What a lovely, but quiet and melancholy book. Alexander, a successful middle aged orthodontist is visiting his much older brother in Toronto. His brother appears to be a nearly homeless drunk, shaking with addiction. But as Alex attends to him they reminisce and you discover their shared history and their differences. They come from Clan McDonald, highlanders that emigrated to Cape Breton in the 19th century ⬇️

When you need a comfort read and a comforting voice in your ears this is where you go. Thank you Richard Osman! I so enjoyed spending some more time with Elizabeth, Joyce, Ron and Ibrahim. Kendrick the grandson is a delight too.

I loved his shows, loved his writing for years and reading this book was just the closure I needed as a fan - to really appreciate him in a more nuanced way, to see the human frailty as well as the rockstar brilliance. I like the way the book is structured, so many interviews have been woven together so you get snippets from each person describing a particular day or an aspect of Tony‘s life.⬇️

Reading in the boat after a swim in the bay = bliss (apart from when the kids are arguing 🤨)

This was just as good as everybody said. 12 lives in Britain (girl, woman and other), 12 different experiences of the world and 12 different ways of living in it. I loved that it showed different generations and points of view that didn‘t always “get” each other - and yet so much of their experiences interlinked, overlapped, ⬇️

Book haul from the second hand bookshop on my northern holiday. If you can‘t see the title that‘s a Doris Lessing autobiography in the top left called “Under my Skin”. Hopefully get to these before…. 2025? Maybe? 😂😂

This somewhat complex novel is beautifully written with a strong sense of place and the ambience of a bleak Scottish seaside. Bass Rock has remained the same for centuries but the people around it change. We follow three timelines, Sarah in the 1700s, Ruth in post WW2 and Vivienne in modern times. There are also snippets of other lives and violent scenes that jump in to make themselves heard. I‘ll say more about TWs in a spoiler comment below ⬇️

I brought 5 books away for our summer holiday up north & this one captured my interest first. A group of jazz musicians are stranded first in Berlin & then in Paris as WW 2 breaks out. They are a mix of Germans & Americans, black, white and Jewish. Ultimately its about passion and jealousy, love and friendship playing out in a most dangerous time. A great read if you love a slow unravelling of character and motivation. Or if you love jazz 😍

This lovely Edith Wharton just turned up in my letterbox - @Cathythoughts is this from you? I know you are an EW fan and I am very keen to become a fan too, she‘s certainly in my favourite era and genre, so this is a lovely gift 💕😍💕

Finishing a series, blowing the powder off my space gun and returning it to my holster like a pro.

This series won a space station full of awards and deserved them. The first one is still my favourite with the most in depth character arc but two and three are great fun, a rollicking adventure, great AI (yes I always say that, I do love a good hearted AI) and possibly the best alien species ever. Heart eyes for the Presger 😍

(Not book related) And I forgot to show you guys my new reading spot. Chairs were my Christmas present - they‘re very comfy!

Just realised I‘m wearing pants that nearly match my book! Book lovers eventually come to resemble their books right?

I was engaged by the writing and read this very quickly. The ideas were interesting especially some of the facets of racism in the music industry. It was also great to read a book that focuses on female friendships, creativity and careers and is queer inclusive. However a few days on I‘m quickly forgetting this book. Shraya is a great author but music is just a little outside of my interests so I look forward to what she writes next!

Merry Christmas from #hiselderliness and Mere Kirihimete from New Zealand. It was super hot and no breeze here, lunch of porchetta, steaks and salads out on the deck -His Elderliness ate a lot of potato chips, a Christmas mince pie, a Nanaimo slice and two chocolate eclairs (he said no to pavlova @Reggie 😂) he told a couple of stories and then napped in his chair. Still a character! Still wearing long sleeves and his favourite cap. 🧢🎄🎅

What a wonderful Christmas Eve I‘m having! @Reggie are these from you? I recognised the cover of Sing Your Sadness Deep as a book we had talked about on Litsy. These all look amazing! I‘m so excited to read them. 2022 is looking like a great reading year 😍

This gift of happiness arrived today from @CarolynM Thank you so much! I have a love of these classic hot air balloons and I love socks (who wouldn‘t?) and gingerbread and the lovely dove ornament. And I‘m beyond thrilled with the bookish mug. I have been covering this exact one but nobody in NZ had it! You are so kind and generous @CarolynM It‘s made me feel a burst of Christmas spirit. Meri Kirihimete to you!

This was a whole lotta fun. I haven‘t read The Martian but judging by the film I‘d say this is a similar ratio of adventure to science to humour. I won‘t say any more than that because the few surprises are a big part of the enjoyment of this book.
Second photo - light fixture at a restaurant we went to for a Christmas work dinner. So Amazing to be in a restaurant again after 4 months of lockdown. A joyous night 💕

Thanks for the tag @CarolynM and thanks for the concept @Cinfhen

Here‘s my #Top21of21
Although I‘m missing a pic of The Owl Service

How about your top books @Cathythoughts @Crazeedi @merelybookish @Billypar @andrew61 @rohit-sawant @Tanisha_A @Nute @rockpools @Rissreads and anyone else who would like to join in!

Dear Mr Aaronovitch, I need MANY MORE books about Abigail, please and thank you. Appreciate you sorting this at your earliest convenience.

This is a spin off novella from the Rivers of London series, about Peter‘s young cousin Abigail, who is clever, feisty, always getting into trouble, and frequently accompanied by talking foxes. Urban fantasy police procedural addictiveness 🙌

This book came along at the right time - I wanted something to take my mind off things, and this totally absorbed me. Violetta is a caretaker at a cemetery. She leads a quiet life, offering tea and solace to those in mourning. Gradually other storylines intertwine. There is Violetta‘s past and her relationship with her husband, and the lives and loves of two other people she meets at the cemetery. These are love stories, tragedies and a mystery ⬇️

We lost our fur baby yesterday after 14 yrs. Cant post a picture of her as that‘s too sad. Surprising how much I miss all those little things I did each day for her - filling bowls, opening doors (she refused to use the cat door), moving her off my chair, growling at the neighbours cat when it hassled her, watching her explore, cuddles on the couch at night watching tv, talking to her as if she understood. Such a constant and loving presence 😢

I really enjoyed this. In the first half of the book we follow the ups and downs of Lotto, a beloved but harassed young man, through the highs and lows of his life - for most of which his stalwart wife Mathilde is by his side. And in the second half we see things from Mathilde‘s perspective. The first half is a little bloated in places, a little too clever inserting so many sections of Lotto‘s plays, but then that balances out ⬇️

Thank you for the gift of this book @Reggie ! I‘ve taken about 3 months to read it because almost every chapter I had to stop and think for a few days. It‘s truly changed the way I view the natural world - I want to be a participant with it and not a spectator of it. Figuring it out will take some time but I see a way forward now. Again the learnings we get from indigenous cultures are just mind blowingly valuable 🤯 Kimmerer is a genius ⬇️

#notbookrelated For those of my Litsy friends who have been asking about #hiselderliness here he is looking like a skinny Santa! 100 days without a beard trim in lockdown 🎅🎅🎅 I‘ve seen him twice this week taking him to hospital for a small surgery - but the good news is that our lockdown levels change in two days and then vaccinated family members will be allowed to visit and cafes are opening so I can possibly take him out for a coffee. ⬇️

Sometimes you need a blast of light & sparkly joy in your reading - Rainbow Rowell‘s Simon Snow trilogy has been that for me. It started in Fangirl as the Harry Potter/Twilight fan fiction the protagonist was supposedly writing, fans of the book asked to read the “fictional fan fiction” and it took on a life of its own! Completely indulgent YA fantasy with adventure, romance & all the feelings. Loved being in the heads of so many characters.

Book haul part 2 - the writers biographies and memoirs section! Gosh I could have got 10 more they had so many. I had both of these Hermione Lee ones on my Wishlist and then the Penelope Lively was a find! I‘m now having buyers regret that I left the Gabriel Garcia Marquez behind. I will go back though 🤞🤞

Part 1 of my book haul. On my way to owning all the Janet Frame books - and a Brookner (of course) a Barry (haven‘t read him yet) a couple of literary reviews…

First book shop I‘ve visited since lock down relaxed and it was WONDERFUL. Honestly so so many books all sorted into different genre rooms, I found so many that I wanted. This is a second hand bookshop and the prices were very reasonable if you‘re ever in Auckland. Book haul to come…

Delightful and then delightfully wicked. I‘d have enjoyed it just for the brilliant Lolly; her spinsterhood and wistful nostalgia for the independence of childhood and the home where she could explore nature. In later life Lolly throws caution to the wind, undoes the ties that bind and creates a new home. I fell in love with her new life in Great Mop and enjoyed her fight to keep it. Beautifully written with a feminist barb in its tail.

Well turns out I do like me some grumpy old men getting lost in the woods. If you‘re a Bryson fan already, which I am, you‘re going to like this book. Brysons love of history and his endless “Did you know?” facts keep this book interesting. His arguments and peeves with his hiking mate Katz, keep it humorous. And he has a love for this trail and the wilderness. But this is as much about when we give up as when we push through. Very entertaining.

This was the book I needed to read. Green‘s musings on our current age starts out humorous & whimsical & gets solidly deeper & more thoughtful (at one point made me cry). His self deprecating voice, his shared vulnerability, was incredibly touching & I thought hard about meaning & humanity‘s impact on the earth. This is a book I have to buy so I can share some essays with my daughter - but I think I need to hear his voice again myself 😍 5 stars.

A sweet novella set in a near future where humans are building a more sustainable, spiritual way of living on the earth following some kind of unmentioned upheaval. Oh and sentient robots who live like nomads in the bush.
As someone else said this is a hug of a book. Sometimes I found the invented gods and spirituality a little twee but it was so well intentioned it didn‘t matter.
And more Spring photos from the park by the hospital.

This is what Spring looks like - no filter. It‘s very green here at the moment!

I was sitting in the park with one eye on the hospital there, (that‘s an old hospital building with a huge incinerator, very Dickensian but no longer in use) waiting for #hiselderliness to finish his appointment. (Two and a half hours!) And listening to this book by John Green which is wonderful.
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Whoa. That was brutal. This debut novel is full of heart and terrific characters but it is not for the faint hearted.
Arama and Taukiri have lost their parents. Taukiri drops his little brother to live at their aunties and disappears. We then follow Ari and Tauk‘s journeys - and also jump back to the past to Toko and Jade whose stories will eventually converge with the young boys. This is a story of gang violence and domestic violence and ⬇️

Frame didn‘t think of this as a novel, she called it a collection of scenes. You have glimpses into the lives of the Withers family, poor and chaotic but kind and loving. Living on the edge of society, fossicking in the local dump for a treasure of a book or a toy. We see them as children and again as adults, post trauma, when one sister, Daphne, has been institutionalised. It‘s a book of brilliant and startling writing. ⬇️

In an attempt to make lockdown weekends more interesting my daughter and I had an English themed afternoon, watched Emma and drank Pimms and ate cucumber sandwiches. This adaptation of Emma was really good I thought - a great way to introduce a teenager to Austen. I‘m not sure our Pimms cocktails were authentic though! We mixed it with lemonade and mint and sliced strawberries- let me know if you‘re a Pimms drinker how you would do it?

So I did a chat with Shawn about this book on his YouTube channel if anyone is interested in watching me gush and gesticulate 😄. (You should also follow Shawn, he has strong opinions which makes for interesting reviews but he‘s also smart and kind and thoughtful) @shawnmooney

https://youtu.be/PadbFMEPXAQ

It may be timing and my mood but in the middle of this book I was finding Forster sanctimonious and heavy handed in his philosophising. And of course the unchecked imperialism can make you cringe. But the writing is glorious, the setting and characters spell binding and then the ending is quite wonderful when he upturns the apple cart. Then Forster shows he does have insight into misogyny and the perils of patriarchy. ⬇️

I‘ve spent two weeks inside this book, two weeks in Janet Frame‘s life and I‘m going to miss walking alongside her. An incredible woman, a sensitive, imaginative writer - her story has bleakness and then vibrant joys and loves. As a biography is it THOROUGH. Written with her permission, King is careful not to indulge in his own analysis,but quotes from miles of correspondence with others, where she, and they, comment on and critique each other.

Currently reading this #chunkster. I‘m loving it though; I love Janet Frame and she had an incredible life, spending most of her twenties in mental hospitals - around 1945 - 1955 which was a dark time for treating mental health issues.

PS an update on #hiselderliness. I still can‘t see him as we are in lockdown but he is well cared for in his village. He isn‘t able to read since his latest hospitalisation unfortunately. ⬇️

AI, space stations, interplanetary gates, a world weary soldier disgusted by the privileged society that has colonised most of the known universes - what‘s not to love? This is the sequel to Ancillary Justice and its great. Great world building, great characters, you can feel the chess pieces moving into place for the big finale but it‘s still highly enjoyable. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

I really enjoyed this - it‘s a fairly simple mystery where the beauty is in the setting and the telling. A Benedictine monastery in medieval times is a comforting escape at these moment! Cadfael is a wonderful character and an innovative sleuth - he doesn‘t have modern tools or theories and I enjoyed the way Peters uses other things like community and shared beliefs to flush out clues. I have coincidentally read two books in a row set in Wales. ⬇️

416 pages is a break neck speed at which to cover 500 years of history, so I‘m still getting my Maximillians mixed up with my Ferdinands (so to speak) but this was a great overview of a part of history I knew little about. I‘ll definitely need to follow this up with other European history books in years to come - hopefully some of it will bed down in my brain until then.

I loved this. It‘s a kids book, but also an enjoyable couple of hours as an adult read. Just the right amount of spooky for me so this could be a good Halloween read. The characters are the stars here, and their changes and interactions drive the narrative more than a propulsive plot. Events are less neatly explained than usual for a children‘s book which is part of its delight. Do we really know what is happening? ⬇️

I don‘t often read brand new fiction or short story collections but this just won a major NZ fiction prize so I thought I would give it a go. Beautrais writing style really appeals. Her stories are character driven and within moments of each story I was captivated. The people, places and stories felt strangely recognisable - maybe that‘s the impact of reading a NZ writer for a change. Behind the seemingly ordinary are themes of ⬇️

It‘s the 80s and Nick Guest is a young intellectual and discerning aesthete, fresh from Oxford, awed by his friend Toby‘s family and upper class home filled with art and antiques where he is a lodger. Toby‘s father is an MP in the Thatcher government and the home hosts many of the privileged and powerful. Nick seems to be appreciated by the family for his wits and his homosexuality is known and he hopes, accepted. We follow Nick through his ⬇️

Currently reading a history book, a modern classic and an MG adventure - so of course the pleasure of reading about Morrison Crow (and Fenestra the Magnificat!) won the race.
The bizarre thing about this third book in the trilogy is that it was written pre Covid and yet includes an epidemic, quarantines, public protests and community divisions. Prescient much? 😬 But such a fun ride. This world is a lovely place to spend a couple of days.

I chose something random from my TBR and this was a FIND. Ismail Kadare won the inaugural Man Booker International for his body of work. This is from 1977.
The structure moves from a boys description of his life in a stony city in Albania, to pages that are random sentences from the local paper (Chronicle). You get this dreamy boy communing with the city and nature while he mentions glimpses of the adult world. They often don‘t make sense, ⬇️

A random find in a charity shop called to me from my shelves this week. Its an engaging easy read and just what I needed. They call it YA historical fiction. It‘s a mystery with a great creepy Victorian feel and some really grim villains - published in 1985 - there are a few cringey moments but it feels like Pullman was trying to pull away from cultural stereotypes (not quite making it) Highly enjoyable - would make a light creepy October read

So it seems the books that best fit my mood right now are very introspective and philosophise about family and relationships. I loved this. I think @Cathythoughts put this on my radar years ago!
Hartmann and Fibich were orphans evacuated from Germany in WW2. We meet them as old men examining their lives. Although opposites in temperament and outlook they have been bonded in friendship, leant upon each other for life. ⬇️

Hi @Reggie just for your amusement at my list obsession. 🤪 So this is TBR Book Number 2 which I started writing in 2007. It has 98 pages with about 28 books per page. I stopped adding books to it when I started using Litsy. The first book I had for my TBR was larger and I wrote smaller and it had 70 books per page 😳😳😳 I had about 35 pages left but I went through and revised it by at least half and put them on Litsy.