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I have a Kindle too so an Amazon voucher is ideal (and I am grateful)

I would rather get an Amazon voucher than an actual book because all my reading nowadays is on a Kindle. My eyesight isn't the best, and I can adjust the print size on kindle and it makes my reading more enjoyable.

I did get an Amazon voucher, though

I Want to Hold Your Hand - The Beatles

Me too. I can always find room for more ……

Me neither, but then I've got so many.....

Don't you want me - The Human League

Neither did I.

Just because I’m nosy, did anybody get any books for Christmas? I did not, sadly.

This book is about the Rolls Royce Merlin, which powered Spitfires, Huricanes, Mosquitos, Lancasters, P51 Mustangs and numerous other aircraft. Definitely the most important aircraft engine produced in Britain during WW2. I am about half way through. It is a bit different to what I was expecting. I thought it would be about superchargers, carburettors, high octane fuels and compressor ratios, rare metals, coolant temperatures, etc, etc. Instead, it started off with gliders, the development of the internal combustion and the early days of flight. Then it recounts how Henry Royce met Charles Rolls who formed the company, Rolls Royce. Then it proceeds through WW1, the interwar years, and then WW2, which I am getting to now. The book is not so much about the engineering, but the pretty wide characters that got involved along the way. For example, there is a chapter on Lady Lucy Houston, who started off as a chorus dancer in Paris and monkey branched her way into the British aristocracy. She put up the money for Britain's Scheider Cup entry for flying boats after the Labour government pulled its funding in 1931. So far my favourite character is Henry Royce himself. He started off as a humble apprentice. He would look at at a piece of engineering someone else had done and find a way of improving it. These days Rolls Royce cars are about opulence, but back in the early days, Rolls Royce cars gained the reputation for reliability and smoothness. Henry Royce was a perfectionist. He insisted that his engineers get their designs right on the draught board, before going to the next stage and attempting to fix it then. I used to be a computer programmer, and on the software engineering course I attended, we were taught to get the specifications right, before the high level design, and then the high level design before the detailed design, and then the code. It was very difficult to do. Henry Royce reminded me a bit of some of the very clever engineers I met. He could just do things and think of solutions. Apparently Royce said he did not invent things; investors went broke. He just improved things. Stylistically, I find the author's asides jar. For example, he breaks off to say he closed off some apparently redundant exhausts on a Ferrari to find the engine did not sound as musical. On another aside, he says he talked to a survivor of the Guernica bombing. The Nazis were testing their bombers on ordinary citizens. It was nothing directly to do with the Merlin.

dyspeptic attempts to encapsulate

not to mention his

Empire of the Damned, Jay Kristoff The second book in a trilogy, this one takes place a few years after the first one ended, but reacquaints the reader with previous events and includes a dramatis personae for the reader. I'm never sure how useful this is, especially with a long list of characters like this one has, but it's there as a term of reference should it be required. It also has black and white illustrations. As expected, this is more of the same. However, the narrator changes, and it becomes a dual narration, first from the original narrator. His sister is added and narrates separately, then both narrate together, which brings trouble because they apparently hate each other. The story, however, never falters and brings surprises. I only guessed one minor part of it. It's action-packed and frenetic, and more is learned about vampires and how they fight, not to mention a bit of the background of the main narrator. In this book, however, there are a few sex scenes. Nothing explicit and all in-keeping with the story, but the whole book is adult only - some of the descriptions of the brutality of the vampire-dictators are very gory, not to mention downright cruel and not for the faint-hearted. There is also the constant profanity. I enjoyed this one as much as the last one and look forward to the third part in due course. Recommended: if you like vampires, are not averse to gore and a few light sex scenes and can tolerate profanity.

I took Adrian back to the United Reformed Church in Bury St Edmunds. I waa going to tell them I had decided to look for another church more able to cater for little people. As it happened, Adrian behaved well this time and people seemed glad to see him again. So, I didn't tell them that. The main thing I remember from the service was one of the elders telling a story about a Comanchee girl called 'She Who Sits Alone' because she was an orphan. There was a drought, and, I can't remember exactly, but someone went up a mountainside and received a message from the Spirit in the Sky that He'd been watering the earth, but what had he been getting back? Nada, that's what. Therefore, if they wanted rain they have to sacrifice their most valuable possesions. However, the brave did not want to put his best bow on the fire. He needed it to hunt with so tribe would not starve. The squaw did not want to burn her blanket. Without it her children might freeze. The medicine man did not want to give up his bag of remedies, because he needed them to treat people when they became sick. 'She Who Sits Alone' decided she must cast her treasured doll, which she had received from her parents, of the sacrificial pyre. When she did that it started raining so she was renamed 'She Who Saved Her People'. I am not sure why I didn't like that story.

on a paper fork

Baby I'm-A Want You ~ Bread

I did not know about this and I read the Camus in August! Thanks for reviewing this and pointing that out, I will acquire ASAP. Edited to add: bought!

Wuthering Heights is brilliant, never heard of Sea-Witch but look forward to your review.

#57. The Meursault Investigation by Kamel Daoud for Algeria ***** Also read as a follow-up to L'Etranger. This was a fascinating counterpoint to Camus's classic. I was glad to read it immediately afterwards as I might well have missed some (many?) of the points of contact otherwise, and I really enjoyed picking these up! Overall. I was surprised, if anything, to enjoy this more than the original. This felt more human and more deeply rooted in place. There was a colour that Camus's lacked. All of this was obviously deliberate on the part of both authors, but the later book did chime more with me (although it of course needed the earlier work to build on!). Perhaps it would be fairer to say, that they worked really well as a pair, both contrasting and complimenting each other; a case of the sum being distinctly greater than the parts.

#56. Man Tiger by Eka Kurniawan for Indonesia **** The story of two interlinked families. A shocking, apparently inexplicable event happens in the opening pages. Gradually we find out why it happened. It's a dramatic, really lively promising start, with an interesiing touch of magical realism. The book never loses its interest or pace, but whilst I thoroughly enjoyed it, I was a mite diappointed that the magical aspect was left rather undeveloped. Equally, the chronology, deliberately blurred, for me just edged into the unnecessarily convoluted. But these are minor nitpicks - this was a genuinely good read, which I rattled through in barely a day!

#55. On the Calculation of Volume I by Solvej Balle for Denmark *** A tricky one. I read this as a book group choice - I hadn't intended for this to be my Danish novel, but, shortlisted as it was for the International Booker, it seemed a good one all the same. And in many ways it was. But, but.... (and be warned, I've tried not to spoil, but inevitably some of my comments might work that way for some) The idea is both an interesting and a familiar one: the narrator, Tara Selter, an antique book dealer, finds that she is trapped in November 18th. It's reminiscent of the film Groundhog Day, although the author says that she had the idea long before it appeared. Life constantly repeats, and yet it also doesn't. Whilst time never moves on, she does - a burn that she incurs on the first Nov 18th gradually heals, some objects stay with her (eg some books she purchases on the first Nov 18th), but others don't. She experiments at trying to keep her husband Tomas awake through the night to see what happens, and early in the morning he goes through a reset, and suddenly wonders why she is in the house and not away (as she is on the first Nov 18th). So, whilst the day repeats itself, some things, even people, move with her. But (that word again!), and this was the start of my problems with this book, what does and what doesn't move seems to be pretty random. In fact, the only consistency appears to be that it suits the author that they move (or don't!). Well, maybe, or maybe this is part of what Balle is addressing - our relationship with time. Even so, it's the randomness that bothered me. However, one thought that cropped up in the book group is that maybe, somewhere in there, there is a consistency, and perhaps that's part of what we might found out later; it may even be part of the resolution (if there is one). Tara herself, not the most empathetic of characters even initially, becomes ever more self-orientated as the book progresses, almost inevitably I suppose, but other characters recede as a result, not least Tomas himself, who becomes more and more just a series of sounds, a 'ghost'. We see things very much from her perspective, so Tomas 'forgets' at the end of the day. Er no, he doesn't, he's moved on to Nov 19th and the Tomas she sees at the start of the day hasn't yet known the things that she sees him as having forgotten. Meanwhile Tara sees herself as a 'monster', not least because the food (and other items?) she consumes is not replaced - gradually the supermarket is being emptied of the goods she favours. This may well partly be a take on our consumerism, but again, I found the logic somewhat illogical, especially as some items do revert, and again felt events were being fitted to the author's needs/wants, not the author coping with the 'reality' of recurring time. I may well be focusing too much on this aspect, but for me the main weakness of this book, and what left me rather underwhelmed at the end, was the inevitable repetition (of course it's repetitive, that's the point, but it's also the challenge!), and yet what moving on there was just didn't work for me. Now that all might come out in the wash, and there's no doubt that I am intrigued to find out how this time issue is resolved (if, of course, it is), but therein lies the final problem I have with this book. Balle has already made it clear that this is a seven volume series. I am interested in knowing what happens at the end, but do I want to read the other 6 books to find out? It's rather like a boxed set series- and rattling around in my head is the question, am I sufficiently addicted to continue? Or am I prepared to become 'addicted'? And when I look on it like that the answer is pretty much the same to pretty much every boxed set I've ever seen: 'No' (a few BBC classics dramas aside!). Of course, it doesn't help, that I'm going to have to wait for future volumes to come out (Vol 3 in English will be in the shops soon). Maybe if I waited until all 7 were out and read them as one single long book? I don't know, although the prospect doesn't excite me in the way that many long books do. In the meantime, this was an interesting concept, with, as things stand, just too many flaws and too much commitment required to make me want to stick it out. Just like the finale is almost always the most watched programme in any series, I might just wait and read the final book.

#54. A Golden Age by Tahmima Anam for Bangladesh **** The story of a widow's efforts to keep her family intact as her two children (and as a result, she herself) become embroiled in the 1971 War of Independence. I knew next to nothing of this period, only being aware (as a 13-year old at the time) of the change from 'East Pakistan' to 'Bangladesh'. Of the horrors of the war and genocide - absolutely ignorant. The story itself was a fairly standard if enjoyable family saga, with no real narrative surprises but enough character, plot and sense of place to keep me engaged through to the end, even if none particularly stood out. Rehana, the mother, is young(ish?0 and naive in the ways of the world, but has a certain steel when it comes to her children, and builds in strength and character as the narrative progresses. It was certainly good enough for me to look to read the sequel A Good Muslim (just ordered). Some reviews do comment negatively on the accuracy of the background (although I have to say that the tenor of the complaints suggest some sort of agenda - and they are often not accurate in themselves), but that's a subject about which I don't know anything like enough to comment. However, whatever else this book did or was, it had me going off to read up more on the subject (ongoing!), so in terms of helping improve understanding and knowledge, - and helping open my eyes - this was a definite success, and I can see why it won Best First Book in the Commonwealth Writers' Prize.

And, at last, with just 2 days to the end of the year, I'm up to date! 71. Great Granny Webster by Caroline Blackwood *** A profile of a largely dysfunctional fictional Anglo-Irish family, whose misanthropic matriarch is the ubiquitous GGW. Shortlisted for the Booker even if barely long enough to count as a novel, this is widely regarded as a hidden classic. As a character, or family, portrait, this works. As a collection of scene setters, this works. But as a novel it barely gets off the ground, and the continual misery, whilst classically gothic, just felt unrelenting and pointless. There is humour, but it's of that black sort that just doesn't grab me; funny this is not in spite of what some reviews claim. After a promising first quarter, nothing really developed (other than the misery), and I was left well before the end with a growing sense of ennui, however good the quality of the writing. 72. The Christmas Appeal by Janice Hallett **** A fun, light piece of Christmas froth that suited me perfectly for the time and place. Rattled through this in a couple of hours on Christmas Eve, and even found myself giggling more than once (not a common reading occurrence). Great literature this was not, but who cares? 73. The Nativity by Geza Vermes **** A book that I've read before, but of which I could remember little. Seemed a good choice for Christmas! This is an examination of the Nativity story as told in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke, which also led to me rereading the opening chapters of all 4 of the gospels. I hadn't realised quite how different the two accounts were (almost incompatibly so), and how much the traditional Nativity story was a merging of the 'best bits' of the two accounts. And 'story' looks to be the right word, with so much likely to bear little relationship with what actually happened. Given the issues of 'fake news' today, this book proved to be surprisingly topical. A fascinating read. 74. Seascraper by Benjamin Wood ****** Longlisted for the Booker. I'm completely bemused why I'm writing that - at the very least this should have been shortlisted, and it certainly knocked the winner itself out of the park; we're not even talking the same league, although admittedly that wasn't difficult IMO. Deeply atmospheric - the scenes on the fogbound sands were utterly gripping. Wreaking of time and place, and with such superbly rounded characters, this was a genuine one sitting read. Just glad it was Boxing Day and had the time to do just that, as this was that rare beast, a book that just kept getting better and better. I can't fathom some Booker juries, and this was one of the most unfathomable. 75. Through a Glass, Darkly by Helen McCloy **** One of Penguin's 'Mermaid' series, nicely produced paperbacks (with those lovely French flaps!) of "unjustly neglected works of popular mid- to late-twentieth century fiction". This was originally the eighth in the author's Dr Basil Willing (psychiatrist) series of mysteries, and has a distinctly gothic feel to it. An intriguing premise, nicely set up (I was certainly hooked when browsing!), that sustains the interest and pace for most of the way. I found the last 10% or so slightly unsatisfying although it would make for a good book group discussion, but this was thoroughly enjoyable nevertheless, and I wouldn't be averse to reading more from Helen McCloy. 76. The Moviegoer by Walker Percy **** Read for Louisana in my Tour of the USA. This was nothing like what I expected, even after reading the blurb. Far more philosophical, far looser plotted. Also, in many respects, a far harder read. Indeed, in places this felt almost incoherent, shooting off and coming in from tangents. Perhaps if I was more familiar with the place and vocabulary, some of this would have made more sense. However, the descriptive writing, both of character and place, was superb, and there was enough that made sense to anchor me sufficiently and keep reading! By the end, I felt I was getting sufficient grip, but how we got there, I wasn't too sure about!

starting the new year with Wuthering Heights (always wanted to read it but admittedly i'm reading it now because that new movie looks kinda hot lol) and Sea-Witch by Never Angeline Nørth. really enjoying both so far.

I want your love - Chic