rainpebble's tomes of 2014

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Below are listed some of the BIG FAT BOOKS I may read this year:

A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving; K; 640 pages;

The Regeneration Trilogy by Pat Barker; R/B; 608 pages;

Make Way for Lucia Omnibus by E.F. Benson; R/B; 1052 pages;

Stuart Quartet, Omnibus by Jane Yolen & Robert Harris; R/B; Y/A; 1248 pages;

I will just be reading my BFBs as they come. I may only get through a few but am hoping for a decent number. I think this is a great challenge as we all have huge books that we keep putting off. So it will be nice to come here and be encouraged.

Wonderful!

I LOVED Owen Meany. Started on a Saturday afternoon and finished on Sunday morning. Hope you enjoy it as well!

I did, but it was a long time since I read it. I´m curious to hear about A dance to the Music of time. I´ve never really felt I wanted to read it...

I have begun my first BFB of the year: Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray and am enjoying so far. So much for lists, eh?

I am quite disappointed in myself however as I have scrapped A Dance to the Music of Time. I really wanted to read Powell this year but my head just wasn't in it. Perhaps next year or maybe Proust. Hopefully one or the other.
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BIG FAT BOOKS ACTUALLY READ IN 2014:

1. Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackery; 736 pages; FINISHED; (3 1/2*)
2. Hungry Hill by Daphne du Maurier; 656 pages; FINISHED; (4 1/2*)
3. Shenandoah Sisters, Vol. 1-4, Omnibus by Michael Phillips; Y/A; 1272 pages; FINISHED; (4*)
4. Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte; 624 pages; FINISHED; (5*)
5. 2666 by Roberto Bolano; 898 pages; FINISHED; (4*)
6. Battle Cry of Freedom by James McPherson; R/B; 887 pages; FINISHED; (5*)
7. War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy; R/B; 1424 pages; FINISHED; (5*)
8. Outlander by Diana Gabaldon; R/B; 896 pages; FINISHED; (5*)

Don´t be! Save it for another year! I haven´t read Vanity Fair and am looking forward to see what you think of it. I did read half of Proust many years ago and though it was an interesting experience I can´t say I enjoyed it...

I took another book to bed last night as Vanity Fair is an old, heavy book to hold at night. This morning I realized that at 656 pages it constitutes a BFB. So I am now reading two of them at once. Yeowza!~! I am sure that it is because it is large print but I am still counting Hungry Hill by Daphne du Maurier. :-)

Not sure we can let you have that one ....... oh alright, but just this time !!!

I'll take it just this once Bry. Thanx oh mighty one. lol!~! ;-)

Well someone has to keep an eye on things....hope Vanity Fair is keeping your interest, was there an interesting woman in that story...Rebecca Sharp, TROUBLE if I remember correctly !?

You got it right Bry! Becky Sharp ........ she has us by twists & turns throughout.

My 1st BFB of 2014:

Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray; 736 pages; (3 1/2*)



This review will read a bit strangely as it was a group read and I commented on each "part" as I finished reading it.

Spoilers ahead!~!

I enjoyed this read tremendously and I found much to admire in our little Becky Sharp. She had a lot on the ball and was very quick to know what she needed to do in order to attain her wants and needs. Those who pity her need think again.
I found Jos to be a big old baby puss and thought that he needed to "man up". But his character truly suited the narration of the story. I did think that his sister, Miss Amelia's character changed too much in the story line. I quite liked her in the beginning, but throughout the middle part...................
The class levels in Vanity Fair are very much "out there" but strangely I see a lot of the same small ostracizings going on today.
Surprising things happening midway through the book.
What a wonderful hero our Captain Dobbin is turning out to be. I rooted for him the entire way through and for things to turn out nicely for him.
I must say that I found the encouragement of the courting of Miss Swartz by Mr. Crawley, the younger, quite odd for this time period and at the same time found it quite brave of the "younger" to refrain from obedience and to follow his heart.
Not only soldiers go to war during this era. Apparently people found battles to be of great entertainment as they followed them and could not get there quickly enough. Amazing that more civilians did not die at the front than did.
Miss Amelia is quickly turning to milk toast. Funny, I thought she had more spunk than that and perchance by book's end it will show it's face again.
Well, well, well, our Miss Becky is beginning to show her true colors and her adeptness at using people very much to her advantage. Not that she has not all the way through the book done this, but she does it now with a different attitude and heart.
Jos is off somewhere, most likely in India again doing whatever he does there. Miss Amelia has begun to grow a backbone which I am so glad to see.
Thackeray writes this entire work with his tongue in his cheek and I quite enjoy the result of his efforts. This third part is a bit slow going up until the last chapter. Then things begin to pick up.
My, my, my. Such happenings and carryings on as we should ever see. Things coming together to the benefit of "some". Becky getting her comeuppance and then getting her life back to the order in which she enjoys. Miss Amelia waking up to see the real order of the world, getting rid of her rose colored glasses, coming to her senses and doing what she most likely has wanted to do all along. Poor Jos; such an unknowingly sad life and such a sad demise. Do we dare to think he was poisoned? And William...... well, William is finally growing some big kahunas at last and is standing up for himself.
Thackeray has written a very enjoyable tete-a tete here and I find I quite liked it. I think it could have been compiled into perhaps 480 pages instead of 680. I loved all the little sketches throughout the book.
I am very happy to have read this book as I was previously not familiar with Thackeray in the least. I still don't know that I am but I am interested enough to try something else of his.

Great review for a great classic Belva !

Another classic read with even more 'tongue in cheek' is Laurence Sterne's The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman, if you haven't read it I heartily recommend it.

The Penguin edition is 588 pages, but if you read the Appendix and Notes, falls into the Big Fat Book category !

Thank you Bryan. I read your post and hit Amazon up for the 656 page Oxforld World Classics edition. It looks as if it will be a hoot if one is not offended by *ick jokes & I am certainly not.
Isn't there another Tristram Shandy in literature? Perhaps from the 70s? Something is trying to come to mind but one has a 66 year old mind it can take a while. LOL!~!

Cheers Belva, I kind of remember something from the 70s, maybe a film ?, but the book, published in 1760-67,is brilliant !
Also The Portrait of a Lady by Henry James is also a great classic, reminded me of Vanity Fair.

My 54 year old mind is struggling much of the time ( I'm ok with books but just about every else is a muddle ), at 66 you seem to be going very well !

The searching for words that used to come immediately to mind is what I mind most about getting older. The physical part does not bother me in the least at this point of the game.
I have been wanting to get to Henry James so perhaps I will add that one to my wish list. Thank you for all the recks Byran. I appreciate it no end. We both must enjoy the classics.

Also where one walks into a room, stops, wonders "what did I come in here for, I know it was important .......hm.....".

Belva I've particularly appreciated classics since reading my way through The Novel 100, Daniel S. Burt's selection of the 100 best novels. Some I have particularly enjoyed have been
Don Quixote
Crime and Punishment
Middlemarch
David Copperfield
Anna Karenina
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
In Search of Lost Time
and many others, some of your favourites ?

I don't have a listing like you do but some of what I consider classics that I have enjoyed are:
To Kill a Mockingbird,Anna Karenina; unable to find correct touchstone; BFB
War and Peace; BFB, Jane Eyre; BFB, Wuthering Heights, The House of the Seven Gables, Evangeline, The Old Man and the Sea, Moby Dick; have NOT enjoyed but keep trying; BFB, Leaves of Grass; BFB, The Last of the Mohicans, Mrs. Dalloway, The Count of Monte Cristo; BFB, Little Women; BFB, Les Miserables; BFB, Dracula, Frankenstein, The Great Gatsby, Jane Austen's works, Charles Dickens works, Madame Bovary, The Way We Live Now; BFB, The Woman in White; BFB, As I Lay Dying, The Sound and the Fury, The Plague, Catcher in the Rye, The Red Pony
and so, so many more. I just went quickly through some of my bookshelves and wrote down the ones I'd read that I would consider a classic. I am sure that some of them are probably not and I am sure that I missed many but it gives you an idea.
Oh and I think I would consider Vanity Fair a classic. I really do need to get a list.
And I have always been a great rereader of those books I consider classics.
I think I would even put into that category The Little Princess and A Secret Garden.

I have completed my 2nd BFB of the year: Hungry Hill by Daphne du Maurier. It was a 4 1/2 star read for me and I liked it a lot.

SPOILERS AHEAD/////////////

This is a multi-generational story about a wealthy family living in a poor village in Ireland. They have a great property including 'Hungry Hill' and live in a mansion on the property. The town folk do not like, respect nor want them there but there they are. With each generation something tragic happens to this family and by the end of the book & the 5th or 6th generation the wealth is gone, the mansion is gone, the remaining family member is allowing people of the village to graze their cattle & livestock on the property & to use the barns.
I thought when I began the book that although I was enjoying the read, I would rid my shelves of this one but after reading it I am sure that I will one day want to read it again.

#19
nice list of Classics read Belva, the ones I have coming up on your list are :
The Last of the Mohicans
The Woman in White
As I Lay Dying.
The others you recommend that I haven't read are straight onto my TBR list :
The House of the Seven Gables, Evangeline, The Old Man and the Sea, Leaves of Grass, The Count of Monte Cristo, Little Women, The Way We Live Now, and The Red Pony.

I didn't enjoy Moby Dick either, one read was enough.
Cheers Belva, nice work with your 2nd BFB !

The Count and I have had a long love affair. Every time I begin this Dumas I simply sink into it. Such a rich and adventurous tale to be read again and again.

I am just beginning my 3rd BFB of the year: 1Q84 by Haruki Murakami whose writing I find so lyrical & lovely. This one is 1184 pages. I am barely into it but it is interesting so far.

Hope you enjoy 1Q84 as much as I did !

I have already put it on hold Bry. Just too much going on in R/L for my concentration to handle something like this. Off to rethink my strategy.

I know the feeling Belva, although what is R/L ?
1Q84 is an intricate, subtle read best left to be engaged with full power !
I am having trouble with Bring Up the Bodies and may yet defer until quieter times, possibly reading some child/young adult books I can share with year 5s.
Good Luck !

R/L is simply real life.

Ha ha; right now I am reading a Y/A (young adult), myself. It just suits better at this time. It is Jane Yolen's The Young Merlin Trilogy and I am loving it. Of course Yolen can take any fantasy or fairy tale and make it an absolute wonder!

I am putting off Bring Up the Bodies as long as I possibly can. I wasn't all that impressed with Wolf Hall though I liked it. It just seemed so repetitive to me as I have read & studied so much about this time frame in England's history. So I guess I appreciated it but didn't really enjoy it.

Let me know what you finally settle on.

Today I honor my favorite author, John Steinbeck, born on this day in 1902. My favorite of all of his works is The Winter of Our Discontent. It is also the first of his novels that I read & I was in the 5th grade.

His only BFB that I can think of is East of Eden and that one barely makes it at a whopping 601 pages. :-)

Okay, after attempting to get into 2 or 3 different BFBs, I have finally found one that has engaged me. It is Shenandoah Sisters, Vol. 1-4, the Omnibus by Michael Phillips with 1272 pages. It is the story of two young teenage girls whose families were killed in part of the massacres that occurred at the end of the Civil War by raiders/renegades of both the North & the South sides. They happen to meet & come together in an attempt to survive this horrible time.
If you are thinking it sounds like Y/A, that would be because it is. But it is timely for me, it is very interesting and being about halfway through I am finding it pretty good.
So.... yea, me!~! Working on my 3rd BFB of the year.

Hi Belva, the Shenandoah Sisters sounds really good, when you finish you will have to let me know about it.

Will do John. I am enjoying it. Truth is that we have had so much illness & stress in our lives these past months that I am finding Young Adult books are very agreeable with me, but I am currently having a difficult time with deeper works.
But we shall continue to keep carrying on.............

Hi Belva, I hope that the recent stress and illness are a thing of the past my dear and enjoy whatever you are reading.

Hi, I do hope you can find some comfort in reading and that your troubles will be gone soon!

Thank you John & Ann Marie. It's rather an ongoing battle but I try to stay on top of it. And reading does comfort me and help me to feel better if I am reading the right material at the moment and I am.
Thank you both for popping in. 'That' is comforting.

Always here for you Belva, my friends on LT got me and Karen through bad times over the last six months and especially xmas and new year.

LT is a wonderful haven. I feel safe here and people are so encouraging in all ways.
I am so thankful that I stumbled across it back in 2007. It's been a lifesaver in more ways than one.

Isn´t it fantastic that you can feel close to people wherever they are in the world and even if you never met IRL?

>37 Amsa1959::
It is so wonderful Amsa. Sometimes I feel better understood by some of my LT friends than those in R/L. Excellent point you make.

This morning I finished my 4th BFB of the year, the wonderful Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte. It barely counted at 624 pages but I read it in a day and a half. It is that good!

My 2nd BFB of 2014:

Hungry Hill by Daphne du Maurier; 656 pages; (4 1/2*)



Our story begins in 1820 as Copper John, patriarch of the Anglo-Irish Brodrick family, prepares to mine Hungry Hill for copper. Unfortunately he neglects to ask permission of the hill first and for the next hundred years it visits its vengeance on one generation of the family after another.

The book isn’t really long enough for a family saga of five generations. Successive family members are born and rapidly grow up only to be whisked from the scene by the latest tragic occurrence. The men, apart from Copper John, are flawed and weak. The women are stronger but are overwhelmed by the circumstances of their lives and that of their families.

There were characters within the book that drew me in but the pace of the book didn't allow for intimacy between character and reader. Du Maurier’s most powerful novels seem to focus on a single drama played out among a small number of characters and are written in the first person. Hungry Hill has a vast cast, a wide scope and a third person narration. Towards the end of the book when the narrative concentrates on telling the story of the last days of the mine and of the impact of its closure on the community, it becomes much more compelling. This is a novel about decline and decay, a theme all too relevant to those who lived through two world wars and the Great Depression.

Still and all this is a book that I cannot stop thinking about. I really wanted to dig into the characters and though I was unable, I still loved the story and recommend it.

My 3rd BFB of 2014:

Shenandoah Sisters, Vol. 1-4 Omnibus by Michael Phillips; Y/A; BFB, 1272 Pages; (4*)



Volume 1: Angels Watching Over Me:

This book introduces us to (Mayme), freed from slavery with the Emancipation Proclamation, and Katy Clairborne, now the mistress of a plantation in North Carolina. Both of their families were killed in the Massacres during the aftermath of the Civil War. They are two young girls close in age but with very different lives. Mayme was a young slave girl living on a plantation several miles (but light years) away Katy's family's plantation. Through Mayme's experiences the reader is exposed to the everyday life of a young slave and through Katy's experiences we learn about the life of a young girl whose family owns a plantation.
When Mayme's family is killed she hides and when she comes out of hiding everyone, black & white, on the plantation is dead or gone. She buries her family and takes to the woods & trails trying to put as many miles behind her as she can.
After several days she comes upon a plantation house that appears to be deserted. Their are dead folk around but as Mayme is starving she decides to brave going into the plantation house in search of food. When she enters the kitchen she sees a young white girl standing alone. After the shock to both girls she learned that Katy, the white girl is the lone survivor of the massacre. Mayme buries Katy's family also. Katy is still in shock.
This begins the saga of these two young girls who come together despite all of their differences to help & comfort one another. Now they just need to hide the fact that they are there alone from any parties who come along in order to protect themselves.
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Volume 2: A Day to Pick Your Own Cotton:

Mayme and Katy are now fifteen and they share the secret that all of Katy's family & slaves are dead. The two girls have decided to continue to live at Katy's plantation, Rosewood, on their own and pretend that Katie's mother is still alive. As if that were not difficult enough, now they must protect three other people as well. Emma, a former slave and her baby, William, are hiding at Rosewood from William's father who is the son of Emma's former master as well as Mayme's, though the girls did not know one another. (Emma being a house slave and Mayme being a field slave)
Also a little white girl, Aleta has found them and needs care & protection. She and her mother were running away from the girl's drunken, abusive father when their horse went down and the mother was killed. So she also is living at Rosewood and is determined not to return home to her father.
Mayme and Katie have other worries as well. A loan is due soon at the bank and if they don't pay they will not be able to protect their secret and Katy will lose Rosewood. They also have secretly learned that one of Katy's uncles went to California in the gold rush days and may have left some gold in her mother's keeping.
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Volume 3: Color of Your Skin Ain't the Color of Your Heart:

This volume continues the story of Mayme and Katie as they strive to survive alone on the North Carolina plantation. Now the girls survive a devastating flood which takes much of their cotton crop which they were going to sell to pay off the bank. They also encounter hostile visitors and must come up with money to pay off a loan or risk losing Rosewood. Their friend & helper Henry, and Jeremiah, his son, also freed slaves check in on the girls at the plantation regularly and provide what assistance, protection and advice they can. In spite of the difficulties they encounter Mayme and Katie are reunited with friends and family. They discover new shocking family connections and for the first time a hint of romance enters their lives.
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Volume 4: Together Is All We Need:

This is the last book of the Shenandoah Sisters Series which is about friendship and family sticking together through thick & thin and sacrificing to help each other. This is a very enjoyable coming of age series with a marvelous ending. Kathleen and Mayme not only became friends and together worked to save Kathleen's plantation and make it productive again after the Civil War, but also built a very unusual household with both blacks and whites living together under the same roof in harmony. The girls also learn from their good friend and helper Henry, how to put their trust in the Lord.
This series ended with each character finding their place. The only loose end that bothered me was that of Emma & her baby William. Are they still safe at Rosewood? The witch of a wife of the father of the baby knows now that they were at Rosewood. I am left wondering about their fate.

I really enjoyed this series of books and recommend them to anyone interested in Civil War fiction &/or good Christian books.

My 4th BFB of 2014:

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte; 624 pages; (5*)



One of THE best books I have ever read or in this case reread.

Jane Eyre is a poor orphan fobbed off at a very early age on a nice uncle & a 'bitchy' aunt who have 3 abominable children. The uncle dies but makes his wife promise to always keep & care for Jane. That lasts a few miserable years until the aunt, through correspondence, finds a poorly run boarding school for Jane that will keep her holidays as well. She wants never to see her again.
So Jane goes to the boarding school where she works hard, learns well, is always hungry & often cold. She remains there studies hard & becomes a teacher there for an additional 2 years at which time she posts an advertisement for a position as governess.
She is hired by a Mrs Fairfax of Thornfield to become governess to a young girl, Adelle, who is a ward of the owner of Thornfield but the Master is rarely there. Jane is very happy in her new position but when the Master returns home she cannot help falling in love with him. She keeps this close to her vest. Little does she know that he has fallen in love with her as well.
In her room at night, Jane begins to hear strange cries, howls & noises from overhead. She knows that there is someone up on the 3rd floor but is told that it is a servant who keeps mainly to herself and indeed she does see Mrs. Poole occasionally going to & from that floor carrying items.
When Jane learns who is actually living in that upper abode she is heartbroken and feels she cannot remain. So the girl takes the poor things she arrived with and the few pennies she has and leaves, catching a coach that will take her as far away as her funds will allow. As she is let off the coach she forgets her little bundle and now all she has are the clothes on her back.
Jane walks & forages for food for about 3 days. She looks for work, finding only rejection. She begs food and is given bread crumbs. Finally one stormy night when she is so poorly she feels she can go no further she sees a light in the distance. She follows the light and comes upon a cottage in the wood where as she looks through the window she sees 2 young ladies that she is sure are sisters, for they look so much alike, and an elderly lady that she assumes is their mother, guardian or servant. She knocks on the door, is turned away & the door shut upon her. Jane is so ill, weak & weary that she collapses on the stoop.
The next thing she is aware of is a gentleman coming upon her, & helping her into the warm kitchen where now she is fed some warm milk & bread & is taken up to a warm bedroom, changed into dry sleeping clothes and put to bed where she remains ill & out of her head for several days. She is cared for by all of the inhabitants of the house. As she begins to get stronger she is allowed to sit up and eventually she feels well enough to get up, dressed & go downstairs where she joins the servant in the snug, warm kitchen.
She is accepted by this family and kept there for some time. The gentleman, who is a brother to the girls, finds work teaching for her along with a wee cottage of her own.
She lives thus for some time but the story does move on to a very climactic ending.
I will stop here, dear reader, for to go on would tell you more than you would wish to hear at this point.
This is one of the best books I have ever read and I very highly recommend it to young and old alike.

Belva, great review of Jane Eyre and of course I agree it is a fantastic read.

Hope R/L is being kind and that reading is helping, cheers !

WOW! You HAVE been reading. I never heard of the Shenandoah sisters, sounds interesting. Jane Eyre I have heard of…and read…and I agree. It´s wonderful. I wonder if Bryanoz is keeping track of our books!

>43 Amsa1959::
Shh, Ann-Marie. **I am sure he is. He seems to know everything. Best we keep that tidbit just between the two of us.** Shh.........

>42 bryanoz::
Bryan; Thank you for your kind comments.
Reading is helping so much. I have actually left the house a couple of times recently so I know I am feeling better. So thankful for my understanding family.

#44 Am happy to keep a running total, my busy contract finishes this Friday so my own reading should pick up and I'll be able to contribute more.
Actually should we have a group thread that we each add our read BFBs as we finish them, with a running total ?

#45 You are very welcome Belva, hang in there !

My 5th BFB of the year:

2666 by Roberto Bolano; 912 pages, (4*)



This is a very difficult book to review. There are actually five books in one and very little to link them to one another. Bolano wanted them published separately but as they were published posthumously he didn't have much say about it all.
I first checked the book out of the library and when I began to read it, I found myself reaching for a pen and highlighter as there was just so much that I wanted to follow up on. Well, you just cannot deface a public library book so I took it back to the library and went to my favorite independent bookshop and shelled out thirty bucks for my own copy so I could deface it. (but ended up taking notes on it instead)
For the book, as a whole, I have really mixed emotions and thoughts. All but one of the books I really liked, but the fourth book I did not care for at all. I think it just held too much violence for me. I loved the last book and it did kind of bring things together for me.
If you like your literature simple and your stories direct, then this most certainly is not the book for you. But if you prefer words that need to be mulled over, sentences that needed to pondered (often for their relevance) and facts and figures that need to be sifted for their significance, and you're willing to commit to a heady world-encompassing tour of literary academia, sexual relations, murder, and much more besides, which at times will have you wondering where on earth it is heading (or even if it indeed it is heading anywhere at all) then 2666 may be just the ticket. Bear in mind that it makes otherwise heavyweight books -- Umberto Eco's Foucault's Pendulum, for example -- feel positively light and yet ponderous by comparison.
Although the story is often dark and complex, the text is never in any way impenetrable -- in fact just the opposite, with its light, almost conversational style making the story-telling feel very close and intimate, almost at times seeming to be written for the individual personal benefit of the reader. Its division into short blocks of text rather than chapters also give the sensation of a continuous ongoing narrative from which it is hard to disconnect for fear of being left behind if one pauses for breath! (And you may sometimes feel you do indeed need a breather; one sentence in particular, at over 2000 words, must qualify as one of the longest outside of any written by James Joyce!) This endless driving narrative, coupled with the constant inclusion of every last detail in the story's scenes and events, gives the book the same surreal and dream-like quality achieved by Alexander Sokurov in his single-take film-work, Russian Ark.
I do guardedly (because of the violence) recommend this book. It is very well written. The characters that I cared about, I cared deeply about. The ones I cared not for, I truly cared not a whig about them. But I will be looking for more Bolano books to read as well as a good bio on him. I have a feeling he was a fascinating man.

I have been working on Battle Cry of Freedom by James McPherson in between reads since completing 2666 and I finally finished it this A.M. This is a wonderfully researched & drawn historical work of the Civil War.
(review to follow)

My 6th BFB of 2014:

Battle Cry of Freedom by James McPherson; 887 pages; (5*)



This volume is one of the most comprehensive studies of the Civil War period that addresses every aspect of the war. McPherson does an excellent job of setting the context. He describes the changing demographics, economics, politics and policies of the United States in the 19th century. He covers the institution of slavery; how it developed and how southerners sought its expansion. He discusses the impact of westward growth and the war with Mexico; the series of compromises as new states became part of the union along with the increasing divisions as those compromises failed to appease both sides. And lastly the secession of the southern states after Lincoln was elected president is covered. I especially appreciated the details of the months when secession spread which includes the stated rationales of the seceding states and the maneuvers that led to the firing on Fort Sumter.
The discussion of the war covers virtually all of the major military campaigns and battles and is accompanied by maps showing Union and Confederate movements. We get to know all the important generals and follow them through their checkered or glorious careers. McPherson is stellar at using anecdotes and/or quotes to convey the character of each general. The strengths and weaknesses of the Union and Confederate armies at certain times or battles are clearly delineated. He also assesses the structures of leadership and the quality of leaders in the Federal Government and in the Confederate states. Lincoln had to contend with political rivals and war opponents, worry over whether foreign nations might recognize the Confederacy, defend his Emancipation Proclamation from critics, and agonize over whether he would ever find an effective general to break the southern army and restore the union. Jefferson Davis had the challenge of winning the cooperation of the wildly independent Confederate states to raise sufficient armies, produce enough food, clothes and armaments, and agree on strategy and tactics.
Battle Cry of Freedom is very readable for a nearly 900 page book of nonfiction. It took me nearly 10 days to read it and it is a fascinating read. It held my interest throughout. I found James McPherson to be a masterful author in this field.
I very highly recommend this work.

My BFB reading list for our 4 month holiday this summer:

1. Outlander by Diana Gabaldon; 896 pages
2. Fall on Your Knees by Ann-Marie MacDonald; 672 pages
3. Kristin Lavransdatter by Sigrid Undset; 1168 pages
4. His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman; 1360 pages
5. Mapp and Lucia, (Omnibus 1-6), by E F Benson; 1052 pages
6. Stuart Quartet, Omnibus by Jane Yolen; 1248 pages
7. Carolina Cousins Omnibus; books 1-4 by Michael Phillips; 1378 pages
8. Sarum: The Novel of England by Edward Rutherfurd; 912 pages
9. The Dark Is Rising Sequence Set; (Omnibus) by Susan Cooper; 1364 pages; COMPLETED
10. Brave Story by Miyuki Miyabe; 824 pages
11. Ingo Omnibus: set of 5 by Helen Dunmore; 1727 pages

Of course it may be more & it could be less. But this is my plan with, of course, a lot of smaller than 600 page books in between. Looking forward to being 1,500 plus miles away from home & just camping, reading, fishing & hiking. Our first ever long vacation. Another couple of weeks and we are so gone!

Edited to say that we were only gone for 2 weeks; just long enough to get there & come back home. So I've not had the reading time I had planned on.

Hi Belva, that is certainly a good BFB list, I am up to book six in the Gabaldon series and this might be my next BFB. I have read the first in the Dark Materials series and I loved Sarum. I hope you have a lovely trip my dear, very jealous I must admit.

Great BFB list belva, the only one I have read is His Dark Materials, hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

Hope you have a wonderful, restful, readful holiday !

You have chosen some really great books to read! His dark materials and The dark is rising - series are wonderful. I do hope you´ll enjoy them as much as I did. Brave Story is on my BFB list as well. Maybe I´ll read it during my holiday...

Impressive line-up! Hope you enjoy them all!

Back home. Things just didn't work out the way we wished so we hauled azz for home. Glad to be here. Totally broke but much the wiser for the experience.

I am beginning book 5 of The Dark is Rising Omnibus. This has been a thrilling Y/A sci-fi/fantasy set that I will hate to see come to an end.

Sorry to hear travels haven't worked out but home is a nice place to be to (spoken by a homebody), with all those friends with pages to hang out with !
Must get to that Rising Dark series one day....

Hi Belva, sorry the road trip didn't quite work out for you, you will have to relax at home with a book or two and see if you can sort another break away out that will be what you want it to be. While you were away we sorted out a short holiday to celebrate our 30th wedding anniversary, we are going back to Salisbury where we went last year for my 50th birthday and I might have an LT meet up whilst we are down there.

Happy Anniversary John! And I do hope the LT meetup happens for you. They are the best!

Have completed The Dark Is Rising Sequence Set; (Omnibus) by Susan Cooper; 1364 pages.
I really enjoyed this quest related storyline between "the Dark & the Light". It ranged from fairly current time to way back in the 'Arthurian' days. The children's characters were often delightful and sometimes rather deep. Loved the character of 'Gramerry'. (an unexpected, by the children, Merlin) The 'Dark' rises to hold back the 'Light' in the world. The 'Old Ones' are the leaders & helpers of the 'Light'. I must admit that I was totally surprised more than once by events that occurred. That is always pleasant especially in Y/A fiction.
I want to read more by Susan Cooper. I enjoy her style & characters.

Well done! I´m glad you liked it. This series is one of my favorites!

Finally my 7th BFB of 2014:

War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy; 1424 pages; (5*)



This book is written quite different from his Anna Karenina.
It is the story of the French and Russian war as told from the Russian front. At the beginning there are quite of few of the social aspects: the balls, parties, parlor visits, etc, but when it gets into the war, Tolstoy really puts you there.....in the war. The logistics of war and wartime are laid right out. The French were so not prepared for where their Napoleon took them. He didn't fight the war he had planned. And Alexander responded in kind. It very much came to the generals and commanders calling their own plays and battles. I much preferred Tolstoy's 'War' to his 'Peace'. But I also liked how he wrapped up the story.
The very wimpy Pierre turns out to be the man after all. We get to see several sides of Alexander and of Napoleon. I had never read of Napoleon and so really found all that quite interesting. All in all, this is a great novel, deserves to be read today and has it's place in today's literature. I think it has proven and will continue to be proven a timeless epic of War and Peace.

Hi Belva, seems you have been very pre-occupied with a 1424 page tome my dear. I am really enjoying The Winds of War and am get on great and should finish before we go down to Salisbury. Whilst there hoping to do an LT meet up so I will try and keep everyone posted.

Oh John, please do keep up posted. I have only been able to attend 1 meet-up & I had to fly to Philadelphia to do so as I live in Washington State. (they really don't seem to be many L.T.ers on the West coast.) I loved it & meeting everyone. Made some new friends & caught up with current ones. I am excited for you.
I thought that The Winds of War miniseries was quite good also excepting for the acting skills, or lack of them, by Jan-Michael Vincent & Ali MacGraw but Robert Mitchum & Polly Bergen were wonderful as were all the others. I think I need to do a reread of it. So good...........
Enjoy your holiday in the City of New Sarum.

Hi Belva, I will keep you posted on our meet-up, we are both excited about this. I loved the Winds of War and War and Remembrance mini-series on T.V and agree with your comments about the acting skills. We are looking forward to our holiday in new Sarum, last year we visited the site of the original cathedral of old Sarum and it was wonderful, it was great to look upon the new cathedral in the distance from the site of the old one and we also visited the new cathedral and felt as though I could see it being built even though it has been a few years since I read the book. Salisbury is a lovely city with all the usual high street stores but also a lot of great independent shops to browse around. Hope you have a lovely day my dear and when we get to Salisbury on Sunday I will post updates of our visit and hopefully will take some photo's.

Heartily agree with all you have said about War and Peace Belva, it is a true classic read.

Am well into my 8th BFB of the year:
Outlander by Diana Gabaldon; 896 pages.

I bought her newest one in the series and feel the need to go back and revisit the others from the beginning as it has been a while since the previous one came out.

Happy to be in to another BFB!~!

Still slogging through Outlander. Don't get me wrong. The book is very well researched & written. But perhaps this, my umpteenth read of it is keeping my head out of it. Perhaps I should just go ahead and read the newest of Gabaldon's series.

Plus I spent the past Friday through Monday on the Read-a-Thing where I scheduled myself for two 3 hour reading slots per day and read the following:
August 28th - 31st:
Under the Net by Iris Murdoch; (4*),
Blackbird House by Alice Hoffman; (5*),
Molly Fox's Birthday by Deirdre Madden; (5*),
The Woman in Black by Susan Hill; (3 1/2*)
The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox by Maggie O'Farrell; (4*)
Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons; (4 1/2*)
Young Man With a Horn by Dorothy Baker; (5*)
__________________________________________________​

September 1st:
Dream When You're Feeling Blue by Elizabeth Berg; (5*)
In Cold Blood by Truman Capote; (3 1/2*)
Mia by Robert Nathan; (4*)

and I read more than half of Outlander by Diana Gabaldon throughout the RaT; so far I would rate this one at (4 1/2*)

So in that 5 day period I read a total of 2839 pages. WOW!~! Didn't realize that I had read the equivalent of 4.7316 BFBs! I am AWESOME!~! Just ask me. LOL!~!

Now I don't feel so bad about not having yet completed Outlander. And I have a much better attitude toward finishing it.

How much do I owe you kids for the therapy session?

Wow Belva, some big reading happening !
Next Read-a-Thing I better give it a try, very inspiring, thank you !

>67 rainpebble:, You are awesome Belva my dear.

Have begun my 9th BFB of the year: Mark Helprin's A Soldier of the Great War and so far am quite enjoying it.
I just realized that I am behind by one on my BFBs for the year. Will try to catch up before the year's end. I think if I continue on with this challenge into next year (which I really want to do as I have so many BFBs on my shelves) I will need to switch from the 100 book gig to the 50 book gig. Then my reading may seem much more manageable without running & gunning and taking away from R/L. At least that sounds like a good plan to me.
I hope you all are enjoying your reads.

Hi Belva, I think you will catch up on your BFB target for the year my dear and like you I will be a part of this challenge if a thread is set up as my challenge for next year will involve a lot of BFB's, I will let you know what it is next month when I firm things up. Have a lovely weekend my dear, love and hugs to you.

I am in for next year's challenge, and also the 100 book challenge, it is a sickness I know !

>73 bryanoz::
Bry, I am sitting at about 140 books for the year thus far. So I am making my 100 Book Challenge but it is simply TOO challenging for me to make that and read the numbers of BFBs that I would like to.

On another note I have set aside the Helprin for a library book which I have been in queue for these many months: The Brontes Wild Genius on the Moors: The Story of a Literary Family by Juliet Barker. (1184 pages) I just picked it up today and after I read my Orange for the month I will be diving into it. Can't wait. I hope it is as good as I have heard.

hugs all round,

My 8th BFB of the year:
(somehow I forgot to throw my thoughts on this one up here)

Outlander by Diana Gabaldon; 896 pages; (5*)



Wouldn't most of us love a chance to go back in time and change something or be able to decide not to make a choice that we have lived to regret? In Diana Gabaldon's Outlander the heroine gets that second chance.
Claire Randall, our protagonist, is a combat nurse in the 1940s, reunited with her husband of 8 years. They are having a second honeymoon in Scotland when Claire is transported back in time through the stone circle to the 1700s by forces she does not understand.
1743 Scotland is torn by war and Claire has trouble believing what is happening to her. Then she is forced to marry the breathtakingly handsome and ethical (for the 1700s) Jamie Fraser. He introduces her to a love so absolute that it can withstand torture, war, and hate. But will these star crossed lovers be able to defy the laws of time?
Claire is a most wonderful heroine. It was lovely to see historical Scotland from a more modern point of view and from the past also as the subject matter has been well researched. When Claire's 'second chance' comes she grasps it with both hands and holds tight. It is fabulous to see that kind of strength in a heroine. And young Jamie is a nice change from the normal hero. In this novel he is the virgin and Claire is the one with experience and I was delighted that Jamie was a virgin on his wedding night.
The secondary characters of this novel are deftly woven throughout the story and some of them are downright loveable. Others are despicable. But they all add to the ebb and flow of the narrative.
Because Outlander is written in first person this reader felt very connected to Claire. I laughed and wept right along with her. I was thrilled that this is part of a series. Readers of the book seem either to love or to hate it. I belong to the former. When I got to the end of the book I couldn't wait to read the next in the series.
I am looking forward to rereading the second in the series: Dragonfly in Amber.

I have discovered that I need to have something a bit lighter to read along with
The Brontes Wild Genius on the Moors: The Story of a Literary Family so I have also begun Dragonfly in Amber, the 2nd in the Outlander series. Loving them both so far although the 1st began a bit dry (reminded me somewhat of the begats) but has now picked up.

With the last RaT, the October Horror one for the week of Halloween, I put in over 68 hours which I filled in quite nicely with many spooky, creepy books & bits plus it allowed me to complete the two above BFBs: Dragonfly in Amber & The Brontes Wild Genius on the Moors: The Story of a Literary Family.

My 9th BFB of 2014:



The Brontes: Wild Genius on the Moors: The Story of a Literary Family by Juliet Barker; 1184 pages; (3 1/2*)

I was a bit disappointed in this book as I was expecting more about the writing lives of Anne, Charlotte and Emily. However this very well researched and scholarly book deals more with the life of their father, Patrick, and the early childhood of his children.
Barker goes into great detail about Patrick's early life, his religious beliefs, where he was assigned as a pastor, what each church looked like, who said what to whom about his assignment etc. She did a lot of research to this reader's eye she used every bit of it. For me this culminated in an great amount of detail and much distracting information. Most of the book covers the years leading up to Patrick's marriage to the short lived Maria. Many of the quotes from letters and documents could have been left out. The book covers Patrick's marriage to Maria, the birth of their children, her death, and the girls' experience at Cowan Bridge school which led to the death of the two elder sisters, Maria and Elizabeth.
I was hoping for more insight into the adult lives and creative genius of the Bronte sisters. I was actually quite disappointed that the sisters' writing years were not covered by much detail.
The author argues successfully with several of the claims of Mrs. Gaskill's book on the Bronte sisters.
If you are interested in reading a very well detailed of the country pastor Patrick Bronte you will appreciate this book. If, however, you are seeking information on the lives of the three female Bronte authors, don't look here for you will not find it. I was disappointed for that which I sought was not here but I did appreciate how well researched this book was. I am thankful that I checked this one out from the library and did not purchase it as I was tempted to do.

My 10th BFB of 2014:



Dragonfly in Amber by Diana Gabaldon; 752 pages; (4*)

For some twenty years Claire Randall has kept her secrets. But now she is returning to Inverness, Scotland with her grown daughter, Brianna, to the majestic mist shrouded hills. Here Claire plans to reveal to her daughter a truth as unbelievable as the events which led up to it. In Gabaldon's first book, Outlander, we learned about the mystery of an ancient circle of standing stones near Inverness and about a love that transcends the boundaries of time. We learned about the young James Fraser, a Scottish warrior, whose gallantry once drew a young Claire from the security of her century to the dangers of his, the 1700s of Scotland
Now a legacy of blood and desire will test her beautiful copper haired daughter as Claire’s spellbinding journey of self discovery continues in the intrigue ridden Paris court of Charles Stuart (the Bonnie Prince Charlie) in a race to thwart a doomed Highlands uprising and in a desperate fight to save both the child and the man she loves along with the others of the clans.
Following on the heels of Outlander which introduced readers to Claire Randall and her journey through time, Dragonfly in Amber returns us to the heroine 20 years after her fantastic voyage back through the stones from the 1700s Scotland to the Scotland of the 1960s.
I truly enjoy this series. It just kind of sweeps me away with the pages and allows me to forget my mundane world. And I appreciate the research which Diana Gabaldon has done in order that her books have a more realistic, though not perfect, background in history. I love all of the descriptions of the economic & agricultural times, the plant life with which Claire makes her healing potions & pastes, the way she takes things from that time and fashions implements of the time from which she came, the differences in weaponry, and I especially love how she grows her characters and how they pop in and out of the weave of her story lines.

I have embarked upon my 11th BFB of 2014: The Regeneration Trilogy by Pat Barker and am quite liking it thus far. I just began it last night so am not deeply into it yet but have heard that it gets even better as it goes along. Yea!

Hi Belva, enjoy your 11th BFB my dear.

>78 rainpebble: Thanks for the heads-up about this one!

Hi Belva, wishing you a very Merry Christmas and have a fabulous day my dear.

Hi Belva, just a quick post to wish you a Very Happy and Prosperous New Year my dear and have an enjoyable reading year in 2015. xx

Thank you so much kids.

I hope to do better next year in 2015 with my TOMES! I think I may move down to a lesser count book gig or just not try to read SO many books and be a bit pickier about what I read. I would really like to get as least 12 BFBs in for the year.