Helenliz sends a 3rd postcard

I'm Helen and I'm a quality manager in a small firm that makes inhaler devices for delivery of drugs to the lung. Excitingly we actually got our first product on the market this month, so whoo hooo!! In my spare time I am secretary of the local bellringers association, which has been interesting in 2020, I can tell you! Things are beginning to open up again, with ringing limited to 6 people, all wearing masks. It's early days, but fingers crossed that it all continues to improve and return to some form of normality.

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

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

Where are we going today?

It's almost the end of the second quarter, and seeing I have some time I figured I'd set up thread number 3. >:-)

Currently Reading


Currently reading
The Quiet Gentleman
Jerusalem

Loans: To try and keep track of the library books I've got out.
Library books on loan:
On the Floor
Demelza
The Stranger Times
Memento Mori
Blackout
North and South
Public Library and Other Stories
The Windsor Knot

Borrowed from Cathy
The Chalk Pit

Book subscriptions: To try and make sure I don't fall tooooo far behind
Tyll (MrB's May)
The Kingdoms (MrB's August)
✔️Flesh and Bone and Water (Shelterbox August)
Winter Flowers (Pierene Press)

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

The List: 2021

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


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

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

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

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


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

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

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

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


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

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

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

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


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

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

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

Challenge 5 - Heyer Series Read
Wimbledon tennis championships


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

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

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

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

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


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

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

1. It's not about the Burqa, Ed Miriam Khan
2. Alexa, what is there to know about Love?, Brian Bilston
3. Nordic Fauna, Andrea Lundgren
4. Why Willows Weep, Ed Tracy Chevalier
5. Jane Austen made me do it, various
6. Snow in May, Kseniya Melnik
7. The Yellow Wallpaper and Other Stories, Charlotte Perkins Gilman
8. Mantel Pieces, Hilary Mantel
9. The Luckiest Guy Alive, John Cooper Clarke
10. Plum, Hollie McNish
11. Pantosaurus and the Power of Pants, Rebecca Gerlings & Fhiona Galloway
12. Shakespeare's Sonnets, William Shakespeare

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


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

I'd like to read 6 in the year.

1. Piranesi, Susanna Clarke
2. There but for the Ali Smith

Challenge 8 - Lists



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

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

1. There but for the, Ali Smith (1001)

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


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

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

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

Challenge 10 - CATs
The Wellington Arch


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

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

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

Random CAT is always fun

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

October:
Random CAT: volunteering/giving
GenreCAT: Horror/Supernatural/Paranormal
HistoryCAT: country or region of choice

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


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

BingoDog card to go here.

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

Challenge 12 - Miscellaneous
The Wilton Dyptych, National Gallery


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

1. On Borrowed Time, Adam Croft
2. Settling Scores, various
3. Antony and Cleopatra, William Shakespeare
4. Over the River, John Galsworthy

I'm reading Alan Moore's Jerusalem. Where this might take some time (understatement) I'm going to keep track of thoughts each week, so I can try and make sense of it.

Finished the Prologue, chapters 1 & 2 this week. Prologue has me thinking mystical vision of some sort, be interesting to see what that results in. Chapter 1 the imagery of the painting coming to life was amazing. Poor Ginger. Chapter 2, I found myself both feeling sorry for and repelled by Marla and her world.

Chapter 3 Rough Sleepers. Took me a while to work out what was going on, but I got there. This is the first time you suspect that the past and the present are not separate, with Marla making an appearance in his story. I thought he was quite sweet in some ways.

Chapter 4 X Marks the Spot. Peter the Monk returns from a long journey carrying something that needs to be returned to the heart of the land, in Hamtun. What it is remains unknown. He has some spectral help (re chapter 3).

Chapter 5 Modern Times. Charles is loitering on a street corner outside the theatre, before he goes in to do his act - the inebriate. He sees a beautiful girl and an even more beautiful baby. The baby being May Warren, who we've already met as Alma's grandmother. Has the feeling of setting something up for later.

Chapter 6. Blind, but now I see. "Black" Charley's story, takes place on the same day as chapter 5. We meet the May Warrens again. Charlie's backstory and Amazing Grace.

Chapter 7 Atlantis. Lots of poetry as Benedict, poet who hasn't published in 20 years, spends his day in and around the Burroughs. Alma turns up and we're in the middle of her art launch, so this sits at the end of the Prologue. We first meet the Asylum in some detail.

Chapter 8. Do as you damn well pleasey. Snowy (John) Vernall expands on his view of the world, time and life itself while his wife gives birth to their first child, May, who we have previously met. He sees sadness associated with her first child, I'm assuming that's the May Warren we've met as a baby

Chapter 9 The breeze that pluck her apron. The life and times of little May Warren, from birth and her angelic appearance through to early death.

Chapter 10 Hark the Glad Sound. Tommy Warren is musing as his wife is in labour with his first child. We learn more of the Warrens as they move into the 50s, about May's 5 children, and the madness that affected his cousin Audrey.

Chapter 11 Choking on a Tune. Mick Warren has an industrial accident, is knocked out. When he comes round he has a clear memory of the previous occasion he was knocked out, when he choked on a cough sweet and was carried to hospital not breathing. He thinks he may have died, in which case what is he doing here.
And that's the end of book 1, which feels like an achievement, even though I'm only ~ 1/4 of the way through.

Book 2 Chapter 1 Upstairs. Mick Warren again, and this time it folows him as he leaves the earthly realm and goes "Upstairs" to the second borough. It's a very odd experience, reminding me a bit of the inbetween world in the first of the Narnia books. No one is there to meet him, so is this all a mistake?

Chapter 2 An Asmodeus Flight. Mick Warren meets the Devil, who takes him on a flight into The Burroughs, only he then sees himself. That worries the Devil, who returns Mick to about when he ventured into upstairs. Mick narrowly escapes making a pact with the Devil. Lots of n-dimensional space theory.

Chapter 3 Rabbits. Tells the previous chapter from the perspective of Phyllis Painter, the girl who saw Michael arrive in the upperworld. She arranges for the deathmonger to come and see of the devil in chapter 2. They end up in the gang's den.

Chapter 4 the Scarlet Well. Michael and the gang venture into the Ghost Seam, where the landscape is as Michael knows it, but the density depends on how long it has been there. a TV ariel is transparent, a 800 year old tree will stop a ghost in its tracks. A ghostly storm blows up, caused by the Builders over Michael? the children dig through to a different layer of time, the nothing 5s or nothing 6s, 2005 to 2006? The landscape has changed again.

Chapter 5. Flatland. The life and after life of Reggie Bowler. Michael gets lost, is found again and the gang head to the Works. The title is taken from the book, which gets some discussion, about a 2 dimensional world and imagining additional dimensions.

Chapter 6. Mental Fights. Two master builders fight, the gang move around in time to see the cause of the fight.

Chapter 7. Sleepless Swords. The gang go back to a specific date, and see Oliver Cromwell on the eve of the battle of Naseby. This is juxtaposed with John's memories of his life and death in the fields of France.

Happy new thread, Helen!

>16 Helenliz: I feel guilty, you're way further into Jerusalem than I am, and I started it in Jan 2020! I really must make some more time for it.

>17 MissWatson: thank you
>18 Jackie_K: don't feel guilty. I started it the same week as someone I know offline and she finished it within a couple of weeks. I was at the end of book one when she was half way through book 3! I'm glad I made notes, as it's been a while since I picked it up.

Happy new thread, Helen!

Happy thread three! Good idea to make notes as you read Jerusalem -- that looks like a weighty book to tackle!

>20 katiekrug:, >21 rabbitprincess: thank you both.

Jerusalem - hmm. It's apparently got more words than the bible and my copy is getting on for 1200 pages of a quite large book in tinsy tiny type that I need my glasses to be able to read. So I came to a bit of a standstill when I managed to break them at on point, but now there's no excuse.

Happy new thread and have fun tackling Jerusalem. I've been reading The Three Kingdoms this year and I have reached chapter 75 out of 120 - so I can finally see the end in sight.

So that's June - how did that happen. Half the year has been and gone.

1/2 Review:
Number of books: 44 is heading for over 80 in the year, which is impressively above peak reading speed for me. I'm usually somewhere 70 to 80 ish, so I'm not sure what's happened there. My read of Jerusalem may slow that down in the next quarter...

It's been quite a starry quarter. For a stingy starrer, two 5 star books is almost unheard of. The Foundling a re-read that I'd given 5 stars previously. It probably still merits them. The other 5 star read being Pandora's jar which I listened to read by the author. It had a fabulous mixture of erudition, wit and snark. Close on their heels, with 4.5 stars was Beauvallet & Arabella, both by Georgette Heyer and The Haunting of Tram Car 015 which was a complete surprise and excellently done.
Meriting a really solid 4 stars, we have: Dear Reader, Sicily, Her Father's Daughter, The Children of Jocasta, An Imaginary Life, & Azincourt. That makes 11/24 books in the quarter rating more than 4 stars. Either I've had a really good run or I'm getting soft in my old age...

The only bum note is sounded by Jane Austen made me do it which was a poor listening experience and earnt itself a measly 2 stars.

Challenge 1: Women Authors: 30 books read by women authors out of 44 books is over 2/3rds!!! I wanted to aim for at least 50% so I'm doing more than OK on this one so far.

Challenge 2: New Authors: At 23 out of 44, that continues to be well above the target of 1/3rd. I have a backlog of series I want to get on with again once the library starts doing inter-site transfers, so I can see this falling as the year goes on.

Challenge 3: Translations: Just the 2 in here at the moment, so some work to do to hit the 6 for the year. I have several on the shelf, it's taking them down that's the problem...

Challenge 4: Subscriptions. This isn't about the 9 I have read, more the 2 that are currently unread. But that isn't awful, I'm keeping up - just about.

Challenge 5: Heyer series read. Just the 3 so far. And 2 re-read, but that doesn't count. Need to try and get to these more often. Not sure it helps that they're shelved away from most of the others, so they don't catch my eye in the same way.

Challenge 6: Short Stories. 8 here. Which is fair. half of which have been read, rather than listened to, which is slightly unusual for me. Maybe as I return to work more than 1 day a week maybe this will settle out.

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

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

Challenge 9: Non-fiction: This has done surprisingly well, with 10. That's more than 1 a month. I used to read a lot of non-fiction, then it dropped off, I'm glad that's back.

Challenge 10: CATs: So far I've completed 23 out of 24 - the fruit & vege for February's random cat being the only miss. It's just for fun this one.

Challenge 11: Bingo: Again, so far I have just used women authors. I'm at only 3 left. I have an idea for one, the CAT I leave to last so the nature one is the only one that will need some looking for.

Challenge 12: Misc: Just the 1.

So how's the second quarter of 2021 been? Well not too bad, really. A good range of reading, and a fairly positive scoring set. Quite a lot of high star reads, which is gratifying. Lack of library access has continued to hit some of the list categories. There's still no news on when transfers between libraries will happen, so the list of reservations is increasing. At the end of March I did wonder if we'd be allowed out again by now. Well sort of is the answer, but we've got a way to go to get back to normality. And I suspect mentally it will take longer to get used to being out in public and close contact with people. I've quite liked being able to give the great unwashed a wide berth >;-)

>23 DeltaQueen50: Thanks. I'm still at the less than half way stage. I can imagine getting towards the end is a good feeling.

Great reading summary. I can't believe the year is half over already, either.

You've had some good reading for the first half of the year! Wishing you a second half that is just as good.

>27 VivienneR: Thank you!

This evening's excitement* was the AGM of the Friends of the Library. Managed to dodge any jobs, which is always a useful skill. >:-)

* I may be overstating the case. It was over in less than 40 minutes though.

>24 Helenliz: Oh, I really liked your mid-year assessment. And you're in great shape with your goals.

>28 Helenliz: Hurray, you won the meeting!

Just catching up on your thread.
My husband leads our church's handbell group. They have not yet returned to rehearsals. He also plays trumpet in a local philharmonic - they were able to play two concerts before the season closed, so I’m hoping the handbells are not far behind.

>29 RidgewayGirl: Thanks you. I'm looking forward to the second half.

>30 rabbitprincess: I did have to sit on my hands when they asked for volunteers for the committee...

>31 VictoriaPL: Hello! That's interesting, do they ring tunes or methods? Where we can meet inside in groups of up to 6, handbell ringing of methods has restarted in earnest. I can't do it, I can't get my left hand to make a noise reliably on the upstroke. Something to do with an arthritic thumb and a twist of my wrist. *My excuse and I'm sticking to it*

>32 Helenliz: it's tunes, mostly modern arrangement of hymn or other religious musical works.
I never could get the bell to ring 100% everytime. I think I was too timid. Switching bells always was a challenge, I could never handle more than 3 or 4. And I kept forgetting all the different notations to use the mallot, to bonk it on the table mat, to wave the bell in a circle like a little tornado of sound, LOL. I was a mess, so I never filled in for anybody very long, LOL

>31 VictoriaPL:
>32 Helenliz:

I play in my church's handbell choir and I love(d) it and I miss it. I played 2 bells, B and B-. The directors was downed by Covid and there is no word if and when he will return. I'll be sad if he does not!

Book: 45
Title: Mr Loverman
Author: Bernardine Evaristo
Rating: ***
Why: Shelterbox read
Challenge: Woman author, new author, subscriptions
TIOLI Challenge #14. Read a book that triggers an ear worm

This is an unsuual book. Barry is in his 70s, from Antigua, living in London, married to Carmel and with 2 grown up children. And the love of is life is Morris. And has been since they were youngsters. Barry is a very dapper, intellectually curious man and he is a most appealing narrator. His chapters were told in the present, with reviews of past incidents. Carmel is a far more opaque character. We see her mainly through other people. The chapters she narrates are in the past and are written in a stream of concious manner - no punctuation no full sentences. She is far harder to warm to. The family are reasonably well presented, you get a feel for them as individuals as well as their dynamic.
There's a curious diachotomy in here, in that while Barry wants to be accepted for who he is, he also has rather dated attitudes to gender and the role of women in life and society. It makes for an odd mixture and I never quite got my head around it.
I'm also not entirely convinved by the utterly complete character change Carmel undergoes. It just didn't feel believable.

>34 Tess_W: who knew there were that many handbell choirs out there?! Hope it does restart for you soon.

>35 Helenliz: I remember little about this other than that I liked it. Sounds like it's time for a reread. Hope you enjoy your next book more.

Well done on escaping the meeting task free. I have a little battle with myself each time someone asks for a volunteer.

I didn't see Carmel as having a personality change. At first we see her through her husband's eyes and it's about how little he really knows or understands her. I really enjoyed the novel but although Barry was charming and funny, there were times when I found him exasperating, and although the novel was often funny, I also thought it was often sad - especially the characters spending so much time in relationships which didn't really work for any of them.

And gay men can be as socially conservative and prejudiced as anyone else. His expectations of his wife come from views that he was no doubt brought up with, and indeed he's tried to live out his own public life within those norms and expectations too.

>38 elkiedee: I just thought that the difference between what we saw of her before and after the final trip to Antigua was so very marked that I didn't think it could be just down to Barry being more observant. Or observant at all.

I take your point on him being a product of his time and upbringing. I suppose expecting equality of opinions relating to minorities and equality is me being a product of an equally different time and place.

>35 Helenliz: Your remarks - and the conversation that follows - make Evaristo's book intriguing. I'll take a BB on that one.

>37 charl08: Sorry, missed Charlotte. I thought it was interesting, just not fabulous.

>40 VivienneR: I think it will live up the the intrigue. Hope you discover something in it.

Book: 46
Title: Summerwater
Author: Sarah Moss
Rating: ***
Why: Audio
Challenge: Woman author, new author, CAT
TIOLI Challenge #4. Read a book about a vacation or with the word vacation in the title or a word indicating a vacation

Goodness, this gets very claustrophobic. Starts as a set of isolated stories of each of the people who are staying in a wooden lodge set in a holiday park next to a Scottish loch. In the rain. A very very wet summer, with the rain almost being a character in its own right. In each story there is some dissatisfaction with life and some kind of underlying lie or supressed emotion that is not being shared. At times you hear from multiple members of the same lodge, and they often present a very different view of the position. At times they share the same dissatisfaction, at times it is a different uneasiness that underlies the narrative. The narrators vary in age from a child to an elderly couple. each comes equipped with their own world view and they view the park and the other inhabitants through their own lens. The violence, when it erupts, is somehow both shocking and entirely predictable.
Each chapter from the view of the people is interspersed with a short vignette almost form the point of view of the loch, the forest, the birds and animals that are present. And yet in this too, the weather is a pervasive force that is unsettling.
The gradually escalating tension does not make this a relaxing summer holiday read, but it does make it something you don't want to put down.

It's decision time again, which of these do I want to vote for?

Flesh and Bone and Water by Luiza Sauma
In deeply affecting prose, debut novelist Luiza Sauma transports readers to a dramatic place where natural wonder and human desire collide. Cutting across race and class, time and place, from London to Rio to the dense humidity of the Amazon, Flesh and Bone and Water straddles two worlds with haunting meditations on race, sex, and power in a deftly plotted coming-of-age story about the nature of identity.
We meet André as a middle-aged doctor living a listless life in London. When a letter arrives from Luana, the daughter of his family's maid, he is sent into a tailspin of memories, and the Brazil of his childhood and murky teenage years comes flooding back.

Distant Star by Roberto Bolaño
The New York Times described Roberto Bolaño as "the most significant Latin American literary voice of his generation". Often underpinned by a strong and distinctive sense of what matters in life, his works were the result of a curious life and a potent imagination, but have not yet widely reached an English-speaking audience.
Distant Star is a compact novel that tells the story of Alberto Ruiz-Tagle, an air force pilot turned celebrity poet who is known for his daring sky poems penned in smoke high above the cities. Told from a narrator exiled to Europe after the 1973 Chilean coup, together we try to unpick Alberto's inextricable links to the darkness of Pinochet's new regime.

Sea Monsters by Chloe Aridjis
One autumn afternoon in Mexico City, 17-year-old Luisa does not return home from school. Instead, she flees to the coast with a boy she barely knows to seek out a troupe of travelling Ukrainian dwarfs who may have run away from a Soviet circus. The boy starts to dabble in drugs, while Luisa takes on another addiction, talking to "mysterious people".
Sea Monsters is a bizarre and wonderful coming-of-age story that drops us into the fleeting eccentricities and curiosities of 1980s Oaxaca. Aridjis’ languid prose perfectly conjures adolescent restlessness and lets the world as Luisa sees it wash over the reader, unfurling in comma-rich sentences that beautifully render a state of youthful inertia.

As usual, opinions may be willfully ignored at my whim.

Oh, and in other news, I've joined the ranks of the invincible - well sort of. I had my second jab today. Finished up the audio book in the car on the way there and back. I *may* have taken advantage of being out to nip into Costa and treat myself to something entirely unnecessary on the way home after.

Got the feeling like I've been punched very very hard in the arm thing going on, but if that's as bad as it gets, I can cope. It only lasted less than 48 hours last time.

Hope you enjoyed your unnecessary drink/cake or whatever!

It's probably just me but from the descriptions I am adding Sea Monsters to my huge wishlist, which I use to search library catalogues as well as to look out for price drops etc. But I'm always drawn to novels featuring circuses, freakshows (usually historical!) and theatre etc.

>44 Helenliz: congrats on your second shot! Hope the arm does not get any more painful.

>44 Helenliz: Congrats on the 2nd jab AND the special treat!

Congrats on getting your second shot and I, too, hope the arm doesn't get any more painful.

I also think Sea Monsters sounds good. I've not had much luck with Bolaño.

And congrats on the jab. My first one had a weird effect on my concentration, but the second was fine (beyond the arm thing).

Glad to hear you got your last shot. Hope your arm is ok soon.

>45 elkiedee:, >49 charl08: I have to admit I was drawn to Sea Monsters but have veered around towards the Bolano. But I will take on board the reservation there.

Thank you all. It'll be fine in the end. I might just whinge for England in the mean time though >;-)

Hope you enjoy it. Have reserved an earlier book by the author of Sea Monsters from the library, as if I need any more library books just now!

Book: 47
Title: The Five
Author: Hallie Rubenhold
Rating: ***
Why: Non-fiction
Challenge: Woman author, new author, non-fiction, CAT
TIOLI Challenge #6. Read a book with a title with 3 words or less

This is a difficult book to rate and review. is it important - yes. Is it a fun read - no. It's a bit like being hit over the head with a central thesis, which gets a bit wearing.
This sets out to remind people that Jack the Ripper actually killed people by making each of the 5 victims ascribed to him into women again, rather than letting the victim fade into insignificance. After all, to whom did the murder impact most? the victim can surely put in a claim there - this book aims to speak for each of the victims. It barely mentions JtR the whole way through, and each life story stops at the death. There is nothing further than this, which felt like a miss.
There is clearly a lot of research in here, but there is also a lot of unnecessary emoting - too much of the "X must surely have felt ...." that imposes a modern sensibility on a historic figure and detracts from the facts. And there are facts in here, but it feels that the author undermines herself here as well. There are statements that some of the coroners reports and police note were lost, but it never says which ones. So when we are reading about the facts reported at the inquest, we're not sure if these are first had or are reported in newspapers, with the likely distortion found therein.
Having said that, the central thesis, that the 5 women were not all prostitutes, as they were tarred and that they deserve to be remembered as individuals as much as their murderer is remembered is a valid surmise. I would have liked to see more about the afterlives of the women concerned, the inquest, how their family were told, their children, for instance.

>53 Helenliz: I'd like to read The Five, partly because of the parallels with a serial killer and the way he and the women he killed were investigated/reported in/around Yorkshire;s inner city areas 100 years later. I'm from Leeds and although I was only 11 when Peter Sutcliffe was, finally arrested, after a shockingly incompetent and sexist (and also classist/racist) police investigation, the repercussions feel very much part of how I grew up.

>53 Helenliz: I really LOVE your comment "imposes a modern sensibility on a historical figure." That says it so well. I think I will "save" that one!

>53 Helenliz: Thanks for this balanced and informative review.

Hi Helen, I think I liked The Five more than you did! I thought Rubenhold did a great job in showing that the description of these women as prostitutes (that continues today) was linked to a continuing pattern of how (male) law enforcers/ authorities of moral standards, blame (some) women for their own murder. I'm not sure any history ever gets away from imposing our own views on the past. What is so interesting to me about this book is how angry it seems to have made some Ripper enthusiasts. What is so threatening about writing about women's lives?

I would guess that the lack of descriptions (eg of how families were told) is linked to the problems of surviving sources. Re the comment re inquest records - if you go to the back of the book you can see which inquest records were available (under London Met archives), I don't know if that helps.

>57 charl08: I thought it was good and interesting and certainly needed writing - I'm just not sure I enjoyed it above average. I know that most history is viewed through a modern lens, it was the frequency of the "she must have felt....."s that I found a bit unnecessary. It's an impossible exercise, so why undertake it?

>54 elkiedee: I think it would be very interesting too compare and contrast the situation. Like I said, interesting, but not necessarily a book I can say I enjoyed.

>55 Tess_W: I'm not sure it's an original thought, but you're free to it.

>56 pamelad: I felt a bit bad after the multiple rave reviews it had. I still think it was interesting, and 3 stars for me is "good" I just didn't think it merited more than that overall.

>53 Helenliz: Thank you for your excellent review! Most writers focus on Jack the Ripper, and leave the victims ignored and faceless.

Book: 48
Title: Uncle Tungsten
Author: Oliver Sacks
Rating: ***
Why: Non-fiction
Challenge: new author, non-fiction, CAT
TIOLI Challenge #7. Read a book where the main title’s initials can be used for an acronym that can be found in a search engine

This is an unusual sort of memoir. Sacks' family was extensive and largely of a technical turn of mind. Both parents were doctors, his aunts and uncles included a lightbulb manufacturer and a biologist. And so he becomes interested in chemistry almost as a result of being surrounded by it. Uncle Dave, the lightbulb manufacturer, had samples of all sorts of filament materials and so he introduces the young Oliver to metals, their origins, their ores and their properties. From here is a brief step to general chemistry. His parents let him set up a chemistry lab in a spare room on the back of the house and from this report its a wonder that any of them made it out alive!
There is quite a lot of the history of science in here, the move from alchemy to chemistry, the development of the periodic table, the discoveries of different elements and the structure of the atom. There is a lot less about Sacks' childhood. It is almost mentioned in passing along side the shifting interest in all things chemical. He describes his school being evacuated during the first art of the war and the dreadful experience he had there, but it barely makes more than a paragraph. His brother's response to the school and the impact on him mental health is hardly more than a couple of lines. Which makes for an odd read, if I'm honest. It's not a memoir of childhood, more a memoir of an interest in chemistry. As a scientist myself, I knew (or once knew) most of the technical detail in here. In which case, for me, it was more a refresher and reminder of what makes science so enthralling. I'm not sure what the non-technical reader would make of it.

>60 Helenliz: I'm a Sacks fan, but I think I might pass on this one, given the chemical focus. I thought his memoir about his move to the US was really well done, and very open about his choices re drugs. I guess much easier to do at the end of a successful career than whilst still working/ getting known as a writer in mental health.

>61 charl08: I do wonder how it would sit with someone less technical. He writes well, I'm just not sure that the balance of subject matter worked here for a general audience.

Interesting Saturday. We rang for a wedding of the daughter of one of our ringers today - first time we've rung on all 12 bells since March last year. I am assuming that we'll (read I will) get better with some practice. It was nice to ring them all again though.

Book: 49
Title: The Grand Sophy
Author: Georgette Heyer
Rating: ****
Why: Heyer series read
Challenge: woman author, Heyer series read
TIOLI Challenge #11. Read a book with an adjective in the title

Sophy turns up at her aunt's house having been left there while her father is on a diplomatic mission to Brazil. She finds herself in a household that is at odds with itself, with one sibling being engaged to a very staid woman and another wanting to contract a marriage to a poet, which her family disapprove of. Sophy comes in and, without doing anything particularly overt, sorts out various issues. She's a very modern sounding female, having been brought up by a father mostly engaged in diplomacy and attached to Wellington's army. Hence she can ride, drive a carriage, shoot and do all manner of things that the society ladies might not do - or at least, not do in town. One can't help sympathising with her, and liking the way that she sets about things. There's no reservation about her, it's all or nothing and to hell with the consequences. The only slightly off note is her marriage partner, it sounds off to a modern ear, even though it remains a legal transaction.

>63 Helenliz: Have that Heyer on my shelf to read. Need to get to it!

>64 Tess_W: Sophy's a great character, enjoy it.

>63 Helenliz: In agreement regarding the marriage partner. I can see the appeal of The Grand Sophy but it wasn't a favourite because bossy people are so hard to deal with!

The Grand Sophy was my very first Heyer, Helen, and I agree about the marriage partner being the only slightly off note.

I love The Grand Sophy -- one of my favorite Heyers! But I like an uptight, autocratic hero, as long as he's fictional. :)

Lots of love for The Grand Sophy here. I've read others of hers but this one is still on the TBR pile. Guess I should move this up closer to the top.

>66 pamelad: as a slightly bossy person, I resemble that remark! Just joking, Sophy is far more interventionist bossy than I am.

>67 Crazymamie: ohh, that's a good one to start with.

>68 christina_reads: I like your thinking.

>69 dudes22: we seem to be pretty much in agreement, it's not a duffer and Sophy's a character alright.

There is a danger that things might just go off the rails here. The library has started allowing reservations between library branches. So I *might* have gone a bit over the top and placed more reservations than I'm going to be able to read. Ho hum.

I'm looking forward to finally finishing off the Forsyte Saga, book 9 has been waiting for 18 months.

Off the rails you say? *runs to fetch popcorn and a comfy chair*

>72 Crazymamie: Glad to be able to provide some entertainment. Have a cushion as well, I like to keep my guests comfortable. >;-)

>71 Helenliz: Ooh, fun times. Our maximum is twenty reservations...

>74 charl08: - Wow 20! I think my library is 8 (or maybe that's ebooks).

>74 charl08: Our maximum here is 20 books out too. I think the most I've ever got out at any one time on my card is 2, I know my limits! I get more than that out on my daughter's card though, but those books have a lot less writing in them :D

I don't think I've ever found the reservations limit, I have placed 8 in the last few days, several of which are already showing as "in transit".

I'm not sure how many books can have out at once either. I know I can renew a book 20 times, which is for 3 weeks each, meaning I could have one book out for 63 weeks. I fervently hope I can get to them all within that time. A few are audio books, they're not all paper books.

>77 Helenliz: I'm jealous. The loan period for my library is two weeks for new books, three for older ones, but you can only renew twice.

>78 RidgewayGirl: you know, you can always use my card again. I'm always below the limit.

>71 Helenliz: Don't even ask me - our library has a reservation limit of 50 items! It is amazing how you can scroll through the online library catalogue and put way too many books on hold before you even realise! :)

I don't know the reservation limits from Islington and I don't place that many at other libraries - they are free at Islington. But I seem to be unable to resist maxing out library cards by number of loans. Given that I use 6, mine and my partner's in 3 London boroughs, (plus the odd YA or children's book on my kids' cards as they're not really using them themselves) this is a really bad habit Islington has doubled the loan limit from 12 to 24 and I found out because I've started hitting it.

Some of my books take a while to come through and really that's fine at the moment, but it gets messy when everything turns up at the same time. I'm back to returning some books that other borrowers have asked for, then rejoining the queue, which is what I was doing before lockdown.

>81 elkiedee: >:-0 Goodness! I am clearly an amateur when it comes to library borrowing!

We pay £1.50 per reservation, so I'm reluctant to do that multiple times for the same book, if I can avoid it.

£1.50 - owwwww - my borough charges £1.15, which I think is extortionate. The reason why I mind less about returning books and trying again is because reservations are free, and also until recently because most of the collecting and returning books could be done without having to make a special journey, and pay at least another £3 in bus fares. Camden currently offers some free reservations but I don't want to pay fares just to pick up or return one book so I have to plan library outings for efficiency. I was much happier about my outing last week because I also found a few goodies in charity shops, including a good condition paperback copy of Shuggie Bain so I can return the library one on the next trip!

>82 Helenliz: Ours are free as well, as we live in a small rural town and it gives us more opportunity to access books from elsewhere. Although if there was a charge, it would keep me under control!

I'd never heard of libraries charging for reservations before. You learn something new every day :)

When I was in Leeds and when I first moved to London, the cost of library reservations wasn't much more than postage. Now I get email or phone notifications sometimes, though none sometimes, but I also log in with ridiculous frequency. But I'm a bit frustrated that Islnigton has started sending out overdue book letters by post - I could understand it if they left it a few days or weeks but why not use email or text for these if they must? Some of the letters have come for books I had returned between dispatch and receipt.

My library service has ordered copies, 4 per book, of the Booker Prize longlist, and extras of one or two they already had. I've requested some but am a bit alarmed to be second in the queue for most and first for one - if they come through too quickly I'm not going to be able to get to them for a bit.

We're a largely rural county, just a few larger towns. Lots of the library branches are small and there have been several rounds of closure threats. We pay £1.50 for a reservation, which usually means that the book has traveled between branches. I don't mind paying a small amount (compared to the price of a new book) for a book from anywhere in the county to arrive at my local branch.

I also have a thing that I will ONLY use my local branch. At one round of closures, they let slip that they counted the number of users who had only used that branch, not the number of users who used the branch at all. The assumption was that if you went to two branches, you could use either if they closed one. I think it was a flawed assumption, but if it means that by having all my reservations sent to my local branch I do anything to tilt the figures in their favour, well I'll do it.

>87 Helenliz: Eek, that is an outrageous assumption about using more than one branch, and I can see why you make a point of only using the local one. There are all kinds of reasons why people might use more than one branch, and perhaps even more so in a rural and/or countywide service where users may have to commute for work/school, or combine a library trip with other things such as going to the shops or meeting friends/ family "in town" or (before the pandemic) attending activities and groups.

>88 elkiedee: It is, isn't it. But knowing their twisted little minds, the least I can do is work the system. >:-)

In other news, I am now half way through Jerusalem. It remains a book that can be described as weight training.

Book: 50
Title: Settling Scores
Author: various
Rating: ***
Why: It was light!
Challenge: Misc.
TIOLI Challenge #6: Read a book that has something on the cover that is mentioned in the title

A not entirely successful collection. I think a lot of these are almost too short to fit in a mystery, a detection and any kind of resolution. There is a wide range of authors, most of which I'd not previously heard of. Linking them by the fact that the story or title contains a reference to a sport is also somewhat tenuous. It was light enough, but I can't say that very many really stood out. The Holmes example and the story focussed on The Boat Race were probably the pick of the bunch.

Book: 51
Title: Shakespearean
Author: Robert McCrum
Rating: ****
Why: Audio
Challenge: Non-fiction, new author
TIOLI Challenge #1: Read a book with a “furniture vocabulary word” in the title or in the first paragraph of Chapter One or its equivalent.

This is an interesting thesis, interspersed with personal recollection and ongoing discussion of Shakespeare's relevance to later times.
The books takes a generally chronological approach to Shakespeare's literary output, The general idea is that Shakespeare wrote during times of great upheaval and disruption. That sense of either reflecting or providing an antidote to his times is partly why he resonates today. The turmoil can reflect turmoil of a different time and place, or the bucolic can provide a contrast and comfort. The idea that at certain times different plays rise and fall in popularity was quite startling to me.
I'm not sure I followed the entire line of argument, I listened to this and it took me at least a month of commutes to finish it, which was maybe too long. Having said that, A plan to listen to more Shakespeare has already resulted in a couple of library reservations being placed - watch this space.

Book: 52
Title: Yesterday
Author: Juan Emar
Rating: ***
Why: Peirene book, and the next one is due soon!
Challenge: Translation, new author
TIOLI Challenge #3. Read a book with a word in the title that implies a measurement of time

This is completely mad. Surreal, maybe. In theory it tells the events that happened yesterday to our narrator and his wife as they spend a day in the city. The go from a execution, to the zoo, to lunch, to a painter's studio to a waiting room, to dinner, to his parents house, to a bar and finally home to bed. At each of these locations he describes the events, at times in great detail. They usually start off seeming sensible and, at some point, take a dive into the fantastical part way through. The first chapter is quite gory and unpleasant. An execution on its own would be bad enough, this one take a dark turn that's not easy to read.
It seems to me that the narrator is looking for something spiritual and for the events of the day to communicate something to him. I'm not certain that I know what it is.

Book: 53
Title: The Wife's Tale
Author: Aida Edemariam
Rating: ***
Why: Shelterbox book (late! discussion was last week)
Challenge: New author, woman author, non-fiction
TIOLI Challenge #4. Read a book that starts with the definite article

This is a book that manages to be interesting without actually being terribly engaging. It is an account of the author's grandmother's life, taken from interviews over 20 years. It seems to wander about in tense and in the person, at times grandmother is "she" at others she is referred to by name. In the final portion of the book, the author appears in the first person and starts describing people by her relationship to them. It makes for a book that is hard to follow in places.
The chronology is also hard to follow. The books is divided into a number of years, but things like the interval between the children's births is never really described in detail (until the chronology at the end, by which time it;s to late). And I understand that is how you'd discuss life in memory, but it makes for a story that is curiously un-rooted. Then there are the many religious passages, which seemed to have barely any relationship to the events before or after their insertion. I'm not sure what they were supposed to contribute.
Having said that, it is a tale from a completely different time and culture and she lives through an awful lot in her 98 years. Married young to a man in his 30s there are hints of abuse, but it's in passing, as if it were normal. Then there are the impact of national and international events on the rural corner of Ethiopia, the Italian invasion, a couple of revolutions, a famine and through it all she survives. I liked the way she embraced technology like the radio and telephone, with delight.
It has a lot to interest the reader, I'm just not sure that the execution presents the material in the most engaging manner.

Book: 54
Title: Plum
Author: Hollie McNish
Rating: ****
Why: Audio
Challenge: New author, woman author, CAT
TIOLI Challenge #2: Read a book published between 1930 and 2021

I listened to this, as read by the author, and I think it enhanced the experience. The rhythm of the text, the pauses and speed, is probably quite different that that I would apply when reading. I think this works.
As a collection it included material from her childhood as well as her later years. Some are quite topical, some refer to wider issues. Some might date quite badly, but the references were mostly familiar to me. She has a social conscious and that manifests itself in the environmental and feminist elements. At times she is angry young woman - but the world needs more of them, so more power to her writing elbow on that one. There is use of slang and swear words, but then that reflects modern usage, and didn't bother me unduly.
There are sparks of humour and at times I had a sudden jolt of recognition at what she was describing.

"Reading" poetry this way is a great idea. I've recently downloaded two library ebook apps but I'm not sure how much poetry the libraries' e-audiobook collections include.

Book: 55
Title: The Luckiest Guy Alive
Author: John Cooper Clarke
Rating: ***
Why: Audio
Challenge: New author, short pieces
TIOLI Challenge #6: Read a book that has something on the cover that is mentioned in the title

I'm a late comer to the work of John Cooper Clarke, first becoming acquainted with him on the radio 6 music show he has a weekly feature on. In this collection of 2018 there are a variety of poems in his inimitable style. I listened to this, as read by the author and it was an engaging way to spend a commute home. And short enough that I finished it in one journey.
Some of the ideas in here are fabulously inventive, The Hanging Gardens of Basildon and Trouble in't Mall being two that tickled my funny bone. But the one that made me laugh out loud was the last of the collection of 6 haiku in no particular order.
Some of the repetition gets a bit tedious when listening to the collection in one go, you don't notice it so much when it is just a single piece. The inventive rhyming and rhythm of the text is certainly worth listening to by the author - I know some of the words wouldn't rhyme if I said them in my distinctly non-Salfordian accent!

>95 elkiedee: It really is! I've found that the library collection through BorrowBox has a reasonable number to choose from, and a range of authors. I've listened to more poetry in the last year or so than I've read in a long time.

>96 Helenliz: - I have not heard of John Cooper Clarke but you have me intrigued...

>98 katiekrug: He might be a bit of an acquired taste, I could imagine some people not getting on with him, He started a a punk poet in the 70s, has a long history of substance abuse and uses, ahem, both earthy anglo saxon and dialect in his work.

An example:
The Hanging Gardens of Basildon

Bluebirds sang our favourite tune
That scented summer’s afternoon
When the shadows vanish and the flowers swoon

It’s her sweet smile what dazzled ’em
By the, er, Hanging Gardens of Basildon

So long Charlene, see ya Shirl’
I’m stronging it with an Essex girl
One of the several wonders of the world

Turn left at Dagenham
For the, er, Hanging Gardens of Basildon

The Red-Wood Forest is a bunch of sticks
The Wall of China is just a pile of bricks
The Pyramids mean less than nix

It’s the A-13 I travel on
To the Hanging Gardens…

I beg your pardon?
I said the Hanging Gardens…
Of Baden-Baden?
No…
The Hanging Gardens of Basildon

A few years ago my local council (under the leader before last and one of her sidekicks) was pursuing a rather strange vanity project, funding a project that claimed to be selling a healthier alternative to chicken and chips, missing lots of points (prices, location, and other questions of business viability etc). When googling media coverage of this and other things, I came across a John Cooper Clarke poem with a rather rude title, but including the word Chickentown. Basically, every other word seemed to be an expletive beginning with F.

>100 elkiedee: this collection wasn't quite that bad, but there were f's and c's present. I know it puts some people off, so it's only fair to warn.

How very very odd. But then councils often do what seems to be incomprehensible!

Book: 56
Title: Pantosaurus and the Power of Pants
Author: Rebecca Gerlings & Fhiona Galloway
Rating: ***
Why: Crowdfunded
Challenge: New author, short pieces
TIOLI Challenge #6. Read a book that has something on the cover that is mentioned in the title

A crowdfunded book produced by the NSPCC to gently encourage adults to be able to talk about abuse in a way that the 4 - 8 age group can take on board.

Pantosaurus gets some new pants from DinoDad, and they have a super power. It's brightly illustrated and reinforces the message a couple of times.

I am not 4 to 8 and I don't have children, so I'm not the target audience in any way. If this helps any child, then it was worth the donation to make this happen.

Available from the NSPCC: https://shop.nspcc.org.uk/products/pants?_pos=1&_sid=2b9caa75f&_ss=r

Book: 57
Title: The Absolute Book
Author: Elizabeth Knox
Rating: **
Why: Subscription (and I will be having words about this one)
Challenge: New author, female author, Bingo
TIOLI Challenge #7. Read a book with the word "BOOK" in the title

I don;t know what to make of this. At times the writing was quite entrancing, but it utterly fails to make a coherent whole. At times it felt like she'd written two books, with overlapping characters and had just thrown the chapters up in the air and simply organised them as they'd landed.
I get an idea of what it is trying to do, at its heart it is a quest story. They are looking for an item that Taryn remembers from her grandfather's library, which is, itself, indestructible, having been through any number of library fires and disasters. The story takes her from the world we know to one peopled by a people who aren't quite people, exiles from somewhere else who pay a price for their land - and for having taken it from someone else. Then there are demons and and trip to purgatory,
Further mixed up are tales of someone who might be Merlin, gods of various places and their helpers. It is a bit of mess, really. I felt that the leaps in time and land were, at times, a trick that was being overused.
And it still doesn't explain why Beatrice died. I finished it, but I can't recommend that you start it.

>103 Helenliz: So no, then. Thanks for taking one for the team, Helen.

"I finished it, but I can't recommend that you start it." This made me laugh.

>104 Crazymamie: It's a no. Glad that someone got some enjoyment from my suffering. Although it would be better if I could rid myself of the obsessive need to finish every book I start.

I wonder when I last DNF'd...

I used to be the same way, Helen. Now I just chuck them aside without any angst because life is short.

Answering my own question, February 2019, apparently.

Whoa.

I have little compunction about casting aside a book that isn't working for me at the moment. It may well work for me later!

You know all those reservations I placed? Well a bundle of them arrived at once:



Plus Antony & Cleopatra, which I left in the car for my next commute.
Oh dear...

Nice! I just started listening to Memento Mori the other day! Serendipity! I love that you have North and South in that stack - that might be my favorite read of the year so far. I cannot make out the very top book title.

I wonder who finally convinced me that it was time to get to North and South? hmm???
Top one is Over the River the last of the Forsyte books. Only been waiting 18 months for that one.

>112 Helenliz: LOL. Enjoy!

>112 Helenliz: *grin* And thanks for providing that title. 18 months - WOW!

>114 Crazymamie: Ahh, I have checked dates and I exaggerate slightly. I finished book 8 in April 2020, just after Covid lockdown. The library closed. Even when they re-opened at various times they weren't doing transfers between libraries as the drivers had been reassigned to things like taking food to those who were isolating or otherwise unable to leave home. Which I can understand. So It's been 16 months since I finished the previous book in the series and only have this one left to go. It was first on the list when reservations were re-introduced. I will finish the series!

>103 Helenliz: Hmm, seems there are two Elizabeth Knox's. I liked the one who wrote The Vintner's Luck.

>116 Caroline_McElwee: If LT is right, this is the same author.

Book: 58
Title: A Wizard's Guide to defensive Baking
Author: T Kingfisher
Rating: *****
Why: Some one hit me with a bullet...
Challenge: New author, female author,
TIOLI Challenge #13. Read a book for the Readers Imbibing Peril challenge

This is well nigh perfect! Mona is a 14 yr old baker, working at her aunt Tabitha's bakery. Mona's quite a good baker, partly because she's got a magic ability to control bread and other baked goods. This presents itself in a couple of ways, Bob the sourdough starter and the dancing Gingerbread man are just two. The book starts with Mona discovering a dead body (that's not a spoiler, it is literally line 1) and so her problems start - being a suspect of murder, then a prospective victim, then having the weight of the world on her shoulders before finally being forced into the role of hero - it's a lot for a 14 year old to take on board.
I loved so much about this. It's snigger-inducingly funny at times, the asides to the reader being full of teenage sass. Mona herself is a star. narrated in the first person, you get to hear what's going on in her head, and it is exactly as mixed up, self doubting, assertive, scared, dependent, wistful, angry, independent and generally teen-age as I remember being at that age - and why I'd not wish myself back there for anything! The inventiveness of the magic ability being limited to a specific thing or task was just superb. Mona can magic bread, she meets someone who can magic water. Then there is Knackering Molly who's magic is most esoteric, she can cause a dead horse to raise itself and walk to the knackers yard - for six pence. Just how random and inventive is that! And feels far more real than being able to magic everything - we all have certain skills, why should that not also exist in the magical world?
Then there is the supporting cast. Mona has a sidekick in Spindle, who is a street urchin who gets her into and out of all sorts of scrapes. He is classic little brother type and you both want to hug him and cuff him around the ear all at once. The Duchess, who rules - well sort of - and hasn't known what has been going on in her city. There's an array of people here, and while some of them a a bit cookie-cutter, there are enough characters that feel real for this to work.
When it comes the denouement is horribly tense and you feel the weight of expectation on Mona as she feels obliged to do what she can. It is not above piling on the emotional pressure either.
I also like the slightly subversive element of Mona stepping up to the plate while feeling that it really shouldn't have been her that was put in this situation and that someone should have done something long before it fell to her to save the day. the chat with Uncle Albert about being a hero was particularly stark.
Possibly it's reaction against my previous dire read, but this was fan-bloody-tastic and I will be rushing a copy in the hands of every tweenie I know.

GO OUT AND READ IT!!!

I can't even remember who hit me with this bullet. I bought it in April, as part of my birthday/thingaversary and I think I'd seen it reviewed not so very long before that, so March/April time. Thanks to the unknown person.

This does sound fun, might have to look it up in the library catalogues. Is this a kid's book (children's and YA fiction = free reservations and no fines on my sons' library cards if Haringey has them - they don't read as much as I did when I was their age).

>119 elkiedee: I would expect it to be shelved as Older child or Young Adult, yes. Protagonist is 14 and I'd have thought it would suit the 12-14 age group.
Certainly one to use on son's card, hoping that the library has it.

>118 Helenliz: I've heard lots about that one - I wonder if my husband has it? He does have a few of her other books.

>103 Helenliz: Congratulations on finishing. I may not have had the same sticking power!

>110 Helenliz: That's a lot of holds to arrive all at once but all great choices. I listened to The Thursday Murder Club audiobook but although I love the narrator Lesley Manville as an actor, I found her narration was indistinct. I'm still waiting for my hold of the print book.

Antony and Cleopatra was one of my A level texts, probably my favourite one - I was a little bit obsessed. I borrowed recordings of both plays from the Music Library (part of the Central Library set up) on vinyl and made tapes which I could listen to repeatedly in the hope of remembering enough to be able to include useful quotations in my exam answers.

I can't remember whiIch part or which play but one of the cast lists included a Pamela Brown and I always wondered whether this was the same actress who wrote a series of children's books about acting starting with The Swish of the Curtain. Several teenagers and the tween sister of one of the girls set up their own theatre to put on plays in the first book.

I borrowed it for a while and renewed it several times (Islington has enough copies in paperback and hardback to meet other reservations), but I've got my own charity shop find copy of The Thursday Murder Club now, so I'm prioritising the books I can't renew, especially as there will be fines again from 1 October, and also because I feel guilty if I've got the one copy in the system. I just collected a book which has a queue of 15 people waiting after me - only Klara and the Sun has a larger queue but there are 12 copies in the system and 4 on order since the Booker longlist was announced.

>110 Helenliz: Go with the Poldark and enjoy!

>121 Jackie_K: ohh, go look! It was just what I needed. I'm really fussy when it comes to fantasy and magic. No rule breaking occurred in this one.

>122 VivienneR: It's my own fault. The library stopped doing transfers between libraries when we went into first lockdown, last March. They restarted the beginning of August and it is just possible that I went a bit mad placing reservations. Typically, a whole bundle then arrived all at once. *rolls eyes*

>123 elkiedee: You know that Shakespeare wrote two types of plays, yes? The one you did at school and all the others! I listened to the Robert McCrumm book Shakespearean recently and it made me realise how few of the plays I've seen or read. I've not read a play since I was at school, so I thought listening to them might be an easier way to approach them. Antony & Cleopatra was first, alphabetically. SO I'm going to work my way through the library's stock that way.

I suspect I'll need to get through The Thursday Murder Club without renewing, so that will be higher on the list.

>124 Tess_W: She'll have to wait a bit. I'm finishing Galsworthy's Forsyte series first.

I think your challenge for next year could be to DNF a book a month...

>118 Helenliz: sounds like fun, fingers crossed my library can find a copy.

>126 charl08: >:-o I'm not sure that's ever going to happen!!

I hope they do, it really was a fun read.

>124 Tess_W: I second Tess. Poldark all the way.

>127 Helenliz: Oh go on.

And from your stack I liked the Ali Smith a lot, and the Osman made me laugh out loud several times.

>118 Helenliz: Richard read it this year and hit Rhian and I with BBs for that one, and we both read it this year, so maybe you saw it on one of our threads. Very fun and clever, wasn't it?

>130 Crazymamie: I know he did, but I bought it before he reviewed it, so it must have been someone else. I just can't remember who... It was excellent. And with enough peril and dark edges that it wasn't fluffy.

>129 charl08:. No. There's a challenge and there's mount impossible... I know my limits!
I have the Ali Smith in paperback, but I like listening to short stories in the car, so I think it will work. I've heard generally positive reports on the Osman.

I enjoyed the Osman recently, and loved The Stranger Times.

>132 Jackie_K: Yup, you're the bullet source for that one!

Book: 59
Title: Antony and Cleopatra
Author: William Shakespeare
Rating: ***
Why: I had an idea (never good)
Challenge: Misc.
TIOLI Challenge #14: Read a book with a shade of red or orange among the First words

Inspired by having read Shakespearean earlier in the year, I determined to listen to those Shakespeare plays I could find in the library. This is the first alphabetically (you got to start somewhere).
It is also one I know next to nothing about and next time I would read the synopsis and character list first - that would have helped somewhat.
Anyway on to the play. I think that Cleopatra deserves an epitaph along the lines of nothing became her in life so much as leaving. Through the play she doesn't always display in the best light, her behaviour towards the bearer of bad tidings is unkind and her jealousy towards Mark Antony's wives is beneath her. However she certainly comes into her own in the final scene and makes an exit that is nothing if not memorable.
Mark Antony doesn't quite finish on the same high. He takes an inordinate time to finish the deal. He comes over as torn between his desire and duty and never manages to make a decision which side he is actually on until the last - and even then he needs to be pushed.
It is highly likely that I've missed any amount of nuance and subtlety in this, but it was an enjoyable listen, I just know I need to do a smidge more home work next time.

I admire your project of listening to Shakespeare's plays, but have no wish to imitate it :)

>134 Helenliz: Alphabetical, I never thought of that! Several years ago I started reading Shakespeare and I read the comedies first, I don't think my way was good, because they are all mostly blurred together, now. Antony and Cleopatra is one of my favorite tragedies. If you want to read more about the pair, The Memoirs of Cleopatra by Margaret George is superb, but a very high page count. Also, Colleen McCollough has several books focused on the pair in her Masters of Rome series. Happy reading!

>136 Tess_W: it's a function of the options to sort the library catalogue. I can sort by date published (of the item, not original publication), "relevance" (whatever that might be), author (not much help) and title. Sort by title seemed the obvious way to know which one I wanted next - I just work my way down the list! A set of 3 comedies has been reserved next.

>135 katiekrug: It's a project in its infancy - you watch me get bored...

Book: 60
Title: Over the River
Author: John Galsworthy
Rating: ****
Why: Forsyte saga FINISHED!!
Challenge: Misc.
TIOLI Challenge #12. Read a book where the title implies a journey of some kind

This book focuses on Dinny & Clare. They are both having romance issues of very different types. Dinny is still holding a torch for Wilfred, while Clare has left her husband and is being sued for divorce. They are support by the usual cast of family and friends.
In the early books in the series, I said that I didn't think that Galsworthy could write women very well, but in Dinny he redeems himself. She is entirely believable and utterly human. I like her.
As an end this is an optimistic conclusion to a series that doesn't always see affairs of the heart turn out well.

>134 Helenliz: In a moment of enthusiasm I got a combined Shakespeare as a book prize at school (we got to choose at the bookshop). Twenty plus years later it still sits on the shelf unloved. So kudos.

>138 Helenliz: ~gasp~ I didn't think anyone read the whole series. I stopped after To Let. Congrats on finishing!

>140 ELiz_M: Thank you. It took a certain amount of stamina to get through the Fleur books - she was quite hard work. The beginning and end is better than the middle.

>139 charl08: I've listened to one so far. There were 39 plays in the first folio, so there's some way to go before I earn much in the way of kudos.

>138 Helenliz: I've read all of the Forsyte Chronicles more than once. My mental, 'pictorial' view of many of the characters was strongly influenced by the original TV adaptation - first shown in the late 60s? - and I finally listened to the whole series on audio a few years ago. That was spread over eight years, I was surprised to see from my LT records. I am always amazed that Soames, who starts as a despicable, though of-his-time character - villain, even - has me in tears at his death.

>142 CDVicarage: I know what you mean about Soames, your sympathies do evolve as the books progress. Even Fleur seems less annoying in the last books than the middle sequence.

Today is charter fair day, at which the library has a stall to raise funds. And I have made my speciality, chocolate cornflake cakes.
Help yourselves

>144 Helenliz: - Ooh, yummy!

>144 Helenliz: The mating of the honey joy and the chocolate crackle? They look better than either.

>146 pamelad: no idea! It's melted chocolate with golden syrup and butter mixed into cornflakes. Simple as pie, yummy as anything!

>144 Helenliz: Tempting! I bet they didn't last long.

>148 charl08: I'm not sure, but they don't usually hang around for long.
I had to go out in the afternoon, so I just dropped off the tub and left. I also didn't save any for me, which might have been a mistake!

>144 Helenliz: Oh yum!

>144 Helenliz: They are the easiest thing in the world to make, and instantly transport me back to childhood! I'd happily eat my bodyweight in chocolate cornflake cakes!

>138 Helenliz: Congratulations on finishing The Forsyte Saga! It seemed like a huge project when I made plans to read beyond the first three books but when I finished it didn't seem like a big deal.

Like >143 Helenliz: my influence was from the original 1960s TV series which was fabulous. It was shot in black and white and therefore was not considered for reruns as colour TV became more common. (Imagine, I can remember b&w TV, that makes me feel old!)

>149 Helenliz: Definitely a mistake not to save any chocolate cornflake cakes for yourself. Now you'll have to make an entire batch - or was that your intention all along?

>151 Jackie_K: I know - it's not a very technically difficult speciality! Me too, which might be why they all went to the library sale.

>152 VivienneR:, yes I am old enough to remember B&W TV, but not old enough to remember the 60s.
Nope, none for me. Once I start I'd never stop!

>153 Helenliz: Well, in the future just sent your share to me!

>147 Helenliz: I hadn't realised that chocolate crackles and honey joys were local to Australia/New Zealand. Clearly the British and Antipodean breakfast cereal confections have evolved separately.

>155 pamelad: Yup, they're unknown to us. Now I'm intrigued as to what they might be!

Book: 61
Title: The Thursday Murder Club
Author: Richard Osman
Rating: ***
Why: Library book
Challenge: New author
TIOLI Challenge #1. Read a book, in which the last three letters of the author's first name or last name, spelled backwards, form a real word which can be found in dictionary.com

This is good, but no more than that. The setting is a retirement complex, and the Thursday murder club meet in the Jigsaw room on Thursdays to review cold cases of a retired police officer. When the book starts, Penny is in a coma and Elizabeth recruits Joyce, a former nurse, to join them. They then find themselves with an actual murder, related to the complex and the next phase of development.
The murder happens very early, and the 4 elderly leads don't have time to bed in as characters before they're swept along by the tide of events. Which take a turn to the increasingly far-fetched with the discovery of an additional skeleton in a grave and a second murder.
The mostly elderly cast are curiously ageless in their energy and willingness to just get up and go. There are some concerns here and there, but they almost seem planted to remind you that this person is (nominally) in their late 70s or 80s. I'm also not sure that the solution actually captures all of the facts that are presented along the way, I feel sure there's a plot hole in there, but will refrain from telling you what it is.
It's inventive, for sure, it's amusing and there is light and shade. By all means read it, but don't go in expecting greatness.

The mostly elderly cast are curiously ageless in their energy and willingness to just get up and go.

Something to aspire to!

Book: 62
Title: Shakespeare's Sonnets
Author: William Shakespeare
Rating: ****
Why: Audio
Challenge: Short pieces
TIOLI Challenge #1 Read a book, in which the last three letters of the author's first name or last name, spelled backwards, form a real word which can be found in dictionary.com

This was narrated by multiple narrators, the great and good of the acting profession and it was a delight to listen to. If I was going to quibble, the volume level was a little uneven, and some seemed to have been recorded in a huge, empty auditorium. I also think that it might have benefited from allowing a little longer between each sonnet, or giving the number for each one.
Having said that, the craftmanship in here is exquisite. The words, the use of language, the way the stresses on a repeated word changed as it was used multiple times in a sonnet, it all makes for a beautiful listening experience. I also noticed that the tone changes as you move through the sequence. The initial ones feel very young and idealistic, then there moves into a period of death or loss featuring and towards the end there seems to be a bitter or disappointed note creeping in at times. I now want to find a copy with some scholarly notes on each one and read them all over again allowing myself to savour each one.
This Shakespeare chappie, he's good!

>157 Helenliz: - I have The Thursday Murder CLub on my Kindle. I will temper my expectations :)

>158 pamelad: True, I suppose. It made them feel like they weren't very real, though.

>160 katiekrug: I'm probably just being a grumpy guts, loads of people seem to be raving about it. To me it wasn't up to Golden Age standards - which is, I know, setting the bar quite high.

OK, Hive mind, I need your input. 2022 sees me hit a significant milestone birthday Starts with a prime number, ends with 0 but is not yet my allotted three score years and ten.
For some reason this is freaking me out in a way that turning 40 didn't. For 40 I ran a marathon and I am in no way on earth doing that again!
I was thinking of making a year to do 50 things, giving me something to concentrate on, rather than fret about it too much. I did think read a book from each year I've been alive, but as I only read 70 to 80 books a year, I thought that might be a bit limiting. One per decade would be probably more doable.

Any ideas of 50 things to do? Not necessary all reading ones, something to stretch me a little bit out of my middle class, middle aged comfort zone would be possible. Maybe. Or not. Clearly I reserve the right to ignore all ideas presented!

Things I've always wanted to do: take dance lessons, test drive a Lotus or a Ferrari, throw your own birthday party--your ideal party!, camp on a beach overnight and skinny dip when it gets dark, buy an exotic houseplant that isn't grown in your area, spend a weekend at a luxury spa with all the whistles and bells!

>162 Helenliz: I hit that milestone a couple of years ago, and my plan was to do one thing per month for the whole year that would be a special treat for just me (although I was happy if others were involved too!). Life got in the way so I didn't do very many, but intend to try again when I hit 60 (which I am in no way whatsoever ready for!). Ideas included meeting up with a friend I'd not seen for ages, a special meal, a long weekend somewhere I'd always fancied, maybe a series of classes doing something relaxing, going to a gig, that sort of thing. I felt that trying to do 50 different things in a year (ie nearly one a week) would just be too stressful (and expensive!), but one a month felt more manageable. I didn't start thinking of things till after I turned 50 and life got in the way and I ended up only doing 3 or 4, but for 60 I think I'll start planning it the year before so I already know I have things to look forward to (hopefully that will take the sting out of the actual number!).

Visit a "book town" like Hay or Wigtown and buy 50 books! :D

>165 rabbitprincess: - Ooo - good one!

Not knowing how much money might be allocated - seeing a band, play, sporting event that you've always wished to.

I like the idea of one thing a month just for you. It could range from sort of extravagant (weekend at a spa?) to more just indulgent (spend a weekend doing nothing but reading?).

>164 Jackie_K: Sounds as if you're pretty much the same age as me, Jackie. Those treats sound like a good idea if affordable in money and time.

I made my best ever New Year's resolution in 2006 - actually I don't normally make them - this wasn't to give up anything but I felt I'd never really done enough seeing live music, or the gigs I wanted to see - I'd gone to a few things as a student, a couple of free festivals etc, but not that really that much. I didn't yet have children but was had started trying for a baby. I dragged my partner along to some things but also went on my own. In early September I realised I was pregnant - perhaps 5 or 6 weeks, and my first baby was due in April, born in May the following year. We did take him to an open air free event which happened to coincide with part of a holiday in San Francisco, and I've been to very small number of gigs since, but it was much harder with babies and although they're now older, I currently have even less disposable income than I did then.

>169 elkiedee: Yes, affordability is important, that's why one of the things I did manage to do was an afternoon wandering round Edinburgh with a friend who was over on holiday from Australia (so not someone I saw often!). Actually the end of my 'year of treats' came in mid-2020, so I wouldn't have been able to complete it anyway, thanks to everyone's favourite virus. Sigh. Hopefully they'll have got covid manageable by 2029...

Could you go and visit lots of places (eg National Trust) that you've always meant to see? I like the year long (once a month) plan - make the celebrations last!

ohhh - you're an inventive lot. Might have to have a bit of a mull over this.

Take a course in something fun online (coursea?) or in person (wine-tasting, pie-making, meditation, whatever)
Volunteer/charity work
Get involved - write letters to local politicians, letters to the editor, etc
Support the arts - attend one performance a month (plays, music, poetry readings, museums)
Go global - choose a handful of countries and find a restaurant that makes their food, read a book or watch a film set in/about said country
Reconnect - send birthday cards to friends/family you've fallen out of touch with, include a photo of the two of you
Get out - plan day trips to botanic gardens, seaside, bookstores, distillery tours
Fun money - set aside funds that can only be used for impulse purchases or a splurge

>173 ELiz_M: mm, yet more good ideas.

After the comments I've come round to thinking that 50 is too many and that 1 a month might be more manageable. So thanks for reigning in the over enthusiasm! Might add a year long reading one along side the activities.

I know someone who works for a charity working with deaf and the hard of hearing, so I'm thinking I might try a course in Sign Language. I learnt to sign the alphabet as a girl guide and can still remember that, so maybe that's a head start.

And there's a cookery school not too far away that does day courses. I'm thinking the one on afternoon tea might be fun. Scones, cakes tarts and the like. I'm complete rubbish at pastry, so it could easily go either way! And he likes scones, so it wouldn't go to waste...

Tryng to get in a theatre trip is a good one - not been in absolutely ages - and that was before Covid when I had no excuse. This could easily be several months, taking into account different performance types.

I'm thinking something sporty and adventurous might be on the agenda because I am neither.

Mulling will continue.

Hello, Helen! I'm loving all of the ideas here. I don't think 50 is too many if you include small things like trying a new tea or cooking a new recipe. So maybe twelve bigger things - one for each month and then 38 small things if you want an actual total of 50. Whatever you decide, I know it will be fun.

You are making me want to turn 50 again and plan some exciting events to participate in! Whatever you decide, have fun and enjoy. And in case you think 50 is a bad thing - my fifties were one of my most favorite decades. Old enough to do exactly what I wanted to do and having both the health and funds to do it!

>175 Crazymamie: You're an evil temptress, Mamie. But I get what you mean. hmm, that idea might have legs.

>176 DeltaQueen50: I've not been bothered by any milestone until now. Not sure why 50 has given me the wibbles. But I will take your words of wisdom on board.

>177 Helenliz: I've not been bothered by milestones either, but I am already struggling with the thought of 60, and I've still got 8 years to go!

So far my 50s have been fine (if we don't mention the creaky knees...).

>174 Helenliz: If I lived closer to you I would be happy to help you eat the practice scones ;) And learning sign language is a great idea!

>179 rabbitprincess: you might not! I tried to make a batch some time ago and they were significantly more weighty than a scone is supposed to be.

Book: 63
Title: Flesh and Bone and Water
Author: Luiza Sauma
Rating: ***
Why: Shelterbox book club
Challenge: New author, Woman author, CAT.
TIOLI Challenge #8. Read a book where the authors last name has 7 characters or less

This is just a bit meh. All middle aged and middle class and complacently so. Andre lives in London, with his wife & 2 daughters when a letter arrives from his native Brazil that turns his head. It is from his former maid, and he had a relationship with her when in Brazil as a teenager. We hear about the summer he turned 18 in his memory and his relationships with the world around him. It is all told very uncritically - at no point does he wonder about the fate of the black maids that do everything for his family and the families of his friends. He is annoying and self absorbed, but then I suppose most 17/18 year olds are. He does very little growing up in the course of the book, and shows little sign of it as an adult either.
Not sure it has much to recommend it apart from the beautiful scenery.

>181 Helenliz: I thought this sounds a bit familiar: turns out I've read it. It turns out I wrote a short review too, so I can add that I was not that impressed either.

I think I'm going to steal the trying new foods thing for my next birthday year. I had fun trying out as many chocolate without milk options as I could find online, can recommend that!

>182 charl08: Good to know it wasn't just me then. I feel bad about not liking a book.

Book: 64
Title: The Quiet Gentleman
Author: Georgette Heyer
Rating: ****1/2
Why: Heyer series read
Challenge: Woman author, Heyer Series read
TIOLI Challenge #8. Read a book where the authors last name has 7 characters or less

Ahh, this is excellent. Gervase returns to his ancestral pile to a less than warm welcome from his step mother and half brother. Martin has long anticipated being the heir, and with Gervase at war in Spain, that was always a possibility. But has he started to take matters into his own hands? Is it such a big step form hoping that Gervase would not come back to taking steps to put him out of the way???
The tale is muddied by the presence of the delectable Marianne Bolderwood. There seem to be many rivals for her hand, and Martin does himself no favours in that direction either.
In the fairly small family party there is also Miss Morville, whose parents have enlightened views (although Mrs Morville turns out to have a fine grasp of the difference between theory and practice). Miss Morville is one of the those thoroughly sensible and practical young ladies, who doesn't swoon or do anything so melodramatic, and so fades into the background and just forms part of the furniture. Fortunately for her, her excellent qualities are spotted, although she does manage to swoon just at the right moment.
Part of me feels sorry for Gervase, having stepped into an uncomfortable situation not of his making, but he rises to the occasion quite admirably and sets out to work out what exactly is going on in the family pile - and who it is wants him out of the way.
A thoroughly enjoyable escapade all round.