Sakerfalcon reads more in 2022

Happy new year everyone! I hope it will be better in every way for all of us.

Thank you to everyone who commented on my thread last year and who hit me with book bullets. As usual I hope that my reading will exceed my book purchasing, but as always I expect to fail.

My main reading interests are Science fiction and Fantasy, Classic children's books (especially school and pony stories), and 20th century women's writing, particularly titles published by Virago and Persephone. But I"m a bit of a magpie and some odd things do take my fancy every now and then.

This year I will be participating in two reading challenges here on LT: Paul's Asia Reading Challenge
and the Virago group's Themed Reads
I'm hoping that these will get some books off my TBR pile, while not encouraging me to buy more books!

I started keeping a reading journal a few years ago when I realised that I was reading so many books so quickly that I didn't remember anything about some of them a few months later. I tend to have 3 or 4 books on the go at any time - one for commuting, one to read in bed, one that I'll dip into while checking email and an alternative if none of the others happen to suit the mood I'm in.

I live in London, UK and like to travel to new places, both in real life and in books. Welcome!

I'm starting the year with four books in progress - Memoirs of a dutiful daughter by Simone De Beauvoir, The doors of Eden by Adrian Tchaikovsky, The letters of Shirley Jackson, and The gathering edge by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller.

I look forward to your comments, recommendations and book bullets! Welcome!

With every good wish for 2022 Claire.

Happy New Year, Claire! I thought I was going to get a tidy one but I'm spending too long writing my last review of the last full book read this year, my books of the year blog post and taking pictures of my horrific TBR so D.E. Stevenson's Five Windows will take me through to 2022.

>1 Sakerfalcon: That Asia reading challenge looks interesting.

Have a wonderful 2022, Claire. I look forward to more of your wonderful illustrated days out.

Happy New Year, Claire!

Happy New Year to one of my favorite increasers of my TBR pile!

Happy new year, Claire (and please try to get to at least one St Matthew Passion this year).

Happy new year, Claire!
As usual I will be lurking most of the time ;-)

Happy New Year! I'm looking forward to another year of your thoughtful reviews, and I hope you read lots of books you love in 2022.

Happy New Year and Happy New Thread, Claire!

Happy reading 2022 :-)

Happy New Year, Claire.

Happy reading in 2022!

Starred! Looking forward to more Book Bullets.

Happy New Year, you are continual source of Book Bullets for me, long may it continue.

Happy New Year and happy reading

Best wishes to you for a splendid year that never goes to hell.

>19 Meredy: *cackles*

Happy New Year, Claire!

Thank you and Happy New Year everyone! It's lovely to "see" you all here.

I've finished two books so far this year, both carryovers from 2021.

The doors of Eden is a big SF novel about parallel worlds which split off at various points on the geological timeline. So there are worlds where trilobites, fish, rats, etc are the dominant intelligent species, as well as our own human-dominated world. Until recently these worlds were completely separate from our own, but as the book opens we see cracks occurring and strange creatures entering our world. Monster hunters, scientists, government agents, gangsters and more will be forced to come together to figure out what is happening and try to save the world as we know it. The narrative alternates between the adventure in the present day, which is fast-paced and follows some compelling viewpoints, and chapters from a textbook which outline the different worlds that diverged. I really enjoyed a novel where Geology forms a major part of the S in SF; it's thoughtfully examined and effectively contrasts with the action-oriented plot. There are some very negative reviews on amazon, complaining that the book is too "woke" because it has gay and trans characters, and can be read as a critique of Brexit. None of that bothered me, and I appreciated the book's ultimate message.

I've also finished The gathering edge, which was another enjoyable episode in the Liaden series. It's not a good entry point to the series, but continues Theo's story as she encounters refugees from the past.

I haven't much more of Memoirs of a dutiful daughter left, and will try to finish it soon. It's certainly very interesting, both as an account of bourgeois life in turn of the century Paris, and of de Beauvoir's emotional and intellectual development. But there is a lot of "No-one understands me", "I'm not like other women" and so on which gets a bit tedious (even if it's true).

I've started reading Women in the wall for the Virago January challenge ("Nuns, teachers and governesses"). It's a historical novel set in C6th Gaul, a time of political and religious unrest. Radegunda was taken prisoner as a child and made to marry her captor, King Clotair. Some years later she is allowed to leave him and take the veil; the book is the story of the convent she founds and her own passionate religious journey. So far the book is racier than I'd expect from one centred around a convent! although to be fair there are flashbacks to Radegunda's life as a queen.

I will shortly begin The silence of Scheherazade for the Asia reading challenge (this month is Turkey). It's a novel set in 1920s Smyrna.

>22 Sakerfalcon: The Doors of Eden and Women in the Wall both sound fabulous!

>22 Sakerfalcon: The Doors of Eden sounds interesting!

Happy New Year and happy reading! Thanks for posting your reading here.

Uhoh... The BBs are already flying!

Happy New Year, Claire.

Managed to track you down here. Thank you so much for mentioning the Asian Book Challenge and it is great to have you along for it.

Doesn't it seem such a long time ago that we all met up for that very extended lunch, back in those halcyon days when travel was possible?

Happy new year! The silence of Scheherazade sounds fascinating! I've added it to my wishlist.
Your remarks on Memoirs of a Dutiful Daughter are interesting. This is one of the first "adult" books I read and I loved it then. It looks like I might enjoy it less now. The "no-one understands me" shtick wouldn't have registered at the time, but it would annoy me now!
I read Women in the Wall a few years ago because it is set in my home town, and I used to live almost on top of Radegunda's convent's ruins. Getting a reasonably-priced copy took some patience!

>22 Sakerfalcon: You may have grazed me there, with a BB for Women in the Wall.

>23 libraryperilous:, >24 NorthernStar: It really was! The plot itself was quite action/adventury, but not too violent, and the textbook chapters provided an interesting contrast that clicked into place as the story developed. I hope you enjoy it if you try it.

>25 Karlstar: Thank you!

>26 clamairy: Pew, pew!

>27 PaulCranswick: Yes, it was some years ago now; I have fond memories of it still. I hope we'll all be able to do it again before too long. Sadly it will have to be at a different venue as Cafe Also has closed.

>28 Dilara86: Welcome and Happy New Year to you! I should be clear, the good stuff in Dutiful Daughter outweighs the teenage self pity, and it does make her more flawed and human than leaving it out would have done. It's good to know that even great philosophers are human too!
Wow, being in the place where Women in the wall is set must have made reading it very immersive! I'd be fascinated to see the ruins.
I will keep you posted on how The silence of Scheherazade develops!

>29 -pilgrim-: I will let you know how I think as I read more of it. So far it seems to be conveying the sensibility of the "Dark Ages" very effectively.

BB'd already. Sigh The Doors of Eden

>30 Sakerfalcon: If you look up "12 rue Jean-Jaurès, Poitiers" on Google Maps, then use Street View, you should see what remains of the foundations of the original Sainte-Croix convent, in the garden next to the street. An reconstitution of Radegunda's cell was also built in this garden, in 1912. You can get a glimpse of it behind the steps, right at the back of the garden. I visited it on an European Heritage Day a couple of years ago: it's very atmospheric. If you go up the street, you'll see the Baptistère Saint-Jean, one of the oldest christian buildings in Western Europe still standing. The local museum (musée Sainte-Croix) right behind it was also built on convent land, and houses archeological finds.

>31 majkia: Yup. Me too.

>31 majkia: Me, too. Just put a hold on The Doors of Eden at the library.

Happy New Year from across the pond, Claire!

I’m currently reading one you might like: Gilded by the Cinder author.

>31 majkia:, >33 Marissa_Doyle:, >34 tardis: I hope you enjoy it as much as I did!

>32 Dilara86: Thanks for that! The modern building behind the garden dominates, but once I managed to get the cursor to the right place I could see the remains of the convent. It looks like there are lots of site worth visiting in the area.

>35 jnwelch: Hi Joe! Happy New Year to you and Debbi! Thanks for the recommendation; Rumplestiltskin melded with the Erlkoenig sounds great!

I finished Memoirs of a dutiful daughter and very much enjoyed de Beauvoir's account of her emotional and intellectual coming of age. I'm relieved that the adolescent "woe is me" bits disappear after her late teens, when she attains some freedom from the restrictions of her bourgeois family. It is interesting to contrast her life with that of her best friend Zaza (and as an aside, how nice to read about a woman who values her female friendships and her sister!) who was really a "dutiful daughter" rather than de Beauvoir. Simone defied her parents and managed to win freedom and some respect from them; Zaza complied with their wishes but that still wasn't enough to make her family happy - and it certainly didn't bring her peace either. Sartre only appears towards the end of the book; amusingly, the first mention made of him is when he fails an exam! I have the next two volumes of de Beauvoir's autobiography and I'm sure I'll be reading them over the next year or two.

I'm getting further into The silence of Scheherazade and Women in the wall now and am enjoying both. They are both very immersive in terms of their period and setting - the former, Smyrna (now Izmir) in the 1910s/20s, the latter C6th century Gaul. The story in Scheherazade jumps around in time and between viewpoints, making it rather like a jigsaw; Scheherazade opens the novel with her birth but immediately goes back to her mother's youth, and to the arrival of the British Indian secret agent whose story will be entwined with hers. We are also introduced to a Greek family, whose connection to Scheherazade I think I have guessed ... but we will see. The streets, houses, food, sounds and smells of the city really come alive. Women in the wall is also a non-linear narrative, but the author has helpfully put the year in the margin to note each change. Radegunda, whose faith is both ecstatic and ascetic, is probably the main character but her life is entwined with that of Agnes, the Prioress, and Fortunatus, a poet who is writing the chronicle of Radegunda's life. (He was also the author of the hymn Vexilla regis prodeunt, or The royal banner forward goes, still sung during Holy Week). These characters spring from with all their faults and virtues, passions and fears - no plaster saints but very human beings.

I've started to read Orhan Pamuk's collection of essays, Other colours, as my commuting book. The essays are about life, reading, writing, politics and other things, and are just the right length to read on the train.

I've also started The liar's knot, sequel to Mask of mirrors which I really enjoyed last year.

>36 Sakerfalcon: Oo, Pamuk essays. Think I've been hit by a BB Claire.

>36 Sakerfalcon: It looks like there are lots of site worth visiting in the area.
There are, but they're often tucked away, and what they are is not always clear, unfortunately...

Radegunda, whose faith is both ecstatic and ascetic, is probably the main character but her life is entwined with that of Agnes, the Prioress, and Fortunatus, a poet who is writing the chronicle of Radegunda's life
All three are buried together in the same crypt, which is free to visit, in Sainte-Radegonde Church. If you're interested, you can look up "église Sainte-Radegonde, Poitiers" on Google Maps and turn on Street View. There are also photos of the inside of the church. (you can do the same for "Baptistère Saint-Jean, Poitiers", one of the few buildings still standing that Radegunda would have known and been it.)

>37 Caroline_McElwee: The essays are really interesting and, of course, well written. I'm learning so much about Turkey's history, politics and culture.

>38 Dilara86: Having now finished the book, it seems perfect that Radegunda, Agnes and Fortunatus should share the crypt together! Entwined in life and in death.

Women in the wall was a very good read. The people and events are based on episodes described in various Chronicles from the period, and the author provides a useful foreword in which she notes where she deviated from historic fact. The characters come to life with all their flaws, passions and hopes, yet are not quite relatable - the mindset of the C6th is too different to that of today. However they spring to life from the page. Radegunda founded her convent as a place of peace and refuge from the world, yet she is unable to prevent politics from invading its walls. This is a intense story from an overlooked period of history.

I also finished The silence of Scheherazade which was very good. The book opens in Smyra, 1905, a time when the city was a place of prosperity and culture, where Europeans, Greeks, Turks and Armenians lived side by side with little conflict. However, the aftermath of WWI changed all that, as Smyrna became a pawn in the power games of Western Europe. This novel shows the devastating impact that international socio-political policies can have on the lives and fates of individuals. We know the fates of the narrator and the city right from the start, but the story meanders back and forth in time and between points of view before reaching the climax in 1922 as Smyrna is devastated by fire and pillage. We see events through the eyes of Edith, daughter of a wealthy French family, her lover Avinash, an Indian man working as a spy for the British, Panagiota, a young Greek girl and her family, and Sumbul and her family, who adopt the narrator after the events of 1922. They experience the horrors of war and invasion, as the Turkish army, appalled by the atrocities committed upon their people by the Greek army, commit atrocities of their own in revenge. Thankfully we are not shown these horrors; characters relate what they have seen and heard, which is bad enough. This was a very good read. It required close attention to the characters and the time as the narrative jumped about, but the pieces of the jigsaw came together satisfactorily. The streets, sounds, and foods came to life and left me with a sense of sadness for all that was lost. This book is intersecting well with the non-fiction essays by Orhan Pamuk which I am also reading for this month's challenge.

I'm enjoying The liar's knot, which develops the world and characters from the first book very effectively. I'm always impressed when books are written by a pair of authors and I can't see any cracks in the execution. The city of Nadezhra is an appealing setting with its canals and bridges, slums and palaces, and its mix of peoples and cultures. Ren is juggling several different identities in this book as the various schemes and plots in which she is involved proliferate - can she keep all the balls in the air successfully?

I've just started to read Precursor, the fourth in C. J. Cherryh's Foreigner series. This takes place 3 years after the end of the previous trilogy, with the Atevi set to launch into space.

On the train I'm still reading Other colours, essays by Orhan Pamuk which are very insightful and interesting. And I'm still enjoying The letters of Shirley Jackson.

Add me to the list of people book-bulleted by The Doors of Eden...

>40 wandering_star: That list is long! I'm 150 pages in enjoying it quite a bit.

And the list continues to lengthen - I'm adding both Doors of Eden and Women in the Wall to the wishlist.

>40 wandering_star: It's great to see you here! I hope being hit by a bullet won't put you off visiting again!

>41 clamairy: That's good to hear!

>42 Peace2: I hope you enjoy them both. Two very different books!

I finished Other colours and really enjoyed this collection of essays. Normally I would read a book like this slowly, a couple of essays at a time, over several months, but because of the challenge I read it straight through. It didn't get repetitive though, and I was able to immerse myself in Pamuk's world and his thoughts. I learned a lot about Turkey, its history, and its relationship with the West, which is something of a priority for Pamuk. You also learn about his writing process, his thoughts on literature, how he perceives the role of the writer in the world. The short story at the end is clearly autobiographical - some of the essays talk about how much his life and family have informed his work, in some cases to the cost of his real-life relationships. This is a great read that I'd recommend to anyone with an interest in Turkey, writing and books.

Hi, Claire! I seem to have missed seeing your thread earlier so belatedly wishing you a very happy 2022.

Women in the Wall looks intriguing, especially since I love reading about medieval times. (Reading, yes, but I really am glad I did not live during those times).

>44 Storeetllr: Thanks for stopping by!
Women in the wall certainly doesn't make mediaeval times sound very appealing. It is a fascinating read though.

This week I read The sanatorium on kindle. This thriller has been heavily promoted in the UK, and the setting in a former sanatorium-turned-hotel in the Swiss Alps caused me to snag it when I saw it in a kindle deal. Well I'm glad I didn't pay full price for it. The setting is indeed extremely good, with the wintry weather inducing a real sense of isolation and threat. But the characters and plotting were rather ridiculous. Elin, the protagonist, is a police detective on emotional leave after a case that went badly wrong, and she is either hesitant and whiny or impetuous and gung-ho as the plot requires. The other characters are both unlikeable and uninteresting, a fatal combination. But the setting and the fast-paced nature of events kept me reading, even as I rolled my eyes. This had the potential to be a great book, if the characters were stronger, better use made of the historical elements, and the plot was not so far-fetched.

In its place I've started Firekeeper's daughter, a YA novel with a Native American heroine, which is great so far.

And I'm still very much enjoying my other reads - Precursor, The liar's knot and The letters of Shirley Jackson.

>45 Sakerfalcon: I read the Sanatorium last year. I think it’s overrated. I liked Ruth Ware’s One by One way better.

>43 Sakerfalcon: Oh definitely! I have just been lurking until now ;-p

>46 catzteach: Definitely overrated!

I finished Precursor, which was a very good instalment in the Foreigner series. This book sees Bren, his escort of Atevi, and four human representatives from Mospheira launched into space at short notice, to try to make deals with the captains on the space station. All seems to go smoothly at first ... too smoothly to be true, as Bren soon finds out. This is a very dramatic and gripping story and I'm looking forward to the next volume.

I've also finished The liar's knot which was a great sequel to Mask of mirrors. The city of Nadazhra and its peoples is developed more fully, as are the lead characters of Ren, Serrado and Vargo. Each of them is juggling multiple roles and identities as they weave their ways through the different levels of society. We learn more about the different magic systems and the supernatural and human threats to the world. There is a good balance of character growth and plot events which kept me eagerly turning pages but also thinking about the book after I put it down. This trilogy is shaping up to be a great one.

But my best read so far this year is Firekeeper's daughter, which was just fantastic. It's a complex, dark story with many threads and some great characters. 18 year old Daunis is the daughter of an Ojibwe father and a white mother, with a foot in both worlds. She's close to her half-brother Levi, although he lives with his mother's family, and has the perfect best friend in Lily. Although she's not entitled to be enrolled in the tribe she nevertheless plays a full role in its rituals and society. Her life is hard, but mostly good. Then tragedy strikes and Daunis finds herself keeping secrets from those she loves the most as she helps the FBI to investigate a meth ring which seems to be connected to the tribe. Daunis's determination to get to the bottom of the mystery, but also to act in the best interests of her people, leads her to make some difficult choices - not always wise ones. The book has dark themes - addiction, abuse, prejudice, betrayal, violence against women - but optimism too. My favourite aspect was Daunis's friendships, especially with the people at the senior centre - she spends as much time with her elders as she does with people her own age. There is a bit of romance, but it is well-handled and treated maturely, especially at the end of the book. There is a lot going on in the book - it's a coming-of-age story as well as a twisty thriller - and some questions are left unanswered - but if it is messy it is in the same way that life is messy. The author herself is a tribe member from Sault Ste Marie, where the book is set, and she puts lots of native lore and language into the narrative. I absolutely loved this. I'd place it at the upper end of YA for its themes and complexity, and highly recommend it. Thanks to jnwelch for the review that prompted me to move this up my TBR pile!

Now I've started a non-fiction book, Fifty words for snow, which is beautiful so far. I'm also reading an NZ novel, Spinster, which I didn't quite manage to finish in time for the end of the Virago January challenge of Nuns, Teachers and Governesses. I will also be starting books for this month's Israeli theme of the Asian reading challenge - I have A tale of love and darkness and Central station lined up for that.

ETA I forgot to say that I'm also reading This night's foul work, one of the Inspector Adamsberg mysteries.

>48 Sakerfalcon: Precursor is my next (unread) book in the Foreigner series, but it's been so long since I read the first three I think I'll need to revisit them first.

>48 Sakerfalcon: I have Fifty Words for Snow Claire, I'll wiggle it up.

I've just started Red Comet, only a few pages in, but I can already tell it will suck up most of the weekend.

>48 Sakerfalcon: & >50 Caroline_McElwee:
You have reminded me of Miss Smilia's Feeling for Snow by Peter Hoeg, which I enjoyed a lot, and which discussed the many names Inuit people have for snow depending on the nature of the snow.

>51 pgmcc: I have that one on the TBR pile - if it's a good one, maybe I should dig that out

>52 Peace2: It was very popular at the time it came out.

>51 pgmcc: I read that years ago Peter, and there was a passable film version too.

>54 Caroline_McElwee:
I never got to see the film. Your comment rang a bell at the back of my mind and I have a vague memory of seeing a trailer. I forget the plot of the book but do remember the discussion about all the different types of snow.

>49 fuzzi: Precursor was SO good! But yes, probably a good idea to refresh your memory of the earlier books.

>50 Caroline_McElwee: I read about one chapter per day of Red comet so it took me about a month to read. I hope you enjoy it!

>51 pgmcc: It's been a long time since I read Miss Smilla but I really enjoyed it. It is mentioned in Fifty words for snow, which I have finished and will review below.

>52 Peace2: I thought it was good, and I don't normally read thrillers! It's a lot more literally than the usual fare in that genre though.

>54 Caroline_McElwee:, >55 pgmcc: I haven't seen the film either, but now I think I'd like to.

Fifty words for snow was my commuting book last week, and it turned out to be a great choice for that purpose. Its 50 chapters are very short, ranging in length from a couple of sentences to several pages (on kindle). Each one takes a word for snow from a different language - not only from the expected Nordic and Arctic regions, but from places and cultures as diverse as Quechua, Ethiopia, Thailand and more. The word can be for a very specific type or property of snow, or a broad term that covers all precipitation, or anything in between those extremes. Each chapter uses its word as the jumping off point for an exploration of a cultural, historical, mythological, ecological, or other aspect of snow in the context of the place the word originates from. I read several chapters at a time, but I could see reading this book slowly, taking a chapter a day and musing on it. I think the book will appeal to many of you in the GD.

I finished Spinster which was a very uneven read for me. Its protagonist, Anna, is a primary school teacher in rural New Zealand in the 1950s, who is in charge of a class of around 70 children, some white but most Maori. Her teaching methods are unconventional, finding that the European-style readers and formal lessons don't suit her pupils. She starts to develop a unique and very effective system of teaching based on a core vocabulary specific to each child, and writing her own readers using stories and images that are relevant to the children. This narrative thread, which includes short lines of the children's own words (based on the author's own pupils quoted in her diaries), is fascinating. However, much of the book is spent on Anna's reactions to and relationships with men, who both fascinate and repel her. She refers to herself as middle aged (and the Spinster of the title) yet in her interactions with men she is naive and immature. This takes up a lot of the first half of the book and I found it tedious. The teaching aspect of the book, and its rural setting, is largely autobiographical, but in real life the author was married and a mother. I found the way she chose to portray the inner life of an unmarried woman to be profoundly irritating and unrealistic. It's a shame that this spoiled an otherwise worthwhile and interesting read.

I also finished This night's foul work, a typically quirky case for Commissaire Adamsberg and his unit. Adamsberg will frustrate readers who like a detective who is logical, methodical and systematic in his methods, as Adamsberg seems to pick theories out of thin air and run with them, and won't rule out seemingly impossible or contradictory elements. But I really enjoy him as a character and don't miss the usual aspects of police procedure. His team are interesting characters in their own right, as are the people he meets along the way. This case involves a serial killer who seems to be inspired by an ancient recipe that promises immortality. Adamsberg must also reckon with an incident from his childhood when it resurfaces with the arrival of a new recruit to his team. I really like this series of French mysteries in translation.

I've started A tale of love and darkness for this month's Asian reading challenge, and it's excellent so far. Amos Oz's memoir of his family's life in Jerusalem before the creation of the state of Israel is fascinating and moving, and has really drawn me in. For this month's Virago challenge - writers from North America - I'm reading Tell me a riddle, Tillie Olsen's collection of four short pieces which channel the voices of working class Americans in the mid C20th. I'm also reading The fallen, which is the sequel to The outside and continues the unique blend of SF with Lovecraftian horror. And I'm still very much enjoying life with Shirley Jackson in her letters.

>56 Sakerfalcon: I love Tell Me a Riddle, and also Olsen's non-fiction book Silences about how many writing voices are silenced, especially those of women - and also the significance of class, race etc. I may need to start planning more rereads into my reading mix.

I have Spinster and Red Comet in my TBR.

>56 Sakerfalcon: Glad to see you enjoyed the next Adamsberg book, Claire. I loved them all.

>57 elkiedee: I'll look forward to your thoughts on Spinster and Red comet when you get around to reading them Luci.

>58 FAMeulstee: He is one of my favourite fictional characters, but I love that his team play important roles too. It's not just a one-man show.

Time for another catch-up.

Tell me a riddle was a very powerful read. Olsen channels the voices of four working-class characters, bringing them and their worlds to life. The impact of poverty is dramatically shown through these characters and their lives. One mother's monologue tells of the disrupted relationship with her daughter, who had to be sent to live with relatives because the mother needed to work full-time. Another shows the disintegrating friendship between a pair of girls - one black, one white - as they grow up. The title story shows an elderly woman facing terminal illness. They are not cheerful narratives, as you can tell, but they are masterfully written and very powerful.

Also for the Virago North American month I read The shutter of snow, a novel based on the author's own descent into mental illness following the birth of her son. Marthe's view is frequently disorienting as she has lost track of time and place and believes she is God, so we see the staff and other inmates at the asylum as if through a funhouse mirror. It is a disturbing but frequently humorous book, which belongs with Beyond the glass and The yellow wallpaper for depictions of mental breakdown in women.

The fallen was a good follow-up to The outside, although we didn't really learn anything new about the gods or the nature of the Outside. We follow the characters from the first book, although this time we see through Tiv's viewpoint instead of Shira, giving us a different perspective. We see life in the zones distorted by the invasion from Outside, and the tyrannical rule of the AI gods, which makes life harsher than it needs to be. Tiv and her companions are trying to aid the survivors and help them to make the best of the new world, but opposition from the gods is strong. The book is full of suspenseful situations and kept me reading later than I should have!

I have about 50 pages to go in A tale of love and darkness, which has been a fantastic read so far. Oz's memoir goes back in time to his grandparents' lives in Europe before they settled in Israel (then Palestine, before the creation of the State), interspersed with scenes from his own childhood and his parents' lives, creating a compelling mosaic. He also tells the story of the creation of the State of Israel as he lived through it but looking back with an adult perspective. Love and darkness run through the book, as joy and tragedy are interwoven, both in his family and in the land. I expected this to be something of a slog, but it has been totally compelling and fascinating.

Also for the Israel month in the Asian reading challenge, I read Central Station, a work of SF by Lavie Tidhar. This is a series of linked stories following a family and the people linked to them in a future Tel Aviv that is dominated by a giant complex from which people travel into space. People of varying religions and nationalities live side by side with robots, cyborgs, AIs and other post-humans, yet the everyday lives that we see have much in common with our own. People work, love, battle illness, strive to follow their dreams, make friends and enemies. I felt some of the stories were stronger than others, but overall it was a worthwhile read.

Urged on by Clam's excellent review, I am now reading The witness for the dead and absolutely loving it. I had to force myself to stop reading last night in order for this morning not to be any more horrific than Monday mornings usually are. But it is so so good! I love Celehar, the setting, the way he manoeuvres between the different factions while trying to remain inconspicuous and just get on with his job. Like Maia in The goblin emperor, Celehar is humble, but he knows his job and how to do it, and manages to keep his head down when necessary. There are a lot of names and titles to keep track of, and I would have appreciated a glossary/character list, but that is a small complaint. I should check to see if the author has information online.

>59 Sakerfalcon: Oh, I'm so happy to hear you're enjoying that Katherine Addison. I also had to force myself to put it down a few times.

I might have taken a bullet on the Oz memoir. It's been a long time since I've read anything about that period in time. (I think the last book was Exodus and I was still in high school!)

>60 clamairy: I managed to finish both books last night, and both were great reads. I definitely recommend the Oz if you want to read a personal view of that time and place.

I adored Witness for the dead, and will be eagerly awaiting Addison's next book in this world. The characters are so well drawn, and the world is rich and interesting. Highly, highly recommended.

A tale of love and darkness was one of the most compelling non-fiction books I've read in a long time. The heart of the book is the suicide of Oz's mother, when he was 12, about which the narrative circles until the very end of the book. The mingled jubilation and despair surrounding the creation of the State of Israel is vividly portrayed, as is the love-hate relationship with Europe (very similar to that expressed by Orhan Pamuk in his essays on Turkey). This was a fantastically moving, powerful and engaging read.

On kindle I've read Terciel and Elinor, the most recent book in the Old Kingdom series by Garth Nix. This is a prequel, showing how Sabriel's parents met and the battle they fought against the Greater Dead. Terciel is Abhorsen-in-waiting, Elinor is a schoolgirl in Ancelstierre who knows nothing of magic until a dead creature attacks her home. This was another great adventure in the Old Kingdom, a world which Nix is making richer and more developed in every book. I love this series.

Now on kindle I'm reading Mapping winter, a fantasy novel about a Rider, whose role is something between a herald, law enforcement and a mapmaker. Kieve enjoys the part of her job which involves travelling through the region charting new routes, but it looks as though she is going to be embroiled in court politics very soon .. this has got off to a great start!

I'm also reading Lent by Jo Walton, and am starting Arcadia for the GD group read.

>61 Sakerfalcon: Mapping winter sounds great! I'm tempted to add it to my wishlist straight away, but I'll wait for your final word, just in case...

>61 Sakerfalcon: Oh, the Randall book sounds interesting! I'm interested in how it compares to one of my favorite series, the Steerswoman books.

Glad you enjoyed the Addison. I read it earlier this year and am eager for this summer's sequel. I especially liked the opera manager's character and hope he has a larger role in the next book.

>61 Sakerfalcon: Glad you enjoyed Witness for the Dead!

Like you, I absolutely love the Goblin Emperor and Witness for the Dead and can't wait for the sequel to Witness.

>62 Dilara86: >63 libraryperilous: Having just finished Mapping winter I can now say that it remained as good as I'd hoped it would be. Kieve is a great character, not always likeable but competent and fascinating in the moral dilemmas she has to face. I found myself totally immersed in the world (we only see a small part of it but there is great potential for more stories in other parts of it), which has a feudal political system and feels vaguely Mediaeval but with primitive telegraph and semaphore communications starting to appear. I too felt some similarity with The steerswoman, especially in the early part of the book. But Kieve's sworn Lord is corrupt and has used her to carry out unpleasant actions. Much of the book is Kieve's struggle to reconcile her oath to the Riders, her oath to the Lord, and her personal conscience. But the main plot thread revolves around the succession, as her Lord lies dying slowly and his heirs and their entourages gather. Kieve is a reluctant kingmaker as various parties seek to use her to gain power. Most of the action takes place in the labyrinthine castle on the island of Stern, which was a fantastic setting. I wanted to step into the book and explore it! There is a second book in the series, but all ends are tied up in this volume.

I finally finished The letters of Shirley Jackson. This was a great read, giving vivid vignettes of Jackson's life - as a writer, parent, teacher, daughter and friend. Having read the brilliant biography by Ruth Franklin though, it was sad to realise how much of a cheerful front she was putting on, especially in the letters to her hypercritical mother. But her humour is irrepressible and bubbles up all through this volume. If only she had enjoyed better health and lived to write more.

>66 Sakerfalcon: Thank you! That's a book bullet, then :-)

>67 Dilara86: I hope you enjoy it!

I'm thoroughly enjoying the group read of Arcadia, which I finished last night. It's a complex, multi-stranded work set in 3 main periods/places - "our" world in 1960, where 15 year old Rosie takes care of her friend the Professor's cat; the bucolic world of Anterwold, created by the Professor as a Tolkien-style literary exercise in his spare time; and an unpleasant far-future Britain where personality and emotions are controlled by brain implants and life is rigidly controlled by a repressive State. How these three setting cross and connect is fascinating and fun to explore. I say fun, because there is some unexpected humour throughout the book which adds to its appeal. We are introduced to a large cast of characters but I never had any trouble keeping up with who's who, and I enjoyed seeing seemingly minor figures come to the fore as the stories developed. There is so much going on in the book that a reread is pretty much essential to note all the little details. I'm very glad to be reading this with others and sharing our thoughts on it.

This month's Asian reading challenge category is The Arab world, so I read Celestial bodies by Jokha Alharthi, an Omani author. The book is centred around three sisters and their marriages, but their stories are told in a non-linear structure that draws in their extended families, friends and servants (slaves). It shows the transition in Oman from a relatively poor village-based society to a modern, wealthy oil state with all the trappings of luxury and the social changes that brings. It also looks at the relationships between Bedouin, Arabs and Europeans and how each has impacted the other for good or ill. It was a challenging read but fascinating.

The Virago theme this month is Authors with only 1 Virago-published book, and I chose My friend says it's bullet-proof by Penelope Mortimer. Set in the 1960s, it follows Muriel as the only female member of a group of journalists sent to Canada on a press tour. Muriel has recently had a single mastectomy which has affected her psychologically, feeling that people will see her as less of a woman if they know. She broke up with her lover prior to the trip and responds somewhat spikily to the advances of her travelling companions. She has a tendency to retreat into herself, which she refers to as "going Virginia Woolfish" which detaches her from other people and events. But she will meet two different men on this trip who will cause her to figure out who she is now. This sounds terribly cliched but it really isn't. Muriel is an unusual character who makes perhaps unwise choices and, although it is through the men that she comes to accept her new self, she is in no way reliant on them - it's more like they are the cause of her focusing her thoughts. She's not transformed into a new person, rather she finds that different parts of herself now come to the fore. The setting - several unnamed Canadian cities - and the people Muriel meets gave me a strong feeling of The edible woman, with its ostensibly modern society still based on outdated gender stereotypes and roles for women. This is a odd book - not least for the passages quoting from Muriel's notebook jottings - but a satisfying one.

I'm now reading The perpetual curate for another group read; this is a Trollope-esque story of church and social politics in Victorian England; Daisy Jones and the Six (I finally found my copy!); Bad gods which is a fantasy novel with a multi-species cast of characters; and on kindle, Last night at the Telegraph Club which is a queer YA historical novel. And I'm still reading Lent, appropriately enough!

>68 Sakerfalcon:
Your description of Arcadia is spot on.

Celestial Bodies sounds interesting.

>68 Sakerfalcon: I've got Celestial Bodies TBR, I'm glad it's interesting. I really want to read the Oliphants but need to hack the TBR down a bit more first ...

>69 pgmcc: Thank you!

>70 LyzzyBee: The Oliphants are dauntingly large, but they actually read much faster than I expected. Lyzard's group read thread is excellent as usual too, at explaining the intricacies and absurdities of Victorian social life and customs.

>68 Sakerfalcon: I came here to say that Arcadia sounds really interesting - and when I followed the touchstone I realised that I *ahem* already own it - somewhere in the depths of my Kindle! Will dig it up.

>72 wandering_star: It's worth excavating from the deep!

I'm already quite interested in reading Penelope Mortimer from hearing parts of a serialisation of one of he rnovels on R4 Extra. I think what you say about the portrayal of women's place in 1960s society may be very much how it felt. A lot of 1960s writing by men shows a lot of sexist and stereotyped writing of female characters.

>71 Sakerfalcon: I have loved the first two but I told myself I'd do Trollope's Barchester first and I'm only half-way through. Plus the horrors of the TBR ...

>72 wandering_star: I hope you enjoy it if you find your copy! It's an interesting and well written read.

>74 elkiedee: Yes, I'm sure it was. Lippincote in the Virago group added another comment about how when she read this book in the '60s it blew her away because breast cancer just wasn't talked about at all. I imagine a lot of women felt very "seen" upon reading it.

>75 LyzzyBee: I understand completely! Fortunately (?) the Carlingford chronicles have been on my TBR for several years so I can claim this as a win in that respect!

I've finished 3 of the books I was reading on my last report.

Lent was a brilliant evocation of Renaissance Florence, but I hadn't realised that the book contains one of my least favourite plot devices - that of a person who gets into a time loop and lives their life over and over making changes each time It's a difficult book to discuss without spoiling the massive twist that occurs halfway through the book and causes you to completely rethink what has gone before. The main character is Girolamo Savonarola, who is generally treated unsympathetically by the history books as a religious zealot. I suspect that the less you have already read about him, the more you will like his portrayal here, where we see events from his point of view. The book is well written and researched, but the central premise is just not one that I enjoy, and the ending I felt was very flat and abrupt.

Last night at the Telegraph Club was really nice though, a historical novel set in 1950s San Francisco about a Chinese-American girl realising her sexuality and questioning the ways of her traditional community. The setting is vividly portrayed, with the streets, culture and foods all coming to life. Lily is sympathetic, loyal to her family but determined not to deny her sexuality to conform to expectations. Yet she is understandably cautious and shy when taking her first steps into queer society. The repression of the era is effectively conveyed, as is the association of Communism with the Chinese American community and the threat that it poses to Lily and her family. I thought that Lily's friendship with Shirley, whom she has known all her life, was very well drawn, as the two girls are changing and having less in common. This was a really good, thoughtful YA read.

I also enjoyed Daisy Jones and the Six. It started off slowly for me as Daisy is introduced, and then we see the formation of The Six, but once they come together it really took off. I can't say I liked the main characters, Daisy and Billy, or everyone around them, but the tensions between them were fascinating and compelling. I loved the way the book was told as in a group interview, with contributions from the musicians, their families, record industry folk, and others. We see the rise and fall of the group, its triumphs and traumas, and it's a gripping ride. Lots of sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll, told in a way that is utterly convincing.

I'm still enjoying The perpetual curate and Bad gods, two very different books! I will be choosing something new to read on my kindle on the journey home tonight too.

I've finished both The perpetual curate and Bad gods, and enjoyed both. Curate is a long Victorian novel with many themes in common with Anthony Trollope's Barsetshire books. It is set in the town of Carlingford and features characters whom we've met in previous volumes, although it stands alone. Frank Wentworth is the perpetual curate of the title, stuck in a low-paid, low-status role in the church with no hope of advancement unless he is given the family living or recommended by his rector to the bishop and appointed to a parish of his own. He is in love with Lucy Wodehouse, which is requited, but they cannot marry on his salary and so he doesn't declare his love. Carlingford is rigid in its class boundaries, and so when Frank is seen escorting the pretty niece of the shopkeeper home one evening, tongues wag and he is instantly condemned by the force of rumour. Meanwhile, a mysterious lodger has moved into Frank's accommodation, and he has a secret which Lucy's much older sister seems to know. Frank also has family woes, with his Low Church aunts coming to Carlingford for an extended visit, and his older brother considering converting to Catholicism, a move that was beyond the pale in English society at that time. Frank is of course innocent of all charges, but his situation looks black to all and he belatedly realises that his reputation, relationship and career are all at stake. Frank is a likeable character, young and enthusiastic but often naive and hotheaded, who has the integrity to stick to his principles even when it might be easier to compromise. Many of his neighbours are judgemental and intolerant, but he does have some defenders in unlikely places. This is a detailed and compelling portrait of small-town Victorian life and parish politics with excellent character development.

Bad gods is a very enjoyable fantasy novel set mostly in Scalentine, a city that is connected to parallel planes of existence by gates. Scalentine sits at the nexus of 4 gates which may account for its cosmopolitan nature. It's certainly a good place for retired mercenary, ex-priest, ex- lots of things Babylon Steel to run her brothel, the Red Lantern. She provides high quality service to their clients while making sure that her staff are happy and protected - they are a found family of different species who support each other and ensure the business prospers. Babylon is asked to find a missing girl who, it is feared, may have been lured into sex work in an environment far less caring than that of the Red Lantern. While solving this mystery, events from her past come back to threaten her and all that she holds dear. I really enjoyed this; the plot, the world and the characters were all strong and well developed and I cared about what would happen. The book alternates between chapters set in the book's present, and scenes from Babylon's past on a different plane, and as the book progresses we start to see how the past and present stories are linked. Unusually, I found both timelines compelling. Although the book has humour in it, it covers some dark themes, but the first-person narration of Babylon and the relationships between her and her friends keep it from ever getting too grim. I hope the publisher decides to reprint the sequel because I'm definitely up for more adventures with Babylon and her crew.

>76 Sakerfalcon: Isn't there a historical crime novel series with Savaronola as the protagonist?

>78 -pilgrim-: There could well be, although it's not one I've heard of. If authors have made Aristotle, Jane Austen, Oscar Wilde, etc into "detectives" then why not Savonarola too?

I forgot to mention that I recently read Head on by John Scalzi. It's the sequel to Lock in and if you enjoyed that then this is more of the same. It takes the interesting premise of people affected by a virus that causes "locked-in syndrome" and imagines that the technology exists to enable them to inhabit high-tech bodies and live something like normal lives. Scalzi chooses to go light on any philosophical and psychological issues around this and focus more on the social and political ramifications, with a lot of action to propel the plot. This book finds Chris Shane investigating the case of a man who died while playing an extreme virtual sport, something that should not be able to happen. Chris and Lesley make a great team, though their techniques tend more towards wisecracks and punching than nuanced questioning and research. I enjoying meeting Chris's flatmates again, especially their reactions to the feline witness who needs protection. This was a fun read.

I've also read Drive your plow over the bones of the dead, a Polish novel by a Nobel Prize winning author. I loved this. It's narrated by Janina Duszejko, an antisocial older woman who lives in a cottage on a remote plateau near the border with the Czech Republic, where she frequently comes into conflict with the local huntsmen. Duszejko is a keen astrologer, enjoys translating Blake with one of her few friends, and generally prefers animals to people. When one of her neighbours is found dead she and another neighbour start to investigate. The book is full of quirky humour, but also makes serious points about the way we treat outsiders and animals, the hypocrisy found in society and religion, and how we perceive madness. The tone of the book and its characters reminded me very much of Fred Vargas's Inspector Adamsberg novels. This was a fantastic read and I am looking forward to starting Flights when I get a chance.

I'm now reading The ministry for the future by Kim Stanley Robinson, which is near-future SF about climate change; Sanshiro a classic Japanese novel about a young man moving to Tokyo to start university; and on kindle I'm reading The traitor Baru Cormorant, a fantasy novel and short stories collected in Some of the best from tor.com 2021.

>79 Sakerfalcon:
I read Flights by Olga Tokarczuk. I really enjoyed it and plan to read Drive your Plow over the Bones of the Dead. I also recently acquired The Books of Jacob, which is an enormous door-stop of a book.

>80 pgmcc: The books of Jacob is on my wishlist, but I told myself I have to read the two by Tokarczuk that I own before I can acquire it.

>81 Sakerfalcon: I was on a birthday bookshop bash when I spotted it. Generous people had given me money to spend on myself so I thought, "Why not!" :-)

Be warned, the pages are numbered in reverse order. The book proper starts at page 892 and works its way to page 27 with notes and acknowledgements after that, or is it before that? This caused me a little confusion just after buying the book, but a bit of Googling (I hate myself for using such a word) revealed that the book pages are numbered that way as a nod to an old Hebrew custom. This was news to me, but I find in interesting. I also thought it was an interesting way of reading a book as you will always know how much more of the book you have left to read. "I'm only on page 322. That means I have 322 pages to read." It beats having to check how many pages are in the book and then do subtraction. How convenient is that.

>79 Sakerfalcon: I really enjoyed Drive your plough over the bones of the dead as well! It was a lot easier to read than Flights, mostly due to the - I guess I'd call it body horror? - in the latter.

Glad to hear that Drive your Plow is a decent read. I bought it when it was on sale, but was afraid it was too dark to read this past year. But if it's got my kind of twisted humor then I will give it a shot sooner rather than later.

I'm glad that you enjoyed Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead, Claire. I'll try to get to it in May or June.

>79 Sakerfalcon: Glad to see you enjoyd Drive your plow over the bones of the dead, Claire. It was my first Tokarczuk. Recently I have read Flights, and I hope to read House of day, house of night this month.

>79 Sakerfalcon: I really enjoyed the traitor, sadly the 2nd wasn't as good, but the third is better again. However the series is not finished! I was expecting it to be wrapped up in a trilogy, but it's still not clear what will be the finish. That said it's worth reading Traitor just on it's own, it's that good.

Well, I just came by for a quick "hello" and got hit by a bb almost immediately. Drive Your Plow sounds like something I'd enjoy. And then Traitor. Well, that's one of the things LT is good for, isn't it! Matching readers with books. Thanks!

Cheers!

Thanks for keeping my thread warm everyone!

>82 pgmcc: I've never come across a book paginated that way! I will look out for it when I inevitably purchase The books of Jacob.

>83 nonil: I'm looking forward to Flights though it looks like a very different read to Drive your plow.

>84 clamairy:, >85 kidzdoc: I thought it was great! Duszejko is such an awesome protagonist. I hope you both enjoy it when it gets to the top of your TBR piles.

>86 FAMeulstee: Tokarczuk seems to have many fans, across many of her books. I'm glad you like her work too.

>87 reading_fox: I'm enjoying it so far, but not sure I will continue the series unless I find them cheap (this volume was a tor.com freebie). The characters and world building are excellent, the "let's take down the empire through economic policy and admin" plot is cool, but it doesn't quite have that "can't put it down" factor. On a related note, I don't know why the UK editions dropped the main character's name from the title; without it they sound really generic.

>88 Storeetllr: Oh yes, LT is notorious for adding books to your wishlist! I hope you enjoy them if you end up acquiring and reading them!

I've finished Sanshiro which was an entertaining read. It's set in the early C20th (before WWI) in Tokyo and follows the titular character as he moves to the big city from his rural home and starts at university. Although the detail of the time and place is vivid, the book has a timeless quality as it portrays the naivety and uncertainty of youth, something that feels universal. Sanshiro falls in with the more experienced Yojiro and, through him, Professor Hirota, and the lovely Mineko. With the young scientist Nonomiya and his sister Yoshiko, he finds himself in a group of friends, yet somehow he is always an observer rather than an active participant in events. He drifts along, unsure of himself, following others rather than finding his own way. Yet he is an appealing character and relatable in many ways. The book is humorous without mocking Sanshiro, and engaging in its portrayal of a particular time and place. I really enjoyed it and must read I am a cat by the same author which I have owned for many years.

I'm still reading and enjoying The traitor Baru Cormorant which is a well written fantasy novel. Baru's homeland was colonised by the Masked Empire when she was a child, and she was sent to school to be indoctrinated in its ways. But she never loses her desire to avenge her homeland and in particular her family which was torn apart by the colonisers. When she is appointed Imperial Accountant, she seeks to use her new status to bring down the Empire.

I'm also still reading Ministry for the future which is providing lots of food for thought. The titular ministry is an international organisation created to tackle climate change and save the planet as we know it from destruction. The ongoing plot is punctuated by narratives from other voices with their own perspective on events. The author makes some interesting suggestions as to how to get nations to cooperate to bring down their carbon emissions and prevent catastrophic changes to the environment. I can see why Obama picked it as one of his books of the year, and why critics have said that everyone in government should read it, as it pulls no punches in showing how bad things could get.

For this month's Virago challenge, Books with a character's name in the title, I'm reading Fenny by Lettice Cooper. Set between the world wars, this follows Ellen as she leaves her secure job in a girls' High School to go to Italy as governess to an 8 year old girl. She is wide-eyed with wonder at the beauty of the Tuscan countryside and is quickly charmed by her charge, her employers, and their glamorous friends. I am loving this book so far.

I'm also reading a Lebanese novel, The hakawati, which is a multi-generational family saga interwoven with exotic Arabian nights-style tales of cunning djinni, clever maids, wicked viziers and the like. The real-life story is not told linearly but jumps back and forth between generations. This is a very interesting and enjoyable read. It's carried over from last month's Asian reading challenge of books from the Arab world.

>89 Sakerfalcon: Both The Traitor Baru Cormorant and Ministry for the Future are on my Kindle. I'm so glad to hear they're decent reads.

>79 Sakerfalcon: I'm catching up a bit after an absence and immediately took a hit on Drive Your Plow.

>89 Sakerfalcon: Sanshiro sounds interesting Claire, adding to the list.

And again, I'm long overdue to update!

>90 clamairy: Decent sums up both books for me. I liked them but didn't feel completely engaged with them as I do with my favourite books.

>91 Jim53: It is SO good! A colleague and I were both raving about it this week!

>92 Caroline_McElwee: Sanshiro is very interesting, a peek into another time and place which yet induces very familiar emotions.

The traitor Baru Cormorant was a good read, but somehow I never quite felt engaged by the characters. It's an interesting world, and I definitely liked the emphasis on a working economic system (something so many fantasy lands lack if you think about them closely) and the importance of the civil service in creating a functioning society. But I felt that many of the secondary characters weren't adequately fleshed out, leading to some confusion regarding the many dukes and feudal lords. It's a twisty plot with high stakes, and Baru often finds her plans going awry, showing that while she is intelligent, she lacks experience and the ability to read people. I'm glad to have read this but I won't be looking for the sequels.

Ministry for the future is very much a novel of ideas rather than characters and plot. Of course there is a plot - the efforts of the world, and particularly the titular agency, to mitigate and reverse the effects of climate change - but it's not an action oriented narrative. The central characters are Mary, the head of the Ministry for the Future, and Frank, a former aid worker with PTSD from surviving a deadly heat wave in India. The two are brought together when Frank attempts to take Mary as a hostage, and their initially ambivalent relationship (not romantic) forms the emotional core of the book. Their stories are interspersed with reports and stories from various other groups, characters and viewpoints, often exploring a specific idea, project or event. The ideas Robinson puts forward include geoengineering projects, financial innovations and even eco-terrorism if all else fails. I would like to believe we could be as successful as he shows but sadly I think some of the attitudes of the "don't care", head-in-the-sand, "it could never happen here/to me" types are likely to prevail and make it a close call.

I also finished Fenny and loved it! We see Italy through the initially naive and enraptured eyes of Ellen, a British schoolteacher who has taken up a post as governess to the young daughter of a family connection. She falls in love with Italy, with the lifestyle, with her charge - and with the tutor to the son of a neighbouring family. But it is 1933 and as Fenny's story progresses she becomes aware of the rise of Fascism and the blindness to its dangers of the milieu she inhabits. Fenny grows older and wiser throughout the book, becoming resilient and making her own happiness, as well as enabling that of others. This is a lovely character study and a detailed portrayal of Italy before and after WWII.

The hakawati was a rambling novel that entwines a family's history with Arabian-Night's style folk tales of cunning djinni, clever maids, wicked viziers and the like. While the tales are told episodically but with the events in order, the family's story is non-linear, jumping around the generations and characters. Osama, his parents, sister, grandparents, niece, cousins and other relatives are a lively, irreverent lot whose love and feuds are entertaining to read about. While there is mention of the various wars that affected Lebanon in the C20th, and we see how they affect the family, the focus is on more normal times and family life. This was a long but satisfying read.

On kindle I've read The Stranger Times, by the author Caimh McDonnell whom Pilgrim introduced to this group and whose books have subsequently found their way into many a TBR pile. I actually first heard about this from a Guardian review and thought that the story of a Fortean Times/ Weekly World News type publication whose outlandish stories might actually be true sounded like a fun read. We meet the ST and its motley staff through Hannah, a newly-divorced, rather sheltered and inexperienced woman who comes seeking a job. She finds a foul-mouthed alcoholic editor whose swearing is firmly policed by the devout Christian receptionist who keeps the office under something like control; a reporter who regularly attempts to jump off the roof; a mouthy teenager with attitude to spare; and a would-be cub reporter who waits outside every day hoping for a job. There's a lot of humour, obviously, but also poignancy as we see how much these rough characters care for one another. It's set in Manchester, England, which makes a nice change from the usual London setting for non US urban fantasy. While the author's thrillers don't really appeal to me I will definitely be reading more in this particular series and highly recommend it.

This month's Asian reading challenge is books from Iran, and I read the very popular novel My uncle Napoleon. Like The hakawati, it's the story of a large chaotic family with lots of feuds going on, all under the thumb of despotic, paranoid Dear Uncle. The humour is very broad, using slapstick and farce more than I tend to enjoy, and indeed I found the first section of the book rather a slog as it revolves around the fallout from an unfortunately timed vulgar noise (the word "fart" is never used) during one of Uncle's stories. However, it does serve to introduce the characters and their personalities and the web of relationships which are key to the rest of the book (which I greatly enjoyed). Dear Uncle, encouraged by his manservant, believes that he is the target of British revenge for the battles in which he defeated their armies in his youth (events that exist only in his head). His paranoia is comical, but also shown to be a means by which he controls his family and their dependents. They are all subject to his whims and even strangers find themselves drawn into his desperate plotting. Apparently this book is greatly loved in Iran and the characters are seen to be very typical for that culture. The reviews here on LT show that its humour and themes don't seem to travel well abroad, but I am glad to have read it.

I've also read Heaven, a recent Japanese novel about the friendship that grows between two bullied school students. The male narrator has been mercilessly bullied, both physically and psychologically, for years on account of his lazy eye. One day he receives a note in his desk suggesting that he and the writer have things in common and should meet. Kojima neglects herself out of grief for her father, and the girls in her class pick on her for this. She and the narrator manage to keep their friendship secret for a while, and the summer holidays give a respite from the torment ... but the new term brings a nail-biting showdown with the bullies. Parts of this book are VERY hard to read, as the bullying is described clearly and it is very sadistic. Aside from that, this is a sensitive examination of the effects of bullying and the growth of a fragile friendship.

I think that's everything I've read since last time.

I'm currently reading A labyrinth of scions and sorcery which is the second in a trilogy (series?) set in an imaginative, slightly steampunk world; Miss Herbert, a Virago novel following the life of the titular character as she seeks fulfilment in life and love; Flights, Olga Tokarczuk's prize-winning novel (very different to Drive your plow but fascinating) and, on kindle, Shards of earth, a space opera by Adrian Tchaikovsky.

>93 Sakerfalcon: ouch. You got me with Fenny...

>68 Sakerfalcon:, >73 clamairy: Just dropping by to say that I have started Arcadia and I am really enjoying it so far! Thank you for the nudge.

Oh cool, glad you're getting into it. Pears hasn't published a novels since then and I'm getting antsy for one. pgmcc and I have talked about doing a group read for Stone's Fall too. It doesn't have a lot of the fantasy overtones this book has, but it's really layered and the plot folds in over itself in a similar way.

>95 wandering_star: Oh, this is great to hear! Please come back and share your comments in the group discussion when you are ready.

>97 clamairy: Will do - where is the group discussion?

>96 Bookmarque: In terms of the plot folding over on itself, the book reminds me of an SFF book I love, The Anubis Gates - if you enjoyed that element of Arcadia you might like The Anubis Gates too. It's the only other book I have read with that sensation of nesting all the stories and having to work out who is what when...

>98 wandering_star: The first section of the Arcadia read is here: https://www.librarything.com/topic/339721#

I suggest not reading ahead in the discussions as there are a lot of spoilers!

>99 wandering_star: I'm a yoouuuge Tim Powers fan. Just finished my third read of The Anubis Gates last week. Love that book. Have you read the two prequel novellas?

>99 wandering_star: I really enjoyed the Anubis Gates. It is a while since I read it.

Thanks for keeping my thread warm everyone! >95 wandering_star: I'm glad you're enjoying Arcadia. I too had let it languish on the TBR pile for a long time until the group read pushed it back onto my radar.

>94 fuzzi: As well as the sympathetic lead character, Fenny describes the Tuscan countryside so well that it's like taking a vacation to Italy!

>96 Bookmarque: I haven't read Stone's fall but I enjoyed The dream of Scipio and An instance of the fingerpost so I'd join a group read if we did one.

>99 wandering_star:, >100 ScoLgo:, >101 pgmcc: The only Tim Powers I've read is Hide me among the graves, an urban historical fantasy revolving around the (real-life) Pre-Raphaelite group. I own the Fisher King trilogy and The drawing of the dark so I should really try reading them soon!

I had a fair amount of reading time this weekend and finished Shards of earth and A labyrinth of scions and sorcery, both of which were very good. Shards is a space opera, set a few decades after human space was devastated by a race of aliens know as the Architects for the way they destroy planets by contorting and sculpting them into artistic forms. Only the efforts of Idris the Intermediary, a human whose brain was surgically altered allowing him to reach the alien mind, caused the attacks to stop. But when the crew of the salvage ship Vulture God are sent to retrieve a missing vessel from deep space, it appears that the Architects may have returned. This book is an exciting mix of action and character interaction, with the type of mismatched cast of characters that we're familiar with from Small angry planet and similar books. There are a lot of chase and battle scenes as the Vulture God attempts to evade the various factions who seek to seize the crew - Idris in particular - and the retrieved ship to use them for their own purposes. It's more of a romp than the more thought-provoking Doors of Eden by the same author, but recommended if you want an action-oriented SF read.

Labyrinth was a great return to the world of the risen kingdoms, which are situated on floating fragments of a once-whole planet. Since reading the first instalment, An alchemy of masques and mirrors, I've read Christelle Dabos' Mirror Visitor books which are set in a very similar universe of fragmented worlds and have a similar premise - clever girl is sent into an arranged marriage for diplomatic reasons and gets caught up in political machinations - but the execution and tone are very different and I very much doubt there was any influence in either direction. Isabelle is our heroine, she was adopted as a baby by the musketeer Jean-Claude who is still always at her right hand. The narrative is shared between their perspectives, both of which are equally compelling. Isabelle and Jean-Claude discover some gruesome murders and biological experimentation, which they gradually realise is leading to an attempted coup. Meanwhile, Isabelle has lost her noble status and all its perquisites, putting her at a disadvantage as she seeks to undermine the coup. This is such a good series, I don't know why it took me so long to read this sequel! I have the third book lined up ready to start soon.

I've just started reading Small favors, a fantasy set in a world that feels very like a colonial US village, and Murder at St Margaret which is an urban fantasy set at an Oxford college. I am very disappointed that the lovely cat has turned out to be a dragon in disguise.

>100 ScoLgo: Thank you!

I did not know about the prequel novellas... but I think I would need to re-read The Anubis Gates before I read them, as the details of the story have faded away a bit (although I still have some images clearly in my head).

>98 wandering_star: Sorry, just seeing this. I'm happy to see that ScoLgo answered your question.

I've finished a few more books since I last posted.

Murder at St Margaret was a fun read which I'd describe as cosy urban fantasy. It's set at an Oxford college where Natalie has just taken a job as Head of Ceremonies. She finds that a cat seems to come with the job. On her first day she discovers the dead body of the college chef, and learns that magic is real and part of her job is to strengthen and preserve it through the events she organises. At this point, the cat is revealed to be the disguise of a wyvern (small dragon) with a terrible accent that can't decide whether it is Scots or cockney. I would rather he had stayed a cat, but as it is he's useful source of info to Nat and the reader. Natalie must solve the murder and plan a successful fundraising gala to secure the university's financial and magical future. For the most part the book's British voice is successful; there are just a few Americanisms that have crept in but it's a lot better in that respect than many. Natalie is mostly competent, although prone to the usual impulsiveness of heroines in this genre, and she makes friends with her colleagues rather than treating them as competition. A plot thread is left dangling for the next book, but fun as this was, I shan't be seeking it out.

I also finished Miss Herbert, which followed the life of the titular character from her 20s to her 50s, through lovers, marriage, children, and post-divorce. Although she seeks to earn her own living she isn't taken seriously, being told things like "this job isn't good enough for a woman like you" by men who don't understand that she needs to work to support herself and her children. It's more readable than some of Stead's other books, but I didn't like it as much as Letty Fox or For love alone.

On kindle I read Plain bad heroines, a queer gothic novel set at a girls' school in Rhode Island in the early C20th and the present day. A book that causes girls to become obsessed with it leads to mysterious happenings and student deaths at Brookhants School, causing it to close down. A century later, Merritt writes a book based on these events, and it's being made into a film. Merritt joins actresses Audrey and Harper on the set, where history seems to be repeating itself. Is there a curse, or is the director playing games? This was a great read, but I felt that the postmodern, very self-aware narrative could put some readers off. I enjoyed it, but I know people who will find it annoying. The narrative jumps between the past of the school's founder and her partner, the past of the schoolgirls, and the present of the film production, weaving a web in which some, but not all, things are explained. Yellow jackets (wasps) abound, as do rotten apples, creepy dolls, sinister servants, snow out of season and other disturbing happenings. I really enjoyed seeing the pieces come together and the relationships between Merritt, Audrey and Harper develop. I'll definitely read more by the author.

I also read a vintage children's book, Terrible, horrible, Edie, about an intelligent and resourceful 10 year old in the 1900s who has too much time on her hands and resents being put upon by her much older siblings. She's not really terrible or horrible, but the aforementioned factors do lead her into trouble. Edie is a really engaging heroine and her adventures over a summer on the Massachusetts coast show an idyllic past in which kids ran free of care (even if those responsible for them had nightmares!) A great read.

Now I'm still reading Flights, which is an odd book but brilliant in parts. It's an exploration of travel in the modern world, and human anatomy, and the connections between them. It's made up of mostly short sections, some of which are stories, others which are meditations or essays on the book's themes. There are some gruesome descriptions.

I'm also reading Serpent's Reach by C. J. Cherryh, Small favors by Erin Craig and a biography of Rebecca West by Victoria Glendinning - the latter is for this month's Virago challenge. I also have books from Pakistan and Uzbekistan lined up for the Asian reading challenge.

>105 Sakerfalcon: Serpent's Reach isn't my favorite Cherryh, but definitely worth reading.

>105 Sakerfalcon: I really liked Craig's House of Salt and Sorrows and have this one on my TBR. Looking forward to your review!

Edited to correct numbering

>106 fuzzi: I would agree. I liked it more than Downbelow Station (which I am in a minority for strongly disliking) but less than the Foreigner and Chanur books. I agree wholeheartedly with Karlstar's review where he says The main character, Raen, is a good character and the setting is great. Unfortunately, there's just not enough shown of what's going on, so every action of hers feels mysterious and murky and at the end, it doesn't feel resolved. There are a lot of thought provoking concepts here though. Cherryh does write aliens REALLY well though, and Serpent's Reach is no exception in that respect.

>107 libraryperilous: I found Small favors to be MUCH darker than I expected. I hadn't read the reviews here on LT which describe it as a mix of fantasy and horror, but they are spot on. The horror is not only supernatural, but revealed in the worst of human nature too. The book is a slow burn as we see Ellerie, her siblings, and their community trying to survive a winter with supplies running low, strangers arriving, and mysterious events occurring. The love that Ellerie and her sisters share is the one hopeful force in the book and provides much-needed brightness. Their brother Samuel is especially well-drawn, someone we can sympathise with in one scene but then despise in another - he is conflicted and struggles to keep his better nature to the fore, a battle he ultimately loses . Unlike a lot of YA novels, this one doesn't pull its punches - there is real nastiness, violence and loss, and the ending is quite shocking. There is the obligatory love interest but Ellerie never lets romance distract her from doing what she needs to help her family survive; the strongest love is between the three sisters. It's a powerful but very disturbing book and I can't see myself reading it again. I am, however, looking forward to House of salt and sorrow.

I also finished Flights which was a strange book but never dull. There are a few main stories that weave through the narrative - a C17th anatomist who dissects his own (amputated) leg; the daughter of an African courtier whose father's body has been taxidermied and put on display by the Austrian Emperor; a woman who leaves her husband and disabled child to wander the city as a vagrant; a husband whose wife and son disappear while on holiday, only to return with no explanation. These are interleaved with scenes from the pov of a woman who may be the author, and with short essays or meditations on the nature of travel and the human body, and the relationship between humanity and motion. It's completely unlike anything else I've read. I preferred Drive your plow but have huge respect for an author this versatile.

The biography of Rebecca West was just perfect for me - neither too long or too short, with just enough detail to flesh out the subject and the people who mattered to her, without bogging down in minutiae or going off on tangents. Sometimes I like huge immersive biographies, such as the monumental Red comet but this was just the level that I needed. West was a very interesting person both as a woman and a writer, and the author of this book actually knew West in her final years, and also spoke with her son, lending authenticity to the account. I've enjoyed the novels by West that I've read, and this has inspired me to read some of her non-fiction.

For the Asian reading challenge this month I read a Pakistani dystopian novel that is strongly influenced by The handmaid's tale. Before she sleeps is set in a post-climate disaster, post-nuclear war, post-woman-killing virus, South West Asia, in a sustainably built city created from the ashes. Green City is an oasis in a devastated world - but after generations of sex-selection for boys and the virus which decimated the female population, there is a need to maximise the number of children born. Each woman must take multiple husbands, chosen for her by the state, and devote her life to bearing children. As always in these novels, there is an underground organisation of women who have managed to escape this fate, who have managed to gain protection from influential men in the city in return for providing non-sexual comfort. The story is told by multiple narrators, firstly Sabine, Lin and Rupa who all dwell in the underground community, then with some male voices added as the plot expands. Unfortunately this isn't a setting that stands up to much scrutiny. I had a lot of questions about how some of the societal changes - mainly that this is now a post-religious society - occurred. Would thesis powerful men really be content with non-sexual contact with women when not having regular sex with their wives? The streets of Green City feel empty - where is everyone? Surely escaping women would stand out a mile when leaving their homes to join the underground? Just how many women are part of it anyway? That's before the discrepancies in the plot, which feels very thin. Some things seem unnecessarily complicated, others too convenient. I finished the book because I wanted to know what happened to the characters, but ultimately this was a pale shadow of the Handmaid's Tale.

Now I've started reading Cyteen, based on a discussion in the Science Fiction Fans group. For the Virago challenge I've begun the Tin toys trilogy. And on my kindle I'm reading Swan song, a novel about Truman Capote and the society women he gathered around him and ultimately betrayed. I chose this because a character in Plain bad heroines is fascinated by the unfinished novel in which he exposed the women's secrets and destroyed his relationships with them. I know very little about Capote but this piqued my interest.

>108 Sakerfalcon: it took me years to finally tackle Cyteen, and it was worth it. I liked it better than Downbelow Station.

I got WAY behind in the Foreigner series due to RL. I have tentatively scheduled book #4 Precursor for this month, but we'll see.

Happy Birthday, Claire!

What? Birthday, is it? Happy!

>108 Sakerfalcon: Agree on your thoughts about Flights a strange book but never dull.
I recently read House of day, house of night, it is a bit in between Flights (multiple stories) and Drive your plow (location, old woman).

>108 Sakerfalcon:
I read and enjoyed Flights as part of our book club. One of our members came up with an interpretation I had not thought of. He thought the reappearance of the missing wife and son was actually a delusion in the father’s mind; a mechanism that his mind created to help him cope with their disappearance.

Happy birthday Sakerfalcon. (Hopefully, time zone differences don't make my wishes for a great celebration too belated to be worth it!)

I have a question about Serpent's Reach. I notice that on Amazon you can only get it packaged with Cuckoo's Egg. Do they really only make sense read back-to-back or are they successful as stand-alone novels?

>108 Sakerfalcon: Happy Birthday, Claire! If you enjoy Cyteen, you might want to look for Regenesis, as it is a direct sequel.

>114 jillmwo: They are stand alone. It's like the Alliance Space duology - Merchanter's Luck is part of The Company Wars while Forty Thousand in Gehenna is part of Unionside, (40K, Cyteen, Regenesis). In the larger picture, they take place in the same universe, but there are no direct connections in regard to characters or plot.

Putting titles like that together is puzzling to me. I suppose you get two books for the price of one, but they are separate stories.

Now, the Devil to the Belt omnibus makes a lot of sense because those two novels are directly connected and are the first two novels in the Company Wars stories. They are also the only two that feature the same set of main characters.

Cherryh's page on Worlds Without End does a nice job of listing each series. They show Cuckoo's Egg as part of Age of Exploration but really, I don't think there is any connection between those three books - other than perhaps chronology within the larger framework...?

>108 Sakerfalcon: Hippo Birdie!

>108 Sakerfalcon: your birthday? Woo!

Happy belated birthday.

>110 pgmcc:, >111 Meredy:, >114 jillmwo:, >115 ScoLgo:, >116 hfglen:, >117 fuzzi: Thanks for the birthday wishes! I managed to acquire books, which should hopefully appease the enforcers!

>109 fuzzi: I'm glad you liked Cyteen. I'm a few chapters in and really enjoying it so far.

>112 FAMeulstee: I will have to look for that one - so far I've only found her books published by Fitzcarraldo Press in the UK

>113 pgmcc: That's a good theory, and seems plausible.

>114 jillmwo:, >115 ScoLgo: Thanks for answering Jill's question! Those twofer pairings of Cherryh's books do seem odd combinations. I wonder if they're based on something as simple as the "correct" number of pages to make an appropriately-sized volume?

>118 Sakerfalcon:
I wonder if they're based on something as simple as the "correct" number of pages to make an appropriately-sized volume?

I think you have probably hit the nail on the head.

Another birthday wish, and my your next year be filled with reading joys, among other joys.

How did I manage to miss that it’s your birthday? I’ll blame it on being jet lagged out of my wits. Belated many happy returns!

>118 Sakerfalcon: Happy belated birthday!

Serpent's Reach wasn't all that short, though compared to epic tomes these days, possibly.

>120 MrsLee:, >121 haydninvienna:, >122 Karlstar: Thanks for the birthday wishes! I prefer to think of it as an "extended" rather than belated birthday!

>119 pgmcc:, >122 Karlstar: Serpent's Reach took me a long time to read because you can't just skim Cherryh's prose, but it's not a huge book by today's standards - just under 300 pages I think. The omnibus editions are really chunky - I think one of the Chanurs contains 3 books!

I've just finished reading Swan song, a novel about Truman Capote and the women with whom he surrounded himself. Most of the book is from their point of view, either collectively or singly as their individual stories are told. The narrative is non-linear, jumping back and forth between present and past and using a variety of narrative styles. As the book opens it's easy to label the "swans" as unpleasant, overprivileged, selfish rich bitches, but the narrative reveals each of them to be far more complex. We may not like them or their lifestyles but they are more than the lazy stereotype. Capote too is a difficult character, shown with all his faults yet we can clearly see the charm which drew these women to treat him as a trusted confidante. I really enjoyed this read; I hadn't really known much about Capote's life and learning about it through the eyes of these women made it come alive for me. I've now acquired Clarke's biography of him to get a fuller picture.

In its place on my kindle I'm now reading The galaxy and the ground within, the last of the Wayfarers series. Already I'm enjoying it more than the previous one.

Hope you enjoyed your birthday- sending you belated wishes!

>124 Peace2: Thank you!

Extended birthday wishes Claire, I hadn't realised (or forgot) we birthdayed so close, mine is the 9th.

>126 Caroline_McElwee: Birthday wishes to you too Caroline! May is the best month!

I finished The galaxy and the ground within and really liked it. It's the final book in Chambers' Wayfarers series and, like the previous stories, is character- rather than plot-driven. Three different aliens are stranded at an intergalactic waystation during a emergency that grounds all traffic on and off the planet. They are hosted by Ouloo and her child, aliens of another type. The different characters must overcome their prejudices and help each other to solve their problems. I like books with no human characters, and Chambers' aliens are always interesting. Some might find the book's message of "let's try to get along" to be simplistic but honestly in this day and age I think we could all benefit from it.

I've also finished The last graduate, second in Naomi Novik's Scholomance series. This has the same fascinating premise - a magic school that seems determined to kill off the students - as the first book, but also the same faults - a first-person narrator who tell us every. single. thing. even in the midst of action scenes. It is all telling, almost no showing. El is a spiky character, determined not to care too much about others, but finds herself attracting allies and making true friends despite herself. The book ends on a cliffhanger, so despite the many issues I have with the series I will almost certainly be reading on.

I'm still enjoying Cyteen which is a great read but not one that you can breeze through. It's complex and chewy in topic and prose, a three-course meal rather than a snack. I'm also liking the Tin Toys trilogy a lot. Set before, during and after WWII, it tells of three sisters from a chaotic, neglectful household and their misadventures. It is dark, but the innocent voice of the narrator (each volume is told by a different sister) lightens the mood somewhat. And I've also started reading Blonde by Joyce Carol Oates, her fictional portrait of Marilyn Monroe.

>128 Sakerfalcon: I have Blonde on my wish list on Overdrive so will be interested in your review. I haven't read much Joyce Carol Oates to date but have enjoyed the limited short fiction I've read. I tried The Gravedigger's Daughter a few months ago but bounced off it within a few chapters. Might try again some day to see if it was just my mood at the time.

>128 Sakerfalcon: Cyteen certainly isn't a quick beach read!

>129 ScoLgo: I'm finding Blonde a fascinating read. I know very little about Monroe's life but I'm aware that Oates has fictionalized some aspects and incidents. Still the overriding sense is of a woman who had almost no control over her life mostly due to her extreme good looks which made men desire her and women fear her. I'm about half way through - Oates' prose needs close reading and you can't breeze through it, very like C. J. Cherryh in that respect!

>130 fuzzi: No, not at all!

I finished Cyteen and loved it! So much to think about, such complex issues and morally grey characters. I'm glad the novel spend so much time with Ariane 1 before the main plot took over, so we got to understand what a mixed blessing her legacy would be to Ariane 2. I must admit I didn't always understand people's motivations - why did Denys and Giraud try to kill off Ari at the end, when they had put so much into the project? But overall this was a great read.

I'm trying to finish Tin toys before the end of the month; I don't think I'll have a problem as it's very compelling. The final part is set in Ireland where the two older sisters are living hand to mouth in a decaying farmhouse, while their stepfather drinks himself into oblivion and their mother is mostly absent in body and spirit. It sounds bleak but it's very good.

On kindle I started House of Earth and Blood, an urban fantasy by Sarah Maas. I haven't read any of her other series but I've heard praise for her so thought I'd try this when it was on a deal. I'm not liking the main character and I sense it will be too romance-y for my taste, but the world is interesting.

Happy extended birthday!

>131 Sakerfalcon: Ok, even with all of the references to Cyteen in Forty Thousand in Gehenna, I see Cyteen is listed next in the series, at least in one series. I'll get to that soon-ish.

>131 Sakerfalcon: glad you appreciated Cyteen. It took me long enough to get to it, which is strange considering how much I enjoy Cherryh. Now I need to get to the sequel, Regenesis.

>132 libraryperilous: Thank you!

>133 Karlstar:, >134 fuzzi: I will have to get hold of both Gehenna and Regenesis now! But I'm taking a side trip to another universe now with Defender.

I finished Tin toys and very much enjoyed it despite it being extremely bleak. The three sisters, Bonnie, Tor and Ula, are failed by every adult in their lives - parents, teachers, step-parents alike. But the child's eye view of tragic events is generally stoic, not having the experience to realise the awfulness of what they are going through - it's just normal to them. This lightens the mood somewhat, as the girls are able to find touches of magic in even the grimmest setting. The trilogy leaves you wanting to know more about how the girls' lives will turn out after such an unpromising beginning. The book is extremely well-written, and kept me engrossed.

I've also read The underground by Hamid Ismailov who is from Uzbekistan but was exiled and now lives in Britain. The book is set in Moscow and narrated by the illegitimate son of a Russian woman and an African man. As such he is an outsider, always conspicuous, never accepted. His tells his life story in an almost dreamlike narrative from beyond the grave, showing us scenes from his 12 years of life in Moscow, structured around the stations of the metro. I'm sure there were a lot of references that I missed, and I often found the book confusing, but the parts I did understand were very powerful.

This month's challenges are books from the Indian subcontinent - I have Latitudes of longing and Miss Timmins' school for girls lined up - and books by Virago authors which were not published by Virago - I have titles by Rose Macaulay and Stella Gibbons ready.

I'm still reading Blonde and, having had a quick look at wikipedia, am realising how much of it is fictional - I guess Oates was aiming to write the emotional, rather than literal, truth. I'm persevering with House of earth and blood mainly because I can't decide on something else to read on my kindle at the moment, but I'm really not keen on the characters.

>135 Sakerfalcon: did you read the previous four books in the series first?

>131 Sakerfalcon: Thank you for your thoughts on Blonde. I need to move that one up on my list.

>135 Sakerfalcon: Gehenna is tangential to Cyteen while Regenesis is a direct sequel. Since you have already read Cyteen, I recommend continuing with Regenesis before back-tracking to Gehenna. Either way, I hope you enjoy both once you get around to reading them.

>136 fuzzi: Yes I did! I can't imagine understanding what's going on without doing so. Cherryh creates such a complex society and characters.

>137 ScoLgo: Thanks for the advice! Much appreciated.

Yay more CherryH love.

>138 Sakerfalcon: yes I agree very complex characters each with their own motivations. And because the writing is usually restricted to just one (or at most a couple) of viewpoints, you only experience direct explanations that the POV character knows about. I much prefer this style to ones where the author cuts away to (usually) the antagonist and gives away the surprise. It does mean a lot of thinking though!

>139 reading_fox: Yes, poor Bren is so confused, and thus so are we! In Defender he realises that Tabini has been acting behind his back and neither we nor him have a clue why, which really ups the tension. It's great.

At the weekend I read Dangerous ages by Rose Macaulay, which looks at four generations of women in the same family, all aged roughly 20 years apart. Grandmamma is in her eighties and doesn't care what people think of her any more, she's going to do as she likes until she dies. Mrs Hillary, her widowed daughter, has few mental resources or practical skills and feels sidelined and ignored by her children, useless and discarded. Her daughter Neville is also at a loose end now her children are adults, and seeks to return to the medical studies she abandoned upon marriage. And her daughter Gerda despises the old conventions of marriage and other social restrictions, but faces a dilemma when she falls for her aunt's long-time suitor. Although the book is very much of its time (1920s) it is very perceptive and many of the satirical observations still ring true. Recommended.

>140 Sakerfalcon: thanks for NOT spoiling Defender for me, I'm currently reading it!

It's all your fault, I found and purchased Regenesis yesterday...

>141 fuzzi: I love that we are reading this series together!

Wow I am long overdue for an update! I've been away on holiday for a week with unreliable wifi so haven't been online much at all.

I finished Blonde, Defender and House of earth and blood before I went away - I didn't want to take any of them with me as I was so close to the end. Blonde was absorbing and tragic, not an easy read but one that I found hard to put down. Defender was another excellent instalment of Bren's adventures with the Atevi, this time in space. And I ended up enjoying House of Earth and Blood more than I expected. The drawn-out sexual tension was eye-rolling, as Bryce and Hunt paused to drool over each other in the middle of whatever they were supposed to be doing, but I did appreciate the slow build of trust between them - no insta-love, but a reasonable progression from enemies to allies, friends and, finally, lovers. The world is complicated, peopled by many different species, with humans at the bottom of the pecking order. The first 3/4 or so of the book are quite drawn-out, as Bryce and Hunt pursue their quest and spar with each other, but the final section is all high stakes action, fast-moving and tense. It was this that improved my opinion of the book as I really did enjoy this part. If the sequel goes onto a kindle deal I will pick it up.

I also managed to read 2 of my challenge books before going away - Latitudes of longing and The rich house. The former took me to some less-visited parts of India - the Andaman islands and the Himalayan snow desert, as well as Burma. It's a series of four stories, with characters linking from one to the next. The main story is set on the Andaman islands and shows us a young couple living close to nature and to ghosts from colonial times. The story then follows their child's nurse to Burma, where she seeks the son she gave up at birth. Another character takes us to Nepal, and from there to the Indian Himalaya. The narrative is rooted in the geology of the subcontinent, as the land itself permeates the lives of the people who live upon it. Frequently dreamlike and strange, this is a fascinating and unusual book.

The rich house by Stella Gibbons is set in a seaside town and follows the entwined lives and loves of a group of young people who are trying to discover what they want from life. There are also hints of the war to come. There are a few very sudden engagements/marriages but that's typical of books in this period (late 1930s/early 40s) and I liked that Gibbons gives us a peek at their lives in the future.

I also read a short novella, Great Granny Webster, which is narrated by a young girl who is sent to stay with the titular character while convalescing. This is a macabre and Gothic story, darkly humorous, as we see the chaos behind the scenes of an aristocratic family. The author herself grew up in a similar Anglo-Irish family, and the novel is semi-autobiographical. One can easily see her as the unsparing narrator in the book. It's a very quick, unsettling, but entertaining read.

I'm currently reading Voyaging out, which is a history of British women artists in the C20th. It's generously illustrated and wide ranging about all aspects of the art world and women's place in it. I've heard of a lot of the artists, but there are many more whose work I'd like to see more of. I'm also reading Miss Timmins' school for girls, another title for the Indian subcontinent challenge. This is a mystery set in an archaic boarding school which teaches British values and customs to Indian girls in 1970s Maharashtra. I'm also reading Tension by E. M. Delafield, about women's roles and place in society in 1920s England. And on kindle I'm reading Termination shock by Neal Stephenson. It is entertaining so far, but he is terrible at exposition - there is an actual conversation between characters where each thing they say is punctuated with "As you are aware ..." and similar. I don't remember him doing this in his early books. Where is his editor?

>142 Sakerfalcon: Welcome back. I hope your holiday was awesome.

I read Miss Timmins' School for Girls back in 2011 for the ER group. I mostly enjoyed it.

>142 Sakerfalcon: I enjoyed Defender very much, am planning to tackle Explorer in July.

Oh dear, I lost track of this thread again as it had disappeared from my view (I have it starred so I can get it back). Will try to keep up from now on.

>143 clamairy: It was! Very sunny, lots of good food and walking.

>144 fuzzi: So am I!

>145 LyzzyBee: Nice to "see" you again!

I've finished all 4 of the books I was reading in my last update.

Voyaging out was a very good survey of British women artists from the turn of the C20th to the 1960s. The chapters are arranged by theme rather than chronologically, covering such topics as education, relationships, art movements, activism and social change. Almost every page has a colour example of a work by one of the women being discussed. Well-known artists such as Barbara Hepworth, Laura Knight and Winifred Nicholson feature among many, many others who have been overlooked and who deserve to be rediscovered. This was a good read and a physically beautiful book.

I enjoyed Miss Timmins' school for girls quite a lot, certainly more than many of the LT reviewers seemed to. The portrayal of life in a small town in 1960s Maharashtra was very well done, with emphasis on the tension between those who seek the big-city diversions of modern clothes and culture (including drugs), the more traditional ways of the town, and the archaic English customs of the school. Charu is a flawed but relatable protagonist as she seeks to figure her way through life. My favourite section of the book was that narrated by one of the pupils though. The murder mystery propels the plot, but for me the depiction of place and time was what kept me reading.

Tension was an excellent read that lived up to its name and then some. Sir Julian and Lady Rossiter are benefactors to a local college and as such have some say in its governance. When a new Lady Superintendent is appointed, Lady Rossiter realises that she may be the woman who jilted a family member, something that Lady Rossiter cannot forgive. Her malicious whispers, thinly disguised as concern for the college and its students, lead to a very unsettling term for everyone involved. This is a brilliant portrayal of hypocrisy and the power of rumour.

I just finished Termination shock, which was better than Seveneves but nowhere near the brilliance of Anathem. There is a lot of exposition and excessive clarification of things that do not need to be clarified, interspersed with some compelling action scenes. We follow four main characters - the Queen of the Netherlands, a Texan billionaire, a young Canadian of (East) Indian descent, and a Texan hog-hunter turned drone specialist. The plot is concerned with climate change, and centres around a daring project to inject sulphur dioxide(?) into the atmosphere to deflect the sun's rays and thus cool the planet. Needless to say, this has geopolitical ramifications as some countries are negatively affected. Stephenson seems to have a dim view of traditional Greens, who believe in trying to limit carbon emissions and generally living in a less wasteful way, and to favour the cause of geoengineers who want to use technology to intervene so that civilization can continue as it is without making sacrifices, in the short term at least. The book doesn't exactly offer a nuanced debate; our heroes are all on the tech side and only slighting references are made to the Green party and its supporters. It's a mostly entertaining read, but one that I'm glad I didn't get at full price.

Now I'm reading Take back plenty, an SF classic which is great fun so far; Primary inversion which is SF/romance - hopefully not too much of the latter; Lenin's kisses for the China month of the Asian reading challenge; and, on kindle, How high we go in the dark which also seems to be concerned with climate change and is excellent so far.

>146 Sakerfalcon: Thanks for that review of Termination Shock, I will put that one on the back burner for a while.

>146 Sakerfalcon: Glad you enjoyed Tension, I thought it was excellent!

>147 Karlstar: It's certainly topical at the moment, but there are now so many Cli-Fi books out there that I'm sure you can find a better one if you're in the mood for it!

>148 LyzzyBee: It really was!

As usual I have some catching up to do. I've managed to finish all the books I was reading last time, plus two more.

Take back plenty was a very fun read. In the future, our solar system has been visited and populated by various alien races, who now live alongside humans and control how far into space they can explore. Tabitha Jute pilots the spaceship Alice Liddell, ferrying cargo around the solar system. She's out of luck and threated with losing Alice when she meets the enigmatic and charming Marco Metz, who offers her a way out of trouble. But she soon realises she's fallen out of the frying pan and into the fire as she gets caught up in one crazy situation after another. Tabitha, Marco and his troupe are larger than life characters who come to life on the page, the various aliens are interesting and unique, and the different cultures around the solar system are well drawn. All of these are very fun to read and explore through the fast-moving plot.

Lenin's kisses is a satire on China's "communist capitalism" and its effects on ordinary people. Liven village is hidden deep in the Balou mountains, populated almost entirely by blind, deaf and disabled people. They have lived contentedly for decades, untroubled by the outside world. However, after the county official takes notice of the villagers and the unique skills they have developed to compensate for their disabilties, he comes up with a scheme to use them to raise money in order to purchase Lenin's body from the Russians. Chief Liu plans to build an elaborate mausoleum in the mountains and market it as a tourist attraction. Soon the whole county is under the spell of the promise of wealth and power. The novel is humorous but also pretty dark in places. Stylistically it's interesting too, with a mix of regular chapters and extended endnotes containing context, sometimes as long as the chapters themselves. Only even numbers are used, odd ones being regarded as inauspicious. I enjoyed it.

Primary inversion was a fairly good read but, I'm rather relieved to say, this is not going to become a new series to acquire. It's space opera set in a universe where the Skolian Empire is pitted against the Traders, with the humans and other Allied races in between. Our heroine Sauscony is heir to the Skolian Empire, and a talented soldier and empath. The Traders are ruled by the Aristos who thrive on the physical and mental rape of the psychic Skolians. In her past, Soz was captured and used in this way by an Aristo, an experience which still scars her. So she is surprised when she encounters an Aristo in a bar, and touches his mind to discover that they share a bond, completely unlike the void that characterises his kin. This a a combination of SF and romance, but as you can tell from the description, the romance is one of those "instant attraction because they are fated to be together" stories. However, Soz and Jabriol spend most of the book apart; the core of the story is Soz dealing with the trauma in her past and coming to terms with her family's own misdeeds. It's an interesting universe, but having read the plots of the subsequent books in the series they seem too heavy on romance for my taste.

How high we go in the dark is a rather bleak dystopian novel that imagines a far more deadly pandemic than Covid and the effect it has on individuals and society. It's structured as a series of linked short stories, with characters from one story popping up in later ones. Many of the characters are Japanese or Japanese American, which gives a slightly different perspective than we usually see in this sort of novel. I enjoyed following the connections between the characters, and the explorations of how humanity might react to a catastrophe of this sort. The final chapter suddenly puts an SFnal spin onto the preceding narrative, but it didn't really work for me. I preferred the stories without that interpretation, sad though they were. It's beautifully written and imaginative, but not a cheerful read so proceed with caution.

This month's Virago challenge is Irish writers and I chose to read The fly on the wheel which is set in Waterford at the start of the C20th. It is a penetrating look at middle-class Catholic society and the pressures placed upon men and women to conform. Stephen Carey has raised his 6 younger brothers and established them in suitable careers, following the death of their father who left them in straightened circumstances. He is enraged when the youngest, Frank, writes to say that he has become engaged to penniless Isabel Costello. Stephen determines to break off the match, and meets with Isabel to encourage her to back out of the engagement. He doesn't expect to fall head over heels in love with her himself. Stephen is married to a very suitable woman and has three sons; he is a pillar of respectable society. Now he feels its restrictions just as much as Isabel, his wife Daisy, and her unmarried sister. I found the attraction between Stephen and Isabel believable, and the reactions of those around them equally so. We know this can't end well, and indeed it doesn't but it's a very good exploration of human nature and society.

The other book I read was The Fat Lady Sings which is an exploration of mental health, race and sexuality seen through the eyes and experiences of exuberant Gloria and silent Merle, who find themselves on the same psychiatric inpatient ward. Gloria is grieving after the death of her life partner Josie, while Merle's husband left her when she started "acting weird". Both of them are now at the mercy of impatient nurses and overbearing doctors who believe the women will be cured when their behaviour fits a narrow definition of "normal". The growing relationship between Gloria and Merle is moving to observe, as are the women's inner battles to define what is "normal" for them. While parts of the book are sad and enraging, overall it is hopeful and positive. I really enjoyed it and highly recommend it.

Now I've started The evidence by Christopher Priest, a novel set in his Dream Archipelago; The haunting of Las Lagrimas which seems to be historical Gothic horror; and The Hands of the Emperor by Victoria Goddard, whose fantasy novels I've been wanting to try for a while now. I'll also be starting The ante-room by Kate O'Brien for the Virago challenge.

>149 Sakerfalcon: Several of those sound interesting!

>149 Sakerfalcon: I've not been able to face The Fat Lady Sings - did you read the Bernadine Evaristo curated re-issue? - as I've spent time visiting psych wards and it makes me too sad. Glad to see it being read, though - Ali has read that one, too.

>149 Sakerfalcon: and >151 LyzzyBee: I have a copy of The Fat Lady Sings reissue that I found in a charity shop recently TBR. I also really want to read The Fly on the Wheel and I think it's actually on a shelf down here - often I see things and I think ooh I'd like to read that but I have no idea where my copy is.... I also keep thinking I'd like to read The Ante-Room and several other Kate O'Briens - every time I read the blurbs or a review or post like this one that mentions her I keep wondering why I haven't read these books. Aaah, soon....

UK Kindle users who were hit by a book bullet for The Letters of Shirley Jackson, someone on Mumsnet alerted me to this one - it's a bargain £1.99 - and it has page numbers too - I haven't looked at whether it has clickable endnotes - these things sound rather shallow perhaps but it makes a real difference to the reading experience, like the design of the cover and quality of paper and other materials for paper books. And definitely it's useful for anyone using Kindle books in an academic research context. studying on a budget etc.

>153 elkiedee: not shallow at all. Very, very important elements of the experience.

>153 elkiedee: That's really good to know Luci! I'm happy with my hardback but the kindle edition at that price is a great deal.

>150 Karlstar: Which ones in particular? Enquiring minds want to know!

>151 LyzzyBee: Yes, I read the Evaristo edition. It's funny, as I was reading I thought it was a book you'd really like, before I knew about your understandable aversion to books set in psych wards.

>152 elkiedee: I bought The fat lady sings for our fiction collection at work, out of complete self-interest as I knew I wanted to read it. It's a good fit for us anyway as we have a lot of psychotherapy courses. I find the Virago challenges are really good for encouraging me to take those green books off my shelves and read them! Like many of us, I buy them and admire them on my bookcases but take a long time to actually read them!

I've finished reading The evidence, The haunting of Las Lagrimas and The ante-room, all of which were good in different ways.

I love Christopher Priest's Dream Archipelago books, so I expected to enjoy The evidence before I even started. I was immediately drawn in by the protagonist, crime author Todd Fremde, as he travels through a cold landscape on a slow train. Hints that all is not as it seems appear when the train is mysteriously delayed due to the track being the wrong gauge. How can that be, when the train takes this route regularly? The mysteries continue when Todd reaches his destination, and even after his return home. He finds himself being distracted from his current book by a murder case from 10 years before, which occurred on his home islands. Priest's themes of twins, magicians, and disruptions to the fabric of reality are all here, and used to good effect, demonstrating the author's continued creativity. This was a really good read and I highly recommend it.

The haunting of Las Lagrimas is a gothic historical fantasy/horror set in Argentina in the early C20th. Ursula seeks to make her living as a gardener, following in the footsteps of her beloved grandfather, and accepts a post at remote Las Lagrimas in spite of unpleasant rumours about the place. The once-grand estate has fallen into disrepair after a tragedy, but the current owner wants it restored to its former glory so he can return with his family. Ursula is thrilled to be put in charge of reviving the garden, but soon finds her work overshadowed by menace both human and supernatural. The setting, both in place and time, was well-drawn and I found Ursula a sympathetic protagonist, but ultimately this just wasn't as frightening as it should have been. I never really got that "NO!!! Don't go there!" feeling as I read. Also, warning for animal deaths.

The ante-room is a brilliant, sad novel set in 1880s Ireland. It takes place entirely over 3 days in the home of the Mulqueen family, as matriarch Teresa lies dying of cancer. Her daughter Agnes manages the household, and both welcomes and dreads the return of her much-loved older sister. Marie-Rose is married to Vincent, with whom Agnes has been secretly in love for years. Over the three days the characters watch and wait and wrestle with their passions and morals. Agnes is the centre of the book, well-developed and sympathetic in her struggle between her strong faith and a love she knows is wrong. Vincent declares his love for Agnes, but unfortunately he isn't developed well enough that I could feel it was genuine - to me it seemed more like he was unhappy with his marriage and wanted what he couldn't have, imagining it would better fulfill him. Thus the ending of the book felt out of place. This is a slow and subtle novel, bleak in its focus on death both literal and metaphorical, but one that I found a satisfying read.

I'm still enjoying Hands of the emperor, which has justly been compared to The goblin emperor. The viewpoint in this book is the main advisor rather than the emperor himself, but the sense of kindness, camaraderie and growing friendship is very similar. I'm also reading Explorer, Bren's latest adventure with the atevi which sees them encountering the supposedly-lost space station and a new alien threat. And as my second book for the China reading challenge I'm enjoying the short stories in Invisible planets, a collection of Chinese SF translated and selected by Ken Liu.

>155 Sakerfalcon:

Ooh, the Goddard is a bullet for me, and I may try something by Priest eventually.

>153 elkiedee: Definitely important parts of the reading experience.

>155 Sakerfalcon: I came to The Hands of the Emperor as a Victoria Goddard fan already, and found it overlong even if enjoyable. I would recommend her Greenwing & Dart books, a fantasy of manners set in the same universe but more tightly written. Caveat--they're a series, and highly addicting.

And yes, the Skolian empire books are definitely SF-romance. The science fiction aspects are excellent, but the romance tends to be a slog. I read several but eventually lost interest.

ETA: Take Back Plenty was $3.99 at Barnes and Noble. It may have found its way into my Nook...

Uh oh... Think I took multiple Goddard bullets here...

>158 clamairy: Right there with you, because she has a number of appealing titles. And with Marissa_Doyle praising them alongside of Sakerfalcon, it's kind of a lost battle.

>155 Sakerfalcon: Take Back Plenty and Lenin's Kisses! You're not going to get me on Primary Inversion, I already read it and didn't care for it at all.

>156 libraryperilous: I'm loving the Goddard so far! For Priest I highly recommend The islanders, if you're up for something with an experimental format.

>157 Marissa_Doyle: You've already hit me with the book bullet for Greenwing and Dart, but as Hands of the emperor was on sale it jumped the queue. Based on my experience with it so far I will definitely be reading more by Goddard.
Fortunately there isn't too much romance in Primary inversion, but the later books look to have far more (and apparently some verge on erotica) so I will not be pursuing this series any further.

>158 clamairy:, >159 jillmwo: I got the original bullet from Marissa. She knows where and when to shoot!

>160 Karlstar: Oh yes, both of those were good. And you did warn me about the Asaro, it was my choice to go ahead and read it anyway!

I've finished Explorer and loved it. The first half of the book is reasonably slow, setting up the scene as Phoenix approaches the space station, but once they arrive the action really takes off as Bren and co have several concurrent problems to resolves, all of which are potentially extremely volatile. This draws the second trilogy to a close, but leaves enough hooks that I want to read on. Also, I just like spending time with these characters.

I also finished Invisible planets, a collection of short Chinese SF stories in translation. The full-length Chinese SF novels I've read have had really clunky prose and suffered from excessive telling-not-showing. Thankfully, none of these stories had that issue. They were well written (and translated, I would guess), and envisaged a variety of future scenarios. Most were set on Earth rather than in space; some were bleak, others more hopeful, most of them a balanced view. The title story is inspired by Italo Calvino's Invisible cities, which is one of my favourite books. Recommended.

Now I've started reading Velvet was the night, a thriller by Silvia Moreno Garcia set in 1970s Mexico. She has become a must-buy author for me as each of her very different books has been excellent.

And I'm still very much engrossed in Hands of the emperor. It is a very long book, but I'm happy to live in it for as long as I can.

>161 Sakerfalcon: That 2nd Foreigner trilogy was my favorite. Bren's journey continues to be compelling throughout the 21 books published so far.

I'll be interested to read your thoughts on Velvet Was the Night. I have yet to read a bad book by Moreno-Garcia and this one is on my list. She seems to be very prolific!

>161 Sakerfalcon: agree on Explorer, though Cherryh seems to start slow as a rule. I compare reading her works to a rollercoaster ride: slow start, buildup, then WOO!

>162 ScoLgo: That arc of the Foreigner story was certainly very strong. I'm looking forward to see where Cherryh takes it next.

>163 fuzzi: Yes, I'd agree with you on that.

Well I have finally been hit with the Covid bullet, and had to spend a lot of time at home isolating. I was well enough to work from home, but I also had quite a bit more reading time. So I was able to finish a few books.

Velvet was the night is a thriller, with none of the fantasy elements from Moreno-Garcia's previous novels. Set in Mexico City in the 1970s, it draws on political unrest to form the backbone of the plot. We follow two protagonists, daydreaming secretary Maite, and Elvis, who works for the mysterious El Mago to infiltrate and undermine anti-government protests. When Maite's neighbour Leonora fails to return from a weekend trip, both Maite and Elvis find themselves looking for her, and uncovering dangerous secrets. The historical background is well done, and very dark in the corruption and violence that permeates it; it's a time and place I knew little of, so that was interesting. Maite and Elvis are both well-drawn, if not terribly sympathetic. It was a good read, although I preferred Mexican gothic, Certain dark things and The beautiful ones.

I finished The hands of the emperor and loved it! Yes, it's very long; no, there's not a fast-moving plot. But I didn't care. The characters are people you'd like to have as your friends, and the world is fascinating and immersive. Mostly it's set in a culture inspired by Pacific Islander society which makes a nice change from the usual alt-European settings. The hero, Cliopher, is a quiet man who has spent his life working behind the scenes of government to try and make his world a better place for everyone. His family and friends back home have no idea what he's achieved - to them he's the one who left them behind for his ambitions. The story takes place over several years, during which Cliopher becomes friends with his master the Emperor, gains a great deal of power and responsibility, and comes to terms with the two cultures which have formed him. There are some very satisfying scenes where he calls out injustice and denounces corrupt individuals to their faces. There are also many lovely scenes of friendship, time spent together over good food. I want to live in this book.

For this month's Virago theme of Journeys and travel, I read The king of a rainy country, which opens in 1950s London and follows the adventures of Susan and Neale as they search for an old school crush of Susan's. The book is light and humorous, as the pair work low paid jobs to try and make ends meet, living in a bedsit where they rarely cross paths due to their work hours. In order to trace Susan's crush to Venice, they take jobs as escorts to a tour group of Americans travelling round Italy, which is hilarious and exasperating. The seedy side of 50s London, cheap Italian hotels, and the back streets of Venice are very well done. This was a very entertaining read.

This month's Asian reading challenge has reached Japan, a country for whom I have many, many books on my TBR piles! First I read All the lovers in the night, which my colleague lent me. This is the most recent novel by the author of Breasts and eggs which I really liked. Lovers is narrated by Fuyako, a deeply introverted woman who finds it almost impossible to have normal interactions with people. She has one friend, Hijiri, through whom she got a job proofreading, which means she can work from home and retreat from the world. The one thing she really enjoys is going out for a walk in the city on Christmas Eve, letting the light wash over her. One day in an attempt to break out of her shyness she goes to an adult education centre intending to sign up for a course, and meets a man, Mitsutsuka, who helps her when her bag is stolen. They begin to meet and slowly Fuyako starts to open up. But her fear of being hurt threatens to derail everything. Fuyako's self-doubt can be painful to read about, such is the power of the author's voice. The book ends in a perhaps-unexpected place, but one that I found to be very satisfying.

I've also read The ark Sakura for this challenge. It is is absurd and surreal. It's meant to be humorous but I think most of it would have been funnier at the time and/or in the culture in which the book was written. Quite a lot of it is sexist, and there's an obsession with scatology running through it. None of the characters are people you'd want to be holed up with in the event of a disaster, which I guess is part of the point. But the underground caverns are an atmospheric setting, and the twist at the very end is well done.

I've also read another book by Catherine Asaro, after saying I wouldn't! But I already owned The bronze skies and thought I'd give it a go. It is 10000 times better than Primary inversion! It's set on the dry planet Raylicon, where most people live in the glittering City of Cries, but there is a parallel population who lives underground in a network of ancient tunnels called the Aqueducts. Our protagonist, Major Bhaajan, was born in the Undercity, but left at 16 to join the Imperial Army. Despite her humble origins she had a successful career and returned home determined to help her people. This is the second book in the series; I haven't read the first one but enough context is given that I had no problem picking up Bhaaj's story in this one. She works for the ruling Majda family as a PI, and in this book she's called upon to investigate a seemingly impossible murder. This takes her deep into her planet's past, as well as revealing links between the empress and the humble Undercity dwellers. The underground setting is really well drawn - unlike that in Mazes of power, I never forgot we were underground - as are the adaptations of the people who live there. The contrast with the upper world of privilege and luxury, and Bhaaj's balance between the two, is also well handled. There is almost no romance; Bhaaj's lover is a very minor characters; most of the book is concerned with unravelling the mystery, and the implications it holds for the wider world. This was a really fantastic read that I highly recommend to anyone wanting an SF mystery!

Now I'm reading another SF book, The second rebel, My journey to Lhasa (a travel memoir by the first European woman to visit Lhasa), and The startup wife.

>164 Sakerfalcon: hoping you're all better soon!

Vitamin C is super important! I also take zinc and quercetin, vitamin D and K. I've never felt better.

>164 Sakerfalcon:
Get well soon. I hope the dreaded virus does not make things too uncomfortable for you. It is good that it does not appear to have affected your reading.

>164 Sakerfalcon: Oh yikes! I'm sorry you caught it, but it sounds like you've had a mild case. Hope you're back to full health quickly. I'm glad it at least gave you more reading time!

I have The Hands of the Emperor on hold. Looking forward to it.

>164 Sakerfalcon: Definitely going to try the Asaro and the Goddard. The Brophy sounds fun as well.

I hope you recover quickly.

>164 Sakerfalcon: oh, so sorry you got it! I hope it’s mild and you get over it quickly.

(Apologies in advance; I had started to type this message yesterday, but was distracted in caring for my mother.)

>164 Sakerfalcon: Oh, no! I'm sorry that you contracted COVID-19, Claire. I hope that your infection resolves quickly and uneventfully. I know of at least five other vaccinated people who have fallen ill in the past month, most recently my mother's hairdresser last week. On one hand it seems as though it's just a matter of time before my mother and I fall ill, especially since it's been a little over four months since we received our second booster dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine (four doses in total). OTOH, the cases of at least four of the five people I mentioned were seemingly associated with time spent in airports where the vast majority of people were not vaccinated, so I'm hopeful that if I avoid public transportation, continue to wear masks in public, restrict contact to unvaccinated folks (one of my mother's closest friends is unvaccinated and had a bad case of COVID-19 this spring, and I told her, nicely, that she is not allowed to visit my mother until she is vaccinated), limit the number of people coming into our home, and get the new vaccine formulation that includes protection against the omicron, BA.4 and BA.5 variants of SARS-CoV-2 that is supposed to be available in October, then I can keep us, especially her, from getting sick.

I meant to mention that all of the five or six people I know who have fallen ill with COVID-19 had mild cases that did not require hospitalization, so there's that.

I have a copy of The Ark Sakura, but I haven't read it yet. I absolutely loved The Woman in the Dunes, which I read before I joined LT.

Nice review of Velvet Was the Night; that sounds interesting!

>164 Sakerfalcon: Sorry to hear you have covid, hope it is mild and over soon! That Asaro is one I haven't read, sounds like it may have been the best of the lot.

Best wishes from a former fellow sufferer. Mrs H and I had it at the same time, and both of us felt pretty dismal for a couple of days but are fine now.

>164 Sakerfalcon: Sorry you got Covid, Claire, hope you feel better soon.

Thanks for all the good wishes! I was lucky to have a mild case of Covid, more like a bad cold with some aches and tiredness. I'm now back working on campus, which is exhausting with the commute but it's good to see my colleagues again.

>165 fuzzi: I buy vitamin supplements and then forget to take them! I must do better.
>166 pgmcc: I did a lot of sleeping and reading, the perfect combination!
>167 clamairy: Hope you enjoy the Goddard as much as I did!
>168 libraryperilous: I think you'd really like all three books.
>169 catzteach: Thank you, I've been fortunate to have a mild case.
>170 kidzdoc: I know more people who've had Covid this year than in the rest of the pandemic combined. In the UK there are no restrictions and mask wearing is all but non-existent. I blame having to take a packed train to work one day, where I and a handful of others were the only mask wearers. Fortunately I've had relatively mild symptoms. I should think that if you and your mom continue as you are, being sensible and restricting contact, you should continue to avoid it.
I will probably not reread Velvet was the night so I'll save my copy to give to you when next we meet!
>171 Karlstar: I have no desire to continue reading the main Skolian saga, but I'm going to carry on with the Major Bhajaan books.
>172 haydninvienna: We are certainly luckier than many of the people who caught it early on and seemed to have much more severe symptoms. Glad you and Mrs H are both recovered.
>173 FAMeulstee: Thank you Anita, I am much better now.

>170 kidzdoc: I'm glad that you're feeling better and are back to work, Claire.

I know more people who've had Covid this year than in the rest of the pandemic combined.

I agree. I would also say that I know more friends who have had COVID-19 in the past four weeks than in the nearly 2½ years since the pandemic began. The wife of our closest neighbors developed COVID-like symptoms yesterday, two days after flying from their retirement home in Florida to the Mercer County Airport close to Trenton. She asked me if I had COVID-19 test kits at home, which I did (the US government has made them available for free, so we have plenty), and she tested negative, although I counseled her to repeat the test tomorrow. She is currently in remission for stage 4 breast cancer, and she may still be considered to be immunocompromised.

Needless to say I will not fly to Atlanta, or anywhere else, for the foreseeable future, at least not until I receive the new SARS-CoV-2 vaccine formulation this autumn.

TYIA for your offer of Velvet Was the Night. I'm hopeful that I can take a short vacation in London in 2023, especially if my cousin Tina is able to stay with my mother for at least a week.

>174 Sakerfalcon: glad you're feeling ok again - don't over rush the recovery, it can quite a lingering thing in some people.

>167 clamairy: - I tried sunrise alley and was disappointed, but Undercity sounds a lot of fun. And maybe even the chronological start of the series too

Glad to hear you're feeling a lot better by the time I got to this thread! Do keep resting though as that seems key. I've always known a good few people with it at any one time (why? my bubble is full of safe-acting people!) but it does seem to have flared up recently. Still not not having officially had it myself though I have my doubts about a particular week. Very glad you were able to keep reading!

>164 Sakerfalcon: Sorry to hear you have covid Claire, but glad you were well enough to read. People are getting it to varying degrees. My brother said his was at cold level, my sister was off ger feet for 8 days and had the cough for another 10. If only we could guarantee the former. Wishing you speedy recovery.

I'm glad your recovery continues but do take it easy. Apparently the virus is very sneaky in how long it hangs on, even after mild cases.

I have picked up the Kindle version of The Hands of the Emperor on your recommendation but haven't plunged in just yet.

Catching up on threads and I'm sorry to hear you caught the crud. Good to hear you're feeling better already.

>175 kidzdoc:
she tested negative, although I counseled her to repeat the test tomorrow.
I'd say it's essential to test each day that you have symptoms, as I tested negative the first 2 days before finally getting a positive result.
It would be fantastic to see you if you can make it to London in 2023. I'm hoping to visit Philly then too, so maybe we can meet up there.

>176 reading_fox: Yes, I'm still quite fatigued although I think the heat had something to do with that.
I though of you when I read The bronzed skies as I know you are interested in books with an underground setting.

>177 LyzzyBee: Thank you Liz! I was lucky to have it fairly lightly. I suspect I caught it on a very crowded train when only I and a couple of other passengers were masked. It was great to be able to read, though I slept a lot too!

>178 Caroline_McElwee: Thank you Caroline. My experience was like your brother's, but my colleague who had it around the same time was unlucky like your sister, and couldn't even work from home as I could.

>179 jillmwo: I hope you enjoy the Goddard! I want to live in that world and be friends with the characters!

>180 Narilka: Thank you! I was lucky to get it quite lightly.

I've finished reading both The second rebel and The startup wife, and also read a couple more books.

The second rebel is the sequel to The first sister which is SF set in a dark future society. Two rival peoples, the Gean and the Icari, dominate the solar system, with the Asters caught between and horribly exploited. This book follows the main characters from the first instalment as they seek to expose the Asters' plight and help them in their fight for freedom. It's a gripping story and I'm looking forward to the final part.

The startup wife deals with the dangers of technology and the balance between work and marriage when both partners are part of the same company. Asha is a talented scientist who creates a new app, and forms a company with her husband and his best friend to develop it. Cyrus is at first reluctant to have anything to do with the business side of things, but when Asha presses him to become CEO he soon takes control and dominates the decision-making. Asha adores her husband, so it takes her a while to face the fact that he is taking credit for her work and dismissing her concerns. But the app is hugely successful, so the others in the team are happy to let Cyrus continue. But then the outside world intrudes causing a crisis ... I really enjoyed this book. Asha is a sympathetic narrator, although I didn't get her infatuation with Cyrus, and I enjoyed the scenes with her Bangladeshi family. I also liked the many digs at startup and venture capital culture which run throughout the book. The book manages to be amusing and thought-provoking, and kept me wanting to read just one more chapter.

I've also read Diary of a void, for the Japanese reading month. Shibata is the only female employee in her section, and therefore it's expected that she will distribute the mail, make tea, clear up after meetings etc. One day she announces that she can't clear the coffee cups because she's pregnant and the smell makes her nauseous. This results in others taking over the annoying tasks, she's allowed to leave at 5 each day instead of staying overtime, and generally her quality of life improves. There's just one snag .... Shibata is not actually pregnant! How she maintains the ruse, and how her lie and her real life start to merge, makes for an interesting, penetrating and frequently humorous examination of women's roles in Japanese society. I really enjoyed this book.

And another great read! Legends and lattes was an adorable book that is like the Small angry planet of fantasy. Our heroine is Viv, an orc who is finally able to realise her dream of retirement from a violent life of adventuring to open a coffee shop. Ok, so no-one in the city knows what coffee is, and there are some local gangsters to deal with, plus overcoming an orc's fearsome reputation ... but Viv has a secret that she believes will ensure her success. She works hard, makes allies and friends along the way, and finds herself the owner of a thriving business. But is it all going a bit too well to last? I adored this book! It has a wonderful found family of different fantasy species, problems which are solved through teamwork and negotiation, and mouth-watering descriptions of food and drink. The good people make good, and the bad people get what they deserve. This is the perfect feel-good read for when the world is getting you down. Warning - it will make you crave baked goods!

I'm now reading Transgressions of power, the second in a series of social/soft SF based around an underground caste-bound society. I have numerous issues with the worldbuilding in these books, not least the fact that it's really hard to remember that all the action takes place in caverns and tunnels, and with character motivations and interactions. Yet somehow I keep wanting to read on to find out what happens! So despite the real flaws, the author is doing something right.

I'm still reading My journey to Lhasa which is bringing back memories of my own travels in the Himalayas, and making me realise how much easier our treks were.

So many interesting books! I've been reasonable and only wishlisted Diary of a void.

Alexandra David-Néel is such an inspiring figure. She is one of the first "adult" writers I read because my mum had all her books.

ETA: Hmm. Looking at the list of works on David-Néel's author page, it's become clear that mum can't have had all her books. They did filled half a shelf however, which is not too habby!

>181 Sakerfalcon: Glad you enjoyed the coffee shop book: It's delightful comfort food. In addition to all the food and friendship, I really like that Viv is a good small business owner: listening to her employees' ideas; investing in those ideas to grow the business and then sharing the profits.

>181 Sakerfalcon: I'd say it's essential to test each day that you have symptoms, as I tested negative the first 2 days before finally getting a positive result.

I don't disagree with that. My suggestion that she wait two days was influenced by the number of COVID-19 test kits they had at home last week. For some reason* they did not take advantage of the US government's free distribution of COVID-19 tests (https://www.covid.gov/tests), and last Thursday Chris (the wife) sent me a text message asking if I had any test kits, as she thought that she might have it. I gave Bob (her husband) four of the 11 test kits we ordered (I used one two Saturdays ago, in advance of the LT meet up in Philadelphia), thinking that if she tested positive it would only be a matter of time before he did. (Sure enough she tested positive on Saturday, and Bob did so on Monday.) They are great neighbors and friends and I would do anything for them, and vice versa, but I also wanted to be sure that my mother and I had enough test kits for ourselves in case Bob tested positive, as I saw him last Wednesday and wasn't wearing a mask (although I did wear a KN95 mask when he came over to get test kits on Thursday). Per CDC recommendations for exposed people I tested myself Monday and this morning, and both results were negative; I haven't performed the test on my mother, as she did not see Bob and is asymptomatic so far, as am I. Assuming that I stay well I'll test myself one more time on Saturday, and resume normal precautions if I'm still negative. I continue to wear a KN95 mask in public, as you may have seen from the photo of me with Zoë and Katherine in Head House Books the weekend before last, and I'll do so for the foreseeable future, whether restaurants, shops, libraries and other establishments require them or not.

*I love Bob & Chris to pieces, but they are Fox News watching conservatives, and even though they are both vaccinated they don't wear masks or take other recommended precautions.

It would be fantastic to see you if you can make it to London in 2023. I'm hoping to visit Philly then too, so maybe we can meet up there.

I think this year is very unlikely, but if my cousin Tina can stay with my mother for a week or so I might take a short trip to London, but not until I receive a bivalent vaccine similar to the one that was approved in the UK earlier this week. If you do come to Philadelphia please give me as much advance as possible, as I can ask Tina to visit then, which would allow me to spend time with you.

Nice review of The Startup Wife.

I have Legends and Lattes on hold from the library and I'm really looking forward to it based on your review and some others that I've seen.

Legends and Lattes would have me reading an actual fantasy novel, which doesn't happen very often (unless you count Paul Magrs, which you probably should). I need to look out for it properly, it sounds lovely!

ooh, I’ve been wanting to read Legends and Lattes. Glad it’s good. I’ll move it up on my list.

Catching up after a long time - lots of interesting reads here, I was particularly interested in Diary of a Void, The Hands of the Emperor and The Evidence (told you it was a long time).

That is interesting about COVID not necessarily showing up early on, I had it recently and tested negative the first day I felt ropy, positive two days later when I still felt ill. I assumed I had messed up with the test kit as it was the first time I had tested myself for a while.

ETA: it turns out I own The Dream Archipelago so perhaps I should start with that!

>182 Dilara86: Having just finished My journey to Lhasa I can see why your mum was inspired to collect Neel's books. What a remarkable woman she was!

>183 libraryperilous: Yes, I really enjoyed that aspect too. The shop's success was a team effort and Viv gave due credit to those around her.

>184 kidzdoc: I will definitely give you notice when I've chosen dates for a trip to Philly. It's great that you and your cousin have such a close relationship and that she and your mom get on so well too.

>185 tardis:, >186 LyzzyBee:, >187 catzteach: Legends and lattes is well worth seeking out! I got it in a kindle sale but it's been picked up by Tor Books so will appear in print this autumn. I hope the author plans to write more in this world.

>188 wandering_star: I too own The dream archipelago and have yet to read it!
Interesting that we had similar experiences with Covid. It seems to be very random in how people are affected by it.

I've just finished reading My journey to Lhasa, the account of a gruelling journey by the first European woman to reach the Forbidden City. Alexandra David-Neel lived in Tibet and surrounding areas for many years, studying Buddhism and learning the Tibetan language, before embarking on her journey to Lhasa disguised as a beggar. Accompanied only by her adopted son, the lama Yongan, they trek through the winter landscape, largely uncharted and sparsely inhabited, carrying their possessions and trying to avoid being identified and made to turn back. Along the way they encounter herders, pilgrims, monks, robbers, government officials and many others, sometimes being offered hospitality, other times sleeping out in the open in all weathers. This was in 1923, so they had none of the high-tec, lightware clothing and kit that today's travellers have. Neel's immersion in Buddhist life and thought is admirable; she clearly had a fascination with and love for the region and its culture, seeing its people as individuals rather than a homogenous mass. Many of the scenes in the book reminded me of my own travels in the Himalayas, and I appreciated once again the unique nature of this part of the world. I read this for the Virago challenge, which this month is focused on Travel and Journeys - real or fictional. I'm very pleased to have read this.

I also finished Transgressions of power which retained all the flaws of the previous book yet still kept me gripped, wanting to find out what would happen. Luckily I have the next book all lined up ready to read.

For the Japanese reading challenge, I've read Earthlings by Sayaka Murata and Botchan by Natsume Soseki. The former is by the author of Convenience Store Woman which many people have read and loved. Earthlings tackles similar themes of the individual alienated by society, but takes it to the extreme. The book is very disturbing, an extreme portrayal of dissociation caused by abuse. It's a great commentary on the way society tries to force people, especially women, into procreation, but if you were expecting something as heartwarming as CSW ends up, you've come to the wrong place. It's very worth reading, but eesh. By contrast, Botchan is the light-hearted story of a an impulsive, easily riled young man who goes from Tokyo to the provinces to work as a maths teacher in about 1905. He caricatures his fellow teachers, butting heads with several of them, and tries (not very hard) to adjust to life in a small town. This was an amusing read with a strong sense of place and time. I'm sure there are cultural references that Japanese readers relate to and which make it such a favourite there.

I've also read Still forms on Foxfield, which is sociological SF by Joan Slonczewski. A community of Quakers left Earth during what seemed to be its dying days and managed to find a habitable planet and settle there. Their life is hard but satisfying and they have developed good relations with the plant-like aliens that are native to the planet. However, their lives are upended when they are contacted by the UNI, which formed in the aftermath of the wars and disasters that wracked earth. The contact brings the promise of technological marvels and exciting new knowledge, but at a price - conformity with the ways and values of the outside world. How the settlers and the outsiders deal with one another and try to balance their conflicting desires is well handled, with sympathetic and problematic characters on both sides. The aliens add a third point of view, which causes a threat to the planet itself. I really want to read A door into Ocean by this author, but I can't find my copy. However this was a good substitute to read.

I'm currently reading The Mandelbaum gate by Muriel Spark, which is set in Jerusalem, 1961, among a group of British expats. I've also started Travelling with the dead, a historical fantasy with vampires by Barbara Hambly, and The project by Courtney Summers, about a young woman investigating a cultlike group that has ensnared her sister and possibly caused the death of a young man.

Still Forms on Foxfield sounds excellent. I love plant-like aliens, e.g., in Semiosis. The Sparks and Hambly books sound intriguing. I'm not going to read Earthlings, but Convenience Store Woman sounds cute.

Botchan sounds fun! I've added it to my ever-expanding wishlist...

>189 Sakerfalcon: A few months ago I went to the town where Botchan is set and it is a real feature - statues around town of various Botchan characters, a train named Botchan and if I remember correctly a sweetshop that featured in the novel! It did make me wonder whether I should read it - your review makes it sound very accessible. I would like to go back to the town as it was the last stop of a road trip, so we arrived mid-afternoon and I headed back to Tokyo the following morning. I will read Botchan before I do!

>189 Sakerfalcon: I will definitely give you notice when I've chosen dates for a trip to Philly. It's great that you and your cousin have such a close relationship and that she and your mom get on so well too.

That would be great, Claire. The more advance notice I have, the greater is the chance that my cousin can arrange her court schedule so that she can visit us, and stay with my mother, when you come (she's a defense attorney, and although she can represent most of her clients in court via Zoom, some judges want her to be physically present in their courts). It takes a little more than half an hour to travel from our house to Fort Washington by car, and about the same amount of time to Center City Philadelphia, so it will be easy to meet you in either location.

Tina has been an absolute godsend in so many ways. Unfortunately she had a difficult childhood and relationship with her parents, but my parents treated her as if she was their own daughter, and with time she viewed them as the mother and father that she never had. She's also become like a sister to me as well. My younger brother, who lives 40 miles away in Lindenwold, NJ, the city where the PATCO High Speed Line terminates, both refuses to spend the night with my mother and, due to his increased job responsiblities, is unable to do so, which makes Tina's visits and willingness to stay with my mother absolutely essential to me and utterly invaluable.

>190 libraryperilous: No, I wouldn't recommend Earthlings to you! I think you'd like Still forms on Foxfield though.

>191 Dilara86: Botchan was fun! I also enjoyed Soseki's Sanshiro which I read earlier this year.

>192 wandering_star: Wow, it would be great to visit the town having read Botchan! I knew from the introduction that the book is a popular classic in Japan but that is wild!

>193 kidzdoc: Sounds like the relationship is a blessing for Tina as well as for you and your parents. I'm very glad you have her to rely on so that you can get a break occasionally and catch up with friends, etc. It would be easy to become isolated in your situation without that support, I would imagine. I notice you've had time to read a lot more recently which is great!

I finished The Mandelbaum gate which I really enjoyed. It follows some British expats in a divided Jerusalem as they navigate some politically tense situations. Barbara Vaughan, a half-Jewish convert to Catholicism is the catalyst for the plot, as she arrives in Israel both to go on a pilgrimage to the great Christian sites and to visit her fiancee who is working on an archaeological site in Jordan. Jews and Arabs may not cross the border (through the titular Mandelbaum gate) between Israel and Jordan, and even as a British citizen this applies to Barbara too. Freddie and his colleagues at the British Consulate fail to get her to heed their warnings and thus become part of an elaborate plan to smuggle her back over the border before her identity is revealed. But then they discover a British-Arab spy ring and various complications ensue. Spark managed to convey the atmosphere of the time and place very effectively. The plot is seen through the eyes of various characters, giving us a bigger picture and showing the context around the events. Spark's usual dry humour runs through the book, adding an ironic aspect to even the tensest scenes. This was a great read which I would recommend.

>194 Sakerfalcon: I have The Mandelbaum Gate (and a Virago Modern Classics copy too!) but it's one of the novels by Muriel Spark that I've yet to get to. It sounds as though Barbara Vaughan has some things in common with her creator.

>195 elkiedee: I don't know a lot about Spark, but some of the reviews were helpful in drawing comparisons between her and Barbara.

I've finished reading The project which was just ok. When Bea's younger sister is badly injured in the car accident that killed their parents, she finds solace in the charismatic Lev, leader of the Unity Project. The Project is popular in the area where it operates, running centres to help the disadvantaged and supporting people in need. But her sister Lo, upon waking from a coma, can't understand why her sister has left her. The narrative is split between Lo in the book's present (2018) and Bea's in the past (2011ish) so we see both sisters' motivations. Lo is skeptical of the Project, sure that it must hide some dirty secrets or else why would it keep Bea away from her? However, part way through the book, while investigating the Project, she has a complete change in attitude, which wasn't fleshed out enough to feel convincing to me. This is a shame because up to that point both lead characters seemed well drawn. I couldn't see what was so compelling about Lev either. Oh well.

A much better read was The blacktongue thief which I read on kindle. This is a fantasy novel with magic, goblins, giants, an epic journey, fights, shipwrecks, witches, and lots more. It's narrated by Kinch, the titular thief, who affects a sarcastic, hard-edged persona, but it becomes clear that he is more caring than he appears on the surface. His fate becomes entangled with that of a warrior from a neighbouring kingdom who is on a secret mission to find a lost queen. This is a world where brutal wars against goblins resulted in the loss of a generation of men, the near extinction of horses, and other devastating impacts. As a result there are a lot of strong female characters in the novel, and Kinch himself is a rarity, a man of his age. The action takes place over the course of a long journey by land and sea with many adventures along the way. The book is often violent, but not gratuitously so, and there's crassness but no misogyny. Kinch matures along the way, especially in his attitude to relationships with women, and is an engaging protagonist. I picked this randomly from the many books on my kindle, not feeling especially committed to it, but was soon drawn in and found myself not wanting to stop reading. This is the first in a series, and I am eagerly awaiting the next episode.

I'm still reading Travelling with the dead, and have started a reread of Delta wedding for this month's Virago theme of Family. The Asian book challenge has reached Korea and I'm reading the short stories in Cursed bunny. And to mark the death of Peter Straub I've started Ghost story on kindle.

I finished Travelling with the dead having found it a bit of a slog in places. The characters travel across Europe with minor incidents happening along the way which didn't really ratchet up the tension for me. Lydia somehow manages to keep track of her many trunks, cases, hatboxes, etc (and she left London at the last minute, unplanned, so how did she pack so much?) and prefers to cope with the disadvantage of near-sightedness than wear her spectacles in public. Her husband Asher, whom she is following across Europe, I didn't find very memorable as a character; I finished the book a couple of weeks ago and I'm struggling to find something to say about him. This is a vampire novel, and we have one vampire who is a tentative ally - at least, he allowed Lydia to persuade him to accompany her on her journey and promise not to hunt for the duration - and many who are destructive and power hungry. It's good to have a book where vampires are evil and not romantic heroes, but I felt the book lacked tension which it sorely needed. The period detail (early C20th) and places (London, Paris, Vienna, Istanbul) were well depicted but overall I was disappointed by the book.

I also finished Delta wedding which was very much as I had remembered. A large family has gathered for the wedding of 17 year old Dabney on the family plantation in 1920s Mississippi. She is marrying the overseer, a step down socially, but the family are determined to celebrate and see Dabney settled. The story is told from varying points of view, with the familiarity of family members who don't need to explain the relationships and who remember previous generations and retell anecdotes. The descriptions are incredibly sensory - you feel as though you are there, in the hot climate, smelling the scents and tasting the food. For a relatively short novel it's not a quick read; the prose requires concentration, as does working out who is related to who. It is very Southern, but with a sharp edge that critiques the myths of the genteel old families and their way of life. This has been a favourite book of mine for many years, but now I need to read some of Welty's short stories.

Cursed bunny was a great collection of very strange stories which used surreal devices to make statements about contemporary society. A woman who finds herself pregnant without having had sex; a man who loves his AI robot woman; a family business that has thrived at the expense of others are just some of the stories. Chung is using magical realism, horror and fantasy to critique patriarchy, capitalism and other evils of our time, in a way that is often gruesome but always effective. I enjoyed this a lot, as much as I've Samanta Schweblin and Mariana Enriquez's short stories.

And I just finished Ghost Story which was excellent. The winter scenes were chillingly atmospheric, the scary bits were actually scary, the characters were well rounded and interesting. The main characters are all male, but I found Ricky's wife Stella to be very interesting. At first she is portrayed as a selfish, vain, cheating man chaser but as the plot unfolds we are shown that she has insight into the true nature of a relationship, and acts compassionately when the woman in it is bereaved. She also shows bravery and loyalty when it matters. As a picture of small-town life it is realistic, and seeing the horror rip through the close community heightened the emotional impact for me. I'll certainly look for more books by Straub.

I'm currently reading The cabinet by Un-Su Kim for Korean writing month, A deputy was king for the Virago theme of Family, Temporary agency, which is very strange SF, and Last call, also SF.

>197 Sakerfalcon: I liked Ghost Story very much, but I liked his Shadowland even more. I'm also planning on reading more Straub when I'm done with this series some time next spring.

Oh me, too, Marissa_Doyle - Shadowland creeped the crap out of me when I was a teenager. Have a lovely limited edition hardcover after my paperback was stolen.

Just now I snagged Lost Boy Lost Girl and In the Night Room from audible - the first is like $3 and the second $7 and change. They are connected and feature Tim Underhill who also comes into The Blue Rose Trilogy which I haven't read. Not sure if all 5 books are connected in any other way than having Tim in them. I've read Night Room before, but borrowed from the library and without having read LGLB, so now I will listen to them in order and see if I can catch all the threads. Straub does my head in sometimes, but in a good way.

>197 Sakerfalcon: Ghost Story is my favorite Peter Straub book. And why I like him so much better than Stephen King.

>197 Sakerfalcon: Unfortunately the other books in that series just don't live up to the first one, Those Who Hunt the Night. I have the third in the series to read, since I picked it up at the library sale, but I may ultimately skip it.

>198 Marissa_Doyle:, >199 Bookmarque:, >200 majkia: I will definitely look out for Shadowland and other books by Peter Straub.

>201 Karlstar: That's good to know. I shan't seek out any other books in the series.

It's been a while since I've caught up here; life has been very busy and stressful recently. Work is busy as the students are back and I have lot of inductions and classes to deliver. Also I've been in the process of buying the flat where I've been living for the last 13 years, and the transaction just keeps dragging on. I really hoped we were going to exchange and complete on Wednesday, but at the last minute the other side's solicitors said they didn't have a key document. I will be so glad when it's all settled.

I have been reading though; it's been my escape. I've finished the books I was reading last time I posted.
The cabinet was an odd Korean novel, about the peculiar people whose oddities and stories are documented in the titular cabinet. It almost reads like linked short stories, until a plot emerges with shadowy forces trying to get hold of the information. There are a couple of strange twists at the end which I didn't see coming. It was an interesting and unusual read.
A deputy was king is the second volume of a family saga that takes place in the early C20th. This book is set post WWI and follows Toni who after 2 years of hard work building her dressmaking business has decided that she deserves a break, and finds it by marrying the well-off Giles. I found her decision to play the dumb, carefree girl who lives for frivolity and has no head for business to be frustrating, but it is a good illustration of the roles that men and women play and expect of each other. When Toni suddenly drops the charade, revealing herself as a shrewd businesswoman, her sly cousin Loraine is there to console the shocked and betrayed Giles. What follows is a dramatic power struggle between the women of the family. This was a brilliant and gripping read.
Temporary agency is a sequel of sorts to Unquenchable fire, both books being set in a strange future America where powerful supernatural spiritual beings have manifested and revolutionised society. The books are an excellent satire on religion and materialism - in order to perform the necessary rituals one must purchase all kinds of accoutrements. In this book, 14 year old Ellen saves her cousin Paul from the wiles of a Malignant One, but the ramifications of their encounter shape her life well into adulthood. This book is more action oriented, while Unquenchable fire establishes and explores the world more.
Last call is also SF, set in an America just slightly different from our own. Scott Crane made his living as a poker player, until a very odd game played with tarot cards caused him to retreat from the game and the world around it. Some twenty years later, he learns that there were terrible consequences to that game, and he must now play again to save his soul. This was a great read even though it centred around things I don't really care for - card playing and gambling - and I wouldn't want to meet any of the characters in real life. But the plot was gripping and intelligent, based on the myth of the Fisher King and peppered with references to The waste land. The setting, primarily in Las Vegas was vivid. I've now started the next book in the trilogy, Expiration date.

I've also read a few other books. Kismet was a thriller set amid the wellness industry in Sedona AZ. I really enjoyed this - for once, the heroine wasn't stupid. Naive, but not stupid. She did things to please her friend, when she would rather not have done, but she didn't put herself in danger, she made new friends independently, and started to create a new life for herself. Ronnie is a Pakistani-American, one of the very few non-whites in Sedona, and as such is both othered and fetishized. I guessed a couple of the revelations that come towards the end of the book, but there was one that I hadn't seen, and would need to reread the book to decide if it was plausible.

I read a Korean thriller for the Asian reading challenge - The plotters, which is by the same author as The cabinet. They are quite different books though. Reseng is an assassin, working for one of the crime bosses in Seoul. He finds himself experiencing moral qualms more often as he grows older, but when a new young boss appears to be threatening his own boss, Reseng gets caught up in the conflict. I'm not really a fan of this genre, but the characters were well drawn and it was a thoughtful exploration of free will and one's choices in life.

I also read a children's pony book, First term at Ravensbay, which sees the heroine Paige win a magazine competition prize of a scholarship to "pony school" Ravensbay, where riding and equine studies are as important as academia. Paige is a likeable protagonist, and her classmates and the ponies are well-drawn. The plot hits a number of school and pony book cliches - the unmanageable pony who responds to the heroine; the snobbery shown to a scholarship girl; the rich mean girl; but they are managed in an entertaining way, leaving lots of scope for future books in the series. These would have been catnip to me in my tween years!

This month's Virago theme is "books that were once published by Virago but are now in print with other publishers" and I am reading Miss Marjoribanks by Margaret Oliphant. This is one of her Carlingford chronicles which portray middle class life in a small English town in the C19th.
I'm also reading Expiration date and The mandarins - quite a contrast!

>202 Sakerfalcon:
All the best with the home purchase. It is always a tense time. I hope it all resolves in a very quick time.

The Cabinet sounds interesting. I will let you know if I take a hit, but I must admit, your aim is true.

>202 Sakerfalcon: Oh! The best of luck with the flat purchase! At least you don't have to move, and your stress is all transaction related. Keeping my fingers crossed for you.

>202 Sakerfalcon: I hope you're able to close soon. Good luck!

>202 Sakerfalcon: buying a house (or flat) is so stressful! I hope it gets resolved quickly.

Claire, I ran across this (can't believe I hadn't seen it before now!) and thought you would enjoy it: https://www.tor.com/2021/10/20/you-should-really-be-reading-victoria-goddards-ni...

>207 Marissa_Doyle: Oh, this is soooo good. I bookmarked it to print out and reread later (which I only do for favorite articles), and I also want to read Rowland's books now, too.

Nice review of Delta Wedding, Claire. Even though I'm a fan of Southern literature, especially Southern Gothic literature I have yet to read anything by Eudora Welty. I'll have to change that.

I'm glad that you also enjoyed Cursed Bunny!

I look forward to your thoughts on The Mandarins, as I hope to finally get to it next year.

>202 Sakerfalcon: I hope all troubles with the home purchase are solved now, Claire.
House prices have been skyrocketing here, is it the same in your area?

Hoping that the big purchase is going through smoothly --realtors attentive, bureaucrats satisfied, and paperwork complete and stamped approvals in place.

Ugh, sorry that the process is STILL not resolved (or wasn't at the time of writing) and glad you have been able to find comfort in your books.

>203 pgmcc:, >204 clamairy:, >205 libraryperilous:, >206 catzteach:, >210 FAMeulstee:, >211 jillmwo:, >212 LyzzyBee: Thank you for all the good wishes everyone! We finally completed today. I am so relived! Now I can get some more bookcases (wasn't going to do that if there was even a tiny chance that it would fall through and I'd have to move) and then adopt a cat.

>207 Marissa_Doyle: That was a great article and it made me want to rush out and buy all of Goddard's books. Thanks for sharing!

>208 libraryperilous: Rowland is a great evangelist for Goddard isn't she! I read one of her own books, A conspiracy of truths, which I enjoyed quite a lot. Her latest one sounds a bit too romancy for me though.

>209 kidzdoc: I recommend some of Welty's short stories to get your Southern Gothic fix. Though her hilarious "Why I live at the PO" is my favourite.

I finished Expiration date and Miss Marjoribanks, both of which were good reads in their very different ways. I didn't like ED quite as much as Last call, but I really liked the found family aspect of it as different characters come together and unite in the conflict against evil. I'm now reading Earthquake weather which brings together the casts from the previous two books. Miss M was great, a frequently humorous look at small-town life in Victorian England through the eyes of a woman with more intelligence than society allows a woman to use. Lucilla returns from school and travelling determined to "be a comfort to my dear father" after he is widowed, and to make their home a hub for genteel Carlingford society. She becomes involved in romantic intrigues, politics, and other local affairs, all while maintaining her calm and practical demeanour. In a more advanced world she would have made a great politician herself but as it is she is limited to the domestic sphere and to enabling men in their ambitions. This is a good choice if you are in the mood for a fat Victorian novel.

I've also read two other Viragos for the reading challenge - A compass error and Winter sonata. The former is set on the French Riviera and tells of a summer in the life of 17 year old Flavia as she becomes unwittingly caught up in the schemes of a diabolical, but complex, woman. The later is a quiet book set in a village in winter, in which nothing significant happens, but which is beautifully written.

On kindle I've read The maid which is a cute mystery novel narrated by the titular maid. Molly is clearly non-neurotypical, and while I can't speak for how accurate her portrayal is, she makes for an engaging lead. It's not quite a cosy mystery, but it leaves you feeling warm and fuzzy. If it were a film it would be rated PG for "mild peril".

I'm still reading The mandarins, this is going to be a long haul as it's 700+ pages of small print. It is good though, an exploration of intellectual life in post-war Paris. I'm also reading Earthquake weather, as I mentioned above, and on kindle I've started Matrix which is set in a mediaeval priory.

I will be going to Germany for a week's holiday on Tuesday, my first trip abroad since May 2019!

>213 Sakerfalcon: have a good trip!

My sister and her husband will be going on a river cruise in late November, postponed from 2019. Part of the cruise will focus on German Christmas markets. I'm excited for her.

>213 Sakerfalcon: Woohoo! Have a great trip! Enjoy!

>213 Sakerfalcon: Have a lovely trip!

Winter Sonata sounds like a lovely, cozy read, and I've had my eye on Matrix since it was announced.

then adopt a cat

Really burying the lede there, Claire. :)

>213 Sakerfalcon: I'm so glad it all went well. Enjoy that trip, and we expect cat acquisition updates upon your return!

>213 Sakerfalcon: Congratulations on getting everything sorted. Looking forward to the bookcase and cat reports.

So so glad it's gone through! And have a lovely trip! We're going away for the first proper time since June 2020 next month!

>213 Sakerfalcon: So glad to read it is done now, Claire. What bookcases are you getting? We have all Ikea Billy bookcases in the house.
Enjoy your trip to Germany!

>220 FAMeulstee: I was advised to get a Billy bookcase some years ago. Never again. I wish I'd stuck with the old bookcase with fixed shelves, however dodgy it looked it was better than this thing.

>221 elkiedee: What was the problem, Luci?
We have them for ages, the oldest are from the 1980s. They are moved several times, and still all are in perfect shape. I must admit we haven't added any in more recent years.

>222 FAMeulstee: I don't like that half the shelves aren't fixed in place, they're not long enough, and that they're only propped up by a few very flimsy screws rather than a structure which would hold. Yes, it's completely overloaded and it's on what I think is a slightly uneven area of floor - nothing in this old terraced house is entirely straight (built in the 1890s - this bit of London is basically a Victorian railway town although some of the stations, tracks etc have been dismantled and the council estates are newer build). The Billy replaced a bookcase which probably looked very dodgy due to the way I used it but was better than this silly IKEA thing. I'm very suspicious now of the way bookcases are shown in catalogues, with far too many things which aren't books in them. I've nothing against having other things on shelves, but I prefer something which is made to work with too many books piled into it.

We’ve had problems with Billy bookcases as well, although admittedly in Jacob’s room where they get about as heavy a pounding as it’s possible for bookcases to get!

I’ve had Billy bookshelves in 3 countries now and never had a problem with any of them.

My Billys are all full and not dodgy at all. The shelves are definitely long enough, any longer and they'd sag, assuming we're talking wood. Maybe the ones in England are different? Ours have been moved multiple times and have always been very full and never given any problems.

>202 Sakerfalcon: I hope you flat purchase has gone through now Claire. Lovely that you are able to buy it.

>226 reconditereader: If I may comment, despite the fact that we don't have IKEA in this country. Comment: There's wood, and then there's wood. Many joiners will charge for real wood (mostly pine), then use chipboard and pocket the difference. Chipboard is both cheaper and MUCH weaker than proper wood.

My shelves are chipboard, but the person who put them up took me shopping for the materials and then put them up. I did pay for that and I think my mum paid for some of the shelves to be better secured to the wall, but that 's not a problem with the shelves or what they're made of, and real wood would probably have been a bit heavier - it was almost certainly about the quality of the walls/plastering before the shelves were put up. I am never going to be able to move within London and nor would I want to, but if I were to try and sell my house, it would have to be as a great renovation project.

I have been listening to an adaptation of Miss Marjoribanks from Radio 4 Extra. I don't know how close to the book it was, but it was very entertaining - recommended, if it's still available.

I thought I had posted here to thank you all for the very useful bookshelf discussion, but it appears not. Since then I've been on holiday in Germany which was wonderful. The weather was very kind to us, being around 22C and sunny every day, allowing my sister and I to explore Hamburg and Berlin quite thoroughly. We visited a few beautiful bookshops - even if I can't read them I love to be around books! Pics are slowly going up on Facebook for those of you who are there.

Before I left I finished reading Earthquake weather, which was a good conclusion to the trilogy. While the first two books can each stand alone, this one brings together the characters from those episodes and they have to work together to overcome supernatural threat. I think Last call was my favourite but all three books are good.

Matrix was also very good. It tells the story of Marie de France, the real-life author of the Lays, who is forced into a convent at the age of 17 and remains there her whole life. Little is known about Marie's life, so the author has been free to flesh out her story, and provides us with a full picture of life in a mediaeval convent. While many women did not have a vocation and chafed against the restraints of cloistered life, it did provide a world in which women had authority and agency and could use their talents in a way not open to them in the wider world. Marie is a strong leader who shapes the lives of those around her, mostly for good, although she is far from perfect. The book definitely doesn't glamorise or romanticise mediaeval life; the dirt, cold and hardship are clearly shown. While I sometimes felt a bit distanced from the narrative, I still very much enjoyed this.

While I was away I read Oval, a near-future dystopian novel set in Berlin. This is not an "end of the world" disaster scenario, rather a world where art has become commoditized and artists are used by corporations for promotion. Anja and her boyfriend Louis have moved to a sustainable community on the artificial mountain which has been built in a Berlin where housing is increasingly unaffordable. But their eco-home seems to be malfunctioning and Anja can't get answers as to what is going wrong. But instead of focusing on the hinted-at corruption behind the development, the author spends the first half of the book focusing on the relationships of Anja, Louis and their friends, all of whom seem to spend their lives navel gazing while taking drugs at clubs. If you can stick this out, the second half of the book is pretty good, when the author finally explores the corporate shenanigans and things start to happen. I enjoyed this more than most of the LT reviewers, which might be due to my reading it in the city where it is set, but the first half was a slog.

On kindle I read Reprieve, a thriller/horror set in a haunted house attraction, and I kissed Shara Wheeler, a YA novel set in a Christian high school in Alabama with a lesbian lead character.

Now I'm home I'm still reading The mandarins and have started The storm of echoes which is the last in the French YA fantasy series which began with A winter's promise.

Time for another update! I'm still reading The mandarins, it is good but the small dense print means it's hard for me to read late at night.

I finished The storm of echoes which I found a very disappointing end to an otherwise excellent series. The plot became massively overcomplicated and difficult to comprehend, many characters who had been important in the earlier books were hardly mentioned, and we didn't see as much of the fabulous world this time either. There were a few sections from the POV of a young child character which were cringeworthy and confusing and added nothing to the story as far as I could tell. The whole book felt clunky and I found myself skimming in the hopes that I'd reach the point where it returned to the excellence of the previous books. Sadly, it never did.

I've also read an Indonesian novel for this month's Asian reading challenge - The wandering by Intan Paramaditha. This book is structured like a Choose Your Own Adventure book as the protagonist - You - are given a pair of red shoes by a devil, with the promise that you can use them to fulfil your dreams of travel. Your journey takes you from Jakarta to New York, where you find yourself in a taxi to the airport when you suddenly notice one of your shoes is missing. Here is your first choice, and what you decide will set you on a path that may take you to Berlin, Amsterdam, Los Angeles, back to New York or Indonesia, into friendships and relationships, and a variety of jobs and adventures, some realistic, a few fantastic. Themes of travel, identity, nationality and migration are woven through the book, as are various folk tales and motifs. I enjoyed this unusual book a lot.

This month's Virago read is Australian and New Zealand authors, and I read Painted clay by Capel Boake. This is the coming-of-age story of Helen, a sheltered girl brought up by her father in suburban Melbourne in the years before WWI. When her father dies while she is still in her teens, Helen is taken in by the warm family next door and through them gets her first job. Later she moves to a boarding house and falls into the Bohemian world of artists, leading to her first love affair, with an experienced older man. Surprisingly, when their relationship ends it is not, as I expected, because he seduces and abandons her, but because Helen is ambivalent to the commitment of marriage. Through Helen's story we see the limited choices and many traps that young women faced. I enjoyed the book a lot, finding it well-written and an immersive depiction of a particular time and place.

On kindle I'm reading Book of night, an Urban Fantasy by Holly Black. Charlie works in a bar, trying to leave her con-artist past behind her. She wants to put her younger sister through college and make things work out with her steady boyfriend. But there is dark magic in this version of our world, and it's not done with Charlie yet. It's a good read so far.

I've just acquired Nona the Ninth so I'm about to start rereading Harrow the Ninth in preparation for Nona. And I've just read the first chapter of Black water sister by Zen Cho, also for the Asian reading challenge. I will also try and squeeze in another Virago book.

Another week, more books read!

I finished Black Water Sister which I enjoyed a lot. I'm not sure whether to class it as YA or not; the protagonist is a university graduate but reads younger. Her Malaysian-Chinese parents moved to the US when Jess was a child to give her the advantages of growing up there. Now, following her family's change in circumstances, they have moved back to Penang and are living with her aunt's family. Jess starts to hear a voice in her head, which she realises is that of her dead grandmother, and she finds herself drawn reluctantly into the world of gods and spirits, putting her and her family in physical and supernatural danger. The book gave a really good picture of life in Penang, with characters from all classes and backgrounds, settings ranging from homes and temples to building sites and marketplaces, and a plot that involves political machinations as well as spiritual conflict. There is a lot of Hokkien/Malay vocabulary used which isn't explained or translated, but whose meaning is clear from the context. Recommended.

On kindle I've read Her Majesty's Royal Coven, an Urban Fantasy centred around a group of five witches who've been friends since childhood. Their lives have gone in very different directions in their adult life, but up until now their friendship has triumphed over their differences. However, the discovery of a young trans witch causes irreconcilable conflict and puts the whole of the United Kingdom in grave danger. The narrative is divided between four of the friends - Helena, who is now the head of Her Majesty's Royal Coven; Niamh who works as a vet and prefers to live a quiet life in Yorkshire; Elle who uses her magic as little as possible and just wants to be "normal"; and Leonie, who has founded an offshoot of HMRC for witches of colour who have been marginalised by the system. Issues of gender and sexuality are the backbone of the story; my main criticism of the book is that the anti-trans villains are very one-note. But this is an exciting read which I found difficult to put down. Warning - the book ends on a huge cliffhanger!

Just checking in to see how it's going...

>234 fuzzi: It's good to see you! Things are busy in RL but I still try to catch up here when I can. I can't imagine life without LibraryThing.

>235 Sakerfalcon: same here, been busy in RL, still working full time too.

LT is a release for me, love the reading but especially enjoy all the organizing stuff.

>233 Sakerfalcon: The witches book sounds good! I’ll have to see if my library has it.

>236 fuzzi: Even though my job is literally organising books I still love entering mine on LT and sorting them into collections, choosing tags, etc!

>237 catzteach: I hope you enjoy it if you find it!

More catching up to do.

I forgot to say that I finished Book of night which was a pretty good UF. Charlie is one of those annoying heroines who keeps making bad decisions and screwing up her life, but fortunately (for me, who dislikes this type of character) we meet her at a time when she has managed to stay on a good path. Unfortunately, her past catches up with her and she is drawn into danger and dark magic. This is a version of our world where people have the ability to manipulate shadows for entertainment and cosmetic purposes, but also for power and influence. Needless to say, there are some very bad and violent people out there who want to gain as much power as possible. Charlie must use her old con-artist skills to thwart their plans and protect those she loves. This took me a little while to get into, but I ended up really enjoying it. The setting was in the small college towns of Massachusetts (the Berkshires?) which made a nice change from the usual big cities, and there was a refreshing lack of vampires, werewolves and the like. There will be a sequel - hopefully coming soon!

On kindle I just finished A marvellous light, which is set in a London with (hidden) magic in 1908. Sir Robin Blyth has just started his new job in the Civil Service when Edwin Courcey turns up looking for the man whom Robin replaced. Courcey's job is to liaise with the government on matters magical, but Robin isn't even aware that magic exists! The two men are thrown together when they learn that Robin's predecessor in the role has disappeared under mysterious circumstances, and that Robin is now a target. Forced to learn to trust each other, Robin and Edwin grow closer as the danger increases. I really enjoyed the country house settings, Edwin's obnoxious family, the uses of magic, and the personalities of Robin and Edwin. Robin's sister Maud and his secretary Adelaide are also great characters. There were some graphic sex scenes which were rather too detailed for my taste, although they did allow for character growth as the men opened up emotionally to each other. I will definitely be looking for the sequel, which looks to have Maud at its centre.

In print I read a short German novel set in the early 80s, The wall jumper, which is about life on both sides of the Berlin Wall. It focuses on the psychological aspects of life in the divided city as much as the physical differences between the regimes. I found this a fascinating read, the more so as I had just been in Berlin.

I also read a new-to-me Chalet School book, The Chalet School wins the trick. If I did read this as a child I had completely forgotten it. In this volume the school earns the enmity of a group of girls staying in the vicinity while their various relatives are being treated at the sanatorium. With too much time and not enough supervision they play tricks to disrupt the school, but eventually come under its good influence. An entertaining read.

For last month's Virago read of Australian/NZ authors I read two short novels, Blue skies and Jack and Jill. These are rather surreal stories of everyday life in a world that seems a little at a slant from reality. In Blue skies, the narrator has largely withdrawn from life after the birth of her daughter, and spends most of her days in the home, hiding from the outside world. She makes an exception twice a week when she goes to visit her two male friends - Jonathan on Tuesdays and Ben on Thursdays. But when these relationships fail she is left at home with only her obsession with her neighbour to focus on. Jack and Jill is a very unconventional love story, the relationship between the two title characters seen over several decades of conflict and change. There is very dark humour in both stories. I liked them a lot.

I'm currently reading Nona the Ninth which is totally different to both Gideon and Harrow and also wonderful. I'm reading Cryoburn, a new-to-me Miles Vorkosigan adventure which of course is marvellous. For the Virago challenge (Books that don't fit in any other month) I'm reading The microcosm, which is a peculiar but oddly compelling story of lesbian life in the 1960s and earlier. And I'm still reading and enjoying The mandarins, learning a lot about social and political life in post-WWII France.

>238 Sakerfalcon: Cryoburn was my first Vorkosigan novel, first Bujold novel. I loved it so much I started collecting the whole set.

>238 Sakerfalcon: my library does have it! I’ll check it out soon. I have to get through Blitz first.

>240 catzteach: How are you doing with Blitz? I'm having trouble with it.

>241 Narilka: I’ve really just started it. I haven’t gotten very far. I was super sleepy last night and could only read a couple of pages before I had to turn off the light. The Husband had knee surgery this week and I’m his caretaker. That’s taking a lot of my focus. I’m hoping to get into it more today.

>238 Sakerfalcon: When I started my Chalet School collection as an adult The Chalet School wins the Trick was the first one I bought. It was a late style Armada, so, although I don't think it is one of the better stories, it has a place in my affections. It is ironic that it is the final GGBP edition, and, having recently sold my hardback collection, I now have a complete collection again, in GGBP editions.

>242 catzteach: As a veteran of several knee surgeries, I wish you and your husband a swift and not too painful recovery.

>244 Jim53: Thanks! He’s doing ok. My challenge is keeping him from doing too much. He gets restless pretty quickly.

>239 MrsLee: I can see how Cryoburn got you hooked! It was a great read. A civil campaign was my first and I loved it so much I gave copies to about 4 different friends and got them addicted too!

>240 catzteach:, >241 Narilka:, >242 catzteach: Blitz doesn't seem to exist in the UK yet. I hope the publisher hasn't decided to cancel the series.

>243 CDVicarage: Wins the trick wasn't one of the best, I'd agree, although it stands out from most of the Swiss-era books for its focus on girls and events outside the school. I still have a few of the uncut Armada editions that I haven't yet upgraded to GGBP.

>245 catzteach: Good luck with the nursing! Can you get the cats to pin him to the chair?

I've finished both Nona the ninth and Cryoburn and really enjoyed both books. Nona shows us a very different view of the world of the Locked Tomb series, being set on a planet in conflict. Nona is only aware of the last 6 months of her life; she has a naivety and warmth that is as compelling as the air of mystery around her. She loves dogs, her friends, her job as a teaching assistant, and the people who care for her ... who may be familiar to us, the reader. How does Nona fit in the world we have seen in previous volumes, and who is she really? I had to keep reading in order to find out.

Cryoburn was another great adventure with Miles Vorkosigan, this time investigating dodgy dealings among cryonics corporations on the planet Kibou-Daini. Initially sent to investigate suspected bribery, he soon stumbles upon a greater crime, and pursues justice in his own inimitable way. Miles is accompanied on his quest by (outwardly) stoic Armsman Roic, young, animal obsessed Jin, the bemused Barrayran Consul and his colleague, and assorted others who are drawn in along the way. A miniature cloned sphinx plays a small but important role too.

On kindle I'm reading a British UF, Gobbelino London and a scourge of pleasantries, about a feline-human duo who investigate nefarious goings-on in the magical world. It's great fun so far. In print I've started reading The vanished seas which is the next Major Bhaajan novel following The bronze skies which I loved earlier this year.

Glad you had a good holiday in Germany Claire. I've never been. I'm still not ready to fly with all the reported chaos at airports, though some of my colleagues have had no problems at all.

>246 Sakerfalcon: Oh dear. Here is where I play my card of post covid brain fog. Cetaganda was my first Vorkosigan novel, not Cryoburn, although I did enjoy the latter as well.

>246 Sakerfalcon: I see I need to catch up on the Vorkosigan novels. Thanks for the review.

>246 Sakerfalcon: weird about Blitz not being in the UK yet. Especially since that’s its setting. I’m about halfway through it.

Cryoburn is my next Vorkosigan read I think. I haven't got many left to go so I'm stretching the final ones out - I just don't want to come to the end.

>247 Caroline_McElwee: We were very fortunate in that our flights went smoothly, not even having issues with our checked baggage. I would far rather travel by train in mainland Europe but at the moment it is still so much more expensive than flying.

>248 MrsLee: That's exactly the kind of mistake I would make, brain fog or no! I still have to read Cetaganda but suspect I will get to it sooner rather than later now I'm in a Vorkosigan kind of mood.

>249 Karlstar: Yes you do! There are many other advocates for the series in the group who will back me up on this!

>250 catzteach: It is weird. Worst case I will have to pick up a copy whenever I next visit the US.

>251 SandDune: Oh dear, you are nearly there! The two books after Cryoburn don't focus on Miles, so in a way this feels like the last one to me. Hope you have been having a good year!

I finished Gobbelino London and a scourge of pleasantries this weekend and thoroughly enjoyed it. Narrated by a snarky mercenary cat and set in the northern England city of Leeds, this isn't your usual UF. Gobbelino and his human sidekick Callum take on a seemingly simple case to retrieve a stolen book and return it to its owner. However, the book has a mind of its own and will threaten to alter reality itself as it resists being taken. This is a very funny read with excellent characters, both human and animal, and I look forward to continuing the series and learning more about how the human and magical worlds interact.

Still reading The vanished seas, The mandarins (I hope to finish this by the end of the year) and The microcosm.

>252 Sakerfalcon: Happens that the kindle version of Gobbelino London and a Scourge of Pleasantries is free (not clear whether that’s today only or what)—so you score a BB for it, Claire.

>252 Sakerfalcon: I took at hit on Gobbelino. It's now in my wish list :D Edit: Purchased! It is indeed still free for Kindle. Thanks haydninvienna for the tip.

>254 Narilka: I just grabbed it, too.

>252 Sakerfalcon: It seems like much longer ago, but I read The Warrior's Apprentice back in March, trying to fill in the parts of that series I haven't read, so it is time to pick up another one. I'm fairly certain I've read The Vor Game and Cetaganda in the past but don't own them, so not sure which I will pick up next.

>253 haydninvienna:, >254 Narilka:, >255 clamairy: Yay! I hope you all enjoy it as much as I did!

>256 Karlstar: I am not reading the series in order at all, but Bujold gives enough context and background that I haven't felt confused.

I finished The vanished seas last night and thoroughly enjoyed this SF thriller. Bhaajan is a tough but sympathetic heroine, a native of the Undercity who left that underground world to join the army and travel the stars. Now she is back on the desert planet Raylicon working as a PI and frequently solving cases for the ruling Majda dynasty. The world is very well drawn, and the plot and characters are compelling. Highly recommended.

>257 Sakerfalcon: Thanks, that's helpful, I'll just jump back in somewhere then.

With every good wish of the season Claire. Ihope there are a few book shaped packages under your tree. Maybe in the summer we can get together at Chelsea Physic again.

Happy Christmas from my Christmas gnome!

>260 SandDune: That it too cute for words!

Happy Christmas!

>252 Sakerfalcon: I read one of Watt's Toot Hansell series and thought it didn't have enough dragon in it. This series sounds more promising. Glad you enjoyed it!

All the best for 2023, Claire!

Happy New Year!

>252 Sakerfalcon: I stopped by to wish you a happy new year and I got hit with a BB on Gobbelino London and a Scourge of Pleasantries.

Happy New Year, Claire!

Happy new year!

Thank you everyone! A very Happy New Year to you all! I will get started on my 2023 thread in the next day or two but just wanted to round up my end of 2022 reading here first.

>259 Caroline_McElwee: Thank you Caroline! I hope you had a relaxing Christmas and that 2023 has got off to a good start for you. It would be lovely to meet up again over the summer - it's been far too long since we've seen each other!

>260 SandDune: Awww! I love the Christmas gnome!

>262 libraryperilous: I think the Toot Hansell books have more dragons, but this series has certainly got off to a good start for me!

>263 FAMeulstee:, >264 Karlstar:, >266 kidzdoc:, >267 haydninvienna: Thank you everyone! A very Happy New Year to you too!

>265 jillmwo: I hope you enjoy it as much as I did!

So I managed to finish The mandarins and The microcosm by the end of the year, as I had hoped. I also read Cetaganda and Murder before Evensong.

The mandarins was a very long read, not helped by dense small type in my edition, but I found it a fascinating and enjoyable read. It follows a group of French intellectuals after the end of WWII as they seek to reconcile their political and social views with the new reality. There are two main narrative threads, one focusing on Henri (based on Albert Camus), which is narrated in a tight third-person voice, and the other on Anne (based on De Beauvoir herself) which is told in the first person. They and their friends and colleagues face moral, social and political challenges as the world changes around them. This year I will try to read the volumes of de Beauvoir's autobiography that cover this period in her life.

The microcosm took me a while to get into, but I found it fascinating in the end. It's a mosaic novel linked by the lesbian bar House of Shades, with long internal monologues by various characters across the spectrum of 1960s queer society. There's Marie who repressed her sexuality and is unhappily married; Cathy who has to move to London and discover that she's not "the only one" in order to be happy; Steve who is a games teaching, dreading that one of her pupils will develop a crush and throw suspicion onto her; and linking the characters, Matt, the bartender who lives as a man with his wife Rae. I think the afterword would have been better placed at the beginning of the book, for me. It explains that Duffy intended the book to be a non-fiction collection of narratives recorded from lesbian women, but she was persuaded that no-one would publish such a book. So she turned the experiences she had collected into the tales that form this novel. It's quite daring structurally as well as in its content. It's not an easy read, but worth persevering with.

Cetaganda was a fun romp with Miles and Ivan who fall into trouble while on diplomatic duty in the titular empire. Both of them make life very stressful for Barrayar's representatives in Cetaganda but of course that just makes it more fun for the reader!

Murder before Evensong is the first novel by Reverend Richard Coles, formerly of the Communards and now a vicar. Not surprisingly, his protagonist is rector of a country church, and the book revolves around church and village politics. I wasn't convinced by the rationale for the murders, but I very much enjoyed the characters and the portrait of village life. There are a lot of details about the Anglican Church, but I like that he makes it clear that the majority and most important aspects of a rector's work takes place outside the church, in his interactions with people in need.

Thanks for joining me in 2022, everyone! On to the next year!

>268 Sakerfalcon: I really enjoyed Murder Before Evensong, it was nice to see religion portrayed positively, and all the little details were great. I am looking forward to the next one! Happy New Year!

>268 Sakerfalcon: Have added Murder Before Evensong to my list for 2023. I find most clerical sleuths to be interesting.