Nickelini Reads in 2021

Hi, I'm Joyce. I live in Vancouver and am a fraud investigator. I'm looking forward to a better 2021 and I hope, some travel

BOOKS READ IN 2021


Magnolia blooms in Ticino, Switzerland

April

36. Beyond the Pale, Emily Urquhart
35. Anxious People, Fredrik Backman
34. The Housekeeper & the Professor, Yoko Ogawa
33. A Fairy Tale, Jonas T Bengtsson
32. Invisible Cities, Italo Calvino
31. Bride of New France, Suzanne Desrochers
30. Tales From The Inner City, Shaun Tan
29. The Cockroach, Ian McEwan

March

28. The Wanderer, Peter Van Den Ende
27. How To Build A Girl, Caitlin Moran
26. Here Is the Beehive, Sarah Crossan
25. Whatever, Michel Houellebecq
24. Tiny Book of Tiny Stories, Winnow
23. Vanishing Half, Brit Bennett
22. Passing, Nella Larson
21. Mothering Sunday, Graham Swift
20. Venice Rising: Aqua Granda, Pandemic, Rebirth; various
19. Down By the River, Edna O'Brien
18. There Once Lived a Girl Who Seduced Her Sister's Husband, and He Hanged Himself, Ludmilla Petrushevskaya
17. The Chalet, Catherine Cooper

February

16. The Better Mother, Jen Sookfong Lee
15. The Weather Detective, Peter Wohlleben
14. Theft By Finding, David Sedaris
13. Purple Hibiscus, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
12. Madame Verona Comes Down the Hill, Dimitri Verhulst
11. The Hunting Party, Lucy Foley
10. Peace Talks, Tim Finch

January

9. Alpine Cooking: recipes and stories from Europe's grand mountaintops, Mereditth Erickson
8. Moon of the Crusted Snow, Waubgeshig Rice
7. The End of Her, Shari Lapena
6. The Gilded Cage, Camilla Lackberg
5. Fantasviss, C.H. Roserens
4. Happisland, C.H. Roserens
3. Dunger, Joy Cowley
2. The Essex Serpent, Sarah Perry
1. The Lost Spells, Robert MacFarlane

Previous photo-toppers for this thread (changed seasonally):


oops, it's Feb 17 and I just noticed I didn't label my picture here. This is not Vancouver, so no link between my intro, above, and this. It's San Marino, a small country surrounded by Italy. It's been on my list for several of my trips to Italy, but still haven't made it there. Maybe in 2022.

READING STATS 2021 (updated monthly)

Nationality of author:

UK - 9
Canada - 6
USA - 3
Switzerland - 2
Ireland - 2
Belgium - 2
New Zealand - 1
Sweden - 2
Nigeria - 1
Germany - 1
Russia - 1
Italy - 2
France - 1
Australia - 1
Denmark - 1
Japan - 1

Female/male authors:

Female - 18
Male - 16
Mixed - 2

Original language:

English - 26
Swedish - 2
Dutch - 1
German -1
Russian - 1
French - 1
Danish - 1
Japanese - 1
No words - 1

Year published:

1929
1972
1994
1996
2003
2004
2006
2011 - 3
2012 - 2
2013 - 2
2014
2015
2016 - 3
2017
2018 - 2
2019 - 7
2020 - 6

Travels in reading (where my books took me) :

Victorian-era Essex / Marlborough Sound, New Zealand 2013 / Iceland 2012 / Switzerland 2017 / Stockholm 2018 / fictional upstate New York town 2018 / foodie places in the Alps 2018 / dystopian Northwestern Ontario 2018 / Austrian Alps 2018 / Scottish Highlands over New Year's 2018 / village in Belgium / Nigeria 1980s / Sedaris's world 1977-2002 / Vancouver 1948 - 1982 / French Alps 1998 & 2020 / Soviet Russia & Post-Soviet Russia 1972 - 2002 / Ireland 1992 / Venice, Italy 2019 & 2020 / Berkshire March 30, 1924 / Chicago & NYC 1929 / Louisiana & SoCal 1958 - 1986 /France 1990s / London & Cork 2020 / Wolverhampton & London 1990s / oceans of the world / UK 2019 / Paris & Quebec 1600s / Invisible Cities / Denmark 1986-1999 / Japan 1992 / Sweden 2019 / Canada & Tanzania 2010-2015 /

Author's nationality 2021


Create Your Own Visited Countries Map

DNF -- abandoned books

The Gift of the Game - Tom Allen
Sarah's Key - Tatiana de Rosnay

WRAP UP 2020

2020 Year In Review (my touchstones had all loaded beautifully, but then I made an edit and now LT wants nothing to do with touchstones. I'll try to rejig later)

What an unusual and unexpected year. Last year this time I had three major projects that took priority over my reading. By mid-March two were COVID-cancelled, and I completed the third in summer. My reading definitely picked up after that, although I'm not sure there is a direct connection. Certianly the last few months have been the best reading months I've had in years.

Books I Remember Most Fondly:

5 star read: Your House Is On Fire, Your Children All Gone, Stefan Kiesbye

Other great reads:

Ghost Wall, Sarah Moss
Starve Acre, Andrew Michael Hurley

The Temptation of Gracie, Santa Montefiore
Breaking of a Wave, Fabio Genovesi
My Sister the Serial Killer, Oyinkan Braithwaite
The Summer Villa, Melissa Hill
Ghost in the House, Sara O'Leary
Miss Iceland, Audur Ava Olafsdottir
Turn of the Key, Ruth Ware
Tinder, Sally Gardner
Enya: a Treatise On Unguilty Pleasures, Chilly Gonzales

Most disliked book I finished: Darcy's Utopia, Fay Weldon

I read 46 books in 2020, which is slightly more than I read last year.
Number of different authors: 46
New to me authors (authors I've never read before): 32
Rereads: 0

As usual, I read more books by woman than men:
Female authors: 27 - (59%)
Male authors: 18 - (39%)
Mixed: 1 (2%)

Fiction: 31 (68%)
Non-fiction: 7 (15%)
Memoir: 8 (17%)

Nationality of Author (in order read):

Canada- 9 (20%)
UK - 14 (30%)
Switzerland - 4 (8%)
Italy - 4 (8%)
USA - 4 (8%)
Nigeria - 1 (2%)
Australia - 1 (2%)
France - 2 (4$)
Ireland - 1 (2%)
Iran - 1 (2%)
Sweden - 1 (2%)
Albania - 1 (2%)
Germany - 1 (2%)
Argentina - 1 (2%)
Iceland - 1 (2%)

Original Language

English - 33 (72%)
German - 2 (4%)
Italian - 6 (14%)
French - 2 (4%)
Swedish - 1 (2%)
Spanish - 1 (2%)
Icelandic - 1 (2%)

Travelling with Books (where my books took me):

Canada 2004 / Upper Thames River, late Victorian era / Switzerland 1989 / Italy 1949 - 1986 / USSR, Slovenia, Austria, 1910 - 1950 / South Africa 1955 & Norfolk, England 1980 / Amsterdam, 2007 / Ouchy, Switzerland 2004 / Western Canada WWII & 1980s-1990s / United States 1960s - 2016 / Italy Roman era - 2000 / Catania, Sicily 2011 / Switzerland 2014 / Europe 1930s- 1990s / Tuscany 1960s & 2010 / Italy 1348 / Hollywood & NYC 1945 - 2010 / Forte dei Marmi, Tuscany 2016 / Lagos, Nigeria 2017 / ONJ's world 1950-2017 / France, Libya & Syria 1970s & 80s / Amalfi Coast 2010 & 2016 / Barsetshire 1936 / Iran 70s & 90s and Austria 80s / Sweden 2005 / Albania 1980s / Northumberland 1990s / Post WWII NW Germany / Alternative England 1951 /Philadelphia 2016 / England 1990 / England 1961 / Vancouver 2019 / France 2000 / Saxony, Germany 1642 / Scotland 2017 / Arctic Canada 2019 / Iceland 1963 / England 2016 & 2017 / Yorkshire 1970s / German-speaking Switzerland, late 20th century

Year Published:

1352
1936
1951
1962
1967
1989
1990
1994 x 2
2003
2004 x 3
2005 x 3
2007 x 3
2008
2009 x 2
2010
2012
2013
2014
2015 x 3
2016
2017
2018 x 7
2019 x 4
2020 x 4

Happy New Year, Joyce. I hope 2021 is a great year of reading for you.

Happy New Year! Fantastoc stats collection!

I see you fixed the touchstones so maybe you know the new trick (or hoop). You can't save and then edit without refreshing. That is, if you save a post with touchstones, then want to make a change without losing the touchstones, you have to refresh/reload the page 1st, then edit.

I'm sure I'm not alone in noticing your reading enthusiasm pick up last year, and it's been fun to follow. I've read two of your favorites (Ghost Wall and My Sister the Serial Killer) and really enjoyed both. Wish you a great 2021.

Happy New Year, Joyce! I also liked Ghost Wall, although I liked two of her earlier novels, Bodies of Light and The Tidal Zone, even better.

Happy New Year! I really have to explore Sarah Moss a bit more... I have a galley of her newest, Summerwater, and read Ghost Wall, but that's it.

>4 BLBera:, >5 stretch:, >6 dchaikin:, >7 kidzdoc:, >8 lisapeet:

Thanks, and Happy New Year to all of you too.

>6 dchaikin:
Thanks for the tip. I actually stumbled into a solution but didn't know how I got there

As for Sarah Moss, the only other book by her I've read is Cold Earth, which was good too. I'll look out for more by her in the future, and plan on picking up a copy of Summerwater this year

1. The Lost Spells, Robert MacFarlane, illustrations by Jackie Morris, 2020


cover comments: gorgeous

Comments: A stunningly beautiful book with some poetry, all about the natural world, and leaning toward the British and the wintery. I was lukewarm on MacFarlane's prose but the illustrations by Jackie Morris were outstanding



Recommended for readers of all ages who enjoy nature and physically beautiful books

Rating: 4 stars

Why I Read This Now: seemed like the perfect book to read on a rainy New Year's Day

Hi Joyce, dropping my star again!

>10 Nickelini: Hi Joyce, interesting that you started the year with a Macfarlane book and I finished 2020 with one! This looks a little different from his usual writing, but interesting nonetheless. It looks a really beautiful book from the photos I've seen.

Hi, Joyce, welcome back! Best wishes for the new reading year. :)

With all my lists - and my tendency to micro-edit - the touchstones have been driving me crazy, too!

Happy New Year, Joyce. Just stopping by today, and leaving a star.

Happy New Year! Just dropping by to say hello! I'll be lurking here for certain.

Hi, Joyce! What a great winter wonderland shot up there. Pulling up the lurking chair...

>11 Simone2:, >12 AlisonY:, >13 lyzard:, >14 sallypursell:, >15 OscarWilde87:, >16 LolaWalser:

Oh my, visitors! Well the assorted appies are just coming out of the ovens and Jeeves will be around to offer you a beverage of your choice. Please, make yourself comfortable. I'll try to read something interesting soon to report back on.

I must have gotten it from your thread, but I read Your House Is On Fire, Your Children All Gone late last year, and it definitely was a good one. One of my better reads for last year.

>18 arubabookwoman:
I'm so happy you enjoyed it! I saw quite a few negative reviews and wondered if something was wrong with my tastes.

2. The Essex Serpent, Sarah Perry, 2016


cover comments: Gorgeous perfection How can you go wrong with using William Morris elements for a late Victorian era novel? There were a few copies at the used bookstore and I found the most pristine. And then got home to find that I'd spilled half a bottle of Perrier on it in the bag, and so my copy is rather wibbly and not in any condition to ever display on a shelf.

Comments: An intricate historical novel set in the late Victorian period. (Sorry, I had a death in my family today and I'm just not up to giving a book report on this. Maybe I'll come back later and add one).

Rating 4 stars. Excellent structure, excellent writing, great exploration of themes. But the story was not really what I'm personally interested in at the moment, and so overly long for me.

Why I Read This Now: I recently noticed that the book started on New Year's Eve, and I needed a book to start on December 31st.

Recommended for: people who want to read well-written historical fiction set in the late Victorian period. It reminded me of Remarkable Creatures by Tracy Chevalier. It also reminded me of Once Upon a River, which I slogged through last January, but the Essex Serpent is a much better book.

My condolences, Joyce. Wishing you peace and return of the book mojo.

Nice comments on The Essex Serpent, Joyce. I also enjoyed Remarkable Creatures.

>20 Nickelini: Condolences for your loss. I read Once Upon a River last year for my RL book club. I didn’t find it a slog (I enjoyed it to be honest) but agree that The Essex Serpent is a much better book. And it does have a lovely cover.

So sorry Joyce

I am sorry for your loss.

Joyce, my condolences as well. I am so sorry.

>21 LolaWalser:, >23 SandDune:>, >25 dchaikin:, >26 torontoc:, >27 sallypursell:

Thank you all for your condolences. Death of someone close is always a sad and surreal experience.

Someone needs to tell the year that it is 2021 and not 2020 and it should be nicer to people... So sorry about your loss - hugs.

3. Dunger, Joy Crowley, 2013


cover comments: Fits the story perfectly

Why I Read This Now: A combination of reasons:
1. My LT friend Judy read this and wrote a lovely review (see the book's page, DeltaQueen50), and I commented that I wanted to read it. Judy is a wonderful person, and also generous, and sent me her copy of the book
2. And then it sat for too many years at the top of my TBR pile
3. See my post #28 above, and the Danish book I started after my last book was good, but VERY gritty, and rather grim, and I REALLY didn't need to go there now, so I started reading the books at the top of my TBR (told you this one was there) and this was the first one that clicked
4. Also, I like to read seasonal books. This was a summer read. Which it is in the southern hemisphere (#HowToGameYourTBR)

Rating: 4 stars. A solid book for its genre; also New Zealand! Who doesn't love New Zealand? Perfect time for me to read this book.

Comments: First off, as I said above, go read DeltaQueen50's review on the book's page because she will do it better justice.

Will, who is 11, and his fourteen-year-old sister Melissa are volunteered to spend their summer at their hippy grandparent's cabin. Lots of funny lack-of-self-awareness by the kids and sometimes by the grandparents, lots of family dynamics, all told in alternating chapters by the two kids. Everything you want in a realistic middle school novel.

Recommended to: who doesn't need to read this? But if you want me to pass on Judy's copy, PM me. Did I mention New Zealand?

>29 AnnieMod: Someone needs to tell the year that it is 2021 and not 2020 and it should be nicer to people... So sorry about your loss - hugs.

Right? I was so ready to be done with 2020, and I set up my most lovely 2021 Reading-Bullet Journal for 2021. I even started it in November. I had to keep reminding myself that nothing magical happens on New Years and it's just a flip of the calendar. So I knew there was no reason for things to change, except I think there is hope with the vaccine. And also, I thought my brother was on a better path, ..... but no. But his death was peaceful, and he was loved.

So sorry about your brother, Joyce.

Dunger sounds like a lot of fun - I'll look out for that one.

Catching up, and really sorry to hear your sad news, Joyce. Sending my condolences to you.

Ah Joyce, I'm sorry to hear that. I have some wincing worries about 2021 too, but nothing to be done about them, really.

My condolences, Joyce, wishing you peace (and whatever else you need during this time)

I'm so sorry for your loss, Joyce.

Condolences on your loss Joyce.

>32 rachbxl:
>33 AlisonY:
>34 lisapeet:
>35 avaland:
>36 RidgewayGirl:
>37 rhian_of_oz:

Thanks, everyone

4. Happisland: A Short But Not Too Brief Tale of a Swiss Spy in Iceland, C.H. Roserens, 2015


cover comments: fits the book well

5. Fantasviss, C.H. Roserens, 2019


cover of the comments: sure, this works

Thank you Thorold for recently introducing me to these two very short books.

Comments: The Swiss government is horrified to have lost their "top quality of life" status to Iceland and so send Hans-Ueli Stauffacher XXI (who had served admirably in Samoa, among other places) as an undercover agent to discover what Iceland is doing better. Told in monthly letters to his mother, he reports that Iceland beats Switzerland with it's tax-payer funded healthcare system, more generous parental leave, and superior status of women and LGBT people.

Three years later, Switzerland has regained its top status, and in Fantasviss, Sigmundur Sig Sigmundsson (of the Icelandic LGBT and Culture Ministry) takes a whirlwind tour of the 26 Swiss cantons. He finds that food in Switzerland is far superior, and also their excellent rail system.

These are both told in a manner that is both humorous and mostly factual (in spirit, anyway). So much fun.

Why I Read These Now: too much fun and too short not to read as soon as they arrived at my door. I'm looking for European books that are lighter than the stuff I've been reading.

Recommended for: on top of what I've already said here, I also thihk Happisland is a fun look at Iceland for someone planning their first trip there; Fantasviss doesn't quite do the same thing for Switzerland although it gives a basic outline of the 26 cantons.

Rating: Both 4.5 stars

6. The Gilded Cage, Camilla Lackberg, 2019, translated from Swedish by Neil Smith


cover comments: it's fine. The sliced feather is symbolic to the title. There's a language book designers use so that shoppers will have an idea of what type of book they are getting. The book browser will instantly know this is a suspence, thriller, crime or mystery book by the colour combination with the large sans-serif text, and the title and author name taking up almost the same amount of space. I never find these covers particularly arty, but they do express their purpose.

Rating: Well . . . I read this in three sittings over two days, and I did say I was looking for more translated fiction that was fun and compelling, and I particularly wanted to read recent books written by women. So 4 stars. However, when I read 2 star reviews I have to agree with every criticism they offer. But it was the book I needed now, so I'll still give it 4 stars even if it might not be warranted.

Comments: Faye is married to a successful businessman. They live in a spectacular huge apartment in Stockholm's best neighbourhood, and they have a perfect young daughter. In alternating bits, we see her life, we see 15 years ago when she first came to the city and met her friends and husband, and occasionally we see her buried abusive past as a teenager in a village on the west coast of Sweden. And then half-way through the novel, everything caves in for Faye and she plots her revenge. This was a fun, compelling read and the writing was good. I liked the Stockholm setting, and I liked her friendships with Kirsten and Chris.

Right on the front cover, it says "Trapped in a perfect life . . . she would kill to be free." Yes, that is mostly true. So I guess I shouldn't be surprised the the main character, Faye, actually isn't a great person. It's clearly written for her to be sympathetic, but really, when she's awful, she's sociopathic. Yes, her perfect husband was a vile narcissist who deserved his comeuppance, but she went over-overboard. Also, main plot points were improbable, although I can play along with it because this is fiction-for-entertainment. And I guessed the two twists at the end, but that's okay too. The main problem was that the heroine wasn't a heroine.

Apparently there's a sequel coming that's been published in Sweden? I might read it.

This is the sort of book that would be made into a movie, and I'd watch it when it came on some streaming service and it wouldn't make sense to my husband-who-hasn't-read-the-book and would be sort of lousy but okay. And if they moved the setting to the US it would be dreadful.

Why I Read This Now: Oh loads of reasons. One being that I bought a stack of suspence-thriller-psychological thriller-mystery novels at the end of 2020. I usually read only one or two of this genre a year, but I'd like to read more. I don't even know the difference between all of those. This wasn't a murder mystery, but what was it?

I don't know anyone who has read this book and I stumbled on it online. Probably an Instagram post by the publisher.

Recommended for: Appparently the Gilded Cage won the Kirkus Reviews Best Book of 2020 - Mysteries & Thrillers category. Kirkus is generally a tough marker, so I think that says something. Lots of 5 star rave reviews by readers online. If this sounds like your thing, go for it. Trigger warning for domestic abuse and also there are quite a few graphic sex scenes.

7. The End of Her, Shari Lapena, 2020


cover comments: oh look, it's a cover for a crime-suspense-mystery-or-thriller. I don't think clever or arty is the goal with these

Why I Read This Book Now: After the last thriller I read, I tried a couple of other books, but they didn't work on any level, so I picked up this one from my new stack of thrillers.

Comments: Stephanie and Patrick haven't had a decent sleep in months because they are struggling with four month old colicky twins. But other than that, they are living a perfect life in their fictional upstate New York small town. And then evil Erica arrives and demands $200 thousand dollars or she gives the police evidence that Patrick's first wife didn't die in an accident. Patrick can explain everything, but Erica can too, and she's very convincing. There are two subplots where Erica is trying to blackmail other people too.

Suspense and tension are what readers look for in books like this, and The End of Her certainly delivers. With each chapter, new complications up the stakes. The couple aren't making good decisions due to their chronic sleep deprivation. Lots of fun to read.

I didn't think the big twist at the end was in character, and the resolution on the last few pages was a bit of a cop out. Also, Stephanie and Patrick had the money to hire a nanny to give them some relief, and that's what normal people would have done, so this whole mess could have been averted. Finally, the young-white-American-family-suburban setting was a big yawn for me (give me a creepy house in Scotland or sophisticated Stockholm like in my previous two thrillers Turn of the Key and The Gilded Cage). Despiste that, this was a still a worthwhile, entertaining few hours.

Recommended for: a reader looking for an entertianing few hours

Rating: 3.5 stars, which in my books is solidly good but not special

QUESTION: This far into the 20th century, does a Canadian author still have to set her novels in the US in order to make $$? Are all of Lapena's novels set in the States?

>41 Nickelini: This far into the 20th century, does a Canadian author still have to set her novels in the US in order to make $$?

Absolutely not in the 21st century, especially if the author in question is only relocating it to upstate NY, so similar to many places along the St Lawrence and Great Lakes on the other side. Hadn't heard of this author, but Louise Penny is certainly proof you don't have to cross the border (metaphorically only in these times).

<42 Absolutely not in the 21st century, especially if the author in question is only relocating it to upstate NY, so similar to many places along the St Lawrence and Great Lakes on the other side. Hadn't heard of this author, but Louise Penny is certainly proof you don't have to cross the border (metaphorically only in these times).

I first heard of her last year, but apparently she's sold a gabillion copies of her 7 novels. She appears to be popular in the domestic-thriller genre. And I see her most recent books were released in the UK before North America. Anyway, she lives in Toronto so I agree that this book could have easily been set in that area -- say Oakvile.

>43 Nickelini: Maybe she felt that Canadians were too polite to blackmail someone ;-).

>44 rhian_of_oz:

That must be it!

Alpine Cooking: Recipes and Stories from Europe’s Grand Mountaintops, Meredith Erickson, 2019


Cover comments: On one hand this is a lovely picture, and iconically “Alps”; on the other hand, a picture of the Matterhorn is cliché. But then the Alps are full of clichés, and the Matterhorn is indeed beautiful, so I guess it’s good enough. I want to add that this is a BIG book – only 350 pages, but it’s 8”x11’ and weighs 2 kilos (4.4 lbs). Every page has interesting photos by Christina Holmes. There are full page maps of each country with all the restaurants and places mentioned. Overall, this book is GORGEOUS.

I thought that Stanley Tucci praising this book was a bit odd – I know he was wonderful as Julia Child’s husband in Julie and Julia, but I didn’t know that was a qualification to write book blurbs. Silly me. Since then, I’ve learned that Tucci has written several books on food and has an upcoming series on CNN where he travels foodie sights of Italy. (Did I mention I adore Stanley Tucci?)

Comments: This is a long post, but I’ve been reading this book for two months and there’s a lot to say.

I bought this thinking it was a beautiful cook book, but then realized it’s equally as much a travel book. Meredith Erickson, a food writer from Montreal, has spent many summers and winters enjoying the outdoor life in the Alps, and enjoying even more the cuisine found at mountain huts, chalets, and hotels. She focuses only on Italy, Austria, Switzerland and France (no Liechtenstein, Bavarian Germany, or Slovenia – the last is supposed to have amazing cuisine, but that’s another book). It’s divided into sections for each of these four countries.

The Recipes: Erickson includes a variety of recipes, from somewhat traditional to eclectic, that she gathered visiting foodie sites in the Alps. There is an abundance of carbs, dairy, and meat.

She rates each recipe using the European ski pistes system – blue for easy, red for medium or intermediate difficulty, and black for expert. I’m a confident cook, but I don’t think there is one black-diamond (as we call it in North America) that I’m even interested in trying. They all include boujee ingredients, equipment and techniques that don’t interest me. The intermediate recipes have some “maybe I’ll try that sometime” recipes, but there are a lot of the so-called easy ones that I’m all over. I’ve made the “Herdsman Macaroni” (traditionally known as Alpermagronen) a few times and I prefer it to the recipe I’ve been using from my Swiss cookbook.

My daughter who has lived in Switzerland for three years rolled her eyes at most of the recipes: “I guess you’d find this at a fancy hotel.”

One recipe that I’ve looked at several times in puzzlement: “A Proper Bullshot,” which is a stolen recipe for the official club drink from the St Moritz Tobogganing Club (founded 1887). It’s a cocktail that’s made from “Van Hoo” vodka (sorry, pleb that I am, don’t know this brand); Campbell’s beef consommé, lemon juice, Tabasco, Lea & Perrins, horseradish, celery salt, and pepper. This grossed me out the first 12 times I read it, but then I realized it was just soup with vodka added to it, which isn’t so terribly awful. Except it’s served cold. Still makes me shudder.

The Travel: The Alps travel parts are equal to the recipes. The author loves to bike and hike in summer, and ski in winter. I knew you couldn’t drive from Italy into Switzerland at the Matterhorn, but you CAN ski there. Who knew? Travel by downhill ski, what a concept. Anyway, lots of yummy travel detail, including asides about helpful wine and cheese info, hotels and restaurants to visit, “Bond in the Alps,” and more. Looks like there are some great travel ideas here. If it’s ever safe to travel again, I’ll look into them.

The Problem: Sigh. It’s a letdown when basic facts are wrong. For me, it destroys an author’s credibility. Here are two egregious examples:

“One apt location to actually see and feel this is Ticino’s village of Lavertezzo, a rocky chasm of a valley where the Verzasca runs down from Alps thousands of miles in the north . . . One afternoon while having a simple lunch on the rocky bank of Verzasca, I followed the river as far west as my eyes could see. . . .” I was at this spot in 2019, so I can picture it easily, but I struggle to understand what she’s saying. Am I reading this wrong? Is it me? But no, the river’s source isn’t one thousand miles away, and the far side of the Alps is barely one hundred miles away. And as for gazing at the river disappearing to the west . . . well, it runs north-to-south, and bends slightly rather frequently, so I suppose her gaze was all of 30 feet?

And then in the Switzerland intro she said there are 25 cantons (no, 26) and “eight lay in the path of the Alps: Bern, the Valais, Vaud, St Gallen, Uri, Appenzell, Ticion, and Braubunden.” To which I immediately scribbled in the margin, “Lucerne, Obwalden, Nidwalden, Schwyz, Zug, Glarus” and then Googled it. LOL- No, it’s not 8, it’s 17. Seriously? DO YOU NOT HAVE AN EDITOR? These are such simple mistakes to avoid.

Another reader reviewer made similar comments about her section on France. I don’t know the French Alps so can’t comment but I’m not surprised. This sort of nonsense just trashes an author and publisher’s credibility for me. If I notice this, what else is wrong? I know facts are out of style, but some readers still care. Despite my disgust at these errors, I still loved the rest of the book.

Why I Read This Now: I’ve owned this for almost a year, and had made a couple of the recipes, but then I started taking a close look at it in December and realized it was actually a book worth reading cover-to-cover

Rating: Such a 5 star book. But I have to deduct at least 1 star for errors of fact that were unacceptable. 4 stars

Recommended for: you know who you are. Alpine Cooking would make a lovely gift for the Alpine-lover-who-is-also-a-foodie in your life.

>46 Nickelini: Shame about the editing mistakes, but I love the ski run rating for ease of making.

Does she include Tiroler Gröstl? That was always our favourite brunch up the mountains in winter in Austria. Not for those on a slimming plan, but it was great fuel for keeping your legs going for another few hours. I've made it at home a few times when we've had guests to stay, but it's been a long time since I last had it.

>46 Nickelini: She obviously hasn't met Cédric R. !

That cover design would be perfect for an Alastair Maclean/Hammond Innes thriller from the 70s.

>46 Nickelini: A Proper Bullshot sounds like a Bloody Mary only substituting consommé for the tomato juice.

And the book sounds wonderful, except my Munich heart will not countenance the omission of Germany from its pages.

>47 AlisonY:
Does she include Tiroler Gröstl? That was always our favourite brunch up the mountains in winter in Austria. Not for those on a slimming plan, but it was great fuel for keeping your legs going for another few hours. I've made it at home a few times when we've had guests to stay, but it's been a long time since I last had it.

Yes, there is! It looks delicious and just the kind of thing that I like to eat on the weekend (although I usually replace the meat with some vegetables -- bell peppers, spinach or mushrooms usually).

>48 thorold:
She obviously hasn't met Cédric R. !

Obviously!

That cover design would be perfect for an Alastair Maclean/Hammond Innes thriller from the 70s.

I don't know those names, but I can see the 70s thriller vibe. She does give 1 spread to James Bond in the Alps and another spread for one particular Bond place.

>49 RidgewayGirl: A Proper Bullshot sounds like a Bloody Mary only substituting consommé for the tomato juice.

Yeah, that's true. Mind you, Bloody Marys make me shudder too. The only time I've seen people drink them is when I've been on morning flights in the USA, and my first reaction is to gag. That said, I do occasionally enjoy the Canadian version of this style of gross concoction: the Ceasar. The way they're being served now, you get a whole meal on top ;-)

And the book sounds wonderful, except my Munich heart will not countenance the omission of Germany from its pages

Fair comment! If it helps, page 108 in the Austria section has a recipe for "Weisswurst, aka The Munchener." It's a black level (difficult) that requires equipment I don't own. Her source is Dallmayr in Munich. Also, the instructions take two 8x11 pages to describe.

Hi Joyce: Great comments. I read something by Lackberg, one in a series, and I enjoyed it. I don't remember the title. I'm not much of a thriller reader, but Lapena sounds like one I could try.

Enjoying all the Swissology even without the difficult food. When it comes to cooking, baby slopes all the way for me please...

Here's a cool website I just learned about from a book designer: BookCoverArchieve.com http://bookcoverarchive.com/

Haven't spent much time there yet but I've been warned it's a real time-suck

>41 Nickelini: An interesting question is how much does an average novel set any where make? I did recently review the Best Canadian Poetry 2020 volume.

>43 Nickelini: Penny had one of her volumes (the first?) adapted in 2013 for television with Nathaniel Parker in the lead role. I think there was only one episode? I only read one of hers, so I can't speak of her beyond the one book and the show (which was okay).

9. Moon of the Crusted Snow, Waubgeshig Rice, 2018


cover comments: I love this -- it's atmospheric and I love the typeface and how the title takes up the whole space. If I were designing it, I'd probably actually shown a moon, but maybe that's too obvious

I don't know why I had never heard of this book here in Canada, but I learned about it from one of my favourite BookTubers, who is British. I was immediately drawn to the evocative title, and she made it sound interesting.

Comments: Moon of the Crusted Snow opens with Evan Whitsky field dressing a moose as he prepares for a long winter in northwestern Ontario. He's part of a rez community where many are trying to regain some of their traditional First Nations ways and create a balance with modern conveniences. When he arrives home, he finds out that the satellite TV had gone down. Followed by cell phone reception and hydro power. It's inconvenient, but disruptions are not rare in this isolated community. Then winter blows in, and eventually they learn that something has gone very wrong in the south. And then visitors begin to arrive . . .

I dislike a feeling of dread when I read a book, and I had to put this aside a few times and read something else. But I quickly picked it up again each time. I found the ending to be satisfying.

Rating: All through this I thought it was a solid 4 star read, but the last 15 pages or so (after the last twist) I thought were particularly strong. In the end I'm giving this 4.5 stars. Highly recommended.

Recommended for: I think a dystopian novel written from an indiginous point-of-view could appeal to a wide variety of readers

>55 Nickelini: This sounds very interesting though I too tend not to deal well with dread either. But I do love wintery/arctic settings.

>55 Nickelini: sounds like it might be up my street!

>55 Nickelini: A solid read, well ended? Count me in. And I'm pleased to find my local library system has a copy.

>55 Nickelini: I'm intrigued by your excellent review.

>58 rhian_of_oz:
Oh wow, this made it to Australia? I mean, I did learn about it from a British YouTuber, but I hadn't come across this in Canada. I think I may be living in a hole.

>59 RidgewayGirl:
LOL I tried not to say too much and give it away

>60 Nickelini: Australia, Scottsdale, Arizona, USA and someone in Great Britain but not Canada? :) Did the publisher decide to send all copies to the other English-speaking countries before distributing locally? :)

>59 RidgewayGirl: Read it :) I did not post a review because it fell during my silent period in 2019 but it is worth a read :)

>61 AnnieMod:
LOL! That's what it looks like to me but I'm sure somehow I just missed it! Sometimes I'm a bit focused on what's in front of my face

>55 Nickelini: That sounds like an interesting read. I usually jump at dystopias but since life has felt more dystopian I've moved away from it. I will keep your comments and ratings in mind, though.

note: the moon added to the cover would visually interfere with the Os of the lettering, or vice versa.

>60 Nickelini: Back in uni (mid-90s), I had a visiting professor (from Norway I think) teach my CanLit class. I was shocked to learn that CanLit was well known & well respected in her part of the world and she was shocked to learn that most of us in the class didn't know half the books on the course list.

>61 AnnieMod: I know this was meant to be tongue-in-cheek, but funnily enough, it's true! CanLit publishers make a lot more selling the international rights than they do publishing here (I used to work in publishing and had a friend who sold international rights for an agency). For some unknown reason, us Canadians don't fully appreciate the talent we have here. Thankfully the rest of the world does!

>65 Yells: Would that be due in part to the sheer quantity and prevalence of American Lit drowning out the local stuff?

>66 RidgewayGirl: That's definitely part of it. We have always been heavily influenced by our bigger brother :)

I think there is also a prevailing idea that CanLit is stuffy and boring (at least that was the thought years ago when I was in school). I grew up in Ontario in the 80s/90s and it seemed like every kid I ever met read the same CanLit books in school (Margaret Lawrence, WO Mitchell etc). Amazing authors who I have come to appreciate later in life, but awful books to force kids to read, especially with teachers who were obviously bored teaching them as well. There seems to be less of that these days thankfully.

We just don't have the population here to sustain and grow a healthy book market, but we must have Canadian publishers because of governmental Canadian content rules (sadly without those rules, we probably wouldn't have much of a publishing industry). So we either write books and set them outside Canada (I suppose in an effort to trick people) or we sell internationally where there is a healthy market. There's an interesting book called The Perilous Trade about the publishing industry in Canada up until 2006.

>67 Yells: "I think there is also a prevailing idea that CanLit is stuffy and boring"

Ha. Same thing with Bulgarian literature back in Bulgaria... people would rather read a mediocre translated American book than a much better local book - because it was written by a Bulgarian. Which caused some authors to invent "western names and translator names" for awhile... Things are getting better but there are still people who would not touch anything unless it has a western name on it. I suspect that a lot of local markets have similar stories - and I can see Canada being in an even bigger bind because you do not even need to wait for a translation...

Publishing can be... interesting. Thanks for mentioning this book ;)

>64 Yells: That's interesting... although there had been other stories like that (French authors getting a lot more popular in Eastern Europe than home for example).

>55 Nickelini: I've just started dipping my toes into BookTubers--any you would recommend?

>67 Yells: Did you have any francophone books in translation? And how did you escape Mordechai Richler?

>70 SassyLassy: I probably would have liked Richler back then! But alas, I didn’t discover him until after uni.

You definitely got me with Moon of the Crusted Snow. I like dystopian fiction and am always looking for good examples.

>68 AnnieMod:

"No one is a prophet in their own village." :)

>67 Yells:

Interesting, I'd think Canada's population was more than enough to have a sizeable pool of readers. And it does seem Canadians read/buy more books than the Americans and the UK-ers, as one example...

I feel guilty whenever the topic of CanLit comes up... it's really absurd that I don't read more of it, especially given that the little I read was invariably excellent.

>69 kac522: I've just started dipping my toes into BookTubers--any you would recommend?

Good question! I'm always trying new ones, looking for the right match. So far, I have the same two favourites I've watched (more like listened to while I do other stuff and glance at once in a while) for a few years. Like you, I'm open to suggestions. But these are my steadies:

Simon Savage, from Savage Reads. I got to know him from his former podcast "The Readers" that he did with Thomas Hogglestock that I *loved* and miss. Anyway, Simon has great taste in books. If he describes a book that I find interesting and track it down, it always turns out to be a really good read. He's British and reads a lot of women's fiction, which is what I tend to read too. He has all sorts of literary connections in England, and recently was one of the judges for the Costa Award. His YouTube channel here: https://www.youtube.com/user/SavidgeReads

Jen Campbell: She's an author of some childrens books, but her YouTube channel is mostly about adult reading. She also has an amazing knowledge of fairy tales, which I haven't even been able to get to yet. She's an advocate of disability rights, which brings a perspective to books that I don't automatically think of. Lovely, intelligent and thoughtful human. Find her YouTube at: https://www.youtube.com/user/jenvcampbell

>63 avaland: That sounds like an interesting read. I usually jump at dystopias but since life has felt more dystopian I've moved away from it. I will keep your comments and ratings in mind, though.

note: the moon added to the cover would visually interfere with the Os of the lettering, or vice versa

I actually think you'd like this one. The dystopia part was . . . subdued? Realistic? One of the reasons I liked it so much is because the dystopia wasn't in your face.

As for my cover + moon comment, what I meant is that if my job were to create a cover, it would have been completely different and had an actual moon on snow (I mean, how picturesque is that?) and art, not photography. But what the actual cover artist came up with fit the novel perfectly.

>65 Yells: I know this was meant to be tongue-in-cheek, but funnily enough, it's true! CanLit publishers make a lot more selling the international rights than they do publishing here (I used to work in publishing and had a friend who sold international rights for an agency). For some unknown reason, us Canadians don't fully appreciate the talent we have here. Thankfully the rest of the world does!

I did not know that. How interesting. Sometime around 2008 I found myself in a study of Canadian readers that was held by two people who traveled to Vancouver from some university in England (that I've now forgotten) and they were from the "Canadian Literature Studies" department. Obviously they were keeners about CanLit.

As for your comment about why Canadians not appreciating our talent . . . most readers don't pay attention to *where* a book is set, or *where* the author is from, and our market is so swamped by the US books, and also to some degree, UK books.

>66 RidgewayGirl: Would that be due in part to the sheer quantity and prevalence of American Lit drowning out the local stuff?

Yes, yes it would. I graduated high school in 1981. I remember reading The Secret World of Og in grade 5, and I think that was it.

>67 Yells: I think there is also a prevailing idea that CanLit is stuffy and boring

That perspection is there for sure. CanLit, like our country, is incredibly diverse. But sometimes there's an overriding feeling of what I call "earnestness.". I particularly feel this strongly when I watch CBC CanadaReads. I love the CanadaReads books and presenters who reach beyond this. I have a stack of CanLit that I've bought because it sounds good, but then I don't want to read it because of that sense of earnestness. Sometimes with all our inclusivity, CanLit comes off as trying too hard.

>70 SassyLassy: Did you have any francophone books in translation? And how did you escape Mordechai Richler?

Not directed at me, but I'm not sure I understand what you're asking. I went through school in Canada and read a Canadian book in grade 5 or 6. Definitely nothing from Quebec. And I've never read Richler (although I do own 3 -- but they're kinda long, and don't seem very relevant to my life, but I hope to read them one day? Also, two of them are really long, so . . . ). I'm not sure I even heard of him until I was 30. He didn't cross my radar in Western Canada.

Hi! Enjoying the conversation...

>50 Nickelini: Mmm, love a Caesar!

>74 Nickelini: Thanks! I've heard others refer to Simon, and Jen looks interesting, so I'll check them out. I've been watching:
--Hannah from Hannah's Books -- serious reader, who also writes book reviews, from Washington, DC area: https://www.youtube.com/c/HannahsBooks/videos
--Kim from MIDDLE of the Book MARCH -- who is a big George Eliot fan and has a good sense of humor, from New England: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCFUmSRDQPqf56PXNO5Q6lqA

and when I want to really chill out and get all comfy:
--Miranda Mills from Yorkshire -- reads lots of nature writing and gentle, cozy books and does "Baking & Books" with her mum on Fridays: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCGFffzbGgPD5baWLvBSGMwQ

>79 Nickelini: The Richler reference was kind of tongue in cheek. His books certainly figured on the curriculum from Ontario east, although I suspect most kids outside urban areas didn't find them very relevant either. There's a certain sameness to some of them. If you have Solomon Gursky was Here, that might be the one I would read.

As for francophone books, quite a few seemed to turn up in universities and book clubs in translation, thinking here of Michel Tremblay, Yves Beauchemin, Marie Claire Blais, Dany LaFerrière and others. This list is somewhat dated now, but again, just wondering what made it past Thunder Bay, back awhile.

>81 wandering_star: - Mmm, love a Caesar!
Cheers!

>82 kac522: - thanks for the links! I love to discover new BookTubers

>83 SassyLassy: The Richler reference was kind of tongue in cheek. His books certainly figured on the curriculum from Ontario east, although I suspect most kids outside urban areas didn't find them very relevant either. There's a certain sameness to some of them. If you have Solomon Gursky was Here, that might be the one I would read.

As for francophone books, quite a few seemed to turn up in universities and book clubs in translation, thinking here of Michel Tremblay, Yves Beauchemin, Marie Claire Blais, Dany LaFerrière and others. This list is somewhat dated now, but again, just wondering what made it past Thunder Bay, back awhile.


Ah, the perils of internet communication -- I thought you had your tongue in your cheek, but wasn't sure. Anyway, no Richler was an unknown to my late 70s/early 80s Western Canadian education. But I do own Solomon Gursky Was Here, and it looks really good! It's just such a chunkster, and I just really don't like long books. But sometimes they're amazing, so I just have to try . . .

My CanLit course at uni focused on the Prairies, so we didn't do anything from Quebec. I love several Montreal writers, but I think the only Quebecois I've read is The Little Girl Who Was Too Fond of Matches, by Gaetan Soucy. I loved it. And I recently bought Autopsy of a Boring Wife by Marie-Renee Lavoie, so I'm making progress (?). I tried The Fat Woman Next Door Is Pregnant but I didn't get on with it at all. It might have been one of those wrong time things, as opposed to it being a bad book.

10. Peace Talks, Tim Finch, 2019


cover comments: this captures the feel for the book -- ooooh, symbolism

Rating: 4.5 stars. I enjoyed the writing in this novel immensely. I"m not alone, as I've found many 5 star reader reviews online.

Comments: Edvard Behrends is a Norwegian-British diplomat leading a group to resolve a conficit between two unnamed Arabic-speaking factions, sequestered at a resort high in the Tyrolian Alps of Austria. The 171 page novel is told in Edvard's internal monologue to his wife. How he got to this place in life is told in bits, and details are gradually revealed. Peace Talks is both sad and humorous, full of subtle, beautiful passages that tell a story of loss and grief.

This doesn't sound like the kind of novel I'd hurry to pick up, but the Austrian Alpine setting drew me in, and the back story of the peace negotiations was unique and interesting.

Peace Talks is one of four books shortlisted for the 2020 Costa Award.

Why I Read This Now: I had heard so many good things about this, and I love books set in the Alps. And I like to try Europa Editions. I don't like everything they publish, but I find more hits than misses in their catalogue.

Recommended for: In this case it's easier to say who this book isn't for: people who want a strongly defined plot; readers who don't want to read yet another book about the thoughts of an older middle aged white man; readers who don't care for books that refer to other books and art; and readers who don't like books set in a privileged European world.

Further to my comments on Peace Talks, by Tim Finch:

There is a chapter, late in the book, titled "Aubade After Larkin", which mirrors a poem by Philip Larkin titled "Aubade."

"Aubade" is a new word for me . . . it means "a song or poem greeting the dawn," "a morning love song," "a song or poem of lovers parting at dawn," or "morning music, see Nocturne." (I know "nocturne" well, not sure why "aubade" is new to me). I love what Larkin did with this in his poem, and then how Tim Finch used this in the novel. One example of how Peace Talks was a masterful book.

For those who think this is interesting.This is the sort of thing I found fun to explore when I was earning my English degree. I know, not every reader's focus.

I expect Peace Talks to be on my best of 2021 list

>87 Nickelini: My brother wrote an Aubade not too long ago. I really think it is good, and I'm sure he would let me share it if anyone is interested.

>88 sallypursell:
LOL I had no idea what this even was before I actually pulled myself out of Peace Talks and googled it. I think most readers wouldn't bother, and then would miss the layers of meaning in this chapter. Or they'd just be so aware and pick up on the layers without google. But having an English degree and not knowing this, I think more readers would be on the "not knowing" side. All what makes literature fun.

I did find myself stopping and googling several times during Peace Talks and I didn't waste my time once. I do like that in a novel.

>86 Nickelini: I need to be reading Peace Talks this week as my book club is reading it next Tuesday.

>90 SandDune:
Oh, I'm interested in what you and your book club think! Please report back or leave comments on your own thread. I hope you like it as much as I did

Learnt a new word there too! Sounds like an interesting novel.

11. The Hunting Party, Lucy Foley, 2019


cover comments: vague photo image in neutral colour, all-caps text in vermillion: could this be a thriller? Why, yes! Also, the picture is fine, but my guess is that the designer read the description of the book but not the book itself, because what we can see of the hunting lodge looks traditional for Scottish Highlands (Balmoral, perhaps). However, in the book the "lodge" was a modernist all-glass building. So a bit of a fail there.

Comments: Every New Years, a group of nine 30-somethings of Oxford friends go away together to recreate their fun university parties. The problem is by December 30, 2018 is that they've mostly grown apart and have little in common with each other. Off they go to a private luxury hunting lodge in the Scottish Highlands. From the beginning, we know that 3 days later, one of them has been murdered. It's very close to the end of the book before you find out who it was, although I guessed fairly early on, since there was one character who seemed to be the one that most of the other characters would want to murder. But that didn't spoil anything for me.

The Hunting Party is told in alternating chapters by three of the female guests, plus the lodge manager, Heather, and the gameskeeper, Doug. The premise is good, the setting is fabulous, but the characters are . . . well, at first I really disliked the chapters by the two employees. But then I got to know the guests a bit better, and they were all pretty terrible people. And as the story went on, I grew to like the manager and the gameskeeper. (BTW- I thought the names "Heather" and "Doug" for the two Scottish characters was a bit on the nose. Are there actually baby girls born in Scotland in the 80s named "Heather"? That seems like such a North American idea of a Scottish name for a girl. It's a perfectly nice name and I've known some wonderful Heathers, it just doesn't seem authentic. Please feel free to correct me if you're a Heather from Glasgow)

Recommended for: Readers looking for a thriller set in a wintery, isolated retreat.

Rating: 3.5 stars

Why I Read This Now: I've been enjoying thrillers lately -- a new genre for me. This one had a great setting

Great comments, Joyce. I have The Hunting Party on my shelf. Good to know it's there when I'm in the mood for a thriller, a genre I don't much read either.

>93 Nickelini: Okay, I had to check this out. In 1985, sort of midway '80s, Heather was #31 in popularity for girls' names in Scotland, and Douglas was #54 for boys. Top? - Laura and David.

https://www.behindthename.com/top/lists/scotland/1985

Sounds like a fun book.

>94 BLBera:
When you get around to it, I look forward to reading your comments

>95 SassyLassy:
LOL - thanks for checking. So there ARE Heathers in Scotland

>96 Nickelini: Yes indeed!
Heather is a name I'm sensitive about. It's not my name, but when people are unsure what my name actually is, as in situations where lots of people are being introduced at once, Heather is the name they always come up with for me. Not sure what the prevailing stereotype is, but apparently I suit it!

>75 Nickelini: I'm sure I would (if you say so).

>98 SassyLassy:
In my experience, Heathers are good people, so I'd take it as a complement. This conversation has reminded me that I've never seen the movie "Heathers" and I still want to, even though it's old.

12. Madame Verona Comes Down the Hill, Dimitri Verhulst, 2006; translated from Dutch by David Comer, 2009


cover comments: This is rather nice. You can't go wrong with snowy forests on book covers, and the typeface is perfect. The "coming down the hill" event of the book, however, is set when Madame Verona is 82 years old. So I'm not sure what's with the young woman wearing that bizarre outfit. Maybe it's supposed to be symbolic or something.

I couldn't find a copy of this book from my usual Canadian sources, but Amazon.ca found me a copy from Blackwell's Books in Oxford -- a wonderful book shop that I hope to visit again someday

Comments: Madame Verona Comes Down the Hill, by Belgian author Dimitri Verhulst, is set in the diminishing isolated village of Oucwegne, and in meandering vignettes, tells of its quirky inhabitants. After each bit the book circled back to the widowed Madame Verona, living alone on the hill and remembering the love of her life, Monsieur Potter.

A quiet, unusual novel, written with interesting language that was often so convoluted that I had to reread sentences multiple times. Further, these sentences expressed things in a way that had never crossed my mind. Sometimes this was highly amusing, and other times it just made me scrunch my eyebrows. I think part of my problem with this was that I expected a different book and it took me a while to click with it.

Rating: Although I was unsure for much of the book, in the end I did really like this, and for the most part I appreciated the odd sentences. 4 stars.

Recommended for: I can promise you've never read a book quite like this before. Generally Madame Verona Comes Down the Hill gets high reader reviews. The few low-rating reviews are by readers who weren't in the mood to unravel the weird sentences or who are looking for a more narrative story.

Why I Read This Now: In early December I put all my books that seemed wintery on the top of my TBR pile. I noticed this one was set in February, so saved it for this month.

I'm adding Madame Verona to my WL, Joyce. It sounds like a book I would love.

>101 Nickelini: I loved that book when I read it (what seems like ages ago....but was 2011; and I gave it 5 stars) You inspired me to check out whether he has anything newly translated into English. The answer, sadly, is no.

>102 BLBera:
If you ever read it, I'm looking forward to your comments

>103 avaland:
That is disappointing indeed. I searched "Dutch language books translated to English" and I sure didn't find much of interest. I don't know if it's just because there aren't that many Dutch writers, compared to say German, French, Italian, Swedish, or Spanish. I'm particularly interested in current publications, nothing too literary and "important" and preferably written by women.

>104 Nickelini: I assume you already know about https://www.newdutchbooksinenglish.com/ ? I find their lists eclectic and diverse enough (and going to check some of them, even when they do not really interest me, sometimes unearths other books by the same publishers)

>104 Nickelini:. Janwillem van de Wetering was from Rotterdam. He wrote mysteries that are set in Amsterdam. He was also a zen Buddhist and wrote about that - including children's books meant to be based on zen principles. He died in 2008. I loved his mysteries.

>105 AnnieMod: & >106 dianeham:
Thanks for both those suggestions!

AnnieMod - that's a lovely resource. I'd like to find that for all European countries, especially Switzerland and Italy

I had a lot to catch up on here, and I've added The End of Her, Moon of the Crusted Snow and The Hunting Party to my wishlist. Like you, I have never been a big thriller reader, although I do enjoy a good one - but I'm in a huge reading slump and these sound like just the kind of thing that I could do with at the moment.

>98 SassyLassy: That's funny - I speak as someone else who is regularly addressed as Heather.

>107 Nickelini: I had not seen any for either of those (or any others besides that Dutch list really...) but I will keep that in mind while looking around. Switzerland may be harder - multi-language countries tend to be a lot harder than the ones where language and country are 1/1 (the Dutch list is for the language technically). But someone may have created something for Italian - one hopes anyway. :)

I'm another fan of van de Wetering, Joyce. I've been meaning to reread this series. Too many books though...

>108 rachbxl:
Another thriller I will recommend to you is Turn of the Key by Ruth Ware. I think it's my favourite of the few I've read over the past 6 months. It's set in a big house in Scotland.

>109 AnnieMod:
Yes, that makes sense, doesn't it. I actually have quite a few books in my Italian translated TBR pile, so I don't exactly need any more ;-)

>110 BLBera:
too many books is so true! And I keep buying more because I'm not spending money on anything else

>111 Nickelini: Turn of the Key looks good - thanks!

>93 Nickelini: Just adding to the Heather debate, I'm not sure about the 1980s but in the 1970s it was a very popular name in the UK, and indeed I know 2 Heathers from Glasgow born around 1972! I had 5 Heathers in my primary school class in the late 1970s in NI out of around 18 girls in total.

>115 AlisonY: Wow, it's like Lisa 10 years later.

>115 AlisonY:
I am happy to hear the Heather isn't a fake-Scottish name. It was super popular here in Canada too for baby girls born from the mid-60s to the mid-80s. Sort of the same time period as the popularity of Jennifers, and I thought (>116 lisapeet:), Lisas.

13. Purple Hibiscus, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, 2004


cover comments: I love this cover. My edition is part of the limited Perennial Collection that Harper Perennial published in 2008. I own two others from the set of 15. The magenta colour of the flower and the text is foil, and the spine is the same magenta foil. Since I acquired this in 2012, I've taken up adult colouring books, and I'm very tempted to pull out my Faber-Castel collection and get to work on the black and white line drawing-- it would be fun to colour

Comments: Fifteen year old Kambili is the sheltered daughter of a wealthy Nigerian factory owner. She lives, along with her brother Jaja and her mother, under the tyrannical control of his fanatical Catholic ideology-- this man is desperately trying to out-pious any pope. Eugene is beloved by the community for his generosity and integrity, but at home he punishes the slightest infraction of his rules. This is set against the political turmoil of mid-80s Nigeria. Kambili catches a break and goes to stay with her much poorer aunt and cousins, and their home, filled with love, chatter and laughter open Kambili and Jaja's eyes. And then there's the cute young priest she meets there . . .

Note: I appreciate her nod to Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart with her opening words: "Things started to fall apart at home when my brother Jaja did not go to communion and Papa flung his heavy missal across the room . . . " I do love intertextuality in novels.

Why I Read This Now: I've owned this book for 9 years, but although I wanted to read it some day, that day never seemed to show up. Then last summer, a friend at work told me how he took a mandatory English class as part of his math degree, and read Purple Hibiscus, and did so poorly on his essay that he had to meet with the professor. She accused him of not reading the book, but he pulled out a ream of notes to show he had. The problem was that my friend, who I suspect is somewhere on the autism spectrum, did not understand what was going on in the novel. He thought it was about a nice family in Nigeria, but his professor questioned him about all this abuse that he didn't notice. There's a scene where the father punishes Kambili for "walking into sin" by pouring boiling water on her feet. My friend thought it was an accident until his professor told him otherwise. When I told him I owned Purple Hibiscus he asked me to read it and see what I thought. I popped on to LT and quickly found my LT friend VivienneR's 1-star review, and sent him a screen shot: "Adichie describes a religious fanatic of the worst kind. Although her prose is lovely and she evokes the characters quite well, this simple story has not much more to it than a man who savagely assaults his wife and children if they fail to obey his own twisted version of godliness. It was difficult to endure the book. I cannot recommend it to anyone."

He really is a nice young man, and clearly brilliant with things about numbers and airlines, and he is never malicious. I wonder about the value of forcing a math geek to take an English lit course.

Rating: 3 stars. I get why VivienneR gave this 1 star. I get why people liked this more than I did.

I read Half a Yellow Sun in 2008 and gave it 3.5 stars then, and thought it was over-rated. Maybe Adichie isn't the novelist for me.

Recommended for: people exploring African literature.

>118 Nickelini: Well, everyone in my faculty (maths and computer science majors and there is no double majoring outside of the faculty) were forced to take either a law class or a philosophy one. Which makes as much sense as taking an English lit class :) But it seems to be part of some weird idea that you need exposure to other disciplines. Or something.

>119 AnnieMod:

I'm actually for this. It seemed wasted in my friend's case, but it did lead to our two conversations about abuse. I'm not sure how much he learned, but he's a smart guy, so maybe something.

I've read a case for every medical doctor having to take some philosophy courses, and I get that too.

>119 AnnieMod:, >120 Nickelini: Also, I would wager that about half of the freshman that begin university with a determined idea of what they want to major in change their minds. Sure, there are a handful of people, like your friend, for whom a particular discipline is a bad fit, but for most it probably can't hurt to take a variety of different courses before specializing in one area.

Very interesting. I'm firmly in the "I love Adichie" camp. I loved Half a Yellow Sun and Americanah, which I read recently. I haven't read Purple Hibiscus yet, but I will at some point. Now I'm curious if I'll like it as much as the others.

I’m just catching up here, Joyce. I had a late start this year, and I’m still catching up. It looks like your reading is off to a good start. I am sorry for your loss. I just saw that now.

>117 Nickelini: LOL. When I lived in London, ON, as a teenager, my group of close friends included a Jennifer, a Heather and TWO Lisas.

And I’m a 1978 Jennifer. I had 5 Jennifers in my high school class of about 300. Luckily there are several nicknames. I always went by “Jennifer” but others used Jen or Jenny.

>122 japaul22:

Well, it's her first novel, and it's a much smaller book than Half a Yellow Sun in that it focuses on a short time in a 15 year old's life. Most people like it so you probably will too.

>123 NanaCC: - Thanks, Colleen

>119 AnnieMod: >120 Nickelini: >121 ELiz_M: In the U.K. specialism is normal. You pick your degree subject when you are still at school, (and that includes professional subjects such as medicine, dentistry, architecture etc). And then possibly you do a second subject in your first year. So my son is in his first year of studying History at Lancaster University, with German as a secondary subject this year. But he could have done something more history related for his second subject and next year it will be purely history (unless he changed his degree to History & German). There is no expectation that he does maths or science or philosophy or English or anything else at all really. Personally, I think this works well for some students, especially the more academic ones who have a real interest in their subject, and to be honest it’s the system I would prefer myself. But I think there should also be an option for students to do a more general degree if that would suit them better and they don’t have an overriding desire to study a single subject.

>127 SandDune:

I had NO idea what I wanted to do (still don't, really) when I was in high school so I was grateful that my university allowed freshmen to enter with undeclared majors. And since I ended up doing both a liberal arts degree of Japanese and a science degree of Chemistry, I would have hated the typically European way of doing things. (European in that I know France works the same way as the UK.)

>128 lilisin: Because of our system, I think it’s fairly common for people to have degrees in subjects that are completely unconnected to their chosen profession (obviously doesn’t work for science related subjects.) I’m a qualified accountant and when I worked in the City with lots of other qualified accountants there were very few people who actually had accountancy degrees. I have a degree in Zoology, and I remember people with History, Classics, and Philosophy degrees, but only one with a degree in Accounting. I remember that the Australian temps (we had a lot of Australian temps) used to find it so odd as their system was completely different.

>127 SandDune: and all
In Bulgaria you get accepted into university with your major - not just accepted. No changes possible unless you want to sit the exams again and start over - and this is only possible in the summer. The only double majoring allowed is inside of the the same faculty.

And especially for the sciences, you make your choice a lot earlier - after the 7th year when the non professional high schools have their entrance exams (mostly science and languages schools - as opposed to the technical and vocational ones which have their exams an year later; the first category essentially expects you to go to Uni; the latter end with a professional certificate so you can work in your chosen field). Not that it is impossible to get accepted if you have not been in the appropriate high school - but it is a lot harder and requires a lot more work on your part (and usually private tuition - the material being taught is different so you need to catch up). And you will struggle in the first year - the specialized programs cover half or more of the first year Uni material in high school and even if it is taught, this is taken into consideration (aka it is treated as a review) and the volumes are huge.

I don’t deny that broader education is good. The problem is that these mandatory classes are enforced weirdly and there is usually very little choice in which one you take. I cannot even remember what the law class was about and I passed it (I’ve had 3 years of philosophy and related disciplines in high school and did not feel like another semester of it). I would have much preferred a Lit class for example. Or a chemistry one. I could not even enroll in one of those - not allowed outside of the faculty unless it was on the list (you could just audit any class in any faculty of course - if its time allowed it - but between the times and the campuses of the different faculties being all over the city, it was a practical impossibility). But that’s what the faculty had and that was it - you needed to pass one :)

I'm another Adichie fan, Joyce. It was her first novel; I think I liked it because the characters were so vivid. There's also a lot about how a "foreign" religion has damaged the father. It's been a while since I read it.

As a college English teacher, I am all for at least some liberal arts; I don't think it hurts anyone to read a book, even if they are going into computer science -- and believe me, I hear that argument all the time. But, it's also that active reading and critical thinking transfer to any career, and that is a big part of English.

You may be right, if you've read two by Adichie and didn't like them, she may not be the author for you.

>131 BLBera:
You may be right, if you've read two by Adichie and didn't like them, she may not be the author for you.

For me, 3 and 3.5 star books are still good books. They just aren't outstanding books. It just looks like I didn't like them when most readers rate them 4 or 5 stars. I remember when I rated Remains of the Day only 4 stars (and really, it got an extra star because I read it while I was in the English countryside). But people who gave it 5 stars said "sorry you hated this". LOL, no, I just didn't love it.

But back to your comment, I won't rush to read Adichie again if only because there are so many other books I want to get to. If she comes out with a new book that sounds interesting, I'll consider reading it.

I just read through the Adichie-related conversation (have been a fan but did not care much for Americanah) but have decided everything I might want to say, has been said :-)

>133 avaland:

Well thanks for dropping by to say hello!

>127 SandDune:, >128 lilisin:, >129 SandDune:, >130 AnnieMod:

My daughter looked at going to university in England, and was even accepted at a few. She would have been in a program that was 100% business courses for two years, and then a year of work experience, and then a final year of business courses. Very efficient. Reminds me how our tech school programs run here in Canada.

Instead she had the first two years where she was only allowed to take five business courses, and the rest were mostly electives. Some of those she could apply to business (Italian, Public Speaking), and some were fun, like the course on fairy tales and the one on Lord of the Rings. And the astronomy class, and the medieval class. Seems like a waste of time compared to the Euro system, perhaps, but I think a university education is supposed to give you more than just job training.

14. Theft By Finding: Diaries (1977 - 2002), David Sedaris, 2017


cover comments: okay, whatever

Why I Read This Now: Never in a million years would I have picked this book up on my own. I have read a David Sedaris book years ago (for my book club) and I liked it just fine, but there are so many other books. Sedaris just isn't on my radar. But a co-worker gave this to me as a gift, and I needed something to read on my breaks, so this fit in nicely. The diary format and his overall tone were perfect for lunchtime reading. Even though--at 514 pages--it's significantly longer than books I voluntarily pick up.

Comments: This is a large collection of some of his diary entries starting in his early 20s. I knew nothing about Sedaris, and was amazed at what a terrible loser he was for so many years -- drug addicted, wandering from one odd job to another, living a pretty seedy life. Then there was a long period where he lived in Chicago and New York, and started to pull himself together. My favourite section was the last part where he mostly lives in France.

I found this sometimes boring, and sometimes laugh out loud funny. In the course of my life, I often think funny observations about things I see, people I overhear, and life in general. This book made me kick myself for not writing them down, getting published, and becoming a successful writer. Can I start now?

Rating: somewhere between 3.5 and 4 stars

Recommended for: David Sedaris fans

15. The Weather Detective: Rediscovering Nature's Secret Signs, by Peter Wohleben 2012, translated from German by Ruth Ahmedzai Kemp, 2018


cover comments: lovely.

Rating: This was an interesting and informative read, but it won't stick with me the way the same author's The Hidden Life of Trees does. I gave that one 4.5 stars, so I guess this is 3.75

Comments: I believe this book has been mis-named in its English translation, and it appears that that misleads people into expecting that this book is all about weather, and how to read what's happening outside (and that's what I thought when I picked it up). The original German title is Kranichflug und Blumenhr, which Google Translate tells me says " Flight of Crane and Flower Clock," which this book IS about, but I'm hoping some German readers will enlighten me. To me that could only describe a painting or a poem, and not a non-fiction book. German is such a strange language because I can pick apart those words and make them English, but then doesn't mean anything. Why does that make sense in German but not English? (I follow a lot of Italian, French, and Swiss things on the internet and the Italian & French translate just fine, but I find that Google translate struggles with German. In my job I often try to translate Cyrillic and Arabic, and it pretty much comes out as gibberish).

Anyway, this book is more about how to read signs of what is going on in your garden, and how things like weather affect it. Also bugs and animals. Specifically, it's, for the most part, describing a garden in Germany. As a gardener in Vancouver, lots of it transferred over, but not all of it. Still, interesting enough.

Recommended for : Gardeners in Germany. The further you are from that climate, the less this will mean anything to you, although there is a chapter on the moon, sun and stars that was interesting (also, not weather). People who like nature writing that is neither academic or highly-personal will also find this a pleasant read.

Why I Read This Now: I was looking for a non-fiction read, and I've enjoyed this author previously.

16. The Better Mother, Jen Sookfong Lee, 2011


cover comments: I've always thought this was a lovely cover. The art deco font of the book's title is repeated in the section and chapter titles, and the book has an all-round lovely feel. I've owned this book for nine years (I own a lot of books, only so much you can read) and I did wonder why with an author who focuses on the Canadian-Chinese experience would have a cover model that could be Asian, but looked more . . . not. No worries, it's because the character of "The Siamese Kitten" was indeed white. A case where the book designer might have actually read the novel! (the red lips play a part)

Rating: 4.5 stars. This is one of those books that generally gets good reviews but didn't get much attention.

Comments: A historical novel of two intertwining stories set in a somewhat seedy Vancouver, and where the city itself is a character. The city has always sat in astounding natural beauty, but it has a history of being the end of the railway, a port city, and a place to escape from the cold areas of Canada. Also called "Lotus Land", which is a reference to the Odyssey. As someone who's grown up there, and has long lived in the land of the gorgeous Olympic city, the Expo 86 city, and place of always insane real estate prices, I say we complain about the price of living here, but enjoy the upgrade, and forget about the past. In The Better Mother, I was made to remember how gritty a lot of Vancouver used to be.

Danny struggles as a young Canadian-Chinese gay man coming of age in the early years of the early 1980s AIDs epidemic, but this novel focuses on his interactions with a burlesque dancer many years older than him. The first part of the novel shows him growing up not fitting into his world, but then goes into the story of Val, and we delve into her life in the post WWII-1960s. This is basically the description I read of the novel and thought sounded "meh" but I went with it and so glad I did. Val, the "Siamese Kitten" was an engaging character who became increasingly interesting.

The Better Mother seemed simple at the start, but got more complex as it went on, and wound into a satisfying ending. For most of the novel, I thought the title of The Better Mother was odd. Certainly it didn't draw me in. But by the end, I found it rather clever: There are several mothers in this story. All of them have faults (of course). Which is the Better Mother?

This is a book that will stick with me and that I will think about. I enjoyed the same author's Conjoined, and I do remember it, but I think this one will stick with me more.

Recommended for: anyone who thinks this sounds intriguing, anyone interested in novels about gay men at the cusp of the AIDS crisis, or the Chinese diaspora, anyone interested in 20th century historical fiction set in Vancouver, anyone interested in the life of burlesque dancers . . . I feel I could go on . .

Why I Read This Now: I started this on Chinese New Year - pulled all the Chinese author books from my TBR and this won

17. The Chalet, Catherine Cooper, 2020


cover comments: I mean, it sort of looks like a thriller cover, but what's with the serif font? How unusual. Anyway, drinking Bollinger champagne in the French Alps is a big yes for me. My aesthetic standards for thrillers isn't very high -- they have their language they need to speak, so artistic options are limited

Rating: I just had so much fun reading this. 4.5 stars.

Comments: The Chalet is told in short chapters that alternate between December 1998 and January 2020 at a ski resort in the view of Mount Blanc in the French Alps. There's also a smaller timeline of one character's childhood living in poverty with a mentally ill mother (this section had some heartbreaking writing, but it although it was a different tone, it worked). Both main timelines, which are told by alternating characters, focus on fraught relationships, and both involve murders. For the most part, the characters in The Chalet were not very likeable people, which created an ample group of suspects, and made me wonder WHO was going to end up murdered, and WHO was going to do the murdering.

I loved the Alpine ski resort setting, which was also a character. When I've stayed at ski resorts I've often thought they'd make a great setting for a novel, and I'm so excited that in the past few months, I can count four (four!) thrillers with this setting: The Chalet, One By One by Ruth Ware, Shiver, by Allie Reynolds are all in the French Alps, and Sanatorium by Sarah Pearse is in Switzerland. I will read them all. Just what I've been looking for!

Catherine Cooper is a British journalist who has lived with her family in France since 2009, and is clearly familiar with the world of skiing.

Why I Read This Now: I needed a new book for my breaks at work and the short chapters made this a good fit. I ended up bringing it home because I couldn't wait to get back to it. Loving the new thrillers I've been reading. Also, it's March, and that's when we used to take our family ski vacation.

Recommended for: people who like books set in the Alps, thrillers, books with alternate timelines and narrators

18. There Once Lived a Girl Who Seduced Her Sister's Husband, and He Hanged Himself: Love Stories, Ludmilla Petrushevskaya; introduction & translation from Russian by Anna Summers


cover comments: I was drawn to this fabulous title and it's twisted fairy tale promise. This Penguin edition has a lovely tactile feel. Full marks to book design.

Comments: Seventeen short stories over 171 pages that cover life in late- and post-Soviet Russia. These "love stories" all centre on the lives of women--mostly mothers--living in dingy apartments with ungrateful adult children, cheating alcoholic husbands, and difficult older aunts and parents. There's a dark humour to them, but not enough to raise them over the flat voice that kept me from connecting to the stories.

Why I Read This Now: I love a good riff on a fairy tale, and when chanced to look at this on Valentine's Day and saw the "Love Stories" pop on the cover, I thought this was the perfect time. The "love" part of the stories was too tongue-in-cheek for me.

Rating: I can see why some readers like these stories, but they didn't do much for me. 2.5 stars. At least it was a quick, easy read.

Recommended for: Russian lit fans

I've made note of The Better Mother. Excellent review.

>136 Nickelini: I also find myself up and down with Sedaris' writing - I love it for the first while, then I get jaded with his biting sarcasm, then I enjoy it again and so it goes on. Enjoyed your review.

>136 Nickelini: I just deep sixed The Best of Me. i got to p. 50 and was not enjoying. I guess not in the mood because otherwise I have really liked his writing in the past.

>143 mdoris:
Disappointing, since it was supposed to be the best of him!

In other reading, I finished Edna O'Brien's Down By the River, which I picked up thinking it might be a DNF, but actually read in 3 sittings (300pg literary novel). I have to gather my thoughts on this one, but I wasn't expecting this to be so good.

19. Down By the River, Edna O'Brien, 1996


cover comments: The painting they used for this cover by Karin Littlewood is suitable, but the whole arrangement of the cover is a dog's breakfast. What's with the gold font for the author's name? The whole arrangement is nasty.

Rating: ahhh, almost a 5 star read. 4.75 stars. This is my 4th Edna O'Brien book, and the best of the lot. I finished this a couple of days ago and am struggling to write briefly about it. If I don't write briefly, it will be pages . . .

O'Brien writes in an opaque style where everything is implied (I could use less of that, hence the not 5 star read)

Comments: Although clearly set in the 1990s, Mary McNamara's world seemed closer to O'Brien's 1960s Country Girls trilogy. However, O'Brien showed that people around her had moved on and were living at least in the age of U2 and Enya.

Based on a true story, Down By the River tells of Mary McNamara, a 14 year old girl who has been repeatedly raped by her father. Her mother dies of cancer* so she's isolated in a farm on the west coast of Ireland. She becomes pregnant, and has few resources, is naïve, but knows she can't fathom giving birth to her father's child. She enlists an empathetic neighbour and escapes to England to get an abortion, only to be dragged back to Ireland ("the doctor here will be ruined! HE has a family!"). I was so frustrated to read this story of this young girl's life, struggling to deal with violation after violation. She's forced into the world of anti-abortion pro-birth fanatics, who had no empathy at all and no realistic help on how a 14 year old was supposed to actually deal with any of the realities of pregnancy, childbirth, and being a teenage mom. Mary has no autonomy whatsoever -- at first she's under her father's control, but then the police, the pro-birth fanatics, and the highest levels of government (all men) take control of her. The public opinion is mixed -- many support this victim, but many others assume the worst about her. Utterly heartbreaking.

For my health and wellbeing, I avoid books about realistic tragedy and suffering, but this one drew me in despite that. I read in three sittings (that averages to 100 pages at a time, which in my world means "couldn't put it down")

Down By the River is considered one of three of O'Brien's "state of the nation novels." I've read In the Forest and have House of Splendid Isolation on my TBR pile.

* Irish LTers, please tell me: the doctors didn't tell her the cancer diagnosis, but told her husband?! In 1990s Ireland? This happened to my grandmother in 1972 Canada, but was this shite still happening then? Or is O'Brien manipulating the reader?

Recommended for: I don't know, but I thought this was a great read and I wish more people would read it so I could talk about it

Why I Read This Now: I've liked Edna O'Brien in the past, and it's been in my TBR for ages, and it's Irish-readathon March. Check mark!

Great last review. I’m catching up from way back, but really enjoyed it. Lots of fun posts and reviews.

>118 Nickelini: maybe I can live my whole life without reading Purple Hibiscus. I’ve wondered about it. Your review definitely doesn’t encourage me. (But Jennifer’s posts do...)


>136 Nickelini: I saw Sedaris “perform” live once, in front of a huge audience. He just tells his stories... and he was terrific. But I’ve never felt the need to read him. Anyway interesting and that’s a lot of Sedaris.

>138 Nickelini: Terrific review of The better mother. Noting.

>145 Nickelini: I need to get back to Edna O’Brien. I’ve only read a couple of her books, but your 4.75 rating is pushing me to read another.

>136 Nickelini: I’ve listened to a couple of David Sedaris’ books, and as you would expect, they are laugh out loud funny in parts. My daughter and I listened to a chunk of The Best of Me on our way to and from my second vaccine last week. It was a two hour drive each way, so it was an entertaining way to fill in the time.

>145 Nickelini: Seeing an author's name in larger print than the book title always makes me suspicious. It's as if the publisher thinks it's the only thing that will sell the book. Still and all, sometimes it works and in this case it seem to have worked for you.

?Irish readathon March

>137 Nickelini: Like the sound of this. Recommended for : Gardeners in Germany. The further you are from that climate, the less this will mean anything to you, gave me a chuckle, as I found some really good research last spring done in a German forest on late hard frosts and copper beeches (long story). It gave me hope, so maybe the book might work for me.

>146 dchaikin: I saw Sedaris “perform” live once, in front of a huge audience. He just tells his stories... and he was terrific.

I imagine that he'd be very entertaining. He really can be very funny, and makes it look so effortless

>147 NanaCC:
Colleen, I'm so jealous that you got the vaccine. Good for you! I feel like I'm not going to get mine until 2025 or something

>148 SassyLassy:
Seeing an author's name in larger print than the book title always makes me suspicious. It's as if the publisher thinks it's the only thing that will sell the book. Still and all, sometimes it works and in this case it seem to have worked for you.

I find they often do that with popular authors as a rule, I guess because some people will always buy that author's books without question

?Irish readathon March March is such an Irish month, with St Patrick's Day and all. And I'm not the only person who thinks that, I've learned:

YouTube links:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0p4y1DtBRh8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UOdkdWlIN_k
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V5CkG9-tMGI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oE-RN_neCr8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mMMLna445v0
and so on (there are many more)

20. Venice Rising: Aqua Granda, Pandemic, Rebirth; Various authors, 2020


cover comments: has that self-published look, but it's okay. The back cover has the much-photographed complete double rainbow over Venice, which I think should have been the front cover

Comments: The summer of 2019 was hard on Venice with the mass over-tourism and a cruise ship crashing into a dock. Then in November, the stars misaligned to combine exceptional--but forecast--high tides (called aqua alta ) with sirocco winds from the southeast and bora winds from the southwest, and a heavy rainfall. This resulted in the Aqua Granda with the water's peak height of 187 cm (6'1") and submerging about 80% of the city. This was the worst flooding they've seen since 1966, which was called a 100 year event. After finally drying out and cleaning up, Venice appeared to be in recovery for Carnevale in February 2020. But the grand final days of that event were suddenly cancelled when COVID-19 burned through northern Italy and the city slammed into full lockdown.

Venice Rising is a collection of 31 pieces about these events, all told by Venetian residents. I sought this out more for the pandemic parts, because I remember a year ago as I closely followed the news coming out of Italy and watched in disbelief as their world, and then all of our world, crashed to a halt. I guess there is only so much you can say about quarantine though, and the most interesting bits were about the Aqua Granda of November 2019.

Many of these Venetian writers are wondering if this series of catastrophes is a reset, and that's a nice thought. I'm not sure it's realistic, however.

Rating: 4.5 stars

Recommended for: readers interested in current events, the pandemic, extreme-weather events; lovers of Venice

Why I Read This Now: I happened across this a month or so ago and thought the one year anniversary of the beginning of the pandemic in Italy was a good time to read it

Enjoyed your review of Down by the River and Venice Rising looks interesting.

>145 Nickelini: Well, I'm not Irish but as I'm Northern Irish I guess I'm not too far away to answer your question. I struggle to imagine that in the 1990s a doctor would have given a cancer diagnosis to a husband but not the patient. This sounds a little like a typical whimsical Irish backwater portrayal.

Having to go to England for an abortion - that stuff's all true (it was only decriminalised in NI in 2019 and a Referendum won in Ireland on it in 2018), although whether a father would race over to pull a daughter back to save the doctor's face - that sounds a bit Hollywood. Mind you, it may now be legal on both sides of the border but it's still a hugely contentious subject.

>154 AlisonY:
I struggle to imagine that in the 1990s a doctor would have given a cancer diagnosis to a husband but not the patient. This sounds a little like a typical whimsical Irish backwater portrayal. Oh good! I was appalled

....although whether a father would race over to pull a daughter back to save the doctor's face - that sounds a bit Hollywood.

Let me clarify - the neighbour found Mary about to drown herself in the river, and took her in, and took her to her doctor friend. Mary never told who had impregnated her. The doctor advised what the solutions were, and the neighbour took her to England. Right away, the neighbour's nosy "friend" and anti-abortion activist found printed evidence about abortion and knew they'd gone to England. She went to the police. Apparently it was illegal to do what they were doing, particularly that Mary was under 16 and they didn't have her father's permission. It was the police who forced her back (although, personally, if I was out of the country I don't know how they'd be able to convince me) . . . and also the "friend" said that she'd go to the press and ruin the doctor, and the neighbour had huge guilt so crumbled. Maybe still Hollywood, but I hope that makes a bit more sense.

21. Mothering Sunday, Graham Swift, 2016


Cover comments: Pleasant. Uninspiring, but pleasant.
This one is really nice, in that sort of classy way:

And this one takes an entirely different approach:


Rating: I loved this. 4.5 stars. I read this in one sitting on a rainy Sunday morning in March.

Comments: Sunday, March 30, 1924 is Mothering Sunday in England, and it's the day when the servants get time off to go visit their mothers. Twenty-two year old housemaid Jane Fairchild is an orphan, so instead she has her last tryst with her lover, the rich son of a neighbour who is soon to be married to a young woman more wealthy than he. This story is told in bits, and continuously circles back to fill in details, until we learn about Jane's life where she lived into her late 90s and was a famous writer. But the focus of this short (177 pg) novel is on the one sunny spring day that was life changing for her.

I loved the 1920s setting, and I loved the descriptions of the unseasonably warm spring day with its bright sunshine. Oh, and it's labelled "a romance," and I'm pondering whether I agree with that description or not.

Recommended for: Readers who enjoyed On Chesil Beach, by Ian McEwan; The Sense of an Ending, by Julien Barnes; or maybe even The Garden Party by Katherine Mansfield, will probably love this one too.

Why I Read This Now: It been high on my TBR for ages, but I thought I'd save it for the actual Mothering Sunday. This year it's today, March 14. I've learned that the day changes each year because it's tied to Lent.

ETA: There's a film of this coming soon The leads are played by two actors who I'm not familiar with -- Josh O'Connor plays Paul (Oh! He was Mr Elton in the latest version of Emma and he plays Prince Charles in the last season of The Crown. I know him after all). Jane is played by Odessa Young and I don't think I've seen any of her films. But when the movie was announced, a big deal was made that Colin Firth and Olivia Colman were to play Mr and Mrs Niven. Colin Firth plays a lot of small roles in big movies, so I can see him in this. But they must be changing the role of Mrs Niven, because I don't think she actually says anything in the novel, and I'm sure they didn't need to hire the Queen and hot property Olivia Colman to stand in the shadows. We will see!

>156 Nickelini: When I see a book like this described as a "romance" I think it means "a novel", which was one way of delineating a book which is fiction. As in the French "roman". I found this on the Wiki on words:

Etymology
Likely from Russian рома́н (román), ultimately from French roman.

Noun
roman

A novel.

>156 Nickelini: We read Mothering Sunday for our RL Book Club a little while ago. I loved it, as did most other people.

>157 sallypursell: Yes, I’ve seen that used, especially with books translated from Latin based languages. I really don’t think that applies to Mothering Sunday though. I’ve heard this book described as “sexy” and that fits better than “romance” perhaps

22. Passing, Nella Larson, 1929


cover comments: I like it, and the more I look at it, the more it grows on me. I'm pretty sure this scene didn't happen in the book, but it still fits. The painting is The Subway, 1930, by Palmer Hayden. I love how this scene doesn't look that out of place today, yet it was painted 91 years ago. Certainly, life on the subway (well, pre-COVID) was the same

Rating: Like my opinion on the cover (above), I started this book thinking it was "okay," but the more time I spent with it, the more I liked it. There were lots of layers of meaning, which was all the more impressive considering this was a book of only 114 pages. I also loved the 1920s setting. Somewhere between 4 & 4.5 stars

Comments: Irene and Clare, both light-skinned African-Americans, were friends in childhood. Years later, on a hot summer day, Irene is lunching at a breezy roof restaurant at a department store in downtown Chicago and hoping that no one will recognize her race. She's married to a black doctor back in New York, and spends her time "passing" as a happily married middle-class wife and mother, involved in the arts and intellectual life in Harlem. But right now, to sit in this luxurious restaurant, she needs to pass as white and not draw attention to herself. Yet someone is staring at her. And here Clare drops back into her life. Irene learns that Clare has married a racist white husband who doesn't know her race, and has spent years in the capitals of Europe where she doesn't meet any other black people. Irene sees trouble, and tries to avoid Clare, but is also strongly drawn to her at the same time. Clare is missing something in her life, and is drawn to Irene's life in New York with its charity balls and diverse crowd. And so their lives twist together toward a surprising end.

I'd love to have studied this book at university when you can really dig into all the variations of passing. This is a good book to reread, I expect.

Side note: As with my last book, Mothering Sunday, I loved the 1920s setting. And as with that book, this one too has an upcoming movie. Apparently it will be on Netflix later this year. Watching that one for sure.

Why I Read This Now: I've owned Passing since 2010, but there it sat. Now my book club is reading The Vanishing Half this month, and the author Brit Bennett was heavily influenced by Passing. So I thought that this was the time (Interesting video of Bennett talking about Passing to the NYTimes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rtbK8Nufxd4 )

Recommended for I thought it was great. If you have a "I'd like to read more . . . " reading list, I'm sure it ticks off some box.

>6 dchaikin: I see you fixed the touchstones so maybe you know the new trick (or hoop). You can't save and then edit without refreshing. That is, if you save a post with touchstones, then want to make a change without losing the touchstones, you have to refresh/reload the page 1st, then edit.


Thanks for your post on January 1st. I finally got the trick of this, although I've been stumbling through for months. It didn't used to work like this!

>160 Nickelini: Great review of Passing. I've been wanting to read this for ages but haven't got my hands on a copy yet. You're nudging it back up the wish list again.

>162 AlisonY:
Love to hear your thoughts on Passing because we are interested in many of the same books. It sat on my shelf for years and I was getting less interested in reading it, so it was a pleasant surprise for me. I'm sure you'll come across a copy -- between it being a 90 yr old book and having a movie coming out this year (I think I've seen the movie tie-in cover, and it's not awful)

I have Passing on my pile to reread, Joyce. My book club also read Mothering Sunday and it was a good discussion.

The cover of Down by the River is awful. It sounds heartbreaking, but I do like O'Brien. I'll look for this one.

Venice Rising also sounds good.

23. The Vanishing Half, Brit Bennett 2020


cover comments: this cover tells you at a glance that it's a current novel about a POC. I guess the colours represent the different characters. At a glance I think it's ugly. The actual images of the faces merging is lovely and hint to storylines, but the colours repulse me. I borrowed my copy from a friend and removed the dust jacket, and underneath was just the nice strong blue colour. Much better.

Why I Read This Now: book club.

Rating: somewhere between 3 stars. It started off slowly and not hitting any keys for me, but then it got better . . . and better . . . and even better. It did make me ask a lot of questions, which is a good thing.

Note: the last few books I've read felt like they deserved film adaptations. This one too, and yes, it was bought in a bidding war. No casting yet, but expected to move quickly. So look out for this one on your screen in 2022 or 2023

Comments: So much has been written about this already. Identical twins who go off to lead vastly different lives. I can see the influence of Passing, which I just read, but not a lot. I was expecting more focus on the twins, but the secondary characters where maybe more sympathetic. There were a few "wow" parts of this book, but it was uneven.

Recommended for: One of the top hot books at the moment. I think everyone who might read this has read it.

>156 Nickelini: This is very timely - I'm doing a purge of my unread books at the moment and was dithering about Mothering Sunday. I'll keep it (and read it soon)!

>165 Nickelini: this cover tells you at a glance that it's a current novel about a POC I would never have got to that assumption in a million years! But to be honest, I’ve seen that cover any number of times, and I hadn’t actually noticed that it was differently coloured ‘faces’ before, rather than just differently coloured ‘splodges’. Maybe I’m just not observant.

>166 wandering_star: I hope you enjoy Mothering Sunday as much as I did. In any case, I look forward to your comments.

>167 SandDune: I would never have got to that assumption in a million years - Oh yes. I really noticed the explosion of this cover style -- jarring colours, somewhat abstract shapes -- explode on the scene in 2019 and the trend seems to be continuing. They aren't necessarily books about POC, but more often than not when you see that cover, the book will explore themes of race, or the author will not be white. We sometimes complain on LT about covers being all the same but book designers do this, not because they have no new ideas, but to help readers find the books they want to read. It sells books when a reader can identify clues -- even if they are subconscious -- that say "something about this reminds me of another book I loved. I'll give this one a chance".

24. The Tiny Book of Tiny Stories: Volume 2- Wirrow & Joseph Gordon-Levitt, 2012


cover comments: pretty boring compared to the wonderful illustrations within

Comments: I can't believe it took me 5 years to get around to reading this gem of a book after loving The Tiny Book of Tiny Stories: Volume 1. This is a collection of 62 spreads of very short illustrated stories, done by a variety of artists. Most of the stories are only a sentence long, and it's the art that completes them. The profound little bits are about life, love, and death. I could quote some examples, but with only the text, I couldn't show their true beauty. I do adore an illustrated book.

I'm tired
of being tired
of being tired
of being

Savage mice overran
Mallory's home until he
built a better mousetrap
and attracted a more
elegant class of rodent

Ambiguity lived in a place
with some people
who did some things

Rating 5 stars

Why I Read This Now: I was tired of dusting it every week

Recommended for: anyone with a heart. The is one 1-star review on LT. That person has a miserable empty life.

>169 Nickelini: Huh—I've had the first one on my shelf for ages and haven't read it, so that's good encouragement. Plus what's not to love about Joseph Gordon-Leavitt? Though in my mind he's always 16—I had an ex who liked that Third Rock from the Sun show.

>170 lisapeet:
I haven't quite figured out how Joseph Gordon-Leavitt is involved in this . . . it looks like he was a cheerleader and maybe put up the money for the project? He's definitely not the author, but that's how it's catalogued, so . . . okay. Anyway, take 20 min and enjoy!

>169 Nickelini: That looks very cool. And I am definitely a person with a heart, so I should like it. :) I've added the first volume to my wishlist

>170 lisapeet: I loved Third Rock from the Sun. I remember thinking back then that that kid was clearly very talented and ought to have quite a future in front of him. It's gratifying to know I was right!

25. Whatever, Michel Houellebecq, 1994


cover comments: next level awful

Comments: I've seen Whatever described as a "study of contemporary alienation," and that fits well. The 30 year old unnamed narrator goes through life in 1990s France in his stable, but uninspiring, job as a computer programmer. He's incredibly unpleasant and there's no real plot to speak of.

Rating: 3 stars. The first section, which was 50 pages, was pretty awful but it got more interesting after that point. I didn't like this book, but I didn't hate it either.

Why I Read This Now: I've never read this author before, although I've owned three of his books for years. This one was short, and also on the 1001 list, I was in the mood for something French.

Recommended for: readers who like nihilistic short novels

26. Here is the Beehive, Sarah Crossan, 2020


Cover comments: Gorgeous! I ordered it from the UK because the North American copy is ugly (and wasn’t actually out when I bought this).

Comments: The tagline for this book asks, “What happens when you lose something the world never knew was yours?” Ana and Connor had been having an affair for three years when he is killed in an accident. Ana descends into deep grief, but she can’t tell anyone. This novel is told in free verse, which could come off as gimmicky, but doesn’t here. It made Here is the Beehive an energetic, slightly feverish read, which matches the erratic mood of the narrator, and shows how infidelity destroys lives. As the novel went along, Ana revealed herself to be a terrible person, and the author was artful in how she showed Ana's increasing bad behavior, while still making the reader empathize with her raw emotions.

Rating: 4.5 stars. I thought this novel was amazing.

This was yet another great recommendation from Simon Savidge and Jen Campbell

Recommended for: readers who like unique, interesting books, and stories about secrets

Not recommended for: The most common complaint about this is that people don't like the main character. Readers also say they are disturbed by the subject matter. Others don’t like how the timeline jumps around abruptly. Sarah Crossan is an acclaimed writer of books for young people, and her adult fans seem cross that she’s written this. And I think this would be a tough read for someone currently going through grief.

Why I Read This Now: it’s been on the top of my TBR since I bought it six months ago

>173 Nickelini:

A painfully realistic portrayal of the vanishing freedom of a world governed by science

This was in the blurb about Whatever here on Librarything. I don't really understand it. any insight?

>174 Nickelini: Can I go off-topic a little? How do you keep something on "the top of my TBR since I bought it...."?

Also, can you tell me how people keep track of where they get a BB? It seems to me that would mean keeping a database instead of the Wishlist here, and that would be work.

>174 Nickelini: Looks like it's worth it for the cover alone. Interesting.

>176 sallypursell: I keep my wish list on Amazon. You can add a comment to any book added to your wish list. Even though I don't buy from Amazon, it remains my point of truth for my 'I want that' list.

>178 AlisonY: Thanks! I have a list on Amazon, but it tends to be different books than I have on my TBR here. I'll have to think about that, then. I don't remember seeing that option.

>179 sallypursell: You can only do it once it's in your wish list, Sally, not at the point of adding it. When you view your wish list on each item you can add a priority and comment.

>180 AlisonY: Oh, I see. Thanks again.

>179 sallypursell: On LT when adding a book to your TBR collection you could use either the "comment" or "private comment" fields to record who recommended the book.

>175 sallypursell:

A painfully realistic portrayal of the vanishing freedom of a world governed by science
This was in the blurb about Whatever here on Librarything. I don't really understand it. any insight?

No idea whatsoever. I've read that it's a critique on corporatism, but science? Pulling a blank. Sorry. (The book really wasn't that memorable, and I've read a bunch since then)

>176 sallypursell: How do you keep something on "the top of my TBR since I bought it...."?

Also, can you tell me how people keep track of where they get a BB? It seems to me that would mean keeping a database instead of the Wishlist here, and that would be work.

In this case the book was physically at the top of my stack of to-read books :-), but sometimes it's just mentally at the top of my stack (filed in my brain).

I can't comment on how other people keep track of book bullets. As others have said, on LT you could leave a comment or private comment if you edit the book from the To Read or Wishlist, or there's a place on Amazon wish list for a comment. I have done both of those, although infrequently. Or you could keep track in a notebook. I just keep track in my brain, and often I don't remember at all where I got the book bullet.

Hope that helps!

>184 Nickelini: I could never remember where I get my BB: there are so many! But thanks for the help. I got useful suggestions from several people.

27. How To Build A Girl, Caitlin Moran, 2014


cover comments: I've always found this cover to be ugly, but when I look closely at it, it's a picture of scuffed up Doc Martens and some ripped stockings -- a classic look. What's not to love about that? I guess it's the garish GREEN, and the serif font mixed with the super serif font (I just made up "super serif", so if you're a font head, don't scold me).

Comments: Teenage Johanna Morrigan is struggling in poverty with her family Wolverhampton, England, in the West Midlands in the early 1990s, and feeling like a major loser. So she reinvents herself Dolly Wilde, a name she took from Oscar Wilde's niece, who was "like, this amazing alcoholic lesbian who was dead scandalous, and died really young." Johanna loves to write, and knows she has talent, and ends up writing critical reviews for a music magazine. Dolly Wilde is unleashed on the 1990s English music scene and goes wild. And predictably crashes. And picks herself up again.

How To Build A Girl is one of those humorous novels that touches on serious subjects, but mostly it makes light of Johanna's life as a teenager growing up poor. She has some amazing good fortune, and has some wonderful people in her life, which maybe isn't all that realistic. From the beginning I felt liked I'd heard her voice before. Adrian Mole, perhaps? (Later in the book she reads some of that series.) Or Bridget Jones, if she'd been born poverty-stricken? (I see Helen Fielding wrote a blurb on the back cover.)

And now time to go listen to "For Tomorrow" by Blur . . .

Rating: 3.5 stars. I don't think I'm the target audience for this. At 338 pages, I found it a bit over-long. A good 100 pages shorter and it would have been less tedious. The last section after she picked herself up from her lowest point was well done, with some wise writing wedged into the story. The writing is good, and there are lots of funny bits, but I didn't need so many details of her loser life that lead to Dolly Wilde, and I didn't need so much on her bad drunken shags. I suppose I've read enough of that elsewhere.

Recommended for: people who want to read a humorous novel set against the 1990s British Indie music scene; people who like stories of teenagers exploring who they are

Why I Read This Now: I was cleaning up a stack of books, and I thought this one would be good to read during lunch at work. It was.


ETA: my 21 year old daughter read this after I did, and loved it

Mini Challenges Early-Spring 2021

Because I'm reading a lot this year and having fun with lists personal challenges, I've followed two small BookTube Challenges:

1. Irish Read-athon (March):

An Irish Author: Edna O'Brien, Down By the River
A Non-Fiction Book:
Read A Book With A Green Cover (Doesn't Need to Be Irish): How To Build A Girl (bonus points: an important scene happens in Dublin)
A New To You Author: Sarah Crossan, Here Is the Beehive
BIPOC-LGbTQIA: (the book I own that would fit this is >600 pages long, so not now)
Mythology-Folklore:

3/6 - I think that's pretty good for a mini-challenge. Yay, me!

***

2. Spring Book Hibernation 2021 (from SavidgeReads) Friday, March 26 to Sunday, April 4 (my rules: Monday, April 5 is a holiday for me, so I'm extending to that date). They picked these categories around Cheerful Weather For The Wedding by Julia Strachey

A Novella:
Weather, or Type Of Weather Or "Weather" In The Title:
Something Funny: How To Build A Girl
Yellow On The Cover: Here Is The BeeHive
Five-Word Title: How To Build A Girl (no one says I can't double or triple up-- it's 11 days. I make my own rules)

>187 Nickelini: Good to hear you are "reading alot" this year (and having some fun with it)!

>186 Nickelini: Caitlin Moran writes for The Times, and has a big double page feature in The Saturday Times magazine (the only paper we manage to read in our house each week). How to Build a Girl is semi-autobiographical - Moran came from a large but not particularly well off family, was home-schooled at her Wolverhampton council house and then got her first job at 16 writing for a significant UK music magazine.

She claims that she received little education at home from her parents and that she and her siblings were left pretty much to their own devices. If that's true, it's admirable that she went on to win a couple of significant writing prizes in her teens, but I've often wondered if this is the whole truth or the one she'd like us to believe.

Every week when I read her column I take my hat off to her writing - she's hugely inventive and smart at what she does. However, despite the fact that she's in her mid-40s, she still manages to come across as being annoyingly precocious, self-indulgent and a little bit annoying, so I've not sought out any of her books.

>189 AlisonY: I take my hat off to her writing - she's hugely inventive and smart at what she does. However, despite the fact that she's in her mid-40s, she still manages to come across as being annoyingly precocious, self-indulgent and a little bit annoying, so I've not sought out any of her books.


Well said! This is the only thing I've read by her and I won't seek her out, although if I'm in a place where reading her is the only option I will probably enjoy her writing again well enough. But I know what you mean about smart, inventive, but self-indugent & a bit annoying.

I read somewhere that How To Build A Girl is loosely autobiographical. Her parents, in the book, were in over their heads and struggling, but they weren't mean or abusive. Sometimes neglectful, yes, but not menacing.

>185 sallypursell: I could never remember where I get my BB: there are so many! But thanks for the help. I got useful suggestions from several people.


In the past I wasn't too bothered by WHERE I learned about a book. Often I did remember, but if I didn't remember, well, whatever. But when I did care and couldn't remember, I would go to the book's page and see which of my friends or interesting libraries had the book. Or I'd look at the Conversations section of the books page and often find the original spark that got me interested.

My interest in tracking this more consistently is growing. I just haven't thought about what I want that tracking to look like. When I figure it out, I'll share

28. The Wanderer, Peter Van Den Ende, 2019


cover comments: stunning

Rating: 5 stars

Comments:

->To capture the feel of the book, I invite you to watch a 1.5 minute video trailer on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BnP9uv7BnDg

-> The artist describing the story on YouTube (also 1.5 min): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cyk7bwBuMCs

A sailor and a "mysterious black-clad figure with a crescent-moon-shaped head" create a paper boat and let it free to sail the vast oceans. It encounters seals and whales and crocodiles, and countless magical sea creatures; it travels over coral reefs and past mangroves, under billions of stars and above thousands of eyes; into the polar regions, and skirts several disasters, mostly man-made. Finally, he arrives at a safe harbour. I think the message is be bold, go out and adventure . . . something like that? The little boat is a character, even without a face or words.

It feels a bit funny counting a book with no words as "a read," but there is so much going on in this sumptuous 92 page illustrated book (it's sometimes catalogued as a graphic novel). This is Belgian artist Peter Van Den Ende's first book, and it's won several awards. The detail in the illustrations is amazing, and I thought he must have used a computer for some of it, but I've researched it and it's done with dip pens and India ink. The crosshatching, for example, is masterful.

Recommended for: people who love detailed illustrated books, armchair adventurers

Not recommended for: people who suffer from trypophobia might be triggered by this. When I learned about trypophobia, I learned that I have the opposite--I'm drawn to these patterns. Trypophilia, perhaps? I didn't know that this book would be so satisfying when I ordered it.

Why I Read This Now: It arrived yesterday.

I came across this while going down some bookish internet rabbit hole, and it was expensive so I looked at my local library, and they said if I put in a request they'd buy it, but then one of my websites put it on sale, so I just bought it. I think I'll request it from the library as well, so my community can also discover it :-)

>192 Nickelini: I will definitely check this one out.

>186 Nickelini: What better uniform for her than scuffed Docs and ripped stockings? However, that does lead into some of the comments from >189 AlisonY:. I do know that the cover artist doesn't necessarily relate to the book, but green aside, it seems like s/he did here. At least that green served you well in your challenges!

>192 Nickelini: I really like the sound of this book.
Also you gave me a new word: trypophobia. Interesting that so many seed pods and fruits display these kinds of patterns if there is an aversion to them.

>192 Nickelini: Trypophobia is a new word to me too. >194 SassyLassy: I wonder if it's some kind of evolutionary strategy—that flora are cashing in on a natural aversion to keep from being eaten. I'm definitely putting this one on the list—it's totally a book for me. Thanks!

>192 Nickelini: I have added The Wanderer to my WL. I love that sort of thing. Have you ‘read’ The Arrival by Shaun Tan?

>194 SassyLassy:, >195 lisapeet:

Well your evolutionary strategy is a good one, Lisa. I'm not sure if trypophobia is a real thing -- it seems to be very big with 20-somethings-- some take it with dramatic seriousness, and many thinking its a joke. It got famous because some celebrity talked about it--I'm going to guess Kim Kardashian. I had to look into it for my job and when I mentioned it to my younger coworkers and my daughters, they all laughed. It's sorta like ASMR (autonomous sensory meridian response) but for sight instead of sound. A bit of a flaky theory --- however --- ever since I learned about it, I find I love looking at pictures that trigger it. Pictures that I wouldn't have given a second glance before I knew about it. Talk about the power of suggestion, huh! A lot of the triggers are really gross and disgusting things too -- like bug infestations, or skin covered in pustules. Which brings us back to your "evolutionary response" explanation that makes a lot of sense. I guess evolution went awry with me!

>196 SandDune:

I learned about The Arrival when I learned about this one. And it was on the same sale, so it will arrive next week. I'm currently reading another Shaun Tan-- this one the library DID have. It's Tales From the Inner City and it has a lot of words. He's a good writer too. I adore illustrated books.

>195 lisapeet: Some plants depend on being eaten for dispersion - think of all the wild flowers and shrubs along fence rows. I think the pattern of spread would count here; are the volunteer seeds germinating close to the original plants, in which case it would be a defensive mechanism as you suggest, or are they appearing far and wide, in which case animals and/or wind would be the vector.

>197 Nickelini: Seems more like disgust at rather than fear of some of these things, although it's hard to argue with staying away from measles or chicken pox or worse. Not about to give up on strawberries, dried poppy seed heads, showers, baguettes, or Aero chocolate yet though!

>199 SassyLassy:

Good point. And I continue to love strawberries, seed heads of all sorts, showers, baguettes and Aero chocolate! :-)

29. The Cockroach, Ian McEwan, 2019


cover comments: sure, fits the story

Comments: In a reversal of Kafka's The Metamorphosis, a cockroach wakes up one morning to find he's turned into the prime minister of Great Britain. McEwan wrote this novella in 2019 as a satirical stab at the current political situation in the UK. This is the 13th book by McEwan that I've read.

Rating: 3.5 stars. It was okay. Quite clever in parts, eye-rolling in others. I think others who know the nuances of UK politics better than I will either like it more, conversely, less.

Why I Read This Now: I was looking for a novella for a fun challenge I'm doing this weekend. I tried two others before settling on this one.

Recommended for: you know who you are

>191 Nickelini: Thanks! I'm just bollixed.

>201 Nickelini: I'm convinced I've peaked and read McEwan's best. The last few I tried were disappointing. Actually more than disappointing as when he's on form he's a favourite author. Have you read Sweet Tooth? It's been languishing on my TBR for a few years now precisely because I fear it will underwhelmed me.

>203 AlisonY:

I know what you mean. I'm not sure if my tastes have changed, or it's him, or what. I did read Sweet Tooth, which was a solid "okay". I don't remember it much, but I do remember wondering why he thought this was a story worth exploring. I've had Solar in my TBR for years (ever since it came out in paperback) and I've never felt like reading it. Of his more recent books, I did like The Children Act but I've absolutely no interest in Nutshell.

Solar and Nutshell I quite enjoyed. 4 star reads for me.

I'll leave Sweet Tooth on the TBR for another while.

>197 Nickelini: I have a friend who is a textile artist and she's fascinated by things like trypophobia - visual impressions which cause a physical reaction. She has made some amazing pieces which, when you look at them, you feel that they are gross and at the same time you want to touch them (or as she puts it: exploring the paradox of disgust and attraction).

ETA: in case anyone finds that intriguing you can see some of her work here.

>206 wandering_star: I absolutely find it intriguing. That's a great concept, and I really like her execution of it, much as I really hate stray hair.

I've finally caught up on your thread. Many book bullets (which I track with tags such as "rec by nickelini" so they I can search for all the books recommended by a single person). Lots of fun discussions too. I took an online test for trypophobia from the Open Source Psychometrics Project. Quite fun. Come to find out I'm more accurate with pictures meant to induce trypophobia, converse to their hypothesis. Now that I'm caught up, I hope to be able to comment more timely.

>206 wandering_star: ws, those are wonderful and beautiful and a little gross. I'd love to see them in person.

>197 Nickelini: I ended up looking up ASMR for more detail, and fell down the Wikipedia rabbit-hole, and didn't get back here for more than an hour!

>206 wandering_star:

Yes, she hits it EXACTLY right. I love her work. When I clicked on it, I physically shivered. "Paradox of disgust and attraction" is a great description. Thanks for sharing her website.

>210 sallypursell: I ended up looking up ASMR for more detail, and fell down the Wikipedia rabbit-hole, and didn't get back here for more than an hour!


I apologize for the time sink. I find ASMR somewhat interesting, but tropophobia more interesting. Do you find you're drawn to ASMR sounds? There are bits that I find compelling, but I can't say I'm willing to listen to 20 min of someone crumpling plastic bags. Last spring I rediscover this song (apparently a classic with ASMR enthusiasts). I had completely forgotten about it, but at some point in my youth I loved it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OKRJfIPiJGY

I recalled this song last May when my daughter was doing university from home and took a film studies class on vampires. Seeing Bela Lugosi reminded me of
"Bela Lugosi's Dead" by Bauhaus. I don't remember where I used to listen to it (I find it strange that I can't place it-- I normally have place-memory with music, right up there with scent-memory).

Anyway, lots of great ASMR crinkles in this.

>208 labfs39:
Interesting! Off to look at your link.

30. Tales From The Inner City, Shaun Tan, 2018


cover comments: perfectly gorgeous

Comments: This is an illustrated collection of 25 untitled short stories and poems, all about human-animal relationships. I've heard this book described as "surreal", "urban-fantasy", "mesmerizing", "futuristic" and "bizarre." The combination of the astounding illustrations and unusual text packs an emotional wallop. My favourite pieces were these:

- how to avoid imminent tiger attacks (which includes a detailed and prescient case for how wearing a mask is key to survival)
- bears with lawyers
- an orca in the sky
- a secretary's challenge of how to deal with the board members who all turned into frogs
- pigeons as a metaphor for humans
- the beauty of giant snail love
- missing cats
- the last rhino
- crocodiles that live on the eighty-seventh floor of an office building
- dog & human companionship

Rating: 4.5 stars

Recommended for: everyone. This was shelved in the teen section of my library, but it's a sophisticated book that is undoubtedly adult. This would make a lovely gift for an animal lover

Why I Read This Now: I was looking for a different book by Shaun Tan at the library. It was out but this one was available.

Some of the illustrations from Tales From The Inner City


giant snail love


the missing cat


the orca in the sky

>215 Nickelini: I love Shaun Tan

>215 Nickelini: Beautiful illustrations. I feel like I've "read" some of Shaun Tan's books, but I have nothing in LT. The Arrival, perhaps?

>217 labfs39:
That is one of his. My copy arrives next week.

I love Shaun Tan as well!

31. Bride of New France, Suzanne Desrochers, 2011


cover comments: It's fine. I think the cover trope of the woman's silhouette was very popular around the time this was published. The lace edge is nice, and appropriate as the main character was a gifted lace maker.

Comments: As a child, Laure was taken from her parents when Louis XIV ordered the poor to be removed from the streets of Paris. She was institutionalized along with other children of paupers and orphans, and in the same building as the mental ill, prostitutes, and petty criminals. Over the years she became an expert lace maker and seamstress. The first third of this novel covers her life of oppression growing up in Paris.

When she came of age, Laure was sent to New France (current day Quebec) as one of the filles du roi (daughters of the king). This was a program financed by the French crown to boost the population of New France and encourage the men that were already there to create a settlement instead of returning to France. She is married off to a rough and neglectful man that she calls "the pig," and the second two-thirds of the novel cover her first few years in Canada. It was interesting to read about Montreal and the surrounding area being a settlement scratched out of the dense forest.

I didn't know much about the filles du roi, and was happy to learn more about them. Starting in 1663, around 800 young women, mostly poor, were shipped off to become baby machines. Apparently there were bonuses from the king for popping out 10 or more babies. The program was successful in more than doubling the population in a decade, and wasn't needed after that. Doing some side research, I learned that most French Canadians can trace their ancestry back to one or more of these women. Hilary Clinton also appears on lists of their descendants.

Note: Desrochers did her Ph.D. thesis comparing the migration of women from Paris to colonial North America with those from London. She also wrote her M.A. thesis on these French women. So the historical detail was probably pretty solid.

Recommended for: readers who want to learn about a period that isn't covered much in historical fiction

Rating: This is a solid novel, but I'm only giving it 3.5 stars, based more on my personal feelings, and not necessarily reflecting its quality. Readers complain that the character of Laure was unlikeable, but that doesn't bother me. The author has noted that she knows Laure is selfish, and thinks selfishness may have served someone in this situation well. I see her point. I was more bothered that some of her actions and choices seemed improbable. My second reason I'm not giving this 4 stars is that I think my tastes have changed and I'm just not as interested in historical fiction as I used to be.

Why I Read This Now: I borrowed this from a friend YEARS ago and I'm determined to return all the borrowed books in my house (I think I only have two left)

32. Invisible Cities, Italo Calvino, 1972, translated from Italian by William Weaver


cover comments: meh. The picture would be nice if it were large enough to see

Comments: Marco Polo visits the court of Kublai Khan and describes 55 cities he's imagined. There is no plot. The cities he describes are dreamlike, contradictory, and mostly impossible. This book is essentially a literary game and writing exercise where Calvino arranges the blurbs describing the cities in a mathematical pattern. There is a chart at Wikipedia to explain this.

Although there were frequent snips of beautiful, evocative writing, overall I found this tiresome and lacking in purpose.

This is definitely a book from the 1001 Books To Read Before You Die list that you do not have to read, ever.

Why I Read This Now: I started this for a challenge last week, that I didn't use for the challenge but kept reading anyway. It was fairly short.

Recommended for: people who want to read the 1001 and Guardian 1000 lists

Rating: Ugh. 2.5 stars. There are many 5 star reader reviews (especially at GoodReads), so don't let my disdain for this stop you from reading Invisible Cities. I found it pretentious, but you might find it brilliant.

>221 Nickelini: Totally agree!

>221 Nickelini: This is definitely a book from the 1001 Books To Read Before You Die list that you do not have to read, ever. Ha, ha, ha. Love it

>221 Nickelini: I found it a lot more enjoyable than you did (http://www.librarything.com/work/15614/reviews/116364307) but then I did not expect a real story or a real novel. Tastes can be different sometimes. :)

>224 AnnieMod:
Oh, nice review! Thanks for sharing it. Yeah, sometimes it's just where you are with your life. I can see liking Invisible Cities more at different times - for example, I'd have liked to have explored this at university. Or had it been an illustrated book (with each city illustrated by a different artist), it may have been a 5 star read. I had a chat over at my 1001 Books thread with an LTer who liked it more, and her angle was also convincing.

Also, I ramped up my traveling in 2018, and then that got killed last year, so I'm probably just bitter because I can't see new cities ;-)

I am super behind in most threads - I may catch up by the end of the year.

If you like Shaun Tan I recommend The Singing Bones. I don't normally buy/read illustrated books but this one was too beautiful to walk past.

I also took a BB for Here is the Beehive, so thanks!

>226 rhian_of_oz:

Thanks for the recommendation. I've made note of it -- sounds like just my kind of thing

>225 Nickelini: I would have hated it as an illustrated book - part of what I loved was that most of the cities were not so well defined so your imagination and experience could fill the details. Like Trude - at the time I read it, I was 10 years into traveling for work at least a few times a month. It made all the airports and Hiltons and what's not just flashed in front of my eyes.

But I also agree that it is the kind of books that will depend on one's mood and where they are in their life :)

33. A Fairy Tale, Jonas T Bengtsson, 2011; translated from Danish by Charlotte Barslund, 2014

cover comments: what cover? Oh, Lt doesn't have it. I can tell you it's sort of a dusky blue . . .

Recommended For: I can confidently say that I think most of my LT friends would also like this novel. It's one of those books you read and think "why isn't everyone talking about this?" There are scads of 4 & 5 star reader reviews on GoodReads, and only a few little 2 & 3 star reads. I did find it dark, and there where times when I couldn't face it. . . but I think that's me; it was never the writing.

Comments: Wow. Where do I start with this?

I'd never heard of this novel when I found it while browsing at a book store in 2015 (remember doing that?), and the description on the back cover, and the title, and it being Danish, all intrigued me. I had no idea what to expect.

It opens in 1986, with the assassination of the Swedish Prime Minister Olof Palme (a shocking crime, unsolved to this day). A father tells his 6 year old son that it's time to go. The first half of the novel covers the next few years of the unnamed boy traveling through the fringes of Danish society with his father, moving from some seedy make-shift housing to the next, being home schooled, his dad picking up jobs, and his being exposed to things that children shouldn't have to see. I could swallow this because throughout the father was invested in taking care of his son. And they had a great bond and a deep love. But so many questions. What happened to the boy's mom? Was the father a criminal, running from the law? Or was he a hero, running from dark forces? This is definitely a realistic novel, but it has fairy tale metaphors.

Anyway, the tension builds as they move between different situations, and just when you think the dad might be settling down, a shocking event happens.

The second half of the book is roughly divided into the boy being a teenager, and living in a stable environment, but struggling, and he finds out more about his father. The final section is him as a young adult and his resolution. Heartbreaking.

I looked up A Fairy Tale on YouTube and found an English interview with the author who said that he ended this novel with the most hopeful note of anything he's written. I watched this before I finished the book, so when I read the end, I laughed out loud. Which was probably inappropriate.

Rating: 4.5 stars. I started reading this in January and I was really immersed in the dark, gritty story. But then my brother died, and A Fairy Tale was just too raw at that time. I've been picking it up now and again, and thinking it was amazing, but then needing to put it down. I can't remember when it's ever taken me so long to read such a good book. Especially since it was written in very short chapters, which I usually find quick to read.

Why I Read This Now: This has always been physically at the top of my TBR stack since I bought it

>229 Nickelini: Although I'm not usually into "gritty" books, your review makes me want to read it. Onto the wishlist it goes.

I used Invisible Cities for a project for my grade 9 students years ago. They had to choose one passage and create a composition from the description. They produced beautiful work. The students used mixed media on board- inks, watercolour, and various resist techniques.

>231 torontoc: Oh that's fun! I always thought I'd love to do a series of drawings from that book.

>229 Nickelini: Your thread is dangerous!

>229 Nickelini: So I immediately went to request A Fairy Tale from my library, but they don't carry it and then I was shocked to see that while amazon lists it, they're asking $902.81 for it. So it better be good, Joyce, as I've blown my book budget for the next four years! Ok, I didn't order it, even though Book Depository has it for just over $33, which seems like a smoking deal, at least in comparison. But I did add it to my wishlist. Great review, by the way.

>234 RidgewayGirl: Or you can go with a different edition for $3 used/ $17 new:
https://www.amazon.com/Fairy-Tale-Jonas-T-Bengtsson/dp/159051694X/ref=tmm_pap_sw...

ETA: The one published in 2014, rather than 1656!??!

>234 RidgewayGirl: >235 ELiz_M: You guys crack me up!

>220 Nickelini: I read a book that included some filles du roi who were sent instead to New Orleans. I wish I could remember enough to identify it. There were murders in it, and some ghosts, and witches, voudon priestesses, and the illegal liquor trade. It was quite enjoyable. I think their belongings boxes, given by the king, were referenced in the title.

>221 Nickelini: How nice to enjoy your use of the subjunctive in your cover comment.

>238 sallypursell:

Who knows where that came from. Sometimes there's a different voice in my head when I write. And sometimes when I write, words spring into my brain that I've never remembered using before and then I confuse myself. It's fun.

>230 labfs39: Although I'm not usually into "gritty" books, your review makes me want to read it. Onto the wishlist it goes.

I'm questioning myself, because I read all the reviews on GoodReads, and no one else seemed to feel that this was gritty or raw. Maybe it was just my head space this year. The first half of the book is told in the viewpoint of an 8 year old, so there's a lot of bits of a child describing things he's too young to understand. So it's not raunchy or lewd. Does that clarify? Or just muddle everything?

>231 torontoc: I used Invisible Cities for a project for my grade 9 students years ago. They had to choose one passage and create a composition from the description. They produced beautiful work. The students used mixed media on board- inks, watercolour, and various resist techniques.

Oh, that's gorgeous! I'd love to have seen that.

As I was reading, I was thinking that if someone made this into an adult colouring book, I'd buy it and spend hours with my Faber Castells.

>234 RidgewayGirl:

I love your story.

I bought it at Chapters-Indigo, and they still have it (same edition that I have): https://www.chapters.indigo.ca/en-ca/home/search/?keywords=a%20fairy%20tale%20jo...

It's $19.95 Canadian, which is like what? $4 US? I'm pretty sure they ship to the US

>237 sallypursell:

I did hear that France also sent some girls to New Orleans. I'll keep my ears open for that book.

I will probably give the Calvino a try because it SOUNDS like one I would like. But I will keep your comments in mind.

A Fairy Tale sounds wonderful. I will look for a copy.

Hi! I just had a long, enjoyable catch-up on your thread. Fascinating reviews and great commentary. Thanks to all.

34. the Housekeeper and the Professor, Yoko Ogawa, 2003; translated from Japanese by Stephen Snyder, 2009


cover comments: lovely!

Why I Read This Now: there were cherry trees blooming outside my window, and I noticed the same trees on this book's cover. How silly a reason is that? Also, I always mean to read more Japanese fiction. Thirdly, it's been on my shelf since 2010. I had picked it up a few times and read the first page, but then always said "later!"

Rating: so many of my LT friends raved about this, but I found it sort of annoying. 3 stars. I predicted that I wasn't going to like it, so not a disappointment.

Comments: An unnamed housekeeper goes to work for an unnamed professor who had once had a brilliant career as a mathematician. He had suffered a traumatic brain injury in 1975 and since then could only remember the past 80 minutes. She brings her 10 year old son to work one day, and the professor takes a particular liking to him, and nicknames him Root. The three of them share a bond and have a lovely relationship. Unfortunately for me, they are also obsessed with mathematics and baseball, two subjects that I find intolerably boring.

Recommended for: People who have more tolerance reading about baseball and math than I do.

>246 Nickelini: I'm sorry you didn't like this one more, at least it was short! Although I too have little interest in reading about baseball, I do like reading about memory, both individual and collective, and the impact of its loss or distortion. So that was the hook for me. What's next in the hopper?

>247 labfs39: - What's next in the hopper?


I'm now going to focus on Anxious People by Fredrik Backman, which I need to read for book club next week. I've started it and like it so far. My non-fiction read is currently Beyond the Pale by Emily Urquhart. It's a memoir of her experiences having a child with albinism, and is also going to explore folklore surrounding albinism.

>248 Nickelini: I haven't read Anxious People yet, I'll be curious what you think. I've liked all of Backman's other books except the Beartown ones. Beyond the Pale sounds like it has the potential to be quite interesting, combining memoir, folklore, and genetics.

Wow, was I way behind on your reading. Such good reading and well-done reviews. Admittedly, I probably will not read any of them, having an enormous TBR pile of my own, but I appreciate being able to enjoy them all on some level vicariously through you :-)

>246 Nickelini: I found this a bit 'meh' too. Parts of it I liked, but I totally agree on the mathematics and baseball which went on wayyyyy too much. I never quite took the characters to heart either.

35. Anxious People, Fredrik Backman, translated from Swedish by Neil Smith, both 2020


cover comments: I like it, especially the colours (oh, I just noticed they are the colours of the Swedish flag, and the colours of national hockey team's uniforms)

Rating: 4.5 stars. For most of this I wasn't rating it that high, but the last quarter really came together, and in the end I loved it

Comments: From the first sentence of the second paragraph on page one: "This story is about a lot of things, but mostly about idiots." In the end, it was about a lot of things, but the characters weren't idiots at all.

In some small city in Sweden, a desperate person fails to rob a bank, and escapes into the nearby apartment building, and runs into a viewing for a suite for sale full of potential buyers. This turns into a hostage situation with "the worst hostages ever." The cops who are called to the scene are a father and his son, and they have baggage of their own. Everyone is anxious, for all sorts of reasons.

I was drawn in right from the beginning. The author Backman, and his translator, write some fabulous sentences that are clever, or funny, or insightful, or unique. But the story jumps in timeline A LOT, and jumps between characters a lot, and there was quite a bit of annoying behavior (in the end, I learned that some of this was purposeful). I started calling this novel "Obnoxious People." But then with all the jumping around, the author pulls it together, and it's really rather amazing and lovely. My patience paid off. In the last bit, I almost teared up twice, and definitely teared up once, so yeah, I almost never cry in books, and I didn't cry here either, but almost.

This was my first Fredrik Backman, and I'll definitely read more. I already own Beartown, and A Man Called Ove is his best seller, so maybe I'll pick that one up too. It appears that people who loved any one of these three doesn't like some other one, so that actually intrigues me.

Recommended for: Not sure. Most reader reviews are great, a few are terrible. I can see both sides, but I think some of the DNFs might have liked Anxious People in the end. I definitely want to read more books of this sort: by that I mean novels in translation that aren't arty or literary or heavy. I read those too, but I'd like to read more of this for a change.

Why I Read This Now: book club

>252 Nickelini: Sold! I am one of those people who mostly love Backman, but didn't like Beartown. My favorites so far are A Man Called Ove and the novella, And Every Morning The Way Home Gets Longer and Longer.

>252 Nickelini: For some reason, I didn't like A Man Called Ove--it didn't ring true for me--but I loved And Every Morning the Way Home Gets Longer and Longer. I can highly recommend that one--very touching.

36. Beyond the Pale: Folklore, Family, and the Mystery of Our Hidden Genes, by Emily Urqhart, 2016


cover comments: Fabulous cover. Love the image, love the colours. I actually ordered this edition from the UK because I preferred the cover to the one available in Canada (this book is by a Canadian author)

Why I Read This Now: Top of my TBR since I ordered it.

I've been interested in albinism since I was a young child and my older brothers brought home albums by Johnny Winter and his brother Edgar Winter ("come on and take a freeride . . . " and the 70s rock classic Frankenstein). My Dutch heritage has given me light blonde hair and alabaster skin (but dark blue eyes), and a few years later, boys I didn't know would approach me on the playground or on the street and ask (in a tone of distain) "are you albino?!". I was treated with disgust by all sorts of other white people well into my 20s for being too white skinned (after that all the sun damage caught up with me and I gained a bit of permanent colour). WTF is it with white people -- obviously don't be brown or black skinned, but guess what! Don't be too white skinned either. It made me wonder what people with actual albinism have to go through.

About a decade ago, I listened to a documentary on CBC radio about what I now know was a N.O.A.H conference (National Organization of Albinism and Hypopigmentation). They talked about people with albinism gathering from all over the world, and how they kept the lights low because of the sensitivity to light challenges, but also sight issues. I didn't know that--I thought they just had even-lighter-than-me colouring. And then they talked about how people with albinism were hunted in Africa, and I was shocked and horrified. And I thought-- "this is an amazing topic for a book. There's a novel in this." But I'm only a hobby writer, so I haven't made it to this topic yet. But then in 2020 I learned about Beyond the Pale and I had to read it.

Comments: Beyond the Pale: Folklore, Family, and the Mystery of Our Hidden Genes is part exploration of albinism, but mostly it's a memoir of giving birth to a child with a visible disability. The author is a folklorist, and I had heard this described as a blend of personal memoir and myths around the world about albinism, and it wasn't really that. So let's look at what it was actually about.

On a late December night in Newfoundland in 2010, the author gives birth to her first child: a daughter who has a shock of white hair. Perfectly healthy at birth, in the next few weeks they realize that she has albinism, which is a genetic condition that results in unusually pale hair, skin, and eyes; and more significantly, lifelong vision problems. Her husband is a biologist, and gives a solid scientific approach to their parenting, while the author--a daughter of two artists*, and a PhD in folklore--explores the cultural and historical side. All while learning to parent, and learning to parent a child with challenges and who looks different from her parents and all the other kids.

The first third of this 268 page book is parenting memoir and learning about albinism, the second third is about her trip to Tanzania with the aid organization who help the people with albinism in Tanzania, and the last third is exploring family history to find the thread of this genetic mutation. I found all of it quite interesting, but although I had heard about the slaughter of people with albinism in Africa, I found the part in Tanzania especially important, even though it was horrifying. Tanzania has a high percentage of people with albinism, but they are often viewed as living ghosts (aka not human), and witch doctors use their body parts to concoct potions to sell for . . . whatever magical thing you want. Also, raping a woman with albinism will cure HIV. Sadly, this trend is spreading through Africa. Urqhart worked with Under the Same Sun, a non-profit ( https://www.underthesamesun.com/ ) that's run by a Canadian with albinism.

*The author, Emily Urquhart, is the daughter of famed Canadian painter Tony Urquhart, and novelist Jane Urquhart (author touchstone is failing, but she wrote Away, The Stone Carvers, The Underpainter, and many others) (which reminds me . . . I haven't finished her oeuvre yet. I do like her when I'm in the mood for a thoughtful novel)

Rating: 4 stars. I have to say about a quarter of the way into this I had to regroup, because I was expecting something different. And it's not the author's fault that she didn't write the book I envisioned. I bought this because the author is an expert on folklore, and thought she'd bring more of that angle into her look at albinism. It also jumps around quite a bit. But otherwise, a really solid, interesting, informative read.

Recommended for: I learned about this book from author and YouTuber Jen Campbell (more touchstone fail from LT) who is a huge advocate for representation of people with disabilities in literature (she actually blurbs my UK edition: "One of the most powerful non-ficton books I've ever read. Read it and buy copies for everyone you know.")

Otherwise, I'd recommend it for people like me who are interested in albinism. And very much recommended for new parents of a child who is "different." Also readers who are interested in inherited genes and tracing your ancestry

>255 Nickelini: Wow, that sounds like an interesting book. For one thing, I didn't know that albinos were killed in Tanzania. But beyond that horrifying part, something else you said especially touched a chord, "learning to parent a child who looks different". I've thought mostly about the difficulty of parenting a child with a disability who doesn't look different: the expectations that they must be acting up because they don't look sick, the lack of support that children will other illnesses seem to get, why do they have a service dog, they don't have anything wrong with them (kids with seizure alert dogs, diabetic alert dogs). Great, thought-provoking review.

Great reviews of Anxious People and Beyond the Pale, Joyce; both books will be added to my wish list.

WTF is it with white people -- obviously don't be brown or black skinned, but guess what! Don't be too white skinned either.

Yep. Practically every person of color, at least in the United States, has asked this question on numerous occasions throughout their lives. Some (not all, and hopefully not most) spend so much time and money trying to turn their skin an acceptable shade of brown, but God forbid that they are mistaken for anything other than White. Sigh...

Me, I just go with the flow, and accept, with good humor and without a shred of offense, that I am often mistaken for something that I'm not: Cuban or Dominican by people who I speak Spanish to, apparently without a harsh American accent, in the US or Spain (everyone who hears me speak Spanish, including Latinx, tell me that I'm fluent in Spanish, but I don't think so); Surinamese in the Netherlands; and Black British (not American!) in the UK and other parts of Europe. ¡Yo soy dominicano! 🇩🇴

Enjoyed your excellent review of Beyond the Pale. The only thing I can relate to is seeing Johnny Winter live in concert. I knew that stuff about African albino's from hearing about the struggles of Salif Keita the singer from Mali.

>256 labfs39:
something else you said especially touched a chord, "learning to parent a child who looks different".

I struggled with how to word this. I don't see people with albinism as disabled, but with their eye problems, they clearly are. And also, people with albinism who live near the equator tend to die in their 30s from skin cancer. So there's that to deal with, but for a parent in North America or Europe, they're more likely to get the "what's wrong with your child?" type comments, and kids on the playground reacting (like I experienced in a small way, I guess)

The author made an interesting comment in the book about seeing a woman with Down's Syndrome, and thinking something like "everyone who see her labels her with Down Syndrome first, and she has to get beyond that for people to see who she really is." That really struck me.

>257 kidzdoc:

Darryl, I thing Beyond the Pale might be a really great book for you (as long as you keep in mind it's written from the parent's perspective and not the MD's ;-) --). I think it hits several of your areas of interest.

Me, I just go with the flow, and accept, with good humor and without a shred of offense, that I am often mistaken for something that I'm not: Cuban or Dominican by people who I speak Spanish to, apparently without a harsh American accent, in the US or Spain (everyone who hears me speak Spanish, including Latinx, tell me that I'm fluent in Spanish, but I don't think so); Surinamese in the Netherlands; and Black British (not American!) in the UK and other parts of Europe. ¡Yo soy dominicano! 🇩🇴

Isn't that fun! Good for you for being fluent in Spanish (says someone who has struggled to learn Italian). My husband also says he's not fluent in Italian, but he obviously is- wherever we travel in Italy (north, Rome, Naples), they say "you're from Tuscany," but then when we're actually in Tuscany they say he speaks slightly off. He says because he couldn't conduct the business he does in Canada in Italy, he's not fluent. Pfft.

Anyway, when we're in Europe, if people don't hear us speaking to each other and they approach us, they assume we're German. All the time. I'm usually taken off guard because my parents sometimes spoke Low German when I was young, so it sounds kinda familiar, but I don't have a clue what they're saying. Then it clicks in that they're speaking German to me like I know what they are saying. I've even had a server in London approach us and say "Do-you-speak-English?" (We had brought our baby into a "pub" at 3 in the afternoon, and apparently that was okay in Europe but in 1996 not okay in England--LOL the olden days)

>258 baswood:

You're seeing Johnny Winter in concert is very cool. I looked him up when I read this book. He didn't really cross my rock and roll radar because I was younger than my brother, but it looks like he had a great career and died in Switzerland when he was 70. So that's pretty good for a rock star from that era!

>256 labfs39:
I've thought mostly about the difficulty of parenting a child with a disability who doesn't look different: the expectations that they must be acting up because they don't look sick, the lack of support that children will other illnesses seem to get, why do they have a service dog, they don't have anything wrong with them (kids with seizure alert dogs, diabetic alert dogs).

I didn't want to ignore this comment . . . YES! "You look normal, so you must be normal!" It's difficult either way, isn't it? You just can't win. People just need to be kinder and think before they speak (reminder to myself)

>259 Nickelini: I didn't intend to say that those with albinism are disabled, but how the comment about parenting struck me. They struggle parenting a child who looks different, I struggle to parent a child that doesn't look different but is. It's not a new idea, but your review made me stop and think when I read it.

Enjoyed the discussion about Beyond the Pale, and respecting “differences”.

>255 Nickelini: Nowhere like Memorial (MUN) to get a PhD in folklore! This sounds like she used that background well in this book.

For some reason I had never connected Jane and Tony Urquhart. I'll have to get back to reading Jane Urquhart too. It doesn't sound as if Emily writes in Jane's disengaged fashion. I see that last year Emily published a book about her father: The Age of Creativity

>263 labfs39:

All good -- I think I didn't word what I meant to say very well. Before reading Beyond the Pale I didn't think of people with albinism as having a disability but after reading the book I can see that they do (to varying degrees). Sorry I muddled that.

Very interesting topic discussion - noting this book. A child at my kid's school has albinism and is Pakistani, and I often think it must be especially challenging having albinism and coming from a coloured racial background.

I'm enjoying your comments, Joyce.

I've heard good things about The Housekeeper and the Professor and will probably read it at some point; after seeing your comments I am not moving it to the top of my list.

I was one of the minority who didn't like A Man Called Ove, so I have avoided other Backman books. Maybe I'll have to rethink that.

I'm moving to a fresh thread for the next part of the year. I hope you follow me over there . . . . https://www.librarything.com/topic/331893

>265 SassyLassy: Can you recommend a book by Jane Urquhart? I don't know her writing.

>270 sallypursell:

I've read Changing Heaven, Away, The Underpainter, A Map of Glass, and Sanctuary Line, and I can't pick a favourite. They've all won or been nominated for various awards. I think Away is her most popular of these.

I haven't read The Stone Carvers, but it's well loved and was long listed for the Booker Prize.

I describe her books as "quiet novels". Not a lot of action, but usually a good slow burn.

>165 Nickelini: "Recommended for: One of the top hot books at the moment. I think everyone who might read this has read it."
Not me yet. But I think this is going to be one of my choices for my library book club next year. We have to wait to read "best sellers" since I have to be able to get multiple copies without a long waiting list.

Mothering Sunday is on my personal TBR list. It was one of my Random Picks a couple years ago. Still haven't gotten to it.

Enjoying your thread (yes, I'm way behind....)

>169 Nickelini: LOL! Well, I adore the cover. I might have to put this on my TBR...