It’s been another great week of seeing lots of reviews crop up across the blogosphere – thank you everyone for joining in. I haven’t read all the contributions yet, but will make sure to do so. And here is a round-up of the books covered – if I’ve missed yours, please do let me know. And there’s still a day and a half to go, of course, as I click ‘publish’.
Speedboat by Renata Adler
Words and Peace
Castle Barebane by Joan Aiken
She Reads Novels
The Malacia Tapestry by Brian Aldiss
Calmgrove
Alas For Her That Me Men by Mary Ann Ashe
Briefer Than Literal Statement
The Bicentennial Man by Isaac Asimov
Brona’s Books
Lady Oracle by Margaret Atwood
What Me Read
A Quiet Life by Beryl Bainbridge
Madame Bibi Lophile Recommends
A Little Local Murder by Robert Barnard
Bitter Tea and Mystery
Afternoon of a Good Woman by Nina Bawden
Madame Bibi Lophile Recommends
A String in the Harp by Nancy Bond
Staircase Wit
The Iron Coin by Jorge Luis Borges
Kaggsy’s Bookish Ramblings
Beard’s Roman Women by Anthony Burgess
Gert Loveday’s Fun With Books
Two pieces by William Burroughs
Kaggsy’s Bookish Ramblings
Mystery of the Emerald Buddha by Betty Cawanna
Staircase Wit
Sleeping Murder by Agatha Christie
Kaggsy’s Bookish Ramblings
What Me Read
The Question of Max by Amanda Cross
Scones and Chaises Longues
Catch A Falling by Len Deighton
Bitter Tea and Mystery
Deus Irae by Philip K Dick and Roger Zelazny
Typings
The Bride Price by Buchi Emecheta
What Cathy Read Next
Bear by Marian Engel
Stuck in a Book
HeavenAli
Home to Roost by Andrew Garve
Bitter Tea and Mystery
Staircase Wit
Roots by Alex Haley
Adventures in reading, running and working from home
Buried in Print
The Australian Legend
Tintin and the Picaros by Herge
Literary Potpourri
Another Death in Venice by Reginald Hill
A Hot Cup of Pleasure
Too Loud a Solitude by Bohumil Hrabal
Winston’s Dad
Finding Time to Write
1streading’s Blog
Hilda’s Wedding by Elizabeth Jolley
Whispering Gums
Orsinian Tales by Ursula Le Guin
Entering the Enchanted Castle
Very Far Away from Anywhere Else by Ursula Le Guin
[A Very Long Way from Anywhere Else]
Entering the Enchanted Castle
Pining for the West
In the Purely Pagan Sense by John Lehmann
Stuck in a Book
The Boys from Brazil by Ira Levin
746Books
A Stitch in Time by Penelope Lively
Relevant Obscurity
Laurie Welch on Instagram
Literary Potpourri
Agent in Place by Helen MacInnes
Annabookbel
The Golden Gate by Alistair MacLean
Literary Potpourri
A River Runs Through It by Norman Maclean
Words and Peace
Apalache by Paul Metcalf
Neglected Books
The Sailor on the Seas of Fate by Michael Moorcock
Typings
The Doctor’s Wife by Brian Moore
Stuck in a Book
HeavenAli
JacquiWine
The Voice of the Sea by Alberto Moravio
1streading’s Blog
Travels by Jan Morris
The Captive Reader
Julian Grenfell by Nicholas Mosley
Stuck in a Book
Short stories by Vladimir Nabokov
Kaggsy’s Bookish Ramblings
Coming Through Slaughter by Michael Ondaatje
ANZ Lit Lovers
Woman on the Edge of Time by Marge Piercy
Book Word
Bookish Beck
Expendable Mudge
The Plantagenet Prelude by Jean Plaidy
Lizzy’s Literary Life
Hopewell’s Library of Life
The Space Machine by Christopher Priest
1streading’s Blog
Interview with the Vampire by Anne Rice
Dolce Bellezza
It Concerns You Too by Herman Sachnowitz
Kinship of All Species
The Girls from the Five Great Valleys by Elizabeth Savage
Book Around the Corner
Lucinella by Lore Segal
746Books
The Omen by David Seltzer
Mr Kaggsy
Wilt by Tom Sharpe
Rattlebag and Rhubarb
A Stranger in the Mirror by Sidney Sheldon
Staircase Wit
The Takeover by Muriel Spark
The Takeover
Abel’s Island by William Steig
Becky’s Book Reviews
The Acts of King Arthur and His Noble Knights by John Steinbeck
Rick MacDonnell
Blaming by Elizabeth Taylor
JacquiWine’s Journal
Reading and Watching the World
Stuck in a Book
Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry by Mildred D. Taylor
Becky’s Book Reviews
Letters from Father Christmas by JRR Tolkien
Becky’s Book Reviews
1876 by Gore Vidal
What Me Read
How Did I Get To Be Forty… and other atrocities by Judith Viorst
The Captive Reader
Slapstick, or Lonesome No More by Kurt Vonnegut Jr
1streading’s Blog
Anji Hanzel
Meridian by Alice Walker
What Me Read
Reading Envy
Power of Three by Diana Wynne Jones
Staircase Wit
Thanks for hosting and putting together this impressive list. I really enjoyed this event a lot
It’s been a great week Simon – thanks so much to you and Kaggsy for hosting!
Thanks for listing all of these, Simon. I thought I had been keeping up with new posts for 1976 books but I still have lots to check out.
I think it’s interesting this time how many different books were read. Instead of lots of people reading some of the same books, there seems to be a bigger variety books, with only one person reporting on them.
Yes, I notice that tends to happen whenever we get a bit more recent!
I’m a late addition, I also read Meridian by Alice Walker. My post is here:
http://readingenvy.blogspot.com/2021/10/review-meridian.html
This is an impressive and diverse list. I had the best of intentions to take part by reading Speed Boat but ran out of time. Pleased to see WordsandPeace has covered it though. I may still read it as part of Novellas in November.
Looks like a really good spread here with not too many people reading the same books, and lots of variety!
This was great to follow, some really brilliant covers! It’s going to be a plan next year to join in.
Happy successful #1976Club read! I reviewed WOMAN ON THE EDGE OF TIME today, the only one I finished of three planned.
https://expendablemudge.blogspot.com/2021/10/the1976club-woman-on-edge-of-time-by.html
These loose-group reads are delightful. Thanks for doing them.
I hadn’t seen a post where I could add my book but it’s in German, so it might not be interesting for others.
Der Geist fiel nicht vom Himmel: Die Evolution unseres Bewußtseins [The mind did not fall from the sky: the evolution of our consciousness] by Hoimar von Ditfurth.
“Renata Adler’s Speedboat? No, I’ve already read it once. Kurt Vonnegut’s Slapstick? read it as a teenager. Alex Haley’s Roots? Nah. And Bear by Marian Engel just seemed too weird. I did find a possible pick in Bohumil Hrabal’s Too Loud a Solitude. I also considered placing a library order for Christa Wolf’s Kindheitsmuster, but I changed my mind when I came across Herman Sachnowitz’s It concerns you too.”
Thank you for once again organizing this event, Simon and Karen!
It Concerns You Too by Herman Sachnowitz
https://kinshipofallspecies.wordpress.com/2021/10/17/it-concerns-you-too-herman-sachnowitz-1976/
I was late to posting on the final day with reviews of Woman on the Edge of Time by Marge Piercy (a few of us chose that one) and The Takeover by Muriel Spark: https://bookishbeck.wordpress.com/2021/10/17/the-1976-club-woman-on-the-edge-of-time-the-takeover/
Now I fancy picking up a copy of Bear for Novellas in November!
Thanks to you & Karen for hosting once again. It’s always such a.fun week. Now to find time to visit the half of the list above that I haven’t got to yet!!
Thanks Brona!
Many thanks, Simon, for co-hosting such a lovely event! It seems to have more popular than ever this time, with a wide range of books being featured across social media and the blogosphere. Thanks also for including my review of ‘Blaming’ in your round-up. You might want to add a link to my review of The Doctor’s Wife, too, just for completeness. :)
https://jacquiwine.wordpress.com/2021/10/17/the-doctors-wife-by-brian-moore/
It has been really popular this year! I wasn’t sure it would be, as there aren’t that many ‘big name’ books published in 1976. And yes, of course – sorry to have forgotten previously!
Thank you for linking to my blog in your post. I always enjoy the “clubs” which you and Kaggsy host, and this is no exception as now I embark on another title: Agatha Christie’s Sleeping Murder, her last novel which was published in 1976.
I am late but here is my review of Touch Not The Cat by Mary Stewart.
One of Stewart’s later mysteries, written after her Arthurian trilogy, it has a touch of magic in it.
Bryony Ashley is the only daughter of Jon Ashley owner of the incredibly old and now rather dilapidated Ashley Court. Jon has one brother who has three sons, twins Emory and James, and Francis who is largely absent from the story. Since childhood Bryony has been able to communicate mind to mind with one of her cousins but does not know which one it is. (That’s the touch of magic.) Apparently this has been inherited from a Gypsy ancestor.
At the start of the story Bryony, who is the narrator, hears from her cousin that her father has died unexpectedly. It is a hit and run but Bryony begins to suspect that one of the twins may be behind it. As the story progresses Bryony unravels the mystery of her father’s death and discovers which of her cousins is her mind speaker.
I read this for the first time many years ago and could not remember a thing about it, when I decided to reread it for this challenge and I am not surprised as it is not very memorable. It is not a bad read but I wasn’t swept up in it as I have been with others of her thrillers/mysteries. I found the whole story faintly implausible and the characters were not interesting enough to mask that.
I only managed to read and review A Very Long Way from Anywhere Else by Ursula Le Guin which can be seen here. https://piningforthewest.co.uk/2021/10/16/1976-club-a-very-long-way-from-anywhere-else-by-ursula-le-guin/
Added already I think – noted under the slightly different title!
What a wonderful list. So interesting to see the double-ups too. I will probably go for a short story again next year, partly because it will ensure that I can take part, but partly also because it’s an opportunity to keep up my short story reading which I do enjoy.
Fab :D