Kerry (avatiakh) continues to read in 2021

Rangiriri Pa - site of 1863 battle in the Waikato Wars (note the figure holding a musket on the right). I passed by this historic site today when returning home to Auckland.
Welcome to my 2021 thread, I've been been a member of this group since 2009. I usually read well past 75 books and my reading includes a wide spread of fiction, translated childrens books, scifi, fantasy. These past few years I've tried to increase my reading of Australian and New Zealand fiction.

Currently reading:

Romance of the Three Kingdoms by Guanzong Luo - year long group read - 32/120 chapters read
The Once and Future King by T.H. White - audio - (book 1 complete)
Clarice Lispector: The Complete Stories - year long shared read - 11 stories done

My 2021 category challenge thread is here: https://www.librarything.com/topic/325810

My 2021 categories:
1: Books into film
2: Historical fiction
3: Scifi & Fantasy
4: Z to A children's book challenge
5: For the Young
6: Challenges
7: Crime
8: Off my shelves
9: Israel Focus
10: Short stories & novellas
11: Non fiction
12: New, Shiny & Unexpected
13: Extras
14: Bingo

I have several books I started in 2020 but haven't yet finished for various reasons -

The Siege of Krishnapur by J. G. Farrell
The gendarme by Mark Mustian
The story of the last thought by Edgar Hilsenrath
The song dog by James McClure
The Toymakers by Robert Dinsdale

I also have 4 ANZAC challenge books left to read -
The Secret Chord by Geraldine Brooks
Professor Penguin : discovery and adventure with penguins by Lloyd Spencer Davis - stalled
Living in the Maniototo by Janet Frame (1979)
The Second Bridegroom by Rodney Hall

___
Group reads that I'm joining in with:

Voss by Patrick White - February
Romance of the Three Kingdoms (3 vols) by Luo Guanzhong - year long
The Complete Stories: Clarice Lispector - year long
The Children's Book by A.S. Byatt - April-June

According to GoodReads I read 55,277 pages in 2020 from 189 books (includes several children's picturebooks which I don't count here).
My shortest read was Lumberjanes #1 (26 pgs) and longest read was Jerusalem (1266 pgs) by Alan Moore.

The most popular book I read was American Dirt by Jeanine Cummins (544,220 shelved it), least popular was History of the Early Days of Poverty Bay: Major Ropata Wahawaha, N.Z.C., M.L.C.: The Story of His Life and Times by Thomas William Rose Porter - noone else shelved this one.

My personal 2020 reading highlights -
Jerusalem by Alan Moore
Monster by Naoki Urasawa - all 9 omnibus volumes of manga
Bernice Rubens - fcompleted reading all her books
The Murderbot Diaries series
Deadly Education by Naomi Novik
Anthony McGowan's The Truth of Things quartet of children's books

January Plans -

Romance of the Three Kingdoms - make a start
Crazy Rich Asians - want to read this so I can watch the film
Starsight by Brandon Sanderson - second book in Skyward series - can't wait
The story of the last thought by Edgar Hilsenrath - must must get this read, i've had it out from the library 4 times
The song dog by James McClure - Sth African crime
and lots of random library books

Jan/Feb book pool challenge -
Those who are loved by Victoria Hislop
Loner by Georgina Young
All this by chance by Vincent O'Sullivan

Best wishes for a better 2021!

Welcome back, Kerry.

Happy New Year Kerry!

Hi Kerry! Here's to a 2021 where I can keep up with everyone.

“Let us think the unthinkable, let us do the undoable, let us prepare to grapple with the ineffable itself, and see if we may not eff it after all.”
— Douglas Adams, Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency, 1987

Welcome back!

Happy reading in 2021, Kerry!

My birthday is in a few days and each year I can have a little splurge with a gift card and this time my mother treated me to a couple of books as well when we were out.
Gift card - I had a tough time choosing books, the Whitcoulls gift card was only valid for online purchases and most of what I wanted came up on the website as 'in store' purchase only. The selection was really bad to begin with, at least I managed to order during the Boxing Day sale so got a discount.

V2 by Robert Harris
The Survivors by Jane Harper
All our shimmering skies by Trent Dalton
still to arrive:
The Starless Sea by Erin Morgentstern
Aegean: Recipes from the Mountains to the Sea by Marianna Leivaditaki

my mum :
The dictionary of lost words by Pip Williams
Jacob's Ladder by Ludmila Ulitskaya
I talked her into getting Savages by Shirley Conran for herself.

Graphic Novel shop:
Cats of the Louvre by Taiyo Matsumoto

Used books:
The mountain by Luca D'Andrea
The sound of breaking glass by Kirsten Warner
The travels of Maudie Tipstaff by Margaret Forster

Book Depository:
Promise me you'll shoot yourself: the downfall of ordinary Germans in 1945 by Florian Huber

Looking forward to getting to some of these as soon as I can.

And keep up with my friends here, Kerry. Have a great 2021.

Happy new year!

Have a great year in books!

Happy 2021!

Happy new year Kerry! Murderbot and A Deadly Education were among my favourite reads of 2020 too.

Dropping off my and wishing you the best of new years in 2021!

Happy New Year, Kerry. I'm curious; did you have a favorite Bernice Rubens? I've only read one, and I loved it. I keep meaning to pick up others by her.

Happy new year, Kerry! Also seconding the love for Murderbot and A Deadly Education, which was my second-to-last book read in 2020 and sneaked its way onto my top books of the year list.

Happy Birthday, Kerry! Hope you are having a great one!

>13 avatiakh: Such a glorious haul! I'm delighted for you.

And a happy birthday as well.

>13 avatiakh: Great stack! Happy new year. Look forward to discovering more books from your thread in 2021.

And many happy returns.

>1 avatiakh: Hi Kerry. That is a lovely picture even if it commemorates a bad occasion.

Loved your reading plans. I think I might join one of those group reads: Romance of the Three Kingdoms.

Have a good reading year!

Greetings to early visitors to my thread - Diana, Paul, Rhian, Jim, Richard, Anita - includes The Netherlands, USA, Malaysia and UK, so very international.
Greetings to - Susan, Lori, Kim, Roni, Beth, Natalie, Charlotte and Els

Thanks for the birthday greetings too - It was a lovely summery day.

>25 EllaTim: There've been quite a few takers for the Three Kingdoms read.

1) Troubled Blood by Robert Galbraith (2020)
crime

Cormoran Strike #1. This chunkster took a few days to get through but I loved every minute I spent on it. I'm a fangirl of Robin & Strike and I loved the complexity of this. Strike is asked to solve a 40 year old cold case by the now grown daughter of the missing doctor. Her disappearance occurred around the time a notorious serial killer was active in the area.

I'm doing a shared year long read of Clarice Lispector's collected stories. A story a week - I listened to the introduction and the first story, 'Triumph', a few days ago when driving to Te Aroha.

I should finish The Song Dog today or tomorrow. It's a crime novel set in rural Natal. I found it on a list of African crime novels, bit annoyed after I started it to find it is the final book of 8 in a series.
Also Loner by Georgina Young, a YA that won The Text Prize in 2019. Surprisingly the protagonist is 20 years old not a teen.

2) The Song Dog by James McClure (1991)
crime
Kramer & Zondi #8. My first book in this series which I found on a recommended African crime list and only realised it was the last of 8 in a series after I had read a few chapters. Anyway this was an interesting read set in 1962, the apartheid years, with a few mentions of Mandela as a wanted man on the run. Lieutenant Tromp Kramer of the Trekkersburg Murder and Robbery Squad is sent to northern Zululand to investigate the death of a police officer.
I'll definitely be looking out for the rest of the series.

3) Loner by Georgina Young (2020)
YA
This won The Text Prize in 2019, which is an award for a YA or children's manuscript. I try to read all the award winners as they are published. I found this story of a university dropout and social pariah to be quite realistic. Lona is just trying to work out what she should be doing with her life, along the way she works at the local supermarket stacking trolleys, helps out at a skating rink, binge watches Buffy and Stanger Things. Not romantic or sensational, just a quiet book about sorting out what's important.

Read for the Jan/Feb Bookpool challenge over in the Book Loving Kiwis group on GR.

I've finished The Sword in the Stone, the first part of The Once and Future King. I'll take a break and read the second part in February or March.

Two used books arrived today:
The Journey by Ida Fink
The UnAmericans: stories by Molly Antopol

Happy New Thread, Kerry. Happy New Year. I hope to see you around more in 2021. I loved The Once and Future King, especially the first part.

4) Crazy Rich Asians by Kevin Kwan (2013)
fiction
I want to watch the film so of course the book needs to be read first. I enjoyed it for what it was, a very light beach read.
Rachel and her boyfriend Nick head off to Singapore for the wedding of his best friend. Nick has never told her about his family and on arrival Rachel is plunged into the world of the super rich.

Utu by Caryl Férey (2004 French) (2011 Eng)
crime
DNF
I was interested to read this, a French look at New Zealand, however I found the author was maybe trying too hard, finding a divide that isn't in our society and dividing New Zealanders into just white people and downtrodden Maori. His Auckland was missing the Pasifika and Asian people. He also made errors, describing a Maori teenager going off to board at a kohunga reo to learn Maori. Kohunga reo are immersion pre-schools, he possibly meant a kura kaupapa though even that is for younger children.
Anyway the book was so divisive and full of imagined nonsense about New Zealand society that I couldn't continue after about 50 pages.

A Maori serial killer is dead, his victims were all white. His helper is still on the loose and several policemen died in a confrontation. Paul Osborne is called back into the force to help track down the cop killer.

Another DNF was Block 11 by Piero degli Antoni. I didn't feel comfortable with that type of story set in Auschwitz. I read about 60 pages.
'an audacious, high-concept noir set in Auschwitz that straddles past and present'

5) The Big Killing by Robert Wilson (1997)
crime
Bruce Medway #2. Apparently I read this at the beginning of 2014, though I had no recall at all while reading the book and have always assumed that I had only read book #1, which I remember details from.
Medway is a fixer and troubleshooter based in Benin but operates along the coast, this adventure is mainly set in Ivory Coast.
I enjoyed this though it is quite violent and makes me never ever want to travel to these countries.

6) This light between us: A Novel of World War II by Andrew Fukuda (2019)
YA
About two penpals, one a Japanese-American boy from Bainbridge Island, the other a Jewish girl living in Paris. Their correspondence begins in 1935, so by the time the war rolls round they are very much concerned for each other.
The book is from Alex's POV, his father is taken to a prison camp while Alex, his mother and older brother end up in an internment camp for Japanese-Americans, Manzanar War Relocation Camp. The book covers the conditions they live under and then later Alex's experiences as a soldier in the segregated all-Japanese American 442nd Regiment.
Fukuda says in the author's note that the book was inspired by two independent historical facts that he learned a few days apart - 1) Anne Frank had an American penpal and 2) a subcamp of Dachau concentration camp was liberated 29 April 1945 by a segregated all-Japanese American military unit.
https://www.cyark.org/projects/manzanar-war-relocation-center/in-depth
https://www.100thbattalion.org/history/japanese-american-units/442nd-regimental-...

>37 avatiakh: I requested that book from the publisher and just realized I never heard back from them.

Clearly I wanted it badly, eh what? Have a happy weekend, Kerry!

>37 avatiakh: That does look fascinating, Kerry. I will keep an eye out for it.

Have a lovely weekend.

>38 richardderus: >39 PaulCranswick: It's definitely for the teen audience, but the historical setting is fairly unique.

Now enjoying Three by Israeli author D.A. Mishani and making a start on Romance of the Three Kingdoms.

7) Three by D.A. Mishani (2018 Hebrew) (2020 Eng)
crime
I flew through this one. The story of three women, pursued by the same murderer. Mishani's books are always a treat.

_
8) The Way of the Househusband, vol. 1 by Kousuke Oono (2018 Japanese) (2019 Eng)
9) The Way of the Househusband, vol. 2 by Kousuke Oono (2018 Japanese) (2020 Eng)
manga
Fun read about a fearsome Yakuza, the Immortal Dragon, who has given up his gangster ways to become a househusband to Miku, his cute wife who works as a designer. Going from beating up rival gangs to instagraming his cooking, life is very different and brings new challenges...such as laundry, cleaning and supermarket shopping.

>42 avatiakh: Welp, that sounds amazing. Adding it to the list!

>43 scaifea: My daughter got the first 4 volumes from the library and I picked them up as she is still making her way through some volumes of Delicious in Dungeon. There's an anime series based on the manga due this year on Netflix.

>33 avatiakh: So I watched the film, Crazy Rich Asians, last week to follow up on the book, an extremely mediocre/ghastly experience.

>42 avatiakh: I reckon Kyran and Belle will love these.

>46 PaulCranswick: Hi Paul. They are fun and very quick reads.

_
10) The Way of the Househusband, vol. 3 by Kousuke Oono (2018 Japanese) (2020 Eng)
11) The Way of the Househusband, vol. 4 by Kousuke Oono (2018 Japanese) (2020 Eng)
manga
Continues these amusing vignettes. There's a 5th book due later this year.

12) Blood is Dirt by Robert Wilson (1997)
crime
Bruce Medway #3. Enjoying this series and here Medway investigates the murder of an English ex-pat for his daughter, a London-based commodities broker. Set mostly in Lagos and Medway's homebase, Cotonou in Benin.

13) The Wool-Pack by Cynthia Harnett (1951)
childrens
This won the 1951 Carnegie Medal. Set in 15th century England, young Nicholas is the son of a prosperous wool merchant. He uncovers a plot that could ruin his father, putting him at the mercy of the powerful Wool Guild.
Exciting and also informative. The Wool Guild was based in Calais and strictly controlled the export of English wool to the European market.

>50 avatiakh: I’ve meant to read that one for such a long time.

>51 SandDune: Me too! I was also looking at the list of Carnegie Medal winners and thought I might try reading more of them. I have read over 30, a few earlier ones are unavailable and some are part of series. Anyway I own quite a few so should make a point of reading them.

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

Hi, Kerry.

I can recommend Salt to the Sea, the 2017 winner that you own but haven't read. I thought it was a really good one.

I'm glad you had such a good time with Troubled Blood. Me, too. It looks like we're soon going to get the TV adaptation of Lethal White in the USA. I liked the ones that came before.

You've been doing lots of intriguing reading! You caught my interest in particular with Loner and The Way of the House Husband (what a premise for the latter).

Hi Joe - I'm surprised that I haven't read Salt to the Sea as yet, I liked her earlier book.
I've just received the dvd of the earlier Strike tv episodes.

Loner is a good YA, in fact I suggest you check out The Text Prize winners as most of them are really good reads. I especially loved How to Be Happy: A Memoir of Love, Sex and Teenage Confusion.

The way of the househusband is amusing, well worth looking out. My next manga/graphic novel will be Cats of the Louvre.

>50 avatiakh: I haven't read that book, but should look out for it. I tried to read as many Carnegie medal winners as possible.

The wool trade was so important in the past that the speaker's chair in the House of Lords is still called "the wool sack".

Such an interesting choice of books... leaving a late star here...

>55 sirfurboy: That's interesting. The book is really quite a gem and I learnt quite a bit about the guild and the politics surrounding it. One of many children's books that I've collected over the years.
Now I've just finished another Carnegie winner, Wolf by Gillian Cross which my library has put an horror sticker on.

>56 PersephonesLibrary: Welcome to my thread. I try to read a wide range of books.

14) Wolf by Gillian Cross (1990)
YA
Carnegie Medal (1990). I liked the sound of this one and wasn't disappointed. I've read several of her books over the years and always enjoyed them. This one is quite suspenseful and could be considered a Red Riding Hood retelling.
Cassy doesn't know anything much about her father but has been raised by her Nan, his mother. Suddenly once again, she's sent to stay with her mother, who she finds living in a squat with her new partner and his son. They put on theatrical shows at schools and their new play will be about wolves.

According to wikipedia The Cry of the Wolf by Melvin Burgess was runner up the same year! I loved loved this book.

>59 avatiakh: It sounds intriguing, though my long-standing aversion to books about teens is crackling a warning....

>60 richardderus: I wouldn't recommend it to you Richard, there are much more suitable reads out there for you. I suggest The Borribles, lovely subversive YA reading from the 1970s.

>61 avatiakh: My daughter read that! I'd forgotten about it...the pointy-ears thing sticks in my mind as a reason why, though it can't possibly be the only reason.

>62 richardderus: The Borribles are womble-like but much darker. I loved reading this trilogy.

>52 avatiakh: I have thought about reading all the Carnegie medals too, but not quite got around to it yet. I can put in a good word for The Wind on the Moon by Eric Linklater. I always remembered being read that book at school when I was about 7 or 8, and I was so glad when I tracked it down to read to Jacob. Quite weird though.

Hi Kerry your review of Wolf by Gillian Cross is excellent. I've added it to the tbr pile.

>64 SandDune: I think I got that Linklater from a classic children's books series a couple of years ago. Where I put it is another matter altogether, but I'll read it or one by Penelope Lively for my ZtoA children's writers challenge that I'm doing.

>65 Whisper1: It's quite interesting, living in a London squat was quite the 1970s thing to do.

>52 avatiakh: I have only read three of the winners and must hang my head in shame. I do have a decent number on the shelves though and will try to improve that number this year.

I answered in the affirmative on your TIOLI query by the way. xx

>67 PaulCranswick: I read all of these as an adult apart from The Last Battle and Watership Down.
Thanks for that on Robert Wilson, I've only one of his left to read. I wish he'd write more but with his website down not sure what is happening.

15) Alexander Altmann A10567 by Suzy Zail (2014)
YA
A Holocaust story based on the experiences of Fred Steiner, who Zail met at the Sydney Holocaust Museum where he is a volunteer.
On arrival at Auschwitz Alex is quickly told to lie about his age, instead of 14 he says he's 16 and so enters the camp rather than sharing the fate of his younger sister. His is a rural farming background and after surviving for some time the opportunity to work in the stables comes up for those with experience with horses. The work is hard, punishment severe, the Nazi officers are unrelenting in their harshness towards the men in the Horse Commando. Alex gets a double duty, both looking after the pony, Chestnut, and also the Commander's stallion. Chestnut gives pony rides to the officers' children every day.
This was a good read and was my first for my ZtoA children's writers challenge.

16) Everything everything by Nicola Yoon (2015)
YA
A fairly light read about a 'bubble' girl. Maddy has lived her whole life in the protection of the bubble. She's just turned 18 and new neighbours have moved in. She gets to know Olly, the boy next door, through the window and then online messaging. Soon he looms larger in her life than anyone else.
Does she take the plunge and live life to the full for a short while or play safe and live a long unfulfilled one.
Another for my ZtoA challenge

>68 avatiakh: In addition to the three I have read:

Watership Down
The Last Battle &
The Borrowers.

I also have:
Salt to the Sea
The Owl Service
Junk
Postcards from No Man's Land
A Monster Calls
A Gathering Light
The Golden Compass and
The Ghost of Thomas Kempe

on the shelves and will try to prioritise reading these.

You are in for some good reads with those on your shelves.

15 of the Carnegie winners, more in the older half than the newer.

>71 PaulCranswick: I added Junk to my read list this week, Kerry so I am well on the way to catching you up!

A belated hello. I always love catching up on your thread--your reading is so eclectic.

>13 avatiakh: I'm curious how you ended up choosing Ludmila Ulitskaya's book, Jacob's Ladder. Have you read other books by her? I read, and thoroughly enjoyed, Daniel Stein, Interpreter.

>69 avatiakh: Horse Commandos? Off to google this new-to-me tidbit... First stop down that rabbit hole was an article on the Polish blacksmith who has sent to Auschwitz for burning an effigy of Hitler. He forged the sign "Arbeit macht frei." His act of resistance? The B in Arbeit is placed in upside down. Huh. Never noticed, but now I'll never be able to see the sign without thinking of it. (https://hoofcare.blogspot.com/2017/01/blacksmith-of-auschwitz-horse-hoof-smoke.html)

>74 PaulCranswick: Hi Paul, I saw your comments on Junk. I liked it more than you, maybe you should try his Nicholas Dane.

>75 labfs39: Hi Lisa - Welcome to my thread. I love having a visit from you. Do you have a thread this year?
I have a copy of Daniel Stein, Interpreter still to be read. I think I saw a copy of Jacob's Ladder at a central city bookshop, took a photo of the cover, and then checked if my library had it. So I recognised it when out with my mother some weeks later and she immediately said she'd buy it for my birthday.

I also hadn't come across a Horse Commando before, the story is watered down for the YA audience but she discusses the source in the acknowledgements.
I love that story about the Polish blacksmith, thanks for drawing it to my attention.

Just back from a long weekend in Wellington. my daughter and I drove down, (about 8 hours) last Thursday and came home yesterday, Tuesday.
I visited 1 or 3 or so used bookshops and so must reveal the titles of books that were acquired.
Our first visit was to Beth's Books in Feilding, she specialises in vintage children's books. We got there about 10 mins before closing, she doesn't keep normal hours.
The Devil's Children by Peter Dickinson
Heartsease by Peter Dickinson
Deerfold by Sheena Porter
Mandeville by Geoffrey Trease
Follow my Black Plume by Geoffrey Trease
The writing on the hearth by Cynthia Harnett
(I possibly already have the two Dickinsons)

The next morning we couldn't walk past Arty Bees on our way to visit New Zealand Archives for family history research.
Gwenda Turner's Christchurch: an enchanted journey through the garden city by Gwenda Turner - I have all her picture books.
The Road to Miklagard by Henry Treece
The Queen's Brooch by Henry Treece
2x manga for daughter - kare kano

After the Archives we walked over for a visit to the Katherine Mansfield house - her childhood home.
Dana bought Art of Mana from a graphic novel shop.
In the afternoon I walked from our Guest Lodge to Newtown where I'd discovered two interesting bookshops the last time I'd been in Wellington. I had great hopes for Bookhaven's nonfiction, but this trip I was disappointed with the selection. I picked up a few strays -
The Complete Borrowers by Mary Norton (6in1)
Crystal Rooms by Melvyn Bragg
- a few doors down was the smaller but excellent The Book Hound -
Stir-frying to the Sky's Edge by Grace Young - cookbook
The Frozen Waterfall by Gaye Hicyilmaz
Sepharad by Antonio Munoz Molina

The next day I drove to Lower Hutt to visit a couple of cemeteries and finally got to Des Schollum's House of Books - in past trips I'm usually going past on the days he's not open. Another great place to browse -

Outcast by Rosemary Sutcliff
The Catch-pole Story by Catherine Storr
King of the tinkers by Patricia Lynch
The Dark Sailor of Youghal by Patricia Lynch
The History Man by Malcolm Bradbury

In the afternoon I wandered into one of my favourite shops, Pegasus Books and gathered more -
The dagger and the bird by Margaret Greaves
The Moon in the Clouds by Rosemary Harris - Carnegie Medal 1968
The Voyage of QV66 by Penelope Lively
Collected stories for children by Walter de la Mare - Carnegie Medal 1947
The Enchanted Island" stories from Shakespeare by Ian Serraillier
Pussyfooting by Jillian Squire, illustrated Lynley Dodd

The Golovlovs by M. Saltykov-Shchedrin
The seizure of power by Czeslaw Milosz
The Issa Valley by Czeslaw Milosz

also The Ferret Bookshop
Josh by Ivan Southall - Carnegie Medal 1971
Across the barricades by Joan Lingard (#2, I've read the first book in this quartet about the Troubles)
The Romance of a Shop by Amy Levy

Sunday morning and Dana wanted to go to Minerva, a bookshop/craft/puzzle shop I'd come across. We bought some little arty bits n pieces and I found Dick Bruna, from a series, The Illustrators.
Then back to Pegasus Books to pick up a manga I'd seen the day before -
Phoenix vol.2 by Osamu Tezuka (each volume is a self contained story).
in the bargain bin was -
Country Girls by Edna O'Brien
and Dana found a collectable hardback copy of Morte D'Arthur by Thomas Mallory, so she was thrilled. She went back to the Nintendo tournament that she was at the day before.
On Monday was quite leisurely with no bookshop visits.

That was Wellington. On the drive home we spotted a used bookshop - Ministry of Books in Shannon, but by then we were keen to keep driving.

So about 23 children's books, 8 fiction and a couple of non-fiction.

Des Schollums House of Books

Well, I'd add more photos but LT is making them all upside down so it's a struggle.

I read this article yesterday during one of our pitstops: Second-hand bookstores defeat Covid
https://www.newsroom.co.nz/second-hand-bookstores-defeat-covid?

Hi, Kerry! I did stop by on January 11th in case you missed me. I have not completely abandoned you. Grins...You bookstore adventures & acquisitions sound wonderful.

>77 avatiakh: What a haul! Sounds like an excellent trip.

I'm kicking myself -- my fiance and I visited New Zealand, including Wellington, in early 2019, and I didn't even think to stop at the Katherine Mansfield house. She is one of my favorite authors and I wrote both of my final papers in college on her work, but I just didn't even think about it while we were planning our trip. And unfortunately I don't think we'll make it back to New Zealand anytime soon!

>78 avatiakh: Oh my heck! I've seen Paradise!

Good weekend to come, Kerry. Much good reading.

I'm so jealous of all the bookshops, especially used, that you visited. There are none in my area, nor were there in Florida. I sorely miss Third Place Books in Seattle. The good old days when I had the luxury of having favorites.

>77 avatiakh: Czeslaw Milosz is a wonderful and versatile author. I've read nonfiction (History of Polish Literature), an autobiographical novel (Issa Valley), poetry, and essays. All enjoyable. Have you read his works before? I loved the lyricism of Issa Valley, as well as the complexity of the geography of that part of the world. Is it Lithuania? Part of the Russian Empire? Poland? Yes...

>77 avatiakh: I really want to book shop with you, Kerry. The wonderful meandering to nine different book shops and one of those twice. Dreamland! Henry Treece and Ian Serraillier were fixtures in my own childhood reading.

Your book shop tour sounds wonderful. Just to browse through any book store is not possible for us at the moment. You must have had a really nice trip!

>78 avatiakh: Looks wonderful!

>73 ronincats: Hi Roni. I missed replying to you before. 15 of the Carnegie winners is a good score. Any memorable reads from those?
I just finished Elfrida Vipont's The Lark in the Morn and am now reading The Lark on the Wing which is the 1950 winner. Lovely reading, there's four books about the family.

>32 msf59: >80 msf59: Hi Mark. My bad, I seemed to have missed your earlier post. I enjoyed that first part, The Sword in the Stone. The next book is quite different in tone so I decided to take a break and make it a year long project rather than rushing through.

I'm going to load up some more pictures. I forgot that I also went to The Ferret Bookshop and that helps with the allocation of some of the books which didn't feel right when I was putting together my bookshop post last night.

What a great book haul, Kerry!

You've already read most of my favorites: The Little White Horse, Skellig, The Owl Service, The Graveyard Book although to appreciate the last you need to have read Kipling's Mowgli stories.

Of what you haven't read, I like Sutcliff and Farjeon, and The Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents.

I just reread my grandmother's copy of The Little Grey Men that I now own, and was underwhelmed.

The Ferret Bookshop in Cuba St, Wellington, taken just before they opened. We liked the skull and crossbones on their doors.

Pegasus Books - tucked into a side corner on Cuba St, I found Country Girls on one of these trolleys.

Pegasus Bookshop fiction room - I was sitting in the corner sorting through my finds.

Bulls is a small town about 2.5 hours or so north of Wellington, makes the most of its name as you can see from the signpost. We had a coffee stop at The Mothered Goose Cafe. Their blueberry muffin was indeed 'delect-a-bull'.

_
Minerva is a dedicated textile bookshop and gallery and offers the widest and most diverse selection of textile and handcraft books in the country, located in Cuba Street, Wellington.

...and we had a few great meals and coffee
_
1) Expressoholic cafe breakfast, Dana is constantly drawing comic strips on her mobile. She said the cake was pretty good. Cuba St.
2) Pani puri - 4 bite sized sensations from Mr Go, a South East Asian Hawkers Restaurant. Taranaki St, just along from Cuba St.
_
Gypsy Kitchen cafe - Sat morning breakfast. They have an extra room round the corner, looks like a converted garage.

From the archives I got to see:

An 1887 letter to the NZ Police enquiring into the character of twice-widowed Mrs L Disher who ran a lodging house in central Christchurch. She'd taken her young daughter back to England and left her there in 1879 with her late husband's sister for education. Now it was time to return the girl, the aunt had reason to suspect Mrs Disher's lifestyle. My family tie is with Mrs Disher's second husband, but this was very informative relating to her circumstances during the years after his death. Mrs Disher had 2 children to each of her husbands. The answer from the police was that Mrs Disher led a very respectable life, yet the daughter stayed in England, and the son also went back to England and became a doctor.
The person writing on behalf of the aunt was a brother-in-law of the late first husband. I read his obituary later on and he had established banks in the South Island during the years of the goldrush - he'd been held up and robbed twice of thousands of pounds and much gold dust. Quite an adventure story, at time of writing he was in the upper ranks of the Tax Dept in Wellington.
This letter inspired me to keep investigating and I found that Lucy (Evans) MacGregor/Disher did not come out to New Zealand alone, she came with a sister in 1863 and a year later her older brother, his family and her youngest sister also arrived.


My great great grandfather's acquittal papers for bankruptcy in 1879. He had run into trouble (once again!) by having a general store in the middle of nowhere in the Wairarapa. A town was meant to be established there but in spite of sticking it out for a number of years in this remote spot, it never came to be and he never really recovered from this.

Thank you for the wonderful photos, Kerry. Pegasus Books looks like just my sort of place. Does it sell new and second hand books or just new or just second hand. I guess some of the buys there must have been used ones?

>92 avatiakh: That is fascinating. Having had my own difficulties with money these last few years, I can appreciate what that acquittal must have meant to him.

>93 PaulCranswick: Paul - the only new bookshop I went to was Minerva Books which stocks mainly craft/cooking/art books. They had lots of jigsaws and craft supplies also.
Pegasus is stuffed to the gills with old books, lots of non-fiction. I've been up those ladders to check out books.

On a sidenote our National Library had the audacity last year to cull thousands of books, many rare or very old. They donated them to a local bookfair in Wellington. There was a petition and everything against it.
Headline: 'I literally weep': anguish as New Zealand's National Library culls 600,000 books
'Academics, historians, researchers and scholars feel a literary crime is taking place during the distraction of the global pandemic'
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/sep/11/i-literally-weep-anguish-as-new-ze...

>94 PaulCranswick: Yes, lots of ups and downs for many of the colonists. Interesting to note that one of the richest families in New Zealand (they now live in Australia) are descended from him. His orphaned daughter married a baker, Mr Goodman of Motueka. His business under son and grandsons evolved into food giant Goodman Fielder and the grandsons or great grandsons turned to property founding Goodman Property which is also a global business.
None of this business acumen seems to have rubbed off on the rest of the family so it must have been a Goodman thing and our side perhaps supplied the good looks and charm.

>81 curioussquared: I'd been many times to Wellington before I visited. I took my daughter as she'd studied Mansfield in a NZ Literature paper, and had had to do a piece of creative writing on one of her short stories. Two of the other homes she lived in are no longer there. The American Embassy is on the site of one of them.

>82 richardderus: Hi Richard - yes, it was in a quiet corner of greater Wellington and run by a very dapper gentleman. I enjoyed my visit muchly. There were several framed literary memorablia around the shop too.
'Des Schollum, the owner of The House of Books in Lower Hutt boasts one of the country's largest collections of private letters and is a leading expert on signature forgery.'

>83 labfs39: Hi Lisa. Sorry that you don't have any used bookshops worth visiting in you area. Auckland has two really good ones though parking is terrible for The Hard to Find Bookshop since they moved. I visit another good one when I visit my mother in Hamilton, Browsers.
In Wellington, it's quite heaven, most of these places are on or near Cuba St, an area that is slowly being gentrified, so soon the rents will be too difficult I presume.
Thanks for your thoughts on Czeslaw Milosz. I haven't read any of his work as yet. I have a copy of The Captive Mind which I left in my son's room hoping he'd read it. Anyway I really liked the cover art on the two books I got, both Abacus Books editions.

>84 PaulCranswick: Hi Paul. This was quite the indulgent weekend. I don't get to visit so many bookshops when travelling with my husband who is not a reader. This trip I had a lot of free time as Dana was attending a gaming tournament. My son flew down with a friend and was at the tournament too, though I never saw him as he stayed with a friend. He's the top NZ player in some Nintendo games and the gaming community seems to be a bunch of lovely supportive people.

>85 EllaTim: I just love going into these cluttered places. It's also lovely to see teenagers choosing books and parents taking children to browse.
I look for vintage children's books or translated fiction. I don't spend much time in the nonfiction areas as I have enough to read on most topics I'm interested in.
The article I posted in #73 was saying how used bookshops are now thriving in the time of Covid as people are drawn back to reading books. Here in New Zealand new books are very pricey. The article quoted many booksellers and I had been to most of their shops. Unfortunately my favourite Auckland used bookshop, Jasons, said that they still weren't thriving as in Auckland the foot traffic in the central city is still not back to pre-Covid times. Wellington is very compact and in the area of Cuba St there is a lot going on and easy to walk to everything, though several buildings are condemned or closed for strengthening since the earthquake in 2016.

>87 ronincats: Thanks Roni. I have read Farjeon's autobiography, A Nursery in the Nineties which was very interesting and always mean to pick up The Little Bookroom. I have lots of books by Sutcliff and finally read one last year. I probably read some when I was young but don't recall.

I have a hardback of The Little Grey Men and when I was doing that list of Carnegie Winners, I looked up who B.B. was. Quite an interesting bio, Denys James Watkins-Pitchford, a naturalist, yet how the publisher let him choose B.B. as his pen name?
wikipedia: 'He wrote under the nom de plume of '"BB"', a name based on the size of lead shot he used to shoot geese, but he maintained the use of his real name as that of the illustrator in all his books.'

One last little purchase from Minerva - I couldn't go past this craft idea as I have so many old slides. The 'Canine Holiday slides' were $2 NZ each and so cute.

>95 avatiakh: My God, a culling of 600,000 books?! That is almost fascist in its disregard for culture.

Quite the family history. I know some of the group are professionally adept at genealogy but I am a fascinated amateur.

I could so live in Wellington looking at those book stores!

17) The Way Back by Gavriel Savit (2020)
fantasy
I finished this last week and it's hard to recall my feelings towards the book. The plot is steeped in Eastern European folklore and Hasidic Jewish traditions. The two main characters, a boy and a girl, both close to adulthood, take on demons and Death without realising the consequences of their gamble.
A pretty good read though I had to rush it as it was due back to the library. Probably is a YA.

18) Amos Fortune, Free Man by Elizabeth Yates (1950)
children

A Newbery Award winner that tells the true story of Amos Fortune. I read this for my Z to A children's book challenge. This was an enjoyable read, though I didn't realise it was based on a true story till near the end. The story begins in Africa, tells of Amos's time as a slave and then his life after slavery.
What makes it interesting is it isn't the expected story, his owners are decent people and he is treated well. He lives his life by the example of the people he has lived with.

19) The Lark in the morn by Elfrida Vipont (1948)
YA
Haverard Family #1. Delightful story about Kit Haverard and her Quaker family. This book is about her school days and discovering her singing talent.

20) The Lark on the Wing by Elfrida Vipont (1950)
YA
Haverard Family #2. 18 yr old Kit continues to study singing while working at a Quaker institution, Friends International Service, in London. This is another great story. The final two books in the quartet are not about Kit, they jump a few years ahead and feature her niece, Laura.
This was the Carnegie Medal winner in 1950.

I was reading Vipont's impressive bio on wikipedia and saw that she also wrote the well-loved children's picture book, The elephant and the bad baby which was illustrated by Raymond Briggs. I hadn't picked up on that before.

Those are lovely pictures, Kerry! I get in the mood right away to browse in those bookshops. Though I have to admit that picture >78 avatiakh: gives me a little bit anxiety because of the books piled up on the other books. Happy weekend!

>105 PersephonesLibrary: Yes, I don't think it would pass a health & safety inspection. The shelves were deep and it all seemed quite stable. I was careful not to trip over any of the stacks of books on the floor.

Hello Kerry! Happy Belated New Year. I hope all is well with you. Your bookstore travels and purchases look fascinating.

It's that time again. Is Evan Smoak on your pending agenda? I have started the audio of Prodigal Son and it off to a good start.

>107 brodiew2: Hi Brodie and welcome to my thread.
Oh dear, I haven't kept up with Evan Smoak so will be bottom of the library queue. Just added it on at the library and I'm #123, at least there are 49 copies in circulation so shouldn't be too long.

This morning was beautifully sunny and hot. Among other errands I went to Jason's Books in the city centre and used some of the credit I have there.
Dark as the grave wherein my friend is laid by Malcolm Lowry - love this title
Honeybee by Craig Silvey - had this from the library but failed to read on time
Son of Two Worlds by Haydn Middleton - Celtic myth with beautiful illustrations, I'd seen it on my last visit and had looked it up
Old Christchurch by Johannes Anderson - excellent reference for my family history research, lots of illustrations and old photographs too
The Jews in the Roman World by Michael Grant - area of interest


We also visited The Hard to Find Bookshop, another used bookshop in the centre though in a less central position. They almost closed down and the Catholic Church came to the rescue offering to rehouse them in one of their historic buildings about three years ago.

The Fly Trap by Frederik Sjöberg - memoir
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/jun/14/fredrik-sjoberg-hoverflies-the-fly...

Miss Silver's Past by Josef Skvorecky

Pure Pleasure: a guide to the 20th century' most enjoyable books by John Carey - looking forward to dipping into this, I read his memoir, The Unexpected Professor: An Oxford Life in Books , a couple of years ago.

The Bodley Head Monographs: Lewis Carroll, E.Nesbit and Howard Pyle by Roger Lancelyn Green, Anthea Bell & Elizabeth Nesbitt.

and I collect these small Montana Estates essay series, the publisher was writer Lloyd Jones:
On Kissing by Kate Camp &
When Famous People Come to Town by Damien Wilkins

>109 avatiakh: Oh, The Fly Trap! I so enjoyed that lovely little oddball. I hope you will as well.

Me, my daughter and the bookseller all thought it looked good.

>109 avatiakh: Oh, my! The Guardian review of The Fly Trap has me completely sold. Not only does the author sound delightful, but the snippets are wry, witty, and interesting. Off to see if I can purchase a copy.

My daughter went through an entomology phase when she was ten or twelve. She collected, pinned, and labeled insects from Washington State, where we lived, and Florida, where her grandmother lived. I often discovered jars of odd looking insects meeting their maker in the freezer. I was lucky enough to find her a mentor, Rob Sandelin, co-author of Field Guide to the Cascades and Olympics. She was very passionate and very cute with her life bug lists and Latin names.

Miss Silver's Past is an interesting one. I'll be curious to see what you think.

Pure Pleasure sounds just that. I wonder if I can get it from my library.

>109 avatiakh: What attractive book shops, Kerry.

Your acquisitionary skills this year are putting me to shame.

With all those great bookshops I'd probably need another suitcase just to bring the treasures home.

>92 avatiakh: Love those documents!

>112 labfs39: Skvorecky also wrote a series about a Prague detective which I want to read. They had the last book in the series there. After reading about Skvorecky I'm keen to read his work.
I'm discarding the Miss Silver's Past book as when I flicked through the pages just now I noticed an insect had eaten in some pages, so don't want this to crossover to any of my other books. I've never seen this before in any secondhand books from a shop. I'll be contacting the bookseller.

I'm looking forward to The Fly Trap. The graphic novel The Osamu Tezuka Story: A Life in Manga and Anime covers his schooldays when he also collected insects and became quite an expert on them.

>113 PaulCranswick: Hi Paul - I'm fairly done with acquiring books right now. I've used most of my credit at Jasons and have more than enough already at home. Rest of year needs to be devoted to reading them.

>114 PersephonesLibrary: Almost, amazing how much you can stuff into a tote bag.

>116 avatiakh: If I had a dollar for every time I have said the same thing, Kerry, I would be a lord of leisure!

21) The Last Kashmiri Rose by Barbara Cleverly (2001)
crime
Joe Sandilands #1. This is set in 1922 India and Sandilands is about to head back to London, he's been lecturing on Metropolitan Police techniques in Calcutta. He's headhunted to look into a murder of an officer's wife in one of the many battalions stationed there. It turns out that there could be a serial killer out there.
I enjoyed it but not enough to continue the series.

>118 PaulCranswick: My main downfall is all the library books. It's free to request books from across all the Auckland libraries so I always have books waiting for me to collect from my local branch.

I love the bookshop pictures, Kerry, and the cafe food looks amazing. I've started a post lockdown holiday fund (like a lot of people, I'm sure), lovely to think of the days when this sort of thing is possible again here too.

>121 charl08: That sounds like a good idea Charlotte. I don't usually post so extensively on my book shopping but with so many of you in extended lock downs of various kinds I thought it would be therapeutic.

We go into a three day level three lockdown at midnight tonight. The Covid family were on holiday down country but just us Aucklanders again getting the level 3 treatment. Everyone else in NZ will be level 2 which is much easier to live with.

>116 avatiakh: Yuck, insects. I haven't read any of Skvorecky's other works, although I own The Miracle Game.

>122 avatiakh: Please do post about your book buying excursions. I get to shop vicariously, and I love the photos of the bookshops.

>123 labfs39: Yeah, I emailed the bookseller, I was worried about their stock getting contaminated if the creatures were still active in other books from the same source.

What I don't like about shouting out about my book purchases is that afterwards I never get round to reading most of them for ages...years in fact with a lot of them. Yet when I see the books on my shelves or where-ever, I'm still really keen to read each individual one. I need a few extra hours in my day.

22) The Nowhere Child by Christian White (2018)
crime
Quite the compelling read. I read his more recent novel The Wife and the Widow last year and have had this one on kindle for a long while. I've always been drawn to the cover for no reason. There is a nightmarish scene near the conclusion that the plot needed but I could have done without.
Kim is living a normal life in Melbourne, Australia when a complete stranger comes up and tells her that her whole life has been a lie, they're 99% sure she's the 2 year old girl who went missing 30-odd years ago in Kentucky, USA.
The story unfolds in alternating 'Then' and 'Now' chapters, very well paced. Definitely reading his next book when it comes out.

>124 avatiakh: Whether it's books we've read, books we are reading, or ones we want to read, it's all good in my mind.

Owning books is my vice. I don't drink or smoke, but I'm addicted to used bookshops. Could be worse

>126 labfs39: We have the same vice, Lisa!

I do enjoy an occasional single malt but I don't really drink much, don't smoke and don't gamble - books and the unexplainable acquisition thereof I am guilty of.

I'm impressed by your recent haul of secondhand children's books.

>128 elkiedee: Thanks Lucy. I need to start reading the darn things, for every one I read I bring home another 10 or so.

23) Falling freely, as in a dream by Leif G. W. Persson (2007)
crime
Fall of the Welfare State #3. Last of the trilogy and each book has been quite sensational. These are big reads with lots of police procedural detail and with investigations into other police offices, coldcase investigations sparked by current crimes etc etc.
This time it's 2007 and Johansson is nearing retirement. He puts together a team of talented and trusted investigators to take a final look through the thousands of files collected in the unsolved 1987 murder of Swedish PM, Olof Palme. Slowly, slowly they build a picture of what happened and why this case was so bungled by the investigators at the time.

I listened to the audio of this and loved the narration by Erik Davies.

24) Disappeared by Francisco X Stork (2017)
YA
Read for my ZtoA YA challenge, there being an 'x' in the author's name. My second book by Stork and highly enjoyable reading set in northern Mexico. Sara's best friend has disappeared and it seems that she's been kidnapped by one of the cartels. The book moves at a fast pace, with chapters alternating between Sara and her younger brother, Emiliano.
There's a sequel, Illegal.

>130 avatiakh: Yeah I agree, Kerry, that those books are so often unfairly overlooked when great Scandi is mentioned.

>132 PaulCranswick: I'm looking forward to trying more of his work now that I'm done with this trilogy. Probably not this year, I have too many ongoing series that I need to tidy up.

_
25) The story of the last thought by Edgar Hilsenrath (1990 Eng)
historical fiction
This novel is about the 1915 Armenian Genocide and is the first I've read about how it came about. We learn about the Armenian way of life living under Turkish dominance and rule and with the need to keep good relations with the nearby warlike Kurds.
It's a great story, though I've taken months to read this mainly because it is a story about genocide so one knows that it is not going to have a happy ending.
wikipedia: 'The epic which has the form of a fairy tale (Märchen) and for which Hilsenrath received many prizes is regarded as the most important book about this historical episode. In 2006 the president of Armenia presented the author with the State Award for Literature of the Republic of Armenia for his work.'

My library copy is the boring black cover Barber Press edition but I see that the original cover was more colourful.

>134 avatiakh: That's a big old book bullet for me. I've wanted to learn more about the Armenian genocide. To date I've only read two novels, Skylark Farm and The Gendarme. I purchased a nonfiction book, Operation Nemesis : The Assassination Plot That Avenged the Armenian Genocide, but it's about the aftermath. My thingaversary is coming up, and I hope I can find a copy of this as one of my purchases.

>135 labfs39: I started The Gendarme but put it aside to read this one...and months later I will go back and finish it. There are copies out there, I think on abebooks there are a few in the UK, but postage....:(

26) The Sicilian Method by Andrea Camilleri (2020)
crime
Montalbano #26. The next in series is due out in March and the very last Montalbano comes out in September. This was a bittersweet read, everything about the crime was unusual and Montalbano becomes infatuated with a woman. That long distance relationship with Livia has lasted through so many books, ups and downs.

>136 avatiakh: The Gendarme was a five star read for me. Did you put it down because you didn't find it compelling?

I was only a couple of chapters into the book and I over committed on my reading plans. I shall pick it up again.

>137 avatiakh: Obviously one of the remaining issues to be resolved in the series is that relationship. I hope it continues but I am dreading having no more to read.

27) This is how we change the ending by Vikki Wakefield (2019)
YA
I've read a couple of Wakefield's books before and this is probably my least favourite, just didn't grab me. Wakefield's characters are usually 'hard done by' teens, usually living in hardship of some kind. This one is about a 16 year old who knows he's living in a cycle of family violence and yet despairs of ever breaking out.
I do wonder what the appeal is to teenagers for these types of reads.

>141 avatiakh: I do wonder what the appeal is to teenagers for these types of reads.

In Strongest Librarian in the World, the author talks about the teens who come into the library and how a great many of them want to read about child abuse. He mentions Dave Pelzer's A Child Called It as one book in high demand.

>141 avatiakh: I am not a psychologist. But I can imagine it has to do with dealing with struggles as a teenager. You start questioning your parents and try to find your own way. Maybe this needs some kind of hard cut?

>143 PersephonesLibrary: Yeah, I've just read too many of these and feel jaded, whereas teens only read YA for 4 or 5 years before moving on.

28) We couldn't leave Dinah by Mary Treadgold (1941)
children's
UKs Carnegie Medal Winner 1941. Delightful story about two children left behind on a Channel Island when the Nazis invade. They camp out in a cave as their home is immediately requisitioned for one of the German officers and his family. Dinah is the pony that Caroline has to leave in their stables.
There is a sequel about their life in London, The Polly Harris.

29) The Queens Gambit by Walter Trevis (1983)
fiction
Read for my Books to Film category challenge. Really enjoyed this easy read though it doesn't entice me to play chess or want to watch the Netflix series straightaway. Orphan Beth Harmon shows a natural talent for the game of chess when she's taught to play by the orphanage's janitor.

>146 avatiakh: I am glad you enjoyed the book, Kerry. I watch the Netflix Mini series in enjoyed it very much.

>146 avatiakh: Haha, I just finished this one day before yesterday, but haven't posted a review yet. The good news is I watched the Netflix series first, before knowing it was a book, and my biggest takeaway from reading the book was that the series is one of the most faithful adaptations I have ever seen. I could only identify maybe three very minor differences; otherwise, the plot, pacing, and even most of the dialogue is EXACTLY the same. They did a very good job with the series, and the costume and set design are gorgeous, so it's really pretty to look at. But maybe a good thing that you don't want to watch the series right away since they're so similar :)

>147 brodiew2: >148 curioussquared: All three of my sons have watched the series and all got madly into playing chess because of it. Thanks for your comments, I'm starting to warm to the idea of watching it especially if it doesn't deviate from the book. One of them laughed about how Bennie is depicted on film with his trenchcoat.

30) The Real Boy by Anne Ursu
children
Read for my ZtoA children's writers challenge. A magical story that gets better as it goes along. Oscar is the hand, a position below Wolf, the apprentice, and Caleb the magician. His job is to gather the herbs and prepare them ready for the making of potions etc.

Hello Kerry, delurking to leave a Happy Equinox greeting.

Hi Richard. I'm a lurker on most threads too.

31) The Blackbird Girls by Anne Blankman (2020)
childrens

Really enjoyed this one. Have liked all Blankman's books so far. This is about two schoolgirls, both their fathers work at Chernobyl and they wake one morning to red skies and blue smoke, their fathers haven't come home from work. One girl is Jewish and the other has bullied her at school because her father has taught her not to trust Jews. Due to the radiation fallout they end up travelling together to Leningrad to stay with the Jewish girl's grandmother.
The book is based on the experiences of Blankman's best friend and her family.

32) Isabella: the warrior queen by Kristin Downey (2014)
biography

This was quite fascinating. Downey spends several chapters laying the background to Isabella's reign. She also gives an insight into palace politics and diplomacy of the times. I felt it was a good introduction text into Spanish history.

>153 avatiakh: Blackbird Girls sounds like a book I would like, but I'm feeling overloaded with TBRs at the moment, what with my thingaversary books (including When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit, a BB from you). I'm also not reading many YA books these days now that my daughter is 17. I always enjoy your reviews though.

>155 labfs39: I understand, I'm fairly picky with what YA and childrens books I read. Blankman's book was good and I enjoyed her other books. I think I came across her latest on the Jewish Book Council's website. Not sure if I gave you the BB for Judith Kerr as I read her books aeons ago.

>156 avatiakh: Perhaps not, although Pink Rabbit been on my wishlist for six years!

Ha, now I'm feeling old! My oldest is 38 and I read it around the time she did back in the early 1990s.

Just had my attention drawn to a booklet that I now want to read Refugees 1960 by Kaye Webb & illustrated by her husband Ronald Searle. They travelled in Europe in the late 1940s to various camps.

What? The 90s was only a blink ago. ;-) I checked my tags, and it was actually Rebeki's review which caught my attention. Sorry to misattribute the recommendation!

Romance of the Three Kingdoms vol. 1 by Luo Guanzhong; Moss Roberts (translator)
classic
1st of 4 volumes done and dusted, and I'm on track so far to finish this by the end of the year. This first volume introduces the characters, the many, many characters who all play a part in the end time of the Han dynasty starting at about 169 AD.
I've enjoyed most of it, my poor brain has grasped the main story threads and let other lesser ones fall away. Like Game of Thrones, it's best not to get too attached to anyone as most end up dead before their time.
I'll start the next volume in April.

33) A darkening stain by Robert Wilson (1998)
crime
Bruce Medway #4. Last in the Bruce Medway series set in West Africa. Fairly brutal one, with an ending I'm happy with. The plot revolves around finding and saving a small group of young girls who've been kidnapped in Medway's local city of Cotonou, Benin, and about to be sold to a prostitution ring.

>160 avatiakh: Congrats! To be honest I haven't even started with the year-long group read... I am kind of dillydalling around it... But your review makes me shed my a few worries to not be able to read it.

>162 PersephonesLibrary: I decided to read and not worry about keeping track of all the characters, then a few start to shine through. Each chapter is fairly short and I generally try for two a day until I meet that month's quota.

34) Moon over Manifest by Claire Vanderpool (2010)
children
Finally picked this one up because of my ZtoA children's writers challenge. Highly enjoyable read that goes along two timelines (1917/8 & 1936) uncovering the hidden stories of the little mining town of Manifest, Kansas. Most of the 1917 population is made up of immigrants from a wide variety of British and European countries.
1936: Abilene Tucker is sent by her father to the small town of Manifest to spend the summer with Shady, the stand-in minister for the Baptist church. What ties does her father have to this small town, for that she must find out what happened in 1918.

35) The Snow Song by Sally Gardner (2020)
fantasy

Lovely, lovely story by Gardner. Set in an isolated village, the womenfolk are all locked into traditional roles by the deep superstitions that have become the rules enforced by the Elders, all men.
When Edith falls in love with the young handsome shepherd, a stranger to the village, her love raises the ire of the domineering older butcher who desires nothing but to wed her.

>165 avatiakh: Beautiful cover art

36) A hole in the sky by Peter F. Hamilton (2021)
scifi
Arkship trilogy #1. This was released only on audible, so no print copies as yet. Quite a good story told in first perspective by teenager, Hazel. Parts are predictable but Hamilton has great worldbuilding and the arkship sounds really impressive. Looking forward to the next book.
Hazel is on an arkship that is over 500 years into a voyage from a failed colonisation of an alien planet towards another uninhabited one. Since the mutiny, around 500 years earlier where a group fought to return and destroyed all the machines etc, rules have been established and the population on board live tech-less lives out in the arkship's parklands, having abandoned the hightech towers that were inhabited centuries ago. All persons face cycling (euthanasia) once they reach the age of 50 years in an attempt to keep the population and food supply in balance. Hazel is the flower girl on the day that some cheaters (old people living in hiding) are found, who must be cycled but one whispers to her that the air supply is dwindling, that there is a leak.

>166 labfs39: I love everything about this book including the cover.

>164 avatiakh: Oooh, that's one of my all-time favorite Newbery winners! I'm so glad you liked it, too.

>168 avatiakh: Sigh. I'll shoot an email off to the town librarian to ask for another ILL. The library here in Maine is very small, and it's been closed, so I have just started being able to use it. The collection is limited, so I've made a number of ILL requests in the past few weeks. I have to contact her directly each time, then she emails me that she's done it, and again when it comes in. I'm worried she's going to get sick of me already. If she does, I'll blame you and all you other club readers out there for inundating me with book bullets!

Ha, the other thing is that by the time the book van brings the ILL books to Limerick, at least a week has been shaved off the borrowing time. I've already had to contact her once to request an extension for me (another thing that can't be done directly).

P.S. Where did you buy your copy?

>170 labfs39: That was a library book, I was first in the queue. Your library ILL system sounds fairly bad, I think it's the same here the ILL borrow time kicks in either when it leaves the home library or when it's checked in at my library I don't do many ILLs.
I generally use Book Depository for new book purchases or sometimes Booktopia.com.au for Australian books.
My library is fairly good, though for the past year since the lockdowns started they stopped allowing us to 'recommend to purchase' which I used a lot especially for translated children's & YA books. Our city council is in the red, spending too much on tikanga (cultural) projects and less on maintenance and the library is one of the first places they go to for cuts.

On a general note - I went to a Q&A with Sally Gardener a few years ago at our local Writers Festival, she was there as Wray Delaney (her adult books pen name) and I'm still kicking myself that I didn't take my copy of Maggot Moon to be signed. She was really lovely. She had dyslexia as a child and went into art, illustration and set design. I bought her first book, A fairy catalogue, for my oldest daughter years and years ago. Later she switched from illustration to writing books and never looked back.

>169 scaifea: Hi Amber. It was a lovely story.

37) The Most Precious of Cargoes by Jean-Claude Grumberg (2019 French) (2020 English)
fable/novella

A Holocaust fable, set in a Polish forest where the death trains from Drancy (Paris) pass through on their way to Auschwitz-Birkenau. A father, wraps one of his twin babies in his prayer shawl and throws her out the carriage window into the snow where a woman stands. The woman, the barren wife of a woodcutter, has always wanted a child even though now there is famine all around them. The woodcutter is happy to have no children, only two mouths to feed during this bitter war.
Enchanting read that Grumberg wrote for those taken to the death camps from Drancy. These included the author's blind grandfather and on another train, his father. He includes the statistics.
11 Nov 1941: Convoy 45 took 778 Jewish men, there were 2 survivors by 1945.
2 March 1943: Convoy 49 contained 1000 Jews, six survived.
And sadly Abraham & Chaja Wiesenfeld along with their twin daughters, Fernande & Jeannine (born 9 Nov 1943) were sent from Drancy, Convoy 64 on 7 Dec 1943.

>173 avatiakh: I definitely want to read this one. Made even more affecting knowing the author's personal ties to the story. Did you read The True Story of Hansel and Gretel by Louise Murphy? It is a retelling of that fairy tale also set during the Holocaust.

Oh, I'm sure that I've heard about that one but haven't read it as yet. I enjoy reading fairytale retellings.
I found this book on the library shelves, I don't browse that often, and when I do I look for unusual names.

April Reading Plans:

Challenge reading -
10 chapters of Romance of the Three Kingdoms
The Children's Book by A.S. Byatt
Birdie by Tina Shaw - NOT a children's book so substitute -
Josh by Ivan Southall
The Queen's Brooch by Henry Treece
The Garden of the Finzi-Continis by Giorgio Bassani

I need to finish a few that are on the go -
Childhood by Tove Ditlevsen
The Saffron Runners by B.G. Fox
The Toymakers by Robert Dinsdale - DNF
The Crystal Singer by Anne McCaffrey
Darkness at Noon by Arthur Koestler - audio
The Plotters by Un-su Kim
The Garden by Carol Matas
Snowflake, AZ by Marcus Sedgwick

a few others on my radar for the month -
I pity the poor immigrant by Zachry Lazar
The Memory Monster by Yishai Sarid
Starsight by Brandon Anderson
Lenny's Book of Everything by Karen Foxlee

and other library books
The Outside World by Tova Mirvis
Dragonclaw by Kate Forsyth
Valiant Gentlemen by Sarina Murray

>176 avatiakh: Have you read Darkness at Noon before? I will be curious to hear how the audiobook is.

>177 labfs39: I'm really loving the audio and this is my first time reading it. I believe there is now a new translation of the work as a research student found the original German language manuscript in a Zurich library in 2015.
The English translation, the one I'm listening to, has done hurriedly in France as WW2 broke out.

The Saffron Runners by B.G. Fox (2020)
historical fiction
DNF
Gave it 70-odd pages but as it's a library book I decided that life is too short. The premise is interesting, it's 1827 and a group of Afghan horsemen seeking vengeance, ride into Persia to steal prized horses and rescue a kidnapped bride-to-be of their leader.
The book is probably self-published here in New Zealand and garnered over 200 people to the launch and also a lengthy article in the local paper. I first saw it at a bookshop and thought it looked like a ripping good yarn. Just doesn't grab me like it should.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/timaru-herald/news/124196018/childhood-in-geraldine-insp...

>178 avatiakh: I hadn't known the history behind the translations, and I found this article written by Koestler's biographer very interesting. I will keep an eye out for the new translation by Boehm. I was ready for a re-reading anyway.

38) Darkness at Noon by Arthur Koestler (1941)
fiction / audio
A powerful novel based on Stalin's 1930s purges of the upper ranks of the party. Rubashov, an older member who has served his party for decades is brought in for questioning, testament and a show trial. His interrogator builds his case with past innocent conversations and chance encounters and so to Rubashov's betrayal of the cause.
The narrator, Frank Muller, is very good.

39) The Queen's Brooch by Henry Treece (1966)
children

How much do I detest this cover - very much. This is set in Roman England as the tribes led by Boadicca rise against Roman rule. The main character is a Roman boy who encounters Boadicca and is given a brooch as a token of good faith. Later as a soldier he comes to understand the bitterness of the British people and the might of the Roman military. This was a good story, showing the downside of conflict and how people can be caught between two sides.

40) The Garden by Caro Matas (1998)
children
This is the sequel to After the War. Ruth is now living in a kibbutz and the War of Independence is about to kick off. Along with her friends, Ruth is caught up in Palmach activity and fighting for survival. Matas is a very capable writer.

Much good reading, Kerry! Passover didn't slow you down at all, did it.

That Treece cover is uuugly in-deed.

41) Childhood by Tove Ditlevsen (1967 Danish) (1985 English)
memoir
The Copenhagen Trilogy #1. Fascinating look at Ditlevsen's childhood years in a working class neighbourhood. The book is raw, honest and not at all nostalgic. Recommended, Divletsen was one of Denmark's best known writers.
Came across this one on Anita's thread.

42) The Crystal Singer by Anne McCaffrey (1982)
scifi
First in a trilogy. I really enjoyed snuggling down with this story. An easy scifi read, fairly predictable though I enjoyed the world the McCaffrey has created here and was happy to be along for the ride.
Killashandra is devastated when, after ten years of study, she is told that she will never make it as a singer. Then a chance encounter with a stranger leads her to the world of the crystal singers of the planet Ballybran and she decides to try her luck.

>184 richardderus: Hi Richard. Has been a good few weeks of reading here. A couple of DNFs and several taken back to library unread, mostly those I'm not in the mood for.

>187 avatiakh: Yeah, I noticed >179 avatiakh: was less "eww ick" than "ho-hum, not now." Those are inevitable, just little blips we accept and move on from.

>187 avatiakh: Little bit of an understatement as you logged almost a book a day for the last two weeks!

I love Darkness at Noon and generally enjoyed Henry Treece although I will concede that Puffin didn't go overboard with some of his cover art-work!

>185 avatiakh: Glad you liked Childhood, Kerry.
Will you get to the next ones soon?

>189 PaulCranswick: The Koestler was excellent and I'm keen to try some of his other stuff.

I'm reading Ivan Southall's Josh and the cover is also somewhat awful, still the book won the Carnegie in 1971.

>190 FAMeulstee: I've requested the next one and as there is some demand for the book it will take a while.

43) Rock War by Robert Muchamore (2014)
YA
First of four following the fortunes of three high school students who all play in different rock bands around the UK. Summer is a brilliant singer, drafted to an all girl band, she fits in musically but is not in the same social class as the other girls. Jay plays lead guitar and has had to form a new band that includes his delinquent older brother, 17 yr old Theo. Dylan has musical talent but is lazy, he helps a trio with their demo recordings and ends up joining them.
I like the characters Muchamore creates, some of these are a little over the top but he has a way of making them seem fairly authentic. Theo is quite the junior crim with a lack of morals, best way to encounter these types is in a book.

44) Boot Camp by Robert Muchamore (2015)
YA
Rock War #2. The competition moves to the reality show and a summer spent in a converted manor house. Gives a behind the scenes look at filming these types of shows. Mostly told from Jay's perspective.

45) Starsight by Brandon Sanderson (2019)
YA scifi
Skyward #2. Continues the story of Spensa, a human who has discovered the reason her people are stuck on Detritus, a desolate planet. Quite a good read and the third book is due out in November.

>194 avatiakh: Hi Kerry, hope you are doing well. I've only read one book by Brandon Sanderson, Alcatraz vs. the Evil Librarians, and didn't care for it, but perhaps it is not his typical fare?

>195 labfs39: Hi Lisa. He mainly writes fantasy and I find this scifi series fun to read as there's lots of action. I've also read Alcatraz vs. the Evil Librarians and didn't continue that series. I'm enjoying these lighter reads at present though I do have a few more literary novels awaiting my attention.

46) Gone Wild by Robert Muchamore (2016)
YA
Rock War #3. Continues the reality show with the semi finals, final and then aftermath of the show. Fun reading with one book left to go.

47) Crash Landing by Robert Muchamore (2017)
YA
Rock War #4. Life after Rock War, the contestants are back to school and as normal a life as possible after being stars on a reality tv show. For some opportunity beckons.
I enjoyed these 4 books and look forward to reading his Robin Hood series.

48) The Dig by John Preston (2007)
historical fiction
A fictionalised account of the Sutton Hoo excavations of 1938. The landowner, Edith Pretty, under the advice of local museum curators employs Basil Brown, a local man, to excavate the mounds on her property. As he uncovers what looks to be the burial of a ship, other more qualified archaeologists are called in to continue the dig. I enjoyed this and always happy to take a book off the tbr pile and get it read. This has been in my possession since about 2008 and one I kept looking at and thinking I should read next but never did.

>199 avatiakh: What an interesting story. I hadn't heard of Sutton Hoo before so I went online and saw some photographs of the site and artifacts. This is one of those topics where I think I would prefer nonfiction to fiction. Do you remember how you acquired this book? Seems off the beaten path

>200 labfs39: I bought it as a book blogger I followed had it as her 'book of the year' at the time. Also recently it has been made into a film with Ralph Fiennes as Basil Brown so an added incentive to read it. It closely follows the actual events with just a little bit of tweaking I believe, mostly to get into the heads of the various characters - really interesting and not what you'd get from a nonfiction account.
The epilogue is voiced by Robert who was the son of Edith Pretty, a young boy at the time of the initial dig. He recounts the extensive re-dig in 1965. The area had been used by the army during WW2 and quite abused, so the British Museum thought it time to see what, if anything remained. The army had built slit trenches in some mounds and used others for target practise.
Edith Pretty, at the time in 1938, sensed that it was now or never to do the dig, proven right by what the army did.

Annabookbel - her site has undergone lots of changes over the years - https://annabookbel.net/

>201 avatiakh: Ok, you've convinced me. Onto the wish list it goes. If I don't get a copy soon, I may succumb and watch the movie. It's nominated for several BAFTA awards and is available on Netflix. Thank you too for the shoutout to Annabookbel. I've bookmarked her site.

Yes, there is a section about nightingales that is particularly good and you wouldn't get that anecdote in a nonfiction book. Also the story about the courting of Edith by Colonel Pretty.

>201 avatiakh: I enjoyed the film, lots of ye olde English village scenery too. I will look for a copy of the book.

>204 charl08: I'm looking forward to watching it. I'm a bit stuck on Korean tv shows at present, watched one and got hooked.

>205 avatiakh: Me too! My daughter likes kpop, then we watched a k-drama together. Now I am hooked. My quarantine guilty pleasure. Which is your favorite?

>199 avatiakh: I want to see the film shortly, Kerry, but am conflicted as to whether to look for and enjoy the book first. Book bullet for sure. I read another book a few years ago also called The Dig by Cynan Jones, a young Welsh writer and I have to say that was wonderful too.

Have a lovely weekend. x

>207 PaulCranswick: Paul - I loved that one too, it's about badgers isn't it. I'm a book before film girl though sometimes it just can't be helped.

>206 labfs39: Lisa, I've watched heaps of them, they are addictive. I really enjoyed 'A Korean Odyssey', the Monkey King was played by the actor that had the lead role in 'Vagabond'.
'Descendants of the Sun', 'Romance is a Bonus Book' & 'W Two Worlds' were all good.
I'm almost done with 'The girl who sees scents' and have started 'Uncanny' & 'It's Okay to not be Okay'
My daughter liked 'Extraordinary You' and I should go back to it, have only watched a few episodes.

>208 avatiakh: I haven't seen "a Korean Odyssey" yet, I'll have to try it. "W" was an interesting concept. If my daughter wants to watch it, I might watch it again. The first few episodes of "It's okay" didn't thrill me, but then I got into it and thought it was very good. The complexity of the relationship between the two brothers was portrayed well. My favorites are "Guardian: Great and Lonely God", "Crash Landing", "Kill Me/Heal Me" about a guy with seven alters, and "When the Camellia Blooms".

"Silenced" is a difficult movie (not k-drama) to watch, about the sexual abuse of deaf students, but an important one. The outrage stirred up by the movie led to a new law abolishing the statute of limitations on sex crimes against minors and the disabled. I respect Gong Yoo for making the movie happen, as well as starring in it.

>208 avatiakh: Yes and I think it marked down Cynan Jones as a real literary star of the future - sort of the new Jim Crace but he seems strangely quiet somehow.

>208 avatiakh: Before LT, in the early days of my unhappy forced retirement, I did a binge of Korean TV series - Cinderella's Stepsister and Boys Before Flowers are the titles I remember. Fun and great eye-candy.

>209 labfs39: My family are not fans of K-dramas. I've watched a few that are purely romantic and my daughter cringes, though watches along too at times. I enjoy learning about the culture and traditions, not a fan of Korean food though really enjoy the food scenes. The Chaebol families with the heirs, blind dates and arranged marriages adds an interesting angle as well.

I'll be adding your favourites to my list. I've seen the first episode of 'Crash Landing' and have been meaning to go back to it. Will look out for 'Silenced'.
My husband binged on the Turkish dramas around the time I started watching the Korean ones. Lockdown certainly has a lot to answer for.

Your daughter might enjoy 'Extraordinary You', a high school girl discovers that she is a minor character in a manga and at the whim of the writer's pen.

>211 quondame: I didn't think I'd become so attached to this type of tv but I love it and the Korean language is easy on the ear.
I've got 'Boys before Flowers' on my list, there has been a couple of remakes, the latest is a Chinese version called 'Meteor Garden'.

>210 PaulCranswick: Paul - I haven't read any others by Jones as yet. I hope he keeps writing.

>212 avatiakh: I'm finding aspects of Korean culture very interesting, for instance speech levels and honorifics. I've picked up enough of the language to known when people are being spoken up or down to and it makes a big difference, a difference that isn't captured in the subtitles. Table manners fascinate me (although like you I would have a hard time eating much of the traditional Korean cuisine). I'm learning about how to pass things, how low to bow, when to use banmal, how to address people, specificity of names for family members, ancestral rites. I've learned that I would have a hard time working in a Korean office. I've never watched a lot of tv and haven't had cable or even local stations for six or seven years, but for some reason I find k-dramas addicting and enjoyable.

>213 labfs39: Yes, I'm also fascinated by the culture shown through these shows. Have you watched 'Misaeng: Incomplete Life'? I'm only 5 episodes in on this one. The main character is a baduk player who has failed to go professional so is one of several interns seeking a permanent position in a company office.

I have watched a lot of tv series & films but mostly via dvd and now streaming, so I get to choose what I watch rather than what is dished up. I like foreign cinema and crime series such as Line of Duty, the French crime/legal show, Engrenages/Spiral. These shows follow one story line for the entire season.

>214 avatiakh: I thought Misaeng was very good. I'm glad I don't work in a Korean corporate office. I have only worked in academia and nonprofits, so I haven't personally experienced American corporate culture, but there seem to be both differences (individual competition vs subjugation to the team, degree of deference to a hierarchy, physical abuse) and similarities (poor treatment of contract workers, sexism, hazing of young subordinates). I loved the character of Chief Oh and his struggles to do the right thing, but the whole ensemble cast is good.

Cynan Jones wrote the excellent Stillicide, and several others that are all, uniformly, of high quality.

He's only 46 and in quite good health both body and mind so we have every reason to hope he's going to be whinnying with us for some time to come.

>216 richardderus: Thanks Richard. I should read another of his books.

>215 labfs39: Lisa, did you watch Itaewon Class. That had some tense scenes of power struggle and submission that seems typical of the culture.

Time for a new thread, hopefully I'll get on to it later today.

>217 avatiakh: I did watch Itaewon Class recently. I thought the lead actor, Park Seo-joon, did an amazing job, especially in the first part. And the actor who played the DanBam chef was good too. She may be the only transgender character I've seen in Korean dramas. The importance and weight that kneeling has in Korean culture is so foreign to Americans who don't even bow, never mind kneel. The lines between respect and submission seem nebulous and easy to abuse (Misaeng deals with that explicitly too). I thought the Chairman's interaction with his son in the chicken coop was intense.

>218 labfs39: I agree about the transgender character, one of the most sympathetic portrayals I've come across in my limited experience.

>216 richardderus: & >217 avatiakh:

I am surprised in truth that he hasn't become more celebrated. No sign of Stillicide making it to the stores in Malaysia and reviews for it were limited to say the least. I do have the book that preceded The Dig on my shelves which is called Everything I Found on the Beach and I really ought to read it soon.