avatiakh (Kerry) reads from her shelves #2

My visit to Libreria Acqua Alta in Venice late last year. The bookshop is subject to flooding so many books are stacked in boats, the most picturesque is this gondola. There is also a gondola tied up outside in the canal, you can step out of the shop's backdoor for a photo.

Welcome to my 2024 thread.
I'm Kerry from Auckland, New Zealand. I read widely though not as prolificly as previous years. I signed up to LT in 2008 and joined the 75 Books in 2009 group. In 2023 I went travelling for three months around the world including time with my daughter who lives in London. While I couldn't get to Israel as planned I did end up with extra time in Bangkok and really enjoyed my time there. This year I'm staying home and hope to include reading books set in many of the places I visited.

Currently Reading:
Maror by Lavie Tidhar (Israel) - stalled
Tyll by Daniel Kehlmann
The Iliad by Homer (audio) - only 3hrs left

Came across this restaurant in Prague, apparently there are several 'The Good Soldier Švejk' inspired restaurants around. Jaroslav Hašek's 1923 novel lives on and i hope to read it this year.
https://www.seriouseats.com/restaurants-inspired-by-the-good-soldier-svejk

My 2024 Category Challenge
1) Local - Australia & New Zealand
2) UK & Ireland
3) Europe
4) Israel & Holocaust Literature
5) The Americas
6) Africa
7) Asia
8) Scifi & Fantasy
9) Juvenile - children's & YA
10) Illustrated - manga, GNs & picturebooks
11) Nonfiction
12) Dropbox - anything that slips through the gaps

Loy Krathong (Festival of Lights) is one of the most picturesque festivals in Bangkok. It’s when people gather around lakes, rivers and canals to pay respects to the goddess of water by releasing beautiful lotus-shaped rafts, decorated with candles, incense and flowers onto the water. We happened on a light and sound show at the canal by our hotel.

Goals for 2024

Read from my shelves - I must commit to reading more of my own books and slow down my library requests.
Writers I'd like to focus a little on include Richard Zimler, Louis de Bernieres & Mollie Hunter as I own most of their works.
Finish Reading The Children's Book by A.S. Byatt - my epic fail for the past couple of years

plus a repeat of my unsuccessful 2022/3 goals which includes the books I vouched for over on the Club Read 2022's HOPE TO READ SOON: a tribute to Rebeccanyc -
Aira, César. The Seamstress and the Wind - Jan
Bergelson, Dovid. The End of Everything - Mar
Rufin, Jean-Christophe. The Abyssinian - May
Rufin, Jean-Christophe. The Siege of Isfahan - Jul
The 2023 HOPE TO READ thread is here: https://www.librarything.com/topic/346710

Holocaust Literature Group
_____

Holocaust Literature - A couple of years ago Lisa (labfs39) and I started a Holocaust Literature group which anyone is welcome to join -
We set this up as a separate place to record and discuss Holocaust related books and media.
I didn't meet my reading goals this past year though I read several Holocaust memoirs and some fiction.
I visited several Holocaust museums and memorials on my travels.

so many worthy books I've still not read -
This Way for the Gas, Ladies and Gentlemen by Tadeusz Borowski
Lovely Green Eyes by Arnošt Lustig
Brodeck's Report by Philippe Claudel
Memory by Philippe Grimbert Read May 2024
The Cap: The Price Of A Life by Roman Frister
If not now, when? by Primo Levi

My Holocaust Literature reading thread: https://www.librarything.com/topic/338441#n8014630

The two black cats resident at the Poe Museum in Richmond, Virginia. I was there in September and enjoyed finding out more about Edgar Allan Poe's life.

Some of the Awards, series and trilogies that I'm concentrating on -

Captain Alatriste by Arturo Pérez-Reverte - 2/7
Latin American Trilogy by Louis de Bernières - 0/3

Crime -
Rebus by Ian Rankin - 24/24
Cormoran Strike by Robert Galbraith - 7/7
Pepe Carvalho by Manuel Vázquez Montalbán - 5/23 - reading what I can find
Kramer and Zondi by James McClure - 1/8
Nina Borg by Lene Kaaberbøl - 3/4
Paula Maguire by Claire McGowan - 3/6

Scifi
Skyward by Brandon Sanderson - 3/4
Murderbot by Martha Wells 7/7
Prefect Dreyfus by Alastair Reynolds 2/3

Fantasy
Rivers of London by Ben Aaronovitch 6/9 - need to get back to this one
Temeraire by Naomi Novik - 3/9
The Black Jewels Trilogy by Anne Bishop - 0/3

Children's/YA
Swallows and Amazons by Arthur Ransome - 1/12
Lorien Legacies by Pittacus Lore - 1/7

Manga:
Buddha vol.1 by Osamu Tezuka 1/8
Vagabond vol 1 VIZBIG Omnibus Edition Series by Takehiko Inoue 3/12

Prix Goncourt:
I've read books that have won the Award, some older ones are hard to find.
Here's what's on my radar for the near future:
The Battle by Patrick Rambaud - reading for The War Room challenge's Napoleonic Wars - May
Memory by Philippe Grimbert - Read 2024

also ongoing is my read of the winners of the UK Carnegie Medal in Children's Literature‎.
'The CILIP Carnegie and Kate Greenaway Medals are the UK’s oldest and best-loved children’s book awards.
The CILIP Carnegie Medal is awarded by children’s librarians for an outstanding book written in English for children and young people.'
I like that this is awarded by librarians. The Kate Greenaway Medal is for illustration, so mainly picturebooks win.

Carnegie Medal (UK) Winners update-

2023 Manon Steffan Ros The Blue Book of Nebo- READ 2024
2022 Katya Balen, October, October
2021 Jason Reynolds Look Both Ways
2020, Anthony McGowan, Lark - Read
2019 Elizabeth Acevedo, The Poet X - Read
2018 Geraldine McCaughrean, Where the World Ends - READ 2023
2017 Ruta Sepetys, Salt to the Sea - READ 2023
2016 Sarah Crossan, One - Read
2015 Tanya Landman, Buffalo Soldier - Read
2014 Kevin Brooks, The Bunker Diary - Read
2013 Sally Gardner, Maggot Moon - Read
2012 Patrick Ness, A Monster Calls - Read
2011 Patrick Ness, Monsters of Men - Read
2010 Neil Gaiman, The Graveyard Book - Read
2009 Siobhan Dowd, Bog Child - Read
2008 Philip Reeve, Here Lies Arthur - Read
2007 Meg Rosoff, Just in Case - Read
2005 Mal Peet, Tamar - Read
2004 Frank Cottrell Boyce, Millions - READ 2024
2003 Jennifer Donnelly, A Gathering Light - Read
2002 Sharon Creech, Ruby Holler - Read
2001 Terry Pratchett, The Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents - own
2000 Beverley Naidoo, The Other Side of Truth - own
1999 Aidan Chambers, Postcards from No Man’s Land - Read
1998 David Almond, Skellig - Read
1997 Tim Bowler, River Boy - READ 2024
1996 Melvin Burgess, Junk - Read
1995 Philip Pullman, His Dark Materials - Read
1994 Theresa Breslin, Whispers in the Graveyard
1993 Robert Swindells, Stone Cold - READ 2024
1992 Anne Fine, Flour Babies - Read
1991 Berlie Doherty, Dear Nobody
1990 Gillian Cross, Wolf - Read
1989 Anne Fine, Goggle-eyes - Read
1988 Geraldine McCaughrean, A Pack of Lies - Read
1987 Susan Price, The Ghost Drum
1986 Berlie Doherty, Granny was a Buffer Girl
1985 Kevin Crossley-Holland, Storm - READ 2024
1984 Margaret Mahy, The Changeover - Read
1983 Jan Mark, Handles - READ 2024
1982 Margaret Mahy, The Haunting - Read
1981 Robert Westall, The Scarecrows
1980 Peter Dickinson, City of Gold and Other Stories from the Old Testament
1979 Peter Dickinson, Tulku - own
1978 David Rees, The Exeter Blitz - Read 2022
1977 Gene Kemp, The Turbulent Term of Tyke Tiler - Read
1976 Jan Mark, Thunder and Lightnings
1975 Robert Westall, The Machine Gunners - Read
1974 Mollie Hunter, The Stronghold - Read
1973 Penelope Lively, The Ghost of Thomas Kempe - Read
1972 Richard Adams, Watership Down - Read
1971 Ivan Southall, Josh - Read
1970 Leon Garfield & Edward Blishen, The God Beneath the Sea
1969 Kathleen Peyton, The Edge of the Cloud
1968 Rosemary Harris, The Moon in the Cloud - Read 2021
1967 Alan Garner, The Owl Service - Read
1965 Philip Turner, The Grange at High Force
1964 Sheena Porter, Nordy Bank - READ 2024
1963 Hester Burton, Time of Trial
1962 Pauline Clarke, The Twelve and the Genii - Read 2021
1961 Lucy M Boston, A Stranger at Green Knowe
1960 Dr IW Cornwall, The Making of Man
1959 Rosemary Sutcliff, The Lantern Bearers - own
1958 Philippa Pearce, Tom’s Midnight Garden - Read
1957 William Mayne, A Grass Rope - own
1956 C S Lewis, The Last Battle - Read
1955 Eleanor Farjeon, The Little Bookroom READ 2023
1954 Ronald Welch (aka Ronald Oliver Felton), Knight Crusader - READ 2024
1953 Edward Osmond, A Valley Grows Up
1952 Mary Norton, The Borrowers - own
1951 Cynthia Harnett, The Wool Pack - Read 2021
1950 Elfrida Vipont Foulds, The Lark on the Wing - Read 2021
1949 Agnes Allen, The Story of Your Home
1948 Richard Armstrong, Sea Change READ 2023
1947 Walter De La Mare, Collected Stories for Children
1946 Elizabeth Goudge, The Little White Horse - Read
1944 Eric Linklater, The Wind on the Moon - Read 2021
1942 ‘BB’ (D J Watkins-Pitchford), The Little Grey Men - own
1941 Mary Treadgold, We Couldn’t Leave Dinah - Read 2021
1940 Kitty Barne, Visitors from London
1939 Eleanor Doorly, Radium Woman
1938 Noel Streatfeild, The Circus is Coming - own
1937 Eve Garnett, The Family from One End Street - own
1936 Arthur Ransome, Pigeon Post - own

Reading Plans for April:

I have library books to read, but also drew a few books off my shelves to consider. My reading also leads me on to other books.

Currently reading:
Doing Time by Jodi Taylor - a lighter read.
How do you live? by Genzaburo Yoshino - already overdue at library so needs to be read asap. Luckily our library system no longer does fines.
The teacher by Michal Ben-Naftali
The Iliad by Homer

want to read:
Victory City by Salman Rushdie
A communist in the family Rewi Alley biography by Elspeth Sandys
Cold Crematorium: Reporting from the Land of Auschwitz by József Debreczeni

War Room - Religious Wars
not sure where I put these two books after taking them off the shelves during the planning stages in December -
Bar Kochba : The rediscovery of the legendary hero of the last Jewish revolt against imperial Rome by Yigael Yadin
Knight Crusader by Ronald Welch
and
Tyll by Daniel Kelmann - Thirty Year War

other library books:
The Consultant by Seong-Sun Im
Strange Haven: a Jewish childhood in Shanghai by Sigmund Tobias

Too many of these are library books.

Happy new thread, Kerry.

Thanks for sharing the book related pictures from last years travels.

48) The Consultant by Seong-Sun Im (2023 English) (2010 Korea)
crime
I enjoyed this one. It's written as a sort of confession and while there was for the most part a lack of emotion in the book, once things got personal the protagonist had to acknowledge his need to make a decision.
The consultant describes his behind the scenes work, how he was recruited, his success stories, and then things get tricky fast.

>7 FAMeulstee: Hi Anita. Thanks for visiting. I have so many photos from my travels, many inspire my reading plans for the year.

I'd like to reaad more set in Bangkok but mostly I'm finding crime novels.

My last post on old thread:
I visited a charity shop yesterday and picked up three paperbacks in great condition -
Under Occupation by Alan Furst
Act of Oblivion by Robert Harris
South Sea Vagabonds by J.W.Wray

Currently reading and enjoying:
The Consultant by Im Seong-Sun - finished
Knight Crusader by Ronald Welch
also Tiger tiger by Lynne Reid Banks but not enjoying as much as plot is leading up to fights in the Colosseum that I'm not sure I want to read about, but it's a children's book so can't be too horrific.

...and I'm off to the library this morning to pick up The Running Grave.

I went to The Warehouse (New Zealand version of Walmart) to pick up an item for my cats, it was raining so heavily that I browsed the books section till it stopped and came away with two books.
The Enigma Game by Elizabeth Wein
Silk and Song omnibus by Dana Stabenow - set on 14th century Silk Road

Happy new thread, Kerry, as your new digs will countless continue to provide me more fuel for my book acquisition compulsion syndrome!

Happy new thread Kerry!

>1 avatiakh: >2 avatiakh: >3 avatiakh: What arresting images. The book boat had me wondering from first glance, and the fanciful oddity of a book named restaurant, let alone several, and while I've only bounced off The Good Soldier Švejk, it seems strange that it would be such an inspiration. Is food much a part of it?

And the Bangkok is so ethereal! Such a wonder.

Happy new one, Kerry!

Have a lovely weekend, Kerry.

Happy new thread, Kerry. Now, I want to visit Venice just to visit this bookshop! You have some great photos.

>11 PaulCranswick: >14 PaulCranswick: Hi Paul - I seem to have gone missing in action again.

>12 quondame: Hi Susan - Most places I visited I googled for 'amazing boojstores' and got to see a few good ones. I think the book The Good Soldier Švejk does have some mention of food, I haven't read it so can't be too sure.
I loved Bangkok, so much more than I thought I would. We stayed in the Chinatown district. I've been cooking a lot of Thai food since I got back home.

>13 drneutron: Hi Jim!
>15 BLBera: The bookshop has mainly books in Italian so there isn't much worth browsing. I bought a few bookmarks and managed to find one English language book I liked. The water was lapping on the back doorstep where the outdoor gondala was tied up so was easy to imagine the place being flooded.
I'll look out some more photos when I have time.

49) River Boy by Tim Bowler (1997)
children's fiction
Carnegie Medal (UK) 1997. Not a compelling read for me though quite a well thought out story. It's more for a thoughtful young reader as there's not much action.

50) The Teacher by Michal Ben-Naftali (2016)
fiction
Quite a difficult read as the narrator is so distanced from 'the teacher'. The narrative is told in the present day by one of her ex-students, many years after the teacher died by suicide and that was many years after her traumatic war experiences and guilt not just at being a Holocaust survivor but also from being one of those saved by Kastner and having to endure the 1954 Kastner trial.

,

Small in the City by Sydney Smith (2019)
picturebook
I requested this from the library as I noticed that Smith just won the 2024 Hans Christian Andersen Medal (Illustration). I really liked his illustration work in Sidewalk Flowers so wanted to see what else he'd done. Quite a sweet story once you realise that a missing cat is involved. The artwork conveys the story as there is minimal text.

51) Knight Crusader by Ronald Welch (1954)
children's fiction
Carnegie Medal (UK) 1954. Carey Family #1. Read for the War of Religions April challenge.
I really enjoyed this one. The fighting scenes are well described as is the use of armour and weapons. Outremer born and bred, Philip's first battle is the Battle of Hattin where he sees not only his father killed but also his uncle and young cousin.
The book includes encounters with real life personages such as Usamah Ibn-Menquidh whose memoirs, Memoirs of an Arab-Syrian Gentleman Or an Arab Knight in the Crusades Memoirs of Usamah Ibn-Munqidh are probably an excellent primary source for those interested in how Muslims perceived the Crusaders. Also Rashid al-Din Sinan known as the Old Man of the mountains, leader of the Order of Assassins...and the leaders of the Third Crusade.

52) October 16, 1943 / Eight Jews by Giacomo Debenetti (1945)
essays
There are two essays by Debenetti, a preface by Alberto Moravia and a short essay by Estelle Gilson on the fate of the Roman Jewish Community Library.
In a few pages Debenetti describes the fateful morning of October 16, 1943 when the SS round up most of the Jewish community living in and around the Ghetto in Rome. The second essay, Eight Jews is a response to a police officer's testimony on the Ardeatine Cave Massacres (March 24, 1944).
There is a translator's introduction as well which offers background on Debenetti and the incidents.
From wikipedia: 'Debenetti was an Italian writer, essayist and literary critic. He was one of the greatest interpreters of literary criticism in Italy in the 20th century, one of the first to embrace the lessons of psychoanalysis and the human sciences in general, and among the first to grasp the full extent of Marcel Proust's genius.'

The essay on the fate of the Roman Jewish Community Library is also interesting as unlike most libraries of Hebrew manuscripts which were mostly recovered after the war only very few books or manuscripts have ever been found. The contents were transported to Germany but what happened then remains a mystery. As the oldest Jewish community in Europe the documents in the library were known to be rare and antique but had never been properly catalogued.

Current reading:
The Running Grave by Robert Galbraith
Apricots on the Nile by Colette Rossant
2 vols of Spy Family manga & four vols of The Apothecary Diaries manga
Warrior of God: Jan Zizka and the Hussite Revolution by Victor Verney

and a few others that I need to try and finish before the month end
Cold Crematorium: Reporting from the Land of Auschwitz by József Debreczeni
Hour of Need: The Daring Escape of the Danish Jews during World War II: A Graphic Novel by Ralph Shayne
Koro's star by Claire Aramakutu
The Iliad by Homer - audio

Just a fly-by to say hello, Kerry. Interesting reviews as usual.

_
53) Spy x Family, Vol. 3 by Tatsuya Endo
54) Spy x Family, Vol. 4 by Tatsuya Endo
manga
I'd requested these months ago after finishing the first two volumes. This is a wildly popular series about a fake family - the husband/father is a masterspy and needs a wife and daughter so he can infiltrate an enemy via an elite school. He's unaware that his fake wife is a deadly assassin and the daughter can read minds. Together they bumble along.
Vol. 3 wasn't great, but vol. 4 was fun as the story had a lot of action and the family adopts a dog.
Leaving this series here.

>23 labfs39: waves to Lisa

___
55) The Apothecary Diaries Manga, Vol. 8 by Natsu Hyuuga (2023)
56) The Apothecary Diaries Manga, Vol. 9 by Natsu Hyuuga (2023)
57) The Apothecary Diaries Manga, Vol. 10 by Natsu Hyuuga (2023)
58) The Apothecary Diaries Manga, Vol. 11 by Natsu Hyuuga (2024)
manga
Continuing my read of my favorite manga series. Still enjoying finding out palace secrets and Maomao's unique skills in solving all sorts of mysterious incidents. The next one comes out in September.

59) A Chinese Fantasy Law of the Fox book 2 by Yen Samejima (2017 Japan) (2023 English)
manga
A collection of short tales relating to foxes, wolves, tigers and a bear which morph into human form. Most stories end sadly for the human whose fallen in love and not so well for the animal either. Enjoyable manga, I was attracted by the cover art but won't continue with any future volumes.

60) Koro's Star by Claire Aramakutu (2024)
children's fiction
Tom Fitzgibbon Award 2023. This New Zealand award is for a manuscript by a new writer for children. This was a worthy winner. Set in the 1960s it's about a family newly arrived to a home on an army base just as their father ships out to the Vietnam War. His father leaves Atama his own father's WW1 medal to help him be brave when making friends and fitting in to his new home.

61) Lopini the Legend by Feana Tu'akoi (2023)
children's fiction
Tom Fitzgibbon Award 2022. I really enjoyed this one. The story was very fun and quite believable. Lopini is a high achiever at school and his only problem is that he gets so stressed out at the possibility of failure that he no longer does anything where he might not come first.
With his best friend Fi to help him he sets out to be a failure at least once a week....but events tend to have a life of their own.

62) Stone Cold by Robert Swindells (1993)
YA
Carnegie Medal UK, 1993. Fairly good story about a homeless boy trying to survive on the streets of London. He left home rather than put up with his mother's boyfriend and now while living on the streets it's impossible to get a job or even help. Swindells says in the author notes that he felt compelled to write about the issue of child homelessness after a visit to London.

Current Reads:
I've put The Running Grave to one side while I try to finish a couple more books this month:
Hour of Need: The Daring Escape of the Danish Jews during World War II: A Graphic Novel
Cold Crematorium: Reporting from the Land of Auschwitz

63) Cold Crematorium: Reporting from the Land of Auschwitz by József Debreczeni (1950 Hungarian) (2024 English)
memoir
One of the few new books I've purchased this year. I ordered it as soon as I heard about it on 'X'. This is a memoir of journalist Debreczeni's time surviving first in work camps and then in a hospital camp. While it was first published in 1950, the book was never translated due to Cold War politics and then became forgotten until recently. Incredible that he survived, the brutality and cruelty, much by fellow Jews in positions of authority, is heartbreaking.
His time in Dörnhau, a 'hospital' camp in the last months before liberation is described in bitter detail...so much death. .

Reading plans for May:
I seem to be quite optimistic about reading for the month as I've pulled quite a number of books off the shelves and have the usual pile of library books

Bristish Author Challenge: Magical Portals
Imajica by Clive Barker - fantasy chunkster that's sat on my shelves since forever

War Room challenge: Napoleonic Wars
The Battle: a novel by Patrick Rambaud - Prix Goncourt Award (1997) - off my shelves

TIOLI entries:
Demonosity by Amanda Ashby - off my shelves
Memory by Philippe Grimbert - off my shelves
Bookshop Dogs by Ruth Shaw - library book
The goodbye cat: seven cat stories by Hiro Arikawa - library book
Tiger, tiger by Lynne Reid Banks -children's ebook
Bullseye Bella by James T. Guthrie - childrens fiction & Tom Fitzgibbon Award - off my shelves
The Impossible Story of Hannah Kemp by Leonie Agnew - YA & Tessa Duder Award - off my shelves
The Running Grave by Robert Galbraith - about halfway through this chunkster - library book
The Refugee Summer by Edward Fenton - children's book set in Athens - off my shelves
Space Demons by Gillian Rubenstein - children's book from my shelves
Among the imposters by Margaret Peterson Haddix - children's book from my shelves
The Hebrew Teacher by Maya Arad - three novellas - library book
Strange Sally Diamond by Liz Nugent- crime - library book

Carnegie Medal (UK)
requested a few more from the library
Tulku by Peter Dickinson
Handles by Jan Mark
Nordy Bank by Sheena Porter

Audio:
The Iliad by Homer
The Magus by John Fowles

This morning I read a chunk of Bookshop Dogs which is quite pedestrian and not that interesting. It's a lovely hardback edition that will sell copies from the cover alone but the interior photos of the dogs aren't even that great, the stories just don't appeal. Will be a quick read.
I also started on The Battle, Imajica and Bullseye Bella - these are all promising.

I also have a number of e-books on the go, several I started last year but I don't e-read that much.

Did I learn about A Faraway Island from you, Kerry? I just finished it and wanted to thank whoever brought the series to my attention.

>35 labfs39: Not me. I haven't read it according to GR where I've logged all my reading since 2008.

Great comments as usual. Small in the City has a great cover. Knight Crusader sounds interesting as does Stone Cold. Cold Crematorium sounds heartbreaking.

Good luck with your ambitious May plans.

>37 BLBera: Hi Beth. I thought Knight Crusader was well researched and is the first of several books on the Carey family's military history through the ages. I read quite a lot on the Crusades a few years ago.
I'm enjoying reading the older Carnegie Medal winners, a reminder of what makes books for children and teens so great. Nowadays there seems to be an overwhelming paranormal or fantasy element to much on offer.

I've had to add a couple more books to my reading plans because I added a challenge to the TIOLI challenges.

64) Demonosity by Amanda Ashby (2013)
YA
Had this ex-library paperback on my tbr pile for a long while and started reading a chapter here and there a few weeks back. Ashby lives in New Zealand and has had a few romance novels publised in the US. I read her You had me at Halo many years ago and really enjoyed it.
This one is a YA book and an easy read. Cassidy is plunged into an adventure when she becomes the guardian of the Black Rose, an ancient force that's arrived through time from the 14th century.

65) Among the imposters by Margaret Peterson Haddix (2001)
children's
Shadow Children #2. I read the first book in this series many years ago and had the second book lying around probably since then. Luke, an illegal third child, is given a new identity and begins life at a boarding school that seems to be full of secrets.
Quite a good read though I won't continue with the series as too juvenile for me. I've also read the first in her The Missing series and enjoyed that too. These would be popular reads for middle graders.

66) Hour of Need: The Daring Escape of the Danish Jews during World War II by Ralph Shayne (2023)
children's graphic novel
The enveloping story is that of a Jewish grandmother visiting Copenhagen with her two grandchildren and as they visit the sights she tells them about when she was a young girl and her family's life in Denmark during the war and then their dramatic escape to Sweden. The GN covers background stories about the King of Denmark & various political leaders as well as one of the underground resistance movements. The art style grows on you.
Loosely based on Shayne's own family story.

67) Memory by Philippe Grimbert (2004)
fiction
Prix Goncourt 2004. This can be considered a Holocaust story though it's not focused on that aspect especially, it is Grimbert's own family story. First published as 'Un Secret' it's about Grimbert only finding out when he turns 15 from a family friend that his father had a son and wife who perished in the Holocaust. Before, his mother was actually his father's sister-in-law who he met and fell in love with on his wedding day before the war. The attraction was mutual though the couple persevered with their marriages but the war years resolved their relationship with the deaths of their spouses in camps. They lived all those post war years with guilt and disapproval from family, the lives of the lost two spouses and child were not remembered which Grimbert became obsessed with. He has re-imagined his parent's story.

As I was reading this I went to a Guardian review to find out how true the story was and was shocked by the opening sentence: 'Twenty years after his parents jumped from the window of their Parisian apartment to their deaths, Philippe Grimbert decided to write about the secret that had overwhelmed their lives.'
Quite a fascinating read.

68) Bullseye Bella by James T. Guthrie (2019)
children's fiction
Tom Fitzgibbon (Manuscript) Award 2018. I really loved this hardcase story. Bella is a 12 year old dart playing prodigy and ends up being eligible to enter the National Darts Competition. The 5 times winner is not happy and tries everything to sabotage her entry. Along for the ride is her little brother who has decided to live every day as a pirate. A total delight.
When I googled the writer to find out more about him, I came across a news item that the book's production rights had been sold and the film company had a list of actors they wanted for the various roles. This would make a delightful film though I think that the lockdowns killed it off before it was even begun.
I loved a lot about this book though special mention goes to Blackbeard, Bella's little brother and his fabulous pirate focused vocabulary. Laugh out loud moments.

69) The Running Grave by Robert Galbraith (2023)
crime
Cormoran Strike #7. I love a good absorbing read and J.K. Rowling certainly obliges again in another Cormoran Strike story, this time in the world of cults. Robin goes in undercover to try and find any proof of crimes and also to convince the son of their client to leave the cult. Lots of tense moments and I ended up reading this in record time - the last 500 pages in one day.

70) Bookshop Dogs by Ruth Shaw (2023)
nonfiction
Ruth Shaw wrote the wildly popular local memoir, The Bookseller at the End of the World, and has followed with little stories about the various dogs who arrive with customers to visit her bookshop. Each story is accompanied by a photo taken by a photographer friend whose dogs also feature. Interspersed throughout are stories of Shaw's own dog, Hunza, from earlier times. Hunza was a German Shepherd who worked alongside her when she was a Youth Aid Officer. Many of the youths or children found the confidence to confide because of Hunza.
I found most of this only mildly interesting, but some of the stories especially Hunza's ones were heartbreaking.
Ruth has had many new visitors to her bookshop who are fans of her memoir and I noticed an ex-LTer from long ago now only seen on GR, kiwiflora has visited the shop due to reading the memoir and also reviewed this one.

71) Strange Sally Diamond by Liz Nugent (2023)
crime
A few years ago I became a big Liz Nugent fan and read all her books in a rush but then bailed on Little Cruelties. I came across this one when it was mentioned in an X conversation, I liked the sound of the title and requested it from the library. I really enjoyed this, the story is set in both Ireland and New Zealand so some local flavour for me.
Now in her 40s, strange Sally Diamond has had an unusual childhood and that is before we find out about her life before she was adopted. After the death of her father everything changes.

So I'm currently reading a number of books:
Nordy Bank by Sheena Porter - a group of children go camping
The Battle by Patrick Rimbaud - Napoleon's first defeat
The Hebrew Teacher by Maya Arad - 3 novellas
The Goodbye Cat by Hiro Arikawa - 7 stories about cats
The Burned Letter: A New Zealander's Holocaust Mystery: A Memoir by Helene Ritchie - just started
and a few others I've dipped into

Today I browsed in Poppies, a local bookshop, and came away with two children's books -
The Apprentice Witnesser by Bren McDibble - New Zealand writer living in Australia. Love her books.
The boy who didn't want to die by Peter Lantos - based on his adult Holocaust memoir, Parallel Lines which I already own.

I also took notice of three nonfiction books to find out more about them-
I seek a kind person by Julian Borger
Forbidden Daughter: The True Story of a Holocaust Survivor by Zipora Klein Jakob
The Last Secret Agent by Pippa Latour wiith Jude Dobson - her family only found out about her WW2 exploits when they read about them on the internet in 2000. She died last year aged 102yrs - The bookshop had a window display so possibly she lived locally.

My son has just baked a batch of bagels. So good.

Yesterday I saw the film Golda, only my second cinema outing for the year, the other one was Dune 2. Golda focuses entirely on Golda Meir during the tense Yom Kippur War of 1973, so Helen Mirren's performance is front and centre and quite spectacular. I went with my history buff son so we had quite a good discussion afterwards. I was happy enough, I've read extensively, seen the 1982 Ingrid Bergman biopic and a few documenteries. I do want to read more because of the film. Now I have to look through our Israeli dvd collection to find some films for my son to watch.

Last night we finished watching the Shogun 10 episode series on tv as well. I never got over the casting for John Blackthorn - Cosmo Jarvis just wouldn't have been my pick. We watched one episode each evening with a couple of breaks, I wasn't really a fan - how can you squash a 1,000 page epic into 10 episodes. Still the cinematography, location shots and costuming were superb.

>48 avatiakh: I can almost smell and taste those bagels!

Helen Mirren is such a fabulous character actress. I must look for that film.

>49 PaulCranswick: Prepare yourself for endless chain smoking. The last film I saw that had so much cigarette smoke was Hannah Arendt.

I just found out that Mirren's paternal side was once Russian aristocracy.

>50 avatiakh: Her real name was Mironov or something like that, Kerry. I do recall that she is descended from Kamensky who was a leading General for the Russians in the Napoleonic wars.

>51 PaulCranswick: So a good month to find that out.

>21 avatiakh: That one is of interest to me. I will see if I can locate a copy.

>24 avatiakh: Those look fun! My local library has them too so I will have to give them a shot.

>32 avatiakh: Dodging a bunch of BBs including that one as I have already read it. 'So much death' is about it.

>42 avatiakh: Another one for me to track down a copy of at some point - Hoopla has it but it is in French, which is not very helpful since I do not read French. *sigh*

>46 avatiakh: I will look for that one too.

Thanks for all the recommendations, Kerry!

>42 avatiakh: I found the about-the-book almost more interesting than the book. I quoted this in my review:

Philippe Grimbert says that in writing this book, "I was finally becoming the master of a story of which I had so long been the dupe." Yet he also admits that "I think I have discovered the truth of this story more than its reality, but in any case, this psychological truth was more important to me than the historical reality." (Italics are the author's.)

Grimbert is a psychoanalyst, which leads to a different self-perspective. I find the books by the children of survivors to be quite interesting in general.

>54 labfs39: I can understand why he became a psychoanalyst. That bit about coming across the dog cemetery was quite symbolic. The 'about the book' was indeed very useful reading.

>53 alcottacre: I hope you can find a copy of the Debenedetti book. I found it really difficult, no interloans available in New Zealand.

Spy Family is very popular but not as good as other manga I've read. The set up is fun.

Read anything from Liz Nugent. I'm going to retry Little Cruelties.

72) Nordy Bank by Sheena Porter (1964)
children's fiction

Carnegie Medal (UK) 1964. This is set in rural Shropshire where a group of young teenagers decide to go camping for a few days. They camp on a windy hill on the site of what was once a iron or bronze age settlement, Nordy Bank. One of the girls seems to channel a connection through to those past times. There is also an escaped German Shepherd who has just been retired from the army and still needs to undergo new training for his retirement.
This was quite a lovely read set in an English world that I doubt exists anymore, though dated it's still a pleasure for those wanting 1960s nostalgia. There are puppies too.

Currently reads:
The Battle by Patrick Rimbaud
The Hebrew Teacher by Maya Arad - just one story left of the three.
Handles by Jan Mark - another Carnegie Medal winner, from the 1980s
The Burned Letter by Helene Ritchie

73) The Hebrew Teacher by Maya Arad (2018 Hebrew) (2024 English)
three novellas
I really liked these stories featuring ex-pat Israelis though they covered topics that were uncomfortable.
The Hebrew Teacher - a long established teacher of Hebrew at a college is forced to face a changing world when the new Professor of Hebrew Literature is not that keen on things Israeli or Judaism.
A Visit (Scenes) - An older grandmother comes to the US to see her first grandchild who is two or three years old. She's made to feel unwelcome by her busy son and standoffish wife, the grandson spends long hours in a daycare so she hardly sees him. There seems to be no love or family life in the home.
Make New Friends - A mother is distraught that her 13 year old daughter has no friends and goes about fixing this in the worse possible way - logging in to her daughter's social media.
This story really made me squirm.

A trip into the city yesterday and a visit to my favourite used bookshop which (sob) will probably close its doors at the end of the year when the lease expires after 55 years in business. Maud tells me that the current landlord refuses to renew the lease and they just cannot find anywhere in the central city with a decent rental agreement, landlords are just not friendly. She'd like to set up again somewhere in partnership with her granddaughter but they don't have the resources to do it.

74) Heroes by Robert Cormier (1998)
YA
Came across this on the Five Books website, it was one of five suggested by Melvin Burgess for children and YA readers. Francis fakes his birth certificate to sign up for the US Army at age 15. He returns home a hero but with a ruined face. He has fallen on a grenade and saved the lives of his platoon. He has only one thought and that is to end the life of the town's other war hero. Quite a lot of story in only 90 odd pages.

>60 avatiakh: How sad. I wish bookstores were valued more highly.

>62 labfs39: Now there is only one used bookshop for me to visit in my city, Hard to Find Books, which is pretty good but not in the CBD.

Free ebook: One Day in October - 'One Day in October is a unique, ambitious book of monologues that introduces its readers to forty real-life heroes. All 40 stories take place within the same twenty-four-hour period, in the same strip of beautiful, broken, blood-soaked land.'
https://mailchi.mp/korenpub.com/mzmfksmo6o?utm_source=Koren+Publishers+English+L...

>63 avatiakh: Looks interesting. I downloaded the sample chapters.

>64 labfs39: I also downloaded. The email gave the impression it was the whole book but is actually a sampler e-book.
I came across a list of books about Israel on 'X' yesterday. It's extensive and definitely on the side of Israel but worth perusing. I haven't read many of them maybe only one or two.

My son went to the bathroom in the middle of the night and heard a car come up our rather long driveway around 3am on Sunday night. It sat there for a long while so he woke me up. We put on the lights in the stairwell and I checked with my other son that he hadn't left anything valuable in his car. It eventually left but we were fairly shaken as we've had our cars broken into and also been burgled in recent times.
I stayed downstairs until my husband got up to watch a sports game. So I scrolled through twitter and got lucky as one of his cousins posted on X and I would have missed it, a photo of his mother and grandmother for Mother's Day I presume. His grandmother was from Minsk and was the sister of my husband's grandmother. Dick Zigun is the unofficial mayor of Coney Island and usually posts weird stuff or vintage photos of Coney Island so it was a good catch for me as photos of this part of the family are scarce for us. He also recently posted some photos of the P.T. Barnum circus in Bridgeport where their headquarters were. One was of rows of elephants waiting out the winter season.

Shoshanna's Books to understand Israel:
(plus a few from comments)

Israel’s Moment, Jeffrey Herf
The Claim of Dispossession, Arieh Avneri
1948, Benny Morris
The War of Return, Einat Wilf
The Arc of a Covenant, Walter Russell Mead
Doomed to Succeed, Dennis Ross
Uprooted, Lyn Julius
Nazis, Islamists and the Making of the Modern Middle East, Barry Rubin
The Jews Should Keep Quiet , Rafael Madoff
Lawfare, Orde Kittrie
Ike’s Gamble, Michael Doran
Palestine Betrayed , Efraim Karsh
Black Wave, Kim Ghattas
America's Game, Hugh Wilford
The Arab Lobby, Michael Bard
Armies of Sand, Kenneth Pollack
Glubb Pusha and the Arab Legion, Graham Jevon
The Arabists, Robert Kaplan
Nazi Propaganda for the Arab World, Jeffrey Herf
The Farhud, Edwin Black
Semites and antisemites, Bernard Lewis
UN Gang, Pedro Sanjuan
Dancing With the Devil, Michael Rubin
Inside the Middle East, Avi Melamed
The Iran War, Jay Solomon
The Terror Years, Lawrence Wright
Inside the PLO, Neil Livingstone
The Oslo Syndrome, Kenneth Levin
The Pledge, Leonard Slater
Behind the Myth- Arafat, Andrew Gowers
The American House of Saud, Steven Emerson
The Vanished Imam, Fouad Ajami
The Rape of Palestine, William Ziff
The Birth of Israel: The Drama as I Saw it, Jorge Garcia Granados
Yasir Arafat, A Political Biography, Barry Rubin
Lawrence and Aaronsohn, Ronald Florence
The Israeli Solution, Caroline Glick
The Invention of the Palestinians, Emmett Laor
The Chatham House Version, Elie Kedourie
From Time Immemorial by Joan Peters
The Revolt by Menachem Begin
History of the Jews by Simon Dubnov.
Betrayal: The Failure of American Jewish Leadership by Charles Roberts
The Prime Ministers by Yehuda Avner
Abba Eban: an autobiography
Perfidy by Ben Hecht
Noa Tishby, Israel: A Simple Guide to the Most Misunderstood Country on Earth
David Meir Levi, History Upside Down,
Samuel Katz, Battleground,
Yaacov Lozewick, Right to Exist
Salomon Benzimra, Jewish Peoples Rights to the Land of Israel
Yaacov Katz, The Weapons Wizards
Ben Netanyahu, A Durable Peace

75) Andromeda Bond in Trouble Deep by Brian Falkner (2023)
YA
Brainjack #2. This is a sequel to Brainjack (2009) and is published by Brian's own Red Button Press. Not really necessary to remember every detail from the first book as this one is about the daughter who is now 12 years old. Andromeda has been brought up in an offline environment so her identity is well hidden but now a little ahead of schedule she must face the adversary that cost her father's life.
An exciting read as expected. I visited Brian's website to see if he had any new books out and came across this one.

Current reads:
The Battle by Patrick Rimbaud - still in the early pages
Imajica by Clive Barker - chunkster that I think I'll like once I get into it
The Burned Letter by Helene Ritchie - read quite a chunk of this these past two days
Strange Haven by Sigmund Tobias - about Jewish Shanghai during the war years

>65 avatiakh: That's scary. I hope they don't return.

>66 avatiakh: Quite the list. Do you think you will try and read through them, or just pick a few?

>69 labfs39: We've taken to locking the front door at all times. Just that even when we're home they could quietly slip in and enter my oldest son's room if he's not there. He has a lot of music equipment & guitars that would be a disaster to have taken. He lost gear in all the incidents that we've had. We've put in new blinds so you can't see into his room but need to do more obviously.

The list is quite interesting, many books I've not come across before. I'll definitely pull the Joan Peters book off my shelves. I own a couple of the others. I was interested to read more nonfiction on the Yom Kippur War after seeing the Golda film.
I know that the British Mandate period is having documents made available all the time now in the UK as the 100 years comes around and some of the more recent publications take this into account, shedding new light onto historical record. I'll probably pick up one of those books as well.

>69 labfs39: Have made my way through checking out some of the list books and many are recent and just too expensive to contemplate buying and my library doesn't have them either so that means interlibrary loans.
I'll start with From time immemorial: The Origins of the Arab-Jewish Conflict over Palestine by Joan Peters as I've owned that one for many years. I see in the introduction that she thanks several historians such as Martin Gilbert & Bernard Lewis for their time and access to documents and books. Will put this down for reading in June.
My son is currently reading and enjoying Martin Gilbert's In Ishmael's House: A History of Jews in Muslim Lands. He's been a hardline lefty, studied politics and history and I could hardly hold a conversation with him on some topics political. We just travelled together for three months and mostly avoided these discussions. Then the events in Israel overtook any differences we might have had. Since we got home he has embraced his Jewish heritage and belongs to a Jewish /Israeli support group on discord.

I've been out of touch and haven't visited your thread in awhile. This is a bad month for reading as I'm concentrating on getting the house spic and span and in order.

I'm glad I stopped by. I added many of your books to my tbr pile, and your descriptions of travels made me so very envious. What a wonderful trip seeing so very interesting places.

Certainly the European travels were incredibly interesting, I smiled seeing two black cats at the Edgar Allan Poe house. In college I took an American Literature class with a man who was incredibly interesting. We spent a good deal of time reading Poe's tales.

Thanks for such a wonderful thread Kerry. I'll be sure to visit more often.

All good wishes, and many thanks for sharing!!!

>67 avatiakh: Congratulations on reaching 75, Kerry!

>72 Whisper1: Hi Linda and thanks for visiting. I've also not been following as many threads as usual, I've concentrated on actual reading. I realise I own too many books, that I can't get to them all so have been doing serioius culling these past year or so. There's a local book fair each September and I set myself a target of 20 boxes of books - mostly older paperbacks that I got from earlier bookfairs and will never get to. The few gems are kept but it's mostly popular fiction.

We had a very fulfilling day in Richmond, Virginia. The Civil War Museum is educational, lots of interesting stories behind many personal artifacts. I liked that they had a library nook on the landing where you could browsse and read extracts from a variety of Civil War books.
The Edgar Allen Poe House museum gives a good overview of Poe's unhappy life. The cats were a lovely addition, especially for travellers like us who were missing our own ones.

We spent about 5 days in each European city and explored indepth as my son is a keen walker. We visited museums and parks and monuments and tried local food. I googled for interesting bookshops and libraries and we visited quite a number of those. I really enjoyed travelling with him again. We did a trip together about 12 years ago to Spain and Paris.

>73 FAMeulstee: Thanks Anita. Always good to get there in the first half of the year.

>71 avatiakh: My son just showed me a Vivian Silver quote in the Martin Gilbert book, she was one of the October 7 victims.
https://fathomjournal.org/in-memory-of-vivian-silver-1949-2023/

A lot in the few days I have been away from your thread, Kerry.

Firstly congratulations on passing 75 books already.

Secondly >66 avatiakh: Thank you for that list I am going to have a look for some of them although I suspect many of them will not be available here.

Thirdly I continue to be disturbed by much of the awfully ill-informed protesting going on in much of the West which to me is rampantly and blatantly anti-Semitic. Joe Biden should be ashamed of his willingness to appease the demonic elements in his party to pander for a few extra votes. The British are also letting down its law abiding Jewish citizenry and failing to protect their rights.

Fourth >57 avatiakh: I was book bulleted by that one. A nicer world entirely.

>77 PaulCranswick: Hi Paul. Thanks for visiting. The list is a good addition to others I have used and quite a lot are general Middle East politics reading. One area I've been remiss on is Soviet relations with the Arab states since WW2, the Golda film reminded me of that.

I don't like to do politics on my thread usually but the protests are absurd, the students seem to be frightfully uninformed and a lot of those arrested are outside agitators. Most of the students seem to be ignorant or just following a trend yet it's dangerous for Jewish students.
So much aid money has been poured into Gaza and most has been utilised by Hamas to build their underground infrastructure and it all needs to go. Egypt has always had a border with Gaza, yet this fact remains unexplored by most media and protestors. For the last few years they have been building a buffer zone to keep terrorists & smugglers at bay.

Might be hard to find Nordy Bank, I'm sure there are lots of other children's books with similar nostalgia.

Today a helpful assistant at my library recommended the oceanofpdf site for books that I can't get at my library rather than doing lots of interloans.

I picked well last week as I bought a copy of Lioness by Emily Perkins and it just won th Ockham Award for Fiction NZ.

>71 avatiakh: I hope someday to be able to travel with my daughter. Our last trip was almost 11 years ago when we went to France for several weeks. Recent events are horrible, but I'm glad they have brought you and your son closer.

>79 avatiakh: Thanks for the tip about oceanofpdf. I'm going to explore it further.

ETA: There seems to be some debate about whether they are infringing copyright with pirated copies. There have been multiple lawsuits.

76) Handles by Jan Mark (1983)
children's fiction

Carnegie Medal (1983) UK. Quite dated in someways yet interesting in that a young girl is quite obsessed with motorbikes and has the making of being a good mechanic. Erica is shunted off to her aunts in a dreary part of Norfolk where the daily tasks revolve round the vegetable garden and keeping a pesky peacock at bay. Eventually she discovers the local motorbike workshop and spends time there in the company of the owner Elsie and his sidekick Bunny. The title comes from the handles (nicknames) that Elsie gives to all and sundry, even to the cracks in the alleyway.
I enjoyed all the characters in this book even the unlikeable ones.

I have two more Carnegie Medal UK winners out from the library stacks to read, then I need to take a break for a few months.
Tulku by Peter Dickinson (1979)
The Scarecrows by Robert Westall (1981)

>81 labfs39: I just opeed the webpage for oceansofpdf and didn't really explore but also thought the books more recent than her explanation. So probably not a go to place for books.

Hope you get to travel together again at some point.

A book delivery to my house always brings on good feelings especially now that I hardly buy new books.

Fourth Wing & Iron Flame by Rebecca Yarros - library queues too long for these and I hope my daughter reads them as well
House of Earth and Blood by Sarah Maas - seen this around on the threads

Went into the city this morning and finally organised myself to visit Carmel, an Israeli eatery, which is tucked away in a side street just out of the city centre. It was very busy and the food was delightful. My son had falafel in pita as he wanted to see how it compared to the falafel he made last week for us. I had chicken schnitzel in challah. Both helpings were generous and their coffee is good so we'll be going back. It's only 5 minutes walk from Hard to Find Bookshop so we had a browse there as well.

I bought a few books:
The Brumby by Mary Elwyn Pratchett - children
The Rout of Ollafubs by K.G. Lethbridge - stories for children
Moonraker by F. Tenneyson Jesse
Europa Europa by Solomon Perl
Auschwitz to Australia by Olga Horak
Never Again: a history of the Holocaust by Martin Gilbert

>86 avatiakh: An Israeli restaurant of the same name recently opened in West Hollywood. It looks interesting, but doesn't have the extensive array of vegetable sides & salads of the Israeli place I loved that vanished while I wasn't looking. Cumin carrots were to die for, and I'm not a carrot fan - except carrot cake.

>87 quondame: No carrots here. It's a tiny place, they used to have a food truck. Only open Thursday thru Saturday. We brought home some babka and rugelach to try. No sides here either apart from fries.
https://www.instagram.com/carmelisraelistreetfood/?hl=en

Whe I first went to Tel Aviv I loved going to the Falafel Market which was probably not that hygenic but all the stalls had great falafel and lots of sides to throw on top.

>88 avatiakh: That looks delicious! The local Carmel looks upscale, which would be normal for the area, but has a limited menu. If I would try some of the plethora of Israeli places to the east of me I'd probably find what I want - I did find a sandwich/grocery/deli that did a great chicken sandwich and had lots of salads. But the kosher corridor intimidates me.

>89 quondame: We generally make our own Israeli food as there were no Israeli food places for many years and now there are two with limited opening times. I soak a bunch of chickpeas every month or so and we have a few days of intensive falafel, hummus, tahina eating. I usually make a simple Israeli salad each meal time, just chopped tomato & cucumber with olive oil, maybe a sprinkle of parsley or dill.
I make baba ganoush from time to time but lately my husband prefers fried eggplant. I generally make green tabbouli as it lasts longer without tomatoes. From time to time I blend up a batch of zhoug which is then dolloped onto almost everything.
Lately my son has taken over the hummus & falafel making, he's wanting to make the ultimate falafel!

>90 avatiakh: Stuffed grapeleaves, tabbouli, and hummus I grew up with, but falafel was a later introduction. But it was as Greek food rather than Israeli so that's probably why. Gyros was later too, now that I think of it. Chickpeas were from a can though.

I make a batch of dolmades from time to time though not my favourite thing to make. We had gyros a few times when in Athens last year.


The Secrets of Little Greek Taverna by Erin Palmiano (2024)
romance
DNF
I've seen this in the bookshops since it came out in February and the book fitted my plan of reading books set in Greece throughout the year. The author is a New Zealander / American and last week it was #3 in bestselling fiction book sales for New Zealand.
Anyway I was looking for a word to describe the first 30 or 40 pages and all I came up with is 'insipid'. Bland and not my thing at all. I'll leave it there, luckily I got this out from the library.

Just noticed that the two top Penguin editors in New Zealand lost their jobs last week in a restructure. Another nail in the NZ literature coffin.
https://thespinoff.co.nz/books/10-05-2024/two-senior-publishers-axed-at-penguin-...

also worth a look is this article 'No one buys books' - https://www.elysian.press/p/no-one-buys-books
about about the publishing industry from Penguin vs. US DOJ

Next NZ read might just be this debut novel, Everything is Beautiful and Everything Hurts by Josie Shapiro. The manuscript won the inaugural Allen & Unwin Award for NZ Commercial Fiction.

>93 avatiakh: The "No One Buys Books" article was sure depressing. Ugh.

>95 labfs39: I do buy the occasional new book, usually a New Zealand children's writer, but now a lot of our writers are published from Australia as the main publishers shrink their staff numbers.

>66 avatiakh: Good list.

I will look for the Carnegie Medal children's books.

Scary about your break-ins.

Oh, and congrats on reaching 75!

Hi Beth - thanks for visiting. Some of those Carnegie books are really great reads especially if you like juvenile fiction.
It's been quiet here at casa avatiakh, still taking more precautions.

I've finished 3 more books and will update my thread soon.
Auschwitz Report by Primo Levi & Leonardo De Benedetti
The Burned Letter by Helene Ritchie
When Marnie was there by Joan Robinson

Current reading to finish this month:
The Battle by Patrick Rambaud - Napoleon
Tulku by Peter Dickinson - set during the Boxer Rebellion
The Refugee Summer by Edward Fenton - 1920s Athens
Second Person Singular by Sayed Kashua - e-book

Books arrived by mail:
When the robbers came to Cardamom Town by Thorbjørn Egner - classic Norwegian children's book
Harvest of Hate: The Nazi Program for the Destruction of the Jews of Europe by Leon Poliakov (1951 France) (1954 USA)

>82 avatiakh: >83 avatiakh: Now I need to investigate yet more books - the Carnegie Medal UK books - that I need to read at some point in my lifetime. Off to see if I can find a list somewhere. . .Finding the books themselves is yet another matter!

>85 avatiakh: I still need to read Fourth Wing. I have owned it for a while now. I am not buying the second book until I am sure I like the first one.

>86 avatiakh: Nice haul! I will be curious to see what you think of the Martin Gilbert book. I enjoy his writing.

>92 avatiakh: I certainly hope your next read proves to be better than that one was!

Have a great day, Kerry!

>99 alcottacre: I've enjoyed most of the Carnegie UK books I've read so far. There's a LT List of the winners - https://www.librarything.com/list/44105/all/Carnegie-Medal-Winners-In-Order
I'm taking my time with this project, though I've read quite a few this year. You should have no problem finding the more recent winners.

I got both Yarros books as I thought my daughter might like reading them as well. The library queue for these books is up in the 500s.

The Martin Gilbert book is more of a reference book, full of photographs, maps, text boxes and illustrations. Useful to have on hand with other reading.

Yeah, The Secrets of Little Greek Taverna was not for me at all. I've put Three Summers in my to read next pile and that looks to be much more my type of read.

Well back to Napoleon and the Battle of Essling.

My day is looking up. I've been to the library already & had my morning coffee.

Last week I took note of Scream quietly or the neighbours will hear by Erin Pizzey (1974), mainly as the title caught my eye in the myriad of bookshelves at Hard to Find Books. This morning I was researching all the books whose covers I'd photographed in various places and looked up Pizzey who according to wikipedia has had a remarkable life.
Starting out in the 1970s as a feminist and an advocate for battered women she established the first refuge for women in the UK. Then was ostracised for saying that many women are violent and not all are total victims. She also went against the more militant feminist members of her circle. She's lived all over the place and always been strong in her beliefs and paid the price for this. From wikipedia: 'Pizzey was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2024 New Year Honours for services to the victims of domestic abuse.'
The book was the first to acknowledge wife battering according to Penguin who published it. I'm adding her 2011 memoir This Way to the Revolution to my to read list.

https://medium.com/@alexandermoreaudelyon/erin-pizzey-the-story-of-the-feminist-... 'Erin Pizzey: The Story of the Feminist Who Was Threatened for Acknowledging Male Victims'
https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2020/02/feminism-mens-rights-a... 'Why has Erin Pizzey, once a pioneer of the women’s movement, been written out of its history?'

77) Auschwitz Report by Primo Levi and Leonardo De Benedetti (2006)
nonfiction

Back in 1945 when Levi and De Benedetti were recovering from their time in Auschwitz, the Soviets asked them to write a report on the medical and general living conditions of the camp. Later when back in Italy they published another version and this more recent one includese an introduction and two obituaries Levi wrote when De Benedetti died in 1983.
This is brief and covers most of what we already now know about Auschwitz but still worth reading if your library has a copy.

78) When Marnie Was There by Joan G. Robinson (1967)
children's fiction
This was another used bookshop find from a few years ago. I think I got it because there was a windmill on the cover. When I pulled it off the shelves and looked it up online I discovered that Studio Ghibli had adapted it to an animated film in 2014. My daughter had seen the film so I decided to add it to the TIOLI challenge to read a book with a girl's name in the title.
A lovely read about a lonely fostered girl who is sent to recuperate her health on the Norfolk seaside. I loved how it all came together at the end.
I watched the first part of the film yesterday on Netflix but didn't feel the need to see it through to the end.

79) The Burned Letter: A New Zealander's Holocaust Mystery: A Memoir by Helene Ritchie (2023)
memoir
This is Ritchie's story of finding who her family was and what happened to them all during the Holocaust. Her mother and grandmother were lucky to depart Prague in 1939 due to receiving a visa to New Zealand thanks to a complete stranger sponsoring them and persevering with the hostile bureaucrats in New Zealand to ensure that the visas would be issued. Ritchie's uncle and a few other relatives made it to the UK on the kindertransport. The uncle and then a great aunt and uncle arrived to New Zealand.
Her mother burned the letter she received after the war, she said they all died, I just don't want to know. Ritchie grew up knowing that her father had no family, just a photo of a woman who was his mother. He also managed to get an entry visa to New Zealand leaving in 1938 or 1939.
This was a fascinating read, Ritchie has managed to unearth so much information about her family. There's a lot of material in the book, some is general information on the camps, other parts are raw descriptions of the transports, how the Nazis and their helpers emptied the ghettos and holding camps. These were her relatives being transported. The documentation Ritchie has done is thorough and helpful to others seeking similar information.

Too many golems by Jane Yolen (2024)
picturebook

Cute story about a boy who unwittingly summons ten golems who want to help him. He decides to get help with his Hebrew and so they arrive each week to give him a lesson. Maya Shleifer's crayon art style is fun and Yolen's text is vibrant.

80) The Impossible Story of Hannah Kemp by Leonie Agnew (2023)
YA
The manuscript won the Tessa Duder Award 2022. 15 year old Hannah is having a hard time and the hard time is making her angry and rebellious. This affects her relationship with her adoptive parents, her fellow students and even with the guy who works at the local bookstore. There is a magical element to the story as well, with a mysterious mobile library that stocks books on events that have happened to people she knows, there's even one about her.
The magical element was a bit strange but overall this was a story of Hannah overcoming her past and her present. Enjoyable, another one that fitted the TIOLI challenge to read a book with a girl's name in the title.

As always, Kerry, plenty of book bullets flying through the posts here.

Have a lovely Sunday.

81) The Goodbye Cat: Seven Cat Stories by Hiro Arikawa (2021 Japanese) (2023 English)
stories
Seven mostly adorable tales about cats. Just adorable. The last two stories have significance for those who've read The Travelling Cat Chronicles. Especially delightful is how the cats get their names.

>107 PaulCranswick: Hi Paul. Had a zoom meeting for a group i'm secretary for, our AGM, so glad to see the back of that. I'm still secretary as no one volunteers to come on our committee.

Back to reading my Napoleon book for the War Room and The Refugee Summer for books set in Greece.

Looking through my book lineup for June and decided to backtrack through my threads and take note of my original intentions for the year plus books I've put to one side. So I have a list which I'll post once I've got my May commitments out of the way....and of course, all those library books.

This Time Magazine Top 100 Fantasy Books of All Time from 2020 is definitely NOT my consideration for a top 100 but interesting all the same as several new to me writers on the list that I will check out.
Many greats left out including translated writers. The list seems to include many recent YA fantasy writers. I don't really follow the latest trends in the fantasy genre but do enjoy reading fantasy novels.
Writers that I never heard of before and will look into include:
Amos Tutuolam: The Palm-Wine Drinkard & My Life in the Bush of Ghosts
Jin Yong: A Hero Born
Manuel Mujica Lainez: The Wandering Unicorn
Nalo Hopkinson: Brown Girl in the Ring
Susan Ee: Angelfall
Sofia Samatar: A Stranger in Olondria
Sabaa Tahir: An Ember in the Ashes & A Torch Against the Night
Daniel José Older: Shadowshaper
Charlie Jane Anders: All the Birds in the Sky
Neon Yang: The Black Tides of Heaven
Fonda Lee: Jade City
Victor LaValle: The Changeling
Roshani Chokshi: Aru Shah and the End of Time
Anna-Marie McLemore: Blanca & Roja
Tasha Suri: Empire of Sand
Rebecca Roanhorse: Trail of Lightning
C.L. Polk: Witchmark
L. Penelope: Song of Blood & Stone
Kacen Callender: Queen of the Conquered
Akwaeke Emezi: Pet
Silvia Moreno-Garcia: Gods of Jade and Shadow
Evan Winter: The Rage of Dragons
Isabel Ibañez: Woven in Moonlight

>110 avatiakh: Some of those I remember and there are others where the color of the touchstone indicates that I've at least taken a look at the LT Wiki page. In most of those cases and some others, I have read the book.

>83 avatiakh: I've added the Scarecrows and Tulku to my TBR list. I've enjoyed your listing of these wonderful YA books.

>111 quondame: Hi Susan - now that I've posted the list I can see that several have won awards etc etc. I just don't make time to read enough fantasy. From the 100 list I decided to read The Fifth Season as I see it almost every day on my fiction shelves. There's another top 100 list I looked through, the Fantasy Book Review UK site which is much more classic and I think only had two books from my post above on their list, The Rage of Dragons & All the Birds in the Sky. https://www.fantasybookreview.co.uk/top-100-fantasy-books/
Not surprised that you've read most of the books in my post as you read much more fantasy than I do.

War Room: June - English Civil War
Looking through possible reads for June - I will definitely read Children of the New Forest as that was one of the books from my childhood shelves that I never read.
When my son and I were in Edinburgh last year we read about the Covenanters who were killed for their beliefs and visited the Martyrs' Monument in the Greyfriars Church Cemetery. I'd like to read more about them, I think Walter Scott had a few books featuring this movement.
I have Acts of Oblivion by Robert Harris and will try to read that as well as the plot looks interesting and I can see the book on my shelves.

Came across two fantasy novels which feature the Civil War in the past couple of days -
Red Shift by Alan Garner
A Skinful of Shadows by Frances Hardinge

>112 Whisper1: Hi Linda - I've started Tulku and enjoyed what I've read so far.

>113 avatiakh: Most would be an exaggeration. A noticeable fraction rather. Victor LaValle's The Changeling was impressive in a horror adjacent sort of way.

>115 quondame: Sorry, I misread. Not sure if I want to read horror-adjacent! I used to enjoy paranormal fiction, but there's too much around now. From another list I've also been reminded to read more of Natasha Pulley and to investigate H G Parry's books.

I grabbed a light paperback to take with me this morning as I dropped my car at the local garage for a service and warrent of fitness. Then had a coffee and supermarket visit before walking home. So started reading The Good Soldier Schwiek and finding it quite enjoyable. I won't take it out again as my copy is too fragile for many outings but will leave it by my bedside and read a chapter each morning.
My copy contains the first three books, each one is around 100 pages.