SusanJ's 75 Books Challenge - Thread 5

Hello, and welcome to my fifth thread for 2017.

I'm Susan, a Kiwi living in London for the past 22 years. During the working week I'm a lawyer so I love nerdy legal stuff, which crops up in more books than you might expect.

Over the past few years I've started to read a lot more non-fiction, so my reading is now more non-fiction than fiction. I typically aim for 150 books, with a 100 NF/50 F split. While I read mostly from the library, I do have a fair few books that I've bought (mostly for the Kindle) and I need to keep my eye on those so that I actually read them instead of just accumulating them. This year I want to read at least 50 books from Mount TBR (which counts as anything I own) so I'm adding a ticker for that too.

Books read during 2017



By Dick Mudde - Own work, Public Domain, Link

January

1. The Trials of the King of Hampshire by Elizabeth Foyster
2. The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead
3. Make Me by Lee Child
4. The Bible: The Biography by Karen Armstrong
5. Before We Kiss by Susan Mallery
6. Until We Touch by Susan Mallery
7. Night School by Lee Child
8. Under Another Sky by Charlotte Higgins
9. Miss Smilla's Feeling for Snow by Peter Hoeg
10. The Invention of Nature by Andrea Wulf
11. Defiance: The Life and Choices of Lady Anne Barnard by Stephen Taylor
12. The Last Grain Race by Eric Newby
13. The Improbability of Love by Hannah Rothschild
14. Hold Me by Susan Mallery
15. Kiss Me by Susan Mallery
16. Thrill Me by Susan Mallery
17. Toast by Nigel Slater
18. The Unexpected Inheritance of Inspector Chopra by Vaseem Khan
19. The Janus Stone by Elly Griffiths
20. Hell's Bottom, Colorado by Laura Pritchett
21. The Warmth of Other Suns by Isabel Wilkerson
22. The Emperor of All Maladies by Siddhartha Mukherjee
23. Looking for Alaska by John Green



February

24. China Rich Girlfriend by Kevin Kwan
25. The Tidal Zone by Sarah Moss
26. The Perplexing Theft of the Jewel in the Crown
27. The Riviera Set by Mary S Lovell
28. Five Star Billionaire by Tash Aw
29. The Dinosaur Hunters by Deborah Cadbury
30. Assassin's Apprentice by Robin Hobb
31. Evicted by Matthew Desmond
32. China's Disruptors by Edward Tse
33. Oil on Water by Helon Habila
34. Royal Assassin by Robin Hobb
35. Bleak House by Charles Dickens
36. The Unwinding by George Packer



March

37. A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles
38. The Butcher, The Baker, The Candlestick Maker
39. The Templar Legacy
40. Waves of Prosperity: Indian, China and the West: How Global Trade Transformed the World
41. Assassin's Quest by Robin Hobb
42. The Looming Tower by Lawrence Wright
43. How to Survive a Plague by David France
44. Missing Pieces by Heather Gudenkauf
45. The Mighty Dead by Adam Nicolson
46. The House At Sea's End by Elly Griffiths
47. A Room Full of Bones by Elly Griffiths
48. The Life Project by Helen Pearson
49. You May Also Like by Tom Vanderbilt
50. Another Day in the Death of America by Gary Younge



April

51. The Big Rock Candy Mountain by Wallace Stegner
52. The Swerve by Stephen Greenblatt
53. The Wangs vs the World by Jade Chang
54. Hit Makers by Derek Thompson
55. The Epigenetics Revolution by Nessa Carey
56. The Windflower by Laura London
57. An African in Greenland by Tete-Michel Kpomassie
58. The Leveller Revolution by John Rees
59. The Death of an Owl by Paul Torday
60. Behold the Dreamers by Imbolo Mbue
61. Talking to the Dead by Harry Bingham
62. Cast in Shadow by Michelle Sagara
63. Girl Waits With Gun by Amy Stewart
64. The Woman Next Door by Yewande Omotoso
65. Vicious Circle by C J Box



May

66. Killers of the Flower Moon by David Grann
67. Dying Fall by Elly Griffiths
68. The Plague Charmer by Karen Maitland
68.5 Midnight at Tiffany's by Sarah Morgan
69. The Doctor's Engagement by Sarah Morgan
70. Mail Men by Adrian Addison

Last year I started a new NF challenge, which is to read the non-fiction winners of the Pulitzer prize. I stole this idea from Reba, who is doing a fiction challenge. Hi Reba! This is a long-term project, rather than something to be completed in a year or two. If I can't find the relevant non-fiction winner easily in the UK, I propose to substitute the winner of the history category.

Last year I read about eight books from the list. This year I'd like to do the same, but I have five already and I'll focus on those.



Here's the full list:



2017 Evicted by Matthew Desmond
2016 Black Flags: The Rise of ISIS by Joby Warrick
2015 The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History by Elizabeth Kolbert
2014 Toms River: A Story of Science and Salvation by Dan Fagin
2013 Devil in the Grove by Gilbert King
2012 The Swerve: How the World Became Modern by Stephen Greenblatt
2011 The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer by Siddhartha Mukherjee
2010 The Dead Hand: The Untold Story of the Cold War Arms Race and Its Dangerous Legacy by David E. Hoffman



2009 Slavery by Another Name: The Re-Enslavement of Black Americans from the Civil War to World War II by Douglas A Blackmon
2008 The Years of Extermination: Nazi Germany and the Jews, 1939-1945 by Saul Friedländer
2007 The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11 by Lawrence Wright
2006 Imperial Reckoning: The Untold Story of Britain's Gulag in Kenya by Caroline Elkins
2005 Ghost Wars by Steve Coll
2004 Gulag: A History by Anne Applebaum
2003 A Problem From Hell: America and the Age of Genocide by Samantha Power
2002 Carry Me Home: Birmingham, Alabama, the Climactic Battle of the Civil Rights Revolution by Diane McWhorter
2001 Hirohito and the Making of Modern Japan by Herbert P Bix
2000 Embracing Defeat: Japan in the Wake of World War II by John W. Dower



1999 Annals of the Former World by John McPhee
1998 Guns, Germs and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies by Jared Diamond
1997 Ashes To Ashes: America's Hundred-Year Cigarette War, The Public Health, And The Unabashed Triumph Of Philip Morris by Richard Kluger
1996 The Haunted Land: Facing Europe's Ghosts After Communism by Tina Rosenberg
1995 The Beak Of The Finch: A Story Of Evolution In Our Time by Jonathan Weiner
1994 Lenin's Tomb: The Last Days Of The Soviet Empire by David Remnick
1993 Lincoln at Gettysburg: The Words That Remade America by Garry Wills
1992 The Prize: The Epic Quest For Oil, Money & Power by Daniel Yergin
1991 The Ants by Bert Holldobler and Edward O Wilson
1990 And Their Children After Them by Dale Maharidge and Michael Williamson



1989 A Bright Shining Lie: John Paul Vann and America in Vietnam by Neil Sheehan
1988 The Making of the Atomic Bomb by Richard Rhodes
1987 Arab and Jew: Wounded Spirits in a Promised Land by David K Shipler
1986 Common Ground: A Turbulent Decade in the Lives of Three American Families by J Anthony Lukas
1986 Move Your Shadow: South Africa, Black and White by Joseph Lelyveld
1985 The Good War: An Oral History of World War Two by Studs Terkel
1984 The Social Transformation Of American Medicine by Paul Starr
1983 Is There No Place On Earth For Me? by Susan Sheehan
1982 The Soul of A New Machine by Tracy Kidder
1981 Fin-De Siecle Vienna: Politics And Culture by Carl E Schorske
1980 Godel, Escher, Bach: an Eternal Golden Braid by Douglas R Hofstadter



1979 On Human Nature by Edward O Wilson
1978 The Dragons of Eden by Carl Sagan
1977 Beautiful Swimmers by William W Warner
1976 Why Survive? Being Old In America by Robert N Butler
1975 Pilgrim at Tinker Creek by Annie Dillard
1974 The Denial of Death by Ernest Becker
1973 Fire in the Lake: The Vietnamese and the Americans in Vietnam by Frances Fitzgerald
1973 Children of Crisis, Vols. II and III by Robert Coles
1972 Stilwell and the American Experience in China, 1911-1945 by Barbara W Tuchman
1971 The Rising Sun by John Toland
1970 Gandhi's Truth by Erik H Erikson



1969 The Armies Of The Night by Norman Mailer
1969 So Human An Animal by Rene Jules Dubos
1968 Rousseau And Revolution, The Tenth And Concluding Volume Of The Story Of Civilization by Will and Ariel Durant
1967 The Problem of Slavery in Western Culture by David Brion Davis
1966 Wandering Through Winter by Edwin Way Teale
1965 O Strange New World by Howard Mumford Jones
1964 Anti-Intellectualism in American Life by Richard Hofstadter
1963 The Guns of August by Barbara W Tuchman
1962 The Making of the President 1960 by Theodore H White

There are all sorts of reading challenges around (quite apart from LT) and I thought I'd have a go at the Better World Books challenge, which is as follows (with some thoughts for books in each category where I have thoughts. Or books):




A food memoir Toast by Nigel Slater COMPLETED
A young adult novel Looking for Alaska by John Green COMPLETED
A National Book Award Winner The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead COMPLETED
A book under 200 pages Hell's Bottom, Colorado by Laura Pritchett COMPLETED
A book by a female writer The Invention of Nature by Andrea Wulf COMPLETED
A book set in Asia China Rich Girlfriend by Kevin Kwan COMPLETED
A book translated from another language Miss Smilla's Feeling for Snow by Peter Hoeg COMPLETED
A fantasy novel Assassin's Apprentice by Robin Hobb COMPLETED
A book that’s more than 100 years old Bleak House COMPLETED
A book about immigrants The Wangs vs the World COMPLETED
A romance that takes place during travel The Windflower by Laura London COMPLETED
A book set in a place you want to visit An African in Greenland by Tete-Michel Kpomassie COMPLETED
A book you picked based on its cover The Leveller Revolution by John Rees COMPLETED

Still to go:

A collection of short stories
The First Person by Ali Smith (a gift that I haven't read, not really being a short story person)

A book with a color in the title
If "Fiery" is a colour, then The Fiery Trial: Abraham Lincoln and American Slavery by Eric Foner

A book based on a fairytale
Snow White by Matt Phelan

A book that takes place in a forest

A book over 400 pages
Catherine the Great & Potemkin by Simon Sebag Montefiore

A banned book
1984 by George Orwell

A nonfiction book about nature
Weatherland by Alexandra Harris - another gift that I haven't quite got to

A book by a person of color
The Pillow Book

A book of poetry
Poem for the Day, which I didn't quite keep up with last year.

A book about a historical event
Hitler's Beneficiaries by Gotz Ali

A book with a child narrator

A book that’s been adapted into a movie
The Life of Pi

Other projects for 2017

The Pulitzer challenge has no end date, but for 2017 I want to read Boswell's Life of Johnson which I have in a slightly different (i.e. cheaper) version than this handsome Penguin Classic. But it's the unabridged version, so yay.

>6 susanj67: Ha! Happy new thread, Susan!

53. The Wangs vs the World by Jade Chang

I saw this at the library and borrowed it because of the LT buzz (Hi Katie!). It's the story of a road trip taken by a Chinese man, his wife and two of his children after he becomes bankrupt and they drive across the US to stay with his oldest daughter. There is lots to like about it, although I think perhaps it tried to do too much. I liked the characters, though - particularly the youngest daughter with her achingly cool style blog, and the older one with her failed career in Emperor's-new-clothes modern art. There's a fair bit of untranslated Chinese in it, which is a bit distancing, but overall I enjoyed it. I've picked this one for my "Book about immigrants" for the reading challenge.

And now I'm down to two library books, one of which is still sitting in my office, begrimed and unloved. I must take it home and clean it up a bit.

>7 Crazymamie: Hi Mamie! That was quick! I hope you're not up early because you're in pain. Holy carp, it is 9.09 UK time!

Nope - not in pain. I just can't sleep. No worries - it happens all the time for me as I spent years working the night shift, and it has messed up my system. It's 4:20 here currently.

Happy new thread, Susan!

Happy nrw thread, Susan.

>8 susanj67: Thanks for the recommendation of that one. I will have to see if I can track down a copy.

Happy new thread Susan. Are you free for a coffee Saturday morning in a gallery somewhere? I've been given my freedoma training day plus leave day tomorrow, all rather last minute, and I wondered if you were free. Don't worry if not though - I realise it is Very Last Minute.

>13 alcottacre: Stasia, it's fairly new, so libraries should have a few copies.

>14 charl08: Charlotte, that would be great! Let me know which area you are going to be in and we can decide where to go :-)

Happy new thread!

Happy new thread, Susan. I love reading about all of the lists you are touching on.

>8 susanj67: - Glad it was (mostly) a winner for you, Susan. I agree that it didn't totally work, but overall it was a good read.

>14 charl08: and >15 susanj67: - Oh, how I would love to crash that meet-up! Have fun!

There's too much choice (although it's holiday weekend, so maybe also too many people?). The British Museum has lots of good stuff - this looked interesting
http://americandreamexhibition.org/
but also plenty of interesting free stuff.

(Have you had a look at the book events going on at the BL recently? There is a course on Russian lit - four evenings - which looks envy-worthy, but also international authors in conversation)

>16 drneutron: Thanks Jim!

>17 RebaRelishesReading: Hi Reba! I'll keep the lists coming as long as Book Riot keeps thinking them up :-)

>18 katiekrug: Katie, it was mostly a winner. And parts reminded me of Crazy Rich Asians, which in turn made me remember that the third one in that series is out next month, which is happy-making :-)

>19 charl08: Charlotte, that sounds good :-) I'll PM you to sort out details.

>6 susanj67: Awww - Only with my own books, though.

Nice comments on The Wangs vs. the World - I really liked it as well. I think she did a good job with the characters.

Happy new thread.

Happy new thread
>:-)

Happy new thread Susan.

Oh noes, I left people out!

>10 Crazymamie: Mamie, I hope you got through the storm OK.

>11 scaifea: Thanks Amber!

>12 Ameise1: Thanks Barbara :-)

>21 BLBera: Beth, your own books is OK. It's library books that drive me mad. And the people who put their initials on the inside back cover so they can tell in the future whether they've read the book before...

>22 Helenliz: Thanks Helen.

>23 FAMeulstee: Thanks Anita.

The Leveller Revolution continues, although it's a tiny bit all over the place. And I'm still not really sure what a Leveller *was*. However, I have discovered that there's a plaque commemorating the life of one of them in a churchyard just along the street from me, so I must go and visit it.

Happy new thread, Susan.

I look forward to news of your meet up with Charlotte.

Happy new one, Susan!

>24 susanj67: Whew! I can't believe people write in library books.

>27 BLBera: >24 susanj67: Sadly some people do write in library books... Last week I had a library book where sentences and paragraphs where underlined and marked with pencil. So annoying :-(

Congratulations on the new thread!

Other than text books, back when I was in school, I never even write in my own books let alone library books!!

Happy new thread, Susan!

>25 PaulCranswick: Thanks Paul. Meet-up news below!

>26 DianaNL: Thanks Diana :-)

>27 BLBera: Beth, I know!

>28 FAMeulstee: Anita, that's even more annoying!

>29 inge87: Thanks Jennifer :-)

>30 RebaRelishesReading: Reba, I was the same!

>31 lkernagh: Thanks Lori!

I met up with Charlotte this morning, and we went to the "Revolution" exhibition at the Royal Academy, which is Russian Art from 1917 - 1932. It's a huge exhibition, and I learned a lot. And then we went to Pret for coffee. It was so nice to finally meet Charlotte, who is just as lovely as her thread suggests. So that's three awesome LT meet-ups I have had now :-) It's even sunny in London, so I have come into the office to do something I was going to do tomorrow, so that tomorrow I can have some quality balcony time. Fortunately I have a trance compilation on YouTube to keep me going...

Oh, how fun - that sounds like a perfect meet-up for the two of you. What a great start to the weekend.

>33 Crazymamie: Mamie, it was the perfect start to the weekend. And I did my work at the office in a couple of hours, so yay for that. I needed a headstart on Monday pre-Tuesday, and now I have one. And it's still warm enough to read outside. Tomorrow it's supposed to be 23C which is hotter than Spain and stuff, so I thought I'd stay home then instead of being cooped up in the office.

Hooray for nice weather. How fun to meet Charlotte. Pictures?

Aren't meet-up's fun? Good reading and enjoy the nice weather!!

Yay -- meet up! And yay new thread!

Every time I read your intro: "I am a Kiwi living in London" I always wonder if you plan to stay. I had dinner last night with my brother, who has lived the past 8 years or so in Munich, and before that, in Scotland at St. Andrews. He is getting married this summer at the age of 43 to a lovely Russian-born-in-Turkmenistan-now-German-citizen. Even though her family all live in Germany, they are getting married in our Colorado mountains. While he has no plans to return to the United States to live, he did say he can't think of living permanently in Germany - of growing old somewhere he doesn't fully belong. This surprised me a lot. I wondered about you (though you are far, far, far from being old...) . So what do you think? Where will you retire?

Hope you had a great day in the sunshine on the balcony Susan. I have been eyeing up the other centenary Russian exhibits, although I might just restrict myself to asking the library of they can get one of the new Russian history books.

Happy New Thread, Susan, and hurrah for lovely reading weather. Enjoy!

>35 BLBera: Beth, it was fun! But no pictures :-(

>36 RebaRelishesReading: Reba, yes they are! :-)

>37 AMQS: Thanks Anne! I wonder about that from time to time, but if I stay healthy then I'll probably stay here in the UK. I've been gone from NZ so long now that it's like a foreign country, so going back would be like emigrating all over again, and that's not something I particularly want to do!

>38 charl08: Charlotte, it was a lovely day - warm, breezy (so all my laundry got dry - yay!) and I read a whole book. A pretty good Sunday, overall :-)

>39 ronincats: Thanks Roni!



54. Hit Makers: How Things Become Popular by Derek Thompson

This is a great read. As the subtitle suggests, it's all about popularity and trends and why some amazing things never get picked up while others do. There's lots of psychology in it (but it's not technical or hard to understand) and some great anecdotes. And my favourite piece of trivia: The US Government is the largest employer of anthropologists in the US. But who is the second-largest? I'll post the answer later :-) Highly recommended for anyone who finds themselves wondering why they're clicking on things just because, or who has read Fifty Shades just so they can take part in what everyone is talking about (although I think it's an awful book, there's a fascinating chapter on how it got going and ended up making so much money)

I'm still going with The Leveller Revolution, which is mostly demonstrating that I know nothing about the Civil War and perhaps this wasn't the best starting place. Levelled-out after a couple of long chapters I started The Epigenetics Revolution (quite the revolutionary theme running through my books) and that is excellent. I've also started An African in Greenland (the very grubby library book) but I've only read the introduction so far.

Who employs anthropologists? Having cheated and looked at the list of largest employers in the US (wikipedia) I'm going to guess IBM...

I wonder if there is an (English) civil war for Dummies. I'd read that book. Not a period of history I know much about.

>41 charl08: Charlotte, it's Microsoft, so you were close :-) I can't see a Dummies book for the English civil war. There are a few kids' homework sites, though. I disapprove of that.

Today I'm giving a talk to some high school students. The instructions said that "one of the students is partially-sighted and will have a guide with her." Scanning the email quickly, I misread it as "guide dog" and was quite excited at the thought of a dog listening in, but I'm assuming the guide is a human.

I just took a book back to the library and took NOTHING out, even though Easter is coming up. Yikes! I really hope my hard-copy TBR pile and the hundreds of things on the Kindle keep me going.

Happy Tuesday, Susan. It's lovely to hear that you had a wonderful meet-up with Charlotte.

Hope the talk went well Susan. I'm admiring your library restraint.

>43 Ameise1: Barbara, LT meet-ups are The Best!

>44 charl08: Charlotte, it was fine. But they're so young... I have a secret plan to pop down to the little library branch and get the first one in the Judith Flanders crime series, but it's not going to be today, sadly. I have to give another talk, and there are also 400 boxes of documents for review...

Don't you love it when you're doing a Pulitzer challenge and the winner is announced and you've already read it? I've just added Evicted to my list and crossed it off :-) I've even read the fiction winner too.

Yep, I was having a little giggle that The Underground Railroad won because I had read it (and liked it). But, seriously, 400! boxes of documents?!?

>46 RebaRelishesReading: Reba, I did think of you too! I don't think I've ever read two winners before. LT evidently has a good influence on me :-) The box crisis seems to have passed, although I am not giving up the big meeting room or allowing the boxes to be moved back into storage. That would just be tempting fate. I should know more tomorrow, but if the boxes don't need looking at then I plan to have Thursday off. Woo-hoo!

Fingers crossed the boxes let you have Thursday off... It's been quite lovely here today, although windy, so maybe another sunny day on the balcony?

>48 charl08: Charlotte, I would love that :-) I'm trying to see this morning what else might derail tomorrow, but I have my fingers crossed. I've got my boss to agree that I can carry more than the official amount of leave over into the next holiday year if necessary, because there's no way I can take my 12.5 outstanding days before the end of the month, tempting though it is :-)

I'm just over half-way through The Epigenetics Revolution now, and it is *very* sciencey, but good. I think my OU short course on genetics has helped, and the author is good at putting things into more "lay" terms, but there is still lots of hard stuff. I need to get back to the Levellers over the weekend, too. And then maybe read a novel, for something lighter.

And, from my inbox, I've received a Christmas crafts sneak preview from The Works (OMG it's APRIL, people) and an email from Book Riot, which has this list of 100 must-read books with plot twists: http://bookriot.com/2017/04/11/100-books-with-plot-twists

I've read 23 from that Book Riot list. Fingersmith had so many, it should count more than once :)

Hello, Susan, and happy newish thread!! Hit Makers: How Things Become Popular by Derek Thompson sounds interesting and I am thinking about trying to read the NF Pulitzers, but only from 2010 on, since I already own 3 of them. Like I need a new list!! LOL Congrats on the meet-up. They are always fun. : )

Eight I think, but there were so many I ... ones that I lost count. Scott Turow takes me back!

I'll keep my fingers crossed that the boxes can be moved right back into storage and not need to be sorted.

Love your book riot lists, Susan.

I hope you avoid having to dig through the boxes and get Thursday off.

Hope you've got the day off Susan. I'm heading to work but have been promised hot cross buns, which is taking the edge off a bit...

>51 katiekrug: Katie, I agree! (Not that I've read Fingersmith, but with the general principle)

>52 Berly: Hi Kim! I loved Hit Makers. And your Pulitzer read sounds do-able. The Emperor of All Maladies is really long and quite hard, but the others are faster reads. I only have two left from the 2010s now, although one of them isn't available here yet, by which I mean "available at a price I will actually pay" :-)

>53 charl08: Charlotte, yes, I remember him too!

>54 RebaRelishesReading: Reba, we now think we have to look at about 50 boxes, so the rest are going back into the storage room, but arranged in numerical order. Yes, I know. But no, they weren't put like that the first time round...

>55 BLBera: Beth, I'm glad you enjoyed the list :-) No holiday for me - I'm busier than ever. And I don't think tomorrow is a public holiday in the US either, is it. So my NY clients will be right there, in the office...

>56 charl08: Charlotte, hot cross buns sounds like enough of a reason to go in. I wonder whether we will have any. I always have a couple of packs in the freezer, anyway. My mother would only ever let us have them on Good Friday (although they weren't available year-round like they are now). One year we made them for cooking class, so I did them again at home with the rest of the fresh yeast. Fancy :-)

On the weekend I *really am* going to visit y'all's threads and actually post things.

Unfortunate headline of the day: "Gun and knife offences: Violent crime surge in London blamed on cuts".

Um, yeah. Thank you Guardian, where the subs must all be on holiday. Unlike some of us. But at least I tried the new Pret sweet potato falafel and smashed beets veggie box for lunch, which is *awesome*.

Some people in the US get Good Friday off. The Wayne does, but I do not :-(

>59 katiekrug: Katie, oh dear. But, as you work from home, you *could* still sit in your office in your jammies and no-one would know...



55. The Epigenetics Revolution by Nessa Carey

Epigenetics is the study of changes in organisms caused by the modification of gene expression rather than alteration of the genetic code itself. This book looks at how these changes work, and what they mean for the future of treatments for various diseases. It's a fascinating read, although heavy on the technical words. But the author does try and use easier-to-understand analogies to summarise. I still got a lot out of it, and I'd recommend it for anyone who likes popular science books.

That leaves me with The Leveller Revolution (still podding on) and the Greenland book, and I'm going to read something romancey over the weekend too.

>60 susanj67: I work from home 1 day a week, I have to dispel the belief that I do work in my onsie and slippers. I don't own a onsie, I do get dressed, but will happily admit to working in my slippers >:-)

>61 Helenliz: Helen, I would go for the slippers too. In fact, sometimes in the office I wish I had slippers and a slanket. Or maybe a robe...



56. The Windflower by Laura London

I read a romance review recently, and the writer said the book had been a disappointment and she wished she'd used the time to reread The Windflower instead. A few others chimed in with fond memories of it, so naturally I had to look it up on Amazon and click on it. And lo! A genuine 80s bodice-ripper, with *pirates*! Quite a change from all my NF :-) Laura London is apparently a husband and wife team who've written lots of other romances, so yay for that :-)

I read a bit of the Levellers yesterday and made some progress with An African in Greenland, but I have another famous romance - Through a Glass Darkly on my shelf, so who can say what today will bring?

Hi Susan, wishing you a wonderful Easter weekend.

>63 DianaNL: Thanks Diana - you too :-)

>64 Ameise1: Thanks Barbara - so pretty! I hope you have a good Easter too.



57. An African in Greenland by Tete-Michel Kpomassie

This was mentioned in one of the Book Riot lists I posted recently, so I reserved a copy from the library. Not this nice cover above - mine was perhaps the original edition. It was in a horrible state, but it's a good read if you keep a plastic bag on your lap. The author was born in Togo, but read about Greenland in a book he chanced upon when he was a child, and determined to go there. But getting from Togo to Greenland in the mid-1960s wasn't easy (a quick google shows that even today, from London, it takes 12 hours by air, involves stops in Glasgow and Reykjavik and costs more than £2,000 return. As a comparison, a return ticket to NZ from London costs about £800). He had to work his way up to Europe, and then across Europe to Denmark, and then deal with Danish bureaucrats who were worried that he might not be able to handle the cold. But eventually he made it, and visited numerous towns on the west coast, trying (but ultimately failing) to get to Thule, in the far north. He did get pretty far north, though. It must have changed a lot since he was there, but it was an interesting look at the country and the people, and how they interacted with the Danish. I picked this for my Better World Books challenge, as a book about a country I'd like to go to. While I'm not really a traveller, Greenland does seem like a place that it would be interesting to visit. A recent episode of Man Finds Food went there and I loved that. I was also intrigued to learn from the book that, although it is said to be the world's largest island, all the ice that covers it means that actually it could be multiple islands - we just don't know (yet). Well, we didn't then, anyway.

Still going with the Levellers, and I haven't yet started a new romance. But I have finished my last library book. Woo-hoo!

>65 susanj67: This sounds fascinating, Susan. Onto the list it goes.

>65 susanj67: Would love to read this: but will perhaps avoid an ILL...!

>57 susanj67: Interesting sounding book. We've stopped in Qaqortoq, way at the southern tip, twice on cruises. It's tiny but interesting. Amazingly European in many ways though. It was also interesting to see the changes from 2002 when we were first there to 2014 when we visited the second time. They seemed to be getting used to being a tourist destination and had added a visitor's center and some art.

>66 BLBera: Beth, it's really good!

>67 charl08: Charlotte, definitely wise :-)

>68 RebaRelishesReading: Reba, I think you're the only person I know who's been to Greenland! (Well, and MrReba, I suppose, so that's two people). Googling "Greenland" brings up lots of adventure holidays so it seems like the tourism is really taking off. It looks beautiful.



58. The Leveller Revolution by John Rees

I picked this because I liked the cover, which then came in handy when the challenge I'm doing had a "book you picked for its cover" category. But I think, overall, this was a bit hard as I didn't know much about the English civil war before I started it. I do want to learn more, though, and I might then revisit this as I'm sure I would get more out of it as part of a bigger picture. Unlike the US civil war, which is still the subject of a lot of discussion (and all the to-do over the Confederate flag recently), the English civil war seems to be one for the professional historians and military re-enacters. If people's family had a "side", it's long-forgotten now. It wasn't a geographical thing, so there's no north vs south aspect to it, or any other easy way of summarising who supported who(m?). Maybe it's just 200 years earlier than the US civil war, and in 200 years' time people in the US will be saying the same thing.

Today's Book Riot email had this list of 100 must-read books set in or about Los Angeles, which might be a *tiny* bit fringe, but here it is anyway. Ooh, that's made me think of 100 must-read books about London. I should get onto that.
http://bookriot.com/2017/04/15/100-must-read-books-set-inabout-los-angeles/

>65 susanj67: I own that one, but still have not read it. I really need to remedy that!

Happy Easter, Susan!

Or just Happy Sunday!!

>70 alcottacre: Stasia, it's definitely worth it. And Happy Easter!

>71 Berly: Thanks Kim :-) I've had a pretty chilled day, finishing the Levellers and then starting Common Ground, which is a Pulitzer winner from 1986. So far it's superb.

I decided to start a new Pulitzer book rather than a romance, but now I have no ebook on the go. Yikes. But what to pick? While deciding, I've finished series 5 of Suits on Netflix (they don't have series 6 and 7 on it here yet) and I'm making progress with Narcos. They've just added Mad Men, but I can't keep starting new stuff and not finishing existing stuff. Well, I suppose I *could*, but that doesn't really sound like me.

Still one day of weekend to go! Ace.

Hope you enjoy your remaining day off Susan! I am in my usual situation, reading to try and catch up with the books on the reservation shelf...

I loved the first seasons of Mad Men. :-)

I could get used to the idea of a 4 day weekend. If only that happened every week.
I can't see the title The levellers revolution and not think of level 42. That possibly says much about my age and twisted mind.
(PS: I'd have been a roundhead)

>69 susanj67: We're fond of visiting obscure places, I'm afraid :)

>73 charl08: Thanks Charlotte - I did! The afternoon/evening was a Reign binge on Netflix - so silly :-) But "English Court" is apparently also a thing, like "French Court".

>74 Helenliz: Helen, I agree. I think I would have been a Cavalier :-) It was interesting to read about how many of the Levellers were women, and about all the misogyny hurled at them then, just like on Twitter today.

>75 RebaRelishesReading: Reba, carry on :-) It must be fun to find somewhere before it's overrun.

Common Ground continues to be excellent. I'm nearly 200 pages into it, but it's quite a chunkster, so for my commute I've started The Death of an Owl on the Kindle. It's by the guy who wrote Salmon Fishing in the Yemen, but I can't say it's really grabbing me. It's pretty short, though, so I'll see what happens.

Hoardings went up at three points in the square outside my office recently. I thought they might be putting in more art (we have a statue which is helpful when negotiating around the Wharf) but no, it's heavy planters to stop truck bombs. Marvellous. They put them along the footpaths years ago, in between the road and the buildings, but they seem to have stepped it up a notch. I saw one on a little forklift, and it seems that they are fixed with spikes into the ground so they can lift out when necessary, but how depressing.

Today's Book Riot list: 100 must-read books about witches: http://bookriot.com/2017/04/18/100-must-read-books-witches/ I'm not sure I need a whole hundred, but I'll see. I think I've read four, or maybe five.

I just went over to the library to return the Greenland book, and took nothing else out #stayingstrong. But I did have a look at their English civil war books, and there aren't any. Not one! I was sure that there was one there about ordinary people's experiences of the war, written by a woman who might have been called Diane something, but no. I did see one by Tristram Hunt in the catalogue over the weekend, but it's not available near me and I can't reserve anything right now due to my mini-challenge of 10 TBR books before any more librarying.

Your meetup with Charlotte sounded like great fun. So spontaneous...and educational!

Happy Wednesday, Susan.

Well I checked, and no pause/ suspend button on my library system. Sigh! Good luck with your reading your own / staying strong etc.

>78 Donna828: Donna, it was! And it was educational, which is always a plus for a Saturday :-)

>79 Ameise1: Thanks Barbara!

>80 charl08: Charlotte, I don't have that either for hard copy, just e. Last night I read nothing, but I did finish Reign series 2. Catherine de Medici has just met with Elizabeth I (startlingly reminiscent of Queenie in Blackadder) to take down Mary. Alternative history at its, um, finest. I confessed my Reign addiction to one of the guys at work yesterday and he said that his *sister* is in it - OMG! She only has a small role towards the end of series 3, but it will be fun to watch for her. Not that I need another 22 episodes in a hurry.

59. The Death of an Owl by Paul Torday

This was a Kindle deal a while ago, but I can only rate it "Meh". It's about a senior politician who kills an owl (a protected species, and he's on the committee that made it a criminal offence to kill owls) and then lies about it. It's written from the point of view of a University chum, one of those outsiders looking in at the glamorous rich people - a bit like Brideshead, but it takes half the book before anything actually happens, and even then it's all a bit silly. So I'm not going to recommend this one, although the cover is nice :-)

Having no library books is slowing my reading down - last night was 2 x Narcos and then Benidorm (as it was broadcast, oh the novelty!) But then I did spend the day reading cases and catching up on other learned stuff, so maybe I'd just read enough.

Shame about The Death of an Owl - the cover looks so tempting, but I shall resist. I feel like I'm stuck in the middle of lots of things at the moment, and not really getting anywhere.

>82 susanj67: Skipping that one! I hope your next read is better for you, Susan.

>83 charl08: Charlotte, I had that feeling over Easter. I'm sure it will pass.

>84 alcottacre: Stasia, yes, that's probably one that doesn't have to trouble the BlackHole!

My document failed to show up this morning so I've taken the afternoon off. I'm currently stuck at Stratford because the Jubilee line is suspended, and I wish I had a drink. But, on the bright side, I don't have any frozen foods :-) I only bought a couple of weekend garments and some makeup, so I suppose I could de-train and go and get the DLR, but then again I could sit here in this nearly-empty train with its not-bad air cooling and read my Kindle...Maybe I'll change carriages to get away from the unruly kids first, though. Ah, no, they have gone :-)

Hope you got a nice, quiet, cool breather in the train :)

>86 RebaRelishesReading: Reba, I did :-) It took ages to get home, as the train stopped for a long time at each station and even then was only going to Waterloo, but I started Behold the Dreamers and read a good chunk of it, and finished the rest when I got home, moving my TBR turtle along by one more book.



60. Behold the Dreamers by Imbolo Mbue

I read about this one on Beth's thread, and then it turned up as a Kindle deal of some sort so I bought it. And I loved it! It's the story of a couple from Cameroon and their son who are trying to make it in New York despite having a somewhat questionable immigration status as the husband has made a fake claim for asylum. He lands a job as a driver for a Lehman Brothers exec, and suddenly they have more money than they've ever had before. But it's 2008... I'm always interested in stories about immigration experiences, and the pro and con debate that every immigrant probably has with themselves at some stage after they've moved. In this book it didn't quite work out the way I expected, but it worked.

>87 susanj67: Great review, Susan. I've put it on my library list.

Happy Friday.

>88 Ameise1: Happy Friday, Barbara! It seems to have been a long week, which is strange as it started on Tuesday :-)

My goal for the weekend is to see Their Finest, which is the film version of Their Finest Hour and a Half. I was thinking about going tonight, but the screening times here at the Wharf aren't great so it will probably be tomorrow. I could even walk here and get some steps. I need to start training as a friend from NZ will be here in a couple of weeks and we tend to do a lot of walking when she visits. Or, as she likes to call it, forced marching, usually with rain. Last time we visited the Jewel Tower at Westminster, just to stay dry.

Oh, look forward to hearing what you make if the film Susan. I'm looking forward to that one.

>82 susanj67: Thanks for the heads up, Susan. Life is too short for 'meh'.

>87 susanj67: Lovely review here. If you are interested in interesting books about the immigrant experience, you might want to check out The Year of the Runaways by Sunjerv Sahota.

Looking forward to your review of The Finest! Hoping it is as good as it looks.

Happy Friday! Hope you are having the same sun as we are - the wind has dropped and it is stunning on this side of the water. That said it is hot enough that my courgette plants are wilting! Time to re-arrange the tubs...

>77 susanj67: I've read 18 of them, with another on my tbr shelves, but I see at least a dozen more that sound interesting enough to seek out!

Hi Susan - Sorry for your long train ride, but hooray that you loved Behold the Dreamers - it was one of the best books I read last year.

>82 susanj67: What a pretty cover - too bad the inside didn't live up to it.

Have a lovely weekend.

>90 charl08: Charlotte, it's great :-) I saw it this morning and loved it, as did the rest of the (small) audience.

>91 michigantrumpet: Marianne, it is every bit as good as it looks, and really captures the book's sense of the neverending dismalness (if that's a word) of war - the constant struggle for normal life even when they weren't being bombed every night. Thanks for the book recommendation - I will look for that one.

>92 BekkaJo: Thanks Bekka! It is overcast and cool here, but that's good for the marathon tomorrow, so I won't complain. Plus, I get to wear my awesome Uniqlo microfleece/faux shearling jacket, so there's that :-) I met one of my neighbours in the lift this morning and she was reading out a piece from the Times about the cold snap we're supposedly expecting, maybe with snow. "Yay!" I said, "puffa coats!" I don't think she was convinced.

>93 ronincats: Roni, I think you win the witches!

>94 BLBera: Beth, it was a great read, and another one I would have missed had it not been for you.

After the film I walked back onto the estate and put in a couple of hours in the office, as this week is also going to be challenging and I needed to do lots of fiddly looking up of things and cross-referencing, which is best done with no young people in and out all the time, and a trance compilation playing on YouTube :-) I think I'll call it a day now, though, and go to the supermarket and then home.

#95 Ha! No cold snap allowed! It'll play hell with my seedlings! Work on a Saturday sucks - but I'll agree, it's often the most productive time ever...

Happy Sunday, Susan.

At my last job before retirement we went to a 9/80 schedule. There was "fear" among some management that we would just end up working every Friday anyway. I usually did go it but it was wonderful -- didn't have to be there at 8:00 a.m., could wear weekend clothes, and, especially, I got so-o-o-o much done with the place to myself.

>69 susanj67: The Leveller Revolution sounds interesting, if a bit of a slog. I have a few books about the English Civil War on the shelf, never read but they are there. A lot of the fighting was in Northants which is where some of the folks in my family tree came from so I want to read more about it. I don't think it was a war where families chose sides as a rule, it was one of those wars that divided families because they were on opposite sides in some cases.

>96 BekkaJo: Bekka, it was definitely productive. I even drafted some emails to send at the start of today, as I don't believe in bothering people on the weekend.

>97 Ameise1: Thanks Barbara :-)

>98 RebaRelishesReading: Reba, I have seen Katie mention the 9/80 schedule (I think) but I don't understand the "9/80" part of it. I thought it just meant every second Friday off. But it is so nice not to have emails pouring in on the weekend - it is more distracting during the week than I will admit.

>99 Familyhistorian: Meg, yes, the book is probably best read with a bit of knowledge already. I'm still looking for something suitably basic :-)



61. Talking to the Dead by Harry Bingham

I've seen lots of LT love for this series, featuring police officer Fiona Griffiths, so I bought this one a while ago. And yesterday, with my ban on more library borrowing/reserving until I've read ten more from Mt TBR, I actually read it! I loved it, and now want to read the next one immediately. However, I've started Cast in Shadow, as buying more stuff is probably just as bad as borrowing it.

>!00 - Yes, I used to have a 9/80 schedule but had to give it up when I started working remotely. It just means one fits their 80 hours of work for a two week period into 9 workdays, rather than 10, so that you get the last day of the period (Friday) off.

I also bought the Bingham when everyone was raving about it and it was on sale. I should get around to it sooner rather than later!

>100 susanj67: What about making other people buy stuff? Is this covered in the new scheme?

>101 katiekrug: Katie, thanks for explaining. I couldn't work out what the 80 was. I would love that. Definitely read the Bingham - it's excellent! The others are only £1.99 on Kindle so I will get them at some point - the library doesn't have number 2 anywhere convenient.

>102 charl08: Charlotte, ha! No, that's not included in the scheme. Actually it's a jolly good idea (not to include it) - I can borrow vicariously :-)

I'm still reading Common Ground, which is good but chunky, so the novels are a bit of a change of pace. I've started just picking things randomly from the Kindle - such freedom!

>100 susanj67: Some years ago when alternative work weeks started there were two common versions: the "4/10" and the "9/80". In the "4/10" you work ten hours per day, four days per week. In the "9/80" you work 9 hours per day for four days one week and five the next for a total of 80 hours in 2 weeks. I've been retired since 2003 so I really don't know if those schedules are still used or still called that but "in my day" that's the way it was :)

So...I should have read Katie's post before I responded :)

I was doing so well, and then three books turned up today. I just returned three as well!

>104 RebaRelishesReading: Reba, my firm tends to like us to work 10+ hours five days a week, but I do like the idea of every second Friday off :-)

>105 charl08: Charlotte, I have a couple in transit, but I'm still #stayingstrong.

I read a couple more chapters of Cast in Shadow in bed last night, but I did have to reread the second one on the bus this morning...

Here's another list from Book Riot - 100 must-read books for Beauty and the Beast lovers.
http://bookriot.com/2017/04/22/100-must-read-books-for-beauty-and-the-beast-love...

>106 susanj67: I know what you mean. I usually worked more like 50 than 40 hours per week but my staff worked the 9/80 (most weeks) and, importantly, we were closed to the public every other Friday which made for a wonderful, quiet, uninterrupted day to get lots of things done.

>107 RebaRelishesReading: Reba, how lovely that would be :-)

It's jolly chilly here today, which is the weather they forecast in the run-up to the Bank Holiday weekend. No snow in London, though. Humph. But definitely puffa weather :-) I'm continuing with Cast in Shadow, but it's not really grabbing me. I feel too old for it, which is not to say that it's written for a young audience because I don't think it is. It's just a genre that has only become popular recently and I think I may just be too set in my ways to get on board with it. Last night, instead of reading it, I was browsing through my Kindle library deciding what to read next, which isn't a great sign (but I came up with All The Light We Cannot See or Girl Waits With Gun).

I've been too lazy so far to return my completed library book (it's a GN of unusual weight and heft) so I'll have to wait a bit longer to cut down the books on the shelf... I saw the forecast for Down South this morning, and for once you are colder than us northerners. Fancy that?!

>109 charl08: Charlotte, actually I don't really fancy it :-) I mean, I like a puffa as much as the next person* but tomorrow I want to wear my nice coat to a client meeting and the weather is thwarting my plans. Well, not plans so much - I will wear the nice coat - I will just be cold doing it.

*maybe a tiny bit more

Well, it seems there *has* been snow in London today! http://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/wintry-flurries-of-snow-hail-and-sleet-fal... We had thunder and lightning here at the Wharf. And now there is a sort of chunky rain, which could perhaps be sleet.

>108 susanj67: I haven't read Girl Waits With Gun but I really liked All The Light We Cannot See. Which one did you pick?

>112 RebaRelishesReading: Reba, probably Girl Waits With Gun first. And The Woman Next Door has just arrived at the library (reserved ages ago) so that should be good. I just need to finish Cast in Shadow first, and that is my goal for tonight!

62. Cast in Shadow by Michelle Sagara

Finished! This one didn't work for me. Maybe urban fantasy just isn't my thing. However, it does move my TBR turtle along by one more book, so there's that :-)

I picked up my reserve from the library last night, and also got book 5 in the Ruth Galloway series because it was *right there*. After I'd walked over to the crime section, that is...Well, they're quick reads, and there's a Bank Holiday coming up.

Well done on knocking off one of the TBR there. I don't think I've ever read an urban fantasy. I now have 7 books waiting on the shelves. Argh, etc.
Also we seem to have picked up your cold front. Can you take it back please?

I hate the weather in spring. It hailed on me! Yesterday I dropped the kids in the sunshine, seconds later it rained sleeted, then hailed on me! In my sandals :( My poor poor toes...

>115 charl08: Charlotte, I can't take back the cold front because I have already told my friend what clothes to pack when she visits from NZ at the end of next week, and I'll get into trouble if she has to change everything. Sorry about that.

>116 BekkaJo: Bekka, your poor toes! I hope it has stopped now.

Finally filed the giant document on which I have been working unceasingly for weeks. Now I just have to fret about waking up in the middle of the night all weekend and thinking OMG para 43, and looking it up on my BlackBerry to check that it says what it should. Sigh. This always happens. Have I mentioned how I can't wait till I retire?

After work I'm going to Waitrose to try their "Quick Check" facility, which involves scanning your shopping with a hand-held scanner as you go, and packing it as you scan it. I thought there was some tedious registration process involved and/or invitation to selected customers, but it seems that all you have to do now is swipe your loyalty card to unlock a scanner, and start shopping. Naturally you still have to queue up to pay, but maybe one day they'll catch up with the 21st century and the scanner will take contactless payment cards. Then I could do an entire shop without standing in a queue for ages and being ignored by the assistants as they carry on their conversations with one another. The self-scan checkouts help a bit, but they are pretty buggy, and inevitably you end up with "unexpected item in bagging area" being endlessly repeated and have to wait till someone dawdles over to set it going again.

I've started Girl Waits With Gun, which looks promising, and I have the two library books for the weekend, plus my Pulitzer winner, so that should keep me busy. Monday is a Bank Holiday here - yippee!

"unexpected item in bagging area"

Glad this isn't just a devilish American issue. Drives me batty!

I'm surprised to hear the "quick check" is new. Twenty years ago we wherein a small town near Birmingham and the local supermarket had that system. At that time you just walked in and took a scanner off a rack, shopped and scanned merrily away and then took the scanner to the cashier. Sounds pretty much like what you're doing now. We thought it was really cool and have been waiting all these years for it to appear here. I wonder what happened in the interim.

>118 katiekrug: Katie, yes, it's very annoying! I also hit problems when I forget to put every single thing in the bag immediately after scanning it, because it's waiting for weight to be added to the bagging area. There's a lot of to-ing and fro-ing, or maybe I'm just unco-ordinated. At Marks & Spencer they additionally have the voice saying "Have you scanned your Sparks card?" non-stop until you finish, which is the point at which I actually scan it.

>119 RebaRelishesReading: Reba, it is pretty new where I shop. Waitrose has had it for a while in some of their shops, but I'm not sure it was previously available to everyone (with a loyalty card). I saw a news item on the intranet page at work telling us that all we had to do was scan our loyalty card to use a scanner, and I think that's new, so they may be publicising it across the estate. Also, the scanners look new. Last night went OK although my last thing wouldn't scan - I kept getting "Cannot connect to server" so I decided to finish at that point and go and pay. There are two self-service tills for the self-scanners (and a manned desk which, in traditional Waitrose fashion, was not manned) and the till asks you whether everything scanned OK and, if not, you can add it at that point. I'll remember that next time. But it was super-easy, and I'm now a fan :-) I've also discovered what the little round holder thing attached to the trolley handle is for - the scanner handle fits it perfectly :-) Next time I think I'll load up my trolley and go to a quiet corner and scan everything at once so I can pack properly. Pet care is usually empty at the Wharf, or the wine section on a Saturday morning.

This morning I went to Westfield, and found myself apologising to the girl in the Kipling shop for wanting to look at a bag in the window (which they didn't have elsewhere in the shop). I may have lived here too long...

>120 susanj67: - I am a big-time apologiser, so I think I would fit in, in the UK, very nicely. Took a look at Kipling bags, which I had not heard of before. Some of them are quite nice, but a bit out of my reach right now. Good thing, for I have a terrible hunger for bags, no matter how many I already have.

>121 Fourpawz2: Charlotte, I'm like that with coats :-) Kipling have some good things, although some of the colours are a bit out-there. But they also do black :-) I like them for casual bags, and the nylon ones are good to travel with as there is no worry about scratching them when they go through scanners or in overhead lockers.



63. Girl Waits With Gun by Amy Stewart

This was a fun read, and it's based on real people. Constance Kopp, the girl with the gun in this story, was one of the first female deputy sheriffs in America. And actually at the time of the story, she wasn't a girl, but 35. I liked the grumpy sister Norma more, I think, but there was lots in this to like. I know Charlotte wasn't that thrilled with the second one, but I think I'll read it if I see it. Amy Stewart's NF looks really good too.

>122 susanj67: I tried that one and just did not care for it, which surprised me. I Pearl ruled it. Maybe I need to give it another shot.

>123 alcottacre: Stasia, it does seem to have mixed reviews on the LT page. If it didn't grab you, I'd move on. So many books!

I have, however, decided to try Tana French's The Secret Place again. I think I just had too many books the first time round, but I keep seeing posters on the tube for the book after that one, which obviously I can't read if I haven't read The Secret Place. That totally makes sense to me. But for the moment I'm reading The Woman Next Door and Common Ground.

64. The Woman Next Door by Yewande Omotoso

This was another good read, about two elderly women in Capetown who've lived next door to one another for twenty years, always disliking one another. Various events mean that they have to start co-operating, but is it too late? I read about this one on Beth's thread. Thanks Beth!

Two more reserves have arrived at the library, so I'll walk over and pick those up later. One is the new Joe Pickett novel by C J Box, and the other is Killers of the Flower Moon, which I reserved after seeing it here, but I can't remember now whose thread I saw it on. It looks good, though :-)

Well. That didn't go quite as planned. My reserves were there, but so was a new Karen Maitland novel (she wrote The Company of Liars, which I loved) and the one about the Daily Mail, and they were both brand new, as were the reserves. Aaargh. Except yay for new library books!

From the top:

The Plague Charmer by Karen Maitland
Vicious Circle by C J Box
Killers of the Flower Moon by David Grann
Mail Men by Adrian Addison

Look how new and shiny!

:-) shiny books!

Nice shiny books, Susan.
I also liked The Woman Next Door.
Self check - I just watched a documentary "Inequality for All" and one of the people interviewed said he never used it because it meant that someone would lose a job. (He had been laid off) Also, the bugs! I agree with you and Katie - it seems like a lesson in frustration.

Love shiny books! Also like your photo of books in front of LT screen :)

>128 Helenliz: Helen, I thought they were so shiny they deserved a photograph :-)

>129 BLBera: Beth, I looked for that documentary on Netflix, but it isn't on the UK one. I would agree about the job point if any of the staff of the supermarkets I mostly go to were remotely interested in their jobs, but they're pretty much uniformly rude and lazy and evidently consider themselves too good for work, so they probably won't care.

>130 RebaRelishesReading: Reba, I thought it was an appropriate backdrop :-)



65. Vicious Circle by C J Box

This was one of my library reserves from today - yay! I read it pretty much straight through and it didn't take very long, as Box writes real page-turners. All the key characters reappear in this one, including Joe's gruesome mother-in-law, Missy, now onto her sixth husband and living in Jackson Hole. Nate is also back, and gets to use his favourite interrogation technique. Regular readers will know what I mean :-) Now there's a whole year to wait until the next one, which is the only downside to reserving brand new things. The best piece of trivia I learned from this one: There is a British Consulate in Denver. Who knew?!!

Book Riot has this list of five helpful apps for organising your reading life, and the Forest one appeals to me :-) I'll get it for my new phone, when that finally shows up. My office roomie is going to take me shopping for cases for it too :-) Apparently one case is not enough, for reasons that escape me, but I know better than to argue. http://bookriot.com/2017/04/27/5-helpful-apps-for-organizing-your-reading-life/

I'm laughing at your comments on the supermarket clerks. It is hard to get good help. I get more frustrated with the automated check out. Usually someone has to come and restart it anyway.

It's a good documentary.

I am way behind with the Box series; I think I took a break after the last one because of the violence.

My phone says no space for the forest app. Possibly time to delete some other apps (does this count as procrastination time?!)

>132 BLBera: Beth, it does seem to be hard to find good people. I get that it's probably a boring job, but that's not the customers' fault. My pet peeve is when the cashiers totally ignore me and just continue chatting to their neighbour cashiers while they scan my groceries. Um, hello? Customer whose money pays their wages? Sheesh. Even basic courtesy seems to be entirely lacking (and I think the same thing about customers who go through the checkout process having phone conversations). I know what you mean about the Joe Pickett violence (and you will understand my Nate reference :-) ) but once I caught up with the series I just had to keep going, in my typical completist way...

>133 charl08: Charlotte, it does sound like you need to delete something, because who can resist a tree that grows while you read? I just wish I could start it right now on the BlackBerry.



66. Killers of the Flower Moon by David Grann

Ooh, this is excellent! Everyone should rush out and get it right now. It's the story of some famous (but now mostly forgotten) murders of members of the Osage tribe in the 1920s, during a period that is now known as the "Reign of Terror". It's also the story of how the local law enforcement mostly failed, and the Bureau of Investigation was sent in (it later became the FBI). I knew nothing of the Osage story, but it seems that, when displaced from their ancestral lands, they moved to Osage County and bought a parcel of land which they thought was barren and stony enough that the white settlers wouldn't try to chase them off it. Underneath it, however, was oil. As a result, they became immensely wealthy, and therefore targets. David Grann has written a great book that really is a page-turner, and with quite a twist at the end. This is going to be one of my top reads of the year. So if I saw it on one of y'all's threads, thank you! (I wonder if it might have been the Guardian reviews, in which case thank you Charlotte :-) )

I've seen this one - it's high on my list. Grann's Lost City of Z was one of my faves, so I'm sure I'll love this one.

>135 drneutron: Jim, I added The Lost City of Z to my library wishlist as soon as I finished this one!



67. Dying Fall by Elly Griffiths

This is book 5 in the Dr Ruth Galloway series, and another great instalment. Ruth, daughter Kate and Ruth's friend Cathbad the druid go to Blackpool after Ruth is invited to look at some bones that a former friend has uncovered. He died mysteriously just after writing to her, but why? Whose are the bones, and why would someone kill for them?

This has been quite the epic reading weekend with five finishes - just a shame it's back to work tomorrow :-)

Off to check to see if the Grann book is in my library. I did like THe Lost City of Z as well.

Well, there are 35 holds and 4 copies, so it will be a while.

>137 BLBera:, >138 BLBera: Beth, that makes you number 9 for one copy - you might get it by Christmas! I am waiting patiently for an ebook where I started as 12th for one copy, and now I see I am next.

Awesome new(ish) Pret menu item alert: coconut porridge. OMG. I nearly always have breakfast at home, but I've run out of milk so I treated myself. Apparently it's a top seller and they can't keep it on the shelves. Fortunately they were restocking it as I arrived.

>134 susanj67: One of the great things about living in a small town in Wisconsin (a state that is filled with weirdly friendly people) is that the folks working at the local grocery shop are ridiculously helpful and nice. I pretty much always do my shopping there on Friday mornings and it's always the same two ladies working the registers; they know my name, ask about Tomm and Charlie,... It's fabulous.

I think they like me partly because I always stack the groceries on the conveyor belt in the same way: cold things together, then produce, then cans, then boxes, then eggs and bread. I do it that way because I have issues, but they like it because it makes it easier for them to bag, I think.

>140 scaifea: Wow, you and mrsdrneutron must be genetically linked re the conveyor belt thing. Sometimes I'm the one putting things on the belt and she has to re-arrange them because clearly I don't understand the thermodynamics of putting cold stuff together. :)

>140 scaifea: Amber, Wisconsin sounds like NZ (when I lived there, anyway). My mother always had her favourite cashiers at the supermarket. And there were packers, too. I also group things together like you, but I swear I have seen cashiers reach over the box of laundry powder for the eggs and scan those first. One at the supermarket nearest to work scans things and pretty much throws them at the customers. Another one scans them and piles them all up in front of her, so that we have to reach over and nab them from under her nose in order to pack them. I think she hopes people will just pay and not notice, and she will get to keep them.

>141 drneutron: Jim, I'm sure I would rearrange things if I didn't shop alone :-)

I went to the library at lunchtime but managed not to take anything out. Whew! That leaves me just two library books, despite the weekend binge.

ETA: Another reserve has arrived! Now I'll have to go back, into the danger zone.

Our supermarkets all have packers (when I was growing up they were called "box boys" but now they are about half female and many are middle-aged) and it was a bit of a shock to me when we were last in Europe because I had forgotten I had to do it myself and was late starting the first time and created a bit of a delay for those behind me in line (although they were quite nice about it).

>143 RebaRelishesReading: Reba, I'm trying to remember whether I've ever seen packers in the UK - very occasionally, I think, at one of the big supermarkets. Oddly, the cheaper the shop, the better the service seems to be, which is counterintuitive. But, to give credit to my local Waitrose, there is a 94-year-old man who shops there (I've heard him telling people proudly how old he is, which always reminds me of my grandmother, who used to do the same) and they do always pack for him and rustle someone up to walk him home, carrying his shopping for him. He lives across the road from the shop, and I think he goes in every day for a few bits and pieces because everyone seems to know him. I think if anyone younger asked for help with packing they might eventually get it, but only after The Look and some slow-motion pressing of the bell to summon someone. Also they should preferably be in a full body cast.

I started The Plague Charmer last night, and it's excellent. I agree with the people who describe Karen Maitland as "the queen of the Dark Ages". Her books are so atmospheric and so spooky. I have a few to catch up on, but for anyone starting I would recommend Company of Liars, The Owl Killers and The Gallows Curse. I couldn't get on with her fourth one, The Falcons of Fire and Ice, but it's set in a different time and place. She seems to have returned to the Dark Ages now, and I have another two or three to catch up with. They're all stand-alone books, so there is no reading order. Yes, I looked up The Plague Charmer in the library before I borrowed it, just to be sure :-)

>141 drneutron: Jim: Ha! It's good to know I'm not the only one!

>142 susanj67: Susan: That's so strange that they would purposely flout your logical arrangement of groceries. Yeesh.
And I think there is a special ring of the underworld reserved for baggers who don't pay attention to what they're doing with things like bread. Nothing will put me in a funk faster than coming home to find that the bread I've just purchased is squished and flat. I haven't had that problem here in WI at all, though, thankfully, and honestly I prefer places like Aldi, where you're always expected to bag your own stuff and I can do it My Way.

I like Aldi, but never seem to move fast enough for the till people. I'm sure they're on some kind of timed record.

I find the dark ages a bit scary so haven't read much about it at all. Not sure on those ones...

>145 scaifea: Amber, I had to stop one squishing a bag of spinach last night (they do sometimes bag things at the baskets only till, but not if I can help it). In the olden days they would just have used a second bag, but now they cost 5p efforts are made not to go bag crazy. I find packing under pressure quite hard so I like the quick check scanner which leaves me to pack in peace.

>146 charl08: Charlotte, you could try Company of Liars and see how you get on, maybe? She's an excellent writer.

Waiting for the Young People to finish reading their case study. They are so young...

Hmmm, it seems the Queen has called a meeting of all her household staff for 10am this morning. This, apparently, is unusual at short notice. I wonder whether the Guardian is going to run a live blog :-) Maybe...not. Oh, but the Telegraph has a live news feed (window, anyway) http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/05/04/buckingham-palace-summons-entire-roya... And they've helpful printed a list of the line of succession.

I am perfecting my Quick Check scanning method at Waitrose, with another trip last night. The problem is that I only went in for a pint of milk and some bread and a jar of marmalade, but came out with a giant bag of stuff that cost £15. But my stash of tins is looking pretty good, and I have enough tissues to last several colds :-) I still forgot the marmalade, though. The scanner plays a little tune if you scan something that's part of an offer or a multibuy - a few notes the first time, and then when you scan the second part of the offer the tune completes itself. Cute!

Well, Prince Philip is retiring in the autumn. He will be 96. Twitter has been very funny this morning, but I have to agree with the person who just posted "Another meeting that could have been an email" :-)

>149 susanj67: *snork!*

>150 scaifea: Amber, I agree!

It does make me feel like a slacker for wanting to retire at 55. I know they live in a palace and everything but still, having to get up and dressed and put your face on (the Queen, at this point in the sentence) and meet strangers nearly every day all over the place must be exhausting. Even a day at home must be interrupted by meetings with people, and red boxes to read. I think I'd rather have my pyjama days and Netflix binges :-)

My friend has left NZ to fly to London - I know this because I am tracking her flight on a website. It's strangely addictive. Even Auckland airport has an online departures board which told me when she was leaving, so I emailed her and she was in the lounge, waiting. She was drinking champagne, as Air New Zealand has apparently taken Diet Coke out of the lounges and put Coke Zero in, which is the cause of continuing correspondence with them. They say it's the same. She says it isn't. As I have never drunk Coke of any sort, I can't judge. But I suppose champagne is an OK alternative when you have 24 hours of flying ahead of you. She arrives here tomorrow morning and I am going to meet her. Terminal 2 seemed to have a lot of shops when I looked it up, but then I filtered by "Before security" and it turns out that there are no shops. I must charge up the Kindle, and also make sure the Fitbit is topped up and ready for a weekend of crazed racing around London. I should probably also get snacks.

>151 susanj67: I've had both Diet Coke and Coke Zero. They aren't the same. I don't care all that much for either, but if I had to pick, it would be Coke Zero. Though this is an issue that can split marriages and cause wars... :)

Frankly, she made the right choice with champagne! :)

Good for Prince Philip. I think he deserves it. I retired at 58, glad I did and have no guilt!!

Diet Coke and Coke Zero don't taste the same. I can drink either (and do) but prefer Diet Coke.

Hope you have a perfectly wonderful time with your friend!

Diet Coke and Coke Zero and definitely not the same. I'm a Diet Coke drinker (well, I prefer Diet Dr. Pepper but that's not as widely available). The Wayne likes Coke Zero. He is, obviously, wrong.

Hi Susan!

*returns to LT hiatus*

Well. The morning started well, but as I got on the Jubilee line to go to the airport, a young woman leapt up and offered me the priority seat (for the elderly/infirm/pregnant). I tried to decline graciously, but it is possible that, although I smiled my thanks, the rest of my face looked like *OMG I'm only 49*. So that was a bit of a downer. But at least the tube is running OK so far.

>152 drneutron: Jim, I'd quite like to make that choice right now!

>153 RebaRelishesReading: Thanks Reba! At least it's sunnied up a bit. The flight is 33 minutes late so it should be warmer by the time we emerge from the terminal again.

>154 katiekrug: Katie, my friend agrees about the wrongness of Coke Zero. Wayne seems to be in a minority...Why are you on a hiatus, young lady? I will have to check your thread.

I am at South Kensington (ha! My predictive text guessed that) and will regain a signal at Hammersmith. Everything is running very efficiently so I will be early. But I do have my Kindle, and a Sarah Morgan romance to read. Yesterday I read the prequel novella to her New York series, and I couldn't help wishing she would write more brooding Sheikhs and tycoons. The novella did have a tycoon, but he was quite the New Man, and it's just not the same.

>155 susanj67: OMG, I remember so well the first time that happened to me. I was on an airport shuttle and a woman who was, maybe, 15 years younger than me did the same. I was bummed for days afterwards. Now if the offering person appears to be under 30 I will smile and accept gratefully but I still don't like being called "dear" by anyone other than my spouse!!

Also, Kaie, I'm with you -- my favorite soft drink (or "soda" or "pop") is Diet Dr. Pepper. Love that stuff!!

Diet Ginger Ale for me (although as a treat I'll occasionally have a Cherry Coke Zero).

I don't mind 'dear' so much (although maybe because I don't think anyone has addressed me as such), but 'hon' or 'honey' drives me right up the wall.

>156 RebaRelishesReading: Reba, I'm still a bit bummed. Things weren't helped when my friend came through arrivals and her first words were "I love your hair! Now we're *both* grey!". I began to query the wisdom of getting out of bed. Arrivals was fun, though. There was a group waiting with flowers and balloons, including one that spelled out "yay" in cursive, and when their person appeared there was lots of clapping and woo-hooing and hugs. We got back into London at about 2.15 and the hotel let her check in straight away, which was good. Then we went for a walk, with refreshment stops, and then the jet lag hit so we called it a day.

>157 scaifea: Amber, my favourite is "pet", but only in a Geordie accent :-)

I'm en route to today's activities, which involve breakfast and a visit to the V&A and then lunch and then I'm not sure. It may depend on the tiredness situation and also how my friend is feeling ;-). Yesterday I did nearly 16000 steps and felt like a zombie by the end of it. I need to improve my stamina. I finished The Plague Charmers last night, and it was excellent.

Hope you are having lots of fun with your friend :)

I'm also sort of addicted to the google maps tracking thingy today - my husband is on a charity 21 mile walk (it's raining on him) and I've been tracking him along.

>149 susanj67: Susan, I have had the 'pleasure' of meeting Prince Philip and found him one of the most unintentionally funny people I have ever come across. Wildly pompous, he visited a British innovation exposition in Kuala Lumpur years ago and basically told all of us we were wasting our time over here as "the natives don't much like us". He was in a shocking mood and pooh-pooed almost all the technology shown him except for a little wooden helicopter that worked by winding it up with a key and held him fascinated.

Happy retirement HRH and good riddance.

Have a lovely weekend, Susan.

>159 BekkaJo: Bekka, we saw a lot of things today. We had breakfast at Bill's in Victoria, a restaurant I have always wanted to try, and then walked to the V&A (not entirely intentionally - we thought we'd do "just one more bus stop" and just kept going). Then we did lots of their galleries and saw all sorts of things. It's her favourite place in London and with no big exhibition on at the moment we finally got around some of the bits that people rush past on their way to whatever shiny new paid-for thing is on. The jet lag hit mid-afternoon so I delivered her back to the hotel and we called it a day. Today we got one "Hello ladies," from a Chelsea Pensioner, and an offer of directions from a security guard at a swanky building in Victoria. "If people are going to treat us like old ladies," my friend said, pulling out a lighted magnifier to inspect a map of the V&A more closely, "we just have to think how good we look for 60." Hmmm.

>160 PaulCranswick: Thanks Paul. It's amazing to think that Prince Philip still does more engagements yearly than the Cambridges and Prince Harry added together. He may have an unfortunate way with words, but he's never given up.



68. The Plague Charmer by Karen Maitland

If you like spooky Dark Ages stories, then this one is for you. It's set in 1361, when there was a resurgence of the plague, and it takes place in a small area in the West Country - a fishing village and the manor house of the area. When a stranger is saved from the sea, the villagers aren't sure they've done the right thing, particularly when people start dying from the plague. But then she says she can stop it if only they will sacrifice one life... A really good read, told from multiple points of view.

>161 susanj67: I almost bought that one in the UK, Susan, and will definitely add it soon.

I don't mind "ladies" as it seems to apply to all ages. As to your grey hair -- WHAT grey hair?!? I didn't see any last year.

It sounds like you have a wonderful weekend ahead, Susan.
Have fun with your friend.

Re library books, I currently have 18 checked out. I put a pause on the rest of my holds so I can get through some of them before another big batch comes in.

Your coconut porridge sounds yummy.

THe Plague Charmer sounds good. Have you read others by Maitland. I've looked at other historical fiction by here, and it sounds good. I just haven't gotten around to it.

Yup, it does sound good. Gotta add it to my list!

Happy weekend, Susan. I hope you and your friend are having lots of fun.

>162 PaulCranswick: Paul, it's her brand new one, so it should be in the shops for a while.

>163 RebaRelishesReading: Reba, there's grey there :-) But this morning my friend was offered a seat on the train, so I'm not alone :-)

>164 BLBera: Beth, I've read Company of Liars, The Owl Killers and The Gallows Curse by Karen Maitland, and they're all great. I think Company of Liars is her best-known one. Eighteen library books! OMG, that might be more than Charlotte (Hi Charlotte!). I have two on the go, and one to return on Tuesday.

>165 drneutron: Jim, it's well worth it!

>166 RebaRelishesReading: Reba, we've had a good time. Today was the National Portrait Gallery, and then we walked a lot, calling it a day about 3pm so she could visit the M&S food hall and go and put her feet up. In Ye Olden Days we used to run around all day and then go to the theatre in the evening. I'm not sure how we managed that. I have come home to do laundry. Such a glamorous life...

I'm adding a couple of short reads, which I'm counting as one for books read, but two off Mount TBR. That seems like an appropriate compromise...



68.5 Midnight at Tiffany's by Sarah Morgan

This is the prequel novella for Sarah Morgan's series set in New York. I'm not a huge fan of novellas because I like More Story, but it was fine as far as it went. The characters do sound British in my head though, even though they're supposed to be American. As I said in an earlier post, I miss her books for the Mills & Boon Modern/Harlequin Presents line.



69. The Doctor's Engagement by Sarah Morgan

I was going to start the next New York novel, but I wanted something lighter than my Kindle for while I'm on the tube over the weekend picking up and returning my friend to her hotel, so I pulled this one out of my hard copy stash. It's a 2001 medical romance, and vintage Sarah Morgan (the cover above is from the 2016 reissue). I loved it. It's a friends to lovers plot, set in Cornwall like a lot of her medical romances, and there was even a nod to the MMR controversy which I recall was at its height at that time - it's very pro-vaccination (which fits with the story, as the heroine is a nurse at a busy GP practice and various young patients feature in her work). Sarah Morgan trained as a nurse, and the medical terminology certainly sounds convincing. I'm eyeing up the other three medical romances I bought to fill in the gaps in my collection. I now have everything she's written :-)

Happy weekend Susan! The Plague Charmer has gone on the library list - still haven't read anything by Maitland but I always see good reviews of her books.

I actually own A Company of Liars, so I guess that will be the first one.

So, do I join the library borrowers hall of fame/shame?

>168 souloftherose: Thanks Heather! I have tomorrow off too :-) More stepping - I currently have about half of Mamie's total, which I am very proud of :-)

>169 BLBera: Beth, yes, maybe that one :-) I think we might need a hashtag for the library book situation, so I'm going to suggest #fameshame.

I have frittered away the evening watching the French election results and playing Fishdom. Darn those infinite lives for two hours... But I did start Mail Men yesterday, so that's something.

Tomorrow we're aiming to go to the "America After The Fall" exhibition at the Royal Academy, which is the one with the American Gothic painting in it. They seem to have tickets for all time slots, so we'll wing it, even though that's really not like me.

Hope the exhibition was fun, Susan, and maybe even quieter than the one we went to. The poster looked good - I'm not sure I've even seen that artist's work before. I'm still impressed how much Russian art we got for our ££ - have been to some other ones where I felt like it was about a room's worth.

I'm trying to think of authors where I have read all their books. First authors don't count, of course! Think most have an early one I've missed. Maybe Kate Atkinson.

>171 charl08: Charlotte, the exhibition was excellent, but *tiny*, particularly compared to the one we saw. There were just three rooms, and I doubt there would have been more than three dozen pictures. But the ones they had were lovely, and we stood in front of American Gothic for an appropriate amount of time. It turned out that my friend had already seen the picture in Chicago, but she loves that period and the other things were also good. This was our favourite one, although on my monitor the colours are out: http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/works-of-art/50.117/ It's dark bluey-greeny, and stunning.

Yesterday I managed more than 22,000 steps, and today I'm ready for a rest. Um, I mean a nice sit-down at the office.

OMG, 22,000 steps!! I was doing pretty well last week but I've been doing "inside stuff" this week and not even wearing my Fitbit for half the day so my numbers are terrible. I'll think of your success and see if I can get motivated :)

>172 susanj67: I guess those paintings must be expensive to borrow? There was a sign in the Swedish photography exhibition offering guidance if you wanted to start your own art collection.
Ha! Not my top priority!

>173 RebaRelishesReading: Reba, it's been a while since I managed that many, and it was a bit of a shock!

>174 charl08: Charlotte, I'm not sure how it works with the borrowing, but somewhere there are a lot of people arranging the terms and conditions and shipping and insurance and merchandising - a legal geek's paradise :-)

I'm doing pretty well with Mail Men, and might possibly finish it this evening although I think it's more likely to be tomorrow. I took a book back to the library yesterday and somehow picked up a couple more - Fully Connected by Julia Hobsbawm (no touchstone yet) and Good As You. But they were on the new NF shelf, all shiny and lovely, so I don't think I can really be blamed. I need to increase my NF too, as it's lagging behind the fiction.

Definitely can't be blamed :-)

I have rather a lot of books to pick up, so mustn't be distracted by other books. Well, that's the theory. Beautiful day here.

You are burning up the pavement with all those steps, Susan!

>176 charl08: Charlotte, good luck with the not being distracted :-) I was early to pick up my friend a couple of mornings over the weekend, so I had a good look at the magazines in the huge W H Smith at Victoria station, and eventually bought the BBC History magazine and an issue of their new bi-monthly "World History" mag. And they are FULL of references to books, ads for books, extracts from books - OMG. My wishlist is not shrinking.

>177 BLBera: Beth, I think normal service has been resumed now :-) But I'm going to try to get out over the weekend. The Imperial War Museum has a new exhibition on the history of peace protests which looks good. And I can walk there, and maybe home again :-)



70. Mail Men by Adrian Addison

Subtitled "The Unauthorised Story of the Daily Mail - The Paper That Divided and Conquered Britain", this is part history and a lot about the current editor, Paul Dacre. Maybe too much about Dacre, but that seems to be what the reviewers are interested in. I was more interested in the history part - how the paper came to be, and why it takes the views that it does. There's also an excellent chapter on MailOnline, the website, which has a separate staff, but which republishes a lot of material from the paper. It also has the famous "sidebar of shame" - "basically content about 'celebrities' wearing clothes, performing the tricky task of walking through an airport or possibly news of one low-grade celebrity copulating with another." I found the writing style a bit clunky, and the author repeatedly referred to people by their actual names and then their nicknames within a sentence or two, so there often seemed to be twice as many people involved as there actually were. I also wondered how accurate it actually is, but it was an entertaining read. Maybe one for the Brits, as it won't make a lot of sense to anyone who doesn't know the British print media.

Sweet Thursday, Susan. There is lots going on here since I last stopped by.

Re groceries: I put everything in order too, but only for myself to put it into the bag after paying. There isn't staff here who pack things into bags only in very very expencieve shops.

I don't drink coke but my husband does and only coke zero.

As I can see you did some good reading.

A world history magazine? Argh! Must resist, must resist...
(Did I mention that I subscribed to the LRB? That too is bad for the wishlist).

>179 Ameise1: Hi Barbara! The reading has been going pretty well, and I have some good books for the weekend too.

>180 charl08: Charlotte, it's new, and they're up to issue 3. Topics include whether empires have ever been a force for good (one of the writers is Yasmin Alibhai-Brown, though, so I think I can guess the answer) http://www.historyextra.com/bbc-world-histories-magazine/current-issue. The cover is really pretty, and it's quite chunky, with perfect binding rather than the fold over and staple method. W H Smith have an offer which is buy the BBC History mag and pay half price for one of their Collector's Edition history ones, or this one, so it was a good offer. The website is good too. And there are podcasts. I was very impressed with so much material for free, until I realised that I already pay for it through the licence fee :-) I can imagine that the LRB would be even worse for the wishlist. I bought a TLS a while ago, but overall it was too hard, so that temptation has gone.

>172 susanj67: 22,000 steps. Respect.

>178 susanj67: I despise that newspaper. Originally a Nazi sympathetic rag, it hasn't improved much over the years.

I may have bought the history magazine. True confessions: I quite often skim the hard bits in the TLS...

>182 PaulCranswick: Thanks for the step respect, Paul :-) I was interested to learn that Lord Northcliffe, who founded the DM, was very anti-German. It was his brother, Lord Rothermere, who took it over after Northcliffe's death, who was much more pro. And the whole Nazi thing really only became an issue (in modern times) when they objected to Richard Desmond taking over the Express, and referred to him as a pornographer. He got his revenge by bringing up the Nazi connection again. The Express used to sell millions of copies a day, which is amazing when you think about the sad little comic it's become.

>183 charl08: Charlotte, I'm so pleased for you if you did! I have resolved to read more new things, go to more things and generally stop having pyjama days. Also to listen to podcasts. have no idea when I'm going to fit all this in, but a person can dream.

"I have resolved to... generally stop having pyjama days." WHAT?! *splutters* I don't even know how to respond to that. *blinks* Tragedy. Complete and utter tragedy.

>185 Crazymamie: Quite right Susan. They were joint founders but Rothermere took over full control upon the death of Northcliffe. Pal of Mussolini and Hitler and Oswald Mosley; underminer of the Labour Party vide the fabricated Zinoviev letter and even formed with Beaverbrook to form a right-wing political party to take over completely. Mad as a bat.

>185 Crazymamie: Ooh, I spy Mamie!! Hello! It's only a resolution at this point. It might not actually come to anything. Reading a poem a day didn't, after all. And it's coming up to summer, which might be responsible. By November I'll probably feel differently :-)

>186 PaulCranswick: Paul, yes they were odd. The current Viscount seems better, but I still haven't read the paper all year, save for a couple of work-related articles, so I had to. I tried hard not to look at the sidebar of shame while I was reading the articles.

I somehow borrowed another library book at lunchtime. I got it from the display of red and yellow books in the window. I hope they have another red/yellow book to replace it, or there will be a gap in the display. It's the new Meera Syal novel. But now it's time to get the bus and read some more of my history magazine. I'm nearly up to Queen Victoria's amazing dinners.

>178 susanj67: Sounds good, Susan

Keep stepping!

>184 susanj67: My reaction was just like Mamies (great to see you again Mamie!!). Give up PJ days?! -- never!!

>188 BLBera: Beth, I'll do my best, but I see you've passed me!!

>189 RebaRelishesReading: Reba, I think it was my weekend of being out and about - while I do go to a lot of things, there are always more things, and I should make the most of them.

Last night I started Wonderland: How Play Made the Modern World, which doesn't seem to have a touchstone, but it's this one: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Wonderland-Play-Made-Modern-World-ebook/dp/B01MQ3GQP3/r... The author argues that necessity is not the only mother of invention, and that a lot of the technology we take for granted today is derived from things that people made to amuse themselves rather than for some grand purpose. It looks good so far.

>184 susanj67: I did buy it. I fear for the consequences on my reading list...

>191 charl08: Charlotte, I'm currently reading their monthly history magazine on the bus, and have added quite a few things. Plus podcasts :-) This morning I read about the siege of Lincoln in 1217, and the Reformation. The good thing about the BBC is that they cross-promote all their content, so you can easily find where it all is. I'm going to try a podcast while I'm doing the ironing. I also want to find their "Focus" magazine, which is the sciencey one, and I discovered a section called "bookazines" at W H Smith. I had never heard of those before, but they are chunkier, more expensive mag/book hybrids (as I suppose the name suggests). I'll keep a lookout for something on our Civil War.

Susan--I see you've been busy since I last visited! Books galore (thankfully I have already read some of them, so not too many book bullets), the end to a major work project (good job), lessons on packing groceries, a fun visit from a friend and the indignities of aging. Phew! I did get asked last month if I wanted to use my Senior discount at the check out line, but I tried not to be offended because I am sure everyone looked old to the teenager running the cash register. The man yesterday said I looked too young to be the mom of my daughter, so I like him better. Happy Friday!

>192 susanj67: Bookazines? I must say that I was tempted at the airport on the way back here to pick up at least half a dozen magazines. We really are spoilt for choice in the UK for quality periodicals of many kinds - the history, literature, travel and current affairs magazines in particular.

Have a great weekend.

>193 Berly: Hi Kim! This morning I bought a ticket to an exhibition, and the young man said "One adult ticket?" He didn't use the word "concession", and I suppose he could have been reminding me that I could use the Art Pass, if I had one (it gives 50% off many exhibitions).

>194 PaulCranswick: Paul, just think of all the subscriptions you'll be able to take out once you have a UK mailing address again :-)

I think I've found a bookazine on the British civil wars: https://www.myfavouritemagazines.co.uk/knowledge-guides-and-specials/british-civ...

Ooh, there's one about pirates, too. Tempting: https://www.myfavouritemagazines.co.uk/knowledge-guides-and-specials/the-book-of...

This morning I've been to the "Fighting for Peace" exhibition at the Imperial War Museum, which is *excellent*. http://www.iwm.org.uk/exhibitions/iwm-london/fighting-for-peace And yet I was the only person in there, between 11am and noon, on a Saturday, in London. I started to wonder whether something terrible had happened outside and everyone had been kidnapped by aliens.

I walked there very carefully, as my local hospital (one of the biggest in the country) has been hit by the malware that has affected so much of the NHS and apparently it's chaos. I hope it hasn't also affected the air ambulance, which is based there.

Popping in on a post holiday sweep. I currently have a grand total of 0 library books out - mainly as I finished the last one before I went on holiday and left the waiting reservations for when I get back. So that total will change tomorrow...

Pirates? Oh definitely....

>196 Helenliz: Helen, I hope your holiday was good. Zero books! I don't even think I can remember what that feels like :-) Fortunately there are 75ers around who will bring up that average. Not looking at anyone in partic -

>197 charl08: Oh, hi Charlotte! I ordered the civil war one, so I'll see what that's like. The price includes shipping, so I didn't have to fill up my basket to save paying shipping.

Wow, 198 posts. Nearly time to start a new thread. Nearly... I'll save my book review for the new one. When I have enough posts to start it.

Enough posts you say?

Is that 200?

>199 charl08:, >200 charl08: - OMG, 200 posts like magic!!

Thank you Charlotte :-)))

New thread: http://www.librarything.com/topic/257171