Nathalie's (Deern's) Reading in 2012 - Part 6

Welcome to my last thread in 2012 :



Taken on my walk home from the new office on December 3rd, 2012.

But below is the weather I am hoping for for next weekend (just once please - let it snow, and on a day when I don't need to drive):



This happened exactly once in the last three winters - and after half a day all the snow was gone again.

December 2012:

Books read, but not yet reviewed:

Books finished and reviewed here:
132. Il Natale di Auggie Wren by Paul Auster - library book - IT - 20?p - 2 stars
133. Gli Uomini Rossi by Pef - library book - IT - 61p - 3 stars
134. The Magician's Nephew by C.S. Lewis - Kindle - EN - 212p - 3.5 stars
135. A Room of One's Own by Virginia Woolf - paperback - EN - 112p (reread) - 5 stars
136. Madita by Astrid Lindgren - library book - DE - 168p - 3.5 stars
137. Peterchens Mondfahrt by Gerdt von Bassewitz - free Kindle - DE - 122p - 4.5 stars
138. Sweet Thursday by John Steinbeck - Kindle - EN - 288p - 4 stars
139. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis - Kindle - EN - 220p - 4 stars
140. L'incredibile storia di Lavinia by Bianca Pitzorno - library book - IT - 101p - 3 stars
141. Madita und Pims by Astrid Lindgren - library book - 200p - 4 stars
142. Ronja Räubertochter by Astrid Lindgren - library book - DE - 252p - 4.5 stars
143. Capodanno in giallo by several authors - paperback - IT - 272p - 3.5 stars
144. The Horse and his Boy by C.S. Lewis - Kindle - EN - 252p - 3 stars
145. Prince Caspian by C.S. Lewis - Kindle - EN - 252p - 3.5 stars
146. The Voyage of the Dawn Treader by C.S. Lewis - Kindle - EN - 275p - 4.25 stars
147. The Silver Chair by C.S. Lewis - Kindle - EN - 258p - 3.5 stars
148. The last Battle by C.S. Lewis - Kindle - EN - 234p - 4 stars
149. Christmas-tree land by Helen Molesworth - free Kindle - EN - 188p - 3 stars
150. A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens - free Kindle - EN - 304p - 5 stars
151. Stonemouth by Iain Banks - audible credit - EN - 368p - 3.5 stars
152. La briscola in Cinque by Marco Malvaldi - Kindle - IT - 190p - 3.5 stars
153. Natale in Giallo by various authors - paperback - IT - 302p - 3 stars

Books finished and reviewed January - November 2012:

0. Memento Mori by Muriel Spark - gift audio book - EN - 4,5 stars (finished in 2011, reviewed in 2012)

My January and February books have been reviewed in my 1st thread: http://www.librarything.com/topic/129529

January 2012
1. Nils Holgersson by Selma Lagerloef - free Kindle - DE - 450p - 4,5 stars
2. Asterix e i Goti and Asterix e i Belgi by René Goscinny - library books - IT - 96p - no rating
3. Gargantua und Pantagruel by Francois Rabelais - free Kindle - DE - 650p - 4 stars
4. Vicolo Cannery (Cannery Row) by John Steinbeck - library book - IT - 200p - 4,5 stars
5. Die Verwandlung (The Metamorphosis) by Franz Kafka - owned - DE - 80p - 4 stars
6. The Idea of Perfection by Kate Grenville - Kindle bought - EN - 416p - 4,5 stars
7. Warum die Deutschen? Warum die Juden? by Götz Aly - bought - DE - 352p - 4,5 stars
8. Der unaufhaltsame Aufstieg des Arturo Ui by Bertolt Brecht - library book - DE - 144p - 4 stars
9. Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk - library book - IT - 250p - 3,5 stars
10.Uno, Nessuno & Centomila (One, No One & One Hundred Thousand) by Luigi Pirandello - owned - IT - 221p - 3 stars
11.Beowulf on the Beach by Jack Murnighan - Kindle owned - EN - 374p - 3,5 stars
12.Ungeduld des Herzens (Beware of Pity) by Stefan Zweig - library book - DE - 464p - 4 stars
13.A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness - audible credit - EN - 224p - 4,5 stars

February 2012
14. Radetzky March by Joseph Roth - free Kindle - DE - 416p - 4,5 stars
15. La corriera stravagante (The Wayward Bus) by John Steinbeck - library book - IT - 260p - 3,5 stars
16. Sons and Lovers by D.H. Lawrence - free Kindle - EN - 400p - 2 stars
17.The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins - library book - EN - 384p - 4 stars
18.Die Selbstmord-Schwestern (The Virgin Suicides) by Jeffrey Eugenides - library book - DE - 256p - 3,5 stars
19. God's Philosophers by James Hannam - Kindle - EN - 448p - 3 stars
20. Joseph und seine Brüder (Joseph and His Brothers) by Thomas Mann - library book - DE - 1819p - 5 stars
21. Gefährliche Liebe (Catching Fire) by Suzanne Collins - library book - DE - 450p - 3,5 stars
22. La tete en friche by Marie-Sabine Roger - library book - FR - 217p - 3,5 stars
23. Everything that rises must converge by Flannery O'Connor - owned - EN - 320p - 4 stars
24. Die Liebeshandlung (The Marriage Plot) by Jeffrey Eugenides - library book - DE - 624p - 4,5 stars
25. The Sun also Rises by Ernest Hemingway - owned - EN - 251p - 3 stars

Reviews for my March and April reads can be found here: http://www.librarything.com/topic/133498
March 2012:
26. Confessions of a Prairie Bitch: How I Survived Nellie Oleson and Learned to Love to be Hated by Alison Arngrim - Kindle bought - EN - 320p - 4 stars
27. The Pickwick Papers by Charles Dickens - free Kindle - EN - 1000p - 4 stars
28. L'inverno del nostro scontento (The Winter of Our Discontent) by John Steinbeck - library book - IT - 352p - 4 stars
29. The Girls of Slender Means by Muriel Spark - owned - EN - 145p - 3 stars
30. Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins - library book - DE - 428p - 3 stars
31. A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce - owned - EN - 275p - 4 stars
32. The Warden by Anthony Trollope - free Kindle - 336p - 3,5 stars
33. The Sword in the Stone by T.H. White - audio book - EN - 256p - 3 stars
34. The Long Walk by Stephen King - Kindle - EN - 384p - 3,5 stars
35. The Witch in the Forest/ The Queen of Air and Darkness by T.H. White - audio book - EN - 130p - 2 stars
36. The Ill-Made Knight by T.H. White - audio book - EN - app 260p - 3,5 stars
37. The Candle in the Wind by T.H. White - audio book - EN - app 130p - 2,5 stars
38. Rashomon and Other Stories by Ryonosuke Akutagawa - Kindle - EN - 120p
39. Barchester Towers by Anthony Trollope - free Kindle - EN - 672p - 3,5 stars
40. The Book of Merlyn by T.H. White - audio book - EN - 193p - 3 stars

April 2012:
41. La testa perduta di Damasceno Monteiro by Antonio Tabucchi - library book - IT - 238p - 4 stars
42. The Moon is Down by John Steinbeck - Kindle - EN - 120p - 3,5 stars
43. Schloss Gripsholm - Kurt Tucholsky - free Kindle - DE - 120p - 3 stars
44. Life by Keith Richards - library book - DE - 723p - 4 stars
45. Diary of a Nobody by George Grossmith - free Kindle - EN - 176 pages - 3,5 stars
46. Il Deserto dei Tartari by Dino Buzzati - library book - IT - 202p - TIOLI - 3,5 stars
47. A Question of Upbringing by Anthony Powell - audio book - EN - 181p - 3,5 stars
48. Il Cimitero di Praga (The Prague Cemetery) by Umberto Eco - owned - IT - 514p - 4 stars
49. The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie by Muriel Spark - owned - EN - 128p - 3.5 stars
50. Tarzan of the Apes by Edgar Rice Burroughs - free Kindle - EN - 212p - 2.5 stars
51. Piccoli Equivoci senza Importanza (Little Misunderstandings of no Importance) by Antonio Tabucchi - library book - IT - 150p - 3.5 stars
52. Pictures from Italy by Charles Dickens - free Kindle - EN - 272p - 4 stars

May and June reviews are here: http://www.librarything.com/topic/136499

May 2012
53. A Buyer's Market by Anthony Powell - audio book - EN - 212p - 3.5 stars
54. Gillespie and I by Jane Harris - audio book - EN - 528p - 4 stars
55. The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck - owned - EN - 536p - 5 stars
56. Notturno Indiano/ Indian Nocturne by Antonio Tabucchi - paperback - IT - 106 p - 3.5 stars
57. Beim nächsten Mann wird alles anders by Eva Heller - paperback - DE - 336p - 3.5 stars
58. Denkwürdigkeiten eines Nervenkranken (Memoirs of my Nervous Illness) by Daniel Paul Schreber - free Kindle - DE - 367p - 0.5 stars
59. Doctor Thorne by Anthony Trollope - free Kindle - EN - 608p - 3.8 stars
60. The Iliad/ Illias by Homer - free Kindle - DE - 445p - 5 stars
61. Kindheitsmuster/ Patterns of Childhood by Christa Wolf - owned - DE - 482p - 5 stars
62. The Acceptance World by Anthony Powell - audio book - EN - 228p - 3 stars
63. The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller - Kindle - EN - 369p - 3,5 stars
64. The Mysteries of Udolpho by Anne Radcliffe - free Kindle - EN - 736p - 2.5 stars
65. Mi piaci da morire by Federica Bosco - cheap Kindle - IT - 187p - 3 stars
66. Il Vuoto di Sunya by Massimo Burchiellaro - owned (gift) - IT - 166p

June 2012
67. Billy Bunter of Greyfriars School by Frank Richards - free Kindle - EN (June read) - 232p
68. Bring Up The Bodies by Hilary Mantel - audio book - EN - 432p - 4.5 stars
69. Die unerträgliche Leichtigkeit des Seins (The Unbearable Lightness of Being) by Milan Kundera - owned - DE - 301p - 4.5 stars
70. La forma dell'acqua (The shape of water) by Andrea Camilleri - Kindle - IT - 173p - 3.5 stars
71. The Little Book of Buddhism by the Dalai Lama - Kindle - EN - 100(?)p - no rating
72. Editorial: Bizarro Press Edition by Arthur Graham - cheap Kindle - EN- 148p - 3.5 stars
73. Der Name der Rose (The Name of the Rose) by Umberto Eco - bought- DE - 646p - 4.5 stars
74. Uomini e Topi (Of Mice and Men) by John Steinbeck - owned - IT - 112p - 4 stars (4.2)
75. The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov - owned - DE - 491p - 3.75 stars

Books up to #98 are reviewed here: http://www.librarything.com/topic/139239
July:
76. Jenseits von Eden (East of Eden) by John Steinbeck - library book - DE - 728p - 4.5 stars
77. Die Masken der Niedertracht by Marie-France Hirigoyen - paperback - DE - 250p - 4 stars
78. Ich habe mich versehentlich... by Detlef Dresslein - paperback - DE - 130p - 2 stars
79. Anleitung zum Unglücklichsein by Paul Watzlawick - paperback - DE - 125p - 3.5 stars
80. Another self-help book... paperback - DE - 376p - 4.5 stars
81. Our Mutual Friend by Charles Dickens - free Kindle - EN - 848p - 4 stars

August:
82. Hello Tarzan (super stupid title for a great self-help book), I forgot by whom - library book - IT - 178p - 4 stars
83. And yet another self-help book with such a stupid and misleading title that I refuse to write it out... - Kindle - IT - 128p - 3 stars
84. A self-help book I actually read in July and forgot to list - paperback - DE - 325p - 4 stars
85. The Red Pony by John Steinbeck - Kindle - EN - 120p - 3 stars
86. Clarissa Harlowe by Samuel Richardson - free Kindle - EN - 1,500p - 3.5 stars (really? maybe better make it 3...)
87. How to see yourself as you really are by Dalai Lama - Kindle - EN - 274p - 3.5 stars
88. Confession of a Buddhist Atheist by Stephen Batchelor - Kindle - EN - 320p - 3.5 stars
89. and another embarrassingly titled SH book - library book - DE - 188p - 4.5 stars
90. Der Spieler (The Gambler) by Fyodor Dostoevsky - paperback owned - DE - 186p - 3 stars

September:
91. Winnie the Pooh by A.A. Milne - Kindle - EN - 160p - 4 stars
92. The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame - free audio - EN - 224p - 3.5 stars
93. Il GGG (The BFG) by Roald Dahl - paperback - IT - 200p - 4 stars
94. Anne of Green Gables by Lucy Maud Montgomery - free audio book - EN - 318p - 4 stars
95. Swimming Home by Deborah Levy - Kindle - EN - 127p - 4 stars
96. The Lighthouse by Alison Moore - Kindle - EN - 187p - 4 stars
97. Neues vom Räuber Hotzenplotz by Otfried Preussler - library book - DE - 122 pages - 4 stars
98. Hotzenplotz 3 by Otfried Preussler - library book - DE - 126p - 4 stars
reviewed on this thread:

Rest of September, October and November thread: http://www.librarything.com/topic/142952

September (continuation):
99. Narcopolis by Jeet Thayil - Kindle - EN - 304 p - 3.5 stars
100.Die Brüder Löwenherz by Astrid Lindgren - library book - DE - 237p - 4.5 stars
101. Il centenario che saltò dalla finestra e scomparve by Jonas Jonasson - paperback - IT - 446p - 4 stars
102. In Dubious Battle by John Steinbeck - Kindle - EN - 274p - 3.5 stars

October:
103. The Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie - audiobook - EN - 547p - 4.5 stars
104. Tortilla Flat by John Steinbeck - Kindle - EN - 204p - 3.5 stars
105. The Garden of Evening Mists by Tan Twang Eng - Lindle - EN - 354p - 4 stars
106. The Shining by Stephen King - audible credit - EN - 672p - 4 stars
107. Coraline by Neil Gayman - Kindle - EN - 208p - 4 stars
108. Umbrella by Will Self - paperback - EN - 397p - 4 stars
109. Due mondi, e io vengo dall'altro by Alessandro Banda - library book - IT - 103p - 3.5 stars
110. Aller Tage Abend by Jenny Erpenbeck - library book - DE - 283p - 4.5 stars
111. Atemschaukel/ L'altalena del respiro by Herta Mueller - Kindle/ library book - DE/IT - 271p - 4.5/4 stars
112. The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry by Rachel Joyce - paperback - EN - 296p - 3 stars
113. The Monk by M.G. Lewis - free Kindle - EN - 354p - 3.5 stars
114. La famosa invasione degli orsi in Sicilia by Dino Buzzati - paperback - IT - 114p - 3.5 stars
115. La Zona Morta/ The Dead Zone by Stephen King - library book - EN - 458p - 3 stars
116. Le Streghe/ The Witches by Roald Dahl - paperback owned - IT - 182p - 4 stars

November:
117. The Pearl by John Steinbeck - Kindle - EN - 100p - 3.5 stars
118. Travels with Charley by John Steinbeck - Kindle - EN - 240p - 4 stars
119 a. Maus I by Art Spiegelman - library book - DE - 159p - 5 stars
119 b. Maus II by Art Spiegelman - library book - DE - 136p - 5 stars
120. Shanghai fern von wo by Ursula Krechel - library book - DE - 500p - 4.5 stars
121. Il Cane di Terracotta (The Terracotta Dog) by Andrea Camilleri - Kindle - IT - 288p - 3.5 stars
122. The Book of Human Skin by Michelle Lovric - paperback - EN - 466p - 2 stars
123. Gentlemen and Players by Joanne Harris - audible credit - EN - 422p - 3.5 stars (audio)/3 stars (book)
124. Herztier (Land of Green Plums) by Herta Mueller - paperback owned - DE - 4 stars
125. The Jungle by Upton Sinclair - free Kindle - EN - 320p - 4 stars
126. Il Fu Mattia Pascal (The late Mattia Pascal) by Luigi Prandello - audio/paperback - IT - 398p - 3.5 stars
127. Mrs Palfrey at the Claremont by Elizabeth Taylor - Kindle - EN - 218p - 4.5 stars
128. Zia Natalina by Elise Primavera - library book - IT - 20(?)p - 3 stars
129. L' incontro by Michela Murgia - paperback - IT -102p - 3 stars
130. Die kleine Hexe (The Little Witch) by Ottfried Preussler - library book - DE - 127p - 4 stars
131. Der Räuber Hotzenplotz (The Robber Hotzenplotz) by Ottfried Preussler - library book - DE - 124p - 4.5 stars

BOOK STATS

Currently reading:

Normal books (where there's a chance I might finish them in the next two weeks):


Very Slow reads:
- Gedichte fürs Gedächtnis by Ulla Hahn - hardcover - DE - 278p
- The Dovekeepers by Alice Hoffman - Kindle - EN
- Virginia Woolf by Hermione Lee - Kindle - EN - 1000? p
- La coscienza di Zeno by Italo Svevo - free Kindle - IT - 598p

On temporary hold in 2012:
- La Vie Mode d'Emploi by Georges Perec - owned - FR - page 112 of 579 - finished part I
- Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel - audio book - EN - 604p
- Arabian Nights: Tales From The Thousand and One Nights - free Kindle - EN - I might take this into 2013 - 26% in/ 428 (of 1001??) nights read - finished volume 4!! (March 19, 2012)
- Non mi puoi manipolare (The Gaslight Effect) by Robin Stern - paperback - IT - 303p
- The Golden Notebook by Doris Lessing - Kindle - EN - 688p
- Staying Alive: real poems for unreal times by Neil Astley (500 poems for 500 days!) - 205 read
- The Art of Happiness in a Troubled World by Dalai Lama - Kindle - EN - 368p

***********************

Planned books:

Some of the more difficult 1001s I want to get off my tbr:
- Kindheitsmuster by Christa Wolf
- Doctor Zhivago by Boris Pasternak
- Simplicissimus by Hans von Grimmelshausen
- Clarissa Harlowe by Samuel Richardson
- Joseph und seine Brüder by Thomas Mann


Janet memorial reads planned:
- Ungeduld des Herzens by Stefan Zweig ==> planned for Jan/Feb - library book - DE
- Radetzky March by Joseph Roth - free Kindle - DE
- A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce - owned - EN
- Palace Walk Trilogy by Naguib Mahfouz - bought - EN
- Staying Alive: real poems for unreal times by Neil Astley ==> planned one poem per day - bought - EN
- God's Philosophers ==> planned for February (GR) - Kindle - EN

Books I'd like to read in December 2012:
- Sweet Thursday by John Steinbeck - Kindle - EN - 288p
- A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens - Kindle - EN
- Stonemouth by Iain Banks - audio book - EN - 368p
- Ronja Räubertochter by Astrid Lindgren - library book - DE - 234p
- A Room of One's Own by Virginia Woolf - paperback - EN - 112p (reread)

***************************

Purchases:
January:
- The Child Thief by Brom - hardcover - EN (TA)
- Warum die Deutschen? Warum die Juden by Götz Aly - hardcover - DE - read
- The Idea of Perfection by Kate Grenville - Kindle - EN - read
- Palace Walk Trilogy by Naguib Mahfouz - hardcover - EN (TA)
- Staying Alive: real poems for unreal times by Neil Astley - paperback - EN (TA)
- Finnegans Wake by James Joyce - paperback - EN (TA)
- The Girls of Slender Means by Muriel Spark - paperback - EN (TA) - read
March:
- Confessions of a Prairie Bitch by Alison Arngrim - Kindle - EN - read
- The Once and Future King by T. H. White - Audio book - EN (the whole thing for only 5,95$ was just too good a deal!) - read
- Dance to the Music of Time 1st movement by Anthony Powell - Audio book - EN - read
- How to be alone by Jonathan Franzen - paperback - EN
- The Short Novels of John Steinbeck - Kindle - EN - read
- The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck - paperback - EN - read
April:
- Notturno Indiano (Indian Nocturne) by Antonio Tabucchi - softback - IT - read
- Gillespie and I by Jane Harris - audio book - EN - read
May:
- Der Name der Rose by Umberto Eco - paperback - DE - read
- Mi piaci da morire by Federica Bosco - cheap Kindle - IT - 187p - read
- Editorial: Bizarro Press Edition by Arthur Graham - cheap Kindle - 148p - read
- The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller - Kindle - EN - 369p - read
- Bring Up The Bodies by Hilary Mantel - audio book - EN - 432p - read
June:
- Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel - audio book - EN - 604p - on hold
- La forma dell'acqua (The shape of water) by Andrea Camilleri - Kindle - IT - 173p - read
- Il Cane di Terracotta (The Terracotta Dog) by Andrea Camilleri - Kindle - IT - 288p - read
- Bar Sport by Stefano Benni - paperback - IT - 129p
- Il centenario che saltò dalla finestra e scomparve by Jonas Jonasson - paperback - IT - read
- How to see yourself as you really are by Dalai Lama - Kindle - EN - 274p - read
- Confession of a Buddhist Atheist by Stephen Batchelor - Kindle - EN - 320p - read
- The Golden Notebook by Doris Lessing - Kindle - EN - 668p - on hold
July:
- Ich habe mich versehentlich ... by Detlef Dresslein - paperback - DE - 156p - read
- Anleitung zum Unglücklichsein by Paul Watzlawick - paperback - DE - 132p - read
- Das Glasperlenspiel (The Glass Bead Game) by Hermann Hesse - paperback - DE
- Hiob by Joseph Roth - paperback - DE
- Non mi puoi manipolare (The Gaslight Effect)by Robin Stern - paperback - IT - 303p - on hold
August:
- 1Q84 by Aruki Murakami - paperback - EN - 1154p
- L' incontro by Michela Murgia - paperback - IT -120p - read
- The Art of Happiness in a Troubled World by Dalai Lama - Kindle - EN - 368p - on hold
- Winnie the Pooh by A.A. Milne - Kindle - EN - 160p read
September:
- Gedichte fürs Gedächtnis by Ulla Hahn - hardcover - DE - 278p
- In Dubious Battle by John Steinbeck - Kindle - EN - 274p - read
- Stonemouth by Iain Banks - audio book - EN - 368p - read
- The Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie - audiobook - EN - 547p - read
- Swimming Home by Deborah Levy - Kindle - EN - 127p - read
- The Lighthouse by Alison Moore - Kindle - EN - 187p - read
- Narcopolis by Jeet Thayil - Kindle - EN - 304 p - read
- The Garden of Evening Mists by Tan Twan Eng - Kindle - EN - 354p - read
- Umbrella by Will Self - paperback - EN - 397p - read
- The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry by Rachel Joyce - paperback - EN - 296p - read
October:
- The Shining by Stephen King - audible credit - EN - 672p - read
- Coraline by Neil Gayman - Kindle - EN - 208p - read
- La famosa invasione degli orsi in Sicilia by Dino Buzzati - paperback - IT - 114p - read
- Il fu Mattia Pascal by Luigi Pirandello - paperback - IT - 387p - read
- Il giorno in più by Fabio Volo - paperback - IT 287p
- Travels with Charley by John Steinbeck - Kindle - EN - 240p - read
November:
- Sweet Thursday by John Steinbeck - Kindle - EN - 288p - read
- Dance to the Music of Time by Anthony Powell (all 12 vols in 4 instalments, planned for 2013)
- Gentlemen and Players by Joanne Harris - audible credit - EN - 422p - read
- Mrs Palfrey at the Claremont by Elizabeth Taylor - Kindle - EN - 218p - read
- Virginia Woolf by Hermione Lee - Kindle - EN - 1000? p
December:
- The Magician's Nephew by C.S. Lewis - Kindle - EN - 212p - read
- The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis - Kindle - EN - 220p - read
- The Horse and his Boy by C.S. Lewis - Kindle - EN - 252p - read
- Capodanno in giallo by several authors - paperback - IT - 272p - read
- Prince Caspian by C.S. Lewis - Kindle - EN - 252p - read
- The Voyage of the Dawn Treader by C.S. Lewis - Kindle - EN - 275p - read
- The Silver Chair by C.S. Lewis - Kindle - EN - 258p - read
- The Last Battle by C.S. Lewis - Kindle - EN - 234p - read
- Fragile Things by Neil Gaiman - Kindle - EN - 448p
- Natale in Giallo by various authors - paperback - IT - 302p - read

TA = Thingaversary book

November reads:

Books read in November: 15
Pages read (finished books): 3,740

Fiction: 13
Non-fiction: 1
Comic books: 2 counted as 1

English: 6
German: 5
Italian: 4

Audio books: 1 (1 bought, 0 free) (+ 1 combined with the book)
Kindle books: 5 (3 bought, 1 owned, 1 free)
Real books: 9 (5 library books, 4 owned, 0 bought)

Summary 2012:

Books read 2012: 131
Pages read: 42,846

Fiction: 103
Non-fiction: 20
Plays: 1
Poetry books: 1 (+262 poems )
Comic books: 4 (counted as 2)
Short Story Books: 4

English: 64
German: 40
Italian: 26
French: 1

Audio books: 16 (2 free, 14 bought)
Kindle books: 48 (20 free, 23 bought, 5 owned)
Real books: 67 (10 bought, 24 owned, 33 library)

Some December reviews:



132. Il Natale di Auggie Wren by Paul Auster

Hm… I found this book in the children’s book section of my library and also on the cover it was clearly labelled as children's literature, but I don't really see this. I didn’t find this book at all Christmassy or especially child-friendly. The illustrations by Jean Claverie certainly aren’t for kids.

The complete plot – so spoiler alert: Paul Auster agrees to write a Christmas story for a magazine but has no idea what to write. Auggie Wren, the owner of the tobacco shop around the corner, promises him a heartbreaking story in exchange for a lunch. The story is: Auggie watches a young boy stealing some paperbacks. He doesn’t catch him, but the boy loses his wallet. No, Auggie doesn’t return it or hand it over to the police, he keeps it for whatever reason. This happens in summer. On Christmas he feels lonely and remembers the wallet. Wanting to do a something good for Christmas, he decides to return it. At the address given on the driver’s licence however he only finds a very old and blind lady who seems to believe that he is the boy, her grandson, returned home for Christmas. He buys some food, she opens a bottle of wine and they spend a pleasant Christmas together. When she falls asleep and he goes to the bathroom he finds a stack of stolen cameras, takes one and leaves (with that camera he has since then taken one picture of the street outside his shop every day for the past 12 years). When he returns months later to see what has become of the old lady, she is gone and the new tenant doesn’t know if she has moved away or died.spoiler end

Now that’s your heartbreaking Christmas story. Add some arty illustrations all in brown and beige colors, one of them showing a black boy (I can’t remember if the boy was meant to be black in the story) stealing a sex paperback, and you have something I wouldn’t read to my children for Christmas…

But: most ratings are very good, therefore maybe the book just didn’t hit the right nerve with me.

Rating: 2 stars

133. Gli Uomini Rossi/ The Red Men by Pef

An illustrated children’s book I got from the library. The illustrations are cute and gained the book its 3 stars. The story however is quite flat: the little read men live solitary lives somewhere ‘in the North’, collecting wood all year to make sure to be warm during the cold winter months. Every year they send wish lists to ‘Piccolo Natale’, asking him not to make them ill next year. One day Piccolo Natale’s sleigh breaks down and he spends a year with the red men. He is a very unlikeable little guy and they try to appease him by making toys for him. After a year there are many toys and Piccolo Natale has become a nice guy, so he decides to set out with a new sleigh to give the toys to other children. With the years he becomes ‘Babbo Natale’ / Father Christmas.

Rating: 3 stars

****



134. The Magician’s Nephew by C.S. Lewis

Some years ago I tried to read the Narnia series and failed somewhere early in book 3. I remember I had an issue with the big time jumps between books and couldn’t really find a connection. So this time I am not reading in publishing order, but in ‘Narnia time order’ and therefore started with The Magician’s Nephew, the book where Narnia is created.

While the Biblical allegories are a bit too obvious for my personal liking, I was able to enjoy the story about the children Digory and Polly and Digory’s eccentric wanna-be-magician uncle. It explains much of what confused me when I read The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe for the first time and I am looking forward to my reread of that book now.

Rating: 3.5 stars (because I guess it will still get better)

Added Dance to the Music of Time to the new GR wiki among the year-longs. Link: http://www.librarything.com/wiki/index.php/Group_Reads_of_2013

Those interested can now add their names. I'll wait with the 1st thread for our new group to open, I'll sure get confused it I start the threads in the Category Challenge group...

Good evening, Nathalie! Nice new thread! I just signed up for the *Dance*-group read.
I hope you had a fantastic start of the week. Can you believe that there are only three more weeks to go until Christmas?

I hope you get the snow you wish for - I feel the same way about driving. I like looking at the snow from an armchair or standing on skis or snowshoes.

Gorgeous! Gorgeous! At least you have a decent hope for snow unlike this southern person!
I'm signed up for *Dance* now, and I'm excited.
Wait! 3 weeks until Christmas! Can that be right?????

Guten morgen Nathalie, liebe die Photos :) Congrats to another beautiful thread!

I very much hope that we will get snow for Christmas in Germany. That would be soo great.
Looks like there are quite a lot of people signing up for your group read :). I had a look at the series, but it doesn't look like something I would enjoy.

Wish you a great week!

Good morning. Just wanted to say hello and thank you for organizing a read for Dance to the Music of Time. I put this book on my 2013 challenge because it has been sitting on my bookshelf for far too long and intimidating me. Great idea to break it up and read throughout the year!

Oh, and lovely thread too!

#10 Kathy: only 3 weeks left - I am in a panic! I have no idea what to buy for presents...

#11 Lucy: I got some snow today and I needed to use the car. So I was glad that it melted again after an hour or so. But it looked lovely, thick white flakes...

#12 Peggy: The valley where I live is so warm (with palm trees growing here) that we get snow only very rarely. But at least there will be enough snow on the mountains. I am considering taking ski lessons this year. It's my 4th winter in the Alps and I am running out of excuses.

#13 Bianca: Snow for Christmas would be nice. Two years ago my parents had masses of snow. Luckily we had done all our grocery shopping on the 23rd, we couldn't move the cars on the 24th at all. It was a wonderfully quiet and relaxed Christmas.

#14 Alicia: Welcome to my thread!
I am planning to set up a thread for each volume/ month, then everyone can read at their own pace. The complete work looks intimidating, but I thought 200-250p per month should be doablefor me.

Edit: I just noticed you are reading Wilhelm Meister. How do you like it? I had some difficulties getting through it.

135. A Room of One’s Own by Virginia Woolf

Reread and 5 stars again! With 112 pages in 6 chapters this is quite a short work, but a long essay and not a quick read, at least not for me.

It’s all about the question why there are/ have been (in 1928 when it was published) so few successful female writers yet. Are women really inferior, as some men - quoted in this essay – claim? No, it is a room of her own, where she won’t be disturbed during her work, and an own income of 500 pounds per year (1928 value), which is according to Virginia Woolf the minimum requirement for a female writer.

This is an amazing work. She starts out in one of the big university towns (Oxford or Cambridge, she doesn’t say exactly) where she’s first invited to participate in a lunch in the men’s college and later has a very poor dinner in the only women’s college – a chronically underfunded place that allows for no luxuries. As a woman she is not allowed to enter the famous university library without male company, she can’t even walk on the green in the beautiful park. Discrimination in 1928 is everywhere, although many laws have been changed and theoretically women have possibilities now. She looks at the few classic female authors, praises especially Jane Austen and Emily Bronte, because both of them have found an own convincing and authentic female style while she feels that Charlotte Bronte and George Elliott – though having written great works – have tried too much to follow in the men’s footsteps. She asks what would have happened had Shakespeare had an equally gifted sister.

She starts in a big circle and then comes closer and closer to the point, that it is a place to work and financial independence what every woman with a desire to write should strive for.
I think this is a very intelligent and also witty book. Inspiring and an eternal favorite of mine.

Rating: 5 stars

136. Madita by Astrid Lindgren

One of Astrid Lindgren’s realistic happy childhood novels (compared to her other fairytale/fantasy works like The Brothers Lionheart), along with the Bullerbü and Michel/Emil and Saltkrokan series. Madita is seven years old and leads a worry-free life in a little town in Sweden. Her father works for a newspaper, and the family, while not being rich, is in a comfortable financial situation, so Madita and her little sister Lisabet don’t need to help in the household and can fully enjoy their free-time.

I always liked Madita a lot, but there is some edge missing that makes the Michel/Emil series so special for me. There are glimpses at lives that are less happy than Madita’s and Lisabet’s. There’s the neighbor boy Abbe Nilsson who has to work all day and earns the family income, whose father is a heavy drinker (but they are all constantly happy), there’s the washer woman Linus Ida whose daughters had to emigrate to America to escape poverty (but she is always in a good mood), there’s the poor family with the girls Mia and Matti of Madita’s and Lisabet’s age, who use bad words and have lice in their hair (but they all become good friends in the sequel book). As an adult reader I can’t help wondering what it must have been like for Madita once she found out that her idyllic world wasn’t as idyllic. But as a book for small children this is just wonderful and it has a nice Christmas chapter.

Rating: 3.5 stars

137. Peterchens Mondfahrt by Gerdt von Bassewitz

A German children’s classic and a wonderfully fantastic story. Sure the writing is very old-fashioned and the message is a bit moralistic, but at least it’s not religious. On the contrary, I guess the people who believe HP to be blasphemous would say the same about this book. Too many fairies, and while the children have to pray every evening, there is no explicit mention of God.

Mr. Sumsemann comes from an old and famous family of may beetles, they all have 5 legs only. The 6th leg of his ancestor has been hacked off by an evil man working in the forest on a Sunday, the day of rest. As a punishment the Night Fairy has banned him to the moon where he’ll work forever without a rest on the Moon Mountain. To finally get the missing leg back, Sumsemann needs to look for two good children who never tortured an animal. He finds them in Peterchen (meaning little Peter) and Anneliese and together the three travel to the moon. There they have some wonderful encounters, they meet the Sandman, who is also master of all the little stars in the sky. Then there’s the great afternoon tea at the Night Fairy’s castle. Invited are the Rainman, the Thunderwitch, the Watcher of the Milky Way who brings the Little Bear along, Frau Holle, the gorgeous Mrs Sun, Miss Dew and many other characters. From there they ride on the dangerous Big Bear to the Christmas Meadow where all the toys and cookies are growing and where Father Christmas (not yet Santa Claus, the book is too old) and the Christkind await Christmas day and where the roads are paved with chocolate. Next stop is the Moon Cannon that shoots them to the top of the Moon Mountain where they have a very scary encounter with the evil man.

This is such a lovely story and it’s a pity it has been overlooked by movie makers. Maybe there’s not enough action, although I am sure the drive in the Sandman’s carriage on the Milky Way would make for some great action scenes and jump’n run levels in the video game.

This Kindle edition also had the original illustrations. Lovely read!

Rating: 4.5 stars

#15 I hope you get the snow for Christmas Nathalie! I've never seen a white Christmas in my entire life. Come to think of it, a few years ago it did look like it would snow for Christmas and my Mum got so excited as she'd never had a white Christmas either at the age of eighty-something!

Hi Nathalie, I am finding Wilhelm Meister to be a real slog. I just started Book 4 and I have been reading it off and on since October. I am determined to finish it by the end of the year though in order to move onto more exciting reads!

Nice new thread, Nathalie!

I enjoyed your review of A Room of One's Own. I'll have to read that, one of these days...

I'm surprised that a White Christmas is apparently uncommon where you and Bianca live (if I'm reading your comments correctly). And I'm shocked that Rhian and especially her mother have never had one! Here, White Christmases are very rare in the Deep South, slightly more common in the Mid-Atlantic (Philadelphia, Baltimore, Washington), but very likely in the Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest and in upper New England. I've always experienced a White December when I visit my best friends in Wisconsin for the holidays, which I've done every year since 2003, but this year I'll see them in the middle of the month instead of the end, so I may miss out this year.

Well after the conversation about snow yesterday we woke up to about an inch and a half of it! Darryl, it actually snows very little in South-East England - if it snows twice in the winter with a couple of inches at each time it's considered quite a snowy winter! Where my Mum lives is very close to the sea (about 15 minutes walk) and the snow just doesn't often settle as the ground is too salty unless it comes down very quickly and in very large quantities! A few years ago we did have a very snowy winter and there was a beautiful satellite photo which showed the whole of the UK covered in snow - except for a very tiny portion of South Wales where my Mum lives which was resolutely snow free.

#16 Nathalie - that's a great review of A Room of One's Own - something I've always wanted to read but never got around to.

it actually snows very little in South-East England - if it snows twice in the winter with a couple of inches at each time it's considered quite a snowy winter!

That's not much more snow that we get in Deep South Atlanta; we receive an average of 2.5 inches per year, despite being hundreds of miles to the south of England. That's a drop in the bucket compared to the cities east of the Great Lakes that regularly receive lake effect snowstorms that are measured in feet rather than inches. Syracuse, New York is tops, as it receives an average of 115 inches of snow annually.

#20 Alicia: okay, now I can admit it - I quite hated the book! :-)
Goethe has a wonderful way with the language, that's why some of his poems are so good, but his novels - while often being genre milestones like the typical 'Bildungsroman' here - are no fun at all. I have an aversion against his male protagonists. No wonder they so often don't get the girl, they are so whiny!

#19+ 21-23 Darryl and Rhian:
The region where my parents live must have a similar climate - a couple of inches of snow and usually it's all gone again after a day or two. And then it mostly snows in January or February, or late in March when everyone waits for spring. December is in most years mild and rainy, and it's not easy to eat roast goose with cabbage and dumplings when it's 15 degrees (Celsius) outside. So 2010 was one great exception, just wonderful!

Weighing in with a woeful lack of snow :( I fall in the same band as south-west England though I guess, though probably with even less since the channel winds tend to nick it all before it gets to us.

That said, when we do get more than two flakes the whole island stops entirely. Madness!

I really envy you guys with snow - Nathalie the photo form #1 is stunning.

Well shucks, I was hoping that there would be something redeemable to look forward to. I should like the story with the adventure of Meister taking up with a band of actors and traveling the country, but it is just falling flat. I'm probably losing something in translation too. Regardless, I'm still plugging away.

Lovely new thread, Nathalie, sorry to be so late to the party. I really liked your review of A Room of One's Own - adding that to my WL.

Wonderful review of A Room of One's Own. It has become a joke between my daughter and me because I've given her the book about three separate times, each time saying very seriously, "This is such an important book. You must read it." Oh boy, losing my marbles!

That is a thoughtful, helpful review of A Room of One's Own, Nathalie!
Snow! We don't get any some winters - I think it might have snowed a few minutes last year, and that's all. Some winters we might get an inch or two once or twice. And SOME winters (but not very many - only 4 or 5 in my lifetime), the weather is cold and the snow comes up from the southwest, and we get almost a foot and it stays forever! In 1972 there was so much that the Interstate shut down, and we sent church buses out to rescue people stranded on I-95 and brought them back into churches and homes.
I always think about my grandmama who would say every time it snowed, "Foolishness! We children would be in such a glee!" (And she was still and I am too.)

Nathalie, your walk to work is just the way I had it pictured. Lovely snow picture. I am awaiting our first snow here. It would be wonderful if it came on Christmas Eve!

I see you are reading The Chronicles of Narnia. I enjoyed them as part of my C. S. Lewis class last winter, but I think I would have liked them more as a child. You have inspired me to do a reread of A Room of One's Own...next year.

Hello and thanks for visiting me, Bekka, Alicia, Mamie, Lucy, Peggy and Donna! Please don't be angry with me if I can't post individual responses yet. I am so glad many of you liked my review and I hope you'll all enjoy A Room of One's Own when you get to it or revisit it.

I am having a very busy week and I'll be away tomorrow, but I hope I'll find some quiet time on Sunday. The many missing reviews are all written except for the Steinbeck, I just didn't have the time to post them with the covers.

****
Life news:
Since last Monday I am finally a full-time employee again. I can't say how much better this makes me feel. It seems like I got nice colleagues, and the atmosphere is so positively different from the last place!

The sale of my business (clients, brand names, machines, equipment) to my new employer has also been finalized on Monday. Now there's one last step to take this coming Monday with the one partner (who gave us some trouble in 2012) officially leaving us. Then I am all ready for the new start and I hope for some good business in 2013!

*****
Reading:
I am making my way through the Narnia chronicles, and reading them in this alternative order makes such a difference! 5 finished, 2 to go.

I put A Tale of Two Cities on a short hold after part 2 because I'd like to make it book #150. It is also a bit of a demanding read for me and I want to be able to concentrate on it without reading too many other books parallely.

I wish you all a wonderful weekend!!

About the Narnia chronicles... I have them in one book but I can't remember what order they put them in. What is your alternative order? Just curious

#32 Tina: I also had a complete edition, but that got lost and now I bought them all again for the Kindle. My complete edition used the publication order:

- The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
- Prince Caspian
- The Voyage of the Dawn Treader
- The Silver Chair
- The Horse and his Boy
- The Magician's Nephew
- The Last Battle

Problem is, that in Narnia time (and Earth time) The Magician's Nephew is set many years before *Wardrobe* and describes the creation of Narnia and the background of the White Witch. The Horse and His Boy is quite a stand-alone book storywise, but is set during the reign of the Pevensie kids, during the *Wardrobe* book.
The first time I tried to read the chronicles I found this extremely confusing, especially the placing of TMN.

I am reading them now in chronological order:

- The Magician's Nephew
- The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
- The Horse and his Boy
- Prince Caspian
- The Voyage of the Dawn Treader
- The Silver Chair
- The Last Battle

and I am much happier with it. But so far (with 1.5 books left) my preferred order for first-time readers would be:

- The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
- The Magician's Nephew
- The Horse and his Boy
- Prince Caspian
- The Voyage of the Dawn Treader
- The Silver Chair
- The Last Battle

Reading TMN first takes away some of the fascination TLtWatW usually has, because it explains so much.

Ooooh, I may have to print that off and stick it in my Narnia book for when I arrive there!! Thanks for the clarifications. That's quite confusing sounding for sure!

#33 I read The Magician's Nephew before The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe and I'd always been very definite that this was the 'right' way to do it. But I can see what you're saying about TMN first takes away some of the surprise from TLtWatW - I'd never thought of that before. I do agree that your anthology order seems very strange.

Nathalie, I've never managed Narnia, but I've favorited your post with the helpful reading order. Thank you!
GLAD to hear that the new job feels so right. Happy 2013!!!

Nathalie I am so pleased to see that your business woes can be finally put behind you and that you have a new year to genuinely look forward to.
What a lovely way to start a weekend. x

Hi Nathalie!
Congratulations on your new beginning. I hope you'll enjoy your job and that your collegues are nice! In that case 2013 can come! :)
Have a great weekend yourself!

PS: I finished Shanghai fern von wo this week and it is really outstanding!

Enjoy your time in Narnia!

Congrats and the greatest hopes and good wishes for your new job.

Hi all,

sorry, but the weekend was much busier than planned. But at least now I got almost all the Christmas presents except for a book that had to be ordered, and I even got them all gift-wrapped already.

I finished my Narnia Chronicles last night, wrote the remaining reviews and will post them now during the next hours.

#34/35 Tina and Rhian: I'll write something more about that in the individual reviews for the books.

#36 Peggy: thank you! Business is still very low - and will be so until March when the season for the products starts - but at least the new situation gives me a little more security.

#37 Paul: thank you, and I hope for some better turnover in 2013.

#38 Kathy: I am so glad you liked *Shanghai*, I read your review. Krechel has a way with the language you find only very rarely in German literature. I soon must read her Landgericht.
And thank you for the good wishes!

#39 Lucy: Thank you! Narnia was an interesting experience. Now I am ready to read some background book on Lewis and the Narnia world.

138. Sweet Thursday by John Steinbeck

*sigh* I am feeling sentimental.

The last book of our 2012 Steinbeck-a-thon. It was a lovely idea to start the year with the wonderful Cannery Row and to end it with this book. Before starting it I had no idea it is a sequel to CR and now it feels like a circle has been closing, a little sad, but content at the same time.

The story is set years after CR. In the meantime WWII has taken place and the canneries have closed down.
But not so much has changed or so it seems in Cannery Row. Mack and his boys still live in the Palace Flop House, Dock has returned to his laboratory after the war; Dora’s house of joys still exists, although after her death it is now managed by her sister Fauna.

The main plot could have been too sugary if it weren’t for the touch of bittersweet nostalgia. All our friends have aged, we are ageing, and Steinbeck has aged between writing the two books. This book gives some consolation and puts a bit of golden glow on a scenery which in reality surely was far from romantic.

As a work of literature, for me CR is the better book of the two and can well stand alone on its feet. ST as an older and slightly weaker friend needs to lean on its shoulder a little, but together they are a lovely and perfect couple.

Rating: 4 stars

139. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardobe by C.S. Lewis – contains spoilers for The Magician’s Nephew as well

Not so much a review, more the continuation of my experience of reading the Narnia Chronicles.

A happy revisiting of what I think should be the first book in the Narnia series everyone reads. But, for people like me who expect some more continuity, The Magician’s Nephew should be following it directly to explain all the open questions (Why is there a lamppost? What’s Aslan’s role? Who’s the witch and where did she come from?). Reading TMN first, as I did this time, delivers the answers before the questions can be asked, which reduces the fun a first-time reader could have with all the mysteries in TLtWatW. It’s a wonderful children’s book and I can imagine how generations of kids have followed the story wide-eyed without even noticing the Christian allegories.

Here the 4 children stumble into a world that has long been existing and they need to find their way. In TMN the story is more linear. Digory and Polly watch Narnia being created, then they follow Aslan’s orders and when the story ends, everything is explained. Maybe except for the question of how the witch – weakened to almost fainting in the between-world – still managed to carry the heavy lamppost into Narnia.

The first time I tried to read the series the order confused me so much that I abandoned the books.
So right now my preferred reading order would be TLtWatW, then TMN to get the questions answered and because I don’t think it would fit in elsewhere and then we’ll see. I just started The Horse and His Boy and realized it is a re-read as well. I didn’t much like it the first time around and at 25% I can’t say that much has changed for me.

Rating: 4 stars

140. L’incredibile storia di Lavinia by Bianca Pitzorno

I am sure kids have fun with this book, as an adult you need a bit of a strong stomach and you need to remember the fascination the basic bodily functions have on small children.

Lavinia is a little girl who has to sell matches for a living in today’s Milano. It’s Christmas Eve, it’s snowing, and Lavinia is so poor, that she doesn’t even have shoes to wear. And she is also terribly dirty and hasn’t eaten for three days. None of the busy Milanesi buys a single match. When all the shops are closed and it is getting dark, she prepares for another night out in the cold. Suddenly a fairy turns up in a see-through dress (you can see her underwear, haha). She needs to light a cigarette (so Italian!) and Lavinia gives her a match for free. To thank her, the fairy gives her an enchanted ring. If she stares at something and turns it clockwise, it will turn into what the Italians call ‘cacca’. Another turn of the ring anti-clockwise will turn the cacca back into what it was before.

With this magic ring, Lavinia quickly gets her life sorted out. First she gets herself some boots (turning all the shoes in a shop into cacca convinces the owner to give her a pair for free), then some clothes, and even the most expensive suite in the nearby luxury hotel. Heaps of cacca in the lobby and the dining room are very helpful here. But when Lavinia becomes proud and arrogant after a couple of weeks, punishment is not far.

Nice book, and as I said, kids will love it. But there is an awful quantity of sh*t in here. And illustrations of sh*t, and descriptions of the smells and the textures of the sh*t. So if this book exists in English or you want to give it a try in Italian, don’t read it if you want to eat anytime soon or if you’ve just eaten.

Rating: 3 stars

141. Madita und Pims by Astrid Lindgren

Here I got all the ‘edge’ I asked for in part 1. There must be much of Astrid Lindgren in the character of Madita, because it is so absolutely believable how life’s realities slowly unfold before her and how painful it can be to accept those realities. Sure, every chapter here still has a happy ending, but there’s darkness in places where Madita never saw it before, so much that her good and courageous heart often can’t bear it and she takes some rash decisions, trying to improve life for others. Madita is a wonderful character, and I wish Astrid Lindgren had written more books about her and her attempts to do good in an unjust world. I keep wondering how she got through the wars. She must have been among the first volunteers to become a nurse, I am sure.

This second part holds many surprises for adult readers as well, and rereading this after so many years was a completely new experience. There are some interesting glimpses at the relationship of the parents, the mother suffering from a bit from melancholy, the father being a liberal at heart, but forced by his profession and moral standards to obey the unwritten rules of society. Quite a modern couple for their time.

Rating: 4 stars



142. Ronja Räubertochter by Astrid Lindgren

And yet another reread that was a new experience for me. I hadn’t liked the Ronja book much when it was published. I think it is the only Lindgren book published during my childhood and I remember I had been awaiting it impatiently back then. And then it was all about robbers living in a forest full with strange fairy tale creatures. I have never been a big adventure fan and I preferred Lindgren’s realistic stories over this one.

The first part of the story felt the same way this time around – Ronja’s birth in the robber’s castle Mattisburg, the enmity with the competing robber’s gang, the Borkas, her first confrontation and then growing friendship with Birk, Borka’s son. A bit like Romeo and Juliet among robbers, nothing really new. But then something happened and I realized that Ronja and Madita are very similar characters. Both almost bursting with their enjoyment of life, both good-hearted and with a courage and loyalty rarely to be found, both capable and not afraid of feeling and expressing love. Like the ‘Maditas’ this is a book that should be revisited at adult age, maybe every couple of years. It feels like Lindgren has been weaving several layers of magic into some of her stories, aimed at adults and kids, and once a reader has reached another level of age/ experience, a new streak of magic becomes visible.

Rating 4.5 stars, much recommended.

143. Capodanno in giallo by several authors

Six short stories of about 45 pages each, all with a plot centered somehow on New Year’s Eve, written by Italy’s most popular authors of crime fiction. A great idea and I enjoyed this possibility of making the acquaintance of the various detectives without having to force myself through a whole novel in Italian. On the other hand as it usually is with short story collections, it was a mixed bag, but I’ve had worse.

A wrap-up of the Montalbano story, because he’s so popular here on LT :
Well written, all about food and quite entertaining, although I’ll never be friends with Montalbano. After Livia has informed him she can’t make it to Sicily for NYE, Montalbano gets countless invitations for the various evening parties. He refuses them all and invites himself to Adelina, because she makes the best arancini (fried rice balls, usually filled with cheese, stew and/or vegetables). When Livia surprisingly turns up, he is annoyed because now he has to spend the evening with her and without Adelina’s arancini. Isn’t he a prize?
There’s some crime as well in this story, but that plays only a very minor role. The arancini are the protagonists.

Rating: 3.5 stars

144. The Horse and his Boy by C.S. Lewis

Continuation of the Narnia experience.

Another ‘out of order’ read, and again I am glad that I followed the alternative order. I don’t want to read about King Peter and Queen Susan at a time when they have long disappeared from the series.

As soon as I had read the first sentences I realized it was a re-read again, and of a book I hadn’t much liked on my first try. The same happened again. Not because it is a bad book, the story just didn’t appeal to me. The first half sounded much like a tale of the “Arabian Nights” including the ‘to hear is to obey’ language, the second part was better, but again I skipped most of the battle. I have never been interested in the battles in fantasy stories and therefore the first part of The Lord of the Rings will forever be my favorite. I was wondering however why Narnia suddenly is just a small kingdom within a big world/universe. In The Magician’s Nephew it seems to be a small universe of its own, with Archenland being mentioned, but I thought that was a part of the Narnia world. Now did Aslan create just Narnia and the rest came into existence some other way?

Rating: 3 stars



145. Prince Caspian by C.S. Lewis - contains some spoilers

Only a partial reread this time, I think I had abandoned this book on my first try quite early when the children meet the dwarf. Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucy are back in Narnia, this time being drawn into that world without having actively stepped through a portal. The Narnia they find is hundreds or even thousands of years older than the one they left one earth-year ago. Their old palace lies in ruins and it seems the old Narnia world of speaking trees, fauns and other unusual characters does not exist anymore.

I quite liked the story this time, I prefer the books where both worlds collide over a pure Narnian story like *Horse*. And there wasn’t too much fighting either.

Btw I like that C.S. Lewis takes all that freedom with Narnia time. Here an earth-year equals many hundred Narnia years, in the next book only 3 years have passed in Narnia during an earth-year. Does it say anywhere how much Narnia time passed between its creation and the wardrobe book?

Rating: 3.5 stars

146. The Voyage of the Dawn Treader by C.S. Lewis – contains spoilers, also for the Wardrobe book

Okay, this must be my favorite Narnia book so far. The ending was a little too much for me, with the religious allegories almost hitting you in the head. But the overall atmosphere in this book is just so wonderful, like the whole story is just one long dream. That is what puts it a little above the *Wardrobe* book for me – there I was just enchanted by the winter world and the idea of the White Witch. But once the thawing started and then when the battles came, it became quite a normal adventure book. Lewis has certainly been inspired by Hans Christian Andersen’s fairy tale about the Snow Queen and I wish he’d prolonged the part of his story about the White Witch and Edward’s seduction and estrangement from the others.

Here I loved the whole book, each of the little stories, even the changing of Eustace made sense (for me, Edmund changed sides too quickly in Wardrobe ). The one exception was the very last chapter. The sweet water, yes. The lillies, yes. But then a lamb???!

Question: why were Peter and Susan allowed to come to Narnia until a year ago and Lucy, who must be much younger than Peter, is banned already?

Rating: 4.25 stars



147. The Silver Chair by C.S. Lewis – contains spoilers

While I liked most of the story , what annoyed me here from the very beginning are the slaps against ‘modern things’ like co-education, schools without corporal punishment, teachers trying to understand the children instead of just being strict, and then worst of all things, there’s a female headmistress. But she’s quickly put to her rights, by becoming hysterical (very female!) and therefore losing her place. People usually say that C.S. Lewis is not misogynous, because he created all those strong female characters. But they are all kids. And as we see in the next book, becoming an adult clearly does horrible things to women.

I liked the setting of this story very much and I would happily have read another 50 pages about the Narnian underworld. I wish they had all visited the gnomes’ world where the jewels are growing. Yet somehow the story didn’t excite me a bit, I wasn’t much interested in Rilian’s fate. And again – woman = serpent = dangerous seductress?
Swallowing my annoyance with this and trying to look at the story from a child’s point of view I rated the book with 3.5 stars, because I still liked it better than The Horse and His Boy.

Rating: 3.5 stars

148. The Last Battle by C.S. Lewis – contains many spoilers!!

Well – that was unexpected. I haven’t really made my mind up yet regarding this last book of the Narnia Chronicles, except for that: the other books are clearly written for children, and – if I had any – I’d let them read them without much hesitation, because I think that in most cases the religious context, while being obvious for adults, will not be noticed by small children, and you can always discuss the contents with them. This last book however seems to be written for adults. Children might be either extremely saddened by the plot or confused or both.

I rated the book with 4 stars for now although there were some elements I strongly disliked:

1. The ghastly treatment of Susan
There were hints of grown-up behavior in earlier books, but she was never shallow. Not even in The Horse and His Boy, although she liked being courted. She was brave and just and almost as highly respected as Peter. And please – what did they do to her in the real world? What a horrible, horrible punishment!! No-one deserves that.

2. Racism?
There have been discussions about C.S. Lewis being racist. I don’t think that’s the right expression. Xenophobic maybe? He distrusts foreigners the way he distrusts grown-up women. It isn't hatred, maybe it's fear?
He clearly glorifies England and ‘Northern’ elements, like fair hair and skin, straight weapons (the straight Narnia sword vs. the bent and unpredictable Calormene sword), etc. I hated it when he described the Calormenes as smelling of garlic and onions. They might not be black as some readers assume, but they are ‘Southern’, un-English and therefore generally (with a few exceptions) not to be trusted. The few good ones show ‘English’ virtues.

3. Death
The last part after the battle was too long and I wouldn’t happily let a child read a book that so glorifies death – and especially early death as a relief from the hard-to-bear real world. The idea of a paradisiacal afterlife might be a consolation for the ones left behind, but the longing of the children to please-please finally be able to stay, not to have to return to the real world which in this book is even called ‘unreal’ is nothing I can support. To kill the parents whom we never met before with a shrug along with everyone else just as a favor for the readers (because how would they mourn otherwise!) was absolutely unnecessary and makes Susan’s fate even more cruel. And how about the parents of Eustace and Jill? But they are stupid, because they sent their kids to that modern co-ed school where they don't teach the Bible, and therefore they will quickly get over their children’s deaths. And I forgot that Susan has become all superficial and un-Christian and probably won't even notice that her entire family has died.
Sorry if I am sounding sarcastic - but I absolutely couldn't support the idea that was sold here. This is not Hans Christian Andersen's little girl with the matches - that's a heartbreaking story when she lights the last match before freezing to death and sees her dead grandmother smiling at her. The Pevensie children had a normal, comfortable life that felt a bit boring compared to their adventures in Narnia. They should have been sent back to serve their time - with a promise of afterlife.

C.S. Lewis took the good ones - the believers? - before their time out of a modern world that has lost the old values and is instead run over by foreigners and ruled by hysterical women(!) and puts them into an idealized medieval/ fairy-tale version of England.

***
In the end I gave the 4 stars because the book stands out with its philosophical ideas which for once were not blatantly Christian. There are many ways to interpret the last chapters and that hasn’t to be done in a Christian context. I read some reviews and some people believe Aslan to be the Christian god/ Jesus Christ and the Calormene god Tash to be Allah/ Mohammed. I don’t see it that way and I like to believe that he is mainly making a point regarding ‘good’ behavior – honesty, love for other beings, friendship, etc. The dwarfs remain blind not because they don’t pray to Aslan, but because they have no values.

This book was a surprisingly adult and strangely satisfying ending for the series and it doesn’t leave many questions open. It also shows why C.S. Lewis saw the need to write The Magician’s Nephew – I guess he already had that last part in mind, and where an ending is told, a story also needs a beginning.

Rating for now: 4 stars, might be lowered later

Has anybody read Neil Gaiman's short story "The Problem of Susan"?
If so, is it good enough that I should spend 10 USD for the Neil Gaiman short story collection it is part of?

Since J.K. Rowling's treatment of Draco Malfoy and Severus Snape on HP7 I haven't felt that sad about the fate of a fictional character. They should start a club of "promising characters totally misrepresented in the last volumes of their respective book series".

I didn't even realize Gaiman had written a short story about Susan... now I'm deeply curious. I may have to look into that...

I think that "The Problem of Susan" is part of "Fragile Things"? I read Fragile Things a while ago and absolutely loved it because Gaiman is such a great storyteller. I would not have known that "The Problem of Susan" has something to do with Narnia because I was never really interested in the Narnia books (maybe I'm biased because of all this religious backdrop and because I really didn't like the movie at all). But all I can tell is that "Fragile Things" was a very good book even for me who never really liked short stories.
I don't think that you would regret buying this book. Try it ;-)

#51 Bangsi: Yes, it's part of Fragile Things. And I succumbed and bought it last night because I found a much cheaper Kindle version. Now I am looking forward to reading the other stories as well - thank you. And I am also not a fan of short stories.

I never watched the movies, because somehow I was convinced they'd concentrate on computer generated battle scenes and action sequences which could be re-used for the video games and the fairy-tale atmosphere would be neglected.

On my first try with the books the religious allegories greatly disturbed me as well, because I was all unprepared and hadn't expected them and they were too obvious for me (the whole traitor/ crucifixion/ resurrection theme in "Wardrobe" just jumps at the reader). This second time I knew about them in advance and tried to concentrate on the adventure and fairy-tale aspects. It worked most of the time, but not always (... that lamb in "Dawn Treader"!!)

#50 dk_phoenix: I read it last night. Well... I found it a little disturbing. It's very short, has a great first half, but then comes a dark and violent dream sequence which I found hard to get through. Narnia lovers might call it blasphemic. Must re-read it, because I'm not yet sure what it all means.

I have Fragile Things on the TBR shelf - I must get around to it as soon as possible.

I've loved your reviews of the Narnia books. I read them over and over as a child and read them again with J five or six years ago. The Voyage of the Dawn Treader was my favourite as well, followed very definitely by The Magician's Nephew. I loved the descriptions of the dead world of Charn (?), and the exploits of the witch in our own world. I think I see some of C. S. Lewis's attitudes as symptomatic of the world that he inhabited. As an Oxford don of that time he would have inhabited a very conservative, male environment which had a very strong emphasis on tradition, and this undoubtably would have affected his own views.

Love the reviews Nathalie. Glad you (for the most part) enjoyed Narnia.

Hi Nathalie, what great choices of books you've been reading for this time of year!
I really hope you get your snowy Christmas. I'm a bit in shock that it is not a more common occurence in your corner of the world, but then again it's so much more appreciated when it is not.
Hope you're having a great week!

Hi Nathalie - been away for a while on LT - will try to catch up now on threads and reviews. So good to visit your thread again and read your many comments.

You have intrigued me to read Virginia Woolfs A Room of One's Own. Sounds fascinating.

It's been some years since I last read the Narnia-chronicle so it's not so fresh in my mind to be able to comment on your many observations. I do remember the last pages of The Last Battle and have always thought it was a good description of Lewis' ideas of Heaven - going farther up and further in exploring more and more. I like the idea.

His allegorical tale The Great Divorce have of course more of his ideas of heaven and hell - but even in Narnia heaven is there in the last battle in the end.

When I read the Narnia-chronicles I always have Jesus/God in the back of my mind when it comes to Aslan - and I think Lewis did to - - a strong and gentle God - to love and to stand in awe of at the same time - as a Christian it doesn't feel like an intrusion for me with that particular series - although I can imagine it being a problem for others - and of course you can read them with different perspectives and still enjoy them - the power of the story.

It's time for a reread - and also time for some more Lindgren - and I've taken a note on Peterchens Mondfahrt - see if I can find a danish or english version.

Hallo Nathalie!

Did you have a lot of work these last days? I hope that you can find some relaxing time for yourself. Will you stay with your family over the holidays? Anyway, I wish you and your family a merry Christmas and a generous "Christkind".

Hallo Nathalie, war die letzten Wochen sehr beschäftigt und hatte leider keine LT time. Wünsche Dir und Deiner Familie Frohe Weihnachten und ein Gesundes und Glückliches Neue Jahr *big smile*

Nathalie Have a lovely Christmas and New Year!

Dear Nathalie, wishing you all the best this holiday season, and looking forward to continued exchanges in 2013. I'll make time to catch up with you to see what's been happening in your life both in and out of books. Warm hugs to you and hope you are keeping well.

Merry Christmas, Nathalie!

Merry Christmas Nathalie! Hope you have a lovely day.

Happy Christmas, Nathalie! I hope you get some good books read over the Christmas break. I've seen the first Anthony Powell novel at the library so I'm all ready for the group read in 2013.

Merry Christmas, Nathalie! I hope to be able to meet up with you and Bianca in London sometime next year.

glitter-graphics.com
Hope you woke up to a white Christmas, Nathalie!

Merry Christmas, Nathalie! Hope it was fabulous!

Can you find the shark, the gray cat and the tan cat too?

Hope you had a merry day.

Dear Nathalie,

Many thanks for your wishes, I heartily reciprocate.

Hi Nathalie! A little early but sending out wishes for a happy new year and more reading adventures in 2013.

Hallo Nathalie,

I hope you had a great Christmas with your family! I started already my new thread in the 2013 group. Will see you there.

Ein Frohes und Gesundes Neues Jahr!

Nathalie, I'm getting a head start on the new year and read the first chapter in A Question of Upbringing. It's grabbed me already. I can't tell you how excited I am about a year-long group read of A Dance to the Music of Time.

I hope your Christmas was enjoyable and wish you all the best in 2013.

Hello everyone,
just a short message for now, I'll try and get my LT in order later this afternoon (now I'm at work...), this means answering your posts, writing the remaining reviews, setting up the 2013 thread + at least some of the threads for the *Dance* GR. Haven't looked into the 2013 group yet - it hadn't opened yet when I left and I am sure that some of you are already on 2nd threads... :-)

***************
Thank you all so much for the lovely Christmas wishes! I had a nice Christmas at my parents' place, but something was wrong with their internet, so all I could do was to write some Christmas wishes on your threads on a friend's computer. I won't catch up on any of the 2012 threads anymore, I am really sorry that I missed so much, but the last busy weeks didn't allow much time for LT.
***************
I hope to finish book #153 before the year ends - that's a new record for me!!
***************
Christmas as I wrote was nice, but overshadowed by a sad family incident - one of my many aunts (but one of the two I see more often) suddenly had a cerebral haemorrhage 2 days after her husband's 70th birthday, on the 20th, fell into a coma and died yesterday. My parents only told me once I had safely arrived in Merano yesterday afternoon. We have been comparatively lucky in our family so far with illnesses and untimely deaths, and therefore it hit us all very hard, also because of my mother's sisters she had always been the strong and healthy one. My mother and I saw her twice in the hospital and it was obvious there was no hope for recovery. At least everyone had the opportunity to say goodbye...
*****************
Okay - read you again later!

Edit: Link to the main *Dance* thread: http://www.librarything.com/topic/147074

2 reviews I had written a while ago for book #149 and #150 and saved on this PC:



149. Christmas-tree Land by Helen Molesworth

I feel bad. This was such a nice, old-fashioned, lovely children’s classic. Nothing really wrong with it. No violence, no religious influences. A bit moralistic is is, for sure, but nothing compared to other old books like Water Babies. Then why didn’t I like it a bit? If I were a child, a small one, and this book was read to me at bedtime, I am sure I’d love it with all my heart. And that’s the thing – some children’s books are not meant to be read by adults, unless they read them to their children.

Imagine being forced to sit down in front of a huge sugar bowl and having to shovel all that white dry sugar into your mouth and to swallow it, spoon by spoon. No relief is given to you, not even a glass of fresh water. That’s what reading this story felt like.

The plot: Maia and Rollo (the names!) are sent to spend some months with their cousin in her ‘white castle’. Their mother is dead and their father goes on some kind of business travel. On the way to the castle, in a forest that looks like it consists of perfect Christmas trees, they notice smoke which must come from some cottage. It doesn’t take them long to find that cottage on the very next day. It is inhabited by two children, Silva and Waldo (which both mean ‘forest’, in Latin and in German) and by their fairy godmother. They all soon become friends and Maia and Rollo spend many days in the forest, visiting a squirrel family in their tree, being invited to the eagle’s nest, or just listening to godmother’s fairy tales. It’s an enchanted forest where all the animals are friends and don’t need proteins to survive – even the eagles live on fruit because they don’t want to hurt other animals.

It IS a sweet book. Unbearably sweet. I imagine it should ideally be read from some nicely done hardback copy, with colored and old-fashioned illustrations with some glitter on top.

I rate this with 3 stars because I am not the intended reader and I shouldn’t rip such a lovely book apart with cynical comments.

I feel like having a double grappa now for a better digestion and watch the first Terminator movie or something similar. I hope I’ll have recovered until Christmas. The Tale Of Two Cities with the guillotine stories should help.

Rating: 3 stars

(P.S.: TToTC did help a lot...)

150. A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens

I had put this book on hold after finishing part 2, wanting to make it my 150th book in 2012, and squeezed in the remaining Narnia Chronicles and Christmas-tree Land (ew). It was a good decision, I doubt anything better or more worthy will come the way in the remaining 12 days of the year.

Usually when you start a Dickens, you know what you’re in for: many pages, often a couple of hundreds too many, a mass of characters you’ll find overwhelming and confusing for the first 200-300 pages, but will then come to like and will be sorry to leave once the story ends. Usually one main story and what feels like a hundred sidelines which all miraculously (sometimes too miraculously – Oliver Twist) unite towards the ending. After reading a typical Dickens book I usually feel sated for many months and I can’t easily digest more than one per year.

Well, this book really falls out of the usual frame. I was glad to see it is short with about 300 pages. But that was kind of a trap – those 300 pages felt like 600. The writing is very dense and I needed all my concentration. Then it is mainly located in Paris, although there are many scenes set in London as well. And it is historical fiction, looking at the years around the French revolution. The book is separated into 3 parts. The first short part is set in the early 1780s, the second part in 1789 and the third part in 1792. I found the first part hard going, but I always need a bit to adapt to Dickens. The second part was great and the third part – when I finally got to it – was just incredible.

That’s what I wrote on the GR thread:
Wow. Is it possible that this is the best drama Dickens wrote? The 3rd part took my breath away.
I haven't fully made my mind up yet where to place it in my Dickens ranking. It might be my new favorite. With its structure, the allegories, the characters, the beautiful language it is what I'd call a literature work of art. And it is a book that calls for several readings.

Very much recommended!

Rating: 5 stars

Congratulations on making the double 75. Nice to see you happily at work if you know what I mean! Happy New year dear lady and I hope to see plenty of you in 2013.

#72 Sorry to hear about your Aunt - hope your Mum is copin about it all.

Big stacks of hugs and hoping that 2013 is a more settled and altogether happier year for you.

Good evening, Nathalie!
I'm so sorry to hear about your loss! Sometimes the timing is so perfect in real life. :(
You had some barriers to manage this last year - so I wish you all the best, good luck, much health and love for 2013! Looking out for your new thread and for the Powell-Dance-group read.

Nathalie, I am so sorry about your aunt. Please know that I am thinking about you. I have loved following your thread this year, and have been staggered by your honesty, thoughtfulness, and lovely spirit. What a difficult year it has been for you, and yet you looked for and found hope. I wish for you a New Year filled with joy and success and whatever it is that your heart most desires. Many blessings, my friend.

hi Nathalie

I am sorry that you lost your aunt.

Welcome in 2013, as it just started here and at your place too!
I will soon leave a msg on your profile to exchange phonenumbers and hope to see you next month :-)

Anita

HAPPY NEW YEAR to everyone!!

Thanks to you all for your good wishes for 2013 and your kind words re. my aunt.

#75 Paul: well, nothing at all happened at work today... but now that I am an employee again after 3+ years of total freedom, I'll have to stop posting during work (one of my New Year resolutions...)

#76 Bekka: my mum is coping better today (that aunt was the closest of her 4 sisters). It was quite a shock for all of us, with her being all healthy and happy just 2 days earlier. But you never know...

#77 Kathy: in fact my aunt managed to stay alive during Christmas and until after her son's birthday on the 27th as if she didn't want any of those days to be remembered as the day of her death.

I am very much looking forward to the Powell GR! My new thread still isn't up, but January 1st seems like the perfect day to start it.

#78 Mamie: I am so sorry I couldn't follow your thread anymore during the last weeks. You have been such an inspiration for me, and I will do my best to keep up in 2013.

#79 Anita: So great to see you here - and I am so looking forward to meeting you in Merano next month!

****
I finished book #153 in time, and I will set up the new thread, post the remaining reviews + December stats tomorrow.

I decided not to do anything for NYE except for eating some nice but unhealthy stuff I brought back from Germany (Fleischwurst! Streuselkuchen! Graved Lachs!), having some good prosecco and watching DVDs. I went through "Alien I - IV" today, then fell asleep watching "Home Alone" and was woken up by the fireworks at midnight. Boring, but relaxing.

Again - HAPPY NEW YEAR, all the best to all of you for 2013!!

Dear Nathalie, I'm sorry too to hear about your aunt's death. I'm glad that we don't get to choose: a sudden death is devastating for those left behind; a lingering death is horrible for the sufferer. Nevertheless, I look forward to 2013 with a lot of wonderful things for you, and I'm going to leave you with my chosen picture ---

Oh dear... I just don't learn it! Just typed 3 reviews, pressed the wrong key, and they're all gone.
Stupid, stupid me! :-(
Okay, starting all over again...

#81 Peggy: thank you for your kind words!!

Okay, now definitely much shorter than the first versions ... sorry - I don't have the nerve to recreate it all from scratch. Why, o why didn't I write in Word and copy/pasted as I usually do??



151. Stonemouth by Iain Banks
A wonderful audio experience, recommended by Kerry. Nothing much happens in this book/ the 13 hours of audio, but somehow I was gripped and couldn't stop listening.
Stewart returns to his Scottish hometown after a 5 year absence to attend a funeral. He runs into old friends and enemies and it soon shows there has been some mysterious incident 5 years ago that forced him to leave town and that has something to do with his then-relationship with Ellie Murston, the eldest daughter of the town's ruling family (in the sense of drug traffic and other crimes).

In the end I found the reason for Stewart's ban a bit underwhelming and not really original, but this didn't reduce my enjoyment of this book.

Rating: 3.5 stars for the print, 4 stars for the audio



152. La briscola in Cinque by Marco Malvaldi
I discovered this author/ his crime series while reading book #153. I don't know if his books have been translated into English yet, if so I'd recommend to give them a try. The book is set in the fictitious town of Pineta by the Tuscan coast. Massimo owns a bar and among his regular clients is a group of 4 very old men who spend all day there, playing at cards and commenting everything, from the TV news to the latest local gossip. When a young girl is killed, their comments and the card game they play in the end help hobby detective Massimo to find the killer.
Strong language, like in the Montalbano novels. Very realistic setting, a quick and entertaining read.

Rating: 3.5 stars



153. Natale in Giallo by various authors
Like Capodanno in Giallo a collection of short stories written by Italian crime novel authors. I liked this collection a lot with the exception of the last story, written by Ben Pastor. I'll try and read one of his novels and I am convinced he is a very skilled author, but the story about a German Wehrmachts-officer, set on a Christmas Eve during WWII in Stalingrad, absolutely didn't fit into this collection.

Rating: 3 stars

December reads:

Books read in December: 22
Pages read (finished books): 4,651

Fiction: 19
Non-fiction: 1
Short Story Books: 2

English: 12
German: 4
Italian: 6

Audio books: 1 (1 bought, 0 free)
Kindle books: 12 (9 bought, 0 owned, 3 free)
Real books: 9 (6 library books, 1 owned, 2 bought)

Summary 2012:

Books read 2012: 153
Pages read: 47,497

Fiction: 122
Non-fiction: 21
Plays: 1
Poetry books: 1 (+262 poems )
Comic books: 4 (counted as 2)
Short Story Books: 6

English: 86
German: 44
Italian: 32
French: 1

Audio books: 17 (2 free, 15 bought)
Kindle books: 60 (23 free, 32 bought, 5 owned)
Real books: 76 (12 bought, 25 owned, 39 library)

Reviews done, stats done - year done!!

Here's my new thread in the 2013 group: http://www.librarything.com/topic/147127