The Booky Adventures of Evilmoose - Part II

Welcome to my 2018 of books.

I'm Megan, an Australian/Canadian lurking in the Canadian Rockies, but dreaming of moving back to the Southern Hemisphere. I've recently been in the habit of reading more audiobooks, as I was always doing so many things (especially cycling and running, on top of keeping the house clean and actually making food for me and my 7 year old son) that I rarely found time to sit down with a paper book. But last year was a bit of a challenge, and I ended up overwhelmed with stress, then with mono, and then a resulting persistent fatigue that I still haven't really shaken (hurrah for stress). So I'm hoping to spend some quiet time reading as I work on recovering and getting my mind and body back to full health - no challenges for now, but I'm open to recommendations! ... and the update is that I got a really bad concussion at the end of January, which meant I could do almost nothing but listen to audiobooks, so through February and March I listened to an awful lot of them!

And here's a topper courtesy of a hike I did last week (the concussion still makes travel at speed tricky, but I can hike now)

And here's my trimmed down To Read list. Based on one I already had kicking around, but cut back so it's not quite so overwhelming!

TO READ 2018 (29/47 books)
✓ Edward Abbey - Desert Solitaire
✓ Murray Bail - Eucalyptus
✓ Honore de Balzac - Pere Goriot (Somerset Maugham's 10 best novels)
✓ Muriel Barbery - The Elegance of the Hedgehog
• Simone de Beauvoir - The Second Sex
✓ Alan Bennett - The Uncommon Reader
• Erskine Childers - The Riddle of the Sands
✓ Kate Chopin - The Awakening
✓ Joseph Conrad - Nostromo
✓ Charles Dickens - David Copperfield ("BBC top 100")
✓ Charles Dickens - Bleak House ("BBC top 100")
• Benjamin Disraeli - Sybil
• Fyodor Dostoevsky - Demons (a.k.a. The Possessed, or The Devils
• Margaret Drabble - A Summer Bird-Cage/Jerusalem the Golden
✓ George Eliot - Middlemarch ("BBC Top 100")
✓ Carrie Fisher - The Princess Diarist
✓ Ian Fleming - On her majesty's secret service (narrated by David Tennant) (recommended by Mamie)
• Ford Maddox Ford - Parade's End
✓ Nancy Garden - Annie on my mind
• Lewis Grassic Gibbon - A Scots Quair
• Henrich Harrer - The White Spider
✓ John Irving - A Prayer for Owen Meaney("BBC top 100")
✓ Clive James - Unreliable Memoirs
• Arthur Koestler - The Ghost in the Machine
✓ D.H. Lawrence - The Rainbow
✓ T.E. Lawrence - Seven Pillars of Wisdom (Lawrence of Arabia)
• Primo Levi - If Not Now, When? (LT recommendation)
✓ Erlend Loe - Doppler (recommended by Kate)
✓ Eric Lomax - The Railway Man
• HP Lovecraft - The call of Cthulhu & other weird stories
✓ Cormac McCarthy - No Country for Old Men
✓ Lorrie Moore - Anagrams (Ben Millen)
• John O'Hara - Appointment in Samarra
✓ Norman Ohler - Blitzed: Drugs in the Third Reich (via Mum, Richard Fidler interviewed the author)
• Eugene O'Neill - Long Days Journey Into Night (magicians nephew recommend)
✓ Eugene O'Neill - Iceman Cometh (magicaians nephew recommend)
✓ Ann Patchett - Bel Canto
✓ Thomas Pynchon - V
• Jean-Paul Sartre - Being and Nothingness
• Vikram Seth - A Suitable Boy ("BBC top 100")
• Graham Swift - Waterland (LT recommendation)
• William Trevor - The Children of Dynmouth (LT recommendation)
• Lionel Terray - Conquistadors of the Useless
✓ William Makepeace Thackeray - Vanity Fair (BBC top 100)
✓ Leo Tolstoy - Resurrection
✓ Ivan Turgenev - Fathers and Sons
✓ John Updike - Rabbit, Run

RE-READ (1/5 books)
• Mikhail Bulgakov - The Master and Margarita
✓ Rudyard Kipling - Kim
• Malcolm Lowry - Under the Volcano (re-read)
• Cormac McCarthy - Blood Meridian (reread)
• Spike Milligan - Hitler: My Part in his downfall (re-read)

UH, AND ALSO... (3/4 books)
✓ John Green - Turtles all the way down
✓ Neil Gaiman - Norse Mythology (audiobook)
✓ Amor Towles - A Gentleman in Moscow
✓ M.L. Rio - If We Were Villains

2018 books read - First quarter

January (7 books)
1. E.M. Forster - The Longest Journey (pp.416)
2. Thomas Pynchon - V. (audiobook) (pp.551)
3. Charles Dickens - Bleak House (pp.322)
4. Rudyard Kipling - Kim (re-read) (audiobook) (pp.240)
5. Erlend Loe - Doppler (pp.176)
6. Brooke Davis - Lost & Found (pp.320)
7. George Eliot - Middlemarch (audiobook) (pp.880)

February (32 books!!!)
8. John Irving - A Prayer for Owen Meaney(re-read?)(audiobook)
9. John Updike - Rabbit, Run (audiobook)
10. Ian Fleming - On Her Majesty's Secret Service (audiobook)
11. Alan Bradley - The Grave's A Fine and Private Place (audiobook) (Flavia de Luce #9)
12. Neil Gaiman - Norse Mythology (audiobook)
13. Nancy Garden - Annie on my mind (audiobook)
14. Pam Muñoz Ryan - Echo (audiobook)
15. Eric Lomax - The Railway Man (audiobook) (NF)
16. Norman Ohler - Blitzed: Drugs in the Third Reich (audiobook) (NF)
17. Ann Patchett - Bel Canto (audiobook)
18. Nick Offerman - Paddle Your Own Canoe (audiobook) (NF)
19. Amor Towles - A Gentleman in Moscow (audiobook)
20. Alan Bennett - The Uncommon Reader
21. Alec Wilkinson - The Ice Balloon: S. A. Andree and the Heroic Age of Arctic Exploration (audiobook) (NF)
22. Kate Chopin - The Awakening
23. John Banville - The Blue Guitar
24. John Green - Turtles all the way down
25. Agatha Christie - Crooked House
26. Ragnar Jonasson - Snowblind (audiobook)
27. Carrie Fisher - The Princess Diarist (NF)
28. Muriel Barbery - The Elegance of the Hedgehog
29. Lorrie Moore - Anagrams
30. Eleanor Catton - The Luminaries
31. Julian Barnes - The Sense of an Ending
32. P.G.Wodehouse - A Gentleman of Leisure
33. William Makepeace Thackeray - Vanity Fair
34. William Shakespeare - The Tempest
35. David Mitchell - Black Swan Green
36. M.L. Rio - If We Were Villains
37. Richard Flanagan - The Narrow Road to the Deep North
38. Honore de Balzac - Pere Goriot
39. Henry Miller - Tropic of Capricorn

March (19 books!)
40. Sue Grafton - A is for Alibi
41. Ivan Turgenev - Fathers and Sons
42. Yaa Gyasi - Homegoing
43. Mick Herron - Slow Horses (Slough House #1)
44. Joseph Conrad - Nostromo
45. M.R.Carey - The Boy on the Bridge
46. T.E. Lawrence - Seven Pillars of Wisdom
47. Clive James - Unreliable Memoirs
48. Cormac McCarthy - No Country for Old Men
49. Alan Cumming - Not My Father's Son
50. Murray Bail - Eucalyptus
51. Patrick Leigh Fermor - A Time of Gifts
52. Alan Bradley - As Chimney Sweepers Come To Dust (Flavia de Luce #7)
53. Alan Bradley - Thrice the Brinded Cat Hath Mewed (Flavia de Luce #8)
54. Leo Tolstoy - Resurrection
55. Eugene O'Neill - Iceman Cometh
56. Colson Whitehead - The Underground Railroad
57. Timothy Snyder - On Tyranny
58. D.H. Lawrence - The Rainbow

2018 books read - Second quarter

April (9 books)
59. Barbara Kingsolver - The Poisonwood Bible (pp.576)
60. Peter Carey - A Long Way From Home (pp.336)
61. Leo Tolstoy - Anna Karenina (pp.976)
62. Mick Herron - Dead Lions (Slough House #2)(pp.384)
63. Mick Herron - Real Tigers (Slough House #3)(pp.400)
64. Gabrielle Carey & Kathy Lette - Puberty Blues
65. Mick Herron - Spook Street (Slough House #4)
66. Margaret Mitchell - Gone With the Wind
67. Mick Herron - London Rules (Slough House #5)

May
68. Mary Wollstonecraft - A Vindication of the Rights of Woman
69. Mohsin Hamid - Exit West
70. Cormac McCarthy - The Road
71. Jose Saramago - Blindness
72. Agatha Christie - Sparkling Cyanide
73. Lemony Snicket - The Bad Beginning
74. Agatha Christie - Sleeping Murder
75. Kamila Shamsie - Home Fire

June
76. Charles Dickens - David Copperfield
77. Lemony Snicket - Book the 2nd: The Reptile Room
78. Agatha Christie - The Man in the Brown Suit
79. Agatha Christie - The Body in the Library
80. Agatha Christie - The Tuesday Club Murders
81. Agatha Christie - The Moving Finger
82. Agatha Christie - They Do It With Mirrors
83. Agatha Christie - 4.50 From Paddington
84. Agatha Christie - A Pocket Full of Rye
85. Agatha Christie - A Murder is Announced

July
86. Agatha Christie - Nemesis
87. Agatha Christie - The Mirror Crack'd from Side to Side
88. Agatha Christie - A Caribbean Mystery
89. Rose Tremain - The Colour

August
90. Edward Abbey - Desert Solitaire
91. M. Somerset Maugham - The Razor's Edge
92. Nick Clark Windo - The Feed

September
93. Tui T. Sutherland - The Dragonet Prophecy (Wings of Fire #1)
94. Arthur Ransome - Swallows and Amazons
95. Tui T. Sutherland - The Lost Heir (Wings of Fire #2)

October
96. Barbara Vine - The Chimney Sweeper's Boy
97. Trevor Noah - Born a Crime
98. Dervla Murphy - Full Tilt: Ireland to India with a Bicycle

November
99. Kate Harris - Lands of Lost Borders
100. Karen Elizabeth Gordon - The New Well-Tempered Sentence: A Punctuation Handbook for the Innocent, the Eager, and the Doomed
101. Lynne Truss - Eats, Shoots and Leaves
102. Tui T. Sutherland - The Hidden Kingdom (Wings of Fire #3)

December
103. Yevgeny Zamyatin - We
104. Lin-Manual Miranda - Hamilton: The Revolution
105. Ursula Le Guin - The Wizard of Earthsea

Currently reading
Arthur Ransome - Swallowdale
Steven Pinker - The Sense of Style (until I had to return the library book, woops)
Tui T. Sutherland - The Dark Secret (Wings of Fire #4)
Isaac Asimov (something on the Kindle!)

60. Peter Carey - A Long Way From Home
I feel a bit like a few different books crashed into each other and created this book. It's not bad, there were just so many different plot strands and ideas and messages whirling around that after finishing it, I'm just left with vague snippets of memory in my brain, and nothing more. I don't know, maybe it deserves more stars. I think I enjoyed most of the separate plot strands, I just don't know about them all being mushed together. And I usually enjoy being immersed in the Australian landscape - but compared to Eucalyptus, this didn't resonate with me as Australian at all. Maybe I'm just in a dissatisfied sort of mood.
★★★1⁄2

Happy new one, Megan! Love the topper.

Happy new thread! Love that topper photo!

Happy new thread!

Happy new thread, Megan.

My you can read a lot of books whilst sitting on the bicycle!

>9 PaulCranswick: That's the concussion Paul, unfortunately. I've not been sitting on a bicycle much for the last while.

>10 evilmoose: When you need both hands to turn the page, Megan, it does affect your ability to stay in the saddle.

Srsly, you are caning 2018 with regards to books read! Go Megan!

I am not sure I have read anything from Peter Carey, in spite of him winning a Booker Prize and all....I will go and fact check my main points now, as am unsure of all of them :)

>1 evilmoose: Wow, what a topper! Amazing picture - impressed at what you are still up to despite the concussion.

>5 evilmoose: I really liked this one- especially the driving bits at the start. Recently read Jane Harper who seems very "Australian" to me (descriptions of dry scenery).

Happy new thread, Megan. Hope things in your neck of the woods are starting to feel spring-ish. We're getting hints of it here.

Happy new thread! I hope you recover from your concussion quickly; it sounds awful!

Thanks to all for the welcome, help yourselves to some cake!



>12 LovingLit: I love some of his other work, but I'm uncertain about this one. Great in parts, for sure.

>13 charl08: The driving bits were definitely fun, and even a lot of the initial setup, the odd neighbours. I've not read any Jane Harper, perhaps I should!

>14 MickyFine: Thanks Micky - the snow is finally melting! It was snowing more yesterday, but I won't hold that against it as the overall trend is still towards less snow.

>15 mstrust: Thanks - the concussion is definitely much better than it was, although in some ways that's almost harder to manage, as I start to think I'm doing fine, and then nearly walk out in front of a car (or something equally silly) just because my brain's been overwhelmed.

61. Leo Tolstoy - Anna Karenina
What's this? Half way through April and I've only read three books? I must be getting out a bit more - but also, the third book was Anna Karenina, which is not insubstantial. A re-read of an old favourite. Oh, Anna.
★★★★★

62. Mick Herron - Dead Lions (Slough House #2)
Even more fun than the last one, I properly got into the swing of the slow horses here - it helped a little to know what to expect, so I could just sit back and enjoy the ride. Listened to the audiobook narrated by Sean Barrett, there seem to be a view few different narrators for this series. And I really enjoy the turns of phrase Mick Herron comes up with.
★★★★

>17 evilmoose: I enjoyed that one when I read it several years ago.

>18 evilmoose: I have this out from the library in print form - I loved the first one on audio narrated by Gerard Doyle, but for some reason he doesn't do the second book. And Sean Barrett isn't an option - its Michael Healy here, and I didn't like the sample, so... *sob*

>18 evilmoose: That's a new author for me, and I see he gets other good reviews too. BB for me! Thanks!

>19 thornton37814: It's my favourite (so far) of the Russian literature I've read.

>20 Crazymamie: Oh that's disappointing! Can you not somehow get the UK version?

>21 mstrust: I'm loving the series so far (as will become increasingly apparent as I get around to updating my books read below...

63. Mick Herron - Real Tigers (Slough House #3)
I couldn't resist diving back into the series after finishing Dead Lions. This one brings back to delightful character of Peter Judd (where Herron is obviously gleefully skewering Boris Johnson), and is another great addition to the series.
★★★1⁄2

64. Gabrielle Carey & Kathy Lette - Puberty Blues
This is a short novel, an Australian classic, originally published in 1979 after being written by a couple of teenaged high school drop-outs. It tells of teenage beach culture, of girls trying desperately to fit into a destructive peer group, and some hilarious and horrifying insights into growing up. I'm glad I finally tracked down and listened to this - more of it was familiar than I'd really like to admit to my mother. And I really enjoyed some of the Australian slang and phrases that reminded me awfully of some of my friends. Oh, and to the reviewers who scornfully declare that such things never happened to them or any of their friends as teenagers, and so therefore it must all be completely made up? Be thankful for your healthy and sheltered teenage years!
★★★★

65. Mick Herron - Spook Street (Slough House #4)
I couldn't resist! Mick Herron will have to hurry up, as there's only one more book left in the series now and then I'll be done. More fun spy times in London - the body count does tend to rack up though! He's no George R.R. Martin, but he definitely has a tendency to do away with people.
★★★★

Mick Herron is loving the slanted titles! They do look good though :)

Found you again! Man, you are kicking butt on the books. I am thinking audio works well for you. Do you have any of that cake left? : )

>26 LovingLit: Heh, I totally hadn't noticed that, but yes, he's all about the slant.

>27 Berly: I'm here! And reading a lot still. Definitely still have cake - that thing's over 6" tall, so even with delicious cream cheese icing, it takes a while to get through it all.

66. Margaret Mitchell - Gone With the Wind
Oh my heart, this book. I don't think I've re-read it since I was a teenager, and it's definitely one where you can more fully appreciate the relationships, the story, the suffering, as an adult. I'd also forgotten how in love with Rhett Butler I was - and for damn good reason too! That man! And the ending? I was sobbing unmercifully on more than one occasion, and the 1000 pages worth of listening flew by. I shan't bother attempting to summarise any more of the story than that, but if you haven't read it, you really should.

(Oh, and I'll admit that I read the "sequel" Scarlett, back when I was 16, and though I delighted in the story being continued, and the bodice-ripping, I remember feeling unconvinced by the poor writing in comparison to the original)
★★★★★

>29 evilmoose: I utterly share your massive crush on Rhett. I re-read GwtW every few years. I think I'm due for another one soon.

I can't remember how I feel about Clark Gable - the last time I watched the movie was... uh, gosh... a long time ago. He seems just a little bit too natty for the Rhett in my head. But mmm, Rhett Butler. You should definitely re-read :)

67. Mick Herron - London Rules (Slough House #5)
I was really trying to make this series last longer, but I couldn't resist. Now I'm annoyed that Mick Herron hasn't written more Slough House books yet. This one was great fun too. Although... what's with the non-slanted text on the cover? Completely overthrowing all and any expectations I had about Slough House cover designs.
★★★★

>31 evilmoose: Clark Gable and Rhett have always been intertwined in my head since I was young - possibly a side effect of having seen the film before I read the book. I can't picture anyone else as Rhett.

>30 MickyFine: He's so handsome, even if he was notorious for having bad breath.

re: Gone with the Wind......never seen it, never read it!!! Tsk tsk.

Good to see that you are able to get out and about and do some stuff now, Megan. It doesn't seem to have slowed down your reading any though and it is good to hear that the Slough House series is all good so far.

Hope you have a lovely Sunday, Megan. xx

>32 evilmoose: Me too Megan! Eagerly waiting for the next one in the series.

>33 MickyFine: I have a Gone With The Wind loving friend who is exactly the same - I probably would be too if I'd watched the movie a little more often.

>34 mstrust: I read the wiki article and was definitely put off by the description of his dentures, and the experience of kissing him!

>35 LovingLit: *gasps, swoons on lounge chair*

>36 Familyhistorian: Yes, my reading has been carrying on at a great pace thus far! Although I just hit my first speed bump of the year.

>37 PaulCranswick: Thanks Paul! I hope your Sundays are all going swimmingly.

>38 charl08: I assume that a 2019 release is likely, given the timeline of the last few *waits impatiently*

68. Mary Wollstonecraft - A Vindication of the Rights of Woman
Phewf, this one took longer than I was expecting. It started well, but then I had a very sick kid for a while, and I was struggling with fatigue again as well, plus I've been trying to work more and that takes a lot of mental energy. And since my last book finish, I've also had one acquaintance in town die of a heart attack while cross-country skiing (he was only 59), and another friend in town lose his battle with cancer, aged 35. He was actually the author of the book A Purpose Ridden, if anyone wants to read some inspiring tales about adventure cycling - it could have done with some tighter editing, but the things he gets up to are very ridiculous. So all in all, it was hard to turn to something that required so much concentration when I was feeling a bit knackered, and so I ended up doing a lot of podcast listening instead of audiobook listening. Sorry Mary Wollstonecraft.

This is probably actually a re-read, as I'm sure I read at least excerpts of this while doing history at University. Some fantastic points, some alarming points, some great diatribes about how evil novels are. I'm sure she'd think I was terribly slovenly, and be appalled by me, even with my education and all.

I'm so sorry you've lost your friends. That's a lot of turmoil in a short period.

Sorry to hear about how rough life has been lately, Megan. Sending hugs and sweet treats. Hopefully you're also getting the warmth and sunshine this weekend?

>41 mstrust: Yes, on writing it all down, it definitely is quite a bit of turmoil! My 2018 in general has been overly full of things happening. I swear my life is quite often peaceful and uneventful for years at a time.

>42 MickyFine: Thanks Micky :) The forecast for this weekend is looking promising, AND I just planted a little balcony box full of mint, basil, snapdragons and pansies. Here's hoping they all get along nicely and enjoy the sun. And I've got some baby tomato plants from a friend. Trying to make the most of the incredibly short growing season in the mountains.

69. Mohsin Hamid - Exit West
A beautiful simple bittersweet story. An immigrant love story with a magical realism twist. Booker shortlisted last year, but I wasn't reading much in 2017, so entirely missed any talk about it.
★★★★

To update my thread with some less melancholy news, I saw a friend perform tonight in Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom. I haven't read the book the play is based on, but it was great, my friend was great, and it made me cry. But also smile.

Sorry to read of the loss of your friends Megan. 35 is so young!

The tomatoes and 'less melancholy news' sounds good, as does the reading. I really liked Exit West, thought it made some good points about migration.

70. Cormac McCarthy - The Road
Catching up on my McCarthy reading, and on my dystopias. I enjoyed the father-son dynamic, it's a well-told tale. I'm probably not the first to make this observation, but McCarthy really feels like he writes movies rather than books.
★★★★1⁄2

>47 evilmoose: Cinematic is a good adjective to use when describing McCarthy's writing, I think, Megan.

Hope you are having a very pleasant Sunday. xx

>47 evilmoose: I loved this book- it got a sold 5-stars from me when I read it years ago. It was the first film adaption of a book that I had seen that matched my in-head impression.

71. Jose Saramago - Blindness
After all the discussion about this in OtherMegan's thread, I figured I should get around to reading this Nobel prize winner. There were moments I loved, where the disorientating nature of being blind was captured - and listening to it in audiobook format both meant that I didn't find the lack of punctuation a struggle, and that I could listen with my eyes closed, which got a little spooky at times.

And yes, great allegory. Nice. And very lovely writing. But. I just kept feeling more and more irritated both by the way he wrote about women, and the way people were behaving/responding to the crisis. I kept having to suspend disbelief, which was distracting.

But yes, his comment about the question a husband most often asks his wife being "Where are you going?" followed only by "Where have you been?"!? And the comment about men having to be "buyer beware" regarding women? And then at one point three women being magically summoned so they could do the cleaning? And then some of the things that happened when they were interred... There was just a lot about the way he wrote about women that I really didn't enjoy, and that didn't seem to serve any greater purpose. So overall, a kind of "great, but meh" rating from me.
★★★1⁄2

>46 charl08: It's very young. He was diagnosed just 9 months earlier, the day after winning a 24-hour mountain bike race. Who wins a race like that with stage 4 colon cancer?

>48 PaulCranswick: Cinematic is definitely a very good way to put it! I had a lovely Sunday, I ended up with two additional kids on top of my own, which I think means I won mother's day - the aim is to collect as many kids as possible isn't it? That's how you win?

>49 LovingLit: Heh, I can definitely see how the film could be a good match to your in-head impression. I'm feeling like I should watch it now. Viggo Mortensen's involvement may or may not be involved in this inclination.

I've been trying to read Demons by Dostoevsky, but I'm finding it fairly hard going, despite usually enjoying Russian literature. So I gave in and decided to read some fun books. I also needed something to cleanse my palette after finding that my go-to podcast has really jumped the shark in the most recent episode, after being on shaky ground for some time. Right now I find I can't even go back and enjoy re-listening to older episodes, I've such a nasty taste in my mouth from an unnecessarily nasty rant in the most recent one.


72. Agatha Christie - Sparkling Cyanide
I love that I can still keep finding Agatha Christie books that I've either never read, or read so long ago that I can't remember reading them - which amounts to much the same thing (I had a massive Agatha Christie kick between the ages of 11 and 12 or so, which may have permanently damaged my psyche... I still suffer from a vague yet unshakable expectation that unknown distant relatives or kindly old folk will inexplicably leave me massive fortunes in their wills).
★★★1⁄2


73. Lemony Snicket - The Bad Beginning
Trying this series again, after someone (gosh, who, I can't remember now) has been listening to the audiobooks and making it seem worth giving another chance. I do love some of the lines. One of my favourites, from 14-year old Violet:
"But we're not polygamists', said Violet mournfully"
★★★1⁄2

After those two, I had a go at starting Gabrielle Zevin - All These Things I've Done, based on the fact it had turn up in a list of best dystopians, along with some books I'd really enjoyed. I did not enjoy this one. In fact I didn't manage to listen to much of it before turning it off in disgust - it's a badly written teen romance with terrible messaging, wrapped in a dystopian wrapper. Do not read!

I'm now onto another Agatha Christie, Sleeping Murder, which is fine so far except that there's a character from New Zealand, and the accent the audiobook reader is using is distractingly hilarious.

So close to the magic number!

I also have a terrible memory for mystery plots. It's great for rereading. Or even watching Christie adaptations. I almost never remember whodunnit.

74. Agatha Christie - Sleeping Murder
I picked the murderer! Points to me! It seemed fairly obvious this time around.

My favourite line: Mr Kimble said "Arr", noncommittally.
★★★1⁄2

>53 MickyFine: I like to think of it as a gift :)

>54 evilmoose: LOL. That is an excellent line. I often chortle quite a bit over Christie's turns of phrase.

75. Kamila Shamsie - Home Fire
My earliest 75 since joining the group! Thanks concussion! I picked up this one after seeing so many people enjoyed it when it was long-listed (and then short-listed) for the Women's Prize. And I really enjoyed it too. Certainly at first. But ... I found Aneeka's character not very... hmm, sorry, concussion-brain kicking in, I can't think straight. And I want to include a little more detail that's a bit spoilery, so instead I might link to an interesting review I read that I definitely agreed with on quite a few points: https://disquietblog.wordpress.com/2017/09/14/home-fire-kamila-shamsie/ (and which includes the phrase "Manic Pixie Muslim Dream Girl")

But yes - I enjoyed it, it raised some interesting issues, covered interesting terrain, but for me involved a lot of suspension of disbelief, and I'd hoped for a stronger final act. And a lot of the characters never seemed quite real to me.
★★★1⁄2

Now I'm off reading (well, listening to) David Copperfield finally!

>56 MickyFine: She does have some very good ones, doesn't she? And all delivered in such a matter of fact way.

Congratulations on reaching 75, Megan!

Congrats on the 75 from me too. I didn't think Home Fire was a perfect novel, but I did like it a lot - especially the first section. The disquiet blog post about it is so involved! I really didn't think about it as much as that.

Congratulations on reaching the magic number!

>57 evilmoose: Dry British humour is one of my favourite things ever.

Congrats on your 75th!

>50 evilmoose: oooh, aaaah. Nice write-up. Some of those misogynistic bits passed me by....oops! I was irritated by the story too, and also intrigued. A tough one to rate, but I figure irritation alone is grounds for the loss of one whole star.

75!!! Whoop whoop!

Congrats on 75! Yay!

Congrats!

Congrats on reaching 75 already! Yay :)

Congratulations!

Congratulations on hitting 75. I love all the Christie reading that you are doing. Sometimes that it is best to pick up one of her mysteries when your reading isn't going that well.

Congrats on the 75! Sorry to hear that concussion brain is kicking in.

I just finished Murder on the Orient Express, which I'd never read before. More Christie's and other mysteries in my future for sure.

>58 FAMeulstee: Thanks :)

>59 charl08: Thanks Charlotte - and I definitely liked it, but I think there were just enough elements that stopped me from thoroughly settling into it.

>60 MickyFine: Thanks Micky! It's nice to reach it so early, I've got the vague sense I can relax now. Not that I don't want to read, but it means podcast listening is a bit more guilt-free. Which seems ridiculous.

>61 thornton37814: Thank you!

>62 LovingLit: Heh, irritation is definitely grounds for docking a star!

>63 mstrust: Thanks Mark :)

>64 drneutron: Cheers Jim!

>65 ChelleBearss: Thanks Chelle! I achieved a thing!

>66 thornton37814: Thanks Lori :)

>67 Familyhistorian: Cheers Meg. I'd really love to do a little more Christie reading, I keep finding more of hers I haven't read. They're just so thoroughly pleasant!

>68 streamsong: Thanks Janet :) Concussion brain is wildly frustrating, and the medical profession is so vague and contradictory about the best things to do with post-concussion syndrome. And oooh, I love Murder on the Orient Express!

76. Charles Dickens - David Copperfield
Well, I gave up on Demons for a while, and switched to David Copperfield instead, which was a much easier read, although still took a while. I wasn't in as much of a Dickensy mood as I would have wished, but it was still entertaining.
★★★★


77. Lemony Snicket - Book the 2nd: The Reptile Room
Fluffy short palette cleanser after doing a lot of wading with other books, and actually abandoning a couple in the past few weeks. I should try and hunt down some Agatha Christie, hmm.
★★★

In the meantime, a tough couple of weeks for post-concussion recovery, and actually accomplishing much of anything. I had the memorial for one friend, and then the day after that one of my colleagues passed away, and her memorial is tomorrow. I look forward to no-one I know dying for a while.

Yikes. Sorry to hear life continues to be rough, Megan. If anyone deserves some fluffy reads, it's you. I just picked up some Wodehouse and it's delightful. Might also hit the spot for you?

>71 evilmoose: That is bad news about your friends...I'm sorry to hear it. It's a terrible blow.

78. Agatha Christie - The Man in the Brown Suit
A fluffy read, to distract from life a little. This is one of Christie's more thriller-style mysteries, with a Bright Young Thing rather than Poirot or Marple, and a little racy in spots (and some odd male-female dynamics going on). It was fine.
Favourite line: "There are lots of lions in Rhodesia, you'll like lions, all girls do."
★★★

79. Agatha Christie - The Body in the Library
I'm sure I've read this before, but had no record of it, so perhaps it was a couple of decades ago. At any rate, it seemed vaguely familiar, but I had no idea who dunnit. More comfy slipper reading.
★★★1⁄2

80. Agatha Christie - The Tuesday Club Murders
And now this one, which I definitely read last year. Whoops. But again, I conveniently forgot the solution to most of the mysteries. The downside was that this was because quite a few of them were fairly forgettable.
★★★

Time with Christie is time well spent. I really liked The Man in the Brown Suit, as it was one of her one-offs in a far away location.

>75 evilmoose: Yay for soothing Christie novels!

You are on a Christie tear notw that you are past the magic 75!! Very fun. : )

Hi Megan. Somehow I've lost your thread. Glad to have found it again.
You did some great reading.

Hope you are enjoying your summer!

Where'd ya go?? : )

>81 Berly: I got distracted with trying to spend as little time on the internet as possible, and succeeded pretty thoroughly for a while! Still kept reading books though :)

>80 ChelleBearss: Thanks Chelle, it's been a good summer as I gradually start to shake off the post-concussion symptoms, as well as the fatigue that's been dogging me.

>79 Ameise1: Heya Barbara, thanks for visiting :)

>78 Berly: >77 MickyFine: >76 mstrust: And I wasn't even done yet! Just going to post some more book updates, I did stop reading Christie eventually :)

The June/July/August update!

81. Agatha Christie - The Moving Finger
82. Agatha Christie - They Do It With Mirrors
83. Agatha Christie - 4.50 From Paddington
84. Agatha Christie - A Pocket Full of Rye
85. Agatha Christie - A Murder is Announced
86. Agatha Christie - Nemesis
87. Agatha Christie - The Mirror Crack'd from Side to Side
88. Agatha Christie - A Caribbean Mystery
Taking off a fair bit of internet time was great, but I completely failed to write down anything about these Christie books, and as a result have no memory to write anything close to being a reasonable review. I did however write down this quote... which definitely comes from one of them, and which I rather enjoyed:

"The two women sat in silence. they were rebuked. and in deference to their training they deferred to the criticism of a man. But inwardly they were frustrated, irritated and quite unrepentant."

89. Rose Tremain - The Colour
Recommended by OtherMegan, I do remember enjoying it, but feel like I read it too close to The Luminaries, as I now keep getting their plots confused. Good solid read though, and nice to spend the time in the New Zealand gold rush again.
★★★★

90. Edward Abbey - Desert Solitaire
Fantastic, amazing, can't believe it's taken me so long to read this. Filled with longing to spend more time down in the US canyon country now.
★★★★1⁄2

91. M. Somerset Maugham - The Razor's Edge
A re-read of an old favourite that really didn't hold up, and has now been taking down a few notches in my mental list. Not bad, just not as wonderful as I used to think it was.
★★★1⁄2

92. Nick Clark Windo - The Feed
At times heavy-handed, standard post-apocalyptic fare. Not one I felt very attached to, and really I kept hoping for things to go terribly wrong for the protagonists. Overall rating "Eh", which at least is a step above "Meh".
★★★

Megan--There you are!! Glad to see the books are still going strong. You are almost to 100! How long do the effects of a concussion last? Yours seems to be a pretty bad one. Bummer. Hope you continue to rebound. Sooooo nice to see you. : )

>84 Berly: Once your concussion turns into post-concussion syndrome, it's anyone's guess! I've met people who still have symptoms over five years later. I'm not 100% yet, but definitely vastly improved, which is great.

So great to see you posting again, Megan! Glad the internet-free period was good for you but we definitely missed you around here!

Glad to see you’ve still been able to read with the concussion! Hope you find some relief soon!

So what's new in your life for September? : )

>86 MickyFine: Thanks Micky :) I definitely miss my LT peeps, but it's been good for my brain to have less things to try and keep up with/keep track of. I do wonder what everyone's up to (and what awesome book recommendations I'm missing out on!)

>87 ChelleBearss: Thanks Chelle :)

>88 Berly: I have a Grade 3 kid now! That's got to be the most earth-shattering one. Also, I can still do monkey bars, and hang upside down from my knees (there may have been a long weekend road trip with some quality playground time interspersed). No new books though (although I really need to start counting the ones I'm reading with my son though, we're reading our way through the Wings of Fire series now).

I am glad you are taking care of the ol' brain. And still do monkey bars. LOL Congrats to your Grade 3 kiddo!! I have never heard of the Wings of Fire series...off to check it out...

Oooh...that gets high LT ratings!!!

Wow. I couldn't do those moves on the playground when I *was* a kid...

>83 evilmoose: so you've been reading some Agatha Christie then? ;)

>89 evilmoose: I can no longer to monkey bars, by body doesn't allow it. Maybe I need to up my yoga hours, and see if I can increase suppleness?? Also there needs to be a mattress (or seven) under the bars.

Long time no see Megan.
Hope all is well my dear.

Hi Megan, I have been absent from your thread for a while but it looks like you have to. Looks like you were into Christie, big time. I just read The Man in the Brown Suit for the first time this year (at least as far as I recall.) Apparently Sir Eustace Pedler was the only character she based on a real person, that of the head of the world tour that she and Archie Christie did to promote Britain. There is a book written about the tour called The Grand Tour: Around the World with the Queen of Mystery which was very interesting.

Update! Thanks for dropping by people. I've been recovering from the dreaded concussion/post-concussion, and getting a lot better. But I've found that I have to conserve my energy still, and screen time is tiring. Basically by the end of a full day of work I'm unlikely to want to sit and look at another screen for too long, and so updating LT has fallen off my list of things (as has, apparently, keeping in touch with people via email and things like that). My reading tempo calmed too, after that spell where listening to audiobooks was almost the only thing I could do other than sleeping.

And so here is my September - November reading! Including the Wings of Fire series that I'm reading aloud to my son at bedtime. And Lands of Lost Borders by the lovely Kate Harris, who I saw present at the Banff Film and Book Festival. And brushing up my grammar skills a little as I do more writing and editing on the side.

93. Tui T. Sutherland - The Dragonet Prophecy (Wings of Fire #1)
94. Arthur Ransome - Swallows and Amazons
95. Tui T. Sutherland - The Lost Heir (Wings of Fire #2)
96. Barbara Vine - The Chimney Sweeper's Boy
97. Trevor Noah - Born a Crime
98. Dervla Murphy - Full Tilt: Ireland to India with a Bicycle
99. Kate Harris - Lands of Lost Borders
100. Karen Elizabeth Gordon - The New Well-Tempered Sentence: A Punctuation Handbook for the Innocent, the Eager, and the Doomed
101. Lynne Truss - Eats, Shoots and Leaves
102. Tui T. Sutherland - The Hidden Kingdom (Wings of Fire #3)
103. Yevgeny Zamyatin - We

I hit 100! I've a few more I plan to read this month, plus will no doubt will sit down at some point and come up with ridiculous reading plans for next year.

And we've had another great lake skating season as winter comes in...

Glad to see you are recovering! Congrats on hitting 100!

Gorgeous picture. As Chelle said, glad you are on the road to recovery. I liked Truss: was Gordon's approach very different?

Congrats on reaching 100. i'm glad you're on the mend. Wow, what a lovely photo. It's too warm here, so no frozen lakes.

>96 ChelleBearss: Thanks for visiting Chelle :)

>97 charl08: Thanks Charlotte :) I found I really enjoyed Gordon more. It was just swimming in obvious adoration of language, and her example sentences had me giggling like mad and taking photos to share with friends. Truss felt complainy in comparison, although I'd dipped into her book before and enjoyed it. She's definitely fun, but I'm just not that much of a stickler at heart. And I got a bit annoyed when she was describing the run-in with the woman who complained about not knowing any grammar, and yet couldn't be convinced to buy Eats, Shoots & Leaves. Because it really isn't the most helpful book if you genuinely aren't familiar with grammar rules! It's far more useful for reinforcing a smug sense of superiority about all the grammar you know.

>98 Ameise1: Thanks Barbara - it could be worse (and by worse, I mean colder), but it's more than cold enough for frozen lakes. I always particularly resent the cold around Christmas, as it really feels like it should be sunny and warm. Thanks, Australian upbringing!

>99 evilmoose: I am the opposite, we are having a green Christmas and it feels wrong to me. I love having a few inches of snow over Christmas holidays.

Hope you have a great holiday season!

Congrats on reading 100, Megan. Best wishes to you and yours for a Happy Holiday Season.

Happy holidays, Megan.

Megan--Whoohoo for hitting 100! But most of all, for getting over that darn concussion thing! I hope you are back to your fun self soon and that we get to see more of you in 2019. I missed you. Best wishes and lots of hugs.

Catching up with threads, and hoping you're feeling a lot better. Happy reading in 2019!

I wish you from my heart a healthy 2019 filled with happiness, satisfaction, laughter and lots of good books.

Just for the sake of being complete, here were my last two reads for the year:

104. Lin-Manual Miranda - Hamilton: The Revolution
Yes, I finally succumbed to Hamilton-fever a few years behind everyone else.

105. Ursula Le Guin - The Wizard of Earthsea
A re-read. It's a good book but I always find it oddly un-captivating, in audiobook format at least.

Come join me in my 2019 thread :) https://www.librarything.com/topic/301565