjoy it!

I now have three booker longlist books on the go, and whilst they're all fine, I'm not "grabbed" yet.

What books do you have from the Booker Longlist, Charlotte? I’ve read Old God’s Time , and most recently A Spell Of Good Things which I put a short review of on my thread . I think you would enjoy it . I have a hold on several others at the library .

>133 vancouverdeb: This Other Eden, Old God's Time and A Spell of Good Things.
Too many books! I'll try to return them before I go away. Don't want to be sitting on them pointlessly when someone else might want to read them.

Hi! Just popping in to say Hi! and make sure I haven't lost you. You can never have too many books or too many on the WL. Just keep reading!! : )

>135 Berly: Thanks Kim. Looking forward to the time to read whilst travelling!

Old God's Time
One of the Booker list. I found this a grim read, following a retired Irish policemen, who it turns out is grieving many losses, including the terrible long term consequences of the abuses carried out in catholic orphanages in the past.

The publicity and acknowledgment of abuses in the catholic church has been central to many recent Irish novels, some of which I've read. I think it's becoming a hard subject to say something new about, and I'm not sure, for me, that Barry manages it here. In a strange way, it's almost a kind of wish fulfillment, a "what we could have done to those warped abusers", instead of leaving punishment to the church for it's own for so long. I'm sure there are deeper meanings to the main character's dementia, alongside a discussion of the church and society's dealings with child abuse, but I don't know that that works for me.

He thought of Fleming getting into his nice car after an encounter like that. He wondered what he was thinking. What a thing to bring to your old friend's door. A new peril of cold cases that he had never foreseen. Enough time goes by and it is as if old things never happened. Things once fresh, immediate, terrible, receding away into old God's time, like the walkers walking so far along Killiney Strand that, as you watch them, there is a moment when they are only a black speck, and then they're gone. Maybe old God's time longs for the time when it was only time, the stuff of the clockface and the wristwatch. But that didn't mean it could be summoned back, or should be. He had been asked to reach back into memory, as if a person could truly do that.

How to Build a Boat
Third Booker list book I've finished. Centred on Jamie, an autistic boy starting a new secondary school. Trying to make sense of his experiences, he finds some friends (and the boat of the title) but also endures bullying and a lack of flexibility from a head obsessed with his own ideas of achievement. Alongside this, two of his teachers have their own struggles, broadly with relationships and more narrowly with their acceptance of how Jamie is treated. At one point I even wondered if it was supposed to be set in the past, given how dated the head's ideas were.

I enjoyed it but wouldn't expect it to go much further: it's a "quiet" book.

I told Harrisburg Logan that I don't believe in god, and he smiled and dipped his head to the side, and told me to put my faith in the journey. And that he was very sorry. I said I was OK, that when I die I am donating my body to medical science. And he told me that I would be taken up to heaven anyway. I told him that I would rather not be, and he said, ah, well, it is not a choice you have, young man, and he dipped his head to one side again, and said, no choice at all. And when I asked about free will, he groaned, dipped his head and made no sound whatsoever. He did not even smile. And then asked, what will I do with you? I suggested I go to Mr Foley's workshop to continue on the boat, and he shouted and said, it is not a question. So I think there are finite questions too. Not just statements.

Booker summary

Favourite
The House of Doors

Liked
How to build a Boat

No thanks
Old God's Time

Currently reading:
This Other Eden

Due back at the library
Western Lane

>137 charl08: I appreciate your comments/ review on Old God's Time. I liked it better than you, but it was a harrowing tale. I agree with you that so much seems to have been written on the topic of the abuse of the Catholic church and I have read more than my fair share of them this year. Interesting comments on How to Build a Boat. My library does not yet have either on order or for hold, so I'll wait on that one. I've got a hold on This Other Eden, Western Lane,The House of Doors ( still on order) but so far nothing has come in from the library. I know it's not the topic for you right now, but I think maybe I will order Pearl by Sian Hughes.

It's great to see how you are rating the Booker's you have read, as it helps me decide what I should look for . I hope you have a fabulous holiday in Portland and San Diego.

I'm struggling a bit with what I see ( and my siblings and sister's in laws ) as some cognitive decline in my mom. She repeats herself so frequently and seems to forget a fair bit of things that I tell her. Aging parents are hard. You love them, but how to cope with the changes you see and how to help them.

>139 vancouverdeb: I hope your books arrive soon, Deborah. I'm facing difficult choices (!) about which ones to try and finish. I want to read them all, but obviously can't pack the library books. Although it is tempting.

When is your holiday, Charlotte? I think it's approaching...?

Next week Katie. I have a visa and insurance. I may have just ordered a larger bag with wheels.
In a completely unrelated query: the most physical books you've ever taken on a trip?

>142 charl08: - Pre-Kindle, probably half a dozen, but not on a vacation involving a flight :)

Now I tend to bring one print book and a fully loaded Kindle. And I usually buy at least a couple of books while I'm away. They are my favorite souvenirs.

>105 charl08: I've been trying to find more mystery/crime novels set in Asian countries and noticed your review of A Death in Tokyo. I've not read any books by Keigo Higashino and was happy to find out just now that my library has a number of books in this series.

>143 katiekrug: My back is protesting that I shouldn't be carrying anything, so maybe I will limit myself. Famous last words. Your approach sounds very sensible.

>144 mathgirl40: Oh, if you find some good ones I'd love to hear more. I like the Pushkin Vertigo series, my tag search of my books comes up with ones I've read by Masako Togawa and Seishi Yokomizo.

>145 charl08: I'd read a couple by Shizuko Natsuki that I'd liked, but they are hard to find.

Have a great trip.
If it helps, I took 6 books for 2 short flights, 2 train journeys and a night in a hotel. Finished 3 started the 4th.
Never knowingly under-booked.

>142 charl08:- I travel to Montreal from my home here in Toronto frequently. I travel by train and my smallish suitcase is, of course, on wheels. It's about a 7 hour travel day, each way, and I do doze for part of the trip. I'm also pretty sure I read much more slowly than you do. I usually take 3 to 4 physical books with me. There is a lovely small indie bookstore within walking distance of my mum's place though I don't always get a chance to go there. But it's there if I should run out. Also used to be a great little LFL on the walk there but I noticed it's gone now. I hsve picked up a few good ones there. Don't worry about taking too many. I'm sure you will find bookshop or 2 in your travels 😉 Have a great trip. How long are you going for? Will you be meeting up with any LTers?

No Booker Long list books have arrived as yet, Charlotte. I hope your trip is wonderful!

>146 mathgirl40: I've just had a quick look online and was a bit horrified by the prices of those!

>147 Helenliz: I bought a bigger case, but seem to have found more non-book things to put into it. And I haven't even packed any sunscreen yet, and only one hat...

>148 jessibud2: Wow, that's quite a day of travel. I was hoping to take the trains on this visit, but they were so expensive compared to a flight. Maybe a retirement trip!

>149 vancouverdeb: Sorry to hear that: hope you have plenty to read in the interim ;-)

I have done a bit of reading, a bit of packing, and a bit of head scratching over how to get my books back to the library...

I am Homeless if this is not my Home (fiction / familiar faces)
I really like Lorrie Moore's short fiction, but this didn't do much for me. Parallel stories, one with a Reconstruction-era boarding house manager / owner, the other a contemporary teacher who has been suspended from his job. The reconstruction storyline was fascinating, told in letters to a late relative, but just too short: I could have done with more of this. The modern story left me cold: the narrator leaves his dying brother's hospice bed and goes on a road trip with his re-animated ex. I've seen other reviews that praise the dialogue and the humour, but I kept reading thinking "there has to be a punchline here" which never came.

Western Lane (Booker longlist / prizes)
I liked this. Three sisters have to deal with their dad after their mum's death. His solution appears to be to throw them into an intensive squash training programme, at the cost of work and just about everything else. It's told from the perspective of the youngest daughter, the squash prodigy. There's a lot here about different ways of dealing (or not dealing) with grief and loss, as well as detailed descriptions of past Pakistani squash champions' technique. Which I wouldn't have said I was interested in, but as the author makes it all about the 'mental game', I was. I felt a bit lost at the end: I wanted to know what happened next to the characters.

The descriptions of car journeys with creative interpretations of passenger limits, reminded me of family outings as a kid.

From the back of Maqsud's dusty, hot Peugeot we listened to Maqsud's stories and were spellbound. All four windows were open. Maqsud didn't shout, but it seemed to us that his voice was everywhere. He had removed the shelf over the boot so that Khush and I could sit in there with our legs outstretched. Ged, his mother, Mona and Maqsud's nephew Shaan were in the back seat and Pa was in the passenger seat. We were on our way to a funfair in Leicester.

August Blue (familiar faces)
I've enjoyed Deborah Levy's memoir 'series', reflecting on her life and writing. I found echoes here as her characters visited similar locations to the travels recorded in those books too. Here the fiction is centred on a lost, former child prodigy. After a disastrous performance, she has been told she can't get more concert work. Instead, she travels to give exclusive lessons to unlikely (as in - not that talented - children whose parents can pay). I was reading this in a coffee shop and parts of it made me laugh out loud.

Anyway, he continued, what I really missed in the lockdowns was buying a coffee. Sipping a flat white. If my identity is so fragile it depends on a flat white to keep it together, I can't see the point of those years I've spent reading difficult theory and philosophy. Capitalism sold a flat white to me as if it were a cup of freedom.

Bear in mind, it's been a long time since I practiced the piano every day, so I feel quite nostalgic about it now. Levy shows the leading character making decisions about how to teach, both as a result of her students' reactions, and in reaction against her own (harsh) training. Despite my rose tinted memories, and lack of any kind of serious, skilled, commitment to music, I recognised elements of my own experiences in her accounts of the narrow, and sometimes oddly intimate, teacher-student relationship.

Booker summary

Favourite
The House of Doors

Liked
How to build a Boat
Western Lane

No thanks
Old God's Time

Currently reading (in a travel friendly format, so it's gone on the back burner a bit):
This Other Eden

Currently reading (in a not travel friendly format -so rushing a bit!)
All the Little Bird-Hearts

Plans*:
Going to read while away (have it out from the library e-book collection)
In Ascension by Martin McInnes

Might read while I'm away (I was hoping for a travel-friendly hardback, but no)
Prophet Song by Paul Lynch

Might read if the kindle price comes down while I'm away:
A Spell of Good Things
Study for Obedience by Sarah Bernstein
If I Survive You by Jonathan Escoffery

Not requested (see above)
Pearl by Sian Hughes
The Bee Sting by Paul Murray

*This list is subject to (lots of) change.

>147 Helenliz: ...Never knowingly under-booked...

I think this could very well be my life motto.

>151 charl08: I had a similar reaction to both the Lorrie Moore and Western Lane.

Hope you manage to solve the book-packing dilemmas, and have a little space left for souvenir books too!

Happy travels Charlotte.

Indeed, Charlotte, I have lots of books to read, so despite not being able to get my mitts on many of The Booker Long List , I'll have no problem finding something to read. I stopped in at our local chain bookstore that is close to me and picked up The Raging Storm, and I was visiting my brother and SIL on Sunday and he lent me a non -fiction book on Canada in the 1940's and my sister has been urging me try some good mystery/ thrillers she has been enjoying. It's good to have a family that reads, even if we don't always have the same taste. Sometimes we do though.

Sounds like you've got plenty there, Deborah. It is nice to have family who will lend / borrow books!

My flight has been cancelled due to the air traffic control malarkey going on here. Rescheduled, thank goodness! More time to pack and unpack books.

>157 charl08: that's a pian, but at least you've been rescheduled. Work colleague got through security before his flight (and holiday) was cancelled. Day out to Stanstead, how nice.

>158 Helenliz: Ouch!

Taxi booker told me several similar stories from yesterday, so I was kind of anticipating something like this. Hope your colleague's insurance is good.

Geiger
A very gripping thriller I picked up just as I left the house and proved good reading in airport lounges and in the plane itself (when did plane seats get so uncomfortable? Ouch!)

Agneta gets a call as her grandchildren are leaving. One word: "Geiger". She shoots her husband of fifty years and takes off on a small pink child's bicycle. Meanwhile Sara, whose mother was a live in housekeeper when she was a small child, is called to support the family. She is now a vice squad detective, but when the police decide the murder is a burglary gone wrong, she can't resist doing some digging.

Lots of historical context here about Sweden's dodgy dealings with the former East Germany. I didn't guess the (inevitable) twist and I left it on the plane with no regrets, so a good choice.

I love foreign language bookshops (well, of course, all bookshops). In Portland's Kinokuniya, their Japanese language section was fun to browse. The fiction shelves in English were dangerous too.


Brown Girls
Inspector Imanishi Investigates
Tokyo Ueno Station
The Cake Tree in the Ruins
The Naked Tree

>153 RidgewayGirl: >154 Jackie_K: >155 Caroline_McElwee: Sorry I missed your posts, Jackie, Kay and Caroline.

Also finished This Other Eden. I cant say I was blown away by this one: I never really rushed to pick it up and ended up quite happily getting distracted by other books. Based on a true story of a mixrd-race island community "cleared" by the state on the basis of eugenics-influenced public health policies in the early 20th century. The author does a good job of avoiding romanticising island life: it's pretty cold, squalid and sometimes a struggle to survive. One of the children is an artist and is given the "opportunity" to leave to study art. The descriptions of his attempts to improve, and his perceptions of the world through art are fascinating (to this non-artist). The author even manages to make the missionary (who here is responsible for bringing the state's attention to the families on tbe island) a sympathetic character. But the medical establishment and the government don't come out well.

As the light left the sky, John Thorpe saw Zachary Hand to God wading away from the island across the channel, chest-deep in the water. Zachary held what looked like an old faded and patched flag bundled and knotted together by the corners above his head. His silhouette cut through the invisible current of the tide and to Thorpe he looked like a threadbare angel abandoning the wrecked ship over which he'd once been guardian, light fanning across the water behind him as he pushed against the incoming flood.

Booker summary

Favourite
The House of Doors

Liked
How to build a Boat
Western Lane
This Other Eden

No thanks
Old God's Time

You are doing well with Booker reading, Charlotte. Safe travels.

I stopped in at the Kinokuniya in New York on my way to the train this morning, Charlotte 🙂 Didn't buy anything, though...

Hope you are having fun and not suffering too badly from jet lag.

>164 BLBera: It's not grabbing me the way the women's prize did this year. I didn't manage to finish All the little Bird Hearts: I started to think something bad was going to happen, and my reading ground to a halt.
I feel quite virtuous though: I returned all the Booker ones, plus some more, to the library. So I just have 8 out at the moment.

>165 katiekrug: Very restrained there Katie!

You are in Portland now, Charlotte? I hope you are enjoying yourself. What a hassle with the air traffic controllers. Great reading of the Booker Long list. I ordered Prophet Song from amazon just now. It's released tomorrow in North America and I have heard good things from ' Book Tube", in particular, Eric Karl Anderson, if you have ever heard of him. Supposed to arrive on Thursday. This Other Eden is in transit for me from the library. We too have the labour day holiday here, so it could well be Thursday before This Other Eden arrives. I'm such a slow reader lately that I hope I fit both of them in this month.

>167 vancouverdeb: I hope your copy of This Other Eden arrived safely, Deborah. I had mixed feelings about the book.

I am behind on book comments, will try and remember what I've been reading.
Everyone in this room will someday be dead (fiction/ my own books)

This novel is centred on the main character's crippling anxiety and gradually imploding life. I found it quite effective as I worried about the main character, but not exactly a relaxing read!

Inspector Imanishi Investigates (fiction)
Japanese police procedural, a familiar structure but with the kind of local detail I really enjoy in translated crime fiction. One key plot point is tugging on a strand of memory of another book, set in the UK but featuring characters who had lived in an invaded place, maybe Singapore or Hong Kong? A key element of the plot is how a suspect recreates themselves thanks to the destruction of records in wartime. Can anyone help? Maybe this comes up a lot in novels set in this period?

The Cake Tree in the Ruins
A small book, part of a Pushkin series. This one collects short stories by a Japanese author inspired by the end of the war in Japan. Stories are often tragic, but with magical elements. This includes the title story in which a tree grows from a child's treasured piece of cake.

Red Paint
The memoir of a young Coastal Salish woman who experienced both personal and intergenerational trauma. One of those books that was hard to read (although nothing like as hard as to live, of course). She reflects on the way writing about her experiences has been both a way to deal with her pain and has meant thing that were buried, resurfaced, sometimes with self-damaging consequences. Throughout, her punk identity, attending gigs and making music, is a positive in her life.

Call me Coast Salish or poet. Call me a girl who loves Nick Cave, and night swimming, and ramen, and old Bikini Kill records. I no longer wish to be called resilient. Call me reckless, impatient, and emotional. Even Indigenous. Call me anything other than survivor. I am so many more things than brave.

Indelicacy
I was sold on this one from the blurb, it centres on a character who works in an art gallery, and her interest in the art work and in writing. I never really engaged with the story, although I enjoyed some of the character's observations about her work. The main character seemed to be distanced from the reader, and whilst this may have been a deliberate approach by the author, I wanted to know more about the narrator and her choices.

I wanted to tell them how terrible the reading had been, that it had ruined the writing, how shallow the interview was, how much I had hated all of it.

When I walked out of the room, I said simply, 'You're both worms,' and they looked at me, not knowing how to respond to a statement like that. 'Of the worst kind. When you open your mouths, you are male worms eating from a toilet.

Ghosts of Spain (history)
I enjoyed this quick trip through the recent history of Spain, with a chapter at the end updating the original edition of the book (although this too is dating fast). The section on historical "forgetting" after Franco was fascinating, although worrying to read in the update section how this appears to have become the site of even more conflict.

I walked up the narrow staircase of our three-storey building to the flat, red-tiled roof. I lay in the sun and read Manuel Vázquez Montalbán's Los Mares del Sur. Vázquez Montalbán's detective, Pepe Carvalho, showed me around the city without my having to move. From the posh heights of Pedralbes, at the top of the one- sided cauldron that is Barcelona, to the stewing mass of the Barrio Chino, he gave me a feeling for my new home. Carvalho, an avid gastronome, even took me on exotic fictional shopping trips to La Boqueria - with its displays of octopus, bulging-eyed sea bream, sheep's brains and fat, white Catalan sausages.

>170 charl08: That last book sounds good, Charlotte, I will look for a copy of the Dutch translation.

Where are you now? I hope you are having a good time.

Hi Charlotte. I hope all is well . I’m about 1/2 through Prophet Song by Paul Lynch and very much enjoying it , though it is a dark read . Stasia and Paul in the 75’s are doing a group read on Stasia’ s thread . We all have the book and Stasia suggested a group read. We have not posted much , no spoilers , if you are interested. Best to you .

I also liked Ghosts of Spain, Charlotte. I see he has a new history of Spain out. I am very tempted...

>171 FAMeulstee: Thanks Anita. I have been thinking about you, with everything you have going on.

>172 vancouverdeb: Thanks Deborah. I didn't think I could fit the book into my suitcase, will try and read before the announcement!

>173 BLBera: I should have said that I picked this up because of LT. I didn't get as much reading done as I hoped when I was away.

I did a bit more reading.

A Feather on the Breath of God
I really liked this, although as with most autofiction I'm not sure how the auto and the fiction combine. The two main sections were previously short stories, exploring her mother and father's lives. Her father was a barely communicative Chinese American, who had enlisted and met her mother in Germany. Their fractious relationship, and the gaps in her knowledge, is as much the subject here as what was "known". In the final section the "I" of the book writes about boyfriend from Odessa who she met whilst teaching English.

The Good Earth. China a land of famine and plagues endless childbirth among them. The births of daughters seen as evil omens. "It is only a slave this time-not worth mentioning." Little girls sold as a matter of course. Growing up to be concubines with names like Lotus and Cuckoo and Pear Blossom. Women with feet like little deer hooves. Abject wives, shuffling six paces behind their men. All this filled me with anxiety. In our house the hus band was the meek and browbeaten one.

I never saw my father read, except for the newspaper. He did not read the Reader's Digests that he saved. He would not have been able to read The Good Earth. I am sure he could not write with fluency in any tongue. The older I grew the more I thought of him as illiterate. Hard for me to accept the fact that he did not read books. Say I grew up to be a writer. He would not read what I wrote.

The Naked Tree

Graphic novel adapted from a Korean classic about the postwar experience. An introduction by the daughter of the original author makes reference to some of those changes (including inserting the author directly into the narrative). A reflective story looking back at the Korean war and experiences of those living in Seoul.

My Monticello
From Litsy, I think the US version includes more than the UK one. The one I read included several short stories and the title novella. Imagining some kind of societal collapse on "race" lines, the narrator leads a group of fleeing arson victims to Jefferson's house. I really liked the thought here: the difficulties of rethinking priorities when living in a place that had been carefully preserved for so long (but immediate concerns are suddenly much more important).

When I was little, Momma told me about her first visit to Monticello. The whole third grade had traveled...to marvel at Jefferson's gadgets and admire the pristine grounds. As her group waited for their tour, eight-year-old Momma had realized this was the man her own mother had told her about. But we are, for real, kin with that old white president, Momma had insisted, even after her teacher bent close to warn her to quit "telling stories."

Finally back home after a delayed flight meant I spent about 24 hours more away from home than originally planned!

I’m glad you are safely home , and I hope you had an enjoyable holiday.Great collage of pictures.

Welcome back, I hope you had a lovely time.

>178 charl08: Frustrating the delay, but I guess it could have been worse Charlotte. Love the collage. Nice book hauls.

I hope you had a great trip. Any highlights?

Hope you had a great trip.

I seem to be getting really good at writing a post and then browsing away before I actually post it.

>179 vancouverdeb: Thanks Deborah. It was lovely to have a break, and my dad was fine when I got back (if anything, had also enjoyed the change). So I needn't have worried.

>180 MissWatson: Thanks Birgit. I was glad to get back to my own bed.

>181 Caroline_McElwee: It could always be worse! The delay was originally caused by a fault in the aeroplane, so I was (of course) glad that they turned around and went back. The bit after that felt unnecessarily stressful though, but will make me think again before booking a flight with more than one connection!

>182 BLBera: Thanks Beth. Lots! But it was particularly lovely to spend time with a friend from PhD days, her husband and her now teenage son! (I couldn't believe it, he's so grown up.) Visited three vineyards/ wineries over the border in Mexico - just beautiful.

>183 Helenliz: Thanks Helen. It was back to work today (sad face) - almost feels like I never left!

I got good news: I passed my PM exam, so I don't have to pay £££ to take it again. Phew!

The Gangster we are all Looking for (fiction)
I picked this up in San Diego, which was appropriate as it references an area of the city near where my friend now lives, known for having a large Vietnamese community. The young narrator has left Vietnam with her dad, and lives with 5 other men (at first) as they have also come from the refugee camp. We gradually learn what happened to hr mum and brother, as life gets back to 'normal' for the family.

It is hot and dusty where we live. Some people think it's dirty but they don't know much about us. They haven't seen our gardens full of lemongrass, mint, cilantro, and basil. Driving by with their windows rolled up, they've only seen the pigeons pecking at day-old rice and the skinny cats and dogs sitting in the skinny shade of skinny trees. Have they seen the berries that we pick, that turn our lips and fingertips red?

>184 charl08: well done, clever clogs! Never in doubt!!

I'm glad to read that your dad did well in your absence, Charlotte. I'm happy that you had such a nice holiday and congratulations on passing your PM exam!

As for Booker reading, for me,

Old God's Time and Prophet Song are tied for first place, ( for me) , and Western Lane and A Spell of Good Things tied for 2 nd place. I hope to start This Other Eden this evening.

Good thing I am not a judge on the Booker Prize panel. I have short reviews on my thread.

I’m on pins and needles waiting for the Booker Shortlist announcement, Charlotte. I’m about 1/2 way through This Other Eden . I’m not sure how it compares to the others I have read . A troubling read, at least so far.

Oh, that you had to return because of a problem with the airplane . That would be kind of scary, at least for me , but I am flying phobic .

>184 charl08: Congrats on passing! For what does PM stand?

>188 vancouverdeb: Eek, I'm glad to realise the shortlist is out today as I have The House of Doors and Prophet Song out of the library and I thought the announcement was next week - I'm expecting a rush of reservations for any that get shortlisted (and no, no idea which those might be!). Fortunately Islington Libraries have dropped charging fines. Too many new books have come through at once - my top of the pile read is now Tom Lake by Ann Patchett, and I also have borrowed new books by Anne Enright and Zadie Smith - there are 24 readers in the queue for the last one though there are 4 copies.

50% of Booker shortlisted authors this year are called Paul - neither of the two I've already read or the one I've read the first 20 pages of are on it. I did renew Prophet Song today though I only borrowed it on Monday - that library is not charging fines but I will feel guilty if I'm nowhere near finishing it on 12 October.

Paul Harding, This Other Eden
Paul Lynch, Prophet Song
Paul Murray, The Bee Sting
Jonathan Escoffery, If I Survive You
Chetna Maroo, Western Lane
Sarah Bernstein, Study for Obedience

>186 Helenliz: So glad to have that piece of paper. More changes coming up at work so nice to have more options!

>187 vancouverdeb: >188 vancouverdeb: >189 vancouverdeb: Sounds like you have been busy Booker-watching, Deborah. I was gutted Tan Twan Eng didn't get shortlisted, I hope lots of people find his book.

The plane situation wasn't so bad, it didn't occur to me to worry until we'd landed.

>190 Tess_W: Project management. It was only a short course.

>191 elkiedee: >192 elkiedee: The Paul thing came up in the bookgroup chat at work too.
Thank goodness for the women's prize, is all I can add at this point.

If I hadn't just bought a load of book-related merch in Powells this month (a humblebrag that works in limited contexts, I suspect) I'd be hitting 'buy' on these straight away.
https://shop.womensprizeforfiction.co.uk/products/pins

I think I'll start a new thread. I just heard we're on strike next week so hopefully I can catch up with some reading and reviews.