Charlotte (Charl08) swims with the penguins (3)

I'm Charlotte, I'm dipping my toe into the Category Challenge for the first time this year after a couple of years in the 75ers.
I enjoy reading a wide range of books, from romance and crime fiction to literary fiction, not to mention non-fiction (although less of that). I try to read fiction from different places, and in 2020 joined an online book group that just reads translated fiction.

I am keen on penguins, both of the publishing and bird kind. Inspired by a recent documentary I'm organising my categories by penguin type - but advance warning, it gets pretty tangential.


Photo by Long Ma on Unsplash

Galapagos penguin (fiction ETA and NF in translation) 15
African penguin (books by authors with links to the African continent, loosely defined) 3
Yellow-eyed penguin (Keeping things interesting i.e. first time authors) 8
Chinstrap penguin (Graphic novels and memoirs) 9
Little penguin (Familiar faces - authors I've read before) 8
King penguin (books with links to feminism) 2
Great auk (histories) 2
Southern Rockhopper penguin (new-to-me authors) 7
Adelie penguin (prize nominees) 8
Macaroni penguin (genre fiction) 46
Emperor penguin (catch all category - everything else) 6

May 1 (Total 114)
April 31 (113)
March 29 (82)
Feb 29 (53)
Jan 24
All images via wikipedia unless otherwise stated.

Galapagos penguin (fiction and NF in translation)



1. The Inspector of Strange and Unexplained Deaths (France)
2. Sidewalks (Translated from the Spanish, although author now writes in English and is based in the US)
3. London under snow (Catalan)
4. The Eighth Life (German)
5. Zero (Norwegian)
6. House on Endless Waters (Hebrew)
7. Not a Novel (German)
8. Abigail (Hungarian)
9. Paula (German)
10. Bookshops (Spanish)
11. The Book of Jakarta (Indonesian)
12. If I Had Your Face (Korean)
13. Crocodile Tears (Spanish - Uruguay)
14. Nordic Fauna (Swedish)
15. Slash and Burn (Spanish - El Salvador)

Currently reading:
All Men Are Liars

Planned reading for this category from the Borderless Book Club:

March 11th - Comma Press | The Book of Jakarta

March 25th- Bitter Lemon Press |Crocodile Tears by Mercedes Rosende

https://www.peirenepress.com/borderless-book-club/

Books from the shelves

The Enlightenment of the Greengage Tree (Iran)
All Men are Liars
In the Twilight: stories (Russia)
Ankomst

Books from the library
Velvet (Palestine)
Asylum Road

African penguin (books by authors with links to the African continent, loosely defined)


Photo by Lizel Snyman De Gouveia on Unsplash

1. Adua (Author is Italian-Somali)
2. Girl Called Eel (Author born in Comoros, based in France)
3. Transcendental Kingdom (Author is Ghanaian-American)
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.

Possible reads from my shelves:
To Hell with Cronje
Kicking Tongues (African Writers Series)
Segu
Occasion for Loving (VMC)
Dust
Homegoing
The Loss Library
This Mournable Body
Orchestra of Minorities
Speak No Evil

Yellow-eyed penguin (Keeping things interesting i.e. first time authors)


Had never come across these penguins before until I saw the BBC documentary last week.

1. Strange Beasts of China
2. Citadel (Poetry)
3. Keeper
4. Greetings from Bury Park
5. These Ghosts are Family
6. The Private Joys of Nnenna Maloney
7. A Dutiful Boy
8. How the One-Armed Sister Sweeps Her House

Possible reads from my shelves:
Kintu
Love and Other Thought Experiments

Possible reads from library requests:
Luster
Rainbow milk
What's left of me is yours
As you were by Elaine Feeney

Chinstrap penguin (Graphic novels and memoirs)



(Photo by Eamonn Maguire on Unsplash)
Because these penguins seem to appreciate graphic design...
1. Strong Female Protagonist
2. Britten and Brülightly
3. The Golden Age: Book 1
4. Ms Marvel : Stormranger
5. Palimpsest: documents from a Korean adoption
6. Petty Theft
7. Taxi! Stories from the back seat
8. Couch Fiction (2020 edition)
9. Shadow Life

Possible reads from my shelves:
On Ajayi Crowther Street

Library requests:
Moms (in translation)

Little penguin (Familiar faces - authors I've read before)


Saw some of these guys at Phillip Island, about a million years ago now (it feels like).
1. The Haw Lantern
2. More than a Woman
3. Why Be Happy When You Can Be Normal?
4. The Pull of the Stars
5. Deacon King Kong
6. Hullabaloo in the Guava Orchard
7. The Galaxy and the Ground Within
8. The Silver Collar

Possible reads from the shelves: Divisadero
Summer
Rodham
Underground Railroad

King penguin (books with links to feminism and gender)


King penguin creche
1. Hag: forgotten folktales retold
2. Laura Knight

On the shelves
Invisible Women
Voyaging Out

Great auk (histories)


1. The Berlin shadow : living with the ghosts of the Kindertransport
2. The Emperor's Feast

Currently reading:
Burning the Books

From the shelves to read
Last Witnesses
Endeavour
Black and British
A Handful of Shells: West African History
The Bad Ass Librarians of Timbuktu

From the library to read:
Mutual Admiration Society

Southern Rockhopper penguin (new-to-me authors)


1. Interior Chinatown
2. Akhmatova: Poems
3. Blue in Chicago and other stories
4. Hieroglyphics
5. The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue
6. The Cold Millions
7. Unsettled Ground
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.

Possible reads from the shelves/ library requests:
How Beautiful We Were

Adelie penguin (prize nominees)


1. The Bells of Old Tokyo (shortisted for Stanford Dolman Travel Book of the Year)
2. The Historians (winner of the Costa Prize poetry category)
3. A Village Life (Louise Glück won the Nobel for Literature 2020)
4. Luster (Women's Prize Longlist 2021)
5. Piranesi (Women's Prize Longlist 2021)
6. The Vanishing Half (Women's Prize Longlist 2021)
7. No one is Talking About This (Women's Prize Longlist 2021)
8. Detransition, Baby (Ditto)

Possible Prize winners to read:

Costa Prize category winners announced (Jan) -
Winner of the 2020 First Novel Award Love After Love by Ingrid Persaud (Faber)
(read in 2020)

Winner of the 2020 Novel Award: The Mermaid of Black Conch: A Love Story by Monique Roffey (Peepal Tree)

Winner of the 2020 Biography Award The Louder I Will Sing by Lee Lawrence (Sphere)

Winner of the 2020 Children's Book Award: Voyage of the Sparrowhawk by Natasha Farrant (Faber)

Macaroni penguin - genre fiction

Macaroni penguins are the most numerous penguin (according to wikipedia!)

1. Wild Seduction (romance)
2. Whispering Death (crime)
3. Good time girl (r)
4. Tempting the best man (r)
5. Smoke and Whispers (c)
6. Angel in the Glass (c)
7. Truly Beloved (r)
8. The Sacrament (c)
9. The Ex Talk (r)
10. Enjoy the View (r)
11. The Searcher (c)
12. Pretty Face (r)
13. Justin's Bride (r)
14. The Summer Snow (c)
15. Instant Attraction (r)
16. Instant Gratification (r)
17. Instant Temptation (r)
18. Love in a Snowstorm (r)
19. The Unexpected Inheritance of Inspector Chopra (c)
20. The Austen Playbook (r)
21. Headliners (r)
22. Death Has Deep Roots (c)
23. Rocket Science (r)
24. The Last Whistle (r)
25. Sweet, Tart (r)
26. Defending the Rush (r)
27. The Novice's Tale (c) audio
28. Peaked (r)
29. It's Getting Scot in here (r)
30. Reforming a Rake (r)
31. The Shadow Killer (c) (audio)
32. Everything Girl
33. Happy Singles Day (r)
34. A Little London Scandal (c)
35. Weekend Wife (r)
36. Wilde Child (r)
37. Blood Grove (c)
38. The Big Hit (r)
39. Catnap (c)
40. Second First Impressions (r)
41. The Mix-up (r) Netgalley - UK publish date 06/21
42. Edge of the Grave (c)
43. Who's That Earl (r)
44. Hard Luck (r)
45. The Dating Plan (r)
46. One Thing Leads to a Lover (r)

Emperor penguin - ruling over everything else



1. A Rustle of Silk (audio)
2. From Crime to Crime (Law, Memoir)
3. I carried a Watermelon (Memoir, humour)
4. All the Young Men (Memoir)
5. Life Mask (Poetry)
6. Being Heumann (Memoir/Disability activism)

Copied from previous thread

I want to read (some of) the long list for the women's prize. I'll be reading Luster or Summer next, I think.

The sixteen longlisted books are as follows:

Because of You by Dawn French
✅Burnt Sugar by Avni Doshi
Consent by Annabel Lyon
Detransition, Baby by Torrey Peters
Exciting Times by Naoise Dolan
How the One-Armed Sister Sweeps Her House by Cherie Jones - waiting for library reservation
Luster by Raven Leilani out from the library
No One is Talking About This by Patricia Lockwood - waiting for library reservation
Nothing But Blue Sky by Kathleen MacMahon - waiting for library reservation
Piranesi by Susanna Clarke out from the library
Small Pleasures by Clare Chambers
Summer by Ali Smith on the shelf
The Golden Rule by Amanda Craig
The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett - waiting for library reservation
Transcendent Kingdom by Yaa Gyasiwaiting for library reservation
Unsettled Ground by Claire Fuller - waiting for library reservation

Happy new thread! Looks like the Macaroni penguins are truly numerous.

Happy new thread.

Happy new thread!

Happy new thread, Charlotte!

Penguins!

Thank you for the details about Adua. Very much appreciated. It was on my To Read list for a while before I decided to take it off last year because I needed more upbeat books. I'll probably read it at some point though. It really helps to have opinions from someone whose bookish opinions I trust.

>14 MissWatson: They are multiplying rapidly* on my bedroom floor (charity shop donations currently halted).
*the books, not the penguins.

>15 Helenliz: Thanks Helen. Is your bell ringing back on from next week?

>16 Tess_W: Thank you!

>17 susanj67: Much appreciated.

>18 spiralsheep: I thought it was well done, but certainly wouldn't describe any book featuring FGM as light! I do hope it finds plenty of readers though, not least because it makes it easier for the publisher to produce Italian books with strong african themes in English (clumsy wording on my part).

Happy new thread, Charotte

>20 jessibud2: Thanks!

Bookgroup is tomorrow night and I am only 43% through Crocodile Tears. I am liking it more than the last book we read by Bitter Lemon.

Imagine the waiting room of the Criminal Court.
No, it's not one of those court waiting rooms you see in American television series, painted in subtle colours and austerely decorated, furnished in dark polished wood, with thick carpets that silence the footsteps of grey-suited lawyers and prosecutors and judges ....No, none of that.

In here, the first thing to hit your nose, even before you are inside, is the smell of caged animals.

Crocodile Tears sounds interesting, Charlotte.

Happy new thread; I love how you have used penguins to set up your categories.

>22 BLBera: Thanks Beth. It's not like any crime novel I've come across before. And I'm not sure how much Uruguayan fiction I've read before either...

Happy New Thread! Looks like you are absolutely rocking this challenge and your reading!

Thanks Mirjam. I'd like to be reading more NF but realistically that's unlikely unless my job changes dramatically. (Or I win the lottery!)

Hurrah, despite feeling like someone was trying to tunnel out of my forehead this afternoon (trying to do three things at once was not my wisest plan) miraculously an hour after switching off the work laptop the tension eased and I felt human again and could pick up my book and read. Marvellous.

Crocodile Tears (this is a spoilertastic review: you may want to avoid it)
From the bookclub blurb :
"Crocodile Tears starts in an overcrowded prison, where Diego is being held on a charge of kidnapping. Diego’s lawyer, the fastidious Antinucci, secures Diego’s release. But the lawyer has plans for his client, whose unexpected freedom comes at a price: he must join forces with a brutal psychopath, the Hobo, and hold up an armoured truck.

A hilarious caper ensues, as the robbery swiftly degenerates into mayhem and violence. While the men appear to be engaged in a perverse competition to see who is the most incompetent, the disparaged women – Ursula Lopez, an amateur criminal with an insatiable appetite, and her rival, Captain Leonilda Lima – reveal themselves to be the true protagonists. This seemingly classic lowlife crime story has a powerful message: never, ever underestimate the women."

What did you think of the way women were portrayed compared to the male characters?
Both the police captain and the criminal were strong, capable characters, but it wasn't a uniform picture. The "villain" is clearly tormented by her choices, and two other women with smaller roles ro play seem far less in control of their lives.

In what way does Rosende use humour in this novel? How effective is it?
I don't know that humour translates very well generally. Rosende's is pretty black, from the mocking at the comparison between the US legal system and the Uruguayan one, to the corrupt lawyer who goes for absolution in confession (and then carries on as before).

Uruguay isn't necessarily a country that English-speaking readers will have visited - is there more pressure on the translator to convey that sense of place in a novel like this? Did it work in this case?
Hard to know without reading the original. Lots of lovely description of the city, but as in most crime novels, not something the tourist board are likely to want to read (although there is a set piece shooting in a park durng a public orchestral concert that sounded lovely)

Reviewers have compared Crocodile Tears to Elmore Leonard, Anita Brooklyn and Quentin Tarantino. Did the novel evoke these or any other authors or film-makers for you?
One of the characters had a real issue with panic attacks, which I'd not come across before in a crime novel. The violence was mostly centred on one extreme event, a holdup of an armoured van. In that sense, very filmic.

Did you find the complex plot and improbable coincidences in the novel credible? Does credibility matter in a book like this?
I don't think it was that complex - reminded me of the line in Kiss Kiss Bang Bang where the narrator points out how the classic crime novels always had the detective investigating two cases, that would inevitably turn out to be linked...

Happy new thread! I enjoyed reacquainting myself with the various penguins!

Happy new thread, Charlotte!

>26 Jackie_K: If I learn nothing else this year, I now know what a chinstrap penguin looks like.

>27 bell7: Thank you. Hope you are enjoying the gardening!

Now reading (and enjoying) The Private Joys of Nnenna Maloney, the fifth of the six work "Big Read" shortlist. As the meeting is this pm, I don't think I'm going to finish it in time!

Sam scowled and stabbed his fork into a piece of unidentified, unidentifiable meat. Why should Dan have all the luck! Wasn't Sam more handsome? Wasn't he a full inch taller? Hadn't he just achieved Grade 8 Distinction on the harp!

Loving all the penguin pictures. Happy new thread Charlotte!

Thanks Mary!

I am listening to the online bookgroup again, it's their first birthday which seems crazy to me. Have we really been in covid times for so long?*
Interesting listening to the discussion re Crocodile Tears about the "market" for novels in Spanish. The translator comments that Uruguayan novels are often not available in Spain. The translator says knowing Argentinian Spanish was three quarters of the battle.
He notes the dialogue in the prison was probably the hardest, but also comments on the freedom to amend the text. Several of the criminals have very English names, which were originally spanish nicknames carrying a meaning.
The usual query about the relationship with the writer. I always hope for a good gossipy session but everyone has said nice things, and this session is no exception.
Why does the cover mention Fargo? It seems then publisher is a fan: the image also refers to the film... (do I admit I've never seen Fargo)

*Yes

Oh my, once watched (Fargo) never forgotten!

>32 mdoris: Well it certainly made an impact on the publisher of Crocodile Tears.

The Private Joys of Nnenna Maloney

I really loved this book which made me laugh out loud in places. I am going to try and think about the review because I am not sure how to write anything without spoilers.

Happy Friday, Charlotte. Happy New thread. Love all the penguin pics. I am enjoying Breakwater my current GN. Have you read it? I think you read her last one, Follow Me In.

>35 msf59: Hi Mark, thanks. I liked Breakwater. Still looking to read her first book though!

>34 charl08: Laughing out loud sounds good. My library has a copy of crocodile tears!

>37 BLBera: It was a really sweet book too in lots of ways. I am hopeful they might pick it for the campus wide project.

Catching up with the reviews (I signed up to try the Guardian Weekly, as it comes by post). There aren't very many books reviewed (sadness) but I am tempted by Mexican crime Empty Houses, described as 'powerfully bleak' and Two-way Mirror: the life of Elizabeth Barrett Browning. Although I still have the bio of Eleanor Marx to finish (soooooo long!) so maybe I should hold off on that now...

>39 charl08: I'm planning to start Two-Way Mirror this weekend Charlotte.

I have had the Eleanor Marx biography on the shelf for an age.

>40 Caroline_McElwee: I am not feeling the NF love at the moment, Caroline.

I have booked for the online crime writing festival in support of food bank charity the Trussell Trust. Looking forward to it.
https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/locked-up-festival-2-tickets-148168932265

>41 charl08: Have a great time!

Happy new thread, Charlotte!

happy new thread!

>42 rabbitprincess: I'm looking forward to it.

>43 FAMeulstee: Thanks Anita. Lovely to see your photos of your trip.

>44 banjo123: Thanks Rhonda. It's lovely to have visitors.

Urgh. Not much reading done today as had to catch up with some stuff I didn't finish on Friday. Really not my idea of a good Sunday.
(This time I can't blame the vaccine for the brain fog.)

Anyway, the review of The Private Joys of Nnenna Maloney. I really liked this book, it grabbed me straight away. Nnenna is a charming character, a young woman trying to work out how she exists apart from her mum, who has brought her up almost entirely on her own. However her choice not to talk about Nnenna's dad's gradually pulling them apart.

Nnenna's friends are fun to spend time with, and the picture of her relationship with her boyfriend (and how teenagers try to work out what a relationship is) felt honest. Nnenna's mum Joan is part of the story too, and her time as a student forms a key part of the story. Alongside it too, is Joan's friend from college, trying to deal with his own depression and isolation as he starts a new life in Manchester. I thought it was really well written, and had new things to say (at least to me) about what it's like to grow up as the child of a Black parent when that parent isn't around. Alongside that, it made me laugh, the church based scenes especially. Your mileage may vary: I certainly found some of the (comic) christian fellowship meetings as funny as they were familiar.

A Little London Scandal
Very readable crime fiction set in 1960s London. This is the second book featuring a young dresser, Anna Treadway. Anna is drawn into working on another crime when a young man she knows is arrested for murder. He is viewed as guilty by the police almost entirely due to being a "rent boy". Emmerson couples the story of Anna's attempt to find Nik an alibi with the story of how he came to be working on the streets. Atmospheric with detail about 60s London, I gobbled this down in one go last night.

>47 charl08: A direct hit, Charlotte! It's not out here yet, but I snagged the first in the series on Kindle.

>39 charl08: I had not heard of Two-way Mirror: the life of Elizabeth Barrett Browning, but that one also sounds good.

>47 charl08: I looked it up and I bought it last year on Kindle (must have been on offer). I also have the first one, still to be read.

>48 Crazymamie: Perfectly suited my (rather over extended) brain.

>49 elkiedee: I liked it. Nice to have a good stash on the kindle in case of a book related apocalypse, I think.

>47 charl08: I didn't realize there was a sequel to Miss Treadway and the Field of Stars. Sadly, not available anywhere here that I looked. Did it just come out recently?

>51 Familyhistorian: 2020, according to my library ebook. Sorry it's not available with you.

>52 charl08: Sometimes it takes so long for books to get to us you'd think they had to swim across, Charlotte. I'll keep an eye out for it.

Have you checked by author name as well, just in case the title is different?

>53 Familyhistorian: >54 elkiedee: Fingers crossed it appears!

From the garden.

I've been distracted from the books by prep for an online event (don't get me started) and the discovery of "Call My Agent" (Dix Percent) a French drama/comedy about a French acting agency. I think I've just finished the second series. Only two to go (but short series). Some lovely shots of Paris' streets which help right now.

Reading wise, I am really struggling to get through A Girl Called Eel. The structure (one long sentence) seems really dense to me.

>56 charl08: Beautiful flower!

I‘m with you on the Paris streets! I‘ve been turning to instagram to brighten my day with pictures of London, Paris and New York because I miss traveling so much.

>56 charl08: Lovely flower, Charlotte!

>57 MissBrangwen: I'm starting to think about a trip to Scotland in July, and even that feels a bit daring. Weird covid times.

>58 FAMeulstee: Thanks Anita.

All the Young Men
Powerful memoir (ghostwritten) of an Arkansas native who stepped in when young men began to appear in her home town's hospitals, abandoned and dying of AIDS. From 'dumpster diving' to provide nutritious meals, facing off with ignorant medical professionals and families, and generally being a loving companion, I found this a powerful read. She reminds me of many of the people I have met who support refugees: won't take no for an answer, have endless patience with pointless obstructive bureaucracy, and generally hide in plain sight, for everyone except for the people whose lives they make a little more bearable.

....there are twenty mosques in the medina alone but the Friday Mosque is the only one big enough to hold a crowd for Friday prayers, it was the first one to bring the whole town together for Friday prayers and the name stuck, and then as the population grew more mosques sprang up, the Friday Mosque is huge, it has two storeys and a tall minaret that towers majestically over the whole town, All-Knowing said it was built in the seventeenth century by a brilliant woman called Sayyidat Karima Binti Saidi Akili, daughter of Sharif Bin Abdallay Tuyur Djamalilaili, she was highly educated and she commissioned this enormous structure in 1670, it was more a testament to her artistic taste than a symbol of power, she's buried beside her father in a pyramid-shaped tomb right behind the mosque...

Still reading Girl Called Eel.
Every so often I google the places mentioned.


Grand Mosque de Vendredi
(Via Tripadviser)

All the Young Men sounds good. I will have a look for it.

I hope you enjoy a nice long weekend, Charlotte!

Happy Friday, Charlotte.

>62 katiekrug: Thanks Katie. It's a bank holiday, and I'm not sitting in A&E, so things are looking up from yesterday.

>63 BLBera: Thanks Beth!

I'm reading Luster: it's really good.

When it comes to this, I cannot help feeling that I am at the end of a fluctuation that originated with a single butterfly. I mean, with one half degree of difference, everything I want could be mine. I am good, but not good enough, which is worse than simply being bad. It is almost. The difference between being there when it happens and stepping out just in time to see it on the news. Still, I can't help feeling that in the closest arm of the multiverse, there is a version of me that is fatter and happier...

A&E yesterday?!?! Are you okay?

>65 katiekrug: Yeah, Katie. I had a long rant and then deleted it, sorry if that sounded very abrupt. Just a lot of waiting around to be told there's nothing they can do until a specialist appt becomes free. And they're dealing with a big COVID backlog in addition to the apparent inability to sort the problem I have without surgery. #$%* annoying. In my next life I'm coming back as a women's health lobbyist.

>66 charl08: >:-o Oh noes!

>66 charl08: "In my next life I'm coming back as a women's health lobbyist." YES!!!

All of that really sucks and I do hope you are ok (or will be soon).

I'm so sorry. Charlotte. Take care.

>66 charl08: I hope you are OK Charlotte, I missed your message.

>67 Helenliz: Yeah, on the plus side at least I didn't have to pay them, so there is that!

>68 MissBrangwen: In comparison to lots of things it's not that serious, but as I have been dealing with it since first occurrence 20 years ago now and not seen much improve in terms of treatment, I find I don't have a lot of patience.

>69 katiekrug: Thanks Katie.

>70 Caroline_McElwee: Thanks Caroline.

Girl Called Eel

...from my vantage point on our terrace, I could see the distinctive outline of Mutsamudu's medina, a part of town that was an ocean unto itself, and behind me, when I turned to gaze at the sea, was the famous citadel that rises above the medina, a great fortress that I felt added a touch of artistic splendour to Mutsamudu, all eyes were drawn to this imposing structure, and those of a discerning nature took comfort....

This was a bit of a slog for me.
Translated from French in one long breathless sentence (albeit with commas and paragraph breaks). I found this read more interesting in terms of the descriptions of the Comoros that were occasionally mentioned than plot or characters. The first person account is of "Eel" a young woman who is supposedly clinging to a floating can in the sea and waiting to die. Gradually her life story unfolds, from the death of her mother in childbirth to an abortive affair. Her eccentric and egotistical father plays a large role too, as Eel pushes against his restrictions. Beyond the setting, there was little that felt new here, and the style was a barrier to enjoyment for me.

I'm sorry that you had such a bad experience with A&E, and hope you're not in too much pain now.

Any book which isn't written with some kind of sentences etc isn't for me, though if it has paragraph breaks I would pretend the paragraphs are separate sentences in order to deal with it. One of my reading groups discussed a Portuguese novel a few years ago which did have some breaks in paragraphs and sentences but not nearly enough. Also an experimental Italian novel on another occasion. I can tolerate some experimentation but I do need punctuation and ideally paragraphs!

>73 elkiedee: Thanks. I was quite glad not to be there in "normal" times, as the drunk proportion of attendees seemed much lower than previous visits.

I almost certainly won't be reaching for Zamir's other novels if they make it into translation!

Luster
Zadie Smith's blurb on the cover describes this as brutal, and I wouldn't disagree. A young Black woman clings to life in New York by her fingernails, working for a publisher. She's engaged in risky relationships that seem to have no benefit for her. Gradually we learn how her parents' instability contributed to her life now. Alongside that, the daily microagressions of her office life. She wants to be an artist, but has repeatedly been told she is not good enough.
And then she loses the job, and gets to know her lover's wife, and his Black daughter. Some great writing, but the kind of book that makes me want to read it through my fingers, as the character makes bad decision after bad decision.

When I get up in the morning, I look in the mirror and I see only my mother's face. But the fact of our resemblance is such old news that to recognize it anew feels pointed, overly Freud ian, a remnant of a dream I am still half inside. When she died of course was given to dissecting my face in the bathroom of Friendly's, or avoiding my face altogether in Macy's dressing rooms lest trying on jeans become any more demoralizing. But now I am seven years removed and there are some days I don't even think about her, though on these days a siren will keen from the end of DeKalb and it will be 3:00 a.m. and a cloud outside window will constrict in the shape of a lung and I will hear her voice.

Nominated for the women's prize this year.

I'm on the reserve list for Luster, Charlotte. I've heard lots of varied comments, so I will give it a try. Girl Called Eel, probably not.

I hope you're feeling better.

Updated my list of reading of the women's prize longlist. I'll be reading Summer or Piranesi next, I think.

The sixteen longlisted books are as follows:

Because of You by Dawn French
✅Burnt Sugar by Avni Doshi
Consent by Annabel Lyon
Detransition, Baby by Torrey Peters
Exciting Times by Naoise Dolan
How the One-Armed Sister Sweeps Her House by Cherie Jones - waiting for library reservation
✅Luster by Raven Leilani
No One is Talking About This by Patricia Lockwood - waiting for library reservation
Nothing But Blue Sky by Kathleen MacMahon - waiting for library reservation
Piranesi by Susanna Clarke out from the library
Small Pleasures by Clare Chambers
Summer by Ali Smith on the shelf
The Golden Rule by Amanda Craig
The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett - waiting for library reservation
Transcendent Kingdom by Yaa Gyasi waiting for library reservation
Unsettled Ground by Claire Fuller - waiting for library reservation

>76 BLBera: I suspect you'd have more tolerance for the style of Eel, Beth!

Re Luster I find I can't bear much of the 'catastrophic young woman' novels, just feel like does no one have a kind mentor anymore? That said, I thought this one was well written.

Happy new thread, Charlotte!

I think I took a BB for the Becky Chambers series from your last thread.

Oh Charlotte, I hope that you are experiencing more than patient endurance! I knew that I couldn't catch up, but I do see that you have a health problem that can't be addressed now. I'm sorry.
I came to see whether you read / what you made of Interior Chinatown, which is a Kindle Deal over here. If you wrote about it, I missed it. I think I'm likely to pass on it anyway - too much accumulated unread.
*sigh* None of the Women's list looks good to me at first glance. I'll be interested to see your comments as you read.

>80 LizzieD: It of course depends on what you're looking for, but I think the three longlisted Women's Prize for Fiction books I've read so far were all a really good read, though very different. And although they are much more contemporary perhaps than most of the VMC list, I think that they would all appeal to many VMC readers, especially Unsettled Ground and The Golden Rule. I haven't read it yet but I have heard some bits of a radio serialisation of Small Pleasures and I'm looking forward to it (I have read two or three other books by Claire Chambers and liked them very much).

>79 humouress: I love her writing, I am so looking forward to hearing more about what she writes next.

>80 LizzieD: I liked Interior Chinatown a lot: if it's a deal I would go for it! (It's not a long book). I think Mary (bell7) over on the 75ers wrote a great review about it.

>81 elkiedee: I am hoping to get to the ones you mention!

Picked up some new books from the library:

The vanishing half
Klara and the sun
The secret life of Dorothy Soames
Transcendent kingdom
Bessie Smith
Blood grove

>83 charl08: a great haul! I may take a BB for the Bessie Smith book. While reading about The Harlem Renaissance for a unit I was preparing to teach in college, I came across Bessie and listened to some of her music. I'm a fan!

I am just reading Interior Chinatown now. I am reserving judgement, parts are really good but it is so conceptual.

And hooray for Call My Agent! We were so sad to finish it.

Happy Easter, Charlotte.

>84 Tess_W: It's a very little book - I'm hoping to pick it up soon.

>85 banjo123: I decided not to worry too much and just go with the story.

Glad to hear about another fan of Call My Agent. So good!

>86 Ameise1: And to you Barbara.

Now reading The Cold Millions

It seemed to Rye that his brother usually had a famous saying at the ready, and as they moved down the trail, he went with an old fa vorite: "Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster."

Early Reston squinted as they walked, the same grin on his face "Well, go on, you well-read son of a bitch, don't stop there."

"For if you gaze long enough into an abyss—"

"The abyss gazes back," Early said. "And that's me, friend. The abyss smiling back."

Rye had never seen anyone compete with Gig in the quoting of famous men. This Early Reston was like Gig meeting his match and his best friend at the same time, and they went back and forth about this fella Nitchee, or that one Marks, or some guy Russo, who Early said believed that "liberty with danger is preferable to peace with slavery."

"Tommy Russo?" Rye tossed in from behind, thinking of a young Italian they'd picked apples alongside.

"Jean-Jacques Rousseau," said Gig over his shoulder, less to ed ucate Rye than to show off for his new friend. "His Discourse on In equality is basically the Wobbly pitch after a bath and a glass of port."

>88 charl08: Ooh, I heard a discussion about The Cold Millions on the radio. I really want to read it,

Finished Blood Grove, the latest in the Easy Rawlings series. Easy is asked to take on a case by a Vietnam veteran. He claims he interrupted a man trying to kill a woman, and accidentally stabbed the man, only to be knocked out himself When he came to, both had disappeared. Of course, everything is far more complicated than it first appears, involving a heist, the mob, and various gangsters.

>89 elkiedee: It's started strong!

The Cold Millions

Rye wasn't always sure he understood Tolstoy, but he was surprised at how much he enjoyed reading him, from the first moments of Anna Pavlovna's soiree to meeting the beautiful Natasha and the dashing Prince Andrey and the thoughtful Pierre. He liked picturing the fancy clothing and fabulous mansions and grand palaces, larger even than Lem Brand's big house (When Natasha ran out of the drawing room she only ran as far as the conservatory). He tried to imagine a house so big you got tired running from one room to the next. The language seemed musical, and he found himself humming sentences like songs (The coach with six horses stood at the steps. The coach with six horses stood at the steps .. :).

I really enjoyed this one, historical novel set in the heyday of the "wobblies" (IWW) activism for poor workers. The story is centred on two brothers who arrive in Spokane looking for work and get caught up in union activity. Walter is really good on the complex connections between corrupt industrialists, the entertainments that exist to liberate workers from even their minimal salaries, and their attempts to hold onto their power. Alongside this is the union leaders, and those paid to spy and subvert their plans. Walter doesn't ignore the painful history of how Spokane came to be, nor the limited ways women were permitted to participate in protest. For me a gripping story about the bonds of family as much as an exciting time in history.

The Cold Millions went on my wishlist when he mentioned the "Rebel Girl" Elizabeth Gurley Flynn in a radio interview

>93 elkiedee: I'd not come across her, but am tempted by the bio of her Walter mentions in his notes.
(Not £27 tempted though as per one web cost for a copy of Elizabeth Gurley Flynn: Modern American Revolutionary).

Ouch! I didn't know of that book but £27 is too much for me as well. However, Amazon has it on paperback or Kindle for just under £15. It's still more than I'd normally spend but maybe for my birthday. Looks like a relatively recent publication from Routledge.

Years ago, my boyfriend at the time was lent a copy of EGF's memoir The Rebel Girl by a work colleague and I loved it. I found a copy in a strange left wing bookshop in NYC on holiday there 10 years or so later so I have it now. I even know where it is though it's tricky to get at at the moment.

>95 elkiedee: Ooh, a second hand bookshop discovery. I am looking forward to being able to do that again!


I am now reading Nordic Fauna because once again I forgot about the bookclub book! (Fortunately, my office is closed today, so I have plenty of time to read).

I watched a brilliant documentary about the campaign in the US for equal rights for people with disabilities. It included activists speaking about their memories, as well as video footage from the time. A major player who participated in the doc was Judith Heumann.
I wondered if anyone had read any books they could recommend about this work?

Here's the Guardian's review.
https://www.theguardian.com/film/2020/mar/24/crip-camp-review-rousing-netflix-do...

>97 charl08: Sounds interesting. I'll have to look. In the last few years I've got to know one of the leading direct activists for rights here, Barbara. She has lots of funny stories, like posties' bemusement when delivering large boxes of handcuffs to her house. It was cheaper to buy them from abroad, I think the US, so the contents had to be indicated on the package labels.....

>98 elkiedee: That's hilarious.

Watching the doc gave me a warm glowy feeling: amazing people. I ordered Judy Heumann's bio, which has a fabulously punny title.

Questions for the book group. Should be a good discussion, especially since the author as well as the translator will be joining us for the initial conversation about the book.

Which story stood out the most to you and why?
How does Lundgren portray animals and nature in these stories? Are they characters in their own right or do they have a more symbolic function?
What did you make of Lundgren's portrayal of family dynamics in these stories, particularly the gender dynamics within families?
The tone and narrative voices vary throughout this collection, ranging from light and comedic to visceral horror. What did you make of these shifts?
What did you think of the way Lundgren combines elements of the fantastical or supernatural with everyday reality? How do you think this ties in with the personal challenges and/or mental health issues the characters are going through?

More info here:
https://www.peirenepress.com/borderless-book-club/

Original Swedish cover

And looking forward to the locked in crime writing festival - programme now out. I'm going to be at work for some of these sessions, but hope to make the evening ones and catch others via the catchup recordings.
https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/locked-up-festival-2-tickets-148168932265

Thursday 8th April

2.30pm - 3.30pm - Write What You Know? - SJ Watson, Jane Casey, Kia Abdullah, Mark Edwards

4.00pm - 5.00pm - Legal Issues - Steve Cavanagh, Imran Mahmood, Nadine Matheson, Tony Kent

6.30pm - 7.30pm - The Worst Book Events - Stuart Neville, Erin Kelly, Shari Lapena, Doug Johnstone

8.00pm - 9.00pm - In Conversation - Val McDermid, Liam McIlvanney, Louise Fairbairn

9.30pm - 10.30pm - Am I The A**ehole? - Sarah Hilary, Abir Mukherjee, Jenny Blackhurst

Friday 9th April

2.30pm - 3.30pm - Scary Campfire Stories - Luca Veste, Alex North, CJ Tudor, Catriona Ward

4.00pm - 5.00pm - Truth Is Stranger Than Fiction - Caroline Mitchell, Joseph Knox, Denise Mina, Alex Knight

6.30pm - 7.30pm - High Concepts - Ruth Ware, Dorothy Koomson, Linwood Barclay, Lesley Kara

8.00pm - 9.00pm - In Conversation - Michael Connelly, Titus Welliver, Mark Billingham, David Morrissey, Phil Williams

9.30pm - 10.30pm - The Locked Up Quiz - Craig Robertson, Mark Billingham, Laura Shepherd-Robinson, Ambrose Parry

Saturday 10th April

2.30pm -3.30pm - Writers At Home - Mark Billingham, CL Taylor, Martyn Waites, Fiona Cummins

4.00pm - 5.00pm - Private Eyes - Tim weaver, Lisa Gray, Chris Brookmyre, Elly Griffiths

6.30pm - 7.30pm - Google Streetview - Will Dean, Adrian McKinty, SJI Holliday, Lara Dearman

8.00pm - 9.00pm - In Conversation - Ian Rankin, John Connolly, Brain McGilloway

9.30pm - 10.30pm - Two Crime Writers Live - The Final Event!

Hi Charlotte, my library has got an ebook copy of >92 charl08:. I put it on my wish list. It looks like one I would like to read.

>101 charl08: - What a great lineup!

>102 Ameise1: I really enjoyed it Barbara, hope you like it too.

>103 katiekrug: It was fun last time, I'm looking forward to it. I am waiting for the book by one of the debut authors who spoke about her forthcoming publication last year. I think it got delayed by covid but is now a rather requested copy (at least, in my library).

Problem is the enrolment comes with a book discount at waterstones. I am sorely tempted by several crime novels, when I clearly should wait for pbk publication instead...

>101 charl08: Echoing Katie's comment. Some of the sessions look really interesting, but if the spring weather is good, I may pass. I'm getting a really bad case of cabin fever. The podcast is worth checking out, of course.

>105 ffortsa: Yes, I am feeling much the same. Desperate to just get on a train and go Somewhere.
Our lockdown is only easing the Monday after though, so non-essential things still closed here.

Chinstrap Penguins (Graphic Novels)

Petty Theft
A light black and white collection by Pascal Girard, broadly autobiographical but I suspect not closely! After a breakup, and going a bit crazy, he spots a woman stealing one of his books from a bookshop. He decides to investigate....

Just the ticket after a stressful day with online meetings (the chair of our event couldn't get past the firewall, so I had to do it with no prep. Argh.)

Galapagos Penguins (in translation)
Nordic Fauna
This one definitely comes under the heading of books I would have put down had it not been for bookclub. Set in northern Sweden, these stories are creepy, full of magical realism and hints of abuse and violence. They were effective (I was creeped out) but had it not been for the meeting it would have meant I put it down. The worst / most effective story is about a little girl who goes to stay with her dad: she has creepy imaginary (animal) friends, their relationship is strained, and she doesn't seem at all safe. It's not really clear how much is "real" but there's a strong sense of menace. In another story a woman catches a train from an isolated village where her boyfriend had bought a house. She tries to work out why she feels so uncomfortable in rural silence, as the empty train begins to resemble to "before" bit of a horror film.
I think this may appeal if you like gothic magical realism. Not for me!

She showed him her ticket.
"Empty today,' she said, and he nodded while jotting something down.
"Are you continuing on after Uppsala? She shook her head. He moved along.
She sank back into the seat for a few seconds. Then she opened her little bag to select a book. It was a choice between Torgny Lindgren, Eyvind Johnson and Sara Lidman. "You know that only one of those authors is from around here" Martin had said. "The others are from Västerbotten." But she didn't care about that, thought she might be able to read her way to an understanding of the place. Read her way to the craving for distance from others, the longing for calm and to sit and stare, and to the small-town racism and homophobia and gun cabinets... Enough of your dark exaggerations. She opted for Lindgren.

>108 charl08: They certainly took you to some dark places of the human psyche, that's for sure. It wasn't really my cup of tea either.

>109 Helenliz: I was thinking about the nordic fiction I've read since joining the group. Quite a lot of it has been really dark, but this is I think (goldfish memory) the first one where I've wanted to skip bits altogether. I don't read horror, and tend to be uncomfortable with the gothic too.

I am still a bit gobsmacked by the translator's note: I cannot imagine being a doctor in the middle of a pandemic and also translating a book!

I have started the 80s crime fiction CatNap which opens with a reflection on how run down Dalston is (where the cool kids now live in London: times have changed).

Planning to pick up My Name is Red for a 75ers groups read too.
Thread here: https://www.librarything.com/topic/329739#n7474895

>110 charl08: Is Catnap from Gillian Slovo's Kate Baier series?

>111 elkiedee: Yup, the touchstone mistake made me laugh. Still can't find the right title now, but at least the author is right.

Try Catnap rather than Cat Nap - I think you still get the queen of cat cozies at the top of the list, but Gllian Slovo is there.

>108 charl08: This sounds like interesting... I will be interested to hear about the discussion.

>101 charl08: Sounds like fun. What a great line-up.

>113 elkiedee: Thanks! I am enjoying the book, but have been derailed by Being Heumann which arrived today and is super readable.

>114 BLBera: Haven't managed to get to any of the crime ones yet, but hope springs eternal (and also, hopefully YouTube recordings).

Re book in >108 charl08:

So we don't always have the author in the bookgroup sessions (I'm sure they'd all want to be there if they could of course), so we're lucky this week.

The author comments on how growing up in rural northern Sweden has influenced her writing. She wrote the stories drawing on the environment to speak metaphorically about other issues. (It's certainly creepy). The forest as a space where she grew up knowing animals were there, but never really seeing any.
The coordinator asks how Nordic Fauna is related to her other books: her first novel was written when she was 20 ("it's very bad" she says, it's good that you can't read it). Following publication she got writer's block, and the second book took longer. Also set in a forest, also magical realism. The third book is linked to ideas of the Underworld. None have been translated (yet).
There's a long discussion about the overlap between reality and fantasy. I'm not sure I get the point being made. I'm more comfortable with the idea of the forest as a liminal space (which my autocorrect want to be "criminal").

What was it like to read the book in English? "Strange and wonderful. "
The translator works as an intensive care dr in Minnesota as his day job, so comments that this was a wonderful different experience to that during Covid times. (He doesn't, I think explicitly say "escape" but it is felt). His previous experience is technical translation, but via Peirene's Stevns translation prize was given the opportunity to translate the short stories with mentorship from a leading translator of Swedish.
In response to questions the author notes the influence of Djuna Barnes (and a Swedish author whose name I did not catch).

Just jumped ship to get a coffee and attend the crime fiction festival. Hoping that Abir Mukherjee will be announcing that lockdown has supercharged his writing and he has superhumanly managed to complete another book.
Possibly not realistically.

Thought of you, Charlotte, when I saw CJ Tudor's picture on the wall of a huge penguin cover of The Chalk Man in the first session of the Locked Up Festival today. 6:30 in the morning here.

>54 elkiedee: Never know if they will change the title. Good advice to check by author name.

>118 Familyhistorian: I've just put my penguin canvas back up after redecorating (The Common Reader). I would be tempted to get more but have no space!

Finished two books:

Chinstrap Penguin/ GN
Taxi! Stories from the back seat was a short look at the cartoonist's life via three snapshots of journeys she made., in LA, Washington, Paris and Jakarta. I liked it, and it reminded me of some of the taxi trips I have taken whilst travelling (she didn't get offered a home made dinner though, get stopped by the police for a "fine" or offered matchmaking services, so I think I win (?!!)

Macaroni penguin/ genre fiction
Catnap
I have picked these novels up here and there and decided to order this one online as here and there isn't exactly an option at the moment. Baier is a strong character, very much fitting the publisher. I liked this one I think the best so far. It's the penultimate Kate Baier novel, and has at its heart a loss which seems to drive it. To me, it seemed a much faster pace than the previous one I read. I also enjoyed reading about London of thirty years ago, from fancy to Kingston to very definitely not fancy (then) King's Cross and Dalston.

Bonus: this one even had the Virago green spine, rather than the odd zebra appearance of the previous book in the series.

>120 charl08: Oh, I like the Women's Press stripy spines as well. I'm fairly sure I have a later non-Virago edition of Catnap too.

>121 elkiedee: Well, it fits with the other series I own (none of them match each other!)

I think I fixed the Catnap touchstone issue. (Preening a bit)

One of my categories is linked to prizes. The Orwell longlist have just been announced.

For NF:
(The Orwell Prize for Political Writing)

Twilight of Democracy: The Failure of Politics and the Parting of Friends by Anne Applebaum (Allen Lane)

Labours of Love: The Crisis of Care by Madeleine Bunting (Granta)

Eat the Buddha: Life and Death in a Tibetan Town by Barbara Demick (Granta)

The Hitler Conspiracies: The Third Reich and the Paranoid Imagination by Richard Evans (Allen Lane)

Why the Germans Do it Better: Notes from a Grown-Up Country by John Kampfner (Atlantic Books)

Our Bodies, Their Battlefield: What War Does to Women by Christina Lamb (William Collins)

History Has Begun: The Birth of a New America by Bruno Maçães (Hurst Publishers)

How Spies Think: 10 Lessons in Intelligence by David Omand (Viking)

African Europeans: An Untold History by Olivette Otele (Hurst Publishers)

English Pastoral: An Inheritance by James Rebanks (Allen Lane)

Recollections of My Non-Existence by Rebecca Solnit (Granta)

The Interest: How the British Establishment Resisted the Abolition of Slavery by Michael Taylor (Bodley Head)

Between Two Fires: Truth, Ambition and Compromise in Putin’s Russia by Joshua Yaffa (Granta)

The Orwell Prize for Political Fiction longlist:

Leave the World Behind by Rumaan Alam (Bloomsbury)

The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett (Dialogue Books)

The Death of Vivek Oji by Akwaeke Emezi (Faber)

A Lover’s Discourse by Xialou Guo (Chatto & Windus)

Afterlives by Abdulrazak Gurnah (Bloomsbury)

Apeirogon by Colum McCann (Bloomsbury)

Summerwater by Sarah Moss (Picador)

Weather: a novel by Jenny Offill (Granta)

The Mermaid of Black Conch by Monique Roffey (Peepal Tree Press)

Rodham by Curtis Sittenfield (Transworld)

Summer by Ali Smith (Hamish Hamilton)

Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart (Picador

>123 charl08: Haven't found any of the NF books in Dutch translation yet, some do sound very interesting.

>124 charl08: Apeirogon and Summer are both on the Europese Literatuurprijs Longlist 2021, a Dutch prize for translated European literature, that was published last week

>125 FAMeulstee: I think I will wait for paperbacks on the NF, as I have plenty to be going on with, and read NF so slowly.

I have still to read both the books you mention, but they are on the shelves, waiting!

There are a couple of books on the non fiction longlist that sound interesting, and that's less than usual for this list. But I've read one, The Vanishing Half, own another 3 or 4 and want to read a lot of the others on the fiction longlist. Especially Summerwater.

>127 elkiedee: I've only read Summerwater and Weather, although I have The Vanishing Half,The Death of Vivek Oji, Afterlives, Apeirogon ,The Mermaid of Black Conch, Rodham and Summer all waiting to be read.

I've read Piranesi despite being distracted by an excellent GN (Couch Fiction and a strangely disconnected romance- although given how many Jamie Bennett has published I'm allowing her a 'bye' on this one).
Piranesi is a short novel that reads quickly, with use of found messages and pseudo academic referencing. I thought it was quite clever but didn't really enjoy it very much, with little emotional investment in the characters. Her use of the unreliable narrator of Piranesi I think contributed to this, as it's hard to engage with a character who is so unclear of so much. I liked the idea which sat (at least for me) at the heart of the story, that the modern world has somehow lost touch with what "the world" (nature?) is trying to tell us.

I can update my women's prize longlist read list. The shortlist is due to be announced on the 28th, so I don't think I will read more than half. It will be fun to see how many of the ones I've read make it through though.

Because of You by Dawn French
✅Burnt Sugar by Avni Doshi
Consent by Annabel Lyon
Detransition, Baby by Torrey Peters
Exciting Times by Naoise Dolan
How the One-Armed Sister Sweeps Her House by Cherie Jones - waiting for library reservation
✅Luster by Raven Leilani
No One is Talking About This by Patricia Lockwood - waiting for library reservation
Nothing But Blue Skyby Kathleen MacMahon - waiting for library reservation
✅Piranesi by Susanna Clarke
Small Pleasures by Clare Chambers
Summerby Ali Smith on the shelf
The Golden Rule by Amanda Craig
The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett - have via library reservation
Transcendent Kingdom by Yaa Gyasi have via for library reservation
Unsettled Ground by Claire Fuller - waiting for library reservation

>116 charl08: This sounded great, Charlotte. Thanks for sharing. I like the idea of the forest being "crimininal." Who knew?

>129 charl08: I have been slow at getting to the Longlist. I've only read The Vanishing Half and Transcendent Kingdom, both of which I think will make the SL. They were excellent. I have reserved the others from the library, but there is a list. A couple are not available here yet. Summer I won't get to until I reread the others.

>124 charl08: This looks like a good list; I've read and loved four of them.

>130 BLBera: My phone has invented a new literary term then Beth?(!)
I am in awe of the writers who speak about their books in English when it is their second/third language. And the translator was really rather sweet, he talked about how he asked the publishers things that are taken for granted in lit publishing (apparently! What do I know?) but that he had carried over from doing technical medical translations.

Life Mask

I loved this Bloodaxe collection of poetry, published back in 2005. The poems include reflection on the ending of a long relationship, art and Kay's first meeting with her birth father in Nigeria.

Unforgiving Plaster

You won't let it go will you ever?
You'll just hold on to everything -
every wrong they did, your mum, your dad
You won't let them forget; never, never.

The past is there to be raked over.
The dry bitter earth is rusty, cracked. Now you can see it in your face,
hard cheek bones, thin mouth, furrowed brow.

You think you can forgive, forget
but you can't ever let it go.
You harden, your voice, brittle, breaks. Your once lovely eyes, hard as flint.

If only you could get a boat
and load your cargo of resentment
and watch the boat sail away,
downriver, down the murky river on a summer's day.

Here is the bronze head made of Kay mentioned in the acknowledgements as inspiring some of the poems. She is the second row, first left.

>133 charl08: Oh I love Jackie Kay! (I even had someone on LT once ask me if I was Jackie Kay, given my user name - I LOLd (as I believe the young people say)). If you've not read it, her memoir Red Dust Road is brilliant, highly recommended.

>134 Jackie_K: I'm a fan too. I really like her novel Trumpet.

Starting The Vanishing Half next as someone else is waiting for it at the library.

I've been wanting to read The Vanishing Half; so looking forward to your review.

>136 banjo123: It made me read past my bedtime, I just got caught up in it. Hope it gets shortlisted!

Preference order
The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett
Luster by Raven Leilani
Burnt Sugar by Avni Doshi
Piranesi by Susanna Clarke

Not read (yet?):
Because of You by Dawn French
Consent by Annabel Lyon
Detransition, Baby by Torrey Peters
Exciting Times by Naoise Dolan
How the One-Armed Sister Sweeps Her House by Cherie Jones - waiting for library reservation
No One is Talking About This by Patricia Lockwood - waiting for library reservation
Nothing But Blue Skyby Kathleen MacMahon - waiting for library reservation
Small Pleasures by Clare Chambers
Summerby Ali Smith on the shelf
The Golden Rule by Amanda Craig
Transcendent Kingdom by Yaa Gyasi have via library reservation
Unsettled Ground by Claire Fuller - waiting for library reservation

The Vanishing Half

"Dry," he said. "Dusty. Lonesome. I feel like the only man alive out here. Like I fallen off the edge of the earth. You ever know that feeling?"

He imagined her on the other end, clutching the phone as she leaned against the kitchen door. The diner would be emptying now, near closing. Maybe she was all alone, willing the time to pass. Thinking about her sister, or maybe even thinking about him.

"I know it exactly," she said.

I had requested this from the library after all the good feedback on LT but it has now been longlisted for the women's prize.

I really loved this book, which sidestepped one of the main tropes of passing literature (the birth of a child who exposes the mother) focusing instead on the impact on family. Both those left behind and the new family created are living with absences, silences and the contortions required to keep hidden when passing in a racist white community.

Couch Fiction
A GN by psychotherapist Phillipa Perry and illustrated by her daughter Flo Perry. Perry imagines a therapeutic relationship based on kleptomania, and uses the one example to unpick (in humorous footnotes) some of the theories and approaches behind "Pat's" reactions to her patient. I find all of this stuff fascinating, so the perfect GN as far as I was concern. The illustrations are fun and help lighten quite a dark topic.

What I didn't realise until googling some images for the book was that it has been published before, with images by another cartoonist, Junko Graat.

Junko Graat's illustration:


Flo Perry in the 2020 edition:
Flo Perry's version:


ETA: I just went to add this to my read books list in my LT library. Apparently I read the original version (and reviewed it) back in 2016. I have no memory of this whatsoever. Yikes.

Next up: No One is Talking About This (women's prize longlist)

Tempting bookfestival that is in completely the wrong time zone for me:
LA Times Festival of Books

Including sessions I am going to gave to prop my eyes open with matchsticks for:

Sat 17
5:00PM Politics / History
California Dreamin': Walter Mosley, Ron Brownstein and David L. Ulin on Los Angeles in the 1960's and 1970's

Sun 18th
5:00PM Fiction
Fiction Makes the World Go Round :: Change-rae Lee, Meng Jin, Imbolo Mbue, Sanjena Sathian, Boris Kachka (Mod)

https://events.latimes.com/festivalofbooks/2021-calendar/

>141 charl08: A moderately better time for us on the east coast (3 hour difference), but there is so much these days to see and hear, we probably won't get to it. Oh well.

>142 ffortsa: Yes, on one hand it's great so many events are going online but it does make it hard to pick.

>143 charl08: Now we're spoiled for choice but we also have to take time zones into account. I did actually try to get on one that Roni posted the link to but wasn't able to, presumably because I'm in Asia. :0/

>144 humouress: Sorry to hear that Nina. Sounds frustrating not being able to get on. I am hoping as I have signed up for the LA one they will send me the recordings....

I've signed up for one of my local festivals, the WOW festival. This was the one I went to a couple of years ago only to find I was in a sold out hall: I'd never heard of Akala but clearly the rest of the audience were better informed!

Hoping to hear Michael Rosen talk about his new poetry, Nikesh Shukla on his memoir and Kit de Waal. This also solves (some of) the problem of what to do with two weeks leave that I am taking in May!

https://www.writingonthewall.org.uk/

I don't really follow his genre of music at all but I read Akala's book Natives a few years ago as a review copy was available through the Amazon Vine programme. It was really good

>146 elkiedee: Same here, I read Natives a couple of months ago and thought it was excellent.

>146 elkiedee: >147 Jackie_K: I have a bad habit of going to a reading and then not actually reading the book I got signed...

No one is Talking About This

Every day we were seeing new evidence that suggested it was the portal that had allowed the dictator to rise to power. This was humiliating. It would be like discovering that the Vietnam War was secretly caused by ham radios, or that Napoleon was operating exclusively on the advice of a parrot named Brian.

Well, they've picked some interesting books for the women's prize list! I've not read anything by Lockwood before, so I didn't know what to expect. The book opens with a whirlwind of short paragraphs that don't appear to have any link to one another, beyond that the narrator has a problem with a social media addiction (or rather, to "the portal"). Some of these are pretty funny, others refer to things I have no clue about. Then, in a tale as old as time (or at least, Susan Coolidge) the self-obsessed, funny heroine discovers illness and mortality, and suddenly her previous life seems self-centred and easy to reject. I think this sits in the "autofiction" camp given the acknowledgements to the author's family at the end of the book. I'm not sure if this matters. May appeal to fans of Rachel Cusk.

>96 charl08: I am overwhelmed by gorgeous cover art today! *faints*

>129 charl08: Found you over here Charlotte. Piranesi was the first book I read this year and I fully expect it to be the best. But I can see that it absolutely ticks all the boxes of what I like in a book.

Isn't The Vanishing Half excellent? I was surprised by how much I liked it. I have to work on reading others from the list; you are making progress. I'm still at two, both of which I think will make the shortlist. I guess if I wait long enough, the shortlist will be out...

>151 SandDune: I must go back and read your review, Rhian. It just wasn't my bag, but I'd be interested to hear what appealed to you.

>152 BLBera: I want my own copy Beth. I really loved it! I think I might be passing on Detransition, Baby for now, though. It is very steamy for a Women's Prize pick!

>153 charl08: I thought it clever. It was odd in a sort of I can't look away now kind of way. It left me feeling unsettled.

One day I will get through at least the shortlist in a year, but it won't be this year (again). My list of Women's prize books gets longer again.

I've followed the Women's Prize longlist/shortlists (including Orange/Baileys periods) in terms of seeing what makes the lists and which ones I'm most interested in for years, but I don't think I've read the whole shortlist in any one year. Even then, I would probably have missed some excellent books from the lists if a few of them hadn't been chosen by reading groups

>154 Helenliz: I wouldn't disagree with clever!
I still hope for a year when the shortlist comes out that I have read them myself anyhow. Although that would be quite dull if it did happen, but it would be a relief for my TBR pile.

>155 elkiedee: I don't feel like I get to them all ever, but hopefully that means there are still lots of interesting listed books out there to read in the future.

I changed my mind about Detransition, baby. It's making me laugh.

Her lashes curve luxuriously around her eyes even when she doesn't wear mascara, and tonight, she's worn the mascara thickly, making the amber irises appear bright and unearthly by contrast, illuminated as they are by the orange light of the sodium-vapor streetlamps. Many people think a trans woman's deepest desire is to live in her true gender, but actually it is to always stand in good lighting.

>158 charl08: :D

I read a bit about a kerfuffle over the nomination for Detransition, Baby. Without having read any of the books, I'm now pulling for it to win...

>159 spiralsheep: I'm snigger-reading. Probably a good job train travel is still restricted, as me reading this in public would be a bad idea.

>160 katiekrug: I'd missed that completely, Katie. Thank you!

Being Heumann
I ordered this memoir after seeing Judy Heumann participate in the documentary Crip Camp which explores disability activism via a camp for kids with disabilities in the 60s and 70s. There's quite a bit of overlap between the documentary and the book, but what you get in the book is Heumann's perspective. Clearly in some areas her perspective and that of the filmmaker diverge.
She was disabled by polio as a baby so has no memories of life before disability. Growing up in a close family her parents fought for her right to go to school, but also had high expectations of her, from fighting her case at the dining table to taking on a professional job. Her own struggles to convince the NY school board to hire her as a teacher led to a widely publicised lawsuit.

She went on to found a campaign group for people with disabilities, to advocate for legal reform and to play a leading role in a "sit in" that played a key role in forcing the President to sign equality of access into law for public federal resources.

A television segment reported, "It all started this morning here at the Old Federal Building at 50 Fulton Street when an in cident took place outside. Immediately after that demonstration this morning, the handicapped started invading the building,"
We were being talked about as if we were a foreign army. The public was stunned. People weren't used to thinking of us as fighters when they thought about us at all. And I don't say that in a bitter way, but in more of an honest way. We were a people who were generally invisible in the daily life of society. I mean, think about it. If you didn't see us in school, because we weren't allowed in; or at your place of employment, either be cause we couldn't physically access it or because we couldn't get hired; or on your form of public transportation, because buses and trains weren't accessible; or in restaurants or theaters, for the same reason then where in your everyday life would you have seen us?

She continued to play a key role in later years, as an activist and in government roles for Clinton and Obama. Heumann is very good on the intersection of gender and disabilities, pointing to the ways in which she had to balance expectations about women in leadership in her activism. I liked that she and her co-author chose to focus on key moments in her life, keeping the book to just over 200 pages. For me a highly recommended read. I felt I learnt a lot about the disability rights movement in the US.

Love this feature: 100 books.

>163 charl08: Yes, Charlotte, it is a lovely feature to show the covers of the books you have read.
Congratulations on your first 100 this year :-)

>163 charl08: oh, where does one find that?
Can't believe you're at 100 for the year already!

>164 FAMeulstee: Nice way to see a list, Anita! Thank you.

>165 Helenliz: It's the 'covers' toggle on Your Library page (and then I screenshot). I decided to get better at making sure I add each book I read to the *year read category* ( '2021'). Hoping it will resolve my book counting challenges (inability).

>163 charl08: That is very cool. 100!? Already. You are a reading machine, Charlotte.

Congrats on reading 100 books already!

Congratulations!

100 already? I thought I was doing well at 25 - which just means that I’m (currently) on track to make 75 for the year. (If I can keep it up.)

>162 charl08: Aha, I was hoping she would write a book Charlotte. Into my cart it goes.

>167 BLBera: >168 bell7: >169 humouress: Thanks folks. I've read some good books!

>170 Caroline_McElwee: Hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

Shadow Life
This GN started slow for me and then won me over. An elderly lady reacts to the over control of her daughters and leaves the residential home in which she is living. She abandons most of her possessions and sleeps on the floor in her new flat.
Then she begins to see ghosts, which she interprets as the threat of death. Dark shadows follow her home from the swimming pool. Little shadowy figures steal her pills. So she fights back with a vacuum cleaner!

100 books already Charlotte! How is that possible? Well done.

>173 mdoris: Pass. I sometimes think I need advice/help on reading fiction slowly.

>136 banjo123: It made me read past my bedtime, I just got caught up in it. Hope it gets shortlisted!

Preference order
The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett
Luster by Raven Leilani
No One is Talking About This by Patricia Lockwood
Detransition, Baby by Torrey Peters
Burnt Sugar by Avni Doshi
Piranesi by Susanna Clarke

Not read (yet?):
Because of You by Dawn French
Consent by Annabel Lyon
Exciting Times by Naoise Dolan
How the One-Armed Sister Sweeps Her House by Cherie Jones - waiting for library reservation
Nothing But Blue Skyby Kathleen MacMahon - waiting for library reservation
Small Pleasures by Clare Chambers reservation has arrived at the library! (Pleasing, because I was thinking I'd have to buy it)
Summerby Ali Smith on the shelf
The Golden Rule by Amanda Craig
Transcendent Kingdom by Yaa Gyasi currently reading
Unsettled Ground by Claire Fuller - waiting for library reservation

Finished Detransition, Baby
I thought this novel was a powerful read, but with some caveats.

The novel goes back and forward in time around Ames's discovery that he has fathered a child. Ames thought he was sterile because he had injected hormones during his time as Amy, in a relationship with Reese, another trans woman. Ames' new partner didn't know his past, and through her, the writer gets to show trans women interacting with cis women, and highlight the differences in their experiences and the expectations on them. Or apparent differences. Reese and Amy's relationship never really got over their problems with different attitudes (and inability to talk about those attitudes) to sex. The child prompts a reconnection between Ames and Reese, which just seemed wildly improbable to me (not the co-parenting, but that it would be suggested and accepted as happening with an ex when they broke up so bitterly). So for me it felt like that situation was used as a peg to enable the author to put cis and trans women in conflict with one another over something so emotive as parenting a baby, plus observations about living in trans communit(ies), the intersection of gender and race, of attitudes to lgbtq parenting, and of different groups' exclusion of others. Which was all compelling, but felt a bit forced into a not-quite-authentic narrative form (for me).
Glad I read it, and intrigued to see what the author writes next.

When she worked at the day-care she liked the thoughtless way a child would reach to take her hand. She liked watching kids puzzle out something new, their wonder, their awe and excitement, which was, when she let it be, contagious. She liked their sudden acts of altruism. She recalled this one kid at the daycare, maybe four years old, who built a tower out of blocks then tugged on her sleeve with the offer, "Do you want to kick it down?" He understood that the knock down was the best part of building and he wanted to give it to her.

Edited to try and make the review better.

I finished Transcendent Kingdom last night. Not sure I'm going to get to many more of the women'speize longlist before the shortlist is announced at the end of the month, as book group books on my horizon now.

Preference order
The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett
Transcendent Kingdom by Yaa Gyasi Luster by Raven Leilani
No One is Talking About This by Patricia Lockwood
Detransition, Baby by Torrey Peters
Burnt Sugar by Avni Doshi
Piranesi by Susanna Clarke

Not read (yet?):
Because of You by Dawn French
Consent by Annabel Lyon
Exciting Times by Naoise Dolan
How the One-Armed Sister Sweeps Her House by Cherie Jones - waiting for library reservation
Nothing But Blue Skyby Kathleen MacMahon - waiting for library reservation
Small Pleasures by Clare Chambers reservation has arrived at the library! (Pleasing, because I was thinking I'd have to buy it)
Summer by Ali Smith on the shelf
The Golden Rule by Amanda Craig
Unsettled Ground by Claire Fuller - waiting for library reservation

Raidergirl from the 75 group has set up a list for this:

https://www.librarything.com/list/43006/all/2021-Womens-Prize-for-Fiction-Longli...

>178 elkiedee: Thanks! I have added my read ones to the list. I can never move then up or down the list so at the moment it's more of a yes no have read them than a scoring system.

You drag and drop your own list at the side to put them in preference order or whatever. Or click in your order of preference if that's easier, doing your favourite first.

>180 elkiedee: Yeah, for some reason it doesn't work on my phone.

Now reading A dutiful boy, a memoir about growing up gay and muslim in 90s Walthamstow (East London). Against the odds he ends up studying law at Oxford.

'Anyway, Mos, listen, which one do you think is better, Eton or Harrow?' Henry asked.
'What?' I hadn't heard those words before and thought they might be Oxford slang to add to my repertoire.
'Well, you see, Oli went to Harrow and has this preposterous notion that it's better than Eton and we were hoping you could settle it for us. Obviously Eton is far superior, I mean Prince Harry was in my year for Christ's sake, surely there is no debate. Don't you agree?' he said.
'Oh, are they your schools?'
Oliver looked at me blankly. Henry brought his brows together into a frown.
'You've ... you've never heard of Harrow? Or Eton?' His bewildered tone matched my own feelings then.
'Well, I went to Walthamstow Secondary ' School - have either of you heard of that?'

>181 charl08: 😂

>181 charl08: Do you know the old joke about Eton, Winchester, and Harrow?

At a ball the Etonian asks for a chair for his girlfriend, the Wykehamist fetches it, and the Harrovian sits on it.

>182 humouress: >183 spiralsheep: I did wonder if it means anything to anyone beyond the UK?

A Dutiful Boy
I read this for (another) bookgroup, and just in time because the discussion starts in half an hour (old habits). It's an amazing memoir in lots of ways, reminding me of the religious ones I used to read as a kid (the church library was very dated) about people miraculously transforming themselves. Mohsin has very few advantages (and doesn't claim to be particularly talented) but transforms his life, with the help of a teacher or two initially, to gain an Oxford law degree and a training contract in commercial law. Years later he decided to become a barrister, so did that too. Yet this book isn't really about that pretty epic (and unusual) journey, but about coming out to his devout Pakistani Shia family. I'm intrigued to hear what the bookgroup members make of it. In places it felt too polished to me (he references legal "storytelling" at the end of the book). But that seems churlish given that he's not only telling a story that he has many reasons to keep to himself (given how awful social media can be) but also gives back in other ways through founding a support group, working with his old school and with London Pride.

>184 charl08: "I did wonder if it means anything to anyone beyond the UK?"

Isn't that the point? Having gone to Eton as a child shouldn't mean anything as an adult beyond increased opportunity to acquire a place on a more prestigious university course. But the old school tie, the old boys network, does continue to give unearned advantages in adulthood, which is why their school as a status marker is so important to the recipients of those advantages. The same with particular private schools in some other countries (e.g. the US or India), or privileged family relations in Pakistan (although probably not for Shia), etc.

I think boarding schools in the uK including the really high status ones actually have a lot of intake from wealthy overseas families now. I had a Malaysian friend at university who'd been sent to Marlborough at 13 (so this would have been in the 1980s). Elly Griffiths has started writing a boarding school series set at a Sussex girls' school in the 1930s, drawing on her own mother's experiences. Her main character is American but I think has a Chinese friend.

A friend of ours worked at a private school and they had a significant proportion of overseas students. She told of the Chinese students who tend to take an "English" name, but they're not always what we'd think of as names. One girl decided she liked the sound of the word Strawberry, so that was what she was known as.

I do wonder what I'd rename myself, if given entirely free rein like that. Strikes me as both daunting and liberating.

>186 spiralsheep: >187 elkiedee: >188 Helenliz: Relatives taught at private schools but they've always been a foreign country to me.
The state school described in >185 charl08: was not my experience either, thank goodness.

Slash and Burn
is very good, but I'm not going to finish it time for the meeting tonight. Poor.

>184 charl08: Probably not. But, as >186 spiralsheep: says, that's probably (part of) the point.

>185 charl08: The premise of your book reminds me of a film I saw years ago. I think it was called something like 'East meets West' - I'll have to look it up. It was called East is East

>190 humouress: Funny you should say that: he mentions a couple of films in the book, including that one.

....books about books suggest pleasantly anodyne pleasures ahead; and any potential misery in a reading memoir will always be transformed by the discovery of the comforts of books.

Review of Ex Libris: 100 books to read and reread, The Gifts of Reading: essays on the Joy's of reading and Dear Reader: the comfort and joy of books, a further reminder of the unread books on my own shelves!

https://www.the-tls.co.uk/articles/ex-libris-michiko-kakutani-the-gifts-of-readi...

>192 charl08: I have Dear reader for my next audio read (if that's not an oxymoron).
My biggest fear is that it will add oodles of book to the wishlist!

I can only read a couple of paragraphs from the TLS article. I have a Netgalley of Dear Reader: The Comfort and Joy of Books tbr. I think it must have been published at least a few months ago.

>192 charl08: >193 Helenliz: >194 elkiedee: I read and enjoyed both books. Of course, it s inevitable you will find new things for your tbr mountains.

>184 charl08: My current read has a partial answer to your question.

On attending "the right schools", from State of Emergency : a novel by Jeremy Tiang (who I know you've read as a translator), published 2017, in a chapter about an Indian Malaysian British woman working for an English newspaper in the mid 1960s:

"Plenty of people thought she should be grateful to be where she was, plenty more thought she shouldn't be there at all. She hadn't been to the right schools, wasn't a member of the right clubs, her parents spoke with an accent - and that was before you got on to the colour of her skin, or her being a woman."

There're also other examples of different classes of Chinese Singaporeans attending either "English" or "Chinese" schools according to their social status and ethnic affiliations.

>193 Helenliz: Look forward to hearing more about that one, Helen.

>194 elkiedee: Lucky you with the free copy!

>195 Caroline_McElwee: But how many new things? Will the TBR tower topple? (!!) Any discoveries you want to share, Caroline?

>196 spiralsheep: He spoke at one of our bookgroups as the translator - came across as just a lovely person (as well as very good at his job). Thank you for mentioning his writing, I would like to read his novels.

The more I think about the original quote from Mohsin Zaidi's memoir, the more I think how clever it is, and how much it reveals about the writer's insight about living in the UK.

It's getting pretty busy in the Macaroni category, maybe I should ration the fish?


Edge of the Grave


I really enjoyed this crime novel set in 1930s Glasgow but with nods back to the past of the lead detective. As the first catholic detective on the force, James Dreghorn is an ex-boxer. He has plenty of opportunities to use his fists, part of a new anti-gang squad patrolling a city hit hard by the Depression. When a man is pulled from the Clyde with his throat cut but his expensive watch intact, Dreghorn is forced to dig up old links with a shipbuilding family.

This is the first novel in a series, and in places overdid the historical detail (not a short read either). However, it was all interesting (if not necessarily relevant) as having visited bits and pieces of Glasgow I could link them to the city nearly 100 years ago. The writer uses Glaswegian to give a sense of the community, from "dugs" to "stramash" to "dram". Once the murderer was revealed, I realised I had been a bit slow to work it out, given the hint in the foreword.

Re: English schools. As an American, I know Eton but would be hard-pressed to name another one. As in, if I'd recently read something that mentioned Harrow, I would be able to name it. The other one you gave, I've never heard of. (Just scrolled up to see - Winchester. Nope, never heard of it.)

>199 ursula: - Same.

I hope you have a lovely weekend, Charlotte!

>199 ursula: >200 katiekrug: The only one I remember being aware of as a kid was Gordonstoun (because the royal family) and lots of fictional girls' ones. The midnight feasts sounded great to me (!)
I guess Harry Potter has brought up the idea of boarding schools again for children.

My mum and her sisters went to a direct grant grammar school, quite a prestigious one - they were brought up in Oxford so a lot of daughters from academic and professional families must have been there. It became "independent" - for non UK readers this means private and fee-paying - again to avoid going comprehensive. But I hadn't realised that the school had had boarders as well. I'm not sure who the boarders were but from my aunt's reminiscences and stories, she felt very sorry for the girls who were boarders and believed they had a miserable existence.

Last year I finally got round to reading a book I'd had out of the library for a while, Terms and Conditions by Ysenda Maxone Graham (who also wrote a biography of the Mrs Miniver author Jan Struther). It's a look at the reality of boarding schools in the mid 20th century - dates in the title. Her interviewees included quite a few women who later became writers themselves. Recommended if you can find a copy.

I was quite taken aback by Louis Theroux's revelation on Desert Island Discs that he and his brother asked to go to boarding school after reading the Malory Towers books.

>202 elkiedee: Graham's book sounds like an interesting read. Hope your mum and her sisters wrote some of their memories down!

I had big plans for the garden today but instead have done little more than water. Maybe tomorrow.

Slash and Burn
Finally finished this bookgroup book, although not because I didn't think it was great. It (deliberately, according to the translator's note) avoids naming the characters, referring to lots of "she's" which took a fair bit of concentration to follow. The setting is a country post conflict, with guerrillas/combatants asked to settle back into communities alongside the soldiers they were fighting. But the mother can't accept the war is over, partly because for her it isn't over. Throughout the book there are many different ways in which the war (possibly El Salvador) continues. Naming: people go by the name they acquired in the jungle. Or they take someone else's pseudonym, in their memory.
The mother's first child has been lost to foreign adopters, who bought the child from nuns without her knowledge. The relationship is broken. Her other children struggle to access school, get a place at university. It's not just money: they're at risk from abusive men the community seems to ignore. Again and again the mother uses the skills and contacts she developed fighting in the hills to defend her family.
It's a grim read, but it's also one that documents survival, so I'm choosing to read that as optimistic.

He must've lost it, then. Maybe during a relocation. Perhaps it was the fate of rings to be lost just as they'd lost the lives they thought they'd have, leaving no memory of the promises they'd made each other. Maybe this was the meaning she'd been seeking for so long and striving not to see.

She would've liked a different ending. She would've liked to at least have a body to recover, even if it was later, much later, once the war had ended and people could retrace their steps and raise the bodies of the fallen, which time and fear had forced them to leave behind.

She'd have been one of those women who added her husband's name to the extensive list of unidentified bodies and waited as long as she was told to, until her turn came to identify him, along with people who specialized in measuring bones and comparing them to photographs, medical records, and their relatives' descriptions. She'd have answered every question asked of her and, had she been told to, would even have helped dig up the earth...

>202 elkiedee: Graham's book sounds like an interesting read. Hope your mum and her sisters wrote some of their memories down!

I had big plans for the garden today but instead have done little more than water. Maybe tomorrow.

Slash and Burn


Finally finished this bookgroup book, although not because I didn't think it was great. It (deliberately, according to the translator's note) avoids naming the characters, referring to lots of "she's" which took a fair bit of concentration to follow. The setting is a country post conflict, with guerrillas/combatants asked to settle back into communities alongside the soldiers they were fighting. But the mother can't accept the war is over, partly because for her it isn't over. Throughout the book there are many different ways in which the war (possibly El Salvador) continues. Naming: people go by the name they acquired in the jungle. Or they take someone else's pseudonym, in their memory.
The mother's first child has been lost to foreign adopters, who bought the child from nuns without her knowledge. The relationship is broken. Her other children struggle to access school, get a place at university. It's not just money: they're at risk from abusive men the community seems to ignore. Again and again the mother uses the skills and contacts she developed fighting in the hills to defend her family.
It's a grim read, but it's also one that documents survival, so I'm choosing to read that as optimistic.

He must've lost it, then. Maybe during a relocation. Perhaps it was the fate of rings to be lost just as they'd lost the lives they thought they'd have, leaving no memory of the promises they'd made each other. Maybe this was the meaning she'd been seeking for so long and striving not to see.

She would've liked a different ending. She would've liked to at least have a body to recover, even if it was later, much later, once the war had ended and people could retrace their steps and raise the bodies of the fallen, which time and fear had forced them to leave behind.

She'd have been one of those women who added her husband's name to the extensive list of unidentified bodies and waited as long as she was told to, until her turn came to identify him, along with people who specialized in measuring bones and comparing them to photographs, medical records, and their relatives' descriptions. She'd have answered every question asked of her and, had she been told to, would even have helped dig up the earth...

>202 elkiedee: I read the Enid Blyton (Malory Towers and St Clare's) and the Chalet School books and was quite excited about going to boarding school; I went for a year, and had my tenth birthday a month after I started there. For an introvert going from sub-Saharan Africa to English weather, it wasn't fun. The girls were nice enough but it wasn't easy having to do without immediate family support. My aunt was my guardian but I would only get to see her once or twice a term.

ETA: and, of course, the Blyton books are a bit simplistic so boarding school life was nothing like the books. More lessons and no adventures, for one thing ;0) We were allowed to have midnight feasts (the school bowing to the myth, I think) but they had to be preplanned and applied for and our dorm prefect (from the senior class in the house and therefore two years older than the rest of us) supervised. And, really, we could only raid our sweet tins (we took a tin of sweets with us and were allowed access to it on Saturdays) so the midnight 'feasts' weren't that exciting.

My cousins also went to boarding school about ten years later; by that time, my family had moved to England so my mum was their guardian and their boarding school wasn't far from where we lived. I know my older cousin enjoyed it fairly well (and she was a few years older than I had been when she started) but her younger sister, who joined later, wasn't so happy.

>198 charl08: This is going straight onto my to-read list! I have a weakness for books set in Glasgow.

Edit: Also, this is the same Robbie Morrison who in my opinion captures the Twelfth Doctor's voice best in Doctor Who comics! Double the reason to grab this book.

>205 humouress: That sounds really hard! It does seem very young to be "alone". I guess for some families' work it's unavoidable but I can't imagine I would have coped very well.

>206 rabbitprincess: He does comics too. The acknowledgments made me laugh. He credits one early reader with something like: you're right, the fight scenes *were* too long!

I gave up on my two "serious" reads last night. I don't much like the grim rural novel as a genre, so I've got to the point in Unsettled Ground where I think that something bad might happen, and (to overuse a phrase) I want to put it in the freezer.
I'm not sure that I'm going to finish any more of the women's prize longlist before the announcement on the 28th!

>207 charl08: It wasn't pure misery! - just not the best year of my life. I think my parents decided that there weren't good secondary school options (for expats) where we lived. But my mum moved schools loads of times and was in boarding very young during the war; in fact, as she loves to tell us, her younger brother was in boarding with her (and her sisters, I think) when he was three.

I went to boarding school for high school/secondary school (grades 9 through 12, age 14-18) and loved it. It also made the transition to college/university much easier, which was a definite plus.

>208 humouress: I hope your mum has written her story down too!

>209 katiekrug: Glad to hear you loved it, Katie. But you missed answering the most important question: did you have midnight feasts?

Unsettled Ground

Having written above that I was going to give up on this novel, in my usual back to front fashion I decided that actually I would finish it. But I really didn't like it. I just don't get the point of books like this that seem to set out to create an ominous feeling of dread, with characters that are powerless and impoverished. And this one seemed to be very much set in the one direction, with twin brother and sister in their 50s trying to survive alone after their mother died. Nothing goes right, there's no money, mysterious debts, odd secrets that the rest of the community keeps from them, and even a failure of communication between the two of them. And then the terrible thing happens, and it turns out all the other awful things were resolvable after all. The truth is told, the money issues resolved, and for one character everything is sorted. For the other who seemed to be about to escape, things are very much not sorted.
As I never predict the winner right, I wouldn't be surprised if this wins.

No, no midnight feasts sadly. I guess I should have gone to a British boarding school :)

>212 katiekrug: All my illusions shattered, Katie, between you and Nina. No wild midnight feasts. Sadness.

The women's prize longlist is announced wednesday. I'm hoping these two get shortlisted:
The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett
Transcendent Kingdom by Yaa Gyasi

These are the other ones I read.
Luster by Raven Leilani
Burnt Sugar by Avni Doshi
No One Is Talking About This by Patricia Lockwood
Detransition, Baby by Torrey Peters
Piranesi by Susanna Clarke
Unsettled Ground by Claire Fuller

Wow! You are zipping through the longlist, Charlotte. I've only read The Vanishing Half and Transcendent Kingdom and loved them. I hope they do make the shortlist.

Slash and Burn sounds good; it definitely goes on my list.

>214 BLBera: Always amazed at the range of books the list captures, Beth. I have my fingers crossed for my favourites.

2021 Women's Prize for Fiction Shortlist:

from Stylist magazine:

So, without further ado, here’s the Women’s Prize for Fiction 2021 shortlist:

The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett
Piranesi by Susanna Clarke
Unsettled Ground by Claire Fuller
Transcendent Kingdom by Yaa Gyasi
How The One-Armed Sister Sweeps Her House by Cherie Jones
No One Is Talking About This by Patricia Lockwood

Speaking about the work that went into selecting the final six books for the shortlist, Evaristo, who led the judging panel, said the group were sad to cut “so many exceptional books,” but were proud to present the final selection.

“With this shortlist, we are excited to present a gloriously varied and thematically rich exploration of women’s fiction at its finest,” she said. “These novels will take the reader from a rural Britain left behind to the underbelly of a community in Barbados; from inside the hectic performance of social media to inside a family beset by addiction and oppression; from a tale of racial hierarchy in America to a mind-expanding tale of altered perceptions.”

Luci's comment: I've read three books for the longlist and guessed correctly that two would make the shortlist, and I'm really happy to see them there. If I'd tried to guess from the others without having read them, I think I would have predicted Piranesi and Transcendent Kingdom too!

>216 elkiedee: I've read all but two, so now I have the burning desire to be a completist. Off to request How The One-Armed Sister Sweeps Her House and Unsettled Ground from the library.

>216 elkiedee: >217 RidgewayGirl: I just finished How The One-Armed Sister Sweeps Her House so can claim to be up to date (although in practice I've got a copy of three of the others so will read them.) Fascinating range of books this year.

The two I've read made the list, so yay! I'm waiting for the others from the library.

>219 BLBera: Hope they come at a good time, Beth. Almost all my reservations have come in at once, I'm lucky the library have expanded loan limits to account for the delay in marking books as returned.

I finished How The One-Armed Sister Sweeps Her House last night, shortly after it was announced that it had made the women's prize shortlist. In the 1980s, Lala is waiting for her baby to be born, married to a violent criminal. Down the beach, a wealthy woman, Mira, faces a gunman in her home. Going back generations in a family in Barbados the author traces a pattern of sexual abuse and violence. It's not magical realism, but there is a strong thread of folk story and indigenous belief, including the story in the title, told to a girl child to warn obedience and risk, the power of an orisha, of psalms recited as a charm.

Whilst Lala faces her limited choices, Mira starts to wonder how she ended up in a fancy tourist house on the seashore given her own past.

On each of the five nights since the murder, Mira Whalen has also lost her teeth.

Painless though it is, it fills her each time with an unexplainable terror as she dreams it, a terror that remains unabated on waking. It is often an ordinary dream, as dreams go (walking the dog, washing the dishes) save that, before she knows it, her two front teeth tumble from her mouth and into her hands. Every night.

I thought this was really well done, the possibility of escape for the characters, dealing in very different ways with their trauma, kept me reading.

I had so many reservations coming through at once in 2018 and 2019 that I kept returning books and borrowing them again.. I have a lot of reservations with Islington Libraries but they include books on order. I used their suggestions online feature to suggest The Cold Millions and that si on order.

I think I'll be doing the same. The problem with new / popular books is that they have been requested elsewhere so I have to pay to re-request.

In other news, it turns out that the people opposite aren't just trimming their trees, they're chopping them down and building an extension. I don't think I'll be enjoying much quiet working from home, given the level of noise they generate whilst working. (As much the shouting at each other as the machinery.) Gah.

I have cards for 3 different library services - Islington has free reservations, and my partner's office is in the central library building (he doesn't actually work in that service). But at the moment he's still not in there much, whereas he's had to go to several in person meetings near another larger branch, and the Finsbury Park branch is nearer to us and on a reasonably direct bus route as well. I do think I'm probably going to make a journey to sort out all my books before they bring fines back in (no date yet set). Reservations in my borough are a bit expensive.

I'm currently living on a building site with two of our neighbours having extensions done. We did it ourselves a few years ago but I'm a bit sick of overflowing skips, large vans taking away all my daylight from the main part of the house, and the noise.

>221 charl08: - Ellen just finished that one, too, and really liked it.

>223 charl08: There were builders "renovating" the house opposite for over 18 months, argh, and then when they'd sold that they began on the one next door, ARGH!

I hope your neighbours' builders are more efficient (and less noisy as they have local clients).

>224 elkiedee: I think I'm going to be working with music in the background from now on!

>225 katiekrug: Thanks Katie. Public Service announcement: Ellen's review is v good (and succinct). Recommended (imho).

>226 spiralsheep: Hopefully! I just replanted the front garden, am thinking of sticking some fast growing shrubs in now for a bit of screening.

Very excited, due to the lifting of (some) restrictions am getting to leave my home county for the first time in Months....
Hoping to visit Portmeirion for the first time, a 1920s village in Wales 'inspired' by Italian architecture.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portmeirion
I am not a number! I am a free man!*
(Cult 60s tv show "The Prisoner" was filmed in Portmeirion. Seemed appropriate given endless lockdown)

Reading The Silver Collar thanks to Julia, who posted a list of new crime fiction on her 75ers thread.

...who published private letters without permission and copied the works of honest writers without sharing the profit. Worst of all, he sold false goods. I once paid three shillings for what he insisted was a volume of bawdy poems, only to discover, when I unwrapped the parcel at home, that I had bought a collection of sermons by the Bishop of Gloucester.
Some villainies cannot be forgiven.

>223 charl08: The noise levels here make me laugh. We live on a not-extremely-busy corner, but oh the noise. We are across from a park, so we have children yelling and dogs in the dog park area barking. Then there's the traffic - cars, scooters, motorcycles, etc. Also the inevitable honking. The horns here get more use than the brakes. Streets are narrow, so if anyone is loading or unloading anything (including taxis loading and unloading people), the traffic has to stop. Then the horns start. And they don't stop until the obstruction is moved. People shouting about various things - check. And on the opposite corner are the dumpsters for this block. Trash is collected maybe 4 times a day? So there's that noise, in addition to the cars backed up honking at them.

It's been not quite so noisy the past few months because it's been winter so the windows have been closed, but we're getting to the time of year when it's impossible to have the windows closed unless you like saunas.

Luckily it doesn't really bother me. We do have to pause whatever we're watching at night when they do the final pickup of the trash for the day, but that's pretty automatic now.

>238 rabbitprincess: I very much enjoyed the earlier books in the Thomas Hawkins series - I think The Silver Collar is #4.

Well, if we're talking about noise we're really lucky, in highly urbanised Singapore, to live where there's a sliver of jungle behind the houses opposite us. We see and hear a variety of birds (not to mention bats, frogs, monkeys and - our old favourite - monitor lizards). Where we live is considered almost the back of beyond, here. On the other hand, it would be considered suburbs in most other cities.

There's a small airport nearby and while the single and double seater planes don't bother us (smaller turning circle), we are under the flight path of jet planes. Granted, it happens - at the most - once a day and it's been quite quiet recently, come to think of it. There are also the occasional nights when we can hear firing on the army ranges that are further down the road.

As for construction, well, we've been guilty of that from time to time, to be honest, though we haven't changed the footprint of the house once we moved in. Right now, the house two doors down is under construction. First they knocked the previous building down and then they dug down to create a basement. That was no fun, because we could feel the vibrations through our house. We had a respite for a few months because of the lockdown but it seemed to double in intensity when they resumed. For now, it's relatively quiet, noise-wise, although there always seem to be lorries or trucks blocking the road (we're the last - or, rather, first - house in a cul-de-sac) just when I'm driving out or coming home.

>228 charl08: I have the first book in that series on my TBR list. Do you have to read the books in order?

>232 Tess_W: I haven't read The Silver Collar yet but read the first three - I'm sure that they would have been a good read out of order, but I would recommend starting with #1.

>228 charl08: Portmeirion is pretty bonkers, but well worth a visit. If you get the chance, also try to visit the beach there, it's beautiful!

Good luck with your remodeling noice, Charlotte. I recently had my chimney repaired and tried to make sure I wasn't home while they were working. I hope they finish quickly.

Portmeirion looks beautiful. It goes on my list.

How the One-Armed Sister Sweeps the House sounds great; I might have to break down and buy that one.

You have to pay to reserve things at your library? I would be in library debt if that were the case here.

>229 ursula: Wow, 4 rubbish collections a day. How much rubbish is there in Istanbul? The mind boggles. I lived on north bridge in Edinburgh for a while and know that I can't live with main road noise. The buses never stopped altogether, but the main routes started up at 5am, just after the drunks had finally gone home.

>230 elkiedee: Yes, me too. I had missed that there was a new one, so was pleased to see Julia's post.

>231 humouress: Living near some jungle sounds lovely. I lived near an airfield as a kid, and the sound of old airplanes makes me really nostalgic. They always seemed to go up on a weekend, when we were out in the garden playing (or in later years, reading).

>232 Tess_W: I did, but mostly because they weren't all published when I started reading them.

>233 elkiedee: This sounds like good advice.

>234 Jackie_K: I am looking forward to it so much.

>235 BLBera: All the wood they cut down has been taken away today. We now have a lot more light at the front of the house, which is nice.

It's a small request fee, but it does add up. During lockdown they waived the fees as you couldn't browse the shelves. They're back now though.

And yes, I will buy a copy of HTOASSHH when it comes out in paperback, I think.

Haha, I think there is a normal amount of trash, but with street animals, humidity year round and heat in a lot of months, it’s not good to let it sit very long.

Enjoy your trip to Portmeirion!

>237 ursula: That makes sense. Ours shifted to every other week for non-recyclables. I am lobbying for a hot composter to reduce the rubbish, but no luck.

>238 rabbitprincess: Thanks: fingers crossed for dry weather!

The Silver Collar
I really enjoyed this, #4 in the Thomas Hawkins series set in the 1700s. There's lots of historical detail about the seedier side of London life. Wonderfully for readers, the opening of this book describes The Pistol, doing a roaring trade in selling illicit books and pamphlets.
Tom and Kitty are happily running the bookshop together, until a local magistrate decides to intervene. The reason why the prudish legal official has suddenly decided to take an interest in Kitty is key. A figure believed dead in earlier books is very much not dead at all, and wants revenge. Key to this story is a sugar plantation in Antigua: Hodgson has one of her characters point out the willingness of so many at the time to put sugar in their tea and ignore where it came from. Not possible here.

For anyone else in the UK who might be interested after Charlotte's review, the first Thomas Hawkins book is a Kindle offer this month, and I very much recommend it.

>228 charl08: Oooh, Wales is so beautiful!!! Enjoy your trip!

>241 elkiedee: Sounds good!

>242 MissBrangwen: Yes, but the difficult questions now: how many / which books to pack for a week?

>243 charl08: Why would you be reading when there are two islands in the surrounding estuaries that you can walk to at low tide?! ;-)

happy travels, Charlotte!

I need to check out the Hodgson series.

Safe travels.

>244 spiralsheep: Ah, I won't be walking: I just bought a wetsuit.

>245 banjo123: Thanks Rhonda.

>246 BLBera: Thanks Beth. They're a fun read.

My sister has been visiting, first time in a year. Pandemics. Gah.

>163 charl08: A RL poster of this would be a great thing. Every year you could make one of your reading!

>228 charl08: From someone who hasn't left their country in 15 years, I cannot really feel your 'first time in months' pain...lol. Still, there's nothing like a holiday. I hope it is/was fun!

>231 humouress: a sliver of jungle sounds lovely. I grew up in a house surrounded by not much, market gardens (asparagus and cabbages) and beyond them, train tracks. Also, we had a cemetery not too far down on each side of our house, and we used to play in them a lot!

>247 charl08: I definitely wouldn't recommend swimming to Cei Ballast or Ynys Giftan. Even the small sheltered beaches at Borth-y-Gest are dodgy because of the estuary currents. I don't know about the long beaches facing Bae Ceredigion but I bet the water would be bl**dy freezing even with a wetsuit, lol. Mind you, the heated outdoor swimming pool at Portmerion might be warm enough to dip in for five minutes.... ;-)

>247 charl08: >249 spiralsheep: I was thinking I wouldn't dare the seas around Britain, even in a wetsuit :0)

>248 LovingLit: Hi Megan. It was *county* (local govt area) not country! In practice, has been even smaller than that due to guidance on sticking local for the past six months or so. I am very tired of the same local walks, and looking forward to some different scenery.
Missing the international travel too though. NZ looks so beautiful.

>249 spiralsheep: I think thanks to the rise in popularity of OW I've found a lot of info online about suitable places used regularly for swimming, safety etc.

>250 humouress: I was talking to a colleague at work this week who has swum the Channel twice: she maintains a wetsuit is "cheating"!

>251 charl08: >250 humouress: ... I forgot to add *bbrrrrrrr* ;0)