stgemma's 75 (or more!) in 2012 thread

Even later than last year, I present to you my 75 in 2012 thread!

My name is Gemma and I'm a student from Northern Ireland. I'm a voracious reader. I read primarily fiction and I like historical novels, YA, graphic novels, classics, short stories, fantasy, horror, and anything with a quirk to it. Recommendations are always super welcome :)

I read 127 books last year so I'm aiming for something closer to 100 than 75. But let's see how the year unfolds!

I most likely won't review everything I read this year, but now and again I'll probably feel compelled to comment on something.

Last year's thread.

My books read in 2012 so far...

January
1. Touchy Subjects by Emma Donoghue
2. Will Grayson, Will Grayson by John Green and David Levithan
3. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows
4. Fallen by Lauren Kate
5. The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen
6. Miss Peregrine's Home For Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs
7. The Ask and the Answer by Patrick Ness
8. Paranormalcy by Kiersten White
9. The Sealed Letter by Emma Donoghue
10. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by J.K. Rowling
11. Heist Society by Ally Carter
12. Leviathan by Scott Westerfield
13. Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver
14. Hood by Emma Donoghue
15. Matched by Allie Condie
16. The Bad Beginning by Lemony Snicket
17. Vampire Academy by Richelle Mead
18. Nights at the Circus by Angela Carter

February
19. Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri
20. Soulless by Gail Carriger
21. The Yiddish Policemen's Union by Michael Chabon
22. Written on the Body by Jeanette Winterson
23. Sylvia Plath: Selected Poems by Sylvia Plath
24. The Reptile Room by Lemony Snicket
25. Living Dead in Dallas by Charlaine Harris
26. One Day by David Nicholls
27. Columbine by Dave Cullen
28. Club Dead by Charlaine Harris
29. The Catastrophist by Ronan Bennett
30. Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad
31. On The Road by Jack Kerouac
32. Le coeur à rire et à pleurer by Maryse Condé

March
33. Notes on a Scandal by Zoe Heller
34. The Wide Window by Lemony Snicket
35. Disgrace by J.M. Coetzee
36. The Miserable Mill by Lemony Snicket
37. Harry Potter et la coupe de feu by J.K. Rowling
38. 1Q84: Books 1 and 2 by Haruki Murakami
39. The Austere Academy by Lemony Snicket
40. Crossed by Ally Condie
41. Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
42. The Lover's Dictionary by David Levithan
43. The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ by Philip Pullman
44. Angela Carter's Book of Wayward Girls and Wicked Women by Angela Carter
45. The Ersatz Elevator by Lemony Snicket
46. The Vile Village by Lemony Snicket
47. The Marriage Plot by Jeffrey Eugenides
48. The Forest of Hands and Teeth by Carrie Ryan
49. Damned by Chuck Palahniuk

April
50. The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins
51. The Road by Cormac McCarthy
52. A Visit From the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan
53. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix by JK Rowling
54. Wildwood by Colin Meloy and Carson Ellis
55. Fever by Lauren DeStefano
56. No Country for Old Men by Cormac McCarthy
57. The Crimson Petal and the White by Michel Faber
58. Game of Thrones: A Song of Fire and Ice by George R R Martin
59. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
60. Stupeur et tremblements by Amélie Nothomb
61. Divergent by Veronica Roth
62. City of Bones by Cassandra Clare

May
63. Wonder by RJ Palacio
64. The Tiger's Wife by Téa Obreht
65. The Luxe by Anna Godbersen
66. Annabel by Kathleen Winter
67. The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen by Alan Moore and Kevin O'Neill
68. Wicked by Gregory Maguire
69. Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor
70. Habibi by Craig Thompson
71. Prozac Nation by Elizabeth Wurtzel
72. The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien
73. Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert
74. Abandon by Meg Cabot
75. Batman: The Killing Joke by Alan Moore
76. The Hostile Hospital by Lemony Snicket

June
77. The Hound of the Baskervilles by Arthur Conan Doyle
78. A Passage to India by E.M. Forster
79. Grimms' Fairy Tales by Brothers Grimm
80. Civil War by Mark Millar
81. The Well of Loneliness by Radclyffe Hall
82. Dracula by Bram Stoker
83. Black Heart by Holly Black
84. Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter by Seth Grahame-Smith
85. The Pirates! In An Adventure With Scientists by Gideon Defoe
86. Female Chauvinist Pigs: Women and the Rise of Raunch Culture by Ariel Levy
87. The Pirates! In An Adventure With Whaling by Gideon Defoe
88. The Color Purple by Alice Walker

July
89. Fingersmith by Sarah Waters
90. Pandemonium by Lauren Oliver
91. The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath
92. Sexing The Cherry by Jeanette Winterson
93. Son of a Witch by Gregory Maguire
94. Scott Pilgrim vs. The World by Bryan Lee O'Malley
95. Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman
96. The Fellowship of the Ring by JRR Tolkien
97. Peter Pan by JM Barrie
98. The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera
99. Middlemarch by George Eliot

August
100. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince by J.K. Rowling
101. Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan
102. Tender Is The Night by F. Scott Fitzgerald
103. Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami
104. The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Vol. 2 by Alan Moore and Kevin O'Neill
105. Glass Houses (Morganville Vampires, Book 1) by Rachel Caine
106. The Chronicles of Harris Burdick - Anthology
107. Freedom by Jonathan Franzen
108. The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton
109. A Clash of Kings (A Song of Ice and Fire, Book 2) by George R. R. Martin
110. Graceling by Kristin Cashore

September
111. City of Ashes (Mortal Instruments, Book 2) by Cassandra Clare
112. Weird Things Customers Say In Bookshops by Jen Campbell

*waves* Hello, welcome back!

Welcome back!

Oh, I loved The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society when I read it last year - what did you think of it?

Thank you everyone! #5- It was lovely, I wasn't sure I'd like it but I found myself caring so much about the characters :)

I have Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children on my TBR pile..did you like it? Is it as good as everyone says it is?

#7- I really liked it, but I will say that the plot suffers a bit from the reliance on the photographs. Definitely worth a go though :)

Two books I've read recently that I want to recommend:



The Ask and the Answer by Patrick Ness

Well, this is the second book in the trilogy so you'll want to read The Knife of Never Letting Go first. I love this series. Dystopian fiction at its finest. Parts of The Ask and the Answer, in particular with regards to a somewhat sadistic government reminded me of The Hunger Games, and y'all love it, right? So trust me on this one.



Paranormalcy by Kiersten White

Every now and again a book surprises me by being much better than I expected. This is one. Sure, the heroine Evie may have a mermaid as a best friend, a faerie as an ex and be in love with a shapeshifter, but it's what the author does with these elements that's so great. It's got likeable characters and doesn't take itself too seriously, and I can't wait to read the sequel.

>8 stgemma: thanks for the advice..we'll see what happens whenever I get around to reading it..happy reading and good luck

So, I read 18 books in January. Eep. I think that's a new record! I blame study leave. Reading always seems like a lot more fun than revision. I'm back at uni now so things might slow down a bit, then again looking at all the reading I have to do for my English degree, maybe not...

Best book of January: Either Will Grayson, Will Grayson or Hood. Or possibly, Nights at the Circus. Honourable mentions go to The Corrections and Miss Peregrine's Home For Peculiar Children.

Still alive, yet buried under uni work! I read 14 books in February, 5 of which were for my course. Things have been a little bit crazy, but hopefully this month I'll be able to post a little more often.

Best book of February: Written on the Body by Jeanette Winterson. I love Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit and I was worried I wouldn't like this one quite so much, but if anything I like it even more. An absolutely gorgeously written unconventional love story.



Honorable mention: Columbine by Dave Cullen



It feels strange to say I enjoyed this book. It is, as the title suggests, a meticulously detailed account of the Columbine shootings. When I was reading it, I couldn't put it down, yet it was hard to pick up due to how disturbing and depressing it is. I had to have a few Sookie Stackhouse novels on the go at the same time to balance things out! What I loved about this book is that it doesn't presume to answer why and offers no simple answers, as well as debunking so many of the rumours that have sprung up about the incident over the years. Definitely recommended if you're at all interested in Columbine.

Oh my, another month gone and I'm still completely failing to write any reviews. Oops. Blame it on the uni.

So I read 17 books in March, taking me up to 49. At this rate I may end up doubling my target of 100 :P

Best book of March: You know what, it's a tie.

IQ84: Books 1 and 2 by Haruki Murakami



The only Murakami I'd read before this is Dance Dance Dance which I quite enjoyed, but this was a whole new... kettle of fish. Definitely one of the most unique books I've read in some time. I absolutely loved the style of this- so strange and oddly addictive. I'm not even sure I can describe the plot- it alternates between Aomame, who kills a man within the first few chapters, and Tengo, a cram school maths teacher caught up in a literary prize scam. Their stories first appear to be completely unrelated but they merge together in the most strange, unexpected way.

Angela Carter's Book of Wayward Girls and Wicked Women edited by Angela Carter



Originally published without Angela Carter's name in the title, but this was actually what drew me to this collection of short stories, having read and simply adored Nights at the Circus back in January.

Excepting the Angela Carter story, I'd never actually read anything by any of the authors before- half of them I'd never even heard of. As with all anthologies, some were a bit off- but some were, without hyperbole, the best short stories I've ever read, the sort of stories I wish I could tear out of the book and eat. Um, yes.

Happy Easter everyone! I'm having a nice, relaxing Easter weekend at home and I thought I'd take some time out from stuffing my face with chocolate to write a bit about a couple of the books I've read in the last week.

The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins



If you know anything about my reading habits at all, you'll know that this sort of thing is right up my street. I sort of love all things Victorian, especially Victorian mysteries with twists and unexpected endings and colourful characters. Which is exactly what you get with The Moonstone. Loved it.

The Road by Cormac McCarthy



Read for uni. This was one of the books I was most looking forward to reading for my course- I love dystopias and post-apocalyptic stuff. But I was disappointed. I just couldn't connect to the characters at all- they weren't named, which I know is probably supposed to make it universal but just left me wondering why I should care about their fates. Also, nothing really happens, which again is probably supposed to be the point, but it was just too bleak and uninteresting for me. I will say that it was nicely written and with some interesting bits. Maybe when I go back to uni I'll find out why it's supposed to be so good...

So my April has been a bit mental, but I finished my first year of uni this week (apart from exams, eek) so yay! And if my study leave this year is anything like last year's, we can expect a sharp increase in my intake of books...

So I read 13 books this month, including some very, very fine ones indeed. So really? I can't pick a winner! Once again I have a draw, this time between:



The Crimson Petal and the White, by Michel Faber. I could have predicted I'd love this book before I even read it- I pretty much gobble up anything Victorian, and add in some interesting gender politics and this is about as good as it gets.



A Game of Thrones, by George R R Martin. I've never seen the TV series (though I may have to start) and went into this pretty much just because of internet hype. Boy am I glad I did. I can't wait to read the sequel.

And, because I can't bear to leave it out, and to prove I do read books with less than 700 pages:



The Hitchhicker's Guide to the Galaxy, by Douglas Adams. Finally, finally got around to reading this after hearing so much about it. I haven't laughed so much at a book in ages.

I've been gone a bit. I know. Blame summer. Here's hoping I'll be a bit more present for the rest of the year!

So, because I've missed so many of my monthly round-ups, I've decided to do a top five of the best books I've read in May to August. They're not in any special order within the top five, and I don't include re-reads :)

1. Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman - Honestly, probably my new favourite Gaiman book. I'd also say a good one to start with if you haven't read any Gaiman yet (hint hint). Funny, quirky and a little bit scary- everything I love Neil Gaiman for.

2. Middlemarch by George Eliot - This is one book that intimidated me for a long time. I knew I was going to get around to it eventually, as it's considered the ultimate Victorian novel, and Victorian-ness is one of my favourite things. But boy is it long- my edition was some 840 pages and I literally used it as a doorstop for a while. But trust me, it's one of those books that needs to be that long- I got so caught up in the characters and their lives and actually felt a bit sad when it was all over.

3. The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton - You know those books that you just read and you know they're going to be in your all-time top ten list for some time to come? This is one of them. I loved it.

4. Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan - People have been telling me I need to read this series for some time now, but it was my girlfriend who forced her copy onto me, telling me it was better than Harry Potter. Well, now that was a challenge. Maybe not quite Harry Potter- but certainly pretty amazing. I kept having to take a break from reading to look up all the Greek mythology references and I must confess I'm a bit enthralled with the whole world. I can't wait to steal *cough* borrow the rest of the series :)

5. The Well of Loneliness by Radclyffe Hall - A very pleasant surprise. I initially picked this up because I felt it was something I had to read, as a fan of LGBT fiction. For those not in the know, it was banned on publication in 1928 for its frank depiction of lesbian relationships and the masculine female protagonist. It's not even remotely explicit, but its writing and publication was certainly a bold move. I hadn't really heard good things about this book, but it's surprisingly good and I would definitely argue still relevant as well as being a rare glimpse into LGBT lifestyles of the early 20th century.