Charl08 reads words with pictures in 2022

I'm Charlotte, I'm based in north west England and I like to read. I started in the category challenge last year.

I've not had much of a chance to get to galleries or museums in the past year. I do love going to art galleries, and taking pictures and buying books when I'm there. I've enjoyed finding out more about women artists in recent years, so thought I'd focus on that for 2022.

NEW Artist of the month January will be Käthe Kollwitz

Käthe Kollwitz, Hans Kollwitz reading, profile view, looking right, c 1903/1904, pencil, NT 267 via
https://www.kollwitz.de

January 23

1 We Run the Tides (Cat: New to me)
2 The Fine Art of Invisible Detection (Cat: N/A)
3 Laura Knight: a panoramic view (Cat: My Books)
4 Esther's Notebooks: tales from my eleven year old life (Cat: GN)
5 Deep as Death (Crime fiction Cat: authors I've read before)
6. The Emigrants (Memoir/biography Cat: My books)
7. The O Zone (Romance Cat: previous authors)
8. Library of the Dead (Fantasy/dystopia Cat: Africa)
9. Okay Universe (GN)
10. Turtle in Paradise: the graphic novel (GN)
11. The Appeal crime fiction (New to me)
12. According to Queeney historical fiction (My books)
13. Forty-one False Starts: essays on artists and writers literary criticism (My books)
14. Small Things Like These literary fiction (Prize winners)
15. Brickmakers (Women in Translation /Book groups)
16. Real Estate Memoir(authors I've read before)
17. Who Will Run the Frog Hospital literary fiction (authors I've read before)
18. Pulp (GN)
19. The Inheritance of Solomon Farthing
Historical fiction (Authors I've read before)
20. The Mirror and the Palette (History & Politics)
21. The Serpent's Tale (Authors I've read before)
22. Stone Fruit (GN)
23.The Mad Women's Ball (in translation)

Library books read in January: 11

February 25 (Total 48)

1. All Grown Up (Authors I've read before)
2. Walk the Blue Fields (Authors I've read before)
3. Over Easy (GN)
4. The Magician (Authors I've read before)
5. To the Warm Horizon (In Translation / My books)
6. Matrix (Prize nominees)
7. Cruel Summer (GN)
8. Topics of Conversation (My books)
9. Teaching My Mother How to Give Birth (Africa)
10. Year of the Rabbit (GN)
11. Punishment of a Hunter (Women in Translation)
12. The Fade Out: act one (GN)
13. Devil in the Grove (History)
14. Index of Women (New to me authors/ poetry)
15. Twice Shy (New to me authors/ Romance)
16. Friday: Book One The First Day of Christmas (GN)
17. Marzahn Mon Amour (women in translation)
18. The Contradictions (GN)
19. One Night Only (New to me authors)
20. Redemption Ground (New to me authors)
21. The Sentence (Prizewinner)
22. Lady Violet Investigates (Authors I've read before)
23. Lady Violet Attends a Wedding (ditto)
24. Lady Violet Finds a Bridegroom (ditto)
25. Ancestor Stones (Africa/ reading my own books)

Library books read this month: 11

NEW Reading my own books (Art I've seen in person, (and have photos of... ) starting with Annie Swynnerton



Held in Liverpool's Walker Gallery.

Potential books from my shelves (A-B authors)
Bird Summons Leila Aboulela
Stay with Me Ayobami Adebayo
We Should All be Feminists CAA
Our Sister Killjoy
The Storyteller
The Yacoubian Building
Bosnian Chronicle
War of the Saints
According to Queenie
Eclipse

1. Laura Knight: a panoramic view (Acq Oct 21)
2. The Emigrants (Acq ?Dec 21)
3. According to Queenie (Not catalogued!)
4. Forty-one False Starts (Acq. April 2021)
5. To the Warm Horizon (Acq. July 21)
6. Topics of Conversation (Acq. April 21)
7. Ancestor Stones (Acq. 2013! )

NB books only count if bought before 1st Jan 2022.

NEW Bookclub books & group reads
(Still life "groups of things" by women artists)
Nina Hamnett


Via https://artuk.org/discover/artworks/still-life-153821#

Reading for Borderless Bookclub (now monthly)

January 20th
Charco Press present Brickmakers by Selva Almada, with translator Annie McDermott

February 17th
Fum d'Estampa present Wilder Winds, with author Bel Olid and translator Laura McGloughlin

March 17th
Peirene Press present Marzahn, Mon Amour by Katja Oskamp, with translator Jo Heinrich

Online meetings, more info:
https://borderlessbookclub.com/

Histories & politics (early artists starting with Catharina van Hemessen)



Caterina or Catharina van Hemessen (1528 – after 1565) was a Flemish Renaissance painter. She is the earliest female Flemish painter for whom there is verifiable extant work. She is mainly known for a series of small-scale female portraits completed between the late 1540s and early 1550s and a few religious compositions
Via wikipedia

1. The Mirror and the Palette (art history)
2. Devil in the Grove (civil right)

Graphic novels and memoirs (Well, this one is easy to come up with a link for. Starting with Kate Evans)

Red Rosa

1. Esther's Notebooks
2. Okay Universe
3. Turtle in Paradise: the Graphic Novel
4. Stone Fruit
5. Over Easy
6. Cruel Summer
7. Year of the Rabbit
8. The Fade Out: Act One
9. The Contradictions

Women in translation (International artists starting with Artemisia Gentileschi)
Artemisia Lomi Gentileschi (8 July 1593 – c. 1656) was an Italian Baroque painter. Gentileschi is considered among the most accomplished seventeenth-century artists, initially working in the style of Caravaggio. She was producing professional work by the age of fifteen. In an era when women had few opportunities to pursue artistic training or work as professional artists, Gentileschi was the first woman to become a member of the Accademia di Arte del Disegno in Florence.

Self-Portrait as the Allegory of Painting
(Via wikipedia)

1. Brickmakers (Argentina)
2. The Mad Women's Ball (France/US)
3. To the Warm Horizon (South Korea)
4. Punishment of a Hunter (Russia)

Prize nominees (women artists who have been nominated for and/or won prizes, starting with Tracey Emin)

Pysco Slut
See: https://www.sfmoma.org/artwork/99.490/

1. Small Things Like These (Author has won the inaugural William Trevor Prize, the Rooney Prize for Irish Literature, the Olive Cook Award and the Davy Byrnes Irish Writing Award 2009)
2. Matrix (Groff was a finalist for the 2018 National Book Award for Fiction)
3. The Sentence (Erdrich won the Pulitzer for her last book)

Books by authors with links to the African continent, loosely defined

1. Library of the Dead (Author is Zimbabwean)
2. Teaching My Mother How to Give Birth (Author is Somali, born in Kenya, lives in London)
From "I come apart at the seams" by Mary Sibande from South Africa.


More: https://onartandaesthetics.com/2020/01/11/mary-sibande-telling-a-different-story...

Familiar faces - authors I've read before
(Favourite artists starting with Elizabeth Blackadder)


Dark Pond, Alhambra, Granada, 1997
https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2021/aug/25/dame-elizabeth-blackadder-o...

1. Deep as Death
2. The O Zone
3. Real Estate
4. Who Will Run the Frog Hospital
5. The Inheritance of Solomon Farthing
6. The Serpent's Tale
7. All Grown Up
8. Walk the Blue Fields (short stories)
9. Lady Violet Investigates
10. Lady Violet attends a wedding
11. Lady Violet finds a Bridegroom

Keeping things interesting i.e. first time authors & new-to-me authors ('new' artists under 40)

Lauren Keeley (b.1986)

Garden, 2015
More here:
http://www.fruttagallery.com/artists/lauren-keeley/

1. We Run the Tides
2. The Appeal
3. Index of Women

Dropping my star, good to see you here again! And those are some fantastic paintings!

I love Kate Evans' work. Red Rosa was fantastic.

Dropping by to make sure I follow along for another year.
Looks like I'm going to learn something about art and well as books next year. I look forward to it.

Great selection of paintings! Your thread reminded me to put a library hold on the exhibition catalogue from the exhibit "Uninvited: Canadian Women Artists in the Modern Moment": https://mcmichael.com/event/uninvited/ This exhibit is showcasing women who were painting at the same time as the Group of Seven. So thanks for the reminder!

Dropping a star, Charlotte. I like what you've done with the place.

Beautiful artwork! Good luck with your reading in 2022.

Gorgeous art choices here. I look forward to following your reading again in the new year.

Enjoy your 2022 reads!

Happy reading 2022 :-)

Like your art choices. Hope you have a good reading year.

Happy new year, Charlotte. Love all the art work. Good luck with your challenge(s)!

>11 Jackie_K: Thanks Jackie. I'm a fan of Evans too, hopefully will get to read more of her work this year.

>12 Helenliz: Thanks for stopping by, Helen.

>13 rabbitprincess: Thanks for stopping by. Sounds like the kind of exhibition I'd like. As I was looking for pictures for this thread I found several that I have missed over the past few years (or that were cancelled).

>14 Crazymamie: Thanks for visiting!

>15 Tess_W: It's nice to share some favourites. I would love to own a Blackadder (even a print) for the wall, but there doesn't seem to be a lot of choice out there for the (minimal) budget.

>16 RidgewayGirl: Thank you! Hope your move goes well.

>17 thornton37814: Thank you! I've just got started.

>18 Ameise1: Lovely picture Barbara. The fireworks near us are usually quite restrained, but it seems like somebody decided to go large this year. Lots of noise (but sadly not much to see!)

>19 dudes22: I really enjoyed picking these ones, and look forward to the next thread.

>20 katiekrug: Thanks Katie. I will attempt to keep up with your crazy-paced thread this year (hope springs eternal).

January #1
Category 9 (New to Me Author)
We Run the Tides

"Has anyone ever approached you and Maria Fabiola in a way that you thought was.. ... inappropriate?" Detective Anderson says.

I think of the flashers in the park, of the man in line at Walgreens who saw me with a Kinks album under my arm. I was coming from a record store in the Haight and he offered to take me to coffee and talk about the Kinks. "I don't drink coffee yet," I told the man at Walgreens.

"I don't really know what you mean by that," I say to the detective.
"Have they ever made you feel uncomfortable?" "Everyone makes me feel uncomfortable," I say. "I feel uncomfortable right now."
The men in the room roll back on the wheels of their chairs, retreating.

Coming-of-age novel set in a wealthy San Francisco suburb in the 1980s. Eulabee is a bright thirteen year old with a close group of friends, until a difference of opinion means she's a bright kid with no friends at all. Lots of humour and smart remarks that probably edge towards too smart for RL (but made me laugh anyway). At the end of the novel the book jumps forward to the present, and Eulabee runs into one of her old friends in a fancy holiday resort. I could have done without that bit I think, but still a strong read.

The author is a journalist and has written several other books but is new to me.

Found and starred, Charlotte, happy reading in 2022!

Love the art theme, and remember the statue by Käthe Kollwitz in Berlin!

Love the artwork themes! And look at you...one and done already!

Happy New Year, Charlotte. I love the art but miss the penguins. I look forward to following your reading; you have interesting categories. I hope 2022 is a good one for you.

Gorgeous paintings Charlotte. Wishing you wonderful reading in 2022!

Great categories. I too love women in art, and your choices were spot on. Setting in to enjoy your thread.

Although I mostly lurked on your thread last year, I did take a number of book bullets and I look forward to following along again!

Happy 2022 reading Charlotte, some interesting plans here already.

>25 FAMeulstee: Thanks Anita, hope to get back to Berlin one day and see more of the city.

>26 Berly: Thanks Kim. Happy new year!

>27 BLBera: Thanks Beth. I treated myself to some penguin themed stationery over Xmas, and am expecting some bookends to arrive at some point.

>28 mdoris: Thank you!

>29 Nickelini: It's great to see the range of books being published about artists now: although means more for the TBR, of course.

>30 DeltaQueen50: All welcome, I have been doing a lot of lurking myself over the past few months. Hope to be more active on others threads in 2022.

>31 Caroline_McElwee: Thanks Caroline. I had fun looking for the artwork. I would like more on my walls but have all but run out of space. Notwithstanding that, I want a Blackadder print, but so far the ones I've found available seem to be quite limited (or completely out of my price range).

Happy new year, Charlotte

Some great pictures in here, and I'm looking forward to follow your reading!

Found and starred! Happy new year and happy reading, Charlotte

The pictures are great. Keep them coming!

>33 PaulCranswick: Thanks Paul.

>34 MissWatson: I'm enjoying the excuse to look through new-to-me art websites.

>35 jessibud2: Thanks - I need to do some more visiting. Have spent today waiting in for deliveries and returning things to shops. Not much reading!

>36 hailelib: Thanks, hopefully will replace a tiny bit of my sense of discovery in a new exhibition / gallery whilst travel is more difficult.

The Fine Art of Invisible Detection
Goddard mystery/ thriller featuring a Japanese private detective's assistant who is thrown in at the deep end when a case goes spectacularly wrong. Suited my mood perfectly.

Laura Knight: a panoramic view
Lovely catalogue for exhibition of Knight's work currently taking place in Milton Keynes. Lots of images of the paintings (as you would expect) but also essays about her work and short reflections from other artists and writers (eg linked to her Romany/ traveller paintings). Still hoping to get to this exhibit, but the news about trains is not Looking Good.

Esther's notebooks: tales from my eleven-year-old life
The book version of Riad Sattouf's comic strip based on his conversations with an eleven year old Parisian. Esther deals with everything from mean kids to understanding terrorist attacks in Paris (these strips have taken a while to make it into English). Sattouf preserves Esther's misunderstandings, including her take on politics and sex ed classes. I wondered what she would make of them as an adult, unusual to have such a clear eyed view as-it-happened of the minutiae of childhood.

This lovely card arrived yesterday, but the sender didn't put their LT name in the card so I can't say thank you directly!

Wonderful theme, Charlotte. Women artists are often overlooked. You already got me with a BB with your first read.

Thanks Meg. I really enjoy seeing how creative everyone is with their thread themes.

In a bid to avoid going a bit stir crazy in my neck of the woods, headed "down south" for a couple of days.
Acquired a couple of books from a bargainacious charity shop:


Finished the second in crime series about Finnish detective: Deep as Death. Although now out of the police, her footsteps are dogged by their (1950s) sexist attitudes. Fiinland appears a fascinating place in this account.

Nice stack of books, Charlotte!

The Emigrants
I've been meaning to read this one for ages. Sebald writes about four migrants who are connected to him. A teacher who returned to Germany after the war despite being banned from teaching by the Nazis, an uncle who travelled the world with a wealthy employer (possibly lover?), and an artist he met in Manchester in the 60s when he (Sebald) first moved to England. A melancholy book, with the holocaust looming. Sebald attempts to recreate some of the journeys his subjects took, and also remembers his own choices to leave home and start again. Some of his memories of Manchester are in themselves historical artifacts now:

Moreover, the Midland was renowned for its palm courtyard and, as various sources tell, for its hothouse atmosphere, which brought out both the guests and the staff in a swear and generally conveyed the impression that here, in the heart of this northern city with its perpetual cold weather gusts, one was in fact on some tropical isle of the blessed, reserved for mill owners, where even the clouds in the sky were made of cotton, as it were. Today the Midland is on the brink of ruin. In the glass-roofed lobby, the reception rooms, the stairwells, the lifts and the corridors one rarely encounters either a hotel guest or one of the chambermaids or waiters who prowl about like sleepwalkers. The legendary steam heating, if it works at all, is erratic; fur flakes from out of the taps; the window panes are coated in thick grime marbled by rain; whole tracts of the building are closed off; and it is presumably only a matter of time before the Midland closes...

This made me laugh: we held an event at the hotel before COVID, it is still there, and the event rooms at least were (again?) rather fancy.
Glad I read this one. Some lovely writing.

>44 katiekrug: Thanks Katie. I thought I was quite restrained, overall (!)

>43 charl08: Great haul Charlotte. Was that your theatre trip, if so, how was the play?

That's a nice stash of books. Some most intriguing titles in there.

>47 Caroline_McElwee: The performance was cancelled, Caroline, and there weren't any other tickets to be had. Further evidence (as if any were needed) that Covid sucks. Went to see the friend I would have gone to the play with instead, but unless the play transfers I won't get to see it. I did go to see the Laura Knight (MK Gallery) and the Tate's Caribbean retrospective, both of which I thought were worth the trip.

>48 Helenliz: They cost me the princely sum of £6. I was most pleased.

>50 charl08: so you should be at that! Bargains!!

>43 charl08: Nice haul, Charlotte! Sorry about the play, but it's happy making that you got to go to two galleries that you felt worthy of your time. So not a complete loss, but you are right that Covid sucks.

>43 charl08: Great stack of books! I am hoping to get to Black Sheep later this month. I picked up a Kindle copy of Deep as Death, it sounds like the series remains interesting.

>51 Helenliz: If anyone is in the Wolvercote area I can highly recommend a half hour in the Age Concern bookshop.

>52 Crazymamie: It was really lovely to get away from home. I do love to see new things now and again.

>53 DeltaQueen50: Thanks for the nudge Judy. I've tried to avoid spoilers...

>43 charl08: Nice haul, Charlotte. Deep as Death sounds interesting.

>43 charl08: Nice haul. I'm real jealous of the Georgette Heyer!

>55 BLBera: Difficult to review without spoilers, Beth.

>56 Tess_W: I was sad not to buy the whole row: I think they had most of the Regency ones. Someone must have got rid of their collection, I think.

The Library of the Dead
This was a fun one: a dystopian, magic version of Edinburgh where a bid for Scottish independence has gone horribly wrong. Ropa's just trying to make a living, interpreting messages from the dead, when she is asked to investigate the mysterious disappearances of children. I especially loved the reimagining of Edinburgh, including the damaged parliament building that bears the scars of the conflict, the Fleshmarket (which does what it says on the tin) and the flooded Princes St Gardens. Creatively done, and if this doesn't become a TV series I think someone is missing a trick.

Left my bike at the Library and am out with Priya, making our way across North Bridge. It's nearly midnight. The city lights flicker from the inconsistent power supply. And the waters of the new loch extend out into the distance, swallowing up what were once buildings and roads. The full moon above the castle is reflected as white ripples on the water's still surface.

>58 charl08: - That sounds good - who is the author? The touchstone goes to a different book.

>59 katiekrug: Thanks Katie. I think I've fixed it now.
Recommended by Dr Neutron, I should also add...

Good that you were able to do something interesting with your trip when the theatre performance was cancelled, Charlotte. Nice book haul especially the Heyers.

>61 Familyhistorian: Yes, lucky other things not closed, mostly.
Some gallery highlights
From Laura Knight:
https://mkgallery.org/event/laura-knight/

An early painting

This enormous painting also showed another daughter, but such a lovely informal thing for the early 20th C.



From Tate Britain's Life Between Islands exhibit.


Book covers


Pointing out the importance of forgotten history...

Happy new year, Charlotte! I'm glad you commented on my thread, I hadn't realized I missed your 2022 thread until I went looking for it. The art from the Tate gallery is lovely. I'm glad it was worth the trip even without getting to see the play. Your book haul looks nice as well - I've only heard of Georgette Heyer, but the other titles look intriguing as well.

Hello, Charlotte! Happy Tuesday.

>58 charl08: This sounds good - onto The List it goes!

>62 charl08: Lovely!

>64 Crazymamie: Oops! Looks like Jim already got me with that title last year. I'm putting you down as a confirmation.

>63 bell7: Thanks for returning the visit, Mary. I need to do better at that.

>64 Crazymamie: >65 Crazymamie: Yes, that's where I got the recommendation from too! I was surprised to find that I had read the author before, but in a quite different genre, so I didn't make the connection.

Currently reading update

Trying to read ones that have been on my shelf for a long time: Ancestor Stones by Aminatta Forna and According to Queeney by Beryl Bainbridge

Enjoying this one as a reread. The Toll-gate Georgette Heyer

Almost finished this one. More artists than writers than I would have preferred I think. I had somehow missed she died this year until the "end of the year" obits round up, sad news.
Forty-one false starts : essays on artists and writers by Janet Malcolm


A bit of a chunkster from the library : The book of form and emptiness by Ruth Ozeki

Trying to read a sonnet a day: Reading Shakespeare's Sonnets: A New Commentary by Don Paterson

>58 charl08: This sounds really interesting and I'll add it to my wishlist.

>68 MissBrangwen: Hope you like it: I'm hoping there's another one on the way...

Okay Universe
Short GN looking at a (fictionalised) woman running for a political office in Canada. Co-written by former mayor of Montreal. I loved it.

>70 charl08: - Just an little fyi: Valerie Plante is still mayor of Montreal. She recently won a second term.

>71 jessibud2: Wow! How did she find the time to write a book too? Impressive. Thanks for the info.

>72 charl08: - When I was visiting my mum last month, the day before I came home, Plante announced that she had tested positive for covid but I am assuming it was omicron (aren't they all, these days?), and I guess she has recovered. She is energetic, that's for sure. She is also a mum to 2 boys (both teens, I think)

Just curious, how did you find the book? Is it online or paper copy? I had not heard of it!

>73 jessibud2: I think via a search for offers on second hand GNs on biblio.com - they are so expensive new. But not 100% sure!

Six books have come in for me on the reservation shelf at the library...
The roles we play
River of ink
Turtle in paradise
Pulp
The inheritance of Solomon Farthing
The Appeal

Do you have the free spaces or books to return for that? I'm struggling a bit with one reservation to collect. I did cancel a book and rejoin the back of the queue (#15) - but it's one that they've bought quite a lot of copies of it. This is the new Elizabeth Strout and I think that I might cancel my reservation again, as I might get more out of it by rereading the 2 previous related books (re Lucy Barton).

>76 elkiedee: Nope, but a couple of the books I reserved and took out before Xmas, I decided I don't (now) want to read, so I can return them without pain.

10. Turtle in Paradise: the graphic novel(GN)
Cute graphic novel versiom of the Carnegie winning book. Set in the 1930s, Turtle is sent to live with her aunt in the Florida Keys. She has to get used to family she's never met before, and a community who have no money but know everybody's business. Adventure calls!

11. The Appeal (New to me authors)
Clever crime fiction told through (apparently) found evidence in a murder case. Gradually the reader gets a picture of an amateur dramatic society with a motley cast of characters. One family's fundraising campaign for a sick child's experimental treatment stirs things up: but who's guilty of murder? (I had no idea, but then I rarely do!) I liked how the author uses a combination of emails and texts from the various characters to build the picture of what happened.

Wow, Charlotte. I love the art, the GNs, and The Library of the Dead sounds great.

12. According to Queeney (My books)
I was expecting to love this one, but it didn't hit me particularly well. Bainbridge focuses on Samuel Johnson's later life, in particular his relationship with a wealthy woman and her daughter. There's a lot here about illness and nostalgia, but I found it a bit overdone. Each chapter was followed by a letter from the now-adult Queeney, in response to an over-enthusiastic Johnson fan requesting detail about her childhood memories. Queeney's memories (and what she is willing to share) differ markedly.

13. Forty-one False Starts: essays on artists and writers (My books)
More from Janet Malcolm. I found the essays on writers a lot more engaging than those on modern art (the one on the disagreements around the (then) new editor of ArtForum, in particular, pretty much lost me a couple of pages in, and it was Long). Worth reading (for me) for the discussion of Woolf and Bloomsbury, I thought.

>79 BLBera: Thanks Beth. I'm enjoying more art with The Mirror and the Palette about women artists' self-portraits.

Small Things Like These
A lovely (short) book about ignoring things right in front of you. Set in 1980s Ireland, in a town with a nunnery on the hill. That runs a very efficient laundry.

...he met a loose puckaun trailing a short rope, and came across an old man in a waistcoat with a bill-hook, out slashing a crowd of dead thistles on the roadside.

Furlong pulled up and bade the man good evening.
'Would you mind telling me where this road will take me?'
"This road?' The man put down the hook, leant on the handle, and stared in at him. "This road will take you wherever you want to go, son."

>81 charl08: I'm waiting for this one, Charlotte. Can't wait. Good job reading from your shelves.

>82 BLBera: I'm going to add it to the list of books I would like my own copy of (when I / if I get more shelf space!)

The bottom one on that stack of books intrigues me. It looks like it would be a great title for one of the year-end memes!

>84 thornton37814: I think she's a bit like Margaret Forster with the intriguing titles.

>84 thornton37814: I'm guessing you're talking about Who Will Run the Frog Hospital? - Lorrie Moore's collected stories includes some very intriguing titles too. I'm definitely someone who is drawn to book titles - Netgalley now has options to say you'd like to read a book because of title or cover as well as description.

I should add Frog Hospital and several other Lorrie Moore books to my growing LT list - Maybe This Year....
https://www.librarything.com/list/43268/all/Maybe-This-Year-Books-to-Look-Forwar...

New LT list - contributions welcome!

https://www.librarything.com/list/43424/all/Books-With-Interesting-Titles

I'm catching up on a few threads quickly. Happy New Year and happy new thread Charlotte!

>86 elkiedee: >87 elkiedee: Well, you're certainly running with this one! Hope that you find some interesting ones. I added Have the men had enough which always makes me laugh.

>88 humouress: Hi Nina. Hope no snakes have appeared since I last visited your thread.

I missed the book group last night (poor on my part: never mind Blue Monday, it feels more like Blue January!) I finished Brickmakers yesterday, an Argentinian novel by an author we have read before in the group. This one was centred on a the long lead up to a fatal knife fight, lots of toxic masculinity, poverty and graphic sex and violence.
All in less than 200 pages.

Your card arrived Tuesday, Charlotte, thank you. It wasn't me who sended >40 charl08:, must admit we forgot you this time. Will make up at the end of the year ;-)

>90 charl08: Hoping things are about to improve for you. Brickmakers doesn't sound like comfort reading but was it any good? Is this actually the touchstone book Ladrilleros in translation, or otherwise who is the author?

>91 FAMeulstee: That was quick!
The card in >40 charl08: has a name, just not the LT name, so I am (fairly) confident it's not someone from the "Talk" boards....

>92 elkiedee: Yes, that's the original language title. It's not something I'd have read by choice, put it that way! I think the author was making a political/social point about (some) Argentinian families, but it made for quite a grim read.

>90 charl08: Hope the week is going better, and it is Friday. :)

I'll pass on this one and save it for a time I feel really cheerful.

>70 charl08: >73 jessibud2: You got me with a BB for Okay, Universe, Charlotte. There is a copy at my library so I put a hold on it.

If the Vancouver Public Library has it, Shelley, I would think that a library in Toronto would too.

>95 Familyhistorian: - You are probably right, Meg, but I am trying hard to stick to my promise to myself about reading my own books before going to the library, at least for now. That might sound like I am boycotting the library which I am most certainly not, but I just really want to try (try being the operative word) to read and reduce the number of books already in the house!

Can't sleep.

>94 BLBera: Yup, not one for when you're feeling less optimistic about the world...

>95 Familyhistorian: Sounds good to me.

>96 jessibud2: Although I also empathise with the sentiment here.

Finished Real Estate, Deborah Levy's latest memoir volume. This one I found much more compelling than the previous one. She writes about being the mother of girls about to leave home, about approaching sixty and looking back on her life and wondering what her younger self might have made of it. Full of quotes from other authors about writing, and a story about a pair of green shoes that made me laugh out loud.

All writing is about seeing new things and investigating them. Sometimes it's about seeing new things in old things.

Another woman wanted to know, in her own words, 'how closely the book reflected my own life'. I told her the weight of living has been heavier in my life than it is in my books.

>97 charl08: I hope you did get some sleep by now, Charlotte.

Charlotte, sorry about the not sleeping. I deal with that all the time, and it is not fun.

I loved the first two books in that Deborah Levy memoir series and am wanting to read Real Estate. Things I don't Want to Know was my favorite of the first two. Great quotes - that second one especially speaks to me.

I've had my eye on the Levy memoir, Charlotte. Good to know. I have the first one on my shelf.

Deborah Levy was the guest on Desert Island Discs last week. Unfortunately I fell asleep for a lot of both the Sunday morning and Friday morning broadcasts. Maybe I'll try to listen on Sounds later tonight, but there are competing demands on both the devices I might most easily use to do this.

>101 elkiedee: Desert Island Discs is available on podcast, so you can listen to it when you have time

>98 FAMeulstee: Thanks Anita. Glad it was the weekend, it made it a bit less stressful as I knew I could sleep in.

>99 Crazymamie: Thanks Mamie. I don't know how anyone manages on a regular basis, I get a couple of bad nights and really struggle to function.

>100 BLBera: I think I will buy a copy when it makes it to paperback. There were lots of quotes I'd like to look up.

>101 elkiedee: >102 Nickelini: I got a message from the publisher via Netgalley telling me about desert island discs. I guess they were keen to make the most of it?

Who Will Run the Frog Hospital
A short novel from Lorrie Moore: the narrator is in France with her husband, in relationship that may or may not be failing. She recounts her memories of growing up in a small American town, working a theme park in the school holidays. Engrossing, and not really about what happens, but how it is told.

Sometimes with Daniel I argue about the sixties. He is nine years older than I am, and knows that time better than I, or differently.
'There's a real age difference between us,' he says.
'Age-schmage,' I reply.
'Unfortunately, there's also a real schmage difference. We made the sixties,' he says, speaking in a generational 'we' that excludes me. 'We made the counterculture. You were twelve years old.'
'But we inherited it,' I say, 'and as children we made ourselves around it, with it. We hung our own incipience on politics. The counterculture got on the ground floor with us, as children; it was the wood we were built with. We used to watch you guys, the eighteen- and nineteen-year-olds, on LSD at the public beach, or playing Duck, Duck, Goose in Horsehearts Park with your beads and long-flowing Indian smocks. But then we got to be that age, and we went to the park, or to the lake, and there wasn't a Duck or a Goose or a hit of acid anywhere. There was only Ford pardoning Nixon.'
'Christ,' snorts Daniel.
'But once upon a time it had been all we knew,' I say. 'Rebellion, revolution, and the songs that went with them. We ice skated to "Eve of Destruction." "The western world, it is exploding," and we'd do these little spins and turns.'
Or something like that. I say something like that.
'But still it was ours,' he says. 'It came from inside of us, not you.'
'Yes, you made it, but as a result it was a thing outside of you. You could walk away from it. And you did. We couldn't, you see. It was in us. And when it was no longer out there in the world itself, it left us stranded, confused, betrayed, masturbating and doomed little outlaws.'

Hope your find your sleep rhythm soon. I also suffer from sleeplessness. It seems to come and go and I've tried to peg the "why", but to no avail. Sweet dreams!

>105 Tess_W: Thanks - it's a weird thing, isn't it.

Pulp (GN)
I really liked this one: a cowboy comic strip writer in the 1930s reflects on his background in the West in the 1880s.

>106 charl08: Adding this one to The List Charlotte. I have loved everything by him that I have read.

>107 Crazymamie: He's new to me, Mamie. Any recommendations gratefully received!

19. The Inheritance of Solomon Farthing Historical fiction (Authors I've read before)
I picked this up after enjoying her newest novel. This one is also set in Edinburgh, with lots of digs about "Edinburgh Men" and "Edinburgh ladies". Solomon Farthing is a character who has always had his eye on the main chance but at the start of the book is in a police cell. What follows is a kind of chase as he attempts to piece together the family history that might explain a surprise cache of money. Told alongside this is the story of his grandfather's war, a captain in the trenches of WW1. I sometimes get annoyed by the "modern" storylines in this kind of book, but Solomon was fun company.

'Bought them in Edinburgh.' The man reappeared at Solomon's side, holding out a mug in which slopped some brown-looking liquid. 'Do you know it?'
'I have some familiarity.' Solomon did not want to admit to being a resident of the Athens of the North until he had ascertained this Border man's inclinations.
'I do.' The man edged towards the safety of an armchair, plopped into its cocoon of cushions. 'Den of Satan.'
'Ah.'
'Only joking.' He wheezed in a way that made Solomon realize he must be laughing. "That's Glasgow, of course.'

I thought the choice in the two versions of the sub heading here is an interesting one.

>110 charl08:. Indeed. Took me a second to catch on, but yes, why?

>110 charl08:: I'm nor sure it's a sub heading because it's not used as one of those annoying fake sub titles. Interesting change. But as I have the book on Kindle I've just saved the UK hardback edition picture from Amazon and uploaded it to Member covers - the (women's) suit hanging in a hallway is more intriguing than the reel of cotton and needle, though I'm not clear how either picture relates to the story. (And I have so many books competing and saying "Read me! No read me!" that I don't know when I'm going to get to any specific one).

The left hand one strikes me as more menacing, somehow. But somewhat at odds with quite domestic needle & thread image.

>108 charl08: I loved The Fade Out and Velvet.

>113 Helenliz: What Helen said. Good eye, Charlotte - I'm not sure I would have caught that.

>111 MissWatson: "every body" makes a particular sense in the context of the story, I think. No idea why the two though!

>112 elkiedee: I can't see a woman's suit version of the cover - there's an army great coat one. Both the thread and the coat are significant in the story.

>113 Helenliz: I like the punny-ness of it (given that it's- kind of - a murder mystery). The WW1 soldiers were all supplied with a small sewing kit, apparently, but a reel of pink thread comes up a couple of times.

>114 Crazymamie: Thanks, I'll have a look at the library catalogue. Although I should probably read some of the (mumble mumble #) books I've already got out first?

>110 charl08: that is interesting Rhian.

Hi Caroline!

I bought some more books. Some of these are Katie's Fault, as she posted a list of Roxanne Gay's favourites.
https://audacity.substack.com/p/my-2021-in-reading

>118 charl08:: Hey, you can't leave us wondering which books you bought, whether or not it's someone else's fault (Excuses.....) We need more information so that we can, in turn, say It's Charlotte's Fault.

>119 elkiedee: What she said.

>119 elkiedee: >120 Crazymamie: I ran out of time to post the list! I was coming back, honestly :-)

Index of Women This is Katie's / Roxanne's fault. "Outstanding, Sometimes Challenging Poetry"

Teaching my mother how to give birth This isn't on Roxanne's list, but the new one she mentioned by the same author isn't out here for two months... Bless the Daughter Raised by a Voice in Her Head is described as "Beautiful Poems About What It Means To Search For Home in the World and in the Body"

Joan is Okay This isn't out here yet either, but I've pre-ordered it. ("A Sort-of Pandemic Novel I Loved")

Then The Fade Out (my library didn't have a copy - recommended by Mamie/'s fault

I read a couple of things about Elizabeth Hardwick recently - Janet Malcolm had an essay that mentioned her in the collection I just read, and another piece in the TLS). So I ordered second hand copies of:
Seduction and Betrayal
Sleepless Nights
The Ghostly Lover

and then someone on Litsy posted a beautiful poem by Denise Levertov, and I've not come across her before, so I ordered Denise Levertov - New Selected Poems.

>118 charl08: - You're welcome!

>122 katiekrug: I'm looking forward to the book mail. Although not to trying to work out where to put them.

New book from Eiderdown Press' Modern Women Artist series.

>118 charl08: I have two (read one of them Intimacies), but am trying to pretend I haven't seen the list....

>125 Caroline_McElwee: Good luck with that Caroline!

The Mirror and the Palette (History/ Politics)
I read this slowly and really enjoyed learning about different women artists, most of which I'd not heard of. I am not sure how much of this is due to my nonexistent art history knowledge generally. However, Higgie describes how women were often left out of art histories, had their attribution given to others, or worse, paintings disappeared altogether. There are tantalising references to early artists mentioned amongst those whose work does survive, who have no work extant at all.

Self portrait by Suzanne Valadon
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suzanne_Valadon

Higgie's central thesis is the significance of the self portrait for artists who were often denied access to life drawing classes on the basis of their gender. But it's not a particularly academic book, so I found it an accessible read, and there are beautiful plates of a selection of the art discussed.


Angelica Kauffman, self-portrait, 1771
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angelica_Kauffman
Some of the discussions made me want to travel: the discussion of Nora Heysen's work, some kept in Australian government collections (hopefully this will tour at some point?), a collection of art in Italy (Firenze) where early women artists are unusually well represented, and Helene Schjerfbeck (I missed an RA exhibition of her work in 2019, I find. Maybe an excuse to visit Helsinki!). Generally have lots of ideas for more museum and gallery visits in the future. One I'll keep on the shelf.

The Serpent's Tale
Henry II wants Adelia's help after his mistress is poisoned. The follow on to Mistress of the Art of Death which includes a lot of snow and the reappearance of familiar characters from the first book.

"Anyway, Sister Lancelyne, she's Godstow's librarian, once wrote to Eynsham asking if she might borrow the abbot's copy of Boethius's Consolation in order to copy it, and he'd written back, refusing..."
She saw again the learned little old nun among her empty shelves. "If ever we get out of here, I'd like Sister Lancelyne to have it."
"A whole Philosophy? Eynsham has a Boethius?" The Plantagenet eyes gleamed; he was greedy for books and totally untrustworthy when it came to other people's.
"I should like," Adelia said clearly, "Sister Lancelyne to have it."
"Oh, very well. She'd better look after it....

Illustration from 1230 Boethius MS
Via wikipedia

File:Philosophia-ladder-of-liberal-arts-leipzig-univ-bibl-lat-1253-f3r-c1230.jpg

Read Stone Fruit last night, a GN centred on a relationship going through difficulties due to depression. (At least, that's my reading of it). That makes it sound very dour - it's not, as a key part of their shared time together is looking after a small kid, which is really joyful. I loved the way the artist depicted their time with a young niece: the three of them are playing in the woods and their faces transform into 'monsters' whilst they're making things up. It's a lovely idea.

This review was stuck to the back pages of my (library) copy.

>128 charl08: - I love when a previous reader does that!

>129 jessibud2: I don't think I've ever seen that, myself :0/

>128 charl08: How fun!

Charlotte, thanks so much for stopping by my thread with that link to the Orwell podcast - it was a lovely listen. I want to listen to the rest of them, but I need to read the books first, so now you have given me a fun project as well.

Hoping Monday is behaving itself for you.

>129 jessibud2: >130 humouress: >131 Crazymamie: I wondered if they'd left it by mistake?

>131 Crazymamie: Glad you liked it. I have been listening to 'Marlon and Jake read dead people' and enjoying it. Although it made me snort in public, which is not a great look.

Just finished The Mad Women's Ball. Underwhelmed.

>130 humouress:, >132 charl08: - I will admit, I once left a little note/review in the back of a library book (on a sticky note). I wish I could remember what book it was so I could tell you but I can't. But it was one I liked so much I wanted others to know about that! I also once borrowed a library book that had a similar note in the back.

>133 jessibud2: I had a box of penguin cover postcards and went through a phase of trying to match one to the library book. I stopped after one of the librarians returned two to me, thinking I'd forgotten them.

The Mad Women's Ball

Nonetheless, she knew the powerful effect that books could have on people. She had witnessed it, not only in herself and in her sister, but also among the patients, some of whom talked about novels with surprising passion. She had seen madwomen weep as they recited poems, seen others talk of literary heroines with joyful familiarity, and still others read aloud a passage with a tremor in their voice. Therein lay the difference between fact and fiction: in the former, there was no possible emotional investment. One was simply presented with information. Fiction, on the other hand, aroused the passions, provoked outbursts, overwhelmed the mind; it did not appeal to reason or reflection, but drew its readers women, for the most part towards the catastrophe of sentiment. Not only did Geneviève see no intellectual benefit in fiction, she also mis trusted it. As a result, the patients were not permitted novels: there was no need to exacerbate their volatile moods any further.

I had heard good things about this one, set in a (real) hospital for "mad" women in Paris at the turn of the century. Mas shows us the imbalance of power between (female) patients and (male) doctors and students, and the fear from those outside the hospital too. At the centre of the book is the titular dance where patients and (wealthy) members of the public can meet, once a year. It's not terrible, by any means, but if you've read anything about this kind of institution before, most of the book will feel familiar.

>134 charl08: Very interesting. On my WL it goes!

>135 Tess_W: Hope it works better for you!

All Grown Up
I really enjoyed this one, I think Attenberg is brilliant: but about a third in I thought this all seems very familiar. There's no record of me reading it (pre LT?) before but I'm almost certain... also interesting comparing this to the story arc of Patricia Lockwood's recent book.

Other people you know seem to change quite easily. They have no problem at all with succeeding at their careers and buying apartments and moving to other cities and falling in love and getting married and hyphenating their names and adopting rescue cats and, finally, having children, and then documenting all of this meticulously on the internet. Really, it appears to be effortless on their part.

>137 charl08: I think this was only published in 2017 - how long have you been using LT? I bought it on Kindle in 2018 and added it to my LT "library" in 2020 but didn't add other details, which is a bit confusing (it is possible that I had a paper copy from another source). I know that at least one of her other books has been serialised on the radio. I haven't yet read it.

There are books that I've recorded reading on LT but don't remember - and I kept records of pre LT reading for a few years on computers that died - and of acquisitions on an Excel spreadsheet, also sadly lost in one of those computer crashes. In August 2017 LibraryThing had a systems failure and the recovered data wasn't quite complete - I still have hundreds of "recovered books" records dating back to then. My memory is that this did affect details of books I'd read (collections, acquisition and reading dates) but that I was able to check the details on Goodreads and add back that information for the books I'd read - my uncorrected "Recovered books" are unread or read before I used cataloguing websites or even the internet.

>137 charl08: - I'm a huge Attenberg fan and loved that one. I'm excited to read her new one (a memoir) this month.

>138 elkiedee: I've been on LT a long time, but I only started recording what I read (as opposed to what I owned) very late in the day. I've gradually become better at using a year numbered collection to check the numbers match for my yearly collection) over the past couple of years, but I wouldn't want to vouch for 2017!

>139 katiekrug: I loved the funeral scene (which sounds odd, but there you go), with the different ex partners and her mum's brilliant eulogy. I didn't realise (or had forgotten if you'd already mentioned it: sorry!) she had a new one coming out, will look for your review.

>140 charl08: Even real funerals can be interesting - my mum's funeral would have been well worth gatecrashing (and yes, we did have at least one gatecrasher, and I think it's a bit of a hobby for him - she had last seen him a few years before at someone else's funeral!). My mum was married 3 times and both ex husbands were present - another ex who remained a very beloved family friend to us all sadly couldn't get a visa to come from Cairo within a short timescale - and that is something I'm still very sad about, as Sami is now dead too. My mum tried to plan as much as she could in advance, at the end of a long terminal illness, delegating all the things she clearly wasn't going to be able to do herself. The job of booking catering was delegated to her second ex-husband's wife (who he left my mum for)

A family friend who was an inveterate namedropper died at a celebrity's 75th birthday dinner - not great for a party - and at M's funeral I couldn't stop thinking how much M would have loved to be there, as his famous friend was a main speaker. His friend's daughter is a vicar and she acted as a celebrant as M was a secular Jew who wouldn't have wanted a religious ceremony, C of E, Jewish or whatever. He had 3 families who had been important to him in his life for more than 50 years arguing over which family he was really an honorary member of (mine, my cousins' father's family, and his friend and the vicar/celebrant daughter).

>141 elkiedee: This reminds me of the funeral of my mum's aunt. She'd planned the event in great detail, but it all went sideways (the vicar she wanted wasn't available, the music wasn't something known to the organist...) At one point the stand-in vicar described her as something like 'knowing her own mind' or 'not suffering fools' and there were audible snorts in the audience at the understatement.

Walk the Blue Fields

Collection of short stories by Claire Keegan, mostly set in rural Ireland. Farmer's wives sink into depression, elderly men get a second wind with the next-door neighbour, and priests behave badly. Evocative, but not the kind of Irish fiction that makes you want to up sticks and buy a cottage.

Shortly after the priest died, a woman moved into his house on the Hill of Dunagore. She was a bold spear of a woman who clearly wasn't used to living on the coast: not five minutes after she'd hung the wash out on the line, her clothes were blown half way up the bog.

I love the cover of the library's (digital) edition. Trees are important in some of the stories, with particular associations in 'traditional' belief.

Belated February Artist (Year of the Tiger!)



Via twitter https://twitter.com/womensart1

More art by He Xiangning: http://hxnart.org.cn/en/index/hxn-art/HXN-Works

Irish writers/settings are something which always makes me take a look at books and more often than not want to read them, but the tradition isn't necessarily one to make me want to move there.

>143 charl08: Beautiful find, Charlotte, thanks for the link. She made some more beautiful artworks.

>144 elkiedee: I guess I was thinking of the Hollywood / tourism image of Ireland - sunshine on a beautiful green landscape, with people who are wonderfully friendly and warm and never have a bad day... A reader would get a bit of a shock if you picked up this book expecting that!

>145 FAMeulstee: Isn't it lovely? I thought the gallery website was fascinating. From the official blurb about the gallery she seems to be celebrated as much for her political position as for her art. Reminded me of reading (translations of) 1930s Soviet art/lit/music reviews when a student. Adding Shenzen to my list of places I'd like to go.

I started reading Matrix last night, and it's brilliant, so enjoying it. Thanks to everyone on LT who talked about it (and me into picking it up), as I didn't get anywhere with Groff's last book and had abandoned her in my head as an author 'not for me'!

Yay for Matrix!

I also have Matrix sitting here - just got it back out from the library. I had it before and had started reading it but then had to return it before I had finished it. I got distracted by other reads. Bad Mamie.

I love your Keegan comments, Charlotte.

I'll look for The Mirror and the Palette; it sounds like one I would enjoy, even with my meager art history knowledge.

I love the Mistress of the Art of Death series, such a good history mystery series. Your comments make me want to reread them, at least the first couple, which I thought were the best ones.

Happy weekend of reading.

>142 charl08: I had never heard about this author, but now I see her everywhere on LT. This cover looks beautiful and it sounds like an interesting read, so I have added it to my ever-growing WL.

>147 katiekrug: Exactly, Katie.

>148 Crazymamie: So easy to do, Mamie. I'm never quite sure what I want to read, and some things are always sitting waiting...

>149 BLBera: Thanks Beth, I did enjoy it. I have a few on the shelves related to this so hoping they are as engaging. I do love the way it's possible now to google art as you're reading about it and (often) find a copy of what you're reading about.

Mistress of the Art of Death books - talk about weird overlaps. I don't think I've ever read about Eleanor of Aquitaine before, and then she's popped up in both The Serpent's Tale and again in Matrix.

>150 MissBrangwen: I'd not come across her either: apparently there's been a big gap in between her books? But I should have done, because she won the short story prize my employer runs, and I read an anthology they put out collecting the prize winners' stories not *that* long ago.
Whoops.

Over Easy

Treated myself to a (second hand) copy of this graphic novel. The protagonist is in art school when her funding runs out. She decides to give up her course after she's told that "painting is dead" (Punk has just hit California). She decides to work at a local cafe instead, and the book focuses on the little community made up of cafe kitchen and waiting staff. Engaging stuff, illustrations that serve a fairly linear story focussed on characters rather than requiring careful deciphering.

Great minds, Charlotte. I was thinking that about Eleanor as I read Matrix as well.

>152 BLBera: I should probably read a biography and fix (yet another) hole in my historical knowledge. Maybe one day!

The Magician
I know next to nothing about Thomas Mann, but I know I like Colm Toíbín. As a result, I could have done without all the detailed early stuff about Mann's life. I struggled to care about how he was unhappy with his wealthy life in a small German town as a child and young man. The gradual build up of Mann's attitude to Nazism, alongside much more rebellious / left wing family members (arguably with less to lose) was more gripping. Similarly their life as emigrants, struggling despite relative affluence to settle and feel secure, I found much more compelling. I never felt I understood his wife's thoughts or feelings (but then, from the perspective of this book, neither did Mann).

Isherwood's way of speaking German would be perfect for anyone trying to learn English. He simply took all the structures of the English sentence and put in German words instead of the English ones, pronouncing these words in a pained manner. Despite his lack of height, he was not short of confidence.

It occurred to Thomas that since 1933 he had not often felt free to be very rude to anyone. Part of the daily grind of exile was that it was necessary to do a great deal of smiling and to say very little. He saw no reason, however, not to be rude now. He was in his own house and there was something so insolent about this little English man that he thought required a response.
'I'm afraid I cannot hear you at all,' he said in German.
'Oh, do you have problems with your hearing?' Isherwood asked.
'None. None whatsoever.'

>153 charl08: I am no fan of Colm Toíbín, but I do love Thomas Mann :-)
So I am waiting for the Dutch translation to become available at the library.

That conversation with Isherwood sounds quite interesting. I think I might have read more about Thomas Mann's brother Heinrich - House of Exile - and TM's children in The Bitter Taste of Victory. A Thomas Mann novel was my university friend's first and last choice for a reading group he started and invited me to join, and possibly not an ideal start!

>154 FAMeulstee: I should probably clarify that I am not proud of my ignorance of Mann. I've read some comments about Toibin getting things wrong about Mann's life, I wouldn't have a clue.

>155 elkiedee: His children (especially Klaus and Erika) seem to have had a much fuller life than he did. Mann doesn't sound like something that would be popular at any book group I've been a member of. But then, I haven't read any, so perhaps I shouldn't comment.

To the Warm Horizon

Driving down the endless road, I couldn't help but contemplate where we were headed, and why. It felt like spinning in a hamster wheel. Can't there be another way besides barreling forward like this? What if we're the only ones who haven't figured it out? There's no way that everyone else is wasting their time like this... These thoughts weren't new. Constant doubts that had followed me into adulthood, questions I'd asked myself long before the virus shrouded the world... How was it I had the same thoughts, even after the whole ordeal of risking our lives to escape Korea? I was ultimately no different from Dan in that the global calamity had changed neither my thought process nor my concerns. I was like an out-of-date GPS system.

A dystopian novel set in the aftermath of a horrible virus which has caused all civilisation to breakdown in Korea. Borders, the internet and phone networks have collapsed. Young people are being killed for their livers, due to a rumour that they cure the incurable virus. We travel with three narrators who are trying (separately) to get away (but it's never really clear, quite where they can get away to, as it's not clear to them either). Then the characters meet up, and things rapidly get worse. A novel that manages to make the impact of COVID look mild.
Translated from the Korean.

>156 charl08: I really loved Buddenbrooks, Charlotte, and it was an easy read despite the length.

Doctor Faustus, The Magic Mountain, and Joseph and His Brothers were very good, but way more time consuming reads.
Death in Venice and Bashan and I (also published as A Man and His Dog) are shorter works.
And the last one I have read was Lotte in Weimar, to enjoy it fully you should have read Goethe's The Sorrows of Young Werther first.

>158 FAMeulstee: I'm not running to read Mann, Anita. But thanks for the recommendations!

Matrix
I loved the first half of this novel, following a pioneering nun as she transformed a community from starving to thriving. About half way through Marie began to see visions and I was less keen on that whole theme. But still, a good read.

I thought of you when I ran across this article about translation, Charlotte. It should be free to read.

>160 katiekrug: Thanks so much for posting this, Katie.

It's like Pandora's box - so many books I want to read now. And the cheapest post option is $25! Ouch.

Diary of a Lonely Girl, or the Battle Against Free Love by Miriam Karpilove
Dineh, An Autobiographical Novel by Ida Maze, translated by Yermiyahu Aron Taub
Oedipus In Brooklyn And Other Stories by Blume Lempel; translated by Ellen Cassedy
Two Feelingsby Celia Dropkin
A Jewish Refugee in New York by Kadya Molodovsky
Esther Singer Kreitman, the sister of Isaac Bashevis Singer, who settled in Britain, and Chava Rosenfarb also sound like I should be reading them.

And how is this for a lovely quote about the power of books amidst horror.

It may seem absurd to say that people needed books when they had nothing to eat and their lives were so uncertain. And yet it was altogether different, both for Jews and non-Jews. There has rarely been such a mass hunger for books as there was in Poland during the German occupation, a hunger stirred partly by the impulse to forget the constant danger, the melancholy reality; partly by the drive to release psychic energies, to strengthen one’s fearfully oppressed sense of self.
And what applies to grown-ups applies even more emphatically to children. Especially to the Jewish child in the ghetto.
The ghetto child, robbed of the world—the river, the green trees, freedom of movement—could win all this back through the magic of the printed word.

Rachel Auerbach 'The Librarians' from Varshever tsavoes (Warsaw Testaments).
https://www.yiddishbookcenter.org/language-literature-culture/pakn-treger/2017-p...

7. Cruel Summer (GN)

Another Ed Brubaker GN. Pretty dark, a back story for his other characters explaining just how their fathers' habits shaped them into the criminals they became. A beautiful book, looks brand new from the library.

8. Topics of Conversation (My books)
I've been reading this for a while, a recommendation from Rosalita (Julia). Short episodic chapters headed by a year and a place, told by a narrator with a way for words but a fairly dreadful way with her life, one she describes as rooted in a struggle to switch things off, a relief when others make the choices for her. I thought it was brilliantly done but it's not a gentle book by any means, full of accounts of men and women hurting each other, both deliberately and through ignorance of themselves and their actions.

"... I realized that in real life, no matter what"-she shook her head-"people get up in the morning and they wash their faces and they make themselves breakfast. They tell jokes and they read to their kids and they go on dates and they fall in love and they fuck and they have to wash the dishes and deal with the electric company. What I'm trying to say is, after I left-I mean it was hard, mostly because I didn't know how to talk about it, how to explain what I'd done, what I felt, what I didn't feel. But every morning I got up and I washed my face and I brushed my teeth and I ate my cereal and I went to the office. I went shopping and to the movies, and out to dinner. I dropped clothes off at the dry cleaner's. On a certain level its grotesque.

>161 charl08: - Happy to add to your wish list :)

>153 charl08: Interesting quotes. This one did strike me: "It occurred to Thomas that since 1933 he had not often felt free to be very rude to anyone. Part of the daily grind of exile was that it was necessary to do a great deal of smiling and to say very little."
This is something I know from my own family. It is probably not the same thing, but it reminded me of it: My grandparents were displaced when they were teenagers and had to start from scratch. My grandparents and also my mom (who is 72 now) were never loud, never complained, never defended themselves when they were bullied or treated unfairly. It was all about keeping a low profile and not offending anyone. I was raised like that as well and I still feel the effects - I don't suffer from low self-esteem, but I still have to learn to actually speak up without being afraid that something terrible will happen.

Regarding Thomas Mann, I have only read Death in Venice, which obviously I rated 5 stars eight years ago, but now cannot for the life of me remember why. I assume that I would rate it very differently now.
I wanted to read Buddenbrooks for ages, but cannot bring myself to start because I suppose it will not exactly be fun.

>163 katiekrug: Keep up the good work then.

>164 MissBrangwen: I was thinking of people I know who do this too now. And a couple who don't, who regularly get treated as if they should be "grateful" for whatever service they require.

I'm not rushing to read it based on Toibin's description. I'm not looking to add to my stock of classics that I've got nowhere with despite good intentions (Middlemarch is the worst example here I think, but there are many others which I have repeatedly picked up and put down again unfinished).

Teaching My Mother How to Give Birth
Slim pamphlet that was surprisingly available when I went to order her new book. Turns out Beyonce quoted her poems in an album, so perhaps that's why I could get my hands on it when it was like gold dust when I was doing my fifty Africam women writers challenge five (?) years ago. Thanks Beyonce!
Heavy poetry dealing with migration, discrimination, violence and loss.

>161 charl08: Wonderful quote Charlotte. Going to send to a Polish friend, also a reader.

10. Year of the Rabbit (GN)
The author's memoir of his family's escape from Cambodia and the Khmer Rouge. Despite the family tree at the start I found the characters difficult to keep straight. But the horror of those forced to work for the dictatorship, on minimal rations and risk of death, was very clearly portrayed. Beautifully illustrated. Recommended if you have any interest in world history or family stories.

11. Punishment of a Hunter (Women in Translation)
Picked up at random at the library's "new" shelf. Translated from the Russian, a new novel about 1930s Leningrad. A policeman is trying to solve a crime at the same time as trying to avoid the purges.

This was a place where time came to a standstill. Huge shelves lined every wall, stretching up to the high ceiling. The tempests of history, raging outside, collided with these racks and ebbed away with a whimper. But spring, sun, youth, all ebbed away, too. Branches covered with the first delicate, sticky April buds tapped on the window in vain. The smell of antiquity was ever present here, under the aegis of books: old wood, old paper-not cheap, dusty, decaying paper, but aged, mature and yellowing nobly. The daylight tried fruit lessly to break in through the windows. It was always early evening here, cosily marked out by the light of the table lamps with their green shades that were a balsam for the eyes. The public library forged its passage through time like a colossal, sturdy ship.

>167 Caroline_McElwee: Its a lovely site, full of translated literature.

Somehow I now have 17 books in the currently reading pile. However, some of them are more current than others!
Trying to motivate myself to push some of these into the 'read' (or abandoned) pile.

Reading slowly on purpose:
Redemption ground Lorna Goodison - reading with a group on LT
Reading Shakespeare's Sonnets: A New Commentary Don Paterson - reading a sonnet (and the short commentary) with my coffee most mornings.

Charging away with these ones: (honest)
Devil in the Grove: Thurgood Marshall, the Groveland Boys, and the Dawn of a New America
Index of women

Reading with the Asia readalong (February)
Wild Thorns) Sahar Khalifeh

Just started this weekend: (shiny! new!)
Women in the Picture: Women, Art and the Power of Looking
At Night All Blood Is Black

I got distracted (see above)
The book of form and emptiness
What You Have Heard Is True: A Memoir of Witness and Resistance
Ancestor Stones
The Toll-gate

Books that probably would need to be restarted if I pick them up again, it's been so long.
White fragility : why it's so hard for White people to talk about racism
Burning the Books: A History of the Deliberate Destruction of Knowledge
Welcome to Britain: Fixing Our Broken Immigration System
Tomorrow sex will be good again : women and desire in the age of consent

>170 charl08: Wow, Charlotte, 17 books on the go is a lot!
I never get to that many, as I start feeling nervous about neglecting them when I have more than 5 going.

>171 FAMeulstee: Well, some are definitely going further than others! I think I should just abandon the bottom category and start again.

One of those days today. Can I get new "career" suggestions please? Where do I sign up to read all day?

Devil in the Grove
This was brilliant, a compelling account of a miscarriage of justice in Florida in the 1950s, and the work done by the NAACP to try to overturn it. Last night I had about 75 pages to go and was desperate to finish it but had to go to bed. King layers together the wider work of the NAACP (including Brown), Thurgood Marshall's personal challenges, the sheriff responsible for leading the case against the young black men, and those in between. The level of detail is impressive, whilst preserving a pace to the narrative which had me gripped (I'd not heard of the case before, so had no idea how it ended). The shock of the sheriff murdering one of the accused at the side of the road when he was supposed to be taking him to court. Just terrifying. I think I will remember this book.

Index of Women
Fun (well, mostly fun, sometimes bleak) collection of poetry. Favourite sections include the letters from a lost doll ('emancipated' from her young owner).

Twice Shy
A sweet romance about two anxious characters brought together by a legacy. A bit tonally erratic but I liked the kindness in it.

>175 charl08: That one is on my to-read list -- glad you liked it!

>175 charl08: - Added this to my library list.

>176 christina_reads: >177 katiekrug: Look forward to hearing what you make of this one, I have seen a range of responses.

Why libraries matter, and why we shouldn’t despair
https://www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/blog/why-libraries-matter-and-why-we-shouldn...

>178 charl08: Why libraries matter etc

My local library campaign has been very much about books, including a substantial collection of Afro Caribbean books that included rare and expensive art books and reference works, and books that had been funded or added to the collection through donations, including contributions from Caribbean government and non government organisations. Yes, we talked about community space as well. A councillor in her mid 80s said that books were out of date now young people can look for everything online. Actually, my kids make lots of use of the internet and Danny has almost given up reading, but if and when they do pick up a book they want actual books - Danny's not interested in trying an ereader etc.

I have a reading group meet up at my local branch tonight. I think everyone's been very happy to see each other. I haven't started the book but I'm going along anyway for the chat and because I like to see the others in the group - think it's been going about 10 years.

17? You must have a very elastic brain, Charlotte.

>179 elkiedee: I didn't much like the article, although I might read their book. I'm not sure their claims for private libraries are my definition of preserving books (in the sense of supporting a reading community that reads the texts!)
I also don't see why a library as a public space is seen as somehow lesser - I can't remember who I read that said this, but they pointed out that the library is a rare space in a town or city where you don't have to buy anything.

>181 BLBera: Or a short attention span?

Friday: Book One The First Day of Christmas (GN)
Short GN (when is a GN a comic?) which felt YA. Friday goes back home after her first term at uni to meet up with a friend she had solved crime with as a teenager (yes, it's got that kind of vibe). Only there are unresolved feelings between them, and it's all a bit awkward. Plus there's a ghost in the forest.
Possibly.


Marzahn Mon Amour (women in translation)
I loved this one. The author writes about her time as a chiropodist in a working class suburb of former East Berlin. Most of her clients are older and have life stories to tell. Her work making their feet better proves surprisingly cathartic, too.
Makes me want to go back to Berlin and explore some of the out of the way places she mentions.

Marzahn Park Cemetery, eight in the evening, far from the noise of the city. At the end of a hot, dusty day, the birds are singing their evening chorus. The sun is at a low angle, its last rays spreading like wings over names on individual stones. Raked paths. Watered graves. Burning candles. Larches, oaks, pines. I wander through ferns and across the grass in the shade. Coolness, peace and space. A birch. A bench.

I think there is pressure on libraries to update tech, but it is expensive and is made obsolete so quickly. I wrote my thesis 25 years ago. I saved it in 3 formats, of which only the paper copy is still readily readable. No-one has 3&1/4 inch floppy drives any more (it took 20 of them) and the short lived Zip Disk is long forgotten. Even if I could access those file the chances of being able to read a Word 95 file without issue strikes me a relatively slim. My paper copy, with marbled cover and gold leaf on the spine, is the one readable version.

Libraries are part of why I am where I am now. Nowadays I'd be labelled a a kid on benefits and stuck in the poverty trap, with limited access to information and opportunities. Libraries go some way to even up the opportunity gap, they are vital.

>184 Helenliz: Even the paper copy of mine (I didn't get it fancy-bound) is decaying rapidly. I shouldn't have left it in the attic!

>184 Helenliz: I did get mine fancy-bound, and still stroke the cover occasionally (it's been a long time since I read anything inside it though!). We also had to do a fancy-bound copy for the library, and deposit a pdf version for the university's thesis depository, so if my house burns down I know that there will be a copy of it somewhere. I'm still sad that I didn't print out my Master's thesis, it's on a 3.5" floppy disk (I'm pretty sure I still have the floppy disk, buried somewhere in the house, but no way of reading it any more, assuming that the disk is still readable and not corrupted). Back in the early 2000s when I did my Master's the university didn't require a digital copy, and I think they only kept the paper copies for a few years, presumably until the period for appeals against low grades had passed.

>186 Jackie_K: I had to provide something like 3 bound copies and one looseleaf. I'm in the British Library, which always makes me rather proud. Periodically I check the catalogue for myself, just to make sure.

>186 Jackie_K: Yeah, we had to give one to the uni library too. Maybe two? I can't now remember.

>187 Helenliz: Sounds good! I like how much is available online now. It used to be amazing to me when an archive or library had useful information online, now I totally take it for granted.

Catching up with an unread TLS edition, and have added The Love Songs of W.E. B. Du Bois to my library reserves. It's newly published (in the UK).

>186 Jackie_K: You're not the only one in that boat. There should be places that can read the disk and convert it to another format for you.

>187 Helenliz: 😊

Reading The Sentence. Thinking I might adopt this system for my TBR pile.

Alongside my bed there is always a Lazy Stack and a Hard Stack. I put Flora's book onto the Hard Stack, which included Being Mortal, by Atul Gawande, two works by Svetlana Alexievich, and other books on species loss, viruses, antibiotic resistance, and how to prepare dried food. These were books I would avoid reading until some wellspring of mental energy was uncapped, Still, I usually managed to read the books in my Hard Stack, eventually. On top of my Lazy Stack was Rebecca, by Daphne du Maurier...

I don't have a "Hard Stack" as such but a few years ago (am trying to remember whether or not it was BCV (before COVID) I included a work of non fiction based on referenced research in my rotation of books, because there are a lot of books which look really interesting, and some are excellent, among both borrowed books and acquisitions, but it's easy to put them off because they look like a bit of a challenge to read. I'm alternating biographies of individuals with other research based non fiction. These are books with lots of endnotes, which I always have to check in case they contain additional information as well as source citations

The Sentence is one of those rare books I read a few months before other people started reading it - possibly before or around the actual publication date (as I read it courtesy of Netgalley) - so I'm looking forward to your views on it.

18. The Contradictions (GN)
GN American student goes on exchange year to Paris. Meets a vegan aspiring anarchist who convinces her it would be a good idea to hitchhike to Berlin. OK but as it was about a teenager/ young person there wasn't (at least to me) much depth.

19. One Night Only (New to me authors)
Romance. It's a brave creative type who sets a romance at an Irish-American wedding. Possible a bit OTT in terms of the Irish charm. YMMV.

20. Redemption Ground (New to me authors)
Lots of comments about this book here:
https://www.librarything.com/topic/337035#n7767630

21. The Sentence (Prizewinner)
Loved this. Wasn't expecting it to turn into a pandemic novel halfway through, but it did make sense in be context of the story. Recommended.

>192 charl08: The Sentence is one I want to get to eventually, Charlotte. Glad it was a good one!

>191 elkiedee: Alternating sounds like a good idea. I'm hoping that my category totals will nudge me this year to read a (bit of a) balance.

>193 bell7: I hope you find a copy Mary: this is on my "buy when it comes out in paperback" list. Which only exists in my head at the moment.

>193 bell7: I thought The Sentence was excellent too, so am glad you enjoyed it. I read it on Netgalley so I still have access in a way I don't with borrowed library books, but I would like a proper copy. The Night Watchman was a Kindle bargain not long after I actually read the Netgalley

On One Night Only - lots of books and other items for that title!, what does YMMC stand for?

I loved your quote from The Sentence; it was a wonderful book about reading and bookstores. It was one of my favorites from last year. I might try to listen to Erdrich read it. I've never listened to one of her audiobooks.

>190 charl08: This is a great system! I might have to move The Ringed Castle to the Hard Stack I seem to have inadvertently put together on top of my small bookshelf. My Lazy Stack is the entire surface of the coffee table.

>195 elkiedee: I enjoyed it a lot, I hope it finds plenty of readers.

https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/ymmv#:~:text=abbreviation%2...

>196 BLBera: There were so many great comments. I am tempted to go through her booklists from the end of the book and try and read them all.

>197 rabbitprincess: A coffee table sounds like a great place for a lazy stack.

I'm back home after a night at a hotel/spa. It was lovely, but I can hardly keep my eyes open now. Found some pleasing second hand book bargains too, so looking forward to reading those.

Bookshop haul from Chester secondhand shops.

Oooh, nice!

>200 katiekrug: Thanks Katie!

Books are:

Palace Walk and Sugar Street, the two missing parts of a trilogy I was looking for.
The Vanishing Half (have read, but didn't have my own copy)
And then just generally too tempting:
Three Strong Women
Teach Us to Outgrow Our Madness: Four Short Novels
The Forward Book of Poetry 2017
Burnt Shadows
These Women

I thought Burnt Shadows was very good, possibly my favourite of the 3 Shamsie novels I've read so far though Home Fires is also excellent (and acute/prescient on the perspective it offers on our politicians).

Nice haul, Charlotte.

>203 elkiedee: I've only read Home Fire - gave it 4.5 stars though.

>204 BLBera: Thanks Beth. Came home to a few more book parcels - birthday presents to myself!

Reading the TLS found that there is a new Jenny Erpenbeck - but they have reviewed the original (German) edition, so guessing from this choice the English version isn't out yet. I'll just have to be patient...

https://www.the-tls.co.uk/articles/kairos-jenny-erpenbeck-book-review-anna-katha...

From the "Lazy" shelf (and much appreciated for it), the first three in a "regency" mystery series. This series was written during lockdown and is newly published. It's easy to empathise with the heroine, who is trying to get over social anxiety following the isolation of two years of mourning her husband. I might take a break now though, before I start wondering about the odd coincidence of mysteries existing wherever Lady Violet turns up...

22. Lady Violet Investigates (Authors I've read before)
23. Lady Violet Attends a Wedding (ditto)
24. Lady Violet Finds a Bridegroom (ditto)

I just finished Ancestor Stones, a book that has been on my shelves waiting to be read since 2013. Yikes.

I really loved this book, it ticked all the boxes for me. In some ways it reminded me of Girl Woman Other with varied women's voices used to show change over time. All the women are part of a polygamous household, but with very different positions related to the status of their mothers in the house. The book is framed by a young relative from the UK asking questions, so the explanations of things to make sense (for an external person/reader to SL) feel a bit less intrusive. Sierra Leone has such a dramatic history, but the book makes this personal, from the impact of mission schooling from the perspective of a child to the willingness of some to "look the other way" at post-independence corruption.

Sometimes when I look at the past I see a swamp: cloying, dark, impenetrable. Like the mud we swilled as children building our playhouse. Mud covering everything, smeared over the detail of recollections, submerging memories. Mud you wade about in trying to locate a lost image or event. Then, usually when you least expect it, the mud throws something up: perfectly preserved as a corpse in a peat bog.

>207 charl08: Sounds good, Charlotte.
Looking up in the national library system, I found only ONE copy in all Dutch libraries. So it may take a while to get it.

>208 FAMeulstee: Hope there's not much competition for that copy then, Anita.

I'm going to start a new thread for March early, which gives me an excuse to set up all my categories with new art.