pamelad's 19 in 2019

Just deciding on my 19 categories.

Currently considering:

1. Lists e.g. Guardian 1000, 1001 books
2. From the Kindle
3. From the shelf
4. From the wishlist
5. Kindle bargains
6. Something new - published in 2018 or 2019
7. Authors I haven't read before
8. Crime
9. Genres I don't usually read
10. Prize winners
11. Book Group (in the material world)
12. In translation
13. Series CAT
14. Australian
15. Calendar CAT
16. Rescued from Obscurity
17. Non-fiction
18. Humour
19. AlphaKit

Aiming for 4 in most categories. If I read one book in French I'll be pleased, and the number of group reads is unpredictable.

1. Lists e.g. Guardian 1000, 1001 books

Unless by Carol Shields
The Party at No. 5 by Shelley Smith H. R. F. Keating's 100 Best Mysteries
The Emigrants by W. G. Sebald
The Grass Is Singing by Doris Lessing
Fantomas by Pierre Souvestre
Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen
Untouchable by Mulk Raj Anand

2. From the Kindle

Outline by Rachel Cusk
Nightmare Abbey by Thomas Love Peacock
A Cat, A Man, and Two Women by Junichiro Tanizaki
Fantomas by Pierre Souvestre
The Longest Journey by E. M. Forster
The Seventh Cross by Anna Seghers
The Wedding-Chest Mystery by A. E. Fielding
The Cornish Coast Murder by John Bude
A God in Ruins by Kate Atkinson

3. From the shelf

Second-hand Time by Svetlana Alexievich
The Map and the Territory by Michel Houellebecq
The City & The City by China Mieville
The Emigrants by W. G. Sebald

4. From the wishlist

The Perils of Perception by Bobby Duffy
Lamentation by C. J. Samson
Madonna in a Fur Coat by Sabahattin Ali
The Grass Is Singing by Doris Lessing
The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula Le Guin

5. Kindle Bargains

Country by Danielle Steele
Spark Joy by Marie Kondo
The Story of Classic Crime in 100 Books by Martin Edwards
Murder in the Mill Race by E C R Lorac

6. Something new - published in or after 2015

The Common Good by Robert B. Reich
Reservoir 13 by Jon McGregor
Normal People by Sally Rooney
Conversations with Friends by Sally Rooney
The Arsonist by Chloe Hooper

7. Authors I haven't read before

Daydream and Drunkenness of a Young Lady by Clarice Lispector
The Matriarch by G. B. Stern
The Equestrienne by Ursula Kovalyk
An Afternoon to Kill by Shelley Smith

8. Crime

Death in Captivity by Michael Gilbert
Calamity Town by Ellery Queen
Sting of Death by Shelley Smith
The Ballad of the Running Man by Shelley Smith
Surfeit of Suspects by George Bellairs
Family Matters by Anthony Rolls
The Threefold Cord by Francis Vivian
The Night of Fear by Moray Dalton
Ladies Bane by Patrica Wentworth
The Glenlitten Murder by E. Philips Oppenhein
At the House of the Priest (Black Heath Classic Crime) by Sir John Adye
The Cornish Coast Murder by John Bude

9. Genres I don't usually read

The Hearing Trumpet by Leonora Carrington
Life After Life by Kate Atkinson
The Victorian Chaise-Longue by Marghanita Laski
The City & The City by China Mieville
The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula Le Guin

10. Prize winners

Second-hand Time by Svetlana Alexievich
The Bad Girl by Mario Vargas Llosa
Happy Valley by Patrick White
The Map and the Territory by Michel Houellebecq

11. Book Group (in the material world)

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Kitchen by Banana Yoshimoto
A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles
The Hearing Trumpet by Leonora Carrington
Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman

12. In translation

In Matto's Realm by Friedrich Glauser
A Cat, A Man, and Two Women by Junichiro Tanizaki
Madonna in a Fur Coat by Sabahattin Ali
Arsene Lupin by Maurice Leblanc
The Seventh Cross by Anna Seghers
Transit by Anna Seghers

13. Series CAT

Thumbprint by Friedrich Glauser
The ABC Murders by Agatha Christie
Lamentation by C. J. Sansom
Kill Shot by Garry Disher
Lucia in London by E. F. Benson
The Norwich Victims by Francis Beeding

14. Australian

The Puzzleheaded Girl by Christina Stead
Short Black 1 The Australian Disease by Richard Flanagan
The Heat by Garry Disher
The Lost Man by Jane Harper

15. Calendar CAT

The Little Hotel by Christina Stead
Back from the Dead: Wrongful Convictions and Criminal Justice in China by Jiahong He
Down Below by Leonora Carrington
A Terrible Country by Keith Gessen
The Tree of Heaven by May Sinclair
Transit by Anna Seghers

16. Rescued from Obscurity

What Not A Prophetic Comedy by Rose Macaulay
East is Always East by Pamela Wynne
The Seven Sleepers by Francis Beeding
Mr Bowling Buys a Newspaper by Donald Henderson
Murder by Matchlight by E. C. R. Lorac
The House of Doctor Edwardes by Francis Beeding
Deed Without a Name by Dorothy Bowers
Scarecrow: A Chief Inspector Pointer Mystery by A. E. Fielding
The Wedding-Chest Mystery by A. E. Fielding
Address Unknown by Kressmann Taylor

17. Non-fiction

With the End in Mind: Dying, Death, and Wisdom in an Age of Denial by Kathryn Mannix
That's Not What I Meant by Deborah Tannen
The Perils of Perception by Bobby Duffy
The Long Farewell by D. E. Charlwood
The Arsonist by Chloe Hooper
Dreyer's English by Benjamin Dreyer

18. Humour

My Man Jeeves by P.G. Wodehouse
Nightmare Abbey by Thomas Love Peacock
An Unprotected Female at the Pyramids by Anthony Trollope
Miss Mackenzie by Anthony Trollope
Queen Lucia by E. F. Benson
Mapp and Lucia by E. F. Benson
Lucia's Progress by E. F. Benson
Trouble for Lucia by E. F. Benson
Miss Mapp by E. F. Benson

19. AlphaKit

Death of a Queen by Christopher St. John Sprigg
The Evil Shepherd by E. Phillips Oppenheim
Loser Takes All by Graham Greene
The Beautiful Derelict by Carolyn Wells
Venetian Blind by William Haggard
Persuasion by Jane Austen
Israel Rank: The Autobiography of a Criminal by Roy Horniman
Dr Wortle's School by Anthony Trollope
Educated by Tara Westover

another space

yet another

and another

this should do

One more for luck

I look forward to following along!

Looks like you have lots of categories covered, good luck with your 2019 Challenge. :)

Have a great reading year! Good luck with your French category. That's usually the toughest category for me.

Planned Reads

Doctor Faustus by Thomas Mann
The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky

>13 DeltaQueen50:, >14 rabbitprincess: thank you!

Two might be enough for the planned reads, and the same for the group reads. Will see how I go with the Other Genres category. There are reasons why I don't read a lot of scifi and fantasy! Four for the other categories.

In 2018 I started putting books into multiple categories, but it was so onerous that after reaching 72 or so books I stopped entering them at all, which is not the point of a category challenge. So this year, the only double-counting will be in the Wishlist and Tbr categories.

Other Genres

The City & The City by China Meiville
The Savage Detectives by Roberto Bolano
Flow My Tears, The Policeman Said by Philip. K. Dick

Is Airport Fiction a genre? This year I read 3 books by Liane Moriarty and really enjoyed one of them, Big Little Lies. In 2019 I might give Jodi Picoult a try. Could do some research at K Mart for others.

Updated my categories to include some CATs. Still fluid.

The post I wrote on Nov 22nd about the update didn't survive.

Found a good book for the category Rescued from obscurity. Night of Camp David, about a president who becomes insane while in office.

Fluid planning of your categories makes perfect sense to me, and yes, I think Airport Fiction can be considered a genre (or a subgenre). ;-)

Great plan. I think I need to create a "rescued from obscurity" category too.

I will be very interested to see what you find in the "rescued from obscurity" category!

Handheld Press is publishing forgotten fiction. I'm very much looking forward to the reissue of Rose Macaulay's What Not, which an article in the Guardian describes as a "forgotten feminist dystopian novel, a story of eugenics and newspaper manipulation that is believed to have influenced Brave New World and Nineteen Eighty-four."

A worthy candidate for Rescued from Obscurity.

>19 lkernagh:, >20 VivienneR:, >21 MissWatson: Thank you for visiting.

I found What Not A Prophetic Comedy on Gutenberg.

>22 pamelad: Thanks for that link. Such a fascinating story!

>17 pamelad: I volunteer for the Friends of the Library, and we recognize "airport books" are a genre, at least when it comes to donations being sorted :-). Jodi Picoult is a big one, along with Patterson, Brad Thor, Nelson DeMille...
Handheld Press looks wonderful. Happy reading in 2019!

>17 pamelad: That is funny! I totally agree airport / Kmart fiction should be a category!

>25 mstrust: You must see so many of these books as they tend not to be keepers. One of my local op shops (thrift stores) has books at 20c each permanently as they just receive so many books. Now me, I hardly ever let a book leave my shelves!

We do see a lot of the genre, so much so that we often have multiples of the same title, or just as often, five or six by the same author all in a row on the shelf. We charge 25 cents a paperback or $1 hardback.

Oh! I loved Brothers Karamazov I should really reread.

Happy New Year!

Finished the first book for 2019, Kate Atkinson's Life After Life.

Ursula Todd is born in England on a snowy night in 1910. She almost dies, and in one of her lives, she does. Initially I was didn't mind Ursula's alternative lives, despite being no fan of fantasy fiction, but when she ended up in Hitler's holiday compound in the hills I gave up and just plodded to the end of the book. A very long book!

If you don't mind fantasy, and an author who imagines that it is appropriate to base a fantasy novel on WWII, you might enjoy this book. Many people did. I thought the premise was tacky. If I'm going to read about WWII, I prefer an author who was there.

Putting this in 9. Genres I don't usually read.

Just finished Thumbprint by Friedrich Glauser, which was written in 1936, but translated from German to English for the first time in 2004. Glauser, described as the Swiss Simenon, wrote a psychological detective series featuring the Swiss detective Sergeant Studer. Thumbprint is the first. It is surprisingly modern in its outlook, not at all a period piece. Glauser, an opium addict diagnosed with schizophrenia, spent much of his life in psychiatric hospitals.Many of his descriptions of people and surroundings are arresting in their technicolour oddness.

Studer is an honest man. He was once an inspector, but was demoted to the lowest rank for refusing to give up on a case that his superiors wanted to ignore, and has managed to work his way back to sergeant. Studer is an appealing, well-rounded character. He has arrested a young man for murdering his girlfriend's father, but something seems wrong, so Studer convinces the examining magistrate that it would be bad for his career not to allow Studer to reopen the investigation.

I plan to read the next book in the series, In Matto's Realm. Glauser's books are published by Bitter Lemon Press, https://www.bitterlemonpress.com/collections/bitter-lemon-books, whose catalogue has quite a few interrnational crime novels that look to be worth trying.

Thanks NinieB!

This one is for 13. Series CAT, Series in Translation.

>32 pamelad: Another BB for me!

>32 pamelad: Oh that sounds like a really interesting series!

Looks like my library has In Matto's Realm, Fever, and The Chinaman. I've requested The Chinaman, because I do love a story with suspicions of arsenic poisoning and mysterious gunshot wounds!

>32 pamelad: >33 Tess_W: Glad to be of service!

I've managed to borrow Matto's Realm from the Internet Archive and load it onto my tablet. Thumbprint and Chinaman are also available.

Or did I borrow it from the Open Library? Anyway, I had to join the Internet Archive, download Adobe Digital Editions, become an Adobe member and register my tablet. Many steps! I feel temporarily technologically competent.

https://openlibrary.org/authors/OL63406A/Friedrich_Glauser

15. Calendar CAT

The Little Hotel by Christina Stead

Text Publishing's catalogue includes some Australian classics that have been hard to obtain for decades. I read The Man Who Loved Childrenmany years ago, but had never come across any of Stead's other books until now. The Little Hotel was first published in 1973, but it is set just after World War II.

The Little Hotel is a cheap tourist hotel in Lausanne, on Lake Geneva. It is the off-season, so most of the residents are staying for many months at cheap rates. Some have spent the years after the war drifting around the world, speculating in currency. Some are in hiding. Others are ill and have come to recuperate or to die. Apart from one sympathetic character, this is a group of selfish people, caught up in pettiness and vindictiveness.

This is a witty, satirical book. I found it very funny, but was glad it was no longer because I didn't want to spend any more time with such dreadful people. After this reintroduction to Stead's wonderful writing, I'm going to read more, starting with The Puzzleheaded Girl.

Australia Day is on January 26th, but the aboriginal people want the date changed because it celebrates the arrival of the British first fleet, so it's Invasion Day. As a compromise, I'm reading this book for the anniversary of Australia's Federation, January 1st, 1901.

12. In Translation

In Matto's Realm by Friedrich Glauser

In Matto's Realm takes place in a psychiatric hospital. The deputy director has called in Studer because both the director and a convicted child killer are missing. Matto's realm is the realm of madness, which affects the staff as well as the patients, and everyone connected with them. A foreign voice on the radio says, "Two hundred thousand men and women are gathered here to cheer me. Two hundred thousand men and women have come as representatives of the whole nation, which is behind me. Foreign states dare to accuse me of breaking a treaty. When I seized power this land lay desolate, ravaged, sick...I have made it great, I have made others respect it.."

The deputy director tells Studer, "The man who was talking just now was lucky. Had he had a psychiatric examination at the beginning of his career, perhaps the world might look a little different today. As I said before, contact with the mentally ill is contagious. And there are people who are particularly susceptible - whole nations can be susceptible. I once said something in a lecture to which people objected. Certain so-called revolutions, I said are basically nothing more than the vengeance of psychopaths."

Glauser is writing in 1936 so the psychopath is Hitler, but the tone is familiar. It was the background - the politics, the corruption, Suder's sympathy for the poverty-stricken working people , the world of the mental asylum with its warders, its experiments on the patients - that held my interest, more so than the plot. In fact, the plot was confusing, as befits a crime in an asylum.

Well worth reading.

16. Rescued from Obscurity

What Not A Prophetic Comedy by Rose Macaulay

First published in 1918, then swiftly withdrawn, Macaulay's book deals with eugenics, newspaper censorship and government control of people's private lives. The book predates Brave New World and 1984 and may have been an unacknowledged influence on both.

Kitty Grammont works for the Ministry of Brains, whose goal is to make the British people more intelligent. The rationale is that, had people been more intelligent the Great War could not have happened, and in future an intelligent population will avoid wars. The Ministry plan to achieve its goals with a mixture of training and eugenics. The population is classified according to intelligence, from A to C3. People in the lower groups must marry someone more intelligent, and A's must marry down, and as a result the average intelligence of the population will increase. People must be certificated in order to marry. Those below C3 cannot marry and reproduce; nor can people with genetic abnormalities in their families, no matter how how their intelligence classification. To enforce the rules, people who have unsanctioned children must pay huge fines, and those who follow the rules get bonuses. Newspapers are banned from criticising the actions and policies of the government.

Unlike Huxley's and Orwell's books, Macaulay's is set in the near future, and is obviously an extension of the current reality. It is far more human and domestic that the other two books.

Worth a read.

>38 pamelad: Just d/l this for free from Amazon. Thanks for the review!

>37 pamelad: and >38 pamelad: Wow - two book bullets in a row for me!

>39 Tess_W:

Me too!

Sounds interesting and the price was right.

>39 Tess_W:, >40 LisaMorr:, >41 hailelib: Enjoy! I am a big fan of Rose Macaulay and recommend The Towers of Trebizond and Crewe Train.

9. Genres I Don't Usually Read

The Hearing Trumpet by Leonora Carrington

It made me laugh so many times. I'd be reading away with a small smile when something so ridiculous, so unexpected, would be so delightfully funny that I'd laugh out loud.

Marian Leatherby is 92 and has been living with her son and daughter-in-law for the last fifteen years. She's almost deaf, so she can't hear what her family is saying about her until her friend Carmella gives her a hearing trumpet. Carmella is a wonderful character, as are Marian and all the other old ladies in this book.

Weird things happen. Wait till you find out what happened to the leering nun whose portrait overlooks the dining table.

I don't usually read Fantasy, but I loved this book.

>43 pamelad: That sounds intriguing!

The Hearing Trumpet is in my top 5 favourite books of all time.

>43 pamelad: That sounds so intriguing! It's going on my WL.

>44 LisaMorr:, >46 mstrust: It's a cheerful, hopeful book. Nice and short.

>45 Zozette: I can definitely see why.

It is a pity that it is the only novel that Leonora wrote. Since reading it last year I have been slowly reading her short stories, slowly because I don’t want them to end. I have read a biography about her, as well as watching YouTube videos about her. I still have her Down Below to read but as that is about her time spent in an Spanish asylum following a mental breakdown I think it will be rather confronting.

I have also been studying about her artwork. I truly fascinating woman who really should have been/should be more famous than what she is.

9. Genres I Don't Usually Read.

The Victorian Chaise-Longue by Marghanita Laski

Melly, a young mother suffering from TB, lies down on a chaise-longue and is transported into the 1860's where she finds herself in the body of Milly, who is dying of TB.

This book was written in the 1950s. The antibiotic triple therapy for TB had been discovered in 1952, so I could not believe that Melly might die of TB, or that she needed to spend so many months in bed, except for the sake of the plot.

^^^ I think, but I am not 100% sure, that I might have read that book many years ago. The plot seems very familiar.

I've replaced 5. Something in French with 5. Kindle Bargains.

These bargains just languish on my Kindle. They're Daily Deals, Monthly Offers, $2 books that looked interesting at the time.....

Country is by Danielle Steele, an author I've never read. I kept expecting something to happen, but it was just a romance, full of brand names, utterly undemanding. Everything worked out very tidily. It was a potato chip of a book: easy to consume, quite moreish, no nourishment. I had bought it for category 9, Genres I Don't Usually Read as an example of Airport Fiction, but I'll fill 9. easily with Fantasy and Science Fiction.

>51 pamelad: That's what Danielle Steele novels are! I savored them as a teenager, but don't read them anymore.

I've never read Steele because I expect it to be as empty as you describe. But good for you for reading something you normally wouldn't, and now you can go back to the good stuff :-D.

Spark Joy by Marie Kondo

A Kindle bargain. I've been watching Marie Kondo on Netflix, and so far have been inspired to fold my clothes and throw out the joyless grey things. Very satisfying. The drawers look lovely.

On TV, she's a tiny, smiling sprite. This book doesn't sound like that. Must be the translation. But I'm going to organise the laundry, all the same. (Laundry = the room where you do the washing, not the actual things you wash.)

On the Kindle, the diagrams are miniscule.

Outline by Rachel Cusk

The female narrator is a writer, in Athens to give a week-long writing course, in English, to a varied group of Greek students. The book consists of conversations with people the narrator meets, with the narrator saying, or at least recording, little herself. She contributes opinions, impressions, and bits of her own philosophy. Occasionally I would nod to myself and think, 'Well put," but mostly I didn't care about the people, who were writers, playwrights, academics, bankers and diplomats. A bit rarefied. I would have liked a shop assistant, or a cleaner to appear and be taken seriously.

Two main problems: the characters are too middle class; a distant, detached tone from a dreary narrator. Minor problems: she used the word 'enormity' to mean a very big thing rather than a very bad thing, and she used the word "concretise", so I couldn't relax. I kept expecting the wrong word to appear.

Not a terrible book, but I didn't much like it.

it's in 2. From the Kindle, because I bought it last year.

I didn't like Outline very much either. It's gotten some great reviews on LT so I was disappointed not to like it too. Will you bother with the rest of the trilogy? I chose not to.

>56 japaul22: One's enough. So many other books to read!

I started on Leonardo Padura's Havana Blue, the first in a series of Cuban police procedurals, but fell at the first sentence: I don't have to think to know the most difficult step would be opening my eyes. It's not English! I struggled through a few more pages, but the translation is a mess. A shame.

I didn't have to think........would be opening my eyes.
I don't have to think..........will be opening my eyes.

Anyway, when I start rewriting the book, I have to stop reading.

1. Lists: 1001 Books

Unless by Carol Shields

Reta Summers translates the works of the famous writer, Danielle Westerman, from French to English, and is writing her second light comic novel. Her daughter, Nora, has dropped out of university to beg on the streets of Toronto, wearing the sign, Goodness, around her neck. Reta's hypothesis, arrived at with Westerman's input, is that Nora has embraced her female powerlessness.

An easy enough read, but I didn't like this much. Found it cringeworthy.

3. From the Shelf
10. Prize Winners

Second-hand Time by Svetlana Alexievich

Brilliant book about the collapse of the Soviet Union.

The Group Read thread is here.

19. Alphakit (February, O)

The Evil Shepherd by E. Phillips Oppenheim

A British crime novel published in 1922. I thought it was ridiculous and enjoyed it a lot. A bit of romance, a potential master criminal, a fine young Englishman. Oppenheim wrote hundreds of these.

>60 pamelad: Haha, you got me with that description!

>58 pamelad: I didn't much like Unless either. It was the third time I had been disappointed with Shields so the remaining books on my shelves were donated to the library booksale. She lived in the same town as I did and I thought I should be more loyal, but there you are. Her short stories were better.

Back from the Dead; A Landmark Ruling of Wrongful Conviction in China by Jiahong He

A short essay about a man who was convicted for murdering his wife, who turned out to be alive. Interesting insight into an aspect of life in China. The author is a law professor who writes crime novels. I have put Hanging Devils in my wishlist.

15. Calendar CAT

>61 christina_reads: If you like Oppenheim's books, it's comforting to know there are more than 150 of them to read!

>62 VivienneR: I will look out for her short stories and avoid her other novels. Thanks for the warning. I think it was the undercurrent of resentment that made Unless so unpleasant.

Calendar CAT, February, Chinese New Year

Back from the Dead: Wrongful Convictions and Criminal Justice in China by Jiahong He

An essay about a miscarriage of justice in China. A man's wife disappears and he is convicted of her murder. Eventually, his wife reappears. This case led to changes in China's legal system The author is a legal professor and a well-regarded writer of crime novels.

From the Wishlist

The Perils of Perception by Bobby Duffy

A book about statistics. We are more likely to believe and remember negative news, leading to over estimations of negative occurrences. It's not a new phenomenon. Interesting in this era of fake news.

Humour

My Man Jeeves by P.G. Wodehouse

A collection of short stories, some of which do not feature Jeeves and Wooster, and appear to be precursors of the Jeeves stories. I've read the good ones before, in various collections, and can see why the others have remained in obscurity.

Calendar CAT, March, International Women's Day
Down Below by Leonora Carrington

After The Hearing Trumpet I've become a Leonora Carrington fan, so had to read her account of an episode of insanity which led to her incarceration in a brutal Spanish asylum. She remembers her delusions and her obsessions and the behaviour they led her to. There's an eerie logic to what she thought and did.

Prize Winners (read it for the L Alphakit, but decided to classify it as a prize winner)

The Bad Girl by Mario Vargas Llosa

A minor work by the Nobel Prize winner. The narrator, Ricardo, first falls in love with the bad girl when he is fifteen, and she a little younger. She appears in his middle-class Lima neighbourhood, masquerading as a Chilean to conceal her humble origins. Ricardo's obsession with the bad girl grows over the decades as she reappears time and again in his life, only to leave, driven by the search for money, security and excitement. About two-thirds of the way through things took quite a masochistic turn, which seemed out of character, but I'm no judge. Even so, I wanted to know what happened to the two main characters. Worth reading for Llosa's writing and an overview of four decades of Peruvian politics.

Series CAT, favourite author (Poirot series)

The ABC Murders by Agatha Christie

It's many years since I read this but, even though I didn't remember what happened, I had a strong sense of who the murderer was. No problem!

ETA Just found a record for this book. It was only 2013 that I read it! No wonder I knew who the murderer was.

I am waiting for my copy of Down Below to arrive. I only have that and a handful of her short stories still to read and then I have read everything by Leonora.

I have a copy of the Letters, Dreams and Other Writings by Remedios Varo to read. Remedios was Leonora’s best friend and she was the inspiration for the character of Carmella (Remedios, like Carmella, liked to write strange letters to people).

The ABC Murders is one of my favourite Christie books.i read it last year but I think there was at least 30 years since my first and second reading so I did not have a clue who the murderer was.

Series CAT:The ABC Murders by Agatha Christie

Book Group:Kitchen by Banana Yoshimoto

Three stories about grief.

Recent:. The Common Good by Robert B. Reich

The culture of "whatever it takes", winning at all costs has overtaken government and business. I read this book because I knew I would agree with Reich. That's part of the problem. Fortunately things aren't quite so bad in Australia, for which we can thank compulsory voting.

Alphakit: Loser Takes All by Graham Greene

A novella set in Monte Carlo. A romance of sorts, but I pity the woman who married the self-absorbed main character.

Humour and Off the Kindle: Nightmare Abbey by Thomas Love Peacock

A comic novel from 1818. It satirises the gothic and romantic novels of the time.

Recent: Reservoir 13 by Jon McGregor

A girl is lost in the hills outside a small English village. She is never found. The life of the village goes on, but no one forgets the missing girl. The language and structure accentuate the people's daily lives and the passing of time. I lost track of some of the people, who appear briefly then reappear months or years later. If your memory is as bad as mine, I'd recommend making a list of characters.

>65 Zozette: I plan to read some more of her short stories. Will be interested to hear what you think of the Remedios Varo book.

I have been recommending The Hearing Trumpet to many people and have bought a friend a copy.

Did you like Kitchen? I'm traveling to Japan in a couple months and looking for novels to get me in the mood for the trip.

>68 japaul22: It was OK. It was translated into American English, which was a deliberate choice I think, because the young characters are Americanised and there are many mentions of American products. For me that's a negative because in colloquial American it seems that every second word is got or gotten, jarring to non-Americans. The language varied between lyrical and banal. Also, there are supernatural sections, another negative. It was readable but not my cup of tea.

My all-time favourite Japanese book is The Makioka Sisters by Junichiro Tanizaki.

Adding The Wind-up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murikami

East is Always East by Pamela Wynne

I downloaded this book, first published in 1930, from Faded Page (thank you, rabbitprincess) because I couldn't resist the description:

A story of two beautiful twin sisters taken to India by their mother, one of whom becomes the object of the adoration of an Indian, Prince Hernam Singh, whose mother, the Maharanee, is violently opposed to their marriage. So extreme is the hatred of the mother to this union of her son with the foreign woman that she plots to break it by kidnapping the girl and throwing her to him in the belief that his Oriental blood will tell, and that he will treat her as he is accustomed to treat women...

It took quite a while for the mother and her twin daughters to get to India because the widowed mother fell in love with a man she met in a London boarding house (a genteel one) and a lot of romance went on. The widow was attractive to men because she was slim, youthful, elegantly dressed and as thick as a plank. More romance ensued on the boat, resulting in one of the twins becoming engaged to an India-based British major, so on arriving in India there is only one eligible woman left.

It wasn't the plot that kept me reading, nor the characters. It was the authentic, British Raj racism. The author lived with her husband and family in Bombay and was part of the Raj. Her characters' racism is virulent and unquestioning. They advocate violence and are disgusted with the namby-pamby bureaucrats in Simla who fear riots. The author's descriptions of Indians reveal loathing and contempt. Even Ghandi gets a contemptous mention. The British officials want only to go home to Britain. I think these were the genuine views of the author, who provided an authentic glimpse into the last days of the Raj.

Adding this to the Rescued from Obscurity category.

Read two B's for the Alphakit.

The Beautiful Derelict by Carolyn Wells A fact-free US crime novel from the 1930s. Not worth the trouble, but I read to the end to find out how the murderer had managed to use sodium metal as a poison. Where did the murderer store it, for a start? Does the author realise that metallic sodium and the sodium in soda mints are not at all the same thing? Forgive me, I am a chemistry teacher and I've added a lot of sodium to a lot of water over the years.These issues were not resolved!

The Seven Sleepers by Francis Beeding A boy's own adventure British spy story from 1925.

>71 pamelad: That does sound wildly implausible!

>71 pamelad: The Beautiful Derelict must have been annoying! Congratulations for staying with it to the end.

>71 pamelad: Ohhh, that would get my goat as well. Well done on not undergoing an energetic exothermic reaction in response. >;-)

Jane Harper's The Lost Man is set on a cattle station in outback Queensland, many hours' drive from the nearest small town, or even the nearest neighbours. The body of a man is found next to a stone monument, the only landmark for many kilometres. His fully equipped vehicle is parked 9 kilometres away, laden with food and water, but the dead man has died of dehydration in the searing heat. That's all the Australian atmosphere there is: heat, dust, distance. I could picture neither the countryside, nor the station house. The description of the outback was generic. There was absolutely no humour - none of the dry laconic outback wit you'd expect - everyone was deadly serious and dreary. Quite un-Australian. There was even some British slang coming out of the mouths of outback Australians. (The author has spent some time in Australia, but even more in Britain, where she was born.) This is a competent crime novel, except for the ending which is far too tidy, but it is not at all authentic.

Wildly over-hyped.

I have not forgiven Jane Harper for using the name of a revered Labor Prime Minister for the murderer in The Dry. Tone deaf.

A Terrible Country by Keith Gessen

In contrast to The Lost Man Gessen's book is based on real people in a real place. Like his main character, Andrei, Gessen emigrated from Russia to the US when he was six and, as an adult, moved back to Moscow for a year to look after his grandmother. The book is set in 2008-9 The Soviet system is no more, the oligarchs have taken Russia's resources. Professional people are poor, and only businessmen and criminals are rich. Andrei's grandmother has been cheated out of her dacha, and is about to lose the flat she has lived in for over fifty years. Andrei gets involved with a group of idealistic young Russians who advocate a new era of Socialism but, in his American naivete, fails to understand the reality of the Russian system.

I have recently read Second-hand Time, about the collapse of the Soviet system. It increased my interest in Gessen's book, which is a snapshot of a group of people and the way they lived in the new Russia. It's full of day-to-day details: buying food, catching buses, finding an affordable coffee shop, trying to meet people, playing hockey. The centre of the book is Andrei's grandmother, who is gradually succumbing to dementia.

This is a warm-hearted, open-minded, observant book. I recommend it highly.

The Map and the Territory by Michel Houellebecq

This was brilliant. It's funny, erudite and wrong. Jed Martin, the main character, is an artist. He is making a good living photographing industrial objects, but becomes fascinated by Michelin maps. His Michelin map artworks attract Michelin sponsorship, and a beautiful Russian Michelin employee. Jed becomes successful, rich, and famous, so famous that his backers employ the celebrated author, Michel Houellebec, to write the catalogue blurb for Jed's next exhibition. Houellebecq consistently describes himself as "the author of Atomised" and I laughed every time.

This book is a reflection on art and the art industry, marketing, capitalism, architecture, William Morris... There's an appallingly brutal murder, which you can't possibly take seriously. Jed helps to solve it.

If you like Houellebecq, read this. It won the Prix Goncourt.

The Map and the Territory is in two categories, Off the shelf and Prizewinners.

A Terrible Country goes in the Calendar CAT for Earth day.

The Lost Man goes in Crime.

The Story of Classic Crime in 100 Books by Martin Edwards

Amazon has offered another two free months of Kindle Unlimited, so I've sifted through the chaff and come up with this useful title. Edwards provides reviews of his 100 books, and mentions other books and writers in passing. I've read quite a few already, some of which I have rated highly and some as rubbish. Edwards loves a good locked room mystery, but I'm not so keen. I've found a few of his recommendations on Kindle Unlimited and have chosen some by authors I'd not heard of, and some obscure titles by authors I'd already encountered.

On the KU list: Calamity town by Ellery Queen; An Afternoon to Kill by Shelley Smith; Murder in Picadilly by Charles Kingston.

I've added a lot of others to my wishlist to read later.

I will scatter these titles between the Crime, Kindle Bargain and Rescued from Obscurity categories.

Also reading The Long Farewell by Don Charlwood. It's about the emigration of Australia's early settlers. Rough conditions on the ships, particularly in steerage.

I've also read:

An Unprotected Female at the Pyramids, a short story by Anthony Trollope. He's such a good observer of character, and so funny.

The Seven Sleepers and The Hidden Kingdom by Francis Beeding. Post WWI spy stories, entertaining but ludicrous. Same villain in both, a mastermind intent on restoring Germany to prime position in the world order. Same goodies as well, a brilliant French spy and his amiable colleague, and the British narrator. In both books there are strong, competent women, which is good to see.

Calamity Town by Ellery Queen An early Ellery Queen by the original writers. It's an artificial puzzle with a background of small town hypocrisy and viciousness. Flawed but readable.

Death in Captivity by Michael Gilbert Set during WWII in an Italian prison camp for British officers. Atmospheric with a ring of authenticity because the author spent part of the war in a similar camp. A good read.

I gave up on Murder in Piccadilly.

>81 pamelad: Ooh, I saw Death in Captivity on the British Library website and thought it looked good! Glad to hear you liked it.

>79 pamelad: I just download The Story of Classic Crime in 100 Books. I might be able to use books from it as a category next year if I have not read too many of them already.

17. Non-fiction

The Long Farewell by D. E. Charlwood

The voluntary passengers on the sailing ships that left Britain for Australia in the mid to late nineteenth century expected never to see their homes again. Some of them would never see land again, dying during the long and treacherous voyage. Others would make prosperous lives in their new country.

A few of the travellers kept diaries of their journeys, and Charlwood has mined them for the details that make his descriptions of these journeys so engrossing. In fact diaries comprise the the last few chapters of the book: a merchant travelling second-class; a married woman in steerage; a ship's doctor.

This was a Kindle Unlimited selection. Best one so far.

Charlwood also wrote All the Green Year, an Australian coming of age classic, and two books of autobiography about his experiences as a navigator in Bomber command during WWII. One of them, Journeys into Night is available in Kindle Unlimited, so I'll give it a go.

17. Non-fiction

The Long Farewell by D. E. Charlwood

The voluntary passengers on the sailing ships that left Britain for Australia in the mid to late nineteenth century expected never to see their homes again. Some of them would never see land again, dying during the long and treacherous voyage. Others would make prosperous lives in their new country.

A few of the travellers kept diaries of their journeys, and Charlwood has mined them for the details that make his descriptions of these journeys so engrossing. In fact diaries comprise the the last few chapters of the book: a merchant travelling second-class; a married woman in steerage; a ship's doctor.

This was a Kindle Unlimited selection. Best one so far.

Charlwood also wrote All the Green Year, an Australian coming of age classic, and two books of autobiography about his experiences as a navigator in Bomber command during WWII. One of them, Journeys into Night is available in Kindle Unlimited, so I'll give it a go.

A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles

If you are interested in Russian history, do not read this book! It is a twee fairy-tale written from the snide perspective of a snobbish American.

Our book group chose it, otherwise I wouldn't have bothered to finish it.

Some good books about Russia:

Second-hand Time and The Unwomanly Face of War by Svetlana Alexievich
Life and Fate and Everything Flows by Vasily Grossman
Memories: from Moscow to the Black Sea by Teffi

>86 pamelad: Oh I really liked A Gentleman In Moscow! But I don't know what the word twee means! But then again, I didn't read it to learn about Russia, just for entertainment purposes. Likewise, I barely finished Second Hand Time as it was so repetitive.

>87 Tess_W: Twee means too sentimental, too sweet, too cute. Cloying. I read Rules of Civility last year and quite liked it, though I have no memory of it now. I have a problem with Towles writing claptrap about Russia, but none with him writing about America!

Perhaps A Gentleman in Moscow and Second-hand Time are mutually exclusive - if you like one, you won't like the other!

Fixed touchstone.

Category: Kindle bargain

An Afternoon to Kill by Shelley Smith

This was a recommendation from The Story of Classic Crime in 100 Books. It's available on Kindle Unlimited.

A callow young man, on his way to a job as tutor to the son of a maharajah, lands in a north Indian desert when the plane he is travelling in has engine trouble. He makes his way to the only building in sight, a villa occupied by an eccentric old woman who tells him a story of deceit, corruption and murder as he waits for the plane to be repaired.

Entertaining.

Category: Calendar CAT - May

The Tree of Heaven by May Sinclair

First published in 1917, this is the story of a middle-class English family. It touches on suffragism and spiritualism, but the main interest for me was the impact of WWI, described by someone who was living through it. By 1917, young men knew that their deaths were almost inevitable, but it was a matter of honour to enlist and to sacrifice one's life. Families were shamed if their sons did not enlist. From my perspective in 2019, the concepts of the nobility of sacrifice, the ecstasy of death in battle are toxic, but in 1917, with sons, brothers, friends and husbands dying at the front, people must have needed to comfort themselves that these deaths were for a purpose. I've heard the term "the war to end all wars", but this is the first time I've seen it written by someone living through it, who desperately needed to believe it.

Murder in the Mill-Race by E C R Lorac

Sister Monica has run the local orphanage for 25 years, but she has gone a little mad. The villages and the quality say she's wonderful, but that's because they're intimidated by what Sister Monica might do to them.

A traditional British crime novel from 1953, set in an isolated village. Rationing, villagers speaking in dialect, affable policemen from Scotland Yard. The underlying scandal isn't very scandalous, and there's an awful lot of tying loose ends together, but it's readable.

This goes in the Kindle Bargain category because it's a Kindle Unlimited book I've read on a free trial.

I've read a few Kindle Unlimited books in the last few weeks, and have some recommendations.

D. E. Charlwood wrote The Long Farewell >84 pamelad: and Journeys into Night. The second is a memoir of his WWII experiences. Charlwood, an Australian, was a navigator with the British Bomber Command, directing his pilot to the German targets. Hardly anyone in these bomber crews survived their thirty missions. Young men of twenty were promoted as squadron leaders. They measured their life expectancy in weeks.

Shelley Smith was a recommendation from Martin Edwards's The Story of Classic Crime in 100 Books. I started with An Afternoon to Kill >89 pamelad:, and continued with The Ballad of the Running Man and Come and Be Killed. All of them are well-written, entertaining, character-driven, and well-plotted.

William Haggard writes spy stories. I read Venetian Blind, which wasn't bad. It's part of a series. It wasn't memorable, but it was competently written. Sometimes that's enough.

Another Shelley Smith, The Party at No. 5, which is in H. R. F. Keating's list of the 100 best mystery books.

8. Crime

Sting of Death by Shelley Smith

You have to be lucky to find anything worth reading on Kindle Unlimited, so Shelley Smith's crime novels have been a real find. This one was set in the aftermath of WWII. It contains some well-drawn, worldly, obnoxious characters, as do all of the Shelley Smiths I've read so far. After 460 pages of A Gentleman in Moscow, I'm pleased that these crime novels are short. This one was only 158 pages. Thank you, Shelley!

I am also reading Rachel Ray by Anthony Trollope. Enjoying it. I don't think he ever wrote a bad book.

I have started China Mieville's The City & The City for the Off the Shelf and Genres I Don't Usually Read categories. Will have to set myself a number of pages to read per day, or else I won't pick it up again.

Started Michael Innes's A Private View for the June Calendar CAT, but gave up after a chapter. I don't find the callous jocularity amusing. I used to, though, when I was in my teens reading this series for the first time.

The original title is One Man Show.

Getting into The City & The City now that I have a bit more of a clue about what's going on.

The City & The City by China Mieville

While I admired Mieville's imagination, attention to detail and craftmanship in the creation of the divided cities of the book, and was entertained by the story, I thought the elaborate construction was pointless.

I'm still planning to try some fantasy and science fiction classics, and have the following books on my list of possibilities: Dune, I, Robot, A Canticle for Liebowitz, Solaris, The Left Hand of Darkness. Any recommendations?

I loved both Dune and the Left Hand of Darkness. I, Robot is more of a collection of short stories, so if you like short stories, they are good. I haven't read the other two yet.

I liked I, Robot and found it pretty accessible, even for someone who's not big into sci fi. I also personally loved A Canticle for Leibowitz, but it does talk a lot about religion and philosophy, so if that's not your bag, it may not be for you.

>95 pamelad: I really loved The Left Hand of Darkness, so I'd definitely recommend that one. Dune is also worth reading, though I'm not so enthusiastic about the sequels.

>96 LisaMorr:, >97 christina_reads:, >98 mathgirl40: Thank you! I'm going with The Left Hand of Darkness first because you all liked it, then A Canticle for Liebowitz because talk of religion and philosophy appeals to me.

17. Non-fiction

The Book of Forgotten Authors by Christopher Fowler

While I don't agree with all of Fowler's choices I'm happy to give some of these authors a go, and have made a list of twenty-two. Some of the writers he mentions, such as Margery Allingham and Georgette Heyer, are still widely read. Quite a few others, I've already read or had on my wishlist, and some don't appeal. But twenty-two is a good number of new writers to try, so overall this is a useful book, particularly now that publishers are re-releasing their back catalogues as ebooks.

I was surprise to see some authors who I know quite well being included in The Book of Forgotten Authors such as John Christopher, Graham Joyce, Georgette Heyer and Jack Finney.

1. Lists (1001 Books) and 3. From the shelf

The Emigrants by W. G. Sebald

This is difficult to describe, so I'll quote Susan Sontag from the back cover: "It's like nothing I've ever read.. A book of excruciating sobriety and warmth and a magical concreteness of observation.. I know of no book which conveys more about that complex fate, being a European at the end of European civilization. "

Sebald's narrator describes the lives of four men: two Jewish boys, a doctor and a painter, left Germany as children, finding out when the war ended that their families no longer existed; a primary school teacher with one Jewish grandfather was Jewish enough to lose his job, but German enough to be conscripted; before WWI the narrator's great uncle travelled the world as a paid companion to a fragile young man from a wealthy American Jewish family, and never recovered from the young man's early death. What the four men have in common is an early life of love and happiness that has been destroyed, leaving them living melancholy, twilight lives. The holocaust permeates the book, but is never named.

The narration seems to be balanced on the divide between fact and fiction. The four men are based on actual people, or composites of actual people, and the events that they experienced happened to actual people. There are extracts from diaries, old photographs and facsimiles of letters throughout the book, none of them captioned. There is no real plot, but the writing and the atmosphere draw you in.

I recommend The Emigrants highly, and will seek out another of the author's works.

>101 Zozette: I haven't come across John Christopher or Jack Finney before and will check them out.

ETA Science fiction. That's why I didn't make a note of them.

>102 pamelad: Wow - that sounds like a 1001 book I need to get to sooner rather than later.

The Grass is Singing

Doris Lessing left Rhodesia for England with the draft of this book in her suitcase. It is the tragic story of two people, woefully unsuited to each other, whose marriage is the start of their destruction. The man is running his small farm into bankruptcy by sheer incompetence, while the woman, who is unable to help herself, becomes obsessed by an African servant. These two characters come alive, but the servant does not, and remains an archetype. Even so, this is a harrowing depiction of institutionalised racism in Southern Africa, where the native people are valued less than farm animals.

This book has been on my wishlist for years, ever since I read the Martha Quest series, also set in Rhodesia, also highly recommended.

This is another 1001 book. It's going in the Wishlist category and the Lists category. It could have gone in Prizes because Lessing won the Nobel prize.

Queen Lucia by E. F. Benson

This is a re-read for the Queen's Birthday holiday in the June calendar CAT.

Like Noel Coward, Gertrude Lawrence, Nancy Mitford and W. H. Auden who would "pay anything for Lucia books" I love this series. Lucia is the queen of the social scene in Riseholm, a small, English sea-side town. The competition for her position is ruthless, but Lucia can out-manoeuvre anyone. British high comedy at its best.

>105 pamelad: Definitely taking a BB. And Martha Quest series is great as well?

>106 pamelad: Complete omnibus is on my TBR shelf. Must get to soon!

>107 NinieB: I read the first four Martha Quest novels and thought they were excellent. Lessing writes complex characters. I didn't read the fifth, The Four-Gated City because it is science fiction, off in a new direction.

>109 NinieB: I think I had just heard of the last one being sci-fi. But rather than commit to a whole series, I'll start with The Grass Is Singing.

2. From the Kindle, 12. In translation

Fantomas by Pierre Souvestre

Fantomas is a ruthless criminal, a master of disguise. Juve is the policeman, also a master of disguise, who has dedicated his life to destroying Fantomas.

This French crime classic was first published in 1911. It is ludicrous, blood-thirsty and entertaining.

This has been on my Kindle for years. It is on the 1001 Books list.

>110 pamelad: The Fantomas movies with Jean Marais and Louis de Funès were a staple of Sunday afternoon TV in Germany last century. I had no idea they were based on an actual book! And a 1001 book? Off to find a copy.

>111 MissWatson: There's a whole series, so you're in luck!

18. Humour

Mapp and Lucia by E. F. Benson

After reading Queen Lucia for the Calendar CAT I had to keep going.

Lucia has cemented her position as the queen of Riseholme's social scene and is in need of new territory to conquer, so she rents out her house in Riseholme and moves to Tilling. Miss Mapp has long established herself as the leader of Tilling's social scene so Lucia's incursion leads to a battle.

Trivial, waspish and very, very funny.

Top Six new reads so far this year:

The Hearing Trumpet by Leonora Carrington
Second-hand Time by Svetlana Alexievich
The Map and the Territory by Michel Houellebecq
The Little Hotel by Christina Stead
The Emigrants by W. G. Sebald
The Grass is Singing by Doris Lessing

Special mention:
A Terrible Country by Keith Gessen

Waited for the touchstones to appear, but got a Gateway Timeout message. Will try again later.

In case I'm missing out on some really good books by avoiding the science fiction/fantasy genre, I've read the classic The Left Hand of Darkness. I admired the imagination that could manufacture a whole new world, complete with language, but was irritated rather than entertained. A Canticle for Liebowitz is still on my list, but maybe next year.

Putting it in 9. Genres I Don't Usually Read

It also counts for this month's series CAT.

Deleted the practice calendar, which is now in the August Calendar CAT. Was fiddling around with saving a spreadsheet as a graphic file (Easy. Print screen, then Paint), finding a free photo host, then testing which code to cut and paste to display the spreadsheet in a post. There's a wayward bracket somewhere in the middle of August, but it can stay there as a cryptic symbol, or a small imperfection like those that make Japanese pottery more beautiful.

Read two books from The Story of Classic Crime in 100 Books, and put them both in 16. Rescued from Obscurity.

Mr Bowling Buys a Newspaper is written from the perspective of a murderer who kills for amusement and wants to be caught. It was a light, entertaining read, but the levity made me cringe.

Murder by Matchlight was first published in 1945 and is set in London during the blackout. Atmospheric, but a very artificial plot. I was interested in the extreme prejudice against the Irish: ...he became a living symbol of what we used to call the Irish Problem. He had the wit, the versatility, the charm and the good looks of the real Southern Irishman - and he had the illogical, rebellious, thriftless living habits of that type.

How's that for a stereotype!

Re-read Persuasion for the Alphakit and liked it as much as I did the first time.

Read The Hearing Trumpet for the second time this year because it's my choice for our book group. Enjoyed it again.

I now have at least 4 books in 19 categories (82 books altogether), so have completed my goal. I'll continue adding books to the same categories. Might add another category or two.

Congratulations on your success!

I will be interested in knowing what other members of your book group think/thought about The Hearing Trumpet.

I've read many books in the last couple of weeks.

Memorable Golden Age Crime novels:

Family Matters by Anthony Rolls The self-important, unemployed engineer, Robert Kewdingham, is a terrrible husband and father, a hoarder, and a bore. A worthy murder victim. Two poisoners attempt the task. This is a sardonic, amusing black comedy.

The House of Doctor Edwardes by Francis Beeding This one has everything: a mental asylum in a bleak and isolated castle; satanic rituals; a doctor in charge who may not be what he seems; a woman alone. It was the basis of Alfred Hitchcock's film, Spellbound.

Forgettable Golden Age Crime novels:

These were readable, but I've forgotten them already, except for the man beating his daughter in Ladies Bane, a 1950's Miss Silver by Patricia Wentworth that reads as though it had been written 20 years earlier. Erk.

The Threefold Cord by Francis Vivian
The Night of Fear by Moray Dalton

Also read Lucia's Progress by E. F. Benson. A re-read. Still funny.

The Seventh Cross by Anna Seghers

Last year at the Melbourne International Film Festival, I saw Christian Petzold's film Transit, which was based on Segher's book. The film transplanted the story from 1942 Marseilles to a modern setting which didn't really work. I thought the pluses were probably due to the book, so I put Seghers on the wishlist. After reading The Seventh Cross, I'll definitely read Transit as well. Here's a review of the film: https://variety.com/2018/film/reviews/transit-review-berlinale-2018-1202703291/

The Seventh Cross was first published in 1942, and is set in 1936. People are already incarcerated in concentration camps for political dissidence, or because their neighbours denounced them. Outside the camps, the population is adjusting to the Nazi repression, pretending not to notice the screams coming from the camps and trying to stay out of trouble. The seven crosses stand for seven escapees from a concentration camp. Some of the escapees, including the main protagonist, are activist members of the Communist Party who will have to rely on their old friends and political networks for their survival.

This is a gripping, suspenseful story. Despite the desperation of the times, the message of human solidarity is uplifting. The author was Jewish and a Communist. She and her family escaped to Mexico just in time, but her mother died in a concentration camp.

Highly recommended.

>123 pamelad: That was a point made by many critics here in Germany, that the transplant to modern times didn't work. But it put Anna Seghers back on my radar, I really need to get to this. Did you know that the Seventh Cross was also made into a movie?

>124 MissWatson: The one with Spencer Tracy? I'm looking out for it.

>123 pamelad: I read and really liked Transit. I’ll put The Seventh Cross on my list.

>125 pamelad: Yes.

>121 Zozette: Only four of us at the book group this time. I was the only mad keen fan of The Hearing Trumpet. The others liked it in parts, but found it all a bit too weird. We all loved the friendship between Marian and Carmella.

We very rarely read a book that everyone likes. So far, nearly everyone has liked We Have Always Lived in the Castle, Pride and Prejudice , The Dry and The Great Gatsby.

No touchstones today.

Transit by Anna Seghers
Untouchable by Mulk Raj Anand

I've grouped these together because they are pieces of history, written by people who were there. Transit was first published in 1942, and Untouchable in 1935.

Transit's narrator is unnamed. He has escaped a concentration camp and made his way to Marseilles, where he would like to stay but cannot. People can stay in Marseilles only if they are trying to leave. They are waiting for passages on ships to South America, accumulating masses of essential documents, finding themselves trapped when one document expires as they wait for another. The talk is of ships and visas. Seghers herself existed in this limbo, escaping France on the last ship to South America.

RebeccaNYC wrote an excellent review of Transit, which is on the third review page (dated 2013). Rebecca is sadly missed, and it's good to be reminded of her via her library and reviews.

Untouchable is a day in the life of an Indian sweeper, a member of he lowest rung of the lowest caste, who has to warn others that he is coming in case they inadvertently touch him and contaminate themselves. The writer is of a much higher caste and has tried to imagine the thoughts and feeling of his main character. I don't know that he has been successful, but that's not the main point. India is fighting for independence, and the liberation of the untouchables is a core aim of Ghandi's crusade. The book brings the plight of the untouchables to the attention of educated, high caste Indians. Towards the end there is even a debate, where two intellectuals discuss Ghandi's policies. I thought that this was a so-so piece of fiction, but was fascinated to be there, seeing the fight for independence through the eyes of someone who was present.

Educated by Tara Westover

Westover is the youngest of the seven children in a fundamentalist Mormon family who believe that the end of the world is near and are preparing for the apocalypse by storing weapons, water, fuel and food. Lots of jars of preserved peaches. Her father, Gene in the book, may be bipolar. He is certainly erratic and reckless, and puts his family in danger, trusting that the Lord will protect them, or, if the Lord doesn't, that the injuries are God's will. One of the brothers, Shawn, is a violent misogynist who leaves his sisters and girlfriends fearing for their lives. The parents take his side against Tara.

In Gene's family, girls are expected to live modestly and obediently, to marry as soon as they are old enough, to have lots of children, and to believe everything their father tells them. The younger children have never been to school, and their births have not been registered. They are taught to read, but after that their education lapses. When Tara decides to go to university, she knows almost nothing.

Good on Tara for getting an education and learning to think for herself. The book is too long, and might have been better had Tara left it for a few years so that she had a bit more perspective, but I applaud her efforts and sympathise with the pain the breach with her family has caused her.

An interesting read.

>129 pamelad: >130 pamelad: Very interesting reviews! And thank you for reminding me to put Educated on my reading list.

Humour

How Steeple Sinderby Wanderers Won the FA Cup by J. L. Carr

J. L. Carr wrote short, sardonic, comic novels with an undercurrent of melancholy. A Month in the Country, which won the Booker, is his best-known and, until recently, the only one in print. I was surprised and pleased to find How Steeple Sinderby Wanderers Won the FA Cupon display at the local library Thanks Penguin.

This book was published and set in the seventies, but it dates back to Carr's experiences in a local football team in the thirties. A Hungarian professor supplies the plan for the Wanderers' success; a former professional footballer who has returned to his birth-place of Sinderby with his badly-injured wife to be near his family puts the plan into action; another ex-professional who gave up football because it was meaningless is persuaded to join the team; a freakishly well-coordinated milkman is trained to be goalie. Although I have no interest in soccer, I was highly amused by this ridiculous book.

Series CAT

The Affair of the Thirty-nine Cufflinks by James Anderson

Entertaining enough cosy crime novel. Set in the thirties, written this decade. Not memorable.

Off the Kindle

Black Sheep by Ruby M. Ayres and The Beggar Man by Ruby M. Ayres

I had come across the author's name in novels of the thirties, usually in the context of snotty upper-middle-class women making scathing comments about the reading habits of the lower classes. I cannot remember which of these books is which, now. Rich, older man with chequered past marries naive young woman far below him on the social scale.

Rescued from Obscurity

Address Unknown by Kressmann Taylor

Written in the thirties, this is an exchange of letters between a Jewish, New York-based art dealer and his business partner who has returned to Germany. The early letters are between friends, but as the political climate changes in Germany the relationship between the men changes. This book gave an early warning of the situation in the Germany of the thirties, and as a demonstration of the way people can allow self-interest and prevailing opinion to overcome their own ethics, it is still important today.

Non-fiction

Dreyer's English by Benjamin Dreyer

This book about grammar was too American for me (which is an unfair criticism for an American book) and I found the author's humour irritating.

Alpha KIT

The Three Clerks by Anthony Trollope

The three clerks are typical of Trollope's characters in that they are a mixture of good and bad, in various proportions that often depend on their age, their situation and their finances. His villains have no redeeming qualities, so it is satisfying to see them end badly. Trollope is such a good-humoured, tolerant writer, with a firm moral basis. When Trump and Johnston are on the front pages, Trollope is the antidote.

Calendar CAT

Prelude by Katherine Mansfield

A long short story about a family in New Zealand. Mansfield really seemed to know what people were thinking, the undercurrents beneath a seemingly happy family. So many small, significant details.

>132 pamelad: I'm happy to see you enjoyed the JL Carr soccer book. My sister recommended it to me when it was republished in Germany as a book that people with no fondness for the game can enjoy, and she was absolutely right.

From the Kindle

A God in Ruins by Kate Atkinson

I started this earlier in the year, put it down, then started again. It follows the life of Teddy, ideal son and brother, a paragon of kindness, a WWII fighter pilot. Contrary to expectations, Teddy survives the war and returns home. He deserves a happier life than the one Atkinson gives him. Such a dreary, depressing book. Annoying ending.

Book Group

Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman

My book club chose this. I wouldn't otherwise have read it, due to the twee title, but enjoyed it a lot more than I expected. I was amused by Eleanor's acerbic descriptions of people. I didn't find her authentic, but she was entertaining.

Crime.

The Snatch by Bill Pronzini

This is the first in the Nameless Detective series. The 9-year-old son of a millionaire is kidnapped, and Nameless is called in by his desperate parents. There's an awful lot of description in this book - furniture, clothes, scenery - which slows the pace. I guessed the kidnapper early on.

Australian.

Peace by Garry Disher

Disher's Australian crime novels focus on character. His people are recognisable types. They're a flawed, funny, kind, interfering, violent, ice-addicted, sponge-baking mixture. Peace is set in a tiny South Australian town near Port Pirie (which is a long, long way from anywhere). It's a police procedural whose main character is Hirsch, an honest detective who was tarnished by a corruption scandal in which he played no part. He's been demoted and sent to Woop Woop. Hirsh doesn't just enforce the law: he checks on the welfare of the people living in his vast police district.

There's a horse slashing, where a breeder's ponies are killed, and a murder that might be connected to police corruption. This was not one of Disher's best plots. Even so, I enjoyed the book. Hirsch isn't the cliched depressed detective - he has his good and bad days. He doesn't have an alcohol problem. He's not a super cop - he makes mistakes. Disher was brought up in the bush and knows the people he's writing about. This is much more nuanced than outback noir.

Ah, the reviews I was hoping for! Sorry The Snatch didn't work out for you; I can't deny that Pronzini's writing improved over time.

But I'll definitely watch for Peace; Disher is such a great novelist.

>137 NinieB: I haven't written him off - will try a later one.

Crime

No Man's Nightingale by Ruth Rendell

I was pleased to find an Inspector Wexford book I hadn't read. Wexford is retired, but is pleased when his ex-colleague, Mike Burden, requests his help. The female vicar, who has Indian ancestry, has been strangled. Is the crime connected with her daughter's mysterious parentage, or could racism or misogyny be the motive?

Is He Popenjoy?

The Marquis of Brotherton has spent most of his adult life in Italy, living on the proceeds of his estates and leaving the rest of his family to scratch along in what is, for the upper classes, semi-poverty. His brother, Lord George Germaine, marries Mary Lovelace, the daughter of the dean of the local cathedral. She is beautiful, good-humoured and wealthy, but her father started life as a stable boy so she is barely accepted by Lord George's mother and sisters and not at all by the Marquis, who is a very nasty piece of work.

Just when everyone has accepted that the Marquis will die young of self-indulgence, he turns up at he family seat with an Italian wife and infant son, and boots the family out. The dean's dearest ambition is to be the grandfather of the heir to Brotherton, so he sets out, aided by the energy, competence and intelligence that have enabled him to rise so far from his humble beginnings, to prove that the Marquis's son is illegitimate, dragging the much less capable George along with him. Popenjoy is the name given to the heir of Brotherton, hence the question, "Is he Popenjoy?"

This is a very good Trollope. Wonderful characters, particularly the dean. George acts like a pompous fool, but Trollope sympathises. That's one of the things that I love about Trollope's writing, his liking for his characters and his fairness to them. You know that if a character ends up badly he, or she, truly deserves to.

>139 pamelad: Great review. I have loved every Trollope novel I've read so far.

>139 pamelad: >140 MissWatson: Yes, excellent review. In a recent review of my 2019 reading I was surprised to see that I have read only one Trollope this year, a deficiency I plan to remedy in 2020.

>139 pamelad: I've only read one Trollope, so am on the look out for others. That looks like a good one to target.

>139 pamelad:, >140 MissWatson:, >141 NinieB:, >142 Helenliz: Do you all know about the excellent group reads that Liz (lyzard) leads? I've participated in several and they always really enhance my reading experience - she is a real expert! She mainly posts in the 75ers group. Check out post 19 and 37 for info on her next Trollope group read, The Bertrams.

http://www.librarything.com/topic/312702#6973239

>143 japaul22: yes and I agree with your endorsement. The last one she led, the Three Clerks was my first Trollope. I agree, they're great to be able to ask that nagging question about context and implication of something puzzling.

>143 japaul22: Yes, so do I. I shall need a reminder for the Bertrams next year, as I am not active in the 75ers.

>143 japaul22: I've downloaded The Bertrams so am ready for lyzard's group read. Heading over to the 75ers group to register my interest. Thank you.

Scrublands by Chris Hammer

This book won a CWA award for the best crime novel by a first-time author, but it is a deeply flawed book. The female characters, including the main female character Mandalay Blonde (really?) are victims. Mandalay is, of course, beautiful, as befits a main female character who is the love interest of the tired middle-aged reporter, Martin Scarsdale. Wish fulfilment for the ageing reporter who wrote the book! Most of the other male characters are two-dimensional collections of quirks.

The action takes place in an imaginary small town in south-west NSW, in the Riverina. It's summer (of course!), and there's a drought. The town is dying. The locals are depressed, which is reasonable because there are so many vicious criminals and psychopaths around that they must be scared witless. A year ago, the local Anglican priest, all dressed up in his vestments with the sun shining on his cross, shot and killed five parishioners with a high-powered rifle. Scarsdale, racked with PTSD from an incident in the Middle-East, has been sent by his editor to follow up on the mysterious priest and the aftermath of his crime.

Scrublands has enough plots and sub-plots for two or three books. The ending is a ridiculous cliche. It romps along because there is so much going on, but overall it's a great disappointment.

I am reading The Marriage of Elinor by Mrs Oliphant for the AlphaKIT, The Commandant by Jessica Andersonon my new KOBO and Murder for Pleasure because I'd come across so many mentions of it over the years.

Howard Haycraft took his detective fiction very, very seriously. I've just read a chapter where he discusses WWI from the perspective of its impact on the British crime novel!

I’ve been feeling to read some French, like a middle grade book or something; I don’t know that I could understand an Adult Fic. LOL. But then I think of all the books I want to read and I don’t know that it’s worth my time!
Maybe I’ll just keep my Franglais accent and mediocre French writing skills. 😂

>149 LiterallyLauralee: I borrowed a friend's copy of L'Etranger a couple of years ago, and it's still sitting on the shelf. I read it at school a very long time ago and have read it in English a few times. Maybe next year! Over the last few years I have done a few French courses and can understand French that is spoken tres lentement (please excuse missing accents). Speaking is even harder. While I'm deciding which tense to use, the conversation has moved on. I'm impressed that you can speak at all!

The Marriage of Elinor by Mrs Oliphant

Elinor has been brought up by her widowed mother and is used to having her own way. While staying with relatives in London she falls in love with the disreputable Phil Compton, the youngest son of an earl. She thinks she can change his ways and refuses to listen to warnings from the many people who are concerned for her welfare and know more of the world than she does.

I enjoyed The Marriage of Elinor for the well-drawn characters, including the intensely irritating Elinor, the observations of people's behaviour that brought to mind people I know know, and the the snapshot of women's lives in the 1890s. Women had few rights, and if they separated from their husbands they risked losing their children, no matter how bad the husband's behaviour.

The Commandant by Jessica Anderson

This is part of the Text Classics series, forgotten books by Australian writers. It is Jessica Anderson's only historical novel, set in the penal colony of Moreton Bay, in the vicinity of current-day Brisbane. The prisoners are re-offenders, treated as hardened criminals who can be controlled only by severe physical punishment. The commander, Patrick Logan, is notorious for the harsh treatment he metes out, with 100 lashes the norm for even minor infractions. A journalist in Sydney has published a rumour that Logan's excessive punishment has killed a prisoner, and Logan is suing for slander, but is unable to see that the court case will put his reputation and career at risk. Logan himself believes that he is carrying out the Governor's orders, and that the Governor will back him, but the government in England has changed, as have policies on the treatment of prisoners. The Governor has sent a Captain, the same rank as Logan, ostensibly as a replacement for a Lieutenant but, unknown to Logan, in reality to take over his command.

The Commandant dominates the book, but he is a background figure. In the foreground are his wife Letty, her sister Frances, and the two doctors. The doctors deal with the aftermath of Logan's punishments, but the women remain unaware until a domestic incident results in a revelation.

The Commandant is based on real events and real people. Logan is remembered for his exploration of the land around Brisbane, as well as for his notorious cruelty.

ETA This is on the 1001 books list.

>152 pamelad: Did you like it? I really enjoyed Eleanor Dark's trilogy about early NSW, and I'd be happy to branch out to early Queensland.

>153 NinieB: Yes I did. The characters are well-drawn, the observations are subtle, and the writing is excellent. I would recommend it.

>154 pamelad: Then it goes on my reading list!

>152 pamelad: Thanks for the review. I'm going to continue with a 1001 Books category next year, and I will definitely keep this in mind as a candidate.

The Erratics by Vicki Laveau-Harvie

This book won the Stella Prize. The author was born in Canada, but spent many years in France and is now settled in Australia. She preferred to live as far away as she could from her mother, the central character of this memoir, the parent of nightmares. As the book begins, Laveau-Harvie's mother has been hospitalised with a broken hip just in time to prevent her from killing her husband and throwing away all their money on internet scams. She has already persuaded her husband to disinherit their two daughters and ban all contact, but the women take the opportunity to visit their father. The narrative hops back and forward in time, adding layers to the character of this monstrous mother. Throughout, it is enlivened by the author's black humour. She has done well to survive, and I admire her.

The author is in her seventies and this is her first book. It is well worth reading.

>157 pamelad: Picked this up from the library myself - finally! I have had it on my TBR since it was published.

>157 pamelad: I'm intrigued by the sound of this book (I also read the Stella Prize page), sort of in the way one is drawn to a train wreck. Is the reading experience in that vein, or more positive? Looks like it's going to be published in the US in 2020.

>159 NinieB: It's not a misery memoir. The write doesn't dwell on the effects of her childhood. She's survived it, and is looking back from that perspective with a sense of wonder at how awful it was, and even with humour. She's not saying "poor me" at all.

>158 JayneCM: I'll be interested to hear what you think of it.

>152 pamelad: I've taken a book bullet for The Commandant, too. I love both historical fiction and reading about Australia - so this one is right in my wheelhouse!

I've been reading Howard Haycraft's Murder for Pleasure and following up some of his recommendations.

Burn This by Helen McCloy
The Impostor by Helen McCloy

The first book in Helen McCloy's Basil Willing series was published in 1938, but I started with the last one, Burn This because it is available in the Open Library. The plot was just silly. The Impostor a non-series book was also one of McCloy's later efforts, with a plot even sillier. I haven't given up, though. I'm going to try one of her earlier books.

Unidentified Woman by Mignon G. Eberhart

Howard thought that romance had no place in mysteries and that many women writers paid far too little attention to logical detection so, in defiance, I searched the Open Library for one of my favourite formulaic female writers, Mignon G. Eberhart. Fabulous name! This one sticks closely to the formula. There's a wealthy female orphan in peril, a wrong Mr Right who is behaving oddly and manipulatively, a Mr Wrong who is looking more and more like Mr Right, and lots of murders. Who can this poor girl trust?

The Bellamy Trial by Frances Noyes Hart

Howard says this book has historical significance because it is the first detective novel based on a trial. It was first published in 1927 and was based very loosely on the 1926 Halls-Mills trial. I can recommend it.

This one was downloaded from Faded Page (thank-you Rabbitprincess) and is free of the typos that litter the epubs from the Open Library.

I gave up on Bill Bryson's The Road to Little Dribbling. Too much moaning. Now reading The Chuckling Fingers by Howard Haycraft recommended author, Mabel Seeley.

>163 pamelad: Ooh, The Bellamy Trial is on Faded Page? Good to know. I got the American Mystery Classics edition from the library, but Faded Page might be handy if I run out of time on the loan and can't renew.

>163 pamelad: Really, the earlier (1930s-1950s) Helen McCloy is so worthwhile. But you may have trouble finding her books—they are pretty scarce in the US.

The Chuckling Fingers by Mabel Seeley

Howard Haycraft was enthusiastic about Mabel Seeley, so I borrowed this book from the Open Library. I was surprised to find that it was a Had-I-But-Known, because Haycraft commented scathingly on this sub-genre of detective fiction, but I don't mind a good HIBK, and this was a good one.

The Setting is a huge old house called The Fingers after the geological feature where it is sited, a rock formation on the shores of Lake Superior where the moving water makes an eerie, chuckling noise. The house is occupied by two branches of the Heaton family: the two daughters, Myra and Octavia, and son, Phillips, of Charles Heaton, and Bill, the son of Charles' brother, Dan Heaton. Charles' branch is declining, while Dan's branch is flourishing.

Bill has recently married Jacqueline, the widow of Myra's son, who has a little daughter, Toby, the loved grand-daughter of Myra. Things aren't going well at Fingers. Ann Gay, Jacqueline's cousin, as close as a sister, receives a letter telling her that Jacqueline needs her help. Jacqueline certainly does! There are some very nasty things going on at Fingers, and Jacqueline is the scapegoat.

I enjoyed this atmospheric, forties mystery, and will read more by Mabel Seeley. Many, many typos, however, in this epub. Not enough recognition in the OCR.

>167 pamelad: Noted, BB.

I just reached the end of The crying Sisters by Mabel Seeley, and some very necessary pages were missing! Not too sure about the Open Library and Internet Archive any more.

>169 pamelad: Yikes! Not good.

>169 pamelad: There was another copy, fortunately, so I put myself on the waiting list and was notified today. Read the last two pages. It ended more or less as I expected.

Because I am a glutton for punishment, I have borrowed Whistling Shadow from the Open Library.

Persevering with the Open Library and have not come across any more books with missing pages. I've read a few more of Howard Haycraft's recommended books and authors and given up on a couple.

Gave up on Through a Glass, Darkly by Helen McCloy because the theme of doppelgangers was too far towards the supernatural for my taste. Also gave up on Selwyn Jepson's The Assassin because it is about a jealous husband and I couldn't be bothered.

I've enjoyed everything I've read by Mabel Seeley - Whistling Shadow, Chuckling Fingers, Crying Sisters - and have borrowed another, Eleven Came Back. Seeley judges her female characters from a domestic perspective: to earn her approval they should be good wives, good mothers and good housekeepers. People might become murderers if their mothers don't stay home with them!

Just finished One More Unfortunate by Edgar Lustgarten. I skimmed it, even though it was short, because I found it so unpleasant. A man is on trial for the murder of a prostitute. The reader knows he didn't do it, but what will the jury decide?

Enough crime for a while. Now reading The Hare with Amber Eyes and Voyage in the Dark.

>173 pamelad: I bought The Hare With Amber Eyes ages ago as it looked so fascinating. Still have not read it, so look forward to hearing what you think.

Anger and Forgiveness: Resentment, Generosity, Justice by Martha C. Nussbaum

There are many things to think about in Anger and Forgiveness. Transition-anger is a useful concept: the idea that instead of becoming enraged and demanding payback when someone does something terrible, you acknowledge that the act was outrageous and move on. Focus on the future. What is to be done? It was also useful to read about anger caused by an action that diminishes your status - this is so common and often not deliberate. The section I found the most interesting was the middle realm: I have worked with people just like those Nussbaum describes and have become just as frustrated. I found the political section less interesting - perhaps it needs more space and more depth.

I think the current political situation would benefit from Nussbaum's approach. The left and the right in countries like the UK, the U.S. and to some extent, Australia, are becoming more and more divided and are hurling abuse at one another. We need to bridge the gap rather than continue to widen it.

>174 JayneCM: I had to give up! It started really well, with the Parisian salons that Proust described. I was very interested in the origins of the family from which the author is descended, and the way they lived, but unfortunately the author's focus is on the netsuke that he inherited from an uncle, and he keeps returning to them. A couple of chapters in and I'd read more than I ever wanted about netsuke. I might return later and try skipping the netsuke bits, like reading War and Peace but skimming the war bits.

Because this is a philosophical time of year, I've bought Peter Singer's The Life You Can Save: Acting Now to End World Poverty. The tenth anniversary edition is available on the Kindle for 99 cents, which is appropriate.

>177 pamelad: People who write books like this must sometimes despair when it is years later and nothing has changed. It must be so disheartening.

>178 JayneCM: Singer is doing what he can himself, including writing this and other books, to make other people aware of what they can do, rather than despairing.

>175 pamelad: That sounds really interesting. I just bought her The Monarchy of Fear for my brother as a Christmas present.

Voyage in the Dark by Jean Rhys

I'd forgotten what a good writer Rhys was. She only has one character, a version of her self, this time named Anna Morgan. Anna was born in the West Indies, a vibrant, passionate, colourful place. With the death of her father, Anna has been cast adrift. At only 16, she arrives in England with her mercenary stepmother who has no interest in Anna's welfare and leaves her to support herself as a member of the chorus in a touring musical comedy. Anna moves from one grey, dismal English town to the next, staying in seedy boarding houses, being befriended by women older than her who have accepted the need to find generous men to feed them, clothe them and buy them expensive gifts. Anna is picked up by a wealthy man who looks after her and sets he up in a flat. She falls in love, and when the inevitable end comes she is devastated.

It's not the plot that makes Voyage in the Dark worth reading. It's the descriptions of surroundings and places, the telling observations of people, the haunting central character, the memories of the Caribbean, the spare, poetic language.

Highly recommended, but very depressing.

>181 pamelad: I am hoping to read her book Quartet, based on her relationship with Ford Madox Ford.

Best new reads of 2019

Second-hand Time by Svetlana Alexievich
Voyage in the Dark by Jean Rhys
Faces in the Water by Janet Frame
The Grass is Singing by Doris Lessing
The Hearing Trumpet by Leonora Carrington
Is He Popenjoy? by Anthony Trollope
The Little Hotel by Christina Stead
The Seventh Cross by Anna Seghers
The Map and the Territory by Michel Houellebecq
The Emigrants by W. G. Sebald

I also re-read a few favourites and enjoyed them just as much as I did the first time.

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
Persuasion by Jane Austen
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
The Lucia series, starting with Queen Lucia by E. F. Benson

Looks like you had a great reading year. Looking forward to following along in 2020.

I always enjoy following your reading. Your favorites list has several that I've added to my TBR pile. See you in 2020!

>184 JayneCM: See you in 2020!

>185 japaul22: Same here. You've added quite a few books to my list this year. See you in 2020!