Bekka's 75 in 2012

Well 2011 was a good if not prolific reading year. I knocked a good chunk of my intended reading, but by no means got through it all.

I am still left with these to finish!

Grapes of Wrath
Wild Swans
The Moonstone
Cranford
A Prayer for Owen Meany
Metamorphoses - Ovid

(plus a few others I've started so I'll finish;
Surfacing - Atwood
The Devil and Miss Prym - Coelho
A Dance with Dragons - Martin
Eugene Grandet - Balzac
Autumn of the Patriarch - Marquez
Henderson the Rain King - Bellow)

And these are still on my 'to be read' pile

Tom Jones - Fielding
The Sun also Rises - Hemingway
Stranger in a Strange Land - Heinlein
Bonfire of the Vanities - Woolfe
Complicity - Banks
Alias Grace - Atwood
Tipping the Velvet - Waters

And hell, I know me - I'll add a new 'interested' in pile later...

Oh - I'm also planning on reading Clarissa throughout the year (lining up the diary entries to match the actual date).

Good Reading everyone!

Hi Bekka - am looking forward to following your reading next year.

Happy New Reading Year, Bekka!

Hiding all the way down here, for shame, anyone would think you didn't want to be found!

Glad to see you back, Bekka! I know exactly what you mean about the 'interested in' pile!

Welcome back!

Thanks for the welcomes guys.

And I'm not hiding Richard - just being sneaky ;)

Am thinking I'm going to get a good flying start on 2012 - what possessed me to start another two books in the last three days of 2011?

#7: what possessed me to start another two books in the last three days of 2011?

Obviously, like the rest of us, you are a glutton for punishment!

Plus in the closnig days of 2011 everything seems to have become about Good v Evil which is slightly weird - last books have been Rasselas and Candide and am currently reading (amongst other things as always)The Inferno and The Devil and Miss Prym. All about humanities choices and essential evil. Odd and unintentional.

Happy New Year Bekka. As it is now 2012 I think it's time to start dropping off some



Here's to another good year of reading:)

Happy New Year, Bekka! Good luck with your to-do list! Some great titles on there!

Happy New Year, Bekka!

I'm having one of those 'I want to highlight every line' moments with Barbusse's The Inferno. This line just made me think of you guys;

'I know that the map of a country is composed of conventional lines and different names, that our innate love of self leads us closer to those that are like-minded than to those who belong to the same geographical group, and we are more truly compatriots of those who understand and love us and who are on the level of our own souls, or who suffer the same slavery than of those whom we meet on the street.'

#13: I want a LOVE button on LT for that quote!

Yup - that was my reaction. I'm going to have to break my no buying books rule to buy a copy of this and a high-lighter and just go nuts on it. It's actually meshing up surprisingly well with The Devil and Miss Prym.

Interesting combination of books, Bekka. I have not read either of them, so I look forward to seeing what you think about them when you are done.

I read Barbusse's Under Fire recently and I had a similar reaction--I seem to have highlighted half the book. Must get to Inferno soon.

That's a wonderful quote. And another book for my WL (and it's still so early in the year)

Happy New Year Bekka! One day I would like to read Clarissa (and reading the letters/diary entries on the same date as they were written sounds fun) but not this year I think. Are you reading from a paper copy or ebook? I saw a paper copy in Waterstone's and it's absolutely enormous!

#13 Also love that quote from The Inferno.

#1 The Inferno - Henri Barbusse

What an amazing way to start the year! This is a simple story and really quite short - the premise is that the narrator is staying in a lodging house and discovers a gap between his room and the next through which he can watch what happens in there.

What he sees and hears reveals a number of truths about himself, the world, humanity. The quote in my comment above is one of my favourites but there are any number of brilliant lines in this. Yes, parts of it are a little over done - but then it is always a thin line to walk when discussing these subjects. All in all I loved it - a 5 star read to start 2012 on an amazing note.

#17 I've just downloaded Under Fire - it's a lot longer though! It may have to wait a little while whilst I clear some backlog ;/

#18 I hope you enjoy - it's really short so wont take long. Worth spending time on though.

#19 E-format - saving the trees on this one. It is a bit of a giant.

#2 The Devil and Miss Prym - Paulo Coelho

Well this continues my unintentional reading that delves into the good/evil/humanity of man. It's a bit hard to precis this one. A stranger arrives in a small dying mountain town and uses them as an experiment into the evil of man. A slender read and, as always, I enjoyed Coelho's style of writing. It was also a fascinating exploration of human nature - oh and I liked how Coelho's angels and devils really existed.

But I was somewhat let down by the ending - and unfortunately it felt a little shallow in comparison to the Barbusse I just finished.

Still - 4 stars at least.

Hi Bekka. I've started a discussion on this year's tutored reads thread about the tutored read of A Tale of Two Cities that we discussed last year. Would love to hear your thoughts if you're still interested.

Oooh interesting - I'll def pop my head in from time to time to see what's going on. Just not sure when I'll get to ToTC. I just can't seem to commit myself to anything at the moment - I keep starting things then getting distracted!

That's a great quote Bekka - is it a 1001 book? 2 books by Jan 3 with 2 small children is pretty amazing...

Ta for the flowers Cushla, but undeserved :) I started these a few days before the end of 2011 - and they are both very short. And yes - both are 1,001s.

Oh and I seriously may throttle the elder of my two. She's nearly 4 but is having some major younger sibling envy and acting out. It's exhausting.

You liked the Coelho better than I did, I was glad when I was done with both from the list. But it might have been the translation, most Spanish/ Portuguese books sound stupid when transferred into German.

I only now noticed that the Barbusse books are free on gutenberg, and now I downloaded both. Never before has a year started with so many new books!

Congrats on your reading year getting off to such a great start, Bekka!

Fast start to the year... slow continuing though! Still distracted from really getting anything finished.

Started Cannery Row for the Steinbeckathon and loving that.

#3 Cannery Row - I put in a concerted effort and finished this last night. I don't really know what I can say that hasn't been said - it's a beautiful book about un-beautiful things. No direct story line just tales from...well... from Cannery Row. The majority of the stories ebb around Mack and the boys from the Palace Flophouse and Doc at his Laboratory.

I found that I got really upset towards the end - the first party nearly made me cry because there was so much thwarted and foolish good intent, mixed with the slapstick of the frogs etc. You knew if would all go wrong and yet you just wanted it to be okay.

I think my favourite chapter was the collection of the frogs by Mack and the boys - just the nature descriptions and the journey.

Honestly, my lucky streak continues - out of the three books this year, this is the second five star and the second book that I want to buy a paper copy and keep highlighting. Brilliant book.

Great review, Bekka! I also loved the 'frog currency' story and how the prices in frogs went up during that day.

'
I couldn't resist posting this - my little book monster!

Bekka- Love the photo! No wonder the little guy is frustrated- That's a lot of books to choose from!

#4 A Dance with Dragons - George R Martin

See, I hate the phrase 'A game of two halves' but in this case it's apt. The first half of this book covers the same time frame as the fourth book and is similarly disappointing - oh fun of course, but nowhere near his best work. Then during the second half he suddenly seems to get his act together and get back to the writing which I loved in the first three books.

I'm not going to do any sort of plot summary or anything like that because, well, its book five and it you haven't read the others it'll make no sense. And if you have read the others you'll understand that the history of his books is so vast it can't really be summarised, I will say it does not get any less complex!

Oh and the last few lines are creepy as all hell - to the point I actually had a nightmare last night.

So some bad, some good, a few chapters of brilliant. And I cannot wait to read the next one.

I have to get to that series, those Martin books turn up everywhere. But earliest in May.

Be prepared for lots of murder, gore, rape, pillage, sex, betrayal... you know, that sort of thing. The adaptation is brilliant as well.

#5 Surfacing - Margaret Atwood

I officially need to go back and read this again. When I started it I hated it - mainly because it was my 'bag' book. Which means I only got to read about 8 pages maybe 2 days a week. Slow going and it did not lend itself to this book.

Then I got into it. And got hooked - and the book got a lot weirder, which I of course enjoy. The premise seems fairly simple - a nameless female narrator goes back from the city where she is living to the small Canadian village she grew up in to look for her father has gone missing. Of necessity she takes her married friends and her boyfriend (she needs the lift). Gradually Atwood peels back layer upon layer of truth - or rather the lies get peeled away, leaving some rather unpalatable truths.

It's a thin book with a big lot of themes in there - the imposition of the city on the country, America's impact on Canada, family and relationships, the lies we tell ourselves... hell there are loads more but I've falled for the book now and I could probably go on a while. It's only 180 pages - go read it yourselves :)

You make Surfacing sound awfully appealing. But *I* shall resist! Atwood and me, we're not so compatible, apart from our brief fling during The Handmaid's Tale.

Good review of Surfacing. I haven't read it..... okay, who am I kidding, I haven't read any of Atwood's works so far, so this sounds like a good place to start. Thanks!

Oh, you give me hope for Surfacing! I've read and enjoyed other Atwood (for various levels of enjoyment), but I failed on my one attempt to read Surfacing, some years ago. Will have to give it another go and just try to get past the start. :)

Found you, and starred you!

Haven't read any Atwood yet, but as she's on the 1001 list with 3 books I'll get to her eventually. It's a great review and I'll try to keep it in mind when I read it one day and hate the beginning. 180 pages sound doable.

Hope you all like it - and go-on go-on go-on Richard. Though I do warn you, the Americans are emphatically not the goodies in this.

Today I am mostly being stupidly proud of the fact that I have finished the second e-chunk of my Ovid - which means I am starting Book 12 of it today. Only 4 sections/books to go. Yay!

#6 Wild Swans - Jung Chang

I think I may have started this in 2010. But it's such a big book it's lived in the bathroom and been read in tiny bites. Tiny appreciative bites, don't get me wrong. This is a wonderful book - and more its an important book. Thenovel covers a century of chinese history - the pain and persecution. It's one of those subjects that your know vaguely about but not really any specifics. This book is all about the specifics - about what the people really went through. There are a lot of things in life you can only imagine and can't really understand unless you've been through and everything that her family went through is one of those things. But I think, oddly enough, the thing that I empathised with most was the lack of literature, the embracing of ignorance under Mao's reign. That was more accessible to me than the physical suffering which had an abstract horror.

Anyway I'm waffling. This year is a good book year so far - I honestly believe that everyone should read this. The language is beautiful, the subject painful and the narrator brilliant. Big thumbs up.

Oh, I'm glad you liked Wild Swans! I read that when it first came out, and I've never forgotten some of the stories. That cultural revolution still turns my stomach.

#7 Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas - Thompson

Huh. So everyone knows the plot right? Lots of drugs + vegas + narrator and attorney = madness. And I'll admit the first few pages did make me laugh out loud with the sheer insanity of the amount of drugs they had with them. But after a while, much as their high-jinks were still somewhat amusing, I realised that this is probably not the book for me. I have a serious aversion to drug culture/drug abuse due to some past family issues and a few things in this just made me rather upset.

But that's probably more my issue than the books - it did mean that I might have missed the imbedded philosophy of the novel (was there some) and read it rather like one would watch The Hangover, rather than how one would watch the actual Fear and Loathing film. Not sure that makes any sense.

I just found your thread, and it looks like we have some similar interests, so I'll be looking forward to following along with your reads.

I read Fear and Loathing a long time ago and I don't know that it made a big impression on me. But a couple of years ago I read Hell's Angels and that was really, really good. It's before he really settled into the crazy drugs lifestyle. I mean, it's the Hell's Angels, so it's not like there were no drugs at all, but it wasn't the main theme.

Thanks Ursula - I just pottered over and starred you in return :) I've seen so many people enjoying The Night's Circus I think I'm going to have to give it a go... of course that wll involve it beating it's way to the top of Mount TBR...

Glad to see you've joined us on the group read of Clarissa as well - I've found I'm actually looking forward to Feb to keep reading it!

You've been reading some good books. Got ya starred.

Bekka- Good review of A Dance with Dragons. Martin can be a bit frustrating at times. No question, he can use some editing but when he hits those highs, he really takes you places.

Ta Morphy :) I've been off sick for a couple of days so reading faster than usual!

And ta Mark too - he's a bit like Jordan I find - in that Jordan's middle chunk of the Wheel of Time is almost trudgeworthy, but when they're good they're frickin' awesome.

Oh sh*t my son should not be in that cupboard...

Ooof - I survived the combo 1st and 4th birthday party - just! Might actually be able to stop baking and get some books finished now...

After Wild Swans, I think you deserve a rest....

Well done on the birthday party... How many kids did you have? And congrats on your bubba turning one already, seems like he just arrived!

Wild Swans must be in the running for my oldest TBR book. I think I've owned it for 22 years!

I know - how is he 1? Actually he's not till the 14th but I popped a joint party between their days. We rented a hall cos my house is tiny and had about 20 or so kids. Absolute carnage, especially cos Will has yet another chest infection.

But now I have wine and all is okay.

Wild Swans is awesome by the way. And Richard, a rest from reading??? but, but, but, that's nonseniscal. How can one rest without a book? I'll admit I'm indulging in Fantasy February though :)

No, no, dearest, I meant from *chores*! I wasn't specific, sorry. After finishing a tome like that, one deserves for the domestic party of the second part to assume all chore-age for a stated period of time, say 1 week for all pages over 750, two weeks over 1000.

But now I have wine and all is okay.

Oh, yeah!

#55 Hmmm I'll let you off :)

#56 Unfortunately it didn't stop the sounds of children still running through my head even with silence all around. So I went to bed early and read something easy instead.

#8 Scion of Cyador - L.E Modesitt Jr

OOof... that was too much like hard work to be honest. But once I'd ploughed halfway through I felt invested and obligated to finish the other 500 pages. I normally enjoy his stuff but this one was pretty dire. The politics were overly convoluted and badly explained - and yet the end result of the novel was always obvious.

Still, one down for Fantasy Feb and now I can go start Snuff. Yay!

#9 Henderson the Rain King - Saul Bellow

My first Bellow - and what a one. It's the most amazing mix of complete insanity and emotional turmoil. In synopsis the main character, Henderson, flees his life in the US, flees his second wife, his kids, his money (he has a lot) and his pigs and ends up wandering around Africa. He feels he has what I belive a lot of us have - which is a small voice inside saying I want, I want, I want. He is searching to find an answer, searching to find some sort of resolution to the questions of his life.

It took me a long time to read this - not sure why, but it was like taking little sips. Great sips, but a bit rich and heady to have too much at once. This book is still sinking in but I'm pretty sure that my overall answer will be that I, eventually, decide I love this novel.

The plot sounds intriguing and I like slow books. I'll put it on my watchlist - not for now though, my soon-tbr is already way too long.

#10 Decline and Fall - Evelyn Waugh

Need I say anything about this? Waugh at his best - brilliant, hilarious and creating irresistible characters . Excellent.

My Nana died last week. Her funeral is today in the north of England. And my island chooses yesterday to have a bloody white out - first time it's been this bad in over two years. No boats that would get us there in time. No way to get through France and get there in time.

No planes moved yesterday. None today (though we wouldn't get there in time anyway). I am on the wrong damn rock. I think my Dad's heart is breaking.

So so so sad.

Bekka, I'm so so sorry to read this- both about your Nanna and the fog. I had seen your FB update and wondered but now I get it. My Pop died just after we'd got to Switzerland, and I really wish I'd been able to go to his funeral. Thinking of you from down here in NZ.

#62 Bekka, so sorry to hear the news about your Nana and the fog.

Bekka, I am so sorry your Nana died. And how sad and unfair that the fog kept you away from her funeral. Thinking of you and hope you (and your Dad if he's on the same rock) will be able to fly tomorrow.

Thanks guys. It's still not really sunk in that we've missed it all. Fog still very much with us - nothing is moving anywhere.

Sometimes things are just not meant to be I guess.

edited to add - Fog cleared around noon on Saturday. Exactly the time we were supposed to fly back. I might be an agnostic but the world is defnitely screaming at me that we were just not meant to go.

#11 Snuff - Terry Pratchett

The latest Vimes adventure - and a great one at that. Not quite as good as Thud! which honestly made me cry but brilliant fun. I loved that Pratchett took Vimes out of the city and into the countryside - being a country girl I appreciated the parodies.

I can't wait for Pratchett's next novel - he's currently writing a non-discworld novel with sci-fi writer Stephen Baxter. All about parallel earths - I'm very excited.

Hi BekkaJo- I'm sorry to hear about your Nana! I hope you guys get out okay. I read Henderson the Rain King, (my only Bellow) many years ago, so I don't remember much.

Hi BekkaJo - I think we've chit-chatted in the 1001 group, but since I spend much more time here, I thought I'd star your thread. We seem to have somewhat similar taste in literature.

I'm also very sorry to hear about your Nana. Take care.

#68 Hi Mark - revisit Henderson - it's worth it. And thank you, but I won't be heading over to the UK now - there's no real point in going now, though that sounds awful when I write it down.

#69 Hi Kerri - welcome to my little bit of the 75-ers. Fingers crossed I might get closer this year than last year. Hoping to hit about 260 on my 1,001 this year as well (think I'm on 248 so that should be do-able).

#12 The Iron Heel - Jack London

Meh. I generally enjoy a good dystopian novel as much as the next slightly odd geek. But this just left me cold for some reason - I don't know if it was the first person narrator that irked me or that it had a little too much 'anything for the cause' for my tastes.

Just a bit depressing.

#71 - In reality, it's pretty mediocre, but I admit to finding it kind of endearing as in-your-face, lefty propaganda from that era.

There was something about it - I think it's one of those 'read-at-the-wrong-time' books. Maybe i'll revisit in a few years - the copy I was reading was frm reserve stock at my library and came out of a boxed set of three, maybe four of his novels that appeared to be on the same sort of vein, so maybe I'll try one of those instead.

#73 - I actually haven't read any of his other work. I probably should. I did just find a Jack London biography on Audible just now, when looking up Bronson Pinchot narrated books (who knew that silly man was such a fine audiobook narrator?). Anyway, I put it on my wishlist. Jack London was an interesting fellow.

#13 Tipping the Velvet - Sarah Waters

I just want to go straight out and get more Sarah Waters - this was brilliant. Her writing is so vivid - the exuberance, the life, the colour of her writing is just enthralling. Her characters are very human - messy and flawed like all of us.

If you've missed this novel (and here I go with the spoilers), its the story of a girl from Whitstable, born to a family of oyster sellers. She falls in love with a girl who she sees on stage at a dance hall and her story spans the next 7 years or so - sees her pass through so many stages and changes to eventually become completely comfortable in her own sexuality and her own self.

Loved it.

#14 Metamorphoses - Ovid

Well finally! This has honestly taken me about a year to finish. I know, I know - classic and essential literature. I do not disagree - the stories are amazing and, as Ovid himself notes in the last tale, his words have truly lived on and passed down the generations.

But. And it is a big but, the translation I read is the 1899 Riley version 'literaly translated with notes and explanations'.

Copious explanations. So whilst I loved reading the tales, many of which I was familiar with, in their original form, I found the translation exceedingly hard work. I would love to read this again but to find a better/more modern translation which would allow me to enjoy this more.

Extra little cheer - this is book 250 for me of the 1,001 to read before you die.

#15 The Hunger Games - Suzanne Collins

Well there's been so much written about these that I just had to jump on the band wagon. And you know what? Surprisingly good. Will def be reading the next one - I mean I know it's never going to set the literary world alight and it's most definitely YA, but good entertainment none the less.

#16 Autumn of the Patriarch - Gabriel Garcia Marquez

This was a major major struggle to get through. Marquez seemes to have decided to throw out the grammar book and just go without. I enjoy experimental literature but this was excessive and far too much like hard work.

Basically it's the story of the decaying president - it starts with his death then works back to it through the book. Some of the insanity that he accidentally casues is hilarious - till it inevitably ends in tragedy. For example his government rigged a lottery and two children pulled the cards - but they of course were told what was going on. After the lottery they couldn't be sent home in case they told, so they were imprisoned. And this happened time after time - by the time the PResident fo9udn out there were thousands of children in jail - so he sends them off on a boat. Which goes round the worl a few times then 'accidentally' sinks. It's a completely mad book by the way...

I enjoyed the final pages which basically said that whilst eveyone in his country and indeed the world were exactly sure who he was and what he was, he himself had no idea and was totally lost.

Hi BekkaJo- Good reviews! I really want to read more Waters. I've only read Fingersmith. Glad you liked the Hunger Games.

Ta Mark :)

#17 Catching Fire - Suzanne Collins

Anyone else read this waiting for them to end up in the arena? It felt like a long build up for an inevitable event that was not as effective as the first time. I think her concept of the second arena was harder to convey than the first so it got confusing in places. I'm still going to read the last one - though I've heard it's not as good so I'm prepared to be underwhelmed.

#18 Mockingjay - Suzanne Collins

This had a little of the 'I've started so I'll finish' quality about it - yes I did enjoy it but it is unfortunately nowhere near as good as the other two. I wont include any spoilers - these are a light and easy read, though this one does have some upsetting bits. I will say that she surprised me a couple of times - mainly in relation to characters she was willing to kill off. Rather upsetting for the YA bracket.

Hello dear, flying through on my broom xo

Hi Bekka - just waving hello from down here!

Hiya - wavies to either end of the earth for you both. I am still lurking around - albeit quietishly at the mo :)

#81: I wonder how they will manage all those most cruel killings in movie #3 if they want to keep their rating (12yrs in Germany).

I wondered that myself Nathalie - book 3 is seriously gory.

How are you going with Clarissa? I feel like it's consuming all my reading time just to keep on top of it at the moment.

I read and read and am still only 2 days ahead of the current date, I can't gain ground . Whatever great things might happen plotwise, I fear this book is at least 500 pages too long. It's so repetitive.

Ditto - it's seriously dragging at the moment. I keep thinking I've gotten a bit ahead and then there's a letter from two days before shoved in just to irritate me! Plus - NOTHING has happened in the last week. Sigh...

Sorry to be a bit awol - not seeming to finish any books :/ Clarissa is going to last forever and work is massively intefering with my reading. Work is in fact just interfering with life in general - far far too stressed for thinking about anything.

I am reading The Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao and loving that though.

Hi BekkaJo- I'm glad you are enjoying Oscar Wao. I was a big fan too and I loved those footnotes.

Well... the Easter Bunny bought me a stomach virus. Yuck. Not a happy me.

But I did finish another book;
#19 The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao - Junot Diaz

This is a really hard book to comment on - at least to give any sort of cohesive review (not that mine normally are anyway) simply because of the fragmented nature of the novel. It skips in time through the history of Oscar, his older sister Lola, his mother and his Grandfather. And his friend for a bit. It's an amazing look at the impact of the dictator upon society (goes well with Autumn of the Patriarch that I read earlier in the year) and how the things that happened 60 years ago still haunt modern characters.

You have to love Oscar - he's just so utterly clueless and sad. Plus all the geeky references are things that I have, at one time or another, indulged in. Or at least if I haven't my hubby has. In some ways the book is a brilliant celebration of geekiness.

Anyway, if you haven't read it, I would really recommend it - it really is well, well worth it.

edited to add; Hi Mark - sorry, missed you in there. The footnotes are great - though reading it in e-format and them being quite long, sometimes I ended up pages ahead of the actual narrative and had to back track. D'oh!

Hi BekkaJo, enjoying your thread - you've convinced me to read Cannery Row and some Evelyn Waugh, but I'm not so sure about Jack London, have you read any of his other books? I heard The Road was good...

#92 Hiya - thank you for visiting - and glad to have sold you on the Steinbeck and Waugh (all great). Actually The Iron Heel is the first London I've read, so I'm also in the dark on his other work. I think I might try Call of the Wild but it can wait a while I think!

On your page you have currently reading Norwegian Wood - what do you think? I read it last year and really enjoyed it. In fact I'm getting those Murakami urgings again - I think Kafka on the Shore is going to be in my near future.

Have you read The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet? Is Oscar Wao the same type of fragmented?

BekkaJo- I'm starting to get that Murakami itch too! I would like to get to his latest in a few months but I might try a story collection in the meantime.
Kafka on the Shore was my first and still my favorite.

Hi Bekka. Sorry to hear about your stomach virus :-(

Glad you enjoyed Tipping the Velvet so much. I'm slowly making my way through all the Sarah Waters books. So far I've enjoyed The Night Watch the most. I'm hoping to read The Little Stranger soon.

#94 Hi Morphy - not one I've read I'm afraid. Just read the Amazon blurb though and will probably be downloading it when I get home.

#95 See, I'm lucky. I only discovered Murakami in 2010 and I've only read two of them - plus they sate me for some time. So I get to choose from a good range (though I've been reading the 1,001 ones first).

#96 Thank you - it's been truly horrid. But I went ot get my sons 13 month immunisations yesterday and Doc took one look at me and gave me some sort of anti-sick injection. Didn't realise I looked that bad :/
Hmmm... The Night Watch is sitting on my shelf waiting for me...

Hello again, I just finished Norwegian Wood last night - I thought it was excellent, a (relatively) simple tale told with genuine brilliance, it's easy to see why so many people were touched by it. I liked the ending, for both the happy / sad duality and the way the meaning in the mysterious message from Midori's dying father was revealed. I think I preferred it to Kafka, by a narrow margin, as Kafka certainly makes you think more but ultimately I found some of the metaphors to be a bit heavy handed. I'm looking forward to reading The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle next I think.

Ooooh - Wind up Bird is BRILLIANT! One of my best reads of 2009 (I think - maybe 2010...I lose track!)

drive-by *smooch*

Smooches to you to my dear Richard.

Reading update... Clarissa is taking all my time up and I'm not getting to read anything else. It's seriously starting to piss me off. Urghhh.

#101: you're absolutely right. I read all the spoilers last week (there was a link on the Clarissa thread) to see if it is still worth the effort. It might become amusing at some point, in a way Richardson certainly had not intended it. But will I ever get there?

I'll put Oscar Wao on my WL.

Edited to ask: Is Pamela really worse?

Nope - Pamela is no longer worse. Plus, it's at the very least a lot shorter!

#20 Hunger - Knut Hamsun

Another fairly short 1,001 down. This was weird - basically it's a few weeks in the life of a man sinking into severe poverty and starvation. He's a writer who cannot write because he is, for the most part, starving to death and trying to remain a good person through it.

This is painful in places and almost funny in others. Not a hard read, but for some reason it didn't touch me as much as I feel it should have done.

Oh and if Clarissa continues taking up this much of my time it will be a 25 in 2012 year :(

Stoopid Clarissa.

Hello, I found you (love that threadbook- makes it so easy). And you have a little one too! How old is s/he? I thought Clarissa must have been your daughter and was thinking, oh, she's taking up so much of Bekka's time (I get that), and she pisses her off (uh oh, parenting can be quite demanding...) and then it clicked! haha

LOL! If my daughter was that annoying I'd have real problems. Though saying that she did give me a day of it yesterday... Cass is 4 and my boy Will is 14 months or so. I normally post more photos - just haven't seemed to take the camera out so much this year. And just realised my only one is on post 32 and doesn't show his head. Ooops!

cool! Yours are just a little older than mine....I have a 3.5 year old and a 9 month old. Both boys.....as you have probable seen on my thread....
:)

There are my two - these are from their joint party at the beginning of Feb. The girls were all fairies/disney princesses. Sigh - I'm the least girly person ever so I hope this phase doesn't last too long!

I also took this this morning and couldn't resist sharing - one of Will's first words (ish) has been 'ook - as he thrusts a book at you to read to him.

BekkaJo- Your kids are gorgeous! Will has the best blue eyes! Thanks for sharing.

Aww - thanks Mark. They both have beautiful blue eyes bless them, but I think Will's pop more. Plus he has those exceedingly unfair insanely long little boy eye lashes.

Right, stupidly long and tiring weekend, me for bed and Solaris.

"but I think Will's pop more". You said it!

oh! Cute, watch out drivers on the road with Will driving, he's a man on a mission!

#21 Play it as it lays - Joan Didion

Sincerely upsetting read. I picked this up at the suggestion of the 'what are you reading in April' 1,001 thread - a short easy 1,001. Short yes. Easy no. It basically tracks (in a pretty non linear fashion) the breakdown of a minor actress/model who married her producer. It's a painful commentary on the debauched play set life of 1970 America - the boredom and the drugs/alcohol that never makes anything better. You start with her in an asylum so you kinda know where you are going, but it's all about the journey - and you never get all the facts, even at the end you are left going 'but...'.

Timing is everything for books though - I find this more and more as I get older. Maybe I just understand more of what the characters are going through than I used to. Unfortunately my reading of this coincided with my friend losing a baby and having to have a D+C - which the narrator in the novel undertakes when aborting a child. I'm totally pro-choice it just upset me because of the timing. Plus in the novel it is not her choice - she wants the child but daren't risk losing custody of her existing daughter. Horrible.

Anyway a compelling read and an exceedingly affecting read. I'd recommend it but pick your timing more wisely than I did.

Is it possible I haven't commented on the pics yet? I might have looked at them while not signed in (which is often the case since I moved into the new office).

your kids are sooo cute, and I love Will's determined look behind the wheel. He was certainly also imitating car sounds? And Cass looks like a little ballerina!

Re. the book: annamorphic reviewed it very negatively in the 1001 group as well, with 1star only. Sadly it's still on the list, so I'll move it to my 'very last reads' category.

Aww ta Nathalie. And Cass does love her ballet - I keep forgetting to take my camera to her lessons though.

The book isn't bad - in fact it's very good. Just distressing. :/

That's a lovely photo of Will, Bekka! I don't have enough book photos of the kids.

I haven't read any Joan Didion but bought her White Album at the secondhand book sale several years ago. I am definitely not in the mood for her at the moment, by the sound of the one you just read.

Thanks Cushla - they do love their books, even if teaching Cass to read is somethign of an ongoing battle.

I'm vetoing anymore traumatic reads for a bit too - just finished this one;

#22 Solaris - Stanislaw Lem

Right so I can see why this is a sci-fi classic but... oh just irritating! It's half a good sci-fi novel and half a made up physics text book. I didn't like physics at school - I do not seek for it in my fiction. Or at least not when it is in chunks so much in excess of the explanations required.

The actual story is quite interesting - it's about a group of scientists researching a planet they discovered many years ago with an 'ocean' of a reactive substance they cannot explain. It appears to be toying with them and creating 'visitors' out of the crews memories. People they loved/felt guilty about - anyone they had strong emotions about. Eventually this is solved - now I write it like that it sounds very dull and it's certainly a slim enough read. It tries really hard to pile on the emotion but I felt like the impact was dulled by the dryness of the intervening sections.

Maybe leave that one for the physicists...

Had to post this - new reading chair... actually a sawn off arm chair that we had to take the legs off to get it out of Will's room. It was supposed to be going to the tip!

Hi Bekka - love the photos of your kids! Will's expression behind the wheel of that toy car is brilliant!

I've never read Solaris but I did quite enjoy the George Clooney film several years ago. I expect they probably left the physics out of the film.

The reading chair...! awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww

My papaw-meter just broke

>120 BekkaJo: I love it! Kids sized reading comfort. And a real novelty for the kids I reckon, what a great idea.

Aww ta guys - to be honest they love the chair too much. They only just fit together and neither will stay still for long so Will keeps getting catapulted out. D'oh!

Hubby and I have a week off together (mornings kids are still in nursery) to catch up on some house work - painting etc. So far? Not fun! I forgot how much he hates house work of any sort. I know it's a stereotype but his a computer geek of the worst kind. It did not need to be this stressful... GRRR!

Ah well. I'm going to go read and maybe actually finish a novel this month. At the rate I am going, maybe not...

#23 The Serpent's Shadow - Rick Riordan

Continuation of the Kane's storyline. Lots of ancient egyptian gods, epic battles against a backdrop of flowing lava and lakes of chaos, some ok and not too overdone teen romance. What more can one ask from in a teen novel?

Whilst this might be the last book of the Egyptian stuff for now, there's also a hint at the end that this may link into the greek/roman books at some point which would be interesting...

In other news... practise lemon and ginger cheesecake needs more gelatine and a bit less cream. Awefully tasty though.

I can't help but admire Rick Riordan for mining the pantheons of cultures past to edutain (educate/entertain) the yoofs of the world.

And a few of us wrinklies, too.

Just popping in to say hi. Rick Riordan is now firmly on my book radar for myself as well as eventually Fletch, because last week in class one of the boys kept trying to read the first one (you know, the one whose name I can't remember because it is 6.20 am and I haven't had my coffee yet... Percy Jackson and the blah blah) under the desk in maths. At first I asked him nicely to put the book away but 5 minutes later I caught him still doing it, so in the end I went over and whispered to him that I knew it was a great book but he HAD to learn about angles for the next half hour and took the book off him till the end of class. It was great to see him desperate to read.

The cheesecake sounds yummy if a bit runny.

Hi Richard - you said it. I do wonder if he's going to go for any others - could so some interesting aboriginal gods - Anansi etc. Or Norse with Odin and his whole stack. *Wanders off to read American Gods again.*

Hi Cushla - that's brilliant! It must be so hard when really you kinda want to say... ah go on read away... see - I'd so never make it as a maths teacher.

Cheesecake was yummy (I had to take half in to work to save me from myself) and firmed up nicely over night. Slightly too firm in fact - so can't win with gelatine.

Rick Riordan... another author I never heard of although he seems to be quite famous.

Awww... a reading chair for the kids!

Lemon and ginger cheesecake sounds too delicious. I admire your strength, for being able to keep some for your colleagues.

Taking mental notes for the weekend:
- order some Riordan Kindle sample
- bake something (preferably of the cheesecake kind)
- use my own reading chair to get through vol. 4 of "Clarissa"

See that sounds like a fun weekend - the cheesecake may even help you get through Clarissa. I was quite a bit ahead but I'm slipping a bit again. The letter I was reading last night nearly made me throw it away in disgust (then remembered it was my e-reader and that would be a BAD idea!) since it consists of Lovelace trying to decide whether to rape her. Meh.

I read this interesting information, that rape in those times was considered 'fair game', because as long as the woman was conscious during the act she was believed to have 'somehow' consented, because otherwise she would have fainted (or died?). So it also counted as 'losing one's virtue' and left the woman being ruined. LL has been considering this alternative for a while now, though still only subtly hinting at it (where I am now in the book - 3/4 of vol.4 read).

Really need some cheesecake now!

Yup - gotta love those libertines. Sounds like you're around the same place as I am - and actually Lovelace's following line fits with what you were saying;

"Yet force answers not my end--and yet it may, if there be truth in that part of the libertine's creed, That once subdued, is always subdued!"

I think it's the fact that once he does it she'll just do what he tells her bit that is irritating me. Between this and the albeit wonderful but exceedingly traumatising Grapes of Wrath I need cake too. Or maybe wine... bit early for that though :)

Clarissa is, second only to Pamela, the ghastliest pre-Dickens crime against fun ever perpetrated. The Napoleonic Wars, nay the March on Moscow, were more amusing than the experience of reading those, those, there isn't a word yet that means "fiction so horribly boring and excruciatingly stupid as to rate a mention in the UN Human Rights charter as a violation of same."

Carry on.

Pamela is actually better than Clarissa - basing this purely on the virtue of it being a third of the length.

I am sure that there has got to be some benefit to me reading this... some tiny benefit... no?

Grapes of Wrath is upsetting me too - I just know that even more bad things are going to happen and I don't want them to happen :(

Meh - I'm gonna go have a fancy birthday dinner with hubby. Nom nom nom. Will report on choices tomorrow. Supposedly tomorrow Alex (hubby) is taking kiddies to nursery whilst I loll loushly (sp?) in bed and snooze/read, before being brought croissants and bubbles in bed.

Anyone want to take bets on the likelihood of this actually happening?

A VERY HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU, BEKKA!!

I hope you got those croissants and champagne as wished.

I made cinnamon scones instead of cheesecake and they got me through vol. 4 of Clarissa + 200 pages of the tristesse that's Patterns of Childhood.

#133: I remember you warned me on my thread before I started Clarissa.... I know, I should have listened to you! :-( "Crime against fun", you say it. And in the 2nd edition Richardson made sure that the last tiny bit of fun was removed.
(Still love my wordy Dickens occasionally).

Happy birthday Bekka! Your present is not having to read Clarissa today. I read some this morning, so someone in the world has read it today, which is all we need :-)

Thanks guys - nom nom croissant and bubbles :) I am officially old now.

#135 Did I seriously say that? Why on EARTH did I not listen to myself? Idiot me.

#136 Thanks Susan - too late though! I read some in bed waiting for hubby with the bubbles. Got through about 20 pages before I wanted to kill Lovelace - mainly for being indecisive, whiny and above all else, wordy! Nearly at the end of vol 4 now.

Oh and for my 30th birthday my mother bought me.... drum roll please.... a towel. A beach towel. Not even a particularly nice one. And I don't need any more. I'm very confused by this...

#137: no, it was Richard. He actually said:
Oh Nathalie...save yourself...get away from this kitten-squisher-sized monster of tedium and snore-making now, before its gravity sucks you into the black hole of utter, despairing boredom!
And he was SO right!

I can promise a little action at the beginning of vol. 5 (but don't eat while reading!). And then I am sure that's it again for the rest of the volume.

Yay for croissants and bubbles! You clearly chose a good hubby. Enjoy the day!

And let an old woman tell you what surely everyone else will be telling you today: the 30s are great, much better than the 20s!
(I didn't want to believe it either, but now at 41 I know better).

I'm obviously so not with it this morning :)

Darn... Richard you are so right.

Fingers crossed the 30s are calmer at least. My 20s have been awfully busy now I look back on them!

My 20s sucked big time. 30s were much calmer.

#24 Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm - Kate Wiggin

Somthing that I was supposed to have read when I was a kid (the whole name thing etc) but never got round to. Probably wouldn't have enjoyed it then - now it was an enjoyable if slight read.

See? See? Old Auntie Richard knows whereof he speaks!

Ye gods...a towel...words fail me.

There was also some cash involved so not quite as bad as really said. But, in a purely mercenary way, for a 30th, not enough cash to make up for a beach towel! Love my Mum - she's nuts :)

And fyi all - I was HATINGthe idea of reading Grapes of Wrath. I'm 3/4 through and I think its now going on my top 10. Top 20 at least. Big love.

#25 Grapes of Wrath - Steinbeck

Amazing. Nuff said.

#26 Song of Achilles - Madeline Miller

I picked this up from the library - because really I just had to. It was shiny and brand new and no-one else had read it and and and...

I hadn't been planning on reading it - despite the general wave of approval (or perhaps because of it). But I am so glad I did. Having read Ovid earlier in the year I did find that my mind kept niggling me with bits and pieces of storylines that I am not sure meshed up. Screw it - the language made up for anything. The characters were brilliant and her writing is that great mix of easy and yet beautiful.

100% enjoyable.

Yet... somehow it left me with a profound sense of deja vu. Have I read something with a similar ending? The last 40 pages reminded me very strongly of another book, I just cannot for the life of me put my finger on which one. Anybody got any ideas because it's driving me mad!

Trying to answer without spoilers: the (imo) completely unnecessary quarrel on the last couple of pages, which I am sure had nothing much to do with ancient Greek realities, reminded me of modern Hollywood drama, it's what I'd call a worn-out path. You have a similar situation in the movie and maybe also in the book The Bridges of Madison County with kids being stubborn when it comes to follow a parent's last wish, and where then it shows they didn't know that parent's life that well. But sorry I can't remember any particular book.

#146: Ah, the lure of the shiny, brand-new library book :-) I've lost count of how many random things I've picked up just because they look so beautiful and clean on the new books shelf.

#148 It was all on it's own as well - it looked so lonely ;)

#147 I have to agree - I'm kinda torn as to whether I liked the ending or not. But on the whole I think it may have marred rather than made then novel. It might be the awful film Troy I'm thinking of (I hope not - hated it).

Oh and Nathalie - somehting's happened in Clarissa - I'm still in shock! Well I was - I had hopes of it going somewhere but I think it's about to cycle back to the same tired old position.

#149: I am still reading the never-ending June 8th and got stuck at that short letter from a quite illiterate Mr Summers which is really not easy to read for me. LL is a psychopath! I liked him as an intelligent villain in the first 2 books, but he scares me now. Clarissa should have converted to Catholicism and taken the veil before running away with him. Poor girl!

Didn't see "Troy" and don't think I missed something. Diane Krueger as the woman that causes a 10year war? Miller's description of Achilles reminded me of Brad Pitt though.

Clarissa is now officially affecting the other people in my life! My husband commented yesterday that he has never heard me whinge about a book so much. I pointed out my struggle with Gormenghast but he says this is worse...oops.

Oh dear, I saw the references here to the "never-ending June 8th" and got a bit worried as I was a few days behind. I have spent the morning reading and now only have five thousand sixty pages left until I'm all caught up.

My office roomie was intrigued when I told him about the Clarissa project at the beginning of the year, and from time to time asks how it's going. I don't think I've convinced him to do it next year :-)

#149: I think I finally caught up with the 'something' you mentioned (June 13th?). And I am sure we'll get into a new kind of cycle now.

I must admit that Richardson does his characterizations very well for a 1700s author. But I wish I were reading the original 900pp version! My excel that converts Kindle locations into pages tells me I've read 884 pages now, that leaves 616 tbr.

Lol - what the hell version am I reading then - mine is 225 ish per volume. At 9 volumes...2,025 (ish) pages. I'm so so nearly into vol 6! Which actually puts me behind but June 10th is a nightmare.

Song of Achilles.....I'm just not sure I will go there. Even though people are saying great things about it, I am sceptical for some reason.

To be honest that's what I thought - but I'm so glad I did. Really really enjoyable read.

Gah... I feel deathly today. Sore throat, streaming. Way behind on Clarissa - I went back to work for three hours on Tuesday night and had a parents evening then tested my friend for her law exams till 11 last night. Feel frazzled.

Started reading The Colour Purple just for something completely different last night - so far, traumatic but very good.

I'm also a bit behind on Clarissa - just finished vol 5 on the Kindle. I have no idea what date I'm on because Lovelace seems to be writing non-stop, letter after letter, but I think it's still 10 June. He is so awful.

Hope you feel better soon.

I have never visited the Colour Purple, in my mind it most sticks out as Oprah Winfrey playing a part in the film version.

#157 Be prepared for more of that - I'm about halfway through vol 6 and so far all LL. Ooof.

#158 I've not seen the film - hmmm... probably wont to be honest. I'm not the biggest Oprah fan, plus I find I MUCH prefer this sort of book in book form than on the screen (I like my films in the sci-fi or comedy region - tend to stay away from historical/real life). I'm really enjoying the book though - would recommend it.

I'll just caveat that with a 'so far'...just in case.

Well... so far, shocker of a day. Massive thing at work which I can't talk about but which is horrible and upsetting (my job is safe so no panic it's not that). One of those days when you just want to get through it and thank whatever deity you may believe in that somewhere back in the middle ages someone learnt the benefits of gone-off fruit juice.

Oh dear, I hope things settle down for you. Meanwhile, cheers to whoever left their juice in the sun for too long. And the person who thought of bottling it.

Finished The Colour Purple last night - absolutely brilliant. Will update with a review later.

#161 Thanks Susan - it's all a big mess, plus my son has got yet another infection. He's had one pretty much everytime he cuts a tooth and it is emphatically NOT helping.

#27 The Colour Purple - Alice Walker

Well I'm not going to get around to doing the full review I intended - or typing out the quote I wanted to include. But this is a well known and amazing novel. Painful in places - particularly the beginning, but ultimately beautiful and joyful.

It's the story of Celie - the story of her life and her relationships with people, with God, with the world around her. Even for an agnostic like me the image of God that eventually comes out of the book is tempting - of an 'it' that is in everything, that makes everything beautiful and special. Well who amongst us doesn't wish that we could look at everything around us and really appreciate the beauty of life more that we do?

#28 The Magician's Guild - Trudi Canavan

Bit of light relief from the never ending Clarissaness (plus I've gotten sufficiently ahead chronologically to let myself read somethign else!). And yes it is a little derivative (once again we have a skinny girl who can pass for a boy), but hell that's never bothered me before and it doesn't here either. Well written, good story - big thumbs up to Trudi Canavan and on to the next one.

#29 The Novice - Trudi Canavan

Yup, my head aches are continuing so I'm enjoying the lighter side of literature. This suffers from middle book syndrome - I'm hoping the last one has a bit more action!

Sorry to head about the headaches, Bekka. I'm suffering myself today, so I'm also taking it easy. I must get back to Clarissa soon, though - I have let about a week go past without picking it up.

Ta Susan - I'm pretty sure it's all stress related but it could be my sinuses so I think I'm going to have to buckle under and go to the doc after work tomorrow (anouth £40 down the drain) - it's been a week and I'm constantly in pain to one level or another. Sucks. Much worse in the evening so I've been going to my very quiet bedroom and reading - thus the getting through two 600 page books in 5 days :) Not usual for me!

I'm having a Clarissa dilemma. I keep reading a letter a day or so, but am now about a week ahead. Looking at the next few vols, they are much more spaced out - so I may just keep going (which means I'll prob finish well before the chronology of the book). I think I just want it over and done with now!

Saying that I'll prob slip behind now - sod's law and all.

If it's been a week then the doctor sounds like a good idea, but ouch for the £40. I'm up to 23 June in Clarissa, but it's good to hear that it finally slows down! If you finish earlier, you'll still have to visit the Group Read thread to give us all support :-)

*smooch* for Clarissa-readin' fool Bekka

I agree you should better see a doctor after a week of headaches. I hope you'll get some pain relief soon.

I just started vol. 7 of Clarissa. Like you I'd prefer to be done with it and soon instead of having her around me till the end of the year.

#168 But of course! :)

#169 Smoochies back atcha - I think I am a sunburnt fool too :(

#170 Looking at vol 9 it looks like half of it is epilogue and afterword too... at least the end is kind of in sight!

I have read Clarissa up to date - what a relief! I can't quite bring myself to get ahead. Hope you're feeling a bit better.

I'm an Auntie! Yay!

My sister had her first baby at 12.30 this morning - a big healthy boy, 8lb14 and 60 cm long! Thomas David. Can't wait to go and meet him.

#30 In Cold Blood - Truman Capote

One of the comments on the back of this is that it has not aged and is still as relevant today as when it was writen. That is so so true. This is an amazing read - in some ways so clinical and analytical, in others completely heartbreaking. It deals with the murder of a family (no spoiler really, this happens so early on) and the search for the killers - now as the reader you see the killers all the way through and learn about them, about the sort of people they are. And right up to the end it keeps you questioning about morality, humanity, parenting, phsycology and the death penalty...the list couls go on. Essentially I'm trying to get at that it makes you think.

#31 The Player of Games - Iain Banks

Where are the other Culture novels...need more...

This is brilliant sci-fi - sci-fi that is not so much involved in the whole space battles etc but sci-fi that takes the space bit for granted - that is about the people and, in this case, the meeting of the hyperevolved human (?) Culture with the space going but comparatively primative Azad Empire. The meeting I refer to here is the inclusion of the Cultures best game player in the Empires 'Azad' game - the most complicated game ever, which determines who will become Emporer. But there are layers upon layers of reasons why the Culture want him to play and to the structure of the Empire itself. I'm getting all confused - it's a hard one to re-cap! It's absolutely brilliant anyway - and, as when I read his Crow Road and Wasp Factory I have to say that Banks writing is fantastic.

Congrats on becoming an auntie! I love being an auntie. Your nephew weighed only 1lb more than my little BIG monkey :)

Still smaller than my Will then - he was a big 9lb 6 - my Sis is playing baby top trumps though since Thomas is a cm longer than Will, who I thought was crazy long. Must try adn get some pics to post... plus pics of my parents puppies who are just the epitome of CUTE.

Happy Auntie-dom! I hope you are a better auntie than I am. I have seen my nine-year-old nephew once in his whole life, and we had to have a discussion about never pointing guns at people (it was a scary "toy" replica that over here would have had the streets cordoned off, and I don't know what my sister-in-law was thinking letting him have it, but I was too chicken to make *that* point...) and the twelve-year-old twice. I am Bad Auntie.

LOL - my sis and I are pretty close, plus her husband is my husbands best friend (we introduced my sis to her hubby!). Also her and hubby are my daughters godparents (when she was christened they weren't together) so I think we're stuck with them :)

I am 'Bad' godmum though - I hardly ever get to see my God son who lives in the UK - was in North Yorkshire, now in mid Wales. NOT easy places to get too. Makes me sad that I don't get to see him.

#32 Sky Dragons - Todd McCaffrey

Whatever the touchstone says this is not an Anne McCaffrey... it is nowhere near her league. It's unfortunate that she only allowed her kids to write in the PERN world because her son is just not as good as she was. There are some good bits in this, but his obsession with sexuality and relationships gets in the way of the story at every turn. His version of a storyline is really odd as well since it does not build to any sort of conclusion - rather he builds peaks of tension then fritters them away.

All that said I know I'll still end up reading anymore he writes - purely because I love the world so much.

Sigh.

Book 32 sounds like a bitter letdown. But no one can replace Anne!

*smooch*

Mucho smoochies back atcha. And yes - sadness :(

#33 The High Lord - Trudi Canavan

Final books of the trilogy and you know you're heading towards a big battle. It is, in fact, quite well done - apart from the end of the battle which is rather a let down. Can you tell I'm skirting round spoilers? Basically there's a big twist in the middle of the second book which affects everything in the third book so I don't want to ruin it :)

These are honestly great fun. Easy reads and brilliant entertainment. Can't wait to start the next trilogy.

Ever have those days when ALL you want to do is hide in a book land somewhere? Somewhere safe and fascinating and inspiring? And not face the world at all :/

Yes indeed. Those days are called Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. Plus Saturday and Sunday.

Tru dat... apologies for that - don't know what possessed me. Let's try again.

That is very true - but normally I can at least take a stab at the real world. Today I just wish I hadn't bothered.

*there there, pat pat*

This too shall pass. *smooch*

It's okay - I'm going to use the abysmal day as an excuse to break the diet and eat pizza and drink wine on a Tuesday. Also to play a lot of Skyrim before I go to bed early and throw myself into The Long Earth - which so far is brilliant.

Just need to get the kids down first...

They are NOT on good form...

Ooof.

#34 The Long Earth - Pratchett + Baxter

A new spin on parrallel earths from two of the masters. Some have said that they cannot see Pratchett as much in this but I'm stealing a phrase from a fellow LT-er and have to say it positively reeks of him. His wit is perhaps subtler than in the more outre forum of the Discworld - this is more introspective and more of a discussion of human nature. Anyway it is absolutely brilliant and I cant wait for another one.

Right. Had a cruddy couple of weeks - and abstained from posting since I was working on the 'if you have nothing nice to say...' principal. It's not really helped and I FINALLY finished another book (since I got sent off to bed at 2.00pm yesterday) so I thought I'd break radio silence. Oh am also rather excited since I have finished book 8 of Clarissa and am on the home stretch. Huzzah!

#34 The Ambassador - Trudi Canavan

Well I may have finally finished a book but I can't really give any sort of synopsis since it would completely spoilerise the first trilogy. This follows on about 20 years after the last one. It's good fun.

Another afternoon in bed... another 400 odd pages donw (plus some pages of other things along the way);

#35 The Rogue - Trudi Canavan

Book 2 of the second trilogy and this is getting awfully good - but same spoiler issue as the prior one. Lucky for me the final volume was published on the 2nd August. Now I've just GOT to get my hands on a copy. And quickly...

#189: Oh dear, Clarissa. I reached 18 July and then I stopped. I tried a bit yesterday but wanted to cry with boredom. I feel that I've invested so much time in it that I *must* finish, and yet the thought of all those pages is depressing. Plus I have shiny new things to read.

I hope your week improves and is crud-free :-)

Thanks Susan - I got to the doc on Monday and apparently have an acute sinus infection, so that accounts for the face pain. Unfortunately I cannot take any time off work, so I'm just hopped up on painkillers. Still the sun is out which is nice.

Re Clarissa - keep going - you know you want to! You're getting so close - could you really down tools after 7 volumes? No - *shakes pom poms and cheers Susan on*.

Ow, that does sound painful. I hope it clears soon.

Thank you for the cheering! After my whining on Monday night I turned off the computer, went to bed and read *24* pages (of the giant Penguin edition, which has big pages and small type) and last night managed another 14 pages. I am 95 pages behind now, but if I can just read it for an hour every evening I should catch up in about a week. So that's my goal.

See now I feel guilty for inflicting it upon you... :( But, as I keep telling myself, it's got to be worth it in the end!

*waving* at Bekka

I hope that the sinus infection clears up soon!

#194: No, I think it's what I needed - someone to report my progress to :-) I read some more last night and I only have 75 pages to go in order to catch up, which is good progress. Also I am at home today so I might put down the fun reading and make one huge effort with it.

#195 Thanks Stasia - definitely on the up which is a relief after the state I was in last weekend. Hope all the studying is going well?

#196 See I kinda wish I hadn't gotten so far ahead because I wish I could discuss the last bit I read, but I can't because it's spoiler-y. :) Still not sad that the end is in sight - though I think I may have some sort of melt down when I realise it's over and done with...

Anyone who's a great fan of local cheese (not literal cheese I'm afraid) google Jersey battle of flowers. Today the sun is beaming down and it's the annual parade. Floats covered in flowers with lots of dancers. The night parade is better since the floats are covered in lights and it's very carnival like. Anyway - massive cheese fest but a great local tradition. So hats off to all those people who've spent the last few months in sheds glueing flowers to wooden floats.

This is hilarious/terrifying... I am staying a long way away from this book.

http://karlwebster.com/2012/08/fifteen-shades-of-grey-a-digested-read/

Ewwww. Badly written *and* gross. The first couple were in the sample I read the other day. Pretty amazing that the publishing company released these books without any apparent editing.

BTW, I am not officially here, posting on this thread or playing Gardens of Time. No, I am reading Clarissa.

a keep-my-hand-in cyber*smooch* for sinus pain lady plus a massive whammy for no more owwies.

#197: The studying is over for the time being. I started a month long break this past Tuesday. Glad to hear you are on the up and hope you stay that way!

#198: OK, I can officially stay away from the book now too. It sounds absolutely terrible.

#199 Muauahahahaaha! ;)

Ta for the smoochies Richard - def on the up now. Just the occasional ache and feel that my teeth may fall out.

#201 Oof - glad you're on a break. It's always so nice to down tools and be able to relax for a bit.

Re 50 Shades - I was sort of the same in that I have some friends who loved it, plus the global hype. Started to think... maybe there is something. But ick, eugh and perdition take it! From a conversation with another (more literary friend) who was damning of it (with numerous examples) and having seen some of the quotes - well it is definitely NOT my cup of tea.

Ooops. Just scared my son with a book that has a hand puppet in the middle. Put my hand in to make the monster talk at him and he actually ran backwards pointing and shouting at it. Let's put that away for now...

Oh dear re the puppet! Maybe that's one for later :-)

I'm up to date with the giant novel that dare not mention its name. I must make sure I stay that way. The most vexing thing is getting up to date and then finding that the letters start to go backwards, date-wise. Grrrrr.

Yup, yup - know that feeling. Evil book that shall not be named. I am 100 pages from the end. The very final and absolute end.

I'll probably get there and find there's a secret volume 10 though :(

Don't think I'll get much reading done this weekend wither - my in-laws are in the island from Sat afternoon till Tues evening, which means I will be cleaning like mad this morning and entertaining for the rest of a long weekend. They're nice and all but it's going to be a bit stressful. Still we're booked in to a lovely restaurant for their anniversary dinner on Monday - and after much stress I have managed to get a baby sitter. Plus its the restaurant that did the AMAZING parfait last time I went. *Drools on keyboard*

Hi Bekka, I hope that nasty sinus infection has cleared up?

Re 50 Shades: I went to the bookshop yesterday and there I saw a pallet(!) of German copies. It is a small bookshop - when a new hyped book is published they might usually order 10 copies, but not a pallet! It's placed directly next to the entrance door, so people can just grab a copy and walk over to the cash desk. I also noticed the Italians can already buy all three books while only part 1 has been translated into German so far. What shocked me a bit: the reviews in the German newspapers were not that bad, almost like they wanted to avoid the fan protests.
Now I am going to read that link.

Edit:
Okay, read it. :-|
And I saw more and longer quotes on a German blog. It really is your run-of-the-mill fanfic style, how did she ever get it published? And I heard they want to make a movie of it and famous actors/ actresses want to star in it voluntarily?

#205 Yup, it's kinda shocking but it is actually THAT bad :(

#36 Clarissa - Samuel Richardson

Well... this has been a long time coming. And I even went off piste and finished it ahead of the epistolory timeline. But I am SO SO glad I did. In fact I'm so glad I read this - I know I've whinged and whined and bitched and moaned my way through it, but the sheer size and detail of it will mean it stays with me forever. And for all it's patches of never ending dreariness, the characters end up surprisingly real and you find yourself so involved in the story that the sudden end (the letters get much further apart in the second half of book 9) takes your breath away because all of a sudden it's all gone and done and finished.

Right. As per usual this isn't so much a review as a random brain dump. But a word of caution on this. You do need to be a bit dedicated to keep going and you do need ot put aside any personal agendas with religion etc. I thus sticker it 'Not for everyone' ;)

I myownself sticker it "Human Rights Violation," but there we are.

Congratulations! You're in the elite club of 200-250 people worldwide who've read the whole damned thing. Well done you!

LOL! And a proper LOL at that. I am just so happy because it was really touch and go in the middle!

And as a yay I couldn't help but post some pics (I know you've seen these already on fbook Richard - but it's just to max out the Pappa meter a bit extra!)

aaaaaaaaawwwwwwwwwwwwwwww!!!

Plus I couldn't resist one of Bertha - the only black and white puppy in my parents litter - she is such a sweetie!

aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaawwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww!!!!

I know! Mum takes them out into the field next to the house when people come round because they get so excited. But they've grown out of the wheelbarrow so you have to shove a few in the barrow and just grab the rest!

I'm so sad they are going soon - it's been so mcuh fun for the kids. But they are all going to lovely homes - especially Bertha (above) who is the sweetest pup, who is going to a lady undergoing serious chemo. Hopefully Bertha will be able to keep a smile on her face.

#206 You finished Clarissa! Congratulations - what an achievement!

I'm still reading slowly - I think I'll finish by the end of the year but I've given up trying to read the letters on the right days because I'm far too far behind.

Also, cute photos :-)

Another yay for Clarissa! And those are lovely photos :-)

Congrats on finishing Clarissa - you are a legend!! And lovely photos.

Phooof- I just had a lot to catch up on.
So sorry to hear you were offline earlier in the month due to your self imposed adherence to the adage "if you dont have anything nice to say....". Surely you know you can pour your heart out to the likes of us?! A good old get-it-off-your-chest sometimes does wonders, and lets face it, sometimes life's a bitch (as it were). Glad things have picked up again now though, was it mostly due to sinus trouble?

Love the Clarissa discussions....I will certainly be steering as clear of that as I will of ANY Shades of Grey. Thanks very much fr the warnings on all fronts :)

Sweet pic of your kids and the puppy! Puppies are so so so so cute, I just wish they didnt grow up, then Id definitely get one, lol. I will refrain from saying the same about kids as Ive had relatively mild mannered ones today......but get me on the right day and Id be shouting that plea from the rooftops! Either that, or that I wish that they would grow up..

Ta for the hurrahs and likings guys! Proud of both Clarissa and the brats to be fair :)

#217 I really feel the need to spread the Shades of Grey concern to all and sundry. Just cannot believe it's so darn popular. Yuck.

I'm def feeling better - just the occasional day when I feel like I have tooth ache from this darn bug when really it's jsut the infection still. One the plus I managed to get through a long weekend with my in-laws over and now I can relax. Hopefully.

I think I might read some short fun things for a while...

Have to share this because it's just so truly wrong...

In the window my local WHSmith (shop that sells book/stationary etc for the non-brits) there is aposter I have to endure everyday on the way to get Cassie. It's a bi Shades of Grey pic which essentially reads, 'if you like these, why not try' and the book advertised has a very similar cover to the Shades of Grey series. But the book advertised is called 'In too deep'.

Given the subject matter of the Shades books, is it only me who thinks that this is an insult to the thinly veiled double entendre?

There is so much jumping on the Fifty Shades bandwagon that it's embarrassing. I've seen several ads for things that I will LOVE if I loved Fifty Shades (which means I wouldn't touch them with a bargepole if they are that badly written - maybe an own goal for the publishers there...). I am the very last person to slag off romance, as I love it, but it's the bad writing that makes me so cross.

Hmmm, further to that message, I've just received an email from Mills & Boon, advertising new books. The main one is a new novel called The Siren (oh look, it's a touchstone already!) with "fifty shades darker than grey" on the front cover (somewhere there is a bonanza looming for intellectual property lawyers, which makes me very glad I am not one) and there is a FREE! ebook prequel, Little Red Riding Crop (alas, not a touchstone yet). There is also a new one called Switch. Oh dear.

LOL! And here was me thinking I'd gone a bit of a Shade of Grey rant lately. Nope. I feel vindicated :) It's infectious...

And just a sec... Little Red Riding Crop? Seriously? Yuk - that had awful awful images in my head.

It is infectious. We must be strong, and Just Say No.

My 18 month old son just climbed up onto the sofa and turned on the television. There is no hope!

#37 The Summer Book - Tove Jansson

The antithesis of Clarissa! A short but exquisitly written little book about a 6 year old called Sophia and her summer on a scandinavian island with her father and grandmother. Her father is always working and the various stories paint the most beautiful picture of the relationship between this imaginative little girl and her equally imaginative grandmother. There is a lot of Jansson's own experience in here - it shows so wonderfully in the description and wonderful relationship of the two.

Sophia also reminded me a LOT of my daughter which may be another reason I loved it so much - though if Cass shouted as much as apparently Sophia did she'd be in bed with no dinner :)

Anyway - wonderful read that will stay with me. I may revisit it in a few years when Cass turns 6. Highly recommended.

Sounds wonderful, I added it to my list, thanks!

The antithesis of Clarissa = the most desirable thing in the solar system. Heck, the galaxy! Oh why go by halves, the entire known Universe.

*makes rude faces at Richard*

#226 I hope you enjoy it - kinda worried now that it was just an over reaction to the end of Clarissa!

Ah, the end of Clarissa. No, I still can't see it. But 50 pages yesterday! That puts me a good...two days ahead.

I saw that on your thread - so impressed! Don't think I ever managed 50 pages in a day!

I am officially comfort reading. For the last few months I've been yearning to re-read the Julian May Pliocene/Intervention books and I'm now nearly at the end of book 1. That wonderful feeling of re-visiting a world that is totally built up in your mind. It's wonderful to read new things and to get that first glimpse of new places and new ideas - but there is something truly comforting and lovely about going back to a world that you know so well.

It's offsetting Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy which I am reading for my book group spy month and am emphatically not enjoying.

Not...not enjoying LeCarre?!?

You, madam, are NOT BRITISH!

Very true my dear. Jersey through and through - never really thought of myself as British :)

Jersey, Mersey, it's all Merrie Olde Englande.

Hah! Just cos we're a crown dependancy an' all that...okay so officially I am British.

At least you didn't say I was English. That would really get my hackles up!

...but...wait...aren't all y'all English? I mean, it's all called England after all....

*heeheehee*

Only 30 posts... I can manage that:

"Clarissa": yay for finishing! And my thoughts are similar - as much as I am hating it at times, the characterizations and the details are amazing. Every character comes to life in their letters. Still 18% to read though...

Kids and puppies? What are you doing to us? To quote Richard once again: aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaawwwwwwwwwwww​!!!!

50 Shades bandwagon - I decided to ignore it. I managed to ingore 1000s of vampire books in the past years, so I should also get through this phase of 'literature'. It will be more difficult though because the vampire books were always stacked in the fantasy section which I avoid anyway while I fear the 50 Shades alikes will be strewn into the normal fiction section (this is a Catholic country, so there is no 'erotica' shelf).

#235

*explodes in fury*

I...do...not...live...in...ENGLAND.

*sulk*

#236 Hi Nathalie! Nice to see you my dear - plus that's really getting there on Clarissa. The last half of vol 9 is quite short letters so it feels easier. Or quicker at least... :)

Will post more kids/puppies soon - but they are the last puppy pics because they'll all be gone by the ned of the week, save one who is stayinga bit longer since her new owners are on hols.

I haven't read Clarissa, but I did read The Summer Book earlier this year and thought it was beautiful, so I don't think you were over-reacting just to the contrast!

#239 That's good to hear - I know I can get carried away on things!

Hello dear, what do you mean you don't live in England? It's all one country, right? Wales is in England, Scotland is in England...right?

So this year I decided to count re-reads - which feels kinda like cheating, but what the heck :)

#38 The Many Coloured Land - Julian May

Loving going back to these - they are really brilliant. Also hard to explain at all without spoilers. But it involves the future, irrevesable time travel back to the Pliocene, mind powers and some great characters. Plus May's vision is truly epic since this is the first of 4 and those 4 are linked to another 4.

Brilliant.

#241 *bites her thumb at you*

Oooh, thumb-biting - it's all kicking off here :-)

Meanwhile, in England today, we have a LION on the loose. Or let's hope it's a lion, and not another hoax. You would think someone would have reported one of their lions was missing, but no-one is owning up so far.

I think re-reads count. How lucky you are to have finished the book which must not be named. It's not that I am reading it instead of other things, but I feel I should be.

A Lion? Really. Must go have a look on BBC news in a sec!

It is undeniably lovely giving in to a good long comfort read. I've had a hard weekend though so very little reading done really. Cass started being sick at about 1.00 am on Sat morning and was sick every hour till about 4/5 that evening. Poor kiddie - it was really horrid. Plus I feel very guilty since I had a spa treatment booked (voucher form my b'day). Since it was too late to cancel and I couldn't get anyone to take my appointment I went and had a very quick trip - during Will's nap so hubby didn't have to cope with rampaging toddler and sick child. But it felt like a waste cos I was so wound up!

Then we had a wedding yesterday - totally beautiful place and everything. Cass seemed SO much better in the morning we tried it. Hubby had to take her home after the service at about 1.30 because she was crying in pain. I stayed since it was my friend getting married and Will proceeded to be 50% horrendous and 50% adorable.

Sorry - slight vent of the last few days there - am rather tired since Cass was up most of Friday and Saturday nights and wanted Mummy. Who is today not feeling so good... uh oh :/

A lion on the loose in England would make a good story line for a book. I'm not so sure it makes an enjoyable story in real life though.

#39 The Golden Torc - Julian May

Book 2 of her Pliocene epic. Battles and intrigue and weird and wonderful relaitonships. Yup that'll do me at the moment! Mummy did go down with the bug. It was NOT fun.

#245 A good kids one I think yes - the adult one might get a bit gruesome ;)

#40 The Non-Born King - Julian May

Book 3 - the saga continues...

I'm starting to feel guilty for not reading anything else though. Have got to finish Tinker Tailor for book group asap.

#41 The Adversary - Julian May

Right - that's the last one of the first four books. I am officially not allowed to read the next four until I have finished Tinker, Tailor and Erewhon.

Hufff.

Okay so I've not really enjoyed Tinker, Tailor - but finally around the last 30 pages it's starting to click with me... I specially like this line;

'There are moments which are made up of too much stuff for them to be lived at the time they occur.'

Heh...great line!

Oooo, I loved The Many-Colored Land. I want to go through them again too!

#249 I thought so - darn this book for redeeming itself at the end!

#250 It's been so much fun returning - you should do it! I've naughtily started Intervention even though I promised myself I wouldn't until I finished another few things. Book promises aren't real promises, right?

#42 Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy - Le Carre

Wow that was a slow read! I read this for my book group and it took me far far longer than expected because I just couldn't get along with it. It is very dry and seriously slow for the first 200 pages. After that it picks up - but that's not really a resounding ratification of the novel is it?

It's an excessively british read that builds layer upon layer of the search for a mole within the british spy network. The main character Smiley is excellently drawn, I just felt the dryness in every word and found it repellant. Basically it was a bad post-Clarissa read - I have Smiley's People by Le Carre left on the 1,001 so hopefully that'll go better!

I found Smiley's People a more briskly paced read. There's that, but what is it?

Cassie's First day at school! I've been much more of a mess than I expected to be!

Edited to add - the squint is cos the sun was was right behind us, poor brat!

#43 Erewhon - Samuel Butler

Another 1,001 down is about the nicest thing I can say about this. It starts off all right, a fairly classic Victorian adventure where the young male narrator heads off into the wilderness from his job as a herder to investigate the unused land nearby. Eventually he finds some hidden people and finds their culture very different from his own. So far so good. Unfortunately the main section of the book is about the philosophy of Erewhon. Now I'm not adverse to some philosophy - but this is literally half the book. If not more - and it's a parody of Victoriana sone with a sledgehammer and no wit.

There is a long section called the 'Book of the Machines' that irritated me the most - it is essentially the extension of Darwinian theory to apply to machines. I thought this was pure parody - mostly fromt he way in which it was written - but having looked at some crit this morning, I found this:

"Butler developed the three chapters of Erewhon that make up "The Book of the Machines" from a number of articles that he had contributed to The Press, which had just begun publication in Christchurch, New Zealand, beginning with "Darwin among the Machines" (1863). Butler was the first to write about the possibility that machines might develop consciousness by Darwinian Selection. Many dismissed this as a joke; but, in his preface to the second edition, Butler wrote:
I regret that reviewers have in some cases been inclined to treat the chapters on Machines as an attempt to reduce Mr. Darwin's theory to an absurdity. Nothing could be further from my intention, and few things would be more distasteful to me than any attempt to laugh at Mr. Darwin...."

I still don't like it though.

>255 BekkaJo: Ca-UTE! What a sweetie. My niece just started school 3 weeks ago and she is always talking about how she can do this and that now that she is 5.

What a cute little school girl, you must be so proud!

And what a lovely dress she's wearing - this is not a uniform dress? If it is, it must be by far the nicest I've ever seen.

Thanks guys - she is a pretty monkey.

And yes it's a school dress - most of our schools have summer dresses in check - her uniform is red/black/bottle green (?????nutters...) so her summer dress is red and white check. Unfortunately she's only allowed to wear it for a few more weeks - I'll post one in her winter uniform when she switches :)

What a sweet little school girl! Did she want to go back after her first day? :-)

Erewhon caused temporary narcolepsy in me. Impressed you made it all the way through. Even Pamela had more action.

#260 Thanks Susan - she did, but then was clingy when Daddy dropped her this morning. She's really knackered at the mo so is playing up a bit.

#261 LOL - agreed. If you cut out the middle 90 pages the remaining 60 are all right. Ish....

Just had to share this - it's from a family fun day my work held on Saturday (surprisingly good considering my work don't like fun). Will's first ever face paint! He was so good and sat so still for it.

Gotta love theft... this is stolen from Natalie who stole from Lynda and originally I think this is stolen from Richard...

It's international book week. The rules: Grab the closest book to you, turn to page 52, post the 5th sentence as your status. Don't mention the title. Copy the rules as part of your post.

The fearsome Krondaku uttered a whimper of ecstasy. "You're not joshing me, you fire-eyed little pipsqueak? Caol Ila?"

OOops... it will be obvious to all at this juncture that I am still indulging my trip into sci-fi land!

Equally close to me and possibly more recognisable...

I had a stenographer in the next morning and got rid of most of the mail that had been accumulating; had a telephone conversation with our lawyer in San Francisco--we were trying to keep one of the mill's customers from being thrown into bankruptcy; spent an hour going over a plan we had for lowering our state taxes; was altogether the busy business man, and felt pretty virtuous by two o'clock, when I knocked off work for the day and went out to lunch with Nora.

I googled both quotes, thought I should know the 2nd one, but didn't. And no, I won't tell. But I'd like some Caol Ila now

And Will is so incredibly cute!

That's a scary little tiger! (Love his t-shirt, too).

No prizes for guessing what my book quote was, when I did it...Of course, getting to just the fifth sentence meant going about half way down the page.

Ta guys - he's less cute at the moment since he is streaming with cold and hacking away with a cough. Yucky boy. And it is my favourite of his shirts :)

I've had a shocking morning - having to tell a member of staff their work was not up to stcratch. It did NOT go well. I could do with a glass of something thoughnot sure about Caol Ila. Not much of a whisky fan.

#44 Intervention - Julian May

The transitory novel of May's epic series - this deals with the origin of mindpowers in the late 20th Century - the inevitable conflicts between 'normals' and those with mindpowers - the necessary non-agression ethic. Usual sci-fi stuff but wonderfully written - plus one cannot help but love the narrator.

I'm also finding it increasingly scary when reading older sci-fi as to how much the world has changed recently - also quite scary when 'future' things are set in 2012...

#45 The Thin Man - Dashiell Hammett

This was great fun - it has all the traditional trying to work out whodunnit fun, plus a great set of characters (really liked the protagonist which helps). It leaves a hell of a lot of loose ends though - so the last line is very appropriate;

"That may be," Nora said, "but it's all pretty unsatisfactory.

But a big thumbs up from me.

#46 Jack the Bodiless - Julian May

Continuing awesomness. Yay!

#47 Diamond Mask - Julian May

Penultimate volume of her epic series. The last line of which is a humdinger - if you do read these for the first time make sure you have the last volume to hand when you finish Diamond Mask - because otherwise you will be wandering around going AGHHHHHHH until you get your hands on it...

Huh. I don't remember reading any of these past the first one, which I liked. I wonder if I did and just forgot...?

uh oh, staff members not up to scratch isnt very fun, and telling them must me even harder. I made a terrible manager when I gave it a shot, I could never tell people to pull up their socks, just thought that working hard myself would be enough of an example. So naive.

#271 I don't think you'd have forgotten if you had - they are really good. I like the mystery element as well as the sci-fi.

#272 To be honest I think I'm making a bit of a hash of it - I don't really get why I should be able to tell people what to do. Still some of the stuff I come across that she has done is shocking. Sigh. Anyway she's on leave this week adn next so it's a nice break from the tension to be honest.

I will say that the last few weeks have been hellish hard so if I'm not posting on threads much it's prob because I'm in a rather dark place - I think there is only so long you can carry on wound up this tight before something cracks. I'm just hoping that things get better.

Bekka, sorry to hear you're having such a horrible time. I hope things work themselves out.

Bekka, I am so sorry that you are having such a bad time. Now your posting frequency on LT should be your very last worry. Sometimes you just need to retreat from certain places for a while and to save your energies for more important things. But please feel assured that you can always turn here if we can help you with (sadly only virtual) messages of support or maybe advice. I'll cross crossables that things get better for you very very soon!

Bekka - I trust that RL is not getting on top of you - enjoyed reading Nathalie's post and her words are well chosen and describes the group nicely. Have a good weekend.

So sorry for the dark passage you're going through, Bekka. Nathalie said it better than I could.

*hugs*

Just echoing Susan, Nathalie, Paul, and Richard. ((Hugs))

Sorry to be such an over dramatic downer - RL is just far far too real at the moment and I am therefore hiding in books forever and not coming out. Never ever ever.

Still, better than last week so that's the right direction, right?

It most surely is! Keep headin' that way.

#48 The Awakening - Kate Chopin

Beautifully written tale of a woman who realises how empty her life is - really liked it but not the ideal read when you are feeling low!

#49 Magnificat - Julian May

Final volume of the her epic and a wonderfully painful conclusion.

#50 Eugenie Grandet - Honore de Balzac

Huh. That's a bit odd - I thought it would end in one place, some sort of great redemption of the pain that Eugenie goes through during her childhood as the only child of a rich miser. Not so much. I really need to read something with a happy ending...

Hi Bekka - lovely pic of Will with his face paint way up-thread!! He's very cute. Hope the week keeps on getting better and your reading gives you some let-up from RL.

Thanks Cushla - he is my cutey tiger :)

#51 The Collector - John Fowles

First up, I always love his wiritng - he is so wonderfully weird. I have read other reviews that felt this lacked depth but I really enjoyed it. Or rather it's not something that you enjoy but it has a sort of sick fascination about it - a 'can't-look-away' feeling. Basically the story of a socially messed up and ruined young man. Reclusive, a collector of butterflies, sexually repressed. He wins on the pools - and suddenly fantasy and reality meet in a very disturbing way.

I've not been so well (headache/sickness - I blame the kids for being disease vendors) and i started this at about 4 yesterday so it only took me 5-6 hours.

Hmmm... what's next?

Oh goodness, The Collector is the scariest book I can ever remember reading. I was a high school student at the time, and I came home one day to realise that I had forgotten my keys and couldn't get into the house until my mother got home. I sat outside reading it, and I was completely spooked - not helped by the fact that we lived in a quiet suburb, so there was no-one around, except potentially the weirdos who could have been lurking in the garden, behind any tree... That was years and years ago, and I can still remember it.

Sorry to hear about the lurgy. I'm sure things caught from little kids are somehow more virulent than grown-up germs, but it is probably my imagination.

Oh, and as for what you should read next, what about a charming romance? You know you just have to ask and I'll send you a big long list :-)

Hmmm I might stay away from charming romance... not sure it's me ;)

And I do agree with the Collector - I really wasn't well last night but this did NOT help with my not being able to sleep. Def somethign less stalkery next. I think it's straight up fantasy time with the Traitor Queen before I hit a few more 1,001.

#286: I think it's straight up fantasy time with the Traitor Queen before I hit a few more 1,001.

Sometimes comfort reads are exactly what we need! The 1,001 will wait for you :)

Sounds like the Collector might be a good Halloween read?

I agree on The Awakening - wonderful book, but the conclusion ...

My 1,001 reading has almost come to a halt, too. There are just too many depressing or violent books on that list. But here's a thread with uplifting books: http://www.librarything.com/topic/22752

Get better soon!

What about some Wodehouse? There is no possible farther distance from The Collector than The Heart of a Goof. It's like changing galaxies.

#52 Disgrace J M Coetzee

Well that wasn't the nice light read I was after was it! Don't quite know what possessed me to pick this up, but I'm glad I did. His writing is excellent and his characters sometimes too real - this has left me feeling really disturbed and I'm not quite sure why. May have to go away and cogitate this one some more...

Nice light read: Slow Summer Kisses. It's a novella, and just £1.91 for Kindle!

#53 The Traitor Queen - Trudi Canavan

Awwwwwwww! Last one of the second trilogy and I'm sad now. I don't think she has any plans to revisit and I am going to msis these characters.

Sulk...

Glass of wine, Mumford & Sons new album Babel... good (ish) book.... Is there more to life?

Had to share this - this was my scary Cassie for her Halloween party yesterday!

That is super-scary! Did you do the face painting? It's amazing!

I did - and thank you. She was an evil fairy :) I also did 2 hours of face painting at my friends party - strangely exhausting.

And NaNoWriMo is off... which means even less reading than normal (is possible!) for the month of November!

An evil fairy - what a great idea! And she sure looked very scary!
Good luck with NaNoWriMo!

What with the hurricane knocking out power, the elections here, and now the snowstorm, I'm so so behind on NaNo.

Sluggin' away, though.

#298 Thanks Nathalie! She really loves having her 'paint face' as she puts it.

#299 Hi Richard - I'm still in your cheering brigade - you'll do it, rah!!!!

NaNo is up and down - one day is great and flowing the next day it's like pulling teeth. Hmmm I wonder which day gives the best writing?

It's also, as expected, cutting my reading down to nearly nil. Fried does not come into it - plus today was horrific - horrible invasive scan that thankfully turned up nothing, plus an appraisal from hell.

It's a big wine day.

Yay for wine!

Indeedy. The grape did good.

Re-reading my above, just fyi it was a bad appraisal I had to give someone, not a bad one for my work. Still sucked though.

wow, great face painting effort! Super scary :)