Hi everyone, hard to believe its already November 1, this year is flying by.

I have had a mixed month of reading during October. My books.

Odd Thomas Dean Koontz – 4 stars, picked on the recommendation from others on LT, well worth the read.

Head Case Sarah Aronson – 3 ½ stars, 17 year old Frank has an accident after drinking and is left a quadriplegic. A good example why we shouldn’t drink and drive.

Tethered Amy Mackinnon – 4 ½ stars, Clara Marsh, is an emotionally fragile woman who works as an undertaker in Brockton, MA. She does not believe in God. When asked what she does believe, she responds by saying "I believe it is important to breathe". Recommended.

Forever Odd Dean Koontz – 3 ½ stars, the second in the Odd series, not as good as the first but still worth the read.

13 Little Blue Envelopes Maureen Johnson – 4 stars, sent on an adventure when her aunt dies. 13 Little Blue Envelopes is more than a fun ride through several European countries. It’s a journey of self-discovery for Ginny, as a shy girl learns exactly what she is capable of.

Kyla Frances Cherry – 3 stars, when her grandmother and caregiver dies, Kyla is sent to live with her aunt. Fairly predictable story line with tension and then resolution.

The Beach Street Knitting Society and Yarn Club Gil Mcneil – 3 ½ stars, predictable story of a solo mother who moves to get a better life for herself and her kids and makes the most of things.

The Wednesday Wars Gary Schmidt – 4 stars, another read recommended by others on LT. Over the course of the book 7th grade Holling grows and learns that sometimes things are not always what they seem.

Mr and Miss Anonymous Fern Michaels – 3 stars, disappointed with this read as I have found Michaels books to be better than this in the past.

A Step From Heaven An Na – 4 stars, a Korean family emigrates to the United States in search of a better life. Told from the viewpoint of the daughter, the story follows her from age four to age sixteen. She and her family encounter language difficulties, feelings of isolation, a struggle for identity, and an abusive relationship with her father. Recommended.

The White Darkness Geraldine McCaughrean – 3 stars, not very believable story of one girl taken by her god father on a trip to Antarctica to discover people that live beneath the ice.

The Higher Power of Lucky Susan Patron – 2 ½ stars, I had read some good reviews of this but I found it to be to childish.

Good Masters! Sweet Ladies! Voices from a Medieval Village Laura Schlitz – 3 stars, a collection of monologues (and two dialogues), portraits of medieval children and adolescents. With each character, from the lord's daughter Isobel to the shepherdess Alice to the beggar Giles, the reader learns a little bit more about life in a medieval village.

On the Jellicoe Road Melina Marchetta – 4 stars, at its heart, it feels like a story about how character and friendships can be formed at an early age, and how those moments never really leave a person - but it never turns the story into anything cheesy.

The Cellist of Sarajevo Steven Galloway – 5 stars, reading this book reminds me of looking at a beautiful marble sculpture where just exactly just the right amount - no more, no less - has been chipped away. In this case, just the right number of words and the exact choices of words laid in a row in just the right order. Truly a work of art, while being very human and accessible at the same time. Recommended.

Criss Cross Lynne Rae Perkins – 3 stars, Some parts are sad, and scary, and others down right weird. In other words, just like in real life. Average.

Monster Walter Dean Myers – 4 ½ stars, Monster is a great read that explores mature themes such as moral equivalence and the question of guilt. Using the notebook to create a film script and then having Steve film himself from many angles after the trial shows the ambiguities of self.

Hunger Games Suzanne Collins – 5 stars, Katniss lives in a dystopian world where teens between the ages of 12-18 are all possible candidates for what are called the Hunger Games, a contest to the death. When her younger sister's name is chosen, Katniss takes her place. With her hunting and tracking skills, and her fiery temper, she captures the imagination of the viewing public. But can she bear to kill her competitors, and her partner from her own region in order to win? Gripping futuristic adventure that starts out strong and never lets up. You can tell there's much more story to mine from this world - we don't know how the stratification between the wealthy privileged city folks and the 12 regions happened, or why the Hunger Games are accepted as tradition. This made me think of Shirley Jackson's story The Lottery, while giving us a heroine to root for, and a touch of hopefulness. Recommended.

Suite Scarlett Maureen Johnson – 3 stars, when Scarlett turns 15 she inherits a suite in the family hotel. An eccentric broadway actress comes to stay which throws her life into turmoil.

The Club Dumas Arturo Perez-Reverte – 2 ½ stars, average, was a bit bored by it.

Skellig David Almond – 4 stars, the main character, a young boy named Michael, finds an almost decomposing creature in the garage of his family's new house. The creature can barely speak, demands aspirin and Chinese takeout, and seems to be made of crumbling porcelain. As Michael's family struggles to keep his prematurely born infant sister alive, Michael struggles with whether or not his discovery of the creature is reality or a symptom of insanity. The author cleverly quotes William Blake, a brilliant man who claimed to see angels in his back yard and had his own struggles with reality. Mina, Michael's new neighbor, is home-schooled and lives by the Blake line "How can a bird that is born for joy/Sit in a cage and sing?" The rest of the novel sees Michael learning to answer this question, and his growth is both intriguing and touching.

Best books for the month - Hunger Games and The Cellist of Sarajevo.

Message edited by its author, Nov 1, 2009, 2:29am.

Some interesting stuff there, dianestm. The Cellist of Sarajevo is nearing the top of my TBR pile so maybe I'll get round to it this month. Looking forward to it now.

A pretty good month for me on the whole, with a couple of bits of rubbish and a handful of greats. Here we go:

True Murder by Yaba Badoe - a beautifully written tale of what happens when childhood innocence clashes with adult secrets. The protagonist and her friends discover human bones in an attic and their game of 'true murder' becomes all too real. Recommended.

The Kindly Ones by Jonathan Littel - WWII as seen through the eyes of a Nazi soldier. Yes, it's well-written, but the nastiness is so relentless that I finally abandoned this halfway through. For those with stronger stomachs than mine, I'm guessing this may well be a fascinating book but. to me, it seemed to be to be a rather blunt instrument for hitting the reader (who, let's be honest, probably already knows these things went on) repeatedly over the head.

It was pure coincidence that I then moved on to a children's book about WWII - Once by Morris Gleitzman. A much shorter work, this one, yet proof that less can be much, much more. This is a lovely book about the journey of an orphaned Jewish boy through the days of the war and I found it deeply moving. Perfect for any age.

The Lovely Bones - a book I have been putting off for years because I have heard such very mixed reviews about it. I enjoyed it. Okay, no story about the rape and murder of a 15-year old is ever going to be a walk in the park but I thought the author handled her subject matter sensitively and with great skill. For such a grim subject I was surprised at the humour Sebold also brought to her work - the fate of the murderer, in the end, made me laugh out loud. This can't have been an easy book to write and, at times, it's not an easy one to read, but it is well worth the journey.

The Monsters of Templeton is another enjoyable read. When Willie Cooper returns to her home-town, pregnant and disillusioned, on the day the body of a 'monster' is discovered in the local lake, she also begins to learn the truth about her real father. A nice one to curl up with by the fire at this time of year.

Dracula, the Undead - written (at least, co-written) by a distant descendant of Bram Stoker. Much as I acknowledge and revere Dracula as the grand-daddy of all vampire stories, I do have certain problems with the book as a literary work. To me, it consists of long stretches of tedium, interspersed with flashes of genius whenever the vampire appears. Strangely, Dracula, the Undead is almost precisely the opposite. Despite the money-grabbing title, this is not about dracula at all but Elizabeth Bathory, often known as the 'female Dracula' and, amazingly, it is not a bad book until every time the vampire bursts onto the scene, when the whole thing descends into the depths of trashy, 'Hammer horror' banality. Incidentally, I found this book in the 'classics' section of my local Waterstones. I do hope whoever stacked the shelves has now realised the error of his or her ways; it takes more than a celebrated ancestor to produce a classic.

Next is the sequel to Morris Gleitzman's Once and it doesn't disappoint. There will be a third part to the trilogy (Now) next year and I just can't wait - these books are absolute gems and a delight for children of all ages. I can't recommend them highly enough.

A Moment of Silence by Anna Dean - nobody could call this a 'heavy' read but it is nonetheless a surprisingly enjoyable book. Presented as a series of letters from a Victorian spinster, this is the kind of murder mystery my Mum would have enjoyed - very little blood and guts, but a thoughtful story all the same and the denoument is surprisingly touching.

Columbine - It probably goes pretty much without saying that this is about the Columbine High School massacre. The trouble with true crime books is that they tend towards the sensational and, for that reason, there are very few that can really be called literature. This is one of the exceptions. It is a carefully thought-out book that looks at all the angles from an unprejudiced viewpoint and may just help us to understand what it is that is happening to our children these days. Cullen reported widely on the story of the tragedy at the time and his research is impeccable. This book is both thought-provoking and highly readable and deserves to be up there with true crime classics such as In Cold Blood and Ten Rillington Place.

Company of Liars - set in the 14th century as the plague sweeps across Britain, an odd and disparate band of travellers flee across the country, doing their best to keep one step ahead of the disease. I loved this book: the characters were in the style of Dickens and the story had a creeping sense of menace that kept me gripped from the first page to the last.

The Spider is one of those recently-discovered classics and is (coincidentally) an allegory of the spread of the black death throughout Europe. As might be expected of a book written in the mid-19th century, we learn that the way to keep safe from the plague is to pray a lot and live a godly life.

Nocturnes by Kazuo Ishiguro - I've been waiting for the paperback of this book with my tongue hanging out. In my far from humble opinion, there are three writers whose shopping lists I could happily read (the other two are Michel Faber and Robert Shearman) because they write so beautifully. These guys are, to me, the Flauberts of the 21st century. I've no idea whether any of them spend all day looking for le seule mot juste as Flaubert is said to have done, but they have a real flair for language that renders their writing word-perfect. Nocturnes was everything I could have hoped for - five stories connected by music and nightfall, a joy and a delight.

After the bang-on-the-head religiosity of The Spider my next read came as something of a relief - The Atheist's Guide to Christmas is a great fun read for the winter. A series of articles and essays by various well-known (and several less-well-known) writers about the joys of a godless Christmas. There are funny pieces, thought-provoking pieces, philosophical pieces - pretty much whatever you might need. Perhaps more importantly, a hefty chunk of the profits go the the Terence Higgins Trust, so it's worth buying for that reason alone. (And to be perfectly honest, I haven't quite finished this one yet as I'm dipping in and out of it between novels, but I should get to the end any time soon so I'm still counting it as an October book so you've all got plenty of time to order a few copies as stocking fillers for atheist friends.)

My last October book is Promise Me by Harlan Coben. I haven't read anything else by this author and I'm unlikely to bother now. I picked it up fancying a nice light read (and the blurb on the back cover did say something about it being a page-turner) but not only did nothing much happen, it kept happening, until about halfway through the book when I decided I'd had enough. My second abandoned book this month.

So, books of the month. . . In an ordinary month I think it's fair to say that any one of 9 or 10 of these could be a worthy winner but I'll try to whitle it down as best I can. Nocturnes definitely deserves a place for such beautiful writing; Once and Next should be read by everyone and more than deserve to be here; Columbine has to get a mention for an outstanding example of its genre; and I can't resist throwing in Company of Liars too, which reminded me of what is so great about snuggling up with a really good story.

Ed to fix touchstones

Message edited by its author, Nov 1, 2009, 10:05am.

Here are my reads this month - we got snowed in here in Denver so I did a lot of reading!

Youth Reads
Charlie Bone and the Beast - fifth in series, still entertaining
Saving Kristen - Mormon fiction aimed at older teens, entertaining but two-dimensional
The Long Winter - continuing our tradition of bedtime reading, my kids and I finished Ms. Wilder's account of their second winter in DeSmet. Some passages brought tears to my eyes.
A Wrinkle in Time - a classic Newberry, Ms, L'Engle successfully writes science fiction for the non-fan.
A Wind in the Door - Another adventure for the family introduced in "A Wrinkle in Time" exploring agency and sacrifice.
A Swiftly Tilting Planet - Ditto above, this one deals with the cumulative effects of choices over generations.
Many Waters - we read this for book club, which motivated my desire to read the whole series (although I haven't read the 5th book yet - don't own it and haven't checked it out yet).

General Fiction
I got on a Sandra Dallas kick quite by mistake when I started recognizing character names showing up from one book to the next. Ms. Dallas writes about women - from the Civil War days up to World War II. Her characters are always interesting and strong and some of the books include mysteries. They meet my criteria for buying a book - something I would want to read more than once.
New Mercies
Prayers for Sale
Alice's Tulips
Tallgrass
The Persian Pickle Club
The Diary of Mattie Spenser
Buster Midnight's Cafe

Altered Land - read for a "Go Read that Book" challenge. Very good fiction.
The Magic of Ordinary Days - interesting story in that it deals with the internment of the Japanese during World War II
Finding Moon - One of Mr. Hillerman's non-Navajo series novels. An interesting look at the end days of the Vietnam war.
Fly on the Wall - The other of Mr. Hillerman's non-Navajo series novels. This one is about the world of newsreporting.
The Shape Shifter - Last in the Navajo series and last novel Mr. Hillerman wrote before his death. Definitely not one of his best, but still, I was sad to come to the end.
Skeleton Man - second to last in the series. These last few novels have been slim adventures that lack the more complex investigative journeys of some of the best novels in the series.

Non-fiction
The Problem of Pain - an excellent study of pain and agency within the context of Christianity.
Miracles: A preliminary study - challenging reading on the subject of miracles in Christianity.
Seeking Enlightenment... Hat by Hat - a memoir of Ms. Barr's move from atheism and hedonism to a more faithful position. She doesn't claim Christianity, but she is a practicing Episcopalian at the time of the memoir and she shares her practical experiences of trying to live Christian ethics.
What's the Big Deal about Pornography? - written for teens and presenting straight-forward facts about the effects of pornography on social and sexual development.
Screamfree Parenting - recommended to me by a friend, I liked the reminder that as a parent I am not responsible for my child's behavior, but responsible to them to be an adult who provides opportunities for growth and guidance along the way. Wish there were more practical examples of how to put this style of parenting into practice.

Classics
The Road Not Taken and Other Poems - there are some beautiful images in this poetry. Wow!
Heart of Darkness - never read this in high school or college. Thought it was finally time to see for myself what it was about. Amazing how well fiction can capture human truths when done exceptionally well.

That's the lot. For anyone who has never read Sandra Dallas, go try any one of her novels. As a novel pick this month, I would recommend Altered Land. It was great reading.

I'm so envious of how much reading y'all get in! Mine is once again short and sweet. Not a bad book among them, fortunately.

The Secret of Lost Things by Sheridan Hay 10/01/09 10/03/09 ***1/2 This is a very interesting little book about a young Australian girl who moves to New York and finds a job at a bookstore.

Cat Among the Pigeons by Agatha Christie 10/03/09 10/05/09 ***1/2 Hercule Poirot solves a mystery at a girls school. Evocative of the time and social classes of England in 1959.

After You'd Gone by Maggie O'Farrell 10/05/09 10/05/09 ***1/2 A satisfying tale of a young woman in crisis and the background of her mother and grandmother. It’s told from multiple viewpoints and is extremely well written and captivating.

Tales of Beedle the Bard by J.K. Rowling 10/05/09 10/06/09 ***1/2 Fun stuff if you’re a Harry Potter Fan, which I wholeheartedly am.

Cards on the Table by Agatha Christie 10/07/09 10/08/09 ***1/2 Another Hercule Poirot, with a group of undiscovered murderers and a group of law enforcement representatives playing bridge together. Their blackmailing host is murdered…. which undiscovered murderer did it?

Passage by Connie Willis 10/09/09 10/14/09 ***1/2 This is a fascinating, over long book, but the story is riveting. Here’s my review: Passage

The Battle of Waterloo by J. Christopher Herold 10/15/09 10/17/09 *** I wanted something nonfiction but not demanding, and this was a great book. It amazes me how many goofs, miscommunications, disobedience of orders, serendipity, and serious miscalculations occurred at Waterloo, by both Napoleon and Wellington. It could so easily have gone the other way.

Murther and Walking Spirits by Robertson Davies 10/16/09 10/20/09 ***1/2 This is my first Robertson Davies book, although I have both the Deptford and Cornish Trilogies and a book of his essays. It’s a very intriguing book. In the first paragraph the “hero” Connor Gilmartin is killed by his wife’s lover who is pejoratively named “the Sniffer”, a film critic who works at the same paper. Gil follows the Sniffer around around as he attends a film festival and watches movies. But instead of seeing the same films the Sniffer sees, our hero sees his own personal movies of ancestors that help explain things in his life and life in general. I really enjoyed this book. The ending hints at some nice things for some of the people in Gil’s life.

World Without End by Ken Follett 10/21/09 10/28/09 **** I didn’t want to read this book right now, but my 16-year old daughter recently finished it and was pestering me to read it so we could talk about it. Talk about books with my daughter! Heaven on earth! So I plunged in. I devoured it in 8 days, an amazing feat for someone who works four days a week and is in the middle of Marching Band season as Band Boosters Treasurer. I adored this book. It was almost as good as Pillars of the Earth, taking place in Kingsbridge 200 years later, with some of the decendents of Jack the Builder and other characters. The only real criticism I have is that there wasn’t as much information about building and architecture as the first book, but this book was more about bridges, actually. The black death features prominently in this book, and although it seems a bit contrived that Caris discovers the communicative nature of the disease, it is actually probably how it happened – observation and a person who doesn’t believe in disease as being God’s punishment and is willing to look for a ‘scientific’ explanation.

Once again it’s tough to pick one book, but all in all I’d have to say World Without End. A substantial and satisfying book that just rolls along.

Great to hear you enjoyed Murther. I just adore Robertson Davies , though this isn't one of my favourites - I do envy you reading him for the first time. The Deptford Trilogy is one of my favourite books and I'm still hanging on to The Cornish Trilogy to give myself a special treat sometime. Nice to know I'll have someone to discuss it with when the time comes.

I might try the Deptford Trilogy next. I'm currently reading a book about epidemiology for my 999 Challenge (which I won't satisfy, drat it!) and a mystery.

I actually should start re-reading Far From the Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy for my December book club meeting.