Helenliz escapes to another world: pt 2

I'm Helen and I'm head of quality in a small firm that makes inhaler devices for delivery of drugs to the lung. It's a small team and I love my job.

In 2022 I had a little bit of a refinement of categories, and most of those return. So that's the theme this year? I re-read Mort recently, and it reminded me of how much I enjoy the Discworld series. I'm not a huge fan of fantasy, but this I adore. Pratchett holds up a mirror to the world, but it doesn't necessarily show us as we appear, but as we are. In which case I am using titles from the Discworld series for my theme and cover pictures for the category images.

Currently Reading


Currently reading
here Comes the Sun
A Deadly Affair (audio)

Loans: To try and keep track of the library books I've got out.✔️
Library books on loan:
The Temple of My Familiar
Euripides in 4 volumes
Caleb's Crossing
Das Jumbo-Buch von Elmar und Willi = Elmer (AND) Elmer and Willi
Who Fears death
✔️Blood and Sugar
Golden Hill
Erasure
✔️Of Love and Other Demons
The Decameron

Book subscriptions: To try and catch up!
Tyll (MrB's May)
Outlandish (MrB's September)
Unwell Women (MrB's October)
Cloud Cuckoo Land (MrB's November)
Conjure Women (MrB's December)
Still Life (MrB's)
Rutherford & Fry's Complete Guide to Absolutely Everything (MrB's)
Hare House (MrB's)
We are Displaced (Shelterbox)

The list

DNF
The Bone Clocks, David Mitchell. Too bit for a sensible bed book & just too woo-woo for me.

January
1. The Talented Mr Ripley, Patricia Highsmith, ***1/2
2. Rebuilding Coventry, Sue Townsend, ***
3. My Darling from the Lions, Rachel Long, ***
4. Light Perpetual, Francis Spufford, ***
5. The Eagle of the Ninth, Rosemary Sutcliff, ***
6. Ghost Wall, Sarah Moss, ****
7. Run, Ann Patchett, ***
8. Dearly, Margaret Atwood, ****
9. Der WackelZahn, David Mills & Julia Crouth, ***

February
10. The Secret Seven, Enid Blyton, ***
11. Metamorphosis, Franz Kafka, ***
12. The Red house Mystery, AA Milne, ***
13. Flowers for the Judge, Margery Allingham, ****
14. Oliver Twist, Charles Dickens, ***
15. Chivalry, Neil Gaiman, *****

March
16. Kiss of the Spider Woman, Manuel Puig, ***
17. Five on a Treasure Island, Enid Blyton, ***
18. Two Stories, Sally Rooney, ***
19. The Taming of the Shrew, William Shakespeare, ***
20. The Amber Fury, Natalie Haynes, ***
21. The Lantern Bearers, Rosemary Sutcliff, ***
22. Fatal Isles Maria Adolfsson, ***
23. My Pen is the Wing of a Bird, various, ***

April
24. The Case of the Late Pig, Margery Allingham, ***
25. The Wee Free Men, Terry Pratchett, ***
26. Surfacing, Margaret Atwood, ***
27. The Judge's House, Bram Stoker, ****
28. Cotillion, Georgette Heyer, ****
29. Crook O'Lune, ECR Lorac, ****
30. The Map of Salt and Stars, Zeyn Joukhadar, ***
31. The Cat Who Saved Books, Sosuke Natsukawa, ***

May
32. Cocktail Time, PG Wodehouse, ***
33. Stone Blind, Natalie Haynes, ***
34. Post after Post-Mortem, ECR Lorac, ****
35. The Lantern Men, Elly Griffiths, ***
36. The Listerdale Mystery, Agatha Christie, ****
37. The Fatal Rivalry, George Goodwin, ***
38. East Anglia in Verse, various, ****
39. Wombling Free Elisabeth Beresford, ***
40. Of Love and Other Demons, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, ***
41. Agatha Christie: Twelve Radio Mysteries, Agatha Christie, ***
42. The Toll-Gate, Georgette Heyer, ****

June
43. Dancing Girls, Margaret Atwood, ***
44. Blood & Sugar, Laura Shepherd-Robinson, ***
45. Service with a Smile, PG Wodehouse, ***
46. Betjeman's Britain, John Betjeman, ***
47. Dancers in Mourning, Margery Allingham, ****
48. A Short History of Coffee, Gordon Kerr, ****
49. Here Comes the Sun - Nicole Dennis-Benn, ***
50. Love and Other Thought Experiments, Sophie Ward, ***

Category 1: Women authors
Book Wyrd Sisters


The Wyrd Sisters are the witches of Lancre and are a trio that fall out more than they get on. As three very different women, this is where I will store my books by women authors.

1. The Talented Mr Ripley, Patricia Highsmith
2. Rebuilding Coventry, Sue Townsend
3. My Darling from the Lions, Rachel Long
4. The Eagle of the Ninth, Rosemary Sutcliff
5. Ghost Wall, Sarah Moss
6. Run, Ann Patchett
7. Dearly, Margaret Atwood
8. The Secret Seven, Enid Blyton
9. Flowers for the Judge, Margery Allingham
10. Five on a Treasure Island, Enid Blyton
11. Two Stories, Sally Rooney
12. The Amber Fury, Natalie Haynes
13. The Lantern Bearers, Rosemary Sutcliff
14. Fatal Isles Maria Adolfsson
15. My Pen is the Wing of a Bird, various
16. The Case of the Late Pig, Margery Allingham
17. Surfacing, Margaret Atwood,
18. Cotillion, Georgette Heyer
19. Crook O'Lune, ECR Lorac
20. The Map of Salt and Stars, Zeyn Joukhadar,
21. Stone Blind, Natalie Haynes
22. Post after Post-Mortem, ECR Lorac
23. The Lantern Men, Elly Griffiths
24. The Listerdale Mystery, Agatha Christie
25. Wombling Free Elisabeth Beresford
26. Agatha Christie: Twelve Radio Mysteries, Agatha Christie
27. The Toll-Gate, Georgette Heyer
28. Dancing Girls, Margaret Atwood
29. Blood & Sugar, Laura Shepherd-Robinson
30. Dancing Girls, Margaret Atwood
31. Here Comes the Sun - Nicole Dennis-Benn,
32. Love and Other Thought Experiments, Sophie Ward,

Category 2: New authors
Book: Mort


Mort was my first Discworld book, given to me for my 16th birthday. And I just loved it. As my first, this will be where I will put those authors I have not read before.

1. The Talented Mr Ripley, Patricia Highsmith
2. My Darling from the Lions, Rachel Long
3. Light Perpetual, Francis Spufford
4. Der WackelZahn, David Mills & Julia Crouth
5. Kiss of the Spider Woman, Manuel Puig
6. Two Stories, Sally Rooney
7. Fatal Isles Maria Adolfsson
8. My Pen is the Wing of a Bird, various
9. The Map of Salt and Stars, Zeyn Joukhadar
10. The Cat Who Saved Books, Sosuke Natsukawa
11. The Fatal Rivalry, George Goodwin
12. Blood & Sugar, Laura Shepherd-Robinson
13. A Short History of Coffee, Gordon Kerr
14. Here Comes the Sun - Nicole Dennis-Benn,
15. Love and Other Thought Experiments, Sophie Ward,

Category 3: Translations & German
Book: Witches Abroad


In this the three witches leave their little kingdom and venture to foreign parts, with exactly the consequences you'd expect of the inexperienced traveler abroad. In this I will put books in two categories, those I read in English that have been translated and books in German. I've been trying to learn German to show that you can teach an old dog new tricks and so reading in German is a struggle at present.

1. Der WackelZahn, David Mills & Julia Crouth
2. Metamorphosis, Franz Kafka
3. Kiss of the Spider Woman, Manuel Puig
4. Fatal Isles Maria Adolfsson
5. My Pen is the Wing of a Bird, various
6. The Cat Who Saved Books, Sosuke Natsukawa
7. Of Love and Other Demons, Gabriel Garcia Marquez

Category 4: Book Subscriptions
Book: Going Postal


In Going Postal, Moist von Lipwig escapes death on the condition that he sorts out the Disc's postal service. He'd be responsible for delivering my subscriptions, so this is where I will put those books that arrive in the post.

1. My Pen is the Wing of a Bird, various
2. The Map of Salt and Stars, Zeyn Joukhadar
3. Here Comes the Sun - Nicole Dennis-Benn,

Category 5: Heyer series read
Book: Lords and Ladies


I'm not sure that the events in this book quite match Heyer's usual romance format. As her books usually involve a Lord meeting a Lady and various trials ensuing before the happy ending, maybe there is a commonality. This is where I will be putting my Heyer series reads.

Finished
✔️ The Black Moth (g) 1921 Finished 01Jan18, ****1/2
✔️ Powder and Patch (g) 1923 Finished 05Feb18, ***
✔️ The Great Roxhythe (h) 1923 Finished 30Apr18, ***
✔️ Simon the Coldheart (h) 1925 Finished 7May18, ***
✔️ These Old Shades (g) 1926 Finished 31May18, ***
✔️ The Masqueraders (g) 1928 Finished 17Jul18, ****
✔️ Beauvallet (h) 1929 Finished 08Sep2018, ****
✔️ The Conqueror (h) 1931 Finished 25Dec2018, ****
✔️ Devil's Cub (g) 1932 Finished 31Jan2019, ****
✔️ The Convenient Marriage (g) 1934 Finished 12Mar2019, ****1/2
✔️ Regency Buck (r) 1935 Finished 08May2019, ****1/2
✔️ The Talisman Ring, Georgette Heyer Finished 10Aug2019, ***
✔️ An Infamous Army, Georgette Heyer Finished 13Oct2019, ***
✔️ Royal Escape, Georgette Heyer Finished 14Feb2020, ***
✔️ The Spanish Bride, Georgette Heyer Finished 28Mar2020, ***
✔️ The Corinthian, Georgette Heyer Finished 17Jun2020, ****
✔️ Faro's Daughter, Georgette Heyer Finished 25Aug2020, ****
✔️ Friday's Child, Georgette Heyer Finished 10Oct2020, ****
✔️ The Reluctant Widow, (r) Finished 24Jan2021, ****
✔️ The Foundling (r) 1948 Finished 21Apr2021, ****
✔️ Arabella, (r) 1949 ****1/2 Finished 19Jun2021
✔️ The Grand Sophy, (r) 1950, **** Finished 25Jul2021
✔️ The Quiet Gentleman (r) 1951, ****1/2 Finished 24Sep2021
✔️ Cotillion (r) 1953, **** Finished 15Apr2023

To be Read
The Toll Gate (r) 1954
Bath Tangle (r) 1955
Sprig Muslin (r) 1956
April Lady (r) 1957
Sylvester, or The Wicked Uncle (r) 1957
Venetia (r) 1958
The Unknown Ajax (r) 1959
Pistols for Two (short stories) 1960
A Civil Contract (r) 1961
The Nonesuch (r) 1962
False Colours (r) 1963
Frederica (r) 1965
Black Sheep (r) 1966
Cousin Kate (r) 1968
Charity Girl (r) 1970
Lady of Quality (r) 1972
My Lord John (h) 1975

Category 6: Non-fiction
Book: The Truth


As non-fiction readers we like to imagine we are reading the truth. So this is where my non-fiction will be stored.

1. The Fatal Rivalry, George Goodwin
2. A Short History of Coffee, Gordon Kerr

Category 7: Audio
Book: Soul Music


I don't listen to a lot of music, but I do listen to audiobooks in the car. Seeing music and audiobooks engage the ears, this is where I will put my audiobooks.

1. Rebuilding Coventry, Sue Townsend
2. My Darling from the Lions, Rachel Long
3. Run, Ann Patchett
4. Dearly, Margaret Atwood
5. The Secret Seven, Enid Blyton
6. Oliver Twist, Charles Dickens
7. Chivalry, Neil Gaiman
8. Five on a Treasure Island, Enid Blyton
9. Two Stories, Sally Rooney
10. The Taming of the Shrew, William Shakespeare
11. Fatal Isles Maria Adolfsson
12. Surfacing, Margaret Atwood,
13. The Judge's House, Bram Stoker,
14. The Cat Who Saved Books, Sosuke Natsukawa
15. Cocktail Time, PG Wodehouse
16. The Listerdale Mystery, Agatha Christie
17. Agatha Christie: Twelve Radio Mysteries, Agatha Christie
18. Dancing Girls, Margaret Atwood
19. Service with a Smile, PG Wodehouse
20. Betjeman's Britain, John Betjeman
21. A Short History of Coffee, Gordon Kerr

Category 8: Reading years and lists
Book: Interesting Times


In 2022 I challenged myself to read a book published each year I've been alive. I am going to extend that backwards towards the start of the century, aiming to reach 1950 this year. This reading through time should be interesting, hence the selection of the title.

1891. The Judge's House, Bram Stoker,
1922: Flowers for the Judge, Margery Allingham
1934: The Listerdale Mystery, Agatha Christie
1936: Post after Post-Mortem, ECR Lorac
1937: The Case of the Late Pig, Margery Allingham
1942. Five on a Treasure Island, Enid Blyton
1949: The Secret Seven, Enid Blyton
1953: Cotillion, Georgette Heyer
1953: Crook O'Lune, ECR Lorac
1954: The Eagle of the Ninth, Rosemary Sutcliff, The Toll-Gate, Georgette Heyer
1955: The Talented Mr Ripley, Patricia Highsmith,
1959: The Lantern Bearers, Rosemary Sutcliff
1961: Service with a Smile, PG Wodehouse

Category 9: CATs
Book: Small Gods


The Egyptians worshiped cats: I think they remember this. Most cats behave as if they are gods, albeit little ones. This is where I will put my CAT reads. I expect to participate in RandomCAT & AlphaKit, and will see what other CATs are selected.

Hosting:
RandomCAT in April
SeriesCAT Trilogies in May
KiddyCAT Siblings in October

January
AlphaKIT: I & S: Rebuilding Coventry, Sue Townsend; Light Perpetual, Francis Spufford, The Eagle of the Ninth, Rosemary Sutcliff, Ghost Wall, Sarah Moss
Classic CAT - Adventure: The Eagle of the Ninth, Rosemary Sutcliff
Random CAT - Hidden gems: The Talented Mr Ripley, Patricia Highsmith
Series CAT - new to you series: The Talented Mr Ripley, Patricia Highsmith,
KiddyCat - Picture books: Der WackelZahn, David Mills & Julia Crouth

February
KiddyCat - Mysteries: The Secret Seven, Enid Blyton
AlphaKIT - J & F: Metamorphosis, Franz Kafka, Flowers for the Judge, Margery Allingham
Classic CAT - over 100 years old. Oliver Twist, Charles Dickens
Random CAT - Second or Two: Oliver Twist, Charles Dickens

March
Random CAT - Water: Five on a Treasure Island, Enid Blyton, Fatal Isles Maria Adolfsson
AlphaKIT - G & A: The Amber Fury, Natalie Hayne, Fatal Isles Maria Adolfsson
Classic CAT - made into a film: The Taming of the Shrew, William Shakespeare
Series CAT - YA : Five on a Treasure Island, Enid Blyton
KiddyCat - Historical fiction: The Lantern Bearers, Rosemary Sutcliff

April
RandomKIT - 7 ages of (wo)man: The Case of the Late Pig, Margery Allingham, The Wee Free Men, Terry Pratchett, The Judge's House, Bram Stoker, The Cat Who Saved Books, Sosuke Natsukawa
AlphaKIT - D & W The Wee Free Men, Terry Pratchett, The Cat Who Saved Books, Sosuke Natsukawa,
KiddyCAT - fantasy for middle grade The Wee Free Men, Terry Pratchett, The Cat Who Saved Books, Sosuke Natsukawa,
Series CAT - can be read out of order Crook O'Lune, ECR Lorac
ClassiCAT - detective/mysteries: The Case of the Late Pig, Margery Allingham, Crook O'Lune, ECR Lorac

May
RandomKIT - Royal names: The Listerdale Mystery, Agatha Christie, The Fatal Rivalry, George Goodwin, The Toll-Gate, Georgette Heyer
KiddyCAT - classics Wombling Free Elisabeth Beresford
SeriesCAT - trilogies
AlphaCAT: U & C: Cocktail Time, PG Wodehouse, Post after Post-Mortem, ECR Lorac, The Listerdale Mystery, Agatha Christie, Agatha Christie: Twelve Radio Mysteries, Agatha Christie
ClassiCAT: Children's classics Wombling Free Elisabeth Beresford

June
RandomKit - Walls Dancers in Mourning, Margery Allingham
AlphaCAT - B & K. Blood & Sugar, Laura Shepherd-Robinson, Betjeman's Britain, John Betjeman, A Short History of Coffee, Gordon Kerr,
ClassiCAT: Humour Service with a Smile, PG Wodehouse

Category 10: BingoDog
Book: The Colour of Magic


In the Colour of Magic, Twoflower, the disc's first tourist, arrived in Ankh Morpork. He is accompanied by his luggage, which is of sapient pearwood, and has the property of following its owner anywhere and everywhere. In this is reminds me a lot of a dog, following it;s owner hither and thither. Hence I will put my BingoDog reads in here.

✔️1: Features music or a musician Light Perpetual, Francis Spufford,
2: Features or is set in an Inn or Hotel
✔️3: Features a member of the cat family (as big a cat as you like) The Cat Who Saved Books, Sosuke Natsukawa
✔️4: The next book in a series you've started Flowers for the Judge, Margery Allingham
✔️5: A book by an author that shares your sign of the zodiac Rebuilding Coventry, Sue Townsend
6: A memoir
7: A bestselling book from 20 years ago
✔️8: Book with a plant in the title or on the cover Surfacing, Margaret Atwood,
✔️9: A book with switched or stolen identities The Talented Mr Ripley Patricia Highsmith
✔️10: A book that taught you something The Fatal Rivalry, George Goodwin
✔️11: A book with a book on the cover The Taming of the Shrew, William Shakespeare
12: Features something art or craft related
13: Read a CAT
✔️14: A book with a small town or rural setting Ghost Wall, Sarah Moss
15: A book on a STEM topic (Science Technology, Engineering or Maths)
✔️16: A book with an LT rating of 4 or more Chivalry, Neil Gaiman,
✔️17: A book by a local or regional author East Anglia in Verse, various
✔️18: A book involving an accident The Eagle of the Ninth, Rosemary Sutcliff
19: A book featuring a journalist or about journalism
✔️20: A popular author's first book The Amber Fury, Natalie Haynes
✔️21: A book on a topic you don't usually read The Judge's House, Bram Stoker,
✔️22: A book with a number or quantity in the title The Secret Seven, Enid Blyton
✔️23: A book by an author under 30 Oliver Twist, Charles Dickens
✔️24: A book set on a plane, train or ship Five on a Treasure Island, Enid Blyton
✔️25: A book in >1000 libraries on LT Run, Ann Patchett

March:
I'm about to start my next two books, so this is March finished.

Read: 8 (23)
M/F: 6/2 (11.5/11.5)

Audio: 4 (11)
Paper: 4 (12)

Owned: 2 (4)
Library: 6 (19)

New authors: 4 (8)
New books: 6 (20)
Re-reads: 2 (3)

Liking the evenness of some of those splits. Complete co-incidence, you understand!

Happy new thread! You've managed a lot of books so far!

Happy New Thread! You're making good progress on your Bingo card.

Happy new thread!

Happy new thread, Helen! Your Bingo card is looking good!

New thread - and thingaversary - cheers to you Helen.

Did you buy any new books to mark the date?

Happy new thread, Helen! Hope you have a good weekend.

Just catching up. New thread, nice!

Happy new thread, Helen. Your Bingo card looks well!

Happy new one, Helen! Hoping your Sunday has been a good one.

Happy new thread!

Thanks all!

>19 charl08: I'm torn on that one. It's my birthday in a fortnight, so I have, in the past, just gone on a book buying spree for my birthday. BUT I still have far too many books to read, so I'm not sure about buying any more!

Sunday has been relaxing. Stitching, watching TV and cooked a roast. >:-)

Happy new thread, and glad you had a relaxing Sunday to boot!

Book: 24
Title: The Case of the Late Pig
Author: Margery Allingham
Published: 1937
Rating: ***
Why: Project read Campion with Liz
Challenge: Woman author, CAT
TIOLI Challenge #7. Read a book that shares at least one word with the first listed title

This is unusual. It's narrated in the first person by Albert Campion himself, which is not how the remainder of the series have been written so far.
It starts with a funeral in January of Pig Peters, someone who Campion went to school with and at whose hands he suffered being bullied.
Come June and there's a body turned up in a country village of some friends of his, and so Campion goes to try and sort it out - only to find that the body appears to be that of Pig himself. This time he has had is head bashed in by a giant flower urn from a parapet - no chance of rising from the dead this time, although the body does go walkabouts at one point - Pig appears to be a particularly active corpse.
From the varied range of people present in the environs, Campion has to work out who is what they say they are and who is dissembling. There's a lot of misdirection, and a close call at the end before the villain is exposed.
It's entertaining and engaging.

Happy friday. Day off here and the weather's great. Gardened, done damage to self with the non-pointy end of a pair of secateurs. Laundry blowing on the line nicely.

Plotting a birthday-cum-thingaversary list, what do I need to add?

Book: 25
Title: The Wee Free Men
Author: Terry Pratchett
Published: 2003
Rating: ***
Why: Cat fit.
Challenge: CAT
TIOLI Challenge #9. Read a book with a word/phrase first used in the year you were born in the title, author's name, text, or tag

I am slightly ambivalent towards this. Labelled as a YA Discworld novel, it really didn't feel very much like it was a Discworld book. Set on chalk downs, Tiffany is a pre-teen and the granddaughter of Granny Aching. Granny Aching may, or may not have been, a witch, she was certainly a shepherd.
Into Tiffany's life come the Wee Free Men, a gang of 6 inch high red haired, blue skinned, kilt wearing hooligans, who sound awfully Scottish. They are a bit like bees, in that they have a female Kelda and are all brothers. Into this life comes a Queen, who lives through dreams and uses them to manipulate people into doing what she wants and behaving how she thinks they should. She gives them what they want, not what they need.
It rolls along at a fair old pace, with Tiffany getting into various scrapes that the Wee Free Men help her out of, or make worse, depending on the mood. Into this is interspersed memories of Granny and what she might have done or said.
It's enjoyable enough, but it feels forced, somehow. It also doesn;t feel like a Discworld novel until the very end, when Nanny Ogg & Granny Weatherwax appear, brought in by Miss Tick, to support Tiffany in the battle against the Queen. I've held off reading this for quite some time and I'm not sure that I'm inclined to read more of them.

Sorry your latest read wasn't more satisfying!

Helen's Film club.
I have taken to searching films by certain classic actors. In time, I'm sure I'll watch their back catalogue and that will keep me quiet.
A young Bogart today in Dark Victory. A socialite with an attitude finds the headaches and double vision are a brain tumour, and falls for the doctor. Only he knows something she doesn't, that it will recur. After some misunderstandings, they find a passing peace before the inevitable happens. Surprisingly well done, for a melodrama

>30 katiekrug: I went into it hesitantly, I've not read any of the YA discworld works in case it lacked something - and this most certainly does. I can't put my finger on what exactly was missing, but it wasn't the complete package.

>29 Helenliz: I read this book and gave it a "meh" ranking. Then I listened to it on audio and enjoyed it to the fullest. Somehow hearing a voice speak the "Wee Jock-jock" names made Pratchett's humor shine forth.

That said, I am not as well versed in the Discworld as an entity, so I couldn't speak as well as you do to how it fits into his larger Disc.

>29 Helenliz: >32 threadnsong: I was going to add the same thing: not a Discworld expert, but I did enjoy the audio.

I am supposed to be doing outdoor things today but there is a lot of weather outside. Tempting to remain inside with a book as always.

"A lot of weather outside" - yes, in London too, today. Hope you find something good to read.

Book: 26
Title: Surfacing
Author: Margaret Atwood
Published: 1972
Rating: ***
Why: Back catalogue
Challenge: Woman author
TIOLI Challenge #3: Read a book with a one word title

This was rather odd. Told in the first person we spend a lot of time in the narrators head and it is a very strange place to be. She remains un-named while we learn about her past and her present. She is at her parent's cabin, isolated on a lake in the Canadian North. It is miles from the nearest village and she grew up isolated by both location and language, the sole English speaking family in a French speaking area. She is seeking her father, who has gone missing in the wilderness. She thinks she discovers a code and wall art in some papers he has left, but finds no trace of him. With her are her current partner, and a couple who have their own, different, problems in their marriage.
It's not so much a coming to the surface as a descent into madness and we seem helpless as it happens.

Book: 27
Title: The Judge's House
Author: Bram Stoker
Published: 1891
Rating: ****
Why: CAT
Challenge: CAT, Bingo, Audio
TIOLI Challenge #12: APRIL SHOWERS rolling challenge (word in title or author's name)

I've listened to this before, in a book of short stories. Weighing in at ~ 45 minutes, it has enough heft to develop its characters and themes. A young man decides to get away from it all and go to a distant village, taking a deserted house with a bad reputation. While he is working at night, he hears rats scurrying in the house walls. They and him get used to each other, but there's this one big rat that is different. According to the local lady who comes in to do for him, it is the devil, and so we can look at that as the cause of what happens next. What the student sees, or thinks he sees does nothing to dispel the house's bad reputation. It's inventive, but I;d not want to read it at night...

>32 threadnsong:, >33 charl08: that's all very interesting, thank you for sharing your feelings on the book too.

Yup, we had weather as well. Monday was a bit grim, Tuesday's not been a whole load better.

I've completed another circuit of the sun today. Funny old day. Freaked me out less than last year, but still rather mixed feelings about it. Work make more of a fuss about it than I do.

Happy birthday, Helen! Making another circuit is better than the alternative and should be celebrated. I hope there was cake.

Happy Birthday, Helen! What Katie said.

Thank you. There will be cake tomorrow for work. Which I will allow them to have AFTER I've done our annual refresher training. I'm not stoopid...

>41 Helenliz: Ha! Good thinking. What kind of cake?

>42 Crazymamie: lemon drizzle and (if I get round to making them) chocolate cornflake cakes.

YUM!

Happy birthday! And how nice of you to make cake for your coworkers...I would want them to bring cake for me instead! :)

Happy birthday Helen :)

Happy birthday.

There is a sad lack of cake in online training. Perhaps I need to address this.

>45 christina_reads: oh, I didn't make the Lemon drizzle - it is home made, just not in my home. I'm not that nice. We bring in cake on our birthday, seems more fair than everyone having to contribute multiple times a year.

>47 charl08: That is the major downside of online training, imo.

Thanks all.

Happy birthday and hope you and your colleagues enjoyed the cake.

Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday to you (singing)!

Happy birthday! As much as I adore chocolate cake, sometimes a lemon cake is just what I'm hankering after. Lemon drizzle in particular is divine. Lucky coworkers!

That's what I miss about work now that I'm retired: birthday cake and coffee breaks. And holidays.

I hope your birthday was jolly. You came to mind today when I read that bell ringers are in demand for the coronation. I'm sure you will be part of the ringing celebration.

Thanks all.

>50 LadyoftheLodge: ha! I declined singing, it was offered.

>52 VivienneR: I can imagine that would be what you might miss, rather than the actual working thing.
You might expect that I'd be involved - only we're away that weekend. We're on a ringing trip to Dordrecht & Ieper that weekend. There was some debate about cancelling or postponing, but we're all going anyway.

>51 rabbitprincess: Hence the combination of lemon drizzle & chocolate cornflake cakes - it hits all the key points.

Book: 28
Title: Cotillion
Author: Georgette Heyer
Published: 1953
Rating: ****
Why: Series read
Challenge: Woman Author. CAT, Bingo, Audio
TIOLI Challenge #11. Read a book by an author of whose oeuvre you have already read 23%

This ins one of those books where the excitement isn't in the ending, it's in the journey. Uncle Matthew is the spider at the centre of this web. He announces to his various great nephews that he will bestow his fortune on his adopted daughter Kitty and which ever of the great nephews she marries. They get the girl and his fortune. At which point 4 of them descend on Uncle Matthew's house. George is married and so ineligible and no-one know why he's come. He's come to make sure that his brother, the Rev Hugh come up to scratch (he does, but badly). Dolph is slightly lacking mentally even if he is an Earl and is only here because his rather overbearing mother has forced him to it. He is relieved when Kitty rejects his suit. Freddy is the dandy in the family and everyone is surprised when Kitty accepts him. Because they all thought that she was in love with Jack, the rake and dashing gamester in the family.
We see that actually Kitty is rather put out by all this and has conspired with Freddy to pretend that they are engaged because what she actually wants is some time in London and has a scheme that is never outlined but we imagine is to make Jack jealous. From here (about page 35) we al know how this is going to end up, it's just how we are going to get there. The rest of the plot involves Kitty being young and inexperienced in London, resolving Dolph's love life and circumventing his awful mother, Kitty's French cousin who falls inauspiciously in love and Jack being an awful rotten scoundrel. Along the way both Kitty and Freddy grow, it does Freddy good to have someone else to care about and Kitty discovers a lot about the real world and what her feelings really are.
Lots of excellent adventures along the way and even the ending has a bit of a twist to keep things interesting.

>54 Helenliz: - I've actually read that Heyer, but your description barely rings any bells. Weird. I remember characters named Kitty and Freddy but not the whole thing about the brothers. My poor memory...

Hope you have a lovely Sunday!

Happy Belated Birthday, Helen! Your mention of the birthday person bringing their own cake to the office reminds me of the Hobbits giving presents to their friends on the occasion of the gifter's birthday. Much easier on one's friends and co-workers!

>52 VivienneR: Agreed - that's one of the downsides of the work-from-home situation. No chance to socialize, have a chat at the coffee machine, go get lunch with a colleague, and celebrate the milestones in person.

>54 Helenliz: One of my favorite Heyer novels! I adore Freddy -- such an unconventional yet lovable hero!

Adding belated birthday wishes Helen.

Hmmm, I have several, as yet unread, Heyer on my shelves. Time to pick one up soon.

On my phone, in a patisserie in London, just having seen Medea. Wanted to capture my thoughts quickly.
It wasn't the text I'd read, and it was modified somewhat. The Chorus was simplified to 3 women and they started sitting in the audience. They were, at times, saying what the audience was thinking, but they also performed a task in amplifying it explaining the state of play to the audience.
All the male roles were played by one actor, wearing different jackets. I thought playing Aegeus as very camp was inspired.
It was played in the round, with lighting highlights to focus the attention. The final portion had rain falling.
The house was down some stairs in the stage, so the denouement happens out of sight. They stopped the action as Medea has denied Jason the right to bury the boys, as she goes into the house, so that her departure was omitted. Ok, I have no idea how they could have played that, but it means that they finished with her and Jason still sharing the same space.
I suppose it is difficult to play this and not already know the end, but I'm not sure that the killing of the children felt quite so obvious from so early on when I read it.
Theatre was quite intimate, and they played to it, as if we were all women of Corinth. I was in the row right by the stage.
Cleverly done, well crafted and thought out. Can't remember the last time I went to the theatre, must do it again.

Book: 29
Title: Crook O'Lune
Author: ECR LOrac
Published: 1953
Rating: ***
Why: CAT trigger
Challenge: Woman Author
TIOLI Challenge #2. Read a book with trees or flowers on the cover or with the name of a tree or flower in the title or author's name

The strength of these :Lancashire set books is their sense of place and the way that they treat the landscape as a character in its own right. In this, MacDonald is taking a holiday in the fells while looking out for a small farm to retire to in a few years. Into this rural landscape comes Gilbert Woolfall, who has inherited his uncle's house in the fells. Gilbert is town born & bred and is trying to decide if he should keep and live in the house, or sell it, He starts by making his way through his Uncle's papers, trying to fond what is there. Into this comes a house fire that destroys the study and kills the housekeeper, who was unexpectedly sleeping in the room above. Into the mix we throw some sheep rustling and there's a lot to try and sort out. MacDonald gets himself seconded to the investigation and is involved in tracking down the threads to find the root of the trouble. It's not just purely picturesque, there are issues of trying to get started in farming in the fells and the fate of the elderly in a rural environment.

>29 Helenliz: Interesting thoughts on The Wee Free Men. This was the first Pratchett I'd read many years ago, urged on by a friend who was a devoted fan. I wasn't impressed at the time, but then picked up another Discworld book many years later and have been enjoying the series since. I'd been wondering if I should reread this, and if I'll feel differently about it now.

>59 Helenliz: Oooh, it sounds really cool!

There were only 3 actors, besides the chorus, in Euripides' time, so I like the parallel with the one male actor (Ancient Greece had *all* male actors, of course).

In Euripides' original, we're fairly sure that the audience would have been shocked at the ending. All evidence points to Euripides as the source of the end that has Medea actually killing the children, and you can see in the language how he plays with his audience throughout the play, making Medea act determined to do it, and then back down from it, again and again.

At the end, in the original, Medea would leave the stage via the doors in the middle of the stage, then she reappears at the very end in the Deus ex Machina device, which was a crane-thing that could suspend an actor above the stage. Before this play, only divine characters had ever appeared via the crane apparatus, and they would do so to tidy up the action into a nice, clean ending. So, to put Medea up there, in her chariot, holding the bodies of her children was BOLD. From the moment she appeared up there, the audience would know that not only did she actually kill her children, but she'd been put on the level of the gods - she was gonna get away with it!! And she does!! Amazing. One of my absolute favorites. Euripides is the GOAT.

>60 Helenliz: That sounds wonderful. We went to a play last month for the first time in years and enjoyed it so much that we agreed we had to do that more often and, predictably, we have not yet been back.

>62 scaifea: thanks. I did wonder if that was the answer, in which case they really had no way of playing the chariot in that space. I suppose having read it, it felt like we were undersold the lack of her leaving in such style. It also fails to answer Jason back. In their conversation where she says "and I did all this for you" he answered her with "ahh, but the Gods always send a vessel to support the hero". Knowing she leaves with the Gods' support turns that back on him - no, you're not the hero you think you are, we're siding with Medea.
It was good, and I really need to see more.

>63 RidgewayGirl: I have looked, but nothing yet has caught my eye sufficiently. But I will keep looking.

>64 Helenliz: Yes, exactly! I'm not surprised that you felt a little cheated. Still, it sounds like a wonderful production otherwise.

Book: 30
Title: The Map of Salt and Stars
Author: Zeyn Joukhadar
Published: 2018
Rating: ***
Why: Shelterbox
Challenge: New author, Woman Author, Subscription
TIOLI Challenge #7: Read a book that shares at least one word with the first listed title

You know what this book could really have done with? a MAP!
I'm not a fan of dual timeline books, but this one grew on me, slowly. It's two separate stories were connected by the route the characters followed, both ending in Ceuta.
The story set in the past concerns al-Idrisi and the map produced by him at the court of King Roger II of Sicily, known now as The Book of Roger. It involves mapping the known world. To the bare bones of the facts concerning al-Idrisi are added a young girl, Rawiya, who leaves home and disguises herself as a boy to explore the world with al-Idrisi. They undertake many adventures, escape wars, a viscous Roc and a horde of giant snakes, all before tackling a revolt against King Roger's son. What happened to the precious metal map they make is unknown, but the book survived.
The present day story concerns Nour, whos is born in Manhattan, but whose father dies and the family returns to Syria. Unfortunately into the middle of a war and their house in Homs is bombed. From here Nour and her family travel the same journey as that of al-Idrisi, but while one is exploring and evading armies, Nour and her family are evading war as refugees.
The parallel stories worked from a certain level, in that you knew at least where the story was going physically. The link between the two is presented that Nour has been told the Rawiya story by her father and that one way she holds on to his memory is to tell the stories he used to tell. This surmise quickly breaks down and the two stories are simply told in parallel.
The events that Nour & her family live through are horrific, but unlikely to be anything that refugees don't experience in their escapes from their circumstances.
I'm not a fan of the dual timeline stories when the author tries to tie them together by character. This doesn't have that failing, the two stories are joined by location. That makes the link between them feel less contrived and so more palatable.
Each individual story was interesting, if very different. I'm just not sure that the whole was greater than the sum of its parts.

>66 Helenliz: - Hmm, it sounds interesting, but your last line gives me pause. I think I'll see if my library has it.

Book: 31
Title: The Cat Who Saved Books
Author: Sosuke Natsukawa
Published: 2018
Rating: ***
Why: Someone recommended it...
Challenge: New author, translation, audio, Bingo
TIOLI Challenge #7: Read a book that shares at least one word with the first listed title

This grew on me, but it is no more than good. Rintaro is an introverted teenager who lives with his grandfather over the family book shop. AT the start of the book, gandfather dies and it seems that Rintaro will retreat into himself even further. Then a large talking ginger tabby cat turns up and says that Rintaro needs to help free books. So they embark on 3 different adventures where Rintaro meets various characters who claim to love books but are treating them in ways that are not entirely in keeping with that claim. There is some logic in their treatment of books, but ti doesn't quite hold true and so Rintaro saves the books form their fate, usually by speaking of his love of books, or things that he remembers his grandfather telling him of books. Into this comes Sayo, the class rep, a straight talking girl who can also see the cat (somewhat to the cat's dismay). The final adventure involves him meeting the soul of an old book who has a distorted view of the future of books.
Ironically, for a book that repeats several times that reading is dying and incompatible with modern life, I listened to this, as narrated by Kevin Chen. Entirely compatible with my commute, at least.
It feels to be a book for young teens, as while there is emotional matter being dealt with, Rintaro's memories of his grandfather and his tendency so shut himself away, it all feels rather unrealistic. The arguments Rintaro uses are all based on his opinion, the people he meets are extremes of perfectly reasonable ways to view books.
It's rather too twee to be a great book.

>66 Helenliz: It might be me, but I find the dual timeline concept to be a tough one to pull off; it rarely works well, in my opinion. This works better than most, as it doesn't try and link its two stories by character, which usually feels very contrived. But I'm still not convinced that it makes for a great book. YMMV.

April
Two on the go, but as we're now in May, this is April's results

Read: 8 (31)
F/M: 5/3 (16.5/14.5)

Audio: 3 (14)
Paper: 5 (17)

Owned: 4 (8)
Library: 4 (23)

New authors: 2 (10)
New books: 8 (28)
Re-reads: 0 (3)

Let's see what May brings with it.

Book: 32
Title: Cocktail Time
Author: PG Wodehouse
Published: 1958
Rating: ***
Why: can't go wrong with a bot of light Wodehouse relief.
Challenge: Audio
TIOLI Challenge #10: Read a book that would have fit into a Jan to April TIOLI challenge that you participated in

The adventures of Pongo's Uncle Fred, Lord Ickleton. They start with Uncle Fred launching a brazil nut out of the window of the Drones Club an dislodging a top hat and finish with a book being written. It's then disclaimed, claimed back once the film offers start coming in and involves a letter being chased, lost, found and hidden. It's utterly unbelievable, but that makes it not a jot less fun.

>71 Helenliz: A Wodehouse I haven't read is a great find. Thank you!

>71 Helenliz: Happy to help.

Book: 33
Title: Stone Blind
Author: Natalie Haynes
Published: 2022
Rating: ****
Why: because she's excellent
Challenge: Woman Author
TIOLI Challenge #12. Read a book with 2 or more words of 5 letters in the title

This is good, like very good. Retells the Medusa myth, but frames it from the female perspective. We hear from Medusa herself, Athene, Danae, Andromeda, the Nereids, Medusa's snakes, a crow and an Olive grove. It works remarkably well, the cast each telling their little bit of the story. They do it with charm and humour but they are also not at all afraid to call a spade a spade - there's no sugar coating here. The male characters are made to appear less than they are in the stories handed down to us, so that when they are being vindictive, stupid or selfish, they are called out as it. Rape is called exactly that. Perseus comes out no better than any of the others, the first person appeal to the reader being the only element that jarred slightly, breaking the 4th wall.
If I'm honest I enjoyed her earlier novel A Thousand Ships more, but I wonder if that is as I knew that story slightly better. This works, it works very well and I will certainly be looking out whatever she writes next.

>74 Helenliz: I'm not a fan of myths generally but I liked this one a lot too. In contrast to you I was quite glad to get away from Troy. I feel like I've read plenty of that recently (although the only one I can think of now is Pat Barker, so maybe that's more about perception than reality).

>75 charl08: ahh, I love a good retelling, so I'm a sucker for this kind of thing. This was very good, though, sometimes they don't come off quite as well.

Finished Post after Post-mortem.
Next up is The Lantern Men.

Note to self, finished The Lantern Men.

>74 Helenliz: Sounds really good. I've read some re-tellings of the Greek myths, The Penelopiad by Margaret Atwood and Penelope's Daughter that both give a female perspective to the myth of heroic Odysseus. It sounds like your play of Medea gave some voice to her plight or role in the tragedy.

>78 Helenliz: What did you think about The Lantern Men?

Book: 34
Title: Post after Post-Mortem
Author: ECR Lorac
Published: 1936
Rating: ****
Why: I bought it...
Challenge: Woman Author, CAT
TIOLI Challenge #1. Read a book with a ten-letter (or more) word in the title, sub-title or author's name.

This is clever and if the subject matter weren't so grim it would be very amusing. As it is, Ruth is found dead in her room after taking what appears to be an overdose of sleeping pills, wjich she had been prescribed to counter insomina caused by overwork. The family and guests in the house close ranks to present the minimum of evidence and the coroner comes up with a verdict of death by suicide. All well and good, until a mis-addressed letter arrived at Richard's house, having been delayed by the poor addressing. This is from Ruth and it throws a rather different light on her mental state, such that the suicide is not quite so clear cut as it had been made to appear.
This is set in intellectual circles, with writers, publishers, poets and academics wandering round, throwing facts and random thoughts about like daisies in a meadow - which MacDonald has to pick up and sort through. He's called in by Richard and agrees to get the case assigned to him on nothing more than that he'd consulted Richard on a professional manner and displayed more humanity that a conventional copper might. Richard has more than one qualm about setting such a keen observer onto the problem and not liking the turn that the investigation takes.
All in all, very neatly and intricately plotted. It feels a little like the dark side of a drawing room farce of the interwar years.

Book: 35
Title: The Lantern Men
Author: Elly Griffiths
Published: 2020
Rating: ***
Why: because at some point Ruth will see sense and do something. Hopefully before I've given up the will to live.
Challenge: Woman Author
TIOLI Challenge #4: Read a book with a word in the title naming something that can be broken

I'm not entirely sure why I continue with these. I like Ruth, I think we could be friends, but I find the whole dithering about her relationship and Nelson to be tedious in the extreme. I also find the way that Ruth is forever ending up in danger due to case to be rather unlikely and repetitive. Having said that, this is entertaining enough if you're prepared to park the reservations at the front cover.
In this the book starts with a Guilty verdict for Ivor Marsh for the murder of two women. Nelson is sure that he also murdered two other missing women but there has been no confession. Ivor tells Nelson where to look for bodies, but does not confess and he insists that Ruth carry out the work. Into the mix throw in the legend of lanterns that lure you into the marshes and kill you and a very dodgy sounding retreat with the teachers/facilitators all entwined around each others' lives and you can see this gets complicated. Probably unnecessarily complicated. In some ways it is good to see Nelson's team moving on, Cloughie now heads his own team in Cambridgeshire, Judy is DI and wondering where to go next on the career ladder, Nelson is 50 and being nagged about it. I've come this far, I think I'll finish the series at this point.

Had a busy weekend. Went to Holland & Belgium for the weekend. Traveled by plane, train & automobile, so got a fair amount of reading done. Wandered around, saw stuff, didn't fall in a canal, all a success really. Home & unpacked, load 1 of washing drying, load 2 washing.

>82 Helenliz: - Ooh, fun! Any pics?

>81 Helenliz: So many charismatic university lecturers! An as far as Ruth and Nelson go, all my sympathies are with Michelle. Even though I enjoyed most of the series, I think it went on for a few books too many.

Book: 36
Title: The Listerdale Mystery
Author: Agatha Christie
Published: 1934
Rating: ****
Why: Needed something in the car
Challenge: Woman Author,
TIOLI Challenge #1. Read a book with a ten-letter (or more) word in the title, sub-title or author's name.

I had listed to 3 of this collection of short stories before, in different anthologies. But they hold up well to a second reading.
They are an interesting collection as they don't usually involve a detective of any kind. In some of them you can see where this is going, in others it is a complete surprise. I enjoyed listening to this, the neatness of the short story form working well in this selection where they are tightly plotted and sharply written.

>84 pamelad: I know! Although Phil seems more like the lecturers I remember, slightly nerdy and ineffective at dealing with people.

Book: 37
Title: Fatal Rivalry
Author: George Goodwin
Published: 2013
Rating: ***
Why: Someone caught me with a bullet.
Challenge: New Author, CAT, Non-fiction
TIOLI Challenge #7. Read a book that has a judgemental adjective in the title

This was interesting, a focus on the rivalry between James IV of Scotland & Henry VIII of England and how that played out in the early 16th century. It results in the battle of Flodden. It traces the peace between the two countries, the actions on the preceding 30 or so years and the relationship between the countries and the sovereigns.
If it could have done with anything, a timeline of the events covered and a clear demonstration of who was on the throne in each country at the time, both would have helped me to orient myself in time.
The description of the battle was vivid and illustrated with a couple of battlefield maps. The final chapter seemed to be rather short, especially in contrast with the previous chapters leading up to the battle.
At time the writing was slightly stodgy, which made the battle even more dramatic.

Been busy. Internal audits by external auditor went quite well - findings to resolve, but that was why we got him in. Dinner with Gert the auditor and I'm pretty much done in.
Is 9 pm too early for bed? Not asking for a friend.

Also, hotel I've been in for 2 nights had a selection of books, one of which I fancied reading. So I'd better finish it before I leave in the morning!

9:00 is definitely not too early for bed!

>88 Helenliz: Ha! I'm almost always in bed by 9 pm. But I generally am up before 6 am because my 13 year old leaves for his school bus at 6:45 and my work usually starts early.

>88 Helenliz: Sounds full on. Hope the hotel book was a good one.

Thanks all, went out light a light and slept like a log.
Hotel book was pretty good, see below.

Book: 38
Title: East Anglia in Verse
Author: various ed Angus Wilson
Published: 1982
Rating: ****
Why: I was in the hotel room and caught my eye. At 100 pages, I thought I could finish it in 2 nights, I was right.
Challenge: Bingo
TIOLI Challenge #2. Read a book with at least 2 title words that begin with vowels

This is a selection of poems and extracts from letters writings and diaries of and about East Anglia. It starts with "Ode to the North-West Wind" by Charles Kingsley, ends with "Granchester" by Robert Brooke and goes by way of Fanny Burney, Bede, Chaucer amongst others. I like a collection that's happy to put a smutty limerick in with the apparently more worthy writings. Some were better than others, as you'd expect, but at just 100 pages, it was wide ranging and, I think, successful in giving a flavour of the area.

As it was written be people from and living in the area, I work in the area, my mother was born in the area and I was staying in the area, I'm using this for the local author Bingo square.

with added limerick:

>92 Helenliz: Glad you enjoyed the hotel poetry book. Must be nice to live in an area with such significant authors. I would have dropped it as soon as I spotted Charles Kingsley's name. His Water Babies read to me in Grade 1 gave me nightmares and still gives me shivers. Not the watery bit, which has faded to nothing in my memory, but sending boys up the chimney to clean it, then lighting the fire if they weren't fast enough. Apparently Kingsley was one of those Victorian disciplinarians who believed scaring the dickens out of children would make them behave well.

>92 Helenliz: Haha, thanks for including the limerick!

>59 Helenliz: I meant to see that Helen. Glad it worked for you.

Book: 39
Title: Wombling Free
Author: Elisabeth Beresford
Published: 1978
Rating: ***
Why: Perfect bath book
Challenge: Woman author
TIOLI Challenge #8: Read a book in honor of the fishing opener

This was the perfect post gardening bath book. Small enough to hold in one hand, large enough print to not need my glasses. Having re-read these this year, I'm still surprised at how forward thinking they were - yet this was children's TV/reading. It still has a lot of relevance, we're still polluting the planet and it doesn't come with a burrow full of wombles to tidy up after us.

>93 VivienneR: I've never read Kingsley, so I was free of that.

>94 christina_reads: It did strike me as the sign of a collection that's not taking itself too seriously!

>95 Caroline_McElwee: It was good. I think my slight disappointment at the ending has mellowed. I'm glad I made the effort. Must make plans for something else.

A few years ago when my kids were still of an age to have a bedtime story read to them, we went to stay at my aunt's house in Kent for a cheap holiday. My aunt is a bookworm and the top floor of the house has two bedrooms and some shelves of classic and more recent kids' books. I realised we'd forgotten to pack some bedtime stories and grabbed a paperback of The Wombles from the shelves to read them, worrying that they might find it a bit slow or dated. But I found it was quite well written for reading aloud, more than many books by more recent writers (I never want to have to read David Walliams to anyone ever again), but interestingly, the kids were totally captured by it. If my younger son can be persuaded to pick up a book, he will quite enjoy it but he's very distracted by screen based entertainment. I had the first two of the six Wombles chapter books at home, and ended up buying the rest - I think they both read them all but Conor particularly seemed to devour them.

>98 elkiedee: Having not read them in a very long time, I was surprised how well they had stood up to the passage of time. Good to see that the younger generation thought the same as well. And, of course, the environmental message is more relevant than ever. Part of me would love to see what Tobermory could make of a discarded mobile phone!

Book: 40
Title: Of Love and Other Demons
Author: Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Published: 1994
Rating: ***
Why: Not sure now!
Challenge: Bingo
TIOLI Challenge #2. Read a book with at least 2 title words that begin with vowels

This is an odd book. Lyrical passages about people that I never really connected with. Servia Maria is an unfortunate child, daughter of parents that don;t want her particularly and don't care for each other either. She grows up on the slave quarters, learning various African languages. Her parents don't understand her (mainly because they don;t extend themselves to try) and she ends up confined to a convent. Here there is little to no Christian charity either. The Abbess comits her as a criminal to the convent's prison and she is visited by a priest, with a view to exorcism. It all gets very messy, with multiple people letting this girl down and, ultimately, killing her for no very good reason. There is love in here, but not in the right places. There is destructive love and selfish love, rather than caring and nurturing loves. I get that at times love can seem like a demon and be in need of being exorcised, this girl did not

Book: 41
Title: Agatha Christie: Twelve Radio Mysteries
Author: Agatha Christie
Published: 2016
Rating: ***
Why: good car listening material
Challenge: Woman, Audio, short stories
TIOLI Challenge #4. Read a book with a word in the title naming something that can be broken

These were 12 radio plays of Agatha Christie's short stories. It's interesting that some of them had been updated in terms of the setting. For example, Philomel cottage is 2 Londoners in IT moving to the country, but still the story works. Some of them I recognised the story from the play, in others I'm not sure that I've read the original. It's always interesting to see how an original story copes with being updated, I think most of these survive the experience remarkably well.

>101 Helenliz: I didn't know the estate let them do that (the updating) but I guess it fits with the Sophie Hannah versions of Poirot too?
Joan Hickson is still my audio version of choice!

>102 charl08: it was interestingly done. One of them had a refuge from middle east, and the radio play started with bombs falling and hitting an apartment building. I don't know how that would have been presented in the original short story. Thinking about it, when you convert a short story to a radio play there have to be some changes in how it is presented, you have to be told something by someone, unlike the short story when you have the descriptive text to support the dialogue.

Hi Helen! Not much to contribute but wanted you to know I'm still visiting.

>104 katiekrug: *waves* Thank you for coming past. I've been a bit absent without leave from my own thread - it's all been a bit busy. Even the bank holiday weekend was more busy than a normal weekend, just typical for now. Ringing AGM in 2 weeks, work a little bit 'nanas I'm booking a few days off, methinks, even if all I do is lounge in the garden/loaf on the sofa.

Oh, yes, do take a little "stay-cation"!

Book: 42
Title: The Toll-Gate
Author: Georgette Heyer
Published: 1954
Rating: ****
Why: didn't fancy my rather heavy (in all senses of the word) library book.
Challenge: Woman, CAT, Heyer Series read
TIOLI Challenge #10: Read a book that would have fit into a Jan to April TIOLI challenge that you participated in

This is not necessarily what you think of when you pick up a Regency Romance. It starts conventionally enough, with an engagement party at the estate of the Earl of Saltash. But from there is rapidly becomes apparent that it's not the Earl that's the focus of the story, it's his dashing, devil-may-care cousin John Staples. He starts out to visit a friend, and ends up staying in a Toll-gate house. Ben's father (the gate keeper) has vanished and the boy is terrified. John - always out for adventure, or at least something out of the ordinary, is intrigued and hangs around for a while to get to the bottom of it. All sorts of characters turn up, the Squire's grandaughter, her maid, the groom, the landlord, the local highwayman, the works really. It's a real ensemble piece. There is a mystery to be got to the bottom of, as well as a romance to resolve. And it all does so in a most satisfactory way. Maybe a little bit too pat on the mystery, but the plot is involved enough for this not to be in the least bit predictable. The only gripe was the use of slang - a lot of which left me somewhat lost. I think I got the gist, but it didn't always make a great deal of sense at the first pass.

Re-read.
I think the previous review stands up. It's not a straightforward romance, it's a romance with a mystery entwined. It works rather well.

>107 Helenliz: I need to get back to Heyer soon - I read a couple, liked them, and then, for some reason, drifted away from her.

>108 scaifea: I inherited an almost complete set, so have been working my way through them. It comes & goes in waves, I'll read several in a few months, then none for an age.

>106 katiekrug: mmm. that does sound goo. Now where to pop it in the diary!

>105 Helenliz: Lounging and loafing sound like great activities for reading and drinking a fave beverage.

May seems to have been & gone.

Read: 11 (42)
F/M: 3/7 (20/22)

Audio: 3 (17)
Paper: 8 (25)

Owned: 3 (11)
Library: 8 (31)

New authors: 1 (11)
New books: 9 (31)
Re-reads: 2 (5)

Let's see what June brings with it.

Thought you might like to see my latest cross stitch finish, one with a literary spin.

>112 Helenliz: Looks lovely, Helen. Is this one going to the charity too?

>172 Pooh would love it!

>113 charl08: Yup. I've done this pattern twice for the charity now. Not too many children these days request Winne the Pooh, but I do look out for them when they do.

>114 hailelib: Thanks, although I wouldn't mind if Pooh did all the off hole back stitch which adds to the look of the thing but is tricksy to stitch.

>112 Helenliz: That is so lovely!

>116 RidgewayGirl: Thank you.

>112 Helenliz: - Well done!

Very nice! I started cross stitching again over covid and I'm really enjoying it.

>112 Helenliz: Excellent work! And I love the signature :)

>118 katiekrug: Thank you.

>119 japaul22: Glad you're enjoying it. I find it gives my hands something to do in front of the TV, so I don't nod off. I've stitched since I was a child. Funnily enough, I didn't stitch at all for ~ 18 months in lockdown. I have to be relaxed to stitch, I can't stitch to relax, if you get me. I think I had so much going on in my life that I just couldn't get to it. Glad to have it back in my life again.

>120 rabbitprincess: Thank you. Each piece for the charity gets signed, usually with the stitcher's name & location. The text at the bottom of the map was not in the pattern, but it seemed the perfect way of adding my signature. I'm rather pleased with it, if I do say so myself. >:-D

I was reading your interesting comments regarding the convents that come when you purchase a home in the UK. Here, if you purchase a detached home, there are few restrictions. You can park an RV / trailer or boat in your driveway, and even on the street, if there is room and parking is not too tight. I am glad you don't have to put up with backyard chicken coops and hens there. We are fortunate in my city of Richmond, next door to Vancouver. Chickens are not allowed, according to the city by laws, unless you have over 1/2 an acre of land , and apparently that is fewer than 100 homes in my city. We had a lady request to put a chicken coop in her townhouse backyard, to keep her elderly mother busy . That would never be okay in a townhouse where everyone is so close, but fortunately it is also a by law in my city. In Vancouver , you can keep up to 4 chicken in your backyard - in a detached home backyard, that is.

Love the needlework. How beautiful!

I love the WtP map!! Well done!

Book: 43
Title: Dancing Girls
Author: Margaret Atwood
Published: 1977
Rating: ***
Why: audio
Challenge: Woman, Audio
TIOLI Challenge #1. Read a book of fiction in which there is a printed (spelled out) odd number in the narrative of the first page

A collection of short stories narrated by and about women, in the main. Some were better than others, but there were no real stand outs. A mixture of emotions, it's quite a thoughtful collection. She has a beautiful turn of phrase at times.

>122 vancouverdeb: Covenants vary considerably, they tend to be set for an estate at a time, depending on the time the estate or house was built. Our current house doesn't have any restrictive covenants. They can also be broken, usually by precedent if no one objects within a period of time. We can keep a caravan and chickens, if we so chose to do so.

>123 scaifea: Thank you. I've stitched this a couple of times before; it's tricksy but worth it.

Book: 44
Title: Blood & Sugar
Author: Laura Shepherd-Robinson
Published: 2019
Rating: ***
Why: Someone recommended it
Challenge: Woman, new author
TIOLI Challenge #6. Read a book by an author new to you

This book can best be described as heavy. Hard copy from the library was physically heavy, the sole focus on the slave trade (to the exclusion of all other trades and activities of a busy port town) was heavy handed and the prose was heavy and rather turgid. Described as a thriller, it didn't have me rushing to turn the next page.
There's almost too much going on here, the start of the abolitionist movement, homosexuality, a scandal and murder are all mixed up. It became rather a mire that I waded through. There are good elements, but its not taught enough to carry off the complicated plot. Harry Corsham is far too at sea to actually work out what's going on, it's only when he finally turns to his wife that there's clarity of thought and purpose - now she'd make an excellent subject for a novel.

>126 Helenliz: Laura Shepherd-Robinson's 2nd novel has his wife as the main character. I've just read her 3rd which is about a different character, not linked to the earlier books. My memory of this (and #2) was that there was an interesting story but it was rather buried under detail, including lots of historical stuff which wasn't quite right.

Oh, I liked it (I had to go back to my 2020 thread to find this out though!). Sorry it didn't work for you.

>127 elkiedee: I think that's my impression "an interesting story but it was rather buried under detail". It all felt snowed under.

>128 charl08: The friend who recommended it also liked it. It just didn't land for me.

>114 hailelib: Great work! And all the tricksy backstitching did pay off. I love the message at the bottom - our furbabies do help with our needlework, don't they??

>124 Helenliz: Sounds like a great audiobook. I do love some Margaret Atwood.

Hope all is going well, and love reading about your reading adventures!

Beautiful stitching! This will make someone very happy.

Book: 45
Title: Service with a Smile
Author: PG Wodehouse
Published: 1961
Rating: ***
Why: it makes for perfect commuting listening
Challenge: Audio
TIOLI Challenge #12. Read a book with a title starting with "S"

Spending time with Uncle Fred is never wasted - although I think I prefer him at a distance! In this he invites himself to Blandings Castle, home of Lord Emsworth & his prize winning pig. Also, at present, home to Myra Shoemaker, Lavender Brigs and the Duke of Dunstable. Into this comes Uncle Fred, spreading sweetness and light in certain directions. The romantic couples end up with the right partners, the pig is in her alloted space and it is just the Church Lads that seem to be omitted from the spreading of sweetness and light. Its entirely frivolous, but so well crafted that you just go along with the fun.

>131 VivienneR: that's the hope...

>130 threadnsong:, ahhh no, The dedication is a play on that in the watercolour frontispiece of the book. In that is say "Drawn by me and Mr Shepherd helpd". For the charity we sign each piece, usually with name and location. I decided to sign this in a style appropriate to the original.

I think I'm due for some Wodehouse on audio soon...

>134 katiekrug: it's a good way to escape to a very different place. >:-)
Not sure I'd want to live there, of course, but it's a nice escape.

Book: 46
Title: Betjeman's Britain
Author: John Betjeman
Published: 2008
Rating: ***
Why: it makes for perfect commuting listening
Challenge: Audio
TIOLI Challenge #18. Read a republished book/work or collection of previously published writings

This selection of Betjeman's poems was read by himself. Some of them had an introduction from him, what he was thinking or the meaning of some words and terms used. At times he is a miserable old so and so "things were better back when...". At other times his attitudes towards women is slightly uncomfortable, the gels etc. But in some of these there are some lovely lyrical images conjured up. I'm fairly sure that there were some in here I'd not heard or read before. As a bell ringer I find his fascination with bells to be enchanting, he really is enthralled by them.

Book: 47
Title: Dancers in Mourning
Author: Margery Allingham
Published: 1937
Rating: ****
Why: series read with Liz
Challenge: RandomCat
TIOLI Challenge #15. Read a book whose title contains all of the vowels (A, E, I, O, U) or none of the vowel

In this entry in the series, we find Campion called in to investigate who might be trying to play jokes or intimidate a stage star. Jimmy Sutane has been receiving odd things (garlic in a bunch of flowers) and they are beginning to get on his rather highly strung nerves. Campion is invited down to the country house and there meets the star and all his associated entourage. There's quite a lot of them to kept straight.. Of interest , however, is Campion's reaction to Jimmy's wife Linda, he falls for her. This presents him with a whole host of issues between his heart and head when Sutane appears to murder a woman by running over her after she fell off a bridge in front of his car. It's not that simple, of course. Lugg is sent to the house to act as replacement Butler while Campion struggles with his internal conflict of emotions and duty. In the end the solution is uncovered and it involves a lot of back story, some of which has been hinted as at we get to this point. It was rather interesting to see Campion emotions engaged, that is certainly a new angle in this series. I'd not suggest you started here, otherwise the startling element of that would pass you by.

>137 Helenliz: How on earth do you find a book with all the vowels in the title? I just wouldn't have the patience to go through my books one by one. Is there a way to search?

>138 VivienneR: Seeing that was the book that inspired the challenge, I'm not sure. >;-)

>138 VivienneR: I haven't tried it, and I normally end up just trying to match what I'm reading anyway (it's a while since I've managed to do a sweep. But you could find some words which have a lot of the vowels in anyway, and do a search on your library for books with, say, "mysterious" in the title. That has e, i, o and u so another word in the title only needs to have an a. Any word with an ...ious ending has 3 vowels and you need to get an a and e. If I was looking for something, thinking of "ious" words made me think of Anxious People, which I've had TBR for a while - borrowed from the library and returned because others wanted it, borrowed again, then it was a Kindle Daily Deal.

Looking at your up next collection on your profile, the first book on the the list has all 5 vowels in the title - Inspector Chen and the Private Kitchen Murder, so does Murder of the Ninth Baronet.

You can also see if anyone's listed a book that you have in a TBR pile (or list!) and/or that appeals to you AT the time!

Helen's Film club: How to Marry a Millionaire.
Well you can skip the first 5 minutes, which is just the orchestra playing the theme.
The idea has some merit, to catch a rich man, you should live in a rich pad. Only they then sell the furniture, so it no longer looks like a rich pad. They also seem to do no background research on the men that pass their way, taking them all at their own word. This could have been somewhat shorter had that elementary step been taken.
Having said that, the dresses are divine and its a lovely thing to look at.

I remember a TV show that was based on the "How to Marry a Millionaire" film. It ran from 1957 to 1959 and was a must-watch show for me. My favorite character was Loco who was played by Barbara Eden who was to return to TV in 1965 in "I Dream of Jeannie". Of course I was barely out of diapers at the time!!!

>142 DeltaQueen50: well I never knew about the series.

Helen's Film club: The African Queen. I must have watched this before, its the kind of Sunday afternoon on BBC2 film of my childhood. But the only bit I felt I remembered was the rain lifting the boat off the mud. It's a thoroughly good film all round really. From the hilarity of the tea party, to the way they spar all the way down the river, to the way they pull together a a double act when things get tough. There are trials and tribulations and just when you think it can't get worse, suddenly redemption comes.
And along side the story, the details all work - how they light Hepburn's (oops) face in different scenes supports the character evolution.
This was a perfectly satisfactory accompaniment to the ironing.

>143 Helenliz: - I still shudder at the leeches! That was one of my mom's favorite movies, and I've seen it several times.

(Psst - Bacall is not in it :) )

>144 katiekrug: yup, that was a less good bit. I must have seen it before, but not to know it. I can see why it would make people's favourites list

(oops)

>140 elkiedee: You have me hooked! I've been noticing the vowels in every title I look at and am constantly surprised. :)

>143 Helenliz: Watching a movie and ironing - great combination. My husband claims it's not fun to watch a movie alone so I'm his viewing companion. I do sudoku while watching, but ironing will be my alternate choice. It might make me forget that I'm doing something I thoroughly dislike.

I love old movies like The African Queen.

>141 Helenliz: Oh, that's a fun one! But yes, you can definitely skip the beginning, haha -- or pop some popcorn, use the restroom, etc., after you've already pressed play!

>146 VivienneR: I always do the ironing while watching something. It started as a teenager, when who ever did the ironing got choice of what was on the TV - and that has power when you've only one TV. I find ironing quite restful and it always feel productive.

>147 christina_reads: I watched it, expecting something to happen. I was sorely disappointed for the first five minutes!

Not having the best of days - someone's complained about me at work. Mitigated by the fact that all my colleagues think I did the right thing. Still rather annoyed and somewhat lacking in motivation, though.

>148 Helenliz: - Sorry about the work situation. Want me to come over and do some Jersey-style intimidation? ;-)

>148 Helenliz: May I hold that very kind offer in my back pocket for now please? I may unleash you later. >;-)

>150 Helenliz: - I'm on stand-by at all times.

>148 Helenliz: I am sorry about your work situation, been there myself in the past. I am sending kind thoughts your way.

>151 katiekrug:, >152 LadyoftheLodge: Thank you both. In the office today, so have the chance to talk to the rest of the team. I'm still quite cross.

Book: 48
Title: A Short History of Coffee
Author: Gordon Kerr
Published: 2021
Rating: ****
Why: looked interesting...
Challenge: New author, non-Fiction, Audio
TIOLI Challenge #16: Read a book whose title contains words all of different lengths

This does what is says on the tin, sets out to provide a history of the drink coffee from earliest times to the current. I liked how it started with a foundation myth, that of the frisky goats and the monk. It really is one of those "who first thought to eat that" moments. The move from the green fruit to the roasted bean based beverage wasn't entirely clear to me, but the evolution (and attempts at banning) what we now call coffee over the centuries was interesting enough. the way the drink then moved across Europe from the 16th Century to the 21st was also tracked. The rise and fall of the coffee house and the different styles of café across the world was also interesting - the seat of revolution and financial dealing makes for an odd juxtaposition. As someone who now can't tolerate the caffeine, there was even a chapter on decaf and the processes that have been used to create this. The final chapter on climate change and the impact on a cup of coffee convinced me that I'm doing the right thing, buying from a small roaster with a close connection to their grower.

Post work update. Have spoken to HR lady. She is going to tackle the other party and get back to me.

Sorry re the work issue Helen. I hope it can be resolved soon.

The history of coffee book sounds good. It sounds like I should be looking extra carefully at where I buy my grounds.

Well that was a nice few days. Been in London, culture vulturing.
Itinerary: Courtauld Gallery (exhibition Art & Artifice). Midsummer Night's Dream at the Globe (caught the sun a smidge), dinner with a friend I used to share a house with, ringing at St Mary Abbots.
Dulwich Picture Gallery (exhibition Berthe Morrisot), walk through Dulwich park to Horniman Museum.
There were quite a few cake stops with tea in a number of varieties, as the mood took me.

My feet are moaning quite a lot about the amount of walking.

I finished a couple of books along the way (not counting the programme to MSND or the Horniman Museum).

Book: 49
Title: Here Comes the Sun
Author: Nicole Dennis-Benn
Published: 20
Rating: ***
Why: SHelterbox book club
Challenge: New author, woman author, Subscriptions
TIOLI Challenge #6. Read a book by an author new to you

This is well crafted, but it is overwhelmingly depressing. Almost the opposite of a positive feminist agenda, we see a family of women who seem to strive to survive by exploitation. That's exploitation of each other and other women. Margot works at a hotel, and has slept her way into a position of some responsibility. She then moves on to act as a madam for the hotel and provides the tourists (white) with a string of local (black) beauties. There is abuse of various forms, homosexuality is frowned upon and those partaking ostracised. You could argue that these women are only trying to survive by any means possible, taking advantage of the situation they find themselves in. It is grim and depressing, but so well written that I never thought once of stopping. Just don't expect any sign of redemption at the end, there isn't any. Good but I would not describe it as enjoyable.

Book: 50
Title: Love and other Thought Experiments
Author: Sophie Ward
Published: 2020
Rating: ***
Why: It was on Between the Covers & looked interesting
Challenge: New author, woman author
TIOLI Challenge #15: ALL or Nothing: Read a book whose title contains all of the vowels (A, E, I, O, U) or none of the vowels

I'm not philosopher. I'm aware of thought experiments, but that's about my limit. Each chapter in this book is prefaced by a different thought experiment and the chapter that follows is sort of related to that experiment. Initially I thought that they were unrelated short stories, but gradually you see that they are related. It's a play with the nature of memory and relationships. It also deals with humanity's relationship with artificial intelligence and where that might take us and our planet. Intriguing, but a bit odd

>157 Helenliz: Glad you had a good time Helen. How could I forget the Horniman museum, glad you found it. I loved the dodo as a child. I like that they kept some of the traditional display cases when they renovated it. And the aquariums.

Sounds like a great - if exhausting - few days!

>158 Caroline_McElwee: The AtoZ found it for me, having had a browse on what was near by. I have to admit that these days the whole stuffed animals thing gives me the heebie jeebies. I did go through the gallery, but not terribly slowly. The fossils & shells upstairs are more to my liking. It's an odd selection, isn't it.

>159 katiekrug: I am quite pleased there's a whole weekend stretching out in front of me & my feet before I need to do very much.

>157 Helenliz: I used to live the other side of the park by the Horniman Museum, so was a frequent visitor. It is a bit of an odd assortment, but I love it! Agree about the stuffed animals, although of course the legendary walrus remains a highlight. I always liked the musical instruments, plus the aquariums the best.

Glad you got the work thing resolve, Helen. Having something like that hanging over one's head is not fun. Your movie reviews have been fun to read and yay for the classics!