2020 Reading Record of PGMCC - Episode 4

Read in 2020

Title; Author; Status; Start/end date; Number of pages

Reality is not what it seems by Carlo Rovelli 3/12/2019 - 20.01.2020 234 pages
The Daughter of Time by Josephine Tey 20/01/2020 - 26/01/2020 222 pages
The Last Best Friend by George Sims 27/01/2020 - 31/01/2020 191 pages
Dread Journey by Dorothy B. Hughes 31/01/202 - 05/02/2020 264 pages
Fifty Things That Made The Modern Economy by Tim Harford 06/02/2010 - 17/02/2020 292 pages.
The Lights Go Out In Lychford by Paul Cornell 09/02/2020 - 11/02/2020 162 pages
It was the best of sentences, it was the worst of sentences. by June Casagrande 17/02/2020 -
The Rook by Daniel O’Malley 17/02/2020 - 05/03/2020 482 pages
The Postman Always Rings Twice by James M. Cain 06/03/2020 - 09/03/2020 116 pages
When The Wind Blows by Cyril Hare 09/03/2020 - 15/03/2020 254 pages
The Science of Storytelling by Will Storr 15/06/2020 - 25/03/2020 255 pages
Shadowplay by Joseph O'Connor 26/03/2020 - 10/04/2020 320 pages
The Intercom Conspiracy by Eric Ambler 10/04/2020 - 17/04/2020 217 pages
Golden Hill by Francis Spufford 17/04/2020 - 25/02/2020 321 pages
An English Murder by Cyril Hare 26/02/2020 - 02/05/2020 202 pages
The Green Man's Foe by Juliet E. McKenna 02/05/2020 - 09/05/2020 251 pages
Flights by Olga Tokarczuk 09/05/2020 - 01/06/2020 410 pages
Atlantic Fury by Hammond Innes 16/05/2020 - 18/05/2020 320 pages
Selkie Summer by Ken MacLeod 18/05/2020 - 24-05-2020 99 pages
The Schirmer Inheritance by Eric Ambler 01/06/2020 - 02/06/2020 228 pages
Transcription by Kate Atkins 03/05/2020 - 11/06/2020 416 pages
The Last Day at Bowen's Court by Eibhear Walsh 11/06/2020 - 14/06/2020 192 pages
The Garden of Evening Mists by Tan Twan Eng 14/06/2020 - 24/06/2020 448 pages
The Empire of Gold by S.A. Chakraborty 24/06/2020 - 12/07/2020 766 pages
Bel Canto by Ann Patchett 12/07/2020 - 23/07/2020 334 pages
Hezada! I Miss You by Erin Pringle 23/07/2020 - 29/07/2020 332 pages
Munky by B. Catling 29/07/2020 - 30/07/2020 105 pages
A Man by Keiichiro Hirano 30/07/2020 - 09/08/2020 295 pages
Best of British Science Fiction edited by Donna Scott 09/08/2020 - 233 pages
Fracture by Andrés Neuman 20/08/2020 - 16/09/2020 350 pages
The Green Man's Silence by Juliet E. McKenna 17/09/2020 - 23/09/2020 294 pages
The Quiller Memorandum by Adam Hall 23/09/2020 - 30/09/2020 232 pages
The Financial System Limit by David Kauders, 27/09/2020 - 27/09/2020 49 pages
The Dictator and the Hammock by Daniel Pennac 30/09/2020 - 17/10/2020 276 pages
Quiller: The 9th Directive by Adam Hall 17/10/2020 - 25/10/2020 188 pages
Cabin No. 9 by Beatrice Grimshaw 25/10/2020 - 26/10/2020 12 pages
The Dragon Waiting by John M. Ford 26/10/2020 - ? pages

I am re-posting this in Episode 4 to have all my comments about this collection in one thread.



I received Best of British Science Fiction 2019 edited by Donna Scott and published by Newcon Press as part of the Early Reviewer programme. Today I read Fat Man in the Bardo by Ken MacLeod. My review of this story:
An excellent thought experiment using existence within a simulation to take socio-political concepts to their extremity.

>2 pgmcc:

There are twenty-three stories in this collection. I have read eight and skimmed a ninth. The story I skimmed started each section with a gruesome description of a medical procedure and I was not prepared to suffer through such unnecessary writing. I had been enjoying the stories up to that point; most of them were not wondrous, but they did raise some interesting concepts and paralleled some current issues/happenings. In the introduction, Donna Scott, the editor did state how surprised she was to discover stories that were written last year bore relevance to happenings in this year, in particular the arrival of COVID-19 and our locked down lifestyle.

I have been making brief notes on each story and will share them here when I have finished them all.

The Man in the High Castle, Amazon screen adaptation.



I have been watching Amazon's screen adaptation of The Man in the High Castle. So far I have watched two seasons and the first episode of Season 3.

First off, it, like nearly every other screen adaptation of Philip K. Dick's stories, is based on the ideas in the book rather than keeping to the books exact story line. This is what I expected from day one, and when I saw a second season being produced my suspicions were confirmed. I do not see this as a flaw; just a reality.

Season 1 was very good. I quickly got into the characters and enjoyed the story.

Season 2 was also interesting and the Japanese and Reich politics made it very intriguing.

I have only watched one episode of Season 3 but feel it is suffering from the traditional fate of multi season series: the first season is strong as it is based on a strong idea and story; season two carries on the momentum with another good core story; season 3 suffers form the paucity of story lines and gets a bit maudlin and...boring.

If I had one gripe with the show it would be the character of Frank Frink. He is the least plausible character and he behaves out of character too often. Also, he has a talent for forging antiques which is revealed in a very short time with no indication that he has had any knowledge of the items he forges beforehand. He did work in a replica gun factory and is supposed to be an artist, but how he can suddenly become this amazing antique forger who produces items that can fool the best and most knowledgeable collectors is too much of a suspension of disbelief for me. It reminded me of the main character in the show "White Collar". It just taints the story for me slightly.

The character also changes character too easily. I think the character as written is flawed, but also the actor does not pull it off convincingly.



I do not think I will watch the rest of Season 3. It has run out of steam in my opinion. They told two good stories in the first two seasons and now it appears to me they are trying to keep a good thing going.

In relation to the comparison with the book, one of the book's strengths was the mystery it posed. Dick did not try to explain the situation. Unfortunately the screen adaptation goes too far in this regard. It reminded me of the mistakes made in the sequels to K-PAX; K-PAX II & III should never have been written. Again, the strength of the original work was in the questions it left unanswered.

>4 pgmcc: I must admit that despite having tried rather hard - some of my friends are hardcore fans of Philip K Dick's works - I have yet to find one that I truly enjoyed reading. Sure, there's a story in there, usually interesting, but it's something with his writing style that doesn't sit well with me. And I can fully understand why any screen adaption rather takes the original idea, making something new of it, than retelling the story as it was told by the author.

My hardcore PKD-fan friends all dislikes the screen version of The man in the high castle. I haven't watched it, based on me not being a fan combined with their expressed dislike.

I do like Bladerunner, but felt Do androids dream of electric sheep uninspiring. The other adaptions that I've watched? Meh.

Again, good that we people enjoy different things (and that we don't have to like the same things: what a boring world that would be)!

>5 Busifer: I think Bladerunner is a case of the film being more interesting than the book. Do androids dream of electric sheep is a bit dry and Ripley did a great job with the film, all versions.

I suspect your Philip K Dick fan friends were looking for an exact telling of the story in the book. That would colour anyone's view of the screen adaptation. I watched the Amazon version believing it would not be a strictly by-the-book retelling of the story. I thought the programme was a good story based on the ideas in the book. If I were to judge it on the basis of how it compares to the novel I would slam it as a total fabrication; a fiction. Oh! Wait. They are both fiction. Or are they?

Again, good that we people enjoy different things (and that we don't have to like the same things: what a boring world that would be)!

I agree!

>6 pgmcc: They were, indeed. I think hardcore fans, myself included, feel this way when someone adapts a favourite story. As you say, they're both fiction, but one might or might not have a deeper psychological connection with the work. Which affects the reaction.

I am a little confused that you are dialling of The Man in the High Castle as a novel. I read this a couple of years ago, as a novella - and rather enjoyed its concision.

Is this a case of semantics - when does a novel become a novella - or did Dick release more than one version (cf. Orson Scott Card and Ender's Game)?

>8 -pilgrim-: My paperback copy of The Man in the High Castle is 249 pages in length and word count is listed at 80,586, (according to an online search).

Per Wikipedia: The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America specifies word lengths for each category of its Nebula award categories:

• Novel 40,000 words or over
  
• Novella 17,500 to 39,999 words
  
• Novelette 7,500 to 17,499 words
  
• Short story under 7,500 words

I don't personally know of a shorter version having been published but I suppose anything is possible.

I have just recently begun watching the Amazon production in preparation for a re-read of the book. Only three episodes in so far but am finding the acting, casting, and production quite good. Differences in media presentation rarely bother me. In fact, I usually enjoy interpretations as opposed to straight-up re-tellings. For instance, Under the Skin was a phenomenal adaptation while The Davinci Code was a workmanlike, but rather pedestrian, viewing experience IMHO.

I strongly recommend this book and I see it is on the Librarything Member Giveaway list at the moment.

>4 pgmcc: My wife and I couldn't get through season 3 of The Man in the High Castle. It just seemed to have wandered off on its own and to a very strange place.

>9 ScoLgo: I also read a novel-length version of The Man in the High Castle. I enjoyed it and also enjoyed seasons 1 and 2 of the Amazon adaptation. There is a lot of violence though, we tried to show it to someone who doesn't care for video violence and they couldn't even get through episode 1.

>11 Karlstar: That is the way I feared it was going to go after seeing the first episode of season three. Thank you for confirming my suspicions and validating my decision to stop watching.

I started reading Fracture by Andrés Neuman. This is for our Lockdown Book Club.

It starts off in the company of a man who is in Tokyo when the major earthquake that damaged the Fukushima nuclear plant by sending a tsunami inland killing many and displacing thousands. The character in the book experiences the earthquake effects in Tokyo and we get some information about his life.

The second part of the book changes to the viewpoint of a woman in Paris. She is reminiscing about her love affair with the man in Tokyo. They met at college and lived together for some time.

Apparently the book is about four women who were in his life and we get their views on the their relationships with this man.

The book is moving along nicely and is not a difficult read. I expect a lively discussion about a book, written by a man, purporting to give the views of four women about a man. I can see our group having great fun with that.

>14 pgmcc: That has quite a low rating here on LT. I suspect you will all have fun tearing it apart.

>15 clamairy:
Our book club does not have any shrinking violets and we all have fun criticising the books and disagreeing with one another. There are eight regular attendees; five women and three men. I know at least four of the members are lawyers. One of the men is a colleague of mine. One of the women is a colleague of mine and another woman is a former colleague of mine. The two ladies who are former and existing colleagues are both lawyers.

As I said, no shrinking violets. When someone does not like a book they are not afraid to say so even if everyone else loves it. It appears I am not the only one who can be out of step with the rest of the world. The man who is not a colleague of mine is a lawyer working in an international bank with the woman who is a former colleague. He and I have built up a relationship in which whatever I like he dislikes and vice versa. It is great fun. I love explaining to him why he is wrong. :-) He loves casting aspersion on my cultural savvy.

While I feel the book is moving along nicely I am not making time to read it; not picking it up at every opportunity. It is a book in which the reader can identify with the feelings and views of the characters but I cannot see a reason for the book other than to demonstrate that the author can divine how people in a relationship think about their situation and how they infer, or assume, what the other person is thinking or intending.

I am both afraid and glad this book club is getting me reading books that come out as what the establishment would consider "Literature". I am glad because the experience is exposing me to some of what is highly regarded and I can comfort myself with the knowledge that I have been right all along in thinking I was not missing much by not reading such books.

>16 pgmcc: I'm envious. I would like to be part of a book group again after the plague has passed.

>17 clamairy: Our meetings are all via Zoom. I have not met three of the people in person. It was COVID that was the reason the club was formed.

We bought some begonia bulbs earlier this year. They turned out to be large red begonia. When they eventually bloomed we noticed something that I thought was strange, but am happy to put it down to my ignorance. The strange thing was the centre of the flowers. I was expecting anthers and stigma. What I found were two different types of things in the centre of two flowers on the same plant. See the pictures below:



One of the flowers looks quite normal.


The other one looks quite surreal. It looks very different from the other type.


I am hoping some of you can banish my ignorance on this matter.

Could the second picture be of stamen and the third a picture of stigma?

I await education.

There are also flowers on the plants that appear to have no reproductive organs in the centre.

>19 pgmcc: Not here to offer any knowledge, but beautiful flowers! I wish I had a green thumb... and space!

>20 Majel-Susan: The flowers are the work of my wife. She has made the garden very colourful.

I thought the centre of the flowers in the picture above look particularly surreal. When I first saw them they reminded me of images in the Science Fiction film Tron which was trying to give the impression of being in a computer graphic. Even looking very close I could not tell they were not something hovering between this world and a parallel dimension. Even using a macro lens and blowing up the pictures it still looked like something not of this world. I was wondering if I touched one of them would I disappear from this world and be transported to another dimension.

As you suggested in #19, they are separate male and female flowers. A little birdie whispers in my ear that this is only the beginning of the reproductive weirdness of begonias, but I haven't checked.

>23 hfglen:
Thank you, Hugh. I will have to set up a time-lapse camera to catch the reproductive weirdness. :-)

When my wife ordered the bulbs we were expecting quite different flowers. It took ages for them to grow and when they did they looked more like rhubarb than our vision of begonia. Research has informed us there are many more types of begonia than we were aware of. We have lived and learned.

My wife was thinking we had been sent the wrong bulbs or that they were duds. Now they have finally flowered they are fascinating and beautiful. We have lovely red flowers scattered around the garden, and we are learning more about begonia. Thank you, Hugh.

Loving the vibrant reds. My hummingbirds would go nuts.

>25 clamairy: We do not have hummingbirds here. :-(

I don't absolutely know, but I suspect it's a plant with male and female flowers, too. Some squash plants are like this. The female flowers produce the fruit, but need to be pollinated by the male flowers first.

>27 Bookmarque:
It is the first time I have noticed the same plant having male and female flowers. Hugh, our resident botanist, confirms the two sex nature of the flowers and said that is only the start of the reproductive weirdness of the begonia. That has piqued my interest. I will have to go and investigate the intriguing sex lives of begonia.

Can't a flower have a little privacy?

>29 suitable1: I think they are exhibitionists and want to be watched. Why else would they flaunt themselves in such a public fashion? They are just attention seekers.

Some of you may be wondering what Begonia and other flowers and plants have to do with books and why they are mentioned and discussed on my readIng thread. Well, you have to realise that on occasion I read in the garden and these plants and flowers are around me.

I am glad I had the chance to clear that little issue up before it became a major upset for some.

>31 pgmcc: Crikey, Peter, I spend most of my LT activity these days blathering about aircraft and music. Of course I sometimes read on aeroplanes and about music, so that's all right then.

>32 haydninvienna: I had been going to mention that to you, but now that you have brought it up and drawn the parallel with my plants and flowers I think we are on an even keel. :-)

How are you keeping?

Oh, wow. Starting this endeavor of catching up I did not expect to learn something new about begonias, but I did. Thanks.
They are still not even close to getting on my favourite-flowers list, but I must admit I'm getting curious about the "reproductive weirdness"...

The Green Man's Silence is due out on Wednesday, 2nd September. This is the third Green Man book Juliet has written.

>35 pgmcc: I have pre-ordered it, so it should show up on my Kindle in a few days!

>36 Darth-Heather:
Likewise.

>38 clamairy: Time will tell.

My youngest graduated with his BSc today. It was an online ceremony with him dressed in his gown watching the streamed proceedings on the smart TV while his siblings, aunts and uncles joined us on a zoom call and cheered when his name was read out.

>40 pgmcc: Congrats to him! I hope he is proud of himself, despite the odd ceremonial circumstances.

>41 clamairy: I think the ceremonial arrangements suited him. I brought him to a family wedding some years ago. He was very reserved and did not socialise at the church. On the car drive to the reception I suggested he try a bit harder to get to know his cousins, aunts and uncles. He had not met many of them before.

His response was, “Dad, I think Sheldon has the right idea.”

>40 pgmcc: Many congratulations to your youngest! Another physicist for the family?

>43 -pilgrim-: Engineer heading to Computer Science. The shame of it all.

>44 pgmcc: At least he will earn enough to keep you and Mrs Pgmcc in style in your old age! ;-)

Congratulations to your son! I'm glad the unusual ceremony suited him.

Congratulations from me too Peter. Just makes sure he doesn’t become a lawyer. I have a niece whose first degree was in electrical engineering and her second in law.

>43 -pilgrim-:, >46 Sakerfalcon: & >47 haydninvienna:

Thank you!

I do not think law will be his chosen path in the future. So far we have a Physicist who runs an altruistic body that supports NGOs bring technology to communities in less developed parts of the world (e.g. solar powered water pumps and the like), a Stage Manager/Director who converted to Adoption Evaluator for a dog rescue charity, and a Director of Operations for a digital company that provides accessibility information about premises and locations to mobility challenged people via an App. The last person's company has just produced a report for a local authority on the availability of car parking spaces for the disabled in its area; this work was carried out using satellite data and an AI programme. I started out as a Geologist and am now optimising the delivery of parcels.

The world, and possibly beyond, is the limit for what the youngest child might achieve.

Now, how do I ensure that at least one of them fulfils the role >45 -pilgrim-: identified. I do not care which of them foots the bill, or if they want to make combined contributions, but I do want to be kept in the style to which I want to become accustomed in my old age.

I have been reading this book since 20th August. I am always disappointed to see how little progress I am making with it. Every day I would open up the book on my Kindle I would see I still had over five hours left to read. It is only 208 pages yet after days of reading I am only about 50% through it. I thought for some time that the Kindle progress was erroneous but that was clutching at straws.

The book is an easy read and I have found a few interesting quotes, but I obviously have not fully connected with it. Work has become very busy and I am not getting much time to read, but neither am I making time to read, something I find myself doing when I am really interested in a book.

My wife and I are taking a break next week which means I will be languishing in a hotel by the sea while my book club colleagues have their on-line discussion on the book so the pressure to get this book finished is off. I plan to submit some comments by e-mail to the team. Those comments will include the above description of my lack of reading progress and the comments below about the book and its contents.

By the way, the LT ratings for the book spread quite evenly from one to four stars. (1, 2, 3, 3.5 and 4 stars each have one registered vote.) People do not appear to be bowled over by how wonderful it is, but neither are they dismissing it at rubbish.

I have found it quite and easy read but I was about 20% into it before I could see any purpose to its having been written. More on that at a later date.

The book is about a man who is in his retirement years. He lives in Tokyo and the book opens with him going about his business when the earthquake that affected the Fukushima nuclear power plant and send a massive tsunami washing across the city occurs. The shock was felt in Tokyo and we get to see how people and the city authorities react to the quake.

The second part of the book is commentary from a lady in Paris who was the first serious partner the man in Tokyo had. After this we have more from the man himself interspersed with the views of three other women who have been his partners over the years.

One of the key points that I will raise with the group is the books loss of credibility (in my view) in that it is presenting four female viewpoints about this man but the book was written by a man.

To say more I must invoke the cloak of invisibility.

The man is a survivor from the atom bomb dropped on Hiroshima. This is used to introduced some interesting viewpoints on the aftermath of the bomb and the subsequent bomb dropped on Nagasaki. How Japanese people view the bombing, how they coped with its psychological effects, and how Japan can be an ally of the US are all topics that come through in the book.

Many facets of prejudice and racism are explored.

I can see issues being brought up in the context of history that resonate with political happenings today in various parts of the world. There are expressions of relief about past political philosophies that have been destroyed never to see the light of day, and this is, of course, irony in the context of the time when this book has been published. I shall say no more about this, but I suspect this may be the primary purpose of the book having been written.

As I sit here pondering my reading, my reviewing and my rating of books, (= procrastinating getting back to work) I have come to some conclusions. When reviewing books I am going to include the answers to certain questions that will help clarify my assessment of the books in question. Questions I have thought of so far are:

- Would I read another book by this author?
- Would I recommend this book to another person?
- Who (defined in terms of the interests of other people as I perceive or know them to be) would I recommend this book to?

This pondering has been prompted by the books I have been reading for the Lockdown Book Club I have been involved in. Apart from the book I proposed we read, Flights by Olga Tokarczuk, I do not think I would recommend any of the books to a broad church of readers. Again, apart from Olga Tokarczuk, there is only one of the authors whose other novels I would be inclined to read. That would be Ann Patchett, author of Bel Canto.

Another prompt was my feeling obliged to read the book club books and having to put my personal choices aside for a later date. When I stopped writing reviews for magazines I was delighted at the freedom this gave me to read what I wanted to read when I wanted to read it. Now I have traded some of that freedom for socialising in a Zoom session once a month. The sessions are good fun and, at a time of COVID constraints and restrictions, very welcome. My slow progress through Fracture is also part of the problem.

Further thoughts on this topic will eventually come along.

I don't do book clubs for that very reason - I don't want to read a book I don't want to read or don't like. I've never been afraid to DNF something that wasn't giving me pleasure and I'm not into hate reading. The discussion part I think I would enjoy, but not at the expense of reading something awful.

>50 pgmcc: & >51 Bookmarque: Yes, there's a balance to be reached. Perhaps the word trade-off would be better. I was in two groups for over a decade. One group was made up of serious readers which met at the library and the other was more of a social (and good food & wine) group. At some point I stopped reading the books that I wasn't enjoying, and had little if any guilt about it. I miss them both...

Enjoying good books at the beach is one of life's greatest pleasures, IMHO. Have fun!

Chiming in with well wishes, congratulations and all other appropriate sentiments. Love begonias, but know very little about them.

>50 pgmcc: Good questions. Some folks have the answer to #2 built into their rating scale, though not 1 or 3.

>54 Karlstar:

I would have thought I had the answer to #2 built into my rating scale but this year I have been reading books that I thought were 5 star but I would not recommend them to everyone as different people have different interests and preferences. That got me thinking about the difficulty of producing a objective scoring for books, but unless one is going to get technical and award points for grammar, style, character development, plot, depth of intrigue, verisimilitude, etc..., one is going to have to rely on subjective judgement which is dependent on the interests, experiences and preferences of the individual reader. That is the thought process that brought me to the questions in >50 pgmcc:.

My involvement in a reading group and the consequent reading of books that are not book I would normally read has also contributed to my pondering rating schemes.

There is also the fun factor. As a friend once said, some books are just entertainment fodder, which is not a bad thing.

Responses, on a postcard, to...

:-)

We could have fun with this.

Hmmmm!

I think things have back-fired on me.

My next book club discussion was scheduled for the evening of Thursday coming. I am only half way through Fracture and have not started The Sound of Things Falling. I have been saying that I am a bit ambivalent about Fracture and yet am finding some interesting thoughts and quotes in the book. I am not, however, finding myself rushing to read it at every opportunity.

In an attempt to ease the pressure I am feeling about finishing the books on time I sent a Whatsapp message to the group letting them know I was not far into the book and that I was going to be away Thursday and could not make the session. Wouldn't you know that others are quite happy to take another week to read the books which means I have not managed to get away Scott free. :-( I am now everyone else's excuse for not getting the books finished for Thursday night and I will still have to finish them for the 17th.

>55 pgmcc: You have brought up the problem with ratings, book clubs, and even this very group. What might be the greatest thing ever to me may be of no interest whatever to someone else. I think I'm a tough grader, I tend not to give 5 stars or even 4 stars often, so to me that means a 5 star book is top 100 all time material. However... that's my top 100 all time. It may have a great plot, great characters, be well written, but the subject may have absolutely no appeal to others. It may even be offensive to others, as I've found here on GD, though I don't think that's true of any of my 5 star rated books.

This is why I don't do star ratings! I'm happy to say that I enjoyed something, but looking through reviews here and on GoodReads, and finding lots of books that are one person's 5-star and another's 1-star, I get to wondering what the point is. Basically, it seems to mean no more than a way of saying "I liked this a lot" running to "I hated this", so why not just say that?

>57 Karlstar: Your comments parallel my thoughts.

>58 haydninvienna: I once put a comment about how dreadful a book was in an Amazon review. It is one of the books I have given a half star to on LT. Someone asked what I did not like about it and that got me thinking about the specific reasons I did not like it. I found this useful and it taught me to write more reasoned reviews.

When I am deciding whether to buy a book I will look at the histogram of star ratings on LT. The LT ratings are more reliable than those on Amazon. I look at the distribution of ratings and if they are higher up the star rating scale, then I am more likely to look favourably on the acquisition of the book. I might even skim some reviews but will be wary about reading them in too much detail lest they contain plot detail or spoilers. I find overviews of plots in reviews off-putting. I want to follow a plot in a book, not read it in a review before I have read the book. If I have read the book I do not need to read the plot again in the review. I do not believe a review should be, or should contain, a précis of the story. To me that is a form of tautology.

>59 pgmcc: I do not believe a review should be, or should contain, a précis of the story.

Hear, hear!

In a review, I might give a summary of the starting pointof the story, to help a reader decide whether that is a situation that they are interested in reading more about, but it helps no one to rewrite the story in half a page.

It is a literary exercise that we learnt in our schooldays to "demonstrate comprehension" to our teachers; it should remain there.

That is why I like the GD crowd. Even those members who do have the habit of summarising a book in their reviews have the good taste to clearly separate the summaries from their own thoughts on the book - do I skip past the first part and can read their impressions anyway.

And I confess that occasionally those summaries ARE useful - for the books that I would never read anyway!!

>58 haydninvienna: I put at the top of my threads what I mean by my start ratings. Quite a few other people do the same, and it is interesting to see how we don't all mean the same things.

But I nevertheless find the histogram of star ratings useful. A wide spread can mean "some people didn't 'get' ,or were offended by, this, but others loved it", whilst a book that gets mainly 2s or 3s is simply bland, and does not arouse any strong reaction in its readers.

There are different ways of "hating" a book too. It can be "I was so bored by this that watching grass grow started to seem a more exciting option" or "I was gripped by this, but the world view that the author is trying to proselytise for is utterly repellent; I was horrified" or "this may be an excellent story but I couldn't read it because graphic descriptions of violence are not for me" or "It doesn't matter what the plot of this is, as it evidently did not matter to the author either; this book is simply an excuse for lovingly details descriptions of torture" and so on.

That is why we write reviews.

Star ratings are a guide to the type of reaction, and so are useful in aggregate. But "I hated it" or "I loved it" means little without some idea of why.

I have to know the person who wrote the review before a simple "This is bad/great!" has any meaning.

There are a lot of people in GD whose choices in books overlap with mine, even though we tend to be looking for different things in a book. Such reviews are extremely useful, because even if they did not like the book, it may be for reasons that I would not find negative.

I have started to try to mention in my reviews of books contain things that do not matter to me personally, but might be problematic for a different audience, because that would be useful for someone deciding whether to give the book to, for example, an older child.

>60 -pilgrim-:

I might give a summary of the starting point of the story

Yes, I think the premise is something that is useful to include. I do add a word of caution here. There are books I have read and loved that had I been told the premise in advance I may not have read the books. this would apply to many of Iain Banks "mainstream" novels, e.g. The Wasp Factory, Espedair Street, Walking on Glass, ...

It is a literary exercise that we learnt in our schooldays to "demonstrate comprehension"

That is exactly the situation I had in mind where a plot summary is appropriate in a review, but I agree wholeheartedly with your following remark, it should remain there

I think a plot summary is something for an individual's personal notes if one wants to record the story for future reference.

On the point of reviews, I spotted a post in fuzzi's tread that I thought contained a perfect review. It is post #103: https://www.librarything.com/topic/321866#7258147

>62 pgmcc:

One website that I wish existed is sorry of the antithesis of this. I have completist tendencies. And I HATE not knowing how a story ends. I remember reading the entirety of Beau Geste, at really far too young an age to stomach scenes of Tuareg torture, because I had thoroughly enjoyed the first two thirds of the book and desperately wanted to know how it ended. Or have been called away whilst watching a crucial TV episode... And more recently, I went through a sequence of not very good fantasy novels, because I liked the beginning, I liked the books in the sequence that follows on from it, and I wanted to know how the situation got from A to C - which caused me to read sequence B.

I loathe spoilers in reviews, and most websites do try hard to avoid them, the information is usually a unavailable.

I would love there to be a website where one could find the endings. And summaries of the books, films and TV episodes that you either cannot find, or do not want to slog through, but which move the plot from A to B to C.

Does anyone else feel this lack? Or know where such a
website actually exists?

(And then maybe the people who feel the urge to include a précis in their reviews would take those talents there instead...)

I'm listening to an audiobook that I'd like to have the ending for - the story itself is boring and full of casual rascism (it's an older book and that's par for the course) and I just don't want to slog through it. It will be a DNF for sure.

As far as ratings go - they're for me. I don't always remember the authors I have read and years later when a book presents itself, I like to have something to tell me whether I liked or hated another book by that person. If someone else loves it, I don't care about their rating; only mine has use to me in that situation.

>65 Bookmarque: I'm curious. Which audiobook is it that you're probably DNFing?

>61 -pilgrim-: "There are different ways of "hating" a book too. It can be "I was so bored by this that watching grass grow started to seem a more exciting option" or "I was gripped by this, but the world view that the author is trying to proselytise for is utterly repellent; I was horrified" or "this may be an excellent story but I couldn't read it because graphic descriptions of violence are not for me" or "It doesn't matter what the plot of this is, as it evidently did not matter to the author either; this book is simply an excuse for lovingly details descriptions of torture" and so on.

That is why we write reviews.

Star ratings are a guide to the type of reaction, and so are useful in aggregate. But "I hated it" or "I loved it" means little without some idea of why."

Exactly!

I have found quite a few 1* or 2* reviews of books that didn't work for the reader, but because of the review I was interested and some of what didn't work for others worked very well for me.
The star rating is meaningless without the context of what it means and what the reader's own preferences are.

Ratings much like reviews are so very personal. I often laugh at posts and articles that seek to prescribe to other people how to rate and review. It comes down to personal preference. In the same vein, I pick and choose which reviews I read by preference: If I know the reviewer will include spoilers without giving any warning, I'm not likely to read more reviews by them unless I have no intention of reading the book and want to know what happens in it. I guess this is as close as I get to your suggested website in >64 -pilgrim-:.

Sadly it's Ride the Pink Horse by Dorothy B. Hughes. I like the other books I've read by her, but this one is pretty bad.

>68 Bookmarque: I read Dread Journey by her last year. It was a BB from jillmwo and I enjoyed it. I have acquired Blackbirder since. It disappoints me that she had a dud. I suppose everyone has their off days.

Dread Journey was great. This one is torpid and full of hateful racist epiphets that come from the mouth/mind of the 'protagonist'. A. Slog. Have now deleted it off my phone and put it in the DNF collection. Sorry Dorothy.

>68 Bookmarque: & >69 pgmcc: That's a shame, and it is also really surprising because it is not what I expected in a Hughes novel because The Expendable Man very much persuaded me to look for other things in Hughes' novels. I can't say much else without spoilers - I do recommend The Expendable Man, if you've not read it and you want to try another Hughes.

Saying that, I found the other books by her that I tried to be duds for me (The Blackbirder, The So Blue Marble).

>64 -pilgrim-: It is by no means a website dedicated to what you are describing but... Wikipedia often summarizes plots of books & movies on their respective pages. If I'm looking for info on a specific book or movie, (or band, or...?), I will do a google search on the title and look for the Wikipedia link in the results. Yes, it's hit or miss - especially on lesser-known titles - but every now & then one will find an informational goldmine. YMMV...

>72 ScoLgo: Yes, I do resort to that for missed episodes etc. But Wikipedia is usually very good about NOT including endings, plot twists etc.

So... are you done with those books yet, slacker? ;o)

>74 clamairy:; I am still slacking away, only now I am slacking by the sea in Mullaghmore, County Sligo. I am sitting looking out the window at the sea and the hills of Donegal and Leitrim across the bay.

The weather is grey, but dry and the temperature is mild. We had a lovely dinner by the harbour last night (which you saw on fb) and are booked into an award winning fish restaurant for this evening. Photos will follow.

>75 pgmcc: Yes, your photo left me craving shrimp. I hope you get to relax and thoroughly enjoy your time by the sea. We will await a photo of tonight's seafood on FB.

>76 clamairy: just under 2.5 hours to our dinner booking. I have been annoying my wife all day by informing her how many hours it is to dinner time. :-)

Today involved a walk on the pier, a visit to a craft shop to buy wool, buttons and a pattern, procurement of postcards to send to grandchildren, purchase of stamps (Father Ted specials) to post said postcards, a visit to Glencar Waterfall, quick visit to W. B. Yeats’s grave, a drive to Bundoran for my wife to satisfy her curiosity about how it looked, and an abortive visit to Belleek Pottery as it closed an hour earlier than we thought it would.

Two hours twenty minutes to dinner time.

>77 pgmcc: One hour and twenty four minutes to go!

>78 clamairy:
Oysters and chowder for starter. Very nice.

There was a wine list.
Hic!

:o) I will go check for photo evidence.

>81 clamairy:
I will reserve photo evidence for the GD. Cannot exclude our non-fb GD friends.

We opted for Pinot Grigio by the way.

Photo evidence was requested.

Eithna's By The Sea Restaurant, Mullaghmore, County Sligo



When I first saw an image of the restaurant on Google Street View I was a bit put off by the gaudy appearance. That was before it was recommended by my friend. It lived up to the recommendation.

The starters

Oysters and a "cup" of chowder



We did not want to spoil our main course by eating a big starter, so we shared half-a-dozen oysters, and each had what the restaurant referred to as a cup of chowder.

The wine

I know Richard and Hugh will be particularly interested in our choice of wine. This turned out to work very well and the bottle was empty at the end of the evening.



The main course

My wife went for mussels. I went for the seafood platter.



The platter included mussels, langoustine (Dublin bay prawns)*, crab claws, and, hidden under the langoustine, half a lobster.



*Apparently they are related to lobsters rather than prawns.

The dining area was very pleasant and the service excellent. They were very flexible about anything we wanted.





>81 clamairy: Is this sufficient in the way of photographic evidence?

>83 pgmcc: I have to say that pinot grigio isn't my favourite grape. (Unfortunately, it's almost the only wine that Mrs H drinks. We have quite a few bottles stashed away, and I'd prefer a few nice dark Aussie shirazes.) With tasty seafood I'd probably go for a NZ sauvignon blanc, but hey, I'm not going to yuck anyone else's yum. I do approve of the choice of seafood though. If I ever get back to Ireland and make it to Sligo, Eithna's is definitely on the list.

Peter: I notice that a couple of photos appear to be orientationally challenged. Anything to do with that pinot?

>85 haydninvienna: I notice that a couple of photos appear to be orientationally challenged. Anything to do with that pinot?

Had they not been orientationally challenged I would have sent the pinot back as ineffective.

If I ever get back to Ireland and make it to Sligo, Eithna's is definitely on the list.

I would say it is a "must". A delightful experience and, as we discussed earlier, within staggering distance of our hotel.

>83 pgmcc: Looks divine! But I suspect from here a more practical aspiration would be Muisbosskerm near Lambert's Bay on the West Coast. Like Richard, I'd go for a sauvignon blanc, but from a nearby west-coast vineyard, maybe Sir Lambert or Fryer's Cove, where the winery is in a disused fish factory and their dining area (also pretty good!) is on a jetty over the sea.

To maintain a semblance of book related matters on this thread I will share photographs from our visit to W.B. Yeats' grave. It is in the grounds of St. Columba's, the Church of Ireland church in Drumliffe, County Sligo.

On Wednesday I had two "firsts"; I visited my office for the first time since the COVID-19 crisis started here (13th March). I also went to a bookshop, "Books Upstairs", the little independent bookshop that I like to visit and where I have discovered so many good reads.

Yes, of course I did! I did buy books.



I blame my enthusiasm for getting into a bookshop to explain my purchasing a duplicate copy of The Plague by Albert Camus. Normally I would check LT on my phone when in a bookshop but I was convinced that while I have always planned to read this novel I did not already have a copy. When entering it into my catalogue LT informed me I had acquired a copy in 2012.



Upheaval: How Nations Cope with Crisis and Change by Jared Diamond is another book I have intended reading since I saw it published last year. Now that it is in paperback I have taken the plunge.



Heroes and Marvels of the Middle Ages was an impulse buy. It has sections on various topics like, "Arthur", "Pope Joan", "Charlemagne", "El Cid", "The Castle"... I thought it would be an interesting reference book to pop into now and again. I think this could be regarded as a minor book bullet scratch as someone in the GD has just read a book on Charlemagne and I have the sketchiest knowledge of his life and thought the section in this book might be a useful introduction.

Also on Wednesday, and peaking of Book Bullets, this one a direct hit by a duo of GDers working in collaboration (you know who you are), my copy of Hearts, Hands and Voices by Ian McDonald arrived from ABEBooks.

The bookish madness did not stop on Wednesday. Yesterday on our way back home we stopped in Sligo for lunch and a spot of shopping. We picked up a small clock and a gravy boat in a charity shop. Them we went on a hunt for a new jumper for me. My wife's idea. Honest. After finding and buying a grey Aran jumper we happened across a bookshop called "Liber".

I contemplated getting David Mitchell's recent publication, Utopia Avenue but decided against it as I was disappointed in his previous book, Slade House. I was aware of Utopia Avenue but had decided not to get it for some time. When I saw the chunk tome that it is I was tempted by its purely tactile charm. I resisted and moved on.



I then read the description on the back of A Talented Man (no Touchstone) by Henrietta McKervey. It described the book as a thrilling book about an author who decides to fake a lost sequel by a famous author. I was getting intrigued until I discovered it is a story about a man writing a sequel to Dracula. That struck me as too twee and with my recent disappointment and anger over Shadowplay by Joseph O'Connor, I was totally turned off the idea of buying it.

My wife bought some books for the grandchildren. I was about to leave the shop when I spotted a 3 for 2 section and noticed Elmore Leonard books on the shelves. I have been picking up some of his books and I noticed two of his books that I believed I did not have. Well, I was right about one of them. (Again, something I discovered as I was adding the new purchases to my catalogue.)

Having found two books for my 3 for 2 purchase I looked for the third and picked up Dead Letter Drop by Peter James. I have read and enjoyed a couple of his books in the past so I am happy to take a risk on this one. The books were €5 each and with the offer I got the three of them for €10.



(The duplicate)



We did drop into another bookshop on the way to the car park, Easons. It is as much a stationery shop as a bookshop so they only had bestsellers and some children's books. My wife bought some more books for the grandchildren.

>83 pgmcc: I love a dry Pinot Grigio. It looks like it was a fine choice for that meal. You had the place to yourselves?

>85 haydninvienna: Sauvignon Blanc is my wine of choice these days. I too love hearty reds, but they don't love me back anymore. I can drink them occasionally, but otherwise I'm popping acid reducers like a fiend.

>88 pgmcc: & >89 pgmcc: & >90 pgmcc: Lovely pics and an impressive book haul. I'm a huge fan of Jared Diamond's books in general. Let us know how the Camus is.

>92 clamairy: It is not that we had the place to ourselves. It is that we were the last to leave. :-)

>93 pgmcc: Good show Peter!

I feel fully justified in the wing shot given you for Charlemagne information. Otherwise I would be full of envy of your wonderful seafood meal in such a lovely location.

Dining indoors! What a treat. We are not allowed to dine indoors even though the temperature outside is in triple digits and the air registers in the unhealthy to very unhealthy range due to smoke.

>95 MrsLee: I am happy about your taking credit for my wing injury. It was very effective. I have a limited amount of knowledge about Charlemagne and your mentioning the book you read had me thinking I must read up on his history. When I spotted the book in the bookshop and saw Charlemagne as the heading of a section it was a no-brainer decision; it was coming home with me.

It is interesting that your taking credit for the shot has balanced out your envy at my seafood meal. I thought you could take credit and remain envious of the meal. :-)

Dining indoors has been permitted here for a few weeks. There are guidelines and restrictions. All staff in restaurants must wear face masks and customers must wear face masks when not at their assigned seating. Social distancing must be maintained between tables. Customers have to provide their names and contact details for contract tracing in the event of a COVID-19 outbreak. There are also cleaning guidelines requiring seating areas to be sanitised between customers.

Only pubs that serve food have been permitted to open for the past few weeks. They are also subjected to the same rules as the restaurants with the added proviso that they not only keep customer contact details but that they also keep detail of what the customers ordered for 28 days. These pubs are open under the condition that customers are not just ordering drinks but also a substantial meal, which has been defined as something costing more than €9. The order details are required as evidence that the pub is complying with the guidelines. There is also a limit of 95 minutes for any customer stay in a pub.

Pubs that do not serve food are being allowed to open in a couple of weeks. They will also have to provide table service; no standing at the bar for your drink.

It is a different world but the measures are not a great imposition and are worth it to save lives.

>96 pgmcc: Heh, those rules for the pubs about food and requiring proof that an actual meal was ordered remind me of the book I read recently about the Roaring Twenties. Then, the "coffeeshops" got around the rule by charging outlandish prices, for instance, they would have charged €9 for a boiled egg, or a dish of nuts. :) Sounds like somebody learned something by making them keep a record of what was ordered, although I suppose there are ways to get around that also for "enterprising" individuals.

>97 MrsLee: The authorities were, for once, ahead of the curve and the smart-arsed rule breakers. When the rules were announced there was a clarification statement that it would not be acceptable to charge €9 for a packet of potato crisps (chips In your language).

Books and food - the ingredients of a perfect trip! Thank you for sharing the details of your delicious meal and your book purchases with us.

>96 pgmcc: Your dining in rules sound more sensible than ours. Customers only need to wear a mask for collecting take-aways, and they are optional for staff. It's crazy.

>97 MrsLee: Re Prohibition "food": https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/raines-sandwich.

>99 Sakerfalcon: We had a great time and the restrictions were no problem at all.

A Belleek Friday morning

I took this picture from the car when we arrived in Mullaghmore on Wednesday evening shortly before 7pm.



I took the picture below as we were leaving Mullaghmore about 10:15am on Friday morning. Can you spot the difference?



The wind and rain on Friday morning was not the most pleasant. Our destination was Belleek Pottery in the town of Belleek in County Fermanagh, Northern Ireland. It was only a 25 minute drive.

Wearing our masks we viewed the produce of Belleek Pottery in the showroom and bought a few family presents for Christmas. We did not buy any of the items in the showcase below.



NOTE: There is always an elephant.

By the time we were leaving the showroom the rain had stopped and the sun was shining as you can see below.



The large building in the right of the photograph is the original Belleek Pottery building. It now houses the showrooms and offices. The factory buildings are behind it. The tours of the factory have been suspended for the duration of the pandemic.

Belleek is a small town on the border between Northern Ireland and The Republic of Ireland. Behind my wife in the above picture you will make out a bridge on the left. That bridge crosses the River Erne which marks the border between Northern Ireland and The Republic. The picture below shows the bridge and the far side is The Republic of Ireland. The lamppost on the right hand side of the picture is the same lamppost you can see on the left hand side of the previous picture.



Once the UK has finally left the EU this river will represent the boundary between The European Union and The United Kingdom.

I finished Fracture at last. It has taken me nearly a month to get to the end of this book.

Would I read another book by this author Andrés Neuman? No!

Would I recommend this book to anyone and if so to whom? I would recommend it to people who prefer style to content and plot.

I have had many problems with this book. The premise is interesting and I was expecting a lot more than I got. The spine of the book, I cannot call it a story as there is no story here, is the life of a retired executive from a Japanese TV manufacturer. In his life he has had postings in France, Argentina, Spain, and London. In each of these places he has had a partner. We have accounts from the four women of their thoughts and views of their relationships with the main character, Mr. Yoshie Watanabe. I expected some interesting insights from the women in this man's life. Then I realised the author was a man. That made me reduce my expectations for anything significant. My reduced expectations were justified.

I never found myself making time to read this book. When I times when I read it were my normal times for reading and I never made extra time or approached the book enthusiastically.

For a long time I was wondering why the book had been written and about a quarter way through the book I though I had spotted its purpose. It was talking about fascism and dictatorships. I thought it was trying to make a political point. Then it wandered off on other topics.

What surprised me were some very interesting thoughts embedded in the books pages. I even recorded some of them, but they didn't form part of a coherent whole and were almost throwaway comments made in passing.

I did not find myself caring about any of the characters.

The book is a translation from Spanish and fair dues to the translators; the fact that it was a translation was never obvious.

Translation and polyglotism was a topic touched on in the book, but so too were cultural differences between Japan and Western cultures, government manipulation of the truth, corporations pretending to care about people to increase market share, and the evils of nuclear weapons and power plants.

This is one of two books I was due to read for our book club. The next meeting is tomorrow night and I have not read the other book; The Sound of Things Falling. I think Fracture is partly to blame for my not getting to the other book. Other factors were my reading an ER book which I still have not finished, and my watching the DVD box set of Lovejoy with my wife. Work was also quite busy.

At last I am reading something I chose for myself. What joy! What freedom!

Juliet E. McKenna's The Green Man's Silence is the third story Juliet has written about The Green Man. I enjoyed the first two and started the third at a few minutes past midnight last night, so it will have today's date as its start date. This one will not take me a month to read and that has nothing to do with the number of pages.

The book club verdict



It appears I was not the only one to feel ambivalent about Fracture: Well written; well translated; full of interesting ideas; incoherent; disappointing; verrrrrrrry long; no likeable characters; meandered all over the place. It still didn't prevent the other giving it higher marks than I gave. I gave it a 5 out of 10 but the others members' scores ranged from 6 to 8.5 with, when my 5 was included, gave it a 7.18 average. One person was going to read more by the author.

I have just realised I own a book by Neumann - Traveller of the century. I hope it is a better read than Fracture ....

>106 Sakerfalcon: I believe that is the one he won a prestigious award for. Hopefully that means it is better.

Our next reads for the Lockdown Book Club are:

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee



and

The Dictator and the Hammock by Daniel Pennac.



"To Kill a Mockingbird" was suggested by another member of the club, but I proposed "The Dictator and the Hammock". "The Dictator and the Hammock" is very funny, but also very thought provoking. I think I will be attacked for proposing a book that is very far off the path of literary literature. I suggested it deliberately as the author plays with the reader's mind and by the end of the book one is wondering which parts are story and which bits are real. Pennac is as much a philosopher as a writer and he has dedicated a lot of his time to education. This book is a masterclass in how to entwine fictional characters with reality and lead the reader into a labyrinth of story lines. I found it to be a delight as well as a source of much contemplation about society and the interactions of individuals.

These will both be re-reads for me, but I am really looking forward to seeing what the other club members think of Pennac's book.

I am over 60% into The Green Man's Silence and am enjoying it. For those of you who like folklore based tales Juliet E. McKenna's "Green Man series will be a delight. It is set in the present day and the main character is a carpenter, whose mother happens to be a Dryad. The stories are about his involvement in addressing issues caused by supernatural beings interaction with humans. It is, of course, understood that the majority of humans do not know about his bloodline, nor are the aware of the supernatural beings causing them problems.

The Green Man's Silence is the third "Green Man" book from the author and it attains the same level of intrigue and entertainment as the first two.

>108 pgmcc: I'd give a thumbs-up to anything by Pennac, particularly The Rights of the Reader.

>110 haydninvienna: I love Pennac's work. I first came across him when I spotted The Fairy Gunmother in Books Upstairs. I liked the concept and discovered it was the second novel about the family, so, of course, I hunted down The Scapegoat and read that first.

The Rights of the Reader is a revolutionary piece of work, a rallying cry for all readers everywhere.

I started The Quiller Memorandum last evening. I only managed to read the introduction. I know it is a rule of mine never to read an introduction to fiction, but this one turned out to be a good introduction; it told me about the author and how he had written under several pen-names and how The Quiller Memorandum was received, and how it is the first of fifteen Quiller stories.

I have been familiar with the film, The Quiller Memorandum, since the 1970s, possibly even the 1960s, and have watched it several times. It would be one we would enjoy re-watching. I like the music, "Wednesday's Child". It is very atmospheric and suits the mood of the film perfectly.

I recently picked up the book (as I strolled through the Kindle Store) and want to see if the written story is worth reading. If I like it I can see my buying and reading the other Quiller stories in chronological order.

Just how many books do you have going at once? I can't handle more than two at a time any more. :o(

>113 clamairy: I appear to only be able to keep one book going at a time. I used to have one by the bed to read at night and another that I would read on my commute. Working at home means no commute. The benefit is an extra hour in bed in the morning.

>113 clamairy: If you look at the "current section" at the top of my thread, you will see that I have multiple books running concurrently. I have always read like that, mixing fiction and nonfiction- fiction.

Illness simply multiple that range - the fiction that I normally enjoy during isn't viable, so I need to add in some plainer fare for those periods.

I finished The Green Man's Silence two days ago. It was another enjoyable adventure in the Green Man series from Juliet E. McKenna. These stories are set in the present day and the main character is a carpenter whose father was human and mother a Dryad. I would describe these stories as being cosy Folk Horror. This is the third book in this series and I will be reading any more that are published.

My three review questions:
Would I read more work by this author? Yes!

Would I recommend this book to other people? Yes!

Who would I recommend this book to?
Any one who:
- is interested in gore-free Folk Horror
- liked the earlier Green Man books
- likes Paul Cornell's Withes of Lychford series

>116 pgmcc: I really enjoyed it too, although I hope that future books might change up the plot a bit. The human-bad guy-who-seeks-esoteric-power thing is going to get a bit routine. I do like that each book is a separate mystery to be solved, and I liked the addition of new types of faery creatures.

I have not read the Witches of Lychford, but since you recommend it to fans of the Green Man books I am adding it to my list - thank you!

>117 Darth-Heather:

I hope that future books might change up the plot a bit.

Yes. I was a bit surprised to find another Wyrm, but the real culprit this time was the disgraced professor.

I enjoy the way Juliet McKenna has introduced characters and beings. The relationships are developing, but feel there was some good character development for Eleanor in the first book but she has virtually disappeared in the second and third books.

I know the author had not planned to do more than one Green Man book. The reaction to the first one persuaded her to change her priorities and write the second and third books.

I hope you enjoy the Witches of Lychford. There are several GD members who have enjoyed the books.

>119 pgmcc: I liked the idea that Wyrms are not vanquished and could pop up in other places. It was the human antagonists that are starting to seem too similar, for instance In the first book there was the murderer who was in thrall to the Wood Wose. In the second book there was Aiden, the guy who wanted to get the books and hand of glory that he believed would give him occult powers. Then in this book there is the professor, again a human looking for magical items that are a threat to faery folk who must rely on Dan to step in. She really writes fascinating characters, and I like how each book introduces new ones.

>120 Darth-Heather: She has presented the main characters with the very real problem of how to keep a long distance relationship going. As someone who moved city and career to be with the person I married I can relate to that. On the other hand, I was living in Belfast and the Troubles were at their height, so the decision was made relatively easy. Five years after I had moved to Dublin and we were married my wife said one day, "I would have moved to Belfast if you had asked me to!" :-)

I received this book from the Early Reviewer programme.

This book, The Financial System Limit, raises awareness of the limits inherent in the way financial systems work globally. It questions the wisdom of stimuli as a mechanism for recovery after a financial crash. The fundamental premise is that stimuli require increased debt and that the economic activity created will lead to further debt and that ultimately the amount an economy is spending on serving that debt, i.e. paying interest, will represent such a high proportion of economic output that it will be impossible to repay.

The author does not pretend to have all the answers but wants to stir debate on how to avoid the inevitable cycle of boom and bust which is inherent in the way banks and economies currently operate. David Kauders uses national examples to demonstrate his points and uses the best estimates he can find for global estimates of government, corporate, and personal debt.

David Kauders's arguments are made within the context of the current banking and economic frameworks. He provides ample evidence that the current approach to managing economies with actions taken by central banks and governments is not working and ultimately leads to economic and financial catastrophe. His arguments are, however, confined to the existing banking and economic frameworks. He does suggest a few radical actions to reducing debt (e.g. members of the public investing in state enterprises providing state services rather than pure privatisation) but admits that these initiatives would contribute just a drop in the ocean in terms of addressing the problems faced by national governments and citizens.

This is a useful contribution to the debate on global economic and financial problems, but its greatest contribution is in demonstrating and highlighting the problem. I feel it is constrained in its search for solutions (which, to be fair, was not the author's primary purpose in writing the book) by limiting its scope within the context of the existing financial and economic frameworks.

I am enjoying The Quiller Memorandum. The real life experience and consequent knowledge gained by the author come through in the telling of the story. This is a real plus for the book.

As someone who knows the film very well I cannot but notice the changes made to the story for the sake of making the film. None of the changes significantly change the story. As some of you will know I have convinced myself to look at a book and its screen adaptation as two different things. This means I can enjoy both without annoyance at differences between them.

Oh! Shiny!

A new Haruki Murakami book due out in 2021.

It is a collection of new short stories.

>124 pgmcc: Ooohh!

>125 Sakerfalcon: My thought exactly.

I am about 80% through The Quiller Memorandum and am enjoying it. The story is moving on nicely. I am enjoying noting the differences between the book and the film, and can see why these changes were made. The differences do not undermine either work and do not damage the story in any way.

On the Lockdown Book Club front, I am having a little fun. One of the more forceful characters in the club is having difficulty with The Dictator and the Hammock. I thought he would. He and I spar off one another during the sessions and it is great fun. The Dictator and the Hammock is not the traditional linear novel; in fact, it could be argued it is not a novel at all, but some sort of meta-fiction.

The base story, i.e. the bit about a dictator getting bored with the job and putting a double in his place while he goes off and has a good time in Europe only takes up a small part of the book. When we get to the end of that story the author talks about his live in South America and how he used to write letters while lying in a hammock. Apparently these letters contributed a lot of the detail Pennac included about how the multi-national companies and reigning dictators grow their own wealth at the expense of the people. Pennac takes the book into an analysis of the story and asks questions about some of the minor characters. He then expands on the minor characters' lives and eventually you are back into a story about the lives of these minor characters. You even have people going to interview the characters later in their lives.

I found the most powerful thing about this book was how the author tangle fiction with reality and brought the reader into a world where one was often wondering who was a real character and who was a fiction. My nemesis in the book club announced he was 75 pages in and 25 pages away from abandoning the book. I knew he couldn't cope with it. :-) It would be a pity if he gave up because I would like him to get to the last half of the book and can experience the mind-bending that Pennac manages very well.

I am really enjoying my re-read of The Dictator and the Hammock. I gave it four stars after my first read in 2015. I may have to add another half star or possibly another full star. There are so many things I love about this book. I did not write a review in 2015 but I have so much to say about it I will be writing one this time to express how much I have learned from the book.

Through my daughter's primary degree in Drama and Theatre Studies I learned about Brecht's approach to drama; he did not let the audience forget that what they were watching was a fiction, a performance. He did this with techniques like having the stage-manager visible on stage, sitting off to the side with all the lighting and sound equipment, as well as the props. (My daughter directed "The Threepenny Opera and put herself in the stage-manager role.) I feel Pennac has taken the same approach with this book. As he is telling the story he is commenting as to what would make the story better. Having told the headlined story he then launches into a section of the book that appears to recount various disparate thoughts and commentaries on the time he lived in Brazil and wrote letters to a friend about what he observed in Brazil. His comments in these apparently random incidents start to relate to the story he has just told. More and more they tell the reader of where he got ideas for various characters and localities in the story; how he built up the character and family history of the main character. This section culminates with his revealing what turned out to be the critical moment that launched his story and gave him the vision of its focus.

Now I have to stop rambling and get to work.

The Dictator and the Hammock by Daniel Pennac My rating: Five stars out of five!
First publish, in French, in 2003. Published in English in 2006.

Daniel Pennac’s book, The Dictator and the Hammock, is as much a demonstration of how to plot a story, develop characters, and harvest the wealth of ideas in one’s life experiences as it is a novel. It has an unusual structure for a novel and, in theatrical terms, it breaks the fourth wall by speaking to the reader, albeit in the sense of the author voicing his thoughts as he puts the story together. With this book Pennac has done for the novel what Brecht did for stage performances; he created a fiction that is clearly a fiction and he does not let the reader escape the fact that it is a fiction. That is until that latter part of the book where he plays with the readers mind blurring the line between fiction and reality. More on that later.

Let me warn you that I mention a few plot elements and you may wish not to read this before reading the book. I have read this book twice and when reading it for the second time I found my knowledge of the story did not reduce my enjoyment.

I was first drawn to the book by the blurb on the back that outlines the plot of the story stating that it is about a Dictator who gets bored with his duties and installs a double in his own place while he heads off to Europe to live the life of a playboy. It is basically an amusing farce and I prepared myself for some laughs, and indeed I found many laughs in this story. I was a bit shocked, however, when what appeared to be the end of the story about the Dictator appeared on page 38 with the end of the novel being on page 271. I asked myself, “What is going on here?”

I was more confused when, in the next section, Pennac starts recounting what appeared to be random observations about his time living in Brazil. Apparently he spent much of his time when in Brazil in a hammock, the hammock of the title, writing letters to a friend. These letters, he tells us, are the source of ideas, scenes and characters he has used in the story. It turns out his fictional country is a real state in North Eastern Brazil, Piauí, and his fictional capital city, “Teresina”, is the real capital city of Piauí.

As one reads these apparently random observations the author surprises us with little comments that link to the content of the story of the Dictator. This becomes more frequent until we come to the end of his description of an unintended visit to Teresina. This section ends with Pennac and his companions discovering two locals watching a Charlie Chaplin movie on a small black and white television they have hooked up to a street light as it is their only source of electricity. Pennac and his companions are laughing with the locals as they watch the silent movie and Pennac suddenly gets an inspiration about continuing the plot of his novel.

In the first part of the book, up to page 86, he told us the story of the Dictator. He also spoke to us about what would make a good story. This is part of not letting us forget we are reading a fiction.

In the second section he was telling us about his life experiences in Brazil and through his apparent random observations, some which were very insightful with respect to human life, theatre and politics, he has given us a look at where his ideas and inspirations have come from. It was through his life that ideas were created and evolved.

After Teresina the story continues, but it is enhanced. The original 86 pages told the story of the Dictator, what he did and what happened to him. On page 86 that story had finished, or so I thought. Well, perhaps that story had finished, but Pennac asks, “What happened the double who had remained in Teresina playing the role of Dictator in the real Dictator’s absence?”

The answer is the next part of the book and we follow the double to his death many years later on page 154.

At that stage Pennac asks more questions about the person who found the double’s body. Who was she? Why had she dried tears from his face? Did she know him?

Following the answers to these questions we come to the story of Sonia. Sonia grows in stature as Pennac explores her character, her motivation, her personal preferences, and her family background. It is here that Pennac is starting to play with the reader’s mind and starting to weave the writer’s spell that will start to blur the boundary between fact and fiction. As we proceed through the story of Sonia her character grows and we discover she is a strong, confident woman. Pennac toys with the idea of her being a real person and mentions this in passing.

While fleshing out Sonia’s character he poses questions to her about her encounter with the double and answers these questions thus building her character and backstory further.

The double’s death occurred in December 1940, the same month Daniel Pennac was born. He was writing this book in the late 1990s and into 2002. He wonders what has happened Sonia and what age she would be now if she were seventeen when she discovered the double’s body in 1940. Over dinner with friends he mentions her name and it turns out the friends know her. She became a very successful set designer and is in fact living in Paris, not far from the apartment where Pennac and his wife live. Through his friends he arranges to visit Sonia Ka and finds her an amazing elderly lady. They talk about the night she found the body and what has happened in her life since then.

Out of interest Sonia asks to read the book when it is finished to see what he will do with the information she has given him. Pennac likes this idea and sends her a copy of the manuscript which he completes during his holiday in the Vercòrs region. On returning to Paris he visits Sonia to get her impression of the book. At their meeting she tells him some of the things he got wrong, the things he got right, and she pleads with him to have a decent ending, not a Philip Roth ending that she finds insulting in its tidy, neat sewing up of loose ends.

I see this last part of the story as Pennac demonstrating how a writer can craft a story to have the reader wondering what is real and what is fiction. The first time I read this book I found myself having to remind myself it was all a fiction. Pennac was consulting one of his fictional characters about the “facts” and speculations in his story. He takes her advice and completes the ending in a fashion she would favour. In addition, she quizzes him about parts of his life and why he has made certain decisions.

I see this book as a guide to plotting stories, creating and developing characters, and a demonstration of the power of mixing fact with fiction in a way that leaves the reader wondering which part is fiction and which part is fact. At the end of this story I was left feeling Sonia was the most real person in the whole book.

In addition
I have dealt above with Pennac’s structure for this story and my perception of the book as a master class in fiction writing. In addition to the story and the subliminal instructions to writers, Pennac has filled this book with dozens of axiomatic observations and ideas, many relating to politics, but just as many about human life and the motivations that drive us. I have underlined dozens of quotes and would need to write several more pages to deal with the issues raised and their implications.

Would I read more work from Daniel Pennac?

Yes, and I have.

Would I recommend this book to anyone?

Yes.

Who would I recommend this book to?

Anyone who likes to get more from a book than just the story. Someone who likes to ponder political ideas, human motivation, and humour. Anyone with a desire to write might use it as a case study to help develop their creativity and how to add substance to form in their stories.

Quiller: The 9th Directive is my second excursion into Adam Hall's world of Quiller. I found The Quiller Memorandum (also known as "The Berlin Memorandum") enjoyable, and deep, enough to justify reading more of the Quiller series.

>129 pgmcc: Wow. Five out of five stars. That's not something one sees too often in here. Glad you enjoyed it so much.

>132 clamairy: It is not everybody's cup of tea. It is not a flourid, beautifully poetic work. I suggested it as a read for our Lockdown Book Club and I have three DNFs so far. They are from people I know look for beautiful writing, i.e. the flourid, beautifully poetic work, and are not too fussed about content. They are the people who like flourid, beautifully poetic work that is the type of writing I describe as all fur coat and no knickers. The Dictator and the Hammock has more substance than form. It is very clever in that it is more about writing a book than telling the particular story of the Dictator. It also makes a lot of statements highlighting the plight of the population in a stark, harsh landscape, and it shines a light on corruption amongst the ruling classes and big business.

It also includes a good analysis of Charlie Chaplin's film, The Great Dictator.

>133 pgmcc: "It is the type of writing I describe as all fur coat and no knickers."

I laughed a good long while over this description. I can imagine for some it would call to mind a very appealing image. For others... not so much. 😄 I think I'll take a pass on it for now.

>134 clamairy:

I may have caused a misunderstanding. My use of the "all fur coat and no knickers" comment was in relation to the "beautiful writing and not fussed about content" type book, not The Dictator and the Hammock. The Dictator and the Hammock has lots of content and and a reasonably well worn overcoat, i.e. really big knickers and no fur coat.

I am going to reword #133 to eliminate the inherent ambiguity in my writing.

My current Quiller read, Quiller: The 9th Directive, is set in Thailand and is very much in the mode of the 1960s agent single-handedly striving to complete his mission to save a VIP and having to work without authority as he works for an organisation that does not officially exist. This presents various obstacles and frustrations that complicate his operating as effectively as possible.

We are currently watching the complete Danger Man starring Patrick McGoohan and the atmosphere of the Quiller book is similar to that in Danger Man. They are of the same era and the same genre so I am not surprised.

>135 pgmcc: No, I believe I understood what you were trying to say, but the mental image you summoned got in the way.

>137 clamairy: ...the mental image you summoned got in the way.

LOL!

Notification from Amazon that the release date for Last Stand in Lychford, book 5 of The Witches of Lychford by Paul Cornell, has been put back to November 24th, 2020. When I read the header on the e-mail I was afraid it was being pushed back into 2021. Luckily it is only a couple of weeks. I can live with that. I am not biting my fingernails. I'm not. No, that is not a tremour in my hand. No it is not the shakes. I have this. I can be patient. I can wait until November 24th. I can wait a whole month. I can. I can wait more than 30 days. I have proved it. I pre-ordered the book on 9th May. I can wait another month...AAAAAAARRRRRRRGGGGGHHHHH!

Quiller: The 9th Directive by Adam Hall

Written in the 1960s this book shares the feel of TV shows, films and novels dealing with the post WWII spy; the special agent who takes on the world single-handed and shuns support from colleagues as the help will only get in the way of their succeeding in their mission. Stories/shows/programmes/films I would include in sharing the atmosphere of this book are: Danger Man, The Ipcress File, and Man in a Suitcase. These are the types of books/screen adaptations that have minimal violence in them; perhaps the type of fisty-cuffs that on old shows that cause amusement to our present day cynical minds. Quiller avoids violence as much as possible and never carries a gun.

The first story in Adam Hall's Quiller series, The Quiller Memorandum, was made into a successful film in 1966. It is my enjoyment of this film (and it is one I go back to time and again as comfort viewing) that drove me to see if it was based on a book. The 9th Directive is the second of fifteen Quiller novels. I do not think I will read all 15 but I think it highly probable that I will read some more of them.

Adam Hall was an interesting person. "Adam Hall" was only one of many pen-names used by the author to segregate his different types of novels. Elleston Trevor is the name of the author, a name he took when he abandoned his birth name of Trevor Dudley-Smith. The Flight of the Phoenix is probably his most famous work. It was also made into a successful movie, and I believe it has been remade in more recent years. He wrote this as Elleston Trevor.

The sixties appears to have been quite a busy time for authors and scriptwriters in the area of single-handed spying heroes. It would have been from this pool of stories that James Bond would have eventually appeared as the big money spinner. Unlike James Bond, Quiller relies on ordinary technology rather than clever devices that push the boundaries of belief at the time they are used.

Would I read another novel by Adam Hall/Elleston Trevor?
Yes.

Would I recommend The 9th Directive?
Yes.

Who would I recommend this book to?
Anyone who likes spy novels and mysteries, and who likes the older style spies who are not supported by futuristic technology that exists only in the mind of the story-teller.

Anyone who has watched and enjoyed the film The Quiller Memorandum should enjoy the Quiller books.

>133 pgmcc: and >134 clamairy: The fur coat with no knickers caused me to snort water through the nose. I shall remember that as a very convenient description for over-dressed style without structural pillars of narrative, character and theme. A lack of foundational garments will distract from making the right impression.

The Dragon Waiting is my next read.

My last read was a short ghost story by Beatrice Grimshaw. It was "Cabin No.9" which was first published in The London Magazine in 1927. It was republished in Issue 15 of The Green Book published in 2020.

It is about the experiences of a stowaway who hides in an unoccupied deluxe cabin on a passenger liner sailing from Colón on the Panama Canal to Southampton in England. The story is good, but is a story of its time and the first page does show the racism of the time with the use of the "N" word. It was used in the dialogue of a ship's crewman and is credible in that context. The description of the loading of coal by black workers and the attitude of the crewman towards them serves more to highlight the predicament of black workers and the racist attitude of white people than to promote racism. The treatment of the black workers serves the purpose of explaining why the workers did not raise the alarm as the stowaway got on board. Racism plays no further part in the story.

The substance of the story is a haunting, a murder, and a "omitted word" ending. I will not spoil the ending by saying whether the "omitted word" is "Happy" or "Tragic".

Beatrice Grimshaw appears to have been a fascinating woman spending much of her life sailing her own cutter around the South Sea Islands.

Best of British Science Fiction 2019

This collection of 23 stories published in 2019 would be a wonderful gift for any of your friends interested in Science Fiction. It serves as a sampler of what authors are writing about now and what issues are being raised and discussed in the socio-political laboratory that is Science Fiction. As the Editor, Donna Scott, points out in her introduction, this collection was prophetic in its content. Many of the stories published in 2019 are about issues, such as protecting ourselves from natural threats outside our homes, the control of our world by AIs, the creation and reinforcement of a two-tier society by extreme provision of luxury for the few, and control of water being used as weapon of war, that we see realized today.

With 23 stories covering such a range of topics and live issues this collection provides plenty of food for thought and enjoyment.

>141 jillmwo: I'm glad it wasn't just me!

>139 pgmcc: Oh no! It hasn't been that long since I remembered to read the last one. I'll probably wait until after the holidays to request that one on OverDrive.

I am only a few pages into The Dragon Waiting. The first page was describing landscape and the imagined battle deployment running in a character's head. It was referencing Roman occupation of Britain and giving the Latin and Welsh names of places. I was not impressed.

Then some soldiers arrived. They had something/someone chained and manacled in their midst. I was hooked.

>146 pgmcc: This has been on my TBR pile for years. How fast it moves to the top may depend on your review.

>147 Sakerfalcon:

I had not heard of it until that day we met in Foyle's. My friend from The Philippines recommended it. In fact, the other John M. Ford books I have read were recommendations from him too.

Having had a look at John M. Ford's biography I discovered he was born the same year I was. I also discovered he had his first book published when I was in my second year at college. What have I done with my life? :-)

Of course, last year I discovered the author of City of Brass, a book I loved, is five months younger than my older daughter. What have I done with my life? Or should that be, What has my daughter done with her life?

>148 pgmcc: I have read both his Star Trek novels - one of which only vaguely touches any canonical characters and the other is best described as a musical comedy. I was discussing these with Maddz, I think, a while back. And it was she who told me of the existence of other books by this author.

Note: I have read 4 Star Trek novels in my life. These two, one by Barbara Hambly (who I enthuse about periodically) and 1 which was...a bad mistake.

>149 -pilgrim-: Three good out of four is not bad.

I do not think I have read any Star Trek novels. I have read a couple of Dr. Who novels that were presents I received. I quite enjoyed them.

>148 pgmcc:

Some of us have to be the spear carriers.

>151 suitable1:

Good to hear from you, Riley. I hope you and yours are well.

You are right, some of us have to be in the ranks carrying the spears. One of my son's had a week's work experience (part of his school programme when he was 16) in the legal department of a firm in Dublin. The legal department boss had planned to bring him to court to see proceedings, but proceedings were cancelled. My son ended up filling envelopes on the first day.

I met him for lunch on that first day and asked him how he was getting on. He said the was filling envelopes. He went on to say, "It is very mundane work. I was thinking this was not appropriate, then I realised 'I am that soldier'" :-)

I was proud of his self-awareness.

>150 pgmcc: The three were by novelists that I had heard of. The connected to the Original Series. Perhaps I have failed to convey the degree of badness of the fourth.

It was set in the Mirror Universe, and was an anthology of stories, dealing with the Mirror Universe equivalent of DS9 and Voyager crews. Several appeared to have been written with the main intention of satisfying BDSM fantasies regarding these characters. (Obsidian Alliances, if you must know. A young -pilgrim- was rather shocked.)

>153 -pilgrim-: I had to look up BDSM. You shock me, -pilgrim-. I had no idea you were into that sort of thing.

>152 pgmcc: Ah, "I am that soldier" A phrase I remind myself of at work frequently. Another phrase which comes to mind at work a lot, "Not my circus, not my clowns."

>155 MrsLee: LOL :-)

>149 -pilgrim-: >153 -pilgrim-: So really 3 out of 3, don't count that fourth one!

>157 Karlstar: I see you have worked in Market Research and Advertising.

>158 pgmcc: Ack, never!

Chiming in on book clubs, I found that I was not the ideal member. I read slowly, and I didn't like having all my reading time consumed by something I hadn't chosen. But worse, my comments in meetings tended to sound a lot like the ones I make in my reviews, and that was simply not the way most of the members wanted to discuss them. So after a good try--a couple of years, in fact--I went back to setting my own reading agenda. After that, I knew enough to decline.

As a footnote, I found that in general a group discussion of fiction tended to be about the book, whereas a discussion of nonfiction tended to be about the subject matter. To me those are such different things that there's almost no overlap.

>160 Meredy: The thing that keeps me in the group is that the sessions are great fun. There are four people in the group that I know prior to COVID-19 and there are another four whom I have met through the on-line sessions. We started out with the remit that people could say what they wanted about a book without prejudice; we are free to disagree totally with one another about the merits of a book, and no one takes offence. This has led to a lot of banter between us and we all have good fun. So, I am torn between keeping contact with a group of people that I have fun with and reading the books I enjoy. I must say the books read to date have given me insight to literature I would not chose for myself and, in most cases, my literary prejudices have proven justified. :-)

Most of the books are beautifully written but do not give me anything other than beautiful writing and a smattering of new information. They have been written to show off how good a writer is rather than tell a story or convey a message. Consequently they have little humour and limited depth. The first one we read was Shadow Play by Joe O'Connor. It was an abuse of literature. Yes, it was beautifully written but it was purely written to earn money for Joseph O'Connor. It was supposed to be a fictional account of the life of Bram Stoker. It was totally fictional in that it contorted facts and totally represented the characters of the real people involved. If one did not read the small note at the end of the book that said it was fiction and did not know the truth about the life of Bram Stoker one would believe it was biographical. Grrrrrrrrrrrr!

Our reading group was established for fiction only. Most of those involved have a lot of fact reading* in the day-job, so we wanted to have a space where we could escape non-fiction.

I can see how a group would discuss the non-fiction topic rather than the merits of any book it was included in. We have certainly focused on the book and had some very lively, yet humorous, differences of opinion on the books read. An interesting situation has arisen between myself and one of the lawyers. He loves beautifully written fluff and appears to tolerate the most superficial of stories, while I like substance, humour and intricate plots. When I suggested reading The Dictator and the Hammock I knew he would hate it. His first words in the discussion were, "I detested this book. It must be the worst book I have ever read." :-) I had predicted this to some other members of the group. It appears to be an unwritten law of reading that whatever Julian likes I will dislike and what ever I like Julian will criticise to the nth degree. We get on great.

*That is true for most of us but there are two lawyers in the group and I believe they spend their entire work-life reading and writing fiction.

... they spend their entire work-life reading and writing fiction ...: only if they’re litigators.

>162 haydninvienna: The bait worked. :-)

>163 pgmcc: I spend my life reading and writing fantasy ...

The Dragon Waiting by John M. Ford.

I have read a couple of John M. Ford's books already. Apparently this was regarded as one of his great books but I had never heard of it until January this year. Again it was my friend from the Philippines who introduced it to me. I think he may even have brought me to John M. Ford's other books.

Between work and RL I have not had a lot of reading time but am enjoying what I have read.

I have been lax on my reading for the Lock-down Book Club. There are two books to be read for the next session in two weeks' time.

A Brief History of Seven Killings


and

Disoriental


I have not started either book. I am a bad boy.

A third book was mentioned but put on the back burner for a subsequent session, namely, 10 Minutes 38 Seconds in this Strange World.


The opening pages of the third book, the one that is not scheduled for our next session, captured my interest and I may end up reading it before I read the other two.

Time to start another episode to bring me to the end of 2020.