Mamzel in 2013

OK! So, the plan for 2013 is to set up the categories along the lines I usually follow. I'm too frivolous to stick to a set number so I'll be realistic and set no limits to those categories I always over indulge in and set reasonable minimums for the other categories.

1. TBRs - 2
2. Mysteries - 4
3. Speculative Fiction - 3
4. ERs and ARCs - 1
5. Graphic novels - 1
6. Nonfiction - 1
7. Food related
8. Plays
9. Classics -1
10. Non-American authors - 6
11. Short story collections
12. YA literature - 313. Miscellaneous

Total to date - 22

I. Books from the piles in my room (TBRs) - no minimum

1. Sacré Bleu by Christopher Moore (2012)
2. Wheel of Darkness by Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child (2007)

II. Mysteries - no minimum

1. Heartstone by C.J. Sansome (2010)
2. Restless: A Novel by William Boyd (2007)
3. Grandad, There's a Head on the Beach by Colin Cotterill (2012)
4. City of Secrets by Kelli Stanley (2011)

III. Speculative fiction - no minimum

1. Storm Front by Jim Butcher (2000)
2. Fool Moon by Jim Butcher (2001)
3. Grave Peril by Jim Butcher (2001)
Redshirts by John Scalzi (2012)

IV. ERs and ARCs - no minimum

1. Out of the Easy by Ruta Sepetys (2013)

V. Graphic novels - 10

1. Morning Glories by Nick Spencer (2012)

VI. Nonfiction - 5

1. The Man Who Loved China by Simon Winchester (2008)

VII. Food related - 5

VIII. Plays - 5

IX. Classics - 3

1. Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov (1955)

X. Non-American authors - 3

1. A Morbid Taste for Bones by Ellis Peters (1977)
2. Anatomy of Murder by Imogen Robertson (2011)
3. Instruments of Darkness by Imogen Robertson (2009)
4. The Face of a Stranger by Anne Perry (1990)
5. A Dangerous Mourning by Anne Perry (1991)
6. Zoo City by Lauren Beukes (2011)

XI. Short story collections (hopefully I'll have some stroke of inspiration on a representative pic) - 3

XII. YA books for work - no minimum

1. Tiger Lily by Jodi Lynn Anderson (2012)
2. The Book Thief by Markus Zusak (2005)



YALSA Challenge
1. The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater (2012)
2. Juvenile in Justice by Richard Ross (2012)

XIII. Miscellaneous - unlimited

Haha, your placeholders made me smile. Hope to get some good YA recs from you!

Christina, I'll throw one at you right now!

Never Fall Down by Patricia McCormick is my favorite of 2012 so far!

Hee, our mystery categories have similar names/icons: you have "I Love a Mystery" and I have "I Hate a Mystery" ;) Good idea to not set a limit on the categories you read the most of!

Love the pics!

R.B., I like those old fashioned movie posters! About setting the limits, I feel guilty when I read more than I set out to so I figured I'd just read and let the books fall into whatever category fits.

Cheli, I love Google Pics. It makes it easy to find something appropriate.

"set no limits to those categories I always over indulge in and set reasonable minimums for the other categories"
That's probably how I'll play it as well... :)

Love the Sandman picture - I'm looking forward to the group read!

Love your categories! While I don't have a plays category this year my 12 in 12 challenge has given me a better appreciation for plays and play writing so I look forward to what you choose to fill the category!

... of course I will be glued to your graphics category!

Love the pics! I'm still trying to figure out how to complete my 12 in 12, but see I need to start a thread for next year. I'll keep my eye on your suggestions.

Thanks, guys. It'll be another fun year, I'm sure.

Definitely a fun year, and I'm looking forward to following your reading again, Mamzel.

Ditto Judy - guess I'm following you (belatedly) around the group. :)

Better belatedly than never!;D
I really like the manageable size of this group. It's very easy to keep up with everyone's threads.

All starred and ready to follow your reading.

Welcome aboard!

I look forward to seeing your categories fill out. My favorite being, "I love a mystery" Hmm...I wonder why? :)

Maybe I'll get some good suggestions from your thread!

Look forward to seeing your YA reads. I've just started reading mysteries this year, so I'll keep an eye on those too!

I'll be peeking in from time to time to spy on your book choices for your food-related category. I have one of those as well.

Just stopping by to get some ideas for categories. I seem to be using the same ones year after year. I need to branch out a little bit more. I have you starred.

I'm afraid I don't have any clever organization this year. I just tried to match what my reading habits are. Maybe you can try some of the new genres. Steampunk and Urban Fantasy are two examples. One recent one I've heard is New Wierd for authors like Mièville who challenge the definitions of regular genres.

I'm having a great time reading through everyone's categories. There are many that are definitely out of my comfort zone but that I think I'd like to try. I put my challenge together based on what I already had on my shelves but if I'm good getting rid of the BOMBs in 2013, I think I'll reward myself with some new categories in 2014.

> 35 I think I'll reward myself with some new categories in 2014.
What a great idea, I'm using this challenge to get rid of BOMBS also.

Sandra, I like this philosophy! It gives me added incentive to read from the piles around my room. I think in the past I may have put some of these books read in other categories. I'll make sure to have some indication in my notes if I do this.

I like how you've set up your challenge. Leaving your favourite categories open is a great idea. I'll enjoy following along to see what you fill everything up with.

Thanks. I'll be keeping tabs on your thread also!

will be lurking here next year no doubt....

Welcome!

Out of the Easy by Ruta Sepetys (2013)

I received this book from the Early Reviewers program.

This was the perfect book to start my new challenge. A new setting, new characters, a different time, all help make this is a fresh story. (And not a single paranormal to be found!)

The story opens in 1950 in New Orleans. Josie's mother is a prostitute who works in a house with a madam named Willie. Josie shares nothing with her mother - no love, no good memories. When she was twelve Josie started hiding in a book store so she could spend the night there. The owner, an old gentleman named Charlie, fixed up a little apartment above the store and let her stay there. When she was older she started working there with Charlie's son, Patrick.

Josie successfully finished high school and Willie has promised to pay for her college as long as it was located in New Orleans and Josie could continue cleaning the house in the morning after all the parties have ended. Josie, understandably, wants to get as far from New Orleans as she can. One day, a student from Smith College, Charlotte, comes into the store. They feel an instant affinity and Josie dreams of attending Smith. The only problems are being accepted and raising the considerable amount of money needed to attend.

Josie's mother is implicated in the death of a tourist who had, that same day, visited the book store and bought two books. Josie draws the attention of police and mobsters protecting her mother and her mother's gangster boyfriend. Will Josie manage to get out from under her mother's baggage, avoid falling into the same bad career, and follow her dream?

An added plus for this book (in my opinion) is that Josie loves books. One of the things I will be sharing this year is the reference of books in the stories i read. There were several in this book, most notably David Copperfield by Charles Dickens and poetry by Keats.

CATEGORY - ERs AND ARCs

Heartstone by C.J. Sansome (2010)
Matthew Shardlake #5

The churchyard was peaceful in the summer afternoon.

Matthew Shardlake continues to delve deeply into his cases to ferret out the truth and obtain a satisfactory conclusion for the cases he takes on. In this book he takes a case from the Queen of England on the behalf of one of her hand maids. The hand maid's son had been a tutor for two orphans and the son of the man who bought their wardship. The tutor has discovered something heinous but committed suicide before he could pass the information on to anyone else. The hand maid wanted to learn if there might have been something other than suicide to his death and to check on the welfare of the surviving orphan.

While he was in their neighborhood, Matthew was able to delve into the reason why a beautiful young woman found it necessary to hide in the in insane asylum known as Bedlam and who was paying for her keep there.

At the time Matthew and his assistant, Barack, head south of London to visit the manor where the orphan lives, King Henry is rapidly amassing ships and troops to prevent an invasion by the French in the same area.

This series fulfills the dual roll of a mystery story with twists and lurking danger and a historical novel with an inside look of England in 1545.

CATEGORY - MYSTERIES

->42 mamzel:
I was looking at that one when it was up on LTER, but I resisted requesting it due to the groaning Mt. TBR, but I see now I should have. :) On the wishlist it goes!

Nice to see the Shardlake continues to hold attention at book #5. I still need to find the time to start this series.....*gulp*

I'm another that has to start the Shardlake series. Out of the Easy added to the wishlist!

I hope you all will be able to read these books - and enjoy them! Shardlake is so admirable in his loyalty and tenacity. Out of the Easy is just so brave, being set primarily in a brothel. I hope that YA librarians won't accept this book because of that!

The Man Who Loved China by Simon Winchester (2008)

The battered old Douglas C-47 Skytrain of the China National Aviation Corporation, its chocolate brown fuselage battle-scarred with bullet holes and dents, shuddered its way down through the rain clouds, the pilot following the slow bends of the Yangzi River until he had the sand-spit landing field in sight in front of him and the cliffs of China's capital city to his left.

Joseph Needham was a modern Renaissance man who made his life work to chronicle the history of Chinese scientific inventions and posed what was known as the "Needham question" which was the reason why these advances came to a halt around AD 1500. Winchester must have waded through thousands of pages of chronicles, letters, books, etc. to whittle Needham's life and travels down to this book.

Being interested in things scientific and things Asian, this book was a natural for me. I loved reading about his travels and inquiries along his way as he trekked around China in his search for information for what would become the premier source of information on his topics.

This book was well worth the time to read it. Fun for adventurers, sinophiles, and those with scientific curiosity.

Referenced book - Needham's own Science and Civilisation in China

CATEGORY - NONFICTION

Oh no! Hit by a BB so close to the holidays! Too bad B&N just sent me a 30% off coupon this morning. *evil muttley laugh* >:)

I got one of those coupons too, Laura! And there's a B&N two blocks from my office...

Laura, this is a 4-year old book so you may not find it on the shelves. I got it from a clearance rack. Good luck!



Tiger Lily by Jodi Lynn Anderson (2012)

She stands on the cliffs, near the old crumbling stone house.

I have to start by saying that I am not a fan of the Peter Pan stories. I attribute that to a general distaste for stories that have been Disneyfied. The story is told by Tinkerbell, a fairie who, unlike Julia Roberts, cannot speak and is generally ignored when she tries to warn her human friends by biting them and performing other mischief. Luckily for us she can read the minds of humans and shares their thoughts with the reader. Tink is intrigued by Tiger Lily who is taciturn, stronger, and more interesting than the other young women of her tribe.

That Tiger Lily does not communicate much makes the first half of this book drag. Wendy comes on the scene, Hook tries to take out the lost boys, Tiger Lily has to marry an odious tribe member, and the mermaids are up to their shenanigans. It seems that it is not possible to be a young woman in Neverland and not be in love with Peter. He has no less that two girls, one mermaid, and one fairie in love with him. This is what leads to the climax of the story which is as interesting as watching the tide rise, surely and inexorably.

More fun for Pan fans than anyone.

Author mention - Jane Austen

CATEGORY - YA BOOKS

50: Danger, danger Christina Robinson! ;)

Great review, mamzel!

Thanks, Laura!



Restless: A Novel by William Boyd (2007)

When I was a child and was being factious and contrary and generally behaving badly, my mother used to rebuke me by saying: "One day someone will come and kill me and then you'll be sorry'; or, "They'll appear out of the blue and whisk me away - how would you like that"; or, "You'll wake up one morning and I'll be gone. Disappeared. You wait and see."

Ruth thought she knew her eccentric mother, Sally, until Sally started giving her printed chapters of her true life. Sally was originally a Russian named Eva Delectorskaya who worked for a British agency, BSC, British Security Coordination, whose members tried to create news stories designed to sway the Americans to take part in World War II. Sally eventually asks her daughter to look for the man who was her supervisor and lover and the only other surviving member of the BSC.

As the story grows, Ruth is given more chapters of her mother's past and we learn about the training given to the agents and the types of missions they were sent on. Sally's last mission turned mysteriously wrong and she went on the run and into hiding ever since. Her last identity being Ruth's mother.

I would call this a light spy novel as there is little ammunition spent and no car chases. There is, however, lots of tailing and avoiding being tailed. This takes this story out of the cozy mystery genre but not into the worlds of LeCarre and Fleming. I had never read this author before and was surprised to find he has won several awards so I will look for more.

The only literary reference was a fictitious book called The Hollow Mountain by fictitious author Sam M. Goodforth.

CATEGORY - MYSTERIES

Something in between a cozy mystery and the spy worlds of LeCarre and Fleming is right up my alley for interesting reading! I have made a note of Restless.

To all LTers, may you have a safe and peaceful holiday.


glitter-graphics.com

The Man Who Loved China looks good. I've read a couple of others by Simon Winchester... I'll have to check this one out too!

Merry Christmas, Mamzel.

Posts from two queens. How regal!
antqueen - I hope you'll enjoy it.
Delta Queen - Thanks



The Book Thief by Markus Zusak (2005)

It's just a small story really, about, among other things:
*A girl
*Some words
*An accordionist
*Some fanatical Germans
*A Jewish fist fighter
*And quite a lot of thievery

I usually quote the first lines of a book - this quote comes a little further in but sets up the book so well with its tone.

I originally bought this copy at a library book sale for my daughter who had never read it. When she handed it back to me I knew I had to read it again. I finished this book this morning, as is fitting since it is such a gift! It is not just another Holocaust book; it is a book about people surviving, growing, existing, and loving in the worst possible circumstances.

It is one of those books that everyone should give a couple of hours of their lives to read.

Literary references -
Mein Kampf by Adolf Hitler
I can't find any information about the rest of the books mentioned. No authors were given.
The Grave Digger's Handbook
The Shoulder Shrug
Faust the Dog
The Lighthouse
The Whistler
The Mud Men
The Dream Carrier
A Song in the Dark
The Complete Duden Dictionary and Thesaurus
Die Letzte Menschliche Fremde - The Last Human Stranger
The Rules of Tommy Hoffmann
Titles written by characters:
The Standover Man by Max
The Book Thief by Liesl

Merry Christmas, mamzel! I've got Book Thief on my shelf for next year, and I've heard nothing short of excellent reviews of it. :D Hope you're having a cozy evening!

I loved The Book Thief! His book I am the Messenger is also worth reading.

Laura, with all the rain we're getting, cozy evenings is all I enjoy!

Tanglewood, I'm going to read that when I go back to work.

Grandad, There's a Head on the Beach by Colin Cotterill (2012)
Jimm Juree Mystery #2

"Grandad?"
He didn't so much as look up. He had a lot of problems, did Grandad. Deafness wasn't one of them. Ignorance was. He feigned the former to achieve the latter.

Jimm returns with her extraordinary family and circle of friends who reside in and around their rundown beach resort located in Maprao on the Gulf of Siam. It is the monsoon season which means no guests, torrential rains and an onshore wind that blows in garbage from the ocean. On one morning, Jimm's dog finds a head on the beach. They also get two mysterious women guests who do not mind that the weather and accommodations were not quite up to par. Jimm thinks she may have a story or two that would interest a newspaper and get her back into journalism.

Cotterill gives us a lesson in life in SE Asia as we follow Jimm. In this case we are taught about the Burmese immigrants in Thailand. Like our Mexican immigrants, some are legal, some are not. They take any work they can at a fraction of the wages the Thai earn. Unlike the U.S., however, the Thai do not educate or provide any health care for their guests. In fact, Burmese are frequently picked up off the street and are made slaves, in this case, on large offshore fishing vessels.

One of the observations made by Jimm really shocked me:
I blame Buddhism, you know? Get yourself a soft religion and you can forgive yourself almost anything. No shame. No guilt. I'll do my penance in the next life. No worries.

This hit me as another disappointment that things were not as pure and beautiful as they make us think. I can remember being taken aback when I visited Stonehenge. All the pictures I had seen never took in the highway or people walking around it. I had always dreamed of visiting Machu Picchu but I know it would be spoiled by (I imagine) porta-potties and tourists, maybe even a gift store. My image of Thailand is the beautiful beaches of Phuket, not the garbage strewn beaches where Jimm lives. I can't hold this against Cotterill, however, it's my fault that I can still be naive about such things.

Cotterill fans will enjoy the crazy cast of characters and, oh yeah, the mysteries.

Literary references - None

CATEGORY - MYSTERIES

Storm Front by Jim Butcher (2000)
The Dresden Files #1

I heard the mailman approach my office door, half an hour earlier than usual.

Harry Dresden is a private investigator in Chicago who occasionally assists the police. He has abilities that few others have. He is a wizard. And, yes, I'm late coming to this series - #14 was released earlier this year. I thought that this would be my series for 2013.

In many ways Harry Blackstone Copperfield Dresden is like so many hard bitten, lonely PIs we find in fiction. His only companions are a huge cat named Mister and a spirit that is confined in a skull named Bob who helps him create potions.

This first book was a fast read and I am looking forward to reading more of this series (No. 2 is on hold at the library).

Literary references: none

CATEGORY - SPECULATIVE FICTION

I have to remember to check in on that other Cotterill-series - I do like his Dr. Siri enough to want to try something else by him. Hope you have a great new year!

Sacré Bleu by Christopher Moore (2012)

This is a story about the color blue. It may dodge and weave, hide and deceive, take you down paths of love and history and inspiration, but it's always about blue.

Sacré Bleu is an original mix of fantasy with historical fiction and including art and humor. It is centered on a rare and precious source of mineral for a color of ultramarine that we are familiar with as it is most often seen in the Mother Mary's robes. In Moore's book, the source of the color is a fantastical, somewhat dark method of transferring from a painting to a woman's body and being scraped off her skin. When used by a painter he usually loses all sense of time and suffers a loss of memory while painting with it. Along with the madness caused by Sacré Bleu painters had the dangers of lead poisoning from white lead paint, syphilis, and the popular drink of the time, the psychedelic absinthe.

The book is printed with blue ink and there are plates with many of the time's masterpieces to give us an idea of what the artists looked like (to themselves) and the women who were their muses.

I recommend this book as a palate cleanser - something completely different with more than a few chuckles, beautiful art, and a glimpse into the life of the time.

Literary references:
The Sign of the Four by Arthur Conan Doyle
The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde

CATEGORY - TBR

I just shrieked, scaring both my dog and my husband: "OH--Christopher Moore put a new book out!!!" So, thank you for the review (and news, however late I am noting it!), and on their behalf, I'll thank you for the entertainment of my shriek also :)

Glad I made your day. Please apologize to your husband and hug your dog for me. You are in for a treat!

Fool Moon by Jim Butcher (2001)
The Dresden Files #2

I never used to keep close track of the phases of the moon. So I didn't know that it was one night shy of being full when a young woman sat down across from me in McAnally's pub and asked me to tell her all about something that could get her killed.

Harry Dresden gets a crash course in werewolves in this episode. I surely didn't know there were that many different varieties of shape shifters. He risks his life to protect his friends and save the city from a variety of these paranormal creatures.

He is so gallant and righteous even when tempted by the basest of emotions he is really growing on me. I will endeavor to get the next couple of episodes from the library.

Literary references - none

CATEGORY - SPECULATIVE FICTION

>63 mamzel: & 68 I feel a book(s) bullet headed my way.

Happy New Year!

Very nice review of Moore's Sacre Bleu! I am looking forward to reading more of Moore's books and the art angle sounds really cool!

Roberta, I've got the next two in the series requested through my library's ILL. Harry's quite a guy! You may want to avoid the next review.

Lori, It got to the point that I could see the outline of a painting on the next page and I would only scan the words to get through them to the art! I am a casual fan of the Impressionists and it was cool to see their self-portraits to put a face to the characters.



A Morbid Taste for Bones by Ellis Peters (1977)
Chronicles of Brother Cadfael No. 1

On the fine, bright morning in early May when the whole sensational affair of the Gwytherin relics may properly be considered to have begun, Brother Cadfael had been up long before Prime, pricking out cabbage seedlings before the day was aired, and his thoughts were all on birth, growth and fertility, not at all on graves and reliquaries and violent deaths, whether of saints, sinners or ordinary decent, fallible men like himself.

Having recently completed to date the historical mysteries of Matthew Shardlake, I was reminded of the series featuring Brother Cadfael. I remembered enjoying the excellent TV series starring Sir Derek Jacobi so I decided to read Ellis Peters' series.

Brother Cadfael had already experienced a life full of adventure and experience having joined a Crusade and fighting Saracens when he joined a Benedictine order of monks and embraced a quiet religious life. His extensive experience with herbs and medicine allowed him to fit in the Abbey at Shresbury where he tended the garden and maintained a collection of medicinal potions.

Having been involved in lay adventures had given him a better sense of human motives which helped him solve a murder. Cadfael and a group of his fellow monks traveled to Wales to relieve a village of the bones of their own Saint Winifred because of a vision of one of their members. Cadfael suspected that there was more of a financial consideration in this move and goes along offering his ability to speak Welsh, his native tongue, and possibly try to leave Winifred where she lies. The murder victim was the vocal opponent of this move, Rhisiart, a local landowner and father of the lovely Sioned. Her lover, an exiled Englishman, was suspected of committing the murder since Rhisiart had refused to allow his daughter to marry him. Cadfael saw that discovering the truth would also allow these two to be joined when the truth was exposed.

Even though he had taken vows, Cadfael was not above taking a little joy in accomplishing a few deceptions to bring things to right which is a feeling enjoyed by the reader as well.

Folks who enjoy historical mysteries will enjoy meeting Brother Cadfael and sharing his life in a 12th Century monastery.

Literary references - none

CATEGORY - NON-AMERICAN AUTHORS

Ooh, I have to get on the Brother Cadfael series next year. Thanks for the reminder via your review! I am also enjoying the literary references when they appear in your books :) Happy New Year!

Yay for Ellis Peters' Brother Cadfael series..... loved and pretty much devoured those books when they first came out, which means I am probably ready now for a re-read of the series ..... but not this year. ;-)

Found your thread!!! You've been really busy while you've been hiding. Faust the Dog? I'd read that book - and I will get to The Book Thief this year.

I love A Morbid Taste for Bones. Cadfael, enjoy deceptions??? You don't say? & I love the two main suspects for this particular mystery - I always knew the innocent one might also have it in him. ;) After all, he's so annoying.

Happy New Year Mamzel! I will be reading books from the Cadfael series this year. Starting with the second book because it got the best reviews. I remember the PBS mystery series as well. Thank you for your review.

>71 mamzel: Mamzel no worries on a book bullet as I finished the Cadfael series this past year. I enjoyed all 20 books. Some more than others but they all seem like old friends now.

Happy New Year, Mamzel. Happy reading in 2013.

I too need to get around to reading Cadfael - I did so enjoy the TV-series!

Hooray for Cadfael! I've read the first half of the series, but there are still 10 more books out there calling my name!

Nice categories. I wonder if I should put a "no limit" on my TBR pile of how many books to read. Good luck!

@mamzel I was just stopping by to thank you for your suggestions on my challenge thread, but I started to read through your categories and now I'm hooked! I'll be looking forward to seeing what else you read this year. Ever since spotting Out of The Easy through Early Reviewers, I've wanted to read it. Now that I've read your review, I think I'm going to try it.

I was also wondering if you've ever read A Northern Light by Jennifer Donnelly? It's one of my favorite YA novels and it's also a mystery (I love mysteries too).

Eva & Christina, I will certainly continue with the Cadfael series. I have Sir Derek in my head. He fit the role so well.

Julie, I tried to set limits on my categories last year and it just didn't work so I decided to leave the number open for my favorite categories. Why fight it, right?

I.O., I stopped by your page and was inspired by your comments about your condition. I hope your optimism carries you through to good health! I have A Northern Light in my library and I'm thinking I should get to it. I recently read Code Name Verity which is a mystery, spy, and a kind of a love story which I can only rave about. Donnelly's book might be a close runner-up.

Hi Manzel. Happy New Year! Just checking in and catching up on threads. The Jim Butcher books look good but I'm not up to starting another series. Esp a 14 book series. I'll continue to ignore them, no matter how good they sound.

Mamzel - found you starred you and happy new yeared you!

A Northern Light is wonderful!!!!

Nice review of the Cadfael mystery! I've enjoyed the TV series and had read a couple of the novels a long time ago. Seems like it's time to rediscover this series.

I read A Morbid Taste for Bones many years ago but didn't feel inclined to continue with the series. My tastes have changed since then, and there's a lot of Cadfael love here, I think I'll give it another try.

65 - I noticed my library has Sacre Bleu available for ereaders, but seems to me that would take away from the delight of the blue ink and the illustrated plates. I like my eReader, but there are some books that are definitely better as a paper version. I'll have to see if my library has the latter.

Violet, the good thing about the Butcher books is that they are quite short and fast to read. And fun.

Paul, Happy New Year to you, too!

Cammy, OK, I'm convinced. I'll get it next week when I'm back to work.

Mathgirl, Sorry about that . ;-)

Sandy, The series really fits with my latest obsession with historical (medieval) fiction. I think I will really savor them. Good on you getting the paper version. For this book, it's definitely worth it. My Kindle is just black and white so I would probably not have enjoyed the color. I wouldn't know if color ereaders would do it justice.

Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov (1955)

Lolita, light of my life, fire of my loins. My sin, my soul.

OK, I've read it. And I won't ever have to read it again.

Intelligent, educated man with obsession with young girls maneuvers himself so that he marries the mother of a particularly luscious sample. Luckily for him she gets hit by a car and dies only a month after they married so he is free to do as he pleases with Dolores (Lo, Dolly, Lolita). He packs her up in his car and heads off on a two year journey around the U.S. never staying in one place long enough to alarm any of the residents.

The book is written by the man writing his confession in prison. All through the book the reader can see that he knows what he is doing is wrong and he just can't help himself. It is a sickness. Sorry if I can't feel sorry for the slob. I don't think I was meant to.

I read the afterword written by Nabokov which tried to explain why he wrote the book and I still don't understand. He had his own obsession.

I can't recommend reading this book unless you feel it's necessary. I've read so many comments I was intrigued but I could have just as easily lived on without reading it.

Literary references - many but they were used to amuse a young girl and served as bribes, not to educate her, no I'm not going to list them.

CATEGORY - CLASSICS

City of Secrets by Kelli Stanley (2011)

Pandora was still pretty. White skin, blond hair. Roots not faded back to black and brown, Stretched across the platform, breasts firm, nipples plump, pubic hair shaved. Head hung over the edge, upside down. Frozen, still, marble. Perfect artist's model, except for the blood dripping.

I have to imagine that the author turned off her grammar checker since entire pages would have had green underlining. I mean, why bother with subjects. Let the reader fill in the blanks. Obviously she was not paid by the word.

Sorry about that. I should just say that this noir style is not for me. I also found the need to assign brand names to every car, candy, cigarette, gun, etc. (and, OMG, were there lots of candies and cigarettes) totally unnecessary. Yes, this book took place in 1940 and it was obviously well researched to supply us with modes of transportation, places of interest, and all in the interest of immersing the reader in the time and place. But it was too in-my-face.

So, I'll lay it out in Stanley's style. San Francisco. 1940. Cigarette. Fog. Treasure Island. World's Fair. Cigarette. Murder. Pretty Jewish girls, sterilized. Why? Chesterfield cigarette and 2 Pep O Mint Life Savers. Napa Valley. Mud baths. Hospital for Insane used to purify race. Danger.

The critics, according to the blurbs on the back, raved for her first book so I can only say that it was me, not the writing. Maybe fans of noir will like it.

Literary references - None - but it was nice to read the names of newspapers that no longer exist.

CATEGORY - MYSTERIES

"OK, I've read it. And I won't ever have to read it again."

There are quite a few classics that I've felt like that about. :)

Interesting thoughts on Lolita. I felt the same way (and read it for the same reasons -- it's a cultural touchstone). I couldn't help being captivated by Nabokov's prose, though. For that reason, I found it disturbing on many levels.

So sorry you fell for reading Lolita. I'd have a hard time rating it because I loathe that book but can see why others love it... to a point. There must be some magic in it that just isn't compatible with me.

I'm picking it up from the library tomorrow. Apprehensive about reading it.

I was going to join the group read of Lolita but completely forgot until I saw the thread earlier this week. I am waiting on a copy from the library - which might show up before the end of January - so, I might still give the book a go, if anything so that I can say I read it!

I also couldn't stomach Lolita and felt very manipulated by Humbert's voice all the way through. I did, however appreciate the writing enough to want to read something else by Nabokov, though I haven't gotten around to it yet.

I haven't read Lolita yet either, sometimes I feel like I'm one of the few. So, maybe I'll jump on the group read this month. I usually see good reviews, so it's nice to see some mixed ones.

Lolita certainly generates feelings and comments. The subject matter is certainly objectionable but the writing is, without a doubt, outstanding. I could just as well have left this one for the American Lit students to discuss.



Anatomy of Murder by Imogen Robertson (2011)
Crowther and Westerman #2

Wonderful discovery!

This is a historical mystery series that takes place in England during the 1770s. Harriet Westerman is the wife of a Navy ship's captain and Gabriel Crowther is a man with a passion for human anatomy who has recently been introduced to the challenging and dangerous world of solving murders. Harriet is no simpering woman of the times having spent three years on her husband's ship aiding the ship's surgeon when needed. They are called in by the Admiralty to help investigate the murder of a man found tethered to a block in the Thames. They find themselves in the world of the opera and spies.

As soon as I finished this book I downloaded the first episode to my Kindle and I recommend that if interested, you start with the first. There is history of the two and their circumstances from the first book.

Literary references - none

CATEGORY - NON-AMERICAN AUTHOR

Morning Glories by Nick Spencer (2012)
Volume 1.

When I was in the library picking up some ILL requests, I saw the first two volumes of this series and thought to give them a try. There is a good amount of graphic violence and the art work is very attentive to the excellent physique of the characters.

A number of teens from different countries and backgrounds converge on a prep school and they learn they all have the same birth dates. There are lots of other odd things happening. Creepy teachers, odd ghost thingie, and disappearances. If they are able to reach their families, they find that all memories of them are gone. They are cut off and left to their own devices in this new school.

I'm sure this would be more appreciated by teens than me.

Literary references - yeah, sure.

CATEGORY - GRAPHIC NOVELS

Darth Vader and Son by Jeffrey Brown (2012)

I'm not including this in my count since it only took about 5 minutes to read but I had to share. It is so cute. Take a 6-year-old boy named Luke and his father named Darth Vader and imagine the moments they shared. The blend of boy comments and Star Wars lines is fun, fun, fun. If you are a Star Wars fan (#4, 5, and 6) then you will find this an amusing little bit.

Darn it all.... my local library doesn't have any of Imogen Robertson's books. What is the title of the first episode?

Interesting review of Morning Glories. I have/had that one as a free download from NetGalley but never bothered to read it beyond a quick - and I do mean quick! - skim of it. Glad to see I didn't miss too much.

I never knew lolita was about this topic. I've just always heard of it as a classic... Guess it's definitely not for me.

Yes, Imogen Robertson looks worth reading. I wonder if my library has her? Your description reminds me a bit of the Ariana Franklin series, Mistress of the art of death - which I still haven't had a chance to read either!

I saw Darth Vader and Son in Barnes and Noble and thought it was great! Just too funny!

92> Like Mark Twain said, a classic is "something that everybody wants to have read and nobody wants to read."

I read Lolita years ago and that's all that I remember about it - that I read it.

Mamzel, I'm thinking of reading Jim Butcher this year as one of my new-to-me authors. What would you say is the appeal of the series?

Thanks for the reviews of The Book Thief and A Morbid Taste for Bones. I tried to read Book Thief a couple years ago, but was too cheap to buy the book (this was on Kindle).
I've had the other one on my WL for a while, but I may have to bump it up now!

The Darh Vadar and Soon looks like a cute book! I'll have to pass it a long to a star wars fan of mine.

Lori, Instruments of Darkness is the first of the series. I'll only read the second of the Morning Glories series since I have it from the library and it won't use up too much of my life. ;-)

Tina, Before I read it, I knew about the topic but I had mistakenly thought it was European. Even though Nabokov was born in Russia, he wrote this in the U.S. and it takes place in the U.S.

Cammy, besides the fact that they are different time periods, they are very similar in that the lead character is a strong, educated female who likes to stick her nose in places it probably shouldn't be and the fact that she is surrounded by a loyal and disparate extended family.

Caroline, I first saw it at our local bookstore but didn't have time to read it. My daughter noticed it at the library so we took it home and both laughed over it.

Booklizard, first of all they are very quick reads. Second of all, Dresden is so darn good, in the white knight meaning. No matter how beat up and tired he is, he will finish the job, save the damsel in distress, and then go home and recuperate. And magic is cool!

Miela, I hope you will someday try The Book Thief again. It is such a different view of Germany during the war. The problem (or not depending on how you look at it) with the Cadfael book is that it is a long series (20!). He is a wonderful character.

Julie, your friend will love it, especially if he is a father, too!

It was so hard coming back to work this morning. Those marathon early morning reading sessions spoiled me rotten.

slowly catching up on LT - good stuff here as normal, another prompter for me to read the book thief

>109 mamzel: 20 books would not be a problem for me. I nearly got that far with the Morland Saga by Cynthia Harrod-Eagles, which has about 34 books in the series. (Eventually I had to give up.)

Pete, yes, do.

Miela, I've found that my library system has books from series scattered at all different branches. It makes me curious how they manage to ensure they have the whole series! I figure that if there are any gaps I can make them up on my Kindle. I think the longest I stayed with a series was the "Cat Who..." series by Lillian Jackson Braun that is up to 30 episodes. I think I made it to about #20 or so. The Cadfael books are a little denser but much more varied and interesting.

"literary references-yeah, sure", lol! Enjoyed all of your reviews. I've got the Shardlake series on the TBR pile. Your list of books read already is very impressive.

I think I've actually read all of the "Cat Who..." books - fun and very light, but you can't read to many in a row without your brain turning to mush....

I also enjoy the "Cat Who" series, but have been on a break ever since I found LT and the scores of other books everyone is talking about! I think I made it to around 10 before I started getting hit with BB all the time :)

Regina, it almost felt like I had to push my eyes back in my head! Having absolutely nothing else to do over vacation (except yard and house work which it was too cold for) I would stay in bed for the better part of the morning sipping hot coffee and reading. Good ambience and good books made for lots of completed books! I will slow down now.

Dejah & Tina, they certainly got quite repititious. With a limited number of people in the town, the stranger-visitor-tourist was invariably the guilty party. I did also read them before joining LT and learning about more series.

There are no Imogen Robertson books at our library, but they do have Darth Vader and Son. I immediately put a hold on it. Sounds like my 12yo would get a kick out of it too.

A little late, I know, but great review of The Book Thief. Along with Great Expectations, it was the best book I read in 2012, and every where I go, I recommend it. Just changes one's way of looking and thinking on so many issues, not just WWII related.

Sandy, She is British so maybe she isn't too widely read in the U.S. I'm told they came out with Darth Vader and Daughter. I'll have to go back and see if it's in the book store yet.

kac, I think it's creepy/cool that Death takes such an interest in her and watches her. I've never read Great Expectations although I do know the story. Someday I will get around to it.

I'm going to have to by the Darth Vadar and Son for my partner, he is a huge star wars fan. And it looks adorable! And if there is a Darth Vadar and Daughter then it to is a must buy, as it would be even more perfect for him.

I just looked for it on Amazon. It's called Vader's Little Princess. It's coming out Apr. 23.

That is ADORABLE. :D

That's added to the TBR list now!

Instruments of Darkness by Imogen Robertson (2009)
Crowther and Westerman #1

Gabriel Crowther opened his eyes.
"Mr. Crowther, sir?"
The light in the room was weak. Morning light.
"Whoever it is, send them away," he said.
He blinked. The maid was still there.

This is the first of a series pairing up Mrs. Westerman, the wife of a naval captain who is on shore to take care of the couples two young children. Mr. Crowther is a reclusive man with a fascination for human anatomy. They pair up to investigate the death of a man found on Mrs. Westerman's property.

The story takes place in three different locales and two different times. The first is the West Sussex location where Westerman and Crowther live in 1780, the second is London where a Mr. Alexander Smith and his two young children live, and the third site takes place in 1776 in Boston.

What is discovered is a sordid family history and the two investigators sort it all out and help save the lives of the two children. A very satisfying and interesting mystery.

Literary reference - Macbeth by William Shakespeare

CATEGORY - NON-AMERICAN AUTHOR

Instruments of Darkness sounds soooo good! Adding Imogen Robertson to the list of author for my next trip to the used bookstores to see if I can ferret out a copy.

I'm not familiar with Imogen Robertson, but this sounds like a very good series!

I'm pretty sure Instruments of Darkness is already in my "black hole" (to borrow Stasia's term).

I love that cover for Instruments of Darkness. And your reviews have definitely piqued my interest. I'll have to keep my eyes open for Imogen Robertson books.

a strong, educated female who likes to stick her nose in places it probably shouldn't be That's my favorite kind of character!

129. I whole-heartedly agree!

For Instruments of Darkness how much of the American Revolution is in the book? The description and tags on the book page mention it, but I'm interested in knowing how much it's influenced in the book. - Is it a few lines, or a recurring theme?

It sounds interesting regardless, and yet another mystery book as caught my interest, so I may have to take a look a this one. But it would be nice to see if this one fits in a challenge I'm doing.

Good luck on finding these books in bookstores. Those of you in the U.K. may have better luck. I found the second one on the sale counter of my local bookstore but my library system has nothing by her. Amazon has copies and I got the first one on my Kindle (since it was at night and I wanted to start it right away). Booklist compares her to Anne Perry.

The chapters set in Boston took place before and during the Battle of Breed's Hill. One in particular had an intense scene that gave the reader a real sense of what it must have been like to partake in battle at that time.

I wish you all the best in your hunt for these books. I think you will be rewarded if you are successful.

I got a preview copy of it for my Kobo, so the EBook should be easy to get and it looks like my library has a copy. So now it will be a matter of buying vs borrowing. We'll see how much I like the preview. Thanks!

I tried Instruments of Darkness about two years ago. It wasn't working for me at the time so I put it down and never went back to it. Thanks for the reminder, mamzel!

I have to share this quote that made me smile from A Northern Light by Jennifer Donnelly:

It's nice to get your hands on a new book before everyone else does. While the pages are still clean and white and the spine hasn't been snapped. While it still smells like words and Not Mrs. Higby's violet water or Weaver's mamma's fried chicken or my aunt Josie's liniment.

Or someone else's cigarette smoke....

I do love new books.

I have a librarian friend who has a thing about germs. She will rarely check out a book unless it is in pristine condition. E-books have been a blessing for her.

Wow! I don't think I would recommend working in a library to someone who is susceptible to contagious disease or afraid of contracting one. I mean, what do a lot of people do when they're sick? Stay home and read, right? Hopefully e-books won't put her out of her job.

World Book Night is an excellent way we can share our love for books. When you sign up, you choose a book and agree to distribute this book on Apr. 23. Specially printed copies will be sent to a book store or library near you to be picked up. Last year my copies were sent to our local bookstore and they turned the distribution into a modest little event with snacks and beverages. I distributed my books in a class of struggling readers, some English learners, many Title 1. Many of them had never owned their own book before.

This year they are offering classics, best sellers, award winners, adult, high, and middle school level books, nonfiction, 2 titles in Spanish, and a volume of poetry. It was hard to come up with my choice.

The deadline to sign up is Jan. 25 so please consider doing this for your community.

More info here

This link is for the U.S. program. At the bottom of the page are links for the U.K./Ireland and Germany programs.

Thanks for posting this! I just applied :)

World Book Night sounds awesome. Sadly, they don't do it in Canada. Which surprises me, you'd think with Ireland England, and the US on board, Canada would be included. Ah well. I needed to avoid the bookstores anyways. ;)

I think last year was the first year for the US, so Canada shouldn't be too far behind. :)

There is a place at the bottom of the home page to request another country be added. I strongly urge Canadians and others voice their support.

I would love to do that, but it might be hard for me to pick up the books since I'll be out of town the week beforehand.

I signed up to do this earlier this week - I really hope I get chosen!

Laura, I hope you do, too!

I felt so illiterate taking this test from the Christian Science Monitor - Are You as Well Read as a 10th Grader?

How will you do?

I came up with "sorta well read. I can hold my own in a literary conversation." I have sooooo much reading to catch up with!!! Darn my science degree!

That quiz just goes forever!

I was rated "You're sort of well read" too. But many of those, I read in college, and some of them, I have never heard of. Cod: A Biography of the Fish That Changed the World -- really? I understand why it would be in a curriculum, but I find it so much less likely than Fahrenheit 451 or even Candide to come up in conversation.... I think we should make our own test. :)

Same here. I think it was a bit too Ameican-centric to work for an European like myself, though. The West, the Civil War and the history of black people in American fiction was not something that we read much in school.

I got a "You're pretty well read," but that's with a degree in literature from Sweden as well as one from the US. Lots of books I've never heard of. I did like their assessment, though: "You like to throw around words like 'Bildungsroman,' 'synecdoche,' and 'anagnorisis.' Please stop." :)

I also got "You're pretty well read," but I agree it did seem more geared for Americans.

Definitely very American-centric, I got "You might be well read, but not according to these standards"! I'd only read four and parts of a fifth, but I had at least heard of most of them. In NZ, there is quite a strong focus on Shakespeare, and in the junior years of high school on books like Louis Sachar's Holes, but To Kill A Mockingbird is the only "classic" novel I remember reading at high school. We tended to learn critical analysis using movies - well at least when I was at school.

Well I'm discouraged now - only got sort of well read. So many of those I had never heard of, somehow they weren't part of the accounting curriculum.

The books were more familiar to me than the poetry. I only knew a few of the poems (Shakespeare, Poe, Maya Angelou), although I had heard of almost all of the poets. So if I've heard of the poet, but not the poem, does that count as "heard of it?"

153> I had to go look up some of those poems to see if I had read them . . . Sonnet 73? Which one is that? So for most of the poems, even if I hadn't read them before - I read them! LOL.

I'm also in the "sort of well read" club. But the quiz doesn't really capture "well-read-ness." For example, I've read The Iliad, but not The Odyssey. Does that make me not well read in regard to Homer? I've read poems by Shakespeare, Auden, Dickinson, and every other poet on the quiz, but I'd only read one or two of the specific poems listed. Where's Dickens, Verne, Alcott, Hugo, and Emily or Charlotte Bronte? I read works by all of them in high school (and all in 9th or 10th grade, except for Dickens and E. Bronte; I read A Tale of Two Cities and Wuthering Heights in 11th grade).

Most of the books I had read I didn't encounter until gen ed world literature freshman year of college or American lit survey junior year. I'm not sure if that's significant, but I did find it interesting.

I did the quiz too. It is probably just as well that the page dropped out just before I was finished as I think I would have got the dunce award. I hadn't even heard of most of them (not sure I should admit this is present company).

I'd read quite a few of them and there were only a handful I'd never heard of, so I'm not disappointed with what I got. I got really excited when one of my favourite P.B. Shelley peoms popped up, but was surprised that they'd picked that one - not the one I'd assume was the "go-to poem" of Shelley's. Also - no Mary Shelley? Frankenstein was one of the "big reads" we had.

As I guess most peple do, we read tons of native (Swedish, in my case) literature in school. Meaning - Strindberg, Almqvist, Lagerlöf, Fröding, Boye, Martinsson, Moberg and others occupied a lot of my time in high school.

Like casvelyn I came across several instances where I'd read a work by the author but not that particular book/poem. I wish they'd had an option of "I've read another work by this author".

We should TOTALLY come up with our own quiz.

Fun quiz. Like Alana, I got "You might be well read, but not according to these standards." LOL! I am not sure what is included in the Canadian curriculum these days, but I remember reading lots of Dickens, Shakespeare, Robertson Davies, Mordechai Richler, Margaret Lawrence along with things like The Canterbury Tales, Lord of the Flies , Beowulf....a really different list of books from what was included in the quiz.

Like many of you (Americans), I can remember reading different books when I was in high school. Lord of the Flies, Animal Farm, and Portnoy's Complaint are all I can remember. It was a long time ago! I had a very ambitious friend that I tried to keep up with by reading Salinger, Hesse, and other heavy weights. I myself read the likes of Michener, John Irving, and Mary Stewart. I had a wacko teacher in fourth grade who was a fanatic for mythology and we read Edith Hamilton's Mythology and abridged versions of the Iliad and the Odyssey. One of the things I enjoy about working in a high school is catching up on these classics and I try to read what they're reading once in a while. Our tenth graders are reading The Bean Trees by Kingsolver at the present.

Our English teachers are under the thumb of a pacing calendar which dictates what to teach and when while they would much prefer to teach more literature.

For now, however...



Grave Peril by Jim Butcher (2001)

There are reasons I hate to drive fast.

I didn't get much read this week since it was a very busy five days back in school. Our seniors have a huge project which includes a research paper which was due at the end of the week. Nice to have a three week winter break to work on it, right? So how many were in the library finishing? I can't speak, I was a terrible procrastinator through school myself. I looked forward to this Saturday morning when I could stay in my warm comfy bed sipping cups of delicious coffee from Rwanda and joining Harry on another paranormal adventure on the streets of Chicago.

In this episode, a wizard he had battled and thought beaten a while back, comes back to reek revenge. Several other enemies, including his faerie godmother, Lea, also try to end his life. At risk are his police friend, Murphy, and his reporter girlfriend, Susan. At his side is his friend, Michael.

More wizarding fun.

Literary references: none

CATEGORY: SPECULATIVE FICTION

I had to skim through most of your thread, you've been very busy! Morning Glories sounds interesting, perhaps you're right and a teen will get more out of it, I will have to read it and get back to you on that count. I have picked up and put down The Book Thief about 50 times, I'll have to get down to business and read it after seeing your review. Can't wait to see what you read next.

Tsukiko, thanks for stopping by. I have met a few people who were not able to get into The Book Thief but I hope you might give it another shot. I think you will enjoy it.



The Face of a Stranger by Anne Perry (1990)
Inspector Monk #1

He opened his eyes and saw nothing but a pale grayness above him, uniform, like a winter sky, threatening and heavy. He was lying flat on his back; the grayness was a ceiling, dirty with the grime and trapped fumes of years.

And so we meet Inspector Monk, although at this point he has no idea who or what he is. He learns that the police have been in to see him but why? What has he done? Eventually he learned that he is a policeman, where he lives, and even his name. He realizes that in order to exist he has to maintain a charade while he tries to recover the details of his life and livelihood.

Monk has to carefully step through minefields while he questions people and puts facts together. It seems he has agreed to unofficially look into the apparent suicide of one man for his daughter and is given the case of a brutal murder of an upper crust gentleman, the third son of a landed family. Equally as dangerous working in the drawing rooms of nobility, is exploring the gritty streets of London. At his side is the man who worked on the case with his predecessor, John Evan. And to complicate matters, there is the office politics of superiors hating him and wanting him to fail and the introduction to a remarkable young woman, Hester Latterly. I sincerely hope she returns in future episodes!

This series takes place during the reign of Queen Victoria and we are given glimpses of the Crimean War through Hester's eyes as she followed her brother to the war and worked as a nurse in the field hospitals.

A wonderful example of historic fiction. I find it hard to believe that the rest of the series can match the introduction. I'll have to find out.

Literary references - none

CATEGORY - NON-AMERICAN AUTHOR

I had a book in the Monk series recommended to me a while ago but have not got around to picking it up yet. Looks like I should though. Good review and I'm glad you enjoyed it.

I've been curious about Inspector Monk for awhile. Sounds like something for the WL.

I know I'm late to the game here, but I just took that quiz. I too am "sort of well-read." I think that list has some rather glaring omissions, though -- no Dante, Dickens, or Dostoevsky, and that's just the D's!

164. Where there any Russians at all in there? (My memory is completely blank.)

late to the party but I go You're sort of well read

You could probably hold your own in a literary conversation. But deep down, you'd rather be talking about sports or movies.

but as others have mentioned its pretty American centric

@ 165 -- Paws, I think there was one Gogol...but it wasn't Dead Souls, so who knows what's going on in their minds? Definitely no Tolstoy either.

167. Oh, yes, I remember now. It was The Nose. No Dostoyevsky, no Pushkin, no Tolstoy, nothing.

I don't think the article meant any other country than the U.S. It would be very interesting to see what teenagers in other countries are required to read. Any literature teachers out there?



Skulduggery Pleasant by Derek Landy (2007)
No. 1 of series

Gordon Edgley's sudden death came as a shock to everyone - not least himself. One moment he was in his study, seven words into the twenty-fifth sentence of the final chapter of his new book, And the Darkness Rained upon Them, and the next he was dead.

Irish author Derek Landy gives young readers a rollicking adventure full of fights with fist and feet, swords, scythes, scepters, and magic. Lots of magic.

At the reading of Gordon's will, Stephanie Edgley is surprised to learn that her uncle has left her his mansion, fortune, and royalty to all the horror books he has written. A stranger she had noticed at the funeral, called Skulduggery Pleasant, is given a mysterious message. Her jealous aunt and uncle get a brooch and her parents a villa in southern France.

She and her mother visit the house one day and due to circumstances, she ends up spending the night alone in the house. Nothing strange there! What is unexpected is a call to her dead uncle's phone, followed by someone banging on the door demanding entrance. He eventually breaks in and demands a key from Stephanie. Luckily Skulduggery is there to save the day and start her on an amazing adventure.

Hard to see in the picture of the cover is a line at the bottom reading "AND HE'S THE GOOD GUY. Skulduggery is the character on the cover, a dapperly dressed skeleton with a fist full of fire. I have had this book on my shelf for three years and I can't for the life of me remember buying it. I'm sure I didn't realize it was written for middle school aged children and up. But I did have fun after slogging through the first part of the book full of character introductions. Once the reader has met everyone, it's a non-stop roller coaster ride.

I would recommend this for seventh grade readers and older.

Literary reference - the horror stories of H.P. Lovecraft

CATEGORY - NON-AMERICAN AUTHOR

>161 mamzel:

The good news is - the entire Monk series is excellent. I think my favorite was Sins of the Wolf, but there hasn't been a single one that was a disappointment. The characters develop so very well - good reading ahead..

Attention all Dr. Siri fans - newest coming out next month - The Woman Who Wouldn't Die. I went and put a hold on the copy at my library already.

Looking forward to it. I still haven't gotten to books 7 or 8, but it's good to know that there's more out there. :)

Getting caught up here and found your review for the 1st Inspector Monk book enticing. I tend to waffle a bit with Anne Perry's books and I am starting to think that I might give her Monk series a try.

I have to admit that the Inspector Monk book immediately grabbed me. The only heavy going was the dense Cockney accent of some of the characters. I practically had to sound out the phrases aloud to understand them. I also am a big fan of Downton Abbey so the upstairs/downstairs aspect of the stories appeals to me.

Mamzel -- I'm only sort of well read, too. I have to the the only sport I speak of with regularity is baseball....

I confess I gave up reading Anne Perry years ago - I've probably read 10-12 between two of her series. Though they are extremely well written, I ultimately found them depressing - too dark for me. As for Dr. Siri, thought, I have Thirty-three Teeth is waiting for me on the shelf!

Dejah, That one was one of my favorites. Enjoy!

@ 171 -- I feel like The Woman Who Wouldn't Die should be read back-to-back with The Woman Who Died a Lot. I haven't read any of the Dr. Siri books, but I'd love to see someone else give it a whirl!

Christina, I laughed at the similarity of the titles since the books could not be any more dissimilar! If you enjoy historical mysteries, especially those that take place in a foreign country, you should give the Dr. Siri stories a try.



A Dangerous Mourning by Anne Perry (1991)
Inspector Monk #2

First of all I have got to say that I can't believe people who borrow library books can't erase their own pencil marks and wash their hands after eating barbecue chicken and before turning pages! Honestly, people! If you mark an X where you leave off, common sense says you can use the other end before you continue! I know no LTer would be so discourteous. Rant over. *stepping down off the box*

"Good morning, Monk," Runcorn said with satisfaction spreading over his strong, narrow features.

Monk's superior officer is more than pleased to give Monk another case and another chance to have him fail and thus get fired. This time a woman is found stabbed in her bedroom. A few items are missing and the vines on the wall outside her window are broken. Again Monk has to carefully deal with the family of Sir Basil Moidore to discover the truth of Octavia Haslett's, his daughter's death. The family consists of other daughters and son-in-laws, his wife, and others, and of course the whole complement of house servants.

After unsuccessfully questioning everyone in the house and witnesses in position to observe the outside of the house on the night in question, Monk comes to the realization that there was no break in and that the murderer was inside the house. He enlists his new acquaintance, Hester Latterly, formerly a nurse during the Crimean War, to serve as a nurse to Lady Moidore who has taken to her room and seems to know or sense what has really happened.

The pattern that is emerging in this wonderful series of historical mysteries is that the upper class of Victorian England will do anything and everything to protect its good name and fortune. That can make for some excellent adventures. I can recommend these first two (so far) especially if the reader is a fan (like me) of the Downton Abbey series.

Literary reference - none

CATEGORY - NON-AMERICAN AUTHOR

Honestly, people! If you mark an X where you leave off, common sense says you can use the other end before you continue!

Agreed!.... or do what I do, and use small post it tabs that I pick up at the dollar store for next to nothing to mark where I left off or to 'flag' anything of interest, and remove them before returning the book to the library... only adding the last bit because I know someone that received a lecture for returning books to the library with the various post it flags still attached to the pages.... and a topic I will not wade into further.

As a Downton Abbey fan, thank you very much for the recommendation! All the more reason to give the Monk series a try.

Lori, that's one of the best uses for sticky notes. I have little pads of them wherever I read. I also try to stop reading at the end of a chapter or finish the first paragraph on the left hand page so I know just where I left off. I hope you will enjoy the Monk books. I think many people enjoy reading about the relationship/distinctions between the family members and the servants who tend to them.

Today I made my first attempt at getting a little control over the yard. I cleaned up the chicken coop and then proceeded to prune the plum tree and two fig trees in their area on the side of the house. I cut down all the suckers that keep tripping me and the branches that poke me and keep me from reaching the figs. The girls did their little happy noises and kept out of my way. It's the least I can do since they do such a wonderful job of keeping down the weeds on the side of the house. Next weekend, weather permitting, I have to turn my attention to my wonderful little Meyer Lemon tree that is way overloaded with fruit.



Redshirts by John Scalzi (2012)

From the top of the large boulder he sat on, Ensign Tom Davis looked across the expanse of the cave toward Captain Lucius Abernathy, Science Officer Q'eeng and Chief Engineer Paul West perched on a second, larger boulder, and thought, Well, this sucks.

Fans of the Star Trek series will be familiar with the Redshirts reference where the 'expendable crew member' must die. The movie, Galaxy Quest, had a character known only as Guy since he didn't last long enough in the episode where he appeared, to get a full name. Well on the Universal Union Capital Ship Intrepid, it is noticed that this ship has the highest mortality rate of any ship in the fleet and a group of new crew members want to avoid becoming another statistic.

This was a quick read and totally delighted me. I love the twisted reality of the Thursday Next books and my teen years were formed with Captain Kirk and his crew.

Literary references: Jasper Fforde and screenplays from Star Trek, The Purple Rose of Cairo, The Last Action Hero

CATEGORY: SPECULATIVE FICTION

I thought Redshirts was a hoot when I read it last year; I'm glad you liked it, too! I'm going to have to read more John Scalzi....

BTW, your day of yardwork sounds lovely.

OK, one too many favorable reviews for Redshirts. I just ordered it from the library!

So many Librarythings have enjoyed Red Shirts that I recently got a copy from IBooks. Thank you for the review. As a fan of the original Star Trek I am sure I will like it.

Everywhere I turn there are book bullets flying for Red Shirts. I surrender!

Loved it! Count me in with praise.

Mamzel, what kind of chickens do you have? I just bought two blue-laced red wyandottes before Christmas. We had chickens years ago and I'm so happy to have them again. I'm going to get my daughter to help me post pictures soon. Would love to hear more about your chickens! I guess since this is a reading site I should throw in a book title...I really enjoyed Keeping Chickens by Jeremy Hobson and all the different breeds that it covered. So many pretty pictures!

Have fun with Redshirts, folks. I have another book of his on my Kindle, Old Man's War, and look forward to reading it. This was my first Scalzi.

Regina, I started having chickens when my daughter was in 4-H. We don't live in the country but I wanted to give her the experience of caring for animals. In fact I hope she remembered to bring them the leaves and peels from the beets we had last night. We've kept 4-6 since then. Presently I have two Silver Lace Wyandottes (they're so pretty) and two Americaunas (love the green eggs). We've had Astrolorps (beautiful bullies), Plymouth Rocks (plain and reliable), and Rhode Island Red (noisy and bossy). There is always patter about pets on LT. We all do have lives outside out books and like to share about that too. I've found that all the expressions about chickens are so true! Like; rarer than hen's teeth, mad as a wet hen, ruling the roost, flying the coop, etc.

You're making me want to keep chickens! Those names sound so lovely, and the personalities that go along with them are cracking me up. One of my MIL's neighbours used to keep a half dozen chickens in an enclosed run in her back yard. My SIL was caring for them for a couple of weeks while the neighbours were on holiday, and that's when we learned they really can fly the coop, especially if someone has forgotten to clip their wing feathers. I don't have the space to keep chickens at the moment, but someday...

Oh, and I also thought Redshirts was a hoot. Old Man's War was also a fun romp; it was my holiday read last summer.

Oh, you've had quite a lot of experience with chickens! (Great descriptions,lol) We mostly have had the Rhode Island Reds, but they were completely free range and were always leaving a huge mess on our front porch. This time I bought an ark for moving them around the farm. There is something about our front porch that our animals all want to congregate there. We have come home and found it covered in escaped sheep, or we'll be watching the TV and look up to see a sheep or goat peering in at us. As you can tell, our biggest problem on our farm is fencing!

I'm delighted with the love for Scalzi in this thread ... he's been a favorite of mine for years. Don't miss Agent to the Stars .. hysterically funny earlier work when he was "learning how to write".

I confess I love the idea of a front porch covered with sheep - the visual that pops into my head is a hoot! I usually just have a front porch covered with cats....one reason I do not and never will have chickens....

Dejah_Thoris, completely free-range chickens...bad idea, chickens behind fencing...wonderful! As much as I hated when the sheep got out, it was adorable when they would run away from us and do a twisting leap, getting all four feet off the ground, in the midst of their run. It put me in mind of the picture book title, Oh Were They Ever Happy!

Joyous, jumping sheep - I love it! I must admit I've been giving some thought to goats or llamas....

Sandra and Clif, I'm excited about Scalzi now. Looks like I have some fun catching up to do!

The sheep at the door brought to mind the scene in Babe when the animals were watching the competition through the window.

Our chickens used to be free range in the back yard but it was too much of a mess on our deck. Monsieur thought it might be fun to also get ducks until I reminded him they would probably really enjoy our pool. The only chicken we had that got over the fence was a bantam rooster which was kind of fine since we weren't allowed to have roosters inside the city limits. Never found him. (FYI Bantam chicks aren't sexed so you have a 50-50 chance at getting a rooster. Didn't know that when we bought the Banties. Watch Mike Rowe on the series Dirty Jobs to see how to sex a chick!)

Dejah, I don't think my neighborhood cats would dare bother our chickens! Our late Lab just ignored them - couldn't be interested. The only non-human vistor they ever had was a racoon or possum one night that killed one of the girls. Not bad for the number of years we've had them.

Actually, a good friend of my daughters from when they were in 4H sexes chickens for a job down in VA. Good thing you thought to remind your husband about the pool! That would have been a mess.

Dejah, if you've been thinking about goats or llamas you might want to add alpacas to the list. They have the most incredible wool and are such lovely animals!

Regina, the reminder was self-serving since I was the one who cleaned the pool.

January wrapup:

This month started for me on Dec. 13 and with three weeks of winter break so the amount of reading is not really indicative of my normal monthly quota. It is quite a jump start to the year, however, if I say so myself.

Total read: 19

1. TBRs - 1
2. Mysteries - 4
3. Speculative Fiction - 3
4. ERs and ARCs - 1
5. Graphic novels - 1
6. Nonfiction - 1
7. Food related
8. Plays
9. Classics -1
10. Non-American authors - 5
11. Short story collections
12. YA literature - 2
13. Miscellaneous

My favorites were Sacré Bleu by Christopher Moore and The Book Thief by Markus Zusak. I almost hit all of the categories and probably should have given a little better effort at hitting all of them. Next month I'll try and put at least one item in each of the empty categories.

Hi, I'm late but better late than never right ?

So thanks to your review I see for my 2014 challenge, a new category, historical mystery: Matthew Sharlake by C. J. Samson, Brother Cadfael by Ellis Peters, Crowther and Westerman by Imogen Robertson, Inspector Monk by Anne Perry. I'm pretty happy, I only previously knew C. J. Samson.

Out of the Easy seems really interesting, what is to not like in books and New Orleans ?

Sacré Bleu, The Book Thief and Redshirts are definetly going to the neverending wishlist.

At this rate, I will have to bring a bookproof gear, next time !

My jaw dropped when I saw the 19 books read.... and then I refocused and saw that you started on Dec 13..... kind of says a lot for where my eyes gravitate to on a post! Good first month progress on your challenge!

Electrice, I learned about the Samson and Perry series here on LibraryThing. That's the good/bad reason for joining these challenges. You are sure to get yourself saddled with more interesting books than you have time to read.

Lori, I made sure to post that bit of information for full disclosure. ;D

The Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA) is sponsoring a reading challenge to entice people to sample the many excellent titles that have won awards and places on their Best Books of 2013 lists. Included are YA fiction, nonfiction, graphic novels, audio books, and movies. I will be participating (partly because it's my job to be in touch with teen stuff and partly because I can't ignore a chance to win free books) and will add a subcategory for my YA reads to include the items I have read/watched/listened to from these lists.



Here is the link to YALSA's blog called The Hub and the information about the challenge.

Glad to see you liked Redshirts. As a Star Trek fan, I liked it very much too. However, it didn't have as much depth as the Old Man's War trilogy, which I think you'll enjoy even more if you like Scalzi's writing. I have Agent to the Stars on my shelf but haven't gotten around to reading it yet.

Looks like you had a great reading month (or month-and-a-half)! Looking forward to hearing about your February reading.

Paulina, I actually have Old Man's War on my Kindle and I am looking forward to reading it and more from Scalzi.



Wheel of Darkness by Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child (2007)
Pendergast #8

The only things moving in the vastness of the Llölung Valley were two black specks, barely larger than the frost-split boulders that covered the valley floor, inching along a faint track.

It's hard to pick up a book this far into the series and appreciate the characters the way they deserve to be. There were enough hints to learn there is a lot to the back story of this series but I hoped I could enjoy jumping in at this point. I probably would have liked it more if I had read the whole series but in fact I felt like an outsider missing the inside jokes. I've had this book sitting around for a long time and have since learned not to buy books late into a series without committing to the whole series. Oh, well. The other problem I had with the book is the glaring maritime errors that an amateur boat handler could have corrected. Considering the complex modern vessel, I was surprised that some details were missed. For example, the first night out of port, the ship encounters traffic. International rules of the road state that a vessel should avoid altering course to port but in this book the crew expected a ULCC (Ultra Large Crude Carrier) to do just that!

In any case, the chase is on for a person who stole an extremely old and dangerous item from a remote monastery in the Himalayas. The FBI agent, Aloysius Pendergast, and his ward, Constance Green, are asked to bring it back or terrible things could happen (ooo-OOOO-ooo!) They track the item to the ocean liner, Britannia, set to leave on her first voyage from Southampton to New York. Terrible things start to happen to passengers and crew members and the occurrences escalate as they progress towards the Grand Banks.

Even with my problems with the book, I enjoyed the thrill ride.

Literary references: none.

CATEGORY - TBRs (since 2007)

Mamzel, you've missed a lot of backstory to Wheel of Darkness by not having read the prior 7 (I think) books in the series, several of which I think are much better than Wheel of Darkness.

I'm a big fan of the first book - Relic. Why not give it a try?

The Wheel of Darkness does look good, but I agree about that jumping in late thing. Hmmm, perhaps I'll take Dejah's advice, if it has cover art that is just as cool.

Oh, I have a soft spot for Agent Pendergast, and I loved Relic, it's a really fun read.

19 is still a very respectable number!!

"I can't ignore a chance to win free books"
Who could? :)

I think the cover art is probably the reason I picked it up since I can't for the life of me remember where I bought it. My LT record predated when I started recording the source of the book. Reading that it took place on a ship probably sealed the deal. If Relic pops up in front of me I might give Pendergast another try, especially since two of you have recommended the series.

Gripe time!

Announcements about book awards are out and best of 2012 lists have come out and again I am a little sad that I don't have all the money in the world to buy these excellent books for my library. My major complaint, however, is about one of the books on the nonfiction list that is unavailable for purchase! Juvenile in Justice by Richard Ross is on the list of best nonfiction for teens. When I originally saw the title I immediately wanted a copy for my library knowing that it would be popular. It wasn't available through our jobber and Amazon had one copy available through one of its vendors. One copy!!! (And still only has only one copy.) It seems a little counterproductive to honor a book that noone can purchase. My public library system doesn't have a copy either. It makes me wonder how the nominating committee members got enough copies to read. Dare I even pose the question about whether they actually read the darn thing in the first place?

208> The publishers send free copies to committee members. You have to buy the book direct:
http://www.juvenile-in-justice.com/shop/juvenile-in-justice

And it's a book of photographs so the committee members didn't have to read it, just look at the pictures! ;^P

just looking at the cover of that book makes me shiver

Booklizard, thanks for the information. It's not given with the awards. Unfortunately, we have a lot of kids that are interested in books about gangs and prisons. I'll give it a look.

Gripe continued...
So I try to order it direct and I am unable to deselect the PayPal button to order by credit card. Seriously??? Do they want people to get their book or not? Can they make it more difficult?

(Early morning grumps, here)

- 208 the Amazon problem will be down to the distributors not the publisher but the paypal thing sounds like a publisher issue (or whoever designs their website!)

I've sent them a message about my difficulty and have not heard back. Makes me wonder if they really want to sell this book or not!



The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater (2012)
The Raven Cycle #1

Blue Sargent had forgotten how many times she'd been told that she would kill her true love.

Oh, how I hope this book will maintain its originality and doesn't flake out on the second book like other trilogies have done! I love the combination of factors that weave this story of psychic power and a little mysticism.

Blue is the daughter of a psychic which refers to her ability and her profession. Blue is not psychic herself but can add a level of power to the power of those around her. She attends a public school and works in a diner frequented by students from a private school attended by the sons of wealthy and powerful families. She makes friends with a group of them after they leave a journal with intriguing entries about a dead Welsh king and "ley lines". Their search turns up much more than they expect.

I don't know if it was on purpose or not, but Stiefvater seems to have a fascination with hand motions. I kept expecting that they would have a purpose or reason but it just seemed that everyone waved or flicked their hands excessively.

Recommended for lovers of YA fantasy and adventure.

Literary references: none (even though they all went to school!!!)

CATEGORY: YA & SUBCATEGORY HUB READING CHALLENGE

212> Actually, you should be able to order it THROUGH Amazon - it's just fulfilled by the company itself.

OK. Order placed. Still not happy that my message wasn't answered. It better be worth all the aggravation. *grumble, grumble, grumble*

I'll have to investigate The Raven Boys. I had mixed feelings about the Shiver trilogy, but my daughter liked it very much.

I only read the first of the Shiver trilogy. I had no real desire to continue with the story. The Raven Boys has quite a bit more going for it.

I only made it a few pages into Shiver before I gave up, and agree that The Raven Boys is much better. I enjoyed the references to Owain Glyndŵr (Owen Glendower), even if I thought it was a bit cheesy.

Another of her books, The Scorpio Races, is also rather good.

I'm going to try and get The Scorpio Races on audio book for the YALSA HUB challenge. I've heard a lot of good things about it.



Zoo City by Lauren Beukes (2011)

In Zoo City, it's impolite to ask.

I have this bad (?) habit of being aware of where the end of the book is and anticipating the ending accordingly. When I read The Return of the King I was surprised by the ending with a third of the pages still in my right hand. When I read on my Kindle I can't help watching the % read in the bottom corner to see how much I have left. I was surprised by the ending of Zoo City since there was still 10% left showing. What followed the book was no less than 3 pages of thank yous and some short stories. Thanks for nothing.

What also annoyed me was the heavy use of foreign words, italicized for emphasis, with no translation. Do authors realize that this makes the reader feel alienated?

That being said, I liked the main character, Zinzi December, and her sloth. I was interested in her mysterious past and following her as she tried to make a living. She writes letters that are mailed out as spam to try and hook suckers into parting with their money and she uses an ability to follow threads to locate lost items and people. She is hired to locate the missing half of a pair of pop star twins. Along the way she notices that a lot of people with animals are missing and no one else is noticing this alarming development.

While not being the smoothest book I've read, it took little time to read it and I'm glad I've delved into the literature of this region.

Literary reference: The Golden Compass by Phillip Pullman

CATEGORY: NON-AMERICAN AUTHORS

I'm always surprised when people dislike use of foreign words (translated or not) in books. I love when authors do that (one of my favourite things about reading J. M. Coetzee's Disgrace was the frequent use of Afrikaans words that I could try and work out what they meant and when I failed - ask friends or look them up online.
I love doing that - it's like a little treasure trove.

When it's done well I'm also a fan of foreign words or phrases in a book, it adds a lot to the atmosphere. Tami Hoag's books set in Lousianna did this with Cajun French and she included a glossary, which was great. But if I can't tell from the context what's meant (and depending on how often it's done) I'll get frustrated. I'm seeing some iffy reviews for Zoo City, but I have Moxyland on my shelf, so I hope that's better.

SouthernKiwi, from what I've heard it is. In fact the short stories that follow Zoo City are derived from Moxyland.

To continue the saga about the book called Juvenile in Justice (touchstone not working), the book arrived on my doorstep swiftly apace. Unfortunately, no invoice was included which will make it a little more difficult to receive reimbursement. One has been requested.



Juvenile in Justice by Richard Ross (2012)

Juvenile courts in the U.S. annually process an estimated 1.7 million cases of youth charged with a delinquency offense - approximately 4,600 cases per day.

This is one of many facts shared with the reader as we look in on the lives of some of these kids. We see boys and girls (some pregnant or with young children) in horrible quarters designed to deny any hiding places or items able to be modified as weapons. There is not one iota of cheer or inspiration to be seen in their quarters. Since they are under 18, their faces are cropped or blurred or covered by hands, shirts, or sheets. These covered faces add to the body language seen in the photographs which portray despair and hopelessness. There is no defiance or arrogance shown in any of the photos.

The reason I wanted this book for my library was that it had received an Alex Award which is given to adult books with particular appeal to teens. Some teens in my school have a lot of interest in books about gangs, crime, and prison. Obviously the hope is that someone will look through this book and realize that they should do everything possible to avoid landing in such facilities. The fear is that they will get the message that adults are treating teens unfairly and harden their defiance against us. Time will tell.

Literary references - none.

CATEGORY - YA BOOKS, SUBCATEGORY HUB CHALLENGE

LOL! That's the first thing I learned when I got my ereader - to check what page the book actually ended at. Sorry you didn't enjoy Zoo City - it's on my wishlist, but I have read the various reviews from the group read, so I'll consider myself forewarned. :)

223> Sorry it doesn't seem to have been worth the effort. Did you end up ordering it through Amazon? Can you print out your order from there for reimbursement?

Eva, I had problems with Zoo City but I was impelled to finish it even though I didn't learn everything I wanted to.

BookLizard, I did order it through Amazon and I guess I'll have to try and use the order form. That's not always acceptable for reimbursement, however.

I really enjoyed zoo city and can't remember foreign words being a problem. I guess your problem with the ending is really only a problem with the Kindle format? although I'm not 100% sure I get what your problem was - did you feel cheated? Lots of books have a "PS" nowadays, kind of like a literary version of DVD extras, sometimes this works, sometimes it doesn't