Pete's 2015 -hopefully not missing quite so much as 2014 challenge

Unlike last year I've not thought out my challenge for 2015 at all. And this year has mostly been spent doing research for the novel & writing that novel - next year I'll be doing the same (researching and writing a novel that is) and will probably base my challenge around that. I've currently got two possible novels to work on, once I've decided which one I'm going to be writing I'll set the challenge. No ideas on numbers or anything yet.

Decided to do something simple, and not based around novel number two

Scaling the peaks of mount TBR - the three peak challenge (I'm aiming to reduce the three piles by 15 books each, for a modest target of 45 books plus my xmas & birthday books (18) & no more than 15 ARCs - aiming for 12 - for a total of 75)

1: Base Camp - As far as Mount TBR goes I'll count everything that is currently in the house which includes my Christmas & Birthday presents. These books that arrived last will be the base camp, they can't be allowed to add to the mountain this year! I must read them before I get to the mountain...

my book haul for Xmas & Birthday:

Sunbathing Naked by Guy Kennaway - Read (January)
How not to write a novel by Sandra Newman - Read (January)
Stories in the stars: an atlas of constellations by Susanna Hislop -Read
understanding comics by Scott McCloud (January)
Writing for comics by Alan Moore (January)
Black Paths by David B (January)
Neurogastronomy by Gordon Shepherd - Read
Red handed by Matt Kindt - Read (January)
The moth by Catherine Burns - Read
The Bewdley Mayhem by Tony Burgess - Read
Lectures on literature by Vladamir Nabakov
Finite and infinite games by James Carse
Deadly companions by Dorothy Crawford - Read - (January)
Early science fiction tales The Earliest SF Stories Ever (51BC - 1638AD) by David Lear - Read
Discovering Scarfolk by Richard Littler - Read (January)
Feral searching for enchantment on the frontiers of rewilding by George Monbiot - Read
All you need is Kill by Hiroshi Sakurazaka - Read (January)
Andre the Giant by Box Brown - Read (January)

2: Scafell Pike - the highest mountain in England (& tiny on the world scale of course) - My non-fiction TBR (not including cat 3)

3: Snowdon - the highest mountain in Wales (slightly bigger than Scafell Pike) - My fiction TBR (not including cat 3)

4: Ben Nevis - the highest mountain in Scotland (slightly bigger than Snowdon) - The pile of shame - books read by Claire that I've not got to yet, despite her giving them rave reviews

5: Slieve Donard - the highest mountain in Northern Ireland (& smaller than Scafell Pike) - ARCs

provided ARCs:

The beauty by Aliya Whiteley
The witching elm by C N Crawford
Cold caller by Jason Starr
Guns of the dawn by Adrian Tchaikovsky
The beauty by Aliya Whitely

6: Mount Wycheproof - the smallest registered mountain in the world (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Wycheproof) - Books that are not from Mount TBR, not an ARC and not part of the present haul. To read any of these is bad, for each one I read the total from mount TBR must be increased by 3 (in categories 2, 3 & 4)

Right, I'm off to buy some crampons, a stout rope and a sturdy rucksack...

Great to see you have set up a thread for 2015! I find it daunting when I read about anyone writing a novel so I am doubly impressed that you have got two possible novels on the go.

To clarify I'll be working on one out of two possible novel ideas!

OK am setting my challenge

How not to write a novel by Sandra Newman

Good

Turning the usual writing advice on its head, and providing plenty of examples of deliciously bad writing, the authors of this little help novel tell you how to write an unpublishable novel. How to write bad characters, bad plot, bad dialogue, bad settings, bad pacing, the works. This is entertaining and educational and I read it in a few hours.

Overall – Lots of fun writing guide

Sunbathing Naked by Guy Kennaway

Good

Guy Kennaway has psoriasis, and this is his skin’s memoir. Kennaway rushes through his biography up until he gets the dreaded red patches, then gives us a bit of context with a little bit of history of psoriasis, and the fact that “lepers” in the Bible should actually be Psoraitics, not sufferers of Hansard’s Disease as commonly assumed & provides the etymological evidence for this. There is a call back to this later as he discusses the Jesus cures a Leper parts of the Bible. He blends in the biographies of other sufferers (which he admits are conglomerates of people he’s met, rather than actual people) and an extended article about the wonders of sunbathing naked in the Dead Sea skin resort in Israel during one of its occasional wars with Palestine. Then, when he leaves Israel in remission, the book takes a bizarre turn as Kennaway becomes a sex addict, being free from the crippling self-hate he has when covered in psoriatic lesions. This bit of the book was both sensational and also a little coy – he discusses in detail his treatment in rehab, but says nothing about how this affected his family, who I assume he is still with as he thanks them in the acknowledgements. Apart from this odd bit though this is a good book to get an idea of what psoriasis (and other skin disease) sufferers go through on a daily basis, not only physically but mentally too.

Overall – Interesting memoir about a struggle with a disease that affects self-esteem

Good luck with your reading and writing expeditions this year!

Great you see you here for another year, Pete!

Love the mountainous challenge. How NOT to Write a Novel sounds like a writing book I might actually be able to get through. At some point, perhaps the point in my life that marks middle age, I decided that a lot of people think they know how to tell you how to write a novel but butt in chair was the only sound advice that nearly always works that I've heard.

Good luck in trying to scale the unclimbable. Tackling mount tbr in chunks is probably the best way to go about it though.

That's a great challenge - Mt. TBR is a tough one! :)

Every time I vow to seriously tackle my huge TBR, I get all nervous and sweaty and then immediately run to the computer and order more books!

Thanks folks. I've read a couple more from the holiday haul and am currently in a dipping mood and have two books on the go - The Moth and Stories in the stars. I'll be back with some reviews soon I hope

Both of those books sound interesting, though in different ways!

So I'm making my way through the present haul & then i realise that I have a book club book to read & I haven't created a category for book club books! argh - my new category is 7: Bivouac Camp (In the mountaineering context, a bivouac or "biv(v)y" is a makeshift resting or sleeping arrangement in which the climber has less than the full complement of shelter, food and equipment that would normally be present at a conventional campsite) in which there will be twelve books

January - Mythago Wood

Andre the giant by Box Brown

Average

Andre the giant was a wrestler and Fezzig in The Princess Bride and this is Box Brown’s biography. Although it does have Andre’s life sequentially (light on anything pre-wrestling) it felt very episodic and didn’t really have any binding narrative. I was left at the end knowing very little more than I already knew from being semi-aware of him as a wrestler and actor in a film I quite like.

Overall – Just the facts, nothing to bring it all alive

Black Paths by David B

Good



At the end of the first world war a ‘pirate’ named Gabriele D’Annunzio captures the port of Fiume and declares it an free republic with him as head of state. Meanwhile some former Italian soldiers perform a heist of the spoils that Sicilians have previously stolen, including artwork and a beautiful French singer, with whom one of the soldiers falls madly in love. The art and story capture the mood of the time and is full of revolutionary fervour but a little difficult to follow at times. It’s a little muddled and more concerned with painting a big picture than telling a story but the art is, as usual for David B, well executed, if a little busy at times.

Overall – Nice satire with great art

Understanding comics by Scott McCloud

Brilliant

McCloud’s now classic exploration of the art of comics in a comic medium. It explores a definition of cimics (a little more than sequential art but not too much more), the history of comics which takes in things like the Bayeux tapestry, art, iconography, pictures, words, gutters, colour, time and well everything there is to understanding comics. This is a tour de force and pretty much required reading for comics aficionados. I learned a great deal and as the blurb on the back says I’ll “never look at comics the same way again.” I highly recommend this to those of you who read GN and those who want to but don’t know where to start and, well everyone else too. I’ll be re-reading this a number of times I expect, to absorb all the different lessons within.

Overall – Required reading for anyone interested in comics.

Red Handed by Matt Kindt

Average

A series of bizarre whodunnits, all investigated by the brilliant Detective Gould who singlehandedly brings the unresolved cases way down. The crimes are all odd, a woman steals chairs, an art thief cuts his haul into little pieces to sell, a woman steals street signs to put them on a warehouse wall to create a new novel etc. Gould eventually finds that al the crimes are related. The art and words are well executed but in the end it failed to move me, it wasn’t as clever as it thought it was and the resolution seemed a bit implausible.

Overall – Competent but not compelling

Discovering Scarfolk by Richard Littler

Brilliant



Scarfolk is a small town in Northern England that is stuck in 1979. The author was sent a package, herein called the archive, by one who escaped its clutches, but not without being changed. Richard Littler has been producing a cult blog for some time - http://scarfolk.blogspot.co.uk/ and this book explores the town of Scarfolk, its residents and bizarre religious practices via the archive. Full of period pictures and a creeping sense of doom arising from office equipment, and some very dubious puns. This is a delightful read that kept me entertained for a period of time where I would otherwise have been suffering the side effects of not taking my lobotomymed.

"Visit Scarfolk today. Our number one priority is keeping rabies at bay."

Take a look at the blog link, that’ll give you a good idea of what the book is like.

Overall – For more information please reread this review

Need to add reviews for All you need is kill , Deadly companions and Mythago wood

Understanding Comics was quite enlightening - lots of great ideas.
Putting Discovering Scarfolk on the wishlist!

>18 -Eva-: - Scarfolk is well worth a visit :-)

I need to add reviews for The beauty by Aliyah Whitely, The honey month and The ship last 3 books read - all very good

The Ship by Antonia Honeywell

Category – ARC

Brilliant

Lalage Paul, known as Lalla, 16, lives in (a very changed) London but has been sheltered from the chaos of a dystopian post-collapse world by her parents. Her mother, who tries to give her an education via the British Museum, despite it being colonised by a ragtag group of survivors; and her father, Michael, part of the establishment, architect of the Dove, a program to “save” Britain. Now the Nazareth Act has been put in place everyone must produce an identity card, or they will be shot. Michael has a plan to escape, he has bought a large ocean going ship and stocked it with food that is rapidly becoming scarce in London. He has invited a group of people who all, in one way or another, represent hope in the future. 500 people. When the chaos on the streets of London becomes too much and a shocking event causes them to escape immediately Lalla is full of hope. But where is the ship going? What is Paul’s plan for escape? Why is the escapees devotion to him disturbingly cult-like?

This is a rollercoaster of a book that wraps itself around you at the beginning and doesn’t let go. Lalla is often annoying and spoiled, but utterly believable and, as narrator the tension between naïveté, teenage angst and slowly dawning comprehension is a difficult trick to pull off but Honeywell does it with aplomb. Lalla is an insufferable spoiled brat, immature and irritating and yet you can’t help but be on her side, which throws into sharp relief the question at the heart of the book (imho) what is freedom? There are labyrinths here to explore and like all good books a wealth to ponder and discuss, this would make a good book club read.

As those who follow my reviews will know, I am not a fan of YA, and this is possibly going to be marketed as such, teenage protagonist = YA right? However I think there is enough here to satisfy any reader, it didn’t suffer from all the things I dislike about YA fiction. It is also a dystopia and the problems that sometimes occur with that genre, either over-explaining the world, or trying to justify unbelievable worlds just doesn’t occur here. It is over the top, Regent’s Park is bombed to remove undesirable non-ID’d people for example, but a light touch from Honeywell makes you accept and move on. The world of the book is seen through a glass darkly, but that enhances rather than detracts. Post-collapse books usually take a “people are mostly bad” or “people are mostly good” stance but Honeywell eschews this in favour of “people react in different ways” which is refreshingly shades of grey.

The plot relies on Lalla being a bit dense, which is a big no no for me usually, and yet, here, it works. Honeywell’s accomplishment is to be applauded, taking several elements that all, at face value, will turn off readers and making of them a compelling tale that you don’t want to put down.

Overall - In short, this is a book you ought to read.

>20 psutto: Definitely looks like one to keep an eye out for so onto the wishlist it goes.

Definitely adding The Ship to my wishlist and a big thumbs up for your review.

I hope your novel is coming along well.
>16 psutto: That cover for Children & Hallucinogens is rather terrifying.

I'll take a BB for The Ship as well, even if I, like you, have a bit of an issue with dense main characters.

>22 DeltaQueen50: - Thanks!

>23 mstrust: - I've put the final revisions on the novel and have an agent interested, just need to write a synopsis now :-(

>24 -Eva-: somehow it works for this book. Even though I wanted to slap the main character (many times) it still had me flipping the pages compulsively!

Deadly companions by Dorothy H Crawford

Category 1

Good

A non-expert guide to the microbes that cause disease and what effect they have had on human evolution. Crawford does a good job of explaining the science and casting her gaze over history to see what effects infectious diseases have had. Our fight against them, both ancient and modern. For me, having done microbiology at university, it was a bit of a high level refresher but I think it’s a very good introduction to the subject and the social effects of disease was a fascinating take.

Overall – A good primer on infectious microbes.

The Honey month by Amal Al-Mohtar

Category

Good

The author decides to write a story or poem every day one February to go with the samples of honey she is receiving. There are notes on the honey – colour, smell & taste, that are sensual descriptions and then there are poems and stories inspired by that day’s honey. This is a slight book but interesting. It kept me entertained for part of a long flight but I think it probably would be best as a dipping book.

Overall – Interesting poetry and poetic prose.

The Beauty by Aliya Whitely

Category – ARC

Good

A post-apocalyptic novella set in a wold where a fungal disease has wiped out all women, or certainly all women in the nearby area to where the story is set. The tale follows Nathan, who has been given the task of keeping the group’s stories alive. When strange fungal entities, in female shapes, come to the group of men, everything changes.

The Beauty is written in a sparse style that is also somewhat poetic. There are large themes at play here – gender is an obvious one that is explored in several ways but also hope is a thread woven throughout. There is an almost Vandermeerian focus on fungus but the story stands alone but alongside other gender role reversal stories. It is short but proves that good things come in small packages.

Overall – Small but perfectly formed. Recommended.

Feral: Rewilding the land by George Monbiot

Category 1

Good

Monbiot acknowledges that the Green movement has, so far, been about telling us what we shouldn’t do. This is a manifesto for what we should be doing. We should leave nature alone, in as many places as we can, and let it get on with things. Re-introducing some key species (and there is a long table of species he grades as potential re-introductions) especially wolves and beavers. He makes the case for rewilding eloquently and passionately but there is an element of blindness and monomania involved. For example he excoriates the sheep farming industry and ably demonstrates that sheep, and to a lesser extent goats, are a major ecological menace, when farmed as they are in e.g. Wales. But his contention that people could just switch from sheep farming to eco-tourism, or that they’d even want to ignores human nature. Similarly he is a fisherman, going out in a sea kayak, he at least eats his catch, and yet we may all bewail the fact that we are emptying the oceans. He suggests that we allow some areas of the seas to rewild, which would require international co-operation.

It seems the UK is well behind its European neighbours when it comes to rewilding and he spends a little time trying to work out why, and concludes that it may be because we industrialised first or that we have an island mentality. Where the book shines is in leaps of imagination when it comes to anthopogenic climate change and historical effects of man on nature. For example, using the example of Serbia, which rewilded after the second world war when the ethnic Germans were either expelled or left, who happened to be sheep and goat farmers, he makes the point that removing human effects on the land cause rewilding. He then covers the native American’s genocide and posits that the amazing abundance of nature, passenger pigeon flocks in their millions, massive bison herds etc. were an effect of the depopulation of the Americas, rather than a natural occurrence.

Monbiot is a journalist and his prose is clear and entices you ever onwards and he is never less than entertaining. But I’m not convinced that his vision is not just another nostalgia for a past that either didn’t exist, or exist in the way he seems to think it does. In the end how easy is it to go against the powerful farming and fishing lobby and is it possible to remove man’s influence from large areas of our country?

Overall – A fascinating and thought provoking read

I just finished Last Chance To See and Monbiot's angle seems an interesting one - Feral is a BB for me.

>28 -Eva-: - Have you read the Stephen Fry update too? I once saw Mark Carwardine in Bristol (BBC Nature is based here) but didn't have the bravery to go and say hello!

Monbiot is a great writer so i'm sure you'll enjoy reading the book

>29 psutto:
It's on the wishlist - I think Fry did the foreword and Carwardine wrote the text(?).
Ooh, I would probably have molested him a little had it been me... But I obviously don't expect the same from you - unless you see him again and would be prepared to molest a little on my behalf. ;)

Heh - I'm guessing it's possible that I'll see him again, he was in a cafe I often frequent not so far from the BBC - not sure I could 'molest' him for you though!

I've got a review of the updated on on one of my previous challenges

Very happy to say that North by Southwest, an anthology my writing group put together, will soon be available on Amazon worldwide - https://www.librarything.com/work/15754689/covers/116379205

I'd love for folk on here to review it! It'll be available in paperback, kindle and epub

The best American nonrequired reading 2014 edited by Daniel Handler

Category 1

Average

These pieces of fiction, a couple of graphic art pieces and non-fiction are chosen by a group of high school students and as such are highly eclectic with no underlying theme. It’s a very mixed bag, some pieces I dropped after a few paragraphs, some pieces I followed up with finding out more about the author as someone to read more from. It’s hard to choose any outstanding ones, the man who saves you from yourself and a non-fiction piece by a journalist who undertook to experience illegal immigration from the immigrants perspective are memorable. However there were, for me, just as many unappealing pieces as there were appealing and being such an eclectic mix it all felt a little arbitrary, hence the “Average” rating. However I think this is probably the books strength as well, as probably most readers would find something of interest to them in the pages.

Overall – Hit & Miss

The Moth: 50 true stories edited by Catherine Burns

Category 1

Good

The Moth is a storytelling event, aiming to take folk back to a time before TV and radio, before mass market paperbacks, back to a time when people would gather on their porch and tell tales. The Moth refers to the moths that would fly around the lights, on said porches, when the storyteller was doing their thing. More details of the Moth can be seen on its website - http://themoth.org/ This book collects 50 of the best stories. As with all anthologies it’s a mixed bag, and these are transcribed stories, meant to be experienced out loud, so a bit odd to read occasionally. However saying that the quality is very high and there are a great many very interesting and entertaining stories within. There is a huge range from comic to tragic and since all the stories are true the tragic ones really are tragic. This is a worthwhile collection I dipped into over a period of weeks, which I think is probably the best way to approach it.

Overall – Storytelling needs an audience but this is a good selection of reading material

Screenwriting 101 by Film Crit Hulk

Category – 1 (sort of)

Brilliant

If you’re not familiar with Film Crit Hulk you should head on over to his website as he’s one of the most insightful film critics out there - https://filmcrithulk.wordpress.com/ and now he’s written a book. Hulk works in Hollywood and has written a great many scripts himself and has a deep understanding of cinema. This book is a screenwriting masterclass but along the way you’ll get a great grounding in what makes a good story. Hulk demolishes the three act structure and the heroes journey and sets up alternatives that make a lot more sense. Throughout are examples from films good and bad. Want to know why Cowboys and Aliens was a poor movie? Hulk explains it so that you’ll find yourself nodding and thinking “oh yeah, of course”. If you’re interested in film, and don’t necessarily want to be a scriptwriter, there is a lot in here for you anyway, if you are a writer of any format then there’s a lot in here for you and if you are an aspiring scriptwriter this should be essential reading.

Overall – Hulk is one of those smart people you read and wish to be like.

I didn't get on at all with The witching elm which had all of the issues that make me dislike YA so that went in the discard pile.

Guns of the dawn by Adrian Tchaikovsky

Category 5

Good

Emily Marchwic, middle sister of a noble family, lives in Lascanne who are pursuing a bitter war against their neighbour Denland. The war was started when the Denlanders committed regicide and instituted a republic, a direct danger to Lascanne's monarchy. The war has emptied the country of men, Emily's brother and brother-in-law being part of the draft and the sisters try to get on with their life in a country where the old and young and the women are the only ones immune to the draft. Due to family history the Marshwics consider the local governor, a Mr Northway, as an enemy.

The first third of the book builds a very clear picture of what the country is like without men, with scarcity, the impact of brigands and the very human desire to carry on as if everything were normal. This part of the book is well observed. Emily and her younger sister attend a ball held by the king, and get to meet Giles Scavian, a warlock. The warlocks are key to the war. There is an immediate attraction between them but Scavian must leave for the front.

Then comes the news that more soldiers are needed and that the draft requires one woman from each household and it is obvious that Emily must go to war. The war is being fought on two main fronts, the Couchant and the Levant. The new recruits all wish to go to the Couchant for it's wide open plains favour the glorious cavalry of Lascanne but Emily is sent to the Levant, a swamp requiring jungle warfare.

This middle section has a healthy mix of exciting warfare, weary cynicism and a battle for the soul of Emily between the dashing warlock Scavian and the difficult Mr Northway with whom she has an illicit exchange of letters.

As things get worse Emily begins to have doubts about the cause, he country and her enemy and she is thrust into a position to make decisions that will affect everything.

Tchaikovsky has built a world that is supremely focused, with only hints of the wider world outside the story, a function of the close POV. The small hints of a swamp civilization and the wider world left me wanting more. The story itself is well made, I was impressed with Tchaikovsky's storytelling abilities and his command of the reader's emotions. This is a big book but doesn't read like one, it propels you forward effortlessly. I enjoyed the middle section the best, the brilliant survivor's club, the creeping claustrophobia of the swamp, the slow revelations. But the ending was also very satisfying too.

There are a couple of issues but these are more down to a matter of taste than anything objective I think. I'm not a huge fan of Austen for example.

Overall - Large but very readable book, if you ever wondered what it'd be like for one of Austen's heroines to go to war then this is the book for you!

I have an interview with the author about the book on my blog here: http://brsbkblog.blogspot.co.uk/2015/02/guns-of-dawn-review-interview-with.html

I've been meaning to give Adrian Tchaikovsky a try at some point. Maybe this will be the one I get to.

Well there's also a novella called, I think, Journal of the plague year or a ten book series. I found tackling ten books a bit daunting. I met Adrian at a con last year and agreed to review this book when it came out. The reading he did was really interesting.

"not sure I could 'molest' him for you though"
I guess that's understandable - won't hold it against you. :)

Do you have a release date for the US Kindle version of North by Southwest?

Only date I have currently is "March" but I signed off the Ebooks today so imagine it'll be the first week. I'll be sure to let you know! :-D

>34 psutto: Jane Austen heroine goes to war? SOLD.

The Free by Will Vlautin

Category 4

Good

Leroy is an Iraq war veteran who, after a heartbreaking opening, lies in a coma, with a Sci-Fi story running through his head. Pauline is one of his nurses, who has to look after her father when she’s not at work. Freddie is the night-watchman at the care home that Leroy is in at the beginning of the story, he also works a day job as he is struggling to pay the medical bills for his sick daughter. This book is an indictment against the United States medical system, forcing people into impoverished, desperate lives. It made me very glad that we, in Britain, have the National Health Service, despite all its problems. And incredibly nervous about the fact that successive neoliberal governments here have pushed us closer and closer to the American system. Other folk have expressed that there is hope in this book, and to some extent there is, but the small glimmerings of hope do little to offset the often harrowing lives the book’s characters lead. The fact that they are unremarkable in their desperation is why the hope does little to alleviate things, there is a commonality to their suffering, lack of adequate medical insurance and jobs that don’t pay living wages. All too common situations.

"...the moral test of government is how that government treats those who are in the dawn of life, the children; those who are in the twilight of life, the elderly; those who are in the shadows of life; the sick, the needy and the handicapped. " ~ Last Speech of Hubert H. Humphrey

Overall - Excellent, but depressing.

The Enchanted by Rene Denfield

Category 4

Brilliant

he look in her eyes is of a person who drank from the end of a gun barrel and found it delicious. Her eyes are filled with a strange sort of wondrous sadness, as if marvelling at all the beauty and pain in the world.

A poetic, magic realist book about Death Row? Well yes, a stunningly beautiful read. Denfield herself is a Death Row investigator, and this book obviously draws upon that. The book is set within a maximum security prison, where the prisoners awaiting execution are placed in the dungeon. They wait, often for many years, for the appeals procedure to be exhausted. The Lady delves into the history of the men who are on Death Row, looking to save them from execution. The Fallen Priest offers succour to them. The Warden wonders why people can object to retributive death but not to death by cancer, as he watches his wife suffer the indignities of terminal illness. The twilight world of the institution is narrated by a nameless prisoner, exposing thoughtless corruption, daily prisoner rape, the prison as enchanted place with little men hammering in the walls and golden horses racing underground. This is an exploration of the psychology of crime versus human decency, where beauty and hope contend with horror and despair.

Overall – Beautiful prose, heart rending subject

The Sense of Style by Stephen Pinker

Category 2

Average

The use of consistent grammar reassures a reader that the writer has exercised care in constructing his prose, which in turn increases her confidence that he has exercised care in the research and thinking behind the prose. It is also an act of courtesy.

Pinker is a cognitive psychologist who has written several books about language. His starting position with this book is that, in being a student of language, he is an enthusiastic reader of style guides. However many style guides are stuck in the past, hence the sub-heading for this book The Thinking Person's Guide to Writing in the 21st Century and so he sets out to correct this. The book is aimed mainly at the non-fiction writer, the academic, the essayist, the popular science writer but does have a wealth of good advice for any writer. The book is oddly structured, three short chapters which feel a little like an extended throat clearing, an extended stream of consciousness about several examples of good writing, and a very good exploration of the curse of knowledge (the fact that academics and scientists should assume that their audience is as smart as them, but maybe not familiar with the subject). There then follow three long chapters – one on sentence trees, that I must confess meant very little to me, a visual way of breaking sentences down into Object, subject, preposition etc, which all seemed a little overly technical and also to break the rules Pinker set down in the previous chapter on the curse of knowledge. The next chapter was better, being an examination of coherence, what every writer should aspire to, that the next three levels of writing, paragraphs, chapters and whole books should work towards a coherent vision. The last chapter examines many rules of grammar in the light of an intellectual war between prescriptivists, that there is an objective right and wrong in the way language is used versus the descriptivists, that language is organic and rules should reflect its actual use. He argues intelligently on behalf of the descriptive approach and demolishes some grammar myths like split infinitves and the use of that and which. This last section is a useful go to reference for any writer.

Overall – A little bit more dry and technical than is necessary, which is ironic as he is arguing that writers should use the classic style to eliminate overly technical and dry prose.

>39 christina_reads: - :-)

Seeing lots of love for Adrian's book in fellow book lovers on Facebook etc.

North by Southwest now available on Amazon worldwide - http://www.amazon.com/North-Southwest-Margaret-Carruthers-ebook/dp/B00TXFC0ME/re...

>42 psutto:
Thanks! It's on the list for my next shopping "trip."

>43 -Eva-: - cool :-)

Candyfloss Guitar by Stephen Marriott

Category - 5

Good

"Candyfloss Guitar is a story about taking the first steps on a journey towards shrouded dreams and searching for meaning."

Eduardo is a candyfloss seller who laments the death of his wife and despairs that his son, Diego, will ever make anything of himself. When he hears Diego playing guitar in a bar he offers him a choice - go to work on a farm or make something from his dream of creating music. Eduardo gives his son his guitar and sets him on his way. Through a chance meeting Diego's footsteps take him on the Camino de Santiago (The Way of St James), a major Christian pilgrimage route. Of course the journey changes him through the people he meets.

This book can be read in an hour or so, it has a very engaging style and a cast of very memorable characters. Well worth checking out. I'd like to read more by Marriott.

Overall - It's a short book with a big heart.

Dark Star by Oliver Langmead

Category 5

Good

This is a debut from Langmead and wow what a debut. Dark Star combines hard boiled noir with sci fi in an epic poem. The Dark Star of the title burns black and the people of the city of Vox rely on 3 Hearts for power and to bring light. Virgil and Dante are cops out to find the killer of Vivian North whose body turns up shining brightly with un-natural light. They think it’s related to Prometheus, a street drug of liquid light, that Virgil himself is in thrall to but they are pulled ever further into a case that has deep and lasting ramifications for Vox and the world.

In school they try to teach you how to cope
With the constant dark, to tell you to find light
And avoid being immersed in blackness
They fairly know what it does to a man

This is an unusual book, being, as it is, poetry, but that shouldn’t put you off, it is a remarkable read, and an easy one. Virgil is a hero for bringing in a serial killer, but he is scarred, both in body and deep inside by the experience. Dante is a cop with grit. The dark city is an eerie backdrop, filled with ghosts (literally) and shadow, a compelling setting richly invoked by the writing. There is a deft worldbuilding at work in here and a riveting story. Unsung Stories (the publisher of this and The Beauty) are rapidly becoming a small press to watch.

Overall - Down these shadowed streets a flawed knight must seek to bring the light

RIP Terry Pratchett :-(

I found a large speck of dust in my eye when reading the last tweets from his Twitter account :( Very sad news.

>47 psutto:
He'll be greatly missed indeed.

Pelquin's Comet

Category - 5 (ARC)

Good

Take an ensemble cast in a Fireflyesque small trading ship, add a dash of secret backgrounds, a banker, an alien and a treasure cache. Stir gently with memorable characters and locations. Add a dash of wisecracking language and what you end up with is a highly entertaining space opera. Mr Whates obviously had a great deal of fun whilst writing this and it's bound to rub off on you when you read it. It left me wanting more, which is the point of a first in a series isn't it?

I wanted more of the mysterious aliens that left behind a treasure cache and note that there is the promise of revelations in the future with keen anticipation. The universe building is deftly done and this is a tightly plotted book. My only, very minor, grumble was with the treasure cache itself. I would have liked to have seen more made of it, both in the heist part itself and in the possibilities of the treasures.

Really looking forward to the next one!

Overall - Highly entertaining space opera.

>51 psutto: Another one I'll have to keep an eye out for on its release.

>51 psutto: Ooh, that sounds like fun! Another BB (or laser bullet, I guess?).

>51 psutto: - I agree with Christina, that one sounds fun!

Have fallen way behind on reviews again - hope to get that sorted soon - have read:

cockfighter
the vagrant
making comics
comics and sequential art
graphic storytelling
the skeleton cupboard

and

American Elsewhere

Looks like some interesting reading. I won an e-book copy of Pelquin's Comet through the March LTER. So excited! I am really looking forward to reading it.

>56 lkernagh: - ooo be interested in what you think, it reminded me of the kind of books I was reading twenty years ago, but in a good way :-)

The Vagrant by Pete Newman

Category 5 - ARC

One man's journey across the rabid wasteland of a post Demonic apocalypse fantasy world. Full of mystique and unknown purpose we learn by small increments about the world, the disaster that's befallen it and who the Vagrant (That's his only name, he needs no other) is and why he is walking across the world with a baby and a sword. Along the way he picks up some companions including an irascible goat (the best character in the book imho).

The world is very interesting as it is filled with demons who are inimical to the very substance of the land, and its people, so much so that if they are not put in a shell they corrupt everything around them and are in turn somewhat, hurt? by the land. There is a history that is revealed by degrees and a large cast of interesting characters. Everyone has been affected by the apocalypse of course, in one way or another.

The book shines on the worldbuilding but it's a tough sell on characters when three you travel with are non-speaking. Although Newman does wonders with this handicap. Did I mention I loved the goat character? I did think some of the action felt a little undercooked, I wanted more staging to ground me in the moment and some of it seemed a little sketchy, although perhaps I just failed to follow the cues?

I think this book would work well as a Graphic Novel and wonder if Newman could be persuaded to adapt it. The darkly evocative gritty world, the highly imaginative demons, the knights, the fallen cities full of corrupted humanity all cry out for luscious art.

I think you'll love it if dark fantasy is your thing, Newman is an interesting new voice in the genre with his own already developed style.

Overall - John Woo's Hard Boiled in a post-apocalyptic demon infested world. With added Goat

>58 psutto: Another one to be added to the keep an eye out for list. I'm certainly not averse to the dark fantasy thing.

To finish category 1 - I've just got to read 3 books but I've not yet read:

The Bewdley Mayhem by Tony Burgess - because it's huge! need a good set of travel, since I'm off to Egypt with work in June I reckon that's the time to tackle this monster!

Lectures on literature by Vladamir Nabokov - because it's daunting & meant to be read in conjunction with the books discussed, pondering if I'd like to read the classics mentioned at the same time as reading this book - think it'd be worth it, but also think it will take ages!

Finite and infinite games by James Carse - because it's daunting in an entirely different way to Nabokov, I'm not sure I'm intelligent enough to get it after reading the first chapter. I put it down and will go back to it later in the year with the hope that I was just in a dumb mood the day I tried to read it!

Working on reviews and have read several from category 6. This is bad. Now going to have to add books to the challenge!

>61 psutto: Oh dear! You have to read more books. How terrible.

>62 AHS-Wolfy: ;-) it makes the challenge harder!

And now for some reviews:

Cockfighter by Charles Willeford

Category 4

Brilliant

Frank is the monomaniacal cockfighter of the title. He wishes to win the best cockfighter medal and we first meet him down on his luck, on the verge of losing everything but of course he builds himself back up and enters the cockfighting tournament which will give him back his pride. Along the way though everything else, including his relationships with friends, family and fiancée are secondary to his goal. This is a book that’ll disgust, unnerve and excite you in equal measure. The brutality of cockfighting is dealt with without any gloss but also it is a masterful character study. Following a typical sporting format – can the plucky outsider win against the odds? It’s a gritty, dark and above all gripping narrative.

Overall - Don’t be put off by the blood sport activity, this is a book well worth reading.


writing for comics by Alan Moore

Category 1

Average

A not so useful guide to writing comics, which is more about how to write a story than it is a comic. Very thin book can be read in an hour or so.

Overall - Interesting but ultimately not very useful.

Stories in the stars: An atlas of constellations by Susanna Hislop

Category 1

Average

A very mixed bag of stories inspired by the constellations. Some draw heavily, or merely repeat, the Greek myths, some are flights of the writer’s fancy, some are to do with historical events. The book is useful however for having all the constellations illustrated in a way of being able to identify them.

Overall – Some stories are just bad, others are great so on the whole an average experience

Early science fiction tales by David Lear

Category 1

Good

This collection of tales from early history by a mix of writers including Cicero, Lucian of Samasota, a couple of tales from the 1001 nights and the man in the Moone by Francis Godwin. It’s an interesting collection and the stories, being pre-science proper aren’t really science fiction, but use science fiction tropes such as journeys to the moon and time travel (the first ever time travel tale is included) the stories are interesting rather than absorbing and I wondered why the Godwin tale had not been modernised but the others had, probably due to the fact the others were in translation? It made the Godwin tale very hard to read though.

Overall – Interesting to see some tropes used BC

Neurogastronomy by Gordon Shepherd

Category 1

Good

Have you ever wondered what’s going on in your brain whilst you eat? If so then this book is for you. A fascinating look at food science from a neurological perspective, although there is a good overview of the physiology too. At times a little too esoteric for pop science but otherwise very well written it gives an overview of the relatively new science of neurogastronomy.

Overall – We eat therefore we think

making comics by Scott McCloud

Category 6

Good

If Understanding comics is the theory then this is the practise. Written for the comic creator it includes tips on storytelling and art. A little less interesting than the first but very useful if you ever wondered about the nuts and bolts of how to make a comic.

Overall – A good how to guide

Sequential art and graphic storytelling by Will Eisner

Category 6

Good

Theory & practise of making comics. Obviously McCloud has read these books and thought he could do better. And has. Coming to these after McCloud’s seems like a retrograde step. Although Eisner does cover topics in a different way, and some topics McCloud doesn’t and the books are useful, just a little less accessible than McCloud’s. If you were going to only read one I’d recommend McCloud’s, if you were going to read both I’d go for Eisner first then McCloud.

Overall – Good overview on the theory and practise of making comics.

the skeleton cupboard by Tanya Byron

Category 6

Brilliant

This is an account of Byron’s years training to be a clinical psychologist with the toughest placements of her career. There are amalgamate stories carefully constructed around her experiences with each of the topics she deals with – grief and loss, child psychology, eating disorders, drug dependency, coping with dementia. Each story is compelling but there are a couple that will grab you by the heartstrings and give a great tug. The dementia chapter is simply heartbreaking. Byron is unflinching in self-regard, laying out many of the mistakes she made as she learned her job. There is a deep honesty here that is refreshing and it is good to see the people treated as humans not victims.

Overall – Beautifully written, often harrowing, bring a hankie

American Elsewhere by Robert Jackson Bennet

Category 1

Brilliant

When ex-cop Mona Bright’s father dies she finds that she has just inherited her mother’s house in Wink, New Mexico. The only problem is, the town of Wink doesn’t exist on any map. She has a limited time to claim it and must perform some detective work to find it. She discovers that her mother, a basket case and suicide in Mona’s troubled childhood, used to work for a physics laboratory. When she arrives in Wink she finds that it is almost too good to be true, a perfect little town. But what is the secret at the heart of the town, why is the laboratory abandoned, what’s the significance of the lightning storm in the town’s history and why are so many of the townsfolk odd? This is a large book but doesn’t read like one. The central ‘mystery’ may have been drawn out a little too long but it isn’t a drag to get there. Bright is a fantastic protagonist and the book is chock full of great characters, scenes and ideas. A fascinating premise, a heavy dollop of weird, some truly disturbing imagery, this is truly memorable and I’ll be getting to Bennet’s other books directly.

Overall - Scientific and spooky, this is a fantastic book.

How to write everything by David Quantick

Category 6

Good

Listened to this on audio book which I think was the best decision. It’s a whirlwind tour of all and every possible writing job from poetry to writing sketches for TV comedy, writing novels to writing for newspapers. As a whirlwind tour it’s obviously not very detailed but Quantick’s soft West Country burr, gentle humour and pub storytelling style is always engaging. I’m just not sure if it’s useful. As an insider’s view of the writing industry it may be worth a look if you’ve never really thought about how all these different writing jobs really work. There’s also interviews with Quantick’s writing chums from the worlds of literature such as Ben Aaronovitch which are mildly interesting.

Overall – Light overview of the writing industry, If I’d read this rather than listened to it I reckon it would only have been an Average read.

The art of subtext by Charles Baxter

Category 6

Good

This is a collection of academic essays on subtext in literature, not a how to guide, which is slightly misleading in the way it’s packaged. However Baxter has some clever insights into various aspects of subtext and it’s worth a visit if literary criticism is your thing.

Overall – A deep pondering of the intricacies of what happens between the lines in good writing.

The consolations of the forest by Sylvain Tesson

Category 6

Brilliant

Silence falls from the sky in little white shavings. To be alone is to hear silence. A blast of wind; sleet muddles the view. I let out a scream. I open my arms, raise my face to the icy emptiness, and go back inside where it's warm.

Tesson, after a visit to Baikal, determines that he will lock himself away in a small wooden hut, on the shores of the lake, for six months, February to July. This is his edited journal, that he kept during those six months of mostly isolation, with crates of vodka, good cigars and lots of books as his main form of company. Along the way he makes friends with his nearest neighbours, who live many miles away, is given two dogs for companions and is visited by a variety of folk travelling across the lake. He endures extreme weather and reads, a lot.

His journal is, as you’d expect, by turns joyful, despairing, ecstatic, thoughtful and mindful. He ranges across the various topics suggested by the books he reads, the sights he sees, the natural world, fishing, the Russian way of life and its people and much more. The journal goes from the sublime to the ridiculous and back again, sometimes on the same page. Hunting is a way of life for his neighbours, but he never takes it up but there are some descriptions that may upset animal lovers. He makes friends with small birds and is fearful of the bears despite his Grizzly Adams existence.

Overall - This is deeply contemplative, poetic and wonderful book

Ricky Rouse has a gun by Jorg Tittel

Category 5

Good

A graphic novel satire on East West relations, remakes, IPR and the modern world. Richard Rose is a deserter from the US army who travels across Asia and ends up in China working for an amusement park as Ricky Rouse, there is also Ronald Ruck, Rambi and Bumbo… A group of Western terrorists take the park hostage and Rouse, with help from a buddy security guard must save the day because the security forces make a hash of it. The format is Die Hard in an amusement park (a not so subtle dig at Hollywood remakes and endless sequels) and all that’s really missing is the Yippee Ki-Yay. It’s entertaining enough but a few sequences are a bit too hectic, a bit confusing on the eye and don’t quite work sequentially. The satire is not so subtle either.

Overall – Entertaining read. Treat it like an action blockbuster, be carried along but don’t think too deeply about it, and you’ll enjoy it.

So according to the rules I set myself that if I read any book in category 6 I'd have to read a book from each of category 2, 3 & 4 that means I need to add 18 books to the challenge!!

Wow... that is quite the review list!

Seconding that - some good reads there too. I'm putting the Alan Moore-book on my wishlist because the inside of his head interests me, good and bad. :)

I've been reading and accumulating books that need reviews for a couple of months - finally got the change to splurge them :-)

I've just re-read The gone-away world which wasn't as gripping as first time sadly - but I think due to the fact it wasn't time for a re-read, but it was chosen by my book group. Also having to read it to a deadline din't help me get on with its meandering nature!

Onto another arc now - Starborn which is pretty standard fantasy but is reading much quicker than the Harkaway!

After that I'm going to try to get back on track with this challenge!

End of April - 40 books read, 11 ARCs

So considering I said I'd read, at most, 1-2 ARCs per month that's not happened! I'm mid-ARC too and another lined up - think it's time to take a break and tackle those mountains!

May is Arc-free month for me...

8 by female authors
1 unfinished (an ARC)
6 Average
24 Good
9 Brilliant

6 GN
9 ebooks
2 Hardbacks
23 Paperbacks

Oh dear - Starborn is going to get an Unfinished from me - I don't even want to provide a review, some really awful things happen - first off the only gay character is a bad guy, which I was having problems with, then the main character is sexually assaulted and then ends up making friends with her assaulter, another female character is almost sexually assaulted and regrets wearing "revealing" clothing and, reading some spoilery reviews on Goodreads it gets worse - yuck!

time to delete from Nook and move on to something else!

Sleeps with Angels by Dave Hutchison

Category 5

Good

Having read and enjoyed Europe in Autumn I jumped at the chance to review this collection of shorts which was sent to me as an ARC. Hutchison’s prose is absorbing and in each short he demonstrates an intelligent take on alternate worlds. They mostly sit in SF but quite unobtrusive, even where they rely on hard science. The story, and the characters are the thing here. There are six fairly long short stories in here that deal with themes that will be familiar if, like me, you’ve read Hutchison’s previous book. A fragmented world, fragmented politics on a truly modern stage. In The Fortunate Isle We get a police procedural where a man, shot through the head, is claimed to be a woman’s husband but his provenance is much, much stranger. Dali’s clocks Is a sly story about creativity, as provided by drugs. Sugar Engines is a cosy catastrophe in a nanopocalypse. Sic Transit Gloria Mundi sees an archaeological investigation into the mysteries of a Roman merchant’s far-fetched stories and All of the news, All the time, From Everywhere has a post-collapse world where the news can only be gleaned through animal sacrifice and elves now run the world. The last tale in the book The incredible exploding man is about an accident in a particle collider and is rather excellent – did the editor save the best for last?

Each story has a note on its genesis from the author, which is always interesting. The stories have all been published before, except for Sic Transit Gloria Mundi and are described as Science fiction, although that title does more to obfuscate than reveal what to expect from these stories. I’m glad to say that Hutchison is as good with a short as he was with the novel and I eagerly await his next book & will keep an eye out for previous collections.

Overall – Very accomplished writing, it’s well worth visiting the many worlds of Dave Hutchison

Trout Fishing in America by Richard Brautigan

Category 3

Good

Brautigan’s most famous, and possibly most surreal book. I didn’t enjoy it as much as say Sombrero Fallout but entertaining nonetheless.

Overall – Odd, quirky and of its time

Squirrel machine by Hans Rickheit

Category 3

Good

This is a Surreal horror that’s all manners of odd. I liked it. I’m not sure why. The narrative is darkly nebulous but the art is very good. I’d try and summarise the plot but I’m not sure that’s possible. Ostensibly it’s the story of two brothers, a pig lady, musical instruments made from taxidermied animals and a doorway into a dreamscape full of metaphor.

Overall - It’s a dark mindscape

Naming Monsters By Hannah Eaton

Category 3

Average

A coming of age tale. Fran is an amateur cryptozoologist who catalogues monsters to cope with the world. Her relationship with her best friend, her father, her boyfriend and her nana are explored and the usual sexual awakening is explored. Not sure the narrative quite gelled and the monster stuff seemed like an adjunct rather than fully blended.

Overall – OK coming of age tale

Thanks for taking the bullet on Starborn so I won't accidentally pick it up!

In a glass grotesquely by Richard Sala

Category 4

Good

Another solid Richard Sala book, small in format, large in illustration. Sala does what he does best – which is faux gothic.

Overall - There is a fiendish super-villain, a dastardly plot, lots of intrigue and plenty of fun.

Saga Vol 2 & Saga Vol 3 by Brian K Vaughan

Category 4

Good

Continuing the saga of Saga – these two volumes skip the plot both forwards and backwards but no spoilers here. If you’ve not checked this series out yet then you should. It’s set in a mixed up universe with a kind of Romeo and Juliet type plot – boy and girl on opposite sides of a very bitter war fall in love, but unlike Shakespeare they have a baby that everyone wants for different reason. Throw in psychotic aliens, bounty hunters, one eyed authors, a tree spaceship and other oddness and mix well. It just works and does so with beautiful art. (picture)

Overall – A great series that is, so far, getting better with each issue.

The explorer by James Smythe

Category 4

Good

In the near future commercial interests design a space mission to reinvigorate interest in space exploration. A crew is chosen, to include Cormac, a reporter who will blog the mission, pilots and crew and a scientist. The mission is to travel to the furthest point in space ever travelled to by a human manned craft and come back heroes. We join the mission when Cormac is the only crew member left, the mission gone awry, with him wallowing in his despair at his own ignorance of how to turn things round (literally). As the plot progresses we get to find out a lot more about Cormac and how the crew was picked, Cormac’s relationships to them and his wife and more on why, and how, the mission goes so spectacularly wrong. The book is slightly flawed in that it requires you to just accept what’s happening in the middle parts, which don’t actually make sense till the later parts so requires a bit of trust from the reader. I think this flaw could account for some of the poor reviews, as if it hadn’t been for a recommendation I may have questioned it much more, which would have made the trip a lot more wobbly than it was.

Overall – Interesting premise, well executed to make a very entertaining read.

Radio Drama by Tim Crook

Category 2

Average

Ostensibly a handbook for how to write radio drama. The tagline says “in theory and practise” but it seems pretty light on practise and very heavy on theory. I think Mr Crook wants to be an academic. The first section is about radio history, the second on communications theory, the third contains several chapters on radio flaps, especially the famous one caused by Orson Wells with War of the Worlds (under the title “live improvisations”). There are also chapters on how “drama guru x’s” theory could be adapted to radio drama. There is useful stuff in here but its buried deep. I was bored by the time I came across the useful stuff, which was more about how radio drama is produced and directed, rather than written. Partly my disappointment with this book is in misunderstanding what it offers, and therefore not getting what I wanted from such a book, but maybe it’s also being mis-sold – Radio Drama brings together the practical skills needed for radio drams, such as directing, writing and sound design, with media history and communication theory. Using extracts from scripts and analysing radio broadcasts from America, Britain, Canada and Australia, the book explores the practicalities of producing drama for radio. That’s from the blurb so that’s what I was expecting, there are scripts in one section of the book, taking up maybe two pages in total.

Overall - Mr Crook didn’t really know what his brief was.

The anatomy of prose by Marjorie Boulton

Category 2

Good

Boulton wrote Anatomy of poetry and then felt sure that someone would have already done the same for prose, to help teach English, when she discovered no-one had she decided to write it herself. This is a bit dated, having been written in the 1950’s, but still worthwhile reading. Boulton performs a kind of Grey’s Anatomy on prose. Cataloguing all the many different types, what it consists of, rhetoric devices and prose rhythm (for which her obviously deep knowledge of poetry comes in handy). Boulton uses examples from both classic and modern (at the time – Steinbeck for example) literature and the explanations are always very clear and understandable.

Overall – A good little book in giving you an appreciation for prose. Useful for both readers and writers.

Writing into the dark by Dean Wesley Smith

Category 2

Average

Mr Smith is a seat of your pants writer, but he also rewrites as he goes, circling back every few thousand words. It’s readable in one session (it’s short) and it does have some good tips. But I think Mr Smith assumes that you’re a good enough writer to comply with Heinlein’s 3rd rule of writing (avoid rewriting) and not all writers are. It is nice to see a guide to “pantsing” though since most “how to write” books bang on and on about how important it is to outline. Personally I fall in between the two extremes of planning everything to the nth degree and completely making it up as you go along, having a vague and sketchy plan that I sometimes modify as I go.

Overall – I didn’t get much useful stuff from this, but it does get good reviews so maybe if you a writer looking for tips on how to pants it then this may be for you.

The reader over your shoulder by Robert Graves & Alan Hodge

Category 2

Average

This is ostensibly a book about English Prose style – and how to be good at it. The first couple of chapters have an interesting history of English and its usage. It then gets into “principles of clear statement” using examples from, mostly, non-fiction and the entire second half of the book is a nit picking study of several authors work, highlighting the principles in action (or, mostly inaction). As is common with some of these sort of books there is more than a hint of snobbery and a feeling that, to the author, form is more important than function. The title explains that to Graves & Hodge you are writing for a reader whose understanding should be your main goal.

Overall – A good book to have to hand when editing and to bear in mind whilst writing, but as with all such things not to be set in stone

City of Stairs by Robert Jackson Bennett

Category 4

Brilliant

The book opens with a courtroom scene. A man is accused of breaking a law imposed by the conquering Sayypuri on the conquered Continentals to repress any reference to the gods. The Saypuri used to be the ones oppressed by the Continentals, with their gods, but a Saypuri invents a weapon that can kill gods, and uses it, and so the situation becomes reversed. The story is set in Bulikov, the centre of the continent (and once the seat of the gods) and revolves around the investigation into the death of a history professor. Shara, our protagonist is a fully rounded character and her sidekick Sigrud is kick-ass, I also really liked the character of the female general Mulaghesh. Shara is a diplomat/spy with personal ties to the murdered professor and her investigation reveals much more than anyone bargained for. As we progress through the investigation we also explore the fascinating history of the world, the city and the gods as well as Shara and Sigrud’s personal histories. It is a lush world, lovingly detailed, that is a pleasure to explore.

The world is the real star here, although the plot clips along it’s not so groundbreaking. It’s one of those books that you read and wonder why no-one has done it before (or if they have why have you not read it). The gods bend reality so that when they are eliminated there is a “Blink” and the history of the gods is supressed by the invaders. The writing is fresh and fantasy is rarely this interesting or compelling for me. This is no stale Tolkein homage but an interesting blend of what feel like new ideas.

Overall – A hugely enjoyable fantasy

An Egyptian Journal by William Golding

Category 2

Good

Golding seems to have been ‘pursuaded’ to write this book, a journey along the Nile with his wife, on a boat. He certainly spends the first chapter detailing why he could have written the book without actually visiting and then the rest of the book complaining about all and sundry. The boat is on the verge of breaking down, runs aground in one place and is staffed by people Golding feels no affinity for and finds difficult to relate to, especially since they speak amongst themselves in a language he doesn’t understand. There is an “unspeakable” problem with the toilets, his wife is very ill during the trip and the boat doesn’t travel as far and as fast as he’d like. There isn’t enough space in the cabin and little to do at night. He spends the first few chapters complaining that they can see nothing from the boat as they travel when the Nile is in ebb and they cannot, generally, see over the banks. When they do land and perform excursions in the car carried aboard, the car is always on the verge of breaking down and Golding never seems to enjoy visiting the things the locals want him to see. At one point he is feted as a visiting author and meets the literati of the local area and then complains afterwards that he gets enough of that thing at home. In short he has a thoroughly miserable time, constantly wishing he were elsewhere, which oddly makes for an entertaining read. At the end his summing up takes a few pages to basically say – “well we went there and done that and now it’s over.”

Overall – Oddly compelling contrary travelogue

The write attitude by Kristine Kathryn Rusch

Category 2

Average

A collection of Rusch’s blog entries about how to cultivate the proper attitude as a writer. Essentially – ‘this is how I work, it gives me the results I want, you should do the same thing as me too’. Interesting insight into one writer’s work ethic & attitude but ultimately very narrow in purview.

Overall – If you like Rusch’s blog then you may enjoy this book, which does at least frame and comment on the blog entries collected.

Explore everything by Bradley Garrett

Category 6

Brilliant

Part political polemic, part ethnographic study (although it is a poor one), part ‘tales of derring do’ and part biography. This book is also well produced and stuffed full of breathtaking photographs. Garrett tries to be an ethnographer of the urban exploration ‘movement’ (a very loose community exists) and his part in one of the ‘crews’. Garrett calls UrbEx ‘Place-hacking’ and it does have great similarity to computer hacking. Garrett and his fellow explorers arm themselves with cameras and scale the heights and plumb the depths of the built environment. Whilst championing the explorer’s vision of entreating people to imagine the city in a different way it also discusses the dangers (some explorers die whilst exploring) and legality (Garrett himself is arrested, as were many of the crew in a crackdown following breaking into the Mail Rail system under London).

Garrett is a writer that has the knack of making you think, and sparks the imagination, at the same time he has crafted a narrative out of several years of exploration and the relationships between the crew. The adrenaline junkie aspect, always wanting bigger, more dangerous, more illicit is dispassionately assessed and the psychology of both those that design the city and those that refuse to conform to the way the city is ‘supposed’ to be used.

Overall – Fascinating and beautifully photographed. Thought-provoking and feeds the imagination

Haven't got around to picking up American Elsewhere yet but I guess I can add City of Stairs to the wishlist alongside it.

>74 AHS-Wolfy: - I've got Mr Shivers on the TBR too

>57 psutto: - I finally got around to reading Pelquin's Comet and loved it! What a great treasure hunt adventure story Loved all of the hidden agendas of the various characters. I will be keeping an eye out of the next book in the series. ;-)

You have gone and caught my attention with your review of City of Stairs.

>76 lkernagh: - glad you enjoyed it - it was a nice little space adventure wasn't it :-)

I am very impressed with Robert Jackson Bennett

Thinking of redecorating... http://www.brit.co/book-decor/

>78 psutto:
I love those literary quotes dishes - I see a project in my future!

Miss Homicide plays the flute by Brendan Connell

Category - 5 ARC

Unfinished

I didn't get it.

The blurb says: "Serena Plievier, flautist by profession, superlative decadent by tendency, must subsidise her income with the mellow art of assassination in this romance of violence and harmony, of dull lists and extraordinary occurrences. Histories of sound and perversion are painted in Holland, Germany and Italy, in a Europe of decay that is accented by Mozart and has the court of Ludovico Sforza as backdrop. A relentless symphony of pleasantries and things unpleasant sketched with the inimitable style of a master’s hand."

A review included with the marketing material says: "…The insanity of the story is complimented by the author’s miscellany, if miscellany is even the correct term for the odd dreams, lengthy “recipes” of murderous methodology, brief glimpses of Hell (“…and the sinners suffering therein–them being fried in great pans, chopped into little bits with huge hatchets”), lengthy descriptions of the artwork the heroine admires and overall obsession with ancient Greece (evident in passages like a description of a nightclub that devolves into a highly eccentric dissertation on Greek dance). Such things may qualify as deviations from the main narrative, or perhaps it’s the other way around. Either way this is a fascinating oddity that resembles nothing so much as itself.”

But I couldn't get beyond page 50 - I tried to like it, but there are lots of surreal moments in the first few pages, including Joycean stream of consciousness, that whilst showing an artist's appreciation of fine words was a bit like flipping through a dictionary and putting random words on the page. The characters were piano wire and it just felt like a random collection of thoughts with the occasional scene of a fairly pedestrian plot thrown in. (Although admittedly the plot may have improved later in the book - but was along the lines of "assassin hired to kill young man by young man's brother who wants the inheritance he was 'cheated' out of"... )

When eventually the plot starts, we start in the POV of the first victim of the ostensibly MC and see her through his misogynistic eyes. We are treated to several "poor writing that you should never do" moments - we get, not once but twice (since the POV changes after the first assassination for obvious reasons), the POV character looking at themselves in a mirror to get a description and we get the first POV character die since they are not the real MC. Both of which are usually automatic rejections from the vast majority of agents and editors (and for good reason).

Overall - It just felt like a mess to me

Oh, that sounds awful!

>80 psutto: Definitely sounds like a must to avoid!

Oh dear... and yet, the cover art and the title give the impression of a well packaged story. Sorry to see that it turned out to be the 'lump of coal' one dreads receiving. Good review!

Just got back from a nice trip to Sweden and Finalnd to visit Archipelacon = http://www.archipelacon.org/

which was an amazingly good Con - I got to meet and chat with Karin Tidbeck and a bunch of other writers :-D

I've been reading Stephen King's Danse Macabre as well as a couple of ARCs so I'll catch up on reviews soon.

For those of you who can read Swedish (or can get Google translate to work) - I was mentioned on Mats Strandberg's (one of the authors of Cirkeln) website! :-o

>84 psutto:
Very cool!! I can read Swedish. :) Do you have a link to the website?

Glad you had enjoyed your trip and the con experience.

Links in Swedish (you can also use Google translate to get the meaning, if not all the details)

http://www.litteraturmagazinet.se/mats-strandberg/boklogg/nar-nordarna-intog-ala...

http://www.litteraturmagazinet.se/mats-strandberg/boklogg/7-svar-pa-fragan-varfo...

Demon Dance by Brian Freyermuth

Category 5 - ARC

Good

Freyermuth has created an enjoyable Urban Fantasy in this, a first in a series. He's taken In Media Res to heart and we get dropped straight into a story that feels as though it is part of an ongoing story. So much so in fact that I wondered if there'd been another book before this one. Our hero, snarky Nick St James, is a former private investigator, who appears to have a few problems with authority.

The book opens with Nick, attempting to put his old life behind him, due to reasons (that are made clear later in the book), accosted by Coyote, the Native American trickster god. Coyote puts him in peril and then delivers a dragon scale that a dragon wants him to have for reasons (that are not made so clear later in the book).

Then Nick is visited by a vampire, that he knows from his former life, the sister of his dead wife and then there are demons and angels and a plot involving a homeless shelter, a senator and a child.

This is an entertaining read in the vein of Jim Butcher and does to Seattle what Butcher does to Chicago, populate it with an interesting cast of supernatural folk. Nick's powers as a Sundancer (what he is, and how he came to be that way are never described in the book) come in handy but he still gets the crap kicked out of him at every turn.

There are a few flaws with the book, the lack of explanations being one, but it is a fine first book and an enjoyable read. Once Freyermuth hits his stride, a book or two down the line, he'll be someone to watch.

Overall - If you're a fan of the Dresden Files you'll enjoy this

Our hero, snarky Nick St James, is a former private investigator, who appears to have a few problems with authority.

That statement on its own makes me think I would enjoy Demon Dance. ;-)

A few book bullets for me. Congrats on getting the mention on Mats Strandberg's website, I read the first book in that witch trilogy.

>88 psutto: Another one to keep an eye on. But it's not like I'm short on urban fantasy series to keep me going.

>87 psutto: Congrats on being mentioned on Strandberg's website, very cool! I like the Swedish word for the genre, skräck, makes it sound less horrible. :) (somehow I enjoy the Nordic languages, they always sound nice and have so many wonderful words other languages lack)

Thanks folks - I cheekily scored an interview with Mr Strandberg following a twitter exchange - you can see it on my blog here:

http://brsbkblog.blogspot.co.uk/2015/07/interview-with-mats-strandberg.html

and now Sara Elfgren is up for the same :-)

I also hope to be interviewing Karen Tidbeck in August!

I scored a copy of Zen Cho's sorcerer to the crown which I've dived into - it's being touted as a strange and norrell type book - although it's set in Napoleonic England and has sorcerers and fairies it's not that similar in style or substance - but enjoying it so far...

Reading is going slower nowadays as I spend a lot of evenings writing - I've just had another short story accepted for an anthology so that means I'll be in 5 proper physical books following that sale :-)

>87 psutto:
That is very cool indeed!

Finally catching up with your thread! Agree about City of Stairs. I too thought it was excellent and I loved the characters.

Nice interview with Strandberg. You've reminded me that I have the first book of the Engelfors waiting for me on my e-reader. I hope to get to it soon.

>95 mathgirl40: - Thanks!

I've given up on Zen Cho's book, but still mulling over why it didn't work for me, it gets lots of good reviews but it lost my interest and then I started getting picky, will try to do a review soon (as well as some other stuff i've been reading)

I've now started the dead mountaineer's inn - I loved roadside picnic and this "new" one (obviously a reprint) has an introduction by Jeff Vandermeer

Vice and Virtue: Discovering the story of Old Market By Edson Burton & Mike Manson

Category 5

Good

Old Market is an area of Bristol just off the main shopping area. It’s kind of isolated by a big interchange and is known, now, as Bristol’s gay quarter. Around twenty years ago I lived there for a year or so. This book explores the history of this small area. The title of the book is in reference to the churches and the red light nature of the area. There are a bunch of interesting buildings in the area, including Trinity - a former church turned community centre and occasional music venue and the location of Bristol’s anarchist book fair (there is also an anarchist bookshop in Old Market) & the old gin palace (Palace hotel). This books explores the history of these two iconic buildings, as well as many more. The area has a rich history which is ably brought to life by the two authors who spent eighteen months in research and interviewing many of the current and former residents.

Overall – Does exactly what is says on the tin, gives you a history of an area in Bristol

Sorcerer to the crown by Zen Cho

Category 5

Unfinished

“In the tradition of Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell” It’s a tough act to live up to, and possibly an unfair comparison. Regency period, check, magic, check, English magic in decline, check and yet that’s as far as the comparison goes. Cho has a superlative grasp of the language of the period - ”May I ask what possessed you to wreak such wanton destruction upon my conveyance?” he said in an indignant whisper. “I cannot conceive how you think I will contrive to take you to London in a chaise that has no wheels.” You may take this as either a strength of the book, or as a weakness depending on your reading habits.

Zacharias, a freed slave, has been elevated to Sorcerer Royal, during a period of decline in English magic, taking himself to the borders of Fairyland to investigate he stops off at Mrs. Daubney's School for Gentlewitches, a girl’s school which teaches its pupils that ladies do not perform magic, as is only proper. There he meets a gifted dark-skinned orphan with a mysterious provenance and decides that women should, after all, be taught magic.

This book does well on the diversity front, adding PoC and women as prominent characters and has an intriguing premise but, for me, it didn’t quite deliver on its promise.

What would be the effect on a pre-industrial revolution society if magic could do pretty much anything? Well according to this book –absolutely nothing, it would still be the same sexist, rigid class ridden society, despite the fact the washerwomen are able to do their day’s chores with a flick of the writs and few mumbled syllables. What would be the effect on society if mortality rates were incredibly low because magic allows wise women to cure a variety of ills? What would crime be like if at the wave of a wand you could replay events, or perform a killing curse? None of this is explored, society is exactly as Regency England but people wander round being able to perform miracles, including (in the part I read) walking from Malaysia to England in a day via Fairyland, animating an ultra-strong servant out of discarded clothes, create recording devices out of ‘signing stones’ and more. The difference between sorcerers and everyone else was one of scale, sorcerers can do more magic in a day, but pretty much anyone could do magic. Well apart from gentle women, because polite society says that women shouldn’t do magic, well women of a certain class anyway.

Add to this a very odd tone where the author didn’t know if she wanted to write a serious book full of mystery or a comedy of manners with a main character that acts on impulse all the time and another that is very proper, formal, staid and frankly a little dull, oh the hilarity. Add to this fact that the whole of magical society is against the sorcerer royal, because of the colour of his skin (but how did he become sorcerer royal in the first place?). There was a distinct lack of Verisimilitude.

Overall – If you love regency romance and think it can be improved with magic then you should check this out

The Written Graphic Novel by Ben Galley

Category 5

Average

Ben Galley is a self-published fantasy author whose Written books have enjoyed a lot of success. The first volume of the series has now been turned into a gorgeous graphic novel, via a kickstarter.

Farden is one of the Written, a sorcerer, and he is tasked with a quest. Something has gone missing from the libraries of Arfell. Something very old, and something very powerful. Five scholars are now dead, a country is once again on the brink of war, and the magick council is running out of time and options. This is a tale of magick (with a k apparently), dragons, drugs and betrayal. I’ve not read the book, so can’t say if it’s a good adaption but expect it is with the same author. The art is very good, although occasionally the transitions are a little hard to follow and the plot uses a bunch of fantasy tropes, but gives them enough of a spin to keep your interest.

Overall – Gorgeous art, interesting Kickatarter project

Dead Mountaineer’s Inn Boris & Arkady Strugatsky

Category 6

Good

Inspector Glebsky goes on vacation at the Dead Mountaineer’s Inn, a remote ski chalet past the bottleneck pass, and expects to relax in solitude. He finds the inn inhabited by a host of bizarre characters, including a stage hypnotist and his ward of indeterminate gender, an incredibly rich couple, a physicist mountain climber and others. When an avalanche cuts them off and there is a dead body which may, or may not be human, Glebsky is forced to investigate, even if he usually only specialises in fraud.

This is an odd little book, which shifts from farce to science fiction and is well written but never really did it for me. I’m just not a big fan of farce. I had similar problems with The master and margarita which this book reminded me of, with its surreal comedy, that failed to make me crack a smile. There is a nice introduction by Jeff VanderMeer though and I enjoyed this book a lot more than Bulgakov’s.

Overall – Zany oddball comedy crossed with a 1940’s scifi film that subverts the tropes of detective fiction

(how ironic that a book that features mountaineering has a regressive effect on my challenge!)

Europe at midnight by Dave Hutchinson

Category 5

Good

This is a second book in the same world as the marvellous Europe in Autumn although I expect you can read this as standalone without missing too much, as it’s not a direct sequel. Hutchinson himself describes it as a spin off and there is a third book in the ‘series’ in production. The book concentrates on two main characters, both intelligence officers, but very different. Europe is splitting into ever smaller polities, breakaway micro-nations like the city of Dresden who have built a hundred foot wall around themselves and an economy built on information. The Xian flu has decimated the population of Europe and there are a great series of economic crises. If this wasn’t bad enough Jim is recruited into a new department when a stabbing on a London bus holds the key to an invasion by a nation from another universe.

Although the book feels as though it loses its way a little towards the end, and leaves things open for the third book, the first three quarters are utterly gripping and kept me turning the pages fully immersed in the fascinating world Hutchinson has conjured.

Overall – Excellent addition to the Europe in Autumn World, I look forward to seeing what Mr Hutchinson does with the third book.

If you love regency romance and think it can be improved with magic then you check this out. I think I will pass on that one. Great review for an unfinished book!

>98 lkernagh: - heh, I think I should have said - then you should check this out!

I so wanted to like that book - the cover is gorgeous and it has such an intriguing premise...

SttC sounds like a ripoff of JSaMM. Hope you didn't waste too much time wit
Th it.

Europe in Autumn sounds intriguing; thanks for reminding me to look for it.

>100 mamzel: - the publisher wants it to be associated, I don't think it's very similar at all, I read half the book but was finding excuses not to read so gave it up as a lost cause

>101 RidgewayGirl: - His short story book is also ver good - sleeps with angels

So I've just caught up cataloguing what I've been reading (and am behind a couple of reviews i'll hopefully get to soon) and I've read 85 books so far this year, which is a bit of a surprise - I only read 90 odd in the whole year last year...

My latest foray into publishing is now available - Former Heroes which has stories by David Gullen, Gaie Sebold and others, oh and me :-)

Congratulations!

Wonderful! Congratulations!

Cool, cool, cool!

'grats Pete!

Congratulations!

Thanks all :-)

I tried to read The Vorrh because so many people are raving about it - but I struggled, I made it to page 100 (out of 500) and although the ideas are there and the writing is good it's far too rambling and none of the characters really grabbed me - when i found I was making excuses to not read it i put it aside, I thought I'd pick it up again - but so far haven't

I read bete which is very good indeed and the day of the triffids which was very dated and not nearly as good as my memory painted it (I read it last in my teens I think) - wow so preachy & infodumpy!

>97 psutto:
"think it can be improved with magic"
That goes for many genres, I think. :)

>110 -Eva-: - Yup :-)

I've just come back from the rather excellent 9 Worlds Con in London - and picked up several books there (yeah adding to the TBR is bad I know):

the echo & way down dark by James Smythe
the three by Sarah Lotz
the race by Nina Allan
blood will follow by Snorri Kristjannson
a better way to die by Paul Cornell (limited, numbered & signed!)
smiler's fair by Rebecca Levene
Tarzan at the Earth's core and other tales by Edgar Rice Burroughs
and a Robert Silverburg collected edition with Lord Valentines castle , a time of changes and nightwings in it

my defence is that most of these were freebies...

>97 psutto: Oh no! I've been dying to read Sorcerer to the Crown, so I'm bummed to see you didn't like it! But many of your issues with the book (although totally valid) probably wouldn't bother me as much. I hadn't heard the Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell comparison, but I'll be sure not to expect a similar read.

>112 christina_reads: - it does get a lot of good reviews and Zen can certainly write - it just didn't work for me

As usual this time of year I'm waaaay behind on reviews! I've read 18 books since my last review on here...

Out of those I'd recommend - the toaster project, Bete (very clever & entertaining) & Lovelace and Babbage which is just wonderful

I may get round to reviews eventually...

I visited Edinburgh Book Fest last weekend and got to meet Mike Carey, which was cool :-)

Not sure about The Toaster Project or Bete but Lovelace and Babbage looks darn good!

>115 lkernagh: - if you're into the history of computing and/or Victoriana then it's a must-read :-)

I have the whole Edinburgh Book Fest on my "wishlist," but I'll add Lovelace and Babbage as well. :)

Getting stuck in to the slow but compelling Feast of the Goat

>118 psutto: That has been on my tbr shelves for a while now so will definitely be watching for your comments when you've finished.

>119 AHS-Wolfy: - I'm finding it a bit chewy and requires attention, which is making it a slower read than normal for me, for example I find I can't dedicate the attention required at the breakfast table, so unusually for me I'm also reading A better way to die - I hardly ever have two books on the go...

A better way to die was good, bit shaky with the first couple of stories but got progressively better

sadly didn't get on with feast of the goat Claire gave it 5 stars but i found it painful and very easy to put down and ignore - I think it was basically the wrong book to read in small snippets - requires a period of leisure I think

>121 psutto: Shame that The Feast of the Goat didn't work out for you. I think I'll leave it on the back burner for a while longer yet as my own reading habits have shrunk dramatically in the last year or so.

gulp - I've read almost 30 books since my last review - I think I can officially say I've stopped reviewing books!

I've read 111 books so far this year - which is up on last year...

Haha, well, congrats on your great reading-progress then! :)

>124 -Eva-: - Thanks! I'll have to try and do some form of proper update soon - but I had BristolCon last weekend and the Bristol Festival of Literature looming & I'm acting in a radio play in October too! (based on Jonathan L Howard's Johannes Cabal no less)

I'm acting in a radio play in October too! (based on Jonathan L Howard's Johannes Cabal no less)

That is soooo cool!

>125 psutto: A radio play! Awesome!

Radio? What's that?
;-)
Have fun, guys!

>125 psutto: That's great!

>125 psutto:
That is brilliant news - congrats!!

>125 psutto: Hope the play goes well for you. Local or national radio?

Local radio - but in front of a live audience

I've not acted in anything since school but am finding the whole experience quite fun. The director seems to know what he wants, the sound guy works for the BBC during the day and we get to do our own Foley (sound effects) which is great fun. Also the plays are funny, as you'd expect from Jonathan L Howard and my fellow actors are a mix of local performers. I got into this as having performed one of my stories at a local open mic event and got to know a couple of the other performers...

Is it really almost two months since i last visited? woah!

I have been busy though, although maybe a little too busy as am in a bit of a reading slump - I seem to have been reading imaginary cities for weeks, it's really good, but also really chewy

I read a YA (without knowing it was YA) and wondered why I was having issues with it - until it was pointed out to me it was YA (duh!) The 5th wave - the worldbuilding is good, but the characters and plot are a little simplistic

I also read the rather marvellous Devil in silver which I'd highly recommend

I went to a festival of the future city (part of the festival of ideas in Bristol) and "accidently" acquired several books - which I'll add to next year's TBR along with any books I get for Xmas & New Year

I guess, since it's December tomorrow, I'd best do my year wrap up soon - I'm guessing those mountains remain mostly unconquered... although I have read 118 books so far this year!

Due to getting involved in the genre scene and getting to know lots of authors I got a bunch of books that people wanted me to review, and I felt constrained that if I hated them (and I hated a couple of them) that I couldn't do honest reviews - which means my book blog has only sparsely been updated - so I need to have a think about that.

Anyhow - I'll be back soon with an analysis of how I've done and of the reading

Welcome back! Sounds like you've been very busy and I hope you've been having fun.
About the book reviews, I used to run a writer's group so I know that feeling of being asked to read something that turns out to be not so great, but the writer is a nice person who you don't want to crush.

At least you've not been bored... :) Always difficult to review books when you know the author, not a task I envy you, for sure! :)

Hurray for accidental acquisitions of books! :) And it would be difficult to review a book by someone you know. I know someone who is writing a novel and I am hoping they have enough reviewers lined up that I would not be called upon to do so. (I would be OK with copyediting, but not providing substantive feedback.)

And I finished imaginary cities - wow, what can I say - this is one of the richest books I've read in a long time - it's so incredibly chewy though because every page you think - I don't know about that person, or that building, or that book, film, play, thing and spend half the time when you should be reading getting lost down a rabbithole of references. It took the author 15 years to write the book and I was lucky enough to meet him at the Future Cities festival in Bristol where I got to have a bit of a chat with him. Although I was only about a third of the way through at that point...

Taking Virilio's point - "The invention of the ship, was the invention of the shipwreck." The author posits that every dystopia is someone else's utopia and proceeds through almost 600 pages to explore this fascinating theme through history, architecture and story.

Reading this is a very rich experience and I have no hesitation in giving it 5 stars.

Read Everything is teeth last night - thought it was seriously flawed - it just reads like the writer and artist didn't have a plan - the first two thirds are really good, some great art (of the sharks - the people are a bit meh) and then it stops. The last third just seems to be a bit of a montage with no real purpose or plan. It feels like they wrote some of it then put it aside for a few years and then couldn't remember what it is about.

Very odd.

Read Ayoade on Ayoade - not my sort of humour, found it a bit tedious

Have started Lagoon which is good so far

Hi Pete. I've been meaning to read something by Nnedi Okorafor for some time, I have a couple of hers on my list and I will also add Lagoon.

>141 DeltaQueen50: - am enjoying it a lot so far. Claire read Bindi (her novella) after Lagoon and has put her other books onto the wishlist straight after - so I'm expecting the book to carry on being good :-)

So far I've read 122 books this year - but I stopped recording which category they went in in May so it's going to take me a while to go through them!

2 audio books
22 e-books
27 Graphic Novels
2 Hardbacks
69 Paperbacks

16 by women
3 by multiple authors
103 by men

11 unfinished
21 Average
61 Good
27 Brilliant

Still haven't decided what to do with next year's challenge...

Still haven't decided what to do with next year's challenge...

>143 psutto: Don't worry, you're not the only one.

Imaginary Cities sounds fascinating! Taking a BB.

#143, definitely not the only one... but looks like you had a great reading year!

Happy new year!

I've still to go through and see how I've done but will do that in a couple of days...

Meanwhile, see you over in the 2016 challenge