Sakerfalcon continues to battle Mount TBR in 2021

Happy new year everyone! I hope it will be better in every way for all of us.

Thank you to everyone who commented on my thread last year and who hit me with book bullets. As usual I hope that my reading will exceed my book purchasing, but as always I expect to fail.

My main reading interests are Science fiction and Fantasy, Classic children's books (especially school and pony stories), and 20th century women's writing, particularly titles published by Virago and Persephone. But I"m a bit of a magpie and some odd things do take my fancy every now and then.

This year I'm going to try the Helmet reading challenge again, which led me to some good books last year. This year's categories promise some interesting reading.
Helmet Reading Challenge

I started keeping a reading journal a few years ago when I realised that I was reading so many books so quickly that I didn't remember anything about some of them a few months later. I tend to have 3 or 4 books on the go at any time - one for commuting, one to read in bed, one that I'll dip into while checking email and an alternative if none of the others happen to suit the mood I'm in.

I live in London, UK and like to travel to new places, both in real life and in books. Welcome!

I'd love to be one of those super-organised people who finishes all their in-progress books on New Year's Eve and so can start afresh on January 1st. But I'm not, so here is what I'm currently reading:

Red comet the new biography of Sylvia Plath, which is excellent so far.
A peculiar peril by Jeff Vandermeer. This is his first YA novel, and I'm not finding it terribly engaging. He has literally thrown in everything but the kitchen sink, with no logic to it at all. There's surreal, and then there's a mess. So far this is the latter. But I will finish it ...
Such a fun age by Kiley Reid. A satirical novel that examines race relations in C21st USA.

Happy 2021 reading thread. I am looking forward to your commentary and your recommendations.

Happy new year Claire! Looking forward to more reading recommendations from you in 2021.

I'd love to be one of those super-organised people who finishes all their in-progress books on New Year's Eve and so can start afresh on January 1st. But I'm not... Don't worry. I'm not either.

But this is a good way to start 2021!

Happy New Year, Claire! I look forward to your thoughts about Such a Fun Age, as well as the Sylvia Plath biography.

Happy New Year!

>1 Sakerfalcon: Happy new year, I hope you have a wonderful 2021! I look forward to seeing what you pick to fill the Helmet challenge prompts.

>2 Sakerfalcon: Haha, I can’t imagine planning to finish all in-progress books on New Year’s Eve! Much less succeeding. Actually, this past year I did finish my current book on New Year’s Eve, but it just happened to fall that way. And then I started another book that same evening and so messed up my clean cut-off anyway. :)

>2 Sakerfalcon: & >8 YouKneeK: There have been years when I didn't start a book I couldn't finish by the end of the year. I would read magazines, websites or watch movies. This year, I had two chapters left by midnight. So, first book finished in the new year!

Happy New Year and happy reading, Claire! I look forward to another year of exchanging friendly fire with you. ;)

>9 MrsLee: I think I see more appeal in having such an early finish to start the new year off with. :)

I’m useless at keeping track of whom I’ve wished Happy New Year to, so Happy New Year, just in case.

Happy new year!

Happy New Year, Claire! Too bad the Vandermeer is a mess; hope it gets better. I loved his Area X books, but so far none of his other books have hooked me into finishing them.

Happy New Year & Thread!

And...with regard to Vandermeer, I couldn't get through his first three novels that were supposed to be so great. Can't remember why exactly, but I was basically bored and felt manipulated as a reader.

Happy New Year - may you find many books to enjoy this year and may life be kind.

Wishing you piles of amazing reads and loads of happiness for all of 2021, Claire.

Found your thread, starred!

>3 pgmcc:, >4 souloftherose:, >5 jillmwo:, >7 majkia:, >10 Marissa_Doyle:, >12 haydninvienna:, >13 Narilka:, >16 Peace2:, >17 clamairy:, >18 fuzzi: Welcome all! Thanks for stopping by!

>6 kidzdoc: I'm really enjoying both books so far. Such a fun age is easy to read and engaging with appealing but far from perfect characters. It's also set in Philadelphia which adds to the appeal for me. Red comet is very detailed and nuanced; the author doesn't hold to the common opinion that Plath was "destined" to take her own life, and refuses to interpret every incident of her life as a sign leading to her death.

>8 YouKneeK:, >9 MrsLee:, >11 YouKneeK: I like the idea of starting the new year with new books, if only to make my threads tidy. But somehow it never happens!

>14 Storeetllr:, >15 Bookmarque: I really love the Ambergris and Area X books, which I think is why I'm finding A peculiar peril so disappointing. It all feels a bit silly.

Found the thread! I carried three books over the year, one is my readalong with my best friend Emma, which I'm OK with as we take ages to finish one, a bit annoyed I had two others but it can't be helped! Happy reading in 2021!

If I finish a book exactly on the new year, it’s purely coincidence.

Happy new year/thread/2021 reading!

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year!

Happy new year, Claire!

>2 Sakerfalcon: If I ever manage to finish my readings on New Years Eve, it would be accidentally. I have always more than one book going, so the chance finishing them all at the same day would be close to zero.

Happy New Year and good reading!

Happy New Year and happy thread!

Thank you all! Happy new year to any of you I haven't yet greeted!

>25 FAMeulstee: Me too! I have very occasionally managed to finish a couple of books on the same day, but it is a coincidence.

I've changed my reading plans slightly. I have decided to put aside A peculiar peril for now, partly because it wasn't engaging me and partly because it is a large hardcover, as is my other print read, Red comet. I prefer to read paperbacks in bed and found that I was turning to other titles instead of the Vandermeer. I'm reading about a chapter of Red comet every day and very much enjoying this well-written biography. But my fiction reads are now:
Such a fun age on kindle (unchanged)
Deborah by Esther Kreitman (sister of Isaac Bashevis Singer, whose novel The family Moskat was one of my best books of 2020
White queen by Gwyneth Jones - SF
Catseye by Andre Norton - also SF, though for younger readers (my edition is a Puffin paperback).

I'm enjoying my reading selections MUCH more now!

Happy new year, Claire! I too am looking forward to your comments on Such a Fun Age. I'm interested by the Philly connection too, as well as the story. You might have hit me with my first bullet of the year already.

>28 Sakerfalcon: I've just got Such a Fun Age from the library and as I'm just about to finish a series - The Great Library - it is a good time to start it.

So, I've found you and starred. Happy reading 2021 and happy new year.

>28 Sakerfalcon: You refer me to the best Virago titles! I'd never heard of Esther Kreitman's Deborah. I wish I could remember why they allowed that imprint to die down.

>29 Jim53:, >30 CDVicarage: I finished Such a fun age and found it an entertaining and thought-provoking read.

>30 CDVicarage: I read Ink and bone but somehow never continued with the series. Do you recommend it?

>31 Ameise1: Happy new year Barbara! I hope it is a good one for you

>32 jillmwo: I suspect that when Virago was taken over by a larger publisher (Little, Brown, I believe), they decided to focus on titles that made money, rather than putting obscure writers back into print. It is a great loss. Many of us make a habit of scouring the shelves of second-hand bookshops in search of those elusive green spines ...

Such a fun age was a good read that gets you to think about current issues that are wrapped up in an entertaining plot. On the surface it's quite a light read, with characters who are flawed but not especially complex, kicked off by an emotive incident of the sort that we hear about all too often. Late one evening Emira receives a call from the family for whom she babysits asking her to come and take their daughter out of the house following an incident. Emira leaves the birthday party she was attending and comes to pick up 3 year old Briar and takes her to the grocery store, where a security guard accuses Emira of kidnapping the child. Emira is black, Briar is white: why else would they be together? *eyeroll* Kelley, a bystander, records the incident on his phone, before Briar's father arrives to defuse the situation. As a result of this incident, Emira, her boss Alix and Kelley find their lives becoming entangled. The narrative is split between Emira and Alix's points of view; while Emira just wants to brush off the incident and put it behind her, Alix wants to try and make it up to Emira, going out of her way to treat the young woman as one of the family and becoming interested in her life. The novel examines issues of race and class, critiquing white saviour narratives as well as more blatant racism. I liked Emira; alone among her friends, she is not ambitious and doesn't have a plan for her life. She really cares for Briar, which makes it hard for her to focus on finding more stable employment. Alix is deeply flawed, but full of good intentions ... and we know where those lead. This isn't a preachy book that tells you what's right and wrong and offers easy answers. It's also not emotionally manipulative, despite the drama of the opening scene. It is a good read and I recommend it.

I finished Deborah too, which was another good book. My main criticism of The family Moskat was that it was quite shallow in its treatment of the lives of the female characters. So I turned to this novel by Singer's sister Esther Kreitman, which is set in the same world of early C20th Polish Jewry but shows it from a female perspective. Deborah is the only daughter of an unworldly Rabbi and his sickly wife and her life revolves around running the family home. They move from a small village to a larger town and finally to Warsaw - but Deborah's prospects remain the same. For a woman of her background the only option is to marry and bear sons who will study the Torah. Deborah would like to have had an education and an independent life, but that is forbidden. The novel is based on Kreitman's own life and family (although in the novel she has just one brother rather than the three in her actual family). Like The family Moskat, it is a critical portrait of the Polish Jewish community which was to be destroyed by WWII. Naturally it is rather a sad book, but nevertheless very compelling.

I also finished Catseye, which was a completely different read! This is an SF adventure about a man from the wrong side of the tracks and some animals with telepathic ability. When Troy is assigned to work in an exotic pet shop, it doesn't take long for him to realise that there are some strange things going on behind the innocuous facade. Events cause him to take flight with five Terran animal companions, with both criminals and government forces on their tails. This is a short, entertaining novel, very much of its time (1960s) - more action than introspection and no major female characters, but a good read all the same. I would have liked to have explored the mysterious caves some more, but this is a short novel and there wasn't time for that!

I reread The curse of Chalion and have posted comments in the group read thread. It was as good as ever; still a 5 star book.

I'm still reading White queen and Red comet, and have started reading Rhododendron pie, Margery's Sharp's first novel which has just been brought back into print by Dean Street Press. On kindle I'm reading a new fantasy novel, The bone shard daughter and in non-fiction, The lost pianos of Siberia. The latter is a title I have been eagerly awaiting since its hardcover release last year.

>33 Sakerfalcon: Yes, I enjoyed The Great Library, even though it's not my usual genre. I found it so hectic that it was easy to be carried along and I'd finished them before I knew it!

>33 Sakerfalcon: consider the delivery of the bullet for Such a Fun Age complete.

>33 Sakerfalcon: Sigh. I may have been grazed by The Lost Pianos of Siberia.

Glad you loved Such a Fun Age! And I really enjoyed Rhododendron Pie, reviewed a little while ago.

>34 CDVicarage: That's good to know! I will look out for the sequels whenever the libraries reopen.

>35 Jim53: I hope you enjoy the read! If nothing else, it will be interesting to see how it compares to Luster.

>36 Marissa_Doyle: I have really only just started the book but already it is drawing me in and making me want to go back to Siberia.

>37 LyzzyBee: I am loving Rhododendron Pie and trying to resist buying all the other FM Margery Sharp reprints in one go! I can't believe I hadn't read her until a couple of years ago.

I finished reading White queen and The bone shard daughter. White queen was a difficult SF read involving first contact. Deceptively humanoid aliens have come to earth and made contact with humans in Aleutia, West Africa and Southeast Asia. In search of the World Government, they introduce themselves at an international conference on women's rights by mistake. But they are also integrating (to some extent) in local communities where they landed. Both aliens and humans have their own agendas, equally hard to comprehend. The titular White Queen is an organisation that distrusts the visitors and seeks to sabotage them. Other groups hope to embrace alien technology to help the planet. The aliens themselves are not all that they appear. Gwyneth Jones succeeds in creating truly alien aliens, in their physical, social and mental characteristics. Sections of the novel are told from their point of view, which gives us an inside view of how they function. Unfortunately for me, the humans and their motives were just as difficult to comprehend. People rarely speak out, instead seeming to communicate in hints and allusions. They are a pretty unlikeable bunch too; I don't mind unlikeable characters, but combined with not really understanding their motivations I didn't really enjoy spending time with them. Overall I would have to say I admired rather than enjoyed this book.

Fortunately, The bone shard daughter was much more engaging. The world felt Asian, but without trying to model itself on any particular culture from our world. It's an archipelago ruled by an Emperor whose ancestors saved the world from the mysterious Alanga, the remains of which civilization still scatter the islands. We aren’t told how or why they were bad; one suspects that the details have been lost to time, and all that remains is the Emperor’s conviction that he must rule in order to keep the world safe by the use of his bone-shard magic. Every citizen is required to submit to the Tithing, a process by which a sliver of bone is removed from their skull in childhood. Using these shards, the emperor can create the constructs which protect the realm. The novel is told from four POVs. Lin is the emperor’s daughter, nominally the heir to the throne, but memory loss means that her father is reluctant to teach her his magic. Jovis is a smuggler, working for a crime syndicate in order to make enough money to buy a boat and go in search of his wife who disappeared in mysterious circumstance. His life becomes a lot more interesting when he rescues what he thinks is a kitten from a natural disaster. Phalue is the privileged daughter of an island governor, but in love with a commoner who is seeking to show her the injustices her father is perpetuating. And Sand lives on an island with a group of others, none of whom can remember anything other than a life of mindless, purposeless tasks. I really enjoyed exploring the world through these narratives, learning about the social divisions and inequality, the strange magic, and customs of the people. Lin annoyed me for a while, until she developed some sense of the moral implications of her plan to please her father. The setting really reminded me of the Eastern section of Priory of the Orange Tree although there are no dragons. This was a very good read, and I’m looking forward to the sequel.

In addition to Red Comet, Rhododendron pie and Lost pianos of Siberia, I’ve started Hearts, hands and voices, an SF novel by Ian McDonald.

(I know some of the touchstones are wrong, but my internet is slow today and won't load the alternatives. I will fix them another time.)

>33 Sakerfalcon: I bought a copy of The Curse of Chalion after reading Rhian's review last year. Nudging it up.

>40 Caroline_McElwee: I know fantasy is not a genre you normally read, so I will be very interested in what you think of Chalion.

I finished Rhododendron Pie and very much enjoyed it. Ann is the odd one out in the Laventie family, who these days might be considered hipsters. They have obscure highbrow interests and should they stoop to attend something lowbrow, like the village fete, they do so "ironically". Only Ann rather likes ordinary things and people, and hides how out of her depth she is by learning appropriate responses to her siblings' remarks. When she brings home a very ordinary young man and announces that they wish to marry, the stage is set for a conflict with a surprising resolution. I really enjoyed this sunny novel from the 1930s with its wry humour and satire.

My internet has been playing up and while I wait for it to reconnect I've been reading shorter books to pass the time. I indulged in a pony book recently, Riding course summer by Patricia Leitch, which features a group of children who are horse-mad but all realise that they are terrible at riding. After a couple of abortive attempts at improvement, they find qualified help and are ready for a competition against the local Pony Club at the book's end. This was a lovely read, with realistic progress made over the course of the story - no-one will be winning at Olympia any time soon, but there is improvement - and although it's a large cast of characters several (both horse and human) stand out.

I also read Down among the sticks and bones by Seanan McGuire, one of her Wayward Children novellas. This was good; it focuses on Jack and Jill who we met in the first book, and gives us their backstory. Most of the story takes place in the other world that they travel to, a grim place influenced by Dracula and Frankenstein, and shows the girls escaping from the roles their parents forced upon them. I have the next 3 novellas in the series, thanks to Tor.com's giveaway.

>41 Sakerfalcon: Leitch's For Love of a Horse was a childhood favorite. I was never a horse-mad reader, but I loved the Scottish setting and how realistic Jinny's relationship with the horse seemed. Apparently, there are tons of sequels.

>41 Sakerfalcon: I'm glad you loved Rhododendron Pie, I thought it was super, so funny but also touching, not just relentlessly satirical. I think I have a Leitch reissue from Jane Badger somewhere on the TBR, I remember liking this one for its realism.

> 42 Yes, the Jinny series runs to about 13 books, I think. They certainly are one of the more realistic pony book series out there - girl obtains her dream horse but it is too wild for her to ride although there are supernatural elements in a couple of the books - I remember Night of the red horse vividly.

>43 LyzzyBee: I got the Jane Badger reissue of Dream of fair horses which I'd wanted to read for years and completely lived up to my expectations. I also adore Horse from Black Loch, which I've had since I was a child and is still a great read.
I'm trying to resist buying all the Margery Sharp reissues! I don't know why but I really want these in print rather than on kindle.

I've had such a busy week at work, preparing for the start of the new term and covering for a colleague who was off sick, that I haven't had a chance to catch up with LT until now. I have had time to read, as I needed a break from the screen after logging off from work.

I'm still reading Red comet, Plath is now married to Ted Hughes and they are living in America though not really happy there. Clark seems to be resisting the urge to takes sides, showing both Plath and Hughes to have been flawed individuals. Her analysis of their poetry is very good; it doesn't dominate but she shows how it reflects upon the events in their lives.

I finished Hearts hands and voices and enjoyed it a lot. It's an earlier novel by Ian McDonald, set in a future world that feels rather like Africa but with religious politics that are clearly analogous with Ireland. Mathembe and her family are forced onto the road when their town is destroyed by the army of the Emperor across the river. Society is dominated by the two religious factions of Proclaimers and Confessors; you are either one or the other, and whichever one you are not are your sworn enemies. We follow Mathembe as her family is torn apart and she seeks to reunite them. It's a moving portrait of life as a refugee, but set in a futuristic world with organic technology. McDonald's prose uses repetition and rhythm to convey emphasis in a way that makes the reader pay close attention. It's not a quick read but it is a rewarding one, that I highly recommend.

I've also read The gift of Asher Lev, sequel to My name is Asher Lev which I read last year and loved. This book starts with Asher in his late 40s, a successful artist living in Paris, whose creativity has stalled due to poor reviews of his latest exhibition. When his beloved uncle dies, he and his family return to Brooklyn, to the tightly-knit Ladover Jewish community from which he was exiled as a young controversial artist. Asher is still a divisive figure, with some admiring his art, but many others seeing him as a malign influence. His wife, children and parents are all overjoyed at being able to get to know each other, but Asher knows that he can't stay in Brooklyn or his creativity will be stifled forever. This is a brilliant portrait of a man and an artist, torn between family and art, faith and the vision within him. We also learn more of Devorah's backstory, of the two years of her childhood that she spent in hiding during WWII after her family had been sent to the concentration camps, and the impact that this has had on her. Both books are really great reads.

I"m still reading Lost pianos of Siberia which is very good. It rambles somewhat, being nominally organised chronologically by the periods of history the author is investigating, but jumping around geographically. Telling Russia's history through the story of the piano and its influence across the vast region is interesting, though occasionally leads to such jarring passages as "the riots raged across the city for days. Hundreds of pianos were destroyed" (paraphrase) but no mention of lives lost! She meets and talks to people from many walks of life (through an interpreter) and is building up an unusual survey of Siberian life and history.

I've started a couple of new books now too. A winter's promise is a YA fantasy novel translated from the French. The premise imagines that the world has been shattered into pieces, each of which is inhabited and has formed its own culture and society. Ophelia is surprised to learn that she is to be married outside her home Ark, to a man she has never met. Thorn is as cold and remote as the world he lives on, and clearly there is a deep mystery into which Ophelia will be thrust. I'm very intrigued so far by the Arks and their inhabitants.

I'm also reading Waste tide, a Chinese SF thriller set among the toxic waste dumps of Silicon Isle, where the poorest in society must risk their lives for a pittance. The novel opens with an American representative who is visiting with a view to his company taking over some of the waste processing. But the influential clans who run Silicon Isle are reluctant to give up any of their power. I'm very interested to see where this is going.

>44 Sakerfalcon: I loved the first Asher Lev, not yet taken the time to continue the story. Be sure to check out The Chosen and The Promise if you haven't already.

>45 fuzzi: The chosen is on my Tbr pile!

>44 Sakerfalcon: Red Comet sounds very interesting, but 1100 pages? Yikes! Do you think it matters if one has read (and can remember) her writings?

>47 Jim53: I haven't read Plath's poetry for some years, although I do reread The bell jar fairly often. I wouldn't say a recent reading is necessary but it may inspire you to go back to her work. I have Johnny Panic and the Bible of Dreams which I've never read, but will be picking it up soon. I'm reading about a chapter of the bio each day so it will take about 6 weeks in total.

So I've quit reading Waste tide because the prose was clunky, with all telling and little showing, and the characters felt flat. I suspect the blame lies with the author not the translator, because I've read Ken Liu's stories and they do not have these problems. Here's an example:
"Lin Yiyu was there both as one of the representatives of the Lin clan and also as the head of Silicon Isle's Town Government's Office of Investment. The two conflicting roles put him in an awkward position. It was obvious that he was struggling to keep his expression impassive."
It's not so bad in a small dose like that, but chapter after chapter was too much.

Instead I've started Elizabeth Hand's mystery novel, Generation loss. The main character has screwed up her life, quite deliberately, with years of drug use and unhealthy relationships. She had a brief moment of fame as a photographer on the New York punk scene in the 1970s but now it's the 00s and she is washed up with nowhere to go. An old friend offers her the job of interviewing a reclusive photographer who lives on an island off the coast of Maine. Cass accepts, but is unprepared for the impoverished, tragedy-ridden community that she finds. Cass is an unlikeable protagonist but the situation she finds herself in is gripping, and Hand writes vividly of the Maine coast and its people.

I'm nearing the end of A winter's promise and am really enjoying it. Ophelia is a likeable heroine, awkward and cautious, having to figure out a very dangerous situation. The world is intriguing and captivating, full of glamour and danger. I have already ordered the sequel.

>4 souloftherose: Agreeing The Gift of Asher Lev and The Lost Pianos of Siberia are fine reads Claire.

I've read all the Cass Neary books except the last one and I have no idea why other than the good plots and writing. Cass is definitely NOT someone I'd like to meet or spend any time with IRL, but in fiction she's mesmerizing in her self-destruction.

>49 Caroline_McElwee: I need to get back to Lost pianos. I usually read my kindle on the train but I've hardly been out of the flat this year except to walk to the shops and the park so I've been neglecting it. But I have really enjoyed it so far and will get back to it soon.

>50 Bookmarque: I agree. Cass's self-destructiveness is bad enough but then she goes and does petty things which (at best) inconvenience and (at worst) harm others. But I like the way she views the world though a photographer's eye, in terms of light, shade, composition, etc. The sense of place was very strong too. I have the sequel to hand and will read that sometime soon.

A winter's promise was a really good read. It's classed as YA but Ophelia must be about 20, and she finds herself in some very perilous and dark situations. Betrothed to an icy stranger who is as cold as the world he comes from, Ophelia leaves her home with only her aunt for company, in order to settle with her future in-laws. But the court she enters is full of traps and dangers for the unwary, and initially Ophelia has to be disguised as a valet for her protection. Through her adventures we can explore both the upstairs and downstairs world of the Ark - a place of illusion and deception where the laws of physics don't apply. Ophelia cautiously navigates through her new home, uncovering plots and plans that bode ill for her future. This was great - quirky worldbuilding, a relatable heroine and a supporting case of very unreliable characters made it a hugely entertaining read.

See my comment to bookmarque above for my response to Generation loss - a dark, very bleak, but gripping novel.

I'm still progressing with Red comet and have to admire the research and scholarship that has gone into the book. It's a weighty tome but reads well, and Clark resists the temptation to portray Plath as a saint and Hughes a devil (or vice versa) as previous biographies have done.

I've started reading The adventures of Isabel which was a book bullet from tardis and NorthernStar. This is a fun and unusual mystery set in an unnamed Canadian city (which I gather is Edmonton) and narrated by an unnamed heroine. She is an out of work social worker who, at the beginning of the book is contemplating prostitution as a way to make a living, composing possible small ads for herself. She is interrupted by a friend asking for help investigating the death of a mutual friend's granddaughter. I know I'm missing many of the Canadian and pop culture references scattered through the book, but it is still a very good read so far. The violence and despair of the underworld of drugs and prostitution is leavened by lots of humour, the friendship of the heroine and her co-investigators, and her relationship with her cat Fuc -- er, Bunnywit.

I'm also reading Jeweled fire, the third of Sharon Shinn's Elemental blessings series. I like these fantasies which blend court politics, elemental magic and romance into a well-written whole. Welce is a land where every person has an affiliation with one of the five elements - water, air, earth, fire and wood. In addition to this, they have three personal Blessings, which are randomly chosen for them within hours of their birth. The religion (I call it a religion although there don't seem to be any actual gods or worship) has temples where you can go and sit to regain your mental and spiritual balance, and you can also draw a blessing for yourself if you are in need of guidance. I really like this system; it's original and intriguing. The elemental affiliation can be a bit annoying "She's a coru woman so she would be like that" - but overall I really like this world. This book focuses on Princess Corene, no longer in line for the throne of Welce, who has stowed away on a ship going to the neighbouring country of Malinqua. The empress accepts her as a contender for the hand of one of her three nephews, along with some other foreign princesses, but Corene soon finds that she may have bitten off more than she can chew with her impulsive move.

And my other read is The drowning girl by Caitlyn Kiernan, a contemporary fantasy set in New England. It is narrated by Imp, a young woman with schizophrenia, who is haunted by a mysterious woman who may be a mermaid, or a wolf, or something else entirely. The book is strange and beautifully written, somewhat dreamlike and mesmerising. Imp can't always tell what is real or if she is remembering things correctly. I'm not even trying to figure it out but letting myself drift with the narrative.

>51 Sakerfalcon: A Winter's Promise appears to be $1.99 in the US right now (at least it is on Barnes and Noble) so...bullet taken!

>52 Marissa_Doyle: I hope you enjoy it!

I finished Jeweled fire which was a nice continuation of the series. Corene was a side character in the previous books but here she gets her own story. When she accepts an invitation from the Empress of neighbouring Malinqua, Corene is going against the wishes of her powerful father. Upon arrival in the strange country, she finds herself making friends and discovering that the court is just as treacherous a place as the one in which she grew up. The new friends soon realise that they are not so much guests as hostages, and that some plots are taking a dangerous turn. I loved the friendships that form between the main characters and the way they support each other in a situation where they could have been bitchily competing against each other. I found the romance a bit disappointing; it is foreshadowed very early on and none of the other potential love interests are ever given serious consideration by the author so there's no suspense in that respect. Fortunately the main plot is compelling enough to make up for that. I have the fourth and final book in the series and will certainly be reading it soon.

Next, however I have started an SF novel, Mississippi blues, in honour of its author's recent passing. I really liked the previous book in the series, Queen City Jazz, so I'm looking forward to this one.

>53 Sakerfalcon: Ooh, the Goonan series sounds fascinating! Also, I love bees. And nanotech. How was this not on my radar?!?

I've only read one of Shinn's books, Summers at Castle Auburn, and I didn't care for it. Open to recs for other books she's written, as she seems an author I would enjoy.

>54 libraryperilous: I can't remember how I discovered Goonan, but it was probably from following Recommended links here on LT. If you looked at the reviews for Queen City Jazz you will have realised that it's something of a Marmite book, and I must admit that it's not an easy read at times. But something about it just captured my imagination.

I did enjoy Summers at Castle Auburn, although I wonder how well it would hold up on a reread. I'd give Troubled waters a try, (although Zoe isn't my favourite protagonist) as it sets up a fascinating and unusual fantasy world.I also like the Twelve Houses series (begins with Mystic and rider, although some aspects of it make me roll my eyes. But I love the strong friendships that build between the group of main characters. The Samaria books (first volume: Archangel) are more strongly romantic but the blend of fantasy and SF is very well done (try and avoid any spoilers for Archangel if you can).

This weekend I finished reading The drowning girl and The adventures of Isabel, two books that are totally different in every way, but both very good reads. The drowning girl is shot through with art, poetry, myth and music, all of which infiltrate the narrator Imp's mind and story. Imp is haunted by two conflicting sets of memories, neither of which she trusts, involving a young woman whom she rescued from the side of the road. But was the girl real or a ghost, a siren or a wolf? This was a beautifully written book, though the sections where Imp descends into madness are painful to read. I felt like this was a respectful portrayal of schizophrenia and its effects on the patient and those around her. I will be seeking out more of Kiernan's work.

The adventures of Isabel is a humorous, ironic romp of a murder mystery that travels into some dark places yet is lightened by our quirky narrator's view on life and the cameraderie between her and her fellow investigators. Contrary to expectations, the narrator's name is not (apparently) Isabel; the book's title is shared with that of a poem by Ogden Nash whose lines form the chapter titles. The characters include policemen, drag queens, prostitutes, socialites, a homeless Chinese contortionist, a feisty cat, and a staunch Christian. I especially liked the portrayal of the latter, and the development of her relationship with our heroine. Dorsey says in the afterword that there will be two more books in the series, and I am very much looking forward to them.

>55 Sakerfalcon: I noticed that the Goonan series was rated a bit lower than I would have expected and also sounds depressing. I've added it to my TBR, because it does sound like a fascinating concept.

Thanks for the Shinn recs!

The Adventures of Isabel also is going on my TBR, as Nash is one of my favorite poets. Check out "Dr. Fell and Points West" and "Polterguest, My Polterguest" for more side-splitting adventures. (I think I have Dorsey's sci-fi on Mt. TBR as well.)

Glad you've been on a streak of books you've enjoyed!

>56 libraryperilous: I didn't find Queen City Jazz depressing, but it is a dense and complex read that demands concentration. I'm enjoying Mississippi blues so far.
You can thank NorthernStar and tardis for The adventures of Isabel, as they hit me fair and square with that bullet!

I've finished two more books - Kalpa Imperial, which I've been dipping in and out of for a while, and, at last, Red comet. haydninvienna inspired me to immerse myself in Kalpa Imperial, and I very much enjoyed the experience. Any book which reminds me of Italo Calvino, Jan Morris's Hav and Jeff Vandermeer's Ambergris (without the weirdness) and yet has its own distinct voice too is bound to be a hit with me. It takes the form of linked short stories, narrated as by a storyteller to his audience. The tales take place in different eras and places within the empire, and look at themes of power, war and peace, succession, politics, society, and the porous boundary between history and myth. Some tales focus on a city or an individual, whether a citizen or a rule; others take place over a vast span of time and contain multitudes. Each chapter feels as though you are listening to the voice of the storyteller in a marketplace or around a campfire. I loved this, and am going to read Trafalgar by the same author soon. (Actually I've read the first couple of stories already and it's very different but still enjoyable.)

Red Comet was a very good biography. It's certainly detailed, at over 900 pages (the other 100 or so are notes, references and index), but it never feels as though the author is padding her material. She was able to consult a wide range of sources, both in person and on paper, to present a well-rounded portrait of Sylvia Plath, that seeks to avoid the common myths of her as saint or demon. There is a good amount of critical evaluation of her work in the book, but it doesn't detract from the narrative. Reading this book isn't a project to undertake lightly, but if Plath and her work interest you then I recommend it.

Still enjoying Lost pianos of Siberia and will make an effort to pick up my kindle and finish it soon. I've started Moonsinger by Andre Norton, which is a book bullet from -pilgrim-; it's a good read so far. And I've started Catherine House, a thriller(?) set in an exclusive cloistered college where the students are cut off from the outside world for the three years in which they are enrolled. It's been compared to The secret history, and so far I think that is because the protagonist is screwed up and unlikeable.

>57 Sakerfalcon: hope you enjoy the Norton!

>58 fuzzi: Thanks! I finished Moon of three rings this weekend and really enjoyed it.

Moon of three rings is the first volume in the Moonsinger omnibus by Andre Norton, which I would describe as "Science Fantasy". It is a planet with space travel but is otherwise low-tech, populated by rival clans, with ritual and religion important to many people. Krip Vorlund is a Free Trader, who while on planetary leave finds himself caught up in violent events. His fate becomes involved with Maelen the Singer, one of a race of people with psi powers. It soon becomes clear that off-world powers have plans for this primitive world, and Krip and Maelen are caught up in their schemes. Both will have to suffer and make sacrifices before the situation is resolved. I really enjoyed this adventure. Krip is a pleasant hero, thoughtful rather than inclined to action, and Maelen is intriguing in her powers and the price she pays to use them. I loved her animal companions too. The narrative switches between Krip and Maelen's POVs, and each has a formal yet distinctive voice - I really liked the prose. I will definitely be continuing with the second novel soon.

I also finished Lost pianos of Siberia which was a very interesting read. Because I was reading on kindle I had no idea that 1/3 of the book was notes and references! So I finished it sooner than I expected. The author provides a clear-sighted view of Siberia, making clear the brutality which characterised so much of its history, while also appreciating the undeniable allure of its vast, sparsely-populated landscapes. She is on a quest to source a piano for a young Mongolian pianist and is drawn to Siberia by stories of some of the many instruments which ended up there, brought by strange ways. She visits communities throughout this vast land (she includes Yakutia and the eastern islands in her definition of Siberia) and meets priests, musicians, teachers, engineers, wildlife conservationists and many more on her quest. My main complaint about the book is that it felt very scattershot to me - because she made several journeys while writing the book the chapters are not linked to each other by geography, and while the contents are organised into historical periods, in actual fact each chapter seems to rove back and forth throughout the centuries. But in all other ways this was a fascinating and unusual look at Russian history through a very unusual lens. On a personal note, I was amused to read of her arrest in Kosh Agach, the border town which was our base when I was on a conservation project in the Altai region.

I'm enjoying Mississipi blues, which follows Verity, Blaze and the survivors of post- nanotech Cincinnati as they travel on a paddleboat to New Orleans. I'm finding Verity to be more emotional and less relatable in this book, but she has good reasons for being so, and fortunately there are several new characters who are compelling. Like its precursor, this is a complex read but the imagination and sense of wonder are also just as strong.

Catherine House has taken a while to draw me in, and it is not nearly as strong a book as those to which I'd compare it - The secret history, Ninth House. Ines, our narrator, is screwed up and disengaged, and as she is not drawn into the college, so neither are we. And unlike Cass from Generation loss, another messed-up, self-destructive character, I can't really get into Ines's head to read her, and she doesn't come alive on the page the way Cass did. I'm interested in the secrets of Catherine House, but so far this does not look set to join the ranks of Gothic-academic novels that I love.

>59 Sakerfalcon: I am glad that you enjoyed it. I did find the sequels not as good, but I like Krip and Maelen enough to not have regretted striving with them.

>60 -pilgrim-: Given the way that Moon of three rings ends, I certainly want to see where Krip and Maelen go next. Thanks for the Book Bullet!

I totally forgot to write about the other book I read this weekend, which is shocking because it's my first 5 star book of this year!

Following Haydninvienna's enthusiastic review, I moved Piranesi to the top of the TBR pile and devoured it in a couple of days. It was such an immersive, intriguing read that I could hardly put it down. First I was eager to explore the House with Piranesi and then, as secrets started to be revealed and a wider story emerge, I needed to follow these new threads. I've seen advice in several places to go into this book knowing as little about it as possible and I definitely second that. The blurb on my edition was perfect, I think, as it related to the point at which you enter the novel, but gave no hint of the twists and turns that follow. It's a very different book to Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell, so if you didn't enjoy that then don't let it put you off Piranesi. I will definitely be rereading this in future.

>61 Sakerfalcon: Ah, I wasn't sure about this one. Because I wanted to avoid spoilers, I couldn't get a feel for whether or not the novel is a trendy experiment or has a story worth reading. I trust your rating, so I've placed it on hold.

>61 Sakerfalcon: I'm pleased you liked it. I think I said that the blurbing quotations were arguably misleading: while not actually wrong, they appear to have been selected to lead you to expect a different sort of book.

Ooh, maybe after I finish my current non-fiction book I'll finally read Piranesi, which is sitting in my TBR pile. Sounds like a good candidate to break my DNF streak in fiction.

>59 Sakerfalcon: I agree with -pilgrim- that the sequels aren't as good, but the second book was satisfying. Number three and four were "meh" for me.

>65 fuzzi: I liked the third more then the second, which was the weakest for me.

>65 fuzzi: >66 -pilgrim-: I actually preferred the 2nd to the third, I kept wanting to skip ahead in Flight in Yiktor. That put me off so much I haven't gotten to the 4th one yet.

>61 Sakerfalcon: It’s a conspiracy I tell you. You and Richard planned this BB pincer action. The two of you are in cahoots.

>68 pgmcc: There’s a pretty decent suppressing BB fire going on for Piranesi, Peter. No planning was necessary.

>67 Karlstar: my review of #4, no spoilers:

This is not a bad read, just disappointing. Almost the entire story is based upon a character from the previous book, and is the weakest installment of the series in my opinion. If you want to read more about Maelen, you won't get it here. Still, Andre Norton's writing is better than so much of the pablum offered in the SciFi/fantasy genre. Mildly recommended if you want to finish the series.

>62 libraryperilous: I enjoyed Jonathan Strange, and loved the short stories in The ladies of Grace Adieu, so I was pretty sure I would like Piranesi, but it surpassed any expectations I had.

>63 haydninvienna: Yes, I agree. I'm glad they didn't give anything away.

>64 Marissa_Doyle: I hope you enjoy it when you get to it!

>65 fuzzi:, >66 -pilgrim-:, >67 Karlstar: I'm glad I have good company as I read these books! Krip and Maewen are great characters and I'm really enjoying Norton's prose style. I have Flight in Yiktor as a stand-alone, so I will probably read that and stop there, as you all seem to agree that book 4 is "meh" by comparison.

I had lots of time to read the last couple of evenings, so I've finished Mississippi blues and Trafalgar.

Mississippi blues was a good follow-up to Queen City Jazz, taking Verity and Blaze downriver from Cincinnati to New Orleans on a paddleboat, with hundreds of other refugees. All of them are driven by a virus which urges them to go to Norleans, a call they can't ignore. They face peril, adventure and strange encounters along the way as they travel through lands haunted by the legacy of the failed nanotech dream. It's a dense, complex and strange book, but I found it compelling and full of beauty, Now I just need to try and remember which box the 2 sequels ended up in ....

Trafalgar was pushed up my TBR pile thanks to Richard, again, who seems to be having a strong influence on my reading so far this year! I'm very grateful as it's led me to get around to reading some good books. Trafalgar is by the same author as Kalpa Imperial and is also a series of linked short stories, but these are quite different. Trafalgar Medrano is a man about town, a merchant who travels to strange and far-off places that may literally be out of this world. When in town he can be found at the Burgundy, drinking gallons of coffee and smoking his black cigarettes and telling tales of his travels. Inevitably he meets beautiful women, and navigates odd social customs and mores, but also finds himself in a world where the dead still live, in an alternate 1492 at the court of Ferdinand and Isabella, and a world where he wakes in a different era each day. It's a blend of pulp SF and magical realism, and totally unlike anything else can remember reading.

I also read a YA novel, Dancing in the dark, which was a quick and compelling read. Ditty is a girl from a Haredi Jewish family, strictly observant even by comparison with other Orthodox Jews. She doesn't question her way of life until she sees some ballet and is gripped by a need to dance. Of course it is forbidden, but she finds a way to learn in secret. Her inner conflict as her love for dance leads to her lying to her family and questioning her faith is well-portrayed, as is the slippery slope where breaking one rule leads to shattering many more. Ditty is a very likeable heroine, and if it seems unlikely that she would be able to maintain her secret for so long, I was able to overlook that in my enjoyment of her story. Female friendship is an extremely important part of Ditty's life, both with the Jewish friends she has known all her life, and the girls she meets through ballet. I really appreciated that there is no rivalry or bitchiness between the female dancers; they offer support and friendship to Ditty even while they wonder at her way of life. I also liked that while the Haredi way of life is shown as not right for Ditty, we see other characters who embrace and flourish in it. This is a quick but charming read which I really enjoyed.

Now I've started Exiles of the stars, the sequel to Moon of three rings, The missing of Clairdelune which is the sequel to A winter's promise, and Death and the maiden, a Mrs Bradley mystery.

>71 Sakerfalcon: I did not find book 4 "meh". I am enjoying it, but still reading it. I suspect it will depend on how much you warm to Farree as a character.

I've taken a hit on Piranesi as well.

I happened to check Amazon today to see if Margaret Rogerson's An Enchantment of Ravens is inexpensive on Kindle. It isn't, but I did find that her new novel, Vespertine, has been announced. It's out this September in the US.

>72 -pilgrim-: No, don't say that! I'm looking for a reason NOT to buy the 4th book!

>73 Jim53: I hope you enjoy it as much as I did!

>74 libraryperilous: Oh that's a shame about Enchantment of ravens. Ironically it's 99p this month on amazon uk. It's so annoying when the deals are restricted to one site. Vespertine sounds great!

So I finished all three of the books I was reading when I last posted. I enjoyed Exiles of the stars quite a lot, although I thought the plot wasn't as well-structured as that of Moon of three rings. But it was good to see Maelen and Krip again after the events of the previous book, and to see some of the long-term consequences for them both. There was a definite case of Chekhov's preserved alien body which was used exactly as I expected, but this was a fun read.

Death and the maiden was a strong entry in the Mrs Bradley series, notable for its vivid depictions of Winchester and its environs. It's a city I know quite well and so I could picture the locations which played such a strong part in the plot. The maiden of the title is a naiad which has supposedly been sighted in the River Itchen, which draws Mr Tidson to the city in search of it, with his female relatives in tow. Mrs Bradley is summoned by his sister-in-law to discreetly check his sanity, and is thus on hand when a boy's body is retrieved from the river. As well as the always entertaining Bradley, we also have her wonderful assistant Laura and Laura's friends on hand to help. As usual there are plenty of red herrings and twists and turns, but it's the characters and their interactions that made this so good.

The missing of Clairdelune was a great follow-up to A winter's promise, picking up where that book ended as Ophelia is thrust into a new and very public role in her treacherous new home. She spent much of the last book in denial, bewildered, stubborn and passive, for good reason, but in this volume she takes more of an active role in managing her fate. We explore more of the Ark of the Pole and its inhabitants, all of which become more intriguing as the story progresses. I've found both books to far to be a little unpolished, but very compelling and original. I'm eagerly awaiting book 3 when the paperback arrives in June.

Now I've started to read Witch World, another BB from -pilgrim-. Technically this is a reread, as I read it while I lived in Philadelphia but I've forgotten virtually everything about it since then. I'm enjoying it so far. I haven't made a firm decision on any other books yet, but I'm looking at Memoirs of a polar bear by Yoko Tawada (one of the Helmet challenge categories this year is to read a book with an animal protagonist) and The friendly young ladies by Mary Renault.

>71 Sakerfalcon: I'm glad you enjoyed Piranesi. At this point I will probably snag it when it eventually goes on sale, but I still need to read Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell!

>76 clamairy: are the two books related? I was assuming not. I haven;t read Jonathan either.

>77 Jim53: No, they are not. I just need to make myself read the one I already bought* before I buy any more.

*I've bought both a paper and a kindle copy.

>78 clamairy: I'm in the same situation; a friend gifted me a hardback of JS&MN more than a few years ago. I finally felt guilty enough about not having read it that I decided this would be the year. I have not yet managed to actually take it off the shelf - though the year is still young!

>79 ScoLgo: I also have had a copy for years. I was just about to read it when the television series came on. And afterwards, I could not face reading such a tome, while at least partially being familiar with the story.

I bought Piranesi when it was a kindle deal on Amazon.uk and then forgot about it. Now I really want to get to it! And I loved Jonathan Strange and Mr Morrell.

>76 clamairy:, >77 Jim53:, >78 clamairy:, >79 ScoLgo: I try to do this too - read the books I have by an author before buying more - but all too often temptation takes over and I fail. I would say that if you try Jonathan Strange and dislike it, don't let that put you off Piranesi. The two books are totally different in every way. I enjoyed both, and love the short stories in The ladies of Grace Adieu as well.

>80 -pilgrim-: Yes, I don't like to read a book and have the actors/settings from the TV series in mind while I do so. Not to mention having the plot revealed to me. I haven't seen the adaptation of JS&MN but would be curious to see how they managed it.

>81 Soupdragon: I hope you love Piranesi as much as I did!

I finished Witch World this weekend and thoroughly enjoyed it. The core of the plot is conflict, but the main characters are thoughtful and fight out of necessity to protect their land and culture. Simon comes to the Witch World via a portal from our world, where his life is in danger, and his first act is to impulsively save a fleeing woman from her pursuers. This leads him to the court of Estcarp, where he pledges himself to its service. Estcarp is threatened on all sides by hostile lands, who fear and resent its legendary witches. The book mainly reads like fantasy, but there are touches of SF in some strange technology, which puzzles Simon as to its origins. We travel over large areas of the map, but the journeys themselves are not described in detail, leading to a low STTM rating (to borrow from Karlstar). I will be starting the next volume in my omnibus, Web of the Witch World, very soon.

I also read a vintage mystery, Death goes dancing, which appealed to me because it is set in a ballet company. Just before the scheduled performance of Giselle, the principle dancer is found dead in her dressing room, stabbed in the back. Fortunately, Detective Inspector Ewen Gilbride is in the theatre and is soon on the case. The ballet and theatre details were enjoyable, as was the snapshot of life in 1950s London, but the read was marred by too many typos/scanning errors in the text. For example, the word "same" kept appearing as "Sarne" (the victim's name) which was really distracting. I expect better than this from the publisher, Greyladies. But despite this it was a pleasant read.

I also read a novella by Tanith Lee, Electric forest, which packed a twisty plot and a vivid world into its short length. Magdala Cled is one of the very few citizens of Indigo to have been born naturally, rather than genetically engineered for unearthly beauty, health and strength. Her ugliness and deformity make her a social pariah in society, so when a stranger offers her the chance of a new, perfect body, she accepts. But every miracle comes with a catch - in this case, her consciousness is transferred into an artificial body but her survival depends upon her real body being maintained in a chamber - if it is neglected and dies, so will Magdala in her new body. It soon becomes clear too that her benefactor has his own agenda, and Magdala is dependent on his goodwill. This is a really interesting short read, with a final twist that causes one to reassess the preceding chapters. I liked the world of Indigo, so named because of its predominantly blue vegetation - there isn't time for a lot of world building but what there is stands out. I'm glad that DAW is continuing these new editions of Lee's older work.

I've started reading The friendly young ladies, which is set in London in the 1930s (I assume - it was written in 1943 but there's no mention of the war). Painfully naive young Elsie runs away from her unbearable parents in Cornwall to find her older sister, who left home herself 8 years ago. Elsie had assumed that Leo ran away with a lover and is living in Bohemian sin, so is surprised to find Leo on a houseboat with her friend Helen, and no lovers in sight (Elsie has totally failed to read the situation!). This cheerful, peaceful household is to be disrupted, however, by the arrival of Peter, an arrogant young doctor who befriended Elsie before she left home. I'm enjoying this unusual book quite a bit so far.

I'm also reading Imaginary numbers, as my copy of the next book in the series has just arrived and I realised I hadn't actually read this one. I've always liked Sarah and it's great to see her in her own book.

>82 Sakerfalcon: Re Electric Forest: Have you read Lord of Light by Roger Zalazny? (If you have, you will understand why I ask.)

>82 Sakerfalcon: As to the TV version of JT&MN, I have no idea how faithful it was too the book, but it was really good AS a TV series: twisty, intriguing and very, very visually compelling.

>82 Sakerfalcon: I thought I owned Web of the Witch World, but I'm not finding it. I may need to pick that one up to help complete the collection and you and pilgrim have been making me want to read them again.

I read JS&MN a half dozen times, both in print and as an audiobook. You could say I love the book. I also watched the TV adaptation - twice. I also loved it. It left out some things, as you can imagine, but what was there was wonderful. (I hated the ending in both forms. That may be why I haven't read Piranesi yet - I'm sulking because it wasn't a sequel to JS&MN.)

I think I read Electric Forest 20 or so years ago when I was on a Tanith Lee binge but don't remember much about it. It may be time to reread it, tho I think I tried to reread Delusion's Master (I think it was that one; could have been one of the others in the series) last year and just could not get into it. It could just have been my mood, tho - I've been in a bit of a reading slump for a year or two.

ETA I not only read Electric Forest, I own it! Apparently I gave it a 3-star rating, so guess I wasn't blown away by it.

>83 -pilgrim-: I haven't but I can see I am going to have to add it to the TBR pile!
>84 -pilgrim-: That sounds good. I'm sure it's on the university streaming service so I'll be able to watch it that way when I'm so inclined.

>85 Karlstar: Web of the witch world is a direct follow-up to Witch world, asking "Have the Kolder really been defeated?" I'm enjoying it so far.

>86 Storeetllr: I hope you will enjoy Piranesi if you decide to give it a try. While I obviously enjoy series/sequels I also admire authors who can change completely with a new book, and still produce something excellent.
I agree that Electric forest isn't one of Lee's most substantial works. My reactions to her books are all over the map - from 1 to 5 stars and everything in between! I gave this one an extra half star for the new cover!

I've finished The friendly young ladies and quite enjoyed it, although the characters started to annoy me when they began to act out of character in the final chapters. The author admits as much in her afterword, written some 40 years later. I liked the evocation of leisurely life on a houseboat on the Thames, and the easy three-cornered friendship between Leo, Helen and Joe which is unwitting disrupted by the arrival of innocent Elsie. In Elsie's wake comes Peter, the obnoxious ambitious young doctor who believes he has a great grasp of psychology and knows what's best for women. I could see why Elsie would be taken in by him, but there is no reason for the more worldly Leo and Helen to fall for his claptrap. Renault admits that she would have written the book differently at the time of the afterword.

I've started another serious read (and a seriously long one at that) - The shameful life of Salvador Dali, which I have owned for years and never read. I've only read the first two chapters so far, but already it is doing a great job of setting the artist and his work within the landscape, society and politics of the time and place.

Still enjoying Imaginary numbers, and am intrigued to learn more about the cuckoos.

>87 Sakerfalcon: I thought the Friendly Young Ladies seemed familiar and indeed I read them in 2010. It says I offered them up to the LibraryThing Viragoites - was this the copy you ended up with, I wonder! https://librofulltime.wordpress.com/2010/02/19/mary-renault-the-friendly-young-l...

Hi, Claire! I'm curious to get your opinion of The Shameful Life of Salvador Dalí, as I also own a copy of it that I purchased years ago but haven't read yet.

>88 LyzzyBee: It looks like my copy was purchased at the Marylebone Oxfam Shop, so someone else was the lucky recipient of your copy. Interestingly the original owner of my copy wrote their name and location inside it, so I know that the book has now returned to its first home in Bromley!

>89 kidzdoc: I'm enjoying it a lot so far. The author has previously written about Lorca, so his understanding of the location, period, social and political scene and the network of friendships is well-researched and vivid. Dali was certainly a peculiar man, full of contradictions, who springs to life from the page in this book. It is of course making me want to go back and visit Catalunya again.

It seems to have been quite some time since I last updated here.
I've finished Web of the witch world and enjoyed it a lot; it was a satisfying conclusion to the plot that opens the series. Imaginary numbers was also a fun read, though it made me realise that McGuire's narrators do tend to info-dump quite a lot. But Sarah has always been one of my favourite characters in the series, less confident than the Price siblings, and her voice managed to be distinct from theirs (I didn't find Verity, Alex and Antimony's tone to differ much at all from each other). The book ends on a cliffhanger so I'm glad I didn't read this when it first came out, because now I have the sequel to hand.

I've read a light novel from the 1960s, The Glenvarroch gathering, a Mary stewart-ish blend of mystery and romance set in the west of Scotland. Unlike Stewart's books the viewpoint is shared between the cast of characters so we follow the plot from several different angles. The McKechnie family is short of money and decides to host paying guests at their large house over the summer. They attract a mixed group - a schoolboy, an American couple, a young man who is trying to write a book, and a schoolmistress. Later, a glamorous young pair of siblings from London join the party. The young McKechnies are entertained and dazzled by the Antonys, to the dismay of their lifelong friends and neighbours. And then the CID gets in touch to warn that they may be in danger from one of their guests. This is a pleasant, exciting read with likeable characters whose friendships and relationships are well drawn, and with a marvellous Scottish setting. It's very much of its time with a lot of smoking and one odd racist comment.

Most of my reading this weekend was on my kindle, where I started A deadly education by Naomi Novik and read all of When no one is watching. The former is a fantasy set in a weird and dangerous school of magic which is interesting but there is a LOT of info-dumping.
The latter is a thriller set in Brooklyn dealing with issues of gentrification. This was well researched and explored some really important and timely issues in an engaging way, but seemed to wrap up very quickly and in a way that was out of character with the rest of the book. The story is split between two voices - African-American Sydney who has returned to the neighbourhood where she grew up and white Theo who has just bought a house on Sydney's street with his girlfriend. The racial tensions between the longtime residents in this historically black area and the white incomers are clearly illustrated, as are the tactics used by developers, investors and estate agents to speed up the changes. The actually thriller part of the plot which happens in the last 50 pages or so suddenly felt a bit OTT compared to what had gone before, and the ending is so rushed that I was left with a lot of questions. Nevertheless, I'd recommend the book for showing the dark side of gentrification.

I'm returning to the world of Rathilien in To ride a rathorn, the fourth of PC Hodgell's Kencyr series. These are fantasy novels set in an intriguing world, with a very unconventional heroine. Jame has many skills but if her actions result in success it is by accident, and with a lot of destruction involved. If she has a plan it usually goes awry, to the dismay of those around her. Having fled the city of Tai-Tastigon at the end of book 1, reunited with her twin brother in book 2, failed to settle into the world of highborn women in book 3, she is now enrolled at military college and turning it head over heels. Religion and magic are closely entwined in this world and powers can be used for dark purposes. Jame is threatened by both human and supernatural powers, but she has friends and allies although whether they will survive their relationships with her remains to be seen.

I'm still reading the Dali biography and enjoying it a lot.

And I've started a feminist dystopian novel called The grace year which has drawn me in although its one of those books that I'm wondering if it will actually be good, or just another Handmaid's Tale knockoff.

Happy new week and Happy Spring (or Autumn for our friends in the Southern Hemisphere)!

I've finished a few more books ...

The grace year contained some good stuff and important themes, but was flawed for me. It takes place in a primitive patriarchal society which believes that when they reach the age of 16 girls become possessed of dangerous magic, which can only be eliminated by sending them out as a group into the wilderness to survive and purge themselves - this is the Grace Year. Before they go, the young men of their age choose the girl they want as their bride upon their return (I wasn't really convinced of the logistics of this, except as a way to create divisions among the girls). Tierney and her cohort are escorted to the remote camp where they must try to stay safe from the many poachers who lurk outside its boundaries, waiting to kill them and collect a bounty. So we have a very dark, grim set up. However, the cast of girls soon falls into the typical types - the practical loner (our heroine Tierney), the mean girl, her followers, the shamed outsider who desperately wants to be accepted, etc. The first section of the book shows the girls forming factions - those who are popular, and not; those who have been chosen as brides, and not; those whose magic is appearing, and not. It's depressing to see how easily the girls divided themselves against each other - but I could see that their whole upbringing and society had encouraged this to prevent them uniting and forming a powerful force. I also guessed correctly that there is in fact no magic involved. The middle section of the book however sees Tierney cast out, and forming a relationship with a poacher. This section really dragged and was far too long. I would rather the pages had been used to show more of what happens after the girls return to their community at the end of the year. There is the potential for a lot more story to be told, yet the end of the book doesn't seem set up for a sequel. If one does appear however, I may read it out of curiosity.

I also finished To ride a rathorn which is another chaotic episode in Jame's story. This is high fantasy but set in a world where the rules of time and space don't always apply. Characters have visions and events take place within dreams which have consequences in the waking world. Ghosts and elemental spirits appear alongside humans and shapeshifters. It's an odd contrast between these mystical elements and the almost slapstick comedy of Jame's misadventures at military college, but Hodgell makes it work and in doing so creates one of the more unique fantasy worlds.

On kindle I finished A deadly education, which I found a very hard book to rate. The info-dumping which characterises El's narrative is really annoying - she could be being attacked by a terrifying creature and the action will stop while she tells you all about it for several paragraphs. Yet the peculiar school of magic in which the entire book is set is an intriguing and unusual world, with no teachers or other adults, located in a building which rotates downwards each year as new students arrive at the highest tier and the graduating class descends to the lowest level, where in order to leave they must fight their way out through a horde of ravening monsters. During their four years at the school, not only must they acquire the skills they will need to survive, and then function in the outside world, but form alliances with their fellow students in order to better survive the ordeal of graduation. El is a spiky protagonist who has always kept aloof from her classmates, planning to reveal her power at the perfect moment in order to get offers for alliances in time for graduation. The book takes place in her 3rd year, when she starts to make friends against her better judgement. It's not easy to read about a heroine who keeps pushing other people away and being rude to them when they may be trying to help her - especially gallant Orion Lake who has an annoying habit of saving her life whether she wants him too or not. The school is also unusual in having a very diverse cast of characters, with students from all over the world. Unfortunately this leads to a couple of passages that are downright offensive, for which the author has apologised and promised to fix in future printings. So overall I ended up enjoying this book quite a lot in spite of the issues that irritated me.

I'm still reading The shameful life of Salvador Dali which continues to be an interesting read. He was such a strange mix of timidity and self-promotion, and it's not surprising that his paintings are so strange and unique. I've always loved his work but the more I learn about it the more disturbing it becomes!

I'm currently reading another light novel by Susan Pleydell, Brighouse Hotel, which features one of the characters from the earlier novel, The Glenvarroch Gathering. This one also takes place in the Scottish Highlands and focuses a lot of climbing as well as the stories of the local community.

On St Patrick's Day I started to read a novel by the Irish writer Elizabeth Bowen, Eva Trout. It turns out the book isn't actually set in Ireland or about Irish characters, but at least it is now off the TBR pile! The titular heroine is a very peculiar women who disrupts the lives of those with whom she comes into contact. It's an interesting character study.

And I've started Bound in blood, the next Kencyrath novel.

>91 Sakerfalcon: I started to read a novel by the Irish writer Elizabeth Bowen, Eva Trout. It turns out the book isn't actually set in Ireland or about Irish characters,

I have not read that one. I did read The Heat of the Day which was set in London during the blitz. Apparently she worked for the British government during WWII providing information on Irish neutrality. Apparently this translates as spying. :-)

>91 Sakerfalcon: I had mixed feelings about A Deadly Education as well, especially the friendship between El (who's verbally abusive) and Orion (who's her stalker, basically). I'm curious if the second book will resolve some of this. The Pleydell books sound delightful!

>91 Sakerfalcon: I tried to read A Deadly Education (against my better judgment since I mostly dislike YA fiction) but just couldn't get into it. Like you and libraryperilous, I found the two main characters annoying and unlikeable.

>94 Storeetllr: That is depressing. Three votes against when I bought a copy in a Kindle sale in February.

We've got it; Paul has read it but I haven't yet. His comment was that it's a bit YAish, he thinks Spinning Silver and Uprooted are better and it's a first in series. He also says don't read to the end as it sets up the bombshell for the next book.

>92 pgmcc: The only other book of Bowen's that I've read is The last September and that is very firmly set in Ireland, during the 1920s.

>93 libraryperilous:, >94 Storeetllr:, >95 -pilgrim-:, >96 Maddz: I was in two minds about whether to read A deadly education. A friend of mine who has similar taste to me highly recommended it, but I'd seen reviews that mentioned some gratuitous racist content and the unhealthy relationship dynamic - although to me, El and Orion are probably the least problematic couple compared to the relationships in Uprooted and Spinning Silver. Read into that what you will! The Scholomance is certainly a great setting; I just wish I felt I'd been there with El rather than having her tell me all about it from a distance.

I finished Brighouse Hotel last night and enjoyed it a lot. Like The Glenvarroch gathering it is very much of its time, with the assumption that the female lead will find romance, and the book contained a fair amount of relationship drama, but it was balanced by some terrific climbing and mountain rescue scenes which were very well written. My favourite of her books that I've read remain Summer Term and A young man's fancy, both of which are school stories from the staff POV, but I did enjoy these two Scottish set books as well.

I have finished Eva Trout and, more impressively, The shameful life of Salvador Dali.

Eva Trout was a well written but odd book, a character study of a strange woman and her impact on those around her. The first page made me think she was an eccentric older lady, but actually she is only 24. She is about to inherit a large fortune but until then she has been living with her former English teacher and her husband. Eva adored Iseult as a schoolgirl, but is now unhappy in her household and spends most of her time with the family of the local vicar. Her guardian Constantine is a distant presence. Just before she is due to inherit, Eva disappears, having arranged to rent a house far away from the people she knows. However, she doesn't hide her tracks very well and they all turn up on her doorstep, with unexpected consequences. Eva is a character whose motivations and desires are very difficult to fathom. I liked the way it was written, with chapters from different viewpoints, some in the form of correspondence, and I thought that Bowen created some very vivid settings with houses that I could picture. But ultimately I felt that I had missed something when I finished the book.

The Dali book was an excellent biography of a very frustrating person. So much of Dali's life was a facade, a show put on to attract attention to himself, that the author has to dig deep to sort myth from fact. Dali's own "biographical" writing is notoriously unreliable, and many secondary sources are based upon it which doesn't help the researcher. Gibson spends most of the book on Dali's early life, when he was discovering himself and creating his identity, and also producing most of his finest work. Dali's links with other Surrealists and artists, most notably Lorca, Bunuel, and Breton, are examined, as is his complicated sexuality (there is a LOT on this, but it is relevant to understanding his art) and relationship with Gala. As a young man he was painfully timid, but the author surmises that he dealt with this by creating an outrageous facade behind which to hide his true self. No-one could accuse Gibson of being biased towards his subject - the biography gives credit and admiration where it is due, but makes no bones about dismissing much of Dali's later, derivative work, criticising his politics, and abhorring his money-grabbing tendencies. Dali and Gala had no hesitation in exploiting their admirers or bending the law to acquire wealth. Dali was a larger-than-life character, and this biography is a superb portrait of him as man and artist.

I've also read some shorter books for children, including two-thirds of a Finnish trilogy set in the 1880s. Gold Crown Lane and The goldmaker's house show the daily life of the Halter sisters and their acquaintances in the small town of Tulavall. The girls are poor: their father suffered a head injury and can't work, their mother earns what she can by doing laundry. But the children are happy, seeing friends and neighbours as they run errands around town. The first book follows them as they help the son of a murderer to leave town, and the second interweaves the sisters' story with that of their friend Bonadea who becomes an alchemist's servant. These are unusual stories, not least because in the first book no-one really seems to condemn the murderer, as the victim was a customs agent!. My editions of the books have lovely dust-jackets and interior illustrations which add to the slightly otherworldly feel of the stories. I have managed to locate a matching edition of the third book and it should be on its way to me soon!

I also read a school story by Nancy Breary, This time next term. Breary is a favourite recent discovery for me in the genre, as her humour is genuinely funny - probably more to an adult than a child.

I'm still enjoying Jame's adventures in Bound in blood. I've also started reading a novel from 1943, but set before WWI, O the brave music which is told by a woman looking back at her childhood and youth. It is very well-written and engaging with a sympathetic protagonist who doesn't always understand the world around her.

I've also started Luna : moon rising, the final part of Ian McDonald's trilogy set on the moon, and We ride upon sticks, a novel about a girls' hockey team who turn to unusual methods in order to break their losing streak. This book is set in 1989 and perfectly channels the era!

I loved O, the Brave Music, so absorbing, and would have been a favourite carried over from my youth if I'd read it then, if you see what I mean!

>97 Sakerfalcon: Hmm, this is almost convincing enough to make me try A Deadly Education despite Novik's bad romance writing in the past and the fact that it's the first of a series... the setting sounds interesting indeed.

>99 LyzzyBee: I loved O the brave music and I agree with you - I would have loved this if I'd found it around the time I discovered I capture the castle and other such books.

>100 Kanarthi: If you do try it I will be very interested to see what you make of it, given the diverse reactions to it in this thread!

I've had a week off work and thus a week away from my laptop, so I have a lot of catching up to do. It was great to be able to get out and about a bit and see a few friends, and also to have more reading time.

I finished O the brave music and loved it. It's a beautifully written novel that looks back on a woman's childhood between the ages of 7 and 13 as she grows up in a strict non-Conformist family. Her father is a preacher but her mother was a society lady who finds it hard to conform to the narrowness of life as his wife, expected to set a good example for the parish. Ruan is the plain but clever younger daughter, with her older sister Sylvia taking after their mother in her striking good looks. Ruan has a very active imagination and an all-consuming love for the moors where she spends her summers. Her life is not easy, as the family is poor and suffers several tragedies, yet the book never gets depressing. Ruan's voice is vivid and engaging as she depicts her friends, family and neighbours and the places where she spends time. She's an odd duck but manages to find people to relate to who support her as she grows up. I'm very glad the British Library chose to reprint this in their Women Writers series.

I also finished Bound in blood which tells of more dramatic adventures with Jame, her brother and her classmates at the military academy. One or two loose ends from the previous book are tied up here, to my relief ( WHY didn't they destroy that damned coat sooner???) but there is still a lot more story to come.

Luna: moon rising was a satisfying conclusion to the trilogy which has been described as "Game of thrones set on the moon". The power shifts between the five warring clans, with interlopers from Earth adding to the tensions with their own agenda. Lucas and Ariel Corta, the surviving brother and sister of their generation, may be the key to completely reforming life on the moon - if they don't kill each other first. They are among a huge cast of characters and I was glad of the dramatis personae at the end of the book. This was a very entertaining trilogy albeit with a lot of violence and, in the first two volumes, too much gratuitous sex for my taste.

I've also read another in the BL Women Writers series, Father by Elizabeth von Arnim. The protagonist is 33 year old Jennifer who has spent her adult life housekeeping and serving as secretary for her widowed father, completely at his beck and call. When he suddenly marries, Jennifer sees her chance to escape and have her own life. The cook suggests she look in the Sussex Churchgoer paper for a place to rent as one can always trust church people! Jen earmarks two possibilities and goes to investigate. She soon finds herself causing a commotion as she unwittingly disrupts the peaceful life of James the vicar and his domineering sister Alice. What ensues is comic but also poignant as the book explores the ways in which women's lives were bounded by and dependent on their male relatives. It's a very different book to her more famous Enchanted April but I really enjoyed it.

I also read The life of the world to come, which is book 5 in the Company series of time travelling SF. The premise is that a corporate has found out how to make people immortal and send them back through time. There are limitations which are explained in the books. Recorded history cannot be changed, but one can shape it if one is clever to one's own advantage. Needless to say, the Company is not benevolent, and certain of the immortals they use are becoming rebellious. I love this series but don't recommend starting anywhere but at the beginning, with In the the garden of Eden.

On my kindle I read a historical horror/supernatural novel, Rawblood. This was excellent, though containing some very disturbing content of animal vivisection and early C20th asylum treatment. It's the story of a family and a house, both of which are haunted or cursed. The novel jumps back and forth in time, with each section filling another piece in the jigsaw. It's complex but brilliantly constructed. Among the reviews here on LT is one by Bookmarque which sums it up far better than I can.

I'm still reading We ride upon sticks and really enjoying it. I've also started The queen of sorrow, which concludes the Queens of Renthia fantasy trilogy and on kindle, Grey sister, sequel to Red sister which I thought was excellent.

>101 Sakerfalcon: An impressive list! I enjoyed the first two Nona books and have Holy Sister on my list for an upcoming library haul.

>101 Sakerfalcon: That's a lot of reading! I've been dodging those Sister bullets for a while now... I have yet to read any of Mark Lawrence's books. He used to post here in the GD, but I guess he got too busy. LOL

I'm glad you got some time off.

>102 Jim53: I'm really enjoying Grey sister so far and can't think why I left it so long to pick it up. I was very grateful to the author for providing a good synopsis of the first book.

>103 clamairy: The Sister trilogy is the first of his fantasy series to appeal to me. The previous ones seem to have featured a very sadistic protagonist, which is not for me. I know that -pilgrim- thought highly of some of his contemporary/SF work.

I finished We ride upon sticks and really enjoyed it. It's quite unusual in that the narration is collective - although we follow each character in turn, the narrator refers to itself as "we", for reasons that soon become clear. This story of a terrible high school women's hockey team that finds an unorthodox way to success has a streak of humour but also serious themes about the expectations and roles placed upon girls and boys as they grow to adulthood. The story is set in 1989 but seen from the viewpoint of the present day, so there are occasional comments on how things have changed. The 80s references are fun for anyone who lived through that era, and I also liked the use of the Salem-area setting and how it linked into the team's occult activities. Despite being set in high school this is not a YA book; the viewpoint is clearly adult. I enjoyed seeing how the team worked together but also how each member had their own private goals to fulfil. I expected this to be a light, fun read, but it ended up being a lot more thoughtful than I anticipated, which was a nice surprise.

I'm still reading Grey sister, but have put aside The queen of sorrow in order to reread Paladin of souls for the GD group read. This is one of my favourites and it's just as good this time around. I've also started reading Ancestral night by Elizabeth Bear, which is SF. I saw that tardis enjoyed this one which is a good sign IMO!

>101 Sakerfalcon: I really enjoyed Father, too. I had to come and search this thread out as it just won't appear in my Talk list, no idea why!

Great review of The Shameful Life of Salvador Dalí, Claire. I'll add it to my summer reading list.

BTW, did you visit the Teatre-Museu Dalí in Figueres, his home town, during any of your visits to Catalunya?

>98 Sakerfalcon: Ouch, wow, direct hit with the Dali book. I haven't taken a BB dead on in a while, but I didn't see it coming and didn't have time to duck.

>107 Meredy: Payback time?

>105 LyzzyBee: Father was excellent wasn't it? Now I need to find the box in my loft in which Expiation is hiding.

>106 kidzdoc: Yes I did! It was a crazy and very surreal (what else?) experience. I agree with the author of the biography though that there is actually very little of substance inside. BTW, I made the Spanish Poor man's eggs recipe that you posted for my dinner last night and it was very tasty. Quick and easy too, which is always a bonus.

>107 Meredy: I hope you find it as fascinating as I did. I've seen a few negative reviews complaining that the author just doesn't like Dali and is biased against him but I thought it was critical but fair.

I have DNFed The queen of sorrow. I know I've invested time in the previous two parts of the trilogy but I really don't like Naelin and she takes up so much page time. She represents the worst cliches about female leaders and mothers in particular - as soon as anything threatens her children she throws away all other responsibilities to protect them, even though this means that many other people and their children will suffer. I still like Daleina but she's not as active a character in this book. I'm not enjoying it so goodbye.

I did finish Grey sister and thought it was excellent, with none of the "middle book" problems that sometimes occur in trilogies. Nona has gone up a class to the next level, where she finds new enemies and is thrown into situations where she will need all her skills to survive. We also get the viewpoint of Abbess Glass who seems to be out of her depth as well. This is such a good series, violent yet brightened by the strong friendships between characters.

Ancestral night is very good so far. I found the first chapter a bit off-putting as I couldn't envisage the technology which is being described, but I'm trying not to think about it and am enjoying the characters and their adventures. The first-person narration is quite chatty which might annoy some readers who've picked this up for the hard SF elements, but I've grown to like Hainey and her voice.

I've also started Entangled life, which wasn't a BB from Meredy as I already owned it, but her comments have bumped it up to the top of the TBR pile. I've read the introduction and first chapter of this study of fungi in all its manifestations and so far it lives up to Meredy's praise. For me it strikes a good balance between popular and scholarly writing - plenty of scientific content but pitched for the layman. In addition to the colour plates there are line drawings throughout the book, the originals of which were drawn using ink derived from a fungus.

I'm also reading a novel from the 1960s, The snow ball by Brigid Brophy. It is set at the titular New Year's Eve ball and mostly follows Anna as she moves from one encounter to another through the masked revelry.

And I have started reading The truth about unicorns which was a BB from Marissa. This novel is set in a small community in upstate New York with hints of darker things behind the placid rural facade.

>101 Sakerfalcon: I, too, enjoyed Ian McDonald's Luna trilogy. Not as enamored of the "prequel" novella Menace from Farside, though: I thought it would be nice to revisit the universe but the work felt almost unfinished. I think I enjoy McDonald's writing best when it's a bit clever and fantastical, like in Brazyl and River of Gods (and the short stories in Cyberabad Days). I never quite got the same feeling for The Dervish House, and Luna is somewhere between those really good stories and the latter.

>110 Busifer: I didn't like River of gods as much as most people. I thought some of the viewpoint characters were unnecessary, and I really disliked some of them who I felt I was supposed to like. But I agree that Brasyl and Cyberabad days are among his best books, with the Luna trilogy a little below.

I've finished Ancestral night and ended up really enjoying it. As I said before, I almost bounced off the first couple of chapters, but I persisted and was soon hooked by the characters. Haimey, Connla and Singer make a great team, and the cats are an added bonus that the author never makes the mistake of overusing. I liked the portrayals of the various aliens whom we meet, and the ethical issues which underpin the plot. Bear is also good at considering the effects of life in a gravity-free environment and the adaptations that future humans might make. All in all this was a great read and I'm looking forward to the companion novel set in the same universe, Machine.

I also finished The snow ball which was an odd short novel that takes place on one New Year's Eve at the titular ball. We follow Anna as she drifts from one encounter to another, and Ruth, the daughter of an old friend of Anna's. The story of Don Giovanni is echoed throughout the book, but Anna is more resourceful than her namesake and not restricted by the same social conventions. There isn't a lot of plot here; the book is all about the atmosphere, mood, artifice and desire, which gives it a slightly surreal, dreamlike feeling. I enjoyed it.

I've also read Engines of oblivion, the sequel to Architects of memory. This SF duology (?) is dark, but engaging. This volume follows Natalie, who we met in the first book. She has now achieved citizenship with the Aurora corporation which gives her more rights and entitlements than she had as an indenture. However, she very shortly learns that she is still essentially a pawn, subject to the manipulations of those with real power. This is a very bleak look at a possible future where capitalism rules the known universe - very different to Ancestral night or Iain M. Banks's Culture, for example. It's thought-provoking though, and the plot is fast moving. I would definitely recommend reading these books in order, as the plot of this one depends on the actions and revelations of the first book.

I'm still reading and admiring Entangled life, learning that what we know about fungi barely scratches the surface of their complexity. And I'm also enjoying The truth about unicorns, which so far is putting me in mind of Shirley Jackson and Alice Hoffman, Joyce Carol Oates' Gothic novels and Patricia McKillip's Solstice wood - yet it's not exactly like any of those. I love the blend of the rural everyday with the hints of witchcraft and the supernatural.

And on kindle I've started reading a teen novel, K-pop confidential, which was a BB from RuneFirestar. I've also loved books about kids/teens learning to excel on stage ever since reading Noel Streatfeild and Lorna Hill as a child. This book is the 21st century continuation of the tradition, as a Korean-American 15 year old from New Jersey wins a competition to train as a K-Pop star in Seoul. Candace has an amazing singing voice but can she learn the many other skills she'll need for success in the intense 4 month training period?

>111 Sakerfalcon: Ouch, two BB's at the same time: Ancestral night, and the Memory War-books (Architects of memory)!

>111 Sakerfalcon:
I received River of Gods as a give-away at Worldcon in 2005 when it was in Glasgow. I, to my shame, have not read it yet. Neither have I read Cyberabad Days. I loved Brasyl and The Dervish House and found Planesrunner entertaining.

I started reading the first Luna but could nto face going through a complex world building and society constructing exercise.

I have other books of his that are still TBR. I have to get back into his books because I like anything of his I have read to date. He is also a very nice guy. He was my Guest of Honour at the last P-Con I chaired.

In terms of other books you mention I am deliberately turing the other cheek and walking by on the other side of the road. Your comment on what The Truth About Unicorns remind you of is making it very hard to keep looking the other way.

>111 Sakerfalcon: I did not know about the existence of Soltice Wood. And there is no digital copy available at my library. I must investigate!

(Touchstone is not loading.)

>113 pgmcc: I loved River of Gods. Hereby I encourage you to pick the book up!

>115 Busifer: On seeing you post I went to the shelf with my Ian McDonald books in the back row and have moved River of Gods, Cyberabad Days and Out on Blue Six to the front row.

I first came across Ian McDonald in 1993. I attended a two day event on Science Fiction in the Dublin Writer's Centre. Ian McDonald and Colin Greenland were guests.

Ian read from one of his books. I cannot remember which one it was, but he was describing the scene as someone was arriving at an airport in Africa. I had visited Ghana in 1988 for work and had landed in Accra airport. Ian's description of the terrain and experience was exactly my experience, even down to the laterite soil at the side of the tarred road. I knew then that he was a writer I would like.

Colin Greenland* gave a paper on "The Science Fiction Sentence." He defined this as a sentence that would make no sense in the world in which we are living now, but only makes sense in the world of the SF story. Of course he gave examples, but I cannot for the life of me remember any. There was one about receiving a message while in the shower.

Of course, a Science Fiction sentence may cease to be a Science Fiction sentence if a new technology or natural phenomenon changes our world to make the sentence meaningful in the current time period.

*Colin Greenland is Susanne Clarke's partner. They met when she participated on a creative writing course he was giving.

>116 pgmcc: Of course, a Science Fiction sentence may cease to be a Science Fiction sentence if a new technology or natural phenomenon changes our world to make the sentence meaningful in the current time period.
I guess the reverse happens when what was once contemporary fiction passes into the realm of the historical, contextually speaking.
Plots relying on the non-existence of smart phones, for example, but still seemingly in the "modern" world (ie cars, planes, central heating...), for example.

>117 Busifer: A few years ago the closing down of society and the virtual banning of international travel would have been part of a Science Fiction story. Now it is real life.

I am reading a lot of stories written and set in the 1930s, 40s & 50s. The earlier stories have limited communication capability. In the latest 1950s book one had to find a phone in a place like a hotel or a pub to make a call. Nowadays the public payphone is virtually extinct. "Dialling" a phone-number, while a term still used, no longer uses a dial to dial in the number, unless someone chooses to acquire a retro-telephone to simulate the old phone way of dialling.

The 1970s was when I started visiting Donegal, the most North Westerly county in Ireland. At that time very few people had a telephone. The area I was visiting had 732 people living there. (It is an island with a causeway to the mainland so it is easy to count the people living on the island. Everyone knows everyone else and many of them are related.) The telephone numbers on the island were single digits. Inch 3 was Barr's Sandpit; Inch 1 was John Sweeney; etc... If you wanted to call someone you burled the handle round a few times to get the attention of the local operator in the post office. The operator took note of the number you wanted and then started calling through a chain of other switchboards until they got the exchange where the person you were ringing had their phone, or until they reached part of the network where an operator could use a cross-bar exchange to dial through to the end number. This would all involve the connecting the various links in the chain with wires and plugs. Every three minutes the local operator would interrupt to ask if you were finished. At the end of the call they would complete the call docket they had been using for the call and it would be sent into HQ to be used in making up the bill for the number making the call.

Donegal was the last part of the country to be electrified (1960s) and to have automated telephone exchanges installed (1980s). Telephone operators are one of the everything jobs that have now disappeared.

>112 Busifer: Sorry! I haven't read proper SF for a couple of months and then I got two good ones in a row!

>113 pgmcc:, >115 Busifer:, >116 pgmcc: I think you've mentioned before that you and Ian McDonald got to know each other, but not told the story of your first meeting. Now I am curious as to which book it was that he was reading - possibly Chaga which I have yet to read but I know it is set on the African continent. RE: Colin Greenland: I own Take back plenty and should move it up the TBR pile.

>114 clamairy: Solstice wood is different to McKillip's other books, including Winter Rose, to which it is a sequel. I like it though.

>117 Busifer: And making reference to technology/devices which we no longer use - the telegraph, for example.

>118 pgmcc: Exactly!

>119 Sakerfalcon: I was thinking it was Chaga too. I have it on my shelf for years and have not read it yet. Likewise Take Back Plenty.

I am on a bit of an Eric Ambler binge at the moment. I find his stories informative in terms of the political activities of the time, pleasant to read, and a glimpse into society of where and when the book was set. Ambler is very informative about political movements and type of thing that goes on in the background. His stories and the themes they contain can all be set in the present day. When I get through the Amblers I will have to go back to Ian and Colin.

I owe it to Ian McDonald to read at least some of his books that I have not reached to date. The length of time I have had Take Back Plenty and not read it is shameful, so I will have to make some time for Colin too.

>118 pgmcc: Did Donegal also have "party lines"? If so you'll love the story told me in the 1970s by the then warden of a nature reserve at Springbok in Namaqualand (far north-western Cape). He was a Belgian, and used to phone home occasionally. He reported that whenever he spoke Flemish to the family at home, the line was dreadful. But as soon as he changed to French the line cleared instantly, and became quite good. Why? Because Flemish and Afrikaans (spoken by everybody in Namaqualand) are mutually intelligible, and all the gossiping aunties on the line listened in when he spoke Flemish, but he was the only person in the area who spoke French, and when he did the gossips all put their phones down.

>121 hfglen: I do not know if Donegal had party lines but I was familiar with them in Belfast. In Donegal you always suspected the operator was listening in. The switchboard was in behind the counter in the local shop/post office/ undertaker and you could see the operator listening in on occasion. The place was out of a book it was so stereotype.

Sometimes when you would be feeling mischievous you would suddenly use the operator’s name and say something like, “Jimmy, I’m finished now, thank you!” or “Jimmy, has this week’s sugar arrived in the shop yet?”

>121 hfglen:
I hadn't met such a widely shared party line before.

When I was growing up my parents' phone was on a party line - which meant that, as far as we knew, it was shared with another household. But just the one. (The house two doors along down the next street.)

When I was in my teens the local exchange expanded, all local numbers got an extra digit, and my parents were now the lucky sole owners of their telephone number.

>123 -pilgrim-: Yes, well, I am talking about the back of beyond ;-)

My aunt had a party line for a while in ... the late 1970s or early 1980s. It was in southern NH just outside of Manchester which, I think at the time was the biggest city. I forget how many rings was hers, but I think that's how it signaled. When I was young I'd pick up the phone and hope to overhear something.

>122 pgmcc: Here too. In country areas it was quite normal to ask for the person you wanted, and from time to time be told by the telephonist that they were out visiting / gone to the city for a day or three or whatever. And get an answer to questions like "has the post arrived?"

I have never lived in a reality that had manually operated switchboards, but earlier today my mum described having to go down to the corner shop when having to make a call somewhere. This would had been in the late 40's and possibly early 50's.
But then the then nationally owned phone operator collaborated closely with the company then named LM Ericsson.

We didn't have shared numbers, either - those "party lines"? We did have a way to confuse the analog/mechanical switchboard, though: I guess they operated simply by receiving sets of pulses, and if one could imitate a set of pulses at least pay phones could be tricked into accepting the call free of charge.
Another set of pulses put you into a multi-part call. The practice was very popular in the late 70's. Then the system became digital and it became harder to trick it.

>127 Busifer: How long was your phone number (for a local call)?
Mine was 5 digits, before the exchange upgrade, and, like Peter described, really small communities could go as low as single digit numbers.

>127 Busifer: >128 -pilgrim-: AFAIK the last (often the only) 2 digits of a party-line number indicated the number of long and short rings the operator gave to indicate who the call was for. So for example the number "Mooimeisiesfontein 12" would indicate that farm circuit, then one long and two short.

>128 -pilgrim-: Six digits, five just south of me. I think five was pretty much the standard when I grew up: every household had it's own phone number, and companies and businesses often more than one. Then in the 90's, or possibly late 80's, numbers started to get an extra seventh digit, in front, as several local area prefixes was consolidated into one.
Now many phone numbers have seven digits.

>129 hfglen: I'm totally unfamiliar with the concept of one number, several households, and then number of ring tones to signal the addressee. I need to ask my mum about this, if this existed in Sweden as well.

ETA: I might add that many don't have "house phones" any more. Most of us have a personal mobile phone, and that's it.

Oh, man, my age is showing! My first real job (as opposed to babysitting) was as a receptionist/SWITCHBOARD OPERATOR in the Dean's Office of my local community college. Since that was, like, a thousand years ago, I don't remember much about it, but I do remember we had switches rather than plugs to connect callers to the extensions they wanted. Our home phone was a party line. I remember as a kid listening in (for only a few seconds because I didn't want to get caught) to the other party's conversation, and also of hearing the click when the person on the party line wanted to make a call when I was talking to someone. Well, talking to my grandmother, because she was the only person I talked to on the phone when I was that young. ETA of COURSE I remember my and my grandma's phone numbers from back then. Early on, when we still had operators who connected us, our prefix was a word. Hers was PR(ospect) 6-3456 (later 776-3456). Mine was RE(liance) 5-3098 (later 735-3098). We lived in the same area of Chicago so didn't need to use area codes.

>130 Busifer: Not quite. Considering our semi-fictitious Mooimeisiesfontein (MMF - I'm a lousy typist) party line as an example, you might have:
MMF 3 Van Tonder farm -- 3 shorts
MMF 11 Van der Merwe -- 1 long 1 short
MMF 12 Van Tonder junior -- 1 long 2 shorts
MMF 21 A. Mostert -- 2 long 1 short
MMF 23 J. Mostert -- 2 long 3 short
and so on.
So someone from an automatic exchange might call the Mooimeisiesfontein exchange and start a dialogue like
"Nommer asseblief" {number please}
"Mooimeisiesfontein 12 please"
"Ag nee oom, hulle's by hul pa, ek sit u daar deur" {Sorry sir, they're visiting their dad, I'll put you through there}
...

>132 hfglen: Ah!

>131 Storeetllr: Businesses, hospitals, government agencies, etc, still has a central number and human switchboard operators, to some extent.
If you have the number to a person or contact point (main number to a division fx) you can call directly but if not you call the main number and after having navigated through multiple layers of "press 2 for..." you will often get the option to "...or just wait, and we will help you". The person who then picks up is the switchboard operator.

In some cases this person also has the role as a receptionist.

>133 Busifer: Yes, but they don't use switchboards anymore, at least not in the U.S. Here, when you want to transfer someone to another extension, you do it on your phone using the transfer function key and then punching in the extension number. (I know, before I retired, I worked in an office and often had to transfer people who got me by mistake.)

>134 Storeetllr: Well, the "board" is digital, but it still exist as a concept. If it's in the phone or not is a question of were to draw the line: it is software with a computer interface integrated with the headset of the operator, and the software do much of the operating by itself, based on rules set by the operating organisation, but when an actual human operator has to take over the interface can be either in a smartphone or accessed via a screen/headset. And then it's not that far removed from the old physical switchboards.

>135 Busifer: I see your point. I was thinking of the physical difference between the phone I had on my desk just before I retired and the huge vertical switchboard that stood next to my desk when I worked for the community college back in (I think it was) 1966.

>131 Storeetllr: this job reminds me of one I had in the early 90s...or maybe late 80s - an answering service!!

Yup, that was still a thing. Mostly it was for doctors who had on-call people in the practice or who were on call themselves, but we also had other businesses like plumbers and electricians.

I can't remember what he was calling for or who he was calling, but once I spoke to David Byrne. I recognized his voice and when I finished taking the message and reading it back I told him I was a fan and I appreciated everything he did in Talking Heads. He was gracious in response as you'd imagine.

>137 Bookmarque: Oooooh, David Byrne! What a cool experience! I remember answering services. Back in the 80s, my ex husband (a musician) had one for his work, and we got to know the woman who ran it well. She was just so nice! (Still remember her name was Tiger.)

Hi, Sakerfalcon!

>136 Storeetllr: Yes, a huge difference! I once met an old lady who had worked as an operator on the main switch board in Stockholm, in the 30's. She was in her 90's when I met her. The change between that plug and cord-operated board and the ones used in the 60's in some ways were probably less different than the ones in use today.

The main switch board in Stockholm was housed next to the royal castle.
The building (purpose-built for telephony and telegraphy in the late 1860's) still stands. It is now a somewhat regular office building. Currently it houses an insurance company.

Everything that happened in that not small building now fits in something the size of a smartphone.
(shakes head)

Thanks everyone for keeping my thread warm! What a fascinating discussion! I'm not old enough to remember party lines but I remember reading about them in older books and getting quite confused by the concept. I've very much enjoyed reading the reminiscences of you who have experienced them. Sounds like there was a lot of potential for pranks and skullduggery!

>137 Bookmarque: Oooh, David Byrne! That's a nice memory to have!

>138 Storeetllr: Hi Storeetellr! Nice to see you here!

>139 Busifer: Yes, it's mindblowing to think how far computing has come in the last century, and especially the last couple of decades. I think I heard that the computer that sent men to the moon was less powerful than the average smartphone. Incredible.

I've been doing a lot of reading while I was offline over the long weekend. I've finished K-Pop confidential, The truth about unicorns and Entangled life, all of which were good reads.

K-pop confidential had quite a few of the usual elements of YA novels - a heroine with some tough choices to make, some mean girls, a love triangle (which thankfully never quite developed or became angsty), parental pressure and friendship. When Candace wins the chance to train as a K-pop idol in Seoul she is unprepared for how gruelling it will be, and for the level of competition among the trainees. But she knuckles down and accepts her role as the "little sister" in the group to which she has been assigned, even though this means being subservient to them and putting up with their meanness. Thankfully she also finds friends and allies, and all the girls are shown to have genuine talents. Of course there is a huge moral dilemma for Candace at the climax of the novel, although it wasn't the one I was expecting her Korean grandfather is sick and I was afraid that she would be called to his bedside at the same time as an important assessment for her team. It wasn't that. The denouement of the book is dramatic and powerful but we are left on a cliffhanger - I recommend that if you like the sound of this book you wait until the sequel is published so you are not left in suspense like me!

Entangled life was a fascinating exploration of the worlds of fungi, areas which we still know very little about. Each chapter dealt with a different aspect, such as lichens, growth, their relationships with plants, and the potential for fungi to help us fix some of the problems we humans have caused. Sheldrake blends technical and lay writing very effectively, and meticulously documents his sources - the last 100 pages of the book are extensive footnotes and bibliography. For all of you who were hit by Meredy's book bullets, I don't think you will be disappointed!

I really enjoyed The truth about unicorns, though faced an unexpected jolt during the climactic courtroom scene when I realised that 10 pages of my copy were missing! It was clearly a binding error, and I hope that I'll be able to get copies of the missing pages at some stage. I could get the gist of what had occurred, but it was a pity to miss reading the dramatic events. Aside from that hiccup I can highly recommend the book. The story does get quite dark as the Westcotts face a series of disasters, and superstition infects their friends and neighbours. I found myself concerned for the characters and outraged at the foolish prejudice that spreads through foolish gossip, causing such harm. But the blend of possible supernatural with family and small town life was very well done and the rural setting felt true to life. Many thanks to Marissa for drawing this author to my attention.

Now I'm reading a novel about colourism and race in America, The vanishing half, a Japanese novel about a group of bullied schoolchildren who find themselves drawn into another world, Lonely castle in the mirror, and Jeff Vandermeer's new novel, Hummingbird salamander, which is a near-future ecothriller.

>140 Sakerfalcon: It is commonly said that the processing power of your average smart phone is 100,000 times that of the computer that guided Apollo 11.

I think I'm not alone in remembering storing files on 720 Kb and 1440 Kb floppy disks (I remember the floppy floppies as well...). When the SyQuest400 arrived it was such a huge thing, from 1440 Kb to 40 Mb movable storage! And then the CD, and zip-drives, and...
My phone has 3,200 times the storage capacity of the SyQuest. It's breath-taking, when you stop to think about it.

(I remember how in the late 90's, I think, some US company experimented with renting out movies stored online: essentially a streaming service. Neither storage, processing, network, or modem capacity was up to it, and the business folded.)

>140 Sakerfalcon: >141 Busifer: The thing that amazes me is how fast this has all happened. My first experience of the internet was over a 1200-baud dialup on a command line. Here we are 30 or so years later and all the bigger data pipes are fibre-optic and no-one even knows what ADSL is any longer. I just did a quick speed test on this very iPad and got a download speed of 45mbps. That would have been science fiction even 10 years ago.

>140 Sakerfalcon: We read The Vanishing Half in our book club and I liked it quite a bit. I hope you'll enjoy it!

>140 Sakerfalcon: I have Entangled Life on my to be read very soon pile. Sounds fascinating.

Anybody remember punch cards? That was in around 1975, at my first job as a legal secretary, where the partners had a huge "computer" that took up an entire cubicle and used punch cards, and only one or two of the secretaries knew how to do it, but that wasn't my first exposure to computers. When I was in h.s., I took a course in computer programming (I learned how to program using COBAL, I think it was), and we took a field trip to the Chicago Board of Education to see its computer. That monster took up 2 or 3 floors of the building. That was in around 1965 or 66. Now, as Busifer and Sakerfalcon pointed out, my iPhone is more powerful than the Apollo Moon Landing's computer. In a way, my experience is comparable to my grandmother's. She lived to see horses & buggies and ships and trains powered by steam give way to automobiles, jets, diesel powered trains and ships, satellites and rockets. (She was born in 1887 and died in 1976.)

>145 Storeetllr: Yes, I worked with them. I would write my code, send it off to be typed up into punch cards, and run.
In the afternoon, I would get back a little tray, with my punch card program on one side and the print out from the run on the other.

>145 Storeetllr: I even have a few still. They're great for writing memory-jogs on the back of.

>145 Storeetllr:
I remember them well.

>145 Storeetllr: My only university computer course involved writing simple programs on to punch cards, using a language called SPK (I think). Many years later I wound up acting as a computer tech at my community college (starting in the DOS/Windows 3.1 days) with that as my only formal computer course.

On punch cards: Heh, so good knowing I'm not the oldest dinosaur on the internets ;-)
I know punch cards but they were long gone by the time I started to work. I even had to learn to write BASIC as part of the school curriculum, punch cards were for history class. This was in 1982.
At the time (I was in my teens) I made the executive decision never to work with computers, ever. And here I am, 30 years in the IT industry ;-)
It took me 9 years to get there, though.

We used punch cards both for source and for object code decks when I worked for the local power company in the 1980s. I worked on the computer that managed the power system. There were two of them, each the size of a master bathroom. They had 1MB of memory each.

>151 Jim53: Hahahaha, I remember when I thought a MG of memory was more than I'd ever need!

My class at Library School (1980-1982) was the last one taught about punch cards. I worked one summer around that time for the Geology Dept. at the U of A, doing water infiltration tests in the field and then coding the data on punch cards. It was SUPER tedious. Library School also taught me to program in SNOBOL (a more obscure version of COBOL) because the prof liked it. He was a terrible teacher. Nice guy, though. I remember nothing of it.

University of Cape Town gave one lecture in a programming course on SNOBOL in the early '70s. They had a dog of a library (in both senses of the word) program written in SNOBOL, which I tried to use. It might have worked, but why oh why did it output the data on to punch cards (after one had entered the stuff that way) as well as paper?

My first experience of computer programming was in college and it was using BASIC. "Beginners All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code" if my memory serves me well. That struck me as an acronym that was determined before the words that make it up were put together.

We were programming on-line with heavy teleprinters. They were big grey painted metal contraptions. When you pressed one of the keys, which required a significant amount of effort, the corresponding character would be printed on the paper roll and the whole machine, in fact the whole building would shake as the machinery worked to punch the platen, and the sound of "CHUGUNK" would reverberate around the room. It took a lot of endurance to key in a program.

Then you pressed "RUN" and the computer, which was an ICL 1903A (I think it was "A") in a building about 500 metres away, did its thing and when it was ready to give you its answer the teleprinter would print your output on the roll of paper with another loud "CHUGUNK" for every character printed, along with the associated vibrations and rattles. Of course the computer produced characters on the page faster than we could type so the noise of the output arriving was more like a high speed machine gun firing continuously rather than a single shot at a time when we were typing.

I've loved the posts on switchboards (I worked on one for half a day that was a blend of what you've all talked about, a phone attached to a panel with buttons on it to put people through: i ran away in horror) and punch cards etc. I learned to type by typing in pages of BASIC programs in the 80s!

And I loved The Vanishing Half and hope you're enjoying it. I learned quite a lot about the tree root fungi and itnerconnection stuff in Wilding and decided that was enough to be going along with.

It's been great to read your memories of switchboards, shared phone lines, computer programming on punch cards and other now long-lost tech! Coincidentally, one of the books I've read since I last checked in is relevant to this conversation!

>143 Jim53:, >156 LyzzyBee: Jim and Liz, I finished The vanishing half yesterday and really enjoyed it. The theme of "passing" is a classic one (and I really must read Nella Larson's novel of that name on the topic), and in this book we explore it through the lives of identical twin sisters and their daughters. It's also a fascinating look at colorism and the discrimination against darker skin both within and without the African American community. Desiree and Stella could both pass for white, but Desiree instead chooses to marry a Black man, while Stella almost accidentally finds herself successfully living the life of a white woman, making a good marriage to her boss and living in luxury. Desiree's daughter Jude is very dark. Stella's daughter Kennedy is blonde and has no reason to believe she isn't white. The twins lost touch with each other in the 1960s, but over the next 20+ years coincidences bring their daughters into contact with each other, and three generations of the family are forced to consider their identity. The story is told by in scenes from different times, jumping back and forwards, and sharing the POVs of Desiree, Jude, Stella and Kennedy. We see how cruel Stella can be out of fear of exposure; we see the disdain with which Jude is regarded by the light-skinned town in which she grows up. This was a great read, and I especially appreciated that it didn't go down the plot line of Desiree being pursued by her abusive ex-husband - this is a different story. I also enjoyed seeing the tenderness of the relationships between Desiree and Jude and their partners. I can imagine this provoking a really engaging discussion at a book group as there are lots of questions raised and points to debate, yet at no times do the issues overwhelm the story and characters. Highly recommended.

I also finished Hummingbird Salamander, Jeff Vandermeer's new book. This is less fantastic than most of his work, but there is still some of the weirdness you'd expect from him. The tale is told by "Jane Smith", a computer security consultant whose life is disrupted when she receives a mysterious package containing a tiny stuffed hummingbird and an enigmatic note. By investigating she is drawn into a web of danger and intrigue involving the illegal international wildlife trade and other unsavoury dealings. I don't usually read thrillers but Vandermeer always puts his own spin on things, adding a surreal edge to the everyday and playing with the expectations of genre, which made this a compelling read.

I've also read the third part of the Mirror Visitor quartet, The memory of Babel. This takes our heroine Ophelia to the Ark of Babel, where she seeks her lost husband Thorn, and tries to unravel the secrets behind the creation and destruction of their world. She has to pose as an aspiring trainee at the Ark's vast archive of history in order to try and find the information she needs, but she faces fierce competition for the limited and coveted places available. As part of her work Ophelia must transcribe catalogue records from her notes onto punch cards so that they can become part of the great data storage and retrieval system which is being created. I was delighted by this, in light of the conversation here! I'm now eagerly waiting for the final book to be translated from the French.

I'm still reading Lonely castle in the mirror but expect to finish it by the end of the day. I've also started A song for a new day, which won the Nebula award for best novel last year.

Wow, you're reading up a storm! I'm so glad you enjoyed The Vanishing Half. I know Ali was annoyed by the coincidences but a novelist always has to shape their material. I'm on my seventh and eighth books of the month as I set myself a very challenging target with a load of books for challenges and whatnot and lots of review books too. And I've just produced a huge and terrifying 20 Books of Summer pile. Argh!

>157 Sakerfalcon: I need to read more Vandermeer. I was completely pulled into his Area X in the Southern Reach trilogy.

Really liked A Song For A New Day too. That was one of the better books I've read so far this year. While it's not a perfect story, the two main characters were people I enjoyed spending time with. The fact that Pinsker wrote a story line about societal lock-down during a pandemic in 2019 seems especially prescient from the vantage of 2021. I plan to read her new book, We Are Satellites, soon.

>157 Sakerfalcon: I don't have time for more books - yet you still got me with The Memory of Babel!

>158 LyzzyBee: I didn't find the coincidences too egregious. Perhaps they'd have annoyed me if everything else wasn't so good. You've set yourself some ambitious reading goals - good luck with them! I'll look forward to reading all about it on your blog.

>159 ScoLgo: I like pretty much everything I've read of Vandermeer's, especially the Ambergris books and Borne. I couldn't make head nor tail of Dead astronauts though! I'm really enjoying Song for a new day. Pinsker is scarily spot-on with the pandemic storyline - Rosemary's world is a vision of where we could be without a vaccine And yes, We are satellites sounds great. It's already on my Wishlist.

>160 -pilgrim-: Memory of Babel is the third book in the series. I don't recommend reading it first as it assumes a knowledge of the backstory that has built up over the previous volumes. I really love the world building though and am thoroughly enjoying the series.

I finished Lonely castle in the mirror which was a good read. Kokoro has stopped attending school since an unpleasant bullying incident. One day while at home in her bedroom her mirror begins to glow, and when she goes to investigate she finds herself pulled through it into the hallway of a castle. She's not alone - 6 other children around her age (13-15) have travelled there too, and they are greeted by a small imperious girl wearing a wolf mask. She explains that they will have access to the castle from 10-5 every day until 30 March the following year, and that hidden within the castle is a key which will grant one wish to the finder. As the children cautiously get to know each other it soon becomes clear that they have a lot in common, and that they would rather continue to visit the castle together than find the key. The book is a slow build as the children get to know each other and start to share their stories - Kokoro is the only character whose life outside the castle we actually see. But I felt that the dynamics between them were realistic, and for them to have opened up and trusted one another more quickly would not have been convincing. There are strong fairy-tale elements threaded through the story, but no easy answers are given to the problem of bullying and children's mental health. Rather, it says "You are seen. You are believed. It's not your fault", messages that the victims of bullying are not always given. This was an unusual read, difficult to classify - is it for children or adults? Fantasy or realism? - but one that I would recommend.

In addition to A song for a new day, which I'm really enjoying, I'm also reading The Peacock, which is a comic novel by a German author, set in a remote Scottish castle whose owners take paying guests to try and offset the expenses of living in their crumbling home. The story takes place over a long weekend when a group of investment bankers arrive for a team building exercise. Chaos ensues. And I've also started A desolation called peace (although I wish my copy of A memory called empire was to hand so I could refresh my memory of it).

>161 Sakerfalcon: Thanks. Have made a note of the first of the series.

>162 -pilgrim-: I hope you enjoy them if you start reading.

I finished A song for a new day and really enjoyed it. It's scary how relevant the book has suddenly become - if you are looking for an escape from the current circumstances I do NOT recommend this! I found Luce a more compelling protagonist than Rosemary, but it was good to see how the latter grew as the story progressed. Pinsker does a great job of representing the thrills of playing and listening to live music in her prose, something that very few authors manage - the fact that she herself is a musician may have something to do with why those scenes come alive. I have Pinsker's short story collection on my TBR pile and will be starting it soon.

The peacock was a wonderful read, a chaotic comedy of mismatched personalities, rogue peacocks, power failures, confusion and conspiracy. Now this IS a good escapist read! The Laird and Lady of the castle are preparing for a group of investment bankers to arrive for a team-building weekend, but their housekeeper has just broken her arm, one of the peacocks is attacking everything blue, and the castle's electrics are in a precarious state. The bankers are coming with their overbearing boss, a cook and a psychologist - the latter is nervous because this is her first big assignment. Upon arrival, the Laird notices with a sinking feeling that the boss's car is a bright shiny blue ....

I also read a YA book that was not so good. Cinderella is dead has had great reviews and seemed as though it would stand out in the current crowd of YA feminist dystopian novels. Well, I suppose it does, in that its basis is in the fairy tale of Cinderella, but there was so much stupidity in the backstory that I couldn't get over it. Also, the first scene shows us the heroine putting her girlfriend in danger as she tries to bully her into leaving their village (? city? country? I was never sure) and not taking no for an answer. The author doesn't seem to see that this behaviour, which we now recognise as unacceptable in M-F relationships, is just as bad between same sex couples! The premise of the book is that 200 years ago Cinderella married Prince Charming, who saved the country from famine and drought. Gradually he introduced laws that restricted the roles of women, using the figure of Cinderella as the ideal model of modest, obedient womanhood that every girl should embody. Sophia has always known that her fate will be to attend the (mandatory) ball at the castle the year she turns 16, to be either chosen in marriage by one of the men present, or declared Forfeit and sent to some kind of labour camp ( this was a bit vague or I had tuned out by then). The one thing about this book that really stands out is all characters are Black by default. It's not a novel in which race plays a part at all, but I imagine that for a young reader of colour it must make a refreshing change not to have a white default, especially in a fairy-tale type setting. It's just a pity that it's not a better book.

On kindle I've been reading An absolutely remarkable thing, which was also very good. April is on her way home from work at 3am when she sees a giant figure of an alien/robot/samurai on the sidewalk. She calls her best friend to come and make a video of it with her, and posts it on YouTube. The next morning their feed has exploded with views and comments, and the news that it's not just NYC but 61 other major metropolitan areas around the world which have received these mysterious visitors. Are they a stunt? a publicity campaign? an art project? aliens? The truth becomes more and more mysterious. April's video puts her at the centre of the mystery, and she and her friend Andy plan a social media identity and strategy for her to continue riding the wave of publicity. The novel becomes an examination of the ways in which social media polarises debate and forces people to extremes as April finds herself obsessed and addicted to her newfound celebrity. As I was reading this I got strong vibes of Mr Penumbra's 24 hour bookstore, in which a group of friends combine with strangers from all over the world to try and solve a mystery. April, Andy, Maya, Miranda and Robin are all great characters who I enjoyed spending time with. Whether you enjoy this or not will, I think, depend if you like April's voice. She is the first person narrator, looking back on events with hindsight and commenting on her missteps and bad behaviour, addressing the reader directly. The books ends on something of a cliffhanger, but fortunately I have the sequel (both books were recently on sale for kindle) and have started it already.

I'm still reading A desolation called peace, and have started Black sun by Rebecca Roanhorse and The tartar steppe by Dino Buzzati.

Dang, you got me with Peacock but my library doesn't have it in English and my one year of high school German (over 40 years ago) won't cut it.

>164 tardis: She got me with The Peacock too. I found the translated ebook edition.

>163 Sakerfalcon: I am also reading An absolutely remarkable thing on kindle, as a change from Twenty years after which took me a lot of getting through. I'm only a few chapters in though.

I shall look out for Lonely castle in the mirror - do you think your goddaughter might enjoy it or is it a bit old for her?

>166 aliphil: I think it is a bit too old for her. I'd say it's best for teens and adults. Not because of anything graphic, but it's quite a slow build. I will lend it to you when next we meet and you can see what you think for yourself.

>164 tardis: I hope you manage to get a copy somehow. The English translation was only published recently in the UK by a small press - V&Q publishers - so it may take a while to cross the pond.

>165 Marissa_Doyle: I hope you enjoy it!

I had a good weekend of reading when I managed to finish three books.

A desolation called peace took longer to engage me than I expected, given how much I enjoyed A memory called empire, but I ended up immersed in the plot, racing to the end. Mahit has returned to Lsel Station but soon discovers that you can't go home again. The Heritage minister wants her to undergo a procedure that could result in her death and the end of her imago-line. Back in Teixcalaan, Three Seagrass learns that the military need a translator to communicate with the alien forces which threaten the empire, and assigns herself to the mission, planning to recruit Mahit on her way. And the Emperor's heir, Eight Antidote, stumbles upon some very intriguing information about the war during his lessons, and decides to investigate further, not deterred by being just 11 years old in a world of adults. We also meet the military leader Nine Hibiscus who is on the front line engaging with the enemy when she realises that she can't trust those around her. I didn't remember the prose style being quite so chatty, with lots of parenthetical asides and italicised words to give emphasis (something that I find annoying when used to excess). It took me a while to get used to. But once Mahit and Three Seagrass have reunited the plot really takes off and I was hooked. Themes of communication, personhood and identity are handled thoughtfully within the tense plot.

Black sun is a fantasy novel with a setting inspired by Pre-Columbian American culture. We follow Xiala, a ship captain from a siren-like people, Serapio, a blind, scarred young man whom she is hired to transport to the holy city of Tova, Naranpa, the young Sun Priestess who faces opposition within and without her order because of her peasant origins, and Okoa, son of the leader of the Carrion Crow clan. The story takes place in the days leading up to the Conjunction, a time of great religious importance when the sun, moon and earth align. Naranpa is hoping to increase the visibility of the priesthood, which she fears has become irrelevant to the people due to years of indifference towards them. However, she faces treachery from factions who disagree and seek more power of their own. Xiala is on a tight deadline to get Serapio to Tova in order to receive the bonus promised by his sponsor, but she realises that he is no ordinary pilgrim, instead possessing some strange abilities. Serapio has suffered an adolescence of pain and suffering to shape him into the prophesied figure who will restore the power of the Carrion Crow and overcome the Sun. All these plots and more will come together at the Conjunction. I enjoyed following all four of the characters and guessing how their journeys converge as the book progresses. The lands around the Crescent Sea are well-drawn in terms of their culture, religion, food and everyday life, forming a vivid and unusual setting and I appreciated that the author talked about her sources and inspiration in the afterword.

I also finished The tartar steppe. This is the story of Giovanni Drogo whom we meet as he is riding to his first military posting, a remote fort on the frontier. He hasn't requested this posting and is not impressed upon arrival, vowing to get transferred as soon as possible, especially when he meets men who have served there for 20 or more years, waiting for an invasion that never comes. Yet when his chance to leave comes, he doesn't take it, seized by a strange impulse as the mountainous landscape has woven its spell on him. When he does return to his home city on leave he finds that his loved ones have become foreign to him, people he no longer understands. As the years pass at the fort the reader waits with Drogo and his comrades, focused on the tantalising triangle of steppe that can be seen in the distance, wondering if the enemy will ever appear. And when something finally does happen, Drogo is the victim of a cruel irony. The book is an examination of hope, time, and the spell that dreams can cast over one's life. It's been compared to work by Borges and Kafka and I can see why; the mundane and the imaginary combine to make this a haunting and unusual read.

I'm still enjoying A beautifully foolish endeavour on kindle. I've also started Beholder's eye by Julie Czerneda, The hole by Hiroko Oyamada, The children of the Company by Kage Baker and Circles and Squares, which is a non-fiction account of the British Modernist group of artists and designers that sprang up in Hampstead in the 1930s.

>168 Sakerfalcon: You got me with The tartar steppe, Claire, it is available in Dutch translation at the library. Sounds like a book I would like to read.

>169 FAMeulstee: That is tempting me as well.

>168 Sakerfalcon: I bought The Tartar Steppe ages ago, but it’s been sitting unread on the bookcase ...

I’ve realised I’ve got another one by Dino Buzzati The Bears Famous Invasion of Sicily. I have read some of that, but it's in Italian ...

>163 Sakerfalcon: I enjoyed An Absolutely Remarkable Thing when I read it earlier this year. You are right, it did feel a bit like Penumbra's Bookstore. If I'm remembering correctly, Remarkable Thing is set up to have a sequel, yes?

>172 catzteach: Yes, the sequel starts where An absolutely remarkable thing ends. The narrative is shared between April, Andy, Maya, Miranda and Carl which I really enjoyed. I finished it last night and thought it was a great follow-up.

>169 FAMeulstee:, >170 -pilgrim-: I think you would both enjoy The Tartar steppe.

>171 SandDune: I regret not reading The bears' famous invasion of Sicily when I had a copy in the house. I gave it to my then-husband but didn't read it myself. Foolishness!

>174 Sakerfalcon: Thank you, Claire. I think you know me well enough to be accurate in your recommendations.

It's been a while since I had a chance to post an update here, so I've got a few books to report on.

Beholder's eye was a very enjoyable SF adventure from Julie Czerneda. I've had mixed reactions to her books so far - I loved the Species imperative trilogy and A thousand words for stranger, but wasn't as keen on the two sequels to Stranger and disliked In the company of others. Fortunately Beholder's eye fell into the "good" category. We meet young Esen, one of only 6 members of an alien species, as she rejoins her clan after her first assignment away from home. Esen is a member of the Web, beings who are both separate and one being. They can combine to share experiences, and their life's work is to build up a repository of knowledge of all extant (and especially extinct) species, that they may not be forgotten. The Web's one directive, however, is not to reveal their nature to other species, as their ability to take on the appearance and nature of any other being could be seen as sinister. Unfortunately Esen falls into a situation where she has no choice but to reveal herself to humans - a situation which is then complicated by the emergence of a threat to all life in the galaxy. Esen is an endearing, young, rather naive protagonist, thrown into tricky situations way beyond her experience, and forced to manage. The friendship she forms with the human Paul is delightful to see. I especially enjoyed seeing how Esen both takes on alien nature, and yet stays herself, when she takes on alien forms. There are two more volumes in the trilogy and Czerneda has begun a follow-up series as well, so there is plenty more of Esen for me to enjoy.

The children of the Company was another interesting instalment in the Company series. It's really a mosaic novel, made up of linked short stories with a narrative in between, although the narrative itself isn't especially compelling. General Labienus, one of the ongoing baddies in the series, looks back over various incidents from the past (ancient Middle East up to our near future times) and starts to see what they might mean for the future, about which nothing is predicted beyond the year 2355. The novel sets the stage for the conflict which is to come in the last two books in the series. It's a great series, but don't start with this book!

The hole was a short, surreal novel narrated by a Japanese woman whose husband's job moves from the city to a rural area near where his parents live. It makes sense for her to give up her job, and for them to move into the house that is on his family's land. Asa spends all day in her new home, half-heartedly looking for work, and going for occasional walks to the supermarket. In the heat of summer, Asa starts to experience some rather strange events ... I really liked this odd little novel, in which reality takes some very odd turns, leading Asa to wonder what exactly is real.. It's not a book that gives you any answers, but somehow that seems appropriate. I've read this author's other novella, The factory, and am looking forward to anything else that is translated into English.

I've also read a Korean novel, I'll go on, which is about two sisters, Sora and Nana, and the boy they've known since childhood, Naghi. Sora and Nana's father died when they were young, and their mother retreated into all-consuming grief. As a result, the girls are distrustful of love and relationships, but are forced to examine their past when Nana becomes pregnant. The book is divided into three sections, each narrated by one of the characters. We see some of the same events from different viewpoints and grow to understand the characters deeply. There is no sentimentality in the book; we can see the changes in their attitudes, but they are not spelled out and there is no emotional climax. Rather we are left with an intimation of hope for the future. I enjoyed this subtle read, which was lent to me by a colleague.

I also read This is how you lose the time war on kindle. This SF novella won a lot of awards and was very highly praised when it was published. However it didn't quite work for me. It's written by two authors and narrated by two characters - each author wrote a character. Red and Blue are post-human operatives on the opposite sides of a war that spans time and space. They travel to various incidents, infiltrating them subtly to try and change the course of history. They start to leave messages for each other, and we follow their relationship as it changes through their correspondence. The book is very well written with some brilliantly described settings and situations; however I never quite connected to Red or Blue, or really felt their relationship was convincing. I think majkia also bounced off this one, although we are in a minority.

I'm still reading Circles and squares which is a fascinating exploration of the artists, architects and writers whose lives overlapped in Hampstead in the 1930s. Barbara Hepworth and Ben Nicholson, Henry and Irina Moore, Walter Gropius, Laszlo Moholy-Nagy, Louis MacNeice and many more are shown to be influencing each other in their work, and also their relationships. They are not quite as tangled as the Bloomsbury Group, but it's close! Compared to the biographies of Dali and Plath that I've read recently, which examine their subjects in great depth through their lifetimes, this book seems like a gallop, covering a lot of ground at a fast pace. That's not a criticism, it just took some time for me to adjust. The book is generously illustrated and contains a map of Hampstead with the key locations marked, handy for Londoners who want to have a look at some of the iconic buildings that were designed during this period.

I've also been reading the first omnibus of Bujold's Penric novellas, Penric's progress. These are set in the world of the Five Gods, of which Chalion is a part, but a couple of centuries earlier and in a different part of the world. Penric is a young nobleman from an impoverished family who is on his way to his betrothal when he stops to aid a dying woman on the road. This is no ordinary woman, however, but a sorceress, and when she dies the demon within her jumps to the nearest available host - which in this case is Penric. Obviously this throws all his plans into disarray - a situation that is not altogether displeasing to him - and forces him to become part of the Order of the Bastard God. Pen's relationship with his demon, whom he names Desdemona, is a delight and contains much of the humour in these books. Because of their short length they are not as deep as the Chalion novels, but these vignettes of Penric's life and adventures are delightful reads.

I've also started another fantasy/sf novel, Mazes of power. This is set in a highly stratified society who dwell in cavern cities below the planet's surface. The story follows brothers Tagaret and Nekantor - the former responsible and gentle, the latter disturbing and ruthless - and Aloran, a member of the servant caste. There is a lot of complex world building that is being revealed as the book progresses - no info dumps, thank goodness! - and I'm enjoying exploring this society and its people.

Circles and Squares - hit with a bullet Claire, thanks :-)

I have Circles and Squares on my radar, I've heard from others it's a bit of a fast-paced one. But the temptation is then large to pop down and go round the sites!

>176 Sakerfalcon:

In a fascinating coincidence, I recently walked by the shelf with Julie Czerneda's books at my library, became intrigued, and discovered that Beholder's Eye was the only one with an ebook edition available from the library. Your rec might be the impetus I needed to actually check it out....

>176 Sakerfalcon: I’m reading the Penric and Desdemona books too.

>176 Sakerfalcon:, >180 SandDune:
I read the first Penric novella when it was first published. I felt that it did not have space to develop as much depth as the novels, and that it was basically a very expensive way of purchasing rather little story.

Now you tell me that there are omnibus versions, I am tempted to return to Penric.

>177 Caroline_McElwee: I was wondering if you had read this one Caroline, as it seemed like a book that would interest you.

>178 LyzzyBee: Oh yes, I'm already thinking about when to go up to Hampstead and have a wander (and, of course, a visit to the Oxfam bookshop!).

>179 Kanarthi: If you go for it I hope you enjoy it! I need to read the sequels now.

>180 SandDune: I saw that! It's nice to be in good company! I now need to start on Penric's travels.

>181 -pilgrim-: I think I would have felt disappointed if I'd bought the e-novella too. Bujold wrote an introduction to the omnibus in which she explains that she found herself unable to write another Chalion novel as she'd planned, but some time later the germ of the Penric plot came to her and she realised it would fit into that world. She sees these books as episodes that can mostly stand alone, focusing on Penric at different points in his life and relationship with Desdemona, rather than an in-depth treatment of character growth. They are fun but I do prefer the full-length novels.

I finished Circles and squares and enjoyed it a lot. It is a very tightly focused book, literally covering the years in which the features artists lived and worked in Hampstead. Each chapter focuses on a different couple or group and their work, with a little context given as to what went before. Obviously all of them knew each other so they pop up in other people's chapters when relevant. This is the sort of book that, if it interest you, will lead you to read other books about the subjects and to find out more about their work. As I mentioned above, it's also inspiring me to explore Hampstead to see the locations discussed. I would perhaps have appreciated a slightly slower pace to the writing, but overall this was a very good read.

I also finished Mazes of power, which I'm finding it difficult to rate. On the one hand, I was always reluctant to put the book down as I wanted to find out what would happen as a result of all the political intriguing. It was also unusual to see a portrayal of a very strong, close relationship between mother and son, which I appreciated. However, while certain aspects of the world building were very detailed and clearly thought out, others were quite vague. This is a society where everyone lives in cavern cities underground. But we never find out why this is, and I never really felt that we were underground - the descriptions didn't bring it alive for me. This is a very stratified society, where everyone is born into a specific caste. There is a tiny ruling caste made up of 12 families, and below them 6 castes of soldiers, merchants, artisans, labourers, etc. It appears that all these lower castes are happy to be completely subservient and dependent on the goodwill of the rulers, with no previous attempts at revolution in history. I found this pretty unbelievable. And there is instalove, one of my least favourite tropes. We have three viewpoint characters - Tagaret and Nekantor who are brothers in the First Family, and Aloran, newly appointed as servant to their mother. Tagaret adores his mother and is protective of her, seeing that his father abuses her. As the eldest son he is expected to compete to become Heir or take another role in politics but this has no appeal to him. Unfortunately, we are never shown what he does want to do. I found him frustratingly emo. Nekantor is the most interesting character. He clearly has some kind of obsessive-compulsive disorder, but is ruthlessly ambitious and can see patterns in behaviour and actions and accurately predict outcomes to his advantage. He has the ambition his brother lacks, but no moral compass. Aloran is anxious to please his new mistress and her family, showing unquestioning loyalty and a willingness to sacrifice himself for their wellbeing. Through their viewpoints we are shown the flaws in this society, most notably that the ruling class is unhealthy due to inbreeding, leaving them vulnerable to a virus which leaves the other castes largely unaffected. The book is fascinating but implausible. I couldn't look away even while I was constantly critiquing it in my head. I suspect I will read the sequel to see what happens as this unsustainable society heads toward a crisis.

On kindle I read a Russian novel, The funeral party by Ludmila Ulitskaya. This shows us a group of Russians living in New York as the centre of their community, the artist Alik, lies dying. He is surrounded by friends, neighbours, his wife, lovers and random others. This isn't a book where much happens; Alik's wife Nina wants him to be baptised; Gioia, an Italian neighbour, reads the classics aloud; Irina, an ex-lover, quietly picks up the tab for Alik's debts, while her teenage daughter prepares to lose the only person she feels close to. And meanwhile in Moscow, a coup is taking place, watched on CNN by the characters. It's a slice of life (slice of death?) novel that shows the unlikely bonds and relationships between a disparate group of people who would never have met if they'd made different decisions in the past. This sounds like a melancholy book, but for a Russian novel it's actually very upbeat! I enjoyed it a lot and will look for more by this author.

I'm currently reading the last of Aliette De Bodard's Aztec mysteries, Master of the House of Darts, which is unexpectedly topical as a contagious disease threatens Tenochtitlan and its people. I'm also enjoying a contemporary Japanese novel, There's no such thing as an easy job, which is a slightly surreal look at the absurdity of the modern workplace. On kindle I'm reading a YA SF novel, Aurora rising. And in non-fiction I'm reading a wonderful memoir of an Austrian woman's year in the Arctic in 1934, A woman in the polar night. This was a BB from FAMeulstee - thank you Anita!

>182 Sakerfalcon: You have just bumped The Funeral Party up my wishlist! I have been wanting to read that did a while, but feared that, in my current circumstances, it might be a bit much.

>179 Kanarthi: - I'm quite irritiated that very few of Czereneda's books are available as ebooks, I'd love to read the rest of the webshifters series, but only Beholder's is around. Species Imperitive is fun, almost lablit at the start and well described.

Mazes started out sounding like it was my cup of tea, but I think I'll avoid. I like my caverns to be realistic and believable

>182 Sakerfalcon: A Woman in the Polar Night is one I have my eye on so I hope it is good!

>182 Sakerfalcon: I hope you like A woman in the polar night as much as I did, Claire.

I might just have taken a delayed action BB for A Woman in the Polar Night: I’ve been to Svalbard a couple of times, once in February. I’d love to go there right on winter solstice.

>173 Sakerfalcon: I went to the library to check out A Beautifully Foolish Endeavor and, even though the computer said it was there, it wasn't on the shelf. I was bummed! I'll look for it when I go back. That'll be a few days as my pile is rather high right now. But summer is starting on Friday so I'll have plenty of time to read!

You may have got me with A Woman in the Polar Night as well, if I can find a copy.

>183 -pilgrim-: I hope The funeral party is a good read for you when you get to it.

>184 reading_fox: I can't see why books by the same author and from the same publisher would not all be available as ebooks. It's very odd.

>185 LyzzyBee:, 186, >187 haydninvienna:, >189 NorthernStar: A woman in the polar night is very good so far. I'm reading a recent edition from Pushkin Press which includes a map of the area she stayed in, a few photographs, and some of the author's sketches. It seems clear that as a vegetarian I would not have survived for long in that environment - by necessity, meat is very much a staple of the diet and one seal can last a very long time!

>188 catzteach: Oh no, that is so frustrating! As a librarian I hate it when the computer says a book is there but it can't be found. We are about to start our annual stocktake at work to try and get the computer records to match what is actually on the shelves. I hope the book turns up soon and that you enjoy it as much as the first one.

I finished There's no such thing as an easy job which was a very good read. It follows our narrator as she seeks an "easy" job after suffering burnout from her former position. The book is split into 5 sections which cover each job - surveilling a writer who is suspected of involvement in smuggling; writing advertisement for a bus line; writing mottoes for rice cracker packaging; putting up posters; and mapping a forest park from a remote hut. Each job has unique and unexpected challenges, and some of them verge into surreal territory. I found the first part to be the least engaging, and perhaps the book could have been a bit shorter, but overall I really enjoyed this exploration of the modern workplace and Japanese society.

>190 Sakerfalcon: ... We are about to start our annual stocktake at work to try and get the computer records to match what is actually on the shelves. ...

Now THAT'S a project!

>190 Sakerfalcon: I said above that I'd been to Svalbard. In the restaurant of the local Radisson hotel (both hotel and restaurant more than good enough), I ate a Svalbard platter which included seal, whale (probably minke whale) and reindeer. The last was pretty good; the other two, not so much.

Incidentally, this gentleman came to dinner:



Sorry about the slightly crappy photo: it was mostly due to multiple reflections off the glass case, rather than the establishment's akvavit.

>192 haydninvienna: Sure, we believe that, don't we?

>193 Maddz: Just outside the door at the top of those stairs is the Barentz pub, which does a fine pizza. And akvavit.

They don't routinely shoot bears there, but if you go outside the fenced area of Longyearbyen you have to have a rifle with you (either your own or carried by a guide). Bears are still a real danger there.

>194 haydninvienna: interesting. I looked up Longyearbyen:

https://www.johnnyjet.com/12-facts-you-never-knew-about-longyearbyen-the-worlds-...

You're not allowed to die there...

>191 fuzzi: Actually it would fit into There's no such thing as an easy job as one of the protagonist's mindless, mundane jobs! We'll be doing it slowly this year as we only have 2 staff in the library at one time, and we have until the beginning of September to finish.

>192 haydninvienna: Thanks for the photo and a bit more information about your time on Svalbard. Even before reading this book it's a place that fascinates me, so any more that you care to share will be very welcome!

>194 haydninvienna: Yes, every now and then you hear news stories of travellers getting into trouble with bears. They're big, they're hungry, and you're in their territory - be careful!

>195 fuzzi: Some fascinating facts! Thanks for sharing. While I am a cat lover, I very much appreciate their feline-free policy.

A woman in the polar night was a very good read, especially if you are interested in the remote places on this planet. Christiane joins her husband on Svalbard (or Spitzbergen as she calls it) to spend a year living in a hut on the north coast. Their nearest neighbour is 60 miles away "so you'll have company", her husband writes seemingly unironically when persuading her to come. She observes the changing light as the days become shorter, and the patterns in the weather and the wildlife. This isn't one of those nature books where you learn more about the author's feelings than about what they are supposed to be observing; Ritter focuses on the world around her and we are left to infer the effect it has on her. I much prefer this approach. The harsh, bleak beauty of the far north came alive through her narrative and laid me under its spell. Highly recommended.

I also finished Master of the House of Darts, which was just as good as the previous 2 books. In this one, Acatl must face the consequences of his actions which secured Tizoc-tzin's place as Emperor - this prevented the destruction of the world by star demons, but may have unleashed something almost as deadly. I really like Acatl, Teomitl, Mihmatini and the priests, warriors, merchants, and others who inhabit their world.

On kindle I finished Aurora rising which was a fun YA space adventure. Tyler has the highest marks and the best performance in his year, and as such he can expect first pick of his fellow graduates to make up his crew. However, the night before the selection he is unable to sleep and takes a ship out into space, where he finds himself rescuing a girl from a long-abandoned ship. She's been in stasis for over 200 years. Tyler isn't delayed quite that long but he's still late and finds that he is left with the worst candidates for his team. However, his best friend and his sister refused other offers so they could stay with him, so the crew actually isn't as bad as the cover blurb implied. And even the "dregs" are more misunderstood than awful. Aurora, the rescued girl, is unwittingly the cause of the disunited team ending up in a far bigger and more dangerous adventure than they anticipated, and having to defy the authorities and rules of the galaxy. This was a fun read, although very YA in the snarkiness and character interactions.

I also read another YA book, Mina and the undead. 17 year old Mina arrives from England to visit her sister Libby in New Orleans. Both sisters love horror stories and films, and Mina is thrilled to discover that Libby is working in a haunted house, putting on acts for tourists. But a gory death makes the horror a little too real for comfort, especially when Libby is arrested on suspicion of the killing. This is a gory but fun read, with likeable characters and some enjoyable takes on vampire tropes.

So I've started reading a whole new set of books. On kindle I've started Mexican gothic which I've been looking forward to for ages. And in hard copy I'm reading A Bloodsmoor romance by Joyce Carol Oates, and Record of a spaceborn few by Becky Chambers.

>196 Sakerfalcon: How are you enjoying Record of a Spaceborn Few? I own a kindle copy so I keep putting it aside as library loan files appear. I am liking it, but there is nothing about it the screams "FINISH ME NOW!"

>197 clamairy: I've decided to stop buying books because I never seem to get to them. Instead, I seem to be under a compulsion to read only borrowed books.

>198 Storeetllr: Yes, that is definitely a n issue for me as well. Especially since I moved. My new library is part of a much larger network and I can get pretty much anything, and rather quickly, too. In CT sometimes I would get a notification that I book I requested 6 months before was available, and I didn't even remember asking for it. Heh heh...

>199 clamairy: Are you talking about the NYC library? I love that you only have to live or work in NYS to be able to access that library as well as your local library. (I just googled your location and learned that Long Island is really really loooonnnnggg. I'd had no idea.)

>200 Storeetllr: Yes, I'm on the North Fork, so roughly 90 miles from Manhattan, as the crow flies. The South Fork is even longer. Montauk Point is 120 miles from the East River.

I was talking about my Suffolk County network. I haven't even had to try to access NYC library. I have gotten everything I have asked for so far. If they didn't already have it in the system I put in a request and got it within a week or two.

>197 clamairy: We are on the same page! I finished it, but felt no sense of urgency and found myself skimming some parts. The characters were basically likeable but not especially interesting and there seemed to be a lot of info dumping disguised as thoughts and conversations, with not a lot of action. I don't need a book to be a thrill-a-minute rollercoaster, in fact I love books that build slowly, but this one wasn't an especially complex world to explore and didn't seem to be building towards anything in particular. I did like the ending, the way the characters' situations resolved, but compared to Small angry planet and Closed and common orbit I found it disappointing.

I did enjoy Mexican gothic, a very creepy take on the gothic genre set in 1950s Mexico. Noemi is a socialite, enjoying her frivolous life in Mexico City's party crowd and dabbling in courses at the university. When her father receives a worrying letter from her cousin, who has married and moved to a remote part of the country, Noemi is sent to check up and make sure all is well. She soon finds that her cousin has married into a very strange, and possibly dangerous, family, who live in a decaying mansion, isolated from their surroundings. Noemi starts to see and experience strange things - but can she trust her senses? There is a strong horror element to this book, but it is thrilling and very suspenseful and I had a hard time putting it down.

I'm enjoying A Bloodsmoor romance which is one of Joyce Carol Oates' "gothic" novels (the theme to my reading was unintentional!). It follows the fortunes of the Zinn family in C19th Pennsylvania. The book opens as youngest daughter Deirdre is snatched from her sisters by a mysterious man in a black silk balloon. We then go back and forth over the decades as we explore the history of the Zinn family, and the futures of their remaining four daughters. The narrative voice is that of a disapproving female relative, written in the wordy prose of the period, but it doesn't take long to get used to. It's a long read but an immersive one.

I've also read a dark SF novel, The first sister, set in a future where humans seem to be perpetually at war in space. The soldiers on the Gaen side are comforted by voiceless, nameless Sisters, part of the Order of the Goddess is a powerful force in society. The opposing Icarii possess superior tech which the Gaens are desperate to possess. Both sides are invested in war and have no desire for piece. This is a grim future, but the book is very well plotted and I found it compelling. It's narrated by the titular First Sister on the Gaen side, and a specialist fighter on the Icarii side; through them we learn that there is no good side in this conflict, and that any chance of peace will have to come from underground plotting. It's the first in a series and I will be looking for the sequel.

I also read The city we became, N. K. Jemisin's take on Lovecraft. The premise is that when they reach a certain stage of development, cities awaken through human avatars. This book is about the events surrounding New York's troubled awakening, which a disturbing power seeks to abort. NYC has five avatars, one for each borough, plus a sixth for the whole city. The avatars must find each other and work to thwart the rise of Lovecraftian evil so that the city can reach its potential. The evil manifests both materially through avatars in white and creepy tendrils that spread throughout the city, and in the microaggressions that minorities face every day. This makes for a strong theme of the need for social justice - it's not subtle, but then Lovecraft wasn't either. The characters, because they are representative of the nature of their boroughs, are not especially nuanced either, although I did very much like Bronca and Padmini. I didn't love the book the way I did the Broken Earth trilogy - I prefer more subtlety in my reading - but I'm glad to have read it.

I've just started to read Elizabeth Bear's Machine on kindle; this is the companion novel to Ancestral night which I enjoyed a little while ago. It starts dramatically, with a medical worker about to launch herself into space to jump from her ambulance ship onto a stricken generation ship. In print I've started Rimrunners by C. J. Cherryh, and am still enjoying A Bloodsmoor romance.

>190 Sakerfalcon: I went back to the library. The book was there, just not on the shelf. They had placed it on a ”best selling books” kiosk. I did not enjoy it as much as the first.

I can’t imagine all an inventory entails! I know my school librarian does it every year. It takes her about three weeks and our library is tiny. It must take you all months!

>196 Sakerfalcon: I have Aurora Rising waiting for me at the library. I’m looking forward to it.

>203 catzteach: I liked hearing from all the other characters in A Beautifully Foolish Endeavor but the revelations about Karl and his brother were quite confusing to me. I also missed Robin - he didn't really have anything to do in this book. But overall I really enjoyed them both.

Normally our stocktake takes about 3-4 weeks, with two people working at once, scanning for an hour at a time from 9-5. This year because of Covid only one person is working at a time and doing 1-2 hours a day. So it will take us a lot longer, but hopefully we will be done by the time the students come back in September.

Aurora rising was a fun read and very suspenseful, but the humour was VERY YA - fart jokes, etc. I look forward to your review when you get to it.

Wow, I have loads of catching up to do! I had a week off work and wasn't at the computer very often so I've fallen behind.

I finished Machine, Rimrunners and A Bloodsmoor romance. Machine was fantastic in parts, I literally could not put it down ... and then the narrator would start interior monologuing round in circles and I found myself skimming. Llyn, our protagonist, is a kind of space paramedic who rescues casualties in extreme situations. The book opens as she and her crew are about to board a seemingly abandoned generation ship in search of survivors. What they find is extremely peculiar, and the more they learn the stranger things become. Much of the story takes place in an enormous space hospital, with sections specialising in the care and treatment of all species, be they methane-, chlorine-, or oxygen-dwellers. The medical staff too are a mix of species, all working together for good. It didn't take long for me to think "Hmm, she's read the James White Sector General books" and indeed, in the afterword, she pays homage to his work. I absolutely love the hospital setting and seeing how all the staff work together despite their physical and communication differences. Of course the arrival of Llyn's crew precipitates a crisis and events really take off. If the whole book had managed to maintain this level of tension I would have rated it 5 stars. But the lengthy internal monologues verged on info-dumping and became very tedious. I'd still recommend it, but do skim those bits! And I also recommend White's original books - the early ones display some of the attitudes to gender of their day, but this improves as the series progresses. The hospital station is SUCH a good setting for SF that you wonder why so few authors have tried it!

Rimrunners is also SF, this time from C. J. Cherryh. It follows on from the events of Downbelow Station; fortunately I remembered enough of that book to get the references to the different sides in the larger conflict against which Rimrunners takes place. It centres around Bet Yeager, a machinist who has been stranded on space station at the back of beyond, rarely visited by ships and so offering few opportunities for work. When the Loki arrives Bet is quick to put herself forward for a job, and is accepted. But she soon realises that the ship and its crew are involved in shady goings-on. The atmosphere on the ship is pretty brutal, with the crew treated more like press-ganged hands on a C18th naval vessel; you wonder that they haven't mutinied! Bet gets on the wrong side of everyone when she defends a colleague on her shift who is used as a scapegoat for everything that goes wrong. But she won't back down to keep people happy. Bet is a tough, scrappy, skilled protagonist, who does what she needs to survive and to protect those to whom she has given her loyalty. She's not especially likeable, but she wouldn't care about that! This is an entertaining adventure that fits into the wider Alliance-Union universe.

A Bloodsmoor romance was an enormous and enjoyable read that will either delight or repel readers, depending on their tolerance for long-winded C19th prose. Oates channels the voice of a prim, refined lady from late C19th Pennsylvania to tell the story of the Zinn family against the backdrop of post Civil War America. The adventures of Malvinia, Deirdre, Constance Philippa, Samantha and Octavia show us many different facets of life in those days and involve ghosts, murder, abductions, scandal, and the perils of the "conjugal union". It is a "romance" in the literary sense, not a love story, although there are one or two of those contained in its pages. Although the voice of the narrator explicitly disapproves of her subjects we the reader are clearly encouraged to cheer the sisters on as they break with convention and defy the strictures of their time. Real characters such as Mark Twain and Madame Blavatsky move through the book as well, adding to the fun. This took me so long to read but I enjoyed every moment of it.

I've also had time to read Stormsong, which is the sequel to Witchmark which I read last year and loved. This volume is narrated by Grace Hemsley, sister to Miles from the first book, and very much at the centre of magical and political power in the world. The setting and atmosphere of both books really reminded me of The watchmaker of Filigree Street, but the female characters get much better stories and character growth in these books. I would strongly recommend starting with Witchmark if you are interested; the events in Stormsong build directly on the previous book.

I also read Available dark, Elizabeth Hand's second thriller featuring Cass Neary. These are REALLY dark books, but somehow I love them. Cass is screwed up - she's addicted to drugs, drinks too much, makes terrible decisions - but she's a survivor. (Not everyone who encouters her is so lucky though.). Seeking to avoid the fallout from her actions in the first book of the series, Cass accepts an offer to go to Helsinki and appraise some photographs. This leads to her involvement in deaths that are linked to the death metal scene. Hand conveys the bleakness of the Nordic winter very well. This is a gripping book and I'm looking forward to reading the next two books about Cass.

I have more to report on but will end here as I need to get off this computer!

>204 Sakerfalcon: I enjoy Bet in Rimrunners, and have reread that book several times, glad you agree!

Cherryh writes strong female characters very well.

>205 fuzzi: Yes she does! I'm not quite so keen on some of her moody male characters (such as NG) but at least she's defying the gender stereotypes. I'm planning to have another go at the Foreigner series, having read the first book a few years ago and stopped there.

Here are the last two books to round off my recent reading report.

A crooked tree is set in the townships west of Philadelphia in the early 1980s, and follows an Irish-American family in the wake of an outburst of anger which caused the mother to leave her 12 year old daughter by the roadside while driving home. The relationships between the 5 siblings and their friends and community were really well written and I found myself caring so much about these kids as they grow up over a summer.

Summerwater is another excellent novel by Sarah Moss, who has become one of my favourite contemporary fiction writers. It's set on the longest day of the year at a holiday site in Scotland - a day that feels even longer because of the non-stop rain. Tight third-person perspectives from members of the various households staying by the lake give us a cross section of current British society, warts and all. Moss effectively channels the inner thoughts of characters from young children to retirees, via exercise-obsessed mothers, sullen teens and young lovers. We get hints from the narratives of potential disasters in waiting, some of which are false flags but all of which raise the tension. The crisis, when it arrives, is gripping. Interspersed with the human stories are vignettes of the natural history of the area in which the story takes place. I enjoyed these and felt that they effectively show how nature is both affected by, and carries on despite, the actions and affairs of humans. Most of the humans are not especially likeable, but they are all in some way relatable, and the book causes the reader to look inside oneself and wonder.

Now I am back to my usual diet of F and SF, with Catalyst gate in progress. This is the third book of the Protectorate trilogy and it's just as good as the previous instalments. It's not a good idea to wait between reading each book though, as O'Keefe plunges you back into the action without any recapping of earlier events. I will definitely be rereading this series back to back in future.

I also have the sequel to Stormsong, Soulstar, lined up to start very soon.

And on kindle I'm reading a historical/mystery/supernatural(?) novel, The devil and the dark water, from the author of The seven deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle. This is a very different book, set on a trading ship in the C17th with lots of historical nautical atmosphere - much of which is highly unpleasant. Mysterious events on shore prior to departure and on the voyage suggest that a malignant force may be at work, and it falls to a prisoner, his bodyguard, and the governor general's wife and mistress to try and find out what is going on.

>204 Sakerfalcon: I feel the same way about the Cass Neary books. She is a pretty awful person most of the time, but she knows it and somehow is still appealing. I have read all four and like how they string together so tightly in terms of time - no lag, just Cass trying to outrun the consequences of her dumb decisions.

>204 Sakerfalcon: Robin was a fun character. I’m picking up Aurora Rising today. Not sure when I’ll get to it.

Nice review of Summerwater, Claire. I'm glad that you also liked it. Sarah Moss has been getting a lot of attention in LibraryThing, and I hope that she is as highly regarded in the UK.

>206 Sakerfalcon: You are tempting me with The Devil and the Dark Water...

>204 Sakerfalcon: Really tempted by The City We Became and I need to give Rimrunners a re-read.

>190 Sakerfalcon: I lost track of this thread for a while! I bought Woman in the Polar Night in my Annual Book Token Splurge so it's waiting patiently for me to finish my 20 Books of Summer!

>206 Sakerfalcon: I've read Foreigner twice, then book 2 and 3, but life got busy and I never went farther.

My favorite Cherryh reads are the Chanur books, with lots of strong females, though not human...

>207 Bookmarque: I think another reason Cass works as a character for me is that the way her backstory is entwined with her issues is totally convincing, and her faults are not something the author has grafted on for effect. Cass's decisions propel the plots but they spring from the kind of person she is and don't feel like authorial interventions.

>208 catzteach: I hope you enjoy it!

>209 kidzdoc: She seems to be! Her books are given promotional space in bookshops, both new titles and paperback reissues, and she garners excellent reviews. She's under the radar compared to, say, Hilary Mantel or Sally Rooney, but readers who look beyond the bestseller lists know she is a writer to watch.

>210 -pilgrim-: I've now finished reading and it was a real ripping yarn! Review below.

>211 Karlstar: I'll be interested to see what you think of The city we became.

>212 LyzzyBee: I will look forward to your review of Woman in the polar night. It's probably best read in summer I feel!

>213 fuzzi: I agree with you about Chanur. They are also my favourites so far, though I have a lot of Cherryh's work still to discover.

I finished both The devil and the dark water and Catalyst gate yesterday.

Devil is, as I said to -pilgrim-, a real ripping yarn. It's set in the C17th on board a merchant ship which seems to have been cursed before departure. Ominous signs appear, followed by grim events which spread fear through the already superstitious crew. There is a large cast of characters, including officers and sailors, soldiers and musketeers, and a variety of more-or-less noble passengers. The book is essentially a locked-room mystery in which the ship is the room, with added elements which may or may not be supernatural. It's a very twisty plot with lots of strands and clues sown throughout the book - some might find the explanation of it all to be rather overcomplicated. And if you were to unpick it closely I'm not sure it would all hold together. But it is a fun and entertaining read, albeit one with a high body count and some gruesome scenes. In his afterword the author apologises for playing fast and loose with his setting, both maritime and historical; he seems to have prioritised creating the right atmosphere over exact historical detail. But certainly the characters' attitudes and actions seemed convincing for the setting - as in Servant of the underworld, we see good people who sometimes think and act in ways that we would find objectionable.

Catalyst gate was also a very twisty plotted book, with lots of revelations and surprises in store. This is a trilogy that must be started at the beginning; even having read the first two parts I had forgotten some key details and was playing catch-up a lot of the time. Over the three books our viewpoint characters - Sanda, her brother Biran, Tomas and Jules - have grown and changed as their horizons have expanded and they've been thrown into unforeseen situations. Secondary characters are well developed too, and I especially like the bonds that form between Sanda and her crew. Sanda and Biran are nicely contrasted siblings - Sanda the gifted military office who thinks tactically but is always ready to leap into action, while Biran has followed the cerebral path of administration and politics, growing into an effective leader. The far-future universe and technology is well written too. I highly recommend this series to SF readers.

I'm still reading and enjoying Soulstar. I really like the city of Kingston and its inhabitants. I've also started a non-fiction read, The Barbizon, about the New York hotel for women of that name. And I've begun to reread Foreigner, with a view to continuing the series.

Just popping in quickly to say I thought of you when I saw this announcement: Escape to the River Sea.

>215 libraryperilous: Thanks for taking the time to stop by! That's great news; it sounds like a good follow-up to the original. I hope all is well with you.

Aaargh, I have SO MANY books to catch up with here! I've had 10 days off work, which means much less time online and more time reading. Which is really the ideal way to live life, in my opinion! So here is a roundup of what I've read.

Soulstar was a great conclusion to the Kingston trilogy. I've really enjoyed these books; they reminded me somewhat of The watchmaker of Filigree Street in their alternate early C20th setting, but there is a wider cast of characters and more magic alongside the politics. Each book has a different main character but all three are linked. This volume focuses mainly on social and political revolution as Robin and her allies seek to replace the established monarchy with a true democracy.

Foreigner was a much more engaging read the second time round. When I read it first I found it slow and overly introspective - the protagonist Bren spends a LOT of time mulling over events and fretting about them. But it didn't seem as bad this time, and I have progressed to the next book in the series, Invader.

I've also read:
The appeal - a very entertaining mystery told through emails and messages, which a pair of young lawyers must interpret in order to find out who is actually the guilty party. It's set in a small English town, specifically among the members of a local amateur dramatics group, so you can imagine the sorts of personalities involved! It's a fun read, very addictive as you think "Oh I'll just read this next message" and then you find an hour has passed.

The house in the Cerulean Sea - LibraryPerilous loved this and I can see why. It's a very sweet fantasy about an orphanage for dangerously magical children, and the fusty middle-aged inspector who comes to visit the home and report on it. It has strong messages about prejudice and not judging by appearances, and a nice, if predictable, growth arc for the main character. I know Marissa found this too twee, and I can see why, but for me it just managed to stay on the tolerable side of the line, and I enjoyed it.

Shadow in the Empire of Light - Another fantasy, but this one didn't quite work for me. It's set in a world where mages have all the power and privilege, non-magical members of their family have far fewer rights, and ordinary people with neither magic or breeding are peasants. The disadvantages of this feudal system are shown and implicitly critiqued. Shine is a non-magical member of one of the most powerful families and dreads her relatives' arrival at the family estate for the annual Blessing festival, which ensures fertility for the coming year - for the land, and the family. Mages are obsessed with trying to breed more daughters (female mages have stronger magic than males) and thus the Blessing is a time of great ... activity in that respect. Nominally consent is required and respected, but there is a lot of women's discussion of men's physical attributes which would be more obviously skeevy were the genders to be reversed. The book starts out feeling a bit YA in tone, with a psychic cat providing humour, but then it becomes much darker with some horrible secrets revealed by the end. The action takes place entirely on the family estate, although the plot lines gave potential for a much wider setting. It's an interesting book but didn't quite come together for me.

A children's bible by Lydia Millet is a literary-apocalyptic-type novel. A group of families are vacationing in a big house near the coast, the children largely detached from and contemptuous of their parents. When a storm blows up causing massive destruction the children leave to take care of themselves. What follows is a harsh and thought-provoking treatment of the generational divide regarding climate change. I could have done without the obligatory redneck quasi-military looters who turn up, but I guess they were needed to propel the plot and I have to admit that such an occurrence is highly likely given the book's situation. The children are certainly not all nice to each other, but it never descends into Lord of the flies type violence, and the relationship between the narrator and her younger brother is very touching. A very interesting read.

A pale light in the black. This was awesome! It's SF from K. B. Wagers, who wrote the Indranan War books. This is the first in a series about the Near Earth Orbital Guard - NeoG - who are based on the real-life coastguard. Coastguards rescue ships and people in trouble at sea; NeoG help out in space. The crew of Zuma's Ghost are having to adjust to a sudden change in personnel, at a time when they are determined to win the annual Boarding Games - a physical and strategic contest between the branches of the armed forces. They also have their usual rescue missions to perform and save lives. One of these rescues leads them into danger as they inadvertently uncover a smuggling ring. Max, the new team member, may hold the key to solving the mystery which overshadows the crew. And can they pull together to win the games? I'm not sure the plotting was quite as adept as it could have been - at times the Games storyline completely sidelines the smuggling plot, and vice versa - but both are compelling and fun to read, and I have no complaints at all about the characters and their development. I will be looking forward to more books in this series.

Another pony for Jean - classic girl-and-pony story from the 1930s. Lots of humour from the young protagonist especially regarding parents who don't understand that horses are the most important thing in life. I'm really glad these are being reissued.

I'm currently still reading The Barbizon which is essentially the history of a certain kind of woman in the C20th as much as it is the story of the titular hotel. It's well-written social history. I'm also reading Invader, and a German novel called What you can see from here, which was a total impulse buy for the cover

On kindle I'm reading two contemporary novels, Mona at sea which is about a spoiled millennial facing up to the reality of life, and Detransition Baby which is for a category challenge of a book about an LGBTQ+ family.

>217 Sakerfalcon: which is for a category challenge of a book about an LGBTQ+ family.

Are you doing the Helmet Reading Challenge again this year?

>217 Sakerfalcon: I think your touchstone for The Barbican is going to the wrong book? Not sure, it came up with the same one for me, first on the list.

>217 Sakerfalcon: Glad you had a nice reading holiday!

The next NeoG book is out this week in the US. Alas, neither Overdrive library I use has it yet. I'm glad Cerulean didn't turn too twee on you. I just loved Teddy and his hoard. I want a wyvern!

I'll give the Kingston series another look someday, especially since you've compared it to the Pulley novel. Have you read The Lost Future of Pepperharrow?

Happy summer, everyone! Or winter if you're below the Equator! I haven't read too much SF/F of late, but I did rate both Project Hail Mary and The Galaxy, and the Ground Within five stars.

>216 Sakerfalcon: re: Emma Carroll, I do think she passes the 'writes complex middle grade stories' test. If you haven't read any of her novels and are interested, Frost Hollow Hall and Secrets of a Sun King are my favorites.

I liked House In the Cerulean Sea too and am looking forward to its purported sequel.

>218 -pilgrim-: Yes, I am! Are you?

>219 Karlstar: Thanks for pointing that out! My computer autocorrected Barbizon to Barbican and I didn't notice. It's fixed now.

>220 libraryperilous: That's good news about the new NeoG book. And yes, I loved Teddy too, he is adorable. I haven't read Lost future yet, have you? If so, what did you think? I will look out for Emma Carroll. I was recently recommended another MG book, Riddle of the runes which sounds really good so I'm looking out for that too.

>221 Storeetllr: I didn't realise there was going to be a sequel. It doesn't need one, but it's a great world and will be fun to explore some more.

>222 Sakerfalcon: I could be wrong, but I think I read that a sequel is in the works. If so, it will be fun to explore more of that world.

>222 Sakerfalcon: Thanks for fixing it, helps to find the right book! I would have just gotten lost.

>217 Sakerfalcon: "I will be looking forward to more books in this series." She's just released the next hold fast through the fire. I also enjoyed Pale Light too. I was recommended sixteenth watch on the basis of it, but I think Pale is much better.

>222 Sakerfalcon: I started the year intending to, but I was discouraged by the number of challenges that - like the one you referenced - require researching the plot of a book to determine whether it fits.

So I decided to read as normal for a while, and then check back against the list. The combination of health and phone issues had meant that I have not actually done so (yet).

I was also intending the Helmet Film Challenge...

>223 Storeetllr: Definitely! I'd love to see more of the children as they grow up!

>224 Karlstar: Thanks for pointing it out! I blame autocorrect!

>225 reading_fox: I'll wait for the paperback of Hold fast through the fire. I have the 2nd and 3rd books of the Farian War trilogy to read in the meantime

>226 -pilgrim-: I remember asking my friend, who did the Helmet challenge the year before me, how she completed the challenges that required some specific detail about a book's contents. She said that she does exactly what you do - read the books she wants and then look to see if they fit a category. As soon as she said it it seemed obvious!

Another week of more reading and less posting ... not helped by getting "pinged" on the covid app and having to isolate for 6 days. Not leaving my flat has meant a LOT of reading (and napping!) time.

Of the titles I was reading when I last posted, I've finished Invader, Mona at sea and Detransition baby.

Invader was an excellent follow-up to Foreigner, with the already-delicate situation exacerbated by the unexpected return of the humans' ship, 200 years after its departure. The paidhi Bren has to try and convince the Atevi that this wasn't planned, or even anticipated, by the humans on-planet, and there's no conspiracy going on. He is hindered by the interference of the paidhi-designate, sent in to cover while he was receiving medical treatment. Deana has very different attitudes to the Atevi and immediately manages to throw several spanners into the works giving Bren even more problems to try and resolve. I still find Bren's interminable worrying and spiralling thoughts to become tedious after a while, but overall these first two books have enough that interests me that I am considering continuing with the series.

I can imagine the author of Mona at sea quoting Jane Austen and saying "I am going to write a novel about a heroine whom no-one but myself will like" (quote as I remember it, probably not accurate word-for-word). Mona is a spoiled millennial who has, as she laments, "done everything right" - got As all through her studies, filled her spare time with worth extracurricular activities, been a good daughter, sister and friend. Yet she finds herself a victim of the 2008 financial crisis - turning up on her first day of work at a Wall Street firm only to be told there is no job for her after all. She returns to live with her parents in Arizona, spiralling into self-pity, drinking too much and indulging in self-destructive behaviour. She's self-centred and entitled, seeing herself as superior to the others at the support group for jobseekers that she reluctantly attends. She doesn't even notice that her parents' marriage is coming apart, and begrudges her best friend for finally landing her dream job. Mona has to hit rock bottom and be shaken out of her self-absorption before she can face reality and accept she must shape a different life for herself - which may actually bring more rewards than the career she had expected. I felt that things resolved themselves for Mona a little too quickly and easily once she accepted her situation - but it does take her a lloooonnnngggg time to come to terms with it, and she crashes and burns a few times along the way. There is a thread in the novel about self-harm which I didn't feel was dealt with very realistically, and I can imagine this being very unhelpful to anyone who has faced this themselves. Apart from that, I did enjoy this novel - it's often funny in a schadenfreude sense, with well drawn characters and situations.

Detransition baby is another novel with characters who frequently screw up and self-sabotage, hurting themselves and others around them. Reese is a trans woman who seemed to have it all while in a loving relationship with Amy (formerly Ames). But Reese self-destructs and Amy detransitions, then enters into a relationship with her boss Katrina. Believing he is infertile due to his years on hormones, Ames is stunned and unprepared when Katrina falls pregnant. Although living as a man and wanting a child, he doesn't feel that he can be a father (as opposed to a mother), and comes up with the idea to ask Reese to act as a third parent in the relationship. Reese, Amy and Katrina are all messy, complex, very flawed characters, frustrating at times to the reader and to each other. Reese is the worst for self-sabotaging and although we are told that she desperately wants to be a mother, both times in the novel when it seems like that could be a possibility, her actions destroy her chances. I also found her opinion that women find their identity validated by suffering violence from men (she believes this of all women) to be offensive and, obviously, untrue. But this book is not written to make cis people feel comfortable, or to show trans people as noble victims. It was an interesting, though uncomfortable at times, read, but I'm not sure who I would recommend it to. I guess if you are interested in an own voices trans novel then go for it. I'm not actually sure it does fill my Helmet challenge category, as the book ends on an unresolved note.

This month is All Virago/All August in the Virago Modern Classics group, so I am adding some books by that publisher to my reading rotation. Their catalogue is mostly novels by women writers from the early and mid C20th, many of which were neglected for years after their original publication. The first two that I've read this time are The ship of widows and Bobbin up. The former is a Russian novel which opens in 1943, and follows the lives of a group of women who are assigned to live in the same apartment in Moscow. Olga narrates many of the chapters but there is also an omniscient narrator. The five women frequently disagree and squabble with each other, but also offer support, particularly to Anfisa when she returns from the war pregnant. Their lives revolve around her son Vadim, who grows up in a post-war city where there are few if any father figures due to the destruction caused by the war. The women's lives are hard, with few moments of joy, but they endure and take comfort where they can. This is a slim but memorable book.

Bobbin up is also about women thrown together by chance - in this case, by their work at a textile mill in 1950s Sydney. The first 2/3 of the book is more like a series of linked short stories than a novel, as we follow each woman for a chapter or two in her life outside the mill. These are real portraits of the working class, stuck in tiring, dangerous jobs, striving for a better life for themselves and their children. Young women trying to marry, young couples dreaming of owning their own home, husbands worn down by poverty, too many children to support and drinking, older women resigned to their lot in life - but when the effects of capitalism threaten their jobs at the mill, they are able to unite and fight the injustice thanks to the efforts of Nell, a staunch Communist. The author was a fervent Communist herself at the time of writing, and in the introduction she wrote looking back some 20 years later, she admits how naive she was. She also stresses that the characters are based on real people she met while working in a mill herself, and refutes critics who complained that they weren't realistic. The novel contains lots of Australian slang and is written in the voice of the people it portrays, which really brought it to life.

It sounds like I've only been reading depressing books but really I didn't find any of them to be downers! However, I have also read a very cheering SF romance, Winter's orbit, which is definitely a feel-good book. The Empire of Iskat depends upon treaty marriages to bind its vassal planets together, and when one party is killed, Prince Kiem is drafted in at short notice to marry the widower. Kiem is something of a playboy, with no ambition and a desire to evade responsibility, so he is appalled at the notion of marrying a grieving widower. Jainan is thoughtful and intelligent but extremely reticent, repressed even, but willing to accept the remarriage. Cue very awkward "I like him but I don't want to push too hard, am I annoying him, aarghhh!" relationship. It's a bit frustrating but entirely believable given the circumstances that they don't just sit down and talk about their feelings. However, it soon become apparent that the death of Jainan's first partner may not have been an accident, and that Jainan's communications have been mysteriously blocked. The two of them must work together to find out what's going on in time for the treaty renewal which is drawing ever closer. I loved this! It's a bit more of a romance than I would usually read, but the politics and action are to the fore and the romantic dithering is far preferable to instalove and allows Kiem and Jainan to spend time together and get to know each other before love blooms. There are a lot of really cute scenes and drily witty exchanges which made this so much fun to read.

I'm really enjoying The Barbizon which so far has included Grace Kelly, Sylvia Plath and Joan Didion among its famous residents. Just as interesting though are the stories and memories of the less famous, and perhaps more typical women, that form the main part of the book.

I'm still reading What you can see from here and enjoying this quirky story about the residents of a small German village.

I've started The new wilderness, a dystopian novel about a group of people taking part in a long-term experiment of living a hunter-gatherer, low impact life in the last remaining wilderness area of the US. Bea joined the experiment in order to get her daughter out of the polluted city where her health was declining badly. But humans are humans, and there's little hope of a utopian future here.

And I'm reading Victories greater than death by Charlie Jane Anders, her first YA novel. So far I'm loving it - it's got the same "disparate group of young adults and aliens on a spaceship in a crisis" set-up as Aurora rising but without the juvenile potty jokes and humour.

>227 Sakerfalcon: The Ship of Widows sounds interesting, although probably too depressing for me.

I'm glad you enjoyed Winter's Orbit! I seem to be in the minority on that one, as I found the romance too intrusive and cloying to enjoy all that delicious political backstabbing. I haven't sold my copy of it yet, so I may try it again. Also, the US edition has a very pretty cover. :)

>228 libraryperilous: The UK cover is nice too - I think it may be a different crop of the US one. A close-up of the orangey landscape.

Some more books finished to tick off the list.

The Barbizon is a history of the eponymous New York City hotel for women, which is really just the starting point for a social history of (mostly white, largely middle class) women in C20th America. It does of course feature some of the hotel's best known resident, including Grace Kelly, Sylvia Plath and Joan Didion, but at least as interesting are the accounts and memories from the less famous but more typical women who stayed there. It's a good device with which to frame the shifting attitudes to women's professional, social and sexual lives over the decades. Recommended.

I enjoyed Victories greater than death a lot. Tina is a 16 year old who knows that a special destiny awaits her. In her case, it really does - she is the clone of a famed war hero from outer space. All her life she has known that one day the beacon implanted in her will go off, and she will be called into duty to complete her late mother's mission of purging evil from the galaxy. However, when the call does come, neither Tina nor her mother's shipmates are prepared for the restoral of her mother's memories to fail. Tina is just - ordinary. And catapulted into a conflict where she's way out of her depth. Fortunately her best friend Rachael came with her, and she's surrounded by good teammates. This is a great book about teamwork between people and aliens with very different skills, attitudes and aptitude. There are some conveniences, such as the universal translator devices that seem to work within a pretty broad range, allowing for very easy communication, and the fact that while Tina's mother's specific memories are not restored, her general knowledge is so Tina does have some grounding to rely on. But as the main point of the book is the characters and their battle against evil, those conveniences avoid distraction into technical rabbit holes. I'd recommend this to anyone who liked Aurora Rising and similar YA in space novels, though I would say Victories reads a little younger if only because the humour isn't based on crude sexual innuendo.

What you can see from here was a funny, tender, sometimes sad read, focusing on the lives of people in a small German village. Whenever Selma dreams of an okapi, death follows, so when she tells people that has dreamed of one again everyone starts to act cautiously, despite claiming not to be superstitious. But when the tragedy strikes, it is not one that could have been predicted. Selma's granddaughter Luisa narrates the story, first as a child of about 10, then as a young woman in her 20s. Everyone in the village is a bit odd, but in ways that seem plausible in the context. Elsbeth believes in spells and omens, Marlies is aggressively antisocial, and the village optician has been in unrequited love with Selma for years, something everyone but Selma herself knows. Luisa's dog Alaska is unusually long-lived, which people don't seem to notice. It's a quiet, slow-burning read that takes a while to get used to, but which I really enjoyed in the end. I especially liked the author's depiction of this small community in a remote wooded area which seems almost lost in time.

I'm still reading The new wilderness and quite enjoying it despite being frustrated by the melodrama between the characters. The descriptions of the landscape, flora and fauna are good though. It reminds me a little of The terranauts in that you have a group of unlikeable characters put into a fascinating setting.

I've also started The midnight bargain by C. L. Polk, which is an alt-Regency fantasy of manners set in a world where women with magic are valued only for their ability to bear magic-bearing sons. Beatrice and her new friend Ysbeta resent this and are both seeking ways to escape the trap of marriage and develop their powers to the full. But their family fortunes depend upon their making advantageous marriages and thus submitting to a life with their magic restrained. It's not an unusual set-up, but I like the details of the world (such as the game of Hazards which appears to be a cross between croquet and golf) and the characters.

I'm also reading Inheritor, the third novel in the first Foreigner sub series. And on kindle I'm reading a new thriller, People like her about an ambitious "mumfluencer" whose seemingly perfect life turns dark. I can't understand people who put their whole life out on the internet, and have a fascination with the kind of personality and motives behind the decision.

Time for another update.

The midnight bargain was a delightful read with interesting characters who have to make tough choices, a well-drawn world and an exciting plot. I especially liked the way Ianthe and Harriet's characters developed as they learn more about the privileged but restricted world in which they live. I'd gladly read more set in this world.

People like her was an exciting read, albeit one filled with unlikeable characters. Emmy is @mamabare, a hugely successful "mumfluencer" who posts candid photos and stories of her life and family on Instagram, gaining an army of followers who appreciate her honesty and soul-bearing take on motherhood. But the reader soon learns that this is really a facade, carefully constructed to appear as what people most want to see. And not everyone is a fan. Emmy and her husband Dan start to notice strange occurrences - a break-in at their home where nothing appears to have been stolen, the brief disappearance of their 3 year old daughter Coco in a shopping mall, a copycat account that appears on Instagram, using photos that Emmy has never posted online. This is a good book if you want to read about people that you will love to hate. Dan initially seems like a decent enough guy but ultimately he is willing to sacrifice his children's privacy in order to reap the material rewards of Emmy's online career. I enjoyed trying to guess who was seeking Emmy's downfall and seeing the pieces of the plot come together. It was also enlightening to see the seedy side behind the influencer lifestyle. It's a quick read and not especially deep, but an enjoyable psychological thriller.

I've also read My next bride, for the All Virago/All August challenge. This novel is set in 1930s Paris, not in the glittering city centre but in the suburb of Neuilly which is far less glamorous. Young American Victoria arrives at a shabby boarding house, also occupied by two elderly Russian emigre sisters. They advise her to seek out the visionary guru Sorrel and his colony of aspirants, and Victoria finds a role selling the textiles they produce. But this is no utopia and she finds herself in trouble in the grimy unseen side of the city. Based on the author's own experiences this is an often bleak but atmospheric and sometimes dreamlike read.

On kindle I've finished The broken girls, a supernatural thriller by Simone St James. I loved this. It has two timelines, one set in the 1950s in a boarding school for unwanted girls, the other in 2014 as a journalist is haunted by the murder of her sister 20 years earlier. Fiona's sister's body was found in the grounds of the derelict school, and as she unravels the anomalies from the original investigation she is drawn into the stories of the girls from the 1950s. And in both times, the figure of a veiled woman in black portends danger. This was exciting, moving and hard to put down. Usually in books with parallel stories I find one more engaging than the other, but in this case both were excellent.

I'm currently reading a fantasy novel, The mask of mirrors, still carrying on with Inheritor and The new wilderness and have started another Virago, this one the autobiography of the artist Nina Hammett, Laughing torso.

>230 Sakerfalcon: oh,The Broken Girls sounds good!

>229 Sakerfalcon: You got me squarely with The Barbizon...and it just happened to be on sale at Barnes and Noble...

>230 Sakerfalcon: Spraying bullets around as usual. Going to try to borrow from OverDrive instead of buying, though.

>231 catzteach: It really was! I originally tagged it as horror but it's really more of a mystery with some supernatural aspects. I loved the interwoven storylines and the spooky old school setting.

>232 Marissa_Doyle: That's a happy coincidence! I hope you enjoy the book.

>233 clamairy: Which one hit you?

I finished The new wilderness which was good in parts but ultimately the set-up had too many inconsistencies to be plausible. In an overpopulated America where almost all available land is either built on or used for farming and industry, people live in cramped, polluted, treeless cities. Bea's daughter Agnes is dying from the bad air, and when her partner hears of a study seeking volunteers to live in the last remaining wilderness he signs the three of them up. The group of 20 are restricted in what they can do by the Rangers, who seem to be an extremely unpleasant bunch of people. There are lots of power struggles and personality clashes within the group, and many of the characters seem totally unfitted for a nomadic life in the middle of nowhere. It was potentially a very interesting scenario, and some sections of the book were quite gripping, but overall it was a disappointment.

I'm really enjoyed Laughing torso, which is a rather breathless account of Hamnett's life in Bohemian London and Paris in the early C20th. It's not an introspective autobiography, rather a recounting of who she met and where she went, what she was painting and plenty of amusing anecdotes involving well-known artists, writers, musicians, etc of the time.

And The mask of mirrors is great too. The main character Renata is posing as the daughter of an estranged family member in order to infiltrate the family and secure her future financially. In reality, she's a former street thief who came up with her plan while working as a maid to the estranged woman. But she soon finds that politics and society in the city of Nadezhra are more complicated than she anticipated, and she becomes drawn into far larger intrigues. We see all levels of society in the watery city, from those living on the streets, through to merchants and the nobility and ruling classes. There are a couple of different magic systems, one based on Tarot and the other number-based. It's a slow build but I'm really enjoying exploring the world and getting to know the characters.

And on kindle I've started to read Latchkey, which is the sequel to Archivist Wasp. I should really have reread the earlier book as this one assumes quite a fresh knowledge of events, but it's hooked me anyway.

>234 Sakerfalcon:
Why do you assume you hit clamairy with only one?

>234 Sakerfalcon: It was The Midnight Bargain. I added it to my OverDrive wishlist instead of borrowing it right away.

>235 pgmcc: Right?

>235 pgmcc:, >236 clamairy: I prefer to keep my expectations low, then I may be pleasantly surprised! Clam, I hope you enjoy The midnight bargain.

I've finished all of the books I was reading last time I updated, plus a couple more.

Inheritor was a good close to the initial trilogy in the Foreigner series, which left me wanting to read on. My only criticism is that lots of plot developments and twists were packed into the last 100 or so pages after a leisurely, introspective read to that point. It made the end of the book feel very rushed.

Mask of mirrors was an excellent read. It had an immersive setting which reminded me of the Merovingian nights series, as we follow characters from all walks of life around a watery city. There are no SF elements though, and magic plays a strong role in the book. Renata, aka Arenza, aka Ren, has come to the city of Nadezhra hoping to con her way into the noble Traementis family, but finds that they are not nearly as wealthy and secure as she had assumed. However, her fate is now linked with theirs for good or ill as plots magical and mundane threaten the city and its magic. There is a large cast of characters but I found it easy to keep them all straight, without needing the helpful glossary at the end of the book. I've seen several reviews which don't like the slow pace and detail of the book, but I found it fascinating. Highly recommended, and I'm looking forward to the sequel.

Laughing torso was a very enjoyable read, lively and amusing as it recounts the author's life as an artist in London and Paris in the early C20th. She rubbed shoulders with Modigliani, Gaudier-Brzeshka, Poulenc, Roger Fry and many more artists, writers and musicians, and has plenty of anecdotes to tell about them. In a happy coincidence as I finished the book I discovered that there was an exhibition of her work at Charleston, the Sussex home of Vanessa Bell and Duncan Grant (part of the Bloomsbury Group) and I was able to go to see it just before it closed!
Here are a couple of examples of her paintings

Latchkey was a good read, dark yet hopeful, set sometime in the future after our age is almost forgotten. Only ghosts and ruins remain of a more advanced civilization, and Isabel and her companions live in a more primitive, dangerous world. When a band of raiders approaches their settlement, having razed a neighbouring village, Isabel must lead the townsfolk to safety in the tunnels beneath their homes. But these tunnels have their own threats and secrets. I must reread the first book and then read this one again as I know there were references to past events that I had forgotten. Both books are unusual YA fantasies - not least because there are no hints of romance.

Since then I've also read Elatsoe, another YA fantasy that has been highly regarded. It is notable for being written by a native American author, and starring a Lipan Apache heroine and her family. The setting is a modern America very like ours, except for the open presence of magic and supernatural beings. Ellie can raise the ghosts of animals; the descendants of the Fae can perform their own magic; vampires and other creatures walk among us. When Ellie's cousin Trevor dies in a road accident, he appears to her in a dream to tell her it was not an accident. This leads her, her best friend Jay and her mother to investigate. There was a lot to admire and enjoy about this - the ghost dog Kirby is adorable but the author uses him with restraint; the stories about Ellie's Six-Great grandmother have the ring of myth; the melding of the supernatural and the everyday is well done. However, I have to agree with the criticism that Ellie and Jay read MUCH younger than their stated 17 years. Think more like 13. It wouldn't be a problem if we were told they were younger, and the book was marketed at that age group as they are nice characters, and Ellie being asexual is a nice detail too. My other niggle is that there are one or two fleeting mentions of Jay possessing magic (something Ellie wasn't aware of despite their long friendship) but it is never developed or becomes relevant to the plot. Apart from that though this was a good read and one that I think would appeal to readers of Middle Grade fiction.

I've also read another Mrs Bradley mystery, The Longer bodies. This wasn't one of the best, although the set-up for the plot was amusing: a wealthy, cantankerous old lady decides to force her grand-nephews to compete in various field sports with the one who does best inheriting her fortune. When murder happens it's not what one might expect, and the local police are stumped. Mrs Bradley appears on the scene and investigates with glee. However, a lot of the solution to the mystery takes place in scenes of interrogation rather than actions and more active investigation, and Mrs Bradley solves the case mainly by picking apart the Inspector's deductions to come to the correct conclusion.

Now I'm reading a whole new batch of books - Mamma by Diana Tutton, a 1950s novel about a mother who falls reluctantly in love with her son-in-law; Threshold by Caitlyn R. Kiernan which is urban fantasy, and The other black girl, a contemporary satirical novel about the workplace. And I'm dipping into The letters of Shirley Jackson.

Ooh, I loved Mamma and I'll be interested to hear what you think about The Other Black Girl as I've changed my mind on it a bit since I read it ...

>237 Sakerfalcon:, >238 Sakerfalcon: Mask of Mirrors sounds fabulous! I'd put off Elatsoe because of the YA designation, but I'm going to bump it up since you've classed it as middle grade. My mom liked it, and the author has a second title publishing this fall.

I’m going to see if my library has Elatsoe. It sounds right up my alley.

>237 Sakerfalcon: yeah more CJC fans. the series doesn't change, just progresses, so if youve liked the first three you'll like the remaining 17. Some are better than others, but the average remains very high. She's written a lot in some other universes if you're enjoying her style.

Shame wilderness didn't end well as that was sounding intruiging.

>239 LyzzyBee: I too loved Mamma! Tutton could have chosen to write a melodramatic bodice ripper but instead chose the quietly agonising restrained approach and it was SO effective.
The other black girl was a fun read but I'm not sure the magical elements helped to deliver the themes of the book. I liked Nella, and especially Malaika (but what happened to her and Owen???)

>240 libraryperilous: I thought of you as I read Elatsoe because it felt like something you would enjoy. I really felt that the only reason the characters were made to be older was so that they could drive a car!

>241 catzteach: I hope you can find it and enjoy reading it!

>242 reading_fox: I've got Precursor lined up to read next! I've also really enjoyed the Chanur books, and some of the Alliance-Union series (although not Downbelow Station, that was a slog). And I loved Fortress in the eye of time and its sequels.
I'd say if you find The new wilderness on a 99p kindle deal then check it out, but for me the promise of the premise was let down by illogic and inconsistency.

Another quick catch up - this is the busiest time of year for me as we prepare for new students and the return of the old ones - although due to the pandemic the current 2nd years will also be new to campus.

Mamma was a great read, thoughtful, subtle and powerful. Joanna was widowed at 20 with a baby daughter and devoted her life to raising her child. So she is not prepared to have her romantic senses stirred in her early 40s ... by her daughter's new husband. Steve is 35, closer in age and experience to Joanna than to 20 year old Liz, and when the young couple have to move in with Joanna she and Steve find themselves becoming closer. But this is not a torrid scandalous novel; rather it is a portrait of external restraint hiding inner turmoil. Joanna is a very sympathetic heroine and the book explores her thoughts and feelings deeply, while also painting a vivid portrait of life in 1950s Britain as society recovers from WWII. This was another excellent selection in the British Library Women Writers series.

The other black girl was fun to read, a satire about black people in the workplace in America. Nella works for a renowned publishing house and has been the only black employee (apart from the cleaners and mail room staff) for years. So she is thrilled when Hazel starts as a fellow editorial assistant. The two young women quickly bond, but Nella is less happy when Hazel appears to undermine her in meetings and be given opportunities ahead of Nella. It is uncanny ... literally. I guess the question at the heart of the book is "If there was a magic potion you could take to get ahead in the workplace, but the price is that you have to deny your blackness, would you do it?" It's a good dilemma, but I felt that the construction of the book and the gradually-revealed large-scale conspiracies were not as effective as they could be. The scenes of Nella suffering micro (and sometime macro) aggressions in the workplace were excellent, as were the scenes with her friend Malaika - a great character - but the magical realism didn't quite work for me. I am white, though, and it's very possible that the book would work better for someone who has been in (or is in) Nella's position. One thing I did get from the book is that publishing is a pretty poor industry to work in for anyone unless they are at the top.

I've also read A town called Solace which is on the Booker Prize longlist. I loved the author's earlier novel Crow Lake so when I saw this on a kindle deal I snapped it up. I loved it. Set in a small town in northern Ontario in the 1970s it focuses on three characters. 7 year old Clara's older sister has gone missing, and her beloved next-door neighbour is in hospital. Clara has been entrusted to take care of the old lady's cat Moses, and this responsibility provides the high point of her days. Her parents smile and tell her soothing lies to stop her worrying, but Clara can tell that things are wrong. Elizabeth is the elderly neighbour, sharing her thoughts and memories as she lies in hospital. And Liam is the child of Elizabeth's heart - not by birth, but the little boy who lived next door 30 years ago. Elizabeth impulsively gave her house to Liam just as she went into hospital, and when Liam arrives it throws Clara into turmoil. This is a quiet novel about trust, and love, and recovering after loss. It also shows the pros and cons of life in a very small town - people know all your business, but most of them also care and look out for each other. I felt that Clara in particular was very written, but I engaged with all three characters. Highly recommended.

I'm still reading Threshold, and have also started Another country by James Baldwin and Wonderland by Zoje Stage. And I'm dipping into The letters of Shirley Jackson and the Complete stories of Clarice Lispector.

I need to get of a copy of Mamma but I am snowed under with library reservations including several I won't be able to renew, and several Booker longlist titles have come into the library system, so I need to stop reserving books. I've also just started playing around with library ebook borrowing as a couple of things I want to read are only available that way. At least with these I don't have to plan trips to collect reservations, return books and avoid clocking up fines.

I'm pleased that you liked A Town Called Solace, Claire. I have the Kindle version of it, and I'll read it later this year, or sooner if it's chosen for the Booker Prize longlist, which will be announced at 4 pm BST today.

4 pm? Eeek! A bunch of copies of some of the longlist titles has just come through to the libraries - just had a call about one of my reservations coming through, so I have two to collect.

I also have A Town Called Solace and a couple of other titles on my Kindle, and I've just finished The Sweetness of Water in the last couple of days. I wouldn't be surprised to see Sweetness on the shortlist, otherwise I'm really not sure!

>246 elkiedee: Yes, in less than 45 minutes the shortlist will be revealed!

I had started to read The Sweetness of Water yesterday, but after I realized that today is the shortlist announcement day I decided to hold off, to see if it made the cut. If it doesn't I'll probably choose another shortlisted book.

All the Black reviewers I've read on The Other Black Girl were really non-keen and didn't like the magical element of it at all, interestingly.

In the Lawson, is the cat OK through the book?!

Neither Sweetness nor Solace made it. I am currently reading Great Circle on my Kindle - how long will it take LT to stop linking to cookery books on that title? - since it was a daily deal in August, and on Kindle I also have the Patricia Lockwood, also Solace and Light Perpetual from the longlist. I have a hardback copy of The Fortune Men awaiting collection at Islington library, along with three longlist titles.

>249 elkiedee: Islington? I work for LBI (although I live outside London)... Except I haven't been into the office (Upper Street) since March last year and I think I'll be lucky if I go back March next year!

>249 elkiedee: I've read The Fortune Men and The Promise so far, which were both superb, and I'll start A Passage North today. After my pre-ordered copy of Bewilderment is downloaded onto my Kindle next Tuesday I should have all 13 longlisted books.

Sorry to hijack your thread, Claire!

>250 Maddz: I don't live in Islington but my partner works there - he's a council employee but is seconded full time as an elected union representative, and is still mostly working from home at the moment. We're only a couple of miles from the closest Isington branch (in Finsbury Park), and Islington Libraries offers free reservations. When M was in the office every day I just used to get him to take in and collect books.

Sorry about the thread hijack.

>251 kidzdoc:, >252 elkiedee: No need to apologise, friendly chat is always welcome. I can't wait until we're able to do so in person again!

>244 elkiedee: I have so many print and ebooks of my own to read that I haven't been near the public library since before lockdown. Partly that's because they never emailed to let me know if/when they reopened even though I'm on their mailing list.

>245 kidzdoc:, >246 elkiedee:, >249 elkiedee: I suspect that A town called Solace didn't make the longlist because it is comparatively light and perhaps the characters' problems are quite easily resolved. But I really liked it.

>248 LyzzyBee: That is interesting about TOBG. I will search for some of those reviews.
Cat spoiler: Yes, Moses is fine! He is a great feline character but the author doesn't overuse him

>250 Maddz: I miss the Islington Oxfam bookshop! I haven't visited since before lockdown as it's not near anywhere I go regularly so it would mean a special trip.

>253 Sakerfalcon: "I suspect that A town called Solace didn't make the longlist because it is comparatively light and perhaps the characters' problems are quite easily resolved. But I really liked it."

I hear you. Almost every time I try to read a Booker or Pulitzer finalist I end up thoroughly depressed.

Also, bullets are spraying! *pew-pew-pew*

>248 LyzzyBee: You're asking the important question! I recently had to read the last few pages of a novel first to make sure Biscuits the cat was going to be okay.

>254 clamairy: I think the most curmudgeonly opinion I hold is that the concept of prizes is unpleasant and reflects judges' personal tastes and mores more than it reflects an actual zeitgeist.

>253 Sakerfalcon: Last time I looked at the Islngton Oxfam Bookshop (which must be several years ago now) I thought it was quite overpriced, compared even to branches in Bloomsbury (quite near Tottenham Court Road) and Crouch End. I tend to look more at Classics (in the hope of reprint publishers like VMC and Persephone as well as the more obvious Penguin, Oxford etc classics editions, children's books and various non fiction sections, as upwards of £2.50 seems a lot for the sort of books that often appear in lots of different charity shops and as Kindle offers. In Crime I will look for things like Bitter Lemon titles - foreign settings and often in translation, though they do also publish some books originally published in English.

I've just finished reading a biography of Penelope Fitzgerald, apparently a shock Booker winner herself, and several times shortlisted. Towards the end of her life she was on quite a lot of award judging panels. So there's quite a lot towards the end of the book about prize bickering and bitching and gossip.

>196 Sakerfalcon: I've just run across a review of the work of Becky Chambers and was intrigued, but ran into a paywall almost at once, so I came here and searched. Can you tell me anything about her books generally, their character, their major motifs? And what's your opinion?

>254 clamairy: I agree with you about the trends of prize-winning contemporary fiction. I read relatively little of it. Happiness in books or films just doesn't seem to be as highly regarded - witness the ratio of serious drama to humour when it comes to the Oscars.

>255 libraryperilous: I am the same. Harm to animals is something I just can't stand to read about.

>256 elkiedee: I visit the Marylebone Oxfam shop (which is sadly no longer solely a bookshop) most frequently and it seems to me that they have 2 or 3 three different people doing the pricing because it varies noticeably. Sometimes something new or unusual will be really cheap, other times ordinary books can be ridiculously overpriced.

>257 elkiedee: A judge's eye view of awards panels sounds very interesting.

>258 Meredy: I really enjoyed Chambers' first two books, The long way to a small angry planet and A closed and common orbit. I would characterise them as "an ill-assorted group of people* must work together to solve problems". There is an emphasis on diversity and acceptance of differences. "Planet" is more plot driven than "Orbit", and both are more so than Record of a spaceborn few which I enjoyed far less. "Orbit" and "Few" are very much "slice of life" stories, with character more important than plot. The tone of the books is positive and hopeful. Thankfully too, Chambers has not succumbed to the trend of present-tense prose, and her writing, while nothing special, is pleasant to read. I know that many here in the GD have read her books so hopefully others will give their opinions too.

*humans and aliens.

>258 Meredy: Here are a few reviews from GD members that might be informative. On Jill's thread you will have to find the review for the book sandwiched between a few others.

https://www.librarything.com/topic/193098#5358399
https://www.librarything.com/topic/210817#5593948
https://www.librarything.com/topic/245398#5866939

I was going to paste the link to Peter's review but it was about 95% hidden behind spoiler tags, so I did not.

>259 Sakerfalcon: Thanks for your comments. What I saw was a piece in Wired by Jason Kehe, dated 9/16/2021, headlined: "Is Becky Chambers the ultimate hope for science fiction?" Under that it said "Her gentle, heartwarming stories seek to soothe our troubled souls. They also aim to blow up the entire genre."

And that was all I could read, because I didn't want to register or subscribe. It was enough to catch my attention, though. Do you think that's a fair description?

Excerpt here:
https://www.tor.com/2016/07/05/excerpts-the-long-way-to-a-small-angry-planet-bec...

>261 Meredy: I read and enjoyed, The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet. I found it a gentle story and had fun spotting the Science Fiction tropes. I have referred to it as Science Fiction for the non-Science Fiction reader. The hardened SF reader might take it as non-serious SF, if that is a concept. I had trouble getting into A Closed and Common Orbit. I found it a bit long-winded and basic in its world building, but then I have been told I did not give it a good enough chance. I am inclined to give it another go, but not with any urgency.

As regards, "They also aim to blow up the entire genre.", I saw no evidence of this in the first book, or in the small part of the second book that I read. As I described it, "Science Fiction for the non-Science Fiction reader", it could be argued that it is more accessible to people new to the genre. If this is "blowing up the entire genre", then perhaps. I have not read the Wired article so cannot comment on what the article writer meant. Also, the genre-buster bombs could be in the part of the second book that I did not read.

E.T.A.: A term just struck me that might be applicable to Becky Chambers's books; "Cosy Science Fiction", drawing a comparison with Cosy Crime. It is not strewn with gore and mutilated beings. Also, the term gives us a nice new TLA to confuse people with: "CSF".

E.T.A.A. One thing that occurred to me that the article could be referring to that I did not mention beforehand (because it is so much part of my life that it was not remarkable where I live but could be considered controversial in some geographies) was that I could see some people claiming it was pushing a liberal agenda. I will say no more for fear of infringing pub guidelines.

>261 Meredy: et al
I use Cozy SF to describe her work, as >263 pgmcc:, similar to cozy crime stories where any violence happens off camera, and it's all about the characters. I've also seen Becky described as HopePunk, (cf cyber punk, steampunk etc) where there is a basically optimistic slant to all the writing, bad things only happen to bad people, and all the main characters are accepting and tolerant. The themes are all about fitting in and working with alien mindsets whatever their background.

'Blowing up the whole genre' seems bizarre, it's just different SF from the previous trend of dark spaces breading dark characters. They're fairly slow without much dramatic action, but the characters sparkle. I love them. To me A Closed and Common orbit is my least favourite, mostly because I wanted more of the wayfarer's journeys. Instead each book is only tangently related picking up relations from the original crew.

>261 Meredy:, >263 pgmcc:, >264 reading_fox: I agree with Peter and RF, Cosy SF sums up Chambers' work perfectly. I would also not describe her books as "blowing up the whole genre". She may be striking out in a different direction but I would say it's a new branch of the tree, not a whole new plant rising from the ashes of the old one.
I agree with this sentence 100% though: "Her gentle, heartwarming stories seek to soothe our troubled souls."

>264 reading_fox: & >265 Sakerfalcon:
Hear! Hear!

>263 pgmcc: >264 reading_fox: >265 Sakerfalcon: >266 pgmcc: I agree with all of this. Becky Chambers may well be blowing up science fiction, but every genre (lit fic included) needs to be blown up occasionally. Certain kinds should have been blown up long ago. But as we well know, "science fiction" is different things to different people anyway. Becky Chambers writes science fiction by my definition.

Incidentally, did anyone notice that Alexander McCall Smith, creator of Precious Ramotswe, has now created something called "Scandi blanc"? I doubt if anyone asserted that he was blowing up Scandi crime by doing so.

>262 reconditereader: oh, no you've done it. Argh, book bullet.

I need to catch up with what I've been reading.

I finished Threshold but was a bit disappointed with it. Kiernan's The drowning girl was such a powerful novel that it still haunts me, and I was hoping for more of the same. But this book just didn't do it. I enjoyed the main character Chance, as she is a palaeontologist and her work affects the plot. But her ex-boyfriend Deacon is just the kind of screwed-up addict who hurts everyone that gets close to him and moves on unscathed that I hate. (This type reminds me all too well of the sort of men a dear friend ends up with and is hurt by.) There are many elements in the plot and I didn't feel they all gelled effectively. Strange trilobyte fossils, a mysterious symbol, suicidal crows, a girl who sees ghosts, a blocked up tunnel, shadowy Lovecraftian creatures, and a weird guy who pops up every now and then. Also, it is written in present tense and the author makes up a lot of compound words ("greenblue", "bruisedark" etc) which would be bearable in small doses but not when used so frequently. The menacing atmosphere is well conveyed and there are many interesting elements in the book, but they never really connect and too many of the characters are both unlikable and uninteresting to me. I will continue to explore Kiernan's work, but not continue with this particular series.

I also finished Wonderland which was another disappointment. Orla, her husband and their two young children move from NYC to an old house in the woods in the Adirondacks, miles from their nearest neighbours. Soon spooky things start happening and Orla realises just how unprepared they are to make this big a change in their lifestyle. I appreciated that they didn't immediately look to supernatural explanations for the mysterious happenings, but try to find rational sources. But the book is just too long and slow-paced to maintain any tension, and it wasn't even terribly interesting much of the time. The menace wasn't very menacing and Orla and the children were mostly annoying. (And who calls their children "Eleanor Queen" and "Tycho"?) The descriptions of winter in the woods were quite lovely, but not enough to save the book.

I've also read 2 books on kindle - now I'm commuting more often I have more time to read ebooks. Cult following is the memoir of a young woman who grew up in the Children of God cult. Bexy alternates chapters about her childhood with her quest as an adult to make an investigative documentary film about various cults, particularly their impact on children, leading up to her confrontation with her parents. This was an interesting read, although I found the episodes in the various cults to be rather short and shallow, and her methodology almost non-existent. Her narrative voice was also inclined to be slangy and informal, although this improved after the first couple of chapters. But it was a quick read and her compassion for children is genuine.

I also read The dangers of smoking in bed, a collection of short stories by Argentinian writer Mariana Enriquez. I've seen her compared to Samanta Schweblin, whose work I've enjoyed, and I'd say it's accurate. Both writers fall into the magical realism tradition, but with a strong feminist twist. I felt that Enriquez's use of the supernatural veered into Horror territory though - some of her stories were very dark. Ghosts and missing children haunt the book and there are some physically gross scenes. But she effectively conveys the often brutal way in which women and children are treated by the world - and especially in the patriarchal society from which she comes. I found the stories compelling and powerful.

I'm still reading Another country and dipping into the Clarice Lispector stories and the Shirley Jackson letters. And I'm reading The highest frontier by Joan Slonczewski which I am loving. It's an SF campus novel, set at a university on a space habitat that orbits the dying earth. Jenny is a freshman and we follow her into classes (both real and virtual), as she makes friends, volunteers with the campus emergency medical service, engages in biological research, worries about the increase of invasive species, and helps with the presidential election campaign. There is a lot going on but essentially it's a slice of life novel rather than being driven by the plot elements. The author throws you in at the deep end, referring to tech and other concepts which the characters take for granted without explanation; you have to figure it out from the context.

>269 Sakerfalcon: Your Threshold link may need some scrutiny... ;)

I read The Drowning Girl recently and that book really got under my skin, in a good way. To me, it felt like reading Gene Wolfe - with the exception that Kiernan's protagonist comes right out and tells you that she is an unreliable narrator, where Wolfe usually leaves it to the reader to realize that characteristic about his narrators, (Severian, #5, Alden Dennis Weer, etc).

>261 Meredy: I don't think they blow up the genre. The books do run counter to the current trend in SF/F toward grimmer, grittier stories. Chambers centers kindness and reacting carefully/thoughtfully in difficult situations. She explores a cross-species longing to belong and celebrates the finding of new homes or friendships in unexpected places. I find her books soothing to read.

I think 'cozy' is a good description, but re: cozy mysteries, they sometimes have rather conservative politics, and Chambers definitely is politically liberal. One also might label Chambers' writing 'domestic science fiction.' I wouldn't label the books 'cheerful adventures.' The writing style feels more wistful than whimsical or jaunty.

For me, the best reading comp is Katherine Addison's The Goblin Emperor. Chambers also reminds me of Janet Kagan and offers a cozier take on some of the themes in Katie Waitman's The Merro Tree.

>264 reading_fox: The definition of hopepunk you've given is interesting, vis-à-vis the last Wayfarers book, because it probes the prejudices the Akarak (considered villains by everyone else) face.

Edited: missing word; corrected sentence

>270 ScoLgo: Thanks for spotting the incorrect touchstone - fixed it!
I'm glad I'm not alone in my reaction to The drowning girl. It was such a good read.

>271 libraryperilous: The merro tree sounds great, but used copies are a bit expensive here in the UK. I'll add it to my watch-out-for list.

Aargh, so much catching up to do! I went on holiday for a week and was offline most of that time. I did get quite a bit of reading done so lots to report on.

Before I left I was able to finish Another country and The highest frontier. AC was my first book by James Baldwin, and I found it a powerful, immersive, often uncomfortable read. It follows the lives of 7 or 8 characters all of whom are linked by the musician Rufus, with whom the story opens. The characters are black and white, rich and poor, gay and straight, and all complex and flawed. They live in Manhattan, but not the glitzy streets you see in films, rather the down at heel tenements and seedy bars. Their relationships are tense and often unhealthy due to the pressures of race, sexuality and class. It's not a comforting book, but a riveting and important one.

I absolutely loved The highest frontier, and very much hope that Slonczewski chooses to continue writing in this universe. I do enjoy campus novels that follow young students as they leave home and start to widen their horizons, and this is a great SFnal take on that plot, with added politics and biosecurity threats. Jenny is a smart and likeable heroine and those around her - students, staff and local residents - are all interesting and well drawn. It's more of a slice-of-life novel than plot-driven - although there is a lot going on - but I really enjoyed experiencing Jenny's college days.

On kindle I read Unconquerable Sun by Kate Elliott, which has been described as a "gender-swapped SF take on Alexander the Great". I know very little about Alexander the Great so just enjoyed this as a space opera adventure set among warring civilizations. Sun is the heir to the Chaonian Empire, but despite proving her military capability her mother refuses to respect her and gives her what seems like a trivial assignment. Persephone, the daughter of a rival dynasty, is looking forward to graduating from the military academy and being posted far away from the Empire's political wranglings. But her family has other plans for her. These two are the main viewpoint characters through which we see events - although for much of the book they are together which makes some scenes confusing. Persephone is a first person narrator (present tense, boo) while Sun's viewpoint is written in 3rd person (past tense) which helps distinguish the voices, but makes Persephone seem like the more important character. We also have a few (not enough) scenes from Apama, a pilot of the enemy Phene Empire which adds some interesting perspective. I found the middle section of the book to be too much of an extended chase sequence, but overall I found this a fun read and am looking forward to the sequel.

Also on kindle I read Girl, serpent, thorn, a YA fantasy based on Persian myth. I really enjoyed the premise of the story - a girl who is cursed to be poisonous to all who touch her - and the Persian setting. I was disappointed when the curse is broken early in the book but the ending resolves this well. I'd say it reads at the younger end of YA - I would have liked a bit more depth in the characters and their relationships - but the unfamiliar setting made this stand out from a lot of other YA fantasies.

In print I read The Makioka sisters which was brilliant. I rated it 5 stars. It's a Japanese classic, the tale of four upper-class sisters in pre-war Osaka. The family is bound by tradition, which means that the older sisters must marry before the younger, and any potential matches must be approved by the head of the family - in this case, the husband of Tsuruko, the oldest sister, as their parents are dead. Taeko, the youngest, already has a keen suitor - in fact, they tried to elope when she was 19. But Yukiko must marry first, and that is proving difficult for a number of reasons. The sisters and their family are sensitively drawn, three-dimensional characters, and the world around them comes to life. The book is set in the 1930s and war is drawing near, both in Europe and Asia and we can see how the world is changing around the sisters. Yukiko and Taeko feel closer to Sachiko and her husband than to Tsuruko and her large family, preferring to live in Osaka with Sachiko. Yukiko is especially close to Etsuko, Sachiko's daughter, and the relationship between them is tenderly portrayed. The book is a masterful depiction of a bygone world and the sisters are people that I came to care deeply about. Highly recommended.

In progress is Unnatural magic, a fantasy set in a world where humans and trolls co-exist, not always harmoniously. I've also started another Mrs Bradley mystery, Tom Brown's body, which is as much fun as the others I've read in the series. On kindle I've just started Lovecraft country which has quickly drawn me in - I had to take care not to miss my stop on my journey to work this morning! And I am still slowly working my way through the Letters of Shirley Jackson and the stories of Clarice Lispector.

>273 Sakerfalcon: I'm glad that you were impressed by Another Country, Claire; you probably know that James Baldwin is my all-time favorite writer, as he is both a brilliant novelist and an even better essayist and former public intellectual. Another Country is probably my third favorite Baldwin novel, after Go Tell It On the Mountain and Giovanni's Room.

Nice review of The Makioka Sisters; I'll have to move it higher on my ever growing TBR list.

>273 Sakerfalcon: I'm intrigued by The Highest Frontier. Is it something you would class as a dystopia?

I really need to try these Mrs. Bradley mysteries. They all sound so fun!

This sounds very cool: Jummy at the River School!

>274 kidzdoc: I know that both you and Caroline revere James Baldwin, so my expectations were high. I have Giovanni's room on kindle so that will be my next book by him.
And yes, I adored The Makioka sisters. It's a tale told in the minutiae of everyday life, but manages to be utterly engrossing due to the well drawn characters.

>275 libraryperilous: Hmm, that's a good question. In the novel the earth is clearly in a very bad way, but the novel doesn't feel dystopian. The story is set on an orbital habitat far removed from the problems of the earth (although it has problems of its own, and earth politics intrude), and much of the story is concerned with life as a university student with classes, sports, volunteer activities, friendships and relationships. So no, I would not class it as a dystopian novel.

>276 libraryperilous: That does look good! Another one to add to my wishlist!

I need to read some Baldwin!

>273 Sakerfalcon: I'm so glad you had a good trip. Your photos were wonderful!

>278 LyzzyBee: I'll look forward to reading your reviews when you get around to him!

>279 clamairy: Thank you! It is one of those places where the landscape is so stunning that it's hard to take a bad photo!

I've finished reading both Unnatural magic and Lovecraft country.

I didn't love Unnatural magic as much as I'd hoped to. I'm not quite sure why. Perhaps it was because the book seemed to take a long time to get going. Some of my favourite books are slow burns, spending time setting the scene and building the characters, so I don't mind a slow start at all. But in this case it didn't really seem to be building the world or the characters, or sowing the seeds of a plot. We follow three characters - Onna, a young woman who is a brilliant mathematical magician but who is excluded from formal magical study because of her sex; Tsira, a troll, who rejects the traditions of her people and seeks to make her own way in the world; and Jeckran, a wounded soldier who is rescued and healed by Tsira. I find it a little confusing when an author chooses viewpoint characters who share scenes together (Kate Elliott also did this in Unconquerable Sun) - usually different narrative povs are used to show readers what is happening elsewhere. From the book description I was hoping for Onna and Tsira to meet up and work together but this doesn't happen until almost the very end of the book. I did find the troll culture interesting and original, particularly in its treatment of gender, but some of the worldbuilding was a bit too vague to be effective. All in all, a bit disappointing.

Lovecraft country, however, was brilliant and exceeded all my expectations. It is structured as a series of linked short stories which I thought worked really well. Most of the characters are from the same family and the protagonist of one story may show up in the background of another. The final story brings them all together. The book is set during the Jim Crow era and entwines the real-life horror of racism with the eldritch horrors dreamed up by Lovecraft. The former are the scariest, by some way; I felt tense every time a character came up against a white authority figure, as the sense of danger was palpable. My favourite characters were Hippolyta and Horace but all of them were nuanced, complex and engaging. Highly recommended.

>280 Sakerfalcon: I've heard nothing but good things about the TV series based on Lovecraft Country and didn't realize that it was based on a book. Adding this one to my OverDrive wishlist!

>280 Sakerfalcon: I had a mixed reaction to Unnatural Magic as well, although I ended up rating it 4 stars because I finished it. Some of the gender commentary also felt a bit off to me. I liked Onna's wizard mentor better than any of the main characters.

>281 clamairy: I want to watch the TV series now! The book was so good!

>282 libraryperilous: Yes, I really liked Loga too.

Now I've started to read The once and future witches, which is very good so far. And on kindle I've started The last house on Needless Street, which promises to be a mysterious read for Halloween month.

I'm still dipping into Shirley Jackson's letters and very much enjoying her humorous observations of life, work and family.

The last house on Needless Street was a gripping read that kept me guessing with each chapter. It follows three narrators - Ted, a reclusive man who lives alone in his boarded-up house; Olivia, his cat, who believes she has a divine mission to protect Ted; and Dee, whose sister disappeared from the area 10 years ago and is seeking justice. Our feelings and suspicions develop as things are revealed or hinted at, and the story becomes very dark as it twists and turns. At one point I considered and dismissed several theories, one of which turned out to be correct. When the book seemed to be heading in a certain direction I thought I would regret reading it; however, ultimately it is a work of compassion and a call for understanding. There are many false leads, and all the narrators are unreliable. Recommended if you want a suspenseful read.

Now my kindle read is The left-handed booksellers of London by Garth Nix which I am loving.

In print I've read Honor's paradox which is part of the Kencyrath series that I'm enjoying. This sees Jame's struggle to succeed at the training college despite ill-luck, conflicting priorities, and instructors who are biased against her for her background. Jame is a very unconventional heroine and I enjoy her adventures.

I'm currently reading The once and future witches, The two faces of January and Vagabonds, as well as the Shirley Jackson letters.

>284 Sakerfalcon: The Last House on Needless Street sounds very good! I like books that keep me guessing and it sounds like this one would.

>285 catzteach: I hope you enjoy it - it is very dark though, fair warning.

I've had time to read a few more books.
The left-handed booksellers of London was a great read. 18 year old Susan is about to move to London to begin art college, but decides to more before term starts and get a job. She also hopes to investigate some of the men who may be her father - her mother has always been vague as to his identity. However, Susan has barely arrived when she finds herself caught up in dramatic supernatural occurrences, and forced to run for her life alongside handsome Merlin and his sister Vivien. Merlin is a left-handed bookseller, one who fights, whereas Vivien is a right-handed, who works magic. They are part of a dynasty that goes back centuries, using their cover as booksellers to protect the world against evil. Nix weaves British folklore, inventive magic, action, and the details of 80s England into an exciting, amusing and fast-paced story that I thoroughly enjoyed. Susan is a sympathetic heroine, annoyed at the danger and disruption to her life, who adapts as she learns why she has become a target. But she doesn't develop amazing fighting skills or other gifts implausibly quickly; she remains very much human ironically in her actions and responses. I'd love to read more set in this world; there are so many potential characters and stories that could be told.

The two faces of January was my first read by Patricia Highsmith after I found nice copies of several of her novels at a local charity shop. I enjoyed the read very much. Chester and his wife Colette are taking a break in Greece in order to escape the revelation of Chester's shady business practices. Rydal Keener is a young American with enough funds that he can afford to drift around Europe while he decides what to do with his life. The three meet when Rydal impulsively helps Chester out of a tight spot, causing them to have to flee together. In addition to the hold Rydal now has over Chester, he is also mutually attracted to Colette, and this increases the tension between the two men to breaking point. The Greek setting is vividly drawn and the relationships between the characters twist and turn, making this an immersive read. When describing it to a friend I said it was "as if Mary Stewart turned evil!", for its exotic location, 60s period details, and the mystery plot. I will definitely be reading more by Highsmith.

I've also read Passing by Nella Larsen. I decided I needed to read this after reading The vanishing half earlier in the year; the two books are both discussions of colourism and passing in the African American community. Passing is set in the 1920s while Vanishing Half is set more recently, but the issues and experiences that the characters face have not changed. I felt that Passing ended rather abruptly but I'm glad to have read it, and it deserves its status as a classic of American literature.

I also read a couple of graphic novels, both very short. I love Raina Telgemeier's work, and read her adaptations of the 3rd and 4th Babysitters' Club books. I read the first two a long time ago, but recently read an article talking about how ahead-of-their-time the books were in portraying friendship between girls, who have agency, and set up their own business, as well as featuring an Asian-American main character. Telgemeier clearly has great affection for the books and the characters and the GNs are fun to read.

And I was overjoyed to see that after a 3 year gap, another instalment of Yotsuba&! has been published! This is probably my favourite manga, about a green-haired 6 year old girl as she experiences life with her father and the girls next door. In this volume Yotsuba collects rocks, makes smoothies, learns what school will be like, and gets her first backpack. Now that my goddaughter is 6 too I can really see some similarities in how she and Yotsuba see life. It is adorable.

I'm currently still reading The once and future witches, which is very good but has me anxious for the characters. They are in such danger and the threats feel very real, which is a sign of the author's talent. I'm also enjoying Vagabonds, a Chinese SF novel about a group of Martian students returning from 5 years on Earth to a Mars that no longer feels like home. The contrast between Earth and Mars puts me in mind of Le Guin's Urras and Anarres, but I haven't yet read enough to see if this is an accurate comparison. And on kindle I'm reading an urban fantasy set in Edinburgh, The library of the dead. It took a while to draw me in, but now I'm intrigued.

>284 Sakerfalcon: I started The Last House on Needless Street, but stalled. I really need to just dive back in. Judging by your reaction, maybe today!!

>286 Sakerfalcon: Agree about Passing, and Quicksand similarly has an abruptness to it.

I read the old guard Babysitter's Club series when I was in elementary school, probably around 30 titles of the first 50 that were published. The books were appealing for the way the girls would solve problems together and within their group.

Thanks for mentioning Passing, Claire. The Kindle version is on sale for 99 cents in the US, so I just bought a copy of it.

>286 Sakerfalcon: Yesterday, Matthew said to me, "I really want to see the film Passing, have you heard of it?" Have I HEARD of it?? I was astounded! Hooray!

Passing is also available here very cheaply for Kindle in multiple editions. Currently Macmillan Collectors for 99p. So I have multiple copies. I still have a paperback of it with her other novella Quicksand.

>289 kidzdoc:, >290 LyzzyBee:, >291 elkiedee: I noticed there is a new film adaptation of Passing out now (in the UK at least). I would love to see it. It's a quick read but I found it immersive and thought-provoking.

>287 Bookmarque: I will be very interested in your thoughts if you finish Needless Street.

>288 libraryperilous: Yes, it's lovely to read about girls who use their initiative and aren't ashamed of being smart and hardworking. So far at least, there is also no squabbling for the attention of boys.

I finished The once and future witches which was very good, but difficult to read at times because I knew bad things were going to happen to the characters. It's an alternate history in which the city of Salem was destroyed in an effort to eradicate witchcraft (which was real and powerful), and now any suspicion of magic is brutally supressed. Agnes, Beatrice and Juniper are sisters who were close as children but were separated physically and emotionally as they grew to adulthood. All three have inherited magical power from their mother, but only Juniper is brave enough to embrace it. Beatrice researches the history in books and oral histories, while Agnes denies magic completely. But events conspire to bring the sisters together once more and to restore magic to the world - and especially to women. It's painful to read about a society so entrenched in misogyny, but the book is beautifully written and the characters and setting really come alive, which kept me reading.

I've also finished Library of the dead which was a fun urban fantasy set in Edinburgh. It took me a while to warm to the main character and her voice, and to the premise of the book, but once it got going I enjoyed it. I think part of the problem was that the first 1/4 - 1/3 of the book felt quite unfocused as the protagonist Ropa travels around the city on her various jobs, and puts off helping the ghost whose plea forms the main plot of the book. You know the ghost is important, so seeing Ropa delay dealing with her is frustrating. The setting is post- some undefined catastrophe that has left UK society greatly changed, with most people scratching a living in poverty. The titular library doesn't play a big role in the book, but it's somewhere that I'm sure many of us would love to visit if it were real. If you enjoy the Alex Verus series you might enjoy this.

>292 Sakerfalcon: I finished it, SF and it went where I thought it might, but in ways I didn't anticipate. I suspected DID/multiple-personalities were in the mix, but I didn't know what the mix was. I put up a review if you want to read it. It has spoiler tags in it, too.

>292 Sakerfalcon: I'm sorry The Once and Future Witches caused you some stress. But you liked it, so I'm assuming it was worth it. Yes, the misogyny was rough in this one.

>293 Bookmarque: That's a great review. I did consider DID/multiple personalities but got diverted by other theories before all was revealed. It was very cleverly written and constructed.

>294 clamairy: It was definitely worth it! Harrow's writing is beautiful even when she's portraying horrible things, and I appreciate she didn't cut corners and have her heroines conquer all obstacles with ease. Their struggle felt real.

I'm finding Vagabonds a bit of a slog which is why I haven't posted here. Like the other Chinese SF that I've tried, there's a lot of telling rather than showing, and the characters tend to be flat. It's primarily concerned with the political, economic and social differences between Earth and Mars, with Earth basically embracing unrestrained capitalism while Mars is a more socialist model where everyone receives a stipend to cover their cost of living, leaving them free to pursue creative and scientific endeavours. Of course, neither is perfect. I'm nearing the end at last!

I also read a more literary Chinese novel, Strange beasts of China, which was much better. It's more a series of linked episodes than a traditionally structured novel, with each chapter focusing one one of the "beasts" that inhabit the city of Yongan. The narrator is a journalist and writer whose work focuses on the beasts and their stories. As she learns more about them she finds herself questioning her own nature and identity. It's a strange, intriguing, often melancholy book, but I really liked it.

On kindle I've read a collection of short stories by Samuel Delany, Driftglass, and a Japanese novel, The easy life in Kamusari. Driftglass contained some stories that were captivating but which I didn't quite understand, some that I got and loved, and some that I need to reread because I didn't get anything from them. This was perhaps not the best book to read on the train where there are lots of distractions, but I mostly enjoyed it and look forward to reading more by Delany. I own a lot of his books but this is the first that I've actually read!
The easy life in Kamusari is narrated by an 18 year old man who did badly at school and whose parents have signed him up for a forestry trainee programme because he has made no plans of his own. Yuki is less than thrilled about this, and spends his first weeks trying to run away, while making a fool of himself through his clumsiness and ineptness. However, as the year passes and Yuki becomes more adept, he starts to see the beauty of the land around him and feel part of the remote village and its culture. I loved seeing the turn of the seasons, and learning how the men's work varies through the year. The secondary characters of the villagers and Yuki's work colleagues are nicely sketched too. I really enjoyed this, it's a nice, gentle read.

In addition to Vagabonds I'm now reading The winter duke which is YA fantasy, and on kindle, This sweet sickness by Patricia Highsmith. I'm still enjoyed Shirley Jackson's letters - this is a hardback so I'm going to be reading this for a while!

::peeking in the door::

You still here?

>296 fuzzi: Thank you for stopping by fuzzi! Yes, I'm here, but it's been a busy semester at work and I'm exhausted. I've been better about commenting on other threads than keeping up my own recently. I will give an update about my reading soon! I hope all is well in your world.

>297 Sakerfalcon: I've been busy too, with RL, but am trying to visit other friends' threads.

I was hoping your absence here was not due to unpleasant reasons!

>298 fuzzi: It's good to know that we have friends here waiting for us when we get time to stop by.

So here is my reading update.

I finished Vagabonds and found the final 1/3 to be an improvement on the rest of the book, but it's still not one I can see myself returning to. The author's political discussion mostly sidelines actual plot and character development, making it hard to care about the book beyond having an intellectual interest in the debate. The writing is a bit clunky but much better than that of Waste tide, which I had to DNF because it was so bad. I liked the Martian setting and would like to read a better story set here.

The winter duke was an entertaining YA fantasy set in an icy world of magic and political intrigue. Ekata is one of 12 siblings, the children of the ruthless ruling duke. When Ekata wakes to find the rest of her family cast into an unnatural sleep, she is forced to take the throne and navigate some very tricky situations. She must decide which of the many ministers she can trust, negotiate with the kingdom beneath the waters, from where all the dukedom's magic comes, thwart her foster-brother's attempts to take the throne, and win the trust of the people. Ekata is mostly sympathetic, thrown into a situation she is totally unprepared for, but she did frustrate me at times with her complete ignorance of politics, not even knowing who is who in her own and the neighbouring realms. She may never have expected to rule, but she should have been made to gain some rudimentary knowledge. The ending also feels a bit rushed - We never actually find out what happens to her main rival, he just disappears from the page. There is room for more stories in this world, and I would read them, although they wouldn't be a priority.

This sweet sickness was an excellent read. David is in love with Annabelle, and intends to marry her. Sure, he moved across the country for work without asking her, and she married someone else in that time, but she is meant to be with him and David won't give up. He has a fantasy life that he lives at weekends, in the house he bought and furnished for them both, while telling his housemates that he's visiting his mother in a nursing home. When he accidentally kills Annabelle's husband his real and fantasy lives collide, and the many stories he has told, to himself and to others, become liabilities as he seeks to construct a coherent narrative to cover his tracks. This is an enthralling study of obsession and delusion, which had me absolutely gripped.

More to come as this is all I have time for right now!

>299 Sakerfalcon: watching for your "more to come"!

>300 fuzzi: Here it is!

I've also read Native tongue, the feminist SF classic that explores the use and misuse of language and linguistics. To enjoy the book requires some major suspension of disbelief to accept that the USA can have gone from our current situation to women being legally classified as minors with almost no rights and freedoms in just 7 years. One also has to accept that all the male characters are awful misogynists with no redeeming features. Women are only allowed to work if they have no other means of support, or if their male relatives require them to do so for financial reasons. Otherwise they are expected to be obedient wives and dutiful mothers. The other major difference between this USA and ours is that we have made contact with aliens, and Linguists, all descended from 13 family lines, serve to communicate with them. Linguists therefore are valued, but grudgingly, as they are the only means by which humanity can do business with the aliens. The public perceive them as commanding any price they wish for their services and accuse them of living in luxury beyond the means of ordinary folk. In fact, concerned about bad publicity, they live in cramped, primitive conditions - under which women suffer more than men. There are several threads running through the book, of which the main and most interesting ones relate to linguistics and language. This makes the book stand out from similar anti-woman dystopias. As a thought-experiment and exploration of themes, it's a fascinating book. As a novel, however, it has largely flat characters and very patchy worldbuilding. Nevertheless, I found it quite gripping and thought provoking despite its flaws. I've just acquired the sequel (which prompted this read), so I will read that some time.

In complete contrast I've read some old school stories - The princess of the school by Angela Brazil which combines both school and family life with an implausible tale of disinheritance, and the unabridged version of Peggy of the Chalet School. This isn't one of the best books in the long series, but Peggy is a nice character and it's good to have all the little details that got cut from my old edition.

I've also read Untamed shore by Silvia Moreno-Garcia, one of the most interesting F&SF writers of recent years. This book, however, is a thriller with no speculative elements at all. It's set in Baja California in the 1970s, in a sleepy, overlooked beach resort where 18 year old Viridiana is stifled by the community's rigid morals and limited expectations for women's lives. She was fortunate to befriend a Dutch expat who taught her French and English, which allows her to work as a translator for the few tourists that come. She finds herself working for three glamorous Americans, a writer and his young wife and her brother. Viridiana falls under their spell - and in love with Gregory, the handsome brother. But when one of the visitors dies in mysterious circumstances Viridiana finds herself lying to protect them, and drawn into increasingly murky waters. The small-town setting is very vividly drawn, with its beaches of shark corpses and dusty streets. The author effectively conveys the sense of living in a place that is largely overlooked by the rest of the world. Viridiana's development from a relatively naive young woman into one who has to take morally dubious actions in order to save herself is also credibly shown, and in the end she proves to be as ruthless as one of the sharks. This is from different publisher to her previous books and it didn't seem as well-edited - there was nothing really egregious, but some sentences felt a little unpolished, and there were some odd word choices. But overall this was a good read, with a very similar tone to the Patricia Highsmiths that I've been reading.

I have reread Elantris as it was a recent kindle deal and started calling my name. This time around I noticed all the references to Sarene "not being like other women" which is rather annoying. She is a fantastic character and it's always disappointing when the "other women" are an amorphous mass of shrinking violets. But it is still a great read, one of my favourites by Sanderson. Later work such as The way of kings piles on exhausting amounts of detail, whereas Elantris shows us just what we need to understand the characters, setting and story while still creating a rich world.

I'm currently reading yet another Patricia Highsmith, The tremor of forgery, which is set in Tunisia and marvellously atmospheric. I'm also reading Give way to night, a fantasy set in a alternative ancient Rome with magic, and The House of Ulloa, a C19th Spanish classic with gothic touches. And on kindle I've just started Chuck Wendig's Wanderers, which seems to be a pandemic/zombie/dystopian.

I think that is all for now!

>301 Sakerfalcon: That sounds similar to VOX, which had a similar theme, but let itself down badly on both the rapidity with which the legal situation supposedly changed, and the practical non-viability of the situation described.

ETA: Not all the men are TOTAL misogynists in VIX though - the "heroine" is dependent on her menfolk to save her!

I read This Sweet Sickness this spring and I liked it overall, but found some things irritating -

So creepy that a woman wrote this. Highsmith does the "me, me, me" male gaze thing really well. Not a shred of empathy for the women, not even much humanity. Seems like she had nothing but contempt for her own gender. After a while it got to be a bit of a slog - events just went on too long. It's obvious people are going to die at D's hand, but only one surprised me.

Everyone uses everyone else's name all the time. Just stop calling him Dave, we know he's Dave!

Ok so that might not have been a real spoiler, but I thought I'd hide it anyway in case.

>301 Sakerfalcon: I haven't read Vox yet but it's on my kindle. The rapid change is very much in the backstory here - supposedly the 19th (hope I remembered that right) amendment was repealed in 1991, while the story takes place 2 centuries later. So one can handwave it away. At least in this one the women save themselves - well, as far as they are saved

>302 -pilgrim-: Yes, I totally agree with you about how convincingly Highsmith writes the male gaze - well, a certain kind of deluded, obsessive male voice in this case. I have a bio of her, and the newly-released diaries and letters so hopefully I will learn more about what she was really like as a person, but it sounds like was a piece of work from cursory accounts!

>304 Sakerfalcon: I seriously do NOT recommend VOX. It was a strong candidate for my worst read of 2020.

Not only did it have a setup that was impossible -if the speech of every woman is being monitored (which requires human input, because someone is deciding, instantaneously, whether the incoherent utterances of a child count as one word or many), and women are restricted to certain jobs, and usually kept at home, where is the manpower to run the country coming from, when most men are apparently employed in monitoring women? - the protagonist is far from a feminist rôle model.

She is not that bothered by what is going on, because she personally has an exemption. ('I'm fine, that's all that matters.')

Then, when she starts to be affected personally, she relies on the fact that her husband and son are horrified, and come and rescue her.

Whiny, selfish AND dependent on men!

I would have thrown it in the bin much earlier if it had not been an Amazon review copy, this obligating me to finish it.

ETA: It offended every feminist instinct I have. Its message was:
"Men are awful and horrible. So, you need to find a good man, and make him care about you enough to protect you from all the nasty men.

And, incidentally, lesbians are easily identifiable because they are so butch and aggressive. Except for the passive, wet, doll-like ones".

Talk about caricature!

My impression is that the author has no sympathy for other women, straight or otherwise, and sees the correct approach for a woman to be to manipulate the right man.

I will be very interested to hear what impression it makes on you, if you decide to read it.

>301 Sakerfalcon: I agree with you on Elantris, it is one of my favorite Sanderson novels. The Way of Kings novels are over-written.

Is a sudden change and loss of rights not part of the story of The Handmaid's Tale or am I mixing it up with something else? Margaret Atwood makes a point that although they may not have all come together in exactly the same way, everything in her most famous novel was actually taken from something that happened somewhere in the world.

I have a copy of Vox TBR somewhere, and it's also an Amazon Vine review copy, but I have a huge backlog of reviews, which is why I'm no longer in Vine. Think I also have another book by her on my Kindle. So I may not rush to catch up with that particular title...

>301 Sakerfalcon: "This time around I noticed all the references to Sarene "not being like other women" which is rather annoying. She is a fantastic character and it's always disappointing when the "other women" are an amorphous mass of shrinking violets."

Yeah... this. :o( I did notice it when I read it, but like you I felt the rest of the story was so good that I just let it slide. Also, it was his first book.

>305 -pilgrim-: Yikes! Thanks for the warning. If I do read it then at least I will be prepared. I have read her second book, Q, which dealt with some interesting themes and had more sympathetic female characters than you describe. I think there was still the element of the mother not questioning the system until her own family was affected by it though.

>306 Karlstar: I agree! There was way too much angsting in WoK for me too. But the setting is so good ....

>307 elkiedee: Yes, the transformation of the USA into Gilead is sudden in The Handmaid's tale, but as I recall it was sold as part of a necessary response to a national emergency which was supposed only to be temporary but then became permanent (as was obviously the plan all along). There doesn't seem to be a similar situation in Native tongue - one scientific paper is published that "proves" women have lower intellects than men and this is the basis for the recall of all their rights. There is a very good group read discussion linked to on the work page which goes into more depth about this (and gets more political than I will in this group).

>308 clamairy: Yes, and for a first novel it avoids many of the usual flaws. I know he had already written a lot by the time he got published, but that doesn't lessen his achievement to my mind.

I finished The tremor of forgery this weekend and really enjoyed it. Although a man is killed in the novel it's not really about the event per se; more, it is an examination of how one man's morals change as a result of immersion in a different culture. Ingham is an American writer waiting for a colleague to join him in Tunisia. He receives no word from the US, and moves from Tunis to the seaside resort of Hammamet where he falls in with another American, Adams, and a Dane, Jensen. Finally he learns that his colleague has committed suicide, but Ingham decides to stay in Tunisia and continue writing his novel. He finds himself drawn to the Arab neighbourhood of the town, and adopting their laissez-faire attitude to life and death. Tunisia is vividly evoked, not exoticised, but the mix of squalor and beauty comes to life, as do the people, the food and the heat. As seems usual for Highsmith the characters are not especially sympathetic, but they are interesting which in my opinion is more important. There are casual references to picking up boys for sex which have not aged well, but otherwise this was a very good read.

I think I am subconsciously hankering for foreign travel which is why the Highsmith appealed so much, so continuing with that theme I'm now reading The Portuguese escape by Ann Bridge. It's about a young Hungarian countess who is allowed to leave Communist Hungary to rejoin her mother in Portugal. That's as far as I've got, but I believe there will be mystery ahead.

Still enjoying Give way to night and Wanderers.

I've finished reading The house of Ulloa and Wanderers.

Ulloa is a classic of C19th Spanish literature, the story of a sincere but unworldly young priest and his efforts to serve the decaying, corrupt household of Ulloa. Upon his arrival, he finds the marquis, his factotum and a local abbot drinking heavily and giving wine to a small boy, finding it hilarious when the child gets drunk. The boy is the marquis's illegitimate son. All this sets the stage for what is to follow. Julian the priest attempts futilely to raise the moral tone of the household and set it to rights, but he is up against entrenched corruption and apathy and some real scoundrels. At times humorous, sometimes even farcical, this is also a vivid portrait of life in rural Spain at a time of political instability. My edition had a useful historical note to explain the specific situation at the time the book was set. Although it has no supernatural elements I would recommend this to anyone who enjoys Gothic novels.

Wanderers was a very different read, set in a near-future USA where some individuals mysteriously enter a zombie-like sleepwalking state. They are unresponsive, but driven to walk unceasingly towards an unknown goal. Their loved ones can't get through to them, and some elect to follow the flock as "shepherds". Any attempt to restrain them causes their body to heat up rapidly, until eventually they explode. As the numbers increase, there is a growing national debate on whether the walkers are victims or a threat, and what should be done about them. Meanwhile, an egotistical entrepreneur detonates a blast as a publicity stunt which disturbs a colony of bats ... months later his fungus-infested body is found in a swamp, and others are starting to show similar symptoms. (This is NOT a book to read if you are concerned about or fed up with the pandemic!) We follow a number of points of view, from the sister of one of the walkers, to scientists with the CDC, a burned-out rockstar, a preacher, and others, to get a big picture of these two major events and their impact on society. It's 800 pages long, pretty well written, and detailed but fast-paced. If one can be said to have enjoyed a book on this theme, then I did.

Still reading Give way to night, The letters of Shirley Jackson and The Portuguese escape, and will have to choose something new on kindle to replace Wanderers.

>310 Sakerfalcon: Ooh dear, don't really fancy Wanderers!!

I hope 2022 is a year with special moments Claire.

>311 LyzzyBee: No, I don't think you'd enjoy it! For me it was the characters who cared for each other and could put aside their differences to work to save humanity that saved it from being too grim. (That, and it made the current covid situation look not so bad!)

>312 Caroline_McElwee: Thank you Caroline! I wish you a year of peace, joy and good books!

A quick update to say that I finished The Portuguese escape and really enjoyed it. Comparable to Mary Stewarts adventures, this series by Ann Bridge is set in exotic locations (which the author, as an ambassador's wife, knew well) and features a charismatic female lead. This particular volume actually has at least 4 competent women who have opportunities to shine in the story. The countess Hetta Paloczy has been allowed to leave Communist Hungary to join her mother in Portugal. However, she finds herself in danger when another, more influential, Hungarian also leaves for the west. Fortunately the ever-resourceful Julia Probyn becomes involved and with the help of the genial Duke of Ericeira and his household the villains are outwitted. There are also some romantic tangles and misunderstandings along the way. I actually preferred this to the first book in the series, which contained some horribly colonial attitudes; this one, while dated in some ways, is at least free of such condescension.

I'm still reading Give way to night, and have started The doors of Eden by Adrian Tchaikovsky, The certificate by Isaac Bashevis Singer, and Memoirs of a dutiful daughter by Simone de Beauvoir.

Or in other words: Merry Christmas & a Happy New Year!

Christmas greetings!

>314 SandDune:, >315 -pilgrim-: Thank you both! I hope you are enjoying the season as much as possible.

This will be my last update for 2021. I've finished Give way to night and The certificate just in time for year's end.

Give way is the second in a series of fantasy novels set in an alternate Roman Empire with magic. Following the events of From unseen fire, Latona and her sisters start to notice more disturbing magical occurrences in the city of Aven and the summer resort of Stabiae. Latona's determination to use her magical gifts to overcome these incursions leads to conflict with her husband. Meanwhile, her brother Gaius is besieged in the Iberian city of Toletum, while her lover Sempronius leads the forces sent to relieve him. Both men and their legions find themselves faced with mysterious and terrifying supernatural opposite - could this be linked to what the women are fighting back at home? Meanwhile, in the Senate, political machinations could undermine Sempronius's efforts in Iberia. I love the relationships between Latona, her sisters and their female friends as they support one another and work together. We are clearly shown the restrictions that women face in this society but also the ways in which they can find freedom. I was less interested in the military plot threads, but that is just my personal taste, no reflection on the author's skill. I'm eagerly awaiting the next volume, not least because this one ends on a cliffhanger.

The certificate by Isaac Bashevis Singer follows a few months of a young man's life in Warsaw in 1922. David is penniless, a would-be writer who has rejected the Orthodox faith of his father, but not really found anything to replace it with. He seizes the opportunity to obtain a certificate that will allow him to move to Palestine and join the nascent Jewish community there - on condition that he participates in a fictive marriage to enable a women to travel with him on the same document. Thus David becomes entangled with Minna, the wealthy girl who will be his wife, Edusha, his Jewish Communist landlady, and Sonya, a poor shopgirl who also seeks escape. David is very young and inexperienced in the ways of the world, which makes him both sympathetic and annoying. His situation represents that of the European Jewish community of that time, caught between the old ways that no longer seem relevant, and the secular forces of capitalism and communism. Yet this is not a heavy read; it is frequently amusing and always entertaining. Although it was published when the author was 63, it reads like the work of a much younger man. I enjoyed it a lot.

I also read a short Canadian novel, Hetty Dorval, in which the title character is seen through the eyes of a 12 year old girl. When the glamorous Mrs Dorval arrives in Frankie's small town in British Columbia, she is thrilled to be noticed by the woman, but disturbed by her insistence that their meetings be kept secret. Rumours have followed Hetty even to this remote backwater, and will eventually mean the rupture of Frankie's friendship with her. But their paths are destined to cross in the years to come, when Frankie has more knowledge of the world and of the destructive role that Hetty has played. This reminded me very much of Willa Cather's A lost lady or Lucy Gayheart, where an exotic stranger is seen through the eyes of an innocent whose understanding grows over time.

So I'm ending the year with four books still in progress - The letters of Shirley Jackson, Memoirs of a dutiful daughter, The doors of Eden and The gathering edge (a Liaden novel). Let's see what 2022 brings us!

I know you've launched a new thread for 2022 but I did just want to note that the roster of titles you got through in 2021 have caused me to add about half a dozen or more items to my Wish List (which I'd just got cleared off.) In particular, I'm looking forward to reading some of the Julia Probyn mystery series and I have never gotten around to reading James Baldwin but I hope to rectify that as well in coming months.

Happy New Year and happy new thread, Sakerfalcon!