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without so much as

I Vow To Thee, My Country ~ Charlotte Church

There are Rivers in the sky by Elif Shafak. Turkish novel about Assyrian empire- cuneiform tablets, etc- sprad from Iraq to London to Iraq. Starts excellent but DNF cos it got very teite with twee dialogue. 3/5 max.

belong to other women

A Country Boy Can Survive - Hank Williams, Jr.

Club Country - The Associates

I read 25 books in 2025, rather appropriately. Here's to 2026! Murder in York by J R Ellis 7/10

Five Windows by D.E. Stevenson

Going Up Country ~ Canned Heat

Thank God I'm a Country Boy - John Denver

Moonstone, Laura Purcell

A Haunting in the Arctic by C J Cooke “In the mirror opposite, she could see it—her foot was no longer human, but the fin of a cetacean, dark and slick as ink, bringing fresh revulsion every time she looked at it.” This is more horror than historical fiction and is very definitely a ghost story. There are three separate storylines. The first is in 1901 and is on a whaling ship out of Dundee called the Ormen. The narrator is Nicky, a woman who has been abducted and is on the ship against her will. Her story unfolds as the novel progresses. Dominique is in the present and is exploring the wreck of the Ormen, which is on the shoreline in Iceland, near an abandoned whaling station: she is joined by three others who have arrived independent of Dominique with similar intent. It soon becomes clear that no one is quite who they seem to be, but that’s part of the gothic nature of the plot. In terms of folklore, what is pertinent is the “selkie wife”. This myth is common in Irish and Scottish folklore and involves women who become seals and vice versa. It plays a part in this novel as well. None of the characters are particularly likeable (apart perhaps from Nicky) and the there are plenty of twists towards the end. Some are clearly guessable and by the end when I understood what was going on, it all seemed a bit pointless. The violence is brutal and this is not for the squeamish, but it’s a clever reworking of the folklore. So I have mixed feelings. 6 and a half out of 10 Starting Oaklore by Jules Acton

Go wild in the country - Bow Wow Wow

and grabbing things that

Are You Ready For the Country ~ Neil Young

Take Me Home, Country Roads -John Denver (lyrics from a person's previous post): Show me the way to go home I'm tired and I want to go to bed I had a little drink about an hour ago And it’s gone right to my head Everywhere that I roam Over land or sea or foam You can always hear me singing this song Show me the way to go home

I want to read and understand Thomas Mann and I want to read and understand Friedrich Nietzsche. Not necessarily in that order and not necessarily this year but it is an ambition of mine. I also aspire to read more widely. By this I mean read a lot that I’m not in the habit of reading on a wide variety of subjects yet to be determined.

Run for Home - Lindisfarne

interests in invading nations

and cross-eyed, with peculiar

Show Me The Way To Go Home ~ Irving King

She's Leaving Home - the Beatles

Leaving On a Jet Plane - John Denver

Only when you leave - Spandau Ballet

Ronnie Bump, orange faced