Genny's Gathering Momentum - 3rd thread for 2010

Welcome to my third thread for the 2010 75 books challenge, discussing books read from October onwards. I didn't expect to need a third thread, but things seem to have speeded up over the past few months (the rate of posting, more than my actual reading, I think).

My first thread, containing books read January-June 2010, can be found here.
My second thread, containing books read July-Sept (and beginning of Oct) 2010, can be found here.

You can read a bit more about me, have a peek in my library, and look at some of my photos, on my profile page.
And there's a bit more about me on the 'introduce yourself' thread here.

I passed the goal of 75 books by the beginning of October, so here's a new ticker to see how many more I manage to read by the end of the year - I'm hoping for at least 100 in total.




In this first post I'm listing books read from October onwards, with a note of when I finished them and (if I'm organised) a reference to the post where the book is discussed.

Other people seem to do lists of the best books read so far this year, but I have not managed to do that yet. Perhaps I'll add that here when I've made up my mind which they were.

October
75. The Portrait - Iain Pears - finished 3.10.2010 (discussed on previous thread)
76. That Awkward Age - Roger McGough - finished 10.10.10 (on previous thread)
77. Rich Desserts and Captain's Thin - Margaret Forster - finished 11.10.10 - post 13
78. Leave it to Psmith - P G Wodehouse - finished 15.10.10 - post 28
79. North Child - Edith Pattou - finished 16.10.10 - post 31
80. The Child that Books Built - Francis Spufford - finished 22.10.10 - post 73
81. The Lacuna - Barbara Kingsolver - finished 28.10.10 - post 188
82. Notes from a Small Island - Bill Bryson - finished 30.10.10 - post 73

November
83. Kaspar, Prince of Cats Michael Morpurgo - finished 1.11.10 - post 74
84. Look to the Lady - Margery Allingham - finished 5.11.10 - post 74
85. Tales of Beedle the Bard - J K Rowling - finished 6.11.10 - post 74
86. Mort - Terry Pratchett - finished 11.11.10 - post 74
87. Brat Farrar - Josephine Tey - finished 12.11.10 - post 79
88. Private Peaceful - Michael Morpurgo - finished 14.11.10 - post 86
89. Children's Spirituality - Rebecca Nye - finished 15.11.10 - post 179
90. Let the Children Come to Communion - Stephen Lake - finished 16.11.10 - post 180
91. Wolf Hall - Hilary Mantel - finished 18.11.10 - post 188
92. Which Witch - Eva Ibbotson - finished 30.11.10 - post 186

December
93. Ex Libris - Anne Fadiman - finished 4.12.10 - post 178
94. The Murder Stone - Louise Penny - finished 8.12.10 - post 178
95. The Brutal Telling - Louise Penny - finished 9.12.10 - post 178
96. A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens - audiobook - finished 10.12.10 - post 178
97. Wolf Brother - Michelle Paver - finished 13.12.10 - post 177
98. The Father Christmas Letters - J R R Tolkien - finished 14.12.10 - post 177
99. Sourcery - Terry Pratchett - finished 28.12.10 - post 177
100. Changing Planes - Ursula LeGuin - finished 30.12.10 - post 177

Read earlier this year: July-September

July
50. Mystery Mile - Margery Allingham - finished 2.7.2010
51. The Sacred Diary of Adrian Plass, aged 37 3/4 - finished 6.7.2010
52. Still Life - Louise Penny - finished 8.7.2010
53. Fear in the Forest - Bernard Knight - finished 13.7.2010
54. A Vigil of Spies - Candace Robb - finished 15.7.2010
55. The Spotted Unicorn - Roger McGough - finished 16.7.2010
56. Lord Emsworth Acts for the Best - P G Wodehouse - finished 17.7.2010
57. Ministry Burnout - Geoff Read - finished 19.7.2010
58. The Buccaneers - Edith Wharton - finished 21.7.2010
59. The Vikings: a short history - Martin Arnold - finished 27.7.2010
60. Tau Zero - Poul Anderson - finished 30.7.2010

August
61. The Light Fantastic - Terry Pratchett - finished 2.8.2010
62. East of the Sun and West of the Moon - Peter Asbjornsen - finished 6.8.2010
63. Dead Cold - Louise Penny - finished 8.8.2010
64. The Rough Guide to Norway - Phil Lee - finished 9.8.2010
65. Coroner's Pidgin - Margery Allingham - finished 11.8.2010
66. Exit Music - Ian Rankin - finished 13.8.2010
67. The Cruellest Month - Louise Penny - finished 18.8.2010
68. In the Bleak Midwinter - Julia Spencer-Fleming - finished 31.8.2010

September
69. Equal Rites - Terry Pratchett - finished 2.9.2010
70. Bootlegger's Daughter - Margaret Maron - finished 17.9.2010
71. The Other Family - Joanna Trollope - finished 22.9.2010
72. Wildfire at Midnight - Mary Stewart - finished 24.9.2010
73. The White Cottage Mystery - Margery Allingham - finished 25.9.2010
74. Asterix in Britain - R Goscinny & A Uderzo - finished 25.9.2010

Read earlier this year: Jan-June

June
41 Nightshade - Paul Doherty - finished 2.6.10
42 Dancers in Mourning - Margery Allingham - finished 8.6.10
43 Alexandria - Lindsey Davis - finished 14.6.10 -
44 Mistress of the Art of Death - Ariana Franklin - finished 17.6.10 -
45 Never Let Me Go - Kazuo Ishiguro - finished 20.6.10 -
46 The Talisman Ring - Georgette Heyer - finished 21.6.10 -
47 Little Gidding Then and Now - Tony Hodgson - finished 22.6.10 -
48 Sabriel - Garth Nix - finished 25.6.10
49 Corduroy Mansions - Alexander McCall Smith - finished 26.6.10

May
31 My 'Dam Life - Sean Condon - finished 3.5.10
32 Night - Elie Wiesel - finished 6.5.10
33 The Summer Tree - Guy Gavriel Kay - finished 11.5.10
34 Limbo Lodge - Joan Aiken (aka Dangerous Games) - finished 14.5.10
35 Dido and Pa - Joan Aiken - finished 19.5.10
36 Cranford - Elizabeth Gaskell - finished 19.5.10
37 Is Underground - Joan Aiken - finished 24.5.10
38 The Catcher in the Rye - J D Salinger - finished 27.5.10
39 According to Ruth - Jane Feaver - finished 29.5.10
40 Gallows View - Peter Robinson - finished 31.5.10

April
24 The Allingham Case-Book - Margery Allingham finished 7.4.10
25 Man zoekt vrouw om hem gelukkig te maken - Yusef el Halal - finished 11.4.10
26 Burnt Shadows - Kamila Shamsie - finished 18.4.10
27 Dogs of Riga - Henning Mankell - finished 21.4.10
28 The Crime at Black Dudley - Margery Allingham - finished 23.4.10
29 Tulip Fever - Deborah Moggach - finished 28.4.10
30 The Beckoning Lady - Allingham - finished 30.4.10

March
17 The Children's Book - A S Byatt - finished 7.3.10
18 Black Plumes - Margery Allingham - finished 10.3.10
19 Death of a Ghost - Margery Allingham - finished 13.3.10
20 More work for the undertaker - Margery Allingham - finished 15.3.10
21 The Stolen Lake - Joan Aiken finished 22.3.10
22 The Cuckoo Tree - Joan Aiken finished 24.3.10
23 No Love Lost - Margery Allingham finished c 28.3.10

February
9 Stormy Petrel - Mary Stewart
10 The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo - Stieg Larsson
11 The Road - Cormac McCarthy
12 Lost Children - Edith Pargeter
13 Martyr - Rory Clements
14 The Mind Readers - Margery Allingham
15 Tea Time for the Traditionally Built - Alexander McCall Smith
16 The Tiger in the Smoke - Margery Allingham

January
1 Sweet Danger - Margery Allingham
2 Traitor's Purse - Margery Allingham
3 Mr Campion and Others - Margery Allingham
4 The Fashion in Shrouds - Margery Allingham
5 Take Two at Bedtime - Margery Allingham
6 The Case of the Late Pig - Margery Allingham
7 Hide my Eyes - Margery Allingham
8 Police at the Funeral - Margery Allingham

Hi Genny, I'm first? I'll copy my last message here... I got interrupted by a phone call and didn't see your notice of a new thread until after I'd posted.

From the last thread:
Wowzer...lots of good reading going on here. Those colds can be tricky. It took me a full week to shake mine, but I think I'm going to live!

Iain Pears is an author I need to look at. The Portrait looks intriguing...and a good way to combine my love of art and reading. Thank you for your excellent review.

ETA touchstone.

*Stomps and crunches through the autumn leaves*

Happy New Thread, dear Genny! Happy New Thread to you!

Let's see - perhaps some hot apple cider for your autumn thread?

#7 Thanks Stasia, sounds just the thing to chase away my autumnal bad cold! Although I believe cider means something different in the US? Ours is alcoholic, is yours?
#5,6 Welcome Caty and Peggy. Just up checking my messages but feel like going straight back to bed with a good book until the cold has gone...

#8: If you get hard cider here, it is alcoholic. If the bottle is just labeled 'apple cider' then it is nonalcoholic.

I hope the cold goes away soon, Genny!

This is new thread day! It is getting autumnal and nippy here for sure -- two serious frosts in a row. We took a friend from California over 'the gap' (known as the Appalachian Gap) from our Western slope of the Green Mountains to the Eastern slope) yesterday afternoon to show her a couple of covered bridges (she'd never even heard of them, so it was quite fun) and it was COOOOOLLLLDDDD and blustery up there another 1000 feet (give or take) above sea level from our usual 500.....

I'm going to post a pic of the gap and one of the bridges over on my thread...... rather than hijack yours!

#10 I don't know about covered bridges either, at least not what form they take in your neck of the woods, so I'll visit your thread to find out more!

Morning, Genny. Hope you're feeling better today!

Book no. 77
Rich Desserts and Captain's Thin - Margaret Forster


Non fiction-
Own book, charity shop impulse buy, June 2010

The title of this book caught my eye and intrigued me. Rich Desserts and Captain's Thin turn out to be biscuits. That's cookies and crackers, respectively, to North American readers. The book's subtitle: 'A family and their times, 1831-1931', reveals that the subject matter is people making biscuits, more than the biscuits themselves. This social history describes the founding of the Carr's biscuit factory in Carlisle by Quaker entrepreneur J D Carr, and follows the fortunes of this family business through a hundred years of change.

I found this a fascinating story. The author also writes novels, and knows how to tell a good story. Particularly interesting was her charting of the changing ethos underpinning the business - the strict but practical Quaker values which informed the benevolent paternalism of the founder giving way in subsequent generations to greater emphasis on profit. It is also the story of how any enterprise manages after the death of a strong and capable founding figure (J D Carr dies half way through the book), and how a family business survives when not all members of the family are equally interested in or capable of running the business.

Carr's were eventually taken over by United Biscuits, though the factory is still known locally as Carr's, and the brand name survives in Carr's Table Water biscuits/crackers, a descendent of the Captain's Thin, themselves descended from the original ships biscuits which were the staple of sailors. Next time I have a water biscuit with my cheese, I shall remember the story of the Carr family.

#8 Grrr, bad cold, leave our Genny alone!

#13 That one sounds really interesting although I never liked Carr's water biscuits. I'm a Jacob's cream crackers girl and I also like the poppy and sesame thins you can get from Tesco's. Yum.

#12 Thanks Peggy, feeling a bit better this evening, after going back to bed until gone noon, and resting most of the afternoon. My voice is coming back (I was singing hymns an octave lower than normal when I had any voice to sing at all yesterday).
#14 I hope the cold is listening... I agree about biscuits with poppy and sesame seeds, yum indeed!

#77: I will look for that one (and I do like Carr's water biscuits!)

Hope the cold is clearing, Genny!

I'm with Stasia - Carr's water biscuits with cheese = snack (or dessert) heaven

Hi! Just checking out your new thread!

Congrats again on 75! Sounds like an unusual book for the milestone read.

I may investigate the Mary Stewart book. I've never read her.

Hope you feel better!

Add some apple slices, a bottle of chardonnay or pinot grigio to the Carrs biscuits with cheese to nibble while reading, and I have achieved heaven. (Sr. Mary Ester assured me in 7th grade that God would have every book I ever wanted to read waiting for me.)

Oh, I love Sr. Mary Ester's theory about Heaven! (and I am not even Catholic)

Amen!

I am another Carr's fan -- I'd like to read that book too -- my mother's family was all Quaker and they built a huge successful manufacturing business here in the US much the same way-- their values and the whole family working together was a big part of it. . (No worries, folks, all long since kaput.... all that remain are a few gorgeous pieces of furniture and knickknacks and legends.)

Cold a bit better today; niggling cough seems to be taking its place though.

Looking forward to a heaven of all the books I could possibly want to read - as long as there are other people around to discuss them with, and plenty of Carr's biscuits, cheese and other suitable nibbles too of course.

Meanwhile, we plod on.

#22 The role of religious belief in this story was interesting. The Quaker membership and values did not last out the century - some of the next generation became very zealous evangelicals, fell out with and left the Quakers, and were more interested in saving souls than in any practical outworking of faith. And of the later generations, those who were interested in the business ended up as rather more nominal Anglican church attenders without the strong ethical concerns of the Quaker founder. The later generations had greater freedoms, eg to stand for public office (which involved oath swearing, which Quakers would not do on principle) but they did not always use those freedoms so wisely.

Somehow the cough is always the last thing to go with the colds, isn't it? I hope you get rid of yours quickly, Genny!

With all the discussion about 'Tome Homes' and reading retreats going on in other places in this group, is this the time to gloat because I have just booked in for my (more or less) annual visit to St Deiniol's Library, the wonderful residential library in North Wales which I've mentioned before somewhere here?

They have actually just today announced that they've changed their name to Gladstone's Library, which makes sense, as it was founded as a memorial to Gladstone, but this may confuse people trying to find it. It's a lovely welcoming place, and despite its emphasis on theology/religious studies due to the nature of the original collection (also strong on 19th century studies), you don't need to be of any particular faith or have any interest in religious things to stay there. I'm going in mid-November, for almost a full week.

That sounds beyond wonderful...... sigh..... your Carr Quakers sound familiar. My grandparents generation 'converted' to Episcopalian in about 1905 after heaps of soul-searching. One great aunt simply attended Meeting and Church because she couldn't resolve the desire to be fashionable with her lifetime faith. The use of 'thee' and 'thou' however has persisted here and there; my mother used it in moments of affection and I find I like to do it too -- and we have a family saying when we are too lazy to move and someone is going to bed, that apparently was what my great-grandmother said! "Consider thyself kissed." We use that constantly, being too lazy to move out of chairs when reading!

#25: Sounds wonderful, Genny! I hope you get some rest (both spiritual and physical) while you are there.

Book no. 78
Leave it to Psmith - P G Wodehouse


On loan from an LT friend.

My second outing into Wodehouse and the comic/idyllic world of Blandings, which in this story is full of people who may not be quite who they say they are and who are interested in stealing Aunt Constance's diamond necklace, or marrying Eve, or both. Chief among them is the witty and undauntable Psmith.

I'm actually having a double dose of Psmith at present, since Psmith in the City is being serialised on Radio 4.

Delightfully light-hearted silly fun. 4.5 stars. Thanks Caty for recommending this and Heather for lending it.

I don't know how I've managed to miss Psmith all these Wodehouse years, but missed him I have. You make me want to pick him right up. Glad you're doing some better, Genny........ Take it easy anyway!

I have only read one Wodehouse and it did not do much for me. I will have to revisit him. Perhaps the Blandings series will be a more enjoyable one for me. Thanks for the reminder, Genny!

Book no. 79
North Child - aka East - Edith Pattou


Own book, acquired via BookMooch 2010

Started this last night and finished it today - one of those books which I couldn't stop once started. It's a retelling of the Norwegian fairy tale East of the Sun, West of the Moon, which I read this summer as one of the stories in the collection by the same name. I had not come across this story at all before then. It has similarities with the Beauty and the Beast fairy tale, but with distinctly northern features: a young girl is carried off by a great white polar bear, there are trolls and a Troll Queen who lives in an ice palace in the far north. The combination of young girl and polar bear (and goings on in the arctic) incidentally reminded me of Pullman's Northern Lights aka The Golden Compass - this folk tale must be one of the many other mythical and literary inspirations which Pullman drew on for his tale.

Pattou retells the story through the words of five narrators: the young girl Rose who agrees to go away with the bear, Neddy her older brother, her Father, the Troll Queen, and the White Bear himself. The chapters are short, the pace is swift, the story archetypal, but the little details fleshing out this version through the voices of the different narrators give a good roundedness to the characters.

While the story has its magical elements, Pattou also gives time to the evocation of the long, slow hard tasks - of weaving cloth, of learning a foreign language, of making long and arduous journeys, of acquiring the skills to survive in the frozen north. Rose is shown to grow in maturity as she comes to appreciate that while magic is appealing because it 'lets you skip over the steps of things', in fact 'the steps of things are where life is truly found' - the painful steps being inseparable from the joyful ones.

Recommended - 4 stars.

#31: I already have that one in the BlackHole. I just wish whoever has it out of my local library would turn it back in! It has been 'overdue' for a while now.

Glad to see you enjoyed it, Genny!

I'm very glad to hear you enjoyed Psmith, Genny!

Adding the coincidence to my wish list, Genny!:)

#23 I share your niggling cough. And nothing seems to help does it? Also my coughing scares the cat.

#25 Oooh, St Deiniol's! I like the old name better but the new name is definitely easier for me to spell!

#28 Hurrah for Psmith! Thinking about the flowerpots being flung through windows always makes me smile :-)

#30 I like the Blandings books much more than I like the Jeeves and Wooster books Stasia. Leave it to Psmith is my absolute favourite. If you can get hold of a copy I'd give it a try.

#31 That sounds like a good one to read after I've read East of the Sun, West of the Moon.

#30 and #35 --- and I'm a great fan of the Mulliner stories, but then, I love Bertie and Jeeves too.

St Deiniol's /Gladstone Library sounds marvelous! I hope you have an enjoyable, refreshing stay there.

The book about the Carr's biscuit family sounds interesting.

A rare thing for me: a weekend off! Just another day of working, lots of deadlines to meet, then I'm catching a train down to Sheffield to stay with my youngest goddaughter and her parents & sister (and their cats - must remember the inhaler!).

This will be a real treat, with the bonus of reading time on the journey there and back (total of 5 hours on the train) and also some late night reading time too, as my friends tend to retire early. I hope to make a good start on The Lacuna which i'll need to do if I'm to get it finished before the end of the month for the TIOLI challenge.

Have a lovely visit with your goddaughter, Genny!

I thought The Lacuna was excellent. I hope you enjoy it!

Have a good weekend, Genny. Hope you enjoy The Lacuna: I loved it.

Oh man! I want to read The Lacuna right now! Which challenge, Genny? Anyway, happy weekend!!!

#41 It fits into the first challenge (author with long surname). Kingsolver doesn't look that long somehow, but it does have 10 letters!

Thanks for good weekend wishes, Stasia, Caty Peggy. I still have a ton of work I need to do tonight in order to get away tomorrow, but first I need to stop and cook some dinner!

And thanks Terri, Heather and Bente for your visits to my thread too.

Hope you have a lovely weekend with lots of reading time and minimal ill effects from the cat hair.

I'm about halfway through The Lacuna and enjoying it a lot so far although I put it down to finish a library book that was due back and have since been distracted with other books and haven't picked it back up again.

Well I'm taking a quick break on my friends' computer while still away for the weekend, to report that I'm about one third of the way through The Lacuna and really enjoying it. Also managed to finish another book first, which has been half read for ages. That was The Child that Books Built, a sort of memoir of the author's childhood reading, which I'll review shortly. It included quite a bit about the Little House on the Prairie books, so it was a nice co-incidence that when I arrived on Friday evening and got to read my god-daughter's bed-time story, that turned out to be half an hour's worth of The Little House on the Prairie itself.

Glad you are enjoying The Lacuna and that you got to finish up The Child That Books Built, Genny.

I hope you continue to have a wonderful visit with your friends!

I've been wondering if I could fit in The Child that Books Built this month, Genny - that makes me want to more. But I'm not sure I can - the Howard Zinn book I'm reading (he died this year) is great but it's 704 pages - I didn't think I would finish that but now I do, I'm confident of finishing 5/7 current reads at this month, all of which would count for TIOLI if I do.

Just finished The Lacuna - wow! Loved it. Too soon to find words for a review - and I should be working, so will writ up in the next few days I hope.

#48: The Lacuna was one of my memorable reads for the year, Genny, so I am glad to see you loved it too!

Just spent about 2 hours adding 12 books to my catalogue - I fear I am far too thorough, and too inclined to get lost in meticulous detail, to the detriment of all the other tasks I had intended to do today.

Anyway, my collection of original Middle English texts published by the Early English Text Society are now all added, and one day I might read some of them, very slowly, with glossary in hand! The one I have most read and used is the wonderful Curye on Inglysch - a medieval recipe book (the title means Cookery in English). It's full of instructions like:

"Take oynouns and erbes and hewe hem (them) small, and do therto gode broth"

or "Hewe pork al to pecys (pieces) and medle (mix) it with ayren (eggs) & chese igrated."

or "Take connynges (rabbits) and smyte hem in gobetes and waissh hem."

I've tried some of these, years ago, for a medieval-style banquet. Great fun, especially trying to work out quantities and temperatures etc because these are of course not given!

Well, Genny, I'm drooling - not so much about the connynges and medled pork, but for a great collection of Middle English texts. They're few on the ground here, or at least on the ground that I can get to. And the cooking tips are wonderful! I have a translation of Apicius; wish we were closer so that we could compare recipes!

Peggy, if you really like the idea of Middle English Texts, you should look into joining the Early English Text Society . That's how I acquired the volumes I have, apart from one or two picked up second hand. For the annual subscription (which doesn't seem to have gone up much compared to what I was paying in the 1980s) you receive the two editions published that year, or you can choose to substitute an earlier publication or two in place of that year's books. Postage is included, so for two hard-to-come-by hardback volumes it's a pretty good deal.

I am contemplating re-joining now that I've looked into it - but then I think perhaps I should read the ones I've already got first!

Yes it would be fun to compare ancient and medieval recipes!

Tried out the 'how nerdy are you' tests which were on Stasia's thread. Here's what I got for the second test - the first one was all about maths and computers, I scored low on that.





The easiest question was the one which asked which of a group of items would you keep if it meant losing everything else in the group. 'Your collection of books' was one option - can't even remember what the others were, there was no contest!

I'm glad to hear you loved The Lacuna too, Genny: I shall look forward to your review.

The Middle English cookbook looks fascinating. Did the things you cooked from the recipes taste good? I'm sure I remember a documentary about medieval or Tudor food that concluded most people today would find the taste of that food very strange because the seasoning was so different.

The 'would you keep your collection of books or ______' question is pretty much a foregone conclusion for most of us here, I think!

ETA I hope your cold and fatigue are not still afflicting you. Did you have a good weekend away?

I loved the recipes. I've done a bit of heweing in my time...... and I am curious too about what sorts of herbs and seasonings they recommend???

I must admit that the Middle English texts sound fascinating to me, even though I know nothing of Middle English.

I agree completely about the easiest question on the Nerd Quiz. I did not even look at the other answers :)

Just caught up with the November Take It or Leave It challenge, and so far I am planning to read the following:

Kaspar: Prince of cats for the alphabet challenge
Death in the Andes and
My Name is Red for the Nobel prize winners challenge
Tales of Beedle the Bard for the Harry Potter challenge
We - John Dickinson - for the four letters or fewer in the title challenge
possibly also Mort for this one
Private Peaceful for the war challenge
Elizabeth and her German Garden for the reprinted after being out of print challenge
Wolf Hall for the history challenge
Catch-22 Joseph Heller for the author whose surname begins with same letter the first name ends with
A Preface to Paradise Lost C S Lewis - for the heaven or hell challenge
The Red Tent for the colour challenge
The Murder Stone for the Sadie Hawkins challenge (no idea who Sadie Hawkins is/was, had to look that up first to make sense of this one!)

That's 13 books, more than I usually read in one month, so I probably won't manage them all. Though some of them are quite short, and I do have several long train journeys and a whole week off for a reading week. However the latter will be mainly reading theology books which I have not tried to work into the TIOLI. We'll see...

I did manage to stick to my far more modest TIOLI plans in October - namely to read The Lacuna and finish The Child That Books Built - reviews coming soon, I hope. I managed a few more than that too.

But I have failed miserably to do anything about all those books I listed last month which I started reading some time ago and have stalled. I'll list them again here to remind myself:

Animal, Vegetable, Miracle Kingsolver
Mysteries Knut Hamsun
Children's Spirituality Rebecca Nye
Sea of Poppies Amitav Ghosh
The Well of Loneliness Radclyffe Hall
The King's Glass Carola Hicks
Beatrix Potter Linda Lear

Let's see if I can do any better in November!

Crossing my fingers for you, Genny!

Middle English has the virtue of being sort of readable even to a layperson, but Old English.....

#59 Yes, there is a big difference! Though some regional versions of Middle English are far more impenetrable than others. And I did select those recipe quotations carefully to avoid too many less obvious words of which there are plenty. But if you know Dutch or German, a lot of it is not so very strange, even the Old English.

Re the seasoning in the recipes, I'll have to dig the book out again to give more information. They certainly do contain many references to unfamiliar sounding spices or mixtures of spices, and of course there is no precise indication of quantities. I think when we tried some of the recipes we just had to keep experimenting, and starting with a little and adding more. There was heavy use of ground almonds in water, I remember, as an alternative (rather a strange and rich one) to using milk on fast days (which would have been about half the days in the year). An indication that these recipes were very much for the use of the wealthier classes, I think - I can't imagine the average villein or serf having large quantities of almonds handy in Lent!

#50 I find cataloguing quite a nice relaxing way to procrastinate although I usually use it to avoid housework or writing reviews of books I have read!

#57 So far, the number of books I have added to the TIOLI wiki for November is a number I could actually read in a month! It won't last.

Is your reading week at the Gladstone Library (so glad they changed the name to one I could spell!)

#61 Yes, I'm spending almost a full week there (travelling afternoon of Remembrance Sunday, returning the following Saturday in time for a wedding rehearsal; the wedding is on the Sunday unusually, but happily, otherwise I'd have had to return a day earlier). I will be trying to do some serious theology reading which I never manage to do while in the midst of daily parish life - but will also continue to do read my usual mix of books. I'm looking forward to the break, especially to having all my meals cooked for me, and lots of people to meet and talk to at meal times, sharing discoveries about what we are all reading and working on. And in between, lots of lovely uninterrupted reading time!

#62: in between, lots of lovely uninterrupted reading time!

Sounds heavenly to me!

It will be hard to return to 'normal' life!!!!!!!

Hey, Genny! Did you say there is a Harry Potter challenge this month??? I just said that reading the Philosopher's Stone would not make me read the whole series, but Tales of Beedle the Bard sounds like a good idea!

I'm adding The Child that Books Built to my wish list, thanx!

Have a wonderful day!

#63 Heavenly indeed!

#64 I know, I would happily stay there all the time. I wonder when the current director is retiring...? Though if I were working there, I would not be able to spend all my days reading!

#65 Yes there is a HP challenge within the TIOLI (Take It or Leave It) challenge which is part of the 75 group. It's challenge number 5 this month. If you have not come across TIOLI yet, here's a link to the November thread for it. You can join in with just one of the challenges, or as many as you want. More help available on the thread if you need it.

Re Child that Books Built that reminds me I still need to do my review...

#62 It does sound good. Having all the meals cooked for you and no housework for a week as well as reading time - bliss!

Hi Genny, I hope you enjoy your reading-week. Browsing through your thread I noticed you rediscovered Wodehouse and Stasia not particularly liking him. That made me wonder if you think it might be the typically English humour that puts Americans off? I was a huge Wodehouse-fan in my late teens and I've downloaded about everything there is to download on my e-reader. If I ever have a reading-week, I'll definitely squeeze him in.

#68 Hi Monica, nice to hear from you. I'm definitely looking forward to the reading week - got a stressful busy week at work first to get through, so I shall need the break.

I did manage quite a bit of reading on Saturday when I had a day trip to London (total of 7 hours on the train with the return journey). Finished one short book and made a good start on Wolf Hall which I'm enjoying. But I've been too busy to do any updates/reviews on recent reading, and that may not get much better before I go away. Not sure whether I shall take my laptop next week - I don't want too many distractions, but it would be useful to be able to update as I go along.

As for Wodehouse and whether he appeals more to British than Americans, I couldn't say - but I think he is well loved by many on both sides of the Atlantic. I did also read somewhere that Wodehouse was writing very much with an American audience in mind, and that his choice of subjects/characters (all those upper-class people and their butlers etc) was partly because it played on the stereotypical view of the British that might be prevalent among some Americans, or that it is what he thought they expected to read about. Some of his stories (not the ones I've read so far, but I've seen dramatisations) are about the English at large in America - enjoying some of the culture clashes that entails - and of course Wodehouse himself lived a large part of his life in the US.

Hope returning to 'real' life isn't too harsh! Great stuff about Wodehouse. Complicated and clever fellow, eh wot?

Hi Genny! Have a lovely day!:)

Hi Genny, very interesting comment you made there about Wodehouse. I guess that's why I love this author so much, being both a fan humour and all things British myself (if only there weren't a sea dividing us, I'd visit far more often...). Guess he had me fooled there too :-)
Have a lovely reading week!

I've updated this post with a couple of missing book reviews:

Book 80
The Child That Books Built - Francis Spufford


Own book, bought in charity shop June 2010.
Oct TIOLI Challenge - Title A-L recommended by Stasia

I picked this up in the shop because the title and the jacket illustration on the slim hardback volume appealed to me, and bought it because the concept appealed even more. I'm glad I did.

This is a personal memoir of the books which shaped the author's life as a child, growing up with a seriously ill sister. Before writing this book the author set out to re-read as many of those books as he could, and try to recall how he first responded to them. It is also an essay that draws on theories of child development, and uses psychoanalytical and philosophical concepts to reflect on the kind of reading children do at different stages in their developing relationship with the people and the world around them.

If this sounds a little dry, in fact it is far from it, in my view. Francis Spufford writes beautifully and thought-provokingly. He is more interested in depth than breadth. This is definitely not (and not intended to be) a comprehensive introduction to or survey of all the books of his childhood; rather he picks a few key books or authors and delves into what it meant to immerse himself in their different worlds. There are memorable passages describing the process of learning to read, or the excitement of delving into the varied treasures of the children's shelves in the public library.

I happen to share the same birth-year as the author and grew up with many of the same books and publishers (this was the era when Puffins reigned supreme), so I could readily identify with the particular examples he used. I was also interested in what he had to say about the difficult transition from being a child to an adult reader - especially for those who like him did not find the classics provided a bridge.

His own solution to the problem came through his discovery of the genre of science fiction, and he has some interesting things to say about the role of genre fiction in general. I am writing this without the book to hand, but this is my memory of his argument: Genre fiction represents one of two (equally valid) ways that adult readers seek something more than the world of children's stories. Genre fiction tends to offer us the same familiar structures and story-telling conventions as children's fiction, but expands our horizons by applying these to an wide range of subject matters and settings which satisfy our desire for novelty and variety. The other approach, literary fiction, expands our horizons in different ways by approaching often familiar subject matter in new, unconventional or ambiguous ways which do justice to our more adult awareness of the complexities of life.

I know he put it much better than that, and I wish I had to book to hand to quote some passages, as he does write very well. The whole book made me reflect a lot about my own childhood reading, and I'm still thinking about it several weeks later. I will want to read this again at some point.

Highly recommended. 4.5 stars


Book 81
The Lacuna - Barbara Kingsolver


Own book, bought new June 2010.
Oct TIOLI challenge 1 - Author with surname of 10 or more letters

See post 188 for review.

Book no. 82 – Notes from a Small Island – Bill Bryson


Own book, bought in charity shop May 2010

This was the first of Bryson’s travel books I’ve read – previously I read Mother Tongue, his account of the global spread of the English language. I enjoyed this one but did not love it. Bryson decides to go on a valedictory tour of the British Isles on foot and by public transport (mainly England, but including excursions into Wales and Scotland) prior to returning to the US after living in Britain for many years. As he travels around re-visiting old haunts and discovering new ones, he is also remembering his first impressions and earlier experiences, and noting ways in which Britain has changed since he first got to know it. He wrote this book in the early 1990s, and his first sight of England was in 1973, so there are a couple of eventful decades inbetween.

It took me a while to adjust to Bryson’s style and humour. The awful grimness of his remembered first experience of England - arriving off the ferry in Dover and finding lodgings in the unfriendliest boarding-house imaginable – was almost too painful and depressing to be funny, however accurate a portrayal of a certain kind of English (in)hospitality. Some of the other British quirks and oddities which he describes didn’t seem so funny to me perhaps simply because I am British myself and think these things normal! However, I gradually warmed to his narrative, especially as his own warm affection for Britain and the British shone through increasingly clearly despite his grumbles and criticisms of some of our strange ways. He is particularly concerned about the ways in which we have allowed so many town centres to be ruined with insensitive modern developments and anonymous shops – a concern I fully share. And he is amusing on the vagaries of a non-integrated public transport system which has only got worse since he wrote this. I suppose it is Bryson’s trademark to turn difficult, strange or challenging experiences into amusing anecdotes, and he certainly had plenty of those experiences on his travels, but also gives us some passages reflecting on what he loves about Britain.

I think I should try one of his travel books about somewhere I don’t know so well, to see if I react differently to his descriptions of a place to which I am less emotionally tied myself. I only gave this 3 stars at the time, but on reflection I’m revising it up to 3.5 because I enjoy it more by the end than at the start.

Another place-marker for the first few books I've read in November - need to come back and add my thoughts on these soon.
Now (18th November) finished adding a few thoughts on the following books:

Book 83
Kaspar, Prince of Cats - Michael Morpurgo


Own book, impulse cheap new buy in supermarket (& decided to give to god-daughter for Christmas)
TIOLI Alphabet Challenge (K) .

An endearing little tale of a bell boy at the Savoy, a regal black cat, and the Titanic - apparently inspired by the statue of a cat which appears in the Savoy hotel. For younger readers, especially cat lovers. 4 stars

Book 84
Look to the Lady - Margery Allingham


Own book off the shelves, bought second-hand Shrewsbury 12.10.1994 - re-read.

I cannot actually remember much about this book from my first read - I presume that I did read it back in 1994 when I bought it. I think I have read so many Allinghams this year that my memories of those read a long while back are now rather dim. This is one of the earliest of the Campion series (no. 3), and is known as the Gyrth Chalice Mystery in the US, a title which gives a clearer initial idea of the subject matter. Campion steps in to assist an ancient family who are responsible for keeping safe an apparently even more ancient and precious chalice, which is sought after by an international crime ring. Witchcraft or other mysterious and supernatural factors seem to be involved - or are they? Nicely plotted once you accept the implausibility of the whole premise. I liked the gradual introduction of Campion in the opening chapters, told from the perspective of the young heir to the family, who is not at all sure who this mysterious person is or whether he can trust him.

3.5 stars - not the most serious of reads, but a great period piece.

Book 85
Tales of Beedle the Bard - J K Rowling


Own book, bought in motorway service station shop on impulse in 2008
TIOLI Challenge - World of Harry Potter

A short book of short stories of the fairy tale variety, purporting to be traditional tales handed down within the magical world of Harry Potter, and translated by Hermione Granger. The most entertaining aspect of this short book is the additional layer of notes (some of them as long as the original tale) by Albus Dumbledore commenting on the ways the tales have been used, (mis)interpreted, retold or bowdlerised to meet different sensibilities or prejudices. Dumbledore's interpretation of the tales emphasises the limitations of magic, and the need to use it wisely and well, but he shows how others have put a very different spin on them. There are also humorous touches as Dumbledore reveals flashes of vanity about his own superior abilities as a wizard.

This device of framing stories within another layer through a commentary by a fictional character is not of course original, but Rowling uses it well. Fans of the Harry Potter series (I can't imagine anyone else wanting to read this book) will enjoy having that world and one of its characters fleshed out a little more and in a way which may encourage readers to become more aware of the way all stories tend to be told and retold to reflect and support changing political, ethical or social viewpoints.

I gave it 3.5 stars. If it had been a little longer with a bit more substance it might have been 4 (though a short J K Rowling book makes a change!).

Book 86
Mort - Terry Pratchett


Own book, acquired via BookMooch, Oct 2010
TIOLI challenge - 4 word title

Death is one of my favourite characters in Discworld. I hadn't read this one before - the first book to feature Death as on of the principal characters - but I listened to a radio dramatisation a few months ago so it felt familiar. Death decides to take on an apprentice - and while young Mort is learning the trade of being an Anthropomorphic Personification, Death has a night off and tries to work out what humans mean by 'having fun'. But has Mort, intervening against all the rules to prevent a particular death from happening, irreparably unbalanced the fabric of reality itself?

The series is really starting to take off with this one. I gave it 4 stars.

Looks like you have been doing some good reading recently, Genny!

How great is that, both of us reading the Bryson recently -- he's such a funny fellow, so cheerful and so indignant, so patient and yet so intolerant sometimes!

And how great is it that both of us are reading/have read The Lacuna. I hope to finish it today at the expense of everything else wonderful that I'm reading. I love this book!

#75 Indeed - some really memorable ones interspersed with enjoyable lighter reads...
#76 Good description of Bryson. I've not read any of his apart from Mother Tongue before.
#77 Yes, it's great isn't it! I had to keep reading once I'd started. Definitely one of my best reads of the year.

Book 87
Brat Farrar - Josephine Tey


Own book, second-hand from eBay, June 2010
TIOLI Alphabet Challenge gave me the excuse to read it this month.

I picked this up this morning to start reading in my bath and over a leisurely breakfast on my day off. Couldn't put it down. Now I've finished it and need to get on with all the other things I planned to do on my day off! This was only the second Josephine Tey I've read (the other was Daughter of Time many years ago. I'm keen to read more now. All those who were highly recommending this book a few months ago were right - well written, engaging characters and a satisfying mystery. 4.5 stars.

I'm glad you enjoyed Brat Farrar, Genny. I'm looking forward to the other reviews, especially The Lacuna and Mort. You've been reading some good stuff lately.

Have a good time next week!

Oh I loved Brat Farrar and it was my first (and so far only) Tey. Glad you loved it too. Also glad to hear that others besides me blow of a morning reading when the temptation is too strong. Safety in numbers!

Glad you like Brat Farrar too, Genny. I had not heard of Tey before the group read. Good way to spend your morning:)

Me too! Me too! Brat Farrar is my favorite Tey with The Daughter of Time running a close second. Tey was simply excellent. That's all there is to it.

I am the opposite of Peggy: The Daughter of Time is my favorite Tey with Brat Farrar running a close second :)

Looking forward to reading your reviews when you get the chance Genny.

I imagine this is the start of your reading week? Whether you decide to take the laptop or not, I hope you have a really good time and that it is restful time too.

The only Tey I've read is The Franchise Affair which was really good, but I managed to mooch a copy of The Daughter of Time earlier this month. Her other books seem much harder to get hold of second hand.

I am now happily ensconced at Gladstone's Library (which used until very recently to be called St Deiniol's Library) for almost a week of reading. I plan to read quite a bit of theology and ministry-related things which I never seem to manage to make un-interrupted time for in my daily routine. A particular focus will be on the spirituality of children and theology of childhood. I will also be continuing my more general and fiction reading - hope to finish Wolf Hall and possibly The Aeneid too while I'm here. I have five full days, plus the train journey back home again on Saturday - and with no meals to prepare or tidy up after, the main distractions will be the other guests and the temptation to linger over coffee finding out about other people's reading and thinking. But that's all very interesting too, and part of the experience.

I decided to bring my laptop, because although that opens up temptations to other distractions, it does mean I can continue to update here about my reading, and try to catch up on the threads a bit.

On the train journey here I finished a children's book with a World War I setting - appropriate for Remembrance Sunday:

Book 88
Private Peaceful - Michael Morpurgo


Own book, bought new this year (spur of the moment supermarket special deal!)
TIOLI WWI/WWII challenge

Starting at five past ten at night, the minutes and hours tick by as Private Tommo Peaceful - almost eighteen years old - spends a deliberately wakeful night remembering and recalling a lifetime of experiences which have brought him to this moment, and to the fateful event which will happen at 6 am next morning.

He tells us of his childhood and his growing up; of the death of his father and the determination and love of his mother; of his two older brothers Big Joe (who is different) and Charlie (who looks after him) and of Molly (who loves them all); of the war which seems so far off at first but which soon sucks Charlie and him into its chaos. He tells of experiences of bullying and discrimination at school, and from authority figures in the community and in the army - and of those who are brave and fearless enough to stand against such injustice. He tells of the hell of trench warfare, but also of the simple pleasures and joys that have made life worth living.

This powerful book for older children does not over simplify or sanitise, or seek to avoid the horror of war or the ambiguities and complexities of life. One of its themes is the questionable justice in the treatment of many British and Commonwealth soldiers court-martialled for cowardice or desertion during WWI. Morpurgo uses the theme of brotherly love (and rivalry) to approach this difficult and moving subject in a way that is accessible for young readers.

It had me shedding a few tears at the end. Highly recommended. 4.5 stars

I am now happily ensconced at Gladstone's Library (which used until very recently to be called St Deiniol's Library) for almost a week of reading. I plan to read quite a bit of theology and ministry-related things which I never seem to manage to make un-interrupted time for in my daily routine. A particular focus will be on the spirituality of children and theology of childhood. I will also be continuing my more general and fiction reading - hope to finish Wolf Hall and possibly The Aeneid too while I'm here. I have five full days, plus the train journey back home again on Saturday - and with no meals to prepare or tidy up after, the main distractions will be the other guests and the temptation to linger over coffee finding out about other people's reading and thinking. But that's all very interesting too, and part of the experience.

I decided to bring my laptop, because although that opens up temptations to other distractions, it does mean I can continue to update here about my reading, and try to catch up on the threads a bit.

On the train journey here I finished a children's book with a World War I setting - appropriate for Remembrance Sunday:

Book 88
Private Peaceful - Michael Morpurgo


Own book, bought new this year (spur of the moment supermarket special deal!)
TIOLI WWI/WWII challenge

Starting at five past ten at night, the minutes and hours tick by as Private Tommo Peaceful - almost eighteen years old - spends a deliberately wakeful night remembering and recalling a lifetime of experiences which have brought him to this moment, and to the fateful event which will happen at 6 am next morning.

He tells us of his childhood and his growing up; of the death of his father and the determination and love of his mother; of his two older brothers Big Joe (who is different) and Charlie (who looks after him) and of Molly (who loves them all); of the war which seems so far off at first but which soon sucks Charlie and him into its chaos. He tells of experiences of bullying and discrimination at school, and from authority figures in the community and in the army - and of those who are brave and fearless enough to stand against such injustice. He tells of the hell of trench warfare, but also of the simple pleasures and joys that have made life worth living.

This powerful book for older children does not over simplify or sanitise, or seek to avoid the horror of war or the ambiguities and complexities of life. One of its themes is the questionable justice in the treatment of many British and Commonwealth soldiers court-martialled for cowardice or desertion during WWI. Morpurgo uses the theme of brotherly love (and rivalry) to approach this difficult and moving subject in a way that is accessible for young readers.

It had me shedding a few tears at the end. Highly recommended. 4.5 stars

#87: Private Peaceful looks good. As I am sure you know, Britain erected a monument to the men courtmartialed for cowardice or desertion during WWI several years ago. I learned of the memorial from Laurie R. King's book Justice Hall.

http://www.waymarking.com/waymarks/WM92PT_Shot_At_Dawn_Memorial_The_National_Mem... if you are interested.

I hope you get a ton of productive reading done this week, Genny!

Your week of reading and contemplation sounds wonderful! (It's pouring with rain and freezing over here - if it's anything like that in England you are in the right place, curled up with a book.)

I heard Michael Morpurgo on a books podcast earlier this year and am adding this book to my wishlist for when the kids are older. Nice review.

Hope you're enjoying your week so far, Genny. Sounds like you're off to a good start, at least. :)

Genny, how wonderful! Milk every moment for yourself and for all of us struggling to carve out even a little time for books.

Sounds lovely - enjoy your week! Private Peaceful has made its way onto my wishlist.

I'm planning to start reading Private Peaceful today - I recently bought a set of 16 Morpurgo books (he's written a lot I believe) from the Book People.

I have a spare copy of The Earth Hums in B Flat, found in excellent condition in a charity shop for 50p - would you like it?

My time here at Gladstone's Library is passing all too quickly. Spent all of today so far getting on with reading Wolf Hall, which I started about 10 days ago - read about one third while on the train down to London and back, but left the rest until this week when I would be able to concentrate better than during a working week. I'm enjoying it, and finding some interesting points of comparison in some respects with The Lacuna, my other recent more serious read.

Free wi-fi here, but the connection seems poor in my room, or something is making pages load very slowly, which is frustrating my attempts to catch up on my reviews and other people's threads...

#88 Hi Stasia, thanks for the link. I didn't know about the monument, but did know about the belated and conditional pardon which was granted to these men in 2006 - Morpurgo mentions some of the facts about all this in a postscript too.

#89 Yes it is wonderful, Cushla. The weather was actually sunny for the first two days, so I went for a brief walk yesterday, but today it has been pouring with rain and I've stayed snug in the library and common room. As for Morpurgo, I've read three of his books now - some suitable for slightly younger than this one, which i'm planning to give to a friend's child who is aged about 11. She recently went with her Dad to hear Morpurgo do a reading/talk, and was entranced along with all the other kids there, apparently.

#90 I am enjoying it, just wishing it wouldn't go so fast. Read a couple of my planned reads on children's spirituality etc Monday and Tuesday, and realise as always that I've been over optimistic about how much I can achieve while here.

#91 I will be thinking of you all, Peggy, as I get down to the hard work of doing some reading after breakfast, lunch and dinner!

#92 Hope you enjoy Private Peaceful when you get to it, Heather.

#93 And ditto Luci - yes he has written a lot; many of them seem to feature animals. Thank you for the offer of The Earth Hums, I would love to receive that. If you put it on BookMooch I could mooch it from you.

Now, on with Wolf Hall...

Deleting this duplicate message - part of the problem with slow-loading pages...

I'll list The Earth Hums with a reserve for you when I get round to it, perhaps at the weekend. I have a book for Heather too.

I've started Private Peaceful.

Interesting points of comparison between Wolf Hall and The Lacuna? I'd love to hear you say more, Genny - if you're interested in elucidating.

Thank you for the thoughtful review of Private Peaceful. I've added it to my list!

Catching up... I've finished adding my missing thoughts on/reviews of the 4 books listed above in post 74 and am working on those in the post before that.

The first two books read/finished while at Gladstone's Library:

Book no. 89
Children's Spirituality - Rebecca Nye
Own book, bought earlier this year (after reading good review).

See post 179 for review.

Book no. 90
Let the Children Come to Communion - Stephen Lake
Own book, bought 2007, been intending to read for far too long.

See post 180 for review.

Home again and no time to complete the above reviews or anything else I was working on while away - I have a wedding rehearsal in an hour, then calling it at a parish birthday ceilidh, but need to get an early night, as tomorrow is a busy morning in church, the wedding will be at 3pm and my mother is arriving at noon and needs picking up from the station. At some point I need to buy some food, make her a bed, etc, but I'm too tired from travelling (and a late night last night) to do that now.

And then I have about 25 people coming to supper on Monday - thankfully I am not doing most of the cooking, but the house needs to be ready...

Sounds like a busy weekend!

25 for supper? Hope you've got a big table and lots of chairs!

Finally read your topic again! I saw some books and authors coming by that I would like to read, like Catch-22 and something by P. G. Wodehouse.

Wow, Genny! An ambitious couple of days coming up for you. Have a great time!

#101 Eeek! Hope everything goes ok...

#101 Wow, what a busy time! Hope all goes well. Enjoy!

Hi Genny! Hope everything went well over the weekend, and with the meal last night.

Thanks for your good wishes one and all. Everything went well in the end - though had a near disaster when my heating stopped working Sunday afternoon, just after my mother arrived. With all those people coming to supper the next day, Mum staying all week, and snow forecast for the end of the week, I was not enjoying the prospect of being without heating. Luckily we discovered it was an electrical fault causing a fuse to trip, and it seems to be the washing machine causing it, not the heating. So the house is now warm again, but Mum has had to do a load of handwashing (she has come on from my sister's and was expecting to be able to do a wash at this point).

The dinner went well - I don't have a large enough table for all to sit around, but just about enough chairs spread around several rooms to accommodate up to 25 for a buffet supper. I try to invite different groups from within the church community, and people really appreciate being able to talk to each other in a way they never have time for on a Sunday. It's a big church and lots of people don't know each other particularly well even when they have been coming for years.

Meanwhile I am still pretty tired, and have not had a chance to touch a book since my journey back on Saturday - but am about to go to bed and read a bit more of We by my friend John Dickinson.

I'm glad it all went well.

Being without a washing machine is irritating, but far better than being without heating in the snow!

What Caty said!

What Caty and Stasia said! :-) Current forecast is for some snow for tomorrow down here.

Heavy frost this morning, and light snow which did not settle; but this afternoon more snow lying thick on the ground, awful traffic getting home after a visit. I'm afraid I'm not greeting the whited-out world with the usual delight and wonder, after last winter: really had enough snow and don't want it back so soon again! But I am jolly glad my heating is working again...

No snow forecast here - we're expecting a bit of sleet with some snow up on the moors - but I see there's lots already up your way, and lots more forecast. I'm not surprised you're not happy to see it already, especially on that scale. Time to turn that heating up and stay in with a book!

Have you got busy days planned, or can you minimise the trips out and stay home to play with paperwork?

Genny

Sending all good wishes your way for a happy and healthy November & December. Hugs to you.

#113 Snowing again today - it fell heavily during the night and still falling now. I do have some trips out to make - a long promised visit this afternoon, and dropping my mother off to have dinner with a friend while I go to another meeting. Tomorrow is my day off and we were planning a day out, but we'll see how the weather looks tomorrow. Several more busy days following that too, including taking mother back to the airport early Saturday morning, assuming the flights are still running.

#114 Thank you for good wishes and hugs, Linda!

Play in the snow some for me, Genny!

Oh, well. I hope the roads are not too bad. Enjoy your day off.

#115: Sorry to hear abou the snow, Genny! I feel it is coming too soon after last winter, too! Well...no snow here, but we do have some wind blowing in from Siberia! Cold enough!!!

Well I sympathize! I am not really all that excited about driving in snow; it's lovely as long as I don't have to go anywhere..... but these days all I do is drive around.

Made it safely to the airport and back at 5.30 this morning, driving very slowly through freshly fallen snow. Now I'm checking the airport website to see if Mum's flight is going to be delayed or cancelled - it would complicate the rest of my day if I have to go back and collect her. Haven't done any reading while she has been staying - all my usual routines disrupted. Hopefully will get back to some this weekend, though it is another busy one with special services for Advent.

Glad you made it safely to the airport, Genny! I hope all works out with your mother's travel plans.

Hope your Mum manages to get home safely. We have only a very light dusting of snow down here. I'm also not keen on having a lot of snow this year.

Glad you made it to the airport and back safely.

I shouldn't think you have any weekends - or even many days - between now and Christmas that are not busy! (Is it one of the Adrian Plass books where there's a vicar that gets irritated with everyone saying to him "Busiest time of the year for you, eh, vicar?" all though Advent?)

Hi Genny, I see the north of England, Scotland and Wales are really suffering from the snow. I hope you won't be troubled too much. Well, if you're snowded in, there are always plenty of books to keep you company. We are preparing for a very cold week here too. This is the second winter in which we have a lot of snow and much earlier than other years. I thought the climate was warming up???

Oh it is warming up, never you fear, but it is also less stable, less predictable and more extreme...... So far so good here, no huge snow events yet, just one icy/slushy afternoon. I have to go look at a BI weather map!

I saw an Iain Pears up there on your list just now- my husband just picked one up somewhere and likes it a lot. Forget which title! It's funny how you notice a thing sometimes only after you've become 'aware' of it.

Safe driving!

Yes indeed, be safe, all you snowbirds! *sigh* If we get a dusting here once a year, we consider ourselves lucky. I do love to watch it fall.....
AND if anybody wants good near-future scifi concerned with weather events, she should read Kim Stanley Robinson's environmental trilogy: Forty Signs of Rain, Fifty Degrees Below, and Sixty Days and Counting: chilling and entertaining!

Long silence on this and on everyone else's threads, sorry. Have been dealing with weather, work, stomach upset etc - doing a bit of reading but have fallen behind again on the reviews/updates, as well as reading what everyone else is up to. I hope to catch up a little bit before I go away for a few days on retreat - that itself has been delayed because of the weather, but I hope to leave tomorrow or thursday at the latest and be away for the weekend (without internet access).

#118 Do you have any snow yet Bente, or have you sent it all our way?!

#123 yes it is pretty busy - trying to get away on retreat was my attempt to restore some perspective and get some space in the middle of the busyness. There is a slight lull in special events between the beginning of Advent and the full onslaught of Christmas happenings, so it is now or never. But the place I'm hoping to get to (in the North York moors near Whitby) has a half-mile long steep drive which is completely impossible in this weather, so when I do make it down there I'll have to carry my stuff on foot. That should encourage me to travel light, which is not a bad principle anyway for a retreat...

#124, 125 The snow has been here for two weeks now, the worst prolonged bad snow this early in the year for a long time. As usual, there has been chaos because we are not used to dealing with large amounts of snow over a long period in this country. Whether we will get any better at dealing with it if this pattern continues remains to be seen - but I think Lucy is right, the global warming phenomenon is actually leading to less predictable, more extreme patterns, so I'm not sure how we will ever be properly equipped when we don't quite know what's coming next. I've driven today for the first time in over a week, just to practice getting in and out of the drive - the main roads are clear round here but all the domestic roads are still under a thick layer of snow or ice, so setting off and parking again become interesting!

#126 It has had its beautiful moments Peggy, but it really has been a nuisance most of all. I shall have to look out for those weather related sci-fi suggestions. I'm actually part way reading another sci-fi book by a friend of mine (We by John Dickinson) which is set on a freezing cold inhospitable planet. Stopped reading it when the snow came here - reminded me too much of reality! But I hope to get back to it soon.

Hi Genny! Good to see you again!:)

Yes, the wind from Siberia left us just before during the weekend (it stayed for about two weeks) and it started snowing. So, I guess we're sharing it at the moment :)

Hope you are doing fine and have a lovely afternoon!

Hi Genny, hope you are fully recovered from the stomach upset and that you get to the retreat ok with all the cold weather. It's been cold here and we've had some snow (which is the earliest in the year that I remember it snowing) but it's not been too bad.

We has been on my radar since you mentioned it before but perhaps I will also wait until it's slightly less cold before trying it!

Edited to correct touchstones

Here's a picture of the snow in my garden at the end of November - it has mostly gone from the tree branches now, as there has been no significant new fall for a few days, but it is still just as thick on the ground.

I hope your stomach is better, Genny.

A half-mile hill in the snow and ice? Definitely an incentive to pack light.

That's seriously impressive snow in your garden: very pretty on the trees. It almost makes me wish we'd had a proper covering of it.

November summary:

looking back at my TIOLI and other aims (post 57) I can record some achievements but nothing like all that I hoped for.

I read 10 books in November.

I managed 6 TIOLI books out of 14 aspired to (three of them children's books and short ones at that): Kaspar: Prince of cats; Tales of Beedle the Bard; Brat Farrar; Mort; Private Peaceful; Wolf Hall and started another two TIOLIs which will be finished this month but may not fit into any challenge: We; The Murder Stone.

Of my unread TIOLIs, one or both of the following I may get round to this month as the Nobel prize winner category is continuing this month:
Death in the Andes and
My Name is Red

The non-TIOLIs included another Allingham (almost finished the whole series), two theology books (I had meant to read many more while way on my reading week, but concentrated on finishing Wolf Hall which took some time) and Which Witch by Eva Ibbotson which I acquired on hearing of the author's recent death as I had not read anything by her.

Books on my shelf over a year: 3 (one a re-read)
Books acquired 2010 but owned more than 6 months: 2
Books by authors new to me: 4
Non fiction:fiction 2:8

Of my list of books started and left abandoned, I only managed to finish one, so I'm repeating the list here just to remind myself again that I intend to get back to these some day.

Animal, Vegetable, Miracle Kingsolver
Mysteries Knut Hamsun
Sea of Poppies Amitav Ghosh
The Well of Loneliness Radclyffe Hall
The King's Glass Carola Hicks
Beatrix Potter Linda Lear

I don't expect I'll get around to all of these in December, but I hope to finish at least one or two of them.

#130 That's some snow! I saw this on the BBC website and thought of you.

#132 Nice November summary, 10 books including two theology books and a tome like Wolf Hall is not to be sniffed at. Would love to hear your thoughts on Wolf Hall and your other reading when you have time.

For my December TIOLI challenge reads, I'm going to try first of all to restrict myself to reading my library books which I keep renewing and not getting round to reading. And it seems that not many of my library books do fit any of the challenges, but here's one.

Challenge 1 - book with animal on the cover: Wolf Brother

So I think I will read and return some library books first, regardless of TIOLI, and when I have eased my conscience on that front I'll see if I can fit in any more challenge books.

I have also started listening to A Christmas Carol - which fits challenge 8 (book of under 140 pages). I have had this as a download from Audible on my laptop for ages, along with many others, but rarely choose to listen from there. However, now there is an Audible application for my mobile phone, so I can listed on that while doing things like cooking dinner and washing up - so that should increase my scope for listening.

I love A Christmas Carol! I hope you enjoy your 'listen' of the book, Genny.

Good luck on the retreat and the packing light part. I have not gotten that down yet :)

#133 I've seen that picture too - there was a similar one last year: we are starting to get used to Britain looking like this.

I will get around to some thoughts on Wolf Hall and the rest soon, I promise. I do find that with the bigger, more thought provoking reads (like The Lacuna back in October which I've also not written about yet) I want to put off writing and reflect further. The danger is if I leave it too long I'll forget the detail of what I wanted to comment on.

#135 Thanks Stasia. Yes I'll need some discipline to pack light - restricting which books to take. I have to take my journal and a book which my spiritual director has recommended for me to work through one or two chapters and reflect on, and I really should not take too many other books to distract me from this. And there is a small library where I will be staying... So I really just need plenty of warm clothes and those few items.

Love the photo! Looks just about like that around here, 15 inches..... we went out snowshoeing late in the gloaming, very pretty, now I'm wiped out. Maybe a little more tonight? They don't know, basically. No one predicted 15 inches, that much is for sure.

I read those Robinson's! Very entertaining.

Oh it is so hard to only take a few books anywhere!

When are you leaving Genny? Safe journey!:)

Good wishes from me too, Genny! (And I'm curious about the theology you're reading.) Be careful! Enjoy!! Be safe!!!

Just stopping by to say hello!

Enjoy your journey, both physically and spiritually.

Delayed going by another day as there has been more snow fall on the route. And I've spent most of today sleeping when I meant to catch up on many jobs and work-related loose ends.

More snow fall? Be extremely careful in your travels, Genny!

Another update - I'm not going after all. The retreat house where I was due to stay has no other guests left, and the cook is unable to make it there either due to the snow, so they really would prefer not to have visitors. I'm going to spend a few days at home trying to imagine I am on retreat instead (not very easy, with an office full of undone tasks and a phone that keeps ringing... I might need to find somewhere warm nearby to escape to just to get away from the temptation to work or be distracted.

I've just caught up here on about 20 posts - hope you have found a nice warm spot and the phone is out of earshot! That is a lot of snow. Ours has all melted now, and we had a very pleasant 10 cm or so (and the Swiss snow ploughs are everywhere and everything keeps on going.)

I have The Lacuna waiting for Orange January... when I get nearer the time I'm going to go back and read your comments on it.

Not sure about The Murder Stone but We fits into Challenge 2 for last month's challenge on the titles of 4 letters or less. And some of your other library books must be possible to fit in that way.

Shame about the retreat. :( I hope you've managed to to escape to somewhere warm and quiet, away from the ringing phones.

I'm sorry about the retreat too, but a little glad that you won't be traveling in all that snow. Uh ---- I understand that England has a fair number of good B&B's. Might be worth a call or two to somewhere close to find out if they have cancellations they'd be glad to fill.....

Note to self and anyone else who may drop in: I am getting very behind again on book reviews/updates - I have been doing some reading (the first post in this thread lists what I've been up to) but not adding any thoughts.

Last week was a bit of a wash out as regards the retreat - a flat battery in the car, when I decided to try to drive out somewhere to get away from it all, was the last straw! In the end I caught the bus into the city centre and spent a day at the Central Library - warm and not too noisy, with a decent cafe for lunch.

Snow had all just about melted following a thaw since last Thursday, and even the compacted ice on the pavements was practically gone. But new flurries of snowfall today and more promised, so we may be back to white for Christmas.

Now there is all also a flurry of LT activity with people setting up new threads for 2011. I haven't done mine yet as I want to catch up here first (but I have been busy finding and starring other people's).

Meanwhile of course there are Christmas preparations - official ones in church (reasonably on track) and my own personal ones (woefully behind). Tomorrow will be Christmas shopping/panic day, I think, once I've lent my presence and conveyed a blessing to the Newcastle School for Boys Senior School Carol SErvice at 10 am.

I really will make an effort to update my thread properly by the end of this coming weekend.

Good luck with that updating, Genny - I'm looking forward to your thoughts on your reading.

Your December reading list looks very good so I am eagerly anticipating your thoughts (but no pressure).

Sorry to hear the retreat was a washout. I share your woefully behind with respect to Christmas...

Quick hello! So many threads to catch up with, it's kind of nuts! But thanks for dropping in on my 2011 thread and I'll look out for yours too.

Hi, Genny! Sorry that your retreat didn't work out.

Genny

Years ago (26-27) I was the Program Director/Coordinator at a retreat center in the mountains of NE Pennsylvania. Traveling there in the winter through icy snowy roads was a nasty experience.

I loved the job though and I met many wonderful people, including Bishop Desmond Tutu. He is an amazing man! I met him the week before he rec'd. the Nobel peace prize. He is a very humble man with an incredible smile.

Happy Holidays to you. I hope you are feeling much better.

Hi Genny! I just wanted to wish you a Happy Christmas:) I hope it will be wonderful!

Not much time for reading or even posting in the next couple of days.

I have six church services between now and lunchtime tomorrow - then relaxing over Christmas Dinner with friends for the rest of the day. Then another two services on Sunday.

After that, I'll have a week off, and time to catch up a bit on the reading before the end of the month.

Meanwhile, wishing a very Happy Christmas to all who read this, whatever the season means to you!

Merry Christmas, Genny!

Merry Christmas, Genny!

Have a great holiday, Genny.

Genny...Hope your 'official' duties bring you the peace and joy you will undoubtedly bring to others.May your wishes all come true when you wake this Christmas morn. May all of us in this world struggling to achieve the peace we were promised on this wonderful day, have a New Year in which that struggle ends.
Christmas Glitters Graphics
Blessings and best wishes
Tina

Merry Christmas Genny

Merry Christmas Genny. Hope you get a well deserved rest during your week off and some reading time! Hope all the services go well.

Right, services all finished, home communion visits done - now the holiday begins! A week off starting tomorrow, and the first few days at least will be at home on my own so plenty of peace to relax and read. I may go south to visit my sister around New Year, weather permitting.

I have no book Christmas gifts to report - but I have not yet had time to unwrap many presents, so there may be something lurking there. In any case, I have plenty of books waiting to be read already, so I don't actually need any more!

Some photos of the festive period:

Carol singers with paper lanterns gather before setting off round the parish.


My church in the snow at dusk on 23rd December


Detail of my Christmas Tree - indoor snowflake, as if there were not enough outside...

Lovely pictures, Genny! Get those gifts unwrapped!!! My family never give me books, but I had hoped for just a little money to buy something I want..... I did get more books than I deserve from friends here, so I am not complaining at all.
Enjoy your well-deserved holiday! I'll be looking forward to a reading report!

Genny--thanks for the lovely pictures to add to our holiday peace. I hope you are able to enjoy some well deserved rest during the coming days.

Lovely photos! The church looks stunning in the snow. Is it a Victorian building?

Enjoy your time off, and I hope there are some nice things in the unopened packages.

#166 Yes it's Victorian - built 1887 so we will celebrate our 125th anniversary in 2012. I'm looking forward to opening the presents - I never have much time on Christmas Day because I go over to friends once the services are over and stay all the rest of the day. Didn't want to do it today because it would be a rush between various work commitments. So tomorrow I'm going to tidy up, put some nice music on (Bach Christmas Oratorio perhaps) and sit with a coffee and see what kind people have given me...

#165 Thank you Tina - I'm sure I will!

#164 I hope to get on to some book reports in the next few days Peggy - I've got a lot to catch up on!

#162 Thanks Heather - everything went well, so all the hard work has paid off - the only down-side was a nasty cough which started a week before Christmas and has persisted throughout the season, rather limiting my carol singing. The cough/nasty cold normally hits me straight after Christmas, so maybe this one will go away now since it came early.

#161 Thank you Kerry - I hope you had a good celebration also.

#159 Thanks Janet - sorry I haven't made it to your thread recently, I hope to catch up again over the next few days.

Thanks to Stasia and Bente too for Christmas good wishes.

Ok, off to bed now to read a little before sleep.

Love the pictures, Genny! Thanks for sharing them.

I hope you get your sleep in and enjoy your week off. Sounds like you need it :)

A very late Merry Christmas from me Genny, and thanks for posting the photos - they are lovely. Have a very relaxing week off!!

Lovely photos and hooray for a week off!

Thanks for those photos! Have a good week!

I've been doing some cataloguing today, rather than posting book reports. I've now catalogued a total of 4.5 shelves - a small proportion of the total collection, but these have been some of the slowest to add because there are a lot of old, pre ISBN books among them. I hope the process may speed up somewhat, or at this rate I won't finish cataloguing the whole collection before my eyes are too dim to read anymore.

#172: I will come and help you catalogue, Genny! I work cheap :)

Thanks for the offer, Stasia - there's just the small matter of the airfare to pay for I guess!

I was hoping you would not notice that :)

I have to go and check out your new stuff!

Finally, as the hours speed away towards the end of 2010, some long overdue book reading reports & reviews, starting with the four most recent:

Book no. 97 – Wolf Brother – Michelle Paver


Library book
December TIOLI challenge: book with animal on the cover

I heard about this series of children’s books set in the stone age from Anita (fameulstee) and thought it sounded interesting, so when I saw this first book in the series in our local library, I picked it up.

It was an enjoyable quick read. The quest-type story with some supernatural elements was well told but nothing remarkable (young boy Torak is charged by his dying father to find the mountain of the World Spirit and save his world from a demon-possessed great bear). What stands out about this book is the very well-realised depiction of the way of life in Stone Age northern europe, showing the range of practical skills and knowledge necessary for hunter-gatherers struggling to survive among the deep forests, rivers, ice and snow, and also trying to imagine what shape their beliefs might have taken. The supernatural elements of the story fitted well into the world view held by the clans depicted.

Also interesting were the chapters written from the point of view of the wolf-cub, who becomes the close companion of Torak: the use of a very different form of language to try to convey the wolf’s thought processes was quite clever if not entirely successful.

I may look out for the rest of this series eventually. 3.5 stars.

Book no. 98 – The Father Christmas Letters – J R R Tolkien


Own book, Christmas gift 1976
December TIOLI Christmas book challenge

The Father Christmas Letters is an old favourite from childhood: annual letters sent to the Tolkien children apparently from Father Christmas and his helper North Polar Bear. My copy is inscribed from my Dad, Christmas 1976, the year it was published, and I read it every year for many years, but have not done so recently, so it was a great pleasure to pick this up again. I love Tolkien's illustrations and paintings of life at the North Pole as much as the text itself. Both text and pictures paint a vivid picture of the antics and mishaps of Polar Bear and his naughty nephews, causing various forms of havoc with the gift preparation process. I see from the reviews that some newer editions of the book have reproduced some (all?) of the letters in the original handwriting, including not only all the drawings, but the text in its original, deliberately shaky, script.

I'd like to see a copy of the newer edition - but I love my original edition not least because it was a gift from my own father.

Highly recommended for children and the young at heart – you do not need to be a fan of Lord of the Rings/the Hobbit to enjoy this.

Book no. 99 – Sourcery – Terry Pratchett


Own book, bought 1989.
Reread

Continuing my read through Pratchett from the beginning, this is the fifth book in the series, and the third to feature the inept wizard Rincewind and his ferocious many-legged Luggage. I must have read this when I first bought it, but I recalled almost nothing about it so this re-read felt like a first time read. I liked this better than the first couple of books in the series, though was still not as fond of this as I have been of later books in the series. I do love the character of the Unseen University’s Librarian, who earlier in the series was turned into an orangutan and who features quite a bit here, as ever a devoted protector of the magical books in his charge. The plot revolves around a young ‘sourcerer’ – eighth son of an eighth son of an eighth son, ie a ‘wizard squared’ – and the havoc wrought when his power is let loose first upon the university then upon the world.

I gave this one 3.5 officially, but probably nearer 3.75

Book no. 100 – Changing Planes – Ursula le Guin


Library Book
Read now because it was high time I returned it to the library

I’ve been gradually reading this collection of short stories - which one LT reviewer has accurately described as a series of studies in extraterrestrial sociology - over the past couple of weeks, enjoying it very much. The framing device linking all the stories celebrates, through the concept of ‘interplanary travel’, the freedom of the mind despite the constraints placed upon the body. The idea is that when stuck in an airport between planes, bored and weary travellers are able ‘by a mere kind of twist and a slipping bend’ to go anywhere they choose, and visit other ‘planes’ of existence. Armed with the Handy Planary Guide or consulting the Encyclopedia Planaria, tourists from our world can visit one of any number of unusual worlds, stay in the handy Interplanary Hotel, and go exploring among the great variety of near-but-not-quite-human life forms living there.

Each story is a kind of traveller’s tale, gives a brief account of a different ‘plane’, with an anthropologist’s or sociologist’s interest in the nature of its society and the behaviour and values of the local residents. In these miniature excercises in world-building, LeGuin gives us stories that are by turns full of humour, pathos, satire and irony. The particular unusual characteristics of each plane’s people and society provide sometimes subtle, sometimes pointed commentary on our own human behaviour and foibles. We encounter people who abstain from language, or whose language is fractal and completely context dependent; people who dream communally, and those who have been bred to need no sleep at all (I wonder if Stasia is related?!), a society which had institutionalised anger, and one in which almost everyone is of royal blood and is therefore obsesed with the very few commoners who live among them.

Although light-hearted in tone, these stories raise thought-provoking questions, as LeGuin encourages us to reflect on - among other things - the impact of tourism and of more ‘advanced’ cultures encountering less developed societies, and linguistic and other barriers to fully understanding different cultures.

Recommended – 4 stars

Off for a quick bite of dinner, and I'll be back to post some more updates before the year's end...

Here's the next update, covering books read at the beginning of December:

Book no.93 – Ex Libris – Confessions of a Common Reader – Anne Fadiman


Library book
TIOLI December Thinster challenge

Here’s another book I would not have discovered without LT. I had not come across Anne Fadiman before. Absolutely loved this short collection of essays by a bibliophile, about books and how she and her equally book- and word- loving family interact with them. I loved the essay about dedications ‘Words on a flyleaf’ – and the one on different attitudes towards how we treat books physically ‘Never Do That To A Book’ which recognises there are courtly book lovers and carnal book lovers – the latter, including Fadiman herself, believe that ‘Hard use {is} a sign not of disrespect but of intimacy’. Also loved the essays that are more about language, including ‘The His’er Problem’ on (non) inclusive language, and the one on compulsive proof-reading, which I really identified with.

I was especially delighted to read the essay ‘The P.M.’s Empire of Books’ about British 19th century Prime Minister (and obsessive bibliophile) W E Gladstone and his innovative ideas about book cataloguing contained in a slim booklet On books and the housing of them. Fadiman only briefly mentions the institution endowed by Gladstone, and now known as Gladstone’s Library, in Hawarden near Chester – I’m sure she would enjoy a stay at this, one of my favourite places.

I’d heartily recommend this book to anyone here who has not yet read it. I think I’m going to have to get myself my own copy too, as I’ll want to re-read these essays. 5 stars.

Book no. 94 – The Murder Stone – Louise Penny


Own book, second-hand from eBay, October 2010
TIOLI next book in series challenge

I commented on the third volume in the Three Pines murder mystery series that one needed increasingly to suspend disbelief in the high rate of murders taking place in this idyllic village lost in the forests of Quebec. Well, this fourth volume moves the setting away from Three Pines to the Manoir Bellechasse, a former hunting lodge turned exclusive hotel, buried even more deeply in the woods. The current owners of the Manoir have established ‘a rule against murder’ (the title of this book in the US) – no hunting or shooting is allowed. Despite this rule, murder intrudes upon a tense family reunion, and Inspector Gamache is called upon once again to investigate. Three Pines is not forgotten either, and familiar characters are encountered again despite the change of location.

Another entertaining and well-written mystery read from Penny. I gave this one 4 stars.

Book no. 95 – The Brutal Telling – Louise Penny


Library book
TIOLI next book in series challenge

Moved straight on to this after the previous one in the series. More devastating events in the idyllic village of Three Pines. No spoilers in case there are people further behind in the series that I am. I enjoy Penny’s way of writing about art and poetry. Both feature quite a bit within the plot or sub-plots here – Penny describes well the feeling of recognition of characters in the face of works of genuine artistic power, so that the reader can imagine seeing the work of art themselves.

I enjoyed the parts about the painter Emily Carr and an excursion into the geography, history and politics of the west coast wilderness of Canada, about all of which I knew a little but not much.

Another 4 star read.

Book no. 96 – A Christmas Carol – Charles Dickens


Audiobook (free from Audible Christmas 2009)
TIOLI challenge: ‘thinster’

Repeating here what I wrote on the TIOLI Christmas reads thread. I listened to this well known tale as an audiobook: quite a novel experience in itself. Only very recently has an application become available to allow me to download my adiobooks from Audible onto my mobile phone, which means I can much more easily listen to them while working in the kitchen or otherwise out and about – before that I could only listen on my laptop.

I realised upon listening that while I was of course familiar with the story, and I recognised the detail of particular scenes, including the exact wording of many conversations and the precise detail of some descriptions, I had never actually read the book. As I have never have owned or borrowed a copy, I guess I shouldn't be surprised, but the story is so much part of general culture through TV and film adaptations, and simplified re-tellings of various kinds, that I somehow regarded it as something I had read. It was interesting to discover some new elements that have not made it into the adaptations (such as the large number of different Christmas celebrations visited with the Ghost of Christmas Present, including many in situations of poverty or difficult circumstances) - also interesting how faithful the adaptations must have been to the detail of the parts of the story they did retain.

I’m glad to have finally read the original story – or rather, listened to it. I still find the Tiny Tim part of the tale a little over-sentimental, but the story of seasonal transformation is nevertheless moving every time.

Book no. 89 – Children’s Spirituality: what it is and why it matters – Rebecca Nye


Own book, bought new from Amazon, May 2010

I started reading this back in May when I first acquired it. It took me some months to finish despite it being a short book (101 pages including notes), because it asked some searching questions, and I needed time to digest and think about what I was reading.

The author, Rebecca Nye, has done ground-breaking research into the area of children’s spirituality and is responsible for helping to introduce the ‘Godly Play’ approach to children’s spiritual nurture in the UK. This short book draws on the results of her research, introduces some of the theory and theology, and seeks to encourage all those who have any kind of responsibility for the nurture of children (parents, teachers, church children’s workers and ministers) to think about their practice.

Nye takes very seriously children’s spiritual capacity and argues strongly against the ‘infotainment’ approach to Christian children’s work which she believes undervalues children’s naturally rich spiritual lives. She invites readers to reflect on their own childhood experiences – Where did you find a sense of the sacred as a child? How did the church help or hinder? She argues that spiritual experiences of children are often overlooked or dismissed by adults because children do not use recognisable ‘religious’ language or concepts to describe them.

Nye offers a handy mnemonic SPIRIT for six different aspects of good practice in the nurture of children’s spirituality.
Space – the importance of both physical and emotional space which respect and give value to the child’s spiritual life.
Process – the recognition that spirituality is more about process than product and the danger of too much focus in children’s work on producing art/craft work for display rather than valuing the ongoing process.
Imagination – encouraging free-ranging creative and imaginative exploration (the importance of story, drama, poetry, art) and avoiding emphasis on correct explanations and right answers.
Relationship – if spirituality is about the urge to relate and connect, with each other as well as with the ‘other’ which some call God, then good practice in our relationships with children and each other is vital. Real spiritual work is how we treat one another.
Intimacy – much of spirituality involves a sense of ‘drawing closer’ – this requires a very safe place, which is slowly achieved and easily broken.
Trust – trust is involved not only on the part of the child but also of the adult working with children – the need to have trust in God and in the child, and in the faith too, rather than seeking to control, interpret and translate in a way that suits our own understanding and fixed ideas.

One chapter of the book takes a brief look at what Christian theology has to say about childhood, which is very little, compared to the vast amount in different disciplines that has been written in the past 100 years. Nye wonders whether this is because academic theologians have though the subject beneath them, to be left to practioners rather than theorists. She notes the consequent confusing, mainly unconsiously held mixture of ideas and images of childhood which exist in church circles – children may be seen as gifts from God or burdensome responsibilities, models of innocence or unreconstructed savages, prophetic or in need of instruction – and recommends some theological effort to inform and critique current practices.

If our mindset continues to shift towards children’s spirituality, and away from treating children’s religious nurture merely as a matter of teaching them what they don’t know or disguising immense truths in snack-sized nuggets, then hopefully even more theological voices will be attracted by the opportunity to join in. Even if it’s messy.

This book made me think deeply about my own childhood experience – where most of what might be called ‘spirituality’ had little or nothing to do with formal church – and how that relates to my experience as an adult. It made me think a lot about the practice in the current church where I am a minister, and made me eager to share this book and its thought-provoking questions with others in my church who are involved in children’s work. It made me think about some of the children I know, and hope that their spiritual capacities will be nurtured not squashed by those they encounter in life.

I think the book would work well as the basis of a discussion group – indeed I am hoping to use it this way next year. I would heartily recommend it to any who are involved in, or concerned about, the care and nurture of children, especially within a faith context.

Book no. 90 – Let the children come to communion – Stephen Lake


Own book, bought new approximately early 2007

I read this during my reading week away in November. It had been a long time on my professional TBR list, as I am wanting my church to address the idea of children receiving communion before being confirmed, and this book is a general introduction to the question for the non-specialist reader. The issue is a delicate one because it raises all kinds of questions for people about what they believe about children, about the meaning of communion, baptism and confirmation, and about the relative importance of understanding and inclusion.

Well, this book does its job, but was somehow not quite as helpful as I’d hoped – perhaps because it is not quite sure what kind of book it is, being a hybrid of history, theory, statistics, reports and personal experiences. There is a helpful, detailed account of the long drawn-out process by which the Church of England has in recent decades begun to introduce this practice, with details of the various reports and the full text of the relevant regulations. However, the chapter on the history of the developing practices regarding children and communion in the early, medieval and modern church was rather brief and sketchy.

The book includes an account of the author’s own experiences in introducing or working with the practice in the churches where he has ministered. In a related appendix, one parishioner gives an account of her vehement initial opposition to the newly introduced practice, and the gradual and painful process she went through before eventually accepting it. This is of interest as an example of the strong but unpredictable ways people can react to the introduction of change, especially when this touches on deeply held but often previously unarticulated beliefs.

There is certainly much useful material in here, particularly for anyone thinking about encouraging a local church to take the step of including young children as full participants in the sacrament of communion. Resource materials are helpfully listed, and the book as a whole is an important contribution to the subject, but I hope it will not be the last.

I'm reading and loving Ex Libris, Genny. I'm allowed only one essay per day (or night - it's the perfect bedside book) so that it will last a long time.....
I'll certainly recommend the Children's Spirituality book to the person who is doing a workshop on children in worship for us in February.
I missed out on Christmas messages, but it looks as though I'm just in time to say Happy New Year! I hope it will be one in which you experience both contentment and joy - a lots of wonderful books!

Thank you Peggy!

Happy New Year, Genny! Thanks for being a part of the 75ers this year! I look forward to a great 2011!

Still owing a few more book reports, especially for The Lacuna and Wolf Hall. I will get something written for these, and I guess I should post those on this thread logically.

But meanwhile I have started my first thread for 2011 over here and hope to see old friends and new in the New Year and the new group.

My involvement with children's spirituality only goes as far as the (very) occasional leading of all age worship at the moment, but the Rebecca Nye definitely looks like something worth reading even for that little bit of involvement. Adding that one to the wishlist.

Added a couple of reviews above at post 73 for The Child that Books Built and Notes from a Small Island.

Here's another missing one, read at the start of December:

Book no. 92 – Which Witch – Eva Ibbotson


Own book, from eBay, November 2010

I had not come across Eva Ibbotson, until hearing her obituary on the BBC Radio4 programme Last Word, and discovering among other things that this children’s had lived in the neighbouring suburb to me in Newcastle. So I tracked down a couple of her books, and this is the first one I’ve read.

Which Witch is the story of Arriman – the Awful Wizard of the North – and his search for a wife, who must of course be a powerful witch. A competition is the way to decide which witch he will marry… The nicest candidate is also the most unlikely to win, as no matter how hard she tries, she can only perform good magic . But then several things happen to upset the course of the competition.

Ibbotson has great fun with the characters of her witches and wizards and their supporting cast, and playing with the conventions about good and evil magic. The style of writing seemed a little rough-edged at times, but on the whole I enjoyed this first read and will try one or two more of hers.

So many great reviews to catch up on!

I have wishlisted The Child that Books Built, that sounds really interesting.

I managed to mooch a copy of Changing Planes by Le Guin after flissp (I think) recommended it and your review has made me determined to try and read it sooner rather than later. I've only read Le Guin's children's books before so I'm keen to what her 'grown up' books are like.

Ex Libris is a book I have been seeing recommendations for right, left and centre so I think I am going to ask for a copy for my birthday. I could get it out of the library but it definitely sounds like a keeper. In terms of book treatment I think my husband is definitely a carnal book lover and I am more courtly (although not as bad as my grandad who collects books in the 'not allowed to read them' sense). This has occasionally led to some tensions...

The books on children's spirituality and communion both sound interesting and I have been meaning to try some Eva Ibbotson for ages.

Re Bill Bryson, he does grumble his way through most of his travel books but they are generally amusing grumbles. I think I enjoyed his book about his experiences in Australia quite a bit, in the UK it's published as Down Under but published as In a Sunburned Country in the US. A Walk in the Woods which takes him along the Appalachian Trail in the US is also pretty good. My favourite Bryson so far is actually his autobiography/memoir called The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid which again has a theme of the damage that has been done to town centres (in the US this time) by allowing them to be taken over by chain stores and lose their individuality.

Off to say hello to your 2011 thread!

Finally the long-promised reviews of my remaining 2010 books:

Book no. 81 The Lacuna – Barbara Kingsolver


Bought new with booktoken, June 2010
Read for October TIOLI challenge: author’s surname 10 letters or longer

Book no. 91 – Wolf Hall – Hilary Mantel


Bought new (on special offer) from station bookstall on the way to take a friend’s father’s funeral – March 2010
TIOLI challenge November 2010 – a book about history

I’ve got behind on my book reviews in the last couple of months partly because I was wanting to say something about these two big, serious reads which I read about 3 weeks apart in October and November, but found myself feeling very inarticulate. So I’ve been putting it off in the hope of finding some appropriate words by the end of the year…

I enjoyed both immensely – both got a 5 star rating from me which I give very sparingly. I have read all of Kingsolver’s novels and essays, so had some idea what to expect from her, and was not disappointed in this latest offering. I think it is most like The Poisonwood Bible among her other novels, partly in its scope (a broader geographical and historical sweep than The Bean Tree and her other American novels) and partly in its style (in that she is not using straightforward narrative to tell a story, but deliberately using certain stylistic devices). In Poisonwood the device was to do with voices – giving a voice to all the women in the family but not to the father figure. In The Lacuna the device is to do with writing: the novel consists of an assemblage of writings, mostly in the form of journal entries in notebooks, but also some letters and newspaper articles, with some additional commentary from the fictional editor. The gaps in the story which is unfolded through these various documents – including a missing notebook - are one of the forms of ‘lacuna’ alluded to in the title.

Wolf Hall also does some interesting things stylistically. The narrative is present tense in the third person, but it is almost a first person narrative because the ‘he’ from whose perspective the whole story is told is always the main protagonist, Thomas Cromwell. Unlike The Lacuna where I was familiar with the author but not the subject matter (knowing very little previously about Frieda Kahlo and Diego Rivera, or the last days of Trotsky), with Wolf Hall I found myself in the hands of an unfamiliar author but on familiar historical territory in the reign of Henry VIII. I don’t know how Mantel’s approach to her subject here compares with her other novels, or indeed if she has tackled historical figures at all in her other books, but I was impressed by her approach in Wolf Hall and the way she managed to give this well-trodden historical ground a very fresh feel. Her choice of Cromwell as central figure is what gives such a new perspective; both through the foregrounding of one who is usually a background figure, and through the consequent demand on the reader to re-evaluate previous judgements of his and other characters. We are used to seeing Cromwell presented as the eminence grise, the unscrupulous villain of the piece. Here we come to know him as a human being, in all his complexity, immensely able and intelligent, ruthless sometimes, but also compassionate and generous.

One point of similarity between these two novels which struck me was that a central place is given to characters who are usual overlooked, who, in their very different ways, act as secretary and assistant to the famous or powerful. One reviewer of The Lacuna on LT complained that there was too much in the novel about Harrison Shepherd, and not enough about the far more exciting Rivera, Kahlo or Trotsky. But surely the purpose of the novel was not to tell the story of the Riveras of this world, but to invite us to think about those whose story is usually untold, yet through who enable the great and powerful in their work and who observe and document their lives. Harrison Shepherd does this for the household in Mexico; and in the second half of the novel, his amanuensis Violet Brown carries out a similar role for him. Shepherd’s refusal to step into the limelight in his own right, when he is a renowned author, allows others to begin to fill the gap he has left with their own distorted ideas about who he really is, precipitating the crisis of the end of the novel.

Cromwell is of course a very different kind of man from Harrison Shepherd, but he too becomes Secretary to the powerful, rising and rising to fill the gap left by others fallen from grace. Much of Cromwell’s power and influence is based on his assiduous and detailed observation and documentation of all the King’s business. He excells in the keeping of accounts, not just financial, and knows that there is power in the information he carefully gathers. Those around Cromwell are suspicious of and bemused by this blacksmith’s son who has risen from nothing to exert such influence.

Gardiner says, ‘God damn you, Cromwell. Who are you? What office do you hold? You’re nothing. Nothing.’

Mantel writes, in an afterword in my edition, of the challenge of telling Cromwell’s story when his private life is almost entirely off the record – she has had to construct her interpretation of his character mainly from the formal documentation, filling the gaps with as plausible a guess as possible. She imagines in her novel how Cromwell’s contemporaries in his own lifetime are already projecting their own ideas about him to fill the gaps in their knowledge of this ‘nothing’ who has risen to such prominence.

I think what I’m trying in a very roundabout way and rambling way to say is that I was fascinated by the ways in which both novels in different ways showed the power and importance of documenting and recording – and also the power of what is not recorded, the gaps in knowledge, and the urge to fill them with something, not always the truth.

There was so much in both these novels, I hope I’ll get round to reading them again one day. Highly recommended to those who have not yet read them.

I thought there was quite a bit about Trotsky in The Lacuna - I liked it as a more personal view. I can read/reread bios of Trotsky or his own writings if I want to - fiction should be something different. My memory is that there wasn't much about Rivera, but then it wasn't his story, it was a novel!

#189 Quite! There was somewhat more about Trotsky and Kahlo than about Rivera I think, but the novel wasn't really about any of them.

#181 I hope he/she finds it useful, Peggy. And enjoy your daily dose of Fadiman!

#185 For a short book it has a lot of thought provoking stuff Caty, I'm sure you'll find it interesting to reflect on.

#187 Thanks for the Bryson recommendations, Heather. And I'm sure you'll love Ex Libris when you get hold of a copy.

I really enjoyed your combined review of the two books. I read both this year so got a lot from your thoughts. Thanks so much for taking the time to post and Happy New Year.

I came over here from Peggy's thread, to read your combined review. I read and enjoyed both books, and like how you expounded on the similarities between the two. Nice!

Ok, here are a few statistics drawn from my 2010 reading.

I read exactly 100 books, which makes doing percentages easy! 8 of these were re-reads.

Authors

Books by male authors: 41%
Books by female authors: 59%

Books by British authors: 73%
Books by American authors: 11%
" " Canadian: 6%
Remaining 10% include 2 Australian, 2 Swedish, 1 each Dutch, French, Japanese, Norwegian, Pakistani, Romanian

Number of different authors read: 63
Most books by a single author: 22 (Margery Allingham), followed by 5 each of Penny and Aiken, and 4 Pratchett

Authors new to me this year: 35
Authors discovered through LT: 7

Genres

Fiction: 88%
Non Fiction: 12%

Fiction includes:
Detective Fiction/Mysteries: 41, of which
-6 historical
-23 golden age
-12 contemporary
Children's/Young Adult: 14
Literary Fiction & Classics: 13
Comic Fiction: 4
Comic Fantasy: 4
SciFi & Fantasy: 3
Romance/Gothic/Regency/Historical: 5
Poetry: 2
Graphic Novel: 1
Folk Tales: 1

Among Non-Fiction the breakdown is:
Theology: 4 (mostly to do with practical aspects of ministry, rather than abstract theology)
Travel writing: 3 (Norway, Netherlands, Britain - two of them humorous)
Memoirs: 2 (Holocaust, Childhood reading)
History: 2 (1 medieval, 1 19th/20th century)
Essays: 1

Two of these were 'Books about books'

Original Publication Dates

Before 1900: 3
1900-1949: 19
1950-1959: 9
1960-1969: 3
1970-1979: 4
1980-1989: 9
1990-1999: 12
2000-2009: 37
2010: 2

(I seem to be missing 2 books here but I'm not going to recount them all to find them).

Observations on the statistics:

I'm happy with the balance of male/female writers. If I hadn't been on a Margery Allingham reading spree, it would have been slightly more evenly balanced.

I'm also happy with the number of new authors I have been discovering, and it's interesting to see how many of them are thanks to LT. Others were random finds in the library or charity bookshops, or authors I've known about for ages but never got around to reading before.

I am not surprised to see how very Anglo-centric my reading is - but, like several other people, I am determined to read more widely in 2011 beyond British and other English-speaking authors. I did read one book in a foreign language (Dutch) and hope to do the same again, perhaps managing two this year.

As for genre, I am a little disappointed at how little non-fiction I have managed, both of work-related theology books and other kinds. I have acquired so many interesting sounding non-fiction books over the years which are sitting unread on my shelves, and I'm hearing about so many more here on LT... clearly this is something I need to improve on.

I was a little surprised to see how many humorous books of various kinds are in the mix among the lighter reads; I was not aware how much that has been one of my 'escape valves' during difficult and stressful times this year. I know that the mysteries and also children's fiction serve this purpose also - although I don't have any fancy graphs to track what genres I have been reading at particularly stressful times, I do know that I needed a bit of space away from work altogether to get into more serious works like Wolf Hall, The Children's Book and The Lacuna.

Given my professed interest in all things medieval, I was interested to note how little of my reading has reflected this. Apart from one book about the Vikings, the only nod to my inner medievalist has been several historical mysteries with a medieval setting, and I have read nothing published before 1800 this year. (I'm not counting The Aeneid as I've only managed a couple of chapters so far.) Caty's TIOLI challenge for January (to read a pre-Gutenberg work) is a salutory one!

Doing this summary has certainly given me some ideas for reading goals for 2011. I'll be setting those out over on my new thread.

Great reviews, Genny! On to 2011!

One further element of the annual summary which I overlooked:

Source of books

Of the 100 books read this year:

10 were on the shelves before 2010
25 were borrowed (18 from public library, 7 from friends) and have been/will be returned

Thus 65 were added to my shelves. Of these,
-17 were bought new (3 online booksellers, 6 chain bookshops, 2 by subscription, 5 supermarket cut price offers, 1 independent book shop)
-48 acquired second-hand (of which 9 from Bookmooch, 6 from charity shops, rest from eBay or Amazon marketplace).

I'm planning to give away 3 of these as gifts, leaving 62 new books read, of those added to my shelves. In fact I have added 212 books to my TBR shelves this year, so I have read less than a third of the new books I have acquired. Hmmm....

Genny, what a wonderful year of reading you've had -- and you finished strong!

#196 Thanks Stasia - nearly there now. Transitions take time...

#198 Thank you Terri, yes it has been a good year, and not just for the books read but for the people I've shared them with on here.

#192. 193 Thank you Kerry and Laura, I'm glad you found my ramblings interesting. Thanks for calling in to have a look and to comment.

I also really enjoyed your thoughts on The Lacuna and Wolf Hall Genny.

#197 Re source of books, I'm not 'fessing up to how many books I acquired in 2010 (it's too shameful) but I read less than a third of the books I acquired during the year.

#201 I'm not 'fessing up to how many books I acquired in 2010 (it's too shameful) but I read less than a third of the books I acquired during the year.

I read very few of the books I bought last year . . . but I was saving them to count for this year's Books Off the Shelf Challenge!

#202 Good idea! (I wish I'd thought of that...)