Nickelini reads from her TBR pile

My goal is 50 books.

Books Read:

1. Memoirs of a Fox-hunting Man, Siegfried Sassoon
2. Cold Earth, Sarah Moss
3. Freshwater: a Comedy, Virginia Woolf
4. Girl with Green Eyes, Edna O'Brien
5. If You Want to Write, Brenda Ueland
6. Moloka'i, Alan Brennert
7. Afterimage, Helen Humphreys
8. Bestsellers: a Very Short Introduction, John Sutherland
9. Among the Janeites, Deborah Yaffe
10. 99 Ways to Tell a Story: Exercises in Style, Matt Madden
11. How to Write . . . Shoshanna Evers
12. Sanditon and Other Stories, Jane Austen
13. Exercises in Style, Raymond Queneau
14. Jane Austen Cover to Cover, Margaret C Sullivan
15. Seducing Mr Darcy, Gwyn Cready
16. Eminent Hipsters, Donald Fagen
17. The Gum Thief, Douglas Coupland
18. Mr Darcy & the Secret to Becoming a Gentleman, Maria Hamilton
19. Through the Keyhole, Susan C Law
20. The First Horseman: Disease in Human History, John Aberth
21. All the Light We Cannot See, Anthony Doerr
22. Infidelity, Stacey Mae Fowles
23. Blaming, Elizabeth Taylor
24. Life & Times of Micheal K, JM Coetzee
25. Dancing Girls, Margaret Atwood
26. The Master and Margarita, Mikhail Bulgakov
27. One Good Story, That One, Thomas King
28. The Bookshop, Penelope Fitzgerald
29. The Women in Black, Madeleine St John
30. A Little Stranger, Kate Pullinger
31. The Tiny Book of Tiny Stories, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, wirrow & others
32. Death of the Heart, Elizabeth Bowen
33. NW, Zadie Smith
34. The Wife's Tale, Lori Lansens
35. Instructions for a Heatwave, Maggie O'Farrell
36. Buttoned Up, Fantastic Man
37. Atlas of Remote Islands: Fifty Islands I Have Never Set Foot On and Never Will, Judith Schalansky
38. The Fifth Child, Doris Lessing
39. The Last Best Cure: My Quest to Awaken the Healing Parts of My Brain and Get Back My Body, My Joy, and My Life, Donna Jackson Nakazawa
40. Neuromancer, William Gibson
41. Swing Low: a Life, Miriam Toews
42. October, Richard B Wright
43. Northanger Abbey, Val McDermid
44. Vampires & Other Monstrous Creatures, Julius Pemberton-Smythe
45. I'm Not Scared, Niccolo Ammaniti
46. Highway Robbery, Kate Thompson
47. Bridget Jones Mad About the Boy, Helen Fielding
48. Disclaimer, Renee Knight
49. The Box Garden, Carol Shields
50. Pick-Up Sticks, Sarah Ellis
51. Amongst Women, John McGahern
52. Snow Country, Yasunari Kawabata
53. A Single Man, Christopher Isherwood
54. In the Winter Dark, Tim Winton

Welcome back and good luck with your challenge!

Good luck with your ROOT reading, Joyce!

Happy ROOTing, Joyce and a Happy New Year.

Welcome Back and Happy 2016 ROOTing!

Happy New Year and good luck ROOTing!

I finally finished a book! I was actually done last week, but haven't had to time to collect my thoughts.

1. Memoirs of a Fox-Hunting Man, Siegfried Sassoon, 1928


Cover comments: detail from George Derville Rowlandson's painting Over the Hedge. Nice, but why is it so distorted?

Comments: Memoirs of a Fox-Hunting Man is the first in a trilogy of a fictionalized autobiography of Siegfried Sassoon. As you'd expect from the famous poet, the language is lush and gorgeous -- I restrained myself and copied only enough to fill 5 pages in my reading journal.

There isn't much plot here -- just a series of events in the life of a young man living at the edge of high society. His life is consumed by sports -- cricket in summer and fox-hunting and point-to-point in their seasons. Sassoon paints a Hardyesque view of his Edwardian world in the years before WWI. The last section of the book covers enlisting and going off to war, but these years are covered in detail in the following books of the trilogy.

Recommended for: Readers who--like me--romanticize the English countryside, people who enjoy books like A Month in the Country, and anyone interested in the years leading up to WWI. There is a serious amount of horsey talk, which I loved, but may bore others to tears.

Why I Read This Now: I started this on Boxing Day, when my Facebook feed filled up with pictures and reports on the fox-hunting happening in the UK. It took me so long to read because I had to put it aside to read a book for my book club (that I didn't finish).

Here's one of my favourites from a few years ago:



Rating: 4 stars

Hi Joyce. You've reminded me that I have A Month in the Country on my TBR. I'll try and make that one of this year's ROOTs.

Such a cute picture!

2. Cold Earth, Sarah Moss, 2009


Cover comments: I like it.

Comments: Six people from Europe and the US meet on an archaeological dig in Greenland. Their task is to find out what they can about the isolated Norse settlement that disappeared 800 years earlier--climate change? Disease? Raiders? Starvation? When they arrived, an alarming virus was quickly spreading back home and each in the group is worried about their family and friends. News that filters in through their intermittent internet connection worries them further. But that is in the background--for now they are concerned with getting through the dig, and specifically about their group member Nina, who is becoming increasingly unhinged by nightmares of the Medieval Greenlanders they have discovered were murdered. She is convinced there are ghosts in the camp, and when things are moved and strange sounds are heard, it slowly begins to look as if it might not be her imagination.

Finally, they lose all contact with the outside world, and with winter fast approaching, the ill prepared group with insufficient provisions struggles not to succumb to group hysteria.

I didn't expect to like this book as much as I did. It was unusual, and once it got going, there was good tension (in part achieved by the chapters getting shorter and shorter). It was also a lot creepier than I expected. The sense of place was well executed, as the West Greenland setting popped into life.

However, the book had some serious faults. The one that bothered me the most was that it was told in the form of letters by the various team members. I like the different narrators, and first person is fine, but the letter format was a complete fail because most of the text was not written in a way that anyone has written a letter, ever. For example:

I had more or less stopped crying when I found the others kneeling around the laptop as if it were an oracle. Ben's face was red and even Ruth looked mildly interested int he unflattering blue light coming off the screen.
"What is it?" I asked.
Yianni looked up. "it's not good, " he said. "You won't like it."
I put my hands over my ears and shut my eyes. "then don't tell me. I don't want to know."
"Nina? Listen to me."
"I don't want to know."
Someone put a hand on my shoulder. I opened my eyes."

And then all of a sudden it would jolt into actual letter format and voice. No. No one anywhere at anytime ever writes letters like that. The conceit of the letter yells "contrived."

The other problem was that I found too many flat out errors. Some readers have pointed out how wrong Moss gets the dialogue of the American characters, for example, but there were lots of other errors too. There was enough about this novel for me to like it though, and I pushed my concerns to the background enough to enjoy Cold Earth.

Rating: 4 stars. This is another one of those books that earns ratings all over the scale. Readers who disliked it found the characters (especially Nina) extremely unlikeable, said it started too slowly, and found the ending rushed. They wouldn't be wrong. But I forgave it those flaws and had a good time with it.

Recommended for: readers looking for something different.

Why I Read This Now: "Cold Earth" sounded like a good, chilly January read.

Freshwater: a Comedy, by Virginia Woolf, 1923 & 1935; illustrations by Edward Gorey, 1985


Cover comments: love it!

Comments: Virginia Wool wrote this intentionally silly 3-act play in 1923 and abandoned it. She revised it 12 years later, and it was performed once at a Bloomsbury social event. It then disappeared until it was discovered in a drawer after Leonard Woolf's death. Clearly it was never meant to be seen by anyone outside the Bloomsbury circle.

With that in mind, I can't judge it too seriously. It's zany, it's frivolous, and that's about it. Woolf is clever in creating this entertainment about her great-aunt, the photography pioneer Julia Margaret Cameron with her friends Alfred Tennyson, painter George Fredrick Watts, and actress Ellen Terry, and makes them sound like something out of Bloomsbury.

This edition includes both the performed 1935 version, and the earlier 1923 version. They are very different but compliment each other. There are also extensive notes that show the true events behind the farcical bits of the play.

Freshwater: a comedy introduced me to the Tennyson lines:

"The moan of doves in immemorial elms,
And murmuring of innumerable bees."

How fabulous is that!

Rating: 3 stars for the play plus one star for the fabulous Edward Gorey illustrations = 4 stars.

Why I Read This Now: I remember that today is Virginia Woolf's birthday, and then I saw this at the top of my TBR.

Recommended for: people who think Virginia Woolf is always serious.

Portrait of GF Watts by Julia Margaret Cameron titled "The Whisper of the Muse" (1865)

Interesting reviews, I'd never heard of Freshwater before!

I have Cold Earth on my TBR. Thanks for giving me a good idea of what to expect.

Can't go wrong with an Edward Gorey cover!

>13 rabbitprincess: I know, right!

4. Girl with Green Eyes, Edan O'Brien, 1962


Cover comments: the design says late 80s. Really, I have no opinion. Dated in the wrong way, but not terrible. ETA: changed my mind -- see posts #16 and 17 following.

Comments: Girl with Green Eyes (aka Lonely Girl) is the second in O'Brien's semi-autobiographical Country Girls Trilogy. At the end of the last book, we saw Cait and Baba flee their Irish village and start their young adult lives in Dublin. That's were Girl with Green Eyes picks up. Cait soon takes up with an older, non-Catholic man who is estranged from his American wife, and pretty much everyone she knows flips out. Her drunken abusive father comes down to Dublin to force her home, and later, a posse of drunken village men attack the couple. The infantilizing treatment and assumed ownership of a 21 year old woman is appalling.

Cait is naive and immature, but she is realistically drawn. Baba isn't as much of a bully in this second novel, probably because she isn't around as much.

I enjoyed this more than I expected to, and perhaps even more than the first novel, The Country Girls. I will eventually find a copy of the third novel to see how this story wraps up.

These books make me very, very glad that I didn't live in Ireland in the 1950s.

Why I Read This Now: Always looking to read more Irish literature and it was on the 1001 Books list.

Recommended for: readers who like books set in the mid-20th century and in Ireland.

Rating: 4 stars.

Great review of Cold Earth. That one goes on the future library checkout list!

>15 Nickelini: - That cover is rather.... pink. ;-)

>16 lkernagh: Yes, pink! I think I figured out what was bothering me about it . . . two things, actually. One, the sort of obvious -- lipstick, perfume, kissy-heart envelope . . . makes the book look very girly and chicklit. Yes, they mention letters, and lipstick, and maybe perfume, but that's not what it's about at all. I can't see a guy picking this up. But I can see a guy enjoying the book (the sort of guy who reads literature and has a life outside of sports and action movies). But the biggest disconnect for me is that the cover is so PINK, but the title has GREEN in it. I read green, see pink. It doesn't work.

So art-wise, I know it's dated and all, but it's okay. But actually very wrong for this book. Thanks for your comment that made all this flash into my head.

I've noticed that Edna O'Brien books tend to have really OFF covers.

>17 Nickelini: I think you are right there, Joyce! Pink and green!

5. If You Want to Write: A Book about Art, Independence and Spirit, Brenda Ueland, 1938 (new introduction by the author, 1987)


Cover comments: fairly typical cover for a writing book

Comments: Ueland, who taught creative writing for years and years, believes that anyone can become a writer, that we are all unique and all have stories to tell. The main message of this slim book is to turn off your inner critic, shut out all the critical voices in your life (teachers, parents, spouses, friends), and just write. You can apply her principles to any creative endeavour, not just writing -- her advice will also help painters, musicians, anyone creating, actually. She says the most important thing is to be truthful to yourself and don't try to please others with your creative project. A gabillion copies If You Want to Write have been sold, and readers have loved and praised this book for 80 years. Carl Sandburg said it is "the best book ever written about how to write."

Who can disagree with all that? It's the good part.

BTW, Carl Sandburg and her were friends, so make out of that what you will.

Now for my real opinion. For such a short book (179p), it's surprisingly repetitive. Ueland explains how she is one of those writers who hates the outline, which is fine . . . but if you're not going to outline, you really need to focus on the edit. She rambles along and uses footnotes on almost every page. The info in the footnotes could have easily been edited in to the text, or just discarded, as it added little. There were pages of her quoting William Blake, and Van Gogh, and she talks about "the Russians" a lot. By a lot, I mean way too much idolizing, not so much detail.

Here is an example of a typical passage that had me rolling my eyes: "Great art, said Tolstoi, is when a great man who has the highest life-conception of his time tells what he feels. (Tolstoi himself was one of those although he did not know it.) Then the infection is universal. Everybody understands it and at once.*
* I think Blake meant this same thing too, when he called Jesus and artist."

That just makes me scream for so many reasons. Even if one think that's an amazing thought (which it's not), it can be said so very much better.

Throughout the book she says "I hope to talk about that later," and I didn't keep track, but I don't think she ever did. I was convinced she didn't, in fact, when I got to the "outlines are a nightmare" section.

Here's another tidbit of wisdom from Dame Ueland: "Tolstoi, Ibsen, Blake, Goethe, Thomas Mann and all great men, known or unknown, famous or obscure,--they are great men in the first place and so they cannot say anything that is not important, not a single word. Their writing, their art is merely a by-product, a cast-off creation of a great personality."

Oh, please.

I soldiered on, looking for the good bits amongst all her noise, but after a while, I realized that I had an image of this woman lecturing me with a pointed finger. It was rather uncomfortable, yet on I went. I noticed that she seemed pretty impressed with herself and all the fabulous advice she was sharing with little me, and then it struck me that the finger-wagging professor and morphed into Lady Catherine De Burgh. (shudder!)



Recommended for: Yes, many have found If You Want to Write inspiring. But her advice is not unique, and is better said elsewhere. If you are looking for an inspirational book about writing or creating, I suggest Bird by Bird (Anne Lamott), Negotiating with the Dead (Margaret Atwood) or even On Writing (Stephen King).

Why I Read This Now: I like to buy books about writing more than read them. Thought I'd plow through the stack this year. Picked this one first because Ursula Le Guin (I think) recommended that it was the only writing book anyone needed. She was wrong.

Rating: one cranky tin star.

One more book I don't have to read! Thanks, Joyce.

Excellent review!
I think in outlines. I think it is partly a product of my science mind. When I teach a new topic, I have to be able to 'see it' in an outline form, of some kind. Maybe books I find difficult, or don't like, have authors like this one who do not have an outline type mind. I've always preferred plot and characters to 'beautiful writing' for the sake of beautiful writing. Authors of the type who cannot say anything that is not important, not a single word" generally do not appeal.

Ooh, I think I've had an epiphany!

>7 Nickelini: oh such a cute pic!

>10 Nickelini: sounds really interesting...

Congrats on 4 ROOTs pulled! :)

6. Moloka'i, Alan Brennert, 2003

note: touchstones down on LT today. Will come back and update when they are fixed.


Cover comments: a lovely cover, but then I'm partial to the Hawaiian motif.

Comments: This work of historical fiction spans the years 1891 to 1970, and centres on a native Hawaiian girl who contracts Hansen's disease (aka leprosy) and grows up in quarantine on the island of Moloka'i.

I've wanted to learn more about the lepers of Moloka'i since I learned about them many years ago. Unfortunately, and despite the obvious extensive research the author did, this book fell flat for me. My biggest complaint that Moloka'i is one of those too-common historical novels where the characters are distinctly 21st century Americans dressed up in historical and cultural costumes. Furthermore, the author didn't engage me in their lives. I was bored throughout the almost 400 pages. The only reason I made myself finish is that I had just abandoned last month's book club book because it was too boring, and couldn't go to another meeting saying the same thing.

Why I Read This Now: Book club. I actually have owned the novel for several years, so I can't blame my book club for picking a lousy novel. I had bought it to have on hand in case an impromptu trip to Hawai'i came up (sounds silly, but it has happened more than once in my life, so I'm always hoping it will happen again).

Recommended for: this book gets a lot of glowing reviews from readers, so if the topic interests you, ignore my opinion. I think it might have been okay to read while I was on vacation in Hawai'i as a typical beach read.

Rating: It's not a BAD book, but I'm not going to give it many stars.


The Moloka'i coastline

... and yet, there's a BB. Just the topic is fascinating! :)
Sorry you didn't particularly enjoy it though!

>24 avanders: The topic is indeed fascinating. There are several novels set in the Moloka'i leper colony, so you might want to do a bit of research before you pick which one to read. Maybe there's a better one? Then again, most readers like this, so perhaps it was just me.

I've been wanting to read Moloka'i as well - and that is such a lovely picture!

>25 Nickelini: ooooh ok. :) Will do!

>26 Caramellunacy: and that is such a lovely picture!

Hawaii is so beautiful. Every time I go I think "I have to come here more often," and "why doesn't every US citizen live here? Why would you live anywhere else?" I love Canada, but our lack of a tropical island to escape to is a huge flaw.

There is a Caribbean island that keeps getting mentioned to possibly join Canada, but that will really only help us Eastern Canadians.

>29 raidergirl3: Oh, right. I haven't heard about that for a while. Not much help to me, as you say. I've been to the Caribbean, and it was about 24 hours travel time with all the connections. Hawaii is a 5 hour non-stop, so Hawaii is where we go when we need a tropical breeze. (We can also go to Mexico in 5 non-stop hours, although I personally don't).

My grandparents, in Calgary, used to go to Hawaii so I knew that's a west coast thing. Maritimers flock to Cuba each spring cause it's close and cheap-ish for the all-inclusives. Not me - my kids play sports, so we travel to their tournaments instead of vacations.

> 31 Not me - my kids play sports, so we travel to their tournaments instead of vacations.

O joy. Lucky you. I've done a bit of that myself.

7. Afterimage, Helen Humphreys, 2000


Cover comments: nothing about this cover speaks to the novel, which is a shame, especially considering that there are actual images described in detail that they could have used. Even if exact images are under copyright, there were lots of related possibilities. Nothing about this honours the novel.

Comments: Only February, and this is the second book I've read this year based on the Victorian photographer Julia Margaret Cameron (the first was Freshwater by Virginia Woolf, and before reading I didn't know this about either of them).

Humphreys was inspired by an exhibition on Cameron's photos of her maid and muse Mary Hillier that she saw at the Art Gallery of Ontario in the 1990s (as an aside, LT friend Torontoc took me to see the Picasso exhibit there in 2012--maybe I'll write a novel about it one day?).

This is a highly fictionalized account of their relationship. The novel is divided into sections based on an actual photograph. Humphreys is a beautiful writer, and Afterimage just oozed atmosphere. At times it was fascinating, but other times boring, I think perhaps suffering from not much plot. In the end, I liked it rather well.

Rating: 4 stars. Liked, didn't love, it.

Why I Read This Now: I had three Humphreys novels in my TBR pile so planned to read one this year, and when a Humphreys group read came up this month, I figured the time was now. (I've previously read The Frozen Thames and Coventry)

Recommended for: readers who enjoy lush writing in historical fiction.

Julia Margaret Cameron's photograph with Mary Hillier posing as Sappho:

>33 Nickelini: - Excellent review, Joyce. I am now really looking forward to reading my copy this weekend. I was wondering about the cover. My copy has the following cover:



Not sure about the cover on my copy - I find it kind of 'meh' so I am curious to see if it at least fits the story in some way.

>34 lkernagh: That at least looks like a Julia Margaret Cameron photo--probably an actual one, but if not at least a good imitation (photo credit is usually on the back cover in small print, or sometimes in the front matter). And the font used for the title doesn't yell "modern" so I'd say all in all it's an excellent improvement.

>34 lkernagh:

What a strange font for the title. It looks like someone created a nice book cover but right before printing it was noticed there was no title written so someone quickly went into MS Paint and just chose the default font. So, so bad.

>36 lilisin: lol!

>35 Nickelini: - You are right... the photo is a Julia Margaret Cameron photo called The Echo dated 1868.

>35 Nickelini: and >36 lilisin: - The title does look like an odd afterthought on the cover. ;-)

>36 lilisin:, >37 avanders:, >38 lkernagh: - I have to admit that after thinking about this for a few days, I'm somewhat mystified by the dislike of the font used in the title. It's a classic serif-font, which I don't think does violence to a late-Victorian image. I think the band at the top with the author in sans-serif is significantly more egregious, and the Art Deco font on my edition is ridiculous. But it's been a while since my graphic arts training, so maybe I'm missing something that you're all seeing.

Hi Nickelini! I'm glad to see you are reviewing the books you read from your TBR stack. I want to do this, also, but so far I've only started on my second book.

>39 Nickelini: well, I'm no graphics arts or font expert, but I think the main issue isn't so much a technical one as a visual one. I just looks like an afterthought. So even if the font is technically appropriate, it feels off. Both the color and the shape seems to be an ill-fit for the picture - it feels like it both doesn't stand out enough and stands out too much. Perhaps the decision to use the font was made by someone w/ more technical training, so it didn't seem such an odd choice to him/her. :)

>41 avanders: Ah, I see what you mean. Thanks. I often pick up a book with the impression that the cover is nice, but then when I actually take a close look at it, find that the design is really horrible. I've been commenting on book covers with my reviews for several years now, and am amazed at the consistently low standards of book cover design. I guess that's why I take delight when I find a cover that's well done.

>42 Nickelini: Sure thing :) And interesting -- I tend to only comment on covers in reviews when I find them particularly bad .. usually in the context of telling readers "don't be turned off by the bad cover!" ;)

>43 avanders: don't be turned off by the bad cover! – that is a public service. Thank you!

hee hee you bet! :)

8. Bestsellers: a Very Short Introduction, John Sutherland, 2007


Cover comments: This is fine. It's part of the vast Oxford University Press "A Very Short Introduction" series, which I believe all have similar covers, so I expect as a group they would look quite nice.

Comments: Sutherland discusses what "bestseller" even means, and then traces a high-level history of bestsellers in the US, followed by a shorter section on the UK. I'm used to a fair amount of intelligent wit from Sutherland, which I guess was edited out to make this "very short" (it's 116 small pages).

Recommended for: someone who wants a very short introduction to bestsellers?

Why I Read This Now: it was a book in my bag that I pulled out when riding transit or waiting in line.

Rating: a bit dry and flat.

>46 Nickelini: I love that the Very Short Introductions exist, and with such a wide variety of subjects, but I never seem to get around to picking them up. Maybe they are deceptively short.

9. Among the Janeites: a Journey Through the World of Jane Austen Fandom, Deborah Yaffe, 2013


Cover comments: Rather fun, although I do wonder at the decision to use such garish colours.

Comments: Journalist Yaffe, herself a Jane Austen fan going back to her childhood, explores the strange world of Jane Austen fandom. She attends numerous JASNA (Jane Austen Society of North America) events, including the annual dress up (cosplay) ball, a guided Austen tour of England, authors who write sequels to the novels, scholars, fanfic writers, and a slew of people who have some unconventional ideas about Austen and her books. Yaffe wove in many fascinating details and usually got things precisely right, occasionally not. When she loses herself in journalism, the book is fabulous. Occasionally her authorial voice would chirp in with her judgemental smug superiority, and I found that grating.

If there is a theme to this, it's the thing that I've noticed about fans of Jane Austen. They all love Jane dearly, all feel a special connection and a special understanding, but do not necessarily agree with each other on what those connections and understandings are. She describes "the divisions among Janeites -- academic purists versus Colin Firth fans, pretentious poseurs versus true enthusiasts," the fans who only want to read the books, and the fans who only want to see the films. Personally, I have no use for the Austen fans who view her as a spinster with perfect manners who drank tea and wrote sweet romances about very proper people. Blech.

Overall, this was delightful (even when the author was unlikeable).

Recommended for: JA fans, people interested in cultural studies and fandoms.

Rating: Fun and interesting. 4.5 stars.

Why I Read This Now: I deserved a good Jane Austen inspired read. Of the zillions in my TBR pile, I'm not sure why I picked this one. I guess it looked fun.

>48 Nickelini:, I have this one on my e-reader I think and started it (enjoying it), but put it down during one of the author's smug asides a while back and haven't picked it back up. I'll have to grab and finish it as I remember enjoying the people Yaffe was writing about (if not the author herself).

12. Sanditon and Other Stories, Jane Austen, Everyman's Library Edition 1996 (originally written between 1787 & 1817)


Cover comments: this Everyman's Library Edition cover is pleasing. The painting is Portrait of a Woman in a Cave by Louis Leopold Boilly 1805, which you can see in real life at the Musee des Beaux-Arts, Lille, France. I wonder if this painting was picked because this book is a collection of minor works and Jane Austen juvinelia that has figuratively been kept in a cave?

Comments: This book is made up of what is known as Jane Austen's minors works, which are two unfinished novels and a novella ("Sanditon," "The Watsons," & "Lady Susan"), the three volumes of her Juvenilia, and some scattered Miscellanea. I bought it only to read "Lady Susan," but it's a lovely edition indeed, and I decided to give the other pieces a try. What an unexpected delight. I will follow this post with detailed comments about the various components of this collection.

Rating: Oh, soooooo close to 5 stars. 4.87 stars. Five stars wasn't quite accurate, considering that I didn't love, or even like, absolutely everything in this book. But what I liked, I really liked.

Recommended for: going in to this, I thought it was strictly for the Jane Austen completest, which I didn't consider myself. Of course, the completest does not need the encouragement.

I highly recommend it for two other groups: first, for fans of 18th century British lit -- you know, that fun period before the stuffy Victorians, and second, Jane Austen fans who keep her in "a tiny box of preciousness" (to steal a phrase from a GoodReads reviewer) and think she's all about fine manners and polite people. Time for them to see Jane Austen's adultery, petty theft, female drunkeness, and other distasteful behaviours. Really entertaining stuff.

Why I Read This Now: This 500 page book is made up of a million little pieces, and for me that works better with lots of breaks in between and not in one fell swoop. I started last summer with the idea to attempt the bits before finishing with the scandalous "Lady Susan," which is what I set out to read.

Details to follow . . . .

>50 Nickelini: Ooh I like the sound of that one!

I have this to read but am embarrassed to admit that I still haven't read all Austen's major works - still Persuasion and Northanger Abbey to go - despite having read Pride and Prejudice multiple times!

>50 Nickelini: I love that decimal rating! :)

>50 Nickelini: duly noted (and purchased!).

As promised, here are my details on the Everyman’s Library edition of Sanditon and Other Stories. I was enthused to read Lady Susan, but was afraid that the rest of it might be a chore. It seemed potentially worthwhile, however, to at least give the rest a try, and I’m very glad I did.

Part One includes Austen’s two unfinished novels and an unpublished novella. Note that other writers have published "finished" versions of the two novels.

Sanditon, 69 pages. Austen was working on this novel when she died in 1817. It was first published along with the biography written by her nephew James Edward Austen-Leigh (1871). The manuscript is owned by King’s College, Cambridge. In the Introduction, Sanditon is described as “the real find in this collection.” On first reading, I don’t agree (although I am open to changing my mind on future rereading). That is not to say that it’s bad. It was actually more polished than I expected, although it still needed work. But it certainly didn’t read like a first draft. There were a lot of characters, some of them brilliantly Austenesque, but the heroine wasn’t introduced until page 11, so I didn’t get much of a feel for her.

The Watsons, 54 pages, written sometime between 1803 & 1808. Some scholars think that she stopped working on it after the death of her father. It was first published in the 1871 biography by James Edward Austen-Leigh. Part of the manuscript is at the Bodleian Libraries, Oxford and part of it owned by the Pierpont Morgan Library, in New York City.

This novel is darker than the later, better-known novels as it shows the grimmer side of life for unmarried women in the late 18th century. Some of the scenes reminded me of the Portsmouth section of Mansfield Park. Despite the more serious elements, I found this delightful and I was sad when it ended too soon. Luckily, Austen told her sister Cassandra the plan for the novel, and so we know generally how it wrapped up.

The story follows Emma Watson, who had been raised by rich aunt, after she returns home when the aunt’s new husband doesn’t want her. After a genteel and gracious life, she now lives with her impoverished widowed father and many sisters and several brothers who she has to get to know. She attracts the eye of the young, handsome, rich and socially awkward Lord Osborne, who appears to be a proto-type for Mr Darcy. The ball scene in The Watsons is reminiscent of ball scenes in Pride and Prejudice. Emma Watson had the potential to be a favourite Austen heroine had her story been written. This was one of my favourites in this book.

Lady Susan, 72 pages. Written in 1795 when Austen was just 19 yrs old. One wonders how this young, sheltered virgin knew so much about wickedness, but then perhaps Austen isn’t the demure lady that some of her fans think she was ( / smirk). This epistolary novella was first published in 1871 by James Edward Austen-Leigh, and then a revised version in 1926. The manuscript is owned by the Pierpont Morgan Library.

Lady Susan, Austen’s highest ranking heroine, is bit of a hussy. She’s in her mid-to-late 30s, and instigates dalliances with much younger men. And married men. Shocking, I know. This book has more in common with Les Liaisons Dangereuses than later Austen novels. Although the writing isn’t quite as accomplished as we expect from Austen, it didn’t disappoint, despite its rushed ending. I’m very excited that there is a movie coming out this May. It stars Kate Beckinsale and they renamed it “Love & Friendship” which is slightly confusing, as Austen has used that title elsewhere for a completely different story.

Part Two

The Juvenilia. Written 1787-1795 (age 12 – 20)

Austen wrote these bits and pieces to amuse her family. They are full of melodrama, understatement, and superficial characters. We are already starting to see her loaded sentences and wit. Some readers don’t know what to make of this, and dismiss it as silly, foolish, and overly-emotional. It’s evident by the reader reviews at GoodReads that many who call themselves Austen fans don’t get parody or that she “dearly loves to laugh.”

VOLUME THE FIRST (First published 1933, now at the Bodleian Libraries, Oxford)

“Jack & Alice” is my favourite in this section. Austen was about 15 when she wrote this zany tale of adultery and drunkenness (lots of drunkenness). I read somewhere that her heirs suppressed it as these were unsuitable topics for a girl her age to know about. At least they didn’t destroy it. Take note that there is no one in this story named Jack.

“Jack & Alice” has one of my favourite Austen quotes: “Charles Adams was an amiable, accomplished & bewitching young Man, of so dazzling a Beauty that none but Eagles could look him in the Face. “

Other stories (and short plays) in this volume are: “Frederic & Elfrida,” “Edgar & Emma” (a very short story featuring a family with more than 20 children), “Henry & Eliza,” “Mr Harley,” “Sir William Montague,” “Mr Clifford,” “The Beautifull Cassandra” (sic), “Amelia Webster,” “The visit,” “The Mystery,” “The Three Sisters” (another highly amusing one), “Detached Pieces,” & “Ode to Pity.”

VOLUME THE SECOND (First published 1922, now at the British Library)

Love and Freindship (sic) is an epistolary novella written about a 55 year old woman that Austen wrote when she was 15. There is lots of “running mad” and fainting. Also illegitimacy and theft. Very unAusten-like.

Another favourite of mine is The History of England, which she wrote at age 16. It covers Henry IV (1399) through Charles I (1649) and is a poorly-veiled propaganda piece for Mary, Queen of Scots (and thus, also very anti-Elizabeth I). Rather silly, indeed.

Also included: Lesley Castle (another epistolary piece), a “Collection of Letters” (made up fictions, not actual letters) & “Scraps.”

VOLUME THE THIRD (First published 1951. I have conflicting information on ownership. It’s either the British Library or the British Museum)

"Evelyn" has a dreamlike, almost gothic, feel. It’s the closest you’re going to get to SciFi in Austen.

"Kitty, or the Bower" is 51 pages long, and shows an increasing sophistication of thought.
Also included, under Miscellanea are “A Plan of a Novel,” published opinions on Mansfield Park and Emma from the 19th century, some “Verses” (unremarkable, although surprising to see Austen mention Lake Ontario and Niagara Falls, considering she rarely mentions anything outside of England, particularly North America), and some “Prayers.”

Also interesting throughout all these bits and fragments is the development of Austen characters. We meet some new ones, and also some who reminded me a lot of Caroline Bingley, Fitzwilliam Darcy, Lady Catherine DeBourgh, Emma Woodhouse, and Catherine from Northanger Abbey, among others.

Even at a young age, it is evident that Austen never wrote for “such dull elves as have not a great deal of ingenuity themselves.”

>52 Soupdragon: Nothing to be embarrassed about -- we can't read everything. And I'm happy to reread Pride and Prejudice two or three times for every other reread. Still, I encourage you to make time for those two some day. They're good too.

>53 avanders: I love that decimal rating! :)

I have to say that it was attained with great scientific accuracy.

>54 ipsoivan: duly noted (and purchased!).

Well done, you.

13. Exercises in Style, Raymond Queneau, 1947. Translated from French by Barbara Wright, 1958


Cover comments: suits the book well enough.

Comments: This book tells the same very short story, which was originally 1/3 of a page long, over and over again in 99 different literary styles. Some of them are terrifically clever, some are gibberish ("ards midda one day tow r platform you the rea saw . . . "). Despite my English degree, some of the techniques were previously unknown to me, so I looked them up so I could tell what effect the author was going for. A very interesting exercise in writing, but not much narrative thrust or character growth. But of course, that would be a silly thing to expect from this book. I read about four or five entries at a time--it would get annoying to read much more.

Recommended for: people who like experimental writing, lovers of word play, writers.

Why I Read This Now: it's a 1001 list book that's about writing.

Rating: incredibly clever, but I can think of some other approaches that would have worked better than the nonsense ones.

>58 Nickelini:

They went quite literal with the "exercise" word when they created that cover, didn't they? Looks like the cover to an 80s health class textbook. Ick. Also, what are they spelling? RSNBIF? Is that supposed to mean something?

>59 lilisin: I too considered what "RSNBIF" might mean, but gave up quickly due to lack of caring. ;-)

>59 lilisin: >60 Nickelini: Isn't it RSNBLF? The fifth letter being an L?

>61 connie53: Of course! That explains everything.

And Connie53 will elaborate . . .

>55 Nickelini: I didn't realise there was more than Lady Susan and Sanditon to be had! Thank you for that detailed description. Off to buy it. (I'm a completist.)

>63 MissWatson: Don't make my mistake and buy the 99 cent Girlebooks Presents rubbish one on Amazon. Annoying typos abound.

I'm otherwise very much enjoying Sanditon.

>64 ipsoivan: Thanks for the warning. I'm getting the Everyman edition to match the rest of my collection.

>62 Nickelini: No I won't because I have no clue, LOL.

>62 Nickelini: Ha ha!

As for Sanditon and Other Stories, although I highly recommend that edition, I think all of these are available online for free. I believe they are at the Republic of Pemberley and also probably Project Gutenberg.

>67 Nickelini: I know, but there are some books that I want to own in paper...

>68 MissWatson: Absolutely. Sometimes several different copies, actually.

14. Jane Austen Cover to Cover: 200 Years of Classic Covers, Margaret C Sullivan, 2014


Cover comments: I find it funny that a book about cover art has ugly cover art itself. It's the saccharine blue colour that I dislike, combined with the rows of books, and I think it looks like a hideous 1980s bedspread (one that I would have though ugly back in the 80s). Once you open the cover though, this is just lovely.

Comments: This gorgeously presented book charts the journey through 200 years of the highs (and lows) Jane Austen's published works. As someone who has a passion for art equal to my passion for books, I feel like this book was made just for me. The commentary on the covers is entertaining -- observant, interesting, and snarky when appropriate. Thanks to LTer Japaul22 for letting me know about this book.

Rating: 5 stars

Recommended for: people interested in the history of publishing, artistic readers, Jane Austen fans. This books would make a fabulous gift.

Why I Read This Now: I pick this up and read now and again, but the last time I decided to just read it all the way through.

I think this is my favourite cover:


Not sure what scene this is -- perhaps Wickham seducing Georgiana? Although that wasn't actually a scene, but just something discussed. Hmmm.

Here is the copy of Northanger Abbey that I found at a yard sale. It's more in keeping with the gothic romances that Catherine Morlland gobbles up than the real book.

>71 ipsoivan: Ah yes, that exact edition is discussed in Jane Austen Cover to Cover*. 1965, apparently. They have delicious snark on this one, and then they summarize: "In its own way, the cover image is quite brilliant and superbly (if inadvertently) tongue-in-cheek. Jane Austen would have loved it."

* Why does LT keep giving me the touchstone for Harry Potter? Grrr.

>72 Nickelini: I wonder if I still have it. I must look. And yes, I think Austen would have had a good laugh.

That looks like such fun! My favourite P&P cover is Sara Singh's watercolour for the Classic Lines series:



(so pretty!)

>74 Caramellunacy: That one is lovely indeed. It's featured in Jane Austen Cover to Cover too.

>69 Nickelini: It has arrived. Such wonderful paper! I love these books.

>76 MissWatson: Yay!

>57 Nickelini: lol I'm a decimal user myself (at least internally), so I like to see people go not even just to the tenths, but also the hundredths!

>62 Nickelini: and >66 connie53: lol again ;)

>70 Nickelini: very cool! I like that cover too :)

>74 Caramellunacy: beautiful!

Personally, I love all the new pulp covers they've been doing...

>78 avanders: The Pulp! The Classics editions are soooooo wonderful. I want them all, but so far I've restrained myself to the Pride and Prejudice that you mentioned and Tess of the D'Urbervilles (Marilyn Monroe "She's no angel"). They are just so clever.

>79 Nickelini: me too ;) (as in, I want them all!) I only have the Dorian Gray one with Ryan Gosling ;)

15. Seducing Mr Darcy, Gwyn Cready, 2008


Cover comments: This cover is meant to be funny. And it is.

Comments: One day I was browsing the internet and discovering the zillions of retellings and books inspired by Jane Austen. So I narrowed my search to "Mr Darcy," which reduced the number of books to mere millions. In that pile, I found Seducing Mr Darcy, which caught my eye because it claimed to be "hilarious." Hmmm, that sounded interesting.

I was extremely disappointed then when the first chapter turned out to be amateurish and clunky. Sigh. But I persevered. And it quickly got much better. It's like the author forgot the first chapter in her edit.

Quick synopsis: Scholar-ornithologist Phillipa (Flip) has to read Pride and Prejudice for her book club, although she'd rather be unwinding with some steamy pulp fiction-- something about a marble sink in Venice and a shirtless hunk. She goes to a magical masseuse, and ends up in a very steamy scene with Mr Darcy, sometime before he meets Elizabeth Bennet. When Flip returns to real life, she finds that copies of Pride and Prejudice have changed and that she's messed things up. She meets a dark, handsome, British Austen scholar and they try to undo her mess.

Is this like Jasper Fforde's Thursday Next series with sex? (I don't know-- I've never read them). It's a little like "Lost in Austen." Was it hilarious, as promised? Well, I did laugh out loud for real at least six times.

Rating: For what this is, I think it was pretty good. There was even a little rather intellectual bit about what readers do in our minds and imaginations with characters. This looks like a dumb book, but it wasn't.

Seducing Mr Darcy won some Paranormal Romance award. I didn't even know that's a thing (the genre or the award).

Recommended for: readers who like bending the classics.

16. Eminent Hipsters, Donald Fagen, 2013


Cover comments: Mmmmkay, I guess. The black is really glossy, and the swash for the title is rough, so that's sort fancy. Well, this book was ridiculously expensive for only like 150 pages, so thanks for that. The photo isn't identified -- was this a young Donald? It is symbolic though, with him hiding his face and all, because if you think you're going to learn any Steely Dan secrets here, you'll be disappointed.

Comments: This was sold as a memoir, but it can only be called that in the loosest sense. The first half is a series of essays (some previously published I hear) about the various cultural influences from the 50s and 60s that led Donald Fagen to become half of the jazz-rock band Steely Dan (those would be the "eminent hipsters" of the title). There is one bit about going to Bard College in the late 60s, where he met Walter Becker, had Chevy Chase play drums in their band, and get arrested in a drug sweep by G. Gordon Liddy (you can't make this stuff up).

The second half is sort of a journal of his road trip touring North America in 2012 with Boz Scaggs and Michael McDonald. Many readers have complained that these bits are the ramblings of a grouchy old rock star who hates his fans, so I was prepared for that. Instead what I found instead was a snap shot of a man suffering from a very real anxiety and both mental and physical health issues. He probably shouldn't tour, but then again, I saw Steely Dan in 1996 and it was a life highlight, so I appreciate the sacrifice to his health.

Recommended for: serious music people (fans and musicians), readers interested in US culture from the 50s, 60s, & 70s (and life on the road for an aging rock star).

If you're looking for the influences of all those cryptic, bizarre, intellectual and just downright amazing Steely Dan lyrics, you won't find it here. However, as the writer of those same lyrics, I have to say that Donald Fagen is one fine writer, so if you're interested, this is a good read.

Rating: Liked a lot of it. Didn't love it.

Why I Read This Now: It was something completely different.

>81 Nickelini:,

I'm glad to hear you thought Seducing Mr Darcy was fun. I had read her Tumbling Through Time - the first in the series, and found it pretty rough going (despite being fond of the concept), but I still have Flirting with Forever on my shelves somewhere. So glad to hear she may have hit her stride a bit more!

>83 Caramellunacy: After reading this I looked into Tumbling Through Time and saw that the reader reviews weren't very good, so unless a copy falls in my lap, I'm going to take a pass on that one. I'll have to look in to Flirting with Forever. I'd consider reading her again, although it really was the P&P that attracted me to this one. But she writes some genuinely funny dialogue, so I remain open.

>81 Nickelini: sounds fun! Good on you for sticking with it... I might've given up too soon ;)
Sounds like there are elements in common w/ Thursday Next :)

17. The Gum Thief, Douglas Coupland, 2007


Cover Comments: Douglas Coupland was a visual artist before he became an author. Although he didn’t design this cover, it clearly says “Coupland novel.” Even my husband, who doesn’t pay attention to such things, identified it as such. Let’s just say I like Coupland as a writer much more than as an artist.

Comments: I really enjoyed this (much more than his cult classic Generation X or the critically acclaimed Microserfs). Yes, this is the Douglas Coupland novel about the “losers who work at Staples,” but there is so much more to it than that. And if that sounds to you like a dumb or boring premise for a novel, well I guess The Gum Thief isn’t for you.

Middle-age Roger—whose life has pretty much collapsed—starts a friendship with co-worker Bethany, a 24 yr old goth girl. They don’t speak in person, but instead write to each other in a notebook left in the staff room at Staples. Interspersed with this are emails, notes, and letters from other characters, a few creative writing exercises on “toast being buttered—from the toast’s point of view” (sounds awful; it isn’t), and my favourite: a book that Roger is writing called “Glove Pond.” “Glove Pond” is a terribly written novel inspired by “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf,” and it is unintentionally hilarious (on Roger’s part--Coupland, on the other hand, knew exactly what he was doing, of course). It all adds up to a layered narrative that I found compelling and fun to read.

As with much of Coupland’s work, The Gum Thief is deceptively breezy. And with Coupland’s work, it’s full of sharp observations and pop culture ephemera. As in his other novels, he writes somewhat sad, lonely characters, but while some readers find him too depressing, I see the humour and hopefulness that he always injects in his stories.

The Gum Thief was nominated for the IMPAC Dublin award.

Recommended for: readers who like postmodern novels and dark humour.

Rating: 4.5 stars

Why I Read This Now: It’s been in my TBR for 7 years and it told me the time was now.

I read this when it first came out! It was probably one of the first review books I got from a publisher. Love this Coupland, the one who wrote Eleanor Rigby and Hey Nostradamus. I think this book came with a package of gum.

>87 raidergirl3: The Gum Thief, Hey Nostradamus and Eleanor Rigby are my favourite Couplands.

>86 Nickelini: I haven't read a Coupland in forever! Have to see if my dad has this one. Am very glad for your review, because the cover was putting me off the book (mainly because of the chewing gum -- gross).

>89 rabbitprincess: You're right -- it's gross. But not part of the book.

I've never tried any Coupland, but this sounds fun. Maybe it will be my first.

18. Mr Darcy and the Secret of Becoming a Gentleman, Maria Hamilton, 2011


Cover comments: Nice enough but pretty ho hum.

Comments: This is what I've learned is called a Pride and Prejudice "variation." As someone who thinks P&P might be the most perfect of novels, of course the world doesn't need any other versions. However, I'm glad this exists because it was fun.

The novel starts with Mr Darcy, on his way out of Kent, licking his wounds after Elizabeth Bennet rebuffs him. From there the story goes off in a new direction. This Darcy decides to actively try to correct his past errors and become the gentleman that Elizabeth expects. Most of the novel is set at Longbourn and Netherfield. Wickham is only mentioned, and Lydia is a very minor character. The focus is fully on Darcy and Elizabeth, which is just fine with me.

I think that overall the author has a good grasp of the characters and the language of Austen (without getting silly). Much of this novel is from Darcy's point of view, which I always enjoy hearing. I think the author had some interesting insights on some of the characters, and she painted a very likeable version of Charles Bingley. On the downside, by the end of the novel I was getting a little tired of Darcy's repeated apologies when he didn't quite say the right thing to Elizabeth -- not the best likeness of her that I've read. I think he could have kept just a little of his snootiness, and told her to deal with it. But that's a quibble and didn't get in the way of my enjoyment.

In the end I think this is one of the better P&P take-offs that I've read.

Recommended for: fans of Pride and Prejudice who are open to playing with the characters and story. Jane Austen fans who are dull elves and speak in cliches like "Jane Austen would be spinning in her grave" should skip this one. Also, as in P&P, there is lots of sexual tension, and there are also scenes of light seduction that stops well before it gets into the realm of erotica. On that note, readers who prefer a perfectly chaste Austen experience will not like this book.

Why I Read This Now: well, I was perfectly happy reading Grapes of Wrath and a book on the history of disease, but then this sort of fell open in my hands. Grapes of Smallpox? what was I reading again? Sometimes one can be too serious.

Rating: lots of fun if you're in the mood and aren't expecting War and Peace. 4 stars.

>92 Nickelini: fun! :) Maybe I'll read that someday....

The First Horseman: Disease in Human History, John Aberth, 2007


Cover comments: I love this cover. Colour + art = my sort of thing

Comments: This is a short text from my daughter's history course at uni last year. It focuses on four pandemics in history: The Black Death in Europe (1347-1350), the American Holocaust-- Smallpox (1518-1670), Bubonic & Pneumonic Plague in India & China (1896-1921), and AIDs in Sub-Saharan Africa (1982-2007). Each section is divided into two parts. The first looks at the event, the disease, social consequences, etc. and the second section is key primary sources from the time. All very interesting and readable. This is a history text, not a science text, which aligns with my way of learning.

Why I Read This Now: it caught my attention.

Rating: At least four stars. There aren't any reviews of this in LT, and only one other rating, which is one star. This baffles me--that rating would mean the book was horribly written (definitely not) or flat out wrong (also not). I'm guessing that person either had to read this for a class that he hated, or something in the text offended his colonialist white privilege.

Recommended for: readers interested in the topics.

>94 Nickelini: Sounds interesting! I think I'll ignore the 1 star rating and put it on my wishlist...

Through the Keyhole: Sex, Scandal and the Secret Life of the Country House, Susan C Law, 2015


Cover Comments: Perfect cover for this book.

Rating: 4.5 stars

Comments: Through the Keyhole is a tightly focused look at the one of the particular stresses changing English Society between the years 1760 and 1830. There was the Industrial Revolution, the war in North America*, the French Revolution, and the Napoleonic wars, but the problem discussed here is the “epidemic of adultery” among the upper class.

(*I tried to find out what Brits call the War of American Independence, and all I could find was “we don’t learn about it and don’t think about it.” Any Brits who want to shed more light on this please speak up.)

The aristocracy were considered the rightful and natural leaders, and were held up as the moral example for the lower classes to emulate. Further, their right to rule depended on legitimate bloodlines. But many in the aristocracy were jeopardizing this role with their libertine behaviour.

In 18th century Western Europe, marrying for love rather than money was becoming more popular. For the upper classes, marrying well was a social and family duty that still took precedence over personal preferences. The dynastic alliances they formed were deemed necessary for the stability of the country. Thus, it was still common for wealthy families to marry off their 17 and 18 year old daughters to powerful or wealthy older men. This resulted in many unhappy marriages, and with the change in cultural habits that allowed women to socialize without their husbands, the temptation to have an affair and give in to the “fashionable vice” often won over integrity, and duty.

At the same time, the commercial press was flourishing, and sex scandals sold newspapers. This was the birth of the British tabloid—there was even a sex scandal in 1757 involving Lady Di, a distant ancestor of 1990s tabloid darling, Diana, Princess of Wales. While fascinated by the lifestyles of the rich and famous, the growing middle class were also disgusted and the purpose of the aristocracy and their elite privilege came under serious scrutiny. To quell the situation, there were several attempts to curb adultery through legislation. To some degree, this must have worked, as there developed “a new sense of propriety ... in public attitudes, as the easy-going libertinism of the Georgian and Regency periods began to fade away into what would eventually become Victorian prudery.”

Through the Keyhole is a very readable and interesting look at 18th century English society written by a historian and journalist. She has a nice balance of anecdotes and factual information.

Interesting note:

I learned about this book when it came out last year from an article in The Telegraph titled “Jane Austen’s real Mr Darcy Unmasked by Historian“ and one in The Daily Mail titled “Is this the real Mr Darcy? Letters 'prove' that tall, dark and brooding aristocrat whose wife's adultery scandalised polite society was the inspiration for Jane Austen's hero.” Except the book doesn’t talk about this at all! It does cover the man in question, John Parker, 1st Earl of Morley, but the only mention of Jane Austen is about Mansfield Park. Very weird indeed!

Here are the two articles in question:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/11569673/Jane-Austens-real-Mr-Darcy-unm...

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3059021/Is-real-Mr-Darcy-Letters-prove-t...

Recommended for: Highly recommended for people interesting in the time period (I’m looking at you, Jane Austen fans. )

Why I Read This Now: it’s been at the top of my TBR since it was published.

21. All the Light We Cannot See, Anthony Doerr, 2014


Cover comments: Love the colours, interesting picture

Rating: 1 star

Why I Read This Now: It was my book club selection for January. I didn't finish it in time for the meeting (got to page 217) but gave it another try since I'd invested so much time in it already. At book club, out of 8 people, 6 loved it. It's very popular. It won the Pulitzer.

Comments: Okay, I'm throwing in the towel on this one. I read to page 361 out of 530 (68%), and since I know what happens, I see no hope that this will turn into a book I like or even see as worth reading. 361 pages is double the length of many excellent books I've read, so I'm counting this as read.

I wasn't interested in this story in the first place, and it turned out to be as uninteresting as I expected. The book is written in very short chapters, which I like. However, it switches between characters every single time, and on top of that, switches time lines. I was getting whip lash and it just felt pointless and gimmicky. The story about the orphan German boy in Nazi-training was the more interesting of the two, the little blind French girl was just dull.

I had to quit when I was no longer merely bored, but became irritated.

I'm even irritated by the title. It's deepity -- it seems deep, but really isn't. It sounds forced. Like most of this book.

I have no idea why this book is so loved.

I mentioned it to my aunt, who likes WWII fiction, and she found a copy and loved it because it was "intricate." I see that, and some of the intricacy was sort of cool. But some of it was silly, and whatever was cool wasn't enough to rescue the rest of this one for me. And I've never read a book set in St Malo, France, so I did like that setting. That's all.

Recommended for: almost everyone loves it, so if you think it's your thing, give it a try.

I liked the subtle resistance the village ladies were doing to the French. I listened to it, and liked it, but not loved. It certainly felt long though.

>97 Nickelini: I have never heard the word 'deepity' before, but I love it (and the definition!). It is exactly the word I would use to describe Paulo Coelho's books (which irritate me intensely!).

>99 Jackie_K: Exactly! Paulo Coelho's books are a perfect example. Also, Deepak Chopra.

The term comes from Daniel Dennett -- American cognitive scientist and philosopher. He coined it from a friend's teenage daughter. It basically means "a statement that is apparently profound but actually asserts a triviality on one level and something meaningless on another. Generally, a deepity has (at least) two meanings: one that is true but trivial, and another that sounds profound, but is essentially false or meaningless and would be "earth-shattering" if true. To the extent that it's true, it doesn't matter. To the extent that it matters, it isn't true."

Often used example: "love is just a word." On one level the statement is perfectly true (i.e., "love" is a word), but the deeper meaning of the phrase is false; love is many things — a feeling, an emotion, a condition — and not simply a word.

More at: http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Deepity
or search YouTube for "deepity"

Probably more than you wanted to know.

>100 Nickelini: I like the word too! And the explanation - not more than I wanted to know.
I have been meaning to read Dennett's books some time, but never seem to get around to it - maybe I should try harder...

>101 Britt84: not sure when I'll get to his books either, but he has about a zillion videos on YouTube. That might be good enough for me.

>97 Nickelini: wow you did NOT like that book! Hope your next one treats you better! :)

>100 Nickelini: lol. I love it.

22. Infidelity, Stacey May Fowles, 2013


Cover comments: Excellent in both style and symbolism. Suits the novel in a clever way. The inside of this book is also pleasing in design, with the page numbers on the side of the page. Well done, David Gee.

Comments: While helping her fiance cater an event, hairdresser and risk-taker Ronnie meets Charlie, who is the new writer in residence at the University of Toronto. They begin an affair. This book is not a romance, so you can see from the beginning that this is not going to have a happy ending. Charlie is married and has a son with autism, Ronnie has been struggling with fertility problems.

I struggle to describe this book adequately. Let me just say that I didn't like any of the characters, yet I really enjoyed reading it and breezed through it in a couple of days. I think the fact that I cared so much about a book where I didn't care for the characters says that this is a well-written story.

Rating: 4.5 stars

Recommended for: readers who like books with realistically drawn people and situations.

Why I Read This Now: After enjoying Though the Keyhole: Sex, Scandal and Secret Life of the Country House, I saw Infidelity in my TBR pile and figured I was still in the mood for some bad behaviour by married people -- better in print than in real life, right?

(BTW -- what's up with touchstones lately? For this novel, it thought I wanted Mockingjay. Similarities? Both books have words. That's about it. )

23. Blaming, Elizabeth Taylor, 1976


Cover comments: I'm not too keen on the latest editions that Virago Modern Classics has designed for Elizabeth Taylor's novels, although I guess it's okay. None of the characters in the book look like this woman, so I'm not sure what this picture is all about.

I prefer the old classic green cover:


Comments: Middle aged Amy is on a cruise with her husband in Turkey when he suddenly dies. Martha, an American living in London helps her get back to England, and they form an unusual friendship. Oh dear, I'm not describing this very well.

Taylor is a master at writing relationships and round characters. Her observational skills remind me of Jane Austen. I absolutely loved this book; however, as with another Taylor I loved (Mrs Palfrey at the Claremont), it was depressing. But still fabulous.

Blaming is on the 1001 books list.

Why I Read This Now: I love mid-20th century books written by British women.

Rating: 4.5 big shiny stars

Recommended for: readers who love books with well drawn characters.

>105 Nickelini: BB for sure.

>106 ipsoivan: Look forward to your thoughts! Happy reading.

I loved Mrs Palfrey too. Sometimes depressing can be a fabulous, great read. I definitely want to read another Taylor book.

>23 Nickelini: lol bummer... I hate it when the covers in NO way match the book.. I don't know why people do that!
I've never heard of the book... will have to check it out!

24. Life & Times of Michael K, JM Coetzee, 1983


Cover comments: Yawn. I looked at the other covers used for this book, and there isn't a single one that I like. This isn't the worst.

Comments: Life & Times of Michael K begins when Michael K is 31 and ends a year or two later. So much for life and times.

Michael is born with a cleft lip and his single mother, who worked as a maid, abandoned him to an institution in Cape Town. He grows up to become a city gardener, but his mother gets ill and tells him he must take her back to her rural birthplace to die. In this alternate South Africa, civil war is raging, and martial law is imposed. Without travel permits and documentation Michael learns to live under the radar and become as much of a non-person as he can be. Early on their trip, his mother dies. Michael tries to live off the land and hides on an abandoned farm in the veld. He is captured, put into a camp, escapes, lives off the land, captured, repeat. His only goal is to tend his garden.

When I was reading this, I thought "This is unlike any book I've read before," but then I realized that while that is true, it also reminded me of every book set against apartheid for its setting, and Bartleby the Scrivener for the main character, Kafka for the 'K' and also a man lost in a system he doesn't understand, Being There for a deceptively simple man who just wants to garden, the film "The Gods Must Be Crazy" for a man who doesn't value western possessions and also who can't live under society's restrictions, and even "District 9" for the incompetent South African authorities.

One aspect that I found really interesting is that although this novel is obviously a chastisement against South African apartheid, race is never mentioned. There is one sentence that identifies Michael as "CM" (coloured male), but that's it.

Life & Times of Michael K is short, the language is clean and simple, and the story packs a strong punch. It is on the 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die list and won the Booker Prize in 1983. Coetzee also won the Pulitzer Prize.

Recommended for: highly recommended for a wide audience.

Why I Read This Now: I was moving some books and decided to read the first page of each of them. This is the one that caught my attention.

Rating: Although I thought this book was very good, it's not really my thing, so I'm going to give it 4 stars.

>110 Nickelini: Fantastic comparisons. I wish you had read it (and posted this insightful comment) before I read it several years ago. I felt inadequate to the novel.

>111 ipsoivan:, well, I feel inadequate to the novel too. But I got out of it what I could.

Dancing Girls, Margaret Atwood, 1977


Cover comments: oh look, a woman's back and obscured face. How unique (insert eye roll here). That said, as a group these late 90s McClelland & Stewart covers look nice on the book shelf.

Comments: Atwood's first short story collection is made up of 14 stories that show an experimental period in her development as a writer. The Cambridge Introduction to Margaret Atwood notes that these stories "are characterized by a sense of miscommunication, or by the sense of an event happening slightly offstage. The heart of several of these stories is an inexplicable departure, a failure to connect events and disappearances, or a lock of communication about the importance of events."

I very much enjoyed the stories "Rape Fantasies" and "A Travel Piece," which seemed livelier than the others. "The War in the Bathroom," "The Grave of the Famous Poet, and "The Resplendent Quetzal" also had interesting things to say. The rest of the collection I did not care for at all. "The Man from Mars" is popular with many readers, but I was frustrated with how incredibly dated it was, and "Hair Jewellery" was such a word salad that I couldn't finish it. I'm afraid too many of these stories were overly-vague and lacking in context, which in turn made them pointless and dull.

Note that my 1998 edition has two different stories than the original Dancing Girls. Gone are "Betty" and "Sin Eaters," and they've been replaced by "Rape Fantasies" and "The War in the Bathroom."

Why I Read This Now: I try to read an Atwood a year as I have many of her books in my TBR pile. There was an Atwood read over at the 75 Books Group in April, which is when I started this. I have a Short Story Category in my Category Challenge. Dancing Girls is a Virago Modern Classic.

Recommended for: Atwood completists.

lol - I like your comment on the cover ;)

>114 avanders: Thanks! When will this artistic trend be over?

And I just noticed that 3 weeks into May, I've hit 50% of my goal. Last year I think I was a few books short, so I'm going to aim to make up for that too. I think I was 4 books shy, so that would make my goal 54 books. At the rate I'm going, I can easily do it. Last year was an odd year as I read a lot of new books. This year, I'm happy to read my old stuff.

Congratulations on reaching the halfway point!

>116 Nickelini: Hurray!

>115 Nickelini: lol... it will follow belatedly behind the readers' preferences ;)

>116 Nickelini: woot! Congrats!

Interesting cover comments. I know I will pick up a book based on the cover but haven't given them a close look. I will have to give covers a closer look after reading your critiques. Congrats on being halfway to your goal.

The Master and Margarita, Mikhail Bulgakov, 1967 (written in the 1930s), translated by Mirra Ginsburg


Cover comments: It's striking, and different, and relevant to the story, so I guess that's pretty good.

Comments: Satan and his entourage arrive in 1930s Moscow, subsequently, wild and crazy things start to happen everywhere.

I expect Russian literature to be dour, serious, and difficult, and I'm happy to say that The Master and Margarita was none of those. It was humorous, but a bit to frantic and manic for my tastes. I adored the two chapters, 'Azazello's Cream' and 'Flight,' where Margarita turns in to a witch. In fact, I liked them so much that I immediately went back and reread them.

I had to question why this is considered an important example of magic realism, since most of the magic was of the traditional black magic type. I see though that it's a subversive piece of political satire, which is one of the strongest marks of magic realism, so yes, I agree that it's MR after all.

My edition didn't have notes, so I didn't have the option of getting bogged down in all the allusions to Stalin and the Soviet system. I didn't worry about it.

Why I Read This Now: I've been listening to podcasts about mythology of the ancient world, and have bumped in to Satan and Hell. What I've always learned about these two topics is very different from the historical record, and so I looked in my TBR pile to see if I had any relevant books. The Master and Margarita was at the top of the list, and the same day I discovered this, I read Avidmom's excellent review and was encouraged to give it a go.

Recommended for: a wide audience. It can be read on many levels. The Master and Margarita is on many of those "must read' lists.

Rating: a bit of a mixed one for me, so 3.5 stars.

This is a popular book this year :)
I'm glad you enjoyed it! It's one of my all-time-favorites.. I liked your comments!

27. One Good Story, That One: Stories, Thomas King, 1993


Cover comments: Great cover for this book. The coyote trickster makes several appearances.

Comments: Thomas King is a master storyteller, and this collection of 10 short stories highlights his various styles. My favourite is when he uses a straightforward tales with a touch of magic realism, such as "Totem," or even sci-fi ("How Corporal Colin Sterling Saved Blossom, Alberta and Most of the Rest of the World As Well"). Simply written, but subversive, clever, funny, and politically incorrect. I'm not as keen on his first person narrated stories where he uses dialect, short choppy sentences, and lists.

This collection contains the wonderful story "Borders," which I first read at university, and is one of my all-time favourite short stories. I think I'll add "Totem" to that list too.

Thomas King is considered a prominent voice in Canadian First Nations culture, even though he grew up in the US, and is half-Cherokee and half-Greek.

Rating: Although I quite disliked a few of these stories, the others were so strong that overall I give this 150 p book four sparkly stars.

Recommended for: everyone, but a sense of humour is required.

Why I Read This Now: my book club is meeting on King's non-fiction the Inconvenient Indian which I didn't like much, although I think it's an important book. I want to go and talk up his strong points.

28. The Bookshop, Penelope Fitzgerald, 1978


Cover comments: Love the quietness of this, love the old books, love the typeface, absolutely love the colours. It's also part of a set of Penelope Fitzgerald novels done in this style, and they of course look super together.

Comments: A short, quiet novel about a widow who moves to a small town in East Anglia in 1959 and opens a bookshop. Unfortunately, no one in the town wants a bookshop, and in fact, the proprietor herself doesn't even seem to be that keen on it. The ending is very sad.

Some stunningly beautiful writing, but overall I didn't like The Bookshop as much as other Fitzgerald novels I've read. It was nominated for the Booker Prize.

Recommended for: people who like sad, quiet novels.

Why I Read This Now: I have several Fitzgerald's on my TBR pile. Needed to scurry back to England after the last few books I've read.

29. The Women in Black, Madeleine St John, 1994


Cover Comments: Adorable!

Rating: Four and three-quarters stars. This is my favourite book this year so far. Loved it.

Comments: This charming novel, set at Christmas in a sophisticated department store in Sydney, Australia in the late 1950s, revolves around a small cast of women who work in the cocktail frock department. There isn't all that much of a plot, but it's just interesting to see their different lives and their struggles. I love this camera-like snapshot of the time and place -- it was fun to compare the Sydney I remember from the early 80s with the 1950s version (written in the 1990s), although I don't think you have to have ever been to Sydney to love this story. Subtle, lovely writing, interesting and unique characters, and a touch of humour made this a fabulous book that I was always happy to sit down and enjoy. Unfortunately, it appears to be out of print, but I was lucky to run across a used copy.

I must say, I've never read a book that used the word "frock" so many times. Here in Canada, we use some British terms and some US terms, but "frock" is one that we use only ironically. I was baffled and amused at the dress sizes, which had been replaced by standard numbers before I got to Oz:

Patty Williams's frock was an SSW as we know, whereas Fay Baines was an SW, but Miss Jacobs was a perfect OSW, especially around the bust." After running into people being referred to by their dress size and continuing to puzzle, my friend Google steered me to an Australian vintage clothing website that explained:

XXSSW = Extra, extra slim small woman.
XSSW = Extra slim small woman.
SSW = Slim small woman.
SW = Small woman.
W = Woman.
XW = Extra woman.
SOS = Small(?) outsized
OS = Outsized.
XOS = Extra outsized.
etc

Wow. That's bizarre. Still not sure what those terms mean, but I get the idea. No idea what size I'd be.

Why I Read This Now: Felt like an Aussie book, have wanted to read this one for years.

Recommended for: readers who like charming books and don't need a lot of action or car chases.

>125 Nickelini: Oh dear, I thought, I want to read that. But not available from the library, and chances of running across it at a second hand bookstore are slim. But it's available as an e-copy for 99 cents!

I need something a little light after I finish my current book. Just the ticket!

>125 Nickelini: drat. a smudge on my glasses obscured the $9 at the beginning of that .99.

Congrats on reaching the half way point, Joyce.

30. A Little Stranger, Kate Pullinger, 2004


Cover comments: I like this cover, and the tulips are even a minor element in the story, but it looks a bit self-published. It isn't.

Comments:Fran is struggling with being stuck at home with a toddler. Her perfect life in London, married to her childhood sweetheart isn't so perfect anymore. On a whim, Fran flees to Las Vegas, where she meets Leslie, who is fleeing demons of her own. The two end up back in Vancouver, where Leslie lives and where Fran grew up.

There is some lovely writing in this, and it's highly readable--so much so that I almost missed my stop on the train. The weakness of the book is that some of the themes and tangential threads are a bit thin, and there are a few too many coincidences for my liking. But overall it was a good read and I look forward to more from Kate Pullinger.

Why I Read This Now: rearranging a bookcase and this one didn't fit back in; also, I have several books by this author in my TBR pile.

Recommended: people who like stories about dysfunctional families. Readers who lose their shit when a fictional mother abandons her child (even temporarily) should stay away from this one.

>125 Nickelini: okay fine... BB. Onto the list!

>130 avanders: You must make a ticker for all these BB's, Ava. They seem to hit you like a salvo from a machine gun!

>131 connie53: I did that just for this year to see how many I took (I haven't actually noted the titles, just counted the BBs that I've added to my wishlist or (occasionally) bought). So far this year I've had just over 50!

>131 connie53: lol I should! So true.... I am such a target!
Maybe a ticker-project for next year ;)

>132 Jackie_K: wow! I think you might be an even brighter target! ;)

The Tiny Book of Tiny Stories 3, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, wirrow & others, 2013


Cover comments: suits the book but the art inside is much better

Comments: Well isn't this just the most delightful thing ever. 72 "stories" that combine a sentence or two with art to tell a story, by a wide range of artists and poets. Some are deep, some silly, some dark, some playful. I will definitely hunt down Volumes 1 & 2.

Rating: 4.5 stars

Why I Read This Now: my daughter was organizing her book case, I saw this, and read it.

Recommended for: people who like whimsy and illustrated books.

Death of the Heart, Elizabeth Bowen, 1938


Cover comments: "Portrait of Marguerite van Mons," by Theo van Rysselberghe. I love this Anchor Books cover so very much. It fits the novel quite well, although the girl in the painting is 10 and it's 1886, and in the novel Portia is 16 and it's 1938. I have seen this painting used on other book covers.

Comments: Portia, 16 years old and recently orphaned, returns to London from the Continent to live with her much older half-brother and his shallow wife. She has a flirtation with their odious friend Eddie, spends some time at the seaside with more people she's never met before, and writes in her diary. Portia is extremely naive, I'd even say a little on the stupid side. Her diary entries are matter-of-fact observations that expose secrets and are telling in their naivety, and inevitably cause all sorts of upset.

Elizabeth Bowen is considered one of the 20th century greats, and as a sort of literary bridge between Henry James and Virginia Woolf, and then Iris Murdoch and Anita Brookner (or any other list of mid- to late-twentieth century Brits), I really want to love her. But after this, my third Bowen, I still don't. This is chiefly because I don't feel for any of her characters. They say and do things that are just weird to me and I can't relate at all.

On the upside, when she's not writing dialogue, Bowen's writing is gorgeous. I copied out 6 pages worth of quotations into my reading journal. Death of the Heart was also full of details on day-to-day life in late 30s England that I found fascinating.

Death of the Heart is on the Times and Modern Library top 100 books of the 20th century lists, and also on the Guardian 1000 list.

Rating: Oh, who knows. The plot, characters and dialogue were 2.5, the rest of the writing a 5.

Why I Read This Now: This has been in my tbr pile for a decade, but after reading Heat of the Day in 2008, I didn't feel up to attempting Bowen again. I needed a book for my Irish literature challenge category, and since Bowen is Anglo-Irish, I thought it was time to tackle this one. Since there was not one apparent Irish thing about this book, I'll count it for my mid-century modern category instead.

I have two more Bowens in my TBR -- The Last September and The House in Paris, so I'm not giving up on her yet.

Recommended for: people who like those quiet British novels where no one says what they mean.

33. NW, Zadie Smith, 2012


Cover comments: great cover for this novel, although I'm not crazy about the colour combinations.

Comments: The story of two thirty-something women, Leah and Natalie (formerly Keisha) who grew up in the NW6 area of London. This novel is very disjointed, requires concentration by the reader, and has little plot, but I loved it. Great voice, highly original, paints a vivid picture of this section of London life.

Rating: 4.5 stars

Recommended for: readers who like good writing and don't need a plot.

Why I Read This Now: I've been trying to get to it for years.

34. The Wife's Tale, Lori Lansens, 2009


Cover comments: Hmmm. Artistically I give this a middling grade at best. I guess the silhouette is a sort of metaphor though. The book certainly has worse covers out there.

Comments: I enjoyed The Wife's Tale very much. Some reader reviews complain that the story is unrealistic, but I see the "Tale" part of the title telling us that this was never supposed to be exactly realistic. It's a story, and like other tales, it's the story of a journey.

Mary Gooch is morbidly obese and lives a life of relative isolation in small town Southern Ontario. On the eve of her 25th wedding anniversary, her devoted husband abandons her. Shocked out of her malaise, she goes to his family in Southern California looking for him. Along the way she meets many wonderfully-drawn characters and discovers herself. I also found that at the sentence level the writing was often rather wonderful.

The book is not perfect and if I wanted to nitpick, I could pick away. There was one point midway through the novel that I thought the author was taking us down a cliched predictable path. But then she veered away, and the story went off in a direction, and toward a conclusion, that I didn't predict at all.

Although I don't believe the author meant the story to be realistic in itself, the details of the story are crisp and evocative. I particularly delighted in her descriptions of life in the small area of SoCal where she sets the second half of The Wife's Tale, as it's a corner of the world I know very well. Even though she changed some of the names (Thousand Oaks was decimated and became Hundred Oaks, for example), the real world setting is clear, right down to the corner where she meets the Mexican men (just one of many example). I love that sort of verisimilitude in a novel, although I know others couldn't care less.

Years ago I read the same author's The Girls, which I found massively disappointing. I'm happy to say that this one was much better.

Rating: 4.5 stars

Why I Read This Now: someone on the Canadian Bookworms group recommended it and I thought it was time to pull it out of the TBR. Also, I needed to make room on the shelf where I stored it, so this was really the time.

Recommended for: if it sounds interesting, try it.

>137 Nickelini: I've taken a BB for that one. My wishlist is inflating at a scary rate this year!!

Just popping in and saying 'Hi' to you!

35. Instructions for a Heatwave, Maggie O'Farrell, 2013


Cover comments: completely uninspired ("How about we use an image of a woman, but she's not facing the reader. No one has thought of that before."). Also, some incompetent photoshopping makes the body look not-human.

Comments: During the 1976 heatwave in London, Gretta's husband goes out for a newspaper and doesn't return. She discovers he's taken money and his passport. She calls her three adult children home. Lots of dysfunction. They end up following their father back to his home in Ireland.

Initially I had trouble focusing on this because the narrative would suddenly shift to a character's memories. Once everyone was introduced and their backstories all told, the novel settled down and I enjoyed it more.

Rating: Slightly better than average. 3.5 stars.

Why I Read This Now: A while ago I read Maggie O'Farrell's The Vanishing of Esme Lennox, which I loved, so I wanted to read more by this author.

Recommended for: people who like stories about family dynamics.

36. Buttoned-Up, Fantastic Man, 2013


Cover comments: fits the book perfectly.

Comments: This is part of the Penguin Lines series published to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the London Underground. In theory, it covers the East London line. In reality, it has absolutely nothing to do with public transportation or the Tube.

What it is instead is a sociological look at a subculture of London where skinny young men wear their shirts buttoned to the top, without a tie. It traces the influences through 80s new wave (there's an interview with one of the Pet Shop Boys) and back to the Mods. Being a book about English people, there is of course much mention of class.

Note that Fantastic Man is a magazine. This book is made up of several essays by its editors and writers.

Rating: As a book about the London Underground (and how it is sold), this book is a complete fail and would get half a star. As a study of a very specific topic and group of people, I actually rather enjoyed it and give it four stars.

Recommended for: this is an extremely niche book. If you're not interested in menswear, 1980s British music, Mods, and the English class system, you will not like anything about Buttoned-Up.

Why I Read This Now: hadn't read anything from this series for a while.

Atlas of Remote Islands: Fifty Islands I have Never Set Foot On and Never Will, Judith Schalansky, translator Chirstine Lo, 2009


Cover comments: Not amazing, but just fine for a book such as this.

Rating: The book isn't perfect, but I enjoyed it so much that I'm giving it 5 stars.

Comments: Growing up in East Germany, author Judith Schalansky dreamed of travelling to all the places she found in atlases and knew she'd never be allowed to see. The world has changed, but she still loves maps and armchair travel.

Each of the fifty islands gets a two-page spread in this book. The right side is a map of the island, and the left side includes some facts: Name, location, country, size, number of residents or inhabitants, distance from other places (often equally obscure), and a timeline of a few events since the island was discovered. The rest of the page is a vignette describing some aspect or event related to the island. This little story does not necessarily tell the reader much, and is definitely not a travel guide. The islands are grouped by ocean.

I found many of the little stories captivating, even when it told me nothing about the island itself. They often raised more questions than they answered. But what a great resource for fiction writers -- I got so many story ideas.

Every since I spent the summer of my eighth year reading our new encyclopedia set, I've been hooked on maps and learning about strange far-off places. Remote areas such as Patagonia, Tibet and Labrador. And islands in particular have always been a favourite -- Baffin Island, Capri, Sri Lanka, Kauai, Chincoteague, the Maldives, the Channel Islands and the Shetland Islands, Reunion, Seychelles, and Mauritius, New Guinea, Iceland, Bora Bora, Paau, Tasmania, St Pierre et Miquelon, Svalbard . . . I could go on (I've actually made it to three of those).

I bought this book expecting to have a number of these included, but I was wrong. Of the fifty islands in the Atlas of Remote Islands, I had only heard of St Kilda, Ascension, St Helena, Diego Garcia, Christmas Island, Norfolk, Easter Island, Pitcairn Island, and Iwo Jima. That leaves 41 new-to-me islands. My status as a geography geek is in peril.

And now I have a new list of islands to add to my travel bucket list: Number one is South Keeling or Cocos Island, followed by Robinson Crusoe, and Tristan da Cunha. Many of the islands I never want to visit, even in my worst nightmare.

South Keeling:


Robinson Crusoe Island:


Tristan da Cunha:


In conclusion, even though I had to go to the internet to look up what photos of the island and other relevant information, this book was just too much fun.

Recommended for: mapheads and geography geeks like me. As a child, I was fascinated by the Voyage of the Dawn Treader, with their tales of strange islands, and in high school, I was mesmerized by the voyages of discovery (particularly Magellan, for some reason). Obscure places have always intrigued me. It appears Schalansky had me in mind when she wrote this book.

Why I Read This Now: it's been at the top of Mnt TBR for years.

>142 Nickelini: I loved that book, and gave it 5 stars too. Must give it a re-read, as it's been a few years since I read it. I thought her introduction was fascinating (the bit before the 50 islands themselves). I don't know if I'm a geography geek, but there's something about islands that I find fascinating (it's still a dream to move to a Scottish island when we get a bit closer to retirement). And being an eastern Europe buff too, I found the East Germany angle fascinating. An extraordinary book.

Oh, how great that you've included the images!

I loved this book too. I bought it at the exorbitant New Zealand book price (personal Christmas present) when it first came out there, which as far as I know was well before it showed up in shops in Canada. For me it was just a treat of the odd and wonderful places in the world.

Fellow map lover here. I used to have one whole wall of my small apartment devoted to an enormous map of Africa. I need to dig that out and put it up again in my now-larger home.

>144 ipsoivan: before it showed up in shops in Canada -- I don't think I've ever seen it in a store here, but maybe I don't visit the right sections. I'm pretty sure I ordered it from the Book Depository. I can't remember where I learned about it.

an enormous map of Africa. -- that's so awesome!

>144 ipsoivan: I think I have seen it for sale in some of the independents in Toronto. I could be confused, however, as I frequently am when it comes to books.

Yes, there were 3 or so Michelin ones that I taped together to get the whole continent--inspired by an acquaintance who was on his way to a year in Kenya. The map even had little palm trees to mark the oases in Northern Africa. I used to lie in bed and just gaze.

>142 Nickelini: Those pictures are gorgeous, Joyce!

Great job w/ your progress - you've sure been reading a lot of ROOTs!

And >142 Nickelini: I can see why you're adding those to your island bucket list! :)
Though I'm much more intrigued by this: "Many of the islands I never want to visit, even in my worst nightmare" ....
(BB)

38. The Fifth Child, Doris Lessing, 1988


Cover comments: Okay but sort of boring.

Comments: Oh my. I read this book cover-to-cover two days ago, and I haven't been able to stop thinking about it. Yes, it's only 133 pages, and told in as a linear timeline with fairly straight forward language. But Lessing is subtle and clever and The Fifth Child sneaks up and clobbers you. Which is exactly what the actual fifth child would do. But I'm ahead of myself.

In mid-60s London, David and Harriet meet at an office party. They hit it off because they aren't like anyone else and share similar goals. Namely, to buy a comfortable big house and fill it with loads of children. Eight or ten, at least. The swinging sixties and mod London are not for them. The enormous Victorian house they buy is two hours north of London, which makes for a very long commute for David, and even at that distance, it's beyond their budget, especially when Harriet immediately gets pregnant and quits work. In a few years they have four lovely children--two boys and two girls. And every holiday their huge house fills up with extended family. So much fun, such a perfect family. Except David is exhausted from working to support all these people, and Harriet is exhausted from being pregnant and breast feeding and chasing toddlers all day. All the extended family and friends who come to stay tell them they've taken on too much and to slow down, but David and Harriet stubbornly plug their ears and say "this is what we want to do!"

Except they really can't afford it, and even though David is disgusted by his upper class upbringing, he asks his father to pay their mortgage. And they can't physically handle it either -- Harriet's mother sacrifices her retirement to move in and become an unpaid full time nanny (even though she has other children and grandchildren). But David and Harriet think it's exactly what they want, and don't seem to grasp that they aren't actually accomplishing it. (David and Harriet frustrated me!)

Then. Then Harriet gets pregnant a fifth time. From the beginning the pregnancy is significantly worse than her previous uncomfortable pregnancies. At eight months, she gives birth to an eleven pound baby, Ben, and he's extremely ugly. And strong, and very unhappy. They call him goblin and gargoyle. Things go very badly. The happy house guests disappear. Pets die. His siblings lock their doors at night. For a while, Ben is institutionalized. Against everyone's wishes, Harriet brings him back home. Things get even worse. Everyone blames Harriet. From a very young age, Ben spends a lot of time with neighbourhood delinquents, because they all get along and it gives the family breathing space. Doctors and teachers are useless in giving the family guidance. I don't want to give much more away, but the story progresses and then ends when Ben is 15 and basically is running wild with thugs. After reading The Fifth Child, I learned that there is a sequel, Ben, in the World, which I've already ordered and plan to read when it arrives.

There is so much subtext in this novel that I can't even begin to go into it here. In some ways, the book is similar to We Need to Talk About Kevin and in others it's more like Rosemary's Baby.

The only other Doris Lessing I've read is The Grass is Singing, which was very different but similar in length and also in being a deceivingly simple story that packs a wallop.

Rating: when I read it, I thought 3.5 stars, but the more I think about it and read commentary on it (and reader reviews), and think some more, I think it's more like 4.5 stars.

Why I Read This Now: I was researching "best short novels" for my book club, and this was highly recommended. Since I owned it, I thought I'd preview it before we meet to decide on our books for the next year. There is a lot of discussion material in the Fifth Child, despite its short length. Which to me is a sign of a talented author.

Recommended for: Well, not everyone. Some people will give it a straight read, and miss all the subtleties, and then just say they don't like the story or characters. I've read a lot of reader reviews today, and there are some great comments in the one-star reviews, but a lot of those reviewers are also missing what's important in the book. It's definitely controversial work. People who like to pull apart what an author is doing, and don't mind some horrific things in their nice middle class English novel, will probably appreciate the Fifth Child.

>149 Nickelini: excellent review! Our highschool English teacher made us read this novel, and I still remember it distinctly. Lessing is just brilliant at poking fun at the idea of the perfect, large family and at tapping into our worst fears about what our children might turn out to be.

I should reread it...

Yikes, that's quite the book to pick for a high school class. Perhaps your teacher was thinking it might be a form of birth control ;-)

It's a book that definitely warrants a reread.

She was just really ambitious, and the course descriptions in Denmark for A-level students at the time meant, that we had to read some full-length works of litterature. We also read Heat and Dust - also recommendable - and even had to read a Shakespeare play which was by far the toughest read. (But also quotable - Is it a dagger I see before me?)

I must admit that I have come to increasingly admire my teachers as I have expanded my reading. They really introduced us to some major authors even though I didn't totally get how important they were at the time.

>152 Henrik_Madsen: Wow, that's great. And very nice that you appreciate it instead of getting turned off (as does sometimes happen with teens and literature). Heat and Dust is high on my tbr pile.

>149 Nickelini: wishlisted!

>149 Nickelini: I immediately searched for a Dutch version! And found it.

Neuromancer, William Gibson, 1984


Cover comments: not terrible or anything, but what even is this? What does it represent? However, nice colour and the typeface is appropriate and pleasing.

Comments: Reading Neuromancer is an exercise of going far beyond my comfort zone -- my brain just isn't wired for this sort of science fiction. Despite that, there were some interesting parts, some excellent writing, and I can see why this book is considered important and how it was influential to not just sci-fi, but to culture and technology.

Fans of the book--people who have read it two or three times-- talk about how dense and packed with details it is, and how difficult to understand everything going on. But in the end, with the aid of Shmoop.com and Wikipedia, I think I got the main idea and picked up on a few of the cryptic details as well.

This is the novel from where we get the word "cyberspace." It won the triple crown of sci-fi awards: Nebula, Hugo, and Philip K Dick award, and is on pretty much every best-of list that it qualifies for.

Rating: sort of a balance between "not a good reading experience" and "wow, I can see why this is so highly regarded" makes this a 3 star read.

Recommended for: people who like to read books that are highly influential, and in particular, people who like technology for technology's sake. Personally, I like technology for what it can do for me and am not much interested in it as a subject itself. Still, I often found bits in the novel about technology that even I found interesting.

Why I Read This Now: I was looking to check off some boxes* and was perusing potential books. The opening sentence: "The sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel," which is simply brilliant, caught my attention.

* boxes checked: 1001 list, Guardian 1000 list, something from my TBR pile, Canadian author (Gibson has lived here in Vancouver since 1972 and used to teach at UBC).

41. Swing Low: a Life, Miriam Toews, 2005


Cover comments: the longer I look at this, the more I like it. The egg is symbolic to events in the story, so I like that too.

Comments: Swing Low is an unusual book in that it's a first-person memoir written by the narrator's daughter. Renowned Canadian author Miriam Toews grew up in small town Manitoba where her father was a popular school teacher. Outside of school, unfortunately, he was a sick man and struggled with bipolar disorder and eventually committed suicide. Toew's book honours his life and struggle.

I admit that I had trouble getting into the book at first. It seemed an aimless string of bits about his mental confusion, interspersed with bits about him hassling the nurses at the hospital. I was rather annoyed because I couldn't see where it was going, and couldn't figure out how the book earned so many 4-and 5-star reader reviews. But then it clicked, and I was entranced. Toews writes simple stories, vignettes, really, that put together tell the story of a kind, gentle, but very ill man. Her writing isn't fancy or show offy (in honour of her father's simple Mennonite traditions, perhaps?), but every page is filled with clarity and beauty. And sadness.

Note: her more recent novel, My Puny Sorrows, was influenced by her sister's suicide, which happened years after Swing Low was published. So much sadness.

Rating: 4.5 stars

Why I Read This Now: There is a Miriam Toews read happening this month on LT, and I have several of her books in my TBR pile. This one was the oldest.

Recommended for: readers who like books full of humanity and feeling.

Both books sound very interesting. I've mad a note of the titles so I can search for them once I'm home.

42. October, Richard B Wright, 2007


Cover comments: lovely. Who doesn't like a quite autumn scene?

Comments: The narrator of October is a retired Victorian lit professor who travels from Ontario to visit his daughter, living in England, just after her diagnosis with terminal cancer. On his last day in England, he runs into someone he had been close to sixty years earlier when they were both teenage boys vacationing on the east coast of Quebec. Gabriel is terminally ill and on his way to Switzerland for doctor assisted suicide. He asks the narrator to accompany him. This prompts memories and flashbacks to that summer in Quebec when the two teens were in a love triangle with a local girl.

The structure of October is interesting, with its multiple parallels and echoes, and Wright is a gifted and skillful writer. I wasn't particularly interested in the 1940s storyline, however, and doctor-assisted suicide is no longer a controversial or edgy topic here in Canada.

October was nominated for the Dublin IMPAC award and the Giller Prize.

Rating: 3 stars

Recommended for: people who like thoughtful novels with jumping timelines.

Why I Read This Now: I've been meaning to read something by Richard B Wright for many years and it's October, so of course, time to read October. (BTW: most of the novel is set in summer)

This is the view that the narrator sees from his window in the 1940s scenes (Perce Rock, Quebec)

Lovely view!

After so loving Clara Callen, I was disappointed/bored with October. Even reading your summary didn't help bring back many memories of it.

>161 raidergirl3: Yeah, nice writing and all but sort of meh.

Northanger Abbey, Val McDermid, 2014


Cover comments: excellent cover. Love the typeface, love the silhouetted house with the modern day appendages. The cover also feels nice, and the pages flip and open pleasingly.

Comments: This book was great fun to read and I was always happy to pick it up and settle down with it. This rewrite of the Jane Austen novel with the same name is part of the Austen project retellings of her novels.

In this Northanger Abbey, Catherine Morland, now called Cat, is still an extremely naive 17 year old. In this version she was home-schooled in a village in the Piddle Valley, Dorset. Instead of going to Bath with a family friend, here she is taken to the Edinburgh Festival. There she befriends the self-centred Thorpe siblings and the nicer Tilney siblings. It's been a few years since I read the Austen novel, but from what I can tell, McDermid mirrors the original closely while dragging it into the twenty-first century, complete with smartphones, Facebook and Twitter.

If I wanted to, I could really trash this novel. As someone who has a 16 year old and a 20 year old, and has spent a lot of time around teens and twenty-somethings, I can only criticize the artificiality of the dialogue. At times it tried too hard to be "cool,' but just came off wrong, and other times it was ridiculously formal, which was also wrong. Don't even get me started on the texting bits: "I'm OK> Fone ws dead b4. Looking 4ward 2 seeing u. Mist u all. C u soon. X" No one does this, let alone every character.

Cat did learn to develop a bit of a spine by the end, but her wide-eyed innocence and trust of others strained credulity. Several times she refused alcohol because she wasn't legal drinking age. Don't get me wrong -- not drinking is fine, but how about "no thank you," "I'm not interested," or "I don't feel like it." Saying "I'm not legal drinking age" when clearly no one else had a problem with bending the rule just made her look like Pollyanna Tattlepants who ran to the teacher and finked on her classmates after recess everyday.

Half way through I got a bit skeeved out when I realized that Cat often acted more like a 12 year old, and despite that was forming a mutual attraction with Henry Tilney, who was a lawyer, which I reckon makes him at least 24. Ewww. This age and maturity difference might have worked 200 years ago in Austen's day, but did not work now. Unless he was an ephebephile, what could he possibly find interesting in her?

Despite the serious flaws, I still found this entertaining and fun.

Why I Read This Now: What better time to read a book set in a Gothic mansion than the week before Halloween?

Recommended for: people who enjoy retellings even when they have faults.

Rating: 3.5 stars

44. Vampires and Other Monstrous Creatures, Professor Julius Pemberton-Smythe (Mary-Jane Knight), 2007


Cover comments: this is an art book as much as it's a textual resource, and the art is ghoulishly good.

Comments: Vampires and Other Monstrous Creatures purports to be a guide to identifying and protecting oneself from vampires. Tiny print on the book's front matter page tells me:

This facsimile edition has been carefully reproduced from the original volume carried by Dr Cornelius Van Helsing on his Transylvanian journey in 1907, which was discovered by Marcus de Wolff among his father Gustav's papers in 1937.

Abraham Van Helsing is of course the vampire hunter from Dracula, and there is a literary tradition of inventing Van Helsing descendants in later vampire works. Ah ha, further sleuthing shows that this is actually written by one Mary-Jane Knight. Further study also shows that this book is made for children, which is something that many a casual observer would miss -- the illustrations are horrifying and some parents would not want their kids to even see this book.

Anyhoo, the 80 page fully illustrated book is a guide to vampires in history, around the world, vampire legends, how to fend off a vampire, and then a compendium of other creatures including banshees, harpies, and zombies. Fun, interesting, entertaining.

Recommended for: great addition for school and public libraries. Eleven year olds will love it.

Rating: 4 stars

Why I Read This Now: it's been in my TBR for a number of years (picked it up free at a book sale), and I'm doing a Halloween read here at LT

45. I'm Not Scared, Niccolo Ammaniti, trans. from Italian J. Hunt, 2001


Cover comments: depicts the feeling of the book.

Comments: I struggle to describe this 225 book without giving anything away, so I'm going to be a little vague here:

In the heatwave of 1978, 9 year old Michele discovers some chilling secrets while playing with his friends in rural Italy. The reader follows his transformation from innocence to horrible realism.

I didn't take to the novel at first. I found the atmosphere stifling and didn't like any of the characters. But by page 70 I was gripped by this unusual story. For most of the book, I had no idea what would happen next.

Rating: Because it got off to a slow start and then ended in a flabby manner, I'm only giving it 3.5 stars. The middle part of the book, however, was excellent.

Recommended for: Despite my middle-of-the-road rating, I actually recommend this one quite highly to most readers. I expect I will remember it for a long time.

Why I Read This Now: it's been high on my TBR list for ages. I think I should read more Italian literature, since my husband and daughters have Italian citizenship.

Bridget Jones Mad About the Boy, Helen Fielding, 2013


cover comments: looks more ChickLit than this book really is.

Comments: In which we find Bridget Jones in her 50s, with two small children, and widowed from Mark Darcy (who died in a horrific event in the Sudan). Without Mark, Bridget is back to serious struggling again. It's been four years as a single mother, and she's lonely and missing sex.

Some fun moments, some clever moments, many dumb moments, some touching moments. In the end, it was an enjoyable and distracting read (which is what I needed), but Bridget without Mark just doesn't work for me.

Rating: B- . . . somehow I can only think in letter grades at the moment

Why I Read This Now: I actually started it last year but the idea of a dead Mark Darcy just depressed me so I put it aside. I started again because I want to read the latest Bridget Jones book and thought I should read this first.

Recommended for: Bridget Jones fans, anyone interested in the life of a 50-something woman.

And now on to Bridget Jones's Baby . . .

ETA: Finished Bridget Jones's Baby, which is not from my TBR so I won't review here. Just wanted to say it's very good and I liked it a lot better than About A Boy.

>156 Nickelini: Great review! I have Neuromancer on my shelves and... I'm actually quite interested in reading it after your review ;)

>163 Nickelini: agreed - great cover! Makes me want to read it .. though perhaps I should read the original first ;)

So, is Bridget Jones's Baby a book that comes before Mad About the Boy? It seems like it is a book based on the movie, but they've done really well with the movie adaptations.
I'm a big Bridget fan but I found it weird for Bridget to be 50.

>168 raidergirl3: So, is Bridget Jones's Baby a book that comes before Mad About the Boy?

Yes

It seems like it is a book based on the movie, but they've done really well with the movie adaptations.

It is, but it's surprisingly different.

I'm a big Bridget fan but I found it weird for Bridget to be 50.

I've actually gotten used to it after seeing the trailer and press for the movie for the past 6 months. And I'm more used to it than the fact that I'm in my early 50s. Now that's hard.

Here's a link to my review. I didn't cover it at this thread because it's not a TBR book:

https://www.librarything.com/topic/226530#5785477

47 Disclaimer, Renee Knight, 2015


Cover comments: beware the headless woman! Checking the book's LT page, I see that there are much better covers for this out there--ones that actually fit the story and are intriguing. Don't know why this edition exists.

Comments: I was doubtful when I bought Disclaimer, but I was drawn to the premise: Catherine Ravenscroft, who has a pleasant middle aged life, finds a book on her nightstand that she doesn't recognize, and then discovers it's about her and a secret from 20 years earlier. The story is told through chapters that switch from Catherine's 3rd person story and the 1st person narration of her nemesis.

This is a suspense thriller, and like all the other thrillers out there, you need to just go along for the ride and not think about it too much. It's definitely readable, by which I mean it moves along and has lots of twists to keep it interesting. On the sentence and paragraph level, it's well written. For the first 2/3 I did struggle to understand the motivations of every single character, and this made it a solid 3 star read for me. The last 3rd was much better, and the big reveal was unexpected, which added a star.

Recommended for: This is a good book for an airplane flight or to read at the beach.

Rating: Almost a 4 star read, but in the end, 3.5 stars.

Why I Read This Now: I have no memory of what inspired me to pick up this book at this time.

48. The Box Garden, Carol Shields, 1977


Cover comments: ho hum. I probably would have liked it better when this edition was published in the 90s.

Comments: Charleen Forrest is a divorced single-mother of a 15 year old boy who travels across the country to attend her mother's second wedding. Although that synopsis is not exactly inspiring, The Box Garden was a good read because Shields is a fabulous writer. It took me a bit to get into this--at first it just seemed dated, and she tended to get mired in minutiae, but then it sort of clicked, and I enjoyed hearing about life in the 70s, and some of her minute details were actually pretty interesting. And the story itself just picked up. I particularly liked reading the infuriating character of Charleen's mother, who Shields often described as "meagerly" but I'd describe as "miserly." And I laughed when Charleen's friends disparaged her boyfriend for being an orthodontist -- I just never knew that was a profession to be ashamed of. I haven't read Shields for many years, but she was just as readable as I remembered, while still being smart and observant. I also always liked how Shields allows her characters to have some happy relationships.

Why I Read This Now: I read a lot of Carol Shields in the late 1990s and early 2000s, and have always meant to read more of her work.

Rating: A good solid read. 3.5 stars, maybe 4.

Recommended for: People who like books about families.

51. Amongst Women, John McGahern, 1990


Cover comments: Uninspired! But hey, men can also look away, so it's equal opportunity. The monochromatic dull colours fit well though. Makes me ask: Did anyone enjoy life in Ireland in the mid-20th century?

Comments: Michael Moran was once a guerrilla leader in the Irish War of Independence. Now he's a widowed farmer, with five older children and a new younger wife. He's principled and pious, but rather a tyrant, and everyone walks on eggshells around him. McGahern writes with clean, sparse language that rewards the close attentive reader, but will bore others and anyone looking for a strong plot.

The title, Amongst Women, refers to Moran living with his wife (the most likeable character in the novel) and three grown daughters. It also refers to a line out of the Hail Mary prayer that they spend much time reciting every day. I'm not Catholic, so had to have one of my RC friends explain what was going on -- this family spent a huge chunk of their lives on their knees with their rosary beads.

I can appreciate what other readers have said in their 5-star and 2-star reviews, but I fall somewhere in the middle. A few years ago I read McGahern's The Dark and I was blown away (although I don't remember details of it); I didn't like Amongst Women as much even though it is considered his masterpiece. It's 184 pages without chapters, and with few paragraph breaks, which is a structure that I find unnecessarily tedious. Give the reader some little breaks, m'kay?

Amongst Women was nominated for the Booker Prize, is on the 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die and Guardian 1000* lists, along with many other "best ever" lists.

*Guardian 1000 has it under their State of the Nation category, which I can see, but I would have put it under Family & Self for sure.

Recommended for: people who like subtle novels. Readers who raved about it often said that the main character reminded them of their Irish dad, grandfather, or neighbour. I'm not Irish, and I don't know any men like him, so that wasn't a factor for me. Readers who didn't like it often said they were just sick of novels that sympathized with patriarchs who probably needed to get their asses kicked. I paraphrase.

Why I Read This Now: I've wanted to read it since I read The Dark.

Rating: It is well written and all that, but several things didn't mesh with my brain, so for me it's a 3.5 stars. YMMV. If you haven't read McGahern, try The Dark -- the one that got the Catholic Church in a tizzy.

And for your entertainment . . . . since we're talking about Ireland and Catholics . . . in 2013 we flew from Vancouver to London. My family had seats in the centre of the plane. Near the end of the flight, my teenage daughters realized there were two seats by a window a few rows behind, so moved. When I saw on the screen map that we were above Ireland, I stood up and asked my older daughter "hey, we're over Ireland, what do you see?" (yes, stupid question, but after 8 hours in coach, any distraction will do).

She replied: "It's green!" She turned to look out the window, then looked back at me. "I see potatoes!. . . . And Catholics!"

Everyone who heard laughed. But like I said, 8 hours in coach can make you stir crazy.

I'm now 1 over my official goal of 50 books, but somewhere I committed to making up my short fall from last year. In 2015 I had set the goal of 50 but only made 46, so I think I should also have to read the extra four. That means three more to go. It's the end of November, so I'd pretty much have to lapse into a coma to not make it.

You can do it!

Congrats on being 1 over your official goal!!


& yeah, you can also make up the 3 more books for sure!

Snow Country, Yasunari Kawabata, 1947, translated from Japanese by Edward G Seidensticker, 1956


Cover comments: I had never heard of this book when I was drawn to this cover at the library. I didn't have time to read it but ordered a copy. I continue to think it's attractive, but I find the bottom third too disconnected from the top part to give it high praise. The two parts on their own are lovely though.

Comments: In Snow Country, a Tokyo businessman pays several visits to a vacation village on the west coast of Japan, which is one of the snowiest spots on earth. There he has a relationship with a spa geisha, and also another woman named Yoko. The language in the book is clean and simple, but comes together to say something nuanced and complex.

What I Liked About Snow Country: Kawabata paints a fabulous image of winter in this snowy area of Japan, and the book is highly atmospheric. It makes me want to read more Japanese literature and also visit Japan.

What I didn't like: I admit I didn't get a lot of this book. It lacked context for me -- I just don't know enough about 1930s Japanese culture or geishas to fully understand what was going on. This would have been an excellent novel to study in a university class.

Snow Country was cited as helping Kawabata win the Nobel Prize for literature.

There is an excellent 6 page introduction by "E.G.S." It contains spoilers, but this is not a book that you read for plot, so I think it's irrelevant.

Why I Read This Now: we are having unusual snow in Vancouver and I thought this would fit the mood.

Recommended for: going by reader reviews, most people like this better than I did, so if it interests you, give it a try.

Rating: 3 stars

Edited to correct spelling error. I knew when I typed "sited" that it was wrong but I was immediately distracted and didn't correct it to "cited."

53. A Single Man, Christopher Isherwood, 1964


Cover comments: I am often drawn to Vintage Classics covers, but this one, with a painting by Vania Zouravliov, is one I find extremely ugly. Especially since the 2009 movie made from the book is super stylish. This is one of those rare times I would have preferred the movie tie-in cover:



Comments: This short novel takes place over one day in the life of George Falconer. It's late 1962, and George is a university professor Englishman who has lived in Southern California since before the end of WWII. He is in deep mourning for the love of his life, Jim, who was recently killed in a car accident.

I've seen the film several times --it's my favourite non-Darcy Colin Firth movie--so I knew the story. I wasn't surprised by the touching and poignant writing, but I wasn't expecting it to be so sharply cynical, and often almost scatological. There isn't much of a plot, but it has a lot to say about life and death and aging and bodies.

Rating: This will be on my top 5 list for the year, and I plan to reread it again in a few years.

Recommended for: people who like intelligent short novels.

Why I Read This Now: Over at the Category Challenge group I have a category titled "A Single Man: Mid-century Novels". I figure I should try and get tot he book I named my category after.


Colin Firth was nominated for the Academy Award for his role in A Single Man. Although he clearly was the best actor that year, the odious Jeff Bridges stole the prize from him. (He did win the next year, but that's beside the point)

54. In the Winter Dark, Tim Winton, 1988


Cover comments: I love blue covers. I love covers with trees on them. I love when they do interesting things with the typeface. You guessed it -- I love this cover.

Comments: Loved the cover, the book itself, not so much.

In an isolated valley in south-western Australia live four people who pretty much stick to themselves. There is the elderly Stubbs couple, young pregnant and abandoned Ronnie, and an urban escapee named Murray Jaccob. One night the Stubbs small pet dog is mysteriously and horrifically decapitated, and then some of Ronnie's ducks and her goat are slaughtered. The four reluctantly band together to fight off what ever it is that is terrifying them. Being a literary sort of thriller, we soon suspect that the horror might be within.

There is a film of this novella that someone has posted on YouTube and I plan to watch it in the next week or so.

Rating: This one didn't really work for me and my initial thought is to give it two stars. There were things about it I liked, and I'll think about it. I have a feeling I might like it a bit better after some reflection.

Why I Read This Now: it was the darkest week of the year here in the Northern Hemisphere, so I thought the title was apt. I didn't find the book had either the "winter" or the "dark" atmosphere that I was expecting.

Recommended for: most readers liked this more than I did. If you need to like the characters in a book, or are bothered by descriptions of animal cruelty, don't read In the Winter Dark.

I also like this cover a lot:

Just catching up on your year's ROOTs. I'm struck by how I tend to agree with your comments on the books that I've read, (though I think I liked Death of the Heart a lot more).

The title of All the Light We Cannot See does put me off and now I now why, it's deepity, thanks for that! I have an instinct against the book but ended up buying it when it was on kindle sale as it was cheap and because so many people liked it. We will see.

Congratulations on meeting this year's goal and it looks like you're getting those extras missed from last year too 😊

Soupdragon! So nice to see you around again. ((hugs))

My goal was to read 50 TBR books, plus make up the 4 I was short of my goal in 2015, which equals 54. I did read exactly that so, "well done, me."

I will start a 2017 thread in the next week or so. See you over there. (I trust there is a 2017 group)

Congratulations on meeting your ambitious goal😊

Also . . .

In 2016, I added 85 books to my TBR. Of those, I read 13, reducing the total of books added to my TBR to 72. Minus the 54 I read, that means I'm up 18 books this year. However, I purged many more than that from my TBR stacks, but didn't count them. So I know at the end of the year, my TBR is slightly smaller that it was last January.