Eyejaybee is up for the 100 books in 2011 Challenge

Hello,

I have at last managed to get under way for 2011, having just finished Killing Floor by Lee Child
This is the first Lee Child book that I have read and I have to admit that I was impressed, despite my prior expectations to the contrary. I don;t often read this sort of high action thriller but thought that this one was written very well in a clear concise style that certainly held my attention.
A nice easy and enjoyable read for the holiday period.

I've got Killing Floor on Mt TBR, I'm not entirely convinced I'm going to like it. (Although your review is making me happier about having it...)

Welcome to the group!

4. A Question of Belief by Donna Leon

An entertaining novel, though not up to the standards of the best in this series.

I've got the first "Dance to the Music of Time" on Mt TBR, thanks for the reminder! I keep on hearing excellent things about it.

I have been rather obsessed with Anthony Powell's works over the years, or, more specifically, with the Dance to the Music of Time sequence.
I am less impressed with the five novels he wrote before the Second World War, and I doubt whether they would really be remembered now if it weren't for the glorious Music of Time series.

I'm a great big huge Powell fan too (DTTMOT series, at least). I like the early movements best - At Lady Molly's, and Casanova's Chinese Restaurant, and the war ones. But isn't Books Do Furnish A Room a great title? I can't get a handle on what I think of Widmerpool. I call him a the villain of the series, but he isn't evil so much as completely obnoxious.

Despite our learning very little about Nick, I have a big literary crush on him. I love how Powell updates his life for us in snippets (he falls in love in what, a sentence?). Not to mention, Powell is hilarious in that quiet, British sort of way.

I agree that Widmerpool is completely obnoxious, and I think he is one of the great characters in modern literature. I think all of us have worked with someone a bit like him at one time or another (though, thankfully, usually not quite as extreme a case), and Powell manages to capture the sheer unpleasantness engendered by his ceaseless drive for self-aggrandisement so well.
I think that the three war novels are marvellous - I was fascinated by the sheer tedium that Jenkins experiences for so much of the times.
It is certainly quite amazing that, even after reading through twelve volumes narrated by Nick Jenkins one really learns so little about him.

I'd never really heard of Bennett before! Sounds like a good book, I'll keep my eyes open for his works. Thanks!

Arnold Bennett is my new favorite writer. I love his How to Live on 24 Hours a Day, and Literary Taste and How to Form It. I just downloaded The Ghost and Murder!.

and several of Bennett's works are free kindle downloads... yea more stuff to read! ;-)

Another plug for Bennett - I really enjoyed The Old Wives' Tale (that is the same guy, right?).

I'm looking forward to reading "The Old Wives Tale" in the next few weeks.

Thanks for the other suggestions.

Oh dear, I have Thus Was Adonis Murdered on my wishlist... (At least it hasn't been bought yet!) It got some good comments somewhere, I think over in the girlybooks group (which is a lot more serious - yet fun! - than its title makes it sound).

Oh my. I think I must read that for the title alone.

I hope you both enjoy it. Everyone I know who has read if found it very engaging so perhaps I was just in a particularly querulous mood!

I've never read Tom Brown's Schooldays although I have seen at least two movie/BBC adaptations. Didn't Flashman get his own spin-off series by George MacDonald Fraser, or is that just an amazing coincidence of names? (I think I have Flashman somehere...)

Hurrah for the touchstones working again!

ETA: And, of course, I have seen the brilliant "Tompkinson's Schooldays", one of the "Ripping Yarns" by Michael Palin & Terry Jones.

Wow - I had forgotten about "Tompkinson's Schooldays". The "Ripping Yarns" series was brilliant.

@28 Yeah Flashman is a bully in Tom Browns Schooldays.

I recently saw the movie. I thought it was done very well.

I've only read one David Mitchell - the fabulous Cloud Atlas. The library just gave me The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet, here's hoping that's more of a Cloud Atlas than a Number9Dream!

I quite liked the frenetic Number9Dream although that weird children's story wanted to make me gnaw my own leg off in frustration.

Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet is very good, although it starts at a very gentle pace and wanders off the plot.

I certainly loved both Cloud Atlas and The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet. However, I reckoned that Black Swan Green was even better than both of them, and very different from all of his other books.

33a ("Nobody Hurt in Small Earthquake") sounds really interesting. Also, looking at your lists I clearly need to read more Arnold Bennett.

@67
Hi Jennifer, Arnold Bennett has been the great discovery of the year for me. I had a preconception that he would prove very tedious but I couldn't have been more wrong, "The Card" was especially entertaining, though I have found all of his books enjoyable.

However, another part of me can understand why he was so eager to part with it - I don't want it cluttering up my shelves either

Ouch! I've been stung by that sort of thing too. You'd think I should beware of self-published books, but somehow another copy has made its way onto my shelves now, with the author waiting for some comments... *gulp*

Yes, it's difficult, though re-reading my comments I can't now believe quite how harsh I was. After all, at least Robert Scott wrote a book which is more than I have managed to do.
The trouble is that if you aren't fairly honest you will keep being asked to review more and more of their output!

Thoroughly enjoying reading your comments :)

Oh, you're making me want to dust off my old John Buchan novels and re-read them! Loved them when I was a teenager, and am always a little wary of returning to old favourites, in case I've changed my reading tastes too much since.

I felt the same, but decided to risk it after having encouraged my niece and nephew to give Buchan a go, and I found that the old magic was still there. He seems to have this great knack of making the landscape seem almost like an additional character. Even when he is writing about hunting, which is something I would never want to do myself, he manages to get me completely engrossed in what is happening.

heya if I might make a suggestion... why don't you keep one list (in your first post maybe) and edit to add a book each time you finish one? Takes a while to load and scroll down every time you finish a book when you post the whole list every time... and it will only get worse ;-)

oh yeah Remarkable Creatures has been on my wish list for some time... your review pushed it to the top, so thanks!

Is the Comic History of England Bill Nye the same as Bill Nye the Science Guy?

I love the WWII novels in the Dance to the Music of Time series - they're my favorite of the bunch. I'm reading Proust right now, and while I can see the obvious connections between the two series (40 pages to describe a dinner party), I think I like Powell better. He's funnier.

@87 No, I don't think so. I read The Comic History of England on my kindle (downloaded as a free offer!) but haven't been able to find out anything about the author. It seems to have been an American work, published towards the end of the nineteenth century.

Um. What's happened to all the old reviews here? Did I miss something?