souloftherose's reading, thread the fourth - the book adventures continue through autumn

A new thread for autumn (although we are currently experiencing a mini heatwave, such is the British summer)

Old threads and introductions:
2010 best of list
My introduction
Thread #1 Jan-March
Thread #2 Apr-Jun
Thread #3 Jul-Sep

Books read in 2011:



July (22)

#106 The Lions of Al-Rassan by Guy Gavriel Kay
#107 My Swordhand is Singing by Marcus Sedgwick
#108 Afternoon of the Elves by Janet Taylor Lisle
#109 Mortal Engines by Philip Reeve
#110 The Blue Hawk by Peter Dickinson
#111 Artemis Fowl: The Time Paradox by Eoin Colfer
#112 Heartless by Gail Carriger
#113 The Night Watch by Sarah Waters
#114 At the Sign of the Sugared Plum by Mary Hooper
#115 On Books and the Housing of Them by W. E. Gladstone
#116 The Warrior's Apprentice by Lois McMaster Bujold
#117 Great House by Nicole Krauss
#118 Summer by Edith Wharton
#119 Jacob Have I Loved by Katherine Paterson
#120 Guards! Guards! by Terry Pratchett
#121 Men at Arms by Terry Pratchett
#122 The Penderwicks: A Summer Tale of Four Sisters, Two Rabbits and a Very Interesting Boy by Jeanne Birdsall
#123 The Haunting of Alaizabel Cray by Chris Wooding
#124 A Memoir of Jane Austen and Other Family Recollections by James Edward Austen-Leigh
#125 The Story of the Treasure Seekers by E. Nesbit
#126 The Wouldbegoods by E. Nesbit
#127 Shards of Honor by Lois McMaster Bujold

August (20)

#128 Emma by Jane Austen
#129 The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler
#130 Aberystwyth Mon Amour by Malcolm Pryce
#131 Empire in Black and Gold by Adrian Tchaikovsky
#132 Ballet Shoes by Noel Streatfeild
#133 Barrayar by Lois McMaster Bujold
#134 Predator's Gold by Philip Reeve
#135 Infernal Devices by Philip Reeve
#136 Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
#137 My Antonia by Willa Cathar
#138 Mrs Miniver by Jan Struther
#139 A Darkling Plain by Philip Reeve
#140 Feet of Clay by Terry Pratchett
#141 The Mountains of Mourning by Lois McMaster Bujold
#142 The Vor Game by Lois McMaster Bujold
#143 Bel Canto by Ann Patchett
#144 Farewell, My Lovely by Raymond Chandler
#145 Imperium by Robert Harris
#146 Five Weeks in a Balloon by Jules Verne
#147 The Crystal Cave by Mary Stewart

September (17)

#148 Foundation and Empire by Isaac Asimov
#149 Lincoln's Melancholy: How Depression Challenged a President and Fueled His Greatness by Joshua Wolf Shenk
#150 Something Fresh by P. G. Wodehouse
#151 Enchantment by Orson Scott Card
#152 The Adventures of Captain Hatteras by Jules Verne
#153 The Spellcoats by Diana Wynne Jones
#154 Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton
#155 The Crown of Dalemark by Diana Wynne Jones
#156 The Observations by Jane Harris
#157 Second Foundation by Isaac Asimov
#158 Is Heathcliff a Murderer?: Great Puzzles in Nineteenth-Century Fiction by by John Sutherland
#159 Man Alone by John Mulgan
#160 The Castle of Otranto by Horace Walpole
#161 Nicholas Nickleby by Charles Dickens
#162 Lucia in London by E. F. Benson
#163 Goldfinger by Ian Fleming
#164 Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen

October (18)

#165 The Sun King: Louis XIV at Versailles by Nancy Mitford
#166 This Dark Endeavour: The Apprenticeship of Victor Frankenstein by Kenneth Oppel
#167 Sweet Danger by Margery Allingham
#168 Dark Fire by C. J. Sansom
#169 Sovereign by C. J. Sansom
#170 The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbary
#171 Mapp and Lucia by E. F. Benson
#172 The Custom of the Country by Edith Wharton
#173 The Invisible Ones by Stef Penney
#174 The Dragonfly Pool by Eva Ibbotson
#175 Charles Dickens: A Life by Claire Tomalin
#176 The Hollow Hills by Mary Stewart
#177 Jingo by Terry Pratchett
#178 A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness
#179 The Fifth Elephant by Terry Pratchett
#180 The Mill on the Floss by George Eliot
#181 The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton
#182 The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane by Kate DiCamillo

November

#183 Shanghai Girls by Lisa See
#184 Baba Yaga Laid an Egg by Dubravka Ugrešić
#185 Goliath by Scott Westerfeld
#186 The Crossing Places by Elly Griffiths
#187 The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes (annotated) by Arthur Conan Doyle
#188 New Treasure Seekers by E. Nesbit
#189 Elizabeth's German Garden by Elizabeth von Armin
#190 American Gods by Neil Gaiman
#191 Last Tango in Aberystwyth by Malcolm Pryce
#192 The Darling Strumpet by Gillian Bagwell
#193 Persuasion by Jane Austen
#194 The Night Circus by Erin Mogenstern
#195 The Sword of the Lictor by Gene Wolfe
#196 The Mysteries of Udolpho by Ann Radcliffe
#197 The Treehorn Trilogy by Florence Parry Heide and Edward Gorey
#198 Five Red Herrings by Dorothy L. Sayers
#199 The Usborne Book of Whodunnits by Martin Oliver and Emma Fischel
#200 Parnassus on Wheels by Christopher Morley
#201 The Hound of the Baskervilles by Arthur Conan Doyle
#202 Fair Play by Tove Jansson
#203 Lioness Rampant by Tamora Pierce

Books acquired (the list of shame)

Counter for books acquired in 2011:



I have acquired more books than I've read this year even including rereads and library books. But I think I've acquired fewer than last year. It's still not good is it?

Books acquired: (strikethroughs indicate books subsequently read)

April (16)
#70 Murder is Easy by Agatha Christie (BM)
#71 Burton and Swinburne in The Strange Affair of Spring Heeled Jack by Mark Hodder (BM)
#72 Helliconia Spring by Brian W. Aldiss (BM)
#73 Cocktail Time by P. G. Wodehouse (BM)
#74 The Girl in Blue by P. G. Wodehouse (BM)
#75 Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats by T. S. Eliot (BM)
#76 The Dinosaur Hunters by Deborah Cadbury (BM)
#77 Strong Poison by Dorothy L. Sayers (BM)
#78 Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson (Charity bookshop)
#79 The City and The City by China Mieville (Charity bookshop)
#80 Poor Cow by Nell Dunn (Charity bookshop)
#81 A Pin to See the Peepshow by F. Tennyson Jesse (Charity bookshop)
#82 1066 and All That by Walther C. Sellar (BM)
#83 A History of London by Robert Gray (BM)
#84 Russia: A Journey to the Heart of a Land and its People by Jonathan Dimbleby (Oxfam)
#85 Mrs Miniver by Jan Struther (BM)

May (21)
#86 Nine Tomorrows by Isaac Asimov (BM)
#87 Look to the Lady by Margery Allingham (abebooks)
#88 The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club by Dorothy L. Sayers (abebooks)
#89 Anderby Wold by Winifred Holtby (bookdepository)
#90 The Land of Green Ginger by Winifred Holtby (bookdepository)
#91 Poor Caroline by Winifred Holtby (bookdepository)
#92 Irma Voth by Miriam Toews (Early Reviewers)
#93 The Road Home by Rose Tremain (BM)
#94 Inkheart by Cornelia Funke (Charity bookshop)
#95 Miss Buncle's Book by D. E. Stevenson (Persephone bookshop)
#96 Miss Buncle Married by D. E. Stevenson (Persephone bookshop)
#97 Good Evening, Mrs Craven by Mollie Panter-Downes (Persephone bookshop)
#98 A Damsel in Distress by P. G. Wodehouse (The Lamb bookshop)
#99 Summer Moonshine by P. G. Wodehouse (The Lamb bookshop)
#100 Rubicon by Tom Holland (The Lamb bookshop)
#101 Lioness Rampant by Tamora Pierce (BM)
#102 The Wind Singer by William Nicholson (BM)
#103 Elizabeth and Her German Garden by Elizabeth von Armin (BM)
#104 Eight Days of Luke by Diana Wynne Jones (Charity bookshop)
#105 Blue Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson (Charity bookshop)
#106 Green Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson (Charity bookshop)

June (12)
#107 Concourse by S. J. Rozan (BM)
#108 Monsters of Men by Patrick Ness (BM)
#109 Mandarin Plaid by S. J. Rozan (BM)
#110 Small Island by Andrea Levy (Charity bookshop)
#111 The History of Love by Nicole Krauss (Charity bookshop)
#112 The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield (Charity bookshop)
#113 Rough Crossings by Simon Schama (Ex-library)
#114 Miss Smilla's Feeling for Snow by Peter Hoeg (Charity bookshop)
#115 A Change of Climate by Hilary Mantel (Charity bookshop)
#116 Jane and Prudence by Barbara Pym (Gift)
#117 Gardens of the Moon by Steven Erikson (BM)
#118 The Warrior's Apprentice by Lois McMaster Bujold (BM)

July (12)
#119 Eight Skilled Gentlemen by Barry Hughart (BM)
#120 Heartless by Gail Carriger (Kindle)
#121 Cat Haiku by Deborah Coates (BM)
#122 Cordelia's Honor by Lois McMaster Bujold (Baen ebook store)
#123 The Crossing Places by Elly Griffiths (Kindle)
#124 Empire in Black and Gold by Adrian Tchaikovsky (Kindle)
#125 Last Tango in Aberystwyth by Malcolm Pryce (Kindle)
#126 Quantum: Einstein, Bohr and the Great Debate About the Nature of Reality by Manjit Kumar (Kindle)
#127 Shanghai Girls by Lisa See (Kindle)
#128 The Dragonfly Pool by Eva Ibbotson (Kindle)
#129 Heartstone by C. J. Sansom (Passed on by colleague)
#130 Living Dolls by Natasha Walter (BM)

August (17)

#131 Mortal Engines by Phiip Reeve (Kindle)
#132 Predator's Gold by Philip Reeve (Kindle)
#133 Infernal Devices by Philip Reeve (Kindle)
#134 A Darkling Plain by Philip Reeve (Kindle)
#135 Nicholas Nickleby by Charles Dickens (bookdepository)
#136 The Complete Mapp and Lucia Volume One by E. F. Benson (aka Lucia Rising) (bookdepository)
#137 The Complete Mapp and Lucia Volume Two by E. F. Benson (bookdepository)
#138 A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness (bookdepository)
#139 Child of a Rainless Year by Jane Lindskold (BM)
#140 Party of One: The Loners' Manifesto by Anneli Rufus (BM)
#141 The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet by David Mitchell (BM)
#142 Little Dorrit by Charles Dickens (Oxfam bookshop)
#143 Samuel Pepys: The Unequalled Self by Claire Tomalin (Oxfam bookshop)
#144 New Seeds of Contemplation by Thomas Merton (BM)
#145 March by Geraldine Brooks (Ex-library)
#146 In the Teeth of the Evidence by Dorothy L. Sayers (BM)
#147 The Adventures of Sally by P. G. Wodehouse (BM)

September (18)

#148 The Crystal Cave by Mary Stewart (abebooks)
#149 The Hollow Hills by Mary Stewart (abebooks)
#150 The Last Enchantment by Mary Stewart (abebooks)
#151 The Spellcoats by Diana Wynne Jones (abebooks)
#152 Deep Secret by Diana Wynne Jones (abebooks)
#153 The Winter King by Bernard Cornwell (Kindle)
#154 The Enemy of God by Bernard Cornwell (Kindle)
#155 Excalibur by Bernard Cornwell (Kindle)
#156 The Darling Strumpet by Gillian Bagwell (Early Reviewers)
#157 The Observations by Jane Harris (Kindle)
#158 A Fortnight in September by R. C. Sherriff (Persephone Books)
#159 The Invisible Ones by Stef Penney (Publisher giveaway)
#160 Sovereign by C. J. Sansom (Charity bookshop)
#161 The Fire Gospel by Michel Faber (Charity bookshop)
#162 Blaming by Elizabeth Taylor (Charity bookshop)
#163 Testament of Friendship by Vera Brittain (Charity bookshop)
#164 No Fond Return of Love by Barbara Pym (BM)
#165 The Diary of a Provincial Lady by E. M. Delafield (Gift)

October (11)

#166 This Dark Endeavour: The Apprenticeship of Victor Frankenstein by Kenneth Oppel (Review copy)
#167 Charles Dickens: A Life by Claire Tomalin (Amazon)
#168 Snuff by Terry Pratchett (Amazon)
#169 The Old Curiosity Shop by Charles Dickens (Abebooks)
#170 The Bridge of Birds by Barry Hughart (Amazon marketplace)
#171 The Story of the Stone by Barry Hughart (Abebooks)
#172 Where was Rebecca Shot? by John Sutherland (Abebooks)
#173 The Law and the Lady by Wilkie Collins (Bookmooch)
#174 Nachtstürm Castle: A Gothic Austen Novel (Girlebooks)
#175 The Wolves of Willoughby Chase by Joan Aiken (Bookmooch)
#176 Beauty by Robin McKinley (Bookmooch)

November
#177 The Unbearable Lightness of Being in Aberystwyth by Malcolm Pryce (Kindle)
#178 Witch Wood by John Buchan (Kindle)
#179 Stop the Train by Geraldine McCaughrean (Kindle)
#180 Madame Sousatzka by Bernice Rubens (Kindle)
#181 Told by an Idiot by Rose Macauley (Kindle)
#182 A Long Walk to Wimbledon by H. R. F. Keating (Kindle)
#183 The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie by Muriel Spark (Bookmooch)
#184 Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See (Kindle)
#185 Death Comes to Pemberley by P. D. James (Kindle)
#186 Time to be in Earnest: A Fragment of Autobiography by P. D. James (Kindle)
#187 The Old Man and Me by Elaine Dundy (Bookmooch)
#188 Union Street by Pat Barker (Bookmooch)
#189 The Weather in the Streets by Rosamond Lehmann (Bookmooch)
#190 The Return of the Soldier by Rebecca West (Bookmooch)
#191 All Passion Spent by Vita Sackville-West (Bookmooch)
#192 My Brilliant Career by Miles Franklin (Bookmooch)
#193 The Treehorn Trilogy by Florence Parry Heide (Early Reviewers)
#194 The Tough Guide to Fantasyland by Diana Wynne Jones (Bookmooch)
#195 The Folklore of Discworld by Terry Pratchett and Jacqueline Simpson (Bookmooch)
#196 State of Wonder by Ann Patchett (Kindle)
#197 A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan (Kindle)
#198 The Night Circus by Erin Mogenstern (Kindle)

Currently reading

The Mysteries of Udolpho by Ann Radcliffe
Five Red Herrings by Dorothy L. Sayers
The Treehorn Trilogy by Florence Parry Heide and Edward Gorey

Sort of reading, but paused:

Jane Austen's Letters by Jane Austen
The Magical Maze by Ian Stewart
Depressive Illness by Tim Cantopher
Lioness Rampant by Tamora Pierce
Nothing but Ghosts by Judith Hermann
The Inner Voice of Love by Henri Nouwen
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Found you!! (Hope I didn't interrupt the placing of holders. Holding of places. That.)

Heat wave here too - kind of - and it's meant to be 24 for the foreseeable future...

#4 Hi Cushla, don't worry you didn't mess anything up :-)

It's supposed to be 25 here for the rest of this week. The air conditioning at work seems to be set to humid at the moment and I can feel my hair getting frizzier as the day progresses...

Off to link to this thread from my old one...

And some more book acquisitions in September to add to the list of shame...

From the charity shop:

Sovereign by C. J. Sansom (I'm still deciding what books to take on holiday but Dark Fire and this book are currently strong contenders)
The Fire Gospel by Michel Faber (part of the Canongate Myths series)
Blaming by Elizabeth Taylor (a VMC)
Testament of Friendship by Vera Brittain (despite the fact I still haven't read Testament of Youth)

From bookmooch:

No Fond Return of Love by Barbara Pym (another VMC)

And I thought I was doing quite well this month.

You are doing quite well, Heather! DO take the Sansoms on holiday. You'll be glad you did! I'm sorry about your sinusitis - I live in the sinus capital of the world: always humid with a lot of high atmospheric pressure to really get in amongst them. I knew a woman once who had no sinuses.....isn't that interesting?
Between you, you and Terri are going to have me reading Lincoln's Melancholy yet. Thumb! Also a good review of *NN*. I immediately think of "going to the demnation bow-wows."
Besides The Heart of Midlothian, which I haven't read, Old Mortality is considered the other "good" Scott. Thought you'd like to know that too. My DH enjoys Scott for some reason that I haven't been able to fathom - I guess the Scotchness of it all. He generally has no use for 19th century leisure.

Oh, I can't wait to start reading the Matthew Shardlake series! Might have to do more damage myself and get it too, unless the library...?

Promised myself no library books this month to force me to read my own, but I hope it doesn't translate to ever more acquisitions since I went absolutely insane this month already.

Loads of books is fine by me, but where to put them?

And... hi Heather! :-)

So nice to visit someone who has acquired more books than I have this year! Sort of takes the pressure off. ;-)

Hi Heather, your ratio of new books to new books read looks about the same as mine. At least some of them are getting read! Are you going somewhere nice for your holiday?

Found and starred the new thread! :)

Got you starred and I can see I am in great company here with you acquiring as many books as I have this year! I was doing great on my library book ban as well except for yesterday when I discovered a graphic novel duo and ordered a few too many books from their offerings. Oh dear...

Hello! Found your new thread!

From your last thread, I am severely allergic to dust mite faeces. For the past eight years I have been battling with it. So, I know what you are going through. Hope are getting getting better now!

Hi Heather - found and starred:)

Hi Heather. Nice new thread here. And I'll echo the urgings to take C.J. Sansom on holiday with you. I think Matthew Shardlake would be so companionable. ;-)

#7 No sinuses? Hmm, how does that work? Thanks for the thumb and 'demnation' :-) I'll bear Old Mortality in mind.

#8 Hi Ilana. I have been getting fewer library books this year which has helped me read more from my shelves but the kindle has not helped because I've been reading lots of out of copyright books which I've downloaded from Gutenberg or other sites instead of the books I've been buying. But it does mean I can buy books without them taking up more space (and it's wonderful having all those old books at my fingertips). The library should have the Shardlake books (but it's nice getting your own copies...)

#9 Hi Roni. Glad to know my complete and utter lack of self-control can help others in a small way...! :-)

#10 Hi Genny. We're going to Paris and I'm really looking forward to it. We've been before but we both feel in the mood for a holiday returning to somewhere so all the pressure's off! I'd like to go to Versailles this time and the Monet museum and otherwise just wander around and relax.

#11 Hi Angela :-)

#12 It's nice to be in good company Leonie :-)

#13 Thanks Porua. The inhalations have definitely been helping and the mucus (yuck) is moving. I just hope once I've got it clear the steroid spray I've got stops it from building up again. Unfortunately it seems to be one of those things where there's not really much they can do to help.

I did get a leaflet from the doctor which about allergies which made me chuckle. It discusses pet allergies (I don't think this is what I'm allergic to) and recommends keeping pets out of your living space (other than the cupboard our ironing board and vacuum cleaner are kept in I don't think there are any rooms in our flat that I wouldn't include in our living space) and also recommends bathing your pets! I can just imagine Erica's reaction if we tried that!

#14 Hi calm :-)

#15 Thanks Donna. I'm 99% sure that Matthew Shardlake will be coming to Paris with us.

And last few books for September:

Book #162 Lucia in London by E. F. Benson - 4.5 stars



I don't know whether it's Benson's writing or the increasing familiarity I have with the characters, but I find the Lucia and Mapp books are just getting better and better as I progress through the series.

In this book we're back in the very genteel village of Riseholme with Lucia and co. Lucia's and her husband Peppino have inherited a house in London and although Lucia has always professed to despise the business and bustle of London, she is unable to resist the opportunity to try and become queen of London society and begins to neglect her realm in Riseholme.

There's no one incident in the book that stands out for me but this was a book that I read with a smile on my face and just thinking about it again has brought that smile back. Delicious.

Book #163 Goldfinger by Ian Fleming - 3.5 stars



The original James Bond novels are a bit of a guilty pleasure of mine. Not because they're dreadful but because Fleming could often be so sexist and racist in the books that I feel bad admitting that I enjoyed reading them. Some are better than others in that respect; this was probably one of the worst (the only one that was more offensive was The Spy Who Loved Me. However, because the racism, sexism and other -isms seem so old-fashioned and out of date I often find those opinions just seem ridiculous to me rather than offensive. So this one I actually quite enjoyed (and my rating reflects that) although I'm still left feeling that perhaps I ought to have knocked off a star for being so racist and sexist.

The -isms in this book are directed particularly towards Koreans, women and lesbians (apparently giving women the vote messed their hormones up and made them have unnatural sexual feelings?!?). So very guardedly recommended because a lot of opinions expressed in the book are very offensive, and an apology if enjoying said book despite the offensive opinions it contained makes me a bad person...

The film is actually fairly true to the book although they've removed a lot of the anti-Korean sentiment in the film.

If you would like to try a Bond novel then Moonraker or Live and Let Die are much less offensive and much better books although Live and Let Die does contain some casual racism - don't be put off by the Moonraker film, it bore no resemblance to the book.

Book #164 Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen - 4.5 stars



I don't know whether this is the effect of reading The Castle of Otranto or due to some other reason but I have no idea why this was my least favourite Austen the last time I reread it. This time I found it absolutely hilarious, not just as a parody of the gothic novel but also as a satire on the expected social behaviours of the time, particularly with respect to young ladies in the 18th century marriage market. Our heroine, Catherine, is a complete innocent and often refreshingly honest with the result that she can't understand the duplicitous behaviour of the people around her. Although Henry Tilney isn't the most fleshed-out of Austen's heroes, I think he would probably be the one most fun to spend half an hour with.

I think this is probably even better when reread as it's easier to spot all the hints given for the events that are going to unfold and laugh along with the author.

September summary

Books read = 17
Books read for TIOLI challenge = 16
Pages read = 4,968
Books from the TBR pile = 9
Kindle freebies = 3
Library/borrowed = 0
Rereads = 5

Best reads of the month:

Fiction:
Something Fresh by P. G. Wodehouse
Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton

Non-fiction:

Lincoln's Melancholy by Joshua Wolf Shenk
Is Heathcliff a Murderer? by John Sutherland

And October plans (just to see how overcommitted I am already)...

TIOLI challenges

Challenge #1: Read a novel assigned in an English class
The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton
The Custom of the Country by Edith Wharton
The Mill on the Floss by George Eliot

Challenge #2: A characteristic work of the 75 challenge group
The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbary (perfect Paris read)

Challenge #4: Author using non simple name
Elizabeth and Her German Garden by Elizabeth von Arnim (my VMC for the month)
Mapp and Lucia by E. F. Benson (my Lucia fix)

Challenge #8: Civil war
Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (my Orange for the month) - Reading

Challenge #9: Author name begins and ends in vowels
The Dragonfly Pool by Eva Ibbotson

Challenge #10: Book Browse pick
The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane by Kate DiCamillo

Challenge #11: Author first and last names have same number of letters
The Darling Strumpet by Gillian Bagwell (overdue ER book)

Challenge #12: Monsters
A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness
The Princess and the Goblin by George MacDonald

Challenge #13: Two cardinal points
East of the Sun, West of the Moon by Peter Christen Asbjørnsen

Challenge #18: 150 or fewer conversations
The Invisible Ones by Stef Penney

Challenge #19: Planned for two or more challenges
The Hollow Hills by Mary Stewart

Challenge #21: Set between 1910 and 1950
Sweet Danger by Margery Allingham

Which is 16 books already and doesn't include the Sansom's. Oh well, some of them will get read.

A great TIOLI selection! I may try to join you on Elizabeth and her German garden - having read Enchanted April earlier this year and enjoyed that. I'm not committing myself to too many, but I need to have another look at the books I already want to read soon and see if they can be fitted into any of the categories.

Paris sounds great - especially in a 'it's not our first visit, we don't have to dash around seeing everything' mood.

Great selection of books. I can highly recommend The E of the H in Paris - I finished it there (do not read the last chapters in a restaurant after a few wines or you might cry. I had to stop reading!!). When are you going? I am there next weekend, yay!!!

Enjoy Paris for all of us, Heather and Cushla. Yay for you! Sigh for me.............

Hi Heather, i have found and starred you. Trying to catch up on threads after 10 days is practically a full time job! I noticed that you read and enjoyed a Charles Dickens. When I first got my Kindle I downloaded all of Charles Dickens works, but so far I have only read Oliver Twist and A Christmas Carol. I read A Tale of Two Cities years ago. I have enjoyed all of his works that I have read, so it's good to see that Nicholas Nickleby is one I can look forward to as well.

Hiya - just coming over to check out your thread in reciprocation - wow you're well ahead of the 75 :)

Half a Yellow Sun is excellent by the way - or at least I loved it. Hope you enjoy the Edith Wharton as well.

I read Kat, Incorrigible last night--loved it!

Heather: I am hereby withdrawing my star. I did not realize what a terrible person you were until you revealed your love of James Bond books with their unspeakable abuses of -isms.

:-)

Kidding of course. lol. I'm in a bit of a strange mood today, so you'll have to forgive me.

I collected about 3 different Ian Flemming titles on audio and was quite excited about them because I do admit to having always had a weakness for the Bond films (sexisms and all!). But when I tried to listen to Live and Let Die, I found the racism really grated on me. Not that I'm an especially PC kind of person, but then again, maybe I am more so than I realize. I'll try it again sometime—now that I know what to expect as far as that goes, I'll at least be prepared and won't take offence so easily. My mum's never hit me in my life except for two times when she gave me a resounding slap, the first being when I was very little, maybe 3 or 4, and started laughing when I saw a mixed race couple (had never seen that before and it struck me as funny at the time, though I hardly see why now), from which I learned that there was a thing called racism and I had just taken part in it. And the other time... can't remember why, though I'm sure I properly deserved it.

I'm glad to see I'm not the only one with big delusions ambitions when it comes to TIOLI. I'll repost my list so we can compare.

By the way, I seem to remember you saying something about "all" the recommendations for Dickens novels you made on my thread a while back, and wanted you to know that I love getting recommendations like that, so don't ever be shy to post any and all that come to mind.

When are you off to Paris? I'm so jealous. Paris is one of my favourite cities in the world. I've been there a few times, but so far have not seen Versailles. There's never enough time to take in everything, is there? The Louvre alone would probably require a solid month of daily visits to get just a general overview of their collections. I remember the first time I went to Orsay, how awed I was by the structure itself, let alone the masterpieces it houses.

I hope your pain has subsided and you're feeling better.

Hi Heather - I'm another who loves spending time in Paris, so am a bit jealous too. I'm currently reading Lunch in Paris: a love story with recipes by Elizabeth Bard so am getting a little taste of the city, though overall I don't think I can recommend the book, it's sitting around the 3 stars.
I'm tempted by your Mapp & Lucia reads and have succumbed and borrowed the DVD of the first season to watch. I know I should read the books, but my tbr pile is so reaching epic proportions.

I visited Versailles a long long time ago and on our last trip finally visited the Père-Lachaise Cemetery.

#27 You've just reminded me I'll need to visit Père-Lachaise too next time I'm in Paris Kerry. Would it be a nice place to read a book maybe, provided it's not a rainy day?

It has quite a gothic atmosphere, all stone, moss and beautiful greenery, I really liked it.

Hi Heather,

You have some great books lined up for October. I'm another fan of Half of a Yellow Sun and will be reading The Age of Innocence alongside you!

Hellos to Genny, Cushla, Peggy, Judy, Bekka, Roni, Ilana, Kerry and Dee - phew!

#20 I have another couple of books I need to write reviews for that I need to fit in this month and a library book that I can't renew as someone else has reserved so I can already see I will probably not manage to get to all the TIOLI books listed...

#21 Thanks for the warning about E of H Cushla! We leave rather early on Tuesday morning and are there for 9 nights so I think we'll be there next weekend when you are? DH has already told me that we have to find somewhere to watch the England-France rugby World Cup quarter final on Saturday morning (kick-off 8:30am).

#22 Sorry Peggy :-(

#23 Hi Judy - hope you continue to enjoy the Charles Dickens books.

#24 Thanks Bekka, I'm slightly nervous of Half of Yellow Sun. I thought Purple Hibiscus was a great book but a very emotional one and I imagine HYS will be similar.

#25 Glad you enjoyed it Roni, I need to remember to get that one out of the library when I'm back from my hols.

#26 Whew - glad you were just kidding :-)

Live and Let Die might have been more racist than I've remembered; it was quite a while ago and I think the film is a bit racist too so I might have been prepared for it when I came to the book. I get the impression that Fleming didn't really approve of anyone who wasn't white, British, male and straight. He was born in 1908 so maybe his -isms were more representative of 1910s/1920s than the 1950s and 60s when he was writing the Bond books?

Paris is one of my favourite cities too and I love being there which I always think is funny because I don't really like London at all. Perhaps it's because I've only ever been to Paris when on holiday but it seems so much more relaxed. We spent almost two days in the Louvre last time we were there and I don't think we got round a third of it. I shouldn't say this but I definitely prefer the Louvre to the British Museum...

Sinus pain has gone thank you :-) I guess the steam inhalations were pretty effective.

#27 Let me know what you think of the Mapp and Lucia DVDs Kerry. I only realised they'd televised the books when I saw the DVDs pop up on my Amazon recommendations.

#27 & 28 I haven't been to Père-Lachaise either. DH wasn't keen last time we went for some reason (thought it would be too depressing I think) but perhaps I could go while he's watching the rugby. I've just found a website which lets you do a virtual tour of the cemetary online here.

#30 Good to see another fan of Half of a Yellow Sun - I've had my copy for years now and really ought to read it... Age of Innocence will be a reread for me but it's been such a long time since I read it that I can't remember much beyond the basic plot. I'm looking forward to Donna sharing the comments from her class.

And I finished my first book of October this morning, Nancy Mitford's The Sun King although that's not quite as impressive as it sounds because I read most of it in September just decided not to push myself to finish it by the 30th. Brief review to come.

I'm feeling rather guilty about my Early Reviewer books at the moment because I just received a book to review from Waterstones (UK bookstore) and as they want the review posted by the 6th and we're going away on the 4th I need to finish it this weekend. Luckily it's a children's book (This Dark Endeavour by Kenneth Oppel) but I have two overdue ER books which I haven't prioritised at all the last few months. I wonder if I can squeeze one of them in before going away?

We are in the most ridiculous heatwave here considering it's the 1st October with temperatures of 27C (80.6F according to google). I'm going to take This Dark Endeavour out into the garden to see if it's any cooler in the shade than it is inside the flat....

I've just changed DVD rental companies and the new one has the Mapp And Lucia series - although I'm holding off until I've finished the novels.

Heather - I hope you get to visit Père-Lachaise, it's a worthwhile place to visit if you've already done most of the other highlights of Paris. Being from New Zealand, I just like to hang out in any place that has this great sense of history, most of our buildings are 'young' in every sense of the word and Auckland especially seems to lose lots of heritage buildings due to a weak council plan that continually allows developers to walk all over concerned citizens/historic society protests.

Lucky you having the heatwave, I'm sorry we are well into spring here and today I'm still wrapped up as if it's midwinter. I have planted my spring herb garden though.

My daughter watched the whole of series 1 of Mapp and Lucia yesterday and I made a start last night, though had to take a break while the Scotland vs England rugby was on.

never heard of Mapp and Lucia but sounds like my type of book - on to the wishlist they go!

"Mapp And Lucia" is also the group name for a series of books, Lisa - Mapp And Lucia is the fourth after Queen Lucia, Miss Mapp and Lucia In London.

Yeah, I shouldn't moan about the warm weather given how much time we normally spend complaining that it's grey and rainy!

First couple of books from October:

Book #165 The Sun King: Louis XIV at Versailles by Nancy Mitford - 4 stars



Nancy Mitford's biography of Louis XIV is rather gossipy in tone; you can almost imagine that she's writing about people she's actually met, but very readable (probably because of the gossipyness). Unlike other biographies I've read there were no references although there was a list of sources used at the back of the book. This, taken together with the way Nancy Mitford writes, makes it very difficult for the reader to tell which bits (if any) are speculation on the author's part or disputed by other biographers.

Having said that, I think this makes a very good introduction to the court of Louis XIV. Throughout the book there are illustrations in both black and white and colour of the Royal family, courtiers and, of course, Versailles. There's also a fairly detailed family tree which is an absolute must when it comes to keeping track of who's who because of the similarities of name and title. It was a very engrossing read and it certainly helped this reader get her head round the different Louis' of the time.

Book #166 This Dark Endeavour: The Apprenticeship of Victor Frankenstein by Kenneth Oppel - 4.5 stars



Victor Frankenstein has always felt slightly overshadowed by his elder twin brother Konrad. Konrad is kinder, more intelligent and stronger than Victor and is loved and admired by the whole household, family and servants alike, in a way that Victor knows he never will be. But when Konrad falls dangerously ill with a seemingly uncurable fever, Victor knows that he will do anything to make his brother well again and against the wishes of his parents he starts to dabble in alchemy, trying to concoct an Elixir of Life that will make Konrad well again.

Kenneth Oppel has written a prequel to Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, featuring a young Victor Frankenstein at 16. I have read the original Frankenstein before but it was some time ago and I don't think you need to have read it to enjoy this prequel.

I thought Oppel did a really good job with the characters of Victor and Konrad Frankenstein. We know Victor Frankenstein isn't exactly a saint as an adult and you can see the beginnings of this in the arrogance and jealousy that Victor exhibits as a young man. It would be all too easy for Oppel to have made Victor a very unlikeable character as young man but he's managed to show enough of a dark side to Victor to make it believable that he becomes the adult Victor Frankenstein but there's also enough of a good side to him to make him a character we can sympathise with. Again, Konrad is clearly the nicer of the two twins but not so nice and good that you end up disliking him or finding him annoying.

After a bit of a slow start I found myself more and more drawn in to this gothic tale. Once I got to the last 70 pages or so I really couldn't put the book down. This is apparently the first of two books about young Victor Frankenstein and although most readers will be pleased to hear that the first book doesn't end with a cliff-hanger ending, there's still plenty of scope left for a second book. I really enjoyed reading this and it's made me want to reread Mary Shelley's original Frankenstein. I hope it also inspires young people to go on to read that great gothic classic for the first time.

#29 Kerry, your description is exactly as I've imagined it to be ever since I heard of it. The kind of place I just love. Really don't know why I haven't been already... probably just too much to see and do.

#31 Oh yes, of course I was only kidding. I would never leave that kind of message if I actually meant it, unless someone had done something really nasty to me or to someone I love. Even so, I would hope to have the maturity to address the person in private and not be mean about it. I read my original message to you over a few times and was cringing a bit because it does sound rather harsh, doesn't it? I just have a bit of a strange sense of humour. But you being British, would probably know about that. One of my more recent favourite comedy shows in the past years was Little Britain, and my, were they EVER un-PC!

I bet your hubby did think Père-Lachaise would be too depressing. Most people think cemeteries are depressing, and I did too for a long time, until I visited Australia a few years ago and discovered one of the most beautiful cemeteries I'd ever seen in my live, it was in Braidwood and was overlooking the Ocean. Absolutely stunning. Ever since then, I think of them as tranquil and even inspirational places, which also help put things into perspective...

Have had Half a Yellow Sun on my TBR for quite too long already, but won't be joining you this month unfortunately as grossly overbooked (you've seen the evidence, so you know!)

Enjoyed both your reviews. I guess a books about Louis XIV would be perfect preparation to go visit Versailles. I actually learned a lot about King Louis and his court when I read Apollo's Angels : A History of Ballet as Louis XIV was probably the biggest supporter of the dance in it's early days and made it ubiquitous during his reign.

This Dark Endeavour sounds good, but I've yet to read the original, which is awaiting it's turn on my shelves. One of those books I feel like I must have read millions of times already, but no.

As I keep saying on my blog, for whom the book tolls... Heather, The Heart Of Midlothian has just appeared on the list of books qualifying for Madeline's challenge. I'm pretty scarily committed this month already, but - I guess I'm game if you are? Or if not, that's good too. :)

#39 No, I didn't think your message really sounded harsh, or rather, I knew you were joking so it was just funny.

I've never really watched Little Britain for some reason but I think everyone else I know really enjoyed it. As you say, very un-PC but very funny :-)

I think Pere-Lachaise has definitely gone on our tentative list of things to see this time in Paris thanks to you and Kerry. I have a feeling that we didn't spend much time in any of the parks/green areas in Paris last time because we were so focused on seeing paintings and buildings so perhaps this time there can be more strolling in parks.

I'd had Mitford's The Sun King on my wishlist for a while and decided a trip to Versailles was the perfect excuse to finally get it out of the library. It was very helpful to a novice at French history. I'd got all my Louis' confused and thought that the Louis who built Versailles was the same one who got executed in the Revolution.

#40 I echo your scarily committed Liz (and so far I keep reading unplanned books as well which doesn't help). Heart of Midlothian looks to be fairly chunky as well. I think realistically, I won't get it finished this month even if we start it - sorry. Shall we say November/December?

I've been procrastinating about packing for most of today but I really need to start doing some soon, so in case I don't post on here again I will see you all in 10/11 days!

Have a great holiday.

When are you off, Heather? it must be soon if you are talking about packing - unless you are super organised and pack days ahead! Have a wonderful time anyway!

#41 Thanks Kerry

#42 Thanks Genny - we're leaving in about 8 hours! I think we've done all the packing we can do until tomorrow morning now. DH has just been explaining to the cat that some nice people are going to come and let her out and feed her and that we'll be back next week. And I am going to get off the computer and go to bed (I am, I am, any minute now).

Enjoy!

>#41 That's fine, Heather - I'm actually rather relieved! Have a lovely trip, and we'll talk about this when you get back.

I hope you are in bed and not reading this! Sleep well, safe journey, and have a wonderful time. And don't worry about Erica, at least she'll be staying in her familiar environment so I'm sure she'll be fine!

Catching up but want to say firstly, have a great time in Paris!! Hard not to really.

Also, I loved reading your review of Northanger Abbey, you have made me want to reread it now, great observations.

Lastly, I'll be interested in your opinion of the polarising book Elegance of the Hedgehog as I loved it but not everyone does.

Ahh Paris! Looking forward to hearing about your trip on your return. Have a lovely time.

Have a fantastic time (and it would be very funny if we bump into each other in a bookshop. I'm PMing you my mobile in case!)

So late, but Starred! :)

Oooh Paris! Hope you are having fun! :-)

Heather, so sorry I missed your departure! Hope you are having a marvellous time as I write this; actually, since it's 2:32 a.m. for you right now, you're probably asleep, so hope you're having sweet dreams! Can't wait to hear all about your Paris experience. I too will probably take time to enjoy the parks, sit by a tree and read next time I'm there.

I don't seem to have posted on this thread so am saying hi so that I see your thread come up. I see you've updated TIOLI meter but not your thread! Hope you've had a great time (and can see that you've managed to fit in lots of reading).

Thanks for all the Paris/holiday well wishes. We're back and I think the cat has forgiven us although I went down with a cold over the weekend and have been feeling very low on brain as a result. I think today is a bit better so I am going to try and do some updating and catch up on threads.

Cushla - sorry we didn't mange to bump into each other. I must remember to pop over to your thread and see how your trip went.

Paris

This trip had a bit of a Monet theme as we visited two of the smaller museums in Paris which feature some of Monet's paintings.

The first was the Musée Marmottan Monet which is a bit out of the way but has a wonderful clean white basement gallery of lots of Monet's pictures.

Then we also went to the Musée de l'Orangerie which is located in the central Jardin des Tuileries. It used to house Napoleon III's orange trees (hence the name) but it eventually became an art gallery and at the beginning of the last century Monet was commissioned or chose the museum to showcase eight of the paintings in his water lilies (nymphéas) series. Again, the canvases are shown in specially-designed white, naturally-lit rooms.



The museum webiste also has a virtual vsiit which needs quicktime to run.

The Monet paintings were all so beautiful and the settings really helped. I don't know that much about art but I find Monet's paintings very peaceful.

We also spent a day in the Louvre going round the antiquities departments. There are so many amazing things from ancient cultures - I always feel staggered by how old everything is. The British Museum has a very good collection too but the setting in the Louvre is so much nicer...

This is from the Neo-Assyrian period, 8th century BC - actually fairly recent compared to the Eqyptian collections! It's also opened up new areas I want to read about because I feel like I know so little about these ancient cultures. The Assyrians I only really know about from their brief mentions in the Old Testament.



We didn't manage to get to Versailles, we were both quite tired and decided it might be a bit too much. Otherwise we read, sat in cafes, sat in restaurants and enjoyed strolling around. We stayed in a different part of Paris this time, Montparnesse, which is less central and less touristy and it was really nice to see and stay in a a part of Paris where people lived. I enjoyed my early morning trips to the boulangerie for something nice to eat for breakfast and in general I felt braver about trying to speak French and even had a go at reading an article in Le Monde (one of the French newspapers) - DH had to help a lot.

So, I've come back with lots of ideas and plans like French lessons and trying to read up about the Assyrian and Persian Empires(!) There is a French course I could take locally but I'd need to wait until next September to start it which I think is a good thing as the wait will hopefully mean I can be sure I really want to commit the time to it. And who knows when I'll be able to fit in all this reading about ancient civilisations?

Oh, Heather, your trip sounds totally worth a cold. Relax and enjoy being "very low on brain" if you can. Thank you for the pictures - the white room is especially beautiful!

And reading updates (#54 well spotted Luci!) - very brief I'm afraid.

Finished just before we left for Paris:

Book #167 Sweet Danger by Margery Allingham - 3.5 stars



Another book in Allingham's Albert Campion series; at this stage I would say the books are still more similar to adventure stories than modern crime stories. This one introduces Amanda Fitton as Campion's love interest and centres around finding proofs of ownership of a small kingdom in Europe that the British crown granted to a certain family many centuries ago. Of course, some kind of international crime gang is also trying to find these proofs (presumably to sell to the bad guys) so it's Campion to the rescue again. Enjoyable and reminded me of The Prisoner of Zenda.

Read in Paris:

Books #168 & 169 Dark Fire &Sovereign by C. J. Sansom - 4 & 4.25 stars



There have been so many mentions of this series in the 75 group that there's probably not much I can add! I really, really enjoyed them.

Books #170 The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery - 4.5 stars



Despite Cushla's warning I got too near the end of the book whilst sitting in a cafe and did start crying... I'm not sure I understood all the philosophy but I did enjoy the book. Although it had an incredibly sad ending, I'm not sure Muriel Barbery could have ended the book in another way without ruining it. My mum has a copy of The Gourmet by the same author which I think features the horrible food critic and I will read that at some point.

#56 Thanks Peggy, better a cold afterwards than during the trip.

Sounds amazing... jealous!

Am also starting to think I'm going to have to look out the Sansom novels - consensus seems to say they are excellent.

Loved your trip report and realised I haven't written much about Paris (except the cafe stops) on my thread. I had a Louvre trip too and loved it this time! I went to and loved the Orangerie last year - the rooms are so perfect for the paintings - and the Marmottan a long time ago. Monet was the first painter whose work I really loved.

I didn't see the ancient wing at the Louvre but it looks great. Was it quiet? I was very surprised at how peaceful the decorative arts part was when I visited. The main painting wing was chocker with people.

and you really cranked through some great books! I laughed out loud when I read that you did the same thing with the EOT Hedgehog.

Edited to add that I hope your cold goes soon.

Oh, that room of Monet looks amazing! I love Monet's paintings.

Since you've been away and not on the threads, let me point out that Sherwood Smith is writing a fantasy series inspired by The Prisoner of Zenda. The first, Coronets and Steel is out in paperback and the second, Blood Spirits, is out in hardback here in the US. Well-done and quite worth reading if you can get them over there.

Hope you are feeling better!

Glad that you had such an amazing trip, Heather.

#59 Thanks Bekka. Do look at the Sansom's, they're really rather good.

#60 It was quite quiet in those sections. We deliberately avoided the parts that were busy last time (I still have horrible memories of the crush around the Mona Lisa and people taking flash photographs of it). The antiquities are mostly on the ground floor spread out over the three wings. The Assyrian/Persian/Mesopotamian stuff which seems to get almost completely overlooked is on the ground floor of the Richelieu wing after you walk through the amazing court with all the statues. We only found it ourselves by accident the first time. I have some nice photos of our last visit on the other computer that I might try and dig out later.

#61 Ooh, thanks for the tip Roni - I will look out for those. I need to do a book acquisitions update because I have finally tracked down copies of books by another author you recommended to me ages ago (I do get there eventually...)

#62 Thanks Judy.

So book acquisitions:

New from amazon (these are designated Thingaversary gifts to myself):
Charles Dickens: A Life by Claire Tomalin
Snuff by Terry Pratchett

Out of print books on their way from abebooks/amazon marketplace:
The Story of the Stone by Barry Hughart - I have been waiting for an affordable copy of this for ages (I already have the third book in this series, Eight Skilled Gentlemen)
Bridge of Birds by Barry Hughart - because there's no point having books 2 & 3 without book 1
Where Was Rebecca Shot?: Puzzles, Curiosities and Conundrums in Modern Fiction by John Sutherland - because I can't get enough of John Sutherland

A Penguin Classics edition of The Old Curiosity Shop for my next Dickens reread from abebooks again and an Oxford World's Classics edition of Wilkie Collins The Law and the Lady from bookmooch.

And that's really going to be it for this month. Definitely.

Another of the plans I made whilst on holiday was to cook proper food so we use up the nice seasonal fruit and vegetables we get delivered and don't eat so many pre-prepared meals or takeaways (this is part of another plan which is to halt and then reverse my currently-expanding waistline). So tonight I made carrot and spinach soup and got to use the new handheld blender that I bought about 10 months ago which must have been the last time I made soup. It tasted good and the handheld blender made it much easier. And there's some left for tomorrow :-)

Hi, Heather - welcome back! I see you're skipping ahead of me with the Campions - I've gotten diverted into several other series, so I averted my eyes from your review. How did you enjoy Mapp And Lucia?

Welcome also to society of soup-makers! I do a lot of soups as a way of boosting my vegetable intake - although in place of your handheld blender I have an insanely powerful upright one that redecorates the kitchen if I don't keep a very firm hand on it. Carrot and spinach is a variant I haven't tried yet.

Ummm, soup! now that it's cooled off enough to enjoy it I will to have to make some.

Thanks for the photos. That Monet room looks wonderful. Hope you feel better soon.

Oh, Heather! You got the Tomalin *Dickens*!!! It comes out here the 27th of the month, and I'm so tempted since I still have birthday money. I hope you read it as quickly as possible so you can let us know how to decide - now or later.
It's not quite cool enough here for soup although my ma made good potato soup last week and treated us to a bowl or so. That's a club I hope to join.

Great book haul Heather - I'm still waiting for the library to get Snuff - I love a Pratchett:)

Definitely soup time, I've already made it twice in the last week:)

Your trip to Paris sounds fantastic, Heather. Versailles will still be there for your next visit. Ooh, French lessons sound like fun. What a beautiful language.

Looks like you've been very busy in my absence. Your holiday in Paris sounds wonderful, although I must confess I'm far more envious of your gorgeous fluffy cats!

#63 Oooh - I just downloaded Snuff too. Looking forward to it.

Glad to see you back safe and sound! Your Holiday in Paris sounds wonderful. I am so jealous! ;-)

#64 Hi Liz. I don't have the next Campion book (Death of a Ghost) and I am holding out for a reasonably priced secondhand copy with the cover I want so I'm sure you will be able to catch me up soon.

I really enjoyed Mapp and Lucia - I don't know whether Lucia is actually a nicer/kinder person than Miss Mapp or whether she's just better at seeming to be so but I was definitely rooting for Lucia throughout. The scene on the floating table was priceless.

Carrot and spinach soup recipe here, courtesy of the people we get our veg from. I think it worked, the sweetness of the carrots offset the slight bitterness of the spinach (I sound like a proper chef don't I?). There was a small amount of spraying soup on me with the handheld blender until I realised that I really should try and keep as much of it below the surface of the soup as possible...

#65 Soup seems to suit autumn/winter so much better than spring and summer doesn't it? It's turned cold here, the heating has gone on and I wore a coat to work - I actually prefer it like this.

#66 I gobbled up the Tomalin Peggy while I was ill over the weekend and it was a 5 star read. Definitely worthy of birthday money. I won't manage a proper review tonight but hopefully I will be able to write one before the 27th :-)

#67 More soup fans :-) I'm actually not going to read Snuff just yet (although DH has started it and says it's brilliant) as I still want to finish my City Watch subseries reread. I'm halfway through Jingo so I have a way to go yet.

#68 Exactly, we'll have to go back now!

#69 Thanks Katie. The really fluffy cats aren't strictly mine (although that opens the question of whether one can ever really be said to own a cat) but the ginger one will let me say hello and roll over onto its back to let me stroke its tummy.

#70 Hope you enjoy it Bekka. I don't have any spare bookshelf space but because I have all the other Pratchett books in paper copies I wanted the new one as a paper copy too. I'm still trying to work out what sort of books I want on my kindle and what sort of books I need to see on my bookshelves.

#71 Thanks Porua - sorry for the jealousy...

More books read on holiday:

Book #172 The Custom of the Country by Edith Wharton - 4.5 stars



One of Edith Wharton's New York novels, The Custom of the Country is ultimately a tragedy, but at the same time I thought it also contained a lot of comedy. Undine Spragg, our anti-heroine, is always looking for something, convinced that each new thing she comes across will be the thing that finally makes her happy. She marries Ralph Marvell from one of New York's old families hoping that this marriage will catapult her into the top social set. However, Ralph married Undine because he fell in love with her country freshness and hoped she would help him escape from the meaningless social whirl of early 19th century New York. Unsurprisingly, their marriage is not a happy one.

This book should be painful to read. You can see the tragedies piling up, there were many points at which I wanted to give Undine a good shake and I felt for her poor husband and son. And yet, this book was compulsively readable and never depressing. Although it's set over a hundred years ago, it also felt very relevant to our society; I'm sure there are more than a few modern Undine Spraggs. Extremely well done. I think I might be becoming addicted to Edith Wharton - I'm also hoping to squeeze in a reread of The Age of Innocence later this month.

Book #173 The Invisible Ones by Stef Penney - 4.25 stars



I really enjoyed this new book by the author of The Tenderness of Wolves. It's crime fiction set in the UK in the 1980s which is a bit of a departure from her previous book but I thought it was at least as good if not better than her first book.

I want to write a more detailed review because I've seen very few good reviews for this book. I'll hopefully do that later this week.

Book #174 The Dragonfly Pool by Eva Ibbotson - 4 stars



A very sweet, old-fashioned style of children's story about a girl who goes to boarding school during WWII. It's ultimately about friendship and being yourself and was both touching and funny. I'll definitely read more by this author.

That's an Ibbotson I haven't read!

Glad to have you back Heather. Sounds like you had a wonderful trip and I am so impressed that you got that much reading down on your vacation. :)

Heather! I've been lurking on your thread the past couple of days, so thought I should at least say hello lest you think I was being rude!

I'm really glad that you had such a good time in Paris and thanks for sharing those pics.

The Custom of the Country has been on my wishlist for a long time, but first, I want to get through The Age of Innocence. I'm really hoping I can get to it this month, but my reading is going s-l-o-w-l-y as far as physical books go this month, so we shall see.

Thanks for taking the time to catch up on TWO threads by the way. I think I forgot to say that on my own thread when I responded to you. I'm impressed, and flattered of course.

Heather: Just found your thread. Hi. I am not familiar with Penney or Ibbotson -- both sound worth checking out. I'll look forward to your review of the Penney book.

>73 souloftherose:: I loved your review of The Custom of the Country, Heather. Undine has settled into my head as one of the most memorable characters in literature. I think you're spot on about the modern Undine Spraggs in the world. I might even know one or two of them!

I spotted the shared read opportunity and took down my copy of The Dragonfly Pool - it's a terrific read.

>#72 I said just that in my review of Mapp and Lucia, Heather - by setting her against Mapp, Benson manipulates the reader into siding with Lucia, even though she's behaving just as badly as ever! :)

Hi Heather, delurking to say I like your book-choice and the way you talk about the books you read. It's very inspiring. Grts.

#74 It's my first one Roni, I think it's one of her later books though (2008).

#75 Thanks Valerie. It's nice to be back :-)

#76 Hi Ilana. I feel like my reading has been going slower than usual since getting home and I haven't started Age of Innocence yet either.

#77 Welcome Beth and thanks. I've heard very good things about Eva Ibbotson and will definitely look out for more of her books.

#78 Donna, I read your and Linda's reviews on the book page before writing mine and then had to make a real effort not to just copy things you'd both written about the book! Not sure I managed entirely but glad you liked the review. Thank you for inspiring me to read that one - I enjoyed it a lot.

#79 Did you get your copy in the kindle sale too Luci? It's lovely isn't it.

#80 Great minds, etc Liz :-) I still haven't caught up on your thread since I got back, must hunt it out.

#81 Thanks Monica, that's a lovely compliment to receive. Glad you decided to delurk :-)

Oh, I'm glad you liked the new Steff Penney, Heather. I'd been slightly put off by a newspaper review, possibly in the Independent but I did enjoy The Tenderness of Wolves.

I have bookmarked your soup recipe as I have some parsnips and spinach from our allotment. Also a large pumpkin so will have to also find a pumpkin soup recipe. Shouldn't be too difficult at this time of year :)

82: Very lovely, I bought a paperback copy last year from Amazon, I wouldn't remember but Amazon tells me. But that's no bad thing as I think it's one the boys might like when they get old enough. I didn't see it in the Kindle sale, unless I thought I've got it anyway. Once they start reading I may have to get my own copies of books in Kindle while they get the paper copies....

I made a throw-together soup yesterday - butternut pumpkin, carrots, potato, onion, crushed tomatoes, corn, baby spinach and stock, blended. It's hideous to look at (the spinach does not have a desirable effect on colour), but I'm hoping it's tasty. :)

Hi Heather - I'll have to read some Stef Penney and Edith Wharton eventually. Glad that you enjoyed the Ibbotson.
And on the subject of soups, one of our favourite winter soups is curried cauliflower soup. That link takes you to the actual recipe I use.

Liz, it sounds totally yummy that soup of yours!
I have yet to read *Tenderness/Wolves* but I have it so that's a good first step. Love to despise Undine! Love to deplore and cheer on Lucia and Mapp! I had intended to do a reread this year and got sidetracked. How can it be late October???
(Hi, Heather....)

#83 Hope you enjoy the soup Dee (and the Stef Penney if you get to it).

#84 The only downside to the kindle at the moment is the thought that I won't be able to lend books to people, especially children's books although my friends' children are all far too young to borrow books at the moment but I get excited planning ahead :-)

#85 Sounds lovely Liz. The spinach and carrot I made earlier this week did become a rather muddy orange colour once the orange and green had blended.

#86 Hi Kerry. I'm not very good with spicy food but if I go easy on the curry powder I expect it will be ok. Thanks for the link.

#87 Hi Peggy. Loving the love for Undine, Mapp and Lucia!

I had a very lazy day today and didn't write any reviews and I still haven't caught up on all the threads (although I'm down to half a page on my starred list). I have finally started The Age of Innocence and am enjoying my reread of it very much so far.

Shamefully I must confess that I am derelict in my Edith Wharton, although I can't think of any good reason why I should have neglected her. I've only read The Age Of Innocence and The House Of Mirth, but I think I have Summer looming on the TBR.

Hi Heather, I keep on checking on your thread to see if there' new activity, but see it's quiet over here.

Have you joined the group read of Age of Innocence? I was going to join in this month, but didn't have a chance to start it yet. I do mean to read it soon as I'm enjoying discovering Wharton's writing for the first time, ever since I read The House of Mirth early on in the year.

Hello, just popping in as I recognised your name from (could it really be?) last years threads.... so hello. your last 2 reads look like good stories. Ill be back to check out your next few too :)

#89 Liz, given the amount of 19th and early 20th century fiction you've read I don't think you need to be ashamed of only having read 2 books by Edith Wharton :-) It was Donna's college class which inspired me to start reading her books again - I'd read and really enjoyed The Age of Innocence years ago and then for some reason I didn't try any of her other books.

#90 It has been a bit quiet. I've not been in the mood for reviewing books so I've been trying to catch up with other people's threads and then because I've been on LT I forget how long it's been since I updated my own thread - oops. I didn't write any reviews today either, had a bit of a headache. Tomorrow, definitely. Hopefully.

I finished The Age of Innocence this afternoon and have just been catching up on the group read threads. I don't know whether it's because I knew I was reading it for a group read but it felt like I had to work harder at this book to understand it than the other Wharton books I've read. But it was still enjoyable and a very good book, even if I don't think it's one of my favourite books by Wharton.

I think everyone on the group read is reading at different rates so even if you don't get a chance next month then you can drop by and comment on the group read whenever you get a chance.

#91 Hi Megan. I have been shamefully lurking on your thread and enjoying the pictures of your little ones but not saying anything at all - sorry. Off to rectify that in a minute.

>92 souloftherose: Ah ha- a lurker! now you've admitted it you must visit and say hello :)

ETA, I see you just did! I take it all back :)

November plans

I know, I know - I still haven't written up half of October's books but since I've been obsessing about the TIOLI challenges and reading lists the last couple of days I'm going to get this out of my system first.

High priority - library books due back and overdue ER books (again)

The Darling Strumpet by Gillan Bagwell
Irma Voth by Miriam Toews
Goliath by Scott Westerfeld
Parisians: An Adventure History by Graham Robb
The Mysteries of Udolpho by Ann Radcliffe
Baba Yaga Laid An Egg by Dubravka Ugrešić

TIOLI challenges

Challenge #1: Read a book with at least one animal mentioned on page 50
Shanghai Girls by Lisa See
One Good Turn by Kate Atkinson
The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern

Challenge #3: TagMash: Read a book found - mashing 2 tags
American Gods by Neil Gaiman

Challenge #4: Read a book where the author's name is a profession
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep by Philip K. Dick
The Old Curiosity Shop by Charles Dickens

Challenge #5: Read a book about friendship
The Country of the Pointed Firs by Sarah Orne Jewett
Charlotte's Web by E. B. White

Challenge #8: Read a book by an author from whom you have previously read EXACTLY one other book
Last Tango in Aberystwyth by Malcolm Pryce

Challenge #9: Read a book Reviewed and Recommended by a Fellow 75r during the month of October 2011
Bridge of Birds by Barry Hughart

Challenge #10: Read a book originally written in a language that is NOT a lingua franca
Fair Play by Tove Jansson

Challenge #12: Read a mystery published before you were born
The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle

Challenge #13: Rolling Series Challenge: Read a book in a series that's next in number to the book above
The Crossing Places by Elly Griffiths
The Sword of the Lictor by Gene Wolfe
Revelation Space by Alistair Reynolds
Night Watch by Terry Pratchett

And finally:

Book #175 Charles Dickens: A Life by Claire Tomalin - 5 stars



I often find that it takes me longer to read a non-fiction book compared to a fiction book but I devoured this book over the course of three days, pausing only to scribble notes, quotes and thoughts in a notebook and occasionally to eat, drink and sleep as required. This is an incredibly readable biography.

As someone who’s read all of Dickens finished novels and is currently rereading them in publication order, I found it fascinating to read about Dickens’ life, and it helped me get a better understanding of his books. Some points, like his father’s imprisonment for debt in the Marshalsea and Dickens’ first job in a blacking factory at the age of twelve, I was already aware of but I didn’t know about the arguments he’d had with his publishers or that it was the periodicals Dickens edited which first published stories by other Victorian writers like Elizabeth Gaskell and George Eliot.

As always, Tomalin is a sympathetic biographer although she doesn’t gloss over Dickens’ flaws and failings, whether in his life or in his books. It’s hard to excuse or justify his behaviour to his wife during and after their separation as anything other than appalling. And yet he was also capable of great generosity, setting up a home for prostitutes or women thought likely to be at risk of becoming prostitutes so that they could be educated and then start new lives in the colonies. Tomalin reconciles these extremes of behaviour by quoting from a discussion Dickens had with Dostoevsky which Dostoevsky recorded in his diary:

“He {Dickens} told me that all the good simple people in his novels, Little Nell, even the holy simpletons like Barnaby Rudge, are what he wanted to have been, and his villains were what he was (or rather, what he found in himself), his cruelty, his attacks of causeless enmity towards those who were helpless and looked to him for comfort, his shrinking from those whom he ought to love, being used up in what he wrote. There were two people in him, he told me: one who feels as he ought to feel and one who feels the opposite. From the one who feels the opposite I make my evil characters, from the one who feels as a man ought to feel I try to live my life. Only two people? I asked.”

Tomalin also includes her theories on Dickens’ relationship with the actress Nelly Ternan after his separation from his wife (which I believe she goes into in more detail in her earlier book, The Invisible Woman). I know that this is an area where other biographers disagree with Tomalin and given the lack of evidence I think it’s ultimately impossible to conclude either way. Having said that, Tomalin’s theory fits the available facts and she makes it clear that this is educated speculation and that other biographers disagree. I found her theory interesting to read about even if we can never know what really happened between Dickens and Nelly Ternan.

The overall impression I got from the biography was that Dickens was truly a larger than life character. After experiencing poverty as a child he was never able to feel he could rest on his laurels, even once he’d reached a secure financial position with the publication of Dombey and Son. He was always busy with projects, with plays, with travelling or with writing:

“Dickens kept going by taking on too much. He knew no other way to live, and no day went by in which he did not stretch himself, physically, socially and emotionally.”

A fascinating biography of a fascinating man, I was left feeling that Dickens truly was ‘the inimitable’. If this book doesn’t win some kind of award I will be very disappointed.

Gosh Heather - that is an impressive TIOLI list.

Not one for biographies but pleased you read such an interesting one.

Heather, I loved (and just thumbed) your review of the Dickens' biography. I'm not a huge Dickens fan but actually I haven't read that many of his books so that may be a misleading thing to say. You're really tempting me with this biography though.

#96 Yep, definitely overambitious this month. Quite a few of the books are quite short though, Fair Play is only 127 pages.

#97 Pat, good to see you! Thanks for the thumb :-) The only thing I would say about this biography is that it does give details of the plots of all of Dickens' books so if you haven't read all his books and aren't aware of the plots of the ones you haven't read then you may want to avoid this one. It's ok not to be a huge Dickens fan...

Hi Heather, you do have a busy November planned! I decided to set up a "Neil in November" thread afterall, and have dropped by to give you the link to it.

You can join us HERE

Finally caught up on your thread - I've not visited since you returned from Paris. Loved the photos and description of your visit. I've not been to those Monet museums or indeed to the Louvre - in fact it's many years since I've been in Paris at all, you've tempted me to think of rectifying that...

I'm enjoying my Tomalin biography of Mary W - it was her first book I think, and I have another of hers, about Samuel Pepys, so I'm pleased to hear that the Dickens is also very readable.

And I read Mapp and Lucia while on holiday - was laughing out loud on my apartment balcony at some of the exploits of those two!

Have you seen the Kindle Rainy Day Reads sale?

I'm delighted to see another Dickens Disciple, Heather. I'm not sure that I knew that about you! That's a fine review, and I'm off to thumb it, but I still can't decide whether I need it, at least not right now. I like Tomalin, but as I said somewhere else, I've read both the Edgar Johnson and the Peter Ackroyd bios, so I wonder what she's bringing to the table that's different.

#99 Thanks for the link Judy, I'm going to try and make Gaiman a priority.

#100 Hi Genny, glad you enjoyed the Mapp and Lucia - I read mine on holiday too :-)

#101 Yes, I was going to pop over to your thread to let you know about the sale then I saw you'd beaten me to it! So far I have restrained myself to 6 books but I have a few more I'm considering..

#102 Thanks Peggy - did you really not know I was a Dickens Disciple? (love that phrase). I can understand not needing to read another bio of Dickens. This was my first so it was all fresh but I'd like to read the Ackroyd because Tomalin mentions she disagrees with him on some points and I suspect their biographical styles might be very different.

And as Luci mentions above, there is a kindle sale on so I have some books acquired to report on:

Kindle sale

The Unbearable Lightness of Being in Aberystwyth by Malcolm Pryce (3rd book in the series which is handy I was planning to read book 2 this month)
Witch Wood by John Buchan
Stop the Train by Geraldine McCaughrean (as rec'd by Luci)

And then three rereleases by the new Bloomsbury Reader imprint

Madame Sousatzka by Bernice Rubens
Told by an Idiot by Rose Macauley
A Long Walk to Wimbledon by H. R. F. Keating

And from bookmooch, two children's books:

The Wolves of Willoughby Chase by Joan Aiken (which was a favourite as a child and I have been looking for my own copy for ages)
Beauty by Robin McKinley

And today I went to the library to pick up Goliath by Scott Westerfeld, the third book in his Leviathan trilogy, and also picked up Revolver by Marcus Sedgwick and a couple of cat books.

So, that should keep me going I suppose.

Hi there! Long time lurker on your thread, Heather. I enjoyed your review of the Dickens bio. I loved the quote from Dostoevsky. I sometimes feel that way myself, like 2 people, one selfless and good, the other self-involved and cold. I am a Dickens fan, too, although I haven't read all of his works. This summer, a local theater where I work will be having a Dickens season--a one-man Dickens play, the musicals Oliver! and The Mystery of Edwin Drood, and the play The Adventures of Nicholas Nickelby. I am sooooo excited!

Sandy K

I got Goliath from the library too, I added it to Madeline's TIOLI challenge#1, if you want to have a shared read. You might like Caught on a Train too, I'm always getting it mixed up with the McCaughrean one, which I don't think I've read.

Very nice book haul Heather.

I'm ashamed to say that I've never read any of Pryce's Aberystwyth books ... but they are all available at the local library so maybe one day:) I've also got Witchwood on my shelves of shame and must get around to the rest of the Leviathan trilogy - I read the first and really enjoyed it.

Lovely book haul, Heather! I'm looking to maybe get a Kindle for my birthday this month before we go on our cruise (lighter luggage that way, you know!).

Hi Heather, I have a bit of catching up to do here, but just realized I've committed to something important tomorrow and must get to sleep. All the same, wanted to say hello and thank you for your visits and kind words. I'll be back!

That's a great list for November you have lined up there Heather! I'm excited to see what you think of a couple of books on that list and even if you only get to half the books, it would still end up being a great month of reading. :)

I'm reading a couple of books on your TIOLI list already and may try to join you on two others, as I'm trying to prioritise library books and TIOLI shared reads this month. I have some review books but reviewing what I've read is more important than those books I have left to read at the moment.

I'm reading The Night Circus since I'd already bought it and so many others had put it down, and my NCT book group is discussing American Gods tonight! - I could have read it as TIOLI face to face group last month but didn't notice the email and only found out this week. I've only read the beginning, about 60 pages, but I really don't mind about spoilers. It was a lucky fluke that we had a copy in the house, even more of a fluke that it was in the house not the shed and that I found it.

I may also read Last Tango in Aberystwyth because I've only read #1, I think I know where it is, and I bought The Crossing Places in the Kindle Summer sale.

Truly, I didn't know that you also love Dickens, Heather. Now I'm trying to recall whether I have seen your footprints on the What the Dickens? thread. I haven't been over there in a long time, finding it a place where mostly people who have never read him before post. (Now I have to go check it out.)
Nice book haul! I checked Amazon USA eagerly for a Kindle sale but didn't find one. Hope I didn't miss it! On the other hand, I am a faithful checker of their Kindle Daily Deal. I've been breathing a little sigh of relief that they haven't put anything on that I want lately. For a bit there, I was buying something every day.

#104 Hi Sandy - thanks for delurking. I know what you mean about the Dostoevsky/Dickens quote - I found myself nodding along when I was reading it. Your theatre season sounds great! I live quite near London so I've been keeping an eye on special exhibits that will be on at museums for the bicentennial next year but hadn't thought about looking for plays.

#105 Thanks for the pointer Kerry. I've started Goliath and added it to the wiki as a shared read. No copies of Caught on a Train at the library, I'll keep an eye out for a second hand copy.

#106 Thanks calm. Well now the final book of the Leviathan trilogy is out you can read the next two without having to wait in between - good timing!

#107 Ooh, kindle excitement Roni! And a cruise! I'm not sure I took fewer paper books on our last holiday though...

#108 Good to see you Ilana, hope you got some good sleep.

#109 "even if you only get to half the books, it would still end up being a great month of reading" - that's what I'll be telling myself when the mid-month panic sets in :-)

#110 Glad to hear you found your copy of American Gods in time :-) My copy of The Crossing Places was a kindle sale item from the summer too - I just started it today on the train and I'm really enjoying it so far.

#111 Peggy, I think I've read the threads in the Dickens group but not posted very often so I probably didn't leave many footprints. We don't have kindle daily deals (I think) but they seem to do a sale every few months - so far it seems to be different books in the sale each time with a few repeats. I feel slightly less guilty about buying kindle books because they're invisible (well not completely otherwise I wouldn't be able to read them) and I don't have to find room on the bookshelves for them. Even double-stacked I'm starting to run out of room...

And I have a wonderfully quiet weekend planned where I'm hoping to join in with the Readathon, get up to date on books read on here (I haven't really only read 1 book since 19th October(!)) and ...? Oh yes, the threads. My sinuses have been acting up again this week so I've felt very tired and rather sorry for myself and that is my excuse for not posting midweek (again). And it's also meant that I keep flitting from book to book to find the book that will act as the perfect allergy/sinus deterrant/distractor with the result that I'm in the middle of about 7 books that I'm not reading as well as the three I am reading.

Sorry to hear the sinuses are bad again. I hope you find one book to settle into properly to start off your weekend.

I hope you have a good weekend, reading and sinus wise. Here in Auckland we are looking forward to tomorrow's meetup with arubawoman (Deborah), who has just arrived in New Zealand!

Hi again Heather, I'm so sorry to read you're not doing so well. Hope things improve for you over the weekend.

I'm finally all caught up with you, saw your ambitious TIOLI list (seems we're playing it quite differently this month as far as strategy!), read your wonderful review of the Dickens biography, which I've thumbed and wishlisted, but which I have no intention of reading until I've got most of his novels under my belt (might be a while, seeing as I have a fear of long novels!) Must say I really enjoyed the Dostoevsky quote and was nodding along too.

I'm pretty sure I'll join in on American Gods this month, but again, resisting overcommitting as I always seem to do!

Be well my dear.

Thanks for the good wishes Genny, Kerry and Ilana.

#114 Kerry I hope you enjoy your Auckland meet up.

#115 My list is very ambitious and I keep adding to it :-)

It's quite chilly here this weekend so the cat is inside curled up on the bed and I've put the heating on in the middle of the day for the first time this autumn. Now I'm feeling nice and warm and rather sleepy so I might have a mid-afternoon nap.

I also bought some more books for the kindle this morning:

Death Comes to Pemberley by P. D. James
Time to be in Earnest by P. D. James
Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See (kindle sale)

Some hopefully brief reports on October reads:

Book #176 The Hollow Hills by Mary Stewart - 4.25 stars



This is the sequel to The Crystal Cave, an historical fiction/fantasy story set in 5th century Britain and retelling the Arthurian legend from Merlin's point of view. I enjoyed this as much as the first book. It's very light on the fantasy/magic side and I enjoyed seeing how Mary Stewart fit the Arthurian legend to her setting and story. There's a nice author's note at the back explaining why she made certain decisions and giving a brief overview of one version of the original legend.

Book #177 Jingo by Terry Pratchett - 4 stars



Continuing my reread through Pratchett's City Watch series, this has always been my least favourite of the City Watch books; for some reason I don't think the satire in this one works quite as well as some of his other books.

It's a book about war and jingoism; starring the City Watch and Sam Vimes, it also has to be about crime and good and evil. I think ultimately what Pratchett might be trying to say is that if killing someone is a crime, then starting a war must also be a crime and sometimes doing the right thing means not following orders.

"But...history was full of the bones of good men who'd followed bad orders in the hope that they could soften the blow. Oh yes, there were worse things they could do, but most of them began right when they started following bad orders."

When Sam Vimes takes these themes to their natural conclusion, this leads to a very improbable but rather wonderful ending. There are also some brilliant comic scenes from Colon and Nobbs and you get to see more of Lord Vetinari and Leonard da Quirm which is always a good thing.

So still a very good read but perhaps Pratchett was just trying a little too hard to make his point with this book.

Book #178 A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness - 5 stars



I really don't know what to say about this book other than it's a wonderful book that transcends genre and should be read by everyone. I cried so much reading it but it feels impossible to talk about it without ruining the book for people who haven't read it yet.

So I'm just going to copy the book description from amazon and tell you that this is definitely one of my best books of the year and Patrick Ness and the illustrator Jim Kay would get my vote for the 2012 Carnegie Medal/Greenaway Award (they've both been nominated). And the illustrations are gorgeous - don't get an ebook edition.

Book description:
"The monster showed up just after midnight. As they do. But it isn’t the monster Conor's been expecting. He's been expecting the one from his nightmare, the one he's had nearly every night since his mother started her treatments, the one with the darkness and the wind and the screaming... The monster in his back garden, though, this monster is something different. Something ancient, something wild. And it wants the most dangerous thing of all from Conor. It wants the truth. Costa Award winner Patrick Ness spins a tale from the final idea of much-loved Carnegie Medal winner Siobhan Dowd, whose premature death from cancer prevented her from writing it herself. Darkly mischievous and painfully funny, A Monster Calls is an extraordinarily moving novel of coming to terms with loss from two of our finest writers for young adults."

And a big thankyou to Fliss and Kerry for recommending it to me.

Book #179 The Fifth Elephant by Terry Pratchett - 4.5 stars



Another City Watch book. After the seriousness of Jingo this is a much lighter, more comic Pratchett book with less satire and more of the traditional crime story from the earlier City Watch books. There's still some satire - in this book some good barbs are aimed at the ridiculousness of diplomacy in international politics - but the satire feels much less intense when compared to Jingo. There's also some good character development among the members of the Watch.

I bought Snow Flower and the Secret Fan too. I wish I'd bought Shanghai Girls in the summer, but I think I'll get a library copy and might try to read it later this month. I'm monitoring the price of the new P D James and it has come down but I don't need it that urgently.

#118 Hi Luci. There was an interview with P. D. James in the Guardian that tipped me over the edge for both of the James books above. I wish I'd bought Night Circus earlier because the price is creeping back up and I don't think my library reservation is going to come in time.

#119 I read the interview when I saw you'd posted it on the mystery thread. I may be forced to give P D James another try. I read most of her novels to date in my twenties, but I eventually realised that they always left me slightly dissatisfifed/ depressed or with what I can only describe as a bad taste in my mouth. I'm not sure what it is about her that makes me react that way - and reading the article and seeing her describe Sayers and Allingham as her heroes whom she wished to emulate in her detective fiction, I am surprised that as I love them so much I should have such a very different reaction to James.

Having given up reading the detective books about 20 years ago, the only one of her I have read since is the dystopian Children of Men - which I did enjoy very much. So either my reaction to her writing has changed, or it was something particular about her depiction of the contemporary world in the detective books which I was reacting against. Anyway, maybe I ought to try one more of those some time just to see - but I will definitely want to read Death comes to Pemberley in any case.

*DCtoP* comes out here in early December. I'll be excited, and I'll eventually get it, but when I get it depends largely on your review, Heather (not to put on any pressure). I see that I'd like to have *TimetbEarnest* too. What I'd really like is to spend as much time reading what I own as making plans for what I don't own!
(Genny, I have to say that if you read one of PDJ's very early mysteries, you didn't get a valid look at the writer that she became. Of course, it may well be that you just don't like her depiction of the contemporary world.)

I don't like P D James' politics and possibly shouldn't buy her books to be consistent (I normally don't buy or read books by Tory MPs, and I know she's never been in the Commons but she is a Conservative peer) and they do manifest themselves unpleasantly in some of her novels, most strikingly I think in A Certain Justice. But I have bought most of the last few, and I bought Talking About Detective Fiction too. I like dystopian novels but don't feel any urge to read that one for some reason.

#120-122 Now I am wondering whether I've just read P.D. James' books at a very simplistic level, ignoring worldview and politics because I'm struggling to remember my impressions of those aspects of her novels!

When I first started reading her books I remember being excited that I'd found another author to read (in my pre-LibraryThing days I was often running out of authors whose books I wanted to read - hard to believe now). I liked the development of her detective team, the realistic portrayal of murder compared to Agatha Christie and the fact that her books weren't psychological thrillers or so dark/grisly that I couldn't sleep afterwards. Now I think about it there probably is a certain Conservativeness/middle-classness to the books but having lived in a Tory safe seat in the South-East for 30 years I probably don't notice that unless I stop and think about it.

Genny, do you remember where you got up to with the Dalgliesh novels? I didn't read them in order but I thought the series and characters definitely grew in depth as they went on.

#121 "What I'd really like is to spend as much time reading what I own as making plans for what I don't own!" Oh, yes.

I'll try and read DCtoP before December then! I was very nervous about this one - when I first heard she'd written a JA sequel I thought she might have lost the plot, but I've seen good reviews so I'm feeling more optimistic. I've never read a JA sequel before.

One of the challenges I keep thinking of and then forgetting is Read a Jane Austen sequel! I just finished reading one, in fact.

I am so adding A Monster Calls to my wishlist!

I rated Snow Flower and the Secret Fan highly. I'll be interested to see what you think. Be warned, there are a few scenes that are pretty gruesome.

#124 That would be a good one Luci - perhaps for December to round off the Austenathon?

#125 Hope you enjoy it Judy :-)

#126 Thanks for the heads up Morphy - there were a few grisly bits in Shanghai Girls as well. I think most of the reviews I've read seem to prefer Snow Flower so I'm looking forward to that one.

Good to see that The Hollow Hills was as good as The Crystal Cave. I just finished the first in the series and hope to get to the rest of them this year.

Love the Pratchett and am looking forward to getting my hands on Snuff (I requested it from the library but so have other people so who knows how long it will take to get hold of it).

A Monster Calls sounds very good as well - oh well what's another book on the never-ending want to read list:)

Hi Heather,
I just read, with great pleasure, your review of the Dickens biography. I've been looking forward to this since it was announced and I'm really glad to see you liked it.

Heather, I'm a wanna be Dickens Disciple. I'm going to have to read more of his works and then jump into the newest biography. Yup, that's my plan anyway. I've been reading Our Mutual Friend on the iPad for two months now. I hope to finish it before the year is out!

#130 LOL - I get like that with Dickens too. I totally love his novels, but I find I end up reading them in increments (which I guess is how they were written). Bleak House took me far too long. I must read my remainnig Dickens actually - Tale of Two Cities - which I'm ashamed of not having read, is lined up for next year.

Just browsing through Richard Lederer's More Anguished English. In it we find the following assertion about Dickens, which I for one am not prepared to argue with:

The novels of Charles Dickens are mellow dramatic and full of truth and sediment.

Mostly sediment, if I'm recalling the opening paragraphs of Bleak House correctly.

Sediment? Do you mean sentiment?

Lederer must have been reading Barnaby Sludge.

I only discovered that P. D. James was a woman when I joined this group and have never read anything of hers before, though several of her books are now on my wishlist. I want to start with the first Dalgliesh book, which I guess is Cover Her Face, only because I'd like to read them in order, though it might take me a while to get up to the current ones.

Having actually really enjoyed a JA novel for the first time with Emma in the last few days, I'm intrigued by Death Comes to Pemberley, though I'd probably need to go through another reading of P&P with some tutoring to help me appreciate it more before moving on to the sequel.

Have added A Monster Calls to the wishlist Heather. Have never read any Pratchett before, where would be a good place to start?

Heather, what say you about tutoring a reading of A Tale of Two Cities for Bekka and I (and whoever else would like to join)? I wouldn't mind reading it next year as well.

Hope you're feeling much better by now?

>#134 Boom-tish. :)

>#133 Morphy, the "Anguished English" books are collections of bloopers from different sources - I'm sure the person being quoted did mean "sentiment", yes, and quite probably "melodramatic", too!

I hadn't even noticed the mellow dramatic the first time round. :-)

May have to look up these Anguished English books...

eta: darn typos! Anguished English indeed!

I quite like the thought of something being "mellow dramatic": laid back but still exciting??

Lederer's books are a lot of fun - there are four of them, I think.

Yes, I just saw that there are four of them when I looked it up. They have the first and fourth in the series at the library. Sounds like lots of fun!

Heather delurking to say I really enjoy your thread and the wonderful mixed bag that is your reading. Will add the Mary Stewart to my TBR forest. (I can't see the forest for the trees already). Started Neil Gaiman this morning and am impressed with it so far.

Dovegreyreader's latest post is about A Monster Calls. I can see I'll have to get right on this.

http://dovegreyreader.typepad.com/dovegreyreader_scribbles/2011/11/a-monster-cal...

#128 Glad you enjoyed The Crystal Cave calm. I've got the third book, The Last Enchantment too and I'm also hoping to finish off the trilogy this year.

#129 Thanks Stephen. Hope you enjoy the biography when you get to it :-)

#130 Our Mutual Friend is certainly a chunkster Donna - are you enjoying it so far?

#131 It always surprises me how much slower I read a Dickens or other 19th century novel compared to a 20th century book of the same length. I suppose it's because the writing style is somehow different and it takes longer for my brain to process?

#132 "The novels of Charles Dickens are mellow dramatic and full of truth and sediment.

Mostly sediment, if I'm recalling the opening paragraphs of Bleak House correctly."

Hee, hee! I have to read some Lederer.

#134 Boom-tish indeed! :-)

#135 "I only discovered that P. D. James was a woman when I joined this group"

Ilana, I made exactly the same mistake with Jo Nesbo, although the sex is the other way round so perhaps the opposite mistake? I always thought Jo without an e was a girl's name but obviously not in Norway.

Pratchett - *draws a deep breath*. There are lots of places you could start. I would recommend starting with the Tiffany Aching series which is a YA/older children's series of 4 books of which the first one is The Wee Free Men. Reasons are:

i) It's one of my favourite subseries and Tiffany Aching rocks.

ii) It's a later Pratchett (I think his later books are better than the earlier ones) but because it was aimed at the young adult/children's market, it doesn't assume or require any prior knowledge of his other books.

iii) When we read Hogfather last year quite a few people commented that they found the plot very complicated which I think is a fair comment. I like that about Pratchett's books but then I know that I'll reread them and get more from them each time. I'm not sure whether the franticness would be a bit off-putting for someone trying him for the first time. I think his YA/children's books are less frantic plot-wise so it's almost like you're getting the pure essence of Pratchett's writing without the franticness.

iv) The Wee Free Men and the other Tiffany Aching books were the books that got Stasia to admit she might like Pratchett after trying quite a few others.

There are lots of other places you could start with Pratchett so if you read some reviews/descriptions of Wee Free Men and it doesn't sound like your cup of tea then let me know.

Re Tale of Two Cities, I'm both excited and scared about the thought of tutoring a group read...

#140 Thanks Paul. "I can't see the forest for the trees already" Hmm, is that better or worse than not being able to see the bookshelves for the books? Or the floor for the books? Or the cat for the books?

#141 Thanks for the link Stephen - I've just discovered that blog and really like it. I also love her photo of the children's books from Red House; I remember most of those books from when I was little!

Hi Heather,
Just had a mini discussion about Dickens in our book club last night and am now thinking I need to give him another chance. I read Oliver Twist as a teen and didn't like it, any suggestions for my next tentative steps?

Wow! Thanks Heather for that recommendation. How could I not add it to the wishlist after that?! It does sound like good fun, and as it happens, they have quite a few different editions of it available at the library. Something for 2012 then.

#143 HI Megan. Always happy to give suggestions for Dickens books - do you remember what it was that you didn't like about OT?

I think Bleak House is my favourite and there was a 2005 TV adaptation that was really, really good. I remember when it was on TV that it prompted quite a few people I know to read the book afterwards.

#144 Excellent. If there's an audio version then I've heard Stephen Briggs is a good narrator.

Still feeling rather knocked sideways (and incredibly sorry for myself) by my sinuses at the moment. The doctor has suggested I try a new spray for two weeks and then try antibiotics for two weeks and then go back in 4 weeks time. Bleugh.

Going to try and do some more book reviews this afternoon.

Hi Heather! Finally making my rounds to catch up. Every weekend always ends up leaving me hopelessly behind on all my threads!
You definitely caught my eye with A Monster Calls so that is being added to my wishlist as well. I hope you are having a great day!

Heather, they don't have the audio version at the library, but I've put it on my Audible wishlist. Always good to have several options!

I'm so sorry to hear about your sinus problems. I don't know what that must be like, but as I'm no stranger to pain, can only imagine. Sending you warm healing thoughts. xx

>145 souloftherose: I think with Oliver Twist it was the long sentences (as in half a page long sentences) that I couldn't quite get my head around. Plus I was only young and it was a book I thought I should read rather than me actually waning to read it. I'm sure I would appreciate him more now, so you think Bleak House over Great Expectations?

I hope the sinus trouble clears up long before the 4 weeks are up!

#146 Hi Valerie - I know the feeling of playing catch up with the threads. Hope you enjoy A Monster Calls when you get to it.

Dovegreyreader's post today is about Tomalin's Charles Dickens: A Life. I thought (as always) that it was a good review and it might give an interesting perspective as dovegreyreader says she's 'not as big a fan of Charles Dickens' novels as I would like to be'.

Some very brief book reviews:

Book #180 The Mill on the Floss by George Eliot - 3.75 stars



A coming of age tale which, according to an article I read in The Guardian, is autobiographical in nature. Maggie Tulliver is sensitive and passionate but, although always well-intentioned, manages to get things wrong so often. I was surprised by how many comic moments and characters there were in Eliot's prose too although ultimately I think this is a tragic novel.

Although I did enjoy this book I felt that I didn't enjoy it as much as I wanted or hoped to. Was it too long? Was it because I knew the ending? Was it just because I'd been reading and thinking about Austen and Dickens so much that I found Eliot's voice jarring? I don't know.

Book #181 The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton - 4.5 stars



Perhaps not my favourite Edith Wharton novel (so far that's The Custom of the Country and Ethan Frome) but certainly the one I think has the most literary value. Exquisite.

Book #182 The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane by Kate DiCamillo - 4 stars



My last read for October and one I kept putting off because I thought it was going to be too sad...

"Once, in a house on Egypt Street, there lived a rabbit who was made almost entirely of china."

Edward Tulane is a china rabbit whose owner, little Abilene, adores him and cares for him so well that he is treated like a member of the family. But Edward doesn't care for Abilene in return; the only things Edward cares about are his fine clothes and fine whiskers and ears.

But then Edward is lost one day - will he find his way back to Abilene and will he learn how to love?

Oops, I really did take a long time writing that last post.

#147 Thanks for the healing thoughts - it's not so much the pain but I feel like I have a bad cold all the time and it's not going away. I just want to curl up in bed but that's not really practical for weeks at a time!

#148 Great Expectations is a strange one - I didn't enjoy it when I read it but I think there's a lot to it that I didn't appreciate and I want to reread it at some point. I think Bleak House is more enjoyable (for me). There's a good Guardian article about why this particular writer likes it best.

Hi! Just trying to catch up with everyone's thread around here. Hard job if you ask me!

I appreciated Great Expectations more as I grew up. Re-reading it last year I saw a lot of things quite differently and better understood certain aspects of the book better. Bleak House is on my TBR list but I don't know when I'll be able to get to it.

Dickens is hard to start people on because his best books are also his longest. Great Expectations is really quite an anomalous work, and I often find that people who like Dickens don't like it, and vice versa. A Tale Of Two Cities isn't a typical work either, but people (and schools) pick that one because it's comparatively short. I guess this is why newbies usually gravitate to A Christmas Carol.

(Weird - Dickens isn't the first touchstone for A Tale Of Two Cities.)

#151 Hi Porua :-) I was quite young the first time I read Great Expectations so I'm hoping that it's one I'll appreciate more now I'm a bit older.

#148 Megan, the other thought I had re Dickens is that there's talk of doing a 'tutored read' of A Tale of Two Cities next year (there's a thread about it here and if you look at SqueakyChu's most recent thread you can see how a current tutored read of Emma is working out.

At the moment there's 2/3 people interested in being tutees for A Tale of Two Cities - might be worth bearing in mind?

"Weird - Dickens isn't the first touchstone for A Tale Of Two Cities" - I noticed that - who's Patti Kapresh?

>52 Porua: That is weird! And I agree completely with Liz about Great Expectations and A Tale of Two Cities and with Heather about Bleak House and Our Mutual Friend as being "best." Isn't that nice of me? I used to suggest that people who don't want to invest that much reading time to try Hard Times, but apparently I like it more than most people.

>142 souloftherose:: I am liking Our Mutual Friend very much, Heather. I'm reading it on the iPad in spurts. I also have a print copy so I might read from it part of the time.

The author of the latest bio lists OMF in her top five books by Dickens. The others are Sketches by Boz (?), David Copperfield, Bleak House, and Great Expectations. Yay, I've read three of these!

As a self-confessed Dickensian love the topic Heather! His three shorter novels A Tale of Two Cities, Great Expectations and Hard Times weren't very typical CD but they were fantastic stories. First of his main works The Pickwick Papers (as usual even as a teen I read them in publication order) is humourous and picaresque and hooks one onto Dickens totally but it lacks the substance of some of the others. My choice of my favourite Dickens changes constantly - for a long time it was Nicholas Nickelby it has been David Copperfield and the first two of the shorter novels above - I have also had a spell loving Bleak House, Dombey and Son and Barnaby Rudge. In fact any selection I made would be irrelevant because, for me, the world of literature owes a huge debt to Dickens who for all his technical flaws was a master story-teller, a fabulous turner of a phrase and hugely entertaining. He had little of the gravitas of Trollope or Eliot and Collins (when good was arguably his equal in weaving a plot) but for sheer enjoyment Dickens has no real rival before or since and I am a passionate advocate of someone on whom I was weaned.

Well said, Paul. For me, it will always be Great Expectations. Is there a better opening in all of literature? Not that I know of but then that's just the first of so many memorable moments: Pip's first encounter with Miss Havisham and Estella, the fight with Herbert Pocket and then, later Herbert's gentle tutoring of Pip, Joe's visit to London, and, on and on. Nicholas Nickleby would be a close second with A Christmas Carol falling in close behind. The only one I've ever had trouble with was The Old Curiosity Shop which I've started and abandoned on a number of occasions. Can't say why exactly.

>154 souloftherose: Odd name, Patti Kapresh. I think we shouldn't overlook that possibility that it's an anagram. Paper Hat Skit could even be a Dickens pseudonym, a reference to one of his amateur theatricals.

I didn't quite know what to make of Great Expectations as I was reading it and shortly after, but I find it's been growing on me over time, because I find myself thinking about parts of it fondly too. Stephen's mentioned several that I thought were quite great. I'll have to make more room for Dickens in 2012.

I am planning a 12 in 12 next year (144 books is a bit above my normal average but we do have the extra day!).
Of these I want to do a British 19th Century Novelists part - I have Thackeray, Collins, Eliot, Meredith, Hardy, Bulwer-Lytton, Trollope, Scott, Austen, Stevenson, Gaskell and, of course Hardy. Selections at present, subject to my whims and fancies as usual:
Vanity Fair, Armadale, Middlemarch, The Egoist, Desperate Remedies, Paul Clifford, Can You Forgive Her?, Ivanhoe, Pride and Prejudice, Treasure Island, North and South and Little Dorrit

Fascinating, all this talk about Dickens. I loved Our Mutual Friend, but struggle to think of any others that I've read. I want to read more but tend to read less and less from the 19thC.

Paul - that 12in12 category sounds good. I'm still struggling to sort my categories.

#155 That is nice of you Peggy :-) I can't say I'm a fan of Hard Times based on my previous read of it but perhaps that will change when I reread it?

#156 Glad you're enjoying OMF Donna. I haven't read Sketches by Boz either, one day I will.

#157 Hooray for Dickensians! :-) I think Bleak House has been my favourite for a while now, it used to be David Copperfield. I think Barnaby Rudge is overlooked.

#158 Paper Hat Skit :-) I wasn't a particular fan of The Old Curiosity Shop last time I read it; I'm due to reread it this month so I'll have to see what I think this time.

#160 That looks like a good selection Paul, there are quite a few I'm not familiar with.

#161 Cross-posted - Hello Kerry

I feel like I want to read more from the 19th century and more from the 20th and 21st centuries - why can't I fit it all in?

Feeling both nervous and excited today because after work I'm going to an introductory meeting of a new real-life book group.

It's going to be a new off-shoot of this group. I liked the webpage and the books they've read so far but now it's come to the point of going out and meeting a group of complete strangers (and trying to find them in the pub where we're meeting not knowing what any of them look like) I definitely feel a bit nervous.

Oooh, good luck with that.

Heather, I am catching up here at last (I am meant to be de-calcifying the shower, so it's not really surprising that I have found my way to the laptop.) I am going to download some Dickens right now!!

Hope the book group goes well. Think how much fun the London LT meetup was!! (although I guess we already all knew one another.) And are you reading New finnish grammar with the group? I bought it in Paris because it looked interesting and haven't started it yet, but it's in the "soon" pile.

#164 Thanks Luci.

#165 Hmm, I generally choose computer time over housework too! I'm guessing we might choose our own books rather than following the other group although I don't know for sure. I guess I'll find out this evening!

Have fun at the book club meeting, let us know what you are going to be reading.

Quite exciting about the RL book club Heather! I can't wait to hear how it went and what you'll be reading too.

#160 Paul, I will also have a 19th Century Classics category for my 12/12, though I'll be including British AND French authors in there.

>163 souloftherose: Great idea (on the new book group), I hope you have fun and it turns into a regular thing to look forward to for you.

>and thanks thanks thanks for all the Dickens talk and links up there. Interesting article and "tutored read" sounds interesting, I havent checked out Squeakychu's thread yet about the current tutored read...but who is the tutor? I can handle "next year"- it sounds so far away :)

Wonderful discussion on Dickens! I read (audio, actually) Bleak House earlier this year and absolutely loved it. Otherwise, I admittedly haven't read Dickens for some time. MUST get to Tale of Two Cities.

#168 Ilana, I started with just 19th Century fiction and then was struggling to get down to 12 so I cut to British. Still a work in progress though as I have plenty of Zola, Balzac, Dumas, Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, Twain, Fenimore Cooper, Chopin and Melville to get through also.

Present order of my Dickens favourites among his novels The Mystery of Edwin Drood excluded simply because I haven't read it!

David Copperfield
A Tale of Two Cities
Nicholas Nickleby
Great Expectations
Bleak House
Barnaby Rudge
Little Dorrit
Dombey and Son
Oliver Twist
The Pickwick Papers
Hard Times
The Christmas Books
Our Mutual Friend
The Old Curiosity Shop
Martin Chuzzlewit

Ask me again next week and the list may be quite different

Hi Heather! I've just been catching up with your thread and have enjoyed all the classics talk. I should try Dickens again. The only one I've read as an adult is David Copperfield which I started off loving, especially for its characters but then got frustrated by the unconvincing marriage. I was convinced that David was really in love with the boy he'd been to school with!

Looking forward to hearing about the book club.

Edited to add: I've just read that Guardian piece and think I might try Bleak House! Thanks for the link.

Hey, Paul, look at that! A book we agree on. David Copperfield is good!

Hi Heather, the Dicken's conversation is just great! I'm about to attempt to reintroduce myself to him next year as I have Bleak House on my 12 in '12 chunkster challenge.
I would be very interested in joining your tutored Tale of Two Cities discussion. I remember loving that story when I was in 9th grade but my teacher was less than inspiring. So now, 30 some years later I would love to revisit.

Hi Heather - hope the book group went well.

I haven't read much Dickens since my school days - apart from the Christmas Carol - though I do have Bleak House on my shelves of shame ... maybe next year:)

Morph - wonders never cease - I need to switch off the computer and sit down in a darkened room. Just kidding....Morph you read so much stuff annually that occasionally you must read the odd good one!

I think the only Dickens book that I've read is Great Expectations, but I wasn't blown away by it. I think the sheer size of something like David Copperfield has me a bit wary, but it is sitting on my shelves waiting to be read.

I read David Copperfield through DailyLit which sends you bits of the book in a daily email. It was manageable that way.

Thanks for all the messages - I will respond properly at the weekend but just wanted to say that I think the first meeting of the book group went ok and we will hopefully start in January. I have mixed feelings about the initial meeting at the moment for various reasons that I'm still trying to sort out in my head! I'm rather tired and had quite a stressful day at work today so I am going to curl up with a soothing book (Elizabeth and Her German Garden).

Let the Dickens discussion continue!

I've only read one book by Dickens Great Expectations for an English Lit course. To my surprise I found it readable and the plot interesting but I didn't love it. However having to read it quickly under pressure (I had to read two novels each week for that semester as well as other stuff for other courses) it has tainted me and I shudder at the the thought of reading another Dickens book.

The only Dickens I have read, Oliver Twist and A Christmas Carol were read for school, I loved both of them. That is why I am so looking forward to a tutored read of A Tale of Two Cities. Knowing I have someone to guide and explain, if I need, reassures me.

A bit of a bleugh weekend where I've been feeling very tired and rather blue and avoiding social interaction. So, a very brief post about what I have been reading this month and then I'm going to head to bed for an early night.

#183 Shanghai Girls by Lisa See
#184 Baba Yaga Laid An Egg by Dubravka Ugrešić
#185 Goliath by Scott Westerfeld
#186 The Crossing Places by Elly Griffiths
#187 The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle
#188 New Treasure Seekers by E. Nesbit
#189 Elizabeth and Her German Garden by Elizabeth von Armin
#190 American Gods by Neil Gaiman

Currently reading:
The Mysteries of Udolpho by Ann Radcliffe which, surprisingly (to me anyway) I'm enjoying
Last Tango in Aberystwyth by Malcolm Pryce
The Sword of the Lictor by Gene Wolfe
The Darling Strumpet by Gillian Bagwell
The Treehorn Trilogy by Florence Parry Heide

Can you tell I've been flitting between books this weekend?

ETA: And apologies to everyone for not visiting their threads.

A bit of a bleugh weekend where I've been feeling very tired and rather blue and avoiding social interaction

Aw, man, I know that feeling. :(

which, surprisingly (to me anyway) I'm enjoying

Delighted to hear it!

Sorry you had a 'bleugh' weekend - I hope today has been better. I noticed you'd received the Treehorn books also - I read one of those straight away, must read the other two so I can do a review - at least they don't take long to read! Beautifully produced, aren't they?

On Dickens, I have little to say - of the famous 19th century novelists he's the one I've read least. Probably because he was the only one I had as required reading at school - Bleak House. I liked that reasonably well at the time - and very much enjoyed revisiting the story when it was serialised a few years back on the BBC - but have not been anxious to read much Dickens since. I have read Great Expectations at some point, and I think I read Oliver Twist too in my teens...
I'm not sure why I'm lacking in enthusiasm to read more. I'm much keener to read a few more Trollopes, and one day to re-read Hardy (read all of those in my early 20s); and I'm really enjoying my current renewed dip into Eliot with Mill on the Floss.

And going back to P D James (# 121, 122, 123) I think the last one I read was probably A Certain Justice - at least the plot summary in the reviews sound familiar for that one. I think Peggy and Luci may between them have put their fingers on it - it's probably her view of society and her underlying political conservatism that I disliked, though I wasn't able to recognise this precisely at the time. I was aware that her attitude to the Church of England used to annoy me - she likes to have a go at trendy liberal vicars and blame them for the decline of the church (which as a liberal myself, though not trendy and not yet a vicar, I objected to!). I guess there is a similar underlying philosophy about the state of the nation which I found depressing. As I recall, there is also a lack of humour in her books - not in the sense of jokes, but a bit of wit and playfulness, which is one of the things I love about Sayers and Allingham, and more contemporary writers like Kate Atkinson.

I'm sure you're right, Heather, that there's plenty to enjoy and admire in other aspects of James' books: realism, character development etc - and it's certainly not simplistic to read them for the mystery and for those other aspects rather than for the 'worldview'; I was not looking for the worldview myself - I just began to notice that her books left me dissatisfied, although I eagerly picked them up each time in order to enjoy a new mystery - so I suppose it was that her general outlook jarred with me - whereas other readers might be more in sympathy with her views and not find them jarring.

Sorry, long ramble... Baroness Phyllis Dorothy is certainly an impressive and formidable lady, even if I don't agree with her! And I am still eager to see what her Austen sequel/mystery is like.

Btw, a description of Death Comes to Pemberley and an interview with P. D. James can be found at the Austenprose blog at

http://austenprose.com/2011/11/11/preview-of-death-comes-to-pemberley-by-p-d-jam...

Lots of catching up to do...

Thanks for the good wishes re book group. Our first proper meeting will be at the beginning of January and we will be discussing Started Early Took My Dog by Kate Atkinson which I'm pleased about although I still haven't read One Good Turn and When Will There Be Good News?. I will try to fit those in before reading Started Early because I would like to read them in order.

We still need to think of a name for the group so if anyone can think of any book group names (bad puns on reading seem to be what's expected) then let me know! We also need more members because although 7/8 people had expressed an interest in starting a new group only 2 of us turned up to the initial meeting although the lady who runs the other group seemed to think we would probably have more people by January.

I get to decide the second choice (I need to have thought of something for our first meeting) - maybe an Orange book as we would be reading most of it in January? I've tagged a few possibilities from my TBR pile and wishlist. Hmm.

#169 Megan, @lyzard (Liz) has been tutoring SqueakyChu and anyone else who drops by her thread on Emma. I know next year still sounds wonderfully far away doesn't it, despite it only being a few weeks now...

#170 Hi Nancy - glad you enjoyed the discussion.

#171 Nice list Paul, I love the fact that we can all have such different opinions - I agree with your placing for about half the books and found myself shaking my head over quite a few of the others. But as you say, next week it could be different again. When I finish my Dickens reread (2013/2014?) I might try and rank them.

#172 "I was convinced that David was really in love with the boy he'd been to school with!" I think he sort of was in a way - Tomalin describes Steerforth as 'a Byronic figure irresistible to him {David}'. Hope you enjoy Bleak House :-)

#173 Hi Morph - glad you liked DC.

#174 Hi Lynda. I don't know when we'll properly start discussing how and when re the tutored read but I'm glad it seems to be getting people excited about Dickens :-)

The tutored reads discussion thread is here in case anyone hasn't seen it.

#175 Hi calm - strangely I didn't do any Dickens at school. I wonder if that's why I like him? I do remember not liking quite a few of the books we did study but they were all more modern and not all very well know (apart from the Shakespeare which I did like and is well known and not modern). Lord of the Flies was the only well known one - I thought it was well written but not a book I liked reading.

#177 DC is a chunkster - I've been ignoring War and Peace for the same reason.

#180 I can understand that putting you off Lisa, I hate having to read things faster than I want to.

#181 :-) I'm looking forward to it too Judy.

#183 Thanks Liz.

#184 No need to apologise for rambles Genny (and I'm not sure that was one). It's funny that you mention Trollope, Eliot and Hardy as those are the Victorian authors I've felt less inclined to read.

I want to try Trollope again and the Tomalin biography of Dickens has actually made me reconsider reading Hardy again. Apparently Dickens was very frustrated by having to write under the social conventions of the time and Tomalin mentioned that these conventions weren't broken in the UK until Hardy's novels. That made me think it might be worth trying them again now I understand more of the social background.

Thanks for your comments about P.D James' books - I think LT is (hopefully) making me more aware as a reader and reading other people's opinions and seeing discussions of things I might not have picked up on in books is always helpful. I noticed from wikipedia that P.D.James' is a member of the Prayer Book Society which I suppose does make her quite conservative as far as the CofE goes. I find that as a rule, people who like expressing their opinions about 'what is wrong with society', make me feel quite weary. It seems that the thing that's wrong with society is often something/someone they're not comfortable with and not part of. People at church (which is not CofE but probably is conservative) who are generally a generation older than me and otherwise perfectly nice, reasonable people are always saying that it's young people who have messed everything up. Young people probably think it's old people. I am not sufficiently self-aware (or honest?) to work out who I blame for all society's ills but I think it's safe to say that I probably don't think it's me at fault either. </End rant>

#184 Thanks for the link Roni!

And some long overdue (and embarrassing) book acquisitions:

I seem to have struck gold this month on bookmooch with lots of wishlist hits and then a lady I mooched one VMC from told me she had lots more if I wanted them, so I got 6....

Virago Modern Classics:
The Old Man and Me by Elaine Dundy
Union Street by Pat Barker
The Weather in the Streets by Rosamond Lehmann
The Return of the Soldier by Rebecca West
All Passion Spent by Vita Sackville-West
My Brilliant Career by Miles Franklin

Other bookmooch:
The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie by Muriel Spark
The Folklore of Discworld by Terry Pratchett and Jacqueline Simpson

From Early Reviewers:
The Treehorn Trilogy by Florence Parry Heide and Edward Gorey (as Genny says, beautifully produced and helpfully short!)

A book I received as a goodwill gesture from an Amazon marketplace seller because I left them neutral feedback (not knowing that this would mean they would offer to send me a free book):

The Tough Guide to Fantasyland by Diana Wynne Jones

And amazon uk have started doing a kindle daily deal and today's was State of Wonder by Ann Patchett.

Which makes 20 books this month which is outrageous, especially considering we're only half way through. *shakes head sadly* Has that stopped me bookmarking the kindle daily deals page? Am I still considering buying The Night Circus for the group read? Oh deary, deary me.

I am going to try and channel my book-buying addiction for the rest of the year into only buying Christmas presents for other people but I don't hold out much hope.

But is being conservative within the church the same as being conservative politically? My paternal grandfather was a vicar and was the first but not the second. I have bought the new P D James and the last 4 or 5 Dalgleish books

I'm not declaring on thread how many books I've acquired, but I'm sure everyone on here can feel better at how many books I've recorded as "acquired in 2011" - and that isn't even complete re Kindle downloads - I make myself record DTBs before I find somewhere to stash them. I'm hoping to fill several bags at home to take to the Read It Swap It meet up in London on 26 November (if anyone wants to gatecrash let me know).

#188 "But is being conservative within the church the same as being conservative politically?" No, not necessarily - I think I know quite a lot of people who are both at the moment (living in a politically Conservative area and currently going to a fairly theologically conservative church) but I know people who were one and not the other from my time at university and lots of people who are neither of course.

I don't know what I think anymore other than it all seems really complicated.

I'm starting to regret saying I would declare the number of books acquired on my thread but I have succeeded in acquiring fewer books this year so perhaps it has helped after all! I'm racking my brains for what DTB stands for...

dead tree book (Kindle books at least don't take up space which is what everyone shakes their head at in my house at the moment).

One day I will be less than 2 weeks behind with my reading reports. Books from the beginning of November:

Book #183 Shanghai Girls by Lisa See - 3.25 stars



The story of two sisters, Pearl and May, who have grown up in Shanghai; we join them in the late 1930s just prior to the Battle of Shanghai and follow them as they flee to America to escape the war. I found the descriptions of life in Shanghai and LA between the 1930s and 1950s fascinating; I was less drawn in by the characters of the two sisters themselves. The story is told in first person narrative throughout from the perspective of Pearl only. I think a first person narrative can be quite hard to pull off and for me, it really needs an interesting narrator to sustain the story. I felt Pearl's narration could sometimes be a bit dull, I would have loved to see the perspective switch to May to give some variety.

Having said that, I am planning to read the sequel as this one ended on a bit of a cliffhanger and I want to find out what happens!

#190 Of course! Thanks.

Book #184 Baba Yaga Laid an Egg by Dubravka Ugrešić - 3.5 stars



This is one of the books in the Canongate Myths series which Canongate themselves describe as 'a bold re-telling of legendary tales — The Myths series gathers the world's finest contemporary writers for a modern look at our most enduring myths.' I've been wanting to try a book from this series for a while but despite having three sitting unread on my shelves, the first one I read was a book I got from the library.

As you can probably tell from the title, this book is based on the legend of Baba-Yaga, the witch from Slavic folklore who has a hut that stands on chicken legs.

This is not a straightforward retelling of the Baba Yaga myth. The book is split into three parts. The first is about a modern day Croatian writer's relationship with her ageing mother and a trip she takes to Bulgaria to photograph scenes from her mother's childhood. The second part is about a trio of older women who spend a week at a spa.

By the time I came to the end of these two parts I could see glimmerings of references to Baba Yaga but I couldn't work out what it all meant. The first two parts of the book feature a lot of older female characters, birds and eggs (so many that I nearly tagged the book 'eggs') and given the title of the book I was looking out for these sorts of references.

The third part of the book is an essay written by a fictional scholar of Folklore Studies who has been sent the first two parts of the book for comment by their fictional editor (are you confused yet?). I found this part of the book the most interesting; it gave a lot of background to the Baba Yaga tales and it did help me spot even more references to Baba Yaga in the first two parts. But I still couldn't work out what it all meant.

Ultimately, I suspect this book deserves a much higher rating than the one I've given it; the writing was good but I really didn't know what to make of the book as a whole. The cover describes this book as 'startlingly original'; perhaps a bit too much so for this reader.

Recommended if you feel adventurous.

Ah, I see we've both been on a book-acquisition confession spree! Luci's comment reminds me that I haven't included several e-books in my list, so I ought to go and finish it off - and I should have something else to waffle about on Dickens/Hardy etc and religious/political conservatism but I'm exhausted from all the book confessing so far - time to go and get some dinner!

#194 I don't include free ebooks in my acquisitions list although I think I generally catalogue them when I get them. I'm not sure exactly how many books my kindle can hold but it's a lot.

Your waffle on Dickens/Hardy and religious/political conservatism sounds interesting so please feel free to return and comment when you're less exhausted. Hope dinner was good (we had takeaway - shh).

Re: confessions on book-buying, see my thread (which you of course Heather, have already seen). I'm tempted to get a few more, even though...

well, see, I try not to count how many of them I actually get, even if I list them, and so it doesn't seem so bad that way. I think however that I will borrow Luci's idea and tag books acquired in 2011 accordingly. Should have started that last year, but I really don't see how it will help anything...

Always interesting things to be found on your thread Heather. Baba Yaga definitely sounds like it's out there. The kind of book I like to think I'd enjoy reading, but I'll leave it at that and be glad you did it for me. :-)

The Baba Yaga book is on my tbr pile, I got a few pages in a few months ago or last year before becoming distracted. The narrative sounds similar to what I'm finding with several of the stories in My mother she killed me my father he ate me, the retellings are based on fairytales but most of them are quite abstract, very modern and urban, referencing the tale rather than retelling it in some ways. That said I'm still finding most of them worth reading though I'm only picking it up every second day or so.

Love all the Dickens talk! Thanks guys! :-)

I personally love Dickens' works. A Tale of Two Cities and The Pickwick Papers remain all time favourites. Great Expectations I have learned to love more with time. Hard Times is a much maligned book for no apparent reason. I liked it when I read it last year. Little Dorrit was long drawn out but overall enjoyable. Some of his more obscure works like Mrs. Lirriper's Lodgings, Mrs. Lirriper's Legacy and A House To Let are also very enjoyable! The only Dickens book I didn't enjoy was surprisingly David Copperfield. I was really disappointed by it.

Heather, do you know if the sequel to Shanghai Girls is out? I look forward to seeing what happens to these young women.

It is here - the title is Dreams of Joy - I just wish I'd nabbed Shanghai Girls and another by her as a Kindle bargain in the summer sale - they were in the £2.50 - £3 range but are £5 - £8 now.

Lynda, I've seen Dreams of Joy in hardback in my local Barnes & Noble and I think that was a couple of months ago.

Hi Heather!

199 > Dreams of Joy was published at the end of May. We were carrying it this summer in the shop where I work but I returned it at the end of August, as I'm sure many booksellers have done by now. So it might be a bit hard to find in a retail outlet. I haven't heard when it will be out in paper.

#196 Hi Ilana - Baba Yaga was definitely an unusual read for me. I'm hoping the other myths books in the Canongate series aren't quite so modern as I have three in my TBR pile. Two are by authors I've read before though so hopefully those ones will be more what I was expecting.

#197 Hi Kerry.

"quite abstract, very modern and urban, referencing the tale rather than retelling it in some ways"

Yep, that sounds like the Baba Yaga book. I'll be interested in your thoughts on Baba Yaga when you get to it.

#198 Hi Porua :-) I have to admit Hard Times wasn't one of my favourites the first time round but hopefully I'll find more to appreciate when I reread it. I just remember finding it depressing but not why I found it so. Getting access to the less well known Dickens works is one of the reason I was excited about getting an ereader as Project Gutenberg and other sites have lots of those digitalised. I haven't read any of them yet, but I want to!

#199 Hi Lynda. I think everyone else has answered your question about Dreams of Joy :-) Hope you enjoy it if you get a copy.

And hello to Luci, Pat and Stephen and thanks for chirping up about Dreams of Joy in my absence.

I'm finishing work early tomorrow to head off to Bristol to visit some friends so I'm unlikely to get any more book updates done over the weekend (it is getting a bit ridiculous now). I decided the train would be less stressful than driving down so hopefully I will get lots of reading done on the way, especially as the journey home will take almost 5 hours thanks to Sunday train timetables. See you when I get back!

I love taking the train and agree it's the perfect occasion to get some reading done. There's something about the motion that just soothes and makes for good concentration. Hope you enjoy your visit with friends. Don't think I've been to Bristol but the name is so evocative somehow.

#202 Stephen, I don't know anything about book selling, so could you explain why the hardbacks have already been returned by booksellers?

Heather / Ilana - I love trains and train journeys. The train between Johor Bahru and Kuala Lumpur is especially slow at about six hours (its about half that by car) and very comfortable. Occasionally Hani and I will take the journey back with the kids to see her parents down in JB and we sometimes opt for this method - by sleeper - she sleeps and I read!

204> Hi Ilana. Rather than take up a ton of space on Heather's thread, I've posted a rationale for returns on your home page.

Heather, that train trip sounds delightful.

Thanks guys. On the way back the train journey is longer because I have to spend a lot of time at the stations waiting for connections but I can still read there!

#206 Stephen, I would have no problem with you taking up a ton of space on my thread :-) In fact, I expect lots of people would enjoy reading the comment you posted to Ilana.

I found what you said about hardbacks in the US interesting. In the UK I don't think there are any books which have not been released as a paperback within a year of publication as a hardback regardless of how good sales are. I suppose it's just that a different tradition has developed in different countries but I wonder how or why?

Have a good weekend, and a reading-full train journey!

Hope you have a good weekend Heather - with minimum train delays and plenty of good reading.

Stephen, I think your comment on Ilana's page is one of the most interesting things I've read. Actually, differences between hardback and paperback publication, or between trade paperback and mass market, vary a lot here, some books do take over a year to come out in cheaper formats, others about a year, others a couple of months!

In the last couple of years, Orange prize shortlist books seem to have got rushed out in paperback, often sooner than the original date planned (I often look at Amazon to see when a paperback is due!) A lot of books (apparently particularly those they see as likely to appeal more to women) come out in trade paperback rather than hardback, or sometimes come out in both at the same time - I suppose hardbacks for collectors and some libraries, and trade paperback for others.

It will be interesting to see what effect Kindle sales have on these patterns, eg Ann Patchett's State of Wonder was published in hardback here in June, and the Kindle price has been about £7 for ages, which is just under RRP for mass market paperback (£8) but since this is on Amazon, it's about the actual selling price of a £12.99 RRP book (trade paperback and some hardbacks!). But the other day it was on special offer at £1.29 for 24 hours, and I think the Kindle sales and occasional deals etc are going to affect the price we will pay for ebooks or books in other formats. My house is beyond full of books and I still have more coming in than going out in hard copy form.

210> Hi Luci,
You're absolutely right, things are changing and that year lag time between hardcover and paperback editions is a rule to which there are an increasing number of exceptions. Like you, I've noted the number of new books coming out as paperback originals, though I never made the connection that they might be primarily for women readers. It would be interesting to try to track that.

I am curious to see how Kindles and other e-readers will be and are altering traditional bookselling patterns. The average price for a new hardcover here is in the $25 to $28 range, new mass market paperbacks are now $9.99 and I noticed this week that almost every new trade paperback that came in was priced at $18, a dollar or more higher than this time last year. That may just be coincidence but I do worry that if publishers can't find a way to keep prices down, the rush to e-readers will likely be accelerated.

For now, I'm happy to report that we've had a good year in the store where I work and, with a strong publishing season this Autumn, I'm anticipating strong holiday sales. But we're a tiny operation - a blip on the map, really - and in a resort town at that so we're probably not a reliable indicator of much of anything.

I have noticed a trend to publish a hard-back version of books together with oversized papreback versions - I can't abide these over sized versions as they really screw up my ability to have books stacked and three abreast which I need with my overflowing stocks! The normal sized paperback version seems to be taking longer to be published for certain titles. The latest Wallender, DCI Banks and Lucas Davenports have still to be issued here in normal sizes and I'm already chomping at the bit!

Hi Heather. I hope you have a great weekend. I love Bristol, lots of memories there!

I also popped over to Ilana's profile and am finding all these bookseller insights fascinating. Must go back and check Ilana's library, as that looked pretty interesting too. Ilana, I am also a "Watership Down"!

Tom's comments on my homepage certainly taught me a lot about book selling, which is one aspect about books I know nothing about. I've always looked at books from either a reader or a writer's perspective, as I mentioned to Tom. I also know a little bit about the publishing aspect, having worked in magazine publishing for the better part of my career. I haven't written any novels of my own yet, though I hope to do so in the not too far future, but my mum is an as-yet unpublished writer who's just completed her fifth novel, and I've been following her struggles to get noticed by agents who will even bother to read her submissions. I've always been conscious of how hard it is to break through into the publishing world for new authors and how few books, in the great scheme of things actually manage to become widely read bestsellers, and these facts of life from the end distributor perspective certainly don't do much to encourage me. Almost every published author out there has horror stories about how many refusal letters they received before finally selling their manuscripts, but the truth is there is such a small fraction who ever do get published, and then only such a small fraction who meet with any kind of success... This is when it's really nice to stick to being a reader with no concern for all these difficulties.

#212 Paul, I'm not sure what ou mean when you refer to as "oversized paperbacks". As far as I know, there are two typical formats for softcover books, either Trade or Mass Market paperbacks. As Tom mentioned, the Mass Market versions are quite a lot cheaper, for the obvious reason that they are much cheaper to produce as they are printed on inexpensive paper stock in a smaller format, thought they also have a higher page count than the Trade paperbacks. I've received ARC books that are the same size as hardcover versions, is this what you're referring to? As it happens, I can't stand Mass Market books. The printing is shoddy, the design is awful and the paper stock makes me cringe, so I'm always willing to spend more for the better quality trade versions, though sometimes those are only marginally better printed than their mass market counterparts which really irks me.

#213 Dee, I was really happy when the "Watership Down" profile came up for me, and found that it suited me to a T. I tried taking the test several times and 'cheated' my answers to see what would come up and none of the other profiles were appropriate, so I guess that, as unlikely as it is, there is some truth to it!

Feel free to traipse around my library as much as you like. I should tell you that there are nearly 500 books in there (nearly a third of my collection) which are wishlisted books, with a good portion of those stemming from LT recommendations, so this particular collection will only keep growing as long as I hang around these parts! :-)

Ilana I have noticed that nowadays there is a trend to release paperbacks first in an oversized version i.e. 50% or so the size of standard paperbacks. Will measure up a couple for reference!

Paul darling, I don't know what you mean when you say "standard paperback". There are Mass Market Paperbacks and Trade Paperbacks, and I don't know that either of them are considered the standard, not being an industry insider. If you look it up on Amazon, they're always good about specifying the format, so you can enter any of your book ISBN's and you'll know right away.

From Wikipedia:
Types

Paperbacks include inexpensive "mass-market paperbacks", in the standard "pocketbook" format generally printed on inexpensive paper, which will discolor and disintegrate over a period of decades, and more expensive "trade paperbacks" in larger formats printed on quality paper, sometimes acid-free paper.

"A Format" paperbacks are 110mm x 178mm (4.33" x 7.01") in size3
"B Format" paperbacks are 130mm x 198mm (5.12" x 7.8")3
"C Format" (trade paperbacks) are 135mm x 216mm (5.32" x 8.51").3

I think the oversized books Paul mentions are called "B or C format" in NZ they are known as soft covers. Same size as a hard back with a soft cover. Is this what you mean Paul?

I also avoid these whenever I can. It's an annoying size to fit my my handbag for travel, Paul mentioned the stacking problems, and I often think it's just a way to make people pay more money for books and with hold the normal 'paperback' size for a good 6 months or more.

On the other hand, they also tend to have a bigger font than standard paperbacks, and people with vision issues often prefer them. I find that libraries also prefer them for this reason.

I share Paul's dislike of the larger paperbacks which really muck up tightly-packed shelving. I had not come across the terms 'mass-market' and 'trade' paperback before discussion on LT - I may be wrong but I don't think those terms are used in the UK so much. Of the sized quoted by Lisa in #217 I would regard both A and B as standard size paperbacks, ie between about 18 and 20 cm high, and most of the paperbacks I buy would be one of those two sizes. I didn't know the name for them, but I think it is indeed the 'trade' paperbacks ie C format which Paul and I dislike - because they are larger and heavier and in my case often don't fit on the shelf.

I don't think we have the same quality issues between sizes A/B and size C in UK publishing - or at least I have not been aware of this. Paper and print quality seem perfectly good to me - if they are from a reputable publisher - in the majority of books I get.

But there does seem to have been a general creep upwards in size of paperbacks over the decades. I love the old Penguin editions - I'm collecting some of the green Classic Crime ones, and I have a large number of older editions of Penguin Classics (the really old purple ones and the more recent black ones). These were always in the smallest (A) format. But suddenly (in the late 80s or early 90s) they started producing those same Penguin editions in B format and no longer producing the smaller ones. It makes me reluctant to buy newer publications as I'd like a matching row of books of the same size!

I know what you mean about size. I recently published a book in the USA and the standard size for a Trade paperback is 6" x 9" , which is larger than in the UK, but I think it looks really great. The quality is excellent and therefore good value for money. I hate tiny little books with cramped type, but I agree that different sizes do mess up the pretty neat little lines on the shelves!

TT

Ilana I think Lisa is right the B & C categories are the ones I don't like! And Genny also has a valid comment in that unlike the USA where some of the smaller or mass market books are of a poorer print quality this is not the case in the UK and seems to be changing with the US editions too, although the US books are far more expensive for some reason. In Malaysia the UK editions of books retail at RM35 (about $11) whereas the US books are at about RM56 (about $18). Needless to say I am patriotic and buy British! Genny's/Alan's other point about having rows of a set of books in the same editions looking great on the shelves also deserves a seconder - there is nothing better and this is spoilt by the clunking great books being issued now.

that's why I love the orange penguins. They are really small but excellent quality IMO and look great on a shelf together.

I'm back! Thanks for all the travel wishes. The trains were all ok and apart from some minor kerfuffles over seat reservations and the fact that I kept panicking that I'd lost my tickets the journey was fairly stress free.

I read The Night Circus in its entirety for the group read and got through Volume 2 of The Mysteries of Udolpho by Ann Radcliffe which puts me at the halfway mark for that tome.

I had a nice day and a bit with my friends and their cute but currently rather snotty 11 month old. He's at the age where you can't take your eyes off him for a second and has had a bit of a bad cold the last few days so poor old mum and dad were a bit sleep deprived and slightly frazzled. But we managed to get out for some lunch at a very nice Indian tea shop near their house and then did a round of crazy golf (taking turns to hold 11 month old) at a place called Jungle Rumble in the city centre.

Got home and the cat greeted me by walking straight out the door as soon as I opened it without even stopping to say hello. :-(

So a good weekend, but rather tired now.

And thanks to Luci, Stephen, Paul, Dee, Ilana, Lisa, Liz, Genny and Tortoise for having such an interesting discussion about books, bookselling and booksizes on my thread.

Since LT added the dimensions feature to book cataloguing I have been measuring some of my books (*looks embarrassed*) so I can confirm Genny's statement that UK standard paperbacks are between 18 and 20cm high but they're much better quality when compared to the US mass market paperbacks that I've seen. I'm another person who doesn't like the larger C format paperbacks either - they take up too much room on my shelves.

My other pet hate is when publisher's change the cover design of an author whose books I've been collecting so that I have the older books in design A and the newer books in design B. They did this with Jasper Fforde's books so I have two books in the old style and the rest in the new and it looks like they've done it again with his Last Dragonslayer series.

223: That really bugs me as well! I have that problem with crime series particularly, some of them are long. I like the Book People sets for that reason, sometimes you can justify getting a set even if you have some books already because the set is the price of one or two books, or even less. In one case they offered 10 Helen Dunmore novels and I actually owned 9, but in a wide variety of shapes and sizes. I bought the set and used the old copies to get started on Read It Swap It. The Betrayal is the same size but doesn't look like the others, but it's size that annoys me most.

B format is standard size here. US mass market/trade and UK ones are a bit different in several ways. A lot of US trade paperbacks are actually quite similar in size to our B format/mass market ones, and they're on much nicer paper than mass market paperbacks. They're used a lot for literary fiction and they're quite popular for some crime fiction as well. US mass market paperbacks are printed on rather nasty paper, and have you noticed how much thicker more recent mm pbs are? I have a collection of Tony Hillerman books and the older copies are much smaller, it's not about length, it's about the sort of paper used.

Here, there are differences between different publishers on trade paperbacks. Some are well made, just an awkward size, but some are printed on nasty paper and aren't very nice to handle and read. I also bought various books from Quality Paperbacks direct for a while, and they did trade paperbacks of new in hardback books before the real paperback came out. But a lot of those weren't great quality. Recently I've been trying to replace QPD editions with ordinary mass market pb editions via charity shops, swap sites etc.

#224 Book People book sets are a good idea Luci.

I used to be a member of The Softback Preview which I think was similar to QPD in letting you buy trade paperbacks of hardback books.

I used to be a member of The Softback Preview also - that's where a lot of the non-fiction items I've acquired came from in particular - in the days before the internet and living in a town with no decent bookshop, reading their catalogue it was the only way of browsing through new interesting sounding publications.

#226 Morning Genny :-)

Like lots of others in the group, I'm going to try and do some short reviews in an attempt to catch up.

Book #185 Goliath by Scott Westerfeld - 3.75 stars



More WWI steampunk fun with the third book in Scott Westerfeld's Leviathan trilogy. A special mention should also go to the illustrator Keith Thompson for his beautiful black and white drawings throughout the trilogy.



Although I still enjoyed this book, I didn't think it was quite as good as the first two in the series. I think a fourth Leviathan book is planned which will focus on Keith Thompson's artwork - currently called Manual of Aeronautics.

Book #186 The Crossing Places by Elly Griffiths - 3.75 stars



This is the first book in a new crime series featuring academic Dr. Ruth Galloway. Ruth is a forensic archaeologist who is asked to help the Norfolk police when they uncover some bones in a saltmarsh in Norfolk.

I loved this book until I got to the ending. I loved the character of Ruth, a somewhat overweight, cat-loving academic who is more interested in old bones and books than fashion and has a dry sense of humour. I loved the Saltmarsh and the way Griffiths wrote about it made it almost seem like the Saltmarsh itself was a character in the book.

What stopped this book from being a 4.5 star read was that the ending felt too unlikely. But otherwise I very much enjoyed this book and will definitely be reading the others in the series (I think book #4 is due to be published next year so I'm not too far behind).

As a warning because I know some people don't like it - this book is written in the 3rd person present tense throughout.

Book #187 The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle - 4.5 stars



This is a reread except for the fact that this time I read it from The New Annotated Sherlock Holmes which has copies of the illustrations used in the various early editions as well as enough annotations to double the length of the book.

I love Sherlock Holmes' stories and this particular collection contains some of my favourites, Silver Blaze (containing one of Holmes' most famous sayings about the curious incident of the dog in the night time), The Musgrave Ritual, The Reigate Puzzle, The Naval Treaty and of course, The Final Problem.

I'm sure I've read somewhere that Watson is key to our enjoyment of the Holmes books. We will never be as clever as Holmes but we can enjoy feeling superior to Watson.

The annotations in the New Annotated Sherlock Holmes are probably for real Holmes enthusiasts only. They're all written as if Holmes, Watson et al. really existed, often point out errors/inconsistencies in the stories and get sidetracked into trying to work out which university Holmes attended. I find them quite enjoyable and I hadn't noticed, until an annotation pointed it out, that one of the stories in this volume uses almost exactly the same plot as a story in The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. Some may find the notes annoying and I wouldn't recommend them for first time readers as they can give spoilers.

Book #188 New Treasure Seekers by E. Nesbit - 3 stars

A bit of a disappointment after The Story of the Treasure Seekers and The Wouldbegoods. It shouldn't be because in a way it's just more of the same. But then that's part of the problem, the Bastable children should be older and wiser and they're not. They're still getting into constant scrapes despite the best intentions and it's hard not to think that they would have to be very slow children not to have learnt by now that they should really stop and think before putting one of their well-meaning plans into action. As Albert's uncle says: "I am not ungrateful; but I do wish you would mind your own business."

I'm currently reading Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes reading one story a day. I was so pleased when I was reading Silver Blaze the curious incident of the dog in night-time popped up - so that's where it came from!

#229 Yep :-) I actually bought the Mark Haddon book just because I thought it was so brilliant that he'd used the Sherlock Holmes quote. Luckily, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time was also a book I really enjoyed.

Hi Heather. Fascinating reviews, as ever! I've enjoyed all three Ruth Galloway books, though they do have their flaws and I am beginning to seriously worry about that relationship! I actually liked the use of the present tense. For me, it created the sense that I was right there with the characters!

Hi Heather, delurking to mention that I preferred the first Galloway-book over the second one (which works its way from the final pages of the first one). I'm curious how you'll eventually feel about it.

#231 Hi Dee - thanks :-)

I think I like present tense writing - more and more newer books seem to be using it and I agree it helps me to feel like I'm there alongside the characters.

I was quite surprised by the relationship teaser/cliff hanger at the end of the first book - thinking about it has made me want to read the second book now...

I'm not sure what I've spent time doing this afternoon. I haven't written any more reviews, nor have I done much reading. I have made apple crumble but that didn't take all that long. Did I really just spend 4 hours catching up on threads and fiddling around on LT? Apparently so.

#232 Cross posted - thanks Monica. Your thread is top of my thread list of shame with about 100 unread messages. I will come and visit after dinner.

Did I really just spend 4 hours catching up on threads and fiddling around on LT? Apparently so. I frequently ask myself similar questions!

Did I really just spend 4 hours catching up on threads and fiddling around on LT?

If only I could list 'keeping up with my friends on LT' as a real accomplishment! Not that it isn't, mind you... it's just there's not much to show for it at the end of the day, and I'm sure you know what I mean. All the same, if seeing comments on your threads gives you as much pleasure as it does to me, then I'm happy to know I've made a difference, no matter how small.

Great job on the short reviews. I have a hard time with them because I seem to have no difficulty blabbing with my fingertips, and can usually type up a screed in no time, but it's the editing part that takes me forever. Very rarely, I manage to just make pithy comments, and I wish I could keep it that way because I know it would make my threads easier to keep up with. Guess I'll just keep that as a goal and keep working at it. :-)

Hi Heather! Just skimming and trying to catch up on all the threads! Man are we a bunch of yakkers. ;)
I have Shanghai Girls sitting on my shelves and will get to it one of these days, but even without reading it, I don't think it can live up to Snow Flower and the Secret Fan to me.
I often find myself at the computer after I've put my little one down to nap and hours have passed by before I know it. The little one is up from his nap and I've gotten nothing done from my to-do list! That happens more often than I would like to admit. :/

Oh I remember The Softback Preview from long ago, it was the only way back then to get hold of interesting nonfiction. As you mentioned on my thread, we felt about the same on Goliath. It's definitely a great series for children.

I rarely do long reviews, I'm happy to just post my impressions with 1-2 sentences on the plot to help jig my memory when I refer back to my thread. I 'm also guilty of lurking far more than I post due to time restraints but still manage to spend a great deal of time on LT and book related sites.

My review length here is definitely getting out of hand (she said, having just posted 6000 words at her blog on an obscure 1885 novel); although that's partly because I synopsise as well, on the assumption that probably no-one else has read the work in question.

The sad fact is, though, that if I ever had it, I lost the gift of succinctness years ago.

Heather I have plans for Elly Griffiths for next year (entirely honourable ones I assure you). Love the covers of her books by the way.

A quick note to say that today I have another cold (I am so fed up of having to say this) and have spent most of the day in bed (reading though which is a good thing). I seem to have a bit of a temperature which is resisting ibuprofen. Anyway, the reason I'm saying this (other than to garner sympathy) is because I started writing replies to everyone's comments and then had a sudden brain-fail and can no longer tell if my replies are funny/rude/offensive/bland/boring. So, potential apologies in advance?

I think I'm going back to bed...

#235 & 236 Thanks Genny and Ilana - glad to know it's not just me :-)

And comments on my thread always bring a smile to my face when I check in in the morning.

And thank you also for the nice review comments; they weren't all quite as short as I'd intended in the end...

#237 Hi Valerie. "Man are we a bunch of yakkers. ;)" I know! Think how many more books we could all read if we stopped all this social interaction ;-)

#238 I really enjoy your brief impressions and admire how you manage to give such a good impression so briefly. I rarely escape a visit to your thread without getting some hits to my wishlist.

#239 Given the number of books you have catalogued on LT that no-one else has catalogued that might not be an unreasonable assumption :-) As I posted on your thread, I do enjoy your reviews/synopsis/literary criticism of the obscure titles - even if they don't cause wishlist damage (sometimes that's a relief) and it does mean that I know I need a good chunk of time to check your thread properly.

#240 Does SWMBO know Paul?! I think the UK covers are very evocative of the coast and the sea which fits the setting of the story very well. The US covers seem to have a much darker background and I'm not sure I like them so much. But then I usually prefer the UK covers which I can only assume means that the marketing people are somehow getting it right. I'd love to know why they pick different covers and sometimes even different titles for the UK and US (and other countries).

Hi Heather, I hope you'll be back on your feet in no time, although extra reading-time doesn't seem so bad. I belong to the sort of people who - when ill - can only sleep it off, so consider yourself lucky :-).
I hope I haven't spoiled your eagerness to read the next book by Elly Griffiths. The English book-cover is really nice compared to the Dutch version of The Janus Stone:

Hope you are feeling much better soon!!

Take care of yourself, Heather and feel better soon.

Baba Yaga looks like a very interesting read (way up thread somewhere..)

And chiming in on the book size discussion....I like the mid sized editions. Huge hard covers are too hard to hold and the teensy ones have teensy font size which does my eyes in.
*still kicking self for not checking the stats on a book depository purchase and receiving a piddly 15cm "book"*

Heather, I'm not sure anymore when you think you may have left behind comments that would have required apologies on your part, but I can hardly imagine that ever happening. In fact, I was thrilled with the last bunch of remarks you left for me, to which I then happily responded at length.

I think you answered your own question about why they change cover design and even titles between the US and UK markets: marketing. We don't have that problem between the French (i.e. France) market and here in Quebec as our market here is much too small to justify additional marketing expenses and print runs.

Hope you're feeling much better very soon.

I think that all the time as I sit here on the threads trying to catch up. :) I always have the best intention of sitting down and reading, but oh the computer beckons me and I have no willpower!

I hope you feel better soon. Sometimes I just get sick of being sick and think to myself that it is never going to end, but of course, in time, it always does... Heres to you getting lots of rest!!

So sorry to hear you aren't feeling well again! Seems like you've had more than your share of that lately. The only compensation is the reading time, so do enjoy that. I've been mostly off the threads lately, nurturing the husband, although I'm re-reading Persuasion for the Austenathon. And playing with my new computer.

Still rather snuffly (and I feel like I am the loudest person in the world when I blow my nose) but my temperature is mostly gone and I have been dressed and out and about this weekend so will be back at work tomorrow. Thanks for all the good wishes!

I was going to do some book updates today (I really was) but I had a call this morning to say my grandma fainted while she was out at church and hit her head. She seems ok although she did cut her head slightly; the church called an ambulance and the paramedics did lots of checks and tests but obviously there's a risk of concussion and as my parents are away this weekend we've been keeping an eye on her this afternoon and are going to have her round for dinner this evening.

So glad that she didn't hurt herself more than she has done.

Oh dear, your poor Grandma! I hope next week is a happier and healthier week for you and your grandma!

It's great that your family live close enough to keep an eye on each other. When my grandma was having problems, I was spending much of my time travelling from the north-east to the south-west to visit her in Bristol. My family is from Bristol originally but most of us have now moved on.

Oh no, poor granny! I hope she's all fine. And hope you start feeling much better soon too.

I think I might have caught your cold, is that possible? It's a sympathy cold, methinks. No matter how loud you sound blowing your nose, that's nothing to how loudly I sneeze, I promise you! My mum never did teach me to sneeze like a lady (or do anything else like one, come to think of it...)

Thanks Dee and Ilana :-)

It is nice being so close in a crisis as much for me as for my grandma feeling like she can 'trouble us' (in her words) if she doesn't feel well. I think the thing that shook her up most was a crisis happening whilst my mum (her daughter) was away - she couldn't find my phone number in her phone book because she had momentarily forgotten my married name. I've left her my phone numbers on a piece of paper but she seemed very much herself during dinner this evening so I think she will be ok.

Hopefully, if/when there's a next time, she'll feel like there's another tried and tested person she can call on in an emergency and it won't cause her as much anxiety. I think my mum's been around whenever other things have happened

Her neighbours also popped round this afternoon to check she was ok (an ambulance taking her home must have caused a fair amount of consternation) and I will give her a quick call before work tomorrow morning just in case.

I am also going to try and invite her over for dinner more and to make sure I do it this time rather than just say I should do it, I've added a reminder to my google calendar.

And I phoned my mum to let her know and I think I managed to explain the situation so that my mum feels ok. She and my Dad will be home tomorrow lunchtime anyway.

#251 Sorry about the cold Ilana, I must have sneezed while I was visiting your thread and spread my germs :-(

And bed for me with a good book.

Heather sorry to hear about Gran and her tumble in church. It does seem that our respective loved ones among the 75ers are having their moments recently! Good to hear that everything is ok and that you were able to cope without your mum and dad there.

Excitement you don't need! But I'm so glad that your grandma didn't break anything.

Sorry to hear about your grandma but happy it wasn't worse. She sounds like a neat lady.

Sorry to hear about your grandmother's accident. My paternal grandmother fell and broke her hip. She never recovered and passed away quite soon after that. So, I'm really glad your grandmother didn't break anything.

Thanks Paul, Roni, Morphy and Porua. My grandma still seems to be doing well which is very good.

#256 I think falls and broken bones can be a big shock to the system when someone is elderly. My grandma is my only remaining grandparent and whilst I hope she remains hale and hearty for many years, I also feel aware that she is slowly becoming more frail and she is more likely to have falls and faints in the future. I'm sorry you lost your grandma Porua.

Hmm, I guess I should test this new topic feature.....