Helenliz sends a 4th postcard

I'm Helen and I'm a quality manager in a small firm that makes inhaler devices for delivery of drugs to the lung. Excitingly we actually got our first product on the market earlier this year, so whoo hooo!! In my spare time I am secretary of the local bellringers association, which has been interesting in 2020, I can tell you! Things are just about back to normal from a permissions perspective, some people are less willing to go out and congregate, so there's lots of discontent in both directions there. But we had our first in person meeting yesterday, fingers crossed that it all continues to improve and return to some form of normality.

When not working, reading or ringing, I enjoy crafts. I tend to resort to cross stitch, but have tried quilting and other machine and hand sewing over the years. I also try and keep in some form of shape, as I prefer food to dieting. As the size of my bum after the latest lockdown will attest. Now the gym's open again I am back to it...

This year's challenge is taken from a book of postcards. I spent years 1997 to 2001 living in London while holding a post-doctoral position in the Univeristy of London. As we were not far from the centre of London, I made a point of , at least once a month, going out on a Wednesday afternoon and visiting some fo the great museums and art galleries that are scattered across the capital. And from each place I visited, I sent my parents a postcard. What I didn't know at the time was that Mum collected them up and saved them in a photo album, which she gave to me later. I'm not sure it's complete, but it's nice to see where I went at different times. So all my images this time are copies of the postcards I sent.

Where are we going today?

I know we still have most of a week in September, but I figured I'd use the weekend to set up the final thread for the year. The third quarter review can wait until later in the week.

Currently Reading


Currently reading
Incredible! (no touchstone)
Jerusalem
The Hidden Girl and Other Stories (audio)

Loans: To try and keep track of the library books I've got out.
Library books on loan:
✔️On the Floor
✔️The Stranger Times
The Hidden Girl and Other Stories
Demelza
Matrix
The Plague
Things Fall Apart
Shakespeare tragedies: classic BBC Radio

Borrowed from Cathy
The Chalk Pit

Book subscriptions: To try and make sure I don't fall tooooo far behind
Tyll (MrB's May)
Winter Flowers (Pierene Press)
Outlandish (MrB's September)
Unwell Women (MrB's October)
✔️The Space Between Us (Shelterbox bookclub)
Cloud Cuckoo Land (MrB's November)
Conjure Women (MrB's December)

Book Bullets Who got me, with what, things I want to try and find at some point.
✔️Pandora's jar (susan, but I was primed to take this one already!)
✔️The Yellow Wallpaper (Mamie & Charlotte, in quick sucession)
✔️Fools and Mortals (Birgit)
✔️The Stranger Times (JackieK)
A is for Arsenic (Mamie got me with this one)
Love and Other Thought Experiments (The radio & Caroline)
The Man Who Walked Through Walls (Pam)
Death walks in Eastrepps (Liz - and it's one I can get a copy of!)
Why We Sleep (Jackie_K)
The Great Typo Hunt (Cindy)
The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle (Stacy)
Cain (Annamorphic)
I will never see the world again (Charlotte)
The Bookish Life of Nina Hill (Charlotte - again).
Whitefly (DeltaQueen)
Wakenhyrst (Susan) (again)
Play It Again: An Amateur Against the Impossible JackieK
Your life in my hands JackieK (again she's got me with the non-fiction)
A Jury of her Peers (Liz - and this one's not in the library - or at least not the short story)
The Seventh Cross, (Charlotte - a prolific bulleteer!)
Rummage: A History of the Things We Have Reused, Recycled and Refused to Let Go by Emily Cockayne (another hit by Susan)
From Crime to Crime by Richard Henriques (Deadeye Susan) (check title)
Life in a Medieval Village (Tess because it's local)
Endell Street (Susan)
What is not your is not yours (Elizabeth M)
The Dictionary of Lost Words (Richard D)
Light Perpetual (Susan)
A Fatal thing happened on the way to the forum (rabbitprincess amongst others)
Migrations (Caroline)
The eternal audience of one (Richard D)
How Iceland changed the world (RP)
The Echo Wife (RidgewayGirl)
The Fell (Caroline, after she caught me with Moss' previous novel)
56 Days (Richard D)

The List: 2021

January
1. An Unsafe Haven, Nada Awar Jarrar, ***
2. Queens of the Conquest, Alison Weir, ***.
3. It's not about the Burqa, Ed Miriam Khan, ***
4. Help me!, Marianne Power, ***
5. To Say Nothing of the Dog, Connie Willis, ****
6. The Reluctant Widow, Georgette Heyer, ****

February
7. Square Haunting, Francesca Wade, ****
8. When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit, Judith Kerr, ***
9. Mordew, Alex Pheby, **
10. The House of Splendid Isolation, Edna O'Brien, ***
11. Alexa, what is there to know about Love?, Brian Bilston, ****1/2
12. We, the Survivors, Tash Aw, ***
13. Nordic Fauna, Andrea Lundgren, ***
14. Crossed Skis, Carol Carnac, ****
15. Why Willows Weep, Ed Tracy Chevalier, ****

March
16. Piranesi, Susanna Clarke, ****
17. The Last man Who Knew Everything, Andrew Robinson, ***
18. What Lies Beneath, Adam Croft, ***
19. Fire in the Thatch, ECR Lorac, ****
20. Simon the Coldheart, Georgette Heyer, ***

April
21. Jane Austen made me do it, various, **
22. A Woman is no Man, Etaf Rum, ***
23. Pandora's Jar, Natalie Haynes, *****
24. The Ghost Fields, Elly Griffiths, ***
25. The Foundling, Georgette Heyer, ****
26. D A Tale of two Worlds, Michel Faber, **1/2
27. Island Dreams, Gavin Francis, ***
28. Death of a Ghost, Margery Allingham, ***

May
29. Dear Reader, Cathy Rentzenbrink, ****
30. Sicily, John Julius Norwich, ****
31. Snow in May, Kseniya Melnik, ***
32. The Yellow Wallpaper and Other Stories, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, ***
33. On Borrowed Time, Adam Croft, ***
34. The Lamplighters, Emma Stonex, ***
35. Beauvallet, Georgette Heyer, ****1/2
36. The Haunting of Tram Car 015, P. Djèlí Clark, ****1/2
37. Her Father's Daughter, Marie Sizun, ****

June
38. The Woman in Blue, Elly Griffiths, ***
39. The Children of Jocasta, Natalie Haynes, ****
40. Mantel Pieces, Hilary Mantel, ***
41. There but for the, Ali Smith, ***
42. Arabella, Georgette Heyer, ****1/2
43. An Imaginary Life, David Malouf, ****
44. Azincourt, Bernard Cornwell, ****

July
45. Mr Loverman, Bernadine Evaristo, ***
46. Summerwater, Sarah Moss, ***
47. The Five Hallie Rubenhold, ***
48. Uncle Tungsten, Oliver Sacks, ***
49. The Grand Sophy, Georgette Heyer, ****

August
50. Settling Scores, various, ***
51. Shakespearean, Robert McCrumm, ****
52. Yesterday, Juan Emar, ***
53. The Wife's Tale, Aida Eidmariam, ***
54. The Luckiest Guy Alive, John Cooper Clarke, ***
55. Plum, Hollie McNish, ****
56. Pantosaurus and the Power of Pants, Rebecca Gerlings & Fhiona Galloway, ***

September
57. The Absolute Book, Elizabeth Knox, **
58. A Wizard's Guide to Defensive Baking T. Kingfisher, *****
59. Antony and Cleopatra, William Shakespeare, ***
60. Over the River, John Galsworthy, ****
61. The Thursday Murder Club, Richard Osman, ***
62. Shakespeare's Sonnets, William Shakespeare, ****
63. Flesh and Bone and Water, Luiza Sauma, ***
64. The Quiet Gentleman, Georgette Heyer, ****1/2

October
65. Public Library and Other Stories, Ali Smith, ***
66. The Conqueror, Georgette Heyer, ****
67. Memento Mori, Muriel Spark, ***
68. Neverwhere, Neil Gaiman, ***
69. Spirals in Time, Helen Scales, ***
70. The Dancing Face, Mike Phillips, ****
71. The Windsor Knot, SJ Bennett, ***
72. Milk and Honey, Rupi Kaur, **

November
73. Taming of the Shrew, William Shakespeare, ***
74. A Midsummer Night's Dream, William Shakespeare, ****
75. Twelfth Night, William Shakespeare, ****
76. The Kingdoms, Natasha Pulley, **
77. Fool and Mortals, Bernard Cornwell, ***
78. The Space Between Us, Thrity Umrigar, ***

December
79. Diary of a Somebody, Brian Bilston, ***
80. North and South, Elizabeth Gaskell, ****
81. Bullfighting, Roddy Doyle, ***
82. Blackout, Connie Willis, ****
83. On the Floor, Aifric Campbell, ***
84. Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, Robert L May, ****
85. The Stranger Times, CK McDonnell, ***1/2
86. Murder on a Winter's Night, ed Cecily Gayford, ***

Challenge 1 - Women Authors
Portrait of Dorothy Hodgkin by Maggi Hambling from the National Portrait Gallery


The NPG houses portraits from the Tudors through to modern sitters and artists. I like it because while the museum as a whole is arranged chronologically (oldest on the top floor, newest on the ground), you can pick a period and go for that in detail as well. It is also not afraid of a bit of controvery. This portrait is of the scientist Dorothy Hodgkin. She's been painted with more than the usual number of arms, in an attempt to show visually her mental swiftness and energy. I like it, I like that her desk is messier than mine.

As a portrait by and of a woman, this category will house female authors. I want to read at least 50% of books by women authors this year.

1. An Unsafe Haven, Nada Awar Jarrar
2. Queens of the Conquest, Alison Weir
3. It's not about the Burqa, Ed Miriam Khan
4. Help me!, Marianne Power
5. To Say Nothing of the Dog, Connie Willis
6. The Reluctant Widow, Georgette Heyer
7. Square Haunting, Francesca Wade
8. When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit, Judith Kerr
9. The House of Splendid Isolation, Edna O'Brien
10. Nordic Fauna, Andrea Lundgren
11. Crossed Skis, Carol Carnac
12. Piranesi, Susanna Clarke
13. Fire in the Thatch, ECR Lorac
14. Simon the Coldheart, Georgette Heyer
15. A Woman is no Man, Etaf Rum
16. Pandora's Jar, Natalie Haynes
17. The Ghost Fields, Elly Griffiths
18. The Foundling, Georgette Heyer
19. Death of a Ghost, Margery Allingham
20. Dear Reader, Cathy Rentzenbrink
21. Snow in May, Kseniya Melnik
22. The Yellow Wallpaper and Other Stories, Charlotte Perkins Gilman
23. The Lamplighters, Emma Stonex
24. Beauvallet, Georgette Heyer
25. Her Father's Daughter, Marie Sizun
26. The Woman in Blue, Elly Griffiths
27. The Children of Jocasta, Natalie Haynes
28. Mantel Pieces, Hilary Mantel
29. There but for the, Ali Smith
30. Arabella, Georgette Heyer
31. Mr Loverman, Bernadine Evaristo
32. Summerwater, Sarah Moss
33. The Five Hallie Rubenhold
34. The Grand Sophy, Georgette Heyer
35. The Wife's Tale, Aida Eidmariam
36. Plum, Hollie McNish
37. Pantosaurus and the Power of Pants, Rebecca Gerlings & Fhiona Galloway
38. The Absolute Book, Elizabeth Knox
39. A Wizard's Guide to Defensive Baking T. Kingfisher
40. Flesh and Bone and Water, Luiza Sauma
41. The Quiet Gentleman, Georgette Heyer
42. Public Library and Other Stories, Ali Smith
43. The Conqueror, Georgette Heyer
44. Memento Mori, Muriel Spark
45. Spirals in Time, Helen Scales
46. The Windsor Knot, SJ Bennett
47. Milk and Honey, Rupi Kaur
48. The Kingdoms, Natasha Pulley
49. The Space Between Us, Thrity Umrigar
50. North and South, Elizabeth Gaskell,
51. Blackout, Connie Willis,
52. On the Floor, Aifric Campbell

Challenge 2 - New Authors
Entrance to the new British Library site


The British Library Reading Rooms used to be housed in the rotunda in the middle of the British Museum. It had long since outgrown this space and was moved to the St Pancras site not long before I started working in London. Some people don't like it, but I did. Once you're past the foyer and actually in the reading rooms (which you need a readers pass to do) it's a really good working environment. My favourite table was on the side of the building, in an alcove that was windowed and jutted out over the street a little. Really good spot to watch the world go by while ideas formed.

As this was new when I was there, this will house those authors that are new to me. I'd like to manage 1/3rd of new authors this year.

1. An Unsafe Haven, Nada Awar Jarrar
2. It's not about the Burqa, Ed Miriam Khan
3. Help me!, Marianne Power
4. To Say Nothing of the Dog, Connie Willis
5. Square Haunting, Francesca Wade
6. When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit, Judith Kerr
7. Mordew, Alex Pheby
8. Alexa, what is there to know about Love?, Brian Bilston
9. We, the Survivors, Tash Aw
10. Nordic Fauna, Andrea Lundgren
11. Piranesi, Susanna Clarke
12. The Last man Who Knew Everything, Andrew Robinson
13. What Lies Beneath, Adam Croft
14. A Woman is no Man, Etaf Rum
15. D A Tale of two Worlds, Michel Faber
16. Island Dreams, Gavin Francis
17. Dear Reader, Cathy Rentzenbrink
18. Snow in May, Kseniya Melnik
19. The Yellow Wallpaper and Other Stories, Charlotte Perkins Gilman
20. The Lamplighters, Emma Stonex
21. The Haunting of Tram Car 015, P. Djèlí Clark
22. Her Father's Daughter, Marie Sizun
23. An Imaginary Life, David Malouf
24. Mr Loverman, Bernadine Evaristo
25. Summerwater, Sarah Moss
26. The Five Hallie Rubenhold
27. Uncle Tungsten, Oliver Sacks
28. Shakespearean, Robert McCrumm
29. Yesterday, Juan Emar
30 The Wife's Tale, Aida Eidmariam
31. The Luckiest Guy Alive, John Cooper Clarke
32. Plum, Hollie McNish
33. Pantosaurus and the Power of Pants, Rebecca Gerlings & Fhiona Galloway
34. The Absolute Book, Elizabeth Knox
35. A Wizard's Guide to Defensive Baking T. Kingfisher
36. The Thursday Murder Club, Richard Osman
37. Flesh and Bone and Water, Luiza Sauma
38. Memento Mori, Muriel Spark
39. Spirals in Time, Helen Scales
40. The Dancing Face, Mike Phillips
41. The Windsor Knot, SJ Bennett
42. Milk and Honey, Rupi Kaur
43. The Kingdoms, Natasha Pulley
44. The Space Between Us, Thrity Umrigar
45. Bullfighting, Roddy Doyle
46. On the Floor, Aifric Campbell
47. The Stranger Times, CK McDonnell

Challenge 3 - Translations
The Ambassadors by Holbein from the National Gallery


This is one of those paintings that everyone knows, but who is it? Well they are ambassadors to the court of Henry VIII, but that's not the painting's title. Hanging in the National Gallery, this is one of my favourites to sit in front of and see something new each time.

As the gentlemen in the painting were ambassadors from a foreign court, this will be where I put my books read in translation. I'd like to read 6 this year. More than 4 is a win.

1. Nordic Fauna, Andrea Lundgren
2. Her Father's Daughter, Marie Sizun
3. Yesterday, Juan Emar

Challenge 4 - Book Subscriptions
Tromp l'Oeil. Board Partition with Letter Rack and Music Book by Cornelius Gijsbrechts, from the National Gallery


The idea of painting something so perfectly that you think you can pick it up amazes me (who cannot draw a straightline with a ruler). This was, I think, part of an exhibition of Tromp l'Oeil (which translates roughly as trick of the eye) and the idea of letters on a postcard appealed to me.

As my book subscriptions come through the post, the letter rack can house these. I'd liek to keep roughly up to date...

1. An Unsafe Haven, Nada Awar Jarrar
2. Square Haunting, Francesca Wade
3. Mordew, Alex Pheby
4. We, the Survivors, Tash Aw
5. Nordic Fauna, Andrea Lundgren
6. Piranesi, Susanna Clarke
7. A Woman is no Man, Etaf Rum
8. Island Dreams, Gavin Francis
9. The Lamplighters, Emma Stonex
10. Mr Loverman, Bernadine Evaristo
11. Yesterday, Juan Emar
12. The Absolute Book, Elizabeth Knox
13. Flesh and Bone and Water, Luiza Sauma
14. The Dancing Face, Mike Phillips
15. The Space Between Us, Thrity Umrigar

Challenge 5 - Heyer Series Read
Wimbledon tennis championships


Georgette Heyer was born in Wimbledon, so this makes the perfect match for her books. I'm reading the romances (both Georgian & Regency) and the history novels in publication order. I'd like to get 6 read.

Heyer romances:
(r) Set in Regency Period
(g) Set in Georgian Period
(h) Set in prior historical Periods.

Finished
✔️ The Black Moth (g) 1921 Finished 01Jan18, ****1/2
✔️ Powder and Patch (g) 1923 Finished 05Feb18, ***
✔️ The Great Roxhythe (h) 1923 Finished 30Apr18, ***
✔️ Simon the Coldheart (h) 1925 Finished 7May18, ***
✔️ These Old Shades (g) 1926 Finished 31May18, ***
✔️ The Masqueraders (g) 1928 Finished 17Jul18, ****
✔️ Beauvallet (h) 1929 Finished 08Sep2018, ****
✔️ The Conqueror (h) 1931 Finished 25Dec2018, ****
✔️ Devil's Cub (g) 1932 Finished 31Jan2019, ****
✔️ The Convenient Marriage (g) 1934 Finished 12Mar2019, ****1/2
✔️ Regency Buck (r) 1935 Finished 08May2019, ****1/2
✔️ The Talisman Ring, Georgette Heyer Finished 10Aug2019, ***
✔️ An Infamous Army, Georgette Heyer Finished 13Oct2019, ***
✔️ Royal Escape, Georgette Heyer Finished 14Feb2020, ***
✔️ The Spanish Bride, Georgette Heyer Finished 28Mar2020, ***
✔️ The Corinthian, Georgette Heyer Finished 17Jun2020, ****
✔️ Faro's Daughter, Georgette Heyer Finished 25Aug2020, ****
✔️ Friday's Child, Georgette Heyer Finished 10Oct2020, ****
✔️ The Reluctant Widow, (r) Finished 24Jan2021, ****
✔️ The Foundling (r) 1948 Finished 21Apr2021, ****
✔️ Arabella, (r) 1949 ****1/2 Finished 19Jun2021
✔️ The Grand Sophy, (r) 1950, **** Finished 25Jul2021
✔️ The Quiet Gentleman (r) 1951, ****1/2 Finished 24Sep2021

To be Read
Cotillion (r) 1953
The Toll Gate (r) 1954
Bath Tangle (r) 1955
Sprig Muslin (r) 1956
April Lady (r) 1957
Sylvester, or The Wicked Uncle (r) 1957
Venetia (r) 1958
The Unknown Ajax (r) 1959
Pistols for Two (short stories) 1960
A Civil Contract (r) 1961
The Nonesuch (r) 1962
False Colours (r) 1963
Frederica (r) 1965
Black Sheep (r) 1966
Cousin Kate (r) 1968
Charity Girl (r) 1970
Lady of Quality (r) 1972
My Lord John (h) 1975

Challenge 6 - Short Stories
Mini poster, British Motor Industry Heritage Trust, from a visit to Haynes Motor Museum


I have a fondness for the original Mini. They're cute and cheeky and drive like a go-cart. Just about the most fun you can have with your clothes on.

And as they're little, this will be where I put my short story reading. This tends to be what I listen to when commuting to work, so I'm not sure how many will end up in here.

1. It's not about the Burqa, Ed Miriam Khan
2. Alexa, what is there to know about Love?, Brian Bilston
3. Nordic Fauna, Andrea Lundgren
4. Why Willows Weep, Ed Tracy Chevalier
5. Jane Austen made me do it, various
6. Snow in May, Kseniya Melnik
7. The Yellow Wallpaper and Other Stories, Charlotte Perkins Gilman
8. Mantel Pieces, Hilary Mantel
9. The Luckiest Guy Alive, John Cooper Clarke
10. Plum, Hollie McNish
11. Pantosaurus and the Power of Pants, Rebecca Gerlings & Fhiona Galloway
12. Shakespeare's Sonnets, William Shakespeare
13. Public Library and Other Stories, Ali Smith
14. Milk and Honey, Rupi Kaur,
15. Bullfighting, Roddy Doyle
16. Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, Robert L May
17. Murder on a Winter's Night, ed Cecily Gayford

Challenge 7 - Women's Prize for Fiction (formerly the Orange Prize)
English Court dress 1755/60 Victoria & Albert Museum


The Women's Prize for Fiction is the UK's foremost prize for female writers. The (tenuous) link here is that the V&A houses an impressive collection of costume, with this being an example of female dress. Not at all practical, imo. the V&A having a female foremost in the title makes that just about a match.

I'd like to read 6 in the year.

1. Piranesi, Susanna Clarke
2. There but for the Ali Smith
3. On the Floor, Aifric Campbell

Challenge 8 - Lists



I love a list. Any list, I find them irresistable. So here's where I'll put books I read from the 1001 btrbyd and Guardian 100 best novels (a more manageable amount on this list.). So why put them here with this picture? Well the picture is in 2 parts, the left is the young man, in army kit, as he heads off (you presume) to fight in WW1. The right hand side is the old man. The assumption is that they are the same person. The title is a quote from the bible about the second coming, but in this case is, I believe, being applied to death. The young man had no expecation of becoming the man on the right, as death could ahve been lurking around any corner, and yet he has and still faces that uncertainty as to when death will make itself felt. Probably before I've finished a list.

I didn't do too well on this last year, so setting sights low with 3.

1. There but for the, Ali Smith (1001)
2. Memento Mori, Muriel Spark (1001)
3. North and South, Elizabeth Gaskell, (1001)

Challenge 9 - Non-fiction
Dippy the Diplodicous from the Natural History Museum


Dippy and I have history. I first went to the NHM when I was 5 or 6, on a school trip. We were doing dinosaurs and I hated them. They gave me nightmares. So seeing this thing looming over me didn't exactly settle my fears. To the extent that I would not walk under its head. I went the full length of its body, round by its tail and back up the body - which is a big ole detour when you've only got little legs. I can't find it in myself to be upset that Dippy has been replaced by a Blue Whale.

This will be where I put my non-fiction. This used to be a regular category, but fell out of favour a year or so back. With the Non-Fiction Cat in 2020 as a prod, my non-fiction reading increased again, and I've enjoyed it. So we'll see how we go with the Non-fiction this year.

1. Queens of the Conquest, Alison Weir
2. It's not about the Burqa, Ed Miriam Khan
3. Help me!, Marianne Power,
4. Square Haunting, Francesca Wade
5. The Last man Who Knew Everything, Andrew Robinson,
6. Pandora's Jar, Natalie Haynes
7. Island Dreams, Gavin Francis
8. Dear Reader, Cathy Rentzenbrink
9. Sicily, John Julius Norwich
10. Mantel Pieces, Hilary Mantel
11. The Five Hallie Rubenhold
12. Uncle Tungsten, Oliver Sacks
13. Shakespearean, Robert McCrumm
14. The Wife's Tale, Aida Eidmariam
15. Spirals in Time, Helen Scales

Challenge 10 - CATs
The Wellington Arch


Yes, you've seen this structure before, I love it that much. In 2020 it housed my CATs on the grounds that cats arch their back. I can't even find a connection that tenuous this year. I just like it, and you can admire it again.

AlphaKit
Yearlong: X and Z
January..............P M Help me!, Marianne Power,
February............T K When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit, Judith Kerr
March.................U R The Last man Who Knew Everything, Andrew Robinson,
April....................A W Death of a Ghost, Margery Allingham
May.....................I N Sicily, John Julius Norwich
June....................C D Azincourt, Bernard Cornwell
July......................S O Uncle Tungsten, Oliver Sacks
August................V J
September.........F L Flesh and Bone and Water, Luiza Sauma
October..............H E The Conqueror, Georgette Heyer
November.........B Y Fool and Mortals, Bernard Cornwell
December..........G Q North and South, Elizabeth Gaskell,

I'm going to try and pick books I already own to meet this. Probably picking by author's name.

Random CAT is always fun

I may dip into the others, I'll see how it goes.

January:
Random CAT: LOL To Say Nothing of the Dog, Connie Willis Didn't make me LOL, but did make me smile any number of times.
Genre CAT: Non-fiction Queens of the Conquest, Alison Weir
History CAT: Middle ages Queens of the Conquest, Alison Weir

February:
Random CAT: Fruit & veg
Genre CAT: Memior, biography & autobiography Square Haunting, Francesca Wade
History CAT: 1800 to present Square Haunting, Francesca Wade

March:
Random CAT: Surprise Piranesi, Susanna Clarke
Genre CAT: Action & Adventure Simon the Coldheart, Georgette Heyer
History CAT: 1500 - 1800 The Last man Who Knew Everything, Andrew Robinson,

April:
Random CAT: Some else's library The Ghost Fields, Elly Griffiths
Genre CAT: literary fiction D A Tale of two Worlds, Michel Faber
History CAT: Ancient Pandora's Jar, Natalie Haynes

May:
Random CAT: Let's play Monopoly The Yellow Wallpaper and Other Stories, Charlotte Perkins Gilman
Genre CAT: Short Stories or essays Snow in May, Kseniya Melnik
History CAT: Dynasties, Civilisation & Empires Sicily, John Julius Norwich

June:
Random CAT: A retelling The Children of Jocasta, Natalie Haynes
Genre CAT: Historical fiction Azincourt, Bernard Cornwell
History CAT: Military, war & revolution Azincourt, Bernard Cornwell

July:
Random CAT: Summer Summerwater, Sarah Moss
Genre CAT: Romance Mr Loverman, Bernadine Evaristo
History CAT: Social History The Five Hallie Rubenhold

August:
Random CAT: Travel/journey Yesterday Juan Emar
Genre CAT: poetry/drama/graphic Plum, Hollie McNish
History CAT: Own country Settling Scores various

September:
Random CAT: Prizewinner A Wizard's Guide to Defensive Baking T. Kingfisher
GenreCAT: Children/YA A Wizard's Guide to Defensive Baking T. Kingfisher
History CAT: Religion/Philosophy/Politics/Law

October:
Random CAT: volunteering/giving Public Library and Other Stories, Ali Smith
GenreCAT: Horror/Supernatural/Paranormal Neverwhere, Neil Gaiman
HistoryCAT: country or region of choice The Conqueror, Georgette Heyer

November:
Random CAT: When I grow up, I want to be...
GenreCAT: SFF The Kingdoms, Natasha Pulley,
HistoryCAT: Events Fool and Mortals, Bernard Cornwell

December:
Random CAT: Seasonal Murder on a Winter's Night
GenreCAT: Mysteries Murder on a Winter's Night
HistoryCAT:

Challenge 11 - Bingodog
The Balbi Children by Van Dyck, National Gallery


I almost picked Van Dyck's portrait of the children of Charles I, which has the future Charles II with his hand on a large hound - only I think these children are even better. Van Dyck paints children like no other painter, they're real, they're lively and they're about to fly out of the frame. It's not known exactly who these children are, the painting was in the Balbi family, but the children and their ages are apparently wrong for it to be that family. Regardless, these three boys are real and will never loose their energy and youth.

✔️ 1. One-word title Piranesi, Susanna Clarke
✔️ 2. By or about a marginalized group It's not about the Burqa, Ed Miriam Khan
✔️ 3. Dark or light in title The Lamplighters, Emma Stonex
✔️ 4. Book with a character you think you'd like to have as a friend The Ghost Fields, Elly Griffiths
✔️ 5. Arts and recreation Square Haunting, Francesca Wade
✔️ 6. Book with a title that describes you Her Father's Daughter, Marie Sizun
✔️ 7. Book you heartily recommend Pandora's Jar, Natalie Haynes
✔️ 8. A book about nature or the environment Spirals in Time, Helen Scales
✔️ 9. Classical element in title (Western: earth, air, wind, fire, aether/void. Chinese: wood, fire, earth, metal, water) Fire in the Thatch, ECR Lorac
✔️10. Book by two or more authors Why Willows Weep, Ed Tracy Chevalier,
✔️11. Impulse read! Dear Reader, Cathy Rentzenbrink
✔️12. Book with a love story in it The Reluctant Widow, Georgette Heyer
13. Read a CAT Natasha Pulley
✔️14. Set in or author from the Southern Hemisphere The Absolute Book, Elizabeth Knox
✔️15. A book that made you laugh Arabella, Georgette Heyer
✔️16. Suggested by a person from another generation The Foundling, Georgette Heyer
✔️17. Author you haven’t read before Help me!, Marianne Power,
✔️18. Set somewhere you’d like to visit There but for the, Ali Smith (Greenwich)
✔️19. Book about history or alternate history Queens of the Conquest, Alison Weir
✔️20. Book you share with 20 or fewer members on LT An Unsafe Haven, Nada Awar Jarrar (8 members at the time of reading)
✔️21. Book less than 200 pages Nordic Fauna, Andrea Lundgren
✔️22. Senior citizen as the protagonist A Woman is no Man, Etaf Rum
✔️23. Book with the name of a building in the title The House of Splendid Isolation, Edna O'Brien
✔️24. Time word in title or time is the subject To Say Nothing of the Dog, Connie Willis
✔️25. Book with or about magic Beauvallet, Georgette Heyer

Challenge 12 - Miscellaneous
The Wilton Dyptych, National Gallery


This is probably my favourite painting, I love the detail, the contrast, the fact that this is the earlest known English painting, this is us, this is where we come from. If you take a magnifying glass to the bauble on the top of the staff in the right hand panel it depicts a small island, with a tiny castle on it, set in a silver sea. Sound familar? I couldn't have a challenge of pictures and postcards without including this one, so the best has been saved to last. This will be for the miscellaneous books. There might not be many, but I get to scroll past this every so often and sigh in delight.

1. On Borrowed Time, Adam Croft
2. Settling Scores, various
3. Antony and Cleopatra, William Shakespeare
4. Over the River, John Galsworthy
5. Taming of the Shrew, William Shakespeare
6. A Midsummer Night's Dream, William Shakespeare
7. Twelfth Night, William Shakespeare
8. Diary of a Somebody, Brian Bilston

Happy new one, Helen!

Wishing you happy on your newest thread, Helen! I know I said it before, but I really love your postcard theme.

Hurray, new thread! I miss all the wonderful museums in London.

Happy new thread! And how lovely to be reminded of all those stunning pictures.

>16 katiekrug: Thank you Katie,

>17 Crazymamie: Thanks Mamie! You can say it again, if you like, I'm still rather pleased with it! (and am utterly stuck for next year's idea)

>18 rabbitprincess: Thank you. I am plotting visits already. 2022 might be the year of going out (a bit)

>19 Jackie_K: Thank you Jackie, they are worth looking at again. This landing at the bottom of the thread saves a lot of scrolling, but it does mean we don't scroll through the images each time we visit a thread.

I think your big 50th celebration culmination should be a trip to New York. Just sayin'.

>21 katiekrug: ummmm. That would be going out a lot. Seeing the only night I've stayed outside the house since Covid struck was in a tent, let's try a weekend somewhere first, before we get too carried away. As someone who dislikes flying at the best of time, there is little attraction in spending hours in a small metal tube with a lot of people I don't know; all of whom will be breathing out...

Happy new thread, Helen. So lovely to see all the gorgeous images again.

Happy new thread!

>23 MissWatson:, >24 Tess_W: Thank you both!

Hooray for new threads and a chance to scroll through your reading year so far and the beautiful pictures!

Happy New Thread! You've had some good reads. And taken far less BBs than I have this year.

ETA: You should stop over and visit in the Needlearts group sometime. Show us what you've been working on.

Happy new thread Helen. New York is a big thumbs up from me. Maybe they'd let you wear one of those deep sea diving helmets on the plane...?

>26 DeltaQueen50: Thank you. It's not been a bad reading year.

>27 dudes22: I'm not sure about that, the BB list is getting a bit unwieldy... I don't get that much done, I'd not add a lot. And I get into a pickle trying to run too many threads at once.

>28 charl08: Not sure that sounds like fun, if I'm honest!

It's decision time again, which of these floats your boat?
The Yield by Tara June Winch
The Yield is a celebration of what was and what endures, a powerful reclaiming of Indigenous language, storytelling and identity. After ten years away, August Gondiwindi is called home to Australia for her grandfather's funeral. She finds the people and the places she left behind in trouble. Prosperous House where her Nan and Pop raised her, on the land the Gondiwindi have always lived, will be reposessed and destroyed by a mining company - unless August can find a way to stop it. Interspersed with her Pop's recordings of 'the words on the wind' and the letter of a mysterious German missionary penned a century ago, this book is both story and testimony. The narratives intertwine to beautifully piece back together a world almost lost.

Catfish & Mandala by Andrew X. Pham
A beautifully and evocatively written travel memoir which begins with the sudden suicide of Andrew's trans-sibling. Catapaulted by tragedy, Andrew begins a solo bicycle voyage from California around the Pacific Rim to Vietnam - the country he and his family fled twenty years before. Catfish and Mandala combines travelogue, family history and an early noughties time capsule to create a thrilling and emotional odyssey described by one reader as 'a powerful tale of disillusionment, enlightenment and understanding, coloured by violence and the hardships of the road'. A spiritual as much as a physical journey, Pham's reflections cause a reckoning with the two sides of his identity: American and Vietnamese, and the history that bonds them.

The Space Between Us by Thrity Umrigar
Set in modern-day India, The Space Between Us is the story of two compelling and achingly real women: Sera Dubash, an upper-middle-class Parsi housewife whose opulent surroundings hide the shame and disappointment of her abusive marriage, and Bhima, a woman hardened by a life of despair and loss, who has worked in the Dubash household for more than twenty years. In this beautifully crafted novel about the interlinked lives of two women, Thrity Umrigar explores the complex relationships between the classes in India, rarely addressed in contemporary fiction. Ultimately, Sera Dubash faces a decision that will force her to choose between loyalty to gender and friendship, or loyalty to her social position and class.

>30 Helenliz: - They all sound good but I'll vote for #3 because I have a copy and because someone (terrible memory) I follow here on LT recently reviewed it very favorably.

I've heard good things about The Yield, but I would vote for #3.

>31 katiekrug:, >32 Tess_W:, Interesting, thank you. I'm entirely undecided this time.

>30 Helenliz: Recommending The Yield because anything that helps us understand the colonial destruction of aboriginal culture and history is important. Could not read #3 because of the use of "achingly real" - achingly anything is always awful. ETA And so is compelling.

>34 pamelad: I agree that those very cliched blurbs can be very offputting. I don't think I've ever used "achingly" in a review but I have used "compelling" - but if I had the opportunity to write what appears on covers I would try and avoid gush and just try and keep it informative and interesting without making assertions. I'm trying to remember whether I have The Space Between Us or just recognise the title from my Amazon wishlist.

>34 pamelad: ha!

>35 elkiedee: I tend to treat all blurb with a pinch of salt. If you believe them all, every book would be superb - and experience tells me that is not the case.

I would go for Catfish & Mandala, and not just to be contrary. Because travel memoir.

I loved The Space Between Us and haven't read the other two.

>37 Crazymamie: I can see the attraction.

>38 clue: Good to know that.

I have no idea where the year has gone to, September had been and gone and we're 3/4 of the way through the year.

3/4 Review:
Number of books: 20 books in the quarter takes me to 64, which is heading for over 80 in the year, which is still sitting at impressively above peak reading speed for me. I'm usually somewhere 70 to 80 ish, so I'm not sure what's happened there.

It's been another starry quarter. For a stingy starrer, I'm now at THREE 5 star books in a year! I must be sickening for something... This quarter's addition to the list was A Wizard's Guide to Defensive Baking which was YA and just fabulous in every way. Close on it's heels, with 4.5 stars was The Quiet Gentleman by the ever reliable Georgette Heyer
Meriting a really solid 4 stars, we have: The Grand Sophy, SHakespearean, Over the River & Shakespeare's Sonnets. After last quarter's high rating, this is looking a bit more like me again!

The only bum note is sounded by The Absolute Book which was an absolute mess of a book and earnt itself a measly 2 stars.

Challenge 1: Women Authors: 41 books read by women authors out of 64 books is over just about 2/3rds!!! I wanted to aim for at least 50% so I'm doing more than OK on this one so far.

Challenge 2: New Authors: At 37 out of 64, that continues to be well above the target of 1/3rd. I have a backlog of series I want to get on with again once the library starts doing inter-site transfers, so I can see this falling as the year goes on.

Challenge 3: Translations: Just the 3 in here at the moment, so some work to do to hit the 6 for the year. I have several on the shelf, it's taking them down that's the problem...

Challenge 4: Subscriptions. This isn't about the 13 I have read, more the 4 that are currently unread. But that isn't awful, I'm keeping up - just about.

Challenge 5: Heyer series read. Just the 5 so far. And 2 re-read, but that doesn't count. Need to try and get to these more often. Not sure it helps that they're shelved away from most of the others, so they don't catch my eye in the same way.

Challenge 6: Short Stories. 12 here. Going back to work 1 day a week has increased the listening, so these are picking up again.

Challenge 7: Women's prize: Just the 2 so far.

Challenge 8: Lists: Just the 1, but that's again a limitation of the lack of library access. This one will pick up, I hope.

Challenge 9: Non-fiction: This has done surprisingly well, with 14. That's more than 1 a month. I used to read a lot of non-fiction, then it dropped off, I'm glad that's back.

Challenge 10: CATs: So far I've only missed 3. It's just for fun this one.

Challenge 11: Bingo: Again, so far I have just used women authors. I'm at only 2 left. I have a nature book out of the library, so I'll be able to finish up with the "Read a CAT" square, which I traditionally leave to last.

Challenge 12: Misc: 4, which is an increase on previously.

So how as quarter 3 been? Well since freedom day we've been able to get out and about and it's been nice seeing people and rather odd being in close proximity with them. All very strange. But life is beginning to return to some form of normality. Reading continues at a reasonable pace. I really must get on and finish Jerusalem this quarter

I was also dumbfounded to realize it was October.

>40 Helenliz: Yes, this morning I tried to add a book to my September stats and belatedly realised the new month.

Hope the library loans return to normal for you soon.

Hello Helen, and dropping in to wish you a happy new thread, to be in awe at your reading prowess, and wish you a happy October!

By the way, for >30 Helenliz:, which book did you decide on? They all sound like great choices.

>40 Helenliz: You've had a great reading month/quarter! Best wishes for the final quarter and more five-star reads.

Book: 65
Title: Public Library and Other Stories
Author: Ali Smith
Rating: ***
Why: Audio
Challenge: Woman author, short stories
TIOLI Challenge #11: Read a book that features a character who has paws

Maybe because I wanted to love this, it didn't make my heart sing. I'm not sure if that is as I listened to it, many of the stories are in the first person, but listening to the author narrate them I was never quite sure if I was listening to fact or fiction. In between each story is a short piece by a variety of people on the importance of libraries to them. This is where I am in wholehearted agreement. Libraries are a vital escape, be that a short term escape within the covers of a book, or into the land of nod (as per one contributor's mother, who she observes having an afternoon snooze in a sunny spot in the library). Or they can be a long term escape from poverty. The only reason I am where I am now is that I had access to the library and to a huge range of reading material, which I devoured indiscriminately, like someone starving. Here I was exposed the the world in all its breadth and majesty and I have never recovered from the shock. We were never quite so poor as to be starving, but I do remember spending quite a lot of my childhood being hungry, in hand me down clothes. Even now, ask me what I want for a present and my first instinct is "books and clothes", Christmas and birthday being the only time I had any of those things. Your library is vital on so many different levels to so many different people. use it, even if you don't need to.

>43 threadnsong: I think I read quite slowly, especially compared to some around here! The book selected by the vote was The Space Between Us by Thrity Umrigar

>44 VivienneR: It's not been too shabby, has it? One always reads in hope. I always pick up the next book, hoping it will be outstanding, and I never stop looking for the next one that is.

>45 Helenliz: - I love your thoughts on libraries from a personal perspective, Helen. I had much similar experience.

Hope you have a great weekend!

>47 katiekrug: Me, three, Helen.

Hoping that your weekend is full of fabulous! Thanks so much for the head's up about the tea - my order has been placed, and this time I ordered extra of it.

>45 Helenliz: Lovely and heart-felt review of Public Library and Other Stories. I have this one on my tbr and despite your reservations, your review bumped it up a little.

Book: 66
Title: The Conqueror
Author: Georgette Heyer
Rating: ****
Why: Liz's fault.
Challenge: Woman author,
TIOLI Challenge #8. Read a book with a tag that includes 'history' or 'historical'

Re-read.
I suppose as you already know the end, a second read isn't spoiled by having finished it once. I think that by using Raoul (I don't know if he is real or invented) as a stand in for us, it allows us to relate to William as a man, rather than just as an exalted personage. He could be too distant to be able to relate to, in this we relate to Raoul, who links us to William. And we feel for Raoul and Edgar and the situation they find themselves in, the resolution forever out of their hands. It did it again, tears at the end, even though I knew it was coming from the moment it is prophesied. It stands up well to a second reading and the ferocity of the battle looses nothing on a second pass.

>47 katiekrug:, >48 Crazymamie: *fistbump*
>49 RidgewayGirl: I'll be interested to know what you make of it.

>45 Helenliz: I also loved the way this book emphasised the power of libraries. I paper read it, and think that the 'small hardbackness' of it helped the reading experience.
Just hope that some of the people making the decisions about funding them read this....

>52 charl08: I have a paper copy, I just thought that I might be more likely to get to it in audiobook. I wonder if it would work better on paper.

Book: 67
Title: Memento Mori
Author: Muriel Spark
Rating: ***
Why: 1001 list read
Challenge: Woman author, new author, list.
TIOLI Challenge #9: Read a book that is (supposed to be) humorous

This is an unusual book, in that almost all the protagonists are over the age of 70. They are also all treated with respect and individuality. There are the tropes of the elderly in here, but they are each more than that. I did end up caring what happened to them. They each receive, at various time, a telephone call which consists of the words "Remember you will die" and then the phone is put down. The voice appears to each of them differently, to most it is a man, to one it is a woman. Who it is remains unsolved (although I did wonder a few times about one or two of them). Towards the ends events spiral out of control of the individuals concerned and that is quite shocking. But on the whole a compassionate portrait of a selection of people who have lived their lives and are dealing with the hand they have been dealt.

>54 Helenliz: - I read this one several years ago and don't remember much about it except that I really liked it.

I listened to that one not so long ago, Helen, and it worked so well on audio - the narrator was full of fabulous. And I loved that things spiraled out of control at the end.

>55 katiekrug: It was a good read. It's main feature being its unusual sympathy which which the elderly characters were portrayed.

>56 Crazymamie: I can imagine it would work well. I thought what happened to Lettie quite shocking - and not at all what you might have expected from the remainder of the book.

>54 Helenliz: I just finished a Muriel Spark book (The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie) and didn't care for it. However, this sounds better. On my WL is goes!

>58 Tess_W: I was thinking that this sounds intriguing enough that I'm going to try some of her other work. Hope it works for you.

>45 Helenliz: My mother started taking me to the library as a child and during my childhood and into early adult years I went to the library about once a week. In those days I wandered the stacks and just brought home whatever looked good for any reason. In other words I wasn't going to seek out an author, a specific genre, or the newest thing. I didn't know enough to do that. I have my reading list from 9th grade and it amazes me at the variety and complexity of what I read. Now I read pretty much a few genres, most of the time know the author, and don't necessrily read a book because I'm drawn to it. I think it would be good for my reading life if i returned to stalking the library shelves. I think it provides and encourgaes the opportunity to be bolder in our reading and consequently our knowledge of the world.

Book: 68
Title: Neverwhere
Author: Neil Gaiman
Rating: ***
Why: Audio
Challenge: CAT
TIOLI Challenge #6: Read a book that doesn't fit in any October 2021 Challenge, but would fit in a September 2021 Challenge

This was a cast recording, rather than a reading of the book. It is not my usual thing, it is rather violent, but there were flashes of brilliance that leave me torn on this one. Set in London Below and Above, there is a quest and a cast of improbable characters who have slipped from London Above in London Below and exist with mythical creatures and slivers of history. Into this world comes Richard Mayhew, a man who does a good deed and finds himself peculiarly ill-equipped to deal with what happens to him from there. I can admire the inventiveness, but I'm not sure that I want to actually read this.

>60 clue: I know what you mean about not being limited in choice making as a child. I like to think that I read a pretty broad range of authors and genres - in fact I don't think about books in terms of genre at all.

It's a finish, but not a bookish one. Fairies with variegated leaves ready to dance their way off the a quilt.

Oh, that's lovely, Helen!

>64 katiekrug:. Thank you. The variegated thread makes such an impact for little effort.

Well! It was Only Connect on the TV tonight. One of the groups on the Wall was Wombles, with Alderney being included. You can tell who read the books versus those who only watched the TV series. She features in the books (I remember her from the late 1970s), but didn't feature in the TV series until the 1990s. I may be revising my estimates of some people based on if they knew this or not...

Book: 69
Title: Spiral in Time
Author: Helen Scales
Rating: ***
Why: Non-Fiction
Challenge: Woman author, new author, non-ficiton, Bingo
TIOLI Challenge #5: Read a book in which at least one of the title words begins with an “S”

For a book describing something in very visual terms, this could have done with rather more pictures and illustrations. Some of the shells described I couldn't imagine, which left some of the magic stuck in the box. It could also have benefited from a species tree (or whatever it's called) as the author kept referring to certain species and their relation ship to other species, but I got somewhat lost without a point of reference. At times this gets rather too technical, at other times rather too evangelical about climate change and over-fishing. Not that I want to imply that these are not important, but it did sometimes feel like a lecture than an enjoyable reading experience.
Starting from the experience of collecting shells on the beach the author takes you through how shells evolved, their shapes and purposes, the different creatures that have them and use them, and what humans do with them. She passes through those that can be eaten (my home town gets a section on how we poisoned the Bishop of Winchester and his guests) and those that are of scientific interest.
If you have an interest in shells and the creatures that make them, then this will be interesting, I'm just not sure how well it would go down with someone without an interest in the first place.

>63 Helenliz: Delightful! Birdy says to tell you that it is "wicked cool".

What is Only Connect?

>67 Crazymamie: Thanks Birdy!

Only Connect is a fiendishly difficult quiz show. All the questions are strings of 4 connected things and contestants have to either work out the connection between the things (revealed one at a time) or identify what would be 4th in the sequence. The Wall is 16 items that can be sorted into 4 connected groups of 4, but there are red herrings, so if the category is Wombles, there might be 5 of them (there were, Wellington, Tobermory, Alderney, Bungo and Tomsk) one of which will fit into another category (on this case Tomsk, which is a Russian city as well as a Womble).
It's usually really tough, but there's such delight when you get one.

>68 Helenliz: AH. Thanks for that.

>68 Helenliz: I felt quite sorry for them this episode, they did so badly (not that I did much better! )

>65 Helenliz: I never even knew there were Wombles books, let alone that Alderney was a Womble! That's a new quest for me the next time I'm in Barter Books or Leakey's!

There are 6 Wombles chapter books, starting with The Wombles. I had the first one as a kid and think I might have read a school copy of a second book in the series, but the first one was a surprise huge hit with the kids and I bought the whole series as a set. I say surprise because if I'd not started reading the first to them as a bedtime story when we were on holiday and I'd forgotten to pack picture books/usual favourites for them, I'd have probably thought the series by Elisabeth Beresford was too quaint and old-fashioned for my 21st century boys. They just seemed to capture the kids' imagination. However, I never really watched the TV adaptation for some reason.

I have now gone down a YouTube rabbit home and am watching 'Only Connect,' which is delightful!

>70 charl08: I know, we had a certain amount of TV shouting going on at times.

>71 Jackie_K: Happy to help with your education in these matters.

>72 elkiedee: SIX! I am going to have to check what's upstairs on the shelf, I don't remember there being that many. It's good to know that it's still appreciated by the youngsters.

>73 katiekrug: Excellent! It's one of our favourites.

I thought that my very clever cousin Mick might have appeared on Only Connect - just looked it up and he was a semi finalist in 2015/16.

Only Connect question: What does "Drop the Dead Donkey" mean?

>77 katiekrug: It's a TV show from the 1990s (I think) set in a TV newsroom. It was always quite topical and I remember it being quite funny and close to the knuckle.

>76 elkiedee: >:-o I'd be no way brave enough to ever try that. Good for clever cousin Mick - clearly a man who deserves his adjectives!

>78 Helenliz: - Thanks!

>78 Helenliz: How did I not know DtDD was on youtube? (Falls down a different rabbit hole of reruns)

I love Drop the Dead Donkey. I discovered it through my then boyfriend and his housemate. It was a sitcom set in a new cable/satellite TV company offering a rather low budget TV series. The dead donkey is a reference to rather silly stories which get dropped when something more exciting comes along. The cast consists of 2 very competitive newsreaders, an older man and a woman worrying about being dropped because of her age, a young, ambitious and annoying correspondent with no scruples and a journalist who does have some scruples about stuff but finds the demands of his role a bit disillusioning. And a wealthy boss who's just interested in new opportunities for profit. There were a lot of topical jokes which would probably date it quite a lot. I think it was repeated in the early 2000s. I've even got a complete DVD box set. but unfortunately nothing in the house bought with the possibility of playing DVDs on it seems to work properly to do so. Sigh....

>80 charl08: Happy to help anyone fall down any rabbit hole at any time!

>81 elkiedee: I came to it through my (then) boyfriend (now husband), so I came in half way through. I think he has a DVD box set upstairs. I bet it has dated.

Book: 70
Title: The Dancing Face
Author: Mike Phillips
Rating: ****
Why: Shelterbox book club
Challenge: New author, subscription
TIOLI Challenge #12: Read a book where a major character spends a significant part of the narrative outside the nation of their birth

For some reason I got into my head that this was a mystery, whereas it is more of a thriller.
Gus decides that he is going to steal a priceless gold African mask known as the Dancing face. It's not entirely clear what he is planning on doing with it, but it seems to be a political statement about returning to its origins an item that was originally stolen from the tribe to whom it was the face of a god. All so far so good. Then the money gets involved and there's a lot of trading and negotiation and the heavies get involved. It's both action packed and gives plenty of time for the theoretical debate about the thorny subjects of stolen artworks and race.
This was first published in 1997, so there are no mobile phones in here. But it didn't feel dated, the ideas are still relevant and the protagonists are well drawn. It is also a page turner, I read the second half in one sitting, and the time flew by. This is re-released as part of Penguin's series of black writers, but it deserves no condescension, this is certainly worth a look on it's own merits. I'd read more by this author.

I think Mike Phillips also wrote a series of 4 books featuring a black PI in London, called Sam (?) - I have two or three of the books. I rather want to read them - I heard him speak at Crime Scene - a book event in London - probably nearly 20 years ago now - I think it might have been 2002, not 2001, and I have the impression that there might be some references and parallels with real people and north London politics, including a character with similarities to the previous MP for Tottenham, Bernie Grant who died of diabetes complications in 2001 aged only 55 (and is still much missed by many local people).

Yes, it is Sam, he gets name checked in the introduction, written by Bernadine Evaristo. The edition I read was part of Penguin's Black Britain: Writing Back series, all of which have been selected by her to be republished and brought to a wider audience. This was certainly good enough that I'd look out the detective series.

Hello, Helen!

>83 Helenliz: A direct hit - onto The List it goes.

>84 elkiedee: This also sounds good.

>86 Crazymamie: Excellent! >:-)

Feeling smug again. Quiz night, and we won with 37 out of a possible 46 points. Reading came up trumps with "Name the children from The Lion the Witch & the Wardrobe". I may have misspelt their surname, but I got it right. I love a good quiz.

>88 Helenliz: Yay, excellent work! Seconding the love for a good quiz -- pub quiz is my primary outside social activity these days ;)

Book: 71
Title: The Windsor knot
Author: SJ Bennett
Rating: ***
Why: Audio (and someone stuck me with a book bullet)
Challenge: New author, female author.
TIOLI Challenge #7. Read a book for the Trick or Treat challenge

This has as it's central surmise the idea that the Queen, seeing so much of what she does and being permanently underestimated by some of the men who serve her, solves crimes. It's a slightly Miss Marple-esque manner of doing so, she sees people, makes connections and gently asks people to do things, find things out and drops hints in the right place. In this case, she has a new Assistant Private Secretary, Rosie, who is somewhat out of the ordinary, in a very capable way. Rosie is quite taken aback by something she is asked to do, and goes to visit a previous APS, who explains what's going on. At which point Rosie becomes a willing accomplice. It is interesting to see that the right answer is arrived at, despite the security services going down a completely different rabbit hole, which upsets pretty much everyone.
I listened to this and the narrator did a good job of making the Queen sound like "The Queen" without recourse to obvious parody. It was bitter sweet, though, as this was set at about her majesty's 90th birthday and Philip makes an appearance and he died earlier this year.
This was fun and doesn't take itself too seriously. There is a second, I'd listen to that as well.

>89 rabbitprincess: Thank you. I love a quiz, although I do quiz to win! Which is fine, as so does the husband. >:-)

>88 Helenliz: Love quizzes! I used to coach our high school quiz team wherein we competed against other schools.

Book: 72
Title: Milk and Honey
Author: Rupi Kaur
Rating: **
Why: Audio
Challenge: New author, female author, short work
TIOLI Challenge #1. Read a book that pictures something with wings on its cover

I often like listening to poetry as read by the author, as it can help understand the phrasing and emphasis in a way that the written word does not. However in this case it also consisted of a lot of long pauses. I wasn't sure if these were pauses between stanza or pauses between poems. The audio was in 5 sections, so was this 5 poems, each of multiple stanza, or was this multiple poems in 5 sections. Listening to it this never became clear.
The subject matter was quite bleak. Starting with abuse within the family to obsession with a partner and then the bleakness of breakup, there was little that was comfortable or comforting in here. At times the poet does, indeed, have an arresting turn of phrase, but those sparks of light didn't make up for what was, to me, a most confusing and unsettling listen.

>93 Helenliz: So maybe not.

Happy Saturday, Helen!

>94 Crazymamie:, no, I can't exactly recommend it.

Weather been pretty wet out, so I've been stitching while watching several documentaries that I've recorded. I like recording the series then watching them as a bundle, but it's finding time to actually sit and do it. In fact I've declared winter and we had casserole for tea. >:-)

Today's finished piece (well it needs a wash and iron but apart from that it's finished). Little Misses Chatterbox, Bossy, Sunshine, Fun & Scatterbrain.

>95 Helenliz: Excellent work! :D

>97 Helenliz: Thank you, it was fun. >:-)

>95 Helenliz: - That's cute - what will you do with it?

>98 dudes22: These days most of my stitching goes to a charity that makes quilts for children who are ill or have lifelong problems. It's a perfect solution, I get to stitch stuff and not have to worry about what to do with it! There really is only so much wall space you can fill with stitching...

https://www.lovequiltsuk.com/

>99 Helenliz: - That's nice. I don't do stitching anymore, but I had that problem too. One year I made all my sisters/brothers-in-law Christmas themed cross-stitch pictures. I figured they'd only need to find a place for them for a little while each year. And then they could go back in a closet.

These are on 1 CD set, with 3 plays on 7 discs. But I'm cheating and counting them separately.

Book: 73
Title: The Taming of the Shrew
Author: William Shakespeare
Rating: ***
Why: Audio
Challenge: Short work
TIOLI Challenge #10: Read a book that can be found at LibraryThing in at least 3 languages
I listened to this on a trip to a supplier, and it kept me entertained. It was a BBC radio recording from the 1970s, and there was quite a lot of volume range between some of the characters, while some of the sound effects were loud enough to dull the speech, especially some of the servants who had quite yokel local accents.
I only know this play from adaptations like 10 things I hate about you, so I'm slightly less familiar with the story itself. I found it a little tricky to follow at times. Kate seemed to marry very quickly, I thought that would occur later. However, all that taken into account, it was a reasonable way to pass the journey.

Book: 74
Title: A Midsummer Night's Dream
Author: William Shakespeare
Rating: ****
Why: Audio
Challenge: Short work
TIOLI Challenge #8: Read a book by an author of a book you finished in the past 3 months (Aug/Sept/Oct 2021)
Return journey saw most of this done, just the last act when I got in. I enjoyed this more than The Taming of the Shrew, possibly because I've seen an adaption fairly recently, so am more familiar with the shape of the story.
I can't but help that Puck is not as simple as all that, strikes me that he has an ambiguous element about him - is he just mischievous or does he have a slightly malicious streak in him. I feel sorry for the rude mechanicals - while joining in and laughing at their performance. There are sufficient muddles and misunderstandings to keep one spinning until everything settles back into it's right place. The play within a play has a death scene that makes me wonder if it's poking a bit of fun at those in some of Shakespeare's other death scenes - Romeo & Juliet springs to mind.
This was a BBC radio recording from the 1980s and it was a very pleasant listen.
Oh - and I used part of the final speech as a quote for the Conclusions chapter in my PhD thesis - I knew I had a soft spot for it from somewhere. >:-)

>101 Helenliz: I loved the Shakespeare's Globe production of Dream, with Michelle Terry as Titania. The play itself is one of my favourite Shakespeares overall, second to the Scottish play ;)

>102 rabbitprincess: I am adding going to see it to the list of things I want to do at some point. It was fun to listen to, I imagine it would be even more fun to see.

I don't think it's cheating! Those are not something short. I have an omnibus of Shakespeare and when I read just one of the plays, I count it as a book (because it could be/really is). I think the audios sound wonderful!

>104 Tess_W:: That's exactly my thought too. Particularly since the play is so packed with stuff. To me a short work is one story, perhaps a novella, or essay, or msybe even a poem.

Also, audio takes longer to listen to than print to read, but it's a good idea with plays. They were written to be heard and/or watched.

>105 elkiedee:, >105 elkiedee:. Thank you, I feel vindicated. After all, I counted Anthony & Cleopatra as 1, so why should these only count 1/3rd?
One more on this set to go, which will be the return commute on Thursday, Twelfth night.

Book: 75
Title: Twelfth Night
Author: William Shakespeare
Rating: ****
Why: Audio
Challenge: Short work
TIOLI Challenge #7. Read a book where another book title is also shown on the front cover

Viola and her twin, Sebastian, are shipwrecked on the shore of Elyria. Neither knows the other is alive. Viola disguises herself as a boy, Cesario, and finds employment with Duke Orsino. Cesario is employed as an envoy to Olivia, carrying the Duke's admiration and wish to marry the lady. However things don;t go to plan, with Olivia falling for Cesario and Viola falling for the Duke. Things get almost more complicated when Sebastian arrives in the city, but his arrival is the trigger for the resolution of the love triangle into a pair of lovers.
One might quibble with the idea that Viola and Sebastian, as fraternal twins, were sufficiently identical to be mistaken, but put that to one side and this works better than the mistaken identity story might have done Not having seen this before, I was skeptical, but it does actually work. There is then a side story of Malvolio and Olivia's household. That provides some comic opportunity to lighten the play's tone.
For a first time, I was pleasantly entertained by this one.

>95 Helenliz: Good work on this fun piece, Helen! I admire that you are stitching pieces to give to kids in difficult situation. I've knit chemo hats for kids, and even used up some extra yarn to make some chemo hats for a good friends who sadly needs some. Hopefully she'll make it thru.

And I know your cheerful pieces will brighten a child's quilt. It would be interesting to find out how many of them turn to the needle arts when they are older.

Happy November reading!

>107 Helenliz: Nice review. I might do a reread of this next year, especially if it ends up being chosen for the ShakespeareCAT. Currently, I'm rereading A Suitable Boy and the production of Twelfth Night involving the main characters is a big part of the story.

>108 threadnsong: Thank you. It's a perfect balance, I get to stitch and not have to worry about what to do with it.

>109 mathgirl40: It was the first time I've listened to it, so while I knew of the mistaken identity plot, I couldn't see how it would play out. It works better than it might have done.

Not a very busy reading weekend, but I did get this table runner top finally pieced. When we cleared Mum's house, she had 3 of these cross stitch panels, one for Spring, Summer & Autumn. There was a pattern for Winter, but she hadn't done that one. They're intended as bell pulls, but who has a bell pull these days!? I figured that they'd work as the centre of a table runner. This is Spring, with colours selected to pick out the colours in the flowers and leaves. I still need to back and bind it, but that needs a shopping trip to get some backing & binding. Just don't look too closely at some of my joints!



For once, my phone's tendency to upload an image sideways is not a hinderance!

This is absolutely charming! A tablerunner was a great idea. I have several worked pieces that came from my family and I don't mind the little errors at all.

>110 Helenliz: Gorgeous! Perfect colour choices :)

>111 clue:, >112 rabbitprincess: Thank you both. I'm quite pleased with how it turned out.

>110 Helenliz: Oh that's lovely!

>110 Helenliz: - Well done!

>114 Jackie_K:, >115 katiekrug: Thank you!

>110 Helenliz: That's lovely, Helen. Almost too pretty to use!

>117 charl08: ha! That may well be someone else's problem. Once finished I'll sell it for funds for the charity I stitch for, so not me that needs to use it! Probably.

Book: 76
Title: The Kingdoms
Author: Natasha Pulley
Rating: **
Why: MrB's
Challenge: New author, woman author, Subscriptions, CAT, Bingo
TIOLI Challenge #5: Read a book that helps you complete a 2021 challenge you are working on

This has taken me an age to read, as I just never felt like picking it up. Which tells you everything you need to know about the low rating - it just didn't grab me and hold my attention.
The surmise is interesting enough, there is a fault in Scotland that serves as a portal between times. One one side it is 1807, on the other late 1800s. Through this portal passes a ship, The Kingdom. They end up between the English & French in just prior to Trafalgar and some of them end up being capture by the French. They are then canny enough to work out that the information the people from the future bring mean that they can change the future - and so they do.
This has impact on the people in the future, obviously, as instead of England winning the battle of Trafalgar and the Waterloo, the French win Trafalgar and then invade England, such that at the book's start, London is French and the English are slaves. This is where we first meet Joe, who seems to have lost his memory.
You get how this could be complicated, and it is - increasingly so. And yet it seems, to me, to fail to be self consistent. Jem travels from the late 1800s to 1787 (ish) and changes his own time by his actions in the past. Yet those actions don;t affect him until he goes back through the portal to what was his own time. He then can't really remember what was his life, in either time frame. Yet as soon as the past is changed, the impact on those in the future is as if it had always been that way - which makes little sense to the person who now no longer existed in the first place. Someone coming from the past into the future can remember the past events, presumably because theya re living it through in real time.
It got very complicated as who which time we were reading about, and who had been translated from when and to where.
On the plus side there are some inventive characters, and the interplay between them in the various timeframes was interesting. On the minus side it just didn't feel to me to be at all convincingly executed. It felt very muddled, it felt too complicated and contrived. It didn't feel, at times, to be real. This book sums up my problem with timetravel - unless it is done extremely well it just falls down flat.

On the plus side, it does mean that I have finished my Bingo card for the year, all female authors.

Decision time, hive mind. Which of these do I want to vote for.

The Hundred Secret Senses by Amy Tan:
The Hundred Secret Senses is an exultant novel about China and America, love and loyalty, the identities we invent and the true selves we discover along the way.
We begin with four-year-old Olivia Laguni who is half-Chinese, but typically American in her uneasiness with her patchwork family. And no one in Olivia's family is more embarrassing to her than her half-sister, Kwan Li. For Kwan speaks mangled English, is cheerfully deaf to Olivia's sarcasm, and has magical "yin eyes" that allow her to communicate with their ancestors.
Even as Olivia details the particulars of her decades-long grudge against her sister (who, among other things, is a source of infuriatingly good advice), Kwan Li is telling her own story, one that sweeps us into the splendour, squalor, and violence of Manchu China. And out of the friction between her narrators, Amy Tan creates a work that illuminates both the present and the past sweetly, hilariously, with searing and vivid prose.

Paula by Isabel Allende:
In December 1991, Allende’s daughter Paula, aged 26, fell gravely ill and sank into a coma. This book started as a letter to Paula written during the hours spent at her bedside, and became a personal memoir and a testament to the ties that bind families – a brave, enlightening, inspiring true story.
This book chronicles Isabel Allende's life, beginning with her childhood in Chile, as well as her family history and the tragedy of her nation in the years leading up to Pinochet's military coup.
Written during the interminable hours Allende spent in the corridors of a Madrid hospital, in her hotel room and beside her daughter Paula's bed during the summer and autumn of 1992. Isabel Allende turned to storytelling, to sustain her own spirit and to convey to her daughter the will to wake up, to survive. "A magician with words, Allende makes this grim scenario into a wondrous encounter with the innermost sorrows and joys of another human being."

Black Mamba Boy by Nadifa Mohamed:
Aden, Yemen, 1935; a city vibrant, alive, and full of hidden dangers. And home to Jama, a ten year-old boy. But then his mother dies unexpectedly and he finds himself alone in the world. Jama is forced home to his native Somalia, the land of his nomadic ancestors. War is on the horizon and the Italian forces who control parts of East Africa are preparing for battle. Yet, Jama cannot rest until he discovers whether his father, who has been absent from his life since his birth, is alive.
And so begins an epic story by Booker-Prize nominated author Nadifa Mohamed. Jama travels north through Djibouti, war-torn Eritrea and Sudan to Egypt and from there, aboard a ship transporting Jewish refugees just released from German concentration camps, across the seas to Britain and freedom.
One boy's long walk to freedom is also the story of how the Second World War affected Africa and its people; a story of displacement, family and hope.

I'll vote for Paula because I have a copy of it on my shelves :)

I'd find that choice really hard. I've read the Amy Tan. I think, but a long time ago - both she and Isabel Allende are authors whose books I add to my wishlists but I don't think I own a copy of Paula though I have other books by her in duplicate, just gave one of her other memoirs away to my sister for that reason. I've had the Nadifa Mohamed on my TBR for ages, in pb and then Kindle.

>120 Helenliz: Oh what an amazing bunch of choices, I'd want all 3! I read Paula many years ago and loved it (it also made me proper ugly-cry). The other two also sound brilliant.

I wasn't sure about the first one, but I think I got muddled up with her and Lisa See. I've not read any Amy Tan.

I was tempted by the third one on first glance, even though it does have the lowest LT rating of the 3. hmmm. decisions, decisions.

>124 Helenliz: I wouldn't worry about the lower LT rating in this case. It might be for silly reasons. Or sse if there are reviews which make sense if in doubt. Why not go with your instrict

>120 Helenliz: I read the Tan pre LT. I love her books but I know some people think they are similar. The other two sound good too. I just read Nadifa Mohamed's Booker nominated novel (set in Wales) and enjoyed it. I've yet to read any Allende so I think I would go for that one.

I would also go for Paula, Helen.

I would most likely vote for Black Mamba Boy but for the same reason that Katie voted for Paula, it's on my Kindle. :)

I elected to go with my gut and voted for Black Mamba Boy. I'll know what's been picked next week.

In other less exciting news, I had an assessment with the hand team today and it seems my wrist problems are either arthritis or something called De Quervain's syndrome. It being a thing at least means it isn't all in my head, which I has started to wonder. Especially as "I struggle to carry a full dinner plate in each hand" is hardly the stuff of life threatening proportions. I will have a splint sent out and then exercises, which will help identify which it is as well as make it a bit better (I hope).

In other more exciting book news, I had a couple of books come through Unbound today, beautifully wrapped. Not yet peaked inside...

I don't think you can go wrong with any of the possible books.

I'm glad you are on the road to getting your wrist problems sorted. It's always nice to get an answer and a plan.

Oooh, what are you waiting for?!?! Unwrap those books!

Ooh, I had De Quervain's a few years ago! Happy to chat if it turns out that's what it is (I ended up with a couple of steroid injections and eventually surgery, which wasn't as awful as it sounds). It is such a weird thing, and you're right, hardly life-threatening but a flippin pain in the backside!

>131 Jackie_K: I might well do so, if that's OK. You're the second person I've had say they had steroid injections and an operation and now has no problems, so that's reassuring in itself. Splint and exercises first. >:-) And yes, it's a rather odd thing. The way it comes and goes also had me confused. I could measure it by how difficult it is to do up a bra - some days have required assistance!

The assessment was by Teams, which was odd, but turned out reasonably effective. She got me to do a number of different movements and when one of them had me yelping, she was fairly sure that it is that.

>130 katiekrug: Knowing I'm not making up the odd selection of symptoms is quite a relief.

Books are The Wild Swans and East of the Sun, West of the Moon, both by Jackie Morris. They look lurvely.

>129 Helenliz: I've also had De Quervain's tenosynovitis. It went away after I wore a wrist brace for a few months and did the exercises, but I'm still careful with wrist movements that combine twisting and gripping. Fortunately there was no need for surgery or injections.

ETA I also had bra doing up problems, plus teeth flossing difficulties.

>132 Helenliz: Yes, of course, I wouldn't have offered if it wasn't OK! Although I'm hardly the poster girl for wrist recovery - since the op (which was successful, and led after a bit of physio to complete normality again) I then developed RSI in the same hand/wrist (entirely unrelated to the De Quervain's - just too much bad keyboard posture), so I still have to be really careful now. Then add in tennis elbow in the same arm, and an injured rotator cuff in that same shoulder more recently! And yes, the thing that has driven me up the wall more than anything else was not being able to undo my bra (that's how I know my shoulder injury is finally getting better, I've recently been able to get round the back again to undo it!).

De Quervain's feels like a little secret club - most people have never heard about it, but if you've ever had it you feel instant sympathy with anyone else who gets it!

Hi, Helen!

Sorry to hear about your wrist issues, that must be very frustrating. :(

I wanted to touch base and see if you were interested in joining me for Royal Escape? - and if so, whether next month suits you or you'd prefer to put it off a while? I'm easy either way but for December I'll have to place an ILL request fairly soon.

>135 lyzard: Hi Liz, I feel better for knowing it is actually a thing and that there is something I can do about it - not just grin and bear it for the next ** years... Done some of my exercises today, supposed to do them every 2 hours, which may take some remembering!

Yes, I'm up for Royal Escape I have a copy on my shelves, so would be ready when you could get a copy. I have vague plans to spend some of our holiday in December making some progress on Jerusalem which stalled during the summer, but don't really have any major preference. It would make for a contrast!

>133 pamelad:, >134 Jackie_K: we ought to have team shirts made up >:-) I'm reassured by both recoveries. Ergonomic left handed mouse due to arrive tomorrow - expect to hear a lot of swearing while I see if I can connect the thing to the laptop!

>136 Helenliz:

That sounds promising, best of luck!

If you're not fussed I might put it off until the New Year (yike!!). I'm a bit swamped with over-committments at the moment and would like to work at getting a few of them off my plate.

>95 Helenliz: & >110 Helenliz: Beautiful work! I admire you for finishing projects. I start many but often abandon the job close to finishing.

Wishing you all the best with your wrist problem.

>139 VivienneR: ahh! You've not seen the unfinished project pile. I have any number that have been abandoned over the years. >;-)

>138 lyzard: That would probably suit me as well, let's say January then.

Book: 77
Title: Fools & Mortals
Author: Bernard Cornwell
Rating: ***
Why: Bookbullet & I seem to be on a Shakespeare thing.
Challenge: CATs
TIOLI Challenge #9. Read a book with OO in the title or author's name

This is a right adventure. The setting is broadly the first staging of "A Midsummer Night's dream" at the house of the Lord Chancellor for his grand daughter's wedding. Along side this we have the building of a new playhouse, the Swan, which is shrouded in secrecy and seems to be short of plays and so sets out to steal the one being written by Will Shakespeare. We see all this through the eyes of his younger brother, Richard, who ran away from his apprentice master and has come to London to be a player. He is just getting too old to play the female roles and want to play a man's part. He is growing up physically, but he remains Will's younger brother and this colours their relationship, Richard wanting his brother's approval, Will unable to see him as he now is. And then there's a brief, but touching romance, with Sylvia being sufficiently independently minded to bring about a dramatic change in events.
At times this gets pretty unpleasant, there is quite graphic violence, there are past abuses and there's the nasty overtone of religious oppression and the blinkered puritan view. It tends to support the view that life in the past was nasty, brutish & short. But there is more to this book than those passages. They set up a fabulous view of the performance from the actor's perspective, which is well worth the read. Having not long listened to the play in question, It was fun to see it coming together through the rehearsals and into the performance. And, to borrow the playwright's own lines, all's well that ends well.

>141 Helenliz: - That sounds like a good one. Adding it to The List.

>142 katiekrug: He usually writes battle books, so this is a little bit different from the usual. But it was a good read.

I'm reading my Shelterbox book The Space Between Us. I am struggling somewhat with the caste system - how does it work and how is it not just racism? It might be that I'm going to miss the point of this somewhat.

>144 Helenliz: I'm not an expert on India's caste system and can only relate what I was taught by one professor in college--sometime ago. My understanding is that there are different races within the caste system--Indians, Asians, etc. The castes were hereditary and also required one to marry within one's own cast. Some castes were also occupational related. I can only remember that he said contrary to popular belief it was not based on race. However, it's been 30 years and newer information may be different.

I have that book on my WL.

>145 Tess_W: Thanks. Review below.

Book: 78
Title: The Space Between Us
Author: Thrity Umrigar
Rating: ***
Why: Shelterbox deadline
Challenge: new author, woman author, subscription
TIOLI Challenge #2: Read a book where the title completes the phrase, "I am thankful for..."

It is possible that I've missed the point here somewhere. Tells of the relationship between Bhima and her family as she works as a servant to Sera and her family over a period of probably 20 to 30 years. They each have their own problems with the family and see their lives in the present and the past. Sera and her husband's temper, her problems with her mother in law. Bhima with a husbad who has an accident and then deserts her, taking their son and her daughter and son in law who dies young, leaving a grand daughter, who is now all Bhima has. And yet the part I simply cannot get my head round is that while Sera is generous to Bhima, supporting Maya to go to college, she doesn't allow her to sit on the furniture. While Bhima cooks food for the family and washes up the dishes, she is not allowed to use those same dishes. Genuinely, can't comprehend it. As someone who has come late to having a cleaner, that's just not my mind set. My granny was a maid at one of the bigger houses in the village, so maybe I'm too lately come to the middle classes to b able to see it from their perspective.
Sera's fmaily and friends also seem to make much of being Parsi, so is this some sort of religious/cultural divide that goes to add to the sense of alienation that this book seems to have at its centre.
If one were going to quibble with this book, the men are almost all painted as villains in some way. Only Freddy, of those who appear in the book, has any respect for the women around him and behaves in what seems to be a human way. There is a sense that the behaviour of Feroz will be repeated in the next generation.
This also ends with the rupture between the two families, there is no hope of reconciliation or sense of resolution. There is no sense that this situation can change, there is no sense that the author thinks this situation should change, there seems to be little censure of the behaviour of either side here.
I have probably missed the point somewhere and this story is being told on another plane somewhere - if so it's one that the author has not made accessible.

Not part of review:
If someone can explain the cultural background to this, how this is not some form of racism or religious discrimination, I'd be quite grateful. As it is, I'm struggling with it.

>146 Helenliz: Are Bhima and her family Dalits (untouchables)? That would explain why they're not allowed to sit on the furniture or use the dishes. There have been plenty of stories in the news about violence against Dalits, particularly the women, so perhaps the villainy of the men reflects reality as seen by a member of the lowest caste.

Quite recently I read an article about the very first Dalit air hostess. India has passed anti-discrimination legislation, but there are centuries of tradition to overcome. I recommend Mulk Raj Annand's book Untouchable and two books by Rohinton Mistry, A Fine Balance and Such a Long Journey.

Freddie Mercury was a Parsi! Parsis migrated to India from Persia and are followers of Zoroaster. They aren't Hindus, so are not part of the caste system, but perhaps they have absorbed some of the customs and prejudices of their adopted country?

Update: 2000 years of discrimination. https://www.hrw.org/reports/2001/globalcaste/caste0801-03.htm

>146 Helenliz: I haven't read it Helen, and don't have any answers re the complex questions, but I wondered if the inconclusive / lack of redemptive ending (if I've read your message right) was linked to there being a sequel featuring some of the characters? (According to this, anyway https://www.publishersweekly.com/978-0-06-244220-8 )

>147 pamelad: If they are Dalits, that is not made plain anywhere in the text. Bhima & Maya end up living in a slum, but don't start there. As I said, if there is some explanation, I didn't find it in the text.

>148 charl08: Maybe. The final passages are very out of keeping with the rest of the book and there is certainly scope for the book to continue. I'm not going to bother reading it, though.

Book: 79
Title: Diary of a Somebody
Author: Brian Bilston
Rating: ***
Why: audio book
Challenge: miscellaneous
TIOLI Challenge #11. Read a book with an unrealistic-styled illustration on the cover

I wanted to like this, but I'm not sure that it works sufficiently across the duration of the piece. Brian Bilston of the book has broken up with his wife, who has taken up with a motivational speaker. Brian decides to write a diary and poetry every day, this is that diary. Brian, at times, seems to self sabotage, he is a member of book club and never reads the books, despite buying it (plus numerous others) each month. He meets someone at poetry club, Liz, and this relationship again suffers from the self sabotage. Also at poetry club we meet Toby Salt, against whom Brian has a major grudge for being more successful and against whom he often compares himself. Across the year Brian makes a number of poor decisions and the humour sits oddly against the repeated bad decisions and the moaning about the consequences of said bad decision. The mystery about the disappearance of Toby Salt hangs over the book for some time, but the resolution seems to be far to swift when it eventually comes.
I liked this in parts, but the year long format just made it all a bit too long to maintain the interest. Some of the poems are excellent short form works, I'm just not sure that the mating of poetry and the prose format works sufficiently well.

I think I'll pass on that one then! (I do like the cover though).

>151 charl08: It was a good idea and entertaining enough, I just felt that it didn't sustain the interest across the entire duration. It needed better pacing, I think, to work. I sort of lost interest a few times.

Finished North and South last night, but as I'm in an audit all day today (wibble), review will have to wait. I enjoyed it. Thanks Mamie for the push to get on to it again.

>152 Helenliz: I'm so happy you enjoyed it - can't wait to read your thoughts on it.

Hope the audit went well, Helen.

Book: 80
Title: North and South
Author: Elizabeth Gaskell
Rating: ****
Why: Classics are good for you.
Challenge: woman author, 1001 list
TIOLI Challenge #8. Read a book that you have borrowed in the last 12 months (and really ought to return!)

This is rather long and extraordinarily spoiler laden - even by my standards!

I've tried to read this before, when it was a book club pick, but at the time I just couldn't put the time into it. I've meant to get back to it and I'm glad I have now done so.
Written in the mid 1800s, this manages to combine a romance with social history and the industrial revolution. Margaret Hale is the female lead. A the start we find her living in her Aunt Shaw's house, one of an affluent class who don;t seem to have to do a great deal for their money and the women lead idle, pampered lives. Shortly after the opening, Margaret returns to her father's house. He's a vicar in the New Forest, and live in more reduced circumstances than her mother's sister and their family in London. Her mother seems to feel their situation and complains that she wishes to leave Helstone. And when her father suffers a crisis of confidence, they do move - to industrial Milton, Darkshire. This suits her mother no better she makes her feelings know. As things progress, Margaret's father increasingly relies on her. The family are a bit fish out of water in their new situation. They are not on a level with the working people in the mills, but they do not feel that they fit with the mill masters either. Margaret has a certain snobbery over the mill owners, implying that they are in trade, but she seems to feel more sympathy for the working men. She and her opinions provide a southern view to contrast with the northern situation that she finds herself in. I feel that the North/South divide is slightly artificial, a divide between industrial and rural would be more accurate.
In time Margaret develops human relationships with Bessy and her father, Higgins, and finds more understanding of the mill owners, in the figure of Mr Thornton. We discover more of him and he begins to be more human. Along the way he discovers feeling for Margaret. The life of the workers and masters does not run smooth, and there is a strike. This was, in part, arranged by Higgins, on the Union committee and Mr Thornton is one of the masters affected. There is a crowd and a riot ensues, with potentially more serious effects mitigated by Margaret's presence, although she maybe precipitated the events that preceded this. At times she still seems to misunderstand the complexities of the situation at play in the industrial landscape.
Along with the social history, there are more human threads of story. There is the unfortunate events surrounding Margaret's parents and then her God father. He seems to be introduced almost as a tool in order to set up the final portion of the book, but as a plot device he is unoffensive enough. There's the fate of Margaret's brother, Frederick. He arrives and leaves in short order and causes a certain amount of pain to those around him without knowing. There is the gradual humanisation of both Higgins and Thornton. Margaret interacts with both of them and by doing so she seems to act as a bridge between the,. They both come to understand each other's position more by her intervention in both of their lives. And then there is Margaret's romantic life. In 400 odd pages she receives 4 proposals from 2 men, and turns 3 of them down. The final one doesn't come as a surprise, but the contrast between it and its predecessor is quite marked. In Henry Lennox's proposal, she is being viewed as an asset to his professional life, he want to use her inheritance to further his career. He seems to view her as being interesting and will not disgrace him socially, but he barely seems to know her or her way of thinking. The second proposal from Mr Thornton seems far more a match of equals. He comes to her to renegotiate his rental of the mills, he ends up by being offered capital to recover the situation. I think the contrast between the two of them makes for a clear differential between the idle affluent class (as represented by Henry Lennox) and the working classes. Mr Thornton may be a mill master, but he still represents a more industrious attitude to life, he has risen to his current position and is not above returning to a lower position and carry on working in a way that Henry Lennox seems not to relate to. At times in these types of books I wonder what the main protagonists see in each other, or I doubt the happiness of the match. In this case my only concern is his mother - but I feel sure that Margaret would prove equal to the task.
I thoroughly enjoyed this. It had been described as Pride & prejudice meets the industrial revolution - I'm not sure that is fair. It felt to have more in common with some of the Bronte sister's writing (I'm thinking more strongly of Shirley) than the rather rarefied life of the Bennett sisters. This is far more gritty and it benefits from the various contrasts that are set up between the different factions at play.

Between you and Mamie, North and South is near the top of my list of books to read in 2022!

>155 Helenliz: I read that earlier this year and loved it. Have you seen the BBC miniseries?

>156 katiekrug: Excellent, we've double tagged you!

>157 RidgewayGirl: I'm in good company then. No, not seen the mini series.

>154 charl08: it's done for another year. It went OK, a number of findings, all minor, all niggly, but all a fair cop.

>155 Helenliz: One of my all-time favorites! On my first reading I was not as impressed, but my second reading was an audiobook read by Juliet Stevenson. She does the dialects of Higgins and others so well, which had been a bit of a stumbling block for me on the first reading. I was hooked with the audiobook, and even cried at several points.

The mini-series is outstanding and fairly true to the text, except the ending is a bit changed (but still fits). I could watch it again and again, just for Richard Armitage (*sigh*).

I've read that Gaskell was writing this for Dickens' monthly publication (maybe Household Words?) and Dickens was becoming impatient with the length of the novel (yikes! look who's calling the kettle black!), so Gaskell rushed the ending a bit to meet his requirements.

I have not read Wives and Daughters--that is on my TBR for next year, along with Gaskell's Ruth and Sylvia's Lovers. I just re-read Cranford which is such a delight, and is so different from North and South, and yet I love both. And I plan to read Jenny Uglow's biography of Gaskell while working through the novels.

>155 Helenliz: >159 kac522: Same here, one of my favourite books. And I also loved Wives and Daughters. But I couldn't get into Ruth. Maybe it's time for another attempt...

Hello, Helen! Happy Sunday.

>159 kac522: This is how I read it, too - the audio is lovely.

>155 Helenliz: I also listened to the audio and loved it. Gaskell is one of my favorite authors. My favorites were Mr. Harrison's Confessions, My Lady Ludlow, and Cranford. I have a 2022 CAT where I hope to read Cousin Phillis and Mary Barton.

This year I've read some of Elizabeth Gaskell's shorter books and, like Tess, really enjoyed Cranford and Mr Harrison's Confessions. It's many years since I read the longer books, and your enthusiastic review of North and South makes me think that it's time for a re-read.

>162 Tess_W: I loved Cousin Phillis.

I'm liking the enthusiasm for the book and Gaskell. I can see why people have enjoyed it, I certainly did. I intend to read more of her, so thanks to your responses I have plenty of ideas for which of her works to try next.

>155 Helenliz: I'm thinking of reading this for the AuthorCAT next year (specifically the 19th century author category). I struggle with classics, but this book has had so many good reviews.

Book: 81
Title: Bullfighting
Author: Roddy Doyle
Rating: ***
Why: Audio
Challenge: short stories
TIOLI Challenge #5. Read a book where the author’s last name could be used as a first name

I listened to this as read by Lorcan Cranitch and there's a man who could read the phone book and still have me entranced. I'm not sure I can speak quite so highly of the collection of stories, it felt somewhat uneven. At one point I almost stopped, listening to middle aged, middle class men moaning is not by favourite occupation. And the story about blood was vile and really disgusting. Turned my stomach.
Those gripes apart, this does have something to say about the facade behind which the middle aged, middle class man hides. IN each story the man concerned is losing something or has realised that he has lost something and can't see how, when or where it slipped away. The man who takes his elderly parents to a funeral and leaves them at the chip shop was poignant, aware of the potential loss of them or their faculties at any time and fearing they are already leaving. There's the man remembering the children's pets while dealing with being unemployed and yet not wanting to appear needy (the trick with the zebra finch called Pete was epic). There are several marriages on the rocks, men dealing with an empty or nearly empty nest and facing a different future that the past they had been used to living in.
I'm not sure that the highs in here make this worth the entire collection, the dodgy ones weigh it down just a bit too much. I also felt that the voice was very similar and became somewhat repetitive.

>166 Jackie_K: I'm not a huge 19th century novel fan - I will never get on with Jane Austen, for instance. This is far more readable and a lot less mannered. I think it would be worth a go.

Book: 82
Title: Blackout
Author: Connie Willis
Rating: ****
Why: Liked her previous book I read.
Challenge: woman author
TIOLI Challenge #9. Read a book with 500 pages or more

I don't read a lot of sci fi, as I know I am rather pernickety about breaking the rules of science at a whim. So when I enjoy a book that has timetravel at its heart, you know you are in the presence of something rather special. I think the way that the time travel in Connie Willis' book has its own rules it what, for me, makes it work. She's allowing one piece of science fiction, but then it follows its rules and it does so entirely consistently. So a historian can't time travel with the intent of changing history, you can;t go back and shoot Hitler, for instance, the net simply doesn't allow it. There are places and events that they usually can;t get close it, known as divergence points.
In this book, we have a group of 3 different historians that are all looking at different elements of WW2. Eileen (aka Merope) is studying evacuees at a country house outside London, Mike is posing as an American reporter looking at heroes at Dunkirk and Polly is studying the effect of the start of the Blitz. In turn, each finds that their "drop", their route back to Oxford of 2060, has failed to function. And they start to wonder if they have, in fact, changed history. Mike ended up being injured at Dunkirk, having saved one man's life - who then went on to save another 500. Has that changed history? Polly had studied the reported dates of various bombing raids and locations bombed so can check that the progress of the war is as expected. But there remains that fear that they are now stuck in the past and the rescue team is not going to come and get them - so what has gone wrong.
The fish out of water element is excellent. They start by being able to view events dispassionately, knowing what is happening, but gradually they become sucked in and that foreknowledge becomes more a hinderance than a help. I think there is a big difference between events when viewed in retrospect and events as experienced at the time, we all put on rose tinted glasses once the danger is over - and that appears a lot between the information the trio have and what they experience first hand.
This is very clearly the first part of 2, and I now need to find book 2 pretty sharpish.

Well that's a busy few days done. I'm now off until 5th January. Friday saw work Christmas lunch. Which (as usual) got a bit boozy (masterly piece of understatement). We all called it a day at 9:30pm. Lightweights, the lot of us. It felt a lot later than 9:30pm, which might be something about age catching up on some of us, either that or we are all badly out of practice! It was the first time we'd all been in the same room in 21 months.
As tradition dictates, I visited a Xmas tree farm and bought my tree on the way home. Then we went up to his mother for lunch with his sister and a couple of the kids. Which was fine, but maybe not the best choice for the day after the work do. But hey ho, it's done.

>169 Helenliz: It would have been better to have published Blackout and All Clear as one massive book, which is what they really are. But superlatively done.

>171 RidgewayGirl: I think I know what you mean. But my copy of Blackout was already 610 pages, so I'm not sure how I'd have managed to hold a book twice as big!

>170 Helenliz: - I miss company holiday parties 😜

>173 katiekrug: It was just sooooooo good. Part of that was just the being in one room together in person and chatting.

So glad you enjoyed both the Christmas party and Blackout!

>175 christina_reads: thank you. They were quite different, but both enjoyable. And you could say, that both has given me the taste for a follow up.
In the case of the Christmas party, I'm just a hankering after going "out-out" again. As opposed to going out, which in current times means just leaving the house!

>170 Helenliz: Sounds like the fun! Both the party and the tree choosing. I miss getting a real tree - we haven't done that since Craig had his hip replaced one December many years ago. I love how real trees smell. What kind if tree did you get?

The work party made me think of my old work group - we worked night shift and would often go out to breakfast together after work. For the holiday breakfast, usually everyone came, and Ron who always checked us in would always give the last name of Apostles, so that when they called us they said, "Apostles, party of 12".

>177 Crazymamie: Traditional tree (non of this non-drop needles business). I know that it can be no taller than I am, otherwise once it is in its stand with the star on the top it will fit in the bay window. I also do not do an understated tree, nor a theme tree, not a colour scheme tree. It is riot of colour all the way. Those with an artistic temperament may wish to look away now. >;-)



Love the party name, that's a seasonal sense of hunour.

Nice! Riot of color is my favorite kind of tree. The trees in the neurologist's office yesterday just had giant bows on them. Weird. And they had this truly creepy life-size animated Santa in front of the door that would not shut up. I don't know how the people working there were still sane.

>178 Helenliz: Are those penguin ornaments? Ooh...

>179 Crazymamie: I would have thought a neurologist's office might be more cautious about the decor.

>179 Crazymamie: Thank you.

I'm still a bit >:-o at the scary Santa. I echo the remarks of >181 elkiedee:. You'd have thought they might think about it a little bit.

>180 charl08:. Yes there are a small number of different penguin ornaments on there. >:-D

>181 elkiedee: Right?! It was very creepy.

>182 Helenliz: Yep. And it was huge - I could look him straight in the eye.

Book: 83
Title: On the Floor
Author: Aifric Campbell
Rating: ***
Why: Orange longlist
Challenge: woman author, new author, Orange prize
TIOLI Challenge #8. Read a book that you have borrowed in the last 12 months (and really ought to return!)

This is the tale of Geri, an investment banker working in the stock market. At the beginning we see Geri's big trade and find out about her big client, Felix, who will only trade through her.
As the book progresses, we see her life falling apart. Her boyfriend left her ~ 6 months ago and she is still not over that. Felix wants her to move to Hong Kong. She is drinking too much and not sleeping, running on fumes, living on her past achievements and is on a slippery slope downwards. Things come to a head over the few days leading up to the 1st Gulf War, when she gets flown out to Hong King to meet Felix and understand his intention in relation to a specific stock, and a potential takeover. At which point Stephen reappears, takes advantage of her, and leaves again. It all gets very complicated on her return. In the final section we hear about Geri's upbringing, what has taken her to her current position.
At the end, Geri seems to be faced with a choice of planes to catch, to two different locations. One would be the continuation of her current life, the other would be a complete break from the past. I find myself hoping that she made a decision that made her happy for herself - I just can't decide which one it should be.

Just to wish all my thread visitors, lurkers and posters alike, a merry christmas. Hope the day goes smoothly and that you get a book under the tree.

Same to you, Helen!

Book: 84
Title: Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer
Author: Robert L May
Rating: ****
Why: It's traditional.
Challenge: short stories
TIOLI Challenge #6. Read a book with an alliterative title

Re-read - because some traditions need to be maintained. >:-)

Definitely! And the same to you. >185 Helenliz:

Book: 85
Title: The Stranger Times
Author: CK McDonnell
Rating: ***1/2
Why: Bullet
Challenge: New author
TIOLI Challenge #8. Read a book that you have borrowed in the last 12 months (and really ought to return!)

At first, I thought that this was trying just a bit to hard to be quirky. Fortunately, at ~ 2/3rds distance someone arrives and explains everything. From there to the end it's a rollercoaster ride.
Hannah is running away from a soon to be ex husband and her former rather privileged life. She finds herself in need of a job and so attends an interview for a weird newspaper called "The Stranger Times". There she meets a motley crew of the paper that reports the weird and wonderful things that may or may not be news. The staff soon find themselves investigating the death of Simon, someone who always wanted to be taken on as a reporter. The police seem to be assuming suicide, the team don't believe that and they start following up on what he was looking into when he died. It all gets rather unpredictable, and the story closes with an uneasy truce having been put in place. This clearly sets up a sequel, and I can see myself reading it, if only to find out where the truth leads them next time out.

>185 Helenliz: And the same to you, Helen!

>178 Helenliz: Your tree is beautiful, a riot of colour always works (as opposed to >179 Crazymamie:'s experience at the neurologist's office).

Hope you had a Merry Christmas (a lunch party that went on to 9:30pm !!) and wishing you a happy new year.

Thanks all. >:-)

In a slight change from tradition, Christmas dinner took place at 7pm. I'm never in the mood to put away a big meal at lunch time, and this worked pretty well. There was a bottle of fizz involved, so all is well in the world.

Santa bought a book and a box of Ferrero Rocher, all of which was most acceptable. >:-D

Book: 86
Title: Murder on a Winter's Night
Author: Ed Cecily Gayford
Rating: ***
Why: It's Christmas!
Challenge: Short stories
TIOLI Challenge #7. Read a book with "Night," "Long," or "Dark" in the title

A mixture of mysteries, all set in the dark of a Northern winter. Of these I remembered 2 from previous collections, the rest were new. The collection is mostly older, with the odd more recent set story to provide some variety. As with any collection, some work better than others, but there were no real duffers in here.

Final decision of the year, which do I want to read?

The Invisible Life of Euridice Gusmao by Martha Batalha
Euridice is bright and ambitious. But this is Brazil in the 1940s, and society expects her to be a loving wife and mother. While her husband Antenor is busy congratulating himself on his excellent catch, Euridice spends her humdrum days ironing his shirts and removing the lumps of onion from his food, dreaming of ways in which she can exist as her own person - as a writer, dressmaker or culinary whizz. Her free-spirited sister Guida, on the other hand, is the kind of person who was 'born knowing everything'. When she returns from her failed elopement with stories of heartbreak and loss, the lives of Euridice and her husband are thrown into confusion, with unexpected consequences. The Invisible Life of Euridice Gusmao is a darkly comic novel, bursting with vibrant Brazilian spirit and a cast of unforgettable characters. It is a jubilant novel about the emancipation of women.

Here Comes The Sun by Nicole Dennis - Benn
In this radiant, highly anticipated debut, a cast of unforgettable women battle for independence while a maelstrom of change threatens their Jamaican village. Capturing the distinct rhythms of Jamaican life and dialect, Nicole Dennis-Benn pens a tender hymn to a world hidden among pristine beaches and the wide expanse of turquoise seas. At an opulent resort in Montego Bay, Margot hustles to send her younger sister, Thandi, to school. Taught as a girl to trade her sexuality for survival, Margot is ruthlessly determined to shield Thandi from the same fate. When plans for a new hotel threaten the destruction of their community, each woman - fighting to balance the burdens she shoulders with the freedom she craves - must confront long-hidden scars. From a much-heralded new writer, Here Comes the Sun offers a dramatic glimpse into a vibrant, passionate world most outsiders see simply as paradise.

Three Apples Fell From The Sky by Narine Abgaryan
The Russian bestseller about love and second chances, brimming with warmth and humour. In the tiny village of Maran nestled high in the Armenian mountains, a place where dreams, curses and miracles are taken very seriously, a close-knit community bickers, gossips and laughs, untouched by the passage of time. A lifelong resident, Anatolia is happily set in her ways. Until, that is, she wakes up one day utterly convinced that she is dying. She lies down on her bed and prepares to meet her maker, but just when she thinks everything is ready, she is interrupted by a surprise visit from a neighbour with an unexpected proposal. So begins a tale of unforeseen twists and unlikely romance that will turn Maran on its head and breathe a new lease of life into a forgotten village. Narine Abgaryan's enchanting fable is a heart-warming tale of community, courage, and the irresistible joy of everyday friendship.

Over to you - with the usual proviso that I may ignore you entirely. >:-)

>195 elkiedee: I suppose it's of no help to say they all sound interesting?

Actually I have all of them on my TBR, two as Kindle purchases and Three Apples Fell From the Sky as a Netgalley from ages ago that I'd forgotten about.

>194 Helenliz: I've got Three Apples Fell from the Sky on my January list for CATWoman (women in translation) - I took a BB for it from someone else on LT (can't remember who) and was given it for my birthday this year. So if you do get to read that one I'll be interested to compare and contrast reviews!

I read Three Apples Fell from the Sky - it was good, but the others sound like books I'd want to read too.

>195 elkiedee: That's my usual first reaction. >;-) I can vote for one of them, but that doesn't mean it'll be the one we get to read. That's the nature of democracy - apparently.

>196 Jackie_K: A BB (even if second hand) is always worth a look.

>197 charl08: That sounds promising.

>197 charl08: It may well be you who hit me with the BB!

I'm not going to finish anything between now and tomorrow night, so I will round up my year now.

Number of books: 21 books in the quarter takes me to 86 for the year, which is pretty impressive for me. I seem to have run around the mid 80s for the last few years, so that's perfectly satisfactory.

In terms of highs and lows, I awarded the full 5 stars to 3 books: The Foundling, A Wizard's Guide to Defensive Baking and Pandora's Jar.
I also awarded 4.5 stars to a further 5 books.
At the other end of the scale, 4 books won a lowly 2 stars. You might want to avoid The Kingdoms, The Absolute Book, Jane Austen Made me do it & Mordew.
No DNFs again.

Challenge 1: Women Authors: 52 books read by women authors out of 86 books is just on 60%. I wanted to aim for at least 50% so that challenge was clearly met.

Challenge 2: New Authors: At 47 out of 86 that's over half, which was above the target of 1/3rd I had set. Challenge met.

Challenge 3: Translations: Just the 3 in here. I have a load on the shelf to read, it's taking them down that's the problem...

Challenge 4: Subscriptions. I read 15 that fall into this category. I have a number left unread, that isn't awful, I'm keeping up - just about.

Challenge 5: Heyer series read. Just the 5. Plodding through.

Challenge 6: Short Stories. 17 here. Going back to work 1 day a week has increased the listening, so these picked up later in the year.

Challenge 7: Women's prize: Just the 3, which was a bit below par.

Challenge 8: Lists: Just the 3, all off the 1001 BTRBYD list. That was the target. It's progress, albeit slow!

Challenge 9: Non-fiction: This has done surprisingly well, with 15. That's more than 1 a month. I used to read a lot of non-fiction, then it dropped off, I'm glad that's back.

Challenge 10: CATs: Not too bad, managed 3 out of 4 in the majority of months. Apart from Alpha & Random, this one is taking a backseat next year.

Challenge 11: Bingo: Again completed using all woman authors. Going to let this one relax next year and use all authors - it'll be a bit easier.

Challenge 12: Misc: 8, most of which seem to be by Mr W Shakespeare. It's an interesting mixture, but that's why the Misc category is there.

So that's it, 2021 is done and dusted. Wishing you all a Happy New year and see you on the other side in 2022. I can be found here for the next year: https://www.librarything.com/topic/336062#7630684 mostly having a bit of a crisis!

Well done!

See you next year, Helen. I've enjoyed following your reading this year and I look forward to continuing the habit. I'd cast my vote for The Invisible Life of Euridice Gusmao, a book I loved when I read it a few years ago.

Seems like a good year to me. Looking forward to seeing what you read next year. And you hit me with a few BBs this year too.

It's almost impossible to cast a vote for one of those three books, they all sound good. Looks like a win-win situation for you!

Congrats. on a successful reading year, see you over at the 2022 Challenge!

Looks like you had a great reading year!

>201 katiekrug: thanks, Katie!

>202 RidgewayGirl: Indeed, see you in 2022, have you got a thread yet? It's the busy time of year and I may have missed it. I'm still undecided, but will take the comment on board.

>203 dudes22: Excellent, always good to know that I hit other people, it's not just I get hit!!

>204 DeltaQueen50:. I know, some times I think any of them would be equally good. I like the surprise element of it.

>205 rabbitprincess: Not too bad, all things considered. Onwards to 2022.