PAUL C'S SECOND HOME - PART 16

É uma continuação do tópico PAUL C'S SECOND HOME - PART 15.

Este tópico foi continuado por PAUL C'S SECOND HOME - PART 17.

Discussão75 Books Challenge for 2021

Aderi ao LibraryThing para poder publicar.

PAUL C'S SECOND HOME - PART 16

1PaulCranswick
Jul 25, 2021, 10:05 pm

SCENES FROM MY BOOKS

Death of Kings by Bernard Cornwell & The Pagan Lord by Bernard Cornwell both part of the Last Kingdom Saxon Chronicles.
Read for BAC and my Series Challenge:



2PaulCranswick
Editado: Jul 25, 2021, 10:15 pm

POETRY

Norman Nicholson is one of my favourite poets from my youth. He was much collected and his poetry deals with the wild landscape of Cumbria, religious mysticism and the environment. This is a well-known poem of his "Windscale" which relates to the nuclear reprocessing plant, where I worked at the beginning of the 1990s and which blotted the landscape and scared all the locals half to death. Scafell mentioned in the poem refers to Scafell Pike the highest peak in England and which broods over the Cumbrian landscape.

Windscale

The toadstool towers infest the shore:
Stink-horns that propagate and spore
Wherever the wind blows.
Scafell looks down from the bracken band
And sees hell in a grain of sand,
And feels the canker itch between his toes.

This is a land where the dirt is clean
And poison pasture, quick and green,
And storm sky, bright and bare;
Where sewers flow with milk, and meat
is carved up for the fire to eat,
And children suffocate in God's fresh air.

3PaulCranswick
Editado: Ago 16, 2021, 10:47 pm

Reading Record First Quarter

JANUARY

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

4,313 pages.

FEBRUARY

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

3,211 pages

MARCH

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

1,706 pages

4PaulCranswick
Editado: Ago 16, 2021, 10:48 pm

Reading Record Second Quarter

APRIL

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

2,956 pages

MAY

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

611 pages (maybe my worst ever performance!)

JUNE

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

5PaulCranswick
Editado: Ago 16, 2021, 10:54 pm

Reading Record 3rd Quarter

JULY

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

AUGUST

86. Poetry Please! edited by Charles Causley (1985) 113 pp
87. The Night Watchman by Louise Erdrich (2020) 448 pp
88. Fifteen Decisive Battles of the World by Edward Shepherd Creasy (1851) 380 pp
89. Death of Kings by Bernard Cornwell (2011) 380 pp
90. Notes on Grief by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (2021) 85 pp
91. The Pagan Lord by Bernard Cornwell (2013) 345 pp
92. The Return by Dulce Maria Cardoso (2011) 267 pp
93. Here and Now by Stephen Dunn (2011) 103 pp
94. I am, I am, I am by Maggie O'Farrell (2017) 285 pp

6PaulCranswick
Editado: Jul 25, 2021, 10:56 pm

CURRENTLY READING


7PaulCranswick
Editado: Ago 16, 2021, 11:22 pm

READING PLAN

1 British Author Challenge - set this year by Amanda in the 75er Group

2 1001 Book First Edition - Ongoing

3 Booker Challenge - Read all the Booker winners; I may get close to completing that in 2021

4 Nobel Winners - Read all the Nobel Winners

5 Pulitzer Winners - Read all the Pulitzer fiction winners

6 Around the World Challenge - Read a book from an author born in or with parents from all countries - I reset this challenge in October 2020.

7 Queen Victoria Challenge - Read a book from every year of Queen Victoria's reign (1837-1901) with no repeat authors. Started December 2020

8 Queen Betty Challenge - Read a book from every year of Queen Elizabeth II reign (1952-2021) - British authors only and no repeats.

9 Dance to the Music of Time - One a month all year.

10. The 52 Book Club Challenge - A book a week from these selected categories https://www.the52book.club/challenges/2021-reading-challenge/

11. A Dent in the TBR - I have approaching 5,000 books in my TBR so I must read some of the 250 books I have bought in 2020 that end the current year unread.

12. Poetry - My first love in many ways and I am still something of a scribbler of lines to this day.

13. American Author Challenge - Linda came up trumps.

14. Series Pairs - I will choose one favourite series and read the next two books in that particular series I have slightly fallen behind with.

15 Great British History Writers - One classic work per month from a great British historian.

8PaulCranswick
Editado: Ago 17, 2021, 12:03 am

BAC



January: Children's Classics https://www.librarything.com/topic/326122#7317610 9 READ

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

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

April: Love is in the Air https://www.librarything.com/topic/326122#7319432 1 READ

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

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

July: Don't judge a book by its movie https://www.librarything.com/topic/326122#7321220 9 READ

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

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

October: Narrative Poetry https://www.librarything.com/topic/326122#7322840 2 read

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

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

Wildcard: Books off your shelves https://www.librarything.com/topic/326122#7325595 12 READ

44 BOOKS READ TO DATE

9PaulCranswick
Editado: Ago 17, 2021, 12:10 am

AMERICAN AUTHOR CHALLENGE



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

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

10PaulCranswick
Editado: Ago 17, 2021, 12:31 am

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

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

READ 33 of 56 WINNERS

11PaulCranswick
Editado: Ago 17, 2021, 12:32 am

Pulitzer Winners

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

Fiction

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


19 READ
37 ON SHELVES
38 NOT OWNED OR READ

94 TOTAL

12PaulCranswick
Editado: Ago 17, 2021, 12:42 am

NOBELS

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

READ 73 OF
117 LAUREATES

13PaulCranswick
Editado: Ago 17, 2021, 12:46 am

AROUND THE WORLD CHALLENGE

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

From 1 October 2020

1. United Kingdom - The Ways of the World by Robert Goddard EUROPE
2. Ireland - The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde EUROPE
3. Lithuania - Selected and Last Poems by Czeslaw Milosz EUROPE
4. Netherlands - The Ditch by Herman Koch EUROPE
5. Armenia - The Double Bind by Chris Bohjalian ASIA PACIFIC
6. Zimbabwe - This Mournable Body by Tsitsi Dangarembga AFRICA
7. United States - Averno by Louise Gluck AMERICA
8. Australia - Taller When Prone by Les Murray ASIA PACIFIC
9. France - Class Trip by Emmanuel Carrere EUROPE
10. Russia - The Three Sisters by Anton Chekhov EUROPE
11. Denmark - Fear and Trembling by Soren Kierkegaard EUROPE
12. Democratic Republic of Congo - Tram 83 by Fiston Mwanze Mujila AFRICA
13. Canada - I Heard the Owl Call My Name by Margaret Craven AMERICA
14. Italy - The Overnight Kidnapper by Andrea Camilleri EUROPE
15. New Zealand - Dove on the Waters by Maurice Shadbolt ASIA PACIFIC
16. India - A Burning by Megha Majumdar ASIA PACIFIC
17. Libya - The Return by Hisham Matar AFRICA
18. Pakistan - Moth Smoke by Mohsin Hamid ASIA PACIFIC
19. South Korea - Diary of a Murderer by Kim Young-Ha ASIA PACIFIC
20. Morocco - The Curious Case of Dassoukine's Trousers by Fouad Laroui AFRICA
21. Thailand - Arid Dreams by Duanwad Pimwana ASIA PACIFIC
22. Norway - Echoland by Per Petterson EUROPE
23. Belgium - I Choose to Live by Sabine Dardenne EUROPE
24. Sweden - Still Waters by Viveca Sten EUROPE
25. Trinidad - Half a Life by VS Naipaul AMERICAS
26. Sudan - Season of Migration to the North by Tayeb Salih AFRICA
27. Uruguay - Springtime in a Broken Mirror by Mario Benedetti AMERICAS
28. Syria - My Country : A Syrian Memoir by Kassem Eid ASIA PACIFIC
29. Ghana - The God Child by Nana Oforiatta Ayim AFRICA
30. Austria - Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor E Frankl EUROPE
31. Germany - Cat and Mouse by Gunter Grass EUROPE
32. South Africa - No Turning Back by Beverley Naidoo AFRICA
33. Mauritania - Arab Jazz by Karim Miske AFRICA
34. Cuba - The Kingdom of This World by Alejo Carpentier AMERICAS
35. Nigeria - Notes on Grief by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie AFRICA
36. Portugal - The Return by Dulce Maria Cardoso EUROPE


Create Your Own Visited Countries Map

14PaulCranswick
Editado: Ago 17, 2021, 12:49 am

QUEEN VIC CHALLENGE
Regarding my Victorian Era Challenge which I started this month with the aim of completing it by the end of 2021. 64 years. 64 books. 64 authors.

From Dec 2020

1838 NARRATIVE OF ARTHUR GORDON PYM OF NANTUCKET by Poe
1843 FEAR AND TREMBLING by Kierkegaard
1845 THE COUNT OF MONTE CRISTO by Dumas
1846 THE DEVIL'S POOL by Sand
1850 PENDENNIS by Thackeray
1851 FIFTEEN DECISIVE OF THE WORLD by Creasy
1853 CRANFORD by GASKELL
1857 TOM BROWN'S SCHOOLDAYS by Hughes
1864 NOTES FROM UNDERGROUND by Dostoevsky
1870 A LEAR OF THE STEPPES by Turgenev
1873 AROUND THE WORLD IN EIGHTY DAYS by Verne
1881 PRINCE AND THE PAUPER by Twain
1882 VICE VERSA by Anstey
1893 MRS WARREN'S PROFESSION by Shaw
1899 SOME EXPERIENCES OF AN IRISH RM by Somerville & Ross
1900 THREE SISTERS by Chekhov

16/64

15PaulCranswick
Editado: Ago 17, 2021, 12:50 am

QUEEN BETTY CHALLENGE

From December 2020 70 Years 70 Books 70 Different British Authors

1952 A Buyer's Market by Anthony Powell
1959 The Age of Improvement by Asa Briggs
1961 What is History? by EH Carr
1962 The Mirror Crack'd From Side to Side by Agatha Christie
1964 Corridors of Power by CP Snow
1966 A Fall from the Sky by Ian Serraillier
1968 Figures in a Landscape by Barry England
1969 Charlotte Sometimes by Penelope Framer
1970 The Great Fire by Monica Dickens
1973 Carrie's War by Nina Bawden
1975 The Age of Capital by Eric Hobsbawm
1977 Injury Time by Beryl Bainbridge
1978 The Hammer of the Scots by Jean Plaidy
1983 Look at Me by Anita Brookner
1984 The Camomile Lawn by Mary Wesley
1985 Poetry Please! edited by Charles Causley
1987 Bury the Dead by Peter Carter
1989 Plague 99 by Jean Ure
1996 Junk by Melvyn Burgess
1997 Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone by JK Rowling
2001 Half a Life by VS Naipaul
2003 Judge Savage by Tim Parks
2005 Woods, etc. by Alice Oswald
2010 Mr Rosenblum Dreams in English by Natasha Solomons
2011 Rivers of London by Ben Aaronovitch
2013 A Delicate Truth by John Le Carre
2014 The Strange Death of Fiona Griffiths by Harry Bingham
2015 Bernard Hinault and the Fall and Rise of French Cycling by William Fotheringham
2017 I am, I am, I am by Maggie O'Farrell
2018 Three Poems by Hannah Sullivan
2019 A Portable Paradise by Roger Robinson
2020 Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart

32/70

16PaulCranswick
Editado: Ago 17, 2021, 5:23 am

52 BOOK CLUB CHALLENGE

Based on this challenge suggested by Katie & Chelle

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

January
Week 1 : Set in a school : Tom Brown's Schooldays by Hughes Read 2 Jan 2021
Week 2 : Legal profession : Judge Savage by Tim Parks Read 28 Jan 2021
Week 3 : Dual timeline : Charlotte Sometimes by Penelope Farmer Read 29 Jan 2021
Week 4 : Deceased author : Jazz by Toni Morrison READ 30 Jan 2021
Week 5 : Published by Penguin : Junk by Melvyn Burgess READ 3 Feb 2021
Week 6 : Male Family Member : Rivers of London by Ben Aaronovitch READ 12 Feb 2021
Week 7 : 1 Published Work : A Burning by Megha Majumdar READ 19 Feb 2021
Week 8 : Dewey 900 Class : What is History? by EH Carr READ 28 February
Week 9 : Set in a Mediterranean Country : The Return by Hisham Matar READ 5 MAR 2021
Week 10 : Book with discussion questions : Love Story, With Murders by Harry Bingham READ 2 APR
Week 11 : Relating to fire : Moth Smoke by Mohsin Hamid READ 4 APR
Week 12 : Title Starting with D : Diary of a Murderer by Kim Young-Ha READ 6 APR
Week 13 : Includes an Exotic Animal : Life of Pi by Yann Martel READ 11 April
Week 14 : Written by an author over 65 : Blue Horses by Mary Oliver READ 14 April
Week 15 : Book Mentioned in a book : Notes from Underground by Fyodor Dostoevsky READ 15 April
Week 16 : Set before 17th Century : Hamnet by Maggie O'Farrell READ 5 June
Week 17 : Character on the run : Figures in a Landscape by Barry England READ 26 April
Week 18 : Author with 9 letter surname : Springtime in a Broken Mirror by Mario Benedetti READ 6 JUNE
Week 19 : Book with a deckled edge : In Paradise by Peter Matthiessen READ 21 JUNE
Week 20 : Became a TV series : Corridors of Power by CP Snow READ 12 JUL
Week 21 : Book by Kristin Hannah : The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah READ 22 JUNE
Week 22 : A Family Saga : Mr Rosenblum Dreams in English by Natasha Solomons READ 14 JUN
Week 23 : Surprising Ending : Still Waters by Viveca Sten READ 2 JUN
Week 24 : Book to be read in schools : Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor E Frankl READ
Week 25 : Multiple POVs : Salt to the Sea by Ruta Sepetys READ 11 JUL
Week 26 : Author of Colour : The God Child by Nana Oforiatta Ayim READ 8 JUN
Week 27 : 1st Chapter Odd Page : The Queen of Attolia by Megan Whalen Turner READ 25 JUL
Week 28 : Little known historical event : The Kingdom of This World by Alejo Carpentier READ 20 JUL
Week 29 : The Environment :
Week 30 : Dragons : Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone by JK Rowling READ 8 JUL
Week 31 : Similar Title : The Return by Dulce Maria Cardoso READ 9 AUG
Week 32 : Selfish Character
Week 33 : Adoption
Week 34 : Five Star Read : Poetry Please! by Charles Causley READ 1 AUG
Week 35 :
Week 36 :
Week 37 :
Week 38 :
Week 39 :
Week 40 :
Week 41 :
Week 42 :
Week 43 :
Week 44 :
Week 45 :
Week 46 :
Week 47 :
Week 48 :
Week 49 :
Week 50 :
Week 51 : Published in 2021 : Notes on Grief by Adichie READ 7 AUG
Week 52 :

17PaulCranswick
Editado: Ago 17, 2021, 5:26 am

SERIES PAIR CHALLENGE

January : Andrea Camilleri - MONTALBANO DONE
February : Agatha Christie - MISS MARPLE DONE
March : Ben Aaronovitch - PETER GRANT DONE
April : Harry Bingham - FIONA GRIFFITHS DONE
May : Megan Whalen Turner - EUGENIDES DONE
June : Bernard Cornwell - UHTRED DONE

18PaulCranswick
Editado: Ago 17, 2021, 5:27 am

BRITISH HISTORIANS

As if I don't have enough challenges! I want to polish up on my reading and re-reading of the British historians who either inspired me as a student or who I have since come to greatly admire

The French Revolution by Thomas CARLYLE 1837
The Age of Improvement by Asa BRIGGS 1959 READ MAR 21
The History of England by Thomas Babington MACAULAY 1848
The Making of the English Working Class by EP THOMPSON 1963
Fifteen Decisive Battles by EDWARD CREASEY 1851 READ AUG 21
What is History? by EH CARR 1961 READ FEB 21
The Course of German History by AJP TAYLOR 1945
The American Future by Simon SCHAMA 2009
The Face of Battle by John KEEGAN 1976
The King's Peace by CV WEDGWOOD 1955
The Age of Capital by ERIC HOBSBAWM 1975 READ JUN 21

19PaulCranswick
Editado: Ago 17, 2021, 5:28 am

READ MORE THAN ACQUIRED

Last year I added 300 books but read 50 of them. In addition I have another 4,500 plus on the TBR.
The challenge is not to make the situation of my TBR worse.
So I must read or remove from my wider TBR more than I acquire this year and I will gauge this against last years "new" TBR and any future incomings. Therefore the older TBRs don't count against this challenge.

The figure at the start of the year is 250 books and this number must be smaller by December 31. These are the 250 books:

1 Stay with Me Adebayo
2 American War Akkad
3 The Catholic School Albinati
4 The Unwomanly Face of War Alexievich
5 Saltwater Andrews
6 Big Sky Atkinson
7 At the Jerusalem Bailey
8 The Body Lies Baker
9 The Lost Memory of Skin Banks
10 Remembered Battle-Felton
11 Springtime in a Broken Mirror Benedetti READ JUN 21
12 A Crime in the Neighborhood Berne
13 Stand By Me Berry
14 Love Story, With Murders Bingham READ APR 21
15 This Thing of Darkness Bingham
16 The Sandcastle Girls Bohjalian
17 The Ascent of Rum Doodle Bowman
18 Clade Bradley
19 The Snow Ball Brophy
20 Paladin of Souls Bujold
21 Parable of the Sower Butler
22 The Adventures of China Iron Camara
23 The Overnight Kidnapper Camilleri READ JAN 21
24 The Other End of the Line Camilleri READ JAN 21
25 Lord of all the Dead Cercas
26 Uncle Vanya Checkov
27 The Cherry Orchard Checkov
28 Blue Moon Child
29 Trust Exercise Choi
30 The Night Tiger Choo
31 The Mirror Crack'd From Side to Side Christie READ JAN 21
32 At Bertram's Hotel Christie READ FEB 21
33 The Water Dancer Coates
34 The New Wilderness Cook
35 Hopscotch Cortazar
36 The Illumination of Ursula Flight Crowhurst
37 Deviation D'Eramo
38 Boy Swallows Universe Dalton
39 The Girl with the Louding Voice Dare
40 The Rose of Tibet Davidson
41 Dhalgren Delany
42 The Butterfly Girl Denfeld
43 Vernon Subutex 1 Despentes
44 Postcolonial Love Poem Diaz
45 Childhood Ditlevsen
46 Youth Ditlevsen
47 Dependency Ditlevsen
48 Burnt Sugar Doshi
49 Frenchman's Creek Du Maurier D
50 Trilby Du Maurier G
51 Sincerity Duffy
52 Sumarine Dunthorne
53 The Narrow Land Dwyer-Hickey
54 Why I'm No Longer Talking to White People About Race Eddo-Lodge
55 Axiom's End Ellis
56 Figures in a Landscape England READ APR 21
57 kaddish.com Englander
58 Shadow Tag Erdrich
59 The Carpet Makers Eschbach
60 The Emperor's Babe Evaristo
61 Small Country Faye
62 To Rise Again at a Decent Hour Ferris
63 At Freddie's Fitzgerald
64 The Guest List Foley
65 Man's Search for Meaning Frankl READ JUN 21
66 Love in No Man's Land Ga
67 Norse Mythology Gaiman
68 The Spare Room Garner
69 The Kites Gary
70 Gun Island Ghosh
71 Vita Nova Gluck READ JUN 21
72 Trafalgar Gorodischer
73 Potiki Grace
74 Killers of the Flower Moon Grann
75 The Last Banquet Grimwood
76 Guapa Haddad
77 The Porpoise Haddon
78 Late in the Day Hadley
79 The Final Bet Hamdouchi
80 The Parisian Hammad
81 Nightingale Hannah
82 Coastliners Harris J
83 The Truths We Hold Harris K
84 Conclave Harris R
85 The Second Sleep Harris R
86 Tales of the Tikongs Hau'ofa
87 A Thousand Ships Haynes
88 The River Heller
89 Dead Lions Herron
90 Real Tigers Herron
91 War and Turpentine Hertmans
92 A Political History of the World Holslag
93 Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine Honeyman
94 The Light Years Howard
95 Promise Me You'll Shoot Yourself Huber
96 A High Wind in Jamaica Hughes
97 Ape and Essence Huxley
98 Me John
99 Nightblind Jonasson
100 Black Out Jonasson
101 How to be an Anti-Rascist Kendi
102 Death is Hard Work Khalifa
103 Darius the Great is Not Okay Khorram
104 Himself Kidd
105 Diary of a Murderer Kim READ APR 21
106 Dance of the Jacakranda Kimani
107 The Bridge Konigsberg
108 Who They Was Krauze
109 The Mars Room Kushner
110 The Princesse de Cleves La Fayette
111 The Other Americans Lalami
112 The Curious Case of Dassoukine's Trousers Laroui READ APR 21
113 Fish Can Sing Laxness
114 Agent Running in the Field Le Carre
115 Pachinko Lee
116 The Turncoat Lenz
117 The Topeka School Lerner
118 Caging Skies Leunens
119 The Fifth Risk Lewis
120 The Three-Body Problem Liu
121 Lost Children Archive Luiselli
122 Black Moses Mabanckou
123 Blue Ticket Mackintosh
124 A Burning Majumdar READ FEB 21
125 The Mirror and the Light Mantel
126 Original Spin Marks
127 Deep River Marlantes
128 The Return Matar READ MAR 21
129 The Island Matute
130 Hame McAfee
131 Apeirogon McCann
132 Underland McFarlane
133 Hurricane Season Melchor
134 The Shadow King Mengiste
135 The Human Swarm Moffett
136 She Would Be King Moore
137 The Starless Sea Morgenstern
138 Poetry by Heart Motion
139 A Fairly Honourable Defeat Murdoch
140 The Stories of Vladimir Nabokov Nabokov
141 The Warlow Experiment Nathan
142 The Left-Handed Booksellers of London Nix
143 Born a Crime Noah
144 The Private Joys of Nnenna Maloney Nzelu
145 Girl O'Brien
146 After You'd Gone O'Farrell
147 Henry, Himself O'Nan
148 Inland Obreht
149 Weather Offill
150 Dept. of Speculation Offill
151 Stag's Leap Olds
152 Blue Horses Oliver READ APR 21
153 Felicity Oliver
154 Will Olyslaegers
155 Woods, etc Oswald READ FEB 21
156 Night Theatre Paralkar
157 The Damascus Road Parini
158 Empress of the East Peirce
159 The Street Petry
160 Disappearing Earth Phillips
161 Arid Dreams Pimwana READ APR 21
162 Peterloo : Witness to a Massacre Polyp
163 Lanny Porter
164 The Women at Hitler's Table Postorino
165 A Question of Upbringing Powell A READ JAN 21
166 A Buyer's Market Powell A READ FEB 21
167 The Acceptance World Powell A
168 The Interrogative Mood Powell P
169 Rough Magic Prior-Palmer
170 The Alice Network Quinn
171 Where the Red Fern Grows Rawls
172 Such a Fun Age Reid
173 Selected Poems 1950-2012 Rich
174 The Discomfort of Evening Rijneveld
175 Jack Robinson
176 The Years of Rice and Salt Robinson K
177 A Portable Paradise Robinson R READ JAN 21
178 The Fall of the Ottomans Rogan
179 Normal People Rooney
180 Conversations with Friends Rooney
181 Alone Time Rosenbloom
182 Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone Rowling READ JUL 21
183 The Watch Roy-Bhattacharya
184 The Five Rubenhold
185 Contact Sagan
186 The Hunters Salter
187 The Seventh Cross Seghers
188 Will Self
189 Moses Ascending Selvon
190 The Dove on the Water Shadbolt READ JAN 21
191 10 Minutes 38 Seconds in This Strange World Shafak
192 In Arabian Nights Shah
193 The Caliph's House Shah
194 Mrs Warren's Profession Shaw READ JUN 21
195 Arms and the Man Shaw
196 Candida Shaw
197 Man and Superman Shaw
198 Dimension of Miracles Sheckley
199 The Last Man Shelley
200 Temple of a Thousand Faces Shors
201 Year of the Monkey Smith P READ APR 21
202 Eternity Smith T
203 Crossing Statovci
204 Lucy Church, Amiably Stein
205 Rosencrantz and Guilderstern are Dead Stoppard
206 Blood Cruise Strandberg
207 Shuggie Bain Stuart READ JAN 21
208 Three Poems Sullivan READ MAY 21
209 Rules for Perfect Murders Swanson
210 Cane River Tademy
211 Real Life Taylor
212 The Queen's Gambit Tevis
213 Far North Therous
214 Walden Thoreau
215 Civil Disobedience Thoreau
216 Survivor Song Tremblay
217 The Heartbeat of Wounded Knee Treuer
218 The Small House at Allingham Trollope
219 A Nest of Gentlefolk Turgenev
220 A Quiet Backwater Turgenev
221 A Lear of the Steppes Turgenev READ JAN 21
222 The Queen of Attolia Turner READ JUL 21
223 The King of Attolia Turner READ JUL 21
224 Redhead by the Side of the Road Tyler
225 Outlaw Ocean Urbina
226 Plague 99 Ure READ JAN 2021
227 The Age of Miracles Walker
228 The Uninhabitable Earth Wallace-Wells
229 Judith Paris Walpole
230 Love and Other Thought Experiments Ward
231 The Death of Mrs. Westaway Ware
232 Lolly Willows Warner
233 Second Life Watson
234 Final Cut Watson
235 Letters to Alice on First Reading Jane Austen Weldon
236 Before the War Weldon
237 Lazarus West
238 Educated Westover
239 The Nickel Boys Whitehead READ JAN 21
240 The Death of Murat Idrissi Wieringa
241 Salome Wilde
242 An Ideal Husband Wilde
243 Lady Windemere's Fan Wilde
244 A Woman of No Importance Wilde
245 The Salt Path Winn
246 The Natural Way of Things Wood C
247 East Lynne Wood E
248 A Room of One's Own Woolf READ FEB 21
249 Interior Chinatown Yu
250 How Much of These Hills is Gold Zhang

BEGIN : 250
READ : 31
LEFT : 219

20PaulCranswick
Editado: Ago 17, 2021, 5:29 am

THIS YEAR'S ACQUISITIONS

1. Some Experiences of an Irish R.M. by Somerville & Ross READ MAR 21
2. Swallows and Amazons by Arthur Ransome READ JAN 21
3. The Warmth of Other Suns by Isabel Wilkerson
4. The French Revolution by Thomas Carlyle
5. The Black Corsair by Emilio Salgari
6. The Prime Ministers : Reflections on Leadership from Wilson to Johnson by Steve Richards
7. The God Child by Nana Oforiatta Ayim READ JUN 21
8. Arturo's Island by Elsa Morante
9. Coningsby by Benjamin Disraeli
10. The Secrets We Kept by Lara Prescott
11. The Light in Hidden Places by Sharon Cameron
12. Death's Mistress by Terry Goodkind
13. The Mermaid of Black Conch by Monique Roffey
14. Small Days and Nights by Tishani Doshi
15. Clear Light of Day by Anita Desai
16. Desert by JMG Le Clezio
17. For the Record by David Cameron
18. The Only Good Indians by Stephen Graham Jones
19. The Guardians of the West by David Eddings
20. Boy, Snow, Bird by Helen Oyeyemi
21. The Council of Egypt by Leonardo Sciascia
22. Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris
23. The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms by NK Jemisin
24. The Midnight Library by Matt Haig
25. Rupture by Ragnar Jonasson
26. White Out by Ragnar Jonasson
27. The Age of Capital by Eric Hobsbawm READ JUN 21
28. The World Turned Upside Down by Christopher Hill
29. The Wretched of the Earth by Frantz Fanon
30. Modern Times by Paul Johnson
31. The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers by Paul Kennedy
32. The Warehouse by Rob Hart
33. On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong
34. Pawn of Prophecy by David Eddings
35. Queen of Sorcery by David Eddings
36. Magician's Gambit by David Eddings
37. Midnight Never Come by Marie Brennan
38. In Ashes Lie by Marie Brennan
39. The Broken Kingdoms by N.K. Jemisin
40. The Flight Attendant by Chris Bohjalian
41. Dragonfly in Amber by Diana Gabaldon
42. At Lady Molly's by Anthony Powell
43. Casanova's Chinese Restaurant by Anthony Powell
44. The Kindly Ones by Anthony Powell
45. The Financier by Theodore Dreiser
46. Still Waters by Viveca Sten READ JUN 21
47. Toilers of the Sea by Victor Hugo
48. The Europeans by Henry James
49. Vice Versa by F. Anstey READ JUN 21
50. A Thousand Moons by Sebastian Barry
51. The Scarred Woman by Jussi Adler Olsen
52. Closed for Winter Jorn Lier Horst
53. News of the World by Juliette Jiles
54. Bright Dead Things by Ada Limon READ MAR 21
55. A Teaspoon of Earth and Sea by Dina Nayeri
56. Death in the Tuscan Hills by Marco Vichi
57. American Dirt by Jeanine Cummins
58. Good Morning Midnight by Lily Brooks-Dalton
59. Love After Love by Ingrid Persaud
60. The Enchanted by Rene Denefeld
61. The Friend by Sigrid Nunez
62. The Posthumous Memoirs of Bras Cubas by Machado de Assis
63. The Innocents by Michael Crummey
64. Night Waking by Sarah Moss
65. Idaho by Emily Ruskovich
66. Throw me to the Wolves by Patrick McGuinness
67. Consent by Annabel Lyon
68. Selling Manhattan by Carole Ann Duffy
69. Rendang by Will Harris READ JUL 21
70. The City of Brass by S.A. Chakraborty
71. No One is Talking About This by Patricia Lockwood
72. Amnesty by Aravind Adiga
73. The Awkward Squad by Sophie Henaff
74. The Perplexing Theft of the Jewel in the Crown by Vaseem Khan
75. Afternoon Raag by Amit Chaudhuri
76. The Sirens of Titan by Kurt Vonnegut
77. The Gap of Time by Jeanette Winterson
78. The Shell Seekers by Rosamunde Pilcher
79. Bricks and Mortar by Clemens Meyer
80. The Eastern Shore by Ward Just
81. The Splendid and the Vile by Erik Larson
82. The Wild Iris by Louise Gluck
83. Vertigo& Ghost by Fiona Benson
84. Salt Slow by Julia Armfield
85. Soot by Dan Vyleta
86. Deacon King Kong by James McBride
87. Abigail by Magda Szabo
88. Baba Yaga Laid an Egg by Dubravka Ugresic
89. Coming Up for Air by Sarah Leipciger
90. Red at the Bone by Jacqueline Woodson
91. Selection Day by Aravind Adiga
92. The Voyage by Murray Bail
93. Peace : A Novel by Richard Bausch
94. The Third Reich by Roberto Bolano
95. Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury
96. The Kingdom of this World by Alejo Carpentier READ JUL 21
97. My Life as a Russian Novel by Emmanuel Carrere
98. Texaco by Patrick Chamoiseau
99. Man V. Nature by Diane Cook
100. The Melody by Jim Crace
101. SS-GB by Len Deighton
102. Human Voices by Penelope Fitzgerald
103. Fates and Furies by Lauren Groff
104. The Beautiful Indifference by Sarah Hall
105. Munich by Robert Harris
106. Bodies Electric by Colin Harrison
107. The Punch by Noah Hawley
108. Spook Street by Mick Herron
109. London Rules by Mick Herron
110. The Sparsholt Affair by Alan Hollinghurst
111. The Land of Green Ginger by Winifred Holtby
112. The Wreck of the Mary Deare by Hammond Innes
113. The Cider House Rules by John Irving
114. Exiles in the Garden by Ward Just
115. Duffy by Dan Kavanagh
116. The Good People by Hannah Kent
117. The Life to Come by Michelle de Krester
118. The Lathe of Heaven by Ursula Le Guin
119. 10:04 by Ben Lerner
120. Home is the Hunter by Helen MacInnes
121. Paris 1919 by Margaret MacMillan
122. The Blood Miracles by Lisa McInerney
123. The Girl in Green by Derek B. Miller
124. Arab Jazz by Karim Miske READ JUL 21
125. Bodies of Light by Sarah Moss
126. Carthage by Joyce Carol Oates
127. The Changeling by Kenzaburo Oe
128. The Horseman by Tim Pears
129. Echoland by Per Petterson READ APR 21
130. Last Stand by Michael Punke
131. The Waiting Time by Gerald Seymour
132. Home Run by Gerald Seymour
133. Eisenhower in War and Peace by Jean Edward Smith
134. To the Back of Beyond by Peter Stamm
135. They Know Not What They Do by Jussi Valtonen
136. The Tulip Eaters by Antoinette Van Heugten
137. Smoke by Dan Vyleta
138. Trainspotting by Irvine Welsh
139. That Eye, The Sky by Tim Winton
140. Fear : Trump in the White House by Bob Woodward
141. Hamnet by Maggie O'Farrell READ JUN 21
142. Gerta by Katerina Tuckova
143. My Country: A Syrian Memoir by Kassem Eid READ JUN 21
144. Tyll by Daniel Kehlmann
145. The Hotel Tito by Ivana Bodrozic
146. Strange Hotel by Eimear McBride
147. Blame by Paul Read
148. House of Lords and Commons by Ishion Hutchinson
149. To Calais, In Ordinary Time by James Meek
150. Your Story, My Story by Connie Palmen
151. Wake Up : Why the World Has Gone Nuts by Piers Morgan
152. Death of a Coast Watcher by Anthony English
153. Limitless by Ala Glynn
154. Toddler Hunting and Other Stories by Taeko Kono
155. Daughter of the Tigris by Muhsin al-Ramli
156. Don't Call Us Dead by Danez Smith
157. Small Pleasures by Clare Chambers
158. Incomparable World by S.L. Martin
159. The Dancing Face by Mike Phillips
160. Mirror, Shoulder, Signal by Dorthe Nors
161. Sharks in the Time of Saviours by Kawai Strong Washburn
162. The Old Drift by Namwali Serpell
163. Rest and Be Thankful by Emma Glass
164. Minty Alley by CLR James
165. The Fat Lady Sings by Jacqueline Roy
166. Actress by Anne Enright
167. The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett
168. The Living Sea of Waking Dreams by Richard Flanagan
169. Damascus by Christos Tsiolkas
170. Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov *Replacement*
171. Summer by Ali Smith
172. If Nobody Speaks of Remarkable Things by Jon McGregor *Replacement*
173. Notes of a Native Son by James Baldwin
174. The Temple of Dawn by Yukio Mishima
175. The Girls by Emma Cline
176. The Night Watchman by Louise Erdrich READ AUG 21
177. The Flint Anchor by Sylvia Townsend Warner
178. The Unconsoled by Kazuo Ishiguro
179. The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman
180. The Death of Vivek Oji by Akwaeke Emezi
181. Just Like You by Nick Hornby
182. Down and Out in Paris and London by George Orwell
183. Season of Migration to the North by Tayeb Salih READ JUNE 21
184. The Book of Chameleons by Jose Eduardo Agualusa
185. The Dig by Roger Preston
186. The Historians by Eavan Boland
187. Selected Poems by Elizabeth Jennings
188. The Deemster by Hall Caine
189. When Rainclouds Gather by Bessie Head
190. Maru by Bessie Head
191. Derek Mahon: New Selected Poems by Derek Mahon
192. A Move in the Weather by Anthony Thwaite
193. Door into the Dark by Seamus Heaney
194. Driftless by David Rhodes
195. Independence Square by AD Miller
196. Our Lady of the Nile by Scholastique Mukasonga
197. Lot by Bryan Washington
198. A Long Petal of the Sea by Isabel Allende
199. The Wandering by Intan Paramaditha
200. Fire and Ice by Dana Stabenow
201. Aria by Nazanine Hozar
202. Waking Lions by Ayelet Gudar-Goshen
203. Victim 2117 by Jussi Adler-Olsen
204. The Pagan Lord by Bernard Cornwell READ AUG 21
205. The Quality of Madness by Tim Rich READ JULY 21
206. Ghosts of the Past by Marco Vichi
207. The Madness of Crowds by Douglas Murray
208. Notes on Grief by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie READ AUG 21
209. Here We Are by Graham Swift
210. Deaths of the Poets by Paul Farley and Michael Symmons Roberts
211. I am, I am, I am by Maggie O'Farrell READ AUG 21
212. The Whale at the End of the World by John Iremonger
213. Precious Bane by Mary Webb

213 added
19 read
194 nett additions

21PaulCranswick
Editado: Ago 17, 2021, 5:30 am

READING INFLUENCE WINNERS

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

January 2021 MARK (msf59) for THE ONLY GOOD INDIANS by Stephen Graham Jones
February 2021 ADRIENNE (fairywings) for THE BELGARIAD by David Eddings
March 2021 BONNIE (brenzi) for DRIFTLESS by David Rhodes
April 2021 KERRY (avatiakh) for THE DIG by John Preston
May 2021 DEBORAH (Cariola) for I AM, I AM, I AM by Maggie O'Farrell

22PaulCranswick
Editado: Ago 17, 2021, 5:32 am

BOOKS OF THE MONTH

January : The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead
February : Did You Ever Have a Family by Bill Clegg
March : The Return by Hashim Matar
April : Life of Pi by Yann Martel
May : The Camomile Lawn by Mary Wesley
June : Hamnet by Maggie O'Farrell

23PaulCranswick
Editado: Ago 17, 2021, 5:36 am

BOOK STATS :

Books Read : 94
Books Added : 213
Nett TBR Addition : 119

Number of Pages in completed books : 24,727
Average per day : 108.45
Projected Page Total : 39,584

Number of days per book : 2.43
Projected Number : 150
LT Best : 157

Longest Book read : 1,179 pages
Shortest Book read : 51 pages
Mean Average Book Length : 263.05 pages

Male Authors : 56
Female Authors : 38

UK Authors : 48
Italy : 2
USA : 16
NZ : 1
Russia : 2
France : 3
India : 1
Libya : 1
Pakistan : 1
South Korea : 1
Canada : 1
Morocco : 1
Thailand : 1
Norway : 1
Belgium : 1
Sweden : 1
Trinidad : 1
Sudan : 1
Uruguay 1
Syria 1
Ghana 1
Austria 1
Germany 1
South Africa 1
Mauritania 1
Cuba 1
Nigeria 1
Portugal 1

1001 Books First Edition : 11 (315)
New Nobel Winners : 1 (73)
Pulitzer Fiction Winners : 3 (19)
Booker Winners : 2 (33)
Around the World Challenge : New countries : 23 (36)
BAC Books : 44
AAC Books : 2
Queen Vic Books : 16/64
Queen Betty Books : 32/70
52 Book Challenge : 32/52
British Historians : 4/12

24PaulCranswick
Editado: Ago 17, 2021, 5:37 am

OVERALL TBR RECORD/UPDATE

TBR at Midnight 31 May 2021

Books Unread : 4,425
Pages Unread : 1,555,749
Average Book Length : 351.58 pages

Books Read : 43
Pages Read : 11,909 pages

Books Added : 26
Pages Added : 7,518 pages

Books Culled : 180
Pages Culled : 77,262

Revised TBR
Books Unread : 4,228
Pages Unread : 1,474,096
Ave Book Length : 348.65 pages

25PaulCranswick
Jul 25, 2021, 10:09 pm

Next is yours.

26amanda4242
Jul 25, 2021, 10:12 pm

Happy new thread!

27PaulCranswick
Jul 25, 2021, 10:16 pm

>26 amanda4242: I would have placed a small wager on you being first this time! Always a pleasure to have you visit. xx

28drneutron
Jul 25, 2021, 10:22 pm

Happy new thread! Just barely missed being first in…

29richardderus
Jul 25, 2021, 10:24 pm

Top Thirty! Yay me!!

30PaulCranswick
Jul 25, 2021, 10:48 pm

>28 drneutron: Place on the podium readied for you, Jim...

>29 richardderus: Well done RD. I dropped one of my set up posts on fantasy series which I haven't kept up at all and which places you inside the 30!

31justchris
Jul 25, 2021, 10:50 pm

Woot! This is a thread size I can handle! Good luck getting the rest of the stuff set up!

32PaulCranswick
Jul 25, 2021, 10:52 pm

>31 justchris: The other one was getting unwieldy wasn't it, Chris? Nice to see you here.

33quondame
Jul 25, 2021, 11:17 pm

Happy new thread!

34PaulCranswick
Jul 25, 2021, 11:27 pm

>33 quondame: Thank you, Susan. Always a pleasure to have you visit. xx

35LovingLit
Jul 26, 2021, 4:28 am

>10 PaulCranswick: I am impressed with your Booker progress. A few years back I was a fervent Booker reader, and then I lost my way a bit. The only recent winner I have read is Girl, Woman, Other, and, I loved it.

36connie53
Jul 26, 2021, 4:43 am

Happy New Thread, Paul!

37PaulCranswick
Jul 26, 2021, 5:41 am

>35 LovingLit: I liked it too, Megan. I liked it so much that I still haven't bought The Testaments as it was a case of the jury being spineless and not awarding the prize to her on her own. Atwood's book was by all accounts not of her absolute best.

>36 connie53: Thanks Connie. Nice of you to be able to spare me the time with your hospital visits. I trust that Peet is slowly but surely improving day-by-day.

38FAMeulstee
Jul 26, 2021, 5:51 am

Haapy new thread, Paul!

>1 PaulCranswick: We have watched a few seasons of The Last Kingdom, enjoyable.

39PaulCranswick
Jul 26, 2021, 6:09 am

>38 FAMeulstee: It is good isn't it, Anita. Apparently the next season will be the last one :(

40LovingLit
Jul 26, 2021, 6:16 am

>37 PaulCranswick: a case of being caught up in the moment, methinks. The support for the Handmaids Tale at that time was immense, due to that mini-series/Netflix series thingie.

41PaulCranswick
Jul 26, 2021, 6:20 am

>40 LovingLit: I'm not going to write it off, Megan, because I haven't yet read it and she is ATWOOD but I admit to not liking all her stuff only some of it. I thought that Alias Grace was tremendous but The Handmaid's Tale didn't resonate quite as much.

42humouress
Jul 26, 2021, 6:48 am

Happy new thread, Paul!

43scaifea
Jul 26, 2021, 8:12 am

Woof, by the time you get everything set up here, you're halfway to a new thread!

Happy new one, Paul.

44PaulCranswick
Jul 26, 2021, 8:12 am

>42 humouress: Thank you, neighbour. I am hoping to make this thread truly about the books.

45PaulCranswick
Jul 26, 2021, 8:13 am

>43 scaifea: That truly is pot, kettle, black, Amber! xx

46msf59
Jul 26, 2021, 8:27 am

Happy New Thread, Paul. I have been watching and enjoying the Last Kingdom on Netflix but I have never read the books.

47PaulCranswick
Jul 26, 2021, 8:43 am

>46 msf59: Well worth doing so, Mark. Slightly different story lines but essentially the same.

48jnwelch
Jul 26, 2021, 9:08 am

Happy New thread, Paul.

I've always enjoyed reading bernard Cornwell. I should think about picking up the two in your topper.

I recently read The Cook of the Halcyon, which is probably the next to last Montalbano book we'll get. I loved it, and will miss this series after the last one comes out.

49AnneDC
Jul 26, 2021, 9:08 am

Happy new thread, Paul.

50scaifea
Jul 26, 2021, 9:21 am

>45 PaulCranswick: Ha! Not really, though; my setup is 6 posts or so. You're very much more organized with nearly 30 posts in your setup.

51PaulCranswick
Jul 26, 2021, 9:45 am

>48 jnwelch: All his series have been great, Joe, including of course Sharpe.

The latest of the Montalbano books are not with us yet in Malaysia. I am a little conflicted because I don't want them to end.

>49 AnneDC: Lovely to see you, Anne.x

52PaulCranswick
Jul 26, 2021, 9:46 am

>52 PaulCranswick: I was alluding more to the number of threads than the number of set-up posts, Amber! Nobody can keep up with you this year.

53m.belljackson
Jul 26, 2021, 10:00 am

Hi Paul - back to your "Alabama" age comments - all of the convicted January 6th invaders have been young.

54karenmarie
Jul 26, 2021, 10:08 am

Happy new thread, Paul!

55PaulCranswick
Jul 26, 2021, 10:40 am

>53 m.belljackson: Hi Marianne - I am not aware of making "Alabama" age comments and not quite sure what the phrase means. I didn't make any comments regarding the age of the January 6th insurgents as I have zero knowledge of it - I believe that Benita did?

>54 karenmarie: Always a pleasure, Karen. I will put up some stats for you tomorrow. x

56m.belljackson
Jul 26, 2021, 11:02 am

>55 PaulCranswick: Yep, sorry - your name was toward the top and thought you agreed.

Just read that Boris is reopening his world and Dr. Fauci is only offering a "hint" for vulnerable people to get shots...
I emailed the CDC, but their responses continue to be ancient news links.

57Crazymamie
Jul 26, 2021, 11:25 am

Happy new one, Paul! Looks like you are having an excellent reading year.

58PaulCranswick
Jul 26, 2021, 12:06 pm

>56 m.belljackson: No problem, Marianne.

At some stage obviously we do have to live with the virus - I'm not convinced that that time is now in the UK but I am not there to judge. In Malaysia there is no such talk as the numbers increase day by day despite lockdown.

>57 Crazymamie: Lovely to see you Mamie! My reading this year is something of a slight return to form. xx

59SirThomas
Jul 27, 2021, 5:07 am

Happy new thread, Paul!
>23 PaulCranswick: >24 PaulCranswick: very impressive.

60PaulCranswick
Jul 27, 2021, 7:22 am

>59 SirThomas: Thank you, Thomas.

I yearn for my stats to be even better.

61PaulCranswick
Jul 27, 2021, 11:22 am

BOOK #82



The Quality of Madness : A Life of Marcelo Bielsa by Tim Rich
Date of Publication : 2020
Origin of Author : UK
Number of Pages : 417 pp

Passions

The single malts of Islay,
Theakston's Old Peculiar,
Camembert from the fridge and ripe,
The works of Emile Zola,
Heaney, Hughes, Yeats, Thomas Stearns,
the Dylans Thomas and Bob,
The Fellowship of the Ring
And what came after,
Library Thing,
Cranswickian splurges,
Col du Tourmalet,
Columbus tubing,
Tony Benn Chesterfield in 84,
The first carriage of offspring,
The curves of a lover,
That instant after orgasm when love is all,
Leeds United
Marching on Together

Marcelo Bielsa gave back self-esteem to my wonderful but oft berated football club, Leeds United. There is a mural in Wortley working class streets of him as The Redeemer and he truly is. In three whirlwind years he transformed our sleeping giant and he will be forever a hero in the hearts of Leeds United fans everywhere.

This is his story to date.

62m.belljackson
Jul 28, 2021, 10:45 am

Welcome again, Paul - question from last time:

What % of Malaysians are vaccinated? (followup to both Lockdown and wearing masks)

Re: older Alabamas at Capitol invasion = so far, all of the convicted men have been relatively young -
next one up is 38.

63johnsimpson
Jul 28, 2021, 4:54 pm

Hi Paul, Happy New Thread dear friend.

64PaulCranswick
Jul 28, 2021, 7:10 pm

>62 m.belljackson: There has been an improvement in vaccination distribution recently and most of the major urban areas have now had at least one dose. As of a week ago almost 15% of the population was fully vaccinated but we do have one of the fastest daily vaccination rates in the world at the moment.

65PaulCranswick
Jul 28, 2021, 7:10 pm

>63 johnsimpson: Thank you, John. I hope your visit is a sign that things are settling down for you.

66EllaTim
Jul 28, 2021, 7:36 pm

Happy newish thread, Paul!

>64 PaulCranswick: Hurray for fast vaccination. It really makes a difference.

67PaulCranswick
Jul 28, 2021, 9:17 pm

>66 EllaTim: I'm hoping so, Ella, because the numbers of infections have continued upwards here recently which is concerning and baffling everybody.

68PaulCranswick
Jul 28, 2021, 10:39 pm

The Booker prize 2021 shortlist is up and only time will tell whether it is a vintage crop or not. Seems fairly balanced selection although I still grumble about the inclusion of American authors in the list.

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2021/jul/27/rachel-cusk-singular-novel-wide-ra...

Overview by the Guardian

This is the list:

A Passage North, Anuk Arudpragasam (Granta Books, Granta Publications)
Second Place, Rachel Cusk, (Faber)
The Promise, Damon Galgut, (Chatto & Windus, Vintage, PRH)
The Sweetness of Water, Nathan Harris (Tinder Press, Headline, Hachette Book Group)
Klara and the Sun, Kazuo Ishiguro (Faber)
An Island, Karen Jennings (Holland House Books)
A Town Called Solace, Mary Lawson (Chatto & Windus, Vintage, PRH)
No One is Talking About This, Patricia Lockwood (Bloomsbury Circus, Bloomsbury Publishing)
The Fortune Men, Nadifa Mohamed (Viking, Penguin General, PRH)
Bewilderment, Richard Powers (Hutchinson Heinemann, PRH)
China Room, Sunjeev Sahota (Harvill Secker, Vintage, PRH)
Great Circle, Maggie Shipstead (Doubleday, Transworld Publishers, PRH)
Light Perpetual, Francis Spufford (Faber)

69justchris
Jul 28, 2021, 11:17 pm

>61 PaulCranswick: Ha! I looked at the book cover, then saw the poem below and thought it came from the book and was thinking that there was a real mismatch between the cover and the content, then I got to "Cranswickian splurges" and realized my attribution error. Good one!

70PaulCranswick
Jul 29, 2021, 12:31 am

>69 justchris: Yes Chris, my reviews can be a tad peculiar at times!

71PaulCranswick
Jul 29, 2021, 1:23 am

BOOK #83



The King of Attolia by Megan Whalen Turner
Date of Publication : 2006
Origin of Author : USA
Pages : 404 pp

Challenges :
Series Challenge : 10/24

If this is YA fantasy fiction then I am glad of a return to my childhood because this series is quite wonderful.

The third instalment lacks the action of the first two but this is replaced by political intrigue. Viewed through the perspective of a court guard, the story slowly reveals that the King, whom was thought to be a hopeless interloper by the nobles in the palace, is nowhere near as hopeless as they imagined.

I will definitely go out and get the other books in the series.

73m.belljackson
Jul 29, 2021, 12:18 pm

>72 PaulCranswick: Wow, Paul, with that rate, masks, and the lockdown, I'm surprised that your 80% rate hasn't been reached!

No sense to compare with U.S. when 40-45% republican and other idiots are refusing the totally available shots...

and that the f-ing CDC still has not given "approval" for vaccines to vulnerable humans.

74PaulCranswick
Jul 29, 2021, 12:55 pm

>73 m.belljackson: Hopefully things will continue to improve.

According to stats I have seen 68% of Americans have taken a jab and whilst there is something in conservative reluctance to be imposed upon by big government even if it rather stupidly it puts lives at risk.

75figsfromthistle
Jul 29, 2021, 3:21 pm

Happy new one, Paul.

76PaulCranswick
Jul 29, 2021, 7:47 pm

>75 figsfromthistle: Lovely to see you, Anita. I have missed you around the threads.

77Whisper1
Jul 29, 2021, 8:47 pm

Hello Paul. Chiming in on the conversation regarding Covid injections, my very dear friend and neighbor refuses to get the injection. Because my dear six year old friend visits often, I fear that I will need to tell her she gets the shot, or I cannot enjoy her company. I love her, but simply cannot understand her. The local pharmacy has no waiting policy. People can simply stop by and be vaccinated.

78PaulCranswick
Jul 29, 2021, 8:58 pm

>77 Whisper1: I don't fully understand the anti-vac brigade exactly, Linda. I am all for civil liberties and the right to choose but when the cost/benefit analysis is done I cannot comprehend why one would refuse the jabs. My brother is also refusing them and sees it all quite bizarrely as some sort of conspiracy.

Hani has had her second shot already and mine is in three weeks time.

79PaulCranswick
Jul 29, 2021, 9:19 pm

Over on Joe and Caroline's threads I saw attempts to list down 10 favourite authors/writers.

I obviously cannot overlook that!

Ten Favourite British Isles Authors : (Favourite and not necessarily best) in no particular order.

1. William Somerset Maugham
2. Graham Greene
3. J.B. Priestley
4. William Trevor
5. Robert Graves
6. Iris Murdoch
7. Thomas Hardy
8. Charles Dickens (sorry RD)
9. Penelope Lively
10. J.R.R. Tolkien

81PaulCranswick
Jul 29, 2021, 9:30 pm

Ten Favourite Poets :

(Sorry this list will be a tad Xenophobic! as my poetic influences have been unashamedly British). Maybe in a few years time..........

1. W.B. Yeats
2. T.S. Eliot
3. Louis MacNeice
4. W.H. Auden
5. Dylan Thomas
6. Ted Hughes
7. Seamus Heaney
8. Gerald Manley Hopkins
9. John Betjeman
10. Don Paterson

82Whisper1
Jul 29, 2021, 9:33 pm

>78 PaulCranswick: Sadly, my friend feels the same way!

85PaulCranswick
Jul 29, 2021, 9:53 pm

87PaulCranswick
Jul 29, 2021, 9:59 pm

>82 Whisper1: I have my concerns about how the pandemic started (although I'm thinking cover-up rather than conspiracy) but that doesn't alter the fact that the scourge has killed a very considerable amount of people and that a certain portion of the populace is especially at risk. There are ways to combat that risk so, being at risk myself, in the interests of self-preservation I will definitely follow suit and get vaccinated.

88amanda4242
Jul 29, 2021, 10:25 pm

>79 PaulCranswick: Maugham and Greene are two authors whom I admire, but I'm not sure they'd quite make my top ten list. Terry Pratchett would definitely be at the top, and I'd substitute Mervyn Peake for Tolkien. Hardy and Dickens would not be on my list.

>80 PaulCranswick: Blech Steinbeck! Hemingway would be on my American authors list, as would Edith Wharton and Samuel Delany.

>81 PaulCranswick: My poets list would include Walt Whitman, Homer, and Shel Silverstein.

I haven't really read deeply enough to come up with lists for the rest of the world, but I've greatly enjoyed Alexandre Dumas, Yukio Mishima, Mikhail Bulgakov, and Naguib Mahfouz.

89richardderus
Jul 29, 2021, 10:35 pm

>79 PaulCranswick: ...I only see nine...

>81 PaulCranswick: ...and a totally blank post! Are you feeling quite The Thing, old fish? That second jab can't come soon enough.

::eyeroll:: at the conspiracy theorists; agree completely about the cover-up.

90PaulCranswick
Jul 29, 2021, 11:15 pm

>88 amanda4242: Opinions, opinions, opinions Amanda! I figured Dickens and Hardy may make a few of you cringe but I grew up enjoying them.

I have enjoyed some of Hemingway but disliked a fair bit of it too - the casual racism of To Have and Have Not and the senseless Machismo of his bull-fighting writing.

>89 richardderus: You got me as I actually went back and counted the British Isles list!

I didn't expect you to approve of the "poultry", dear fellow.

My next post will reveal another 19th Century icon of American letters unlikely on this reading to make any of my best of lists!

91SilverWolf28
Jul 29, 2021, 11:18 pm

Here's the next readathon: https://www.librarything.com/topic/334003

92PaulCranswick
Jul 29, 2021, 11:59 pm

>90 PaulCranswick: Thanks Silver. I will be present again.

93PaulCranswick
Jul 30, 2021, 12:02 am

BOOK #84



The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket by Edgar Allan Poe
Date of Publication : 1838
Origin of Author : USA
Pages : 162 pp

Challenges
Queen Vic Challenge : 14/64

Poe is famous for his short stories and the long poem "The Raven". Arthur Gordon Pym is his only novel. Thank God.

94SirThomas
Editado: Jul 30, 2021, 5:53 am

Impressive lists Paul, some authors would probably have ended up on my lists too.
>93 PaulCranswick: I love his short stories - thanks for the warning.
All the best for your 2nd shot! Have a wonderful weekend.

95PaulCranswick
Jul 30, 2021, 6:58 am

>94 SirThomas: It may have been partly my mood, Thomas, but it really did so little for me.

Thanks as always for stopping by, dear fellow.

Who would be your ten favourite authors?

96msf59
Editado: Jul 30, 2021, 7:36 am

>68 PaulCranswick: The Booker lists are always interesting and this one looks to go deep. I have only read Klara and I am waiting on a copy of Great Circle. Of course, I am pumped about the new Powers too.

>80 PaulCranswick: Impressive list and happy to see Haruf on there. I have not read Malamud and I have not been convinced by any warbling on LT to give him a try. Maybe, I will finally give The Natural a try. I did like the film.

Honestly, any list like this should include Toni Morrison. Just sayin'...

97FAMeulstee
Jul 30, 2021, 8:15 am

>79 PaulCranswick: Of those I have read: Graham Greene, Robert Graves, Thomas Hardy, Charles Dickens, and J.R.R. Tolkien. Tolkien is a favorite, and Iris Murdoch is on mount TBR.

>80 PaulCranswick: Only read John Steinbeck from this list, he would be high on my list.

>81 PaulCranswick: None of these.

>83 PaulCranswick: I have read: Milan Kundera (not recently, before LT), and Fyodor Dostoevsky
Emile Zola, Honore de Balzac, and Primo Levi on mount TBR.
On my list would be: Jenny Erpenbeck, Roger Martin du Gard, Vasily Grossman, Uwe Johnson, Karl Ove Knausgård, Thomas Mann, Konstantin Paustovski, Erich Maria Remarque, Joseph Roth, and Stefan Zweig

98PaulCranswick
Jul 30, 2021, 9:06 am

>96 msf59: I have the Lockwood already on the shelves but guess that many of them won't be available here for a while, Mark.

I recognise the greatness in Toni Morrison but I don't really enjoy reading her novels. Same goes for William Faulkner. Malamud is a great writer and The Fixer is really a favourite novel of mine.

>97 FAMeulstee: Tolkien has to be on my list, Anita, given that my real love of reading really started with The Fellowship of the Ring which I read in 1977. The purple patch of Hardy's novel writing (Madding Crowd, Tess, Jude, Mayor of Casterbridge and Return of the Native) is a high watermark of fiction writing for me. Dickens created so many memorable characters and stories that I couldn't overlook him and most of the others kept me company in my twenties and thirties.

I made a rule not to include any writers I had only read one book by and this includes Joseph Roth, Remarque and Mann.

99m.belljackson
Jul 30, 2021, 12:05 pm

>78 PaulCranswick: You could mention to your brother that, yes, he IS right -
the Vaccine IS a Conspiracy - Against Death.

100PaulCranswick
Jul 30, 2021, 12:39 pm

>99 m.belljackson: My brother is never wrong as he often tells me, Marianne!

It looks like the English Premier League may bring in rules that spectators need to have had their vaccinations to attend football games which may force his hand as he has an Executive Box at Elland Road Stadium and I am pretty sure he doesn't want to miss any more games.

101benitastrnad
Jul 30, 2021, 2:12 pm

I think that Wallace Stegner deserves to be on any list of the top ten American authors.

I have liked both of the Bernard Malamud books I have read and find myself thinking about them from time-to-time. He writes about low characters and I think this is what causes him to be left off of many lists. He is a great writer and would be read by more people if he wrote about nicer characters, but he concentrates on the down and out and that hurts him. I liked The Assistant and think it is a great novel that deals with second generation immigrants - in this case Jewish immigrants to a big city. It is a very complicated novel, but so beautifully written.

102richardderus
Jul 30, 2021, 2:49 pm

>93 PaulCranswick: *tsk* Imagine not loving a Poe! How shockingly uncultured of you, PC.

(I thought it was tediously overwritten and woefully underplotted, too.)

103PaulCranswick
Jul 30, 2021, 2:50 pm

>101 benitastrnad: I couldn't include Wallace Stegner in my own list Benita because I haven't read enough of his work. As I said, Bernard Malamud is a real favourite of mine.

104PaulCranswick
Jul 30, 2021, 2:53 pm

>102 richardderus: I'm now a bit in fear, RD, since there are several of his longer short-stories in the 1001 "books" first edition. Putting aside that they didn't really ought to qualify as books when it is a single story of barely 30 pages, if the quality is as is longer fiction I'm not going to enjoy it. "Tedious" did sum up the experience of reading his only novel.

105richardderus
Jul 30, 2021, 3:03 pm

>104 PaulCranswick: The stories don't suffer from the same bagginess of plot; the purpuraceous verbiage will, always and forever, stain your fingers and brain-folds.

106drneutron
Jul 30, 2021, 3:17 pm

Yeah, Pym's definitely not one of my favorite Poe stories. His shorter stories are better - and even then they bleed purple prose. Though I'll always be fond of A Cask of Amontillado as it was the first Poe I read way back when I was a young 'un.

107PaulCranswick
Jul 30, 2021, 3:52 pm

>105 richardderus: I get the impression, RD, that Poe is your Yankee Chuckles?

>106 drneutron: I have his collected short stories so I will definitely read 'em, Jim, especially since a few of them got listed in the 1001 Books First Ed.

108amanda4242
Jul 30, 2021, 4:15 pm

>90 PaulCranswick: Yep, Hemingway did write some absolute shit. He also wrote some brilliant novels and some of America's finest short stories, so I choose to admire him for those.

>107 PaulCranswick: Poe is your Yankee Chuckles?

Be glad you're on the other side of the Pacific or I would wash your mouth out with soap for saying such a thing!

109elkiedee
Jul 30, 2021, 5:12 pm

>81 PaulCranswick: 3 of those are Irish. I recognise that it's open to debate - religion, partition and residence. At least two were from the six counties which remained within the British state, two Protestants and MacNeice spent a lot of his adult life living/working in London where I think he died. But still..... I think only two of the authors in my 1st year English Lit course 1900 to 1945 were really English - DH Lawrence and Virginia Woolf, and I'm not sure whether it even included any Scottish or Welsh writers.

110richardderus
Jul 30, 2021, 7:12 pm

>108 amanda4242:, >107 PaulCranswick: I think calling Poe a co-perpetrator of vileness with Chuckles the Dick is a bit harsh. Poe's short fiction is readable, albeit one needs to space the reads appropriately; Chuckles never met a top he wouldn't go over or sewed a seam without applying ribbons, rickrack, and braid.

111elkiedee
Editado: Jul 30, 2021, 8:33 pm

>110 richardderus: Haha at Richard's description!

I was put off Dickens at school by some of the very detailed passages of lilac lyricism presented to us for dissection. But a few years ago now (errr, perhaps 18/19 even nearly 20, gulp!) I read Bleak House with an online discussion group, at a fairly slow easy pace alongside other books, and listed to Little Dorrit on audio. I do quite enjoy some of radio and TV adaptations.

The actor Miriam Margoyles is an old school friend of my mum and her sisters, and her work includes a lot of Dickens related acting, radio and audiobook work.

So I disliked Charles Dickens when I was younger but I've softened now, though there is lots to dislike there too.

On Hemingway, I've no interest in bullfighting per se but have a mixture of fascination and ugh! reactions at his life. The Ken Burns series just shown on BBC Four doesn't really change this mixed view from past and reads - The Sun Also Rises at university, bits of his other novels on the radio (I did read his other war novels but feel I could do with rereading) and then Paula McLain's two novels about his first and third wives, Hadley and then Martha Gellhorn, and Hemingway's own memoir about his Paris years with his first wife, A Moveable Feast, in which he sometimes gets past the boastful arrogance in a lot of his writings, including his letters as a very young man (something else I read about 10 years ago).

112figsfromthistle
Jul 30, 2021, 8:33 pm

>81 PaulCranswick: You really need at least one European poet on that list. I recommend Rilke: The Duino Elegies. Make sure you have the better translated version so you can really appreciate the rhythm as well.

113richardderus
Jul 30, 2021, 8:37 pm

>111 elkiedee: Miriam Margolyes by herself could probably seduce me into listening to Chuckles' work, but not for long...I'd be asleep within twenty minutes, per my usual lecture behavior. A sin and a shame to waste such a performer's work!

114ArlieS
Editado: Jul 30, 2021, 9:22 pm

>78 PaulCranswick: I've recently read a couple of books about past epidemics, and there's a history of all kinds of dubious actions. E.g. in the 1918 flu epidemic, aspirin was a new wonder drug - and doctors were recommending doses that, we now know, would kill the patient. They were also still bleeding people - to combat the flu. The picture doesn't get all that much better as we go forward in time - the foolishness is just a bit less obvious to us today.

Add to this a history of "scientifically" informed racism and classism in the US, including the infamous Tuskegee Syphilis Study, as well as some bright lights who decided incorrectly that certain poor neighbourhoods (that we'd now also call "racialized") were the source of their local epidemic, and pretty much quarantined them into starvation (from The pandemic century : one hundred years of panic, hysteria, and hubris, and probably somewhat misremembered).

Bottom line: if I didn't feel at least somewhat competent to judge the reasearch results myself, and wasn't e.g. familiar with the scientific method, I'd tend towards a default of doing the opposite of what US government doctors told me too.

For that matter, when I noticed that the powers that be in the US had stopped recording breakthrough cases, and were close to insisting that vaccines provide perfect protection, I wondered whether we'd be seeing the kind of breakthrough results with variants that have recently been coming out of Israel (and to a lesser extent the UK) - i.e. I immediately speculated on what they were hiding, while claiming simply to be saving money.

For the record - I'm "fully vaccinated." I just find it very easy to understand where vaccine hesitancy is coming from in the US.

115justchris
Jul 30, 2021, 9:18 pm

>110 richardderus: I dunno, Richard. You forgot the bells among the essential textile bling.

I was scarred by being required to read The Old Man and the Sea in school. No more Hemingway for me, thanks.

116amanda4242
Jul 30, 2021, 9:48 pm

>115 justchris: The Old Man and the Sea nearly did me in when I had to read it in seventh grade. Why do schools think just because a book is short it's appropriate for twelve-year-olds?!

117PaulCranswick
Jul 30, 2021, 10:34 pm

>108 amanda4242: I don't disagree with that assessment other than I cannot comment on his short stories as I haven't read any.
Dickens can be verbosity incarnate but I don't believe that he ever wrote anything quite as bad as Pym.

>109 elkiedee: Noted which is why I called my list British Isles, Luci in >79 PaulCranswick:. My poets list was a worldwide selection but it just so happens that my tastes were singularly parochial! Lawrence is another author who divides but he almost made my list but Ms. Woolf is generally not for me although I loved A Room of One's Own.

118PaulCranswick
Jul 30, 2021, 10:41 pm

>110 richardderus: Harsh? Maybe, RD as it is on the basis of a single felony perpetrated in the form of Pym. I will stand corrected with his shorter work hopefully.

Chuckles comments afforded chuckles.

>111 elkiedee: It is the wealth of the stories themselves that makes for great TV adaptations, Luci. I get it that he can irritate by saying ten words often when three or four would just as prettily suffice (I occasionally suffer from this too!) but his creations still shine brightly after one and three quarter centuries.
I love Miriam Margoyles who is simply one of the funniest people alive.
I do recognise that some of Hemingway's best work is very, very good and I probably wish that I hadn't read some of the stuff that causes me to inwardly blackball him. My son is currently reading A Farewell to Arms and I will re-read it again soon as I remember it being more sensitive than some of his other stuff when I read it in callow youth.

119PaulCranswick
Jul 30, 2021, 10:47 pm

>112 figsfromthistle: You are possibly right, Anita, but I do struggle to appreciate poetry in translation as the form is the distillation of the poet's thoughts in words and that doesn't always succeed in translation, I fear. Of translated works I did like very much Akhmatova and Szymborska.

>113 richardderus: Oh I think she would keep me awake, RD. I remember her being interviewed and telling a story of her giving fellatio to a GI in Oxford and taking a sense of pride in being a good girl because she did not go "all the way". The fact that she propositioned the fellow at a traffic light whilst she was out taking the air on her bicycle seemed totally incidental. She could read the weather reports to me and I would not snooze.

120PaulCranswick
Jul 30, 2021, 10:58 pm

>114 ArlieS: I'm afraid that I have little or no faith in the word of the medical science community and/or politicians of any particular hue and this has been borne out especially by the pandemic.

I am not anti-vac and am looking forward to my second dose of AZ next month as I have been told it will save my life and allow me back to normality. But, will it though?

We have the medical science community admitting that it had misdirected the populace on masks for political expediency purposes and to avoid panic (not their role surely?) and we have the ridiculous vacillation and direction changing regarding whether there is a need to wear masks post vaccine or not and if so at what stage is it advised safe to stop. I still wear my mask here which is anyway mandated and I do believe that the vast majority of Malaysians would do so mandated or otherwise. If we are not given clear and consistent advice though it allows for the confusion and consternation that is on the rise, it allows for the mistrust of the advice itself, it allows for an increased unwillingness to comply and it allows for the politicians to score cheap points off each other without working towards the common good/end goal.

121PaulCranswick
Jul 30, 2021, 10:59 pm

>115 justchris: Et tu, Chris?

>116 amanda4242: I dunno, Amanda, as I actually found that among the more palatable of his works!

122SirThomas
Jul 31, 2021, 12:06 pm

>95 PaulCranswick: Hi Paul, since I don't differentiate by country, I took the liberty of naming 15 favorite authors.
However, the list is very dependent on the day and can change every now and then.
As a teenager I was a total fan of Karl May, but that was a long time ago.
I also love Tolkien, but only the 4 books of the Ring Cycle (if you count the Hobbit).
The list is not balanced at all, but that's just me:

Stephen King
Matt Ruff
Joe R. Lansdale
Dan Simmons
Douglas Adams
Reginald Hill
Sergei Lukyanenko
Ursula Poznanski
Harry Bingham
Elizabeth George
J. K. Rowling
Haruki Murakami
Salman Rushdie
Walter Moers
Henning Mankell

I wish you a wonderful weekend.

123PaulCranswick
Jul 31, 2021, 1:22 pm

>122 SirThomas: Rushdie and Murakami appeared on my lists too, Thomas. I really like the Bingham books and reading Henning Mankell got me hooked on Scandi.

Thanks for taking the trouble to do that.

124PaulCranswick
Jul 31, 2021, 2:03 pm

I'm going to enter August with three books I am enjoying all unfinished:

The Night Watchman by Louise Erdrich
Throwing Sparks by Abdo Khal
The Hiding Place by Trezza Azzopardi

I will finish those up early in the month.

I plan to read :

Poetry Please! edited by Charles Causley which is an anthology I have always enjoyed.
Here and Now by Stephen Dunn, whom I recently heard had sadly passed away
A Kind of Loving by Stan Barstow (Queen Betty)
Ursule Mirouet by Honore de Balzac (Queen Vic)
Death of Kings & The Pagan Lord both by Bernard Cornwell (BAC & Series)
All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr (Pulitzer)
The Return by Dulce Maria Cardoso (52 book Challenge & Around the World Challenge)
The Opposite House by Helen Oyeyemi (Queen Betty & BAC)
The Maid Silja by FE Sillanpaa (Around the World & Nobel)
The Persian Boy by Mary Renault (Queen Betty)
The Hand of Ethelberta by Thomas Hardy (Queen Vic)
Fifteen Decisive Battles by Edward Shepherd Creasy (Queen Vic, Historians)

If I get all those done I will see what else I can manage from the shelves with the emphasis on more recent additions.

125mahsdad
Jul 31, 2021, 2:16 pm

Hey Paul, happy weekend!

I'll chime in on the favorite author list. Like Thomas, this completely uncategorized, but just my off-the-cuff list of authors who'd are my automatic "Anything new by them goes on the WL"

Fredrick Backman
Neil Gaiman
Haruki Murakami
Stephen King
John Varley
James Morrow
Jess Walter
Michael Chabon
John Green

I'm I know there are others, but this will do for know. :)

126RBeffa
Jul 31, 2021, 4:03 pm

I'll just leave a comment. As a youngster I loved Spencer Tracy in the Old man and the Sea film. As that same youngster I read the book and became a lifelong Hemingway fan.

127Berly
Jul 31, 2021, 4:13 pm

Hopelessly behind on LT but popping in to say Hi!

>124 PaulCranswick: Happy August reading!!

128Caroline_McElwee
Jul 31, 2021, 4:29 pm

>214 PaulCranswick: I've been meaning to read All the Light we Cannot See for a while. I may try and read it mid month, and we can compare notes Paul.

129ChrisG1
Jul 31, 2021, 5:12 pm

>124 PaulCranswick: Bernard Cornwell's books are reliably good - love the Last Kingdom series!

130Familyhistorian
Jul 31, 2021, 6:10 pm

Good luck with your August reading plans, Paul.

131richardderus
Jul 31, 2021, 6:56 pm

>124 PaulCranswick: May it all occur with the greatest possible facility.

>121 PaulCranswick:, >119 PaulCranswick:, >118 PaulCranswick:, >115 justchris: Heh. My disdain is, I note, successfully palatableized by being amusingly stated.

>116 amanda4242: As much as I love them, Amanda, I feel the same way about today's kids being assigned To Kill A Mockingbird and The Catcher in the Rye. Far better to assign them The Hate U Give and The Perks of Being a Wallflower. They don't relate to books born the year their grandparents were; these books are assigned as Problem Novels; therefore, present Problem Novels about the relatively recent past, just like those two were for us.

But there's such INERTIA behind things that make it into the Canon. Such resistance to canonizing everything deemed great. Those books are indeed excellent! They just aren't good at doing for people born this millennium the same things they did for us.

132amanda4242
Jul 31, 2021, 7:29 pm

>131 richardderus: I would probably have hated any contemporary works as much as I did many of the musty old tomes I was assigned, but I always have been contrary. ;)

I think part of the reason certain books stick around schools is because they are easy to teach: Need to cover symbolism? Gatsby and his green light ain't exactly subtle. Man versus Nature? In the very title of Old Man and the Sea. Alienation? Holden Caulfield's a textbook example. Add in the fact that schools generally already own the old "classics" or can probably buy them for much less than they can more recent works, and it's not really surprising that students now are required to read books that were old when their grandparents were assigned them.

133PaulCranswick
Jul 31, 2021, 7:57 pm

>125 mahsdad: Murakami and Gaiman are both fairly unique voices in literature, Jeff and Backmann is another whose books I need to get to soon.

>126 RBeffa: Actually it is my favourite of his, Ron, despite some of the dislike for it I have seen here. To Have and Have Not and The Sun Also Rises kept him off my list but to be truthful if I had only read that one and A Farewell to Arms he would have been on it.

134PaulCranswick
Jul 31, 2021, 7:59 pm

>127 Berly: Lovely to see you, Kimmers. Need to take Erni for her second jab this morning - she is beating me to the second one by three weeks but she opted for the Sinovac one that may restrict our travel so I am holding out for AZ.

>128 Caroline_McElwee: I'd like that, Caroline. Can think of few people I'd like to compare notes with more. x

135PaulCranswick
Jul 31, 2021, 8:00 pm

>129 ChrisG1: So nice to see you here! I like all of Cornwell's different series but this one is possibly my favourite.

>130 Familyhistorian: Thanks Meg. I dipped a little in July but only a little.

136PaulCranswick
Jul 31, 2021, 8:09 pm

>131 richardderus: Thanks RD. Your disdain for Chuckles especially is a source of fondness as far as I am concerned (on my part of course not from you to CD).

I think you are right about the novels of our youth often not being relatable to the youth of today. I will be interested to see which 21st century novels of the first 20 years thereof will be taught in school literature classes in another 20 years time.

>132 amanda4242: You contrary, Amanda?!

Richard does have a point about our influences being important in appreciating literature. My background, upbringing and early reading set me on a path of enjoying poetry from the British Isles as its concerns are relatable. I can relate to The Old Man and the Sea and the works by Steinbeck as their concerns seem more universal (even though Steinbeck's books identify with the American poor) whilst somehow The Great Gatsby and Catcher in the Rye don't touch me as they feel distinctly American.

137amanda4242
Editado: Jul 31, 2021, 10:18 pm

>136 PaulCranswick: I agree that our influences do contribute to our tastes in literature, although in my case my utter hatred for the town I grew up in meant I disdained what my classmates were reading and developed a taste for whatever I was told I shouldn't be reading. I remember a few girls in high school trying to seem sophisticated by walking around with copies of The Perks of Being a Wallflower while I just rolled my eyes and went back to Trainspotting and American Psycho. I will forever maintain my reading gave me a much better education by teaching me to never try heroin or trust a yuppie.

And you bring up something important when you say you find the concerns of works from the British Isles relatable: where a book comes from can be just as important as when it was written. I look at lists of books people are currently agitating to have taught in US schools and despair because so many of them are set in major cities, mostly on the East Coast. I was born, raised, and continue to live in small towns in central California and the concerns of books set in metropolitan areas are far more alien to me than those of, say, The Grapes of Wrath: I was born nearly half a century after Steinbeck wrote it, but I understand it because I can look out my bedroom window and see the places he was writing about.

138PaulCranswick
Jul 31, 2021, 10:28 pm

>137 amanda4242: What a great post, Amanda.

I will forever maintain my reading gave me a much better education by teaching me to never try heroin or trust a yuppie.
Reason enough to instil a love in the books you love.

America is such a rich brew of cultures, tastes and influences that even the term "American Literature" is probably a tad facile, isn't it? Whereas the UK even in its burgeoning and welcome diversity remains more homgeneous.

139richardderus
Jul 31, 2021, 11:06 pm

>137 amanda4242:, >136 PaulCranswick:, >132 amanda4242: The institutional inertia of several generations'-worth of teaching materials, established rights relationships, and entrenched test-score results mean the curriculum will stay the same until there's enough fuss to require change. This is the way industrial systems work, and while it is internally logical, it's not particularly good at turning out involved, eager learners.

I wonder what large industrial system would be, though.

140amanda4242
Editado: Jul 31, 2021, 11:33 pm

>139 richardderus: The institutional inertia of several generations'-worth of teaching materials, established rights relationships, and entrenched test-score results mean the curriculum will stay the same until there's enough fuss to require change.

Yep, and by the time the books to add to the curriculum are identified, approved, acquired, and lessons for them are created, they will themselves be outdated. *sigh* Perhaps we should just chuck the lit classes, funnel that money to libraries, and tell students to read whatever the hell they like.

141PaulCranswick
Ago 1, 2021, 12:26 am

>139 richardderus: Sad but doubtless true, RD.

>140 amanda4242: Chuck lit classes?!!! Let the books be outdated, I don't want to do art or woodwork or technical drawing or heaven forfend physics!

142amanda4242
Ago 1, 2021, 12:30 am

>141 PaulCranswick: The time formerly dedicated to literature classes would be replaced by an equal amount of time at the library.

143PaulCranswick
Ago 1, 2021, 12:37 am

>142 amanda4242: Yay!!! Then scrub the classes by all means and I'll go read what I like.

144PaulCranswick
Ago 1, 2021, 12:43 am

BOOK #85



The Devil's Pool by George Sand
Publication Date : 1846
Origin of Author : France

Challenges :
Queen Vic : 15/64

Sorry EA Poe but this is much more my idea of what a short novel should be. Simple but effective and satisfying tale of a ploughman widower setting towards re-marriage in rural France.

Not exactly on a par with Of Mice and Men but certainly something I will probably re-read one fine day.

Recommended.

145PaulCranswick
Editado: Set 1, 2021, 10:04 pm

JULY READING ROUND-UP

Twas a fairly average reading month in all honesty but considering work and vaccinations etc, I cannot complain too much.

BOOKS READ : 12 (YEAR TO DATE 85)

PAGES READ : 3,372 PAGES (YEAR TO DATE 22,301)

PAGES PER DAY : 108.77 PAGES (YEAR TO DATE 105.19)

LONGEST BOOK : 417 PAGES (THE QUALITY OF MADNESS)

SHORTEST BOOK : 85 PAGES (RENDANG)

AVERAGE BOOK LENGTH : 281.00

BOOKS BY MEN : 7

BOOKS BY WOMEN : 5

ORIGIN OF AUTHORS : 5 UK ; 4 USA ; 1 FRANCE, CUBA, MAURITANIA

BRITISH AUTHOR CHALLENGE : 3 BOOKS
PULITZER WINNERS :
AMERICAN AUTHOR CHALLENGE :
1001 BOOKS FIRST ED : 1 BOOK
NEW NOBEL WINNERS :
QUEEN VIC BOOKS : 2 BOOKS
QUEEN BETTY BOOKS : 3 BOOKS
AROUND THE WORLD BOOKS : 2 COUNTRIES

BOOK OF THE MONTH :

I'm quite sure of my choice this month

The Queen of Attolia by Megan Whalen Turner

146quondame
Ago 1, 2021, 1:08 am

>137 amanda4242: Since the majority of US residents live in large cities it's not inappropriate that those books should be considered. And it's not bad to get some exposure to different environments even for those who have no plans to live in the city. Not that books can give the real feel of life of place you've never lived, but having a variety of settings, rural, suburb, city and some different time spans has got to be better.

Of course one of my pet peeves is the notion that city dwellers are somehow less American than small town or rural folk.

147PaulCranswick
Ago 1, 2021, 1:25 am

>146 quondame: Getting a good balance of books in any curriculum selection is essential I think, Susan. For my English Literature A Level back in the day (1983) these were the books on offer:

1 Richard II, King Lear, Hamlet
2 Volpone by Ben Jonson
3 Wuthering Heights, The Go Between and Return of the Native
4 The Songs of Innocence and Experience, The Merchant's Tale and The Waste Land

I thought then and I still do now that it was a good mix even though it was possibly too much to study nine texts over effectively 5 semesters. Especially so as you only had to answer on (if I remember correctly, 4 of them).

Having checked the A AS Syllabus for 2021 it seems to have been both modernised as well as internationalised with writers like Ngugi Wa Thiongo, Wole Soyinka, Arthur Miller, Derek Walcott and Owen Sheers included and the subject broadened over four papers.



148amanda4242
Editado: Ago 1, 2021, 2:34 am

>146 quondame: Of course one of my pet peeves is the notion that city dwellers are somehow less American than small town or rural folk.

I share your annoyance with that absurd belief. I have no more patience with romanticized visions of small town life than I do with glamorized views of city life. I'm all in favor of variety and believe reading is an excellent way to expand one's horizons, but it would have been nice if I had been assigned at least one book that even remotely resembled my life.

149PaulCranswick
Ago 1, 2021, 2:41 am

>148 amanda4242: I think that we only want art to imitate life to a certain extent but we do occasionally want to see a glimmer of our lives in that art for it have context.

150PaulCranswick
Ago 1, 2021, 2:42 am



I'm a long way from home but I will always be a Yorkshireman and 1 August is Yorkshire Day.

151quondame
Ago 1, 2021, 2:45 am

>147 PaulCranswick: It's hard not to notice the dead European white in that list and well, with one exception, men. The later doesn't add any women.

152quondame
Ago 1, 2021, 2:54 am

>148 amanda4242: I much preferred books that didn't resemble my life, but really nothing else was on offer as growing up on a military base that hadn't existed a decade before I was born where no one had cousins or grandparents living withing easy visiting distance was not in the general way of things. Dysfunctional families are everywhere, of course, but but most of those were heavy for our high schools. I'm pretty sure Catcher in the Rye wasn't considered for our curriculum.

153quondame
Ago 1, 2021, 2:56 am

>150 PaulCranswick: Happy Yorkshire Day! May you be reunited at least temporarily before the next!

154amanda4242
Ago 1, 2021, 2:56 am

>150 PaulCranswick: So much green! So beautiful!

155PaulCranswick
Ago 1, 2021, 3:21 am

>151 quondame: My bad for not publishing the full lists, Susan. They have included Andrea Levy, Gillian Clarke, Barbara Kingsolver, Jackie Kay, Jane Austen and Margaret Atwood too which is pretty diverse to be fair.

>152 quondame: I grew up in Northern England in an era of "Kitchen Sink Drama" and the "Angry Young Men" both of which gave hope to a callow youth that it wasn't just the privileged private school plonkers who get get their voices heard. Storey, Braine, Sillitoe, Delany, Dunn, Barstow, Waterhouse, Hines, etc were all of similar backgrounds to me.

156PaulCranswick
Ago 1, 2021, 3:23 am

>153 quondame: I will say a big amen, to that Susan, well I would if I was much of a praying man.

>154 amanda4242: Yorkshire has, to some people, an image of grim factories and grey cobblestoned streets but it is an enchanting and diverse part of the Universe. As we say up there - God's Country.

157SirThomas
Ago 1, 2021, 3:23 am

Happy Yorkshire Day, Paul - May your plans succeed.

158PaulCranswick
Ago 1, 2021, 4:43 am

BOOK #86



Poetry Please! edited by Charles Causley
Date of Publication : 1985
Origin of Editor : UK
Pages : 113 pp

Challenges :
Poetry : 8/12
52 Book Club : 30/52
Queen Betty Challenge : 31/70

Late morning and I knew I would be taking Erni to the University College Hospital for her second dose of Sinovac vaccine. I took this old faithful with me because it is about time it got a re-read.
I found myself declaiming some of the re-remembered verses in the safety of the Honda as I waited for her to be done with her injections.

The anthology arose from a celebrated BBC Radio Four programme where people requested favourite poems. One thing I always liked about this one was that, whilst most of my favourite poets were represented (since it was more "formal" in its construct the real moderns such as Eliot, Hughes and Heaney are not there as the British public overwhelmingly seemed to equate poetry only where rhyme was involved) usually my absolute favourites by each poet is not selected and there are some gems from poets I am much less familiar with. Some of the longer narrative stuff is presented in abstract form but we do have the whole of Gray's Elegy to enjoy.

Lovely stuff and it has set me up for an enjoyable Sunday and, hopefully, a good reading August.
Here is a slightly less well known poet, Alice Meynell and "Renouncement"

I must not think of thee; and, tired yet strong,
I shun the thought that lurks in all delight—
The thought of thee—and in the blue heaven's height,
And in the sweetest passage of a song.
Oh, just beyond the fairest thoughts that throng
This breast, the thought of thee waits hidden yet bright;
But it must never, never come in sight;
I must stop short of thee the whole day long.
But when sleep comes to close each difficult day,
When night gives pause to the long watch I keep,
And all my bonds I needs must loose apart,
Must doff my will as raiment laid away,—
With the first dream that comes with the first sleep
I run, I run, I am gathered to thy heart.


I re-read this anthology due to my 52 Book Club Challenge which has a 5-Star read included in it. This I knew before the off was that.

159PaulCranswick
Ago 1, 2021, 4:44 am

>157 SirThomas: Thanks Thomas - hope one day to be able to invite you to Yorkshire's shady glades.

160elkiedee
Ago 1, 2021, 5:41 am

5 terms not 5 semesters surely? There are 3 terms but only 2 semesters in an academic year. We had 7 texts I think and 3 papers, and we had to answer questions over those on everything. Did your school do JMB or a different exam board? (Paul and I come from places just a few miles apart and most of my exams were set by a board which was linked to 5 universities in the region including Leeds (my home city) and Manchester where I was a student.

We had
just 2 Shakespeare plays: Antony and Cleopatra and King Lear
1 novel: 3 seems a lot Mansfield Park
3 poetry texts: Philip Larkin, The Whitsun Weddings, Tennyson: a specific selection, John Donne, a specific and not very large selection, love poems not including his To His Mistress for some reason! or his religious work
2 Arthur Miller plays but as one text: A View from the Bridge and All My Sons

161elkiedee
Ago 1, 2021, 5:45 am

Poetry Please is still on Radio 4. It's now hosted by Roger McGough, who this week had his old friend The Mersey Sound Brian Patten on.

162PaulCranswick
Editado: Ago 1, 2021, 6:02 am

>160 elkiedee: You are right, Luci, I meant terms. I can't remember whether the A Levels were JMB, AEB or Cambridge but the O' Levels were all JMB. I think the A Levels were too. Arthur Miller's All My Sons was back on the list again that I saw today which was from Cambridge.

https://www.endazeinternationalschool.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/As-A-Level-...

This is interesting which is a review of the 1977 JMB English A Level Papers and they seem to be referring to sixteen texts! I guess it has gotten easier with the passage of time.

https://www.taskerdunham.com/2016/05/a-level-english-1977.html

For some reason I couldn't find the 83/84 papers online and I cannot find the current JMB syllabus.

163PaulCranswick
Ago 1, 2021, 6:07 am

>161 elkiedee: That is great to know, Luci. I have been away from the UK for 27 years so I am pleased to see that BBC Radio Four has maintained standards! I have books by McGough on the shelves and also the Penguin Modern Poets The Mersey Sound with McGough, Brian Patten and Adrian Henri.

164elkiedee
Ago 1, 2021, 7:22 am

I love The Mersey Sound. I met Adrian Henri a couple of times in the early 90s, and went to a poetry gig in Leeds. Sadly he died about 20 years ago.

165PaulCranswick
Ago 1, 2021, 9:06 am

>164 elkiedee: It has been an ever present on my shelves since my teens, Luci, and I pick it up often to delve into its ample charms.

166SirThomas
Ago 1, 2021, 10:18 am

>159 PaulCranswick: I am honored, Paul.

167PaulCranswick
Ago 1, 2021, 10:23 am

>166 SirThomas: Would be fun, Thomas. If I ever do get relocated I would plan one heck of a group meet-up

168SirThomas
Ago 1, 2021, 10:43 am

What a wonderful Idea, Paul!

169m.belljackson
Ago 1, 2021, 11:32 am

>150 PaulCranswick: Also, Melville's Birthday!

170richardderus
Ago 1, 2021, 12:03 pm

>150 PaulCranswick:
Hail to the Yorkie Pud.

171PaulCranswick
Ago 1, 2021, 12:15 pm

>168 SirThomas: Watch this space, Thomas.

>169 m.belljackson: I think in momentousness we can do better than Melville. It was on this day that Great Britain was properly formed via its Acts of Union and also the day that the same GB outlawed slavery throughout its then Empire. Of course it didn't apply to you Amerikuns as you had fought for your "freedom" a short while earlier.

Twas a good day for writers though as Stanley Middleton, Anne Hebert, Robert James Waller and David Gemmell all share the birthday as does the Emperor Claudius and Yves Saint Laurent.

172PaulCranswick
Ago 1, 2021, 12:20 pm

>170 richardderus: Which is completely wonderful filled with onion gravy or beef stew:

173richardderus
Ago 1, 2021, 2:55 pm

>172 PaulCranswick:
And then there's toad in the hole, which is the Divine's promissory note regarding Heaven's reality.

174quondame
Editado: Ago 1, 2021, 4:38 pm

>170 richardderus: Oh yum! Gravy please!

>173 richardderus: Oh that's toad in the hole! Even yummer!

175Caroline_McElwee
Ago 1, 2021, 5:06 pm

How is Kyran doing with his reading pile, Paul? Hits and misses?

176PaulCranswick
Ago 1, 2021, 7:43 pm

>173 richardderus: I have to agree, RD, that toad-in-the-hole takes us closer to the divine!

>174 quondame: Very versatile objects are the good old Yorkshire puddings, Susan.

177PaulCranswick
Ago 1, 2021, 7:44 pm

>175 Caroline_McElwee: He is an object of inertia, Caroline! Still hasn't finished book #1 which is the Hemingway. Tsk!

178richardderus
Ago 1, 2021, 8:11 pm

>177 PaulCranswick: ...impossible to blame the man...

179PaulCranswick
Ago 1, 2021, 8:14 pm

>178 richardderus: I told him to start someplace else but he thought he'd rip through Hemingway. Mmmmm.

180benitastrnad
Ago 2, 2021, 2:21 pm

I am now in Kansas and along the way I started Book 5 in the Potty Harry series. This is the longest one, and again I find it short on plot and great on details. I will finish listening to it on my way back to Alabama next week.

181PaulCranswick
Ago 2, 2021, 2:26 pm

>180 benitastrnad: I have to say, Benita, that I am not against the books nowadays after reading and enjoying the first one. Will read more of them but not yet.

Have a safe trip. xx

182connie53
Ago 3, 2021, 4:54 am

How did I miss your Thread, Paul??!! But I'm up to date now.

183PaulCranswick
Ago 3, 2021, 6:32 am

No problem, Connie, you have had a lot on your plate and my threads do rather tend to tick along.

184m.belljackson
Ago 3, 2021, 10:55 am

>181 PaulCranswick: Do my eyes deceive me?!? And HARRY did not win Book of the Month?!? Quel domage.

185PaulCranswick
Ago 3, 2021, 11:26 am

>184 m.belljackson: Nowhere near as good as The Thief series by Meghan Whalen Turner IMHO, Marianne.

I did enjoy Potty Harry episode one but Eugenides 2&3 were generationally better.

186kidzdoc
Editado: Ago 3, 2021, 10:42 pm

I unintentionally nearly incited an international incident six years ago, when I met several current and past British 75ers in a pub called The Fighting Cocks in Wendens Ambo, close to Audley End railway station and the market town of Saffron Walden. In attendance were Fliss, Bryony, Rhian, her husband Alan, and Jenny. The meetup was prompted by my declaration that I had never had a proper Sunday roast, so we met at that very nice pub to start our day. I tasted Yorkshire pudding for the first time, and unwittingly said something like, "Oh! This is the same thing as an unsweetened popover." Alan, a proud Yorkshireman, nearly choked on what he was eating as I recall, and protested vigorously, though goodheartedly, as the others laughed at my comment and his response.



No insult was intended, as I love popovers, and I still mourn the closure of the beloved Popover Café on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, one of my all time favorite NYC restaurants, and the establishment where an old girlfriend and I frequently had Sunday brunches three decades ago. Zoë and I met for breakfast there not long before it closed, and I suspect several other New Yorkers in LT will also remember it both fondly and sadly.



I suppose that popovers, at least the ones served at the Popover Café, are considerably larger and fluffier than Yorkshire pudding.

187quondame
Ago 3, 2021, 10:35 pm

>186 kidzdoc: I've only ever had popovers with no sugar - in fact the recipe in our family was identical to Yorkshire pudding, only smaller so more crunchy bits. Of course there were also German pancakes, which were sweet and cooked flat from a somewhat more fluid batter.
All foods for the gods to envy.

188kidzdoc
Ago 3, 2021, 10:44 pm

>187 quondame: Yum. Those mini popovers sound delightful! I think I've only had them at the Popover Café, so I have nothing to compare them to.

189PaulCranswick
Ago 4, 2021, 12:57 am

>186 kidzdoc: Lovely story, Darryl and great to see you in these humble parts. Mr SandDune shares with me in a love of a certain football team who are doing well again and is a avid student (well teacher in fact) of history. He recommended Dominion to me a good while ago and I loved it.

I must be honest and admit that I had not heard of popovers before but they do appear to be essentially the same as Yorkshire Puddings. Depending upon taste they can be made as fluffy as the one your friend is wearing in NYC!

>187 quondame: Gosh I am hungry now, Susan, reading these posts and may change my lunch plans accordingly!

190PaulCranswick
Ago 4, 2021, 12:59 am

>188 kidzdoc: I guess, Darryl, the next time we can get together, we'll more than likely have relocated back to the UK. I'll have Hani invite you up for dinner and have her do her version of the puddings for your delectation.

191kidzdoc
Ago 4, 2021, 7:08 am

>189 PaulCranswick: Thanks, Paul. Since (1) Alan ("MrSandDune") recommended Dominion to you, (2) you liked it, and (3) the US Kindle version of it is currently selling for $2.99 I went ahead and bought it just now. He's a great guy, and I've been in his and Rhian's company at least four other times: twice to see plays in London, at the National Theatre and the Young Vic; one in Cambridge to see a play; and once for Sunday roast in their home. Hopefully we'll all be able to meet up again when I return to London in October (fingers crossed that the resurgence of the pandemic won't scuttle those plans).

Popovers (which I think were created in the United States, though well after Yorkshire pudding, I'm sure) are served with plain or apple butter and jam, and the Popover Café typically served them as an accompaniment to a breakfast or brunch entrée.

That second photo came from the Internet, and I don't know that lovely young woman, who I'm sure was half my age or less when that photo was taken at the Popover Café, probably not long before it closed in 2014 or 2015. I have the same remorse about this restaurant's closing as I do about Café Also in Golders Green, North London, where we all met for that epic Sunday brunch several years ago. The Popover Café was my favorite neighborhood breakfast/brunch spot in Manhattan, and Café Also fit the same bill in London. (Fortunately, Revival, my favorite Atlanta area spot for breakfast and brunch, which serves fabulous Southern cuisine in a century old converted ranch home just east of the city, remains open and is still thriving.) Hopefully we can find similar places that we love nearly as much in both of those great cities.

>190 PaulCranswick: I would love to try Hanni's cooking! Her photos on Facebook and Instagram are intoxicating, as are Caroline's; a few days ago I mentioned to Katie that Caroline's is the finest dining establishment in the Boston area, as I've had the pleasure to have at least three dinners in her home in past years. I know quite a few people who can cook, but she's at the top of the list, and Hanni looks to be her equal.

192PaulCranswick
Ago 4, 2021, 8:33 am

>191 kidzdoc: Alan is a great guy, Darryl, spot on. I hosted Rhian, Alan and their son J in Kuala Lumpur a good number of years ago and we had a really enjoyable Vietnamese meal together. I met them the following day and gave a quick tour of Kinokuniya bookstore (I probably bought one or two and I am fairly sure that Rhian got herself some Sci-Fi).

Isn't it sad how this pandemic has impacted so many tremendous eateries, but we forget that they were closing in great number even before then.

You should see Caro and Hani together attacking food in a restaurant! I've probably taken the pair of them out for dinner half a dozen times and I rarely get a look in food wise. Of course they both originate from the City State of Singapore which, I have to say, is a temple of the culinary arts.

193kidzdoc
Ago 4, 2021, 10:06 am

>192 PaulCranswick: Excellent! I didn't know that you've met Rhian and her family, but I'm glad that you did; they are high quality people, and I'm proud to call them good friends.

Yes! There are several other favorite restaurants of mine that have closed recently, in London and elsewhere. Debbi, Joe & Claire in particular will be saddened to know that tibits, a small chain of Zürich based vegetarian restaurants that permitted you to choose your own items, is another victim of the pandemic. We liked to go there if we visited Tate Modern or saw a performance at Shakespeare's Globe. Fortunately Bala Baya, a new favorite restaurant in Southwark that serves cuisine from Tel Aviv, is still going strong.

Ha! If I can say so without risking my own life, Caroline can chow down with the best of them. Given what I know about her and seen from Hani I would have to agree that Singapore must be one of the great centers of the culinary arts.

194richardderus
Ago 4, 2021, 10:27 am

Oh, the Popover Café was delightful...I used to love the ritual of rolling out of bed, getting the Sunday Times, and wandering there for brunch at eleven-ish. The maitre d' was a pal and I always got a seat.

Happy times!

Hey PC, how's it hangin'.

195kidzdoc
Editado: Ago 4, 2021, 11:35 am

>194 richardderus: Yes!! The Popover Café was one of NYC's best neighborhood restaurants. It's a tragedy that the steep increase in its rent led to its permanent closure.

196PaulCranswick
Ago 4, 2021, 6:56 pm

>193 kidzdoc: We lost a Japanese restaurant and a Korean restaurant in Johor Bahru which both were like home cooked food and especially the latter which was actually situated in the owners private home. I always try and think of somewhere "different" to go to when Caro is in town and we have had several tremendous meals both in quality and quantity! I don't suppose I would be easily bested in an eating contest either!

>194 richardderus: Ohhhh the Sunday papers!........how I miss the Observer on Sundays and chewing through it at my leisure.

I'm doing OK, RD and all the better for your visit.

197PaulCranswick
Ago 4, 2021, 7:00 pm

>195 kidzdoc: One benefit of the pandemic here, Darryl, has been a re-adjustment down of rentals. I am paying 60% of the rent that I would have been paying two years ago for the same property. Of course the rental falls for commercial properties is largely immaterial when they are not allowed to fully operate.

198weird_O
Ago 4, 2021, 8:21 pm

Judi made popovers from time to time. I recall we'd usually butter them (KerryGold would be ideal) or pour on (in) honey or maple syrup. Just another part of the country heard from. I could eat two or three popovers right now.

199PaulCranswick
Ago 4, 2021, 9:03 pm

>198 weird_O: Me too, Bill. The thought of those filled with maple syrup is deliciously wicked.

200banjo123
Ago 4, 2021, 10:05 pm

Hi Paul! My mom used to make popovers, for breakfast with butter and syrup. I had to stop eating them due to an egg allergy, but yes, I think they are a lot like a Yorkshire Pudding.

The Covid has been hard on restaurants, but I am hoping that the food and nightlife spring back soon!

201PaulCranswick
Ago 4, 2021, 10:20 pm

>200 banjo123: As you probably know by now, Rhonda, good food is a passion of mine much to the chagrin of my waistline and I will be so pleased when we are allowed to indulge ourselves like the old days in repasts that are as glorious as they are protracted.

202PaulCranswick
Ago 4, 2021, 11:36 pm

BOOK #87



The Night Watchman by Louise Erdrich
Date of Publication : 2020
Origin of Author : USA
Pages : 448 pp

Challenges :
AAC : 2/12
Pulitzer : 2 (19)

Was this the finest American novel published in 2020? I'm not sure about that but it is certainly a fine one.

It is basically a novel of two main strands - one is the search for a missing sister of the Chippewa tribe in the Twin Cities and secondly the fight to stop the Turtle Mountain band being "terminated" or "emancipated" (both euphemisms for cheating them of their land).

The book is told from a series of perspectives and introduces us to several memorable characters : Pixie/Patrice - wise and defiant but innocent of the ways of the world
Thomas - the Night Watchman of the title who leads the "fight" against the emancipation with dignity equalling his despair
Wood Mountain - unsuccessful boxer and big hearted man who gives his heart too easily

I'm not sure that this was quite the equal of her earlier novel The Round House but it is a near run thing.

Recommended.

203SilverWolf28
Ago 5, 2021, 2:12 pm

Here's the next readathon: https://www.librarything.com/topic/334178

204SandDune
Ago 5, 2021, 3:11 pm

>186 kidzdoc: >189 PaulCranswick: I remember that day well Darryl! Mr SandDune was not enamoured of sugar on Yorkshire puddings, … and wasn’t there some talk of jam on Yorkshire pudding as well? I’m sure Paul as a proud Yorkshireman would be equally appalled by that idea!

205weird_O
Ago 5, 2021, 6:41 pm

>202 PaulCranswick: I just started The Round House yesterday. Coincidence. It'll be the second Erdrich novel I've read, the first being The Plague of Doves. I liked that a lot, and stocked up on other Erdrich titles as I came across them. But it has taken me almost six years to actually read a second. AAC involved in getting me to read Erdrich both times.

206LovingLit
Ago 5, 2021, 6:44 pm

>93 PaulCranswick: lol- love your review of the Poe novel. Reminds me, I must read the Raven.

>172 PaulCranswick: I could go a Yorkshire Pudding if they all looked like that!

^ I haven't had much luck with Louise Erdrich but feel I should persevere.

207PaulCranswick
Ago 5, 2021, 6:50 pm

>203 SilverWolf28: Thanks Silver!

>204 SandDune: Call it a popover and I'll see it filled with maple syrup, Rhian, but Yorkshire puddings are savoury delights and to be respected as such!

208PaulCranswick
Ago 5, 2021, 6:55 pm

>205 weird_O: There is a smidgeon of magic realism, Bill, but for the most part it is just good old-fashioned story telling.

>206 LovingLit: I was being a bit churlish with Poe, but Pym did seriously irritate.

209kidzdoc
Editado: Ago 5, 2021, 9:41 pm

>204 SandDune: Ha! Did I say that I would want to try putting sugar or jam on Yorkshire pudding?! If so I was only joking; that wouldn't have tasted good! Jam on a popover is a completely different story, though.

ETA: I also won't soon forget the huge glass door that exploded while we had dinner at Strada before we saw a play at the National Theatre.

210PaulCranswick
Ago 5, 2021, 11:21 pm

>209 kidzdoc: I hope that the two events - sugar on the puddings and the retaliatory attack on the Strada glass door are entirely unrelated!

211SirThomas
Ago 6, 2021, 1:48 am

Now you've made me curious about Louise Erdrich - and hungry.
Thank you and best wishes!

212PaulCranswick
Ago 6, 2021, 2:19 am

>211 SirThomas: I hope that I won't be blamed if he eat her, Thomas!

213SirThomas
Ago 6, 2021, 3:02 am

I hope it will be a devour.
But she probably won't notice anything about it....

214PaulCranswick
Ago 6, 2021, 6:14 am

BOOK #88



Fifteen Decisive Battles of the World by Edward Shepherd Creasy
Date of Publication : 1851
Origin of Author : UK
Pages : 380 pp

Challenges :
Queen Vic Challenge : 16/64
BAC Challenge : 42 books
British Historians : 4/12

Eminently readable, informative if hyperbolic dissection of what Creasy considered to be the Fifteen most decisive battles in history.

Written in 1851 there may be some updating needed following that horrendous century that succeeded its publication but we go from Marathon to Waterloo in a chronological slugfest. Creasy was for the time, and here I'm sure his personal prejudices came into play, to stress the Germanic nature and roots of the British peoples. Manifestly ironic considering what would follow.

Not just a rousing piece of patriotism as Creasy does reflect upon Hastings, the success of Joan of Arc and the defeat of Burgoyne at Saratoga, the writer does manage to be balanced as well as opinionated which historians of today should try more often to follow.

215PaulCranswick
Ago 6, 2021, 6:14 am

>213 SirThomas: Hahaha - I'm sure that you will like her books, Thomas.

216PaulCranswick
Ago 7, 2021, 11:45 am

BOOK #89



Death of Kings by Bernard Cornwell
Date of Publication : 2011
Origin of Author : UK
Pages : 380 pp

Challenges :
BAC (August) : 43 books
Series Pair : 11/24

I think I prefer the Uhtred of Bebbanburg books over the Sharpe series though both are great value. Cornwell does a splendid job of weaving the story of (apparently) his embellished ancestor into the known history of the formation of England.

Our hero is indestructible even though he faces the gore and sweat and snot of the shield wall umpteen times in every episodes and almost as irresistible to the fairer sex.

Alfred is dying and his enemies hover hoping to overrun a weakened kingdom of Wessex.

217PaulCranswick
Editado: Ago 7, 2021, 12:35 pm

Had a measured and restrained visit to the bookstore this afternoon and added :

208. Notes on Grief by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
209. Here We Are by Graham Swift
210. Deaths of the Poets by Paul Farley and Michael Symmons Roberts

Two writers who I always buy as soon as I see them in the stores in Adichie and Swift (and I started reading Adichie in the queue already!) and a book on a subject that I have written about quite a bit - the passing of poets.

218PaulCranswick
Ago 7, 2021, 12:12 pm


219Caroline_McElwee
Ago 7, 2021, 2:58 pm

>217 PaulCranswick: You will make me go and stand in the naughty corner Paul. I went into a bookshop yesterday, and came away empty handed!

However, maybe I made amends, as I've just dropped The Deaths of Poets into my shopping cart. Thanks for that!

As is to be expected, the Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie is fine.

220PaulCranswick
Ago 7, 2021, 7:19 pm

>219 Caroline_McElwee: I did spend ages in the bookshop yesterday especially going up and down the "literature" shelves and planning future buys as well. Kino is well stocked in such regard having 26 sets of shelves with six rows per shelf and a further 5 shelves of 4 rows. 176 rows of books (probably about 5,000 books) of which 38 rows are "Asian Literature". So I am spoiled for choice a little.

221kidzdoc
Ago 7, 2021, 9:58 pm

You should probably buy one or two boxes of facial tissue before you start Notes on Grief. It's a superb book, but I found it to be deeply moving as well.

222PaulCranswick
Editado: Ago 7, 2021, 10:14 pm

BOOK # 90



Notes on Grief by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Date of Publication : 2021
Origin of Author : Nigeria
Pages : 85 pp

Challenges :
Around the World Challenge : 35th Country
52 Book Club Challenge : 31/52

I have championed Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's writing for the last decade and this short and immensely moving memorial to her father and the nature of grief at his passing underscores my view that she is one of the leading people of letters of present times.

I myself lost a person extremely near and dear to me so unexpectedly this year and was left dealing with its aftermath together with its huge impact upon self. I can therefore empathise and take meaning for myself from the words and thoughts of this great writer.

Over 85 pages the love, the remembrance, the anger and the pain is so clearly enunciated that it almost feels intrusive. The shock at the sudden loss and the desperate yearning to be there at a time when the world conspired to prevent it.

"Grief is a cruel kind of education. You learn how ungentle mourning can be, how full of anger. You learn how glib condolences can feel. You learn how much grief is about language, the failure of language and the grasping for language."

"For the rest of my life, I will live with my hands outstretched for things that are no longer there."

That's it. That's it entirely.

223PaulCranswick
Ago 7, 2021, 10:13 pm

>221 kidzdoc: I couldn't wait, Darryl.

As you probably can tell from my review, it did move me to tears.

I really hope that I am remembered and loved by my daughters as James Nwoye Adichie is by his.

224jessibud2
Ago 7, 2021, 10:17 pm

>222 PaulCranswick:, >223 PaulCranswick: - And the even bigger tragedy for Adichie is that, shortly after she wrote this book (if my memory of the timing is correct), she also lost her mother. I can't even imagine....

225PaulCranswick
Ago 7, 2021, 10:31 pm

>224 jessibud2: That is so sad, Shelley. He recollections of some of her mum's reactions to her father's dying represented some most touching parts of her book.

226Caroline_McElwee
Ago 8, 2021, 1:25 am

>224 jessibud2: Yes, she did Shelley. Terribly sad.

227PaulCranswick
Editado: Ago 8, 2021, 7:44 am

>226 Caroline_McElwee: Some people have a greater facility with words than others but often they are expressing a pain we can all relate to equally.

228laytonwoman3rd
Ago 8, 2021, 11:17 am

>222 PaulCranswick: "For the rest of my life, I will live with my hands outstretched for things that are no longer there." So simple, yet so profound. I will have to seek this one out. Adichie is marvelous, and I will always read what she writes.

229arubabookwoman
Ago 8, 2021, 5:34 pm

I am dipping my toes back into LT after several months away and trying to catch up. Your thread moves so quickly. Just a few days (a week?) back you were listing favorites. I would hesitate to try to come up with such lists for myself, but many of the authors you list would be on one or another of my lists. Except for Milan Kundera. Cannot stand him, though admittedly I've only read one book by him--The Unbearable Lightness of Being. Would you suggest that my mind could be changed by another.
Moving quickly on to food, particularly Yorkshire Pudding, all I can say is "Yum!"
And thank you for the review on the book on grief. It sounds exquisite.

230PaulCranswick
Ago 8, 2021, 7:25 pm

>228 laytonwoman3rd: I have a habit of remembering poetry, Linda, and much of Adichie's little book was poetic. Almost a privilege to read.

>229 arubabookwoman: Lovely to see you, Deborah!

In all honesty I must say that if you didn't care for The Unbearable Lightness of Being then I don't see any of his other books working for you either.

231PaulCranswick
Ago 8, 2021, 9:00 pm

BOOK #91



The Pagan Lord by Bernard Cornwell
Date of Publication : 2013
Origin of Author : UK
Pages : 345 pp

Challenges
British Author Challenge : 43
Series Pair Challenge : 10/24

Hard to believe that this is #7 in the series but Uhtred is already getting old!

Danish scheming is preparing to end several years of peace and Uhtred unwittingly stumbles upon their schemes whilst getting himself into troubles as usual.

Pretty much par for the course of a very decent historical series.

232PaulCranswick
Ago 8, 2021, 9:05 pm

Pretty good reading weekend as I managed to finish three books, albeit that Adichie's Notes on Grief was less than 100 pages - I did read over 800 pages in total and my six books in eight days so far in August is ahead of schedule.

233brenzi
Ago 8, 2021, 9:13 pm

Notes on Grief sounds wonderful Paul.

234PaulCranswick
Ago 8, 2021, 9:23 pm

>233 brenzi: It is short and sad and consoling all at the same time, Bonnie and, I guess, wonderful would also describe it. x

235amanda4242
Editado: Ago 8, 2021, 10:00 pm

>231 PaulCranswick: I'm almost finished with book three and already have number four on hand.

236PaulCranswick
Ago 8, 2021, 9:41 pm

>235 amanda4242: I figured if you took to them that you would soon leave me behind. Still I am seven books in.

237RBeffa
Ago 8, 2021, 9:55 pm

>222 PaulCranswick: I saw this as a recent release at my library. I will have to put it on my shortlist.

238PaulCranswick
Ago 8, 2021, 10:15 pm

>237 RBeffa: Less than two hours of reading, Ron, but very powerful.

239RBeffa
Ago 8, 2021, 10:26 pm

>71 PaulCranswick: This one, The King, was the highpoint of the series for me.

240PaulCranswick
Ago 8, 2021, 11:43 pm

>239 RBeffa: Yes, I could make a case for it out of the three I have read, but I think that, on balance my favourite was Queen. I loved the sweep and twists of it.

241karenmarie
Ago 9, 2021, 9:15 am

Hi Paul!

Are all your books happily on their shelves in your new apartment or is there still some shuffling to do?

242PaulCranswick
Ago 9, 2021, 9:24 am

>241 karenmarie: One of the reasons for the little blip in my July reading was due to organising my books and placing them on the shelves in alphabetical/chronological order. All completed, Karen.

I have only differentiated between poetry/plays and the rest as I tend to pick up the poetry on a regular basis and dip into something that a line in a book or a word in a conversation might remind me of.

243drneutron
Ago 9, 2021, 2:58 pm

>231 PaulCranswick: I haven't read his Saxon series - probably should get to it sometime.

244johnsimpson
Ago 9, 2021, 4:03 pm

Hi Paul, hope all is well with the Clan, we are both doing as fine as can be at the moment, what a shambles the Test was, apart from Root in the batting it was the same old story, changes have to be made.

Sending love and hugs to all of you from both of us dear friend.

245PaulCranswick
Ago 9, 2021, 9:03 pm

>243 drneutron: Would recommend them, Jim. Recognisable narrative drive from the Sharpe series but I think it is one that really must be read in order to best appreciate it.

>244 johnsimpson: Nice to see you, John and I hope all the good wishes and positive vibes are having a positive effect.
I always want England to win but this was a test match where we might have benefitted from a result and an eight wicket Indian win might just have forced the complacent group at the head of affairs to act. I am extremely disappointed in Silverwood who has shown no initiative and nothing new in his role. Really a top "manager" would make an example of our top and middle order and clear out the lot of them excepting Root. The other problem of course being that we do not have a captain. Root holds up the batting but he is a disaster as a captain - his decision to bowl Sam Curran at an attacking tail-end instead of using his two best bowlers in tandem to clear them out cost us a vital 30 runs or so and would have given us a more defendable total. He needs to be replaced as captain but with who? There is a case for Buttler, Broad and Burns but frankly none of the three really deserve their spots in the team at the moment. I would go left-field and bring back Moeen Ali and ask him to captain. Well liked, thoughtful and frankly needs to be in the all rounder spot at the moment with Stokes out. Sam Curran is just not good enough a bowler to play and his batting needs work shot selection wise.
Fly me in to replace Silverwood and this would be my team:

HAMEED
MALAN
LIVINGSTONE
ROOT
HILDRETH
ALI (CAPT)
DAVIES
WOAKES
ROBINSON
WOOD
ANDERSON

CARLSON, LIBBY, PARKINSON and BROAD in reserve and I would stick to this fifteen for the rest of the summer. Parkinson would play if we had a turner.

246humouress
Ago 10, 2021, 12:17 am

>242 PaulCranswick: Somehow, organising and reorganising my books gives me joy, somewhat akin to browsing through a bookshop. That and reading has reduced my LT time, lately.

I haven't seen any cricket lately - my family has been focussing on the Euros football and the Olympics - but when we do, it's usually one day or T-20 that my husband chooses. I'm surprised that they haven't got you and John managing the whole thing by now ;0)

247PaulCranswick
Ago 10, 2021, 4:55 am

>246 humouress: I won't be too immodest, Nina, and say that we couldn't do any worse.

248PaulCranswick
Ago 10, 2021, 7:25 am

My reading continues very much apace this month, I am pleased to report. I earlier managed to finished two books (reviews upcoming) and have another two well under way. 8 books in 9 days as at the end of the 9th and more than likely I'll be 10 books done in 11 days.

It is Awal Muharram or a new year in the Islamic Calendar today so I have had yet another public holiday to rest and read and eat Hani's latest cookie experiments. Together with a salad of lovely smoked mackerel after polishing off yesterday's chicken chili all enjoyed with Erni's wonderful coffee, the occasional peppermint tea and several glasses of water, I am a happy and satiated bunny.

249PaulCranswick
Ago 10, 2021, 7:37 am

BOOK #92



The Return by Dulce Maria Cardosa
Date of Publication : 2011
Origin of Author : Portugal
Pages : 267 pp

Challenges :
Around the World Challenge : 36th country
52 Book Club Challenge : 32/52

A family of four - father, mother, son and daughter are preparing to leave Angola which is in the throes of its race to independence and return to the Motherland. At the last moment the father is arrested and the remainder of the family must travel to unfamiliar Portugal alone.

Told from the perspective of the son, Cardosa does an able job of conveying the difficulty of them coming to terms with their new lives, the tribulations of being a young man growing up both with the stigma of a decaying empire (he echoes his father in blaming both the revolutionary government in Portugal and the blacks taking over the country) and the unfamiliarity of coping in alien surroundings without a father to guide him.

Cardosa clearly intends some of the quite blatant racial comments made to be representative of her character's prejudices rather than her own and satirises the stereotypes effectively. The anachronisms of a country the size of Portugal managing to keep hold of and administer land areas the size of Brazil, Mozambique and Uganda is still hardly credible and that is speaking as a Brit whose small island in the cold northern waters held an Empire the sun could not set upon.

Well worth a read.

250msf59
Ago 10, 2021, 8:02 am

Hi, Paul. Just checking in with my favorite Brit. I am glad you liked The Night Watchman. I am a big fan of Erdrich but this one fell a bit short for me. I much preferred The Round House.

251PaulCranswick
Editado: Ago 10, 2021, 8:19 am

BOOK #93



Here and Now : Poems by Stephen Dunn
Date Published : 2011
Origin of Author : USA
Pages : 103 pp

Stephen Dunn passed away at his Maryland home on 24 June this year on the day of his 82nd birthday. He had been suffering from Parkinson's disease.

He is a poet (present tense because his words live on) I was introduced to by a member of our group - Mary Beth - who has made sporadic appearances here over the last number of years and whose company in the 75ers I do miss. On the strength of her recommendations and personal recollections of being tutored by Dunn (and sharing a taxi with him one evening) I ordered one of his collections, liked it and ordered another - this one.

In many ways better than the earlier one I enjoyed, Dunn employed a prose-poetic style that is accessible, easily understandable but always poetic.

This is from the title poem "Here and Now" and he is an easily quotable poet.

Electricity may start things,
but if they’re to last
I’ve come to understand
a steady, low-voltage hum



of affection
must be arrived at. How else to offset
the occasional slide
into neglect and ill temper?
I learned, in time, to let heaven
go its mythy way, to never again



be a supplicant
of any single idea. For you and me
it’s here and now from here on in.
Nothing can save us, nor do we wish
to be saved.



Let night come
with its austere grandeur,
ancient superstitions and fears.
It can do us no harm.
We’ll put some music on,
open the curtains, let things darken
as they will.

He is a poet who deserved a much wider audience during his lifetime (even though he did win the Pulitzer his collections so often went under the radar) and I will certainly look out to collect his work.

252PaulCranswick
Ago 10, 2021, 8:17 am

>250 msf59: Great to see you, Mark.

I agree with you that The Round House was a better novel but I cannot say that it fell flat for me. She is a great storyteller.

I think that you would enjoy the poetry of Stephen Dunn, buddy.

253PaulCranswick
Ago 10, 2021, 8:21 am

The experience that lead up to me buying my first collection of Stephen Dunn poetry was the subject of a scribble by myself a number of years ago which I share below.

STEPHEN DUNN

It was Mary Beth who mentioned you
as you had shared her taxi –

The image that intrudes is flaxen hued
as you crest hillocks past darkening cornfields;
meter ticking,
wheels turning
an inevitable course ending with a terminal beginning.

In delicious poetic counterpoint;
as you write of place and the textures of home,
your book has travelled half a world into my hands.

RIP Stephen Dunn and thank you Mary Beth.

254richardderus
Ago 10, 2021, 3:18 pm

>251 PaulCranswick: Sooner I would die, thank you please.

>249 PaulCranswick: Sounds very good, if challenging...adolescent angst ticks me off and I find epithetry itchy no matter the purpose...can get over it, though, for the right writer. Cardosa gets an exploratory run.

255johnsimpson
Ago 10, 2021, 4:43 pm

>245 PaulCranswick:, Hi Paul, i have no doubt that if the weather had held we would probably have had at worst a six wicket loss and hopefully serious changes would have been made. Hameed has been seriously mentioned as coming into the Test side and today Moeen has been brought back in. Hameed has matured over the last couple of years and can keep the board ticking over whereas Sibley is a Tavare clone.

I fully agree with your Test squad selection, not only have we to try and win this series but we have the old enemy, Australia awaiting us. Their second string T20 team has been humbled in Bangladesh and so they will be gunning to do well in the T20 World Cup and relishing a potentially struggling England side. Sadly, apart from Hameed and Moeen, i don't think there will be anymore changes until the third Test or Possibly the fourth Test the way the hierachy behaves.

Things are steady mate, taking things day to day, and we are away from the 16th to the 21st down in Salisbury and Monday nights meal is at the Bat and Ball pub in Fordingbridge, a pub owned by a South African who is Cricket mad and i will be having some Bobotie.

256PaulCranswick
Ago 10, 2021, 4:46 pm

>254 richardderus: The two books were a contrast, RD, but I think I preferred the poultry altogether.

257PaulCranswick
Ago 10, 2021, 4:52 pm

>255 johnsimpson: The trip away sounds great, John. Enjoy.

The (dis)organisation of the cricketing calendar doesn't help does it? I am of course not a fan of the Hundred which is a complete waste of space IMHO. T20 games are enough if you just want a slog-fest. First Class cricket should be played on a weekly basis throughout the Summer with a T20 type Sunday League and the one-day knock-out cup.

I also don't like the penchant nowadays for picking an extended test squad for two games as it seems to be limiting ourselves and devaluing the joy of being selected. I'm sorry but Silverwood and Giles need to go and Root - great batsman that he is - needs to be relieved of the captaincy.

258johnsimpson
Ago 10, 2021, 5:03 pm

Paul, i am also not a fan of the Hundred, i have watched a couple of games on the BBC and was totally underwhelmed. The hype is over the top, everyone seems to be gushing about it and as for Vaughan, i am perplexed by him both on Twitter and as part of the TMS team. He gushes about the Hundred and then is critical about certain England players, of course you're going to be critical of them playing like numptys when all they have been doing is trying to bash the cover off the ball.

And as for trying to bash the cover off the ball, for the most part this has not happened, all the money spent, all the hype should have been given to the T20 Blast tournament. The other thing that the ECB have got wrong is trying to get new followers to the game, to play the game and then have them eating snack food that we are trying to get kids off, a real clanger from the ruling body AND were they the only ones wanting to be the main sponsors. There are lots of questions to be answered by the ECB.

259PaulCranswick
Ago 10, 2021, 5:08 pm

>258 johnsimpson: Agreed John. I have respect for Michael Vaughan who has been our best captain in the 21st century but really some of his comments can be silly. His comment that Lawrence and Sibley are out of their depth in the middle of the test unfairly single them out when all the top seven except Root underwhelmed.

On the Hundred and the ECB thinking, I believe that they need to hold their core following first and foremost and I don't see much love for this Hundred competition.

260elkiedee
Ago 10, 2021, 8:20 pm

>256 PaulCranswick: Poultry? Looking for references to chickens or something. Or was that a typo?

261PaulCranswick
Ago 10, 2021, 8:53 pm

>256 PaulCranswick: It is an in-joke between Richard and myself, Luci as he refers to my chosen art form as "poultry" and I would therefore never expect him to favour a poetry review. That said I did manage to get him reading Simon Armitage with approval a few years ago.

262PaulCranswick
Ago 11, 2021, 11:56 pm

I am enjoying The Flint Anchor by Sylvia Townsend Warner and think it is an exceptional novel but it lacks one thing that makes reading easier..........there are no chapters!

263SirThomas
Ago 12, 2021, 2:47 am

>215 PaulCranswick: You were right as usual, Paul.
I enjoyed The Round House very much. Thanks for the recommendation!

264PaulCranswick
Ago 12, 2021, 10:07 am

>263 SirThomas: Pleased to see it struck the right note, Thomas.

265SilverWolf28
Ago 12, 2021, 2:27 pm

Here's the next readathon: https://www.librarything.com/topic/334351

266richardderus
Ago 12, 2021, 3:46 pm

PC, I'm about to write a review of Edge Case: A Novel and suddenly...I don't have any idea if referring to a character as "Straits Chinese" is offensive! I'm not on speaking terms with Rob's friend Jackson right now, he of the *di*vine* pandan onde onde, or I'd ask him.

He calls himself "Straits Chinese" but Black folk call themselves and each other "nigga" all the time and I would NOT do that.

267PaulCranswick
Ago 12, 2021, 7:23 pm

>265 SilverWolf28: Thanks Silver!

>266 richardderus: RD, the ethnic Chinese communities of Southern Malaysia and Singapore are pretty thick skinned as they are pretty much openly prejudiced against historically (Singapore) and actually (Malaysia). In the main they are a culture founded upon getting ahead in difficult circumstances and it wouldn't cause the offence that epithets of colour would.
The reference to onde onde has me hungry!

268richardderus
Ago 12, 2021, 9:16 pm

>267 PaulCranswick: Thank you for the info, PC, and the onrush of onde onde cravings...well, they *are* very more-ish, aren't they.

269PaulCranswick
Ago 13, 2021, 2:11 am

>268 richardderus: They are indeed, dear fellow. Hope one fine day Hani and i can share a double helping with you and Rob.

270weird_O
Ago 13, 2021, 12:44 pm

Motivated by your comments (>222 PaulCranswick:), I ordered Adichie's Notes on Grief. Should be in the mailbox now. I expect to read it right away.

271PaulCranswick
Ago 13, 2021, 1:11 pm

>270 weird_O: I'm sure that you will appreciate Adichie's book, Bill.

272elkiedee
Ago 13, 2021, 5:59 pm

>266 richardderus: I don't know the answer to this question but I would probably write "X is described as 7-z" or in the case of the first person narrator, that character's description of their background.

There is a big controversy here about a writer's response to a Goodreads review of her book about some of her experiences of teaching - apparently the 1* review criticised the language used to describe some of her students' ethnicity and disabilities. Kate Clanchy and the publisher are now planning to revise the book. I'm a bit shocked that she apparently wrote in this way and that she responded so badly on social media - the row is also on Twitter, as I've read a novel and another non fiction work by her, and she tweets some amazing writing from some of her students. Coincidentally, I'm also reading a novel by an African-American writer in which black people in publishing and racist stereotypes in books being published are key parts of the plot, and a radio discussion tonight touched on so much of what's going on there.

273richardderus
Ago 13, 2021, 6:09 pm

>272 elkiedee: We here in the USA are in a rapidly-evolving situation. For the first time ever, there's been an absolute decrease in the number of white people in the country. Not just "hasn't kept pace with" but "fewer in 2020 than in 2010" which is causing a massive tectonic shift in the way white people are perceiving their place in this, "their" country.

Which means, of course, so's everyone else doing a spot of soul-searching. Much much much hand-wringing from media about how evil conservatives are going to throttle minority voices (like they weren't throttled already?), and so on and so forth. But so far that distraction is working...instead of making Black and Hispanic people look around and say, "we're votin' no matter what!"

Interesting times.

274elkiedee
Ago 13, 2021, 6:21 pm

Voting is better than not voting but we need more than voting to deal with this stuff.

275Berly
Ago 13, 2021, 6:38 pm

Hello dear friend. Happy to hear the reading continues on track, and to see some poetry from you and Dunn. Wishing you a great weekend!

276PaulCranswick
Ago 13, 2021, 8:43 pm

>272 elkiedee: I had not heard about that controversy in England, Luci, and haven't read that particular author. The issue at hand was over the use of a certain phrase and whether the local Chinese ethnic community here would find it offensive. Since I have a lot of ethnic Chinese friends (one of whom had dinner with us yesterday), I am safe to say that it wouldn't bother them too much but it is a phrase that is rarely used these days as it refers back to a period when Singapore and Malaya were either together in a single state or both part of the wider British Empire. Since that is no longer the case the more normal expressions would be Malaysian Chinese or Singaporean Chinese. The racial epithets here which would be offensive pertain to the minority Tamil community and relates to the noise their ankle chains used to make when they were disembarked and sent to work on the rubber and tea estates. There are a number of racial epithets used against the whites by the local communities but as usual we are supposed to just suck them up.

>273 richardderus: I do see the US as a very changing landscape, RD, with a struggle between opposing extremes potentially hurting everyone in between. Between the edges of right (silence) and left (shame), America has to find a better way of addressing its differences.

277PaulCranswick
Ago 13, 2021, 8:47 pm

>274 elkiedee: It is a state of mind(s) that needs to change, Luci, and I'm afraid it is not a single generational issue. There has undoubtedly been progress in civil rights, liberties and equalities over the period of my lifetime and I hope evolution will continue towards an improvement in how we all live together and respect each other.

>275 Berly: Lovely to see you, Kimmers. Reading is just fine!

278PaulCranswick
Editado: Ago 16, 2021, 10:02 pm

My Friday afternoon pilgrimage to the now open Kino and I am working hard to control myself to three books per visit. Yesterday:

211. I am, I am, I am by Maggie O'Farrell
212. The Whale at the End of the World by John Iremonger
213. Precious Bane by Mary Webb

279PaulCranswick
Ago 13, 2021, 10:04 pm



The Maggie O'Farrell is one of my recommendation winners, the premise of the Ironmonger book struck a chord and the cover of Mary Webb's forgotten 1924 classic is one of the most exquisite to catch my eye in a long time.

280PaulCranswick
Ago 13, 2021, 10:05 pm

As seem to be my way these days, I have immediately jumped into reading I am, I am, I am and it is worth the billing.

281connie53
Ago 14, 2021, 3:21 am

Hi Paul, Happy Saturday!

282PaulCranswick
Ago 14, 2021, 10:39 am

>281 connie53: Thanks Connie.

It has been an up and down one to be honest.

My team Leeds got thumped on the opening day of the EPL season 5-1 at Manchester United of all bloody places.

I have been enjoying very much I am, I am, I am by Maggie O'Farrell .

Most importantly it is my mums 77th birthday today and she is in the hospital in Yorkshire. Managed to video call with her as my sister called when she was with her in the hospital.

Hani also has some health issues. Took her for a scan yesterday as she has not been feeling great recently and we worry about a recurrence of kidney stones. Three issues were detected, none of them alone immediately dangerous, but we have been assessing a few lifestyle changes today.

283richardderus
Ago 14, 2021, 11:02 am

>278 PaulCranswick: I've heard of one. The other two will be very interesting to hear about one day. Who's Mary Webb? John Ironmonger? (Better not emigrate with that moniker.)

Iiiinteresting....

284weird_O
Ago 14, 2021, 11:08 am

Happy birthday to your mum, Paul. Nice to have her join me; I turned 77 last month.

285PaulCranswick
Ago 14, 2021, 11:19 am

>283 richardderus: Webb won the Prix Femina for Precious Bane and apparently Cold Comfort Farm was intended as a parody of her work. Not sure that it is a great recommendation but she was reputed to be British PM Stanley Baldwin's favourite author.

I am looking forward to Ironmonger's book too.

>284 weird_O: Thanks Bill. My poor mum is certainly looking under the weather as the bowel blockage has reasserted itself and the diagnosis is not too positive.

286m.belljackson
Ago 14, 2021, 11:52 am

>276 PaulCranswick:

Geez Paul, you often say "America" as if it just dropped down from Mars with berzerker ideology =

guess where all those racist thug beliefs originated...?

287PaulCranswick
Editado: Ago 14, 2021, 12:57 pm

>286 m.belljackson: Marianne the conversation was specifically about the US from >272 elkiedee: & >273 richardderus: and we were talking about today not history. American society is clearly extremely polarised at the moment - far more so than in the UK or Malaysia.

If you really believe that racism originated in the UK, I have news for you that history did not begin in 1700 - while there has been nation states there has been xenophobic behaviour between them. Xenophon himself was born 2,400 years ago in Athens.

Pointing fingers to various groups of people for historical wrongs does nothing to settle the problems of today. It is right that the teaching of history should be balanced so that in the teaching of US history slavery, the extermination and subjugation of the indigenous peoples, the struggles for civil rights etc should of course be taught. This is just as it is appropriate to teach in British history, Britain's role in the Atlantic slave trade as should it be taught that it was Britain that ended the slave trade, policed it at considerable cost and blockaded the French, Spanish and Portuguese to prevent them from continuing it.

Britain's shameful role in instigating concentration camps in the Boer War should be taught in schools as should the British Empire standing alone against the Axis powers with all of Europe defeated, Soviet Union bought off and the USA believing it wouldn't touch them until the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbour. Churchill's attacking of the miners in Tonypandy should be taught in schools as should his holding the nation together during the Battle of Britain.

History is useful to future generations to teach lessons which can be applied to future generations it should not be used as seems to be the misguided way in some parts of the world as a means of shaming a group of children as sons and daughters of the oppressors. It makes as much sense as continuing to blame all Germans for the Holocaust or the people of Normandy for killing our King Harold in Hastings in 1066.

288benitastrnad
Ago 14, 2021, 1:48 pm

There is a new book just published here in the U.S. on Winston Churchill. It was reviewed as a very honest assessment of Churchill and his role in British history. It spends a great deal of time on his racism and his extremely conservative views about society and culture. The author maintains that Churchill has such a glorious reputation because he was first off the blocks in writing the history of WWII and his role in it. This helped keep is post-war reputation right where he wanted it - as a hero of the Empire. The review I read was a new one and I can't put my finger on the title of the book right now, but it does suffice to say that Churchill may not have been as wonderful as American's think he was. It might be the reason why the Brits booted him out of office after WWII. There is no doubt he was a Great Man, but he might not have been a good man in all things. Those are the lessons that history teaches and that the objective review of history provides. To be objective there must be viewpoints from all sides and I believe that is most often what happens here on the threads in LT. Viewpoints from all sides.

289PaulCranswick
Ago 14, 2021, 2:21 pm

>288 benitastrnad: A fine observation, Benita - great but perhaps much less than good.

In addition he authorised the use of chemical weapons on the Bolsheviks in the civil war that succeeded the Russian Revolution and it is certainly true that his war memoirs / "history" is as self-glorifying as it is marvellous.

Churchill was in many ways a great war leader but the people of the United Kingdom recognised the need for a government that would bring change to the lives of the people who won the war. Attlee and several key Labour leaders were also instrumental to the successful war effort which is often overlooked these days.

290m.belljackson
Ago 14, 2021, 2:27 pm

>287 PaulCranswick: No Paul, it obviously began A LOT earlier, but came across the Atlantic in the 1400s-1500s-1600s-1700s-1800s-1900s...

291PaulCranswick
Editado: Ago 14, 2021, 2:58 pm

>290 m.belljackson: Indeed it did, Marianne. 47% of the Atlantic slave trade was by the Portuguese and mainly into Brazil. That certainly does not excuse the 26% contribution of the British slavers (3,259,443 of 12,521,339 persons forcibly leaving African shores did so on British vessels) but it doesn't make the British the most culpable for those historic crimes against humanity.

Only 5% of the Atlantic slave trade landed slaves in what was to become the USA but it is remembered mostly for that 5% because the USA became the world power and the succeeding generations of those slaves were able to articulate the terrible wrongs perpetrated. We don't remember the Atlantic slave trade as being a primarily Brazilian and Caribbean problem (45% of slaves were sent to Brazil and 32% to the Caribbean).

I don't think that there is any nation on earth or any of its constituent peoples who can look back on history with an entirely unblemished sense of pride. Britain historically did some terrible things but I have no culpability for the money that poured into the shipping lines out of Liverpool and Bristol in just the same way as I can claim no credit for seeing off the Spanish Armada in 1588 or despatching Boney in 1815. I repeat that I see the purpose of history is to glean lessons from the past for usage in our present and future relations - it isn't meant as a tool to stigmatise or heap shame or even conversely approbation .

292LizzieD
Ago 14, 2021, 2:52 pm

Dear Paul, I'm sorry to hear about your mother's health issue (and Hani's too). I wish them both WELL again. Hmmm. I turn 77 in October. Most of the time it remains hard for me to realize that I am among the elderly in the world's eyes.

293PaulCranswick
Editado: Ago 14, 2021, 2:59 pm

>292 LizzieD: You have always seemed so young at heart to me, dear Peggy. x

294m.belljackson
Ago 14, 2021, 3:34 pm

>291 PaulCranswick: Maybe...Yet STILL that deep hate which engineered The Holocaust and caused slavery to come to the shores of what became the USA...

it still exists - in Germany, Austria, Poland...Texas, Mississippi, Arkansas, Alabama...

and no longer is held in check when the people hired to protect us are equally still at fault.

295m.belljackson
Ago 14, 2021, 3:35 pm

Paul - Please give Best Wishes to your Mum, with hope that pain will soon disappear.

296quondame
Editado: Ago 14, 2021, 4:19 pm

I'm sorry to hear about Hani's health issues and your mother being in the hospital. I hope your life changes aren't particularly onerous.

>291 PaulCranswick: I'm not personally guilty for more than average for a middle class US citizen in raping of the environment, but my comfortable lot in life was based at least partly on cutting down the virgin Wisconsin forests which required the displacement of the native people. So, guilty no, responsible for doing what I can to fix it? probably.

297Berly
Ago 14, 2021, 4:29 pm

Sending best wishes to Hani and your Mum. And happy reading with I Am I Am I Am -- loved that one!

298PaulCranswick
Editado: Ago 14, 2021, 9:50 pm

>294 m.belljackson: Agree with that, Marianne.

I am not minimising the challenges ahead - there is still racial hatred in many places that needs to be continually addressed and guarded against and this is in all countries and amongst all races and cultures - Malaysia, UK, USA, Europe - everywhere.

Putting into place the conditions for social mobility irrespective of class, creed, colour, gender, age and sexuality is the way forward because one of the main movers in determining conflicts is hopelessness.

>295 m.belljackson: Thank you, Marianne. She was pleased to see us on the video call but I finished the call with a pretty big lump in my throat.

299PaulCranswick
Ago 14, 2021, 10:09 pm

>296 quondame: Yikes, Susan, the environment! Another of my hobby-horses! I guess the easy answer is that we all need to try and do our bit - plant trees, cut down emissions in our own life consumption - but governments the world over need to do more and to think through holistic programmes that can actually work rather than provide window dressing.

The aims of the Biden administration in this regard should be lauded but the implementation of practical policy needs to be thought through properly. Your Federal government halted the keystone pipeline project and I can see what it is trying to achieve by so doing. It is making it difficult for new domestic exploration of oil and gas deposits with the correct aim of moving priorities towards more sustainable methods of energy.

Power is needed to generate the electricity to move the world towards electric modes of transport. Very often the methods to generate that power are not environmentally friendly - the huge commitment in Asia lead by China to expand its power generation capacity with coal-fired power plants being a case in point.

The US is looking to engage internationally on environmental issues which is long overdue but faces great challenges in doing so. Firstly, the USA had achieved the capability of being self sufficient in fuel supplies to meet its admittedly overblown consumption needs. The stopping of the keystone project sends the right signal but at the same time the USA therefore needs to import fuel supplies and has had to entreat OPEC to reignite supplies. The OPEC countries are not keen on this as increased supply lowers prices and lower prices are what America needs at the fuel pumps as the right is taking advantage of the peculiar post-pandemic conditions to lay blame at the Biden administration (largely spuriously) for inflation and high gas prices.

The key is to reduce emissions and consumptive demands as lower demand will lower prices over time but this is the result of a long term policy switch and not something to be achieved in weeks, months or even a few years.

The USA can lead the west towards a more ecologically sensitive world view but at the same time needs to tackle burgeoning Chinese emissions (and a unwillingness of the Chinese to cooperate in such matters) as well as Russia and India without the obvious hypocrisy of trying to deny growing economies/ wealth from having the same lifestyle that the privileged west has lead the world to.

Difficult, difficult policy areas for any government and especially with all the other issues that governments are presently beset with. You are right though, Susan, we should all try and do our little bit and hope all those little bits add up to more than a lot.

300PaulCranswick
Ago 14, 2021, 10:12 pm

>297 Berly: Thank you Kimmers. It is an excellent book for sure.

301quondame
Ago 14, 2021, 10:52 pm

>299 PaulCranswick: The USA hasn't ever been able to do anything but clumsily support whatever economic interest sways those in power. It is fundamentally incapable of supporting long range goals because it is not unified and has an overwhelming don't want to be bothered if my shoes aren't pinching segment that swings from one side to the other when they become uncomfortable with the current regime. And the mega-fortunate are doing whatever they can, quite a lot, to keep misinformation at maximum levels. So while I'm happy enough to be a US citizen I don't think anyone outside the country should count on us for anything. There isn't an us in the US.

302PaulCranswick
Ago 15, 2021, 1:59 am

>301 quondame: It requires the cooperation of people across national divides to make any difference, Susan. Difficult for public policy even that of the US to make too much difference.

Just as I have pride in my own nationality whilst recognising that there are shortcomings would I think that there should be pride in being an American as imperfect as it undoubtedly is.

303karenmarie
Ago 15, 2021, 9:04 am

Hi Paul!

>278 PaulCranswick: I acquired I Am, I Am, I Am recently and hope it calls my name soon.

>282 PaulCranswick: Happy Birthday to your mum. She’s incredibly resilient and I hope she overcomes this latest diagnosis.

I’m sorry about Hani’s health issues. I hope the lifestyle reassessment gives her some relief in the longer run. And NO to kidney stones. I’ve had them twice and the pain is right up there with labor.

>287 PaulCranswick: Well said.

Regarding the environment: Everyone can't do everything, but everybody can do something. I do what I can, have continued to do a little bit more as I become aware of things I can do, and that’s as good as it gets.

304PaulCranswick
Ago 15, 2021, 9:45 am

>303 karenmarie: Lovely to see you, Karen. Hani is a toughie too and will be ok, I pray.

All the little efforts may add up to something with the environment, let's hope.

305PaulCranswick
Ago 15, 2021, 10:36 am

Very saddened to see that Nanci Griffith passed away on 13 August 2021 at the tragically young age of 68.

This may be my favourite of her repertoire - Love at the Five and Dime

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2GK462XnRjQ

306m.belljackson
Ago 15, 2021, 11:53 am

>299 PaulCranswick: Again - the 1948 book Road to Survival by William Vogt has the environmental solutions still being totally ignored:

Zero Population Growth throughout the world with free contraception (some churches destroyed this life saver even up until today)

Don't cut down Forests

Don't poison the Water

Save the soil by preventing erosion

Save more soil because there will be fewer people to feed

Eat less or no meat at all to spare the land used for cattle and sheep

Build less because there will be fewer people needing new housing
which destroys the land, poisons the water, etc...

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

We listened (finally) to Rachel Carson - got rid of DDT and embraced "Round-up" which equally
destroys the soil, wildlife, and us

Only "hopelessness" if you realize it is too late, which it may well be, non?

307m.belljackson
Editado: Ago 15, 2021, 12:01 pm

PS - I missed that Hani has Kidney stones - do you have Michael Perry's book Montaigne? He deals with his case.

yikes = need a complete title - okay = Montaigne in Barn Boots - Michel de Montaigne also had kidney stones.

308quondame
Ago 15, 2021, 5:04 pm

>302 PaulCranswick: Nation of birth is such a complete accident. I've had enormous advantages being a US citizen in California and having grown up with it I doubt I'd be a suitable fit elsewhere especially as I'm mono-linguistic and too hard of hearing to learn to speak anything other than English. But it is an accident (except staying in CA, that was a bit of a fight), not a virtue, and to be blind to the basics of how my country works and doesn't work is one luxury I'll do without.

309Caroline_McElwee
Ago 15, 2021, 5:36 pm

>282 PaulCranswick: Sorry to hear Hani has some health challenges Paul. I hope some lifestyle changes will be all that are needed, and that she is disciplined and able to do them. I am so inconsistent in that regard. I can be very good, and very bad!

310FAMeulstee
Ago 15, 2021, 5:59 pm

>282 PaulCranswick: Belated happy birthday to your mother, Paul.
Sorry about Hani, kidney stones can cause a lot of pain. I hope all issues can be resolved soon.

311PaulCranswick
Ago 15, 2021, 6:38 pm

>306 m.belljackson: There is little empirical evidence to show that fully available and even free contraception would result in zero population growth but it would slow it for sure.

Not cutting down trees is a pipe dream but we have to aim for sustainable forestry where we plant more than we chop down.

>307 m.belljackson: She had kidney stones removed about seven years ago, Marianne and told me that the pain of childbirth paled into insignificance compared to the pain of kidney stones on the move and being unable to expel them.

312PaulCranswick
Ago 15, 2021, 6:42 pm

>308 quondame: Many of us should feel more blessed by that very accident of birth Susan. I was born prematurely and poorly (health-wise) in West Yorkshire in the mid sixties. Had that happened in perhaps 175 other countries of the world at that time.....well I wouldn't be typing this anyway. Our National Health Service saved me.

>309 Caroline_McElwee: You and me both, Caroline!

313PaulCranswick
Ago 15, 2021, 6:43 pm

>310 FAMeulstee: Thank you, Anita.

I remember Hani crawling on the floor in pain the last time so we are quite vigilant in watching for signs of reappearance.

314drneutron
Ago 15, 2021, 7:12 pm

Mresdrneutron has had a few bouts over the years. Kidney stones are a real pain!

315PaulCranswick
Ago 15, 2021, 7:45 pm

>314 drneutron: Yes and literally so, Jim.

316kidzdoc
Ago 15, 2021, 8:48 pm

I'm very sorry that Hani is suffering from kidney stones, Paul. It does run in families, and I've had at least a dozen mothers whose children were hospitalized with urolithiasis also tell me that their own bouts were considerably more painful than natural childbirth. Please send her my best wishes for a speedy recovery.

317PaulCranswick
Ago 15, 2021, 8:55 pm

>316 kidzdoc: Thanks Darryl. She is hunkered down like a little hamster in her nest this morning as I am about to set off to work!

318banjo123
Ago 15, 2021, 9:17 pm

Hi Paul! Hope Hani feels better soon.

319PaulCranswick
Ago 15, 2021, 10:09 pm

>318 banjo123: Thank you, Rhonda.

320Berly
Ago 15, 2021, 10:41 pm

Sending my best wishes to Hani (and you as the caretaker). I have a hard time staying hydrated with my ulcerative colitis and tests have frequently shown crystals in my urine. Those don't hurt, but if they start to stick together in the kidneys....ouch! I've had kidney stones once and they are no fun at all.

321PaulCranswick
Ago 16, 2021, 6:16 am

>320 Berly: Dear Kimmers, I do feel that you have been in the wars far too long to be honest and I pray that you'll get dealt a better hand when it comes to avoiding accidents and illnesses. xx

322richardderus
Ago 16, 2021, 11:28 am

Just say "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO" to kidney stones. Agony.

But that's a point that needs no belaboring! Splendid week ahead, PC and family.

323klobrien2
Ago 16, 2021, 5:39 pm

Hello there!

I have made it through your last two threads, and want to post a greeting here before you start another thread! So, onward and forward!

Karen O.

324PaulCranswick
Ago 16, 2021, 7:53 pm

>322 richardderus: Thank you, RD. We have decided to try and get more healthy together.

>323 klobrien2: Lovely to see you, Karen, and you are just in time!
Este tópico foi continuado por PAUL C'S SECOND HOME - PART 17.