souloftherose's reading, the final thread

Almost the end of 2011 and I still have so many books that I would like to read before the end of the year!

Old threads and introductions:
2010 best of list
My introduction
Thread #1 Jan-March
Thread #2 Apr-Jun
Thread #3 Jul-Sep
Thread #4 Sep-Nov

Books read in 2011:



November (21)

#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

December
#204 The Country of the Pointed Firs by Sarah Orne Jewett
#205 Death Comes to Pemberley by P. D. James
#206 Baboushka and the Three Kings by Ruth Robbins
#207 Jane's Fame: How Jane Austen Conquered the World by Claire Harman
#208 Help! How to Become Slightly Happier and Get Slightly More Done by Oliver Burkeman
#209 Jane Austen's Letters by Jane Austen
#210 Anguished English by Richard Lederer
#211 Night Watch by Terry Pratchett
#212 The Haunted Bookshop by Christopher Morley
#213 Escape From Blood Castle by Jenny Tyler
#214 Danger at Demon's Cove by Karen Dolby
#215 Thud! by Terry Pratchett
#216 Search for the Sunken City by Martin Oliver
#217 The Invisible Spy by Mark Fowler
#218 The Last Hero by Terry Pratchett
#219 Snuff by Terry Pratchett
#220 Eight Cousins by Louisa M. Alcott
#221 Daddy Long Legs by Jean Webster
#222 Mansfield Park by Jane Austen
#223 North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell
#224 The Citadel of the Autarch by Gene Wolfe
#225 Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs
#226 The Old Curiosity Shop by Charles Dickens

Automatic star--very neat!

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)

November (26)
#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)
#199 HELP!: How to Become Slightly Happier and Get a Bit More Done by Oliver Burkeman (Kindle)
#200 Roverandom by J. R. R. Tolkien (Bookmooch)
#201 Farmer Giles of Ham by J. R. R. Tolkien (Bookmooch)
#202 The Glass-Blowers by Daphne du Maurier (Ex-library)

December
#203 Dr Jekyll and Mr Holmes by Loren D. Estleman (Bookmooch)
#204 The Seven-Per-Cent Solution by Nicholas Meyer (Bookmooch)
#205 Beauty by Sheri S. Tepper (Bookmooch)
#206 Barnaby Rudge by Charles Dickens (Waterstones.com)
#207 Martin Chuzzlewit by Charles Dickens (Waterstones.com)
#208 American Notes for General Circulation by Charles Dickens (Waterstones.com)
#209 Watching the English by Kate Fox (Charity bookshop)
#210 The Age of Wonder by Richard Holmes (Charity bookshop)
#211 Search for the Sunken City by Martin Oliver (Charity bookshop)
#212 The Invisible Spy by Mark Fowler (Charity bookshop)
#213 Danger at Demon's Cove by Karen Dolby (Charity bookshop)
#214 Escape from Blood Castle by Jenny Tyler (Charity bookshop)
#215 Ancestor Stones by Aminatta Forna (Kindle)
#216 Just Henry by Michelle Magorian (Kindle)
#217 North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell (Kindle)
#218 Warrior Scarlet by Rosemary Sutcliff (Oxfam)
#219 Black Hearts in Battersea by Joan Aiken (Oxfam)
#220 The Heart of Mid-Lothian by Walter Scott (Oxfam)
#221 Can Jane Eyre Be Happy? John Sutherland (Oxfam)
#222 The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton (Oxfam)
#223 The Children by Edith Wharton (Oxfam)
#224 The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness (Kindle)
#225 The Black Prism by Brent Weeks (Kindle)
#226 Prester John by John Buchan (Kindle)
#227 Zoo City by Lauren Beukes (Kindle)
#228 The Little White Horse by Elizabeth Goudge (Kindle)
#229 The Cambridge Companion to Charles Dickens edited by John O. Jordan (Christmas present)

#2 I love the new continuation feature - even if it does leave slightly less time to get your initial posts up before someone finds you! :-)

Yup, I love the automatic stars!

You could always say in the first message that you'd like people to hold off on responding until you've reserved the first three messages, or something like that. I've seen it done elsewhere.

I am 15 books behind so time for another attempt at speed reviewing:

Book #189 Elizabeth and Her German Garden by Elizabeth von Arnim - 4.5 stars



Published in 1898 under a pseudonym, this seems to be a semi-autobiographical diary of 'Elizabeth's' experiences as she experiments with the garden at her aristocratic husband's German country house. You don't need to be a gardening enthusiast yourself to get caught up in Elizabeth's enthusiasm and I found this to be a delightful, charming and witty book.

It was also interesting to read about the social customs of the time; Elizabeth would like nothing better than to pick up a spade herself and get stuck in, especially as her gardener often seems to wilfully misunderstand her instructions, but she is not allowed to dig in her garden because as an upper class woman it would ruin her reputation.

Book #190 American Gods by Neil Gaiman - 4.25 stars



There have been so many people in the group reading this that I'm not sure I have anything to add. I found the book hard-going at first, some things felt crude and I found the characters rather cold. But slowly the story sucked me in and I enjoyed this a lot more once I got past the half-way mark. I found Gaiman's ideas about old gods and mythology really interesting and the book has ended up making quite an impression on me. It feels like it will be a memorable read as Stasia often says.

Book #191 Last Tango in Aberystwyth by Malcolm Pryce - 3.5 stars



Enjoyable homage to hard-boiled/noir writers like Raymond Chandler but set in an alternative modern day Aberystwyth, Wales where druids gangs (as opposed to mafia gangs) rule the community. I found it difficult to follow the plot but I also found that with Raymond Chandler's books.

Book #192 The Darling Strumpet by Gillian Bagwell - 3 stars



This is Gillian Bagwell's debut novel and it tells the story of Nell Gwynn from when she's 10 years old to her death. Nell is famous for being the mistress of King Charles II but it's also known that Nell was an orange seller and one of the first actresses and Bagwell speculates that before this Nell may well have been a child prostitute. I enjoyed reading about Nell's early years, particularly her time as an actress, although the details given about her time as a prostitute made for uncomfortable reading.

As other reviewers have commented, I found the second half of the book rather disjointed. It felt as if the author had wanted to make sure she included all the relevant historical events but it felt like we were just getting brief snapshots of Nell's life rather than a story.

Book #193 Persuasion by Jane Austen - 5 stars



A reread and one of my favourites, but I can't really think of anything to say. It felt like the most romantic and least satirical of Austen's books but Anne Elliott is one of my favourite characters.

#5 Hi Zoe! Good idea, although I'm not really that bothered by it. It was partly because I decided to update my books acquired list at the same time...

Automatic star:)

I've got a couple of the books from your November acquisitions on my *shelves of shame* - and one of them has been there for years!

I see you've been taking advantage of the Kindle deals of the day, though you've been more restrained than me.

Hi Heather! I liked Elizabeth and her German Garden too and read the sequel earlier this year (which I liked less, but I think I wasn't in the right mood for it.)

Great batch of new books! I loved All Passion Spent and The Return of the Soldier.

Hi Heather! Any day now I'm actually going to try the new thread continuation feature myself. Elizabeth and Her German Garden sounds good and I've never heard of it before.

Hi, Heather. Your acquired list makes me feel so good. Mine is probably of equal length, but it makes a difference that there are two of us! (And I really enjoyed American Gods too.)

Hi, Heather. I see you finally got around to your von Arnim - well done!

Hi Heather, being a dedicated gardener myself, I enjoyed Elizabeth and her German Garden very much. I recognized and share her enthusiasm about gardening.

Hi Heather, I like your festive ticker, can't believe we are just a few weeks away from a New Year! I think you are very brave to list all your acquired books, I try not to count all my new books, especially the ones I keep adding to the Kindle!

Hello! Continuing from your last thread, my grandmother was a stern disciplinarian with her children but surprisingly gentle when it came to her grandchildren. I miss her. She was overall in good health but she grew weaker with age. You are right about the shock of falling. Her broken bones left her in extreme pain. She died of heart failure while recuperating from it.

# 6 I love Persuasion! It's been ages since I read it. Ann Elliott is one of my favourites too.

Persuasion is up for me too early next year as part of a 12 in 12 challenge. 17 posts today already wowzer!

I've also got Persuasion down for a reread for next year, as it's my favourite Austen. I'm currently overloading on Georgette Heyer so I might need a break from the historical romances before I start.

Hi Heather! I just finished lurking on your last thread, I'm sooo behind!
Sorry to read about your Gramma! Hope she is ok!

#8 Thanks calm! Hmm, I wonder which book?

#9 "I see you've been taking advantage of the Kindle deals of the day" - Indeed, I am both disappointed and relieved when the kindle daily deal is a book I feel I can live without!

#10 Thanks Cushla. I've downloaded the German Garden sequel to my kindle (The Solitary Summer).

#11 Hi Pat. I found Elizabeth and Her German Garden to be a light, humourous read. I can't remember exactly who recommended it to me but a lot of von Arnim's books have been republished as Virago Modern Classics and I suspect it was a fellow Viragoite who recommended it.

#12 Hi Peggy. "Your acquired list makes me feel so good." Ah, the perfect excuse to continue to acquire books at a ridiculous rate. I'm doing it for the team...

#13 Hi Liz. And as usual I wonder why on earth it took me so long. I will slowly work my way towards her more obscure works :-)

#14 Hi Monica. I enjoy spending time in other people's gardens but I've never felt like having my own. We have a maisonette which comes with a shared garden which is perfect for us at the moment because it means it's someone else's responsibility to cut the grass!

I realised I forgot to reply to your comment on my last thread about the Elly Griffiths book. You didn't put me off the second book; I will just have slightly lower expectations when I come to read it :-) The Dutch cover of The Janus Stone makes it look like a much scarier book than the UK cover.

#15 1st December today Judy! Rather scary.

#16 Hi Porua. Your grandma sounds like she was a special lady.

#17 & 18 Hi Paul and Kerry. Hope you both enjoy Persuasion.

#19 Hi Chelle - thanks for delurking :-) Grandma is doing well thanks.

The John Buchan - Witchwood - I think I've put it into my "to read soon" pile a few times and it keeps getting bumped for other books, no idea why:)

I think I am still rather tired post cold so some more brief updates:

Book #194 The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern - 4 stars



I feel a bit torn with regards to this book. On the one hand I really enjoyed it and was very much caught up with magical world and story Mogenstern created. On the other hand, I don't think this book is quite as amazing as the hype makes out. Recommended, just not on my best books of the year list.

Book #195 The Sword of the Lictor by Gene Wolfe - 3.5 stars



The third book in the Book of the New Sun series - although all the books were written and published separately they are part of one storyline with each book picking up where the preceding book left off. With this in mind, an eight month gap between reading book 2 (The Claw of the Conciliator) and this book may not have helped my understanding of the third book. Although I was still drawn in by Wolfe's prose, I felt like I had even less of an idea of what on earth (or urth) was going on in this book.

I would really like to read the fourth book before the end of the year, which would allow me to move my gigantic omnibus edition out of my 'Currently Reading' collection. Dare I hope things will start to make sense in The Citadel of the Autarch?

#21 I have many books that has happened to calm :-) Perhaps next year we can find a TIOLI challenge to fit it into?

Heather, if it makes you feel any better, I've acquired closer to 300 books this year, so you're still doing very well by comparison. And with just one month to go, you're not likely to do as much damage as I have in 2011.

Whenever I start up a new thread, after I've posted the first message, I often quickly post the number of messages I want for my own use and just write "reserved" and "coming soon" and so on, as others have suggested here. I'm proud of you for using the new feature, made finding you easy as pie!

Hi Heather, just checking in on your shiny new thread. I really do need to reread Persuasion. I must have missed something that everyone else has seen.

This new feature is so nice! Little chance of loosing sight of great threads like yours.

#24 "And with just one month to go, you're not likely to do as much damage as I have in 2011." - Ooh, a challenge! I have a large waterstone's order coming my way but only 3 of the books are for me, the rest are Christmas presents. Plus there's a few books I've requested from bookmooch but I am going to be really, really good next year...

#25 Hi Lynda, as you can see from my very brief review, Persuasion is a book that I find difficult to explain why I like it as much as I do... The comments on the readathon thread mention that this is less obviously witty than Austen's other novels and that there are some plot-holes because Austen died before she could finish editing/reworking it so maybe you are picking up on those things subconsciously?

I'm very excited to report that on Friday evening I went to the British Library to hear Claire Tomalin and John Bowen discussing 'The Phenomenal Dickens'. Claire Tomalin has of course just written a new biography of Dickens (Charles Dickens: A Life) which I loved, as well as an earlier work about Dickens' mistress, Nelly Ternan, (The Invisible Woman) and John Bowen is a professor of 19th century literature at the University of York, specialising in Dickens and he has written some academic books (Other Dickens: Pickwick to Chuzzlewit). And I got my copy of Charles Dickens: A Life signed by Tomalin afterwards:-)

It was fascinating to hear Tomalin and Bowen talking; I thought Bowen did a really good job of semi-interviewing Tomalin and showing he clearly knew the subject area without being overbearing. Particular highlights for me were Tomalin on why it had taken her so long to write a full biography of Dickens ("It's taken me years and years to get up my courage.") and her favourite Dickens' books (Bleak House, Little Dorrit and Our Mutual Friend with honourable mentions to the openings of Dombey and Son and David Copperfield).

I can't stress enough how good both authors were, the hour and a half flew by. If you get the opportunity to hear either of them it's well worth taking up. If I ever do another university degree I'm going to York!

The more shallow part of me was fascinated with Tomalin's red shoes and Bowen's red socks - did they plan that? And Tomalin doesn't look like she's in her late 70s in real life.

27: Ooh, Jealous!

#28 :-)

> 27 Sounds like a very successful event. I was fortunate to hear Claire Tomalin read from her then work-in-progress on Samuel Pepys at the Edinburgh Book Festival in 2000 and it was one of the highlights of the festival for me. She did a signing afterwards there, too, and was extremely generous with her time and comments to all who waited to talk to her.

Sounds like a very good evening, Heather.

#30 It was a really good evening, Stephen. I was too shy to do much more than gush at her about how lovely an evening it had been. I have the Samuel Pepys bio but I think I would like to read her biography of Nelly Ternan first.

ETA: #31 It was brilliant - I think the first author event I've ever been to and I will definitely make the effort to go to more.

Book #196 The Mysteries of Udolpho by Ann Radcliffe - 4 stars



”She saw herself in a castle, inhabited by vice and violence, seated beyond the reach of law and justice, and in the power of a man, whose perseverance was equal to every occasion, and in whom passions, of which revenge was not the weakest, entirely supplied the place of principles.”

Ever since I first read Jane Austen's Northanger Abbey, I've wanted to read The Mysteries of Udolpho, the book Northanger's heroine, Catherine Morland, found so fascinating. But, I've spent years putting off reading Radcliffe's most well-known work because I'd heard it's long and boring and because it was published in the 18th century and I wasn't sure I'd be able to understand it; basically I was scared.

Then before rereading Northanger Abbey earlier this year I decided I was going to try and read an 18th century gothic novel. I picked The Castle of Otranto by Hugh Walpole because it was the shortest and surprised myself by quite enjoying it. I decided this meant there might be hope I could read Udolpho and provided myself with the Oxford World’s Classics edition from the library.

I found this book a lot more enjoyable than I expected to. I can understand why people find it boring and silly; there are a lot of passages describing the beautiful scenery of the south of France and Italy where the story is set, Radcliffe writes in very long sentences, the characters will randomly compose poetry which Radcliffe includes in the text and the heroine faints a lot. It took me quite a while to get used to Radcliffe’s prose and I found I needed to read this book at a much slower pace than usual to appreciate it but once I’d managed to adjust to this I took a great deal of pleasure in this dreamlike tale.

Several aspects of the book surprised me. The first was that the heroine, Emily St Aubert, is a real heroine, not a pathetic girly-girl despite the number of times she faints. Although essentially a demure heroine, Emily’s struggle against her evil guardian is something she is left to cope with on her own; orphaned, separated from her fiancé, with only a maid who is almost Shakespearean in her loquaciousness to support her, and she is successful in this lone struggle. Yes, in her final escape from the castle she is assisted by a man, but in my eyes, by that point, the battle has already been won.

Secondly, one of the things Radcliffe seems to be trying to get across with this book is the idea that self-restraint should be exercised over one’s emotions rather than giving them free rein. This doesn’t mean that she thinks emotions are bad, her long descriptions of the scenery are, after all, trying to evoke emotions of awe and wonder in the reader, she does seem concerned that sensibility can be dangerous if encouraged to excess. This made me wonder how much of Jane Austen’s parody of The Mysteries of Udolpho in Northanger Abbey was at least in part, a parody on the public reaction to Radcliffe’s book rather than the book itself. If Catherine Morland had read Udolpho more carefully she would have known not to encourage her sensibilities and the embarrassing scene with Henry in his mother’s room could have been avoided.

A note on the Oxford World’s Classics edition: I found the notes in this edition really very helpful as in addition to explaining any 18th century words or phrases a 21st century reader would be unfamiliar with; they also gave a lot of background to the areas of 18th century philosophy and thinking which Radcliffe was drawing on. The introduction by Terry Castle was also very good but, like most introductions, I wouldn’t recommend reading it until after you’ve finished the book.

# 27 Lucky you!

Book #197 The Treehorn Trilogy by Florence Parry Heide and Edward Gorey - 4.5 stars



This is a beautiful collection of the three Treehorn books reissued by Pomegranate Kids.

The stories are told with a wry sense of humour that I think both adults and children will enjoy and are also wonderfully illustrated by Edward Gorey. Essentially, Treehorn's parents are so caught up in their own grown-up world of money problems and new curtains that they barely even notice when their only son starts shrinking or tells them that money is growing on the tree in the garden or that there's a genie sitting on the kitchen table.

I was originally intending to pass this set on to some friends who have young children but they're so lovely that I think I'm going to end up keeping them myself.

Book #198 Five Red Herrings by Dorothy L. Sayers - 3.5 stars



The seventh book in Sayers' Lord Peter Wimsey series. This is what's apparently known as a 'railway timetable mystery', i.e. Lord Peter and the police force spend most of their time examining railway timetables to try and work out who could have committed the murder. There are six suspects, all of whom are unable to provide a satisfactory alibi, but only one of them committed the murder, hence the five red herrings of the title.

I have to confess that I didn't even bother trying to follow and remember all the timetable details and work 'who dunnit' myself - I just read the book. Not my favourite Sayers but by no means a bad read. Fans of Miss Harriet Vane from Strong Poison may be disappointed as there seems to be no mention of her whatsoever in this book; I was more disappointed by the absence of Miss Climpson.

>33 souloftherose: What an interesting and helpful review of The Mysteries of Udolpho, Heather. I've wondered about that book, too, after reading Northanger Abbey. The Treehorn Trilogy is new to me and also sounds interesting.

Five Red Herrings isn't one of my favorite LPW's either. Harriet Vane appears in Have His Carcase, Gaudy Night and Busman's Honeymoon, all of which are good. She's a character worth following - I've always enjoyed their relationship.

I'm another one who's envious of your hearing Claire Tomalin and John Bowen talk. What a treat.

I've also wondered about The Mysteries of Udolpho and found your review very interesting. The Oxford World Classics edition is now on the wishlist.

Would have loved to have joined you Heather for the Claire Tomalin evening. The hardback is already in the stores here but I will probably wait for the paperback ed. The Ann Radcliffe appeals too and your review has done nothing but make it more appealing.

Lovely review of The Mysteries of Udolpho. The Claire Tomalin evening sounds just wonderful, a good one to start your author talks with.
Treehorn is a long time favourite in our family and I have a copy of the special edition as part of my collection.

Regarding The Night Circus, I'm like you in that I found it highly enjoyable but not great. I also gave it 4 stars not 5. I haven't read any Gene Wolfe yet though have a few in my Mt Tbr, do you recommend any in particular to start with?

Heather, I've never heard of The Treehorn Trilogy but have just ordered a copy after reading your review. Thanks! :)

Congratulations on Udolpho, Heather! - particularly on being able to get past those three stumbling blocks, the scenery, the poetry and the fainting, to see what the novel is actually saying. Not only readers of the time but a lot of the novelists who copied Radcliffe missed the point about controlling, not being controlled by, your emotions; you can see why Jane Austen was a fan.

And you understand now why I laughed so hard when in her Gothic novel, Romance Of The Pyrenees, Catherine Cuthbertson effectively wrote, "I am NOT going to talk about the scenery!"

Heather, I'm impressed with your reading of Udolpho. I got it out from the library once and stared at it's enormous size for a few weeks before sneaking it back with barely a few pages turned. I am such a coward and will have to attempt it again.

As for Persuasion, easily my favorite as well, definitely due for a reread, and thank you for mentioning it.

Heather, I've got some catching up to do with the flurry of posts here today! Your evening with Tomalin and Bowen sounds like it was a smashing success. Even though I've read very little Dickens as this point, sounds like I too would have enjoyed it!

Please let's not start a contest to see just how many books we're capable of acquiring. If we do, I see a future for us both: living out in the elements with nothing but little shacks and furniture made from books.

Off to my own thread to do some grossly overdue speed reviewing, but I'll be back!

I forgot about that event. We'll have to plan some literary attendances next year, and I'll have to look out for something else with Claire Tomalin. This year one literary festival had 3 authors I would love to see, and the youngest is 74 so I was thinking I wish I could make it. (I can't even remember who the younger one was, but I wanted to see Judith Kerr (88) and Diana Athill (over 90). I have at least 3 books by her, I think I own a 4th and want a 5th (and wouldn't be totally astonished to find it hidden away at the back of my shelves or in a box somewhere). I own her bios of Pepys and Jane Austen, and The Invisible Woman - all those 3 are recent acquisitions - this year - but I think I also have her Katherine Mansfield biography and would like to read the Mary Wollstonecraft one.

Came back, all caught up now. Very impressed with your review of The Mysteries of Udolpho. It's a thumbs up from me. It definitely sounds like it's worth the effort before jumping into Northanger Abbey, though I am among those who fear it's sheer size. Still, all things being relative—compared to War and Peace for example—it really isn't quite that bad, I guess.

I see they have The Treehorn Trilogy at the library. Promptly adding it to the wishlist along with Udolpho.

What a great review of Udolpho, Heather. I also had the desire to read it after reading Northanger Abbey. And now I have a renewed interest in it. It IS possible :) Good choice of the Wordsworth-edition.

Oh, I would have loved to be at the Dickens-evening.....

#34 Thanks Porua :-)

#36 Thanks Joe. Have His Carcase should be my next Sayers read although I probably won't get to it until 2012 now. I'm slowly working my way through the series so will get to the others you mentioned eventually!

#37 Thanks Dee. Hope you enjoy Udolpho when you get to it.

#38 But the hardback edition (well, the UK one) is so lovely Paul - it has a lovely green wrapper and some original sketches of Dickens' characters on the inside. Go on....

#39 Hi Kerry. Re Gene Wolfe, I think The Book of the New Sun is his most famous work but I'm not sure it's the best place to start (despite having started there myself!). I found a Wolfe wiki which has some pointers about good starting places for Wolfe. The Wizard Knight is mentioned which I have in my TBR pile and I think might be one I try next year when I've (finally) finished The Book of the New Sun!

#40 Oh, the pressure Pat! I hope you enjoy it...

#41 Thanks Liz!

"And you understand now why I laughed so hard when in her Gothic novel, Romance Of The Pyrenees, Catherine Cuthbertson effectively wrote, "I am NOT going to talk about the scenery!"" - Oh yes!

#42 Hi Leonie - good to see you :-) Udolpho is quite the chunkster - the first 25 pages took the longest if that helps!

#44 Sorry Luci, I was considering sending you a pm but spent most of the week in two minds about whether I would make it myself due to end of cold. I would definitely be up for some more author events next year. I saw from the photos on the Virago blog that you made it to the Polly Samson evening - I would like to go to one of their bookclub evenings but they always seem to plan them just when I feel I don't have time to squeeze another book in!

I'd also like to read Tomalin's biography of Mary Wollstonecraft; she's a lady I feel I should know more about.

#43 & 45 I think you can definitely enjoy Northanger Abbey a lot without having read Udolpho though. And Austen includes less scenery and fainting heroines :-)

Ah, War and Peace, the book that has been on my TBR pile the longest (and is probably also the longest book on there).

#46 Hi Carsten - it is possible indeed! And now I have the satisfaction of realising that all Mrs Radcliffe's other books will be shorter :-)

Hopefully some more book updates tomorrow but for now I am heading to bed as we have to be up early to try and wrestle the cat into the cat carrier to take her to the V-E-T-S. She's fine, but her vaccinations are (over)due. She hates being picked up...

to try and wrestle the cat into the cat carrier to take her to the V-E-T-S. She's fine, but her vaccinations are (over)due.

I have that looming in my life, too - fun for all concerned!

#48 The vets trip went quite well (should vets be vets' or vet's or neither?) - cat went in the carrier at the first attempt, didn't start hyperventilating and even tried to crawl into my arms whilst the vet was examining her. The first and probably the only time she will try to do that. It's nice to know that she sees DH and I as 'safe' even if that's only when compared to the vet :-)

Some more book updates:

Book #199 The Usborne Book of Whodunnits by Martin Oliver and Emma Fischel - 4 stars



When I was growing up I loved Usborne children's books and their Usborne Puzzle Adventures series in particular. The Puzzle Adventure books have an illustrated story which has a puzzle on each page that you are supposed to solve before turning the page. I still have all my Puzzle Adventures books and I keep an eye out in secondhand bookstores for any more of them. An Usborne book seemed like the perfect read whilst in bed with a cold.

The Whodunnits books have a slightly different format; again, they're an illustrated story (normally some kind of murder mystery) but you wait until the end of the story before trying to solve the crime. There are little magnifying glass symbols throughout the book though, which highlight the places where you might want to pay particular attention to what's happening. Whilst I could make a reasonable guess as to 'who dunnit' each time, even as an adult reader it still required some work to be able to pick up on all the clues as to why and how.

Book #200 Parnassus on Wheels by Christopher Morley - 4 stars

Another good book to read whilst ill and thanks to Donna for the recommendation and Ilana for the final push to read it last month! This was a lovely feel-good story about a travelling bookstore which, although first published in 1917, had quite a modern feel.

Book #201 The Hound of the Baskervilles by Arthur Conan Doyle - 4.5 stars



"Mr. Holmes, they were the footprints of a gigantic hound!"

Another Holmes reread while I was in bed with my cold, this full-length Holmes tale is a slightly spooky story set on Dartmoor and is one of my favourite Holmes stories.

Book #202 Fair Play by Tove Jansson - 4 stars



A lovely collection of what are presumed to be autobiographical short stories about Tove Jansson and her partner Tuulikki Pietila (Mari and Jonna in the book). Love, friendship, work and play.

Book #203 Lioness Rampant by Tamora Pierce - 3.5 stars



The fourth and final book in Pierce's Song of the Lioness YA series and I enjoyed this instalment less than the first three books. Not entirely sure why but I don't feel a great interest in continuing my adventures in Tortal at the moment.

And that was November!

#49: I agree. The Hound of Baskervilles is great. Read it two years ago, and I like the atmosphere and the secrets that are finally revealed in the end. Superb storytelling.

Too much to catch up on - and I'm not really meant to be here until I've finished my tax return...

I must finish the Treehorn books - I have the same lovely review copy boxed set, and read one of them straight away. It won't take more than 10 minutes to read the other two, or a bit longer to savour the illustrations... I'd never heard of them before this.

And I must get back to the Mary Wollstonecraft book which I'm over half way through but haven't touched much since I got back from Portugal. It is fascinating. It's the first of Tomalin's biographies I've read, but I've picked up the Pepys one and the Jane Austen one so there's more to come. I'd forgotten about the Dickens talk, which you'd mentioned some months ago - I had been toying with the idea of coming down and combining with a visit to my god-daughter, and did get as far as mentioning the possibility to her... I should have realised that in the end I'd be far too bogged down with overdue (non Christmas) December deadlines to make it possible. But I'm glad you had such a good evening!

Your Usborne whodunnit made me smile. I've completed some of them with my son and did have to think while I was doing them!

I like the sound of Fair Play. I've just read one Jansson, The True Deceiver but it left quite an impression. There was a kind of mood to it which stayed with me for a while after finishing it.

I must read some Sherlock Holmes!

Real envy that you got to hear and meet C. Tomalin, but I'm also very glad that one of us could!
*5 Red Herrings* is my very least favorite LP book. I'm trying to read it now, and putting it off very successfully. Ay, imph'm - (which means what, exactly? What is the apostrophe for?) and also och, ay. (I can say, "It's a braw bricht, moon-lit nicht," so I'm all right. I'm kin.)
I also own a copy of The Book of the New Sun but haven't been tempted by it yet. Somebody told me that I should read it, and I'm always obedient when it comes to buying books. --- And I'm delighted to have a function to enable your book buying.

# 49 Having read all of the Sherlock Holmes novels and short stories I feel that The Hound of Baskervilles is the best Sherlock Holmes novel. I personally prefer the short stories.

Heather, I'm glad you enjoyed Parnassus on Wheels. I'm reading The Haunted Bookshop (the sequel) lately, and enjoying it, but it's very different.

One day I'll start reading The Complete Sherlock Holmes. That would be in 2012...

Fair Play does look a winner Heather. Must get round to it too- there is more to the Nordic world than the Scandicrimemasters.

Thanks for the link to the Wolfe wiki. I looked at his author photo and in real life he looks far different from my mental picture of a Neil Gaiman lookalike! I'll have to open my fantasy/scifi tbr cupboard and see if I have The Wizard Knight in there. I've collected lots of old paperbacks of various series.

49- You are most welcome. I'm glad you liked Parnassus on Wheels.

I'm another one a bit green with envy about your Dickens evening.

Heather, your ticker is just like mine -- except you have 88 more books on it! However do you find the time to read so much... and write enticing reviews? Keep up the good work. ;-)

Hi Heather, just passing by in a rush so will catch up later (I promise!)

Another long thread absence to apologise for...

Thank yous and hellos to Carsten, Genny, Dee, Cushla, Peggy, Porua, Ilana, Paul, Kerry, Donna and Megan :-)

#51 Good to see another SH fan Carsten.

#52 Genny, I've been reading my ER books in reverse order for some reason and the one that remains unread and unreviewed was from the April batch (*hangs head in shame*).

#53 I think it was only LT that made me aware that Tove Jansson had written books other than the Moomin books. I saw one reviewer mention that Fair Play was a bit of a disappointment after The True Deceiver which might be worth bearing in mind.

#54 You must Cushla, especially since they should be free to download to your kindle :-) Although it's not the first in the series I think I'd recommend starting with The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes.

#55 "Ay, imph'm" - I don't know either - I'm glad it wasn't just me who couldn't figure that one out!

#56 Hi Porua. Calling my favourite Sherlock Holmes is quite difficult, it's very close between The Hound of the Baskervilles and The Adventures or Memoirs.

#57 Hi Ilana. I've ended up feeling a bit meh about The Haunted Bookshop but I think I might have been a grumpy reader this month so it might not have been the book's fault...

#58 "There is more to the Nordic world than the Scandicrimemasters." I need to read more Scandicrime as well. I don't think I've read any since reading the Larsson trilogy.

#59 Oh yes, he looks very different to Neil Gaiman!

#60 Thanks Donna

#61 *waves to Megan*

So, I feel like I'm not coping so well with December. It's cold, it's dark, it's frequently windy, I feel overwhelmed with all the new stuff I'm supposed to be doing at work, I want the Christmas holidays except I don't want Christmas and I managed to have what feel like lots of mini-disasters this week like accidentally throwing dinner on the floor. I've been reading lots of Terry Pratchett books and trying not to panic at the rapidly decreasing number of days before Christmas...

If it's any consolation, it's cold, dark and windy here, too - in the middle of summer. :(

We just have to hang in there...

Hey, Heather, thanks for visiting and the welcome! I'm starting late on Christmas myself--except that a lot of my family are getting pottery for Christmas--surprise, surprise!

Lucky Roni's family!!
I too am suddenly way behind with Christmas plans. I don't usually start until now - I like Christmas short and intense - but I do usually have some idea of what I'm going to do. This year, not. And I'm dealing with my season change illness that feels a lot like a head cold but isn't. At least, I got one major outside obligation taken care of today, so that will calm me down when I have time to think about it!

Yes, cold and rainy in summery Auckland too.
Hope the mini-disasters have halted and you are feeling better about Christmas. We don't celebrate or buy in to the commercial aspect of Christmas, though still have to put up with everyone else rushing around.

Even though it's been clear and sunny here, I have been in a small mini-funk. I just can't seem to get into the Christmas spirit, I keep telling my husband this would have been the perfect year to just get away from it all and take a holiday over Christmas. Of course, he's very big into a family Christmas so there was no chance of that happening!

"I want the Christmas holidays except I don't want Christmas" - My feelings exactly! As usual I haven't started any personal Christmas preparations, and can't see myself doing any until next week - which is thankfully looking quieter than this week work-wise. I look forward to the quiet days between Christmas and New Year, when the ridiculous pre-Christmas frenzy dies down. But unfortunately we have to go through all of that first.

If ever I get to have a sabbatical break while in active ministry, I think I would take mine in a period to include Christmas, rather than during the summer months as many do, so that I can escape from all this and just quietly do my own thing!

I think Christmas should be an optional thing as opposed to the obligation it is for the majority of people. It's not at all unusual for us to feel down in the dumps at this time of year, and the last thing we need is to be made to feel guilty about not being in the holiday spirit. This might sound a little bit selfish, but I feel better knowing there are others here who aren't glowing in Christmas cheer—at least I don't feel so alone in my lack of enthusiasm. That being said, I will make a little bit of an effort, as I did last year. For many years I'd been left completely alone during the holidays and the only way I found to cope with that was to ignore the festivities altogether. But a few branches of evergreens covered with some of my traditional decorations to lift my spirits, if only for the wonderful smell.

Hope things are going better for you Heather. xx

Hi Heather, hope you're feeling better. I don't know anybody who is really prepared for Christmas yet, myself included! I always find the pressure of trying to please so many people at this time of year can often negate the good feelings it is supposed to induce. This is why we are doing absolutely nothing special this year, just us, the dog and maybe a walk to the beach. Just got to get through an early family xmas dinner tomorrow night and we'll be sweet..

You take care and if you possibly can, fit in some Heather-time at every opportunity.

>good idea Kiwi, learning when to say no is a great gift of time to yourself!

Hi Heather - hope everything is well and that the bracing weather is not getting you down too much. Curl up with a good book and forget about it!

Hello, Heather! I hope December has improved for you. Will you be having much time off at Christmas?

Hi Heather - hope things are going well with you.

Ah, thank you all for the kind messages. I am feeling much more chipper and I feel like I've probably got through the worst of the Christmas stresses because I have most of my shopping done and I survived my work Christmas do as well. I have only two days left at work and then I don't go back until 4th January and we're trying to get the family visiting over in one big block over the Christmas weekend so there should be a nice stretch of quiet time after the 27th December. I think I saw a readthon mentioned somewhere....

And I went to see Hugo, the new film of Brian Selznick's book The Invention of Hugo Cabret, which I thought was really good and my friend and I agreed we should go to the cinema more often so tomorrow we're going to see the new Sherlock Holmes film!

So, thank you all so much for visiting. I will do some book updates soon but I am going to dive into the threads and try to catch-up and return visits tonight.

Glad you're feeling better, Heather. I also find once the shopping is done I perk up. Enjoy your film and let us know how it was.

"A nice stretch of quiet time" sounds great, Heather. Enjoy!

Glad to hear you're doing a bit better, Heather! I'm currently running down the clock on my last day of work and so exhausted that the next eight hours look like an expanse of the Sahara. :)

Good to know things are finally looking up for you Heather.

I had planned to go see Hugo with my dad this week, but turns out it's only available in 3D? I wouldn't mind that, but it's a no-go for my dad. I wouldn't mind the Sherlock Holmes movie, but haven't seen the first one. Thinking maybe Tintin... it got good ratings here. All I know is I want something lighthearted, as you can see from the selection aforementioned.

Hey, Heather, glad things are on an upturn. I'm finishing up Christmas preps, and hope to see the Muppet Movie over the holidays.

Hi there, Heather! Just did some overdue catching up on your thread and my goodness have you had a lot going on!
I give you cudo's for following through on the Northanger Abbey reference. Now that you've reminded me, I need to check out Udolpho and Otranto too.
I've got Bleak House lined up for next year and definately want to fit more Dicken's into my life.
Since I'm here, I'll take this opportunity to wish you and yours a wonderful Christmas!

BTW: I'm jealous you saw the new Sherlock.

>81 Carmenere: Me too (jealous you saw the new Sherlock.). Its been moooonths since I've been to the flicks :
My time will come :)

Merry Christmas, Heather!

And also a Merry Christmas from me, Heather!

All the best for the holiday season, Heather. I'll look forward to catching up with you in January.

Nice to see you a bit more chipper Heather. Happy christmas and a wonderful new year to you and yours from a less than chilly Kuala Lumpur.

Heather wishing you


glitter-graphics.com

hope you and yours have a wonderful 2012

Thanks Judy, Dee, Liz, Ilana, Roni, Lynda, Megan, Peggy, Paul and calm. I am trying to get round the threads to say Merry Christmas but I'll add one here in case I miss anyone.

The new Sherlock Holmes film was very enjoyable and I have finished work for the year which is fantastic except that my body has decided to feel very, very tired as a result. But I just have to wrap the last few presents and then see if I'm up pulling together some kind of stollen to take to my parents and in-laws (not as hard as it sounds because I#ll do the dough in the breadmaker).

I'm going to try and fire off a couple of posts on books acquired and read this month:

Books acquired

From bookmooch:
Some Sherlock Holmes pastiches/sequels, Dr Jekyll and Mr Holmes by Loren D. Estleman and The Seven-Per-Cent Solution by Nicholas Meyer
Beauty by Sheri S. Tepper

Amazon kindle:
Ancestor Stones by Aminatta Forna (I still haven't read The Memory of Love)
Just Henry by Michelle Magorian, author of Goodnight, Mr Tom both daily deals
and North and South for the group read.

From Waterstones whilst doing Christmas shopping because they had a points offer:
Barnaby Rudge, Martin Chuzzlewit and American Notes for General Circulation by Charles Dickens

From the local charity bookshop:
Watching the English by Kate Fox
The Age of Wonder by Richard Holmes
And in the Usborne Puzzle series that I mentioned earlier: Search for the Sunken City by Martin Oliver, The Invisible Spy by Mark Fowler, Danger at Demon's Cove by Karen Dolby and Escape from Blood Castle by Jenny Tyler

Then yesterday, whilst I was doing the last bit of Christmas shopping I happened to go into the lovely Oxfam bookshop in the next town and they had so many lovely classics editions (Penguin, Oxford, Virago, Puffin etc.) that I left with my arms full...
Warrior Scarlet by Rosemary Sutcliff (old Puffin)
Dogsbody by Diana Wynne Jones (I've read this before but don't own a copy)
Black Hearts in Battersea by Joan Aiken (old Puffin)
The Heart of Mid-Lothian by Walter Scott (hoping to read this with Liz next year)
Can Jane Eyre Be Happy? by John Sutherland
The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton (Virago)
The Children by Edith Wharton (Virago)

In my defence they had so many Penguins, Viragoes and Puffins that I could have left with so many more.

In 2012 I am going to be really, really good....

Merry Christmas Heather!

Congrats on another great book haul!






Wishing you all the very best Heather!

I'm impressed with all your new books and your restraint in the Oxfam shop!

Have a wonderful Christmas!

Heather, I left you another of my long responses to your thoughtful message on my thread, as I'm wont to do. I'm sure you've got plenty of other things to do by now, but just letting you know...

Expect something in the mail within a week or so (I Hope). xoxo

Merry Christmas, Heather!

Happy Christmas Heather!

Love your latest book acquisition list (reminds me, I must do mine..). Black Hearts in Battersea has been dramatized on Radio 4 in two episodes earlier this week - did you catch that, or were you still working then?

Merry Christmas, Heather!

Happy Christmas, Heather!

Hope you had a lovely Christmas Day.

Hi Heather! So... what books did you get?? ;-)

Merry Xmas - hope you had a great day.

I hope your Christmas was Merry!

Thank you for all the Christmas wishes :-)

Not many books received - I think my family and friends either don't know which books to get me or think that I have too many to possibly want more!

DH got me The Cambridge Companion to Charles Dickens and I got him the first three David Downing books of which I think he's read two so far and really likes them. We also got a Waterstones gift card, a soup recipe book, a book of local walks and lots of biscuits, chocolates, cheese, jam etc. which we are slowly munching our way through.

There's no way I will be able to catch up with my December book reviews so I am going to list them all and then comment briefly on the few I have any particular thoughts about.

#204 The Country of the Pointed Firs by Sarah Orne Jewett - 3.5 stars
#205 Death Comes to Pemberley by P. D. James - 3 stars
#206 Baboushka and the Three Kings by Ruth Robbins - 3 stars
#207 Jane's Fame: How Jane Austen Conquered the World by Claire Harman - 4.5 stars
#208 Help!: How to Become Slightly Happier and Get a Bit More Done by Oliver Burkeman - 4 stars
#209 Jane Austen's Letters by Jane Austen, edited by Deirdre Le Faye - 4 stars
#210 Anguished English: An Anthology of Accidental Assaults Upon the English Language by Richard Lederer - 3.75 stars
#211 Night Watch by Terry Pratchett - 5 stars (reread)
#212 The Haunted Bookshop by Christopher Morley - 3 stars
#213 Escape From Blood Castle (Usborne Puzzle Adventure) by Jenny Tyler - 3.5 stars
#214 Danger at Demon's Cove (Usborne Puzzle Adventure) by Karen Dolby - 4 stars
#215 Thud! by Terry Pratchett - 5 stars (reread)
#216 Search for the Sunken City (Usborne Puzzle Adventure) by Martin Oliver - 4 stars
#217 The Invisible Spy (Usborne Puzzle Adventure) by Mark Fowler - 4 stars
#218 The Last Hero: A Discworld Fable by Terry Pratchett - 5 stars (reread)
#219 Snuff by Terry Pratchett - 4 stars
#220 Eight Cousins by Louisa M. Alcott - 3.75 stars
#221 Daddy Long Legs by Jean Webster - 5 stars (reread)
#222 Mansfield Park by Jane Austen - 5 stars (reread)
#223 North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell - 5 stars (reread)
#224 The Citadel of the Autarch by Gene Wolfe - 4 stars
#225 Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs - 3.5 stars
#226 The Old Curiosity Shop by Charles Dickens - 3 stars (reread)

#205 Death Comes to Pemberley by P. D. James - 3 stars



Disappointing. I'm not sure this worked as a Jane Austen sequel, as a crime book or as a work of historical fiction. I found the historical fiction aspect the most annoying; James seems to use the characters as a way to give the readers infodumps about 1803. At one point, Darcy - a magistrate, asks someone for a refresher on how the criminal justice system functions at the time. Surely a magistrate would know this? Otherwise alright I suppose, but why couldn't we have another Dalgliesh book?

#207 Jane's Fame: How Jane Austen Conquered the World by Claire Harman - 4.5 stars



As well as a brief biography of Miss Austen, this book examines how she came to be so incredibly popular when other authors of her time are only read by a few. I'd recommend this book to people who aren't massive fans of JA as well as those who are, because Claire Harman includes criticisms from those who hated JA's books as well as those who loved them (and there are some fantastic quotes from writers like Charlotte Bronte and Mark Twain who really disliked her books).

Harman ends the book by giving her theories as to why JA is so popular. The first is that she is popular because her books are neither trash nor works of blinding greatness but somewhere in between:

"The middle-aged, the middle class and those who consider themselves slightly above the middlebrow are Austen's natural constituency. They (we!) love Austen - the idea as much as the books - because she comes from our own ranks and rocks no boats. With Austen, we know that we are never going to be taken to extremes."

Her other theory relates to the delay between Austen writing S&S, P&P and NA and those books being published. Harman posits that JA would have had to update these books to remove now obsolete references to events and include references to current events. She theorises that because of this exercise, JA included far fewer references to current events in her novels, simply to save herself work if the novels were published at a later date. Although this is often a criticism levelled at JA by some (why does she not mention the slave trade in detail or the Napoleonic war or politics etc?) the absence of these period-specific references give her books a timeless feel that make it a lot easier for a 20th or 21st century reader to understand her work compared to her contemporaries'.

Fascinating stuff.

Hi, Heather.

I must say, I've always found the "she doesn't write about the war" line specious and irritating. Why should she, particularly? England was at war for decades, but I'd struggle to tell you the names of contemporary authors who used the Napoleonic wars as anything but an excuse for getting their characters from place to place, or their men into red coats, or the occasional tragic death.

For that matter, I've read plenty of American novels from the forties where you wouldn't necessarily know there was a world war going on! And what proportion of today's novels even mention, let alone talk seriously, about the Middle East? And again, why should they, particularly, unless it's relevant?

I prefer James' Dalgliesh novels too - I just downloaded her first, Cover Her Face as it's a Kindle bargain until Twelfth Night. But I found Death Comes to Pemberley interesting.

Jane's Fame sounds like one for my wishlist!

I liked Jane's Fame, too. That's a really good review of it. I agree that her lack of references to current events helps her books seem timeless, and it's interesting to think that may have been deliberate because of the delays in getting her work published. It's also fun to read in this book about how uncertain her eventual success was.

That seems to be a common reaction to Death Comes to Pemberly, unfortunately, despite the NY Times review. I enjoy reading P.D. James, so that's unfortunate twice over. I'm sure I'll read this at some point, but I'm not going to rush to get it.

#104 Hi Liz. My brain is rather frazzled today so I can't think of anything to say except 'yes'. :-)

#105 Hi Luci. I think they added The Private Patient to the sale today too.

#106 Hope you enjoy it Jim!

#107 Thanks Joe. Jane's Fame was a library book but it's definitely one I'l like to buy so I have my own copy.

#105 & 107 I think I would have enjoyed Death Comes to Pemberley more if I didn't rate P.D. James so highly as an author in general. It was an ok read and I'm glad I read it and I'll probably read it again at some point but it's far from being her best work and I'm not sure it was an experiment that succeeded.

I suppose I should 'fess up to my kindle sale acquisitions so far:

The Little White Horse by Elizabeth Goudge (Carnegie Medal winner)
The Black Prism by Brent Weeks (first in new fantasy trilogy, writing style seems similar to Brandon Sanderson)
The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness (first in award winning YA trilogy that I was going to buy next year anyway...)
Prester John by John Buchan
Zoo City by Lauren Beukes (won Arthur C Clarke award)
The Janus Stone by Elly Griffiths (2nd in Ruth Galloway series)

At some point today or tomorrow I will also create a thread in the 2012 group and then realise how far behind I am with everyone's new threads!

I bought The Private Patient even though I already have a paperback copy. I've been doing that kind of thing a lot during this Kindle sale, I'm planning to clear out some dead tree books, and at least anything in ebook will be easy to find and I won't waste so much time hunting for books.

I'm so impressed with the amount of reading you can manage in just one month Heather! Quite envious of that, actually.

Loved your review of Jane's Fame and immediately added it to the wishlist. I wanted to thumb it as well, but saw that you hadn't posted it on the book's work page. It's a shame to deprive others of such great reviews! They don't have this book at the library unfortunately, but there is an audio version narrated by someone I like...

I haven't started my 2012 thread yet, and am keeping it that way for now. I find keeping up with my starred threads is already time consuming aplenty, and doubling that amount during the transition just seems like madness. I did it last year, when Jim started the group early and got discouraged before the new year had even arrived! So basically, I'll probably jump in on New Year's Eve and work my way from there. And yes, no doubt there'll be plenty of catching up to do, but that is a given with this chatty group! :-)

The Little White Horse was one of my VERY favorite books in my preteen years, and I still re-read it occasionally. I hope you enjoy it.

#109 That is a good idea Luci. So far all the books that have come up that I already own are ones where I want to keep hold of the physical copy for various reasons so I haven't been doing that but given the way my bookshelves are starting to overflow I think that one day I might need to start being stricter about which books I want to keep.

#110 "I'm so impressed with the amount of reading you can manage in just one month Heather! Quite envious of that, actually. " Says the lady who has read 275 books this year? :-) I'm going to use the same excuse you used on your thread and say that 5 of them were children's books with lots of pictures and less than 50 pages and lots of the others were quite short! Even the Dickens was a reasonable length (for Dickens - it's only 550 pages).

I hope you like Jane's Fame. I have duly posted my review on the book page.

#111 I'm sure you were one of the people who recommended that book to me Roni so thank you :-) I've had several of Elizabeth Goudge's books on my wishlist since joining this group at the beginning of 2010 so it's about time I got round to getting one!

I think my last book for 2011 will be Mary Stewart's The Last Enchantment (100 pages to go) and hopefully I will head over to the 2012 group later today to claim my spot. I think the final book I'm going to comment on here is:

#226 The Old Curiosity Shop by Charles Dickens - 3 stars



I think this Dickens novel is the one that's probably hardest for a modern day reader to appreciate. The Victorians adored the character of Little Nell and American readers were so eager to find out the ending that they 'were reported to storm the piers of New York City, shouting to arriving sailors (who might have already read the last instalment in the United Kingdom), "Is Little Nell alive?"' But it was difficult for me to appreciate the kind of sentimentality and pathos that distinguishes the character of Little Nell and I preferred the wonderfully grotesque character of Daniel Quilp who terrorises his wife, eats boiled eggs 'shell and all' and is the most lascivious of Dickens' villains (although this is 1840 so you only gets hints of this aspect).

"he ate hard eggs, shell and all, devoured gigantic prawns with the heads and tails on, chewed tobacco and water-cresses at the same time and with extraordinary greediness, drank boiling tea without winking, bit his fork and spoon till they bent again, and in short performed so many horrifying and uncommon acts that the women were nearly frightened out of their wits"

Given Dickens' comments (as reported by Claire Tomalin in her biography, Charles Dickens: A Life) that his bad characters portrayed the characteristics he found within himself, this portrayal of Quilp raised some interesting psychological questions in my mind about Dickens himself.

The introduction to my edition indicates that there are a lot of references to Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress in the story which, again, a 19th century reader would have been very familiar with and I am not really familiar with at all. One character also frequently includes lines from popular songs in his dialogue and I can appreciate how this would have been very comic to a reader at the time but by the time I've had to look up the relevant footnote in the back of the book the joke has lost a little something in the translation as it were.

What I found most interesting about my reread of this book was the insight it gave into Dickens' feelings at the time of writing. A few years before Dickens started writing this novel, his beloved sister-in-law, Mary Hogarth, who had lived with him and his wife Catherine since their marriage, died suddenly at the age of 17. Dickens was absolutely distraught by her death and had to take a break from his publishing schedule for both The Pickwick Papers and Oliver Twist - this was the only time in his life when Dickens failed to get an instalment out on time. His grief for Mary's death seems far greater than we would consider reasonable given their relationship (and really there doesn't seem to be anything to suggest their relationship went beyond brother and sister in law); he wanted to be buried next to Mary and the published announcement called her 'the chief solace of his labours'. History is silent as to his wife's opinion of all this - from reading Tomalin's biography I almost get the impression that Catherine wasn't allowed to have opinions. Anyway, there's a bit of debate about this but it seems that when Dickens was writing The Old Curiosity Shop he may have had Mary in mind when he created the character of Little Nell and the idealisation of Little Nell as 'so young, so beautiful, so good' may well be linked to Dickens' idealisation of Mary Hogarth.

(SPOILERS And neither Little Nell or Mary ever got to grow up, marry and sully themselves by having sex within the sanctified bounds of marriage with their respective husbands. The more I read about women in Victorian literature, the more I realise how seriously messed up the Victorians were.)

Anyway, Barnaby Rudge, another of Dickens' less well-known works is up next chronologically and this one is, unusually for Dickens, an historical fiction, set during the Gordon Riots of 1780. Yes, that's the first time I'd heard of the Gordon Riots too. I remember enjoying Barnaby Rudge on my first read and that's about it.

Heather - impressive reading! Agree that Old Curiosity Shop is not the very best Dickens but it is still a great story well told. Remember listing all of his novels in my order of preference some time ago which I hope no one checks but I do prefer Barnaby Rudge to the travails of Little Nell.
Hope to see you agree with me in 2012! Happy new year.

#114 Paul, you did, and when I went back to check The Old Curiosity Shop was second from the bottom. I think it would be my least favourite; it's not a bad book but I did have to push myself to finish it.

Hi Heather, Happy New Year! I plan to read more Dickens in 2012 -- but won't be hurrying to read The Old Curiosity Shop.

Phew! I know Martin Chuzzlewit must have been bottom as I didn't much like it.

See you in 2012

Another great review Heather! I look forward to more, plus, it's been a pleasure getting to know you a little. I wish you a very Happy New Year! See you in 2012!

Farewell Old Thread, see you in the New! Happy New Year and good reading in 2012!

To finish off 2011, an end of year meme that I saw on someone's blog:

Best Book of 2011

This is so difficult to call that I'm going to allow myself three 'best books'.

Non-fiction: Charles Dickens: A Life by Claire Tomalin

Adult fiction: Ignoring rereads this would have to be South Riding by Winifred Holtby

Young adult fiction: A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness

Worst Book of 2011

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, so my worst reads might be someone else's favourites but Biblioholism by Tom Raabe just struck the wrong note for me.

Most Disappointing Book of 2011

Death Comes to Pemberley by P. D. James :-(

Most Surprising (in a good way) Book of 2011

The Mysteries of Udolpho by Ann Radcliffe. I'd been wanting to read this for years because of Northanger Abbey but I thought it would be unbelievably silly and dull. I was wrong!

Book You Recommended Most in 2011

Probably Charles Dickens: A Life by Claire Tomalin (again)

Best Series You Discovered in 2011

A tie between Ben Aaronovitch's Peter Grant series (beginning with Rivers of London), C. J. Sansom's Matthew Shardlake series (beginning with Dissolution) and Lois McMaster Bujold's Vorkosigan series (beginning with The Warrior's Apprentice).

Favourite New Author in 2011

Claire Tomalin - discovered by reading Jane Austen: A Life back in January

I also have a huge list of other authors I've discovered and who I want to read more of in future but it would be far too long a list to write out (I started and then gave up!)

Most Hilarious Read in 2011

Again, it's really difficult to choose just one!

Books I remember making me laugh out loud were: E. F. Benson's Mapp and Lucia books, Terry Pratchett's City Watch series, Miss Buncle's Book by D. E. Stevenson and The Pickwick Papers by Charles Dickens

Most Thrilling, Unputdownable Book of 2011

Well it's not a thriller, but The Observations by Jane Harris was a book which I started reading as a kindle sample then had to download the rest of the book and read it straight away from the sample.

Book Most Anticipated in 2011

Can I mention Charles Dickens: A Life again?

Favourite Cover of a Book in 2011

There isn't one particular cover that stands out so here are a few of my favourites:



Most Memorable Character in 2011

A first person narrative needs an interesting narrator to keep my interest and Bessy Buckley from The Observations by Jane Harris was lively, sharp, funny and warm.

Most Beautifully Written Book in 2011

The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern

Book That Had the Greatest Impact on You in 2011

I think Lincoln's Melancholy: Lincoln's Melancholy: How Depression Challenged a President and Fueled His Greatness by Joshua Wolf Shenk

Book You Can’t Believe You Waited until 2011 to Read

Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton. My friend passed on her old copy to me at the end of 2006 and I read it for the first time this year (5 years later!) and loved it.

Love your wrap up, so colourful too.

Ooh, great wrap up - I might try that on my thread too if I ever get round to finishing!

#122 & 123 Thanks Kerry and Genny. For some reason that summary felt easier than trying to work out the list of my favourite books from 2011.

I have finally got my 2012 thread set up (only one day late). Come and join me in 2012!