PAUL C'S SECOND HOME - PART 24

SCENES FROM MY BOOKS

The Black Cloud by Fred Hoyle is a 1957 Sci-Fi classic.

Poetry

The third exceptional poet of the 20th century with the surname of "Thomas" was R.S. Thomas - very evocative and very spiritual.

BOOKS 1ST HALF
JANUARY

1. Plague 99 by Jean Ure (1989) 218 pp
2. Tom Brown's Schooldays by Thomas Hughes (1857) 309 pp
3. A Lear of the Steppes by Ivan Turgenev (1870) 117 pp
4. A Fall from the Sky by Ian Serraillier (1966) 78 pp
5. The Overnight Kidnapper by Andrea Camilleri (2015) 262 pp
6. Dove on the Waters by Maurice Shadbolt (1996) 198 pp
7. A Portable Paradise by Roger Robinson (2019) 81 pp
8. The Other End of the Line by Andrea Camilleri (2016) 293 pp
9. The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead (2019) 208 pp
10. Swallows and Amazons by Arthur Ransome (1930) 501 pp
11. Carrie's War by Nina Bawden (1973) 211 pp
12. Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart (2020) 430 pp
13. Judge Savage by Tim Parks (2003) 442 pp
14. The Mirror Crack'd from Side to Side by Agatha Christie (1962) 280 pp
15. Charlotte Sometimes by Penelope Farmer (1969) 227 pp
16. Jazz by Toni Morrison (1992) 229 pp
17. A Question of Upbringing by Anthony Powell (1951) 230 pp

4,313 pages.

FEBRUARY

18. Junk by Melvyn Burgess (1996) 278 pp
19. The Great Fire by Monica Dickens (1970) 64 pp
20. At Bertram's Hotel by Agatha Christie (1965) 265 pp
21. A Room of Own's Own by Virginia Woolf (1929) 153 pp
22. Bury the Dead by Peter Carter (1987) 374 pp
23. Rivers of London by Ben Aaronovitch (2011) 390 pp
24. Around the World in 80 Days by Jules Verne (1873) 242 pp
25. Woods, etc. by Alice Oswald (2005) 56 pp
26. Did You Ever Have a Family by Bill Clegg (2015) 293 pp
27. A Burning by Megha Majumdar (2020) 289 pp
28. Moon Over Soho by Ben Aaronovitch (2011) 373 pp
29. What is History? by Edward Hallett Carr (1961) 156 pp
30. A Buyer's Market by Anthony Powell (1951) 278 pp

3,211 pages

MARCH

31. The Return : Fathers, Sons and the Land in Between by Hisham Matar (2016) 239 pp
32. The Hammer of the Scots by Jean Plaidy (1978) 417 pp
33. Bright Dead Things by Ada Limon (2015) 101 pp
34. Some Experiences of an Irish RM by Somerville & Ross (1899) 223 pp
35. The Age of Improvement 1783-1867 by Asa Briggs (1959) 523 pp
36. Cranford by Elizabeth Gaskell (1853) 203 pp

1,706 pages

APRIL

37. Love Story, With Murders by Harry Bingham (2013) 439 pp
38. Moth Smoke by Mohsin Hamid (2000) 270 pp
39. Diary of a Murderer by Kim Young-Ha (2013) 200 pp
40. Life of Pi by Yann Martel (2001) 428 pp
41. Blue Horses by Mary Oliver (2014) 79 pp
42. Notes from Underground by Fyodor Dostoevsky (1864) 160 pp
43. The Curious Case of Dassoukine's Trousers by Fouad Laroui (2012) 134 pp
44. The Strange Death of Fiona Griffiths by Harry Bingham (2014) 457 pp
45. Arid Dreams by Duanwad Pimwana (2019) 244 pp
46. Figures in a Landscape by Barry England (1968) 208 pp
47. Echoland by Per Petterson (1989) 132 pp
48. Year of the Monkey by Patti Smith (2019) 205 pp

2,956 pages

MAY

49. The Camomile Lawn by Mary Wesley (1984) 330 pp
50. I Choose to Live by Sabine Dardenne (2004) 210 pp
51. Three Poems by Hannah Sullivan (2018) 71 pp

611 pages (maybe my worst ever performance!)

JUNE

52. Still Waters by Viveca Sten (2008) 434 pp
53. Half a Life by VS Naipaul (2001) 211 pp
54. Season of Migration to the North by Tayeb Salih (1969) 169 pp
55. A Bell for Adano by John Hersey (1944) 269 pp
56. Hamnet by Maggie O'Farrell (2020) 370 pp
57. Springtime in a Broken Mirror by Mario Benedetti (1982) 181 pp
58. My Country : A Syrian Memoir by Kassim Eid (2018) 194 pp
59. Vita Nova by Louise Gluck (1999) 51 pp
60. The God Child by Nana Oforiatta Ayim (2019) 241 pp
61. Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor E. Frankl (1946) 154 pp
62. Mr Norris Changes Trains by Christopher Isherwood (1935) 230 pp
63. Mr Rosenblum Dreams in English by Natasha Solomons (2010) 355 pp
64. Injury Time by Beryl Bainbridge (1977) 212 pp
65. In Paradise by Peter Matthiessen (2014) 244 pp
66. The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah (2015) 438 pp
67. The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas (1851) 1,179 pp
68. Cat and Mouse by Gunter Grass (1961) 191 pp
69. No Turning Back by Beverley Naidoo (1995) 191 pp
70. Look at Me by Anita Brookner (1983) 192 pp
71. Vice Versa by F. Anstey (1882) 219 pp
72. The Age of Revolution by Eric Hobsbawm (1975) 308 pp
73. Mrs Warren's Profession by George Bernard Shaw (1893) 98 pp

6,131 pages (best for a while)

BOOKS 2ND HALF

JULY

74. Bernard Hinault and the Fall and Rise of French Cycling by William Fotheringham (2015) 345 pp
75. Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone by JK Rowling (1997) 332 pp
76. Rendang by Will Harris (2020) 85 pp
77. Salt to the Sea by Ruta Sepetys (2016) 383 pp
78. Corridors of Power by C.P. Snow (1964) 352 pp
79. Arab Jazz by Karim Miske (2012) 242 pp
80. The Kingdom of This World by Alejo Carpentier (1949) 136 pp
81. The Queen of Attolia by Megan Whalen Turner (2000) 395 pp
82. The Quality of Madness by Tim Rich (2020) 417 pp
83. The King of Attolia by Megan Whalen Turner (2006) 404 pp
84. The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket by Edgar Allan Poe (1838) 162 pp
85. The Devil's Pool by George Sand (1846) 119 pp

3,372 pages

AUGUST

86. Poetry Please! edited by Charles Causley (1985) 113 pp
87. The Night Watchman by Louise Erdrich (2020) 448 pp
88. Fifteen Decisive Battles of the World by Edward Shepherd Creasy (1851) 380 pp
89. Death of Kings by Bernard Cornwell (2011) 380 pp
90. Notes on Grief by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (2021) 85 pp
91. The Pagan Lord by Bernard Cornwell (2013) 345 pp
92. The Return by Dulce Maria Cardoso (2011) 267 pp
93. Here and Now by Stephen Dunn (2011) 103 pp
94. I am, I am, I am by Maggie O'Farrell (2017) 285 pp
95. Nip the Buds, Shoot the Kids by Kenzaburo Oe (1958) 189 pp
96. The Flint Anchor by Sylvia Townsend Warner (1954) 322 pp
97. At Night All Blood is Black by David Diop (2018) 145 pp
98. A Kind of Loving by Stan Barstow (1960) 345 pp
99. The Hiding Place by Trezza Azzopardi (2000) 282 pp

3,689 pages

SEPTEMBER

100. Pew by Catherine Lacey (2020) 207 pp
101. Northlight by Douglas Dunn (1988) 81 pp
102. A Long Petal of the Sea by Isabel Allende (2019) 349 pp
103. The First Century After Beatrice by Amin Maalouf (1992) 192 pp
104. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead by Tom Stoppard (1967) 118 pp
105. Postcolonial Love Poem by Natalie Diaz (2020) 107 pp

1,054 pages

OCTOBER

106. Everyman's Poetry : Alfred, Lord Tennyson by Alfred Lord Tennyson 1996 103 pp
107. The Watcher in the Shadows by Carlos Ruiz Zafon (1995) 247 pp
108. The Face of Battle by John Keegan (1976) 336 pp
109. Great Circle by Maggie Shipstead (2021) 589 pp
110. The Wreck of the Mary Deare by Hammond Innes (1956) 272 pp
111. The Fortune Men by Nadifa Mohamed (2021) 372 pp
112. Corpus by Rory Clements (2017) 464 pp
113. The Promise by Damon Galgut (2021) 293 pp

2,676 pages

NOVEMBER

114. Strangers on a Pier by Tash Aw (2016) 91 pp
115. A Time to Dance by Melvyn Bragg (1990) 220 pp
116. Nucleus by Rory Clements (2018) 366 pp
117. And Furthermore by Judy Dench (2010) 292 pp
118. Sudden Death by Alvaro Enrique (2013) 262 pp
119. The Boy from the Chemist is Here to See You by Paul Farley (1998) 49 pp
120. The Most Precious of Cargoes by Jean-Claude Grumberg (2019) 104 pp
121. Nocturnes by Kazuo Ishiguro (2009) 221 pp
122. Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont by Elizabeth Taylor (1971) 206 pp

1,811 pages

DECEMBER

123. The Hedgehog and the Fox by Isaiah Berlin (1953) 115 pp
124. Absent Friends by Alan Ayckbourn (1974) 68 pp
125. The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher by Kate Summerscale (2008) 314 pp
126. Last Poems by Roy Fuller (1993) 104 pp
127. Nutshell by Ian McEwan (2016) 199 pp
128. Wolf Brother by Michelle Paver (2004) 233 pp
129. The Black Cloud by Fred Hoyle (1957) 209 pp
130. The Lover by Harold Pinter (1963) 39 pp
131. Married Love by Tessa Hadley (2012) 231 pp
132. Horse Latitudes by Paul Muldoon (2006) 106 pp
133. Shadow Tag by Louise Erdrich (2010) 253 pp
134. The Viceroy of Ouidah by Bruce Chatwin (1980) 101 pp
135. Sea Glass by Anita Shreve (2002) 354 pp
136. Dock Leaves by Hugo Williams (1994) 50 pp
137. The Light Fantastic by Terry Pratchett (1986) 277 pp

Currently Reading

BAC



January: Children's Classics https://www.librarything.com/topic/326122#7317610 10 READ

February: LGBT+ History Month https://www.librarything.com/topic/326122#7317871 2 READ

March: Vaseem Khan & Eleanor Hibbert https://www.librarything.com/topic/326122#7318561 1 READ

April: Love is in the Air https://www.librarything.com/topic/326122#7319432 2 READ

May: V. S. Naipaul & Na'ima B. Robert https://www.librarything.com/topic/326122#7320231 1 READ

June: The Victorian Era (1837-1901) https://www.librarything.com/topic/326122#7320541 3 READ

July: Don't judge a book by its movie https://www.librarything.com/topic/326122#7321220 12 READ

August: Bernard Cornwell & Helen Oyeyemi https://www.librarything.com/topic/326122#7321374 2 READ

September: She Blinded Me with Science https://www.librarything.com/topic/326122#7321899 1 read

October: Narrative Poetry https://www.librarything.com/topic/326122#7322840 3 read

November: Tade Thompson & Elizabeth Taylor https://www.librarything.com/topic/326122#7323772 1 READ

December: Awards & Honors https://www.librarything.com/topic/326122#7325017 2 READ

Wildcard: Books off your shelves https://www.librarything.com/topic/326122#7325595 30 READ

70 BOOKS READ TO DATE

AMERICAN AUTHOR CHALLENGE



Please see:
https://www.librarything.com/topic/327669#7354831

January : Keep it in the Family :
February : Ethan Canin
March : Roxane Gay
April : Makers of Music : Year of the Monkey by Patti Smith
May : Mary McCarthy
June : Ken Kesey
July : Native American Themes : The Night Watchman & Shadow Tag by Louise Erdrich
August : Connie Willis
September : Howard Norman
October : Attica Locke
November : Albert Murray
December : YA Fiction

AROUND THE WORLD CHALLENGE

Around the world in books challenge. I want to see how many countries I can cover without limiting myself to a specific deadline.

From 1 October 2020

1. United Kingdom - The Ways of the World by Robert Goddard EUROPE
2. Ireland - The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde EUROPE
3. Lithuania - Selected and Last Poems by Czeslaw Milosz EUROPE
4. Netherlands - The Ditch by Herman Koch EUROPE
5. Armenia - The Double Bind by Chris Bohjalian ASIA PACIFIC
6. Zimbabwe - This Mournable Body by Tsitsi Dangarembga AFRICA
7. United States - Averno by Louise Gluck AMERICA
8. Australia - Taller When Prone by Les Murray ASIA PACIFIC
9. France - Class Trip by Emmanuel Carrere EUROPE
10. Russia - The Three Sisters by Anton Chekhov EUROPE
11. Denmark - Fear and Trembling by Soren Kierkegaard EUROPE
12. Democratic Republic of Congo - Tram 83 by Fiston Mwanze Mujila AFRICA
13. Canada - I Heard the Owl Call My Name by Margaret Craven AMERICA
14. Italy - The Overnight Kidnapper by Andrea Camilleri EUROPE
15. New Zealand - Dove on the Waters by Maurice Shadbolt ASIA PACIFIC
16. India - A Burning by Megha Majumdar ASIA PACIFIC
17. Libya - The Return by Hisham Matar AFRICA
18. Pakistan - Moth Smoke by Mohsin Hamid ASIA PACIFIC
19. South Korea - Diary of a Murderer by Kim Young-Ha ASIA PACIFIC
20. Morocco - The Curious Case of Dassoukine's Trousers by Fouad Laroui AFRICA
21. Thailand - Arid Dreams by Duanwad Pimwana ASIA PACIFIC
22. Norway - Echoland by Per Petterson EUROPE
23. Belgium - I Choose to Live by Sabine Dardenne EUROPE
24. Sweden - Still Waters by Viveca Sten EUROPE
25. Trinidad - Half a Life by VS Naipaul AMERICAS
26. Sudan - Season of Migration to the North by Tayeb Salih AFRICA
27. Uruguay - Springtime in a Broken Mirror by Mario Benedetti AMERICAS
28. Syria - My Country : A Syrian Memoir by Kassem Eid ASIA PACIFIC
29. Ghana - The God Child by Nana Oforiatta Ayim AFRICA
30. Austria - Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor E Frankl EUROPE
31. Germany - Cat and Mouse by Gunter Grass EUROPE
32. South Africa - No Turning Back by Beverley Naidoo AFRICA
33. Mauritania - Arab Jazz by Karim Miske AFRICA
34. Cuba - The Kingdom of This World by Alejo Carpentier AMERICAS
35. Nigeria - Notes on Grief by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie AFRICA
36. Portugal - The Return by Dulce Maria Cardoso EUROPE
37. Japan - Nip the Buds, Shoot the Kids by Kenzaburo Oe ASIA PACIFIC
38. Senegal - At Night All Blood is Black by David Diop AFRICA
39. Malta - The Hiding Place by Trezza Azzopardi EUROPE
40. Chile - A Long Petal of the Sea by Isabel Allende AMERICAS
41. Lebanon - The First Century After Beatrice by Amin Maalouf ASIA PACIFIC
42. Spain - The Watcher in the Shadows by Carlos Ruiz Zafon EUROPE
43. Somalia - The Fortune Men by Nadifa Mohamed AFRICA
44. Malaysia - Strangers on a Pier by Tash Aw ASIA PACIFIC
45. Mexico - Sudden Death by Alvaro Enrigue AMERICAS
46. Latvia - The Hedgehog and the Fox by Isaian Berlin EUROPE
47. Malawi - Wolf Brother by Michelle Paver AFRICA


Create Your Own Visited Countries Map

QUEEN BETTY CHALLENGE

From December 2020 70 Years 70 Books 70 Different British Authors

1952 A Buyer's Market by Anthony Powell
1953 The Hedgehog and the Fox by Isaiah Berlin
1954 The Flint Anchor by Sylvia Townsend Warner
1956 The Wreck of the Mary Deare by Hammond Innes
1957 The Black Cloud by Fred Hoyle
1959 The Age of Improvement by Asa Briggs
1960 A Kind of Loving by Stan Barstow
1961 What is History? by EH Carr
1962 The Mirror Crack'd From Side to Side by Agatha Christie
1963 The Lover by Harold Pinter
1964 Corridors of Power by CP Snow
1966 A Fall from the Sky by Ian Serraillier
1967 Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead by Tom Stoppard
1968 Figures in a Landscape by Barry England
1969 Charlotte Sometimes by Penelope Framer
1970 The Great Fire by Monica Dickens
1971 Mrs Palfrey at the Claremont by Elizabeth Taylor
1973 Carrie's War by Nina Bawden
1974 Absent Friends by Alan Ayckbourn
1975 The Age of Capital by Eric Hobsbawm
1976 The Face of Battle by John Keegan
1977 Injury Time by Beryl Bainbridge
1978 The Hammer of the Scots by Jean Plaidy
1980 The Viceroy of Ouidah by Bruce Chatwin
1983 Look at Me by Anita Brookner
1984 The Camomile Lawn by Mary Wesley
1985 Poetry Please! edited by Charles Causley
1986 The Light Fantastic by Terry Pratchett
1987 Bury the Dead by Peter Carter
1988 Northlight by Douglas Dunn
1989 Plague 99 by Jean Ure
1990 A Time to Dance by Melvyn Bragg
1993 Last Poems by Roy Fuller
1994 Dock Leaves by Hugo Williams
1996 Junk by Melvyn Burgess
1997 Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone by JK Rowling
1998 The Boy from the Chemist is Here to See You by Paul Farley
2000 The Hiding Place by Trezza Azzopardi
2001 Half a Life by VS Naipaul
2003 Judge Savage by Tim Parks
2004 Wolf Brother by Michelle Paver
2005 Woods, etc. by Alice Oswald
2006 Horse Latitudes by Paul Muldoon
2008 The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher by Kate Summerscale
2009 Nocturnes by Kazuo Ishiguro
2010 Mr Rosenblum Dreams in English by Natasha Solomons
2011 Rivers of London by Ben Aaronovitch
2012 Married Love by Tessa Hadley
2013 A Delicate Truth by John Le Carre
2014 The Strange Death of Fiona Griffiths by Harry Bingham
2015 Bernard Hinault and the Fall and Rise of French Cycling by William Fotheringham
2016 Nutshell by Ian McEwan
2017 I am, I am, I am by Maggie O'Farrell
2018 Three Poems by Hannah Sullivan
2019 A Portable Paradise by Roger Robinson
2020 Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart
2021 The Fortune Men by Nadifa Mohamed

57/70

52 BOOK CLUB CHALLENGE

Based on this challenge suggested by Katie & Chelle

https://www.the52book.club/challenges/2021-reading-challenge/

January
Week 1 : Set in a school : Tom Brown's Schooldays by Hughes Read 2 Jan 2021
Week 2 : Legal profession : Judge Savage by Tim Parks Read 28 Jan 2021
Week 3 : Dual timeline : Charlotte Sometimes by Penelope Farmer Read 29 Jan 2021
Week 4 : Deceased author : Jazz by Toni Morrison READ 30 Jan 2021
Week 5 : Published by Penguin : Junk by Melvyn Burgess READ 3 Feb 2021
Week 6 : Male Family Member : Rivers of London by Ben Aaronovitch READ 12 Feb 2021
Week 7 : 1 Published Work : A Burning by Megha Majumdar READ 19 Feb 2021
Week 8 : Dewey 900 Class : What is History? by EH Carr READ 28 February
Week 9 : Set in a Mediterranean Country : The Return by Hisham Matar READ 5 MAR 2021
Week 10 : Book with discussion questions : Love Story, With Murders by Harry Bingham READ 2 APR
Week 11 : Relating to fire : Moth Smoke by Mohsin Hamid READ 4 APR
Week 12 : Title Starting with D : Diary of a Murderer by Kim Young-Ha READ 6 APR
Week 13 : Includes an Exotic Animal : Life of Pi by Yann Martel READ 11 April
Week 14 : Written by an author over 65 : Blue Horses by Mary Oliver READ 14 April
Week 15 : Book Mentioned in a book : Notes from Underground by Fyodor Dostoevsky READ 15 April
Week 16 : Set before 17th Century : Hamnet by Maggie O'Farrell READ 5 June
Week 17 : Character on the run : Figures in a Landscape by Barry England READ 26 April
Week 18 : Author with 9 letter surname : Springtime in a Broken Mirror by Mario Benedetti READ 6 JUNE
Week 19 : Book with a deckled edge : In Paradise by Peter Matthiessen READ 21 JUNE
Week 20 : Became a TV series : Corridors of Power by CP Snow READ 12 JUL
Week 21 : Book by Kristin Hannah : The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah READ 22 JUNE
Week 22 : A Family Saga : Mr Rosenblum Dreams in English by Natasha Solomons READ 14 JUN
Week 23 : Surprising Ending : Still Waters by Viveca Sten READ 2 JUN
Week 24 : Book to be read in schools : Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor E Frankl READ
Week 25 : Multiple POVs : Salt to the Sea by Ruta Sepetys READ 11 JUL
Week 26 : Author of Colour : The God Child by Nana Oforiatta Ayim READ 8 JUN
Week 27 : 1st Chapter Odd Page : The Queen of Attolia by Megan Whalen Turner READ 25 JUL
Week 28 : Little known historical event : The Kingdom of This World by Alejo Carpentier READ 20 JUL
Week 29 : The Environment : The First Century After Beatrice by Amin Maalouf READ 16 SEP
Week 30 : Dragons : Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone by JK Rowling READ 8 JUL
Week 31 : Similar Title : The Return by Dulce Maria Cardoso READ 9 AUG
Week 32 : Selfish Character : The Flint Anchor by Sylvia Townsend Warner READ 24 AUG
Week 33 : Adoption : The Hiding Place by Trezza Azzopardi READ 31 AUG
Week 34 : Five Star Read : Poetry Please! by Charles Causley READ 1 AUG
Week 35 : Country Starting with S :
Week 36 : Nameless Narrator : Nip the Buds, Shoot the Kids by Kenzaburo Oe READ 22 AUG
Week 37 : An educational read : The Most Precious of Cargoes by Jean-Claude Grumberg READ 25 NOV
Week 38 : Book Bub : Wolf Brother by Michelle Paver READ 4 DEC
Week 39 : Alternate History : Corpus by Rory Clements READ 30 OCT
Week 40 : On #Bookstagram : Sea Glass by Anita Shreve READ 19 DEC
Week 41 : Endorsement by Author : At Night All Blood is Black by David Diop READ 28 AUG
Week 42 : An epistolary : A Time to Dance by Melvyn Bragg READ 13 NOV
Week 43 : Includes a pet cat : The Viceroy of Ouidah by Bruce Chatwin READ 14 DEC
Week 44 : Includes a garden :
Week 45 : A Coming of Age :
Week 46 : National Book Award winner :
Week 47 : A character with disability :
Week 48 : Woman Facing Away : A Kind of Loving by Stan Barstow READ 30 AUG
Week 49 : Flavour in the title : Nutshell by Ian McEwan READ 4 DEC
Week 50 : A shoe on the cover :
Week 51 : Published in 2021 : Notes on Grief by Adichie READ 7 AUG
Week 52 : Repeat Category : The Promise by Damon Galgut READ 31 OCT

46/52

BOOKERS
Personal Reading Challenge: Every winner of the Booker Prize since its inception in 1969

1969: P. H. Newby, Something to Answer For - READ
1970: Bernice Rubens, The Elected Member
1970: J. G. Farrell, Troubles (awarded in 2010 as the Lost Man Booker Prize) - READ
1971: V. S. Naipaul, In a Free State
1972: John Berger, G.
1973: J. G. Farrell, The Siege of Krishnapur - READ
1974: Nadine Gordimer, The Conservationist ... and Stanley Middleton, Holiday - READ
1975: Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, Heat and Dust - READ
1976: David Storey, Saville - READ
1977: Paul Scott, Staying On - READ
1978: Iris Murdoch, The Sea, The Sea
1979: Penelope Fitzgerald, Offshore - READ
1980: William Golding, Rites of Passage - READ
1981: Salman Rushdie, Midnight's Children - READ
1982: Thomas Keneally, Schindler's Ark - READ
1983: J. M. Coetzee, Life & Times of Michael K
1984: Anita Brookner, Hotel du Lac - READ
1985: Keri Hulme, The Bone People
1986: Kingsley Amis, The Old Devils - READ
1987: Penelope Lively, Moon Tiger - READ
1988: Peter Carey, Oscar and Lucinda
1989: Kazuo Ishiguro, The Remains of the Day
1990: A. S. Byatt, Possession: A Romance - READ
1991: Ben Okri, The Famished Road
1992: Michael Ondaatje, The English Patient ... and Barry Unsworth, Sacred Hunger - READ
1993: Roddy Doyle, Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha
1994: James Kelman, How late it was, how late
1995: Pat Barker, The Ghost Road
1996: Graham Swift, Last Orders - READ
1997: Arundhati Roy, The God of Small Things READ
1998: Ian McEwan, Amsterdam - READ
1999: J. M. Coetzee, Disgrace - READ
2000: Margaret Atwood, The Blind Assassin
2001: Peter Carey, True History of the Kelly Gang - READ
2002: Yann Martel, Life of Pi READ
2003: DBC Pierre, Vernon God Little
2004: Alan Hollinghurst, The Line of Beauty
2005: John Banville, The Sea - READ
2006: Kiran Desai, The Inheritance of Loss
2007: Anne Enright, The Gathering - READ
2008: Aravind Adiga, The White Tiger - READ
2009: Hilary Mantel, Wolf Hall - READ
2010: Howard Jacobson, The Finkler Question
2011: Julian Barnes, The Sense of an Ending - READ
2012: Hilary Mantel, Bring Up the Bodies - READ
2013: Eleanor Catton, The Luminaries
2014: Richard Flanagan, The Narrow Road to the Deep North - READ
2015: Marlon James, A Brief History of Seven Killings - READ
2016: Paul Beatty, The Sellout - READ
2017: George Saunders, Lincoln in the Bardo
2018: Anna Burns, Milkman
2019: Margaret Atwood, The Testaments, and Bernardine Evaristo, Girl, Woman, Other
2020: Douglas Stuart, Shuggie Bain READ JAN 21
2021: Damon Galgut, The Promise READ

READ 34 of 57 WINNERS

Pulitzer Winners

As with the Bookers, I want to eventually read all the Pulitzer winners (for fiction at least) and have most of the recent ones on the shelves at least. Current status.

Fiction

1918 HIS FAMILY - Ernest Poole
1919 THE MAGNIFICENT AMBERSONS - Booth Tarkington
1921 THE AGE OF INNOCENCE - Edith Wharton
1922 ALICE ADAMS - Booth Tarkington
1923 ONE OF OURS - Willa Cather
1924 THE ABLE MCLAUGHLINS - Margaret Wilson
1925 SO BIG - Edna Ferber
1926 ARROWSMITH - Sinclair Lewis (Declined)
1927 EARLY AUTUMN - Louis Bromfield
1928 THE BRIDGE OF SAN LUIS REY - Thornton Wilder
1929 SCARLET SISTER MARY - Julia Peterkin
1930 LAUGHING BOY - Oliver Lafarge ON SHELVES
1931 YEARS OF GRACE - Margaret Ayer Barnes
1932 THE GOOD EARTH - Pearl Buck
1933 THE STORE - Thomas Sigismund Stribling
1934 LAMB IN HIS BOSOM - Caroline Miller
1935 NOW IN NOVEMBER - Josephine Winslow Johnson
1936 HONEY IN THE HORN - Harold L Davis
1937 GONE WITH THE WIND - Margaret Mitchell ON SHELVES
1938 THE LATE GEORGE APLEY - John Phillips Marquand
1939 THE YEARLING - Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings
1940 THE GRAPES OF WRATH - John Steinbeck
1942 IN THIS OUR LIFE - Ellen Glasgow
1943 DRAGON'S TEETH - Upton Sinclair
1944 JOURNEY IN THE DARK - Martin Flavin
1945 A BELL FOR ADANO - John Hersey
1947 ALL THE KING'S MEN - Robert Penn Warren ON SHELVES
1948 TALES OF THE SOUTH PACIFIC - James Michener
1949 GUARD OF HONOR - James Gould Cozzens
1950 THE WAY WEST - A.B. Guthrie
1951 THE TOWN - Conrad Richter
1952 THE CAINE MUTINY - Herman Wouk
1953 THE OLD MAN AND THE SEA - Ernest Hemingway
1955 A FABLE - William Faulkner
1956 ANDERSONVILLE - McKinlay Kantor
1958 A DEATH IN THE FAMILY - James Agee ON SHELVES
1959 THE TRAVELS OF JAIMIE McPHEETERS - Robert Lewis Taylor
1960 ADVISE AND CONSENT - Allen Drury
1961 TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD - Harper Lee
1962 THE EDGE OF SADNESS - Edwin O'Connor
1963 THE REIVERS - William Faulkner ON SHELVES
1965 THE KEEPERS OF THE HOUSE - Shirley Ann Grau
1966 THE COLLECTED STORIES OF KATHERINE ANNE PORTER - Katherine Anne Porter
1967 THE FIXER - Bernard Malamud
1968 THE CONFESSIONS OF NAT TURNER - William Styron
1969 HOUSE MADE OF DAWN - N Scott Momaday ON SHELVES
1970 THE COLLECTED STORIES OF JEAN STAFFORD - Jean Stafford
1972 ANGLE OF REPOSE - Wallace Stegner ON SHELVES
1973 THE OPTIMIST'S DAUGHTER - Eudora Welty ON SHELVES
1975 THE KILLER ANGELS - Jeff Shaara ON SHELVES
1976 HUMBOLDT'S GIFT - Saul Bellow
1978 ELBOW ROOM - James Alan McPherson
1979 THE STORIES OF JOHN CHEEVER - John Cheever ON SHELVES
1980 THE EXECUTIONER'S SONG - Norman Mailer ON SHELVES
1981 A CONFEDERACY OF DUNCES - John Kennedy Toole ON SHELVES
1982 RABBIT IS RICH - John Updike
1983 THE COLOR PURPLE - Alice Walker ON SHELVES
1984 IRONWEED - William Kennedy ON SHELVES
1985 FOREIGN AFFAIRS - Alison Lurie ON SHELVES
1986 LONESOME DOVE - Larry McMurtry ON SHELVES
1987 A SUMMONS TO MEMPHIS - Peter Taylor
1988 BELOVED - Toni Morrison - ON SHELVES
1989 BREATHING LESSONS - Anne Tyler
1990 THE MAMBO KINGS PLAY SONGS OF LOVE - Oscar Hijuelos
1991 RABBIT AT REST - John Updike
1992 A THOUSAND ACRES - Jane Smiley
1993 A GOOD SCENT FROM A STRANGE MOUNTAIN - Robert Olen Butler
1994 THE SHIPPING NEWS - E Annie Proulx
1995 THE STONE DIARIES - Carol Shields ON SHELVES
1996 INDEPENDENCE DAY - Richard Ford ON SHELVES
1997 MARTIN DRESSLER - Steven Millhauser ON SHELVES
1998 AMERICAN PASTORAL - Philip Roth ON SHELVES
1999 THE HOURS - Michael Cunningham ON SHELVES
2000 INTERPRETER OF MALADIES - Jumpha Lahiri
2001 THE AMAZING ADVENTURES OF KAVALIER & CLAY - Michael Chabon ON SHELVES
2002 EMPIRE FALLS - Richard Russo ON SHELVES
2003 MIDDLESEX - Jeffrey Eugenides ON SHELVES
2004 THE KNOWN WORLD - Edward P. Jones ON SHELVES
2005 GILEAD - Marilynne Robinson ON SHELVES
2006 MARCH - Geraldine Brooks
2007 THE ROAD - Cormac McCarthy
2008 THE BRIEF WONDROUS LIFE OF OSCAR WAO - Junot Diaz ON SHELVES
2009 OLIVE KITTERIDGE - Elizabeth Strout ON SHELVES
2010 TINKERS - Paul Harding
2011 A VISIT FROM THE GOOD SQUAD - Jennifer Egan ON SHELVES
2013 ORPHAN MASTER'S SON - Adam Johnson ON SHELVES
2014 THE GOLDFINCH - Donna Tartt ON SHELVES
2015 ALL THE LIGHT WE CANNOT SEE - Anthony Doerr ON SHELVES
2016 THE SYMPATHIZER - Viet Thanh Nguyen ON SHELVES
2017 THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD - Colson Whitehead ON SHELVES
2018 LESS - Andrew Sean Greer ON SHELVES
2019 THE OVERSTORY - Richard Powers ON SHELVES
2020 THE NICKEL BOYS - Colson Whitehead
2021 THE NIGHT WATCHMAN - Louise Erdrich


19 READ
37 ON SHELVES
38 NOT OWNED OR READ

94 TOTAL

NOBELS

Update on my Nobel Prize Winning Reading:
1901 Sully Prudhomme
1902 Theodor Mommsen
1903 Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson
1904 Frédéric Mistral and José Echegaray y Eizaquirre
1905 Henryk Sienkiewicz
1906 Giosuè Carducci
1907 Rudyard Kipling - READ
1908 Rudolf Christoph Eucken
1909 Selma Lagerlöf
1910 Paul Heyse --
1911 Count Maurice Maeterlinck
1912 Gerhart Hauptmann
1913 Rabindranath Tagore - READ
1915 Romain Rolland
1916 Verner von Heidenstam
1917 Karl Adolph Gjellerup and Henrik Pontoppidan
1919 Carl Spitteler
1920 Knut Hamsun - READ
1921 Anatole France - READ
1922 Jacinto Benavente
1923 William Butler Yeats - READ
1924 Wladyslaw Reymont
1925 George Bernard Shaw - READ
1926 Grazia Deledda - READ
1927 Henri Bergson
1928 Sigrid Undset
1929 Thomas Mann - READ
1930 Sinclair Lewis - READ
1931 Erik Axel Karlfeldt
1932 John Galsworthy - READ
1933 Ivan Alekseyevich Bunin - READ
1934 Luigi Pirandello - READ
1936 Eugene O'Neill - READ
1937 Roger Martin du Gard
1938 Pearl S. Buck - READ
1939 Frans Eemil Sillanpää
1944 Johannes Vilhelm Jensen
1945 Gabriela Mistral
1946 Hermann Hesse - READ
1947 André Gide - READ
1948 T.S. Elliot - READ
1949 William Faulkner - READ
1950 Bertrand Russell - READ
1951 Pär Lagerkvist - READ
1952 François Mauriac - READ
1953 Sir Winston Churchill - READ
1954 Ernest Hemingway - READ
1955 Halldór Laxness - READ
1956 Juan Ramón Jiménez
1957 Albert Camus - READ
1958 Boris Pasternak (declined the prize) - READ
1959 Salvatore Quasimodo
1960 Saint-John Perse
1961 Ivo Andric - READ
1962 John Steinbeck - READ
1963 Giorgos Seferis
1964 Jean-Paul Sartre (declined the prize) - READ
1965 Michail Sholokhov
1966 Shmuel Yosef Agnon and Nelly Sachs - READ
1967 Miguel Ángel Asturias
1968 Yasunari Kawabata - READ
1969 Samuel Beckett - READ
1970 Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn - READ
1971 Pablo Neruda - READ
1972 Heinrich Böll - READ
1973 Patrick White
1974 Eyvind Johnson and Harry Martinson
1975 Eugenio Montale
1976 Saul Bellow - READ
1977 Vincente Aleixandre
1978 Isaac Bashevis Singer - READ
1979 Odysseas Elytis - READ
1980 Czeslaw Milosz - READ
1981 Elias Canetti
1982 Gabriel Garciá Márquez - READ
1983 William Golding - READ
1984 Jaroslav Seifert - READ
1985 Claude Simon - READ
1986 Akinwande Ouwoe Soyinka
1987 Joseph Brodsky - READ
1988 Naguib Mahfouz - READ
1989 Camilo José Cela - READ
1990 Octavio Paz
1991 Nadine Gordimer - READ
1992 Derek Walcott - READ
1993 Toni Morrison - READ
1994 Kenzaburo Oe - READ
1995 Seamus Heaney - READ
1996 Wislawa Szymborska - READ
1997 Dario Fo - READ
1998 José Saramago - READ
1999 Günter Grass - READ
2000 Gao Xingjian
2001 Vidiadhar Surjprasad Naipaul - READ
2002 Imre Kertész - READ
2003 John Maxwell Coetzee - READ
2004 Elfriede Jelinek - READ
2005 Harold Pinter - READ
2006 Orhan Pamuk - READ
2007 Doris Lessing - READ
2008 J.M.G. Le Clézio
2009 Herta Müller - READ
2010 Mario Vargas Llosa - READ
2011 Tomas Tranströmer - READ
2012 Mo Yan
2013 Alice Munro - READ
2014 Patrick Modiano - READ
2015 Svetlana Alexievich - READ
2016 Bob Dylan - READ
2017 Kazuo Ishiguro - READ
2018 Olga Tokarczuk - READ
2019 Peter Handke - READ
2020 Louise Gluck - READ
2021 Abdulrazak Gurnah - READ

READ 74 OF
118 LAUREATES

THIS YEAR'S ACQUISITIONS

1. Some Experiences of an Irish R.M. by Somerville & Ross READ MAR 21
2. Swallows and Amazons by Arthur Ransome READ JAN 21
3. The Warmth of Other Suns by Isabel Wilkerson
4. The French Revolution by Thomas Carlyle
5. The Black Corsair by Emilio Salgari
6. The Prime Ministers : Reflections on Leadership from Wilson to Johnson by Steve Richards
7. The God Child by Nana Oforiatta Ayim READ JUN 21
8. Arturo's Island by Elsa Morante
9. Coningsby by Benjamin Disraeli
10. The Secrets We Kept by Lara Prescott
11. The Light in Hidden Places by Sharon Cameron
12. Death's Mistress by Terry Goodkind
13. The Mermaid of Black Conch by Monique Roffey
14. Small Days and Nights by Tishani Doshi
15. Clear Light of Day by Anita Desai
16. Desert by JMG Le Clezio
17. For the Record by David Cameron
18. The Only Good Indians by Stephen Graham Jones
19. The Guardians of the West by David Eddings
20. Boy, Snow, Bird by Helen Oyeyemi
21. The Council of Egypt by Leonardo Sciascia
22. Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris
23. The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms by NK Jemisin
24. The Midnight Library by Matt Haig
25. Rupture by Ragnar Jonasson
26. White Out by Ragnar Jonasson
27. The Age of Capital by Eric Hobsbawm READ JUN 21
28. The World Turned Upside Down by Christopher Hill
29. The Wretched of the Earth by Frantz Fanon
30. Modern Times by Paul Johnson
31. The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers by Paul Kennedy
32. The Warehouse by Rob Hart
33. On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong
34. Pawn of Prophecy by David Eddings
35. Queen of Sorcery by David Eddings
36. Magician's Gambit by David Eddings
37. Midnight Never Come by Marie Brennan
38. In Ashes Lie by Marie Brennan
39. The Broken Kingdoms by N.K. Jemisin
40. The Flight Attendant by Chris Bohjalian
41. Dragonfly in Amber by Diana Gabaldon
42. At Lady Molly's by Anthony Powell
43. Casanova's Chinese Restaurant by Anthony Powell
44. The Kindly Ones by Anthony Powell
45. The Financier by Theodore Dreiser
46. Still Waters by Viveca Sten READ JUN 21
47. Toilers of the Sea by Victor Hugo
48. The Europeans by Henry James
49. Vice Versa by F. Anstey READ JUN 21
50. A Thousand Moons by Sebastian Barry
51. The Scarred Woman by Jussi Adler Olsen
52. Closed for Winter Jorn Lier Horst
53. News of the World by Juliette Jiles
54. Bright Dead Things by Ada Limon READ MAR 21
55. A Teaspoon of Earth and Sea by Dina Nayeri
56. Death in the Tuscan Hills by Marco Vichi
57. American Dirt by Jeanine Cummins
58. Good Morning Midnight by Lily Brooks-Dalton
59. Love After Love by Ingrid Persaud
60. The Enchanted by Rene Denefeld
61. The Friend by Sigrid Nunez
62. The Posthumous Memoirs of Bras Cubas by Machado de Assis
63. The Innocents by Michael Crummey
64. Night Waking by Sarah Moss
65. Idaho by Emily Ruskovich
66. Throw me to the Wolves by Patrick McGuinness
67. Consent by Annabel Lyon
68. Selling Manhattan by Carole Ann Duffy
69. Rendang by Will Harris READ JUL 21
70. The City of Brass by S.A. Chakraborty
71. No One is Talking About This by Patricia Lockwood
72. Amnesty by Aravind Adiga
73. The Awkward Squad by Sophie Henaff
74. The Perplexing Theft of the Jewel in the Crown by Vaseem Khan
75. Afternoon Raag by Amit Chaudhuri
76. The Sirens of Titan by Kurt Vonnegut
77. The Gap of Time by Jeanette Winterson
78. The Shell Seekers by Rosamunde Pilcher
79. Bricks and Mortar by Clemens Meyer
80. The Eastern Shore by Ward Just
81. The Splendid and the Vile by Erik Larson
82. The Wild Iris by Louise Gluck
83. Vertigo& Ghost by Fiona Benson
84. Salt Slow by Julia Armfield
85. Soot by Dan Vyleta
86. Deacon King Kong by James McBride
87. Abigail by Magda Szabo
88. Baba Yaga Laid an Egg by Dubravka Ugresic
89. Coming Up for Air by Sarah Leipciger
90. Red at the Bone by Jacqueline Woodson
91. Selection Day by Aravind Adiga
92. The Voyage by Murray Bail
93. Peace : A Novel by Richard Bausch
94. The Third Reich by Roberto Bolano
95. Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury
96. The Kingdom of this World by Alejo Carpentier READ JUL 21
97. My Life as a Russian Novel by Emmanuel Carrere
98. Texaco by Patrick Chamoiseau
99. Man V. Nature by Diane Cook
100. The Melody by Jim Crace
101. SS-GB by Len Deighton
102. Human Voices by Penelope Fitzgerald
103. Fates and Furies by Lauren Groff
104. The Beautiful Indifference by Sarah Hall
105. Munich by Robert Harris
106. Bodies Electric by Colin Harrison
107. The Punch by Noah Hawley
108. Spook Street by Mick Herron
109. London Rules by Mick Herron
110. The Sparsholt Affair by Alan Hollinghurst
111. The Land of Green Ginger by Winifred Holtby
112. The Wreck of the Mary Deare by Hammond Innes READ OCT 21
113. The Cider House Rules by John Irving
114. Exiles in the Garden by Ward Just
115. Duffy by Dan Kavanagh
116. The Good People by Hannah Kent
117. The Life to Come by Michelle de Krester
118. The Lathe of Heaven by Ursula Le Guin
119. 10:04 by Ben Lerner
120. Home is the Hunter by Helen MacInnes
121. Paris 1919 by Margaret MacMillan
122. The Blood Miracles by Lisa McInerney
123. The Girl in Green by Derek B. Miller
124. Arab Jazz by Karim Miske READ JUL 21
125. Bodies of Light by Sarah Moss
126. Carthage by Joyce Carol Oates
127. The Changeling by Kenzaburo Oe
128. The Horseman by Tim Pears
129. Echoland by Per Petterson READ APR 21
130. Last Stand by Michael Punke
131. The Waiting Time by Gerald Seymour
132. Home Run by Gerald Seymour
133. Eisenhower in War and Peace by Jean Edward Smith
134. To the Back of Beyond by Peter Stamm
135. They Know Not What They Do by Jussi Valtonen
136. The Tulip Eaters by Antoinette Van Heugten
137. Smoke by Dan Vyleta
138. Trainspotting by Irvine Welsh
139. That Eye, The Sky by Tim Winton
140. Fear : Trump in the White House by Bob Woodward
141. Hamnet by Maggie O'Farrell READ JUN 21
142. Gerta by Katerina Tuckova
143. My Country: A Syrian Memoir by Kassem Eid READ JUN 21
144. Tyll by Daniel Kehlmann
145. The Hotel Tito by Ivana Bodrozic
146. Strange Hotel by Eimear McBride
147. Blame by Paul Read
148. House of Lords and Commons by Ishion Hutchinson
149. To Calais, In Ordinary Time by James Meek
150. Your Story, My Story by Connie Palmen
151. Wake Up : Why the World Has Gone Nuts by Piers Morgan
152. Death of a Coast Watcher by Anthony English
153. Limitless by Ala Glynn
154. Toddler Hunting and Other Stories by Taeko Kono
155. Daughter of the Tigris by Muhsin al-Ramli
156. Don't Call Us Dead by Danez Smith
157. Small Pleasures by Clare Chambers
158. Incomparable World by S.L. Martin
159. The Dancing Face by Mike Phillips
160. Mirror, Shoulder, Signal by Dorthe Nors
161. Sharks in the Time of Saviours by Kawai Strong Washburn
162. The Old Drift by Namwali Serpell
163. Rest and Be Thankful by Emma Glass
164. Minty Alley by CLR James
165. The Fat Lady Sings by Jacqueline Roy
166. Actress by Anne Enright
167. The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett
168. The Living Sea of Waking Dreams by Richard Flanagan
169. Damascus by Christos Tsiolkas
170. Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov *Replacement*
171. Summer by Ali Smith
172. If Nobody Speaks of Remarkable Things by Jon McGregor *Replacement*
173. Notes of a Native Son by James Baldwin
174. The Temple of Dawn by Yukio Mishima
175. The Girls by Emma Cline
176. The Night Watchman by Louise Erdrich READ AUG 21
177. The Flint Anchor by Sylvia Townsend Warner READ AUG 21
178. The Unconsoled by Kazuo Ishiguro
179. The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman
180. The Death of Vivek Oji by Akwaeke Emezi
181. Just Like You by Nick Hornby
182. Down and Out in Paris and London by George Orwell
183. Season of Migration to the North by Tayeb Salih READ JUNE 21
184. The Book of Chameleons by Jose Eduardo Agualusa
185. The Dig by Roger Preston
186. The Historians by Eavan Boland
187. Selected Poems by Elizabeth Jennings
188. The Deemster by Hall Caine
189. When Rainclouds Gather by Bessie Head
190. Maru by Bessie Head
191. Derek Mahon: New Selected Poems by Derek Mahon
192. A Move in the Weather by Anthony Thwaite
193. Door into the Dark by Seamus Heaney
194. Driftless by David Rhodes
195. Independence Square by AD Miller
196. Our Lady of the Nile by Scholastique Mukasonga
197. Lot by Bryan Washington
198. A Long Petal of the Sea by Isabel Allende READ SEP 21
199. The Wandering by Intan Paramaditha
200. Fire and Ice by Dana Stabenow
201. Aria by Nazanine Hozar
202. Waking Lions by Ayelet Gudar-Goshen
203. Victim 2117 by Jussi Adler-Olsen
204. The Pagan Lord by Bernard Cornwell READ AUG 21
205. The Quality of Madness by Tim Rich READ JULY 21
206. Ghosts of the Past by Marco Vichi
207. The Madness of Crowds by Douglas Murray
208. Notes on Grief by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie READ AUG 21
209. Here We Are by Graham Swift
210. Deaths of the Poets by Paul Farley and Michael Symmons Roberts
211. I am, I am, I am by Maggie O'Farrell READ AUG 21
212. The Whale at the End of the World by John Iremonger
213. Precious Bane by Mary Webb
214. Bina by Anakana Schofield
215. Little Siberia by Antti Tuomainen
216. At Night the Blood is Black by David Diop READ AUG 21
217. Muscle by Alan Trotter
218. The Mountains Sing by Nguyen Phan Que Mai
219. Transcendent Kingdom by Yaa Gyasi
220. Missionaries by Phil Klay
221. Pew by Catherine Lacey READ SEP 21
222. Rodham by Curtis Sittenfeld
223. Selected Poems by Anna Akhmatova
224. The Safety Net by Andrea Camilleri
225. Corpus by Rory Clements READ OCT 21
226. Nucleus by Rory Clements READ NOV 21
227. The Rain in Portugal by Billy Collins
228. The Hill Station by JG Farrell
229. Arctic Summer by Damon Galgut
230. The Abstainer by Ian McGuire
231. The Strange Death of Europe by Douglas Murray
232. Mating by Norman Rush
233. One by One by Ruth Ware
234. The Yield by Tara June Winch
235. The Sicilian Method by Andrea Camilleri
236. Rotten Days in Late Summer by Ralf Webb
237. Tracks by Louise Erdrich
238. The First Century After Beatrice by Amin Maalouf READ SEP 21
239. Dances With Wolves by Michael Blake
240. The Holy Road by Michael Blake
241. Afternoons with the Blinds Drawn by Brett Anderson
242. A Passage North by Anuk Arudpragasam
243. A Room Made of Leaves by Kate Grenville
244. Migrations by Charlotte McConaghy
245. The Fortune Men by Nadifa Mohamed READ OCT 21
246. The Bass Rock by Evie Wyld
247. E.E.G. by Dasa Drndic
248. English Monsters by James Scudamore
249. The Dreamers by Karen Thompson Walker
250. The Matter of Desire by Edmundo Paz Soldan
251. The Ox-Bow Incident by Walter Van Tilburg Clark
252. A Voyage to Arcturus by David Lindsay
253. Monogamy by Sue Miller
254. Piranesi by Susanna Clarke
255. Bewilderment by Richard Powers
256. Evangeline and Other Poems by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.
257. Djinn Patrol on the Purple Line by Deepa Anappara
258. Travels with Charley by John Steinbeck
259. The Watcher in the Shadows by Carlos Ruiz Zafon. READ OCT 21
260. Cavalleria Rusticana by Giovanni Strega
261. A Girl's Story by Annie Ernaux
262. Great Circle by Maggie Shipstead READ OCT 21
263. The Murmur of Bees by Sofia Segovia
264. Tribes by David Lammy
265. Crossing the Mangrove by Maryse Conde
266. Hot Stew by Fiona Mozley
267. Girl A by Abigail Dean
268. The Promise by Damon Galgut READ OCT 21
269. The Crime Writer by Jill Dawson
270. The Cook of the Halcyon by Andrea Camilleri
271. The Raw Shark Texts by Steven Hall
272. How the One-Armed Sister Sweeps Her House by Cherie Jones
273. Strangers on a Pier by Tash Aw READ NOV 21
274. The Drowned City by K.J. Maitland
275. Remaking One Nation by Nick Timothy
276. How to Run a Government by Michael Barber
277. Those Bones Are Not My Child by Toni Cade Bambara
278. The Salt Eaters by Toni Cade Bambara
279. Nemesis by Rory Clements
280. Uncle Tom's Children by Richard Wright
281. The Power of Geography by Tim Marshall
282. Tomb of Sand by Geetanjali Shree
283. Against the Loveless World by Susan Abulhawa
284. The Corpse Washer by Sinan Antoon
285. The Enlightenment of the Greengage Tree by Shokoofeh Azar
286. The Colonel by Mahmood Dowlatabadi
287. Disquiet by Zulfu Livaneli
288. The Italian by Shukri Mabkhout
289. The Tunnel by AB Yehoshua
290. The Prophets by Robert Jones Jr
291. Hell of a Book by Jason Mott
292. Madonna in a Fur Coat by Sabahattin Ali
293. The Story of a Brief Marriage by Anuk Arudpragasam
294. Mehmed, my Hawk by Yasar Kemal
295. Endgame by Ahmet Altan
296. What to Read Next by Stig Abell
297. The Startup Wife by Tahmima Anam
298. The Runaways by Fatima Bhutto
299. The Most Precious of Cargoes by Jean-Claude Grumberg READ NOV 21
300. Sunlight On a Broken Column by Attia Hosain
301. Heaven by Mieko Kawakami
302. Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan
303. The Plotters by Kim Un Su
304. Lemon by Kwon Yeo Sun
305. Endless Blue Sky by Lee Hyoseok
306. The Noodle Maker by Ma Jian
307. Earthlings by Sayaka Murata
308. The Rosewater Insurrection by Tade Thompson
309. There's No Such Thing as An Easy Job by Kikuko Tsumura
310. Asleep by Banana Yoshimoto
311. Rosewater by Tade Thompson
312. Rise Like Lions edited by Ben Okri
313. The Lincoln Highway by Amor Towles
314. The Housing Lark by Sam Selvon
315. Nuns and Soldiers by Iris Murdoch
316. O' Caledonia by Elspeth Barker
317. Mr. Rinyo-Clacton's Offer by Russell Hoban
318. The Mandibles by Lionel Shriver
319. Palace of the Peacock by Wilson Harris
320. Khaki Town by Judy Nunn
321. The Forward Book of Poetry 2022 by Various Poets
322. Sisters by Daisy Johnson
323. Earthlight by Arthur C. Clarke
324. Afterlives by Abdulrazak Gurnah
325. Homeland Elegies by Ayad Akhtar
326. The Poems of Dorothy Molloy by Dorothy Molly
as well as numerous unpublished poems this tome also included her three collections in full:
327. Hare Soup
328. Gethsemane Day
329. Long Distance Swimmer
330. Cheryl's Destinies by Stephen Sexton
331. Girls are Coming out of the Woods by Tishani Doshi
332. Red Clocks by Leni Zumas
333. More Than I Love My Life : A Novel by David Grossman
334. The Yellow Wind by David Grossman
335. Strangers in Their Own Land by Arlie Russell Hochschild
336. The Pull of the Stars by Emma Donoghue
337. Somewhere Towards the End by Diana Athill
338. Intimations by Zadie Smith
339. The Blue Sky by Galsang Tschinag
340. Cinderella Goes to the Morgue by Nancy Spain
341. The Clay Marble by Minfong Ho
342. 2020 by Kenneth Steven
343. The Registrar's Manual for Detecting Forced Marriages by Sophie Hardach
344. The Secrets Between Us by Thrity Umrigar
345. The Island of Missing Trees by Elif Shafak

345 added
33 read
277 nett additions

ASIAN BOOK CHALLENGE 2022

Here is the link to the set-up thread:
https://www.librarything.com/topic/336770#n7662749

These will be the monthly jaunts for the ABC challenge.

JANUARY - Europe of Asia - Turkish Authors
FEBRUARY - The Holy Land - Israeli & Palestinian Authors
MARCH - The Arab World - Writers from the Arab world
APRIL - Persia - Iranian writers
MAY - The Stans - There are 7 states all in the same region all ending in "Stan"
JUNE - The Indian Sub-Continent - Essentially authors from India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh
JULY - The Asian Superpower - Chinese Authors
AUGUST - Nippon - Japanese Authors
SEPTEMBER - Kimchi - Korean Authors
OCTOBER - INDO CHINA PLUS - Authors from Indo-China and other countries neighbouring China
NOVEMBER - The Malay Archipelago - Malaysian, Singaporean and Indonesian Authors
DECEMBER - The Asian Diaspora - Ethnic Asian writers from elsewhere

I was able just about to cover the whole of the continent and I didn't include one for Russia as most of the authors are decidedly European in their ethnicity and leaning.

BOOKS OF THE MONTH

January : The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead
February : Did You Ever Have a Family by Bill Clegg
March : The Return by Hashim Matar
April : Life of Pi by Yann Martel
May : The Camomile Lawn by Mary Wesley
June : Hamnet by Maggie O'Farrell
July : The Queen of Attolia by Megan Whalen Turner
August : I am I am I am by Maggie O'Farrell
September : A Long Petal of the Sea by Isabel Allende
October : The Promise by Damon Galgut

RECOMMENDATION PRIZE

A book for the book bullet that made the biggest mark on me that month. Only one win per person each year.

January 2021 MARK (msf59) for THE ONLY GOOD INDIANS by Stephen Graham Jones
February 2021 ADRIENNE (fairywings) for THE BELGARIAD by David Eddings
March 2021 BONNIE (brenzi) for DRIFTLESS by David Rhodes
April 2021 KERRY (avatiakh) for THE DIG by John Preston
May 2021 DEBORAH (Cariola) for I AM, I AM, I AM by Maggie O'Farrell
June 2021 ES (Esquiress) for not failing any challenge
July 2021 CAROLINE (Caroline_McElwee) for Light Perpetual by Francis Spufford
August 2021 DEBORAH (arubabookwoman) for Skylark by Dezso Kosztolanyi

BOOK STATS :

Books Read : 137
Books Added : 345
Nett TBR Addition : 208

Number of Pages in completed books : 34,203
Average per day : 96.89
Projected Page Total : 35,365

Number of days per book : 2.57
Projected Number : 142
LT Best : 157

Longest Book read : 1,179 pages
Shortest Book read : 39 pages
Mean Average Book Length : 249.66 pages

Male Authors : 85
Female Authors : 52

UK Authors : 75
USA : 21
France : 4
Italy, Russia, South Africa : 2
NZ, India, Libya, Pakistan, South Korea, Canada, Morocco, Thailand, Norway, Belgium, Sweden, Trinidad, Sudan, Uruguay, Syria, Ghana, Austria, Germany, Mauritania, Cuba, Nigeria, Portugal, Japan, Senegal, Malta, Chile, Lebanon, Spain, Somalia, Malaysia, Mexico : 1

1001 Books First Edition : 13 (317)
New Nobel Winners : 1 (73)
Pulitzer Fiction Winners : 3 (19)
Booker Winners : 3 (34)
Around the World Challenge : New countries : 34 (47)
BAC Books : 70
AAC Books : 3
Queen Vic Books : 16/64
Queen Betty Books : 57/70
52 Book Challenge : 46/52
British Historians : 5/12
Series Pairs : 14/24

TBR Stats

Next is yours

HAppy new one!

Happy New Thread!

Happy new thread!

>21 figsfromthistle: That is quick, Anita - thank you.

>22 mahsdad: You also have itchy fingers today, Jeff! Cheers buddy.

>23 amanda4242: Thank you dear Amanda.

Happy new thread!

>1 PaulCranswick: Um, that looks ominous. Maybe find something more cheerful to read?

Happy new thread, Paul!

>26 quondame: Thanks Susan. For someone apparently allergic to Science Fiction, I am actually quite enjoying it so far.

>27 bell7: Thank you, May. xx

Greetings! First time I've been above post #50 in ages.

>29 richardderus: Salutations to you too, RD. I have sliced off a few posts from the beginning of my unwieldy threads which helps a bit.

HI Paul, Wow, #24! Happy new thread.

Happy new one!

>31 mdoris: Thanks Mary. I'm very happy making it to 24. I cannot keep up with Amber this year although my threads are a little bit longer than hers. (302.65 posts per completed thread as opposed to Amber's 269.89). Amber has 29 threads already and is out of reach!

Best number ever achieved in a year is 37 threads by both Amber and myself (twice).

>32 drneutron: Thank you Jim.

Wow! Your threads grow at an amazing pace. I tend to read threads with the fewest new postings first, of those I have starred, so I get way behind on yours. I still have unread messages on your thread #21, and have read none of 22 or 23. I think I had better declare bankruptcy and start again with this one. Hopefully I haven't missed any important news, or a book I'd absolutely love.

>28 PaulCranswick: I'm sure it's not just that you are allergic to bad Science Fiction. Those of us who grew up in its conventions sometimes don't even notice what incomers are reacting to. I haven't heard of The Black Cloud before, possibly because I was 10ish when it came out and by the time I was surrounded by SF readers, about 18 years later it no longer being discussed.

Happy new thread Paul!

Happy new thread, Paul, and happy whatever!

>34 ArlieS: Yikes, there may have been one or two things but my mind is a blank right now. Just nice to see you here - keep up at your own pace or elect not to keep up at all.

>35 quondame: It is pretty well known amongst Brit Sci-Fiers apparently, Susan, not that I would particularly know. On the book cover Richard Dawkins calls it "One of the greatest works of science fiction ever written" and the New Statesman declared it a "thrilling book like early Wells at his best."
It does have more than 1,000 members with it in their libraries so I guess it is not too obscure.

>36 humouress: Thanks Nina. My neighbour maybe noticed that Najib Razak's appeal was dismissed by the Court of Appeal on his charges relating to his stealing billions from the country. Amazingly he was again granted a stay pending disposal by the Federal Court.

>37 alcottacre: Thanks you, Stasia. Made a bit of progress with Shadow Tag and reckon I will probably finish it tomorrow or the following day.

I am very pleased and grateful to note that the last post was the 7,000th on my threads this year. Thanks to everybody who has visited/participated/agreed with me/ took issue with some of my opinions. I truly do treasure every post I receive.

>38 PaulCranswick: Paul, a currently popular romantic sub genre fantasy book has 5K members, my personal favorite SF book has 3K and Dune has 33K. 1K may not be obscure, but it's not among the real stand outs.

Happy new thread Paul!
And congratulations on the 7,000 posts - I am glad and thankful that I could contribute a little bit to it.
>1 PaulCranswick: And again a BB for me.
I made it to the first 50 posts - and even to the magic 42 ;-)

>41 quondame: It is also 64 years old in publishing terms so it has stood the test of time, I would suggest, more than some will.

>42 SirThomas: I am also thankful you have visited, Thomas. Glad you landed on a favourite number!

>41 quondame: & >43 PaulCranswick: Here is a link to a selection of eight 1950's British Sci-Fi classics.

They range from the very popular Childhood's End, On the Beach and Day of the Triffids to the pretty obscure The Tide Went Out.

As to Susan's comment on number of members who have catalogued books - Childhood's End had 8,904 catalogs down to The Tide Went Out with a mere 63. Hoyle's book is included in the eight.

https://www.denofgeek.com/books/8-amazing-british-sci-fi-novels-of-the-1950s/

This is an extremely interesting list of 1950s Science Fiction (not limited to the UK) and I think I will save this list in order to target an improvement in my appreciation of the genre.

https://www.worldswithoutend.com/lists_50s.asp

There are 125 books listed

So far I have read only 4 of them and have a further 15 on the shelves. Proof indeed of my backwardness in Sci-Fi.

Happy new thread, Paul!

>45 PaulCranswick: I have read two of them, and no intention to read others.

>46 FAMeulstee: So, like me, Science fiction is not your thing, Anita? I do want to broaden my reading horizons a little bit.

Always lovely to have you stop by.

With 32 out of 125 it could be that I belong to the target group of the list ;-)
SF is a huge area, there is a lot of garbage, but also highlights!
Of my 61 books on the list "A book a year for the first 60 years of my life" (also a great idea of yours, Paul) 13 are SF.

>48 SirThomas: SF I would expect to be of variable quality, Thomas, as with most genres. I don't think that there is any science fiction in my list of books from the years of my life.

Happy new thread, Paul.

>50 Kristelh: Thank you, Kristel. Lovely to see you.

Happy new one, Paul. Will this be the final thread of the year or is there another one in you still? ;-)

Happy New Thread, Paul. I like the "Evans" poem up there. Nice and dark. I hope all is well with you.

A lovely surprise when I got home. There was a package waiting for me and a book inside it.

320. Khaki Town by Judy Nunn



Thank you, Adrienne. xx

>52 jessibud2: Let's see, Shelley....it doesn't only depend on me of course! I hope I will have enough visitors to justify another one but I'm in a happy place either way.

>53 msf59: Thanks Mark. I like all the Thomas poets!

>45 PaulCranswick: I read fantasy though I occasionally foray into sci-fi. I went through quite a few of Asimov's Robot books a long, long time ago but I don't think I've read any of the others. There have been some screen adaptations of some of them, though, and I might have caught sight of one or two of them.

Like Thomas, I've read quite a few of the books on that list from the 50s. Original publication was before my time, most of them, but they were still around when I was a teen in the 70s. Some have held up, some have not. 😀

>56 humouress: I have tended towards fantasy more too, Nina. Sometimes the science intrudes upon the fiction for me.

>57 drneutron: I suppose science fiction is bound to date worse than other genres, Jim, as the science is proved or disproved by future generations because the suspension of belief is fine until the science in our lives has surpassed the science in the fiction. You of course know this better than any of us in the group!

Thanks for the Sci-Fi-list, Paul. I will have to come back to that. Have read 11 on the list, so also not a field of literature, that I have explored very much. Remember listening to The Door into Summer some years ago and really enjoying it. Have to try some other Heinlein.

Happy new-ish thread!

>45 PaulCranswick: I very much appreciate WWE's reliability on matters of quality in SF reading. I've never read 21 of the books on that list, nothing ever by Fred Hoyle or E.E. Smith or Algis Budrys...I think not, anyway, on the Budrys...but what a great grounding in SF's obsessions and crotchets that is!

>43 PaulCranswick: Clearly more than many have.

>45 PaulCranswick: Too many Lensmen books. Those were such drek. Unsurprisingly I've read many many of those 125. I'm happy to see my beloved Between Planets shows up. It's such fun.

>59 ctpress: Lovely to see you here, Carsten.

>60 thornton37814: Thank you, Lori.

>61 richardderus: There are a goodly few on the list whose names are familiar to me, RD, but who I have never really come very close to reading before.

>62 quondame: I'm not surprised that you have read a large number of them, Susan - I would also figure that Roni, Rhian and Luci have read the majority.

Hi Paul--Happy newish thread! Just starting Shadow Tag today. : )

>45 PaulCranswick: I have read 6 of them, but I am not inclined to read many more from that list, even though I am a Sci-Fi fan. I'd recommend the Bobiverse by Dennis E Taylor, a more current read and one that's awesome in print or on audio.

>65 Berly: I have started it too, Kimmers and so far so good.

I do want to read more from the Sci-Fi list, but I don't really know what I would like.

>39 PaulCranswick: I likely will not finish it that quickly, but I have started on it and feel like I have a good handle on the characters. I will keep you (and Kim) posted.

Happy New Thread!

>67 alcottacre: Actually I didn't make great progress yesterday with it, Stasia, as Belle had four of her friends stay over and I had to treat them all to pizza and then concentrate to get my share of it.

I am about 20% of the way in and think that I will like it.

>68 SilverWolf28: Thank you Silver!

>39 PaulCranswick:

>69 PaulCranswick: Ah, you see, I get around that by being the uncool parent who should not be let within a mile of their friends.

>70 humouress: The straps from the mandated face-masks will soon put my ears into that shape!

I'll bet they all consider you a cool mum - it will be your boys that don't though! Belle was doing her best to suggest I go somewhere else and concentrate on my reading!

Hi Paul, Happy new thread mate. Don't really know what to say about the Test Match, we were definitely undercooked, oh for the days of tour games, but losing a wicket to the first ball of the day/series was just too much form, i listened to the first two overs and then went to sleep. The alarm woke us at 7.30am and as the radio came on they were doing the sport headlines and i heard all out 147, no more to be said.

Happy whatever, Paul! I am almost 100 pages into Shadow Tag and appreciating the book. "Enjoying" is too much of a stretch for me on this one.

>72 johnsimpson: Calamitous fielding doesn't help us, John, but I do have sympathy for a team thrown into a test match without a single warm up game. It is disrespectful. We should have played at least two full warm up games against Sheffield Shield quality opposition in a first class format. Root is an awful captain and Silverwood has little idea I'm afraid because this is basic stuff.

The selection of Leach is being criticised badly but I don't agree. What I do think is a problem is bowling him so early in the first innings of the test on a green surface. Save him for the tail and/or the fourth innings. Rory Burns will be wishing he'd stayed in England!

>73 alcottacre: I haven't made any progress, Stasia, because I fell asleep after supper and have woken up at 4.00 am ready to open a book.

>65 Berly: Oh, I loved those Bobiverse books too.
From that list I'd read 3 or 4 and intend to read The Death of Grass very soon.

Paul, my husband is crying over Derby's predicament and son is happy with West Ham.

I can recommend The Red Notebook for a short sweet read with Modiano even featuring for a few pages.

>74 PaulCranswick: Obviously you needed the rest! The books will always wait for us, patient things that they are.

>75 avatiakh: Kerry, I lived in Derby for a few years (1991 to 1994) and have an affection for the place so I do feel the city's pain over the Rams' travails.

I will look out for The Red Notebook. x

>76 alcottacre: I was a little zonked and stressed, Stasia. Subcontractor claims on PNB118 project took up all of my time yesterday as well as a problem with the pouring of the raft foundation for our current project with KLCC. The latter seems to be close to erupting into dispute with our Client so I'm being dispatched there this morning to assess the problem and see whether we need to "fight or compromise". The Engineer for the project places a Resident Engineer on the site who oversees and signs off on all our preparatory work for pouring the raft. Immediately prior to the pour three weekends before the Engineer Chief designer came to the site and stopped us from proceeding and effectively costing us several million dollars. He also wants us to add tonnes of reinforcing bar into the works at our own cost despite the fact that we had "value engineered" the slab, got approval for that value engineering and gave the Employer a significant discount as a result. Unfortunately some of the coupling of the bars in our preparatory work failed under subsequent testing and I have to weigh that up in deciding how we proceed. Oh well, I suppose that's why I get paid enough to keep buying books, even as it reduces the time I have to read them!

>75 avatiakh:
I put in a loud second to the Bobiverse books. They were fun. I also have book 4 to read and I was hoping to get to it this Christmas, but I have other books to read that are due at the library so Heaven's River will have to wait.

Here's the next readathon: https://www.librarything.com/topic/337387

Whoa, Paul, when did you decide to take that turn into science fiction?

I recognize most of the authors and many of the books on that longer list, but generally haven't read those specific titles (

>79 benitastrnad: Nice to see you here, Benita. I will have to seek out these Bobiverse books.

>80 SilverWolf28: Thanks Silver. I need to be on track.

>81 justchris: Honestly Chris, I am trying to finish off my Queen Betty Challenge (1 book by a British author for each year of the present Queen's year) and the book I picked up for 1957 is The Black Cloud which is a Sci-Fi "classic" of sorts.

>79 benitastrnad: I think it was you reading them during last year's readathons that put me on to the Bobiverse. I've read all four.

>84 avatiakh: One of the things I most appreciate about the group is the reading ideas/recommendations given and received throughout the year.

>85 PaulCranswick:
And I learned of them from Joe.

>86 benitastrnad: A much better epidemic than the other one we have all been facing these last two years.

>88 justchris: Definitely. I might not run amok with all the books y'all endorse. But you keep me informed of the important books of the day while I continue to loiter in the back catalogs.

Happy whatever, Paul! I do hope that the stress from yesterday has eased.

Happy newish thread, Paul. Hope work was problem free today.

>88 justchris: Loitering is good Chris and certainly welcomed around here!

>89 alcottacre: It is an interesting conundrum to solve on the Podium project.
Option 1 - get a local engineer to endorse our recovery plan for the work (quick and inexpensive)
Option 2 - insist that the Employer instructs us to follow the Engineer's directions to keep adding reinforcement and then institute a very sizeable claim for money and time.
Option 3 - dismantle the reinforcement and do it over (about 4 months work) in which case the project would be irretrievably delayed and a big fight would be inevitable.

Option 1 is obviously the preference and I talked to an international engineering firm this morning to agree the terms of reference to take on the endorsement work.

>90 Familyhistorian: Problems do make the day pass, Meg.

>91 PaulCranswick: #1 preferred; #4 most likely to occur, if the reason for this is the Employer's knock-on long-term strategy for getting out of it entirely.

Best of luck resolving.

>93 PLANETBUDS: Mmmm

>94 richardderus: Not easy for the Employer to play games either, RD, as a Mass Rail Transit (MRT) station is coming directly into the building so we may get our preferred option.

>95 PaulCranswick: ...then it was stupid as hell for them to start this fight and someone on their side needs to lose his job! That's just plain idiotic.

>96 richardderus: The Engineer has a beef with us because we prevented him basically extorting fees from us on another project to essentially have us pay for him to check his own work. We made him look the horse's ass he really is and he hasn't forgotten it. We had spent two months putting the reinforcing system for the foundation together with daily inspections and sign-off's by the Resident Engineer only for him to come to site last minute (literally three hours before the pour was to proceed) and point out a contentious issue to stop the work. I am trying to steer a course which avoids an open declaration of war with the Engineer as this would make it really tough for the site team for the rest of the project but we are quietly seeking the removal from the project of the person concerned.

Speaking of strange stories and reprehensible behaviour the Jussie Smollett case has engaged my attention recently. When I think of all the very real victims of race or homophobic attacks, what the guy has done is made it just that little bit harder for them to get the protection and attention they deserve under the law. A disrespectful and self-serving attempt both to give attention to a flagging career but also to spread the very hatred he was pretending to call out.

That said I do think justice will be best served keeping him out of prison because the only violence he perpetrated was upon himself. I hope he doesn't beat himself up too much tonight.

>98 PaulCranswick: Bad pun; good point.

>97 PaulCranswick: Aha! Payback. Now it makes *perfect* sense. Go flatten him behind the scenes!

>99 richardderus: Yeah it was a cheap shot, RD, but I couldn't resist it.

Fellow works for one of the world's largest Structural Engineering firms as the second man in the KL office of the London headquartered company. We need to maintain the relationship with the Engineering company whilst settling accounts with the guy himself.

Love this take on the Jussie Smollett case by Trevor Noah.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-rnPopf8_wg

>91 PaulCranswick: I am glad that there are at least some options, even if some are better than others.

Have a wonderful weekend, Paul! I am looking forward to more of your input on Shadow Tag.

>102 alcottacre: Thanks Stasia. I hope to be able to concentrate on Shadow Tag today.

>8 PaulCranswick: I am, in my own way, taking part in this challenge and started reading "Black Shack Alley" by Joseph Zobel from Martinique. And I borrowed one of your recommendations and purchased a copy of "The Curious Case of Dassoukine's Trousers" by Fouad Laroui.

>104 ocgreg34: I think it is a great challenge, Greg and one that really interests me in terms of researching what writers were born or brought up where. It is very difficult to find writers in English for some of the Oceanic countries and a few of the African and Central American ones too but it is fun trying to.

I will probably roll over the challenge this time as it is the third time I have started it already!

Dassoukine's Trousers is a curious book as well as a curious case!

Speaking of curious and this is certainly an issue that I believe is much more a woman's right to choose than for some portly middle-aged Yorkshireman in the wilds of tropical Asia to give smug comments, but I really do have concerns with the so called Texas Abortion Bill or Anti-Abortion Bill more accurately. The six week time limit for a decision to be made is simply another way of banning abortion.

I can only speak as a father and know that if heaven forbid my girls were pregnant in a situation whereby that pregnancy was the result of an unwanted sexual encounter (I choose a euphemism not because of squeamishness but because I don't want to spell out the words in association with my girls) I would sure as hell want them to be able to choose what to do. If the unborn was likely to endanger the mother or at a relatively early stage it was confirmed that he/she would be born with a congenital illness affording little or no quality of life, I would sure as hell want them to be able to choose what to do.

The Supreme Court decision yesterday was a backward step in my humble opinion and I speak as someone who is mildly pro-choice and a man and I can hardly conceive of what this will mean to many women in the Lone Star State.

>44 PaulCranswick: I loved Day of the Triffids and indeed pretty much everything by John Wyndham when I encountered him as a child.

I remember The Death of Grass too.

OTOH, I remember, and hated On the Beach by Nevil Shute, in spite of liking many of his other works.

Is my age showing? And my nationality? (I would have been reading these in the 60s, in Canada.)

>107 ArlieS: I think I have read most of John Wyndham's books and certainly his more famous ones and all of them were entertaining. I have The Death of Grass on the shelves too.

I have a few books by Shute but I have only read A Town Like Alice at the moment.

Doesn't show up either your age or where you hail from only that your reading tastes are eclectic! xx

I forgot to add my Friday afternoon purchases from Kino.

321. The Forward Book of Poetry 2022 by Various Poets
322. Sisters by Daisy Johnson
323. Earthlight by Arthur C. Clarke
324. Afterlives by Abdulrazak Gurnah
325. Homeland Elegies by Ayad Akhtar

I usually look for the Forward Book which samples from all the poets and poems shortlisted for their prize in the previous year. It is modern, keeps me up to date and helps me look out for poets I will most likely enjoy in full collection mode.

Daisy Johnson is one of those up and coming authors whose books are now awaited by many with bated breath.

Fairly obvious given the recent subject matter of my thread why that Clarke book found it's way onto my shelves.

I want to collect all of Gurnah's work especially given his recent Nobel recognition.

Elegies is a book I have been rather impatiently waiting for in paperback form here and so I was pleased to see its arrival yesterday.

>106 PaulCranswick: Very well said. As a mother of 4 daughters I completely agree with you.

>111 mdoris: I am always nervous about adoption of absolutes, Mary, because the world is made up rather of differing hues of grey and I think legislation that does not allow for so many differing circumstances and variables and forces itself into the situation at such a deplorably early stage (i.e. virtually from the point of detection) is cruel and flawed.

Just as I can see the inherent weaknesses in Executive Orders for mandates which fail to take any account whatsoever of mitigating circumstances, I think it is slightly hypocritical not to lend the same fact of mitigating circumstances to a newly pregnant woman. The difficulty of squaring of these sorts of circles is one of the beefs I have with some of conservative thinking.

Four daughters must have kept you very busy! I have exactly half that number and they have occasioned far more sleepless nights than my son ever has done.

BOOK #129



The Black Cloud by Fred Hoyle
Date of Publication : 1957
Origin of Author : UK
Pages : 209 pp

Challenges :
Queen Betty Challenge : 51/70
British Author Challenge : 64

This is an unfairly overlooked classic of Science Fiction not that I am best placed to make such a claim.

It is a book which quietly teaches scientific principles and is very prescient when we live in a world of environmental uncertainty. Without spoilers the story concerns a giant black cloud approaching the Earth from the heavens and the scientists have to work against time to try to figure out the implications. It is speeding towards us but suddenly slows........

Recommended.

BOOK #130



The Lover by Harold Pinter
Date of Publication : 1963 (for TV)
Origin of Author : UK
Pages : 39 pp

Challenges :
BAC : 65
Queen Betty Challenge : 52/72

A couple of hours in the company of Harold Pinter can sometimes seem an interminably long time.

A husband goes off to work and casually asks his wife whether her lover will be stopping by that day and she answers in the affirmative. The play is a comedy come hysteric drama whereby the lover is revealed to be the husband himself as the two take on increasingly cloying role-plays of sexual fantasy.

Pinter's main point seems to be that the lady is the more durable in such types of relationships but to get to that point you have to suffer the play. Clever undoubtedly but irritating certainly.

>91 PaulCranswick: Frustrating. Go with option 2 (just so there's no disaster down the road that they can turn around and say 'I told you so') and make it clear that you are deferring to the Revered Engineer's specifications - so it's all his fault.

>114 PaulCranswick: If you're looking for poetry, Paul, I've noticed that there have been a few offerings from Early Reviewers in the last few months; although I've only seen e-books offered for our part of the world.

>115 humouress: Probably not advisable as they want to add around 1,500 tonnes of steel into the foundation. This has two big problems. Firstly steel would be so compacted that it would be difficult to evenly distribute the concrete when it is poured and secondly the additional steel would cost us around RM8 million extra (US$2 million) and it would be a real fight to reclaim the sum.

I will go and look at the early review stuff then if poetry is being included, Nina. x

How about a cheerful Topper for the Holiday season?

With hope that 2022 is at least 2022 times a better year for Peace and Justice and ...

>117 m.belljackson: Not yet the holiday season, Marianne!

Yo - Advent? Hannukah just over...

>109 PaulCranswick: I just picked up a copy of Homeland Elegies myself recently. Let me know if you are interested in a shared read, Paul. Abdulrazak Gurnah's name is familiar, but I do not think I have read anything by him.

>113 PaulCranswick: Added to the BlackHole. Thanks for the review and recommendation, Paul.

>114 PaulCranswick: No, thank you.

Happy whatever, Paul!

>119 m.belljackson: Hanukkah is a week away, Marianne. Advent takes us up to Christmas which is a further week thereafter.

>120 alcottacre: When are you thinking of Homeland Elegies, Stasia? I can never say no to a shared read!

>114 PaulCranswick: Ha Paul. I have a long suffering friend who has boldly accompanied me to many a Pinter play over the years. I love the word play, and am happy to not necessarily have a total understanding (Pinter refused to explain). My friend generally makes people in the row behind laugh as we exit by asking what it meant, and me saying 'whatever you want it to mean'. He's very tolerant.

Of course some things are more obvious than others, but Pinter sets up situations that set you questioning in my opinion. And don't they say life is more about interesting questions.

Very late to the party here. I read more fantasy than sci-fi, so I haven't read any on that list but I have a couple of them on my shelves.

You're very welcome about the book, I hope you enjoy it when you get to it.

I hope your work issues get sorted quickly.

>122 Caroline_McElwee: I could appreciate the word play, Caroline but the characters were just a little too febrile for me to enjoy it.

>123 fairywings: Nice to see you Adrienne. I am certainly more fantasy than Sci-Fi but I did enjoy The Black Cloud.

Hi Paul! I also have Homeland Elegies on my bedside table. Hopefully I will get to it this month.

>112 PaulCranswick: HI Paul, Agreed absolutes do not take into account the variety of us as humans and of our differing circumstances.

We had the four girls in 5 years and I have hear people say girls are so much easier as they are not as physical as boys but hmmm, I don't think so but I will never be an expert on boys!

>113 PaulCranswick: Huh! Fred Hoyle could write, I mean the man coined "the Big Bang" after all, but that plot takes its cues from a long, long lineage. It's still active today, in fact, with Andy Weir's Project Hail Mary. (Which I recommend, BTW.)

I can't help but think he isn't quite so well known as his talents would otherwise make him because he resolutely rejected the idea of the Standard Model's underpinnings. That's one of those side effects of being an independent.

I don't know this from experience but I suspect his bridge books are still studied. I enjoy bridge and used to try to follow his line of logic in the newspaper columns during the 1970s. Wow, it showed he was a genius!

>127 richardderus: That's why I thought I'd heard of Hoyle. But no. Edmond Hoyle was the author of the book of card games that did impinge on my life oh those many years ago. I don't do card games or bridge, but have found myself among those who do, and sometimes in an historical context that had me playing, quite badly, a spot of whist to fill out a table to keep the party going.

>121 PaulCranswick: I had no time frame in mind, Paul, but probably not this month. Would you be okay with a January shared read?

>125 banjo123: I'm not sure that I will get to it this month, Rhonda, because I am trying to finish my Queen Betty challenge and I am up against the nine-ball. January is on though if you fancy a shared read with Stasia and I.

>126 mdoris: Mary, as you know I am critical of both left and right but would certainly hesitate to call myself a centrist. I can often see both sides of an argument but there are certain things that I feel strongly about and freedom married with respect would probably top the list for me.

Our kids are a constant source of pride and wonder to me but I am far more laissez-faire in parenting than Hani - the archetypical Asian mother. She has a thing about the kids being our responsibility for ever even when they are accomplished and self-reliant.

>127 richardderus: Fascinating chap, RD. He hailed from my home area of West Yorkshire. He did indeed coin the term "Big Bang Theory" but then rejected it as a hypothesis, favouring instead panspermia as the source of life on earth.
Seems that his constantly pissing off the Nobel committee meant in him being unjustly overlooked for a Nobel Physics on at least two occasions.

It is many years since i played bridge and I could have certainly used his help!

>128 quondame: I actually like playing cards although I am no more than average at most of the games but I must admit to not being familiar with Edmond Hoyle until you mentioned him, Susan.

It seems that games that exercise the mind are good for the body. Edmond Hoyle lived to the extraordinary age of 97. Extraordinary in that he died in 1769.

>129 alcottacre: January would suit me great, Stasia. Will pencil it in. xx

>132 PaulCranswick: I will pencil it in as well. Thanks, Paul!

Dropping in to say hello. Have a great start to the work week.

>133 alcottacre: My January reading is taking shape nicely, Stasia. Couple of shared reads already, plenty of Turkish reads, something for the British Author Challenge and I am still hoping Linda will do the American Author Challenge again.

>134 figsfromthistle: Lovely to see you, Anita. xx I will try to get around the threads later to all my pals.

Couldn't wake Belle up for company this morning so I took the dangerous step of taking brunch in KLCC. Dangerous because it houses MY bookstore Kinokuniya. I had a nice brunch, with a delightful glass of NZ white wine but not after visiting my shrine.

326. The Poems of Dorothy Molloy by Dorothy Molly
as well as numerous unpublished poems this tome also included her three collections in full:
327. Hare Soup
328. Gethsemane Day
329. Long Distance Swimmer
330. Cheryl's Destinies by Stephen Sexton
331. Girls are Coming out of the Woods by Tishani Doshi
332. Red Clocks by Leni Zumas
333. More Than I Love My Life : A Novel by David Grossman
334. The Yellow Wind by David Grossman
335. Strangers in Their Own Land by Arlie Russell Hochschild

The poetry of the late Dorothy Molloy was recommended to me by a friend of mine from County Mayo which is where she hailed from.

Stephen Sexton is an award winning young poet and this latest collection is up for several prizes.

Tishani Doshi is mixed Welsh-Gujarati and has quite a name in poetry circles already.

The Zumas I bought so that I can join Kimmers' group read in January.

Two very different books by Grossman give me more options for February's Asian Book Challenge. One is his latest novel and the other his views on the Israeli occupation of the West Bank.

Hochschild's National Book nominated work seeks to try to explain the appeal sociologically of Trump in the American heartlands.

>136 PaulCranswick: You're a biblioholic, you can't be trusted to behave when you're left unsupervised in the vicinity of a bookery.

I have much more sympathy for the thesis of Strangers in Their Own Land than I used to. The scum are threatening to take over so I'm getting very worried.

>136 PaulCranswick: Another great haul, Paul! Your year is going to be off to a great start!

>136 PaulCranswick: Wow, such a delicious starter Paul. Not familiar with any of those.

What are you and Belle planning for Christmas, as I presume Hani will be in the UK. Appreciate it isn't your celebration, but many muslims do something.

>121 PaulCranswick: November 28 - December 6th, non?

Wow, that’s a good haul. I thought the Hochschild was pretty good - definitely worth reading.

Looks like your morning got off to a good start, Paul. I hope that augers well for the week.

>138 richardderus: It hurts especially Richard when many wounds are self-inflicted. Right policies terribly executed, an over concentration on issues that don't compel the main, a descent into lawlessness that is being ignored, personal ineptitudes and/or incapacities leaving the polity rudderless.

As to the charges you allege against my person and unlike Jussie Smollett, I plead guilty!

>139 alcottacre: Thanks Stasia, I hope so. x

>136 PaulCranswick: You've been busy buying books. Lucky you.
I'm looking forward to reading Grossman's latest, I had it on hold at the library but our lockdown stymied that plan and I'll be reading him in 2022. I found The Yellow Wind a little dated when I tried it a few years back though I should give it another try. Since the Oslo Accords, Hamas getting established and the two intifadas, the situation has changed a lot. Son of Hamas by Mosab Hassan Yousef is a memoir that I thought a worthwhile read.
An older book that reflects perhaps a more hopeful period is Amos Oz's In the Land of Israel (1982).
Also entertaining reading, though his writing style makes you cringe at times, is Tuvia Tenenbaum's Catch The Jew!. I've read several of his books.
A much older read that is possibly only available as a digital book is The Storyteller of Jerusalem: The Life and Times of Wasif Jawhariyyeh, 1904-1948. I mention all these books as they reflect Arab & Jew living in the region and don't forget within the Arab community is the Christian/Muslim dynamic.

Not on this topic but I've enjoyed what I've read by Aharon Appelfeld especially his A Table for One: Under the Light of Jerusalem

>140 Caroline_McElwee: I haven't added to my poetry stocks for a while so it was nice to find those yesterday, Caroline. We do celebrate Christmas in my household and it is possible that Belle and myself will jet back but I am worried about being stranded in the UK thereafter. We will decide this week.

>141 m.belljackson: Ah yes you are right as to Hanukkah, Marianne. Advent of course goes up to Christmas Eve.

>142 drneutron: It stood out to me yesterday, Jim, when I had a look through the impressive non-fiction stocks at the store.

>143 Familyhistorian: Thanks Meg. I am expecting a pretty tough week.

>145 avatiakh: Lovely to see you Kerry. I have built a nice little collection of Grossman's books so I had better go and read some of them!

The book by Aharon Apelfeld looks just my thing.

BOOK #131



Married Love by Tessa Hadley
Date of Publication : 2012
Origin of Author : UK
Pages : 231 pp

Challenges
BAC : 66 books
Queen Betty Challenge : 53/70

I haven't read anything by Tessa Hadley before but from this selection I can deduce that she is a more than proficient novelist.

I do think though she needs the freedom of the novel form to express herself more fully and the restrictions of the short story does not particularly suit her development of theme, character and plot.

These are slices of fiction - almost like excerpts taken from different novels - which sort of begin but rarely end in any meaningfully satisfactory manner. She leaves you wanting to know what happens next.... but it just doesn't. I felt a little bit like I was sitting in a room with an accomplished stand-up comedian who had brought many of his best gags but had left all the punchlines behind.

I will, however, go into the reading of her novels fully expecting to be wowed.

Book #132



Horse Latitudes by Paul Muldoon
Date of Publication : 2006
Origin of Author : UK (also has US citizenship)
Pages : 106 pp

Challenges :
BAC : 67
Queen Betty Challenge : 54/70

If I had to say hand on heart who was the most technically proficient of living poets writing in English, I would unreservedly plump for Paul Muldoon.

There is a gift. He is admirable. In our admiration we ponder the nature of love. Admiration falls more than a little short of love. I deeply admire his poetry but I do not love it.

He can be playful, he is almost invariably deeply intelligent, erudite and able to convey. He is able to structure a poem and get its rhyme and rhythm pitch perfect. He can structure complicated poetics in a way that I rarely see others achieve. For all that, he can also often write pretty sterile poems.

When his poetry is on point and on a theme that clearly matters to him there is an emotional sweep to his words that cannot fail to resonate. At other times I can shrug and just think "yes that is clever".

A patchy but often brilliant collection and if I am harsh in judging him to his own high standards it is because I only want the really good stuff without having to wade through the rest.

His collection starts with a series of sonnets which he calls "Horse Latitudes" and describes conflagrations all starting with "B". This is "Bosworth Field" which is close to my own heart as it was that treacherous day in 1485 that brought down the House of York.

It was clear now, through the pell-mell
of bombard and basilisk-mist,
that the Stanleys had done the dirt
on him and taken Henry's side.
Now Richard's very blood seemed to have shied
away from him, seemed to sputter and spurt
like a falcon sheering off from his wrist
as he tried to distance himself
from the same falchioneer who'd pelf
the crown from his blood-matted brow
and hang it on a tree. Less clear was how
he'd managed not to crack the shell
of the pigeon egg the size of a cyst
he'd held so close inside his shirt.

I am closing in on finishing Shadow Tag too and am satisfied thus far with 11 books done in 12 days in December.

>136 PaulCranswick: Ha! Belle would just have aided and abetted anyway, had she been there.

>152 humouress: That is true and especially as she has her heart set on a new Apple tablet thingy.

Hi Paul! I have been so busy, sorry for not visiting your thread for a while.

I loved the SF list you posted. Have read several of those, as my library had them, when I was a teen. So they are pretty familiar, and I am fond of some. Did try to reread Asimov’s Foundation without success. But still like his Robot stories. Wishing you good luck with the Arthur C. Clarke. I really can’t stand him, but maybe you will love his books.

Hope you manage to finish that Queen Betty challenge.

>154 EllaTim: Lovely to see you, Ella.

I don't do well generally with Sci-fi so lets see what I make of it. I too aborted a read of Foundation many years ago.

>146 PaulCranswick: I suspect with the new variant hitting nearly 5000 cases today, it might be wise not to travel this way, as you might have trouble getting back Paul. 2 jabs is not enough, they are banking on the booster working, but it will be a while before they can prove it does.

I have one more festive lunch next Saturday with a friend, and hope it is doable, but will postpone if necessary. Hoping to get together with my sibs for 2 days at my bro's, but if things escalate, that won't happen.

>156 Caroline_McElwee: I do think you are right unfortunately, Caroline and being in the at risk category with my weight and asthma, I do need to be a little bit extra careful.

I hope you are able to get together with the siblings. x

Paul - if you have a spare $5.00, the Jacquielawson.com calendar for 2021
is all featured on LONDON and is a lot of fun, whatever your religion is or isn't.

Yesterday had a book of paintings...

You don't have to start on Day 1 - can chime in anytime and catch up.

>158 m.belljackson: Thanks Marianne, I will go and take a look. x

Happy whatever, Paul! Any sign of Redemption Ground yet? I really cannot believe I got my copy before you got yours!

HI Paul. I'm simply stopping by to say hello and to note all the great books you read this year.

>160 alcottacre: No!!!!! I keep going home from work in the hope and expectation of seeing a package for me, but, alas. :(

Thanks for the good wishes as always. I think you ladies had better start without me and I'll read it when it arrives.

>161 Whisper1: Always a pleasure to see you here, Linda and I am truly heartened by your improved position in terms of reduced pain.

>162 PaulCranswick: Nope, I will not start without you, lol.

>163 alcottacre: Aw Stasia! You are so kind. xx

>163 alcottacre: I will break the habit of a lifetime and download kindle onto my phone so I can get the book early. Will let you know if I'm successful in this.

Apparently Amazon will not ship kindle to Malaysia for copyright reasons! Ridiculous. Am buying the book what copyright are they talking about. You can download the app but none of the books - that is just nonsensical.

>113 PaulCranswick: I read The Black Cloud my first year of high school and still have the book boxed away along with Hoyle's October the First is Too Late which I bought and read just about back to back. The Black Cloud helped cement my developing attraction to science fiction novels. Glad you enjoyed it. I should re-read it one day.

>167 RBeffa: I knew that the book was reasonably well travelled, Ron!

Paul--Sorry to hear bout the cement pour and controversy over adding reinforcing bar. I feel your pain since we had a site install this past summer and the engineering crew just did not know what they were doing. They didn't leave conduit piping for the electrical and laid foundations at the wrong height, etc, etc. I am wishing you good luck!

Loved seeing all the books flying into your household!! Good thing you have so many shelves (listed in Stasia's thread). And I am eager to hear your thoughts on Shadow Tag and excited to see Red Clocks in the new stack. : )

>163 alcottacre: What Stasia says. It will be better for the wait...

>169 Berly: Kimmers site works are complex but some planning seems to be basic like making due provision for the services going into a building. I also like seeing books flying into the house. xx

>170 Caroline_McElwee: You ladies are the best, Caroline, xx

>156 Caroline_McElwee: I'm seeing a lot of people (in Singapore) showing evidence (it looks reliable) that a mix and match of Moderna and Pfizer for the 3 shots is most effective. Various combinations have various efficiency; I think it was the first 2 Moderna and the 3rd Pfizer was best. Since we had the first 2 from Pfizer (the only one approved in the country at the time), we chose to have the 3rd from Moderna.

Fingers crossed!

>166 PaulCranswick: Did you try Amazon Singapore, Paul?

>172 humouress: Mine will be 2xAZ and 1xPfizer.

What a good idea, I will go there right now.

>173 PaulCranswick:, Hi Paul mate, we had 2 X AZ and Pfizer Booster jab last Tuesday.

I hope we show some form and fight when the day/night Test starts in Adelaide, i saw a piece from Brendon McCullum who agrees with everything you have said about Root's captaincy. I have tended to give him the benefit of doubt but i agree with both of you but i do hope he surpasses Mohammed Yousaf's runs in a calendar year record and thank god for his runs. We have been pretty poor this year but without his runs we would have been f***ing shite.

Hope all is well with you and Belle mate and i see that you have been adding a few more books to your stash, i can't say anything though, between us we have added 223 books so far this year.

Love and hugs to you from both of us dear friend.

>172 humouress: & >173 PaulCranswick: No help unfortunately, Nina. They don't have it on ebook so I just have to wait for its delivery.

>174 johnsimpson: I cannot criticise him as a batsman, John. In fact there are very few can match his accomplishments in that sense but his leadership and strategy is awful. You know the lions played a first class game with Australia A overlapping the test match - Lawrence, Crawley and Broad should have been playing in that game but were left watching us lose instead.

He will panic and drop Leach but he didn't use him properly. His spin option is Bess who he buggered about dreadfully last winter. Matt Parkinson was the guy to have played but Root and Silverwood are pretty clueless.

BOOK #133



Shadow Tag by Louise Erdrich
Date of Publication : 2010
Origin of Author : USA
Pages : 253 pp

Challenges
Shared read Kimmers & Stasia
American Author Challenge

There is little doubt that Louise Erdrich is a supremely gifted novelist. I am not sure that this novel is quite up to the standard she has subsequently attained with The Round House and The Night Watchman but this is still an impressive, if unsettling piece of work.

The complex machinations of a marriage in trouble is expertly drawn out. Having myself an "interesting" marriage (although Hani is nowhere near as manipulative or self-destructive as Irene is) I could relate to some of the scenes that were drawn but on a decidedly less febrile level.

Recommended.

BOOK #134



The Viceroy of Ouidah by Bruce Chatwin
Date of Publication : 1980
Origin of Author : UK
Number of Pages : 101 pp

Challenges :
BAC : 68 books
52 Book Club Challenge : 46/52
Queen Betty Challenge : 55/70

The is a quirky little book by a quirky writer who left us far too early.

The traces the story of a slaver who was the side-kick of the King of Dahomey in the early and mid nineteenth century who spread his seed wide but was never able to return "home" to Bahia on the Brazilian coast.

Ironic and faintly ridiculing all of its characters this is more like a sketch for a novel than the novella it became. Chatwin was a great writer but this was too incomplete and unpolished to have gotten published.

>175 PaulCranswick: Well, rats. You tried though!

>177 PaulCranswick: Glad to see that you would still recommend Shadow Tag. I am going to have to get to the other books you mentioned soon.

Happy whatever, Paul!

>179 alcottacre: I'll just pray for a delivery soonest.

She is a very good novelist, I think, Stasia.

>175 PaulCranswick: Oh dear. Well, I'll tell you a secret if you promise not to tell: years ago when I was gifted my Kindle by my family, there was no Amazon Singapore so I had to register under Amazon US using an address in the US. And/ or I could register under Amazon UK using a different e-mail address and a (physical) address in the UK. So I did both.

Naturally, I confuse myself as to what books I have in which account and end up having duplicates when I can't find a book I was sure I had and buy it again, when it's actually on the other account. I have to deregister from one account and reregister with the other on the Kindle if I want to swap.

ETA: Amazon UK does have Redemption Ground available on Kindle. Of course, by the time you've gone through all these shenanigans, the book will probably have arrived :0)

>181 humouress: Copyright and IP law is not my specialty, Nina, but I really don't see the issue with them "shipping" to Malaysia.

>180 PaulCranswick: Oh, I certainly agree that Erdrich is a good novelist, even if Shadow Tag is not her best. She is one of my LT discoveries, so she has a special place in my heart.

>183 alcottacre: She is indeed, Stasia. I don't think that I would have discovered her without LT. Certainly broadened my reading horizons being in the 75ers.

I read an early novel of hers a few years ago (The Antelope Wife) and it didn't do it for me. Enthusiasm for her writing especially for The Round House lead me to try her again and I quickly became an admirer.

I have some bad news today.

Kyran messaged me asking me to call him. I did and he was a bit shaken up. On his way home from lectures last night he was mugged at knife point in Brixton railway station by two chaps in hoodies. Took his wallet and all his money, his travel card, Malaysia IC, debit card, student card. They didn't particularly hurt me other than banging his shoulder into the wall but he was a little traumatised.

I want to say a big thank you to a journalist who happened to find Kyran in a pretty shaken-up state and helped take him to the police station and get him home - there are good people! Also to his friends who have rallied around him.

I often worried about my kind hearted innocent abroad, son and I hope that he takes lessons from this awful act. I have asked him to take the bus to and from college in future and not to travel alone in places like that and to keep his wits about him more. Keep away from dark places or somewhere you can easily get isolated.

I am at least pleased he was able to reach out to his dad to comfort him. I am a long way away though.

>185 PaulCranswick: How awful! {{hugs}}

>185 PaulCranswick: So sorry to read this happened to Kyran, Paul, hugs for you both.

>186 amanda4242: I was a bit upset because he was in tears on the phone and seemingly most upset that he had "lost" the £400 I had just given Hani to give him. Told him I didn't care about the money so long as he was ok. Thanks Amanda.

>185 PaulCranswick: Oh, that really rots, PC. I'm so angry that such rottenness exists, and upset that it touched Kyran.

I know exactly how maddening it is to be so far away and only able to soothe a bit the awful blow he's taken and has begun to process.

>187 FAMeulstee: Thank you, Anita.

>189 richardderus: Thanks RD. He is such a soft hearted young man and not the most worldly wise. I do worry about him constantly in point of fact.

I'm glad he's physically ok, and I hope he recovers quickly mentally. I definitely get how you worry - same for me when The Son has traveled on his own.

>192 drneutron: Thank you, Jim. He will be Ok I hope.

Every parent's nightmare. I'm so glad he wasn't injured. I feel for you and poor Kyran and I hope he puts this behind him.

I'm so sorry such a ghastly thing happened to Kyran, and hope he'll absorb more about what he can survive that what he should fear from it. But also what care he should take.

Time to go Home...?

Hi Paul, sorry to hear about Kyran being mugged, sadly this seems to be commonplace in parts of our capital city. Whilst it is worrying and you being far from home, i am pleased that he wasn't another knife crime victim. Knife crime is an epidemic at the moment, there seems to be no rhyme or reason to it apart from the fact that the assailants just attack at random.

I hope he has taken his dad's advice and does not let this keep him fearful of going about his daily business.

Yikes! So sorry to hear this, Paul. Good that he wasn't physically hurt but how awful. Such a violation!

Is there a possibility for him to live on campus or at least closer to school?

>185 PaulCranswick: So sorry to hear this Paul.

>185 PaulCranswick: I am so sorry to hear about Kyran's being mugged! I know how it is to feel helpless when your child (no matter how old they are) is far away from where you are. Thank goodness for the Good Samaritan who helped him get sorted, as well as his friends.

Sorry to hear about Kyran. I'm always worried about my boys. These things don't just happen in London, though, and in London, they don't just happen in areas with a reputation, like Brixton or in Tottenham where I live. Tube/train stations are a bit of a hot spot, because so many people come out focused on their mobiles, or get them out, along with wallets and cigs and lighters if they have that habit, etc etc.

My advice to everyone, male or female, including my partner, Mike, is:

Make sure you're looking and listening to everything around you, and look as though you're doing so. Don't come off a train or tube or wander around with your earphones on or looking at your phone screen. Don't carry too much cash - especially since the pandemic you can pay for a lot on contactless, and don't carry all your resources around in the same place, If something happens go somewhere reasonably safe that you can report a stolen card etc or if needs be a phone asap, so that things can be stopped and if someone does manage to use your card for their own purposes you can hopefully get it back from your bank etc. Try to know who and how to report if your essentials get lost/stolen. Be wary around ATMs (and this is a problem in my area, as there always seems to be someone sitting in a car by the local ones - they're on a busy main road and are outside shops. They could be waiting for a friend to buy a couple of things, but it makes me very uneasy.

>194 avatiakh: I received a message from him a short while ago, Kerry and he was doing his assignment so I guess he will be ok.

>195 quondame: Yes, Susan, I think the lessons learned from it should help him a lot. x

>196 m.belljackson: Probably, Marianne, probably.

>197 johnsimpson: He goes to London, John, having being brought up in another capital city and one which I would not be able to name a single street or district where is was less than safe to stroll down at midnight.

>198 jessibud2: Good question, Shelley, and it is one that I don't know the answer to. I think he just needs to be more careful as to the places to be.

>199 SandDune: Thanks, Rhian.

>200 alcottacre: I know Kyran was very grateful to the chap that helped him and I believe that he'll be meeting up with him again soon. Thanks Stasia.

>201 elkiedee: That is really sound advice, thank you, Luci. x

>185 PaulCranswick: I'm so sorry to hear about Kyran's experience Paul. It will take him a while to get his feet back under him. I'm so glad someone helped him.

I grew up near Brixton and still pass through from time to time, it has its problems, far less than years ago, but I have never been uncomfortable there. I think visitors sometimes stand out, especially if their home is safer than this metropolis.

And Luci's advice is good >201 elkiedee:.

>206 Caroline_McElwee: Thanks Caroline. Poor fellow has his head in the clouds at the best of times.

I am sorry to hear about Kyran, Paul. I am glad he wasn't injured. What a hassle to lose all your valuables, especially since most of those items will be discarded. Poor kid.

So sorry to hear about Kyran, Paul. What a scary thing to have happen, for him and for you.

What a rotten thing to happen to Kyran but hopefully a wake up call as well.

What a terrible thing to happen to Kyran. I hope he recovers from the psychological trauma quickly. It's good he reached out to you--even though you are a long way from London. I hope they catch the thugs! I'm glad the journalist stepped up to help him.

>208 msf59: Yeah true, Mark. He was carrying too much money but a Malaysian IC isn't too much use to a petty criminal in inner London, I would have thought.

>209 bell7: Thanks Mary. It brings home the distance that separates. Want to give him a hug but my arms are nowhere near long enough!

>210 Familyhistorian: Those were exactly my sentiments too, Meg. x

>211 thornton37814: I doubt that they will catch them Lori. He was unable to identify or even describe properly the assailants and I doubt whether any available CCTV would be of much help.

Oh Paul, so sorry to hear your news about Kyran. It is so hard for you no doubt to be so far away when something dreadful like this happens to your son. I am sure glad that someone was there to help him. A story for us all.....

So sorry to hear about Kyrans traumatic experience. I know exactly what you mean about worrying for them. I feel the same about my Riley, he's demeanor sounds similar to Kyrans and I'm constantly worrying about something similar happening to him on his frequent visits to the Gold Coast, he's very naive to dangers.

Hopefully Kyran will bounce back quickly and not lose too much of his sweet nature, but be more cautious of his travels. He was very fortunate to have a kind stranger turn up to help him.

So sorry to hear about your son,Paul.

>185 PaulCranswick: Oh no! How scary and disquieting! Glad Kyran is physically ok.

>214 mdoris: Thank you Mary. For someone who grew up in England it would be known that Brixton would be a place to keep your eyes and ears open but Kyran only sees the good in everyone.

>215 fairywings: I think Riley and Kyran would probably get along fine, Adrienne!

I am so grateful to the young chap that helped him and calmed his down in the aftermath of the attack.

>216 brenzi: Thank you, my Queen of Reviews. x

>217 figsfromthistle: Thanks Anita. The worse thing was listening to him cry as he was describing what had happened yesterday. I said to him "Kyran, please don't cry, I am so far away and can't put my arm around you to keep you safe, but your dad is always here when you need to talk to him. " Later in the evening he had calmed down and had been to the bank etc so and I was able to finally sleep.

Being a parent is not an easy job.

Sorry to hear about Kyran- I hope that he will recover quickly from this terrible incident. Elkiedee's advice is good!

>220 torontoc: Luci and Caroline live in London so their advice is valuable to me and Kyran, Cyrel but the groups' support is as always simply quite wonderful. x

Oh Paul - that's horrible. Much love to you all. I know the distance feels hard, but he know he can turn to you guys and you will support him. Again, love to you all.

>222 BekkaJo: Thanks Bekka. I had to stop Hani from driving straight down to London yesterday. She would have cut a strange Charles Bronson like figure patrolling the nooks and crannies of Brixton Railway station.

I'm sorry to hear about Kyran's experience, Paul. It would shake anyone up; but young people are pretty resilient. Good to know he's recovering quickly.

My kids don't have the 'advantage' of having grown up in a city where you have to keep your eyes and ears open and haven't learned to do so. I sometimes worry about them just crossing the road safely and looking out for cars. ;0)

Well, crap. Sorry to hear about Kryan's experience, but glad for family support and helpful strangers.

So sorry for the trauma that your son had to endure, thankful that someone helped him. It is hard when we are so far from our children and cannot protect them as we did when they were younger.

I think Caroline grew up in London. I'm not from here but I grew up in inner city Leeds and then an inner suburb at the time of the 20th century's most notorious misogynist serial killer and the abysmal police investigation (sexist, racist and classist stereotypes - all those prejudices interacting with each other, ignoring attempts to report because from survivors because those survivors were women, and were working class and/or black and from red light/ghetto/otherwise negatively viewed parts of town, getting distracted by a hoaxer.) And as a student I lived in/near some fairly edgy bits of Manchester. For me it was what I was used to, I find the whole concept of suburbia a little weird.

>227 elkiedee: Yes Luci, born and grew up in South London (mostly Streatham, the next town on from Brixton), and the last 30 years in East London.

I think of myself as reasonably streetwise, and have the same attitude when I travel. In my 30s someone attempted to mug me, but I had seen the group a split second before one of them tried, and dragged the guy who grabbed my bag into the road in front of traffic, then jumped on a route master bus, which had no doors, back in the day. I couldn't have predicted how I might have behaved, you just respond to the circumstances.

Hoping Kyran is doing ok and sorting replacing his paperwork and protecting his bank cards runs smoothly.

>224 humouress: In some ways, Nina, it is an obvious advantage to have been brought up on meaner streets. You will be having the same sleepless nights when your kids strike out for themselves. x

>225 swynn: The young chap that helped him, Steve, certainly renews one's faith in humanity. Kyran will meet him this coming week for a coffee and, who knows, he may have made a friend for all his futures.

>229 PaulCranswick: he may have made a friend for all his futures.

I hope he does! Those are hard to come by.

Happy whatever, Paul!

>226 Kristelh: Kristel, there is a strange feeling of impotence at times being a parent who can merely lend a kindly ear rather than be on hand. At least Hani is in the UK and can be with him within a couple of hours should he need.

>227 elkiedee: I am of course aware Luci that you were born and raised in my own neck of the woods and inner city Leeds would offer similar challenges! I am a mining-village boy which had its own unique sets of issues especially as I was in the minority with my father not being from the pits.
I of course remember growing up in the seventies with the hunt for the Yorkshire Ripper going nowhere and all of us just waiting for him to strike again.
I am now used to city life but an urban existence in Kuala Lumpur, whilst exhilarating at times, doesn't afford the need to avoid certain places at certain times.

>228 Caroline_McElwee: Streatham! Somewhere near Trotter's Independent Traders?!
That is a great story about your brush with a mugger and I can just picture you warding him off and he realising too late that the oncoming traffic could be more a danger to him than he was then to you!

>229 PaulCranswick: He is a personable chap, Kyran, and very good at making friends. He managed to pull himself together and finish his term-end assignment last night and was in good spirits when I spoke to him earlier.

>232 PaulCranswick: is that firm not on their own home turf? Peckham is only a few miles away, and is apparently becoming very gentrified now.

My partner, Mike, lived in Streatham for years and when I met him had quite recently moved probably less than a mile but into West Norwood. Both the houses he lived in in south London were obviously built as rather genteel suburban homes but the transport links weren't great and the local shopping areas etc were very run down,

>233 elkiedee: Oops you are right Luci - it was Peckham not Streatham. I am getting old and easily confused. As Del Boy himself would have said to me "What a plonker!"

Have yourself a merry little Friday, PC.

>236 PaulCranswick: I will certainly try to RD. You too eventually!

One of Streatham's more famous residents was Cynthia Paine.

>237 elkiedee: Now I am quite certain that Caroline never visited her house!

Here's the next readathon: https://www.librarything.com/topic/337564

>239 SilverWolf28: Thanks Silver.

So glad that Kyran is OK, what a scary experience. And it's sure hard when your kids are far away.

>241 banjo123: I wonder whether I will ever get fully accommodated with the kids not being so close, Rhonda?

Friday lunchtime additions:

336. The Pull of the Stars by Emma Donoghue
337. Somewhere Towards the End by Diana Athill
338. Intimations by Zadie Smith
339. The Blue Sky by Galsang Tschinag
340. Cinderella Goes to the Morgue by Nancy Spain

Donoghue and Smith's books have been very positively reviewed in the group.
Athill was recommended by a friend of mine from the UK
Tschinag's book is possibly the most famous modern novel from Mongolia is for the Asian Book Challenge and Mongolia is a place very, very close to my heart.
Nancy Spain's book looks intriguing and I stood in the store reading a wonderful introduction by the comedian Sandi Toksvig that sold me the book completely.

>243 PaulCranswick: I enjoyed The Pull of the Stars, but have not read any of the others in your recent haul. Congratulations on them, Paul! I hope you like them all.

>244 alcottacre: Thanks Stasia. It is prescient to the pandemic too as I understand.

>229 PaulCranswick: Very soon, Paul. My eldest has already gearing up for his National Service; as PRs, both my boys will have to do NS.

I'm glad Kyran found a friend.

>233 elkiedee: I remember spending a Christmas holiday in Clapham during the year I was in boarding school and it not being the nicest holiday - we had snow and the pond on Clapham Common froze over but not completely in the centre, unfortunately for a dog that got caught on there. Apparently the area is now gentrified and very desirable.

>247 humouress: I'll bet that is quite interesting actually, Nina. One year of service?

Kyran is in Herne Hill but travels through Brixton.

>237 elkiedee: My dad used to be her postman. We would tease him about where he was spending his luncheon vouchers .... hehehe. Kids eh.

>243 PaulCranswick: I read and enjoyed most of Athill's books.

>248 PaulCranswick: I lived not far from Herne Hill as a kid (pre-Streatham). My ballet and tap classes aged 5-7 where in a church hall there. Loved Brockwell Park.

Diana Athill! I'm saving that one for when I know or strongly suspect I'm in the Exit Only lane. Her 'tude is inspirational.

>249 Caroline_McElwee: That is a funny story, Caroline.
Kyran loves Herne Hill and where he stays generally. He seemed a lot chirpier yesterday but then again his replacement money arrived!

>250 richardderus: Interesting how we look at books like hers more frequently with the passing years, RD!

>243 PaulCranswick: Looking forward to hearing what you make of these books, as I've read one and and have 3 on my TBRs, real, virtual and yet to be part of an one.

336. The Pull of the Stars by Emma Donoghue
One of my favourite authors, especially her historical fiction, and this one set in 1918 Dublin didn't disappoint.

337. Somewhere Towards the End by Diana Athill
Most of her books including this and her other memoirs have been TBRs for years, in both paper and Kindle format. I've so far managed to actually read one of her books, a collection of short stories published by Persephone Books

338. Intimations by Zadie Smith
I think I have this in my Netgalley TBR (so should review as well!)

339. The Blue Sky by Galsang Tschinag
Need to look up this one.

340. Cinderella Goes to the Morgue by Nancy Spain
On my TBB&R (to be borrowed and read) - I've discovered this is #3 in a series. That title would get my attention if I wasn't already interested in reading books by and about Nancy Spain. Virago have reprinted at least the first 3 of 6 or 7 novels in the series, and when I realised that Poison for Teacher is #2 I filled out a stock suggestion form to the libraries. for both the others and got a reply within 2 days that the Reader Development Librarian has ordered both books and an extra copy of this one. I also have a memoir by her I found in one of my many cardboard boxes while looking for something entirely different, and another recent reissue about buying a house in Spain from a new book display at the library. And a biography of her spotted in and reserved from the library catalogue. So a little reading project of 6 books for next year.

>252 elkiedee: Luci, I was looking for The Blue Sky for a while and I have very close personal ties to Mongolia. Athill is someone I have wanted to read for a while since a good friend recommended her. I remember the enthusiasm for Donoghue and I do recall that she is a favourite of yours. I cannot remember which member of the group read Zadie Smith at the height of the lockdown last year and thought it marvellous. Finally, there are times when a book just catches your eye and I was drawn inexplicably to the Nancy Spain book.

>253 PaulCranswick: I'm very much drawn to interesting titles and think that many of Nancy Spain's titles are intriguing but Cinderella Goes to the Morgue. Also it's a VMC, and I love reprints with proper introductions, especially ones by writers talking about the appeal of other writers' work.

Years ago, a friend on my crime fiction discussion email mentioned that she was reading a book called Hollow Chocolate Bunnies of the Apocalypse. I had to investigate. A lot of Robert Rankin books have amusing and/or attention grabbing titles - I have others on my TBR but Hollow Chocolate Bunnies is still hte only one I've got round to. Eddie Bear is a PI and most of the characters are out of nursery rhymes, and it's a fun riff on the conventions and cliches of hardboiled crime fiction.

>254 elkiedee: Robert Rankin does have a few great titles to his name.

Just popping in to wish you and Kyran all the best and say thanks again for The Black Cloud!

>248 PaulCranswick: Closer to almost two years of service, Paul. Fingers crossed he enjoys it.

>256 SirThomas: Thanks Thomas and my pleasure!

>257 humouress: That is a bit of an overkill for a country whose biggest enemy is itself!

>254 elkiedee: I'm also a fan of interesting titles, Ludmilla Petrushevskaya has some fairly spectacular titles for her story collections.
Nancy Spain is someone I've never heard about before and now I want to read her books.

>243 PaulCranswick: I've had The Blue Sky on my 'to read' list for a few years now. Will have to hunt down a copy for next year.

Happy reading, Paul! I am an Emma Donoghue fan, but have been avoiding books about pandemics.

>259 avatiakh: Yes, Kerry, I remember buying a short story collection of hers which is so long that I can't remember all of it!

If you can find a copy I wouldn't mind a shared read of it with you.

>260 banjo123: I can fully understand why, Rhonda. The current Omicron spike is doing my head in currently as it looks likely to scupper my planned visit to the UK.

I had a bit of a panic this morning when I realised the spare ventolin inhaler I keep in the house was actually empty! I went to KLCC to buy a couple (we don't need prescriptions to buy inhalers in Malaysia thank heavens as they can literally be a lifesaver) and thought I would pass an hour in the bookstore.

Well one thing lead to another and.......

341. The Clay Marble by Minfong Ho
342. 2020 by Kenneth Steven
343. The Registrar's Manual for Detecting Forced Marriages by Sophie Hardach
344. The Secrets Between Us by Thrity Umrigar
345. The Island of Missing Trees by Elif Shafak

Ho is for the Asia Book Challenge (Burma) as are Umrigar and Shafak with the latter being a delightfully covered hardback (well it is nearly Christmas). 2020 is topical and the Hardach book was selected because of Luci filling my thoughts with eye-catching titles!

>264 bradvaldez6: Thank you but I am rather busy at the moment.

I'm reading The Island of Missing Trees at the moment. I was a bit worried by the description of this book featuring an unusual narrator, but I'm almost 3/4 of the way through and it really isn't a problem.

>266 elkiedee: You came into my mind this afternoon when I spotted Sophie Hardach's book - it was fate and it is now on my shelves!

The Shafak is likely to get the treatment in January.

The Pull of the Stars is excellent. It is about the Spanish flu but timely for today. The author goes into some graphic detail about childbirth during that time. Friends who are doctors and have read the book were astonished at one of the practices.

>267 PaulCranswick: Is that because of the intriguing title? I apparently have copies of The Registrar's Manual and of her second novel somewhere but not sure where, but Camden Libraries still has copies according to the library catalogue, and Registrar is on the shelves at the branch I now normally go to. I bought Confession with Blue Horses on Kindle earlier this year. She's now written a non fiction book called Languages are Good For Us, which I now need to add to my list Maybe Next Year.... this is a list to help me remember books I want to read, whether I own them and know where they are, have them or plan to borrow them from a library, or books that are apparently being published next year. Old, new, not yet published....

>268 torontoc: I don't remember which review stuck with me on this one but there was one really tremendous review in the group that decided me that I had to have that one but it sure took its time reaching our shores here in a format I like.

>269 elkiedee: The title exactly, Luci, and your comment as to how a distinct and interesting title can pull you in - covers normally do that for me.

BOOK #135



Sea Glass by Anita Shreve
Date of Publication : 2002
Origin of Author : USA
Pages : 354 pp

Challenges :
52 Book Club Challenge : 47/52

The late Anita Shreve didn't always get a very fair press. Sort of occupying that middle ground of not quite literature but certainly not pulp fiction either.

What she lacked in metaphorical wordsmithery she made up for in the innate ability to tell a good story well and this was all of that. Depression era New England and a mill town heading for a conflict between labour and bosses. A newly wed couple arrive to try to make a life on the outskirts and find themselves drawn in as they are drawn apart.

I enjoyed this and I had almost forgotten why I liked Ms Shreve despite many of my friends looking down their noses at her.

Hi Paul!

Skim-skim-skim.

I am 12 days and 294 messages behind on visiting you.

Happy new thread!

>40 PaulCranswick: Congrats on 7000+ posts this year.

>78 PaulCranswick: and etc. Sorry for the stressful situation.

>106 PaulCranswick: I agree with you 100%, although I also think that it is a woman’s choice regardless of the reason. Doesn’t have to be restricted to the results of an unwanted sexual encounter, the health of the woman, or the potential congenital illness of the fetus. Men think they own women’s bodies and they do not.

>113 PaulCranswick: And on to the wish list it goes! SF is not my go-to-genre, but I make occasional forays into it.

>185 PaulCranswick: I’m so sorry to hear about Kyran getting mugged. I hope that he is recovering from it. And for you, being too far away from a hurting child is one of the worst things for a parent to have to endure.

>229 PaulCranswick: I hope he does make a new friend of the man who helped him.

>262 PaulCranswick: I have added The Island of Missing Trees to my wish list simply because I loved Shafak’s 10 Minutes 38 Seconds in This Strange World.

>272 karenmarie: Karen, lovely to see you as always.

I agree almost entirely with you on the woman's right to choose but I do think it has to be exercised within a reasonable time period. I am not supportive of absolute last minute terminations but I am unqualified to say what that reasonable period is and I think ladies are able to decide that sensibly for themselves and it certainly is not the counting in minutes that Austin thinks appropriate.

Hi, Paul. I bin lurking here, there, and everywhere. I'm so sorry about your son's encounter with evil. I fear it'll be with him a long time. I hope not.

You introduce me to new-to-me writers and books each time I lurk about your place. And of course, you gobble them up at a fantastic pace. Good on all counts.

>272 karenmarie: I totally agree with Karen on this issue. And for anyone who has to make this decision, which I don't think can ever be easy - I would have found it hard for myself - the arguments about time limits tend to come from legislation which is actually aiming to take away choice. They often go along with restricting other reproductive choices, and taking away rights to advice and information, replacing adequate education on sex and relationships - including emotional issues, consent, bodies, rights etc - with abstinence education if any. When did just telling young people not to have sex outside marriage prevent unplanned pregnancy etc.

Although things have improved a lot in recent years, women's and men's books often get viewed very differently in the sense of judgement about what is Literature,, and I think some authors whose writing career started a couple of decades ago also get looked down on that way. There's also the question of who reviews books, or more importantly edits review publications (and perhaps the development of the internet and social media have done more to help the shift - women and others who became hidden or silenced in the past can talk to others and find out about books/TV and film/music and so on more easily. Book buyers aren't so limited by what's on offer in bookshops, and in return some of those bookshops have had to get better at offering a different range of books. For example, Waterstones always seemed to be rubbish at offering books published by Virago and other feminist publishers.

>274 weird_O: And it is a difficult one as a parent, Bill, isn't it? On the one hand I pray for him to be more streetwise but on the other I don't want him to lose his sweet nature. Is it too much to ask for quite a bit of both?

I will try to keep the books coming. :D

>275 elkiedee: I think we all three agree on this, Luci.
To be fair I think that, until fairly recently there were far more books published that were written by men than women and that has been corrected. I don't know what the stats are these days (sounds funny coming from me) but I do know my own purchasing has altered subliminally over the last number of years. I would guess without checking that I bought as many books written by women this year.
I adore the Virago books - they do a great job of both introducing new authors as well as keeping novelists in print who were largely and unfairly overlooked in their time.

>271 PaulCranswick: I enjoyed this too Paul, read some while ago. I hadn't realised she had died.

I'm with you, I have maybe read half her oeuvre, and she was a good storyteller IMO.

>277 Caroline_McElwee: She died as a result of cancer, Caroline, in 2018. I have read, I think, six of her novels and really enjoyed all of them.

>271 PaulCranswick: I read a few by Anita Shreve in my pre-LT days. I drifted away from her books to other writers.

>279 avatiakh: I am not trying to elevate her into a genre she doesn't quite fit into, Kerry, but in terms of enjoying a story she does, for me, deliver.

BOOK #136



Dock Leaves by Hugo Williams
Date of Publication : 1994
Origin of Author : UK
Pages : 50 pp

Hugo Williams is a most enjoyably accessible poet.

His collections are often thematic and this one looks backwards - back to his parental relationships with his glamorous actress/model mum and particularly his playwright father whose pecuniary afflictions impacted his growing up.

It is a collection of lost loves, remembered journeys and schoolday recollections. It is quintessentially English in its outlook and devoured by myself avidly.

I guess the poem "Joy" provides the title to the collection:

BOOK #137



The Light Fantastic by Terry Pratchett
Date of Publication : 1986
Origin of Author : UK
Pages : 277 pp

Challenges :
Queen Betty Challenge : 57/70

The second instalment in Pratchett's Discworld series again features the affably inept wizard Rincewind together with his motley crew of companions including his carnivorous luggage.

The plot, such as it is, throws our Hero back onto the disc and has him as its unlikely saviour, wandering around as he does with an important spell cast in the recesses of his subconscious. Makes no sense at all, but that matters not a jot.

Good fun and a nice way to spend late Sunday evening in Kuala Lumpur in December.

>282 PaulCranswick: You've finally read another Discworld novel! The early books aren't really the best, but you will be amply rewarded if you continue with the series.

You really should read The Space Between Us before you read The Secrets Between Us Paul.But maybe it's already in your stacks somewhere. At any rate, I loved them both.

>283 amanda4242: I thought it was enjoyable nonsense, Amanda.......and that is - believe it or not - praiseworthy!

>284 brenzi: The only other of her books I own is The Weight of Heaven. I hadn't realised it was a sequel until I saw the review pages just now and I did note your enthusiasm for it which bodes well for my own enjoyment.

>282 PaulCranswick: Heh, I never found Rincewind affable, but I kept reading the books he was in or associated with until I found characters I did enjoy reading about - many of them, Vimes and Moist von Lipwig being my favorite central characters.

>285 PaulCranswick: Pratchett wrote the most delightful nonsense!

>286 quondame: I'm a fan of Vimes and Moist, too.

>286 quondame: I have those characters to look forward to then, Susan. Someone named Moist makes the mind boggle!

>287 amanda4242: I can see how the reading of them would become addictive although with the distance I placed between the first and the second books maybe I can delay the infection rate somewhat!

>288 PaulCranswick: Well, um, Moist makes the mind boggle. Then there's Cheery Littlebottom, though not as a main character.

>262 PaulCranswick: Nice haul!

>271 PaulCranswick: Adding that one to the BlackHole. I am not sure that I have ever read anything by Anita Shreve.

>289 quondame: Hahaha sounds like Pratchett carried the Dickensian method of character naming to a whole new level!

>290 alcottacre: Not heavy reading but I enjoyed it, Stasia.

>291 PaulCranswick: He really did Paul! There are some fabulous names in there. They definitely get better from here on in.

Anyway, just de-lurking to wave Happy Monday!

>292 BekkaJo: Lovely to see my favourite Channel Islander out and about.

Time for my final thread of 2021

>294 PaulCranswick: Looks like it! I have opted not to do another one, but then, my current one does not have almost 300 posts on it.

>295 alcottacre: I did wonder whether you would, Stasia.

I have to say that one of the absolute highlights of my last few months in the group has been your full return to us - has given me (and I think so many others) a real lift. xx

>296 PaulCranswick: Well, thank you for saying so, Paul!

>297 alcottacre: Call it as I see it, Stasia. :D

>185 PaulCranswick: Yikes. Coming to your thread late as usual, so only just seeing this. I hope there are no farther ill effects, and aboslutely no repetitions.

>299 ArlieS: He was lucky, Arlie, and thereafter his friends seem to have closed ranks around him. He reaps as he sows to be fair as - though I am biased - a more gentle hearted and considerate young fellow you would be hard pressed to meet.