Caty M’s 2010 Reading - Chapter 5

Continued from my fourth thread.

Threads one, two and three. My post on the introductions thread is here.

*Adopts TV announcer voice*

PREVIOUSLY, ON THIS THREAD...

January
1. The Bride and the Beast - Teresa Medeiros
2. Framley Parsonage - Anthony Trollope
3. Night Shift - Nora Roberts
4. The Wee Free Men - Terry Pratchett
5. When a Lady Misbehaves - Michelle Marcos
6. The Picture of Dorian Gray - Oscar Wilde
7. Ukridge - PG Wodehouse
8. The Accidental Countess - Michelle Willingham
9. Tulip Fever - Deborah Moggach
10. The Medieval Papacy - Geoffrey Barraclough
11. Duke Most Wanted - Celeste Bradley
12. Poetic Lives: Shelley - Daniel Hahn
13. The Tiger in the Smoke - Margery Allingham

February
14. The Cinderella Deal - Jennifer Crusie
15. The Catholic Church from 1648 to 1870 - Friedrich Heyer
16. Wyrd Sisters - Terry Pratchett
17. Maskerade - Terry Pratchett
18. Going Postal - Terry Pratchett
19. Powder and Patch - Georgette Heyer
20. The Mistress of Hanover Square - Anne Herries
21. A Hat Full of Sky - Terry Pratchett
22. The Three Evangelists - Fred Vargas
23. Bad Boys Online - Erin McCarthy
24. Innocent III: Leader of Europe - Jane Sayers
25. Accidentally Yours - Susan Mallery
26. Witches Abroad - Terry Pratchett
27. The Faithful Bride - Rebecca Winters
28. Discovering Daisy - Betty Neels
29. How to Engage an Earl - Kathryn Caskie
30. A Short History of the Papacy in the Middle Ages - Walter Ullmann
31. Holy Disorders - Edmund Crispin
32. Island of the Heart - Sara Craven
33. Husband for Hire - Susan Wiggs

March
34. The Anubis Gates - Tim Powers
35. Miss Buncle's Book - DE Stevenson
36. Doomsday Book - Connie Willis
37. Sam the Sudden - PG Wodehouse
38. Evil and the Justice of God - NT Wright
39. A Bride for Jericho Bravo - Christine Rimmer
40. An Unsuitable Attachment - Barbara Pym
41. The House at Pooh Corner - AA Milne
42. Brat Farrar - Josephine Tey
43. Thief of Time - Terry Pratchett
44. What the Librarian Did - Karina Bliss
45. Out of Control - Julie Miller
46. Gone with the Nerd - Vicki Lewis Thompson
47. Simply Scandalous - Carly Phillips
48. Fantasy Lover - Sherrilyn Kenyon
49. Reaper Man - Terry Pratchett
50. The Widow's Tale - Mick Jackson
51. Jar City - Arnaldur Indriðason

April
52. Friday Dreaming - Elizabeth Bailey
53. The Case of the Gilded Fly - Edmund Crispin
54. As She Climbed Across the Table - Jonathan Lethem
55. The Last Hero - Terry Pratchett/Paul Kidby
56. Barmy in Wonderland - PG Wodehouse
57. Instant Attraction - Jill Shalvis
58. Wesley for Armchair Theologians - William J. Abraham
59. Instant Gratification - Jill Shalvis
60. Instant Temptation - Jill Shalvis
61. Catholicism for Dummies - John Trigilio and Kenneth Brighenti

May

62. Eric - Terry Pratchett
63. Major Pettigrew's Last Stand - Helen Simonson
64. Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone - JK Rowling
65. Fludd - Hilary Mantel
66. The Pothunters - PG Wodehouse
67. Mrs McVinnie's London Season - Carla Kelly
68. How to be a Bad Birdwatcher - Simon Barnes
69. Rooms - James L. Rubart
70. Cheerful Weather for the Wedding - Julia Strachey

June

71. Frozen Assets - PG Wodehouse
72. Wintersmith - Terry Pratchett
73. Ten Things I Love About You - Julia Quinn
74. The Man in the Picture - Susan Hill
75. Thomas Aquinas: A Very Short Introduction - Fergus Kerr
76. Are Women Human? - Dorothy L. Sayers
77. Purple Hibiscus - Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
78. Psmith, Journalist - PG Wodehouse

July
79. Alone of All Her Sex: The myth and cult of the Virgin Mary - Marina Warner
80. The End of Mr. Y - Scarlett Thomas
81. Soul Music - Terry Pratchett
82. The Uncommon Reader - Alan Bennett
83. Sonnets from the Portuguese and Other Poems - Elizabeth Barrett Browning
84. Murder with Peacocks - Donna Andrews
85. Swan Song - Edmund Crispin
86. A Guide to the Birds of East Africa - Nicholas Drayson
87. Murder with Puffins - Donna Andrews

August
88. Her Royal Spyness - Rhys Bowen
89. The Last Continent - Terry Pratchett
90. The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie - Alan Bradley
91. The Lacuna - Barbara Kingsolver
92. Buried for Pleasure - Edmund Crispin
93. The Gladiator - Carla Capshaw
94. Empress and Handmaid: Nature and Gender in the Cult of the Virgin Mary - Sarah Jane Boss
95. Murder is Binding - Lorna Barrett
96. Palace of Illusions - Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni
97. Bookmarked for Death - Lorna Barrett
98. Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
99. Remarkable Creatures - Tracy Chevalier
100. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets - JK Rowling
101. Less than Angels - Barbara Pym

September
102. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban - JK Rowling
103. Women of the Silk - Gail Tsukiyama
104. I Shall Wear Midnight - Terry Pratchett
105. Let the Northern Lights Erase Your Name - Vendela Vida
106. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire - JK Rowling
107. When the Emperor Was Divine - Julie Otsuka
108. The Secret Countess - Eva Ibbotson
109. The Diving Bell and the Butterfly - Jean Dominique Bauby
110. The Hired Husband - Judith Stacy
111. Trusting Ryan - Tara Taylor Quinn
112. The Case of the Missing Books - Ian Sansom

October
113. Sourcery - Terry Pratchett
114. Bet Me - Jennifer Crusie
115. Death of a Dentist - MC Beaton
116. Death of a Cad - MC Beaton
117. The Holly Tree Inn - Charles Dickens and others
118. The Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents - Terry Pratchett
119. Letters to a Diminished Church - Dorothy L. Sayers

November
120. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix - JK Rowling
121. Miss Ranskill Comes Home - Barbara Euphan Todd
122. Room - Emma Donoghue
123. Mrs Harris Goes to Paris - Paul Gallico
124. Mrs Harris Goes to New York - Paul Gallico
125. Love Lies Bleeding - Edmund Crispin
126. No Fond Return of Love - Barbara Pym
127. A Difficult Problem Anna Katherine Green
128. Just So Stories - Rudyard Kipling
129. An Unprotected Female at the Pyramids - Anthony Trollope

December
130. Reformation: Europe's House Divided 1490-1700 - Diarmaid MacCulloch
131. On the Incarnation - St. Athanasius
132. A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
133. Minaret - Leila Aboulela
134. Hogfather - Terry Pratchett
135. The Shack - W Paul Young
136. Mudfog and Other Sketches - Charles Dickens
137. Christianity and the State in the Light of History - Thomas M Parker
138. Uneasy Money - PG Wodehouse
139. The Parson's Daughter of Oxney Colne - Anthony Trollope

The final few reads of 2010:

140. In This House of Brede - Rumer Godden
141. The Red House Mystery - AA Milne
142. A Bear Called Paddington - Michael Bond
143. Your Inner Fish - Neil Shubin
144. An Expert in Murder - Nicola Upson

Following on from the last thread:

The snow is still here. Or rather, since the temperature has been about +1°C during the day and about -4°C at night, it has turned first to slush and now to solid ice. The main roads are clear, though, so life hasn't ground completely to a halt. No change forecast within the next month. Sigh. This is really unusual here, especially in December: we usually get a few days like this in January/February but no more than that.

I'm refusing to take the car out at the moment: as the diary currently stands, I am not committed to anything that is not within walking distance until 23rd January. The exercise will do me good.

#245 Genny, I can see those 200+ extra wishlisted books you've hidden on BookMooch: something tells me that when all yours are catalogued, your TBR count will be pretty high.

#248 Terri, at least if your husband hates it he can preface his comments on it with a tactful, "I'm not much of a fiction reader, but..."

#249 Yes, I need lots more practice and training to really create a decent-sized TBR pile. I should really work much harder at it. I'm in the pick-whatever-you're-in-the-mood-for school: I do plan some reading, but if I try to decide much in advance I just end up ignoring the plans and reading something else instead.

#250 LOL

#251 That sounds like a good strategy for those who are disciplined enough to stick to it.

#252 I do that, too!

#253 Hope you get to enjoy the snow and it doesn't cause too many problems around your way.

139. In This House of Brede - Rumer Godden

Genre: Fiction/Literature
Published: 1969
Pages: 660
Acquired: August 2010 with a gift voucher from Stasia. Thanks again, Stasia. :)
From the (3 month+) TBR pile? Just.
Why I read it now: I was really keen to read this as soon as it arrived. I don't know what took me so long.

Rating: 5/5

What's it about? Having been widowed young during the second world war, by her early 40s Philippa Talbot has become a highly successful professional woman, well regarded and on the verge of further promotion. Her staff are therefore extremely surprised when she leaves the department - suddenly, in their eyes - to become a nun. For Philippa, the change is not sudden - but the transition to her new life is nevertheless bumpy. As the years unfold and Philippa goes through her time as a novice, takes her vows, and becomes an established member of the community at Brede Abbey, we follow both Philippa and the other women in her community living through the changing fortunes not only of life as nuns but as women and simply as human beings.

Comments: Some excellent character portraits, a fascinating picture of life inside an Abbey, and beautifully written. The non-linear narrative can be a little confusing in the beginning, but the way this shows the interconnectedness of events and people is very effective. Wonderful.

Current TBR:non-TBR ratio = 55:85

First here, I think. I'm staying in, too--no snow, but 3 steady days of rain and Southern Californians have no idea how to drive in the rain, plus everything is totally saturated. Some good reading this year, Caty; you've pulled ahead of me at the end!

#2 !
Hi Caty! Good review. I think I have that one to read somewhere around here. Should make that a 2011 choice. I've gotta start some kind of list for next year.

ETA: Nope. Not in my library. Another one for my WL - cuz I DO want to read this one.

Oh dear, I don't think I would take the car out either. Yuck. What a mess.

#6 Roni, I saw on the news here that California and surrounding states had been hit by storms, flooding and other assorted horrible consequences of too much rain in a very short space of time. I hope it's not too bad where you are.

#7 I hope you enjoy it, Claudia. (I probably ought to put down some more detailed comments: I finished off the review in a rush when I got to the comments part and realised I had about three minutes before I had to go out.)

#8 Yuck is right. Although we had a postal delivery today for the first time since ... hmmm ... since Saturday, I think, or possibly since Friday, so things are looking a bit better.

Merry Christmas Caty!!

I am so glad you enjoyed In This House of Brede, Caty! I loved it.

I loved In This House of Brede, too -- discovered it in my HS library when I was 14, after reading The Peacock Spring and have been re-reading it ever since. One of those books where "I wish I hadn't read it so I could read it for the first time once again."

Meanwhile, a friend of mine has a great phrase for those books like The Shack -- she simply calls 'em "wallbangers", because that is what they end up doing!

Caty

Stasia recommended In This House of Brede and now with your excellent review, I will be sure to read this book in 2011.

All good wishes to you! Happy Holidays.

If you don't want snow please send it my way - I yearn for snow here in the tropics!!!

#11 Thanks Stasia

#12 I think this was my first book by Rumer Godden - it was certainly my first adult book by her - and I definitely want to read more. I will definitely re-read this one, too. I know precisely what you mean about wishing you could read it for the first time again.

(Wallbangers is a perfect phrase for them.)

#13 I hope you enjoy it, Linda. Happy Christmas to you, too.

#14 Sally, I would if I could!

I am finally caught up with my starred threads: wonders will never cease. All I need is for the last box of Christmas gifts to arrive from Amazon (which I don't think it will - it's a week past the delivery date already) and I am set.

The white stuff still looks pretty from a distance but it's all turned to ice. A few more of the roads have been gritted, but the pavements (apart those that get the sun a lot - and there are not many of those when the sun low at this time of year) are under an inch of solid ice and are a nightmare.

Hi Caty: I have no idea why I've never visited here before but I'm looking through your list of books read in 2010 and I wonder where I've been.

Edmund Crispin is one I want to start reading in 2011. Same for Arnaldur Indridason.

(which I don't think it will - it's a week past the delivery date already)

Oh no! Because of the ice and snow?

Hi Linda. Welcome. Edmund Crispin and Arnaldur Indriðason are very different but both excellent: I hope you enjoy them.

Luxx, I assume so - although it should have arrived before the snow hit here, so I think it is probably stranded up country somewhere. The other box they sent out at almost the same time arrived 10 days ago.

That's no good at all. We're lucky when it comes to Amazon - there are three or four warehouses within a couple hours. I'm so sorry your gifts haven't arrived - I hope they come today!

Well, the worst case scenario is a couple of family members get their gifts late: it's mildly irritating but not worth worrying about.

They won't come today - too late in the day now - but they may still turn up tomorrow. Amazon are normally excellent, so I don't hold it against them.

Good for you for the no-stress outlook!

My sympathies on the ice mess. We love the snow and can get just about anywhere even if we get several inches. BUt when that sun gets through the trees enough to heat things up, the surface melts just enough to form a solid glaze and we have to wear 'yak-trax' just to get to the wood pile.

Of course we could pay bazillions of $$$ to have the driveway and lot regraded, etc but then there'd be no fun and no $$ for books.

Enjoy the beauty of the snow, stay inside, stay warm, and have a great holiday in spite of Mother Nature.

Hi Caty, found your new thread, and I liked your review of In this House of Brede. I haven't read that one, but have been meaning to look out for it for several years, ever since I was staying in a Benedictine retreat house where a biography of Rumer Godden was being read aloud during meal times, and I remember that book being mentioned and it sounding interesting.

We have had snow again up here since Saturday, which is making walking on the pavements easier again compared to last week during the thaw, when we had lingering compacted ice which was treacherous. Our postal deliveries have continued without interruptions despite the weather - but several of my deliveries from mail order companies have not arrived yet... My family are used to my Christmas parcels being late even without the excuse of bad weather causing delays, so I'm not too worried about the extra hold-ups. Hope your Amazon parcel arrives eventually.

As Luxx already said, it's not normally a problem here getting Amazon deliveries on time, but there was one time when the thing I wanted was on back-order and didn't get here in time. It was a book for my Dad, so I wrote a clever little poem about how I'd found the book on line and thought it would be perfect for him but that it was going to be late and he'd just have to be happy with the poem until the real present finally showed up. It got a big laugh and the book showed up about a week later. All was well.

Jealous of your snowy weather! I never thought I would miss cold weather when I moved to Arizona but it doesn't make for a very Christmas-y feeling.

It is bitter cold here in NE Pennsylvania. I took a short walk around the neighborhood tonight and it was such a joy to see the decorations and sparkly lights. The moon was bright, the air was crisp and I felt ever so lucky to be out and about.

I look forward to following your threads in 2011 Caty. All the best for a wonderful holiday.

Caty, just checking in to wish you a wonderful Christmas!

#22 I've decided I have enough things that I can (and ought to) do something about to worry about, without worrying about stuff I can't change.

#23 Those things look exceedingly useful.

#24 Genny, I think you would enjoy Brede. I hope your parcels turn up soon, too!

#25 Sandy, that was a wonderful idea to write the poem. (Given my (lack of) poetry skills, I think a verbal explanation will have to do for me.)

#26 Yes, at least it feels Christmassy, even if it's inconvenient.

#27 That sounds lovely, Linda. Happy Christmas!

#28 And the same to you and all your family, Stasia.

Nice review of Brede. I read it earlier this year and liked it too!

Wishing you a wonderful holiday - Happy Christmas!

The good news is that the forecast is now showing warmer temperatures for Sunday/Monday - 6 to 9°C, which is about average for December here - even though the 'will remain below average/cold/very cold/bitterly cold' forecast for the next 2-4 weeks hasn't changed.

The bad news is that I've got a migraine. It's not too bad, but unless it clears in the next 11 hours I shall probably opt for sleep rather than the midnight service, given that I definitely have to be at the 10 o'clock service tomorrow.

141. The Red House Mystery - AA Milne

Genre: Crime
Published: 1922 (Vintage 2009 edition)
Pages: 211
Acquired: Charity shop, June 2010
From the (3 month+) TBR pile? Yes
Why I read it now: Shortish and undemanding

Rating: 3.5/5

Plot in one sentence: When the brother of the Red House's owner is found dead, a passing visitor takes up the role of Sherlock with his friend, a guest at the Red House, as his Watson.

Comments: In his introduction, Milne explains his personal preferences as regards crime fiction, and how they influenced his writing of the story. He wrote it according to his own strong preferences, eschewing romance and scientific examinations and revealing enough to enable the reader to work out whodunnit at the same time as the amateur detective. He wrote very much what he himself wanted to read.

He observes:

I have wished many times that I had not written this book. For I feel that from the point of view of one enthusiast it is very nearly the ideal detective story. ... I know just what he wanted put in, what he wanted left out. I consulted his desires, his prejudices, at every step. ... It is pathetic to think that this is now the one detective story in the world which he will never be able to read.

If the reader's preferences accord with Milne's, this will probably score a higher rating. If the reader has a preference for a dramatic denouement and very well hidden clues, or a dislike of secret passages and the characters openly considering themselves as playing Holmes and Watson roles, it will score lower.

I enjoyed the writing, and the set-up; I would have preferred a harder puzzle to solve and greater roles for the secondary characters. Unlike Milne, I like a subplot or two. I quite enjoyed the book, and wanted to see whether my suppositions and deductions were correct (they were); however, it wasn't one of the best whodunnits I've read this year because it didn't fit my peculiar ideas of the ideal crime novel. Even though the person whose peculiar ideas it did fit never got to read it, it would have been a shame if it had never been written.

Current TBR:non-TBR ratio = 56:85

#30 Thanks, calm. Happy Christmas to you too!

#31: Sorry to hear about the migraine, Caty. I hope resting helps get rid of it for you!

Thanks, Stasia.

I am barely feeling it at all at the moment because my parcel just this minute arrived from Amazon.

*Happy dance*

Woot for Amazon! Now they can cure migraines!

Temporarily. (I think an actual happy dance might be a very bad idea, even though I feel like doing one.)

I would think an actual happy dance would be a very bad idea too with a migraine, but if Amazon deliveries cure the migraine, then you can do the happy dance, right?

Merry Christmas, Caty!

I loved In This House of Brede as well. I need to search out more of Godden's books.

And thanks for the accurate review of Milne's book: now I know not to buy it (who? me? buy another mystery?), but to aquire it in some other way...library, I think.

Thanks, Gail. Merry Christmas to you too!

I've had to skip a few posts, but I wanted to wish you a wonderful holiday weekend!

Wow, you got a little Christmas magic in receiving the package you had given up on. Your snow picture looks like a Christmas card. We're getting sleet at the moment - not quite the same effect!

Wishing you and yours a very happy holiday. Keep up the good reading in 2011 so I can keep adding more to my WL. I think I need to change the name to "Dream" List because I will never be able to read everything on it!

Have a wonderful White Christmas Caty...


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.  Blessings and best wishes
Christmas Glitters Graphics

Merry Christmas Caty!

Still waiting!


glitter-graphics.com

Merry Christmas, Caty!

Sorry to hear about your migraine Caty but glad that Amazon parcel showed up. We are still missing one parcel but I did order it about 30 minutes before the last ordering deadline and happily the parcel that's delayed contains the second part of the presents for my parents so they will have something to unwrap.

Another recommendation for House of Brede which sounds really interesting, and I have also added The Red House Mystery to the wishlist.

Hope the migraine clears up and you have a wonderful Christmas!

Caty, hope the headache eases in time to allow you to attend midnight services. Merry Christmas. (Envious of your snow, our weather is threatening, but no snow yet. Probably will get only ice. Bah!)

Merry Christmas, Caty! Here in the Colorado Rockies, we have absolutely no snow, and very mild temperatures. I loved your review of In This House of Brede -- it's been on my wishlist for ages. I may need to break down and buy a copy!

Thanks and Merry Christmas everyone!



Heather and Anne, I hope you enjoy Brede; Heather, I hope you enjoy the Milne mystery too.

My headache cleared during the evening, so I made it to the Midnight communion service, and also to the 10am service today. I am now very full of very nice Christmas dinner plus a couple of glasses of wine *replete sigh* and will shortly be watching (or possibly dozing off in front of) the Queen's Speech.

Now that I have unwrapped all my gifts, I've received 10 books. I'm blessed with a family that buy me books. :)


They are:
from my grandmother:
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince - JK Rowling
God's Philosophers: How the Medieval World Laid the Foundations of Modern Science - James Hannam

from my parents:
Your Inner Fish - Neil Shubin
Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter - Mario Vargas Llosa
Surprised by Hope - NT Wright

from my brother:
The Big Rock Candy Mountain - Wallace Stegner

from my SantaThing santa:
Silence - Shusaku Endo
Sharp Objects - Gillian Flynn

from Mark through the Christmas Book Swap:
Zeitoun - Dave Eggers
A Novel Bookstore - Laurence Cosse

On top of the pile is Willis Worm. He was also a gift from my parents. He's a beanbag paperweight, but he looks to me like a bookworm. Sadly, he is somewhat camouflaged against my parents' stone fireplace.

glitter-graphics.com

Ah! It stinks being the Queen and having to work on Christmas! ;-)

Congrats on the great haul! Believe it or not, the books you sent me are the only ones I got... and you were very generous! So, thanks again for the important role you played for me this Christmas. (My family can't understand the reading thing.)

I am wishing many special blessings for you, Caty... hope we become better friends in the new year...

Great haul, Caty! Congratulations and Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas, Caty! I'm glad that your headache has passed, and that you received such a nice selection of books. I'm especially interested to hear about God's Philosophers.

Belated Happy Christmas Caty! What a great selection of books! I haven't unwrapped most of my presents yet, but no books so far, and none of the remaining parcels are book shaped...

#47 Anne, I talked to my Aunt and Uncle in Colo Springs last night and they were also complaining about the very dry weather.

Caty - what a great family you have, and friends, too! I'm looking forward to your comments about the new books.

#52 No books for me either, although I gave several. Thumbing through someone else's new book is nice, but not the same as getting your own. *pout*

Caty

What a great list of books you rec'd. I look forward to your comments and reviews when you read them.

As a migraine sufferer I know full well that headaches can be dibilatating. I'm glad you are feeling better.

#49 Thanks, Claudia. I'm sure I remember hearing that the Queen and her family all sit down on Christmas Day afternoon and watch the broadcast of her speech - which sounds to me like a surreal experience, but they must be used to it.

#50 Thanks, Stasia

#51 Thanks, Darryl. I'd had that one on my wishlist for a while, so I was pleased to get it.

#52 Shame about the lack of book-shaped parcels, Genny, but I hope you've received some nice things all the same.

#53 Sandy, I have a wonderful family, and not just because they buy me books. :)

#54 Thanks, Linda.

It's been 5°C/40°F here today, so the ice is finally melting.

We had an interesting time at church this evening: our final Christmas service was a carol service (the fourth, I think) with a buffet tea - except we had no running water at the church today. (Presumably due to a problem with burst/frozen pipes somewhere.) No water for coffee or washing up - and no functioning loos.

So, half the afternoon was spent hunting up paper plates, plastic knives and forks and bottled water from various homes - and one of the catering committee went home with several boxes of dirty mugs to put in her dishwasher at home rather than us boiling lots of kettles of bottled water to wash up. Add to that the fact that it was (intentionally) a candlelit service, and it was like something from a different era. It was a lovely service in the end, though. And I could happily listen to our organist playing all evening.

Great book haul Caty!

#55 Glad everything worked out ok for your carol service in the end. No running water would not have been a problem I would have felt like dealing with on Boxing Day.

Sounds like an interesting experience at the carol service - I hope lots of people turned out to support it and warrant all that extra effort. We joined forces with our local Methodist/URC church congregation this morning, and between us just about had a decent-sized congregation - much better than meeting separately in small numbers.

Thanks, Heather.

Genny, we had about 35-40 this morning, which is just under half our usual number and made us thing not very many would come tonight - but we had the same number this evening, which is normal for our café service and well up on the normal evening service. Definitely enough people to make it worthwhile.

I was originally planned to take service in one of our other (smaller) churches, but they cancelled their service: I assume they did what you did and joined with another congregation.

Glad you had such a good Christmas, and that your migraine dissipated! Great book haul. Happy Boxing Day!

I have The Red House Mystery on my Kindle, because it was free on Amazon (yay!) and because I like old mysteries. I suspect I will feel the same way you did - it looks good, but not spectacular...perhaps just a little too easy to solve.

I double checked and I already have In This House of Brede on my wishlist, otherwise, your comments would have made me add it!

Thanks Roni.

Angela, I hope you enjoy both of those.

142. A Bear Called Paddington

Genre: Children's
Published: 1958
Pages: 159
Acquired: Amazon, December 2010
From the (3 month+) TBR pile? No
Why I read it now: Idle whim

Rating: 4.5/5

Plot in one two sentences: After his Aunt Lucy moves into a home for retired bears, a small and rather sticky bear emigrates from darkest Peru with only a suitcase full of marmalade. The Brown family discover him at Paddington station and adopt him, and the bear (now called Paddington) has lots of adventures in London which generally involve leaving lots of sticky paw-prints all over the place, knocking things over, getting lost, and getting into trouble.

Comments: It's not hard to see why this is a classic, beloved of generations of children. Paddington Bear came up in conversation on my thread a couple of months ago, and I spotted this book at Amazon for the minuscule sum of £2.48 while I was doing some Christmas shopping. I decided to indulge myself and revisit my childhood. I was very fond of my Paddington Bear - complete with blue duffel coat, red wellies and floppy hat - when I was about 4, and re-reading the stories was a nostalgic treat.

I still have yet to re-read Winnie the Pooh. I shall have to include it in somewhere next year.

143. Your Inner Fish - Neil Shubin

Genre: Science - Palaeontology, Anatomy, Genetics, Evolution
Published: 2007 (2009 edition with additional afterword)
Pages: 247
Acquired: Christmas gift, 2010
From the (3 month+) TBR pile? *snort* I think it was on the TBR pile three hours before I began it,
Why I read it now: It was first up of my Christmas books

Rating: 4/5

What's it about?: Neil Shubin explains our genetic heritage and anatomy with particular reference to our similarities with our fossil ancestors - especially Tiktaalik, a prehistoric beastie which was an intermediate stage between fish and land-living animals.

Comments: An entertaining look at the subject matter, but not a serious analysis of it: it's a broad introduction, not a detailed study. It's got several pages of good - and more detailed and academic - suggestions for further reading, however, of which I fully intend to avail myself. Shubin has a welcoming and entertaining writing style, although the book does reads at times like a lecture and in a few places like a memoir.

As a non-scientist, I generally appreciated the basic level at which Shubin began, although in some chapters it was very basic even for me; I would often have liked him to continue into more depth, particularly in some of the later chapters.

Very interesting, but definitely at the popular end of popular science writing.

Current TBR:non-TBR ratio = 56:87

#62: I already have the Shubin book in the BlackHole. I will have to bump it up some!

I hope you enjoy it, Stasia.

I think it was on the TBR pile three hours before I began it.

That made me laugh out loud. I love it when that happens.

#65 *grin* I'd like to think I'm above seeking instant gratification, but I'm plainly not. (Although I'm led to believe that {shocked whisper} some people only buy books when they are actually going to read them straight away {/shocked whisper} and they'd consider the timescale in #62 normal!)

144. An Expert in Murder – Nicola Upson

Genre: Crime
Published: 2008
Pages: 292
Acquired: Waterstones, March 2010
From the (3 month+) TBR pile? Yes
Why I read it now: Something short and light with which to finish the year

Rating: 4/5.

Plot in one sentence: Crime writer Josephine Tey, travelling from Scotland to London for the last week of her play’s run in the West End, makes friends with a young fan of her work who is sharing her compartment – but her visit south is disturbed by murder and mayhem which touches her far more closely that she could have imagined possible.

Comments: Positives were: strong characters, complex plot, comfortable writing style, plausibility, period atmosphere.

Negatives were: too much emphasis on telling and narrative, where more showing might have been more effective, especially in the early part. Pace, while not monotonous, could have had more variety and more urgency some later parts.

There were enough clues to make it solvable by the reader, and no great surprises, but the culprit is not so obvious that the reader works it out very early or has no later doubts.

It’s not stunning, but it’s an enjoyable read. I’m not convinced that having a real historical character as the lead in a crime story works, but it bothered me less here – where the character of Tey is just involved in a general way and the police are doing their job properly – than in books where real historical personages are doing real sleuthing. I hated this aspect of Oscar Wilde and the Candlelight Murders and The Interpretation of Murder; I merely disliked it here.

I’m not sure whether I shall continue with the series – there are another two at present – but I’m by no means against the idea.

Current TBR:non-TBR ratio = 57:87

I don’t think I shall finish anything else in the 7½ hours that remain of the year (Gah. Not possible. Seriously, who half-inched six weeks somewhere at the end of summer when my back was turned?) so it is time for the December summary:

Total books: 15 (most in a month since March (19))
Total pages: 4131 (second highest since March, beaten by August with 4869)
Longest book: Reformation: Europe’s House Divided – Diarmaid MacCulloch (864 pages)
Shortest book: The Parson’s Daughter of Oxney Colne – Anthony Trollope (46 pages)

Books by men: 12
Books by women: 3
This is really unusual for me: I have been looking at my stats all year and thinking I need to read more books by men. Before this month, June and November (when it was an equal split) were the only months when the men were not outnumbered by the women.

Fiction: 11
Non-fiction: 4

Mean rating: 4.1/5 This comes from three five star reads, plus lots of medium-high scores and very few low ones. It is equal to April's mean, and these two come in only a fraction behind March at 4.1111 as the highest scoring months of the year.

Mean year of publication: 1840 – a hundred years earlier than the mean for any other month, thanks to Athanasius. (Next month should be interesting on this score, given my planned reads!)

Genres:
Christianity: 2
History: 2
Crime/Mystery: 2
Fantasy: 1
Misc. Fiction: 4
Pre-1950 Literature: 3
Science: 1
I finally got a science book into the stats – and it wasn’t even the one I’ve been alternately dipping into and losing for the entire year.

Best book: In This House of Brede – Rumer Godden (rated 5), Reformation – Diarmaid MacCulloch (rated 5)
Honourable mentions: Hogfather – Terry Pratchett (also rated 5, but a re-read)
Worst book: The Shack – W Paul Young (rated 1.5)
Most books by same author: Charles Dickens (A Christmas Carol and Mudfog and Other Sketches)

Author nationality:
UK: 11
US: 2
Sudan: 1
The bit of the Roman Empire that is now Egypt: 1

Books from TBR pile: 10

No graphs for the December summary, but some shortly to come with the 2010 summary.

And so to the mammoth 2010 Summary.

Total books: 144
Total pages: 41,062
Longest book: Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix – JK Rowling – 956 pages
Shortest book: A Difficult Problem – Anna Katherine Green – 32 pages



And sorted by length:



Books by men: 66 (46%)
Books by women: 78 (54%)
Overall, I am happy with this for the year – I'd be concerned if either was more than about 60% - although some months were very skewed one way or the other.

Mean year of publication: 1967
Median year of publication: 1998

Books published in 2010: 12
Books published since 2000 (inc 2010): 68
Books published in 20th century: 67
Books published before the 20th century: 9

The distribution of dates is quite interesting. Lopping off good old St Athanasius from 318CE in order to keep the picture smaller than the landmass of western Europe, this is the (top part of the) graph of dates (last seen here and here) sorted by date order:



Lots of very recent books; the gradient changes at around the 1987 point to show fewer reads; then there are still sufficient numbers of older books to keep the dots in a more-or-less continuous line to 1900, then a cluster in the mid-nineteenth century.

Fiction: 125 (87%)
Non-fiction: 19 (13%)
I was aiming for at least 10% non-fiction, so I’m happy with this.

Genre breakdown:
Romance/chick-lit: 29
Christianity: 9 (although many study books not included because they were not read cover to cover)
History: 6 (although many study books not included because they were not read cover to cover)
Crime/Mystery: 21
Fantasy: 26
Historical Fiction: 7
Misc Fiction: 21
Humour: 7
Pre-1950 Literature: 13
Science : 1
Non-fiction Misc: 4

Mean rating: 3.8299 – slightly up on last year’s 3.75 and up on my library average of 3.65.
I think I am being more selective about what I read, but I also think I am handing out too many 4s:


Best books:
Fiction (including YA)
The Widow's Tale - Mick Jackson
The Wee Free Men - Terry Pratchett
The Picture of Dorian Gray - Oscar Wilde
I Shall Wear Midnight - Terry Pratchett
Purple Hibiscus - Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Minaret - Leila Aboulela
Room - Emma Donoghue
The House at Pooh Corner - AA Milne
The Lacuna - Barbara Kingsolver
Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire - JK Rowling
Miss Ranskill Comes Home - Barbara Euphan Todd
The Uncommon Reader - Alan Bennett (re-read)
Bet Me - Jennifer Crusie (re-read)
Framley Parsonage - Anthony Trollope
Women of the Silk - Gail Tsukiyama
Holy Disorders - Edmund Crispin
Miss Buncle's Book - DE Stevenson
In This House of Brede – Rumer Godden

Non-Fiction
How to be a Bad Birdwatcher - Simon Barnes
Reformation - Diarmaid MacCulloch
Are Women Human? - Dorothy L Sayers
The Earth: An Intimate History - Richard Fortey (still reading)
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly - Jean-Dominique Bauby

Worst books:
The abandoned:
Outrageous Fortune - Tim Scott
Memoirs are made of this - Swan Adamson
Dead Until Dark - Charlaine Harris
Legend in Green Velvet - Elizabeth Peters

The awful:
The Shack - W Paul Young
When A Lady Misbehaves - Michelle Marcos
How to Engage an Earl – Kathryn Caskie
And a couple of other romances from early in the year which get byes from the list on account of (a) my having wiped them from my memory and (b) being out of print so there’s less need to warn others against them. ;)

Most books by same author: Terry Pratchett (17)

And finally, on the off-chance that anyone is still reading awake:

Author nationality:
UK: 88
US: 45
India: 1
Australia: 1
Africa: 3
Canada: 1
Scandinavia: 1
France: 2
Other Europe: 2

92% of my authors are British or American, and over 60% are British. I think this is far too Anglo-centric. I definitely need to read more broadly in this respect. I have far more variety in the TBR pile than in what I have read, and I think subjectively that I am doing better in widening my reading. Next year I want to track this much more closely.

Books from TBR pile: 57 ( 40%)
Books not from TBR pile: 87 (60%)

I was aiming for a minimum of 50 books and 50% of books from the TBR pile this year, so I am not enormously disappointed with this result. I ought to have done better percentage-wise: if I can be a bit more consistent through the year, I think I shall do better.



The TBR pile may have grown ridiculously large, but at least I have not been buying lots of brand shiny new books: over half of this year’s reads were from charity shops or BookMooch or were received as gifts:



Reading Targets for the year were:
~1010 Challenge: Completed - although not with the same categories I started with.
~finish the whole of Terry Pratchett's Discworld series: Completed!
~finish Trollope's Barsetshire series: No, although I did finish one more, leaving only two still to go.
~read at least 4 plays: No. Not a single, solitary play all year. I can't summon up much disappointment over this, although I do have some plays on the shelf that I want to read fairly soon.
~take at least 50% of my reading from my TBR: No – but at 40% and 57 books I didn’t do too badly
~reduce my out of control TBR to under 300 books: *snort* It currently stands at 606. I believe the currently preferred term for this is ‘epic fail’.
~read at least one volume of In Search of Lost Time: No. I did start Swann’s Way with the group read, but drifted away embarrassingly soon after the beginning.
~have at least 10% of my recreational reading (ie. not textbooks) be non-fiction: SUCCESS! 13.19% non-fiction (although this does include a couple of textbooks where I chose to read the whole thing rather than just the chapters on the reading list.)

And so to 2011.

In the January pile, I have:

Group reads:
Beowulf (Heaney trans)
The Master and Margarita - Bulgakov (11 in 11)
Jan-Feb: Sense and Sensibility (75ers Austenathon)

Something for Orange January: probably The Help

TIOLI plans:
3.8-4.2 Rating
Artists in Crime (3.93) - Ngaio Marsh
The Boy Next Door (4.13) - Irene Sabbatini
Bricks and Mortar (3.92) - Helen Ashton

Book that pre-dates the printing press
Beowulf (8th-11th century CE)
The Epic of Gilgamesh (second millennium BCE)
The Twelve Caesars - Suetonius (c120 CE)
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (c1350 CE)

Book received for Christmas
Silence - Shusako Endo

Top rated book of 2010
The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet - David Mitchell (which I started months ago and then drifted away from for no good reason.)

Targets for 2011:
~Complete the 11 in 11 challenge. I’m doing a step challenge, so this is 66 books. My thread is here. Categories are:

¿Que? - ONE book in a foreign language
"I wonder what happens if I do this…?." *BANG!* - TWO science books
HOW many pages?! - THREE literary tomes (500+ pages of serious fiction)
Sweet repeats - FOUR re-reads of old favourites
Whodunnit? - FIVE tales of crime, mystery or suspense
God be in my head and in my understanding - SIX spiritual, devotional or theological books
Can't brain today... I have the dumb - SEVEN pieces of mind-candy
Long, long ago... - EIGHT books from or about the past
…in a land far, far away - NINE books by overseas authors
Well, begone, begone I say - TEN books from the TBR pile
You're making that up! - ELEVEN miscellaneous works of fiction

~ Take 50% of my reading from the TBR pile
~ Have at least 12.5% of my reading be non-fiction (textbooks count only if read completely)
~ Have at least 15% of my reading be from non-UK/US authors
~ Finish the year with a TBR smaller than it was at the start of the year (606 books)
~ Complete Anthony Trollope’s Barsetshire series

Wow! Nice analysis. I need to find time to crunch my data...

And if any of you can face the prospect of more graphs and moaning about the size of the TBR pile, my first 2011 thread is here:

http://www.librarything.com/topic/104702

Happy New Year, everyone!

#73 Thanks, Jim.

I love your graphs, Cat. See you in the New Year!

What a comprehensive summary Caty - I'm in awe! :) And well done for meeting most of your 2010 goals, and for making progress on some of the others. I wish you success for next year's goals, especially for reducing the size of the TBR: I think that participation in LT makes that one of the hardest targets to stick to...

See you over on your 2011 thread in the New Year!

Wow, Caty! That is most impressive, and very interesting. Happy New Year!

I'm in awe of your summary too! You amaze me...

And, like you, my reading is also too Anglo-centric. I need to work on that.

What pretty summaries you have. It always makes me want to go analyze mine. See you in 2011!

Standing in awe of geekdom - Wow! Happy New Year, Caty!

Thanks Caro, Genny, Darryl, Angela, Marie and Stasia!

(I love that I can be a geek about my reading stats here without feeling like people are humouring me.)

I love the graphs! I have been working on my own for the year but I'm going to make myself write my last few reviews before posting them. Congrats on almost meeting your TBR goal (% reading) and meeting your non-fiction goal. My author nationalities are similarly skewed towards English speaking countries. I've given myself a books in translation challenge for 2011.

Thanks, Heather. (I have added a couple more charts to my spreadsheet based on the way you used the data in yours.)