Smiler: Speedier than Lightning in 2011. Part Quatre.

My Threads
Part Un (Books 1-5)
Part Deux (Books 6-29)
Part Trois (Books 30-54)
11 in 11 Challenge:
Category #1: The Classics 5/11
Category #2: Émile Zola's Rougon-Macquart Series 2/11
Category #3: Mysteries & Crime Fiction 6/11
Category #4: Visual Arts 3/11
Category #5: Books Published Since 2009 5/11
Category #6: New To Me Authors 6/11
Category #7: Big and Scary: books over 400 pages 3/11
Category #8: The Two World Wars and the Time In-Between 5/11
Category #9: En Français 2/11
Category #10: Sooner Than Later: Recent Acquisitions 7/11
Category #11: The Film Might Be Good But the Book is Better 6/11

Currently Reading:
Playback : A Graphic Novel by Raymond Chandler
♫ Animal Farm by George Orwell

Planned reads for May
1. *Silas Marner by George Eliot - (Library Book, TIOLI #13, 206 p.)
2. ♫ *Mansfield Park by Jane Austen - (group read, TIOLI #13, )
3. ✔ Stupeur et tremblements (Fear and Trembling) by Amélie Nothomb - (TIOLI #13, 11 in 11, 171 p.)
4. *La Conquête de Plassans (The Conquest of Plassans) by Émile Zola - (Library Book, 466 p.)
5. *The Paris Wife by Paula McLain - (Library Book, TIOLI #13, 320 p.)
6. ✔ The Kill Artist by Daniel Silva - (TIOLI #13, M&M, 428 p.)
7. ✔ Caught Stealing Charlie Huston - (TIOLI #13, M&M, 240 p.)
8. ✔ The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity, and the Making of The Oxford English Dictionary by Simon Winchester - (M&M, 242 p.)
9. *Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys - (M&M, Library Book, 155 p.)
10. ♫ And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie - (TIOLI #1, M&M)
11. *Playback : a graphic novel by Raymond Chandler - (M&M, Library Book, TIOLI #8, 98 p.) - Reading
12. *In Search of Klingsor by Jorge Volpi - (Library Book, TIOLI #2, 414 p.)
13. *L'argent facile (Stockholm Noir 1) by Jens Lapidus - (TIOLI #13, M&M, 11 in 11, Library Book, 536 p.)
14. ✔ The Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place: Book I: The Mysterious Howling by Maryrose Wood (288 p.)
15. ✔ Mystic River by Dennis Lehane (TIOLI #1, M&M, 11 in 11, 416 p.)

TIOLI Optional Reads:
♫ On the Road by Jack Kerouac - (TIOLI #7)
♫ or ✔ Animal Farm by George Orwell - (TIOLI #2)
♫ A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving - (TIOLI #13)
♫ Dubliners by James Joyce (TIOLI #12, 11 in 11)
♫ The Tiger's Wife by Téa Obreht (TIOLI #13, 11 in 11)
♫ Live and Let Die by Ian Fleming - (TIOLI #13, M&M)
♫ No Dominion by Charlie Huston - (TIOLI #13, M&M, 11 in 11)
✔ Lullabies for Little Criminals by Heather O'Neill - (TIOLI #13, M&M, 11 in 11, 352 p.)
✔ Soulless by Gail Carriger - (TIOLI #12, M&M, 384 p.)

May Murder & Mayhem (M&M) Optional Reads:
✔ Double Indemnity James M. Cain - (TIOLI #18)
✔ The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett - (TIOLI #18)
✔ Les inconnus dans la maison (The Strangers in the House) Georges Simenon - (TIOLI #18)
✔ Slammerkin by Emma Donoghue - (TIOLI #18)
✔ Out by Natsuo Kirino - (TIOLI #12)
✔ Christine Falls by Benjamin Black - (TIOLI #18)
✔ One Good Turn by Kate Atkinson - (TIOLI #18)

♫ = audiobook
✔ = off the shelf

My rating system:
★ - hated it (suffered through 100+ pages & listing it for the trouble)
★★ - it was just ok
★★★ - enjoyed it (good)
★★★★ - loved it! (very good)
★★★★★ - all-time favourite (blew me away—will read again)

Books I've read so far:

January:
1. Barney's Version by Mordecai Richler (TIOLI) ★★★★ (review)
2. La Belle au Bois Dormant (Sleeping Beauty) by Tahar Ben Jelloun (TIOLI) ★★★★ (review)
3. Regeneration - 1st of the Regeneration Trilogy by Pat Barker (TIOLI) ★★★★★ (review)
4. Shutter Island by Dennis Lehane ★★★ (review)
5. Sanderson: The Essence of English Decoration by Mary Schoeser ★★★★½ (review)
6. Super Sad True Love Story by Gary Shteyngart (TIOLI) ★★★ (review)
7. Doors Open by Ian Rankin (TIOLI) ★★★ (review)
8. The Gruffalo by Julia Donaldson ★★★★ (review)
9. A Bad Case of Stripes by David Shannon ★★★★ (review)
10. The Children's Book by A.S. Byatt (TIOLI) ★★★★ (review)
11. Egon Schiele: The Leopold Collection by Rudolf Leopold (TIOLI) ★★★½ (review)
12. Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen (TIOLI, Group Read) ★★★ (review)
13. The Bad Beginning by Lemony Snicket ★★★ (review)
14. The Arrival by Shaun Tan ★★★★★ (review)
15. Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak ★★★★ (review)
16. The Bells by Richard Harvell ★★★★ (review)
17. Black and Blue by Ian Rankin ★★½ (TIOLI) (review)
18. ♫ Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens ★★★ (TIOLI) (review)
19. ♫ Diary of a Wimpy Kid by Jeff Kinney ★★★★ (review)
20. The Kitchen House by Kathleen Grissom ★★★★ (review)

February:
21. Through a Glass Darkly by Donna Leon ★★★ (review)
22. ♫ Skellig by David Almond ★★★ (review)
23. The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman ★★★★★ (review)
24. Doctor Faustus by Christopher Marlowe ★★★½ (review)
25. ♫ The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman ★★★★★ (review)
26. ♫ The Return of the Soldier by Rebecca West ★★★★½ (review)
27. ♫ The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins ★★★★⅓ (review)
28. ♫ Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass by Lewis Carroll ★★★★½ (notes on the audiobook)
29. Three Seconds by Roslund & Hellström ★★★ (review)
30. The Turn of the Screw and The Aspern Papers by Henry James ★★★★ (review)
31. ♫ The Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Agatha Christie ★★★½ (review)
32. The Story of Edgar Sawtelle by David Wroblewski ★★★★ (review)
33. ♫ Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman ★★★★¼ (review)
34. La Fortune des Rougons by Émile Zola ★★★★ (review)
35. Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins ★★★★ (review)
36. ♫ The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton ★★★★ (review)
37. The Eye in the Door by Pat Barker ★★★⅘ (review)

March:
38. ♫ Cocaine Blues by Kerry Greenwood ★★★⅘ (review)
39. Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats by T.S. Eliot ★★★★¼ (review)
40. ♫ The Help by Kathryn Stockett ★★★★⅓ (review)
41. Sandman: Preludes and Nocturnes by Neil Gaiman ★★★¾ (review)
42. Al Capone Does My Shirts by Gennifer Choldenko ★★★¾ (review)
43. ♫ The ABC Murders by Agatha Christie ★★★ (review)
44. Coraline by Neil Gaiman ★★★★ (review)
45. Tales From Outer Suburbia by Shaun Tan ★★★★ (review)
46. Dead Souls by Ian Rankin ★★½ (review)
47. Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules by Jeff Kinney ★★½ (review)
48. ♫ Already Dead by Charlie Huston ★★★¾ (review)
49. ♫ The Ruby in the Smoke by Philip Pullman ★★★★⅓ (review)
50. ♫ Our Man in Havana by Graham Greene ★★★½ (review)
51. Joyful Noise: Poems for Two Voices by Paul Fleischman ★★★¾ (review)
52. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen ★★⅚ (review)
53. My Reading Life by Pat Conroy ★★⅚ (review)
54. ♫ Tripwire by Lee Child ★★★★ (review)
55. The Shape of Water by Andrea Camilleri ★★★½ (review)
56. ♫ Matilda by Roald Dahl ★★★★ (review)
57. The Portrait of a Lady by Henry James ★★★★½ (review)

April:
58. ♫ Three Men in a Boat (to say nothing of the dog) by Jerome K. Jerome ★★★★ (review)
59. Sandman: The Doll's House by Neil Gaiman ★★½ (review)
60. The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafón ★★★★⅝ (review)
61. ♫ Mildred Pierce by James M. Cain ★★★★ (review)
62. The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick ★★★★ (review)
63. Invisible River by Helena McEwen ★ (Read for Early Reviewers) (review)
64. ♫ Across the Nightingale Floor by Lian Hearn ★★★★⅓ (review)
65. ♫ Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day by Winifred Watson ★★★★⅞ (review)
66. ♫ Vile Bodies by Evelyn Waugh ★★★★⅓ (review)
67. La Curée (The Kill) by Émile Zola ★★★★⅓ (review)
68. ♫ The Inimitable Jeeves by P. G. Wodehouse ★★⅘ (review)
69. The Rehearsal by Eleanor Catton ★★½ (review)
70. Mockingjay (Hunger Games 3) by Suzanne Collins ★★★★ (review)
71. ♫ Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë ★★★★⅞ (review)
72. The Subtle Knife by Philip Pullman ★★★★½ (review)
73. Apollo's Angels : A History of Ballet by Jennifer Homans ★★★★ (review coming soon)
74. ♫ Grass for His Pillow (Tales of the Otori: Book 2) by Lian Hearn ★★★½ (review coming soon)
75. ♫ The Fall of the House of Usher: The Pit and the Pendulum and Other Tales of Mystery and Imagination by Edgar Allan Poe ★★★⅝ (review coming soon)
76. A Moveable Feast by Ernest Hemingway (rating & review coming soon)
77. ♫ The Devotion of Suspect X by Keigo Higashino (rating & review coming soon)
78. Le Ventre de Paris (The Belly of Paris) by Émile Zola (rating & review coming soon)

Pic by Smiler

Books I'd like to read in June
The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet by David Mitchell - (Library Book, Group Read)

* = must read
♫ = audiobook
✔ = off the shelf

Books I'd like to read this year (the short list)

1. ✔ Prodigal Summer and/or The Bean Trees by Barbara Kingsolver
2. ✔ Polio: An American Story by David M. Oshinsky
3. ✔ Of Mice and Men and Cannery Row by John Steinbeck
4. ✔ The House at Riverton by Kate Morton
5. ✔ Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
6. ✔ Mrs Dalloway by Virginia Woolf
7. ✔ A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway
8. ✔ The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton
9. ✔ La Fortune des Rougons by Émile Zola (Rougon-Macquart 1)
10. ♫ Mansfield Park by Jane Austen
11. ♫ Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen
12. ✔ The Moment of Seeing by Stephanie Comer
13. ✔ The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie by Alan Bradley
14. ✔ The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett
15. ✔ The House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende
16. ✔ The Story of Edgar Sawtelle by David Wroblewski
17. ✔ Sea of Poppies by Amitav Ghosh
18. ✔ Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel
19. ✔ A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry
20. ✔ The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
21. ✔ The Beautiful and Damned by F. Scott Fitzgerald
22. ✘ Suite Française by Irène Némirovsky
23. ✔ Samarcande by Amin Maalouf
24. ✔ La vie devant soi (The Life Before Us) by Romain Gary
25. ✔ Stupeurs et tremblements (Fear and Trembling) by Amélie Nothomb
26. ✔ L'enfant de sable (The Sand Child) by Tahar Ben Jelloun
27. ✔ The Turn of the Screw by Henry James
28. ✔ Crete by Barry Unsworth
29. ✔ Blindness by José Saramago
30. ✔ Oscar and Lucinda by Peter Carey
31. ✔ Trainspotting by Irvine Welsh
32. ✔ The Difference Engine by William Gibson
33. ✔ The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi
34. ✔ One Good Turn by Kate Atkinson
35. ✔ The Complete Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
36. ✔ The Worst Hard Time by Timothy Egan
37. ✘ The Complete Maus by Art Spiegelman
38. ✔ La Curée by Émile Zola (Rougon-Macquart 2)
39. ✘ Le Ventre de Paris by Émile Zola (Rougon-Macquart 3)
40. ✘ La Conquête de Plassans by Émile Zola (Rougon-Macquart 4)
41. ✘ La Faute de l'Abbé Mouret by Émile Zola (Rougon-Macquart 5)
42. ✘ Son Excellence Eugène Rougon by Émile Zola (Rougon-Macquart 6)
43. ✔ L'Assomoir by Émile Zola (Rougon-Macquart 7)
44. ✘ Une Page d'Amour by Émile Zola (Rougon-Macquart 8)
45. ✔ Nana by Émile Zola (Rougon-Macquart 9)
46. ✔ Pot-Bouille by Émile Zola (Rougon-Macquart 10)
47. ✔ Mister Pip by Lloyd Jones
48. ✘ To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
49. ✘ Apollo's Angels: A History of Ballet by Jennifer Homans
50. ✘ Cleopatra : A Life by Stacy Schiff
51. ✔ The Subtle Knife by Philip Pullman
52. ✘ The Amber Spyglass by Philip Pullman
53. ✔ The Shadow in the North by Philip Pullman
54. ✔ L'élégance du hérisson by Muriel Barbery
55. ✔ La forme de l'eau by Andrea Camilleri
56. ✔ l'Excursion à Tindari by Andrea Camilleri
57. ✔ L'enfant de Noé by Éric-Emmanuel Schmitt
58. ✘ La reine Margot by Alexandre Dumas
59. ✔ Loving Frank by Nancy Horan
60. ✔ The Book of Negroes by Lawrence Hill
61. ♫ ❉ A Doll's House and Hedda Gabler by Henrik Ibsen
62. ♫ An Object of Beauty by Steve Martin
63. ♫ Animal Farm by George Orwell
64. ♫ Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption by Laura Hillenbrand
65. ♫ ❉ As You Like It by Shakespeare
66. ♫ Birds Without Wings by Louis de Bernières
67. ♫ Bridge of Sighs by Richard Russo
68. ♫ Coraline by Neil Gaiman
69. ✔ American Gods by Neil Gaiman
70. ♫ ❉ Doctor Faustus by Christopher Marlowe
71. ♫ Dubliners by James Joyce
72. ♫ Gros-câlin by Romain Gary
73. ♫ Lady Audley's Secret by Mary Elizabeth Braddon
74. ♫ No Dominion by Charlie Huston
75. ♫ Passing by Nella Larsen
76. ♫ Tales Of Mystery and Imagination by Edgar Allan Poe
77. ♫ Shanghai Girls by Lisa See
78. ♫ The Big Over Easy by Jasper Fforde
79. ♫ The Blue Notebook by James Levine
80. ♫ ❉ The Cherry Orchard by Anton Chekhov
81. ♫ The Girls of Slender Means by Muriel Spark
82. ♫ Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson
83. ♫ Tropic of Cancer by Henry Miller
84. ♫ When You Are Engulfed in Flames by David Sedaris

✔ = off the shelf
✘ = to borrow, mooch, or purchase
♫ = audiobook (off the shelf)
❉ = performance

(ongoing editing)

55. The Shape of Water by Andrea Camilleri ★★★½
(Read in French as La forme de l'eau. Included in TIOLI and 11 in 11 challenges)

In the first of the Montalbano series, we find our Sicilian detective trying to solve a case involving the suspicious death of a local politician. The man has been found dead in his car, apparently of natural causes, his pants down, in a neighbourhood notorious for being frequented by prostitutes and their johns. His superior is one of many who wonder why Montalbano feels compelled to keep working on what should be an open and shut case, but the detective's instincts tell him that there's been foul play and he's determined to get to the bottom of it.

This series takes place in Sicily, and part of it's great success in Italy is due to the fact that Camilleri wrote these novels in the regional italian dialects he learned as a child. It was suggested to me to read the French translation to stay nearer to the original text, though of course much is lost in translation, in the same way for example that French readers would miss out on the accents and local expressions of the protagonists in The Grapes of Wrath. This takes nothing away from story and characters, and I quite enjoyed the local flavour, the many references to corruption and mafia involvement, the colourful characters, and especially Montalbano himself, who is a man trying to find a balance between different notions of justice and do what's his conscience dictates. A short and enjoyable novel. I'll be reading more books in this series.

This review can also be found on the book's main page.

Happy to have found you! Your spring flowers are gorgeous, and your review is quite helpful, Ilana! I also respect your ambition as illustrated by those humongous lists!

#5 Hi Peggy! My very first guest in the new digs. As for the lists well... one can always wish, right? I try not to be too hard on myself when I barely manage to get through half the items I put on there!

glad to find a fresh bouquet of flowers here

#7 I often take pics of my bouquets when I splurge on flowers. It immortalizes them and I figure I get a better return on my money that way. :-)

Hello Ilana, sorry I haven't been commenting on your thread for a while. I am however trying to read it regulary, and I like your honest reviews. I read the Kindle sample of My Reading Life and am also not fully convinced that this a book for me.

Concerning Austen: I read Emma first and I am among the few people who enjoyed this book and liked the main character. P&P was next, and I was completely unspoiled. I loved it instantly, read it several times since then and for me it never lost any of its greatness. But I understand well that others might not like it that much, it just hit a nerve with me. Sense and Sensibility was third and I had a hard time with it, but it became better with every re-read. And just when I thought Austen might become my favorite author I started Persuasion and then Mansfield Park and put them both on hold for several years. Just couldn't get through them.
I finished both last year, but don't need to touch them ever again (so I won't join the MP group read, but I will follow the thread). I know others love those two best and maybe you are one of them. I am looking forward to your thoughts, especially on MP. I'll be back with the Austenathon when we get to Northanger Abbey which I haven't read yet.

Ilana- I like your Spring-like thread! Colorful! Good review of The Shape of Water. I have had this one in the stacks for awhile. I need to bump it up.
I'm glad you are loving Hugo Cabret. It's an amazing treat!

That is a great photo. Makes me wistful as we await a BIG snowstorm.

I often want to take pix of my vegetables too before I chop them up.

For my part, it is acceptable not to like JA - I've been up and down over the years, I adored them as a late teen, early twenties then had no real use for them until I turned forty or so..... now I love them again, but for different reasons. I can't think of any of the productions that 'work' -- the only one I've ever really liked was "Mansfield Park" -- which I'm thinking had a cast that was refreshingly unfamous. Most of the full-length BBC ones are unbelievably tedious, as I recollect. Fun to look at clothes and decor ..... which I guess is some of the appeal.

Mill on the Floss was my 'breakthrough" Eliot.

It's a little perplexing to me that you are so enjoying Portrait of a Lady but didn't like the Austen much, for what you said was, among other things, her ability to take far too long to say something in a sentence or paragraph. I know you had other problems with the Austen, but that is how I feel about James and why I've banned him from my library. Interesting.

Ilana, your spring bouquet is lovely. I too am planning on reading the Andrea Camilleri series at some point, I just don't know exactly when. Good to know that you enjoyed the first one.

Found and ****STARRED*** you, as usual

What a feast for the eyes...your photograph! Sadly, my daffodils are suffering in this Cold & Wet...hanging their potentially shaggy heads in sorrow....

I always take pictures of the vegetables I buy...in the summer.....I get them from the Amish farmers in the area......so gorgeous...so delicious!

Hi Ilana, found your new thread ... what a beautiful picture, lovely flowers:)

Have you starred. Beautiful flowers.

I've got you starred. Lovely flowers!

#9 Nathalie, I keep saying it's a love/hate relationship with me and Jane Austen so far because, as much as some parts of both Sense and Sensibility and Pride and Prejudice have annoyed, I also very much look forward to re-reading them to see how I'll feel about them the second time around. Also, I'm not at all discouraged, and actually look forward to Mansfield Park. Very perplexing indeed.

I hadn't realized you visited my thread before, so thanks for leaving a message in my new digs! :-)

#10 Mark, I decided to read the Montalbano series in order. I have Excursion to Tindari on my shelves, but will actually borrow the others from the library until I get to that one, which is 5th in line. You're reminding me I want to get back to Hugo Cabret. I'm thinking I'll enjoy that better than going to the vernissage.

#11 Sorry to hear about the snowstorm coming your way. It's been relatively mild here and a good portion of the snow has melted, which doesn't mean we're out of the woods by any means!

Glad you like the photo. I have a good camera that takes much better photos, but I usually end up using my iPhone, as I did here, and end up taking photos of just about everything!

I look forward to reading George Eliot. She's been on my radar for a very, very long time now. Will have to add Silas Mariner to the reading list for May and then add either The Mill on the Floss and/or Middlemarch to the list for 2011.

Ilana, I LOVE LOVE your picture of tulips! It reminds me that spring is just around the corner. Sad to say that I am no green thumb, although I always have wonderful dreams of one day having a garden blooming with bright and beautiful flowers. Right now the dream is laying in my garage in the form of seeds that have yet to be planted.... :/

#12 Mac, what I said was "Why say something in a few sentences when you can say it using ten thousand words instead?", but I said that about Pat Conroy, not Jane Austen. One think that annoyed me about JA's prose was the fact that I found parts of it unintelligible, for example, using multiple negatives in one sentence, so that in the end, I didn't know whether she meant one thing or the contrary. As I read Portrait of a Lady, I agree Henry James does go on sometimes, but I just find him interesting and like his observations. It's all so very personal in the end, isn't it?

#13 Judy, there's so many books that I have every intention of reading "in the next few weeks", that inevitably end up being pushed to the next months or years. I just figure having too many great books to choose from is such a great problem to have!

#14 Sorry to hear about your sorrowful daffodils Jude. Hope the sun shines and warms their tiny little hearts (?) and that they soon soar with joy!

#15 Calm, I did think everybody was probably in need of seeing some fresh flowers at this time of year. I just LOVE tulips and can never have enough of them. Thank you so much for posting that little animation here, it makes me smile every time I look at it. So adorable! :-)

#16 Hi Cindy, you're more than welcome to drop by any time!

#17 Hi Terri, I feel so blessed to day to have so many visitors on my new thread! Something tells me the flowers have something to do with it. ;-)

#19 Valerie, one can always dream, right? I'm no green thumb either, but I decided last year to try my luck with succulents. So far, quite a few of them (but not all) have survived. Other than that, if I want to have flowers around in my city apartment, I have to limit myself to the occasional trip to the florist. Good luck with those seeds!

That's right, it was Conroy. And it is all very personal. I maintain my loathing of James though. I think he is infinitely more dense than Austen.

Ilana, just had to let you know, tulips are my favourite flower! Love the picture. I also see your reading Shadow of the Wind I read it a few years ago and will be rereading in a couple of months for my RL book club. I hope it is as good as I remember.

#22 You know, I've discovered that for myself, my appreciation of books has a lot to do with my state of mind. I'm fairly certain that at other times in my life, I probably wouldn't have had the patience for Portrait of a Lady. One thing's for sure, I've read a lot more mid-to-late 19th century novels than earlier ones, which could perhaps explain why I'm more comfortable in that universe.

#23 Tulips are definitely my favourite spring flowers, though there are plenty of other kinds that are just as lovely to be sure. In summertime, I go crazy for peonies. Unlike tulips, one can usually only find them during a very short period in the summer, which somehow makes them all the more covetable. But really, I love most any kind of flower. They're just such a beautiful gift from mother nature!

Good to find your new thread. I am behind reading threads due to Spring Break and illness all 'round the family but shall try to keep up if I cannot catch up.

#25 Don't worry about getting behind, that's inevitable in this chatty group. Sorry to hear about illness in the family though, hope everyone gets all well soon.

I went to a book sale today at the local community centre. Coco was a big hit and though he always whinges and complains when I shop for books, he had plenty of attention while we were there. There were lots of interesting books there, but seeing as my entire library at home is one huge tbr pile combined with my decision to buy less books and borrow more from the library, not to mention the fact that I'm very picky about a book's condition, I managed to walk away with only two books, both of which had been on my wishlist for a long time: Loving Frank about Frank Lloyd Wright and The Book of Negroes, which in the American edition is called Someone Knows My Name. Now we'll see how long it take me to actually get around to reading them!

Yesterday, I finished Portrait of a Lady at 11:54, which means I made it just in time to count it toward the TIOLI challenge for March. It was a group read and we've had some really interesting discussions about it. If it hadn't been for the group read, this book might have perished on my shelves for a few more years, but I'm glad I finally got to it, it was a great read.

I've just now finished the audio of The Men in a Boat (to say nothing of the dog) which was quite good and very amusing in parts. Though I was very confused as to who this character called Montmorency might me, and only realized at the end that it was the dog! So now I'll have to listen to it all over again with my newfound knowledge—I did wonder all along why there was so little mention of the dog! lol

I'll be off to continue with The Invention of Hugo Cabret and to finish off The Shadow of the Wind shortly. Not a bad way to start off the month. :-)

Hi Ilana, I've got The Shadow of the Wind on my shelves and have been meaning to read it for a while. If I get to it this month, I can add it to whichever section of the TIOLI challenge you manage to list it in - I've lost track, but I think you were counting it for one of the challenges?

Hi Genny, I finally listed it in challenge #1 for striking book covers. I hope you enjoy it as much as I am!

I read The Book of Negroes a couple of years ago and really enjoyed it although the subject matter was hard to read at times. Hope you enjoy it when you get around to it!

Ilana- You showed some fine self-control today at the library book sale. Actually, I've had Loving Frank on my WL as well. I have my own copy of Someone Knows My Name sitting on a lonely shelf, unread. Sad, I know.

#29 Thanks - I hope so too. I wonder if my cover is the same as yours. Mine is this one:

#30 Yes, I expect it'll be rough going in some parts. The whole notion of slavery is so abominable (understatement), but I've heard many good things about this book, so I hope I'll take to it.

#31 You know Mark, I started by putting aside a bunch of books that have been on my WL for a long time, and then I though "Don't you have enough books to read and listen to already?". It flet great putting back a bunch of books and getting just the two, which I really wanted (and happened look like new too). Maybe we could read it together sometime this year? I wonder if others would be interested in a group read even.

#32 My cover is different actually. I posted it on the discussion thread last night you can see it here. When you post this particular cover on the thread, you'll need to get a larger image with decent resolution. I just did a quick search on Google in the image section and and found what you need. Here's the link to it.

I read The Shadow of the Wind last year from a recommendation from Stasia and loved it very much, I hope you both enjoy it too. I also adore Hugo Cabret, that one is a real gem.

56. ♫ Matilda by Roald Dahl ★★★★
Narration: Joely Richardson
Publisher: Harper Children’s Audio

"By the age of one and half her speech was perfect, and she knew as many words as most grownups. The parents, instead of applauding her, called her a noisy chatterbox and told her sharply that small girls should be seen and not heard. By the time she was three, Matilda had taught herself to read by studying newspapers and magazines that lay around the house. At the age of four, she could read fast and well and she naturally began hankering after books. The only book in the whole of this enlightened household was something called Easy Cooking belonging to her mother, and when she had read this from cover to cover and had learned all the recipes by heart, she decided she wanted something more interesting..."

When she asks her father to buy her a book, he replies "What's wrong with the telly for heaven's sake! You're getting spoiled my girl!". So while her mother leaves her alone in the house for her daily dose of bingo, Matilda, age four and three months, decides to take herself to the public library where she asks the librarian for good books that are written for adults. Within six months, Matilda reads the following: Nicholas Nickelby and Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens, Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë, Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen, Tess of the d'Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy, Gone to Earth by Mary Webb Kim by Rudyard Kipling, The Invisible Man by H. G. Wells, The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway, The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner, The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck, The Good Companions by J. B. Priestley, Brighton Rock by Graham Greene and Animal Farm by George Orwell. Then Matilda goes to her first day at school and meets her teacher Miss Honey, which is when the story really begins...

A wonderful story by Roald Dahl which makes fun of ignorant and cruel adults, and celebrates the love of books and knowledge. Much recommended.

As regards the audio version, I must say I was unimpressed with Joely Richardson's delivery, which was on the whole flat and colourless. Surprising considering she's a well known actress. Any parent can do as good a job or better reading to their children themselves, unless the children are of reading age, in which case they should be reading from the book anyway!

This review can also be found on the book's main page.

Thanks for the wonderful review of Matilda. Roald Dahl is quite possibly one of my favourite writers. :) Although it is too bad about the audio recording because flat and colourless is definitely no way to read any of Dahl's books!

Ooh - I'm just reading Matilda. Bought it yesterday as part of a collection of 4 Roald Dahl childrens books, started this morning and will make sure to finish it today. I'm loving it! There are many cute pictures, reminding me a bit of the Le Petit Nicolas books. Did they put some of them into the booklet of the audiobook?

#36 Valerie, I was disappointed with Richardson's delivery, but really it wasn't that bad. I guess I was just expecting more from her. But Roald Dahl's writing is so vibrant and entertaining that even with Richardson's average narration, I still thought it was a great story.

#37 Nathalie, there was no booklet with the CDs I borrowed from the library unfortunately, but the illos sound lovely. I'll also be borrowing the Roald Dahl audio collection, again, probably no illos, but they're read by the author himself, and include Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, James and the Giant Peach, Fantastic Mr. Fox, The Enormous Crocodile and The Magic Finger. I may very well eventually borrow the traditional book version too so I can see those illustrations.

On the adults side, I look forward to reading The Best of Roald Dahl which I got from the used book store a few months ago.

I love Roald Dahl.....but have only read his work, not listened.

I also loved Loving Frank..but, then, I've been crazy for Frank Lloyd Wright's architecture since...forever

;-}

I love Roald Dahl.....but have only read his work, not listened

That's to be expected, and I know I'm missing out on the wonderful illustrations this way. I guess I've taken to audiobooks with all the enthusiasm of a newbie. I just love that I can be 'reading' at times when doing so traditionally wouldn't be possible. Plus, it encourages me to do chores which I otherwise just leave undone. All of the sudden, the chore itself becomes secondary and is an excuse to be 'reading' instead of being... well, such a chore! :-)

I love Frank Lloyd Wright's architecture too, which is why I've been curious about this book since it came out. If I'm not mistaken, I believe it's not an entirely flattering portrayal of him, but of course you'd know better about that than I would (and please don't tell me either way, as I'd like to find out for myself)

I love your visits Jude, you should come oftener*! xx

*I typed that word as a joke thinking my spellcheck would for sure act up, but lo and behold, it actually went through! Huh!

Oy!

I can't do audiobooks...because they interfere with the "voice" i hear every time i read a book...be it my voice or something seriously "outside"...when i read a book a hear a "voice" in my head...call the men in white coats..

I am no expert on Frank Lloyd Wright...just a lover of his architecture....Loving Frank...will be up to you...she's a good storyteller....

i'll be here as often as i can....May i pitch a tent?

;-)

By all means do! D'you need help? I'll bring the marshmallows!

I've got the Graham Crackers and the Hershey bars...hope to hell you have the Marshmallows!!!
;-)

57. The Portrait of a Lady by Henry James ★★★★½
(Group read, TIOLI and 11 in 11 challenges)

She was looking at everything, with an eye that denoted clear perception — at her companion, at the two dogs, at the two gentlemen under the trees, at the beautiful scene that surrounded her. 'I've never seen anything so lovely as this place. I've been all over the house; it's too enchanting.'

These are the words of our spirited and lovely heroine, Isabel Archer when she arrives at Gardencourt, an English country estate which features a Tudor mansion with a long lawn sloping down to the Thames. Isabel's father had recently passed away when her aunt, Mrs. Touchett came to visit her in Albany, New York and proposed to take Isabel away with her to Europe with a first stop in England. On her arrival, Isabel meets with a trio of gentlemen which includes the ailing Mr. Touchett Senior, a retired banker with a vast fortune who is attended to by his son Ralph, who suffers from very serious lung disease, and who nevertheless possesses a warm and loving spirit, and finally Ralph's good friend Lord Warburton, who is immediately smitten with our young lady. Before long, Warburton proposes to Isabel; he is an attractive gentleman with good manners and a fine intellect, who also commands a vast estate and a seat at the House of Lords. In short, the sort of man any woman would be thrilled to take on as a husband, but not Isabel. Our heroine is a headstrong young woman who feels she must face her destiny, which she believes doesn't include a husband. Shortly thereafter, Isabel's longtime and determined admirer Casper Goodwood arrives from Boston, also to ask her to marry him, but Isabel is adamant that marriage is not in the cards for her and turns him away as well. When a longtime friend of Mrs. Touchett comes to visit at Gardencourt, Isabel immediately takes to Madame Merle, an accomplished, mature woman of many talents, who is equally appreciative of the young woman. Soon, as Mr. Touchett Senior lies on his deathbed, Ralph secretly makes an arrangement with his father so that his cousin may inherit half the fortune meant for him. Ralph adores Isabel, and believes that by making her a rich woman, she will truly be independent and will be able to accomplish great things. But of course, this being a 19th century novel, our heroine is in for her share of troubles in the form of one Mr. Gilbert Osmond, a sinister character and a poor American expatriate, who's main virtues are a love of beautiful things and a desire to secure a brilliant future for his docile young daughter Pansy.

This was my first time reading a novel by Henry James. Having long believed that he was difficult to read, I had tested the waters with two short stories first, and found his prose imminently approachable. It's true that he can be verbose and that this novel plods on at a slow pace, with little action and an accent on his character's interactions and inner workings. But I found myself quite wrapped up in the rich complexity of these characters, and can fully understand why this novel is an enduring classic. I already look forward to reading it again.

This review can also be found on the book's main page.

You just keep waxing poetic about audiobooks, please. I *really* need to be better about finding things that I can put on with the kids about and then actually doing so. I just don't think of it, except in the car...but it would be great as a way to entertain the 5-year-old when I have household chores to do.

There are plenty of options for kids. To get an idea of what out there, you might want to have a look at Audible.com. Basically, just type in the title of any children's book you're interested in, and there's a good chance there's an audio version for it.

Not even trying to catch up, Ilana, but hopefully will stay current with you for the rest of the year :)

Stasia, I'll be have to have your visits whenever you do pop in. But please don't feel pressured to do so.

Today I went back to the list of books I'd like to read this year (message #3) and added all the autiobooks that I've gotten these past couple of months. I brought back another batch from the library today that aren't listed there yet either. I thought it might be a good idea to give myself a visual reminder that I have all those Gigabites of sound files sitting on my hard drive. It'll be interesting to see how many books I do end up reading/listening to out of that list, which currently stands at 84 books. I'm not kidding myself, because of course there'll be plenty of others that I'll want to read along instead as I keep adding to my wishlist! But keeping an inventory is always a good idea, right?

I need to add all my Nookbooks to my current library too. I agree - keeping an inventory is a good idea.

#44 This was my first time reading a novel by Henry James. Having long believed that he was difficult to read, I had tested the waters with two short stories first, and found his prose imminently approachable.

I had the same impression of him, but I read What Maisie Knew last year and really enjoyed it. I'm planning on reading Portrait of a Lady soon, and I'm just waiting til I'm in the right frame of mind.

I've added the James book and Matilda to the Giant Freaking Wishlist. If it falls over, I think it may be your fault. (kidding) I see what you mean about Matilda - lots and lots of books inside that one.

The tulips are beautiful. I often think about buying flowers and then don't do it. Wish I had a flower garden, but I have no sun in my yard. Every year I always wind up settling for impatiens and hostas.

Thanks for the wonderful review of Portrait of a Lady. I haven't read this yet, but will hope to do so this year!

You've inspired to read Matilda again soon after that great review and The Portrait of a Lady was beautifully described and again, a book I need to get to soon.

#50 Stasia, I'm hoping it'll help me curb my acquisition frenzy, but I'm not holding my breath or anything.

#51 Hi Natasha! I'm not familiar with all of HJ's bibliography (yet) but What Maisie Knew sounds like it's right up my alley. The storyline sounds amazingly contemporary too; I look forward to seeing what he's made of it. I've added it to the wishlist, but believe it or not, they only have French translations of it at the public library here. Boo!

#52 I don't mind taking the blame for that Charlotte, though knowing how huge your WL was before we'd met here, I'd refuse to take responsibility for it (subtle difference there!)

I wish I had a huge flower garden too. I get some sun, but alas, have not yard.

#53 Linda! Lovely to have your visit. I thought you weren't back till later so it's a nice surprise. Glad you liked the review. The group read was a lot of fun, but I'm sure you'll enjoy it in your own time.

#54 Always glad to add to other people's wishlists! :-)

58. ♫ Three Men in a Boat (to say nothing of the dog) by Jerome K. Jerome ★★★★
Narration: Steven Crossley
Publisher: Tantor Media
(Read for TIOLI Challenge)

In this comic story about three friends on a boating trip up the Thames, Jerome K. Jerome, the narrator and one of the three men in question, weaves in countless anecdotes about his boatmates George and Harris and their various acquaintances, not to mention some very funny details about their misadventures. Apparently, the author had originally intended this book to be a serious travel guide, and while there are some descriptions of the sites and local history along the way, even these passages are usually told with with a good dose of irony, while in some places with quite a lot of lyricism. I found the narrator in this particular recording quite excellent. My only complaint is that I kept wondering why there was not more mention of the dog, and which of his two friends he kept referring to as 'Montmorency' until the very end when I realized they were of course one and the same. Silly me.

59. Sandman: The Doll's House by Neil Gaiman ★★½

The continuations of Preludes and Nocturnes, this collection groups together The Sandman comics #9-16. I've read many comments about the fact that the P&N leaves much to be desired and that the series kept improving over time, but I thought that the first 8 installations at least had the merit of being unusual and unexpected. In Doll's House there were a few things I had a hard time to stomach, which I suppose I can't hold against Gaiman, since after all this series is meant to be horror, not exactly my favourite genre I must admit, but I can't say I'm tempted to continue on.

#55: I'm hoping it'll help me curb my acquisition frenzy, but I'm not holding my breath or anything

Neither am I!

#56: I enjoyed that one too. I am glad to see you did as well.

#58 Stasia, now that I've figured out who the dog is, I want to listen to Three Men in a Boat all over again so I can figure out what role he plays in the story! It was most confusing thinking he was a human being, believe me!

60. The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafón ★★★★⅝
(Read for TIOLI: Cover Art and for 11 in 11: Big and Scary: books over 400 pages)

In this wonderful gothic novel, set in post-Spanish Civil War Barcelona, our young narrator Daniel is about to go through a passage of rites. His father, an antique book dealer, is leading the boy to the mysterious and secret Cemetery of Forgotten Books. There, he instructs his son to choose only one book, which Daniel will be responsible for the rest of his life. He finds a small book called The Shadow of the Wind by an obscure writer, Julián Carax. Daniel becomes completely engrossed in the story, but when he attempts to find other books by the author, he discovers that a sinister man, posing as one of the characters from the book, is seeking out and burning every copy of every book by Carax he can get his hands on. Our young hero then goes on the trail of the writer, who has been shot dead long ago, as he seeks answers to this strange mystery.

Along the way, as Daniel encounters numerous fascinating characters, we are taken back to Julián Carax's youth when, as a poor hatmaker's son, he was taken under the wing of a powerful businessman, and fell in love with at first sight with the man's daughter on his first visit to his sponsor's haunted mansion, thus setting in motion the train of events which Daniel uncovers, as he finds one clue after another. A tale of love, loss and obsession, about the bonds of friendship and the quest for revenge, truth and redemption, this is a richly told, multilayered story which satisfies at every page.

Please note the only reason I didn't give this book five stars is that I found the English translation wanting, though this is no fault of the translator; I look forward to reading the story again in the French translation, which will presumably better express the latin passion and immediacy of the original Spanish text. Regardless, the story itself transcends language, and I can't recommend this novel strongly enough.

Liked this review? Here's a link to the main page.

#60: I love that book!

Ilana- Terrific review! I loved the book too! I've had The Angel's Game sitting on a shelf forever.
re- Sandman series: Actually I liked Doll's House better than the 1st but these books are tough to puzzle through. Joe gave me a copy of the Sandman Companion, which walks you through the books. I've only read a few pages but it's well worth having.

#61 Me too Stasia, I can't wait to read it again!

#62 Thanks Mark! The Angel's Game is one more treat to look forward to. I had searched for the Sandman Companion a couple of months ago, or whenever it is I started taking an interest in the series and was hoping they had it at the library, but no such luck. For some reason, a couple of the storylines rubbed me the wrong way this time. Probably had to do with my frame of mind, but you have to admit the whole thing is a bit like a descent into sheer madness!

It was a great review of a book I also really liked. The 5/8 star was a nice touch! :)

By the way, the link to the review actually points to your previous thread, but the review page. I found and starred your review anyway. :)

#64 Jim, thanks for pointing out the linkage bug. I had forgotten to actually put any address there at all, and as I've found out, when that happens, the link automatically leads back to the top of the page.

I'm glad you liked my numerals! I wasn't even sure anyone could see them since they come out so small when I use the proper font for fractions.

Thanks for your thumb and visit, always appreciated! :-)

61. ♫ Mildred Pierce by James M. Cain ★★★★
Narrator: Christine Williams
Publisher: Blackstone Audio
(Read for TIOLI: Books Made into Movies and for 11 in 11 challenge in the same category)

During the Great Depression, Mildred Pierce having more or less encouraged her husband to leave finds herself in need of a means to support herself and her two daughters, Ray and Veda. An excellent cook, she bakes homemade cakes and pies, selling them to locals, but this not providing sufficient income, she is forced to try to find a job. She quickly discovers that her training as a housewife doesn't qualify her in a job market that is more dire than ever. She reluctantly takes on a waitressing job, her main concern being that her daughters not discover that she's stooped to making a living wearing a uniform and taking tips. Veda, who is only eleven at the beginning of the novel, is a precocious girl who looks down on her middle-class background, and has aspirations of leading a much loftier (read: expensive) lifestyle than her mother can afford. Mildred desires only one thing: securing the love and approval of the condescending Veda, and to this end, she finds a way to start up a restaurant business in hopes of earning the means to keep Veda satisfied. To her delight, Mildred's business meets with great success, but while Vida continues to look down on her 'proletarian' mother to such a degree that she becomes verbally abusive to her, Mildred remains fixated on pleasing the girl. This is a heartbreaking tale of obsession; we see from the beginning that Mildred's attachment to Veda is out of proportion and feeds her daughter's need to humiliate her. A fascinating character study and a very well told and memorable novel.

As a side note, there were substantial changes to the plot in the original Joan Crawford movie which I had seen before reading (or in this case listening to) the book which left me surprised with an ending that was nonetheless quite satisfactory. I found this narrator competent, though found her style of enunciation slightly annoying, however it didn't detract me from getting immersed in the story.

Liked this review? Here's a link to the main page.

Just waving Hi, Ilana. I fell a bit behind on your last thread and missed the link to this new one, I guess I've been slacking in my lurking duties...I'll do better from now on! :)

Ilana- Great job on the review! And perfect timing. I read this many years ago. I own an anthology of Cain, which includes this one, The Postman Always Rings Twice and his masterpiece Double Indemnity. I highly recommend both of them.

#67 Stephen, I'm very relieved that you've found me again. It didn't quite feel right around here, and I couldn't figure out why... but with you lurking again, all should be well in the world. :-)

#68 Mark, what's interesting about Mildred Pierce is that before I read it, I had tagged it under 'mystery', 'noir' and 'murder' and then realized they didn't at all apply to the book! I actually have Double Indemnity on my shelves somewhere and The Postman Always Rings Twice is on a wishlist too. I saw both movies (make that three, since I saw the both the Lana Turner and Jessica Lange versions for 'The Postman') ages ago, when as a teenager I was really into noir movies. I look forward to getting around to the novels.

Wow, I am going to have to get my hands on some James M. Cain, his works were made into some of the best movies of the 1940's. Great review, Ilana!

Yes, all three Cain books were made into good films but Double Indemnity is an absolute noir classic! Edward G Robinson was fantastic!

#70 Thanks Judy, glad you liked it. That was the first book by James M. Cain I've read so far. It was about time!

#71 I saw Double Indemnity maybe 25 years ago, don't remember it all that clearly, but I do recall that it totally blew me away. I'll wait till I read the book before watching the movie again.

Oh, I am so late...

Portrait of a Lady is a given...since I love Henry James's work......you nailed the review!

The Shadow of the Wind...i might own...a trek upstairs is in order...

James M Cain is a lit'ry necessity...and I love your review of Mildred Pierce...I'm trying to replace my DVD of The Movie

;-}

Wow, am I behind on your thread!

I know that there is a ton of audio available for children. Publishers have finally figured out that if they put a reasonable price tag on an audio book (rather than a library price tag), people will buy them. The things is...no matter how much I love Pooh and Paddington and EB White, I cannot listen to an unending parade of books for lower grades without respite so I'm trying to figure what else G will allow that offers me a little more interesting listening. I'm thinking about trying The Dark is Rising since she seemed to enjoy Sense and Sensibility.

Even I find myself intrigued by your Portrait of a Lady review and Henry James is badly tainted by my mother (she who put Silas Mariner in my 9-year-old hands rather than something like Little Women giving me a strong distaste for anything she thought I SHOULD read) because he was the topic of her masters thesis. But I'm finally stumbling about trying to find literature that I actually enjoy.

#73 Many thanks Jude. The Shadow of the Wind is a must! I already look forward to reading more from Henry James, but I also think that he's best enjoyed in small doses rather than consumed in one go, or at least, as far as I'm concerned!

#74 You might discover your daughter is interested in lots more 'adult' audiobooks than you think. In any case, I hope so for your sake, because I'd go positively barmy having to listen to nothing but kiddie stuff all day, every day. Ugh!

I think you had mentioned your mum making you read Silas Mariner as a child, which prompted me to add it to my wishlist (irony of ironies!) and I could see how the fact that she spent so much time writing her thesis on Henry James would have made you less than eager to jump into his novels yourself. There's so much great literature out there, whether they be old classics or newcomers, that there's really no need to read anything out of a sense of obligation. That being said, the best way to know whether your adult self might enjoy George Eliot of Henry James would be to give them a try again. After all, tastes do tend to change quite a bit over the years, as I've found out for myself!

69: Wow, interesting, I don't think anyone has ever used my name in the same sentence with 'all is well in the world.' ...which, I suppose, must mean all is not well in the world! :o

That's funny about Montmorency! I guess it does make a difference picturing him as a human rather than a dog...

What a great review of Shadow of the Wind...Thumbs up from me!

This book is on my shelf. I'll move it up the tbr list.

I, too, enjoyed your SotW review and must rescue it from the Giant Freaking Wishlist. Now where did I put those birthday gift certificates....

#76 which, I suppose, must mean all is not well in the world!

Well, that's a given Stephen, regardless of your contribution or lack thereof, so don't sweat it! ;-)

#77 Tell me about it! I felt like the biggest goof when I finally *got it*. But hey, it's a good excuse for listening to it all over again! :-)

#78 I think you'll be happy to have moved it up once you get to it Linda. I let it languish on my shelf for quite a while too. The good news is books don't ever go bad, like milk and eggs!

#79 DO get it Charlotte, it's totally worth it. Have I let you down so far?

I have read a couple of Cain's books, but not Mildred Pierce. I really must get around to that one some time!

HBO just had a mini series of Mildred. I only watched the first two hours, enough to cheer when Mildred put Veda over her knee! (I was a child of the 50s, too.) I was rather put off by the attitude of this girl and wondered from where she picked up her airs. They had no TV and there was no evidence of magazines in the house. Kate Winslet played Mildred and did a wonderful job.

#81 I hope you enjoy it when you get to it Stasia!

#82 I should have mentioned somewhere in the review that I have been watching the HBO miniseries. I saw the 3rd episode on Sunday, and I assure you that Veda doesn't get any better. I have to say that so far, the script is very true to Cain's original text, and they've used most of the dialogue straight out of the book. It's really neat seeing it on screen so soon after reading it, though I admit I did more or less arrange it that way. :-)

***wriggles with excitement*** Ilana...this evening my husband and I read a few of the poems from Joyful Noise to our daughter. What fun! What's more, I've found a recording at the library of both Joyful Noise and it's earlier companion I am Phoenix which I've requested along with the print form of the companion book.

#84 That sounds like so much fun! Your daughter must have love the effect of your combined reading. I'm almost jealous! :-)

Aw Man! I decided the suffering had to end. It was just so long and drawn out and unpleasant and made me miserable. So that's it. Finished. I'm talking about Invisible River by Helena McEwen, an ER book I got in the February batch. I'm not saying it's bad, because I'm sure some people will find it brilliant, but no thanks, not for me. So yeah, gave it 1 star for "Hated it". That happens very, very, very rarely. 1 star also generally means I haven't finished the book, but I've taken the trouble to read 100+ pages, which felt like at least 5 times as many. Make that 10 times, in this case. I managed to squeeze in 182 pages I think. Basta! I'll review it soon.

Meantime, I'm picking up The Rehearsal by Eleanor Catton. I've been looking forward to this one for a long time, so I hope I end up liking it as much as I think I will. Almost anything is better than the book I just put down at this point. Ugh.

Too bad about the McEwen book. I certainly hope the Catton book proves to be a better one for you!

Hey Ilana! I'm so glad you like The Shadow of the Wind. My mother-in-law gave it to me 5 years and I read it immediately. I just couldn't put it down.

#87 So far so good on The Rehearsal, Stasia. It started off really strangely, and though I had told myself I'd just start with a couple of chapters, I had a hard time putting it down to go to sleep. Always a good sign.

#88 I really loved The Shadow of the Wind. My only regret is that my attention was divided while I was reading it, which is an even greater incentive to reading it again!

I've just brought back the following from the library today:

♫ Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand (rec'd by msf59 & Donna828)
♫ The Roald Dahl Audio Collection (abridged & read by the author)
Mockingjay (The Hunger Games 3rd and final part) by Suzanne Collins (rec'd by many 75ers)
Apollo's Angels: A History of Ballet by Jennifer Homans (rec'd by the NY Times Book Review)
Le Ventre de Paris (The Belly of Paris) by Émile Zola

My latest book order also arrived in the mail today:

Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter by Mario Vargas Llosa (rec'd by Donna828)
Soulless (book 1 of The Parasol Protectorate) by Gail Carriger (rec'd by drneutron)
Henrietta's War by Joyce Dennys (indirectly rec'd by Early Reviewers)
What Alice Knew by Paula Marantz Cohen (rec'd by lkernagh)

As you can see, almost all the above came from various recommendations. So much for reading off the shelf! :-)

Hi Ilana- LT is a big influence, isn't it? I've heard, over on the audiobook thread, that the audio for Unbroken is excellent. Enjoy. It's a great read.

Just checking in, my friend...

;-}

#90 LT is a big influence, isn't it?

You can say that again. A very good influence too, of course! Between my own natural curiosity and all the excellent recommendations here, I have enough reading material to last me several lifetimes! :-)

#91 Hey Jude, nice to see you in these parts. I'm not terribly chatty this week. Quite run down and needing much peace and quiet. It'll pass. In the meantime I'm plenty busy with all the great books I've got on this month's reading pile. Hope you're well my friend.

#89: Looks like you have some great reading (and listening) ahead of you, Ilana!

62. The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick ★★★★
(Read for TIOLI: Cover Art and 11 in 11 Challenge #8: The Two World Wars and the Time In-Between)

Set in 1931 Paris, this story begins at the central train station, where the recently orphaned Hugo Cabret, living in a run-down room hidden within the walls of the station, makes the rounds every day to ensure all the clocks run on time. He spends the rest of his day and a good part of the night trying to fix a very special windup toy he's salvaged from the remains of a burned-down museum. But the owner of the station's toy shop, where Hugo has been stealing toy parts for his special project, catches Hugo one day and takes away a precious notebook of his containing all the drawings and notes he needs to finish his labour of love. A wonderful story about a crafty little boy, the wonder, magic and history of cinema, and how a little thief came to be adopted by a filmmaking genius. This beautiful book is filled with gorgeous illustrations which alternate with the text to help tell the story. I loved.

#94: I loved that one too. I am glad to see you enjoyed it, Ilana!

Stasia, it had been recommended to me so many times, I couldn't put off seeing what all the fuss was about any longer! I look forward to seeing the movie too.

I am just hoping that the movie lives up to the book!

Ilana- Good review! I'm glad you loved it. It's a special one to me too!

I love that book as well, gorgeous pictures. I didn't know there was going to be a movie, very exciting.

Just catching up! Marvelous review of The Shadow of the Wind. Sent me scurring to make sure it was on my wishlist (it already was).

#97 Stasia, of course there are never any guarantees, but I find it to be a good sign that the movie is directed by Martin Scorsese and has an amazing cast.

#98 I was thinking of you when I wrote my review Mark, and was very much hoping you'd approve! :-)

#99 I often do a bit of research on a book when comes time to write the review, and I found out about the movie when I googled to title.

#100 The next step of course is to get your hands on it and read it of course! ;-)
You won't regret it. The Shadow of the Wind is a modern classic.

I finshed Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day by Winifred Watson today, and absolutely loved love LOVED it. Frances McDormand does the narration on the audiobook version which is wonderful, especially as she played the lead character in the movie version, which I had seen first and adored.

I am glad you enjoyed Miss Pettigrew!

I already read great things about Miss Pettigrew, so I am looking forward to your review. Unfortunately no Kindle version yet and not available in my library, so it will have to remain on my watchlist for a bit longer.

#102 Did you read that one Stasia?

#103 I don't know if you're a BookMooch member Nathalie, but you might get lucky and obtain a copy that way.

63. Invisible River by Helena McEwen ★
(Read for Early Reviewers)

Evie is a young woman from Cornwall who has lost her mother as a young girl. She doesn't remember much about her, but she's watched her grieving father disintegrate into a self-pitying drunk over the years, and she looks forward to starting a new life at a London art school with both relief and trepidation. How will her father manage without her? she wonders. On the first day at the college, she makes friends with three other young women; there's eccentric and outspoken Bianca from Italy, Rob (for Roberta)—an expectant young mum, and Cecile, who's left behind a career as a ballerina. Together, the four young women take in all that London has to offer their creative young minds. They visit museums, go out on sketching and painting outings in parks and in the midst of various cityscapes, get together for their daily tea or coffee to talk about their art, gossip about their instructors, and generally give each other emotional support. Evie is immersed in her art, her love of colours and her growing interest in a sculpture student called Zeb, until her father shows up one day and makes a public display of himself on the school grounds, so drunk he can't stand up on his own two feet. What ensues forces Evie to make the choice between caring for her alcoholic father or choosing to live her own life.

When I read the description of the book, I thought it would be exactly the kind of story that would appeal to me, but it all went wrong somehow. To begin with, I couldn't connect with any of the characters, who failed to lift off the page. I would have thought that as an artistic person myself, McEwen's visually rich world of shapes and colours would have appealed to me, but her insistence on depicting everything in terms of colours, colours, and more colours, quickly became annoying, added to which the descriptions of one piece of student artwork after another was simply tedious. I read a review by a person from England who loved this book, greatly enjoying the fact that they recognized most of the locations depticted. I enjoy books set in the UK, but in this case, the great many detailed descriptions of various London spots, both well-known and more obscure, were completely lost on me, though this probably became an issue only because I was enjoying so very little of what this book had to offer. I had to force myself to pick it up after the first couple of chapters (never a good sign.) After a few more chapters, I was going to give up altogether, but decided to at least finish the second section, in hopes that things might fall in place for me. But much to my chagrin, the already depressing occurrences in the story took a turn for the worse, which is when, at page 185 (out of a mere 301 pages), I simply gave up. I NEVER skip ahead and read the final pages, but did so this time, just in case I might find some redeeming qualities, to make sure that I was giving a proper chance to this Early Reviewer novel, but didn't see anything that made me change my mind. As I had been reading, I kept wondering why this one got published, when there are so many talented, yet unknown writers who would give anything for their manuscripts just to be picked up out of the sea of submissions publishers and agents receive every day. The worst book I've read so far this year.

#104: Yes, last year.

#105: Sounds like one I can easily skip. I hope your next read is much better, Ilana!

I hope your next read is much better

Thanks Stasia, that's virtually guaranteed! My current reads are very enjoyable.

Usually I come here and get hit with book bullets so, it's good to hear about a book that I will gladly avoid.

ditto message #108

Hi, Ilana. I usually just lurk on your thread but wanted to say I appreciated your review of Invisible River. I find it so difficult to write reviews of books I don't like but you articulated your problems with this one really well. On the face of it, it sounded like one I would enjoy but your reaction to it makes me think not.

#108-109 Glad to be of service. I'm grateful to you both when I find books I can avoid on your own dangerous threads! :-)

#110 Thanks for de-lurking and giving me the pleasure of knowing I have another visitor. I never want to discourage others from reading books because at the end of the day, whether we end up liking a book or not is a very personal affair. That being said, I just call it as I see it. Glad you appreciated the review!

As always, your tulips, up top, make me smile!

Just stopping by for a quick hello...I must get back to my book...reliving the 1954 World Series......10742036:Summer of Shadows..........odd, since I was 3 at the time

;-}

*edited...trying to fix the blasted Touchstones!*

I agree with Katierug, it is so hard to write a review of a book you didn't like and you did this one very well and it is much appreicated by those with enormous wishlists.

#112 I just like seeing those tulips live on and on and on... certainly got my money's worth on that bunch of flowers!

I'm no baseball fan, but enjoy the World Series all over again, sort of. :-)

#113 I feel the same way when I come across a review that helps me eliminate a book from the get-go. I wouldn't have minded if someone had done that for me on this one, but I guess that's what Early Reviewers is all about to begin with.

It's so easy to fall behind on your thread...

#90> there's an audiobook thread?

I did not know that The Invention of Hugo Cabret was being made into a film. That could be quite wonderful. I have not seen Dahl reading Dahl...the audio available here is read by an assortment of other people (and seems to be available individually, not as a collection)

My husband and I very much enjoyed Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day the film. I should put it on the book to film list and get around to reading the book someday.

#115 I looked on the wiki to see if I could find that audiobook thread Mark mentioned, but I don't see it there, so I'll put the question to him and let you know what I find out.

I haven't listen to the Dahl collection yet. Look forward to it. My only reservation is that the stories are abridged, which is something I usually stay away from, but in this case, Dahl himself approved those versions, so I guess it's acceptable.

I did mention Miss Pettigrew on your Books to Film thread the other day. I really loved the movie when I saw it, but the book is quite different and it was like a whole new treat. The same story generally of course, but they changed things around in the movie, as they tend to do.

Hi Ilana- I'm not familiar with your current reading titles. I'll have to pay attention, I might just learn something. Hope you are doing well!

Hugo Cabret had some great artwork and honestly, it's hard for me to see how they'll make the transition to a video medium without losing something. It's interesting, though. We'll have to see how it goes...

#115 (bis) As it turns out, there's an Audiobook LT group apart from the 75ers (I always forget there are other groups beside this one!) Mark gave me the link for the latest What We're Listening To Now thread. They're up to thread #10 by now, but I'm sure you can find the others by doing a search if you're looking for suggestions.

#117 It hadn't occurred to me, but I guess my current reads might be obscure to lots of people. Other than the Jeeves book I guess, since most people have at least heard mention of the P. G. Wodehouse series at some point. Zola isn't widely read in English, I think in part because most of the books have very old and not very good translations, though of course he's one of the greats of French Literature. The Rehearsal is a relatively new title by a new author and it has an experimental feel to it which I find very clever but don't always appreciate all that much. I'm only halfway through so we'll see how that pans out for me. As for Apollo's Angels, I guess you'd either have to be a regular reader of the NY Times Book reviews, and/or be a ballet amateur, though I must say that via the thread of ballet, the book covers fascinating people, places, philosophies and historical events which would be of interest for a wider audience. It was also chosen as the NY Times 10 best books of 2010, and I can definitely see why.

#118 Jim, I expect Hugo Cabret will be quite different in the movie version, which is inevitable, given the unusual narrative approach of the book, but there's no question that it's a quality production; they've got a great cast, and with Scorsese at the helm, who not only is a great director, but also apparently is fascinated with, and also very knowledgeable about the history of cinema, I'm sure it'll be an interesting experience at the very least.

Greetings from the Bogs of Ohio!! no Kidding!

I have to weigh in on Emile Zola.....my favorite is Therese Raquin....dark, brooding, murderous...the characterizations are so perfect.......I keep my copy closely guarded!

;-)

64. ♫ Across the Nightingale Floor by Lian Hearn ★★★★⅓
Narration: Kevin Gray & Aiko Nakasone
Publisher: HighBridge Audio
(Read for TIOLI: Japan and 11 in 11: New to Me Authors)

In Book 1 of the Tales of the Otori series, set in a fictitious feudal Japan, 16-year-old Tomasu has just discovered that all the occupants of his village have been massacred by the men of Iida Sadamu, lord of the Tohan, in a campaign to persecute Tomasu's people, a religious minority known as "The Hidden". Tomasu is rescued from sure death by Lord Shigeru of the Otori people, who takes the just-orphaned boy under his wing and, determining that his name gives away his origins, renames him Takeo. Traumatized by the recent events, Takeo is unable to talk for some time as they make their way to Otori country, but quickly discovers that his hearing has become uncommonly sharp. Lord Otori Shigeru puts his charge in the hands of a master who trains the guileless young man in the arts of combat and duplicity, and also teaches him to make himself invisible and project his image, which are skills Takeo has inherited from the father he has never known. The narration occasionally alternates between Takeo's first person account and the events surrounding Kaede, a 15-year-old girl who has been held hostage by the the Tohan people half her life, and whom Lord Sadamu is determined to marry off into the Otori clan in order to secure an alliance. We follow the two young people as they make their way to Iida Sadamu's castle, where both their fates are in the hands of the ruthless warlord. Takeo has sworn that he will kill Sadamu to avenge his people, and the only real barrier standing between him and his nemesis is a floor which sings like a nightingale at the merest tread.

I was immediately absorbed with Takeo's plight and the exciting buildup in this novel. I must admit that some of the politics and descriptions of combat were sometimes a bit beyond me, having never had a head for such things, but this story of oppression, betrayal, true love and heroism, has all the ingredients to make me want to come back for more. I highly recommend the audiobook version, which is narrated by two beautiful and soothing voices, which nonetheless express the attitudes of each of the characters with great skill and give the overall story a tone of composure quite in keeping with a hero's journey.

Liked this review? Here's a link to the main page.

I read Across the Nightingale Floor way before i joined LT...and loved it...too bad I haven't found the time to read any of the others in the series.

;-)

#120 I'm guessing it's been raining a lot? We've been getting rain here on and off, and then quite a bit of sunshine too which has melted away the last traces of snow. Don't despair, you'll get your share of sunshine soon, I'm sure of it!

We read a few Zola books back in high school (I went to French school) and have to say I don't quite remember which books we read, but I believe Thérèse Raquin might have been one of them. Over the years my appreciation for Zola has grown exponentially, which is why I took on this project of reading the whole series in order of publication to better appreciation the whole oeuvre. Up next is #3: The Belly of Paris.

#122 I definitely want to follow up with the other books of Tales of the Otori. The question is always how quickly to do so, what with countless other series in the works, not to mention all the non-series books I also want to get to. As I keep saying, there's no end to my troubles! lol. I love having that kind of problem though, don't you?

65. ♫ Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day by Winifred Watson ★★★★⅞
Narration: Frances McDormand
Publisher: Persephone Books
(Read for TIOLI and 11 in 11 Books to Film categories)

This 1938 novel, here narrated by the excellent Frances McDormand in the audiobook version, tells a charming little story about a hard on her luck spinster who discovers life can be full of surprise when, applying for a job as a governess, she knocks at the wrong door. Instead of the disagreeable housewife she usually must contend with in her line of work, at which she isn't exactly competent, she meets with a beautiful vision of a girl, just as glamorous and delightful as the ones Guinevere Pettigrew has only seen at the movies, her one greatest guilty pleasure until then. In less than twenty-four hours filled with thrilling events the likes of which Guinevere has never experienced firsthand before, this straight-laced vicar’s daughter discovers things about herself she never knew she had in her.

In the wrong hands, this quaint little story might have been a sickeningly-sweet kind of affair, which is absolutely not the case here. I had stumbled on the movie adaptation on television one day, which is when I experienced my first brief love affair with Miss Pettigrew, again portrayed by the remarkably talented Frances McDormand. The novel has even greater delights to offer, if only because one gets to spend more time with this unlikely heroine, who serendipitously sees her life transformed like a 1930s middle-aged Cinderella.

Liked this review? Here's a link to the main page.

I, too, love the "problem" of Too Many Books!!!

;-)

66. ♫ Vile Bodies by Evelyn Waugh ★★★★⅓
Narrator: Robert Hardy
Publisher: BBC WW
(Read for TIOLI: Cover Art and 11 in 11: The Two World Wars and the Time In-Between)

Masked parties, Savage parties, Victorian parties, Greek parties, Wild West parties, Russian parties, Circus parties, parties where one had to dress as somebody else, almost naked parties in St John’s wood, parties in flats and studios and houses and ships and hotels and night clubs, in windmills and swimming-baths, tea parties at school where one ate muffins and meringues and tinned crab, parties at Oxford where one drank brown sherry and smoked Turkish cigarettes, dull dances in London and comic dances in Scotland and disgusting dances in Paris – all that succession and repetition of massed humanity … Those vile bodies …

Describing the dissolute life of the "Bright Young Things", the posh Mayfair crowd of London between the wars, Vile Bodies is a fast-paced, disjointed and delirious affair which perfectly captures the spirit of the times. From the first, we're thrown in with a bunch of characters with risible names (Miles Malpractice, "last weeks prime-minister" Mr Outrage, Lady Throbbing and so on) who are running around from party to party, getting stinking drunk, being promiscuous and losing themselves in one empty thrill after another. The only things holding the novel together are the unflappable narrator and the ongoing travails of the protagonist, Adam Fenwick-Symes, a down on his luck writer who's memoirs are burned in the opening scenes, which puts him under obligation to deliver twelve books—which he imagines he'll be able to write within a year—to make up for the publisher's advance payment (with cumulated interest). He is engaged to be married to the beautiful and rich Nina Blount, one of the figureheads of the Bright Young Things, and throughout the novel there is the ongoing farce of his talking to Nina over the phone and from moment to moment telling her he's secured enough money to finally marry her, and in the next (after repeatedly failing to come into the fortune which eludes him) telling her they can't get married after all. At one point, Adam finds a job that brings him a regular income after Lord Simon Balcairn, who writes a gossip column under the name "Mr. Chatterbox", commits suicide when he finds himself shut out of all the important parties which he relies upon to write his juicy stories. The narrator, in his detached and unflappable style tells us of his death:

"He shut the door and the window and opened the door of the gas-oven. Inside it was very black and dirty and smelled of meat. He spread a sheet of newspaper on the lowest tray and lay down, resting his head on it. Then he noticed that by some mischance he had chosen Vanburgh’s gossip-page in the Morning Despatch. He put in another sheet. At first he held his breath. Then he thought that was silly and gave a sniff. The sniff made him cough, and coughing made him breathe, and breathing made him feel very ill; but soon he fell into a coma and presently died...Then Adam became Mr. Chatterbox."

Adam proceeds to invent various fads in the column, such as black suede shoes and green bowler hats which are sometimes picked up by his readers and meets with great approval when he makes up people with fictional accounts of their tragic life stories. (possible spoiler ahead) The novel was published in 1930, but Waugh seems to have predicted WWII, since at the end of the book, we find Adam as a solider lost in no man's land, but even here, in what seems a bleak ending, Waugh throws in a last twist of irony, when the young protagonist gets picked up by an old drunk General who's lost his division, and they drive off drinking champagne in a Daimler Limousine. (end of spoiler)

There were lots of absurd and laugh out loud moments in this story, but beyond the mirth and silliness is a powerful commentary about the tragedy that underscores the empty lives of these bright young things in the light of the calamity they've escaped and the one that lays ahead. The audiobook version features an English narrator who enacts the various scenes and brings the characters to life very convincingly.

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I've been planning to read the Otori series for some time now. Looks like I need to get to it!

Thanks for the wonderful review of Vile Bodies. I purchased this book last year and need to read it.

Ilana- Boy, you've been a busy reader, over here! Good for you! I'm a big fan of Frances McDormand. She can do no wrong.

Hi Ilana, glad you've had so many good reads lately. I have read all the Tales of the Otori and loved the whole series.

#127 Jim, I discovered Tales of the Otori quite by accident recently via a surprise promo on Audible. I'm glad I chose this novel out of the 5 choices that were available.

#128 Linda, Vile Bodies is one of those books that I'd like to come back to eventually as it'll probably continue to grow on me on further reading.

#129 Mark, I have to agree with you about Frances McDormand. Believe it or not, I find I don't spend as much time reading as I'd like to. Can you imagine what it'd be like if I did? Actually, we've got Stasia as an example!

#130 Judy, did you read the 4th book The Harsh Cry of the Heron and the prequel as well?

Yes I did read those as well. I discovered the first book and just gobbled up the rest as fast as I could get them. A warning however, I cried buckets at one point in the series but I think that just goes to show how commited I was to this series.

Fantastic review of Vile Bodies, it almost sounds like the british equivalent of The Great Gatsby.

Wonderful reviews once again, Ilana!
Miss Pettigrew moves forward on my wish list, but now I would really like to read Vile Bodies. It might fit in well with Tender is the Night which I just finished.

#132 I just started reading Mockingjay, another series that I was quite taken with and proceeded to read within just a couple of months, which is unusual for me since I try to give priority to books that have been idling on my shelves for too long. But now I'm so taken up with Takeo's plight that I think I'll proceed in a similar fashion with it. In addition, I was going to be reasonable and borrow the following books from the library, but I enjoyed the narrators of the audio so much that I might just splurge and continue in that direction. I can see how you could get emotionally involved with the characters, they do seem to fairly become dear to us. I was very saddened towards the ending of the first book myself.

#133 I can see why you'd say Vile Bodies is equivalent to The Great Gatsby, since both are set in the same period with 'bright young things' (or the lost generation, as you prefer) as the protagonists, lots of parties and drinking and so on. But one major difference between the two is that Great Gatsby has a true romanticism as one of the major themes, whereas Vile Bodies, is a parody of 'modern' (then) romance and much more irreverent on the whole, if you see what I mean.

#134 Thanks Nathalie. I must say I do greatly enjoy summing up the books in this way, helps me revisit and further digest what I've read, and since I usually enjoy doing a bit of research as I write those reviews, it really does prolong the experience. I've been quite fascinated with that time period since reading Regeneration and seeing an exhibition of Otto Dix around the same time. It's funny but Vile Bodies is one of those books that grows more and more on me after having actually read it. There's a very good chance I might readjust my rating too (perhaps to 4.75); it's one of those books I'll want to revisit in future since it gives one plenty to think about.

I may have to borrow Across the Nightingale Floor from Beth. . .

#136 Stasia, DO get it any way you can. I think you'll just love it. I can't wait to continue with the series.

Across the Nightingale Floor sounds intriguing. I might put it on the list for my own reading when G and I get to Night of the Ninjas (that's book #5 so it's not so far off). The question will be how long it takes me to get past the hero's name (which is also my uncle's)

#138 I guess it would be distracting at first to have a character named the same as someone you know, but I think you'd soon find yourself immersed in the story regardless, it really is very good. Am I right to assume your uncle is Japanese or of Japanese descent Marie?

#139> You are. My mother is Japanese and nearly all of her family is there. One of my cousins married an American and lives in California. I've started a Japan list and have put the Tales of the Otori on it.

#140 I sincerely hope your family members living in Japan are doing well. The situation there really saddens me.

I just now finished reading Mockingjay, the last book of the Hunger Games trilogy. I must say I came very close to spilling tears reading the last couple of pages and was only able to hold back by concentrated effort. Wow.

Ilana- I'm so glad you enjoyed Mockingjay. I felt the trilogy began running out of gas, with this one and it was relentlessly bleak to boot. The 1st is still my favorite.

I'm about half way through Mockingjay right now. I can't wait to see how it ends.

#143 Relentlessly bleak is a great way to put it Mark. I have to say that for a good portion of the book, I also felt like the whole thing had been played out already, but then the ending somehow made it all worthwhile for me. Part of my enjoyment of it probably has something to do with my relief about the series finally being over too! :-)

#144 I was very satisfied with the way Collins chose to end the story. I hope you will be too.

67. La Curée (The Kill) by Émile Zola ★★★★⅓
(Read for TIOLI: Books Published Before You Were Born, and 11 in 11: Zola's Rougon-Macquart Series)

The second book of Zola's Rougon-Macquart series deals with Aristide Rougon's vertiginous rise to wealth and prestige during the 1860s. Aristide, the son of Pierre Rougon and his wife Félicité was introduced in the first novel as a bumbling journalist intent on siding with the doomed cause of the republicans until the very last moment, when he realized that he'd been supporting the wrong camp and quickly switched allegiances, just as the Emperor Napoleon III came into power. Here, with his wife and one of two children, he leaves behind his young son Maxime in Plassans with the boy's grandparents and move to Paris to seek his fortune, where he expects to be helped by his brother Eugène Rougon, who, having played an important role in the Emperor's rise to power, has become a prominent figure in politics. Eugène is willing to help him secure a small job working for the city on the condition that Aristide change his family name to avoid any connection to himself, should the latter be involved in a scandal.

Paris is just about to embark on important reconstruction work, building the great boulevards planned by Baron Haussmann, and the newly re-named Aristide Saccard, having obtained valuable information through his work, feels confident he can make his fortune by prospecting on real-estate. The only thing he lacks is capital, and when his wife falls gravely ill, an opportunity arises which he cannot pass up, and as his wife lays dying, agrees to wed a young woman for the huge dowry her family is willing to put up to prevent as scandal. Shortly after marrying Renée, he sends for his son Maxime to join them in their luxurious Parisian mansion, since in no time at all, Saccard has become one of the city's wealthiest men. The novel's main protagonist is young Renée, celebrated in Paris society for her great beauty, her scandalous affairs, and her priceless and highly original fashions. As the Second Empire sinks into increasing decadence, we see Renée seeking greater and greater thrills, until she ultimately begins a torrid semi-incestuous affair with her dissolute stepson Maxime, which will ultimately prove her undoing.

Filled with descriptions of sickening wealth and luxury of the worst nouveau riche variety, and peopled with a cast of characters behaving very badly indeed, this great work of literature felt like a guilty pleasure and was hard to put down.

Liked this review? Here's a link to the main page.

68. ♫ The Inimitable Jeeves by P. G. Wodehouse ★★⅘
Narrator: Jonathan Cecil
Publisher: The Audio Partners Publishing Corp.

I don't know what I was expecting from my first P. G. Wodehouse, but I can't say I was either disappointed or much surprised with this series of inter-connected short stories. The ongoing gag of Jeeves getting upset at Bertie for making what he considers to be sartorial faux-pas was amusing, as was Bertie's friend Bingo's insistence on falling helplessly in love with every girl he laid his eyes on. It's a kind of old-fashioned British humour that is comforting and elicited a few chuckles. I was warned that Wodehouse is best appreciated in short bursts, since the stories tend to get repetitious after a while, and though I heeded the warning, I still found the stories a bit tiresome after a while. I thought the audiobook was a good introduction because a proper British accent does go a long way sometimes. I have the second Jeeves book on my shelves, but I can't say I'm dying to get to it. I won't toss it out either, because sometimes blandness is just the kind of thing I'm in the mood for. That said, when it comes to 1920s British upper class humour, I think I'd rather read Vile Bodies all over again any day, though of course it's not nearly as relaxing.

Liked this review? Here's a link to the main page.

69. The Rehearsal by Eleanor Catton ★★½
(Read for TIOLI: Cover Art and 11 in 11: Books Published Since 2009)

Two schools, one common story and lots and lots of mental gymnastics is how I'd describe this book in one pithy sentence.

When a scandal breaks out at girl's high-school, the repercussions are felt by all the students. Most of them are upset that their friend Victoria hadn't told them about her ongoing affair with Mr Saladin, their music teacher. A few students talk about the ongoing drama with the private saxophone teacher they see on a weekly basis. And when the first-year students of a local drama institute find out about it, they decide to base their theatre production on the scandal.

To tell the story, Catton's narrative jumps from conversations between the saxophone teacher and her pupils, to the goings on at the high-school, where everyone is trying to pick up the pieces and move forward, to the drama school, where we keep jumping backward and forward in time as we follow a group of potential candidates as they attend a weekend-long audition to be admitted as students, as they are taken through their curriculum through the year, and while they are rehearsing and performing their first theatre production. The whole thing might seem like a really cool and novel approach to narrative, or, if you happen to be me, a mostly annoying concept by a really clever young author who's trying too hard. I was excited about reading this book when I heard about it, but all the mental gymnastics left me feeling mostly... bored. Not what I'd call a great workout.

Liked this review? Here's a link to the main page.

#141> Thank you for your kind thoughts. Most of my family is in Tokyo or further south which is ways from both Sendai and Fukushima. Everyone seems to be all right, at least in an immediate sense.

#149 I'm very glad to hear they are all fine Marie.

In other news... recent history has proven that I'm a sucker for an audiobook sale. So my (relatively small) haul from Audible.com for an additional 10$ coupon today is:

♫ Grass for His Pillow (Tales of the Otori: Book 2) by Lian Hearn - which I'll probably slap on as soon as I've finished listening to the most excellent Jane Eyre.
♫ The Tiger's Wife by Tea Obreht - because I really need to get with the times and start reading more recently published books.
♫ Flying Too High : a Phryne Fisher Mystery by Kerry Greenwood - the first one was charming and fun so... why not?
♫ And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie - one of the most memorable Christies I read in the 80s. If I don't take to it this time, I'm forever leaving Christie to live on in my memory.

Ilana- It looks like you have some nice audios to look forward to. I've been hearing good things about The Tiger's Wife. Good review of "The Kill". Looks very interesting. Have a good day.

looks like you have some nice audios to look forward to

I created an 'audiobook' collection to keep track, and would you believe that since I've discovered this format in January, I've accumulated 73 of them, out of which 46 I've yet to listen to??

I just finished Jane Eyre last night. Never thought I'd get through it this fast, but listening to the audio version by Juliet Stevenson made me want to find lots of opportunities to do things with my hands! Now I'm facing the difficult decision as to whether I will give it a full 5 stars, since I don't hand out that rating very often. Chances are I will though (if Jane Eyre doesn't deserve it, then what does??) Can't believe I thought it was boring back in the 80s when I had to read it for high school! The advantage to that was that I almost forgot the story completely, so it felt like new again for the most part.

I now look forward to reading The Life of Charlotte Brontë by Elizabeth Gaskell, hopefully in May, though I should probably read fiction by Gaskell first to get a feel for this author I am much overdue to discover.

I highly recommend the PBS movie adaptation of Jane Eyre

http://www.shoppbs.org/product/index.jsp?productId=2582458&cid=&002=2272...

I've seen many different movies of this book, but I think the PBS one is the best.

Hmm. . . Ilana, if you didn't like the book when you read it as a teenager, I'm wondering if I should give it a second shot at some point. . .

#154 Linda, thanks so much for the recommendation. I found it in our library catalogue and will be viewing it soon. I'll let you know what I think!

#155 Jane Eyre is a fantastic novel. The heroine is a truly unique, intelligent woman who goes through immense challenges and changes and ultimately follows her heart. For that alone, I recommend you give it another chance.

On Jane Eyre we can agree!

By the way, for a Jane Eyre lover, you should try Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys. I found it a fun, and exteremely well-written psycological prelude to Mr. Rocherster and Jane's tale.

#157 Mac, when I suggested a group read of Jane Eyre a couple of months ago, several people mentioned Wide Sargasso Sea, but I failed to pick up on the suggestion at that point. Now that I've done reading the original, it seems like just the right thing. I've just now reserved it from the library and I'm looking forward to it. Thanks for suggesting it!

>154 Whisper1: I agree, that is my favorite film version of Jan Eyre as well. Toby Stephens & Ruth Wilson are great in it.

I finished reading The Subtle Knife last night. It was good, and it definitely made me very badly want to read the last book in the trilogy, but it was nowhere as richly fascinating as The Golden Compass was, imho.

Just finished Apollo's Angels: A History of Ballet tonight and feel a bit sad. The conclusion is kind of depressing, though of course inevitable. In a way, it sort of makes sense that it leaves me feeling like this, in a poetic kind of way: ballet was my first love, and it was my first real heartbreak too. I'll write more about it when I review the book.

#159 A RL girlfriend of mine who's a huge Jane Eyre fan also told me today that it was her favourite adaptation of the book so far. She and I tend to have very similar tastes, so with all these further recommendations, I really can't wait to see it! We'll both be going to see the most recent version at the cinema very soon too, so it looks like it'll be a Jane Eyre kind of season for me!

So after a crazy weather day yesterday featuring rain, snow and hail (all at once!), today we're being blessed with a more clement kind of day which permits walking about hatless and coatless and features beautiful sunny, cloudless skies.

Still, I wasn't feeling exactly awesome today (fatigued and feeling yucky inside and out), but Coco and I took the opportunity to walk over to the large farmer's market near my place where I picked up bunches of flowers: pale parrot tulips and great big bunches of carnations (which I usually hate) in a variety of pinks and white. I really enjoyed fixing them into colourful bouquets and spreading them around the apartment. I don't get flowers that often, but when I do it always feels so deliciously decadent! The carnations look wonderful in my living room. See for yourself:

Your flowers are beautiful, it's nice to bring some spring inside to enjoy. I also noticed the cover of your book - it really is a striking cover!

Really pretty. Interesting title and cover on your book.

#162 I love flowers and always wish I had a bit of space to have my own flower garden, so cut flowers are the next best thing.

#163 I'm glad to report that the content of the book was equally interesting! :-)

I just finished watching the latest movie adaptation of Pride and Prejudice with Keira Knightley and Matthew McFadyen and may I say that it made me gain a whole new lever of appreciation for P&P? Such a gorgeous movie too!

eta: Also started reading the restored edition of A Moveable Feast this evening. I already know I'll enjoy it since I've read the pre-restoration edition before and am likely to return to this one many times over in the years to come.

Oh, Ilana, I don't know why I got so far behind on your thread - I didn't mean to..... A thumb for your review of *Invisible River* and a cheer for *Shadow of Wind*. I didn't like *Major P* as much as you did, but that's O.K. I'll try to get back to read the rest of your reviews later. I really came to thank you for your review some time ago of Brooklyn, which I just finished. Because you said what I wanted to say, I didn't have to post one. Thanks!!!
Your flowers and your sofa & pillows are lovely! My only complaint is that I can't quite read the title of that Penguin ---- not Sherlock Holmes, but ?????

#165 Hi Peggy, lovely of you to visit! Invisible River is one of those books that makes me very grateful I'm not absolutely set on forcing myself to finish a book if it makes me absolutely miserable trying to do so.

When you say you didn't like "Major P" I assume you mean Major Pettigrew's Last Stand? If so, I haven't read that one yet, though I do have it waiting by in audio format. Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day is a different book altogether and if you haven't read it, I wholeheartedly recommend you do so.

And YES, you're absolutely right about that Penguin! It's Sherlock Holmes: The Complete Novels and Stories Vol. 1, which I've been leaving out on the coffee-table to encourage myself to jump in and start reading. I'll eventually break down and do so and then promptly start kicking myself no doubt for not having given in sooner!

I did see the photo of your flowers, last evening...... they are lovely. And so is the book (Apollo's Angels).....well, your table arrangement, as well...my Coffee Table is usually littered with coffee cups and random scraps of paper, on which I scribble notes...to remind myself of what I should be doing...instead of lolling on the couch....OY!

I try to go the local Florist once a week to check on their arrangements...but last week all they had were Easter Lilies...overpriced...and I'm not dead yet...I think I'll wait for my Lilacs to bloom and make my own bouquets!!

;-}

Morning Ilana- Hope you are feeling better today! I liked the Keira Knightley film version of P & P too. Enjoy A Moveable Feast. A nice peek into a writer's life.

I certainly misread about the Pettigrews, and I even have *MissP* high on Mt. Bookpile. I know I'm going to love it. I didn't dislike the Major; I just thought it was a little too obviously a first book.
As to flowers, we have had a beautiful spring - wonderful camellias and azaleas - but nothing is blooming right now for me to take to church tomorrow but the first fading wave of roses and sweet shrub. I wish I could grow lilacs!

#167 Jude, my coffee table might seem tidy, but really, there are piles of books there which more or less never move (except for the currently and recently read piles, of course). Also, don't be fooled: I've mastered the art of cropping out the less appealing bits long ago!

I just love the smell of Lilacs and will make sure to get bunches of them to scent up the house when they're available at the market.

#168 Hi Mark, I slept for half the day, so must say I'm feeling rested at least! As for Moveable Feast, this time I decided to enjoy it little by little and am just reading one chapter at a time so I can savour it a little longer.

#169 Peggy, I'm keeping my expectations in check for Major Pettigrew, which is something I tend to do when new books meet with so much high praise. Miss P on the other hand is already one of my favourites this year and I hope you find it just as enjoyable.

At least you've mastered the art of "cropping"....i really must learn how to take decent pics with my digital camera...they always come out with spots and bothers...i'm a klutz thereabouts.

It's raining again...must find the oars for my rowboat!

;-}

70. Mockingjay (Hunger Games 3) by Suzanne Collins ★★★★
(Read for 11 in 11: Books Published Since 2009)

Keeping my review short and sweet for this one, since there really isn't any way to describe the plot without giving away too much. In this final installation, Katniss finds herself saddled with a role she is uncomfortable playing; namely, being the official face of the revolution, for which she is dressed up in a Mockingjay costume (designed by her beloved stylist Cynna) and filmed for tv spots which are hacked onto the Capitol's programs. But are the rebels really out to do the right thing, and can she even still trust Peeta and her best friend Gale? As someone very eloquently put it, this novel is unrelentingly bleak, and there were times when I just had to put it down, though I was then compelled to spend a sleepless night trying to fly through the last few unputdownable chapters. I had to fight hard to hold back the tears in the last few pages and thought the ending struck just the right kind of note, I have to say I'm glad to have heard the last of Panem at this point. Until the movie comes out, that is.

Liked this review? Here's a link to the main page.

Wonderful review! I own the trilogy but have not read......makes no mind to me...I just like your reviews...

;-}

Thanks Jude, it's always encouraging to know that someone is actually reading them! :-)

That said, I can't wait to hear what you think about the series. You must have been warned by now, but it's pretty addictive!

I felt the same way about the closing of the trilogy. Mockingbird was certainly a more difficult read as by that time I was so attached to all the characters, but I thought the ending was, somehow, just right.

In my opinion...most "good" books are addictive....so is liquor...so is pot.....i am addicted to Books...period

Thunder is booming here....joy of joys....

J

71. ♫ Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë ★★★★⅞
(Group read, TIOLI and 11 in 11 Books to Movies)
Narrator: Juliet Stevenson
Publisher: BBC WW

Hard to believe now that when I originally read this novel in my high school days back in the early 80s, I somehow managed to find it boring! That combined with a very poor memory meant that I was more or less starting over with a clean slate, since I could barely remember any details, save for what it was that Rochester was hiding up on the third floor...

At the beginning of the novel, we meet Jane Eyre when she is but a ten-year-old girl, orphaned and living with an aunt and cousins who despise and mistreat her. She is then packed off to school at Lowood, a charitable institution where life is hardly any better, with little to eat and rules dictated by the unpleasant clergyman in charge Mr. Brocklehurst, which are all aimed at the mortification of body and soul. Indeed, conditions are so poor that Jane narrowly escapes a typhus epidemic that decimates nearly half the inmates. However, Jane is a clever and naturally curious girl, making her an ideal student, and by her eighteenth year she has taken on teaching duties. She decides to advertise for a post as a governess in the papers, and with the first response she gets, packs her meagre belongings and makes her way to Thornfield Hall, excited at the prospect of a new life. Her charge is a little French girl named Adèle, who may or may not be the daughter of the rich master of the house, Edward Rochester. Mr Rochester is an unpleasant, arrogant and physically unappealing man whom Jane nonetheless becomes irresistibly attracted to and soon falls helplessly in love with. However, there are dangerous and unexplained events taking place in the house, which nobody ever speaks of, and on the day that should be the happiest in the young woman's life, secrets are revealed which set in motion a series of events which will forever alter the courses of many lives.

I was captivated with Charlotte Brontë's heroine from the moment we were introduced to her. Jane is an independents spirit, a smart girl with a strong sense of morals who has met with more than her fair share of bad luck, and it's impossible not to feel intense sympathy for her cause. She is both naive and infinitely wise beyond her years, and while the young woman is very much bound by the conventions of her time, the fact that she must follow her heart at every turn pushes her to act in surprising ways and make choices that seem unbearably difficult, which of course makes for great storytelling. Brontës vivid descriptions of the surroundings help us place the action in time and place, but also serve to give us much information about the character's inner workings. I was delighted to discover upon this second reading, that I had forgotten all of the second half of the story, in which Jane's quest for belonging and family rang all too true. I was also surprised with an ending which confirmed to me that my romantic heart and yearnings have not died away completely. The only reason I am not giving this now favourite novel a full five stars is for a technicality having to do with the very last sentences in the novel, which to me, as a non-Christian, seemed contrived for their sudden reference to a religion that Jane Eyre does not espouse anywhere else in the novel.

Listening to the excellent actress Juliet Stevenson narrate this story with her trademark rich, smooth voice, truly made this excellent story all the more pleasant to rediscover. That being said, I can't wait to read Jane Eyre again as a traditional book for the great pleasure of re-reading favourite passages of Brontës mellifluous prose.

Liked this review? Here's a link to the main page.

I read Jane Eyre when i was in 6th grade....11/12......still love the damned thing....

I love Wuthering Heights...more better...read that when i was 13...."earned" my BA in English Lit with/on Wuthering Heights...hey, it was the early 70s...the age of "anything goes"

love your review...i have never "listened" on AudioBook

;-}

I read Jane Eyre when i was in 6th grade....11/12......still love the damned thing....

I love Wuthering Heights...more better...read that when i was 13...."earned" my BA in English Lit with/on Wuthering Heights...hey, it was the early 70s...the age of "anything goes"

love your review...i have never "listened" on AudioBook

;-}

Morning Ilana- Love your review of Jane Eyre! Perfect! I liked Mockingjay a bit less than you but you summed that one up well. Have a terrific day.

Also enjoyed your review of Jane Eyre. I reread it a couple of years ago but might just have to get to the audio version as well. Looking forward to the movie, have you seen it yet?

#180 Mark, I don't know how to explain it... I can't say I enjoyed Mockingjay, and actually, for the first half or so, I couldn't wait to just get it over with, but somehow the ending—whether it was pure relief that it was finally over or otherwise—made me appreciate it somehow. Don't know if that makes any sense though!

#181 Hi Kerry! Great to hear from you. You are missed in these parts! I have not seen the movie yet, but wanting to see it was my main motivation for reading the novel again. I look forward to seeing it with my gf who also happens to be a BIG Jane Eyre fan.

For those interested, my mum just sent me a link to a great article about Shaun Tan in the New York Times global edition of their Magazine from April 22nd: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/24/magazine/mag-24Tan-t.html?_r=1&hpw

#179 Oops, sorry skipped over you Jude! I can never keep the Brontës straight in my head. I remember learning about them in high school and being made to read some of their books (of course, I didn't enjoy anything I was made to read on principle as a teenager which... hasn't changed much over the years, come to think of it!), but I don't know for sure which I have or haven't read. Whatever the case may be, I'll probably be reading Wuthering Heights some time in near future—it's been on one of my wishlists for a little while already, in any case, and if you say it's your favourite, then there's a good chance I'll like it too!

So yes, today has turned out to be quite a sad one. I have three step-brothers from my mum's marriage to a man (they married when I was 15 and just split up a couple of months ago after some 26 years together). I've always been close to the youngest of the three boys, nicknamed Manou, who's wonderful loving and romantic wedding to a lovely young woman I attended in Australia 4 years ago, where they've been living ever since. I've seen them since once, a couple of years ago when they came to visit in Montreal.

Well they came again a couple of weeks ago with their 8-month-old baby boy and... one thing I'll say about those step-brothers of mine is they aren't great organizers. So I got a call from Manou earlier this week, saying they're here and would love to get together. Well, I'm not a morning person and couldn't think straight and suggested we talk later in the day. Then one thing and then another, a day or two went by, then a garbled conversation with crying baby here, a missed phone call or three there, we somehow agreed to get together today (they're flying back to Oz tomorrow). I had wanted to invite them over for tea to my place, but they wanted to spend time downtown in the shops and museums. I'd been waiting for him to call me back for a couple of days and still hadn't received a confirmation or where we'd be meeting by last night.

When I finally woke up from feverish nightmares very late today, I realized that he had tried calling me a couple of times this morning so that we'd meet downtown somewhere, only my ringer was off and I never got the calls. I've had no way of reaching them at all since they've been in town with no phone, so I left a message with the friend they're staying with, and that's been that.

For a number of reasons, there's no one I can really talk to about this today, other than my therapist later this week, and it's just... dreadful. And whatever books I'm reading now aren't helping me escape anywhere when I need it most.

So boo-hoo. That's my sob story today. :-(

Hugs to you sweetie. Your frustration comes through loud and clear. Try to be kind to yourself...

Hi Ilana! So sorry about your dreadful day with all the miscommunication and all. Hopefully your coming week will be better and that you will find some great reads to get lost in. :)

Ilana- Sorry to hear about your frustrating day! I hope things end up working out! Hugs!

I'm sorry to hear of your day. Hopefully you can talk it over with your stepbrother at some point!

#185 Thanks for the hugs Linda. Manou is the closest to a real brother I'll ever have and I really do love him very much as a friend and as a great person in my life, AND his wife too. But I guess sometimes missed connections can't be avoided.

#186 Thanks Valerie. In a strange way, maybe something good will come out of this incident.

#187 I just watched Game of Thrones, which was really great. Talk about the perfect form of escapism! For that alone, it was well worth hooking up to HBO again, expensive cable bills be damned!

#188 We finally got hold of each other on the phone, which was very bittersweet but at least we got to work out the misunderstanding and talk for a while, which was great.

I ended up reaching my "little brother" on the phone just as they got back to their friend's place earlier this evening, and we had a good long conversation. I was crying like a baby at first and he said he and his wife were also sad they'd missed me. He's someone very special in my life and the person I'm closest to in the strange family of independent individuals I'm part of. I don't mind being single and alone most of the time, but having no family life sometimes weighs on me, especially during holidays. So...

The good thing that came out of this is we promised each other we'd stay in touch more often via skype, so that's really great.

Thanks for the moral support everyone, I really appreciate it.

72. The Subtle Knife (His Dark Materials, Book 2) by Philip Pullman ★★★★½
(Read for TIOLI: Cover Art & 11 in 11: Recent Acquisitions)

Weaving in and out of two universes, book 2 of the trilogy introduces a new protagonist who comes from "our" world of "today" as we know it. Will finds himself in a terrible bind when we meet him at the beginning of the book: he must make sure to find someone to take care of his mentally unstable mother before he embarks on a dangerous journey. He's been looking after her by himself until then, and he's not sure how long he'll be gone for—or where his journey will take him—but he does know that he must take the letters from his father with him, the very same ones his mother has kept hidden away and which strange men have been breaking into their house to get to. All Will knows about his dad is that he was an explorer and that he disappeared somewhere in the North Pole when Will was just a baby. He's got some vague idea that he must now find him, though he has no idea how he'll go about it. When Lyra and Will meet in Cittàgazze, a beautiful, though strangely abandoned city by the sea, Lyra consults the alethiometer about the boy and interprets the answer she gets—that he's a murdered—as a sign that she can trust him. Furthermore, she is instructed that her new mission is to help Will find his father, and the two embark on a fascinating journey during which they'll have to once again evade the cruel Mrs Coulter and a host of other enemies who are determined to keep the world in the dark about the question of Dust.

I must say I was at first underwhelmed with this book. To be fair, The Golden Compass is one tough act to follow, filled as it is with one fascinating discovery and adventure after another, and also having ended up as a five-star all-time favourite of mine. After having been wrapped up in Lyra's world for the whole of the first book, it felt strange somehow to be back to our own world with it's modern amenities and to be distanced from Lyra, whom I'd grown very attached to. At first, I saw The Subtle Knife as nothing more than a placeholder between the first and last instalment. But about halfway through I was just as wrapped up with the intrigue and adventure, and was lapping it all up with great pleasure. I must say that in retrospect it was just as filled with mystery and thrills as the first book and is most definitely rewarding experience, as long as you are willing to let go and follow the story along in whatever worlds it happens to take you. I can hardly wait to finish the trilogy now, but I'll let the anticipation build up for as long as I can stand it!

>190 Smiler69: - I totally relate to that last sentence, Ilana. When I love a series, I try to space the books apart as much as possible and then all of a sudden, I'll just HAVE to read the next one and I'll drop whatever book I'm reading at the time to devour it :-)

#191 I don't know about you, but I like to stretch the pleasure out so that I can continue to live with the story and characters in mind for as long as possible, and let the mystery drag on too. One expression from Vanilla Sky always stayed with me; I guess that makes me a "pleasure delayer". :-)

>152 Smiler69:: Wow, Ilana, that's a lot of listening that you've got in store for you. Road trips are my best time to listen to books. I listened to The Wake of Forgiveness on the way up to KC but won't be able to finish it on the way home. It's only a 6-hour round trip which makes it hard to listen to a book in its entirety. I guess I need to make longer trips!

>161 Smiler69:. Beautiful carnations. I had some growing in my garden for a few years. They make such good-smelling long-lasting cut flowers. What a wonderful way to bring spring into your house after a long winter.

That was so sad about your missing a visit from your 'little brother'. I hate it when things turn out that way. At least you had a good phone conversation and are still on good terms. I know that's not as good as a real visit, but it sounds like their visit to your area was a hectic time. Traveling with a baby can be complicated. It's too bad he lives so far away from you.

I loved your review of Jane Eyre upthread. It's one of my most beloved books and it makes me happy when my friends like it as much as I do. Are you planning to see the movie? I just watched the newest PBS presentation recently so that will suffice for me...at least until I need another "fix"!

Glad to see you enjoyed The Subtle Knife. Despite all the religious controversy surrounding the book, I actually enjoyed the entire series quite a bit. :)

Just catching up on your thread, will read the reviews later when I have more time. Good to read you were able to sort things out with your brother.

Ilana- I loved your review of The Subtle Knife. I'm glad you came around to the book. At first I wasn't sure. I'm a big fan of it, of course. Now, I'll wait for your thoughts on The Amber Spyglass.

#193 Donna, I'll look forward to you feedback about The Wake of Forgiveness, haven't heard about it before, but I often like stories set during the great depression.

My step-brother and his little family are on their way back to Australia now. I think it's pretty courageous of them making such a long trip with a small baby. I know I wouldn't mind going to visit them, but it's not an option right now.

I'll be going to see the new Jane Eyre movie at the cinema with a girlfriend who's a big JE fan soon. Linda (Whisper1) also highly recommended the Masterpiece Theatre version from 2006 (?) which I'll be picking up at the library sometimes this week. I'm looking forward to both versions.

#194 Valerie, I got a full appreciation for why there was all the controversy about the trilogy from reading The Subtle Knife. Pullman definitely doesn't shy away from laying it out there. But I have to say that as a non-religious person, that sort of thing really doesn't bother me—I'm always willing to explore different possibilities in a philosophical kind of way.

#195 Nathalie, I do the same as you, visit threads and return later to read reviews, even though I'm often most interested in the reviews. I was glad my brother and I got to talk and were able to clear any possible misunderstandings. It really helped me for my own peace of mind at least.

Mark, I'll be purchasing (as opposed to borrowing) The Amber Spyglass too, much as I did with the first two books, since I'm sure I'll want to read the trilogy again eventually. I already know I'll love The Amber Spyglass. This year, I've discovered both Pullman and Gaiman and have decided they can do no wrong. :-)

Just stopping by to say hello. (I can't believe how far behind I am on your thread!) You've done a lot of good reading.

It's a shame you missed seeing your brother, but I'm glad you at least got in a good phone conversation.

Hi Terri, I don't understand how come I manage to get so much reading in considering how much time I spend here on LT!

And please don't worry about being behind—I can never keep up with everyone else either.

I'm glad you at least got in a good phone conversation.

Hopefully we'll be getting plenty of "facetime" via Skype in future, something we've neglected to do up 'till now.

Well, I completed my 75th (audio)book last night: The Fall of the House of Usher: The Pit and the Pendulum and Other Tales of Mystery and Imagination by Edgar Allan Poe. It certainly met my expectation of macabre and spooky. Perfect for Halloween season. I'll keep that in mind for further Poe readings.

Congrats!

Congratulations!!

Whoa! Congratulations for sure!!!
I'm glad that you and younger brother got to talk and so sorry that you didn't have a face-to-face meeting. The *Jane Eyre* that I love is the Timothy Dalton-as-Rochester one. I guess it's not very good really, but somehow it rings all my bells - at once!

Congratulations Ilana on reaching the 75 challenge mark! I don't think you will have a hard time reaching 100! :)

Congratulations Ilana on your 75 (audio)books!

Thanks guys! Does that mean I'm done for the year then? Do I get a prize or something? :-P

#207 The prize is for the most no. of reads, the most no. of posts and for the most no. of threads in the group, best of luck beating Stasia for them all. I wouldn't be too hopeful if I were you :P

Nevertheless, a consolation prize is in order I guess.

Congratulations, Ilana! 75 books and it's still April - you might easily make it to 150.

Ilana- 75!! Wow, that's impressive! Have a good day!

Congratulations, Ilana!

#208 Hi Piyush, thanks for putting it all in perspective for me again :-P But you know what? I decided to throw in the towel as far as beating Stasia more or less the second I joined this group, which was more or less when Stasia first got in touch with me (as she has done for everyone else here). So what's the consolation prize then? ;-)

#209 Nathalie, it might sound silly, because I really don't *care* about numbers, I mean, at least not *really*, but I'd be totally chuffed if I got to read at least double what I've read already this year, if only to make up for too many other years when even reading a couple of magazines seemed like more concentration than I could muster. Which might explain why I'm so gung-ho about reading lately.

#210 Impressive Mark? Nah... I'm mean, as Piyush kindly reminded me above, it's just a teeny-tiny drop in the bucked. But I have to say that I'm really happy with the overall quality of the books I've read so far. So much so that it almost reassures me in a way when I come across something I don't *love*, since it confirms to me that my capacity for discernment hasn't gone out the window, and perhaps quite the opposite! But you'd know all about that, wouldn't you?

Thanks Darryl! I honestly think that I wouldn't have read even a fraction of those books by now if I hadn't joined this fantastic group of people here. With so many great recommendations going around, I sometimes feel like I've joined this enormous banquet of all the best foods I could dream of and am compelled to try to at least get a taste of every dish in sight!

>213 Smiler69:: Congratulations, Ilana...and I like that banquet of books metaphor. I'm going off for a little nibble now. ;-)

Enjoy your snack Donna!

I'm quite behind on my reviews and I've been working for HOURS now on my review for Apollo's Angels: A History of Ballet, which is kind of nuts because I know not very many people are likely to want to read this book, since ballet fans have become a rarity nowadays. But whatever. I really appreciated the book since it was so shock-full of fascinating information, and I want to do it justice. I haven't finished it yet, but I have to stop at this point though since I can't find a way to wrap up what has turned into a very, VERY long dissertation which I'm going to have to seriously cut back on before I post it, or visitors to my thread are going to run away screaming. Why do I give myself all this trouble, I ask myself? (Big Sigh)

Why do I give myself all this trouble, I ask myself?

The pride of knowing that you've crafted a beautiful piece of writing! And we as your readers can reap the benefits of your effort and dedication! :)

Awww... I can definitely use some encouragement at this point... I feel like I've *lost* so many hours of my life at this point, so that comment was much appreciated Valerie!

*thinks of another appropriate comment to negate Valerie's positive influence*

*thinks of another appropriate comment to negate Valerie's positive influence*

LOL :-D

*is still waiting...*

Congratulations on reading 75 books!
I'm glad you had the opportunity to connect wtih your "brother".

#221 Thanks Linda, it's been really fun doing all that reading so far. Don't know if I'll be able to keep up that pace all year, but that doesn't really matter, I guess.

As for my little brother, I'm really grateful we got in touch, not just because of our familial relation, but especially because he's just an amazing person, with a very high degree of emotional intelligence. For the past 6-8 years now, he's been working full time with autistic children as an educator, and he's currently also working on his Masters degree for that specialty. He's also one of the very rare people who truly *get* me and knows me inside and out, and he somehow always knows how to make me feel a whole lot better about myself when we talk. I feel very lucky to have someone like that in my life.

We all need someone in our life like your brother! I'm glad you have such a wonderful relationship. Of course you are sad that you missed seeing him, yet you are wise enough to know he will always have a special place in your heart.

*BIG, BIG SIGH*

This is ridiculous. I've now spent something like 7-8 hours between yesterday and today, trying to write my review for Apollo's Angels. The problem isn't in the writing itself, but in the editing. As it is, it now stands at over 2000 words, which is just nuts. And again, I know there'll only be a limited interest in this book to begin with. But really, I'm writing this for my own pleasure more than anything. I've already decided that I'll post the comprehensive version, (along with images and video) on my blog, but I can't muster the energy to edit a "short" version to post here. All this time that I could be doing OTHER things! But why??? Ugh.

I was going to suggest a "short version"...somewhere..

I want to read the book.....never mind the reviews (nothing bad to say about you or your review).....

"BIG DUH"

*serious cackle*

J

Ilana, don't let all your hard work go to waste. You can do what I do for some of my longish thoughts on books...either post on my personal wiki or my "reading journal" which I keep as a private group here on LT to be accessed only by me!

Keep in mind that time spent pondering our reads is never wasted! I wish I could write concise reviews but usually have way too much to say. ;-) I'll be watching for the edited version of your review of Apollo's Angels.

Ilana- I agree with Donna, don't get frustrated over the time you spent on your review. I think that is so impressive that you give it that much thought.
I'm trying to condense my feelings about "Radioactive", that's how excited I am about it. I want to just say: Read the damn thing! Now!

>227 msf59: Hahah Mark, I think you should just put that! At least there won't be any confusion to whether you like it or not. ;)

#225 Jude, I've decided to set it aside for today, but I'll for sure cut back drastically on it. Since it's non-fiction though, it's not like there'll be any spoilers!

#226 Hopefully I'll post that review tomorrow. If only because I'm starting to have a backlog with more books to post about, but I am going to do something along the lines of what you suggest, which is, post the condensed version here, and give a link to my blog post, where I'll put in the long version, so it won't all have gone to waste, as you say.

#227 Mark, I've already sought out Radioactive: A Tale of Love and Fallout and found it on the library catalogue. I agree with Valerie that those five words you wrote here make a pretty compelling case for picking it up, but seeing as I have countless books that scream READ ME NOW! READ ME NOW! Radioactive will just have to wait in line. Looking forward to your review too!

I love it when Darryl posts the latest longlist and prizewinners, which makes me take notice of books it probably would have taken me a long time to hear about otherwise. I just discovered the "Prix SNCF du polar européen" which is the "SNCF Prize for the best European Detective Novel" and thought I'd share my finding. Some of these titles might be familiar to you, a couple are only available in French (one of which is coming out in English in 2012), but they're all new to me!

2011 Le Chuchoteur by Donato Carrisi (coming out as "The Whisperer" in Jan. 2012 )
2010 The Dinner Club by Saskia Noort
2009 Mr. Clarinet by Nick Stone
2007 Bleu catacombes Gilda Piersanti (only available in French at this time)
2006 The Coroner's Lunch by Colin Cotterill
2005 Tokyo by Mo Hayder
2004 Dragon's Eye by Andy Oakes