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1Mercury57
I'm a newbie in here but everyone seems a friendly bunch so probably won't mind if I totally screw this up.
I did a quick tally of the books I can remember reading this year. Unfortunately my mind is a blank for the first few months. But so far I'm at 26 titles. Which I know is a long way off 75 but I've no idea if that is roughly what I read last year or in previous years since I've never kept track before.
October 2012
Pure - Andrew Miller
The White Tiger - Aravind Adiga
Five go to Treasure Island - Enid Blyton
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe - C S Lewis
Northern Lights - Pullman
September 2012
Skios -Michael Frayn
Shadow of the Wind - Zafon
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Apprentice - J K Rowling
Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry Rachel Joyce
August 2012
Bring up the Bodies - Hilary Mantel
Saraswati Park Anjali Joseph
Little Women - Louisa M Alcott
July 2012
Before I go to Sleep - Watson
Mortal Engines
Roll of Thunder, Hear my Cry - Mildred Taylor
June 2012
Gillespie and I - Jane Harris
Offshore - Penelope Fitzgerald
Staying On - Paul Scott
Sarah's Key - Isabelle de Rothsay
Cranford - Elizabeth Gaskell
May 2012
Something to Answer For - P H Newby. Read review here
Elizabeth Taylor - A Wreath of Roses - mini commentary here
Siege of Krishnapur - J G Farell
April 2012
Saville - David Storey.
March 2012
The Elected Member Bernice Rubens
Treasure Island - R L Stevenson
I did a quick tally of the books I can remember reading this year. Unfortunately my mind is a blank for the first few months. But so far I'm at 26 titles. Which I know is a long way off 75 but I've no idea if that is roughly what I read last year or in previous years since I've never kept track before.
October 2012
Pure - Andrew Miller
The White Tiger - Aravind Adiga
Five go to Treasure Island - Enid Blyton
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe - C S Lewis
Northern Lights - Pullman
September 2012
Skios -Michael Frayn
Shadow of the Wind - Zafon
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Apprentice - J K Rowling
Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry Rachel Joyce
August 2012
Bring up the Bodies - Hilary Mantel
Saraswati Park Anjali Joseph
Little Women - Louisa M Alcott
July 2012
Before I go to Sleep - Watson
Mortal Engines
Roll of Thunder, Hear my Cry - Mildred Taylor
June 2012
Gillespie and I - Jane Harris
Offshore - Penelope Fitzgerald
Staying On - Paul Scott
Sarah's Key - Isabelle de Rothsay
Cranford - Elizabeth Gaskell
May 2012
Something to Answer For - P H Newby. Read review here
Elizabeth Taylor - A Wreath of Roses - mini commentary here
Siege of Krishnapur - J G Farell
April 2012
Saville - David Storey.
March 2012
The Elected Member Bernice Rubens
Treasure Island - R L Stevenson
3kidzdoc
Welcome to the group, Karen! I own 12 of the books you've read, and I've finished half of them so far.
5Mercury57
Sorry not to have responded to your welcome messages sooner. Still fumbling my way around Library Thing. It's so confusing where everything is. Will get the hang of it sometime I suppose (maybe before the end of the decade??)
7Mercury57
Samuel Pepys: The Unequaled Self by Claire Tomalin
This is a shortened version of the review on my blog site.
Plague, fire, civil war, treason, the fall of kings: Samuel Pepys experienced them all. His was a life that coincided with one of the most momentous periods of English history and he recorded his experiences in meticulous detail in leather-bound diaries writing every day for nine years.
Such a rich source of original material would be a gift for any biographer but for Claire Tomalin they didn’t go far enough because they tell us nothing of Pepys’ childhood and education or, after the Restoration, his public disgrace and humiliation. Through extensive research and examination of contemporary letters and diaries, Admiralty papers, judicial reports, memoirs and biographies, she seeks to fill in these considerable gaps in Pepys’ story.
Tomalin tells the story with panache and energy. Although she has to resort to guess-work and surmise on some occasions, she never stretches credulity too far. Nor, although much of what she writes is necessarily full of facts, she never allows that detail to get in the way of telling a good story. One of the most memorable episodes she tells is of the operation Pepys underwent to remove the bladder stone which had given him excruciating pain for decades. In Tomalin’s imaginative re-creation we experience the same tension Pepys must have felt as he was trussed and bound to the bed and sense every moment of the operation he suffered without the benefit of anaesthetic or numbing alcohol.
Tomalin treats her subject with warmth, enjoying his pleasure in ordinary human activities and admiring his curiousity, his love and support for learning and his intelligence. She acknowledges his egotism, his often bad treatment of the women in his life and his lecherous behaviour but concludes that these never dim his brightness so we ‘rarely lose all sympathy for him. His energy burns off blame.” It’s a credit to Tomalin’s skill that we come to share her enthusiasm for this ‘most ordinary and the most extraordinary’ of men.
This is a shortened version of the review on my blog site.
Plague, fire, civil war, treason, the fall of kings: Samuel Pepys experienced them all. His was a life that coincided with one of the most momentous periods of English history and he recorded his experiences in meticulous detail in leather-bound diaries writing every day for nine years.
Such a rich source of original material would be a gift for any biographer but for Claire Tomalin they didn’t go far enough because they tell us nothing of Pepys’ childhood and education or, after the Restoration, his public disgrace and humiliation. Through extensive research and examination of contemporary letters and diaries, Admiralty papers, judicial reports, memoirs and biographies, she seeks to fill in these considerable gaps in Pepys’ story.
Tomalin tells the story with panache and energy. Although she has to resort to guess-work and surmise on some occasions, she never stretches credulity too far. Nor, although much of what she writes is necessarily full of facts, she never allows that detail to get in the way of telling a good story. One of the most memorable episodes she tells is of the operation Pepys underwent to remove the bladder stone which had given him excruciating pain for decades. In Tomalin’s imaginative re-creation we experience the same tension Pepys must have felt as he was trussed and bound to the bed and sense every moment of the operation he suffered without the benefit of anaesthetic or numbing alcohol.
Tomalin treats her subject with warmth, enjoying his pleasure in ordinary human activities and admiring his curiousity, his love and support for learning and his intelligence. She acknowledges his egotism, his often bad treatment of the women in his life and his lecherous behaviour but concludes that these never dim his brightness so we ‘rarely lose all sympathy for him. His energy burns off blame.” It’s a credit to Tomalin’s skill that we come to share her enthusiasm for this ‘most ordinary and the most extraordinary’ of men.
