SusanJ's 75 Books Challenge - Thread 10

Hello, and welcome!

I'm Susan, a Kiwi living in London for the past 25 years, and for the past 23 weeks pretty much in my living room. During the working week I'm a lawyer so I love nerdy legal stuff, which crops up in more books than you might expect.

I read lots of NF, and I particularly like history and things from the 300s in the Dewey system.

While I used to read mostly from the library, I'm focusing on my Kindle at the moment because my library is only open for very limited browsing and the selection of books is woeful.

January

1. A Mercy by Toni Morrison
2. Imperial Twilight by Stephen Platt
3. Chances Are by Richard Russo
4. With Child by Andy Martin
5. Saint Peter's Fair by Ellis Peters
6. Persona Non Grata by Ruth Downie
7. The Prodigal Tongue by Lynne Murphy
8. Tyrant of the Mind by Priscilla Royal
9. In The Frame by Dick Francis
10. The Emperor Far Away by David Eimer
11. Daughters of Chivalry: The Forgotten Children of Edward I by Kelcey Wilson-Lee
12. The Blue by Nancy Bilyeau
13. The Bertrams by Anthony Trollope
14. Absolution by Murder by Peter Tremayne
15. China Road by Rob Gifford
16. The Three-Body Problem by Cixin Liu

February

17. Mudlarking by Laura Maiklem
18. The Grid by Nick Cook
19. Six Wicked Reasons by Jo Spain
20. China's Great Wall of Debt by Dinny McMahon
21. Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel
22. The Quest for Queen Mary by James Pope-Hennessy and Hugo Vickers
23. Foreign Deceit by Jeff Carson
24. Uncrowned Queen by Nicola Tallis
25. Djinn Patrol on the Purple Line by Deepa Anappara
26. Moon Called by Patricia Briggs
27. The City of Brass by S A Chakraborty
28. The Giver of Stars by Jojo Moyes
29. Bring Up The Bodies by Hilary Mantel
30. The Madness of Crowds by Douglas Murray
31. The Other Hand by Chris Cleave

March

32. Catch and Kill by Ronan Farrow
33. A Golden Age by Tahmima Anam
34. Sworn to Silence by Linda Castillo
35. The Self Delusion by Tom Oliver
36. Unfollow by Megan Phelps-Roper
37. Furious Hours by Casey Cep
38. Independence Square by A D Miller
39. Uncanny Valley by Anna Wiener
40. Red Hail by Jamie Killen

April

41. The Cold Cold Ground by Adrian McKinty
42. Crazy Little Thing Called Love by Mariah Ankenman
43. Belt and Road by Bruno Macaes
44. Three Hours by Rosamund Lupton
45. Because Internet by Gretchen McCulloch
46. The Secret Guests by B W Black
47. The Long Call by Ann Cleeves
48. The Mirror and the Light by Hilary Mantel

May

49. Such a Fun Age by Kiley Reid
50. Servant of Death by Sarah Hawkswood
51. The Kingdom of Copper by S A Chakraborty
52. The City of Bones by Cassandra Clare
53. Orphan X by Gregg Hurwitz
54. The Architect's Apprentice by Elif Shafak
55. A Theatre for Dreamers by Polly Samson
56. The Nowhere Man by Gregg Hurwitz

June

57. If I Never Met You by Mhairi McFarlane
58. Hellbent by Gregg Hurwitz
59. The Death of Mrs Westaway by Ruth Ware
60. Beach Read by Emily Henry
61. The Harvest by Sarah Clancy
62. Chasing the Dead by Tim Weaver
63. Lady in Waiting: My Extraordinary Life in the Shadow of the Crown by Anne Glenconner
64. A Treachery of Spies by Manda Scott
65. The Island of Sea Women by Lisa See
66. The Far Field by Madhur Vijay
67. Aue by Becky Manawatu
68. Zucked by Roger McNamee
69. The Lady's Guide to Celestial Mechanics by Olivia Waite
70. Maid by Stephanie Land

July

71. Blood Orange by Harriet Tyce
72. Jagua Nana by Cyprian Ekwensi
73. The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander
74. Killing Pablo by Mark Bowden
75. The Ratline: Love, Lies and Justice on the Trail of a Nazi Fugitive by Philippe Sands
76. The Last of the Moon Girls by Barbara Davis
77. In The Castle of My Skin by George Lamming
78. King Leopold's Ghost by Adam Hochschild
79. Deadiest Enemy: Our War Against Killer Germs by Michael T. Osterholm and Mark Olshaker
80. The Glossy Years by Nicholas Coleridge
81. Superior: The Return of Race Science by Angela Saini
82. Hidden Valley Road by Robert Kolker
83. The Girl With The Louding Voice by Abi Dare
84. The Son and Heir by Alexander Munninghoff
85. One Year of Ugly by Caroline MacKenzie

August

86. Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad
87. Don't Be Evil by Rana Foroohar
88. The Confessions of Frannie Langton by Sara Collins
89. The Black Prince by Michael Jones
90. Modern Ireland 1600 - 1972 by R F Foster
91. Ship of Destiny by Robin Hobb
92. Hamnet by Maggie O'Farrell
93. Clap When You Land by Elizabeth Acevedo
94. The Bromance Book Club by Lyssa Kay Adams
95. Circe by Madeline Miller
96. I Owe You One by Sophie Kinsella
97. Halsey Street by Naima Coster
98. Three Weddings and a Scandal by Wendy Holden
99. My Sister, The Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite
100. Don't Touch My Hair by Emma Dabiri
101. House of Trelawney by Hannah Rothschild
102. The Lantern Men by Elly Griffiths

September

103. Dragon Keeper by Robin Hobb
104. The Adventures of Maud West, Lady Detective by Susannah Stapleton
105. The Sphinx: The Life of Gladys Deacon, Duchess of Marlborough by Hugo Vickers
106. The Other Side of the Coin by Angela Kelly
107. Daisy Jones & The Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid
108. The Vanishing Half by Britt Bennett
109. Moby-Dick by Herman Melville
110. A Thousand Ships by Natalie Haynes
111. The Empire of Gold by S A Chakraborty

October

112. The Poppy War by R F Kuang
113. Passing by Nella Larsen
114. Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe
115. The Silk Roads by Peter Frankopan
116. Middlemarch by George Eliot
117. Dragon Haven by Robin Hobb

I have quite a few series on the go, so in this post I'm going to list them so that I don't forget where I'm up to. Reading in order is important to me :-)

Series I have started and still have squillions to go *happy sigh*

I'm going to list these in date order, because why not?

Steven Saylor's Gordianus the Finder (about 100 BC)

Roman Blood
Arms of Nemesis
Catilina's Riddle

Ruth Downie's Medicus (Britannia, 108)

Medicus
Terra Incognita
Persona Non Grata

Peter Tremayne's Sister Fidelma (Various places, 660s)

Absolution by Murder

Priscilla Royal's Eleanor, Prioress of Tyndal (East Anglia, 11th century)

Wine of Violence
Tyrant of the Mind

Ellis Peters' Cadfael (Shropshire, 1135 - 1145)

A Morbid Taste for Bones
One Corpse Too Many
Monk's Hood
Saint Peter's Fair

Sarah Hawkswood's Bradecote and Catchpoll (Worcestershire, 1143)

Servant of Death

Bernard Knight's Crowner John (Devon, 1190s)

The Sanctuary Seeker
The Poisoned Chalice
Crowner's Quest
The Awful Secret

Susanna Gregory's Matthew Bartholomew (Cambridge, 1348)

A Plague On Both Your Houses
An Unholy Alliance

Cassandra Clark's Abbess of Meaux (Yorkshire, 1380s)

Hangman Blind
The Red Velvet Turnshoe
The Law of Angels
A Parliament of Spies

Shona Maclean's Alexander Seaton (1620s)

The Redemption of Alexander Seaton

Philippa Gregory's Fairmile series

Tidelands

Katie Griffin's Kitty Peck (1880s)

Kitty Peck and the Music Hall Murders

Michael Pearce's Mamur Zapt (Egypt, 1908)

The Mamur Zapt and the Return of the Carpet

Barbara Cleverly's Joe Sandilands

The Last Kashmiri Rose

Patricia Wentworth's Miss Silver (England, 1920s/1930s)

Grey Mask
The Case is Closed

John D. MacDonald's Travis McGee

The Deep Blue Goodbye

Mal Sjowall's Martin Beck

Roseanna

John Sandford's Lucas Davenport

Rules of Prey

Michael Connelly's Harry Bosch

The Black Echo

John Harvey's Charlie Resnick

Lonely Hearts
Rough Treatment
Cutting Edge

Faye Kellerman's Peter Decker and Rina Lazarus

The Ritual Bath
Sacred and Profane

Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child's Agent Pendergast

Relic
Reliquary

Steve Berry's Cotton Malone

The Templar Legacy
The Alexandria Link

Scott Mariani's Ben Hope

The Alchemist's Secret

Harry Bingham's Fiona Griffiths

Talking to the Dead
Love Story, With Murders

Mari Hannah's Kate Daniels

The Murder Wall
Settled Blood

Karin Slaughter's Sara Linton

Blindsighted

Karin Slaughter's Will Trent

Triptych
Fractured

Paul Cleave's Christchurch Murders

The Cleaner

Patricia Briggs' Mercy Thompson

Moon Called

Stuart MacBride's Logan McRae

Cold Granite
Dying Light
Broken Skin
Flesh House
Blind Eye
Dark Blood

Annie Hauxwell's Catherine Berlin

In Her Blood
A Bitter Taste

Cara Hunter's DI Adam Fawley

Close to Home
In The Dark

Jane Casey's Maeve Kerrigan

The Burning
The Reckoning

Angela Marsons' DI Kim Stone

Silent Scream

Lesley Thomson's Stella Darnell

The Detective's Daughter

Tim Weaver's David Raker

Chasing the Dead

Gregg Hurwitz's Orphan X

Orphan X
The Nowhere Man
Hellbent

Manda Scott's Ines Picaut

Into the Fire

Susan Mallery's Mischief Bay

The Girls of Mischief Bay

Series I'm caught up with and waiting for the next one *tapping foot*

Lee Child's Jack Reacher, obvs
C J Box's Joe Pickett
Daniel Silva's Gabriel Allon
Elly Griffiths' Dr Ruth Galloway
Vaseem Khan's Baby Ganesh Agency
Abir Mukherjee's Sam Wyndham
Lynne Truss's Constable Twitten
Anthony Horowitz's Daniel Hawthorne
Attica Locke's Highway 59

Not really a series but I need to keep track of my Dick Francis finishes (Hi Julia!)

Proof
Nerve
Forfeit
Reflex
Rat Race
In The Frame

95. Circe by Madeline Miller

Miller's Song of Achilles was based on The Illiad and this one is based on an episode from The Odyssey, when Odysseus and his crew stop at Aiaia for a year. Circe has been exiled to Aiaia for turning Scylla from a nymph into a monster, and defends herself against sailors by turning them into pigs, but Odysseus seems different...

I wish I'd known more about the characters (and the whole structure of the Greek gods) before I read this. I wasn't sure how much was the old myths and how much was invented by Miller. But it was still a good read, if a bit long. If I have to pick a favourite, it will be Song of Achilles.

Googling the author, I saw this upcoming event:

"Maria Dahvana Headley’s Beowulf: A New Translation, published August 25 by MCD Books, is a feminist reworking of the one oldest surviving texts. The resulting story evolves our understanding of the traditional hero/monster binary, inviting us to reconsider epic poetry’s place in a more egalitarian world.

She is joined in conversation by Emily Wilson, translator of Homer’s The Odyssey, and Madeline Miller, author of Song of Achilles and Circe. Together, these three authors radically re-envision classic texts once saturated in toxic masculinity and sexism with fresh perspectives."

https://centerforfiction.org/event/radical-translations-maria-dahvana-headley-em...

Happy new thread, Susan.

>5 susanj67: Nice review of Circe which I must get to and read soon.

Happy new thread!
I'm the other way round, I think I prefered Circe although they were both very very good.
And thanks for the Beowulf link, that's going straight on the wishlist. I love Beowulf, it regularly sits on my desert island book pile.

>4 susanj67: How did you know my plans for the weekend? Spooky...

Happy new thread!

>5 susanj67: Sounds interesting. I can't remember *any* female characters in Beowulf. But it's a long time (school) since I went anywhere near it.

Happy new one!

>8 charl08: Grendel's mother is the only one I can recall, and she's the monster who attacks Beowulf after he's killed her son.

Happy new thread, Susan!

I read (well, listened) to Circe, and not knowing much, if any, of the background, I also wondered what was source material and what was Miller's imagination. The audio narration was lovely, though, and that carried me along well enough.

Like Helen, I think I preferred Circe to SoA, but I didn't really love either one...

Happy new thread, Susan. My mind boggles every time I see that list of series you're following!

>6 PaulCranswick: Thanks Paul :-)

>7 Helenliz: Helen, I've never read Beowulf but I might look for the new one.

>8 charl08: Charlotte, our weekend plans are the same!

>9 figsfromthistle: Thanks Anita!

>10 Helenliz: Helen, maybe there will be more in a translation by a woman. They could be in there, but hidden.

>11 katiekrug: Thanks Katie! Apparently Miller's next book is based on The Tempest, so that will be interesting.

>12 RebaRelishesReading: Reba, I'm neglecting my series at the moment. Must. Do. Better.

I'll be back in the office on 7 September. Yaaaay! I wasn't sure which "team" I was going to be in, so it might have been 14 September as only half of us are allowed in each week. I haven't left my flat for more than a couple of hours at a time since mid-March, so I can't wait to have somewhere else to go.

>13 susanj67: That is a lovely long break.

96. I Owe You One by Sophie Kinsella

I think this suffered by being read so soon after Circe, but nevertheless I persisted. It was OK, although it's very obvious that the author lives outside London, where shops like the one at the heart of this book evidently exist. They certainly don't in Acton. So in that respect the book is pretty quaint.

>14 PaulCranswick: Paul, not lovely for me! We would have been back at the beginning of July if I'd been in charge.

>13 susanj67: Enjoy the office trip. I've been in twice this month and it's been so lovely to have all those human interactions that don't happen in the same way via tele or video conference.

>17 Helenliz: Helen, it will just be so nice to be able to spend a day somewhere else.

Plus I'll have my two screens. And my printer (we're not allowed to print at home). And the boiling water tap. And the law library. I'll have to skip ahead in my wall calendar when I get there (I'll have missed five months). I can't even remember what sort of calendar it is this year. I plan to go in for all of the five days, and I'll be able to get groceries on the way home. I'm going to walk there, because I don't think I'll be able to get on a bus in the mornings with the passenger limits as they are at the moment, but I'll get the bus or tube home. The bus comes onto the Wharf pretty empty.

This evening I'm going to read a bit of The Sphinx which doesn't seem to have a touchstone (still) because I want to finish it by the end of the month. Today I bought Nevertheless, She Persisted, which is a book of "flash fiction". I don't know what that is, but it's only 72 pages with multiple authors, so very short short stories? But that's only my third purchase of the month!

Glad to hear you're going to be able to go back to the office. Does being on "teams" mean you'll only go in every other week? Actually that might be my favorite situation -- working in slippers with no commute 1/2 time and human interaction the other 1/2. Will you have to wear a mask in the office?

>19 RebaRelishesReading: Reba, yes, we'll be in the office one week (if we want to be) and at home the next. No-one is being required to go in unless it is essential for their job. We'll have to wear masks in the common areas, but not in our own offices where we can shut the door and breathe as much as we want :-) Most offices are shared by two people, so one will be in the "red" team and one in the "blue" team. I doubt I'll see my current roomie until next year some time. Meetings are banned unless essential, so I'll continue to run training sessions by video-conferencing, but at least some of them will now have the office as a background.

Today's book is Halsey Street, which I will start soon.

Happy new thread!

>20 susanj67: sounds like a safe plan and I suspect you're going to enjoy seeing people and being out -- so Hooray!!

>21 drneutron: Thanks Jim!

>22 RebaRelishesReading: Reba, the best thing will be the change of scenery. I don't think there will be much chatting to people, as we'll all have to wear masks if we do that. But we can always wave :-)



97. Halsey Street by Naima Coster

I thought this was a "light" read, so I added it to my week of lighter things. But it wasn't. All the main characters are Awful People, and I was very pleased to finish it.

I enjoyed Nevertheless She Persisted a lot more, even though it's only 72 pages long and I'm not going to count it as a whole book.



It's "flash fiction" - very short stories inspired by the famous phrase used to explain the silencing of Elizabeth Warren in the US Senate. I found it when I was looking up the author of the new Beowulf translation I mentioned earlier in this thread, and I liked her story in particular. But they were all good. The collection is published by Tor and the ebook is free on Amazon.

Guess where I've been?!

If you guessed Daunt Books on Cheapside to buy a copy of Moby Dick followed by lunch at McDonald's at Ludgate Circus you'd be right :-) And 9,816 steps according to the Fitbit.

I had a really nice time, even when I found myself at Liverpool Street googling "bookshops" and being surprised at a branch of Daunt Books just half a mile away. The same branch I've been to numerous times... (My only excuse was that I was thinking of Waterstones branches). Then I couldn't exactly remember how to get there, so I trusted my feet and they knew the way. It is scary how much physical and mental decline has set in since lockdown. I've got tomorrow and then two more weekends before I'm back in the office, so I'm going to try and walk every weekend day. And next weekend is a Bank Holiday on the Monday, so that will be an extra day. Tomorrow I might do my river loop walk, which crosses Tower Bridge and then crosses back again when I've had enough. Sometimes it's the Millennium Bridge, sometimes Blackfriars, and on occasion Westminster Bridge, but that's for a very fit day.

I bought the Penguin English Library edition of Moby Dick, which is this one:

https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/183672/moby-dick/9780141198958.html

(and, by the way, they seem to have a "5 for £25" offer on these in the shop on the website).

I'm getting tired of ebooks so I thought I'd try a hard copy again.

Today's book is Three Weddings and a Scandal, which I will start soon and hope to finish by bedtime. It looks pretty fluffy.

>24 susanj67: Beautiful edition, and as always I'm impressed by your self control going to Daunt and only coming out with the book you went in for!

Sorry you didn't like Halsey Street, Susan. I really loved it. I might be biased because Coster is Dominican.

>24 susanj67: Hooray for getting out of the house. Even though Moby Dick is not one of my favorite books.

I did love Circe but haven't read Song of Achilles yet. I'll have to check out her new one. I love The Tempest.

Oh, and happy new thread.

>24 susanj67: Ahh, I remember the River Loop Walk very fondly. Wish I could go with you today.

>24 susanj67: I wish that branch of Daunt books had been there when I worked in the City. It would have been very convenient.

Ack! Moby Dick - that horrible book from high school. All I remember from when I was forced to read it way back when is the opening line. I do feel a bit guilty about hating it for all these years and so I've got a copy on my kindle waiting for me to give it a second chance. Maybe I'll do that this coming winter.

Hope you like it, Susan.

I read Moby Dick a few years ago. At this point I have no idea why because it isn't the sort of book that normally appeals to me but for some reason I thought "I should". Turned out I liked it a lot better than I thought I would. I hope you enjoy it too.

>25 charl08: Charlotte, I partly didn't trust myself, but also there was a huge bottle of sanitiser at the door with "Please use before browsing" next to it, and I didn't want to touch too many things even though I used it.

>26 BLBera: Beth, I remembered that you liked it, and I hoped I would... Do try Song of Achilles!

>27 RebaRelishesReading: Reba, it would be lovely to walk it with you again. And I promise we would have gone somewhere better for lunch than McDonald's if you'd been here :-)

>28 SandDune: Rhian, it's such a lovely shop, and they have titles I've never seen or even heard of. It makes me realise just how strictly the algorithms control what we see with online shopping.

>29 Fourpawz2: Charlotte, I suspect I wouldn't have got on with it at school, but there are quite a few "How to read it" videos and a talk by Nathaniel Philbrick on *why* to read it, so I won't just be reading the book. Also I'm going to be reading it with a friend here (once he finishes something that he's currently reading and gets off Twitter). But if he bails on me I'm still going to read it. My mother's book nemesis at high school was The Pilgrim's Progress, which I sometimes think I should attempt just to see what's so terrible about it. But so far I haven't managed it...

I've read about 25% of today's book, so it's looking unlikely that I'll finish it today. I've been watching Netflix and playing Gardenscapes. Maybe a book a day isn't for me. The last six months have made me revise a lot of my assumptions about what I would do with unlimited time, because it turns out that I don't just read, even though I could. I was vaguely thinking about retiring at 55, but I've realised that I don't have enough in my life apart from work, and I just couldn't sit at home, even with the galleries and museums open again and places to visit from time to time. So I'm staying in the workforce in some capacity as long as it will have me. It's what a friend's mother would describe as "tame company" and that's not such a bad thing.

>30 RebaRelishesReading: Thanks Reba! My friend and I both think we "should" but I hope we get more out of it than that :-) After that we might try Middlemarch. He was tidying his bookshelves recently and found three copies of it, one from the university bookshop (1987). But he still hasn't quite got around to it...

Interesting thoughts on retirement, Susan. Don't forget, though, that extra time would allow you to develop new interests and activities! Not that I'm discouraging you from staying in the work force, of course, just saying that being forced to stay home during a pandemic may not be the best measure of what retirement could be like :)

TW and I told our financial advisor that we wanted to retire at 55. Hence getting a financial advisor/planner to help make it happen - one reason it's harder here to retire at that age is the cost of health insurance. I think 65 is the age of eligibility for Medicare, the government plan.

I had 3 weeks out between jobs a couple of years ago and it made me realise that I am no way ready to retire. Mind you, I do know what I'd do with it. Under the spare bed there are several boxes of family history research that Mum had done, so I've said I'll pick that up once I retire and can devote time to it. And I'm going to do a degree in the Arts or English Lit. Very early on I picked the sciences, I fancy going back and seeing what I missed.

But all of that is a good few years to go yet. And as both parents died before retirement age, maybe it won't be a consideration at all... who know what my heredity has in mind for me. >:-)

>31 susanj67: Covid permitting we plan to spend a month or so in the U.K. in fall 2021 and I would love to do that walk (or another) with you then :)

>24 susanj67: Jealous of the steps but far more envious of the bookshop. When I can travel the bookshops of London better get ready.

>33 katiekrug: Katie, that's an interesting point about the health insurance. It must cost a fortune to pay it yourselves. We can carry over our corporate policies if we have them at work and leave that job, but health insurance here isn't anywhere near as expensive as the US because it doesn't cover as many things (no chronic illnesses beyond diagnosis, for example, or terminal illness).

>34 Helenliz: Helen, the degree sounds like a great way to keep busy. I did the Introduction to Humanities course at the OU some years ago and it was really interesting, even though I decided not to continue with it.

>35 RebaRelishesReading: Reba, definitely! For 2021 I used to promise a trip on Crossrail, but sadly that's been put off until 2022 now (at the earliest).

>36 PaulCranswick: Paul, I fully expect national retail sales to climb by 1% when you're back in the bookshops!

I went out for a walk again this morning. There are *too many tourists*. Who are all these people flying everywhere in the middle of a global pandemic? Yeesh. London is doing really well (because so few people have gone back to their offices) and we'd like to keep it that way. But I did 12,000 steps, so yay me. I walked the whole way, instead of sneaking onto a bus at St Paul's to come home.

98. Three Weddings and a Scandal by Wendy Holden

I can't get an image to appear for this book, but in the US this is published as Laura Lake and the Hipster Weddings. The heroine, Laura, is a young woman living in France with her grandmother when she meets the editor of "Society", a glossy UK magazine, who offers her an internship. But once she arrives in London nothing goes to plan. This is a satire (mostly), with lots of over-the-top characters and situations, and reviews online suggest that a lot of people think it's too much. But it's a bit like Crazy Rich Asians in a way - everything is exaggerated. And, in this book, many of the characters are...sort of familiar. For example, there's a female singer called Hudson Grater, who has many many famous boyfriends, and writes songs about their breakups. She's even blonde. But she's short. And from Texas. Libel lawyers hard at work there :-) The author worked for Conde Nast, and "Society House", the magazine HQ, is pretty much Vogue House. And so on. It was a decent read, and I might get to the second and third in the series, but not in a hurry. Because there is still Too Much Stuff on my Kindle.

I've read six books in seven days, which isn't bad, particularly as two of them were not the "light" reads I had planned for the week. My next novel is going to be House of Trelawney as I think it's the only book in my August cover collage that I haven't read. I'm still reading The Sphinx as my NF choice, as I bought it this month so I want to finish it this month. But it's the 23rd and I've only acquired three things so far.

Oooohhh.... so much to get caught up on (like most of the last thread)! I continue to work from home as work has not provided any "return to the office" instructions, yet. I hear you on a change of scenery would be good, especially for "A background for video calls that doesn't require moving everything over to the One Good Angle in the living room!". I hear you on that! I am just thankful that we use MS Teams for virtual meetings and I have been making use of the background options. ;-)

Happy new thread!

Hope you're having a good Monday, Susan. Sun is shining here (winds of 40mph due tomorrow!)

>39 lkernagh: Hi Lori! Sorry you don't have an office return date yet. Mine is about the only thing keeping me sane. I think we can use MS Teams now too, although the only time I was invited to a Teams event the speaker couldn't share her screen, so it needs to be simpler to use!

>40 charl08: Hi Charlotte! It got better after I woke up at 9.17 (very poor) and saw an email suggesting a call at 9.30. Gaaargh! But it was OK in the end. I've heard about the storm on the news - I hope it's not as bad as they're saying where you are.

I got two emails from the elibrary earlier, saying that two holds were available. But they were books I'd never heard of and certainly hadn't reserved. I checked my account and there they were, with my five actually reserved items, even though the limit is five and that gave me seven. Most odd. I removed the holds, and felt strangely guilty even though I hadn't asked for them in the first place.

Weird about the Teams meeting and a speaker who couldn't share her screen. There is an icon to share on the main control menu. User error? I love Teams, infinitely more so than Zoom, LoopUp, or any other similar system we've had at work.

I'm glad for your sake you have a return date for work. TW's office isn't re-opening before January, but he's planning to continue to work mostly from home. My old office in Dallas is open at limited capacity, but apparently very few people are going in. Texas is a sh*t show (in so many ways...), so I don't blame them.

Teams has an interesting "feature", in that if you're in a meeting and someone calls you, it chucks you out of the meeting to take the call. Maybe that's a setting, but if so we've not yet found where to turn it off!

>42 katiekrug: Katie, possibly user error, but the speaker was one of our tech-knowledgeable people, so it doesn't look promising for the rest of us! A lot of office workers in London haven't gone back either (one of the reasons why we haven't seen a spike) but others are more than ready!

>43 Helenliz: Helen, I hope you can fix it soon! But then again, if you were in a dull meeting, you could text a friend to call you, and that would be the perfect excuse :-)

Exciting news: The Lantern Men is now available as a reserve for me. The reserve list didn't seem to be moving, and also I was #26 in the queue when I checked over the weekend, but it's there now. I need to read My Sister the Serial Killer and arrange another trip to the library. Or maybe I should arrange the trip, and that will encourage me to read...

>44 susanj67: Yay for a trip to the library (even if it is a sad version of its former self). I met someone who is a member of a private library in (I think?) Manchester* , and I was quite tempted until I saw the price. But maybe if I added up all the books I've bought in lock down I would need a stiff drink find that it makes more sense.

Thanks for posting the link to the JLF. It looks good. One of the things I have been pleased about instagram (after moaning about it all the time, sorry), was that there seem to be a lot of posters from there. I like seeing the different books and publishing houses.

*It might have been somewhere else. I feel it wasn't London, because I was already thinking about joining that one.

>45 charl08: Charlotte, a trip to the library won't be quite so sad with an Elly Griffiths at the end of it :-) I've just booked for Saturday at midday, which is their first slot. They've adapted the booking form from the bulk waste form, because it asks whether I would like a text reminder the day before my collection... I hope the JLF gets their programme up soon. They do seem to be cutting it a bit fine.

I think my evening will now include some serial killer reading, which at least makes a change from watching Netflix and wasting time.

>46 susanj67: I've discovered a friend who has bought all the Ruth Galloway books, so I now have book 5 on the sideboard and the promise of the rest.
squeee.

My evening will include some Heyer. As did most of my night; shocking stress insomnia. We're going to be holding and AGM by Zoom. Worried doesn't even begin to cover it. But Heyer did the trick and I got a couple of hours uninterrupted.

>47 Helenliz: Helen, promise me you won't read book 5 until you've read 1 - 4, because they *do* need to be read in order. Really. Other people agree with me - even some who occasionally disregard the Rules. And they know who they are.

I've just received an email from someone in IT, adding me to a group for the "community" for a new software product we are getting soon. It says that the group can be used for questions during my "countdown journey". Apparently that's a thing now. An actual journey, rather than just logging on one day and finding it all there. Worryingly, it's a group for "early adopters" but no-one has told me that I'm an early adopter. Maybe that was an earlier stage of the journey that I missed. I will have to go back through my emails, looking for a roadmap.

>48 susanj67: you have no fears there, I have dutifully read them in series order. Book 5 is next up. >:-)

>48 susanj67: I assume I am one of the people who should Know Who They Are, and I do. :-) And I do agree they should be read in order, and I'm relieved to see that Helen is doing just that. Oh, I wish I could re-read them all again for the first time!

>49 Helenliz: Helen, I'm very pleased to hear it :-)

>50 rosalita: Julia, if you consider yourself to be one of those people, well, then...I know what you mean about wishing you hadn't read them yet. I have series like that.

There is no roadmap in my emails. But I peeped at the Yammer community and I'm going to be switched over on 12/13 September. *No-one told me about this*. Yeesh. It sounds like a good system but most people will still be on the old one, meaning difficulties sharing documents until everyone has switched over.

Yammer?

>52 rosalita: Julia, it's one of those chit-chat groups for teams. I don't know where people find the time for it all. Now it turns out I was supposed to have training last week while I was on holiday, but there is a recording, so I can do it speeded up :-)

And a Microsoft product, I see on the Google machine. But if you have Teams, why do you need Yammer?

You know what, don't answer that. There are things I am just never going to understand, even though I consider myself pretty proficient with technology. But if I had a dollar for every app that's meant to boost collaboration among work groups, I'd have retired years ago.

I hope you enjoy The House of Trelawney, Susan, or I will lose all credibility.

I am enjoying One Year of Ugly, which you liked, right?

>54 rosalita: Julia, I have no idea why we have all these different things :-) And we're not allowed to use messaging apps/platforms for client-related work anyway, because there's no permanent record kept. What's wrong with good old-fashioned email, I often ask?

>55 BLBera: Beth, I did enjoy One Year of Ugly - less for the romance and more for the story about the family overall.

I read a third of My Sister, the Serial Killer last night and I like it :-)

I am technically one of those who has read a Galloway out of order, but I've got a good excuse. A friend gave me the 8th book, so I read it in order to see if I wanted to go further. I could tell right away that it was one of those series that needs to be read in order and as I did want to read on I started casting about for Book the First. Found the first 3 available for borrowing on my Kindle. So I'm not a full blown Rule Disregarder. I was forced into it. Against my will. That's my excuse and I'm sticking with it.

>57 Fourpawz2: Charlotte, your excuse passes muster and I am glad that you have gone back to the beginning of the series :-)



99. My Sister, The Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite

Korede is a diligent nurse, working at a private hospital in Lagos and cleaning up (meticulously) after her sister, Ayoola, murders various boyfriends. At the start of the book, the body count is 3 and Korede worries that Ayoola will never stop. But is Ayoola the only one with issues?

This was short, but I liked it. I'll definitely read the author's next book.

>57 Fourpawz2: Well, I forgive you, but the final ruling is the one from Her Nibs. ;-)

>57 Fourpawz2: oh, that was close, but I think you got away with it.

>58 susanj67:, >59 rosalita:, >60 Helenliz: - Phew!!! (Wipes dripping forehead with big handkerchief.)

I bet your younger self would have been amazed at the excitement you feel about going back to your workplace, Susan. Good on you for getting your steps in to get back in shape for the walk to work.

You might be surprised to find how busy you are in retirement. I know I am and I'm only one among a huge number of retirees who wonder how they ever had time to work full time. Of course, I started getting ready early taking courses for a second career after I left my day job as I thought I would have to be paying support to my ex for years after retirement.

>59 rosalita:, >60 Helenliz:, >61 Fourpawz2: I see you all, mocking me...:-)

>62 Familyhistorian: Meg, my younger self probably would be surprised, but I like my fancy office building :-) My father used to say that he didn't know where he'd found the time to work - he was super-busy in retirement, but he was a much more sociable person than I am.

The Hay Festival Queretaro takes place from 2 - 7 September and here's a link to the programme:
https://www.hayfestival.com/m-152-queretaro-2020.aspx?skinid=19&localesettin...

(If it displays in Spanish, there's an ENG button in the top right-hand corner to change it).

>64 charl08: Looks good!

Did you see that Cheltenham have published their programme too? Some are even "in person"!

https://www.cheltenhamfestivals.com/literature/whats-on/grid

>64 charl08: Thanks for the Cheltenham link, Charlotte. It's interesting that so many are going to be in person. Maybe we'll remember the summer of 2020 as the golden age of free book festivals :-)



100. Don't Touch My Hair by Emma Dabiri

This arrived at the elibrary unexpectedly so I had to bookhorn it in to August. It reads like it started life as an academic thesis, but it's been rewritten for a popular audience (although I don't think repeated "lol"s really work). The author is mixed race, with a white Irish mother and a Nigerian father, but she got has type 4c hair - i.e. not the "good hair" that Western (i.e. white) standards of beauty demand. The hair issue is the basis for the book as the author explains how Western standards of everything disadvantage black people. It's another "Black = Awesome, White = Evil" book.

White people, for example, don't consider "natural" African hair as acceptable. This is one of the many reasons why we're Evil. But then the author says elsewhere inthe book that respectable Yoruba women in Nigeria would never consider "natural" hair acceptable - it should always be braided or styled in some way. Ditto wigs - on the one hand black women wear wigs to conform to white standards of beauty, but elsewhere in the book the author says that wigs have a long history in Africa where people have worn them for centuries.

An alien reading the book would assume that white people never have to give a second of thought to their personal grooming - that they literally roll out of bed ready to face the day, and that all white teenagers are incredibly happy with the way they look, as opposed to the author, who says she spent her teens wishing she had straight hair and that this was the fault of white people. I can virtually guarantee that white girls with long straight hair spend their teenage years wishing that they too were different in some way (or many ways). It's called "being a teenage girl". The entire beauty industry is predicated on making everyone feel that they are lacking something, otherwise no-one would sell any products. It may be more difficult for black women living in majority-white countries, but most of the people in the world are not white. I do wonder why they spend so much time caring about what we think (or what they think we think).

101. House of Trelawney by Hannah Rothschild

This is a story about a family living in a Cornish castle which is slowly falling into disrepair. They have no hope of meeting the basic operating expenses, and no idea how to find the money, until the Viscount, chairman of a small bank, takes out a mortgage and invests the money in the sub-prime market. The book opens just before the financial crash in 2008, so we know how that's going to work out...It was a bit slow to get started, but it was OK in the end. It reminded me of longer, more glamorous novels about rich people and country estates, and made me want to reread Old Sins, which I happen to have on my Kindle. I think I'll add it to the e-pile for September.

I'd like to finish the Hugo Vickers book The Sphinx by the end of the month, as that was a Kindle purchase this month. I bought the first two in the Poppy War trilogy a week or so ago (book 3 is published in November), but not to read during August. I'm going to read book 1 next month, which is shaping up as a month of chunksters. My Moby Dick buddy-read starts on Tuesday (exciting!)

I think winter is here. Yesterday I spotted puffa coats and woolly hats at Canary Wharf (amazingly I wasn't wearing a puffa myself) and today there is a definite winter feeling in the air.

Yesterday I walked to the library to pick up The Lantern Men. As I have to register through a plastic screen, wearing a mask, last time I held up my work pass with my name on it. This time I added my mobile number, written in felt pen on an A5 piece of paper. "You're good," giggled the girl behind the screen. I had a quick look at the few books we can browse (without touching), but I just borrowed my reserve and left again, walking down to the Wharf for lunch and to go to the supermarket. I did just over 9,000 steps, which wasn't bad.

Despite my intention to go for a walk every weekend day, I haven't been out today. It's a bit windy and I am a big baby. I'll start The Lantern Men, I think - maybe I could one more finish before September.

102. The Lantern Men by Elly Griffiths

This is book 12 in the Dr Ruth Galloway series, and another good instalment in the larger story about Ruth and DCI Nelson. I tried not to read it too fast, but I'd pick it up for ten minutes and somehow I'd read 50 pages.

August wrap-up

Books read: 17 (I amaze myself)

Male authors: 3
Female authors: 14

Fiction: 13
Non-fiction: 4 (poor)

Books acquired: 5 (not bad)

The Sphinx: The Life of Gladys Deacon - Duchess of Marlborough by Hugo Vickers
Clap When You Land by Elizabeth Acevedo
Nevertheless, She Persisted ed Charlie Jane Anders
The Poppy War by R F Kuang
The Dragon Republic by R F Kuang

Books read of books acquired: 2.5

Amazon has The Other Side of the Coin as a Daily Deal in the UK today. It's by Angela Kelly, the Queen's Dresser, and I've seen quite a bit of press about it. It was written with the Queen's consent. And yes, I bought it :-)

My friend and I have started our Moby Dick buddy-read and it's going well so far. I'm five chapters in, and there is NO WAY I would have got on with this at High School. We're so lucky to have all the resources on the internet these days. We've watched talks, read interviews and found a website devoted to the book with all sort of useful things on it.

>71 susanj67: Hope the buddy read continues to go so well, Susan. Sounds like it's quite a project.

>72 charl08: Charlotte, it is quite a project but it's reading up quicker than I thought it would. I've read 12 chapters now (we're taking a month to read it, so I need to read 30-something chapters before Tuesday) and I'm trying to pace myself but I don't really want to put it down.

Today's awesome Kindle Daily Deal is The Eighth Life, which is £2.89. And, um, yes...

103. Dragon Keeper by Robin Hobb

This is the first book in the Rain Wilds quartet, and starts right after the events at the end of the Liveship Traders trilogy. The fans don't seem to like it very much, but I did. It introduces new characters (and revisits some old ones) and I'm intrigued to find out what will happen next. It ends pretty abruptly, so it's good that all four books are available immediately. I'm supposed to be reading one every month, but I might read book 2 later this month if I finish the other things I want to read.

>73 susanj67: That does seem pretty speedy. As ever I am tempted to say 'well, in that case, I'll add it to the TBR'. I will resist.

Hamnet is amazing. I had forgotten how much I like her writing.

>75 charl08: It help that the chapters are pretty short (there are 135 chapters and my edition is 666 pages). I tend to feel my heart sink when I'm faced with very long, worthy chapters, but with Moby Dick I can pick it up for ten minutes and read a chapter. Also there's always something happening, which helps :-)

Good luck with your Moby Dick read. I've never even attempted it.

>77 Familyhistorian: Thanks Meg! Twenty-six chapters now and still going strong. Mind you, the Pequod has only just left Nantucket. I'm not up to the detailed information about whaling yet, and I've heard that that's a bit of a challenge.

Today's burning question: Is the Times available or not? The news is running a story about Extinction Rebellion blocking the roads into the printing works in an attempt to stop the papers being sent to shops, but no-one will say whether any papers were in fact able to be sent. Even the Twitter won't say! Yeesh. I might put my face on, wear matching clothes and go out for nothing.

The answer to the question about the Times is: The main body of the paper *is* available, but none of the inserts (Review, Weekend or the magazine). And those are my favourite parts. This weekend is the "beginning of autumn" edition of all the papers, which will be full of new books, TV, exhibitions (well, maybe not so many exhibitions). Heartbreaking for all the people who would have been so thrilled to be featured. I bet Priti's trying to find out whether those water cannon Boris bought when he was Mayor are still available. Extinction Rebellion is nothing but a doomsday cult, and it should be proscribed under the terror legislation like every other group of freaking nutcases.

I did have to go to the Post Office for stamps, though, so I could post a cheque (a cheque! It's like 1974). As I had no success making myself heard through a mask yesterday at Bird & Waffle, this time I wrote what I wanted on a piece of paper and held it up at the counter. "One...book of...first class stamps please", read out the man, bemused. But I got exactly what I wanted, and neither of us had to speak (he chose to) until "thank you". I read an interesting article in maybe The Atlantic about how speaking produces a lot more droplets than just breathing or whispering, and that yelling through a mask (or having to repeat yourself all the time) is also a problem. We should all aim to use our inside voices if we have to use any voice at all.

>79 susanj67: I hate to tell you this Susan, but I am a member of my local Extinction Rebellion group. We’re generally very nice people. I certainly don’t consider myself a freaking nut case so I’m sorry that you do.

104. The Adventures of Maud West, Lady Detective: Secrets and Lies in the Golden Age of Crime by Susannah Stapleton

This is a really good read, about "Maud West" (or was she?) a "lady detective" in London in the early 1900s. The author's search for information about West is as much part of the story as Maud's life. I think people interested in genealogy would enjoy this, as there's a fair bit about research sources and the research process, but mostly it's an excellent social history book. I hope the author writes lots more.

Hi Susan - I just - finally - got The Lantern Men from my library. I hope it is worth the wait. I've seen pretty positive comments. So, that will be my next book.

>82 BLBera: Hi Beth! It *is* worth the wait. My only complaint was that it was so readable that I finished it very quickly and now I have to wait another year for the next one.

Back to the office today - hooray! There's hardly anyone here, and people are not necessarily following the arrows on the floor when it would mean a trip right round the floor to go three steps in the other direction. We have to wear masks outside our own offices, but otherwise we can take them off. The Wharf is still pretty quiet, so I might venture further than Marks & Spencer for lunch tomorrow.

>83 susanj67: Enjoy your office time.

Happy new thread, Susan! Amazing List!

Hope your day at the office went well! Does it feel odd to be there again and under a new set of rules?

>84 Helenliz: Thanks Helen. It was *so nice* to have a change of scenery for the day.

>85 Walter_Danley: Thanks Walter!

>86 RebaRelishesReading: Reba, it did feel a bit strange to be there. My notebook was open with "11 March 2020" written at the top of the page (my last day in the office). I had to turn my calendar over too, as I've missed five months. Usually I wait until after Christmas to get a half-price calendar, but this one (botanical drawings) I bought for full price at Foyle's last year - grrr! We now have a clear desk policy and we're supposed to go paperless (there was a card on our desks reminding us of the new paperless policy...). My desk is now clear but I have a way to go before I'm paperless (you can tell these rules aren't made by lawyers as we *love* paper. The more paper the better). So I mostly spent the day puttering around my office while I kept an eye on my email, and I was listening to a conference this afternoon for the 125th birthday of the Commercial Court. There were only a few people on my floor, but two new Young People came and introduced themselves and my secretary was also in. It's great to have my two screens again, and a keyboard with letters on all the keys :-) I walked there and back, which I intend to continue doing while the weather is still good and it's light enough in the evenings. Nearly 16,000 steps today - woo hoo!

105. The Sphinx: The Life of Gladys Deacon - Duchess of Marlborough by Hugo Vickers

This 2020 edition is an updated and rewritten version of the book published in 1979, and contains new information that the author learned in those 40 years. Gladys Deacon was a rich American, and became the second wife of the 9th Duke of Marlborough after he divorced Consuelo Vanderbilt. But Gladys and the Duke had been together for a lot longer than that. After they married, the relationship quickly broke down, and Gladys' reputation as an eccentric grew and grew. The story of how Vickers decided to write the book is fascinating. However, Gladys sounded like such a pain in the neck that I wondered how anyone, biographer or husband, could stick with her for long. Today she'd have her own reality show and be cancelled on Twitter roughly every week.

In one of those strange co-incidences that sometimes happens with seemingly unrelated books, there is a connection between this one and The Adventures of Maud West. My library ecopy of Maud was the text of the paperback version, and contained a note at the end about people who'd contacted the author after the hardback was published. The first person was...Hugo Vickers, who was finalising the text of his revised book. Gladys hired Maud West to follow the Duke around when she was trying to get evidence against him for a divorce, and Vickers had some of the correspondence and some photos. And Vickers, too, mentions Maud West (and Susannah Stapleton's book) in *this* book.

Unless you're *really* interested in the British aristocracy I think that this would be a bit of a challenge, but I'm still glad I read it. I'd like to read Vanderbilt's The Glitter and the Gold at some stage, even though it's apparently very pro-Consuelo. In her own book! Oh my :-)

Sounds like a good day back at the office. I would have a hard time going paperless because I'm always afraid the "system" will lose something important (or, more likely, the system would have it but I wouldn't be able to find it).

Congratulations on 16,000 steps! A year ago today I arrived in England for my "big walk". Yesterday I moved from my desk chair to my reading chair and back a few times :(

>81 susanj67: Ooh, yes I have The Adventures of Maud West on my shelves, Susan. Must dig it out. Will it tick the genealogical boxes, we shall see.

I had to laugh at you using a note to get stamps. Masks are hard to negotiate especially for those with soft voices.

Just an alert that I am going to have to read a series out of order. It is beyond my control. I was following the Viveca Sten group read and put the second book on hold at the library and, being proactive, put the third book on as well. I got the third book and held of reading it thinking I would be next in line for the second but it looks like another reader was a head of me. Now it isn't due back until Oct 24 and the third book which I have is due Sept 23.

Sorry to learn about the disruption for the Times but sounds like a successful first day back in the office!

>89 RebaRelishesReading: Reba, I think management is trying it because we've all done without paper for six months, so we've proved that we don't have to have it. And I did get rid of a lot on Monday...I can't believe it's only a year since you were here! It seems like a lot longer.

>90 Familyhistorian: Meg, I'll be interested to see what you think of the research in Maud West. I can see the problem with the Viveca Sten novels, but you have no control over when things come in.

>91 lkernagh: Lori, I never thought I'd be living in a country where people are protesting against freedom of speech. But then 2020 hasn't turned out like we expected it to in many ways.

Today I feel jet-lagged, which must be due to all the steps and waking up at a proper time. I'm having my first coffee in *six months*. True, it's from the coffee machine at the office, but coffee fans say that our machines are pretty good. I hope I'm not bouncing off the ceiling by the time I finish it. Already I seem to be typing faster than I was at the beginning of this post.

I read half of The Other Side of the Coin last night and, while the writing is pretty ploddy, there are some great anecdotes. Fans of The Queen will want to snap this up.

16,000 steps! Wow.

My office looked like a plant cemetary when I came back to it. Sadness. Hoping to restart the collection soon.

>92 susanj67: Yes, 2020 may be the longest year on record!!

>92 susanj67: I've pulled Maud West off the shelf. Sounds interesting especially the bit about "walk-on parts by Dr Crippen and Dorothy L. Sayers".

>93 charl08: Charlotte, I'm definitely flagging today! I think tomorrow will feature a long lie-in, and maybe a nap later in the day.

>94 RebaRelishesReading: Reba, so true!

>95 Familyhistorian: Meg, I hope you're enjoying it!



106. The Other Side of the Coin: The Queen, The Dresser and the Wardrobe by Angela Kelly

This is a lovely read - not for the writing, which would have benefited from a ghostwriter, but for all the anecdotes and the pictures, some of which are published for the first time. It was written with The Queen's permission, so everyone comes out of it pretty well, but it's a fascinating look at life in the palaces and on tour. I know now how many times I should curtsey to The Queen if I see her multiple times a day, for example. If you're a fan of The Queen, or of her outfits, or you want to learn more about how things are done at head-of-state level, you should definitely read this.

JLF London starts today and runs over the weekend. The programme is here: https://jlflitfest.org/london/schedule Even though it's "London", the times are Indian time. The first session is this afternoon at 3.30 British Summer Time and you can watch (or catch up) via their YouTube channel, which is here: https://www.youtube.com/c/JprLitFest/featured

>97 susanj67: Ooh, thanks Susan.

Did you see the Baillie Gifford Longlist is out?

>98 charl08: There are quite a few sessions today that look good! I did see the longlist, but nothing really appeals, which I almost feel ashamed to admit...

107. Daisy Jones & The Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid

Wow. This is FABULOUS. I thought I'd start it last night and suddenly I'd read 60% of it. I finished it this morning. It's the story of a Seventies rock band called Daisy Jones & The Six, and it's told in the form of a transcript for a documentary, so with bits of voiceover and then the various characters speaking. It's a really effective way of telling the story and I loved it. LOVED. Definitely read this one! I heard one of the BookTubers say that the audiobook is even better than reading the hard copy.

>100 susanj67: I can imagine that an audio, especially if you had a cast of actors, would be really good. I agree, a great book.

>101 charl08: I'm tempted to borrow it as an audio in a little while and see what it's like!

The Shadow King arrived at the elibrary yesterday, ahead of Redhead by the Side of the Road, which was supposed to be next. I suppose that means that someone either loved it and raced through it, or DNFd it. Eek :-)

I'm up to chapter 81 of Moby-Dick now, which is right on track for today. (We started on 1 September, which was a Tuesday, so our reading week runs from Tues - Mon). It's *such* an unusual read, with all the different styles of writing. And the hard words. My plan is to finish this read without doing too much additional investigating, and then read *about* it, and then reread it at some point. Nathaniel Philbrick has a book called Why Read Moby-Dick? which looks good, but if anyone has suggestions for an "Understanding Moby-Dick" type of book, hit me up! (as the Young People say).

>102 susanj67: sounds like you're enjoying it more than I did. I found the whaling passages rather difficult.
As for related books, I read In the Heart of the Sea by Nathaniel Philbrick, which is a non-fiction account of the ship and incident that inspired Moby Dick.

I'm really impressed with your reading of Moby Dick, Susan! Better you than me :)

I did enjoy the book Helen references - In the Heart of the Sea.

WhenI read Moby Dick a few years ago I pretty much just took it at face value. You're making me think I should read "about" it and at least think about it more -- if not reread it. Or not.

>103 Helenliz: Helen, I think some of the whaling parts would benefit from diagrams :-) I've read In The Heart of the Sea and loved it.

>104 katiekrug: Katie, it definitely helps doing it as a buddy-read. We're both determined to finish it :-)

>105 RebaRelishesReading: Reba, there seems to have been so much written about it that I'd like to understand more about what (everyone thinks) Melville was trying to do.

Well. The Mirror and the Light has not made it onto the Booker Shortlist. Unbelievable. And I see from a photo of the shortlisted books that The Shadow King looks pretty chunky, so I'd better get on with it.

>103 Helenliz: Oh dear me no! It was in more detail than I felt I wanted!

>107 Helenliz: Helen, I was thinking more of the ropes etc than the, um, dead whales. But point taken! (There is a graphic novel version of it though...)

>108 susanj67: Were it not in the middle of COVID I would suggest a writing-linked walking tour of Liverpool, which includes the club he claimed to be thrown out of (or at least, the site of it).

>109 charl08: Charlotte, that would be such fun! Darned virus. Let's put it on the longlist for the vaccinated future. Or possibly the "herd mentality" {sic} promised over the Atlantic.

Redhead by the Side of the Road just came in at the elibrary, but I deferred my place as I have The Shadow King and it's pretty long. I started it last night, read for ages and I was only at 21%. I like that new Overdrive feature. We could suspend holds for a variety of times, but we couldn't do anything once the books arrived. And, as they inevitably all arrive at once, in best hold tradition, that was a nuisance. My most-anticipated ebook hold is Men Who Hate Women, which is about four weeks away. It was added to the elibrary last week, which was amazingly quick given it's only just been published.

I also love the new feature where you can defer your hold and keep your place in line...

Hi Susan!

Enjoy your time back in the office, Susan.

Wishing you a lovely weekend, Susan.

>100 susanj67: I blame Susan... this came up on our local selling page for 50p, and after your rave review, I decided it was probably worth that. I now own a copy!

Hope all is well with you Susan. I'm not used to you going three days with no post :(

>112 katiekrug: Hi Katie! I just wish the elibrary would let me have more than five holds, particularly as some things are six months away from arriving with me.

>113 BLBera: Thanks Beth. I'm back in today for my second week, which may be my last week for a while, the way things are going here. The Mayor of London wants to return to everyone WFH, but fortunately he has no power to order it. However, the government is also worried. The numbers are shooting up in other parts of the country and London is also increasing, although not as much.

>114 PaulCranswick: Thanks Paul.

>115 Helenliz: Helen, you'll thank me after you've read it!

>116 RebaRelishesReading: Thanks Reba :-) I am mostly just deeply fed-up. But at least today I have a change of scenery, and I can finish the notes for a presentation I'm giving next week, print them out and then I'll have a hard copy document to use instead of having to have my Chromebook open at the same time as my work laptop. Sharing screens on calls is all very well, but I can't display the "notes" sections of my PowerPoint slides if I'm sharing my screen and I can't have a Word document open on my second screen with speaking points because at home I don't have a second screen. Not being able to print at home is a real nuisance.



108. The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett

This is all over BookTube, and appeared as a Kindle Daily Deal earlier this month, so I thought I'd see if the hype was worth it. Ehhh, not really. The premise was interesting - the main characters are "black" twins from a small black town in Louisiana where everyone is light-skinned, meaning that one of them decided to "pass" for white, and disappeared into the white world while the other one married a very dark-skinned man and had a "blue-black" daughter. (These are the book's descriptions, not mine). It was OK, but I don't think it will stick with me. There was also an irrelevant sub-plot which seemed like it had been shoehorned in to earn a couple of points from the Kingdom of Woke, but what would I know, being an old lady.

Next up is A Thousand Ships, which has arrived from the elibrary. I'm also reading The Poppy War, but not as fast as I thought I might. I spent much of the weekend watching TV, and I've now finished Greenleaf, and the first seasons of Good Girls and Selling Sunset (!!! OMG).

The trainee next door has just arrived, and waved at me cheerily as he passed. Such a nice young man. He came in last week to introduce himself. His mother should be proud of him.

Hope you like A Thousand Ships Susan. I thought it was well done.

I have asked for some new kit after struggling a bit with the tech at home - hoping that it comes through.

I snort-laughed at the title of this review at the weekend: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2020/sep/19/halle-butler-i-didnt-understand-ho...

Hope you enjoy A Thousand Ships.

Glad being in the office is working for you, even if not full time. I've found going in for 1 day a week makes a whole load of difference to my mood over being at home all the time.

I've been set up to work from time before this hit, so I've had screens and printer set up. I can't imagine trying to work off just a laptop for a sustained period of time.

So glad you're back Susan but sorry to hear you're fed up. Hope you find a great book to disappear into from time to time. That might help.

>118 charl08: Charlotte, I also hope I do :-) Fingers crossed for your new tech for work!

>120 Helenliz: Helen, yes, it is good to be in the office as it's somewhere different to be and I am more efficient with two screens (and, I like to think, the vending machine). I have a 27-inch monitor at home and technically I could use my laptop as a second screen for note purposes but I've never worked out how to do it and I don't want to change my settings and not be able to remember what I did and change them back again. I usually send a script to my Chromebook and have that open, but I've just printed my slides in "Notes pages" view with points underneath each slide, which is excellent. If anyone wants to know about third-country data transfers after Schrems II, I'm your gal.

There's a Cobra meeting tomorrow after which I fear another lockdown, so I'm back to feeling gloomy. Also, as I'm supposed to be in the office all week, there is little at home to eat. I hope we don't go back to queuing at the supermarket. Surely we're beyond that. I am so furious at all the people saying "Well, the government's cr*p, so I'll just do as I please." Most of the spike in cases in Bolton was caused by some idiot coming back from his foreign holiday which he HAD to have because apparently that's some sort of basic human right now, like clean water and Netflix, and instead of staying at home for 14 days, as he was supposed to, he went on a pub crawl instead. What is WRONG WITH PEOPLE?!! If the government is cr*p (which it is) that's surely all the more reason to be very careful. Testing is a mess. Track and trace isn't really working. So we need to stop unnecessarily putting ourselves in a position where we *need* testing/tracing etc. Because it just doesn't work. And that's embarrassing, but there we have it. Maybe we need a list of things that we *can* do, like driving an ambulance, or working in a supermarket, and things that we should *give up doing right now*, like going to the pub, holding raves or assembling for QAnon protests. That kind of thing. Although if all the QAnoners caught it and died, that *would* increase the national average IQ by quite a bit.

>121 RebaRelishesReading: Hi Reba! I'm mostly disappearing into silly TV, which is also working :-)

>123 susanj67: Ah yes, that does help, doesn't it?

>124 RebaRelishesReading: Reba, it does. But last night I read for a couple of hours and finished...



109. Moby-Dick by Herman Melville

My friend and I finished this a little ahead of schedule, and we both loved the experience of reading it. It's a very strange book, and I don't know how or why they teach it in High School in the US, but I'm so glad to have read it at last, and to understand all the references to it. Amazingly, I'd never heard how it ended, so that was a surprise :-) This is not a book that I now wish I'd read years ago - years ago I wouldn't have had the patience for it. It would be sitting, unfinished, on the bookshelf, making me wish I was cleverer. I read an article which said that it's similar in style to Tristram Shandy and Don Quixote, and I do have Tristram Shandy in my collection, with a bookmark 40 chapters in. Maybe I'll give it another try, with some help from the internet.

ETA: If anyone likes my pretty cover, this is the Penguin English Library edition (paperback) which seems to be widely available in the UK. I know it's free from the internet, but I really enjoyed having a proper book for this one.

Well done!
I finished glad I'd read it, but knowing I'd never read it again. I've read both Tristram Shandy & Don Quixote, and I feel similarly about both of them as well.

>126 Helenliz: Thanks Helen! I think I might read it again, once I've read a bit more about it. Well done on Tristram Shandy - I found it very puzzling. But I think I went into it expecting something different from what it was.

I'm collecting up all the things I want to take home today if the office closes again, which is looking possible. Michael Gove says that everyone should WFH again if they can, which suggests that the PM is going to say the same thing at 12.30 in the Commons. At least I think it's 12.30. The Telegraph says that it is. The Parliament website is silent on the issue. My take-home things include my purple gel-ink pens, which I bought at Staples on 5th Avenue in 2012, and which are still going strong (refilled numerous times). And some hand cream and glasses cleaner. I really want to take my Christmas tree and all the decorations, but I don't think I'll be able to carry it out. Well, not decorated, anyway :-) Currently it's sitting behind a set of drawers, covered in a rubbish bag. I leave it decorated and just pull it out for 1 December every year.

>125 susanj67: I read this in grade 8 or so and can barely remember it. Glad you had fun reading it.

>125 susanj67: That is a lovely cover, Susan!
I went to the library at lunchtime and asked whether there would be any changes - they didn't know. Hoping they stay open, I missed them.

Off to look at a flat in Liverpool at the end of the week. Very exciting!

>128 figsfromthistle: Hi Anita :-) Yes, I'm glad I've finally tackled it.

>129 charl08: Charlotte, that is exciting about the flat! I hope it goes well.

Well, as expected, the PM has said to WFH again so I'm waiting for the email from management. I wonder if they're going to wait until 5.28 to get a whole day out of us...I've taken the decorations off my tree and found a large bag to put it in, so I will take it home after all. The decorations are also coming, with other bits and pieces so I will have to take the tube home, but it only takes 1 minute + 2 minutes on my two trains, fortunately. I feel very sad and hopeless.

But, in book news, my friend has agreed to Middlemarch for next month :-) I think I'll get the Penguin edition to match Moby-Dick. I do have the recent one from Reclaim Her Name, but only on my phone and I don't really want to read 944 pages on my phone...

I'm sorry you're having to go back to WFH, Susan. I am glad, however, that you'll have your Christmas tree with you. I always love it when you share pics of the ornaments :)

"sad and hopeless" -- oh my, I'm so sorry! If you do have to WFH perhaps it won't last too long this time. Anyway I hope it won't.

We may go back on stricter regulations today too (no inside restaurant seating, maybe no barbers/hair dressers) thanks to students at San Diego State University who needed to party when they got to school. Other than that hot spot we're doing pretty well but the governor says they're part of our community so we have to count them (he's right actually imho since there are a lot of commuters at SDSU). (I guess this is offered in the "misery loves company" tradition).

>131 katiekrug: Katie, I'm looking forward to decorating the tree again :-) I hope that John Lewis does another felt animal this year that matches my theme, because they haven't had one since the, um, goat.

ETA: They have this fox! https://www.johnlewis.com/john-lewis-partners-bloomsbury-fox-in-teal-scarf-tree-...

Or another reindeer: https://www.johnlewis.com/john-lewis-partners-pop-art-felt-reindeer-tree-decorat...

But the zebra is also calling to me: https://www.johnlewis.com/john-lewis-partners-post-impressionism-zebra-tree-deco... I don't know how he fits with my "Woodland Christmas" theme, but look how handsome.

>132 RebaRelishesReading: Reba, sorry to hear that you're also having more restrictions. We still haven't heard anything from management and I asked one of my pals who's a partner what was going on in the partner comms and he said nothing was. But a friend who's an employment lawyer said that they might be waiting to see whether WFH is going to be made law, or whether employers might have some leeway. A lot of the other restrictions are going to have penalties, but the WFH seems to be just a "please" at this stage. That said, the firm sent us home last time before the lockdown was announced and WFH became a "must". The PM is addressing the country tonight at 8. The Great British Bake-Off is being delayed until he's finished, which is not proving popular.

>133 susanj67: I'm torn between the reindeer and the fox. Why didnt the zebra get a scarf? #notfair

No news here on the wfh either.

#TeamFox

Raaaa! Go #TeamFox

Ok, so I got a bit lost in the John Lewis decorations. I didn't know they did such grand themes. Not convinced by the "renaissance" ones (is it me or is the turtle a nod to Pratchett?), but I wondered if the goat/dog might want company of the pop art variety?
https://www.johnlewis.com/john-lewis-partners-pop-art-balloon-dog-bauble-gold/p4...

No?

>134 charl08:, >135 katiekrug:, >136 Helenliz: Hmmm, I'm sensing that the fox might be a popular choice...

I've just received an email from work and *we can continue to go in*!!! They seem to realise that some of us were teetering on the edge of insanity last time, and there's hardly anyone there anyway.

So relieved! I'll continue to walk most of the time, at least while the weather stays fine. I'm wondering about a new, lightweight puffa - maybe this one:

https://www.uniqlo.com/uk/en/product/women-ultra-light-down-hooded-coat-429459.h...

Black would be a safer choice, but I like this purple one, although it doesn't look purple to me. It's more of a plum. I wish online clothes retailers would use pantone colour references, which would save a lot of wondering.

I love the puffa! And purple/plum is a lovely color.

I wish online clothes retailers would use pantone colour references, which would save a lot of wondering.

YES!!!!

I've recently bought my winter gloves for this year, they're amythyst. So now I'm trying to find a scarf to match. I'm going to have to go actual shopping, as it's impossible to tell from a screen.
OR I just order umpteen scarves and send all but one back...

>139 katiekrug: Thanks Katie! I'm always trying to move away from black, usually without much success...

>140 Helenliz: Helen, yes, unless you get a matching set it's impossible Maybe more firms will start doing it now that more people are shopping online Presumably they must use something like that when they're placing orders with overseas manufacturers.

Well, here is one vote for the reindeer although I think the fox is cute too.

I enjoy vicariously moving into fall by thinking about winter coats. Our temps are in the low 20's now and expected to be pushing 30 in a couple of days. "Normally" I would be at Chautauqua enjoying some crisp weather and changing leaves but ....

Hi Susan, you know it is fall when the shops start to advertise their Christmas ornaments. I like all three ornaments you posted links to.

Sorry to learn about the uptick in covid numbers but at least you can continue to work from the office. It sounds like you office has a really good covid plan in place so why cause further disruptions.

>137 charl08: Charlotte, sorry I missed you up there. The "balloon" animals are very cute :-) And JL does seem to have (a) more and (b) fancier themes this year.

>142 RebaRelishesReading: Reba, your vote is duly noted. I'm going to have to buy some votes for the zebra, I think...

>143 lkernagh: Lori, the office was even quieter today, so I wonder whether they might decide it's not worth staying open. Some big London firms have sent everyone home again and others have paused bringing them back. The experts seem to disagree on what's really needed, but in my building at least there is plenty of room for everyone. We have offices so we're not hot-desking or open plan. The only people I speak to are standing in my doorway, 20 feet away from me, wearing masks.

I've just started A Thousand Ships, which looks very promising.

A couple of our offices are open (Dallas, Houston, Dubai, KL) with limits on numbers and other precautions. There has been some debate about the cost of keeping them open when so few people are going in (it's entirely voluntary), but we're a poor (and getting poorer!) non-profit, not a large international law firm :)

>133 susanj67: The fox and reindeer are fine but the zebra is clearly the cutest, Susan. So I guess it comes down to whether you can fan-wank him into your Woodland Creatures theme?

Spitting out my coffee: fan-wank, Julia?

>144 susanj67: And no worries. If they weren't £6 each I'd buy a whole pop-art decorated tree and wait to see how long until someone in my family asked whether my medication needed reviewing...

>144 susanj67: Glad you'll still be able to go into the office. We skated by too and restaurants and hair salons can continue to offer services inside, at least for another two weeks. That gets me to my next hair appointment :)

>147 charl08: I'm hoping that was a typo... Either that or we're about to learn a new word (and never ever use it!)

No typo, I'm afraid! (Avert your eyes, Helen)

From the TV Tropes website: Fan Wank refers to a fan's personal theory about a work, designed to resolve inconsistencies or help make sense of the work, but tending only to reveal that the fan is putting way too much thought into the exercise. It's the other reason you should use protection when reading fanfic.
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/Fanwank

I do realize that "wank" has a somewhat different connotation over there ... :-)

>151 rosalita: Well at least I've learnt something today. And will file that in the folder "not to be used". I'm sure you understand why... 0:-)

>145 katiekrug: Katie, it's a difficult balancing exercise, but if we have to learn to live with Covid (or whatever escapes from China next) then we need to keep trying, I think. It could be that too many things happened all at once here - the "Eat Out To Help Out" scheme (where the government subsidized restaurant meals - the scientists say they should have just given the money straight to the restaurants), the schools going back, University students moving around the country and so on. It's hard to know whether one specific thing is causing the spike or whether it's a bit of everything.

>146 rosalita:, >147 charl08:, >150 Helenliz:, >151 rosalita:, >152 Helenliz: So...many...questions... As the Young People say, I can't even. Hi Julia!

>148 charl08: Charlotte, if the tree was in the office, I think I'd sneak a balloon dog onto it to see if anyone noticed :-) I think I'll get one anyway, in case I ever have a tree in the office again. I don't understand the Japanese theme, as they don't even have Christmas in Japan (apart from in a shopping sense).

>149 RebaRelishesReading: Reba, we've only been open since 7 Sept but I haven't heard of any cases being reported among people in my "team" (i.e. week). I expect them to change the policy if someone reports they've caught it and they've been in the office. The "team" approach is supposed to allow for a full clean every weekend, so that even if someone in one team gets it the people in the other week can continue to come in. But it's only the common areas that are really an issue - no-one's sitting at my desk and using my things when I'm not here. And my roomie hasn't been back yet - I left some post on his desk on 7 Sept and it's sitting in the same place. They've arranged it so that each person in a two-person office is in on different weeks.

My new copy of Middlemarch should arrive today. It's being delivered to the Amazon lockers in the mall downstairs. Last time I had something delivered to home they said they couldn't deliver it even though they've been delivering stuff for 22 years without a problem, so I had to add an instruction to leave it with the caretaker (which they have also done for 22 years...) and it arrived the next day. Then they sent an email saying that the order "would have benefited from delivery instructions". Maybe they had a different driver or something - anyway, I know they're busy and I don't want to cause extra trips so I thought I'd try the locker. It's quite exciting :-) (In the English sense of "quite", meaning "fairly").

I went to the library for my lunch hour, as a reserve was waiting. And in fact *two* were waiting, and the second one was Empire of Gold, all brand new and gorgeous! I think I see how the weekend is going to pan out. I also got Jade City, which one of the BookTubers says is the best thing she's ever read. Hmm, the touchstones don't seem to be working. I can get up to Chrisp Street and back in 50 minutes assuming that I don't stop to browse, so it was nearly an hour of steps and also too many stairs.

I've also downloaded the new NHS tracking app, which launched for the whole country today, and declined to get involved in office drama even though both sides of the drama will expect me to take their side. I need a sign for my office door which reads The Only Side I'm On Is My Own.

Hi Susan - Stay safe. Good that you get to go to the office. It is nice to get out of the house, even if it is to an office.

I've been wondering about the latest Bennett; I was underwhelmed by her first one and reluctant to pick up the new one. I think I'll leave it for now.

Good job finishing Moby Dick; I am not a fan, but am happy you enjoyed it.

I like the fox.

>156 BLBera: Hi Beth! Yes, I am all for a change of scenery (with virtually no-one there :-) ) London is apparently on a lockdown watchlist, though. Number are rising here and are thought to be higher than the official figures because a lot of testing capacity was moved up North where cases are much higher. I want to read Nella Last's Passing, which I have on my Kindle, as I think it will be better than the Bennett.

I need to finish Empire of Gold by Thursday, as my Middlemarch buddy-read starts then, so I've set myself a page count for the five days till then and I've read today's pages. And also a bit of A Thousand Ships, which isn't really grabbing me (I've read 41%). There are too many characters in it, and, while there is a cast list at the beginning, I have the ebook...Maybe I should spend the evening on it and just finish it. It will probably be easier to keep track of everyone if I stop taking breaks.

>154 susanj67: Did you see there is a new penguin classic edition of Passing? I have a copy already, but it is very pretty.

>158 charl08: Charlotte, I can see a new one from the Penguin English Library, out next month, which would match my Moby Dick and Middlemarch covers! But I have an ebook with Quicksand and Passing in it, so I will stick to that.

I'm now at 81% of A Thousand Ships, which I will finish tonight. I think it helps reading it all at once. It's easier to follow the various timelines. And I am enjoying Penelope's letters to Odysseus :-)

Hi Susan - I've picked up A Thousand Ships and when I saw the list of characters in the front, I put it down again. I would like to read it yet this year, though.

>159 susanj67:, >160 BLBera:.
Oh. >:-(
I listened to it, so missed out of the cast of characters, meaning it all came as a surprise how many voices there were. And I loved it, every minute of it. I did an awful lot of ironing to it.

I wonder if I'd have felt the same having read it instead.

>160 BLBera: Beth, if you have (or can get) the hard copy, I think it would be easier to keep track of everyone.

>161 Helenliz: Helen, there were aspects I enjoyed, but for me there were just too many people.



110. A Thousand Ships by Natalie Haynes

This is the story of the aftermath of the Trojan war, told from the point of view of a number of women affected by it. I really liked that - in the old epics the stories are mostly all about the men because they went to war and Did Stuff but, as the author notes in an afterword, Achilles spends a large chunk of The Iliad sulking rather than going to war at all. There are female-related episodes referred to in passing in these stories, but the author makes them the focus of this book. I loved Calliope, the muse, Cassandra and her doomful prophecies that no-one listened to and Penelope, whose story was told via letters written to Odysseus. But there are a lot of people in it. I think that in order to get the most of out it, you need:

1. To read it pretty much all at once (which I didn't);
2. To know the plots of The Iliad and The Odyssey (which I do); and
3. To know a fair amount about the Greek gods and goddesses (which I don't really).

I definitely want to read the author's other books, though!

>162 susanj67: I agree re the context - I think it helped me that I had recently read several others which had jumped off from a similar point - Pat Barker, Margaret Atwood, Madeline Miller and the fourth one which my decaffeinated brain can't reach for yet.

Are you joining the Pirate hunt?

Hi Susan, I saw that registration for Jaipur 2021 is open and thought of you. Although the delegate tickets mention food, so I'm guessing it's not online?

https://jaipurliteraturefestival.org/speaker/aanchal-malhotra-3012

>163 charl08: Charlotte, I think I preferred the Pat Barker one, out of all of them, although I did also like Atwood's Penelope and the very sketchy Odysseus.

>164 charl08: Thanks for that! (They really need a more respectable website, without all those ads in the middle of the page). I wonder whether they're hoping it will be in person but preparing for the worst.

I have to recommend this *most excellent talk* from the Hay Festival with Laura Bates, whose book Men Who Hate Women has just been published here. It's one of the best talks I've heard.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fuAfYjQBUMQ&t=0s

And speaking of the Hay Festival, their book of the month for next month is Pandora's Jar: Women in the Greek Myths, which is a new one by Natalie Haynes, published today.

111. The Empire of Gold by S A Chakraborty

This is the final volume in the Daevabad trilogy, which is set mostly in a magical world populated by djinns and others, including lots of fantastical animals. I read the first book in May and the second in July. The world-building is amazing, and I thought the trilogy was very well done. But it's really more of a c.2000-page story than three 700-page books, I think. Book 2 ended on a real cliffhanger and I struggled to remember how it had all come about, even three months after finishing it. So if anyone wants to try the series, I'd recommend getting about half-way through book 1 and then lining up the other two to read straight afterwards if you like book 1. The first one was the author's very first published book, so later series may do better in making each book a bit more standalone (like Robin Hobb, for example). But, that aside, it's a stunning achievement.

Today is the first day of my Middlemarch buddy-read, but I'm going to finish The Poppy War this evening, as I'm very close to the end.

112. The Poppy War by R F Kuang

This is another trilogy that's all over BookTube, and Amazon had the first two for a very decent price. (The third one is published next month). It's a fantasy series set in China, but based on the second Sino-Japanese war. The BookTubers are all appalled by chapter 21, which is appalling, but it's essentially about the Nanjing Massacre in 1937, and it's a tiny bit worrying that they seem to have no idea that these things actually happened (and still do). The book is well done, if a bit heavy on the shamanism and wandering around the pantheon of gods, but I kept thinking that I'd really like to read some non-fiction about that time. Still, I'll continue with The Dragon Republic, because I do want to find out what happens to Rin, the main character.

September wrap-up

Books read: 9 (But chunksters. Including Moby-Dick)

Male authors: 2
Female authors: 7

Fiction: 6
Non-fiction: 3

Books acquired: 5

The Other Side of the Coin
The Eighth Life
The Order
The Vanishing Half
Middlemarch

Books read of books acquired: 2

*****

No books acquired so far this month. *proud* And I started Middlemarch last night and it's going very well! It's intimidated me for so long, but there's a lot to be said for just turning some pages and seeing what happens.

Today is very rainy again in London, so I think I'll have a quiet day (not for a change). I'll go round the corner for a paper, but no further than that. The weather forecast seems to suggest that the rain will ease off for tomorrow.

So much rain: hoping the flood warnings don't prove to be true here. I am putting off venturing out!

>169 charl08: Charlotte, I hope it's dried out a bit. It is better here now. And quite cold, which is exciting because it means Monday will be cold enough for puffa! Always my favourite day of the year.

I've just binge-watched the whole of "Life", which is the new BBC series with Victoria Hamilton (who is SUPERB). Definitely recommended for UK peeps.

Before that, I read some more of Middlemarch and I love it, particularly the snarky narrator, and Celia. I'd love to read a version told from Celia's point of view :-)

Another day of rain here, so my vague plan to go to the supermarket may come to nothing. But I'm making some progress with Middlemarch, at least.

Somehow I've mislaid the remote for the Fire Stick, which is driving me *nuts*. I used it about 5pm last night and within about 45 minutes it had disappeared. I've even moved furniture to try and find it, but no luck. Thank goodness for the app on my phone I suppose...

>171 susanj67: Oh dear! How frustrating! It drives me crazy when I can't find something or can't think of a word/name I'm looking for. I hope you find your remote soon.

>172 RebaRelishesReading: Reba, what's maddening me is how quickly it disappeared - there one minute and gone 45 minutes later, and I'm sure I hadn't moved from my comfy chair in the meantime. But the TV remote works fine for Netflix on the Stick, I have discovered, so that's something.



113. Passing by Nella Larsen

I'm using the Penguin Classics cover, although my copy is a cheapie from Amazon and also contains Quicksand, which I haven't read yet. Written in 1929, this is about two black women, one of whom has "passed" as white, married a white man and mixes in white society. The other woman is light enough to "pass" and does so occasionally for convenience in hotels and restaurants, but overall disapproves of it. It's a short novel but well done, and I will read Quicksand before too long.

Hey Susan, i saw this and you were the very first person I thought of:
https://crafty.diply.com/102496/stay-warm-and-fashionable-this-winter-with-puffe...

>174 Helenliz: Helen, I love those gloves! Also the couture things further down the link. I checked Moncler's UK website but sadly they don't have the dresses :-(

I can't wait to hear where the remote was hiding... Assuming you ever find it!

>173 susanj67: I must read Passing soon, Susan. I also have both books in one volume.

>176 katiekrug: Katie, there's no sign of it yet...

>177 PaulCranswick: Paul, it's a very quick read so I'm sure you could squeeze it in.

My office roomie is in today. We were both surprised to see one another :-) He was in the other "team" to me, but they've stopped the teams for the time being, so we can all come in on any week day that we want to. There are still very few people here, though. But I am enjoying my two screens and the fact that I am not now living in my office. Yay! I've walked to and from the office quite a bit, although I won't be able to walk home once the clocks go back because I go through a park along the river and it closes at dusk. The other route, along the (badly lit) main road with cyclists all over the pavement, is too dangerous in the dark. But the tube is still very quiet, so it's not too bad.

My Middlemarch buddy-read is going very well, although we are both a bit behind where we thought we'd be. But as it's our buddy-read, we're just going to extend it :-) I also want to finish Things Fall Apart over the weekend.

Glad you're still enjoying going to the office. Hope you're having pleasant weather for your walking commute.

>180 RebaRelishesReading: Hi Reba! The weather has been OK all week except for Monday, so I hope it continues. I'm not sure when daylight saving stops but I should have another couple of weeks of walking home, anyway.



114. Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe

I read the second half of this today, having started it last week. At the half-way point I thought Ehhh, but I like it more now that I've read the whole thing. The library has the other two in the series, but I have no burning wish to borrow them. But never say never. It would be interesting to read further instalments about the family.

Most of today's reading has been Middlemarch, though, which is coming along nicely. I need to read another 220 pages by Wednesday night to get up to date with it, and I think I'll try and read them all tomorrow.

115. The Silk Roads: A New History of the World by Peter Frankopan

I've finally finished this chunkster, which I think I started - ahem - last year. It's excellent, but there's a lot of it. It's also important to look at the full title, because "The Silk Roads" made me think it was going to be a Marco Polo-type of story, all about the very olden days, but in fact it ends during the Obama administration and there's quite a bit about the 20th century and the chaos of Iraq, Afghanistan and so on. There's a shorter follow-up book, The New Silk Roads: The Present and Future of the World, which also looks very good. Very highly recommended if you like history and also current events.

I've read this week's chapters of Middlemarch, ready for week 3 which starts on Thursday. My friend and I both *love* it :-)

>182 susanj67: I picked up the new silk road expecting lots of history and was not impressed (I didn't finish it).

Can I say well done on finishing the Achebe? I've been distracted by the book group and a murder mystery, so am not there yet (poor).

>183 charl08: Charlotte, sorry to hear that it didn't work for you. The elibrary has 3 out of 4 copies available, so I'm planning to get it after the Balfour Declaration, which is a Verso sale book from years ago that I'm finally getting around to. I'm sure you will finish the Achebe in no time :-) The more I think about it, the more tempted I am to pick up the second one in the trilogy.

I just scanned my first QR code. The firm now has one in the foyer, for people to check in with. I asked whether it was for staff or just for visitors, and the man in charge said we could scan it if we wanted to. I confessed that I'd never scanned a QR code before, but the NHS app has a thing to click to scan them, so it was easy. I've seen them in museums before, and they look useful but there are never any instructions about how to get started.

What is a QR code?

>186 RebaRelishesReading: Reba, it's one of these: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QR_code

They're common here in some museums now, and restaurants are starting to have menus available by scanning a code, which cuts down on people handling the same piece of card. The NHS app has a "check-in" feature which uses them. My pals with iPhones say they are super-easy to use. I've tried before with my Android phone but I haven't worked out how to do it.

Today I went out for lunch with PEOPLE. Six of us went to a restaurant downstairs, which is the first time I've eaten with someone else since 18 March. I thought we were all supposed to keep our masks on till the food arrived and put them back on afterwards, but no-one seemed to do that. I guess I'll know in about five days whether I caught anything, although I sat opposite one of the Young People who had it months ago, so he seemed like a pretty good bet :-)

Ah ha!! Yes I just used one of those to get the menu at the restaurant where we had lunch. I had no idea what they were properly called (and I don't find it hard to use although I've only done it a few times and may improve with practice).

I still try to stay at least 6 feet from anyone other than Hubby and keep my mask on until the food comes -- but then I've only eaten with "outsiders" once or twice since March.

I've been using the NHS app to check in to venues. Only you don't check out. If I go to the gym and then go home, it thinks I was at the gym until it closes; which strikes me as a flaw somewhere.

I know what you mean about the excitement of being with other people, it is like being a kid at a party all over again. >:-)

>188 RebaRelishesReading: Reba, once again you are ahead of me :-) I don't think I'll rush to go out to lunch again but it was nice for a change, and also so nice to talk to people without their masks on. I struggle to hear at the best of times, and masks don't help!

>189 Helenliz: Helen, that's exactly what I thought yesterday when I checked in - how do they know when I leave? Well, the firm knows, based on my pass being swiped as I leave the building, but a restaurant or gym wouldn't know. I'd be very cross to get a notification based on a super-spreader arriving 15 minutes after I'd left somewhere. Oddly there was no sign of the QR code poster in the foyer this morning...

Meanwhile, onwards and upwards. I had a bit of a sore throat yesterday afternoon, but realised that it was simply because I'd been *talking* after so long not talking. The same thing happened on my first day back in the office. I'm fine today, and I sort of like having my temperature scanned every time I come into the building. It's been normal every day, and when I went to Boots for my flu shot last week and they asked "Do you have a high temperature?" I could answer "No" entirely correctly.

116. Middlemarch by George Eliot

My friend and I both adored this, and we finished it faster than we'd planned to. I'm sure I can't say anything about it that hasn't been said before, but if you've been daunted by this book then don't be. The prose style takes a bit of getting used to, but once you're into it you'll love it :-)

Next month's buddy-read is going to be The Moonstone, and we're both excited about that :-) I've ordered the Penguin English Library edition again, so it will match Moby-Dick and Middlemarch (publishers must LOVE the Instagram effect on books, where pretty covers are even better than free downloads).

>191 susanj67: - With your encouragement, maybe I will finally give Middlemarch a try!

>193 katiekrug: I'm with Katie. I am a bit shy that it is still not in my done tray.

Have a lovely Sunday.

Yeesh, why are there so many spammers?!

>193 katiekrug: Katie, definitely give it a try!

>194 PaulCranswick: Paul, maybe the time has come for you too!

On Sky News this evening, during an interview with a former speechwriter for Joe Biden:

*****

Presenter: Now, Mr Biden is doing quite well {in the UK sense} in the swing states, isn't he?

Guest: Yes, he is {names the states}

Presenter: But Hillary Clinton was doing quite well in those states four years ago, wasn't she?

Guest: Yes. And that's why we have post-traumatic stress syndrome from 2016.

*****

Today I've been reading The Balfour Declaration, which was published by Verso. The subtitle "Empire, the Mandate and Resistance in Palestine" should have given the game away. I must pay more attention to subtitles. And publishers. I've also started Herodotus, and thank goodness I have a hard copy because it is full of notes and maps. I read for about an hour and I'd covered 25 pages. I'm reading the Tom Holland translation. I'm also continuing with Dragon Haven, which is the next book in the Robin Hobb series I started last month. Watching a bit of Trump's Michigan rally yesterday, when he joked about his fans and their plot to kidnap the governor of Michigan, it occurred to me that fantasy and reality are inching ever closer to one another. Maybe that explains my increased fantasy reading this year.

>195 susanj67: I thoroughly enjoyed Herodotus. I think he started to tell the story of a particular war, only keeps getting sidetracked. Quite a lot. He gets there eventually, but it took 4 volumes in the version I read!

>191 susanj67: Enjoy The Moonstone It's a good one.

I was wondering how you were faring after I heard that things were tightening up in London again, Susan. Good to see you are still able to go out to work. Thanks for the heads up on The Silk Road. I was expecting it to be all historic. I’ll be forewarned when I take it off the shelf.

>196 Helenliz: Helen, Tom Holland says that he read it aged 12 to find out about the battles referred to at the start, and was amazed that so many chapters passed without those battles :-)

>197 Familyhistorian: Meg, it is *chaos* here but offices are still open for people who can't work "effectively" from home. That's a pretty broad term, but it seems to be accepted that too much enforced home working will literally send people insane, so there's a balance to be struck. The new restrictions mostly seem to cover meeting people from other households indoors (and maybe outside now) but as I don't do that I haven't paid super-close attention to exactly what they say on those issues.

I loved this tweet yesterday, summing up the position here:

117. Dragon Haven by Robin Hobb

This is book 2 of the Rain Wilds chronicles, and covers more of the journey by the dragons and their keepers towards the ancient city of Kelsingra. But is there really such a place, or are the dragons' inherited memories inaccurate? This whizzes by, and a lot happens. It's a great instalment in the series. I'll read book 3, City of Dragons, next month.

I started The Fifth Season last night, which seems to be much-loved by fantasy fans. I can see why people say it's a bit hard to get into, but apparently it all comes together after a while.

>198 susanj67: Great tweet. I've been enjoying all the comparisons to what the govt could / have have spent the £5m extra they refused to give Andy B.

Nice to see the Sir David Attenborough boat made it out safely, too.

>200 charl08: Charlotte, someone pointed out that the £22 million given to Manchester was £8 million less than Boris spent on the London garden bridge before the plans were scrapped...

I whizzed up to the library yesterday at lunchtime to pick up The Jamestown Brides and I saw The Professor and the Parson on the shelf so I got that too. But here's a question for all y'all: If you were on duty at the door of the library and someone showed up with a bottle of hand sanitiser, what would you think their intentions were? I said "I have a booking" and got a blank stare. "I have booked." Another blank stare, followed by "What can I do for you?" My third try was "I WANT TO COME IN". At that point someone else came over and ushered me in. I sanitised my hands, and went over to the desk to register. "I have a booking," I said. The assistant stared up at me. "So...you haven't booked?" she asked. It's like the Tower of Babel up there. I don't think we really need to book any more - they seem to have no record of the bookings so we have to give all our details when we get there anyway. I use my work pass for my name and I have my mobile number written on a piece of paper, which is proving handy. I'm considering typing out all my details and laminating them :-)

>201 susanj67: - Very odd about the library... Your lamination idea reminds me of the tip I once heard for visiting countries where one does not speak the language - to print the name and address of your hotel on little cards to give to taxi drivers. I've never done it, but I made up some for our trip to Argentina/Uruguay in March (ended up not needing them because we had to leave early...).

Have a great weekend, Susan!

>202 katiekrug: Thanks Katie! It will be another quiet weekend. Like all the other weekends...



118. Men Who Hate Women: From Incels to Pickup Artists: The Truth about Extreme Misogyny and How It Affects Us All by Laura Bates

Despite the long US-style subtitle. Laura Bates is a UK writer and campaigner who started the "Everyday Sexism" blog in 2012 (it now has a Twitter account too). In this book she explores the explosion in misogyny that the internet has facilitated, to the point where a woman speaking up on pretty much any issue gets a deluge of hate online and sometimes in person. Many of the people doing it are the "men who hate women" who are the subject of this book.

Each chapter looks at a different group of these men, starting with the "incels" (involuntary celibates) who believe that the world owes them sex and that women should be shared out to ensure that every man gets as much as he wants. Then there are the "Men Going Their Own Way", who've given up on women because women are so terrible and they've taken away all men's rights. And the pick-up artists, who run expensive seminars on how to just get what you want from women by breaking down their resistance (with force, if necessary). And then the Men's Rights Activists (MRAs), who are perhaps the worst, or most numerous. Incels have been responsible for some shocking mass killings (still not treated as terrorism, because women being abused and killed is pretty much normal - "wallpaper", if you like - nothing to see there) but MRAs seem to be more numerous. They think that women are only good for one thing (well, two if you count housework) and should realise their place and stop trying to do stuff like having opinions and jobs.

It's the MRAs who deluge women in public life with the death threats and the rape threats and post on internet forums about all the dreadful things they would do to the women. Or all women. Because they're all the same, really. MRAs are everywhere, it turns out - running for Congress in the US, an actual Tory MP in the UK, and there are a surprising number of people who, when unmasked, turn out to be married with kids and "respectable". Trump is their current leader, but the theory has infiltrated all sorts of places, and sees decisions being made that disadvantage women all the time. MRA representatives are also given airtime to put the "other side" of issues that aren't actually "issues" at all.

Bates doesn't make a connection between MRAs and the recent gender "self-ID" furore that we've had in the UK (until someone in government wised up to what was going on and shelved the proposal). However, I've seen it discussed as a theory elsewhere, and everything fits. The self-ID scheme would have allowed men to decide they were really women at any time and without...committing to it. To put it euphemistically. Then they could invade women's spaces like toilets and changing rooms and domestic violence refuges (which MRAs have long been campaigning to close down because HOW DARE any woman try to escape a man who is abusing her - that's what women are FOR) and sports teams and shortlists etc etc and, after women were terrorized to the point that many were reluctant to leave the house any more (which, for those needing toilet facilities, was a real issue) voila! They would "identify" as men again. In fact they could be a woman and a man in the same day if they wanted to. A lot of women objected to this plan. Some, who dared to state the biological FACT that men are not women, and that women's rights are protected in LAW, even lost their jobs. Pretty much only J K Rowling could say anything in the end, because she's too rich to care and her publishers don't dare drop her, because that would be like setting fire to money. But what was interesting was seeing the reports of all the abuse directed at Rowling, which was *exactly* the same as the MRAs direct towards women they disapprove of on numerous other issues (as trivial as whether a woman other than The Queen should appear on a banknotes). The death threats, the rape threats, the invitations to suck things, and so on. So it's either a Giant Co-Incidence that the trans community uses exactly the same language as the MRAs, or the abusers are in fact the same people. While the MRAs don't officially like LGBT+ people, it seems very much like the enemy of their enemy being their friend. And there are (theoretically) only so many times you can write on 4chan or Reddit that women should be raped until they die before *someone* starts trying to find out who you are. But if you turn yourself into a campaigner for human rights, well, you can work towards the erasure of women with no downside. As I say, this is *not* something Bates says in the book, but it wouldn't surprise me even a tiny bit if research eventually shows MRAs involved somewhere.

The other thing not tackled in the book, but which I think is also related, is the shocking number of teenage girls thinking that they need to turn themselves into boys. The number has skyrocketed in the last few years, and there is currently a court case going on in which a young woman is suing the NHS gender clinic that allowed her to "transition" as a teen, and a mother is suing on the basis that children can't consent to taking hormones at the very young age they have to start. But reading the book gives a clue as to why these girls seem to be so desperate to escape their female bodies. Teenage boys absorb all this misogyny from the internet, and it spreads through schools, making the girls terrified to say anything, have opinions, be clever and so on. All they hear is that their future is to be a body for men to use any time they want to. I can totally see why they would want to escape that.

So this is a depressing but very important read. If there's a teenage boy in your life, definitely read this. But I think it's also important for girls, so that they realise that what they may be hearing from boys at school and people on the internet is not the truth, it's not the opinion of the majority of people and that they are perfect just as they are.