Sanja's 12 in 12

I've been so looking forward to this challenge. However, with class still taking up most of my time, I'm not doing a full 12 by 12. I'll have 12 topics and I'll read however many books in each section, but at least 3. That's the goal at least.

Most of my books will be off my current library, since I find it embarrassing that I own so many books I haven't read. But I did just get a kindle for Christmas, so I will likely be buying tons of books too.

I. Re-reads

1. Persuasion by Jane Austen
2. Food Rules by Michael Pollan

II. Books that have been on my TBR shelf for over a year

1. The Old Man and the Sea
2. Maggie: A Girl of the Streets and Selected Stories
3. The Bell Jar

Done!

III. Agatha Christie

1. Remembered Death
2. The Hollow
3. Taken at the Flood

Done!

IV. Mysteries

1. An Unsuitable Job for a Woman
2. Murder is Announced
3. They Came to Baghdad

Done!

V. Russians

1. The Adolescent by Fyodor Dostoevsky
2.
3.

VI. Classics

1. My Man, Jeeves
2. The Elusive Pimpernel
3.

VII. Non-Fiction

1. Real Food
2. Twins: And what they tell us about who we are
3.

VIII. Impulse Buys/Suggestions

1. The Sense of an Ending
2. The Game of Thrones
3. Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter

Done!

Sanja - Be sure to follow Pixel of Ink and/or Books on the Knob to see what free or bargain limited-time offers may be out there on the Kindle. I downloaded a few today. The bargain book I downloaded for $1.99 was actually on my wish list!

I would like to suggest you get on the mailing list for the Deal of the Day. They have had some great ones. Today's deal is $2.99 for The Yellow House. There is a link on this page to have a message sent to you email each day.

Thanks so much!

IX. Kindle books

1. Add More Ing to Your Life
2. Steam and Sorcery
3. Right Ho, Jeeves

Done!

X. Comic Books

1. Asterix Omnibus
2. Asterix Omnibus 2
3. Asterix Omnibus 3

Done!

XI. Prize winners

1. Wolf Hall
2.
3.

XII. The Domestic Arts

1. Primal Blueprint cookbook
2.
3.

III.1 Remembered Death

I've really missed reading Agatha Christie books lately. And I think I know why: there's just something about her writing that draws you in, makes you stay up way too late and then be ridiculously tired the next day.
Remembered Death is about death of a beautiful woman, which was originally ruled a suicide. Her husband invites the people present at her death to dinner one year later and another person dies.

V.1 The Adolescent

I am so glad to be done with this book. I really dislike the main character, Arkady Makarovich. He reminds me a lot Holden Caulfield, and I wasn't all that fond of him either. Both boys think they they deserve all this respect and others should be deferring to them for no other reason than they exist.

III.2 The Hollow

Christie was a lot more obvious with the relationships between people. So far, affairs and all they entailed were just hinted at. But in this book, the scenes didn't fade to black. There were no graphic scenes, obviously, but people behaved as humans.

IX.1 Add More Ing to Your Life

I started this book in March during an incredibly hard and stressful period. The meditations in the book are really helpful and make sense.

XI.1 Wolf Hall

Considering that all I knew of Thomas Cromwell was from the tv show 'The Tudors,' this was very educational. I know it's fiction, I know it's not real, but it's awesome and entertaining.

I know, I came to Wolf Hall having only seen 'The Tudors' as well. Do you plan to read the sequel?

Wolf Hall still isn't in in my public library. I may end up breaking down and purchasing either the physical book or the Kindle version.

Victoria, when I first got the book, I didn't even know it was part of a trilogy, much less plan on reading the rest. But now, I really want to. It's such an awesome book, I'm really hoping the rest of them are good.

Thornton, you really should. I really think that you won't regret it.

Actually, sanja, I meant that it is checked out. It was available at the beginning of June and right up until a day or two before I got ready to check it out. It's been out ever since. I've got to head to Mississippi soon to take care of some things related to moving my Dad into my brother's after we get him out of the hospital, so I don't really want to put it on the waiting list until I know for sure what my "black-out" period would be. I really want to read it, but I know it's not on hold for anyone else so I'm just biding my time until whoever has it returns it. It's just those moments where people keep talking about how good it is that make me want to break down and buy it. I've still got plenty of other planned July reads in my pile so I'll at least wait until that pile dwindles down before I decide whether to break my rule about buying a library book. I do occasionally read a book from the library that I decide to purchase permanently because it's one I will want to reread in the future, but I don't really want to spend money on a book I can read for free.

You're much more fiscally responsible than I am. :) I don't think I've ever not bought a book given the opportunity.

III.3 Taken at the Flood

I'm slightly disturbed by this book. ***SPOILER ALERT*** One of the main characters decides that her fiance is the one for her when he almost chokes her to death. WTH

'He cares about me!!!'

Eww! Not a good role model by any stretch of the imagination.

IV.1 An Unsuitable Job for a Woman

*Spoilers ahead*

This is my first P.D. James book and I didn't know quite what to expect. I love Agatha Christie's work, so I guess I was hoping this was similar. And I was wrong. The book was written in the 70s, so there's a lot of discussion of sexual revolution/liberation and methphysics. If people really talked and thought like that, I'm glad I wasn't around then.
The heroine, Cordelia Gray, seems to leap to conclusions, all of which turn out to be correct, from very little evidence. Such as ***Spoiler Alert*** she finds out that a kid with a loving mother and a distant father, doesn't share their blood type. Most people would assume that the dad wasn't the biological father and that's why he didn't get along with the son. But no, apparently the loving mother faked the pregnancy and took in her husband's illegitimate child. What?
Also, the timeline for the night of the crime was very weird. Four different groups of people had enough time to trample all over the house without anyone noticing them or another group showing up.

I think I just talked myself into not liking this book.

III.4 A Murder is Announced

Good solid Christie. Except that the book was obviously written a while back. They keep referring to Miss Marple as Sir Henry’s old Pussycat. Except that they don’t say the word cat. And it’s weird.

> 30 - After I had picked up my jaw off the floor, I had a good chuckle over your comment about A Murder is Announced!

VII.1 Real Food

Similar to Michael Pollan's line of thinking: that a return to a more traditional diet would lead to a healthier life.

VIII.1 The Sense of an Ending

I ended up reading half the book in one sitting. Very well written.

IX.2 Steam and Sorcery

This is my first ever romance novel. I wanted to read something steampunk and I definitely got that. However, I was not expecting the vampires and fairies. Oh, sorry, vampyres and faeries. I liked the characters and I likes the plot line. Everything got resolved rather quickly, but I may have been expecting too much.

VI.1. My Man, Jeeves

This is the first book by P.G. Wodehouse that I've read. I like his style of writing. It reminds me a bit of Three Men in a Boat.

VIII.2 The Game of Thrones

It seems that everybody I know is reading these books, and now I know why they are so obsessed. It takes a while to realize that this is a whole different world and not just England during the midieval period. I guess I'll watch the show now.

II.1 The Old Man and the Sea

So sad. Life is hard.

It was the only Hemingway book that I could tolerate.

VII. 2 Twins: And What They Tell Us About Who We Are

I learned a lot about twins, but I don't think I got the point of the book. The author gave a lot of data, but he didn't actually show what twins tell us about who we are. I now know that being left handed is highly correlated with dyslexia, but the author's only point seems to be that being a twin is special and makes us question free will.

VI. 2 The Elusive Pimpernel

I really like this book. I find it funny that it was considered unfashionable to be in love with one's husband.

II.2 Maggie: A Girl of the Streets and Selected Stories

Stephen Crane's stories always make me so sad. Both Maggie and The Moster made me want to cry.

II.3 The Bell Jar

Is it bad that for most of Sylvia's downward spiral, I understood her point of view and sympathized?

> 42 - Not necessarily.... it can mean that you are an empathetic individual. Nothing wrong with that.... in fact, I see that being a very positive personality trait.... may make for some very emotional reading but still, a good quality!

> 43. Thank you. That's really kind of you to say.

IX. 3. Right Ho, Jeeves

This is my second book by P.G. Wodehouse. I like all the characters and I think the book is very funny, but I think I prefer Jeeves short stories to novels.

I hope you will have a chance to enjoy the TV series featuring Hugh Laurie and Stephen Fry. They were wonderful fun!

VIII.3. Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter

I don't even know where to start... It would be nice to think that all the bad things that happen to people are a result of vampires and not humans being stupid and evil.

>45 Hugh Laurie? I'm in. I'll have to check if the show is on netflix.

I second mamzel's recommendation of the TV series with Laurie and Fry. The casting for this was just brilliant, IMO!