rainpebble's 100 book thread

Getting a really late start here; couldn't find the darn thing. lol!~!
I decided to move from the 75 book gig to this one as it is smaller so probably less chatty. I don't chat much any longer but I do read a lot and comment on my books so I think/hope this will be a better fit for me.
Nice to meet you all. I am rainpebble/belva, and I live in the beautiful Pacific North West at the foothills of the Cascade Mountains. Thank you for sharing your home with me.

My reads of 2011:

JANUARY:

1. The Shutter of Snow by Emily Holmes Coleman
2. The Solitary Summer by Elizabeth von Arnim
3. Moments of Being by Virginia Woolf
4. Job: (of the Bible)
5. Devine Evil by Norah Roberts
6. The Journey Begins; Road to Avonlea by L.M. Montgomery
7. John (of the Bible)
8. Green Angel by Alice Hoffman
9. Aquamarine by Alice Hoffman
10. James: (of the Bible)
11. Emma by Jane Austen
12. Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen

favorite: Moments of Being

ORANGE JANUARY:

13. Briar Rose by Jane Yolen
14. (have forgotten)
15. Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

FEBRUARY:
16. Daniel: (of the Bible)
17. Tinkers by Paul Harding
18. Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout
19. Major Pettigrew's Last Stand by Helen Simonson
20. The Way We Live Now by Anthony Trollope
21. The Outlander by Diana Gabaldon
22. One Amazing Thing by Chitra Divakaruni

favorite: The Way We Live Now

MARCH:
23. Garden Spells by Sarah Addison Allen
24. The Very Thought of You by Rosie Alison
25. A Secret Kept by Tatiana De Rosnay
26. In the Still of the Night by Ann Rule
27. A Book of Secrets by Michael Holroyd
28. The Poetry of Lucy Maud Montgomery by L.M. Montgomery
29. Sundiata: An Epic of Old Mali by D.T. Niane
30. The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls
31. The Walk by Richard Paul Evans (5 stars)

favorite: A Secret Kept

APRIL:
32. Mothers & Daughters by Rae Meadows
33. Magic Hour by Kristin Hannah
34. The Bass, The River and Sheila Mant by W.D. Wetherell (s/s)
35. The Red Convertible by Louise Erdrich (s/s)
36. And the Soul Shall Dance by Wakako Yamauchi (s/s)
37. One Fine Day by Mollie Panter-Downs
38. The Man in a Case by Wendy Wasserstein (s/s)
39. Cry the Beloved Country by Alan Paton
40. The Color Purple by Alice Walker
41. The Snows of Kilimanjaro by Ernest Hemingway
42. The Power of One by Bryce Courtenay
43. The Girl Who Chased the Moon by Sarah Addison Allen
44. The Sugar Queen by Sarah Addison Allen
45. The Black Cat by Edgar Allen Poe (s/s)
46. The Man Who was Almost a Man by Richard Wright (s/s)
47. Sonny's Blues by James Baldwin (s/s) (5*)
48. Cathedral by Raymond Carver (s/s) (4 1/2 *)
49. Solstice by Joyce Carol Oates

favorite: Cry, the Beloved Country

MAY:
50. The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz
51. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
52. Pictures of You by Caroline Leavitt
53. Ezekiel: (of the Bible)
54. The Hours by Michael Cunningham
55. Still Waters by Jennifer Lauck
56. Master Harold and the boys by Athol Fugard
57. Winter Garden by Kristin Hannah
58. A Change in Altitude by Anita Shreve

favorites: The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao & Winter Garden

JUNE:
59. Louisa May Alcott: The Woman Behind Little Women by Harriet Reisen
60. Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides
61. Amaryllis in Blueberry by Christina Meddrum (for R/L B/C)
62. Roman Fever and Other Stories by Edith Wharton
63. Beowulf by Anonymous
64. The Lost Summer of Louisa May Alcott by Kelly O'Connor McNees

favorites: Amaryllis in Blueberry, Roman Fever and Other Stories

JULY:
65. Miles to Go by Richard Paul Evans (just needed a little fluff after these fairly intense Orange listed novels) (3 stars)

77. Acts (of the Bible)
78. My Name is Memory by Ann Brashares (R/L B/C) (3 stars)

Orange July :-)

66. (1) Great House by Nicole Krauss (5 stars+)
67. (2) The Lacuna by Barbara Kingsolver (4 stars)
68. (3) Annabel by Kathleen Winter (4 stars)
69. (4) The Boy Next Door by Irene Sabatini
(4 stars)
70. (5) The White Woman on the Green Bicycle by Monique Roffey (4 stars)
71. (6) Black Water Rising by Attica Locke
(3 1/2 stars)
72. (7) A Spell of Winter by Helen Dunmore
(5 stars +)
73. (8) One by One in the Darkness by Deirdre Madden (5 stars)
74. (9) The Invention of EVERYTHING ELSE by Samantha Hunt (4 1/2 stars)
75. (10) The Memory of Love by Aminatta Forna (5 stars +)
76. (11) The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters
(4 1/2 stars)

(#77 & #78 are not Orange reads and so are listed up above)

78. (12) The Seas by Samantha Hunt (4 1/2 stars)
80. (13) The Wilderness by Samantha Harvey
(3 stars)
81. (14) Gilgamesh by Joan London (4 1/2 stars)
82. (15.) Molly Fox's Birthday by Deirdre Madden (5 stars)

favorite: A Spell of Winter

AUGUST:

84. Psalms (of the Bible)

Darryl's 'An Orange a Month Challenge:
91. The Help by Kathryn Stockett (5+ stars)

All Virago/All August :-)

83. (1) Where the Apple Ripens by Jessie Kesson
(2*)
85. (2) The Fountain Overflows by Rebecca West
(4*)
86. (3) Mrs Palfrey at the Claremont by Elizabeth
Taylor (5*+)
87. (4) The Lying Days by Nadine Gordimer
(4 1/2 *)
88. (5) This Real Night by Rebecca West (4*)
89. (6) Red Dust: A Novel by Gillian Slovo (3 1/2*)
90. (7) A View of the Harbour by Elizabeth Taylor
(4*)
92. (8) For One Sweet Grape or That Lady by Kate O'Brien
(4 1/2*)
93. (9) 84, Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff (5*)
94. (10) Excellent Women by Barbara Pym (4*)
95. (11) The White Bird Passes by Jessie Kesson
(3 1/2*)

#84 & #91 are not Virago books and so are listed up
above

favorite Virago of the month: Mrs Palfrey at the Claremont & 84, Charing Cross Road

favorite of the month: The Help

SEPTEMBER:

Darryl's 'an Orange a Month' Challenge read:
96. The Long Song by Andrea Levy (3 stars)

97.Our Three Selves: The Life of Radclyffe Hall by Michael Baker (4 stars)
98. While My Sister Sleeps by Barbara Delinsky
(2 1/2 stars)
99. The Paris Wife by Paula Mclain (3 1/2 stars)
100. Hemingway in Africa: The Last Safari by Christopher Ondaatje (2 1/2 stars)
101. Beloved by Toni Morrison (4 1/2 stars)
102. Princess Ka'iulani: Hope of a Nation, Heart of a People by Sharon Linn'ea
103. Daughter of Fortune by Isabel Allende (3 *)
104. The Peach Keeper by Sarah Addison Allen
(2 *)
-------------------------------------------------​
FOR BANNED BOOKS WEEK:
105. The Well of Loneliness by Radclyffe Hall
(4 1/2 stars)
106. The Country Girls by Edna O'Brien (4 stars)
107. The Lonely Girl by Edna O'Brien (4 stars)
108. Girls in Their Married Bliss by Edna O'Brien
(4 stars)
109. All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque (5 stars)

favorite books of the month:
All Quiet on the Western Front & Our Three Selves: The Life of Radclyffe Hall

OCTOBER:

110. to feed Darryl's 'An Orange a Month' Challenge:
When I Lived in Modern Times by Linda Grant
(3 1/2 stars)

111. 90 minutes in Heaven by Don Piper (2 stars)
112. Hadley by Gioia Diliberto (3 1/2 stars)
113. Chocolat by Joanne Harris (2 1/2 stars)
114. A Secret Kept by Tatiana de Rosnay
(4 1/2 stars)
115. The Spy Who Stayed Out in the Cold by Adrian Havill (2 stars)
116. Five Quarters of the Orange by Joanne Harris
(4 stars) Orange
117. The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton
(4 1/2 stars) VMC
118. Hunt the Slipper by Violet Trefusis(3 stars) VMC
119. The Night Watch by Sarah Waters (4 stars)

favorites: The Age of Innocence, Five Quarters of the Orange, Hadley, When I Lived in Modern Times, A Secret Kept,

NOVEMBER:

100 Hour ReadaThing hosted by skittles:
_______________________________________________

120. A World of Love by Elizabeth Bowen
(3 1/2 stars)
121. The Memory of Old Jack by Wendell Berry
(5 stars)
122. I Will Fight No More Forever by Merrill D Beal
(5 stars)
123. Arabian Nights: The Book of a Thousand Nights and a Night by Sir Richard Burton (currently reading with other book breaks) ((4 stars)
124. Midwives by Chris Bohjalian (4 stars)
125. The Red Tent by Anita Diamant (5 stars)
126. Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe by Fanny Flagg (5 stars)
_______________________________________________

to feed Darryl's 'An Orange a Month' Challenge:
127. Five Quarters of the Orange by Joanne Harris
(4 stars)

128. Winterwood by Dorothy Eden (4 stars)
129. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen (5 stars)
130. The Black Dahlia by James Ellroy (3 stars)
131. The Dovekeepers by Alice Hoffman
(4 1/2 stars)
132. Joan Makes History by Kate Grenville
(3 1/2 stars)
133. Outwitting History by Aaron Lansky
(4 1/2 stars)
134. Sarah's Key by Tatiana de Rosnay for R/L B/C (5 stars)

favorites: I Will Fight No More Forever, Five Quarters of the Orange, The Dovekeepers, Pride and Prejudice, Outwitting History, Sarah's Key

DECEMBER:

To feed Darryl's An Orange a Month Challenge:
135. Fugitive Pieces by Anne Michaels; winner of the Orange Prize; 1997 (4 1/2 stars)
_______________________________________________

136. The Night Strangers by Chris Bohjalian
(2 stars)
137. Mansfield Park by Jane Mansfield currently reading/kind of............ okay; setting aside for now
138. An Episode of Sparrows by Rumer Godden (4 stars)
139. The Violets of March by Sarah Jio (3 1/2 stars)
140. Too Late the Phalarope by Alan Paton
141. Ten Days of Christmas by G.B. Stern (4 stars)
(my first Stern)

My favorite: Fugitive Pieces

Belva! Long time no see! Welcome back. It looks like you've had a fantastic reading year (especially April). I've been re-reading all of Austen this year, too, and should be starting Sandition tonight. A new one for me.

Hi Belva, and welcome! Some great reading going on, too!

Hi Prof & wookie. Thanks for stopping in to welcome me. Love the 75 book gig but there are so many people there and I feel like I need to acknowledge them all and there is just not the time. I think this will be a better fit.
I have been very fortunate in my reading choices this year. It has been a good one.
I had never read Austen previously so am truly flummexed that I didn't care for Emma but loved both Pride and Prejudice and Sense and Sensibility. Glad to see you are reading her too Jennifer. Are you doing the Auston-a-Thon as well?

"So many lives! Being explorers or prisoners of the Crown, hairdressers or tree-choppers, washerwomen or judges, ladies of leisure or bareback riders, photographers or mothers or mayoresses.
I, Joan, have been all these things. I am known to my unimaginative friends simply as Joan, born when this century was new, and now a wife, a mother, and a grandmother: Joan who has cooked dinners, washed socks, and swept floors while history happened elsewhere. What my friends do not know is that I am also every woman who has ever drawn breath: there has been a Joan cooking, washing, and sweeping through every event of history, although she has not been mentioned in the books until now."

Joan Makes History is a book full of snippits of cross sections of life. Many, many different times, places & lifestyles are described wherein 'Joan' lives, works, loves, ........... making a difference or not. It is rather a confusing book at the beginning until you figure out just what is going on and then it becomes a living, breathing thing in your hands. The book is not wonderful but it is very good and I had to get into Kate Grenville's rhythm of writing as I do with so many Australian writers.
There were times in the stories where Joan wanted to simply cry out: 'You fools, do you not see I am Joan, making history?' She ends her book with this: 'Long after I am dirt, there will still be such people screeching, singing and sneezing away, and I will always be part of them. Stars blazed, protozoa coupled, apes levered themselves upright, generations of women and men lived and died, and like them all I, Joan, have made history.'
I gave this book 3 1/2 stars.

Anne Michaels first novel, Fugitive Pieces, is a wonderful piece of historical fiction involving WWII in the background, although the war did come through to me as a character in it's own right. This book has it all. Tension, suspense, drama, romance, giddy happiness, heartbreaking sadness all come through as the book carries you over several generations. The characters are all very intelligent people, most with university backgrounds in the literary world and the book is full of wonderful words put together in beautiful form.
The story gives you a great deal of background which one thinks is the story it has to tell until it moves to the next generation. Then one realizes that the first wonderfully drawn 3/4 of the book was laying the foundation for the successive generation's searches into the lives of those exposed/or not in the first part.
I don't recall ever reading a book written in this format and found myself thinking 'NO', when the later parts of the book came into play but soon was thinking that this was quite masterful.
I loved the book and can't recommend it highly enough. I couldn't put it down and gave it 4 1/2 stars.

Sarah's Key by Tatiana de Rosnay is an on the edge of your seat page turner. Again we go back to WWII and the Holocaust. Seems most of my book choices end up there whether I want them to or not.
The story is about a young girl about 10 years of age and her family during the Paris Round up of Jews in the Vel' d'Hiv' of July 1942. Her father knows that the Jews are going to be taken but the Paris police have just been taking the men so every night he sleeps in the basement. This particular night the police come to take them all. The mother freezes up, the daughter hides her 4 year old brother in a false wall and locks him in thinking she will be back in a day or two and that he will be safe there. As they are being loaded into the truck, the father runs from his hiding place to be with his family and the daughter has a difficult time getting him to understand what she did with her brother. The police will not allow the father to go back to get the boy.
The girl escapes from the camp once they have separated the parents and children. She must get back to Paris and save her brother. This is the plot of the story and it is so interesting to find the people who are willing to help the girl and those who are not.
I found this to be a wonderful book and I love this new-to-me author. This is 2 of 3 books in translation of Tatiana de Rosnay that I have read. I wish they were all translated. If you read French, you have quite a few to choose from. Loved the book, loved the writing. I give the book the highest of recommendations and also gave it 4 1/2 stars.

The Dovekeepers by Alice Hoffman is a retelling of the Biblical story of Masada. The main characters are a few of the women who take care of the doves that King Harod left when Masada was emptied of people.
It is quite a wonderfully drawn story and when I read it, in my mind's eye, I was there. Hoffman has such a way of sucking you into her tales. I love that about her books. I always feel like I am a part of the story.
This particular story tells of how the people lived at Masada while they waited for the Roman legions to come for them, for they knew that they would and that it was only a matter of time. Masada held out longer than any other other Israeli fortress did against the legions and it took a great while and a great number of Romans to bring them down and in the end they didn't even get that satisfaction.
I highly recommend this book whether you are Christian or not and I gave it 4 1/2 stars.

I have found a new (to me) author to love. Her name is Tatiana De Rosnay and today I read her A Secret Kept. I didn't get a thing done but read that book; a wonderful book about a broken extended family.
I read it because our R/L B/C has chosen another book of hers: Sarah's Key to read for our November book and I just wanted to familiarize myself with the author, never having heard of her.
The story begins when Antoine, probably early 40s and just coming off a divorce involving 3 children, invites his sister Melanie, on a trip for her birthday. She has no family of her own. He wants to take her back to where they used to vacation when they were children before their mother passed away.
On the return home, with his sister driving, she turns to him and says that she has remembered something 'huge' from their childhood and wants to tell him and that it is very upsetting. Upset and not paying attention to the road, she drives off the road and while Antoine is not injured, Melanie is terribly injured and is in hospital for an extended amount of time and has a very long home recovery period. She remembers nothing of their conversation.
Antoine begins a journey to find out what occurred so many years ago in his family that changed their whole lives.
This book is written very well and there are little unexpected twists and turns throughout it with many characters woven in and out of the story.
I loved it and gave it 4 stars.

Sarah's Key is being tossed around as an idea for my real-life book group next year. It sounds really good; I think I'll vote for it now.

Glad you liked Joan Makes History, that's one I'm keeping my eyes open for! I've just finished her The Secret River and it was a great read.

I'll have to see if the library has anything by Tatiana De Rosnay, they sound good too.

Some great reads happening here!

I found The Night Strangers to be a terrible disappointment after reading Bohjalian's Midwives and The Double Bind. I begrudgingly gave it 2 stars and can't say as I recommend it though I highly recommend the author. Bit of a conundrum there.........

Great list! There was a film made about Sarah's Key and I recommend it. It should be out on Netflix or another rental by now.

Thanx for the rec, tor. I had heard that they were making a film of the book but didn't know that it was already out. I loved the book so will definitely have to view the film. I will try to see it in the French or did they only make an English speaking version; do you know?

The film is in both English and French with subtitles- I believe-( forgot) but it is on DVD now

Thanks torontoc. I do want to see it.

Last evening I read The Violets of March by Sarah Jio;

I really enjoyed this little story and it did it's job. Totally relaxed me; body & brain.
The story is about Emily, an author, married and living in New York City. The marriage falls apart and Emily takes some time to return to her roots and Aunt Bee on Bainbridge Island off the coast of Washington State, where she spent all of her summers growing up. Here with her Aunt, the sea and quiet of village life, she begins to settle in and heal.
She finds in a drawer in her room at her aunt's, a journal, circa 1943, written by a woman that she guesses to be a family member. Within that journal she finds some mysteries, as all families have, and becomes obsessed with finding the answers.
I enjoyed the story, most of the characters and indeed, all of the main ones. It was a very interesting afternoon's read and got my head out of my life, which I needed greatly at the moment. I wouldn't exactly call it chick lit, but I think more women would enjoy it than men. I rated it 3 1/2 stars.

This is terrible; I am trying to find anything to do other than go back to Mansfield Park. But I must for Northanger Abbey and Persuasion await.

Power through it, Belva! Persuasion and Northanger Abbey are worth the pain.

Yes, Persuasion and Northanger Abbey are wonderful reads. But I'm not sure I'd want anyone to experience pain while reading Austen, so I'd recommend skipping Mansfield Park for the time being. :)

Ten Days of Christmas by G.B. Stern

I am not going to write a proper review as dear Ali and Fleur have done such a wonderful job with it but just share some comments.
I truly enjoyed this little book of children putting on a Nativity Christmas play at the church with the Vicar narrating. The book is full of family spats and an awfully lot of idle chatting and thinking going on throughout. But the book is charming and I will probably read it again next year over the holidays.
I too, was thrown back by the epilogue. Some happy events and one very, very sad event.
I gave it a rating of 4 stars because, though I quite liked this little charmer & my first G.B. Stern, it was quite slow going for me. But a very nice little read indeed.

Winners (for me) for the year:

Moment's of Being by Virginia Woolf
The Way We Live Now by Anthony Trollope
Winter Garden by Kristin Hannah
A Spell of Winter by Helen Dunmore
Mrs Palfrey at the Claremont by Elizabeth Taylor
The Help by Kathryn Stockett
All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque
Our Three Selves: The Life of Radclyffe Hall by Michael Baker
When I Lived in Modern Times by Linda Grant
Outwitting History: The Amazing Adventures of a Man Who Rescued a Million Yiddish Books by Aaron Lansky
Sarah's Key and A Secret Kept; both by Tatiana de Rosnay

I really had to whittle through my favorite reads of 2011 to get the list down to a reasonable number. I read some really good books this past year. So my favorites of 2011 are:

Moments of Being by Virginia Woolf
The Way We Live Now by Anthony Trollope
A Secret Kept and Sarah's Key both by Tatiana de Rosnay
Sense and Sensibility and Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
Winter Garden by Kristin Hannah
A Spell of Winter by Helen Dunmore
Mrs Palfrey at the Claremont by Elizabeth Taylor
The Invention of Everything Else by Samantha Hunt
The Help by Kathryn Stockett
All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque
Our Three Selves: The Life of Radclyffe Hall by Michael Baker
When I Lived in Modern Times by Linda Grant
Outwitting History: The Amazing Adventures of a Man Who Rescued a Million Yiddish Books by Aaron Lansky an amazing true story

The books that were losers for me in 2011 were much easier to list and they are:

After a 6th attempt, Moby Dick by Herman Melville
Mansfield Park by Jane Austen (was not able to finish it but WILL try it again this year.
It seems like there were a couple more but they are so totally non-memorable that I can't even list them. lol!~!

And that is the year of 2011 reading for belva.