rabbitprincess' patrol report: 2012 BOMBS

In this thread, Sapper Rabbitprincess will track the BOMBS she neutralizes in 2012. Anything already on the shelves as of 1 January 2012 will be given higher priority.

Until I met my goal, all BOMBS were books I had owned and not yet read. Once the goal was met, I decided to count rereads.

Reports from the last few patrols of 2011 can be found here.

Special demolition tasks:
- 1 audiobook -- COMPLETED: The ABC Murders, by Agatha Christie
- 1 French book -- COMPLETED: Monsieur La Souris, by Georges Simenon
- 1 book on my "not done yet" list -- COMPLETED: He Knew He Was Right, by Anthony Trollope




Sapper Rabbitprincess will also be tracking how many books in general she neutralizes -- BOMBS may enter the field from the library or via other reading soldiers.




All books read in 2012 will be discussed briefly in this thread, BOMBS and non-BOMBS alike. Full reviews will be posted on the work pages.

Op GOING THROUGH THE STACKS is also now under way. This involves rereading older books that were not previously reviewed, many of which are still at the home base. Each book will also be assessed for potential giving away.

2012 Reading List

Italics = books off the shelf. Bold = Favourite book of the month. Parenthetical notes will indicate audio, rereads, and other relevant information.

January
1. The Honourable Schoolboy, by John le Carré
2. Bunny Lake is Missing, by Evelyn Piper
3. Payment Deferred, by C.S. Forester
4. New York, by Edward Rutherfurd
5. Destination Unknown, by Agatha Christie
6. Networking for People Who Hate Networking: A Field Guide for Introverts, the Overwhelmed and the Underconnected, by Devora Zack
7. The Cruellest Month, by Louise Penny
8. Smiley's People, by John le Carré
9. Spy Catcher: The Candid Autobiography of a Senior Intelligence Officer, by Peter Wright
10. Medusa, by Michael Dibdin

February
11. Roseanna, by Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö
12. Adolf Hitler: My Part in His Downfall, by Spike Milligan
13. St. Urbain's Horseman, by Mordecai Richler
14. The White Lioness, by Henning Mankell
15. "Rommel?" "Gunner Who?": A Confrontation in the Desert, by Spike Milligan
16. Agent Zigzag: A True Story of Nazi Espionage, Love and Betrayal, by Ben Macintyre
17. Voices in Time, by Hugh MacLennan (abandoned)
18. TV's M*A*S*H: The Ultimate Guidebook, by Ed Solomonson and Mark O'Neill (impossible to read cover to cover, even with breaks!)
19. The Ice Pilots: Flying with the Mavericks of the Great White North, by Michael Vlessides
20. The Watch that Ends the Night, by Hugh MacLennan (reread)
21. Tricks, by Ed McBain
22. All Art is Propaganda: Critical Essays, by George Orwell

March
23. Died in the Wool, by Ngaio Marsh
24. The Murder Stone, by Louise Penny
25. DK Eyewitness Travel Guide: London
26. The Busy Woman's Guide to Murder, by Mary Jane Maffini
27. Mr. Midshipman Hornblower, by C.S. Forester
28. Monsieur La Souris, by Georges Simenon -- SPECIAL DEMOLITION TASK (Read at least 1 French book) COMPLETED!
29. Murder on the Eiffel Tower, by Claude Izner
30. Così Fan Tutti, by Michael Dibdin
31. That is All, by John Hodgman
32. Funeral in Berlin, by Len Deighton
33. Bertie and the Tinman, by Peter Lovesey

April
34. From the Flight Deck: Plane Talk and Sky Science, by Doug Morris
35. The Russia House, by John le Carré
36. Air Farce: 40 Years of Flying by the Seat of Our Pants, by Roger Abbott and Don Ferguson
37. Annoying: The Science of What Bugs Us, by Joe Palca and Flora Lichtman
38. A Gun for Sale, by Graham Greene
39. A Short History of Nearly Everything, by Bill Bryson
40. The Galton Case, by Ross Macdonald
41. The Labours of Hercules, by Agatha Christie
42. Opening Night, by Ngaio Marsh

May
43. The ABC Murders, by Agatha Christie -- SPECIAL DEMOLITION TASK (Read at least 1 audiobook) COMPLETED!
44. The Brutal Telling, by Louise Penny
45. The Abominable Man, by Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö
46. Death in the Air, by Agatha Christie
47. Doctor Who and the Terror of the Autons, by Terrance Dicks
48. Operation Mincemeat: How a Dead Man and a Bizarre Plan Fooled the Nazis and Assured an Allied Victory, by Ben Macintyre
49. The Forest, by Edward Rutherfurd (abandoned)
50. Pompeii, by Robert Harris
51. The Pirates! In an Adventure with Whaling, by Gideon Defoe

June
52. Monty: His Part in My Victory, by Spike Milligan
53. Faith, by Len Deighton
54. Give the Boys a Great Big Hand, by Ed McBain
55. The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists, by Gideon Defoe
56. How to Save the World in Your Spare Time, by Elizabeth May
57. Pompeii: The Living City, by Alex Butterworth and Ray Laurence
58. Dumb Witness, by Agatha Christie
59. XPD, by Len Deighton
60. Passenger to Frankfurt, by Agatha Christie

July
61. The Accident, by Linwood Barclay
62. Flames Across the Border: 1813-1814, by Pierre Berton
63. The African Queen, by C.S. Forester
64. On Her Majesty's Secret Service, by Ian Fleming
65. 13 at Dinner, by Agatha Christie
66. Plain Murder, by C.S. Forester
67. The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie, by Alan Bradley
68. East of Eden, by John Steinbeck
69. The Weed that Strings the Hangman's Bag, by Alan Bradley
70. The Bishop's Man, by Linden MacIntyre
71. Beast in View, by Margaret Millar
72. Hickory Dickory Dock, by Agatha Christie
73. Zoo Station, by David Downing

August
74. Cross-Country, by Hugh MacLennan
75. After the Funeral, by Agatha Christie
76. McNally's Secret, by Lawrence Sanders (reread)
77. Future Babble: Why Expert Predictions Fail -- And Why We Believe Them Anyway, by Dan Gardner
78. E=mc2: A Biography of the World's Most Famous Equation, by David Bodanis
79. Crooked House, by Agatha Christie
80. The Gun, by C.S. Forester
81. The Best of Paddington, by Michael Bond (audio)
82. Full Dark House, by Christopher Fowler
83. A Red Herring Without Mustard, by Alan Bradley
84. An Autobiography, by Agatha Christie
85. Twelve Drummers Drumming, by C.C. Benison (abandoned)
86. Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World that Can't Stop Talking, by Susan Cain

September
87. He Knew He Was Right, by Anthony Trollope (abandoned) -- SPECIAL DEMOLITION TASK (read 1 book from the "not done yet" collection) COMPLETED!
88. The Devil's in the Details, by Mary Jane Maffini
89. The Flight, by M.R. Hall
90. Dead Man's Folly, by Agatha Christie
91. I Am Half-Sick of Shadows, by Alan Bradley
92. Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers, by Mary Roach
93. The Last Canadian, by William C. Heine
94. Ordeal by Innocence, by Agatha Christie
95. My Name Escapes Me, by Alec Guinness
96. The Impossible Dead, by Ian Rankin
97. Gideon's Day, by J.J. Marric
98. The Four False Weapons, by John Dickson Carr

October
99. Angelmaker, by Nick Harkaway
100. Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, by John le Carré (reread)
101. The Cat Who Could Read Backwards, by Lilian Jackson Braun (reread, Going Through the Stacks #3)
102. The Hobbit, by J.R.R. Tolkien (reread, but borrowed)
103. The Moonstone, by Wilkie Collins (abandoned)
104. Paris 1919: Six Months That Changed the World, by Margaret MacMillan (unfinished)
105. The Trinity Six, by Charles Cumming (audio partway through, then switched to print)
106. White Corridor, by Christopher Fowler
107. The Great Crown Jewels Robbery Of 1303: The Extraordinary Story Of the First Big Bank Raid in History, by Paul Doherty (abandoned)
108. Alfred Hitchcock's Stories Not for the Nervous
109. Outrage, by Arnaldur Indridason
110. At Bertram's Hotel, by Agatha Christie
111. Tales of the Unexpected, by Roald Dahl

November
112. Breaking Up is Hard to Do, by Ed Gorman
113. Double Cross: The True Story of the D-Day Spies, by Ben Macintyre
114. Poirot Investigates, by Agatha Christie
115. Some Do Not..., by Ford Madox Ford (Parade's End, Vol. 1)
116. No Great Mischief, by Alistair MacLeod
117. The Double Cross System in the War of 1939 to 1945, by J.C. Masterman
118. The Spies of Warsaw, by Alan Furst
119. Bryant and May off the Rails, by Christopher Fowler
120. No More Parades, by Ford Madox Ford (Parade's End, Vol. 2)
121. A Caribbean Mystery, by Agatha Christie
122. Travels With My Aunt, by Graham Greene

December
123. Ordinary Thunderstorms, by William Boyd
124. Translation is a Love Affair, by Jacques Poulin
125. Up and Down, by Terry Fallis
126. A Man Could Stand Up --, by Ford Madox Ford (Parade's End, Vol. 3)
127. Doc, by Mary Doria Russell
128. Just My Type: A Book About Fonts, by Simon Garfield
129. Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen (reread)
130. Sherlock Holmes: The Rediscovered Railway Mysteries and Other Stories, by John Taylor (audio)
131. Rainbow Valley, by L.M. Montgomery
132. The Last Post, by Ford Madox Ford (Parade's End, Vol. 4)
133. Let's Hear it for the Deaf Man, by Ed McBain (reread)

Books not counted toward the yearly total (read for reference purposes, or comic books)
- How to Do Everything with Microsoft Office Outlook 2007, by Bill Mann
- Human Factors for Aviation: Basic Handbook, by Transport Canada
- Forensics for Dummies, by D.P. Lyle, MD
- Problem Identified: And You're Probably Not Part of the Solution, by Scott Adams
- Your Accomplishments Are Suspiciously Hard to Verify, by Scott Adams
- Shave the Whales, by Scott Adams
- I'm Tempted to Stop Acting Randomly, by Scott Adams
- How's That Underling Thing Working Out For You?, by Scott Adams
- Triple Shot, Double Pump, No-Whip Zits: A Zits Treasury, by Jerry Scott and Jim Borgman

Good Luck with your goals, happy reading in 2012!

Thanks! And I must say I am really enjoying this year's challenge theme! :)

1. The Honourable Schoolboy, by John le Carré
Source: borrowed from parents
Rating: 4/5

My first read of 2012 carried over from 2011 and was sadly not a BOMB. (However, bombs lowercase were mentioned in the text, or at least explosions!) I read this because I saw Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy in theatres over Christmas and wanted to continue with the "Quest for Karla" trilogy. This one may actually be slightly better than TTSS, if only because with TTSS under one's belt, one is better equipped to understand the spy jargon and handle the labyrinthine plots. This one would make a good movie too.

Including special categories adds an interesting dimension. I'll try to remember that for next time.

The year is still young, Meredy! I was thinking of adding another category today but now I can't remember what it was. Oh, maybe read a play. I keep buying plays at library sales and then never reading them. But I think I've committed to enough things for now so I won't add it up top.

I've done a sweep of the terrain and three more BOMBS have appeared:
Rilla of Ingleside, by L.M. Montgomery
That is All, by John Hodgman
Empire: The Novel of Imperial Rome, by Steven Saylor

To neutralize the first, I'll have to raid my parents' bookshelves for the preceding volume, Rainbow Valley. To neutralize the second, I think I may need to reread The Areas of My Expertise and finish More Information Than You Require in order to get all the jokes. I may count them as BOMBS (since I do already own them), but if I do I'll increase my goal to even things out.

I also did not escape from the library unscathed:

The ABC Murders, by Agatha Christie (audiobook, read by Hugh Fraser; hold request I was picking up)
Payment Deferred, by C.S. Forester
Grave Goods, by Ariana Franklin

At least the audiobook I can just rip to my computer and listen to later. The others... we'll see.
*runs for cover*

Another BOMB has arrived:

The Pursued, by C.S. Forester. This was ordered at the same time as the previous three BOMBS, but it was slightly delayed.

And re the library books that are not audio, I won't add them to my LT library until I start them, so if I decide to return them unread I don't have to delete them later.

2. Bunny Lake is Missing, by Evelyn Piper
BOMB 1 of 45
Source: Friends of Library and Archives Canada Used Book Sale, September 2011
Rating: 4/5

I devoured this book in a couple of days' worth of bus reading. Part of the "Femmes Fatales: Women Write Pulp" series, this book tells the story of Bunny Lake, a three-year-old girl who goes missing from her nursery school after the first day of class. Her mother, Blanche, begins a frantic search for the girl and finds that everyone appears to be turning against her, even to the point of doubting Bunny's very existence...

The narration was very well done, I thought, ably portraying the anxiety, panic and dread that overwhelmed Blanche as she searched for Bunny, and my interest was held throughout. Worth a read if you like pulp fiction.

The movie also happens to be airing on Turner Classic Movies tomorrow (Jan. 12), so I'm taping that to see how it compares with the book.

3. Payment Deferred, by C.S. Forester
Source: library
Rating: 4.5/5

Wow! What a tightly woven story of suspense. Mr. William Marble is a bank clerk with lots of debt and not much hope of repaying it. Enter what appears to be a miracle: a wealthy relative who's just come to town, and nobody else alive knows he's there... The rest of the book is spent waiting for Marble's deed to be punished, but how? What will be his fatal mistake? The dust jacket on the edition I read also promises an ironic final twist, which is delivered in spades. Excellent read. I want to press a copy of this book into the hands of several friends. If you like Forester's writing or are a devotee of the shorter works of suspense (e.g. works by James M. Cain), pick this one up.

4. New York, by Edward Rutherfurd
BOMB 2 of 45
Source: Chapters gift card
Rating: 4/5

Another doorstopper by Rutherfurd, this time taking him over the Atlantic to New York City, the city that never sleeps, the Big Apple, where dreams are supposed to come true. I found this one an easier read than some of his other novels (London, for example, was a real brick), perhaps helped by the fact that the chapters are a bit shorter and that there are *only* about 300 years to cover: from the late 1600s to the first decade of the new millennium. Yes, it's a bit info-dumpy in places, but really that is to be expected of this sort of novel. The bigger info-dumps are very easily skimmed if that is not your thing. Overall it's a very good book and now I want to visit NYC and see these places in person!

Backsliding again! This time FIVE books from the library:

Medusa, by Michael Dibdin
The Heart of the Matter, by Graham Greene
St. Urbain's Horseman, by Mordecai Richler
The Jeeves Omnibus 4, by PG Wodehouse
Agent Zigzag: A True Story of Nazi Espionage, Love and Betrayal, by Ben Macintyre

I also have yet to read Smiley's People, which I borrowed a few days ago. I will be making much use of the "renew" function.

On the plus side, my next bus book will be an own-shelf read: The Cruellest Month, by Louise Penny.

I've been sided-tracked by the library for the last week as well. But I am making myself a promise - "No more library books for the month"! Hopefully I will get back on track.

I shall have to make that promise to myself too!

Bought another book today: Last Resort: A Memoir, by Linwood Barclay. I've already read it, just never had my own copy. Splurged on a signed first edition since I was going to have to buy secondhand anyway ;) This was also the first book I bought off Abebooks, and probably won't be the last.

5. Destination Unknown, by Agatha Christie
BOMB 3 of 45
Source: the Big Box o'Christies my grandma gave me when she was cleaning out her basement
Rating: 3/5

This was definitely one of the weirder Christies I've read, and not an amusing weird. Just a strange weird. Thomas Betterton is one of many noted scientists who seems to have disappeared for parts unknown, perhaps behind the Iron Curtain. The authorities don't know where he is, but they hope his wife may have a clue, so they decide to track her as she heads on a trip to Morocco. I don't want to say more because it's really something best discovered for yourself.

One thing I did find entertaining about the book was the cover. I am particularly enamoured of the old Fontana paperbacks because they often have very silly cover illustrations, and this one was no different. I'm not sure what multiple grumpy bullfrogs sitting in the desert have to do with the story, or the cloaked skeleton leaning into the shot in this "Hey! Wassup?" kind of way, like the bullfrog is a TV news reporter trying to do an important story outside the studio and the skeleton is a passerby mugging for the camera as he walks past.

This is definitely a quick read, and I was absolutely interested in knowing what happened, but it was just unrelentingly bizarre. Still, read it if you like.

6. Networking for People Who Hate Networking: A Field Guide for Introverts, the Overwhelmed and the Underconnected, by Devora Zack
Source: library
Rating: 3/5

I saw this reviewed in Maclean's a while back, as well as a favourable mention from my cousin. Being an introvert myself I was definitely inclined to pick this up. Overall I would say it has some very solid advice that is worth reading. I especially liked her emphasis on taking time to process new information and not overburdening your schedule with social commitments in the quest to be like an extrovert. Another good tip was to send thoughtful follow-up e-mails to the contacts you do make, as it plays to the natural introvert inclination to focus on depth instead of breadth. I also wanted to copy out the real-life scenario she had about a workshop she ran that was full of engineers (a very introverted group on the whole) and send it to management at my company as a pointer on what they should do at future meetings.

One drawback I found was the tone, which I felt was trying a bit too hard to be funny, but that could just be me comparing this with The Introvert Advantage, which I read a couple of years ago and found very instructive (also a tough act to follow!). So definitely pick this up if you're interested in it.

7. The Cruellest Month, by Louise Penny
BOMB 4 of 45
Source: Chapters, a gift "from me to me"
Rating: 3.5/5

I wavered between 3.5 and 4 for this one but in the end opted to rate down. The primary interest in this novel is the backstory of the characters, specifically Chief Inspector Gamache. We know that several years ago his involvement in the case of a corrupt Sûreté officer, Arnot, has had a major impact on his career and that there are some in the force who hold a grudge against him for what he did. In this book we learn a great deal about that case and its continued impact on the present. This does however come somewhat at the expense of the mystery, which is a shame as it's such a great premise: someone being literally scared to death in the old Hadley house during a séance. I mean we do find out whodunnit and all that, but the dénouement of that was almost incidental. Still, I liked this book a lot; it just won't be my favourite entry in the series (at least not yet).

Also I have to say, I love the cover of my edition.

8. Smiley's People, by John le Carré
Source: library
Rating: 3.5/5

I feel as though I should be more blown away by this one than I actually was. I mean the beginning was great, very intriguing, and I LOVED the ending -- it was absolutely perfect. But in the middle I found my attention flagging and had to reread bits occasionally to re-orient myself. It's funny how of the three books in the Quest for Karla trilogy, my actual favourite is the one that was NOT made into a miniseries (The Honourable Schoolboy). Maybe I didn't have as high expectations for it? Anyway I think I'll watch the miniseries of Smiley's People and then reread the book to give it another chance. (Same with Tinker, Tailor.)

9. Spy Catcher: The Candid Autobiography of a Senior Intelligence Officer, by Peter Wright
BOMB 5 of 45
Source: a co-worker who was doing a cull of his bookshelves and set aside a few for me :)
Rating: 3/5

This one took a while to get through, although part of that can be chalked up to recidivism on the borrowing-too-many-books-from-the-library front and part of it to the fact that a lot of my interest in history tends to peter out around the 1970s. So while I thought the first half fascinating, especially the technical details of surveillance operations and the author's personal perspective on the Kim Philby affair, the second half did not hold as much allure. Regardless, it is an interesting perspective on MI5 and a good, if dated, companion read to Christopher Andrew's exhaustive Defence of the Realm.

January BOMBS neutralized: 5

Bunny Lake is Missing, by Evelyn Piper
New York, by Edward Rutherfurd
Destination Unknown, by Agatha Christie
The Cruellest Month, by Louise Penny
Spy Catcher: The Candid Autobiography of a Senior Intelligence Officer, by Peter Wright

Book of the Month: Payment Deferred, by C.S. Forester.

So far my best strategy for knocking BOMBS off the list is to read them on the bus, as three of the five were. Those 20-minute chunks of reading time really add up!

I'll probably be focusing more on my library haul for the first bit of February, but the own-books-on-the-bus strategy will help my other numbers, especially if I knock off a few more Agatha Christies.

*pushes another pile of library books onto the "borrowed books" shelf, hopes nobody notices*

In my defence I claim I am stockpiling these for later, with the idea being that I will alternate between an own-shelf read and a library read.
And I have decided I'll return The Heart of the Matter (borrowed in message 12) and borrow it again another time.

So what followed me home?

The End of the Affair, by Graham Greene (which is probably the Greene I *really* wanted to borrow last time)
Force 10 from Navarone, by Alistair MacLean (sequel to the very good The Guns of Navarone)
All Art is Propaganda: Critical Essays, by George Orwell (I want to drop everything and read this RIGHT NOW but have other things in the lineup).

I also get an extra day with this batch: the loan period is three weeks, but the library will be closed for Family Day (Feb 20, three weeks from today), so the books are due Feb 21 instead.

10. Medusa, by Michael Dibdin
Source: library
Rating: 4/5

The ninth installment in the Aurelio Zen series, this was much better than the last one I started (the fourth, Dead Lagoon). And I'm glad it was good. The discovery of a long-dead body in an abandoned military tunnel and the body's subsequent dead-of-night (har!) disappearance set an exciting plot into motion, involving a top-secret military organization and an investigation where Zen has to operate completely off the record and off the grid. Not that Zen would relish the prospect of computer-based crime solving; when asked if his girlfriend is on-line, he responds with, "On what line?" Give him a reliable old Olivetti and some paper-based archives any day.

This isn't so much a mystery as it is a beat-the-clock thriller, but overall it's a good read for Zen fans.

11. Roseanna, by Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö
BOMB 6 of 45
Source: Chapters, a gift "from me to me", vintage unknown but perhaps late 2010
Rating: 4/5

I've already read a couple of entries in the Martin Beck series but since I've stockpiled pretty much all of them (just need The Man on the Balcony), I decided to go back to the beginning. And what a great beginning it is! Martin Beck and his colleagues investigate the murder of a young woman dredged up from the bottom of a lake, but it's hard to investigate a murder when there are so few clues as to the victim's identity, let alone the murderer's. I liked how the book emphasized how long it took the police to solve the crime; the book as a whole was very realistic in its portrayal of police procedure. I also liked seeing the detectives at the start with the perspective from having read later entries in the series. The translation was a wee bit hinky in places, just some odd word choices such as "looking at" TV programs instead of "watching" them, but slightly non-idiomatic language may have been a stylistic choice. (It is also kind of weird to be reading in English and seeing characters say "My English is excellent" or "I need to practise my English", but that's not the translator's fault.)

Recommended for fans of Scandinavian crime, particularly Wallander, as I could definitely see the influences when I read it. And speaking of Wallander, Henning Mankell also provides a very good introduction to the Vintage Crime/Black Lizard edition that basically says what I am saying here but more eloquently.

12. Adolf Hitler: My Part in His Downfall, by Spike Milligan
Source: borrowed from parents
Rating: 3.5/5

A very entertaining start to Spike Milligan's series of war memoirs. My only criticism is that it wasn't long enough! But I found plenty to entertain me within its pages. From the beginning I found myself chuckling at his father's witticisms, definitely seeing where Spike got some of that sense of humour from. There are plenty of "so horrible they're funny" wisecracks (a joke he includes: "Captain, I've brought your breakfast up." "Serves you right for eating it."), accounts of barrack-room jokes and pranks, and situations so absurd that just presenting them is enough to make you laugh. The best example of this is the lack of ammunition for their 9.2 howitzer, meaning that their practice firing required them to, instead of firing a round, shout "BANG!" in unison. It is very amusingly illustrated with a photo from the Imperial War Museum.

Now that I've read this I am eagerly looking forward to the second volume, "Rommel?" "Gunner Who?": A Confrontation in the Desert, which in very good timing came in from the library the day I finished the first volume.

13. St. Urbain's Horseman, by Mordecai Richler
Source: library
Rating: 4/5

I rated this one 4 stars because of the excellent character development. Jake Hersh is a Canadian film director living in London, and when we join him on the first page he is embroiled in a scandalous trial also involving a so-called friend of his named Harry Stein, who is one of the skeeviest characters I've ever read about. Yes, these characters do not shy away from frank discussion of sex and aging (Jake's worries about his falling-apart body were all too vivid in some places), so this was perhaps not the best choice for a bus read. Anyway, the story is basically Jake taking stock of his life up to the point of the trial, including his search for his cousin Joey, the titular Horseman who lives a life of adventure and is imagined by Jake as a great avenger of wrongs. It was a very absorbing read and I'd recommend it for those who like character-based novels and Mordecai Richler. It also reminded me of Barney's Version except without less gleefully vindictive humour (not that Jake isn't funny, but the third-person narration does distance us a bit) and of course no footnotes ;)

One final note: I despaired slightly when I first saw the cover of my edition. Comic Sans for the title? Seriously?
Don't let that distract you though :P

The BF and I went on a day trip today and met up with a university friend of ours for lunch and a bit of shopping. Naturally this included what I called a "bookstore crawl"...

At the first store, I finally managed to get a movie tie-in edition of Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, which I've read a couple of times and like, and I LOVE the cover.

At the second store, I completed my Martin Beck collection with The Man on the Balcony and picked up the first book in David Downing's John Russell series, Zoo Station (the library doesn't have it for some reason).

At the third store, I ended up taking advantage of the "buy 2, get 1 free" deal twice, picking up six books:
- XPD, by Len Deighton (really into the WW2 stuff these days)
- The Human Factor, by Graham Greene (they had a good selection but this was the most interesting-sounding one. Also it was a Penguin edition with the orange spine, which I like)
- Poor Caroline, by Winifred Holtby (I liked South Riding so thought I'd pick this up. A VMC edition)
- In Spite of Thunder, by John Dickson Carr (this one doesn't really count toward my personal total because I bought it for a friend who collects "Carrsteries")
- By the Way, by Gordon Pinsent (his autobiography)
- The Face is Familiar, by Ogden Nash (Grandpa has a copy of this but mine is in better condition)

While this looks like a big total, I've already read TTSS, the Carr book is going to my friend, and I am somewhat familiar (har!) with the contents of the Ogden Nash, so really this is "only" six *new* books ;)

14. The White Lioness, by Henning Mankell
BOMB 7 of 45
Source: Chapters gift card, Christmas 2010 (?)
Rating: 4.5/5

I bought this book shortly after buying my previous BOMB. Actually, it was the purchase of Roseanna that suggested it; the Chapters reward program sent me an e-mail saying that if I liked Roseanna and The Locked Room (which I'd bought at the same time), then I would love The White Lioness. Since I had a gift card to spend and was just at that moment debating which Wallander I would get, I figured I'd take a hint ;)

It took me a while to get in the right mood for it, probably because I was skeptical about the back-cover blurb (also I think Sidetracked was a very tough "first Wallander" for the others to live up to), but reading this on the heels of Roseanna was an excellent move on my part; I could see the influence Martin Beck had on Wallander that much more clearly.

The historical events surrounding the story are a little bit dated, since it was written in the early 1990s, but the mystery itself is a gripping read. So much hinges on little missed opportunities, misunderstandings, and sudden lucky breaks (although not really "coincidences"), that it's almost impossible to put down. I had to read it at home instead of on the bus so that I wouldn't be thinking about it all day at work.

We also see a truly dark moment in Wallander's life -- Mankell does not shy away from letting us in to his character's trauma. It is little wonder that Wallander is so profoundly changed at the beginning of The Man Who Smiled, which follows this one in the series.

Overall this was an excellent book and I would definitely recommend it to Wallander fans.

15. Rommel? Gunner Who?: A Confrontation in the Desert, by Spike Milligan
Source: library (couldn't wait to borrow it from parents)
Rating: 4.5/5

The hilarious second volume of Milligan's war memoirs. It covers a shorter time period than the first volume (a mere five months instead of almost five years), and I think that makes it a bit stronger. Plenty of entertaining anecdotes, photos with silly captions and/or handwritten speech bubbles, and the very bizarre play-like interludes featuring various historical personages of the war interacting with Gunner Milligan. The latter were a bit hit-or-miss for me, but the rest of it was very good. Will have to wait to borrow the third volume from my parents, though, because the library doesn't have it.

16. Agent Zigzag: A True Story of Nazi Espionage, Love, and Betrayal, by Ben Macintyre
Source: library
Rating: 5/5

If you like stories of WW2, spies and derring-do, you must read this. It's a true story but it reads like an adventure novel. Eddie Chapman is a criminal in prison on Jersey during the war when the Germans occupy the island. He and a cellmate try to get out of jail by offering to spy for the Germans. Eventually they take him up on the offer, train him up and send him into Britain, where he promptly calls MI5 and offers to spy for the British (as a double agent). His story is fascinating, funny and oddly touching in places, and Macintyre narrates it all very well with the sort of dry-witted humour I love. The full story came to light recently when MI5 declassified a lot of material, and thank goodness Macintyre didn't wait too long to tell it.

17. Voices in Time, by Hugh MacLennan
BOMB 8 of 45
Source: I'm pretty sure it was Patrick McGahern Books, Ottawa, during the Great Glebe Garage Sale one year
Rating: 1/5

A BOMB that was actually a bomb :( I didn't get on with it at all and feel really bad about not liking it more, especially because (a) Hugh wrote one of my favourite books of all time, Barometer Rising, and (b) it's one of those obscure but critically acclaimed books. But the conceptual framework of the dystopia left me asking too many questions to start off with -- it was a little too "in medias res" for me -- and the narrative style left me cold. Sigh.

So now I'm rereading The Watch that Ends the Night and feeling much better about Hugh's writing.

18. TV's M*A*S*H: The Ultimate Guide Book, by Ed Solomonson and Mark O'Neill
BOMB 9 of 45
Source: Christmas gift 2010
Rating: 4.5/5

This is a jam-packed book! I actually stopped reading it ages ago but have only just now added it to the "read" list. Definitely one of those books you flip through occasionally, not something to be read cover to cover. I liked the really nerdy details about the various episodes (no details are too small!) and the various interviews with cast and crew, which were presented in a very natural, chatty way. My only quibble was the copyediting; perhaps the copyeditors were overwhelmed by the amount of material to go through. Anyway, if you're a M*A*S*H obsessive you'll probably want to flip through this one.

19. The Ice Pilots: Flying with the Mavericks of the Great White North, by Michael Vlessides
Source: library
Rating: 4/5

A companion of sorts to the show Ice Pilots NWT. I haven't seen any episodes of the show but was still able to enjoy it. The author writes in an entertaining and self-deprecating manner and provides plenty of colourful anecdotes about bush flying in the North, as well as lovely technical details about the Buffalo Airways fleet. The only quibble I have with it is, while there are pictures throughout the book, they're all in black and white. A few colour photos would have been nice, especially of the Northern Lights (black and white really does not do them justice). But other than that I quite liked this book and would recommend it if you're interested.

20. The Watch that Ends the Night, by Hugh MacLennan
Reread, counted retrospectively as BOMB 46 of 45
Source: I think it was from a bookstore that was going out of business; if so, that would have been in 2006
Rating: 4.5/5

I reread this one after being disappointed with Voices in Time. Fortunately this one was much better. It chronicles the life of George Stewart; his wife, Catherine; and her first husband, Jerome Martell. George grew up with Catherine and always loved her, but never had the chance to marry her. Catherine's heart was damaged during a bout of rheumatic fever and so her time on Earth is more limited, but she does not let that limit her life. Jerome, a brilliant surgeon with an intense, energetic personality, goes to Spain during the Spanish Civil War and is presumed captured, tortured and dead. Except one day, he comes back... and that's where our story opens. What effect will Jerome's return have on George and especially Catherine?

MacLennan writes beautifully in this book, and George's narration really touches your heart. Sometimes it is difficult to imagine how he would have been able to reconstruct some of the conversations, especially ones where he was not present, but it's easy enough to suspend disbelief. George's grief over Catherine's illness is all too real; MacLennan wrote this while his first wife was dying, and George's pain was likely to a great extent his own. But it's not all sad. Catherine herself refuses to let her condition bring her down, filling her days with creating joyful paintings, getting together with friends, and just enjoying life. There are amusing asides, too, especially about George's fellow teachers at Waterloo School (apparently based in part on MacLennan's experiences teaching at Lower Canada College). And the city of Montreal is very wonderfully described -- after reading this I have a hankering to go back.

Uh-oh, the fish is moving faster than the rabbit (in my tickers)! Fortunately I have two BOMBS on the go at home, and I've cut my library book pile down significantly, so that rabbit should be hopping along soon enough.

21. Tricks, by Ed McBain
Source: library
Rating: 3.5/5

When I was in high school, I'm pretty sure I read every single 87th Precinct novel at the library branches closest to my house and school. Trouble is, it's hard to remember which ones those are! But I'm reasonably certain I haven't read Tricks before. It was an enjoyable read, taking place over one particularly eventful Halloween night. I like how everyone in the squad is busy with different things, cases overlap, conversations cut across each other... it feels very active and realistic. I also like the comic timing in the squad members' various conversations. This was a short, snappy read that fit the bill when I needed it. And I had to laugh at the cover on the edition I borrowed -- straight out of the 80s! :P

22. All Art is Propaganda: Critical Essays, by George Orwell
Source: library
Rating: 3.5/5

I picked this one up after having a hankering for some Orwell (and wishing I had easier access to the book of his essays I gave my brother for Christmas). I ended up skipping the last few essays, because their subject matter did not draw me in right away, but what I read I really liked. I particularly enjoyed "Confessions of a Book Reviewer", "Charles Dickens", and "Propaganda and Demotic Speech", with an honourable mention to "Boys' Weeklies". The Dickens one in particular made me want to get back to Bleak House sooner rather than later! I also found it endearing in "Propaganda and Demotic Speech", which discusses the difficulty of writing good, clear English that more closely resembles the spoken word, instead of relying on shopworn clichés, where he pointed out that even he was falling into those same traps. Recommended if you like Orwell's novels, or even if you don't; his essays may be more to your taste.

I guess I'm not finishing any own-shelf reads in February, even with the leap day tomorrow...

February BOMBS neutralized: 4

Roseanna, by Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö
The White Lioness, by Henning Mankell
Voices in Time, by Hugh MacLennan (abandoned)
TV's M*A*S*H: The Ultimate Guide Book, de Ed Solomonson and Mark O'Neill

I also reread another Hugh MacLennan, The Watch that Ends the Night, but did not count it as a BOMB (edit Sep 9: now that I've read 45 of my own books I haven't read before, this is BOMB 46 of 45).

Book of the Month: Agent Zigzag, by Ben Macintyre

The M*A*S*H book was kind of a cheat because I'd finished reading it way back in January but just never counted it. I knew I'd be in trouble with all of those library books :P But on the plus side I am in the middle of two own-shelf books at home, so those should be done soon.

23. Died in the Wool, by Ngaio Marsh
Source: my friend Julia
Rating: 3.5/5

I borrowed this book from Julia ages ago and have only just now got around to it. It takes place on a sheep farm in New Zealand during the Second World War, with the owner's wife, an MP named Flossie Rubrick, going to the wool shed to practise a speech and then turning up three weeks later in a bale of her farm's wool, quite dead. Marsh's detective, Roderick Alleyn, is in the country doing counter-espionage work, not straight-up detecting, but agrees to come and ask some questions about the case at the behest of one of the farm residents.

Overall this was a good book, good dialogue as one would expect from the playwright Marsh, and there were a couple of interesting technical(-ish) sections re wool production and anti-aircraft weaponry. Recommended for devotees of the cosy mystery, especially those with an interest in the fibre arts (namely, spinning).

24. A Rule Against Murder, by Louise Penny (my edition is entitled The Murder Stone)
BOMB 10 of 45
Source: Probably another Chaptigoles "from me to me" gift
Rating: 4.5/5

Book of the Month for March 2012

This is the book that first got me interested in Louise Penny. Back when it first came out, it was featured on the CBC Book Club and I thought, "Hmm, that looks good." It's the fourth in the Armand Gamache series, but I didn't act on reading this until after having read books 6, 1, 2 and 3! But this was a great book indeed. In a nice change of pace, Gamache investigates a crime not in Three Pines. This time, he and his wife, Reine-Marie, are celebrating their wedding anniversary at a rustically elegant inn elsewhere in the Eastern Townships. Sharing the Manoir Bellechasse with them are a wealthy Anglo family, the Finneys, who are there for a family reunion/memorial to their deceased father. However, this family is bound by blood, not by affection, so tensions are running high. The heat wave isn't helping either. Then after a particularly nasty storm, one of the Finneys is found murdered. End of holidays for Gamache...

I polished off this book in about two days, so it moves at a decent clip. The mystery kept me guessing, and I was frequently laughing out loud at some of the dialogue. I was particularly pleased to see more of Reine-Marie, because she is certainly one of my favourite characters. And Beauvoir never fails to deliver hilarious observations (he is always so serious about things, which makes it even funnier). I did have a bit of a "Huh?" moment when the murderer was revealed, but part of my initial confusion could have been attributed to the speed at which I was blazing through the book!

25. DK Eyewitness Travel Guide: London (main contributor: Michael Leapman)
BOMB 11 of 45
Source: parents, Christmas 2011
Rating: 4/5

I'm going to London in April with my family (it's actually booked! yay!), so my brother and I each received guidebooks for Christmas as preparation for the trip. This is a very eye-pleasing guide, lots of lovely photos, and the information is broken down very neatly by area. (So far my favourite area, based on number of attractions I want to see there, is Covent Garden.) I liked the street-by-street views of the major sections of London, and of course the pull-out map at the back is a neat addition (also invaluable, since it depicts the Underground). The only real downside is that it's actually kind of heavy for a guidebook, and I need all the weight allowance I can get for all the books I expect to be purchasing overseas! :P

26. The Busy Woman's Guide to Murder, by Mary Jane Maffini
Source: library
Rating: 3/5

This was a better entry in the Charlotte Adams series than the other two, because there were more personal ties in the main case. The return of high school mean girl Serena Redding sends terror into the heart of her former victim, 911 dispatcher Mona Pringle. Mona confides in Charlotte and particularly wishes she had the chance to run Serena over next time she sees her. Then next thing you know, someone answering to Serena's description is found dead in a hit-and-run, and Mona is missing... The plot kept the pages turning for me, allowing me to speed right on past the occasional bits of repetitive writing where characters explain the situation to each other (or for the reader's benefit). If you like the series, you may be interested.

27. Mr. Midshipman Hornblower, by C.S. Forester
Source: library
Rating: 4/5

I was browsing in the library a couple of weeks ago while waiting to meet a friend and happened to find this on the shelves. Since I'd decided I was going to try the Hornblower series in chronological (as opposed to publication) order, I figured why not give it a shot. And I'm glad I did! Previous experience with Forester's work told me I'd be in for a treat, writing-wise, and this was indeed the case. He writes well and the pacing is smooth throughout. I am always appreciative of writers who can gloss over long periods of inactivity and focus on the action without making the book feel rushed. The chapters themselves are also very self-contained, making this a good bus book. My favourite chapter was "Hornblower, the Frogs and the Lobsters", which involves some land fighting with British soldiers (the Lobsters) and French Royalist forces on French soil.

The nautical terminology wasn't too troublesome -- actually, the whist game near the beginning was harder for me to follow than most of the sailors' commands. I would definitely recommend this for people who like adventuresome historical fiction and/or understatedly heroic protagonists (Hornblower being more the intellectual type was definitely heartwarming). Looking forward to more installments, although I hope I'll have bought more of them so I can count them as BOMBS :P

Horatio's utter inability to deal with a horse is priceless. Thank you for giving me an extra nudge to get back into the series!

# 37 God yes, that is hilarious.

I also recently realized that a couple of things I use in every day life are things I picked up from Hornblower. :-)

@37: You're welcome! Thanks for encouraging me to try it out!
@38: It's fun when you realize where some of your personal vocabulary comes from! I watched the Beatles movie Help! on the weekend and realized I actually quote from it fairly extensively.

I also liked the part where they blew up the bridge! And for some reason the cargo of rice really tickled my funnybone. Perhaps because I imagined the ship as being a giant rice cooker :P

The Marie Celeste Galante! Oh man. And his first command, too. Maybe Pellew should have started him out with a dinghy.

Edit: oh, nice one, self. The ship broke, it didn't eat the crew!

28. Monsieur La Souris, by Georges Simenon
BOMB 12 of 45
SPECIAL DEMOLITION TASK "READ AT LEAST 1 FRENCH BOOK" COMPLETED
Source: gift from parents, bought in Paris, May 2011
Rating: not rated

I had a hard time untangling my motivations for whatever rating I may have wanted to bestow on this book, so I decided to err on the side of caution and not rate the book. Since I was reading in my second language, I had to wonder how much of my issues with the pace of the story were the actual story's fault and how much of it was me stopping to write down words to look up or thinking in the back of my mind how I would go about translating it. (Bit of an occupational hazard, that.)

Basically, the plot is promising -- a tramp nicknamed "the Mouse" comes across a dead body and a wallet full of money. Being rather hard up but not wanting to steal the money outright (since he is well known to the police), he decides to instead take one bill of each denomination out of the wallet and then turn it in to the Lost and Found, where he will be able to claim it in a year if nobody else has. (This is why he's taken some of the money out; that way, the rightful owner can't describe the contents accurately and thus won't get the wallet. Sneaky!) He eventually becomes embroiled in the investigation of the murder and that kind of muddles along until the end, which unfolds at breakneck speed. I'm still not entirely sure why the murder was committed. I may get a hold of the English translation sometime and do a side-by-side reading to see what I missed.

Nice work! I don't read quickly or very accurately in French, but I do like to try from time to time.

I really need to get going on my own challenge.

@42: Thanks! I definitely need to read more French outside of work, especially for picking up some of the more colloquial expressions I may not otherwise notice. Having this challenge was a good nudge :)

29. Murder on the Eiffel Tower, by Claude Izner
BOMB 13 of 45
Source: gift from parents, bought in Paris (Shakespeare and Co.!), May 2011
Rating: 2/5

Yes, it somehow ended up that I read both of my "Paris books" consecutively. And because this was an English translation of a French novel, I had the opposite problem that I had with Monsieur La Souris: in that one I spent my time imagining how I would go about translating certain parts, and in this one I kept trying to imagine what the French had been and get into the translator's head that way. Overall I think I prefer the M. La Souris problem.

Anyway, this was a light historical read, set at the time of the Paris Exposition, with the then-brand-spanking-new Eiffel Tower being the prime attraction. But not even the Eiffel Tower can compete with the sensational string of deaths at the Exposition: several victims of what appear to be bee stings. But are they really bee stings? Or could it be...murder? Bookseller Victor Legris decides to investigate.

What this book had going for it: the setting, the time period, the choice of protagonist (bookseller, of secondhand books no less!), an entertaining shop assistant, possible additions to the TBR from said shop assistant's predilection for the crime novels of the day.

What this book suffered from: kind of awkward romantic bits (not that there were many, but the ones that were there, ehh), a cop-out summary of whodunnit and how, stylistic issues that could come from the source text or could come from the translator sticking too close to the French (but that I can forgive a bit more, having been guilty of that myself in some of my work).

Basically I would say if you're interested, read it in French if you can. Might be less distracting. If I decide to read any future work in the series (at this point not terribly likely, but one never knows), that is the approach I will take.

Apparently I have a backlog of books to discuss on my thread! I'll discuss two now, then a BOMBS report, then the other two once I've done reviews.

30. Cosi Fan Tutti, by Michael Dibdin
Source: library
Rating: 3.5/5

Definitely a Zen book you want to read *after* having read at least one of the four preceding volumes. There are some important character developments in this one that have much more of an impact if you're already somewhat invested in the characters.

The story itself is a bit zany, with Zen transferring to Naples and trying his best to arrange his command of the harbour detail so that he doesn't really have to do any work himself. This frees up time for him to meddle in the affairs of a wealthy widow's daughters (at the widow's behest), trying to scare off their Mafia boyfriends or at the very least persuade them to be unfaithful. This plotline is borrowed from the Mozart opera Così fan tutte, except in the opera it was the women whose fidelity was being tested. Oh yeah and then there are the criminal elements who keep disappearing at the hands of a vigilante group calling for "Clean Streets"...

There's always something happening in this book, but it's the sort of book that requires multiple readings to be appreciated. Admired rather than liked it.

31. That is All, by John Hodgman
BOMB 14 OF 45
Source: bought with a Chapters gift card, January 2012 (but it counts within my challenge, since sneakily I decided that books obtained before 1 Jan 2012 would be given PRIORITY :P)
Rating: 4/5

You may have heard something about the world possibly ending on December 21, 2012. John Hodgman uses this theme as the main thread for his third collection of COMPLETE WORLD KNOWLEDGE, which is probably my favourite of the three. Fans of his previous work will be familiar with the format: plenty of fake trivia, amusingly captioned photos, lists of 700 names, and a "page a day" item at the top of every page, NOT TO MENTION ABUNDANT USE OF CAPITAL LETTERS. It's a good book to spread out over many days, and if you like your absurdist humour on the creepy side, this book will deliver. (With "The Secret of the Unspecified Object", I seriously thought Hodgman should turn his hand to something in the style of Poe. I'd read it.)

March BOMBS neutralized: 6

The Murder Stone/A Rule Against Murder, by Louise Penny
DK Eyewitness Travel Guide: London, by Michael Leapman
Monsieur La Souris, by Georges Simenon
Murder on the Eiffel Tower, by Claude Izner
That is All, by John Hodgman
Bertie and the Tinman, by Peter Lovesey (just finished this morning...review forthcoming)

Book of the month for March: The Murder Stone, by Louise Penny

Good job, me! April may be a bit thin on the ground BOMBS-wise, because I'll be in London (hence the guidebook in this month's batch) for a week and a half. This means I'll be reading a lot of library books before I leave, and who knows how much time I'll have to read while I'm over there? (I do plan to have an audiobook with me, in keeping with my special demolition tasks.)

Enjoy your trip to London.

Thanks, DeltaQueen! We're leaving toward the end of the month. Can't wait!

32. Funeral in Berlin, by Len Deighton
Source: library
Rating: 3/5

About what I expect from a Deighton novel: Cold War espionage with brilliant descriptions and some chuckle-worthy dialogue. In this book our nameless narrator (known to characters outside the British intelligence service as "Edmond Dorf", an alias he loathes) is arranging for the defection of a Soviet agent named Semitsa. Naturally, double- and triple-crossing abounds. Nameless Narrator is very resourceful in a George Smiley sort of way: to quote the book, "The greatest tribute you can pay to a secret agent is to take him for a moron. All he has to do is to make sure he doesn't act too exactly like one."

Not my favourite Deighton, but there are worse ways to spend one's reading time. Recommended if you like.

33. Bertie and the Tinman, by Peter Lovesey
BOMB 15 of 45
Source: Book Bazaar, I think perhaps sometime in 2011
Rating: 4/5

This one turned out to be a fun little romp. Albert Edward, Prince of Wales (eventually Edward VII), chronicles his investigation into the murder of noted jockey Fred Archer. But never fear if you're not a fan of horse racing: Bertie's voice is so engaging that he just carries you along through the story. Definitely my favourite Lovesey novel so far, and I shall have to find the other two in this series.

34. From the Flight Deck: Plane Talk and Sky Science, by Doug Morris
Source: library
Rating: 4.5/5

An excellent, accessible resource for those who want to know how planes work. The author knows his stuff, being a pilot with Air Canada, and he takes the reader through a whole flight, from take-off to landing. Along the way he provides handy summaries of the various statistics that pepper the book, slips in some entertaining jokes and anecdotes, and explains facts clearly while still using the terminology. I intend to get a copy of this for future reference.

And now to go create another backlog of blurbs for this thread! I like long weekends :)

Not as much off the shelves at the moment, as I am trying to clear out my backlog of library books before London. Only one BOMB so far this month!

35. The Russia House, by John le Carré
Source: library
Rating: 3/5

A non-Smiley book by le Carré that I am already thinking will require a reread. I started it on the bus and was fine with that until about halfway through, when I spent more time looking out the window than actually reading. The story itself was very well told in first-person narration by Service lawyer Horatio "Harry" dePalfrey, but I think I should have read it at home on a rainy afternoon with a cup of tea. Also apparently there is a movie starring Sean Connery, but the library does not have it! Boo!

36. Air Farce: 40 Years of Flying by the Seat of Our Pants, by Roger Abbott and Don Ferguson
BOMB 16 of 45
Source: Christmas gift, 2011
Rating: 5/5

I'm probably hugely biased, of course, but this is an excellent look at the history of the Royal Canadian Air Farce, Canada's long-lived sketch comedy troupe. I have very fond memories of Air Farce -- they introduced me to Canadian politics and satire in general -- so it was nice to read this book, which was put together by the co-founders, and relive those memories. (I loved the description of the first Chicken Cannon sketch!) There are lots of photos and anecdotes tracing from the 1960s to the present day. The last chapter is beautifully written but also very sad, because it's a chapter nobody expected to have to write so soon: co-founder Roger Abbott died suddenly at the age of 64 in March 2011, while they were preparing this book. You will want the Kleenex ready for that chapter. This book is very highly recommended for fans of the Farce.

37. Annoying: The Science of What Bugs Us, by Joe Palca and Flora Lichtman
Source: library
Rating: 2.5/5

I snapped this up from the "New Non-fiction" section at the library when I was downtown returning books. (Theoretically, I could have just used the outdoor drop box and left, but it always seems so rude to not go in and browse when I'm at the main branch!) It had been on my list for a while and looked like it would do as a light non-fiction read. Well, it is that. The science of annoyance is not really a very established discipline, so the content felt a bit thin in places, especially when talking about animals other than humans experiencing "annoyance". Much more effective was the second half of the book, which talks about why we find our spouses' habits irritating, what happens to annoyance levels when various parts of the brain are damaged, and other, more human-specific topics. Fortunately I was not expecting much from this, otherwise I might be more annoyed :P

Enjoy your trip rabbitprincess, you've picked a good time to come, before the Olympics madness starts and, finger's crossed, just as the weather starts to improve.

Thanks, riverwillow! We definitely wanted to avoid the Olympics madness. And improved weather would be nice too! What sort of temperatures do you usually get in late April/early May?

I am also quite excited because it will be my first trip overseas. Everyone else in my family has been at least once. Still, I don't think I'll actually believe we're going until we're in the plane and taking off!

Ah a seemingly simple question, but one that's difficult to answer - after a few days here you'll understand the British obsession with the weather, especially as at the end of April/beginning of May the weather can be quite unsettled - which basically means that we can experience 3 or 4 different types of weather in one day, or, like today, in one hour, sun, cloud and a downpour.

I think the average daytime temperature at the beginning of May is around 12ºC (54ºF), although it can be warmer. But the BBC seem to be implying that the current unsettled weather, will continue over the last week of April/beginning of May with rain and showers, and that it may be chillier than usual. But this could change...

Edited to add, that himself, who knows Canada far better than I do, suggested that you pack for April/May in London as you would if you were in Ottawa in March/April, and make sure you bring clothes that can be layered.

Enjoy your first flight, so exciting...

Thanks for the suggestion re layering! I'll probably also keep a scarf, hat and gloves on hand in case it gets particularly nippy. I always feel the cold at scarf and glove level first.

38. A Gun for Sale, by Graham Greene (apa This Gun for Hire)
BOMB 17 of 45
Source: BMV, Toronto, October 28, 2011
Rating: 4/5

Easily my favourite of Greene's "entertainments" so far (and it didn't hurt that I got a lovely Penguin edition!). This book follows the criminal Raven as he murders the Minister of War and thus is supposed to trigger another World War. But to him it's just a job, until he discovers that he's been paid in stolen notes. So he sets out to track down the person who gave him the fake notes, all while the police are after him. The story moves quickly but there is also plenty of room for substantial character study. Recommended for fans of Greene, particularly those who have read Brighton Rock, to which this book is supposed to be the precursor.

You'll definitely need layers if you spend some time down by the Thames - if you get a chance to walk along the South Bank from Westminster to Southwark I really recommend it, its a lovely walk now. Enjoy.

Such a walk is likely on the agenda! Mother is doing most of the scheduling (with extensive input from the rest of us), so I can't wait to find out what we're doing! :P

39. A Short History of Nearly Everything, by Bill Bryson
BOMB 18 of 45
Source: the boyfriend's collection (so yes, it counts as off "our" shelves)
Rating: 5/5

My first Bryson and definitely not my last. I greatly enjoyed this whirlwind trip through all areas of science, particularly the parts about geology, volcanoes and earthquakes. I was constantly pestering the boyfriend with anecdotes taken from the book, even though he's already read this (and had been bugging me for a while to read it myself), and chuckling to myself at Bryson's charming writing style. I imagine his books must be just as fun in audio if he is reading them. One thing that would make it even better is an updated edition; ours is from 2004.

40. The Galton Case, by Ross Macdonald
BOMB 19 of 45
Source: Friends of Library and Archives book sale, at least two years ago
Rating: 4/5

Just what I needed to make me feel better about the Lew Archer series, having been disappointed with the last one I read (The Ivory Grin). This one involves Archer tracking down the long-lost son of a wealthy widow who is seeking reconciliation before she passes away, and it's very well done. I was kept guessing for a healthy percentage of the book and was quite amused by one aspect of the solution. Recommended for fans of the series or perhaps of Raymond Chandler.

The hardest part of my trip packing is complete: deciding what reading material to take :P Voilà:

- The Forest, by Edward Rutherfurd: a nice long book to keep me entertained for a while. Of course, it's set in Hampshire, not London per se, but I've already read Rutherfurd's novel about London.
- The Brutal Telling, by Louise Penny: the only Gamache book I own and haven't read yet (still need a copy of A Trick of the Light; waiting for trade paperback). I figure it's familiar enough to be soothing but still new enough to hold my interest.
- The Best of Paddington, by Michael Bond (audio, read by Stephen Fry): Children's stories with Stephen Fry narrating. Perfect way to calm down (I'm a nervous flier). Actually I have only 2/3 of the collection; the last disc of the library edition was damaged so I couldn't complete the third story.
- The ABC Murders, by Agatha Christie (audio, narrated by Hugh Fraser): A reread, but first read in audio, and who can resist Hugh Fraser as Hastings? This is what I would use to get through the sleepier bits of cruising over the Atlantic, because I already know the story -- if I fall asleep halfway through, no harm no foul.

And then there's the London guidebook, but I'm not likely to be perusing that mid-flight. I also have a couple of magazines (the latest Scientific American and Sciences et Avenir) and a puzzle magazine... so hopefully that will keep me out of trouble!

41. The Labours of Hercules, by Agatha Christie
Source: borrowed from parents
Rating: 3.5/5

This was a reread for me, prompted by the fact that it will be adapted for the final season of David Suchet's turn as Poirot, but the only story I remembered in any detail was the first one, the "Nemean Lion". It's a fun little device, solving cases that can be said to have some connection to the 12 Labours of Hercules, but because the stories are short there's not too much room for tricks and turns. However, it does the job quite nicely if you're looking for a quick hit of Poirot (or can tolerate him only in small doses).

42. Opening Night, by Ngaio Marsh
BOMB 20 of 45
Source: library book sale
Rating: 3.5/5

The Vulcan Theatre has had a brush with death in the past: an actor was killed by someone interfering with the gas fire in his dressing room. Five years later, under new management and with some renovations, the theatre is preparing to put on a new play. On opening night, one of the actors dies, also by gas poisoning, but this time it appears to be suicide. Or is it?

This is a bit of a slow burn novel, with the first half or so really getting into the various characters' personalities and relationships with each other. And from that standpoint the novel is quite fun, especially for those who are familiar with life in the theatre. The mystery itself almost takes a back seat, with the reveal of the murderer being somewhat cursory and anticlimactic. Still, it's a good afternoon's read.

April BOMBS neutralized: 5

Air Farce: 40 Years of Flying by the Seat of Our Pants, by Roger Abbott and Don Ferguson
A Gun for Sale, by Graham Greene
A Short History of Nearly Everything, by Bill Bryson
The Galton Case, by Ross Macdonald
Opening Night, by Ngaio Marsh

Book of the month for April: From the Flight Deck, by Doug Morris

I had a pretty strong run of BOMBS in mid-April, since I was going on vacation and didn't want to be leaving library books unfinished. But I haven't been doing much reading at all on the trip. I did however obtain another seven BOMBS for the shelf ;)

I hope you enjoyed your trip to London? Sorry about the weather - apparently April was coldest its been for more than 20 years, and the rainfall was almost double what we'd usually expect at this time of year.

Thanks, riverwillow, we most certainly did! I should have brought my rain boots -- then it would have been dry as a bone. Fortunately we all had good raincoats and were not expecting wall-to-wall sunshine. And there were one or two nice days out there.

We had a very ambitious agenda and probably didn't get to all the places we wanted to, but we saw most of the major highlights.

Day 1 was mostly adjusting to the time difference and settling in at the flat. (We were staying in Chelsea, near Sloane Square -- great area, very quiet and nice to come home to after a long day of sightseeing)

Day 2: Natural History Museum, Royal College of Music/Royal Albert Hall, Science Museum

Day 3: Leicester Square, Canary Wharf, Museum of London Docklands, British Library, Trafalgar Square and National Portrait Gallery (actually my parents and brother did that, while I went shopping)

Day 4: The Jewel Tower, Westminster Abbey (with photos of Houses of Parliament and Big Ben), Churchill Museum and Cabinet War Rooms, Banqueting House, National Gallery (with a quick detour to Piccadilly Circus on the way home)

Day 5: Tower of London, Tower Bridge, British Museum, Tate Modern

Day 6: London Transport Museum, Covent Garden, Somerset House, the Courtauld Gallery

Day 7: Paddington Station (for the bear of course!), St. James's Park, Buckingham Palace for the Changing of the Guard, Holland Park, Kensington Palace -- this was Monday, the really nice day of our trip, at least for the morning/afternoon.

Day 8: St. Paul's Cathedral, Museum of London, Harrods (just to say we'd been there).

Day 9: Imperial War Museum, Westminster Bridge (the weather was nicer than Day 4's so we decided to go up there and take more photos), Earl's Court Tube station for the TARDIS outside the station, and shopping.

We got back yesterday evening and now we're sorting through all of our photos (the ease of digital photography is both a blessing and a curse) so that we can regale friends and family with stories of our trip. London treated us very well and my mother is already talking about going back. :)

Sounds like you managed to hit all the major highlights! Glad you had such a great trip.

We certainly did! I'm impressed by how much ground we managed to cover.

Good grief! I have been over about 10 times and haven't managed to cover that much ground. I am very impressed with your pace :)

I was there about three years ago and finally made the trip to Paddington station for the bear. It's all about the hat! Did you get to Hamleys?

Thanks, bucketyell! A lot of credit goes to my mum for putting together a spreadsheet of all of the attractions we wanted to see, with admission prices, location and opening hours -- this gave us an idea of attractions that were in the same general area, so we could make the best use of our time.

Didn't get to Hamleys, but that is now at the top of my list for the next trip! I'm looking at their website now. AWWWWW TEDDY BEARS!!!! I want the Roger Bomber Command bear. Adorable!
http://www.hamleys.com/Roger_The_Bomber_Command_Bear_|_Hamleys_Toys/319129,defau...

Just playing catchup...

43. The A.B.C. Murders, by Agatha Christie
BOMB 21 of 45 -- SPECIAL DEMOLITION TASK (read 1 audiobook) COMPLETED!
Source: library
Rating: 3/5

This is actually a reread, but the first time I've listened to it, so that is why I am counting it for this challenge. (And while the CD originally came from the library, it has been living on my computer for quite a long time, so I do consider it "off the shelf".) I enjoyed Hugh Fraser's narration, even if he does not have the vocal range of David Suchet; I considered it "in character" for him, as Hastings. I cannot imagine anyone else performing a Hastings-narrated novel for that very reason. It kept me diverted on an overnight transatlantic flight where I had NO SLEEP AT ALL, so that is something.

44. The Brutal Telling, by Louise Penny
BOMB 22 of 45
Source: Chapters
Rating: 4/5

I liked this one better than The Cruellest Month but not quite as much as The Murder Stone. My enjoyment was also slightly hampered by a completely wrong assumption about how it would end, because I read the sequel to this one first. However, I figured that if I hadn't had the wrong impression it would have been a four-star read, so that's how I rated it. And now I'm going to have to reread Bury Your Dead!

45. The Abominable Man, by Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö
BOMB 23 of 45
Source: Christmas present, 2011
Rating: 4/5

This is also a reread, but I didn't remember anything about it when I picked this up at the behest of the Go Review That Book! crew. After the first chapter, in which a chief inspector is brutally murdered in a hospital, I had to ask myself how on earth I had managed to forget it. The book does not shy away from some of the more grisly details. But it's not a gloomy book; indeed, this was possibly the funniest Martin Beck I've read yet. Lots of dark humour and wry narration as Sweden's finest solve the mystery involving one of their own. Well worth a read for fans of the series or of Wallander.

46. Death in the Air, by Agatha Christie
BOMB 24 of 45
Source: the Big Box o'Christies I adopted from my grandparents
Rating: 3/5

I picked this one up after seeing a rerun of the David Suchet adaptation on PBS. Normally I like to read the book first, but at least this way I was able to watch the show without complaining about how the writers changed everything. In this case they really didn't make any substantial changes, apart from changing the character of Jane Grey, passenger, to Jane Grey, stewardess (presumably to cut down on casting costs). The mystery itself was all right, I suppose, not atrocious but not amazing either. A pleasant diversion for a couple of hours -- perhaps about as long as a flight from Paris to London (which is featured in the book).

47. Doctor Who and the Terror of the Autons, by Terrance Dicks
BOMB 25 of 45
Source: Book Bazaar, Ottawa
Rating: 4/5

This was a very fun novelization of a Third Doctor story. The Doctor's nemesis, the Master, is plotting to allow the Nestene Consciousness, an entity that uses all things plastic to do its bidding (is it a bit much to say that the N.C. bends plastic to its will?), to invade the Earth. This story also introduces the Third Doctor's assistant, Jo Grant, and features Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart as well. Fans of the show who remember the story will find the story very easy to imagine, while fans who have not seen the story will want to seek it out on Youtube once they finish reading. Chosen for me by the Go Review That Book! crew.

Another book dump!

48. Operation Mincemeat: How a Dead Man and a Bizarre Plan Fooled the Nazis and Assured an Allied Victory, by Ben Macintyre
Source: library
Rating: 4/5

It's World War 2 and the British intelligence services need to divert Axis powers from the island of Sicily, which the Allies need to invade if they want to defeat the enemy. How to do so? The idea could really only have come from the mind of a novelist: take a corpse, dress it up in a British army uniform, plant "secret" documents on it, and arrange for the Germans to find the body and these documents, which would imply that areas other than Sicily were being targeted. This book details the preparation and implementation of that plan, in Macintyre's usual smooth style. I still think Agent Zigzag was better, but this was also quite fascinating. And it was good to be able to tell the story of the man behind the dead body, who after all gave his life for his country ("he just didn't have a choice in the matter," as Macintyre points out). If you like WW2 books you'll probably find this worth a look.

49. The Forest, by Edward Rutherfurd
BOMB 26 of 45
Source: Knotanew Bookstore, Peterborough, ON, March 2011
Rating: 2/5

In retrospect I suppose this was not a good book to start on vacation. I *thought* I was in the mood for something long that I could immerse myself in on a transatlantic flight, but as it turns out I had very scattershot attention for most of the trip and couldn't get into this very easily. There were also fewer historical personages than I tend to expect in a Rutherfurd novel and more extended lyrical descriptive passages than I can sit through comfortably, so I ended up abandoning it. Interestingly, I was talking about this with one of my colleagues, and he said he had actually really liked this one, perhaps because it was his first Rutherfurd. So perhaps this is the one to start out with -- it gets better from here.

50. Pompeii, by Robert Harris
BOMB 27 of 45
Source: Office used-book sale in support of the workplace charity drive, November 2011
Rating: 4/5

For the past couple of years I have found myself craving all things Ancient Rome in the summer. Never mind that heat fries my brain and I can't sit through translations of Tacitus for very long. I just like the IDEA of soaking up all this Latiny goodness. So when I was casting about for something short and snappy to read after trudging through The Forest, I figured this might take care of two demands at once. It was very good indeed. I'm still kind of breathless after the description of the explosion, which was AWESOME in the more traditional sense. Will definitely be returning to this author. And now I'm reading a non-fiction book about Pompeii to continue the trend.

I keep picking Operation Mincemeat up and putting it back down again - not because I'm not interested, but because I'm suffering from 'oh shiny new book' syndrome. I'm hoping to get a few days to sit down and actually concentrate on it soon - so I'm glad to hear you enjoyed it!

Re: Terror of the Autons: I recently found out that Geoffrey Beevers reads the audiobook. Ooh, tempting...

@68: I hope you like it! Macintyre is now on my list of go-to non-fiction authors (a fairly short list).

@69: It would make a great audio book! I have to get my hands on some of the Big Finish audio productions as well.

May BOMBS neutralized: 7

The ABC Murders, by Agatha Christie
The Brutal Telling, by Louise Penny
The Abominable Man, by Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö
Death in the Air, by Agatha Christie
Doctor Who and the Terror of the Autons, by Terrance Dicks
The Forest, by Edward Rutherfurd (abandoned)
Pompeii, by Robert Harris

I also completed one of my Special Demolition Tasks (read an audiobook) with The ABC Murders.

Book of the Month: The Abominable Man, by Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö.

51. The Pirates! In an Adventure with Whaling, by Gideon Defoe
Source: library
Rating: 4.5/5

A few weeks ago the BF and I went to see The Pirates: Band of Misfits, the Aardman Animations film based on a book called The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists. (My reason for seeing this movie was only PARTLY the fact that David Tennant did the voice of Charles Darwin…) Anyway, the library had both the source book and its sequel, the Adventure with Whaling. I requested both, and naturally the second one came in first.

This book is very, very silly and I enjoyed it a lot. I didn't spend too much time laughing out loud, or at least not as much as I thought I would, but I *was* basically grinning the whole way through, which is just as good. If you like silly, deadpan British humour you will probably like this book. You may want some familiarity with the characters though, either from the first book or from the movie (which is great!).

52. Monty: His Part in My Victory, by Spike Milligan
Source: borrowed from parents
Rating: 3.5/5

I liked Vol. 3 of Spike's war memoirs better than Vol. 1 but not as much as Vol. 2. His usual wordplay-based wit is very much in evidence here as he chronicles from the fall of Tunis up to the preparations for Salerno. Most of the battery's time is spent on leave, so there are more lighthearted anecdotes than in the previous volume, which is not as interesting for me. I did like the bit where they climbed the aqueduct, and of course practical jokes are always fun to read about, but I do hope there are more battle anecdotes in Vol. 4.

Summer sure feels like it's here! Current conditions (as of 5:55 p.m. EDT): 32 degrees C, feels like 40. Ugh. I am not a heat-and-humidity person.

53. Faith, by Len Deighton
Source: library
Rating: 4/5

At one point I briefly debated whether I wanted to continue with the Bernard Samson series, given how much I had loved Spy Sinker and how fitting it felt as a conclusion; the Faith, Hope, Charity trilogy seemed a bit tacked-on and not strictly necessary. However, my completist streak won out and I simply went in with lower expectations. I'm glad I read this. Can't say too much because it will spoil the end of Spy Sinker, but it was a treat to be back on the streets of Berlin with Mr. Samson. The action is fairly consistent throughout and I couldn't get through the ending fast enough. I immediately borrowed the next installment from the library, meaning of course that I will procrastinate on reading it for a while.

54. Give the Boys a Great Big Hand, by Ed McBain
BOMB 28 of 45
Source: Prime Crime Books, Ottawa, probably some time in 2005
Rating: 3.5/5

I love horrendous puns, and this title is no exception. In this book the boys of the 87th Precinct have to track down a killer who disposes of his victims' hands, minus fingertips, in various locations around the city. Given how difficult it is to track the victim down with just the hand, that makes it even more difficult to track down the murderer. The story is intriguing, although perhaps not quite as sensational as the back-cover blurb would have it. I also liked the colourful third-person omniscient narrator -- the narrator may not have been a character in the actual story but he definitely had a personality. Recommended for fans of the series.

55. The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists, by Gideon Defoe
Source: library
Rating: 3/5

Have you seen the movie of this book? If yes, then be warned that the book is quite different. The same general idea is there: the Pirate Captain and his crew need money, so they set off to plunder ships. Trouble is, the ship they've decided to plunder is the Beagle, and scientific specimens don't fetch much in the pirate market. Instead the pirates end up having a scientific adventure. The movie is a lot more madcap and gleefully anachronistic -- the book is more faithful to the period. Still, it's a quick read; I was able to knock it out in about an hour or so. If you like pirates and general silliness, you may find this worth a shot. Just remember that it is not the same as the movie! (I wish I'd known/realized that going in...)

Book dump! I haven't written a proper review of XPD yet, but that will be up sometime this weekend.

56. How to Save the World in Your Spare Time, by Elizabeth May
BOMB 29 of 45
Source: gift from the author
Rating: 4.5/5

One summer in university I did an internship of sorts with the Green Party: translation and revision work in both English and French, which was reread and evaluated so that the experience could qualify as the "practical work experience" component of my translation degree. As a very thoughtful parting gift I received a tote bag with the Party logo and a copy of leader Elizabeth May's book. It's taken a while for me to get to the book, but thanks to the Go Review That Book! crew, I've finally done it.

This is a good book for people who want to get involved in community issues or campaigns but are not sure where to start. May breaks down the monumental task of "saving the world" into manageable steps: choosing a campaign, fundraising, lobbying, media outreach, and more. She even includes examples of the sorts of documents you will need (very good for the media chapter in particular), and plenty of personal anecdotes from her childhood and her parents' experiences as activists. All of this is written in a friendly, conversational tone, and I also appreciated her reminder that people on the other side of the issues are just that -- people -- and it never hurts to say please and thank you, or to offer praise when a politician or someone powerful does something in support of your initiative. The only thing it's lacking is a chapter on social media, because it was written back in 2006 (shocking how fast technology moves these days!)

57. Pompeii: The Living City, by Alex Butterworth and Ray Laurence
Source: library
Rating: 4/5

After reading Robert Harris's novel Pompeii, I was looking for a good non-fiction book on the subject. Butterworth's and Laurence's book had a complimentary blurb on the front by Harris himself, saying that he wished this book had been around when he was researching his novel. That was as good an endorsement as any.

I really liked this book and also appreciated the details about the wider world of the Roman Empire at the time, putting Pompeii in context as a city in relation to Rome. Those who are more familiar with Roman history than I may find some parts repetitive, but for a more general reader this is a good introduction. And that last chapter, about the eruption itself, was just as breathtaking as Robert Harris's novel. Even better, in fact, because they covered the entire eruption, including those terrifying pyroclastic flows. Scary stuff.

58. Dumb Witness, by Agatha Christie
Source: library
Rating: 3.5/5

A couple of years ago The Strand Magazine published a previously long-lost Agatha Christie story called "The Incident of the Dog's Ball", which was the basis for this novel. I happened to be in the library and saw a shiny new trade paperback edition on the shelf, so I snapped it up. (Finding an Agatha on the shelf is something of a rarity, at least at my branch.)

The story was all right but I think it would have gone faster had I been reading an older edition. The trade paperback size, combined with bigger print and decent-sized margins, made the book about 300 or so pages, whereas an older Fontana edition would likely have made do with about half that number, or maybe 2/3. So that made it feel longer. I did like Bob the dog's speech, where Hastings provided interpretation, and the ending really took me by surprise, but overall this was just another Christie. (Not that that's a bad thing, mind you.)

59. XPD, by Len Deighton
BOMB 30 of 45
Source: Berry and Peterson Books, Kingston, Ontario, February 2012
Rating: 3/5

Len Deighton has become one of my favourite authors. Whenever I see any of his books in secondhand bookstores, I immediately pounce on it. Granted, I don't always buy it, because my parents have most of his work, but sometimes I just go ahead and buy it anyway :P

This was an okay book but I think the back-cover blurb did it a disservice. I was expecting a more consistently fast-paced book, which this is not. It ebbs and flows, and the Hitler Minutes mentioned on the back cover kind of pop in and out as well. I did like Sir Sydney, though, and Deighton's description was very good as usual, and the exciting parts were REALLY exciting. But I can already tell this is going to be a reread.

60. Passenger to Frankfurt, by Agatha Christie
BOMB 31 of 45
Source: Big Box o'Christies
Rating: 2/5

I had heard that this was not one of Agatha's best (or at least was not destined to become one of my favourites), so naturally I had been reluctant to read it. Thank goodness for Go Review That Book! -- that was the push I needed to read it. It was very weird, with lots of boring, pompous old men talking about all of these horrible things that were happening in the world instead of us being allowed to SEE these things for ourselves. And some of the descriptions were distressingly repetitive, i.e. a very specific phrase would show up twice in the same paragraph. The story itself, meanwhile, was like a very weird dream.

Now to go pack my books for a cottage trip over the Canada Day long weekend. No Internet so will hopefully get lots of reading done ;)

June BOMBS neutralized: 4

Give the Boys a Great Big Hand, by Ed McBain
How to Save the World in Your Spare Time, by Elizabeth May
XPD, by Len Deighton
Passenger to Frankfurt, by Agatha Christie

Book of the month: Pompeii: The Living City, by Alex Butterworth and Ray Laurence

After that great surge in May, I had a relapse on the library front. So own-books only for the cottage trip! Also I don't want to be worrying about dropping library books in the lake.

Took three books to the cottage, ended up reading only one, but it was at least a good one.

61. The Accident, by Linwood Barclay
BOMB 32 of 45
Source: Chaptigoles, gift from me to me
Rating: 4.5/5

This is perfect cottage reading; I burned through it in about a day or so. Protagonist Glen Garber is a likeable one and sympathetic besides; his wife has been killed in a drunk-driving accident. The only thing is, SHE was the one who was drunk. This is absolutely impossible to compute, so Glen decides to find out the truth behind his wife's death. He gets it, all right -- and a packetful of trouble besides. The climax is truly chilling and I did not see it coming at all. Highly recommended.

Managed to tidy up a couple of library books this week (and will be off shortly to return them).

62. Flames Across the Border, by Pierre Berton
Source: library
Rating: 5/5

There's a reason Pierre Berton is THE MAN when it comes to Canadian history. This account of the second half of the War of 1812 is very vivid and immediate, using primary sources for the dialogue and telling the stories in present tense to put you right at the heart of the action. My favourite sections were, oddly enough, the Battle of Lake Erie and the other naval campaigns. Maybe because most of my 1812 reading focuses on the land battles, or maybe because I started reading Horatio Hornblower this year. This is actually the second of two books on the conflict, the other being The Invasion of Canada, but you don't really need to read them in order. Recommended for history buffs, especially those who live in SW Ontario, the Lake Erie area and upstate NY.

63. The African Queen, by C.S. Forester
Source: library
Rating: 3.5/5

I borrowed this after seeing the movie with Bogie and Katharine Hepburn, which was excellent. Much funnier and more romantic than pretty much any modern-day romantic comedy. Turns out it was a pretty good adaptation of the book. The book, however, really goes into more detail about their hardships as they travel downriver, and the ending is slightly different. I have to admit I might prefer the movie ending, unrealistic as it may be. A very enjoyable novel from one of my new favourite writers.

64. On Her Majesty's Secret Service, by Ian Fleming
Source: library
Rating: 4/5

When it comes to hot-weather reading, James Bond usually does the trick. Exciting enough to keep the pages turning and not so challenging that a fried brain can't follow along. I liked the skiing (and attendant descriptions of snow), and the College of Arms stuff was actually somewhat interesting. Certainly original. I would however perhaps suggest reading Thunderball before reading this one -- Thunderball, OHMSS and You Only Live Twice comprise a "Blofeld trilogy" of sorts, and OHMSS does make reference to the events of Thunderball. So I guess that will be my next Bond novel.

Was planning to go to the library to drop off this and a few other books, but with a temperature of 34 degrees Celsius and a humidex of 40, I'm staying indoors. Anyone want some excess hot air? I'll pack up a box and send it over. Take several boxes; we've got plenty.

Not sure where you're based, rabbitprincess, but the Barbican in London currently has a Designing James Bond exhibit about props, costume choices and similar (from the movies, though they have a display of the books and about Fleming as well) and I overheard the curator say it's meant to open in Toronto in October (where it goes after that is anybody's guess). I enjoyed it quite a bit and it sounds like it might be something up your alley if it's going to be anywhere near you!

Ooh! Thanks for the information! I have family in the Toronto area so a trip to see that exhibit would be very doable! :)

Been on a bit of a mystery binge lately, so some short and snappy reviews.

65. 13 at Dinner, by Agatha Christie
BOMB 33 of 45
Source: Big Box o'Christies
Rating: 2.5/5

Was prompted to read this after discussing the TV adaptation with my friend J. I think I would have preferred the TV adaptation. The solution was great but it took rather a while to get there. It felt a bit padded. Might have worked better as a short story or novella.

66. Plain Murder, by C.S. Forester
Source: library
Rating: 4.5/5

I almost like Forester better as a crime writer than as a Hornblower writer. (melonbrawl, the operative word is *almost* :P) This may not have been quite as brilliant as his first crime novel, Payment Deferred, but it's still pretty darn good. Forester packs more into 200 pages than most writers today manage to say in a book twice the size. Very much recommended.

67. The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie, by Alan Bradley
Source: library
Rating: 4/5

Finally joining the Flavia de Luce club with this one, which I only got around to picking up because my boyfriend's mum's book club is reading it next year. I'm not sure how they're going to discuss it, but I quite enjoyed spending time with Flavia and immediately borrowed the second installment from the library.

Preliminary thoughts on a couple of books I finished this weekend (fuller reviews probably tomorrow).

68. East of Eden, by John Steinbeck
BOMB 34 of 45
Source: the bf's collection
Rating: 3.5/5

I've wanted to read this for a while and finally did so because of the 75 Books in 2012 group's Steinbeckathon. I found the writing lovely but still very absorbing (i.e. the good writing wasn't a distraction). It took a while to get a handle on who the first-person narrator was, which I wasn't expecting to have to figure out and which was therefore kind of annoying in consequence. But the story itself was great, and Lee was the best character in the whole book. Certainly the most rational. I'm glad I read this.

69. The Weed that Strings the Hangman's Bag, by Alan Bradley
Source: library
Rating: 3.5/5

I read the entire book in one day (today). Another fun Flavia adventure. It took longer to build up to the murder this time, which made me a bit impatient, but overall I enjoyed it. I particularly liked the WW2-related storyline and Flavia's chemistry digressions. Okay now I am definitely going to wait a couple of weeks before getting into the next volume, so that I still have some stockpile left.

I didn't even *know* Forester did crime writing at all! Starting to look for them now!

@84: Yay! Fingers crossed they're not too hard to find -- my library's copy of Plain Murder was a fairly recent reprint. Another crime novel of his, The Pursued, was actually lost just prior to publication, and it was only a couple of years ago that it was found again and finally published. I have it in the stockpile for a rainy day. I hope you like them!

82: *blinks* *pricks up ears* Sorry, been dozing over here for a couple of weeks. I didn't know CSF wrote crime novels, either -- cool!

@86: I just happened to find Payment Deferred one day when looking in the Fiction F's (it was filed under general fiction instead of mysteries for some reason) and was immediately hooked! The bonus about his crime novels, or at least these two, is that they're very quick to read.

Payment Deferred made me think of one of Dostoevsky's shorter novels, The Double, and also "The Tell-Tale Heart" by Poe. Strange work.

@88: Agreed re the parallel with Tell-Tale Heart. I didn't think of it at the time but it does make sense now that you've mentioned it. Haven't read The Double yet but have added it to the TBR... I hope this will be a better entrée into the world of Dostoevsky than Crime and Punishment, which I found difficult to get into. Of course it probably also depends on the translation!

Payment Deferred was also made into a movie, starring Charles Laughton as William Marble. That would be interesting to see, if TCM decided to pick it up.

The Double is in the rich and bizarre tradition of Doppelgänger stories. I read a lot of Dostoevsky, mostly in my teens, and that was one I especially enjoyed for reasons that are a little obscure to me now. In an odd way it paired nicely with Nabokov's Despair.

70. The Bishop's Man, by Linden MacIntyre
Source: bf's parents
Rating: 3.5/5

My boyfriend's mum read this for her book club around the time it first came out in paperback. I borrowed it when she was finished and only just now got around to reading it. It was certainly easier to read than I was expecting, given the subject matter. Fortunately we are spared seeing actual scenes, focusing instead on the fallout for Father MacAskill, the one who essentially has to hush up the scandals and get rid of the offenders. It's a very character-driven novel and Father MacAskill is an interesting character to follow. A bonus to this book is the loveliness of Cape Breton, where the story is set. Read it if you like.

71. Beast in View, by Margaret Millar
BOMB 35 of 45
Source: L'Armée du Salut thrift store, Montreal, Quebec, March 2010
Rating: 3/5

This was a somewhat unusual story. I enjoyed the writing and the twist at the end was very surprising indeed, but I felt like it was ever so slightly rushed. It's a very short book so not much room for dramatic digressions. Still, I liked enough of what I read to consider trying other books by Millar (whose husband, Kenneth, is better known as Ross Macdonald).

72. Hickory Dickory Dock, by Agatha Christie
BOMB 36 of 45
Source: Big Box o'Christies
Rating: 3/5

Finished this one just under the wire for my trip. A very multicultural student hostel is plagued by a series of thefts and eventually murder. Poirot gets involved because the manager of the hostel is the sister of his secretary, Miss Lemon. The student dialogue was fun although the "multicultural" people seemed stereotyped in places. There were also one too many instances of people having important information to divulge but being murdered before they could divulge it. There are probably worse Christies though.

BOMB report for July: five BOMBS neutralized.

The Accident, by Linwood Barclay
13 at Dinner, by Agatha Christie
East of Eden, by John Steinbeck
Beast in View, by Margaret Millar
Hickory Dickory Dock, by Agatha Christie

A sixth may be finished in the next couple of days, but I'll count it as a straggler in August, most likely.

In other news, I've added another 11 BOMBS to the shelves and am cheerfully planning to add a few more in the next couple of days.

Updated BOMB report: six BOMBs neutralized.

The Accident, by Linwood Barclay
13 at Dinner, by Agatha Christie
East of Eden, by John Steinbeck
Beast in View, by Margaret Millar
Hickory Dickory Dock, by Agatha Christie
Zoo Station, by David Downing

And I've added another six BOMBS to the shelves -- I bought a total of 17 books! Actually, I bought 18 if you count the one that is going to be a present for my grandparents. Oh well I just consider it more choice for the challenge :P

Book of the Month: Plain Murder, by C.S. Forester

Three BOMBs in a row! Hurray for vacations. And I didn't have to resort to reading any of the *cough*17*cough* books I bought in Victoria. (I also adopted another *cough*25*cough* from my grandmother, which are catalogued in LT but are staying at my parents' place for now.)

73. Zoo Station, by David Downing
BOMB 37 of 45
Source: A Novel Idea, Kingston, Ontario, February 2012
Rating: 3/5

It took me a while to get into this one, possibly because most of my Berlin-based reading is related to Bernard Samson (of Len Deighton's three trilogies), and he tells his stories in first person, whereas Zoo Station is third person. Or part of it could have been that I was reading this on a four-hour flight with very little in the way of food available and I don't concentrate very well when I'm hungry. The verdict: good, and I'll probably read the rest of them, but I'm in no rush.

74. Cross-Country, by Hugh MacLennan
BOMB 38 of 45
Source: BMV, Toronto, Ontario, October 2011
Rating: 5/5

Love, love, LOVE! Hugh MacLennan makes me very happy. This is a collection of essays published shortly after his third novel, The Precipice (which I FINALLY found secondhand, yay!), and discusses a lot of themes that his novels cover. One major theme is the Canadian identity and trying to find our place in the world, especially in relation to the United States. I filled plenty of pages in my reading journal with quotes from this book and was even able to use a particularly apropos one in conversation with my grandparents. All in all a great book.

75. After the Funeral, by Agatha Christie
BOMB 39 of 45
Source: Big Box o'Christies
Rating: 4/5

Just finished this one this morning (work-page review to come). I've wanted to read this one for a while but other ones kept cutting in line. A Poirot mystery without Hastings that is difficult to guess. Some of the clues are quite subtle and may therefore not be considered "fair", but my attention was held throughout. The cover of my edition is weird in an amusing way: a nun looking askance at a bloody hatchet. But if you read the book it makes sense.

76. McNally's Secret, by Lawrence Sanders
Reread, so counted after the fact as BOMB 47 of 45; Going Through the Stacks #1
Source: Bought secondhand somewhere... not exactly sure where
Rating: 3/5

When I was in high school and early university, I read every single book in this series and was inordinately fond of them. The name "McNally" figures in my family tree so it was almost like having a fictional cousin. Protagonist Archy McNally is a very droll sort of fellow, almost incapable of being terribly serious, so he may be a bit of an acquired taste. The mystery in this case did keep me guessing; I'd forgotten most of the plot. But I think my favourite parts were the exchanges between Archy and his father, Prescott, the head of McNally and Son (Archy works at the family law firm as the head and sole employee of the Discreet Inquiries department). Prescott is a dyed-in-the-wool Lord of the Manor type, while Archy is most definitely a dandy, so the culture clashes are amusing but affectionate.

One of my many projects is "going through the stacks" -- rereading old books (many at my parents' place) and reviewing them, deciding whether or not to let them go. This one is a definite keeper; the books in this series may not be my most favourite books ever, at least in terms of writing quality, but the sheer affection I have for them is enough to keep them on the shelves permanently.

Decided to make a ticker for my "Going Through the Stacks" project (added up top as well).

77. Future Babble: Why Expert Predictions Fail -- And Why We Believe Them Anyway, by Dan Gardner
Source: library
Rating: 3/5

Dan Gardner is a columnist with The Ottawa Citizen and probably my favourite. This book basically met my expectations for something he would produce: it's logical, skeptical, and well-written, shot through with plenty of humour. It's hard not to be amused when one is dealing with the realm of expert predictions, especially the ones that failed, and there are plenty of those. Basically, the so-called experts are no better at predicting the future than a monkey with a dartboard, so why do we keep asking them to make predictions, and why do we persist in thinking that THIS one will be right? Some parts felt a bit repetitive, but overall I quite liked it and will now be spending at least the next few weeks talking back to the television every time someone on the news tries to make a prediction about the price of oil or the housing market.

78. E=mc2: A Biography of the World's Most Famous Equation, by David Bodanis
BOMB 40 of 45
Source: the bf's collection
Rating: 3.5/5

My BF received this book as a high school science prize, and apparently he never read it. (He's not much of a reader; he claims I do enough reading for the both of us.) Anyway, I read it at the request of the Go Review That Book! crew and found it most interesting. It breaks down each part of the E=mc2 equation and explains in detail how the principle behind each part was discovered. Then he covers the "life" of the equation, from Einstein first developing it to the eventual end of the universe.

For the most part I was able to follow along, but I really appreciated having the BF to discuss some of the concepts with, particularly the universe-ending chapter (which, incidentally, should not be read right before bed, because it's kind of depressing). Another bonus to discussing with him is possibly even inspiring him to read it :) I also learned a lot about the early French scientists, such as Lavoisier and Emilie du Châtelet, who was awesome, and even got a nice treat in the form of a bonus WW2 commando raid on a heavy water plant! I'm really into WW2 and military history at the moment so it's fun to see it pop up in unexpected areas of my reading.

Well it has certainly been a productive day! Did a whole bunch of apartment cleaning and finished two books! I also started and finished a third book yesterday. Full reviews to come on the books I finished today.

79. Crooked House, by Agatha Christie
Source: library
Rating: 5/5

Agatha herself said this was one of her personal favourites, and I can see why. The first-person narration is light and amusing without being trivial, the Leonides family are all delightfully eccentric and must have been great fun to write for, and the solution was one I did not see coming. I even shed a few tears at the end, which no Agatha book has done since Curtain. Highly recommended.

80. The Gun, by C.S. Forester
BOMB 41 of 45
Source: Russell Books, Victoria, BC, July 2012
Rating: 2.5/5

Of all of Forester's work I've read so far, this is easily my least favourite, but that's probably more to do with my lack of background knowledge than any shortcomings of the book. The story revolves around a beautiful bronze eighteen-pounder gun that Spanish guerrillas steal from the French and use to great effect during the Peninsular War. The battle scenes themselves were quite well done, but in other places I found my attention wandering and could really have benefitted from some actual background knowledge of the conflict. The Peninsular War and other aspects of the Napoleonic Wars did not receive much attention in my history classes, to say the least. Anyway, I suspect that if you are familiar with this period you will probably get along with this book better than I did.

And yes, this is the first book I read from my Victoria haul. Didn't take very long at all :P

81. The Best of Paddington, by Michael Bond (audiobook narrated by Stephen Fry)
BOMB 42 of 45
Source: library
Rating: 5/5

LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE. That's right, more "love"s than I gave to my review of Cross-Country, by Hugh MacLennan. That is because I simply ADORED every minute of this audiobook. Stephen Fry is the perfect narrator for these stories, which are about everyone's favourite bear from Darkest Peru, who is adopted by the Brown family of London and who is named after the railway station in which he is found. That initial story ("A Bear Called Paddington") is quite touching, as is the story about his first Christmas with the Browns. And there's plenty of humour to go around: when listening to this on the plane or train, I routinely smirked and chuckled to myself, and when listening at home I routinely laughed out loud, much to the consternation of the BF because I was wearing headphones.

Seriously, this book infiltrated my consciousness so much that one night after listening to a disc before bed, I had a dream that Stephen Fry was getting rid of some of his old books, putting them in a huge pile on the floor, and he let me have whatever I wanted. (I took a few Aubrey/Maturins, but for some reason they had Horatio Hornblower titles.) If that isn't an example of a powerful book, I don't know what is. Very, very highly recommended for lovers of Paddington and/or Stephen Fry.

82. Full Dark House, by Christopher Fowler
Source: library
Rating: 4/5

You know a series is good when you're two chapters into the first book and already you're thinking, "I must get a hold of every single other volume in this series once I'm finished." The Bryant and May series by Christopher Fowler is exactly this sort of series. Bryant and May are two shall we say "elderly" detectives, in their 80s but still working at the London Police Department's Peculiar Crimes Unit. The story begins with a bomb in their HQ and the demise of Bryant. May is devastated and tries to piece together the circumstances surrounding his partner's death, eventually realizing it has something to do with their very first case, which they solved during the Blitz in 1940.

What I really liked about this book was the dialogue. Bryant and May of course had excellent banter, but the other characters were no slouches either, especially DS Forthright. I also liked the way Fowler evoked the atmosphere of wartime Britain by sliding in details here and there instead of doing a big info-dump, and allowing characters to make natural observations and show the reader their world. The past and present stories were also juggled pretty well. I will definitely be continuing with this series.

Also, I've decided I want May to be my fictional grandpa. (I have a fictional cousin, Archy McNally... why not more fictional relatives?) I am looking forward to reading more of his (and Bryant's) stories very soon.

83. A Red Herring Without Mustard, by Alan Bradley
Source: library
Rating: 3.5/5

The third volume in the Flavia de Luce series is faster-paced than the second one but still not quite as fun as the first one. Even so, I enjoyed my visit to Bishop's Lacey and Buckshaw. In this one what really stuck out for me was Flavia's learning more about her mother and her family's past, and understanding a bit more about her father's character. Perhaps she is more of her father's daughter than she thought. And Colonel de Luce himself is quietly charming in this one -- the last couple of pages were very sweet indeed. Recommended for fans of the series.

BOMBS neutralized in August: 6

Cross-Country, by Hugh MacLennan
After the Funeral, by Agatha Christie
E=mc2: A Biography of the World's Most Famous Equation, by David Bodanis
The Gun, by C.S. Forester
The Best of Paddington, by Michael Bond (audio)
An Autobiography, by Agatha Christie

I also reread McNally's Secret, by Lawrence Sanders, but I'm not counting rereads as BOMBS this year (the main goal was to focus on the new acquisitions; next year I will include everything I already own).

Book of the month: A very tough call but The Best of Paddington won out over Hugh MacLennan. Okay fine Hugh, yours is the best PRINT book of the month.

Only two more BOMBS to meet my goal! That should be doable in September :)

A study in contrasts in this post...

84. An Autobiography, by Agatha Christie
BOMB 43 of 45
Source: Friends of Library and Archives Canada book sale, September 2011
Rating: 4.5/5

Every September I make the pilgrimage to the Friends of Library and Archives Canada book sale, which runs over three days in the middle of the month (Friday to Sunday). Last year one of my co-workers had the Friday of the sale off, so he stopped in, saw this, and immediately picked it up for me. Ever since then I’ve been waiting for the right moment to read it, and it was someone here on LT who had it on her list of favourites that prompted me to pick it up. And boy, am I glad I did!

Agatha’s personality fairly leaps from the page. I admire her resilience in the face of adversity, her ability to take things in stride (a fair few of her quotes on this subject made it to my reading journal) and her imagination – one of my favourite parts was in the beginning when she described her childhood games. I also liked hearing about some of her favourite books that she’d written, or at least the ones she chose to discuss. Fortunately, there were no spoilers for the books of hers I haven’t read…but if you haven’t read the “big ones” then you may want to get those out of the way first. Definitely recommended if you can get your hands on it.

85. Twelve Drummers Drumming, by C.C. Benison
Source: library
Rating: 1.5/5

I first picked this up thanks to Quill and Quire and my love of Benison’s “Her Majesty Investigates” series. At first, though, I was skeptical, because the idea of a vicar being surnamed Christmas (and everyone calling him “Father”) was setting off the Twee Alarm. This was compounded by the publisher’s blurb recommending this book for fans of Louise Penny, Alan Bradley and Alexander McCall Smith. I love Penny and am fond of Bradley, but McCall Smith’s many series, or at least their titles, set my teeth on edge a bit. So I went into this hoping for more Penny/Bradley and less McCall Smith.

On the one hand, I don’t THINK it was as twee as a McCall Smith, but it was certainly very muddled. The book suffers from First in Series Syndrome: lots of backstory to introduce, and a hell of a lot of backstory for one character. The protagonist is a vicar whose wife was murdered in Bristol, prompting him to move himself and his daughter to a rural parish which would presumably be safer. In addition to the last name of Christmas, his personal history includes a previous career as a notable magician, a mother who won the Eurovision contest, and being TWICE orphaned (his parents died when he was a baby, and his adoptive parents died as well). That’s too much for one character, or at least too much to be introduced to in one book. There were also a lot of characters to keep track of, requiring frequent trips to the “cast of characters” at the beginning of the book. So I gave up around page 80.

Oddly enough though, this experience has not turned me off the sequel, Eleven Pipers Piping. I figure there’s a good chance the second one will have settled down a bit and there won’t be as much backstory to contend with.

86. Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking, by Susan Cain
Source: library
Rating: 4.5/5

I was at the library and happened to spot this in the Express Reads section. I hemmed and hawed over getting it, because I already had several books out, but then decided that an Express Read now was better than being 78th on the holds list for the Large Print version (the standard print version had way more holds than that). Temptation won out and I was quickly won over by this book. Not that I needed much convincing; I've always been an introvert, so I of course am receptive to books that talk about the advantages of introversion. It was reassuring, balanced and conversational in tone. I will definitely be getting my own copy for future reference.

87. He Knew He Was Right, by Anthony Trollope
BOMB 44 of 45 -- SPECIAL DEMOLITION TASK (read 1 book from the "not done yet" collection) COMPLETED (sort of)
Source: Dragan Tail Books, Ottawa, within the past couple of years
Rating: on a technical level, 3/5

This first came to my attention because of the TV adaptation that features David Tennant, back when he was the Tenth Doctor. I first tried reading the book about five years ago, but stopped because it was a library book and I ran out of time for it. Determined to try again later, I marked it as "not done yet". Time passed, I ended up watching the adaptation anyway, then found a copy of the book secondhand. Attempt 2 has persuaded me that I will not be able to finish it. The titular "he" is SUCH A DOLT. He's all bent out of shape because he thinks his wife is carrying on with a guy older than her father (and is her father's oldest friend), even though she isn't, and she resents his suspicion. When he tries to mend the breach, he makes matters worse by not apologizing for his suspicion or even giving her SOME credit. So he needlessly breaks up their house and essentially divorces her and all he can think of is how the gossip and speculation hurts HIM, when really if he'd just ignored the old family friend it would not have given rise to gossip and speculation. ARRRGH. I wanted to reach into the book and slap him silly. So for the sake of my blood pressure, I decided to leave this book unfinished :P

Even Trollope himself was not crazy about this book because of the protagonist. I'd have to agree with him on that one, but on a technical level I must give him credit for creating a character that provoked such strong reactions. Recommended for those who like Victorian novels and are less easily irritated by fictional characters.

WOO HOO! CHALLENGE COMPLETE!

88. The Devil's in the Details, by Mary Jane Maffini
BOMB 45 of 45
Source: Friends of Library and Archives Canada book sale
Rating: 3.5/5

A perfect book to read over the Labour Day long weekend, considering that it actually takes place at this very time of the year. Camilla MacPhee is trying to have a relaxing long weekend, but her friends Alvin Ferguson and Mrs. Parnell are trying to rope her into taking a balloon ride at the Gatineau Hot Air Balloon Festival, and her sisters are insisting on her presence at the family cottage north of Ottawa. All plans fall by the wayside when Camilla learns that a university friend of hers (and really, "acquaintance" is more like it) has died and named Camilla her next-of-kin. What prompted Laura to make such a decision? Why do the circumstances of her death seem so suspicious? Camilla vows to find out.

The story is told at a breakneck pace, starting on Friday afternoon and ending on Labour Day Monday. Camilla gets into scrapes that go from bad to worse, and even though they may strain the limits of credulity in places, they certainly make thrilling reading for the long weekend. And with the Camilla MacPhee series, I find that the local colour is used just enough to make me go "Yay! I know where that is!" but not so much as to be annoying -- I've had bad luck with a couple of other Ottawa-set books where the setting didn't sit right with me. Camilla is also an entertaining protagonist because she can be rather a curmudgeon, something I identify with more often than I should perhaps admit!

This was a good book to finish the challenge with. Now I will press on and add more own-shelf reads to the group total. I am also considering going back and adding my rereads, now that I've accomplished the goal of 45 previously unread books read.

Congrats, Rabbitprincess!

Huzzay! A glass of wine with you!

...or whatever else you would prefer to have. :)

Good job! Congratulations.

>105 connie53:, 106, 107: Thanks, all! Toasting to success with a mug of tea :)
(although I am not averse to the odd drop of white wine... red wine makes me fall asleep)

Bravo, rabbitprincess!

>109 staffordcastle:: Thanks, staffordcastle! It's nice to have met the goal before my annual book sale pilgrimage ;)

Haha now that I've met my goal, it's like "REVENGE OF THE BORROWED BOOKS". I went on a library spree yesterday and also want to clear the backlog of books borrowed from other people. This post has a library book and a borrowed book.

89. The Flight, by M.R. Hall
Source: library
Rating: 4/5

When I first heard about this book, which is about a plane crash and the resultant coroner's investigation (not to mention plane crash investigation), I was told there were rather a lot of technical details about the crash itself and the airplanes involved. Far from being a deterrent, these details were actually my main reason for reading the book. And this aspect definitely delivered. I learned so much about Airbuses and avionics and the physics of a tail-first crash, all while enjoying a very good story. Wouldn't want to be reading this on a plane though. And while I know that statistically, flying is very safe, the irrational part of me is glad I read this AFTER my trip to the UK. I'd read more books in this series, too, even without the draw of airplanes ;)

90. Dead Man's Folly, by Agatha Christie
Source: borrowed from parents
Rating: 2.5/5

This is one of the last few Poirots to be adapted for the David Suchet series (oh, Curtain is going to be SO SAD), hence why I am reading it now. I wasn't crazy about it, to be honest. It was kind of plodding and then the ending came out of left field a bit. I think it will make a good adaptation, though, especially because I like Zoë Wanamaker's portrayal of Ariadne Oliver (she also appears in this book).

More clearing out of borrowed books:

91. I Am Half-Sick of Shadows, by Alan Bradley
Source: library
Rating: 3.5/5

I probably read this too early in the year to fully appreciate it; it's a Christmas mystery and as such probably works better when the snow is falling and one can curl up with a blanket, a mug of hot chocolate and a plate of gingerbread cookies. However, I did enjoy the story (and Flavia's attempts to trap Father Christmas in the chimney), perhaps more the family dynamics than anything else. A very rewarding read from that perspective. Now the long wait until the next book is published...

92. Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers, by Mary Roach
Source: BF's parents
Rating: 4.5/5

From the very first page, I knew this would be one of those "annoy your friends and relatives by constantly reading aloud excerpts" books. The subject of what happens to our bodies after death is a pretty gruesome one, but strangely fascinating. In this book, Mary covers donating bodies to science, organ donation, "body farms" where forensic scientists study the decomposition process, new techniques in cremation and human composting, and a somewhat horrifying digression into the days of early medicine when body parts were made into medicine. Still, I frequently laughed out loud at a turn of phrase or an absurd situation and was forever taking notes. I am also pleased to report that reading this right before bed did NOT give me nightmares. Oddly enough though it did make me want to watch Six Feet Under again (despite not making it past Season 1).

A bit of light housekeeping:

(1) Now that I've met my goal of 45 unread BOMBS, I'm going back and counting my rereads from earlier in the year as BOMBS as well.

BOMB 46 of 45 = The Watch that Ends the Night, by Hugh MacLennan (review in this thread)
BOMB 47 of 45 = McNally's Secret, by Lawrence Sanders. (review in this thread)

Whatever adds to the group total ;)

(2) I went on a bit of a book spree at Chapters last week and added three more BOMBS to the shelves:

Trust Your Eyes, by Linwood Barclay
Black Skies, by Arnaldur Indridason
Up and Down, by Terry Fallis

(3) In rearranging the shelves to fit all of my new purchases, I made a decision on Going Through the Stacks Book #2:

Bones to Ashes, by Kathy Reichs
Source: gift
Rating: 3/5 at the time, in retrospect probably closer to a 2

I read and enjoyed the first few Temperance Brennan books, namely the ones with the French words in the title that were set predominantly in Montreal. The series kind of lost its appeal once Bones started airing on TV; I felt like the book world was changing to meet the needs of the TV world. Whether that's true or not, I couldn't tell you. I got this as a gift shortly after it was released and while I recall it being fairly attention-grabbing at the time, I'd completely forgotten the plot until I read the dust jacket a couple of days ago. I'm very unlikely to read it again, so off it goes to find a better home.

Two down, another 203 to go...

Great book moment: this morning on my way to work, another woman waiting to cross the street was reading Trust Your Eyes. Will have to get to that one soon! It's a sign ;)

93. The Last Canadian, by William C. Heine
BOMB 48 of 45
Source: workplace book sale, November 2011
Rating: 3.5/5

This is the story of a mysterious deadly plague that suddenly strikes the southwestern US and within days has taken out most of North America. The titular Last Canadian, Gene Arnprior, has had the foresight to pack up his wife and kids and fly out to a wilderness camp in northern Quebec to wait out the worst of the devastation. But what sort of society will rise up from the fragments spared by the plague?

I have a weakness for cheesy 1970s thrillers involving Canada, especially ones with a post-apocalyptic edge. This one met all of my expectations and made for a pleasant few days of bus reading. There were some squirm-inducing bits, namely involving a creepy man who had a harem of ladies (EW EW EW worst part of post-apocalyptic life for women, having to worry about that sort of thing) and preparing game animals for human consumption (is sad for the little deer), but overall this is a good yarn.

94. Ordeal by Innocence, by Agatha Christie
BOMB 49 of 45
Source: Big Box o'Christies from my grandparents
Rating: 3/5

The Argyle family was touched by tragedy when the youngest son, Jacko, killed his mother in a fit of rage. After being convicted he subsequently died in prison. Two years later, research scientist Dr. Arthur Calgary realizes that he has a key piece of information that would have proven Jacko's seemingly flimsy alibi, thus meaning he couldn't possibly have killed his mother. However, this news is not greeted as happily as Dr. Calgary expected. With Jacko innocent, the others are now forced to suspect themselves and wonder, who can I trust? who isn't what they seem?

This was one of Agatha's personal favourites, but I like her other favourite (Crooked House) better. The atmosphere was continuously tense with suspicion and anticipation, waiting for the clues and revelations to come in, and it was kind of wearying after a while. Also, after reading Val McDermid's Tony Hill and Carol Jordan series, anyone with the name "Jacko" automatically creeps me out beyond belief, even if they don't actually appear. What I would really like to see is the purportedly terrible 1980s movie adaptation featuring Donald Sutherland as Dr. Calgary and Ian McShane as an Argyle relative by marriage, but that's really hard to find. Alas!

95. My Name Escapes Me: The Diary of a Retiring Actor, by Alec Guinness
Source: library
Rating: 4/5

A fellow LT user recommended this one, which I borrowed from the library on Wednesday and finished on Saturday. It's a delightful collection of Sir Alec Guinness's diaries for 18 months, covering 1995 and the first half of 1996. He writes very well, discussing the news, his day-to-day life, his likes and dislikes, and the tiresomeness of old age. I particularly liked his observations on the books he was reading, including the Patrick O'Brian Aubrey/Maturin series, David Copperfield, John Updike and Piers Paul Read. John le Carré provides an excellent preface to this collection as well. Overall a very nice treat whose only flaw is that it ends so soon.

96. The Impossible Dead, by Ian Rankin
Source: library
Rating: 3/5

I should have started reading the Complaints series with this one, the second installment, instead of the first one. The plot held my interest more, kept moving at a good pace, and the setting was more prominent -- it felt more like a Scotland-based mystery. In that regard it certainly didn't hurt that the plot was also very Scottish, focusing on the independence movement in the 1980s. As with the previous installment, I also greatly enjoyed the dialogue among the Complaints crew, and Fox's struggle with balancing his work life and personal life was portrayed realistically as well. A solid library borrow for me.

Recap for September (edited Sep 30)

BOMBS neutralized: 6 previously unread + 2 rereads = 8 total for the month

He Knew He Was Right, by Anthony Trollope
The Devil's in the Details, by Mary Jane Maffini
The Last Canadian, by William C. Heine
Ordeal by Innocence, by Agatha Christie
Gideon's Day, by J.J. Marric
The Four False Weapons, by John Dickson Carr

The rereads:

The Watch That Ends the Night, by Hugh MacLennan
McNally's Secret, by Lawrence Sanders

Once I met my goal of 45 previously unread BOMBS I decided to go back and add my two rereads to the group total, since after all I did have them on the shelves prior to 1 Jan 2012. Rereads will also be counted from this point forward.

Book of the month: Stiff, by Mary Roach

97. Gideon's Day, by J.J. Marric
BOMB 50 of 45
Source: Book Bazaar, Ottawa
Rating: 3/5

Well, I'm glad I liked this, considering I bought three other books in the series on spec (for a dollar each, but still). It purports to be a "day in the life" of Commander George Gideon of Scotland Yard, and it's certainly one action-packed day. In a way it kind of reminded me of Barney Miller, with the various narrative threads weaving in and out and the cops' familiarity with the criminals on their patch. I also liked how, even though this is the first book in the series, it felt like a long-standing series -- not too much in the way of backstory dumped on the unsuspecting reader at once. I did kind of roll my eyes at Gideon's descriptions of his wife, Kate's, physical attributes, and the Chinese drug lord is a cliché by now (and may even have been then), but overall this was a diverting read.

Apparently John Ford (as in THE John Ford, the one who directed Stagecoach) directed a movie adaptation of this book. Surprising choice! I don't expect to be able to find that, but it would be interesting to see.

98. The Four False Weapons, by John Dickson Carr
BOMB 51 of 45
Source: library book sale
Rating: 3/5

The ending of this book had me doing my best Tenth Doctor impression: "What?? What?!?!? WHAT?!?!?!!" Very bamboozling. I was expecting to be dazzled and amazed by the sleight of hand practised by Dickson Carr, and am not usually grumpy about not being able to guess the solution, but this was pretty loony. M. Bencolin, the detective here, came up with about three or four plausible explanations for the crime, and then would just as cleverly upend them and say "JUST KIDDING it wasn't actually this person." It got kind of annoying after the second time or so. By the end I was half-expecting him to reveal that HE had done it. But I did enjoy the first half and liked the characters, so I ended up being a softy in my rating.

Actually, now that I think about it, this reminds me of the M*A*S*H episode "The Light that Failed", where the whole camp ends up reading a mystery that BJ Hunnicutt receives in the mail. The Rooster Crowed at Midnight makes its way around to all personnel, after first being ripped up into its individual chapters, until... HORRORS! The last page is missing, and with it the identity of the murderer! The camp's speculation on who dunnit sounds just as outlandish as the explanations presented in this book.

>116 rabbitprincess: Now that's just evil! Tempting me with books while I'm trying to whittle down my TBR, but I forgive you on this one. I love Alec Guinness and your great review has me drooling to get it. Thanks.

>121 Kirconnell:: Hee! I don't know whether to say "you're welcome" or "sorry!" ;) I can for sure say thanks for the kind words re my review, and hope you enjoy the book!

99. Angelmaker, by Nick Harkaway
Source: library
Rating: 4/5

My cousin, the lovely @MizMoffatt here on LT, had some nice things to say about this book so I decided to give it a shot. It's a spellbinding book, the sort of thing you can curl up with on the sofa in the morning, several hours later realizing that it's grown dark and you haven't eaten all day. If you like gangster films, doomsday scenarios, WW2 spies and derring-do, wry narration, magical description, and above all kick-butt octogenarians, you'll probably find something of interest here. I will definitely be reading more Harkaway in future.

And yes I realize this blurb is rather short on plot description, but the dust jacket does it better than I would. My blurb is also kind of vague because I don't really have any coherent thoughts on the book other than WHOA THIS WAS GREAT.

Alright, now, you're doing it again. Bad Rabbitprincess !

Haha I'm blaming my cousin for that one! ;)

A couple of rereads over this fine holiday weekend.

100. Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, by John le Carre
BOMB 52 of 45
Source: Chaptigoles, Kingston, ON, Feb 2012
Rating: 4/5

I think watching the miniseries really helped me appreciate this book a lot more. So much of the dialogue and even the narration was transferred straight from the printed page to the small screen, and it was lovely to read the book and watch the miniseries unfold in my head (although I must admit I picture the movie actors for everybody except Smiley, who can only be Alec Guinness, much as I love Gary Oldman). I'm hoping for a similar positive experience when I watch the miniseries of and inevitably reread Smiley's People.

101. The Cat Who Could Read Backwards, by Lilian Jackson Braun
BOMB 53 of 45; Going Through the Stacks #3
Source: Christmas present 1998 (according to the very helpful inscription on the inside cover)
Rating: 3/5

In my younger years I think I read and collected just about all of the books in this series, although I definitely lost interest toward the end. My favourites are probably the first few books in the series, which were written in the 1960s (the series was then resumed a decade or more later). This is the very first installment and features Jim Qwilleran attempting to get a handle on the art beat for a local newspaper. Who knew art could be so deadly? A very light read, easy enough to finish in a couple of hours. I'll probably end up keeping this one.

Dodged those book bullets. I already love both those authors.

102. The Hobbit, by J.R.R. Tolkien
Source: borrowed from my friend JY
Rating: 4.5/5

What can I say about The Hobbit that hasn't already been said? This was a great book, which I first read in Grade 4. I really didn't remember that much, though, so it was almost like reading the book for the first time. The friend I borrowed this copy from also discovered she has more than one copy, so we had a read-along of sorts as a way to prepare for the movie (CAN'T WAIT!). I enjoyed picturing Martin Freeman as Bilbo and am confident he will do a good job.

I definitely prefer this one over LOTR, because it's shorter and the description is less overwhelming (seriously, do we need five pages to describe every single tree in the forest?), and there's even elements of humour in the narration. There was also unintentional humour when the book said that Smaug was lying fast asleep on top of the treasure and Bilbo could see his "underparts" -- I totally thought it said "underpants". Hilarious mental image ensued. So I would recommend this to fans of LOTR and even those who didn't like LOTR so much -- this one might be a bit more manageable.

And now it's the Case of the Two DNFs...

103. The Moonstone, by Wilkie Collins
Source: amenity room library
Rating: 2/5

I started this almost a month ago and zipped through the first 50 pages pretty quickly for a Victorian novel... and then lost momentum and never really got it back again. I ended up reading the plot summary on Wikipedia and uttered several perplexed oaths at how it all played out, so it's probably just as well I didn't actually slog through to the end. However, I would be interested in seeing a television adaptation (Greg Wise starred in one in the mid-1990s, which the library has, and the BBC says there will be one airing over Christmas). Still, glad I gave it a shot and glad to strike it off the list.

104. Paris 1919: Six Months That Changed the World, by Margaret MacMillan
Source: library
Rating: 3.5/5

Another really informative and fascinating book where I reach a saturation point before the book itself is over. If you want to know more about the Peace Conference, this is definitely the book for you. MacMillan has clearly done her research well, and she makes sure to include amusing asides. This book has also inspired me to pick up a history of France sometime -- any suggestions?

Go, Rabbitprincess, go! You're awesome!

Aw thanks :) Can't believe I read this many books (from all sources) this year!

105. The Trinity Six, by Charles Cumming (1/9 audio, 8/9 print)
BOMB 54 of 45
Source: library
Rating: 3.5/5

I started listening to this one on the train and had to stop after the first disc... the narrator's Tense. Clipped and Dramatic. Tones. were well suited to the Note about the Cambridge Five at the beginning but not so much for an actual story with dialogue and different characters, which need some pauses and differentiation. (Not that I would make a much better audiobook reader, but I digress.) So I switched to print and borrowed the book from the library, but I'm still counting it as an off-the-shelf read since I began it in audio. Anyway, this is a perfectly serviceable read if your cuppa tea is spies and British intelligence, although you may come away from it liking the secondary characters better than the main character. He was okay but the ex-spooks he encounters are funnier, and the women are more competent. Basically this is a "read it if you like, but maybe from the library" sort of book.

106. White Corridor, by Christopher Fowler
Source: library
Rating: 3.5/5

I'm kind of weird about mystery series: basically, if I'm reading them from the library, I have no problem reading them out of order if that's how I'm finding them. If I'm collecting all of a series to own, I tend to read them in order. All this to say that, while this is the second Bryant and May book I've read, it's the fifth in the series. It's set during a blizzard that traps Bryant and May on the back roads to Dartmoor while they are en route to a spiritualists' convention -- they help solve a mystery long-distance involving one of the members of the Peculiar Crimes Unit AND solve a mystery of their own.

Overall it's a pretty good book; the pace really picks up in the second half, Bryant and May's repartee alone is always worth the price of admission, and DS Longbright comes into her own as she has to lead the unit in the senior detectives' absence. And I almost laughed out loud on the bus at the second-last scene, which was perfect comic timing. Recommended if you're already invested in the series.

107. The Great Crown Jewels Robbery Of 1303: The Extraordinary Story Of the First Big Bank Raid in History, by Paul Doherty
Source: library
Rating: 2/5

The idea was very interesting -- it's about the theft of the Crown Jewels from Westminster Abbey during the reign of Edward I -- but the execution left something to be desired. The writing felt draft-like and sloppy; there were comma splices everywhere (I expect fewer comma splices in a more "scholarly" work) and unnecessary abbreviations, such as "He paid £100's in damages." Spell it out: hundreds of pounds. The book was also only about 200 pages, but it still managed to feel padded, thanks to the inclusion of long translations of contemporary documents. The translations themselves did not really have attributions, either. I assume they were the author's but I would prefer to have that sort of thing stated up front, with perhaps some explanation of the translation difficulties involved. I'm also reading Peter Ackroyd's biography of London and he handles contemporary documents much better, in my view: snippets in the original language, surrounded by context and explanation.

In other words, give this one a miss.

108. Alfred Hitchcock's Stories Not for the Nervous, ed. Alfred Hitchcock
BOMB 55 of 45
Source: won by the BF at a trivia tournament (the prizes were "pick your own from the stack of cheesy secondhand paperbacks")
Rating: 3/5

Picked for me by Go Review That Book!, this proved a delightful collection for the bus, although not as scary as the (totally awesome) cover and Hitchcock's introduction might lead you to believe. The stories were certainly weird, but not outright scary. My personal favourites were "The Dog Died First", "The Twenty Friends of William Shaw", "The Man with the Copper Fingers", and "Don't Look Behind You", which I was very glad to have read with my back to the wall. That was probably the creepiest and a good one to end the collection. I would recommend this collection if you happen to find it.

"Don't Look Behind You" is online now (here) and not nearly as creepy as it was when I read it in a paperback anthology in about 1970. This is one story for which the medium of delivery is important. It's also one of two stories I've read--the other was The Shining--that made my pulse pound so hard that I was really scared to turn the page.

Yeah, reading it on a computer screen just doesn't have the same impact!

I used to be able to read non-fiction accounts of haunted places, but these days I can't read them after dark or when I'm home by myself -- every noise I subsequently hear seems to be a ghost! Maybe I should read them online to make them feel less scary.

Speaking of haunted places, the Historic Royal Palaces website has a few good stories: http://www.hrp.org.uk/learninganddiscovery/Discoverthehistoricroyalpalaces/ghost...
I'm kind of glad we didn't get to Hampton Court Palace on our trip to London...

109. Outrage, by Arnaldur Indridason
BOMB 56 of 45
Source: Waterstone's Trafalgar Square, London, April 2012
Rating: 3/5

I enjoy this series but this installment has a lot to live up to with the book immediately preceding it, Hypothermia. The case here could have happened anywhere in the world and there were a few parts I had to read while squinting. Still, I did like Elinborg, who takes the reins in this book while Erlendur is off to his hometown in quest of family secrets, and the ending made sense for the circumstances. I would recommend this for people who are already invested in the series.

Not likely to finish any more own-shelf reads this month, so here are the stats for October:

BOMBS neutralized: 5

Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, by John le Carré
The Cat Who Could Read Backwards, by Lilian Jackson Braun
The Trinity Six, by Charles Cumming (audio partway through, then switched to print)
Alfred Hitchcock's Stories Not for the Nervous
Outrage, by Arnaldur Indridason

Book of the month: The Hobbit, by J.R.R. Tolkien

In November I will be defusing two particularly complicated (by which I mean huge) BOMBS: London The Biography and Parade's End. Wish me luck!

The last two books I read in October were both library books.

110. At Bertram's Hotel, by Agatha Christie
Source: library
Rating: 4/5

Bertram's Hotel is like a time warp. Step inside and you're back to Edwardian England, although with all the mod cons we've come to expect by the time of the novel (the 1950s). Miss Marple is duly impressed, having been sent up to London by her nephew and niece-in-law to have a nice holiday at the fabled hotel. But something must be up behind that perfect façade; one of the guests has disappeared...

This was a very good Miss Marple story, and I particularly enjoyed the atmosphere of Bertram's. Even if the actual events of the story are not quite genteel, the high tea does sound divine and precisely the sort of thing I would want to splurge on if I were in London. The pacing was good too, and Miss Marple was involved just enough in the mystery solving that it justified calling the book a Marple story, but not so much that it felt unrealistic. Recommended.

111. Tales of the Unexpected, by Roald Dahl
Source: library
Rating: 4/5

To describe the contents of this collection I'm going to adapt a phrase often used for variable weather: "If you don't like the content of one story, wait five minutes and another topic will present itself." Dahl covers a wide variety of subjects in this collection, being equally adept at discussing holidays in Jamaica, the routine of the perfect commute, disembodied brains, and machines capable of rendering ultra-high-frequency sounds audible to humans. All of the stories contain some element of the unexpected, even if it's just "unexpectedly short". My personal favourites were "William and Mary", "The Way Up to Heaven", "The Hitchhiker", and "The Boy Who Talked to Animals." This collection also includes the classic "Lamb to the Slaughter".

Recommended for fans of Roald Dahl and for those who like just a bit of weird in their literature.

And a couple of library books to start off November's batch of reviews.

112. Breaking Up is Hard to Do, by Ed Gorman
Source: library
Rating: 3/5

October 1962: the Cuban Missile Crisis is heating up and the folks in Black River Falls, Iowa, are pretty nervous. Some are even building bomb shelters to protect against the expected missile attack. One day a dead woman is found in one of these bomb shelters -- one that happens to belong to a potential gubernatorial candidate. Enter local PI Sam McCain...

This was an agreeable entry in a very pleasant series. I love the 1950s/1960s atmosphere of the books, and Sam is an endearing narrator. He mixes just enough self-deprecating humour, action-packed thrills and elegant description to keep things interesting. This was the sixth book of the series and I was able to follow along with all of the characters, despite having been away from the series for quite some time (although I think I'll be revisiting it sooner rather than later). I would recommend this one to those who like the series, but not for first-timers, as there are some important developments in Sam's personal life that won't have the same sort of impact if you're just getting to know the characters.

113. Double Cross: The True Story of the D-Day Spies, by Ben Macintyre
Source: library
Rating: 5/5

I'm pretty sure this is already going to be my book of the month for November. It was AMAZING. The only thing slowing me down while reading was the constant pausing to write down clever lines and interesting facts. This is a natural follow-up to his previous two books, Agent Zigzag and Operation Mincemeat, and provides the very detailed scoop about the spies who played a pivotal if unseen role in the D-Day invasion: their role as double agents helped save potentially tens of thousands of Allied lives by keeping as much of the German troops away from Normandy as possible until the bridgeheads were established and the invasion force was somewhat secure. The agents are a lively cast of characters, with my favourite being Garbo (also a partial inspiration for Graham Greene's titular Our Man in Havana).

If you have any interest whatsoever in WW2, pick this book up. Then go pick up Macintyre's other WW2 books. You won't be disappointed (except when they end).

Given my profligate library borrowing these days, I think short books will be the way to go to get more BOMBS in... that and I'll be counting Parade's End as four separate books, since that's what it is!

114. Poirot Investigates, by Agatha Christie
BOMB 57 of 45; Going Through the Stacks #4
Source: Big Box o'Christies
Rating: 3/5

An enjoyable re-read of a short story collection featuring Poirot and his loveable sidekick Hastings (who always cracks me up when he makes some side comment about how Poirot is always underestimating his detective skills). I remembered the first story, "The Adventure of the Western Star", very well, and the one about the rook rifle, but the others were almost like new. It made for a pleasant couple of days of bus reading. I particularly like my edition, with the picture of a bowler hat and moustaches on the front cover. Of course I'll be keeping it. (I should really stop saying whether or not I'll keep Going Through the Stacks books, because I probably will end up keeping most of them...)

Lol. A girl after my own heart. It's so hard to let our babies go isn't it?

Especially all of my old Agathas with the cheesy covers! In addition to the inveterate cheesiness, I adopted a lot of my Agathas from one of my grandmas, so I'm also reluctant to give them up for sentimental reasons.

115. Some Do Not..., by Ford Madox Ford (Parade's End, Vol. 1)
BOMB 58 of 45
Source: Chapters, gift to myself
Rating: will hold off and rate Parade's End as a whole once I'm finished

This is the first novel of a closely intertwined tetralogy featuring Christopher Tietjens, a government statistician and member of the gentleman class, who watches his world undergo a tectonic shift with the advent of the First World War. The tetralogy as a whole covers about a decade, and the first book begins just before the war and continues to somewhere in the middle of the war. The narrative flits back and forth and around in time, and some scenes are retold from multiple perspectives. It takes a bit of effort to get into the book, but once you do, it's very rewarding. I've taken to reading a chapter a day (and marking out how long each chapter is) instead of just plowing through as I do with most novels.

One thing I find interesting is how I keep imagining what Tietjens would do if he were to time travel to the present day. If he disdains the Encyclopedia Britannica and other works of reference, what would he make of The Almighty Google? Would he parlay his knowledge of old furniture into a stint on Antiques Roadshow? In the book he already seems to be a bit of a "man out of time", so perhaps this is an exercise in taking him even further out of time. He's a fascinating character, and the time in which he lives is equally fascinating. I'm very glad to have picked this one up and will be continuing on with the second volume, No More Parades.

(and yes, I'm counting each of the four books that make up Parade's End as a BOMB -- otherwise it would take forever to count)

116. No Great Mischief, by Alistair MacLeod
Source: library
Rating: 5/5

I couldn't believe my good fortune in reading two 5-star books in the same month. This one was recommended indirectly by the 2013 edition of Canada Reads, and it had also been lurking in the periphery of my reading radar by virtue of being close to the novels by Alistair MacLean. So I picked it up and was utterly enchanted. This is the story of the family of Alexander MacDonald, descended from a group of MacDonalds known as Clann Chalum Ruaidh (the family of red-haired Calum) who came to Cape Breton, Nova Scotia in the 1700s after Culloden. Alexander is an engaging narrator (capable of being funny, poetic and sombre by turns) and I loved the extensive use of Gaelic throughout. A thoroughly delightful book that I will make room for on my bookshelves to reread and enjoy. Now if only there were an audio version.

Keep them! I would not give them away.

I probably will keep them... they don't really take up THAT much space. And if necessary, that's what buying more bookcases is for ;)

117. The Double Cross System in the War of 1939 to 1945, by J.C. Masterman
BOMB 59 of 45
Source: Friends of Library and Archives Canada book sale, September 2012
Rating: 4/5

An excellent account of the double-cross system, originally written as a government report shortly after the war by one of the architects of the system. It wasn't published until the 1970s, but the immediacy of its original writing date really shines through and makes it an invaluable resource. Masterman writes well, as one might expect of an Oxford don, and for the most part it's very easy to follow (I actually read this on the bus!). What really helped me was reading this immediately after reading Ben Macintyre's Double Cross: The True Story of the D-Day Spies -- having the more modern account fresh in my mind gave me a better idea of who was who. Recommended for WW2 history buffs.

118. The Spies of Warsaw, by Alan Furst
Source: library
Rating: 2.5/5

I should have taken a warning from the use of the adjective "erotic" in the publisher's blurb. I wasn't as fussed by the idea of this book being more of a "novel about spies" than a "spy novel", but I must confess that I am not crazy about "novels about spies" that contain two erotic scenes in the first 20 pages (we haven't really even been introduced to the characters properly yet!), and a third very gratuitous one later on. The spy parts themselves were all right but perhaps not quite what I was looking for at this exact moment. This would probably work better for people who enjoy Ian McEwan's "novel about espionage" The Innocent (or maybe even Sweet Tooth, if the reviews are anything to go by). Haven't been put off Alan Furst entirely though; I'm prepared to try again.

One library book, two BOMBS.

119. Bryant and May off the Rails, by Christopher Fowler
Source: library
Rating: 4/5

In this book, the 8th in the Bryant and May/Peculiar Crimes Unit series, the unit is tasked with recapturing a notorious killer named Mr Fox, who has spent his life hanging around Charing Cross Station and subterranean London. I greatly enjoyed the focus on the London Underground in this book and now want to read more about it. The mystery itself kind of fizzled out at the end but affection for the characters and the Tube were sufficient to merit a four-star rating. Probably best read in series order, if that sort of thing is important for you.

120. No More Parades, by Ford Madox Ford (Parade's End, Vol. 2)
BOMB 60 of 45
Source: gift from me to me!
Rating: pending

I liked this second volume of the Tietjens Tetralogy better than the first. We spend more time with T. at the battalion, where to my great delight he is responsible for the welfare of Canadian (and other colonial) troops. We see how he is affected by the horrors of war, even at some remove from the actual fighting, and how Sylvia's behaviour and other aspects of his personal life have an effect on his military position. General Campion gets a fair amount of airplay in this volume, because he is sort of a godfather to T. and does his best to find T. a position that will mitigate the damage to his reputation caused by Sylvia.

One thing I did notice in this volume was the frequent use of "He, Tietjens" -- it reminded me of what I've read about the writing in Bring Up the Bodies (which is also on my "read eventually" list), where there is a need to clarify pronoun antecedents. Some scenes themselves also start out confusingly, but gradually explanation is provided. Still a very satisfying book. Onward to the third volume!

121. A Caribbean Mystery, by Agatha Christie
BOMB 61 of 45
Source: Big Box o'Christies
Rating: 3.5/5

Miss Marple has a pretty generous nephew; he's sent her to the West Indies for a nice relaxing vacation. Of course, there's only so much time one can spend sitting on the beach and knitting, chatting with the other guests of one's seaside hotel. Unfortunately, one of these guests, Major Palgrave, passes away under what seem to be natural causes. Marple is not convinced though, and decides to investigate.

This was a pleasant enough mystery. I particularly enjoyed Marple's conversations with elderly millionaire Mr Rafiel -- the two of them made a pretty good detecting duo, and Mr Rafiel is so consistently blunt with everyone that it is very entertaining to read. I didn't guess the outcome, not that I try very hard, and perhaps the only bit I didn't like was the very end, which seemed a bit too cheery and tidy. But overall I liked this one and hope that the forthcoming TV adaptation will be faithful to the source text.

November BOMBS recap, since I am unlikely to finish another one in the next two days.

BOMBS neutralized: 5

Poirot Investigates, by Agatha Christie
Some Do Not..., by Ford Madox Ford (Parade's End, Vol. 1)
The Double Cross System in the War of 1939 to 1945, by J.C. Masterman
No More Parades, by Ford Madox Ford (Parade's End, Vol. 2)
A Caribbean Mystery, by Agatha Christie

Thank goodness I decided to count each novel in the Parade's End tetralogy as a separate BOMB ;)

Book of the Month: Double Cross: The True Story of the D-Day Spies, by Ben Macintyre

More library books... *looks around innocently*

122. Travels With My Aunt, by Graham Greene
Source: library
Rating: 4/5

A delightfully fun novel that shares a title and the events of the first four chapters with the movie starring Maggie Smith, but other than that very much its own creature. Henry Pulling meets his aunt for the first time at his mother's funeral. A recently retired bank manager, Henry is stolid, sedate and set in his ways, very unlike his adventuresome aunt. However, she persuades him to join her on her travels, first to Brighton, and then much further afield, getting embroiled in all sorts of antics along the way. If you like Graham Greene, you'll probably like this one.

123. Ordinary Thunderstorms, by William Boyd
Source: library
Rating: 3.5/5

Overall about what I was expecting: a thriller with more-elegant-than-average writing, with enough London scenery to keep me happy after my recent trip. I especially liked how the story began in Chelsea (and that may have been the primary reason for picking it up…). There are quite a few characters, though, so if you're reading this I suggest not spacing it out too much, just to make sure everyone can be kept organized in your head. I don't know how this compares with the rest of Boyd's work, but I wouldn't say no to another of his books.

I found out about this book from the BBC Book at Bedtime, of all places... quite a selection they have!

124. Translation is a Love Affair, by Jacques Poulin
Source: library
Rating: 3/5

This is a book about a translator who translates the works of a noted Québécois novelist into English and how their lives are changed by the arrival of a small black cat. It's been described as "quietly affecting", which is a pretty fair assessment. Our narrator, the translator (Marine), chooses her words with care and tells the story in a very matter-of-fact manner. Her sentences roll along smoothly and gently steer us through the events that take place. I liked this book for its protagonist, its love of language and the portrayal of a male-female friendship that did not involve them sleeping together. They have a very warm, affectionate friendship but no need for sex, and that is heartening to see in fiction.

Overall I liked this but may have overhyped it somewhat in my head because OMG TRANSLATOR PROTAGONIST HURRAY HURRAY REPRESENT. Recommended if you like. And if you do read it, get the Archipelago Books edition because it is lovely.

125. Up and Down, by Terry Fallis
BOMB 62 of 45
Source: Chapters gift card, part of a belated post-birthday shopping spree, Sep 2012
Rating: 4.5/5

I've read and enjoyed all of Terry's books, but this is probably my favourite of his works. His enthusiasm for the space program really shines through in this story and makes me want to read more about it! (Specifically, there's a book about the Challenger disaster I took out of the library but had to return unread... maybe next year I'll get it out again.) His protagonist here, former ministerial aide turned PR flack David Stewart, specializes in the self-deprecating humour and deadpan narration I have a soft spot for, the other characters have their share of delightful eccentricities, and the action pretty much never lets up throughout. There are also some quite touching moments with regard to David's family. All in all, well worth my "buy on spec".

126. A Man Could Stand Up, by Ford Madox Ford (Parade's End, Vol. 3)
BOMB 63 of 45
Source: Chapters
Rating: pending

Finally 3/4 of the way through the tetralogy. This volume started off a little more rockily for me than the others, mainly because it seemed to be more about an experimental/unusual writing style than recounting events in a straightforward manner (my preferences tend to the more straightforward). But I ended up warming to it. I found the last couple of chapters painfully romantic -- i.e., I was in actual physical pain because I thought it was so cute -- although I'm not sure whether I'm supposed to think that. Pretty sure I can ascribe those feelings to the fact that Benedict Cumberbatch plays Christopher Tietjens in the TV miniseries. (I had similar issues with South Riding because I knew David Morrissey was playing Robert Carne, but in both cases I figure acknowledging these issues is some small victory.)

This book is about coming home, and life after the war, when A Man Can Stand Up on a hill and not worry about getting shot at. As far as I can tell the title, which comes up frequently in the text, is about people being free to live their lives without fear. The last chapter was also interesting because it had the elements of a homecoming but also seemed a bit like a weird dream verging on a nightmare. Pretty cool effect.

Looking forward to the last volume and am debating bringing The Cumberbook (as I call my copy, festooned as it is with images of Cumberbatch as Tietjens) home for Christmas. It would be nice to actually finish this in 2012.

127. Doc, by Mary Doria Russell
Source: library
Rating: 4.5/5

The only reason my rating isn't a full 5 at this point is I honestly can't believe I've had such good book luck lately. Don't be surprised if I end up bumping it up once I write a real review. Doc was amazing. The narration, while third-person, felt like its own character in places and proved to be very engaging indeed. Doc was a captivating character; I was reading this on the bus, and when I arrived at my destination I had to shake off the book world and try not to speak to anybody in a Georgia accent, as tempting as the prospect was.

Before reading this, basically all I knew about Doc Holliday was the fact that he existed and was somehow involved in the shootout at the OK Corral (and about that, all I know is that it happened). I can't decide whether it's a good thing or a bad thing to go in blind like that. But it seems to have worked out for me; I was absorbed fully by the story, loved how the sections and chapter names were related to poker, and frequently chuckled at some of the characters' conversations. Another pleasant surprise was the bibliophile Morgan Earp, who would often have book discussions with Doc or Wyatt.

Very, very highly recommended for those who like Westerns, or even for those who don't.

128. Just My Type: A Book About Fonts, by Simon Garfield
Source: library
Rating: 4.5/5

Do you like to muck about with fonts, testing out all of the options your computer has before choosing Palatino, say, or Verdana for that letter or business proposal? Do you hold strong opinions on the merits of serif versus sans serif, or have "favourite" fonts* or fonts you love to hate? If so, this book is for you. Author Simon Garfield illustrates the history of type from the days of Gutenberg to the present, highlighting fonts that have taken over the world (Helvetica), fonts that people want banned (Comic Sans), and fonts so strongly associated with brands that abandoning them gives rise to some very heated discussion (Futura). The history chapters are interspersed with "Font Breaks", where Garfield talks about a specific font, explains its development and points out some of the quirks that make it special. I also liked the discussion of more recent fonts, such as Calibri and the font used for the 2012 Olympic Games.

Recommended for typography enthusiasts, people who like books as physical objects, and anyone who's ever spent an afternoon playing with Letraset.

*my favourites are probably Book Antiqua, Palatino and American Typewriter.

I'm fond of Book Antiqua and Palatino myself. However, I confess I also like Comic Sans! I never heard that people want to ban it - why?

It was originally designed for a simplified version of a Microsoft product, where Times New Roman looked kind of out of place. Because of its clarity and similarity to handwriting, it is supposed to be a very good font for people with dyslexia. But it's somewhat overused and looks kind of funny when it is (over)used in business context. The author wrote an article about the issue here:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-11582548

Thanks! Very interesting!

Two BOMBS to start the holiday season right!

129. Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen
BOMB 64 of 45
Source: gift card
Rating: 5/5

I reread this after seeing an excellent theatrical production of the book and was as delighted as ever. I did skim more this time around, possibly because I was trying to get to the good bits and also I wanted to finish this reread before going on vacation. Not much else I want to say, really!

130. Sherlock Holmes: The Rediscovered Railway and other stories, by John Taylor (audio, narrated by Benedict Cumberbatch)
BOMB 65 of 45
Source: iTunes
Rating: 4/5

Basically, three stars for the content, an extra star added for the benefit of Mr. Cumberbatch's excellent narration. There are four stories in this collection and my favourites are probably the two that actually deal with the railways. Two stories have a similar structure so that kind of detracts from their effectiveness, but overall these were an enjoyable way to spend 2 hours on the train. I particularly liked Benedict's American accent (or rather I found it amusing that the American character had the same first name!) and the fact that he didn't use falsetto for the female voices, just softened his voice a bit. I'd read more of these John Taylor Sherlock Holmes stories if Benedict narrated them.

One borrowed book, two BOMBS -- I'm really whipping through the books this week!

131. Rainbow Valley, by L.M. Montgomery
Source: borrowed from parents
Rating: 3/5

Basically another undemanding, heartwarming installment in the Anne of Green Gables series. However, Anne herself doesn't make much of an appearance; it's more about her kids and their friendship with the children of the new pastor, John Meredith. The book explores both childhood fun and coming to terms with the grown-up world, as the eldest Blythe child, Jem, is preparing to go away to university, and Walter has visions of a "pied piper" calling all the boys away to the other side of the world (foreshadowing WW1 perhaps?). Read it if you've already started the series.

132. The Last Post, by Ford Madox Ford (Parade's End, Vol. 4)
BOMB 66 of 45
Source: Chapters
Rating: pending

(why did the first touchstone for The Last Post point to The Hunger Games?!)

Finally finished the behemoth that is Parade's End. This last volume feels so much more different from the others, because it focuses more on Christopher's elder brother, Mark, and what has happened to him since the war ended. He has vowed never to speak or move again, so his wife, Marie Léonie, has to care for him day and night. We spend a lot of time in Mark's head as he tries to figure out the truth behind his father's apparent suicide and what will happen to the great house at Groby once Sylvia, Christopher's hurry-up-and-be-his-ex-wife-already, has finished wreaking havoc with it. This means the book feels a lot more "stream-of-consciousness" and takes some patience to get through, but the ending wraps things up well while still leaving us scope to imagine the story continuing on after the last page is turned.

This was a very rewarding tetralogy and I cannot WAIT to see the miniseries (and then read the book again).

133. Let's Hear it For the Deaf Man, by Ed McBain
BOMB 67 of 45
Source: bought secondhand somewhere a long time ago
Rating: 4.5/5

This is my favourite 87th Precinct novel because of the plot and the title (I have a weakness for puns). In this book, the squad's nemesis, the Deaf Man, is planning a bank robbery and intends to carry it off with the assistance of the police. But he plays fair, in his mind -- he sends them clues in the form of photostats, telling them where and when the heist will occur. And meanwhile they have to deal with the usual cop shop stuff, like a string of cat burglaries and what appears to have been a crucifixion. McBain's usual snappy dialogue and a-character-in-its-own-right third-person narration combine with the action to make this a fun, breezy read with just enough bite.

I consider it unlikely that I'll finish any more BOMBS in the next few days, so I'll do my December recap.

BOMBS neutralized: 6

Up and Down, by Terry Fallis
A Man Could Stand Up --, by Ford Madox Ford (Parade's End, Vol. 3)
Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen (reread)
Sherlock Holmes: The Rediscovered Railway Mysteries and Other Stories, by John Taylor (audio)
The Last Post, by Ford Madox Ford (Parade's End, Vol. 4)
Let's Hear it for the Deaf Man, by Ed McBain (reread)

Total BOMBS neutralized in 2012: 67
Original goal: 45

Overall it's been a pretty productive year. Looking forward to further books-off-the-shelf adventures in 2013!