Sakerfalcon reads again in 2023

Hello and belated Happy New Year to you all! I'm looking forward to another year of attempting to read more of the books I already own, and bringing fewer new ones into my house. Well, I can dream!

Thank you to everyone who commented on my thread last year and who hit me with book bullets. I love to hear from you!

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

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

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

Happy New Year!

The Happiest of New Years to you, Claire. May all of your 2023 reads bring you joy.

Happy New Year!

I've managed to finish two books so far this year, one good and one disappointing.

The good one was The Moonday letters, a Finnish SF novel with strong ecological themes. It's told in epistolary form by a woman seeking her absent spouse, whose trail leads her from settlements on Mars, to a cylinder habitat in space, to a flooded Earth. It's more of an introspective book than an action packed narrative, exploring character and themes of identity and belonging as well as making the reader think about the impact of our actions on society and the environment. Interestingly, it blends traditional shamanistic practices with SF in a way that I found convincing. This is the third book I've read by the author and I have loved every one.

The not-so-good book was Juniper and Thorn, a dark fantasy loosely based on The Juniper Tree fairy tale. The heroine is Marlinchen, youngest and plainest of three sisters who live with their tyrannical widowed father, the last true magician in the city of Oblya. The three daughters have some magic and for Reasons, they have to use their powers to earn money for the family while their father keeps to himself. One night Marlinchen summons up the courage to sneak out to the ballet with her sisters, where she meets and falls in love with the principal dancer. Soon she is creeping out more often and keeping dangerous secrets. But there is a monster on the loose in the city, killing violently and seemingly at random. This book is REALLY dark, with all kinds of abuse, self-harm, and gore. Marlinchen and her lover are both damaged from abuse; unfortunately they fall in insta-love which doesn't give much hope of a healthy healing relationship. Marlinchen is mostly timid and fearful, except when the plot demands otherwise, and she makes some bad decisions which, again, felt to me like they were demanded by plot rather than part of her character. The killer storyline is in the background for most of the book until about the last third when there is a twist that I guessed. It felt like the author was throwing her ingredients in but not structuring the plot or developing the characters convincingly.

I'm currently reading Holy sister, the final part of Mark Lawrence's Red Sister trilogy, which is excellent so far. And on kindle I'm delving into the collected works of Leena Krohn, another Finnish author. This project was published by Jeff Vandermeer, which should give you an idea of how weird her writing is! I've read her Tainaron: mail from another city already and loved it; so far the rest of her work is as good.

>2 mattries37315:, >3 clamairy:, >4 Narilka: Ooh, visitors already!
Thanks for stopping by!

Happy new year, and happy new thread!

Happy reading in 2023!

Ah, one of my favorite threads. Looking forward to much friendly fire again this year. :)

Happy new thread!

Happy New Year; happy new thread

Happy New Year, Claire, and I hope you 2023 is a great reading year for you.

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year!
I enjoyed the Sisters trilogy a couple of years back, but haven't read anything else by him.

Happy New Year and I've managed to find your thread already!

Thanks for visiting, everyone! It's good to know I have great company for the year ahead!

>15 reading_fox: This is the only series of his I've read, although I have his latest ready to start. The first two trilogies sounded too nasty for my taste.

>16 LyzzyBee: I may be in Brum in March - will let you know so that we might be able to meet up!

Happy New Year ! The Moonday Letters is a book bullet for me 😀

Hi Claire, a slightly belated wish for a wonderful 2023 for you, in reading and everything else.

>17 Sakerfalcon: Ooh marvellous! I was in London last Friday but only for an afternoon, will let you know when I'm down for longer.

Jotting down The Moonday Letters as a possibility. Happy new year (a week or so delayed!)

Setting my cushion down Claire. I hope it will be a good year for you, and look forward to getting together in the Summer.

Happy reading in 2023, Claire!

>18 Dilara86: Thanks for stopping by! I hope you enjoy The moonday letters!

>19 Jim53: And the same to you and your family!

>20 LyzzyBee: Hope you had a good time!

>21 jillmwo: And to you!

>22 Caroline_McElwee: Me too! I must find your 2023 thread ....

>23 FAMeulstee: And to you Anita! I hope you and Frank are both well.

I finished Holy sister which was a strong finish to an excellent trilogy. This fantasy is dark and contains a lot of violence, yet the emphasis on friendship and loyalty between the characters always shines through. Nona has been betrayed by people she trusted in the past, yet she will still sacrifice everything for her friends if they need. In this volume we see her mature as she learns that what can be a weapon can also be a tool - used to heal and create rather than to destroy. I love the choices she makes and how they resolve at the book's end.

On kindle I've stepped away from Leena Krohn having read the first three novels in the collection (which were weird and wonderful). I've now started The Atlas Six which is about 6 more-or-less unlikeable people competing to join an exclusive magical society. It's fine as a commuting read because if I think too hard about it I'm sure I'm going to notice loads of logistical holes.

In print I've started to read Living next door to the god of love, which is a follow-on from Natural history. This shows the transformative, universe-crossing Stuff that was discovered in the first book has now become the basis of reality. We follow several viewpoint characters through some strange places. I enjoyed Natural History a lot, but I'm not sure about this one yet. I've also started Carnival of ash, a fantasy set in an alternate Italy with magic, and will be choosing something non-genre soon.

>1 Sakerfalcon: found and starred!

>26 Sakerfalcon: Thanks for stopping by! I need to get back to the Foreigner series this year.

So all my in-progress books got put on hold this week because I bought a copy of The grief of stones. I don't know why I didn't buy this when it came out, but better late than never. I started reading it on the train home and hardly stopped until I finished. I love these books. The characters, setting and story are so wonderful. Celehar is a very calm character, yet he conveys great emotion in his first-person narrative and I cared deeply for him. In this book his role as Witness for the Dead leads him to uncover a nasty conspiracy involving the foundling girls of his city; his response to it is characterised by care, kindness and a desire for justice. I think this book and its precursor, Witness for the Dead, would appeal to non-fantasy readers as well as fans of the genre, if they can get past the complicated character names and titles. The characters may be elves and goblins on the outside but inside they are very human.

I've also finished The Atlas six which I don't recommend even to fans of similar "dark academia" fantasy books. The characters were nasty and cliched, with some mostly overlooked by the author to the extent that you wondered why she put them in. There's the sexy girl, the mysterious Asian girl, the feuding rivals, and a couple of forgettable boys whose powers remain poorly defined even by the end of the book. There are dull sections where the characters debate the theory of magic and physics, and a ridiculously over-complicated denouement which made no sense at all to me. I kept reading to find out which of the six would be eliminated but even that was unsatisfying. The illustrations at the start of each section were quite nice though.

And I did add a non-genre read to the mix, which I finished in a couple of days. One Clear, Ice-cold January Morning at the Beginning of the 21st Century is a novel translated from German, which explores a few days in the lives of characters who are linked by the wolf they encounter as it moves from the Polish border towards Berlin. The chapters are very short, and move between a Polish construction worker and his cleaner girlfriend, two runaway teenagers, the father of one and mother of the other teen, a young couple who run a convenience store in the city, and a few more minor characters. The novel evokes wintry Berlin very well, and shows us moments in the lives of ordinary people, whose world is made briefly extraordinary by the elusive wolf. I really enjoyed this book; a chilly winter day was the perfect time to read it.

I'm still reading Living next door to the god of love which so far isn't as good as Natural history but is interesting enough to keep reading. On kindle I've started Our missing hearts by Celeste Ng, which imagines a near-future United States where Asian-Americans have been demonised and a chilling culture of surveillance has become the norm. A mixed-race boy is the protagonist and we follow him as he searches for his mother who left home some years before. It's very good so far. I've also started reading a YA historical fantasy set in C18th France, Enchantee, which I'm enjoying.

>24 Sakerfalcon: Here's my 2023 thread Claire.

https://www.librarything.com/topic/346946#8013823

>26 Sakerfalcon: I love Celehar. You're right about the humanity on display in these books. I really hope she continues this series.

>26 Sakerfalcon: I too enjoyed The Grief of Stones and for the same reasons you note.

>27 Caroline_McElwee: Thanks Caroline! Glad to see you have started the year well with some great books and movies!

>28 clamairy:, >29 jillmwo: The end of Grief felt to me as though she is setting up for at least one more book in the series - I certainly hope so.

I finished Our missing hearts which was a gripping and powerful read. I wish I could say that the premise - America is now constrained by laws which enforce the preservation of "American culture", following years of social and economic collapse. Neighbours and co-workers spy on each other, ready to report what they perceive as traitorous words and actions to the authorities. China has been blamed for the decline of America, meaning that all Asian Americans are particularly at risk of being denounced. Worst of all, the government has the power to take children away from families deemed to be suspect. 11 year old Bird is the son of a white American father and a Chinese-American mother. Through his innocent gaze we see what it is to live in these times, the risks taken by those few who dare to fight for freedom. I appreciated that libraries and librarians are quiet heroes, doing what they can to try and trace children taken from their families. There is also a strong focus on resistance through art, and the afterword details specific inspirations for the protests described in the story. This was a great read, very moving and thought-provoking.

Inspired by a conversation about the mid C20th writer Margaret Kennedy in the Virago group, this weekend I read The forgotten smile. This novel starts out with a deceptive light and humorous touch, as bumbling Selwyn Potter finds himself reuniting with a figure from his childhood in the unlikely setting of a remote Greek island. Kate Benson has had enough of being taken for granted and constantly criticised by her husband and children and made a home for herself on Keritha. She is less than thrilled to see Selwyn, whom she remembers for breaking a table while visiting her home. But as both characters' backstories are revealed the story takes on a more sober tone as we see real pain and loss. Both Selwyn and Kate are flawed but sympathetic characters, and the strange island on which they find themselves is a great setting. I enjoyed this a lot.

I'm still reading Living next door to the god of love but not really enjoying it. I'm about 2/3 through and I've lost interest in the characters, the physics of the worlds are over my head, and I just don't really care. I will probably abandon it.

I've started Child of all nations, a German novel written in 1938 and told from a child's perspective as she travels through Europe as an emigree after her writer father angers the Nazis. He is always leaving Kully and her mother ensconced in luxury hotels while he goes away to try and convince friends, publishers and other backers to fund his work. He is feckless and a philanderer, but always forgiven. Kully learns young the importance of visas and of keeping up the appearance of wealth so as to receive credit. Her narrative voice is wonderful, a combination of innocence and premature experience, often humorous but with a sad undertone to us adults who can see the precariousness of her situation. I've nearly finished but unless it suddenly crashes and burns I can forsee that I will be highly recommending this.

On kindle I'm reading Mrs March which I think is a psychological thriller. Mrs March is a society housewife to a famous author husband. She is terribly self-conscious, yet not very self-aware. Right from the start we sense something is a bit off about her, and I have a feeling that she is going to sink into madness of some form.

And I've started reading the non-fiction book, The story of art without men, which is what it says - a history of art that focuses on female artists. It's generously illustrated and very good so far.

>30 Sakerfalcon: Ooh, I can't wait to start The Story of Art Without Men though will have to see who publishes it as am committed to #ReadIndies next month ...

>26 Sakerfalcon: I enjoyed Grief of Stones and Celehar is a great character, but I'm starting to find the setting a little too generic. The people are interesting, the locations could be interesting, if she'd give a bit more description. For me a really good book, but the lack of a sense of place, for lack of a better term, lowered my opinion of it a bit.

>31 LyzzyBee: It's Profile Books - not sure if they are an Indie or not. It's very good so far.

>32 Karlstar: I like the setting but am always happy to have more details about a fantasy city. I didn't quite feel the need to have every part of Celehar's travels across town documented ("He took the tram to Fae bridge and then got off and walked down Circus Alley to .... "). I love the different tea shops and restaurants where they eat and drink though!

I've finished a few books since I last posted.

Mrs March was a good read, with elements of Patricia Highsmith's thrillers about it. We see the story in the tight third person perspective of the titular character who is married to a writer. As a housewife she is rather isolated, seemingly without friends of her own, living in fear of her housekeeper. On the day her husband's new book is published, an acquaintance suggests that the title character is based on Mrs March herself, something she takes great offence to. Mrs March hasn't read the book but the main character is a whore who is too ugly to sleep with and whose customers pay her out of pity. (Nothing we see of Mrs March shows her as having anything in common with the character.) Mrs March is already insecure and overly self-conscious, and this development pushes her further into a spiral of obsession and suspicions against her husband. This is a claustrophobic read, which kept me turning the pages (metaphorically as I was reading on kindle).

Also on Kindle I read Threadneedle, a YA urban fantasy about witchcraft set in London. Anna is an orphan who has been raised by her stern aunt and taught that magic is dangerous and will attract malign attention. Anna's own magic, what little there seems to be of it, will be Bound when she is 17, a fate she is resigned to. But then her glamorous aunt Selene arrives, with Anna's cousin Effie and an unknown young man, Attis in tow. Effie is open and carefree in her magic use, something that shocks Anna even as she envies Effie. When Effie starts at Anna's school, their relationship blows away the careful anonymity that Anna has developed over the years, exposing both girls to the cruelty of the bullies who rule the school. But Effie identifies two other magically gifted girls and the four of them form a coven, with Attis there too. Anna soon discovers the joy of using magic, as well as the perils, when a spell to bring down the bullies takes on a life of its own. This is quite a dark book, with Anna's abusive treatment by her aunt being very hard to read at times, yet the school scenes are very YA. There was enough intrigue and character development for me to enjoy, and I'll be looking out for the sequel.

In print I've read a Japanese novel, Sweet bean paste, about friendship, identity and what makes life worth living. Sentaro is a former convict, now working in a bakery making dorayaki. He's just going through the motions, doing the job until he's paid off his debt to the shop owner. One day an old lady comes along and says she'd like to work with him. It takes some persuading, but eventually Sentaro agrees when he finds out that the lady makes the best sweet bean paste he's ever tasted. Soon the shop is busier than ever. But Tokue has a secret in her past that comes back to haunt her, and Sentaro must make a difficult decision. The unlikely friendship that grows between Sentaro, Tokue, and a lonely schoolgirl who frequents the shop is touching and realistic - there is no insta-bonding, but caution and hesitancy to trust which is slowly overcome. Tokue's story is very moving; the author explains how he was moved to write the book when he learned of people like her. The ending is not conventionally happy but it is hopeful and positive. I really enjoyed this and it was a very quick read.

I've also finished two short SF books - both of which I am very late in coming to. The kaiju Preservation Society was written by Scalzi during lockdown, and the pandemic is referenced in the book. It's a frivolous, fun read, which still manages to make good points about the relationship between humans and nature. It's full of enviably snarky characters who always have a witty line at the ready (instead of thinking of it several hours later, as is usually my experience), some bad guys who get what they deserve, and some awesome monsters. I know a lot of you have read this already, so I'm just catching up.

The other "better late than never" read was Fugitive telemetry, the 6th Murderbot book. It's actually set before Network effect, although written after it, so I read FT first. This instalment sees Murderbot reluctantly helping the humans on Preservation Station to solve a murder. If you've enjoyed the other books in the series then you'll like this one too.

Now I'm reading another SF novel, This virtual night which is set in the same universe as This alien shore, by C. S. Friedman. It's very good so far. And I've got back into Carnival of Ash, a fantasy set in an alternate Renaissance Italy where poets are at the top of society and words hold power. And I've started a historical novel, Maurice Guest, for the Virago challenge of reading books from throughout the publisher's history. Maurice has arrived in Leipzig as a naive young man hoping to study the piano.

>33 Sakerfalcon: I think I took a BB with Sweet Bean Paste. I added it to my OverDrive wishlist.

I agree on the details of Celehar's travel about town. Also, get that man a new black suit so he's not constantly trying to keep his only good one spotless.

I think one of the things I appreciated the most about The Kaiju Preservation Society is how unattractive the Kaiju actually were.

>34 clamairy: Yes, someone please buy him a new coat, or donate one, or something!

>33 Sakerfalcon: I'll be looking forward to what you think of This Virtual Night.

>35 Karlstar: Perhaps the maroon tuxedo from My Cousin Vinny would work.

>36 clamairy:
“Are you mocking me?”

>37 pgmcc: "It's eitha weah the leatha jacket - which I know you hate. Or dis. So I wore dis... ridiculous ting... for you."

>38 ScoLgo:
:-))

>39 pgmcc: One of my favorite movies ever!

>40 ScoLgo: Mine, too. And when I have had some wine (and I'm hanging around with my sister, who has lived on The Isle of Long her entire life) I start to sound just a wee bit like Marisa Tomei.

I think Profile Books is linked to Serpent's Tail, and would qualify as an independent publisher.

Sorry, posted on the wrong thread.

I started The Story of Art Without Men this week too Claire. I'm just taking little bites now and then.

>38 ScoLgo: Lol! Great movie.

>34 clamairy: I hope you enjoy Sweet bean paste when it arrives. And yes, the kaiju aren't described in detail but what we do learn isn't attractive.

>35 Karlstar: I really enjoyed This virtual night. I was already a fan of This alien shore which is set in the same universe and, although this book follows completely different characters, I think it helps to have read the first book just because you get more background to the Variants, the ainniq, etc. But plot wise they both stand alone.

>44 Caroline_McElwee: That's what I'm doing too. I can't read a heavy hardback for very long at a time, but I think that's the format to go for in this case so that you get the full benefit of the illustrations.

As usual I've left it far too long between posts, so thank you all for keeping my thread warm.

I've finished This virtual night and Carnival of ash, both of which were good reads. Night is set in the far future where it was only belatedly learned that using the technology necessary to travel the stars led to mutations in humans, and the colonies were abandoned in fear and disgust. Centuries later however, they are being rediscovered and brought into the fold of civilization. Ru is an Outrider, whose job is to find and contact these colonies, a life which suits her impulsive and adventurous nature. Between missions she is sent to check out an abandoned space station, which is thought to be the source of a devastating viral attack on another station's systems. Her path crosses that of Micah, the software designer who has been framed for the attack and is on the run to escape what he believes will be execution without trial. The two of them discover that the virus is far more dangerous than anyone imagined, and it's about to be disseminated throughout the inhabited galaxy. Can Ru and Micah stop it before human and post-human life is destroyed? This is an exciting and thought-provoking read, with a blend of action and speculation on the future. If you like character-driven SF I recommend it.

Carnival of Ash is marketed as fantasy but in fact it's closer to an alternate history. There is no magic in the book, which is set in the city of Cadenza, where poets and printers are the most influential people in society. You would think that a city of bookbinders and libraries would be idyllic, but that's far from the case. Cadenza has its own corrupt politics and in addition is constantly aware of the threat posed by neighbouring Venice. The book is more a collection of linked short stories than a conventional novel, with each chapter following a different character and people from previous stories appearing in the background. However, these vignettes build up to the climax of an overarching plotline, which shows that the real threat to the city may come from within its walls. The stories cover different genres - farce, horror, detective story, heist, political intrigue and more, with scenes occurring in palaces and libraries, printing workshops and taverns, graveyards and courtyards. There is a lot of violence and darkness in this world, but it is fascinating and compelling.

I've also read another of Gladys Mitchell's Mrs Bradley mysteries, Laurels are poison. This one is set at a women's teacher training college, where Mrs Bradley is asked to investigate the disappearance of a staff member following the annual end of year dance. Mrs B uncovers the mystery - and a number of red herrings - with the help of some irrepressible students. I always enjoy these books, for the quirky characters and humour and for the way Mitchell creates the settings in which the story takes place.

I'm still reading Maurice Guest which is both interesting and exasperating. Interesting, because I love the setting of C19th Leipzig among the international community of music students; exasperating because the title character and his love are melodramatic in the German romantic way that I associate with Werther - "She doesn't love me! I must die!" "He is too cruel! My life is not worth living!" There is a lot of angst!

I'm also reading Network effect, the Murderbot novel. Better late than never! Of course I'm enjoying it a lot.

>46 Sakerfalcon: Re Maurice Guest: I’m charmed to see that Wikipedia quotes a review from The Age (Melbourne newspaper) as follows:

while the book is undoubtedly clever, it runs to the inordinate length of 562 pages, and is more like a scientific dissection of the love theme than the romance that the ordinary reader likes. Nor is the book quite healthy in tone. Stalwart manhood and woman hood are absent from its pages, which are occupied mostly in a study of the almost neurotic psychology, in which many authors seem to delighted. Mr. Richardson has the ability to write healthier and brisker books, if not cleverer ones, than Maurice Guest.

(A quick look at the scanned page, available on the National Library of Australia website, shows that the paper indeed wrote “to delight”.)

>47 haydninvienna: Interesting. I have two cousins who work or worked on The Age.

>47 haydninvienna:, >48 hfglen: I have to agree with The Age's reviewer : Maurice Guest was indeed a very long read, and I did find myself skimming at times. Their point about the unhealthy tone is, I believe, what Richardson meant to convey in her portrayal of her characters (although I would argue that Madeleine is an example of "stalwart womanhood"). I don't have a lot of patience for romantic angst, so parts of the book were a slog, particularly Maurice's tortured interior monologues. But it was fascinating to see how his obsession with Louise led their relationship into cruelty and destruction. My favourite aspect of the book was the supporting characters, mostly other young music students from Europe and the USA, and their lives in C19th Leipzig. They, and the focus on music, kept me reading.

I've read two short books in translation this week, from Japan and Lithuania. Weasels in the attic consists of three vignettes in the life of a couple and their friends over a few years as their relationships change. Like this author's previous books there is a surreal tinge to the narrative, but this is generally more realistic. There's not a lot of action, it's really about the characters and what they represent about modern life in Japan. I really liked it.

The Lithuanian book, In the shadow of wolves, is a spare narrative, set largely in what is now Kaliningrad, after WWII. The German population there, mostly women, children and the elderly, faced terrible hardships under the Soviet rule, struggling to keep safe, warm and nourished. Groups of children crossed the border into Lithuania to beg or work for food to bring back to their families; they became known as "wolf children". The book focuses on two women and their children, as they are gradually separated by various fates until only Renate remains. She is based on the experiences of two women whom the author learned about while researching for a proposed documentary film. This is a largely forgotten aspect of WWII, and unsurprisingly the book is quite bleak, though with a hopeful ending.

I'm still enjoying Network effect, and expect to finish it very soon.

On kindle I've just started to read Femina by the historian Janina Ramirez, which is a history of women in the Middle Ages.

>46 Sakerfalcon: Carnival of ash sounds fascinating! I'm adding it to my wishlist.

>33 Sakerfalcon: Just catching up a bit after some time away. Like Clam, I've taken a hit on Sweet Bean Paste.

>49 Sakerfalcon: Will be very interested in hearing about Femina. I think I pre-ordered it and then decided i was spending too much money and cancelled it. I'm certainly open to hearing that I made the wrong decision.

I've had Femina on my NetGalley shelf for too long so I'm now relying on you to make me read it! No pressure!

>50 nonil: It was a good read. Once I figured out the structure, that I wouldn't be following the same characters through the book, I really began to enjoy it.

>51 Jim53: I hope you enjoy it! I really like Japanese fiction and this was a good one.

>52 jillmwo:, >53 LyzzyBee: I'm enjoying Femina so far. Each chapter takes a woman or women for whose existence there is textual or archaeological evidence and uses her story to explore that of other women and the society in which they lived. Learning about women gives us an expanded picture of the society and period as a whole. It's written for the lay reader, but copiously referenced.

I finished and enjoyed Network effect which, being novel-length, enabled Wells to write a more complex adventure for Murderbot. If you haven't read any of the stories before, don't start here; begin with All systems red.

I'm still dipping into The story of art without men and enjoying it a lot.

I'm also reading Changing vision, which is the middle volume of Julie Czerneda's Web shifters trilogy. Esen is the last of her species, a shape changer who can imitate any species in the known universe. Her forbears gained their knowledge of other species by devouring them - literally - leading them to be persecuted to extinction. The leader of Esen's web had developed a conscience, thus Esen was raised to direct her curiosity to peaceful ends. In the first book she broke the most important rule and revealed her nature to a human. Now in this second book she and Paul have been friends and business partners for decades, living peacefully, until on a visit to another planet they are recognised. Esen is an entertaining narrator, still immature and impulsive yet lovable. The many other alien species are very alien - Czerneda has a great imagination backed by her biological knowledge.

>54 Sakerfalcon: Ooh, the Czerneda sounds great. I didn't like her fantasy novel that I read, but I thought she was a great writer.

>55 libraryperilous: I really disliked A turn of light, and I wasn't keen on her stand-alone SF novel, In the company of others (the romance didn't work for me), but I've really enjoyed pretty much everything else I've read by Czerneda. I think the Species Imperative series is my favourite.

I forgot to mention that earlier this month I read a thriller by Patricia Highsmith. It was such a fast read that I didn't note it down! A suspension of mercy tells of a young couple, a writer and an artist, living together in a lonely cottage in Suffolk. Their marriage is in difficulty and Alice sometimes goes away to visit friends in London or her parents. In the meantime, Sydney imagines the different ways that he might kill her and dispose of her body. These are idle fantasies, thought experiments that he means to put into his writing, but when Alice disappears without trace, suspicious falls on Sydney and his imaginings threaten to condemn him. I enjoyed this a lot even as I was mentally yelling at Sydney and Alice not to be so silly. It was a good read.

Another long-overdue update!

I finished Changing vision which was a good read. It took a little while to get going but once it did I enjoyed it. It's great to have a series where the central relationship is not a romance.

I also finished Femina which was a fascinating read. Each chapter started with an archaeological discovery (sometimes as compelling a story as that told in the rest of the chapter) which focused on a particular Mediaeval woman, and led to a discussion and exploration of the time and place in which she lived. Learning more about women's lives naturally teaches us more about the society in general, giving a fuller depiction of history. Ramirez is careful to note where she may be conjecturing, or where evidence is not conclusive, and she is also clear that her book is just a start and that much more needs to be done in opening up history. Some chapters were stronger than others - the one on Hildegard von Bingen was superb, while I was less convinced by the one about Jadwiga of Poland - but overall this was an excellent read.

I've also read Fevered star, the sequel to Black sun. This fantasy trilogy is set in a world based on pre-Columbian America among various factions competing for earthly and spiritual power. I'm really enjoying it and looking forward to the final volume.

After reading some discussions about Emily St John Mandel's books in a couple of LT groups recently, I decided to read The glass hotel. I know some people were disappointed by this compared to Station Eleven, and indeed it is, on the surface, a much more conventional book in subject and structure. Set around the titular hotel, it tells of the fall of the man behind a long-running Ponzi scheme, and the stories of characters whose lives have intersected with his. There are also some links to Station Eleven which I won't spoil. I loved the setting on a remote part of northern Vancouver Island and really enjoyed seeing how the different characters connected. I will read Sea of Tranquility very soon, as I gather that it links with both previous books.

I'm currently reading a very long Virago novel, The corn king and the spring queen, which is set in ancient times around the Black Sea, Greece and Sparta. It tells of the heroine Erif Der and her husband Tarrik, who are married to combine their powers in the titular ritual roles. Erif Der has agreed with her father that she will bewitch Tarrik in order that her father and brother can take his power, but when the plan is thwarted by a visiting Greek philosopher she is not entirely sorry, having fallen in love with her husband. But this is far from a romantic novel; characters have very different motives than those of our time and place, and behave in ways that seem illogical. This to me is the mark of a good historical novel - characters should not have the values of the time in which the book was written, but that of the time in which it is set, however alien or dislikeable that may make them. Yet I am engrossed in the novel, and fascinated by Erif and her society, and eager to see what will happen.

I'm also reading The terraformers, which libraryperilous highly recommended. It is a great read so far. Consisting of three linked novellas set in different periods on a planet which is being terraformed by a corporation prior to being sold off for investment, we see how the aims of the environmentalists frequently clash with those of the corporations. It also raises questions of personhood and identity, and our relationships with non-human species.

EDIT: Just realised the touchstone for Black Sun was wrong, so I've fixed it.

>57 Sakerfalcon: I might have taken a BB on that Black Sun trilogy. Oy... I am riddled with BBs at this point. I hope you enjoy Sea of Tranquility as much as I did.

>57 Sakerfalcon: and >58 clamairy: There've been a number of BBs from this page. I'm looking hard at the Highsmith title up there in #56. And you liked Femina which means I may need to take a second look. And The Story of Art Without Men is on my radar as well.

Fortunately I remembered my mithril coat, which has deflected the book bullets that tried to get at me.

>60 Jim53: But...but book bullets are nice...!

I think she got me with Femina.

>61 Marissa_Doyle: No argument here. I just have such a long list currently that I'm trying not to add to it.

What's wrong with having a list? You don't have to buy everything, but it's good to have ideas, or even to keep a list with a note of those reading ideas that you can refer back to if you're going to the library or just looking up your local library branch's catalogue to see what books you might be able to borrow.

To be fair, all of you have hit me with BBs over the years! I find the reviews of my friends on here to be a far more reliable guide as to whether I will like a book or not than any other source of information. And the less said about the length of my lists, and the height of my TBR piles, the better!

I forgot to mention that I read Second class citizen by Buchi Emecheta for the 75 Books group African reading challenge this month. Emecheta emigrated from Nigeria to London in the 1960s and this book is one of the novels she wrote that were based on her experiences. Not surprisingly she suffered from racism and discrimination from an uncaring State and society, as well as being bullied by her husband whom she had followed to London. But Adah (as she is named in the book) is undaunted and determined to make a life for herself in spite of all the obstacles in her way. Happily, her library jobs are a source of joy and friendship as her managers and colleagues accept her as part of the team without question. I shouldn't have been surprised that the hostility between the Igbo and Yoruba peoples was transferred to London; there was no instance of them joining in solidarity against a country that just sees them all as "coloured". This should have been a really depressing book but it wasn't; Adah is so strong that we are sure she will succeed in achieving her dreams. The novel ends very abruptly, and I need to seek out In the ditch which (although written earlier) continues Adah's story.

I finished The terraformers and really enjoyed it. It takes place over a large span of time and a whole planet, but focuses in on three crisis points within the bigger picture. In the first, environmental ranger Destry and her moose companion Whistle discover a community of archaic humanoids who shouldn't actually exist. In the second, centuries later, Destry's apprentice is paired with one of the archaic people to design a transit system for the continent. And in the third, set even further in the future, a sentient train and a feline journalist uncover scandals that could bring down the corporations who control the planet. We are in an era of transhumanism, where people seek the thrill of living as an "authentic" Pleistocene-era H. sapiens on a pristine planet - but with all the comforts and luxuries of their own time, of course. My only criticisms are that some of the conflicts were cleared up and events resolved very quickly; and also that the corporations and their execs are pretty much unmitigatedly evil. But I really enjoyed this read, especially for the non-human characters and the optimistic, imaginatively worldbuilding.

Now I've just started The magician's daughter which was another recommendation by LibraryPerilous, and Station Eternity which someone (possibly LP again?) reviewed favourably. And I'm still enjoying The corn king ... and dipping into The story of art without men. And I forgot to add, I'm also reading Frankenstein in Baghdad which is set during the American occupation of Iraq and uses the Frankenstein story to bring together a diverse cast of characters.

Looking forward to you getting to your purchases from The Heath Bookshop ...!

>64 Sakerfalcon: I enjoyed the only Annalee Newitz that I've read so far and am always on the lookout for more of their work. Good to know this one doesn't disappoint.

>65 LyzzyBee: I'm reading The fell today, as I should be able to finish it before going on holiday, and I'm taking the other two with me!

>66 AHS-Wolfy: From what I can tell (only having read this one of her 3 novels) her books are quite different from each other, although obvs they are all SF.

Just a quick catch-up before I go away for the next 8 days. I'm travelling to Brussels and Frankfurt am Main with my sister for a holiday.

I managed to finish all my in-progress books, which is good as I don't like taking books I'm in the middle of away with me.

The magician's daughter was a lovely magical read, very well written and with a small cast of well-developed characters. 16 year old Biddy has only known life on the hidden island of Hy-Brazil, with her adopted father Rowan the magician and his familiar Hutchincroft, who usually takes the form of a rabbit. Biddy is unhappy when Rowan disappears overnight, and her fears are realised when he fails to return one morning. The outside world is threatening to encroach on their paradise, and although Biddy has always longed to leave the island and explore, when her chance comes she realises that the world may not be as welcoming as she's hoped. Despite having no magic herself, she must save Rowan and stop the corrupt organisation that is hoarding magic and restricting its use in the world. It's set in an alternate pre-WWI Britain and Ireland, but has a timeless feel to it. I really enjoyed this.

Station eternity was a fun read, a true SF/mystery mashup. Wherever Mallory goes, murder follows, until she is so desperate that she leaves Earth to live on a space station where only 2 other humans are resident. It works - no deaths occur ... until one day it is announced that a ship of humans is arriving. And sure enough, the deaths begin. Mallory soon learns that all of the surviving passengers are connected to her by some degree, and that she must act fast if she is to save human and alien lives. The aliens are wonderfully well-realised - the rock-like Gneiss (of course!), the hive minded Swarm, the sentient space station itself, among others. Mallory was frustrating to me at first, acting on impulse rather than stopping to think, but in conjunction with other characters she works well and figures things out. It seems set up for a sequel, which I will be looking forward to.

The corn king and the spring queen was a long, wonderful read. I was totally immersed in the ancient societies of the Scythians, Spartans, Greeks and Egyptians. Erif Der, Philylla, Tarrik, Kleomedes and the many smaller characters were foreign in their ways and beliefs, yet relatable in their aims and aspirations.

And Sea of tranquility was wonderful too. I love how Mandel weaves fragments from different times and places to form a narrative that the reader pieces together as the book progresses. There are several "ah-ha" moments when one realises a connection. I find her characters and visions of the world fascinating and compelling. I will read whatever she writes next.

I'm reading a short novel, The fell before I leave for my trip. It's set during Covid and shows the repercussions when a woman who should be isolating decides to go for a short walk in the hills, against regulations. She'll only be gone for an hour, what could possibly go wrong? The author channels the voices of four different characters to tell the story.

>67 Sakerfalcon: I hope you have a wonderful time! I agree about St John Mandel. Her stuff is (mostly) fantastic. And thanks for the spray of BBs. I have added The Magician's Daughter to my OverDrive wishlist.

>67 Sakerfalcon: I'm glad you enjoyed both of them. I found Mallory frustrating for most of the novel, but I loved the aliens (esp. the space station) enough to be invested in the story.

Happy holiday!

>67 Sakerfalcon:
Enjoy your holiday. We will be on ours by the time you return.

I look forward to your photographs. They always broaden my mind and my knowledge base.

Enjoy your travels!

>67 Sakerfalcon: Have a good trip, be safe! Don't go walking in the hills.

Enjoy Belgium & Germany! Brussels has some of the best street frites in the world!

>67 Sakerfalcon: Finally two books I read as well, Claire, as most of your readings are not availble to me. I also liked Sea of tranquility, and enjoyed the connections. With The fell I felt a bit disappointed at the end, I wanted to know what happened after.

Enjoy your holiday.

How was your holiday Claire?

Thanks for the good wishes everyone! My sister and I had a wonderful time on our trip to Brussels and Frankfurt. We saw loads of art, walked for miles, ate great food, enjoyed some local beers, and didn't want to come home! There are many photos on Facebook.

>68 clamairy: I need to go back and read some of Mandel's earlier books, and I'm keen to see where she goes next.

>69 libraryperilous: Yes, I was relieved when the POV moved away from Mallory, as a whole novel from her perspective would have been too much for me. The aliens were fantastic!

>70 pgmcc: I hope you have a successful mission terrific holiday in France.

>71 Jim53:, >72 Karlstar: Thanks both!

>73 Bookmarque: We did indulge in some frites and they were excellent. I was sad that we didn't have time for waffles though.

>74 FAMeulstee: Yes, I'd love to know what happened after The fell ended. My favourite of Moss's books is The tidal zone, have you read that one?

>75 Caroline_McElwee: It was wonderful, Caroline! We saw exhibitions by Niki de Saint-Phalle (the reason for our trip to Frankfurt), Swedish visionary artists including Hilma af Klimt, and an unexpected exhibition of four early C20th Jewish women artists. Not to mention the Comic Strip Art Museum and all the street art in Brussels!

I did find time to read while I was away. I took with me Nevada, Summer fun, (these two were purchased at the Heath Bookshop in Birmingham with LyzzyBee), The quest for Christa T, and my kindle.

On kindle I read Beyond the hallowed sky by Ken McLeod, which was an excellent near-future SF novel. The world has split into three power blocs - the Alliance which is basically England, USA and India; the Union which is mostly Scotland, Ireland, Wales, and the EU; and the Coalition which is dominated by Russia and China. We have viewpoint characters from the Alliance and the Union, as the blocs compete to explore and settle the solar system. The Union are on the verge of discovering FTL travel - but unbeknownst to them, the other blocs may have stolen a march on them. I really enjoyed this, not just the plausible social and political vision of Earth, but the scenes on Venus and the planet Apis where aliens may have been discovered. I'm now eagerly awaiting the next volume of the trilogy.

I also finished Nevada, which is an immersive book about the experience of being trans. Maria is stuck in a dead-end job, in a relationship that's going nowhere, ill at ease in her body. She dissociates from people and situations, hurting herself and others. When she loses her job she "borrows" her ex-girlfriend's car and hits the road. The first half of the book explores Maria's life in NYC. It's a third-person narrative but reads like an inner voice, with colloquial phrasing and slang. I found this really engaging and enlightening. The second half of the book switches perspective to that of James, a young man who is questioning his sexuality and gender. He too has a terrible job and an ambivalent relationship. When he and Maria meet, she attempts to help him resolve his identity. Maria is kind of a car crash, constantly screwing up her life and causing problems for those around her. Yet I found her fascinating and could understand why she was that way. James I found harder to relate to - he spends his life almost constantly smoking weed and when he isn't, he's thinking about how soon he can start smoking weed again. This was a really interesting read, not a comfortable one, but one that put me in the head of a trans woman for a few days. There is a good afterword by the author which talks about what she was thinking and feeling when she wrote the book. Recommended if you want an #ownvoices read about one person's experience of being trans.

By coincidence, Summer fun is also narrated by a trans character and her identity is an important part of the book. Gala is an obsessive fan of quintessentially American 1960s band the Get Happies. She is obsessed with their founder, B____ and the novel is structured as a series of letters from her to him. She tells the story of his life, though we question its veracity - how can Gala know what B____ was thinking and feeling? - , while also telling her own story although she denies that she is doing this. This is a book about identity, fandom, creativity, abuse, self-discovery and music. I haven't finished it yet but I'm really enjoying it.

I also haven't quite finished Christa T, which for a short book is quite a dense and time-consuming read. It's the story of a woman living through and after WWII in East Germany, told by a friend looking back over the years. Its tone is analytical rather than narrative and requires a lot of concentration. I may have to start again from the beginning after putting it down to focus on other things.

>76 Sakerfalcon:
All mission holiday objectives being pursued. Currently sitting on the veranda watching the lake and LibraryThinging on my phone.

Really enjoying your holiday pictures.

>76 Sakerfalcon: That sounds perfect! I hope you have some wine and cheese to accompany you.

>76 Sakerfalcon: Glad the Bookshop books worked out well for you! I am looking forward to Nevada and I am curious about Summer Fun now, too! Also glad the trip was so good - photos were excellent!

>76 Sakerfalcon: The fell was my first book by Sarah Moss. The tidal zone isn't translated. I might try one of the others that are translated like Ghost wall or Summerwater.

>80 FAMeulstee: Both of those are good!

>79 LyzzyBee: I finished Summer fun last night and loved it! I was dubious about the structure - "character writes letters to person telling them the story of their own life" - why would you write to someone telling them about events with which surely they are more than familiar? But it worked really well, especially once it's revealed why Gala is writing the letters she is literally using them to cast a spell, as she believes in magic. Although she states that she's not going to tell her own story, she reveals much about her life: her job at a motel, her friendship (of a sort) with fellow trans woman Ronda, and her relationship with Caroline. The fictional Get Happies are based on the Beach Boys, with their journey from catchy pop ditties to more complex experimental sounds. The author writes really well about music and creativity, as well as about identity crises, mental health, and the trans experience. This was a really enjoyable read for me, despite some dark passages dealing with abuse (mental and physical). It's a weird and very original read.

On kindle I've started reading a children's book by Josephine Pullein-Thompson, A job with horses. Kate is determined to leave home after her mother remarries, and takes the first job with horses that she's offered. She finds herself living onsite at a crumbling castle, teaching the children of the house to ride while caring for the horses which are used for ... jousting renactments! I'm really enjoying this so far! I do like a good pony book.

A job with horses was a great read! It's nice to have a slightly older heroine - Kate must be about 19 as she has finished her A levels and then completed a 6 month course to qualify as a riding instructor. As well as the correcting the children's terrible riding and caring for the jousting horses, there is a mysterious prowler lurking around the castle, and Kate feels the first pangs of romantic attraction (although this is very understated). I thoroughly enjoyed this, my only complaint being that a lot is packed into the 3 weeks covered by the plot!

I've been rereading Max Gladstone's Craft sequence recently, as I have the newest book in the series on my TBR pile. This is one of my favourite fantasy series of recent years, quite unlike anything else I've read. It fuses spiritual belief and contract law to form a unique magic system and features well-drawn, diverse characters. I'm currently in the middle of Last first snow, the 4th book of the original 6, and will be reading them all before starting Dead country.

I'm currently reading Phoebe Junior, the last of Mrs Oliphant's Chronicles of Carlingford, with the Virago group. These books are often compared to those of Anthony Trollope as they focus on the lives of townsfolk and clergy in a small English town in the Victorian era. We meet characters of different Christian different denominations and statuses in society (Free church members are distinctly inferior to Anglicans), from penniless curates to dutiful daughters; up-and-coming shopkeepers to proud matriarchs; idle sons to fiery politicians. Oliphant focuses more on the concerns of women, as one might expect, and also pays more attention to servants than other writers of the period. Phoebe Junior is the granddaughter of a shopkeeper and the daughter of a Dissenting minister who has risen socially after leaving Carlingford. When Phoebe visits the town to care for her grandmother, however, her elegance and education mean nothing to those who judge her by her "inferior" family connections. The impoverished Ursula who serves her widowed father as housekeeper, children's nurse and general dogsbody, is seen to be socially superior on account of her father being an Anglican minister. These divisions seem absurd to us today, but at that time they were all important. However, Oliphant uses her plot to undermine these views, and gives us an entertaining story into the bargain.

I've just started a fantasy novel, Saint Death's daughter, which has immediately grabbed me. Lanie Stones has a gift for necromancy but is allergic to violence. When her parents - the royal Assassin and Executioner of the kingdom - die unexpectedly, she and her sister have to act in order to prevent the family estate from being seized by debtors. So far we have a revenant servant, talkative ghosts, unreliable magic, a interesting heroine and her alarmingly psychotic sister, and hints at an intriguing world. I can't tell where this is going as yet, but I'm happy to come along for the ride!

>82 Sakerfalcon: I've been on the fence about Saint Death's Daughter. I couldn't tell from descriptions if it would turn too grim or depressing. I'll watch for your review.

>76 Sakerfalcon: I really need to get to MacLeod. I think Peter is a fan.

>83 libraryperilous:
Full disclosure: yes, I am a fan where Ken’s work is concerned.
:-)

I hope you enjoy his books.

>76 Sakerfalcon: Glad your trip went well! The 2nd MacLeod book is on my TBR pile.

Aargh, I hadn't realised it had been so long since I posted! Now I have lots of catching up to do.

>83 libraryperilous: Peter is the reason I've moved McLeod up the TBR pile! I loved SDD - see my comments below.

Phoebe Junior was a very good read, detailing life in a small town in Victorian England with all its social and religious divisions. I found it really helpful to read this as a group project, with comments from other readers to spur me on. I just need a push to read C19th prose these days!

Saint Death's daughter was brilliant, I loved it! Lainie is a sympathetic heroine, the world in which she lives is fascinating, and the cast of characters around her are interesting and well-drawn. Although she is a necromancer I didn't find the book to be too grim. Her sister Nita is a nasty piece of work and does some very unpleasant things, but she is killed off fairly quickly in the narrative. The found family and the emotional growth of Lainie's niece are heartening and balance out the darkness. The plot twists and turns, and I never felt as though I could predict what was going to happen. The end of the book is set up for a sequel, as a fairly major plot thread is left unresolved, and I am looking forward to whatever comes next.

I've also read Ocean's echo, an SF/romance set in the same universe as Winter's orbit, although you don't need to have read the first book at all. Tennal is a Reader, a powerful telepath who has been using his skills illegally. Surit is an Architect, who can write his will upon others. Tennal is conscripted to the army and assigned to Surit as punishment for his activities. Architects can be synched to Readers and their powers used strategically. However, Surit's moral code means that he refuses to synch with Tennal against his will, and the two, initially antagonistic, agree that they will fake the bond. But galactic events throw them into a situation beyond anything they could have expected. The romance is lower-key in this book than its predecessor, as both men realise that the timing is wrong for them to focus on anything other than the political situation. Tennal is so obnoxious for the first few chapters that I wondered if I could stand to read a whole book with him in it, but he develops gradually and realistically into a more mature and likeable person. I think I slightly preferred Winter's orbit, but this was still a very enjoyable read.

On kindle I've read Scattered all over the earth, a Japanese novel about migration and national identity in a world where climate change has caused some countries to cease to exist. It's a slightly surreal little fable, which brings together a group of characters of different backgrounds and languages as they travel around Europe in search of an elusive dashi chef. I really enjoyed this and am glad to see that it's the first of a trilogy.

Also on kindle I read a Korean novel called Whale which is on the International Booker prize shortlist. It chronicles the rise and fall of Geumbok, a woman who begins life in inauspicious circumstances but manages to create an empire of small businesses and find economic success. But she can't escape the past, and her daughter Chunhui will suffer as a result. I saw a review that compared this to 100 years of solitude and I thought that was ridiculous, but the more I read I realised that there was some truth in it. The elements of magical realism and fatalism, combined with characters' rise and fall over an extended timeline in a changing world, justified the comparison, although there is not the sprawling family that Marquez creates. This is a darker and sadder novel than I expected, but it was thought-provoking and took me out of my comfort zone.

I've just finished reading a collection of short stories published by Virago, She knew she was right. The author, Ivy Litvinov, is a British woman who married a Russian politician after the Revolution. For a while he was in Stalin's favour and the couple mixed in high social and political circles, but then he fell from grace. However, the stories are not political. The first four take place in Britain and are based on the author's childhood and youth. Then we move to Russia for stories of women and children, in dachas, holiday homes, and communal apartments, negotiating friendships with other women. The last stories return to England, with the final story being from a cat's POV! I really enjoyed these stories; the events in them are not world-shaking but you enter the everyday lives of the characters and feel the sense of time and place. I have a mystery novel by the same author, His master's voice, which I must read.

I've also read a Norwegian novel, Is mother dead, which is on the International Booker longlist. It's about an artist who became estranged from her family when she left her husband for her art teacher and moved to America with him. 30 years later, after her husband's death, she is returning to Oslo for an exhibition of her work, and she is obsessed with contacting her mother. This novel is very claustrophobic as we are inside Johanna's head the whole time, following the circular pattern of her thoughts as she merges past and present to create her own imagined version of her mother's life. From trying to call her on the phone, to lurking outside her apartment block, Johanna's actions escalate until a shocking confrontation. This is a fascinating novel of mother/daughter and sibling relations, and a disturbing portrayal of obsession. I've enjoyed all three novels that I've read so far by this author and I hope that more will be translated.

I'm currently reading Tress of the Emerald Sea, which is delightful, Light from uncommon stars, which merges Faustian fantasy with SF, and The ghostly lover, a novel from the POV of a teenage girl in 1940s Kentucky.

>76 Sakerfalcon: I've just started This is How It Always Is for our neighborhood book club, and I wonder if either Nevada or Summer Fun might be interesting to read with it. Yeah, in my copious spare time...

>87 Jim53: I loved that book! I am curious to see what >76 Sakerfalcon: advises.

>87 Jim53:, >88 clamairy: I think either book would make a really interesting companion read to This is how it always is! This is how ... is from the POV of the cis parents of a trans child, whereas both Summer fun and Nevada are narrated by trans women (and both authors are themselves trans). The main characters transitioned as young adults without the support of their families and so have created found families of a sort. They are both very messed up and you can understand how they got to be that way. If you like music then I'd especially recommend Summer fun, but Nevada is shorter and a faster read. If you go ahead then I look forward to your thoughts!

I finished The ghostly lover (completely irrelevant title, btw) which was a very good novel about a girl coming of age without the support of her family. Marian and her brother live with their grandmother in small-town Kentucky, while their parents travel the country going from one failed business attempt to another. Marian yearns for their rare visits, but is unable to connect with either parent when they do come home. She makes a somewhat ambivalent attempt at friendship with Hattie, the Black maid; she has school friends but we don't see them. Marian strikes up a relationship with Bruce, an older man whom she sees watching her at the start of the novel. He moves in and out of the story, which takes Marian to college in New York City, back to Kentucky upon her grandmother's death, and out West to visit her parents, until she finally frees herself from the past. It's very well written and captures the awkwardness around race and class in the 1940s South. I enjoyed this a lot.

In its place I've started The Salzburg tales by Christina Stead, which is structured like Decameron or The Canterbury tales but set at the Salzburg festival in the 1930s.

>89 Sakerfalcon: I may have taken a BB for The Salzburg Tales. Aren’t the LT reviews fascinating: only two, one of them 5 stars and the other a half….

I think the negative review is actually 1.5* rather than 0.5*, and the words of the review don't go with the rating - in fact, the reviewer says s/he quite liked some of the stories and didn't like others, though not indicating why.

>90 haydninvienna:, >91 elkiedee: Christina Stead is quite a polarizing writer in general, judging from some of the discussions we've had in the Virago group over the years! I like Letty Fox and For love alone a lot, but I was lukewarm on A little tea, a little chat and The beauties and furies, and I know Liz didn't get more than a few pages into Cotter's England before getting rid of it.

>76 Sakerfalcon: Glad you had a great holiday full of art Claire.

Lots of good reading too, by the look of it. Mine has slowed down a bit. Will have to put that right.

>93 Caroline_McElwee: I hope your reading has picked up a bit, but if not then I hope it's because you've been enjoying yourself with other things!

I've finished a few more books since I last posted.

Tress of the Emerald Sea was a lovely read, with the imaginative setting and magic that we expect from Sanderson, combined with an engaging heroine and a well-drawn supporting cast. Tress expects to spend her whole life living on the quiet remote island that is her family's home. But when her friend Charlie is taken overseas by his father to find a bride, and is subsequently reported to have been abducted by the wicked Sorceress of the Midnight Sea, she determines to do whatever it takes to rescue him and bring him home. Her adventures land her on a pirate ship, making friends and finding unexpected skills. If she finds Charlie will she even want to go home with him? I really enjoyed this; it has something of a fairy-tale feel to it, but set in a fully-realised world. There are Easter eggs for those who've read other Cosmere novels, but nothing that would confuse or distract you if you haven't.

Light from uncommon stars didn't quite work for me. The story involves a violinist who made a deal with the devil to deliver 7 souls in exchange for her career success; a young transgender runaway who happens to have a great talent for the violin; and a family of intergalactic refugees who have made their home on earth in a donut shop. The tone is largely whimsical and heart-warming (comparisons have been made to Becky Chambers' books) but the scenes of transphobic abuse that Katrina suffers are brutal and I found they jarred with the rest of the book. The alien family are cute but their powers are a little too convenient in some places. Identity is a strong theme throughout the novel, not just in the case of Katrina's gender, but looking at immigration and how neighbourhoods change as waves of immigrants arrive and pass through. This is expressed most strongly through cuisine, and the book will definitely make you hungry! Overall there were a lot of good elements in the book but they didn't really gel for me.

I read The Salzburg tales on my daily commute, for which it was perfect. Over 7 days, a diverse group of people gather and tell stories while they wait for the events of the festival to begin. Some stories are dark, some funny, some quotidian, some strange, some involve love, some revenge, some shady business deals .. if you don't like one story you may well like the next because there is such a variety here. I couldn't detect any sense of the political events that must have been in the background in 1930s Salzburg, but I did wonder how many more years the Jewish characters would enjoy their freedom. This was a very good read.

I've also read a YA novel, The lesbiana's guide to Catholic school which was very good indeed. Yami and her brother Cesar are changing from the local high school, where Cesar frequently gets into fights and Yami has just been outed by her (now ex-) best friend, to a private Catholic school. Yami is hoping to make a fresh start and put on her best straight-girl act. But she hasn't bargained for meeting Bo, a very out, attractive lesbian (the only queer person at the school). Yami's many blunders are amusing, as her head and her heart constantly contradict each other. But the heart of the book isn't Yami's love life, or even her sexual identity; it is her relationship with her brother and their parents. Their Mexican father has been deported, and they only have contact with him on facetime, leaving their mother is struggling to support them. But it's not just Yami who has a secret; Cesar does too, and the fear of disapproval and prejudice pushes him to breaking point. There are a lot of genuinely hard-hitting scenes in the book, yet it maintains a positive tone and leaves you with a warm glow as the siblings find support in unexpected places and look hopefully to the future.

And I managed to acquire a copy of A girl called Justice, an MG mystery which was a BB from libraryperilous. It's set in a girls' boarding school in the 1930s (although I didn't often get a sense of the period) and finds the titular character determined to discover why a chambermaid died in mysterious circumstances. Justice is a new girl, and is not at all happy to be at school. Most of her classmates don't warm to her, nor she to them. Luckily for her, she has found a couple of friends who will prove loyal when her investigations lead her into danger. There were a couple of discrepancies that stood out to me - in the 1930s, with a king on the throne, Justice's barrister father would have been a KC, not a QC (I only know this because of the recent coronation when the title had to change!). And at the beginning Justice is described as having hair too short to tie back, yet a few weeks later it is supposedly long enough to French braid, which seems unlikely. But in spite of that I thoroughly enjoyed this and will be looking for the sequel.

I'm currently (still) reading and enjoying The story of art without men; I've reached the 1960s period. On kindle I'm reading Eyes of the void which is the second in an SF trilogy by Adrian Tchaikovsky. It's action packed with a complicated plot and a great cast of (human and alien) characters. I'm reading another MG novel, The thief knot, which is set in the same world as Greenglass house. I was lukewarm on the plot of that but loved the setting, and so far I'm enjoying Thief knot. And I've just started to read True biz which was a recommendation from a close friend. It's set in a school for deaf children and is written by a Deaf author.

>94 Sakerfalcon: I am so glad you enjoyed Tress. It's been one of my favorite reads so far in 2023.

Despite the fact that you didn't love Light from Uncommon Stars it sounds intriguing. Sounds a bit like Legends & Lattes. Perhaps I'll borrow it and dip my toes.

>95 clamairy: I got a Becky Chambers vibe from it more than Legends and lattes, but the food theme is definitely as strong!

Time for another belated update. With the hot (for the UK) weather I haven't felt like doing much that requires mental or physical effort. Reading = good. Writing = bad.

I finished Eyes of the void and really enjoyed this middle part of the trilogy. We follow the protagonists into new places and new alliances as the plot thickens and becomes more complicated. There are revelations which change what we knew about the universe of the book. I'm really looking forward to the final part.

I also finished The thief knot and enjoyed it a lot more than Greenglass House. It had more of a sense of urgency, and the whimsy was better integrated into the plot. I liked Marzana and her friends a lot, especially as Marzana grows more confident with people throughout the book. The relations between children and adults were well handled too. I enjoyed exploring the Liberty of Gammerbund, an enclave within the city of Nagspeake which has its own rules and reality. Now I might go back and reread Greenglass House to see if it works better for me.

True biz was an amazing read, and is certain to be one of my favourites for this year. It follows the lives of two deaf students and their headmistress as many issues come to a head in their community. Austin comes from several generations of a Deaf family and is totally secure in his world, until his baby sister is born hearing. Charlie's parents were horrified to have a Deaf child and had her fitted with a cochlear implant and integrated into mainstream education. It's not until she is able to enroll at River Valley School for the Deaf that she meets another Deaf person for the first time. February is the hearing child of Deaf parents and her role as headmistress is the centre of her life, more important even than her marriage. Events and issues permeate the book and come to a head as several crises conjoin to threaten the school and the Deaf community. The author presents all sides of the issues and there are no easy answers. I learned so much through reading this and it made me think about things I'd never really been aware of. Highly recommended to everyone, really.

I've also read a novel by a French/Korean author, The pachinko parlour, about a Korean woman raised in Switzerland who is spending the summer with her grandparents in Tokyo. They moved there to escape the Korean civil war, and have never been back to their home country. Claire, the protagonist, is supposed to be planning a trip back to Korea with them. While in Tokyo she teaches French to a 10 year old girl and the two become close. Themes of identity and history run through this quiet novel. I enjoyed it.

I was really impressed with Brandon Taylor's debut novel, Real life when I read it, and have now finally got around to his follow-up short story collection, Filthy animals. At its heart are linked stories centred around Lionel, a Black student recovering from attempted suicide and two dance students he meets at a party, Charles and Sophie. These two have an ambiguous relationship and Lionel finds himself attracted to them both. I think my favourite stories were focused on other characters though: "Mass" and "Anne of Cleves". All the stories feature awkward, uncomfortable relationships, with race, class and education forming barriers between people. Taylor is an acute observer of character, and of the messy ways that people interact with each other and the world around them.

I'm currently reading Some desperate glory, a space opera set in a universe where earth and its 14 billion inhabitants were destroyed by aliens. Kyr has spent all her life training for war to enact vengeance against the aliens. But she is disgusted and horrified to be assigned to Nursery duty to have babies for the regime, instead of fighting the battles she trained for. She decides to leave the space station and travel to the planet below to carry out her own mission against the enemy. But events will change everything she thought she knew about her world. The blurb had given me no clue that the protagonist, Kyr, is actually really unlikeable, and not a sympathetic character at all. We are not rooting for her her, that's for sure. But as the plot twists and turns both she and we begin to learn that things are far more complicated than just black and white good and evil. This is a really exciting read.

I'm also reading Last witnesses, oral testimony from Soviets (mostly Belorussians) who were children during the Second World War. Ranging in age from 3 to 14 years at the time they remember, the accounts detail atrocities and sorrows that no child should have to experience. Some fled East with their families; some were taken to orphanages, or concentration camps, or to be labourers in German-controlled areas, others joined partisan resistance groups. Some remember favourite toys or pets; many recall the kindness of strangers. All are clearly still affected by their experiences in some way. The book was published in 1985 so the vast majority of the contributors will no longer be alive; I cannot imagine any of them being comfortable with the current events in Ukraine which are affecting a new generation of children.

And on kindle I've just started reading Demon Copperhead, Barbara Kingsolver's take on David Copperfield transposed to 1990s Appalachia. She is channelling the voice of her young male narrator very well so far.

>96 Sakerfalcon: I feel the same with similair weather here, Claire.
I did read Last witnesses before the war in Ukraine started. But sadly there is always a war going on somewhere in the world, and children will suffer...

>96 Sakerfalcon: That is a very interesting set of books, I'm tempted by several of them.

So glad you liked True Biz so much - I learned a lot from it, too.

>97 FAMeulstee: sadly there is always a war going on somewhere in the world, and children will suffer... You are right. I wish we, as a species, could be different. But as we can't I will continue to appreciate the privilege of escaping into art and books.

>98 Karlstar: I will be interested to see which ones make it onto your TBR pile!

>99 LyzzyBee: I hadn't even heard of it until my friend in Portland, OR, sent me a copy for my birthday. Yes, lots to learn and a totally gripping narrative!

I've finished a few more books since last checking in.

Some desperate glory was a good but not great read for me. It has had mostly excellent reviews and sounded right up my alley, but something was slightly off about it for me. I was pleasantly surprised by the anti-heroine (the blurb had led me to expect a "good", if sheltered, heroine fighting to right wrongs in a universe stacked against her). However, Kyr is a true believer in her extremist sect's anti-alien creed, and determined to take revenge for humanity's near-destruction, even at the cost of billions of innocent alien lives. This made for a more interesting start to the novel and I was intrigued when the story moved off the station and onto a planet. However, the majority of the book takes place on the station among the rebel humans, and we really only meet one alien and see very little of the wider universe. Upon reflection, I think this was what disappointed me about the book. Which is probably unreasonable, but the book description said "If she succeeds, she will find a universe far more complicated than she was taught and far more wondrous than she could ever have imagined". We are shown the complexity, but not the wonder or size of the universe. But I am in a minority on this one, so take my reaction with a grain of salt and read some other reviews for balance!

I finished Last witnesses, and my previous comments stand: this was a very powerful, saddening and important read that adds to our knowledge of WWII.

I've also finished Demon Copperhead which was absolutely outstanding. I was totally hooked, even though the story is very bleak for a lot of the time. Kingsolver channels the voice of a young, poorly educated Appalachian boy growing to manhood in a convincing and compelling way. He is caught up in a world of poverty, addiction, discrimination and hopelessness, but finds kindness in unexpected places. He is also a kind person himself. Some of his bad experiences are the result of his own unwise decisions, but a lot of it is because he's a pawn in a system stacked against him. His story plays about against the backdrop of a region exploited by external players, leaving people jobless and scorned by the outside world (several times the novel points out that mocking of "hillbillies" and "rednecks" is perfectly acceptable) and prey to the unscrupulous marketing of opioids. Kingsolver has taken the story of David Copperfield and updated and relocated it to a time and place that she knows very well. In my opinion, it has worked brilliantly, and I'm not surprised that the book has won the Women's Prize this year. I expect it to win many more. But unlike a lot of prizewinning books (controversial opinion incoming!) it is also grippingly readable and totally engaging.

I've also read a Virago reprint set in 1950s New York, The golden spur by Dawn Powell. I was not familiar with this writer but now I'll be seeking out more of her work. The story begins with Jonathan arriving in the big city from his home in Ohio, in search of his real father. Twenty or so years earlier his mother spent a year in the city working as a typist, and Jonathan's aunt reveals to him that he was conceived during this time. He goes to the bar that she mentioned in her diaries, The Golden Spur, and soon falls in with the vaguely seedy and disreputable artists, writers, and their hangers-on who gather there. I really enjoyed the vivid time and place and the amusing cast of characters who all have their own reasons for being interested in Jonathan.

I also read the second in a British urban fantasy series, Grave danger. These are bit more romance-heavy than I normally like, but the humour and setting (rural Staffordshire) outweigh those elements. The romantic subplots don't take themselves too seriously. This is an alternate world where vampires are out in the open and more or less accepted, and our heroine is a necromancer, compelled to raise the dead. Toni ended the previous book in an unwise relationship with the vampire Oscar but instead of enjoying herself she has murders to solve, and Oscar to try and keep in line. There is a lot of blood, not all of it caused by vampires, and much mayhem.

I'm currently reading The three Dahlias, a mystery set at a fan convention to celebrate and promote the latest film adaptation of a beloved crime writer's work. Leticia Dalloway's Dahlia Lively is a classic golden age fictional detective, and the convention brings together the three actresses who have (or are about to) play her on screen. Mix in the author's descendants, who are fiercely protective of her work, some rabid fans, a temperamental film director, and lots of faux-period atmosphere, and the stage is set for a dramatic weekend - even before the first death occurs. I am really enjoying this; it's pretty cosy, with a classic country house setting and engaging characters. The author could have chosen to make the three actresses super bitchy rivals, but I'm glad she has chosen differently.

As I've commented in Peter's thread, I'm also reading The mask of Dimitrios, which was a skilfully aimed BB. It's a thriller set in Europe and the Levant in the 1930s, as writer Charles Latimer becomes obsessed with tracing the history of the deceased criminal Dimitrios. Of course he falls into danger but doesn't know why what is, for him, a purely theoretical investigation, is of interest to others, and what they might have at stake. This is a very good read, really capturing the seedy and corrupt side of inter-war Europe. It is reminding me a bit of The tremor of forgery by Patricia Highsmith, which I loved.

And I've just started an SF novel which has been on my shelf for several years, Rainbows end by Vernor Vinge. It's a cyberpunk thriller and is intriguing so far.

>100 Sakerfalcon:
Yes I noticed your new little BB shot. The Tremor of Forgery was well fired. You must be approaching an accounting period-end and are trying to get your score up before the books for the period are closed.

>100 Sakerfalcon: I'm glad Demon Copperhead worked so well for you. I started it at a bad time and didn't get very far. I have since purchased the audio book, because everyone seems to love this one.

And now you are firing Eric Ambler bullets, too? There is no safe haven.

Actually, >100 Sakerfalcon: winged me with The Three Dahlias. I need something of that ilk at the moment.

>103 jillmwo: Have you checked the LT recommendations for that book? Not the automatically generated ones, but the LibraryThing user recommendations. It might not have any, but I have found some good info over the years.

>104 clamairy: Thank you for poking me about those recommendations, because I *never* remember that you can navigate to those from the individual works page. I tend to start and stop with the recommendations on the home page and neglect other options.

>101 pgmcc: Just trying to share the bookish goodness ....

>102 clamairy: Demon Copperhead needs you to be in a good place when reading to offset the bleakness in the book, that's for sure. I hope you're able to come back to it some time in the future.

>103 jillmwo: I finished The three Dahlias yesterday and loved it! I will definitely be reading the sequel when it comes out in paperback.

>104 clamairy: That's a good idea! I like when people leave comments saying why they have made the recommendation. I've done a few myself in the past.

The three Dahlias was a lovely read, which effectively used a classic country house setting in the modern day and age. The three Dahlias contrast nicely with each other and work well together, and the supporting characters and suspects are well drawn. The tropes of the genre are both celebrated and questioned and despite the modern characters and setting the book has a classic feel to it. A really good read.

I've also finished The mask of Dimitrios which was very good. The atmosphere of 1930s Europe and Turkey was very well conveyed, as is the tension when Latimer's initially casual investigation into Dimitrios's past leads him into danger. Due to the nature of the plot - Latimer is uncovering past events for which he was not present - there are a number of scenes where characters are recounting events to him, which is not the most exciting reading; but Ambler more than made up for this in the scenes where Latimer is investigating for himself. I will definitely read more by Ambler if the books come my way.

I've started to read this year's International Booker prize winner, Time shelter , which is a Bulgarian novel about time and memory. They mysterious doctor Gaustine creates spaces that faithfully replicate the atmosphere of different eras from the C20th, to stimulate the memories of people with dementia. But with the world becoming increasingly depressing, more people start to use his services as an escape. This is an intriguing book so far.

And I'm about to start A taste of gold and iron, a romantic fantasy set in a Turkish/Middle Eastern type world.

>106 Sakerfalcon: I have The Three Dahlias on my Kindle, and I'm intrigued by your description of its cozy, Golden Age qualities, as well as the lack of bitchiness and the country estate locale. I loved The Mask of Dimitrios, and I plan on reading all of Ambler's prewar novels.

Direct BB hit on The Three Dahlias - I've just put a hold on it at my library, which has it on order.

>106 Sakerfalcon: I am so enjoying The Three Dahlias. Thank you, thank you, thank you for bringing it to my attention. It works on so many levels.

>106 Sakerfalcon: Another hit for The Three Dahlias.

>107 libraryperilous:, >108 tardis:, >109 jillmwo:, >110 MrsLee: I hope you all love it as much as I did! The lack of bitchiness was a HUGE plus for me.

I thought The Three Dahlias was good fun - I read it courtesy of Netgalley a few months ago and have just read a review copy of the sequel which I think is out this month (I've signed up for the author's email updates. The characters do actually consider bitchy rivalry etc but decide against it.

I've got True Biz on my library TBR but other people now keep requesting it, along with various books relating to East Germany. I liked Sara Novic's first novel a few years ago, Girl at War.

>112 elkiedee: I will looking out for the sequel to The three Dahlias! I hadn't heard of True biz or the author but I'll look for more of her work.

I finished Time shelter which was a strange but intriguing and powerful read. The mysterious Doctor Gaustine creates clinics for Alzheimer's sufferers which exactly replicate living conditions from various decades of the C20th. This seems to successfully stimulate their memories. But the clinics start to appeal to healthy people too, and soon a move towards replicating the past sweeps across Europe, and countries vote to turn the clock back to the decade of people's choice. Events become more and more bizarre, and the lines between fantasy and reality, identity and memory, become blurred.

>113 Sakerfalcon:
I am going to stop reading your posts. They are too dangerous.

>114 pgmcc: Well now I am seeing elephants everywhere thanks to you, so I think you have your revenge!

(Back after breaking to attend a meeting) I've just finished an SFnal murder mystery, The launch party. It's a locked room mystery where the locked room is a hotel on the moon. A group of 10 "lucky" people were picked to be the first guests at the luxury resort, but all is not as it seems. This was fun to read and kept me turning the pages when I should have been going to sleep.

On kindle I'm reading Disorientation, a satire of academia and one woman's experience of being Chinese American. Ingrid is trying to write her PhD thesis on a popular Chinese poet, but is struggling to find anything to say. Her procrastination and distraction techniques lead her into some strange rabbit holes.

>115 Sakerfalcon:
I am seeing elephants everywhere thanks to you

My work here is done.

>113 Sakerfalcon: Time Shelter sounds has my interest peaked.

Biiiiiig catching up post to do!

Those of you on Facebook will have seen that I was on holiday in Paris for a few days, which was wonderful. I hadn't been there for about 20 years and it was lovely to have time to wander the city, visit a couple of favourite museums, and discover some places that were new to me.

Before I left I finished Disorientation, which was a fun satire although a bit too broad in places to be believable. The issues it raises are very real though; race, gender, identity, and who is considered to have academic credibility. I enjoyed this for the campus setting and politics and would read more by the author.

I also read We don't swim here, a YA horror novel set in a small town in Arkansas. Bronwyn is a gifted high school swimmer, so when her family has to move to a new place to care for her grandmother, she is dismayed to find that there are no pools in town and that "we don't swim here". Her classmates and cousin observe strange secretive rituals, which they refuse to explain to Bronwyn "to keep you safe". But her persistence, aided by a journalism student from out of town, uncovers some unpleasant secrets from the town's past which have resulted in a horror that lingers in the present. This was a really good read, with an all too plausible history of racism and violence behind the horror.

While I was away I took a volume of Colette's memoirs with me to read, Recollections. This contains Journey for myself, a collection of pieces written for various newspapers and magazines, focusing on life in Paris and France between the wars, and The evening star, a memoir from late in life when arthritis largely confined the author to her flat in the Palais Royale. This was the perfect book to read in Paris. Colette's sharp observations of the city, its customs and its character perfectly convey its atmosphere and history, even so many decades after being written.

Since my return I've read Deep in Providence, a YA novel about 3 best friends who decide to use magic to bring their fourth friend back after she is killed in a car accident. Miliani, Natalie and Inez each have their own issues and family difficulties to overcome, and the powers they are raising impact their lives more than anticipated. Each girl has to learn when to keep fighting and when it's best to let something go. The narrative is shared between the three girls but I didn't find their voices to be distinct from one another. Apart from that it was a good read, with no easy answers.

I've also read All the dogs of my life which is Elizabeth von Arnim's autobiography told through the many dogs she has owned. Her parents were not dog people and so the animals that came her way in her childhood were quickly given away. But adulthood brought her many dogs, all with their own personalities and stories. Sadly, some did not have happy endings, and animal lovers will be all too familiar with the pain and guilt expressed by the author. Throughout, von Arnim denies that she is writing autobiography, and so gives herself leave to skip over significant parts of life as "I am writing about my dogs not myself". But her wit and sometimes self-deprecating humour come across clearly, as do her opinions on marriage, motherhood and widowhood.

I finally got around to reading a fantasy novel that has been on my shelf for years. Living with ghosts is set in the city of Merafi which finds itself under threat from a rising tide of dark magic. Merafians have rejected all belief in magic and elemental powers, so they are ill-prepared to face this trial. It takes the combination of a failed magician-turned-courtesan, a nobleman, a soldier and a ghost to try and defeat the evil. This is a very slow-building book, set in a world which the author has clearly thought out in detail - we see all levels of society, the political, social and financial structures, and it all seems to add up convincingly. While male characters dominate, there is a refreshing lack of sexism in the world - the nobleman is the idle husband of the queen's hard-working Councillor, and women own businesses and serve in the military. The characters are interesting and well developed, but I didn't really become attached to them and the one who initially seems the most relatable behaves truly stupidly in order to serve the plot - I felt that there were other ways to achieve the desired events than to have the character act so out of character. This is a detailed, dense, immersive fantasy that avoids many of the genre's tropes, which I am glad to have read.

I'm now reading another fantasy, A thousand recipes for revenge which has a food-based magic system! I am very here for this!
I'm also reading Silvia Moreno Garcia's latest in paperback, The daughter of Doctor Moreau which is inspired by the H. G. Wells novel, The Wisteria Society of lady scoundrels which is a silly but fun historical fantasty, and The flamethrowers which follows a young woman from Nevada to the art scene in 1970s NYC.

I’ve been intrigued by The Daughter of Doctor Moreau. I look forward to your opinion on it. Also, the Wisteria Society has been mentioned to me by a friend. I’ll have to pick that one up.

>119 catzteach: I've now finished both books!

The daughter of Doctor Moreau was a good slow burn of a read. I haven't read the Wells original on which this is based; I'm not sure if being familiar with it would enhance or reduce one's enjoyment. Carlota has grown up on a remote hacienda in Yucatan with only her father, his majordomo, and the varied hybrids which are the result of his experiments. Her peaceful world is ruptured when her father's benefactor's son arrives. Carlota is immediately smitten by this confident young man, but the disruption he causes threatens her way of life - and the actual lives of the hybrids. The books moves slowly for the first half, building a sensual picture of life on the hacienda and showing how fragile its peace and sanctity is. Carlota is sheltered and naive, but just when you fear she is going to be weak and foolish she shows unexpected strength, particularly in defense of the hybrids. This was a good read that vividly portrays the Yucatan jungle.

The Wisteria Society of lady scoundrels was extremely silly and lots of fun! It's a historical-romance-fantasy about a group of ladies who sip tea, gossip, arrange assassinations, and burgle each other's homes. The latter is made more difficult by the fact that these homes can be flown around the country by magic. The book opens with Cecelia resisting an assassination attempt from a very charming assailant. Skullduggery and mayhem ensue. I'm not a romance reader but this one is tongue in cheek and very funny in places, so I enjoyed it quite a lot, and have even bought the next book in the series!

A thousand recipes for revenge is set in a fantasy equivalent of C18th France, with musketeers, monarchy and an obsession with food. Chefs have magically ability with food, and are able to use special ingredients, called epicurea, with powerful effects. As such, Chefs are conscripted into the Verdamian miltary or to the court so that their powers may be controlled. Ada has gone rogue, fleeing the army and living in hiding after the king betrayed a treaty with the neighbouring kingdom, separating Ada from her husband and child. She has managed to live peacefully, until an assassin starts targeting her and her former comrades. Solenn is a foreign princess, sent to Verdania to marry the crown prince and form an alliance between the two countries. But nothing goes as she expects and she finds herself on the run, in danger, in a hostile country. This was such a good read, with a really original magic system, engaging characters, an enjoyable plot and a well drawn world. The main societies are analogues of France, Brittany and England but with original twists. This is the first in a series and I will be reading on as soon as I can!

The flamethrowers was an interesting read. It follows 20-something Reno from Nevada to NYC and then to Italy, during the 1970s. She mixes with artists and motorcyclists, gets caught up in strikes and protests, falls into a relationship and gets burned. The speed trials in the Nevada desert, the New York art scene, and Reno's discomfort with her lover's wealthy Italian family are all vividly described. Several other stories are told alongside Reno's - the history of the tyre and motorcycle company founded by her lover's family; the acts of a group of violent anarchists in NYC. Reno is often the only woman in a group of men, and the author describes this dynamic clearly. Relationships are fluid and often shallow, people staying together for as long as they are useful to each other. Their lives are a performance, art in themselves. Reno drifts through the world, frequently observing rather than participating. It's a difficult book to describe really, but I liked it.

I've also just finished All's well by Mona Awad, a campus/theatre novel in which things get very weird. Miranda Fitch is in constant pain following an accident some years ago, and she has gone from being a successful actress to an adjunct professor in a mediocre Theater Studies programme at an unnamed university. She intend to put on All's well that ends well as the annual Shakespeare production, but her students and colleagues are strongly opposed. One night Miranda encounters three strange men in a bar, who offer her an alternative future where her pain is gone, the students respect her, and she is revitalised in every way. But are things going a little TOO well? This is weird and funny and thought-provoking with a fabulously unreliable narrator.

I'm currently reading The richer, the poorer, a collection of stories and essays by Dorothy West. I read her novel The wedding a few years ago and thought it was excellent. It portrays the middle-class Black community of Martha's Vineyard, of which West and her family were a part. These stories look at a broader range of characters, settings and social classes, from the POVs of men, women and children. It's a perfect book to read on the train.

On kindle I've started Our share of night, a novel by the Argentinian writer Mariana Enriquez. I've enjoyed her short stories which are magical realism bordering on horror and I've been looking forward to this book. I'm also reading the graphic novel Ducks: two years in the oil sands which is an autobiographical work told by a woman who spent two years after graduation working in the male-dominated oil industry in Alberta. It's a tough life, but the pay is good enough to clear her student loans which is enough of an incentive to keep her going. And I've started The ballad of Perilous Graves, a fantasy set in a magical, post-Katrina New Orleans.

>120 Sakerfalcon: I'm so happy to see that you enjoyed the Beth Cato book. I got that one free from Amazon semi-recently, and it looked so good!

I might have taken an author bullet with Dorothy West. Thank you...

>120 Sakerfalcon: Thanks for your thoughts on The flamethrowers, Claire. I just got it from the library and hope to read it later this month.

>120 Sakerfalcon: sounds like I need to put The Daughter of Doctor Moreau on my list!

I tried reading The Wisteria Society earlier this summer and couldn’t get into it. I think I just wasn’t in the right mood to appreciate the writing style. Maybe I’ll pick up during a different time.

>121 clamairy: That was the first book I've read by Cato, and I loved it!
Dorothy West is great, she deserves to be as well known as Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston, etc. The book I was reading in >120 Sakerfalcon: also contained some essays, which were as engaging as the stories.

>122 FAMeulstee: I will be very interested to see what you think of The flamethrowers.

>123 catzteach: You have to be in the mood for total fluff to enjoy Wisteria Society, I think! So maybe a book for mid-semester when you don't have much brain to spare ...

As usual I've got a lot of catching up to do.

Our share of night is a long book, and very dark in places, but I enjoyed it a lot. It definitely crosses over the line between magical realism and horror, with a lot of torture and abuse of children referenced. It is relevant to the plot and not gratuitous, but very nasty. The book opens with a father and son on the road ; it becomes clear that there are mysteries around them and their relationship, and that Juan is trying to protect Gaspar from his own family. Juan himself was adopted into a wealthy Argentinian family when they realised that he could be used by their quasi-religious Order to connect them with dark powers. He is determined to save Gaspar from the same fate. This is a family saga, a coming-of-age story, and a dark vision of those who will do anything to gain more power for themselves.

The ballad of Perilous Graves is set in an alternate New Orleans, where music and magic shape the city. But an enemy is trying to destroy the songs which define the city. Perry, his sister Brendy, and their friend Peaches are enlisted to save the day. Despite having three child protagonists, this is an adult novel, twisty, complex, and not shying away from the evils both fantastic and all too familiar. If you know the city, this would be an amazing read. I've only visited New Orleans once, back in 1995, but I had enough memories to make the book come alive.

Ducks: two years in the oil sands is a graphic memoir of the two years the author spend working in the male-dominated oil industry in Alberta. For too many young people in the Maritime Provinces, a job like this is their only way of paying off college debts. Through Kate's experiences we are led to think about issues of class, poverty, sexual harassment, mental illness, environmental destruction, and the appropriation of native lands. The art is in appropriately bleak shades of grey, and I sometimes found it difficult to distinguish between characters, especially the men.

I've also read The chosen and the beautiful, a magical retelling of The great Gatsby told from the POV of Jordan Baker. In this version, Jordan was adopted from Vietnam into a wealthy Louisville family. She grows up with privilege, but knows there are boundaries that her white friends can cross but she cannot. But she takes as much as she can, and is as ethically grey as Fitzgerald's original. This is a Jazz Age in which people can make bargains with demons to gain power, and magic enhances the lives of the rich. The book is beautifully written with some gorgeous set-piece scenes. It was a very good read.

I also read The garden of earthly delights by Joyce Carol Oates. This was a very interesting comparison to Demon Copperhead in that both books focus on the poor whites at the bottom of the social heap. Garden opens in the 1930s, among the migrant workers who travel from farm to farm for work. We follow Clara through childhood with her charismatic but poor father, into adulthood and a love affair with the restless Lowry, to marriage, motherhood and entry into a higher social class. It's been a long long time since I read The grapes of wrath but I don't remember engaging with it as much as I did with this book.

Now I'm reading We are satellites, an SFnal look at a technology that quickly becomes ubiquitous, and the problems that causes for those left behind; I have some questions for you in which a woman returns to her boarding school and finds herself obsessed with a murder that took place there while she was a student; and Labyrinth's heart which is the third volume in a complex, brilliant fantasy trilogy.

>124 Sakerfalcon: I really need to get to the Rook and Rose books, and I'm intrigued by Vo's Gatsby retelling.

>125 libraryperilous: The Rook and Rose books are great, very complex with lots of characters, and completely absorbing. Now that the series is complete I recommend reading them close together; I had to wait over a year between books 2 and 3 and there was a lot that I'd forgotten.

I've finished We are satellites and I have some questions for you. Both were very good reads that made me think.

We are satellites is about a family and how it is impacted by new technology. A Pilot is a brain implant that increases productivity by helping the user to focus on many things at once. David begs to be allowed one because he's being left behind at school by his classmates who've had the implant. His mother Julie is also keen to get one for work. His sister Sophie can't have one as she lives with epilepsy, and his mother Val wants nothing to do with the Pilot. The book revolves between 3rd person narratives from each family member, showing us the pros and cons of the technology and the experiences of those without it. Of course, corporate corruption and coverup is revealed, as the Pilot is indeed too good to be true. But can Sophie and her ragtag group of misfits do anything about it? I really enjoyed this, finding things to empathise with in each character, and, as something of a Luddite myself, wondering at those who are so quick to adopt new technology.

I have some questions for you is a mystery, a campus novel, and an exploration of justice (or the lack thereof), particularly for crimes against women and where race is an issue. Thalia was murdered in her senior year at prestigious Granby school and the Black gym assistant is quickly found guilty of her killing. Twenty years later Bodie returns to campus for a temporary teaching job and finds the events of that year haunting her. She starts to question whether the murder was properly investigated, and wonders if there was a miscarriage of justice. Bodie's flashbacks to her time at Granby reminded me strongly of Prep, a novel which I disliked; however, I found young Bodie far more sympathetic than I did the narrator of Prep, and her experiences felt more relatable. Adult Bodie has a lot going on in her life and she doesn't handle it well; she is very flawed and not always likeable. She has her own theory of who may have committed the murder, and her investigations are focused on that. All through the novel are moments where "they're talking about the case ... you know, the one where he was let off because he had a promising future ... the one where he was elected anyway ... where she was drunk so they dismissed the report ..." etc, oblique references to the oh-so-many crimes against women where the perpetrator was not found, not charged, let off early and so on. I found it an effective device that ties in well with the main plot. This was a complex, gripping read, although definitely a literary novel not really crime fiction. I love books with campus settings and this one certainly satisfied me.

I've started to read Desert of the heart, for this month's Virago group challenge. It opens with a woman moving to Reno for 6 weeks so that she can get a divorce. I've also started a Japanese novel that my colleague lent me, Woman running in the mountains, which is about a single mother in a society where that is frowned upon. And I'm still enjoying Labyrinth's heart as Ren's secrets are revealed, forcing changes in her life and relationships.

>126 Sakerfalcon: I really enjoyed Desert of the Heart.

>127 LyzzyBee: I'm liking it a lot so far! The desert setting is very compelling.

>124 Sakerfalcon: I was less charmed by The Flamethrowers than you were, Claire. It felt disjointed, and the story din't capture me.

>129 FAMeulstee: I can understand that. It did feel as though the author had certain things she wanted to write about, and constructed a plot that connected them, rather than the things occurring naturally in the story. I liked Reno, which I think is what left me feeling positive about the book.

>126 Sakerfalcon:. I am intrigued by I Have Some Questions For You. I think I will add it to my TBR.

>26 Sakerfalcon: Just trying to catch up all the way back to January, innocently reading and skimming, and bang! you hit me with a BB for One Clear, Ice-cold January Morning at the Beginning of the 21st Century. My resistance must have gone soft over these months of scant participation.

>131 jillmwo: I will be interested to see what you think of it, if you get around to reading it.

>132 Meredy: I hope you enjoy it! It was a very quick read but I found it utterly absorbing.

I finished Desert of the heart which was a great read. Evelyn has moved to Reno for the required 6 weeks in order to get a divorce. While staying in a boarding house she meets young, self-assured Ann, who grew up in Reno and loves the desert landscape. The two women start a cautious friendship as Ann shows Evelyn the secrets of the desert and life as a Reno native. The desert and casino settings are excellent, springing to life from page, and they make the perfect background for the women's relationship.

I also enjoyed Woman running in the mountains, a Japanese novel about a young single mother in a society that is hostile to parenthood outside marriage. Takiko struggles to find work that will pay enough for her and her son to move out of the parental home, but over the course of a year she finds some physical and emotional freedom.

Labyrinth's heart was a good conclusion to the Rook and Rose trilogy. The authors built a complex, plausible world, with a large cast of characters and factions with varying motives. Ren, in various guises, has a foot in many camps, as well as a variety of allies and enemies. I did find the last 100 pages a bit frustrating as there were various loose ends to wrap up, some of which I didn't really care about. But on the whole this is a really strong fantasy work.

I've also read a couple of books by Muriel Spark for this month's Virago challenge. Memento mori is a blackly humorous examination of old age, which opens with elderly Lettie receiving an anonymous phone call telling her to "Remember you must die". From here the plot spirals out to take in a network of family and frenemies, with flashbacks to past affairs, betrayals, and incidents. If nothing else, the book proves that getting old is not for sissies. A far cry from Kensington is told by an older woman looking back at life in her 20s, when she worked in the publishing industry in 1950s London. Mrs Hawkins, as she is always know, is a forthright and unspoken young woman in whom others tend to confide (due, she thinks, to her comforting fatness). When she calls a pretentious writer a "pisseur de copie" (a "urinator of prose") it costs her her job, and has repercussions that no-one could have predicted. Again, we have an entertaining cast of linked characters, mainly at the Kensington boarding house and in the literary world, who feel very real despite being somewhat larger than life. Spark's novels are very short, but full of wit and black humour.

I've also read a YA novel that I was really excited about but which turned out to be disappointing. Hotel Magnifique is set in a magical hotel that appears in different cities around the world, offering 2 weeks of wonder to those lucky enough to be invited within its doors. When Jani sees an advertisement for staff, she decides this is a great opportunity for her and her sister, and they sign contracts with the hotel. But they soon realise that there is (of course) a darkness behind the glitter, and the Maitre and his staff are actually very nasty people. Jani is one of those annoying heroines who charges into action to achieve her goals, heedless of others who will be put in danger by her actions. She is constantly rushing off to do something in a way that would surely get her into trouble, yet conveniently something usually means that she gets away with it. She is a first-person narrator, yet I felt I didn't really know how she felt or who she even was. She constantly tells us about her desire to a) get her and her sister back to their home town and b) to destroy the staff contracts and rescue her sister but I didn't get a sense of her as a person beyond those goals. There is a bit of romance but it's unconvincing. The hotel and its magic are fun, but we don't really have time to enjoy the invention because Jani is constantly dashing around on her mission. A pity.

I've also read a short novel translated from French, A Sunday in Ville d'Avray which is evocative of uneasy Sunday afternoons in the suburbs. The narrator goes to visit her sister who lives on the outskirts of Paris, in the titular suburb. The sisters are not especially close, one having embraced urban metropolitan values and the other settling for marriage and motherhood in the suburbs. But there are disturbances beneath the bland exterior, as Claire Marie recounts a period in her life some 10 years earlier when she was tempted to stray from her comfortable life. This is a quiet novel of time and memory, sensually evoking the atmosphere of the past. I really enjoyed this; it was subtle and I will doubtless return to it in future.

Now I'm reading Olga dies dreaming, a contemporary novel about Brooklyn-born Puerto Rican siblings who have both made it into NYC high society. But the fallout from Hurricane Maria threatens to topple all that they have achieved. This is the story of Olga and Prieto, but more than that it is the story of Puerto Rico and its complicated relationship with the US.

Having just finished several books, I need to find some new ones to start - watch this space!

>133 Sakerfalcon: You've got me thinking that I need to read more Murial Spark. I just went to look at her titles and found The Ghost Stories of Muriel Spark. Perfect for October!

>133 Sakerfalcon: Thank you for the warning about Hotel Magnifique--it was on my wishlist. I also found the premise of the hotel intriguing, but if the rest is lackluster...

>133 Sakerfalcon:, >135 Marissa_Doyle: I DNFed that one pretty quickly when I tried it. It felt like regular angst-driven YA with a cool (alas, underutilized) setting.

>133 Sakerfalcon: Blam! Right between the eyes with Memento Mori.

I'm glad you enjoyed Desert of the Heart!

>133 Sakerfalcon:. Heads up -- your touchstone for Desert of the Heart is wonky and goes to an entirely different book.

>134 clamairy: I didn't know she wrote ghost stories! I'll have to look out for that volume.

>135 Marissa_Doyle:, >136 libraryperilous: I'm glad if I've warned you away from something that you won't enjoy. I remember reading some negative comments not long after I bought the book - I expect it was your DNF report.

>137 Meredy: I hope you enjoy it! Spark is a gimlet-eyed observer of people.

>138 LyzzyBee: I really did! The setting was as much a character as the people, and it was so well written.

>139 jillmwo: Thank you for that! I thought I'd changed it each time, but obviously missed that one!

I've been on holiday in Copenhagen for a few days (pics to come on Facebook) and haven't had a lot of time to read.
I finished Olga dies dreaming before I left. It was a great read. Olga and her brother Prieto are flawed human beings, with goals and lives that aren't always admirable, but I found them compelling characters to follow. Their mother left them to return to Puerto Rico when they were young, feeling that fighting for her nation's freedom was more important than motherhood. Against the odds, both siblings have made successful careers for themselves: Olga as a wedding planner to the super-rich, and Prieto as a Congressman. But events in Puerto Rico, especially the devastating Hurricane Maria, threaten their carefully constructed lives and cause them to rethink their values. I learned a lot about PR and its relationship to the US from this book, which I found fascinating.

I've started reading again since getting back from my holiday.

I read Three twins at the Crater School, which was a BB from Marissa. I knew I would love this mash-up of planetary romance and classic English girls' boarding school story, and I was right. Both genres are honoured and explored by an author who has great affection for both. The characters are engaging, the plot enthralling, there are humour and heart throughout. It's a great read. I suspect I will be lending this to several of my friends.

I've also read Emily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Faeries, which I already owned but Marissa, again, encouraged me to bump this up the TBR with her recent review. Emily is a scholar who shows great insight into the faeries she studies, but rather less so into the humans she needs to work with. Her latest fieldwork is based in Ljosland, an analogue of Iceland, and she manages to offend the villagers straight away. When her charming colleague, Wendell Bambleby, arrives to work alongside her, Emily feels like her problems have just become worse. But events force them to work together, bickering wildly but achieving results. The chilly setting, faerie lore and early C20th time are really well-drawn, as are the characters. Emily's misreading of people and their motives is contrasted nicely with her understanding of the faerie folk, based on her extensive research and extrapolation of the same. She is fiercely intelligent, and an excellent foil to the feckless Bambleby - who has his own hidden gifts. This was quite a delightful read, and I'm pleased to see that there will be a sequel.

I'm looking after a few books for a friend, and intend to read some of them before I give them back to her. I've just read a charming story, set in the 1960s, of a Japanese girl, In-between Miya. Miya's father is a priest and schoolteacher and the family live simply in their village. Miya feels trapped between her elder sister, who has a job, and her brothers, who seem to be more valued than her. She longs for a more sophisticated life. When her uncle in Tokyo asks her to come and keep house while her aunt is ill, she jumps at the chance to get away and see new things. Miya is dazzled by what she experiences and her dissatisfaction with home becomes stronger, as she questions why her father won't seize opportunities for advancement. But she learns some valuable lessons through her own and others' experiences and learns to appreciate her home and family. This is a nice little book, didactic but not blatantly so, with lots of lovely details about Miya's life in Japan.

On my way to work I'm reading The glass cell by Patricia Highsmith. This is a gripping read about a man wrongly imprisoned, and the suspicions about his wife and best friend that grow in his mind. The prison scenes are horribly realistic.

I'm also reading Nettle and bone, which Clam recently praised, and I'm about to start A half-built garden (can't remember who read this one recently but you moved it up my TBR pile!).

>141 Sakerfalcon: Marissa recommended Brenchley's book to me as well. I'll have to read it soon! Dr. Wilde's journal was the second book I read this year, so I have been on pins and needles for more adventures since January.

>141 Sakerfalcon: I'm glad you enjoyed Emily Wilde. I'm looking forward to the second book too.

>142 libraryperilous: Chaz has a second Crater School book out--Dust Up at the Crater School. Just sayin'...

>143 Marissa_Doyle: Ooh, the new one is a Christmas story. Maybe I'll ask Santa for both of them :)

>140 Sakerfalcon: Copenhagen is on my list, never been. I hope you had a good time Claire.

>141 Sakerfalcon: Looking forward to your review of Nettle and Bone! You didn't post that many pics on this trip, did you? I only saw a few. Could be my Facebook feed, though.

>141 Sakerfalcon:. Any one of the three titles you review in that post might constitute a BB. I wouldn't have thought I'd be tempted by Three Twins at the Crater School but it sounds like fun.

>143 Marissa_Doyle:, >144 libraryperilous: Dust up at the Crater School is on the TBR pile! I saw it when I was ordering Three twins and (digitally) grabbed it!

>145 Caroline_McElwee: It is gorgeous, Caroline. I think you would love it. Great food, design, architecture, and the art gallery to the north at Louisiana is magical.

>146 clamairy: I haven't posted photos yet! I have just finished editing them and will upload the first batch to FB tomorrow (when I can use work's wifi).

>147 jillmwo: It is fun, and it's also a great book about the power of friendships.

I finished Nettle and bone and loved it. It's a dark but humorous fairy tale that reminded me of Robin McKinley's books. Marra is the youngest of three princesses. Both her sisters have been given in marriage to the prince of a powerful neighbouring kingdom (not at the same time; the eldest sister died). Marra realises that the prince is abusive and her sisters have/are suffering, and determines to kill him. In order to do so she must complete three impossible tasks, and join forces with a dust-wife (woman who can speak to the dead) and her demon-possessed chicken, a disgraced knight, a fairy godmother, and a dog made of bones. This is the most delightful found family story! Highly recommended.

>148 Sakerfalcon: I’ve been wanting to read Nettle and Bone just based on its cover! Glad to hear it’s good.

>148 Sakerfalcon: & 147

Chaz is currently working on the next instalment of The Crater School.

A nice set of books read there, well done!

>149 catzteach: I think you will like it! There is darkness in it but also humour and hope and goodness.

>150 pgmcc: That is great news!

>151 LyzzyBee: It has been a good reading period!

I finished The glass cell which was a typically gripping Highsmith thriller. I actually found the first half of the book, telling of Carter's time in prison, to be more compelling. Highsmith based his experiences on those of a prisoner with whom she corresponded, which is why this section felt so real. Once Carter is released the plot becomes more conventional - were his wife and best friend having an affair while he was locked away? Who can he believe, and what should he do about it? It's a good read, as are all of her books that I've read so far. This was read for the October Virago group reading challenge.

Also for the VMC challenge I read A fugue in time by Rumer Godden. This is one of the few remaining books by her that I hadn't read before. It's one of her "house" books, where the dwelling is the centre of the story and a character in its own right. Three generations of the Dane family have lived there, and their stories haunt the present-day residents. Past and present merge and overlap as events echo through the years. This isn't one of my favourite Goddens but it is a good read.

It being Black History Month here in the UK I've bumped a couple of relevant books up the TBR pile. Betsey Brown is the coming-of-age story of a young Black girl growing up in St Louis just as school integration is beginning. Betsey and her siblings live in a nice neighbourhood with professional parents, privileged compared to many Black families. The children are not happy when they are made to take the bus to white schools, but Betsey finds consolation in the romantic attention of her brother's friend. She and her siblings experience relatively little discrimination, sheltered as they are by their parents and their privilege, but the adults around them know all too well what they will have to face when they grow up. Their father teaches them to celebrate their culture, and takes them to a protest outside a Whites Only hotel, to their mother's horror. Betsey is an exuberent, memorable character, whose hopes and desires are very relatable. She does some foolish things, but didn't we all do at the age of 13 or so? Written in a style that effectively conveys the spoken dialect of the characters, this is a very good read.

Now I'm reading Rattlebone, a collection of linked short stories that are very similar in content to Betsey Brown. Irene is growing up in Kansas City, Kansas in the 1950s and faces very similar experiences to Betsey. Most of the stories seem to be from Irene's point of view, but I've just come to one focused on her father, so we get a broader picture of the experiences of this African American community. It's a good read so far.

I'm still reading A half-built garden which is first contact SF. In 2083 Earth is finally starting to repair some of the environmental damage to the planet, and redress the power imbalance which led to ecological disaster. Judy is a watershed protector on the Chesapeake, and one night she is walking to calm her baby when she encounters aliens. They have come to save humans from life on their suffering planet to live among the stars. But Judy and her colleagues don't want to abandon Earth. How can they convince the aliens that they don't need saving by force? And what will happen when the remnants of the corporations have a say? There is a lot of detail of Judy's communal living arrangements and the minutiae of daily logistics of their community, but this is important as a way of conveying Judy's priorities and her character. So far it is an interesting read.

I'm also reading Tomb of sand the Indian novel which won last year's Man International Booker Prize. It's a huge novel, telling of what happens when an elderly widow first shuts herself off from the world to grieve, then suddenly gets up and starts doing things that her family disapprove of. It frequently digresses and ambles away on detours from the story, in language with lots of wordplay that must have been very difficult to translate. It's not the most straightforward book to read but it's very interesting so far.

>152 Sakerfalcon: I was just reading a blog post about Tomb of Sand and have come to the conclusion I will read it if it presents itself to me but won't go out to intentionally buy it. It feels like just my thing but it's LONG!

>153 LyzzyBee: It is long but many of the chapters are short - some less than 1 page - and as each chapter starts on the right-hand page, there are many blank sides in the book!

Rattlebone was an excellent read, similar in content to Betsey Brown but different in style. I highly recommend both books.

I finished A half-built garden this weekend and mostly enjoyed it. It's a first contact novel, but one with more talking than action. Talking between family members, between humans and aliens, between different factions of humans and aliens. There are some dramatic episodes, one in particular that I didn't see coming, but how much you enjoy this will depend on whether you enjoy reading about solutions formed through detailed discussion, with breaks for childcare, meals and other minutiae of daily life. In the author's note, she says her friend (and fellow author) Malka Older called this "diaperpunk" and that's not inaccurate. It is refreshing to have parents and children play an essential role in relations with aliens but the constant references to feeding times, diaper changes, switching from one parent to the other, etc, might become boring if you were expecting more action. It's definitely an unusual and ultimately hopeful read.

This weekend I did something very unusual for me. I bought a book and read it straight away! It is the new Hill House quasi-sequel by Elizabeth Hand, A haunting on the hill. She and Jackson are two of my favourite authors, so this was a match made in heaven for me. I though Hand did justice to Jackson's creation, summoning up the right sort of horrors and including some additional folk horror ingredients. The four protagonists were suitably flawed in ways that that the house was able to exploit to great effect, and I just had to keep reading "one more chapter" until I'd finished.

I'm still reading Tomb of sand, and have started a fun urban fantasy, My life as a white-trash zombie. On kindle I've started Day of fallen night, which is set in the same world as Priory of the Orange Tree.

>155 Sakerfalcon: Ooooh, that Elizabeth Hand book sounds perfect for October. I put a hold on it, but it looks like it won't be available until mid-December. Curses!

That is good news about the Hand. She is REALLY hit or miss for me and I am always nervous when she releases a new book not in the Cass Neary series. Your assessment gives me hope. I am not a big Jackson fan, although I should be, but I appreciate some of what she does and that includes HHH. This one may end up in my library.

>155 Sakerfalcon: The reference to "diaperpunk" made me chortle. I will be keeping an eye out for A Half-Built Garden. Is her writing style actually similar to that of Ursula K. Le Guin?

>155 Sakerfalcon: I bought the Emrys on a Kindle sale months ago and never started it. "Diaperpunk" doesn't sound like my kind of book, but I only paid $1.99.

I'll watch for your thoughts on the Priory prequel!

I loved Emrys' previous books, Winter Tide and Deep Roots. I'll check up on her latest.

>140 Sakerfalcon: Reading it now. I see what you mean.

>156 clamairy:, >157 Bookmarque: I hope you both enjoy it when you get hold of A haunting on the hill!

>158 jillmwo:, >159 libraryperilous:, >160 reconditereader: No, I wouldn't compare her prose to that of Le Guin. Emrys is a good stylist though, and her themes are certainly closer to those of Le Guin than of harder SF writers. I preferred her previous, Lovecraftian, books, but this was an interestingly different take on first contact.

>161 Meredy: Spark is unsparing in her portrayal of people's flaws and weaknesses.

I've finished Tomb of sand at last. This is a huge novel, full of wordplay, literary and film references, digressions, and diversions. There are touches of magical realism, and sharply observed relationships between family members. When Amma is widowed she retreats to her bed, facing the wall, refusing to respond to the entreaties of her family who seek to draw her back into life. When she does finally emerge, she decides to live with her daughter, a modern single young woman who is disconcerted when Amma befriends Rosie, a Hijra. Accidents and adventures ensue, uprooting the whole family from their familiar routines. The novel frequently breaches the fourth wall, drawing back from the story to comment to the reader on what is happening and what’s going to happen. The text is scattered with words and phrases in Hindi and other languages which, the translator’s note tells us, reflects the way that the original text is peppered with English language. The book is a real feat of translator and certainly deserved to win the Man International Booker prize. It was a long read and some parts were less compelling, but I’m glad to have read it.

My life as a white trash zombie was a fun, and surprisingly thoughtful, read. The cover and title give the impression of a humorous book where the narrator's white trash status is played for laughs. The book is indeed very funny in places, but not for that reason. We are shown the real reasons why someone can get stuck at the bottom of society and how hard it is to escape the traps that hold them in place. For Angel, it takes death to change her life. She comes round after a car accident to find a cooler of strange smoothies and an anonymous note telling her to drink one every couple of days and report for a job at the county morgue. Mystified, Angel obeys, and finds that she has a knack for the work of loading corpses into the van and helping with autopsies. However her growing hunger for brains is somewhat disturbing ... This was necessarily gory but a very good read, and I have the next book in the series already on the TBR pile.

I've also read an enjoyable children's book, The children of Castle Rock. Alice is not thrilled to be sent to boarding school by her widowed father and her aunt, even though the school is gloriously located in the Scottish Highlands and has a rather unusual attitude to education. But she starts to make friends, particularly with Jesse and Fergus, which is a good thing when she finds herself in need of allies for some spectacular rule-breaking. Her elusive father has asked her to meet him on a remote island, and to bring the package which he sent to her earlier in the term. Fortunately, this coincides with the annual Orienteering challenge, when the pupils are sent out into the wild with tents, maps and food supplies for 3 days. What could possibly go wrong? The author uses the Noel Streatfeild trope of a child yearning for a lost home very effectively, alongside the usual themes of friendship and growing self-reliance.

I'm really enjoying Day of fallen night. It's just as complex as Priory of the Orange Tree, with vivid characters and settings and an air of slowly-growing threat. I'm also reading City of Bones by Martha Wells, one of her first novels which she has since revised and has been reissued by Tor. It's excellent.

A belated update, as I've been away for a few days in the Midlands (based in Birmingham, taking day trips in the area).

Day of fallen night was an excellent prequel to Priory of the Orange Tree. If you liked that then you will almost certainly enjoy this too. Set across oceans and continents, in very different cultures, with a large cast of interesting characters, this is a long and absorbing read.

I really enjoyed City of bones by Martha Wells. It's very different to the Murderbot books, but has the same strong worldbuilding, vivid characters, and great writing. Set on the fringe of a vast wasteland caused by a magical disaster, it follows Khat, one of a race adapted to survive in the harsh conditions, as he is drawn into the mystery surrounding strange relics from the past. The setting of the tiered city of Charisat and the surrounding waste is very immersive, and the hierarchical society is also well thought-out. This is something of a slow burn but had me completely gripped.

I've also read The councillor, a fantasy novel about a scholar who finds herself responsible for choosing the next ruler of her country when the queen is killed. Lysande was a great friend of the queen, but knew little of court politics so she has to learn who to trust and how to manoeuvre through the politics and alliances. The next ruler must come from one of the four regions of the country, but while they compete for the position threats from outside the kingdom are moving ever closer. Lysande is an interesting character, with a drug dependence about which she is in denial, divided loyalties due to her friendship with a magic worker, and new temptations to resist or indulge as she finds herself with power that she never had before. Apparently this is half of a duology and I will look out for the second part. I had actually written that I though this was good but not great, but as I described the book I found myself thinking better of it!

On kindle I indulged myself by reading some of the sequels to Enid Blyton's Malory Towers series. These focus on heroine Darryl's younger sister Felicity, after Darryl has left. The characters and plots are very much in the Blyton mould but with more kindness towards even the nasty characters. These were every bit as irresistible as the originals! I was inspired to read them after seeing my goddaughter who was talking enthusiastically about the books!

For the Virago reading project I read another Patricia Highsmith, Edith's diary. This was a sadder and more introspective book than others I've read by her, following the life of a woman over about 20 years as the world changes around her.

Now I'm reading the third collected-in-print volume of Loid McMaster Bujold's Penric and Desdemona novellas, Penric's Labors. I do enjoy these, although not quite as much as the original novels set in this world. But it is great to explore more of it and meet new characters.

I'm also reading Miss Bunting, one of Angela Thirkell's Barsetshire novels set during WWII. There's not much plot in this one but it does give a good picture of life during the war as it was written at the time, with Thirkell not knowing the outcome. There is a lot of snobbishness but it's very much of the time.

>163 Sakerfalcon: I think I'll have to try City of Bones. I adore Murderbot, but the only book of Wells' I had read previous to it was Emilie and the Hollow World, which underwhelmed me. You may also have got me with The Councillor.

>164 Marissa_Doyle: I was first introduced to Martha Wells by the Ile-Rien books, and would highly recommend those also. There are five books total, and they are connected but somewhat loosely- there is a time span between them and sometimes different characters.

>165 Darth-Heather: I second the recommendation for the Ile-Rien books. They were my first experience of Wells' work too and they are great.

My favorite Wells book, which is easily read as a standalone, is The Death of the Necromancer. I often recommend it to her fantasy readers.

>167 reconditereader: Thanks, I've been meaning to read some of her fantasy novels, sounds like a good place to start.

>167 reconditereader:, >168 Karlstar: Death of the necromancer is a great place to start with Martha Wells. I think it would be classed as "gaslamp fantasy" for the setting.

>164 Marissa_Doyle: I think it was your reaction to Emilie that made me decide to give it a miss. Some authors just can't quite adjust to writing for children and it feels forced. I hope City of bones works for you.

I've finished both Penric's labors and Miss Bunting. Of the three novellas in Penric, I enjoyed the third one, The physicians of Vilnoc, the most. It had pace and tension and the stakes felt high. Somehow even The orphans of Raspay, in which the titular children and Penric are captured by pirates, didn't quite gel for me, or feel as urgent as it should have. But time with Pen and Des is always well spent, and this was an enjoyable read overall.

Miss Bunting was not one of my favourites of the Barsetshire series so far. There is even less plot than usual, although as a depiction of life in rural England during the Second World War it is interesting. For me the strongest aspect of it was the treatment of Jane, whose husband has been missing for four years and who is effectively stuck in limbo until news of him arrives. I thought Thirkell conveyed her emotional state very well.

I've also read a family story by Mabel Esther Allan, set in the late 1940s. The Melville family have to move in with their cousins in Cheshire when their father gets a new job far from their home in Devon. They are excited, especially to meet their cousin Bethan. But Bethan is deeply unhappy and angry about what she sees as an invasion of her happy life as the petted only child in the household and sets out to make everyone's life a misery. I enjoyed this a lot. The family dynamics and personalities worked well, the setting was very vivid, and there was a nice balance of dramatic events to everyday life.

Now I'm reading Hopeland, which comes highly recommended by Peter and which I'm thoroughly enjoying. Hopeland isn't a place, it's a family of sorts, stretching all across the world. We travel from London to Ireland, Iceland, the South Pacific, Greenland ... that's just where I'm up to so far. We have magic powered by Tesla coils, ambient musical works that never end, volcano-powered data farms, and most importantly, characters who are complex and engaging. This is such a good book so far.

I'm also reading The door into ocean, classic SF by Joan Slonczewski. It's set on the water-moon Shora, which has an entirely female population and a way of life based on non-violence and egalitarianism. But this is threatened by approaches from the government of the stone moon, Valedon, which seeks to exploit Shora and its resources. A young Valan man, Spinel, is brought to Shora in order to learn their ways, and for the Shorans to better understand the Valans. The watery setting is very creative and the characters are well developed. I'm enjoying this a lot.

I've just started a YA historical novel set in 1924, A calamity of Mannerings. It is the diary of 16 year old Panther (never ask what her given name is) whose family has fallen on hard times when her father died. Now she, her mother and her two sisters live in their crumbling manor, hoping desperately that their soon-to-be-born sibling will be a boy. Alas, fate is not kind and the family is forced to leave their home and move in with their dour grandmother. Grandmother is not thrilled about this either as the family are accompanied by their pet sheep Siegfried, and an ever-growing collection of rabbits. Panth's only hope is to meet an eligible young man who can whisk her away from all this and use his money to help her family. So far this is a very amusing and entertaining read.

>169 Sakerfalcon: Give yourself a book bullet, I put The Death of the Necromancer on my wishlist last week.

>169 Sakerfalcon: I did The Door into Ocean some twenty years ago with a book group. It was described (and apparently with some accuracy) as being Quaker science fiction!

>170 Karlstar: I think most of the credit goes to reconditereader

>171 jillmwo: It definitely is! And Still forms on Foxfield is literally Quakers in Space!

>167 reconditereader: You also get a BB credit.

>169 Sakerfalcon: It's good to hear you are enjoying both Hopeland and A Door Into Ocean! I recently, (about a week ago), finished the McDonald book, and loved it. I also plan a re-read of the Slonczewski in preparation for reading the rest of her Elysium Cycle in 2024.

Have you read Robert Jackson Bennett? The description of Death of the Necromancer gave me Founders trilogy vibes, (or maybe that's just because I'm currently halfway through the first book, Foundryside? ;-)

I wouldn't put Foundryside directly with Death of the Necromancer, but I do enjoy both of them, so that's some similarity at least!

>174 ScoLgo: Hopeland is awesome! There's so much good stuff in it and it's pretty unique, although some sections have reminded me of Unlundun and Little, Big. I have Daughter of Elysium on the TBR pile so I will try to read that soon after I finish A door into ocean.

>174 ScoLgo:, 175 I loved RJB's American elsewhere and the Divine cities trilogy. I was less impressed with Foundryside as it felt quite YA and had a lot of info-dumping. But I do want to reread and give it another chance. Death of the necromancer is more subtle and the characters are adults rather than youngsters finding their way in the world. I'd say Necromancer is more like the Amberlough books, if anything, whereas Foundryside is more Brandon Sanderson in its unique and detailed magic system.

I wish you and your loved ones a very Happy Thanksgiving! We don't celebrate it here in the UK but it was always one of my favourite holidays when I lived in the US. I'm very thankful to have found LibraryThing and the Green Dragon, and to have got to know you over the years.

>177 Sakerfalcon: Thank you for the good wishes and I hope you have (and had) a good day.

>177 Sakerfalcon: We don't celebrate it either (although Black Friday did make it over here), Claire. Like you I am very grateful for finding LibraryThing many years ago, and all the people I met here, virtual and in real life.

>177 Sakerfalcon: I also I'm grateful for this place and the people here. My Thanksgiving was wonderful, so thank you. Do you do anything to celebrate, when though you aren't here? I have a friend over there who has turkey every year.

>178 Karlstar: Thank you!

>179 FAMeulstee: We have Black Friday too, which I think is appalling! We don't get the pleasure of Thanksgiving, just the retail hell that comes after.

>180 clamairy: As it is a Thursday, no, I have choir practice. But I love seeing pics and hearing what my US friends are doing.

I finished Hopeland last night which was an excellent read, so I'm thankful for that! I really enjoyed this globe-spanning journey that begins in London in 2011 and ends in Greenland in 2033 (excluding the epilogue). The book is concerned with family, music, climate change, migration, gender, hope, and love, among many other things. It tackles these important themes in a unique and fun way, through a large and diverse cast of characters. There is so much in this book that it's very hard to review, other than to say "It's great! Go and read it!"

In its place I've started Love will tear us apart, the third book in the Stranger Times series, which I love.

>152 Sakerfalcon: It's a while since I read Godden Claire, and I quite like 'house' books.

>182 Caroline_McElwee: I think China Court is better, but A fugue in time has the seeds that will grow into her stronger books.

I have finished A door into ocean and A calamity of Mannerings, two very different books. Ocean is classic feminist SF, set on the worlds of Valedon and Shora. Shora is a water world, populated by women who are perfectly evolved to life in their complex ecosystem. Valedon is a more traditional society, whose rulers seek to bring Shora under its control. What will happen when military might meets pacifist resistance? It was unpleasant reading about the Valans' brutal attempts to suppress and control the Shorans, and that part of the book was almost unbearably tense. The ecology of Shora and the society which has evolved on it are brilliantly drawn, as is the Sharers' philosophy. My only criticism is that the main antagonists are Evil with very little nuance.

Mannerings is the diary of 16-17 year old Panth, written in 1924, the year after her father has died. There is no son to inherit the estate, meaning that Panth, her mother, and her two sisters are dependent on the kindness of relatives. Panth longs to escape their small village and her grandmother's oppressive house to experience the bright lights of London and maybe - hopefully - find love with a wealthy handsome man. When their former home is let to a dashing young American her hopes soar. Meanwhile her older sister Aster has troubles of her own to deal with, while younger sister Marigold causes chaos with her wild exploits and ever-growing menagerie of pets. It's a year full of ups and downs for the family, told in a believable and engaging voice. There is potential for a sequel, which I would certainly read.

I've also read another book by Mabel Esther Allan, The vine-clad hill, and a Mexican historical Gothic novel, The hacienda. The latter has a lot in common with some of Silvia Moreno Garcia's novels, which is a recommendation to me! Beatriz marries in haste to escape the bullying she faces from her aunt and cousins, seeing her new husband's hacienda as a place that will be hers, a refuge and a retreat. But the house, and those who dwell there, have other ideas. Critics have mentioned The haunting of Hill House and Rebecca as comparisons, which I would agree with. But the strong historical setting - in the aftermath of the Mexican War of Independence - and the examination of the class and caste system add another dimension to this haunted house tale. It was a very good read. The vine-clad hill tells of Philippa who spends a summer in Switzerland looking after her younger cousins so that her socialite aunt can be left in peace. Said cousins are resistant at first and cause many problems for Philippa, but that can't dampen the thrill she feels at exploring the new country. The sense of place is very strong, and the cousins relationships with each other and with Philippa are well written.

Now I've started a dystopian novel set in the Sonoran desert, Desert creatures, a YA historical fantasy, A most improper magick, and rereading The virgin in the garden by A. S. Byatt. I read this years ago during a phase of reading a lot of her work, and her recent death has prompted me to revisit this one. I'm also dipping into Joan Aiken's Armitage stories in The serial garden.

You have reminded me that I really need to read Possession. I might save The Hacienda for next October.

>183 Sakerfalcon:. I'd like to hear more about The Virgin in the Garden. I read somewhere that it's the beginning of a four-part series of novels that Byatt did. Have you read that series? (Did it strike you as being part of a series?)

I still have The Children's Book by her sitting on a shelf upstairs; it will probably get read in the coming the New Year.

Oh my, what a hail of bullets! The Vo sounds particularly interesting; I have been enjoying their Singing Hills series. I assume this a very different kettle of fish. The Three Dahlias sounds like fun, and I see there is a sequel. And I Have Some Questions for You sounds like something I would definitely like/appreciate. Thanks, I think!

>183 Sakerfalcon: and >185 jillmwo: I was thinking about rereading/reading The Frederica Quartet before Byatt's death. The first two at least were serialised and I heard parts of a repeat on Radio 4 Extra (which repeats a variety of archive material including readings, drama, sitcoms etc from BBC Radio 4 (spoken word station) and the BBC's radio archives.

The Virgin in the Garden is the first Frederica book, and I think I read the first two nearly 30 years ago, and possibly the 3rd when it was published. Too long ago to remember, but I wouldn't have been aware that I was reading a "series" book in that way at the time - I don't know what Byatt's intentions were, but they may have been to just write one or two books about Frederica to start with, and then she returned to follow up some years later.

>184 clamairy: The hacienda would be a great Halloween read! Possession took me several attempts to get into. I bounced off it the first couple of times I tried, then tried again and flew through it, loving it. I picked it up for a reread a few years later and bounced off it again! I hope this doesn't happen to you, but if it does and you still want to try Byatt then I recommend Angels and insects.

>185 jillmwo: >187 elkiedee: Luci has helpfully answered this better than I can. I thought I read Still life at the time that I first read The virgin in the garden, but according to LT I did not, and although I know I owned it it wasn't in my library. Although Frederica is nominally the main character in the quartet, Virgin is as much about her older sister Stephanie and younger brother Marcus. Byatt's prose is chewy and not quick to read, and there is sometimes too much description for my taste, but it's an intelligent and interesting book.

>186 Jim53: It's great to see you back here Jim! I have Siren Queen by Vo on the TBR pile which looks different again to the Singing Hills books and to The chosen and the beautiful. And I do need to get to the Singing Hills books, which I have on kindle.

I finished A most improper magick and Desert creatures at the weekend. Magick was a charming historical fantasy about 12 year old Kat and her two sisters, set in Regency-era England. Kat is determined to use magic to save her oldest sister from having to make a marriage of convenience for the sake of their family, but finds herself attracting unwanted attention from those with less pure motives. She leads her sisters into situations they'd far rather have avoided, although Kat herself enjoys the adventures. This was very amusing and I think I'll pass it on to my goddaughter who is herself an incorrigible child!

Desert creatures was a weird post-apocalyptic tale set in the desert of the south-western USA. It imagines the desert as taken over by religious cults and lawless gangs trying to survive, hindered by the weird mutations that occur to people , plants and animals. Magdala and her father are forced to leave their home and survive in the desert where they get caught up by a gang of bandits. Years pass and Magdala somehow survives while those around her die or are betrayed. Magdala herself loses her innocence in this hard world. This is a dark book but I enjoyed the depiction of the weird desert world, even if some aspects were cliched - notably the patriarchal groups of men with "their" women. But the "church" centred around Las Vegas and the cults of the relics of strange saints were well done, as was the weird biology. A decent first novel with some room for improvement.

Now I've started The golden enclaves which is the last part of the Scholomance trilogy. I'm still reading The virgin in the garden, and I've just begun Fourth wing.

>188 Sakerfalcon: I have The Golden Enclaves on my library pile right now. I think it might be my next read. I enjoyed the other two books.

>188 Sakerfalcon: I need to read some of Nghi Vo's other work. I have only read her Singing Hill series. And thanks for the clarification on Byatt.

If you mean to pass on A Most Improper Magick to your elder goddaughter (who is indeed an incorrigible child), I should probably tell you she has already read and enjoyed it (from the library), but I am sure she would be delighted with her own copy!

>191 aliphil: Thanks for letting me know! It can be a bonus gift. Incorrigible children are the best (from a godmother's point of view!)

>189 catzteach: If you enjoyed the previous books then you'll probably like The golden enclaves too. I've finished it and it brought the series to a good ending, but I still felt as though I was being told not shown everything. El's chatty narrative voice never charmed me, although I thought the worldbuilding was very original.

>190 jillmwo: You're welcome!

>192 Sakerfalcon: It’s definitely a book where the reader is told everything. Maybe it didn’t bug me because I’m so used to reading my third grader’s writing. Ha! :D

>193 catzteach: Ha! Maybe that's it!

I'm still reading The virgin in the garden and Fourth Wing. The latter is a hugely popular fantasy series, set at a war college with dragons. It has the usual bullies and rivalries and unnecessary romance. It reads very YA apart from constant and random insertions of the F word into people's speech, and some brutal deaths, as though the author is telling us THIS ISN'T YA! But the emotions and interactions between the characters are very young-feeling. Despite these faults it is a ridiculously addictive read, and the dragons are very cool.

The virgin in the garden is a slow but engaging read. Byatt brilliantly portrays awkwardness and discomfort in people and relationships, in a Britain that is still feeling the influence of WWII as its young Queen Elizabeth is crowned.

I've also started a non-fiction book, The lost rainforests of Britain, which explores and examines the increasingly rare temperate rainforest habitat in which ferns, mosses and lichens thrive. It combine ecology, botany, history and myth as well as looking at the conflicts between conservation and farming, and suggesting ways to overcome them so that all can thrive. I've just reached a chapter where the author visits Alan Lee, best known for his illustrations of Tolkien's work. It's a very good read so far.

I've also started Neom by Lavie Tidhar, which is SF set around the Red Sea. This is the same world as his linked short stories, Central station, and is an intriguing vision of the future.

>194 Sakerfalcon:
Your mention of the coronation of Queen Elizabeth reminded me that my father, who was a publican, got a TV installed in his pub so his customers could watch the coronation. His pub became the first pub in Belfast to have TV. When colour TV came along he acted quickly and his bar was the first one in Belfast with a Colour TV. :-) What more can you expect from a pub called the A1 Bar. For years it was the first entry in the Northern Ireland telephone directory.

>194 Sakerfalcon: Your description of Fourth Wing also describes Robert Jackson Bennett's Founders trilogy pretty well. I just finished Locklands this past weekend and had very similar thoughts about that narrative. I liked it well enough but not nearly as much as his excellent Divine Cities trilogy.

Oh, you got me with The Lost Rainforests!

>197 Marissa_Doyle: Me, too!

>194 Sakerfalcon: I'm glad The Lost Rainforests of Britain is proving good as best friend Emma and I have it lined up on our (long) list for Reading Together!

>195 pgmcc: Your father was a foresighted man! A1 indeed.

>196 ScoLgo: I'm still enjoying Fourth Wing but I've been warned that book 2 is even heavier on the romance and emotional immaturity. But I'm sure I'll still read it. I need to finish the Founders trilogy but I want to reread Foundryside first to remind myself of what happened.

>197 Marissa_Doyle:, >198 karspeak:, >199 LyzzyBee: I finished Lost rainforests last night and really enjoyed the whole book. The blend of botanical science, history, myth and porsonal narrative is very well balanced, and the author talks to and cites a wide range of sources. He is passionate about his topic, and the book actively seeks to pass this on to the reader with a sense of urgency. It made me want to go and explore some of the forests he talks about (and he tells you how to do so without causing damage).

Now I'm reading something totally different - Baking bad "a cosy mystery with dragons". It's by the same author as the Gobbelino London series of which I enjoyed the first volume.

>200 Sakerfalcon: Amazon swears that I purchased a Kindle version of Baking Bad so now I have to go find it. I'm sure it was a marketing slogan of "cozy mystery with dragons" that would have prompted me to grab it...

>200 Sakerfalcon: >201 jillmwo: I'm planning to read Baking Bad in January. I hope this series is just as much fun as her Gobbelino one.

>201 jillmwo:, >202 Narilka: I enjoyed Baking Bad quite a lot. Set in a small village where the Women's Institute effectively runs everything, the mysterious death of the vicar throws everyday life into turmoil. DI Adams, newly arrived from London, thinks she'll be able to find the killer and solve the mystery easily - how can this village hold anything more difficult than London? - but determined ladies of a certain age, and dragons, combine to hinder her. The dragons are endearing and funny (although their klutziness did get a little wearing for my taste after a while), the plot is well laid and paced, and the characters are good. I'll look out for more in the series.

I also finished Neom which was an intriguing look at a future Middle East, which seems to be a lot more peaceful than in our own time. There have clearly been devastating wars and disasters in the past, which have left the landscape populated by battered robots and other sentient technology. These co-exist with the human population in cities, desert communities and caravans. The story is quite low-key but the worldbuilding and characters are great.

I've also read Terminal alliance, the first book in Jim Hines' trilogy Janitors of the post-apocalypse. This is humorous SF yet with high stakes for the characters and their way of life. When the crew of a spaceship is killed or incapacitated, the only people left functioning are the sanitation crew, as they were wearing containment suits at the time. It is left to them to find out what happened and stop it happening again, while pursued by both enemies and their own side. This is a universe with multiple alien species where humans are now a minority. I really enjoyed this and will be acquiring the rest of the trilogy as soon as possible.

And I read a middle grade book about three sisters, which has (rightly) been compared to the Penderwicks series. Marigold, Zinnia and Lily live in Los Angeles and have great plans for the summer, only to find out that their parents will both be working and are sending the girls to stay with their great-aunt on Cape Cod. Of course they adapt and start to love the outdoor, small-town life, and grow closer to each other while learning more about themselves. I loved this! It and its two sequels will be perfect to fill the Penderwicks-shaped hole in my life.

I'm hoping to finish The virgin in the garden and Fourth Wing before I go to my mum's for Christmas, as I don't want to take them with me or have a week's break from reading them. I've also just started Chaos terminal, the second Mallory Viridian SF/mystery, and on kindle am reading the second Gobbelino London book.

>203 Sakerfalcon: I enjoyed that 2nd Gobbelino, maybe even slightly more than the 1st. It could just be that I am getting used to the characters.

Enjoy your time with your mum!

I’ve been wanting to read Fourth Wing and almost bought both it and the second one at Costco the other day. But I know I wouldn’t want to keep them so I didn’t spend the money. I did just put the first one on hold at the library.

And, oh my, so many other books you’ve read that sound good: The rainforest one sounds very interesting. My library doesn’t have it so I’ll have to purchase that one. Will a Kindle version do? Baking Bad is another one that my library doesn’t have. I’ll get that one on my Kindle. What was the name of the one that is like the Penderwicks? I loved that series!

Enjoy your Christmas with your mum!

Have a great Christmas Claire.

>204 clamairy: Thank you! I'm very much looking forward to continuing the Gobbelino London series!

>205 catzteach: I did buy Fourth Wing and its sequel because I saw them for half price but I wish I'd had your restraint! I read the rainforest book on kindle with no problems, but it does have a lot of footnotes so if you are someone who reads all the footnotes then that's a bit disruptive on kindle. There are colour plates, which were black and white on my old kindle. I'd recommend reading on kindle as that is what's easily available to you, and if you love the book then you could track down a print version.
Aargh, can't believe I forgot to put the title of the Penderwicks-adjacent book! It is The forget-me-not summer and there are two sequels. I loved it - it's a little more contemporary feeling (the Penderwicks feel timeless to me even though I think there is the occasional mention of a computer or mobile phone) - but the lessons learned by the sisters are eternal.

>206 Caroline_McElwee: Thank you Caroline! Sending best wishes to you too for a peaceful and very happy Christmas!

I didn't quite finish either book before I went away for Christmas, so they await me on my return home. I did finish Gobbelino London and a contagion of zombies which was hilarious, and introduces some great new characters into the story universe. I'm really enjoying Chaos terminal which is a great follow up to Station eternity and sees Mallory thrown into further chaos, as something seems to be up with her link to the Sundry hive mind, and another murder has been committed. I'm also reading a book which I borrowed from work, a German novella, Siblings, which is set in the divided post-WWII Germany and tells of the complicated relationship between Elisabeth and her brother Uli.

In case I don't get back here before Christmas, I wish all of you who celebrate a joyful time with family and friends, and send my best wishes to all of you. Thanks for making the Green Dragon the best place on the internet!

>207 Sakerfalcon: I’ve spent quite a bit of money on books lately, so my restraint has not been great, I just bought books I think I’ll want to keep. :)

I have the Gobbelino books on my Kindle. One of my goals for next year is to read the books I own and not check out ten books at once from the library. :D

And I have put The forget-me-not summer on my For Later shelf at the library. They have an ebook of it so I’ll probably read it on my Kindle.

The rainforest book is probably good for the Kindle. I tend to skip footnotes as they distract me.

Happy New Year, Claire! I hope 2024 brings you everything you hope it will!

Happy new year, Claire!

I sincerely wish you health, happiness, contentment and many exciting books.

Happy new year to you and yours, Claire!

Happy New Year!

Happy 2024, Claire!

I hope the New Year treats you well! I can't wait to see what you read.

Thank you for the massive platter of cheese on my 2023 thread. ❤️