Group reading log 2014

Hi all, since we're not getting a lot of participation in the monthly topics, I've made an executive decision to have a yearly thread this year. If we need to spawn off new threads, that's fine.

I started the year with Pratchett's latest, Raising Steam, which was good fun. And now I'm reading Carry On, Jeeves, always great fun hanging out with Mr Wooster.

G'day all. Good idea with the yearly thread. I hope everybody had a great Christmas and I wish you all luck and happiness in the coming year.

I have done a bit of reading in December, but I was so strapped for time, I've only just now got a chance to review them, so I figured I would post here instead of the old thread.

Apologies in advance for the length!

Book Number 1: Birthmarked by Caragh M. O'Brien. The basis of this story is an interesting concept that is just realistic enough to be scary. The 'haves' are living lives of luxury inside the city walls, while the 'have-nots' struggle to make ends meet outside. But all is not as it seems inside the city. Despite a monthly tribute of newborn babies from outside the wall, genetic diversity has shrunk, causing an epidemic of haemophilia.

Birthmarked is a decent read, but not a brilliant one. It was interesting enough to read all the way through, but not so great that I will be looking to finish the series.

Book number 2: After the Fires Went Out by Regan Wolfrom. This was either an early reviewer or a member giveaway - I can't remember which. I normally love apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic fiction, but I could not even finish this one. While it is technically well-written (no editing errors or things of that sort), it was boring, boring, boring! I will definitely not be reading the rest of the series.

Book number 3: This or That Survival Debate: A Rip-Roaring Game of Either/Or Questions by Erik Heinrich. Kids might find this book interesting. I did not. Maybe if it were just the questions, it may have been OK, but I found all the supporting information (while informative) to be distracting.

Book number 4: Ashfall by Mike Mullin. Apocalyptic & post-apocalyptic fiction is one of my favourite genres, so I began this book enthusiastically. I was not disappointed. As usual, this young adult book was written better than many adult books that I have read.

The protagonist in this novel is a sixteen year old boy who is left home alone for the weekend after arguing with his mother over a road-trip to visit rellies. Unfortunately for him, his timing could not have been worse.

Just hours after the departure of his family, he is fighting for survival as the Yellowstone Supervolcano erupts. After riding out the worst of the eruption with some neighbours, Alex decides to leave to find his family.

He soon finds that the world, and the people in it, are no longer what they once were, and survival will be even harder than he imagined.

This is the best post-apocalyptic book I have read in a long time. With no technical errors to distract from his superb story-telling, Mike Mullin allows us to fully immerse ourselves in the world that Alex inhabits. Mullin's style reminds me of the kind of tale one hears sitting around the campfire, listening to an oral history of the world as it was.

Ashfall was so enthralling that I read it one sitting. I began reading it in the afternoon and finished the following morning. I was so into the book that I didn't even notice until I closed the book and saw the dawn sun peeking through my window!

I definitely recommend this book to adults and teens alike.

Book number 5: Ashen Winter by Mike Mullin. In Ashen Winter we return to an America changed by a natural disaster on a massive scale. As hunger and famine set in, the baser side of human nature sets in. After a raid on the farm that gives Alex cause for concern over his parents fate, he and Darla set forth in an attempt to find them.

But the world has changed, even compared to their earlier journey through the countryside. This time, the two of them face challenges such as cannibals, slave-traders and the ever present danger of FEMA patrols.

This book wasn't quite as good as Ashfall, but I can't really place my finger on why that is. Nevertheless, it was still an awesome read and I am really looking forward to getting hold of Sunrise, the final book in the trilogy.

I am currently still reading Girl's Night In: Gentlemen by Invitation and I am also reading Unmentionables - from Family Jewels to Friendly Fire: What We Say Instead of What We Mean by Ralph Keyes.

Once again, sorry about the length. Happy reading!

Happy New Year everyone!! Hope you all had a great Christmas and withing you the best for 2014 :)

Reading is not happening at this end. I am half way through The Piano Teacher and have been there for quite a few weeks.

Happy new year! Forgot to say that in my original post. :)

Happy New Year all. Sorry I've been AWOL for most of 2013; I promise to try to do better! :-)

Thus far in 2014 I've read Death in a Strange Country, the second of Donna Leon's Brunetti series, set in Venice. A thoroughly good read and a great series.

Now I'm enjoying John Connolly's The Book of Lost Things. David, the twelve year old protagonist loves books, especially fairy tales, and becomes himself part of a very twisted fairy tale world. It's a dark coming of age tale dealing with grief and loss.

I've got The Book of Lost Things somewhere, must dig it up...

Bertie Wooster and Jeeves were as charming as ever.

Then read The Magic Toyshop by Angela Carter which was wonderful up until a rather uninspired ending. Then Joan Makes History by Kate Grenville which was a good read. And now I'm reading The True History of the Kelly Gang.

I've read The Magic Toyshop, but didn't enjoy it quite as much as some of her others. That's not to say it wasn't well written or enjoyable. Oh oh, double negatives, but you get my drift...

Will be interested to know how you find The True History of the Kelly Gang. Had it on the shelf for years but haven't ever pulled it off. I think I've been a bit put off by reactions from some others. Don't ask who 'cos I can't remember.

I wasn't expecting much from The Magic Toyshop, I'm generally not a fan of British fiction of that period. Going in with low expectations probably helped. :)

True History of the Kelly Gang is very readable. I'm only 1/3 of the way in, but would recommend it so far.

I've been wanting to read The True History of the Kelly Gang. Not sure If I have it - I'll have to check.

I am currently reading Girl's Night In: Gentlemen by Invitation by Chris Manby (amongst others) and Food Facts for the Kitchen Front by HarperPress.

Meanwhile I have finished the following four books:

World War Z by Max Brooks. This is, without a doubt, the best apocalyptic/post-apocalyptic novel I have ever read. If you are after a zombie horror, you will be seriously disappointed, because the zombies themselves are not prominent characters i this book.

Instead, Brooks presents us with a series of interviews ten years after the war has ended. Unlike many post-apocalyptic novels, World War Z presents us with a global picture of events. We see interviews with people from many countries, many age groups, many careers, many socio-economic groups - giving a total picture of what was happening everywhere to everyone.

The subtitle of this book describes it as an oral history and this description is fitting.The story does not have a traditional plot, in the sense of one story, revolving around one character, with one clear beginning, middle and end. Instead, it consists of lots of mini-stories, with each interview presenting another piece to the puzzle.

I was particularly impressed with the author's ability to present each interview in a genuine voice suitable to the purported character. Every one of these interviews is entirely believable and it is this believability that adds to the sense of tension this book creates.

I have seen some people complain about the sheer volume of characters, stating that this affected their ability to engage. I would like to humbly disagree. While it is true that I cannot remember all of the names, I do not consider this to be an essential element to compassion or empathy. I, myself, fully engaged with each and every character in this book, to the point that I found myself emotionally immersed in their stories I won't spoil the story by stating what happened, but one interview with a dog handler, actually had me in tears.

Another thing I liked about this book is the underlying political commentary. Whether you agree or disagree with the messages being presented, they will surely catch your interest.

In fact, I suspect that this one of those onion books that needs to be read and re-read to grasp all of the underlying commentary. I will certainly be re-reading my copy. In fact, I hope to get my hands on the audio-book, which, I am told, is read by a full cast of characters. I feel that this will bring even more depth to an already brilliant story.

I do not know whether it is the writing skill of Max Brooks, the unique format of this book, or the incredible realism therein (or perhaps a combination of all three) but this was, by far, the scariest zombie novel I have ever read.

I highly recommend it to absolutely everybody!

Unmentionables: from Family Jewels to Friendly Fire: What We Say Instead of What We Mean by Ralph Keyes. This was an incredibly interesting book on the reasons and motivation behind humanities constant urge to euphemize.

It was particularly interesting to learn just how old are some of today's euphemisms, and just how many 'words' originated as euphemisms (such as bear, for instance). Many of the newly emerging euphemisms can be just as amusing as those which are outdated. One such example is 'rebooting the ovarian operating system', a euphemism for menstruation.

Just as interesting as the actual euphemisms, however, are the variety of reasons for using them. This is definitely a book I would recommend to a friend.

The Wild Shore by Kim Stanley Robertson. This book is set in a quarantined America devastated by nuclear weapons. While we are subjected to much speculation by various characters, we never do find out precisely who attacked America, why they were attacked or why they are under quarantine.

Kim Stanley Robertson has a real talent for presenting believable characters and situations in his books, and this one is no exception. I felt sympathy for the people in this book, who were simply trying to rebuild their lives under very trying circumstances, not knowing who to trust, who to regard as the enemy or why they were being held back from recovery.

I found this book to be so realistic, particularly in the light of the fact that it was written in the mid-eighties, during the height of the cold war, that it was, at times, quite frightening. This is not the best post-apocalyptic novel I have read, but it is definitely worth your time.

Reincarnation by Suzanne Weyn. Reincarnation is not your typical romance novel. Instead, it follows the souls of two star-crossed lovers as they find each other in incarnation after incarnation. Down through the ages they travel, their love doomed to fail again and again until, finally, they reach a time and place where they can be together.

Reminiscent of the tragedies of old, yet endowed with a happy ending, this book will have you questioning the values and beliefs you take for granted.

Once again, I must apologise for the sheer length of this post. I seem to be incapable of keeping things brief!

Oh dear! Still not reading enough but collecting books from everywhere ..... bad, bad, bad ..... and very greedy!!!! I really do want to read them all. School holidays have been bringing other adventures. Am interested in seeing "The Book Thief" and will get to it soon .... Have read The True History of the Kelly Gang a few years ago ... can't remember it all but I did enjoy it. Nice to read everyone's updates :)

The Book of Lost Things is worth a read if you like dark and twisted fantasy, wookie. The fairy tales and myths are woven into the story and also into each other, and undergo some pretty drastic retelling in the process.
"Everything you can imagine is real." ~ Pablo Picasso

Now I'm about to start on Colm Tóibín's collection, The Empty Family, and also My Brother's Keeper by Marcia Davenport.

True History of the Kelly Gang is worth a read, he really captured Ned's voice and spins a great tale around the known facts.

Now I'm reading Farthing which is a great little whodunit set in an alternate history, an England in ~1950 where they made peace with Nazi Germany. Hitler has the continent, and the English are smug in their peace.

#9> Yes, World War Z is a brilliant novel. Excellent comments!

Finished Farthing in a marathon reading session yesterday afternoon, I could NOT put it down. Highly recommended.

And then started The Shining. I've been told to NOT read this one at night, but I have to have it read by next Monday for book group, and I'm back at work today! Good read so far, although the scares have been more in the nature of foreshadowing what is to come.

I am finding it somewhat annoying that I know so much about this book through general pop culture knowledge (I haven't seen the movie, but The Simpsons has referenced it for me enough times!). I like coming to books a blank slate, and to find my brain going "oh, I know this bit" is a bit annoying.

"All work and no beer makes Homer something something."

My Brother's Keeper is an interesting tale - a fictionalised account based on the true story of the Collyer brothers in New York City. This was a condensed version, and of course I'd have preferred to read the unabridged version, but as it's the first "condensed" book I've read in about thirty years, I'm sure I'll cope... ;-)

In 1947 the police found the bodies of the two brothers in their brownstone house amidst (and one of them underneath) literally tons of newspapers, junk, old household items, rubbish, and seven pianos. They were wealthy, but lived a reclusive, paranoid life in squalor. Davenport writes a fictionalised account of how they may have come to be in this state.

Despite the condensation, the story, the melodrama, the sadness all come through well, but of course I can't comment on the writing style.

Now I've been sidetracked by Alice Munro's Lives of Girls and Women. Every time I read anything of hers I am astounded anew by what a brilliant writer she is.

Hm, sounds like Homer & Langley which I read a while back, and do recommend. Based on the same brothers, maybe?

ETA: looks like it, if the tag "collyer brothers" on H&L is anything to go by. :)

Yes, definitely the same brothers. Homer & Langley were their real names, though in the one I read they were called Seymour and Randall.

Lives of Girls and Women is the loosely autobiographical story (said to be "autobiographical in form but not in fact") of a girl's coming of age in a small Canadian town in the 1940s. Each chapter is a separate episode almost like a short story, but the stories are linked and meant to be read as a novel. It is Munro's only "novel", and is on the 1001 list.

If you, as I do, love and appreciate Munro's writing, then this one is an absolute stunner. Her writing is painfully honest to the point of occasional bleakness, but at the same time is wonderfully insightful, tender and humorous.

I was so pleased when she was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature last year. It was one of those happy dance occasions.

Just finished the third of Donna Leon's Brunetti series, The Anonymous Venetian (also titled Dressed for Death). I do enjoy reading this series and luckily have quite a few more waiting on the shelves. It's refreshing to have a cop who is happily married and not a sad-case depressed, divorced alcoholic. She portrays the family interactions very well.

Next up is The Housekeeper and the Professor by Yoko Ogawa.

The Housekeeper and the Professor is a lovely read. Tender and touching without being the slightest bit soppy. It's well written, and has interesting snippets of mathematics scattered throughout (he is an ex professor of mathematics). You don't need to understand (or even like) maths to enjoy it though.

AHAH!! I've been scouring bookshops everywhere for Dressed for Death, obviously I should have looked for The Anonymous Venetian!! I did like the first two Brunetti mysteries very much and have been annoyed I haven't been able to find the third!

Looks like you've been doing some good reading, crimson-tide!

I finished The Shining and enjoyed it, although it was a bit flawed. Very very scary, though.

So moved onto Pratchett's Snuff, which was a good fun romp with Vimes, although it did sag a bit towards the end.

And am now reading Last and First Men which is a very dense sci-fi novel from 1931, written as if a history from someone in the very far future. My Big Issue seller loaned me his copy, so I must read it! Or at least have a jolly good attempt at it. It's not exactly an easy read. It has diagrams. It is very dry. Oh dear, I must persevere.

And for fluff, I'm reading City of Dark Magic at night. Very fluffy fluff.

I'd be happy to send you The Anonymous Venetian, wookie. Everyone in the household here has now read it and it needs a new home.

The Empty Family was a 5 star read. Toibin's prose is at times sublimely beautiful, he writes about love, loss and regret in such a way that at one point I had to stop reading for a while, it was so searingly, uncompromisingly real.

Now back to Venice with Guido Brunetti and #4 in the series, A Venetian Reckoning, (aka Death and Judgement).

#21> And I'd be happy to take it off your hands, so long as you realise that I'm not exactly fast at getting around to reading books. :) Thanks heaps for the offer!

Still reading City of Dark Magic which is rather silly fun stuff, and still slowing reading Last and First Men, which is dry but good. (Am I shallow for wanting a plot, and characters?)

A Venetian Reckoning didn't disappoint and I'll definitely continue to read the series. It's also fun occasionally - thank you Google maps - to follow Brunetti as he walks around Venice. I'm exceptionally pleased I don't have to live and work amidst that degree of corruption.

Oh, I remember using Google maps while reading the first Brunetti novel!

Finished City of Dark Magic and it was pretty good fun. Not sure what I'll pick up next (Last and First Men is my public transport read.)

Hi I'm new to this group.. I've just started reading Beloved by Toni Morrison ..about slavery in USA.. I read the True History of the Kelly Gang.. fantastic book.. It gives an insight into Ned's life. He writes a letter to his daughter he'll never meet, to ensure she knows HIS truth. Great to know a little bit more about the the Kellys and that time in Australian history, but I had to keep remembering it was a story of fiction. Couldn't put it down though. Also just read Eyrie the new book by Tim Winton. I think if there is one author who captures the "feel" of contemporary Australia it would be him.( Also read Breath , another one of his great books).

Hi JFRogers, welcome to the group! I thought Beloved was excellent, although harrowing. I haven't yet read Eyrie, but I won't say no if a copy falls into my lap. :)

I randomly chose More Than This by Patrick Ness as my bedtime read (hurrah for a stack of random books next to the bed! Even if by "stack" I mean "several piles, plus a landslide, and I have no room to stand next to the bed any more"). It was a Xmas present, and I'm liking it so far!

Welcome JFRogers! Hope everyone is well :) We are going to be reading Eyrie for bookclub next month and I'm looking forward to it. (I have requested it at the library and hoping that I get a copy soon ... ) I've also read Breath .... and I loved Winton's Dirt Music too. I want to read Cloudstreet. Two of our children have read it for Yr 12 Literature and has been a copy on the bookshelf for ages which I really must read one day.

I finally finished The Piano Teacher - It is a quick read, but I took ages as there were too many interruptions over the past few months. I also read Gone Girl .. a page-turner thriller that I didn't want to keep reading (because it was worrying) but I did read on, for I needed to get to the end to find out what the end was going to be.

I am now reading The Cuckoo's Calling and actually enjoying it. Both Gone Girl and The Cuckoo's Calling were library books that I requested ages ago and they've finally come to me so I've had to put down all other books for now.

(Ooooh! I must check GoogleMaps for the next Brunetti!!!!)

I'm hearing such mixed things about The Cuckoo's Calling!

I just finished Beloved. This book won't be for everyone. Toni Morrison's unique writing style, took a while to get into, but it was well worth it. I found I sometime had to re-read paragraphs or sentences to "feel" the full force of what was being said. The subject matter is not a light read and as I read it in 2 days, I think I was able to get more of a "sense" of the book, rather than life getting in the way>>>>spoiler alert. Wookiebender... do you think Beloved came back from the dead?. my theory is that she was the escaped slave girl... and Denver and Sethe just wanted to make amends because of what happened

Been a while since I read Beloved but I thought she was a ghost. But that s the way I read - I do like my fantasy genre, and I do tend to read my books very literally and almost ALWAYS fall for the unreliable narrator. So if Morrison said "ghost" anywhere explicitly, I believed her completely.

Finished More Than This and what a brilliant read! If you've read and loved Chaos Walking, you will love this too.

Moving into Three Hearts & Three Lions by Poul Anderson because it's close to hand and it's Fantasy February over in the 75 Book group...

Just finished Val McDermid's debut novel, Report for Murder, which is the first of the Lindsay Gordon series. Lindsay is a straight talking freelance journalist who describes herself as a 'cynical socialist lesbian feminist', an interesting protagonist who gets herself into sticky situations because of her independence and her honesty. It's a sort of "Country House" murder, except that the setting is a private girls' boarding school in the Derbyshire countryside, there are a couple of outside suspects, and not all the action takes place in the school. As a debut novel it is pretty good, although obviously nowhere near the class of her later works, both in the writing, the plotting and the execution. It was an easy and enjoyable read.

Three Hearts and Three Lions was pretty good fun. Not great, but a good little read, and surprisingly modern when you realise it was written back in the 50s.

Still going on Last and First Men, but if I read it as a satire it's suddenly a lot more accessible.

Will probably pick up Winter's Tale for my evening read tonight (L&FM is a bus book only).

I Pearl ruled Winter's Tale at page 50. Brain in the wrong space, and every time I got to the end of a page I'd have no idea what had happened previously. I don't think it was poorly written, I just couldn't get a grip on it. (Too many late nights this week!)

Moving onto Horns, which is due back at the library soon!

I'm currently reading Ghostwritten by David Mitchell, but my reading rate has slowed a bit for various reasons. It's his debut novel, and a quite amazing debut. He is certainly into interlinking and intersecting stories - think Cloud Atlas but different.

I must read Ghostwritten, I do have a copy somewhere and have enjoyed other David Mitchell books!

Horns was rather fun, although a bit messy at times. But Joe Hill, like his more famous father Stephen King, does have the gift of writing very readable stories. But such icky characters!

Probably moving onto the next Vorkosigan book, I'm up to Miles, Mystery & Mayhem in the omnibus series. They're quite short and readable stories (at least these earlier ones are) so the omnibuses work well. And they've fit in a few of the longer short stories too, so it's all rather nice having them all packaged up together.

I found Ghostwritten to be not always an easy read, but it is certainly imaginative and intriguing. A set of interconnected stories which lost me a bit towards the end, but overall I enjoyed the experience. A pretty amazing debut novel.

>31 JFRogers: JFRogers, I listened to a Radio National podcast on Beloved last year. It was interesting and is still there: http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/booksandartsdaily/american-classic3...

I finished The Cuckoo's Calling and it was actually a page-turner for me. I enjoyed it and look forward to more in the series. I am now half way through Eyrie ... I have settled for the audio as I am 28 on the waiting list at the library. I wish I had the book though. The descriptions are lovely and it would be great to be able to ponder the text. The characters have so many layers ... The audio is quite good. (Narrator: Michael Veitch)

I am reading The Grenadillo Box - Really enjoying the setting .... and the tale so far.

Just finished Who Will Run the Frog Hospital? by Lorrie Moore. Great title!

It's a beautifully written story of "the soul saving friendship of two adolescent girls poised to become women" in a small town in upstate New York in the sixties and early seventies. A tale of friendship, loyalty, change, and love.

Told as remembered from middle age by Berie, now in a loveless and unrewarding marriage and visiting Paris with her husband, Daniel, it is heart achingly sad in places, but also sprinkled with wit and understated humour. The sections about Berie and Sils are far superior to the short ones concerning Berie and Daniel, and it doesn't quite all hang together, but the stunning prose, astute observations and raw honesty more than make up for that.

This is my first exposure to Lorrie Moore, and I must say, I've come away impressed.

Oh, nice to hear something good about Lorrie Moore. I think I tried a book of her short stories, and was underwhelmed. Everyone else seems to love her though, so maybe it was just me.

I'm still reading Miles, Mystery & Mayhem. Slow reading, my time has been taken up with other stuff of late (yesterday was spent sleeping off tonsillitis, eurgh).

I'm currently reading Ender's Game. Haven't seen the film and probably won't get to, but my sister and family did, and they want to borrow the series - which has been sitting on my shelf for years. So thought I'd at least read the first one before handing them all over...

I hope you're enjoying Ender's Game! I also really liked the first sequel, Speaker for the Dead, it's quite a different book, but well worth a read. And Don will recommend Xenocide as well, but I'm not sure if I've read that one.

Finished Miles, Mystery and Mayhem, and the title delivered what it promised. (Only the second story didn't actually have Miles, go figure. :) A good read overall, I do like the Vorkosigan books.

Just started Travel Light.

Yes I did thoroughly enjoy Ender's Game. The last chapter (actually titled Speaker for the Dead) is quite different from the rest of the book, and I can see how it would lead onto the next book, Speaker for the Dead.

Now onto Decline and Fall by Evelyn Waugh. Very tongue in cheek and with some quite lovely names. Little Lord Tangent for one, being the Earl of Circumference's son.

Also will be dipping into The Bluffer's Guide to Etiquette by William Hanson, an Early Reviewers ebook I picked up recently. Bit of a lark, and goes very nicely with the Waugh period.

And finished Travel Light a few hours later. Sweet little retelling of a fairytale where a young girl is raised by bears and then by dragons. (The dragons were wonderful. I want to be raised by bears and dragons.)

And am now naughtily neglecting the book group read I *should* be reading for Margo Lanagan's Tender Morsels

Finished Decline and Fall which was witty and enjoyable, but not high on my list of 1001 books that *must* be read.

Also read Harold and Maude which I've been meaning to do for many years. I saw the movie back in the early 70s (it became a bit of a 'cult movie' apparently) and loved it. The book is just as good. It's a simple but powerful story of life and love; quirky, funny, sad, wise, and above all, life-affirming. If anyone would like to read it, let me know, I'll be happy to send it on.

Half way through The Bluffer's Guide to Etiquette by William Hanson, and about to delve into the next in Donna Leon's Brunetti series (#5), Acqua Alta, aka Death in High Water.

Okay, I had to put Tender Morsels aside half way through for my book group read, Burial Rites. Maybe it was putting aside a book I was really loving for something I "had" to read, maybe it was oversold, but I was a bit meh over Burial Rites. But ignore me, most people love it.

Then, with great glee, back to Tender Morsels which was wonderful all the way to the end. Not an easy read (some seriously awful abuse in the beginning), but wonderful.

Now I'm back to Last and First Men (millions of years into the future, the giant brains of the Fourth Men were overthrown by the Fifth Men and have now finally developed a form of time travel). It's an oddity, to say the least.

But because I want fluff to read at bedtime (I'm shallow that way), I'll be picking up Daughter of Smoke and Bone or The Inexplicables as a bed read tonight. And I can't choose!!

The Bluffer's Guide to Etiquette was a quick, easy and amusing read. The historical information was interesting, even if the rest was totally useless on a practical level. Any book that has a quote from Hyacinth Bucket as the epigraph is obviously not to be taken too seriously. And . . . it gave me my first Bingo line, wookie. ;-)

Now happily wandering about Venice again with Acqua Alta and enjoying it just as much as the previous ones of the series.

BINGO! :)

Acqua Alta was another wonderful Brunetti experience, although I'm not sure having to slosh about through the Venetian streets in knee deep water would be very enticing...

Now on to some nonfiction, namely A Mathematician's Apology by G. H. Hardy. Call me a nerd, I don't care, I'll still enjoy reading it. ;-)

Also beginning Heat and Dust, Ruth Prawer Jhabvala's 1975 Man Booker Prize winning novel set in India. The reviews I've read don't seem to agree with the Booker Judges' decision, so it will be interesting to see.

What on earth does a mathematician have to apologise for, I wonder...

I did end up reading Daughter of Smoke and Bone and had a blast. Pretty heavy on the romance (and for a while there, veering into squick territory), but breezy and entertaining. Will be buying the sequel sooner rather than later.

And am now juggling several books: a book of short stories by Saladin Ahmed, Engraved on the Eye; the aforementioned steampunk-with-zombies The Inexplicables (book #4 of the Clockwork Century); and the never ending Last and First Men.

"squick" . . . love it wookie! I'm always impressed with the new (to me) words you come up with.

Not sure if your comment re the apology was a serious one or not, but if so, "apology" is being used here in a sense that is not often used these days, as in a formal defense or justification. In Literature: "a work written as an explanation or justification of one's motives, convictions, or acts." I guess he is justifying the hours that the nerdy pure mathematicians spend in their garrets poring over symbols and hieroglyphics that us mere mortals have no hope of deciphering. And the usefulness of mathematics, as well as its sheer beauty.

However, so far he's just managed to annoy me by wasting the first chunk of pages justifying (to himself I think) why he is actually writing the book, as "real mathematicians" *do* mathematics, and don't lower themselves to just talk about it...

Oh, "squick" is an awesome word, one of my favourite neologisms! Better than "LOL", although I do acknowledge it's usefulness, it just sets my teeth on edge when it's spoken aloud. But "hashtag" cracks me up when the kids use it. "Hashtag, I floop* the pig" had us in hysterics the other night. I'm not one for consistency.

Oh, Mr Bear also did say "so, in Twilight, doesn't anyone ever think of staking Edward?". Clever bear.

I was being half flippant about the mathematician's apology, half serious. Thank you for the clarification. Although I hope the book gets better.

I finished Engraved on the Eye and it was a rather nice solid little collection of short stories, fantastical, but with an Arabian flavour. I got it on Kindle free (FREE!!), as I've been meaning to get his first novel, and this was a good introduction to his writing. They're not stories-with-a-twist, but they're rather good. Well worth downloading, especially if it's still free.

* Floop: to bring a card into play in a board game (by turning it sideways, referring to Card Wars in "Adventure Time").

Thanks for the explanation re floop, wookie. I now know more than I did before (zilch) about Adventure Time and Card Wars. ;-)

How old is Mr Bear now? He's a bear after my own heart . . . must admit that were it possible, I would have jumped right in and staked Edward myself!

Mr Bear is well into the double digits, a whole 11 years old now! :) We're filling out the forms for high school for him this week, for 2015.

Beware Adventure Time, I'm finding it very addictive. It's a kids' show, but every now and then it pulls the rug out from under your assumptions.

11 years old . . . gosh, that happened fast! :-)

I thought Heat and Dust was a good read. There are two stories in the book (both set in the same Indian town) which are skilfully intertwined, Olivia in 1923 and the unnamed narrator (Anne in the film) in the 70s. I found both narratives interesting, especially the parallels between the two. The writing is elegant and understated while still being compassionate.

Strangely, the year in which it won the Booker Prize (1975) there was a short list of exactly two! The other was Thomas Keneally's Gossip from the Forest, which I haven't read, so can't comment on their relative merits.

Still hanging about with G. H. Hardy, but also started on the next Brunetti, The Death of Faith, aka Quietly in Their Sleep. Such a great series.

Was reading a Percy Jackson to Mr Bear the other night, and this exchange occurred:

ME: < Reads sequence where it looks as if Percy's mum is going to be killed by a rampaging monster but she pulls out a shotgun and blasts the monster with such force that it flies through the air and is impaled on another demigod's sword >
BOY: I wish she was my mum.
ME: ???
BOY REALISING HIS MISTAKE: Er! Um! I forgot you were there!!

I shall put that down as great testimony to my reading-aloud skills. :P

I finished The Inexplicables which did drag a bit at times (c'mon, let's get to the zombies already!!) but was still fun overall. Then very quickly read the final Locke and Key: Alpha and Omega by Joe Hill. All nicely tied up, although a few too many characters died :(. But the whole series has been a great read, and the artwork was simply gorgeous.

Now ploughing my way to the end of Last and First Men. Must... finish... so... I... can... read... entertaining... books...

I am sleep-writing .... should really be in bed but I must check in or another week will go by! Mr Bear is growing up so quickly! So clever to come back with that reply!

I read another Janet Gleeson book (...after The Grenadillo Box .... ) called The Thief Taker also a mystery set in 18C London. I could easily overdose on Janet Gleeson but for now it's Eternal on the Water for bookclub. Mr888 is reading The Monuments Men and he is finding it fascinating. We haven't seen the movie ... I'd like to read the book, though.

Will have to key an eye open for Janet Gleeson!

Am... still... reading... Last and First Men... Will... finish... tonight... or... die... in... the... attempt...

So wookie, what is so lethal about Last and First Men? And why are you persisting - I thought you had a pretty strict adherence to the 50 page rule.

Also sounds like you need to get hold of a shotgun... ;-)

I'm persisting because my Big Issue seller gave it to me, and as part of the rehabilitation of Big Issue sellers everywhere, I feel that it is important to engage as much as possible. I would have felt pretty bad if I'd returned it to him after 50 pages. Other readers, however, I'm less worried about their feelings. :)

And I've FINISHED it, even if I was skimming those last few pages. Got a bit heavy into fairly "deep" philosophy, which isn't my cup of tea. I'm glad I've read it (the good bits were good), although it definitely took me out of my comfort zone.

Have moved onto The Girl Who Fell Beneath Fairyland and Led the Revels There which is completely different. :) I wasn't a great fan of the first book, but I think now I know what to expect writing-wise (somewhat overwritten and twee, IMO), it's a lot more fun.

Fair enough, that's a pretty good reason. :-)

Have a look at these Book Stops organised by the South Perth Library for March. They are so cute. And yes, the books all have bookcrossing labels!

http://southperthlibrary.wordpress.com/tag/book-stops/

I like the bookstops! City of Sydney has a great square next to Town Hall where they put out deckchairs (weather permitting, and it's been raining FOREVER at the moment) and a bucket (or two) of books. Of course, I did pick up some of their free books from my local library (sans deckchairs) on the weekend, and have already read Texts from Dog, which is a lot of fun, if on the rude & crude side.

Also finished The Girl Who Fell Beneath Fairyland and the writing style still really grates. It's as if she's writing it all with extreme bated breath, and also extreme excitement at her cleverness. The ideas are still great (a dodo called Aubergine who practices the Quiet Physicks was my favourite, and there are a lot of other very inventive ideas), but I wish she'd just write in a plainer style. Other people adore these though, so don't take my word for it.

And bought myself Beautiful Darkness for my birthday (I try for something a bit out of the ordinary, something I wouldn't ordinarily buy) and this was a graphic novel, illustrated in lovely watercolour style, but with a very, very, VERY dark story. It was recommended by Paul Cornell on SF Squeecast (a rather fun podcast, if you're into such things) and he did warn me as to its darkness. The blurb on the back of the book was *awful* and I almost put it back on the shelf, but I'm glad I remembered Cornell's rave and bought it. I read it twice in one afternoon, once rushing for the story, the second time looking out for little things. Recommended, if you like fairytale + psychological horror.

(Oh, and Catherynne Valente who writes the "Girl Who..." fairytale series is also a regular on the SF Squeecast, as is Elizabeth Bear and Seanan McGuire.)

And finally, after about 4 months, Mr Bear & I finished The Last Olympian, the final in the Percy Jackson series. Nice conclusion to the series, even if Mr Bear did think the kissing at the end was a bit squick. (He's such a boy.) Not sure what we'll be reading next, although I am hoping for Holes by Louis Sachar, which was a Christmas present to him from my Mum. (Miss Boo has seen the movie.)

I've moved onto the third of the Glamourist Histories, Without a Summer, and am happily squee-ing (on the inside, since I'm at work) with its delightful mix of Regency and magic.

ETA: And damnit, I haven't run into my Big Issue seller to discuss Last and First Men yet! I'll have forgotten it all by the time I next see him, at this rate.

I finished The Death of Faith, aka Quietly in Their Sleep last weekend and thoroughly enjoyed it as usual. Have put Hardy aside for a bit and am reading some hard boiled noir in the shape of Farewell, My Lovely by Raymond Chandler.

We are on the road again for a few months, so this last week has been spent doing lots of driving across the big vast empty bit from west to east, and not much reading. Although we have been listening to an audio version of The Devil's Star by Jo Nesbo. Helps to soak up the boring bits...

Oh, I love Chandler! That's a good one, too. I've got several Nesbo books on the shelves (I snaffle them when I see them second hand), must pick one up soon!

Yes, it is a good one. I think I'm enjoying it a bit more than The Big Sleep, not that I didn't enjoy that one too.

Without a Summer was a great romp, I'm loving this series even more as it comes along. Book #4 comes out in May, but in hardback only. Sigh.

Moving onto the second Newbury & Hobbes investigation, The Osiris Ritual. Victorian steampunk crime (what's not to love?).

Well, I read The Osiris Ritual in about three days, which is a personal best for this year, I reckon. (Finding it hard to find time!)

Good romp, although I got a bit fidgety towards the end. Not sure why, there were still exciting things happening, but the relationship between Newbury & Hobbes didn't ring true, and it did seem a bit pat that both their (at first very disparate) investigations turned out to be related.

Have moved on to Wise Man's Fear, the second Kingkiller Chronicle by Patrick Rothfuss. The first was a great romp, looking forward to this one!

I finished Farewell, My Lovely and had a thoroughly good time. Typical Chandler. We also finished the audiobook of The Devil's Star, very twisty. Was my first Nesbo, but unfortunately not the first of the series (#5 I think). Harry is having a hard time in this one and drinking himself out of a job, but of course he comes good in the end, although for all I know he has a hard time in all the books... I must search out the first couple of the series.

Now reading The Driver's Seat by Muriel Spark, a 1001 book. Is starting off as a distinctly oddball one.

Nesbo is a bit odd, in that they've only just translated the first book, and I'm not sure if they've done the second book either. We got the third in the series first. (Which I own, but I'm yet to start.)

The Wise Man's Fear turned out to be nearly 1000 pages. Hard to tell because the paper was quite thin. Another great romp, I didn't mind spending nearly two weeks in the world, although there was a slump towards the end when Zvothe discovers sex, and proceeds to have far too much of it. Was a bit over his sex life after 100 pages or so. But the rest of the book was great.

Also knocked out a rather silly but fun book called Geekomancy, where practitioners of Geekomancy can use their knowledge of geek as power, ie wield a prop lightsaber as if it's a *real* lightsaber, etc.

And now just starting Life After Life by Kate Atkinson.

Sorry if I've been absent a bit lately, but we're travelling again. :-)

The Driver's Seat ended up just as it began, distinctly weird. But it did turn the reader's expectations on their head, which is always a good thing.

Then I had a joyful time reading Moon Palace by Paul Auster. He writes so beautifully and has the knack of taking you right into the story so you feel like you are there with the characters, rather than just reading about them.

Then followed the next Brunetti in the series, A Noble Radiance. I knocked it off pretty quickly as I just love that series. The interaction between Guido and Paola (and the two children) is just as much a part of the story (and as enjoyable too) as the main plot lines.

So now I'm also reading a Kate Atkinson, namely When Will There Be Good News?. She is another author who I really enjoy, so much fun to read and very well written. I've heard lots about Life After Life wookie, so would be very keen to know what you think of it.

Geekomancy sounds like a fun romp...

Hopefully I'll be back after I've finished the current read.

I was planning on reading some Donna Leon after the large (and excellent) tome that was Wise Man's Fear, but then realised I didn't have enough time what with book group looming large. Hopefully soon!

I'm almost finished with the bookgroup read now (the aforementioned Life After Life) and yes, you MUST ALL RUN TO THE BOOKSHOP AND BUY IT NOW. Loving it. (I loved her Jackson Brodie books too, this is the first non-Brodie one of hers I've read.)

Geekomancy was fun, but could have done with an extra polish. I got thrown out of the story a few times with some awkward phrases or repetition, etc. I'm not sure if I'll continue with the series, but I think I liked the concept and characters enough to do so.

Book group tonight, and Life After Life will be discussed. I hope everyone liked it as much as I did!

Currently reading Cheryl Strayed's Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail as it is due back at the library this weekend and there's a queue forming behind me of other eager readers. Being of a snobbish type, I was unimpressed with the "Oprah Bookclub" sticker on the cover, but it is a good read (as, I must admit, Oprah reads often are).

And, yes, one can be a snob and read zombie steampunk. :)

When Will There Be Good News? certainly didn't disappoint. It was engrossing, perceptive and tragic, while also being humorous, a hard thing to pull off. Jackson Brodie wasn't the main protagonist, that part belonged to a feisty and loveable sixteen year old girl by the name of Reggie. She's a great character and I hope we meet her again one day. But Jackson is such a tangled mess, you just have to love him.

Now I'm reading The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro. It won the Booker in 1989 and has been made into a movie. An interesting look into a certain place and time in terms of English personality, class and culture. I did see the movie and remember the general gist of the "story" but am sure it would not have been able to convey the nuances of the writing to full extent.

I have an ebook version of Life After Life, so perhaps I should get onto it sooner rather than later...

Hope you do get to the Donna Leon's wookie, they are a treat.

May Murder & Mayhem is just around the corner, so I'm hoping to read some Donna Leon in May! (And some of Susan Hill's Simon Serralier; Jo Nesbo's Harry Hole; and Elizabeth Peters' Amelia Peabody.)

Remains of the Day is wonderful.

Had a fairly craptastic day yesterday, so spent today at home (with the blessings of my manager) and got some serious (silly) reading done.

Wild: A Journey From Lost to Found was finished, and it was a very good read, with the caveat that it *is* an Oprah book, so you you there's going to be heart warming life changing finding yourself stuff happening. My MIL is now reading my copy, and loving it muchly.

Then onto To Spin a Darker Stair, which was a couple of excellent fairy tale inspired short stories. I got this as a freebie for supporting the "cranky ladies of history" kick starter and it was a good (short) read.

And just finished One Damned Thing After Another which was a hoot of a time travel historian tale. I shall definitely be reading on in this series.

Now I think it's time to pick up the next Donna Leon...

The Remains of the Day certainly is wonderful, bordering on a masterpiece. So talented to be able to pin down that voice and keep it so consistent. I don't know why I didn't read it ages ago, it's been calling to me from the shelf for years...

Now I'm about to start on Jar City by Arnaldur Indridason, which I think is my very first Icelandic book.

Oh, I thought Jar City was an excellent example of Scandicrime, I hope you like it too!

Almost finished Donna Leon's The Anonymous Venetian and absolutely dying for Italian food.

The Anonymous Venetian was another great Brunetti mystery. An excellent series. Keeping with the crime, and now reading (for the first time!) Murder on the Orient Express.

I enjoyed Jar City and its protagonist, it was a good introduction to Iceland. The storyline wasn't quite what I was expecting from the title, but there you go. Have seen a few jar cities in my time, although they weren't called that... ;-)

Now reading My Antonia by Willa Cather, and finding it an easier and more enjoyable read than I'd expected. That may be because I picked it up once before and there's this "academic type" introduction which put me off. This time I persisted and it's paid off. You don't need to read that intro anyway.

Written in 1918 it's about Nebraska prairie and small town life toward the end of the 19th century, and the memories of growing up there, in particular Jim's (the narrator's) memories of Antonia, an immigrant girl on the next door farm who then later comes to work for the neighbours after Jim and his grandparents move into town.

I usually think intros are a waste of time and rife with spoilers and academic showing-off-ness. But then again, I read for pleasure, not for academia, so I think they're not aimed at me. :)

I did read some Willa Cather short stories a few years back, but haven't heard the siren call of her other works as yet. But she does seem to be popular, especially on LibraryThing.

Okay, bit of a bulk catchup.

Murder on the Orient Express was a bit silly, really. And a bit plodding with the plotting. Poirot is always entertaining, but this isn't one of my favourite Christie novels.

Then I picked up Daughter of Blood which was recommended to me at the local sci-fi/fantasy bookshop. I'd seen the author talk a couple of weeks before and she was entertaining, and the fans obviously loved her and her work. However, I have to say that they're obviously all deluded because it was an awful, awful book. I read it for 150 pages, so I did give it a good go, and it was just horrid. I'm not quite sure what to say to the women at the bookshop now - will I even be able to make eye contact??

Luckily the crew at St Mary's came to the rescue, and Symphony of Echoes was a lovely antidote, with those wacky time travelling historians bouncing all over the place, but always finding time for a nice cup of hot tea.

And now I'm deep into The Risk of Darkness (the third Simon Serrailler mystery by Susan Hill) and loving it. An excellent crime series.

Well, after your comments I looked up Daughter of the Blood on LT. Lots of negative comments but, as you say, the fans obviously love it as the average rating is over 4. Go figure. Sounds like a book I shall keep well away from.

I have a number of the Simon Serrailler series so had better get started on them. Unfortunately although I have some with me as ebooks, the first one is at home on my shelf, so that pleasure will have to wait a little while longer. And I'll definitely be putting the Chronicles of St Mary's ones on my wishlist.

I totally agree re the Intros, wookie. This is my first Willa Cather and it is still enjoyable, although I haven't had a lot of reading time lately. Lovely writing.

Oh, I'm glad I'm not the only one who disliked it! The people (sales and fans) loved her so much that I thought maybe I'd somehow missed the point. Will have to check out what others say here too.

Finished The Risk of Darkness and it was another excellent book in this series. crimson-tide, you must read them!

Not sure what to pick up next.

Okay, juggling a couple of books at the moment.

Paperback is The Cutting Season by Attica Locke, which is an interesting crime novel set in Louisiana. It's not so much about the crime (police procedural or anything like that) as about a woman who is peripheral to the whole thing but is trying to protect her daughter from it all. (I am hoping we find out whodunnit though! Call me shallow, but I like my crime stories to have resolution. :)

And I'm reading The King in Yellow on the Kindle app. (Yep, I'm watching 'True Detectives'.) Reminds me of Poe.

Finally finished My Antonia and enjoyed it right to the final page, even though it took me a while to get there. Now reading The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes, which hopefully won't take me quite as long.

Oh, I did like Sense of an Ending, it's worth an immediate re-read I reckon.

I finished (and enjoyed The Cutting Season) and am now reading The Immorality Engine.

Been staying with friends so not much reading time, but I did manage to finish The Sense of an Ending last night. Lots to think over there. Top level writing too.

Not sure what will be hauled out of the box next . . .

OK, next up is The Serpent's Tale by Ariana Franklin. Sorry, but the touchstones don't seem to be working properly.

I finished The Immorality Engine and it was pretty good fun. The series is a bit patchy, but this seemed the most consistent so far.

I've been reading Restless by William Boyd but due to a tummy bug felling both kids and keeping me awake at small hours of the night, spent the weekend reading the third St Mary's Chronicle instead, A Second Chance. The most serious of the series so far (hard to put a fun spin on the fall of Troy, for one) but probably the best of the series so far. And the funny bits are still very funny.

Have caught up on sleep enough now to return to William Boyd, I think...

Restless was my introduction to William Boyd. A great story, and a pretty good writer all round. Also enjoyed the TV miniseries . . . did you see it?

Yes, I'm powering through it now I'm less of a sleep-deprived zombie. :) I missed the tv series, although I did mean to watch it at the time. No time to read, even less time to watch tv!

Restless was a good read, recommended to all. (I shall be passing my copy along to my parents, at least.) Will have to track down some more by Boyd.

And now I'm reading the 8th (9th?) Harry Dresden novel, White Night. Explosion-y fun.

White Night was pretty good, although a bit too much talking-heads-exposition-y and only really got thoroughly big-dumb-explosion-y towards the end.

Don just knocked off the 13th in the series (or whatever number we're up to now) and has, of course, restarted it instantly.

And now I'm reading Finch. "Fungal noir" the cover said, and the cover did not disappoint.

I haven't reached White Night yet, I think I'm only up to number five or six. But it's there waiting for me...

Meanwhile, I'm still on a go slow with anything. ;-)

Finch is well worth a read, if you like your noir set on a different world where humans are subjugated by a race of fungal people. No, really.

It *was* a great read (great noir, fascinating planet/world/city, excellent plot, good characters), but it was a really weird place. Apparently (I discovered while reading the end notes) this is the third in a series, and ties the whole Ambergris place together. Now it makes sense why I felt very much like I'd been dropped into the deep end in terms of world building. I'll have to track down the first two.

Now reading Ha'penny. The first in this series (Farthing) was a 5-star read, so I've got high hopes for this one too. Alternate history, where Britain doesn't go to war against Hitler.

No, really??!!?? Actually it does sound fascinating, as does the Farthing series.

I finally finished The Serpent's Tale and it too was a good read, although no fungal people in sight (unless you take into account how infrequently they washed in Medieval England!). It was just me being tied up with too much else to do at the time (and not having commuter time in which to read).

Now reading Fahrenheit 451, which I've been meaning to read for an age but has somehow always eluded me.

Be prepared to not want to eat mushrooms for a while after reading any of the Ambergris series. Was chuffed to find the second one, Shriek: An Afterward, secondhand on the weekend. Now to track down #1!

And Ha'penny was another great read, although our main female character didn't quite work this time around for me, she just seemed rather daft at times. (Alternating chapters, one from the POV of an upperclass woman, the other about Inspector Carmichael of Scotland Yard, as they slowly work their way around the puzzle.) Inspector Carmichael is *brilliant* though, and the whole series (so far) is deliciously creepy, as fascism takes more of a hold on 1950s England.

And now I've started The Miernik Dossier, a spy novel written by an ex-CIA agent, so the blurb tells me. Excellent so far, I've heard great things about this series.

Been *years* since I read Fahrenheit 451, although I'm always tempted by it when I'm in the bookshop. One day, it'll come up for a re-read. :)

I found Fahrenheit 451 an interesting read, especially regarding a number of quite frightening parallels with the dumbing down of today's society.

Now reading Donna Leon's Brunetti #9, Friends in High Places. Loving it as usual.

Brunetti and Venice did not disappoint. Now reading The Woman in Black by Susan Hill. I don't usually go in for gothic horror or ghost stories, but have been told this one is a bit different. The writing is a pleasure.

Oh, I liked The Woman in Black, and I've liked all her ghost stories. But this is probably the best.

The Miernik Dossier was a great read, although got rather dark towards the end. Will be reading on in this series.

And now I've started Power and Majesty by Tansy Rayner Roberts, who I know from a feminist Doctor Who podcast, "Verity", that I'm rather addicted to. And I'm enjoying the book a lot, too. Looks like classic fantasy, but is more than that, IMO.

The Woman in Black was a pretty good read, even though rather predictable. The writing, the descriptions of the landscape of the marshes, and Hill's ability to set the mood and describe Arthur's internal thoughts and feelings were the best bits for me.

I then had a quick read of Winter by John Marsden. He has exceptional skill in writing about and through teenagers. Now starting With Child by Laurie R. King.

Power and Majesty is probably classified as "dark romantic fantasy", much like Daughter of the Blood which I loathed a couple of months back. This one was far less disturbing (having a main character in her 20s was a good start), and I gobbled it up. I still shall quibble about that "romantic" term, because it is anything but romantic. And I shall read on.

And am now attempting to read The Quantum Thief which has a good start, but I am a bear of very little brain this week. Don't want to ditch it for something else though (wish I could ditch my brain though :P).

Is With Child one of the Holmes series? I read the first, and had enough quibbles that I'm probably not continuing on with the series.

I read The Quantum Thief a couple of years ago, and it hurt my brain. ;-)

With Child is one of the Kate Martinelli series. I've read a few of those many years back and this one is totally out of order, but I'm hoping it won't matter too much. I also don't bother with her Holmes series.

Yes, consider me a very sore-headed person this morning after staying up late finishing The Quantum Thief. :) I did enjoy it, but I'm not sure I really understood what was happening at times. Seriously dropped in the deep end with that one, which is something I do love in books, not being spoon-fed.

Reading a more classic sci-fi book now, Harry Harrison's Make Room! Make Room! which is probably mostly known for its movie adaptation, Soylent Green. I read a lot of Harrison as a teenager (loved his Stainless Steel Rat series), so it's rather fun going back to him as an adult, and reading one of his grown-up tales.

With Child was a good read. Not a murder mystery, but a crime to solve nonetheless, even if it doesn't actually occur until half way through the book. Well written with good build up and good character development. Now I thought I may start on Silent in the Grave by Deanna Raybourn.

Oh, I enjoyed Silent in the Grave, hope you do too!

Finished Make Room! Make Room! and it is quite different from the movie. More of a rant against unchecked population growth, and Soylent isn't what you think it is, if you've seen the movie. Not a bad book, but I preferred the movie. :)

Going to start the brilliantly titled Hold Me Closer, Necromancer next.

The Fifth Chapter, and thoroughly enjoying it thus far.

Huzzah! Oh, you're making me want to run out and buy the fourth in the series...

Hold Me Closer, Necromancer was a good entertaining diversion in the urban fantasy genre. A bit of a wobbly start, but I finished it quickly and spent a lot of work time wishing I was at home reading it instead of suffering through meetings, etc. :P Always the sign of a good read.

I'll be reading on, the next one is Necromancing the Stone, then (thankfully?) she ran out of necromancy puns and it's Firebug, due out soonish.

Just started the fourth Newbury & Hobbes Investigation, The Executioner's Heart. I like the ideas and characters and plots of this series, but they oddly fail to quite gel into a great read. Good enough to continue with the series, but often by about halfway through I get a bit fidgety. Hopefully this one will keep the fidget factor low.

Well, again The Executioner's Heart just didn't quite make it into the "great" read category. Good fun, but there's just something missing. (But hey, I'm still reading the series, so it's nothing too much missing. :)

Moving on to The Book of Lost Things by John Connolly. Very good so far.

Really enjoyed Silent in the Grave, such a fun read! Will definitely be revisiting the Lady Julia Grey at a later date. Currently I'm into The Subtle Serpent by Peter Tremayne. Don't think I've been taken to seventh century Ireland before, so could be interesting.

Also been / am listening to some audiobooks while traversing our wide (very wide) continent. Firstly The Drop by Michael Connelly. I liked Harry Bosch the only other time we've met, and this one was OK, but suffered from being way down in the order (#17) when I've only read the first one, and I think it was an abridged version, which I really, really dislike.

Then there was The Burning Wire by Jeffery Deaver. My first experience with Deaver and Lincoln Rhyme, and didn't grab me enough to go looking for others I'm afraid. Unfortunately this one was most definitely abridged and also threw me in at #9, so perhaps I'm being a little unfair? Does anyone else have any experience with this series?

The current audiobook is John le Carre's A Most Wanted Man, and thankfully is the full unabridged version. I have always enjoyed Le Carre but am having a little trouble with this one and getting confused with all the spies and spooks and police people from at least three different countries being involved. Maybe I'd do better reading it than listening to it while driving... Having said that, it's still a good'un. Interestingly it is narrated by le Carre himself. Usually in that situation I find myself thinking that the authors should just stick to their writing, but he does a very creditable job. The bad news is that we'll most likely be home before the end of the book, so it may be left hanging for a while.

Hurrah for another fan of Lady Julia Grey!

Can't help you with the Jeffrey Deaver, I've not read any of his. I do find that series are much better if you start at the beginning though, there's a lot of background info that seems to get missed the further one goes with a series, making it difficult to pick up halfway. At the very least, I do try to source the very first book in a series, even if I'm slightly less pedantic about order after that.

And you've reminded me I must find a copy of The Spy Who Came in From The Cold for bookgroup next month, which isn't that long away now. (It's a re-read, so I'm not too stressed about finding a copy in time.)

The Book of Lost Things continues to be excellent. Would rather be reading it than be at work, at any rate. :P

And woke up early this morning, so finished off The Book of Lost Things. Highly recommended, especially for those of us who possibly read more fairy tales than was healthy as children. (Especially if we particularly enjoyed the macabre ones.)

And (continuing with the dusting off of old books found during a spring clean the other weekend) I've now picked up Dark Matter by Michelle Paver. Not Dark Matter by Julie Zeh, of which I also have a copy, recently found neglected at the back of a bookshelf. I really mustn't double stack my books. An excellent start, about a bunch of spiffing young chaps (one is middle/working class, and he's narrating it) going on a jolly Arctic adventure in the late 1930s. But we know it's not going to be jolly. At all. The front cover promised me ghosts, and the atmosphere is being suitably built up to a sleepless night or two for me.

Well, we did manage to finish off (just) A Most Wanted Man before arriving home. It finished very suddenly and in my opinion the ending was a total cop out! Some good things there, but the characters were just not convincing. Not one of his best.

I also enjoyed The Book of Lost Things, wookie. Loved the twists in the tales.

I absolutely know what you mean about finding neglected books at the back of the shelves. I have two (large and deep) bookshelves where they are triple stacked. The back rows very rarely see the light of day...

Triple stacked!! I am impressed. :)

Yes, well. It seemed like a good idea at the time! ;-)

The Subtle Serpent was a mixed bag, and I was rather disappointed. The story was reasonable and the setting interesting, but the writing was pretty poor. Too much telling, lots of repetition, and way too much over explaining. He is an academic writing a novel based on his area of expertise, and that is exactly how it came across. Stuffing lots of facts and info into the narrative without integrating it or without it being necessarily pertinent may make him feel clever but doesn't always make for good reading. Didn't the man have an editor?? Ended up being rather stiff, ponderous and pedantic in parts and I thought at one point if another character "grimaces", I'll have to throw the book on the floor and jump on it! They did, but I didn't... ;-)

Next up are a couple of books I've promised to others, Take My Word For It by John Marsden, and The Boat by Nam Le.

I have read The Boat, but can't remember any of the stories now! I did think it was very good at the time, however.

I got over my fear of reading Dark Matter in the dark, and finished it off last night. A suitably terrifying ghost story, set during an Arctic winter. I'm definitely closing all curtains in the house at night for the next while, in case I see something I don't like outside...

And this morning, I woke up early (on a Saturday!?!) so finished off the fairy tales at the back of The Book of Lost Things, which were all excellent.

And I then gave Miss Boo a choice of four books, to choose what I would read next, and she choose the second Creature Court book, The Shattered City.

The shattered city was another good read in this series. As befits the author (feminist nerdish podcaster Tansy Rayner Roberts), the female characters are interesting, varied, believable, and strong. The blokes aren't too bad either. :)

Don bought a new graphic novel, Rat Queens, and that was a hoot and a half, about an unlikely bunch of female mercenaries brawling their way through a D&D setting.

And I read the fourth Glamourist History, Valour and Vanity, another fun romp in this regency-romance-with-magic series. And Jane remains a delightful heroine, smart and resourceful.

And moving away from great female characters to The Spy Who Came in from the Cold, a re-read for next week's bookgroup.

I've been a bit slack checking in here . . . so here's the update.

Take My Word For It was a sort of companion to another of his, So Much to Tell You, and was typical John Marsden.

I then snuck in a Phryne Fisher, Flying Too High, and that was, well, typically Phryne...

Following that was a very quick re-read of prescriptions for happiness as another bookcrosser had chosen it in a trade.

Then came The Boat, which I finished yesterday, and found to be a wonderful collection of powerful and ambitious stories, with stunningly good writing. Who could want more?

So now I'm reading Timbuktu by Paul Auster. Love his writing and all his books are so very different. This one has a dog (Mr Bones) as one of the main protagonists.

Timbuktu was a fast (for me) and joyful read. As seen through the eyes of the dog...

Now into The Light Between Oceans by M. L. Stedman. Set in the 1920s and situated in the south-west of WA. :-)
Enjoying it so far.

Ah, now I remember Timbuktu! Great dog. :)

I should try The Light Between the Oceans, that's the general area where my Mum comes from.

I finished The Spy Who Came in from the Cold and am now looking forward to discussing it over beer and schnitzel. (I approve of a bookgroup that at least attempts to match their food to their reading choices! Although I'm slightly sad we didn't decide it was Russian and go for vodka and caviar.)

And am starting the much discussed The Girl With All The Gifts by M. R. Carey. A friend of mine pointed out on Facebook that I know the author as Mike Carey who wrote some excellent graphic novels about Lucifer (a spin-off from the Sandman series) that we both enjoyed. Anyway, so far, so good, although it's going to have to be bloody unbelievably brilliant after all the hype this one's got.

Or English, with warm beer and ???

And surely not more fungi? And with zombies of course!! ;-)

It's a very bleak, grey, depressing England in the Smiley novels. I'd be okay with the warm beer (they do brew it to be drunk warm, after all), but not the we're-still-rationing food. :)

We did do an English pub once (I missed that session; or maybe we just talked about it but failed to get there). English pubs are rather fun, roast beef with Yorkshire pud, fish and chips, yum yum yum.

Next read is We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves, which we've determined is American. Burgers, anyone? Hopefully it'll be Southern, and we can hit Miss Peach's Soul Food Kitchen. :)

Mr Bear & I finished The Hunger Games the other night, and he instantly wandered off to pick up book 2 so we could start it Right Then And There, only to be bundled off to bed, to much protest. I am enjoying these more, reading them to him, and getting the brunt of all his outrage at how badly Capital treats everyone else in Panem. (And his horror at the kissing scenes, which I refuse to skip.)

And, yes, more fungi! The Girl With All The Gifts is proving to be an excellent read so far.

The Light Between Oceans was a good solid read, and one I'm sure many book groups have had many long discussions over. Questions of "what was/is the right thing to do?" abound. However I have a number of reservations. It was "overwritten" (definitely aiming at a certain audience), and also rather predictable, but it did drag the reader in emotionally. Had some great characters, and some that could have been drawn much clearer. The wind, the waves, the storms were all described beautifully.

The setting, while on and off the coast off south western WA, was actually two imaginary places, with other real towns being mentioned. Janus Rock, 100 miles off the coast (where the lighthouse is situated) doesn't exist, and the coastal town of Point Partageuse is set somewhere very near Cape Leeuwin, with the lighthouse in question most likely modelled on the Cape Leeuwin lighthouse.

Here are some pics for anyone interested:
https://www.google.com.au/search?q=cape+leeuwin+lighthouse&tbm=isch&tbo=...

Now I have a couple on the go: Nocturnes, a short story cycle by Kazuo Ishiguro, and I'm Not Scared by Niccolo Ammaniti.

I may keep an eye open for The Light Between Oceans! And I really enjoyed I'm Not Scared, I hope you do too.

The Girl With All The Gifts was a great read, I finished it last night and woke up this morning still thinking about it. A great page turner, and some brilliant ideas. A few quibbles (I had questions that needed answers, dammit!) but on the whole definitely recommended.

Probably going to start Necromancing the Stone today.

I'm Not Scared was a great read, I'd even go as far as "gripping", with the tight, short sentences really winding up the tension as the book progressed. He really did get inside the nine year old Michele's head so beautifully. However, as much as I appreciate open ended endings, this one was just a tad too open ended for my liking.

The stories in Nocturnes are terrific. Five stories all centred around musicians and music, relationships, nostalgia and yearning. And of course great writing.

Now I'm just beginning The Passion of New Eve by Angela Carter.

LOL, your reading is much more sophisticated than mine at the moment. But I'm enjoying my necromancer story, werewolves, silly banter, and all.

Oh, I enjoy the fantasy books too, just not a complete diet of them, and perhaps not all zombies and necromancers... ;-)

And The Passion of New Eve may have just hit my "sophistication limit"!! Sigh. At page 25 I wondered whether to invoke the 30 page rule. I didn't, as I actually hate doing that unless the book is REALLY bad. Now at page 42, and reserving the right to invoke the 50 page rule. *lol* I probably won't then either as it has picked up a bit, or I'm getting more used to her style and the long sentences, or both. Her sentences are as long as the ones in I'm Not Scared were short. It is by no means my first Angela Carter, but I'm finding it the most difficult one to date.

My reading over the past month or so has been dictated by my decision to try to clear off the shelves a little. So I'm specifically choosing books which can then be released once read, either as rabcks, via VBBs or wishlist tags or whatever, to people who are looking for them.

Which reminds me wookie, I have a few more Brunetti's I would be happy to send you. Everyone here has finished with them and I'd like to pass them on. They include:
Acqua Alta - #5
The Death of Faith - #6
A Noble Radiance - #7
Friends in High Places - #9

Let me know. :-)

I've got The Passion of New Eve on the shelves somewhere, I did like her other books. Might just bump it down the pile a little though, I'm not aiming for sophistication just yet. :)

And, yes please! Always happy to have some more Brunetti on the shelves. I was just eyeing off the next one (#4) but decided to stick with silly necromancer stories instead. And stayed up past midnight reading that book. Yawn, but worth it.

As usual, absolutely no hurry to post anything, I've got *plenty* to keep me going for the next while...

>130 wookiebender:
Great!

Necromancing The Stone was another good fun romp, plenty of silliness, and a very likeable main character. Of course, Sam is so likeable, that he's a bit unable to actually do any action, since he's always worrying about the consequences. Luckily, all his other friends (and not-so-friends) pile in and help out with the action. It wraps up nicely from the first book, leaves a few questions open, but a further book in this series isn't actually required, which is rather nice. (I believe the author is continuing the series, but with different characters. Looking forward to it!)

And one word: Thundergnome. (Two gnomes enter, one gnome leaves.) The gnomes were great fun, but also nicely not overdone, just added here and there for the occasional spot of humour.

Yeah, if you're looking for something silly and fun and entertaining, I do recommend this series.

And now I've moved onto Let The Right One In, which I started some time ago but found the opening too bleak so put it aside for later. Well, it's later now, and the beginning's still too bleak, but I'm more in a mood to persevere.

>132 wookiebender:
OK, you got me on that one! I've put the first of the series on my wishlist . . . :-)

I hope you like it!

I'm finding Let The Right One In seriously bleak, and creepy-in-a-not-good-way. I'm well past the 50 page mark, so it's not a chore to read when I settle down to it, but I feel like I need to take a shower afterwards. I'll probably continue with it, but I don't think I'm recommending it.

Righto . . . I finished The Passion of New Eve this morning, and while I did find it a bit "difficult" to begin with, I must have fallen into the rhythm of her overblown prose, and in the end was not sorry I persisted. The plot is certainly bizarre and outrageous, but she still manages to hold it all together and overturns gender and identity stereotypes in her usual bold fashion. It's a pretty wild ride and overall is classic Angela Carter - subversive and thought provoking. There was a fair bit of symbolism and mythology referencing that went right over my head though. Not sure if I'd recommend it or not...

So now to something completely different; children's fantasy in the form of Dealing with Dragons. Perhaps not so different though, as we have one feisty young princess also attempting to overturn the gender stereotyping... ;-)

Dealing with Dragons is a totally charming story, where not all princesses have to be airheads. Cimorene is intelligent, level headed, courageous and assertive, she does things that "really are not done", and of course she wins the day! A tale for all ages, and amusing as well.

Next up is The Shadow Lines by Amitav Ghosh.

Change of plans: Currently reading some Hemingway short stories, Men Without Women. I'm also listening to some other short stories on audiobook, Wish I Was Here by Jackie Kay. They are very, very different, but both good. I like the Jackie Kay ones better though.

After that will be Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel.

The Shadow Lines will then follow . . . unless its place is usurped again. ;-)

I'm halfway through Let The Right One In.

I have also taught myself a complicated new knitting stitch (the trinity stitch), gotten stuck on level 109 of "Two Dots" (aka, the most frustrating and addictive game ever to appear on a smart phone), watched the new Doctor Who episode several times, have almost finished listening to the Splendid Chaps podcast (more Doctor Who), got slightly better at Bioshock: Infinite (I'm not really a games person, although I do like them in theory, so am trying to like them in practice too, since the other 75% of my family are bonkers for them), and have scrubbed all the corners of the shower.

All in an effort to not read Let the Right One In. It's weird though, when I do read it, I zip through it. I just will find anything and everything (I mean, really, cleaning the shower??) to postpone picking it up.

I will keep an eye open for Dealing with Dragons (oh! it's written by Patricia Wrede! I loved her Sorcery and Cecilia), and I'll get around to The Passion of New Eve at some stage (it's already on my shelves, after all!).

Whoa!! That is some avoidance behaviour... *lol* I hate it when I get a book like that - it really slows down the reading momentum.

Men Without Women was pretty good if you like Hemingway. I do. Not so much his subject matter, but the way he writes and his astute observations. These combine to paint scenes, describe characters, and convey emotions (or not) with the minimum of fuss and the maximum impact. This was one of his early works and it does show - the stories were patchy and a few pretty awful, but there were some great ones in there too.

Currently about halfway through Like Water for Chocolate. I seem to remember lots of hype around this one, and it is on the 1001 books list. At this stage I'm not really sure why; perhaps it was the food thing.

Still going on the Jackie Kay audio. Am enjoying those stories greatly but decided I needed to catch up on some podcasts as well.

Now wookie, on your recommendation ("aka, the most frustrating and addictive game ever") I have just downloaded TwoDots onto my iPad. Any tips?? And if I waste hours and hours of my life, I shall certainly know who to blame... ;-)

It wasn't that much of a recommendation!! :) No tips, except I recommend not picking it up in the first place. Level 109 is *impossible*. A workmate saw me playing it and said he'd rage deleted it. I'm getting far too stubborn though and am determined to get past 109.

Speaking of which, made a concerted effort and finished with the gloomy Swedish vampires. Far too bleak (I remember the 80s as day glo and pop music, I don't like this revisionist history that makes it all gloom and threat of nuclear war); crossed several lines I wasn't happy with (paedophilia, violence to children); and was awkwardly written/translated, which I find in a number of Scandinavian novels (maybe they just have a weird way of writing?).

Anyway, will move on to something quite different. Have Nancy Milford's Madame de Pompadour to hand, might start that as it means I don't have to leave the sofa. :)

Well I'm not that stubborn, so I give up on games like that much earlier... ;-)

I wasn't as impressed by Like Water for Chocolate as many others have obviously been/are. It has an interesting structure, but otherwise was not particularly well written, with the characters coming across more like "puppets" than people. It was somehow naive, and I found the continual interruptions of the recipes (not all of them for food) became more annoying as the book progressed.

The next usurper is The Eye of the Heron by Ursula K. Le Guin. It's a stand alone book I think, not connected to any of her series.

I don't think I need to go anywhere near the gloomy Swedish vampires.

Yes, I was underwhelmed by Like Water for Chocolate too. Came across as rather twee, I thought. (A long time ago, however.)

I like le Guin, but haven't read The Eye of the Heron, looking forward to your comments.

Madame de Pompadour is quite delightful, as one would expect from Nancy Mitford. I don't think I've ever laughed aloud reading history before. (And thanks to the Splendid Chaps Doctor Who podcast for letting me know that Nancy Mitford wrote histories! Not sure how I missed that fact before.)

ETA: Funnily enough, the American adaptation of Let the Right One In ("Let Me In") was on SBS last night. Watched some of it, but was on too late for this little black duck.

Just finished listening to Jackie Kay's collection, Wish I Was Here. Thoroughly enjoyed it; great stories and great writing. And the narrators were good too. There were three (two women and a man) but one of the three would take the entire story, they didn't try to "do the parts" which really puts me off in some audiobooks. It was also lovely listening to the Scots accent in some of the stories, better than reading them.

The Eye of the Heron is not one of Le Guin's best books, but nonetheless is still a good read. Not much action, and a little slow going at times, with more emphasis on characters, the ideals (and practicalities) of nonviolence, and how it is sometimes very difficult to uphold ones ideals. There is also a nice open ending, nothing too obvious or wrapped up.

Then last night, as I was really tired, I decided I needed something quick, easy, action packed, and didn't require much thinking. What better than the third book of the Artemis Fowl series, The Eternity Code by Eoin Colfer . . . perfect!

And my next audiobook will be A Week in December by Sebastian Faulks.

Madame de Pompadour continues to entertain, but it's been a busy week so she's been a bit neglected.

I did watch some of the BBC's "The Musketeers" last night, and now have my Cardinal Richelieus all muddled up. Maybe it's the same man, maybe it's a title thing, like the Duc Du Orleans (and I'm pretty sure I got some of that name wrong right there, French not being my strong suit). I may have to pop into a bookshop to pick up Dumas' The Three Musketeers in order to clarify a few things. (I loved the book as a child, but discovered recently I'd been reading an abridged version! Quelle horreur!)

Or maybe get around to reading that biography of Dumas I picked up last summer. Ahem. Anyhow, I seem to be in a bit of a Francophile phase at the moment.

(Oh, it's the biography of Dumas' father, Black Count: Glory, Revolution, Betrayal and the Real Count of Monte Cristo. It sounds fun, I really must dust it off...)

The Eternity Code was "just the ticket" as they say. Action packed, fast moving, twisty plot, easy to read, and full of very cool gadgets.

Now I really am reading The Shadow Lines by Amitav Ghosh. Took a bit of getting into as it's a bit of a ramble, with lots of reminiscing, and dozens of characters most of whom are related in some way. But I'm into it now and am following along reasonably well.

I've enjoyed most of Ghosh's novels that I've read, but I didn't like his The Calcutta Chromosome much. I hope The Shadow Lines is one of his better ones!

I did enjoy my time with Madame de Pompadour and shed a tear at her passing. The biography was nothing ground breaking, but was a good solid read, with a rather fun gossipy tone thanks to Nancy Mitford. I will be tracking down further of her histories, Voltaire in Love is a great title...

And I do seem to be in a Francophile mood, am happily into Black Count already, and am agog at what is unfolding. (And I had to pull it out from under four piles of books and literally dust it off last night. Poor neglected thing! I wonder what other forgotten treasures are in there. I tidied up my knitting "corner"* over the weekend, maybe next weekend is the time to reorganise Mt TBR...)

* The "knitting corner" is the corner of the living room, squidged between my corner of the sofa and a set of bookshelves, where my current knitting projects accumulate in a basket and several bags. And gather cat hair. Ahem.

Finished The Shadow Lines this morning and it ended up being a very good and enjoyable read. Complex, insightful, compassionate, and well written. I also learned a fair few things, which was a bonus.

Also started listening to A Week in December by Sebastian Faulks yesterday while chainsawing and chopping up wood. Looks like it could be interesting. I've caught up with the books I've promised, so not sure yet what will be next on the reading list.

Looking forward to what you think of the Faulks, I hear good things about him but haven't actually tacked any of his books yet.

I'm really enjoying The Black Count, I had no idea about the history of this period (French Revolution, Napoleon) and while I'm slightly bogged down in military history (Dumas is a General, I shouldn't have been surprised), the overall story is fascinating.

Finished The Black Count and ditto for what I last said: such a fascinating story, but I could have done with less military history. Alex Dumas achieved the highest military ranking for a black man in Europe until 1970something, and yet he's so forgotten. (And boo! hiss! to Napoleon. What a twerp. And I could smack those Nazis that tore down his statue.) But it's the social history that's really fascinating, the liberation of the black slaves in Saint-Domingue (now Haiti), the acceptance of black people as equals in France, but for such a sadly brief amount of time.

Now reading The Count of Monte Cristo. Only a few chapters in (~1400 pages to go! oh my), but it's a fun romp so far.

Meep. I wonder when I'm going to fit in my bookgroup read this month??

1400 plus pages!!! Bloody hell, and I thought my current read at 660 pages was a bit of a doorstop. ;-)
It's The Land of Painted Caves by Jean M. Auel, book 6 and the last (thankfully) of the Earth's Children saga. I read the others eons ago, was quite interested in the first two or three, began to get bored by #4 and found the last one tedious, but for some reason kept reading. My sister lent me this one and it has been sitting on the shelf for probably close to a year, so thought I need to either get it done or give it back. Well, I almost invoked the 50 page rule, but you know I really hate doing that, and thought "what the hell, it's the last one", so ploughed on. Now exactly halfway though, so all downhill from here. :-) And yes, it's tedious and repetitive, not well written, but with a couple of points of interest and difference along the way. This is one of the times I wish I could speed read effectively. Don't know what her editor was thinking, or if she even had one...

A Week in December is a look at the lives and goings on of a disparate group of characters in London during a week in mid December of (I think) 2008, and how they intersect. More like a number of intersecting short stories cut and spliced and cobbled together than a novel with a narrative arc as such. It appears to have attracted reviews at both extremes. I enjoyed it, it's well written, the characters are mostly well drawn, and the narrator was excellent. One of the characters is a hedge fund manager and there is a fair bit of financial talk and explanation, which some may find boring but which I found interesting. I don't know which was scarier though, the absolute greed, obsession and total lack of morals and conscience of those in the thick of the action leading up to the GFC and how they knowingly manipulated the markets, in particular the US sub-prime mortgage market, for their own humongous financial gain, or the relative ease with which interested parties can identify and inculcate disaffected young Muslim teenagers into a fundamental, radical, jihadist mindset. All very topical as there is also discussion set around Islamic teachings and whether an "Islamic State" is an achievable goal. Scary considering current events.

Wondering whether this one may qualify as my scary bingo book? ;-)

Oh, I remember the Auel books from my teenagehood, but it wasn't me reading them but my friends. (They made me watch the movie! The horror! :)

It is a MASSIVE book, but it reads well. I got through 70+ pages yesterday without breaking a sweat. (Today, so far I'm on 0, thanks to insomnia turning me into a 24 hour zombie. Just stared out the train window, book neglected in my lap, cutting off blood flow to my legs.)

Oh yes, now you mention it I remember the movie - it really was an absolute stinker! Horrible in the extreme, but nothing like the first book, which was different, and interesting at the time. I'm not surprised they never attempted a second movie.

btw, how are your TwoDots coming on? Cracked the dreaded level 109? :-D

I'm so embarrassed. I cracked level 109 by shelling out money to get the extras. I was just going beserk, never getting closer than ~80% to finishing it. :(

And then I was so peeved with myself that I didn't even play on for several days!! Damn you, addictive phone app developers.

Busy week, but I'm now on p150 (or thereabouts) of The Count of Monte Cristo. Will have to put it to one side for our bookgroup read, We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves for this Wednesday. The other readers are quite enthusiastic, but I'm worried I may miss the lack of swashbuckling and derring do. (And is it sad that the Booker shortlist nod makes me even more nervous? A Booker nod used to make me excited about a book! I think I've read too many stinkers from them of late. :P )

Well, I guess a girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do... ;-) I'm up to level 84 and travelling slowly, so far managing not to get *too* hooked.

Finally finished The Land of Painted Caves, thank goodness. Took me a week, but that's pretty good going for me for a 660 page book. Nothing more to report than said previously; too much repetition and over explaining, and of course it was predictable. But it is done - both the book and the series.

Now about to start Floating in My Mother's Palm by Ursula Hegi.

Haven't heard of that one, hope it's a goodie. I think you need it after the Auel. :)

And I'm not very far into We are All Completely beside ourselves and I'm already recommending it...

...and finished We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves this morning on the bus, and am still recommending it. But DON'T read the back of the book - the first sentence was a spoiler! I would have been so peeved if I'd read that before the book.

Back to Edmond Dantes, trapped in a dank dungeon with a mad Abbe.

I probably won't be reading it, but if so I think I've come across enough in passing to have already been spoiled. And I'm not sure that I ever read a book without reading the back of the book first... But isn't the front cover a bit of a giveaway anyway?

Floating in My Mother's Palm certainly is a goodie! :-) It's a collection of closely linked short stories, written through the eyes of Hanna, a young girl growing up in the small town of Burgdorf in post war Germany. The writing is just exquisite. The subject matter covered in many of the stories is pretty dark, but doesn't come across as such due to the point of view and the author's skill. The inhabitants of the town, her family, and her friends all come alive and are perfectly believable.

I also snuck in a little gem, The Young Visiters by Daisy Ashford. Written by nine year old Daisy in 1890 and published in 1919, it has a truly classic opening line: "Mr Salteena was an elderly man of 42 and was fond of asking peaple to stay with him." Obviously written in all seriousness (but coming across as anything but), it is a quirky and often hilarious read, with the storyline involving high society, Mr Salteena's plans for his advancement in said society, and also a romantic entanglement between Ethel and Bernard. She also loves adverbs... ;-)

Next on the list is The Prince of Mist by Carlos Ruiz Zafón. This is his first published novel (in Spain in 1993), but not published in English until 2010 after the success of his other works.

I think it depends on your cover, mine didn't give anything away but that there was a twist (thank you, unsubtle blurb writers, so of *course* I spent the entire time anticipating the twist - but it still took me by surprise) and after that micro-spoiler, I avoided looking at the cover as much as possible.

I remember reading The Young Visiters (love the typo!) many years ago. :)

Edmond Dantes is still highly entertaining, but I got distracted by the Kindle (even running it as an app on an iPad, it's so much lighter than the paperback Count of Monte Cristo!) and knocked off Dead Witch Walking which was flawed (needed a much tighter edit, some things weren't explained well enough or were confusing) but had good enough characters that I'll be back for the next installment.

Back to the derring do! Yay, he's out of the dungeon!

Although it's obvious that The Prince of Mist was an early work, you can see the potential in both the writing and the storytelling. A tale for all ages; a bit creepy, a bit simplistic at times, but nonetheless it draws you in.

Now I'm about one third through The Wyndham Case by Jill Paton Walsh. It's a cosy type murder mystery set in St Agatha's, a fictional Cambridge College. I was most impressed many years ago by one of her books (not a mystery), Knowledge of Angels, but this one is pretty standard fare so far.

The Wyndham Case ended up being somewhat above average, even though nothing outstanding. There was one plot point which annoyed me though.

Next I thought I'd try the second of Val McDermid's Lindsay Gordon series, Common Murder.

Change of plans as another interloper has lobbed in. Currently reading Fluke: Or, I Know Why the Winged Whale Sings by Christopher Moore.

Finished up two today. The Chemistry of Tears (on audio) was an odd one and just didn't seem to hang together all that well. Not one of Carey's best.

Fluke: Or, I Know Why the Winged Whale Sings is imaginative, wacky, humorous and thoughtful. I've read a couple of Christopher Moore's books already and know how 'off the wall' they can be, but even so I didn't see where this one was heading.

Next audio will be Number9Dream by David Mitchell. And the Val McDermid will need to wait a little longer as next up in the reading queue is now Shinju by Laura Joh Rowland, the first of the Sano Ichiro series.

Carey can be hit and miss.... But I have liked the Christopher Moore books I've read previously, will look out for Fluke.

Still enjoying the adventures of the count of monte cristo, but am also reading the adventures of those wacky historians at St Mary's in the fourth book, A Trail Through Time.

A Trail Through Time was less silly than the previous books in this series, with a more structured plot and a fair amount of tension. But when the silly hit, it was delightful as usual. (Love the tea drinking historians!)

Going to concentrate on the Count for a while. He's good fun and doesn't deserve to be neglected for physically lighter books.

Just realised I've finished my Bingo card. Should have been done months back really, but got stuck on a couple.

And I've now unfortunately reached the dreaded level 109. Only have one word to say . . . AARRRRGGHHH!!!!

WOOHOO . . . I DID IT!!!
With four moves to go too. 😃

And no, I haven't been playing non stop all evening... 😉

LOL! It's addictive. :) I'm stuck on 138 which is pretty nasty too, but not as utterly hopeless as 109.

I've got a few to go on my bingo card: first book by a favourite author (have to dig up and dust off the wonderful Kate Atkinson's Behind the Scenes at the Museum which I believe is her first); a book written by someone under 30 (I have plenty of choices, it's just getting around to one!); and a forgotten classic (I got stalled on The King In Yellow, must finish that off).

And I'm in a strange section of The Count of Monte Cristo where I'm not quite sure which character is Edmond Dantes... He's being incognito, and I'm not sure why, and I'm not sure how this helps his revenge against the men who put him in prison. Odd, but still highly readable.

Oh goody, another killer level to look forward to... not! I'm actually doing a reasonable job at not becoming addicted.
So far...

I loved Behind the Scenes at the Museum, it's a stunning debut novel with quirky characters and a great story.

Edmond Dantes is still proving slightly odd, but I cracked up over the suggestion of one (minor) character who reckons that this mysterious pale man is actually a vampire. How 21st century of her. :)

And then there was a very graphic execution scene, with a prisoner being executed by being hit in the head with a mace, then having his throat cut, then the executioner jumped up and down on his chest to expel all the blood. (Spoiler for graphic ew, just in case.) I mean... what???

Mixed feelings about Shinju. Good historical and cultural setting and potentially interesting series with a worthy protagonist, but poor writing in many parts. If anyone is interested, here is my BookCrossing review comments: http://www.bookcrossing.com/journal/12948444

About a quarter way through Number9Dream on audio, and it may be the best way to ingest it. It's a bumpy ride with a first person narrator in both his present and past, and with much of it being his 20 year old imaginings. Fantasies doesn't really convey the right image, but they are indeed fantastical imaginings, many based on computer game type scenarios. The audiobook narrator is doing a great job. Different from the other David Mitchell's I've read.

Interestingly both the above are set in Japan, in seventeenth century Edo (old Tokyo) and twenty-first century current Tokyo.

Next I think will be The Edible Woman by Margaret Atwood. Apparently it is her first published novel (1969) so I imagine it is rather different from her later ones.

I've got both Shinju and Number9Dream on the shelves already. Will get to them one day!

Number9Dream is a much more linear tale than the other couple of his I've read. But being David Mitchell, of course nothing is ever totally straightforward. As usual the writing is superb. My major gripe is with a parallel story in the middle section of the book which didn't need to be there, didn't make sense, and was just annoying. I think he was playing a little game with himself. Would still recommend it, although his other books are better.

The Edible Woman is one that I wouldn't not recommend - somehow the double negative fits better here - but is certainly not among Atwood's best. Written and set in the 60s (although the city is not mentioned it is obviously Toronto), it outlines pretty well society's attitudes to women and their 'place'. Different (but then it is Atwood), it's a well written and interesting debut novel (especially for its time) - a wryly amusing 'anti-romance'.

Now back to Val McDermid and Lindsay Gordon in Common Murder, set in the Women's Peace Camp at Greenham Common (although renamed).

And the next audiobook will be A Case of Exploding Mangoes by Mohammed Hanif.

You're getting through much more than me! But I hit the halfway mark of The Count of Monte Cristo and am still enjoying it, although I think there's probably a better translation out there. This one does seem excessively clunky, I've read some paragraphs repeatedly, and they still don't make sense. (I just shrug my shoulders and read on. If it needs to make sense, it'll come clear in the context later.) Luckily my copy of The Three Musketeers is translated by Pevear and Volokhonsky, so I have high hopes for that one.

Oh, and I've also been enjoying this: http://tansyrr.com/tansywp/guide-to-the-blog/musketeer-space/ - a gender swapped Musketeers in space!! I like Tansy Rayner Roberts, and this is just a lot of fun. And picking up the occasional issue of Saga, when available. Episodic stories! How Victorian. :)

But today I thought I might take a break from 19th century France and quickly read Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer, which is beckoning me temptingly from the top of Mt TBR.

Well done for getting to the halfway mark. I'd find that size book rather daunting!

Common Murder is the second in McDermid's Lindsay Gordon series. These are earlier novels than the ones for which she is more well known, and while they are much lighter and not as well developed it was still an interesting and enjoyable read. Written in the late 1980s when computers and mobile phones were a rarity, it reminds us just how much things have changed since then. It must be much more difficult these days for mystery/crime/thriller authors to set certain plot elements when almost everyone is easily contactable.

Next up is Eyrie by Tim Winton, a book I borrowed from my sister and must return soon.

I managed level 138 the other day with not too many goes or too much frustration, but the one that had me stuck for days was actually level 135. Sometimes it's just the luck of how things fall. You finished yet, wookie?

I'm finished, and am now going back through everything, trying to get three stars for all the levels. Obsession takes many forms. :P

Had a sick day today (brain full of phlegm) so am suddenly on page 1000+ of the Count! No idea how he's going to pull it all together.

Annihilation is worth a read, I won't go into the story, but two words: fungus & horror. I'll be reading on in this trilogy.

Hmmm . . . well I can't say my obsession stretches quite that far! ;-)
I finished last week sometime and I think that's where I'll leave it - until they come out with some new levels of course.

Hope you're feeling better now.

New levels! :-)

Eyrie was OK, but definitely not up there with his best. What I did enjoy was the fact that it was set in an area where I used to live, so I could recognise all the places and references.

Only just began listening to A Case of Exploding Mangoes today while out on the block - last week was podcast week. Shaping up to be fun.

Next paper book will be Birds of a Feather, the second of the Masie Dobbs series by Jacqueline Winspear. Somehow I missed that one even though it was on the shelf and I've now read up to #6 I think.

I've read the first Maisie Dobbs, must read on. I thought the first one was quite excellent (and I already own the second!).

100 pages to go in The Count of Monte Cristo! Hoping to finish tonight. I think I deserve some sort of badge for reading a 1400+ page novel, although it was quite enjoyable on many levels.

New levels?? I don't have new levels!! Yeesh, better check that last update and get it on my phone pronto, because I'm going MAD trying to get 3 stars on level 73. It's level 109 all over again!!

And The Count of Monte Cristo is complete! A great read, although I'd recommend buying an edition that is a good translation, and has notes. I wanted lots of notes on all the Paris scenes, but I had none!

Now reading Karen Joy Fowler's first book, Sarah Canary.

Well all I can say is a hearty congratulations for lasting the distance with the Count! :-)

Finished both Birds of a Feather and A Case of Exploding Mangoes yesterday, and thoroughly enjoyed both too.

Masie was doing her Masie "thing" within a reasonably interesting plotline, which while it had a few holes here and there was stronger than her first. It does annoy me though when protagonists find evidence but the readers are not allowed to know what it is until much later.

Hanif's satirical novel is built around the mysterious 1988 crash of the C-130 Hercules carrying Pakistan's President, General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq. It is well written, interesting and witty, and I also learned a few things historical. It's his debut novel, and very impressive in the way he weaves together fact and fiction, and keeps a tight rein on the interwoven storylines and characters.

Now I've begun The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern. Lots of rave reviews so I hope it lives up to the hype.

And about to download my next audiobook from the library, The Garden of Evening Mists by Tan Twan Eng.

Oh, I enjoyed The Night Circus, I hope you do too!

Slow reading weekend, but still enjoying Sarah Canary. It's part of the "Sci-Fi Masterworks" series (which are always excellent), and I'm nearly halfway through and wondering when the sci-fi is going to happen. (I do have an inkling, due to accidentally starting to read the intro.)

Loved The Night Circus . . . really enchanting! Thought I'd read Black Dogs by Ian McEwan next.

While I am a McEwan fan, Black Dogs was not one of my faves. I hope you enjoy it more than I did.

And still reading Sarah Canary! Poor book has been caught up in a very busy week, with a friend staying, social events, and work still piling on. All I need is a solid hour or two, but do I get them??

Finally finished Sarah Canary. Poor book deserved more attention than I could give it! But I think it also lost its way a bit towards the end, seemed to ramble a bit and not really go anywhere. (Although the final coda was good.)

Now quickly trying to read Mike and Psmith, a Wodehouse novel for bookgroup tonight. I'm not going to be finished in time, but it is a good fun Wodehousian romp, although a bit heavy on the cricket for this chap, by Jove. Still, it's a good excuse to go and have bangers & mash & a pint at the Lord Dudley. :)

Definitely agree with you regarding Black Dogs, wookie. Was kinda intellectually interesting, and of course well written as usual, but not one I'll be enthusiastically recommending. And not one of his best imo, although it is on the 1001 list. Don't quite know why...

Now onto The Various Haunts of Men by Susan Hill.

The 1001 list is an odd beast at times. But you're in for a corker with Susan Hill! Such a great series.

finished Mike and Psmith and it was a good fun romp. And now I'm reading the latest in the Rivers of London series, Foxglove Summer. Woot! An unexpected find at the bookshop per-Xmas sales last night, didn't realise it was out yet!

And I've finished Foxglove Summer. I won't discuss the plot, but I did enjoy it, although it felt slightly rushed. Needed another round of editing, maybe.

Moving onto a Doctor Who novel, just because. It's called Shakedown and is written by the legendary Terrence Dicks.

Not had much reading time lately, so still on The Various Haunts of Men. But we're about to go away camping for a few days so I'll be able to get my teeth into it then. So far it's a good read...

Shakedown wasn't a bad little novel, and was quite well written with a nice bit of occasional humour. Quite a high body count and lots of blood for a Doctor Who story (IMO, as a watcher of the TV show), but maybe the BBC couldn't afford the fake blood back in the day. :) I may not rush out to buy more Doctor Who novelisations, but I may not turn up my nose at them either. Especially since we're now facing a year until any new episodes and I'll be needing my Doctor Who fix sooner rather than later. (Thank all the heavens for the Christmas episode!)

Now reading The Light Between Oceans, a copy from my mum who enjoyed it very much.

And while The Light Between Oceans is so far a rather excellent read, one does need something silly to read at bedtime after baking and icing 36 cupcakes. (Happy 12th Birthday to Mr Bear!) So I'm also reading The Good, The Bad, and the Undead, the second in The Hollows urban fantasy series by Kim Harrison. So far, fun.

36 cupcakes!! You're a hero, wookie. :-)

Is he having an absolute hoard around, or are you just banking on them being very hungry young male specimens?? ;-)

I read The Light Between Oceans a few months back and enjoyed it, with a few quibbles and reservations . . . my previous comments are in post #125. Still rated it as a solid four stars.

I did get more reading time over the past few days and have now finished The Various Haunts of Men. Top read. I was a bit upset (and annoyed) at the end though, for reasons you will probably remember wookie as I know you've read it, but can't spell out as it's a major spoiler and I never know if anyone else reads this thread apart from us two. Hello??? And I can't remember how to do the "spoiler alert" thingy. But maybe if someone else does read a spoiler it will serve them right for being here and not posting... :-D

Anyway, I'm right onto the second of the series, The Pure in Heart as I had it with me on the iPad.

Now finished The Pure in Heart as well. What a superb series! :-) Such accomplished writing, the sort that is so good you don't even notice it's there, but which draws you fully into the settings and the characters lives. Great dialogue too. I have a few more of the series as ebooks, but don't want to gobble them all up too quickly - I'd prefer to spread the enjoyment out a bit...

Now onto a book I've promised to another BookCrosser, Reunion by Andrea Goldsmith. Only up to around page 25, so will reserve judgement.

Also still listening to The Garden of Evening Mists. The audiobooks only get listened to while I'm outside working, so being away for a few days slowed it down somewhat.

36 cupcakes were for the class (I assume the last time I'll be making cupcakes for his class, I can't see him taking them next year when he's in high school!). 28 kids, 1 teacher, 1 little sister, plus various friends in other classes. None for me! (Wah!)

Although Miss Boo and I did make biscuits and meringues this weekend just gone, so we got our baking fix. :)

Glad you're enjoying Simon Serralier. Great stuff! I think I'm up to #4.

The Good, The Bad, and the Undead did annoy me about as much as I enjoyed it. (She's in a completely dysfunctional relationship with her vampire flatmate, Ivy, but keeps on insisting it's HER OWN fault when Ivy goes to bite her. Personally, I think maybe Ivy is partially to blame here. The nice boy she met in book 1 is suddenly her boyfriend, I thought it was going to be a slower buildup to romance, not straight into it. And could do with a better edit, I was often a bit lost.) Still, good characters, I'll give it one more try before I send io9.com an email asking for clarification as to why they loved this series. :P

Still going with The Light Between the Oceans, it is lovely writing and easy to read on that score, but also very difficult to read on its emotional-button-pushing score. :P

Fluff read is The Hanover Square Affair, a Regency mystery (not a romance! although there'll probably be plenty of that, too).

The Garden of Evening Mists was a worthwhile "read". Well written, well constructed, interesting, and with a wiff of underlying mystery. Superb narrator too.

Still going on Reunion.

Will have to check out The Garden of Evening Mists!

The Hanover Square Affair wasn't a bad little read, if a bit less Austen-y and a bit more thriller-y than I expected. So many fallen women! (Also probably should come with a trigger warning, it's no fluffy crime in this one.) Will probably read on. (Does help that the first was free and the rest are cheap for the Kindle. :)

Yes, I saw that the first in the series was free for the Kindle edition. Good idea to get folk involved in the series. It had quite a few decent reviews too, so I also downloaded it. Whether or not I'll ever get to it though . . .

I have ebooks on both a Kindle and an iPad (Kindle App). The Kindle proper is on my account and the iPad is linked to my sister's account. I lend her bags of paper books every few months, and I can read all her Kindle books. Works well all round. :-)

I use the Kindle app on my iPad, but will be buying Miss Boo her own Kindle this Xmas. She'll have a separate account though, because our reading tastes are quite different. :)

I think there is some way of sharing Kindle books now, without having to actually use other people's accounts. Not sure though, I'm a very occasional Kindle user.

Current fluffy read: Libriomancer. On the Kindle. :)

Have finished The Light Between Oceans. Well written, but I did want to slap the characters silly. I'm not a fan of plots that hinge on a bad decision/lie and they keep on digging in and making it worse and worse. I found the first half much more moving, with the impact of WW1 on both the men who went and the families left behind.

Also read Serenity: Leaves on the Wind, which takes off from when the Serenity movie finished. Pretty good, although the art wasn't my favourite.

Still going on Libriomancer, which can be fun but I'm not quite convinced as yet.

Yes, I think there is an official way of sharing Kindle books, but from memory it is more like a time limited loan, which doesn't suit us nearly as well.

I agree about the first half of The Light Between Oceans being more moving. I guess the "digging in" bit depends on so many factors - I just thought they were being very stupid right from the start.

Reunion took me longer to read than most others recently. Being a more "serious" type book it made me slow down and think much more, both while reading and in between sessions. Not a bad thing sometimes I might add! But for me it was one of those where, while you enjoy it while reading, it is all too easy to put down and do something else. However overall it is an intelligent and perceptive book full of ideas and with (mostly) believable and richly drawn characters. As well as the intellectual ideas contained within it, the book examines friendship, love, time, change, loyalty, obsession, betrayal, life and loss. A pretty full bucket really! ;-)

Now it's time for a fast paced 'don't need to think too much' book: Kick Back by Val McDermid, the second in the Kate Brannigan series. I know I've read at least one other of this series many moons ago, but can't remember which one.

I just thought they were being very stupid right from the start.

LOL, there was that too. :)

Got sidetracked by a large stack of juicy library books yesterday, so Libriomancer got ditched for Neil Patrick Harris: Choose Your Own Autobiography (which is a hell of a lot of fun, even if I am reading from start to finish, rather than jumping around, I'm very naughty - and a completist who doesn't want to miss a word!) and The Collected Works of A.J. Fikry was started on the bus this morning, and so far, so good.

Neil Patrick Harris: Choose Your Own Autobiography was fun read. I started reading sequentially (didn't want to miss anything!), but after a while I relaxed and jumped about, following the "if you want to host the Tony's again..." prompts. Good fun, although he's disgustingly well adjusted. No one is that happy all the time. :P

and The Collected Works of AJ Fikry was another good read, although a bit emotion-button-pushing. But set in a bookshop, so you know it was written with readers in mind, and I'm a sucker for bookshop stories.

Now starting The Spirit Box, a Sherlock Holmes adventure set in the Newbury and Hobbes world, written by George Mann.

Kick Back was much as expected, a bit like a Manchester variant of Kinsey Millhone. Now about to start The Bad Quarto by Jill Paton Walsh, a cozy set in Cambridge.

And my current 'listen to' read is Dear Life, short stories by Alice Munro. Lovely writing.

Alice Munro is one of my favourite short story writers. Dear Life is, in my opinion, not one of her better collections, but even so I gave it a four star rating. She is just such a talented writer, and I guess she didn't win the Man Booker International Prize (2009) and the Nobel Prize for Literature (2013) for nothing!

The Spirit Box was a bit disappointing, didn't particularly work as either a Holmes or a Newbury and Hobbes book for me.

Now reading The Bookman by Lavie Tidhar.

The Bad Quarto was nothing outstanding, but an OK read. A 'cozy' mystery which was a bit different in a couple of ways, so refreshing from that perspective.

Next I think I'll go back to Venice, with the tenth Brunetti, A Sea of Troubles.

And can I say that The Bookman is in the running for book of the year for me? Halfway through, and it's most excellent.

I'm hoping to get to some Brunetti sooner rather than later! Xmas holidays might be a good time...

A Sea of Troubles takes Brunetti into the closed world of the clam fishermen out on the island of Pellestrina, a part of Venice new to readers. Signorina Elettra plays a larger role in this one, which unfortunately for me turned out to be the weakest element of the story. Nonetheless, another enjoyable chapter in the series.

Now reading Ira Levin's first novel, A Kiss Before Dying. So far, so good.

PS: btw wookie . . . new levels! :D

>211 crimson-tide: Don told me there were new levels today as well. I'm resisting... gah, I'm downloading the updated version. (You guys are evil! :)

>212 IsabellaWalker: Hi Isabella. I have to say, I'm *this* close to marking your post as spam. You're happy to join the group and the discussion that happens, but posting a review (which is also the only book in your library) to a random group, well, that just smells a little. Please prove to us that you are human and here as a reader of many books, not just someone pushing one book.

>212 IsabellaWalker: Hi Isabella. Is your name really Gary? If not, then why does the homepage link on your profile take us to his website?

>213 wookiebender: Yep, evil is the word! ;-) I've downloaded them but so far resisted doing anything about it. But hey, it's Saturday! :-)

Okay, The Bookman was an excellent read, a very clever steampunk tale with more than just parasols and airships. Lots of literary references, and highly recommended.

Then I finished off Libriomancer, which was better for having a couple of weeks' break in the middle. :P Not really recommended, and I'll be surprised if I read on.

Now trying to read (I'm on holidays, so it's housework and Xmas shopping and child wrangling and didn't I just feed you yesterday, how can you be hungry again?? endless cooking) The Black Moth by Georgette Heyer.

Just finished A Kiss Before Dying. Great story, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Written in 1954, this was Ira Levin's first novel. It is a hugely impressive debut, very polished and taut writing, and a chilling look into the mind of a psychopath.

Now beginning The Carpet People, which is Terry Pratchett's first novel, written when he was seventeen. This is the revised edition though, revised and partly rewritten by TP when the book was reissued (by popular demand) in 1992 after the success of the Discworld books.

And my next audio listen to book will be Capital by John Lanchester. Hoping to start on that tomorrow.

Will keep an eye open for A Kiss Before Dying, sounds great! And I picked up Capital a couple of weeks ago, looking forward to your comments.

Merry Christmas all! My Xmas loot included Ancillary Justice (thank you Mr Bear!) and The Magician King (thanks Don!). (Yes, I did put together a short list for them. :) And Mum gave me money towards books for the year, as usual. Kids made out like bandits, and we all ate too much (but didn't drink too much, hurrah!).

A (belated) Happy Christmas from me also. :-) Our lot doesn't go in for gifts in any big way so I can't report on any book loot, but I did have a very enjoyable day.

The Carpet People is an absolutely delightful book . . . epic fantasy on a very, very small scale. Imaginative, ironic, quirky, and fun, along with some serious themes. You can see the beginnings of the classic TP style and themes here already, and although it's obviously not as polished as the later Discworld series it's still a great experience. I'd be interested to read one of the original editions, to see just how much "revising" was done prior to its reissue.

Not sure what's up next -- I'll need to go and stare at the bookshelves for a bit...

Decided on Keeping It Real by Justina Robson. Took a bit to get into, but I think I'm there with them now. Reserving judgement atm.

Capital is progressing slowly. It's too hot to do much work outside, which is where I get my book listening done. It's the sort of book with not much plot (as yet anyway) but an interesting look into different characters and their connections.

Let me know how the Robson goes, her books keep on catching my eye at the bookshop.

Well, I buckled down and got some serious reading done the last few days. I'm not going to make my goal of 100 books (not even with creative accounting!), but I did finish off Book Bingo for this year (huzzah!).

The Black Moth was very impressive as a first novel, although at times I felt like she was having too much fun thinking up new characters and bolting them onto the plot instead of concentrating on the plot. (I also think I'm still very tired from work this year and can only concentrate on one plot at a time. :P) This ticked the "first book by a favourite author" category.

Finally got back to The King in Yellow which I started back in May. The first half is excellent, all Lovecraftian/Poe-ian horror, but I stalled when the stories lost that supernatural edge and became about a bunch of silly young Americans studying art in Paris. Returning with lowered expectations worked, they were rather charming stories, but it was odd adding them to the excellent horror stories and I think they lost out due to the comparison. This ticked the "forgotten classic" category.

And finally, I read von Gobstopper's Arcade by the exceedingly talented Alexandra Adornetto. She wrote this trilogy (this is #3) when she was a teenager, this last one while juggling Year 12, so extra kudos to her and everyone for making this happen. She's got a great imagination, and it's delightfully quirky and charming. I'm sorry it took so long to getting around to this final book! And this obviously ticks my "book by someone under 30" category.

BINGO!!

And Miss Boo chose The Golem and the Djinni from the library book stack for me to start today. I'll obviously be reading this in the new year. :) Happy New Year all, and we'd better get a new thread started in the next day or so...

Finished Keeping It Real in time to start a new book fresh for the New Year. Wasn't bad, but I wouldn't rave about it either. Gave it 7/10. Generally I enjoyed it although it really was a bit of a mess, and not particularly well written. As said above, I took a while to work my way into the narrative. Once in Alfheim things picked up though, with much intrigue happening, and it was very intriguing and imaginative. Then the ending really was a let down . . . could have done without the last twenty pages or so. Having said all that, I probably will read the second in the series. Sometime...

And a Happy New Year to all from me also. Would be good to have a couple more folk join us on the thread next year . . . where are you all? :-)