Cait's 2012 Reading

Another year, another attempt at dwindling down the TBR list.

This year I am hoping to focus on books that I already own, and minimize my new acquisitions (yes, I know this is a near impossibility!). The list of books on my TBR is in the next post.

Happy Reading!

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My Rating System:
1-1.5 stars - Dreadful. I probably didn't finish this.
2-2.5 stars - Not recommended.
3-3.5 stars - I'm glad I read it, but I would never reread it.
4-4.5 stars - A great book; one that I would reread in the future.
5 stars - Brilliant. A new favourite, either for literary or sentimental reasons.

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Books Obtained in 2012
1. Always Coca-Cola by Alexandra Chreiteh - for Belletrista
2. In Her Shoes by Jennifer Weiner - $1
3. Fugitive Pieces by Anne Michaels - $1
4. Snow Falling on Cedars by David Guterson - $1
5. Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe by Fannie Flagg - $1
6. The Weight of Water by Anita Shreve - $1
7. Underground Time by Delphine de Vigan - Early Reviewers
8. Before I Wake by Robert J. Wiersma - a gift
9. We Need to Talk about Kevin by Lionel Shriver - for book club
10. Flowers of War by Geling Yan - for Belletrista
11. The Hiding Place by Trezza Azzopardi - for Belletrista
12. Remember Me by Trezza Azzopardi - for Belletrista
13. Winterton Blue by Trezza Azzopardi - for Belletrista
14. Family Matters by Rohinton Mistry - $1
15. River of the Brokenhearted by David Adams Richards - $1
16. A Year in Provence by Peter Mayle - $1
17. Midwives by Chris Bohjalian - $1
18. The Stone Carvers by Jane Urquhart - $1
19. The Uninvited Guests by Sadie Jones - for Belletrista
20. The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern
21. The Lifeboat by Charlotte Rogan
22. The House at Riverton by Kate Morton - a gift
23. Mumbai Noir by Altaf Tyrewala - Early Reviewers
24. Bring Up the Bodies by Hilary Mantel
25. Salvage the Bones by Jesmyn Ward
26. Let the Great World Spin by Colum McCann
27. The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller
28. Dead Cold by Louise Penny
29. The Cruelest Month by Louise Penny
30. The Best Of Me by Nicholas Sparks - free
31. Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese - free
32. Moloka'i by Alan Brennert - free
33. The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith - free
34. The Dovekeepers by Alice Hoffman - free
35. Turn of Mind by Alice LaPlante - free
36. Rules of Civility - Amor Towles - free
37. The Bonesetter's Daughter by Amy Tan - free
38. State of Wonder by Ann Patchett - free
39. Saving CeeCee Honeycutt by Beth Hoffman - free
40. Henry's Sisters by Cathy Lamb - free
41. Little Bee by Chris Cleave - free
42. Drowning Ruth by Christina Schwarz - free
43. The Christmas Train by David Balducci - free
44. Sarah's Key by Tatiana de Rosnay - free
45. The Madonnas of Leningrad by Debra Dean - free
46. Pope Joan by Donna Woolfolk Cross - free
47. One Thousand White Women by Jim Fergus - free
48. The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follet - free
49. The Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford - free
50. Still Alice by Lisa Genova - free
51. Caleb's Crossing by Geraldine Brooks - free
52. Year of Wonders by Geraldine Brooks - free
53. The Girl Who Fell from the Sky by Heidi W. Durrow - free
54. Major Pettigrew's Last Stand by Helen Simpson - free
55. One for the Money by Janet Evanovich - free
56. Girl in Translation by Jean Kwok - free
57. The Next Thing on My List by Jill Smolinski - free
58. The Litigators by John Grisham - free
59. Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer - free
60. The Forgotton Garden by Kate Morton - free
61. The Kitchen House by Kathleen Grissom - free
62. The Help by Kathryn Stockett - free
63. The Night Road by Kristin Hannah - free
64. Please Look After Mom by Kyung-sook Shin - free
65. What Alice Forgot by Liane Moriarty - free
66. Dreams of Joy by Lisa See - free
67. Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See - free
68. The Hummingbird's Daughter by Luis Alberto Urrea - free
69. Graveminder by Melissa Marr - free
70. Cleopatra's Daughter by Michelle Moran - free
71. The Paris Wife by Paula McLain - free
72. The Bronze Horseman by Paulina Simons - free
73. The Murderer's Daughters by Randy Susan Meyers - free
74. Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs - free
75. A Reliable Wife by Robert Goolrick - free
76. Divergent by Veronica Roth - free
77. Before I Go To Sleep by S. J. Watson - free
78. Secret Daughter by Shilpi Somaya Gowda - free
79. 11/22/63 by Stephen King - free
80. A Secret Kept by Tatiana de Rosnay - free
81. The Power of One by Bryce Courtenay - free
82. Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter by Tom Franklin - free
83. The Language of Flowers by Vanessa Diffenbaugh - free
84. Wishin' and Hopin' by Wally Lamb - free
85. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith - free
86. The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry by Rachel Joyce
87. Skios by Michael Freyn
88. Narcopolis by Jeet Thayil
89. Swimming Home by Deborah Levy
90. Communion Town by Sam Thompson
91. The Teleportation Accident by Ned Beauman
92. Philida by Andre Brink
93. Half Broke Horses by Jeannette Walls - free
94. The Yips by Nicola Barker
95. The Lighthouse by Alison Moore

TBR List
Wetlands – Charlotte Roche
The Anthologist – Nicholson Baker
The Imperfectionists – Tom Rachman
Rebecca – Daphne du Maurier
The Invisible Bridge – Julie Orringer
Cannery Row – John Steinbeck
The Death of Ivan Ilyich and Other Stories – Leo Tolstoy
The Post-Birthday World – Lionel Shriver
Middlemarch – George Eliot
The Lacuna – Barbara Kingsolver
Bitch – Elizabeth Wurzel
Skippy Dies – Paul Murray
A Visit from the Goon Squad – Jennifer Egan
Alligator – Lisa Moore
The Master – Colm Toibin
The London Train – Tessa Hadley
Mosquito – Roma Tearne
Daisy Miller – Henry James
Pigeon English – Stephen Kelman
Jamrach’s Menagerie – Carol Birch
The Last Hundred Days – Patrick McGuiness
The Cat’s Table – Michael Ondaatje
A Moveable Feast – Ernest Hemingway
The Memory of Love – Aminatta Forna
The Stranger’s Child – Alan Hollinghurst
Half Blood Blues – Esi Edugyen
There but for the – Ali Smith
A World Elsewhere – Wayne Johnston
The Lake – Banana Yoshimoto
Touch – Alexi Zentner
The Free World – David Bezmozgis
The Meagre Tarmac – Clark Blaise
The Little Shadows – Marina Endicott
A Good Man – Guy Vanderhaegue
The Testament of Jessie Lamb - Jane Rogers
Private Property – Paule Constant
Ragnarok – A.S. Byatt
The Marriage Plot – Jeffrey Eugenides
Lucky Break - Esther Freud
The Inheritance of Loss - Kiran Desai
Bloodletting and Miraculous Cures - Vincent Lam
Amy and Isabelle – Elizabeth Strout
The New York Trilogy – Paul Auster
The Gate of Angels – Penelope Fitzgerald
A Game of Thrones – George R. R. Martin
My Name is Red – Orhan Pamuk
Snow – Orhan Pamuk
Nowhere Man – Aleksandar Hemon
Frida’s Bed – Slavenka Drakulic
The Song of the Lark – Willa Cather
Death Comes for the Archbishop – Willa Cather
Still Life – Louise Penny
Matterhorn – Karl Marlantes
The Awakening – Kate Chopin
Freya of the Seven Isles – Joseph Conrad
May Day – F. Scott Fitzgerald
A Simple Soul – Gustave Flaubert
The Coxon Fund – Henry James
The Country of the Pointed Firs – Sarah Orne Jewett
The Man Who Would Be King – Rudyard Kipling
Bartleby, the Scrivener – Herman Melville
The Man that Corrupted Hadleyburg – Mark Twain
The Crossing – Cormac McCarthy
Cities of the Plain – Cormac McCarthy
Changing My Mind: Occasional Essays – Zadie Smith
The Collected Works of Billy the Kid – Michael Ondaatje
The Bad Girl – Mario Vargas Llosa
Broken Verses – Kamila Shamsie
The Sugar Mother – Elizabeth Jolley
Foxybaby – Elizabeth Jolley
Even the Dogs – Jon McGregor
Troubles – J G Farrell
The Betrayal – Helen Dunmore
The Finkler Question – Howard Jacobson
Parrot and Olivier in America – Peter Carey
The Line – Olga Grushin
C – Tom McCarthy
Clara Callan – Richard B. Wright
Fall on Your Knees – Ann-Marie MacDonald
Blindness – Jose Saramago
Blood Meridian – Cormac McCarthy
Bodily Harm – Margaret Atwood
Bumping Into Geniuses – Danny Goldberg
Catch-22 – Joseph Heller
Coming Through Slaughter – Michael Ondaatje
Crow Lake – Mary Lawson
Dancing Girls – Margaret Atwood
Dandelion Wine – Ray Bradbury
Dracula – Bram Stoker
East of Eden – John Steinbeck
Empire of the Sun – J. G. Ballard
Further Chronicles of Avonlea – Lucy Maud Montgomery
Green Grass, Running Water – Thomas King
Half of a Yellow Sun – Chimimanda Ngozi Adichie
How to Paint a Dead Man – Sarah Hall
Ines of My Soul – Isabel Allende
John – Cynthia Lennon
Life Before Man – Margaret Atwood
Lucy Maud Montgomery: The Gift of Wings – Mary Henley Rubio
Middlesex – Geoffrey Eugenides
Mrs. Dalloway – Virginia Woolf
Not Unkind and Not Untrue – Ed O’Loughlin
Oh! A Mystery of Mono No Aware – Todd Shimoda
Oryx and Crake – Margaret Atwood
Perpetual Motion – Graeme Gibson
Pilgrim – Timothy Findley
Revolutionary Road – Richard Yates
Schindler's List – Thomas Keneally
Selected Journals, Volume 1 – Lucy Maud Montgomery
Settlers of the Marsh – Frederick Philip Grove
Small Wars – Sadie Jones
Stones – Timothy Findley
Suite Française – Irene Nemirovsky
Tess of the d’Urbervilles – Thomas Hardy
The Age of Innocence – Edith Wharton
The Cider House Rules – John Irving
The Convenient Marriage – Georgette Heyer
The Diviners – Margaret Lawrence
The Edible Woman – Margaret Atwood
The Gathering – Anne Enright
The Ghost Writer – Philip Roth
The Golden Road – Lucy Maud Montgomery
The Grand Sophy – Georgette Heyer
The Great Karoo – Fred Stenson
The Last Crossing – Guy Vanderhaeghe
The Man from Glengarry – Ralph Connor
The Moon is Down – John Steinbeck
The Moonstone – Wilkie Collins
The Namesake – Jhumpa Lahiri
The Portrait of a Lady – Henry James
The Robber Bride – Margaret Atwood
The Sea, The Sea – Iris Murdoch
The Stone Diaries – Carol Shields
The Story Girl – Lucy Maud Montgomery
The Tin Flute – Gabrielle Roy
The Wilderness – Samantha Harvey
The Year of the Flood – Margaret Atwood
Three Cups of Tea – Greg Mortensen
Three Day Road – Joseph Boyden
We Were the Mulvaneys – Joyce Carol Oates
White Teeth – Zadie Smith
Wilderness Tips – Margaret Atwood
Wolf Hall – Hilary Mantel
World War Z – Max Brooks
A Farewell to Arms – Ernest Hemingway
A Passage to India – E. M. Forster
The Duchess – Amanda Foreman
The Magus – John Fowles
The Shipping News – Annie Proulx
Anna Karenina – Leo Tolstoy
Cold Mountain – Charles Frazier
Love in the Time of Cholera – Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Madame Bovary – Gustave Flaubert
Mansfield Park – Jane Austen
Oliver Twist – Charles Dickens
Slaughterhouse-five – Kurt Vonnegut
The Count of Monte Cristo – Alexandre Dumas
The Silmarillion – J. R. R. Tolkien
The Sword and the Stone – T. H. White
Vanity Fair – William Makepeace Thackeray

Wow, that's quite an impressive list! But the dozen or so titles on it that I've read range from very good to superb, so it looks like an extremely promising one.

This year I am hoping to focus on books that I already own, and minimize my new acquisitions (yes, I know this is a near impossibility!).

Ha! I hear you. That's my goal too. Perhaps we can start a support group (who am I kidding--LT is the biggest enabling group out there!)

You have some gems in your TBR list.

>3 bragan: - I'm looking forward to reading most of these books; I'm never really sure why they languish on the TBR for so long...

>4 Nickelini: - OK, Joyce, we will be a two-woman support group! I won't buy new books if you won't - though I do need to make a few purchases for Reading Globally... maybe I will do that while it is still 2011 :)

Are guys allowed in this support group? If so, count me in.

>6 kidzdoc: - Of course! The more, the merrier :)

A very promising TBR list! We will often cross paths, quite a few of those books are standing unread on my shelves.

*grumble* Minimizing Mount TBR she says. And then posts a long list of books which instantly sends everyone into looking some of those online. Minimizing... yeah, right.*end of grumble*

Now seriously - good luck with the plan and a very happy year of reading.

Great list, Cait. Of the fifteen or so I've read, you're in for some fabulous reading!

>4 Nickelini: Are you going to need another package to cure you of this idea, Joyce?? I can't think of anything better than being surrounded by the books I've read, than to be surrounded by unread books that I've chosen at some time or another. Oh, roll, roll, roll in de hay!

Lois - you are an enabler, or maybe even my dealer! I just heard that 95% of attempts at rehab fail, so have those books ready to send . . . ;-)

>12 Nickelini: - Joyce! Don't give up!! If you cave, how am I to survive?

No caving allowed, Joyce! Cait and I are depending on you to join us in the TBR pile reduction Solidarity movement.

Oh Cait, when I see a splendid list like #2 and then see that it does not include anything by D H Lawrence, I think the worlds gone mad.

TBR PRS
the To Be Read Pile Reduction Solidarity group. Yes! I'm having the banners printed .....

To Be Read Pile Reduction Solidarity group :)I love it.

How about this?

Come on, we are not in Poland ;)

>15 baswood: - Barry, I'd love some D H Lawrence recommendations - I've read Lady Chatterley's Lover, but that's it.

>16 Nickelini:-19 - I'm glad we are all so serious about this TBR thing! LOL

January Planned Reads
1. A Game of Thrones – George R. R. Martin - not my normal fare, but I feel like a little fantasy
2. My Name is Red – Orhan Pamuk - for Reading Globally
3. Lucky Break – Esther Freud - an ER book that I'm not really looking forward too, as it has been getting poor reviews
4. Small Wars – Sadie Jones - for Orange January
5. The Invisible Bridge – Julie Orringer - for Orange January

I made my last purchases for 2011 today, including four books for my LT anniversary, which is technically January 1, but I don't want to start a book-buying-ban-year off by buying books! I have updated my TBR list according, though I just remembered that I have 5 books at work that I haven't added yet. We had a used book sale, and I couldn't not support it! I have no idea what the 5 books are, other than The Inheritance of Loss and Bloodletting and Miraculous Cures, so I will alter my list in post #2 when I go back to work. I believe this will take me to an even 160 books on my TBR - unless I finish one more book tomorrow!!

>22 Cait86:

160? Nice round number. Wish I had 160 :( :)

Happy reading in 2012!

Great list! Looks like a good year of reading ahead.

Now where is the thread for TRB PRS. Joyce knows I need to be a member, as I have close to 450 books in my house that I have yet to read. That I know of anyway.

But there are also 186 books on my wish list. How do I keep from buying them?

>23 AnnieMod: - Thanks Annie, you too!

>24 alphaorder: - Hi Nancy! If you want, you can join the Books Off My Book Shelves group (or BOMBS), which is here: http://www.librarything.com/groups/bombsbooksoffmybooks It is a group where members pledge to reduce their TBRs this year. I'm a member there too. Or, just hang out here, and we can help each other out. So far, so good - it is halfway through January 1, and I haven't purchased any new books :)

Well, every hour counts! I am going month-by-month. Trying to not purchase any new books in January - if that goes well, then move onto February.

I think I will join BOMBS - I am motivated! I like what Darryl is doing - if he is tempted to purchase a new book, he will ask himself if he plans on reading the book in 2012. If yes, then purchase; if no, then wait.

Off to join BOMBS now...

Book #1: Suite Francaise by Irene Nemirovsky

Source: TBR Shelves

Why I read it now: My RL Book Club is meeting to talk about it next week.

Rating: 3.5 stars

I was so sure that I would love Suite Francaise. It has an interesting backstory (the author, Irene Nemirovsky, was a successful French author who was transported to a concentration camp in WW2. This book was left unfinished, and was published long after her death.), is set in a time period I love, and has received rave reviews from people whose tastes I trust. Yet somehow, it just didn't work for me.

Actually, that's not true. The first half, Storm in June, was the part I disliked. Set in June 1940, if features a large cast of characters who are fleeing Paris, hoping to get away from the advancing German army. I found that the rapid jumps between characters was too disjointed for my liking, and I never got the chance to warm up to any of the various groups of people. Had this section been the entire novel, I would have given it 2.5 stars.

The second half, Dolce, was wonderful, a 4.5 star read that finally caught my attention. Set a year after Storm in June, Dolce focuses on two French women living in a small village that is occupied by German soldiers. Both women are forced to take a soldier into their houses, and both find themselves attracted to the man who is supposed to be the enemy. Some of the characters from Storm in June resurface, and I can only imagine that Nemirovsky's three unfinished sections would have tied together her vast cast of people.

The last section of Suite Francaise are Appendices filled with Nemirovsky's letters and journal entries. They provide great insight into the planning of her book, and where she would have taken it, had she lived, and add to the picture of France during WW2.

My guess is that, had Suite Francaise been the 1000-page saga Nemirovsky envisioned, it would have been a brilliant novel that I would have loved. The disjointed first section may have gone on to receive further treatment in later parts, and loose ends would have been tied up. However, what is left is one-half disappointing, and one-half fantastic.

Book #2: Private Property by Paule Constant

Source: Lois/Avaland

Why I read it now: For a Belletrista review

Link to follow when the issue goes live!

#20 D H Lawrence recommendations.

His most critically acclaimed novels are The Rainbow and Women in Love , But to get a feel for him then his novellas or short stories are a good place to start, and so: St Mawr would be a good introduction.

He was an excellent observer of people and nature and his travel books are a delight D H Lawrence and Italy is my favourite.

My all time favourite novel is The Plumed Serpent which is an intoxicating mix of myths and poetry and contains some of his best writing.

>29 baswood: - Thanks Barry! I will see what I can find on my Kindle. Your praise of St Mawr makes me feel like it will be a good place to start.

Book #3: Lucky Break by Esther Freud

Source: Early Reviewers

Why I read it now: It was from the September batch of ER books, so I thought it was time to finally review it.

Rating: 2.5 stars

Lucky Break is the story of a group of wanna-be actors. It starts with their days in drama school, and follows their careers - or lack thereof - for about a decade. The major players are Nell, a plain-Jane girl; Dan, a sweet, gullible boy; Jemma, Dan's girlfriend; and Charlie, a beauty who is always dating a new man.

I generally enjoy novels about theatre or other performing arts (Eleanor Catton's The Rehearsal, or Martha Schabas' Various Positions, for example), but Lucky Break was a poorly written, disjointed novel. It spanned far too long a time-frame, and years of each character's life were glossed over. The main characters were stereotypes, and the ending was so sicky-sweet that my teeth hurt.

Not recommended.

Hi Cait, I remember finding Suite Française much harder-going and less "enjoyable" than I'd anticipated, but, given Némirovsky's fate and the general hype surrounding the book, felt unable to say so at the time. It's one I'll re-read though...

>32 Rebeki: - It's nice to hear that someone else had issues with Suite Francaise. I know what you mean about being reluctant to say so, though. It's difficult to criticize the writing of someone who underwent such terrible times, especially since this book seems to have been her way of dealing with life during the war.

Book #4: Small Wars by Sadie Jones

Source: My TBR

Why I read it now: For Orange January

Rating: 4 stars

Small Wars is the story of Hal and Clara Treherne. Hal, a career soldier, is transferred from Germany to Cyprus in 1956, and Clara moves with him. Together with their twin toddlers, the Trehernes adjust to life in Cyprus, where Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots are at odds, and the colonial British are trying to keep the peace. Small acts of terrorism are the only battle Hal and his men see, and while he seems to initially enjoy his part in this "small war", Clara is constantly afraid - of terrorists, of the Cypriots, and of her increasingly distant husband.

As Clara and Hal's marriage fractures, so too does the safe world of the army base. Davis, a translator with a wavering moral code, sees atrocities about which he cannot keep silent. The corruption of the British Army is exposed to Hal, and he struggles to remain faithful. Tensions in Cyprus escalate, causing even more tension at home, and Clara and Hal's love is tested in horrible ways.

Like her first novel, The Outcast, Jones' Small Wars is less than cheerful. Clara and Hal are characters living in a war zone - both physically and emotionally. Their thoughts are a jumbled mess of dark feelings and heavy moral issues, and the light moments in their lives are few and far between. However, they are very real in how they come to terms with their daily battles, and I was swept up in their fight to keep their love alive.

Underneath the relationship of Clara and Hal is a very strong anti-war message. Jones draws parallels between the Cypriot "terrorists" and the British soldiers, and these comparisons are anything but flattering. Much of what she says through her exploration of this small war can be applied to conflicts raging today, and I felt as though the purpose of her writing is just as much about shedding light on the present as it is on the past. This message was a bit heavy-handed for my taste, at times.

Through all this rather intense material, Jones' prose shines. She is especially skilled at making characters' emotions jump off the page, and her descriptions of Hal's reactions to battle are heart-wrenching. Small Wars was a moving piece of fiction, one I highly recommend.

Four books finished already??

Nice TBR list by the way. I have quite a few of these waiting to be read too.

Nice review of Small Wars, Cait. I have it, and I'll probably read it during Orange July.

>36 kidzdoc: - Thanks Darryl! Since you liked The Outcast, you'll probably like Small Wars too. I think the characters in The Outcast were more complex, but the depiction of war and its effects on people was what made Small Wars such a compelling read.

>35 charbutton: - LOL, trust me, Char, the only reason I have finished four books already is because I am off all this week - the perks of being a teacher! I am ignoring all of my marking and spending hours with books instead. Things will slow down once I go back on Monday, though January and February are generally good reading months for me, as work is slower, what with exams and semester turnaround, etc.

Great review, Cait. I've been meaning to get to The Outcast; sounds like Small Wars is another to add.

A very nice review of the Nemirovsky – it’s always interesting to read contrary opinions when something has been heavily hyped and praised. Sometimes those are the most helpful ones. Have you read any of her short fiction? Fire in the Blood and Le Bal were pretty good and wouldn’t have any of the character-jumping that bothered you.

>37 Cait86: Thanks, Cait. I'll be sure to read Small Wars later this year.

>39 DieFledermaus: - Thanks, DieFledermaus. I haven't read anything else by Nemirovsky, but I would be willing to give her another try. Thanks for the recommendations.

Well, back to work has meant zero reading time this week. I think I've managed to read about three chapters of My Name is Red by Orhan Pamuk, and most of that was last night. I'd like to think that I'll have more time this week, but really, who am I kidding? It's exam and report card time, and I am swamped.

That said, I am enjoying My Name is Red so far. One thing that struck me right away was that this is a book where the characters are very much aware of the fact that this is a book. The dog, for example, addresses the reader: "I'm a dog, and because you humans are less rational beasts than I, you're telling yourselves, 'Dogs don't talk.' Nevertheless, you seem to believe a story in which corpses speak and characters use words they couldn't possibly know. Dogs do speak, but only to those who know how to listen." Later, the murderer gives the reader a challenge: "Try to discover who I am from my choice of words and colors, as attentive people like yourselves might examine footprints to catch a thief." I like metafiction, and I think this device does a lot to pull the reader into an unfamiliar world (Istanbul, 16th century), as we become the detective, watching the crime unravel.

Nice comments about My Name Is Red, Cait. I might be able to get to it by March, for the Reading Globally challenge, but I have several other books set in Turkey ahead of it, including Snow.

I have read a bit more of My Name is Red, but I still have a long way to go. I find my mind wandering through some of the art sections (the parables on style and signature, for example), but I enjoy the historical setting and the switching of narrators. The voices of the various characters are very well-defined.

I'm also reading The Sword in the Stone, which is one of the books that has been on my TBR for the longest. It is much lighter and easier in terms of diction and syntax, and I am flying through it. After a full day of marking essays, it is much more fun to read about the Wart and Merlyn than it is to read detailed description of portraits of a Turkish Sultan. I'll return to the Pamuk late next week, when my marking days are over.

I also finished Book #5: The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins. This was a reread for me, and I was reading it aloud to one of my classes. They loved it, and I still love it too, though reading it aloud made me realize just how much of the book is written in sentence fragments. It started to drive me crazy, and I found myself altering the text to make it grammatically correct - I understand that for a first person stream-of-consciousness narrator, sentence fragments make sense.... but I'm an English teacher, and grammar rules run deep!

The grammar in The Hunger Games bothered me a bit too. I think it's one of the reasons I tend to dislike first-person narration - they're looser with the grammar rules.

Just catching up on your reading. Did you get to the George R. R. Martin last month? re: your TBR pile. You are an English teacher, I would expect nothing less. :-)

>46 avaland: - Nope, I never finished A Game of Thrones. I'm about 100 pages into it, but.... I don't know what it is with 2012, but I am finding it very difficult to stick with one book. I feel like I get 100 pages in, and go, enough with that! It's not that I'm not enjoying the book, but my attention span seems to be quite short. I'm experiencing a similar situation with My Name is Red - enjoying it, but not feeling the desire to pick it up. However, I did force myself to finish a book this morning, so maybe I just need to keep pushing.

Book #6: The Sword in the Stone by T. H. White

Source: My TBR

Why I read it now: I needed something light and silly last week, as I was wading through several sets of exam marking, then report cards.

Rating: 3 stars

The Sword in the Stone might be the oldest book on my TBR; I know I've owned it since before 2008, but I'm not sure when I actually bought it. I'm guessing 2006, because that was the year I took a course on Arthurian Literature and rushed out to buy any book on the subject that I could find. I love retellings of the Arthur stories, though I have read some that are much better than others. In the end, I'm glad I read The Sword in the Stone, but it isn't a book I will reread.

Here, King Arthur is a young boy nicknamed the Wart. He lives at Sir Ector's castle, but knows that, unlike his "brother" Kay, he is not Sir Ector's son. Wart meets Merlin, who becomes the boys' tutor, and all kinds of educational adventures ensue. Wart is turned into a fish, a snake, a badger, etc., and learns from the various animals lessons of life and leadership. He meets crazy characters like King Pellinore and Madame Mim, and, in my favourite section of the book, goes on a rescue mission/surprise attack with Robin Hood (whose real name is apparently Robin Wood).

White fills the book with anachronisms, mentioning Bolsheviks and other more contemporary political terms, in an attempt, I suppose, to relate Arthur's story to White's own time. I found this distracting; similarly, White's decision to include invented words and write characters' speech in dialect also took away from what was otherwise a fanciful, fun story. I thought the ending was a bit rushed; after 300+ pages of great detail, six years passed in a blink. The sword in the stone finally makes its appearance in the last few chapters, and though the final words of "The Beginning" rather than "The End" was smart, I thought much of the novel was a bit too cute, as though White was trying too hard.

So, I'm glad to get another book off of my TBR, but this is not a novel I will read again.

Cait, my 2012 has begun much the same. I keep pushing, but will glad to be finally drawn in to something I can't put down. I'm not used to this effort, and not entirely comfortable with it.

>49 lit_chick: - Same here, Nancy. I can't believe that five new books into the year, only one has been 4 stars. I generally pick books that I enjoy, so my ratings are a bit high, but this year that is not the case.

Oh, well! New books are calling - my real-life book club chose We Need to Talk about Kevin for this month, so here's hoping it draws me in.

The sword in the stone. I have been aware of this book for a long time and after reading your review I will continue to remain aware of it. It does not seem to be a rush out and buy moment. Thanks for the review.

The other three books in The Once and Future King are much darker and less cutesy, for what it's worth. I liked them better than The Sword in the Stone, but I do think it works a lot better in concert with the other 3 than on its own.

I'm looking forward to your thoughts on We Need to Talk about Kevin. I'm attempting to read that one soon, too.

I loved The Sword In The Stone when I was a teenager - maybe it's not something to re-read. What Arthurian retellings would you recommend?

>51 baswood: - Barry, I think you are correct - this is a book you can live without reading.

>52 norabelle414: - Thanks, Nora, maybe I will look into The Once and Future King eventually. It's nice to know that the rest of it isn't as childish.

>53 wandering_star: - Wandering_star, for Arthurian retellings, I love The Mists of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley, which is told from the point of view of the women in Arthur's life. It gets a bit bogged down in the end, but I think the first 3/4 is excellent. Plus, it works most elements of the Arthur story together into one book. I also love Jack Whyte's series, which begins with The Skystone. The series takes a historical, rather than fantastical, look at Arthur, and actually begins several generations before Arthur, with the withdrawal of Rome from Britain, and the founding of Camelot. Mary Stewart's series is also well-regarded; I've only read the first book, The Crystal Cave, and I really enjoyed it. One that I didn't like, but most people do, is Bernard Cornwell's The Winter King. It was too gritty and dirty for me, and missed the spark of magic and optimism that I value in the Arthurian legend. I'd recommend some original Arthurian Lit too - Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is great, is you feel like some challenging 14th century literature!

Book #7: We Need to Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver

Source: New Purchase (Kindle)

Why I read it now: For my RL book club

Rating: 4.5 stars

I thought this book was fantastic, particularly for the way it made me both hate and sympathize with Eva at the same time. I'll come back with an actual review once my book club has met for our discussion.

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Book #8: Always Coca-Cola by Alexandra Chreiteh

Source: Lois/avaland

Why I read it now: For the next issue of Belletrista

Rating: 3.5 stars

Link to review to follow.

Thanks for the recommendations! I'll look out for them. I have read The Winter King and thought it was well done, but I agree, it was too gritty for me as well. I also enjoyed Simon Armitage's version of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight.

Book #9: The Cat's Table by Michale Ondaatje

Source: TBR

Why I read it now: I wanted to read a book that I knew I would love

Rating: 5 stars

Ondaatje is one of my favourite authors - I know his fractured prose and preoccupation with memory is not for everyone, but in my mind he is a near-perfect writer. Readers looking for a plot-driven book should look elsewhere, as his novels are more about the beauty of the words than anything else. The Cat's Table, Ondaatje's newest novel, his actually his most straight-forward. It is told by a man named Michael, who is recounting his journey, as an eleven-year-old, from Sri Lanka to England on a ship called the Oronsay. Michael meets two friends, has a myriad of adventures, and gets to know the other passengers on the ship. Though the book follows a plot - it moves from Sri Lanka to England in a mostly linear narrative - it is really a series of character sketches and mini-plots, all fitting together to form a whole.

I heard Ondaatje read from this book back in the fall, and he claims that it is not based on his own life (though he took the same journey as a young boy). His own time on a ship was, he said, so awful that he has blocked it from memory, and instead he set out to write the adventure that young boys dream of having. He also spoke of his writing process, and I was interested to learn that he does not plan his books before writing, but just lets his prose go where it wishes. After attending this reading, I admired Ondaatje even more - he was charming and natural, and not at all self-important. He also signed two of my books!

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Book #10: The Flowers of War by Geling Yan

Source: Lois/avaland

Why I read it now: For a future issue of Belletrista

Rating: 4 stars

Link to follow.

Thanks for your comments on Cat's Table. I'm looking forward to that one. My book club is supposed to read it this year, but it doesn't come out in paperback until summer, so I'm not sure we'll get to it. I love Ondaatje too.

I also like Ondaatje and I enjoyed reading about that snippet from the book read. I hope to get around to Cat's table soon.

Great review of The Cat's Table, Cait. Appreciated : ).

I enjoyed your review of The Cat's Table, Cait. I also heard Ondaatje read from this book last summer, but unfortunately, as he was one of three readers, there was no time allowed for any discussion or Q&A. I was very disappointed as he is also a favorite of mine and I would have loved to hear him talk about his writing process.

Excellent review of The Cat's Table, Cait. I loved it as well. I saw Michael Ondaatje in San Francisco last fall, as part of the City Arts & Lectures series at the Herbst Theatre. Michael Chabon interviewed him, and as you said the novel was not strictly autobiographical. He was a very engaging and entertaining speaker, as well. Hmm...I had taken notes in the book I was reading at the time, but I don't think I ever wrote them into a coherent commentary. I'll look for it in the near future.

>60 lit_chick:, 61, 62 - Thank you! It's nice to hear from other Ondaatje fans.

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In post 55, I mentioned Always Coca-Cola by Alexandra Chreiteh. You can read my review of it in the latest issue of Belletrista: http://belletrista.com/2012/Issue16/reviews_14.php

Book #11: The Hiding Place by Trezza Azzopardi

Source: Lois/avaland

Why I read it now: For a Belletrista article

Rating: 4.5 stars

Article link to follow at a later date. A fabulous book!

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Book #12: The Country of the Pointed Firs by Sarah Orne Jewett

Source: TBR - Kindle

Why I read it now: I wanted something short

Rating: 3.5 stars

This short novel is really a series of vignettes set in a small town in Maine. The narrator is visiting for the summer, rooming in the home of Mrs. Almira Todd, and over the course of a few months she meets various members of the town, who share their stories with her. Nothing really happens, life is beautiful, and people are quaint and essentially good. This reminded me a lot of Lucy Maud Montgomery's novels - but she does it better, in my opinion.

A quick read, but nothing to go crazy about.

I'd love to read your comments on Michael Ondaatje's talk, Darryl, if you should happen to find the time.

You're writing an article on The Hiding Place? Lucky!

Yep! On Azzopardi, in general.

>66 Nickelini: I do believe you may have had some influence on her with your review.... (perhaps you will do the same with Roma Tearne?)

Catching up, great reviews and interesting reading struggles. The one time I successfully read several consecutive books off my TBR was somehow very unrewarding. Curious.

Love your reviews of Suite Francaise, Small Wars and The Cat's Table (which I think took some negative reviews). Very interesting about Ondaatje's writing style - seems to be a bit of a risky method.

Also The Sword in the Stone. Back in high school I read a paperback called The Once and Future King. The author was TH White. The book was big, but it never occurred to me it might be five books in one. I wonder what I actually read. It was entertaining, but also a bit long for my generally non-reading teenagerhood.

Happy Birthday, Cait!

>69 dchaikin: - I think Ondaatje always gets some negative reviews, because his writing style is so different. Readers looking for a plot will generally dislike his books, in my opinion.

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Book #13: Something Wicked by Lesley Anne Cowan

Source: Library

Why I read it now: It is a White Pine book (an award for teenagers), and some of my students were talking about it

Rating: 2.5 stars

I'm all for YA fiction that is edgy and realistic, but this novel, about a sixteen year old girl with every problem in the world (promiscuity, absent father, irresponsible mother, dead brother, alcohol abuse, drug usage, stealing, extreme language, much older boyfriend, etc.) pushed the envelope too much for even me. It felt like the author was throwing in every single teenage issue she could think of, and yet somehow nothing all that serious really happens to the main character. Plus, nothing bad is ever said about her boyfriend, despite the fact that he is twenty-eight. However, I read this book in one sitting, so I guess I was pretty engaged in it. If I was a teenage girl, I'm sure I would have loved it.

I generally don't read a ton of YA fiction, but when I hear students talking about a book, I like to try it out. They were commenting on how "adult" this book is, and I was curious as to how they would define an "adult book." I guess all it takes is some sex and swearing!

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Book #14: There but for the by Ali Smith

Source: TBR - Kindle

Why I read it now: It is my book club pick for this month.

Rating: 5 stars

Spectacular. The most challenging, rewarding, and bizarre novel I have read in a long time.

I decided to try the 30 Short Stories in April challenge, though I won't join the group just yet - as soon as I sign up for a group or a challenge, I inevitably stop pursuing it - so here is my short story for today:

Short Story #1: "The Boat" by Alistair MacLeod

Source: Literature: A Pocket Anthology

I love Alistair MacLeod's novel, No Great Mischief, so I decided to try one of his short stories. He is a Maritime writer, and this story is no exception - a man tells the story of his childhood on Cape Breton, where his father was a fisherman, and life revolved around a boat. The father does not love his life, but the mother is connected to the sea, and resists change. One by one, her daughters get jobs at a local restaurant, meet men from far off cities, and move away from life by the sea. The narrator, the only son, feels torn between his desire for education, and his duty to his family.

MacLeod is fantastic at using setting to mirror the emotions of the characters, and the sea and the boat are like characters in the story. The sea is both a place of beauty and a place of sadness - a friend and a foe, depending on the opinions of the characters. The narrator's parents' differing views on education and the value of reading are part of the greater conflict between the traditional life of the fisherman and the unknown life waiting for the narrator, should he choose to take it.

"The Boat" is an excellent story, and a rewarding (if not exactly cheery) way to start off a month of short fiction.

Cait that looks interesting, are you going to continue to read from A Pocket Anthology

Thanks Barry, my plans are to take my stories from Literature: A Pocket Anthology, Open Country: Canadian Literature until 1950, and A New Anthology of Canadian Literature in English. They are all textbooks from university courses, but we barely scratched the surface of them. So I guess I will be reading a lot of Canadian stories :)

>72 Cait86: I envy you having more of Macleod's short stories ahead of you, Cait. I loved his Island: The Complete Stories. I rarely buy a book that I have already read from the library, but this one I did.

>75 Linda92007: - Hi Linda; I have MacLeod's story "As Birds Bring Forth the Sun" to read still, and I'm looking forward to it!

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Short Story #2: "Stones" by Timothy Findley

Source: Literature: A Pocket Anthology

I know I read "Stones" in university, but I have no memory of studying it, and so I decided to revisit it today. The narrator, Ben Max, tells the story of his father, who owned a flower shop in Toronto before WW2, went off to fight, and came home a changed man. Whenever Ben asked what was wrong with his dad, his older brother replied, "Dieppe", and so Ben thought Dieppe was some sort of odd disease. The story shows the horrible things war can do to the survivors, and the bonds formed between parents and children. I particularly liked this passage, both for its ideas, and Findley's use of the long-dash:

"Our lives continued in this way until about the time I was five—in August of 1939. Everyone's life, I suppose, has its demarcation lines—its latitudes and longitudes passing through time. Some of these lines define events that everyone shares—others are confined to personal—even to secret lives. But the end of summer 1939 is a line drawn through the memory of everyone who was then alive. We were all about to be pitched together into a melting pot of violence from which a few of us would emerge intact and the rest of us would perish."

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Short Story #3: "Boys and Girls" by Alice Munro

Source: Literature: A Pocket Anthology

Alice Munro is one of my favourite short story authors. Her stories aren't generally about big things, but about small moments in small lives. "Boys and Girls" is about a girl who lives on a fox farm with her parents and little brother. She loves to help her dad on the farm, and dreads the day when she will have to help her mother in the house. I enjoyed this passage, about the word "girl":

"The word girl had formerly seemed to me innocent and unburdened, like the word child; now it appeared that it was no such thing. A girl was not, as I had supposed, simply what I was; it was what I had to become. It was a definition, always touched with emphasis, with reproach and disappointment. Also it was a joke on me."

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Two more excellent Canadian short stories - only three days in, and I am already loving this daily short story project.

Short Story #4: "Invention" by Carol Shields

Source: Literature: A Pocket Anthology

Day 4, and my first disappointing story. I've never read anything by Carol Shields, and unfortunately "Invention" wasn't a great place to start. I though it was mediocre, and rather devoid of plot.

Enjoying your short story journal. What a wonderful idea, celebrating Canadian short stories!

>78 lit_chick: - Thanks, Nancy! I do love Canadian authors :)

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Short Story #5: "A Coyote Columbus Story" by Thomas King

Source: Literature: A Pocket Anthology

A tongue-in-cheek take on Native creation myths and the "discovering" of North America by Christopher Columbus.

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Short Story #6: "The Jimi Hendrix Experience" by Guy Vanderhaeghe

Source: Literature: A Pocket Anthology

I have two of Vanderhaeghe's novels on my TBR, but I've never actually read any of his writing before. This slightly sublime story about three boys' practical joking made me want more of Vanderhaeghe, right away. I think I will be reading his novels soon.

Book #15: Still Life by Louise Penny

Source: TBR - Kindle

Why I read it now: It was time for a lighter novel.

Rating: 4 stars

I bought this first "Three Pines" mystery after all the hype here on LT, and I am really happy with that decision. Set in small-town Quebec, Still Life is an engaging whodunnit with realistic touches of life in Quebec, French-English tensions, etc. I was especially impressed with the insights into life and loss that Penny put forth. I think I just might continue with this series!

#80 Delighted you enjoyed Still Life, Cait. I was also hit by the Louise Penny bullet here on LT. I'm presently reading the second one, Fatal Grace. Love Armand Gamache, all suave in his Burberry trench! It does, indeed, make for wonderful light reading; and I need that right now. My reading mojo (or lack thereof) so far in 2012 remains uncomfortable.

eta: I haven't read any of Vanderhaege's short stories, but I loved The Last Crossing, and I am looking forward to A Good Man, presently in my TBR pile.

>81 lit_chick: - I'm not really a series reader, but Still Life was a lot of fun, and it's nice to balance more challenging novels with light reading.

Today's short stories are brought to you by two French-Canadian authors:

Short Story #7: "The Thimble" by Michel Tremblay

Source: Literature: A Pocket Anthology

A very short story about a man who wouldn't take a thimble from a strange woman. I avidly disliked it.

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Short Story #8: "Dresses" by Lise Bissonnette

Source: Literature: A Pocket Anthology

Very good story about a young woman's coming of age at college. Three minor milestones in her search for love are framed in her choice of dress for the evening. Interesting political undertones. I will be looking for more by Lise Bissonnette.

One last story for today...

Short Story #9: "Big Dog Rage" by Lynn Coady

Source: Literature: A Pocket Anthology

This was a decent story about a failing friendship between a little boy and girl. There was maybe a bit too much going on, too many story point that are never fully addressed, and the ending fell a bit flat, but I enjoyed Coady's voice and characterization.

Short Story #10: "The House of Many Eyes" by Frederick Philip Grove

Source: Open Country: Canadian Literature to 1950

Grove is an interesting character - he was born in Prussia, ran away with a married woman, was imprisoned for fraud, faked his own death, abandoned the married woman after moving with her to North America, and finally become a Canadian citizen at the age of 42, after marrying a Canadian woman. He wrote mostly about the Canadian Prairies, but he also lived in and wrote about Ontario.

This short story is about an unlucky couple in a prairie town, who live in a very odd house. The house started off as the focus of the story, and when Grove shifted to the couple, the narrative lost some of its spark. However, I enjoyed his descriptive writing (he compares the crumbling house to an old prostitute, who looks attractive from a distance, but is sad and falling apart up close), and I know I own his novel, Settlers of the Marsh somewhere, and will try to read it in the near future.

Short Story #11: "The Blue Kimono" by Morley Callaghan

Source: Open Country: Canadian Literature to 1950

I'm not a huge fan of Morley Callaghan, but this short story about a down-and-out couple and their sick son was a good depiction of poverty and dashed ambitions. Callaghan was a journalist, and his style is very simple and straightforward, without the poetic touches I generally enjoy.

I am interested in reading Callaghan's memoir, That Summer in Paris. He was a friend of Hemingway's, and spent a summer living in Paris with Fitzgerald, et al. I have Hemingway's A Moveable Feast, too.

I love A Moveable Feast, and so That Summer in Paris is a book I'd be interested in reading as well. But will I like it more than Norman Mailer? Read Mailer's 1963 published review Punching Papa from The New York Review of Books.

>87 petermc: - Very interesting, thanks for the link, Peter! Let me know if you do read That Summer in Paris.

Short Story #12: "The Lamp at Noon" by Sinclair Ross

Source: Open Country: Canadian Literature to 1950

One of my favourite Canadian short story authors, Sinclair Ross writes about the Canadian Prairies like no one else. His stories depict the wide expanses of farmland that are isolating and claustrophobic to his characters. "The Lamp at Noon" is about Ellen and Paul, who live on a farm in times of drought. Ellen longs to move to the city, but Paul feels tied to the land. This is a frequent struggle in CanLit (see my comments on "The Boat", above, which has similar themes, albeit about the sea, not farming), and again the physical space is a character in the story. Not quite as fantastic as Ross' "The Painted Door", which is my favourite short story, I think, "The Lamp at Noon" is nevertheless an exceptional piece of Canadian fiction.

Cait - you inspired me to update my thread with my own short story reading comments. I'm not as detailed as you are, but at least I pointed out some of the stories that I'd encourage others to find.

I think I need a copy of that anthology you're reading.

I really enjoy all three of the anthologies I'm using, Joyce, but Literature: A Pocket Anthology is the best. It isn't just CanLit (I just chose the Canadian stories), and is sectioned into Prose, Poetry, and Drama. Each section is organized chronologically. The intros aren't terribly helpful, but they do provide some biographic information.

Short Story #13: "To Set Our House in Order" by Margaret Laurence

Source: Open Country: Canadian Literature to 1950

I love Margaret Laurence's novels (especially A Jest of God) and her short stories are just as good. This one is about a ten year old girl, Vanessa, whose mother is having a baby and is quite ill. Vanessa is stuck at home with her strict, proper Grandmother, and is visited by her much more modern Aunt Edna. Laurence's characterization is thorough, and she packs a lot into a short stories. This one is originally from A Bird in the House, part of the Manawaka cycle.

Book #16: The Uninvited Guests by Sadie Jones

Source: Lois/avaland

Why I read it now: For a Belletrista review

Rating: 4.5 stars

An excellent third novel by Jones, and quite a departure from her first two texts. The Uninvited Guests is darkly comic, harkening back to Gothic novels. Review link to follow.

I look forward to your review of The Uninvited Guests, Cait. Is it worthy of inclusion in this year's Booker longlist?

Thanks, Darryl. I don't know if The Uninvited Guests is a Booker novel. I loved it, but it is fun, and overly dramatic, and I think it intentionally pokes fun at novels like Sarah Waters' The Little Stranger. It might be too tongue-in-cheek for the Booker judges.

Thanks, Cait. In that case, I'll hold off buying it for now, and wait to see if it appears on the Booker longlist.

I'm eagerly awaiting my copy of Bring Up the Bodies, which I expect to see on the longlist.

Thanks for bringing The Uninvited Guests to attention here. It sounds interesting.

Book #17: The Lifeboat by Charlotte Rogan

Source: New Purchase

Why I read it now: It looked interesting

Rating: 4.5 stars

Review to follow in Belle.

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Book #18: The Testament of Jessie Lamb by Jane Rogers

Source: TBR

Why I read it now: No reason

Rating: 3 stars

An interesting story about a girl living in the not-so-distant future, when women cannot have babies because of a deadly virus. I disliked the main character, and couldn't identify with any of her choices, or the reasoning behind them. While it was engrossing enough to hold my attention today, I wouldn't read it again.

98 - I'm pretty curious about The Testament of Jessie Lamb. I know I wouldn't identify with her choices either, but I find the premise fascinating.

99 - I'd be interested in your opinion of the novel, Jane. Let me know if you decide to read it. While it wasn't a book I liked a whole lot, I find myself wanting to talk about it!

Book #19: The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern

Source: New purchase

Why I read it now: I succumbed to all the hype

Rating: 4 stars

After the fifth or sixth time I had this book recommended by random strangers and employees in bookstores, I figured it was time to check it out. I found that the third-person narration kept quite a large distance between the reader and the characters, and for that reason I never felt totally invested in Celia and Marco. However, the descriptions of the circus are magic, and it acts as the most important character in the book (much like the houses in The Glass Room by Simon Mawer and Visitation by Jenny Erpenbeck). Morgenstern's creation of atmosphere and tension was fantastic, and I enjoyed watching the story of the circus converge with Bailey's story.

I didn't think this was the most amazing book ever written or anything, but it was a lot of fun, and far more fantastical than anything I usually read.

Given your review, I might also have to succumb to the hype, Cait. Thanks for that : ).

The newest issue of Belletrista is up! I reviewed three books:

The Lifeboat by Charlotte Rogan - http://www.belletrista.com/2012/Issue17/reviews_7.php
The Uninvited Guests by Sadie Jones - http://www.belletrista.com/2012/Issue17/reviews_10.php
The Flowers of War by Geling Yan - http://www.belletrista.com/2012/Issue17/reviews_12.php

All three were great books!

>100 Cait86: I think Roger's premise for the Testament of Jessie Lamb perhaps is bigger than her characters. Looking back, the questions the book raised are far more memorable than the characters.

>104 avaland: - I agree with you Lois, and I think Rogers explored some interesting ideas. I found the tone of the book to be very forceful, and full of conviction. I wonder if Rogers would make the same decision as Jessie, were she in the position? It felt, to me, like she was using the story to give her views on science and morality.

Three book updates - and a varied bunch they are!

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Book #20: Fifty Shades of Grey by E. L. James

Source: Borrowed from a friend

Why I read it now: This series is being passed around my office right now

Rating: I don't know.......

I am a bit embarrassed that I read Fifty Shades of Grey, which is being described as "mommy porn", but at least half of the women in my department were reading it, and I decided to give it a go. I'm not sure how to rate it, since I'm certain it has no literary merit whatsoever, and the characters were so infuriating that I actually shouted at them while I was reading, and yet I finished it in three days and stayed up late into the night to do so.

Can I give it zero stars, but then go on to read the next two books? Or do I give it 3 stars for sheer readability, even though it left a sour taste in my mouth? So I am choosing to leave it unrated.

Warning - if you haven't heard of this series, know that it grew out of Twilight fanfic, and is very, very adult. The relationship between the two main characters, Ana and Christian, makes Edward and Bella's relationship look perfectly healthy. The sex scenes are plentiful, and ridiculous. The writing is horrible. And yet I am on the waiting list for book #2.

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Book #21: Remember Me by Trezza Azzopardi

Source: Lois

Why I read it now: For a Belletrista article

Rating: 4 stars

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Book #22: Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi

Source: Borrowed from a friend

Why I read it now: For an assignment for a course I am taking

Rating: 4 stars

Persepolis is an excellent graphic memoir about a girl growing up during the Iranian Revolution. It would be fantastic to teach to a senior level English class, especially contrasted with a novel like The Kite Runner. I'm not a huge fan of graphic novels in general, but I recognize why they are engaging for kids, and good graphic novels, like this one, are full of symbolism in the illustrations. I also like that not all texts in graphic form need to be funny.

Those are three excellent review in belletrisra. It was nice to read more about Sadie Jones; also I'm now suddenly very curious about the Nanking even. All three books sound good.

And I'm so entertained by your review of Fifty Shades of Grey. Not a book I'll read, but one i've heard about.

And glad you like Persepolis, one of my favorites from last year.

Thanks, Dan! It was a treat to get to review all of those books in Belle, and I glad you were entertained by my comments on Fifty Shades of Grey. I am happy to say that I have moved on to more literary books!

OK, I was ill with a bad cold this weekend, so I basically did nothing but read. Some short comments:

Book #23: Clara Callan by Richard B. Wright – 4 stars

Clara Callan started off great, and finished just ok, so 4 stars is a compromise rating, I guess. Clara is a single school-teacher in a small Ontario town in the Depression, and her sister Nora is a radio star in New York City. The novel is told through letter and journal entries, a format I really enjoy, but the plot sort of got away from Wright, I think, and he tried to make Clara's life too exciting.

Book #24: Underground Time by Delphine de Vigan – 3.5 stars

Underground Time is about two isolated character, Mathilde and Thibault. Both live in Paris, and while they do not know each other, their thoughts and feelings are often the same. Mathilde is struggling with a boss who is trying to bully her out of her job; Thibault is a home-visit doctor whose patients often just want company. He spends his days in traffic jams; she on the Paris public transportation system. The reader feels that they would be perfect for each other, if only they could meet. Unfortunately, they are merely two people in a very busy city, and as Mathilde notes, random pairs of strangers connect only in romance movies.

Book #25: A Year in Provence by Peter Mayle – 3.5 stars

A fun travel memoir about a couple who move to Provence. Mayle focuses a lot on food, but also on the Provencal lifestyle and the quirky personalities of the villagers he befriends.

Book #26: Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Café by Fannie Flagg – 4 stars

A nice surprise, as I picked it up at a used book sale and had no idea what it was about. I really enjoyed this tale of friendship, food, and loyalty set partly in 1986, and partly in the years between 1929-1967.

Book # 27: The Meagre Tarmac by Clark Blaise – 2.5 stars

I was not fond of this short story collection which was longlisted for the 2011 Giller Prize. Like Jhumpa Lahiri's work, Blaise focused on Indian immigrants in the US and Canada, but unlike Lahiri, he never made me care about a single character. I found the stories meandering and dull.

Book #28: A Moveable Feast by Ernest Hemingway – 3.5 stars

I am not a Hemingway fan, but I rewatched Midnight in Paris yesterday, and so I decided to read Hemingway's memoirs of his time in Paris. Most of it was interesting, particularly whenever F. Scott Fitzgerald or Gertrude Stein made appearances, but I just do not take to Hemingway's prose.

I read Persepolis this year, too. I think it was my first graphic novel EVER (well...maybe I read a Calivin and Hobbes book when a child?). I think Satrapi did an excellent job of educating people about Iran, and humanizing a group of people that many Americans view as enemies. It was a little darker than I expected, though!

Cait, I was catching up on your thread yesterday, and I bought Still Life on my Kindle right away (for the princely sum of $2.34!) because of what you and chick_lit said about it. Life's a little hectic at the moment (we're about to move house) and I've been craving some light reading that I can really escape into - this is perfect, thank you!

>105 Cait86: hahahahhahahaa! that's a great review of 50 shades. I read a review of the book here on LT recently, and so discovered it's connection to Twilight (the reviewer called it a total rip-off). So, what is the attraction? What is making you want to read the next books? the plot? the sex? (Perhaps you saw Saturday Night Live's Mother's Day skit about the book? What mom really wants for Mother's Day?

#106 - I also enjoyed your review of Fifty Shades of Grey! I keep hearing/seeing it mentioned in various places, without feeling like I can be bothered to find out more about it, so your post has educated me! For instance, I knew it was rather saucy, but had no idea of the Twilight connection. So if you do end up reading the next two books, maybe you can view it as a means of educating the rest of us???

>110 The_Hibernator: - Hi Rachel, thanks for dropping by! I find it interesting that both of the graphic novels that I have read (Persepolis and Maus) are about dark, difficult subjects. They certainly counter the idea that illustrated books are light and fluffy! Oh, actually I've read Ghost World, too, which is funny in places, but quite depressing in others.

>111 rachbxl: - Rachel, I hope you enjoy Still Life; it was great light reading. I hope your house move goes smoothly!

>112 avaland:/113 - Hi Lois and Rebeki. I've been thinking about your question, Lois, as to why I'm reading these dreadful books (I finished the second one, Fifty Shades Darker the other day), and I think I have some answers, though I'm not sure I like the answers.

1. Everyone is reading it. Over half of my department has read the first book, and the other half is in line to read it (well, not the men). It's all we can talk about. Not a day goes by when someone doesn't bring it up, and we seem to have 30 minute conversations about it. It's shocking, it's fun, and it is a big social topic right now. So it is a bit of a bandwagon thing.

2. I am a single, independent person. I live on my own, I make my own decisions, and I love my life. But sometimes, on bad days, or when I'm sick or overly tired, I wish someone would take over, and run my life for me. This doesn't happen very often, because like I said, I'm really very content with my new-found adulthood. But the relationship in this book is one based around control. Christian is extremely rich, and he wants to take care of Ana. He is overly controlling, but he does it out of love and protection. Most days, I would run screaming from a guy who tried to control my life like that, but on those bad days.... I guess the books speak to the desire to be taken care of.

3. Fantasy. Christian is gorgeous, wealthy, sexy, etc., and Ana sees herself as plain. They have fabulous sex everyday - so often that it is unrealistic. They fly in their personal helicopter, go sailing on a private boat, go to fancy parties in designer clothes, have a housekeeper and personal security, own multiple cars, etc. Again, not really a life I would ever actually want, but it speaks to women, I think, the same way Disney princess movies speak to little girls.

4. The major reason: Christian is extremely flawed, tortured even, and has a horrible past. Ana sees the good in him, and convinces him that he is worthy of love. She changes him. He overcomes so many of his demons because of her, and this happens almost instantaneously. They only know each other for a few weeks before they are professing their love for each other. My friends and I were discussing this the other day, and I think women have this dream that they can take a sexy bad-boy and "fix" him, make him a better person. Again, this is not at all realistic, and we know that, but we enjoy watching it happen in the book nonetheless.

On top of all of that, the writing, which is definitely bad, is engaging in that the chapters end with cliffhangers, a new sex scene is never far around the corner, and things happen quickly. It's easy to open the book and look up two hours later after having read 200 pages. I'm generally not that fast of a reader, because I read fairly challenging material. Sometimes it is frustrating to look down at a book and realize that it took an hour to read 40 pages - this is definitely not the case here! LOL

Anyway, that is more than anyone should ever think about the Fifty Shades books, but there you have it.

Sounds like schlock to me. Why read it?

>114 Cait86: Ah! I think I understand now.

>115 baswood: I think she just answered that: pure romantic fantasy and a community experience. I remember something similar going on with The Bridges on Madison County back when (although, alas, I did not partake)

#114 Cait, you've certainly piqued my interest with these dreadful books! in the Fifty Shades of Grey trilogy. I'm going for it! I'll be marking and reporting throughout June until I'm numb, and pure escape sounds perfect!

>115 baswood: - LOL, like Lois said, Barry, I think message #114 answers that question. Sometimes books are just fantasy.

>116 avaland: - Thanks for not judging :)

>117 lit_chick: - Hahaha I won't feel bad if you hate them, Nancy, because I did warn you... Have fun!

Book #29: Fifty Shades Darker by E. L. James - more of the same. See message #114.

Book #30: May Day by F. Scott Fitzgerald - a novella about people of various classes in 1919 NYC. 3.5 stars

Book #31: The Man Who Would Be King by Rudyard Kipling - a novella about two men who become kings over part of Afghanistan, and find that it isn't all they wanted it to be. 3.5 stars

Book #32: The Awakening by Kate Chopin - An excellent, if rather depressing, novella. 4 stars

I'm not feeling much like reviewing these days, so just some short comments until I get back into writing mode:

Book #33: Fall On Your Knees by Ann-Marie MacDonald - I wanted to love this sprawling, family drama that so many people have recommended to me. Instead, I just liked it a lot. It reminded me of The Hiding Place by Trezza Azzopardi, in that it is about a couple with a troubled marriage, a lot of daughters, poverty, and sadness. Following on The Awakening, I was rather overloaded with depressing-book-syndrome. 4 stars

Book #34: The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller - Again, I liked this, but I didn't love it. Miller wrote a great story with engaging characters, but I didn't think there was anything special about her writing or the overall structure of the novel. 4 stars

Book #35: The Man Who Corrupted Hadleyburg by Mark Twain - Another novella, and quite a good one. I don't think I've ever actually read anything by Mark Twain before, and I'll have to fix that! 4 stars

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So, I've had a string of good books, but nothing has truly blown me away I read The Uninvited Guests and The Lifeboat back in April. Hopefully the rest of this month will be an improvement!

So, I've had a string of good books, but nothing has truly blown me away

Still, a row of 4 star reads isn't too shabby.

Wow - not a single book finished in the rest of June! However, the long time between books was for a very good reason:

I finished Wolf Hall finally this afternoon, and absolutely loved it. I didn't think it was better that A.S. Byatt's The Children's Book, which was nominated for the Booker the same year that the Mantel won, but it was still a five star read for me. Big, chunky novels are not normally what I enjoy, and I admit that there were some slow parts where I needed something lighter, but overall Wolf Hall was just so well-researched, so witty, and so sympathetic to an often-unsympathetic character, that I can't fault it for having some duller moments. I really enjoyed Cromwell, and cheered for someone of such low birth, who managed to pull himself to great heights. I also found Mantel's interpretations of Thomas More, Mary Boelyn, and of course Henry and Anne, quite interesting. Her tendency to use "he" all the time didn't distract me, but that is probably because I knew about it before hand, and so was prepared to be a bit confused.

As so often happens, I am sad that this book sat on my shelves for three years before I read it, as it really was outstanding. I'm sure I will read the sequel very soon!

Delighted you finished Wolf Hall and that you enjoyed it so much, Cait. I'm really enjoying Cromwell, too! Fascinating man and a great character, the way Mantel writes him.

>123 Cait86: Personally, I've always felt the difference between a nominated book and a winner is luck and politics.

>125 The_Hibernator: So true.

> 124 & 125 - I totally agree. 2009 was a strong year for the Booker, too, so really almost all of the short listed books could have won, and I would have thought it deserving. I loved so many of the nominated books that year.

Book #37 was The Best of Me by Nicholas Sparks. It was bad - even by Sparks' standard.

Book #38 - Dead Cold by Louise Penny

The second installment in the Inspector Gamache/Three Pines series. More of the same light fair, with interesting characters and a witty look of life in rural Quebec.

>128 Cait86: Uh-oh. That's pretty bad . . .

Glad you continue to enjoy Louise Penny, Cait : ). Fun reading at any time, but I'm thinking I definitely need some Louise Penny summer reading!

I have finally finished recovering from my 10-day trip to El Salvador, where I worked with a group of students and teachers to build two houses with Habitat for Humanity. We were gone longer than expected because we missed our connecting flight home, and we're stuck in the Miami airport for the night, but other than that it was a fantastic trip. I will post some pictures as soon as I get my act together.

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Book #39 - A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan

4.5 stars - a fab novel with a large cast of connected characters and a narrative that jumps back and forth through time. Very contemporary, very stylish, and very wonderful. I'm off to talk to my friend, who also read it, so I will post more thoughts when I get home.

Loved A Visit from the Goon Squad too!

More thoughts on A Visit from the Goon Squad:

My friend Chantal and I both read this, and loved it. We talked a lot about how contemporary and edgy it felt, how it did all the same things that There but for the by Ali Smith did, but in a more accessible way. Often novels that are interconnected short stories feel disconnected, as though the threads that link them are not always there. But Egan excelled at threading her themes throughout the text, and it was part of the fun figuring out how the large cast of characters had impacted each others' lives. We loved the often-discussed PowerPoint chapter, and of course the jumping through time, of which I am always a big fan.

Book #40 - The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry by Rachel Joyce

This debut novel was longlisted for the Booker Prize the other day, and was the first of the 12 titles I decided to read. By the end, I was worried that I was having flashbacks to last year, when the novels were about readability rather than quality writing. Joyce is, in my mind, nothing beyond a normal commercial writer, and her novel left no real lasting impression. I'm not sorry I read it, but I'm not thrilled with it either.

The plot: Harold Fry, 65, living in a unhappy marriage, get a lette from an old colleague, Queenie, who is dying of cancer. Harold sets out to mail a reply back to Queenie, but he walks right past the nearest mailbox. Then he walks past another. And another. Finally Harold decides to walk the entire length of England to the hospice where Queenie is dying, in hopes that his faith in her can keep her alive.

Most of the novel is Harold's journey, and the people he meets along the way, and the lessons he learns from them. Some of the chapters focus on his wife, Maureen, left at home to try and understand what it is her husband is doing. I enjoyed Maureen as a character far more than Harold, and kind of wished that it had been her pilgrimage, rather than his.

The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry was a quick read, and a sweet story, and I can see it appealing to a lot of readers. But the Booker is about the best in literature, and this certainly was not the best.

3 stars

Nice review of The Pilgrimage of Harold Fry, Cait. I downloaded it onto my Kindle on Wednesday, but I'll put it toward the bottom of my Booker longlist order.

Are you planning to read all 12 books?

Thanks, Darryl! I'm going to read as many of the 12 titles as I can, and I have seven on my Kindle so far. I started Communion Town this morning, and so far it is fantastic. I should finish it tomorrow, and I think I will move on to the Levy next.

What are you planning to start with this year?

Nice review of The Pilgrimage of Harold Fry, Cait. Since I don't have time to read all of the long-list, I'm glad to have others weeding out titles that I can skip!

I'll start reading the four books I ordered from AbeBooks Wednesday, namely The Yips, The Garden of Evening Mists, The Teleportation Accident and Swimming Home. I'll probably read the Barker or the Eng first. If I have time, I'll read one of the Kindle books I downloaded on Wednesday, either Skios, Narcopolis, or The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry. I'll arrive in London on September 6, and I'll pick up the four remaining books while I'm there.

I've already read Bring Up the Bodies, but none of the other three books I thought might make the longlist were chosen.

Excellent review of The Unlikely Pilgrimage, Cait. Look forward to reading about more of your Booker adventures.

Tuning in for the Booker reviews.

I seem to be one of the few dissenting voices on The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry, so if you find the premise intriguing, give it a shot. That said, I certainly hope that it doesn't make the Shortlist.

I read the first chapter and a half of Communion Town, and decided it wasn't what I wanted to read right now. I've moved on to Swimming Home by Deborah Levy, and at about halfway through I am loving it. It is kind of bizarre, but I am as entranced by the character of Kitty Finch as the other characters are.

Good to have lots of readers along for my Booker journey!

Book #41 - Swimming Home by Deborah Levy

Swimming Home is set in a villa in the French Riviera, where poet Joe Jacobs is vacationing with his wife, Isabel, his daughter, Nina, and their friends, Mitchell and Laura. Everything seems perfectly idyllic until a strange girl named Kitty Finch is found swimming naked in the villa's pool. Kitty pretends to believe that the villa was hers for the week, and Isabel invites her to stay. In reality, Kitty has sought out Joe, who she worships, to look at one of her poems. This lie is just the first in a series of secrets and deceptions that drive Swimming Home forward.

Levy makes some interesting choices here, in her writing. Characters frequently believe outlandish things - for example, Kitty is initially mistaken for a bear, dead in the pool, and when Nina goes missing, the adults assume she has been kidnapped, when really she is merely asleep. Kitty is frequently accused of being crazy, but the gullibility and tendency to expect the worst of all the characters makes the entire cast seem a bit off their rockers. Next-door neighbour Dr. Sheridan, caretaker Jurgen, and local Casanova Claude round out the novel with more insanity. Add to this a writing style that is dreamy and trance-like, and Swimming Home feels a bit like that warped picture you get when you open your eyes underwater and look up at the world.

Swimming Home is an excellent book, and I am thankful the Booker judges brought it to my attention.

4.5 stars

mmm.... Swimming Home sounds very interesting Cait. I will keep a look out for this one. Congratulations on being the first to review it.

Swimming Home is happily added to the list, Cait. Great review : ).

Great review of Swimming Home, Cait. I'll be looking for this one, which doesn't seem to be available here yet.

I cannot believe that summer is over, and that tomorrow I go back to work for another school year! I spent most of August in France, which explains my lack of updates, though I did manage to read quite a bit on my long train journeys.

Quick comments:

Book #42: Bring Up the Bodies by Hilary Mantel - 5 stars; better than Wolf Hall

Book #43: The Help by Kathryn Stockett - 3.5 stars; a quick, engaging novel, but nothing more

Book #44: The Paris Wife by Paula McLain - 3 stars; this was fun to read while actually in Paris

Book #45: Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer - 4 stars; a very enjoyable novel

Book #46: Half Broke Horses by Jeannette Walls - 3.5 stars; another fun summer read

Book #47: The Cruellest Month by Louise Penny - 3.5 stars; did I mention that I was on vacation? :)

Book #48: The Lighthouse by Alison Moore - 4.5 stars; a return to challenging literature - another fabulous modernist piece of fiction, that, like Swimming Home, is totally deserving of its Booker Longlisting

I so loved The Lighthouse, Cait! I look forward to your review. Or perhaps you are not in review mode right now, which I understand perfectly. I only review some of the books that I read.

I woke up this morning hungry for a dose of Margaret Atwood, and so I've started her first novel, The Edible Woman. Glancing back over my thread, I've realized that I've read very few Canadian novels this year, and I am really missing the challenging literature of my own country. So, I've decided to make September, October, and November my Autumn of Canadian Fiction.

Canadian novels on my TBR include:
The Edible Woman - Margaret Atwood
Wilderness Tips - Margaret Atwood
Life Before Man - Margaret Atwood
The Robber Bride - Margaret Atwood
Bodily Harm - Margaret Atwood
Oryx and Crake - Margaret Atwood
The Year of the Flood - Margaret Atwood
The Free World - David Bezmozgis - currently reading
Three Day Road - Joseph Boyden
The Man from Glengarry - Ralph Connor
Half-Blood Blues - Esi Edugyan
The Little Shadows - Marina Endicott
Stones - Timothy Findley
Pilgrim - Timothy Findley
Perpetual Motion - Graeme Gibson
Settlers of the Marsh - Frederick Philip Grove
A World Elsewhere - Wayne Johnston
Green Grass, Running Water - Thomas King
Bloodletting and Miraculous Cures - Vincent Lam
The Diviners - Margaret Laurence
Crow Lake - Mary Lawson
Fugitive Pieces - Anne Michaels
Alligator - Lisa Moore
Coming Through Slaughter - Michael Ondaatje
The Collected Works of Billy the Kid - Michael Ondaatje
The Tin Flute - Gabrielle Roy
The Stone Diaries - Carol Shields
Carol Shields' Collected Stories - Carol Shields
The Great Karoo - Fred Stenson
The Stone Carvers - Jane Urquhart
The Last Crossing - Guy Vanderhaeghe
A Good Man - Guy Vanderhaeghe
Touch - Alexi Zentner

Any recommendations from this very full list?

Any recommendations from this very full list?

Yes, yes I do. You have two five star reads there -- Green Grass, Running Water and the Robber Bride. (As an aside, I went to lunch this summer at a restaurant that is the setting for an important scene in The Robber Bride-- very cool. It's on Queen St in Toronto, and I went with LT member Torontoc). The only book on your list that I read and didn't like was Fugitive Pieces, which despite my overall "meh" rating, still had some good things about it.

Thanks Joyce - I am kind of "meh" about Anne Michaels too, having read her more recent novel, The Winter Vault, so Fugitive Pieces is at the bottom of the pile. I will try to read your 5-star recommendations soon! I think Green Grass, Running Water has been on my TBR for several years, and it is really time I read it.

Book #49: Fifty Shades Freed by E. L. James - what can I say, it was a long week at work ;)

Book #50: The Edible Woman by Margaret Atwood - 3.5 stars. Atwood's first novel was certainly more enjoyable than her second one, Surfacing, and I can see how it would have really spoken to women when it was first published, but for me it felt outdated. Still, I enjoyed her writing, as always, which even here shows her command of the English language. I particularly liked the shift in point of view from first-person to third-person, as Marian lost her sense of self.

I enjoyed seeing your list of Canadian titles, most of them unfamiliar to me. I've enjoyed other works by Margaret Atwood, especially The Blind Assassin and Alias Grace, and I'm a fan of some other Canadian authors not on your list, including Alice Munro, Mavis Gallant, and Robertson Davies. Happy Canadian reading!

Nice list, Cait! Unfortunately I've only read one book, Half Blood Blues, which I wasn't fond of.

Unfortunately I've only read one book,

Darryl, from Cait's list, I recommend that you try Bloodletting and Miraculous Cures. It won the Giller Prize for this first-time author who is a physician in real life. The book follows the lives of several doctors from when they are medical students to working in a Toronto hospital during the SARS outbreak. I think you might like it. (or really hate it because you have the inside scoop).

>155 Nickelini: Oops...make that two books. I did read at least some of Bloodletting and Miraculous Cures, but I can't remember if I read the entire book or not. For some reason it didn't resonate deeply with me, and it may have been that I read it during a busy time at work and couldn't get into it. I'm tempted to read his new book The Headmaster's Wager; have either of you read it?

Oops, sorry Darryl, I somehow missed your post! I've yet to read anything by Vincent Lam, but Bloodletting and Miraculous Cures was very well received when it first came out, and I know that Margaret Atwood, in particular, championed it.

Interesting about The Edible Woman which lately I had been considering rereading, (maybe there's something about fall that makes us all think about going back to school and reading Margaret Atwood) but was afraid I would find it outdated. Glad I saw your post and can now put that time to something new. Marian Engel's Bear was another one I was considering for a reread, but would probably find the same thing.

Quite a list, but I have to ask about Canada east of the Ottawa River! I only see Wayne Johnston there.

141: That's an interesting list! I've read about half the authors and all of it has been good writing. I'll have to check out the other authors.

P.S. Crow Lake touched me so much, I immediately started reading it again as soon as I finished it.