Helenliz turns a third 50 pages

I'm Helen and I'm a quality manager in a small firm that makes inhaler devices for delivery of drugs to the lung. And in 2022 (somewhere in this thread) I turn 50. Gulp. That's a nasty shock to the system I can tell you. I don't feel how I think 50 feels (well apart from sometimes when I feel about 150). I'm not sure what to do about turning 50, whether to go all out and embrace it, or ignore it and hope it goes away. Probably the latter...

This year's challenge is taken from other things that were newsworthy, for some reason or another, in 1972. Or they simply happened in 1972, when I got a bit stuck.

The challenge categories have had a bit of a streamline, with a few low counting categories removed and a new one just for 2022 added. I intend to try and read a book from each decade and from as many different years I've been alive as I can in 2022. So this will be fun, I wonder if they've all aged as well as I have (no laughing in the back there).

Seeing I have a lazy Sunday at home today, I figured I'd set up my next thread now - and there it is, all ready to go!

Currently Reading


Currently reading
Night Waking
Enduring Love (audio)

Loans: To try and keep track of the library books I've got out.
Library books on loan:
✔️The Plague
✔️Elizabeth is Missing
The Bone Clocks
The Talented Mr Ripley
✔️Amsterdam

Borrowed from Cathy
✔️The Stone Circle
✔️The Dark Angel

Book subscriptions: To try and make sure I don't fall tooooo far behind
Tyll (MrB's May)
Outlandish (MrB's September)
Unwell Women (MrB's October)
Cloud Cuckoo Land (MrB's November)
Conjure Women (MrB's December)
Still Life (MrB's)
Rutherford & Fry's Complete Guide to Absolutely Everything (MrB's)
Hare House (MrB's)
We are Displaced (Shelterbox)

The List

January
1. Murray Walker Incredible!, Maurice Hamilton, ***
2. To Serve Them All My Days, RF Delderfield, ***
3. The Chalk Pit, Elly Griffiths, **.5
4. A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens, ****
5. The Girl in the Train, Agatha Christie, ****
6. The Affair at the Victory Ball, Agatha Christie, ***
7. Things Fall Apart, Chinua Achebe, ***
8. The House at Pooh Corner, AA Milne, *****
9. The Hidden Girl and Other Stories, Ken Liu, ****
10. The Incredible Theft, Agatha Christie, ***
11. Romeo & Juliet, William Shakespeare, ***
12. Hamlet, William Shakespeare, ****
13. Royal Escape, Georgette Heyer, ***

February
14. Macbeth, William Shakespeare, ***1/2
15. Julius Caesar, William Shakespeare, ****
16. Black Mamba Boy, Nadifa Mohammed, **
17. The Color Purple, Alice Walker, ****
18. The Winter of the Lions, Jan Costin Wagner, ***
19. Mythos, Stephen Fry, ***
20. A is for Arsenic, Kathryn Harkup, ****
21. Marzahn, Mon Amour, Katja Oskamp, *****

March
22. Richard III, William Shakespeare, ***
23. Revolting Rhymes, Roald Dahl, *****
24. Dirty Beasts, Roald Dahl, ****
25. Three Apples Fell from the Sky, Narine Abgaryan, ***
26. The Short, the Long and the Tall, Jeffrey Archer, ***
27. My Lord John, Georgette Heyer, ***
28. Much Ado About Nothing, William Shakespeare, ****
29. Letters of Note: Art, Ed Shaun Usher, ***
30. Ariadne Jennifer Saint, ***
31. The Wombles, Elisabeth Beresford, ***
32. A Single Thread, Tracy Chevalier, ***

April
33. Winter Flowers, Angelique Villeneuve, ****
34. Bridget Jones's Diary, Helen Fielding, **1/2
35. Julian of Norwich, Janina Ramirez, ***
36. The Wandering Wombles, Elisabeth Beresford, ***
37. Girl, Woman, Other, Bernardine Evaristo, ***
38. Pericles William Shakespeare, ***
39. An Atlas of Extinct Countries, Gideon Defoe, ****
40. The Sea, The Sea, Iris Murdoch, ***
41. The Winter's Tale, William Shakespeare, ***
42. The Wombles at Work, Elisabeth Beresford, ***
43. The Wombles to the Rescue, Elisabeth Beresford, ***
44. The Tempest, William Shakespeare, **

May
45. Demelza, Winston Graham, ***
46. A Bird in the Hand, Ann Cleeves, ***
47. The Black Prince, Iris Murdoch, *
48. The Midnight Library, Matt Haig, ****
49. The Lost Spells, Robert Macfarlane, ****
50. The Crow Folk, Mark Stay, ****
51. Titus Andronicus, William Shakespeare, ***
52. Sweet Bean Paste, Durian Sukegawa, ****
53. A Damsel in Distress, PG Wodehouse, ***
54. The Body in the Library, Agatha Christie, ****
55. Othello, William Shakespeare, ****

June
56. Midwinter Murder, Agatha Christie, ***
57. Midnight's Children, Salman Rushdie, ***
58. Hello Mum, Bernadine Evaristo, ***
59. Fugitive Pieces, Anne Michaels, ***
60. Slade House, David Mitchell, ***
61. FunnyBones, Allan Alhberg, ***

July
62. Trainspotting, Irvine Welsh, **1/2
63. Matrix, Lauren, Groff, ****
64. The Messenger of Athens, Anne Zouroudi, **
65. The Birth of Radar, Rex Boys, ***
66. Black Dogs, Ian McEwan, ***
67. The White Tiger, Aravind Adiga, ***
68. Mrs Mohr goes Missing, Maryla Szymiczkowa, ***
69. A Morbid taste for Bones, Ellis Peters, ****
70. One Corpse Too Many, Ellis Peters, ****

August
71. The Wombles go Round the World Elisabeth Beresford, ***
72. Trojan Women, Euripides, ****
73. Cat's Eye, Margaret Atwood, ***
74. The Honjin Murders, Seishi Yokomizo, ***
75. The Handmaid's Tale, Margaret Atwood, ****
76. Augustown, Kei Miller, ****
77. The Bloody Chamber and Other Stories, Angela Carter, ****
78. Elizabeth is Missing, Emma Healey, ***
79. Amsterdam, Ian McEwan, ***
80. The Dark Angel, Elly Griffiths, **

September
81. Agatha Raisin and the Quiche of Death, MC Beaton, **
82. The Children of Men, PD James, ****
83. Morality Play, Barry Unsworth, ****
84. The Queen and i, Sue Townsend, ***
85. The Plantagenet Prelude, Jean Plaidy, **
86. Dear Life: Stories, Alice Munroe, ***
87. The Investigation, JM Lee, ***
88. The Stone Circle, Elly Griffiths, ***

Challenge 1: 50 years of reading

Me, aged 4 months. Taken in 1972.

I probably won't manage to read 50 books, each published in a different year of the last half century, but it will be interesting to see how far I do get. It will also be interesting to see what it tells me about the last half century.

1972 To Serve Them All My Days, RF Delderfield
1973: The Wombles at Work, Elisabeth Beresford, The Black Prince, Iris Murdoch
1974: The Wombles to the Rescue, Elisabeth Beresford
1974: The Wombles go Round the World Elisabeth Beresford
1975: My Lord John, Georgette Heyer
1976: The Plantagenet Prelude, Jean Plaidy
1977: A Morbid taste for Bones, Ellis Peters
1978: The Sea, The Sea, Iris Murdoch
1979: One Corpse Too Many, Ellis Peters, The Bloody Chamber and Other Stories, Angela Carter

1980: FunnyBones, Allan Alhberg
1981: Midnight's Children, Salman Rushdie
1982: The Color Purple, Alice Walker, Revolting Rhymes, Roald Dahl
1983
1984: Dirty Beasts, Roald Dahl
1985: The Handmaid's Tale, Margaret Atwood,
1986: A Bird in the Hand, Ann Cleeves, Trojan Women, Euripides
1987
1988: Cat's Eye, Margaret Atwood
1989

1990
1991
1992: Black Dogs, Ian McEwan, Agatha Raisin and the Quiche of Death, MC Beaton, The Children of Men, PD James, The Queen and i, Sue Townsend
1993: Trainspotting, Irvine Welsh
1994
1995: Morality Play, Barry Unsworth
1996: Bridget Jones's Diary, Helen Fielding, Fugitive Pieces, Anne Michaels
1997
1998: Amsterdam, Ian McEwan
1999

2000: The Birth of Radar, Rex Boys
2001
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006
2007: The Messenger of Athens, Anne Zouroudi,
2008
2009: The Winter of the Lions, Jan Costin Wagner

2010: Black Mamba Boy, Nadifa Mohammed, Hello Mum, Bernadine Evaristo
2011
2012: Dear Life: Stories, Alice Munroe, The Investigation, JM Lee,
2013: Letters of Note: Art, Ed Shaun Usher, Sweet Bean Paste, Durian Sukegawa
2014: Winter Flowers, Angelique Villeneuve, Elizabeth is Missing, Emma Healey
2015: Three Apples Fell from the Sky, Narine Abgaryan, Slade House, David Mitchell, Mrs Mohr goes Missing, Maryla Szymiczkowa
2016: Julian of Norwich, Janina Ramirez, Augustown, Kei Miller
2017: The Chalk Pit, Elly Griffiths, Mythos, Stephen Fry,
2018: The Dark Angel, Elly Griffiths
2019: A Single Thread, Tracy Chevalier, Girl, Woman, Other, Bernardine Evaristo, The Stone Circle, Elly Griffiths,

2020: The Hidden Girl and Other Stories, Ken Liu, The Short, the Long and the Tall, Jeffrey Archer; An Atlas of Extinct Countries, Gideon Defoe, The Midnight Library, Matt Haig, The Lost Spells, Robert Macfarlane
2021: Murray Walker Incredible!, Maurice Hamilton, Ariadne Jennifer Saint, The Crow Folk, Mark Stay
2022: Marzahn, Mon Amour, Katja Oskamp, Matrix, Lauren Groff,

Challenge 2: Women authors


Rose Heilbron was the first woman judge to sit in the Old Bailey in January 1972. She was a bit of a trail blazer, also being the first woman to lead a murder trial. She retired in 1988 and died in 2005. Her daughter, also a Barrister, wrote a book about her life, Rose Heilbron. Into this category will go my books by woman authors.

1. The Chalk Pit, Elly Griffiths
2. The Girl in the Train, Agatha Christie
3. The Affair at the Victory Ball, Agatha Christie
4. The Incredible Theft, Agatha Christie
5. Royal Escape, Georgette Heyer,
6. Black Mamba Boy, Nadifa Mohammed
7. The Color Purple, Alice Walker,
8. A is for Arsenic, Kathryn Harkup
9. Marzahn, Mon Amour, Katja Oskamp
10. Three Apples Fell from the Sky, Narine Abgaryan
11. Ariadne Jennifer Saint,
12. The Wombles, Elisabeth Beresford
13. A Single Thread, Tracy Chevalier,
14. Winter Flowers, Angelique Villeneuve
15. Bridget Jones's Diary, Helen Fielding
16. Julian of Norwich, Janina Ramirez
17. The Wandering Wombles, Elisabeth Beresford
18. Girl, Woman, Other, Bernardine Evaristo
19. The Sea, The Sea, Iris Murdoch
20. The Wombles at Work, Elisabeth Beresford
21. The Wombles to the Rescue, Elisabeth Beresford
22. A Bird in the Hand, Ann Cleeves
23. The Black Prince, Iris Murdoch
24. The Body in the Library, Agatha Christie
25. Midwinter Murder, Agatha Christie
26. Hello Mum, Bernadine Evaristo
27. Fugitive Pieces, Anne Michaels
28. Matrix, Lauren Groff
29. The Messenger of Athens, Anne Zouroudi,
30. A Morbid taste for Bones, Ellis Peters
31. One Corpse Too Many, Ellis Peters
32. The Wombles go Round the World Elisabeth Beresford
33. Cat's Eye, Margaret Atwood
34. The Handmaid's Tale, Margaret Atwood,
35. The Bloody Chamber and Other Stories, Angela Carter
36. Elizabeth is Missing, Emma Healey
37. The Dark Angel, Elly Griffiths
38. Agatha Raisin and the Quiche of Death, MC Beaton
39. The Children of Men, PD James,
40. The Queen and i, Sue Townsend
41. The Plantagenet Prelude, Jean Plaidy
42. Dear Life: Stories, Alice Munroe
43. The Stone Circle, Elly Griffiths

Challenge 3: New Authors


There are plenty of other people with whom I share a birth year. Some of them are even authors. The gentleman pictured is Jan Costin Wagner who was born in 1972 and is not an author I have read. I will put that right and put other new authors in this category.

1. Things Fall Apart, Chinua Achebe
2. The Hidden Girl and Other Stories, Ken Liu
3. Black Mamba Boy, Nadifa Mohammed
4. The Color Purple, Alice Walker,
5. The Winter of the Lions, Jan Costin Wagner (yes, that's him in the picture!)
6. Mythos, Stephen Fry,
7. A is for Arsenic, Kathryn Harkup
8. Marzahn, Mon Amour, Katja Oskamp
9. Three Apples Fell from the Sky, Narine Abgaryan
10. Ariadne Jennifer Saint,
11. Winter Flowers, Angelique Villeneuve
12 Bridget Jones's Diary, Helen Fielding
13. Julian of Norwich, Janina Ramirez
14. An Atlas of Extinct Countries, Gideon Defoe
15. The Sea, The Sea, Iris Murdoch
16. A Bird in the Hand, Ann Cleeves
17. The Midnight Library, Matt Haig
18. The Crow Folk, Mark Stay
19. Sweet Bean Paste, Durian Sukegawa
20. Midnight's Children, Salman Rushdie
21. Fugitive Pieces, Anne Michaels
22. FunnyBones, Allan Alhberg
23. Trainspotting, Irvine Welsh
24. Matrix, Lauren Groff
25. The Messenger of Athens, Anne Zouroudi
26. The Birth of Radar, Rex Boys
27. The White Tiger, Aravind Adiga
28. Mrs Mohr goes Missing, Maryla Szymiczkowa
29. Trojan Women, Euripides
30. The Honjin Murders, Seishi Yokomizo
31. Augustown, Kei Miller
32. The Bloody Chamber and Other Stories, Angela Carter
33. Elizabeth is Missing, Emma Healey
34. Morality Play, Barry Unsworth
35. The Queen and i, Sue Townsend
36. The Plantagenet Prelude, Jean Plaidy
37. The Investigation, JM Lee,

Challenge 4: Translations


Thomas Cook, the travel agent, started with a rail excursion in 1841 and grew from there. It opened its first shop on Fleet Street in 1865. It was nationalised, along with the railways, in 1948 and returned to private hands in 1972 (which is how come it fits here - I said they might get a bit tenuous). If you're my age you'll remember the jingle for their adverts, "Don't just book it, Thomas Cook it.". The firm went out of business in 2019. For years this was how Brits traveled abroad. I will use this to collect books traveling in the reverse direction - those translated into English.

1. The Winter of the Lions, Jan Costin Wagner
2. Marzahn, Mon Amour, Katja Oskamp
3. Three Apples Fell from the Sky, Narine Abgaryan
4. Winter Flowers, Angelique Villeneuve
5. Sweet Bean Paste, Durian Sukegawa
6. The Honjin Murders, Seishi Yokomizo
7. The Investigation, JM Lee

Challenge 5: Book Subscriptions


This is a first day cover. They're a presentation envelope with all of the series of special stamps that are issued for a limited period of time and franked on the first day they were available to buy. I had a whole collection, as my Grandad used to work at the Post Office and he arranged me to receive them by post. As my book subscriptions come by post, this is where I will store those books that I don't pick.

1. Black Mamba Boy, Nadifa Mohammed
2. Marzahn, Mon Amour, Katja Oskamp.
3. Three Apples Fell from the Sky, Narine Abgaryan
4. Winter Flowers, Angelique Villeneuve
5. Sweet Bean Paste, Durian Sukegawa
6. Mrs Mohr goes Missing, Maryla Szymiczkowa
7. Augustown, Kei Miller

Challenge 6: Heyer Series Read


I'm reading Heyer's romances and period novels in publication order. Lady of Quality was published in 1972 and is one of very few of the Heyers on my shelf that is younger than I am - I inherited Mum's almost complete collection.

Heyer romances:
(r) Set in Regency Period
(g) Set in Georgian Period
(h) Set in prior historical Periods.

Finished
✔️ The Black Moth (g) 1921 Finished 01Jan18, ****1/2
✔️ Powder and Patch (g) 1923 Finished 05Feb18, ***
✔️ The Great Roxhythe (h) 1923 Finished 30Apr18, ***
✔️ Simon the Coldheart (h) 1925 Finished 7May18, ***
✔️ These Old Shades (g) 1926 Finished 31May18, ***
✔️ The Masqueraders (g) 1928 Finished 17Jul18, ****
✔️ Beauvallet (h) 1929 Finished 08Sep2018, ****
✔️ The Conqueror (h) 1931 Finished 25Dec2018, ****
✔️ Devil's Cub (g) 1932 Finished 31Jan2019, ****
✔️ The Convenient Marriage (g) 1934 Finished 12Mar2019, ****1/2
✔️ Regency Buck (r) 1935 Finished 08May2019, ****1/2
✔️ The Talisman Ring, Georgette Heyer Finished 10Aug2019, ***
✔️ An Infamous Army, Georgette Heyer Finished 13Oct2019, ***
✔️ Royal Escape, Georgette Heyer Finished 14Feb2020, ***
✔️ The Spanish Bride, Georgette Heyer Finished 28Mar2020, ***
✔️ The Corinthian, Georgette Heyer Finished 17Jun2020, ****
✔️ Faro's Daughter, Georgette Heyer Finished 25Aug2020, ****
✔️ Friday's Child, Georgette Heyer Finished 10Oct2020, ****
✔️ The Reluctant Widow, (r) Finished 24Jan2021, ****
✔️ The Foundling (r) 1948 Finished 21Apr2021, ****
✔️ Arabella, (r) 1949 ****1/2 Finished 19Jun2021
✔️ The Grand Sophy, (r) 1950, **** Finished 25Jul2021
✔️ The Quiet Gentleman (r) 1951, ****1/2 Finished 24Sep2021

To be Read
Cotillion (r) 1953
The Toll Gate (r) 1954
Bath Tangle (r) 1955
Sprig Muslin (r) 1956
April Lady (r) 1957
Sylvester, or The Wicked Uncle (r) 1957
Venetia (r) 1958
The Unknown Ajax (r) 1959
Pistols for Two (short stories) 1960
A Civil Contract (r) 1961
The Nonesuch (r) 1962
False Colours (r) 1963
Frederica (r) 1965
Black Sheep (r) 1966
Cousin Kate (r) 1968
Charity Girl (r) 1970
Lady of Quality (r) 1972
My Lord John (h) 1975

Challenge 7: Non-Fiction


Mastermind is surely a key leader in fact based quiz shows. Not frills or fuss, 90 seconds on a specialist subject, 2 minutes general knowledge - what do YOU know? It was first broadcast in 1972 and is still going strong with Clive Myrie the latest presenter (although Magnus Magnusson remains a soft spot in the memory). I will put all my non-fiction in here.

1. Murray Walker Incredible!, Maurice Hamilton
2. A is for Arsenic, Kathryn Harkup
3. Letters of Note: Art, Ed Shaun Usher
4. Julian of Norwich, Janina Ramirez
5. An Atlas of Extinct Countries, Gideon Defoe
6. The Birth of Radar, Rex Boys

Challenge 8: Short works and other stories


The statue is John Betjeman, and is standing on the concourse at St Pancras station. In 1972 he was made the Poet Laureate. As poems tend to be short works, I will put any poetry, short stories or other short works in this category.

1. The Girl in the Train, Agatha Christie
2. The Affair at the Victory Ball, Agatha Christie
3. The Hidden Girl and Other Stories, Ken Liu
4. The Incredible Theft, Agatha Christie
5. Revolting Rhymes, Roald Dahl
6. Dirty Beasts, Roald Dahl
7. The Short, the Long and the Tall, Jeffrey Archer
8. Letters of Note: Art, Ed Shaun Usher
9. An Atlas of Extinct Countries, Gideon Defoe
10. The Lost Spells, Robert Macfarlane
11. Midwinter Murder, Agatha Christie
12. Hello Mum, Bernadine Evaristo
13. FunnyBones, Allan Alhberg
14. The Bloody Chamber and Other Stories, Angela Carter

Challenge 9: CATs


When googling things to do with cats in 1972 I came across this epic piece. IN 1972, Marvel comics launched a new character, The CAT. Not sure how long she lasted, it seems only until 1973, but this was just too good to miss! I will put any CATs and KITs I decide to read into the category.

AphaKIT
January: R and H Murray Walker Incredible!, Maurice Hamilton; To Serve Them All My Days, RF Delderfield; Hamlet, William Shakespeare; Royal Escape, Georgette Heyer,
February: A and B The Color Purple, Alice Walker, A is for Arsenic, Kathryn Harkup, Marzahn, Mon Amour, Katja Oskamp
March: P and S Richard III, William Shakespeare, Three Apples Fell from the Sky, Narine Abgaryan, The Short, the Long and the Tall, Jeffrey Archer, Much Ado About Nothing, William Shakespeare, Ariadne Jennifer Saint, A Single Thread, Tracy Chevalier,
April: L and J Bridget Jones's Diary, Helen Fielding, Julian of Norwich, Janina Ramirez
May: O and D Demelza, Winston Graham, Sweet Bean Paste, Durian Sukegawa, A Damsel in Distress, PG Wodehouse, Othello, William Shakespeare, ****
June: Q and C: Midwinter Murder, Agatha Christie
July: E and T: The White Tiger, Aravind Adiga, A Morbid taste for Bones, Ellis Peters, One Corpse Too Many, Ellis Peters
August: M and F: Cat's Eye, Margaret Atwood. The Handmaid's Tale, Margaret Atwood, Augustown, Kei Miller, Amsterdam, Ian McEwan
September: K and I
October: V and N
November: G and U
December: Y and W

RandomKIT
January: Home Sweet Home. The House at Pooh Corner, AA Milne; Royal Escape, Georgette Heyer,
February: Cats. The Winter of the Lions, Jan Costin Wagner
March: Hobbies: A Single Thread, Tracy Chevalier,
April: Rain: Pericles William Shakespeare
May: Flowers: The Lost Spells, Robert Macfarlane, Sweet Bean Paste, Durian Sukegawa
June: Cooking: Midnight's Children, Salman Rushdie
July: Dogs: Black Dogs, Ian McEwan
August: Oh Canada: Cat's Eye, Margaret Atwood
September: Harvest

Challenge 10: Bingo Dog


Having found something so brilliant for CATs, it was only fair that I try the same for BingoDog. And so we have the cover of the last album by the Bonzo Dog Doh Dah Band (yes, really), released in 1972. This will house my BingoDog card.

The categories are:
✔️1. An Award Winning book The Color Purple, Alice Walker,
✔️2. Published in a year ending 2 Revolting Rhymes, Roald Dahl
✔️3. A modern retelling of an older story Ariadne Jennifer Saint,
✔️4. A book you'd love to see as a movie (maybe starring your favourite actor) The Midnight Library, Matt Haig
✔️5. A book that features a dog The Wombles, Elisabeth Beresford
✔️6. The title contains the letter Z Marzahn, Mon Amour, Katja Oskamp
✔️7. Published the year you joined LT Letters of Note: Art, Ed Shaun Usher
✔️8. A book by a favourite author My Lord John, Georgette Heyer
✔️9. A long book (long for you) To Serve Them All My Days, RF Delderfield
✔️10. A book you received as a gift Murray Walker Incredible!, Maurice Hamilton
✔️11. The title contains a month The Birth of Radar, Rex Boys
✔️12. A weather word in the title The Winter of the Lions, Jan Costin Wagner
✔️13. Read a CAT Black Dogs, Ian McEwan
✔️14. Contains travel or a journey The Girl in the Train, Agatha Christie
✔️15. A book about sisters or brothers The Hidden Girl and Other Stories, Ken Liu
✔️16. A book club read (real or online) Black Mamba Boy, Nadifa Mohammed
✔️17. A book with flowers on the cover Winter Flowers, Angelique Villeneuve
✔️18. A book in translation Three Apples Fell from the Sky, Narine Abgaryan
✔️19. A work of non-fiction A is for Arsenic, Kathryn Harkup
✔️20. A book where a character shares a name of a friend Richard III, William Shakespeare
✔️21. A book set in a capital city A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens (London)
✔️22. A children's or YA book The House at Pooh Corner, AA Milne
✔️23. A book set in a country other than the one you live Things Fall Apart, Chinua Achebe
✔️24. A book by an LGBTQ+ author Mythos, Stephen Fry,
✔️25. A book with silver or gold on the cover The Chalk Pit, Elly Griffiths

Happy new thread, Helen!

Happy new thread! Very close to a blackout on the bingo card! Do you think you'll do a second card for the second half of the year?

Happy new thread, Helen. Your Bingo card looks good!

Happy New Thread! Are you waiting for the center square on your Bingo card to be the last one? I'm doing the same thing.

>14 Jackie_K: Thanks, Jackie!
>15 rabbitprincess: & >16 MissWatson: Thank you. No, just the one card for me, I think.
>17 dudes22: Yes, I like the conceit of filling the central square last. I have one for the missing square, so it'll be finished soon.

Happy new one, Helen! Well done with the bingo card.

Happy new thread, Helen!

Happy new one Helen. I think I should borrow your approach for library books. I've put one down and cannot work out what I've done with it. Most frustrating...

>2 Helenliz: I've been watching Would I Lie to You so when I saw that David Mitchell had written Slade House I thought, "A real Renaissance man!" Google sorted me out.

Happy reading.

>22 pamelad: it is quite confusing that there are 2 of them!

>21 charl08: It sometimes helps remind me what I've got out and what I need to get to next!

>20 DeltaQueen50: & >19 katiekrug: thank you both. >:-)

Book: 60
Title: Slade House
Author: David Mitchell
Published: 2015
Rating: ***
Why: 50 years thing
Challenge: 50 years
TIOLI Challenge #3. Read a book set in (or about) Madrid, Barcelona, Lisbon, Paris, London, Dublin, Amsterdam, or Munich

This is massively inventive. A pair of twins have discovered how to halt time and evade death by storing their bodies in a secret location where time is stopped. Only problem is that this mechanism need to be recharged every 9 years with a soul of someone with psychic powers.
We follow 4 different "guests" as they visit Slade House, are lured in and their soul devoured. The way that each guest is able to communicate with the next, but is not always successful in being able to prevent what takes place adds to the horror of it all.
After the second I was wondering how the author would bring this cycle to a close. It takes a bit of trickery to do so, and that felt a little bit at odds with the remainder of the book. It was all very well constructed, it felt largely self consistent. The final chapter did feel slightly at odds with the previous ones though, and I can't quite put my finger on why.

Book: 61
Title: Funnybones
Author: Allan Ahlberg
Published: 1980 (I'm claiming the first book in the series only)
Rating: ***
Why: 50 years thing
Challenge: 50 years, new author, short stories
TIOLI Challenge #16. Read a book by an author who has the same initials for first and last names

This was 8 of the Funnybones series, all read by Stephen Mangam.
I'm too old to have read these as a child, so this was a fun experience. They are clearly intended for young children, with the word repetition throughout. The family of skeletons are a big one, a little one and a dog one. They get into various scrapes, but it all turns out well enough in the end.
I can see these would make really effective picture books.

Seeing I am NOT going to get through another 100 pages of Trainspotting tonight, I may as well do my half year round up.

First Half year Review:
Number of books: 61 books in 6 months is a remarkably high number for me. Helped by listening to a number of stand alone short stories, but even so. I've hit over 100 once since joining LT, exceeding that would be quite unexpected.

Nothing with 5 stars this quarter, but there have been 8 that have earned 4 stars, which is pretty good.

At the other end of the scale, the books to earn less than 3 stars were The Black Prince (*), The Tempest (**) & Bridget Jones' Diary (**1/2)

Challenge 1: 50 years of reading. The 1970s and 1980s have made some progress, and the 2010s are looking pretty good. But I have a gaping hole in the middle. Not helped by my tendency to double dip in a year. 22/50. This might be a close run thing.

Challenge 2: Women Authors: 27 books read by women authors out of 61 books is approaching a half, which is where this has sat for the last few years.

Challenge 3: New Authors: At 22 out of 61 sees me creeping above 1/3rd. Good going.

Challenge 4: Translations: 5 in here at the moment, so that's going well.

Challenge 5: Subscriptions. This one is the problem, 5 in here - I will say nothing about the increasing pile that I am behind on. I've got the end of the monthly subscription and haven't renewed this yet. I might see where I am towards Christmas.

Challenge 6: Heyer series read. None in here yet.

Challenge 7: Non-fiction: 5 in here is OK- a little less than 1 a month, but not awful.

Challenge 8: Short works. Ghis has been upped by some children's books, and now stands at 13.

Challenge 10: CATs: I've cut my CAT commitments to just 2 this year - and have completed each of them in the 6 months.

Challenge 11: Bingo: Which is very nearly finished. I has helped that I've opened it up to male authors as well as women this year. I have 2 left, and I know what I'll read for the month, the CAT will be whichever I read after that.

So in summary a pretty good first half of the year from a reading perspective. Just a shame the world seems to be going to hell in a handcart...

Congratulations on a great reading year so far!

>27 christina_reads: It's not going too badly, is it?

Book: 62
Title: Trainspotting
Author: Irvine Welsh
Published: 1993
Rating: **1/2
Why: 50 years thing
Challenge: 50 years, new author
TIOLI Challenge #5: Read a book you intended to read earlier this year

This is a difficult book to rate. Firstly the negatives. I find reading dialect really hard at times - and this was especially difficult with different characters narrating different chapters in different degrees of dialect. There were some words that I still don't know what they were supposed to be. But I think I got the jist.
The violence and some of the scenes were incredibly hard to read. The lives these characters lead is so far removed form my own that I had little point of reference and spend most of the book thinking what a waste of potential. And some of the characters are the least appealing people to ever spend some time with.
Having said all of that, I did finish it and did find myself sort of cheering Renton on as he leaves. He was the most relatable of the band we meet, although at times he did have a tendency to self sabotage. I can't say I left this book feeling that he'll be OK; I find myself hoping he will, but not confident that he will.
I can't recommend that you read it. It is, at times, very tough going. Some of what is described is so cruel, callous and dehumanising that you want to look away. It is thoroughly depressing. Maybe all of that is what makes it worth reading, I don't know. I'm glad I've got to the end but I feel no need to ever read this again.

>29 Helenliz: The rave reviews Trainspotting gets regularly sends me off to the library catalogue only to be reminded that it is not owned. However, I am not prepared to spend money for a copy and your excellent review justifies that decision. Maybe if I ever see it in a booksale or charity shop I'll think about it.

>30 VivienneR: I really, really, really can't recommend it! I was able to borrow my copy from the library, so at least it didn't cost me anything.
I can see some skill in the writing, but it was not an enjoyable reading experience.

>31 Helenliz: The absence of the book in the libraries around here indicates that they share your opinion!

Book: 63
Title: Matrix
Author: Lauren Groff
Published: 2021
Rating: ****
Why: Bullet
Challenge: Woman author, new author
TIOLI Challenge #9: X marks the spot! Read a book with the letter X in the title or author's name

This is good, one could say very good. But this isn't the book I thought I was going to read and I think there's another story in here that would be even more interesting, although far more difficult.
Marie is at the court of Eleanor of Aquitaine, Queen of England, when she is given the "good" news that she is going to be prioress of a small, struggling nunnery. At a stroke, her life seems to be stripped away from her, However Marie does not give in, and takes the Nunnery in hand. Just as she starts to find her feet, and takes on the task of turning round a struggling institution, we fast forward almost 30 years and come to Marie in post as Abbess and the remainder of the book is her period in charge, what she does, how she goes about transforming the institution into a powerhouse of prayer and actual power and influence.
Yes, it's good. Yes, it's a fascinating portrait of female power and agency, but we just skipped the really difficult bit - how do you save the sinking ship? How do you turn the things round so that by the end the descriptions of the Nunnery when Marie arrived are treated by the youngsters indulgently as stories - it could never have been that bad. It was and now it isn't, how you achieve that rescue, that;s the bit that takes drive, determination and imagination - all of which Marie clearly shows, but the author chose to focus on the easy bit - leading when things are going well. It's leading when things aren't gong well that the real test.
So yes, it's good, but it feels like the really good story got missed.

>32 VivienneR: >:-)

>33 Helenliz: I hadn't thought of it like that! Good point.
I think some of it is hinted at, I suppose, if I was going to 'defend' Groff. The one leadership practice that came to mind was letting people who liked something be in charge of it, instead of seeing enjoyment as some kind of sin.

>33 Helenliz: - Interesting point! Like Charlotte, I hadn't thought of it that way, and it didn't bother me at all. It was a 5-star read for me.

>35 charl08:, >36 katiekrug: It's always interesting what different people take out of a book. I accept that my response says more about me than it does the book.

Book: 64
Title: The Messenger of Athens
Author: Anne Zouroudi
Published: 2007
Rating: **
Why: 50 years thing
Challenge: 50 years, Woman author, new author
TIOLI Challenge #16. Read a book with a name in the title

For a book written not that long ago, this is curiously dated. Throughout, the author refers to the investigator as "the fat man". He is Hermes Diaktoros, and he introduces himself as that, so why she feels the need to use this description is beyond me. Hermes has a quirk, he wears a smart suit with a pair of white tennis shoes; they are his winged sandals and he occasionally whips out the whitener to keep them pristine.
The setting is a Greek Island, but I struggled to tell you when it was set. The attitudes on display could be the result of an isolated community, or they could be from a past time. At times the language to refer to some of the people on the island felt to be unnecessary..
Hermes arrives on the island to investigate the death of Irini Asimakopoulos. He soon discovers that the Chief of Police has allowed the body to be buried without post mortem, and has decided that it is an accident and closed the case. Hermes continues to investigate, traveling across the island and talking to various people. Hermes is told an awful lot and it is not terribly clear why anyone does tell him quite so much. Who sent him, where he comes from is always left unresolved.
The book is told in multiple timelines, with chapters based on Hermes investigation and on the back story of the various characters.
It is not always clear what the chronology of these past times are. It doesn't really work. At times there is a lot of telling of back story, sometimes in first, sometimes in third person. The change of narrative style doesn't do this any favours.
I listened to this, and the narrator chose to voice the majority of the islanders in a "local yokel" burr, that made them sound a bit slow and thick compared to the voice used for Hermes. The way that the men are mostly philanderers and the women stoics got rather wearing. The pressure of family shame has dreadful consequences and felt to be very old fashioned.
While it promised much, I can't find a lot to recommend this.

I must be in a finishing mood, as I've got a stitching finish as well.

Book: 65
Title: The Birth of Radar
Author: Rex Boys
Published: 2000
Rating: ***
Why: Bingo square
Challenge: 50 years, new author, Bingo, Non-fiction
TIOLI Challenge #17: Read a book that fewer than 2022 members have in their catalog

I love this kind of very British explanation of how something quite extraordinary came about. This short publication captures the first demonstration of Radar, in 1935. It became a major component of the British war effort in WW2 and is not almost ubiquitous. You can use it to measure a room, to prevent your car from driving into the back of someone, for parking assist, and those are just the ones I can think of that are in non-military use on a daily basis.
It required some ingenuity, borrowing a transmitter and an aeroplane and an ambulance truck that got stuck in a frozen field. All very British and on the border between farce and brilliance.
It it a little bit technical, but not impenetrability so.

I borrowed this from the library because it contains the word "February" in the title, this is the penultimate BingoSquare.

Book: 66
Title: Black Dogs
Author: Ian McEwan
Published: 1992
Rating: ***
Why: 50 years thing
Challenge: 50 years, CAT, Bingo
TIOLI Challenge #13. Read a book with something that can be annoying in the title (I realise this will be unpopular, but I am not a fan of dogs)

This is very interesting. The narrator is a man who looses his parents early and spends his teens being semi adopted by his friend's parents. He then finds himself with an almost closer relationship to his in-laws than his wife and her siblings. June & Bernard have a complicated relationship, and he spends a significant proportion of the book preparing notes for a memoir of some description. It pops backwards and forwards in time until, in the final portion, we hear about the great event that June believed changed her life and that Bernard dismisses entirely. Maybe because he was otherwise engaged drawing a caterpillar. It strikes me as an essay in how different people can look at the same event, or hear the same story and take vastly different things from it.
I found it poignant that they clearly cared for each other but were unable to live together. The events that we spend a lot of the book building up to was quite shocking, both in the event and their quite disparate reactions to it. The final portion is quite thought provoking, because of the incident with the black dogs, their plans are changed and the house in France is bought. Does the family owe some of their current happiness to an incident that, to some extent, cause a rift between June & Bernard that persisted for the rest of their lives? We are, each of us, a summation of our life experiences and to change any one of them could change the route through life.
I listened to this and, for once, I think this would have been better read, to enable me to pause and reflect on some of the ideas raised.

And with that I complete my Bingo square!
Amazing how much easier it is when you allow all authors to count...

I've gone from Black Dogs to Cat's Eye. >:-)

Congratulations on finishing your BingoDOG!

>42 Helenliz:

Nice! Congratulations. :)

>43 VivienneR:, >44 lyzard: Thank you. It's amazing how much quicker it is to finish if I don't limit it to just female authors. Last few years I've been scrabbling around in December to fill the last few squares. >;-)

Book: 67
Title: The White Tiger
Author: Aravind Adiga
Published: 2008
Rating: ***
Why: 50 years thing
Challenge: 50 years, New author CAT
TIOLI Challenge #7. Read a book first published this century or where the lead character does adulting

Mmm. Not entirely sure what to make of this.
It's narrated in the first person and takes the form of a letter, or series of letters, from an Indian businessman in Bangalore and he is writing to the Premier of China, who is due to be visiting India shortly. It's narrated by someone who comes from a lower caste and spends most of his life as a servant. Through the series of letters we hear how Balram comes to be a driver, then how he moves from servant to master. Along the way there is a lot of trouble.
It is quite explicit and scathing about the way Indian society work, the bribes and corruption that exists at every level. It is also rather bleak, in that there is no prospect of that changing. Balram manages to change his fate, but only by an act of violence that is not likely to be repeated. He uses an analogy of a chicken coop and the chances of the chickens destroying the coop is judged to be low. I found this somewhat depressing.

Phew! It's been rather hot here. On the way home from the (air conditioned) office today, my car was saying 42C (107F).
We are just not used to this kind of temperatures. I am taking a sensible pill and giving the gym a miss tonight. It is supposed to get cooler, tomorrow is down to 26C, which would still be considered quite a reasonable summer's day!

Hope everyone is coping with whatever the weather is throwing at them.

>47 Helenliz: You have my sympathy, Helen. We went through a very hot spell last summer but I don't think we reached the 40s. Stay as cool as you can, lots of fluids, and hooray for being sensible.

>47 Helenliz: I hope you were able to stay cool later in the day, Helen, there is nothing like a blistering hot night. Skipping the gym is wise. Like Judy >48 DeltaQueen50:, you have my sympathy. In my area of British Columbia during last year's "heat dome" the temperature went up to 47C. It was not pleasant. Today we are enjoying a modest 35C.

>47 Helenliz: Take care. 42C is much too hot, even more so if it's humid. Is it?

>47 Helenliz:

Apparently you've pinched our last summer: we didn't have one, copping a record La Niña (7 months instead of the usual 3) and record rains and flooding instead. It's depressing when all you can do is compare awfulnesses. :(

>47 Helenliz: Here we are, living half a world away from each other, and having the exact same weather day! This is not as unusual for us as for England though. Tomorrow is expected to be the same for us and next week's temps will be 3 digits all week as well. That's what is most unusual for us, next week makes the third week of this and that's rather frightening to me.

>47 Helenliz: Oh dear! The news yesterday said it's the first time ever that 40°C have been measured officially in Britain since recordkeeping started. Not a good way to set new records. And I was shocked to see the fires around London.

You'll all be pleased to know that temperatures on Wednesday were a lot better - and we had rain in the evening. So it all feels a lot better around here. We're due another temperature rise on Sunday, but only to ~ 30C.

>51 lyzard: You can have it back, if you like. I love the heat, but that was getting rather too much, even for me.
>52 clue: Thankfully it was just 2 days for us. I can't imagine that for weeks on end.
>50 pamelad: we've had no rain in a while, so it's been reasonably dry. I think, anyway.

Glad you survived!

>54 Helenliz: Rain sounds good. I'm hoping the heatwave is over and I've avoided it!

London is a lot cooler as well. There is some rain etc but I actually welcome it. I did venture out yesterday but I'm trying to stay indoors following eye surgery on Monday - all went well I think but I'm just being cautious and making the most of the opportunity to be lazy without guilt. Not really a fan of hot weather! Apparently London was hotter than Kingston, Jamaica (of course this is a coastal city) for a few days even before Monday and Tuesday.

>56 charl08: I think you escaped. It's been ~ 22 here today and that felt really quite chill!

>57 elkiedee: Glad to hear you had the eye op. Rest up and no over doing it - and I'm a doctor* so you have to listen to me.
We went to the pub tonight & sat outside and I got distinctly cold in the breeze that got up. I like the heat, but earlier this week was a bit much, even for me. We had enough rain to refill the waterbutt, so that was useful. The garden certainly needed it.

* OK, I admit it, a PhD, and not that sort of doctor at all. Feel free to ignore me unless it suits you >;-)

Happy new thread Helen and >26 Helenliz: I am suitably impressed with your mid-year list. Keep up the good work.

>39 Helenliz: Nice! Very colorful and fun. Is it going to become part of a quilt square for kidlets? Or will you keep it for yourself? Either way, it made me smile and enjoy a lot of thread colors.

Book: 68
Title: Mrs Mohr goes Missing
Author: Maryla Szymiczkowa
Published: 2015/2019
Rating: ***
Why: Shelterbox book club
Challenge: 50 years, New author Subscriptions
TIOLI Challenge #10. Read a book where the title on the cover is written on at least 3 lines or more

This should be entertaining enough, a detective comedy of manners set in 1893 Cracow. But it isn't. There's something about the tone that feels sneering throughout. It makes fun of Zofia almost throughout. She is married to a professor and takes every advantage of his position, she's a social climber. But that doesn't excuse the edge to this, it didn't feel as if it was affectionately taking the mick.

>59 threadnsong: That square is indeed going for a quilt. Her biography says that, "Lucia loves mermaids, fairies, princesses and rainbows. She loves the colours pink and purple." So I feel I did a pretty good job of matching a number of those requests in my design selection.
It'll be made up in October.

>60 Helenliz: - Hard pass!

>62 katiekrug: Can't argue with that one. It isn't going to remain on my book shelves either.

I'm thinking of you and all Londoners today. It's been 35C for a few days but today and the rest of the week our temperature will be 38C. Unlike you, I'm thinking of an extended gym visit every day because they have air-conditioning!

>64 VivienneR: ha! Good luck with that! Our gym has air-conditioning, only it is remarkably ineffective on a warm day in a normal class. I expected it to be thoroughly overwhelmed by 40C. Seems I wasn't the only on, most of the usuals in last night's class had missed the previous week.

Not a Londoner, I live a little further north than that; west of Cambridge (she says, picking not her nearest city, but the nearest city she thinks others will have heard of!)

>65 Helenliz: Of course, I remember now that you don't live in London. I used to have relatives who lived in Ipswich so I know the area, but only slightly.

Our community complex, where the gym resides, has been designated a cooling centre since last year's record-breaking 47C so I'd like to think the air-con is reliable.

>66 VivienneR: >:-) That's OK, I don't profess to remember where everyone else lives either. And even if I do remember, I don't always know where that is!

>65 Helenliz: I thought you live much further north than Cambridge/East Anglia - in the north of England rather than north east of London.

>68 elkiedee: Not me, Northamptonshire is currently home. And while I accept it isn't actually "The North", this is North to me; I grew up on the south coast, I'm a southerner at heart. Funny how we get impressions of people, isn't it? I wonder what I said to give you that impression. >:-)

>69 Helenliz: I'm sure you didn't actually say anything to give me that impression, that this is just me mixing things up.

I had several colleagues when I worked in central London, very near Euston and Kings Cross, who had moved from London to Northamptonshire and commuted to London for a while. One moved to Northampton with her family after she realised she was expecting twins less than 2 years after her first baby was born, and a second PA from our department decided that it was a better place to live than Luton, where she had previously moved from London). After her 2nd maternity leave, N decided to work for long enough not to have to pay back her maternity pay and then resigned, and got a similar job in Northampton.

Book: 69
Title: A Morbid Taste for Bones
Author: Ellis Peters
Published: 1977
Rating: ****
Why: filling in gaps in 50 years.
Challenge: 50 years, Female author
TIOLI Challenge #10. Read a book where the title on the cover is written on at least 3 lines or more

I've read this many times since first encountering Cadfael as a pre-teen. I used to think of him as a jovial, slightly mischievous, great uncle kind of figure, and I think that still works. He is on the side of the righteous, and not always on the side of the law. In this case, a trip to Wales to bring home the bones of the neglected Saint Winifred turns sour, with murder committed to smooth the way. The supporting cast are sketched efficiently, with the various young people being happily paired off before the end. There is something intensely reassuring in the resolution and the way it is achieved.

>71 Helenliz: - I had an old mass market paperback of this one for a while and then replaced it with a Kindle edition. Still haven't read it. I remember my mother being a Cadfael fan.

>72 katiekrug: I've bought the whole series at 99p a book. Have read none in print, but BBC Radio 4 Extra repeats adaptations and I'm sure if I ever get round to reading these I'll enjoy them. I wouldn't have thought of it before online stuff and R4 Extra, but I've found lots of historical fiction in church/monastery and convent settings such a good read and/or listen.

>71 Helenliz: In the radio versions, Cadfael comes across as someone who is much more open minded than people might expect of the medieval church. While some editions of the books might look really old fashioned, Cadfael actually has quite a lot of late 20th century views rather than real historical ones. But I think that's part of the reading pleasure. You don't have to believe it was that way at the time for it to be enjoyable to read.

>>72 katiekrug:, >73 elkiedee:. I really like them, but, as I said, I came across them quite young so there is a sense of nostalgia in there somewhere.
>74 elkiedee: He does the same in the books too. He's seen the world, been a crusader, sailor and has had his fair share of encounters with women before finding a peaceful harbour at the monastery. He is also Welsh, and even at this point, the Welsh had different approach to property and so on. Being presented as an outsider allows him to view the world differently. I think it works. He's on the side of the right solution not always on the side of the law.

Book: 70
Title: One Corpse Too Many
Author: Ellis Peters
Published: 1979
Rating: ****
Why: filling in gaps in 50 years.
Challenge: 50 years, Female author, CAT
TIOLI Challenge #13: Read a book with something that can be annoying in the title

OK, first things first, My cover is from the TV series tie in and Derek Jacobi is NOT Cadfael in any way, shape or form. Having got that out of the way, onto the book.
This might be considered the first of the real series, it is set in Shrewsbury at the time of the siege of the castle by King Stephen and it is very much rooted in the place. We see Cadfael moving about within the monastery and the town, the life of the cloister carrying on much as it did in peace, but with the close proximity of war. Into this mix are two pair of young people, each drawn from either side of the divide. There are a number of strands of story to be unpicked, and they all are, but not without a few moments of peril on the way. Cadfael pits is wits against Hugh Berrengar, who will become a frequent visitor as the series progresses and he is, in some ways, an image of Cadfael as a younger man. I find these just a delightful place to escape to.

Neat random stat. This is the 1000th book I have tagged as "Read" on LibraryThing.

>69 Helenliz: And now I know where Northamptonshire is ;) Thank you for providing a point of reference Helen.

>77 threadnsong: happy to be of service!

>76 Helenliz: Probably my favorite Cadfael book! I've read it several times and never get tired of it. I remember not really liking the TV adaptation, but maybe I'll try it again sometime.

>76 Helenliz: Congratualtions on hitting the 1000 mark. I'm over 800 and had never even thought to check it out before. Now I'm wondering how many there are I haven't marked as completed.

>76 Helenliz: Marking 1000 books read is impressive, I hadn't thought to use the tags like that either. A pleasing stat I would think?

I like the Philip Madoc version of Cadfael but that's probably got more to do with the pictures being better. https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/series/b00c1wtr

>79 christina_reads: I could go along with that. It certainly stands up to repeated readings. I also remember watching the first episode and deciding that Jacobi was so wrong that we didn't bother with any other. Cadfael rolls like a sailor, Jacobi minced. nonononono and no again.

>81 charl08: I might try that, always up for trying something else. With a radio play at least he can't walk wrong.

>80 clue:, >81 charl08: I can't remember why I started tagging as "Read" I think it was to save having another library. Seemed easier just to tag with Read and the year. I've added a few since then, but I'm not a prolific tagger.
It'll be almost everything Ive read since I joined LT in 2013, plus a number I catalogued that I had read previously. It is not complete, I've read more than 1000 books in my lifetime, before anything thinks I've averaged only 20 new books a year!

Book: 71
Title: The Wombles go Round the World
Author: Elisabeth Beresford
Published: 1974
Rating: ***
Why: Because the introduction to Trojan Women was frankly a bit hard going for a couple of post gym nights.
Challenge: 50 years, Female author, CAT
TIOLI Challenge #6: Read a book from the LT list of “Favorite Animal Fiction”

This starts with Great Uncle Bulgaria reading a story to the Wombles, only they are getting restless. they've heard them all before and they're all old. And so Bulgaria launches them on a plan for 2 pairs of Wombles to travel around the world and collect stories from other lands in order to write the tenth volume of A Womble History of the World. This gives a chance for younger readers to learn something about other countries, with the Wombles visiting the Black Forest, Tibet, Australis, New Zealand, US & Japan. All in clockwork balloons. At times this looks dated, with the Womblex clearly being a version of a fax machine (who has them now?). At others it is ahead of its time with the environmental message, there is even climate change in here. The Wimbledon burrow seems quiet without Tomsk, Wellington, Orinocco & Bungo, with the other Wombles getting tetchy at times and overworked. It concludes with the wanderers returning home to a party, the work of writing the history probably continues after wards. It was interesting that they didn't visit Russia, despite there being a Womble burrow there, we have met Omsk previously, but then this was the 1907s and it was probably politically better to steer clear. It reads as much as a set of short essays with a connected character than a story, but it remains enjoyable, nonetheless.

Book: 72
Title: Trojan Women
Author: Euripides
Published: 415BCE / 1986
Rating: ****
Why: Amber's recommendation - spot on.
Challenge: 50 years,
TIOLI Challenge #5. Read a book published by an author who died before April 1972

This is the first play I have read since I studied Hamlet at school, so I was slightly unsure of how to go about this, but I needn't have worried. There are a number of characters, but the number who are speaking at any one time is relatively limited, meaning that you're not trying to keep umpteen people straight in your head at once.

I read an edition with a fairly long introduction (a fair proportion of which went way over my head), but it did help put the events leading up to the play's start into the forefront of my mind. I then read the play twice, once straight through, the second time reading the translator's notes in parallel. These were helpful in expanding what I had read the first time. it helped understand how this would have been viewed by the first theatre goers and the context in which they would have viewed what was happening and being said - or unsaid.

I enjoyed this. It seems really very modern, there are 2 men & 1 male god with a speaking role in the entire piece, the remainder are all women. I would hesitate to call it a feminist piece in today's environment - all the women are largely at the mercy of the men who claim them as their slaves. But we hear them women themselves speak and explain their feelings in a way that things like The Iliad and The Odyssey just don't do. I have read a couple of the modern novels telling these stories from a female perspective, I didn't realise that it had already been started - a very long time ago. I feel like I both learnt something and enjoyed it, an excellent combination.

I know that the play was from 415BCE, however the edition I read had significantly more pages of introduction and translator's notes than it did of play, so I am claiming it as published in 1986, when this edition was published. I am also claiming it as the author died before I was born, Euripides having long since died by 1972. My thread, my rules >;-)

Book: 73
Title: Cat's Eye
Author: Margaret Atwood
Published: 1988
Rating: ***
Why: 50 year thing.
Challenge: 50 years, Women author, CATs
TIOLI Challenge #3: Read a book where you have heard the author talk about their work

This is a life story told partly in the present and partly in first person, present tense flashback.
The Elaine we meet as an adult is a successful artist, holding a retrospective in her home city. Elaine the child is a very different proposition. She starts off as the younger of two children leading a rather nomadic existence, travelling with her family as her father works on insect research (of some description). Life changes when they settle in Toronto and Elaine goes to school. She meets a number of girls who live on their side of the ravine and her relationships with Grace, Carol & Cordelia shape the majority of the book. At times this is really hard reading. the things that kids do to each other can be really cruel. In this case, I wonder if Cordelia is mimicking adult behaviour she experiences at home, the bullied being coming the bully, perhaps. However, the why of it is less important than Elaine's experience of it. This relationship between Elaine & Cordelia colours a significant proportion of the rest of Elaine's life, with Cordelia appearing more than once as Elaine's life story unfolds. Like most lives, the story feels unresolved in some ways, most of us don't get to tie of the ends in every relationship, there are always somethings left undone.
I liked that Elaine didn't want to fit neatly into anyone else's definition of her, she was trying to define herself, even if that wasn't always clear what she wanted to define herself as.
I listened to this and I wasn't sure if it was real or a fault in the recording, but every now and then a short sentence of fragment of a sentence would be repeated, but it didn't always make sense as a fragment being emphasised. Odd rather than anything else.

Book: 74
Title: The Honjin Murders
Author: Seishi Yokomizo
Published: 1946/2019
Rating: ***
Why: book bullet
Challenge: 50 years, new author.
TIOLI Challenge #12: Read a book set during the Great Depression

This strikes me as quite unusual. Set in Japan, it is a locked room mystery that is being narrated by an author of mysteries. It also quite happily references mysteries of the golden age, including other locked room mysteries in explaining how this murder takes place. Like I said, quite unusual.
The head of the household takes a wife, only on his wedding night, he and his bride are killed and they are found locked in the annex in the grounds. There is snow on the ground, a sword stuck in the ground outside and a lot of blood scattered about the place, apparently left by a 3 fingered man. It all get very involved, until the bride's uncle calls upon his protege who is a private investigator, to solve the mystery. There is lots of detail and, had I read it rather than listened to it, I;m sure that the map on page 49 would have been immensely useful. As it was, imagination had to suffice.
The resolution is not what you might expect, being itself based on both Japanese cultural expectations of a rural village in the 30s and western golden age mysteries. The narrator rounds off by pointing out how he'd never actually said some of the things that the reader might a=have assumed at the beginning. At one point I had it fixed on one of the brothers, needless to say I was wrong. Thoroughly entertaining, but you might want to read it and benefit from the map.

I caught this as a book bullet from someone, but now have no idea who. Thanks - it was a good read.

Book: 75
Title: The Handmaid's Tale
Author: Margaret Atwood
Published: 1985
Rating: ****
Why: 50 years thing
Challenge: 50 years, woman author.
TIOLI Challenge #2: Read a book where the first name of the author has more characters than the last name

There really is nothing new I can say about this, being just about the last person the planet to read this. Having said that, I wonder if reading it now is a different experience now than reading in the 80s. I wonder if it feels less imaginary now, in a world that has become seemingly more polarised, more oppressive, and with women's rights to autonomy over their lives and even their own body being undermined at every turn. In this we read of the experiences of Offred (literally, of Fred), a woman believed to be fertile and currently being a "handmaid" to an elite in the hierarchy of Gilead. Through Offred's memories, we see some of her life before, how she came to be in this position and how under threat she is at every turn. It ends with a short chapter set even further into a fictional future where Gilead seems to be no more and the value of the memoir is being evaluated by academics, including women. It is bleak, it is chilling and it feels all too possible. I can;t say it is enjoyable, but it sucks you in and you find yourself cringing and rooting for Offred in turns. Atwood can certainly write alright.

>86 Helenliz: - This one sounds really interesting! I'll have a look for it.

>87 Helenliz: - Such a good, chilling read.

>88 katiekrug: It was published in Japanese in the 1940s, but was only translated into English in 2019.
I thought the way it built upon the idea of other mysteries was interesting.

Popping in to say that I've finished The Wizard's Guide to Defensive Baking and thought it was really wonderful. Very inventive. Thanks for the BB.

>90 dudes22: Hurrah! So glad you enjoyed it.

Book: 76
Title: Augustown
Author: Kei Miller
Published: 2016
Rating: ****
Why: Shelterbox book club
Challenge: 50 years, new author, subscription
TIOLI Challenge #4: Read a book that has the last three letters of your city’s name in the title

This is a really good book that manages to be both interesting and a really good read all at once.
The book starts with a chapter describing the locality, where Augustown is, what it looks like, what its people are. And the chapter finished with a short paragraph that is pregnant with possibility - and danger.
"For here is the truth: each day contains much more than its own hours, or minutes, or seconds. In fact, it would be no exaggeration to say that every day contains all of history."
And with that we feel as if we are sitting a powder keg, just waiting for the apparently insignificant spark to set off an unstoppable chain of events.

And yet there are several points at which the story could have turned; the fuse could have been stamped out; but they are evident only in retrospect.

The story revolves around Ma Taffy, primarily, her niece, Gina, and Gina's son Kaia. The story is in 2 main time frames, the events of 11th April 1982 and the events of the past. We hear the story of Bedward , a charismatic preacher of Ma Taffy's youth who flew. Also in the crowd that day was a neighbour who plays a further role in the events of the later story as well.
I liked the way that there is a lot of information and research here, but it's presented lightly. There are a large cast of characters, some of them appear fleetingly, others appear and then reappear in the later time frame . It shows that the events of today are built upon the events of the past and today's trigger only takes place, in some senses, because of the past that is sitting there with threatening potentiality.

There was a lot of dialect in the speech, but the story used this more sparingly, such that it didn't feel that it took a long time to get int the story - I've struggled with dialect in the past, but these seemed manageable.

Book: 77
Title: The Bloody Chamber and other Stories
Author: Angela Carter
Published: 1979
Rating: ****
Why: Why not scare yourself occasionally?
Challenge: 50 years, woman author, new author
TIOLI Challenge #7: Read a book in your favorite genre by an author new to you

This collection of 10 stories is dark, very dark. Each of them takes a folk tale or fairy tale that you know the outline of and subverts it. In each there is a significant element of transformation or things being between states. Is she describing a wolf or a human is a typical ambiguity in these. Things are not necessarily what they appear.
There is quite a lot of blood and a reasonable amount of sex - be that implied or actual. It's not necessarily out of keeping, just be warned that these fairy tale retellings are not at all bright and shiny - expect to go to the dark places in the human psyche.
I liked the way that the collection was grouped such that the same story got reworked more than once with a different outcome and from a different perspective. You can tell Beauty and the Beast such that Beauty wins the Beast and he becomes a man, but why not tell it the other way round?
Excellent, but not exactly what you might call bedtime reading.

>93 Helenliz: Some of the original fairy tales used here actually started off pretty dark, to be fair. Disney and some children's book publishers prettified them a bit. When the kids were little I did find a selection of traditional story retellings for them, some of which they liked a lot. We had three versions of Three Little Pigs with different outcomes. Mike would ask the kids which version they wanted - one of the options he would give was "the horror version" (I think most of the main characters get eaten) - and Conor would gleefully say yes, I want the horror version! Little monster!

>93 Helenliz: I've been tempted by this in bookshops (some beautiful cover art out there) but generally thought I am too wimpy for the content. And I think your review confirms that I was right! My class was read Roald Dahl's Revolting Rhymes in primary- I think that's still my level. Red Riding Hood with a pistol hidden in her unmentionables, so the Wolf is getting away with nothing.

>94 elkiedee: I know folk tales were initially much darker; these are really dark. I wouldn't be reading these to the kids any time soon. Although teenagers would probably get on with them. It's not that they die, it's how they die, it's not usually off screen.

>95 charl08: It's a step up from Revolting Rhymes (which I also read this year). Red Riding Hood has a couple of outings, in neither does she come off terribly well. A pistol in her unmentionables might have helped matters!

>96 Helenliz: I've read The Bloody Chamber a couple of times. Angela Carter also edited a wonderful short story anthology called Wayward Girls and Wicked Women - I wrote about some of them in my dissertation. I can't remember whether I used any stories from The Bloody Chamber but I'm fairly sure I did include something Margaret Atwood's collection Bluebeard's Egg.

>97 elkiedee: Ohh! My thesis was impact induced dissociation of alkane molecules on Platinum metal crystal surfaces. It's not a best seller.

Book: 78
Title: Elizabeth is Missing
Author: Emma Healey
Published: 2014
Rating: ***
Why: Bullet.
Challenge: 50 years, woman author, new author
TIOLI Challenge #8. Read a book with the name of a real non-European city in the title

This is in some ways, a very sad book. The narrator is Maud and she is suffering from Dementia of some description. The title phrase is one that Maud uses repeatedly, she has a friend Elizabeth, who is currently not living at home, the house is empty. And so we are left wondering what has happened to Elizabeth. But at the same time, Maud is an utterly unreliable narrator, except when she, curiously, isn't. In parallel with the present and Maud's concern with Elizabeth, we have a story line from the past, where Maud's sister Sukey goes missing at the end of WW2. The past story is told in very clear, precise language, this is not Maud's memory, this is a story told by Maud as a younger girl, not always fully understanding what she sees and hears. The past elements are sometimes triggered by an element in the present and there is the final co-incidence of Elizabeth;s house playing a key role in Sukey's story as well.
Maud in the present is a salutary reminder that we can;t help how we age. She doesn't always remember her daughter or granddaughter, she doesn't remember going somewhere or doing something, she has no track of time.. She asks the same questions repeatedly. I feel most for Helen who tries to deal with this on a daily basis. I like that Helen is not portrayed as a saint, she struggles to hold her temper and to deal with an increasingly difficult mother. I remain unsure I could do it.

Book: 79
Title: Amsterdam
Author: Ian McEwan
Published: 1998
Rating: ***
Why: 50 years thing
Challenge: 50 years, CAT
TIOLI Challenge #8. Read a book with the name of a real non-European city in the title

This is an odd, but thoroughly readable book. It starts at Molly's cremation, where we meet her husband and 3 of her former lovers. Clive & Vernon are friends, one a composer the other a newspaper editor. The third love is Julian, the Foreign Secretary, whom Clive & Vernon do not like. They have stronger negative feeling for the husband, George.
The story takes off when George offers Vernon some pictures of Julian, taken by Molly, that would be career ending for a politician. Clive & Vernon have very different opinions on what to do with these and you can imagine the press kerfuffle.
It's a curious story, fast paced and very readable. What happens to Clive & Vernon runs the range from male friendship to betrayal to farce. It all feels very real, relationships do change and are reassessed when a key person in the relationship is no longer there - in this case Molly. But who exactly is driving events here? The last chapter implies that an individual was manipulating events, but that, I feel, might be a step too far - or an I (like others) underestimating them?

Starting my day out in London in a mecca to readers, the British Library. Expect picture spam later. >:-)

>99 Helenliz: - I picked that one up in a Kindle sale several years ago, and it hasn't called to me yet.

>100 Helenliz: - I have a copy of this on my shelf, along with almost all of McEwan's other books. I've liked (or at leat appreciated) everything I've read by him (admittedly, only about 3 or 4 novels...)

>101 Helenliz: - Looking forward to hearing about your day!

>101 Helenliz: Bring on the spam!

>99 Helenliz: This was one of those books that I felt was a bit too 'neat' The symptoms of dementia seem pretty disastrous until the author needs to tie everything up at the end, at which point, the story somehow comes together despite the memory issues barrier? Didn't feel "real" enough for me.
I definitely couldn't do it well. I think I may end up doing it anyway, as I'm the "child" still local. Hopefully by the time we get to that point the care crisis might be less "crisisy". (Hope more than realism, there.)

>102 katiekrug: I can't suggest you rush out & read Elizabeth is Missing. >103 charl08: Charlotte is right, it is all tidied up a bit too neatly to feel terribly real.

I think I;m with you, without blowing me out of the water, they've all been relatively readable. Although I'm not quite sure I can forgive him the last chapter of Atonement that readily.

Day out was excellent, but I am now cream crackered. Photos to follow.

Book: 80
Title: The Dark Angel
Author: Elly Griffiths
Published: 2018
Rating: **
Why: Borrowed it, ought to read it.
Challenge: 50 years, woman author
TIOLI Challenge #14. Read a "summer book"

I wonder if my tolerance for this series has run its course. What I started it for (the North Norfolk location) is entirely missing in this edition, being mostly set while Ruth is on holiday in Italy, She's invited out by a fellow archeologist (and former one night stand), Angelo, to discuss some bones he has found that are buried in an unusual position, face down. It all get somewhat far fetched, with Angelo thinking his life is being threatened, while there is an earthquake, a murder in the village and we never actually get to the bottom of the burial. Nelson arrives after the earthquake, with Cathbad in tow and they get involved in the case as well.
On the home front, Michelle has a scan for the baby and a villain from Nelson's past reappears to cause havoc. Part of me thinks the whole relationship angst is overdone, just talk about it and get it into the open and be done with it. Who knows where the puzzle pieces will fall, but quit with the navel gazing. I feel this has somewhat lost its way. I have one more borrowed, I may quit after that one.

>105 Helenliz: Last year I read the first eight Ruth Galloway books almost in a row and, while I enjoyed them all, by the end the Ruth/Nelson relationship was giving me the irrits. I have no sympathy and have had about enough druid as well. But I'd forgotten about Michelle's baby and might have to keep reading to find out!

>99 Helenliz: Had a similarly lukewarm response to yours, mainly because of the conceit of the author getting inside the head of a woman with dementia. Too inauthentic.

Some pictures of my day out.
I caught the train into St Pancras Station, which I used to use when I worked in London in the late 1990s, when it was dirty and dark and very dreary. It has since been transformed. The Betjeman statue is there as he campaigned to save the station hotel buildings when they were under threat. It is now a gorgeous thing to look at.

I then went to the British Library's current exhibition, Gold, on the use of gold in books and manuscripts. Gorgeous things there. Picture of the King's Library and the gates.

I had a wander down to Brunswick Square, where I used to work, which is next door to Coram's Fields and the Foundling hospital Museum. Statue of Thomas Coram is here.

I then walked past Coram's fields to Mecklenburgh Square, in honour of having read Square Haunting last year.

The across past the British Museum to the Cartoon Museum. This holds cartoons from the Georgian period onwards, but they are mainly of the form of newspaper type cartoons. Almost none of the children's animation or superhero type cartoons. I think they might be missing a trick there.

Then back towards Euston and the Wellcome Collection. This was, if I'm honest, rather odd. Part of it was a display of some of the collection of Henry Wellcome. He was one of the loate Victorian/Edwardian collectors and collected anything. Sometimes even if he already had a large number of them in hos collection. It all felt a bit odd and not terribly informative about the items themselves, in some instances. The two other exhibitions also seemed to focus on art inspired by topic and gave very little in the way of detail about the topic itself. The lights in the cafe were the high light, being shaped like chemical vessels.

After which it was a train home, seeing my feet had cried enough. Been a very long time since I've had a day out in London, must do it again soon.

>107 Helenliz: If you are planning another visit to London some time please let me know, I'm only about 5/6 miles from Kings Cross and would love to meet you if I'm able to nip down on the bus(es).

I worked very near Brunswick Square for nearly 14 years, Kings Cross but on the borders of Bloomsbury - I'm sure that estate agents advertise nearby flats as Bloomsbury. I loved Corams Fields but think I'd now need to borrow a young nephew to take me there (no unaccompanied adults, I took the kids there a few times when they were young, sometimes with their dad or my dad or both). We've had a few LT visits to the Persephone bookshop but that's now relocated to Bath.

>108 elkiedee: I certainly will shout. I decided not to venture too far afield due to possible bus & tube strikes - and it was far too nice a day to be on the tube for very long.

Yes, you do still need a child to go into Coram's fields - which might be why I never have!

>107 Helenliz: Thanks for the photos. I am jealous of the BL exhibition visit: the stuff I've read online looks wonderful. Did you manage to swerve the gift shop?

>110 charl08: Yes, I did! Taking the mid range handbag was a calculated move. It can fit the essentials for the day but not too many purchases. I even resisted the BL's 3for2 offer on the crime classics series! >:-0

The exhibition was sumptuous. items written on solid gold, gold tooled covers, gold leaf applied then patterned and incised and gold paint - it was a feast for the eyes. Although the video on how to actually use gold would have been better towards the beginning of the exhibition, rather than the end, imo.

>107 Helenliz: >111 Helenliz: Oh, your visit to London sounds wonderful, and thank you for the pictures! And I admire your resistance, not buying the crime classics! That definitely takes a lot of strength :-)

>112 MissBrangwen: Thank you. It was an excellent day out. I must do it again more often. And a handbag that's too small to fit very many things in. There was some logic at work there...

>111 Helenliz: I admire your willpower in not buying the books!

>113 Helenliz: That would have led, in my case, to elaborate justifications for "needing" a new book-related tote bag....

>115 charl08: Same here! :-)

>115 charl08: I take an old backpack of Mike's out with me. I've been given a beautiful tote bag by my sister, with bookcases of girls' school stories on, but I'm quite scared of losing it if I take it out. She also bought herself one. I thought I had lost it on a recent library outing and was going to try to contact the most likely of the possible places, just in case, when I had a look in the backpack. My tote bag was folded up in a pocket

Oh deary deary me. I'm clearly just an amateur!

Book: 81
Title: Agatha Raisin and the Quiche of Death
Author: MC Beaton
Published: 1992
Rating: **
Why: 50 years thing
Challenge: 50 years, woman author
TIOLI Challenge #9. Read a book that has more than 22 letters in the title

I like a good mystery - and this is not a good mystery. I think you'd describe it as a cosy mystery and that's a genre that simply passes me by. In this case Agatha Raisin sells her PR business, takes early retirement and moves to the Cotswolds. She settles in Carsley and expects it to be all picture postcard perfect. She enters the local quiche competition, only decided to cheat and enter a bought quiche. She doesn't win. And then the judge dies of poisoning. And from here we follow Agatha as she bumps her way into village life, stealing the cleaning lady from a neighbour, generally interfering and making a nuisance of herself - and not being very nice with it. OK, so the murder gets solved, and she starts to find her feet in the village, but it's so insubstantial. It also relies extensively on village stereotypes - the vicar's wife, the retired civil servant's wife, the local horrors, you name it, they all make an appearance.
I listened to Penelope Keith read this, and that made is somewhat bearable. but I am not reading any more.

I'm not a huge fan of cozy mysteries, either. I think I have this one saved on audio, as I find that the only way I can tolerate them.

Book: 82
Title: The Children of Men
Author: PD James
Published: 1992 (I need to stop double dipping, 1992 now has 3 entries!)
Rating: ****
Why: TIOLI prompt.
Challenge: 50 years, woman author
TIOLI Challenge #7. Read a book on The 50 Best Sci-Fi Books of All Time

Re-read, 2022.
The time slip effect remains, although is somewhat mitigated by reading this after the event. published in 1992 it is set in 2021 and tells of a world where no children have been born in 25 years. I suppose I know that 2021 was bad, but at least it wasn't like this (quite). England is under the control of a dictator, and ruled by the warden and council of England. The Isle of Man is a penal colony (not all fictional ideas are necessarily bad, you know), there are organised mass suicides and there's an air of lassitude, few people can be bothered to put themselves out. The rest of my review from 2013 remains fair.

2013
This is a good book, but the timings make reading it a somewhat strange experience. Published in the early 90s, the world has not seen a child born since 1995, while the book is written from a stanpoint of 2021. So the book is describing past events (that didn't happen) while still being set in the future. I found it a little difficult to turn my brain off from noticing this. It could almost do with reprinting - and shifting all the dates along 20 years!

Anyway, on to the story, which is actually very good. The central character is Theo Fallon, an Oxford Don who specialises in Victorian history. He happen to be cousin of Xan, the despot who styles himself "Warden of England" Actually he runs the whole of the UK, but thinks that title sounds best. The book starts with Fallon hitting 50 and starting a diary, he also starts reviewing his life and various events. He isn't an easy character to love, being not very sympathetic in that regard, but his redeeming feature is that he at least recognises that. He becomes involved in a group of 5 very disparate people who want to (for a range of very different reasons) bring about changes in the way the country is run. For some of them this is a religous standpoint, for others it is simply a desire for power.

The book is as much about the nature of faith and how the population would respond to a scenario in which hope for the future has been remoived. No children means that a lot of the activites we perform become more and more meaningless - so how & why carry on? The topic of euthenasia is also a central matter - what do you do with an ailing and increasingly infirm population - when there's no-one to look after them. It's a pretty bleak picture that's painted. And yet it ends in hope. Maybe a forlorn hope and there's no guarentee that the human race will recover, but hope none the less.

It's a perfectly convincing portrayal of an umimaginable situation.

>120 katiekrug: I think that's made that one bearable, that I listened to it while driving. I do need to have my main attention elsewhere, so something light is appreciated. But I'm not sure i understand cosy mystery as a genre.

>122 Helenliz: For me, it's one of those concepts that doesn't stand up to close examination. When you raised this I thought also of the (UK?) tradition of the Sunday evening drama being crime-related!

I really like the Agatha Raisins that are radio dramas (also with Penelope Keith). She is so scathing, but for me still funny. I found the Sky version (with Ashley Jensen, who I like in other things) really didn't work, so I'm not sure that Keith wasn't doing most of the heavy lifting in terms of my enjoyment. I found the same thing with Simon Brett adaptations - loved the radio drama (Bill Nighy), found the original books didn't appeal.

ETA Well, similar. Not the same. Obvs.

>123 charl08: ha! that's a good point.

Well it's a funny old world today. The Queen died yesterday. No, never met her, but it feels like the world has shifted on its axis and we're all a little bit adrift. She was one of those constants, and now she isn't. One of my earliest memories that I know is mine and not family legend is her silver jubilee; I went to a fancy dress party as an Oxo cube. No, there is no photographic evidence of this.

Well it's been a busy few days and not over yet. I'm a bell ringer and we have been ringing quite a lot. At noon yesterday to announce the death, then in the evening, today and this afternoon. Some more to go tomorrow and then I get a few days off. Which would be appreciated as I've rung more in 2 days than I usually do in a week and the hands are feeling it (as is the bra strap rub, but that's another subject entirely!)

I'm also seriously considering taking a day off work and going to Westminster for the lying in state. Trying to decide if I'll regret not doing it versus the likely inconvenience of actually doing it.

>125 Helenliz: I think it's really great that you ring bells and are willing to do so at this time. I live in the Central U.S. and everywhere I go someone is talking about feeling low due to her death. I sometimes think about what having life decided for you before you are an adult would be like. I think I would most likely fail the test!

>126 clue: We've been ringing half muffled, which give a call and echo effect to the bells. It's really effective and we don't do it very often.
It is a very odd feeling. An end of an era, at the very least. We were talking yesterday afternoon and some of the responses have really got to some of us. The French President's speech did it pretty well, some of the rather bad poetry less so.
I can't think there are many people who make a promise in their 20s and keep it all their lives.

I'm afraid I'm just trying to avoid offending anyone too much. My library reading group was 6-7 pm on Thursday and our supporting library worker told us the news everyone was expecting had come through during that.

>128 elkiedee: That's a lot more consideration than some are showing. There's never any need to be sorry for your ideas and opinions; we all have them, sometimes they are unpopular or seem out of line with others - that doesn't make them wrong. I think that we'd agree there are times, places and ways of expressing opinions in debate - and then there's twitter...

I hadn't realised there was so much bell ringing involved due to the news Helen. Do you anticipate much more? I imagine on the day of the funeral itself? We have a church with bells in the town but I've not noticed them ringing (but it's more noticeable in summer).Summer.

The Queen came to my dad's work when I was about 3. I don't remember it, but there is photographic evidence of the top of a pink hat and us having a picnic after the formal do (separate photos. Queen ate elsewhere, I presume!) I wonder how many people in the country have at least a distant link like that.

I think it's rather cool that you have an "official" role in the whole process. I would imagine that, despite the fatigue and hand discomfort, it feels nice to be involved and have a tangible way of participating and showing your respect for the queen while helping others to mark the occasion as well.

>130 charl08: We rang for an hour (non stop) on Friday lunchtime to announce the death, then practice Friday night. The ringing Saturday morning & for a wedding Saturday afternoon. And then this afternoon for the town proclamation of the King.
Now I'm off the hook until practice on Friday night.

>131 katiekrug: It's been quite interesting seeing the response to the ringing. The local FB group had a post on the Thursday night asking when we were going to ring for her, and several people posted clips of the ringing. Today we rang for the Proclamation of the King and there was a significant crowd at the Town hall, which is next door to the church. In ye olden days, the bells would have called people to find out the news, so it all feels very fitting to be involved, despite the fact that in the modern communication age people already know.

I also think that it must be gratifying to be able to participate in honoring the late Queen. I would imagine that there will be number of bell ringing ceremonies to be done with the funeral and coronation still to come. I also expect that there will be a ceremony for Prince William to officially become the Prince of Wales in the not too distant future. Personally I feel a loss as Queen Elizabeth was my queen for most of my life.

Book: 83
Title: Morality Play
Author: Barry Unsworth
Published: 1995
Rating: ****
Why: Someone hit me with this as a bullet sometime ago.
Challenge: 50 years, new author
TIOLI Challenge #8: Read a book first published in the 1990s or 2000s.

This is the kind of book you can read on several layers.
Told by Nicholas, it is set in the middle ages. He is a runaway priest who joins a group of players on a wintery day in a forest, as one of the number dies. The players are travelling to Durham to play at the Christmas court of their lord and the events of the boo are set over a few days en route.
They stop at a village and there they hear of the death of a child and the arrest of a young woman. The village is waiting for the local Justice to come for sentencing. They play in the yard of the inn , but don't make much money. Then their leader decides they should present a new play. Rather than the morality plays presenting biblical characters and representations of vices, virtues or mankind, they will present the play of Thomas Well, the boy who has been murdered. And so they collect evidence from the villagers and combine this into their play that lunchtime. The play includes representations of actual people along side the vices and virtues of the usual plays. They find that the play seems to twist and turn under their playing as the audience responds and as new information comes to light. It becomes its own form of truth, regardless of what the actual truth of the matter is.
There was a tradition of playing biblical stories that was well established in the middle ages, and the gap between that and the likes of Shakespeare in the Tudor age is vast - this presents something that might be a step towards bridging that gap. At another level is acts as a mystery - who did kill Thomas Wells (although, to be fair, the Justice seems pretty well on the road to finding that answer himself). And then it is, in a sense, it's own morality play. As per the middle ages, evil is not seen to prosper and the state of their soul remains a preoccupation.

>133 DeltaQueen50: we're now trying to arrange ringing for the funeral, which is proving interesting. Some people would prefer to watch it on TV than ring for it. That she's been queen for all our lives must be true of a large proportion of the population.

I intend to watch the funeral on TV but I will certainly be thinking of you and your participation.

Book: 83
Title: The Queen and I
Author: Sue Townsend
Published: 1992 (AGAIN!!)
Rating: ***
Why: Not sure.
Challenge: 50 years, new author
TIOLI Challenge #10: Read a book that has part of a college or university's name in the title or author's name

So it probably wasn't the best of timing that meant I was listening to this the day the Queen died. But I'm not sure that made a huge difference to my reading enjoyment (or lack thereof). It is billed as provocative and hilarious. I'm not sure it lived up to billing.
It is based on the surmise that at the General Election the Republican Party, led by Jack Barker, win. They form a government and depose the monarchy, apparently all by Monday morning. The Queen and her family find themselves living in a council house on Hellebore close, only 5 letters are missing and it is Hell Close to all and sundry. There are a significant number of fish out of water set pieces, with some of the royals presented as being less practical than others. In some cases it feels that she has them badly misrepresented. Their interactions with their very poor neighbours are not entirely without malice, which seems to be aimed at both parties. The first portion of the book felt, to me, to be bordering on cruel to all concerned. It also feels like a portion of the dispute was manufactured. The argument between the Queen & Prince Philip about what their surname should be seemed redundant when the royal family's surname was changed to the double barrelled Mountbatten-Windsor in the 60s. by the time this was published it should hardly have raised an argument.
The book improves as it progresses. It becomes less about attempts at comedic set pieces and becomes more about the relationship between the various residents. There are some really touching moments, Philomena and the Queen Mother, for example, and their relationship, is one that goes beyond and reaches an greater depth. Harris, the corgi finds a whole new world outside the door of number 9 and generally causes mayhem. But that has to be balanced against the farcical elements and an increasingly unlikely story about the antics of the government. I borrowed this from the library and the last chapter had a scratch so bad that I couldn't listen to it, but I can't say I feel any great need to seek it out to finish it off.
While the idea is timeless, the details are not. The giro arriving in the post, the phone box on the end of the road, there are any number of references that anchor this in the 1990s. That probably makes sense to those who remember that time, but I wonder how much need explaining that would have seemed obvious. It feels rather dated, in that sense.
It raises, along the way, questions of the welfare state and how should that be structured. The people of Hell Close are trapped in poverty, some of them have had poor education and can't help their children out of their predicament, their school is crumbling, there are too many pupils. The local hospital has closed wards and the doctors overworked. The pension is barely enough to live on and they all struggle to make ends meet. It raises the question do we need a monarchy - and that, too, remains a valid question, along with an elite ruling class that seems to be more elite and less in touch with reality with every passing year. And all of those are perfectly valid points to have been making in the 1990s and they remain equally valid now. It feels like this is trying to be more than one book at once and I feel it fails at being a success at any of them. It improved significantly, but still only manages an OK

>137 Helenliz: I read this ages ago (pre-Lt) and it felt pretty dated then too. I liked Adrian Mole (or at least the first one) so I think I must have been disappointed.

Hope you manage to find enough bellringers. I guess from your comments it's not possible to ring and watch when they can on a laptop /tablet? (Assuming your church has a signal of course!)

What I got up to today:


I've had long hair for over 25 years, but I've always seen myself as someone with short hair, the past 25 odd years were only ever a passing phase. There was a lot of hair on the floor. My head feels entirely different, the weight distribution has changed and it moves around. I pretty much always wore my hair up, so I'm not used to feeling it move.

>138 charl08: I seems to have missed the Adrian Mole thing.

Oooh, very nice cut!

Your hair looks great! Very sleek.

Yes, I love it, your hair is such a pretty color too.

Thanks all. I'm loving the back, the front will take a bit of getting used to.
>142 clue: I'm just wanting it to stop with the badger effect. It looks a bit better short than I was worried it might. The grey to dark thing at least isn't a line, it does sort of graduate from one to the other.

Your hairdresser did a nice cut. I love the way the back looks. I have curly hair so it wouldn't work for me, but I wish...

>139 Helenliz: Love it!

Thanks both.

I may have over done the reservations thing. Apparently I have 9 (NINE) waiting for collection, all having come in today.
Gulp.
Including two in German, my first time trying to read a book in a foreign language. Wish me luck. I was hoping that Asterix might be understandable, what with being a lot of pictures.

>125 Helenliz: How I would love to hear your bell ringing, I love the sound. It must be rewarding to be able to commemorate the big events in our lives (as well as the less important of course).

Did you decide about going to the Queen's Lying in State? As I listened to my most recent audiobook I watched the live broadcast on BBC instead of doing housework or exercise. She was a wonderful person and a sad loss the the country and Commonwealth. I feel for her family who have to be in public almost constantly when quiet reflection would be preferable.

>137 Helenliz: Excellent review of The Queen and I. I read it when it would have been hot off the press, and I enjoyed it because the idea was fresh. I can imagine how it has become dated.

>139 Helenliz: Beautiful hair style! Very courageous!

>147 VivienneR: No, I decided against in the end.

I was always going to go back short at some point, and it wasn't a spur of the moment decision. My hairdresser and I had been in discussion for quite some time! It's taking a bit of getting used to. It moves about in a way that long hair, tied back, doesn't. I wobble my head and my hair carries on moving. Very odd. >:-)

>146 Helenliz: I'll be interested to hear what you make of Asterix in German...

>149 MissWatson: so will I!
Up to day 99 of Duolingo. I think I ought to get a proper German grammar instruction book as well - I have some understanding of verb forms from when I last studied German (aged 16... it was a while ago), but Duolingo relies on learning by rote, there's no explanation.
The library didn't have a huge range in German, but it had some choice. I wanted more than just a picture book, but not a real reading book, if that makes sense. I have an Elmer the elephant book on order as well. >:-)

I think Sue Townsend's Adrian Mole series says far more about people's daily lives in a few English cities (as he does try out other lives before returning to his hometown) than The Queen and I. For example, I don't think that after leaving home he ever had his own council flat or any other long term stable home. And his parents really struggled too. My memory is that the two non Adrian books I've read felt much more laboured. Helen, if you can find the BBC versions on radio, though the ones from the books are shorter they work so well in this medium. The first radio series was turned into a novel rather than the other way round, but I think then books came first once it was established. There was a good TV series of the first book, with a theme song by Ian Dury, Profoundly in Love With Pandora.

Sue Townsend was a swing voter - but between Communist Party and any electoral coalition challenging Labour's claims under Labour leaders from Kinnock to Blair - she may have begun her writing life as a struggling mum who felt that working class people in Leicester and everywhere else deserved better than any politician had offered them.

And he is I think 15 1/2 months older than me. Or maybe that's 3/4 too?

Book #7 seemed to give him a happy ending for a bit but at the beginning of book #8 Adrian Mole: The Prostrate Years he was living alone at the bottom of someone's field in a mobile home, the Tories were back in power, my mum and Adrian were both struggling with different types of cancer. Apparently she was halfway through writing #Book 9 when she died herself. Hoping that Adrian is alive and very well, and living in Leicestershire happily, whether or not that's with the woman he has never fallen out of love with, former academic and Labour MP (1997 intake), then rather disillusioned. And perhaps Pandora is remembering her own experience and is now still trying to change the system from within the Labour Party in her own home town. She hasn't always been "a lovely person" but is doing her best in her mid 50s.

Even if you don't agree with me, these books are far far funnier than The Queen and I. I keep Queen Camilla and other non Mole books TBR but they are still not a priority now

>151 elkiedee: I never read any of the Adrian Mole books, I'm not sure why. The first one was published in 1982, when I was 10, so it's not that I'm the wrong age group. I'm not sure that they appeal desperately to me now either. My teens were bad enough, I don't feel the need to revisit someone else's.

I think your word "laboured" is fair for The Queen and I. I didn't enjoy it enough to want to fill in the rest of her back catalogue with any degree of urgency. Although I notice I have Rebuilding Coventry out to listen to already.

I really enjoyed Adrian Mole at the time (I'm about the same age, I turned 13 in 1982), but I don't recall reading any of the others after the first book. They made a TV series of the first book a couple of years after it was published, which I watched, but I think I preferred the book more. I've not read any of the non-Mole books.

I've read the first three Adrian Moles but haven't read any of the later ones. I think I read them in my late teens.

>153 Jackie_K: I turned 13 half way through 1982, 100 miles up the M1 from Leicester in a slightly larger city with a different mix. Sadly I think I only visited twice, and the second was for a funeral, plus the East Midlands are surprisingly poorly served by London trains and I couldn't get a lift in a shared car, so had to leave earlier than I wanted to at 8 pm.

>155 elkiedee: We must be almost exactly the same age then! (I am a June baby so turned 13 mid-1982 too) I'd forgotten that Adrian Mole was an East Midlander, I am too (I am from Wellingborough, which is on the Leicester line from London). Even though W'boro' is only 50 miles away from Leicester I've only been there a couple of times too.

I was born right at the end of June 69

>157 elkiedee:, >156 Jackie_K: feeling positively young! >;-) I have lived in Nottingham & now live not too far from where JackieK grew up. Used to visit a supplier on the outskirts of Leicester, a very odd setup of a factory apparently in the middle of a housing estate. Not sure I've been into the city centre above a couple of times.

Today was an odd day. I watched the Queen's funeral on the TV. I have this thing that you can't just watch TV, you have to do something useful. It's deep rooted, dating back to Live Aid and several bags of fur scraps (long story).
Anyway, today's TV marathon saw me quilt and bind this table runner. It's 5 ft long and 18 inches wide.
Available for a donation to https://www.lovequiltsuk.com/index.php Get in touch if you are interested.

Top: The cross stitch panel is a variety of spring flowers


Detail and a view of a portion of the back:

>157 elkiedee: Ah, I'm just a few weeks older than you then, I'm an early June baby!
>158 Helenliz: That is beautiful, Helen!

The various ceremonies did make it a long day yesterday, I couldn't help but think that the Queen would be glad when it was over and she was finally put to rest! That said it was very well done and she certainly had a proper send-off!

Book: 84
Title: The Plantagenet Prelude
Author: Jean Plaidy
Published: 1976 (which finished that decade)
Rating: **
Why: 50 years thing
Challenge: 50 years, new author, woman author
TIOLI Challenge #3. Read a work of fiction set prior to 1922 in a country then (or once) part of the British Empire

As a child, my mum had a shelf of books that I avoided as they were "romances". this included Georgette Heyer and Jean Plaidy. The two authors couldn't be more different. This is the first Plaidy I have tried and it may well be the last. Based on this, her writing hasn't stood up to the passage of time.
This was curiously flat, for such a roller coaster of a story in our history. It starts as being the story of Eleanor of Aquitaine, but mid way through it changes focus and concentrates on the relationship between Henry II and Thomas a Becket. Eleanor comes over as fickle and it is as if the author thinks she should just submit to Henry and brush the rest under the carpet. There are much more interesting, dramatic interpretations of this story out there.

>160 DeltaQueen50: There was a bizarre story on BBC Radio 4 last night. Apparently the British Pet Awards went ahead, humans attended with their animals and they decided to have a minute's silence. A dog started barking and it ended up being a long minute of muffled dogs' barks. It all sounds a bit unfortunate, really.

>162 elkiedee: oops! A minute of barking might have been possibly easier to arrange - but I suppose there might have been unintended outcomes there as well.

>162 elkiedee: Well, I think the Queen would have approved of both the Pet Awards and the barking dogs!

Book: 86
Title: Dear Life: Stories
Author: Alice Munro
Published: 2012
Rating: ***
Why: 50 years thing
Challenge: 50 years, woman author, short stories
TIOLI Challenge #12. Read a book about a dead laureate of the Nobel Prize in Literature OR one written by a living laureate

A selection of short stories a sub set of which are introduced as being biographical in feeling if not in fact. There's a lot of uncertainty in these stories, there is very little resolution and a sense of something being out of reach. They have a sense of place, though, and feel to be set in a past time. It's not up beat, but it is enveloping.

>164 DeltaQueen50: I can't disagree!

Well that's me off on holiday for a week and a bit. Finished up with an internal audit all day today, so a lie in tomorrow would be nice - unfortunately, no, we're taking the car in for a service.
I finished my audio book on the way home, so at least I won;t have that hanging over me until I get back to work, trying to remember what had just happened! Currently planning books to take, as we're away for some of next week.

Enjoy your time off, Helen!

>166 Helenliz: I hope you have a good rest!

Have fun during your time off!

Enjoy your break!

Have a great time off!

>158 Helenliz: I don't have a mysterious Live Aid anecdote, but I agree, I can't watch tv - or listen to an audiobook - without doing something useful. But I have to add, my useful achievements are never as eye-catching as yours!

Hello - I'm home! Had a lovely holiday in Norfolk, and I decided not to take my laptop with me. So only limited e-mail on my phone, no work, no social media, nothing. It was lovely; going off grid is to be heartily recommended. I will leave aside the number of rather long threads I now will fail to catch up with, but that's a minor issue.

A couple of finishes to report.

Book: 87
Title: The Investigation
Author: J.M. Lee
Published: 2012/2014
Rating: ***
Why: TIOLI challenge
Challenge: 50 years, new author, translation
TIOLI Challenge #11. Read a book about Korea or written by a Korean or ethnic Korean author

I think this would have been improved had I even a vague understanding of Korean and Japanese history - which I did not. I didn't realise that Korea used to be part of the Japanese empire, and that there was an independence movement, to use a Korean name was considered treasonable. Set in a prison camp in the latter half of WW2, this star6ts with the death of a violent guard. In trying to investigate, our narrator discovers more about the guard and a particular inmate who is a poet. The Guard is viewed in different ways by different people and their interactions with him colour the original conclusion that the narrator had come to. He also finds out more about the goings on of the medical staff attached to the prison, and what he finds out has profound implications for his peace of mind. It's a many layered work, and is, at times, rather complicated to follow. But it is worth the effort and repays the reader staying with the narrative.

Book: 88
Title: The Stone Circle
Author: Elly Griffiths
Published: 2019
Rating: ***
Why: borrowed it, ought to return
Challenge: 50 years, woman author
TIOLI Challenge #17: Read a book that completes the verse “See you in September or lose you to………."

This feels more like a return to form, although it could be seen as a return to the first of the series; there are a lot of similarities in the case and those involved. It helps to have read book 1 - I imagine this might be a bit difficult if you'd not done so. It also feels like Ruth might be getting somewhere with the relationship thing, and the next book promises some change. After the disappointment of the previous book, this was a welcome relief. And read while I was on holiday on the North Norfolk coast.

Welcome back! Glad you had a nice holiday.