Charlotte's garden of reading in 2024 #3

Hi, I'm Charlotte, based in the north of England. I like to read (like all of us here, I'm sure) and enjoy using the categories to try and nudge my reading along a bit out of the usual tracks.

Plants are starting to flower in the garden.


I'm recycling categories from last year:
Familiar Faces
New to me
Prizewinners
Women in translation
Graphic novels / manga
African Writers
History / Memoirs
Reading my own books
Plus books bought / books given away

Familiar Faces
I've got foxglove seedlings I planted a couple of months ago, hoping they will survive to be successful in 2024


1. How to Rule an Empire and Get Away with it (fantasy)
2. Two Masquerades and a Major (romance)
3.The Vaster Wilds (Historical fiction)
4. Double or Nothing (romance)
5. The Bookseller of Inverness (Historical fiction)
6. Normal Rules Don't Apply (short stories)
7. Strictly Business (romance fiction)
8. Strictly Pleasure (ditto)
9. The Wake-Up Call (romcom)
10. Chenneville (Historical fiction)
11. Held (lit fiction)
12. The Fall back plan (romcom)
13. Julia (literary fiction)
14. Dear Roomie
15. Lady Violet Pays a Call
16. Disturbing His Peace
17. Wifedom
18. The Home Child
19. A Side Character's Love Story 17
20. Canadian Boyfriend
21. Mrs Gulliver
22. Bad Blood
23. To swoon and to spar

New to me (authors I've not read before)

I do like it when the first bulbs come up.
1. The Pit (crime fiction)
2. Girlhood (poetry)
3. Persephone in bloom (romance fiction)
4. Devil's Breath (crime fiction)
5. The Invisible Web (crime fiction in translation)
6. Reykjavik (crime fiction in translation)
7. The Lazarus Solution (crime fiction in translation)
8. Wound (autofiction, in translation)
9. The Tattoo Murder Case (crime fiction in translation)
10. Love in the time of serial killers (romcom)
11. The Dead Romantics (romance/ magical realism)
12. River East River West (literary fiction)
13. In Defence of the Act (ditto)
14. Death in the Blood (journalism / politics)
15. Returning to Reims (memoir / theory)
16. Nightbloom (literary fiction)
17. The Blue Beautiful World (speculative fiction)
18. The Maiden (Historical fiction)
19. With Love from Cold World (romance fiction)
20. Soldier Sailor (lit fiction)
21. Brotherless Night (lit fiction)
22. Clinch (crime)

Prizewinners (and nominees)

If I was going to give a prize to anything in my garden, I think it might be this miniature apple tree. If anyone has any unusual apple recipes, I'd love to hear them.

1. The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store (Pretty sure James McBride has a few awards on his shelf!)
2. The Treasure of the Spanish Civil War French original won Boccace Prize
3. Cahokia Jazz Author won the Costa First Novel Award, the RSL Ondaatje Prize and the Desmond Elliot Prize and was shortlisted for the Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction, the Rathbones Folio Prize.
4. River East River West (Women's Prize longlist)
5. In Defence of the Act (Women's Prize longlist)
6. The Years (Nobel)
7. Nightbloom (Women's Prize longlist)
8. The Blue Beautiful World (ditto)
9. Enter Ghost (ditto)
10. The Maiden (ditto)
11. Wifedom (Women's Prize for NF longlist)
12. Soldier Sailor
13. Brotherless Night

Graphic novels / manga
I love the vivid colour of these geranium


1. Hungry Ghost (YA)
2. Monica (horror?)
3. Insomniacs After School 2 (manga, YA)
4. Asadora 6 (manga)
5. Aya: Claws Come Out (GN)
6. Tsubaki Chou: Lonely Planet 6
7. Disaster Dates and Lucky Escapes
8. A Side Character's Love Story 17

African Writers
This kniphofia did not last long in the garden. I think too damp. But maybe this year?


1. So Distant from my Life (Burkina Faso)
2. Season of Migration to the North (Sudan)

To read from my shelves in this category:
The House of Hunger by Dambudzo Marechera
The First Woman
Palace Walk
The Cry of Winnie Mandela
Three Strong Women
Going Down River Road
Beyond The Rice Fields
Season of Crimson Blossoms
Segu
Tales of the Metric System
This Mournable Body
House of Stone

History / Memoirs / Politics
I love these sweet peas. They smell amazing.

1. Still Pictures (essays / memoir / photography)
2. Shakespeare's Book (books about books)
3. Black Spartacus Biography
4. Some People Need Killing Memoir
5. Death in the Blood (Journalism / politics / history of medicine/ memoir)
6. The Years (Memoir / French history)
7. Wifedom (Memoir / feminism / literary history)
8. Diary of an Invasion (Journalism/ politics)

Plus
Women in translation


1. What you are looking for is in the library (fiction, Japanese)
2. The Postcard (autofiction, French)
3. Deep Dark Blue (crime fiction, German - Switzerland)
4. Almond (YA, Korean)
5. Wound (Autofiction, Russian)
6. The Years (Memoir / history, French)
7. I Went to See My Father (fiction, Korean)
8. Un Amor (fiction, Spanish)
9. The Details (fiction, Swedish)

Reading my own books
Plus books bought / books given away

Restarting this category as I've kind of got lost with it over the past few months.


My own books read:
Diary of an Invasion
Books bought:

Books given away:

Books by month read (for an overview so I don't miss adding them to the categories)

April 19 (94)

1. Season of Migration to the North
2. Dear Roomie
3. Lady Violet Pays a Call
4. Clinch
5. Disturbing His Peace
6. The Blue Beautiful World
7. Enter Ghost
8. The Maiden
9. Wifedom
10. With Love from Cold World

11. The Home Child
12. Soldier Sailor
14. A Side Character's Love Story
15. Canadian Boyfriend
16. Mrs Gulliver
17. Bad Blood
18. Brotherless Night
19. To swoon and to spar

Library books read: 6

May 21 (115)
1. Three Little Words
2. Address Unknown
3. Next of Kin
4. I Went to See My Father
5. The Maid
6. Un Amor
7. The Lover of No Fixed Abode
8. In Which Margo Halifax Earns her Shocking Reputation
9.Romancing the Grump
10.Thirty Days of Darkness
11. Diary of an Invasion
12. The Details
13. The Rule Book
14. The Drowned City
15. Less than a Treason
16. Funny Story
17. The Russian Detective
18. A Flat Place
19. Human Rights, Robot Wrongs
20. Lost and Found Sisters

21. Stone yard Devotional

Library books read this month: 6

June 7 (122)
1. The Painter's Daughters
2. In Which Matilda Halifax...
3. Brothers and Ghosts
4. James
5. In Which Winnie Halifax...
6. The Execution of Justice
7. Confrontations

Library books read this month: 4

Favourites so far this year:

Familiar Faces Wifedom
New to me The Dead Romantics
Prizewinners Brotherless Night / Soldier Sailor
Women in translation I Went to See My Father
Graphic novels / manga Aya: claws come out
African Writers Season of Migration to the North
History / Memoirs Some People Need Killing
Reading my own books Enter Ghost

Bookshops from my recent visit to Portugal



From L-R, Top to bottom.
Almedina bookshop, Bookish bag for sale with De Beauvoir quote, Sanzaia bookshop, A copy of 'Art e Feminismo em Portugal no contexto post-revolucao' (sadly not available in translation in the shop!)
Livros Escolaires (I think an academic bookshop, sadly not open each time I passed), below that shelves in one of the more 'commercial' shops I dipped into, the view from the mezzanine floor across the reading room's lighting display in Serralves, an art musem / sculpture park / culture centre, a display of books in Portuguese translation I recognised in a branch of FNAC, a second-hand bookshop display.
A second-hand bookshop interior, plus three more window displays.

Waiting for the women's prize winner announcement (due 13th June).

https://womensprize.com/prizes/womens-prize-for-fiction/

Happy new thread, Charlotte.

Happy new thread Charlotte. Love all the book ideas here!

Happy New Thread, Charlotte. I'm just waiting for my turn with Soldier Sailor.

Happy new thread,

Happy new thread, Charlotte. I'm hoping to get through the shortlist before the announcement. We'll see. I love your flowers.

I just finished Soldier Sailor, Charlotte, and I liked it, but I think Brotherless Night is the best of the bunch so far. I just have to read River East, River West and then I will have completed reading The Women's Prize Shortlist for this year. I haven't created any review for Soldier Sailor so far. Like you , it took me a while to get into it. but about 1/2 through it grabbed me.

Happy new thread, Charlotte!

Happy new thread, Charlotte.

>13 katiekrug: Thanks Katie.

>14 mdoris: Thanks Mary.

>15 RidgewayGirl: Look forward to hearing what you make of it!

>16 lowelibrary: Thanks April.

>17 BLBera: Thanks Beth. I tried to do some gardening this weekend but even just doing a bit of editing the plants that have overgrown others was exhausting.

>18 vancouverdeb: I loved the humour in Soldier Sailor. I'm not sure what else she's written, or if this is a first novel. I should find out.

>19 FAMeulstee: Thanks Anita.

>20 Helenliz: Thanks Helen. Hope you've recovered from the bellringing extravaganza.

Well, the cold flu thing I thought would be cracked by the weekend has not, so I had today off work and slept for most of it.
I thought it might be covid but the test came back negative, so...

>18 vancouverdeb: and >21 charl08: According to LT, Soldier Sailor is Claire Kilroy's 5th novel. I've read All Names Have Been Changed but can't tell you much more about it and I have a copy of Tenderwire.

Happy new thread, and get well soon!

I hope you feel better soon, Charlotte!

>23 elkiedee: Thanks, although that wasn't meant as a hint someone should answer my question! Sorry.

>24 Jackie_K: Thanks Jackie.

>25 katiekrug: Thanks Katie.

I finished Diary of an Invasion the book of Andrey Kurkov's columns (and personal writing) from the point of Russia 's invasion of Ukraine. It has suited my not-very-with-it brain over the past week as it is organised by date and each section is short. At points it clearly is partisan and at others limited by word counts into generalisation (and the limits of information in wartime). But he's mostly sceptical or even gently mocking about his own government (President Zelensky in post-war James Bond films). It felt the strongest when he is talking about the impact of conflict on himself, his close family and friends. The daily grind of decision-making about safety and then living in exile.

On February 24, we were awakened at 5.00 a.m. by the sounds of explosions. They will forever remain in my memory. We walked around the historical centre of Kyiv, near to where we live, to find the nearest bomb shelters. They are also old, almost ancient - Soviet-made, built in case of war with N.A.T.O. Before this, we had not thought about leaving Kyiv. We could not imagine that Russia would bomb the Ukrainian capital. But it had already happened. I do not think we were naive. Our shock at the actions of our eastern neighbour is evidence of modern people's unpreparedness for horrors that have no place in contemporary life. I admit I should have known better. My own compatriots, those living in the eastern areas of the country, have been experiencing attacks like these for eight years. I even wrote about it in Grey Bees. But still I was unprepared. And now here we are, refugees in the foothills of the Ukrainian Carpathians.

Feel better soon, Charlotte.

I've just added Diary of an Invasion to my wishlist.

Happy new thread, Charlotte, and I hope you feel better soon!

Thanks Beth, Jackie and Birgit. I just can't seem to throw off this bug, it's driving me up the wall. No energy, headache, brain fog, breathlessness, coughing fits, sore throat, sinus pain, fever. Just grim.
Although clearly in comparison to >27 charl08: even conplaining about such a common thing feels ridiculous.

In between naps finished The Details, one of the Booker international shortlist for this year. Some lovely writing but a bit too much young-person-angst for my taste. It did feel very Swedish, I could have done with some cardomon buns whilst reading. The (fictional) narrator describes her own life through four people close to her, her first girlfriend Johanna, unpredictable Nikki, stage dancer Alejandro and finally her own mother, Birgitte. This comes in at 158 pages (including the translator's note) so one of those books that feels like you can finish it without too much commitment! There's lots of discussion of books here, from first reads to those covers that take you back years and years later to a certain time and place.

Literature was our favourite game. Johanna and I introduced each other to authors and themes, to eras and regions and singular works, to older books and contemporary books and books of different genres.

We had similar tastes but opinions divergent enough to make our discussions interesting. There were certain things we didn't agree on (Oates, Bukowski), others that left us both unmoved (Gordimer, fantasy), and some we both loved (Klas Östergren, Eyvind Johnson's Krilon trilogy, Lessing). I could tell how she felt about a book based on how fast she worked her way through it. If she was reading fast (Kundera, all crime fiction), I knew she was bored and rushing to be done, and if she was going too slow (The Tin Drum, all sci-fi), she was equally bored bur had to struggle to reach the last page. She thought it was her duty to finish a book she'd started...

Sorry you are still suffering Charlotte. I had a cough and throat infection for 4 weeks. Apparently must lurgies are taking longer to shrug off these days.

Take care of yourself, Charlotte. A lingering illness is no fun and it's far too easy to think that it's time to get things done and over-extend oneself. Take the time to heal.

Dang. I hope you feel better soon. Happy new thread!!!

Happy New Thread, Charlotte!

>31 charl08: My husband and I have been feeling like that on and off for weeks, and many people at our school have the same thing. Sometimes only half of the students are there, something that usually only happens in the winter months. Many of our colleagues have it, too. I don't know what it is with this bug/infection!

I hope you are soon feeling much better, Charlotte.

Thanks Caroline, Kay, Kim, Mirjam and Deborah. I just about started feeling human again so went out into the garden to try and make a start on making things tidy. I overdid it and my back went again. So now I'm coughing with an added "ouch"! But I'm back in the office and feel like I can at least string a sentence together, which is a step forward.

I finished a book The Drowned City, a historical crime novel set in Bristol during the reign of James 1st. A young man is freed from prison in London on condition he goes and investigates a supposed catholic plot. There's been a catastrophic tidal wave at the port and the city is reeling.
Lots of atmosphere (cockfights! Anti-catholic riot! Whorehouse! Den of thieves!) but at 400 pages plus I thought I would have appreciated it even more with 50 less.

(But this is my standard complaint...)

Ouch indeed Charlotte. Hopefully full recovery from both things soon.

>37 charl08: Putting this on my watch list. Sounds interesting, but I also have a continual problem with books that are slightly too long!

>38 Caroline_McElwee: Think I'm getting better, but probably will have to be a bit more careful in the garden for a while yet.

>39 Tess_W: I do enjoy these immersive historical novels, but with only so much reading time I do sometimes wonder about the role of the editor (but maybe the original was even longer!)

I read Emily Henry's new one Funny Story last night. I think I should just hit autobuy for all her books in future.

Sometimes at night, from the other room, he texts me live updates as he listens to the audiobook of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, things like i want to live w the beavers and wat is turkish delight and edmund needs 2 chill.

Glad you're feeling more human. There's been a lot of coughs going around this year, some really hard to shift. And yes, coughing with a sore back is just double the misery. Hope you feel properly back on form soon.

I'm glad you're feeling better. Take it a little easy!

>40 charl08: Oh, I love the passage you quoted!!! Adding this book to my wish list!

And I'm glad to hear that you are a bit better.

>41 Helenliz: Thanks Helen. Unsurprisingly there has been a lot going round at work too. I'm glad I had the vaccinations last winter.

>42 BLBera: Thanks Beth.

>43 MissBrangwen: I think Narnia is peak childhood book nostalgia for me. It fits: Henry's books feel so warm generally. Thank you for the good wishes.

The Russian Detective
I loved this, a beautiful graphic novel inspired by 19th century Russian crime novels (many of them now lost). Charlotte "Charlie" Fox is removed from her crime beat for a big city paper and sent to cover a big society ball. Instead of covering fancy frocks, she finds herself at the centre of a murder enquiry when an heiress is murdered.

>44 charl08: Looks lovely, Charlotte. Russian, 19th century, prefect and the drawing suits very well.

I do hope you got some better by now. Coughing and backpain are a bad combination :-(

>40 charl08: Oh I like that quote. Emily Henry's Book Lovers is my favorite of what I've read so far, but I'm hoping to get to Funny Story this summer.

>45 FAMeulstee: A really nice one, and with a helpful reminder of her back catalogue listed at the back of the book, so I need to go hunting for the rest of her books. I'm walking to work again, so nearly there back-wise.

>46 bell7: I was impatient and got the kindle version. Although now I'm wondering about a paperback copy for the shelves, as I suspect I'll probably reread at some point. But really no space for this at all!

>44 charl08: This one looks fun! I love the dog!

Hi Charlotte! I've finally found you. I hope you're well on the road to recovery by now.

>40 charl08: I intend reading more Emily Henry books, too; thanks for (another) reminder.

>44 charl08: 'Daily Balalaika' - obviously a serious newspaper :0)

There seems to be more illness going around these days. I never used to get sick after travelling but it happens more often now since we had that time when we stayed away from travel and each other. Hope you are feeling better soon, Charlotte.

>48 BLBera: Yes, it was quirky and entertaining. Recommended.

>49 humouress: Hi Nina, thanks for visiting. I'd missed the Balalaika reference. Now I can't get the music from the Third man out of my head (which is odd, as that's the zither...).

>50 Familyhistorian: It was properly unpleasant, hoping it's a one off for me (and that your future travel is also clear).

I finished two books, both of which have been floating around for some time.

A Flat Place is one I picked up due to the women's prize non-fiction list. It is both a memoir and an exploration of British flat landscapes, from Norfolk to Orkney. Masud weaves in her own experience of growing up in Pakistan with an abusive, controlling father. She describes the way that the flat landscapes speak to her emotional state, often struggling to connect with others due to complex PTSD from her childhood. The book made me want to visit the flat places she describes, with the exception of the Lancashire walk across a bay. That one I don't want to do, as the thought of it rather freaks me out (you're only allowed to walk the route with official guides, as it's so easy to get stuck in unstable sand.)

And this was only Nuns Moor. If you kept going, the moor did too. I'd lived in Newcastle for a year already: the moor started minutes from my front door, and there was so much of it, lying unexplored. That was fine with me. Nuns Moor would do me for now, and perhaps always. I liked going to the same places, again and again.

I walked round the edge of the moor, and then diagonally back across the middle, returning to my starting point. Night was beginning to fall. Starlings gathered there, clustering in the trees and shrieking to each other, breaking free of the land as I approached and scattering themselves across the sky. That rhythm of moving and bursting felt like a compact between me and the birds and the sky. It felt like a sign that the landscape was coming into itself flinging itself upwards, into shapes without meaning.

Human Rights, Robot Wrongs
This was pretty terrifying. The author discusses the way AI is currently used and breaks down the implications of this for human society. From the problems of training models on dodgy internet data to the people in developing countries being paid a pittance to watch horrendous content so that it can be accurately tagged. The amount of water used to run tech to the way chatbots have been linked to crime with vulnerable people. I had no idea that chatbots played a role in crime (eg this story:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-67012224 ). Just arghhhhhh.....

>52 charl08: Sounds like the Alegre book is something we should all read Charlotte. Adding to my list.

>53 Caroline_McElwee: I would recommend it, despite the fact that it made me worried / angry. It's really clearly written, and has a straightforward argument: we need to think about AI as a tool that needs to be carefully managed to make life better for humans rather than getting blinded by the possibilities of technology. I really liked her focus on human rights as a way of evaluating the implications of AI.

Found this stat mind-boggling:

In its latest environmental report, Microsoft revealed that it had used 6.4 billion litres of water in 2022, up from 4.2 billion in 2020. By 2023, the average European is expected to use 3 litres of water through their computing use every 24 hours: more than they drink.

I am now reading Stone Yard Devotional: about half way through and think this might be my book of the year.

>52 charl08: I've got A Flat Place and really hope I can get to it soon. I've heard so many good things about it.

>54 charl08: That stat is mind boggling Charlotte, and although I did know about the tech water link, I suspect many don't.

At the end of a collection of essays by Stephen Hawking published posthumously, one of the things he said we needed to do most urgently was regulate the development of AI so it couldn't become the enemy of humankind.

>56 Jackie_K: I'd love to know what you think, I've not seen so many reviews here.

>57 Caroline_McElwee: After posting it I started to wonder how much water we use in other areas too (washing, toilets etc). More reading required I think.

Gift access to the NYT best books of the hear (so far) list https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/24/books/best-books-2024-so-far.html?unlocked_ar...

>58 charl08: Stacey Dooley did a documentary about water in the making of denim. It was eye opening. It's years since I wore it and not much, but I'd have given it up after seeing that programme (unfortunately it is no longer on IPlayer).

>59 Caroline_McElwee: Thanks Caroline. I do wear denim, sounds like I need to pay more attention.

Lost & Found Sisters
I keep thinking I must have read all of Jill Shalvis' contemporary romance, and then get a nice surprise in finding one I missed. This one focusses on a move to a small town prompted by the discovery of a new relative.

Stone Yard Devotional
I loved this novel. Reminded me of Rachel Cusk. An environmental campaigner who's lost her belief in the cause heads to an isolated retreat in a nunnery, located near where she grew up in rural Australia. Initially hit by the strangeness of the community, she gives up her job and joins them.

The apparent isolation of the community provides space in the book for the narrator to reflect on her grief for her parents, particularly her mother, a kind of campaigner herself. The visit of another nun, who went to the same school, prompts further reflection on childhood (and the community's) choices and silences. Alongside this, the community is hit by a (biblical?) plague of mice, described in great detail. Their initial squeamishness about killing the animals turns into an acceptance of the daily death toll as ordinary.
For me, one of those books that leaves more questions than answers - but by no means meant as a criticism.

Thanks to those who reviewed this - I wouldn't have picked it up otherwise!

Simone saw me at the tall glass-fronted 'library' in the sitting room, looked at the book in my hand and snorted. 'You know there are good books in those shelves, don't you?' I did know. Dorothy Lee, Edith Stein, Joan Chittister, Simone Weil, Ariel Burger. Arendt, Nussbaum, Hitchens, Robinson, Merton. But Simone had caught me engrossed in Stories of the Saints. A children's book, I suppose - or, if not, a book compiled by or for a simpleton. The stories are fantastical, infantile.

St Brigid, for instance. When she was a baby, according to the book, she vomited up the food an old druid gave her because he was impure. A red cow with white ears turned up instead, and fed her. Why did I choose Brigid as my confirmation saint? I don't think I knew about the vomiting or the cow; I was under the impression she just helped the poor. Learned too late that my classmates had chosen their saints based on how the name sounded with theirs. (Heather Hibberd chose St Jessica, one of those who found Jesus' empty tomb, which even then seemed to me an outrageous cheat.)

This reminded me of a book I had as a child, full of equally violent stories about saints.

>54 charl08: >59 Caroline_McElwee: As I sit here playing on my computer in my jeans with a glass of water. : O

I've heard a lot of good things about Stone Yard Devotional , so maybe I will get to it one day. I still have River East, River West to read, and I have 3 holds coming in from the library, which is a lot for a slow reader like me.

>61 Berly: Yup, and me.

>62 vancouverdeb: I really liked it - the librarian asked me who it was like and I could not remember her name at the time, but it has come back to me (!) - Rachel Cusk.

I did a bit of reading over the weekend, interrupted by experiments with new window cleaner gadget (mixed results) and my new addiction to NYT's Spelling Bee. (I can't cope with losing my Queen Bee status, which I realise is ridiculous, especially since I need most of the clue help to get to this).

Anyhow. I read

The Painter's Daughters
A fictionalised look at the life of Gainsborough's children, one of whom had some kind of mental illness (they're not sure what). Howes imagines in a key detail and creates a fascinating story. Interesting to read in the light of the struggles of women to become painters - those that did often had a supportive dad. Gainsborough is not enough of a support, here.

In Which Matilda Halifax... Second of series, which fills in some of the blanks from her sister's stories. Middle to high steam rating, I've seen Vasti's books recommended for readers of Tessa Dare and that works for me.

Brothers and Ghosts
Picked this up in Waterstones Manchester, thought I was the only person reading it on here. Should have realised that (of course) the original text readers on LT got there first. Translated from German, Pham's vaguely autobiographical look at a Vietnamese-German family that is reunited with the US branch on the death of the grandmother. Told between a contemporary narrator and the older, Vietnamese migrants, the story suffered, I thought, from a quite annoying modern narrator (Kim). In meeting up with the US branch of the family, it becomes clear that there was a major fall-out over politics. It's not that clear that there might not be another one, as their host is a Trump supporter.
Whilst the book was interesting, I did think it suffered in comparison to Viet Thanh Nguyen, for example.

James
I loved this, a reimagining of Huckleberry Finn from Jim's perspective. I want to go and read all Everett's back catalogue now.

"Heating and cooling it like that will harden the steel," Easter said.
"Metaphor," I said.
"That's nearly all we have," Easter said.
I reached into my pocket and pulled out the pencil, showed it to Easter.
"Well, I'll be damned," he said.
"Young George stole it for me," I said.
"You can write." It was not a question or an accusation, more a discovery, perhaps a call to duty.
"I can write," I said.
"Then you had best write."
"I will," I said.

>64 charl08: Even if you were not completely convinced by it, I am taking a BB for Brothers and Ghosts since it is German. I hadn't heard about it before.

>64 charl08: - I am a devotee of the Spelling Bee, too, Charlotte, so I understand :)

>58 charl08: Oooh, thank you for sharing! I... have not read any the books listed. Ah well, I've only read 6 books so far that were published this year, so I guess it's not that surprising.

I'm glad that James is such a good read so far. I do want to read that at some point.

>65 MissBrangwen: I think I could have been kinder, it's an ok read. It wasn't helped by the blurb on my paperback copy, which made it out to be amazing. I was going to offer to send my copy before realising that's not much good!

>66 katiekrug: Thanks Katie. I appreciate the understanding.

>67 bell7: I have finished James, I just couldn't think of anything useful to say about it! I hope it finds lots of readers.

>64 charl08: I'm reading James now and it has been a long time since I have been so immediately captured by a book.

>64 charl08: I am very eager to get to this.
>65 MissBrangwen: Same here.

>69 RidgewayGirl: I suspect I would be a lot more captured by James than I was by The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn!

>69 RidgewayGirl: I don't want to unpick it, I think partly because it just absorbed me and I don't want to think about how it was done!

>70 MissWatson: I'd be really interested to hear what you make of Brothers and Ghosts, I always wonder with translations about the differences between the original.

>71 Jackie_K: Hope you like it as much as I did Jackie. I want my own copy!

>71 Jackie_K: I loved The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn as a child. We'd go on vacations requiring long car trips as a child and my parents would hand me the biggest books they could find.

>73 RidgewayGirl: I suspect I just read a bowdlerised / condensed version of HF, as this seems to have been the case with most 'classics' I think I read as a kid. I should add it to my list but realisticalyl I'm not sure when I'd be picking it up.

The Execution of Justice (ed to give the right title)
I liked the Inspector Barlach centred book by the same author, but found this one a slog. The unreliable narrator at the centre of the first two thirds of the book is unpleasant, circular and (self-described) drunk at the time of writing. The sentences are long and verge into both melancholia and existential debate.

A mystery is introduced that isn't really a mystery (a man is shot in front of many witnesses) and then is unravelled as if many witnesses don't matter at all.

In the final third this is all unpicked by the author as narrator, but for me this didn't redeem the first two thirds of disappointment (I should have just reread the book I did like!).

I believed that playing along was nothing more than a harmless technical matter, with no consequences. I imagined the game would be played in an empty room, solely in the mind of a blasphemous man. His game had begun with a murder. Why did I not realize at that point that it would inevitably lead to a second murder, to a murder that would have to be committed not by the Dr.h.c. but by us, the representatives of the system of justice with which the old man was playing?

Confrontations
Translated from the Dutch original.

The narrator is living in a young offenders ' institution (at least, this is what I'd call it in the UK) in the Netherlands after a violent attack on two men. As the story progresses Salomé's reasons for the "attack" become increasingly clear. The institution doesn't come out well, shown as dealing poorly with the young women's emotional mood swings, incapable of keeping the young women safe and at best well intentioned. Salomé's compulsory sessions with a counsellor are painful, shw is forced to speak to a man who is unable to acknowledge his own limitations. However Salomé is all too aware of them given that he participated in a realiry tv "living experiment" in Africa.
Salomé is a reader and on her first time outside the institution she goes to visit a library.

We enter the library and it's quiet, in that lovely way I remem- ber from the past, when Miriam and I went on Saturdays with Mum, and eventually on my own. First the reading desks and magazine racks, then the rows and rows of books. Children's books, thrillers, archaeology, translated books, English. I don't even know which titles I want to pick up. I see a few copies of Little Crumb, the children's book about the abandoned boy who has to earn his keep in the streets before he's allowed back home again. In the poetry section a thin volume stands by itself on the shelf, its cover facing me. Vasalis. I think Mum has something by Vasalis. I pick it up and leaf through the poems. Savanna leans against one of the bookcases and observes me, as if I'm an actor and she my audience. I move on and look at the covers with empty cots, silhouettes in the street, dancing people, paintings, enormous screaming letters or very ornate ones, photos of landscapes, birds, lambs. I stop at a book with a bunch of cows and a cloudy sky as its cover. The Twin, it says.

A woman goes over to the desk to the right of Savanna and me and whispers a question to the man sitting there. He answers in full voice.

'That's in Philosophy, at the back.' He points. My fingers glide along the covers.