Charlotte (Charl08) swims with the penguins (2)

I'm Charlotte, I'm dipping my toe into the Category Challenge for the first time this year after a couple of years in the 75ers.
I enjoy reading a wide range of books, from romance and crime fiction to literary fiction, not to mention non-fiction (although less of that). I try to read fiction from different places, and in 2020 joined an online book group that just reads translated fiction.

I am keen on penguins, both of the publishing and bird kind. Inspired by a recent documentary I'm organising my categories by penguin type - but advance warning, it gets pretty tangential.


Photo by Long Ma on Unsplash

Galapagos penguin (fiction ETA and NF in translation) 12
African penguin (books by authors with links to the African continent, loosely defined) 1
Yellow-eyed penguin (Keeping things interesting i.e. first time authors) 5
Chinstrap penguin (Graphic novels and memoirs) 5
Little penguin (Familiar faces - authors I've read before) 7
King penguin (books with links to feminism) 2
Great auk (histories) 2
Southern Rockhopper penguin (new-to-me authors) 5
Adelie penguin (prize nominees) 3
Macaroni penguin (genre fiction) 29
Emperor penguin (catch all category - everything else) 3

Total: 73

Feb 29
Jan 24
All images via wikipedia unless otherwise stated.

Galapagos penguin (fiction and NF in translation)



1. The Inspector of Strange and Unexplained Deaths (France)
2. Sidewalks (Translated from the Spanish, although author now writes in English and is based in the US)
3. London under snow (Catalan)
4. The Eighth Life (German)
5. Zero (Norwegian)
6. House on Endless Waters (Hebrew)
7. Not a Novel (German)
8. Abigail (Hungarian)
9. Paula (German)
10. Bookshops (Spanish)
11. The Book of Jakarta (Indonesian)
12. If I Had Your Face (Korean)

Currently reading:
A Girl Called Eel

Planned reading for this category from the Borderless Book Club:

March 11th - Comma Press | The Book of Jakarta

March 25th- Bitter Lemon Press |Crocodile Tears by Mercedes Rosende

https://www.peirenepress.com/borderless-book-club/

Books from the shelves

The Enlightenment of the Greengage Tree (Iran)
All Men are Liars
In the Twilight: stories (Russia)
Ankomst

Books from the library
If I had your face (South Korea)
Velvet (Palestine)

African penguin (books by authors with links to the African continent, loosely defined)


Photo by Lizel Snyman De Gouveia on Unsplash

1. Adua (Author is Italian-Somali)

Possible reads from my shelves:
To Hell with Cronje
Kicking Tongues (African Writers Series)
Segu
Occasion for Loving (VMC)
Dust
Homegoing
The Loss Library
This Mournable Body
Orchestra of Minorities
Speak No Evil

Yellow-eyed penguin (Keeping things interesting i.e. first time authors)


Had never come across these penguins before until I saw the BBC documentary last week.

1. Strange Beasts of China
2. Citadel (Poetry)
3. Keeper
4. Greetings from Bury Park
5. These Ghosts are Family

Possible reads from my shelves:
Kintu
Love and Other Thought Experiments

Possible reads from library requests:
Luster
Rainbow milk
What's left of me is yours
As you were by Elaine Feeney

Chinstrap penguin (Graphic novels and memoirs)



(Photo by Eamonn Maguire on Unsplash)
Because these penguins seem to appreciate graphic design...
1. Strong Female Protagonist
2. Britten and Brülightly
3. The Golden Age: Book 1
4. Ms Marvel : Stormranger
5. Palimpsest: documents from a Korean adoption

Possible reads from my shelves:
On Ajayi Crowther Street

Library requests:
Moms (in translation)

Little penguin (Familiar faces - authors I've read before)


Saw some of these guys at Phillip Island, about a million years ago now (it feels like).
1. The Haw Lantern
2. More than a Woman
3. Why Be Happy When You Can Be Normal?
4. The Pull of the Stars
5. Deacon King Kong
6. Hullabaloo in the Guava Orchard
7. The Galaxy and the Ground Within

Possible reads from the shelves: Divisadero
Summer
Rodham
Underground Railroad

King penguin (books with links to feminism and gender)


King penguin creche
1. Hag: forgotten folktales retold
2. Laura Knight

On the shelves
Invisible Women
Voyaging Out

Great auk (histories)


1. The Berlin shadow : living with the ghosts of the Kindertransport
2. The Emperor's Feast

Currently reading:
Burning the Books

From the shelves to read
Last Witnesses
Endeavour
Black and British
A Handful of Shells: West African History
The Bad Ass Librarians of Timbuktu

From the library to read:
Mutual Admiration Society

Southern Rockhopper penguin (new-to-me authors)


1. Interior Chinatown
2. Akhmatova: Poems
3. Blue in Chicago and other stories
4. Hieroglyphics
5. The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue
Possible reads from the shelves/ library requests:
How Beautiful We Were
The one hundred years of Lenni and Margot
If I had your face

Adelie penguin (prize nominees)


1. The Bells of Old Tokyo (shortisted for Stanford Dolman Travel Book of the Year)
2. The Historians (winner of the Costa Prize poetry category)
3. A Village Life (Louise Glück won the Nobel for Literature 2020)

Possible Prize winners to read:

Costa Prize category winners announced (Jan) -
Winner of the 2020 First Novel Award Love After Love by Ingrid Persaud (Faber)
(read in 2020)

Winner of the 2020 Novel Award: The Mermaid of Black Conch: A Love Story by Monique Roffey (Peepal Tree)

Winner of the 2020 Biography Award The Louder I Will Sing by Lee Lawrence (Sphere)

Winner of the 2020 Poetry Award The Historians by Eavan Boland (Carcanet)

Winner of the 2020 Children's Book Award: Voyage of the Sparrowhawk by Natasha Farrant (Faber)

Macaroni penguin - genre fiction

Macaroni penguins are the most numerous penguin (according to wikipedia!)

1. Wild Seduction (romance)
2. Whispering Death (crime)
3. Good time girl (r)
4. Tempting the best man (r)
5. Smoke and Whispers (c)
6. Angel in the Glass (c)
7. Truly Beloved (r)
8. The Sacrament (c)
9. The Ex Talk (r)
10. Enjoy the View (r)
11. The Searcher (c)
12. Pretty Face (r)
13. Justin's Bride (r)
14. The Summer Snow (c)
15. Instant Attraction (r)
16. Instant Gratification (r)
17. Instant Temptation (r)
18. Love in a Snowstorm (r)
19. The Unexpected Inheritance of Inspector Chopra (c)
20. The Austen Playbook (r)
21. Headliners (r)
22. Death Has Deep Roots (c)
23. Rocket Science (r)
24. The Last Whistle (r)
25. Sweet, Tart (r)
26. Defending the Rush (r)
27. The Novice's Tale (c) audio
28. Peaked (r)
29. It's Getting Scot in here (r)

Emperor penguin - ruling over everything else



1. A Rustle of Silk (audio)
2. From Crime to Crime (Law, Memoir)
3. I carried a Watermelon (Memoir, humour)

Enjoying the new penguin land Charlotte.

Happy new thread, Charlotte. I love all your penguins.

Happy new one, Charlotte!

Happy new thread, Charlotte. Always good to see all the penguins again.

Happy new thread! Seeing all those penguins will never not give me a lift :)

Happy New Thread, Charlotte! Hooray for the penguins. I never get tired of seeing them.

Happy new thread, Charlotte!

Happy new thread, Charlotte!

>13 Caroline_McElwee: Thanks Caroline.

>14 BLBera: Thanks Beth. There are some lovely pictures about.

>15 katiekrug: Thanks Katie.

>16 Helenliz: Thanks Helen. Glad I'm not the only one.

>17 Jackie_K: Thanks Jackie. Me too.

>18 msf59: Thanks Mark.

>19 FAMeulstee: Thanks Anita.

>20 humouress: That's cute, thanks Nina.

Appeal on behalf of the yellow eyed penguin

Have you read any fantastic new authors recently? I'm looking for *debuts* to get started on this category - would love some recommendations.

Ah, finally got the time to read through your threads. What I like about them is that they have a much higher book to chatter rate than in the 75 group. Of course, that means BBs are flying, but I'm so riddled with them now it really doesn't matter. Just call me Swiss cheese!

>22 charl08: The first debuts that popped into my head (and that I enjoyed) were The Thursday Murder Club and Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine.

Welcome to the category challenge! We'll enjoy all your penguins here!

>22 charl08: I have a few to suggest.

Kintu, the first novel by Jennifer Nandsubga Makumbi is historical fiction set in Uganda. Her second novel is due out in the US in September, A girl is a body of water.

Although I haven't read it, The theory of flight by Siphiwe Glorai Ndlovu is set in Zimbabwe and is in cataloging at my local library. (Also historical fiction, with some magical realism.)

In the romance field, I've recently enjoyed The flatshare and The switch by Beth O'Leary. (Romance isn't usually my jam, but these were not centered on romance, and were highly entertaining.)

>22 charl08: Do they have to be newly published? Flavorwire has "50 of the Greatest Debut Novels Since 1950": https://www.flavorwire.com/481906/50-of-the-greatest-debut-novels-since-1950

An older one, but a debut novel is Tea Obrecht's The Tiger's Wife.

>22 charl08: - One of the best debuts I've ever read was A Constellation of Vital Phenomena by Anthony Marra. It was published in 2013, I think.

>23 ffortsa: Hope you like the books when you get to them.

>24 rabbitprincess: I liked the first one :-)

>25 thornton37814: Glad to hear the penguins are welcome.

>26 markon: Shamingly, Kintu is on my shelf unread despite being there since she won the ?Kwani prize (a while). I have read her short stories though (Manchester Happened) - not sure if I can still count it? Tricky. She did a great event in the Bluecoat back when we were allowed to do such things. Not heard of the Ndlovu. I liked The Flatshare but for some reason am not tempted to pick up the other.

>27 ELiz_M: I can't think so! I had a look at some of the 2020 ones the Guardian recommended and have put some requests in at the library. Thanks for the link to the list!

>28 Tess_W: I read this one, but definitely liked her more recent one better. But maybe I should reread.

>29 katiekrug: I've not heard of that one Katie. Will have a look at the library catalogue and see if they can help me find a copy.

Thanks all for all the recommendations! Love having plenty of suggestions.

Why Be Happy When You Can Be Normal?
This was a reread for book group, which was today - and only two of us turned up! I really enjoyed it (again) although I think I had more sympathy for her (awful) mother, wondering how she would have told her own story. There are lovely bits about her love of books, the way she believes literature saved her, and accompanied by wonderful humour in the face of a childhood that noone would describe as pleasant.

Her mother banned books:

I used to work on the market on Saturdays, and after school on Thursdays and Fridays, packing up. I used the money to buy books. I smuggled them inside and hid them under the mattress.

Anybody with a single bed, standard size, and a collection of paperbacks, standard size, will know that seventy-two per layer can be accommodated under the mattress. By degrees my bed began to rise visibly like the Princess and the Pea, so that soon I was sleeping closer to the ceiling than to the floor. My mother was suspicious-minded, but even if she had not been, it was clear that her daughter was going up in the world.

>32 charl08: I like that quote :0)

>32 charl08: I loved that one. It's too bad only two showed up. Were you able to discuss?

>33 humouress: Despite the dark topic, it's a really funny book.

>34 BLBera: It was more of a lockdown chat in places, but it was lovely to speak to the coordinator.

Charlotte, I thought you might be interested in this, as their are categories for debut novels, translation, etc.

https://pen.org/literary-awards/2021-pen-america-literary-awards-finalists/

Thanks Katie! I will have a look.

I finished Strange Beasts of China just in time: literally minutes to go before the meeting started. The author says the translation feels like a little miracle fifteen years after she wrote it. (We don't usually have the author: big treat). The translator and the author met in New York as part of a funded writers' tour. Translator says that the emotional pitch of the book was quite different to his own more relaxed approach. The author compares her young self to an uncontrolled beast: not knowing the rules and so writing however she wanted to. Her more recent realist work has been received differently by the literary community. In reading the translation fifteen years after she wrote the book in Chinese, she's recalled her own younger self, both what she's gained in terms of understanding, but also compromises with what others expect. There is a tv series (I can't even imagine that!) But it's never been aired. The Chinese issue had illustrations (sadness, not the UK one). The translator says images not needed as one of the lessons of the book is that beasts are just like people... (It feels like he has mentioned this before.)

Questions for the small groups:
How did you feel about the protagonist? Did you relate to her?
What did you think of the ways families are represented in the book?
What do you think the book has to say about capital, success and the commodification of living beings?
What name would you give the human beast and how would you describe it?

>37 charl08: Interesting. Thank you for sharing.

I found the first chapter/story had been published online (also no illustrations) so I read it out of curiosity, and "capital, success and the commodification of living beings" definitely seemed to be a theme.

"one of the lessons of the book is that beasts are just like people"

Or perhaps, within the story's own terms, just "beasts are people".

I have no more book group deadlines for at least two weeks

>38 spiralsheep: Can't say anymore re the beast / people for fear of spoilers! I did like how the story of the young narrator built through the different beast chapters.

Reading The Pull of the Stars - Susan among others recommended this one. Very much enjoying it, beautifully written and weirdly prescient, for all it's set in 1917.

Aren't they any closer to a vaccine, then? She shook her head and her loose braid leapt. No one's even managed to isolate the bacterium on a slide yet. Perhaps the little bugger's too small for us to see and we'll have to wait for the instrument makers to come up with a stronger microscope, or possibly it's some new form of microbe altogether.

I was bewildered and daunted.
All rather humbling, she added ruefully. Here we are in the golden age of medicine - making such great strides against rabies, typhoid fever, diphtheria - and a common or garden influenza is beating us hollow. No, you're the ones who matter right now. Attentive nurses, I mean...

Bookish temptations... Have continued my current Russian enthusiasm by ordering Maria Stepanova's new book In Memory of Memory (well, newly translated).
https://fitzcarraldoeditions.com/books/in-memory-of-memory

Reading the TLS (12 Feb) I am not tempted by Crap: a history of cheap things in America (nice cover though!) or Shoddy by Hanna Rose Shell and I'll wait for the paperback version of Empireland. I have Francis Spufford's new one on request at the library (no sign of any copies on the system yet though, so might be awhile). Loved On Golden Hill. In fantasy library territory (where money, space and time are no object) I am tempted by the beautiful pictures of 6th century Italian mosaics in Ravenna: capital of empire, crucible of Europe, and also by The Decline of Magic: Britain in the Enlightenment. In RL at £75 for the two I'm not rushing to buy.

The Francis Spufford one is being serialised on the radio - it does sound interesting.

>41 charl08: I've had Golden Hill on my TBR shelves for a while...sounds like I should move it up the list!

>7 charl08: I have Invisible Women in my tbr as well! My work colleague was very taken with it.

>22 charl08: beautiful penguin. :) We call it the hoiho.

Invisible Women was the discussion book for my last scheduled library book group discussion at the end of March last year. I only started it in June/July and finished it in October (!) but as the group doesn't meet online (and some people may not have the means to do so), it hasn't reconvened.

>42 elkiedee: I do like those serialisations. Currently listening to the one they've done of Richard Osman's book. Someone else reading it brings out different things to what I found funny / interesting the first time round. And it works well for falling asleep to as well.

>43 christina_reads: It's just a wonderful historical novel.

>44 LovingLit: I really am v poor at getting on with the NF. Must try harder.

>45 elkiedee: What a shame! Hope you get to get together somehow.

Not a Novel
Erpenbeck on Fallada:

Words have an astounding ability to transform the air, and just by showing us reality from another perspective, they can transform one reality into another. Every man dies alone.
But writing conceals within itself a reserve of time. And a reserve of possibilities.
Fallada is not only the man who writes the forbidden post cards, he is also each person who finds them, who is too afraid to pass them on. He is not only the man who risks his life, but also the man who fails. Fallada clearly knows his the dreary apartments of the alcoholics he describes, and it is his own fear that way around itself in his characters' fears of denunciation and torture.

I'm not usually very good with an author's collected essays, reviews or other writings. I tend to find I have a limit to my interest in their work, or that their collected work is collectively repetitious, or just that it is so fragmented I get distracted by other books with stories and plot. I did put this one down a few times, but was glad to pick it up again, and as it is a small hardback I am tempted to get my own copy.

Erpenbeck does repeat herself. She recalls playing on a quiet street, where her parents never worry, because all traffic is prevented by the Wall blocking off a once busy thoroughfare. It recurs in several pieces as a metaphor for the unexpected benefits of being a child in East Berlin. However, there is so much here, despite the relatively brief length and these repeated ideas.

Much of it calls to other works: I am almost tempted to learn more about opera, based on her account of interpreting and staging productions as a director. I want to go back to my copy of All For Nothing now I understand a little more about Kempowski's life as prisoner and then exile in West Germany. I find myself wanting to read Ovid, to pick up Fallada.

Ovid himself lived, read, and wrote in a time of transition.... We must imagine Ovid in the first place as a reader himself: reading the texts of the ancient Greeks, most notably Homer, who lived 800 years earlier, or Hesiod, 700 years back. Then Pythagoras, Plato, Herodotus all of whom had been dead for close to 500 years by Ovid's time. The development of writing gives the reader centuries and millennia to reflect. New interpretations can be understood and compared to the original, since they are also transformations of that same material.

Ovid incorporated the stories of all of those "ancients" into his own book, along with some stories of his contemporaries. Greek gods, Roman gods, farmers, warriors, nymphs, demi gods, sirens, even Caesar and Augustus--the last of whom would soon banish Ovid from Rome-- all of these figures inhabit his Metamorphoses. And in his eyes all of these figures be come related to one another...

I admire that her concern re the "refugee crisis" goes beyond writing Go, Went, Gone, and goes beyond calling attention to the political manoeuvring of the West and the newfound enthusiasm for borders and border walls. She points to the odd double standard: escaping the GDR for the West = good, escaping the "shithole" countries = bad. Like Luiselli her politics means activism of the individual, personal encounter as well as the pen.

>47 charl08: I'm going to put Erpenbeck on my WL. I've read several Fallada's, my fav was Alone in Berlin. I have Little Man, What Now? on my TBR shelf.

>47 charl08: It sounds like I will have to move up Erpenbeck's book. Your quotes make it sound like one I would love.

Happy Sunday, Charlotte! Enjoy the freedom of reading without deadlines for awhile :D

>43 christina_reads: I loved that novel Christina.

>44 LovingLit: In a dark way this was really a page-turner for me. It's quite amazing how our world is still so powerfully designed for the default male. Possibly most scarily so in regard to medicine, where many things need different solutions for men and women. There is no one size fits all.

>47 charl08: I'm glad it worked for you Charlotte. I will definitely be revisiting it.

>48 Tess_W: I love the penguin editions of Fallada's work, must pick one up.

>49 BLBera: I'd love to know what you make of it, Beth. There is a lot there about the process of writing and reading which I always enjoy.

>50 bell7: Thanks Mary. I am mostly snoozing today, as have been hit by another weird stomach cramp, and it's horrible outside - but nonetheless it's nice not to worry about finishing on time.

>51 Caroline_McElwee: You remind me I need to sign up for some more of the Fawcett events, Caroline. (As well as picking up that book!)

Laura Knight
Part of a new series on women artists that Hannah (Hangerg) recommended. They're just little books (pleasingly like a Ladybird of old in the hands). A short essay on Knight's significance by Strickland, an academic expert on women war artists. The text is accompanied by high quality illustrations of Knight's work. Many of these images were new to me: I loved the circus and traveller images, and there are some beautiful ballet ones too.
Published by Eiderdown Books:
https://www.eiderdownbooks.com/
(Publicly owned Knights can be viewed via the ArtUK website)

>53 charl08: I bet that book is great! Have they done Winifred Nicholson yet? (*googles*)

One of the curators at a local museum is an expert on Laura Knight and I attended a seated lecture in the gallery which was hung with an extensive travelling exhibition of Knight's work. Every single piece, from sketches to full oils, was worth close attention and, even though her paintings look splendid in reproductions, there's texture and light in the originals that makes them well worth a gallery visit if you ever get the chance (and I say that as someone who mostly thinks repros via the web are fine for most viewing purposes).

>54 spiralsheep: That sounds brilliant. One of the exciting things about looking at the publicly held works online: it turns out a lovely painting by Knight is held by a small museum/ gallery near me. Whether they *exhibit* it is a different question, I guess.

The Erpenbeck book sounds interesting. Will add to my wishlist for searching out when libraries are open and I'm ready to start using them again.

I've read her The End of Days for my library reading group a few years ago. it's currently 99p on UK kindle. I have a paperback of Go, Went, Gone on my shelves - yet to be read.

>56 elkiedee: I was lucky to get a copy through my library: my library's reservation system continues to work an on the door pickup service. Good to hear of those deals too.

Just asked the library for a copy of Bessie Smith by Jackie Kay. Fingers crossed their budget will stretch to it.

>57 charl08: My local libraries are offering some sort of Click and Collect but to be honest I think focusing on actually reading some of my existing library books (of which there are a very excessive number, mostly that I've been taking back and borrowing again for years, apart from newly published distractions that others are actually wanting to read and reserving too) and making sure I don't end up with fines is more useful. Islington and Camden have been much more sensible about just extending loans and waiving fines than my local borough, which seems to have been in a hurry to reintroduce fines constantly. Islington libraries are completely shut and Camden Libraries branches are quite a trek by bus and nothing has to be returned now until May!

>57 charl08: Sadly, my library won't purchase any books that are more than 1 year old!

>58 elkiedee: All ours have been automatically renewed to 1st April and all fines and fees (including reservations) waived.

>59 Tess_W: Mine will try to get an ILL copy for older books - doesn't always work, but I appreciate the effort.

Happy new one, Charlotte. You did some great reading so far.

>61 Ameise1: Thanks Barbara.

I finished a crime novel, set in Franco's Spain, The Summer Snow. It's probably more realistic in terms of the nature of living in a dictatorship than the more 'morally questioning' ones I've come across. (Folks who like reading in order might suggest reading the books in order might help...)

Still reading The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue. A bit worried about where the plot is going. Also reading Hieroglyphics which in the words of a Chandler character "goes down easy". I am not reading either of the bookgroup books due for next week. Possibly ill advised procrastination there. Particularly since three new books have arrived at the library for me to pick up: Luster, 24032365::Exit (the Belinda Bauer one) and What's Left of Me is Yours.

>62 charl08: I read and loved Death of a Nationalist, first in the series of 4 books that The Summer Snow is part of, some years ago. I reviewed it for a website called Reviewing the Evidence, I think in about 2003. I bought the others on subsequent trips to America, hardback as well, but those copies have I fear ended up in the garden shed and I don't even know if they're in readable condition (conditions in there aren't very good and I hardly dare look). So I bought replacements secondhand which are somewhere in my room. Still haven't got to reading them. Perhaps I should dig out #2 in the series and line it up as a next read. Perhaps I should even reread #1.

>63 elkiedee: Oh no! Your poor books in the shed...

Hieroglyphics
I have mixed feelings about this one, not least because I'm not sure I really "get it"! The author ties together the story of an elderly couple who have moved to be closer to their daughter, and a single mum and her young son. The book circles their memories and the present day, avoiding much that is painful whilst showing how that avoidance doesn't really work (still causing anxiety, distrust, and for the small boy, bedwetting). In some ways it reminded me of a friend of my parents, who is a brilliant storyteller, but seems to get a bit bored of her own stories, so nudges them around a bit. It took me an embarrassingly long time to work out that this repetition was deliberate and had a function.

A story is easier to fall into than your own life, which is why Frank was always taken with mythology...

I would like to blame my dissatisfaction with the lack of completely neat resolution on lockdown and associated anxieties. I can accept that it makes for truer writing.

Citadel
First collection by Martha Sprackland, a young poet from my part of the world. I was struck in the reviews by the connection with a historical Spanish queen but actually found that was only a small part of the collection. My favourite referenced the links between my local coast and the Scandinavian one.

As a flavour, this poem is published on her website:

Domestic

Glass as day-blooming flower,
television as mortar shell. Television
as volleyball against white sun.
Sun as broken glass, in fragments,
glass as crazy paving on street below.
Power cord as vapour trail.
White smoke as cigarette smoke,
smoke as wedding dress pulled through water,
smoke as blood in water.
Glass as water on street below.
Pavement cracks as broken glass as x-ray
held to box of light. Television as broken wrist.
Power cord as skywriting, as Marry Me
on biplane banner. Television as biplane.
Television as bird. White flower growing
in pavement crack as open hand.
Glass as broken glass.

https://www.the-tls.co.uk/articles/citadel-martha-sprackland-review-rory-waterma...

Sweet Thursday, Charlotte. I hope all is well. I like the "Domestic" poem, although I am still trying unravel portions of it.

Thanks Mark, it's a rather lovely collection. She describes being on a train going home on a line near me, but she does it so beautifully.

I have been listening to a bit of the launch of the new book about the artist Eileen Agar. Fascinating talk, illustrated by beautiful images of art, and I hope my copy of the book turns up soon.

I have booked for a (free) event about New Dutch Writing on 17th March (not unconnected to my enjoyment of the Verzet collection).
www.bl.uk/events/the-Dutch-riveter

Richard Osman on his new crime novel. Apparently,

In Britain everyone is incredibly polite, right up to the moment they murder you.

https://crimereads.com/all-british-people-are-potential-murderers-thats-why-we-l...

I have tomorrow off. I am hoping for a break in the rain so that I can put in some of the recent plant deliveries, and put together the new (small, plastic) greenhouse.

>68 charl08: "In Britain everyone is incredibly polite, right up to the moment they murder you."

This is exactly what happened when I was murdered by incredibly polite everyones. Good to know Mr Osman has shared my not at all unlikely experience. :D

>69 spiralsheep: The article did make me laugh. I've been enjoying listening to the radio serialisation of the book too.

(Still) reading Bookshops by Jorge Carrion, travelling with him to bookshops around the world. I still have plenty I want to visit, if/ when they reopen.

A bookshop is a community of believers...

>69 spiralsheep: The article did make me laugh. I've been enjoying listening to the radio serialisation of the book too.


(Still) reading Bookshops by Jorge Carrion, travelling with him to bookshops around the world. I still have plenty I want to visit, if/ when they reopen.

A bookshop is a community of believers...

>68 charl08: The New Dutch Writing event looks good, Charlotte. I will look up Simone Atangana Bekono, as I did not hear about her before. And found a book in the e-library, on my list now.

ETA: Funny to find Dutch books through your thread :-)

>71 charl08: Wouldn't a bookshops around the world tour be a great idea, Charlotte?

Citadel sounds like a good collection; I'll look for it. Summer Snow sounds like one I would like as well. I will look for the first one. :)

>72 FAMeulstee: That is surprising to me, Anita. It must be *very* new Dutch writing to be news to you.

>73 BLBera: I had a rubbish day (am waiting for an appointment to see the gyne specialist) but fortunately the painkillers meant that I slept for most of it. Dreamt all the shops were open again, my parents were queuing outside a fish and chip shop and one of my brother's friends was sitting on the sofa. I was terribly worried in the dream that we were all breaking COVID restrictions, instead of what I should have done, which was run to the dream bookshop. Ah well.
The wine has arrived that I ordered for my birthday. There was a discount if you ordered six bottles, so I have recreated last year's holiday with SA bottles including one from Klein Constantia vineyard. I have taken the day off to "celebrate" next week, and plan to bake a cake and read some new books so let the good times roll.

Also approaching is my Thingaversary. I have started my haul by looking at the reissues from Penguin of 6 Black British writers.

Gorgeous covers, too: https://www.penguin.co.uk/articles/2021/february/black-britain-writing-back-desi...

I'm sorry you had a crap day. I recommend opening one of the birthday bottles of wine :)

Your birthday plans sound just about perfect to me!

What Katie said.

>75 charl08: Those are some gorgeous covers. Happy birthday to you.

>75 charl08: Will definitely be adding some of those to my cart Charlotte.

Happy thingaversary and I hope that you are feeling better.

>76 katiekrug: Thanks Katie. I can report that the first bottle is very nice.

>77 BLBera: Thanks Beth. Aren't they pretty!

>78 Caroline_McElwee: I am really looking forward to reading them with her intros. I went and ordered some of her backlist when she won, and need to pick some of those up too.

>79 Tess_W: Thanks! I have plenty of books, but I love the Thingaversary excuse.

Now reading Abigail from the library, and finding it quite different from (my memory of) the other Szabó I've read.

But as she warmed to her task and became absorbed in the essay - it was one that every school child in the country was asked to write in November 1943 - she found her buoyant mood fading. Looking along the rows of heads bent over exercise books she thought of how, back in the dormitory, the girls talked about absolutely everything but the war. There was scarcely one of them who did not have someone at the front, the thought of it was always there, just below the surface of their consciousness; and yet all they ever whispered about was love, their teachers, and what had happened in lessons that day. She was the only person in the class who worried about why it had all started and how it might end. Some of the pupils were actually in mourning; they were allowed to ignore the usual rules and wear whatever they chose under their school uniforms to mark their grief. The father of one of the first years had fallen in the summer, and the same had happened to a girl in the seventh year. The orphans whimpered and shed tears whenever they thought about it, but their loss never led them to ask whether things could have been any different.

>75 charl08: Very lovely! I hope they tide you over the crap time until the celebrations sgtart.

I loved Abigail. You remind me, I want to read more Szabó.

>80 charl08: I read and loved her The Door, and certainly want to read more of her work Charlotte.

>81 MissWatson: I am looking forward to them arriving.

>82 BLBera: I found this more accessible than the other Szabó I read. I read it is a loose trilogy though, so maybe it's just another case of reading out of order?

>83 Caroline_McElwee: I would like to know more about her, I'm wondering if there is a biography in English.

Instant Attraction (Genre fiction)
This was a reread of a Jill Shalvis novel - I think I first came across this author when Susan recommended her (but apologies if I've got that wrong!) I saw this book was listed on offer on the SBTB site and was reminded that I liked it. Fun small town starting again story.

Abigail (in translation)
Novel set in the second world war. Gina is a rather spoiled teenager in Budapest. Her father ('The General') decides to send her to an isolated, severe boarding school. She is shocked by the extreme discipline and fails to fit in with the other girls. The students amuse themselves with secrets from the teachers, but Gina breaks the confidence in a moment of anger. Her whole class reject her. She decides to run away. But then her father returns and explains why he chose such a remote school: everything changes.
I found this novel a lot more accessible than the previous Szabó novel I'd read: apart from occasional references to the adult Gina's reflections, this story was told from the point of view of a young girl in a strange new place. Occasionally vps of other characters are shared, but this is brief. Gina's confidence and self-belief in the face of bizarre school rituals make for a compelling coming of age story.

Now reading Keeper (Debut authors) which is very good so far.

Had to come across to my other little nook in the site to find you here, Charlotte. As usual you are reading up a storm with 44 books already.

Thanks Paul!

Now reading Paula as the next book group meeting has crept up on me. (So far) just my kind of book: different generations discussing family history.

>87 charl08: It's good to hear that this is a book group read that you are enjoying so far!

>88 MissBrangwen: I love discussing books, but as you've probably gathered, I hate being *told* what to read..

Keeper Category: first time authors.
Grippy crime fiction that manages to centre the story on a women's refuge without generalizing or offering any neat solutions. The psychological abuse described I found hard to read. I would be intrigued to see what the author writes next: she credits both Val McDermid and Jeanette Winterson as supporting her with her writing.

The Keeper sounds good. I've put in a request for the library to purchase it...

Hope they can find you a copy, Katie. I was impressed- especially for a first novel.

>59 Tess_W: How odd.

>62 charl08: You might try reading in order ;0) (I only say this because you suggested I should suggest it).

>68 charl08: >69 spiralsheep: :0D

Is it/ was it your birthday too? Happy Birthday!

These few days in February seem very popular. I missed Kim's (Berly) birthday too.

>92 humouress: Thanks! I am now feeling very full, as the Chinese banquet was indeed a banquet meal.

I'm well on the way for the Thingaversary.
Pictured:
Sylvia Pankhurst: modern women artists
Eileen Agar: modern women artists series
Books make good pets
Poor (poetry by Caleb Femi)
The Emperor's Feast: a history of China
On Seamus Heaney

I started reading the new Esther Freud I couldn't love you more, out here in May.

Aoife got up to place the books on the window ledge and that's when she saw it - a small, plain volume, but dangerous as sin. The Country Girls. Surely it was banned? The book is filth and shouldn't be allowed in any decent home. Who was it that had said that the Minister for Justice, that's who it was, and the author an O'Brien, only a girl herself, and she from County Clare.Aoife opened it and saw the scrawl of an inscription.

my rose, i thought i'd better send you this as i hear they're burning copies in the street. hard to imagine that would happen again, so soon. but as you're over there getting an education, then you might as well make sure all aspects are covered. love to the nuns. love, and so much more to you, felix x

>94 charl08: I have a copy of that to read and I just have to wade through a few more books for the Tournament of Books first. Looking forward to finishing the reading for that and just reading whatever I feel like for awhile.

>94 charl08: Love that quote, Charlotte.

>95 RidgewayGirl: I will check out your thread for the ToB recommendations, Kay.

>96 BLBera: I've only just started it, Beth, but very good so far.

I finished Paula last night, fascinating book centred on one person's memory of her family. I think it will make for a good discussion at the book club tomorrow evening.

They've made just over 60% of the fundraising total after being turned down by the UK arts council (still free to participants)
https://ko-fi.com/borderlessbookclub

If you know anyone interested in translated fiction please do share, it's a very friendly group, and easy to participate at the level you choose. It's made me appreciate more just how much small publishers' passion and advocacy helps to get fiction in other languages accessible to English speakers.
https://www.peirenepress.com/borderless-book-club/

Bookclub questions (to which I don't have the answers)
What might Paula’s trauma be?
Can trauma be inherited?
Can not knowing the truth be a cause of trauma?
What roles does religion play for the different individuals in the book?
How does Sandra Hoffmann defy her family’s deliberate silence? Do you find that defiance ultimately successful? How does that family silence affect you as a reader?
Sandra Hoffmann’s German editor calls the book a memoir, while Sandra Hoffmann prefers the term story. Is there a clear line between fiction and autobiography? Can you understand the writer’s reluctance to use the word memoir?
Is the story specifically tied to its 20th-century German context or could it be set anywhere?
What does the use of Swabian dialect throughout the novel indicate about the characters and their relationships?
What effect does the use of Swabian dialect in the translation have on you as a reader?

>98 charl08: Ooh, this does sound like an interesting discussion!

Thank you for mentioning the Borderless Bookclub again. I'm planning on reading & attending the one on The book of Jakarta.

>93 charl08: Oops, On Seamus Heaney just tripped into my shopping Cart. Thanks for that Charlotte.

>99 markon: Hope to see you at the meeting for The Book of Jakarta , Ardene.

>100 Caroline_McElwee: When it arrived I was so pleased: another small hardback!

>101 charl08: I have a couple of others in that series Charlotte, Colm Tóibín's one on Elizabeth Bishop, and Alistair McCall Smith's one on Auden.

>102 Caroline_McElwee: I have the Toibin one too: nice, aren't they?!

Now reading The Emperor's Feast, part of my birthday/thingaversary haul.

During the Song dynasty, amid the café culture of the merchant capital of Kaifeng, you addressed your waiter as Uncle (dabo); in a 1930s Shanghai infused with French hauteur, you called your waiter Monsieur (xiansheng) and your waitress Mademoiselle (xiaojie). By the 1980s, when the textbooks I used for Chinese language were written, we were advised to address our server as Comrade (tong- chi), although this has always seemed like an overly hopeful attempt to instil some Marxist ethics in new pupils. In the real world, all employees were to be addressed with the unisex term Attendant (fuwuyuan) Hence I arrived in China completely unsure of what words I should be using. I was batted like a linguistic pinball, from Shanghai, where waitresses were still xiaojie, to Chengdu, where fuwuyuan had contracted to a slurred, barely intelligible fwer.
And when I related this in Xi'an to my new faculty colleagues, I was immediately told that all of these terms were wrong.

Looks like you are doing well with your Thingaversary books, Charlotte. Mine was this month too. It was harder than I thought it would be to gather the requisite books.

Listening to the translator and publisher (the same person) discussing Paula as part of the online bookgroup. We're deep in autofiction territory.

Some of the people in the group have mentioned Herta Muller and Inka Parei. More recommendations re Latin American autofiction Alejandro Zambra - Ways of Going Home (Chile), Julian Fuks - Resistance (Argentina/Brazil). Lots of discussions of the use and development of silences in the novel. How does the reader fill in the blanks in her grandmother's life? Discussion about resolution and avoidance of neat answers in the book (unlike some fictional approaches to memory). Discussion of the role of nature, how animals played a part in the narrator's childhood sense of security. As the book is set in rural Germany (Swabian dialect plays a part), the key role of the church is also a big part of the book, particularly her grandmother's obsessive use of the rosary. At the end of the book the narrator and her father leave the grandmother's funeral early because they don't know how catholic funerals work. Which pretty much sums up the gap between the generations.

The publisher tells us her new books include a graphic novel about guest workers in the DDR. I'm pretty keen for that one to come out.

>104 Familyhistorian: I'm not sure I'll get to the full number, Meg. Although the six books Penguin are putting out with Bernadine Evaristo help!

I've just been looking at my shelves and thinking that I used to own at least two of Rachel Seiffert's books. Did I give them away? Leave them somewhere? Only read library copies? Mystery. Reminded of how good they were as Hoffman's book hit some of the same notes for me.

>105 charl08: I have never heard of this book or this author before, so I looked her up at the National Library DNB. Does the book reveal who the father is? Because there is a sort of companion book told from the perspective of the man... Was ihm fehlen wird, wenn er tot ist. Anyway, thanks for the BB.

>107 MissWatson: I suppose it's a bit of a spoiler so the writer still doesn't know, as far as the translator knows. The previous book imagined the father was a forced labourer from Poland: this one finds some clues for other possible fathers too. Look forward to hearing what you think of the book, when you get to it (no pressure).

I've ordered another bookshelf. Hoping it will fit...

The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue
This was about 900 pages on the Borrowbox app. I liked it at the start (Addie does a deal with a kind of evil force to live as long as she wants). I especially loved the way the author wove art influences through the story, Addie's way of finding permanence. However, despite the good things about it, it felt way too long to me.

The reviews I've seen have all been raves, so you may want to take my view with a pinch of salt!

900 pages is quite a commitment...

I love the translation talk. One thing I love about the Pereine Press books is the note they send with the book.

>110 BLBera: I sometimes think I should turn off the page numbers in extra long books. Not sure how long it was in "real life".

I agree re the notes: I got one in my Eiderdown Press order too, and it was a sweet touch.

Reading The Emperor's Feast

Not sure I want to try this one (from c.200 BC- 200 ACE) :

There are even some foreign recipes. Barbarian Roast Meat (hu pas rou) called for a fat white sheep, about one year old, to be slaughtered, its meat cut into strips 'like leaves' with the fat still on them, and marinated in fermented bean paste with salt, the shredded white base of a leek, ginger, black peppers (an Indian import) and Sichuan peppers (the berries of the prickly ash). The mix was sewn inside the sheep's stomach, padded with more fat if necessary, and then baked in glowing ashes. The dish required no cooking pot - the only reference to cauldrons came in the recipe's cooking time, which advised baking the meats for as long as it took to boil water for rice and then cook it.

>112 charl08: The Tripe Marketing Board will be disappointed in your lack of culinary adventurousness. ;-)

>113 spiralsheep: I think they had written me off long ago!

Reading The Unexpected Inheritance of Inspector Chopra - every year work participates in "The Big Read" a project run at several UK universities as a way to introduce prospective students to each other. This is one of the possible books - there will be a vote.

>112 charl08: It sounded feasible and quite nice - until you got to the stomach. Maybe with a different cooking method?

>115 humouress: I think it's the repeated mention of fat that got me! It's a fascinating book, the author has done a lot of travelling (and eating).

Read this weekend

Love in a Snow Storm
Disappointing lack of said storm for most of the book. Should really have been called "Incidental snowstorm on otherwise unsnow related book".

A Village life
I picked this up as I hadn't read any of Glück's work until some was reprinted following the Nobel. I liked this quiet collection exploring rural isolation and (often) sadness. The narrator looks back on youthful attempts to put off adulthood.

All her life she dreamed of living by the sea but fate didn't put her there.
It laughed at her dreams;
it locked her up in the hills, where no one escapes.

The sun beats down on the earth, the earth flourishes.
And every winter, it's as though the rock underneath the earth rises
higher and higher and the earth becomes rock, cold and rejecting.

She says hope killed her parents, it killed her grandparents.
It rose up each spring with the wheat and died between the heat of summer and the raw cold.
In the end, they told her to live near the sea,
as though that would make a difference.

The Unexpected Inheritance of Inspector Chopra
I liked this gentle crime novel set in Mumbai, following an ethical retired policeman in a corrupt world. However, I was asked to read it re the possibility of it becoming the uni book for 21/22. I think I might point out that the ethical vegan contingent on campus is unlikely to be keen on a book featuring a chained pet elephant. But maybe that's a good way to get a discussion going, points out my mum, so ...?

>116 charl08: 'Should really have been called "Incidental snowstorm on otherwise unsnow related book".'

Lol!

I re-read all of Gluck's poetry when her collected volume was published but I now see she's released another book. I should get hold of a copy. Thank you for the reminder.

>117 spiralsheep: I am spoiled for choice re which volume to pick up next as this is the only one I have read - any suggestions?

>118 charl08: I haven't re-read them since 2012 but iirc her poetry was relatively stable in form, content, and style, over time so, apart from her most recent book which is supposedly a departure, I don't have a strong opinion. You could work your way backwards via Averno? The Wild Iris used to be touted as her most beloved volume, but I don't remember it standing out as exceptional. She's just a consistently good poet.

>119 spiralsheep: I went to have a look at what Blackwells has to offer, and see that Penguin are bringing out one of Gluck's books in their classics editions, so have put that on the wishlist.



I finally finished Bookshops which apart from some bits that veered off into ideas about lust and consumerism I mostly liked. I'm going to circle back to it when lockdown ends and were allowed to travel again. I want to visit Alnwick's train station bookshop and other "book towns": I had heard of Wigtown and been to Hay but didn't realise this was an international trend. (Carrión doesn't like them, but I will ignore him.)

>120 charl08: Barter Books in Alnwick is one of my happiest happy places! I've really missed it this past year or so (we normally stop off in Alnwick on our way to visit my parents, but obviously could only do that in the Before Times). It's got a really nice cafe too, in the old waiting rooms.

>120 charl08: >121 Jackie_K: Added Barter Books in Alnwick to my travel wishlist! :-)

>121 Jackie_K: It sounds amazing! I think Sanddune over in the 75ers has also talked about how great it is.

>122 MissBrangwen: I really should start a list rather than just a notional list (that I'm bound to forget).

Hi Charlotte, I wanted to tell you that Simone Atangana Bekono's debut novel (Confrontaties) is on the Libris Shortlist (an important Dutch literary prize, a bit like the Booker).
She will be in the Dutch writers event on March 17th.

>124 FAMeulstee: I'm looking forward to it, Anita! Thanks for the heads up.

This beautiful GN arrived today. I am feeling a bit wobbly after having the jab yesterday, so lovely to get it in the post.
Palimpsest: documents from a Korean adoption

>109 charl08: yes, 900 pages is a feat. I am intimidated these days by the larger tomes. Although, I am reading the Satanic Verses at present, on audio, to disguise its weighty-tomeness. :)

>126 LovingLit: Well, I suspect it was less in the printed version! (I've just checked: over 500 in the hardback)

I finished Palimpsest - it really is a beautiful book, but so sad. The author was adopted as a small child from South Korea to Sweden.

She grew up feeling out of place (she describes daily racist microagressions, after years of racist bullying at school). Her feelings led her to depression and to seeking her birth mother. Agencies in Korea denied holding any information on her parents. Years later, and with the support of her partner, she tried again. Her story is one of corruption and attempts by administrators to cover up rather than try and help her. The rawness of her anger and sadness is so hard to read. Ultimately, I'm not sure it really works as graphic memoir. Although it's beautifully drawn, there are a lot more text-heavy documents than I would expect in this format. However, I'm not sure if that is the point: the author describes herself as an adoption activist. This book unapologetically agitates for change. She describes this as for those historically adopted away from their home states. But she also wants change in those countries that still allow children to be adopted by overseas adoptive parents.

Work participates in an all campus book club. There is lots of variety in the shortlist this year, which is seeking to promote works by BAME authors.

>128 charl08: I've just bought the Inspector Chopra novel Charlotte (for this mon's BAC read), and read the Desai years ago. Explaining Humans is also in the tbr mountain.

>129 Caroline_McElwee: I liked Khan's new series more, Caroline (but maybe that's because I prefer the tone, I'm quite fussy re cosy crime). Explaining humans sounds good.

I just got the message re the online group meeting for The Book of Jakarta. Looking forward to it!

It's great news that you got the jab, Charlotte! How are you feeling now?

>131 susanj67: I think it was a mix up Susan, but I'm very grateful! My arm is still a bit sore (I think I tensed up too much in the clinic) but other than that all the weird dislocated feeling seemed to disappear by Tuesday evening.

>128 charl08: Thanks for the list, Charlotte. It looks like you have some good possibilities there.

>127 charl08: This does sound good.

Reading Death Has Deep Roots This post-war reunion in a prep school teachers' common room made me laugh out loud.

"Just explain what you're doing here looking like a down-at-heels student from the London School of Economics."
"Oh, I say. Is it as bad as that? ....
Well-look at it this way. If I let on that I'd been in the Commandos and so on-you know what I mean. It takes an awful lot of living up to. Boys are such whole-hearted creatures, you've no idea. I'd have been expected to have a cold bath every morning in the winter and-why, good heavens, if a mad bull had appeared on the playing fields it would have been 'Send for Evans' Life wouldn't have been worth living. So I just told them I'd been a conscientious objector all the war and had been doing agricultural work in North Wales."

>133 BLBera: Sorry I missed replying there Beth. The GN really is beautifully done: but so sad. It left me feeling quite heartbroken for her.

>134 charl08: Ahahahahaa!

Some of your thread readers in the UK might like to know that Square Haunting is a Kindle Daily Deal.

>137 elkiedee: Ohh! Go on, Kindle people, you know you want to. It was very good.

>136 spiralsheep: I laughed out loud. I finished the book wondering if anyone has ever thought about making a film of this book: it seems perfect for it. French gangsters, dodgy British smugglers, heroic resistance fighters and the threat of the Gestapo over it all.

>137 elkiedee: Aha! Good deal. I loved that one.

>138 Helenliz: Lots of encouragement for Square Haunting.

>139 charl08: It sounds very readable but unfortunately I'd probably spend the whole time having inappropriate flashbacks to Minka the Polish resistance veteran from Hut 33 (Radio 4 comedy).

>140 spiralsheep: Olivia Colman's finest hour?
I tend to imagine "I shall say this only once " or...

>140 spiralsheep: >141 charl08: Surely both the greatest WW2 dramas of all time!

Happy Thingaversary, Charlotte!

>141 charl08: "I shall say zis only once: outstanding gif game."

>142 Jackie_K: I'm old enough to remember Secret Army, the drama 'Allo 'Allo! was based on, and I can only say that the parody was extremely close to the reality. Comic genius. Although Hut 33 is more to my comedic taste. Minka? ARGH!

>134 charl08: That is hilarious.

Happy Thingaversary, I look forward to reading about what treats you chose Charlotte.

Happy Thingaversary!

>141 charl08: My French accent is about that good. >;-)

Happy Thingaversary!

>142 Jackie_K: Oh definitely (!)

>143 FAMeulstee: Thanks Anita.

>144 spiralsheep: I was so shocked when I realised who played Minka. Weird.

>145 BLBera: Made me laugh out loud.

>146 Caroline_McElwee: >147 Tess_W: >148 Helenliz: I need to get my act together and take a photo. Yesterday's digging in the front garden has rather derailed my (not that) ambitious plans for setting up the new bookcase, putting up photos and picture and potting up the house plants I got for my birthday!

>134 charl08: :0D

>141 charl08: :0)

Happy Thingaversary!

Thanks Nina. I got distracted again: new apple tree (three varieties grafted onto one trunk) and several plants are now in the ground. Hoping they survive!

Reading If I Had Your Face: such an unflinching book.

It still amazes me the naïveté of the women of this country. Especially the wives. What, exactly, do they think their men do be ween the hours of 8 pm, and midnight every weeknight? Who do they think keeps these tens of thousands of room salons flush with money? And even the ones that do know they pretend to be blind to the fact that their husbands pick out a different girl to fuck every week, They pretend so deeply that they actually forget.

Thingaversary books: I joined back in 2008, so...

Devil in the Grove
Coming of Age in Mississippi
The Beet Queen
Crocodile Tears
Palimpsest (reviewed above

Bernadine Evaristo's collaboratiom with Penguin to rerelease Black British writers:
Incomparable World
Minty Alley
The Dancing Face
The Fat Lady Sings
Without Prejudice

A Village Life (reviewed above)
Border Lines
On Seamus Heaney

Bright Dead Things

Happy Thingaversary!

Happy Thingaversery!

And I am happy I found your thread, finally.

>154 charl08: Little mistake, Charlotte, I joined on March 6th, 2008. You joined a year before me. So you need one more book ;-)

>155 spiralsheep: Thanks!

>156 banjo123: Thanks for finding my thread.

>157 FAMeulstee: I left off Bernard and the Cloth Monkey from the Evaristo series, so all is resolved!

I am enjoying the tone of The Emperor's Feast:

The upheavals of the Manchu invasion are held to be at least partly responsible for an innovation in Chinese tea. Forced to delay their harvest until relatively late in the year, farmers in Wuyi, in Fujian, sped up the packing process for the 'small grade' fourth and fifth leaves, lower quality than the three leaves of the first flush, by roasting them over pine-wood fires, inadvertently imparting to them a smoky aftertaste. The locals thought it was awful, but soon found some foreigners to offload it on.

This Lapu Mountain Small Grade' (lapu-shan xiao zhong) retained its southern Chinese pronunciation abroad, as lapsang souchong.

Now heading to Indonesia for the next online book group meeting, discussing The Book of Jakarta
From the editors' intro

(Suharto's) government banned over 2,000 books and persecuted hundreds of writers, artists, and cultural activists for being critical of the regime. As a result, short stories published in this era often use symbolism and surrealism to bypass the censorship and deliver subtle social critiques. The reform in 1998, coupled with more widespread internet use, ushered in a more creative era in which a wider variety of stories emerged, as well as publishing platforms. While in the past being published in a national newspaper was the epitome of success, many contemporary writers chose to experiment, publishing their work on blogs, community forums, or social media, reaching new readers...

>159 charl08: 'offload' *smirk*

I just saw an old episode of 'Family Ties' where the pretentious guy all the teenage girls hang around asked for lapsang souchong. (obviously my autocorrect hasn't heard of it yet)

Happy thingaversary! The Emperor's Feast sounds great...

>160 charl08: "short stories published in this era often use symbolism and surrealism to bypass the censorship and deliver subtle social critiques."

Or not so subtle. I have Jazz, Perfume, and the Incident on my To Read list for May. I'll be interested to hear what subsequent generations have been getting up to.

>161 humouress: Well, you've got to watch out for those fancy tea drinkers...

>162 MissWatson: It's a fun read.

>163 spiralsheep: Wow, I've not heard of that one. The review on the book page makes it sound like book as a spy mission.

Three feminist bookshops have joined forces with Boudicca Press to celebrate the publication of ​Disturbing The Body..

Disturbing The Body ​will launch across three nights, with​ Lighthouse, Five Leaves ​and Housmans​ bookshops each hosting a different pairing of writers.

The ambitious three-part launch reflects the creativity and character of radical bookshops and the scope of this phenomenal anthology. Taking readers on a bookish journey the length of the country, it exemplifies the ways indies have rallied together for each other and for independent presses during the pandemic.

The three-part launch picks out common threads from the book to give you the following:

23rd March with Lighthouse (Edinburgh): Chikọdili Emelumadu and Verity Holloway focus on using genre (horror) to explore women’s bodily experiences.

24th with Five Leaves: Louise Kenward & Laura Elliott, on storytelling that explores health, medicine and disability.

25th Housmans (London): Irenosen Okojie and Abi Hynes draw on their stories, which are quite uncanny with an element of the fantastical, to explore feminism and body politics.

https://boudiccapress.wordpress.com/

https://fiveleavesbookshop.co.uk/events/disturbing-the-body-book-launch-with-lou...

>154 charl08: Nice! Happy Thingaversary.

Thanks Beth. I need to get reading them now!

Am now exhausted, put up new bookcase (with help) and the after effects of the digging in the garden yesterday for the first time after the winter! Looking forward to some book rearranging tomorrow.

Jhalak Prize Longlist
https://www.jhalakprize.com/the-prize

Have you read any of these? Any on your radar?

Romalyn Ante Antiemetic for Homesickness (Chatto & Windus)

Catherine Cho - Inferno (Bloomsbury Circus)

Afshan D’Souza-Lodhi - re: desire (Burning Eye Books)

Caleb Femi - Poor (Penguin)

Kiran Millwood Hargrave - The Mercies (Picador)

Tammye Huf - A More Perfect Union (Myriad Editions)

Rachel Long - My Darling From the Lions (Picador)

Deirdre Mask - The Address Book (Profile Books)

Katy Massey - Are We Home Yet (jacaranda)

Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi - The First Woman (Oneworld Publications)

Paul Mendez - Rainbow Milk (Dialogue Books)

Stephanie Scott - What’s Left of Me Is Yours (W&N)

Bought for Kindle
The Mercies
The First Woman
The Address Book

Netgalley
Rainbow Milk

None read yet!

And in the previous 3 years I've read one or two of the shortlist titles and bought a couple of others in addition, though I don't remember hearing of the award. .

Also interested to see a children's/YA prize.

Definitely one to keep an eye out for.

Now reading Greetings from Bury Park which should come with a Springsteen playlist.

From those opening words I wanted to know what happened next. I lay on my bed in the darkness and listened to the story unfold, it was a motion picture told in words and music. As each song unfurled I kept asking How I Had lived for sixteen years without this music, without even the knowledge that it existed... Having stumbled in the dark for so long on that September night I was blinded by the light. Everything significant that I did or achieved in my life in the years that followed had its roots in the emotions I experienced that evening. That night Bruce Springsteen changed my life.

>169 elkiedee: >170 elkiedee: I have a few too - My Darling From the Lions and Caleb Femi's Poor. From the library Paul Mendez - Rainbow Milk (Dialogue Books) and Stephanie Scott - What’s Left of Me Is Yours.
But I haven't read any of them!

I want to read Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi's new book The First Woman (Oneworld Publications).

I'm really enjoying the latest read from the Borderless bookclub The Book of Jakarta (and on track to finish on time, I think).

The discussion questions are:
And here are the discussion questions for the breakout rooms:
Travel, whether by plane, in cars of various kinds, taxis, trains, and motorcycles, or by foot, is such an integral part of many stories in this collection. What are the different roles travel plays within different stories in this collection, whether in terms of trying to travel overseas, going by motorbike to a cafe, or by car from one neighbourhood to another?
How does the changing nature of the city, whether an imagined future Jakarta in 'Buyan' and 'Grown-Up Kids', or a current capitalist dystopia not immune to white supremacy in 'B217AN', affect characters in these stories? How does geography and class affect how they see themselves and others?
Which story stood out the most to you, and why?
Did you notice any recurring themes or motifs across different stories?
How important is the setting to these stories? To what extent are they rooted in the urban landscape?

The Women's Prize Longlist is due to be announced some time today.

>168 charl08: I'm also quite intererested in the Jhalak Children's and Young Adult Prize, both for my own reading and for present ideas, so thanks for that. Have copied the adult list to my own 75 Group thread.

>174 elkiedee: I'd missed that!

TODAY is the day! At 6pm GMT we reveal the 2021 #WomensPrize longlist.

Join Chair @BernardineEvari and judges Elizabeth Day, Vick Hope, @NesrineMalik and Sarah-Jane Mee for a special digital announcement right here on Twitter.

Who's joining us? 🙋‍♀️ pic.twitter.com/zSoz7mxe2j

— Women's Prize (@WomensPrize) March 10, 2021

>175 elkiedee: Of the children's long list 2021, I've read The Girl Who Stole an Elephant by Nizrana Farook, which was available free and legal online in the UK. Catherine Johnson is a reliable mid-list children's/ya author whose Arctic Hero is a book I currently have for a children's lockdown reading group, and the nominated Queen of Freedom is within her usual beat.

>174 elkiedee: Oh good. more books to add to the TBR list than I get to in a year...
There are usually some good ones there.

>173 charl08: While I do miss a book club, the pressure to read a book by a set date is not one of the things I miss.

>168 charl08: The only one of these on my radar is The First Woman. It looks like an interesting list though. I'll check out the titles.

>177 spiralsheep: I love the cover of the elephant book.

>178 Helenliz: It's annoying right up until we all get together and I remember it's good to discuss a book with someone!

>179 BLBera: I agree Beth. But too many books!

Hi Charlotte. Have you seen this list about swimming books! Have you read some?
https://readinggroupchoices.com/books-about-swimming/

I will have to look at the longlist for the Women's prize.

>180 charl08: Apparently the cover of The Girl Who Stole an Elephant, which is lovely as are the internal illustrations, was printed in both pink and blue versions....

A few years ago, a local bookshop got some funding to have a Wood Green Literature festival and I went to an event with two speakers on YA historical fiction They were Catherine Johnson and Lydia Syson.

I've read and enjoyed The Curious Tale of the Lady Caraboo and still have Sawbones by her to read.

The Women's Prize longlist is out! Just found an email - so here it is:

This year's Chair is Bernardine Evaristo

Because of You by Dawn French
Burnt Sugar by Avni Doshi
Consent by Annabel Lyon
Detransition, Baby by Torrey Peters
Exciting Times by Naoise Dolan
How the One-Armed Sister Sweeps Her House by Cherie Jones
Luster by Raven Leilani
No One is Talking About This by Patricia Lockwood
Nothing But Blue Sky by Kathleen MacMahon
Piranesi by Susanna Clarke
Small Pleasures by Clare Chambers
Summer by Ali Smith
The Golden Rule by Amanda Craig
The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett
Transcendent Kingdom by Yaa Gyasi
Unsettled Ground by Claire Fuller

I enjoyed The Golden Rule very much (Netgalley and then Kindle Daily Deal purchase) and am currently finding The Vanishing Half (Kindle offer) quite compelling.

I have 4 others on my TBR, in Netgalley and Kindle purchase form - Small Pleasures is both!

>184 elkiedee: Thanks.
I've read one. Piranesi creates a world that you think you understand, the pulls the carpet out from out under you. It left me feeling out of kilter. Still can't decide if the ending was right or not.

>181 mdoris: Wow, that's a varied list! I've read a few - a fan of Shapton- and would like to pick up the Tsui.

>182 spiralsheep: Oh. Not impressed.

>183 elkiedee: That sounds like a great event.

>183 elkiedee: Thanks for posting this - first day back in the office today and I came home and pretty much conked out.

I have read
Burnt Sugar by Avni Doshi

Have on the shelf to read
Summer by Ali Smith

Have out from the library
Luster by Raven Leilani

Requested from the library
The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett

Want to get (!)
Transcendent Kingdom by Yaa Gyasi

Charlotte, I put some information on my thread about our local literary festival's Global Voices series which is coming up. Most of the talks are free, you just need to register. Two of the Women's Prize nominees are scheduled to talk.

>185 Helenliz: I saw your review! There are loads of copies in my library system, so I've stuck it on reserve.

>188 katiekrug: Sounds good Katie. Thanks for the heads up.

Is there an order to read the Ali Smith quartet in? Do you start at Autumn & end at Summer?

>191 Helenliz: Yes, that's right.
(Although I'm not sure they need to be read in that order*)

*Heresy

I read Greetings from Bury Park as it's on the shortlist for work's "Big Read" project. (List in >128 charl08:) After they had success with a memoir (Emily Maitlis) last year, I wondered if the shortlisters were tempted to repeat the approach. I can see other similarities too: the book is quite journalistic in approach. You could lift chapters entire and reproduce them in magazines, as the author provides the context despite having mentioned it before. I'm not a Springsteen fan, and music fandom (in the go to concerts sense) passed me by almost entirely. Manzoor not only went to gigs, he travelled the world to go to gigs. It makes sense for him to use the songs to frame his life, but I think this side of things suffered from me having read Pete Paphides' book about growing up in the 70s and 80s as a music obsessive. Manzoor writes about growing up in a Pakistani immigrant family in Luton, searching for identity, the impact of his father's death and the effects of the 9/11 and 7/7 on his life as an ambivalent Muslim. The book was published over ten years ago, but was inspiration for a film. This version included a postscript chapter about his life since.

I think this would be a really interesting choice for work's reading scheme.

Reading some of the supporting material supplied by the bookclub this morning:

Interesting quote from one of the translators Rara Rizal. This is in direct contrast to some of the comments from other translators who have spoken to the group about untranslatable texts.

“As a translator, I strive to challenge the notion that translation should be made palatable to the 'global reader'. Besides, most of the time global means 'white/cis/hetero/male' anyway,” she said, laughing.

“Ultimately, if there’s anything that I think of as 'very Jakarta', I either trust that anyone in the world will relate to the experience or the nuance, or I let them feel disoriented or confused by the foreign-ness, the 'Jakarta'-ness of it all,” she added."
https://www.thejakartapost.com/life/2020/11/27/uk-publisher-to-launch-portraits-...

A discussion of the freedom of literary spoken word night Paviliun Puisi (PavPu)
which includes the language of performance:

Particularly amongst the Gen Z poets, English and codeswitch are the dominant languages at PavPu. Whereas for Millennials (and older generations), it would be Indonesian. And whilst Gen Z do watch content such as Button Poetry on YouTube, a significant factor is also the fact that they’re influenced by Hip-Hop.

Having grown up watching US TV series also plays its part. One key example is Indonesian rapper Rich Brian, who achieved fame around the globe – including in the US – through rapping in English. This prominent use of English at PavPu is also seen as a way of breaking down various barriers – be them literary, political, geographical, or even personal.

https://www.thestateofthearts.co.uk/features/nfa-column-matt-abbott-in-conversat...

Now reading I carried a Watermelon because some humour sounds good to me.

More books in translation to read - the Spring borderless bookclub programme is out.
https://www.peirenepress.com/borderless-book-club/

April 8th
Peirene Press | Nordic Fauna by Andrea Lundgren

With author Andrea Lundgren and translator John Litell

April 22nd
And Other Stories | Slash and Burn by Claudia Hernández
With translator Julia Sanches

May 6th
Istros Books | Snapping Point by Asli Biçen
With translator Feyza Howell and author Asli Biçen



May 20th
Charco Press | Havana Year Zero by Karla Suárez
With translator Christina MacSweeney


June 3rd
Fitzcarraldo Editions | Vivian by Christina Hesselholdt
With translator Paul Garrett Russell and author Christina Hesselholdt

June 17th
Sinoist Books | Distant Sunflower Fields by Li Juan
With translator Christopher Payne

Lots of reading to do. My friend has announced she has finished a novel, and would I be a first reader. I have said yes, but am very nervous.

Work's Big Read reading project continues - I have a copy of one of the NF books on the shortlist, Explaining Humans written by a young scientist with a fascinating blurb about her perspective as an outsider.

The reason I never felt normal is because I’m not. I have ASD (autism spectrum disorder), ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder) and GAD (generalized anxiety disorder). Together, these might combine to make life as a human impossible. It’s often felt that way. Having autism can be like playing a computer game without the console, cooking a meal without pans or utensils, or playing music without the notes.

I am two books into reading Jamie Bennett's back catalogue. Sweet, Tart has a funny subplot where the main character writes alien-human erotica (Fwiw, the other LT reader - who has helpfully posted a review finds this less funny.)

Also finished I carried a Watermelon. As someone commented on Litsy, a Dirty Dancing obsession seems like quite narrow a thing for a whole book. Well, Katy Brand, it turns out, has spent quite a lot of time thinking about this film. She has the advantage of being a funny writer so her personal accounts of forcing various friends and relatives as a teen to watch and then reenact scenes from a film she watched so often the VHS tape wore out, are funny rather than tragic.

The moment I remember most is when Penny puts her leg on Johnny's shoulder during this very first dance sequence. He then drags her along the floor in a kind of diagonal splits move.....My eyes popped so far out of my head you could've hung your coat on them. I tried to re-enact it with my little sister, but found that it doesn't work if you are taller than your partner - you just end up awkwardly walking over them.

I too remember the obsession with this film as a young 11/12 year old. I recall it particularly strongly as a girl in my class somehow convinced the teachers to let her and her friend perform a "dance" to Hungry Eyes in our year assembly. I nearly died of embarrassment, and I was just in the audience. (I am no dancer, but even I was enough of a critic at 12/13 to be sure that rubbing your belly and pointing to your eyes was not great choreography). The section on the significance of the abortion subplot was interesting. She asked other people who remembered watching the film how much they remembered about it and many of them had missed or forgotten that it took place. Whether this means (as the writer claims to have hoped) that they took the pill with the sugar of the surrounding romance is (I think) open for some debate. I can't think of another film that involves an abortion where the woman comes out without serious side effects though, as Brand (and others) have noted.

I found the book repetitive by half way through and the research for it is thin. I am guessing it's because most of the cast and crew are talked out at this point, rather than a lack of willingness on her part (because she does not lack enthusiasm). The closest she gets to someone who actually was involved in the film is to attend a themed weekend at the location for the film's holiday resort "Kellermans". This is one of those books I would recommend to a friend who "is too busy to read". The 'politics' is lightly done, is clearly aimed at my generation, and it has some good comic moments.

The Emperor's Feast
I really enjoyed this light hearted, accessible history of Chinese food. The author has spent long periods in China including as a visiting professor. He threads into the history of what is now China through his personal experiences eating around China (and with the Chinese diaspora). This includes a careful eye at the mythology around some dishes (eg linked to Mao) as well as a humorous one at the inter-Chinese competition over ownership of some local dishes. There's lots here about the punny naming of dishes (I really want to try Buddha Jumps the Wall), how different migration patterns shaped the names 'Western' diners know Chinese dishes by, and the import of foodstuffs into Chinese territories. Less fun is the food scandals outlined in the final chapter, from baby milk adulteration to gangs deliberately infecting pork with bacteria (to cut prices and benefit from selling at a profit elsewhere).

A man who 'eats rice in his slippers'... is sponging off a woman, but if he 'eats a dead cat'... he is taking the blame for something he hasn't done. 'Eating a girl's tofu'... means physical harassment, and 'eating a lemon'... means being rejected.'

I found it a really good read, and an introduction to the subject that has tempted me to find out more. Ideally in a restaurant setting.

If I Had Your Face
This was a really hard read, Cha was a journalist before writing the book and draws on her knowledge of Seoul's less publicised dark side. It's grim, a picture of women trapped in situations they can't escape.

"At least you don't have to pluck used condoms off the floor or sponge dirty toilet bowls on your knees," I said to him the other week when he was complaining about how terrible his day had bee

I was thinking about the stories that Sujin told me about working as a maid in a love motel the first few months she was in Seoul while she was attending a hair and beauty academy. The hotel she worked a charged by the hour, and the turnover was so fast that she lost six kilograms in two weeks because she had no time to eat, and also just because she had no appetite after cleaning all the condoms and multicolored stains every hour. She heartily recommended it as a weight loss program. When I said this, Hanbin looked at me without saying a word and I knew that he was shocked. I hastily said I'd just read an article by a journalist who had gone undercover at a love motel as a cleaner, and then his expression eased somewhat. He laughed and said that his hotel was not like that. He actually believed it too.

Each chapter is told by a rotating cast of women living in the same block of flats. One is a hostess at a 'room salon' forced to drink with businessmen who expect a lot for their money. Another a hairdresser who hasn't spoken since a traumatic incident in her childhood: her friend is trying to save for plastic surgery to shave her jaw so she too can become a room host. Another young woman seems to have it sorted, having returned from New York with a prestigious art fellowship. But her boyfriend's mother won't even acknowledge her, as she gre up in an orphanage. And the only married woman, who married her husband because she was sure she didn't feel enough for him to reproduce her family's cruelties. Cha is remorseless, from the affluent cruelties of the children of the elite, to the rough street life of orphans who grew up knowing the whole town used them as shorthand for stupidity.

I'm hoping for a sequel where they team up and take down all the exploiters, action film style.

I hope your friend's novel is great, Charlotte. I have a friend who writes romances, and they are pretty awful. I always buy a copy to be supportive, but it's hard to know what to say...

>198 charl08: Great review and a BB for me!

Hope your friend's novel stands up to scrutiny. I'd be stuck to know what to say if it wasn't very good. I feel for Beth in >200 BLBera:.

>196 charl08: I've read Nordic Fauna. It's pretty dark.

>200 BLBera: I'd aimed to read it this weekend, but I read the books that were calling my name instead.

>201 Tess_W: Thanks - it was a birthday present, so I must remember to tell the donor.

>202 Helenliz: I am once again in awe of good editors.

I remember you saying about Nordic Fauna. I'm wondering how the discussion will go. Should be a good one.

Deacon King Kong is every bit as good as promised. Loving it! Such clever writing.

Later, much later, it occurred to him that maybe she remembered him because she had been watching him, sitting outside the bar with his friends listening to the bitter soldiers of the IRA swear at the British and complain about the neighborhood going down because the Negro and the Spanish had arrived with their civil rights nonsense, taking the sub way jobs, the janitor jobs, the doorman jobs, fighting for the scraps and chicken bones the Rockefellers and all the rest tossed to them all.

I couldn't put Deacon King Kong down (but I had to, because work). Read in the dentist's waiting room, on my lunch break, waiting to start making dinner, and even made me stop futzing around on LT to try and find out what happens... brilliant creation of a community in Brooklyn on the edge of a big change, as hard drugs and the gangs that go with them threaten to pull everyone under water. Alongside the grimness is a hitman who seems to be in a Home Alone film and a hunt for a lost work of art that reminded me of an 'Allo Allo plot.

Recommending this one - thanks to Mark over on the 75ers whose review sold it to me in the first place.

Hi Charlotte! Are you still reading The Vanishing Half? I just finished it today. So much to think about. Hope your week is off to a good start!

>206 AMQS: Not got it from the library yet Anne, but looking forward to it arriving.

I really need to catch up with my library books. They waived the 20 limit. I now have 29 out!

>207 charl08: You clearly have nerves of steel! I panicked because I maxed out my 8 loans and had one more hypothetical hold for which I'm still second in the queue. :-)

>207 charl08: >:-o

Since lockdown our library has stopped doing transfers between branches, so I've been limited to just the branch stock. And I reckon I've got more books in the house than they do.

>208 spiralsheep: Yep, that's my nickname. Ha! The library waived all the fines and the reservation charges (pandemic) so I can just return them and ask again another time.

>209 Helenliz: Oh that would make me sad. Ours seemed to be very very slow at first, and now the reservations seem to be back to normal. The staff are still just handing out books though. Hope the browsing comes back soon. I miss it.

From A Girl Called Eel
Anyone for a madeleine?

....the sun was already starting to cast its first rays, the terrace was transforming before our eyes, the concrete floor was turning into a mattress of sweet smelling flowers, the walls were becoming pillows of jasmine, the sun's rays were as dazzling as the gaze of the man standing beside me and then coffee smells began to waft in on the morning breeze, the old ladies were brewing coffee for people to drink on their way back from the mosque after morning prayers, I could smell the madeleines baking in the ovens, just as they did every morning in Mutsamudu, I could hear the brooms swishing across floors, the plip-plop of water dripping from taps into basins, the clicking of knives and forks against plates as they were placed on tables, the happy shouts of children leaving for school, all the sounds of a typical morning in Mutsamudu...

Hullabaloo in the Guava Orchard

The leaves of these trees were just a shade darker than the fruit and the bark was a peeling away of tan over a milky paleness so delicate and so smooth that his fingers thrilled to its touch. And these trees were not so big, or so thick with leaves, or so crowded together, as to obscure the sky, which showed clean through the branches. Before his eyes, flitting and darting all about him, was a flock of parrots, a vivid jewel-green, chattering and shrieking in the highest of spirits. This scene filled his whole mind and he wondered if he could ever get enough of it. This was the way of riches and this was a king's life, he thought... and he ached to swallow it whole, in one glorious mouthful that could become part of him for ever. Oh, if he could exchange his life for this luxury of stillness, to be able to stay with his face held towards the afternoon like a sunflower and to learn all there was to know in this orchard: each small insect crawling by; the smell of the earth thick beneath the grass; the bristling of leaves; his way easy through the foliage...

This is not something that I would normally have stuck with, I think, but as it was on the shortlist for work's reading project I was Committed. Glad I did, as I found it picked up speed.
This was Desai's first book, published over twenty years ago. It's centred on a small isolated town, where a young man retreats from his family and job to go live up a tree, and becomes an accidental spiritual leader. In the process there is lots of humour, from the monkey troop who develop a liking for the visitors' alcohol to the theories of the academic who wants to solve the monkey "problem".* The targets for humour are wide ranging, from the head of the post office who uses his employees to run a family wedding, to the hypochondriac chief medical officer.
I have to write a blurb saying if I recommend it or not and I have no idea. I enjoyed it, although I felt it took a while to get going. I am not sure how accessible it will be to readers who don't usually read: but I am also wondering if that's just my assumptions about people's tolerance for something that take a bit of work.

*It's not a particularly flattering picture of academia. Not sure if this will go down well at work?!

Why not say that? Yes, you liked it in the end and are glad you persisted, and you're still reading through books on the list, but you're not sure it's the best choice for this "big read".

We have a City big read in London, and a couple of years ago the book chosen was a bit too lightweight for a lot of people. I quite enjoyed it but some of my reading group were put off by its lack of substance. I've actually noticed that some of the people who have maybe got into reading later in their lives etc want something they can get their teeth into a bit.

Now reading: The galaxy and the ground within
This is weirdly familiar

....disruptions to travel plans, but launches and landings pose extre risk in current conditions. Any attempts to travel to or from the Gore surface at this time will result in an immediate suspension of your pilot's licence and possible confiscation of your vessel by the GCTA (provided your vessel remains intact).
Thank you for your patience. We are all in this together.

>213 elkiedee: It's a binary choice: do you / do you not recommend this book (and then why)! But yes, I take your point.

Tricky, but if that's as a choice as the book everyone reads, no, If it is would you recommend it as a read more generally, yes. Then you put your caveats or reasons.

>212 charl08: I had a similar response to you Charlotte. I read it when it first came out, as I'm a fan of her mother Anita Desai, and was curious. I gave it 3.5 stars. Her second book got 3 stars. So a good read, but not outstanding I guess.

On another matter my copies of The Woman's Prize for Fiction Journal arrived.



As you were responsible for bringing the crowd funding project to my attention, I blame you!

>217 Caroline_McElwee: Ooh, what a beautiful looking journal!

>216 elkiedee: Oh yes. I always add caveats!

Final (sob) book in the Wayfarers series. I really loved this story. Three travellers stop over whilst waiting for a spot in the tunnel to another galaxy. Their host is super keen to make them feel comfortable. And then an accident, and everyone at the stop is stuck, cut off from where they wanted to get to, who they wanted to get to. Some of it, as in >214 charl08: with weird COVID echoes.
I love how she uses "alien" cultures to write about different people interacting, and the challenges that go with that. But the cheese discussion was probably my favourite, and very funny.

>217 Caroline_McElwee: Striking cover! Makes me appreciate the simplicity of good design :)

>217 Caroline_McElwee:. So did mine. And I think I can blame the same source!

Happy Saturday, Charlotte. I am just getting read to start Breakwater. I really enjoyed Follow Me In. You read both, right?

Hooray for Deacon King Kong! I am so glad you loved it.

>221 LovingLit: Isn't it lovely?

>222 Helenliz: Moi? Surely not.

>223 msf59: I've only read Breakwater. Just read yesterday of a new one from Drawn and Quarterly, and am also tempted by Aimée de Jongh's GN Taxi!.

>224 charl08: I liked Aimée de Jongh's art for Blossoms in Autumn aka Planned Obsolescence of our Feelings but I didn't think her storytelling in The Return of the Honey Buzzard was strong enough to carry a whole graphic novel. Perhaps the short stories in Taxi are more suited to her? I see it has a higher rating from lt readers.

Hi Charlotte - I hope you're having a lovely weekend. I try to never stay away too long, because you always have so much going on here.

I am waiting patiently for Deacon King Kong; there is a LONG waiting list. Luckily I do have things to read. :)

>207 charl08: 29! This makes me feel so much better; I only have 13 books checked out. I don't know what the check-out limit is. I've never reached it. I do know 30 is the limit for reserves, which I only recently discovered because yes, I did reach it.

>212 charl08: I have a copy of Hullabaloo in the Guava Orchard somewhere; it sounds like one I might like.

>217 Caroline_McElwee: Love the cover!

>220 charl08: What is the first one in this series?

>197 charl08: You'd be perfect as a first reader, Charlotte. You're good at pointing out what works and what doesn't in a novel.

Your thread is as dangerous as ever. I picked up a few BBs particularly one way back there, Death Has Deep Roots.

Hi, Charlotte. Good review of the new Becky Chambers book. I must get it!

>225 spiralsheep: I've not read anything by her before, but liked the extract in The Dutch Riveter.

>226 BLBera: Thanks Beth. The first one is A Long Way to a Small Angry Planet. Although it's not a straightforward series: the world is the same but the characters and locations are almost entirely different, with a couple of tantalising exceptions.

I think you might like Hullabaloo too. I hope Deacon King Kong comes soon for you too.

>227 Familyhistorian: I've read two or three of Roberts' now, and they were all pretty gripping. I suspect (for me) it's the author's backstory that adds a bit of credibility to his books with wartime themes.

>228 jnwelch: Definitely worth it, Joe. I love how positive she is about the possibility for understanding one another, at the same time as acknowledging that it isn't straightforward or painless.

These Ghosts are Family

I loved this book which fits my 'first author category'. Each chapter features a complete story, from modern day New York back to slavery era Jamaica. Characters, families and locations reappear between the chapters. Racism, the legacies of slavery, the impact of emigration and the power of the supernatural appear and reappear. Family conflict is at the heart of many of these stories, from separation due to emigration to lies about family background being exposed by others. There's a strong thread of magical realism, from a wronged wife who longs to take revenge on her husband past the grave, to three cannibal-like children haunting a whole township. I think the chapter that made me think the most was the one featuring a white woman dealing with an ancestor's diary which includes how he mistreated enslaved people running the plantation. I thought Card managed to convey the tension built in to working with these awful bits of history: giving these voices an airing to avoid whitewashing the past vs trying to destroy them for the horrors they represent.
Definitely an author I would read again.

>230 charl08: This sounds excellent.

>230 charl08: Ooo, tempting!

>231 BLBera: >232 spiralsheep: I hope this finds lots of readers. Apart from anything else, the author is a librarian!

Distracted from reading by gardening (trying to clear up to make space for the new growth) and trying to sort out pictures to go on the wall. I now have the Douglas Adams 'deadlines' quote up, but that's about it.

Now reading Adua instead of finishing the other books I've started...

I wanted a big scene, that way I'd stop thinking about Lul, about Labo Dhegax, about the strange peace in Somalia. But the girl got wise. She sauntered over and virtually without warning shot me her question: "You're Adua, right? The actress? I saw your movie." And then after a pause, as if she'd planned it out, she added: "You really make an impression, you know that?”
I was completely rattled.
My movie? There was actually someone who still remembered that movie?

>233 charl08: "I now have the Douglas Adams 'deadlines' quote up, but that's about it."

/whooooshing sound

Adua has been on and off my hypothetical To Read list for a couple of years so I'll be interested to hear your opinions.

>234 spiralsheep: Let us not speak of the deadlines to get the room decorating finished!

It's bookgroup week again this week, so I'll be reading Crocodile Tears by Mercedes Rosende (Bitter Lemon Press). The blurb on the kindle copy describes it as a 'blackly comic caper in the style of Fargo' which is intriguing.


All comers welcome to the discussion with the translator and publisher on Thursday. More info here: https://www.peirenepress.com/borderless-book-club/

I want to read (some of) the long list for the women's prize. I'll be reading Luster or Summer next, I think.

The sixteen longlisted books are as follows:

Because of You by Dawn French
✅Burnt Sugar by Avni Doshi
Consent by Annabel Lyon
Detransition, Baby by Torrey Peters
Exciting Times by Naoise Dolan
How the One-Armed Sister Sweeps Her House by Cherie Jones - waiting for library reservation
Luster by Raven Leilani out from the library
No One is Talking About This by Patricia Lockwood - waiting for library reservation
Nothing But Blue Sky by Kathleen MacMahon - waiting for library reservation
Piranesi by Susanna Clarke out from the library
Small Pleasures by Clare Chambers
Summer by Ali Smith on the shelf
The Golden Rule by Amanda Craig
The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett - waiting for library reservation
Transcendent Kingdom by Yaa Gyasiwaiting for library reservation
Unsettled Ground by Claire Fuller - waiting for library reservation

Returned several books unread over the weekend, and have just returned These Ghosts are Family and the Becky Chambers, I think I may now be back to "only" the legal 20 books out.
(And yes, I am partly posting this here to have a record that I returned them through the library letterbox today!)

Reading Crocodile Tears for the book group. Which is quite an odd book.

Captain Leonilda Lima prefers to avoid procedures which, through repetition, become mechanical and devoid of intelligence. Yes, she loves the routine of her work, but she focuses all her faculties on what she does and exercises a degree of independent judgement, a fact that will be of no little importance for the reader's future comprehension of this story.

Finshed Adua last night, definitely recommended. I've not read much about the experiences in Italian Africa (it was, I am not sure if it still is, an issue that histories of colonialism in former colonies tended to be written in the language of the state, which meant a ghettoisation of French/Italian/British/Dutch accounts). The publication of this and The Shadow King (Ethiopia) suggest this to be changing, and importantly including women's voices. Adua is a very different book to Mengiste's, more episodic and focussed on the impact of these big historical events on two individual lives, a young woman who moves to Italy to make a film in the 70s, and her father who worked for the Italians as a translator. Nonetheless it's pretty brutal, from FGM to colonial violence. There's
magical realism in the mix too, as Adua's father sees visions of friends and family who are separated. The author's note after the novel describes her choices, including the decision to write about modern refugees in Rome, and the 'settled' Somali community's relationship with them. It's not all wine and roses, as the 'Titanic' nickname (for survivors of the med crossing), suggests.

A short book that makes you think. Recommended.

Time for a new thread before the next online book group meeting.