AlisonY - Grabbing Half a Century by the Horns: Part II

Welcome to part 2 of my thread. Slightly unintended with a mistaken click of the button at the bottom of my previous page, but I guess it was getting long enough.

Starting the second half of my reading in 2023 with a picture from Dune du Pilat which we enjoyed climbing recently in France.

The half a century birthday milestone looms very close now, but it's been a good year so far with lots of nice memories and hopefully more to come with another holiday later in the year and an unexpected family wedding planned around Christmas time. Reading's been a bit slow, but when that's because life has been busy in a positive way I'll take that.

2023 Reading Track

January
1. Standing on the Shoulders by Dan Walker - read (4 stars)

February
2. Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka - read (3.5 stars)
3. A Few Wise Words by Peter Mukherjee - read (3.5 stars)
4. Please Don't Come Back From the Moon by Dean Bakopoulos - read (4 stars)

March
5. Germinal by Emile Zola - read (5 stars)
6. The Dry Heart by Natalia Ginzburg - read (4 stars)
7. Carol by Patricia Highsmith - read (4.5 stars)
8. The Smell of Hay by Giorgio Bassani - read (4 stars)

April
9. A Room of One's Own and Three Guineas by Virginia Woolf - read (3.5 stars)
10. The Beckoning Silence by Joe Simpson - read (4 stars)

May
11. The Heather Blazing by Colm Toibin - read (4 stars)
12. Trespasses by Louise Kennedy - read (unmarked)

June

13. Big Brother by Lionel Shriver - read (3 stars)
14. Stressilient: How to Beat Stress and Build Resilience by Dr Sam Akbar - read (3.5 stars)
15. A Moveable Feast by Ernest Hemingway - read (4.5 stars)

July
16. The Gulag Archipelago by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn - read (4 stars)
17. When the Body Says No: The Hidden Cost of Stress by Gabor Mate - read (4 stars)
18. Bonjour Tristesse by Francoise Sagan - read (4.5 stars)
19. Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky) - read (4 stars)

August
20. Around the World in 80 Trains by Monisha Rajesh - read (4 stars)
21. Release the Bats by DBC Pierre - read (4 stars)
22. Cognitive Behavioural Therapy by Olivia Telford - read (3 stars)

September
23. Crow Lake by Mary Lawson - read (3.5 stars)
24. I Couldn't Love You More by Esther Freud - read (2.5 stars)

October
25. Happy Sexy Millionaire by Steven Bartlett - read (4.5 stars)
26. Three Bedrooms in Manhattan by Georges Simenon - read (3.5 stars)
27. Wild Hope: Healing Words to Find Light on Dark Days by Donna Ashworth - read (4.5 stars)
28. Walk With Me New York by Susan Kaufman - read (5 stars)

November
29. Ladies Lunch and Other Stories by Lore Segal - read (4.5 stars)
30. Immerse: Messiah Bible
31. The Nation's Favourite Love Poems by BBC - read (3.5 stars)

December
32. All That Man Is by David Szalay - read (3 stars)
33. Fearless: Trinny Woodall by Trinny Woodall - read (3 stars)
34. The Art of Impossible: A Peak Performance Primer by Steven Cutler - read (3 stars)
35. The Artist's Way by Julia Cameron - read (3.5 stars)
36. The Art of Work by Jeff Goins - read (4.5 stars)
37. Study for Obedience by Sarah Bernstein - read (4 stars)

NF = 18
F = 19

18. Bonjour Tristesse by Françoise Sagan

Last week I had the fortune to enjoy a week's holiday in south-west France, and at the airport decided that although my suitcase was already bulging with books it would be a sad affair if I didn't add a thoroughly French-flavoured book to my holiday reading pile. Françoise Sagan was not a French author I was familiar with, but the front cover tagline of 'funny, immoral and thoroughly French' sounded perfect holiday reading fodder.

This book is actually two novellas - the title novella and A Certain Smile. In Bonjour Tristesse, the narrator is in her late teens and enjoying a fairly permissive life with her womanising widowed father when circumstances change one summer requiring some drastic action. I'm not sure I'd go as far as The Guardian's comment that 'Françoise Sagan is the French F. Scott Fitzgerald', but certainly she captures well the essence of that heady era of wealthy adults with questionable moral compasses enjoying the pleasures of hot summers in the south of France. It's extraordinary, given the quality and maturity of Sagan's writing, to think that this was her first book at the tender age of 18. She captures perfectly the lightness of youth, offering a sardonic, outside perspective of the types of gatherings depicted by the likes of Fitzgerald and Hemingway.

In A Certain Smile, the narrator is a late teen who, bored with her young boyfriend, embarks on an affair with his much older uncle. Every teen is wont to think they have life sussed, but this young protagonist finds out the hard way that she's not quite so in control of things as she'd like to think.

What's clever about Sagan's writing is that she wrote commandingly from the perspective of young women, yet at the same time shows so clearly the naivety of youth to the reader, which given the young age she was when she wrote these novellas is commendable.

I absolutely loved these two novellas - they were fun and absorbing and set in one of my favourite eras for fiction, and I'll certainly be looking out for other titles by Sagan which have been translated.

4.5 stars - the perfect holiday read.

19. Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

I fancied heading back into Russian fiction after reading The Gulag Archipelago at the start of the month. This was my first Dostoyevsky read, and it seemed as good a title to pick as any.

Crime and Punishment tells the tale of an impoverished student living in St. Petersburg who decides to carry out a heinous murder in order to set himself back on the financial straight and narrow. What follows is a cat and mouse story as the protagonist, far from enjoying his ill gotten gains, instead wrestles with his own conscience and his future options whilst the net of the law closes further in on him.

It's an interesting read given it examines the many sides and stages of the murderer's thought pattern post the event. In some places the psychological ramblings by either the protagonist or other characters grew a little wearisome in their histrionics, but this is typical in a lot of the writing style of the late 19th century, when melodrama was hugely popular. For that reason I've dropped a star, as it's personally not my bag, but otherwise it was an enjoyable read.

On the basis of having read just one book apiece which is probably a most unfair comparison, I would plump for reading Tolstoy again much more quickly than Dostoyevsky, but still - I'm glad I read this. Had it been perhaps 200 pages shorter and omitted some of the pages of hysterical rambling it would have gained an extra half a star.

4 stars - a deserved place on the list of classics.

>4 AlisonY: Nice review. I've read Crime and Punishment twice and enjoyed it both times. Happy new thread.

>5 rocketjk: Thanks Jerry. Definitely glad I read it.

>3 AlisonY: I recently read Tristesse too and gave it 4 stars. Had I read it on vacation in France it definitely would have been 4.5 or even 5

>7 Nickelini: Yep, it fitted my holiday reading mood perfectly!

I love the photo at the top, Alison. I haven't read Sagan, but will add her to my WL. I read Crime and Punishment years ago but stalled on a reread. I must pick it up again. I love the Russians! (Writers, that is).

>9 BLBera: I think I'd stall on a reread of C&P too. My engagement with it wasn't linear - some chapters were page-turning, others not as much.

Lovely photo at >1 AlisonY: Alison.

As with any decade birthday, don't forget you should celebrate all year. Thats a rule in my family.

>11 Caroline_McElwee: That's more or less what I've been trying to do, Caroline. And this year I'm definitely not working on my birthday.

>12 AlisonY: I haven't worked on my birthday for probably 30 years now, maybe more.

Nice photo of the Dune du Pilat. Hope you enjoyed South West France.

>1 AlisonY: That looks surreal with the forest backdrop!

>15 ursula: It's kind of odd. You're so high above the forest when you're on the top yet it didn't seem that high climbing up (although our legs were busted!).

I love your topper photo—I'm glad you were able to take a nice getaway. I read a lot of Russian literature in my twenties, and devoured a lot of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn (I even "met" him once, although it was a situation where I wasn't allowed to acknowledge who he was). It was still a thrill. I want to reread The First Circle, but in the new uncensored edition that came out in 2009. On the Tolstoy vs Dostoevsky balance, I would tip toward Tolstoy too, although the end of Day in the Life annoyed me as much as the end of Crime & Punishment.

>17 labfs39: That's amazing coming across Solzhenistyn. How did that happen?

After Anna Karenina is there another Tolstoy you'd recommend?

>18 AlisonY: As you probably know, Solzhenistyn was in exile for decades. At first he and Natalia and their four sons settled in Zurich, but soon left for the US and Vermont. They lived in a tiny town called Cavendish from 1975 until he returned to Russia in 1994. He was a famous recluse, so spottings were rare, but I was working at a medical facility where he was an outpatient. Although he was using a false name for security reasons, he is very easy to recognize. It was hard to speak to him and pretend I didn't know who he was.

As for Tolstoy, I like his short works best: Day in the Life, despite the coda, and The Kreutzer Sonata, which may be the first Tolstoy I read. He wrote a fair number of short stories.

>19 labfs39: That's so cool...

Thanks for the Tolstoy recommendations.

>11 Caroline_McElwee: As with any decade birthday, don't forget you should celebrate all year. Thats a rule in my family..

I did not know that! I just had a big scary decade bday on August 1, so I shall inform my family. Actually, I had a holiday in England and Italy in spring and another coming up in Australia in November so I guess I’m already doing that :)

As for working on my birthday—when I was young school was off for summer, and then as an adult I only worked my bday in 1986 and 2017. It helps that the first Monday in August is a stat holiday so somehow I’m almost always able to get it off. Here’s to not working on your bday!

And happy 5-0 Alison!

happy 50th!!!

>21 Nickelini: >22 cindydavid4: Thank you! I hit the big half a century yesterday and had the most amazing day. It's such a privilege to reach this milestone and I'm so grateful for all the lovely people I have in my life and for all the amazing experiences I've had. It really was a day full of joy.

Happy birthday! So glad you had a wonderful day. Here’s to many more

>24 labfs39: Thank you, Lisa!

Happy belated birthday and welcome to this side of 50. :) I'm glad to hear you had such a good birthday!

Belated Happy birthday Alison, glad you had a great day.

My 60th was at the start of the pandemic and probably the first birthday I spent totally alone, though friends and family saw I was surrounded by flowers and I spent most of the day on the phone.

>26 ursula: Thank you! I'd a great few days.

>27 Caroline_McElwee: Thanks Caroline. And that's so sad that you were alone on your big birthday thanks to Covid. I hope you've made up for it since.

>23 AlisonY: Belated happy birthday. I'm so pleased you had a fabulous day.

My 50th was in 2020 and while I could've had a party, I couldn't be bothered organising anything by then. My partner and I had a night away the weekend before, and then a week away with friends and then family the week after so I didn't miss out on celebrating.

>29 rhian_of_oz: Thank you! I felt like that too - I didn't want people to feel obliged to turn up with gifts to an event so kept it low key, but nonetheless it was a great few days with lots of lovely memories.

Happy Birthday, Alison, and many happy returns. Aug. 10 must be an auspicious day; my granddaughter Scout shares your birthday, only she just turned 10.

Ahhhh, 50th birthdays! Congratulations on yours. Glad it was a nice one. I have great memories of mine, which was also low key. My story is a bit like Rhian's: lots of travel beforehand. I had finally gotten married for the first time about 5 weeks prior. I had told my then fiancé that I wanted our wedding far enough ahead of my birthday so that we could have a festive wedding and I could also have a big 50th birthday party. So we got married on May 29th and a week later we went to France for a 2-week honeymoon. Then when we got back my wife laughed and said, "OK, ready to start planning your big 50th birthday party?" I laughed right along with her, and my 50th birthday was a party of five at a San Francisco Giants game followed by dinner at a cool old San Francisco restaurant called the Fog City Diner. My wife had baked a cheesecake for us to share at the ballgame but it was a very hot day and by the time we decided to have the cake it had melted into more or less a puddle, so we scooped it out of its container with our fingers. A great day, all in all.

>31 BLBera: Thanks, Beth. I hope Scout enjoyed her first decade birthday.

>32 rocketjk: Well, that sounds just about a perfect 50th, Jerry. Mine was very low key but just lovely. I started the day training at my gym and was spoilt rotten by my trainer, and then went into Belfast for lunch and a cocktail with my husband and kids and a bit of birthday shopping. It was such a relaxed, unhurried day, which seems to never happen these days, and full of such good cheer and best wishes from people. Last night there was a surprise dinner with my wider family, and my husband had put together a lovely scrapbook with lots of great photos I'd not seen in years.

I don't think I've ever put my mugshot on LT before, but hey - it's a milestone, so why not:

>33 AlisonY: Lovely to see you Alison.

20. Around the World in 80 Trains by Monisha Rajesh

I acquired this book a few months back in a book swap event held in work to mark World Book Day. My theory with book swaps is that no one wants to give up their favourite books, but by the same token don't want to offer up something terrible either, and I think that sums up this book; it's not the best book I'll read this year, but it's not the worst either.

Rajesh (at the time of writing this book) was a young British journalist who had previously written a book about travelling around India by train. This time she had set the bar higher and planned to travel the world by train, along with her fiancé.

It's a book that I found page-turning and irritating in equal measures. No, that's untrue - the page-turning elements definitely outweighed the annoying bits, but somehow the annoying bits stuck. The best parts of the book were her descriptions of travel through North Korea and Tibet (particularly the former), where she described well what they saw out and about on their travels, but in other parts of the book there were gaps that I found frustrating. Perhaps it was that some places gave more material to talk about than others, or that she felt more predisposed to talk about the destinations that interested her most, but at times the focus was so much on the trains that I felt cheated out of hearing more about the countries they were travelling through. Perhaps that is the reality of rail travel, with long distances on trains meaning that you're simply passing through places that are simply a blur through the window. When they travelled long distances through Russia, she had tales about some of their fellow passengers, but those sections suffered in comparison with other travel books for a lack of 'on the ground' descriptions. Similarly, she whipped through the USA at a speed of knots with just passing mentions of cities travelled through, which began to feel like the project was a train-counting tick box exercise.

I also wrinkled my nose in annoyance when, at various times, Rajesh negatively commented on tourists in that smug I'm-a-seasoned-traveller-not-a-tourist annoying way gap-year students have of boring you. At other times, realising that she couldn't pass off a certain day trip here or there as anything other than a tourist jaunt, she then decided she was a tourist after all and positively eye-rolled on the page about middle-aged single men on sabbaticals classing themselves as travellers rather than tourists.

I've never travelled more than a few hours on a train, and Rajesh's book didn't warm me to planning any overnight trips any time soon (sleeping in a small compartment with total strangers - no thanks). However, such is her romance with the notion of long-distance train travel I felt she held back on describing the real nitty gritty, like the cleanliness (or lack of) of some of the trains, how the toilet situation worked out, how you stopped yourself from going crazy on a 50 hour stretch. There were quite a few photos in the book, and apart from one in a US panoramic viewing car and another on the Orient Express, there was hardly a photo of inside a single train. Where were the obvious photos inside the Trans Siberian trains or one of the Japanese bullet trains or one of the many Chinese trains? I had to resort to Google to find out what the difference in appearance was between a Chinese soft sleeper train vs a hard sleeper.

All in all it was interesting enough, but I couldn't quite shake the feeling that Rajesh and her boyfriend were gap year backpackers desperately trying to convince us they were something much more serious than travel box-tickers. There was an immaturity to her travel approach that irked me (barely mentioning Europe and the US, for example, as if they were so pedestrian for a seasoned traveller like herself).

3.5 stars - enjoyable enough, but I wouldn't go out of my way to find a copy of it. There are plenty of better travel books out there.

>33 AlisonY: Well, that sounds like a like a great day! Glad it was all so lovely.

>33 AlisonY: Birthdays are non-events in my family after the 21st, so I don't even remember what I did on my 50th. I do enjoy reading about other people's festivities though. So glad you had a pleasant, relaxing day. And it's nice to see you!

>33 AlisonY: Oh, this is wonderful! Thanks for sharing

Happy Birthday! I'm not really one for big birthday celebrations either, but 50 is a milestone!

Happy belated birthday - glad you had a good day.

>33 AlisonY: It looks like you are enjoying yourself.

Thanks everyone - it was a great few days of celebrating.

Happy birthday, Alison!

I just had my 60th, on which I was traveling to a work thing—about the most underwhelming milestone birthday you could imagine. We always have a nice dinner out the night before one of our events, and we ended up at a very good Frenchish seafood restaurant (in North Carolina, go figure). So that was festive, but that was the extent of any celebrating. I did have some very nice gifts trickle in over the next few weeks, including live plants from my best friend's wonderful lush garden in Vermont, and a catalog from the Vermeer show at the Rijksmuseum, which a dear friend schlepped all the way back from Amsterdam because she knew how much I would have loved to see the show.

So hey, that's me talking about my birthday on yours! But I'm glad it was a fun one, and nice to see your picture too.

>43 lisapeet: Well happy birthday, Lisa! I think it was the little moments of lovely messages from people that was the best bit of mine, so I'm glad it sounds like you had plenty of that on your birthday too.

Happy belated birthday! Great picture!

>45 OscarWilde87: Thank you!

21. Release the Bats by DBC Pierre

I'd forgotten that I'd really enjoyed DBC Pierre's Vernon God Little until I came across it in my list of books on LT, so I looked for some of his other work and this little red number appealed.

Unlike VGL, this is a non-fiction book full of writing advice from DBC Pierre, but it reminded me how unique and off the wall his voice was in VGL. Although there are plenty of books out there on how to go about writing a novel, somehow this worked for me a lot more. For starters, his own unique writing style throughout has you thinking about what makes writing talent, and he's also a bit like an overgrown teenage rule breaker, with plenty of swearing and the odd crazy / unnecessary chapter on oddball subjects such as the impact (good and bad) that different types of recreational drugs have on your writing creativity and output. BUT, he knows what he's talking about, and there are some really excellent writing tips and information about the writing process, warts and all.

DBC Pierre might not be to everyone's taste, but he's a very intelligent writer, and even if I never write a page of a novel in this lifetime, I think I'll dip in and out of this book plenty in the future as I enjoyed it and feel like a little more will stick with each subsequent visit.

4 stars - slightly batty (if you pardon the pun), but isn't there a little craziness in all the best writers?

>47 AlisonY: Years since I read VGL Alison. Glad this was a hit with you.

This went straight into my cart.

>48 Caroline_McElwee: I hope you enjoy it, Caroline. It's a book you can dip in and out of.

22. Cognitive Behavioural Therapy by Olivia Telford

I had this book on my wish list as CBT is purported to be good for IBS, which has the audacity to pop up in my life on a fairly frequent basis, but unfortunately it missed the mark. The chapters it focused on weren't of relevance or particular interest to me (depression, addiction, jealousy, etc.), and I realised that Telford isn't a CBT expert but rather a writer who collates other people's research on wellness topics into her own books, which somehow made for a book lacking soul or obvious passion for its subject matter.

3 stars - I'm not sure if it's both CBT and the book which don't work for me, but at the very least it's the latter.

>50 AlisonY: Shame the book wasn't helpful Alison.

Just dropping by to say hello and noticed my good timing means I can wish you Happy Birthday too! Nice photo!

>52 VivienneR: Thanks Vivienne!

23. Crow Lake by Mary Lawson

I've had a bit of a fiction reading block lately. I think it's a mental bandwidth thing - I just don't seem to have the patience for that first stage of reading when you've not got hooked in yet. I picked up Crow Lake in the secondhand bookshop as I figured it would be 'easy reading' to ease me back in, and indeed it hit the spot.

This is don't-think-too-hard fiction. Summer reading fodder. The narrator's parents were killed in a car crash when she was a young girl, and the book alternates between the aftermath, as her brothers work to keep the family together, and her present day reluctancy to return 'home' to her siblings.

It was an enjoyable enough page-turner and got me back to reading fiction again, but I'm not going to rush to recommend it. There was nothing standout about it, and the ending disappointed.

3.5 stars - chicken soup sort of reading. Comforting but not gourmet.

>54 AlisonY: I always imagine that book to be bleak and also earnest. I’m rarely in the mood for either of those things

>55 Nickelini: I've read bleaker. It was just very mass market - fine, but not overly original.

24. I Couldn't Love You More by Esther Freud

I normally love Esther Freud's writing - she's up there as one of my favourite authors - but this book was so poor compared to her other novels.

I don't know if her publishers put the squeeze on her or something, but this is such a mass market read with a cliched storyline centred around a woman forced into an Irish convent for unmarried mothers and the impact on her mother's and daughter's lives. There were none of the hallmarks of Freud's usual turn of phrase, and the storyline was horribly confused - halfway through and I still wasn't sure who was who, and from the reviews on Amazon I wasn't the only one.

2.5 stars - hugely disappointing. I hope this is not the kind of writing we're going to see from Freud going forward.

It’s almost October. Is your trip starting soon?

>58 dianeham: Hi Diane, end of October. I really haven't had time to think about it as a few things have been going on recently.

>57 AlisonY: Thanks for taking one for the team Alison. I generally have liked her books in the past too.

>60 Caroline_McElwee: I was probably particularly harsh with my scoring because I usually love her writing so much, Caroline, but this was so pedestrian.

25. Happy Sexy Millionaire by Steven Bartlett

I've only really become aware of Steven Bartlett in the last couple of years, firstly when he became a dragon on the UK version of Dragon's Den (I'm assuming there are international versions), and then when I started getting into podcasts. His Diary of a CEO podcast regularly holds the #1 UK podcast chart position, and is a really interesting listen (not particularly to do with business - more about personal growth).

If you've not come across him before, he's a young British-Nigerian entrepreneur who dropped out of university at 18 after his first lecture and then went on to become a multi-millionaire by his mid-20s following the international success of his social media marketing company.

Contrary to the title, this isn't a personal development book about how to become rich and happy, but rather is Bartlett's musings on how he realised that being a 'happy, sexy millionaire' (which is what he aimed to be at age 18) was not the key to happiness. Rather it's his learnings about how happiness comes from fulfilment and introspection.

It may sound a trite premise for a book, but I really liked it. There were some really good quotes that I want to bookmark to come back to, and it's a book I'd love my teens to read (although they won't) as it's an honest signpost to building a good life for yourself at a young age.

4.5 stars - an inspiring read that I whizzed through.

A very belated happy birthday. Welcome to 50. Enjoyed reading about your reading. I find sometimes i no patience for fiction of any kind. But nonfiction can still work.

>63 dchaikin: I'm in a little patience for fiction mode still, but trying to get into a short novel at the moment. My attention span is shot at the moment.

Oh, too bad about the new Esther Freud.

26. Three Bedrooms in Manhattan by Georges Simenon

For a slim novel it's taken me an age to get through this book. Part of it was down to being distracted by several non-fiction titles I have on the go as well, but moreover I think it's because I wasn't fully enjoying it.

Simenon writes about a lonely French actor and a Hungarian woman who meet in joint desperation in a seedy bar in New York and the development of their connection into something intense and life-changing over a short period of time that both struggle to understand.

When a book is focused on relatively few characters I need at least to feel empathy for them, even if I don't particularly like them. The male character Francois I found really unlikeable, and although Simenon showed contextualised his jealousy and petty behaviour being driven by self-doubt after his wife ran off with a younger man, he just left me cold with his unpleasant behaviour towards Kay, who seemed prepared to accept and even sympathise with whatever horrible behaviour he sent her way, whether it was punching her in the face or sleeping with someone else when she has to leave for a few days.

I appreciate that Simenon is thought of as being up there as a writer, but he isn't for me. I will happily devour novels from the great misogynist novelists of our time like Hemingway and Updike as I can at least develop some empathy or sympathy for their flawed characters, but this novel just left me a little cold.

3.5 stars - unappetising.

New Yorkers - I'm so sorry but I'm struggling to figure out a window on our trip to try and meet up. My husband has set out a pretty packed agenda as the kids decided they wanted to do all the typical touristy things after all, and I wouldn't expect people to make the effort to travel all the way into Manhattan just to catch up for a quick coffee at a random last minute time mid week. At the moment we're having to move our plans around for a third time to keep up with the weather forecast (shame we're going to miss this week's glorious weather).

Feels like it might have to be put on hold until our next trip, which is a shame as I'd love to meet up, but with the kids in tow I just don't see an obvious window to throw out as a suggestion, and I appreciate people are working during the week too.

Well, that'll just give you a reason to come back soon. Sorry not to meet up this time, but I hope your trip is awesome even without us LTers.

>67 AlisonY: "I wouldn't expect people to make the effort to travel all the way into Manhattan just to catch up for a quick coffee at a random last minute time mid week."

OK, but just an fyi that I am already in Manhattan, so it's just a quick trip on the subway for me, unless seeing Harlem or even the north end of Central Park is on your kids' touristy things list. In which case all I have to do is walk outside. :)

Have a safe flight and amazing trip! I hope you get a moment to visit a bookstore while the boys are doing something that doesn't interest you!

If you plan to travel by subway I recommend the MyMTA app, especially for the weekends and Halloween evening when the system will be a disaster.

Pro tip: the Empire State Building stops admitting people waaay before their published closing time.

Safe travels, Alison.

>69 rocketjk: oh, another Manhattan-ite and from your post it seems not v far from me.
>67 AlisonY: I’d check on the demo status before finalizing your plans. Yesterday Grand Central was filled (literally) with Jewish Voice for Peace. Visiting Times Square may also be unwise. I’d also avoid anywhere around the UN.

There are police everywhere so it’s quite safe, but there may be traffic delays and also I imagine you’d want to avoid letting your kids see mass protests.

And yes get the myMTA app that Eliz_M recommends. That will give you travel times and advisories.

>72 kjuliff: I imagine you’d want to avoid letting your kids see mass protests.

why? I can see being concerned that they might get hurt. but not letting them see protests? you can give them a simple explanation that they understand, and let them ask more questions but i dont see why seeing them in particular can be damaging to them

>73 cindydavid4: oh just seeing protests is not a problem. But there can be violence and disruption. You can’t really “see” a protest. If you stumble on one you can get to be part of it. You aren’t seeing it at a distance. You are on ground level. Kids would just see a lot of legs. There’s a lot of mayhem. Where I live there’s been looting. It’s not really safe. These are not like protests last century. I phrased it badly. I should have put it another way.

But I’ll give an example. If I told little kids we were going to Times Square they’d probably think they would see big lights and Mickey Mouse characters. If instead they saw 1000s of angry people I think they’d be frightened.

I’m frightened and I’m a grown up. Not all the protests are peaceful.

My advice was to find out first. Next week is not looking good.

This from The NY Times re the Grand Central peaceful protest.
The protesters filled the train station, chanting, “Cease-fire now” and “Let Gaza live.” Most wore black shirts that read “Not in our name.” One police officer estimated that there were as many as 1,000 protesters.

Steve Auerbach, a pediatrician in the city, said he was concerned about the children caught in the middle of the conflict.
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/27/world/middleeast/grand-central-protest-nyc-is...

>72 kjuliff: Oh, cool! Let's figure out a time for coffee or such.

>67 AlisonY: Another vote for that myMTA app.

>69 rocketjk: Hi Jerry, well we're at the natural history museum tomorrow (Monday). Maybe we could make something work around that as it might be a bit closer to you? We had to move things around with the weather so have less squashed in tomorrow than originally planned.

And of course very much open to anyone else too who can do a last minute meetup! I think our tickets for the museum are entrance at 11am. We're up the Empire State at 6pm, so somewhere in the middle of the afternoon could probably work (my daughter's always hungry so would need to get lunch first).

Thanks everyone on the app tips and protest warnings. We're staying smack in the middle of Times Square so hard to avoid anything there. Last time we stayed in TriBeCa which was much more chilled and quiet - can't say I'd the best night's sleep last night! It's fun for the kids, though. No sign of trouble last night, but was horribly busy with Halloween.

Anyway, sure let me know if anyone's around tomorrow for a coffee. I probably won't be back on my phone until much later tonight, but will make something work tomorrow if that suits anyone.

>74 kjuliff: I hadnt thought of it that way, and you are right. carry on

Great to finally meet a LTer today after all! Managed to squeeze in a walk through Central Park with Jerry which was lovely. Pic to follow at the end of the week when I have my laptop - I'm struggling to upload it on my phone.

Thanks for making the effort to meet up, Jerry!

It was a lot of fun to meet you and your great family. It was no effort, but instead a pleasure, on my part. Sincere thanks for making time for me within your New York vacation. Hope the Empire State Building was fun, and have a great time over the rest of your time here.

Sorry to miss a potential Central Park rendezvous—I had work plus a complicated day, but I'm glad you both connected!

>80 lisapeet: No problem, Lisa. It was last minute and during the work week so I know it would have been difficult for most. But next time!

Glad you are having a good and packed time in NY Alison.

>82 Caroline_McElwee: Thanks, Caroline. We've had a ball. Love New York so much.

So lovely to meet Jerry (rocketjk) earlier in the week. Here we are in Central Park.

>84 AlisonY: A super fun day! Great to meet you, as well as the rest of the clan.

nice!

Jerry is the social butterfly of NY LTers! Great picture

Great photo! Glad you had such a good time.

Great to see a meetup.

Such a classic NYC fall day! I'm glad you two could get together.

27. Wild Hope: Healing Words to Find Light on Dark Days by Donna Ashworth

I first came across Scottish poet Donna Ashworth via her Instagram account and had been really enjoying her excerpts from this, her latest poetry book, so I picked it up not long after it was published.

It's a really beautifully written book, full of powerful words and thoughts to lift up the soul. Whilst I don't think you need to be experiencing dark days to get something out of this collection, it so happened that a dear friend was nearing her end as I read this and many of the poems really resonated and were just what I needed to read.

Here are a couple of favourites from the book (non-sad ones):

YOU
If every single person who has liked you in your
lifetime were to light up on a map, it would create the
most glitteringly beautiful network you could imagine.
Throw in the strangers you've been kind to, the people
you've made laugh, or inspired along the way, and that
star-bright web of you would be an impressive sight to
behold. You're so much more than you think you are.
You have done so much more than you realise.
You're trailing a bright pathway that you don't even
know about. What a thing. What a thing indeed.

LIGHTHOUSES AND ROCKS

Some people are lighthouses
they can't help it
they just have so much light within them
that they must use it selflessly
throwing their beams out into the night
with their call of safety and rescue

some people are rocks
they can't help it
they have hardened over the years
grown sharp and edgy
crushing hearts on their craggy points
without even seeing the wreckage
or the survivors drowning before them

some people are lighthouses
and some people are rocks
and you must learn to recognise them
equally
because they are both
as important as the other

one to aim for
one to avoid

keep your heart on the lighthouses
and your beady eye on the rocks

you're not going there again

4.5 stars - really enjoyed this collection (so much so that I promised to lend it to someone, but think I'll have to buy her a copy instead as I don't want to let it go).

>91 AlisonY: Very nice poems. Thanks!

>92 rocketjk: It's a great book. I must admit poetry doesn't always do it for me, but I really enjoyed this collection.

>91 AlisonY: Hit my a reading bullet. Thanks Alison.

28. Ladies Lunch and Other Stories by Lore Segal

I only had time to go into one bookshop in NYC, and sadly it was a chain and not one of the many beautiful independents we passed, but to give Barnes & Noble their due they had a number of very nice tables of New York orientated books on display. It's always nice to read some fiction set in or close to a place you're visiting, and this collection of stories really appealed as (1) I didn't have much time to read when I was there, so short stories were perfect to dip in and out of, and (2) I'm still struggling a little with my attention span for fiction reading (13 hours in total on a plane and I didn't open a fiction book once - very unlike me).

Lore Segal is not a writer I'd heard of before - for anyone in the same camp, she's a 95 year old stalwart writer of the New Yorker, has written several novels and short story collections and has won numerous accolades (including being a Pulitzer finalist). Most of these stories have already been published either in the New Yorker or in another anthology, so if you're already familiar with Segal's work this collection may disappoint, but for a newbie like me it was terrific.

The first half of the book, and my favourite, was Ladies Lunch, a collection of interconnected stories about a group of sharp and spiky nonagenarian friends who have been lunching together for 40 years. It's not often that fiction is told (or written) from the perspective of someone in this age bracket so it felt original and poignant, particularly the story about one of the ladies being moved against her wishes by her children to a nursing home far from where her friends could visit. The second half was a collection of individual stories, the best of which was Making Good, a story about a week-long bridge-building class between New York Jews who had experienced the Holocaust and some younger people from Vienna, which was awkward and funny and thought provoking all at the same time.

I really enjoyed this book. Segal is a Viennese Jew who was part of the Kindertransport rescue mission to England in 1938 after Hitler annexed Austria, and has lived in New York City since 1951. The Holocaust is referenced in conversations and memories in many of the stories in this book, and although never handled with disrespect, Segal is clearly a great wit and a woman not to be messed with. I adored the sass that was evident throughout each story - I'm sure she's quite a lady in the flesh.

4.5 stars - how much fun Lore Segal would be to lunch with.

>95 AlisonY: this sound like a book Id want to read, thanks for the rec

>95 AlisonY: Ouch, hit twice in one day.

>96 cindydavid4: It's a very slim book, Cindy, but I really enjoyed it.

>97 Caroline_McElwee: Good! Hope you enjoy both if you get to them, Caroline.

>95 AlisonY: Adding to my tbr. Thanks for the review.

>91 AlisonY: I'm sorry to hear about your friend. I hope you're doing ok.

I like the sound of Lore Segal - wishlisted, thanks. I’m sorry about your friend.

>99 kjuliff: Hope you enjoy it.

>100 RidgewayGirl:, >101 rachbxl: Thank you. Unfortunately she passed a few days before I went to NYC, but I was glad I got to spend some time with her.

>102 AlisonY: I’m really sorry to hear that. I hope you’re ok.

>103 rachbxl: Thanks. It was particularly upsetting as it was a relatively sudden thing and she was so young. Certainly has made me thing about my priorities in life.

Sorry to hear of your loss Alison, but glad you got some time together.

>105 Caroline_McElwee: Thanks Caroline.

>84 AlisonY: Great photo, Alison. It sounds like you are having a fun time in NYC.

The Segal stories sound good; I will look for them.

29. Walk With Me New York by Susan Kaufman

I forgot to include a book I read when I was away.

Walk With Me New York is a beautiful photography book showing off the best of New York's architecture in different seasons. As well as being a feast for the eyes, I found it to be a really useful book on my trip to NYC, using it to plan out a few of the walks on different days so we took in some quiet streets with some particularly beautiful buildings.



She has a really beautiful pumpkin image from Grove Court in West Village in our book, and I was absolutely delighted to stumble upon our own view of that very same image on our travels. Below is the picture we took:



5 stars - absolutely beautiful book on some of NYC's prettiest neighbourhoods (I'm sure New Yorkers would argue that some neighbourhoods are missing that should be in there), and a very useful travel book if you enjoy architecture and photography.

>108 AlisonY: Wow, that looks great. I'll have to search that one out while I'm here in NYC.

>109 rocketjk: It didn't have anything north of Central Park so I think you might find it lacking, Jerry, but as a tourist I found it a really beautiful book for the neighbourhoods covered. Didn't get to them all, but that's positive - always good to leave something for next time!

For info it covers Greenwich Village, West Village, East Village, NoHO & Nolita, SoHo, Gramercy Park, Murray Hill, Upper East Side, Carnegie Hill and Brooklyn Heights.

I've enjoyed reading about your NYC trip! We are considering a trip there over the kids' spring break this year. They are 13 and 10 and we have never taken them, despite being only 4-5 hours away!

>111 japaul22: We had a ball. I think it depends how good the little legs of your youngest are. There's a lot of walking to get the most out of it.

>110 AlisonY: " It didn't have anything north of Central Park so I think you might find it lacking, Jerry, "

That's not a problem for me, at all. I've been having fun exploring all parts of the city, especially the Village!

>112 AlisonY: Yes, NYC is a walking city. I love the Gramercy area. Many of the neighborhoods have changed a lot since Covid, but there are still many wonderful walks. Central Park alone.

>108 AlisonY: That looks like a lovely book, Alison.

>113 rocketjk: Well you will probably enjoy it, then. It's more about the photos of the buildings rather than recommended walks, but I got a lot out of it.

>114 kjuliff: Gramercy is one area we didn't get to, and is firmly on the 'next time' list. In what way has Covid changed the neighbourhoods? It was 20 years since my previous visit so so much had changed generally in the city.

>115 BLBera: It's a beautiful book, Beth. I'm still flicking through it as I just love the photos in it.

>116 AlisonY: Many stores and restaurants closed for good. According to Google, Three years after New York's first indoor dining shutdown, restaurants continue to close due to the lasting financial impacts of the pandemic. At least 4,500 food businesses have shuttered since March 2020.Aug 25, 2023

Many stores closed and with the rise of Amazon not all came back. But the city is still vibrant - some neighborhoods seem to have been hit more than others.

You will notice the difference. Soho is full of rich young people, and Queen and Brooklyn are more gentrified. East Harlem too. The Village is more touristy but the LES is worth a visit.

You’ll notice more glass high rise buildings in Manhattan.

The feel and energy are unchanged. Feel free to ask me any questions.

>117 kjuliff: That's interesting. I'll have to save my questions for my next visit as we came back last weekend, but hopefully won't have as big a gap as I did between my first two visits!

It was maybe 2001 or 2002 when we visited first and we stayed in TriBeCa and went out in SoHo. We were young but definitely not rich enough for the bars we tried out. I remember a bouncer literally edging us closer and closer to the exit when it become apparent we weren't going to order a $150 bottle of champagne. I couldn't believe the sports cars that were pulling up to the door with 25 year olds behind the wheel.

>118 AlisonY: The cost of just leaving the apartment is exorbitant in Manhattan. I remember when I first came here and had quite a well-paying job, I couldn’t understand how my young neighbors could afford the rent.

Eating out with wine and cocktails will set you back 100s of dollars.

>118 AlisonY: Well, there are plenty of bars around Manhattan where you don't need to order the $150 champagne, though. Next time you guys come through town Steph and I will show you some. It's definitely an expensive place to live, though, all in all, compared to some other towns. But it's not really that much more expensive--if at all--than San Francisco, for example, where I lived for about 23 years.

Also, 2001/2002 was still the first dot.com boom. New York and SF both had way too many young kids with too much money. Came the bust, things changed. These days, the young folks are singing the blues, sad to say.

>91 AlisonY: I'm so sorry to hear about your friend. Poetry can be such an unexpected comfort.

>95 AlisonY: I was wondering about that Lore Segal, if it was a good one. I'll have to take a look at it.

>108 AlisonY: That walking NYC book looks lovely. I'm a big lover of downtown—I lived in the East Village for 15 years—and never get tired of the little pockets of beauty. I have to say, though, I find the energy is so completely different now that I don't spend a lot of time there, other than to visit museums or galleries or eat out with friends. I promise I won't be one of those tiresome old New Yorkers who goes on and on bemoaning the city that used to be, but it's definitely not the marvelous place it was. But then again, what place ever is after 20-30 years?

>121 lisapeet: Thanks Lisa. The poetry really hit the spot in such an unexpected way.

I'm slightly worried now that I've oversold the Segal book to everyone. It's a very thin collection of stories, but I enjoyed them. I was, however, heavily influenced by my being in NYC novelty factor - it may not work for everyone.

Interesting on your comment on the East Village. I actually noticed it was different to when we were there last time, but thought that perhaps I'd just hit a different set of streets this time around. I suppose it happens in all cities - places are cool and buzzy for a while and then the crowd moves on to somewhere else, but it's a shame Covid has had such a big impact on the shops.

30. Immerse: Messiahby Tyndale

I'm reading in a very bitty fashion at the moment, with one novel, one poetry anthology and 2 non-fictions on the go. I've finally bought a copy of Middlemarch, so really hope to get into that over Christmas.

I've been going to church from I was a baby and so it's pretty awful that I've never properly read the Bible. I decided earlier this year to start on this new reading translation of the New Testament, which has the verse annotations removed, is reordered to make more chronological sense and is written in a way that stays close to the original but is easier to read (apparently - I'm no expert on Bible translations).

A lot of Christians won't like this approach to the Bible, but I found it eminently easier to read as it read more like a flowing piece of narrative. I started reading it a few days a week over my breakfast, and I enjoyed working through it. Much of it was familiar to me anyway, between church and taking Sunday School, but there were definitely parts of it I've never read or heard read before.

All in all it worked for me as I actually finished it for the first time.

4 stars (for the version - I don't think I should really be rating the Bible itself).

31. The Nation's Favourite Love Poems by BBC

I've had this book for 20 years. In fact, I bought it as a 'paper' present for my husband on our first wedding anniversary (which he was a bit confused about, given he doesn't 'do' poetry). Given I've had the attention span of a gnat for reading lately, I had a look on my shelves for some poetry I haven't read so I could at least still read something small every day.

With chapters on love's beginnings, celebration and adoration, love in absence, love fulfilled, warnings of love and love lost and love remembered, the BBC have most of the poetry love bases covered in this anthology.

I enjoyed the old English language of the poetry that stretched right back to the 1500s, and a great many of poetry's British names were included, like Shakespeare (from some sonnets), W.H. Auden, Yeats, Thomas Hardy, etc. Seamus Heaney is in there too, no doubt turning in his grave about that as he always refused to be included in British anthologies (firmly believing himself to be Irish, not British).

I'm not the world's greatest romantic (ironically, my husband, who looked at me perplexed when I presented what I thought was a terrifically romantic present for our paper anniversary, is the big romantic in our house), so I gravitated towards the more humorous poems in this collection. I do like W. H. Auden's Twelve Songs IX 'Stop all the clocks, cut off the telephone', but can't help feeling it's been terribly sullied by Four Weddings and a Funeral. Perhaps I shall start a campaign on change.org to stop great literature being used in comedy movies.

Here are a couple of poems that spoke to me in this anthology:

COAT (by Vicky Feaver)

Sometimes I have wanted
to throw you off
like a heavy coat.

Sometimes I have said
you would not let me
breathe or move.

But now that I am free
to choose light clothes
or none at all

I feel the cold
and all the time I think
how warm it used to be.

OH TELL ME THE TRUTH ABOUT LOVE (by W. H. Auden)

Some say love's a little boy,
And some say it's a bird,
Some say it makes the world go round,
And some say that's absurd,
And when I asked the man next door,
Who looked as if he knew,
His wife got very cross indeed,
And said it wouldn't do.

Does it look like a pair of pyjamas,
Or the ham in a temperance hotel?
Does its odour remind one of llamas,
Or has it a comforting smell?
Is it prickly to touch as a hedge is,
Or soft as eiderdown fluff?
Is it sharp or quite smooth at the edges?
O tell me the truth about love.

Our history books refer to it
In cryptic little notes,
It's quite a common topic on
The Transatlantic boats;
I've found the subject mentioned in
Accounts of suicides,
And even seen it scribbled on
The backs of railway guides.

Does it howl like a hungry Alsatian,
Or boom like a military band?
Could one give a first-rate imitation
On a saw or a Steinway Grand?
Is its singing at parties a riot?
Does it only like Classical stuff?
Will it stop when one wants to be quiet?
O tell me the truth about love.

I looked inside the summer-house;
It wasn't ever there;
I tried the Thames at Maidenhead,
And Brighton's bracing air,
I don't know what the blackbird sang,
Or what the tulip said;
But it wasn't in the chicken-run,
Or underneath the bed.

Can it pull extraordinary faces?
Is it usually sick on a swing?
Does it spend all its time at the races,
Or fiddling with pieces of string?
Has it views of its own about money?
Does it think Patriotism enough?
Are its stories vulgar but funny?
O tell me the truth about love.

When it comes, will it come without warning,
Just as I'm picking my nose?
Will it knock on my door in the morning,
Or tread in the bus on my toes?
Will it come like a change in the weather?
Will its greeting be courteous or rough?
Will it alter my life altogether?
O tell me the truth about love.

Overall I enjoyed this collection, but I think when it comes to poetry I'm more of a modernist.

3.5 stars (but that's more my provincial tastes).

32. All That Man Is by Davud Szalay

I've been in a reading funk lately, and this book hasn't helped; I seem to have been labouring over it for weeks.

The blurb on the back cover states it is a 'novel of nine men', but really it's nine independent stories about nine different men. The only common thread is that they are all indescribably bleak, full of disappointment with life on various scales.

I don't often think about the sex of the authors I read, but Szalay's narrative feels very masculine. Perhaps it's a Mars and Venus thing, but his characters felt emotionless and one-dimensional even when he was trying to convey emotion, and it was difficult to like any of them.

3 stars - well written, but I just didn't like this author's voice.

Merry Christmas to all who celebrate it!

>126 AlisonY: And to you Alison.

33. Fearless: Trinny Woodall by Trinny Woodall

Reading funk no more. The joy of Christmas holidays - permission to do nothing all day long.

This was a Christmas gift and I read it in a night (lots of pictures, not too heavy on the writing). I'm not particularly interested in what Trinny Woodall has to tell me about 'boosting my confidence and living my best life', but she is a tour de force in the world of beauty and fashion, and these shallow things interest me. Love her or loathe her, I'm also impressed by the beauty business she's built up and her journey in making it a success (not covered in this book, but I always keep a soft spot for her accordingly).

Although I know a fair bit about skincare already, I found the skincare regimes she suggests for different skin types useful. I dip in and out of being bothered about skin routines beyond cleansing and moisturising, and it will be useful to have this to refer back to when I'm in an interested phase (should Vitamin C come before moisturiser or after, etc. etc.).

I find Trinny's own sense of fashion slightly bizarre and don't believe it makes the most of her good looks, but I enjoyed her TV programmes with Susannah years ago, and do accept that she knows about colour and accessories, etc., so I'm prepared to put her own odd personal take on this to one side. Although it's an extremely quick read, I did get something out of the sections that point you towards your natural skin, hair and eye colour and hence whether you're cool, neutral, warm, etc. and the shades of colours that therefore work for you.

3 stars - it won't change the world, but was perfect Christmas night reading material.

34. The Art of Impossible: A Peak Performance Primer by Steven Kotler

I feel like I've been reading this book forever. The first few chapters interested me, particularly the section on trying to find common threads between the things that interest you, but after that it became very dense and reminded me too much of a number of greedy, self-absorbed / psycho business people I've come across over the years (see Elon Musk if you don't know any personally) and I started to zone out.

Yesterday I decided to finish it once and for all, and actually I got more out of it than expected. Certain points were interesting, like his thoughts around getting into (and stying in) a sense of 'flow', and the importance of reading to become a master at what you do, and how to read around your area of interest to get most out of it. But somehow with many books like this I keep coming back to the same point - much of it is all very well if you've got time on your hands, and I'm pretty time poor.

If you hold people like Musk and Jobs on some kind of business pedestal you'll be the type of person who gets a lot out of this book, but it's not what I'm looking for at this stage in my life.

3 stars - some interesting concepts but a heavy read at times.

35. The Artist's Way - A Spiritual Path to Creativity by Julia Cameron

I started this in early October, determined to stick to the weekly habits and exercises. The reality was mixed levels of success in terms of my tenacity and appreciation for Cameron's methods.

Her two cornerstones are daily morning pages and a weekly artist's date. I did the morning pages in the morning for exactly one week, but couldn't sustain getting up at 5:30am to do them (she doesn't suggest a time, but this was my only window before getting ready for work). I was just too tired and it didn't seem the right time for me to get the best out of the exercise. So for a few weeks I stuck to it religiously in the evenings, but to be quite honest I wasn't really sure what I was supposed to be getting out of it. Whatever 'it' was, I wasn't feeling it. It also coincided with a very sad period for me, and I kept finding myself writing about that, which after a time wasn't what I wanted to be immersing myself in just before bedtime.

Probably up to around week 7 or 8 of the course I did many (but not all) of the exercises set for the week, and did find it particularly interesting to let my mind wander remembering things I used to enjoy doing but have stopped doing for no good reason, and things of interest which I've never tried. At times, though, particularly in the second half of the book, there seemed to be a bit of repetition around the theme of these, and some of them felt a bit 'cutesy' and not something I felt I'd benefit from doing. It was at this point that I felt the book was diverging from what I'd hoped to get out of it. Possibly more my issue than the book's, I hoped this book would help point me towards my real passion in life, but increasingly I got the sense that Cameron assumes you already know what your artistic talent is and that the point of the book is to help with creative blocks. My creative block is I can't get off the starting blocks and don't know if I even have any creative talent, not that a teacher when I was 7 critiqued me and negatively changed the path of my life forever.

But, I will give Cameron credit where it's due. Whilst I was religiously doing the exercises in the first few weeks of the course, I DID find myself becoming more interested in creative pursuits. I'd assumed that writing was the creative pursuit I wanted to develop when starting the book, but surprisingly (to me) I became less interested in writing and more interested in other artistic pursuits. I did some watercolour painting for the first time in decades, and a strange new interest in line drawing has emerged. I never knew it was something I was either interested in appreciating in others' work or that it was something I'd be interested in doing. So there must be something to Cameron's methods, as I don't think I'd have explored any of that without reading the book. I've also very quickly got out of the habit of doing these things in the last few weeks since stopping the evening pages and doing the exercises, so perhaps the key benefit of this book is that it's simply a habit that reminds you to take creative time out for yourself.

I'm not entirely sure why it has such a cult following. It's interesting at first, but I felt it goes over old ground after a time. Perhaps if you are already a fledgling film director / screenwriter / novelist / artist it gives you a kick up the backside, but I don't think it's necessarily the best book for someone who's actively trying to find their creativity.

3.5 stars - interesting, but a bit disappointing given the hype.

>128 AlisonY: Have you looked at Color Me Beautiful? That's (your last paragraph, cool vs warm) pretty much the whole point of that system. I'm an Autumn, so warm strong colors; Winters predominate in fashion so there's a lot of clear cool colors used there (pure white, pure black, navy blue, pure red...). Summer is warm soft colors and Spring is cool pastels. It's been very helpful since I had it done as a teenager.

>131 jjmcgaffey: No, but I've always fancied doing it. According to Trinny I'm a neutral, which makes sense to me as I can wear certain warm and cold colours (but definitely not all).

36. The Art of Work by Jeff Goins

There's a bit of a theme to some of my recent reading. Maybe it's turning 50, perhaps it's losing my friend recently, or maybe it's just plain old job dissatisfaction, but I have a huge yearning to get more from my work and I'm increasingly intolerant of my failure to take steps to change with regards to my work life. My problem is I don't really know what the something else is, and having spent 30 years working in business operations I feel quite pigeon-holed and very much Jack of all trades, master of none.

My husband bought me a number of books off my Amazon wish list for Christmas, and when this one arrived belatedly yesterday I couldn't wait to get stuck into it. I appreciate that I'm not going to get an answer to my career dilemmas from any book, so bearing that in mind I read this with a relatively open mind (but still secretly hoping I'd have a Nirvana moment).

The author wasn't too far into his thirties when he wrote this book, which is a totally different life stage compared to someone in their fifties. I have an eye on retirement within the next decade which influences my work choices in all sorts of ways - a desire to keep feeding my pension pot, getting close to a very expensive stage of parenting as my eldest gets closer to going to university, a fear of starting at the bottom of the ladder again in a new career, having become used to a certain level of income after years of working towards that. However, I'll give Goins his due - I don't think that age gap was overly apparent in this book thanks to the research he's done and the wide spectrum of ages of people he interviewed for the book.

I liked the stages he suggests for finding your calling:

Awareness - be attuned to common threads that link big moments in your life.
Accidental apprenticeships - finding mentors in unlikely places and being open to things that cross your path that may not feel like obvious opportunities at the time.
Practice - being open to up-skilling and getting better at the thing that interests you.
Discovery - you don't necessarily have to take a big leap of faith. What about building small bridges that move you from A to B to C?
Pivoting - make failure your friend. Learn from mistakes. Figure out how to pivot.
Mastery - your new thing doesn't have to be the be all and end all of a new career; the rise of portfolio careers.
Legacy - how real job satisfaction comes from feeling good about what you are doing for the world, for other people.

These may all sound fairly obvious, but I did have a small-scale Nirvana moment of sorts when I read this book. I've been searching for a total 360 shift in career and instantly hitting mental roadblocks around how I could possibly make that work at this age. Perhaps the answer is smaller than that. Perhaps indeed it is about starting with building short bridges.

4.5 stars - motivating and thought-provoking.

Great review of The Art of Work, Alison. My local library system has several copies of it, so I may read it early this year.

>134 kidzdoc: I hope I'm not over-selling it, Darryl. It's just that it spoke to me at a point in life when I needed to hear the words.

37. Study for Obedience by Sarah Bernstein

I'm guessing this will be my last book of the year - everything else on my TBR pile is chunkier.

I enjoyed this short novel much more than I expected (although, at the same time, found it quite long enough - it's not a book I wanted to linger over for too much longer). What I enjoyed most about it is that it's completely open for interpretation thanks to the wholly unreliable narrator.

Our narrator has clearly not enjoyed a good life, thanklessly caring for her siblings from a young age and struggling to fit in at school and every job she's held down. When she moves to a remote northern town to care for her recently separated brother and his house, the small town becomes increasingly hostile towards her as an increasing number of bad omens coincide with her arrival.

A number of reviews I've subsequently read about this book view it as a depiction of extreme prejudice and of being cast as an outsider. Whilst the town is definitely against her, it came across to me as a fear rather than simply prejudicial loathing. Perhaps an initial prejudice is driven by her family's history of being outcasts in the area generations before, but as the novel develops and our narrator's mental health becomes increasingly questionable, a genuine terror of her seems to take over the town's folk.

The narrator feels it is her place to be small in life and that people's reactions to her are totally acceptable and understandable. It's not clear if she is on the spectrum, is traumatised from a lifetime of mental abuse or suffers from some other mental disorder, but I did not trust her narrative. She wants the reader to read as much or as little into the local happening's as she does, which is exactly what makes the book so interesting and intriguing. Is she a crushed soul who is simply treated appallingly, or is it a case of no smoke without fire? Personally, I felt increasingly the latter, and that the narrator was only telling us part of the story. There were too many odd actions, such as leaving the talisman in the middle of the night on people's doorsteps, and with her brother it seemed as if somehow she was somehow responsible for his rapidly ailing health. Her cloistering of him and excessive attention put me in mind of the creepy antagonist Annie Wilks in Stephen King's Misery. And what of the town's folk all being dressed in the same clothes at the end in the church? Did that happen? Did she imagine it?

I usually like my ends neatly sewn up, but it worked for me that this novel left me in disarray at the end. Whilst many might read it that the town's people won in the end, to my mind our narrator was the victor who ultimately came out on top as untouchable.

I can see how this novel will divide people, but I enjoyed the unnerving psychology behind the narration.

4 stars - a very clever piece of writing.

>136 AlisonY:. Good review, I've been intrigued by other discussions on this, but this gives me a better sense of what it's about.

>137 ELiz_M: It would make a great book club novel. So many different perspectives you could have on it, and it's probably a like it or loathe it book for a lot of people.

My new thread is up - all are most welcome: https://www.librarything.com/topic/356390

>136 AlisonY: I just checked this out from the library, but haven't read it yet, so I didn't read your review. May be my first book of 2024.

>136 AlisonY: I made the same interpretation, that the narrator was neither reliable nor as blameless as she represented herself to be. There is so much ambiguity in this book, that I think it requires people to construct their own scaffolding around it. The ending, I felt, really showed that she was not a benign character.

>136 AlisonY: I really liked your review. This was one of my favorite reads of 2023. Yes, you are spot ion about it being “unnerving”. But I’m interested in whether you saw anything there alluding to Jewish persecution by the townspeople?

Looks like we have some overlaps in interests this winter, Alison. I've been thinking about work and how to approach it more sustainably, and how to get beyond the cliché of "self-care." Last fall I read Work Won't Love You Back: How Devotion to Our Jobs Keeps Us Exploited, Exhausted, and Alone, which turned out to be more of a history of labor with a decidedly feminist POV than a more personal approach—which I liked, actually, even if there was nothing radically new in it for me. And last month I read Burnout: The Secret to Unlocking the Stress Cycle, which had some interesting strategies but also felt like it was aimed at a younger reader (vs. my 60-year-old cranky "yeah tell me another one" self).

I'm also interested in restarting my creative practice—I had just gotten into the groove of keeping an everyday sketchbook at the end of 2022 when things just went south and I fell out of that good rhythm. I've always been a little wary of the almost evangelical love for The Artist's Way. I subscribe to Wendy MacNaughton's Draw Together Grown-ups Table newsletter, and though I haven't been participating in the exercises all year I really like her approach and the community that's grown up around it. I'm going to do the Draw Together 30-Day Drawing Habit, which starts tomorrow—10 minutes a day, even I can do that. I hope. Anyway, I'm kind of stoked to get outside myself and just do it.

>140 labfs39: Look forward to hearing your thoughts on it, Lisa.

>141 RidgewayGirl: 100% agree.

>142 kjuliff: No, I didn't see any illusion to Jewish persecution, but then I wasn't looking for it. I can see why parallels might be drawn, though. I'm still leaning towards their reaction to her being more on the back of things she was doing that were perceived as perfectly normal in her head, but that's just my interpretation.

>143 lisapeet: I hope we both find what we're looking for in terms of better work pleasure in 2024, Lisa. Although I do feel over-worked often with my job, I am careful these days to keep my weekend and evenings as 'my' time unless there are really exceptional extenuating circumstances. But I do feel a significant pressure during my work hours to be dealing with very difficult problems on the back of decisions made further up the chain which I don't necessarily agree with. It all adds to a sense of work dissatisfaction, and a feeling of 'is this the best I can be doing with my working life?'

I hope your creative challenge goes well. I subscribed recently to a weekly challenge around improving your photography skills and also one on creative writing, but even during the holidays I've struggled to muster up the inclination to start either.

>144 AlisonY: There are many teferences indicating the MC’s family is Jewish.

… she and her brother belong to “an obscure though reviled people who had been dogged across borders and put into pits”. The country to which her brother has emigrated is where this persecution of their Jewish ancestors took place. The narrator’s encounters with modern-day antisemitism are captured acutely and absurdly - Miriam Balanescu Observer Review

There are references to Jewish dietary laws and shavat (Jewish Sabath), plus numerous other subtle hints.

>108 AlisonY: Embarrassed to say I'm just catching up on your November reads now. I was away in November in Australia, and then I came back to work and a couple of weeks later my daughter came home from Switzerland for a month over Christmas. I'm just starting to catch up now.

This New York book sounds fabulous! It's such a great walking city. I'll have to get a copy of it if I ever go back.

>147 Nickelini: The New York book is lovely, and really helped with the kind of spots I wanted to see.

Sounds like a busy but fun end to the year!