rabbitprincess sails from sea to sea to sea in 2017 - Part 3

Charlas2017 Category Challenge

Únete a LibraryThing para publicar.

rabbitprincess sails from sea to sea to sea in 2017 - Part 3

Este tema está marcado actualmente como "inactivo"—el último mensaje es de hace más de 90 días. Puedes reactivarlo escribiendo una respuesta.

1rabbitprincess
Editado: Ago 20, 2017, 12:37 pm

In honour of Canada’s 150th birthday, I am making my challenge Canada-themed. Because Canada stretches from sea to sea to sea, and because I have developed an interest in all things nautical, I have decided to name each of my categories after a vessel that is (or was*) part of the Canadian Coast Guard fleet.
*The fleet is undergoing modernization, and the long lag time between my developing this theme and actually using it may mean that some ships are no longer part of the fleet at the time of posting.



General fiction – G – Geliget
Canlit – C – Captain Goddard M.S.M.
Mysteries – M – Martha L. Black
Historical fiction – H – Hudson
Very interesting historical facts – V – Viola M. Davidson
Sci-fi and fantasy – S – Sipu Muin
Encore reads – E – Eckaloo
Livres en Français – L – Louis St-Laurent
Audiobooks – A – Ann Harvey
Plays – P – Penac
Non-fiction that isn’t related to history – N – Neocaligus
Together we shall read these books – T – Tracy
Oh no I can’t go on – O – Opilio (Decommissioned/Abandoned books)

The 2017 pool:



ROOTS counter:


2rabbitprincess
Editado: Dic 26, 2017, 12:11 pm

General fiction – G – Geliget

CCGS Geliget is a specialty vessel based in Yarmouth, Nova Scotia. It can be used for a variety of tasks, such as marine and fishery research, conservation and protection patrols, and operations relating to science or aids to navigation. The name is of Mi’kmaq origin and means “to protect, guard and watch over”.

1. The Expendable Man, by Dorothy B. Hughes
2. The Wild, by Esther Freud
3. North and South, by Elizabeth Gaskell
4. The Ghosts of Belfast, by Stuart Neville
5. The Long Drop, by Denise Mina
6. Assignment in Brittany, by Helen MacInnes
7. A Foreign Country, by Charles Cumming
8. My Cousin Rachel, by Daphne du Maurier
9. Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen
10. The Boats of the Glen Carrig, by William Hope Hodgson
11. The Pursued, by C.S. Forester
12. A Christmas Carol, by Charles Dickens
13. How Green Was My Valley, by Richard Llywellyn
14. Flatland: A Romance in Many Dimensions, by Edwin A. Abbott
15. The Return of the Soldier, by Rebecca West
16. A Suitable Lie, by Michael J. Malone

3rabbitprincess
Editado: Nov 23, 2017, 7:25 pm

Canlit (and CanCon) – C – Captain Goddard M.S.M.

CCGS Captain Goddard M.S.M is one of the new mid-shore patrol vessels built to support the Department of Fisheries and Oceans’ Compliance and Enforcement program. (The Coast Guard is a special operating agency under the aegis of DFO, whereas the US Coast Guard falls under the Department of Homeland Security.)

The ship is based in Victoria, British Columbia, and was named after Captain Nichola Goddard, M.S.M. She served with the Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry and was awarded the Meritorious Service Medal for her service in Afghanistan. She was the first female Canadian combat soldier (as opposed to, say, a military medic or nurse) to have been killed in combat, on May 17, 2006.

1. Franklin's Lost Ship: The Historic Discovery of HMS Erebus, by John Geiger and Alanna Mitchell
2. Help Me, Jacques Cousteau, by Gil Adamson
3. Black River Road: An Unthinkable Crime, an Unlikely Suspect and the Question of Character, by Debra Komar
4. By the Way, by Gordon Pinsent
5. The Outlander, by Gil Adamson
6. This is a Book About the Kids in the Hall, by John Semley
7. In a Dry Season, by Peter Robinson
8. Broken Promise, by Linwood Barclay
9. Island: The Complete Stories, by Alistair MacLeod
10. A Great Reckoning, by Louise Penny
11. The Burgess Shale: The Canadian Writing Landscape of the 1960s, by Margaret Atwood
12. Far from True, by Linwood Barclay
13. Two Solitudes, by Hugh MacLennan
14. Arctic Assignment: The Story of the St. Roch, by Sgt. F.S. Farrar
15. Tsunami: The Newfoundland Tidal Wave Disaster, by Maura Hanrahan
16. The Sea Was in Their Blood: The Disappearance of the Miss Ally's Five-Man Crew, by Quentin Casey
17. The Right to Be Cold, by Sheila Watt-Cloutier
18. The Legendary Horseshoe Tavern: A Complete History, by David McPherson
19. The Prairie Dog Conspiracy, by Eric Wilson

4rabbitprincess
Editado: Dic 23, 2017, 9:16 am

Mysteries – M – Martha L. Black

CCGS Martha L. Black is a light icebreaker and major buoy tender based in Trois-Rivières, Quebec. Buoy tenders lay, recover and service buoys using their lifting booms. The Martha L. Black also carries out maintenance on fixed aids to navigation and performs reconstruction operations, and was recently overhauled to carry out scientific missions in the Estuary and Gulf of St. Lawrence.

The vessel was named after Martha Louise Black (1866-1957), who was born in Chicago and immigrated to Canada during the Yukon Gold Rush. She staked gold mining claims and ran a sawmill, and was elected as an MP in 1935, being the second woman ever to hold that office. She was awarded an OBE for cultural and social contributions to the Yukon.

1. Blood, Salt, Water, by Denise Mina
2. Gideon's Week, by J.J. Marric
3. The Twisted Claw, by Franklin W. Dixon
4. Find a Victim, by Ross Macdonald
5. The Unbearable Lightness of Being in Aberystwyth, by Malcolm Pryce
6. Talking to the Dead, by Harry Bingham
7. Out of Bounds, by Val McDermid
8. The Phantom Freighter, by Franklin W. Dixon
9. Evan Can Wait, by Rhys Bowen
10. Snowblind, by Ragnar Jónasson (translated by Quentin Bates)
11. Spinsters in Jeopardy, by Ngaio Marsh
12. Death of a Busybody, by George Bellairs
13. Last Rituals, by Yrsa Sigurdardottir (translated by Bernard Scudder)
14. The Strange Death of Fiona Griffiths, by Harry Bingham
15. Magpie Murders, by Anthony Horowitz
16. The Cheltenham Square Murder, by John Bude
17. Singing in the Shrouds, by Ngaio Marsh
18. This Thing of Darkness, by Harry Bingham
19. Knots and Crosses, by Ian Rankin
20. The Blackhouse, by Peter May
21. What Bloody Man is That?, by Simon Brett
22. My Soul to Take, by Yrsa Sigurdardottir (translated by Bernard Scudder and Anna Yates)
23. They Came to Baghdad, by Agatha Christie
24. Reykjavík Nights, by Arnaldur Indriðason (translated by Victoria Cribb)
25. Calamity in Kent, by John Rowland
26. The Day is Dark, by Yrsa Sigurdardottir (translated by Philip Roughton)
27. None But the Dead, by Lin Anderson

5rabbitprincess
Editado: Dic 5, 2017, 8:25 pm

Historical fiction – H – Hudson

CCGS Hudson, named after explorer Henry Hudson (he of the Bay), is an offshore oceanographic and hydrographic survey vessel based in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia. The Hudson made a voyage around both North and South America in 1970, which was the first time a ship had made a voyage that transited the Americas.

1. The Outlander, by Gil Adamson
2. Sunrise in the West, by Edith Pargeter
3. The Terror, by Dan Simmons
4. Murder on the Leviathan, by Boris Akunin (translated by Andrew Bromfield)
5. The Black Moon, by Winston Graham
6. We, the Drowned, by Carsten Jensen (translated by Charlotte Barslund and Emma Ryder)
7. The Dragon at Noonday, by Edith Pargeter
8. The Four Swans, by Winston Graham
9. Billy Boyle, by James R. Benn
10. The Hounds of Sunset, by Edith Pargeter
11. Queens' Play, by Dorothy Dunnett
12. Imperium, by Robert Harris
13. Afterglow and Nightfall, by Edith Pargeter
14. The Captive Crown, by Nigel Tranter
15. The Angry Tide, by Winston Graham
16. The Stranger from the Sea, by Winston Graham

Very interesting historical facts – V - Viola M. Davidson

CCGS Viola M. Davidson is a near-shore research vessel used to collect data on the coastal environment and the ecosystem of the Bay of Fundy. It was named after Dr. Viola Davidson, a marine scientist who conducted research on marine phytoplankton from 1924 to 1932 and obtained Master’s and doctoral degrees for her work.

1. Hidden Figures: The American Dream and the Untold Story of the Black Women Mathematicians Who Helped Win the Space Race, by Margot Lee Shetterly
2. The Glass Universe: How the Ladies of Harvard Observatory Took the Measure of the Stars, by Dava Sobel
3. Lawrence in Arabia: War, Deceit, Imperial Folly and the Making of the Modern Middle East, by Scott Anderson
4. The Ghost Map: The Story of London's Most Terrifying Epidemic--and How It Changed Science, Cities, and the Modern World, by Steven Johnson
5. Culloden Tales, by Hugh G. Allison
6. The Radium Girls: The Dark Story of America's Shining Women, by Kate Moore
7. My Secret Life in Hut Six: One Woman's Experiences at Bletchley Park, by Mair Russell-Jones and Gethin Russell-Jones
8. Pirate Women: The Princesses, Prostitutes and Privateers Who Ruled the Seven Seas, by Laura Sook Duncombe
9. Castles: Their History and Evolution in Medieval Britain, by Marc Morris
10. Revolution: The History of England from the Battle of the Boyne to the Battle of Waterloo, by Peter Ackroyd
11. The Templars: The Rise and Spectacular Fall of God's Holy Warriors, by Dan Jones

6rabbitprincess
Editado: Dic 30, 2017, 10:42 pm

Sci-fi and fantasy – S – Sipu Muin

CCGS Sipu Muin, whose name is Mi’kmaq for “river bear,” is a hovercraft based in Trois-Rivières, Quebec. It is used as a buoy tender and performs icebreaking duties in areas along the St. Lawrence and other rivers in the region where conventional icebreakers are unable to operate.

1. Devil in the Smoke, by Justin Richards (audio, read by Dan Starkey)
2. Ancillary Justice, by Ann Leckie
3. Doctor Who: The Story of Martha, by Dan Abnett
4. The Graveyard Book, by Neil Gaiman (audio, read by Neil Gaiman)
5. Doctor Who: The Churchill Years, by Phil Mulryne (Big Finish audio drama set)
6. Doctor Who: The Last Dodo, by Jacqueline Rayner (audio, read by Freema Agyeman)
7. The Stone Rose, by Jacqueline Rayner (audio, read by David Tennant)
8. Human Resources, Part 1, by Eddie Robson (Big Finish audio drama)
9. Human Resources, Part 2, by Eddie Robson (Big Finish audio drama)
10. Heralds of Destruction, by Paul Cornell (Third Doctor comic, Vol. 1)
11. The Gone-Away World, by Nick Harkaway
12. Twelve Doctors of Christmas, by Jacqueline Rayner et al.
13. Doctor Who: The Stealers from Saiph, by Nigel Robinson (Big Finish Companion Chronicles, read by Mary Tamm)
14. Doctor Who and the Androids of Tara, by Terrance Dicks
15. Doctor Who: Winner Takes All, by Jacqueline Rayner
16. Doctor Who: Borrowed Time, by Naomi A. Alderman
17. Doctor Who: The Eleventh Doctor Archives, Volume 2, by various authors
18. Doctor Who: The Eleventh Doctor Archives, Volume 3, by various authors

Encore reads – E – Eckaloo

CCGS Eckaloo is a special navigation aids tender based in Hay River, Northwest Territories. The name means “pathfinder” in one of the Native dialects. (Maddeningly, I can’t find which one.) The vessel is used to search for shifts in the navigation channel of the Mackenzie River that are caused by the annual freeze and thaw. It was specially designed to have a shallow draft and flat bottom so that it could sustain repeated groundings while performing this task.

1. The Iliad, by Homer (translated by E.V. Rieu)
2. The Outlander, by Gil Adamson
3. Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, by John le Carré
4. Smiley's People, by John le Carré
5. The Distant Echo, by Val McDermid

7rabbitprincess
Editado: Nov 12, 2017, 11:17 am

Livres en Français – L – Louis S. St-Laurent

CCGS Louis S. St. Laurent is a heavy icebreaker based in St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador. The Louis S. St. Laurent is named after the 12th prime minister of Canada and is the flagship of the Canadian Coast Guard.

1. Honni soit qui mal y pense: L'incroyable histoire d'amour entre l'anglais et le français, by Henriette Walter
2. L’homme aux cercles bleus by Fred Vargas

Audiobooks – A – Ann Harvey

CCGS Ann Harvey is a buoy tender, SAR vessel, and light icebreaker based in St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador. The vessel’s namesake, a Newfoundlander named Ann Harvey (1811-1860), played a key role in rescuing passengers and crew members from two ships in distress: the Despatch in 1828 (when she was only 17!) and the Rankin in 1838.

1. Devil in the Smoke, by Justin Richards (read by Dan Starkey)
2. The Graveyard Book, by Neil Gaiman (read by Neil Gaiman)
3. The Birds & Don't Look Now, by Daphne du Maurier (read by Peter Capaldi)
4. Doctor Who: The Churchill Years, by Phil Mulryne (Big Finish box set)
5. Doctor Who: The Last Dodo, by Jacqueline Rayner (read by Freema Agyeman)
6. The Stone Rose, by Jacqueline Rayner (read by David Tennant)
7. Human Resources, Part 1, by Eddie Robson (Big Finish audio drama)
8. Human Resources, Part 2, by Eddie Robson (Big Finish audio drama)
9. The John Lennon Letters, by John Lennon, edited by Hunter Davies (read by Allan Corduner and Christopher Eccleston)
10. Doctor Who: The Stealers from Saiph, by Nigel Robinson (Big Finish Companion Chronicles, read by Mary Tamm)

8rabbitprincess
Editado: Dic 30, 2017, 10:42 pm

Plays/short stories/essays/GNs/other miscellaneous short books – P – Penac

CCGS (or CCGH) Penac is a hovercraft based in Richmond, British Columbia, and is used primarily for SAR operations. The word “Penac” means “fair winds” in the Saanich language.

Plays
1. Travesties, by Tom Stoppard
2. Henry IV, Part 2, by William Shakespeare
3. 1979, by Michael Healey

The rest
1. The Lady in the Van, by Alan Bennett
2. You're Saying it Wrong: A Pronunciation Guide to the 150 Most Commonly Mispronounced Words--and Their Tangled Histories of Misuse, by Ross Petras and Kathryn Petras
3. The Fifth Beatle, by Vivek J. Tiwary
4. Introvert Doodles, by Maureen "Marzi" Wilson
5. And All Through the House: Christmas Eve at the 87th Precinct, by Ed McBain
6. Thinking About It Only Makes It Worse: And Other Lessons from Modern Life, by David Mitchell
7. The Lonely Sea, by Alistair MacLean
8. Ask a Policeman, by The Detection Club
9. Big Mushy Happy Lump, by Sarah Andersen
10. The Old Editor Says: Maxims for Writing and Editing, by John E. McIntyre
11. Doctor Who: The Fourth Doctor Vol. 1.: Gaze of the Medusa, by Gordon Rennie and Emma Beeby
12. Ghost Stories of an Antiquary, by M.R. James
13. Doctor Who: The Eleventh Doctor Archives, Volume 2, by various authors
14. Doctor Who: The Eleventh Doctor Archives, Volume 3, by various authors

9rabbitprincess
Editado: Dic 21, 2017, 9:55 pm

Non-history-related non-fiction – N – Neocaligus

CCGS Neocaligus is a fishery research vessel used primarily for inshore fisheries research and is based in Patricia Bay, British Columbia. It was named after a previous vessel, the Caligus (Neocaligus = New Caligus). The original vessel was named after a genus of sea lice. Yum!

CultureCAT - I will be treating this kind of like a bingo. If I find non-fiction that fits the issues, great! If not, no sweat.

January - Ethics in Science and Technology - Admissions: Life as a Brain Surgeon, by Henry Marsh
February - Medicine and Public Health - Complications: A Surgeon's Notes on an Imperfect Science, by Atul Gawande
March - Cultural Awareness and Diversity - Seeing Voices, by Oliver Sacks
April - Religious Diversity and Freedom - Religion: A Discovery in Comics, by Margreet de Heer (translated by Margreet de Heer and Dan Schiff)
May - Gender Equality - Shrill, by Lindy West
June - Environmentalism/Conservatism/Climate Change - The Right to Be Cold, by Sheila Watt-Cloutier
July - Violence, Crime and Justice - Black River Road: An Unthinkable Crime, an Unlikely Suspect and the Question of Character, by Debra Komar
August - Impact of Natural Disasters - Tsunami: The Newfoundland Tidal Wave Disaster, by Maura Hanrahan
September - Journalism and the Arts - This is a Book About the Kids in the Hall, by John Semley
October - Poverty - Bright-Sided, by Barbara Ehrenreich (counting for the economic sections)
November - Conflict and War - Revolution: The History of England from the Battle of the Boyne to the Battle of Waterloo, by Peter Ackroyd
December - Cultural Flow and Immigration

Everything else

1. Why We Make Mistakes: How We Look Without Seeing, Forget Things in Seconds, and Are All Pretty Sure We Are Way Above Average, by Joseph T. Hallinan
2. The Pigeon Tunnel: Stories from My Life, by John le Carré
3. That's Entertainment: My Life in The Jam, by Rick Buckler
4. Glasgow Underground: The Glasgow District Subway, by Keith Anderson
5. The Gift of the Gab: How Eloquence Works, by David Crystal
6. Working Stiff: Two Years, 262 Bodies, and the Making of a Medical Examiner, by Judy Melinek
7. Hi, Anxiety: Life with a Bad Case of Nerves, by Kat Kinsman
8. Smoke Gets in Your Eyes: And Other Lessons from the Crematory, by Caitlin Doughty
9. Ah-Choo: The Uncommon Life of Your Common Cold, by Jennifer Ackerman
10. The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat: And Other Clinical Tales, by Oliver Sacks
11. Mixed Blessings, by Wiliam and Barbara Christopher
12. Pacific: Silicon Chips and Surfboards, Coral Reefs and Atom Bombs, Brutal Dictators, Fading Empires, and the Coming Collision of the World's Superpowers, by Simon Winchester
13. If I Understood You, Would I Have This Look On My Face?, by Alan Alda
14. When Breath Becomes Air, by Paul Kalanithi
15. Careful: A User's Guide to Our Injury-Prone Minds, by Steve Casner
16. My Age of Anxiety: Fear, Hope, Dread, and the Search for Peace of Mind, by Scott Stossel
17. The Checklist Manifesto, by Atul Gawande
18. The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck, by Mark Manson
19. The Etymologicon, by Mark Forsyth
20. The Death of Expertise, by Tom Nichols
21. Making Sense: The Glamorous Story of English Grammar, by David Crystal
22. Ask An Astronaut: My Guide to Life in Space, by Tim Peake
23. From Here To Eternity: Traveling the World to Find the Good Death, by Caitlin Doughty

10rabbitprincess
Editado: Dic 5, 2017, 8:26 pm

Together we shall read these books – T – Tracy

CCGS Tracy is a multi-task vessel based in Sorel-Tracy, Quebec. It was named after the Marquis Alexandre de Prouville de Tracy (1590-1670), who was appointed Lieutenant General of New France in 1663. The vessel is used primarily for aids to navigation, icebreaking, science, and environmental response operations. It has been declared “surplus” as part of the CCG’s fleet renewal initiative, which seems strange because I thought the problem was they didn’t have enough ships!! But this is an older ship so I guess they’re just buying new ones and scrapping the old :(

AwardsCAT
January (Costa/Year's Best book lists): none
February (Canada Reads / The Morning News Tournament of Books): Volkswagen Blues, by Jacques Poulin (Canada Reads)
March (any genre prize not already featured / Newbery and Caldecott): A Foreign Country, by Charles Cumming (CWA Ian Fleming Steel Dagger, 2012); The Graveyard Book, by Neil Gaiman (Newbery Award, 2009)
April (International Dublin Literary Award / Pulitzer Prize): none
May (Man Booker International Prize / Edgar Awards): In a Dry Season, by Peter Robinson (Edgar)
June (PEN Literary Awards / US National Book Award): none
July (SFF awards / Baileys Women’s Prize for Fiction): The Wild, by Esther Freud (Orange Prize longlist 2001); Ancillary Justice, by Ann Leckie (Hugo)
August (Miles Franklin Award / Stonewall Book Award): none
September (Booker Prize / O. Henry Award): none
October (Nobel Prize for Literature / Giller Prize): The Saga of Gösta Berling, by Selma Lagerlöf (Nobel Prize); The Navigator of New York, by Wayne Johnston (Giller)
November (a regional prize of your choice): Island: The Collected Stories, by Alistair MacLeod (Atlantic Canada’s 100 Greatest Books)
December (a prize from a country you aren't living in): The Distant Echo, by Val McDermid (Theakstons Old Peculier shortlist)

CATWoman

January: Classics by women -- Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen
February: Debut books -- Help Me, Jacques Cousteau, by Gil Adamson (her first novel)
March: Genres -- The Secret Place, by Tana French
April: Biography/autobiography/memoir -- Hi, Anxiety: Life with a Bad Case of Nerves, by Kat Kinsman
May: Women in the arts -- Agatha Christie's Murder in the Making, by John Curran
June: Professional women -- The Glass Universe: How the Ladies of the Harvard Observatory Took the Measure of the Stars, by Dava Sobel
July: Women of color -- Hidden Figures: The American Dream and the Untold Story of the Black Women Mathematicians Who Helped Win the Space Race, by Margot Lee Shetterly
August: Nonfiction or historical fiction -- Queens' Play, by Dorothy Dunnett
September: Children's/YA/Graphic novels -- Religion: A Discovery in Comics, by Margreet de Heer
October: Regional reading (Canada) -- The Hammett Hex, by Victoria Abbott
November: LGBT/Feminist writing -- Moranifesto
December: Modern (post-1960) novels by women --

RandomCAT
January (Search and Rescue) Franklin's Lost Ship: The Historic Discovery of HMS Erebus, by John Geiger and Alanna Mitchell
February (Mine, Yours and Ours) His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
March (Luck o'the Irish) The Secret Place, by Tana French
April (Love in the Stacks) Love Story, with Murders, by Harry Bingham
May (All About Moms) The Dragon at Noonday, by Edith Pargeter
June (Into the Unknown) Billy Boyle, by James M. Benn
July (Let's Celebrate) The Case of the Dangerous Dowager, by Erle Stanley Gardner
August (The Animal Kingdom) Even Dogs in the Wild, by Ian Rankin
September (Where Does the Time Go?) Two Years Before the Mast, by Richard Henry Dana, Jr.
October (Turn on the Dark) The Devil in Velvet, by John Dickson Carr
November (Traffic Jam) The Mystery of the Flying Express, by Franklin W. Dixon
December (One Day) Doctor Who and the Androids of Tara, by Terrance Dicks

Group Reads
May: The Black Moon, by Winston Graham (Poldark #5)
June: The Four Swans, by Winston Graham (Poldark #6)
July: The Angry Tide, by Winston Graham (Poldark #7)
August: The Stranger from the Sea, by Winston Graham (Poldark #8)
July: CanLit July: Two Solitudes, by Hugh MacLennan
October: The Gone-Away World, by Nick Harkaway (shared read with my cousin); The Lair of the White Worm, by Bram Stoker (Litsy group read via Serial Reader)

11rabbitprincess
Editado: Nov 23, 2017, 7:27 pm

Oh no I can’t go on – O – Opilio (Decommissioned/Abandoned books)

CCGS Opilio was a nearshore fishery research vessel that operated out of Shippagan, New Brunswick. It was last drydocked in Nova Scotia in February 2012 and is now decommissioned. Opilio may be named for the Latin designation of the snow crab (Chionoectes opilio), which is harvested in the Maritime provinces.

1. The African Svelte: Ingenious Misspellings That Make Surprising Sense, by Daniel Menaker
2. Death in Dublin, by Bartholomew Gill
3. A Shocking Assassination, by Cora Harrison
4. Leviathan, by Thomas Hobbes
5. The Dead Shall Be Raised and Murder of a Quack, by George Bellairs
6. Murder on the Mauretania, by Conrad Allen
7. Blood and Stone, by Chris Collett
8. The Case of the Dangerous Dowager, by Erle Stanley Gardner
9. Front Lines, by Michael Grant
10. Decision at Delphi, by Helen MacInnes
11. Head of Drama: The Memoir of Sydney Newman, by Sydney Newman
12. Editing by Design, by Jan V. White (3rd edition)

12rabbitprincess
Editado: Dic 5, 2017, 8:26 pm

And the Bingo...



Read a CAT - Franklin's Lost Ship: The Historic Discovery of HMS Erebus, by John Geiger and Alanna Mitchell
Set in a time before you were born - Devil in the Smoke, by Justin Richards (set in Victorian London)
Science-related - Complications, by Atul Gawande (medicine)
Published in 1917 - His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Title references another literary work - The Unbearable Lightness of Being in Aberystwyth, by Malcolm Pryce
Author shares your initials - In a Dry Season, by Peter Robinson (reverse of the initials "RP", from my username, rabbitprincess)
Debut work - Ancillary Justice, by Ann Leckie
Short story collection - The Lonely Sea, by Alistair MacLean
Next book in series - The Black Moon, by Winston Graham
Place name in title - The Ghosts of Belfast, by Stuart Neville
Made into a movie - The Birds & Don't Look Now, by Daphne du Maurier
Animal in title - The Last Dodo, by Jacqueline Rayner
Owned more than five years - Two Solitudes, by Hugh MacLennan
A place you want to visit - The Blackhouse, by Peter May (Isle of Lewis)
Author abroad - Two Years Before the Mast, by Richard Henry Dana, Jr.
Book about books - Agatha Christie's Murder in the Making
Colour in the title - L'homme aux cercles bleus
Set in a country you've never been to - Reykjavík Nights
Set in a beach community or resort - Calamity in Kent
Author uses initials - The Pursued

13leslie.98
Ago 20, 2017, 10:27 pm

Ooh, I'm first to wish you happy new thread! Hope you had a good weekend :)

14MissWatson
Ago 21, 2017, 6:20 am

Happy new thread!

15sirfurboy
Ago 21, 2017, 6:31 am

Happy new thread.

16DeltaQueen50
Editado: Ago 21, 2017, 1:41 pm

Happy new thread, I am finding it difficult to believe we are heading into the final months of 2017!

17VivienneR
Ago 21, 2017, 9:48 pm

Happy new thread! I hope we'll soon be seeing books from Wales reviewed below!

18mstrust
Ago 22, 2017, 1:16 pm

Happy new thread, princess!

19rabbitprincess
Ago 22, 2017, 9:33 pm

>13 leslie.98: Thanks! It was a good weekend; nothing out of the ordinary, but those are nice to have sometimes.

>14 MissWatson: Thanks! Decided to set one up before my vacation. Hope you have a good holiday as well!

>15 sirfurboy: Thanks for following my adventures to another thread!

>16 DeltaQueen50: Thanks! It’s crazy how quickly the time has gone by.

>17 VivienneR: Thanks! I hope so too! At the very least, there will be lists of acquisitions.

>18 mstrust: Thanks! Hoping the start of this thread will signal the fall temperatures for you!

****

After some obligingly sunny weather for yesterday’s eclipse, today the heavens opened and we received some significant downpours. Large hail and downed trees, and torrential rain. Fortunately, I avoided most of it, AND I had my rain boots with me as well as more summer-appropriate footwear. I’ve been carrying two pairs of footwear for most of the summer :-/

Speaking of storms, a nasty February storm takes centre stage in this book:

The Sea Was in Their Blood: The Disappearance of the Miss Ally’s Five-Man Crew, by Quentin Casey
Category: Captain Nichola Goddard, M.S.M.
Source: library
Rating: 4/5
Review: https://www.librarything.com/review/144304752

I saw this in a bookstore in Halifax and asked the Ottawa library to purchase it. Well worth their investment.

20Chrischi_HH
Ago 23, 2017, 3:33 pm

Happy new thread! I was so far behind that I had to go back to the start of your second thread, but here I am now. You've done some great reading!

21rabbitprincess
Ago 23, 2017, 8:01 pm

>20 Chrischi_HH: Thanks! Nice to see you :) I have had some pretty interesting books this year!

****

Making use of my "it's not you it's me" tag...

Front Lines, by Michael Grant (Soldier Girl, #1)
Category: Opilio
Source: library
Rating: 2/5
Review: https://www.librarything.com/review/142991558

This has a great premise: what if women had been drafted in the US in the Second World War? However, I couldn't get into this book. It seemed way too long and the pacing felt slow. But I would not discourage anyone from reading it; it's just not a book I care for.

22lkernagh
Ago 24, 2017, 2:17 pm

Happy new thread, RP!

>19 rabbitprincess: - I’ve been carrying two pairs of footwear for most of the summer :-/

Wow... and at this end of the country, it has been one of the driest (thankfully not the hottest) summers in a really, really long time. Not sure how I am going to react when the normal rains return. Too bad we cannot swap weather for a couple of weeks. ;-)

23andreablythe
Ago 25, 2017, 11:57 am

Happy new thread. :)

>19 rabbitprincess:
The Sea was in Their Blood looks quite interesting. Sea travel in itself is fascinating to me. The ocean is just so huge, like entering another world.

24VivienneR
Ago 26, 2017, 11:37 am

>22 lkernagh: I'd swap weather with >19 rabbitprincess: for one day at least. Even though I'm ready for Fall, this was a long, very hot summer and the temperature in this part of BC is still in the mid-30s (90s F). Everything is alarmingly tinder-dry.

25LittleTaiko
Ago 26, 2017, 8:58 pm

Happy new thread!

26dudes22
Ago 27, 2017, 7:17 am

>24 VivienneR: - we're in a weather pattern this week where the mornings are in the low 50Fs and the days are in the 70Fs - so a nice weather pattern for a change. But it was a little chilly when I walked this a.m. (48F)

27VivienneR
Ago 28, 2017, 3:09 pm

>26 dudes22: Our weather forecast has promised us nice temperatures like that next week. Since they've been promising the same thing for about three weeks, I'm beginning to think "next week" is similar to mañana! I guess I should just enjoy the summer heat, snow will come soon enough.

28rabbitprincess
Ago 29, 2017, 1:42 pm

>22 lkernagh: Thanks, Lori! I’d love to send rain your way! It’s not as bad now, but I think we might get a bit of the tail end of Hurricane Harvey on Thursday.

>23 andreablythe: Thanks, Andrea! It is like another world. I’ve added so many books about shipwrecks and marine stuff to my TBR list in the past couple of years. It’s fascinating.

>24 VivienneR: Packing up a box of rain and sending it over!

>25 LittleTaiko: Thanks, Stacy!

>26 dudes22: It’s been getting nippy here too in the mornings. Yesterday it was going to be a high of about 24 degrees Celsius but a morning low of about 10 degrees C, so I wore tights with my dress for the morning (didn’t need them in the afternoon).

>27 VivienneR: I hope the forecast comes true! While snow will be coming soon enough, it would be nice to have a transition between the heat and the snow!

****

Counting down the hours until our trip to Wales. My books are packed, of course, and I’m working my way through the packing list. Still have to run a couple of errands this afternoon. My goal is to have everything ready so that all I have to do tomorrow after work is run out the door.

Part of my trip preparations has included finishing up any outstanding books that can’t come with me. This one was finished in the nick of time.

Queens’ Play, by Dorothy Dunnett
Category: Hudson, Tracy (August CATWoman)
Source: Rockcliffe Park Public School book sale
Rating: 4/5
Review: https://www.librarything.com/review/135780774

I was desperately worried for Lymond’s safety in this book. Fortunately, I know there are four more books in the series. I like the series a lot; it’s so meaty, though, that I can really only read about one book a year.

29mstrust
Ago 29, 2017, 1:56 pm

Have a great trip, princess! Is Hay-On-Wye on the itinerary?

30RidgewayGirl
Ago 29, 2017, 2:50 pm

Have so much fun, rp.

31leslie.98
Ago 29, 2017, 3:24 pm

>28 rabbitprincess: So glad you liked Queens' Play! I should have read a Dunnett for this month's CATWoman instead of the Tracy Chevalier book I ended up with.

32rabbitprincess
Ago 29, 2017, 10:52 pm

>29 mstrust: It sure is! I have packed as lightly as possible in order to buy the maximum number of books :D

>30 RidgewayGirl: I shall!

>31 leslie.98: It wasn't until I logged the book in my categories up top that I remembered I had indeed earmarked it for CATWoman this month! You could always read a Dunnett and strike out the Chevalier :)

****

Finished the last physical library book I'll be able to read before the trip. (I have a couple of ebooks out, because I can't bear the thought of having zero items out from the library.)

Imperium, by Robert Harris
Category: Hudson
Source: library
Rating: 4/5
Review: https://www.librarything.com/review/144951432

FINALLY the library replaced its copy of this book, the first in the Cicero trilogy. I enjoyed it, although I think I want to read some non-fiction about Cicero just to make sure that the history is OK. I enjoyed it so much that I am suspicious :P

33VivienneR
Ago 30, 2017, 12:38 am

>28 rabbitprincess: No relief in sight - would you believe the temperatures forecast for next week are in the 40s and not a drop of rain! The smoke from the wildfires was unbearable today.

Please send the family-sized box of rain!

>32 rabbitprincess: I've taken a BB on Imperium. Robert Harris is good.

Have fun on your trip.

34rabbitprincess
Ago 30, 2017, 7:55 pm

>33 VivienneR: At the airport now. It's actually real!

OMG I hope that forecast temperature is wrong. That is just too hot to exist.

****

August recap is early because I will be travelling most of the day tomorrow.

I'm not sure how we ended up being two thirds of the way through the year already, but here we are at the end of August. I was reading like a madwoman trying to get all my books finished before going on vacation. All in all I managed 18 books.

Arctic Assignment: The Story of the St. Roch, by Sgt. F.S. Farrar
Tsunami: The Newfoundland Tidal Wave Disaster, by Maura Hanrahan
The Stone Rose, by Jacqueline Rayner (audio, read by David Tennant)
My Age of Anxiety: Fear, Hope, Dread, and the Search for Peace of Mind, by Scott Stossel
Human Resources, Part 1, by Eddie Robson (Big Finish audio drama, via Hoopla)
The Checklist Manifesto: How to Get Things Right, by Atul Gawande
Assignment in Brittany, by Helen MacInnes
The Case of the Dangerous Dowager, by Erle Stanley Gardner (abandoned)
Human Resources, Part 2, by Eddie Robson (Big Finish audio drama, via Hoopla)
Big Mushy Happy Lump, by Sarah Andersen
The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck, by Mark Manson
Knots and Crosses, by Ian Rankin
Pirate Women: The Princesses, Prostitutes and Privateers Who Ruled the Seven Seas, by Laura Sooke Duncombe
Castles: Their History and Evolution in Medieval Britain, by Marc Morris
The Sea Was in Their Blood: The Disappearance of the Miss Ally’s Five-Man Crew, by
Quentin Casey
Front Lines, by Michael Grant (abandoned)
Queens’ Play, by Dorothy Dunnett
Imperium, by Robert Harris

My favourite book of the month was The Checklist Manifesto. It inspired me to revamp the checklists I use at work and reaffirmed how useful they are.

My least favourite book was The Case of the Dangerous Dowager. I don't approve of Perry Mason's methods.

I read an audiobook that fit the theme of the August RandomCat (alhough I counted a different book as my "official" selection) and actually finished it! I was also able to finish my CultureCat and CatWoman selections for the month in the scheduled month. Go me!

Currently reading

Have Not Been the Same: The CanRock Renaissance 1985-1995‬, by Michael Barclay -- I really need to get back into this one :-/
Two Years Before the Mast‬, by Richard Henry Dana, Jr. -- Hoping to get this finished on my trip.
The John Lennon Letters, edited by Hunter Davies -- audio, read in part by Christopher Eccleston. Eccles reads John's actual letters and another narrator reads the commentary and other explanatory material.

September plans

I’m going to count Two Years Before the Mast for this month's RandomCat, because I have been reading it off and on since April. A plane trip or train ride will be the perfect time to finally get it done.

I have three print books for my trip and two ebooks from the library, and I'll be buying lots of books on my trip, so I will have no shortage of reading material. Energy to read, on the other hand, might be in short supply.

On the library shelves:

The Clockwork Universe, by Edward Dolnick (Overdrive)
The Right to Be Cold, by Sheila Watt-Cloutier (Overdrive)

35DeltaQueen50
Sep 1, 2017, 6:20 pm

Enjoy your trip!

36tymfos
Sep 2, 2017, 8:47 pm

Safe travels!

37Jackie_K
Sep 3, 2017, 5:44 am

Happy new thread, and happy travels!

38paruline
Sep 4, 2017, 3:24 pm

Enjoy your trip!

39rabbitprincess
Sep 4, 2017, 7:38 pm

>35 DeltaQueen50: >36 tymfos: >37 Jackie_K: >38 paruline: Thank you all for the trip well-wishes! We have spent some enjoyable days in Cardiff and environs, visiting The Doctor Who Experience (for which I dressed up as P-Cap), Cardiff Castle, the Gower Peninsula (on a day trip coach tour), Caerphilly Castle, and Castell Coch.

And yes, I did manage to buy a few books.

The Mabigonion, newly translated by Sioned Davies -- fiendishly hard to spell collection of Welsh myths and legends
The Long Arm of the Law: Classic Police Stories, edited by Martin Edwards -- a smart-looking British Library Crime Classic
Don't Cry for Me Aberystwyth, by Malcolm Pryce -- 4th in the Aberystwyth Noir series

The only bad thing about the trip is that I have a cold :( The congestion makes it hard to sleep, hence my being on LT at 12:30 a.m. UK time.

Oh well, soon we will be in Hay-on-Wye, land of books :D

40lkernagh
Sep 4, 2017, 8:32 pm

Very happy to see the trip to Wales has been a good one!

41Jackie_K
Sep 5, 2017, 5:18 am

>39 rabbitprincess: Glad you made it and are having a good time! I love Gower, it's so beautiful. Rhossilli beach is gorgeous.

42mstrust
Sep 5, 2017, 10:54 am

>39 rabbitprincess: Ooooh, Hay-on-Wye! Pictures! Book purchases listed!

43VivienneR
Sep 5, 2017, 1:30 pm

Sorry to hear you have a cold. Book-buying is a good cure! Buy lots.

44dudes22
Sep 5, 2017, 6:45 pm

I've always hoped to get to Hay-on-Wye. Hope you find some good stuff.

45LittleTaiko
Sep 5, 2017, 9:07 pm

Hope your cold passes and that the rest of your trip is wonderful!

46RidgewayGirl
Sep 6, 2017, 10:21 am

Feel better, rp. I had a terrible cold with a fever while backpacking around Scotland back in the day and it's now become a treasured memory. Try drinking some hot LemSip. It's really terrible, but will give you the full experience of a British cold.

47Jackie_K
Sep 6, 2017, 4:19 pm

>46 RidgewayGirl: Oh that is evil! LemSip is vile. For the full British cold remedy experience, you really need to cover yourself in Vicks.

48rabbitprincess
Sep 6, 2017, 6:03 pm

>40 lkernagh: The fun just keeps going!

>41 Jackie_K: It was very nice, although it would have been a bit nicer without the rain. Got soaked through walking along the coast path to the Worm's Head. We did enjoy yummy meals at the bistro though!

>42 mstrust: Pics will have to wait until I get home, but I can certainly oblige with a list!

>43 VivienneR: I have followed doctor's orders ;)

>44 dudes22: There has been TONS of good stuff!

>45 LittleTaiko: Thanks! It is mostly torrential amounts of congestion rather than a chest cold, which is annoying. Chest colds feel much less gross to me.

>46 RidgewayGirl: Is LemSip like NeoCitran? I've occasionally taken the latter for colds and it sometimes helps. For now I am drinking lots of tea with honey.

>47 Jackie_K: Ew, I'd sooner take my chances with the LemSip than the Vicks! Anything minty or mentholated makes me gag. I wear Invisaligns these days and had to clean the retainers with Polident, and I literally almost threw up, the smell was so strong.

****

So here's a report on two days' worth of book buying in Hay...

The Scheme for Full Employment, by Magnus Mills
The Gone-Away World, by Nick Harkaway (SIGNED)
Ships in the Bay!, by D.K. Broster
The Quiller Memorandum, by Adam Hall*
Theft of Magna Carta, by John Creasey
The Nightmare of Black Island, by Mike Tucker
Time-Flight, by Peter Grimwade
Doctor Who and the Ribos Operation, by Ian Marter
The King's General, by Daphne du Maurier
The Heaven Tree, by Edith Pargeter*
Dreaming the Eagle, by Manda Scott*
Trinity, by Leon Uris*
Necropolis: London and its Dead, by Catharine Arnold*
Doctor Who and the Cybermen, by Gerry Davis
Doctor Who: Marco Polo, by John Lucarotti
Doctor Who and the Power of Kroll, by Terrance Dicks
Doctor Who and the Armageddon Factor, by Terrance Dicks
Murder Without Icing, by Emma Lathen*
A Stake in the Kingdom, by Nigel Tranter
1599: A Year in the Life of Shakespeare, by James Shapiro*
The Betrothed: A Tale of the Crusaders, by Sir Walter Scott

The starred items were on my to-read list. Go me!

49DeltaQueen50
Sep 6, 2017, 6:55 pm

Hay-on-Wye sounds like a book lovers heaven. I hope you left lots of room in your suitcases!

50mstrust
Sep 6, 2017, 8:53 pm

>48 rabbitprincess: Yes, go you! I'm cheering you on!

51Jackie_K
Sep 7, 2017, 3:48 am

>48 rabbitprincess: Last time I had a cold and used Vicks my husband (not realising I had applied it) came close for a hug and literally recoiled! I hadn't realised he had such a strong reaction to it! It was hilarious, and I'm not sure which one of us ended up coughing more, we were laughing so much.

52rabbitprincess
Sep 7, 2017, 7:09 am

>49 DeltaQueen50: I did, and in my backpack as well!

>50 mstrust: The only other book I plan to buy on this leg of the trip is a John Dickson Carr for my friend. Other than that, I may try for a 12th Doctor book at a Waterstones or other new-book shop on our journey.

>51 Jackie_K: Haha! That would have been funny!

****

There isn't just book-buying in these parts: I'm reading and reviewing as well.

The Blackhouse, by Peter May
Category: Martha L. Black
Source: Rockcliffe Park Public School book sale
Rating: 3.5/5
Review: https://www.librarything.com/review/135690321

Overall very good. I rounded up to 4 stars on Goodreads. The rating here is 3.5 because it took me a while to get into the story and there were a couple of naughty scenes that brought back uncomfortable memories of Coffin Road, which I had to DNF.

This book is going home with my parents because my mum wants to read it. That frees up a bit of space in my suitcase ;)

53LittleTaiko
Sep 7, 2017, 4:13 pm

>48 rabbitprincess: - What a lovely two days of book buying! Impressive list.

54rabbitprincess
Sep 9, 2017, 2:00 pm

>53 LittleTaiko: It was indeed lovely. I have to think about how best to distribute the load. Made the mistake of putting all the bulky paperbacks and the hardcovers in my suitcase, making it a bit heavy to haul around! I'll have to shift some to the backpack and put some lighter PBs in the suitcase.

****

No new books to report. One of the books I brought with me has been successfully rehomed in Hay, this one right here:

A Foreign Country, by Charles Cumming
Category: Geliget, Tracy (March AwardsCAT - CWA Ian Fleming Steel Dagger award)
Source: Wigtown, Scotland
Rating: 3.5/5
Review: https://www.librarything.com/review/109072621

I'd previously read The Trinity Six by this author and hadn't been overly impressed. I ended up enjoying this more than I thought I would, enough that I'd consider reading the second in the series.

55VivienneR
Sep 10, 2017, 1:17 am

What a great book buying spree! I don't envy carrying your luggage though. Hope your cold is better.

56rabbitprincess
Sep 10, 2017, 1:46 pm

>55 VivienneR: Thanks, Vivienne! The cold is still hanging on, but I'm getting through most of the day without having to blow my nose, so that's something. The suitcase poses challenges on the hillier parts of our journey!

****

This is the third of the three print books I brought with me.

What Bloody Man is That?, by Simon Brett
Category: Martha L. Black
Source: library book sale
Rating: 4/5
Review: https://www.librarything.com/review/107579321

I am a sucker for murder mysteries involving productions of Macbeth, it seems. This was way more fun than expected. I'm going to have to keep it instead of giving it away.

57mathgirl40
Sep 13, 2017, 10:30 pm

>48 rabbitprincess: Nice book haul!

>56 rabbitprincess: I'll have to keep this one in mind. I don't remember if I've read many mysteries involving Macbeth specifically but I love mysteries set at the theatre.

58rabbitprincess
Sep 14, 2017, 4:22 am

>57 mathgirl40: The "Libraries on the Go" consortium that my parents' library subscribes to has a bunch of mysteries in Simon Brett's series on Overdrive. If your library also uses that ebook provider, you may have access to them that way :)

****

Today is a scheduled downtime day. We head to Oxford tomorrow, so we are taking today to rest up, maybe do some souvenir hunting in town, and clean up and pack. Naturally I am sneaking in some reading and reviewing time as well ;)

The Right to Be Cold, by Sheila Watt-Cloutier
Category: Captain Goddard M.S.M., Neocaligus (CultureCAT June)
Source: library, via Overdrive
Rating: 3/5
Review: http://www.librarything.com/review/145156975

I wanted to like this more than I did. The cultural and autobiographical aspects were interesting, but the discussions of all the political meetings had way too much detail and too many digressions. I had to return this unfinished and am not bothering to get back in the queue.

59mathgirl40
Sep 14, 2017, 7:17 am

>58 rabbitprincess: My library seems to have a lot of Simon Brett's works in print format but unfortunately not the Macbeth-themed one. I can still get it from Kobo, though.

60rabbitprincess
Sep 16, 2017, 2:50 pm

>59 mathgirl40: Excellent! Glad you can get it. Hope you like it!

****

We are in Oxford, winding down our trip. We visited the Ashmolean, the Natural History Museum, and the Museum of the History of Science. We also visited Blackwell's. OH. MY. GOD. It is AMAZING. I almost wished we hadn't been to Hay, so that I would have room for MOAR BOOKS.

As it is, I did buy two:

Quick Curtain, by Alan Melville (pooled it with my parents to take advantage of a 3 for 2 deal)
Plague City, by Jonathan Morris (a 12th Doctor novel featuring Bill and Nardole!)

Tomorrow we visit the Bodleian Library and continue wandering around the dreaming spires. Monday we come home. I feel like I've been away forever.

61Jackie_K
Sep 16, 2017, 4:00 pm

>60 rabbitprincess: That sounds amazing - glad you're having such an awesome time!

62rabbitprincess
Sep 16, 2017, 5:04 pm

>61 Jackie_K: It's been an adventure! Not least because everyone else caught my cold :( But thanks to your comment about LemSip, I was able to spare my dad its vileness.

63rabbitprincess
Sep 17, 2017, 2:29 pm

I ended up buying another book today. Just one, from the Oxford University Press bookshop: The Oxford Book of Scottish Short Stories, edited by Douglas Dunn.

64mstrust
Sep 17, 2017, 4:50 pm

Ha! Isn't "just one more" our mantra? Glad you're having a great time.

65Chrischi_HH
Sep 17, 2017, 5:12 pm

It sound like you really enjoyed your holiday in Wales and England. Reminds me of that I need to go back soon again, too. Safe travels home!

66Jackie_K
Sep 17, 2017, 5:14 pm

>62 rabbitprincess: Sorry to hear everyone else has been unwell. I hope you're recovering now, but if you're still needing over the counter stuff before you go home, I swear by Day Nurse and Night Nurse capsules.

67andreablythe
Sep 18, 2017, 11:51 am

>60 rabbitprincess:
Sounds like an amazing trip!

68VivienneR
Sep 18, 2017, 9:26 pm

Sounds like a wonderful trip! Glad you were able to take in so many wonderful places but sorry about the cold/s. That "just one more" mantra works every time :)

69LittleTaiko
Sep 19, 2017, 10:25 am

Sounds like a fabulous trip! Glad you had such a good time.

70rabbitprincess
Sep 19, 2017, 9:21 pm

>64 mstrust: Books are like Lay's potato chips: bet you can't buy just one!

>65 Chrischi_HH: Thanks! The flight was uneventful; I think your good wishes helped ;) If you do go back, check out north Wales! Conwy, Llandudno and Caernarfon were lovely, and Conwy and Caernarfon have great castles to explore.

>66 Jackie_K: I shall make note of those for our next trip! Everyone was pretty much OK by the time we left, or at least did not have sinuses bothering them on the plane.

>67 andreablythe: It was an amazing trip, and now I need about a week to sleep it off :P

>68 VivienneR: It sure does! I had to exercise iron will to not buy up everything in Blackwell's, though.

>69 LittleTaiko: Thanks! Now comes the time to sort through all of the pictures. I took so many that I'm going through them and thinking "What the heck is this?"

****

Back to reality today. I worked from home, which helped me get a bit more sleep, at least in theory. My Fitbit tells me I was quite restless last night, probably because it was really warm in the apartment. I came back to a heat wave, which is especially uncomfortable after the cooler temperatures we had in Wales and Oxford. Hoping the heat breaks soon.

In the meantime, I used the plane ride home to finish off a long-standing ebook.

Two Years Before the Mast, by Richard Henry Dana, Jr.
Category: Tracy (September RandomCAT)
Source: Project Gutenberg
Rating: 3/5
Review: https://www.librarything.com/review/131451099

It didn't take me two years to read this, fortunately, but it might have done had whitewavedarling not created this month's prompt for the RandomCAT! I'm glad to have finished it and glad to have read it, but I probably wouldn't read it again.

71rabbitprincess
Sep 26, 2017, 9:10 pm

Trying to get back into the reading routine. Having a regular commute helps. Having four days of temperatures in the low 30s Celsius and humidexes pushing 40 does not help. The heat is supposed to break a bit tomorrow, but we'll see about that.

In the meantime, I've finished two books:

A Legacy of Spies, by John le Carré
Category: Geliget
Source: library
Rating: 4/5
Review: https://www.librarything.com/review/146189305

The new John le Carré came in for me much faster than anticipated (my BF had to go pick it up from the library for me -- luckily I'd left him my library card). An excellent book. Makes me want to reread The Spy Who Came In from the Cold.

Agatha Christie’s Murder in the Making: Stories and Secrets from Her Archive, by John Curran
Category: Tracy (May CATWoman - Women in the Arts)
Source: Book Depository
Rating: 4.5/5
Review: https://www.librarything.com/review/133569863

Another enticing glimpse into Dame Agatha's notebooks. I liked seeing her unused ideas in particular. And this was another book that made me want to read other books -- this one made me think I should add They Came to Baghdad to the on-deck pile.

72dudes22
Sep 27, 2017, 7:53 pm

>71 rabbitprincess: - Saw an interview with John le Carre on "60 Minutes" last weekend. I was very interesting and has me interested to finally try one of his books. (Not sure why I never have.)

73christina_reads
Sep 28, 2017, 11:00 am

>71 rabbitprincess: I quite like They Came to Baghdad! It's actually one of my most reread Christie mysteries, just because I enjoy the characters and the farfetched plot so much.

74rabbitprincess
Sep 30, 2017, 3:24 pm

>72 dudes22: He is a most interesting man! An often-recommended one is The Spy Who Came In from the Cold, and that might be a good place to start. Then if you like it and read Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, you'd be set to read A Legacy of Spies.

>73 christina_reads: I think a dose of far-fetched plot would be just the ticket! I've been wading through a lot of historical fiction this year, and it has been great and enriching, but I think I could do with some zaniness :)

****

I'm not likely to finish off another book today, so here's the September recap (eek!) We’re 3/4 of the way through the year and this is definitely my quietest reading month yet. Only eight books:

The Blackhouse, by Peter May
A Foreign Country, by Charles Cumming
What Bloody Man is That?, by Simon Brett
The Right to Be Cold, by Sheila Watt-Cloutier
Two Years Before the Mast, by Richard Henry Dana, Jr.
A Legacy of Spies, by John le Carré
Agatha Christie’s Murder in the Making: Stories and Secrets from Her Archive, by John Curran
The Third Doctor Adventures, Vol. 1: The Heralds of Destruction, by Paul Cornell et al.

My favourite book of the month was Agatha Christie’s Murder in the Making. Loved seeing the unused ideas and feeling inspired to revisit her work.

My least favourite book was The Right to Be Cold, which wasn’t terrible but not amazing either.

The RandomCAT helped me get through a long-standing ebook, which was excellent, and I made great progress on my pool. (Every single own book I read this month came from the pool.)

Speaking of which, here’s what the pool’s looking like at the moment;



Probably not going to be finished this year. Not even as many books finished from the pool as last year! But I shall give it my best shot.

Currently reading

Have Not Been the Same: The CanRock Renaissance 1985-1995‬, by Michael Barclay -- If I hadn't been out of town, I would have made THIS my September RandomCAT choice.
The John Lennon Letters, edited by Hunter Davies -- audio, read in part by Christopher Eccleston -- Have to read more of it!
The Gone-Away World, by Nick Harkaway — trying to get this done by Thanksgiving so that I can discuss with my cousin. I’m way behind on my group read schedule :(
Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen — reading this via Serial Reader, even though I own a copy. The episodes might make it easier to read!
Afterglow and Nightfall, by Edith Pargeter — the 4th in the Brothers of Gwynedd quartet. Aiming to finish this before Thanksgiving too so that my mum can read it.
Head of Drama: The Memoir of Sydney Newman, by Sydney Newman — the heretofore unpublished memoir of the man who created Doctor Who. He’s Canadian!

October plans

For the RandomCAT, my aim is to read and get rid of my scary paperback edition of The Devil in Velvet, by John Dickson Carr.

I’ll be at Bouchercon the week following Thanksgiving, so there will be train rides for reading but busy days in between! Still have to figure out what the heck I’m going to see while I’m there. Lots of interesting-sounding panels!

On the library shelves:

The Legendary Horseshoe Tavern, by David McPherson
Gunboats on the Great Lakes 1866-68: The British Navy’s Show of Force at the Time of Confederation, by Cheryl MacDonald

And a bazillion DVDs that came in once I un-suspended my library holds…

75rabbitprincess
Oct 1, 2017, 6:56 pm

September was a short reading month for me. Fitting, then, that I ended it with a comic book.

Heralds of Destruction, by Paul Cornell and Chris Jones (Third Doctor comic, Vol. 1)
Category: Sipu Muin
Source: library
Rating: 4/5
Review: https://www.librarything.com/review/146300487

This was a great Third Doctor story. I loved how well Pertwee was captured. This is probably going to be more fun if you know the Third Doctor's era a bit.

76rabbitprincess
Oct 4, 2017, 9:41 pm

Starting off October by finishing off the Brothers of Gwynedd quartet.

Afterglow and Nightfall, by Edith Pargeter
Category: Hudson
Source: OPL book sale
Rating: 4/5
Review: http://www.librarything.com/review/129465466

It's official: I despise Edward I. His treatment of the Welsh is appalling, and he should be ashamed of himself. I cried on the bus multiple times while reading this book. A good conclusion to the quartet.

77mathgirl40
Oct 5, 2017, 8:09 am

>74 rabbitprincess: The Curran book looks really good. I recently reread A Caribbean Mystery and rewatched some old Poirot movies, so I'm in an Agatha Christie mood. I'll have to look for this one.

78rabbitprincess
Oct 6, 2017, 7:55 pm

>77 mathgirl40: Reading the Curran book put me in a Christie mood, so I'd be interested to see how long it prolongs an existing Christie mood ;)

****

This ended up being more of a historical adventure than a scary supernatural mystery (although I still read the book in broad daylight as a precaution). I enjoyed it a lot.

The Devil in Velvet, by John Dickson Carr
Category: Tracy (October RandomCAT)
Source: Book Bazaar
Rating: 4.5/5
Review: https://www.librarything.com/review/117656924

I picked this one for the RandomCAT because of the spooky title, and it turned out to be a really well-crafted historical time travel adventure set in Restoration England. Don't let the title or cover art put you off. It's a lot of fun.

79VivienneR
Oct 7, 2017, 1:51 pm

>77 mathgirl40: A Caribbean Mystery was set on the fictional island of St Honore, but at one time Christie stayed at the Coral Reef Club, Barbados, which is said to have inspired the book. The hotel still claims the honour and in 1989 the movie was filmed at the hotel.

80rabbitprincess
Oct 9, 2017, 10:41 am

>79 VivienneR: That's one I need to watch! I'm not as well versed in the Marples (I've watched more of the Poirots).

****

Happy Thanksgiving to my fellow Canadian LTers! Yesterday was my family's dinner. My parents hosted, and nobody went home hungry. We almost had more desserts than actual dinner on hand! So today (and every day for the foreseeable future) I am having pumpkin pie for breakfast ;)

Here's a book I read just before coming home for Thanksgiving (finished it about an hour before I left for the train station):

The Legendary Horseshoe Tavern: A Complete History, by David McPherson
Category: Captain Goddard M.S.M.
Source: library
Rating: 4/5
Review: https://www.librarything.com/review/146188627

If you've ever been to the Horseshoe Tavern in Toronto, Ontario, this book is worth checking out. Lots of stories and surprising facts, and a decent selection of photos (although I could always use more photos). VivienneR, the book also mentions Blue Rodeo :D

81mstrust
Oct 9, 2017, 11:24 am

Hi Princess! Glad to hear that you and your family had a good holiday, and that you get pumpkin pie for breakfast! That sounds like the start to a successful day.

82VivienneR
Oct 9, 2017, 12:42 pm

Happy Thanksgiving! Pumpkin pie for breakfast is a good idea. I'll be celebrating today with family and a CFL game. I hope they bring pie.

83leslie.98
Oct 9, 2017, 1:39 pm

Happy Thanksgiving! Pumpkin pie isn't my favorite (I prefer apple) but it does sound like a yummy breakfast ;)

84LittleTaiko
Oct 9, 2017, 3:57 pm

Yum - pumpkin pie! Sounds like a great feast.

85dudes22
Oct 9, 2017, 7:22 pm

Well after all - pumpkin pie is just eggs and dairy with a bit of veggie thrown in - right? almost like a breakfast omelet. I think it makes a lot of sense. And you can call the crust toast.

86VivienneR
Oct 9, 2017, 8:21 pm

>80 rabbitprincess: Ooops, I missed that reference about Blue Rodeo and the Horseshoe Tavern until just now. McPherson's book is at the library so I'm putting it on my wishlist. I see Jim Cuddy wrote the foreword.

87rabbitprincess
Oct 9, 2017, 10:40 pm

>81 mstrust: It was a successful day in terms of relaxing. Also finished a book!

>82 VivienneR: Did they bring pie? :D

>83 leslie.98: Apple pie would be even more appropriate as a breakfast food!

>84 LittleTaiko: It was a great feast, and we have leftovers for a couple of days!

>85 dudes22: You're right, it is at least three of the four food groups!

>86 VivienneR: He did indeed! And he, Greg and Bazil were interviewed for the chapter about the 80s scene.

88VivienneR
Oct 10, 2017, 2:17 pm

>87 rabbitprincess: No pie. :( However, they brought presents. And our football team won! Go Esks!

89rabbitprincess
Oct 11, 2017, 11:06 am

>88 VivienneR: Ooh, presents! And a win for your team! Sounds like a good day.

****

Finished a buddy read with my cousin.

The Gone-Away World, by Nick Harkaway
Category: Sipu Muin, Tracy (shared read with my cousin)
Source: one copy from Chapters, one from the Hay Cinema Bookshop, Hay-on-Wye
Rating: 3.5/5
Review: http://www.librarything.com/review/145726282

After discussing this book with my cousin, I've developed the hypothesis that Harkaway's debut was about pouring an entire fictional universe out onto paper, then choosing specific elements from that universe to focus on in subsequent books. There is a LOT going on in this book, and it works best when you read it for extended periods. The writing is excellent, and now I want to reread Angelmaker (and finally read Tigerman).

90rabbitprincess
Oct 16, 2017, 1:53 pm

I've spent the past few days in a bookish fog, attending Bouchercon in Toronto. It was a fun time, my first time at the convention, and I met a lot of interesting people and exciting authors. Highlights included the interview between Mark Billingham and Christopher Brookmyre, the pub quiz on Friday night (which we won), and the interview between Ann Cleeves and Louise Penny.

I took notes on each of the panels I attended and plan to give y'all a rundown once I get back (I'm heading home this afternoon). In the meantime, I thought you might like to know how many books I got ;)

Books bought in the book room:
The Mayor of Cote St. Paul, by Ronald J. Cooke
Gambling with Fire, by David Montrose
Where the Bodies are Buried, by Christopher Brookmyre (which I got signed)
One or the Other, by John McFetridge (which I also got signed)
Bloody Scotland, an anthology of 12 Scottish crime writers with stories set at various historic sites and castles around Scotland (Mum has already stolen this to read first)
The Story of Classic Crime in 100 Books, by Martin Edwards
The Dusty Bookcase: A Journey Through Canada's Forgotten, Neglected and Suppressed Writing, by Brian Busby (with cover art by Seth!)
Parting Shot, by Linwood Barclay

Books given to me:
Wounded, by Barbara Joyce-Hawryluk (had to force the touchstone on that one)
A Suitable Lie, by Michael J. Malone
In Her Wake, by Amanda Jennings
Beneath the Mountain, by Luca D'Andrea (translated by Howard Curtis)
Ten Days in Summer, by Susan Calder
Glass Houses, by Louise Penny (a prize from the pub quiz -- and it was SIGNED!)

Books bought at BMV, because I can't go to Toronto without stopping at BMV:
Doctor Who: City of Death, by James Goss
Doctor Who: The Shadow in the Glass, by Justin Richards
Watching the English, by Kate Fox

Book nicked from my grandma's house because for some reason she had two identical copies:
Atlantic Fury, by Hammond Innes

I highly recommend Bouchercon if there's one near you or within easy travelling distance. Hoping it will come back to Canada soon because I am lazy ;)

91LittleTaiko
Oct 16, 2017, 3:48 pm

Woohoo! A signed book from Louise Penny is a great prize! Happy to hear that you had so much fun.

92clue
Oct 16, 2017, 4:02 pm

I am sooo jealous!

93mathgirl40
Oct 16, 2017, 9:06 pm

>90 rabbitprincess: That book haul is really impressive, especially the signed copy of Glass Houses! It was great to see you again at Bouchercon.

94VivienneR
Oct 17, 2017, 12:43 am

Wow! What a haul - especially the signed copy of Glass Houses. Glad to hear you had a good time.

95mstrust
Oct 17, 2017, 11:44 am

>90 rabbitprincess: Looks like you had fun! Now how did you manage to carry all those books home? : D

96DeltaQueen50
Oct 17, 2017, 1:49 pm

Great book haul, RP!

97leslie.98
Oct 17, 2017, 5:01 pm

Wow, a signed copy of Glass Houses -- I am green with envy! Plus you got to hear her & Ann Cleeves... Congrats on your pub quiz win & all your shiny new books :)

98RidgewayGirl
Oct 17, 2017, 5:10 pm

I'm glad you had such a good time at Bouchercon. VictoriaPL and I discussed going one year, but we'll have to get our act together in time for the next time it's within driving distance.

99AHS-Wolfy
Oct 17, 2017, 6:21 pm

>90 rabbitprincess: Always glad to see Chris Brookmyre get a mention and happy to see you enjoyed his interview with Mark Billingham. Pity it was so far away from me. Nice book haul too!

100dudes22
Oct 17, 2017, 7:49 pm

Sounds like you had a great time. Maybe someday for me.

101LittleTaiko
Oct 17, 2017, 7:56 pm

>98 RidgewayGirl: - Next year it’s in St. Petersburg, Florida and then in 2019 it’s in Dallas. I vote for you guys road tripping to Dallas so that I can meet you!

102rabbitprincess
Oct 17, 2017, 10:04 pm

>91 LittleTaiko: I was happy just to get the book! Then I opened it up and whoa, it was signed! :)

>92 clue: It was a good time!

>93 mathgirl40: It was great to see you again too! We’ll have to do it again soon :)

>94 VivienneR: Normally I would have waited for the paperback, because that’s the format all of our other copies are in, but in this case I think a hardback was a good choice :)

>95 mstrust: I didn’t carry that many of them home! Just the ones I bought at BMV and the one I nicked from my grandma’s house. The rest I am planning to use as my “visiting” TBR pile. I really don’t need to be bringing books with me on my trips home, because my parents have so many books I’m always meaning to read.

>96 DeltaQueen50: Thanks!

>97 leslie.98: It was a great interview, and Ann is so nice as well. Makes me want to get back into her books; so far I’ve read only Raven Black. The pub quiz was crime-themed (of course) and lots of fun.

>98 RidgewayGirl: I hope you do get to go! It’s really fun.

>99 AHS-Wolfy: They were hilarious! Got to meet both of them too and get books signed. They are very nice fellows.

>100 dudes22: It’s well worth doing!

>101 LittleTaiko: I thought of you when I saw the 2019 information! Hope you can get an LT meetup going there :D

****

More reading on this trip than my last trip. It helped to be commuting in to Toronto for Bouchercon.

Decision at Delphi, by Helen MacInnes
Category: Opilio
Source: borrowed from parents
Rating: 2/5
Review: https://www.librarything.com/review/146819155

A thriller that wasn't terribly thrilling for me.

The Etymologicon, by Mark Forsyth
Category: Neocaligus
Source: borrowed from parents
Rating: 4.5/5
Review: https://www.librarything.com/review/147080683

This, on the other hand, was hilarious. I was in agony from constantly suppressing laughter.

My Soul to Take, by Yrsa Sigurdardottir (translated by Bernard Scudder and Anna Yates)
Category: Martha L. Black
Source: library, via Overdrive
Rating: 4/5
Review: https://www.librarything.com/review/146903266

Why yes I did immediately request another book in this series as soon as I finished this book.

103rabbitprincess
Oct 19, 2017, 9:25 pm

Trying to boost my reading totals for October after a lacklustre September. It helps to read short books and to give up on books that aren't working!

The Old Editor Says: Maxims for Writing and Editing, by John E. McIntyre
Category: Penac (as a short book)
Source: Book Depository
Rating: 5/5
Review: https://www.librarything.com/review/147213148

This is possibly a sentimental five stars, because I heard the author speak at a conference and he is hilarious. I aspire to be a crusty old editor, and this is my handbook.

Head of Drama: The Memoir of Sydney Newman, by Sydney Newman
Category: Opilio
Source: library
Rating: 2/5
Review: https://www.librarything.com/review/146189252

I found this hard going. I respect Sydney Newman for creating Doctor Who and suggesting that the Doctor should be played by a woman, but this memoir was less than engaging for me.

104rabbitprincess
Oct 26, 2017, 8:14 pm

The end of the month is rapidly approaching, and I'm finding myself turning more to mysteries these days. I've been indulging in quite a bit of historical fiction and even non-fiction, so a mystery is a nice treat.

L’Homme aux cercles bleus, by Fred Vargas
Category: Louis S. St-Laurent
Source: library book sale
Rating: 3.5/5
Review: http://www.librarything.com/review/116422687

The first book in the Adamsberg series, but the third one I've read. These are always fun to pick up at book sales. Danglard never ceases to amuse.

They Came to Baghdad, by Agatha Christie
Category: Martha L. Black
Source: my parents’ library after Mum went through all her duplicate Agathas
Rating: 4/5
Review: http://www.librarything.com/review/139917359

This was delightfully bonkers and I loved it! Just what I needed: a quick, refreshing thriller.

105rabbitprincess
Oct 28, 2017, 12:16 pm

Heading out shortly for a movie marathon at a friend's place! I am bringing British crisps, a sleeve of Ginger Nuts, and some scones and homemade lemon curd. The scones caused some excitement in our house last night. Our oven decided it wanted to blow the fuse on the heating element halfway through baking, so I had to use the residual heat to finish baking the scones. Irritating! So we need a new fuse. Ideally we need a new STOVE, but that would be sensible, so obviously our landlord won't do that :-/

Oh well. At least my books have been good.

My Cousin Rachel, by Daphne du Maurier
Category: Geliget
Source: library
Rating: 4.5/5
Review: https://www.librarything.com/review/147397075

Another excellent Du Maurier. Have to buy my own copy, or rather buy a copy for my mum so that she can read it and I can reread later :D My rating is 4 for the story overall and an extra .5 for the desire to buy my own copy.

Reykjavík Nights, by Arnaldur Indriðason (translated by Victoria Cribb)
Category: Martha L. Black
Source: Chaptigo, bought with a gift card
Rating: 3.5/5
Review: https://www.librarything.com/review/115288051

This is a prequel to the Erlendur series, so if you've been missing him since Strange Shores, you might want to pick this one up.

106Tanya-dogearedcopy
Oct 28, 2017, 4:35 pm

>105 rabbitprincess: In a somewhat related note, I was just reading how someone was cooking eggs by placing them in the ashes of a fire. I've been wondering how they knew they were done, I'm guessing by a process of trial and error as all else, but how many people got sick figuring it out?

I'm the world's worst cook, so I'm unable to compensate if anything goes wrong during prep/cooking, like a stove going kaput! It happened one year when I was responsible for the Thanksgiving turkey. My DH had to step in (Grilled turkey that year!)

107leslie.98
Oct 28, 2017, 8:38 pm

>105 rabbitprincess: I think My Cousin Rachel is better than Rebecca! I read a library copy so I sympathize with the desire to own your own copy.

108rabbitprincess
Oct 28, 2017, 10:06 pm

>106 Tanya-dogearedcopy: Wow, that's certainly not something that would occur to me! And experimenting with cooking eggs always seems dodgy. Speaking of eggs, I watched Ghostbusters today; Sigourney Weaver's character ended up being able to cook eggs on her countertop thanks to the paranormal activity in her apartment ;)

Grilled turkey sounds yummy! Not sure how good it would be for producing gravy though. Glad your DH was able to rescue the dinner!

>107 leslie.98: Now I have to reread Rebecca and compare! I read it in university and was blown away. Wonder how differently I'd approach it now.

109rabbitprincess
Oct 31, 2017, 8:06 pm

Getting ready to wrap up October. I'll post my monthly recap shortly. For now, here are the last two books I completed this month.

Admissions: Life as a Brain Surgeon, by Henry Marsh
Category: Neocaligus
Source: library
Rating: 4/5
Review: https://www.librarything.com/review/147280078

Another great book by Henry Marsh, this time following his life after his retirement from full-time surgery. Could be of interest to those nearing retirement age themselves, as he considers what he should be doing with his life and how to find fulfillment in what he does.

Lair of the White Worm, by Bram Stoker
Category: Tracy (group read on Litsy)
Source: Serial Reader
Rating: 1.5/5
Review: https://www.librarything.com/review/146779639

I read this via Serial Reader as part of a group read on Litsy. None of us particularly liked it. It feels overwhelmingly like an abridgment, like someone cut out all the important bits explaining where the White Worm came from. On the plus side, this is the first "scary" book in a long time I've actually been able to finish, possibly because I was reading in 10-minute chunks for 24 days ;)

110rabbitprincess
Oct 31, 2017, 9:06 pm

October was a much better reading month than September, even with a week’s vacation in the middle. Getting back into a regular commute (and travelling to and from Toronto from my parents’ place for Bouchercon) helped me read a total of 15 books:

Afterglow and Nightfall, by Edith Pargeter
The Devil in Velvet, by John Dickson Carr
The Legendary Horseshoe Tavern: A Complete History, by David McPherson
The Gone-Away World, by Nick Harkaway
Decision at Delphi, by Helen MacInnes
The Etymologicon, by Mark Forsyth
My Soul to Take, by Yrsa Sigurdardottir (translated by Bernard Scudder and Anna Yates)
The Old Editor Says: Maxims for Writing and Editing, by John E. McIntyre
Head of Drama: The Memoir of Sydney Newman, by Sydney Newman (abandoned)
L’homme aux cercles bleus, by Fred Vargas
They Came to Baghdad, by Agatha Christie
My Cousin Rachel, by Daphne du Maurier
Reykjavík Nights, by Arnaldur Indriðason (translated by Victoria Cribb)
Admissions: Life as a Brain Surgeon, by Henry Marsh
The Lair of the White Worm, by Bram Stoker

I’m claiming The Etymologicon, by Mark Forsyth, as my favourite book of the month. I wanted to share quotes from nearly every page, and when I read it on the train, I was vibrating with suppressed laughter.

My least favourite book was The Lair of the White Worm, by Bram Stoker, although reading it (a) on Serial Reader (b) as part of a group read helped me get through it relatively painlessly.

It was a strong reading month overall. I did two group reads (White Worm and The Gone-Away World), got back into some mysteries, and finished the Brothers of Gwynedd quartet. I also read the spookily titled The Devil in Velvet for the RandomCAT.

It was also a strong acquisitions month, thanks to Bouchercon :D

Currently reading

Have Not Been the Same: The CanRock Renaissance 1985-1995‬, by Michael Barclay — I’ve put it back on the bedside table to pick at. I’ll finish this someday! Maybe not in 2017 though…
The John Lennon Letters, edited by Hunter Davies -- audio, read in part by Christopher Eccleston — I’m on the last disc and have been enjoying this a fair bit. It was sad though to hear a letter to his cousin Leila in which he says he’s eating healthy and doing yoga and he expects to live to a ripe old age :(
Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen — reading this via Serial Reader, and it’s working out amazingly. I love this book and identify so much with Fanny Price. I too am socially awkward and don’t like saying what I’m thinking.
Editing by Design, by Jan V. White — borrowed the third edition from the library on the suggestion of my manager, who swears by the second edition (and had loaned that to me to read as well). Have to finish this soon.
The Captive Crown, by Nigel Tranter — the third in the House of Stewart trilogy and so far easier going than the previous book, A Folly of Princes. I ran an informal poll on Litsy as to who the guy on my cover reminded people of, and interestingly King Theoden was one of the possibilities. It makes sense, too, given the story…
The Templars: The Rise and Fall of God's Holy Warriors, by Dan Jones — very excited to start this one. I love Dan Jones.

November plans

Chrischi_HH’s RandomCAT theme of traffic jams has prompted me to pick up one of my Hardy Boys books: The Mystery of the Flying Express, by Franklin W. Dixon.

I’m also planning to raid my pool of books more and hoping to at least start a reread of Smiley’s People, by John le Carré. I saw a cinema broadcast of an interview with John le Carré and now want to read ALL THE BOOKS.

On the library shelves:

The Prairie Dog Conspiracy, by Eric Wilson — I was looking up something else related to prairie dogs and found this book in the Tom and Liz Austen mystery series that I never read as a kid. Yay CanCon!
Doctor Who: Twelve Doctors of Christmas, by Jacqueline Rayner — not starting this until after November 1! Ideally I wouldn’t start until after Remembrance Day, but I might not have it out until then.
Revolution, by Peter Ackroyd — the latest book in Ackroyd’s “History of England” series. Maybe this will be the first one I actually read. All of them are on my to-read list; I just never get around to them when I borrow them.
The Day is Dark, by Yrsa Sigurðardóttir (translated by Philip Roughton) — the fourth book in the Thóra Guðmundsdottir series. I requested this immediately after reading My Soul to Take (I’d already read the third book in the series).
The Death of Expertise: The Campaign Against Established Knowledge and Why It Matters, by Tom Nichols — a book that will probably be infuriating but is an important read. Also, bonus, it’s published by the Oxford University Press! I could have bought it from the OUP shop :)
Bright-Sided: How the Relentless Promotion of Positive Thinking Has Undermined America, by Barbara Ehrenreich — as a naturally grumpy person who views positive thinking with some skepticism, I am predisposed to agree with this book, or at least the title. We’ll see how it goes!
Code Girls: The Untold Story of the American Women Code Breakers of World War II, by Liza Mundy — I’m so glad to see lots of books about women being published! This fits in nicely with Hidden Figures and The Glass Universe (both of which I recommend).

111VivienneR
Nov 1, 2017, 9:36 pm

Lots of good reading there! And some good ones planned. I'm making a note of Admissions by Henry Marsh. My library has it on order although it might take months to hit the shelves.

112rabbitprincess
Nov 5, 2017, 12:46 pm

>111 VivienneR: Thanks! Hope you enjoy the Marsh whenever it comes in.

****

November is off to a Christmassy start. Yesterday, I went through my Christmas card spreadsheet to update names/addresses and figure out how many more cards I needed to buy. Then I started, and finished, this thematically appropriate book:

Twelve Doctors of Christmas, by Jacqueline Rayner et al.
Category: Sipu Muin
Source: library
Rating: 3.5/5
Review: https://www.librarything.com/review/147280120

This collection is published by Puffin Books and is probably intended for a younger audience than me. The stories are undemanding. One story may be particularly predictable to superfans, and the modern stories seem to work better than the "classic Doctor" ones. Definitely worth borrowing from the library; owning a copy will depend on your level of Who completism.

113rabbitprincess
Nov 8, 2017, 9:14 pm

Speaking of Christmassy, the weather will be taking a decidedly more wintery aspect over the next couple of days. Tomorrow night a cold front will be pushing through, and any rain showers in the area could very well turn to snow! I may have to get out the winter coat for Friday morning. But we've been spoiled this summer and fall, so I'll bear this weather as best I can.

In the meantime, reading continues apace.

The John Lennon Letters, ed. Hunter Davies (audio, read by Allan Corduner and Christopher Eccleston)
Category: Ann Harvey
Source: CD listen
Rating: 4.5/5
Review: https://www.librarything.com/review/106522400

My 9th audiobook for the year! And I'm reading a 10th! This has been an amazing year for audiobooks. This one was particularly well suited to my style of listening (in 15-minute spurts as I do chores).

The Captive Crown, by Nigel Tranter
Category: Hudson
Source: AbeBooks
Rating: 4/5
Review: http://www.librarything.com/review/118713797

The conclusion to the House of Stewart trilogy, and a fine conclusion at that. Now to check if I have any Tranter books that cover the period immediately after this trilogy. The historical note and the way the trilogy ended left me wanting to read more! An excellent feeling.

114mathgirl40
Nov 8, 2017, 9:52 pm

>105 rabbitprincess: Glad to see you liked My Cousin Rachel so much. It's on my shelves and I might pull it out for January's "Gothic" ScaredyKIT theme.

115leslie.98
Nov 9, 2017, 11:55 am

>113 rabbitprincess: Wintery weather has made an appearance here in New England as well. I need to dig out my winter coat & boots before the snow actually comes...

116mamzel
Nov 9, 2017, 4:29 pm

>70 rabbitprincess: I read this book many years ago and it always ranked high in my favorites. More recently I read Sea Wolf by London and loved that one too.

>102 rabbitprincess: Helen McInnes! A blast from my past! I loved reading her books when I was in high school. They were mom-approved.

>105 rabbitprincess: Ditto about mom-approved.

All caught up now.

117rabbitprincess
Nov 9, 2017, 5:47 pm

>114 mathgirl40: It would be a good choice! :)

>115 leslie.98: We're supposed to have temperatures of about minus 10 C tomorrow morning, a high of minus 8, and the winds will be so gusty that it will feel about 10 degrees colder than that! Definitely heavy coat weather over here. Boots might also be a good idea to keep my feet warm.

>116 mamzel: Ooh, The Sea Wolf sounds good! I've added it to my to-read list. Du Maurier is a hit with my mum as well. MacInnes is great-grandmother approved; she was a keen mystery and thriller reader, and being Scottish she probably liked supporting a fellow Scot ;)

118dudes22
Nov 9, 2017, 7:41 pm

>117 rabbitprincess: - that's about where we are supposed to be temperaturewise Sat morning as that Canadian weather drops down here to the US. It's been freakishly warm for so long that it's hard to imagine.

119LittleTaiko
Nov 9, 2017, 10:07 pm

>105 rabbitprincess: My book club will be reading My Cousin Rachel next year - looking forward to it.

120rabbitprincess
Nov 11, 2017, 7:09 pm

>118 dudes22: We hung on to some of that weather this morning as well! Brrrrr.

>119 LittleTaiko: Enjoy!

****

As I do most years, I attended the Remembrance Day ceremony downtown with my best friend. I was less prepared for the biting cold than I would have liked -- even though I wore two pairs of socks, they weren't warm enough, and my feet were FREEZING. So we ended up leaving the ceremony around 11:15, once the Governor General had laid her wreath on the cenotaph, and had Nando's for lunch. Spicy chicken and a pot of tea warmed me up nicely. As soon as I got home, I put on my bunny slippers and they have not come off since.

Two more books to report:

The Hammett Hex, by Victoria Abbott
Category: Tracy (October CATWoman — Victoria Abbott is a local author)
Source: gift
Rating: 3/5
Review: http://www.librarything.com/review/137034588

The fifth and so far last book in the Book Collector series. This series always makes me want to read the books by the featured author.

Revolution: The History of England from the Battle of the Boyne to the Battle of Waterloo, by Peter Ackroyd
Category: Neocaligus (November CultureCAT — conflict and war), Viola M. Davidson
Source: library
Rating: 3.5/5
Review: https://www.librarything.com/review/147350930

I need to get this book for my mum for Christmas so that I can finish reading it! I had to return it just before 1800 (the year, not the 24-hour time), because there were holds on it. Hence the 3.5 -- it wasn't *quite* zippy enough for me to finish reading it in three days :P

121lkernagh
Nov 12, 2017, 11:27 am

Stopping by to get caught up and make not of all the great reading you have been doing. Glad to see your trip to Wales and Oxford went well... outside of the illnesses suffered.

>76 rabbitprincess: - Oh... I have yet to read the Brothers of Gwynedd quartet. Must add to my "to Read" list. I love books that can produce such an emotional reaction in a reader!

>105 rabbitprincess: - Nothing worse than having a stove malfunction "while baking"! I remember a Christmas dinner many, many years ago where it was discovered, rather late in the cooking process, that the oven wasn't working. Try cooking a turkey for 12 using a microwave and stove top burners (no barbecue on hand to save the day).

122Jackie_K
Nov 12, 2017, 12:05 pm

>121 lkernagh: That reminded me that last year we were at my in-laws' for Christmas dinner, and we were doing the cooking. Unfortunately what they neglected to tell us - until we smelt burning - was that their oven cooks considerably hotter than the stated temperature on the dial (the veggie haggis we were cooking was meant to be done at 200 degrees, so we put it on at 200 degrees - they told us after the fact that if it says 200, they would put the dial onto 50). My husband did manage to salvage quite a bit of it, but it was very tense for a while! (understatement) (not helped by my mother-in-law asking what number we'd put it on, we told her 200 and her reply was "what on earth did you put it on that for?" It didn't even occur to her that other ovens didn't do the same as hers. And **breathe**.).

123rabbitprincess
Nov 12, 2017, 12:52 pm

>121 lkernagh: Thanks for stopping by! Yes, our trip was great. I'll have to post some pictures from Hay-on-Wye ;) Hope you like the Brothers of Gwynedd!

And yikes to having to cook a turkey in the microwave! My parents had bought a new oven last year and discovered too late that it was lying about how done the turkey was -- on the outside, it looked perfect, but the dark meat wasn't quite finished. So my parents carved the turkey and heated up the dark meat in the microwave. For Thanksgiving they did NOT rely on the oven's temperature probe, but rather the one that came with the turkey, and it turned out much better.

>122 Jackie_K: How aggravating, especially to receive that reply! I'm glad that the haggis could be salvaged. What do they use to make veggie haggis?

****

Today is day 2 of a three-day weekend. I have tomorrow off and plan to spend the next couple of days reading as much as possible. The Templars, by Dan Jones, won't read itself!

I continued my amazing audiobook run of 2017 (ten so far this year!!) with another Doctor Who Big Finish audio drama.

The Stealers from Saiph, by Nigel Robinson (Big Finish Companion Chronicles, read by Mary Tamm)
Category: Ann Harvey, Sipu Muin
Source: library, via Hoopla
Rating: 3/5
Review: https://www.librarything.com/review/147808833

This wasn't a bad story, but some of the background noises and mixing made dialogue difficult to hear. Bonus points for a story featuring Romana I (her original incarnation, before she regenerated into Lalla Ward).

124Jackie_K
Nov 12, 2017, 2:52 pm

>123 rabbitprincess: Veggie haggis mainly consists of pulses and herbs - and goes stunningly with roast veg, it turns out, making it ideal for Christmas dinner! We have it every year. I'm sure it has Rabbie Burns spinning in his grave, but we like it :)

125dudes22
Nov 12, 2017, 7:01 pm

>124 Jackie_K: - I had to look up "pulses" - I've never heard that term before.

126VivienneR
Nov 12, 2017, 8:02 pm

>122 Jackie_K: I'm off to try and find a recipe for veggie haggis! That sounds terrific for Christmas dinner (or January 25).

127Jackie_K
Nov 13, 2017, 7:01 am

>125 dudes22: Divided by a common tongue again :)

128LittleTaiko
Nov 13, 2017, 12:41 pm

>125 dudes22: - I had to look it up too - learn something new all the time on LT!

129Jackie_K
Nov 13, 2017, 1:17 pm

>128 LittleTaiko: And this is the first time I realised it hadn't crossed the Pond! Isn't language fascinating? (and I really do recommend veggie haggis, it's delicious. We always try to buy the ones made by Macsweens).

130rabbitprincess
Editado: Nov 17, 2017, 6:39 pm

Now I'm hungry reading all this discussion of veggie haggis! Have to see if my local import shop carries it.

****

A couple of books to report. Having a day off on Monday was helpful for getting books finished!

Editing by Design (3rd edition), by Jan V. White
Category: Opilio
Source: library
Rating: 2/5
Review: https://www.librarything.com/review/146689423

I was recommended the second edition of this book but found the third edition at the library. This third edition is "completely revised" but is still about 15 years old. I'd prefer something that deals more with web design and that uses actual examples rather than illustrated mock-ups.

The Templars: The Rise and Spectacular Fall of God’s Holy Warriors, by Dan Jones
Category: Viola M. Davidson
Source: library
Rating: 3.5/5
Review: https://www.librarything.com/review/147497923

I had to work harder to read this one because I don't have decades of experience reading about the area, like I do for British history. But if you're like me and looking for a place to start regarding the Templars, this book would be a good choice; it draws on primary sources and of course Dan Jones is awesome.

131mstrust
Nov 17, 2017, 12:48 pm

Happy weekend, princess!
The first time I ever met my husband's grandmother, who had raised him for several years, she experimented by cooking a whole chicken in the microwave. Microwaves don't brown, so we picked at a white and raw looking chicken at dinner. Ha, gross!

132rabbitprincess
Nov 17, 2017, 8:55 pm

>131 mstrust: Happy weekend to you as well! I have a couple of "microwave cookbooks" kicking around but am skeptical that the recipes would turn out well -- I imagine the chicken is somewhat representative of how they end up! :S

****

Dumping a whole bunch of reviews here this evening.

The Death of Expertise: The Campaign Against Established Knowledge and Why it Matters, by Tom Nichols
Category: Neocaligus
Source: library
Rating: 3.5/5
Review: https://www.librarything.com/review/147527665

I agreed with a lot of this and suspect that the people who need to read it most, won't :-/

The Angry Tide, by Winston Graham
Category: Hudson
Source: borrowed from parents
Rating: 4/5
Review: https://www.librarything.com/review/143145572

This was an exciting volume in the Poldark series! Impossible to discuss without spoilers; my entire review is introduced as being spoilery.

The Mystery of the Flying Express, by Franklin W. Dixon
Category: Tracy (November RandomCAT)
Source: OPL book sale
Rating: 1.5/5
Review: https://www.librarything.com/review/116423151

And this was pretty lame. I had low expectations and they were not met. Oh well, out it goes.

133rabbitprincess
Nov 23, 2017, 7:34 pm

It's been a slightly busy week around these parts. The highlight was attending a concert by Whitehorse, one of my favourite bands. They played the National Arts Centre, so the sound was great and we had nice comfy seats. The show itself started at 7:30 and was over by 10, which was a bit easier to manage (although I was still tired the next morning). And I treated myself to a nice dinner out beforehand at Johnny Farina on Elgin. I had Falstaff and Prince Hal to keep me company ;)

Speaking of Falstaff and Hal, they feature in one of the four books I am reviewing here:

Making Sense: The Glamorous Story of English Grammar, by David Crystal
Category: Neocaligus
Source: library
Rating: 4/5
Review: https://www.librarything.com/review/147720119

I used this book to bust out of a self-inflicted book paralysis; I had a lot of big fat library books out and couldn't get motivated to read them, so I picked up this one instead. It cleared the cobwebs from my head nicely, which is a weird thing to say about a grammar book, but that is what happens to float my boat.

The Prairie Dog Conspiracy, by Eric Wilson
Category: Captain Goddard M.S.M.
Source: library
Rating: 2/5
Review: https://www.librarything.com/review/147253661

This was a nostalgia-induced library request: the series, if not the actual book. I'm definitely not the right audience. And today's kids would have to be told what Block Parents were. I remember those!

Henry IV, Part 2, by William Shakespeare
Category: Penac
Source: Bearly Used Books, Parry Sound, Ontario
Rating: 3/5
Review: https://www.librarything.com/review/112147757

I found Part 2 much easier going than Part 1, for whatever reason. Now to watch The Hollow Crown again! Also tempted to re-request the Roger-Allam-as-Falstaff version done by Shakespeare's Globe.

Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen
Category: Geliget
Source: gift (but read via Serial Reader)
Rating: 4/5
Review: https://www.librarything.com/review/81148045

Third time's the charm with this one, thanks to Serial Reader. I identified so much with Fanny's shyness and social awkwardness. And having been to Portsmouth myself, I enjoyed reading the scenes set there :)

134DeltaQueen50
Nov 23, 2017, 9:57 pm

I am currently also reading Mansfield Park by installments. It's early days for me as I am only at section #20 out of 362 but so far I am really liking it.

135mstrust
Nov 24, 2017, 12:25 pm

My favorite character in Mansfield Park was the horrible aunt.

136rabbitprincess
Nov 24, 2017, 4:23 pm

>134 DeltaQueen50: I'm looking forward to rereading it someday!

>135 mstrust: Austen's narration of horrible Aunt Norris was hilarious. I must admit I kept picturing Edmund as Benedict Cumberbatch, because he played that role in a BBC Radio 4 adaptation of Mansfield Park (where David Tennant, of all people, played Tom).

****

For those who enjoy reading Christmas murder mysteries, the annual thread is up: https://www.librarything.com/topic/275975

137rabbitprincess
Nov 25, 2017, 9:42 am

The Christmas spirit is making its presence felt around these parts. I'm going to a Christmas concert tonight (featuring Good Lovelies, who are amazing and well worth checking out), and of course all the stores have had their holiday decor up since November 1...or even before then :-/

So naturally I read a book set in a sunny seaside town in Kent.

Calamity in Kent, by John Rowland
Category: Martha L. Black
Source: Chaptigo
Rating: 3/5
Review: https://www.librarything.com/review/133214961

This was not the most amazing mystery ever, but it served its purpose. A reliable British Library Crime Classic.

138rabbitprincess
Nov 27, 2017, 9:48 pm

Catching up on a couple of reviews from the weekend.

The Day is Dark, by Yrsa Sigurdardóttir (translated by Philip Roughton)
Category: Martha L. Black
Source: library
Rating: 4/5
Review: https://www.librarything.com/review/147497888

I see from my mystery category that I've been bingeing on Icelandic crime in general and Yrsa's books in particular. I can't help it that Thora is awesome! This might be my new favourite Icelandic series (sorry Arnaldur).

Doctor Who: Fourth Doctor Vol. 1: Gaze of the Medusa, by Gordon Rennie and Emma Beeby
Category: Penac
Source: library, via Hoopla
Rating: 3/5
Review: http://www.librarything.com/review/148120219

Character-wise, this was a good outing for the Fourth Doctor and Sarah Jane. Style-wise, I wasn't crazy about one art choice in particular. This was a quick read on Hoopla.

139rabbitprincess
Nov 30, 2017, 7:54 pm

Tidying up reviews for the end of the month. Monthly recap coming shortly.

The Boats of the “Glen Carrig”, by William Hope Hodgson
Category: Geliget
Source: Serial Reader
Rating: 4/5
Review: https://www.librarything.com/review/147756743

A creepy story that I could actually still read! Hurray for Serial Reader :)

The Pursued, by C.S. Forester
Category: Geliget
Source: Chaptigo
Rating: 3.5/5
Review: https://www.librarything.com/review/81588594

Not bad, but my least favourite of Forester's thrillers. Still, worth reading.

140rabbitprincess
Nov 30, 2017, 8:48 pm

November recap

November was highly productive. This was partly thanks to some short books, and partly thanks to finishing a couple of long-standing reads in this month (specifically the John Lennon audio and Mansfield Park). In total, I read 20 books (holy crap!).

Twelve Doctors of Christmas, by Jacqueline Rayner
The John Lennon Letters, ed. Hunter Davies (audio, read by Christopher Eccleston)
The Captive Crown, by Nigel Tranter
The Hammett Hex, by Victoria Abbott
Revolution: The History of England from the Battle of the Boyne to the Battle of Waterloo, by Peter Ackroyd
The Stealers from Saiph, by Nigel Robinson (Big Finish Companion Chronicles, read by Mary Tamm)
Editing by Design (3rd edition), by Jan V. White (abandoned)
The Templars: The Rise and Spectacular Fall of God’s Holy Warriors, by Dan Jones
The Death of Expertise: The Campaign Against Established Knowledge and Why it Matters, by Tom Nichols
The Angry Tide, by Winston Graham
The Mystery of the Flying Express, by Franklin W. Dixon
Making Sense: The Glamorous Story of English Grammar, by David Crystal
The Prairie Dog Conspiracy, by Eric Wilson
Henry IV, Part 2, by William Shakespeare
Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen
Calamity in Kent, by John Rowland
The Day is Dark, by Yrsa Sigurdardóttir (translated by Philip Roughton)
Doctor Who: Fourth Doctor Vol. 1: Gaze of the Medusa, by Gordon Rennie and Emma Beeby
The Boats of the “Glen Carrig”, by William Hope Hodgson
The Pursued, by C.S. Forester

My favourite book of the month was The John Lennon Letters, edited by Hunter Davies and read by Christopher Eccleston and Allan Corduner. It gave me a deeper appreciation of John and a desire to get back into some of my family’s Beatle-book collection.

My least favourite book was The Mystery of the Flying Express, by Franklin W. Dixon — at least the original 1941 story. (That was bizarre, to learn that it had been rewritten in the 1970s!) Too full of coincidences and random helpful strangers.

In terms of group reads and challenges, I continued my adventures into the Poldark series (although I am several months behind the main group read), and the Flying Express was my choice for the November RandomCAT. The book itself was disappointing, but the opportunity to read it and get it out of the house was not.

Currently reading

Have Not Been the Same: The CanRock Renaissance 1985-1995‬, by Michael Barclay —I’ll be reading this until the end of time! Why did I put it in my pool?!
At Home: A Short History of Private Life, by Bill Bryson — audio, read by Bill Bryson. I’ve managed to get a couple of good quotes from this one but will definitely have to re-read it in print for maximum laughs. Bryson’s voice is interesting; he sounds mostly American, but he’s lived in England long enough for some of the accent to rub off.
A Christmas Carol, by Charles Dickens — reading via Serial Reader, and totally picturing Mickey’s Christmas Carol the whole time :D
Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions, by Edwin A. Abbott — my other Serial Reader pick. (I like to have two on the go at once.) I’ll have to find a print edition with some commentary when I’m finished. Would love to know about the context of its writing.
The Stranger from the Sea, by Winston Graham — Poldark #8. I’m enjoying this a lot! The jump forward in time by 10 years was a bit disconcerting, but I’ve settled in nicely.
Bright-Sided: How the Relentless Promotion of Positive Thinking Has Undermined America, by Barbara Ehrenreich — just started this today and my head nearly fell off nodding in multiple places.

December plans

For the December RandomCAT theme of books you can read in a day, I’ll be reading Doctor Who and the Androids of Tara, by Terrance Dicks. This story features Romana I, and I pulled it off the shelf after listening to The Stealers from Saiph (which also features Romana I).

On the library shelves (and on top of my printer, because the borrowed-books shelf is full):

How Green Was My Valley, by Richard Llewellyn — will be interesting to read this after having been to Wales. It may be a somewhat sentimental read.
Western Approaches, by Graham Hurley — first in the Jimmy Suttle series, set in Exeter. I borrowed this before but never got around to reading it.
Occupied City, by David Peace — the second in his as-yet-uncompleted-as-far-as-I-know Tokyo Trilogy. Apparently based on true events. Should be interesting.
King’s Ransom, by Ed McBain — borrowed after looking up the Sharon Kay Penman book of similar title (see later in this list).
By Gaslight, by Steven Price — on Overdrive. May have to be re-borrowed. There will be a lot of strategic renewing around these parts.
Doctor Who: Winner Takes All, by Jacqueline Rayner — a rare Ninth Doctor novel at my library.
Doctor Who: Borrowed Time, by Naomi Alderman — an Eleventh Doctor novel written by THAT Naomi Alderman (of The Power fame).
Ask an Astronaut, by Tim Peake — I’ve read Hadfield’s book, so why not Peake’s?
1979, by Michael Healey — a play about former Canadian prime minister Joe Clark’s minority government.
Norse Mythology, by Neil Gaiman — looking forward to this one!
From Here to Eternity: Travelling the World to Find the Good Death, by Caitlin Doughty — loved her first book, will be interested to read this one.
A King’s Ransom, by Sharon Kay Penman — requested after reading Dan Jones’s book about the Templars.
None but the Dead, by Lin Anderson — 11th in the Rhona Macleod series, which is normally set in Glasgow, but this installment is set on Orkney. If I like Anderson’s work, which I’m hoping, that’s another author to fill my Scottish category next year :)
Places in the Darkness, by Chris Brookmyre — a sci-fi crime novel! Haha Brookmyre jokingly suggested that his publisher should have put a big SCI-FI WARNING on the cover, because he got a 1-star review on Amazon from someone who didn’t realize it was sci-fi, even though it has a space station on the cover.
The Colony of Unrequited Dreams, by Robert Chafe — the stage play of Wayne Johnston’s novel of the same name. I saw the play at the NAC in January of this year and it was very good.

141mamzel
Dic 1, 2017, 11:45 am

>140 rabbitprincess: I listened to Norse Mythology read by Neil himself. Nice! Enjoy!
I can't wait for the Doctor Who Christmas special and new season with Jodie.

142mstrust
Dic 2, 2017, 1:58 pm

Oooh, princess, you are juggling a lot of books!
Have Not Been the Same: The CanRock Renaissance 1985-1995‬, by Michael Barclay —I’ll be reading this until the end of time! Why did I put it in my pool?!
Yep, I have a few of those too. I've read far enough into them that I don't want to abandon them, but I sort of groan when I look at them.
Good luck with your December reads. That's a lot, but you're a fast reader. And you seem to have a thing for books named "King's Ransom". : D

143rabbitprincess
Dic 2, 2017, 3:17 pm

>141 mamzel: Looking forward to it! And yes, it will be great to see Jodie as a fully fledged Doctor. Can't wait to see what her personality will be.

>142 mstrust: I had perhaps too much faith in my ability to stick to reading one chapter a day! Probably didn't also help that I'd imposed the assignment on myself of writing down all the songs mentioned in each chapter and looking them up on YouTube.

Haha yes, that was something of a coincidence! I was looking up the Penman book and found the McBain book in the same search, so I thought "why not?" and borrowed both ;)

144RidgewayGirl
Dic 2, 2017, 4:38 pm

Twenty books! Holy crap, indeed.

Thanks for the explanation. I was wondering why The Colony of Unrequited Dreams wasn't by Wayne Johnston all of a sudden.

145rabbitprincess
Dic 2, 2017, 7:41 pm

>144 RidgewayGirl: I didn't realize just how many until it was time to count them up! And yes, I thought it prudent to include an explanation for the change in author. It's hardly a title two people would use for two different novels! Speaking of Wayne Johnston, one of my former colleagues is reading the new one, First Snow, Last Light, and he says it's very good. I still have to read The Custodian of Paradise first.

****

December starts off with a holly jolly, or rather "don't be excessively holly jolly", kind of book:

Bright-Sided: How the Relentless Promotion of Positive Thinking Has Undermined America, by Barbara Ehrenreich
Category: Neocaligus (Poverty CultureCAT*)
Source: library
Rating: 4/5
Review: https://www.librarything.com/review/147615140
*I count it for this CultureCAT because it talks about the prosperity gospel and how people are led to believe that individual success or failure is what causes poverty, rather than systemic issues

I am a naturally grumpy person so was predisposed to like this book. It talks about medicine, religion, business, and more -- not to mention the problems caused by socially ostracizing people who dare to rock the boat by criticizing something, even when the criticism is constructive. Published almost 10 years ago, this book is still relevant today, and some parts even more so.

146rabbitprincess
Dic 5, 2017, 8:33 pm

So far December has been a pretty good reading month. I've read a fair bit, and what I've read has been very good.

A Christmas Carol, by Charles Dickens
Category: Geliget
Source: Serial Reader
Rating: 4.5/5
Review: https://www.librarything.com/review/148462056

Truly a Christmas classic! Would like to get my own copy.

How Green Was My Valley, by Richard Llywellyn
Category: Geliget
Source: library
Rating: 4/5
Review: https://www.librarything.com/review/148161874

My BF's reaction when he saw this one on the table: "The movie that beat Citizen Kane for Best Picture." Nevertheless, I'm sure the book is still better (not least because there is only one Welsh actor in the cast). The narration, the dialogue, the vivid stories...well done. Now to find a book set in modern-day Wales with the same sort of impact.

The Stranger from the Sea, by Winston Graham
Category: Hudson
Source: borrowed from parents
Rating: 4/5
Review: https://www.librarything.com/review/143145619

I enjoyed the 8th Poldark book. It's a bit quieter in terms of the storyline, but we can all use a breather sometimes. Glad to be going home in a couple of weeks so I can borrow the next book in the series.

147mathgirl40
Dic 5, 2017, 9:26 pm

>133 rabbitprincess: I just discovered Serial Reader recently. I thought it might help motivate me to tackle those really big classics that I keep putting off reading. I'm trying it out with Middlemarch right now.

148rabbitprincess
Dic 12, 2017, 7:00 pm

>147 mathgirl40: That's an excellent use for it!

****

We're well on our way to getting 20 cm of snow by this evening, if we haven't already got that much. I was working from home today, luckily enough, because of an orthodontist appointment. However, it was still a tough slog to get to and from the appointment, because it snowed steadily all day. Looking forward to going to bed with a book!

Over the past week I seem to have been bingeing on Doctor Who novels! 'Tis the season for lighter fare.

Doctor Who and the Androids of Tara, by Terrance Dicks
Category: Sipu Muin, Tracy (December RandomCAT)
Source: BMV
Rating: 4/5
Review: https://www.librarything.com/review/124548850

A Fourth Doctor story featuring Romana I (as portrayed by Mary Tamm). This is a novelization of a TV story and a good one at that.

King’s Ransom, by Ed McBain
Category: Martha L. Black
Source: library
Rating: 3/5
Review: https://www.librarything.com/review/148294926

An 87th Precinct book that turned up in the same library search as the one I did for a Sharon Kay Penman novel (A King's Ransom). Hadn't read it before. Not brilliant but not terrible either.

Doctor Who: Winner Takes All, by Jacqueline Rayner
Category: Sipu Muin
Source: library
Rating: 4/5
Review: https://www.librarything.com/review/148442049

A Ninth Doctor and Rose story that proved highly enjoyable. Nine doesn't get enough stories.

Doctor Who: Borrowed Time, by Naomi A. Alderman
Category: Sipu Muin
Source: library
Rating: 4/5
Review: https://www.librarything.com/review/148442119

An Eleventh Doctor, Amy, and Rory story that I also quite enjoyed, even if the Symington and Blenkinsop characters reminded me a bit too much of Mr Croup and Mr Vandemar from Neverwhere. On the plus side, reading this and making that comparison makes me want to re-read Neverwhere!

149VivienneR
Dic 12, 2017, 7:08 pm

>148 rabbitprincess: We solved the heavy snowfall problem here - we bought a snowblower. Immediately we had a warm spell that melted the snow already on the ground, and most importantly, we have had no snow since. What a great buy!

You've been getting in some great reading recently.

150mstrust
Dic 12, 2017, 7:27 pm

That snow should know better than to get in your way, princess. : D
We are unseasonable warm. Today got to 75F, but we've had a few days that were warmer than that and the snow for skiing around Flagstaff hasn't arrived yet.

151rabbitprincess
Dic 14, 2017, 8:50 pm

>149 VivienneR: An excellent purchase indeed! And yes, it's been a good spell of reading. Either that or I am feeling uncritical because it's the holiday season ;)

>150 mstrust: Yikes, that's not an Arizona-in-December temperature! That sounds more suited to the Southern Hemisphere! Meanwhile today we were in the minus 20s Celsius this morning, with windchill of minus 31 :O

152dudes22
Dic 15, 2017, 9:22 am

I always think in winter that the temperatures somehow seem colder when told in Celsius. And then I have to go figure how to convert them. Yikes! - that's cold!

153mstrust
Dic 15, 2017, 12:12 pm

And here I am getting all excited when it's down to 50F in the morning. Survive, princess, survive!

154leslie.98
Dic 15, 2017, 9:48 pm

>152 dudes22: Me too! I think it is those negative numbers that are positive in Fahrenheit. For example, it is 19°F here in my part of New England which is -7°C. -7 sounds so much colder!

155rabbitprincess
Dic 16, 2017, 11:22 am

>152 dudes22: Yep it was a bit nippy! Definitely a day for leggings under trousers and snowpants on top of the lot!

>153 mstrust: Warm scarves help more than you'd think! I find that just keeping my mouth and chin covered makes me feel much less cold.

>154 leslie.98: Haha with the weather we've been having I'm like "Ahhh, minus 7 is balmy!" We were up to minus 9 yesterday and it was more bearable, especially because the wind dropped off.

****

Another steady reading week. I finally got in another re-read. If I do make my usual goal of six re-reads, it will be a very tight squeeze. Too many new and exciting books this year :)

Flatland: A Romance in Many Dimensions, by Edwin A. Abbott
Category: Geliget
Source: Serial Reader
Rating: 2/5
Review: https://www.librarything.com/review/148584023

I think I'm more interested in the context and social environment in which this was written than I am in the story itself. It was OK, but I do feel like I'm missing out on something.

Smiley’s People, by John le Carré
Category: Eckaloo
Source: borrowed from parents
Rating: 4/5
Review: https://www.librarything.com/work/18961/reviews/139916146

My first re-read of le Carré since the "Evening with George Smiley" talk I saw earlier this year. I liked this better than I did on my last re-read, possibly because I was reading my parents' battered mass market paperback rather than the library's hardcover. Some quotes seemed very familiar to me, but I couldn't tell whether it was because le Carré mentioned them in his talk or whether I wrote them down on my last re-read. (In the case of the Circus complaining about the translators, I probably did write those down.)

Ask an Astronaut: My Guide to Life in Space, by Tim Peake
Category: Neocaligus
Source: library
Rating: 4/5
Review: https://www.librarything.com/review/148463730

An accessible and clear book that doesn't dumb down tricky concepts about life in space--this is probably the closest I've come to understanding orbital mechanics. And I love that Peake loves his Yorkshire Tea! My kind of astronaut ;)

****

This weekend I have to organize everything that needs bringing home (because I'm going home NEXT WEEK AAAAAAA). I've been shoving all the Christmas gifts into my suitcase for temporary storage, but I'll have to get them all out and figure out how to distribute them among my suitcase and backpack. The plan is to bring only about half the clothes I would normally need (4 days' worth for a week-long trip), because (a) my parents have laundry, and (b) I will probably be bringing stuff back!

I also have to finish up a homemade gift for my mum, so that's the priority today. Tomorrow I will be making scones for our team's Christmas party on Monday.

156rabbitprincess
Dic 21, 2017, 9:56 pm

Finishing up some reviews before heading home on Saturday.

1979, by Michael Healey
Category: Penac
Source: library
Rating: 3/5
Review: https://www.librarything.com/review/148515353

Interesting, but weird.

From Here to Eternity: Travelling the World to Find the Good Death, by Caitlin Doughty
Category: Neocaligus
Source: library
Rating: 4/5
Review: https://www.librarything.com/review/148649237

Interesting, weird, and addictive. I read this in a single afternoon.

157dudes22
Dic 22, 2017, 8:25 am

Taking a BB on From Here to Eternity. Sounds like an interesting book.

Be careful traveling - it looks like the weather will not be co-operating this year.

158mstrust
Dic 22, 2017, 12:35 pm

Have a Merry Christmas, princess!

159mysterymax
Dic 22, 2017, 3:01 pm

Have a great holiday!

160rabbitprincess
Dic 23, 2017, 9:27 am

>157 dudes22: Hope you like it, Betty! It is really interesting. And thanks for the travel wishes. I'm taking the train, so my bigger concern is just that it will be crowded!

>158 mstrust: Ha! Thanks for the Christmas wishes, and a merry Christmas to you as well!

>159 mysterymax: Thanks, and happy holidays!!

****

Finished off two more books in the nick of time for my trip home. Leaving in a couple of hours and will be away for a week (although I will have Internet access).

None but the Dead, by Lin Anderson
Category: Martha L. Black
Source: library
Rating: 3.5/5
Review: https://www.librarything.com/review/148693591

This was my first foray into the Rhona MacLeod series, mainly because this installment takes place in the Orkney Islands. I liked the setting, and I'd be amenable to checking out the characters on their home turf of Glasgow in other books in the series.

The Distant Echo, by Val McDermid
Category: Eckaloo
Source: gift?
Rating: 4/5
Review: https://www.librarything.com/review/70475147

This was a re-read for the AwardsCAT (the award: the Theakstons Old Peculier). I first read this 12 years ago and had forgotten pretty much everything about it. Loved the setting and the musical references (yay, Clash and Jam!), and the fact that Karen Pirie's books aren't quite so psychologically disturbing as the Hill and Jordan series.

****

Trip packing: I am not taking any physical books with me for reading! Or to be precise, I'm not bringing my OWN books to read -- there are a few Xmas gifts in my suitcase, and a few books I'm returning to the Library of Mum and Dad. My plan while at home is to dip into the Bouchercon pile and raid my parents' shelves. On the train I'm going to have to be content with ebooks and audiobooks:

The Gene, by Siddhartha Mukherjee (ebook from the library)
At Home: A Short History of Private Life, by Bill Bryson (audiobook from CDs, ripped in installments to my phone)
The Diary of River Song, Series 1 and The Diary of River Song, Series 2 (Big Finish audio dramas)
The Return of the Soldier, by Rebecca West (ebook from Project Gutenberg, also a book in my pool)

And I have about five issues' worth of backlog in my iPad subscription to Doctor Who Magazine. Shouldn't lack for entertainment.

****

Merry Christmas to all and to all a good book!

161Jackie_K
Editado: Dic 23, 2017, 10:42 am

>160 rabbitprincess: Hope you have a great trip! Merry Christmas!

Interesting to see you have a Rebecca West book among your train reads. I am currently reading Black Lamb and Grey Falcon for next month's ColourCAT, and it is pretty epic! I'm about up to 8% read at the moment, having read for 3 hours. I'll be interested to see what you think about The Return of the Soldier - I am enjoying BL&GF, but do think she could really have done with a more ruthless editor!

162rabbitprincess
Dic 23, 2017, 12:55 pm

Meanwhile, The Return of the Soldier is only 122 pages in my Project Gutenberg edition!

163Jackie_K
Dic 23, 2017, 1:17 pm

>162 rabbitprincess: Ooft, what a difference! BL&GF is going to take me months at this rate!

164lkernagh
Dic 23, 2017, 7:54 pm

Hi RP, stopping by to wish you and your loved ones peace, joy and happiness this holiday season and for 2018!

165rabbitprincess
Dic 23, 2017, 8:11 pm

>163 Jackie_K: I just finished it this evening. Apparently it was her first novel. I'm not sure how I feel about it.

>164 lkernagh: Thanks, Lori, and the same to you! I love the polar bears :)

166mathgirl40
Dic 24, 2017, 2:51 pm

I thought The Return of the Soldier was excellent when I read it earlier this year. I’ll be interested in hearing your thoughts on it.

Merry Christmas!

167rabbitprincess
Dic 24, 2017, 10:49 pm

>166 mathgirl40: Merry Christmas! I'm glad that 2017 included a meetup for us! Hope there are lots of good books under the tree for you.

168Kristelh
Dic 25, 2017, 8:16 am

Stopping by to wish you the best of the end of 2017 and the start of 2018.

169VivienneR
Dic 25, 2017, 10:36 am

170lsh63
Dic 25, 2017, 12:43 pm

Merry Christmas RP!

171RidgewayGirl
Dic 25, 2017, 1:58 pm

Happy Christmas, rp. May there be books involved somehow.

172rabbitprincess
Dic 25, 2017, 2:35 pm

>168 Kristelh: Thanks, Kristel! An excellent sentiment!

>169 VivienneR: Thanks, Vivienne! Snoopy had a fairly big presence around here this year -- we had some Snoopy Christmas stickers to cover up hard-to-remove price tags on Christmas presents ;)

>170 lsh63: Thanks, Lisa!

>171 RidgewayGirl: Thanks, RG ;) Books are most certainly involved! :)

****

It's Christmas afternoon and I'm borrowing my mum's laptop while she does some baking in preparation for Christmas dinner, which is being hosted by my aunt and uncle this year.

Everyone received excellent presents. And somehow this year there were more parcels for my parents than for me and my brother! Well, after about 30 years of them spoiling us rotten, we think we're entitled to do the same ;) Santa and my family combined to give me five excellent-looking books:

Orkneyinga Saga, by Anonymous, translated by Herman Palsson and Paul Edwards
King Hereafter, by Dorothy Dunnett
Who's There?: The Life and Career of William Hartnell, by Jessica Carney
Up Front..., by Victor Spinetti
Les Miserables, by Victor Hugo, translated by Christine Donougher

Santa brought me the Orkneyinga Saga and the Dorothy Dunnett -- they make a good pair, what with their both being set in Orkney.

The Carney is a biography of First Doctor William Hartnell and will make an excellent companion to tonight's Christmas special.

The Spinetti is something my dad saw in a bookshop in Hay but didn't pick up. He told me about it later and I lamented the lost chance to have picked it up. So my parents found a copy on AbeBooks and it's in pretty good shape.

The Hugo is the Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition with cover art by Jillian Tamaki and with the new translation by Christine Donougher. There was no way I was going to read this in the original French, and I thought a fresh new translation would be just the ticket. Plus, I loved the cover.

****

Hope everyone is having a good holiday! I will catch up with a few more threads then go offline until after I've seen the Doctor Who Christmas special (to avoid spoilers).

173dudes22
Dic 25, 2017, 3:44 pm

RP - Glad you are having a good time with your family. And some nice book presents. My wish for your this Christmas:

174andreablythe
Dic 25, 2017, 5:16 pm

Happy Holidays! Wishing you all the best and many new, glorious books to read!

175rabbitprincess
Dic 26, 2017, 11:20 am

>173 dudes22: Thanks, Betty, and a merry Christmas to you as well!

>174 andreablythe: Happy Holidays, Andrea! A bookstore crawl may be in the cards later this week :D

****

It's done. I've watched the Doctor Who Christmas special. I enjoyed it, as I do all Christmas specials. There was a great deal of laughter among the tears -- and there were a lot of those! I think my having met Peter while he was the Doctor has made me far more emotionally susceptible to anything that happens to Twelve. I am excited to meet Jodie and looking forward to the new season, but it's always hard to say goodbye to a Doctor.

I'll probably watch the episode again when my parents finally watch it, now that I've hopefully got most of the embarrassing weeping out of my system :P

176rabbitprincess
Dic 26, 2017, 12:14 pm

Two books finished on this vacation so far!

The Return of the Soldier, by Rebecca West
Category: Geliget
Source: Project Gutenberg
Rating: 3/5
Review: http://www.librarything.com/review/132765868

A novella that has a definite impact, but I'm not sure how I feel about it.

A Suitable Lie, by Michael J. Malone
Category: Geliget
Source: Bouchercon 2017 swag bag
Rating: 3/5
Review: http://www.librarything.com/review/147042885

A "marriage thriller" that came in my Bouchercon swag bag. I wouldn't have read it otherwise. It's not bad, and I like that it's set in Scotland, but it was a deeply tense and unpleasant story (I don't like confrontation at the best of times).

177rabbitprincess
Dic 29, 2017, 1:01 pm

The lull between Christmas and New Year's is in full force. Losing track of what day it is, and not having meals at proper times, just grazing here and there.

I've finished up another Serial Reader story and borrowed some Doctor Who comics from my hometown library (on my mum's card) to encourage them to buy more ;)

Ghost Stories of an Antiquary, by M.R. James
Category: Penac (short stories)
Source: Serial Reader
Rating: 4/5
Review: http://www.librarything.com/review/149080779

This was delightfully creepy. Would like to read it again in a physical book. Maybe a ghost story Halloween party where we read them out loud!

Doctor Who: The Eleventh Doctor Archives, Volume 2, by various authors
Category: Penac, Sipu Muin
Source: hometown library
Rating: 3.5/5
Review: http://www.librarything.com/review/149527862

This is a good collection of comics with a variety of art styles and stories. Rory in particular had some good dialogue. The drawing of Amy was hit-and-miss though.

178rabbitprincess
Dic 29, 2017, 1:09 pm

My parents found a used bookstore in the GTA, which is an amazing accomplishment. I went a little crazy of course and bought some books:

The Green Branch, by Edith Pargeter (Heaven Tree trilogy #2)
The Scarlet Seed, by Edith Pargeter (Heaven Tree trilogy #3)
Agent in Place, by Helen MacInnes
Gold from Crete, by C.S. Forester
The Man in the Yellow Raft, by C.S. Forester
One Half of Robertson Davies, by Robertson Davies
Doctor Who and the War Games, by Malcolm Hulke
Doctor Who: Evolution, by John Peel
Autumn Mist, by David A. McIntee
Doctor Who and the Keys of Marinus, by Philip Hinchcliffe
Castrovalva, by Christopher H. Bidmead
McNally's Dare, by Lawrence Sanders / Vincent Lardo
Across the Plains: with memories and other essays, by Robert Louis Stevenson

I'll leave the first 3 with my parents (we've decided that Mum will be the keeper of Pargeter and MacInnes books) and take the rest home. Good thing my backpack was emptied of Christmas gifts from the train ride home!

179Chrischi_HH
Dic 30, 2017, 6:35 pm

"The lull between Christmas and New Year's is in full force. Losing track of what day it is, and not having meals at proper times, just grazing here and there."
That's what I've really been enjoying this year. Lots of coziness on the sofa, reading, watching the darts world championship with my boyfriend and eating some of the Christmas leftovers whenever we felt like it. Too bad this is over tomorrow. Happy new year to you!

180rabbitprincess
Dic 30, 2017, 10:41 pm

>179 Chrischi_HH: That does sound like a cozy holiday period! And yes, I am not looking forward to going back to work on Tuesday :-/ Happy new year!

****

I'm home after a long-ish day of travel. My train left Toronto 40 minutes late and was almost an hour late getting into Ottawa. But I got a ride home from the train station -- very welcome in this land of frigid temperatures -- and unpacked all my books and started preparing year-end stats and summaries.

I'm going to call this my last book of 2017:

Doctor Who: The Eleventh Doctor Archives, Volume 3, by various authors
Category: Penac, Sipu Muin
Source: library
Rating: 4/5
Review: http://www.librarything.com/review/149527892

I enjoyed this collection of comics slightly more than Volume 2, probably because of the last story, "The Girl Who Loved Doctor Who". It was so ridiculously meta and awesome.

****

Stay tuned tomorrow for the monthly recap and the yearly roundup!

181VivienneR
Dic 31, 2017, 1:13 am

I miss holidays (and coffee breaks) since I retired but I appreciate not having to go back to work after the holiday :-)

Wrap up on Tuesday, I heard Ottawa has been cold!

182rabbitprincess
Dic 31, 2017, 9:48 am

>181 VivienneR: Yep, this holiday break had me thinking longingly of retirement (another 23 years to go...). I've asked to take a retirement planning course in the next fiscal year, one of the ones where you can bring your significant other. My SO speaks Boring Financial Stuff more fluently than I do ;)

Oh yes, it's quite cold. Current temperature minus 24 Celsius, windchill minus 34! I'm trying to remind myself that summer days with similar differences between actual temperature and humidex are way more uncomfortable for me.

183mstrust
Dic 31, 2017, 11:54 am

Have a Happy New Year's! Drinking champagne will keep you warm. : D

184rabbitprincess
Dic 31, 2017, 2:17 pm

>183 mstrust: Thanks, Jennifer! Happy new year to you as well! We'll be watching Hot Fuzz and the Albert Finney version of Murder on the Orient Express. It's the first New Year's Eve in a while where we'll be watching more than one movie. We've been watching the extended Hobbit movies for the past few years...one movie is a marathon in itself!

****

We braved the wilds of IKEA this morning (hint: go shortly after the store opens) and got me some new shelves. This was my Christmas present from my BF. I'm taking a break from assembling the shelves and going through stuff that is intended to go on the shelves and posting my monthly recap for December.

December recap

December proved just as productive as November, with another 20 books read (thanks, comic books and Serial Reader!).

Bright-Sided: How the Relentless Promotion of Positive Thinking Has Undermined America, by Barbara Ehrenreich
A Christmas Carol, by Charles Dickens (Serial Reader)
How Green Was My Valley, by Richard Llewellyn
The Stranger from the Sea, by Winston Graham
Doctor Who and the Androids of Tara, by Terrance Dicks
King’s Ransom, by Ed McBain
Doctor Who: Winner Takes All, by Jacqueline Rayner
Doctor Who: Borrowed Time, by Naomi A. Alderman
Flatland: A Romance in Many Dimensions, by Edwin A. Abbott (Serial Reader)
Smiley’s People, by John le Carré (reread)
Ask an Astronaut: My Guide to Life in Space, by Tim Peake
1979, by Michael Healey
From Here to Eternity: Travelling the World in Search of the Good Death, by Caitlin Doughty
None But the Dead, by Lin Anderson
The Distant Echo, by Val McDermid (reread)
The Return of the Soldier, by Rebecca West (Project Gutenberg)
A Suitable Lie, by Michael J. Malone
Ghost Stories of an Antiquary, by M.R. James (Serial Reader)
Doctor Who: The Eleventh Doctor Archives, Volume 2, by various authors
Doctor Who: The Eleventh Doctor Archives, Volume 3, by various authors

My favourite book of the month was A Christmas Carol, by Charles Dickens. I read it for the first time this year and loved it! Can definitely see why people would make a tradition out of reading it every year.

My least favourite book was Flatland: A Romance in Many Dimensions, by Edwin A. Abbott. It was weird more than anything else.

In December I read my RandomCAT book. Hurray for excuses to read Doctor Who novels!

Currently reading

Have Not Been the Same: The CanRock Renaissance 1985-1995, by Michael Barclay — To quote Blue Rodeo, I’m reading this book “now and forever”.
At Home: A Short History of Private Life, by Bill Bryson — audio, read by Bill Bryson. Still chipping away at this. I may take a break after this batch of discs and listen to a Doctor Who audio.
Kipling: A Selection of His Stories and Poems Volume 1, by Rudyard Kipling — I’ve finished The Jungle Book and am now reading Kim (both via Serial Reader). My idea is to read the rest of the book concurrently with Kim and be finished the book that much more quickly.
Revolution in the Head: The Beatles’ Records and the Sixties, by Ian MacDonald — I started this at my parents’ place over Christmas and had to bring it back to finish. I’ll return it on my next visit home, because my dad and brother will love this.
The Brothers Karamazov, by Fyodor Dostoevsky (translated by Constance Garnett) — I’m reading this on Serial Reader, so I’m getting an older translation. But I think Serial Reader is really the only way I’m going to even attempt this.
The Gene: An Intimate History, by Siddhartha Mukherjee — this came in on Overdrive and I thought it might come in handy for my travel reading. I didn't get around to it, but I can always read it during mealtimes at work through the library's website.

January plans

I’ve set aside Quick Curtain, by Alan Melville, for the RandomCAT (book bullets). I’m also planning to start off the year with some Arthurian romances by Chretien de Troyes. And if I’m really ambitious, I might pull out The Black Arrow for the ColourCAT.

On the library shelves:

Sting of the Zygons, by Stephen Cole — this won’t be on the shelves for long ;) A Ten and Martha story.
The Colony of Unrequited Dreams, by Robert Chafe — the stage play of Wayne Johnston’s novel of the same name. Strategically renewed. It will be a great start to my plays category!
Occupied City, by David Peace — a strategic renewal from last month.
Western Approaches, by Graham Hurley — another strategic renewal from last month.
Why Spencer Perceval Had to Die, by Andro Linklater — a book I borrowed ages ago and re-borrowed after reading Peter Ackroyd’s book Revolution.
The Last Highlander: Scotland’s Most Notorious Clan Chief and Rebel Double Agent, by Sarah Fraser — this will be perfect for my Celtic category in the 2018 challenge.

****

The year-end stats are coming up!

185mstrust
Dic 31, 2017, 5:20 pm

186rabbitprincess
Editado: Dic 31, 2017, 6:29 pm

>185 mstrust: Aww puppy! Thanks for the well wishes!

****

Here it is: the 2017 recap!

2017 recap

Total books read: 184 (same as last year!)

Category totals (these may add up to more than 184 because I posted a few in multiple categories):

Geliget (General fiction) - 16
Captain Goddard M.S.M. (Canlit and Canadian content) - 19
Martha L. Black (Mysteries) - 27
Hudson (Historical fiction) - 16
Viola M. Davidson (Very interesting historical facts) - 11
Sipu Muin (SFF) - 18
Eckaloo (Encore reads) - 5
Louis S. St. Laurent (Livres en français) - 2
Ann Harvey (Audiobooks) - 10
Penac (Plays, short stories, essays, GNs, other miscellaneous short books) - 17 (3 plays + 14 “other”)
Neocaligus (Non-history-related non-fiction) - 33 (10 CultureCAT + 23 “other”)
Tracy (Together we shall read these books) - 35 (6 AwardsCAT + 10 CATWoman + 12 RandomCAT + 7 group reads)
Opilio (Oh no I can’t go on reading these books) - 12

Once again I am astounded by how much non-fiction I read. It’s even more than you think because there are two categories for it; I hived off all the historical non-fiction into its own category. Obviously history is a big interest for me.

Audiobooks did even better than last year. In 2016 I read 4 audiobooks, which I thought was some kind of record; this year I more than doubled that total! It’s thanks to Big Finish that I finally cracked it (well, and the excellent audiobook read by Peter Capaldi that I borrowed from the library…).

I didn’t do quite as well with my pool as I would have liked, so next year my pool will be smaller (it’s 33 titles rather than 40).

Now for my top books of the year, five from each quarter.

Picks of Q1 (Jan-Mar)
The Expendable Man, by Dorothy B. Hughes
The Secret Place, by Tana French
Smoke Gets In Your Eyes: And Other Lessons from the Crematory, by Caitlin Doughty
Hidden Figures: The American Dream and the Untold Story of the Black Women Mathematicians Who Helped Win the Space Race, by Margot Lee Shetterly
The Gift of the Gab: How Eloquence Works, by David Crystal

Picks of Q2 (Apr-Jun)
The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat: And Other Clinical Tales, by Oliver Sacks
We, the Drowned, by Carsten Jensen (translated by Charlotte Barslund and Emma Ryder)
The Radium Girls: The Dark Story of America's Shining Women, by Kate Moore
The Strange Death of Fiona Griffiths, by Harry Bingham
The Birds & Don't Look Now, by Daphne du Maurier (audio, read by Peter Capaldi)

Picks of Q3 (Jul-Sep)
This Thing of Darkness, by Harry Bingham
The Checklist Manifesto: How to Get Things Right, by Atul Gawande
Agatha Christie’s Murder in the Making: Stories and Secrets from Her Archive, by John Curran
Castles: Their History and Evolution in Medieval Britain, by Marc Morris
What Bloody Man is That?, by Simon Brett

Picks of Q4 (Oct-Dec)
The Etymologicon, by Mark Forsyth
The John Lennon Letters, ed. Hunter Davies (audio, read by Christopher Eccleston)
A Christmas Carol, by Charles Dickens (Serial Reader)
The Devil in Velvet, by John Dickson Carr
My Cousin Rachel, by Daphne du Maurier

2017 in books meme

Describe yourself: Hi, Anxiety

How do you feel? A Suitable Lie

Describe where you currently live: Snowblind

If you could go anywhere...? A Foreign Country

Favorite form of transportation: Glasgow Underground

Your best friend is: The Stranger from the Sea

You and your friends are: Pirate Women

What's the weather like? The Right to Be Cold

Your favorite time of day is: The Hounds of Sunset

What is life for you? Complications

You fear: The Gone-Away World

Best advice: Ask a Policeman

Thought for the day: If I Understood You, Would I Have This Look on My Face?

How you would like to die: Big Mushy Happy Lump

Your soul’s present condition: Blood, Salt, Water

****

Onward to the Doctor Who challenge!


187paruline
Editado: Dic 31, 2017, 7:41 pm

Hi rabbitprincess, haven't commented a lot on your thread this year but enjoyed vicariously your trip in Hay and to Bouchercon. And I hope you're bundled up and cozy during this cold snap we're having.

Again this year, you read an impressive amount of books.

Happy New Year!

188rabbitprincess
Dic 31, 2017, 10:13 pm

>187 paruline: Thanks, and happy new year to you as well! This cold snap is pretty fierce. Not looking forward to going back to work on Tuesday :P

Have a great 2018! Hope we can get out to a book sale!

189andreablythe
Ene 3, 2018, 12:18 pm

Haha, love your meme answers. Especially the "how you die". ;)

190rabbitprincess
Ene 3, 2018, 6:44 pm

>189 andreablythe: I was perfectly prepared to die a big mushy happy lump after Ottawa ComicCon in May :D (although I would have missed out on Montreal ComicCon in July).