casvelyn's 75 books in 2011

I'm trying to do a full 11 in 11 this year (121 books - here's the link: http://www.librarything.com/topic/101421), but realistically I'll read something more like 50-75 books. So I thought I'd document my reading here as well. I'm going to post the same reviews in both groups; I'm not ambitious enough to write two reviews for each book.

Edited 6/22: Check out my second thread here: http://www.librarything.com/topic/119442

-----JUNE-----
75. The Princess and the Goblin - George MacDonald
74. Hamlet, Revenge! - Michael Innes
73. The Mystery of the Blue Train - Agatha Christie
72. Have His Carcase - Dorothy L. Sayers
71. Why Didn't They Ask Evans? - Agatha Christie
70. The Comedy of Errors - William Shakespeare
69. Agnes Grey - Anne Brontë
68. The Last Battle - C. S. Lewis
67. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - J. K. Rowling
66. Tintin and the Picaros - Hergé
65. Flight 714 - Hergé
64. The Castafiore Emerald - Hergé
63. Tintin in Tibet - Hergé
62. The Red Sea Sharks - Hergé
61. The Calculus Affair - Hergé
60. Explorers on the Moon - Hergé
59. Destination Moon - Hergé
58. Land of Black Gold - Hergé
57. Prisoners of the Sun - Hergé
56. The Seven Crystal Balls - Hergé
55. Red Rackham's Treasure - Hergé
54. The Secret of the Unicorn - Hergé
53. The Shooting Star - Hergé
52. The Crab with the Golden Claws - Hergé
51. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince - J. K. Rowling
50. King Ottokar's Sceptre - Hergé
49. The Black Island - Hergé
48. The Broken Ear - Hergé
47. The Blue Lotus - Hergé
46. Cigars of the Pharaoh - Hergé
45. Tintin in America - Hergé
44. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix - J. K. Rowling

-----MAY-----
43. The Five Red Herrings - Dorothy L. Sayers
42. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire - J. K. Rowling
41. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban - J. K. Rowling
40. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets - J. K. Rowling
39. Right Ho, Jeeves - P. G. Wodehouse
38. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone - J. K. Rowling
37. Very Good, Jeeves! - P. G. Wodehouse
36. The Inimitable Jeeves - P. G. Wodehouse
35. The Borgias and Their Enemies - Christopher Hibbert
34. I Capture the Castle - Dodie Smith
33. A Wizard of Earthsea - Ursula K. Le Guin
32. The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club - Dorothy L. Sayers

-----APRIL-----
31. Unnatural Death - Dorothy L. Sayers
30. Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
29. The Merchant of Venice - William Shakespeare
28. Ex Libris: Confessions of a Common Reader - Anne Fadiman
27. Around the World in Eighty Days - Jules Verne
26. A Letter Concerning Toleration - John Locke
25. Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day - Winifred Watson
24. A Century of Detection - John Cullen Gruesser, ed.
23. Clouds of Witness - Dorothy L. Sayers
22. The Thirteenth Tale - Diane Setterfield
21. All Clear - Connie Willis

-----MARCH-----
20. After the Funeral - Agatha Christie
19. Lord Edgeware Dies - Agatha Christie
18. A Letter of Mary - Laurie R. King
17. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
16. One of Our Thursdays is Missing - Jasper Fforde
15. Blackout - Connie Willis
14. A Red Herring without Mustard - Alan Bradley

-----FEBRUARY-----
13. Romeo and Juliet - William Shakespeare
12. The Four Loves - C. S. Lewis
11. Daisy Miller - Henry James
10. Whose Body? - Dorothy L. Sayers

-----JANUARY-----
9. The Weed that Strings the Hangman's Bag - Alan Bradley
8. Thriving in the Knowledge Age: New Business Models for Museums and Other Cultural Institutions - John H. Falk and Beverly K. Sheppard
7. The Man in the Brown Suit - Agatha Christie
6. The Compass Rose - Ursula K. Le Guin
5. The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie - Alan Bradley
4. Death in Winter - Michael Jan Friedman
3. Strong Poison - Dorothy L. Sayers
2. Shades of Grey: The Road to High Saffron - Jasper Fforde
1. Major Pettigrew's Last Stand - Helen Simonson

Edited to remove touchstones; there's just too many for one post to handle.

Book: Major Pettigrew's Last Stand by Helen Simonson
Rating: 3 stars

I found it to be an easy and enjoyable read, but on the whole rather average.

Book: Shades of Grey: The Road to High Saffron by Jasper Fforde
Rating: 5 stars

I really wasn't sure how much I'd like this book, as I can't stand most dystopian fiction and I absolutely love Fforde's Thursday Next series. However, I ended up loving it.

Shades of Grey is set in the future, although the entire backstory is quite vague. This is frustrating at first, but it also allows the reader to learn more about the world along with the characters rather than knowing the details three chapters before the character thanks to the narrator. Essentially, some sort of disaster or great societal upheaval has taken place years earlier, resulting in a new societal order centered around individuals' ability to perceive color. Everyone is to some degree or another colorblind, with some people able to see only red, others only blue, etc. Early on in the book, this society seems strange and repressive, but overall not a terribly bad society, but the more negative aspects to all the rules and regulations become apparent as the plot progresses, culminating in an expedition to the abandoned town of High Saffron and some revelations about the nature of the society in which the characters live. Overall an incredibly clever book.

Book: Strong Poison by Dorothy L. Sayers
Rating: 5 stars

Lord Peter Wimsey has found the one woman he wants to marry. Unfortunately, she is on trial for the murder of her lover, who died of arsenic poisoning. To make matters worse, Harriet Vane, the woman in question, is a mystery writer who has just finished the draft of a book involving a carefully-researched arsenic poisoning. With only a short amount of time to act, will Lord Peter find the true killer in time? And, more importantly, will Harriet Vane accept his proposal of marriage?

Dorothy Sayers' Lord Peter novels are always entertaining, and Strong Poison is no exception. Especially hilarious are several scenes involving one of Peter's associates pretending to conduct a séance in which the spirit of George Washington continually tries to dominate the conversation. Of course, Peter cracks the case, but as for the status of his relationship with Miss Vane, that will have to wait until the next book.

Book: Death in Winter by Michael Jan Friedman
Rating: 3 1/2 stars

Death in Winter is a Star Trek book set at some point after The Next Generation and Voyager. When Dr. Beverly Crusher is kidnapped by Romulans while on a medical mission to a world on the fringe of the Romulan Empire, Captain Picard is sent to complete her mission and to rescue her. But to do so, he must find and work with the anti-Romulan underground. Naturally, he rescues Dr. Crusher, and they finally are able to admit how much they like one another and how they would like to become more than just close friends.

Overall, this was an okay book. More than a passing familiarity with Star Trek: The Next Generation on my part (okay, I confess - I'm a Trekkie or Trekker or whatever the cool kids are calling themselves nowadays) made it more enjoyable, and it was good to see Picard and Dr. Crusher finally get together. However, the quality of the writing was only average, with way too much "telling" and not enough "showing" in parts. A fast, entertaining, and somewhat forgettable read.

Book: The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie by Alan Bradley
Rating: 4 stars

Eleven-year-old genius Flavia de Luce goes out into her family's garden early one morning and finds a dying man among the cucumbers. Before he dies, he whispers one word to her, "Vale." When her father is arrested for the murder of this man, Flavia takes it upon herself to solve the murder, while trying alternately to annoy and avoid her obnoxious older sisters, as well as avoid the police and the village gossips.

I've heard the Flavia de Luce series criticized for not being terribly realistic. It's true that this book isn't realistic, but how many mystery novels, or fiction books in general, are? It is, however, entertaining. I love British mysteries (yes, the author is Canadian, but the book is set in England), and the main characters are all interesting people, particularly Flavia. Even my dislike of first-person narration didn't make me like this book less - the insertion of "I" into the narrative wasn't as obtrusive as it can be in some books.

Book: The Compass Rose by Ursula K. Le Guin
Rating: 4 stars

The stories in this collection are so varied that I'm not going to try to provide a summary. I never know what to make of short story collections by Le Guin, although I did buy The Wind's Twelve Quarters because I love, love, love "April in Paris" and "Direction of the Road." I hate short stories with a passion, as there's never enough plot or character development in them to suit my tastes. I like long, drawn-out, epic sort of events, which is really hard to do in 20 or fewer pages (I've tried). And Le Guin writes such bizarre stories, where the reader is dropped into the center of the bizarreness with no preamble or explanation, with the story progressing for a few pages, and then just ending with no more conclusion than there was introduction. But I think she must be a good writer, because despite all my above objections, I can't stop reading her stories. Logically, I shouldn't like them, but I do.

And, to be fair, the stories "Gwilan's Harp" and "The Wife's Story" are two from this collection that are particularly worth reading.

Welcome!

I also liked Fforde's and Bradley's books and I am looking forward to the next episode in both. I used to read a lot of the Star Trek books when I worked on ships. Since I was already familiar with the characters, it was easy to keep track of the plot. I have a collection of short stories, Grand Designs: Star Trek Corps of Engineers which intrigued me and is waiting on my shelf.

Welcome to the group!

Book: The Man in the Brown Suit by Agatha Christie
Rating: 4.5 stars

In many ways this is more of a spy thriller than a mystery, and it's one of Christie's better novels. I'm not going to summarize the plot, beyond saying that it involves international intrigue and stolen diamonds, as I don't want to give away any spoilers. Suffice it to say that The Man in the Brown Suit is an excellent and exciting book that is well worth reading.

Welcome to the 75ers! You've done some great reading so far! Fforde is a favorite of mine, as well as Le Guin.

Thanks. I love Fforde - one of my top ten authors of all time. I go back and forth with Le Guin, although I certainly need to read some of her novels. I just don't care for short stories.

I went through a phase when I was 11 or 12 where I voraciously read every Star Trek: TNG novel I could get my hands on (all hail the public library!). Looking back on all that reading, the only ones that I particularly enjoyed and some of which I have bought copies of my own were all by Peter David.

A very impressive start to your reading year. :D

Thanks. I'm actually not super-into books related to TV shows or movies, like the Star Trek books, but a friend gave me a list of about 8 or so that she said I had to read. They fit into my 11 in 11 Challenge and it's nice to intersperse something light into all the reading assignments I have in grad school.

I get that. I'm doing my last term at grad school and I have an hour of bus time so I do a lot of reading then. Right now I tend to go for the YA fiction when I want something light.

Welcome to the group! I'm a big Jasper Fforde fan too and Shades of Grey was one of my favourite reads from last year.

Book: Thriving in the Knowledge Age: New Business Models for Museums and Other Cultural Institutions by John H. Falk and Beverly K. Sheppard
Rating: 3 stars

I only read this because it was assigned for a class; I really don't care for management theory. For me, the only thing that saved this book was the accessible writing style. I don't agree with the authors' educational theories or the direction they say museums should head. If the book hadn't been so well-written, I would have given it 2.5 stars.

Book: The Weed that Strings the Hangman's Bag by Alan Bradley
Rating: 4 stars

Murder has once again struck the small town of Bishop's Lacey, and eleven-year-old Flavia de Luce thinks she can solve the case. But what she doesn't realize is the connections between this murder and the horrible secrets that some of the town's residents have been keeping for years...

(And for the record, it's really hard to summarize a mystery novel without giving anything away.)

I read this entire book over the course of an afternoon and enjoyed it greatly, particularly after a long week of school readings. Although I don't think it's quite as good as the first in the series, it is certainly another mystery worth reading.

#20: I need to get that one read. Thanks for the reminder!

>20 casvelyn: & 21 - I need to get to that one this month. It's in my TBR mountain. The new one is coming out very soon.

> 22: A Red Herring without Mustard comes out February 8. I've already put my name on the hold list at the library, although I probably won't get it until March.

Hi There

I'm compiling a list of birthdays of our group members. If you haven't done so already, would you mind stopping by this thread and posting yours.

Thanks.

http://www.librarything.com/topic/105833

Book: Whose Body? by Dorothy L. Sayers
Rating: 4 stars

When Alfred Thipps finds a man dead in his bath, wearing nothing but a pince-nez, he cancels his meetings for the rest of the day, which ultimately results in Lord Peter Wimsey being called in to solve two mysteries: the identity of the man in the bath and the location of one Lord Reuben Levy, presumed to be dead.

As Sayers' debut Wimsey novel, I don't think this one is as good as the later ones. The characters are just as good, and I've read these out of order, so I know a good deal more about them than if I'd started at the beginning. The plot is just less engaging than the later Wimsey novels. Still, Sayers writes well and the book is entertaining.

Book: Daisy Miller by Henry James
Rating: 3 stars

Daisy Miller is the story of a young American girl who is touring Europe and causing quite a scandal in Rome by her going about unescorted with an Italian gentleman. Then she gets sick and dies. (Yes, that's the whole plot.)

I'm somewhat ambivalent about Henry James; the first work I ever read was the short story The Real Thing, which I liked. Next I tried The Bostonians, which I never finished because nothing happened. But then, nothing really happens in most of James' work. Overall, Daisy Miller was just okay.

#25: I agree with you that the first book in the Lord Peter Wimsey series is not the best but, like you, I still enjoyed it.

Book: The Four Loves by C. S. Lewis
Category: Non-Fiction
Rating: 5 stars

What can I really say? A brilliant exposition of what it means to love.

#28: I am not sure I have ever read that one by Lewis. I need to get to it!

Book: Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare
Rating: 3.5 stars

I'm not going to summarize this, as I think just about everyone already knows the plot.

I suspect that I found this play to be only average is in part because I already knew how it would end and in part because Shakespeare does nothing to make his audience sympathize with the star-crossed lovers. It is, of course, sad that they ended up dead because of some longstanding family feud, but if I've got my timeline down correctly, they met at a party, got married the next day, and died on the third day. The audience needs to see why Romeo and Juliet are so extremely in love and why they're meant for one another to be able to feel for them. Essentially, I gave this 3.5 stars for some clever wordplay from minor characters more than any other reason.

Textually, I agree with your assessment of Romeo and Juliet not being extremely sympathetic. However, in performance if the actors do their job, I think the characters become much more sympathetic. Also, in terms of the timeline, modern rom coms aren't always much better. Hope your next read is better.

Wow! I've got to give you credit for giving Shakespeare less than perfect marks!

>31 MickyFine:: I prefer to see Shakespeare (and all plays, really) performed rather than reading them myself. It's how plays are meant to be experienced. As for the rest of romantic comedy, I don't read it, so I wouldn't know. (I'm almost strictly a mystery, sci-fi, and fantasy reader.)

>32 mamzel:: I just call it like I see it. :) Actually, I get into trouble in lit classes, because my relative liking or disliking of the story is more important to me than any sort of textual analysis or criticism. As far as I'm concerned, Shakespeare didn't write plays because he wanted to have his work picked to pieces centuries later. He wrote (idealistically) to entertain an audience and (realistically) to make some money and gain fame.

Book: A Red Herring without Mustard by Alan Bradley
Rating: 4 stars

Flavia de Luce helps to solve one murder and one attempted murder in the small English town of Bishop's Lacy. (I really am bad at summaries; you'd be much better off just reading the book.)

As much as I enjoy this series, I'm beginning to wonder how many people Alan Bradley can conceivably kill in Bishop's Lacy - probably as many as got killed in Cabot's Cove.* However, as I read this book, I found myself appreciating it more for the descriptive passages than the mystery. Let's face it; I've read hundreds of mystery novels and at some point they all kind of feel the same. But this book made me want to move to England and live in an old manor in a small town, financial woes be damned! This book made me appreciate chemistry and thunderstorms, two things I can't stand in real life. (But then again, I've always viewed chemistry as synonymous with math, whereas Bradley makes it into an art form.)

*The fictional small-town setting of Murder, She Wrote.

Book: Blackout by Connie Willis
Category: Science Fiction and Fantasy
Rating: 4.5 stars

In the mid-21st century, the best way to study history is to travel through time and witness it. Naturally, there are some risks involved, but since all indications are that the timeline is self-correcting, it's not all that dangerous. In Blackout, three historians from Oxford travel back to World War II to study heroism at Dunkirk, the experiences of shopgirls during the Blitz, and the lives of evacuated London children in the English countryside. But they all end up seeing much more of the war than they originally intended.

I really, really like this book. As in, I simply couldn't read fast enough. I did figure out fairly early on how the book was going to end (besides the fact that it's To Be Continued in All Clear). The only thing that annoyed me was how each chapter followed a different character. It's absolutely necessary because of how the plot moves forward, but each chapter ends with its own little cliffhanger.

I'm assuming you have the second half of the story, All Clear, right there to read immediately! I'm like you, I powered through both books in a day each. Unfortunately, I miscalculated and started Blackout the Saturday before the Tuesday that All Clear was available...

Yep, I've got All Clear ready and waiting. Unfortunately, I *have* (insert fake dejection here) to read One of Our Thursdays is Missing before I can get to All Clear. Library due dates being what they are and all.

I have to get up to my indie bookstore to see if my signed copy of One of Our Thursdays is Missing has come in yet (fretting at the delay!!).

Did you get it? Is your silence an indication that you have your nose deep in Thursday's latest?

I'm in the early chapters of One of Our Thursdays is Missing; I've been trying to balance my reading with my multiple jobs and massive homework assignments. Oh, and a somewhat unhealthy obsession with television crime dramas. I think I watch every single one that airs on network TV (and a few of the cable ones as well). I've still got two weeks left on the loan period, so I should be okay.

I like reading your Sayers reviews. I'm about to start a re-read of them all, in order, as I think I've read them all over the years but not for a while.

And I've just started on my first Fforde: the Eyre Affair - enjoying it so far.

I'm going back and reading the Lord Peter novels in order - I've read half of them and I think I'll enjoy them more in order.

As for Thursday Next, I really can't praise the series highly enough. It's truly brilliant.

I picked up and finished my copy of One of Our Thursdays is Missing. I just can't seem to pace myself with his books.

Book: One of Our Thursdays is Missing by Jasper Fforde
Rating: 4 stars

WARNING: SPOILER(S)

The real Thursday Next is missing, and it's up to the much less talented written Thursday to save her and avert a genre war in the BookWorld.

As an individual book, this is a good read and a prime example of what I've come to expect from Fforde - something funny and crazy with a brilliantly unique way of looking at the world. Unfortunately, Thursday Next isn't in the book, except for a couple of lines at the end. And without Thursday (the real Thursday), it just isn't the same, hence the four stars.

Book: Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll
Rating: 3.5 stars

This was one of my favorite books as a child, and while I still see why I loved it so much, it's really hard to love a book with minimal plot and character development now that I'm older. But the wordplay is still brilliant. Rereading Alice in Wonderland, I see elements of what I now love about Jasper Fforde's books.

Book: A Letter of Mary by Laurie R. King
Rating: 5 stars

The third book in the Mary Russell series, A Letter of Mary finds Russell and Holmes at home in Sussex and ready for a new case. Conveniently, a mystery is thrust upon them when an acquaintance dies under suspicious circumstances just a few hours after visiting. What follows is the pursuit of three different sets of suspects, including a virulently misogynistic former soldier and the victim's own sister.

I love, love, love the Mary Russell series (just pre-ordered the paperback of The God of the Hive from Amazon today - 30% off!), and even though I've read the series countless times, I still reread it about once a year. Laurie R. King does a good job of painting a realistic Holmes, something some Sherlock Holmes writers don't do so well. But not only is the characterizations well done, but the mystery is enjoyable as well. (And to my knowledge, A Letter of Mary is the only novel to feature both Lord Peter Wimsey and J. R. R. Tolkien as minor characters.)

Book: Lord Edgeware Dies (aka Thirteen at Dinner) by Agatha Christie
Rating: 3.5 stars

Shortly after Lady Edgeware publicly declares she would like her husband dead, Lord Edgeware dies after being stabbed. Poirot takes up the case and naturally solves it.

Although not horrible, this is not one of Christie's most brilliant mysteries. Of course, I am biased by my dislike of Poirot, but since Christie herself tired of writing about him, I'm not alone. Like Hastings in the novel, if I heard Poirot speak of his little grey cells one more time... At least it was more interesting than the homework I should have been reading.

Book: After the Funeral (aka Funerals are Fatal) by Agatha Christie
Rating: 4 stars

When the Abernethie family gathers at the family estate to mourn the sudden but not entirely unexpected death of Richard Abernethie, they are shocked when his sister Cora assumes that the death was not due to natural causes. Acting on his suspicions, Richard's lawyer contacts Hercule Poirot, who once again solves the case.

I'm not a Poirot fan, although After the Funeral is far better than Lord Edgeware Dies. I truly didn't see the end coming - which is fine with me. I don't try to solve mysteries as I read and I don't like it when I can solve the whole thing after the first three chapters. Poirot is slightly less arrogant than usual in this book, which is a relief. However, the book is somewhat marred by commentary about non-English peoples, reflecting beliefs that are utterly inaccurate but were, unfortunately, common during the 1950s when Christie wrote this book.

Book: All Clear by Connie Willis
Rating: 5 stars

In the sequel to Blackout, Mike, Eileen, and Polly are still stuck in 1940s London, trying desperately to return to 21st century Oxford. As they slowly lose hope of ever returning home, they find themselves more and more involved with the people of London and their efforts to maintain morale during the difficult times of World War II.

I found All Clear to be better than Blackout, mostly because All Clear answers all the questions about time travel that Blackout raises. I simply could not read this book quickly enough. Because the story takes place in several different years, there were parts of the story that I, as the reader, knew that the characters did not, and Willis did a good job of not letting on how the plot would be resolved and yet managed to provide a resolution that tied up the dozens of loose ends and plot points littered throughout the two books in the series. The writing is also quite realistic and moving; sometimes when the characters faced yet another disappointment in their efforts to get home, I had to stop reading because I could feel how upset they were. These are two wonderful books that are in some ways much more historical than science fiction.

I'm so glad you ended up enjoying the Willis duo--they were my top reads of last year!

I loved the Willis books too! I am glad to see they have found another fan.

I'm planning on reading more by Connie Willis later in the year - I'm trying to fill my 11 in 11 categories evenly and failing miserably. All I ever seem to read are mysteries and sci-fi/fantasy.

I know I would fail miserably at doing anything like the 11 in 11 challenge, which is why I have never attempted something like that. Too restricting for me.

But I do have only 99 books to finish before the end of the year. I just need to read more non-fiction.

Well, good luck to you! I hope you meet the goal.

Book: The Thirteenth Tale
Rating: 3 stars

I wanted to like this book. Really, I did. I certainly loved the early chapters, where Margaret discusses her love of books and of reading, of reading at an early age, of the realization that in adulthood books aren't as magical as when one was a child (Is this why so many adults I know pride themselves on never reading fiction? Do they think it makes them appear more intelligent or grown up? Or do they not want to face the fact that as an adult it's so much harder to become truly lost in books. And with age often comes a more discriminating taste, meaning that books that captivated in one's youth now seem shallow or contrived. (How disappointing to reread My Side of the Mountain, and A Little Princess and Mara, Daughter of the Nile and realizing they're not the brilliant books I once thought they were. And really, I didn't need to find out that Carry On, Mr. Bowditch is far more fiction than historical. This is why I generally don't reread books from my childhood. I want to love them for what I think they are and not for what they really are.) Personally, though, I can't live without fiction, so no danger of my becoming a staid reader of histories and mathematics anytime soon.).

However, I really didn't care for Vida Winter's story at all. The characters are grotesque and not all that nice, but it feels as if they're trying too hard. They want to be evil and dark, but just come off as bland and pitiable. The Thirteenth Tale is rather like Wuthering Heights without the passion or cruelty or pain, so if you're looking for something dark and moody, try that or Jane Eyre. (Although, to be honest, I didn't find JE as dark as people seem to think it is.)

Sorry to see that you did not like The Thirteenth Tale more. I hope your next read is a better one for you!

Book: Clouds of Witness by Dorothy L. Sayers
Category: Mystery
Rating: 4 stars

Better than Whose Body? but not quite as good as the later Wimsey novels, this is nonetheless an enjoyable murder mystery that more fully develops the main characters of the series. This is a reread for me; I'd read half the Wimsey novels when it occurred to me that I'd better read them in order.

>57 alcottacre:: A much better read; one can't go wrong with a decent British murder mystery.

#58: I had that one home from the library but took it back unread. I will have to check it back out again!

#58 I've just re-read that one too, and Whose Body?, as I'm also doing a read/re-read in order at present.

I'd made it from Clouds of Witness to Strong Poison, but not in order, and the next one I was going to read was Busman's Holiday, but I figured I'd better not skip directly from the beginning to the end of the Harriet Vane subset. So I went to the beginning, which I hadn't ever read and began again, in the correct order this time. Except I've loaned four of them to a friend, so I'm having to check them all out of the library instead.

Book: A Century of Detection edited by John Cullen Gruesser (no touchstone)
Rating: 4 stars

Note: I got this book from the Early Reviewer program.

Like any collection of short stories, some of these were better than others. I personally find Edgar Allan Poe and Mark Twain to be overrated, so I only somewhat enjoyed these selections. Much better were The Stolen Cigar Case, Bret Harte's Sherlock Holmes parody and the mystery stories starring female detectives by Baroness Orczy and Anna Katharine Green (The Ninescore Mystery and Missing: Page Thirteen, respectively).

As a textbook or a short history of the mystery short story, this book is quite well done. The stories aren't analyzed to death; in fact, there is little analysis or criticism at all. Rather, Gruesser presents a brief biographical sketch of each author and leaves it at that.

Book: Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day by Winifred Watson
Rating: 4.5 stars

An absolutely delightful book that chronicles one day in the life of Miss Guinevere Pettigrew. The dowdy, prudish, spinster Miss Pettigrew goes to find work at the house of Delysia LaFosse, but ends up becoming a part of Delysia's life for the day as Miss Pettigrew attempts to help Delysia sort out her complicated love life while participating in such scandalous activities such as drinking, smoking, and going to a night club. I read this book in roughly two hours and simply could not put it down. I've added it to my wishlist.

I really enjoyed Miss Pettigrew when I read it last year. I picked it up after seeing the film and have a soft spot for both. If you haven't watched the film, I recommend it.

I saw the movie before I even knew there was a book. Both are absolutely delightful.

Book: A Letter Concerning Toleration by John Locke
Rating: 3.5 stars

Locke's classic work on why governments should not make laws concerning religious matters and why religious leaders should not try to take over the government. Locke has a good argument overall, but he tends to ramble a lot.

Book: Around the World in Eighty Days by Jules Verne
Rating: 4 stars

Another reread from my childhood, this is the story of wealthy, eccentric Phileas Fogg who sets off with his valet to go around the world in eighty days, all because some of his friends say it can't be done. The book is extremely fast-paced, fitting with Fogg's need for speed, but in some parts it moves too quickly or wraps up plot points in too convenient a manner. Still, an entertaining read. I think it's time to replace my mass market paperback from the '60s, as the cover has come off and the pages have divided themselves into four or five separated sections.

I keep meaning to read Jules Verne. Thanks for the reminder.

Not a problem! Besides Around the World in Eighty Days, I haven't read any Verne in years. His books were in the adult fiction section of my public library, so I always used to read them during the summer reading program. Adult books were the best to read for the program because they earned double points and weren't as likely to be checked out.

Book: Ex Libris: Confessions of a Common Reader by Anne Fadiman
Rating: 5 stars

A delightful and not-nearly-long-enough collection of essays on books and book-collecting.

Book: The Merchant of Venice by William Shakespeare
Rating: 4 stars

Overall, not a bad play. Although I was familiar with the main thrust of the play, there were several subplots that made it more enjoyable.

Book: Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen
Rating: 5 stars

Another reread. I'm trying to read all the books I own that I haven't rated yet (anything I read before November 2009). I think this is my favorite Austen novel, although I haven't yet read half of them.

So glad you enjoyed your re-read. Have you thought about joining the Austenathon? We're doing Mansfield Park next month.

We have an Austenathon? Sweet! I'll try to join in on Mansfield Park; it was my first Austen (don't ask me how I ended up with that one first) and I like it much more than most people seem to. I'm slowly working my way through the 121 books of my 11 in 11 Challenge, reading several books on the Renaissance for the May Reading Through Time Challenge, and doing an 11 in 11 group read of Agnes Grey, but I think I can make room for one more book.

Links for the Austenathon are on the wiki. One novel every other month for the year. Mansfield is a very odd first Austen. My first was Emma, which I picked up after watching the Gwyneth Paltrow version. My love for all of Austen's novels has never ceased since.

P.S. Impressive plans for your reading! I don't think I could ever be that organized. I do a little planning and then allow for random interests and serendipity.

I'm an avid Stat-a-holic and have kept a record of all the books that I have read in the last 17 years (2013 books!). This year so far I have managed 33 but these include (Centennial) by ((James Michener)) and (London) by ((Edward Rutherfurd)) which encompass together some 2000 pages. I have read all the ((Daniel Silva)) Gabriel Allon books, (The Age of Orphans), ((Robert Goddard)), ((Michael Jecks)), ((Jo Nesbo)). On target again for over a hundred books!!

>76 MickyFine:: I go back and forth between serendipity and planned reading. If I plan too much, I get frustrated by all the books I could be reading (my TBR list has over 800 books), but if I plan too little, I end up piddling away my free time on the internet and not reading at all. I have so little free time and so many fun distractions that sometimes make it difficult to choose books.

>77 PaulCranswick:: I'm most definitely a stats nerd as well. It's really why I moved my catalog to LT from an Excel spreadsheet - my calculations were getting too complicated. I have a record of all the books I've read in the past 21 years, but not everything is cataloged here. I'm only in my mid-20s (started reading when I was 4), so when I cataloged all those children's books, I got a lot of recommended books I had no interest in and similar libraries of people with kids and school libraries. So I cut most books read before 2000 so that my online records better reflect my adult reading interests. Still have that spreadsheet with the whole list, though.

Book: Unnatural Death by Dorothy L. Sayers
Rating: 4.8 stars

This is the third Lord Peter book, and Sayers has finally hit her stride. I don't know if it's because she's finally comfortable with writing the characters of Lord Peter and Inspector Parker or if it's because the introduction of Miss Climpson allows the narration to follow more characters than before, but I really do like Unnatural Death better than the previous Wimsey novels.

Essentially, this is the story of an elderly terminal cancer patient whose doctor believed she had been murdered when everyone else assumed she'd simply died of cancer. And of course, Lord Peter comes along and figures out the truth to everyone's satisfaction.

Book: The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club by Dorothy L. Sayers
Rating: 4.6

Another Lord Peter novel about elderly people dying before their time. Perhaps Unnatural Death was such a success that Sayers decided to try it again. At any rate, another excellent mystery with quite a few interesting twists before the end.

Book: A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin
Rating: 2.4

This is the lowest I've ever rated a book I've finished.

I'd heard so many good things about this book and I really wanted to like it. However, the narrative moved way too quickly for my tastes. The world Le Guin has created is vast and diverse, but I never felt it was real the way I felt when I read The Lord of the Rings or The Chronicles of Narnia. The audience never gets to see anything of the internal life or emotional depth of the characters or how they really feel about anything that happens in the book. We're told that Ged feels this way or that way about something, but we're never allowed to feel with him. This book could have been powerful, full of pain and fear and guilt and hope and triumph, but instead it's all just a lot of words on a page.

Book: I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith
Rating: 5.0

This is the story of the Mortmain family, who live in a falling-down castle in England, as told by the youngest daughter, Cassandra. The family's life is changed by the return of the young owners of the castle from America.

This is really an amazing book. It isn't like anything I've ever read before, although I could compare it to Pride and Prejudice and Anne of Green Gables. It's just a perfect book.

>82 casvelyn: I just read that one last month. I'm really glad you enjoyed it! :)

Book: The Borgias and Their Enemies by Christopher Hibbert
Rating: 4.5

This book provides a good introduction to the Borgias and their... activities in Renaissance Italy, France, and Spain. After reading it, though, I rather wish I hadn't been introduced. The whole lot of them were absolutely revolting. It actually gave me a sick feeling to think about how cavalierly they treated their positions within the Church (not that there weren't other people in that time period doing the same thing... don't even get me started on the Medicis). Really, if you're a Cardinal, you oughtn't have half a gazillion mistresses but then brag about how holy you are because you take Communion every day.

So in a nutshell: This is a good book about bad people.

Maybe I should take a friend's suggestion and start that list of "Historical Figures I Shall Give a Piece of My Mind Once I Get My Time Machine."

#84: I will have to see if I have that one in the BlackHole. Thanks for the recommendation!

Book: The Inimitable Jeeves and Very Good, Jeeves! by P. G. Wodehouse
Rating: 4.3 for each

Since these books are so similar, I'll review them together. Bertram "Bertie" Wooster is a wealthy gentleman, sort of a much less intelligent version of Lord Peter Wimsey (or Lord Peter is a much smarter version of Bertie Wooster, depending on who was created first). Jeeves is Bertie's valet, with a talent for solving people's problems, mostly the sorts of problems gotten into by wealthy people with too much time on their hands, like proposing to a lower-class girl or betting too much money on a horse that fails to win. All of the stories are entertaining, and some are absolutely hilarious.

And my curiosity got the better of me: Wooster debuted in 1915, while Wimsey didn't appear until 1923.

>82 casvelyn:: I adored I Capture the Castle when I read it last year. It's one of those books that just grabs ahold and doesn't let go until the last page, even though it's a little bit odd.

Happy Thingaversary! It is my 5 year Thingaversary too!

>87 dk_phoenix: It reminded me of Pride and Prejudice and Anne of Green Gables.

>88 alcottacre: Oh, it is my Thingaversary, isn't it. Thanks! I always forget because I joined up the very first time I heard about LibraryThing back in 2006, but then never used it until April of last year when one of my fellow library science students did a presentation on it and I thought to myself "Hey, this looks like a cool site. I've got an account on there, don't I? Maybe I should use it..."

#89: I really did not use LT for the first year or so either. Once I started though, there was no holding me back!

Book: Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone by J. K. Rowling
Rating: 4.6

I'm not going to really review this. I mean, it's Harry Potter, so I think we're all familiar with the plot and relative merits of the work. I'm rereading the HP series because I've read all the books but this one just once before, and it took me a year to get through the entire series; not because I didn't like it, but because it's so hard to get the books from the library without finding oneself on an obscenely long list. And apparently this is one series that gets checked out and somehow never makes it back. So yes, a reread and I like it.

Book: Right Ho, Jeeves by P. G. Wodehouse
Rating: 4.2

Of the three Jeeves novels I've read recently, this was my favorite. (It got a slightly lower rating only because I take other factors into account.) Bertie is convinced that he can fix his friends' romantic problems better than Jeeves can, but he manages to bungle things rather badly. Jeeves' method for fixing everything is, of course, hilarious.

Book: Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by J. K. Rowling
Rating: 4.6

Just the next book in the series.

I think I'm going to save my next re-read of Harry Potter for after I see the last film in July. Glad you're enjoying your latest visit to Hogwarts. :)

Book: Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by J. K. Rowling
Rating: 4.8

Still working on the Potter-thon. This is my favorite so far.

Books 3, 4, and 6 are my favorites, so I am with you in liking TPoA. I am glad to see you are still enjoying your Potter-thon.

Book: Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J. K. Rowling
Rating: 4.4

And yet another Harry Potter book. Not quite as impressed with this one, but it's still good.

Book: The Five Red Herrings by Dorothy L. Sayers
Rating: 4.0

I've taken a break from my Potter-thon to read the next Lord Peter book. One of these days I'll complete all the series I'm in the middle of. (Just in time to start all the other series I want to start, right?) Anyhow, this could be one of my favorite Lord Peter novels, except for one thing; it's set in Scotland, so most of the characters speak in a thick Scottish accent. It's hard to understand what they are saying because Sayers has spelled everything the way it is pronounced and not in the correct spelling. But otherwise, this is an excellent mystery where everything had to happen according to a strict timetable that the detective must reconstruct. Also, the last few chapters, where Lord Peter reenacts the entire murder and ensuing coverup, are priceless.

Book: Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix by J. K. Rowling
Rating: 4.0

Technically, this should be my favorite book in the series - I love plots where oppressed people meet in secret and eventually gain enough skill and power to overthrow their oppressors. But I'm always too annoyed with Ron, Harry, and Hermione's constant bickering to actually enjoy the rest of the book. Plus, I wish there were more scenes with Dumbledore's Army. Also, by about page 450, I'm wishing my arms didn't hurt so bad from holding the book.

Book: Tintin in America by Hergé
Rating: 3.4

Book: Cigars of the Pharaoh by Hergé
Rating: 3.7

Book: The Blue Lotus by Hergé
Rating 3.9

In anticipation of the new Tintin movie, my brother got twenty-one Tintin books from the library. I figured I'd read them while he had them checked out. We first came across Tintin at a used book sale 10+ years ago, and even though we never could find more than that one book, we really liked it and wanted to find more. Now that the books have been reissued, our library has them. These three books are entertaining, but the plots and characters are your standard spy/adventure fare, with little embellishment.

Book: The Broken Ear by Hergé
Rating: 3.2

Book: The Black Island by Hergé
Rating: 3.9

Book: King Ottokar's Sceptre by Hergé
Rating: 4.1

Moving on with the Tintin books. There are just too many series in the world. I need to start reading some books that aren't related to any other books whatsoever.

And in case anyone ever wondered what all the Syldavian passages meant... http://www.zompist.com/syldavian.html

Book: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince by J. K. Rowling
Rating: 4.7

Either this or Prisoner of Azkaban are my favorites so far. Starting book seven tomorrow.

Half-Blood Prince is my favourite book and Prisoner of Azkaban is my favourite film. Nice choices. ;)

I agree with Micky - nice choices for favorites!

Thanks! I'll have to see how I feel after finishing Deathly Hallows. This is only my second time through the series, so when my friends say, "Okay, top five favorite parts from any book" and stuff like that, I have to remind them that I haven't been reading the series over the last 10+ years like everyone else. I don't really know which of the movies is my favorite - I haven't seen any of them more than twice. After the seventh comes out on DVD, I'm going to have a Harry Potter movie-watching marathon. I don't remember movies the way I remember books. I just remember that I couldn't stand the second half of the Half-Blood Prince movie.

Book: The Crab with the Golden Claws by Hergé
Rating: 4.0

Book: The Shooting Star by Hergé
Rating: 4.4

Book: The Secret of the Unicorn by Hergé
Rating: 4.4

Book: Red Rackham's Treasure by Hergé
Rating: 3.9

Book: The Seven Crystal Balls by Hergé
Rating: 3.9

Book: Prisoners of the Sun by Hergé
Rating: 4.1

Book: Land of Black Gold by Hergé
Rating: 3.7

Book: Destination Moon by Hergé
Rating: 4.1

Book: Explorers on the Moon by Hergé
Rating: 4.1

Book: The Calculus Affair by Hergé
Rating: 3.7

Book: The Red Sea Sharks by Hergé
Rating: 3.5

Book: Tintin in Tibet by Hergé
Rating: 4.0

Whooo! Trying to catch up is an arduous task. Back to #3, you and I are a minority in our assessment of *Major Pettigrew.* I'm always happy to see somebody else who was less than thrilled with it. >8 casvelyn: I also agree with you on short stories (and have gotten a bit beat up about my dislike - even to the extent of being told that I don't understand how to read them.....). And I've just started rereading the Wimsey novels and short stories in order with Stasia. We'll have fun. I also have to read a little Wodehouse every now and then to keep me sweet. And I loved and adored *Blackout/All Clear*! SO. It's fun to see you having such a good time.

Well then, I apparently don't know how to read short stories either. I just like stories with plot and character development, and if a short story does that, then I'll probably like it. But some of the stuff I read in my undergrad lit classes, where the story was just 5-30 pages of words, I didn't like at all. The professor would say something like "This author is so brilliant, he/she wrote a story where there's no dialog and the characters are never named," and I always wanted to say, "That's not brilliance, that's bad writing." But I was getting a degree in history, so I wasn't going to argue with the people who studied literature professionally. Then again, my sole criteria for judging the quality of a work is how much I liked it.

Book: The Castafiore Emerald by Hergé
Rating: 3.8

Book: Flight 714 by Hergé
Rating: 4.1

Book: Tintin and the Picaros by Hergé
Rating 4.1

I'm done with Tintin for now. It was fun, but I probably need to read my other library books before they're due.

wow! 23 books in 8 days I am impressed. I take it the Tin-Tin books are a little on the addictive side non?

They are very addictive. They are also very short.

I am also very short but according to my wife not so addictive!

Book: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J. K. Rowling
Rating: 4.2

I think this book may be less well-written than the others. At least, that's the impression I always get when starting it. But by the time I hit 100 pages, I'm so sucked into the plot that I can't remember to analyze the writing. So I guess J. K. Rowling did a good job, even if the writing isn't quite up to the usual standard.

Book: The Last Battle by C. S. Lewis
Rating: 4.0

Reread this real quickly because I'd read the other six last year and wanted to complete the series. A good book, but not as good as the others, I think. I get what Lewis was trying to do theologically and allegorically, but Narnia's the sort of place one wants to imagine just goes on forever and ever and is still out there somewhere in the back of someone's wardrobe.

#115: Narnia's the sort of place one wants to imagine just goes on forever and ever and is still out there somewhere in the back of someone's wardrobe.

I completely agree with that!

Book: Agnes Grey by Anne Brontë
Rating: 4.5

Overall a very good book, although most of the characters were completely obnoxious.

#117: LOL @ your comment

Well, normally I don't like books with that many appalling characters.

I just realized I'd forgotten to write about the last two books I've read, so here they are, plus the one I just finished today.

Book: The Comedy of Errors by William Shakespeare
Category: Anything Goes
Rating: 3.2

I have come to the conclusion that I don't like reading Shakespeare. Anyhow, this comedy really wasn't all that funny, hence the low-ish rating.

Book: Why Didn't They Ask Evans? by Agatha Christie
Category: Rereads
Rating: 4.9

One of my favorite Christie novels thus far. I seem to like her books without any of the "main" detectives better, particularly those without Poirot.

Book: Have His Carcase by Dorothy L. Sayers
Category: Mystery
Rating: 4.9

This is my favorite Lord Peter book so far, although I'm fairly certain I say that after every book. Although, I did figure out the plot twist about 300 pages before Peter and Harriet got around to it. Lord Peter says something to the effect of "Based on the evidence, the victim must have been killed at 2:00 pm." At which point I thought, "Not if he was _____." (I'm not giving anything away. Go read the book yourself.) But I've been reading mysteries since I was a child, and there's only so many plots out there. It's rather unfortunate, really.

Only three more books, and I'll be at 75. I really didn't think I'd make it this far this fast.

#120: I am re-reading the Sayers books at the moment, but I am only up to book 3, which I will be starting next week. I am glad to see you are enjoying the series!

I love them! I've got the last five from the library, except for The Nine Tailors, which somebody else has right now. I'm working on collecting the series myself, but since I'm buying them all used and buying only if I can match the particular editions I want, it's taking a while. I have this thing where if I collect a series, all the books have to match. I can't have some from one edition and others from another.

#123: I have this thing where if I collect a series, all the books have to match. I can't have some from one edition and others from another.

To me, that is a completely understandable affliction :)

>124 alcottacre:, yes, but to my best friend this makes no sense. To her, as long as one has every book in the series, it doesn't matter if they match or not. Of course, the contents are the same no matter what, but it makes the shelves look so much nicer if all the series are clearly delineated by cover style.

#125: Ah, well. To each their own.

Whenever I write a mystery review, I just want to say that there was a murder and after several hundred pages of plot developments, the murderer was caught. But that makes them all sound so incredibly boring (I was going to say "deadly dull," but coupling "deadly" with "murder mystery" seems a bit much), and mystery is my absolute favorite genre. So I suppose I shall exert myself and write some real reviews.

Book: The Mystery of the Blue Train by Agatha Christie
Rating: 4.1

This book begins with the popular plot device of "X is heard to wish Y dead and days later Y is murdered. Guess who the prime suspect is?" (In this case, X is a high-rolling, impoverished husband and Y is his wealthy, divorce-seeking wife.) Fortunately, Christie flushes out this plot nicely, with several entertaining subplots and a surprisingly non-arrogant Hercule Poirot.

Book: Hamlet, Revenge! by Michael Innes
Rating: 4.4

This is the second book in Innes' Inspector Appleby series. I haven't read the first one because I can't get it from either of my libraries. I don't think this series has to be read in any particular order, but I once said that about the Lord Peter series, which turned out not to be the case (it's all Harriet Vane's fault).* But anyhow...

This is a rather nice little country house murder mystery inextricably tied to Shakespeare's Hamlet. Despite my recent conclusion that I don't really like Shakespeare and the fact that I've never read Hamlet, I really did enjoy this book. It's a sort of country house murder meets political intrigue meets theater murder with plot tied to play. There's also some nice references to Mansfield Park. Although it starts rather slowly, this is quite a good mystery and I look forward to reading more Innes mysteries.

*Do please note that I am solidly in the camp of people who believe that Harriet brought something to the series and decidedly not of the opinion that her appearance ruined Peter forever.

Excellent! Another Agatha Christie that I don't think I have read before. I'm adding The Mystery of the Blue Train to my list.

Book: The Princess and the Goblin by George MacDonald
Rating: 4.3

This is a book I've owned for years and never read. Not that you'd know that by looking at my copy of the book; the cover is missing (it's not had a cover as long as I've owned it) and the book is in two larger chunks with several pages detached completely. This is, I suppose, the downside to buying used books.

But what my poor battered book lacks in aesthetics, it makes up for by being a very good book. This is a children's book, and MacDonald does sometimes write as if he's talking to a very small child, but it doesn't really detract from the overall effect of the book. I wish I'd read this as a child, especially since it's been sitting on my shelf since I was 8 or 9.

Since I've now finished the challenge, and it's only June (no, I'm not planning on reading another 75 books before the year is over), I'm starting a new thread, which can be found here: http://www.librarything.com/topic/119442

Congratulations on reaching the 75 book mark! And now, on to your next thread...