willoyd

From my point of view, don't bother then. Sounds like a lot of work for little if any gain. Fun having one's own font, but that was when it was straightforward! Thanks for all the info.

Thanks Hayley. I'll just stick with the default font (although it would be interesting to know how to do things!).

I've kept a record using Excel since 2005. I so wish I'd done so a lot earlier! I have columns for: author, title, fiction/non-fiction, star rating (1-6), various flags*, medium (e-book, paper, audio etc), author gender, pages read, source (owned, library, borrowed etc). *E= English counties tour challenge read, G=book group read, R=reread, U=USA tour challenge, W= world tour challenge, X=unfinished I also keep a catalogue of books read and/or owned on Librarything (link below my signature). I try to write at least a brief review of each book here, and I keep copies of these backed up along with the spreadsheet etc.

Used to be around 30% non-fiction, but that's been increasing of late, and was up to 50-50 last year. In terms of non-fiction, I read a mixture: a lot of history, natural history, travel, science, social sciences and historical/literary biography. My non-fiction library is about 3-4 times the size of the fiction library!

I don't aim for anything, but up the end of this year, I've averaged pretty much exactly 60 pages a day for the previous 5 years. Slightly down on that this year at around 45 pages a day so far, but will probably pick up to around 50 pages a day by the end of the year as I usually read loads over the Christmas period. Having said that, even a page count is not a reliable measure of how much read: most fiction paperbacks I read have about a half or less the word count per page of some of the non-fiction books I read.

Just been trying to read An Honest Deceit by Guy Mankowski for a book group. Not a book, or indeed author, that I've come across before, and TBH am absolutely mystified why Bradford Libraries would include this in their book group reading list. The writing is horribly overwrought, and the grammar/orthography dire. Some examples of the latter from early pages: ....and so Marine, with her sandy nose, looks me She belonged to Juliette and I I didn't have enough information to ruminate with I saw that my she was still swimming La Clare De La Lune each of whom were Punctuation is all over the place - not just misleading at times, but inconsistent. All in all, an editorial disaster. I've given up. 1 star.

I've been trying to use Verdana font. The code I used to use was <font="verdana"> (I think square brackets used to work, but can't remember now!). I suspect that's now old hat, so have looked at using variants on <style="font-family:verdana"> using different combinations of brackets etc, as don't know how the <> button actually works - but none work. So I'm really trying to find out how <> works, and what I can do to change font if I want to (I'm tempted not to bother actually - the default is perfectly good enough, but am now curious!).

Something i've just noticed. Previously I was able to add in code to change the font (I like to use Verdana). Adding the code as I previously did doesn't now work. Instead, though, an additional icon seems to have appeared to specifically allow coding to be added. However, I can't seem to make it work. Any guidance available please?

Another long gap! I've not been very good this year at keeping up to date with reviews, and this post represents another (almost) three months worth of books. I've found this year a bit of a struggle for some reason - although maybe it's simply that I've just slowed down a bit after three or four years fairly frenetic reading. Anyway, a list of the books read since the last post, with a few comments to bring me up to date. A Very British Coup by Chris Mullin ** This really isn't my sort of book, and was read purely for a book group, although I found the author's diaries of his time in politics to be fascinating. IMO, he should stick to diary writing. This was fortunately not a long book (so many 'thrillers' are), but it still proved fairly tedious, full of cardboard cutout characters, and little to engage. It's topicality and that relevance just about earned it a second star, but overall I was distinctly underwhelmed. Somewhere Towards The End by Diana Athill ** Another book group read, but this time of an author I've intended to read for a while, given the positive reviews she's received. On the evidence of this book, though, I'm not sure why she is so acclaimed. Superficially a series of essays on life as an older person, it wandered all over the place, was utterly self-centred (self-obsessed?), and majored more in reminiscence than anything genuinely enlightening or analytical. Another tedious read, fortunately short. The Invention of Nature by Andrea Wulf ****** Thank goodness for that! After two dullards, a genuinely fascinating and well written book - a biography of Alexander von Humboldt, read as a follow up to Daniel Kehlmann's excellent Measuring the World. It helps that von Humboldt was such an important figure in 18th/19th century science, and that his life was full of activity and interest, but that should take nothign away from the author's own skill in writing. One of the highlights of the year so far, fact or fiction, and only my second six star read for 2022. Real Bloomsbury by Nicholas Murray *** An historical guide to Bloomsbury - pretty much what it says on the tin! I had this as a companion to a couple of very pleasurable days exploring (walking) the area, and it added so much to the trip. It's also a good read in its own right, lively and engaging, with much interest and personal insight within a relatively slim volume. The Instant by Amy Liptrot ** What happened? I absolutely adored the author's first book, The Outrun - a book of the year for me - and was really looking forward to this as a book group choice. Sadly, it proved a huge disappointment, with none of the flair, positivity or natural history (in spite of it being up for the Wainwright prize) of the earlier book. Instead, this felt horribly overwritten, totally self-centred, and thoroughly miserable. The Outrun exuded a sense of place, especially after the author's return to the Orkneys, this had none of that. Set in Berlin, this could have been any metropolitan area anywhere in Europe. And as for the natural history - it was farcical, with the author seeming to expect it all to come to her instantly on a plate, and surprised when it didn't; and that was when she wrote about it at all in between her obsessive relationship with one particular man, a relationship that verged on stalking. In fact that insight was possibly the one strength of the book, but a thoroughly unpleasant one. A total letdown. One Moonlit Night by Caradog Prichard ****** Read as part of my Read Around the World (RAW) challenge, my book for Wales. I was surprised to realise that this was my first ever book translated from Welsh. The story of a young boy's upbringing in a North Wales town (based on Bethesda) told in hindsight when an adult. There's much that is utterly grim here, but it's seen through the eyes of someone who knew no different, and thus much of the grimness is implied rather than spelt out, and there's much humour and pleasure present. A humungous twist, which I never saw coming, puts a completely different complexion on things though, and helped raise this from the merely very good to the outstanding. I'm no fan of mis-lit - which this might be seen to be but only superficially - but thoroughly enjoyed, or rather appreciated, this, and can totally see why this is regarded as a classic by so many. The very sort of book I'm doing this challenge for! Later Edit: promoted to a full 6 stars as a 'favourite' - a book I'd return to in an instant, even knowing what the twist is! Main Street by Sinclair Lewis *** Part of my continuing tour of the United States, being the book for Minnesota. A fairly gentle satire on small-town life in midwest America of the early twentieth century. Newly wed doctor's wife Carol Kennicot is brought back to the the doctor's home town of Gopher Prairie determined to help bring it in to the twentieth century, but comes up against small-town attitudes and life. Widely regarded as something of a classic, I can sort of see why, but I found it overlong at almost 450 pages, rather repetitive, and generally in need of a good edit. I'm not a great one for satire anyway (with some notable exceptions!), but for me good ones tend to be short and sharp (Animal Farm, Cold Comfort Farm). It proved just about OK enough to plough my way through, but overall tedious is the main adjective to spring to mind. A Question of Upbringing / A Buyer's Market by Antony Powell *** The first two volumes of A Dance To The Music of Time - which I hope to complete by the end of the year. Not exactly action packed, but full of characters and relationships as they grow up in the inter-war years. I'm already finding it challenging keeping track of the cast, and am using Hilary Spurling's guide to help me. It's a societal group I'm not sure I'm that interested in, and I do find parts quite heavy going at times, but I've been reading it in fairly short bursts which has disrupted any real sense of continuity and not helped me get 'into' the narrative. There's enough of interest, and enough promise, to keep me going though, so will continue with the third volume (of 12) later this month. Basically, the jury is still very much out on this one! Cycling At The Speed of Life by Chris Bolton *** Short and sweet, this is a brief and personal introduction to longer distance audaxing, with a focus on the London-Edinburgh-London (held every 4 years). I helped as a volunteer at this year's LEL in August, and met Chris at the control point we were both helping at. The laid back, amiable, but informative style of the book definitely reflects the man himself, who was a fount of knowledge! For me in my position of contemplating extending my riding, this was a useful and pleasurable, read! Death and the Penguin by Andrey Kurkov *** Read both as a book group read, and as my book for Ukraine in my RAW challenge. Another, rather more modern, satire - distinctly bleaker amd more absurdist than Main Street, with the central protagonist Viktor, getting by in post-Soviet Ukrainen as a jobbing journalist who lands up preparing obituaries for a local newspaper. He lives with a king penguin, Misha, acquired from the local zoo who has been giving away animals it can't afford to keep. Viktor soon finds that his obituaries are being used as hit list for the local 'mafia'. This is one of those books where I can sort of appreciate why so many people regard it so highly, but which, to be honest, I really don't enjoy reading. Everybody in the group talked about the (dark) humour, but, as so often, I really didn't find it funny, and the whole thing left me cold. I can see what he's getting at, but I just find books like this, where characters are deliberately just ciphers and the emphasis is all on the message, tend to do nothing for me..... The Trees by Percival Everett ***** ......So why did I find this, another satire set in deep south America, so engaging - absolutely riveting reading?! Shortlisted for the Booker, the whole premise of this book grabbed me from the go when reading this for a book group. This was one where I found the humour, in spite of the grimness, even horror, of the subject material, absolutely laugh-out loud (and utterly black). There was no missing the message either. This raised so many topics for discussion in our group, and the meeting fair buzzed along, especially as one member was in my usual position of really not getting the humour, and not overly impressed overall either. I think the difference for me was in the quality of the dialogue and the stronger and more varied characterisation. The ending proved controversial, with people split sharply into two camps (positive and negative), but for me it made complete sense, even if unanticipated! Provocative, sharp, funny, grim, almost horrific. A book that I ordinarily would not have expected to like, but which proved the exact opposite.

Still around! I'm afraid it's so long ago, and so many books ago, that I can't remember much about it. Have you read my post with the spoiler hidden? That has an explanation as to why bothered me (at least I think it's an explanation!). As a book, I'm afraid it didn't make a huge hit - one of the weaker ones on the English county tour I was doing at the time, but then, inevitably, the choice of books covering Rutland wasn't that great!

I've been collecting Folio Society books for just over 30 years, and have a fairly large collection (listed on my Librarything catalogue, linked below). However, I've cut right back on them, and sold off about a third of them in the past few years, with another load to go. I'm retaining favourites, like my sets of Austen, Hardy, Dickens and O'Brian! They are well read! They've really only taken off in price in the past few years. Previously, there was plenty of scope to pick them up reasonably cheaply, and I'm still buying some books in the second-hand market for barely more than the price of a new paperback. Since lockdown, the more recent editions have appeared to become more fashionable, partly because FS has changed the direction of its marketing: whereas I used to buy a lot of FS fiction, I've bought just one volume from them in the past 3 years (a reprint of Humphry Clinker by Tobias Smollett) as they have come to focus more on fantasy, sci-fi etc - IMO their range of classics has become repetitive and thoroughly unimaginative in production (even rather blingy on occasions). This fashion trend is underlined by the fact that I've been selling books off often for more than I bought them (occasionally substantially so), whereas a few years ago there was absolutely no value in second hand Folios (there still isn't with the older ones, which as I said is my preferred stamping ground now). Bear in mind that the Frankenstein is a limited edition. Most of their books are a lot cheaper - although generally still too steep for me nowadays. In terms of new books, I'm down to a couple of non-fiction per year (mainly travel classics) nowadays, if that, mainly of books that are hard to get otherwise in a good reading edition. On that front, FS still do score on occasions. Incidentally, I've replaced my FS fiction buying with editions from Everyman Classics, Library of America, and other publishers reviving books and authors, eg Persephone, Slightly Foxed etc. Personally, I think there's far better value in them now.

A Month in the Country by JL Carr (set in summer!). Or maybe a Maigret story (Georges Simenon). Or, for something chunkier, pretty much anything by Dickens.

Just finished The Trees by Percival Everett. It may not have won the Booker last night, but it is a superb, increasingly absurdist satire that had me hooked from start to finish. I have already bought one of his other books. 5 out of 6 stars.

Finished Andrey Kurkev's Death and the Penguin, a book group choice, and my book for Ukraine on my reading around the world challenge. Rattled through it, enjoyed it well enough, but never felt really engaged - my problem all too often with satire. 3 stars.

Finished Main Street by Sinclair Lewis, my book for Minnesota in my Tour of the US States. A satirical look atlife in a small mid-West town of the early twentienth century. A solid, reasonably easy and enjoyable read overall, but rather overlong and dragged at times, particularly in the third quarter. 3 stars out of 5.

To give you an example, the map I've included here is from the qualifying heats at the British Sprint Champs in Leeds in June: large scale 1:4000. Triangle is the start (where you pick up your map, after timing starts), double circle the finish. It was reasonably easy, but thus very fast, so mistakes were measured in terms of seconds. Whilst the centre of the circle is the position of the control marker, the graphics grid shows the 'pictorial descriptions', that tell the competitor the precise position of the marker (including which side of the feature - so for #14, it reads 'staircase, top of', #15 is 'middlemost distinctive tree', #17 is 'distinctive tree, west side' and #19 is 'southwesternmost wall, inside the southernwestern most facing corner'! Because we use contactless electronic punching nowadays, you don't have to stop running to record your visit, just make sure your chip (on your finger) passes within half a metre of the marker (the chip beeps to confirm you're registered).

Just finished One Moonlit Night by Caradog Prichard. A fictional account of a young boy's growing up in a town in North Wales in the early twentieth century (based on Bethesda, with elements of autobiography). Dark and very different, but definitely not mis-lit. A slim volume, but I ripped through it in a couple of days - beautifully written. My book for Wales (I think it's the first book I've ever read translated from Welsh) in my Read Around The World, a book I would probably have never read otherwise, but so glad I did - I will almost certainly return to it. 5 stars out of 6.

Finished Amy Liptrot's recent book, The Instant, a sort of follow-up to her prize-winning The Outrun. I loved The Outrun, my book of the year at the time, and was really looking forward to her new one, especially in the light of some positive reviews. Have to say I was bitterly disappointed, and, in spite of it being a mere 180 pages, found it tedious, miserable and self-obsessive, lacking all the qualities that made The Outrun such a great read. The Outrun had such a sense of place, this for me had little to none. I can't recall the last time a book was such a letdown. Just about scrapes 2 stars - came close to my first 1-star award of the year, but aware that my disappointment might be influencing me. Will be really interested to see what the rest of the book group think (one has already indicated she liked it, so I can see an interesting meeting coming up), but as things stand, I'm gutted.

I didn't say Lee Child was trash! One person's 'trash' is very much another person's pleasure. I just don't like Lee Child (or most other so-called thrillers) - more to do with the genre than the author.. I'm not a great crime reader either, although there are very distinct exceptions (Donna Leon being one). I also have a massive penchant for Georgette Heyer - not quite M&B, but regarded by many as not far off. So you're probably right (my dislike of those sort of books got in the way of appreciating others would)! But whilst I really enjoy these writers, individual books don't really live with me in the same way that, say, Middlemarch does, but then I can't read those sorts of books all the time (like a very rich pudding, I enjoy them in smaller doses). Raven says it's predictable. The thing about this list is it isn't an individual's list, it's a distllation/average of a larger number of views, so yes, agree, it's likely to be that. For instance, my list would be topped by JL Carr's 'A Month In The Country', a book I think is every bit as good as many of those listed. But it won't feature on many people's lists. What this represents are books that are widely highly regarded. I do agree though with Bel-ami: where's Silas Marner and Mill On The Floss?! I think the thing about conflating those volumes is it stops them dominating a list. I remember when the BBC (I think it was) polled a list of favourites, and a high proportion of the list was dominated by individual Harry Potter volumes. Basically people were saying they liked Harry Potter. In the same way, I list the Aubrey-Maturin series of books (Patrick O'Brian) as one on my list of favourites. And one does that recognising that some volumes are better than others. (And yes, that last Chronicle is pretty awful!). I loved the Barchester chronicles, but Towers did stand out for me. I remember His Dark Materials as one series, effectively one continuous novel. Best thing about these lists though is the discussion about them, and often the list of books that aren't included!

I do plenty of the more traditional sort too! Urban orienteering really started taking off post-foot and mouth, when we were limited to streets etc. It's now a thriving discipline of its own. It's generally technically easier than 'terrain-O', but that's partly compensated for by being a lot faster. Emphasis is usually on route choice and route spotting rather than the actual navigation and 'finding' the control (larger scale maps too - 1:4000 or so rather than 1:10,000 or so), but it has its moments, especially when dealing with multi-level stuff (eg the Barbican!), which takes a lot of skill to map. One major branch of urban is 'sprint' orienteering: short (winning times of 12-15 minutes), very intense (20-25 controls in 3-4 km) and very fast - my favourite form of the sport; it needs to be traffic free, so usually held somewhere like university campus (this year's nationals were held at Leeds Uni). The world champs is now divided into two different formats held in alternate years: one year it's traditional terrain, with middle/long distance and relays, the other it's sprint with two forms of individual racing and a relay. I've orienteered round many British towns, especially cathedral cities, with interestingly technical centres. Best of all though is Venice!! The London race started in the Temple, and for my course went eastwards into the city south of St Pauls, behind the Bank of England etc, before looping back round the south of the Barbican, into St Barts, back down to Holborn Viaduct, through the back alleys into the Temple again. The Sunday race was shorter and faster round the developments behind Kings Cross and St Pancras.

Read Real Bloomsbury by Nicholas Murray during a 3-day trip to London for some orienteering races round the City and Kings Cross - a lively and engaging historical guide to one of my favourite parts of London (4*). In my spare time, enjoyed visiting Dr Johnson's house just behind Fleet Street, following Virginia Woolf's various houses round Fitzrovia and Bloomsbury, spending a few hours at the Charles Dickens museum in Doughty Street, and dropping into various favourite bookshops and the British Library. My type of weekend!

Well I have to disagree with both Bel-ami and Kev: those Woolf books thoroughly deserve to be in the top 100 IMO. I'd also agree with the no.1 being Middlemarch. Personally, Bleak House rates above Great Expectations, which I rate below David Copperfield too. Dombey and Son as the 4th best Dickens? Not a chance! I think they got Hardy wrong too - I much prefer Far From the Madding Crowd to Mayor of Casterbridge. And as for Emma being down at 19 - ridiculous! An interesting and reasonably fair list, even if I have inevitably some (sometimes strong!) disagreements! On those series, France, doing that, they are generally perceived as complete entities. They may strictly be separate books, but they are complete wholes. After all, Lord of the Rings is 3 separate volumes, as is His Dark Materials. I would certainly nominate Dance to the Music of Time or The Forsyte Saga as one title. I actually don't think you'd catch most of the people who chose those books reading Lee Child - but then I can't abide his books, and certainly wouldn't let him anywhere near my Kindle! I've read exactly half the books.

Brief break from The Invention of Nature to read Diana Athill's Somewhere Towards The End for one of my book groups. It's a short, mere 178-page, read that took an evening to complete. I've been looking forward to this as I've heard a lot about her writing without having tried it out myself, although the theme (that of experiencing old age) is not one I relished - in my early 60s it's not something I really want to linger on as it'll happen quickly enough (it might even be in some eyes that I'm experiencing it already!). In the event, I found it, surprisingly, a disappointment: a series of ruminative short essays (chapters), some on aspects of old age but many more focused on reminiscence, that ultimately proved rather tedious and not especially illuminating. That could, of course, be down to my lack of perspicacity: put it down to old age. 2 stars out of 6.

Glad you did - I'm one of a small minority who felt rather differently! I hesitate to say this, given the disparity in our views there, but Andrew Roberts is always a good read, so hope you enjoy Churchill. I've got it on the shelves, but it's still TBR. Just finished reading Chris Mullin's A Very British Coup for one of my book groups. We all agreed, that the best word to describe this was 'pedestrian'. It was a pleasant enough light read, but I found it both cliched and very predictable. 2 stars (out of 6). Am currently reading Andrea Wulf's The Invention of Nature as a follow-up to Daniel Kehlmann's Measuring the World (which I thoroughly enjoyed - 5/6), and it's proving highly readable. Having said that, have been definitely struggling to get going with my reading lately - the biggest dip I've had in over a decade. Just can't settle to it. Seems to have manifested itself the last couple of months, and don't really know why.

Three months of reading! It's a very long while since I posted here, so a big one to catch up on three months of reading! It's been a busy year, and I've not got as much reading done as I usually do, but three months worth is still a fair pile of books, so here goes. With so many to get through, will keep it short and snappy! (Star ratings out of 6). The Horseman by Tim Pears ***** Read for one of my book groups. Beautifully written, and very evocative of pre-war rural England - very much in the mould of Thomas Hardy (for Wessex, read Somerset!). For some reason, this took me completely by surprise Loved this, and intend to read the rest of the trilogy. The Abbess of Crewe by Muriel Spark **** Another book group read, and in style couldn't be more of a contrast. Classic Spark - very sharp, strong satire, shifting the Watergate affair into a convent, with devastating results. Not exactly laugh out loud, but darkly very funny. Her books are almost all very slimline, but she packs a lot into those pages, with some of the leanest writing I know. The Odyssey by Homer ***** A book I've long intended to read. As I said on the book activity thread, this took a week or two to read, as it was not one to be rushed. I thoroughly enjoyed the Macfarlane translation, which had a wonderful rhythm to it. Took me rather by surprise, as I expected it to be dominated by Odysseus's travels, whilst in fact most of it was set on Ithaca itself, the early chapters well before he even gets there, and with his peregrinations mostly in flashback. The tempo did seem to flag a bit around two-thirds of the way through, but overall this was a superb read. No Nettles Required by Ken Thompson *** An interesting, pretty matter of fact, slim volume on a research project investigating garden wildlife, and the effectiveness of different methods of gardening. Basically, the outcome is that most gardening will have a positive impact, with some of the more 'fancy' techniques perhaps not as productive as one might think - very much the 80-20 rule applying here I think. Key really is to avoid artificial pesticides, herbicides etc. A touch repetitive at times, but some interesting insights and myth-busting. The Dutch House by Anne Patchett **** One more for the book groups. I really wasn't inclined to read this for some reason, but settled down late one afternoon and found myself reading it through in pretty much one sitting - it's a while since I did that with a book this size! Compulsive and really well written, with some real insights into families and compulsive behaviour. I really must try more of this author's books - one to add to a tottering pile of to reads! The Leopard by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa **** The first European book in my Round the World challenge (and also read for a book group - my nomination for an Italian book in translation). This rather grew on me. Initially I found it a mite stodgy and it felt a bit over-written, but the lushness of the writing gradually drew me in. almost overwhelmingly so. The emphasis not just on colour but on such rich colouration, only served to underline the intensity of the decline of the Leopard's family, and Italian nobility in general. The ending not only took me completely by surprise, but came almost abruptly - because the book I was reading had some further writings of di Lampedusa at the end which I was unaware of, I hit the last page much earlier than expected! The last line was an absolute classic. A book I really need to reread. The Republic of San Marino by Giuseppe Rossi *** My second European read, this time for San Marino. Very little is published from this country, and almost none in a language I can read, so I find myself making do with the same book that Anne Morgan did in her Year of Reading Round the World (my inspiration for this challenge). It's a fairly straightforward short history and guide to San Marino, characterised by some distinctly florid translation, which gives the book a certain character! Not exactly great literature, but an interesting read and insight to a country I've not had any experience of before. Measuring the World by Daniel Kehlmann ***** And the third European read on the trot, this time for Germany. A fictional reconstruction of a relationship between two of Germany's greatest scientists: Alexander von Humboldt and Carl Gauss. Both come over as fascinating if rather obsessive individuals (Kehlmann paints them as almost autistic in their behaviour), and I'm not sure if the relationship itself isn't fictional in itself, but I loved the characterisation and the narrative. Compared to my previous German reading, this was a lot easier going than normal! The Vegetarian by Han Kang * This may have been a very slim volume, but I found it comfortably the hardest work of any book so far this year. My first Asian book going round the world (South Korea), and it proved decidedly peculiar, centred as it was on a wife's total rejection of meat and descent into anorexia, as seen from three different standpoints (husband, brother-in-law, sister), with some equally obsessive behaviour from certainly the male characters, and reflective of a thoroughly patriarchal society (is South Korea really like this?). I can't say I enjoyed this book, and found it hard to appreciate too. Walking Home by Simon Armitage *** The author walks the Pennine Way north to south, homeward bound towards Marsden, working his way along through poetry readings. His descriptions are as poetic as they should be from the poet laureate, and this was a very enjoyable, very easy read, although I wasn't so sure of his feelings towards others - he was rather too quickly inclined to dismiss or judge. One reading in particular, when he pretty much dismissed some younger members of his audience, was particularly toe-curling, although he did acknowledge that himself on this occasion! I found his other book Walking Away a rather better read. Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus *** Elizabeth Zott is a scientist, a chemist, but this is the 1950s, and she is struggling to get a thoroughly male dominated American world to take her seriously as an academic and researcher. She lands up hosting an afternoon TV cooking show, and subversively teaching cooking science (and a way of thinking) to her fellow women. Garmus writes with humour and so much zest, that as a reader I was carried along on a wave, almost without pause, to the end. Not my usual read, but I did enjoy it! Plenty to think about too, not least in how recent these attitudes were (and how some of them are still hanging around). Later Edit: Hmmm. One of those books that doesn't wear well on reflection - I'd liken this to Ultra-Processed Food, i.e. initially tastes great but, whilst addictive, you realise it's not very satisfying, if at all. The more I thought about this (and that's a positive point - it is a book to make one think - the more I felt that the more the characters felt to be stereotypes (see with the 'benefit' of 21st century hindsight) rather than rounded individuals, and the more it all felt one-dmensional in its message. It didn't help that there were flaws in the time setting - for instance DNA tests simply weren't available at that time. However, I can't get away from the fact that I did enjoy this at the time, so maybe just one star removed. 3 stars. O Caledonia by Elspeth Barker **** I picked this up after a recommendation on the Book Club Review podcast: both book and author completely unknown to me previously. The writing is simply superb, the author so adept at bringing the internal life of Janet as she grows from childhood into her teens, a 'problem' at every stage. And yet, I could never quite get away from the fact that we know from the outset that she has been murdered (it's in the blurb!), and that this is all going to end very badly. It's an interesting take, but for me it overshadowed everything just too much. But, I can absolutely see why this is regarded by some as a classic - it thoroughly deserves to be regarded as such, and I'm glad to have read it as my Scottish (and eighth) book in reading around the world.