Charl08 reads words with pictures in 2022 #3

I'm Charlotte, I'm based in north west England and I like to read. I started in the category challenge last year.

I've not had much of a chance to get to galleries or museums in the past year. I do love going to art galleries, and taking pictures and buying books when I'm there. I've enjoyed finding out more about women artists in recent years, so thought I'd focus on that for 2022.

The Biennale this year (in Venice) "...will go down in history as the women’s biennale" (Laura Cumming) It's the first time more women artists than men are featured. Some highlights here: https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2022/apr/24/59th-venice-biennale-2022-r...

And the work going on to "rescue" artists' work:
BBC News - Venice: The forgotten female artists being rediscovered
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-61297129


Gertrude Arndt via https://awarewomenartists.com/

First quarter:
January 23

1 We Run the Tides (Cat: New to me)
2 The Fine Art of Invisible Detection (Cat: N/A)
3 Laura Knight: a panoramic view (Cat: My Books)
4 Esther's Notebooks: tales from my eleven year old life (Cat: GN)
5 Deep as Death (Crime fiction Cat: authors I've read before)
6. The Emigrants (Memoir/biography Cat: My books)
7. The O Zone (Romance Cat: previous authors)
8. Library of the Dead (Fantasy/dystopia Cat: Africa)
9. Okay Universe (GN)
10. Turtle in Paradise: the graphic novel (GN)
11. The Appeal crime fiction (New to me)
12. According to Queeney historical fiction (My books)
13. Forty-one False Starts: essays on artists and writers literary criticism (My books)
14. Small Things Like These literary fiction (Prize winners)
15. Brickmakers (Women in Translation /Book groups)
16. Real Estate Memoir(authors I've read before)
17. Who Will Run the Frog Hospital literary fiction (authors I've read before)
18. Pulp (GN)
19. The Inheritance of Solomon Farthing
Historical fiction (Authors I've read before)
20. The Mirror and the Palette (History & Politics)
21. The Serpent's Tale (Authors I've read before)
22. Stone Fruit (GN)
23.The Mad Women's Ball (in translation)

Library books read in January: 11

February 27 (Total 50)

1. All Grown Up (Authors I've read before)
2. Walk the Blue Fields (Authors I've read before)
3. Over Easy (GN)
4. The Magician (Authors I've read before)
5. To the Warm Horizon (In Translation / My books)
6. Matrix (Prize nominees)
7. Cruel Summer (GN)
8. Topics of Conversation (My books)
9. Teaching My Mother How to Give Birth (Africa)
10. Year of the Rabbit (GN)
11. Punishment of a Hunter (Women in Translation)
12. The Fade Out: act one (GN)
13. Devil in the Grove (History)
14. Index of Women (New to me authors/ poetry)
15. Twice Shy (New to me authors/ Romance)
16. Friday: Book One The First Day of Christmas (GN)
17. Marzahn Mon Amour (women in translation)
18. The Contradictions (GN)
19. One Night Only (New to me authors)
20. Redemption Ground (New to me authors)
21. The Sentence (Prizewinner)
22. Lady Violet Investigates (Authors I've read before)
23. Lady Violet Attends a Wedding (ditto)
24. Lady Violet Finds a Bridegroom (ditto)
25. Ancestor Stones (Africa/ reading my own books)
26. Wild Thorns (Women in translation)
27. The Swimmers (Authors I've read before)

Library books read in February: 11

March 28 (Total 78)

1. Lady Violet Enjoys a Frolic (Authors I've read before)
2. Parenthesis (GN)
3. Network Effect (New to me authors)
4. Blame This on the Boogie (GN)
5. Often I Am Happy (New to me)
6. Enemies Abroad (Authors I've read before)
7. All Systems Red (Ditto)
8. Artificial Condition (Ditto)
9. This Charming Man (Ditto)
10. The Love Objects of Dunya Noor (Group reads: Syria)
11. The Roles We Play (GN)
12. City of Ice (New to me authors)
13. A Blood Condition (Africa)
14. Rogue Protocol (Authors I've read before)
15. The Kids (New to me authors/ prize nominees)
16. What it feels like for a girl (Group reads)
17. Exit Strategy (Authors I've read before)
18. These Precious Days (Authors I've read before)
19. Fugitive Telemetry (Authors I've read before)
20. Native: Dispatches from a Palestinian-Israeli Life (New to me)
21. Build Your House Around My Body (Prize nominees)
22. Lady Violet Holds a Baby (Authors I've read before)
23. Homecoming King (Authors I've read before)
24. In Memory of Memory (in translation)
25. Lady Violet Goes for a Gallop (Authors I've read before)
26. Kingdom of Characters (History)
27. The Woman with the Knife (Women in translation)
28. The Dead Girls' Class Trip (Women in translation/ my books)

Library books read in March: 12

Olya Pilyuhina
https://theculturetrip.com/europe/ukraine/articles/10-contemporary-ukrainian-art...

April 20 (Total 98)

1. Salt Lick (Prize nominees)
2. The Bread the Devil Knead (Prize nominee)
3. Parks and Provocation (New to me authors)
4. Our Lady of Mysterious Ailments (Prize nominee)
5. The Lady Doctor (GN)
6. In Case of Emergency (Women in translation/ Book groups & challenges)
7. The Book of Form and Emptiness (Prize nominee)
8. Ten Trends
9. Incredible Doom (GN)
10. The Master Key (Women in translation)
11. Creatures of Passage (Prize nominees)
12. Dien Cai Dau (Prize nominees)
13. These Days (Prize nominees)
14. This One Sky Day (ditto)
15. Strangers I know (Women in translation)
16. Memories from Limon (GN)
17. The Island of Missing Trees (Prize nominees)
18. Lena Finkle's Magic Barrel GN
19. The Slowworm's Song (Authors I've read before)
20. Concerning my daughter (in translation)

Library books read in April: 9

May 12 (Total 110)

1. Bless the Daughter raised by a voice in her head (Authors with links to Africa)
2. Black Drop (New to me authors)
3. Kim JiYoung, Born 1982 (in translation)
4. Book Lovers (familiar faces)
5. Winter Counts (New to me)
6. The Long Song of Tchaikovsky Street (History/ memoir)
7. Phenotypes (Book group reads)
8. The Bone Readers (New to me authors)
9. The Village of Eight Graves (familiar faces)
10. What are you going through (familiar faces)
11. Homesickness (New to me)
12. Repentence (New to me)

Library books read in May: 7

June 15 (Total 125)

1. Sorrow and Bliss (Women's Prize shortlist)
2. Antarctica (Prizewinner)
3. Talk Flirty to Me (New to me)
4. Wilder Winds (Women Non-binary people in translation)
5. The Devil's Dance (read my books/ Book groups)
6. Women in the Picture (Reading my books)
7. Secret Lives of Church Ladies (New to me)
8. Love for Beginners (Familiar Faces)
9. Kalmann (Bookgroup books)
10. At Night all Blood is Black (Links to Africa)
11. Goodbye, Ramona (Women in translation)
12. Witches (Women in translation)
13. A Thousand Mornings (Familiar faces / Reread?)
14. The Berlin Exchange (Familiar faces)
15. Joan is Okay (New to me)
16. Zorrie (New to me)

Library books read in June 6

July 7 (Total 132)

1. Summer Light Then Comes the Night (New to me)
2. Horse (familiar faces)
3. The Essential June Jordan (New to me)
4. Fault Lines (New to me)
5. The Things They Carried (Prize winners)
6. Olga Dies Dreaming (New to me)
7. The Half Life of Valery K (Prize nominees)

Library books read this month 6

Graphic novels and memoirs
The Korean author Kim Suk Gendry-Kim


1. Esther's Notebooks
2. Okay Universe
3. Turtle in Paradise: the Graphic Novel
4. Stone Fruit
5. Over Easy
6. Cruel Summer
7. Year of the Rabbit
8. The Fade Out: Act One
9. The Contradictions
10. Parenthesis
11. Blame This on the Boogie
12. The Roles We Play
13. Lady Doctor

Women in translation (International artists)
Maria Primachenko
https://www.handmadecharlotte.com/folk-art-maria-primachenko/

1. Brickmakers (Argentina)
2. The Mad Women's Ball (France/US)
3. To the Warm Horizon (South Korea)
4. Punishment of a Hunter (Russia)
5. Wild Thorns (Palestine)
6. In Memory of Memory (Russia)
7. The Woman with the Knife (South Korea)
8. In Case of Emergency (Iran)
9. The Master Key (Japan)
10. Strangers I know (Italy)
11. Concerning my daughter (South Korea)
12. Wilder Winds (Catalan/Spain)
13. Goodbye, Ramona (ditto)
14. Witches (Spanish-Mexico/US)

Prize nominees (women artists who have been nominated for and/or won prizes)

Simone Leigh has just won at Venice for Brick House, first seen on the High Line.

1. Small Things Like These (Author has won the inaugural William Trevor Prize, the Rooney Prize for Irish Literature, the Olive Cook Award and the Davy Byrnes Irish Writing Award 2009)
2. Matrix (Groff was a finalist for the 2018 National Book Award for Fiction)
3. The Sentence (Erdrich won the Pulitzer for her last book)
4. The Kids (Lowe won the 2021 Costa book prize)
5. Build Your House Around My Body (Women's prize 22)
6. Salt Lick (Women's prize longlist 22)
7. The Bread the Devil Knead (Women's Prize longlist 22)
8. The Book of Form and Emptiness (ditto)
9. Creatures of Passage (ditto)
10. Sorrow and Bliss (ditto)
11. Antarctica (Edge Hill short story prize)
12. The Things They Carried (author is National Book Prize winner)

Books by authors with links to the African continent, loosely defined

Check out Nike Davies-Okundaye's amazing work with batik and indigo eg:
https://www.shadesofnoir.org.uk/creatives/portfolio/nike-davies-okundaye/

1. Library of the Dead (Author is Zimbabwean)
2. Teaching My Mother How to Give Birth (Author is Somali, born in Kenya, lives in London)
3. Ancestor Stones (Sierrra Leone / UK)
4. A Blood Condition (Author born in Zambia, now UK)
5. Bless the Daughter raised by a voice in her head (Somalia/Kenya/UK)
6. At Night All Blood is Black (Senegal/ France)

Familiar faces - authors I've read before
(Favourite artists)


Artemisia Gentileschi- Self-portrait as Allegory of Painting

1. Deep as Death
2. The O Zone
3. Real Estate
4. Who Will Run the Frog Hospital
5. The Inheritance of Solomon Farthing
6. The Serpent's Tale
7. All Grown Up
8. Walk the Blue Fields (short stories)
9. Lady Violet Investigates
10. Lady Violet attends a wedding
11. Lady Violet finds a Bridegroom
12. The Swimmers
13. Lady Violet Enjoys a Frolic
14. Enemies Abroad
15. All Systems Red
16. Artificial Condition
17. Exit Strategy
18. These Precious Days
19. Fugitive Telemetry
20. Lady Violet Holds a Baby
21. Lady Violet Goes for a Gallop
22. Book Lovers
23.The Village of Eight Graves
24. What are you going through
25. The Berlin Exchange
26. Horse

Keeping things interesting i.e. first time authors & new-to-me authors ('new' artists under 40)


Hana Yilma Godine - Hair Salon in Addis Ababa
https://www.fridmangallery.com/hana-yilma-godine-beacon

1. We Run the Tides*
2. The Appeal
3. Index of Women*
4. Network Effect*
5. Often I Am Happy
6. Native: Dispatches from a Palestinian-Israeli Life*
7. Black Drop*
8. Winter Counts*
9. The Bone Readers*
10. Homesickness*
11. Very Cold People
12. Talk Flirty to Me
13. Secret Lives of Church Ladies*

*= Would read this author again

Histories & politics (early artists: Louise Moillon - Market scene with pickpocket)


Via wikipedia

1. The Mirror and the Palette (art history)
2. Devil in the Grove (civil rights)
3. Kingdom of Characters (history / linguistics)
4. The Long Song of Tchaikovsky Street (Russian history/ memoir)

Bookclub books & group reads
(Still life "groups of things" by women artists)


Caroline Therese Friedrich

Borderless Bookclub (now monthly) https://borderlessbookclub.com/

January Borderless - read Brickmakers
March Read Marzahn, Mon Amour
April Read Strangers I Know
May Read Phenotypes

Upcoming:
Thursday May 19th, 8pm UK time
And Other Stories | Phenotypes by Paulo Scott.
Thursday June 16th, 8pm UK time
Bitter Lemon Press | Kalmann

Work bookgroup
Read (March) What it feels like for a girl

Asia year long read (75ers group)
January: Turkey My Name is Red
February: Palestine Wild Thorns
March: Syria (read) The Unexpected Love Objects of Dunya Noor
April: Iran
Read: In Case of Emergency / Mohebali, Mahsa
Potentially: My Bird (Middle East Literature In Translation) / Vafi, Fariba
Things We Left Unsaid / Zoya Pirzad
May: to read a "-stan" I have The Devil's Dance on the shelf to read, have started.

Caroline's shared read (20 AoC)
March (Still! Currently reading) Night Haunts: A journey through the London night

Reading my own books (Art I've seen in person, (and have photos of... )



Frances McNair from the Scottish Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh

Potential books from my shelves (A-B authors)
Bird Summons Leila Aboulela
Stay with Me Ayobami Adebayo
We Should All be Feminists CAA
Our Sister Killjoy
The Storyteller
The Yacoubian Building
Bosnian Chronicle
War of the Saints
According to Queenie
Eclipse

1. Laura Knight: a panoramic view (Acq Oct 21)
2. The Emigrants (Acq ?Dec 21)
3. According to Queenie (Not catalogued!)
4. Forty-one False Starts (Acq. April 2021)
5. To the Warm Horizon (Acq. July 21)
6. Topics of Conversation (Acq. April 21)
7. Ancestor Stones (Acq. 2013! )
8. The Devil's Dance (Acq May 2020)
9. Women in the Picture (Acq Aug 2021)

NB books only count if bought before 1st Jan 2022.


Reminder to myself of some outstanding books on the shelves...

Happy new thread, Charlotte. It's amazing how much reading you do while working and gardening!

Happy new thread! I'm in awe of the sheer number of books you've read already this year!

Happy new thread Charlotte. Loving all the art and photos over here! Happy gardening too!

>12 BLBera: Thanks for visiting, Beth.

>13 Jackie_K: I don't really know how to read slowly. It has driven various authority figures up the wall at different points in my life.

>14 mdoris: Thanks Mary. Every spring I am amazed how much joy the garden gives me.

Bless the Daughter raised by a voice in her head
The book what Beyonce made Big. Hard-hitting poetry unafraid to explore domestic violence, FGM and the legacies of migration.

She explains how much harder it is to leave
the second marriage, that she doesn't want to
raise children the way she had to raise us,
and What would people say?

I ask What if you die while you're waiting?

In a recurring dream,
the one where she's driving alone at dawn
along a dirt road, passing by grazing camels,
her braid coming loose in the breeze, the sun
lifting its skirt, a peaceful Somalia in her rearview.
She thinks of this, and laughs.

Black Drop
Historical crime novel set in the Foreign Office of the Pitt government shortly after the start of the Napoleonic war with the French. A lowly clerk has a secret: his mother's French and he speaks the language. So when he's asked to copy a letter, he knows what it says, and when it gets leaked to the press he has a vested interest in proving he wasn't involved.
Lots of historical detail (the author is a former academic) and plans for a series.

'Miss More is well respected." Theodore was hurrying along beside us. 'And vastly pious. Folks in America hold her very high, I assure you.'
'America must be an uncomfortably solemn sort of place,' I said.
'I wish it were, Mr Jago. Mr Philpott will tell you it is very, very dissolute indeed.'
"Scarcely more so than this city,' Philpott objected 'But I begin to fear you and Miss More will change men's ways between you. By the time you're fifty and have made the world to your moral satisfaction, I'll be dead, thank God.'

The park has its dark parts, but near to Whitehall and the river, it was all light. A string quartet played by the canal, surrounded by a dignified audience of what London society remained in town. It was still warm, even this late in the evening, and as we walked through the female crowd it was an aviary of fluttering fans.
'Are these loose women?' Theodore asked with unexpected zest, and an offended old dowager bustled out from under our feet like a partridge.
'Apparently not.'

Happy new thread, Charlotte.

You found some beautiful art for your thread again.
The ones in >2 charl08: and >8 charl08: stand out to me.

Happy new thread, Charlotte. So many gorgeous new pictures!

>18 FAMeulstee: There is so much out there, Anita. I feel empathy with those collectors who have paintings on every inch of space. If you have the resources, how do you stop adding the beautiful things to your collection?

>19 MissWatson: Thank you. I'm hoping my next art trip will be to get to see some Japanese art, there is a new exhibition recently opened at the Lady Lever.
https://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/whatson/lady-lever-art-gallery/exhibition/ku...

>17 charl08: Ooh, that one sounds up my alley -- thanks for the review!

Happy new thread, Charlotte. Black Drop looks like a good one. Not available here yet though. I'll have to keep my eyes open for it.

Happy new thread! The pictures are beautiful. I can't decide on one I like best. >8 charl08: Hair Salon in Addis Ababa and >2 charl08: Olya Pilyuhina maybe, but the Market scene with pickpocket at >9 charl08: is the kind that makes me watch for movement.

>21 christina_reads: Definitely one for those who like lots of history in their historical fiction.

>22 Familyhistorian: Do you want me to post my copy? You'd be welcome to have it.

>23 VivienneR: I'm not sure I'd have >9 charl08: on the wall it looks too real to be comfortable. The exhibition including >8 charl08: recently closed, I would have loved to see it, so much detail in what the artist does.

Now reading The Doves Necklace which is set in Mecca, as I've just realised that it's an ILL and can't be renewed!

Adding Homesickness to my wishlist after reading a review by Anne Enright, highlighted by Lithub.
https://lithub.com/5-book-reviews-you-need-to-read-this-week-5-5-2022/

Happy new thread.
Love revisiting the artists you have chosen.

>17 charl08: That does sound good. I do like a good historical mystery.

>27 Helenliz: I think I might start a new thread every month so I can post more art. The more I look, the more I find!

>28 BLBera: It was a lovely example of getting away from it all with a book.

Now reading Kim Ji-Young, Born 1982 which just makes me want to shake my fist at something (the world?).

Kim Ji-Young, Born 1982
This was really powerful, the author blends the story of an ordinary Korean woman with stats about Korean women's lives, from gendered abortions of female children to women's experience in the workplace (often leaving after getting pregnant, and then returning to the workplace in a role that's less secure and paid less). A short book that manages to cover a great deal of inequality.

'You're right. In a world where doctors can cure cancer and do heart transplants, there isn't a single pill to treat menstrual cramps.' Her sister pointed at her own stomach.
'The world wants our uterus to be drug-free. Like sacred grounds in a virgin forest.'
Jiyoung hugged the bottle to her stomach and cackled despite the pain.

Book Lovers
I enjoyed Beach read so no surprise that I also enjoyed this one, similarly a clever romance between two highly literate characters. Almost as if it was written for readers, eh? Other reviewers have made insightful comments about the nice play on the "retreat to small town" trope.
It made me laugh.

"You," he says, "are so much weirder than I thought."
"Well, for what it's worth, before tonight, I assumed you went into a broom closet and entered power saving mode whenever you weren't at work, so I guess we're both surprised."
"Now you're being ridiculous," he says. "When I'm not at work, I'm in my coffin in the basement of an old Victorian mansion."

>32 charl08: - I'm near the top of the holds list for this one from the library. Looking forward to it!

>33 katiekrug: I gobbled it down, Katie. Hope you enjoy the read as much as I did.

>32 charl08: I recently read a review of that somewhere and it sounds like a good one.

>35 BLBera: I'm wondering if there are enough books to make up a (new?) subgenre, Romance written with bookish readers in mind*
E.g. The Bookish life of Nina Hill? This one distracted me from a chunkster set in Mecca which I am finding Hard Work. The story includes so many different characters and narrators and needs me to pay more attention than my usual reading style.

Things in the garden starting to add a bit more colour.


*More snappy name required.

>32 charl08: I'm excited to read Book Lovers -- love the quote you shared! I'm in the library queue but will hopefully get it in the next month or two. I enjoyed the author's People We Meet on Vacation and have Beach Read on my shelves waiting to be read.

>36 charl08: Always lovely to see to colors appearing in this time of year, Charlotte.
Besides the first geraniums, the peonies, sea thrift and creeping phlox are flowering.

>37 christina_reads: I haven't read People we meet on Vacation - not sure why not. Should probably do something about that!
Hope you copy comes round at a good time.

>38 FAMeulstee: I'm really enjoying the garden just now Anita. I've put some (bought) sweet pea seedlings in, so hoping for the same beautiful scents in the garden as last year.

Beth posted a link to this list of 'Jubilee' books. I'm looking forward to a week off work - maybe some of these books will have come from the library by then! I've requested The Nowhere Man and The Bone Readers.

https://readinggroups.org/big-jubilee-read

Happy new thread Charlotte!

>36 charl08: Nice colour!
Nothing wrong with 'Book Lovers' as a name - or 'Books for Book Lovers'?

>40 humouress: Certainly more snappy! Thanks Nina.

I'm bogged down in The Dove's Necklace (I really wanted to like this more than I have done so far!) so reading Winter Counts instead.

I'm giving up on The Dove's Necklace. If I was on holiday this book might have a chance, but as it is I'm going to return it to the library.

Finished Winter Counts which I picked up in Waterstones when I was "just browsing" a couple of weekends ago. I was gripped by this one, despite generally being super tired this week. Virgil Wounded Horse acts as unpaid enforcer for his community in Sputh Dakota, as many crimes are not fully prosecuted by federal or tribal authorities. He's asked to investigate a gang trying to bring in heroine to the reservation by one of the tribal leaders. Things start going wrong from this point on.
It looks like this could be a series and I'd be up to read another.Although I worked out who did it, so probably you will too, because I'm not usually one to be ahead of the plot!

The hippies and the wasicu longhairs who come here, they don't get that part, that our people are sacred too, not just the land and the water."

He stopped for a second and looked out into the woods. "I think Indian justice means putting the oyate first, healing the community..... always remember the Lakota values, especially waohola, respect for yourself and respect for the community...."

The Long Song of Tchaikovsky Street

Dutch journalist looks back at 100 years of Russian history. Some memoir, his own history in Russia, as an accidental trader benefitting from the slow collapse of the USSR to the rise of the oligarchs. Some much older histories, narratives from those who witnessed the revolution in 1917, and saw the new communist order establish itself. I could have done without quite so much self-involved reflection in places. In particular the flight of fancy (or fantasy) of the last twenty pages including the imagined perspectives of 21st century "flying carriage" occupants to those Russian elites who added red reins to their carriages in the mistaken belief this would save them. It felt unnecessarily heavy handed. But perhaps that's my resistance to his bleak visions of the future, as much of what he said on Putin seemed prescient (original Dutch edition published 2017).

She asked how things were going with my book. Just the week before, I'd told her that the project I had on my hands was threatening to turn into a sort of chronicle of our own Russian life together.
'We've just moved into the Akademicheskaya Hotel 2, winter 1989...'
'God almighty, Jesus ...' She was speaking Dutch, and it was pretty plain at that, 'have you only got that far? You still have to cover a quarter of a century!'

>43 charl08: A book by Derk Sauer?

>44 FAMeulstee: The title would help, wouldn't it? I copied it from Litsy, should have added the title to the top. Have added to >43 charl08: now.

>45 charl08: Thanks, so it is the English translation of Tsjaikovskistraat 40 by Pieter Waterdrinker, I have read this book in 2018.

>46 FAMeulstee: It took a while to get translated into English, Anita. Have you read any of his other books? I'd not heard of him before.

>47 charl08: Not yet, Charlotte, although there are a few books by him I would like to read someday.
His book The German Wedding was on the longlist if the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award in 2011.

>48 FAMeulstee: He certainly seemed to have had a varied journalistic career. The stuff about the violence in Russia was grim.

Phenotypes
This might just be the best book the translated fiction bookgroup I'm in has read so far (and it fitted my length criteria for bookclub books too, at just over 200 pages). Federico, the narrator, is a Brazillian activist and youth worker. In the present he's asked to sit on a commission to try and work out a new way for the state to control a quota scheme for Black students to access university places. In the past, Scott gradually unpeels a violent incident from when Federico and his brother were young men out clubbing in their home town of Porto Alegre, southern Brazil.

In the afterword the translator Daniel Hahn explains some of the challenges of working on this novel, in particular the specific histories and ways of speaking about race that just don't translate into English.

What is it, Mum, I ask. It's not working, she admits. Is it difficult, I ask. This time it's really difficult, she says. Is it a difficult book, I ask. No, it's just a book that really affects me, that makes me want to stop everything and make a different story or to tell the story only with my illustrations, To a new script, A story of my own, I've been thinking about this since yesterday, And I think it's because of the subject matter, Any story that has motherhood in it affects me, she explains. Shouldn't sci-fi stories be light, I ask. No good story is ever light, Federico, No good story leaves out what's dense, what's heavy, she observes.

Fascinating to listen to the discussion with the translator of Phenotypes, Daniel Hahn.
This is spoilery.

He discusses the challenge of translating the distinctive style of this novel. He suggests that like a lot of good books it teaches you how to read it (as in when it starts the sentences seem really long and train of consciousness and then becomes to feel "natural").

The host raises the question about the timelines of the book: as they are complex (one runs backwards, the other forwards). I hadn't noticed that the section set in the past is told in the present tense (!)
The book makes you want to find out what happened at the beginning of the story: so there is no ending in a conventional sense. It's all headed to the moment back when he goes to the military conscription event. The host quotes the author as saying that the book asks questions instead of answers.
The translator comments on the lack of resolution, and critics on goodreads! The author (who is not present) has pointed out that given the book is about racism, it would be a lie to provide a tidy and neat solution as an ending.

Hahn also comments on the diversity of Brazil, and in that context the challenge of translating from a city that was so different from his own knowledge.

Looking forward to (virtually) attending these events this week. Especially "saying hello to Jason Isaacs".

Three fantastic evenings celebrating the six novels and authors shortlisted for this year’s Women’s Prize. Featuring Oscar-worthy performances from celebrated actors reading from each book and candid conversations with the authors, this is your chance to gather with booklovers from all over the world and join the ultimate celebration of women’s writing – all from the comfort of home!

Gillian Anderson, fresh from series three of Sex Education and appearing in The Crown. Gillian will be reading from Meg Mason’s Sorrow and Bliss.

Jason Isaacs, the wonderfully wicked Lucius Malfoy in the Harry Potter series and also having just appeared in series three of Sex Education, will read from Ruth Ozeki’s The Book of Form and Emptiness.

Louise Brealey, the love-struck Molly Hooper in Sherlock, and Sarah Hargreaves in Exile, will be reading Great Circle by Maggie Shipstead.

Naomie Harris, fresh from appearing in Marvel’s Venom and as the recurring Miss Moneypenny in James Bond, Naomie will be reading from Lisa Allen-Agostini’s The Bread the Devil Knead.

Alex Kingston, who has played everyone from a Doctor in ER, to a companion to a different sort of Doctor (Who!), will be reading from Elif Shafak’s The Island of Missing Trees.

Irene Bedard, the voice of Disney’s 1995 film Pocahontas, and the acting talent behind the cult-classic Smoke Signals will be reading Louise Erdrich’s The Sentence.

>51 charl08: - Oh, that sounds like fun!

>52 katiekrug: It was, and I really liked the way they've done it: two writers per night, just over sixty minutes which is about all my post-work brain can take right now.

Did you see the Women's Prize have got coaching offers on for new writers?

>51 charl08: Nice line-up, Charlotte. Have you read all of the shortlist?

>54 BLBera: Almost, Beth. I'm about half way through Sorrow and Bliss. In a bit of a reading slump due to gardening and K drama on Netflix.
First roses out for this year.

Lovely. Yours are ahead of mine, but I have buds on all 3 roses.

>51 charl08: Sounds great Charlotte. I'm reading and loving The Island of Missing Trees at the moment.

>56 Helenliz: I keep thinking I should move them because they don't fit my "colour scheme" (which is always pretty much notional anyway, given that plants seem to self-seed enthusiastically from neighbours, but the stuff I buy often can't cope) but then they open and I remember how much I love them. I thought the beautiful yellow one had died altogether, but it turns out it's just that the aphids have been particularly busy, and eaten most of the new growth. Argh.

>57 Caroline_McElwee: Alex Kingston read the bit where the tree's history is explained, and it was just marvellous. I don't know who is narrating the audio book, but if she did it I'd buy a copy. Gillian Anderson's tone for Sorrow and Bliss was perfectly judged too, I thought.

I've just realised I forgot to say anything about a crime novel I read The Bone Readers, set on (a version of) Grenada. No reflection on the book, I liked it a lot, I've just forgotten to add anything here.

>55 charl08: I have 3 pots at the front of the house in which I planted jasmines but the gardner keeps putting roses in one of them. Which is fine, but I'd given up trying to get roses to survive in this climate. Sadly, the second plant has now given up the ghost. It did have a small branch at the bottom which I had hopes for but that seems to have succumbed, too. My friend told me about roses that are grown in the highlands of Malaysia and brought over, so they are more acclimatised, and she's bought a couple of bushes. We were over there for dinner at the weekend and she had a small vase with some of the roses from her garden. Might be worth investing.

>59 humouress: I was admiring your swimming pool and pot collection on your thread. It all looks very green.
I looked up Malaysian roses without much success, but did find hibiscus - we have some pink ones as house plants, but to be able to grow them outside must be amazing.

>60 charl08: Thank you :0) My husband thinks I have too many plants around the pool but I like the look and it keeps it a bit cooler.

I think the roses are grown in Malaysian highlands because of the climate but I doubt they're native to Malaysia. I put in some variegated hibiscus plants by our walkway but we haven't had many flowers. It could be because I get them cut so they don't overshadow the walkway and maybe they don't grow tall enough?

>61 humouress: I have no idea why things don't grow: last year I planted a few things which my neighbours have had great success with. They never made it through the winter.

Listening to Louise Erdrich talk about The Sentence in my lunchbreak (I missed the chance to watch the last of the shortlist events last night, but they sent a 'catch up' link). In the first few minutes she thanks the actor for the reading, and mentions the author speaking next. I really like this. "The most difficult thing I could have written, to write about reality."

Thinking about a visit to Minneapolis: https://birchbarkbooks.com/

Let me know if you decide to visit Birchbark Books, Charlotte. I'll meet you there! The shortlist readings sound great.

>63 BLBera: Have you ever been, Beth? Erdrich was a great advocate for bookshops generally, and talked about how other bookshops had responded to her list of further reading in the back of the book. Listening to her speak I was reminded how much I liked the book, too. I'm not sure if the paperback is out yet for me to get my own copy.

I've been several times, Charlotte; it's only about 90 minutes from my house. We've had a couple of LT meetups there as well. :)

>65 BLBera: Several times? Oh I'm jealous.

The Village of Eight Graves (Pushkin Vertigo) This is the third Seishi Yokomizo novel I've read featuring the apparently unimpressive private detective Kosuka Kindaichi. He likes a Marple-like gathering at the end to explain everything. This one was a bit long and (for me) tedious, narrated by a clueless observer/ near-victim.
This bit made me laugh however.

Kosuke Kindaichi looked at the doctor.
"You'll forgive me for asking, Doctor, but you seem to me to be a mild-mannered and peaceable sort. Have you ever hated anybody? Have you ever loathed someone enough, say, to wish them ill or even dead?"
The doctor looked at Kosuke Kindaichi and, without a word, nodded feebly.
"I would be lying to you if I said I had never experienced anything of the kind. But, of course, I never dreamt of acting upon that desire..."
"Quite so, quite so." With a look of satisfaction, Kosuke Kindaichi scratched his shaggy head. "We ordinary members of the public commit murder in our minds on a daily basis. If only you knew how many times the inspector here has dreamt of killing me!...

What are you going through (familiar faces)
I read The Friend and liked it, so ordered this one by the same author. Here the narrator is thinking a lot about mortality, her own and others. She visits a friend with cancer and meets up with a former lover, noticing how much older he has become since they split. The lover gives a talk about the environmental crisis: the world is going to end, we should all stop having children and focus on changing things. And yet her friend still desperately wants to live. And the ex-lover has three grandchildren. And the narrator is treated by some in the book as though her choice(?) to be single and childless is kind of odd. I'm not sure if this is the point of the book the author intended. But it struck me.

Homesickness (New to me)
Quiet short stories set in rural Ireland and in Canada, that took unexpected turns and surprised me.

... because the book was not about him, it had ended up threatening to become about everything else. At various points the book resembled a dirty-realist Bildungsroman about an inexplicably fatherless young man in small-town Ireland, a picaresque historical romance about an Irish expat working on the North American railroads in the middle of the twentieth century, a splenetic Bernhard-style monologue about a malevolent cipher travelling around a fictional country burning down houses I had written several books and no book and was still writing the book; I had written a thousand or so pages around an absented centre I did not want to acknowledge or approach.

Caber, of course, told me to stop fucking around and just write about my father.

'Everyone's already written about their fathers,' I told him with exasperation. 'You've written about your father. It's done, it's done a million times over. No one wants to read that shit any more.'
"There's a million books about fathers, sure,' Caber conceded. 'So what's one more?'

Very Cold People

Very unimpressed reader.
This is covered in raving blurbs from impressive authors, but did nothing for me. Girl has miserable time growing up in posh area with emotionally cold parents. Other girls she knows have it worse.

My mother's romance novels from the library didn't interest me. I liked stories about orphans or runaways, especially the ones that explained exactly how to build a shelter inside a giant tree or in a cave or in the side of a mountain. I often left the last few pages unread for days, straining to extend the experience. My parents always noticed my laminated bookmarks, with their little yarn tassels, sticking out of my library books, with only a fraction of an inch of pages left to read. They laughed at me.

Duplicate post!

Love the first line of your review 🙂

>71 katiekrug: Thanks Katie. Definitely a case of your mileage may vary with this one.

>69 charl08: Ouch. Well it wasn't on my radar anyway, and it won't be added now. Thanks for taking one for the team Charlotte.

>69 charl08: oof, sorry that wasn't a better one.

Your roses look beautiful!

>73 Caroline_McElwee: >74 bell7: I feel like I have read similar fictional things on this subject that have worked better. But would be intrigued to hear what others made of it.

Visited Alnwick today, and Barter Books.

>75 charl08: >76 charl08: Oh, Barter Books is truly my happy place! How many books did you buy? (I was going to ask 'did you buy any books', but thought better of it!).

I was pretty restrained (related: family wanted to go eat, so I had to leave after an hour).

I love a book list: here's an NY Times one that is tempting me

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/21/books/summer-reading-suggestions.html?unlocke...

(Should give free access)

Repentance
My last book of May was set in Buenos Aires, amidst anti-government protests in 2001, and during the 'disappearances' twenty years before. Joaquin is unable to retire in the 2000s as his pension has been hit by the financial crisis. He's confined to desk duties as the city collapses around him. In 1981 he's worried about his brother and his wife, both politically active. I thought this one was really well done: not a conventional crime novel, as it's not in any doubt who has committed the crimes (the state). Plenty of open threads so I am hopeful this could be a series.

Joaquín turned around and looked at Jorge's door. For a second, he hesitated: it was not too late for him. He could walk away, knowing without a doubt what had happened, but never having to see it with his own eyes. Because if he decided to step into the apartment, all his efforts up to that point would have been in vain, and he had worked so hard to keep himself at a distance: whenever someone brought up the subject-ever so tactfully angling for his opinion - he had dodged the conversation with the excuse of freshening up his drink; every time a military van stopped at his precinct to put their prey in temporary holding en route to hell, he had left through a side door and spent the afternoon at a cafecito. Had he really thought these tricks would be enough to shield him from this mess?
What did Jorge always say? 'It's not only the things you do, it's also the things that you don't.'

Sorrow and Bliss
Shortlisted for the Women's Prize, this really warmed up for me in the second half. Parts made me laugh out loud. I am (even more) intrigued to see which book wins the award.

>78 charl08: Thanks for sharing, Charlotte. Of those books only The Twilight World by Werner Herzog resides on mount TBR.

>78 charl08: Thanks Charlotte. I am looking forward to Night of the Living Rez, especially.

>79 charl08: This one really sounds good.

I have mixed feelings about Sorrow and Bliss; I liked the first part, but after she was diagnosed I felt cheated. Why not tell us what the diagnosis was? It seemed lazy to me.

>81 FAMeulstee: Would be intrigued to hear more about the Herzog when you read it! I've heard reviews of his films but that's all.

>82 BLBera: The spoiler came up in the Women's prize interview. Helpfully, I can't remember her answer.

:) I just don't understand why she didn't tell us.

>84 BLBera: I have theories, but no answers.

Holiday photos.


From the museum at Housesteads (Hadrian's Wall)


Souter lighthouse


Newbiggen bay


Cragside.
(I think I may have got my money's worth for the year from the National Trust)

Nice photos.

Love that part of the world. And yes, had my value out of the NT membership there!

>85 charl08: Lovely holiday photos Charlotte.

>86 BLBera: Thanks Beth. I wondered if Mason may have wanted to avoid (what I often do in response to MH in fiction) criticism of inconsistent / inaccurate symptoms associated with a particular condition. Or equally avoid the book being labeled a "schizophrenic" or "bi-polar" book. It has just occured to me that it's interesting that both this and Ozeki's book look at the failure(s) of mh diagnosis and treatment.

>87 Helenliz: It was all new to me, I really loved it. Despite the relativity mild weather, the beaches we saw were almost empty. Even on the Cragside visit, it was a bank holiday and busy, but still possible to walk in the grounds and be surrounded by beautiful plants and trees and feel that tranquility. Just lovely.

>88 Caroline_McElwee: We were so lucky with the weather. I couldn't quite believe it.

>85 charl08: Lovely pictures, Charlotte.
Looks like you had a good time.

Good point, Charlotte. It just seemed lazy to me.

>90 FAMeulstee: Yes, plus bookshop visits. I have not yet added the books to the library, must do that.

>91 BLBera: I could see how that feeling would affect your appreciation of the book, Beth. Perhaps it helped that I knew it was coming?

Wilder Winds (Catalan/Spain)
Slim collection of short stories (some only a couple of pages long) from this small press that exclusively translates Catalan writers. I was supposed to read this book for book group but I didn't get it in time, so missed the discussion.

Stories that particularly hit me included a young girl volunteering at a refugee centre, a woman working with the children of women prisoners (who must all be separated from mum aged 3) and a dystopian image of a world where nobody dies. If you like short stories, you might like this.

Without seeking them, slogans were emerging.
STOP TELLING WOMEN TO SMILE. I'M NOT WALKING DOWN THE STREET FOR YOUR PLEASURE. CRITICISM OF MY BODY IS NOT APPRECIATED. MY NAME IS NOT GIRLIE, OR GORGEOUS, OR BLONDIE, OR GOOD-LOOKING. I AM NOT STREET FURNITURE. I DON'T OWE YOU A SECOND.
I put a phrase under each portrait and printed them on enormous posters. Walking through Brooklyn, the first time I came across one I wasn't expecting, it affected me deeply... I felt protected by that powerful giant, staring straight in the eyes of whoever looked at her, sending a clear message.

My new Women's Prize mug turned up.
Now doing a fine job cheering up the office.

>94 charl08: Nice.

>94 charl08: I have one of those as well. It makes me happy.

>92 charl08: How did you know it was coming? Did I miss something?

>95 Caroline_McElwee: I really like it, very happy with my purchase.

>96 BLBera: I hadn't finished the book when I watched her interview, and I think it came up then. You didn't miss anything.

>93 charl08: You got me. Into the cart it went.

Got it! Thanks.

>98 Caroline_McElwee: >99 BLBera: Good stuff.

I finished a book from my own shelves... Cue dance party

(or a cup of tea and another book).

Planning an event at work and feeling quite glad to have the books to come home and relax with.

The lure of a lost manuscript is one of humanity's eternal temptations. Our ancestor Adam's first poem; the Mushaf of Fatima, daughter of the Prophet; Ibn-Sina's Eastern Logic; Yassawi's secret aphorisms... and these were just the Islamic works. If you included the lost books of other cultures, the list would number thousands, from St Margaret's gospel to the history of Genghis Khan.

I finished The Devil's Dance, appreciate the nudge this challenge gave me to pick this up from my shelves. One of the reasons I bought it was a relationship with an Uzbek refugee family through volunteering. If I had read this book to find out about contemporary Uzbek life though, I'd have been disappointed, as the nearest it gets is the 1930s. Two parallel stories: in one a (real life) Uzbek author, Qodiriy, is accused of 'nationalism' by the Stalinist state and put in jail. In the other, the author recreates his latest novel. The novel's plot centres on the wife of a corrupt leader, who is also imprisoned against her will (but in a harem). The two stories work well, but I found it quite a dense read (similar to reading Orham Pamuk for me).

I've read a few prison narratives and find them fascinating, I think this one stands up well.

As if interested to see the effect of his words, Trigulov fell silent for a while. Abdulla hid behind his smoke and tried to guess what lay behind all this.

'Don't think, Qodiriy, that this has any connection to real life. It's only something I've made up. But Abdulla was well aware of the effect that the 'made-up' could have on real life. You could surrender to inspiration and write about the most unbelievable things, and five or ten years down the line, this same 'made-up' thing would turn up in your life.

Women in the Picture
I read this over the last six months. The author, an art historian explores the way women have been depicted over time and how women artists have resisted this.

Medusa's knotted mythography tells us that for millennia she was the epitome of female power a mother goddess of healing, birth, immortality and knowledge, who was possibly connected with reproductive care for women and the education of female doctors, and who was a symbolic ruler of matriarchal societies. How was something so strong denigrated into a terrifying menstruating demon, whose power was weaponised against her in the service of the male 'hero'? And why are other versions of her myth so little-known?

Each chapter takes a broad theme (the final one is monsters) and brings in contemporary attitudes to women along with wide ranging examples of artists and their work . So in exploring monsters we go from suffragettes to Hillary Clinton to Medusa, referencing classic feminist work including The Dinner Party, and newer work such as A Subtlety by Kara Walker. McCormack argues powerfully against simplistic acceptance of women's position in art from the past, but also against losing this art altogether.
I'm no expert on art so the accessibility and range of this book was a real plus for me. I'm also a fan of small hardbacks like this, easy to physically hold as you read. It's a shame the book didn't come with colour illustrations, but with the internet I was of course able to find many of the images discussed.

Recommended.

... it's in images of sexual encounters that this acting out of power by one body over another has become most normalised as an expression of desire. Behind the maiden is the overriding presence of male desire - to create works of art, to procreate new powerful social orders, or to satisfy a lust for sexual domination and violence....

As I've mentioned, the ubiquity of these images, from their places in the heart of our political imagery to the works of art that we love best in our national collections, means that this male desire obscures any other forms of desire. There are, for example, no mainstream images of women taking men they desire by force. There are no images on coins of powerful women abducting men that become metaphors of political union.

Secret Lives of Church Ladies
I enjoyed this one, short stories united with a common theme of the church and its impact on Black women's lives. Lesbian women whose mums don't speak to them because they believe having a same sex partner is wrong. The four daughters of a terrible dad trying to find the fifth daughter they've never met. A grandmother raising a child with a name from Judges that sets a powerful precedent.
Which is not to say that the book doesn't also have hope for some of the characters to navigate the future,
it also is darkly funny.

Your mother speaks longingly of Judgment Day and the final accounting of who's allowed past the pearly gates, certain that God's accounting will mirror hers. "It will be a very small number," she's fond of saying. "Only those who walk the straight and narrow path shall see the face of God."

And you realize that if God were to welcome everyone into heaven, your mother would abandon Christianity immediately.

I hope to read more by Philyaw.
I like the US cover more than the UK one (a reference to a "Peach cobbler" story)

>102 charl08: I thought this was a good collection as well, Charlotte.

>102 charl08: In this case, the US cover is so much better! It looks like a much more serious, interesting book. Does the UK publisher have a problem with putting a picture of a black woman on the cover?

>103 BLBera: Intrigued to see what she'll write next, Beth.

>104 elkiedee: I wondered what lay behind the decision too.

As is my custom, I'm half way through a book I'm due to discuss tomorrow for book group. Oops.

The Book of Form and Emptiness won the Women's Prize. A brilliant shortlist and a great winner.

Hi Charlotte, I was very pleased to see TBoF&H being a winner too! When I was reading it I kept thinking that it is the story going on in many places with many families.

>106 charl08: I was happy with the choice, too, Charlotte. I still haven't read The Bread the Devil Kneads, but I liked the others. It was a great list this year.

>107 mdoris: Yes, I think it was really topical, Mary.

>108 BLBera: Was that a deliberate decision or were you not able to get hold of a copy? I really liked the author when she spoke at the shortlist event.

Listened to the author as well as the translator speak about Kalmann and the translation process. Fascinating to hear about the author's experience publishing before have a successful book (in German). He deliberately set out to write a crime novel, and used a very rural place in Iceland as a setting. The translator was very positive about the process, and emphasized how careful she was to preserve the unique voice of Kalmann, the (unreliable) narrator.

I had mixed feelings about this novel, but I enjoyed "visiting" a completely different place (Iceland) and seeing it from a very different perspective to much Scandinoir.

"Did I startle you?" she asked carefully.

I stood there, stiff as a lighthouse, my cheeks glowing beacons. She really had startled me. And I told her so. She laughed, and I gradually relaxed, because she actually was nice, but I was still a little flustered. My heart was pounding, my palms were moist, and I was afraid that I smelled of shark. They didn't want this smell in the schoolhouse.
"So you're Kalmann the shark catcher, right?"
Suddenly feeling self-conscious, I nodded and looked down at the floor. I like it when people call me a shark catcher. People usually call me something else. I looked around surreptitiously, but there was no one who could have heard, here in the school where I'd been called so many names. No witnesses. It was a shame.

I just haven't gotten to it yet, Charlotte. I hope to get to it next month.

>106 charl08: I too was happy to see Ozeki's book win, as I loved it!

>106 charl08: I will be acquiring a copy tomorrow Charlotte. I have a book token to spend. Yay.

>113 Caroline_McElwee: I'm tempted to get the full set, to mark a shortlist where I didn't hate any of them, but I'm on a book-buying ban this month.
But also I'm not sure if The Sentence is out here in paperback yet.

>112 mathgirl40: I almost always like a book about books. Although I can't think of any exceptions right now!

>111 BLBera: Fair enough. Having heard it read aloud (or an excerpt of it) I'd quite like to go listen to the audio: the accent was a plus.

Good idea, Charlotte. I will check to see if my library has the audiobook.

Good luck with your book-buying ban. What great alliteration!

>115 BLBera: The alliteration is better than the actual carrying out. I forgot and ordered a Kindle book. Whoops.
I'm listening to Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy at the moment. I thought I'd read it, but since the bits of plot that aren't in the film feel completely new to me, I'm doubting myself.

At Night All Blood is Black

I read this in my lunchtimes at work, it suited it well as it has lots of short chapters and repetition. Translated from French (and winner of the international Booker) it follows a Senegalese soldier in the midst of a breakdown on the Western Front. As in the best war fiction, it makes personal the grim experiences of thousands. In this novel, being on the frontline forced to repeatedly attack enemy trenches, facing probable death, and the death of your friends. Diop's African soldiers are well aware of the cliched "savage" parts they are being asked to play by French commanders. Alfa describes the horrific experience that made him snap. He remembers his life in Senegal, light relief from the mud and the gore. Beautifully written.

To translate is to risk understanding better than others that the truth about a word is not single, but double, even triple, quadruple, or quintuple. To translate is to distance oneself from God's truth, which, as everyone knows or believes, is single.

"What did he say?" everyone asked. "This is not the response we expected. The response we expected wouldn't be more than two words, possibly three. Everyone has a last name and a first name, two first names at most."

The translator hesitated, intimidated by the angry, worried looks being shot his way. He cleared his throat and answered the uniforms in a small, nearly inaudible voice: "He said that he is both death and life."

Goodbye, Ramona
I thought I would love this one from the description, but instead found it slow going. Three narrators with the same name from the same family (grandmother, mother, daughter) take turns to describe their romantic lives. I found the narratives difficult to separate, despite them being set firmly in separate times (1890s&1900s, 1930s and 1960s). All three women were unsympathetic, and I felt not particularly interesting. As their grasp on contemporary events was limited, as a non-Spanish (Catalan) reader it was quite difficult, I felt, to place their experiences in terms of what was happening at the time (but I assume this would not have been an issue for the reader of the original novel).
Some lovely descriptions of historic Barcelona though.

...the street names - Blanqueria, Sabateret, Cremat Xic and Cremat Gran-gave rise to a sense of mystery and adventure deep inside her. When they'd stop along La Rambla and see the hubbub of the first foreigners in colorful suits, their wives dressed in wide-legged trousers, the vendors at the Boqueria and the stalls bursting with vegetables and poultry, the sailors, the old women in mourning, the painters painting the unfailing landscape of La Rambla, the gentlemen with their hats and walking sticks, the priests and the prostitutes, all brought together in a weave of bliss and surrender, Mundeta thought that Barcelona was an open, nearly cosmopolitan flower, losing its petals in eternum, full of beauty and monstrosity and that, more than a city, it was the promise of a city.

>117 charl08: So much packed into this rather short book, I was impressed after reading it. You even rated it ½ a star better than I did, Charlotte.

>119 FAMeulstee: It was really impressive, Anita. I've seen a few NF books on this subject, but this is the first fiction I've read about the trenches. Although Dancing the Death Drill by a South African author- a book based on the RL case of South African soldiers in WW1. They drowned when their ship sank and they were abandoned by the British navy in the Channel..

>120 charl08: Didn't you read Regeneration, and All quiet on the Western front? If memory serves me well, those are also fiction from the trenches.

>121 FAMeulstee: Yes to the first one. (And would also add Birdsong) but was thinking more about the African soldiers' experience. I think I've also come across a novel recently told from the perspective of the Chinese (forced) migrant workers on the Front. I have forgotten both the author and the title. Helpful.

>117 charl08: I have this in the tbr mountain Charlotte. I'll nudge it up.

Some of the books I didn't buy this week.



I'm not counting the three I bought for fathers' day.

Fight Night is currently 99p for Kindle.

Was Paris Never Leaves You a US edition? it's published here under the very dull, too similar with too many other books, etc title A Bookshop in Paris.

What's the Soho Crime title? (I love Soho Crime covers)

>117 charl08: That sounds intriguing but brutal. Were the descriptions very graphic? (I know that's more than appropriate for a book about war, but I also know my limits...)

>124 charl08: That's inventive. Nice going.

>124 charl08: Well done, Charlotte.

>125 elkiedee: Not sure re the Paris book. I'm trying to avoid the kindle deals this month too (but have already fallen down once). The Soho crime one is one that Mamie read and recommended: The False Inspector Dew.

>126 bell7: I did find it pretty gruesome. But it is short, so I tend to factor that in too, I don't know if that's the same for you?

>127 Helenliz: I feel like a week is probably long enough. (Definitely a case of FWPs) I am hoping to clear some shelf space. Have sent one whole book to the charity shop so far...

Random library incident. Picked up my interlibrary book from the counter, and the librarian said "Oh you're Charlotte..."
Apparently she often requests things after seeing I've asked for a book. Kind of surprising.

>128 BLBera: I feel like I'm just going to put in a big order when the month finishes. Which is not the goal, so hopefully I change my mind.

Hi Charlotte; I'm doing one of my catch-ups of the threads.

Interesting holiday photos and book reviews.

>129 charl08: Book fame!

>129 charl08: The False Inspector Dew has also been published here - I have a Kindle copy from Sphere books, currently £1.99 and possibly it's available long term at that price - I bought a lot of PL books outside his Peter Diamond series which is one I like and have read a lot of. That has about 20 books featuring a rather grumpy police detective in Bath - 1st in series is The Last Detective a few years ago, quite cheaply. I think I have the #1 and 2 others in Kindle, and #2-12 But I do probably still have some Soho Crime Peter Lovesey editions from my US holidays and crime fiction conventions, together which huge amounts of secondhand bookshops - I found lots of amazing secondhand bookshops, and they were even more amazing/better value for money between 2004 and 2006 when the exchange rate became very favourable for us.

>129 charl08: Mmm, sometimes length makes a difference. I won't go out of my way to seek it out, but maybe if I happen upon it at a library book sale.

Too funny about your librarian liking your taste in books. Maybe she'll return the favor and give you some recommendations too? I've done that to some of our patrons a couple of times, though mine is usually a crafty patron that checks out a lot of knitting books. There's one that I even bought afterwards to make little knitted animals because I liked it so much.

>131 humouress: Hope you're re-acclimatising to the humidity, Nina. It's hay fever central here.

>132 elkiedee: I will have a look for a second hand copy next month, I think. My library didn't have this one.

>133 bell7: I was a bit surprised because I thought I get quite a range of books, but I have noticed that sometimes my requests for a purchase of a less well known ones get one solitary reservation after. I didn't think to ask for recommendations but you're right I could do next time I see them.

And how great that the librarian knows you! You are doing something right. I always tell my daughter that buying books is better than some useless collectable. :)

>134 charl08: I've put in a number of purchase suggestions over the last year to my favourite library service/the one which has always had free reservations. I get really nice emails from one of the women working in the Stock Suggestions team now!

Only one book hasn't had other reservations since it arrived, and I still think other people will be interested in it after. I'm reading this book now and will probably finish it some time this week I might actually try to write a little review of it and send it to the library before I give it back - it's a good read. It's The Cold Millions by Jess Walter, a historical novel featuring my long time heroine union organiser Elizabeth Gurley Flynn - she's not the central character but she is a significant and important part of the story and there are bits told from her point of view.

I've also long suspected that there are library staff who when they process my reservations think "that looks interesting" when they see them. As well as new acquisitions, someone has suddenly reserved a book of essays and a Polish crime novel in translation from Bitter Lemon that I'd borrowed, neither of which had been borrowed for some time before that. Because my partner's normal office is in the Central Library building and reservations are free, I've been putting in requests for all the books I wanted to borrow even if they're on the shelves, so that then I can just get him to collect through whichever system is in use. I have been using another branch which is easier to get to by bus since Islington Libraries reopened, but I'm now reverting to Central because it looks like Mike will be in there at least once a week again now.

>134 charl08: The humidity is exactly what I need to reacclimatise to. It hit 34ºC in London the day before we left but it didn't feel as hot as Singapore. Luckily for me, it was overcast here today so it was cooler but I spent a lot of the day in bed with a touch of 'flu (tested negative for covid) and/ or jet lag.

I hope the hay fever isn't too bad. I noticed that the temperatures were due to fall again, so hopefully that will help?

>135 BLBera: As Nina said, "book fame"!!

>136 elkiedee: I'd love to think that anyone thinks my reservation list looks interesting. I hope that the books add a bit to the range on the shelves too. But I am very lucky with the library generally, the size of Lancashire means that they have a lot of books coming into the system (and in the reserve store). How nice to work in the same building as a library though. (Or possibly, dangerous?)

>137 humouress: I'm nowhere near as bad as I am "down South" in the summer, not sure if it is the wrong kind of leaves down there or what. But my Dad is really suffering.

Witches
This was a fascinating book in translation, by a young Mexican-US author. The author draws on a real case of a Mexican faith healer who gained celebrity in the 1950s. The book weaves together two narratives, one of the healer, the other of a middle-aged woman who lives in Mexico City and comes to interview the healer. I found the context of the faith healer's life full of engrossing detail, different kinds of beliefs about wellness and using natural remedies (psychotropic mushrooms). The modern narrative didn't fit as well for me, I would have quite happily read it as a separate book about a woman's life in Mexico, but wasn't quite sure of the connection here.

My mother is the opposite. Words come easily to her, and she has a tendency to start up long conversations with people on the street, in a queue for coffee, or wherever. One time, a woman called our house by mistake and they ended up chatting for over an hour. When she hung up, my mother had said, "Oh, that was Raquel. She dialled the wrong number but we really hit it off." We saw that moment for what it was: the epitome of her gift of gab, and "that was Raquel" became a shorthand for all kinds of similar situations, a joke my sister and I would crack with our father. That night, though, when my mother spent more than an hour on the phone swapping life stories with a woman who'd dialled a wrong number, my father had told me I didn't need to look any further for a masterclass in journalism.

Had a couple of moments at work today where I just wanted to run away to the circus. Mary Oliver was the perfect antidote. Gorgeous weather here: warm, but not too warm, and the gardens were looking lovely at lunchtime. Even the geese seemed to be feeling good humoured.


From Green Green is My Sister's House

But the tree is a sister to me, she
lives alone in a green cottage
high in the air and I know what
would happen, she'd clap her green hands,
she'd shake her green hair, she'd
welcome me.
A Thousand Mornings

Speaking of inspiring other people to borrow books, my hold on This Charming Man came in today! I believe that was a rec from you :)

>138 charl08: Oh, it's definitely a perk to have a public library branch at work. I've worked in two council buildings that had libraries in, both branches of Camden. I did pay 50p for reservations but it was so easy to pop downstairs to collect them and check out what was on the shelves and the new books coming in. It's why 10 years later I've still got so many books out from Camden though I've switched the main branch I use twice to save money and time on bus fares.

>141 rabbitprincess: I hope you like it. That book did make me laugh. I'm hoping his third one comes out soonish.

>142 elkiedee: Yes, the new book shelf is a dangerous place for me! In Edinburgh I used to have two branches in easy walking distance and a couple more that I could usually find another reason to be visiting ;-) A city with a great library network is a thing of beauty.

I loved A Thousand Mornings, too, Charlotte. It is a good book for uplifting the mood. I hope work was better today.

>144 BLBera: Thanks Beth. It was really lovely to read the book out in the sunshine. Today on the other hand, I feel like it's gone past 'comfortable'.

More books that I want to read. Work announced the short story prize longlist today.
How to Gut a Fish Sheila Armstrong (Bloomsbury)
Man-hating Psycho Iphgenia Baal (Influx Press)
Human Terrain Emily Bullock (Reflex Press)
Fugitive David Butler (Arlen House)
Intimacies Lucy Caldwell (Faber
Dance Move Wendy Erskine (Stinging Fly)
English Magic Uschi Gatward (Galley Beggar Press)
Fauna David Hartley (Fly on the Wall Press)
Marching Season Rosemary Jenkinson (Arlen House)
Dark Neighbourhood Vanessa Onwuemezi (Fitzcarraldo Editions)
Am I in the Right Place Ben Pester (Boiler House Press)
Things We Do Not Tell The People We Love Huma Qureshi (Sceptre)
Send Nudes Saba Sams (Bloomsbury)
The Map Waits Sharon Telfer (Reflex Press)
https://new.edgehill.ac.uk/news/edge-hill-prize-2022-longlist-announced-includin...

I thought Intimacies contained some really excellent short stories - most of the other names on the list are new to me. I think I read something about Uschi Gatward, who sadly died last year, aged only 48/49. I am not against honouring a writer posthumously but I hope the prize money will go to support living writers, as I think short stories are often underrated and underrewarded as a literary form.

>146 elkiedee: I've not read any of them, but it looks like a great list. I hope I can find copies of some via the library.

The Berlin Exchange
A gripping spy thriller set in 1960s East Germany. A spy is returned to the DDR after prison for giving secrets to Russia. His family are on the other side of the wall, so he's happy to go. But of course, nothing is quite as simple as a family reunion. As he crosses the border, others are traded for him. The murky world of buying back East German political prisoners is gradually unpeeled.But did the end comments about the ease of killing mean he shot his wife?

>145 charl08: I'm not familiar with any of these either.

>149 BLBera: They have a great record for recognising brilliant authors. Claire Keegan, Sarah Hall, Kevin Barry, Colm Toíbin for example (just to pick the authors I've read and like!) are previous winners.

Controversy here as an exam board tries to update the reading list and the Education Secretary tweets they have to put the DWM back in. I haven't read most of these poets, so going to add them to my reading TBR. Although not buying, as I'm still trying not to for the rest of this month.

The new poems:
Love and Relationships:
‘Flirtation’, by Rita Dove
‘Poem for My Love’, by June Jordan
‘Lullaby’, by Fatimah Asghar
‘The Perseverance’, by Raymond Antrobus
‘Looking at Your Hands’, by Martin Carter

Conflict:
‘Papa-T’, by Fred D’Aguiar
‘Songs for the People’, by Frances E. W. Harper
‘We Lived Happily during the War’, by Ilya Kaminsky✔
‘Colonization in Reverse’, by Louise Bennett
‘Thirteen’, by Caleb Femi✔

Youth and Age:
‘Equilibrium’, by Theresa Lola
‘Prayer’, by Zaffar Kunial
‘Happy Birthday Moon’, by Raymond Antrobus
‘Tea With Our Grandmothers’, by Warsan Shire ✔
‘Theme for English B’, by Langston Hughes ✔

>151 charl08: Tricky. Actually I'd be inclined to encourage the reading of a diverse range of living poets at school age, and those who get the bug can explore the DWM in time. I still read quite a few of them myself, but feel school is where so many people have been put off poetry, some because they haven't been offered a way in, or don't find it relevant (without realising they already love poetry, in the songs they listen to!).

>152 Caroline_McElwee: I think it's a bit of a bizarre reaction: they're not saying that you can't continue to read or teach whoever you want, just that they're not on the exam.
My library had a copy of The Essential June Jordan and I've asked for a few of the other authors' collections.

Joan is Okay
I don't know what to say about this book, other than that I liked it, but also found it quite uncomfortable reading at times.
Joan is a highly successful, workaholic doctor in intensive care. Her father recently died and she travelled to China for the weekend, and was back on shift in New York the next day.
Her colleagues like that she takes their shifts. Her older brother thinks she should move out to Greenwich and set up in private practice. Her sister in law thinks she should settle down, have kids. Her neighbour thinks she should invite the other neighbours round, watch more TV, read books. But will Joan ever tell anyone what she's really thinking?
I thought this was going to be a fairly straightforward novel about being the first 'born in' generation in the US, but it turned into a pandemic novel, which was a little disconcerting. I've read a couple but am not sure (yet?) how comfortable I am with them as a genre. I loved the riffing on language, and the differences between Chinese / English metaphors - I could read versions of this all day.

Much of any culture can be linked back to eating and food, food and care, eating and language. To eat one's feelings, to eat dust, words, to eat your own heart out, to eat someone else alive, to eat your cake and have it too, things that are adorable (puppies, babies) that are said to be good enough to eat, to have someone else eat out of the palm of your hand, to be chewed out, a dog-eat-dog world. Chinese isn't any different from English in this way. Chi for "eat," and chi su, to only eat vegetables but also, colloquially, to be a pushover. Chi cù, to eat vinegar or be jealous. Chili, to eat effort, as for a task that is very strenu ous. To eat surprise, to be amazed, chi jing. To be completely full or chi bão fàn, and thus to have nothing better to do. To eat punishment or get the worst of it, chi kui. And, most important, to eat hardship, suffering, and pain, chi ki, a defining Chinese quality, to be able to bear a great deal without showing a crack.

The price of success is steep and I've never been able to distinguish it from the feeling of sacrifice. If I could hold success my hand, it would be a beating heart.

Hi Charlotte, I'm reading The Swimmers and really enjoying it. I think I have you to thank! Who thought you could do a whole book to be so insightful about the swimming pool experience!

Zorrie
In complete contrast, a very quiet novel following one woman from poverty in the 1930s to a quiet security on a farm in retirement. I thought that the radium storyline was going to have more of a significance later in the book, but it wasn't that kind of novel. I'd not come across the author before: has anyone read his other books? I'd take recommendations if so.

>155 mdoris: Oh, I did like that book Mary. And everything Julie Otsuka writes.

>156 charl08: Glad it was a hit for you too Charlotte. It was the first of his I have read as well, but looking forward to others.

>158 Caroline_McElwee: Yes, definitely a book to thank LT for as far as I'm concerned (I'm not sure who first mentioned it, and I forgot to tag it with the credit).

>157 charl08: for sure I will read more of her work!

>160 mdoris: I hope you enjoy them as much as The Swimmers.

From the garden.

>161 charl08: Lovely picture, Charlotte, all those colors in this time of year!
I love passion flowers. Long ago I collected many different kinds, and kept them on my balcony. I had one spontaneously comming up in my garden here, but it died in a very cold winter.

>156 charl08: Oh, I just got that home from the library yesterday after Paul had such good things to say about it. Glad to see you liked it, too, Charlotte!

>161 charl08: - Gorgeous colors!

Love the garden pics, Charlotte.

Great comments on Joan is Okay- I have reserved a copy at the library. I hope it comes in soon.

>150 charl08: That is quite the list.

Interesting list of poems. I think it's OK to update poetry curriculum; students respond better to some of the modern poets, I have found.

>162 FAMeulstee: I thought this one had gone too, Anita - I moved it so that we could see it from the kitchen window, and it didn't seem too keen on the move at the time!

>163 bell7: I'm still not sure where I read about it - but probably more than one thread. I do like the way books travel between us.

>164 katiekrug: It's a lovely relaxing space at the moment.
Well, if you ignore the washing line and the occasional magpie visit...

>165 BLBera: I am enjoying discovering June Jordan from the list. She's really political, and even though some of the poems are decades old, many are still (aggravatingly) relevant. I may "have" to break my book buying ban to buy some of the others, as the library doesn't seem to be keen. Which is fair enough, they buy plenty of other things when I have asked.

You're a bit ahead of me, my passion flower has buds, but nothing open as yet.

I'll look for June Jordan collections, Charlotte. Thanks.

>161 charl08: Ooh, pretty! Stunning! Both flowers and photography.

I have two passion plants on my balcony and though we get a small harvest of fruits, I rarely see the flowers because they're quite pale and not at all showy. I actually wanted the plants for the flowers and hoped for the fruits as a bonus. No matter, it's still good.

>166 charl08: My mum once planted clematis in our garden in England but my sister's rabbits loved to eat them so we only got a handful of flowers a year and probably eventually thought that the plants had been destroyed. But then my sister had to find another home for the rabbits and the clematis creepers pretty much exploded all over the fence every summer after that, they came out in such profusion.

<161 Beautiful garden Charlotte. You must live being out there.

Beautiful flowers! My favourite is the second one in the first row, but they're all gorgeous.

>161 charl08: - Ooo, I adore poppies! I never had success growing them in my garden but I love seeing them elsewhere. Your photos are gorgeous, Charlotte.

>167 Helenliz: They seem to like the new spot, another one has opened today (but only one at once so far).

>168 BLBera: I read some more of them on the train back from a work do last night. She has such a range. Or had, rather.

>169 humouress: It's amazing what can survive, my garden is testament to that! Green beans not doing well this year due to something eating them: will have to think again about netting next year.

>170 Caroline_McElwee: There is always something to do, Caroline, and I find it so absorbing. And has the benefit of being (usually) gentle exercise.

>171 rabbitprincess: Thanks. The passion flower is a show stopper, but rather short lived (at least for me).

>172 jessibud2: I have orange poppy relatives too that are all over the garden - and in practically every garden up our road. The soil suits them I think.

Summer Light Then Comes the Night

Brandur, Elisabet explained to Matthias, is participating along with about sixty other people in the Icelandic Correspondence Chess Championship; there was an article about it in Morgunblaðið last year. Applicants are sifted through before being invited to participate; it's no competition for beginners. Brandur is assigned eight opponents in the first round, and if he draws white, he sends out eight postcards show ing his first move, and then waits for replies. This reminds me of the trolls, said Matthías. What trolls? Hello! shouted a troll, and a hundred years later, another troll's reply came: yes, hello!

This took me a while to read despite being less than 200 pages as the style is quite meandering and I never quite used to it. Translated from Icelandic it takes a meander around a small isolated village, describing small life events that have big impacts for the villagers. One farmer has an affair with the woman living on the neighbourhood farm: the wife finds out, so does the village. A state-funded business goes bankrupt and ten of the employees struggle to find something else to do, with consequences for the one who manages to get a job. Lonely people meet at booze filled dances and do things they regret (or not). Sly humour and quirky twists kept me reading. But I thought the ending was just mean to poor Benedikt.

The library had a copy of the new Geraldine Brooks, so I've put everything else to one side...

And finished it! Horse is a gripping piece of historical fiction exploring antebellum horse racing through the eyes of a Black trainer, painter and then in a contemporary period, a museum worker reconstructing the skeleton of a horse. Drawing on "real" history Brooks makes a compelling account of intertwined lives, horses and people. I'm not a horse person but the descriptions of the relationship between a much loved stallion and an enslaved person almost convinces me.

Theo stepped inside and was hit by an unlovely stench. He wrinkled his nose.

"Beetle frass-poo, I think, is the less technical term-and decomposing flesh. These guys-dermestids-are totally unwelcome anywhere else on this property. In here, we want them to eat things, whereas that's considered suboptimal in museum storage areas."

"That seems a bit-primitive?" Theo said.

Jess shrugged. "Dermestids can do the delicate work of cleaning bones with less damage than any other method we've been able to come up with. Efficient too. They clean about three thousand specimens a year for us everything from hummingbirds to an elephant that died at the National Zoo. They can clean a mouse in a day; a dolphin might take two or three weeks. Let me get them something they'll like."

The Essential June Jordan
Fascinating collection of poems from an activist life. I loved this epigraph:

And so poetry is not a shopping list, a casual disquisition on the colors of the sky, a soporific daydream, or bumpersticker sloganeering. Poetry is a political action undertaken for the sake of information, the faith, the exorcism, and the lyrical invention, that telling the truth makes possible. Poetry means taking control of the language of your life. Good poems can interdict a suicide, rescue a love affair, and build a revolution in which speaking and listening to somebody becomes the first and last purpose to every social encounter.

I'm still trying to avoid buying books but this one is very tempting (I read the library's digital edition).

Horse sounds really good, Charlotte. I've enjoyed the books by Brooks that I've read, so am willing to give this a try, despite not being a horse person. Your comments reassure me.

I'll definitely look for a collection by Jordan.

I love the quotes you select, Charlotte.

>177 charl08: Noting this one Charlotte.

>178 BLBera: There has been some discussion about whether it is her story to tell, Beth. I'd be interested to hear what you think.
I really liked that she included an afterword explaining her debts to various historical researchers.

>179 humouress: The quote-choosing was generally my favourite bit of writing a paper. Thank you.

>180 Caroline_McElwee: It's powerful stuff. And I still want my own copy. Huff.

Now reading Fault Lines and travelling to Tokyo (at least, in the book).

Fault Lines
A funny, heartbreaking novel about being a young(ish) mum in a stale marriage in Tokyo. Mizuki meets someone new and starts to rethink her choices.

The conversation that precipitated the nearly-end-of-my-life went like this: Tatsu, any chance you could give me a hand hanging up this washing?'

The Things They Carried
What took me so long? Thoughtful, insightful and reflective fiction somewhere between short stories and a novel. O'Brien's own experience as a conscript informs (but as he repeatedly reminds us) does not dictate the "truth" of his storytelling.
Unintentional recent overlaps: watching DP, a K drama about the extreme attempts conscripted soldiers make to escape the South Korean army, and the poetry collection Dien Cai Dau.

Rat Kiley stopped there, almost in midsentence, which drove Mitchell Sanders crazy.
'What next?' he said.
'Next?'
'The girl. What happened to her?' Rat made a small, tired motion with his shoulders. 'Hard to tell for sure. Maybe three, four days later I got orders to report here to Alpha Company. Jumped the first chopper out, that's the last I ever seen of the place. Mary Anne, too.' Mitchell Sanders stared at him.

'You can't do that.'
'Do what?'
'Jesus Christ, it's against the rules,' Sanders said. 'Against human nature. This elaborate story, you can't say, Hey, by the way, I don't know the ending, I mean, you got certain obligations.'

It’s been a while since I visited but I decided to look in on your thread today and saw I was interested in Black Drop. It was a very timely reminder as I’m in Edinburgh and Blackwell’s had a copy.

>184 Familyhistorian: Oooooh have a great time in Edinburgh!

How lucky you are to have read The Things They Carried for the first time; I love that book. O'Brien is a good reader/speaker if you ever get the chance.

>184 Familyhistorian: Glad to hear you got hold of a copy.

>185 rabbitprincess: My reaction too.

>186 BLBera: I hadn't realised it can be viewed as part of a series of four. The edition I have even is part of a a special edition set where the covers match up to create a vintage photo. Which is striking. Or it would be, except I only have this one!

Olga Dies Dreaming
I was never quite sure where this book was going, a good thing, I think. Olga runs a wedding planning business, in defiance of her mother's fierce political convictions (and ambitions for her children). Her brother is a congressman, but that's not good enough for their mother either. The book has the same tone as a novel about urban lives and relationships but is politically ambitious.

Thanks to Beth for recommending this one.

Visited a beautiful National Garden scheme garden today: maybe one day my garden will look as amazing as this?!

>188 charl08: *envious sigh*

Glad you liked Olga Dies Dreaming; there was a lot there, I think. I look forward to her next work. Love the garden photos! I've just been pulling weeds. :(

>189 humouress: That was pretty much me too, it's a beautiful garden.

>190 BLBera: I did, Beth. I thought it didn't fit neatly into genre boxes: thinking about it, I'm impressed that the publisher supported this for a first book. Perhaps that says something about the market for fiction that is explicitly political.
I'd be interested to see what she writes next too.

>185 rabbitprincess: Thanks RP. The weather treating us well and there’s lots to see.

>187 charl08: I’m looking forward to cracking it’s covers once I’m home and back in reading mode.

>192 Familyhistorian: I'm green here. Hoping to get there in August (when it will, probably, be raining again!)

The half life of Valery K by Natasha Pulley
Brilliant novel set in a secrer nuclear town somewhere in the USSR. The main character has just escaped the gulag and is more than a little quirky.

'Coffee, yes.' She laughed. 'You're full of surprises, Valery.'

'Am I?' he said, pretending to be confused. Part of him was indignant to find how simple it was. Resovskaya thought he was an easily upset, prematurely old man, and so long as he acted a decent caricature of himself, she would keep thinking so. He was too harmless and skittish to be doing anything nefarious. He followed her back into the kitchen, wondering, a bit put out, if he shouldn't have gone into inter national espionage instead of chemistry. Everything suggested he'd have been outstanding at it.

I'm looking forward to a week off next week. So far I haven't seen any last minute travel deals that I like. But I liked visiting Berlin and here's a list of recommendations to get there by book (via a free sharing link). I haven't read any of these.

ETA corrected the errant "their". Ick.

Ohh, have a lovely time, whatever you do.
I like the idea of visiting somewhere by book. I try and read something set locally when I go on holiday. Not tried going on holiday by reading before.

>195 charl08: Have a lovely holiday whatever you do. Probably not the best time for travel bargains as schools are breaking up next week. My boys finish Wednesday lunchtime.

Most of the books I've read set in Berlin would require time travel, and I'm not sure I'd fancy the 1930s there (definitely not most of the 1940s!)

The Half Life of Valery K sounds great, Charlotte.

Enjoy your time off, whatever you do or wherever you go.

>195 charl08: Enjoy your time off, Charlotte, whatever you might, or might not do :-)

Things to do in Vienna when you've made a last minute booking.

Oh, how exciting.
Things I can think of that are Viennese: whirls and waltzes. Don't get those muddled up and get cream or jam on your waltz.

>200 charl08: First thing that comes to my mind is the Spanish Riding School in Vienna. I never visited, although I did visit Piber Federal Stud, where the Lipizzan horses are bred.

ETA: Checking the website and see most is sold out until September, or just doesn't happen in July and August.
Except for the 10:00 morning routine with young stallions.

>200 charl08: - Eat pastries.

>201 Helenliz: I do like a cake. Not sure about a waltz.

>202 FAMeulstee: Ooh I hadn't thought of this! Thank you.

>203 katiekrug: This is on my list. Strangely enough!

>200 charl08: I loved the "Naschmarkt" which is still mostly about food and regional specialties.

>205 MissWatson: Thanks for mentioning it: it looks amazing in the tourist info too.

Looking forward to getting my hands on some of this new crime fiction. https://www.theguardian.com/books/2022/jul/15/the-best-recent-and-thrillers-revi...

I think I'll start a new thread.

>207 charl08: I've asked Netgalley for the Brookmyre - shall see if there's any result