Paul C Back to Basics in 2019 Part 11

Drawing to a close on a difficult year. Difficult life wise and difficult reading wise. 2020 will of course be better!

I am Paul Cranswick, sometime group statistician, Malaysian correspondent - construction project manager and avid book accumulator.

Father of three - Yasmyne, Kyran and Belle - the first two already studying in university in the UK and hopeful of a return to the UK in the none too distant future.

Had a tough few years and this affected badly my reading last year which was the first that I have failed to reach 100 books. This year - hope springs eternal so let's see.

2019 Books First Half

January

1. Findings by Kathleen Jamie BIAC
2. Black Robe by Brian Moore
3. Love on the Dole by Walter Greenwood
4. Football in Sun and Shadow by Eduardo Galeano
5. The Rider by Tim Krabbe

February

6. Exercises in Style by Raymond Queneau
7. My Name is Asher Lev by Chaim Potok (AAC)
8. The Silence of the Girls by Pat Barker (BIAC)
9. A Thief in the Village by James Berry
10. The House of Arden by E. Nesbit (BIAC)

March

11. The Hanging Garden by Ian Rankin (BIAC)
12. Still Midnight by Denise Mina (BIAC)
13. Pippi Longstocking by Astrid Lindgren
14. Naomi by Junichiro Tanizaki
15. The Room on the Roof by Ruskin Bond
16. A Place of Execution by Val McDermid (BIAC)
17. Just William by Richmal Crompton

April

18. The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas by John Boyne (BIAC)
19. The War with the Newts by Karel Capek
20. This Earth of Mankind by Pramoedya Ananta Toer
21. Came a Hot Friday by Ronald Hugh Morrieson
22. Petersburg by Andrei Bely

May

23. Sing, Unburied, Sing by Jesmyn Ward (AAC)
24. The Four Feathers by A.E.W. Mason (BIAC)
25. In the American Grain by William Carlos Williams
26. The Bamboo Stalk by Saud Alsnousi
27. Soldiers of Salamis by Javier Cercas
28. Nervous Conditions by Tsitsi Dangaremba
29. Evil Under the Sun by Agatha Christie

June

30. Friedrich by Hans Peter Richter
31. The Bride Price by Buchi Emecheta
32. Story of a Secret State by Jan Karski
33. The Late Monsieur Gallet by Georges Simenon
34. Zeno's Conscience by Italo Svevo
35. The Weatherhouse by Nan Shepherd

2019 Books Second Half

July

36. They Shoot Horses Don't They? by Horace McCoy
37. Reef by Romesh Gunasekera

August

38. Half a Lifelong Romance by Eileen Chang
39. Exile and the Kingdom by Albert Camus
40. Midaq Alley by Naguib Mahfouz
41. The Blind Owl by Sadeq Hedayat
42. Norte by Edmundo Paz Soldan
43. The Encyclopedia of the Dead by Danilo Kis

September

44. The Impostor by Damon Galgut
45. To Sir, With Love by E.R. Braithwaite.
46. Good Morning, Midnight by Jean Rhys
47. Gold Mine by Wilbur Smith
48. Kintu by Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi
49. Eminent Victorians by Lytton Strachey
50. The Lake by George Moore
51. The Seven Madmen by Roberto Arlt
52. Demian by Hermann Hesse

October

53. Their Finest Hour by Winston Churchill
54. Pedro Paramo by Juan Rulfo
55. Below the Crying Mountain by Criselda D Yabes
56. My Brilliant Career by Miles Franklin
57. North of Boston by Robert Frost
58. Moccasin Trail by Eloise Jarvis McGraw
59. Into the War by Italo Calvino
60. The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupery
61. Serious Concerns by Wendy Cope
62. The Lost Honour of Katharina Blum by Heinrich Boll
63. The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum
64. Growth of the Soil by Knut Hamsun

November

65. We, the Survivors by Tash Aw

December

66. The Perseverance by Raymond Antrobus
67. River of Darkness by Rennie Airth
68. Sidereal by Rachael Boast
69. Weep Not For Me by Constance Jenkins
70. Edward IV - Penguin Monarchs by AJ Pollard
71. Edward II - Penguin Monarchs by Christopher Given-Wilson
72. Let Us Compare Mythologies by Leonard Cohen
73. Journey of the Dead by Loren D. Estleman
74. James I : The Phoenix King by Thomas Cogswell
75. Inside the Wave by Helen Dunmore
76. Housekeeping by Marilynne Robinson

BRITISH ISLES AUTHOR THEME CHALLENGE 2019



January 2019 - The Natural World https://www.librarything.com/topic/296824#6632759
February 2019 - Pat Barker and Peter F. Hamilton
March 2019 - The Murderous Scots https://www.librarything.com/topic/296824#6637458
April 2019 - Rosamond Lehmann and John Boyne
May 2019 - The Edwardians https://www.librarything.com/topic/299559#6656870
June 2019 - Nicola Barker and Wilkie Collins
July 2019 - YA Fantasy Series https://www.librarything.com/topic/299559#6660927
August 2019 - Anita Brookner and Jim Crace
September 2019 - Biography and Memoir https://www.librarything.com/topic/299559#6674204
October 2019 - Rose Tremain and Louis de Bernieres
November 2019 -The Jewish Contribution https://www.librarything.com/topic/301575#6688724
December 2019 - Zadie Smith and Michael Morpurgo
WILDCARD - Back to the Beginning - LIVELY and ISHIGURO

Here is a link to the thread:
https://www.librarything.com/topic/301916

American Author Challenge



American Author Challenge 2019

I will be joining Linda's challenge where I can this year and have started:

January 2019 - Chaim Potok - My Name is Asher Lev
February 2019 - Louisa M Alcott
March 2019 - Jon Clinch
April 2019 - Jesmyn Ward - Sing, Unburied, Sing
December 2019 - Marilynne Robinson - Housekeeping

CHALLENGE - A BOOK A YEAR SINCE 1900

120 books in this challenge so I am going to have to do much better than last year!

To date : 64/120

1900 - The Wonderful Wizard of Oz
1901 - My Brilliant Career
1902 - The Four Feathers
1905 - The Lake
1908 - The House of Arden
1914 - North of Boston
1916 - Petersburg
1917 - Growth of the Soil
1918 - Eminent Victorians
1919 - Demian
1922 - Just William
1923 - Zeno's Conscience
1924 - Naomi
1925 - In the American Grain
1929 - The Seven Madmen
1930 - The Weatherhouse
1931 - The Late Monsieur Gallet
1933 - Love on the Dole
1935 - They Shoot Horses Don't They?
1936 - The War with the Newts
1937 - The Blind Owl
1939 - Good Morning,
1941 - Evil Under the Sun
1943 - The Little Prince
1944 - Story of a Secret State
1947 - Exercises in Style
1948 - Half a Lifelong Romance
1949 - Their Finest Hour
1950 - Pippi Longstocking
1952 - Moccasin Trail
1954 - Into the War
1955 - Pedro Parama
1956 - The Room on the Roof
1957 - Exile and the Kingdom
1959 - To Sir, With Love
1961 - Friedrich
1964 - Came a Hot Friday
1966 - Midaq Alley
1970 - Gold Mine
1972 - My Name is Asher Lev
1974 - The Lost Honour of Katharina Blum
1975 - This Earth of Mankind
1976 - The Bride Price
1978 - The Rider
1983 - The Encyclopedia of the Dead
1985 - Black Robe
1987 - Thief in the Village
1988 - Nervous Conditions
1992 - Serious Concerns
1994 - Reef
1995 - Football in Sun and Shadow
1998 - The Hanging Garden
1999 - A Place of Execution
2001 - Soldiers of Salamis
2005 - Findings
2006 - The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas
2008 - The Imposter
2009 - Still Midnight
2010 - Below the Crying Mountain
2011 - Norte
2012 - The Bamboo Stalk
2014 - Kintu
2017 - Sing, Unburied, Sing
2018 - The Silence of the Girls
2019 - We, the Survivors

AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 BOOKS

Third attempt at this tough challenge which I have failed miserably at twice.


Create Your Own Visited Countries Map

1. United Kingdom Kathleen Jamie
2. Canada Brian Moore
3. Uruguay Eduardo Galeano
4. Netherlands Tim Krabbe
5. France Raymond Queneau
6. USA Chaim Potok
7. Jamaica James Berry
8. Sweden Astrid Lindgren
9. Japan Junichiro Tanizaki
10. India Ruskin Bond
11. Ireland John Boyne
12. Czechia Karel Capek
13. Indonesia Pramoedya Ananta Toer
14. New Zealand Ronald Hugh Morrieson
15. Russia Andrei Bely
16. Kuwait Saud Alsanousi
17. Spain Javier Cercas
18. Zimbabwe Tsitsi Dangarembga
19. Germany Hans Peter Richter
20. Nigeria Buchi Emecheta
21. Poland Jan Karski
22. Belgium Georges Simenon
23. Italy Italo Svevo
24. Sri Lanka Romesh Gunasekera
25. China Eileen Chang
26. Algeria Albert Camus
27. Egypt Naguib Mahfouz
28. Iran Sadiq Hidayat
29. Bolivia Edmundo Paz Soldan
30. Serbia Danilo Kis
31. South Africa Damon Galgut
32. Guyana E.R. Braithwaite
33. Dominica Jean Rhys
34. Zambia Wilbur Smith
35. Uganda Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi
36. Argentina Roberto Arlt
37. Switzerland Hermann Hesse
38. Mexico Juan Rulfo
39. Philippines Criselda Yabes
40. Australia Miles Franklin
41. Cuba Italo Calvino
42. Norway Knut Hamsun
43. Malaysia Tash Aw

Currently Reading

Sidereal by Rachel Boast
The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett

The Best of 2019

Silence of the Girls by Pat Barker
Growth of the Soil by Knut Hamsun
This Earth of Mankind by Pramoedya Ananta Toer
Norte by Edmundo Paz Soldan
To Sir, With Love by ER Braithwaite
Half a Lifelong Romance by Eileen Chang

British Author Challenge 2020 Planning

January 2020 - Jeanette Winterson & Graham Swift
February 2020 - The Naughty Nineties

Next is yours

Happy New Thread, Paul!

Picture in >1 PaulCranswick: isn't showing for me.

I don't know that I've ever seen the Malaysian flag before. It looks disturbingly like the American one.

Happy new thread and a MUCH improved 2020.

>13 ronincats: I think that there are a few glitches in the LT system this morning, Roni, as the touchstones are also playing up.

>14 richardderus: Or sort of what it could look like if the colonisation of Iraq was effected, RD.

Happy new thread! May all your bookcase dreams come true!

>16 quondame: Hahaha Susan, thank you. xx

Happy new thread!

Happy new thread!

Paul, amidst your tangle of threads, I see a very big heart. : )



(Aqua and yellow)

Paul, it's great to witness your perseverance. Just break on through to the other side.

Well, I am just stunned.... Did I actually make it over to one of your threads while it was still new? ;-)

Happy new thread, Paul!

Happy New Thread, Paul!

Aha, your image in >1 PaulCranswick: is showing now, Paul!

Happy New Thread, Paul!

Happy new thread, Paul, I echo the wishes of a better 2020 for you. In fact, I'll go all out and wish you a better decade!

Happy new thread - I also hope that there is light on the horizon for you for both reading and work.

Happy new thread, Paul! Cheers to a better reading and life in general year!!

Happy New Thread, Paul. Sorry, to hear it has been such a tough year. Hoping for a much better one for you.

Hi Paul, and happy new thread!

Happy new thread, Paul. I agree, 2020 can only be better than this horrible year has been!

Happy new thread, Paul!!

>18 amanda4242: Thank you, Amanda. This place wouldn't be the same for me without you.

>19 figsfromthistle: Thanks Anita. It has been great seeing you so active around the threads this year.

>20 Berly: That is a fair old tangle, Kimmers and a colourful one at that.

>21 weird_O: I am persistently persistent, Bill. :D

>22 lkernagh: You did indeed, Lori and made me a happy chappy in the process.

>23 EBT1002: Thanks dear Ellen.

Happy new thread!

Happy New Thread, mate. Here's looking forward to a most excellent 2020 for you.

>24 ronincats: Those two flags of my family - Yasmyne, Kyran and Belle will always have that at their core.

>25 banjo123: Thanks Rhonda.

>26 Familyhistorian: Thank you, Meg. The 1990s were miraculous for my; the noughties were ok but the last decade has been the toughest of my life. The Twenties shall be a renaissance.

>27 avatiakh: Thanks Kerry - I shall rage against the dying of the light.

>28 Carmenere: Thanks Lynda - to be wished for certainly!

>29 msf59: Cheers Mark. Looks certain that you will top the most posts to your thread this year comfortably, albeit with a much reduced number.

>30 karenmarie: Thank you, Karen.

>31 jessibud2: Yes, Shelley, 2019 has not been my favourite in so many ways.

>32 scaifea: Thanks Amber

>36 foggidawn: Thank you, Foggy

>37 jnwelch: Thank you Joe. I hope 2020 is a great year for all of us.

2020 is going to be a better year. It is. It is... it had better be! Or else it's in big trouble.

Oh and new thread hugs.

>44 BekkaJo: Bekka, I shall put you on the case if the decade starts slipping off course.

>45 Morphidae: Ha, I feel like that Hippo sometimes, Morphy, but you made me smile my dear friend.

Happy new thread, Paul!

>47 bell7: Thank you, Mary.

British Author Challenge 2020

February 2020

The 1990's were a great decade for me personally.
In work I was involved in the completion of:
(i) 2 nuclear facilities
(ii) 1 car manufacturing plant
(iii) 5 power stations
(iv) 1 holiday theme park
(v) 1 pharmaceutical facility
(vi) 1 Singapore government building
(vii) 1 airport extension
(viii) 2 hotels
(ix) 1 office block
(x) 1 shopping mall
(xi) 3 towers of luxury apartment
(xii) 3 hospitals
(xiii) 1 horse racing track

In my personal life I got married and we had two of our three children.
I lived in UK, Malaysia and Singapore.
I read 1,337 books.

So I want to celebrate the British novels of that wonderful decade in February 2020.

Here are selected options:

1990 The Light Years by Elizabeth Jane Howard
The Buddha of Surburbia by Hanif Kureishi

1991 Time's Arrow by Martin Amis
Regeneration by Pat Barker

1992 Sacred Country by Rose Tremain
Ulverton by Adam Thorpe

1993 Zennor in Darkness by Helen Dunmore
In the Place of Fallen Leaves by Tim Pears

1994 Knowledge of Angels by Jill Paton Walsh
How Late it was, How Late by James Kelman

1995 Jackson's Dilemma by Iris Murdoch
High Fidelity by Nick Hornby

1996 A Vicious Circle by Amanda Craig
Reading in the Dark by Seamus Deane

1997 Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone by JK Rowling
The Untouchable by John Banville

1998 Master Georgie by Beryl Bainbridge
Breakfast on Pluto by Patrick McCabe

1999 Chocolat by Joanne Harris
Single & Single by John Le Carre

>49 PaulCranswick: That's quite a variety of buildings!

The 90s weren't so exciting for me: I spent them sitting in classrooms, trying not to let teachers notice I was reading instead of paying attention to lessons.

>51 amanda4242: Hahaha Amanda, at least I didn't have to hide my reading anymore!

>49 PaulCranswick: I'm most likely to read Iris Murdoch's book which sits unread on a shelf near my bed. Let's not talk about how long!

Happy new thread mate and wishing you a great 2020 in everything dear friend.

>49 PaulCranswick: >50 PaulCranswick: I've read so many of those fine novels Paul. It was a good decade.

>49 PaulCranswick: I dare anyone to read Elizabeth Jane Howard's The Light Years and not go on to read the next three novels in the series Paul. Sooooo good!

>53 thornton37814: It doesn't get the greatest of reviews of her novels, Lori. Her last published novel, it has tended to serve as something of an exemplar of how the onset of dementia affects the vocabulary and thought processes.

>54 johnsimpson: Thank you, John. I see that Wakefield fell to the Tories yesterday; amazing!

>55 Caroline_McElwee: I wanted to leave myself a chance to read a good number of them so I have only read 4 of the 20 so far. Those listed by Dunmore, Barker, Bainbridge and Hornby.

Well the election has secured a working majority for Boris and Brexit is now a sure thing. To be honest I would have voted remain in the referendum but I just want the thing done now so that the country can move on. Saddened to see the rise of nationalism again in Scotland including the loss of Jo Swinson's seat to the SNP. I do hope that the Union can be in harmony again soon and I truly feel that the SNP are objectors rather than correctors and they will bring only problems to the great nation of Scotland if they succeed in separating it from the United Kingdom.

>56 brenzi: Bonnie, I was told by another friend that the series is an absolute treat and it is on my radar for next year.

>57 PaulCranswick: I think the poorer reviews on it is the reason I keep postponing it.

>59 thornton37814: I am struggling to find a copy of it, which doesn't help either.

The General Election is over and done with in the UK and Boris Johnson got himself elected - or more accurately the Labour Party got itself unelected.

We now have five years of Conservative rule and will be facing a new set of challenges for the next election.

- a post-Brexit Britain whatever that entails and whatever challenges and opportunities that come with it.

- a country that needs to heal the divisions of the Euro referendum and come together on the other policies that matter:
- employment opportunities
- the eradication of poverty
- a more caring society
- an end to austerity
- protection and improvement of our NHS
- defining our revised relationship with our neighbours
- taking care of our environment
- bringing the United Kingdom back together and facing down nationalism
- bringing help to the post-industrial communities outside the comfortable hub of London; the areas Labour lost in droves because it is felt we failed them and didn't listen to them.

I want a progressive party to lead this debate and be ready for power in five years time. I hope that someone like Jess Phillips or Hilary Benn can do that.

Book #67



River of Darkness by Rennie Airth

Date Published : 1999
Origin of Author :
Pages : 528 (17,433 in total)

The first in the John Madden series and an excellent addition to my reading this is. Superior police period piece. Set in the aftermath of the Great War which decimated communities and shattered the lives of the survivors as well as those left behind.

A disturbed ex-soldier bayonets a family and servants to death in their home in the Surrey countryside, slashing the throat of the lady of the house. Madden and his boss Sinclair have a race against time to apprehend him before he kills more.

Recommended.

Stopping by to say best wishes on this new-ish thread.
Also, I’m hoping that the 2020’s will be peaceful, productive, and prosperous for you and yours.
At the risk of being seen as political and/or a screaming liberal, I was crushed by the recent numbers in the British election. Times, and the world, have changed drastically and will continue to do so. Attempting to return to previous “good times” will most definitely not hold back the tide of the future.
And people wonder why I read.

>49 PaulCranswick: Wow, the 90's were good years for you, Paul!

And lots of choices for reading. I read The Light Years recently, and liked it, and yes, immediately wanted to read the others. Reading in the Dark has a title that appeals.

>61 PaulCranswick: England will be sorely missed by Holland within the EU. But I can understand people being sick and tired of the whole Brexit thing and wanting it to be over.

Lots of Brits here in Amsterdam, who have already jumped ship it seems. There's a British School being built around the corner, that received twice the funding of a normal Dutch elementary school, so that makes for a bit of bitterness here.

I like your political program, Paul!

Reading your BAC selections with great interest, Paul, even though I utterly failed at following along this year, and will not even pretend to take it up in 2020 due to other obligations. There are authors and specific titles on your list already that have been on my radar for a long time; I read and read, but the piles don't get any smaller!

>46 PaulCranswick:



I'm sorry (not sorry). I couldn't help myself. I'll stop now. Promise!

(I'm giggling like a little kid here.)

>61 PaulCranswick: I want a progressive party to lead this debate and be ready for power in five years time.

I want 45 to die of Ebola on Pay-per-view. Roughly equally likely.

Happy newish thread, Paul.

>62 PaulCranswick: I am a fan of the Airth series.

Your BAC selections look interesting. I have some of these on my shelves.

>63 Matke: Lovely to see you, Gail. In my opinion the British General Election was both a punishing of the politicians for not carrying out the referendum result and a kick up the ass of the Labour Party for not having the good sense to have an electable leader (Democrats beware). I was most worried about the mystifying continued success of the Scottish Nationalist Party whose record in government in Scotland is certainly not unblemished but who are benefitting from the absence of a credible Labour Party.

>64 EllaTim: Thank you, Ellen. For me the most wonderful thing about the EC was the free movement of people but they screwed up the economics and did so in an undemocratic way wielding ridiculous amounts of power through that Grey Commission.

>65 laytonwoman3rd: If any of the books or authors take your fancy in the Challenge, Linda, just read them. The British Isles Author Challenge is there (for me anyways) to suggest reading rather than impose an obligation. xx

>66 Morphidae: Making me giggle too - especially as I am so pleased to see you here again Morphy. x

>67 richardderus: Hahaha RD. Cynicism is always able to make me smile, even though it is unfortunately and almost definitely, true.

>68 BLBera: I did enjoy the first Madden book, Beth and have the next two already on the shelves.

Happy Sunday, Paul. Glad you had a prosperous 90s. I was raising my family, during that decade, so it was a special one for me too. Interesting list for next year's BAC. Since several of these authors are completely new to me, I may pop in now and then, but the only challenge I followed this year, was the AAC and it was quite liberating.

>72 msf59: I sampled challenges Mark and it can be a little liberating. Aren't they good as suggestors for our reading?
The Noughties were decent for me too but the last decade, after a good start, tailed off quite spectacularly and left me badly in debt and working my socks off to get out of it. I will endure though and I am sure that, come 2020 end I will be back to my old self money wise. Then a trip to the Windy City will be on the cards.

>49 PaulCranswick: and >50 PaulCranswick: There are some gems in there!

Morphy is cracking me up!!!

>74 EBT1002: I will try and pick March and April for the British Author Challenge today, Ellen.

Book #68



Sidereal by Rachael Boast

Date Published : 2011
Origin of Author : UK
Pages : 74 (17,507 in total)

A mark of admiration in poetry, when one scribbles oneself, is "wow, I wish I'd written that!". I had a few instances of that when reading this lyrical musing on constellations, time and the waterways and frozen fields of England and Scotland.

A new voice and a grounded but enchanted oracle on time and timeless concerns.

This is a first collection to be savoured.

From her poem "The Extra Mile"

There is no place from which empathy
can begin but in negative space.
And perhaps that's what it means
to go the extra mile,
to get the right amount of distance
between how you started out
and where you arrive.

Wish I had written that.

>76 PaulCranswick: And bang! Hit by a BB

It is interesting that Jeremy Corbyn and the coterie around him are blaming Brexit and the media for the shambolic defeat on Thursday and he persists in the twisted belief that he won the debate somehow without winning the votes.

In all honesty the establishment media was firmly in the Remain camp throughout the debate but Labour failed to devise a policy that either catered to its Leave voting

Brexit was the prime cause of the loss in the North of England as the dispossessed working class have absolutely no reason or affinity to vote Conservative otherwise. There is a general feeling (I have talked to so many of my friends and activists/former activists) that Corbyn was too hard a sell outside London and pockets elsewhere.

He needs to step down fairly quickly and the party needs to elect a leader who appeals to the core of the traditional Labour vote. The mining areas, the steel and shipbuilding areas, the engineering and manufacturing cities and towns, the agrarian poor. It needs to adopt a policy that speaks to the future without disowning its past. It needs to bring in fresh supporters without alienating its traditional followers. It needs to give hope of a brighter future for the many now without much hope and who are clinging to an escape from the confines of the EC as a mirage of a better tomorrow. The environment, new technologies, an infrastructure and housing plan that both puts people in work as well as provides the means to get there and a place to get there from. A defence policy based on defence not aggression. An internationalist world view to take the place of the inward looking parochialism of petty nationalism in all parts of the Kingdom.

Would I nationalise the railways and the public utilities? Hell yes if we can afford to.
Would I be happy to pay more in income tax to get that? Hell yes if the burden is distributed well enough that our most monied (who, let's face it we need) don't run and hide in other countries.

An election defeat usually throws people who have lost into paroxysms of despair but it is also an opportunity to refocus and rebuild. Both the Labour and Liberal parties need to grasp that opportunity in coming months to be ready to overturn the Tories (and the SNP) next time.

>77 Matke: I do think that it is an appealing first collection, Gail.

Hi! Hope your week is going well!

>80 amanda4242: So far so good Amanda.

>49 PaulCranswick: that was quite a good decade for you, Paul, the 1990s. Fascinating what different 'things' you've built. And definitely worthwhile celebrating. I will have another look at your list of books there. Some titles I already know, others give me ideas what to read next year.

>78 PaulCranswick: I guess you are right, asking for Jeremy Corby to step down and make place for better ideas. What I got from the news here, is basically his no to all the brexit deals so far, but never any clear statement for future politics or solutions.

>78 PaulCranswick: it will be interesting to see what Boris does for the northern and midland communities that have helped to give him such a majority. Whilst the clear (and not patronising) Brexit message came through via the media, this alone won’t be enough to get re-elected in five years and helping communities in the North won’t be as simple as diverting big infrastructure spending away from London (though this is definitely needed). When reporters visited Leigh and asked why they voted Conservatives the responses were that all funding went to Wigan, and they wanted this to stop.
Whilst we might have a clear idea what Boris wants from Brexit the home agenda is less clear and with a big majority there is the potential (which may not be grasped) for real change

>82 paulstalder: I was surprised myself when I wrote down all that I was involved in project wise in that wonderful decade.

>83 DMulvee: I'm quite sure that the establishment media was pro-remain solidly and I find it a little trite of the Labour Party to blame the same media for their inability to get elected. You can be on the right side of the argument or the wrong side of the argument but not to be on either side is indefensible - and so it proved. Corbyn, like Denis Skinner and Tony Benn was a euro-sceptic and I feel that he would have been better served by actually stating his views. His party is staunchly pro-remain so this would provide obvious difficulties in carrying his party but I think hw would have been liked better voicing his opinion when asked.

I am on the first leg of starting my trip across the pond to Germany. It will be interesting to hear what my friends have to say about Brexit. Two years ago they were all in favor of letting the Brits go if they want to go. And they were in favor of letting the Brits reap what they sowed, so no soft deals. Treat them the same as the EU treats other non members.

It will be interesting. And full of Christmas markets. And Gluewine.

>86 benitastrnad: welcome to Germany, but I hope you will get Gluehwein and not Gluewine :)

>85 PaulCranswick: The media isn’t quite as pro-remain as you might think. Certainly Channel 4, Sky News and the BBC were all heavily pro-remain, however the Daily Express, Daily Mail (until they changed editor earlier this year), Telegraph were all pro-Brexit, whilst The Sun agrees with Brexit (though this might be because they realised Boris is more popular than Jeremy and not a long term view), so the newspapers were balanced or (perhaps) slightly more pro-Brexit.
Any view on Brexit by Corbyn would have been better than none and given there were questions over his leadership this was fatal to his ambitions. However I think that a strong Brexit position wouldn’t have been enough to get him elected. It will be interesting to see who stands for the leadership of Labour and the Liberal Democrat’s. Hearing some of the names being mentioned implies that are refusing to learn any lessons from the defeat.

>86 benitastrnad: Well, Benita, their views ought to have been coloured by the enormous nett contribution made by the UK to the EU and that its withdrawal without paying the ridiculous penalties being exacted would have placed the EU in financial turmoil. I am pro-European and would have originally have voted remain but I will not shed any tears for our not having to help fund the demagogues in Brussels any longer.

Have a lovely trip and I remember that Germany is a wonderful place to be on or near the festive season.

>87 paulstalder: I suppose Gluewine could be a bit sticky, Paul.

>88 DMulvee: Of course the crucial difference is that the written press do not make any pretence of being impartial whilst the BBC is required to be so by law. Some of the bias implicit in their reporting and that of Sky (I cannot get Channel 4 here) was frankly embarrassing.

I'm not saying that Labour need necessarily have been pro-Brexit to win but it did need a coherent policy. They had help stymie the process over the last parliaments and paid the price. But had they set out a vision of their alternative who knows what may have happened.

Just keeping up on 90's projects, politics and books here. : )

>91 Berly: And very welcome too, Kimmers!

>78 PaulCranswick: From the people I talked to, I don't think that Corbyn went down well in London either, Paul.

I enjoyed the books I read in the John Madden series and you've reminded me that I need to get back to them.

The nineties were some of the best years in my life too, Paul. Though I can't list such a notable collection of achievements as you. I graduated college, entered the workforce, explored the world, and generally had a fabulous time. My philosophy is that one's twenties are for adventure and wandering, and I did my best to live up to that. When I neared the end of the decade, I was very happy to sit still for awhile and start gathering some moss. I never expected to still be in the same place 20 years on.

Best wishes for a much better year for you in 2020.

>93 Familyhistorian: Labour didn't do too badly in London, but we will never know if they would have done even better without him. Undoubtedly in the North and Midlands and Wales the lack of leadership and muddled Brexit policy brought a bloodied nose.

>94 justchris: I certainly want this upcoming decade to knock spots off the last one, Chris, but I'll be satisfied with plenty and steady work accomplishment. More poetry published and maybe even some prose would please me too.

Book #69



Weep Not For Me by Constance Jenkins

Date Published : 1999
Origin of Author : USA
Pages : 32 (17,539 in total)

Bought in the Bookstore and read in the car on the way to work.
This poem with illustrations is subtitled "In Memory of a Beloved Cat" and was apparently written by the poet for her sister who was bereft of her favourite moggy.

Weep not for me though I am gone; into that gentle night. Grieve if you will but not for long, upon my soul's sweet flight. I am at peace,

Slight maybe but touching nonetheless.

Almost cheating to include this in a list of books but I did pay $7 for it and beggars cannot be choosers.

Book #70



Edward IV : The Summer King by A.J. Pollard

Date Published : 2016
Origin of Author : UK
Pages : 105 (17,644 in total)

Edward IV was always one of my favourite monarchs; brilliantly indomitable in battle, wanton and lascivious in his habits, in turns a frugal administrator as well as a picture of youthful magnificence before he ran quickly to fat and expired before securing his succession properly.

With such contrasts he is obviously a King who divides opinion although not quite as controversially as his younger brother Richard - I happen to be on the side of those who found him fascinating and splendid and flawed.

He was a lucky king whose luck ran out with his last breath as his two sons were too young to protect themselves and the future security of the Yorkist kingdom. His inspired victories at Towton and Tewkesbury were as decisive as any of the period. Edward was redoubtable in a crisis but indolent at other times when he ought really had been industrious.

This is one in a series of forty-five books in a series called Penguin Monarchs and I reckon them to be collectable. Funny that this curmudgeonly republican should find the history of the royalty of his nation so blasted fascinating.

>96 PaulCranswick: At this point in the year one does what one must in order to reach one's reading goals! ;-) I have a poetry collection and a couple of graphic novels awaiting my attention sometime during the next two weeks.

>96 PaulCranswick: I see I am doing this the wrong way. I keep including omnibus editions as single books read. Maybe I should break them down and count the individual components since I am long way from achieving my goal. Again.

>98 foggidawn: I am tending to agree Foggi! The average page length of the books I have read this year in total is a smidgeon over 252 pages per book which is acceptable I think.

>99 justchris: Ha! Each to his or her own, Chris. Some people go for page length some for difficulty - some count poetry collections and/or graphic novels and some don't; I think it is whatever you feel or think yourself.

>99 justchris: Yes, each book in an omnibus should be countable because it was originally published separately. If an external challenge does not specify minimum page number or format, I tend to go with whatever others are submitting. I don't really have personal challenges beyond my meta challenges on TIOLI. I know I'm going to read at least 4-8 hours a day, and that gets me through many books.

>101 quondame: I long for the days that I can consistently read 8 hours a day, Susan and it would yield me nearly 300 pages a day on average.
I think that what we count as a "book" in LT terms is up to us!

I will get to 75 books this weekend with the following 5 books already underway:

Deaf Republic by Ilya Kaminsky
Let Us Compare Mythologies by Leonard Cohen
Phoenix by John Connor
The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett
Journey of the Dead by Loren D Estleman

British Author Challenge 2020

March 2020

Jane Austen

&

Walter Scott

I know that, particularly Ms. Austen have been done to death, but I think it is about time that these two megaliths of English Literature were included in this challenge.

>103 PaulCranswick: 75 is just a few days away, Paul. I hope you have a weekend that is full of reading and relaxing.

>104 PaulCranswick: Cool! I've been looking for an excuse to read Ivanhoe and there are a couple of Austen novels I haven't read yet.

>104 PaulCranswick: I have my dad's, possibly even my grandfather's old copies of Quentin Durward and The Talisman, the latter takes place shortly before Ivanhoe.

>105 Familyhistorian: Thank you, Meg. What a struggle it has been this year.

>106 amanda4242: Amanda, I have been torn about including Austen, Scott, Dickens and Trollope because there have been so many separate group reads of various of their books, but I think it high time that some of them get recognised here too!

>107 quondame: Wow Susan, they are books not so easy to find these days. I will be reading Waverley almost certainly as I have read his other more famous works.
Probably a couple of Jane Austen's books too as I have to date only read 2 of her 6 famous novels.

British Author Challenge 2020

April 2020

Bernadine Evaristo

&

Caryl Phillips



April will celebrate the wonderful contribution made to our literature by our black men and women. How enriched we are by their presence, intelligence and writing.

Bernadine Evaristo is so much more than her Booker Prize winning novel from this year it being her eighth novel.

Caryl Phillips was brought up close to home in Leeds and has long been recognised as one of the UK's best prose stylists.

Oh, I hope you like Deaf Republic, Paul. Strong concept and good poetry, IMO.

The Secret Garden is an old favorite.

>111 jnwelch: I am enjoying all of them so far, Joe, which makes me confident of finishing all of them this weekend. Journey of the Dead is also a very well written take on the life of Pat Garrett and is zipping along - lyrical and violent - a sort of slightly lighter version of Cormac McCarthy.

>109 PaulCranswick: I wonder if the black face in The Talisman would tank it these days. Both are available on Gutenberg.

>104 PaulCranswick: Oooooh! I love Austen! And I haven't read her in a while. And I like Scott. March, huh?

>104 PaulCranswick: I'm enjoying Ivanhoe at the present on audio and have three more Scott novels lined up for next year. Will try to keep one for March.

>113 quondame: I found the treatment of race and particularly anti-semitism very interesting in Ivanhoe, Susan. At times he seems to go along with it but the fact that one of the heroines of the story is Jewish and her father is also treated sympathetically would hint at a level of empathy in Scott probably well in advance of his age.

>114 Berly: I also need to read more of her work, Kimmers.

>115 avatiakh: He could certainly spin a yarn, Kerry.

Responding to UK politics comments from somewhere up above Paul. The problem is that the current system favours the Conservatives, and idiotically, when Labour had the reins they seemed uninterested in levelling the playing field, making only a weak exploration at changing the process. Harrumph.

>118 Caroline_McElwee: I was always in favour of proportional representation, Caroline, and I am sure that the Greens and Liberals would get more votes if it was really believed that they could actually do something.
Labour's devolution moves certainly fed the rise of the SNP which gained traction because of Blair's foray into Iraq and the SNPs careful donning of Labour's clothes - in the 70s and much of the 80s they were right of centre.

Well, they've sown the wind; time to reap the whirlwind. BoJo did what Murdoch et alii put him there to do, and the fools who believed the idiotic nationalist agenda would improve their lot are about to pay the price.

>120 richardderus: Succinct and quite possibly true, RD. I have sufficient confidence in the Brits to make do.

>110 PaulCranswick: Caryl Phillips' oeuvre looks interesting, Paul. I might just join in that month.

>104 PaulCranswick: Nice choices for march, Paul. Have read something by both, and like them both.

>107 quondame: My parents had a copy of Quentin Durward with a number of photographs in it, very romantic looking. It must have been a movie, in the fifties? Yes, I found it on IMDB, 1955.

Oh boy Paul you're making some great choices. I'll tee up Mansfield Park in March and save Girl, Woman Other for April. I read Ivanhoe in Jr. High school but I might listen to the audio in March. I always have great intentions with these things but they seldom pan out. We'll see if 2020 is different.

>123 EllaTim: It was my introduction to Louis XI, who was all sorts of interesting in times that were interesting in themselves.

>122 Familyhistorian: One of Darryl's favourite writers and I have a few of his on the shelves.

>123 EllaTim: Ella - Walter Scott is a favourite because he does tell us a story. Jane Austen's stylish tales of Georgian manners are evergreen and everlastingly popular.

>124 brenzi: I will be teeing up a couple more choices in a short while, Bonnie, and I do hope to make 2020 an interesting and diverse selection of reading.

>125 quondame: Historical fiction as it is termed is a favourite of mine and Scott was one of its first practitioners, Susan.

Sheesh. The whole world seems to be swinging to the crazy right. Did we really go that far left before? It doesn't feel like it to me.
I'm not quite ready for Sir Walter, but I wish you reading joy (and life joy too!) in 2020 and that you will fill your thread with your thought.

>128 LizzieD: I would never consider myself to the right (or even the centre) in politics but I do feel that Johnson's victory in the UK was inevitable given the public's desire to get Brexit out of the way and because the main opposition did not have a presentable leader.

In the states the President gets impeached and, whilst I cannot stand the Gingerwhinger, let's face it the whole thing smacks more of politics than probity. A Republican controlled congress and this never gets to a vote. The best way of settling, probably your worst President in living memory, is at the ballot box where I do hope he gets his comeuppance to preferably Elizabeth Warren. I also think that Joe Biden's son appears a little on the ropey side too.

British Author Challenge 2020

May 2020

Here is a break with British Author Challenge traditions - not a gentleman and a lady but three gentlemen.

Following Richard's suggestion we will focus on the three British leaders of the Science Fiction New Wave;

Michael Moorcock, J.G. Ballard and Brian Aldiss

British Author Challenge 2020

June 2020

Penelope Fitzgerald & Patrick Gale

Terrific New Wavers! And Patrick Gale, well. No more need be said.

Soviet Santa says "Happy Yule!" Solstice Greetings to all. Read more here: https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/soviet-santa

>130 PaulCranswick: And will there be a month of three ladies and no gentlemen? Of course you knew. Would ask...

>131 PaulCranswick: Big fan of both of these.

>133 Caroline_McElwee: Good question. So will there be a three women month, Paul?

Greetings to my fellow biblio-geeks! It has been a privilege to chatter here with you.

A winter solstice is the moment in time when the Earth's tilt away from the Sun is at its maximum and the Sun's maximum elevation in the sky is at its lowest. Thus the ice crystals form magical lighting effects ~


Sundogs and a sunrise on the Winter Solstice

>133 Caroline_McElwee: & >134 Familyhistorian: In fairness to Paul, he did give us a "Queens of Crime" month last year without a corresponding "Kings of..."

>133 Caroline_McElwee: Wait and see, dear lady, wait and see. I think in all fairness, if one looks at the other challenges put forward in the group, the BAC has championed female authors as much as any other.

>134 Familyhistorian: Why limit it to three, Meg? I have on occasions previously had months which were solely female - one which would have included Christie, Allingham, Sayers etc. No gentleman complained as I recall! I like balance and will certainly look at how to restore such balance.

>132 richardderus: I thought you would be pleased with that, RD.

>135 SandyAMcPherson: Lovely picture - thank you, Sandy. It has been a privilege to have you visit and contribute here too. xx

>136 amanda4242: Thank you, Amanda, I had almost forgotten that I had so favoured the ladies at the expense of the gentlemen in 2018.

British Author Challenge 2020

July 2020

High Summer Comfort Reading

What do we want to read sitting on the beach or by the pool? Something literate and heavy or something immersive and engaging?

Elly Griffiths & Winston Graham

British Author Challenge 2020

August 2020

What female triumvirate will even out the perceived masculine bias in these pages?
It can only be the ladies on the moor. The moor upon which great fiction was written. The moor that is a short drive from my home area. Yes it is:

Charlotte Bronte, Anne Bronte and Emily Bronte

>141 PaulCranswick: Anne was born in 1820, so an anniversary year for her, Paul.

>142 kac522: 200 years, Kathy. I hadn't realised that so it is even more apropos.

>141 PaulCranswick: Have I done something to offend you that you inflict the Brontes upon me?

>144 amanda4242: Hahaha, Amanda! There will be a wildcard don't forget.

July and August are looking good!!

>146 Berly: I did figure that a month of the Brontes would dis-spirit a few of my friends but they do deserve some space in any discussion of English Literature over six years of a challenge.

I will finish off the Challenge selections today.

British Author Challenge 2020

September 2020

WORLD WAR 2

British books on World War 2 are many, varied and include some of the most excellent things written in the last 80 years.

Can be fiction; can be prose or memoirs; can be history.

Some examples to choose from:

Goodnight, Mister Tom by Michelle Margorian
Carrie's War by Nina Bawden
Captain Corelli's Mandolin by Louis De Bernieres
The Cruel Sea by Nicholas Monsarrat
Where Eagles Dare by Alistair MacLean
The Good Shepherd by CS Forester
Requiem for a Wren by Nevil Shute
The Charioteer by Mary Renault
The Great Fortune by Olivia Manning
Everyone Brave is Forgiven by Chris Cleave
Atonement by Ian McEwan
Darkness falls from the Air by Nigel Balchin

Max Hastings, Anthony Beevor, B.H. Liddell-Hart are amongst those whose history writing have illuminated the subject of WW2

The Railway Man by Eric Lomax
The Gathering Storm by Winston Churchill
Naples 44 by Norman Lewis
Hitler : My Part in His Downfall by Spike Milligan

are great examples of WW2 memoirs

The poetry of

Keith Douglas
Alun Lewis
Sidney Keyes

>136 amanda4242: Thanks Amanda, I missed that.

>137 PaulCranswick: >141 PaulCranswick: HeeHee.

>150 PaulCranswick: I can still see myself howling with laughter in my teens, reading Adolf Hitler my Part in his Downfall, my dad was laughing at me laughing, before he got his hands on the book.

Hi, Paul. You sure do a stellar job setting up the BAC! Quite admirable. I am not sure how much I will be able to participate, but I hope to dip in now and then. I hope you are having, (or had) a good weekend and got some reading time in.

>151 Caroline_McElwee: I loved those books too, Caroline. A re-read may be in order, I think. Spike Milligan was one of the funniest men ever - mad as a coot of course.

>152 msf59: I so much look forward to seeing you dip, Mark!

British Author Challenge 2020

October 2020

Joanne Harris & George Orwell

British Author Challenge 2020

November 2020

Fay Weldon & John Le Carre

British Author Challenge 2020

December 2020

THE LAST DECADE

December I will take to celebrate the previous decade. This is because in Malaysia it takes approximately a year to get all the books worth reading in the shops!

Some Suggestions

2010 The Memory of Love by Aminatta Forna
Even the Dogs by John McGregor

2011 Before I Go to Sleep by SJ Watson
The Stranger's Child by Alan Hollinghurst

2012 Married Love by Tessa Hadley
Skios by Michael Frayn

2013 Life after Life by Kate Atkinson
Little Exiles by Robert Dinsdale

2014 The Miniaturist by Jessie Burton
Tigerman by Nick Harkaway

2015 The Wolf Border by Sarah Hall
The Buried Giant by Kazuo Ishiguro

2016 A Country Road, A Tree by Jo Baker
Solar Bones by Mike McCormack

2017 Swimming Lessons by Claire Fuller
Dunbar by Edward St. Aubyn

2018 Silence of the Girls by Pat Barker
Now We Shall be Entirely Free by Andrew Miller

2019 Ghost Wall by Sarah Moss
The Porpoise by Mark Haddon

Very interesting BAC selections, Paul. I hope you were able to get some reading time in this weekend as well.

>158 Familyhistorian: I did Meg and shall soon have some completed books to report.

British Author Challenge 2020

WILDCARD 2020

BRITISH PLAYWRIGHTS

Alan Ayckbourn
Alan Bennett
Robert Bolt
Caryl Churchill
Noel Coward
April de Angelis
Nell Dunn
Michael Frayn
David Hare
Sarah Kane
Joe Orton
John Osborne
Harold Pinter
JB Priestley
Terrence Rattigan
Willy Russell
W. Somerset Maugham
Tom Stoppard

Earlier

Aphra Behn
William Congreve
Thomas Dekker
John Dryden
George Farquhar
Ben Jonson
Thomas Kyd
Christopher Marlowe
Thomas Otway
William Shakespeare
George Bernard Shaw
Richard Brinsley Sheridan
JM Synge
George Villiers
John Webster
Oscar Wilde
William Wycherley

BAC 2020 has quite the impressive line-up! Thank you so much for doing this!

Are there full rules for the British Author Challenge posted? Is it one book a month or one/author (other than wildcards) mentioned. Can one only use one wild card?

>161 amanda4242: You are welcome, Amanda, and you are also the main reason I am doing it - given your unfailing support for the challenge in the last 5 years.

>162 quondame: No rules at all Susan - you can do whatever you want to! I try to read one from each of the specific authors mentioned and a couple from the more general challenges, but others do things differently. Amanda reads as many books as possible that would fit the challenge and others just dip in and out of the challenge. All absolutely fine.

Hi Paul, just a quick visit to wish you all the best of the season. I am with you in hoping that 2020 is a better year. I've been having problems with my right knee and ankle for this last quarter of 2019 and I am tired of it. Of course all this inactivity has meant a lot more reading time for me!

How lovely to see you Judy. I do so much miss you over here and am so remiss not to go and try to seek you out elsewhere more often. Where do you reside most of the time these days?

Also pleased to see that your dodgy knee had no impact on you turning pages.

Loving all the BAC authors :) I suspect I'll do my usual, thoroughly enjoy the planning, start strong... and end up just ticking a few off in the wrong months :) The planning gives me so much joy though!

>166 BekkaJo: I love the planning too, Bekka, and am much stronger in the planning than the execution as I suspect so many of us are.

Hi Paul! Your BAC choices are fantastic.

>96 PaulCranswick: Every book counts. *smile*

>97 PaulCranswick: I’m not even British yet have a fascination with royalty.

>104 PaulCranswick: Miss Austen may have been done to death, as you put it, but I’ve already decided that my personal challenge for 2020 will be to reread her 6 novels and read her other miscellaneous writings. It’s nice that I’ll be able to accept the challenge. I might even go for a Scott, too, since I have The Talisman and Ivanhoe on my shelves.

>130 PaulCranswick: I’ve also got Mother London by Moorcock on my shelves, as yet unread, so May’s looking good too.

>141 PaulCranswick: Just scooped up some free Kindle versions, so may participate in the Brontes challenge.

>149 PaulCranswick: I have several that qualify, including one that I read as a child Escape from Warsaw. Might be time for a reread of my 56-year-old copy.

>154 PaulCranswick: I have 3 read and 3 to be read by Harris on my shelves.

>155 PaulCranswick: I’ve got an unread Le Carre on my shelves.

>156 PaulCranswick: Very thoughtful and eclectic. I just may find something here to read.

>160 PaulCranswick: I just may get around to Aphra Behn…

Many of us are taking a holiday break here in the U.S., Paul. I hope you get a bit of time to relax and read.

>168 karenmarie: You have me blushing, Karen.

>104 PaulCranswick: I have pencilled in Pride and Prejudice and Sense and Sensibility for Ms. Austen. Waverley and Scott on Waterloo for Sir Walter

>130 PaulCranswick: Greybeard for Aldiss; High Rise for Ballard and Byzantium Endures for Moorcock

>141 PaulCranswick: I may just manage Vilette and The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Charlotte and Anne respectively

>149 PaulCranswick: Margorian, Bawden, Hastings, McEwan, Shute and MacLean as a minimum but possibly the Spike Milligan books too.

>154 PaulCranswick: Chocolat for Harris and possibly Burmese Days for Orwell

>155 PaulCranswick: Puffball for Ms Weldon and Little Drummer Girl & Single & Single for Le Carre

>156 PaulCranswick: I have read the Pat Barker but I may go for a full house here otherwise.

>160 PaulCranswick: I will try to read one play per month. I have quite a few already on the shelves and will probably read A Man for All Seasons for January or something by Ayckbourn.

I am just hoping it is my first time reaching 100 books since 2017 and first time reaching 200 books since I left university.

>169 jnwelch: I have Christmas Day off Joe but I may also take Friday off too.

Hope you all have a great Christmas, Paul!

Lovely to see you, Chelle. It is almost Christmas Eve here - another 1 hour and 38 minutes

I'll join the BAC for the first time and read every month's selection, as I do for the Non-Fiction and AAC Challenges,
as soon as you read...well, you know...

Hi Paul: I've taken some time off from both the BAC and the AAC, but darn you do make the BAC look good.

I love >166 BekkaJo: "I suspect I'll do my usual, thoroughly enjoy the planning, start strong... and end up just ticking a few off in the wrong months :) The planning gives me so much joy though!"

Hi Paul, great selection for the 2020 BAC--I've got books waiting to be read for almost every month! And I definitely will join you for Waverley--been scared to death to read Sir Walter, but this is giving me courage.

All the best in 2020--hope you get closer to Yorkshire this year.

>174 m.belljackson: I will be delighted to have you along, Marianne

>175 streamsong: Just dip in when you feel like it, Janet. Bekka is right the joy is in the planning.

>178 PaulCranswick: So we have a date with Waverley, Kathy! Sheffield is calling..........

Hi - where are BAC books for February 2020? Thank you.

>179 m.belljackson: Waaay up at >49 PaulCranswick:

>179 m.belljackson: Check >49 PaulCranswick: above.

>179 m.belljackson: Ok Marianne I will put up a link and a thread soon.

https://www.librarything.com/topic/313878#6991758

>180 amanda4242: Thanks Amanda.

>181 laytonwoman3rd: And Linda

to all three xxx

Happy new thread, Paul.
It is #183 - I am very late, but I lost the track.
This is a picture of our last pre-christmas-holiday in Austria. This year it was beautiful, too, but almost without snow.

I wish you and yours a wonderful and peaceful time.

>183 SirThomas: The picture is small but perfectly formed, Thomas!

I have treasured every visit by every friend to my threads this year as always. I haven't been as active as normal but I am profoundly grateful to all of you for keeping me sane and relatively happy in a difficult, difficult year.

Have a comfy, caring, and very

Merry Christmas!

By my calculations, it is Christmas there for you Paul. I hope you have a good one!

>180 amanda4242: >181 laytonwoman3rd: >182 PaulCranswick:

Okay - I had been lazily just looking for the BIG 2020 - Thank you all and have Great Holidays!

&&&&&&&&&&&&

Both Harry Potterand Chocolat will get my immediate votes, with one more to be added.

My daughter and I will watch both movies, Harry for around the 15th time and Chocolat the third,
between Christmas and New Year's Eves.

&&&&&&&&&&&&

We're having lovely Vegetarian Feasts =

Potato Soup, Gypsy (yes, Romani, now, - from old Moosewood Cookbook) Soup,
PIZZA, Cranberry Bread, Challah, Brie, Nuts,
Harry and David Pears, Chocolate covered Cherries, Truffles, and Moose Munch, Almond Crescents, Sugar Cookies, Broccolini/Spinach/Tomato Quiche...and more.

Hi Paul!

I hope you have some time off this holiday season.

Even though it's not exactly appropriate, I can't help but post

Merry Christmas Paul, Hani, Yasmyne, Kyran and Belle from both of us dear friend.

Here's a fitting book to wish you a Very Merry Christmas!



A very, Merry Christmas, to all of you, Paul.

Merry Christmas Paul and Hani. I hope you get a bookshelf or two for Christmas.

>185 quondame: Thank you, Susan. I suppose it is easy to be cosy in the tropics!

>186 Familyhistorian: You were right, Meg, and I got some early shut-eye for a change as a Christmas gift to myself as I was particularly drained after a difficult working day.

>187 m.belljackson: No turkey here either, Marianne. Leg of lamb today and hopefully with all the trimmings.

Have a lovely festive season and your vege feast sounds intriguing if not especially seasonal. xx

>188 karenmarie: Thanks Karen. It doesn't always seem like Christmas here but my friends make it seem so. A fascinating Christmas Tree has been made of my books.

>189 johnsimpson: Thanks John. I'll be along soon to wish the same to you and Karen and Rob and Amy and their families.

>190 EllaTim: Thank you Ella. I have thoroughly enjoyed keeping up with you this year and a book is always welcome!

>191 Caroline_McElwee: Thanks to my poetry pal. I tried but couldn't get the shelf to fit into the stocking.

It was shocking
That the elf
Couldn't get the shelf
Into the stocking.

Merry Christmas! Thanks for all the bookishness this year!

>196 mahsdad: Thanks Jeff......you too and the photos too!

Book #71



Edward II : Penguin Monarchs by Christopher Given-Wilson

Date Published : 2016
Origin of Author : UK
Pages : 109 (17,753 in total)

How do you follow one of England's strongest martial monarchs? Not like this.

Edward Longshanks subdued the Welsh and was the Hammer of the Scots. Defeated and executed Wallace and almost created the United Kingdom 400 years before it was actually fully realised. Edward II was wedded to faction. Basically himself and his immediate favourites and pals and especially Piers Gaveston and subsequently Hugh Despenser (the younger). The first almost brought him down and the second eventually did.

He lost Bannockburn to Robert the Bruce and then he lost the throne in favour of his son. Not the cowering sissy he is portrayed in the movie Braveheart (he was almost certainly bisexual but apparently an impressive physical specimen and not cowardly in warfare just inept ) but nevertheless a terrible failure as a king.

Second in this interesting series that I have read.

Hallo Paul and



to you and all your loved ones!

The Penguin Monarchs series looks interesting and the BAC 2020 looks like fun! I will join in now and then.

>199 EBT1002: Lovely as always to see you here, Ellen.

Happy Holidays, Paul! I hope you are spending some quality time with the family and the books, of course.

Happy Holidays from Montana - sounds like you're having a wonderful feast!

>201 msf59: Thanks Mark. Surrounded by books - made a Christmas tree of 'em.

>202 streamsong: Always wanted to go to Montana, Janet! Have a lovely day.

Happy holidays!

Hey, our Feast covered most of the human constructs of religion and culture and involved no three-legged lambs running around!

Challah for Hanukkah, Fresh Vegetables for Kwanzaa,
Soups & Breads & Cookies from all over Europe's Christmases,
and Star Cookies for The Solstice.

Whether you celebrate Christmas, Hanukkah, Solstice, some other tradition or none at all, this is what I wish for you!

>204 amanda4242: Thanks for that, Amanda. I'll scrape off the brandy at least!

>205 m.belljackson: I was impressed already Marianne but even more now you point out the seasonal symbolism of your feast. xx

>208 PaulCranswick: Thank you dear Roni.

Thanks for the visit and message Paul. I must say that you have assembled a stellar BAC list for next year filled with books I have read and loved and many I want to. So the new roaring twenties await us all.

Dear Paul, Peace and Hope and Joy and Love to you and yours!
So much good stuff going into 2020's BAC list. Like Ron, you have so many favorites listed that I could make it my exclusive year's reading - if only I had my old time for uninterrupted reading!
I look forward to what you have to say in the new year.

Paul, all the best to you and family in 2020!

Or in other words, Happy Christmas! And have a great New Year as well.

Merry Christmas to you and your family!

>209 RBeffa: It would be great to have you dip into the challenge now and again next year, Ron.

>210 LizzieD: I am hoping for a great year, Peggy and my friends as always will contribute to it being so. xx

>211 mdoris: Thank you Mary. It has been great to see you so much more active this year.

>212 SandDune: Thanks Rhian.

>213 AMQS: Anne I have missed you not being around as much as past years in 2019 - I hope that 2020 will be a great year for all of us.

I like the looks of the 2020 BAC Challenge too, Paul. I have quite a few choices around here, either on the shelves or on the machine.

Let’s hope 2020 proves to be a good year for us all.

>217 Matke: I will certainly second that as something very much to be wished for, Gail. xx

Book #72



Let Us Compare Mythologies by Leonard Cohen

Date Published : 1956
Origin of Author : Canada
Pages : 59 (17,812 in total)

There is a free-flowing callowness to some of these poems. This was the first collection published by Cohen and mainly work written as a student in MacGill thus we get a sense of something of an unformed genius in some of the work.

His themes rarely changed and he set them out here - the glory, ritual and diplomacy of sex, Judaic and proto-Christian symbolism the dashing violence of our interaction with nature and ourselves. There are plenty of words and phrases in this anthology that feel like the mere sheen of words without the complete substance of meaning but he was already capable of a knowingness and able to portray his thoughts with a lyrical beauty that makes this overall a worthy debut.

This is one of the shorter poems:

Poem ("I heard of a man ...")

I heard of a man
who says words so beautifully
that if he only speaks their name
women give themselves to him.
If I am dumb beside your body
while silence blossoms like tumors on our lips.
it is because I hear a man climb stairs and clear his throat outside the door.

calm and I could use some friends over here in this new joint...

The 2020 Group is up!

Happy holidays Paul! See you in 2020!

>220 drneutron: I will be certainly keeping you both company, Jim. Thanks as always for doing this.

>221 The_Hibernator: Same to you, Rachel. xx

Hopefully you have more time to relax between now and New Years, Paul, and time to read the last 3 books.

>223 Familyhistorian: I am almost done Meg. I am more than half-way with all three remaining books so I will definitely make it.

Paul, I hope you are able to relax and enjoy some family time over the holiday season. Thank you for sharing both your ups and downs with us throughout the year. I am hoping for more Ups in 2020 for you! Don't let anything get in your way as you close in on that 75th book. It's pretty amazing to me that you could manage that with the kind of year you've had. Reading is good for the soul, right?

>225 Donna828: It is indeed good for the soul - especially for me poetry, Donna. I will finish book 73 today for sure and the remaining 2 over the weekend.

I think 77 is probably where I'll finish up - my lowest total ever, but still as you point out, I have had to face down a lot of things this year so hopefully 2020 will see me return to my hassle-free numbers!

I want to read 20 books a month - I can almost here regulars here chuckling as I always aim high and end low!

My party (The Labour Party) continues to navel gaze and hasn't really come up with much sensible in the way of how we will wring and win back the electorate over the next five years of Tory rule.

1 Start with the leader and make an inclusive front bench team.

My own preferences would be :
1 Hilary Benn
2 Dan Jarvis
3 Jess Phillips
4 Lisa Nandy
5 Stephen Kinnock
6 Clive Lewis
7 Keir Starmer
8 Rebecca Long-Bailey

In that order. I think it would be terrible if Emily Thornberry won and Yvette Cooper has no charisma but they should most probably be in the Shadow Cabinet.

I don't think Hilary Benn will stand and I don't think that Stephen Kinnock will either.
Of the three centrist choices Phillips, Nandy and Jarvis probably one will have to make way to give the other two half a chance. Clive Lewis is an interesting character - a bit to the left of me but a believer, like me, in PR and has a sellable background. Keir Starmer and Thornberry for me take the blame for the Brexit muddle. Long-Bailey has oodles of potential but not this time in my opinion.

I believe we need to set out a platform for a post-Brexit Britain that provides solid and understandable answers to ten key questions.

a What will our new relationship with our neighbours be

b How do we regenerate growth, manufacturing and new industries in deprived areas

c How do we improve public services (Rail nationalisation is probably a great idea for the first term of a Labour government and our health service is in dire need of help)

d How do we put people into work instead of having them hide behind welfare

e How do we improve the system of education root and branch

f How to raise revenue and re-distribute wealth and taxation fairly and responsibly without penalising the entrepreneurial spirit and have our well-off look for pastures new.

g How to build a centre-left progressive platform that enthuses Green and Liberals alike to the extent that their parties can take up common cause

h How do we eradicate poverty

i How do we bring the whole nation together and dissolve the popularity of the nationalists in Scotland

j How should our institutions be amended to make the country fairer and more democratic


I have some ideas of my own on these questions and will be re-visiting the topics over the coming weeks.

>104 PaulCranswick: If I do Jane Austen, I will read something other than one of her six novels. I've read those enough for this decade. I might go with her letters. I'll just have to see what is actually available in local libraries because I'm not purchasing anything. There's lots I want to read by Scott so he should be no problem.

>149 PaulCranswick: Oh, I loved Good Night, Mr. Tom when we read it for a YA class in grad school. Not sure if I'll re-read it or choose something else because I love WWII settings.

>160 PaulCranswick: Those playwrights will likely appear during science fiction month!

>228 thornton37814: There's a collection of Austen's letters available on Project Gutenberg.

Best wishes this holiday season!! See you in 2020 and may this year be a kinder year to us all!

>228 thornton37814: I have (perhaps surprisingly) only read two of her celebrated six novels. I have read Mansfield Park and Northanger Abbey and have the other four on the shelves. Pride and Prejudice is a sure thing.

I fancy Nevil Shute for the WW2 month and one of Carrie's War & Goodnight Mister Tom.

I'm also averse generally to Science Fiction but couldn't hold out too much longer. I will try and read the three stooges but I also plan to read plenty of plays next year including Alan Ayckbourn for January.

>229 amanda4242: There seems to be plenty of her other writing becoming available these days,

>230 Berly: That is a wonderful gif (if that is what we are supposed to call them) Kimmers!

Friendships made here have certainly helped to defray some of the turmoil elsewhere.

Belated Merry Christmas from the chilly side of the globe. Hope you had a booky wonderful day - I got a lot of books, now I just need some peace in which to open any of them!

Books and peace and quiet - always to be treasured. Lovely of you to visit, Bekka.

Book #73



Journey of the Dead by Loren D Estleman

Date Published : 1998
Origin of Author : USA
Pages : 251 (18,063 in total)

A fictional re-telling of the life of Pat Garrett who slew Billy the Kid and was apparently and literally haunted by the event.

I thoroughly enjoyed parts of this but for some reason Estleman intertwined a subsidiary plot featuring a Mexican medicine man seeking the Philosopher's Stone. Added absolutely nothing to the story other than help the reader lose his thread.

Mildly recommended if the certain parts needed to be edited out or skimmed.

Hi - can you condense to explain why Scotland should not be Free...or...

are The Nationalists in favor of something totally different?

Confusion here from an ancestor of The Bells of the Border and a Gabaldon fan.

>236 m.belljackson: It isn't a question of free or enchained, Marianne, it is a question of better together. Great Britain and Northern Ireland is a United Kingdom. There is no way that Scotland could pay its share of the National debt alone and its decision to maintain sterling even if "independent" would make it a vassal state in a much worse place than it is.
To put it in terms of freedom completely misrepresents the issue - it is like New Jersey suddenly seceding from the Union to be free. Nonesense.

Scotland and England have been in formal union since 1707.

I would also remind that a majority voted to remain with the union a little over 5 years ago and this even though the Scottish Nationalists barred every Scot not residing in Scotland from voting.

Yes, I totally remember being surprised by that outcome after Culloden...

>238 m.belljackson: The Battle of Culloden was in 1746 and was not a battle for independence for Scotland as is often portrayed now. The Jacobite uprising was in reality an attempt by Prince Charles (Bonnie Prince Charlie) to seize the British crown from the Hanoverian George (descended from James I through his grandmother who was his daughter) on behalf of his father James Francis Edward Stuart or, to the Jacobites, James III of England and James VIII of Scotland (The Old Pretender).
This of course in turn stems from James' father James II, a Roman Catholic, being deposed in favour of his Sister Mary and her husband William of Orange in the so called Glorious Revolution of 1688.
Whatever the rights and wrongs of the succession dispute and I would have probably been a Jacobite given my Roman Catholic antecedents on my Great Grandmother's side, to misrepresent it as an uprising for Scottish independence is historically inaccurate, albeit that the Highlanders were clearly in arms due to the oppression of the Hanoverian led Protestant English led elite and to sustain their own way of life.

Well, I meant that as an English/Scottish confrontation, it left memories in favor of independence.

All that Christian confusion and the ongoing hideous strife now between religions
makes Sam Harris and Richard Dawkins appear as prophets or seers.

>240 m.belljackson: That is exactly the point Marianne -it wasn't a purely Great Britain vs Scotland confrontation - that is the smoking mirrors of history - there were Jacobins from Ireland, Northern England, parts of the South West and Wales.

Bonnie Prince Charlie landed in Scotland and marshalled his forces marching as far South as Derby in the England Midlands. They gathered support in Preston and Manchester (the Manchester regiment) but they panicked because the promise of a French invasion in their support had not yet materialised and the South West Jacobins had not taken as promised, Bristol. The decision to turn back was the pivotal and fateful decision - alienated Charles from his Generals - and enabled history to view the confrontation as "England v Scotland".

This is the Guardian's guide to the best books of 2019 - genre-by-genre

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2019/nov/30/best-books-of-the-year-2019

There are 35 books listed on the fiction appraisal which is a good guide and provides me a list to tick-off! 23 new thrillers and 7 poetry collections provides 65 books in all for me to seek out and read. (I currently have 7 of them on the shelves).

Book #74



James I : The Phoenix King by Thomas Cogswell

Date Published : 2017
Origin of Author : UK
Pages : 251 (18,150 in total)

I am enjoying this series of Penguin Monarchs and will look to find as many of the books in it as I can (I have James II on the shelves as I type this).

James I was the first King to be styled as King of Great Britain although a largely xenophobic English parliament refused a formal act of Parliament.

He is often overlooked in history as something of a weakling or cowardly king but the 20 years of peace he brought to the country and his careful avoidance of further religious reform allowed Britain to prosper just as he was personally almost bankrupt most of his reign.

British children will always remember the the Gunpowder Plot as the nation burns effigies to Guy Fawkes on 5 November to this day and the King James Bible remains probably the definitive vernacular translation of the great book.

He had big boots to follow in the entire Elizabethan age but he survived both his mother's machinations (Mary Queen of Scots) and numerous plots against him on both sides of the Tweed to establish the Stuart dynasty on the throne. His son would undo that in a further 20 years of strife.

>242 PaulCranswick: Thanks for the link, I think.

>244 Familyhistorian: You're welcome, Meg, I also think.

>242 PaulCranswick: Thanks for posting that link, Paul. I've read four of the fiction titles, namely Celestial Bodies, Girl, Woman, Other, Lanny and The Nickel Boys, and own six of the other best novels.

>246 kidzdoc: I always have some catching up to do with the latest books, Darryl.

Hi, Paul - Hope your holidays were full of all good things and wishing you

>248 Storeetllr: What a lovely surprise to see you, Mary!

Alasdair Gray the Glasgow born novelist and author of Lanark has died. He helped bring on a generation of writers in Scotland such as Ruth Galloway, Irvine Welsh, AL Kennedy and Alan Warner and will be sorely missed.

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2019/dec/29/alasdair-gray-obituary

Last trip around the threads for 2019. Howdy.

See you in a couple of days, on the other side.

>251 weird_O: Thanks, Bill. Will do!

Book #75



Inside the Wave by Helen Dunmore

Date Published : 2017
Origin of Author : UK
Pages : 70 (18,220 in total)

Helen Dunmore will probably be best remembered as a novelist and most particularly her Women's Prize winning A Spell of Winter and The Siege (which so many in this group appreciated). It is, however, as a poet that she began and ended with the marvellous and poignant collection being published just before cancer claimed her.

Death and its nearness, its mythologies and its journey are ever present here and most obviously in the closing two poems. This is the final poem she ever wrote and what a fitting end to her career:

Hold out your arms

Death, hold out your arms for me
Embrace me
Give me your motherly caress,
Through all this suffering
You have not forgotten me.

You are the bearded iris that bakes its rhizomes
Beside the wall,
Your scent flushes with loveliness,
Sherbet, pure iris
Lovely and intricate.

I am the child who stands by the wall
Not much taller than the iris.
The sun covers me
The day waits for me
In my funny dress.

Death, you heap into my arms
A basket of unripe damsons
Red crisscross straps that button behind me.
I don’t know about school,
My knowledge is for papery bud covers
Tall stems and brown
Bees touching here and there, delicately
Before a swerve to the sun.

Death stoops over me
Her long skirts slide,
She knows I am shy.
Even the puffed sleeves on my white blouse
Embarrass me,
She will pick me up and hold me
So no one can see me,
I will scrub my hair into hers.

There, the iris increases
Note by note
As the wall gives back heat.
Death, there’s no need to ask:
A mother will always lift a child
As a rhizome
Must lift up a flower
So you settle me
My arms twining,
Thighs gripping your hips
Where the swell of you is.

As you push back my hair
– Which could do with a comb
But never mind –
You murmur
‘We’re nearly there.’

Well I have staggered over the line and made it to 75 and will probably add one more before the decade drips through the filter.

Congratulations on hitting 75!

Congratulations on making 75. I'm close to 2x75 but not going to make it this year.

>255 amanda4242: Thank you, Amanda.

>256 avatiakh: Better late than not at all, Kerry. I have only made 2x75 once since I have been in the group but next year............

>254 PaulCranswick: Congratulations!

Hi Paul, congrats on reaching 75 books read in what has been a difficult reading year for you mate.

Congrats!

75 books!
Woohoo!
Nice round off to the year for you. I only made 40 this year.

Happy New Year Paul :)

>258 quondame: Thank you, Susan........oh for something closer to your figures!

>259 johnsimpson: Thanks John. I think it is the first year in the group that you whupped my ass!

>253 PaulCranswick: You did it! Congratulations on reaching 75, Paul!

>260 drneutron: Cheers, Jim.

>261 LovingLit: Well we have both had busy years, Megan. I do hope that you are around a bit more next year as I do miss you here.

>263 FAMeulstee: Thanks Anita. You sailed way beyond 5x75 which is something I know I'll never manage and were still able to be in the top dozen threads posts wise.

>262 PaulCranswick: As much as I find my relaxed life with bountiful reading time enjoyable, I can't wish it on anyone else.

Yahoo! Congrats on hitting 75!

>266 quondame: Most times I wouldn't swap being so busy with my different projects - if I hadn't had three years plus of companies not paying my construction and project management companies for work done, I would have a most stress free life now. C'est la Vie and what doesn't kill us must make us stronger.

>267 ChelleBearss: Just, Chelle!

Congratulations for reading 75, Paul!

Paul, you made 75, so rejoice!!! Hurray!

>268 PaulCranswick: Although what didn't kill me (a decade of intense stresses) left me only intermittently capable. I don't recommend it.

>269 Familyhistorian: Thanks Meg.

>270 Berly: Thank you Kimmers!

Congrats Paul! I am bowing out on 71, which is a darn shame. Ah well - unlike for you, that isn't unusual for me.

Have a wonderful New Year - see you in 2020!

edited to add: Not literally unfortunately :(

>271 quondame: Susan, I hope to be able to take things easier in about 15 years or so!

>273 BekkaJo: Not such a bad number, Bekka, trying to keep your little rascals in order at the same time!

You never know about the literally bit as I would be keen to revisit the Channel Islands one fine day with SWMBO.

Congratulations on making 75 Paul.

Congratulations for reading 75, Paul!
And All the Best for 2020!

>276 Caroline_McElwee: Thank you, Caroline.

>277 SirThomas: Thanks Thomas.

Happy New Year!

>279 amanda4242: Thank you, Amanda. Just brought in the new decade here.

Happy New Year Paul, and may the new year bring another haul of good books, as well as peace and happiness.

>274 PaulCranswick: I hope you get as much easy time as you like for the next 15 and on into the far far future!

>262 PaulCranswick:, I may have whupped your ass this year mate but I would imagine normal service will resume in 2020 where I trail in your wake old boy.

>281 sirfurboy: Thank you Sir F!

>282 quondame: You are a dear, Susan. xx

>283 johnsimpson: I hope to read loads in 2020 but I would much sooner you keep pace too, mate!

Here's hoping for a better year in 2020, Paul.

>286 Familyhistorian: Thank you, Meg.

I am already averaging more pages per day than 2019 if that is an augury of good times ahead!

Book #76



Housekeeping by Marilynne Robinson

Date Published : 1980
Origin of Author : USA
Pages : 219 (18,439 in total)

This novel and the elegant, elegiac style of the author took me a while to get attuned to but it was eventually worth the effort.

Loss, family and the terrors of growing up tied to the genes of a tragic family made this a spare, sad, and very effectively first novel. Ms. Robinson is a very stylish and mannered writer and I will be interested to read her other novels to see how that style develops.

Recommended.

Well that one saw out the year for me and a decent finish in the end although my worst ever yearly total.

Woo hoo, you did it!!

>290 ronincats: Yes, Roni, and I am determined not to leave it so late again!

Congrats on 76 for the year, Paul.

Dowsing the star, Paul. See ya next year.

>292 karenmarie: Thanks Karen

>293 weird_O: Cheers Bill - I look forward to it.

I am back from my wandering and will keep up with you in the new year.

I would be heartbroken otherwise, Benita. xx

Still going with Bloomberg/Warren, though Warren/Bloomberg would be superior.

Harry Truman's radical choice was to atomize humans.

::bump::