The Chronicles of Wunderkind

This is the first year I'll be keeping track of how much I read, so I've no idea how realistic this goal is. Anywho, here's where we are so far:

1) Brave New World by Aldous Huxley--I found this one really disappointing actually, considering how phenomenal Point Counter Point is. I almost couldn't believe it was the same Huxley and I have no idea why this is so acclaimed. There was no subtlety, the characters were two-dimensional, and the plot was weakly constructed. And the dialogue...oh, the dialogue...

2) Mrs Dalloway by Virginia Woolf--I first read this three years ago, as a senior in high school. It wasn't as affecting the second time around; the first time, the whole idea of everyone having completely unique and separate perspectives and therefore never being able to completely understand the people around us (even those we love) was really profound and earth-shattering. I think I've since internalized that whole concept, so this time I couldn't figure out what I was so excited about before. Still, very good and I suppose it was one of those formative books for me.

3) Memoirs of a Professional Cad by George Sanders--Better known as Addison DeWitt from "All About Eve". Not particularly substantial, but enjoyable and clever. My favorite line and now a personal motto: "I was only interested in getting to the top the easy way, and if I couldn't get to the top the easy way I would settle for getting some of the way the easy way."

4) Human Voices by Penelope Fitzgerald--Takes place at the BBC during the Blitz. There's a lot of gentle humor and eccentric characters to whom I was surprisingly attached by the end (which came too soon; I think it's less than 100 pages long). Definitely one I want to reread soon.

5) The Quiet American by Graham Greene--This one wasn't nearly as good as I was hoping it would be. This was the fourth or fifth Greene novel I'd read and, as with all of the others, I went into it expecting something like Somerset Maugham and got something a little less than brilliant. Greene writes well, but something about his books never quite takes off and always keeps them from the five-star range, in my opinion. But then I keep reading his stuff, so he must be doing something right.

6) Winnie-the-Pooh by A.A. Milne--I can't believe I've never read Milne's books before. Cute and clever is the best combination for a children's book.

7) Bleak House by Charles Dickens--I don't think I can say anything about Bleak House that hasn't already been said, except that I loved it. I don't know what Dickens novel to read next because I feel like anything else will be a let down after this.

8) The Good Soldier by Ford Madox Ford--Slow at first, then engrossing. Apparently there were supposed to be some jokes in there, but I was too busy contemplating the intricacies of human relationships to notice. I'll have to reread it to find the funny bits.

9) My Dog Tulip by J.R. Ackerley--Part of my motivation to read this came from all of the praise Ackerley got from his contemporaries, but mostly it came from my love of dogs. Unfortunately, Ackerley was one of those uninformed, irresponsible dog owners who nobody likes, so I was never really too pleased with him, regardless of his obvious love for "Tulip"/Queenie. And the focus on getting her mated got really old really quickly. Pretty disappointing.

10) When We Were Very Young by A.A. Milne--Also cute and clever, like the Pooh stories, but in smaller doses. I prefer the stories for their lovable characters, but the poems were nice. The illustrations were even nicer.

11) Now We Are Six by A.A. Milne--See 10.

12) A Life in Secrets: The Story of Vera Atkins and the Lost Agents of SOE by Sarah Helm--Fascinating and brilliantly written. The SOE was the "dirty tricks" department of the intelligence services during WWII; they had some successes in Eastern Europe, but the French department was pretty shockingly incompetent. The aftermath of more-or-less dropping half of their agents into the hands of the Nazis was a search for survivors (or, more often, evidence of their deaths) that lasted for a couple of years after the war. I really liked how Helm honestly portrayed the protagonist of the story, Vera Atkins, as a very complex and morally ambiguous person, and her way of structuring the book as a search within a search (her search for information on Atkins' life and activities mirroring Atkins' search for her agents) kept the story exciting.

13) The Cement Garden by Ian McEwan--Well...It was a page-turner, but I'm not sure what I got out of it. I like to be able to relate to at least some aspect of the book I'm reading--which wasn't really the case here, what with the male teenage angst, dysfunctional family life, and sexual tension between siblings--but I wouldn't say I didn't enjoy it. Probably not going to read it again.

14) The Decline and Fall of Practically Everybody by Will Cuppy--Laugh-out-loud funny in spots and clever the rest of the way through. I think I would have thought it was even funnier if I knew more about the history Cuppy parodies, but my high school classes left me sadly under-prepared (the tragedy of a public school education). One of my favorite bits: The Bayeux Tapestry is accepted as an authority on many details of life and the fine points of history in the eleventh century. For instance, the horses in those days had green legs, blue bodies, yellow manes, and red heads, while the people were all double-jointed and quite different from what we generally think of as human beings.

15) And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie--I'm not a big fan of mysteries, but I thought I should at least check this one out. It didn't really convert me, and I probably won't be reading any more mysteries any time soon, but I must say it was fairly enjoyable. Not the expository first chapter--that was kind of painful to read--but the later chapters that were mostly dialogue were fun and fast. I've been told Sayers is better, so I think I'll try a Lord Wimsey book someday.

16) The Turn of the Screw by Henry James--Eh. It got kind of creepy near the end (children who talk to ghosts are always creepy), but the last sentence sort of ruined it. Too melodramatic. Also, I found the governess highly annoying. I may be a simpleton, but if a ghost story isn't scary, what's the point? (I understand that it may have been scary at one time, but I don't really get why people today keep insisting on its creepiness-value.) I think I'll enjoy James' other novels more, when I get around to them.

17) The Tao of Pooh by Benjamin Hoff--Not bad. He had some interesting parallels to make between Taoism and Poohism, but the main effect of the book was to make me want to go read the real Pooh books instead. Also, the author has some dialogue with Pooh and Friends and, rather than seeming cute, it actually just kind of annoyed me. Those are Milne's characters and I didn't like Hoff putting words in their mouths.

18) Gang Leader for a Day: A Rogue Sociologist Takes to the Streets by Sudhir Venkatesh--This is being pimped by my local bookstores because the author got his MA and PhD here and the experiences on which he wrote the book took place just northwest of Hyde Park, in the Bronzeville neighborhood (otherwise known as home to "the worst projects in America" until they were torn down last year to make room for overpriced condos--gentrification, here we come). I don't know what I was expecting and I'm actually not sure why I bought it, since sociology isn't really my thing (it was probably the flashy title), but I found this tremendously interesting. It's not a scholarly, quantitatively-researched work, just Venkatesh telling about his experiences: hanging out with a drug-dealing gang leader, meeting the people living in the projects, and coming to understand the economics and complex social hierarchies that keep a neighborhood running, at least to an extent, when it's been more-or-less abandoned by the city. Of course, there are a lot of moral gray areas, but this is the best explanation of inner-city poverty that I've ever come across, and it's completely altered the way I see the city around me. It's also made me want to watch "The Wire".

19) Haiku Humor: Wit and Folly in Japanese Poems and Prints edited by Stephen Addiss--Does what it says on the cover. My favorite:
"With both hands
thrust up mightily--
my yawn"

20) Three Men in a Boat: To Say Nothing of the Dog by Jerome K. Jerome--Very funny, as expected. The best bits for me usually involved Montmorency, who reminded me uncannily of my own terrier.

21) The Heat of the Day by Elizabeth Bowen--This is the second novel by Bowen that I've read (the first was The House in Paris) and both times she's just missed the mark for me. She's an excellent writer, but something about the way she approaches her characters doesn't please me. I would expand upon that, but I don't really know what I mean, except that both novels vaguely disappointed me. However, something tells me that one of her books is going to be the one, and so I persevere.

22) Criticisms and Appreciations of the Works of Charles Dickens by G.K. Chesterton--I've never read any Dickens criticism before, but, now that I've found Chesterton's, I don't think I have to look any further. He makes reading about Dickens almost as satisfying as actually reading Dickens.

23) Letters to His Daughter by F. Scott Fitzgerald--Fitzgerald's probably my favorite American author, and while he's clever and charming in these letters to his daughter, Scottie, you also get the sense that he was a pretty inadequate father figure. He gives some good advice though, so maybe he would have made a better uncle. Very interesting and entertaining, and fathers with teenage daughters will probably be able to sympathize with Fitzgerald.

24) The Bookshop at Curzon Street: Letters Between Nancy Mitford and Heywood Hill--I'm on a correspondence kick at the moment, and this book provided all of the affectionate wit one would expect from Mitford. Very funny until right near the end, when Nancy is suffering from the pains of cancer and all of their friends seem to be dying at once, which of course makes their final letters very poignant.

25) Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro--Unfortunately, I knew beforehand what the surprise twist was going to be; fortunately, the "mystery" aspect of that wasn't the central theme of the plot. Excellently written, of course, and very subtle in the way it very slowly builds up to the emotional effect of the ending. Although I suppose that would vary depending on one's reading. I thought the only weakness of the plot was the unlikelihood of the whole situation actually arising: if the technology exists with which to successfully clone humans in mass numbers, wouldn't biomedical science also have arrived at a point where organs could be grown outside of their natural environment?

Welcome to the list, Wunderkind. I thoroughly enjoyed reading your list of books and your comments.

Thanks very much, dihiba!

Yes, welcome- nice list -a couple of your books are on my " I should get these book" list"
I also read the Ishiguro - I thought that his other books were better.

Thanks! The only other book by Ishiguro I've read is The Remains of the Day, which I thought was more affecting and original. This one still made me want to read more of his work though.

Regarding The Turn of the Screw, maybe the point is that there are no ghosts, but that the governness is so full of class, sexual, (and probably other) anxieties that she convinces herself that there are.

Of course if the story didn't work for you it didn't work for you, but . . . for what it's worth.

I had that interpretation in mind while reading it, but it seemed an odd way to go about portraying the downfall, so to speak, of a neurotic young woman. I suppose in that case the children could have just had overactive imaginations that only seem sinister through the unreliable descriptions of the narrator, but...I don't know, it seemed to leave a lot of things unexplained. Although I suppose that could be said about a straightforward ghost story--I guess it's just a matter of suspending disbelief regarding metaphysical occurrences versus psychological ones.

Re#5/25: Now how can the "unlikelihood of the whole situation actually arising" be a weakness? It's unlikely that a stuffed bear would come to life, but that doesn't weaken Pooh! Silly old bear.

A great list, wunderkind! Agree with your AA Milne and Dickens choices :) Have you considered Nicholas Nickleby or David Copperfield for your next Dickens book? I read them before Bleak House last year and really enjoyed them.

Re 12: Ah, but "Winnie-the-Pooh" isn't a cautionary tale warning against the potential inhumanity of science. At least, I don't think it is.

I see you were disappointed by Brave New World and I am sorry to hear that. This is one of my favorite books. I loved the cautionary tale of this book and it's foresight into our current modern world and obssession with personal pleasure. But, I have not yet read Point, Counterpoint and see that you like it. I have a copy and look forwar to reading it.

I also was taken by surprise with The Good Soldier and enjoyed it a great deal.

So far, A Tale of Two Cities is my favorite Dickens, but I haven't tackled Bleak House.

Kudos on the ecclectic nature and variety on your list. Your a great addition to this topic and I look forward to seeing your reading posted here for other suggestions for my TBR stack.

digifish_books: I'm thinking about trying David Copperfield next; I've read that it was Dickens' personal favorite, which sounds like a good endorsement to me. :)

blackdogbooks: I really wanted to like it, and I did start to right at the end. I don't remember being in a bad mood at the time, but, just in case it was only bad timing, I've kept my copy for a potential reread sometime in the future. It might also have been that I was expecting another Point Counter Point (lots of dialogue and philosophical debating and whatnot, with very little plot to speak of), which isn't what Huxley was trying to do with Brave New World, so my assumptions were probably unfair going in...Anyway, thanks very much for the welcome!

Good List. I had forgotten about Will Cuppy - my mother and grandfather were both very fond of him. A suggestion for your next Dickens read - how about my personal favorite,Our Mutual Friend?

Thanks for the suggestion! I don't remember how I first heard about Will Cuppy, but I don't think any of his books are still in print. It's a shame, because he's still very funny after all these years. Maybe historical parodies are considered "too smart" for the general public? (Which might be a valid point, since bits of it definitely went over my head.)

26) Rough Crossing by Tom Stoppard--This is the second Stoppard play I've read (after Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead) and it's got the same clever wordplay. The plot here was pretty weak though, and the ending was really anticlimactic; besides some commentary on the nature of playwriting, it seems like the story was just a vehicle for Stoppard's wit (which I suppose is okay with me). The best character is Dvornichek (aka Murphy), a hotel steward moonlighting on a cruise ship even though he doesn't know the proper nautical name for anything: "I told them my last position was the Mauritania. They suspect nothing in the basement." Apparently Michael Kitchen played the character in the original production, which I really wish I could have seen because it would have been hilarious.

"We don't call them the chimneys, sir. We call them the smokesticks."

Hi Wunderkind - think I'll be coming back to your list for possible next reads - you've several books that intrigue me (when I've dented my TBR pile a bit more anyway)...!

Re: Bleak House - I loved this too. I know the stories of many, but this is the only one (besides A Christmas Carol) that I've read - and I agree, I'm stumped as to which to read next - I don't think I want to read the obvious ones (Great Expectations, David Copperfield, or Oliver Twist) just yet as I know what happens and the (very old) film of The Tale of Two Cities had me in such floods of tears (for the 'tis a far, far better thing that I do now...' bloke, not the love's young dream) that it's going to take me a lot of courage to tackle it, so any recommendations you come across, greatly received!!

I didn't know the plot before hand, but had a pretty similar reaction to Never Let Me Go - somehow, this is the first Ishiguro that I've got around to reading and I think he writes beautifully, but found the story a bit less than...

Having grown up with Pooh, I'm glad you've found him (and his Tao) - I haven't read any for, well, about 20 years at least, but I can still quote it (James, Morrison, Morrison, Whetherby George Dupree...). Makes me smile :)

Am also sorry you were disappointed by Brave New World - I read it about the same time as 1984 and Lord of the Flies, which did both, it is true, have a bigger impact, but nonetheless, it made a big impression on me, so I find it sad when people don't enjoy it. That said, I was about 13/14 when I read it and everything was new to me - books that make a big impact as you grow up don't necessarily live beyond that age, so I'm not going to try re-reading it just in case - I recently read Brave New World Revisited and found it really quite frustrating and one-dimensional, so maybe this should be a warning to me - your favourite shall be added to my (ever increasing) list though...

27) The Human Factor by Graham Greene--My thoughts on this one are pretty much the same as my thoughts on The Quiet American (see #5 above), although TQA had a couple of memorable scenes and THF, well, didn't. It wasn't bad, but I wouldn't recommend that anyone go out of their way to read it.

Hi flissp,

I'm thinking about going with Our Mutual Friend next, mostly because it's one of two Dickens novels I have with me here at school (the other being Dombey and Son). The only other Dickens I've read is Great Expectations, which I really enjoyed, though not as much as Bleak House. Whereas BH had it's moments of darkness alternated with funny or touching parts, GE was just sort of gray all the way through. And Pip is a pretty uninspiring hero (probably by design). But I still thought it was excellent, so hopefully whatever I go with next will keep up the trend.

Re: Pooh--After I read that song, I went around singing it all day...

As for Brave New World, I think I probably would have liked it more if I'd read it when I tackled 1984 in 9th grade. I remember liking the latter, although it was never a favorite, and I've been meaning to reread it to see if it holds up. Hope you like Point Counter Point!

28) Parnassus on Wheels by Christopher Morley--I just picked this up on an impulse this evening and read it in a couple of hours. A pretty simple, warm fuzzy-inducing story about a woman who abandons her staid farm life to drive a mobile used bookstore, the Parnassus, around New England. And of course there's some romance (of the middle-aged variety).

29) To Say Nothing of the Dog by Connie Willis--I'd heard a lot of good things about this book and was slightly skeptical going in; it sounded like something I would love, but I think I just didn't want to be disappointed. Fortunately, I wasn't--Connie Willis does the Wodehousian kind of humor perfectly, and all of my questions regarding the logic of the whole time travel thing were resolved by the end. My only reservation is that I didn't ever feel emotionally involved in the story, for some reason, which meant that there was never really any tension. Still, it was a lot of fun to read.

30) A Question of Upbringing by Anthony Powell--This is the first volume in Powell's A Dance to the Music of Time sequence of novels, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. There were quite a few similarities, I thought, to Of Human Bondage, which I also loved. I'd been going through a bit of a dry spell with the books I've been reading--the last few I finished and the ones I'm working through now were lacking that special something that lets me have a personal connection with a book and reminds me why I spend so much time reading. A Question of Upbringing has that in spades, and I can't wait to read the next volume. I read a blurb somewhere that Powell's readers tend to be fanatical about him, and I wouldn't be surprised if I'm a little fanatical myself by the time I finish all twelve novels.

31) Young Adolf by Beryl Bainbridge--Yes, that Adolf. This short novel is a fictionalized account of the time Adolf Hitler spent in Liverpool as a young man. Bainbridge is one of my favorite authors, but I didn't like this one as much as her other books. Her style of writing, which I love, is still there, but I think the subject matter kept me from feeling a connection with any of the characters. It was still good, but I definitely prefer her other stuff.

32) The House at Pooh Corner by A.A. Milne--And now I've read all of the Pooh stories. It's great that Milne was so consistent in keeping the same gentleness and humor throughout his writing. I read this volume to myself at bedtime, one or two stories a night, and it was a very nice way to end the day.

>28 wunderkind: How wonderful!! :)

After more than 30 years I still find The House at Pooh Corner a very comforting read.

I've enjoyed reading your thread - thanks. Interesting to read what you say about Anthony Powell - I've had the first volume (Spring) of A Dance to the Music of Time on my shelf for a while...maybe it's time I got started.

Re Digifish: I only wish I'd had them read to me as a small child. I remember the cartoon version, though not fondly (why did they have to Americanize the characters? It took me ages to get those voices out of my head when I was reading the books).

Re Rachbxl: I kept seeing the omnibus version of it in stores, and it looks so serious with that classical painting for cover art that it put me right off reading them. Not to mention the massive length when you put them all together like that; of the ones I own so far, all are the individually published novels, which are actually very thin and therefore not quite so intimidating.

33) World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War by Max Brooks--I'm not really sure what prompted me to read this book, since I have pretty much no interest in zombies and have never even watched a proper zombie movie (I'm not counting "28 Days Later" because those weren't really zombies). It was probably the format of the book, which was a series of "interviews" with survivors of the zombie war that engulfed the earth in the hypothetical near future. It was an interesting way to go about telling the story and the book was very enjoyable; I especially liked Brooks' take on how governments and societal infrastructure would function (or not) in near-apocalyptic conditions. I must admit, though, that I was definitely not the audience for this book, since I thought the weakest aspect of it was the fact that it dealt with zombies. Yeah, I know, I shouldn't complain about the presence of zombies in a book clearly labeled as being about zombies, but I just can't find something scary if there's no way it could possibly ever (ever) exist, so there really wasn't any scare factor in this for me. But it was an entertaining read nevertheless, so anyone who actually does think zombies are scary would probably love World War Z.

>>31 wunderkind:
You're right! I hadn't thought of it like that before, but I just had a look at my copy of Vol. 1, and it's over 700 pages long - but the first novel is only 229 of those pages, which isn't anything like so daunting.

Glad I could help! :)

34) Black Dogs by Ian McEwan--I've noticed a trend in the way people, myself included, seem to judge McEwan novels, although this probably applies to novels in general: if he happens to be touching on a theme that the reader is personally interested in, then that reader judges the novel as brilliant*, while those who aren't personally invested in the topic at hand say that the characters are uninteresting, the plot is weak, and the book is one of his more disappointing efforts (I think the first two points are due to the way McEwan seems to leave space in the narration for the reader, with a seemingly bland first-person narrator who doesn't obscure the deliberately nebulous, and therefore openly interpretable, plot, but that's a discussion for another day). The latter reaction describes my own to Amsterdam, The Innocent, and The Cement Garden, and though Atonement had such a great story and was very moving, I still wondered at the end what McEwan's point was, besides to tell a good tale. What I'm getting at here is that, despite my lack of real enthusiasm about the previous books by McEwan that I'd read, his practically flawless style of writing made me keep looking for that one novel where he would hit on something that I really wanted to read about. Today, ladies and gentlemen, my search has come to an end: Black Dogs was so perfect and so relevant to issues that I'm trying to work through myself that there were a few times where I almost didn't want to read the next sentence because I knew that what McEwan said might have the power to leave me elated or devastated. Having said that, I don't know that I would recommend it to anyone I know; like all of those self-defining books, you just have to stumble on it at the right time.

*If this is true, it says something interesting about the almost universal and unequivocal praise for On Chesil Beach...hmm...

35) The Lady Who Liked Clean Restrooms by J.P. Donleavy--I only bought this because I liked the title and thought it was only going to cost a dollar (it ended up costing three, but hey). I've never read anything by J.P. Donleavy before so I don't know if this is just his style, but it seemed like a rough draft that just never got edited, with messed-up punctuation, sentence fragments, and weirdly bad grammar. Which works sometimes, but really wasn't necessary here. The story was mildly entertaining, although I was disinterested in the plot as well as the protagonist, having never been a useless, formerly rich person down on my luck. The first page was pretty good though:

With everyone reacting to and following trends and fashions you never know what's going to happen next in and around New York and especially in suburban climes like Scarsdale. But what worried her more than anything was that she might sink down so deep into the doldrums that back up out of them she might never again get.

On the day she felt this most acutely it was her forty third birthday. She got a bottle of Polish vodka, chilled it ice cold, frosting the glass of a decanter and while listening to Faure's Requiem, spent a couple of hours knocking it back with a sardine paste she made with garlic and cream cheese and spread on pumpernickel bread. But she got so drunk she found herself sitting at midnight with a loaded shotgun across her lap, after she thought she had heard funny noises outside around the house. Then watching a bunch of glad facing so called celebrities spout their bullshit on a T.V. talk show and remembering that once someone told her how, when having quaffed many a dram, they turned off T.V. sets in the remote highlands of Scotland, she clicked off the safety, aimed the Purdey at mid-screen and let off the no. 4 cartridges in both barrels. And she said to herself over and over again as the sparks and flames erupted from the smoke.

'Revenge is what I want. Nothing but pure unadulterated revenge. But my mother brought me up to be a lady.'

Her analyst said everybody was blasting the shit out of their T.V. sets all over New York and described her new behavior of following trends as good news.

Oh, and I forgot this other great line: Jocelyn, the simple fact of the matter is the kids love you and adore you but think you could be dangerous and could kill somebody by accident.

36) The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner--The first Faulkner I've ever read. I must admit that I stalled a bit in the middle of Quentin's narrative, but everything before and after that read like a dream. The writing was amazing. I feel like I need to read this again to put the first half in perspective, but I also want to read more of Faulkner's stuff to see if it's as good.

37) On the Razzle by Tom Stoppard--I should probably stop reading Stoppard's adaptations of other peoples' plays and just read Arcadia or something. This one was pretty disappointing, with the exception of a few good one-liners. Michael Kitchen played Dvornichek/Murphy in the original production of Stoppard's Rough Crossing (see 26 above) and he was the original actor in the role of a lesser (and apparently earlier) version of the same character here, this time going by the name of Melchior; the similarities between the two roles make me wonder whether Dvornichek was written with Mr. Kitchen in mind. Anyway, the plot and characters were pretty weak, and Stoppard's humor even got (gasp) predictable. But since I seem to be making a habit of this, here's one of the funniest bits:

Melchior: ...You won't regret this, sir--I have always parted with my employers on the best of terms.
Zangler: You have never been sacked?
Melchior: Technically, yes, but only after I have let it be known by subtle neglect of my duties that the job has run its course.

Oh, what the hey; here's another one:

Zangler: I'm going to join the parade and call on my fiancee--It's her birthday. I'm hoping to have a little sextet outside her hat shop before I take her to dinner.
Christopher: Outside? In the street?
Zangler: Yes. I can't help it. I'm a fool to myself when I'm in love. If I'm not back by morning you'll know where I'll be.
Christopher: In jail?

38) Human Voices by Penelope Fitzgerald (again)--This was also #4, but I really wanted to read it again, and so I did. I love books set during the Blitz.

39) The Pooh Perplex by Frederick C. Crews--A book of lit crit spoofs centering on the Winnie-the-Pooh stories, complete with poorly translated Freudian analysis. I was both amused and grateful that I decided not to be an English major. My definite favorite was the one that poked fun at the "structural definitions", quantitative literary analysis, and academic incestuousness of the University of Chicago writer--it's an exaggeration, of course, but close enough to the real thing to make me think that Crews must have gone here at some point in his education.

40) Going to Meet the Man by James Baldwin--James Baldwin was possibly my favorite writer in high school, but I hadn't read anything by him in a few years. The first couple of short stories in here were vintage Baldwin, but nothing spectacular. Then there were three or four mediocre entries that made me wonder why I used to like him so much, until I got to the last handful, which just got better and better. I don't usually think of books in terms of their being analogous in structure to music, but this collection seemed kind of musical to me: it started with a little excitement, then got slow and uninteresting in the middle, only to crescendo up to the last, almost unbearably intense moments. Of course, the normal Baldwin themes of race, gender, sexual, et cetera tensions between people are always fascinating. He can write equally well from every perspective, which is a quality I've never found in another writer.

#41: Just an FYI: Crews went to Yale and then got a PhD from Princeton. As far as I know, he never went to U of Chicago.

Thanks, alcottacre. I tracked down an interview of his that got posted online and was surprised to find that out. Maybe all snooty academic institutes are essentially the same...

41) Aspects of the Novel by E.M. Forster--Forster's such a great non-fiction writer, and he really does a great job of deconstructing the novel here. Right near the end, he starts to get more opinionated than academic, which makes it a four stars out of five for me.

Thanks for the thoughts. I recently picked up an old copy of this and haven't yet read it.

42) The Yellow Dog by Georges Simenon--Eh. I was reading someone's review on LT of another book by Simenon that was supposed to be full of "psychological insight". When I saw some of the Maigret mysteries on sale at my local used bookstore, I picked this one. Sadly, I was not impressed. Maigret just wasn't a very interesting character, the story was boring, and the writing just didn't seem that good (although it could have been a bad translation). I gather that this was Simenon's debut, so maybe his later stuff is better.

Since you enjoyed the Pooh books so much, try to find a copy of A. A. Milne's Once on a Time, a thoroughly delightful little fantasy. And I'm glad you read To Say Nothing of the Dog after reading Three Men in a Boat. Didn't you enjoy the latter's cameo in the former?

Thanks very much for the recommendation ronincats--I thought I'd read all of Milne's stuff and am very pleased to see that there's more to enjoy. As for the cameo, I enjoyed it and only wished it were longer. I didn't realize I was so fond of those three until they popped up again.

43) Diary of a Provincial Lady by E.M. Delafield--If Bridget Jones had been married, the mother of two young children, and living in a 1930s English village, Bridget Jones' Diary would have been exactly like this book. It even beats Three Men in a Boat for being the funniest book I've read this year.

An excerpt:
"January 22.--
Robert startles me at breakfast by asking if my cold--which he has hitherto ignored--is better. I reply that it has gone. Then why, he asks, do I look like that? Refrain from asking like what, as I know only too well. Feel that life is wholly unendurable, and decide madly to get a new hat."

44) Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson--Simply put, this book is AWESOME. I read Stephenson's Quicksilver a few years ago and thought it was way overrated, but I was willing to give him another try when I found out this book covered two of my favorite historical topics: WWII and cryptography. Also high-tech finance, but I don't really care about (or understand) that. Stephenson's not great at creating three-dimensional characters and his dialogue can be too expositional, but the guy's style is just so entertaining and funny and intelligent that I don't really care.

#52: I will have to look at that one, because I am a fan of cryptography and WWII as well.

If you have not checked out Leo Marks' Between Silk and Cyanide you ought to give it a try.

That was a good suggestion, alcottacre--I'm actually in the middle of Between Silk and Cyanide right now. I sort of stalled (I don't know why) and haven't gone back to it for a few weeks now, but I'm hoping to finish it up pretty soon.

wunderkind, I don't know what books you have read on cryptography and/or WWII, but if you would like more suggestions I can make some. Please pass on any suggestions you might have to me, and I will see if I have already read them.

Thanks, any suggestions would be very welcome--most of what I've got came from the "Espionage" shelves at my local Powell's, so I'm not sure what all is out there to be read. So far, I either have read or merely own The Code Book by Simon Singh, Battle of Wits by Stephen Budiansky, Codebreakers: The Inside Story of Bletchley Park by F.H. Hinsley, and Enigma by Hugh Sebag-Montefiore.

Does your interest in WWII cryptology extend to WWII espionage?

Yes, it does. I enjoy studying pretty much all aspects of WWII (blame that on my dad), but mainly the intelligence areas. I recently read a very good book on the French Resistance movement called Soldiers of the Night.

I have read all the books on your list with the exception of the book by Simon Singh, so I will have to look out for that one. I am currently reading Fermat's Enigma by him.

If you enjoy the history of cryptography, Code Breakers by David Kahn treats the subject in depth.

I think Powell's has Code Breakers, so I'll definitely see about that one. Earlier this year, I read a great book about one of the most important figures in the French branch of SOE, called A Life in Secrets: The Story of Vera Atkins and the Lost Agents of SOE. It's one of the best non-fiction books I've read this year and I highly recommend it (I described it in more detail above, in Message 3, if you care to look).

I have A Life in Secrets on the way from Amazon, so I will let you know what I think of it when I get it. I think I put it on an order with a book that has not yet been published, so it may be a while yet.

45) Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson--This was a huge disappointment after Cryptonomicon. The little flaws in Stephenson's later work are magnified in this, one of his earlier novels. And there were so many logic holes that I could barely tell whether the story was brilliant or didn't quite make sense (note: it turned out to be the the latter). Someone's review of it on LT said something about biologists needing to squint to enjoy this one, with which I wholeheartedly agree, and the only reason I bothered to finish it was because it was such an easy read: by the halfway point, I was bored with the story, didn't care about the characters, and was really starting to hate all of the pedantic droning about Sumerian cult worship, which ended up being the tenuous thread that held the story together. Definitely not recommended.

Hmmm. Thanks for the heads-up on Snow Crash. I have it on my library list but perhaps will rethink. I was tepid on Cryptonomicon so it sounds like maybe I should pass.

It definitely wouldn't be a bad idea to skip it, although the majority of the reviews on LT seem to disagree with me. "Tepid" was my reaction to Quicksilver--so far, Cryptonomicon is the only one I'm glad I read. I should add that Snow Crash is very entertaining at first--it's when Stephenson started to get all serious that he lost me.

46) Saturday by Ian McEwan--Didn't connect with it as much as with Black Dogs, but it's just about tied with Atonement as my second-favorite McEwan novel. I gather it's a post-9/11 novel in that he describes the new "mood" of the world, but I didn't really notice that very much (possibly as a result of my age--I'm too young to not know a time when the threat of terrorism had replaced the Cold War).

47) The Iceman Cometh by Eugene O'Neill--One of the best plays I've read, although I couldn't relate to any of it. I thought that the vernacular dialogue would get annoying, but it actually helped me to "hear" the characters' individual voices a lot more easily than I usually can when reading plays. Oddly enough, I was reminded of Trainspotting while reading, although that story--also about a bunch of losers with substance abuse problems, and also written in the vernacular-- is a bit less depressing.

48) Eating People is Wrong by Malcolm Bradbury--A reread. I was very worried that it wouldn't be as good this time around, as second readings tend to be disappointing for me, but it was at least as good and possibly better. The dialogue is excellent.

My question is "Who thinks eating people is right?" Does he explain at any length?

Perhaps they are just loaded with cholesterol or salt? Maybe it is a question of good nutrition.

Now that I think on it, I've never actually tried to link up the title and the book itself. There's no cannibalism at all and the story is about a middle-aged professor at a provincial English university (a la Lucky Jim), but I suppose it could mean something figurative like how it's wrong to use people for intellectual or emotional sustenance and then discard them...Or whatever. I think at one point in the book, someone mentions a song or something by the same title, but it wasn't a significant moment.

I think if it was a matter of nutrition, the title would have been "Eating People is Unhealthy". :)

A comment: Thus far, the books I've read this year were written an average of 49.66 years ago.

49) The Pursuit of Love by Nancy Mitford--Not quite as funny as I had hoped it would be after reading Nancy's letters. She's a very witty writer, but I think maybe the novel (or at least this novel) was not her ideal medium. I really enjoyed the parts about the eccentric Radlett family, but I wasn't as interested when the plot moved on to focus on Linda and pretty much ignored all of the other characters. I don't know if it's just a problem of not being able to relate to her "pursuit of love", but I just didn't really understand Linda very well and, thus, couldn't really sympathize with her. Of course, the last page hit me like a ton of bricks and made it all seem very deep and moving, but nearly all of the emotions in the novel were skimmed over and nothing seemed to matter much to anybody. Of course, it's a comic novel so it doesn't have to be emotionally profound, but I think it might have helped. Anyway, I gather that Love in a Cold Climate is better, so I'll have to read that soon.

I really like Nancy Mitford's novels (I can't remember if I liked Love in a Cold Climate better than The Pursuit of Love). I agree that her characters aren't that emotional, but I thought lack of emotion was part of her characterization of the family. Have you read any of her biographies? I liked Madame de Pompadour--it's very gossipy.

I haven't read that one, but I've heard about it--in The Bookshop at Curzon Street: Letters Between Nancy Mitford and Heywood Hill she talks about the writing process a lot and it sounded like she really enjoyed writing it. I actually felt like there was more genuine emotion (subtle, but genuine) in Mitford's description of the family; I don't know if it's because it was based so much on her own family, but it seemed like there was a lot of affection there, like she was really fond of the characters. It was more in the parts about Linda and her relationships where I felt sort of disconnected or something. I definitely want to read more by her though, particularly Don't Tell Alfred.

Oh, I definitely liked Don't Tell Alfred!

I've added it to my "Mitford Reading List" after Love in a Cold Climate, The Sisters: The Saga of the Mitford Family, Hons and Rebels, and The Mitfords: Letters Between Six Sisters. So...it might take a while to get to it.

50) Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami--Well, I liked the ending anyway. I've never read a book with such aggravating dialogue, although that could have been the translator's fault. And the Eichmann/Napoleon's Russian Campaign/Beethoven for Dummies digressions really got on my nerves. Of course it barely made any sense, but I read somewhere that Murakami said it has to be read multiple times to be understood. I'll hang on to my copy in case I feel like taking him up on his advice, but I have a feeling I'll be skimming through a lot of the wooden dialogue next time. And possibly every scene involving Hoshino.

51) The Bottle Factory Outing by Beryl Bainbridge--Bainbridge is one of my favorite authors and this is the eighth book of hers that I've read. She has a very distinctive style that I haven't ever found reproduced in anyone else's writing; it's very British (I don't know exactly what I mean by that, except that the writers I've read who are similar have all been British), where things that are commonplace, absurd, and horrible are all conveyed in the same unironic, matter-of-fact (but often very funny) way. I think that might be why she gets such mixed reviews from people here on Librarything--she creates a very unusual mood that might be off-putting to some people. I personally love it, and I also love the way she can get to the core of her characters' psychology with just a few well-turned sentences. I don't think I've ever thought that one of her characters was unrealistic, and, having just come from reading a book (#50) where I didn't feel like any of the characters were terribly believable, I think that that might be the quality I value most in fiction.

I liked this bit, although it doesn't really have anything to do with anything:
Freda led her away, leaving the offending cut of meat on the counter, and after a week they found a room together in Hope Street, and Freda learnt it wasn't the husband that had abandoned Brenda, it was she who had left him because she couldn't stand him coming home drunk every night from the Little Legion and peeing on the front step. Also, she had a Mother-in-Law who was obviously deranged, who sneaked out at dawn to lift the eggs from under the hens and drew little faces on the shells with a biro.

52) Directions to Servants by Jonathan Swift--A sarcastic set of instructions directed at household servants. Very clever, but also very informative--period films tend to give the impression that servants always did their jobs well, but Swift seems to indicate otherwise. A most likely unintended side effect of Swift's obvious annoyance with lazy employees was a discomfort on my part with his assumption that household workers should be expected to give their all for their job. Part of me thinks of Stevens from The Remains of the Day and thinks that there's no good reason to dedicate one's life to another person's comfort just for the sake of a job; but then another part of me thinks that we all sort of have a duty to society to do whatever that job is to the best of our ability. I had this same conflict when I worked for a summer cleaning up after customers at a movie theater and never decided whether working my hardest at such a menial job was really in my best interests...Anyway, about the book: some of it was good, some of it wasn't that entertaining, but I laughed out loud a couple of times.

Excerpts:
Directions to the Cook--To save time and trouble, cut your apples and onions with the same knife, for well-bred gentry love the taste of an onion in everything they eat.

Directions to the Footman--Never wear socks when you wait at meals, on account of your own health as well as of them who sit at table, because, as most ladies like the smell of young men's toes, so it is a sovereign remedy against the vapors.

This one reminded me of A Modest Proposal:
Directions to the Nurse--If you happen to let the child fall, and lame it, be sure never confess it; and if it dies, all is safe.

53) Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte (audiobook)--I tried to actually read this a couple of times in high school but never got past the first chapter. Even though I'm not a huge fan of audiobooks (too slow and I don't have the patience), I am a huge fan of Michael Kitchen, who was the reader here. Anyway, the story was spectacular and emotionally involving and I'm terribly glad that I've finally gotten around to "reading" it.

I'm watching the Foyle's War series featuring Michael Kitchen. I might just be tempted to listen to Wuthering Heights now!

54) The Homecoming by Harold Pinter--Good but unpleasant. Pinter must have had a very low opinion of human nature. The (im)morality and "family values" that this play embodies are pretty much the polar opposite of everything that I believe in. A work of literature hasn't come this close to making me feel sick from sheer disgust since I read The 158-Pound Marriage in high school (which actually succeeded, probably because it was longer). Anyway, it was thought-provoking.

55) Gilead by Marilynne Robinson--Robinson's Housekeeping is one of my favorite novels, so I had very high hopes for Gilead. The writing is equally beautiful here, but I think I didn't read it at the right time in my life. It seems like the messages in the book would be better appreciated and more thoroughly understood by someone older, preferably a parent (which is why I'm going to recommend it to my mom, and possibly my grandmother). I don't think the fact that I'm not religious kept me from enjoying it, more the fact that it celebrates things that I haven't come to profoundly appreciate yet, probably because of my age. I'm definitely going to reread this in, like, forty years though.

I've just realized how much of a contrast there is between The Homecoming (see above) and Gilead in terms of their views on human nature. My personal opinion lies somewhere between the two extremes--I don't think people are quite as pathetic and vile as they are in Pinter's play, but I don't really see the kind of inherent beauty that John Ames sees in Gilead.

I'm fairly ashamed to find, on reviewing the books I've read so far, that only three of them were not written by British or American authors. I can't promise to myself to change my habits, but I feel suitably chastened for my lack of literary worldliness.

BTW, I saw you read Growth of the Soil which I just finished. What'd you think?

I read Growth of the Soil about four years ago, and at the time I felt like it was life-changing. It made me want to not go to college and move to Alaska and build a log cabin instead. Of course, I ended up not doing any such thing, but I feel like maybe it left a residual feeling of "simpler is better" in me. I definitely want to reread it someday and see if it has the same effect the second time around.

The person who recommended this one to me felt the same way.....change of life perspective. I admired the characters INger and Isak and their work ethic. The character Geissler puzzled me a bit. His actions often seemed contradictory, working in Isak's favor sometimes but not others. Do you remember that character? He was the Town Chief at first and then became the mineral speculator.

Hi wunderkind - just getting into the group properly and nosing through your thread. Re #68, 'Eating People is Wrong' is a line from a song by the British comic act Flanders and Swann, called 'The Reluctant Cannibal' (another gem from the same song: 'If God had wanted us not to eat people / He wouldn't have made us of meat'). I haven't read the Bradbury, so don't know if (or why) that might be significant, but just so you know!

Blackdogbooks: No, I don't remember that character at all. I don't remember much about the plot, actually, just a few scattered episodes. The thing that stuck with me almost more than the book itself was the sense of empowerment I had after reading it--I wonder if that's how the person who recommended it to you felt.

FlossieT: Ah! Thanks so much for informing me--I had just assumed it wasn't a real song, so I didn't bother to look it up. I wonder if I can find a recording...

56) The Heart of the Matter by Graham Greene--All of those slightly disappointing Graham Greene finally novels paid off and I found the one that made it all worthwhile. I really loved the story, I was terribly fond of Scobie by the end, and everything just clicked. This also cemented Greene as one of my favorite authors--he has this sort of helpless cynicism, even in his humorous books, that's very endearing, and it makes me want to go back and reread everything I've read so far.

Ooh, I have a terrible allergic reaction to this novel having been set an English comprehension passage on it in an exam when I was 15... sounds like I should get past that! I really loved The End of the Affair, and although I didn't exactly like Brighton Rock I did think it was a good book. Keep meaning to read more Graham Greene.

Well, at least it didn't stop you from reading any Greene at all. The End of the Affair is one that I'm really looking forward to, and I felt the same way you did about Brighton Rock--not exactly a joy to read, but it was very well written and the Boy was a memorable psychopath.

57) The Comedians by Graham Greene--This reminded me a lot of The Quiet American, except more complex and, I believe, more interesting. I also learned about Papa Doc and the Tontons Macoute, which I almost couldn't believe actually existed. One of the best Greene novels that I've read.

58) Doctor Fischer of Geneva, or The Bomb Party by Graham Greene--I'm on a Graham Greene high right now. This one was very well-written, of course; I was worried at first that Greene was too focused on what I thought was going to be a predictable climax, but he fooled me and the story was much more ambiguous than the cover description led me to believe. Still, I couldn't relate to the story, which involves the lengths to which greedy people will go to satisfy their lust for money. I kind of wonder why Greene chose to write about it; it was one of his last books, so maybe by that point in his life he was getting sick of all the rich and powerful people he had been around by that point.

59) The Bookshop by Penelope Fitzgerald--This was my second Fitzgerald novel of the year, but at times it reminded me more of Barbara Pym's stories (I think it was the middle-aged female protagonist). Very very good, of course.

wunderkind, I'm really keen to read The Bookshop - I've never read any Penelope Fitzgerald before, but with her letters being published this year there is a lot about her around the place which has really got me interested. Glad to add your recommendation to the list too!

I didn't know her letters were coming out--you made my day with that news! She's very much like Beryl Bainbridge and Barbara Pym in terms of understatedness. Very British. I'm sure you'll enjoy reading her.

60) The Polysyllabic Spree by Nick Hornby--This is the second time I've read this book (the third if you count reading the articles when they were originally published in The Believer) and Hornby never gets old. For those not in the know, he writes a (humorous) monthly column in The Believer magazine about the books he's bought, the books he's read, and how they affect and are affected by his life (kids, friends, sports, etc). In other words, it's the kind of book that most of the people on LT want to write, only he went and thought of it first.

The Bookshop by Penelope Fitzgerald has been on my TBR list forever, I think. I read her book, The Blue Flower and really enjoyed it and have been looking for more of her books but unfortunately, my local library does not have them. I may have to buy The Bookshop in order to finally be able to read it!

wunderkind, they're out already in the UK and have just been reviewed in the LRB (as well as other places); amazon.com has it in stock, although it's quite pricey.

Yeah, I think I'll wait until the price comes down a bit. I just got two huge volumes of writerly letters for my birthday (The Letters of Noel Coward and The Mitfords: Letters Between Six Sisters), so I've got plenty to tide me over until Amazon starts slashing prices.

Thanks for the link to the review, by the way--I love that there are still people out there who write really long book reviews instead of plot summarizing blurbs. Although I had my bubble burst when I read that apparently everyone else in the literary world made the Barbara Pym-Beryl Bainbridge comparison before it occurred to me; so much for feeling astute. :)

Alcottacre: I haven't read The Blue Fower yet, but it sounds really good. It's weird that Fitzgerald doesn't seem to be well-known in the States, because I keep reading reviews about her being the best modern British writer and the best writer living (when she was alive, anyway). I know I saw pretty much all of her books at Borders, but I almost never see them anywhere else. Anyway, good luck finding The Bookshop!

61) Housekeeping vs. The Dirt by Nick Hornby--Well, I couldn't reread The Polysyllabic Spree without rereading its sequel (the title comes from two of the books Hornby talks about--Housekeeping by Marilynne Robinson and The Dirt: Confessions of the World's Most Notorious Rock Band, the definitive biography of Motley Crue; guess which one almost makes him lose his faith in humanity). I seemed to remember not quite liking this one as much as its predecessor, but while The Polysyllabic Spree inspired me to make just one purchase from abebooks (We're in Trouble by Christopher Coake), Housekeeping vs.... caused twice as much extravagance (Michael Frayn's Spies and Ken Dornstein's The Boy Who Fell Out of the Sky). Reviews likely to follow.

The sudden jump in entries is due entirely to the fact that I am home for a break before school starts again and have done nothing but lie around the house reading and organizing my books. I am now convinced that school is a waste of time and that I should just spend the rest of my life lying around, reading and organizing my books. I don't anticipate this having a positive effect on my dedication to classwork.

62) Blitzcat by Robert Westall--I first read this in third or fourth grade, bought a copy six years ago because it was one of the few books I remembered reading in elementary school, and was inspired to finally revisit it by the couple of people in the group who have read it recently. I'm very glad I did, as it was just as good as I very vaguely remembered. This might just be me, but I kept expecting characters from "Foyle's War" to walk through the story... Anyway, I've recently bought The Kingdom by the Sea, also by Westall and also set during WWII, although it's about a boy and a dog, which is actually more along my lines of interest (I like cats, but I'm really a dog person). I have a feeling I'll be reading it soon.

Hi
I'm glad you liked Blitzcat. I'll be interested in reading your impressions of The Kingdom by the Sea.

63) A Burnt-Out Case by Graham Greene--This has been the year of Graham Greene for me; I don't think I've ever read this many books by an author in such a short span of time, except for the month a few years ago when I read about fifteen Terry Pratchett novels in a row. I was a little nervous about this one due to the misleading descriptive blurb on the back: "He was famous...She was lonely". Fortunately, the story was a far cry from the tagline, and was in fact not romantic at all. Quite the opposite, in fact. There's leprosy, atheism, egotism, and a whole lot of cynicism, but no romance that I could see. Two thumbs up.

64) The End of the Affair by Graham Greene--This one was technically great (in the sense that it was beautifully written) and I wish I could have connected with it more. Still, I was really hooked on this one. Greene is such a wonderful writer.

You are inspiring me to try Graham Greene. I have several of his on Continent TBR - I may have to move them up to the top.

Yay! I hope you like him.

65) A Student in Arms by Donald Hankey--This is a collection of articles written by a British soldier during WWI for The Spectator, which was hugely popular during the war but hasn't been in print since. Hankey was trained as a professional soldier, then attended Oxford as a theology student before reentering the Army when the war began. He was injured in 1915 and was sent home, at which point he wrote this series of articles, until he was sent back in 1916; he was killed at the Somme a few months later.

At first, these essays sounded like the stereotypical "public school spirit" that is parodied and criticized now, but as I kept reading I realized that Hankey was also a thoughtful, intelligent, and very likable young man, and I really enjoyed reading his ideas about morality, democracy, and humanity as they related to the experience of the common soldier.

From what I gather from the scant internet resources about Hankey, his attitude about the war changed upon his return to France, and he sent his publisher another set of writings that were much more critical of the war and its cause, which was not published until after the war in a volume of his letters. His writings in A Student in Arms aren't exactly jingoistic, but he does clearly believe in the "honor" of battle and I'm really interested to hear how his beliefs changed over the course of the war.

Regarding book #64, I've added it to my list. I have never read Graham Greene and as a result of your excellent description, I'm going to give him a try.

Thanks.

Whisper1: I hope you like him!

66) The Boy Who Fell Out of the Sky by Ken Dornstein--I heard of this one through a recommendation by Nick Hornby in Housekeeping vs. the Dirt. It's a man's memoir about his older brother, David, who was killed in the Lockerbie plane bombing. The author had always seen his brother as this charismatic, popular, creatively talented figure, but over the course of reading David's numerous journals and aborted attempts at fiction, he comes to realize that his brother, while charming and likable, was also deeply messed up. The author is, of course, also deeply messed up by his loss and the memoir is basically an account not only of David's short life (he died at the age of 25), but also of Ken's long journey to understand his brother and to come to terms with his death through David's journals, letters, and friends.

This is one of the most emotionally affecting books I've read in a long time. I started reading it last night for no particular reason, and then wanted to stay up all night to finish it. I fell asleep at about 3:00, but I woke up a couple of hours later and half-consciously stumbled back to the couch, apparently with the intent to read it, because I woke up later clutching the book like a security blanket. I highly recommend it to anyone who has lost someone very dear to them, who has an older sibling or a younger one, or who has ever felt completely at a loss as to what they should do with their lives. I think that probably covers everyone. There's so much I could say about this book; it might actually have been life-changing, but I should probably wait for at least a few hours before I make that designation.

#110 wunderkind: Sounds like a powerful book as well as a powerful reading experience for you. I will definitely watch out for it.

Yes, you've definitely sold me...

I hope you both like it!

Hi wunderkind

I enjoyed reading your very powerful descriptoin of The Boy Who Fell Out of the Sky. Yet another book I most likely would not have heard about except for this group. I've added it to my tbr pile.

Thanks for your excellent post re. this book.

Hi Whisper1,
I'm glad you've added it to your pile. Of course, one of the great joys of LT is getting to evangelize about the books we love. I've pretty much given up on talking about and recommending books to the people I know in real life, since nobody ever seems to care much. People here are so much more receptive!

67) Bridget Jones's Diary by Helen Fielding--This was light, enjoyable, and funny, just like the movie. I think I actually like the movie better (which isn't saying the book is bad, only that the movie is really good). Mark Darcy is certainly much more interesting in the movie, which I thought was odd since apparently Fielding had Colin Firth in mind when she wrote the character; the Daniel Cleaver plot line is also more engaging in the film. Also, Bridget's mum was much more sympathetic in the movie; she doesn't really have any redeeming qualities in the book. Anyway, in conclusion and whatnot, if you liked the movie then you'll like the book, although the movie is a little bit better.

Hi. I agree with your thoughts on Bridget Jones's Diary. I liked the movie ever so much better.

A very nice review of The Boy Who Fell OUt of the Sky. Your encouragement to read it for those who have had strained relationships with siblings or trouble understanding siblings made the difference for me and I will be looking for a copy in my rummaging.

Thanks--the sibling aspect of it was definitely the most important part of the book for me personally. It even inspired some heart-felt e-mails, and I'm not sure a book's ever done that for me before.

I can't believe I went over three weeks without finishing a book. I haven't actually stopped being overwhelmed with classes and work and the grad school application process, but I deliberately shoved all of that to one side tonight so that I could read for a few hours. Anyway, I've broken my dry spell.

68) Stepping Westward by Malcolm Bradbury--Bradbury's first novel, Eating People is Wrong, is one of my favorites and I reread it a few months ago (it's #48 on the list). This one had a lot of similar themes and characters and the pacing of the book was much the same, but a huge and, I think, detrimental difference is that Eating People... was set at a British university while Stepping Westward is Bradbury's British take on a British man's excursion to an American university. There are a lot of nitpicky things I won't get into, but what I thought was the weakest aspect of the book was its dated (the novel was written in 1965) portrayal of American vs. British personalities. I feel like Western countries today have shared too much culture for such caricatures to be accurate at this point. Also, some of the characters just didn't really make sense to me; one such individual, described as "a nice guy, but a bully", didn't ring true to me until I suddenly realized that, should a film version of the story be made, Robert Downey Jr. would be perfect in the role.

69) The Power and the Glory by Graham Greene--I was kind of wary of this one because its setting (Mexico) is a departure from Greene's usual thing, but I think the non-Western culture and characters really allow him to get into some deep moral quandaries that he would have had difficulty working into his other stories. The main character is one of the most complicated and believable I've come across; even when you know he's doing something dangerous and possibly pointless, you understand completely his reasons for doing so. The summary on the back of my Penguin edition really says it better than I can: "Too human for heroism, too humble for martyrdom, the little worldly 'whisky-priest' is nevertheless impelled towards his squalid Calvary as much by his own compassion for humanity as by the efforts of his pursuers."

Sounds like another one of Greene's books I will have to track down. I have A Burnt Out Case by him checked out of my local library, so after I am down with it, I will definitely be checking out your recommendation. Thanks!

70) Keep the Aspidistra Flying by George Orwell (audiobook)--This was my second Orwell, after 1984 in high school English. I thought this one was more interesting, but I'm not sure that I like the ending. I can't tell whether Orwell was saying that money buys happiness, or that having someone else to live for is better than only living for yourself, or that capitalism gets everybody in the end, or a combination of them all plus other stuff I didn't get. In any case, it seemed a little rushed, but while I'm pretty lukewarm about this novel, it did make me want to know more about Orwell and read more of his novels, probably starting with Down and Out in Paris and London, which I've heard is like a better version of Keep the Aspidistra Flying.

Hang in there wunderkind...You only have five more books to go and then you have reached the 75 book challenge.

So close, yet at my current rate it might actually take me until the end of the year to get through those last five books...Thanks for the encouragement though. :)

I always wanted to be a cheerleader (OK, not really), but here goes anyway: "You can do it, Erin!!"

Hi wunderkind
I want to thank you for writing the excellent review regarding your book #66 The Boy Who Fell Out of the Sky. I finished reading this today and agree with you that once you start, it is difficult to put down

Linda

Thanks Linda--glad you enjoyed it!

71) The Jewel in the Crown by Paul Scott--The first novel in The Raj Quartet, which is set at the end of Britain's age of empire in India. Usually when I give a book five stars, I'm overlooking some minor flaws in favor of whatever redeeming quality made it perfect for me personally, while still being aware that other people might not see it that way. However, I really do feel that this book is flawless. It's beautifully written, every single character is fully realized, and it's gripping despite the fact that, in 462 pages, there's only one plot event. The story revolves around that one irrevocable moment--the rape of an English girl by a group of Indian men--and approaches it from the perspective of at least a dozen peripheral characters who not only build a picture of the events that led up to and away from the crime, but also completely immerse the reader in a sense of the place and period. I loved it and can't wait to read the next three volumes.

The Raj Quartet has been on Continent TBR for quite a while now. I am definitely going to have to move it up thanks to your review!

It's definitely worth it. It's odd, actually, because I'd never even heard of it until a week ago, and only then because I was inspired by a course I'm taking on the British Empire to look into fictional representations of the Raj. Ironically, it's a class I didn't even want to take and was regularly referring to as a "waste of time", but I feel duty-bound to retract that judgment now since it ultimately led me to such a wonderful book.

Yay, wunderkind! I also loved The Jewel in the Crown and have just nudged it for someone over on the Book Nudgers. I had a small fear that it might feel a bit dated now (I read it a few years ago myself when I was a lot more ignorant about the region and the history) but it's good to hear it didn't come across that way to you.

The others are just as good if not even better. In fact, just thinking about it makes me want to re-read... must.... resist....

Don't resist! It's only 1,400 pages long, won't take any time at all.

I don't know much about the history either, but I feel like the fact that Scott presents historical tidbits through the lens of biased characters keeps it from becoming dated. It's made me want to read a non-fiction history of the period now.

HI wunderkind...looks like you have another wonderful recommendation and book for me to add to the tbr pile. The Jewel in the Crown sounds fascinating..and so does your course.

Years ago I saw the movie Ghandi and while it only cost $4.00 to go to the theater, my husband said I spent $400 on books afterward so that I could learn more about England's involvement with India. This then led to my reading books by Rudyard Kipling which then resulted in more book purchases....

When taken in the context of the time period, Kipling, as I remember wrote about "taking up the white man's burden" and rationalized that England HAD to ''save' India... Personally, I think this was pretty convoluted thinking.

There is an excellent book you might want to read, if you haven't already, Freedom at Midnight is a historical documentation written about the break up and split into India and Pakistan.

>134 Whisper1:: while it only cost $4.00 to go to theater

I went to see the new Bond this weekend...$10.50. That's in the suburbs, not NYC. From now on, Netflix it is!

Whisper: Thanks very much for the recommendation! I saw "Gandhi" in 9th grade, but I definitely need to see it again now that I have more of an idea of what was going on. I just remember thinking at the time, "Wow, that guy playing Gandhi looks a lot like Ben Kingsley..."

I also have mixed feelings about Kipling. So far I've only read his children's books, not Kim, but even though he seems to have had his heart in the right place it's so hard to get past all of his contemporary prejudices.

TadAD: I've nearly given up on going to the movies, and when I do it's more for the blue raspberry Icees than for the film...

72) We3 by Grant Morrison--I don't really want to count this, since it's just a short graphic novel that took me about ten minutes to "read", but I'm hoping that adding it here will give me a sense of impetus...or something.

Anyway, I wish We3 had been longer, because it's a really interesting idea carried out very well--a dog, a cat, and a rabbit are part of an aborted attempt to replace human soldiers with killer cyborg-animals. When their creator sets them free in a stupidly misguided attempt at assuaging her guilt, the dog/tank decides they should go home, although he doesn't know where that is, the cat/assassin is skeptical of all humans, and the rabbit/bomb just wants something to eat. The government, of course, sets out to destroy them, and the result is sort of like a 21st century Plague Dogs, except there's a lot more violence and death (with illustrations not meant for the faint-hearted).

>137 wunderkind: wunderkind, where can I get hold of another 30 10-minute books to complete my 75 by 31st Dec 2008?!

Fascinating review BTW.

- TT

TT

LOL, you can probably read Frank Miller's graphic novels, they are really good! Another good one I read this year was V for Vendetta, I dont count them in my 75 though and have only 5 more to go anyways :)

>138 TheTortoise:-9: If V for Vendetta is as long as Watchmen, that would be more than a ten-minute read! My other ten-minute-ers this year were the Winnie-the-Pooh books and a collection of haikus.

Wunderkind, thanks for the interesting Jewel in the Crown review - this has been on my list of 'books to read one day' for ages - but you've rekindled my intrigue - I went straight over to Bookmooch!

Ditto Whisper1 for Freedom at Midnight - I'd not heard of this, but I frequently find I want to read a bit more background when I read books set in particular periods and this looks fascinating, so I've mooched that too... ;)

Incidently, I think short graphic novels count just as much as lengthy tomes - it's always good to read a mix of stuff!

flissp

I have been a big fan of graphic novels too and do read some once in a while, but somehow I cannot consider them in the same league as novels.

wunderkind

You are right, none of the ones I have suggested are 10 min reads, they are a bit longer, but they are graphic novels all the same and are quite good! You should also watch out for Sandman!

PiyushChorasia - yep, I know what you mean and part of me feels similarly. I only started to get into graphic novels a couple of years ago really, when I ran out of books by Neil Gaiman to read. It has to be said that Sandman was a very good starting point! But I would argue that some graphic novels (for example several of the Sandman volumes) have made me think more and are better written than some of the regular novels I've read (The Da Vinci Code for instance)... If you're a big fan of graphic novels, are there any besides Watchmen (which I've read) and V for Vendetta (already on the list), that you'd recommend to me? :)

wunderkind - as you may guess, I definitely second the Sandman series!

Edited to add: no offence to those who loved The Da Vinci Code, I'm afraid it's a real bug-bear of mine, I'm probably quite unreasonable about it!

Another cultural notation I am unfamiliar with - "bug-bear" In context, I read it as pet peeve, but I am curious of the reference?

I'll admit to not being a big fan of graphic novels--not that I dislike them, I've just never been able to get into them. To date, the only ones I've read are Maus, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, and We3 of course. They're okay, I just feel like the dialogue doesn't compare to what's in novels (at least the ones I read--I make no comment on the quality of The Da Vinci Code, which I haven't read, except to note that Stephen Fry described it as "arse-gravy of the very worst kind"). I was flipping through Watchmen at the store the other day, but rather than make me want to read the book it just made me want to watch the movie (which looks freaking awesome). Maybe I'm just not used to static pictures--I never read comic books as a young'un.

Re: Graphic Novels: I snagged Jane Eyre The Graphic Novel in October - (see my review, on my thread and in Reviews) and I snagged Great Expectations The Graphic Novel in November!

I had never read a graphic novel before. I am not likely to become a fan. I prefer words to pictures.

I've never read a Graphic Novel, myself, nor have I even seen one, but I can't figure out their purpose. Is it to take the onus off of comic books? - 'cuz that's generally how I think of them.

>147 Fourpawz2:: Sometimes a graphic novel is actually several, separately-published comic books collected together, which makes it more book-like. But I think the phrase "graphic novel" is probably mostly an effort to broaden the readership.

Hi Winderkind,
Thanks for your review of The Jewel in the Crown. I've been wanting to read it for ages, and finally mooched it recently - I am in fact the recipient of the nudge FlossieT mentions in >132 FlossieT:! I shall definitely move it up the pile now.

Interesting discussion on graphic novels! I learnt the term "graphic novel" here on LT; before that they were all comics to me, and I certainly wouldn't have thought that they could ever be compared to "proper" novels. Then earlier this year I read Persepolis, and I was so impressed by it that I had to revise my ideas. I'm almost reluctant to read any more in case they don't live up to this one, but when I do bite the bullet it'll be to read Marzi by Marzena Sowa, about a little girl growing up in communist Poland.

The only graphic novels I ever read were the "Sin City" ones after the release of the movie. I just figured they were upscale, up-cost comics produced to suck in a few more bucks.

Rachbxl: You should try Maus if you like graphic novels with a message--it's a retelling of the Holocaust with mice, cats, and dogs instead of people. It's very good, but then I've only read four graphic novels so I'm no expert.

TadAD: I can't say I disagree with your assessment...:)

>140 wunderkind:: VERY belatedly - just had a friend ask me (via Facebook) whether I had read V for Vendetta and liked graphic novels. My reply confused it with those alphabetical crime novels, and admitted that I was a bit agnostic about them.

Am I wrong?

FlossieT: Now that you mention it, it does sound like the title of a Sue Grafton novel.

I'm pretty agnostic about them myself and have only read three or four, none of which made a huge impression on me. Which is why I find it pretty funny that the longest discussion on my thread has been about something that I'm actually fairly ignorant about. :) I haven't read V for Vendetta or seen the movie, but since Stephen Fry's only in the latter I think I know which one I would prefer...

>150 TadAD: Tad on Graphic Novels: "I just figured they were upscale, up-cost comics produced to suck in a few more bucks." How could you be so cynical? Because it's true, perhaps!

These classic comics in paperback cost £9.99, and can be read in less than two hours. Value for money - I think not!

- TT

I loved the movie "V for Vendetta"; I haven't read the graphic novels.

Seems I'm alone in my defence of graphic novels here, which is odd as I'm quite new to them and haven't read very many! ;)

>144 blackdogbooks: Blackdogbooks: "Bug-bear" - yep, it's another version of "Pet peeve" - do you know, I've no idea of it's origin - may have to google that!

>145 wunderkind: Wunderkind: Agreed about the Watchmen film!

>146 TheTortoise: The Tortoise: I saw a couple of classics graphic novels on the ER page... I think it's a good idea for getting people who wouldn't read the books otherwise to try something new and maybe get them interested in literature - anything that broadens your horizons has to be good - but I'm not surprised that, as someone who is a big reader, you were disappointed in them. They're never going to be the same thing as reading the book itself.

I would argue that the difference with something like Sandman, Maus or Persepolis is that they are designed for the format, so it's not just about the dialogue. A lot goes on that requires no language. I'm not trying to say that all graphic novels are good (I've flipped through enough rubbish to see that), I'm just saying that there are a few that have a lot more depth to them than you may imagine.

Re 'graphic-novel' vs 'comic' - yep, I come down on the side of them just being big comics - I suppose they were rebranded like this to encourage more people to read them and make them sound less like the Beano... And yes, in my opinion, they're usually overpriced!

Ho hum, horses for courses and all that!

Flissp: Two of the graphic novels you mentioned, Persepolis and Sandman, are ones that I've had on my lifetime reading list. Even though they're not my favored medium, I figure I might as well read the best of what's on offer. I'll definitely be staying away from the graphic novel versions of classic novels though...

I definitely recommend The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen to anyone who's interested--it's like Indiana Jones meets James Bond, except all of the characters are drawn from fiction (Allan Quatermain, Mina Harker, The Invisible Man, Captain Nemo, Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde, etc).

73) Eeeee Eee Eeee by Tao Lin--I don't even know how to describe this book. It's basically a bored, aimless twenty-something guy thinking out loud (or on paper, anyway) about boredom and the meaning of life and not knowing how to be happy. And there are bears and moose and aliens and dolphins (hence the title--it's the noise dolphins make) and the president (but clearly not the current one, because he talks about Pessoa and nothingness and being an alien) and hamsters that climb walls like spiders. So it's weird and mundane at the same time. I liked the style it was written in, although I have a feeling most people wouldn't, but I couldn't relate to the characters except for a few brief moments. I can't decide whether to keep my copy or give it to a friend who is bored and aimless and is probably Tao Lin's ideal reader.

Give it to the bored, aimless friend. Then at least they would have something to do . . .

Yes, but if truly aimless, could they finish the book?????

Books are about the only thing she manages to finish properly, actually. School, jobs, relationships...not so much.

74) Bed by Tao Lin--A book of short stories by the author of #73. I really loved these, which is unusual for me because I am not usually a big fan of short stories. All of the stories have twenty-something characters dealing (or not) with their existential angst (although that makes it sound unbearably pretentious, and it isn't), and the writing style really captures the way today's young people (at least the ones I know) talk and relate to the world. So even though I thought these stories were fantastic, I wouldn't actually recommend them unreservedly, because I think that they are definitely not for everybody. Excerpts:

"In the movie theatre there were a few other solitary people. Some had a kind of space-time enlightened gaze, a beatific vacancy about their eyes that made them look very confident, but in a bionic way, as if they were truly--scientifically--simultaneously in the future, at home, eating something with a large spoon. The others, including Brian, blinked a lot. After each blink their focus would be on a different area outside of their heads. They looked as if under attack, which was because they felt as if under attack."

"This was also the month that Garret and Kristy stopped experimenting with caffeine. They had, in their year and a half together, tried all the coffees, cut back to tea, tried tea and coffee together--thinking that tea caffeine was different than coffee caffeine--tried snorting tea, swallowing coffee beans, tea cakes, and had then gone back to coffee."

>162 wunderkind: wunderkind - "snorting tea! They must be desperate!

- TT

75) The Magic Pudding by Norman Lindsay--This is a classic Australian children's novella, written in 1918. It's about some friends--an articulate Koala named Bunyip Bluegum, a Penguin named Sam Sawnoff, a Sailor named Bill Barnacle, and, later, a Dog named Benjimen Brandysnap--whose magical, talking, grumpy Pudding (Albert) keeps getting stolen by two professional puddin'-thieves, a Possum and a boozy Wombat. At the end, there's a Through the Looking-Glass style courtroom scene where the defendants try themselves.

And hey, that's #75.

>164 wunderkind: What an excellent choice for your 75th book - The Magic Pudding!

Congratulations! :)

Woo Hoo! Another one in the club! Congratulations! And it sounds like a good book, too - can't beat that.

>164 wunderkind: Wunderkind: Congrats on meeting the magic number!

- TT

Thanks everybody!

Congratulations on reaching *75* Erin!

Congrats! Another one making the mark--ain't we great?

Well done, wunderkind!

Hi wunderkind
Please add me to the list of well wishers! Congratulations.
And, I've added The Magic Pudding to my tbr in 2009 list!

76) Letters from Africa: 1914-1931 by Isak Dinesen--I read this in the hopes that it would sort of be an extension of Out of Africa, which is one of my favorite books. It is and it isn't: the African farm is discussed in most of the letters, which were written to her mother, brother, and other family members, but Dinesen also discusses her views on feminism, sexual morality, culture, etc. This wouldn't have bothered me, except that by the end of the book I realized I didn't really like the author that much--she was a very complex, sometimes contradictory, and probably somewhat difficult person, and occasionally she expresses an opinion that I just found completely repugnant. But still, her descriptions of Africa, its people, and her experiences still make part of me wish that I could have been there, and it definitely made me want to reread Out of Africa.

Congratulations! And I can't believe I missed your thread all these months with Pooh and plays! For fun, you might try Now We Are Sixty by Christopher Matthew, which is a fun (and loving) rewrite of the original poems. I also liked The End of the Affair very much--glad to find another fan. I will be checking in more often--now that I've almost caught up with everyone in this year's goup.

Wunderkind:

You might try this one.

http://images.amazon.com/images/P/0312135254.01._SX50_SCLZZZZZZZ_.jpg

Opps.
I don't think the image is large enough for you to read
The title is
Isak Dinesen: The Life of a Storyteller.
And you are right in saying she was a complex person!

After seeing the movie Out of Africa, I read as much as I could find about Isak Dinesen, Bror Blixen and Denny Finch Hatton. It was a unique time period filled with very interesting people.
If you haven't read the following, may I suggest them to you?

Silence Will Speak: A Study of the LIfe of Denys Finch Hatton and His Relationship with Karen Blixen by Errol Trzebinski
The Man Whom Women Loved: The Life of Bror Blixen by Ulf Aschan
Out of Isak Dinensen in Africa: Karen Blixen's Untold Story by Linda Donelson

Whisper1: Thanks so much for the recommendations! I especially wanted to know more about Denys after reading her letters--even when she admits to her brother how much she cares about Denys, she never really explains why in anything more than vague terms.

wunderkind
This was a very complicated relationship. I'm interested in hearing your comments if you read more about Finch Hatton and Isak Dinensen. The more I read about him, the less I liked him.

Actually, there is one more complex character to add to the mix.
Beryl Markham was a contemporary and also involved in their lives.
A book I can recommend about her is
West with the Night

Here are a few more recommendations:

Straight on Till Morning: A Biography of Beryl Markham by Mary S. Lovel

Splendid Outcast: Beryl Markham's African Stories by Beryl Markham

West With the Night is already on my TBR list, but I didn't know about Splendid Outcast. I was surprised that in Dinesen's letters Markham only gets mentioned once in passing, as member of a dinner party. I really need to read the biography you mentioned, to get an objective sense of her relationships.

Thanks for all the recommendations!

PS--Speaking from your vast knowledge of the real story, what do you think of the movie version of Out of Africa?

wunderkind
The movie is one of my top five all-time favorites.
It sparked the reading of so many books re. these lively characters and the historical time period in East Africa.

Did you see the movie, and if so, what did you think of it?

Re. Beryl Markham, Dinesen was incredibly jealous of her. Yet another indication of the complicated person she was because, as you note, she only mentioned Beryl in passing.

You may know that Finch Hatton invited Markham with him to his fated plane ride to Voi. She declined, thus sparing her life.

And, if you haven't heard the soundtrack to the movie Out of Africa, you might want to listen to it. The music is stunningly beautiful and very haunting.

Belated congratulations on reaching 75!!

Thanks flissp!

Whisper: I've watched the film a couple of times and I can't really make up my mind about it. The soundtrack is beautiful, as you said, and I like Meryl Streep's portrayal of Karen, and I think that the parts that had to do with the farm and the natives were good, but I just couldn't get into the romance of it. To be honest (and possibly unfair), I blame Robert Redford--he did not act like the Denys that I had been picturing while reading Out of Africa. Also, I've never been a big fan of romances in movies, because everything gets rushed and glossed over in order to fit within the time constraint. Having said that, there are a lot of scenes that really stuck with me, and I think that if I were to watch it again it would keep growing on me. (I should add that Berkeley is by far my favorite "character" in the film, and the first time I watched it I was so disappointed when he died--even though I knew it was going to happen, of course--that I didn't even finish watching the movie and had to watch it again later to reach the ending...)

I just rummaged up a copy of Spendid Outcast: Beryl Markham's African Stories by Markham. I can't recommend her memoirs West With the Night enough. It is superb and wildly interesting.

wunderkind
I totally agree with you regarding Robert Redford playing the part of Finch Hatton. I've never thought of him as a romantic figure. Gregory Peck -- now there is someone who could have played the part!

I second blackdogbooks recommendation re. West With the Night.

I third it!

Can I fourth it! Or is that like skipping right to a triple dog dare!

If childhood games of truth-or-dare only involved reading books, I would have been more willing to play...

I bow to public opinion--West With the Night will definitely be on next year's list.

77) Einstein's Dreams by Alan Lightman--This reminded me a lot of Italo Calvino's Invisible Cities, except not as good. I don't know if Lightman just isn't as good a writer as Calvino, or if time is less interesting as a subject than cities, but I thought that his descriptions of alternate temporal universes were uninteresting and unimaginative. It wasn't bad, but it was pretty mediocre in my opinion, and I probably wouldn't have finished it if it weren't so short.

78) 84, Charing Cross Road by Helen Hanff--This was the third time I've read this book, and it never gets old. I just wish it were longer. It's also made me desperate to go to my local antiquarian bookstore (O'Gara and Wilson), only I'm home for the holidays and so will have to wait until January...

>191 wunderkind: Wunderkind, I picked up my third copy of 84 Charing Cross Road a few weeks ago - this book obviously haunts me!

- TT

Charing Cross Road will be one of the first I'll read in 2009.
Thanks for the recommendation.

>193 Whisper1: Linda, it should only take you a couple of hours to read, so I expect to read your comments on Jan 1st!

- TT

TT: Have you read The Duchess of Bloomsbury Street or Q's Legacy? I haven't, but they're on my lifetime reading list as soon as I find copies.

Ooh, yes, definitely read The Duchess of Bloomsbury Street and Q's legacy if you can! I read 84 Charing Cross Road and both the others this year, and adored them all.

This is just a note-to-self type of summary of this year, so that I can compare my reading patterns in the future (to be updated if I finish anything within the next week):

Fiction: 62
Non-Fiction: 19

Authors Who Appear On the List More Than Once
--Graham Greene (8x)
--A.A. Milne (4x)
--Penelope Fitzgerald (3x)
--Ian McEwan (3x)
--Nick Hornby (3x)
--Nancy Mitford (2x)
--Neal Stephenson (2x)
--Malcolm Bradbury (2x)
--Beryl Bainbridge (2x)
--Tao Lin (2x)
--Tom Stoppard (2x)
--Paul Scott (2x)

Books Written by Male Authors: 62
Books Written by Female Authors: 19

Books Written by Authors From...
--Britain/Ireland: 53
--USA: 23
--Japan: 2
--France: 1
--Denmark: 1
--Australia: 1

Books Written In the...
--21st century: 13
--20th century (post-1950): 37
--20th century (pre-1950): 25
--19th century: 4
--18th century: 1

First time reading author: 36
Not the first time: 46

Remarks: My fiction to non-fiction ratio seems low, but I think it's actually a big improvement on past years. My reading is usually a lot more ecumenical though, I'm not sure what happened. So I suppose one goal for next year would be to read more translations.

79) Shakespeare Wrote for Money by Nick Hornby--This is the third and final collection of Hornby's columns for Believer Magazine, wherein he sort of reviews the books he's read in the last month, but also talks about what was going on in his life to lead him to those books. I highly recommend the whole set (which includes The Polysyllabic Spree and Housekeeping vs. the Dirt, reviewed above) to anyone on Librarything--if you like 84, Charing Cross Road and Ex Libris, you'll like Nick Hornby's essays.

#198: I love both 84, Charing Cross Road and Ex Libris, so I am definitely going to have to read the Nick Hornby books. Thanks for letting me know about them!

>195 wunderkind: Wunderkind. I am sure I have read The Duchess of Bloomsbury Street. But cant remember too much about it. I have it as it is included in my copy of 84 Charing Cross Road so i will reads them both together again sometime.

I haven't read Q's Legacy but it sounds interesting i will look out for it. It is in my local library, so I will check it out next week.

>197 wunderkind:. I liked your summary - I would like to do one but it looks too much like work! or I might try a scaled down version!

- TT

80) The Day of the Scorpion by Paul Scott--The second book in The Raj Quartet. This one was not quite as perfect as The Jewel in the Crown--about halfway through there was a seemingly unnecessary 70-page recap of the first book that took the form of an interview, and the overall narrative didn't seem as balanced--but overall still very very good. I received the final two books for Christmas, and the slight disappointment of The Day of the Scorpion hasn't diminished my excitement at the prospect of reading them.

>TT: It was quite a bit of work putting together the summary--glad you like it!

81) Ex Libris: Confessions of a Common Reader by Anne Fadiman--I didn't actually mean to finish this, just to read it for a bit while I was on a car ride, but it was too good to put down. I think that was the fifth time I've read it.

#203: I understand about Ex Libris. I do not know how many times I have read it now, but I still love it every time!

82) The London Embassy by Paul Theroux--Scooting in under the buzzer is the worst book that I've read this year. I wouldn't have bothered making a note of it here, except that I wanted to warn innocent Librarythingers of its horribleness and, since I have no intention of keeping my copy in either my coporeal or virtual library, I won't be able to leave a review or rating. Blurbed as being a "treasure trove of eccentric British characters and misplaced Americans", this set of stories revolving around the American embassy in London were a compendium of ethnic, cultural, and gender stereotypes that made me increasingly angry as I read on. The hands-down worst story--so bad I read most of it out loud to my dad--was about an immigrant Arabic student who the narrator finds has been raiding the tomb of Sir Richard Burton, apparently in revenge for Burton's desecrating forays into Mecca:

"I breathed on the window. The vapor condensed, and with my finger I traced a cross in it and shone my flashlight on it. It is the simplest of symbols, but to the man from Mecca it was strange and unwelcome, and I was sure that it made him more fearful than the darkness he had endured in that tomb all night. It was now safe to remove the padlock: I had announced myself as the avenging Christian."

That was the biggest of many "WTF?" moments I had as I read this. The writing is bland, the emotions are trite, and the characters are almost shockingly stereotyped. Angry African-Americans, crass Italian-Americans, naive and religious Midwesterns, pathologically snooty British aristocrats, ignorant and bigoted lower-class Londoners--I think Theroux covered just about everybody. And the ending is so ridiculously cheesy that I had to read the last page twice to make sure my eyes weren't deceiving me. Isn't Paul Theroux supposed to be a good writer?

>205 wunderkind: wunderkind: "Isn't Paul Theroux supposed to be a good writer?" Not anymore apparentely! Thanks for the warning!

See you on the 2009 thread.

Happy New Year and I hope you start off with a five star read!

- TT