Japaul22's 2013 reading log

Hi everyone! This will be my 5th year on LT and 2nd year in Club Read. I had a great reading year last year and learned a lot from all of you, so I'm back for more! This year will be a little different because I'm expecting my second child in February. Though I normally read about 75 books a year, I expect to read much less this year and possibly also a little bit easier books (heavier on mysteries and best sellers) than I would normally read. I'm basically giving myself permission ahead of time to just read for fun this year and not feel pressured to read a certain amount or quality of books.

To give you a feel for what I like to read, here are some favorites from 2012.

Best fiction:
5 stars
Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes
Alias Grace by Margaret Atwood
Bring up the Bodies by Hilary Mantel
A Place of Greater Safety by Hilary Mantel
Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller
The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov

4.5 stars
The Long Ships by Frans G. Bengtssen
The Stand by Stephen King
The Robber Bride by Margaret Atwood
The Turn of the Screw by Henry James
War and Remembrance by Herman Wouk
We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson
Excellent Women by Barbara Pym
Decline and Fall by Evelyn Waugh

Best Nonfiction:
5 stars
The Warmth of Other Suns by Isabel Wilkerson

4.5 stars
The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander
Apollo's Angels: A History of Ballet by Jennifer Homans
Catherine the Great: Portrait of a Woman by Robert K. Massie

Books Read in 2013:
January
1. Casino Royale by Ian Fleming
2. Morality Play by Barry Unsworth
3. Heart of Darkness, Norton Critical Edition by Joseph Conrad
4. When Christ and his Saints Slept by Sharon Kay Penman

February
5. Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn
6. Anna Karenina by Tolstoy
7. A Room With a View by E M Forster
8. Mary Barton by Elizabeth Gaskell

March
9. Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire by Amanda Foreman
10. The Garden of Evening Mists by Tan Twan Eng
11. The Coroner's Lunch by Colin Cotterill
12. The Forsyte Saga by John Galsworthy

April
13. Illuminations: A Novel of Hildegard Von Bingen by Mary Sharratt
14. Broken Harbor by Tana French

May
15. Of Human Bondage by W. Somerset Maugham
16. Setting Limits with your Strong Willed Child by Robert MacKenzie
17. Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami
18. Dissolution by C. J. Sansom
19. The Fever Tree by Jennifer McVeigh

June
20. Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
21. Gulag: A History by Anne Applebaum
22. The French Lieutenant's Woman by John Fowles

July
23. Inferno by Dan Brown
24. Life After Life by Kate Atkinson
25. The Lover by Marguerite Duras
26. A Passage to India by E. M. Forster

August
27. Possession: A Romance by A. S. Byatt
28. Dark Fire by C. J. Sansom
29. Sovereign by C. J. Sansom
30. A View of the Harbour by Elizabeth Taylor

September
31. Time and Chance by Sharon Kay Penman
32. Black Water by Joyce Carol Oates
33. Welcome to the Bed and Biscuit by Joan Carris
34. The Female Quixote by Charlotte Lennox
35. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime by Mark Haddon
36. The Summer Book by Tove Jansson
37. The Secret History by Donna Tartt
38. To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf

October
39. The Hours by Michael Cunningham
40. the Bell by Iris Murdoch
41. Virginia Woolf by Alexandra Harris
42. Silas Marner by George Eliot
43. There but for the by Ali Smith
44. Benjamin Britten: A Life for Music by Neil Powell
45. Winnie the Pooh by A.A. Milne
46. Suite Francaise by Irene Nemirovsky
47. Lives of Girls and Women by Alice Munro

November
48. Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides
49. Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino
50. Transatlantic by Colum McCann
51. Germinal by Emile Zola
52. Harvest by Jim Crace
53. The Thinking Reed by Rebecca West

December
54. The Annotated Emma by Jane Austen, annotated by David M. Shapard
55. The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton

Congratulations!

Congratulations, Jennifer, and I have your new thread starred. I have 3 of your favorite reads from 2012 on my reading list. Here's to another great year of reading, no matter how busy life becomes!

For anyone new to my thread, you'll see that typically I give my impressions and thoughts on a book rather than a detailed synopsis and review. Books that make a bigger impression on me, good or bad, will generally get a longer review.

#1 Casino Royale by Ian Fleming
I enjoyed this, the first book in the James Bond series, much more than I expected to. I chose it because its on the1001 books read before you die list, which I have been slowly chipping away at. I enjoyed it enough to continue with the series.

This book introduces Bond and gives some background that I know from the movies will help explain his motivation and personality in subsequent novels. This is a good mix of spy adventure, good writing, and suspense. I knew to expect the blatant sexism, but other than that, the book didn't feel dated as I thought it might.

Lots of fun but, whoops, now I've started yet another series.

Original publication date: 1953
Author's Nationality: British
Original Language: English
Length: 178 pages
Other books read by this author: none
Rating: 3.5 stars

The Long Ships was one of my favorite reads of 2012 too. I'm looking forward to following your reading this year--and congratulations on the new little one. Get lots of rest while you can.

Bring up the Bodies and Song of Achilles were some of my favorites from last year, too. I plan on reading The New Jim Crow in February for a Social Justice Theme Read I'm hosting on my blog. I'm glad so many people liked it!

#2 Morality Play by Barry Unsworth
This is an excellent book written about a 14th century troupe of actors who happen upon a town where the murder of a young boy has just taken place. A local woman has been arrested, but there is question whether she was really the murderer. The actors become obsessed with the murder and find out as many details as possible to act out the events of the murder for the town. Through this exercise they arrive at the truth of the mystery.

That short plot synopsis, intriguing as it may sound, does not do the book justice. Unsworth does a fantastic job of comparing the experience of acting to life itself. In fact, the book is layered with metaphors. He also uses subtle but chilling foreshadowing throughout the novel. The book combines the best of both worlds by being both highly readable and thought-provoking. I'll be looking for more of Unsworth's works.

Original publication date: 1995
Author's Nationality: british
Original Language: English
Length: 206 pages
Other books read by this author: none
Rating: 4.5 stars

Morality Play sounds great and a bit creepy. I like creepy :)

I've had Morality Play on my radar for a while, so thanks for reminding me about it.

Jennifer, I have Morality Play on my very very short list to read, glad you liked it and I am looking forward to reading it.

Agreed, Morality Play was a great read. :)

I put Morality Play on my wishlist for last year - glad to see you really liked it also.

Jennifer - Like Dan, Barry and DieF, I've had Morality Play on my wishlist for awhile and appreciate your bringing it back to my attention.

Just dropping by to say hello. I share a lot of your top reads and The English Patient is my all time favourite book so I hope you enjoy it too.

I haven't read Morality Play but did really like Sacred Hunger when I read it some time ago.

I've got your thread starred and good luck for February!

Helen

Glad to have sparked (or resparked) some interest in Morality Play. Just as encouragement, it's a short, fast, engaging read.

Haven't been posting or reading posts much because our Internet is out til Wednesday. I'll try to catch up after that!

A year of light reading sounds very appealing. You've made a good start!

The last three in your 4.5 stars fiction list are favourites of mine, and I also enjoyed Catherine the Great.

japaul22, every time you skip a few days here I assume that the event has occurred and we just won't see you for a few months.

I know! No baby yet, just super busy and reading two long books - Anna Karenenina and the critical edition of Heart of Darkness (500 dense pages).

My due date is Feb 20, so I'm hoping I still have a few weeks to get some stuff organized and some reading done!

Jennifer - Is it the Norton Critical Edition of Heart of Darkness that you are reading? I just finished reading a short and clearly non-critical edition and I am now wondering what I have missed in those other 400 odd pages.

Yes, Linda. I'm actually enjoying the articles and criticism more than the book! In my edition, the text of the book is 77 pages, but is 504 pages total. There are articles on the Congo from the early 1900s, letters to King Leopold about the atrocities, info on Conrad's time in the Congo, contemporary criticism/analysis of the book, and current analysis of the book - about racism and sexism. It's pretty fascinating.

linda and japaul, I hadn't realized there was such a thing as the Norton Critical edition. Yet another good reason to reread this.

#3 Heart of Darkness, Norton Critical Edition by Joseph Conrad, Ed. by Paul Armstrong

This was an interesting book to read, following closely on the heels of one of my last reads of 2012, the nonfiction book King Leopold's Ghost. Heart of Darkness itself is the long short story or novella that gives some of Conrad's observations of his 6 month trip through the Congo. To be honest, the book itself didn't do much for me. I appreciated some of the literary techniques, such as the embedded narrator and the way he uses descriptive language. However, that descriptive language was also the book's downfall for me personally. It kept me too far removed from the actual story (or what I wanted to be the actual story)- the interaction between the native people who inhabited the region known as the Congo and the white explorers, colonists, invaders, whatever you want to call them! Instead this read as more of one man's obsession with the idea of another, Kurtz. I just didn't get that into it. I felt oddly that as much as the Congo should have been the main point of the book, the actual story could have really taken place anywhere and that bothered me.

However, the text of the book itself only comprised 77 pages of this 504 page critical edition. I did not read every essay word for word, but for the most part they were interesting and enlightening. Included are encyclopedia entries from the time the book was written, essays on race from the time period by people like Hegel and Darwin, contemporary responses to Heart of Darkness, and then more current essays on racism and sexism in the book and its worth as far as being read now. I haven't done this kind of in depth study on a book in quite some time and I enjoyed it, especially with a book that has caused as much controversy as this one.

I'm sorry I can't remember who suggested that I take the time to read this edition, but thank you to whoever it was and let me pass on the recommendation. I personally don't think I would have felt this book worth reading if not for the extra articles included.

Original publication date: 1899
Author's Nationality: british
Original Language: English
Length: 504 pages
Other books read by this author: none
Rating: 2.5 stars for the book, 4 stars for the edition

Enjoyed your thoughts on Heart of Darkness. I have also been impressed with The Norton Critical editions of other classic works. They are well worth a look for their in depth coverage.

I personally don't think I would have felt this book worth reading if not for the extra articles included.

Nice review, Jennifer. I haven't quite settled my thoughts on the book, but it was not what I was expecting and I think that may be contributing to a vague feeling that I have missed something. I am definitely now going to look for the Norton Critical edition.

Very interesting about the Norton Critical edition. It seems you went all out on this one.

My memory is that it's not an easy book, and it's not one the draws in the reader. Plus Conrad isn't exactly critical of the abuse. He's more interested in other things.

Thanks Bas and Linda - the Norton edition definitely made this a different reading experience.

Dan - yes, you hit the nail on the head. The native people of the Congo are such an afterthought in the book and instead he focuses on this obsession with Kurtz, which I didn't feel was really flushed out either.

I used the Norton Critical Edition when I studied that book not once but twice at uni. Definitely helpful!

#4 When Christ and his Saints Slept by Sharon Kay Penman

I really enjoy Penman's historical fiction. This is the first in her series that centers on Henry II and Eleanor of Aquitaine. This book sets up the story by focusing on rivals for the throne, Stephen and Maude. Maude is Henry's mother. I will admit that I didn't love this one as much as her Welsh trilogy or The Sunne in Splendor, but it was still lots of fun. I like how she seems to stick to the facts as far as events and battles and such but feels free to embellish character the way she sees it. That suits my taste for historical fiction. Looking forward to continuing the series this year.

Original publication date: 1995
Author's Nationality: American
Original Language: English
Length: 746 pages
Other books read by this author: the Sunne in Splendour, the Welsh trilogy
Rating: 3.5 stars

Sounds like a great series for the year ahead of you!

I watched The Lion in Winter last year, which did a great job of setting up the rivalries among Henry's and Eleanor's children. Amazing to see Anthony Hopkins as a young man.

Chiming in really late with a vote for Morality Play and most of Unsworth's other work.

Also going way back to Heart of Darkness, the actual story could have really taken place anywhere and that bothered me...I loved it because it was a universal story. I think that's one of the reasons it translated so well, along with Dispatches, to Apocalypse Now. I reread it after reading King Leopold's Ghost and what you say really stood out then, but the character himself still rang true.

For more good fiction on that area, there is Robert Edric's The Book of the Heathen and T C Boyle's wonderful Water Music (touchstone not working).

#5 Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn

Wow, that was one messed up book. This is the story of two extremely disturbed people who are married to each other. Things start out fairly normal and the marriage seems to deteriorate at first in a predictable way. Both the husband and the wife take turns narrating the events and you quickly realize you are being manipulated - probably by both of them - and the question becomes who is telling closer to the truth. The basic plot of the missing wife (was she abducted, murdered by the husband, did she run away and set him up?) can be a little Lifetime movie-esque, but the book sure was a page turner. And actually, though I had low expectations, I found the writing kind of interesting and well done. I liked that the author infused a lot of humor into what should be a really dark, thriller-type book. If you're looking for a diversion and don't mind reading about some really psychotic people, you might enjoy this. And, just a warning, the end is just as messed up as the rest of the book!

Original publication date: 2012
Author's Nationality: American
Original Language: English
Length: 432 pages
Other books read by this author: none
Rating: 3.5 stars

Gone Girl sounds messed up, but interesting!

Lisa - it's definitely not high art, but its a page turner! Think beach read or car crash you can't look away from.

Hi Japaul - Anna Karennina is one of my all time favorites. I only read it last year and really really enjoyed it, with some surprise! How are you liking it?

Merrikay

Merrikay- Anna Karenina is one of my favorites too. This is my third time reading it, and this time I'm really noticing how realistically Tolstoy portrays the different marriages and relationships. Nothing is all sunshine and roses. I also am appreciating the long descriptions of the mowing and hunting trips, something I was probably annoyed by or skimmed through in the past. I'm about 3/4s done, so should have some final thoughts soon.

I've been avoiding Gone Girl, but I'm a big fan of Anna Karenina and definitely had a different perspective on it when I read it in my 40s versus when I read it in my teens!

Hi everyone!
Isaac Charles Paul was born on 2/7 at 7:58 am! We're both doing well. Obviously might not be posting as often for a while but I'm hoping to finish Anna Karenina soon.

Congratulations to mother and baby! I'm very happy for you.

Adding my congratulations! Good luck with Anna (and Isaac Charles Paul)!

Best to both of you. I'm sure Anna would understand any delays!

Wonderful news. Congratulations!

Hooray! Have fun getting to know young Isaac.

I love that name! Blessings on you and your new baby. :)

Congrats! I hope you can enjoy this time--it goes so fast.

Yahoo! Hope you get lots of rest and enjoy every minute!

Congratulations!

Congratulations

Congratulations!

Welcome Isaac Charles Paul!

Congrats!

More congratulations!

:)

Thanks, everyone! We are all happy and healthy and my older son is adjusting well to being a big brother. I'm typing this on my phone while holding a sleeping baby, so apologies for typos!

#6 Anna Karenina by Tolstoy
This was a third time reread for me and is still one of my favorite books. This time I appreciated the reality that Tolstoy approaches relationships with. No one, even those in a compatible relationship like Levin and Kitty, has an easy time of marriage. I also think the arc of Anna and Vronsky's relationship is very well done. This time I also enjoyed the country scenes, such as the mowing chapter with Levin. Sad to say that most of the religious philosophy from Levin still was not very interesting to me.

As a side note, I just happened to be reading the chapters where Kitty goes into labor when I was in early labor and still reading. I think I'll always remember that!

Ah -in labor together! So funny! and seriously, a great memory. My family still laughs because Lady Di and I were in labor at the same time, but you win that one!

Congrats again.

#7 A Room With a View by E.M. Forster
This charming book completely suited my current mood. The heroine is Lucy, who we first meet on a trip to Italy with her spinster cousin. There are, of course, competing suitors to marry Lucy, but though the outcome is predictable, all the characters were interesting and memorable and the travel scenes a lot of fun.

4 stars

A Room with a view one of my favourite books and one of my favourite films. The movie particularly has the warmest of glows.

Hope you and Isaac are doing fine.

Some late congratulations for the very exciting news! The "Anna Karenina + labor" story sounds like a classic!

#8 Mary Barton by Elizabeth Gaskell
Yet another book by Gaskell that I thoroughly enjoyed. This is Gaskell's first novel and, like North and South, focuses on the plight of the working poor in the Manchester mills. I think I liked this book even better, though, as I felt a deeper connection to the characters than I did in N&S. This book really keeps the focus on the lower classes and finds a beautiful love story there. The family relationships are also deep and fleshed out.

The focus is Mary bArton, a young woman whose love interests parallel her growth as a person. There is a lot of drama, including a murder, and I found this 19th century novel a real page turner.

4 stars

I really enjoyed North and South and so I will definitely get to Mary Barton soon.

Think I'll try Mary Barton also. Thanks!

While I think North and South is the more mature book, Mary Barton has great characters and was more engaging to me.

The unfinished Wives and Daughters is still my favorite.

Mary Barton needs to go on my growing pile of books. I loved North and South .

#9 Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire by Amanda Foreman

This is a highly readable biography of Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire, who lived in the second half of the 18th century. She was notable as part of one of the wealthiest families in England, the Spencers (also Princess Diana's ancestors). She was the leader of society and instrumental in setting the fashions of the day, including ridiculously big hats. She was also a force for the Whig party. She wrote poetry, studied minerals, and was, unfortunately addicted to gambling.

Things I liked about this book were the intro into Britsh politics of the time. I knew a lot about the corresponding times in America and France, but not so much about Britain. I also enjoyed all the political cartoons the author includes about Georgiana.

Unfortunately, I just couldn't really like Georgiana. Seemed like too much of a drama queen and I was really annoyed by the super wealthy people always in debt and strapped for cash.

Good book about an annoying person.

3 stars

#10 The Garden of Evening Mists by Tan Twan Eng
I loved, with minor reservations, this book that looks back at one woman's experience in WWII. This book takes place in Malaysia in roughly the present time (probably the 1990s if I had to guess). It is the story of Judge Yun Ling Teoh who was a prisoner of war and her relationship with Aritomo, a Japanese gardener to Emperor Hirohito transplanted to Malaya, who she met after the war ended. The plot sounds convoluted because there are three time periods that Eng describes. There is the present in which Teoh recalls her experiences and writes them down in anticipation of losing her memory to a brain dysfunction, Teoh's experience as a POW in a Japanese camp where she lost two fingers and her sister was made to prostitute herself to the camp workers (her sister and everyone else in the camp was killed there), and the 1950s where Teoh meets the Japanese gardener Aritomo and begins to confront her war experience.

I loved that I learned so much that I didn't know about Malaysia - the cultural clashes of its people, the war experience, and many customs. Because there is also a lot of Japanese culture include, I also learned a lot about it, specifically the gardening and tattoo traditions. In fact, in this book it seems that every character is a different nationality or ethnic group. That was the most fascinating part of the book for me. I had to do a lot of googling and consulting maps to get everything straight in my head. The only thing I didn't really like about this book was some of the relationships between the characters. The book was so rich in detail about culture and war history that this was easy to overlook, but I found some of the relationships unrealistic (especially the love relationship between Yun Ling and Aritomo) and the characters a bit less developed than I would have liked.

Overall, though, this is a fantastic book and the pros definitely outweigh the cons. I would recommend it.

I really loved the Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire but could see how someone could find Georgiana annoying - she did have a lot of debt and rich people problems.

Another good review of The Garden of Evening Mists, which everyone seems to like.

Good review of The Garden of the Evening Mists. Glad you liked it.

I am really enjoying your thread. We have several books in common, either from this year or last.

#11 The Coroner's Lunch by Colin Cotterill
This is the first book in a mystery series featuring coroner Dr. Siri set in Laos in 1976. The setting, politics, and main character really make this a fun series and I'm so glad I found them through so many positive LT reviews!

Laos in the 70s has recently been won over by the communist party and politics definitely comes in to play in the book, though everything is done in a light, tongue in cheek manner that was very appropriate for a mystery. Dr. Siri has been a loyal member of the communist party for years and thinks that once the communists take over, since he's in his seventies, he'll be able to retire. Actually, the new political party has other ideas and makes him the only coroner for the country. Unfortunately, he has no coroner experience. He and his misfit team figure out how to go out their business and on the way solve some murders. There is also a kind of weird idea that Dr. Siri can commune with the dead through an ancient spirit that inhabits him. Sounds weird and I wasn't convinced at first, but it works somehow.

Bottom line, I've found a new mystery series that I can see myself actually reading all of.

It's a great series isn't it? I like it too. Haven't read any in awhile.

Just catching up with you, Jennifer, and making note of some great reading to add to my list. But more importantly, belated congratulations!

#12 The Forsyte Saga by John Galsworthy
I've been reading this 1000 page novel made up of three novels and 2 short interludes all month and I think I'm going to miss it now that its over. This book follows several generations of the Forsyte family, an upper middle class family in England the end of the 19th cent and through WWI. The Forsytes and their characteristics become a metaphor for the whole upper middle class society.

The book revolves around the miserable marriage of Soames Forsyte to Irene. Soames treats Irene as his property, and with marriage laws being what they are at the time, in essence she is his property. Soames is possibly the most despicable character I've met in literature. Irene falls in love with a young architect and ends up escaping Soames. In the next book, Soames is back, wanting a child and needing Irene to comply or divorce him. She ends up falling in love with a different Forsyte and marrying him. In the third book, the children of Soames and Irene's subsequent marriages of course fall in love.

The plot seems soap opera-esque, but it's all so tastefully and artfully done, that it definitely reads like literature. Irene is a main character, but she's so passive that the story just happens around her. But there are strong women characters, like June and Holly, so the book doesn't fall into the annoying trap of no female characters. Soames is despicable, but so fleshed out through the book that he's understandable and therefore even more disgusting. I didn't love the last of the three parts because I found the relationship between the youngest Forsyte generation to be kind of annoying, but I was happy with the ending.

Overall, I loved the experience of reading this epic novel.

4 stars

This has been on my list for years. Maybe this year I will finally get to it.

Well done for reading the Forsyte Saga. When I see this book, I immediately think of the 1967 BBC TV series that ran for 26 episodes and had a huge following. The series had Susan Hampshire and Nyree Dawn Porter, two of the most beautiful actresses of that era and that I think ensured the shows success. I am sure the book is something to get caught up in and perhaps I will get to it one day. I enjoyed your review.

Nice review.

I've been watching the 2002 miniseries of The Forsyte Saga which has significantly cut into my reading time this month! I very much enjoyed it despite some rather drastic liberties taken with the plot, especially at the end. It was well done, though it captures a different spirit than the book. I would like to see the earlier tv version, but it isn't available through my Netflix streaming and I don't think I'm interested enough to search it out some other way. Overall, as usual,the book is better but both are worth delving into.

#13 Illuminations: A Novel of Hildegard von Bingen by Mary Sharratt
I'm going to suggest that there are too many books out there to spend time on this one. I got to about 65% through the book (I was reading on my kindle) before deciding that it was a waste of time, so I plugged away and finished it, but I thought it was pretty mediocre.

As is evident from the title, this is historical fiction based on the life of Hildegard von Bingen. She was a nun/abbess in the 12th century who is well known for her musical compositions, writings on the church and the role of women in the church, and her possible sainthood and visions. She has been adopted both by highly traditional religious orders and modern feminists for different reasons - quite a feat! I've been interested in her since learning of her in my music history classes and thought this would be a fun way to learn a little more about her life.

The beginning of this book was pretty interesting. Hildegard was sent as a child to be a companion to a wealthy woman who chose the life of an anchorite. Anchorites "anchor" a monastery by being literally walled up in a small corner of the church 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Hildegard grows up in this cell until she is released at the age of 39 when her companion dies. After that, the book takes a nose dive. The writing gets worse and worse and the author makes up several relationships that just don't ring true. The visions and mysticism get old for someone like me who doesn't really believe in that kind of thing.

I wish I'd just read a biography instead.

2 stars

My reading has really slowed this month for several reasons. One was watching the miniseries of the Forsyte Saga, which I don't regret. Also, my maternity leave ended on April 8 (8 weeks is seriously not enough!) so I'm balancing home and work life again and don't have as much free time.

I'm still reading and enjoying Of Human Bondage and am about to start Broken Harbor though.

Eight weeks is nowhere near enough!

If you liked Tana French's previous books, I think you will like Broken Harbor.

Everything I know about Hildegard von Bingen I learnt from this podcast, but it certainly sounds like she had a fascinating life. Sorry this book didn't live up to the reality.

Thanks for the warning about the Mary Sharratt book

Thanks so much for the podcast link, wandering_star! It was much more interesting than the book I read!

Barry, definitely skip the book and check out the podcast for a short intro to Hildegard.

#14 Broken Harbor by Tana French
This was another page turner in Tana French's mystery series. It's the fourth in the series and she continues the method of choosing a minor character from her previous book to be the first person voice of the current book. I love that technique because it keeps her writing fresh even though there are other similarities between the books. This book got back to the creepiness that was in her first book In the Woods. I liked it a lot, but not as much as the other books she's written. However, I will eagerly read any book she writes next.

3.5 stars

I am a fan of the Tana French books. I think my favorite of the four is Faithful Place. I wonder which character she will choose to narrate the next book.

I think I'd have to stick with the first one, In the Woods, as my favorite. Part of me is still hoping she works her way back to that unfinished story some day. I'm not sure who she'll pick as the next narrator . I didn't feel like there were as many options as in the other books. Maybe Quigley? Or one of the crime scene or coroner guys? What did you think?

It could be the Rookie, but I think I'd like to see the other guy from the first book as the lead in one of her books. I think his name was Sam? It has been a while since I read it, but I liked his character.

Sam was wonderful! But I liked that Scorcher was not someone I'd like in real life, but that she made him so sympathetic. I'm hoping for the Rookie for the next book. My favorite French novel was The Likeness.

#15 Of Human Bondage by W. Somerset Maugham
I've been reading this book, considered to be Maugham's masterpiece, for the past month. To be honest, I found large sections to be pretty boring and kept wondering if anything was going to happen. The book has an autobiographical feel to it, in that it moves slowly through the life of the main character, Philip, from his early childhood through his early 30s when I would say he finally matures and becomes an adult. Despite the moments of boredom, I ended up thinking this is a brilliant book. The pace is slow but very in depth, and Philip's experiences, relationships, and growth as a person feel authentic. I thought the exploration of youthful love as being repeatedly stronger from one individual in the relationship (sometimes with Philip being the one loved and sometimes with him loving) was interesting and remarkably true to life, especially among youths. I also appreciated Maugham's insights into the poor and the opportunity to work being so important to one's self esteem. I liked that the themes in this book were both clear and subtle at the same time - Maugham isn't beating you over the head with a moral but there are several there.

I have no doubt that this is one of those books that I will continue to ponder for a long time and to me that is always a sign of the best books.

4.5 stars

Enjoyed reading your thoughts about Of Human Bondage I read this a long time ago, so long ago I can't remember anything about it.

I recently bought a 2-volume set of Maugham's short stories and am anxious to sample from them. Of Human Bondage is also on my list of books that I would like to re-read. Like Barry, I read it so long ago that I don't remember much about it, except the lingering feeling that I liked it.

Anyone know how the movie compares?

Hi everyone! Took a couple of tries, but i finally figured out how to upload a photo. Here's Isaac at 3 months old. Notice the shirt!

Too bad about Illuminations - I'd be interested in reading a bio or Hildegard von Bingen but it sounds like that one isn't worth the time.

I had some of the same problems with The Forsyte Saga and as a result didn't like it as much - Irene's character and her relationships felt very underdeveloped to me and the last section seemed rushed and too-coincidental. Also, I felt like there was a lot of jumping around so the problems of the other family members (besides Soames) weren't fully developed. I did wonder how the miniseries compared since it seems to be very beloved.

>92 japaul22: - Adorable - and I love the shirt!

So cute! He looks ready to read....

Adorable!

Oh my he is SO cute! Also love the shirt and the guitars behind it!

>92 japaul22: Sweet!

>92 japaul22: What a cutie!

Thanks, everyone! I think he's pretty cute too! ;-)

#16 Setting Limits with your Strong Willed Child by Robert MacKenzie
I have a three year old. Therefore, I've gotten interested again in reading some parenting books, both about discipline methods and child development books, so you'll all be seeing some of that in my reading this year.

This particular book really resonated with me. The method of discipline seemed very natural to me - but gave me a way to get out of the constant reminding, nagging, and second chances that I've fallen into giving my 3 year old. Basically, you stay calm and matter of fact while disciplining, use logical consequences or unemotional time outs, and be consistent. That's the limit setting section. There is also a section on how to teach your child to make better choices and practice good behavior.

The author includes tons of real life examples, many of which I experience on a daily basis, and I can see this method working for me and my son. The book is well thought out and clearly explained. I had several friends recommend it to me and I'm glad they did.

#17 Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami
I've been interested by all of the reviews I've seen on LT for Japanese authors in the last year or so inspired by the Author Theme Reads Group, but I wasn't convinced any of the books would really appeal to me. This one caught my eye and got positive reviews from some readers whose tastes often align with mine so I decided to give it a try. I'd say I had a mixed response.

On one hand, Murakami writes memorable, meaningful characters. Toru Watanabe is the narrator of this book. He remembers a year in his life, 1969, when he was in college and torn between two loves, Naoko and Midori. Naoko is in a mental institution after the suicide of her high school sweetheart and Midori is a larger than life, brutally honest, funny fellow college student of Toru's. I loved the shifting atmosphere that Murakami can create and think I'll remember this book for a long time to come.

However, there were some things that I didn't love. I had a hard time with the flow of language and especially the dialogue in the book, much of which sounded kind of stilted and unnatural to me. I'm not sure if that's a translation issue? I did get used to it the farther into the book I got. I also think the book would have meant more to me if I'd lived in 1969 Japan. I have a feeling that Murakami recreates that particular time period well in this book, but I wouldn't know since I wasn't alive then and certainly wasn't living in Japan! I had no idea what the student riots were about that are referred to repeatedly.

So overall, I loved the characters in the book and the atmosphere and could sense a brilliance in the writing, but the stilted language and my lack of knowledge about the time period detracted a bit from the overall picture. I'd be curious to try something else by Murakami, though, and I'd call it a successful first foray into Japanese novels.

I'm glad you are making the foray! Murakami wouldn't have been my first choice but I'm glad that you've found some enjoyment. Can't wait to see what you choose next.

Lilisin (and anyone else!) - where would you suggest I go next for another Japanese author and specific work?
Thanks!

Black Rain by Masuji Ibuse would absolutely be at the top of my list of recommendations, Jennifer. It's a very powerful novel set in the aftermath of the bombing of Hiroshima.

Silence by Shusaku Endo will probably remain one of my favorite books. That one I cannot recommend highly enough. Endo is the only Japanese author I've read, though. I've seen many great reviews on Black Rain and The Bells of Nagasaki here on LT also.

Of the Japanese novels I read last year for the Author Theme Reads group, and also a few I read earlier, my favorites were The Sea and Poison and When I Whistle by Shusaku Endo, Kokoro by Natsume Soseki, and Shipwrecks by Akira Yoshimura. I found Silence very challenging because the depth of the religious faith and the proselytizing were hard for me to take. For the theme read, I also read a book each by Yukio Mishima and Ryu Murakami and didn't like either of them, as well as two books by Kobo Abe which I found extremely odd and disturbing.

When I get to a computer again I'll post some links for you to check out but Rebecca's recommendation is more or less what I recommend for "beginners". These are the books I've promoted throughout the years on LT.

Rebecca's recommendation is more or less what I recommend for "beginners". These are the books I've promoted throughout the years on LT.

That's how I came to read them, Lilisin! I owe nearly all my Japanese reading to you.

Thanks for all of the recommendations! I'm looking forward to exploring them!

One of the reasons I enjoyed Norwegian Wood so much was because it took me back to 1969 and so it was interesting to read your review, when you recognise that although you have no personal knowledge of the times you still enjoyed the book.

It was a near first foray into Japanese literature for me too and so I will be taking advantage of those recommendations from lilisin and Rebecca.

#18 Dissolution by C. J. Sansom
Yay, another mystery series that I am going to have to try to keep up with! (That's half sarcasm and half real pleasure!) This is the first book in a series featuring Matthew Shardlake as lawyer turned detective. It is set in Tudor England and Shardlake is working at Cromwell's request. I love this time period and the mystery part was fun, so overall a win for me. I'll be reading more in this series.

4 stars

Jennifer, I have listened to the first two and will listen to the third soon. I agree - excellent series!

NanaCC - I think your reviews pushed me over the edge to start the series now so thanks! I already bought the second one for my kindle so I don't lose track of this series.

I have been eyeing the Shardlake series for awhile now. It does sound like great fun.

#19 The Fever Tree by Jennifer McVeigh
This book was received through the Early Reviewers program.
McVeigh's debut novel is the story of Frances Irvine, a young woman in Victorian England who is orphaned and left on her own with no money or prospects. She agrees to marry Edwin, one of her father's relatives who is a doctor in South Africa, and travels there to join him. On the boat, she meets and falls in love with William Westwood, the over-confident nephew of the biggest name in diamond mining in Kimberly, South Africa. The novel follows the shifting romance between Frances, William, and Edwin and at the same time explores the exploitation of the natives working the diamond mines, the beauty and hardships of life on the veldt, and the coverup of a smallpox epidemic by the English that ends up decimating Kimberly.

I am of two minds about this book. On the one hand it is a book that reads quickly and was hard to put down - I can't pretend I wasn't engaged. The parts that worked best are when McVeigh sticks to the history of the diamond mines, Edwin's fight against those trying to hide the smallpox epidemic, and the description of the wildlife and hardships of living in the environment of South Africa in the late 1800s. Unfortunately, this book also includes the main character - a whiny, unable to adapt woman - and a ridiculously obvious love triangle. Every aspect of Frances's decisions and her shifting attitudes towards these two men was completely predictable and annoying. The publisher tries to draw parallels to Gone With the Wind, I book I grew up loving, and there is ZERO comparison between these characters and depth of Margaret Mitchell's characters. The comparison raises the readers expectations way too high and I question the decision to market the book that way. It may draw readers in, but it will leave them wanting much more.

Overall, it would be a good in between book. A beach read for the serious reader or a stretch for the kind of reader who mainly sticks to romances or pop fiction because of its setting in South Africa.

3 stars

#20 Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
After the Gone With the Wind comparisons in the last book I read, The Fever Tree, I decided it was finally time to reread my guilty pleasure, Gone With the Wind. I stress the guilty in that sentence. I have been in love with Scarlett, Rhett, Melanie, and Ashley since I was very young (I think I first saw the movie in second grade - what were my parents thinking?!!). I've seen the movie countless times and read the book many times as well. However, I don't think I've approached the book as a full-fledged adult and I was really nervous to. I've always known enough to understand that the book is horribly racist and by no means an accurate account of slavery and reconstruction, and as an adult I've been embarrassed to love it so deeply knowing that and especially knowing that there are too many people who still have a nostalgic view of the South (read Confederates in the Attic!!).

With that said, I still love this book. You don't have to believe in the way of life it espouses to appreciate the masterful weaving of a historical time period with its characters. In my mind, this is historical fiction as it should be. These four main characters are who they are because of the time they lived and could not be transported to some other era and still be themselves. The dialogue in this book is amazing (as evidenced by the fact that the movie uses it almost word for word and it works) and I find the deeply flawed characters so believable, right down to the unhappy ending. Every time I read it I squirm at the poor decisions of the main characters and wish they would make different choices. But every time I realize that Mitchell's success stems from keeping the characters lifelike - poor decisions and all. There are no happy endings or neatly tied up story lines in this book. Speaking of the ending, I love the loose ending as it lets your imagination conclude what will happen. Every time I read it I think something different about what will happen to them all without Melanie and whether or not Scarlett and Rhett can find a way to be together.

There is definitely an element of childlike pleasure to reading this book for me as I read it first as a child (I was probably about 12 when I first read the book). I found that I can enjoy this book with out enjoying the society that it esteems.

Reading it this time has also prompted me to pick up Eric Foner's, Reconstruction: America's Unfinished Revolution, the Pulitzer Prize winner that has been sitting on my shelf for too long.

Gone With The Wind is one of my favorites too. The racist element is the part that always make me wonder why it is one of my favorites, but the story is really so good. And I think I look at it as a product of the time it was written. Even reading Agatha Christie and Dorothy Sayers, you find a bit of racism in the stories that prickles my nerves, but I love their stories. Again I look at it as a product of the times in which they were written.

and if anyone finds anything without sexism in it, please let me know! - anything put out by a feminist press doesn't count. My point is - if I limit myself to reading only things with no sexism, I'm going to be out of reading material, right?

Japaul - you don't need to apologize to anyone for loving Gone with the Wind!

#21 Gulag: A History by Anne Applebaum
Another big thank you due to my fellow LTers who recommended this book. There are many excellent reviews that detail the content of this book, so I'm planning to just point out a few things I learned and the things that surprised me most.

First of all, the reaction I got from friends and coworkers as I carried this book along was interesting. I got two main reactions - either a joke about being "sent to the Gulag" or "sent to Siberia" or "what's a gulag?".

Well. People don't joke about Nazi concentration camps and everybody knows about them. The Gulag involved millions of people, millions died (though there weren't systematic mass murders), millions were forcibly removed from their homes and condemned to certain death in remote locations and yet many people know nothing about this. Even Russians don't want to talk about it.

To be fair, I personally knew very little about the Gulag. I learned that so-called political prisoners were lumped into prisons with actual criminals. I learned that the camps were tasked with jobs that were impossible to complete and also tasked with major projects that were no use to anyone, like hundreds of miles of roads and railroads that were never used. I learned that most of the political prisoners weren't really very political at all ( not like they were out protesting Stalin or something). And that those arrested weren't just one ethnicity, religion, or economic class - they really crossed all sections of the Soviet Union. I also learned that there were many, many people outside the Gulag who were exiled but aren't counted as technically part of the Gulag.

Basically, almost everything I read in this book was news to me and I'm very much looking forward to Applebaum's next book.

I too have heard about this on LT, and I really do have to read this one. As a child, I met relatives and family friends who where in the Gulag and in Concentration camps. The stories are important.

One simple story: My grandfather--a German speaking Mennonite--fled southern Russian (now the Ukraine) in 1926. One day in the mid-1970s he was working in his garden in western Canada, and a neighbour from Russia walked into his backyard. She had recently been released from the Gulag and came to Canada to join her family--50 odd years of her life for being a foreign speaking Christian. (Sounds like a crime to me.)

119 People don't know about them and don't joke about them. Really good point. I get so tired of people saying "That could never happen again" when it has happened repeatedly. Sounds like an important book.

Gulag: A History sounds like a MUST read to me.

Gulag was a GREAT book. I had mixed feelings about Applebaum's more recent book, Iron Curtain: The Crushing of Eastern Europe 1944-56, about the Soviet takeover of Poland, East Germany, and Hungary -- it wasn't as compelling or as rigorous or as beautifully written as Gulag.

Nickelini - thanks for sharing that story. The amount of people that were part of the gulag system is staggering and the range if time it covered.

Rebecca - sorry to hear you didn't enjoy Iron Curtain as much. I'm still intending to read it, but I'll lower my expectations a bit.

I am finding myself still wishing I knew more about Soviet life in general during the Gulag time period. I wonder just how different life was outside vs. inside. I don't get the impression that anyone besides the very top echelon was living very comfortably. (Not trying to negate the trauma of the gulag)

I'm also still thinking about Applebaum's observation that Russians do not want to talk about the Gulag. I think she may be right that so many people were involved in running them that there's a lot of silent guilt and not wanting to dredge up the past. I also was interested in the sentiment that even those who survived the Gulag have a nostalgia for the power of the Soviet Union. That's hard to believe to me.

Mk- you're right about needing to learn from the past. I actually found myself thinking about our own US prison system and the mass incarceration of minorities (the New Jim Crow). Obviously the physical prison conditions don't compare, but I nevertheless think our country needs to think about our prison system as well and not turn a blind eye to unfair laws and targeted arrests.

Ok, off my high horse!

I am reading Gulag at the moment (although slowly, as it's rather depressing reading) and agree with everything you say. A lot has surprised me, even though I have read a couple of gulag memoirs, and I think it's a very important book.

>126 wandering_star: it took me over a month to read it. The middle section about life in the camps was really hard to read.

If any of you want to read something even more depressing and horrifying than Gulag, you should read Bloodlands: Europe between Hitler and Stalin, which is stunning, chilling, and important. In discussing the ways in which the author describes the "deliberate mass murder" of "conservatively" 14 million civilians in the "bloodlands" of eastern Europe. He makes the point that a lot of this is opaque to westerners because it was happening behind the iron curtain or in lands "liberated" by the USSR rather than western armies at the end of World War II.

Thanks for the tip, Rebecca. I don't think I have the stomach for it right now, but I will put it on the list!

#22 The French Lieutenant's Woman by John Fowles
I cannot decide whether I loved this book or was annoyed by it. Fowles wrote this Victorian era novel in the 1960s, but it never struck me as historical fiction. I guess it felt more like a writing exercise with really well thought out characters. Fowles inserts himself into the book, exploring his control or lack thereof over the characters, and comments on Victorian era psyche from the perspective of the 1960s. He also supplies 3 different endings to the book, never really saying which he feels is the right one.

I found this all interesting and annoying at the same time. I think it was even more annoying because the characters are so interesting and the plot so familiar (at the beginning at least) that I kind of wanted it to just be a straight ahead Victorian novel. I think it's kind of brilliant that Fowles was able to mesh these two things but it was also kind of jarring to read.

This is one of those books that I'll have to think about for awhile.

I am also really curious about the movie. I wonder how it manages to incorporate the present day voice into the Victorian story, or if it just ignores it? I don't often watch movies, but I might need to make the time for this one.

3.5 stars (at the moment)

I am also really curious about the movie. I wonder how it manages to incorporate the present day voice into the Victorian story, or if it just ignores it?

I like the movie a lot--it's well done and clever. Meryl Streep and Jeremy Irons play modern day actors who are filming the story, so there are two parallel stories going on.

Interesting! I like the thought of the movie coming up with its own way to convey the present commentary on a past era. Maybe I will have to find time for it sooner rather than later.

I saw the movie when I was a teenager - and I can still remember it all these years later! That must say something good about it since I can't remember what I had for breakfast yesterday.

Interesting comments on The French Lieutenant's Woman. It's increased my curiosity quite a bit. I read The Collector and really loved it.

#23 Inferno by Dan Brown
This is the latest Robert Langdon thriller. Again, Langdon traces historical clues and solves puzzles and symbols to solve a crime. This time everything revolves around Dante Alighieri and the Divine Comedy and a possible plague that is about to be released into the world.

I have to say that I didn't like this one very much. Not like his other books are high art or anything, but this was not very intricate, didn't have very interesting puzzles, and I found the whole premise pretty unbelievable. It was mainly chase scenes.

I wouldn't recommend it.

2 stars

Glad to see you got around to Gulag - a very important book. I agree with Rebecca that Iron Curtain wasn't as good, but that was because I found Gulag to be fantastic while Iron Curtain was merely good and very informative. I think part of the reason was that "the takeover of Eastern Europe" is a much larger topic so Applebaum did more jumping around and the analysis was necessarily shallower. I also thought the personal stories weren't seamlessly woven in as in Gulag. Still, I would definitely recommend it and I did learn a lot from reading it.

I'm currently reading The Whisperers: Private Life in Stalin's Russia right now (well, working up to pick it back up again after I stopped during my reading break) and that one is an oral history of the lives of ordinary Soviet citizens.

The French Lieutenant's Woman is on the shelf - I'll admit your review made me want to pick it up sooner rather than later. I like metafiction and Victorian novels, a mashup would be great.

#24 Life After Life by Kate Atkinson
There have been a lot of great reviews of this book lately, so I not sure I have too much to add. I definitely enjoyed it. The main character, Ursula, dies repeatedly and comes back for another chance at living. Sometimes the point at which she dies is because of something she has chosen to do or not do and sometimes it seems like pure fate. As she relives her life, she seems to remember little things and have stronger feelings towards people and events in her past lives and almost seems to realize what is happening. The whole thing is rather odd when you really analyze it, but Atkinson's success lies in choosing to just let it all unfold and not try to extensively explain what's going on.

In the beginning of the book I found it easy to keep Ursula's lives separate and see the differences between them, both for Ursula and the family and friends she effects, but as the book went on I just started to think of all of her separate experiences as creating the one person she was. I'm not sure if that was Atkinson's intent, but it was the only way I could make sense of things.

All in all, I thought the idea was great, the writing captivating, and the characters interesting, so it worked for me, but part of me thinks something about the book could have been a bit better. Can't put my finger on what exactly, though.

4 stars

#25 The Lover by Marguerite Duras
Huh? I'm not sure I really understood this book, my first attempt at a work by Duras. It's an autobiographical novel about a young white girl and her affair with an older Chinese man in Indochina. The title suggests this is the main narrative thread, but the narrator's relationship with her everchanging mother and her two brothers is also central. The problem for me was that I felt like I didn't have enough inside information to understand what was really going on. This was more like a series of musings and I didn't have the necessary background information to fill in the gaps.

I found the writing style unique and interesting. Words like misty, meandering, and dreamy come to mind. I also found my internal reading voice reading the words in monotone. Duras also shifts point of view subtly - using "I" at the beginning and "she" by the end. Not sure why.

This was an interesting reading experience, but I think I need to read more of Duras's writing to truly get it.

3 stars

Isaac is adorable and that's a great picture. yes, i'm catching up...with the last two and half months.

You have been reading a lot of interesting books - Maugham, fowles, Mitchell, the Gulag book, Murakami. That is a wonderful review of Gone with the Winds. And I really enjoyed reading your impression of On Human Bondage. The Duras sounds curious, I'm not familiar with that author. Life After Life sounds terrific. Anyway, enjoyed catching up.

I really liked Life After Life and found the concept interesting. It made me want to read it again someday to see if there were things I missed the first time around. I've never read The French Lieutenant's Woman. I remember being interested in it way back when. I might give it a go. The only Dan Brown I've read is The Davinci Code, and I really haven't been tempted to try another.

You have certainly been busy. :)

I just bought The Lover, because Duras is the author for the third quarter in the Author Theme Reads group and it is the title I could find in a bookstore. You've given me a lot to think about when I get around to it.

Good to see you, Dan! Thanks for catching up.

NanaCC - Life After Life would be a great book to reread. I think there's a lot to catch once you know the basic premise and where Atkinson is taking you. I think you'd like The French Lieutenant's Woman. Dan Brown is just a diversion - definitely not necessary reading!

Rebecca - I'll be interested to hear your thoughts on Duras when you get to it. The writing is mesmerizing, but I felt a little lost even though the plot ( what there is of it) is pretty straightforward.

Had some time to kill today so I of course found myself in my favorite used bookstore. I restrained myself and came away with

The Deptford Trilogy by Robertson Davies
Hotel du Lac by Anita Brookner
Behind the Scenes at the Museum by Kate Atkinson

Let us know how the Atkinson is.

#26 A Passage to India by E. M. Forster
After loving A Room With a View, I was eager to give Forster another try. Unfortunately, I really didn't like A Passage to India. I found the characters flat and more like caricatures than real people and their relationships with each other even more implausible. Then there was the plot, which seemed to revolve around an inane, imagined incident in a cave between an Englishwoman and her Indian host.

I suppose that when this was written in the 1920s, it was an important and possibly revolutionary look at British/Indian relations, but I found it rather boring. It will not stop me from reading more Forster, though. Maybe this one just wasn't for me.

2 stars

It has been a while since I listened to A Passage to India, but I think I enjoyed it more than you did. Maybe it was because it was an audio book, but I do remember thinking that much of the story was a stretch of the imagination. I loved A Room With a View and might read it again. The movie was wonderful.

Yes, it's a very well-regarded book, so I expect many people here will disagree with me, but I just didn't enjoy it personally.

I won't be disagreeing with you - I'll go even farther and say I just don't like Forster after reading A Passage to India, Howard's End and A Room with a View. I think I found all of them to have the problems you cite - flat characters, kind of boring, implausible stuff occurring randomly.

Interesting, DieF! Since I loved A Room With a View and hated A Passage to India I think I will have to try Howard's End just to see on which side I fall. I will need a little (or maybe big) break though!

#27 Possession by A. S. Byatt
I have a new book to add to my favorites list! I loved Byatt's Possession. This book was right up my alley. Roland and Maud are literary critics specializing in fictional Victorian writers, Randolph Ash and Christobel LaMotte. They uncover letters that reveal that the two had a secret affair and possibly a child. They hide the knowledge from their peers, advisors, and rivals and pursue the story themselves. Byatt brilliantly creates the source materials that they find along the way - letters, journals, etc. - and also creates a body of work for each author that includes long poems. It's an amazing feat. I still can't quite believe that the Victorians in the book were fictional because she does such a good job. The book is smart, detailed, and funny as Byatt gently pokes fun at the world of literary criticism.

This is a book that is going back on my shelves to reread in the future.

5 stars

I also gobbled up Possession and was thoroughly taken in (in a good way)

Possession is one of my all time favorites.

>150 japaul22:, 151, 152 Agreeing with you all. Byatt seems to be able to do this with all her books relating to that era and forward into The Children's Book. Have you read Angels and Insects?

I never got more than a few pages into Possession, but I've always had it in mind to try Byatt again.

Glad to find so many other fans of Possession! I can definitely see myself reading it again down the road.

#28 Dark Fire by C. J. Sansom
I love this mystery series! This is number two in the series following Matthew Shardlake, a lawyer during Henry VIII's reign who does occasional detective work for Cromwell. Since Cromwell is executed at the end of the book, I'm curious to see who hires him next.

This is *just* a mystery series, but the historical info is interesting too. I like the information about the Tudor legal system that Sansom makes a part of the story. He also does a good job of keeping you in the time period - everything takes so long when the characters are traveling by foot or horse and don't have ways to instantly communicate.

Love it.
4 stars

I love the Matthew Shardlake series. I am listening to the third one now. Audio takes me longer, and right now I am on vacation with seven grandchildren. No Shardlake until I head home.

I'm thinking about reading the next one right away and I never do that. I almost always need breaks in a series. I think I'll make myself read at least one other book first!

I love when I want to do that. It means it was really good.

#29 Sovereign by C. J. Sansom
Well, I did start a different book, but I got sucked in and finished this one first. Book 3 in the Matthew Shardlake series is just as good as one and two. No more Cromwell in this book, so Cranmer takes over as the person who asks Shardlake to do a job for him.

Loved it.
4 stars

I am listening to that one now.

#30 A View of the Harbour by Elizabeth Taylor
I've heard so many positive things about this author on LT, but I have to say I was kind of disappointed in this book. It's the kind of book I should love - 1950s, british, woman author, character-study type of book, but for some reason it didn't work for me. I felt that there were too many characters, I didn't like any of them, and the plot jumped around too much for me. I think the main thing was that I felt the characters and book in general were missing a certain charm that I look for in a book like this. That's a hard thing to put into words, but nonetheless I felt its lack in the book.

a surprising 2.5 stars

#31 Time and Chance by Sharon Kay Penman
This is the second book in Penman's historical fiction series about Henry II and Eleanor of Aquitaine. This book covers the first half or so of their marriage and the birth of their many children and historical events through the murder of Thomas Becket. As always, I enjoy Penman's brand of historical fiction. She sticks to true events and real people (with one exception that kind of bothered me in this book) and uses the fiction to imagine the motivations and inner thoughts of her characters. I've still not found any of her books that measure up to her first book, The Sunne in Splendor about Richard III, but this was good.

3.5 stars

I generally like Elizabeth Taylor, although I haven't read A View of the Harbour, and I can see what you mean when you say that the characters are missing a certain charm. I think of Taylor as a more acerbic and meaner Barbara Pym.

Still haven't gotten to Elizabeth Taylor although I had every intention of reading her last year for her centennial year!

Rebecca - yes, I got the idea to try her from all the LT posts about her writing last year. I'm still curious to try more, but arubabookwoman hit the nail on the head with her description of Taylor, and I'm not sure if her writing is really for me. Definitely worth a try, though!

#32 Black Water by Joyce Carol Oates
This novella definitely packs a punch. It is obviously a retelling of the famous scandal surrounding Ted Kennedy's car accident where he drove his car off a bridge with a female passenger inside, escaped, and didn't call the police until the next morning. The passenger, of course, died. Apparently there is quite a bit of controversy about what really happened (I missed this as it happened before I was born) but Oates skips most of the controversy and keeps the focus on Kelly, the passenger. The book is told almost completely from the Kelly's point of view as she drowns in the car. It's dramatic - time flying back and forth, hallucinations vs. memories vs. her present of drowning - and short. Oates could have chosen to make this a long novel, delving into The Senator's motivations for leaving this woman to die, presenting more background and aftermath, but instead she keeps the focus on the mind of Kelly as she slowly loses air and drowns. This is a powerful and haunting book.

Black Water was my first foray into the dozens of book Oates has written. I was impressed by it and will continue dipping into her vast array of books.

4 stars

I read Black Water many years ago while taking a trip by plane. I hate to fly, and it was a great book for holding my attention. My only other experience with Oates was We Were the Mulvaneys. There are many more to go.

I don't know if Black Water would calm me down on a plane with the main character drowning in a car! But, point taken that it's a gripping book!

Today I went to our local library's book sale. I got 17 books for $23. 7 were books for my kids that I won't list. These are the books I got for myself.

Sula by Toni Morrison
We Need to Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver
The House at Riverton by Kate Morton
Birdsong by Sebastian Faulks
Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino
The Hours by Michael Cunningham
The Stone Diaries by Carol Shields
The Lacuna by Barbara Kingsolver
Revelation by C. J. Sansom
The Master and Margarita by Bulgakov

That's a great haul!!!

I agree--great haul! We Need to Talk About Kevin was a compelling, thought-provoking read, and The Hours is one of my all time favourites. The Stone Diaries was very good too. Haven't read the others, but they're all rather acclaimed, aren't they!

Thanks! I am pretty excited about all of those books! The neat thing is that all of the reviews I read on LT have helped me pick through books so much more easily. Actually, I can trace every one of those books to someone on LT (Nickelini - We Need to Talk About Kevin has been on my radar since your review from a while back). I'd really like to go back to that sale today because they keep replenishing books as they get purchased, but I don't think I'll have time today.

Oh no, now I fee responsible if you feel it's a waste of your time and money. ;-) Hope you like it.

#33 Welcome to the Bed and Biscuit by Joan Carris
This is the first chapter book that I've read to my 3.5 year old son. I wasn't sure he was ready to listen and follow the thread of a story over multiple nights, but he did really well. We read a little before bed each night and he looked forward to it. We'll still read primarily picture books for a long time to come, but I think we'll continue with chapter books as well.

As far as this actual book, it was a gift from Grandma which is why it was our first. It was cute - talking animals and a small mystery. My son loved the humor in the book. There is a pig named Ernest and bird named Gabby who have (mild) arguments. We had to read several of those pages many times over. I think there are others in this series and I could see us reading some more of them.

I don't have much to compare this to except my own childhood memories, but I'll give this 3.5 stars.

#34 The Female Quixote by Charlotte Lennox
This novel was written in the 1750s and is a satire of Don Quixote. The main character, Arabella, is a beautiful, charming, wealthy woman who unfortunately grows up very isolated and therefore reads too many French historical romances about ancient Greece and Rome which she believes in completely. This leads to many humorous situations as she is courted by her cousin who her father intends for her to marry. I really enjoyed the first third of the book, but after a while the humor started to be the same over and over and got a little old. All the men in the book think she's crazy but don't care because she's beautiful and wealthy. I think this is worth reading, especially as an example of women writing in the 1700s. It's genuinely funny and entertaining. It was also obviously an example to Jane Austen's Northanger Abbey, a book I love.

3.5 stars

The Female Quixote looks interesting, thanks for the review.

>168 japaul22: I want to read everything in your library-sale haul. And I stand with Nickelini on WNTTAK being a compelling read.

Black Water sounds interesting. (I think the controversy has cleared -- Ted Kennedy used a family get-out-of-jail-free pass and went on to be a great Senator.) I also haven't read Oates except for one short story, but have her them (race and class in mid-20th century Detroit) on my wishlist.

#35 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time by Mark Haddon
As this is a much reviewed book on LT, most of you probably know this novel is told from the point of view of a 15 year old boy with an unspecified condition that is probably a degree of autism or aspergers. I was sucked into the story and Christopher's world immediately. Take away the interesting perspective, and the book is still an interesting look at a family falling apart and trying to stitch itself back together. I thought it was very well done.

My one reservation is that I wondered how Haddon felt qualified to pretend to know the inner workings of a mind so different from his own. As long as I don't think about that too deeply, I enjoyed the book.

3.5 stars

>34 mkboylan: & 174 I wondered how Haddon felt qualified

Authors never need to qualify for anything, whether they write a novel about Tudor England or a 15-year old autistic youth. The proof is in the pudding. Success is determined by how convincingly the novel is executed. If there is no suspense, readers will put the book aside, and the book will fail.

<177--Agreed. I have worked with many children on the autism spectrum (and their families), and it just didn't ring true for me, although I found it entertaining.

Well said, Edwin.

Good point, Edwin. What I probably should have said is that I wasn't totally convinced that the first person voice was authentic and that bothered me. Your point is true for me in, for example, my historical fiction reading. I really don't care if every historical detail is accurate as long as the characterizations are intriguing and the book is written to my taste.

>179 karspeak: Yep, entertaining but not necessarily convincing.

>177 japaul22: My book club read that a few years ago along with Born on a Blue Day by Daniel Tammet. The reaction to the Haddon book was mixed but everyone really liked the NF Tammet book. It was one of the most interesting discussions the club had. We all found we shared at least one or two of Tammet's autistic tendencies.

Thanks, avidmom. I've never heard of Born on a Blue Day. I'll make a note of it!

#36 The Summer Book by Tove Jansson
I have a new book to add to my favorites. Jansson's The Summer Book is a charming, subtle and humorous look at the relationship between 6 year old Sophia and her grandmother. The book is organized into chapters that are something like short stories, but more like snapshots of summers spent on an island in Finland. Jansson magically shifts point of view from Grandmother to Sophia throughout the stories, making this book equally about both of them. We find out in one short sentence that Sophia's mother has died and her petulant sometimes erratic behavior becomes more than just the mood swings of a typical six year old, but also the reaction of a child to the loss of a parent. Jansson never hits you over the head with an psychological analysis, but keeps the event in your mind as you read. Grandmother is nearing the end of her life. She is sarcastic and ironic and not always patient with Sophia, but she is loving and hilarious. My favorite chapters were "The Pasture", where Grandmother and Sophia have a hilarious but somehow meaningful discussion about God, "The Cat" where Sophia learns her first lessons about loving something that doesn't always act the way you want it to, and "Of Angleworms and Others" where Sophia writes a book. Grandmother and Sophia are two of my favorite characters I've ever come across and I guarantee I'll read this book again.

I seriously hope that everyone takes the time to read this short, beautiful book. You'll love it.

5 stars

The summer book sounds lovely Jennifer and most people who have read it on LT have really liked it.

#37The Secret History by Donna Tartt
This was a 1990s best seller that I picked up because its on the 1001 books to read before you die list. It's one of those books where you find out up front that a murder has occurred and then the book goes though the lead up, murder, and aftermath.

It's an odd book and I don't think I liked it much. It's about a tight knit circle of college friends studying the Classics. They have a Bacchanal where they get out of control and murder a local townsperson and then kill a member of their circle who wasn't there but finds out about it. The characters were all terrible people, but my main problem was that the book is told in first person by someone who was on the outer edge of the circle of friends and I never felt like he knew enough about the other characters or the events for me to get a clear picture of what was going on. So that was annoying. It's also about 200 pages too long (and I typically like long books). It has some redeeming qualities in that the build up to the murder and the downward spiral afterward are delved into in depth and it was interesting to see how all of the characters reacted. Overall, though, I just don't think it worked that well with the first person voice.

As an aside, I kept thinking of Tana French's The Likeness while I was reading this because of the tight knit group of college kids living in a farmhouse similarity. Anyone else read both and feel the same way?

3 stars

>186 japaul22: I haven't read The Secret History, but after we finished reading The Likeness, my daughter said that she felt a lot of the plot was a rip off of The Secret History. So, your feeling seems to be correct.

#38 To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf
This is a fantastic book. Woolf is a master at making every word count and setting a mood. This book is in three parts. The first is part of a day at a large family's summer home, told from the point of view of Mrs. Ramsey - the beautiful mother of eight children. As I read this section, I was struck by how good Woolf is at fully fleshing out her characters with very little plot or action for them to react to. Instead, the smallest daily events and their reactions show who these people are. It's pretty amazing. The short middle section lets us know what happens to the characters over the next decade or so. The end section cycles back to the summer house where loose ends are tied up - a painting is redone and the trip to the lighthouse that never happened in the first section is completed.

5 stars

>188 japaul22: Another for my wishlist.

I must re-read To the Lighthouse after struggling through it at school. I am sure it would make more sense for me today.

Hmm, onto my wishlist, too!

It's well worth the time, everyone. One tip, though, is that I needed quiet and time to read this book. I think it's one to immerse yourself in and I couldn't get into it in small chunks. Sometimes hard to come by with my two little boys around, but I managed!

>

I think The Secret History is a nice story, but am a bit surprised it is now included in the 1001 books etc. It isn't that great.

Edwin - I was surprised that it was on the 1001 books list as well. I have found, though, that the most recent books on the list are a bit suspect. I think there just isn't enough distance from them yet to see which will stand the test of time. If this list still exists in 50 years, I doubt that The Secret History will make the cut!

I also loved The Summer Book. Your review makes me want to read To the Lighthouse right now.

Perhaps To the Lighthouse would be a good starting point for me and Woolf.

mk - I started with Mrs. Dalloway last year which I also loved. I think either one of those would work.

Thanks.

Jennifer, I haven't read anything by Virginia Woolf. I have Mrs. Dalloway on my shelf, so I'm glad you said that it was a good starting point.

Go check out nickelini's thread for a fantastic rundown of all things Woolf. I'm still a novice!

#39 The Hours by Michael Cunningham
I liked but didn't love this Pulitzer Prize winning novel told from the perspective of 3 different women living in different time periods. There is Virginia Woolf while she's writing Mrs. Dalloway, a mother in the 1950s reading Mrs. Dalloway, and a woman in her 60s living in the present day with the nickname of Mrs. Dalloway. These women end up connected in many ways - both through actual life events and through their thoughts and musings. This book is very clever, but I wanted a little bit more from it. It may be one that I come back to in a few years.

3.5 stars

#40 The Bell by Iris murdoch
This was a book that I read with a LT group read. I've never heard of the author or book and had no expectations going in. The beginning of the book struck me as kind of creepy and I thought it might go a bit gothic. The set up is a young woman, Dora, in a stifling marriage. She leaves her husband but decides to go back to him after 6 months. At that point he is living and working (seems to be some sort of historian) with a small religious community attached to a convent. She goes there to be with him and we meet the other people living there and learn about the myth of the old bell that was lost during the dissolution of the abbey in the 1300s. After a while, I figured out that the book wasn't really going the gothic direction and it ended up being more of a relationship study. The interesting thing is that some of the characters are homosexual and I thought that, especially considering this was written in the 1950s, this was written with a lot of understanding and lack of prejudice.

murdoch has quite a few books on the 1001 books to read before you die list, and I'm looking forward to reading more of them.

3.5 stars

and The Bell goes on the list.

MK - I think Murdoch is definitely worth checking out. She's written lots of books. Have you read any of hers?

No! I had actually thought I had and searched my library and: NOTHING! So that must clearly change and The Bell sounds just like something I would be interested in.

#41 Virginia Woolf by Alexandra Harris
It is safe to say that I am hooked. This short and focused biography has gotten me so excited to keep delving into Woolf's works and life. The tight writing of this biography means that you don't get in depth about every friendship or movement that Woolf is associated with, but Harris does a great job of introducing the reader to the Woolf's growth as a writer and her processes of writing. I'm fascinated by how different the form is of all of her books and I want to struggle through them all eventually. I'm sure it will be a long process and not always easy or fun, but I'm looking forward to the challenge!

4.5 stars

The Alexandra Harris book sounds like a useful introduction to Virginia Woolf. It's now on my wish list

That does sound interesting.

#42 Silas Marner by George Eliot
This is a short novel that was much more enjoyable than I thought it would be. I think because the title sounds so drab, this has been sitting on my shelf for years. I love Middlemarch though, so I decided it was time and I wasn't disappointed. This novel has a fable-like feel to it and is very plot driven. Silas Marner is a weaver who is exiled from his first home after being betrayed by a friend. He moves to a new town where he work and hoards gold, living a solitary life. His gold is stolen and instead a young, golden-haired girl whose mother has died wanders into his life. There is more to this story that I won't go into, but suffice to say I enjoyed the book. It's short and worthwhile to get to.

4 stars

You read lots of interesting books. My wishlist grows as I read your thread.

Thanks, VivienneR! That's high praise around here where I feel like everyone reads such interesting books. I enjoy your thread as well. I have Anchee Min on my mental wish list.

Glad you enjoyed Silas Marner. It is a favourite of mine.

I loved Middlemarch, as well, so I appreciate the Silas Marner review, thanks!

#43 There but for the by Ali Smith
This book didn't really work for me. It's the story of a man who goes to a dinner party as the guest of an invitee and ends up locking himself in the host's guest bedroom for months. The reader only finds out bits and pieces about this man through 4 people loosely connected to him. For me, the problem was that, although I'll admit the book was clever, it relied too heavily on the clever form and puns/word usage and never really got me engaged with the characters or had enough direction for me. It also left way too many loose ends in everyone's stories for my taste.

2.5 stars

#44 Benjamin Britten: A Life for Music by Neil Powell
This is a book that I received through the Early Reviewers program.

I was not impressed with this biography of the British composer and musician Benjamin Britten. This biography is by a non-musician and it shows. The book relies too heavily on the words of others and has too little fresh analysis as a result. Powell goes through Britten's diaries, including large excerpts in the book, and doesn't draw conclusions. The musical analysis, which I would consider a necessary part of a musician's biography, is virtually nonexistent. Instead, Powell uses the words of others, choosing to include the contemporary reviews of music critics instead of analyzing it himself with a fresh eye. I think one of the author's intents was to bring new light to the relationship between Britten and the tenor Peter Pears, but even here I found the writing relied too heavily on diary entries and letters and too little on extrapolating ideas from those primary sources.

Overall, this was a disappointing biography of an interesting and influential 20th century composer.

2 stars

Excellent review tho!

Thanks for the "heads up" on Benjamin Britten: A life for Music

#45 Winnie the Pooh by A.A. Milne
This is the second chapter book that I've read with my almost 4 year old son. He loves the Winnie the Pooh movies so he was already familiar with the characters and I think that helped a lot. When we started reading, I thought he wasn't going to like it. There are some big words and the plot kind of meanders around in each chapter (each chapter is kind of a story in itself). He actually really liked it though and wants to read more Winnie the Pooh. Fine by me, because I think the stories are very sweet and pretty interesting for me to read as well.

4 stars

Loved read Pooh to my son, although he was six when we started.

I'm jealous of your reading...George Eliot, Virginia Woolf...I want to be reading these authors. I've added the Alexandra Harris biography to my wishlist.

Dan - my son is definitely a little young for chapter books at all, but he's enjoying the time and seems to be remembering from night to night what's going on, so we're reading a little every night. Most of his reading (obviously I mean I'm reading to him!) is picture books and will be for a long time! And I'm always jealous of your reading - I feel like every thread I read around here I'm wondering why I'm not reading that book!

#46 Suite Francaise by Irene Nemirovsky
What a beautiful book and how sad that it wasn't finished. This unfinished novel was published in 2006 but was written by Nemirovsky during WWII. Nemirovsky was a Russian Jew who had converted to Catholicism and lived her whole adult life in France after her family fled the Bolshevik revolution. She was arrested and ended up being taken to Auschwitz and killed there. The manuscript for this book was saved by her daughter who was hidden by family friends during the war. The book is two complete parts of a novel that was intended to be 4 or 5 parts in total.

I was afraid that the back story of this novel would overshadow any merits of the writing, but I didn't find this to be the case. I really loved the characters, writing, and description of events. The first part is about the arrival of the Germans in France and the fleeing of the French. The second part explores the occupation and relationships between the French and the German soldiers in one small country village. Unfortunately, the two sections deal mainly with a different set of characters that are only partially connected. You can see how she intended to draw them all together, but it is in no way a completed work. This 369 page book should be a highly readable 1000 page novel. I thought is was pretty amazing that she was writing this as events were unfolding. When you read her diary entries that are included in an appendix, they drive home the point that this woman didn't know how the war would end while she was writing the book. It's hard to remember that since we know Germany lost in the end, but when she was writing this living in occupied France, that must have seemed hard to imagine.

4.5 stars

Nice review of Suite Francaise. I've had it on my iPod as an audiobook for years, but have never found the time when I was ready to listen to it. It sounds quite good.

#47 Lives of Girls and Women by Alice Munro
I picked this book up when I heard that Munro had won the Nobel Prize for Literature. Munro is mainly known for her short stories and I think this is considered her only novel, though some of her short story collections are linked stories and might be considered a novel. This is a coming of age story about Del, a girl living in the small town of Jubilee, Canada. Each chapter has an episodic feel and I liked some sections more than others. Munro is great at tricking you into thinking a story is straightforward and simple and all of a sudden you realize that dark, depressing, or deep events are being revealed. I appreciate her writing a lot, but it isn't always comfortable.

People's lives, in Jubilee as elsewhere, were dull, simple, amazing, and unfathomable - deep caves paved with kitchen linoleum.

If you change "people's lives" to "Munro's writing", that sentence pretty much sums up how I feel about Munro's writing in her own words.

I'm not generally a short story fan, but I'd consider making an exception to read more Munro.

4 stars

I enjoyed reading your thoughts on Alice Munro. I will make a point of picking up a collection of her short stories.

>223 japaul22: I haven't yet read Munro but had marked this as my first to get to. I thought it too was a collection of linked stories and am happy to hear it reads like a novel.

detailmuse - At the beginning of the book, I felt like each chapter could have stood on it's own as a short story, but as the book goes on it really becomes more of a novel than linked short stories. I've also read The Beggar Maid by Munro which I also really liked. That reads more like linked short stories than Lives of Girls and Women.

#48 Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides
This is one of those books that I've avoided for years simply because everyone was reading it (including the Oprah book club) and I tend to avoid books that are too popular, thinking they may also be too simple. Not the case in this instance. I absolutely loved this book.

Most people who have heard of this book probably think of it as "the book about the hermaphrodite", and yes, the narrator is a hermaphrodite and it does sort of frame the book, but this is more a family epic than anything else. By tracing the gene mutation that results in Calliope's condition, Eugenides traces three generations of a Greek American family from Greece to Detroit. As with most books I love, the characters are the driving force to the book. Calliope, the narrator, is definitely well written, but Desdemona, the grandmother, is the unforgettable character in the book for me.

I loved this family epic with a twist.

4.5 stars

If you have never read anything by Iris Murdoch and liked The Bell a lot upon first reading, you might easily get hooked on this author. She is one of my all-time favourite authors. Some of her novels written in what I would call the middle period of her authorship have relatively speaking "too many characters". This is an ackowledged feature of part of her work. Her later work consists of increasingly voluminous novels, which, however, are much better balanced.

Edwin - thanks for the input. I definitely want to get to more of Murdoch's writing. I was thinking either The Sea, the Sea or A severed head, both of which I've heard good things about here. She wrote an impressive amount of books!

#49 Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino
On the most basic level, this is a book that imagines Marco Polo describing cities he has seen on his travels to Kublai Khan, but there is so much more to this book. Calvino makes every word count, describing each city with an element of the fantastic that makes you feel as though you might be reading poetry. It definitely doesn't read like a typical novel. Polo admits half way through that he is actually describing Venice when he describes each of these cities and that brings in the interesting thoughts of how alike are cities everywhere and how much does our idea of home influence our reactions to other places.

This is a book that may be short in page number, but is long in the amount of time you need to invest to make it pay off. I was intrigued by it.

4 stars

Oh, I've been meaning to read that book for years. Thanks for your review!

Invisible Cities sounds so interesting. I should probably read Middlesex too because I'm so interested in the genetics of sexuality. I taught on a pretty conservative campus and I found the genetics of it was helpful to move people out of their homophobia.

Now that I know the premise, I think I will finally read Invisible Cities, a book I've been meaning to read for years too. Would it count as a travel/author theme book for Reading Globally?!

#50 Transatlantic by Colum McCann
I didn't like this book as much as some others have around here. It's an interesting story - Part 1 following seemingly unconnected men traveling from the US to Ireland and part 2 connecting these stories through several generations of women. I think it was the writing style that rubbed me the wrong way. This book is full of short sentences and it kind of got on my nerves. For example:

The grass cool to the touch. The skyscrapers gray and huge against the trees. To be allowed to feel small again. To embrace that insignificance. The sun over the west side of Manhattan. Falling. The dark rolled backward.

There was just too much of that style for my personal taste. However, some of the reviewers I respect most around here (ridgewaygirl and cariola off the top of my head) loved this book, so take my tepidness with a grain of salt. It certainly has enough merit for me to recommend giving it a try, even though I personally didn't connect to it.

3 stars

Those short sentences would certainly become annoying after a while. They have a place in writing, but there is a limit to what the reader can tolerate comfortably. I have a hold on Transatlantic at the library but it may not stay in my hands for long.

VivienneR - It's certainly not all short sentences, but there were enough to make it noticeable and annoying for me. The story was good, though, so you might like it. As I said, I've seen mainly positive reviews, so I'll be curious to see what you think.

I reckon my hold should surface sometime in December or January. I'll let you know how it goes.

#51 Germinal by Emile Zola
Forget Stephen King, I think it's safe to say this was the most brutal, horrifying book I've ever read. Zola doesn't shirk from describing the bleak lives and dangerous work of coal miners in mid-19th century France. Unlike other books I've read about the lower economic classes in this era, there are no sweet love stories, moves to a higher economic class, or even the relief of exploring some good in the upper classes (there's honestly not even much good in the miners he describes) to lighten the mood here. Normally, I would detest a book like this, but I was absolutely fascinated by this book. There are scenes that I will NEVER forget.

At the end of the book, when Chaval's body is knocking up against Etienne and Catherine's feet over and over was particularly gruesome to me.

5 stars

I agree Jennifer with your use of the word brutal. It is a book that I will never forget as well.

I loved Germinal and it got me started reading a lot of Zola. It remains the best one I've read. But yes, brutal it is.

Definitely one of my favourite books, but as you and others say, brutal.

Barry - definitely unforgettable. I'm interested to read more by Zola, but I need a break first!

Rebecca - your review put Zola on my reading radar, so thanks!

SassyLassy - I'm still finding it odd that I loved the book as much as I did, as I normally dislike dark, violent books. The writing in this was just so amazing.

#52 Harvest by Jim Crace
This book was shortlisted for the Booker Prize this year and I can see why. It is set in a farming village in an unspecified time period, but seemed to be 1800s or before based on the technology they used. It's a first person narrative by one of the workers who arrived a couple of decades ago with the current owner. He is still viewed in many ways as a outsider and this "otherness" is a theme in the book as 3 strangers arrive in the community at the opening of the novel. The novel also explores the deterioration of this community as a new owner arrives and takes over the farm, basically destroying the community and their way of life in one short week.

I thought the themes and writing in this book were very interesting and well done, however I thought the last quarter of the book kind of lost its way. I would have preferred a little more tying up of loose ends. I also felt that, though the theme of destruction may have been the reason for this, the absolute chaos at the end was a little too implausible for me.

Overall, an interesting book and well worth the time to read it.

3.5 stars

>234 japaul22: I just finished Transatlantic and posted a few comments on my thread. I tried to get past the short sentences by reading fast or adjusting the timing in some way, but it was impossible. However, I got used to it and in the end it didn't bother me. I liked the book well enough to give it four stars.

I also have Germinal by Zola that I hope to get to one of these days. Your comments make it sound fascinating.

Glad you enjoyed Transatlantic. It may have been a case of the wrong book at the wrong time! I'll check out your thread tonight. Germinal is a reading experience that is worth having, though it's certainly not pleasant to read.

#53 The Thinking Reed by Rebecca West
After loving Return of the Soldier I was very disappointed in this book. It could best be described as a lifestlyes of the rich and boring. The premise is a beautiful young American widow in France who escapes a disastrous relationship to find love with a wealthy but unattractive man. Most of the book describes their lifestyle and friends/acquaintances who are all horrible and boring people. The book is told from the point of view of Isabelle, the American widow, and she has a knowledge of her own motivations and the thoughts of others that I found unbelievable - no one is that self aware and still makes so many mistakes!

Unfortunately, the boring plot and unlikable characters are not the only problem with this book. The writing was also very wordy, with lots of words I'd never come across and even some that weren't in my kindle's dictionary. Plangency, inchoateness, erethic, lickerish (used twice!), inspissated, frangible, coprophilists were all used.

So I was obviously disappointed, but I'm still willing to try some of her other books since I loved The Return of the Soldier so much.

2 stars

2 stars. That is disappointing.

246 Definitely sounds like a bore! Hope you post it on book page to give a different perspective.

Just did, MK. I do have a different perspective than the other two reviews!

I would have struggled with all those words.

Barry - many if the words could be deciphered through context, but I felt that it lent the writing a pretentious air that it could have done without.

#54 The Annotated Emma by Jane Austen, annotated by David M. Shapard
This was an annotated edition of Emma that was a lot of fun to read. The book is text on the left and notes, illustrations, etc. on the right side. Some of the notes were really interesting, especially those describing customs of the time, dress, furniture, and modes of travel. Less inspiring were his definitions of words that are in different usage now, and his analysis of the text which I found completely obvious.

I love Emma, it's one of my favorite Austen novels (currently 3rd behind Pride and Prejudice and Persuasion), and this was a fun way to read it for the fourth time (I think - I can't quite remember how many times I've read it!).

3.5 stars (for the annotation)

Library Book Sale!!! For $25 I purchased:

The House of the Spirits by Allende
Slow Man by Coetzee
The New York Trilogy by Auster
The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters
Oranges are not the Only Fruit by Winterson
A Thousand Acres by Jane Smiley
The Gormenghast Trilogy by Peake
Death Comes to Pemberly by P.D. James
Half a Life by V.S. Naipaul
The Queen's Man and Cruel As the Grave by Sharon Kay Penman
Catch-22 by Heller
Around the World in 80 Days by Verne
On Chesil Beach by McEwan
The Enchanted April by Elizabeth von Arnim

As always, thanks to all of you for the reviews that make it possible for me to sort through the thousands of books and come away with some books that will hopefully be worth my time!

That's a very fine haul indeed! Well done you.

As for The Annotated Emma, I suspect that when I get to this (I hope early next year), I will like it better than you did. Emma was the first Austen I read, and I had problems with it (no one told me that Austen is supposed to be funny so I took everything very seriously. Silly me, huh?). It took me four years to finish it, and when I was done I threw it across the room. I have a feeling I'll like it a bit better the second time!

Emma is probably Austen's most flawed heroine which can make you slap your forehead at some of her decisions, but also makes her one of my favorites. I'll look forward to hearing what you think of it the second time around.

Great haul! I loved The Little Stranger and The Enchanted April.

What a nice list of books. I have several on my shelves or on Chris', and a couple that I've read and enjoyed.

Your Touchstone for Around the World in 80 Days takes me to a book by Michael Palin.

Love a library sale! Interesting to hear how you like the Naipaul.

Emma is probably my favourite Austen too, although I detect a slight roll of the eyes when I tell anyone that. Hmm.

You made a great haul at the book sale. I've heard mixed reports of Death Comes to Pemberley so you will have to let us know what you think of it.

I read Death Comes to Pemberley and gave it a generous 3 1/2 stars. I am a big P.D. James fan, but her later books do not live up to my expectations of her writing. A friend didn't understand that she was trying to copy Austen's writing style, and thought she had really gone over the deep end. If it wasn't P.D. James, I probably would have done 3 stars. I will be curious to hear what you think.

I've passed over reading Death Comes to Pemberly after reading only lukewarm reviews on LT, but I decided that for $1.50, I'd put it on my shelves. Who knows when I'll actually read anything on the list considering how quickly my TBR shelves are filling up. You know, I never had that problem before LT. I'd always just buy a book to read immediately, but now the combination of LT enabling and having a bigger house to store books in has really changed that philosophy. I think I own 50-60 unread books on my shelves and another 10 on my kindle (I won't count anything I download for free on the kindle, or that number would be much higher!).

I think I own 50-60 unread books on my shelves…

That's shocking! Shocking in how few unread books you have, that is. I suspect that I am not the only one to have a few more than you do.

Fantastic selection of books from the sale! There is nothing, nothing quite as fun as rooting through shelves of books, looking for ones to bring home.

I agree with RG that that's a shockingly low number!

I'm currently listening to Death Comes to Pemberley on audiobook (free from the library) and liking it so far. Only on chapter 2 but I'm not getting the LT hate yet.

OK, I underestimated a bit. I counted, and I have 69 unread books on my shelves. That does not count about 5 books that are my husband's that I may or may not read some day. Not too bad (or good, depending how you look at it!) considering that 3 or 4 years ago I would only have a handful unread.

I always think that having unread books on your shelf is like having money in the bank. Riches that can be spent anytime.

Oh, well, if the number's as high as 69…not! You can add a zero to that to get nearer my TBR. And I love that when it's time to find a book to read, there is bound to be a suitable title right there, on the shelf. Also, not to frighten you, but are you really prepared if the zombie apocalypse drags on longer than anticipated?

There are 579 books just in my "Hope to Read Soon" collection, and that's mostly books I've acquired in the past 10 years or so. There are books on my shelves that have been unread for decades and that I haven't added to that collection. Totally ready for the zombie apocalypse here!

>267 RidgewayGirl:

... hmm... add two zeros for me...

Oh my, I'm jealous of your book collections! And you're right, RG, I need to do some serious thinking about whether I'm really ready for a zombie apocalypse. I think the clear answer is no. Hopefully I'll get some good gift cards for Christmas and up that TBR pile!

#55 The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton
Upon finishing this 2013 Booker Prize winner, this is what I know. I was totally caught up in the story and intrigued by the writing. Catton sets this long, complex novel in the goldfields of New Zealand in the mid 1800s. There is an enormous cast of characters (somewhere around 15 pivotal characters) whose perspectives are all explored and lie or hold back information. At the heart of the novel is a love story between a prostitute and young man. But layered on top of that and clouding the view is a mystery involving stolen gold, missing people, stolen identities, opium addictions, a trial, and a shipwreck, just to name a few of the plot details. Even taken at the most basic level, on finishing the book I am still confused as to what actually happened to some of the characters, how they were related, and just how much gold there actually was. Add to that the fact that Catton uses an astrological chart to assign each of 12 primary characters to a sign and I got the drift that whoever's sign was "ascending" (is that the right word?) was the focus of that chapter. I knew that the astrological symbols must be important, but I didn't know enough about the subject to understand how. I also noticed that the chapters start out very long (almost 400 pages for the first) and end with a 2 page chapter.

So I was confused and intrigued enough to read some reviews. Apparently, the reviewers were pretty confused as well, though most seemed as engrossed as I was. I added to my knowledge that Catton did, in fact, use the actual astrological charts from the years and dates in the book to structure the story. I think that it added to my confusion that the charts dictated whose story was told when and therefore nothing was unfolded in a way that made sense. Also, each chapter/part is exactly half the length of the previous chapter.

I'm not sure what I think of all this except that I was totally sucked in to the story and can't stop trying to figure out the parts I still don't know the answers too. I think I'd have to read the whole 800+ page book again immediately to catch all the answers and I'm not planning to do that. I think it was wildly ambitious to try to organize the book in terms of the zodiac, but I'm not sure if it was really cool or just made the book more convoluted than necessary.

I do know that I'll be thinking about this for some time to come, hoping more people read it that I can discuss it with, and planning to read Catton's first book, The Rehearsal soon. Oh, and by that way, she's only 28.

4 stars???

>271 japaul22: I have the book, but it is so long that I decided to wait until next year to read it. It sounds interesting, but every time someone reviews it, I am torn between whether I think I will really like it or really hate it.

Well done for finishing The Luminaries and good to read your positive review. I think I will let the dust settle before I get round to reading it.

Fascinating review of the structure etc of The Luminaries! I'm looking forward to it.

P.S. I've been meaning to ask if you played again last weekend at the Kennedy Center Honors reception?

I can see my copy of The Luminaries from where I'm sitting. I'm excited to read it -- the upcoming holidays may well be my best bet, or early next year. The Rehearsal was an odd book, but one I thought about long after I'd finished it. It's one I'd like to reread.

NanaCC - I think you would like it. But either way, I'd love to hear your reaction!

Barry - I expect many people around here will be reading it in the next year. I'm sure there will be many more reviews to help you decide whether or when to read it.

detailmuse - I did not play at the Kennedy Center Honors reception this year. We send a small chamber orchestra with only 2 horns and as there are 10 horns in the Marine Band, we rotate over the years. I did hear that Snoop Dog conducted the orchestra for a minute or two!

RG - Can't wait to hear what you think of The Luminaries and I'll have a question or two on things I'm still confused about when you're done! I'm definitely interested in reading The Rehearsal your description of it gels with how I felt about The Luminaries.

I have it too, but I need to read it when I can read at home a lot. If I don't get to it over the Christmas-New Year's period, I probably won't read it until next summer.

I plan to read The Luminaries too. I have a hold on it at the library but I'll have to wait my turn. It may end up too awkward for my arthritic hands, if so, I'll have to buy the electronic version. I'm looking forward it in any case.

Vivienne and Rebecca - the hardcover version is enormous and not easy to carry around. Definitely an at home book. Vivienne, I think I saw that the kindle version is only $8. It might be nice to have the copy from the library to see the astrological charts and reread passages but have the kindle version to read the bulk of the text.

I have a paperback edition that I ordered from the UK, but it is still enormous! NOT a subway read!

The Kindle is great for the huge books, and if you have an iPad, you can have the book on there too for easy viewing of pictures, maps, and charts.

True, I have an iPad and I always forget that the maps and such would look better on it as I generally don't like reading on it because of the backlit screen.

>282 japaul22: Right. I don't like reading on my iPad for the same reason, but because the book can be in both places, it is easy to use it for the things that are hard to view on the Kindle.

>279 japaul22: I have it favourited in iTunes at $11.99 but if Kindle is cheaper I will get that version although our Canadian prices are usually higher.

I don't have any problem reading books on the iPad - so far. I haven't actually read many on it - although I'm in the middle of a few. Now if I could only remember which ones...

>284 VivienneR: You don't need to get the book from Amazon and iTunes. You just put the Kindle app on your iPad, and you can synch them. When you open on the iPad you find the book in your cloud. When you open it, it will ask do you want to go to the same page that you are at on your Kindle. You may know this already, so ignore me if I'm spouting foolishness. :)

No, I really haven't used the iPad much. I have the kindle app on it (and one kindle book) but I don't have a kindle reader (does that make sense?).

Yes, perfect sense.

In fact, sometimes I have a book open on both my ipad and kindle, with map on the ipad and text on the kindle.
Laughing at discussion about numbers of TBRs. I literally counted mine up and divided by my avg. books per year and realized I ca't actually live that long.

Merrikay, I think that goes for me too. My tbr list has been gaining on me! We better start with the best ones, or at least devise a priority scheme. I've tried to reduce the list by having several on the go at the same time - it doesn't work.

Problem is, there are so many that haven't even reached the list yet...

Well, I may not have a large amount of physical books on my shelves, but I have an enormous list in my mind and I must admit that at least a couple times a year I get in a panic about how I will ever read everything I want to. But I always come around to realizing that it would be really sad to actually get to the end of the books I want to read - what a terrible thought to have nothing to read next!

>290 japaul22: Exactly, reaching for an empty shelf would be tragic.

"Book security"

292 yes!

I tell myself as long as I enjoy the book I'm reading I don't have to worry about all those other books. But. I don't listen to myself well.

I've been struggling to find the concentration to read Roots of Heaven by Romain Gary and to finish up Reconstruction: America's Unfinished Revolution, 1863-1877 by Eric Foner. Even though the hectic Christmas season has not made these books very enjoyable for me, I've been determined to finish them. Well, Sunday night I and my entire family came down with a nasty stomach bug and I gave in. I downloaded Devil's Brood, Sharon Kay Penman's highly readable historical fiction and will finish the other two in January.

Hope you're all on the mend. Little children vomiting is no fun. My ten-year-old came down with a stomach bug the night before last, and it was pitiful. He apologized for getting me up. Now my SO is feeling it, so our traditional Christmas Eve fondue is being set aside for simpler fare. But we are at least keeping it to one at a time and my daughter and I have, so far, escaped.

I feel terrible for both of you, not a nice aspect of parenting. But funny about forcing books we aren't enjoying in December just to finish them this year. Glad you switched books.

Thanks for the sympathy! We've all pretty much recovered, though haven't regained much of an appetite. There are a lot of pies and christmas cookies around that nobody wants to eat! Guess it'll be good for our waistlines, at least!

Since I’m relatively certain that I won’t finish any other books this year, I’m ready to post my end of year reading roundup. There’s a slight possibility I will finish one more book, but I’ll just update my stats if need be.

Overall, 2013 has been a much better reading year than I expected to have time for. My second son was born in February of 2013, and we were blessed with a good sleeper so I’ve actually had a decent amount of time and awake hours to read. I read 55 books - fewer than recent years, but still a decent amount - and discovered some new favorites. Here is the breakdown!

55 books by 51 different authors

29 women authors/22 male authors

4 nonfiction, 51 fiction

3 rereads

37 new-to-me authors

Favorites of 2013
Possession by A.S. Byatt
The Summer Book by Tove Jannson
To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf
Suite Francaise by Irene Nemirovsky
Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides
Germinal by Emile Zola

Almost favorites of 2013
Morality Play by Barry Unsworth
The Garden of Evening Mists by Tan Twan Eng
Of Human Bondage by Maugham
A Room with a View by Forster
The Forsyte Saga by Galsworthy
Life After Life by Kate Atkinson
Silas Marner by George Eliot
The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton

Least Favorite Books of 2013

Heart of Darkness by Conrad
A View of the Harbour by Elizabeth Taylor
Illuminations: a Novel of Hildegard von Bingen by Mary Sharrat
A Passage to India by Forster
there but for the by Ali Smith
The Thinking Reed by Rebecca West

Thanks for a great year everyone! In 2014 you can find me in Club Read here:
http://www.librarything.com/topic/162263

and in the 2014 category challenge here:
http://www.librarything.com/topic/159970