Nickelini chips away at her TBR pile in 2014

I finally found you all. Whew. Anyway, I'm in for another year. In 2013 my goal was 50 TBR books. I managed to read 55 (out of the 90-ish books I read), so I think I'll make 50 books my goal again.




1. A Short History of Myth, Karen Armstrong
2. Three Classic Children's Stories, James Donnelly & Edward Gorey
3. Celebrating Pride and Prejudice: 200 Years of Jane Austen's Masterpiece, Susannah Fullerton
4. Dangerous Liaisons, Laclos
5. the Outsiders, SE Hinton
6. Sweet Tooth, Ian McEwan
7. Wild Harbour, Ian Macpherson
8. The Orenda, Joseph Boyden
9. Fairy Tales from t he Brothers Grimm, Philip Pullman
10. Lone Survivors, Chris Stringer
11. the Language of Flowers, Vanessa Diffenbaugh
12. Annotated Sense & Sensibility, Jane Austen, D. Shapard, ed.
13. Sense & Sensibility: an Annotated Edition, Jane Austen, C. Spacks, ed.
14. Life of Pi, Yann Martel
15. Frangipani, Celestine Hitiura Vaite
16. Coventry, Helen Humphreys
17. The China Study, T Colin Campbell
18. The Seven Sisters, Margaret Drabble
19. A Northern Line Minute, William Leith
20. Sammerikin, Emma Donoghue
21. The Country Girls, Edna O'Brien
22. Mennonites Don't Dance, Darcie Friesen Hossack
23. A Short History of England, Simon Jenkins
24. Before I Go to Sleep, SJ Watson
25. Before I Wake, Robert J Wiersema
26. Deceived by Kindness, Angelica Garnett
27. Women Without Men, Shahrnush Parsipur
28. The Swallows of Kabul, Yasmina Khadra
29. I Capture the Castle, Dodie Smith
30. Murder City, Charles Bowden
31. Every Day Was Summer, O Wynne Hughes
32. The Birds on the Trees, Nina Bawden
33. England, England, Julian Barnes
34. Written on the Body, Jeanette Winterson
35. The Leopard, Giuseppe di Lampedusa
36. Bluebeard's Egg, Margaret Atwood
37. Bear, Marian Engels
38. The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox, Maggie O'Farrell
39. How to Find Fulfilling Work, Roman Krznaric
40. Buddha, Karen Armstrong
41. Nothing to Envy, Barbara Demick
42. The Wolves of Willoughby Chase, Joan Aiken
43. Classic Victorian and Edwardian Ghost Stories, selected by Rex Collings
44. Broken Things, Padrika Tarrant
45. Three Day Road, Joseph Boyden
46. The Edwardians, Vita Sackville-West
47. The Cambridge Companion to Pride and Prejudice, Janet Todd, ed.
48. Scar Tissue, Michael Ignatieff
49. The War of the Worlds, HG Wells
50. The Cement Garden, Ian McEwan
51. Silent Spring, Rachel Carson

You found us! Glad to see you again!

Hurray! Welcome back and good luck!

Glad you're here again! Are you going to make a ticker for this year?

#4 - Okay, I put a ticker in my top post. I found last year that I usually forgot to update them and so they'd jump ahead by 5s and 10s. But it's there and I will keep it up, generally.

Good luck and a * for you, my dear!

Hello, Joyce! Good to see you over here!

Happy New Year!

Hi Joyce and good luck with your challenge. Check on you later!

1. A Short History of Myth, Karen Armstrong, 2006


Cover comments: okay I suppose but less than inspired or creative--the subject is myths here, so there is much more you could do on a cover than this. Yawn!

Why I Read This Now: I read this as part of my year long study of fairy tales, in which I include some mythology. It really wasn't what I was looking for, which might explain my lack of interest in A Short History of Myth. What I'm really interested in the "story" aspect of myths, and I'd like to know how far back they go and across how many different cultures. Armstrong's look at myths is much more like the development of religion.

Comments: In 149 small pages, Armstrong traces the development of myths from the palaeolithic period through to the current. She takes a very high level approach and only occasionally delves into any particular myths. Mostly she talks about what myths mean to people and why they develop them.

Apart from not writing about the aspects of myth that interest me, the other thing I didn't like about this book is how often Armstrong made absolute matter of fact statements about things that she couldn't possibly know or about things that I know others think completely differently. She does have some references in the back, but they are very slight and I don't believe support her claims. One example is that she gives the reasons and motivations of prehistoric people--ah, no, you can have your theories, but no matter how firmly you word it, you can't know that. A second example is where she says the Judeo-Christian Bible shows god creating the world by killing a sea monster--I didn't remember this part from Sunday school, and when I checked her supporting Bible verses, I found they didn't say that at all.

Despite this, there were some interesting bits here and there, and it was short.

Rating: 2.5 out of 5

Recommended for: Not sure I do recommend this. I personally know many Christians who would be outraged by her claims, but at the same time I think Armstrong would tick off some non-religious people too with her anti-logic, anti-science, longing for the good ol' myth-belivin days.

2. Three Classic Children's Stories: Little Red Riding Hood, Jack the Giant Killer, and Rumpelstiltskin, James Donnelly, 2010, Illustrated by Edward Gorey


Cover comments: I (heart) Edward Gorey. That's all.

Comments: As a parent and as a book lover, I can tell you that there are some wonderful children's books, but there is a lot of dreck out there too. I'm amazed at how many people can't recognize the former and default to the later. Three Classic Children's Stories is firmly in the "wonderful" group, and would stand up to many, many rereadings without making the parents want to scratch their own eyes out or hang themselves from the bunk bed ladder.

Fairy tales are known for their detached, calm, and detail-free style, and also for pretty flat characters. Donnelly breaks these rules with playful language, humour, and just enough detail to add a touch of richness to the stories. The Edward Gorey illustrations are of course strangely charming.

Little Red Riding Hood is my favourite fairy tale. The version here is generally the one you know, with enough details to make it unique and give it colour. The second story, Jack the Giant Killer, is not the same story as Jack in the Beanstalk, so was a surprise to me. A good story, and one I didn't know. Rumpelstiltskin is another favourite of mine that I can hear over and over. The list of names that the Queen comes up with when trying to outsmart Rumpelstiltskin will entertain all but the most humourless reader. I think "Octumber" was the best, but I also really liked some from the end of the alphabet: "Uvula, Venividivici, Wobshire, . . . Yipple."



Why I Read This Now: Part of my 2014 Fairy Tale exploration, and because I never need a reason to read anything by Edward Gorey (whether as author or illustrator)


"Little Red Riding Hood looked sidelong at the gnarled, callused feet that protruded from beneath the coverlet. "What ugly slippers!" she thought, but politely did not say. "

Recommended for: It would make a fabulous gift for any new parents or for children (aged 1 through 90). It even has luxurious satiny pages, so the giver wouldn't look cheap. ;-) Other than that, lovers of these tales and fans of Gorey will want to own this book.

Rating: 4.5 stars. It could have been longer by including a few more stories, and I would have really loved Jack and the Beanstalk ("Fe Fi Fo Fum I smell the blood of an Englishman!" Yikes! The giant can distinguish different types of blood just by smell, and before no one is bleeding? That's pretty frightening.)

Isn't Edward Gorey a fabulous illustrator? He also did the opening credits for the Mystery series on PBS. Great review.

Glorious sounding book!

Celebrating Pride and Prejudice: 200 Years of Jane Austen's Masterpiece, Susannah Fullerton, 2013


Cover comments: I love this gorgeous cover, which I'm guessing--since there are no peacocks anywhere in Pride and Prejudice-- was inspired by the 1894 "peacock" edition published by George Allen & Co.:



Comments: 201 years ago this week, Pride and Prejudice was published--what better time than now to read this book. Celebrating Pride and Prejudice is a nice balance of scholarly Austen and fun Austen, and is written by the president of the Jane Austen Society of Australia. The book takes us from what we know about Austen writing P&P, and continues through its history. The strongest chapters are those that discuss the characters and Austen's writing style (good reading for those who don't get the appeal of P&P). There are loads of coloured illustrations and photos from all aspects of P&P. There's also an extensive section on P&P in current culture (other books, films, merchandise, tourism, etc and so on). Overall, I had a great time reading this, and also learned something. Actually, I learned many things. What else can you ask for from any book?

Recommended for: Every Pride & Prejudice fan needs this one, so if you are looking for a gift for the P&P lover on your gift list, look no further.

Rating: 4.5 stars

Why I Read This Now: I'm following a P&P tutored read elsewhere on LT, and it inspired me to pull this out of my TBR pile.

Thanks for that review, that's definitely my cup of tea. Oh my, second book bullet today!

GASP-- could there be readers who do NOT appreciate P & P? Who could possibly have to be persuaded as to its charms???

I love that peacock cover - my husband took me to an antiquarian book fair as a surprise (wonderful man) and although it was far out of my price range, I did love getting a chance to hold that in my hands!

4. Dangerous Liaisons, Choderlos de Laclos, 1782, translated from French by Helen Constantine

This is a two-part review.

PART ONE


Cover comments: I have mixed thoughts on this. On one hand, the painting the Foot of Miss O’Murphy by Francois Boucher (1730-70), which lives in a museum in Paris, illustrates the story perfectly. On the other hand, it’s bland--I really need to focus to see the foot.

Comments: If you haven’t read this, or seen any of the film adaptations, or the stage play, here is the story told as briefly as possible: the Vicomte de Valmont and the Marquise de Merteuil are two very bored aristocratic ex-lovers who are still friends. Valmont is a libertine who finds amusement in wooing women and then destroying their reputations. Merteuil is a widow with an impeccable reputation, but who delights in manipulating other people for the sheer amusement of it. When she learns that one of her lovers drops her to marry a 15 year old virgin, Merteuil asks Valmont to debauch her before the wedding night. Seeing no challenge over this whatsoever, Valmont passes and they instead bet whether he can seduce the Présidente de Tourvel, a beautiful young wife known for her religiosity and virtue. Meanwhile, Merteuil takes it upon herself to coach the 15 yr old, Cecile, who is fresh out of a convent, on the ways of being a woman in 18th century French society—ways that Cecile’s mother would not approve. Valmont learns that Cecile’s mother has been (rightfully) talking smack about him to de Tourvel, and decides that taking Cecile as a lover in revenge is a pretty great idea. Cecile in the meantime is crushing all over her young music teacher, Darceny, who is smitten with her in return. Valmont and Merteuil pretend to help Cecile and Darceny, but actually play with them like puppets. And by the end, everything comes crashing down on everyone’s heads.

This epistolary novel has earned a deserved place in the literary cannon, and what I most appreciate about it is that it was actually published before the French Revolution (rather than just being a good bit of historical fiction). Laclos has a talent for writing completely different styles for the different character’s letters. However, for me, the novel had one huge flaw—the character of Présidente de Tourvel. She is of course instrumental to the plot—but her voice was too strong in that her letters were long-winded and repetitive, and even worse—boring! Valmont repeatedly calls her “his prude.” The woman has no sense of humour and takes angst to a new level. I don’t care about your virtue, really I don’t. Just go away if you don’t want to be seduced by Valmont. In his cleverness, Valmont adopted her language in his letters to her—which increased her voice in the novel. Really, 90% of this character could be cut and the novel would be stronger for it. The best letters by far were Merteuil—she is one of the great characters of literature. Wicked? Evil? Perhaps. But wonderfully wickedly evil.

My favourite Marquise de Merteuil quotation, speaking about her current lover who she is planning to dump: “Does he place such little value upon me that he thinks himself man enough to capture me!”

Rating: rating this is tricky. Because it took me most of January to get through (due to the snoozer of a character in Tourvel), I’m going to have to lower this from what should be an excellent rating. 3.5 feels too low, so maybe a marginal 4. I do think it will stay with me.

Why I Read This Now: I recently rewatched two film versions of this: Dangerous Liaisons and Valmont. I really do enjoy the story very much. The book has been in my TBR stacks for 7 years, so I thought it was a good time to give it a try.

For my comparison of two film versions with the book, and the following discussion, go to my ClubRead thread: http://www.librarything.com/topic/164095#4523984

5. The Outsiders, TE Hinton, 1967


Cover comments: fits the book. Both are boring.

Comments: Ponyboy Curtis is a young member of gang of greasers at war with the "rich kids" in 1960s Oklahoma. Murder, suicide, more death, fires . . . the whole shebang.

I read this book (and its sequels) in 1977 and I have always had positive memories of it. My older daughter had to read it for school a few years ago and I was surprised that she found it boring, but now I've reread it, and I have to agree. Also, the novel has a distinct first person narrator, and I found this voice annoying. I have to give kudos though to the author who was 16 when she wrote it.

Rating: despite not liking it, I do think this novel has merit, which is why it makes so many "must read YA" lists. It's not simplistic or shallow. I'll give it 3 stars, although my enjoyment level was more like 2.

Why I Read This Now: My younger daughter is reading this for English class and I said I'd read along with her. What's up with assigning this book? Even the year 8 students in the Australian TV show "Summer Heights High" had to read it

Recommended for: I don't recommend. Time to retire this one.

Note: We have the movie version waiting on the PVR--it features every good looking young US actor from the 80s--Matt Dillon, Tom Cruise, Ralph Macchio, Patrick Swayze, Rob Lowe, Emilio Estevez, even Leif Garrett. That's quite the lineup.

6. Sweet Tooth, Ian McEwan, 2012



Cover comments: At first glance this seems like a fairly stock cover, complete with the cliche "figure walking away." But it actually fits in with the setting of the offices of the British MI5.

Why I Read This Now: book club selection for February

Comments: If you're not familiar with the general idea of the book, someone says it more succinctly than I could:

"Young Cambridge maths graduate Serena Frome is recruited to MI-5 after an affair with a history professor. Living frugally on the poor wages of a very lowly civil servant, she spends her free time reading and thinking about books. It’s 1972. Soon Serena is recruited to a project code-named Sweet Tooth, in which large sums of money are handed over, their origins well-concealed, to intellectuals on the non-communist left to bolster the standing of the United States as a reasonable alternative to communism."

My thoughts: There are polemic reviews of this book here on LT, and I sit somewhere in the middle. Overall, I liked it. Although the story wasn't exactly gripping, it kept my attention and I wondered where the whole thing was going until almost the end. Lots of nice details about life in London, which I really liked. Not my favourite McEwan by any means, but still time well spent.

His books really are different from each other.

Rating: a low 4 star review

Recommended for: that's a tricky one . . .

7. Wild Harbour, Ian Macpherson, 1936


This cover fits the story, but the picture is freaky and unsettling. I always put the book down with the back cover facing up.

Comments: This short novel was written in 1936 but set in 1944. Hugh and his wife Terry want nothing to do with the coming war and the violence that it promises, so they escape to hide in the mountains of central Scotland. The first part of the book describes mostly their efforts to survive in the wilderness. Slowly though, there are signs that the war has gone as badly as they expected and they have to face what they have avoided.


Beautiful Loch Ericht, where the story is set

This is one of the more obscure novels from the 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die list, which is too bad, as I think it would appeal to a wider audience. There is something haunting about this story, and I know that it will stick with me. Probably its weakest part for me is some of the dialogue, as the two main characters spoke as if they were in panic mode through most of the book (but didn't act panicky).

Recommended for: Fans of the Canadian TV show "Survivor Man." People like literary adventure stories.

Rating: 4 stars

Note: There is a typo in 1001 Books Before You Die, as it says the book is set in 1914 instead of 1944. That would change the whole meaning of the book. Also note that the Canongate Edition, the Introduction by John Burns contains major spoilers.

It really is a disturbing cover, Joyce! It scared me a bit. It's the eyes, I think.

I can't see the second picture (of the lake)

Yes, along with the set of the mouth. I quit looking at it quickly!

Now I see the lake!! I think it's the whole facefacial expression that does it!

The Orenda, Joseph Boyden, 2013


Cover comments: Not sure if you can see clearly, but this is a close view of a birch tree forest--I think it's absolutely lovely.

Why I Read This Now: I've wanted to read it since it came out, but made time for it now because it's part of the CBC Canada Reads competition.

Comments: It's the early 1600s, and the Iroquois fight their long-time foe the Huron, and they both meet French Jesuits. The first-person narration rotates between a captured young Iroquois girl, a Huron warrior-leader named Bird, and a priest that they call "the Crow."

When this book was published I was very excited to read it because it's a piece of history that is underrepresented in literary historical fiction. I had also heard that Boyden took a fair approach to both the First Nations and the European characters--none was all good or all bad.

The Orenda started out very strong, and I had great hopes for the book. However, it soon grew both boring, which I feel odd saying because most of what I was reading was relentless events of the two First Nation groups brutally torturing each other. Finally, in the very last pages of this 490 page novel, there is a small glimmer maybe possible hope.

I have to agree with the two CBC panelists who criticize The Orenda's excessive violence and romanticization of torture (another called it torture pornography).

I also have to mention that late in the book when the warrior character Bird (and his co-warrior Fox) wrestle a massive buck that they are both cartoon-character super-heroes. Not as balanced a characterization as I had been led to believe.

Rating: No idea how to rate this--the book is indeed literary and I would classify it as quality historical fiction, and it has garnered many glowing reviews. But I was very disappointed in it and thinking about it just makes me shudder with dislike.

Recommended for: Anyone interested in indigenous people and first contact, fans of literary historical fiction, and people who like to read endless pages of gruesome torture.

The Orenda just won CBC Canada Reads. Personally I don't think this is a book everyone in Canada needs to read, but the people have spoken.

9. Fairy Tales from the Brothers Grimm: a New English Version, Philip Pllman, 2013


Cover comments: I like this cover a lot, although I would have chosen a different typeface for the lettering

Comments: Between 1812 and 1857, Wilhelm and Jacob Grimm collected folk tales and published them in six ever-increasing editions. In this edition, Pullman selects 53 that he thinks are the best stories, and tells them in his own voice, while still maintaining their traditions. Each tale contains three sections: the tale itself, the bibliographic details, and Pullman's personal comments. The bibliographic details include the scholarly classification of the tale (for example, a Cinderella story is ATU510A), the source from where the Grimms collected the tale, and a list of similar stories (usually comparing the Grimm tale to a similar one found in Briggs's Folk Tales of Britain, Afanasev's Russian Fairy Tales, and Calvino's Italian Folktales). My favourite part was always Pullman's own comments, which were often astute and entertaining.

Several times I was surprised by a tale, and so looked up another translation. Each time I found that Pullman stayed very close to the original, but just used his own very enjoyable writing style. In the odd situation where he changed something, he explains clearly in his comments what exactly he changed and his reasons for doing so.

There are 209 Grimms Fairy Tales. How many can you name? "Rapunzel," "Hansel and Gretel," "Cinderella," "Little Red Riding Hood," "Sleeping Beauty," "Snow White," "Rumpelstiltskin"? Perhaps you also the "Frog Prince" and "the Robber Bridegroom"? That's only nine tales. I have a theory about this--it's because too many of the other tales are either forgettable or ridiculous. Other than these ones that I knew before I opened this book, I'm coming away with only a few new favourites -- "The Mouse, the Bird and the Sausage" (which is an awesome story that has had my 17 yr old and I in hysterics several times), "The Juniper Tree," "The Goose Girl," and "Lazy Heinz." Pullman often acknowledges the flaws in some of the more forgettable tales.

Recommended for: Anyone who wants an edition of Grimm that is a pleasure to read. The book is not illustrated though, so I'd say it's for older readers -- say 9 to 99. Also, anyone who thinks a personal library isn't complete without an edition of Grimms Brothers.

Rating: How do I rate this? A minimum of 4 stars for Pullman's writing, organization and notes. But what about all the forgettable stories? Should I allow them to pull my rating down?

Why I Read This Now: I'm taking a close look at fairy tales this year (including academic criticism and retellings). I thought a refresher of the traditional stories was a good way to start this project.

I'm doing some children's books this year too - Peter Pan retold, the original Wizard of Oz books (which I'd never read) and I did Anne of Green Gables - just to name a few. Hope you enjoy yours.

Lone Survivors: How We Came to be the Only Humans on Earth, 2012 (Originally published in the UK with the title The Origin of Our Species)


Cover comments: Yep, that fits the book.

Why I Read This Now: Throughout most of my life I had absolutely no interest in "cave people," which I think might be due to all the really bad depictions of stone age people in 1960s and 70s sitcoms. Also, I was raised a creationist, and never quite knew where to fit them in . . . anyway, all that is far, far behind me, and I realized I had some information to catch up on. This book sums the latest thoughts and findings on human development from about 200,000 years ago.

Comments: Chris Stringer is "one of the world's foremost paleoanthropologists" (as described on the back of the book, but I believe it), and I first heard of him when he appeared on The Colbert Report to promote this book. I immediately ordered it.

Stringer puts most of his focus on the period when Neanderthals and humans coexisted. The parts I found most interesting were the chapter on DNA evidence , the bit about a separate humanoid line called the Denisovans (a group found in Siberia who I've never heard of and who's DNA shows up today in people from Melanesia), and the final chapter on what the author sees as current and possible future human evolution.

The weakness of this book is that although Stringer is a leading expert in his field, he is not a science journalist. I'm sure compared to the 40 years of academic papers he's written, this book is really dumbing it down, but for a reader with lacking in a scientific background (that's me), at times it was a bit meaningless. A good science journalist would have found more of a narrative thread to hang his information on. He spent a lot of time acknowledging the work of other paleoanthropologists, which is admirable, but doesn't add much to the story.

He does say what they don't know, and he does stress that this is what they currently know and future findings can change things significantly. I appreciate this honesty and it adds credibility compared to self-declared experts who have all the answers and who won't change their minds (ah uhm, creationists--I'm looking at you).

Also, this book needed many more helpful maps, charts, and time lines. There were a few, but they didn't clarify much.

Oh, and to answer the question on "How We Came to be the Only Humans on Earth?" -- I'm not sure he really answered that question other than to say that somehow humans were able to achieve critical mass, while the other species of humanoid didn't. He doesn't agree with the idea that humans wiped out the Neanderthals, although he admits he doesn't know for sure.

Recommended for Anyone interested in this topic, especially if you're comfortable with science writing. Not a perfect book in it's organization and presentation, but the information is very interesting.

The Language of Flowers, Vanessa Diffenbaugh, 2011


Cover comments: this has a simple elegance that I find quite pleasing.

Comments: Victoria Jones turns 18 and leaves the foster care system where she has spent her entire life. Homeless and uneducated, she wanders the neighbourhoods of San Francisco, surviving on table scraps from restaurants. Using her one and only skill--a knowledge of flowers--Victoria wangles herself a job as a florist assistant. She soon meets a friend from her past and they strike up a romance over their shared love of flowers and their ability to communicate using the Victorian symbolic language of flowers.

Victoria returns to that past in alternating chapters where she goes back to when she was nine and had a chance of happiness living on a grape farm north of the city with Elizabeth. This second story has narrative and symbolic parallels with Victoria's adult narrative.

At first I found this book readable but sort of tedious. Victoria was a difficult character to empathize with, but then she's supposed to be damaged by her miserable childhood. After all, how can one love if one has never experienced love? I soon grew frustrated with the novel, however. Victoria's problems are caused by getting in her own way, and they are then solved by either coincidences or the kindness of others (who she has mistreated). Her boss routinely gives her packets of cash. Her roommate conveniently goes away so she can have the apartment to herself at a crucial plot point. She just happens to know a midwife when she has refused prenatal care or medical insurance. Through all this she's pretty much a jerk to everyone she knows. Yet people constantly go out of their way to help her. I also rolled my eyes at how easily she started a phenomenally successful florist business.

In summary, The Language of Flowers was both implausible and predicable.

Recommended for: I don't recommend it, but I am one of the few people who dislikes this novel--both LT and Amazon are full of 4 and 5 star reviews.

Why I Read This Now: My aunt told me it was a "must read," and my book club picked it for this month's book. I predict that my fellow book club members will feel the same as I do.

Rating: for most of the book I thought I'd give it 3 stars, but it just went on and on and then got really stupid around the time she got pregnant, so 2 big sparkly stars.

Will you let us know if your club members shared your vieuw on this book, Joyce. I'm very curious about that.

I will! I think we meet next week. I don't think they've liked any of the books we've read lately, so it's an easy call. ;-)

Connie - I was amazed that everyone got a copy of the book and finished it--a rare thing in my bookclub the last year or so. Overall everyone liked it more than I did, however, they unanimously viewed it as a light vacation-type read that wasn't very intellectual or taxing. They all had a good laugh over the silly plot points of it.

Thanks Joyce! I now think I will skip this book for now!

12 & 13 The Annotated Sense and Sensibility, edited by David M. Shaparard, 2011, & Sense and Sensibility: An Annotated Edition, edited by Patricia Meyer Spacks, 2013


Cover comments: both of these are lovely

Comments: When I first read Sense and Sensibility back in 2009, I was already well-acquainted with the story, having seen the Emma Thompson film several times. I was also distracted by other things at the time, and so don't think I did the book justice. On this reread, I paid much closer attention, in part by reading the annotated versions, and also by following a tutored read here at LT.

Now that I've closely examined Sense and Sensibility, I see that it pales in comparison to Pride and Prejudice (and Mansfield Park). This was Jane Austen's first novel, and it shows. I found the text bloated and conversations overly drawn out and over described. None of the main characters was particularly interesting. That said, a weak Austen is still better than most other books out there. Some of the writing was lovely. There were some great minor characters--Fanny Dashwood and Lucy Steele, of course, but the odious John Dashwood and big-hearted Mrs Jennings also caught my fancy. And of course there is Austen's wicked wit and social commentary.

Now, for the two annotated editions:

The Annotated Sense and Sensibility, edited by David M. Shaparard, is a 742 page trade paperback. The novel is on the left-hand page, and the annotations are on the right. In Shapard's annotated version of Pride and Prejudice, I found some of the definitions tiresome in their repetition, and he must have rethought this because this aspect was not a problem with this S&S edition. I enjoyed these notes very much, as they often pointed out a nuance that I didn't pick up in my own reading. At the end of the book are several helpful maps, a chronology of the events of the novel, and an extensive bibliography.

Sense and Sensibility: An Annotated Edition, edited by Patricia Meyer Spacks, is an oversized coffee table book that will not fit in your bag to take along on the train. It is a lush edition with moire endpapers and lots of coloured illustrations. It has far fewer annotations than the same editors edition of P&P, and also fewer than the Shapard annotated S&S. Of the annotations, many are simple definitions, but occasionally there is commentary on the novel. This is where the gold is found. Some of these notes refer to academic criticism of the novel. Most insightful and interesting.

Which of the two to buy? If you want to better understand the novel, I'd go with the Shapard edition, and if you're looking for a gift for the Jane Austen lover in your life, I recommend the Patricia Meyers Spacks. Or if you're like me, get them both. However, if you've never read the novel before, start with a non-annotated version, as this level of detail would be extremely distracting and destroy the flow of reading the novel.

14. Life of Pi, Yann Martel, 2001


Cover comments: I really like the sea and the flying fish at the bottom of the picture. The rest of it is okay, but I find it sort of choppy looking.

Comments I'm sure every bookish person has an idea of what this novel is about: Indian teenager named Pi is shipwrecked while immigrating to Canada with his family. He finds himself sharing a lifeboat with a Bengal tiger as they float eastward across the Pacific. In the end, people don't believe his story, but everyone agrees that the story with the tiger is a better story than the story without, and this is a metaphor for a belief in God.

Life of Pi won the Booker Prize in 2002 and is included in the 1001 Books list, so of course many people have enjoyed it. Some readers don't like that after a realistic beginning, the story gets more and more improbable, particularly when it gets to the blind Frenchman and then the algae island. I thoroughly enjoyed these scenes, along with the rest of the book. To me, the story is a sort of fairy tale or fable, although one that is told in a realistic style. I also enjoyed Pi's optimistic character, and the narrative voice.

Other readers have complained that this book is pro-religion at the expense of reason, and I completely disagree with that--the book is full of reason, particularly scientific facts about zoology and survival at sea. I understand this book to say that both spirituality AND reason are important. As for the pro-religion, I actually find that aspect of it sort of wishy-washy. Despite protests from his elders, Pi insists that he is Hindu, Catholic, and Muslim all at the same time. I was worried that Life of Pi might be preachy, but I didn't find it so at all.

Recommended for: I enjoyed this very much, and I think many others would too.

Why I Read This Now: I bought this for my TBR pile back in 2008 because I thought it would be a good read for any future tropical vacations I might take (I find it tricky to find the right book for those sorts of holidays). My recent trip to Maui was the perfect opportunity to pull Life of Pi from Planet TBR, and it was a good call. While I read about Pi bobbing up and down with sea turtles in the Pacific, I too was bobbing around the Pacific with sea turtles! A great vacation read--sunny and bright, but not vacuous.

Rating: 4.5 stars.


This is my daughter's attempt at a selfie with a sea turtle. That's her snorkel mask at the top and the turtle is at the bottom. She took this with her iPhone!

Glad you enjoyed it and that the right opportunity came along for reading it! Nice photo too -- it has me dreaming of summer. Or at least a time of year where it isn't below zero in the morning and coldly windy in the afternoon.

That picture is AWESOME!

Such a beautiful picture!

Frangipani, Celestine Hitiura Vaite, 2004


Cover comments: Painting by Shelagh Armstrong. I adore this cover--the colours are gorgeous and the style really says "Polynesia". I also love the title, as frangipani (aka plumeria) are my favourite tropical flowers



Comments: Frangipani follows the life of a Tahitian woman, Materena, from her days as a young mother through to the years when her three children leave home, although the focus is on the tumultuous time when her daughter Leilani is a teenager. The novel often looks at Materena's fairly traditional Tahitian approach to life versus Leilani's modern and progressive outlook. Frangipani also highlights the strong bonds of the vast network of aunties, cousins, and grandmothers that Leilani and Materena can rely on for support.

There is little plot to this novel--it's told in vignettes that hop forward in chronological order. The third person narrator has a robust voice full of traditional Tahitian folk wisdom and island patois (both Tahitian and French), and this gave Frangipani a unique charm. I enjoyed spending time with these characters and getting a glimpse of Tahitian culture.

Frangipani was nominated for the Orange Prize.

Rating: 4.5 stars. I liked this better than other LTers, although I do find more positive comments out there in the greater Internet. I will definitely track down her other books.

Why I Read This Now: I bought this a few years ago and tucked it away for any potential tropical vacations in my future. When a trip to Maui suddenly came up, this was the first thing I packed. It was the perfect book to read on a Hawaiian vacation.

Recommended for: There aren't a lot of Tahitian authors around, so if you're interested in reading globally, here's your chance.

frangipani: I love that flower. I've never seen it before as far as I know.

I've never seen it before as far as I know.

You mean in real life? They smell absolutely heavenly! Oddly, I don't find that the scent carries well when made as perfume--it comes off smelling cheap and air freshner-like. Although it may be that I've never come across quality plumeria perfume.

I mean in real life!

Well then, you need to get yourself someplace tropical! The scent is magically divine.

Okay! Tropical. I'm on my way!

Ahhh....wouldn't that be nice!

Coventry, Helen Humphreys, 2008


Cover comments - I like this--especially the swallows. This is a cover that actually fits the story (a surprisingly uncommon thing).

Comments:; The greatest part of this novel is set over the night of November 14, 1940, as German bombers destroy the city of Coventry, England. The story follows three people: Harriet is a WWI widow and finds herself filling in for a neighbour's fire brigade duty. She meets a young fellow fire fighter named Jeremy who reminds her of her dead husband. Jeremy's mother, Maeve, is desperately trying to find him.

My favourite thing about Coventry is how the author wove the details of this apocalyptic bombing attack into the story line. This is an understated little book that beautifully covers themes of love, loss, and friendship.

Rating: Many of my LT friends who have fabulous taste in books have read and raved about this novel. And I can't find fault with it. However, I did not love it--I think it simply comes down to my lack of interest in WWII.

Why I Read This Now: Okay, now that I've said I don't like WWII novels, I'm going to contradict myself here--I recently read Life After Life by Kate Atkinson, which I loved except I thought the WWII section was too long. But I did find the bits about the London Blitz interesting, and I remembered that I've been meaning to read another book that cover the Blitz--so Coventry came out of Mnt TBR.

Recommended for: : readers who like sparse, thoughtful books, and anyone interested in life during wartime.

Great job, Joyce!

The China Study: The Most Comprehensive Study of Nutrition Ever Conducted and the Startling Implications for Diet, Weight Loss and Long-term Health,* by T. Colin Campbell and Thomas M Campbell, 2006

*for some reason LT is ignoring my touchstone, but it appears touchstones in my comments below work.



What Is the China Study?: The actual China Study actually makes up only a small part of this book, although the implications of the study permeate everything else in it. This is how Campbell explains the China Study: In the 1970s the Premier Chou of China initiated a vast survey to collect information on cancer in the country. Involving 650,000 people, it is considered the most ambitious biomedical research project ever undertaken. This study showed that types of cancers were localized. Back in the US, Campbell works with a leading Chinese scientist, and fast forward . . . their team gathers 8,000 statistically significant associations between lifestyle, diet, and disease.

The Rest of the Book: Fast forward some more and Campbell concludes that the diseases of affluence (colon, lung, breast, stomach cancers, etc., diabetes, coronary heart disease) are caused by the Western diet, specifically, linked to animal protein. From the study, the Chinese with the lowest rates of these diseases ate a plant-based diet. Based on his many years of research on diet, Campbell advises a vegan diet of whole foods (one can eat an unhealthy vegan diet too—white flour, sugar, processed foods). This reminds me of Michael Pollan’s advice: “Eat food, not too much, mostly plants” (although Pollan is not vegan)

Why I Read This Now : Last autumn, my husband and I met with a friend and her husband for dinner. He had recently dropped 40 lbs over a few months, and could not stop talking about the China Study and how much better he felt. He was raised on a farm in Alberta and played semi-pro ball for years—as close to a “good ol’ boy” as you’re going to find in Canada. We found his finding religion (veganism) rather amusing. He harassed my husband to read the book, and Mr Skeptical was surprised at how credible it actually was, so I had to read it too.

I actually didn’t find that much new in it though—over the past 30 years I’ve read a lot about nutrition. For a time I followed the Pritikin program, which is very similar (except Pritikin names the culprit to be fat instead of animal protein). That wasn’t an easy program to follow, but wow did I feel fabulous! I’ve always wanted to return to it. There is also an extensive section on science, the food industry, consumerism, and government that is important, but again, not new as I’ve read about these problems elsewhere (most recently in Marion Nestle What to Eat). After several hours of hearing him preach about the China Study, I turned to his wife and asked her what she thought, and she rolled her eyes and said, “I’ve always had healthy eating habits.” Exactly.

Credibility: Campbell is a biochemist specializing in nutrition. He has written over 300 research papers on the subject. His list of credentials and experience is too long to list here, but I have to say that I can’t remember reading a book by an author with so bona fide a track record in his or her field. I did some searching on the internet, and came across a few claims that this study has been “debunked,” but none of the links had an iota of the credibility that he has. Also, his findings are not in the interests of the gajillion dollar a year food industry, so I can see that he attracts naysayers who find him threatening. Put it this way: What’s the downside of following his dietary recommendations?

Recommended for: If you too have read a lot about nutrition, this isn’t going to surprise you all that much. If reading about nutrition is a new thing for you, or you’re concerned about diseases of affluence, this may be exactly what you need. Campbell writes in a conversational way that makes all the science understandable, so you don’t need a biology degree to read this book.

That does sound really interesting, Nickelini. One to add to the wishlist :)

18. The Seven Sisters, Margaret Drabble, 2002


Cover comments: This is not how I imagine the main character to look. This feels like a Virginia Woolf novel cover. I like it, but it doesn't really fit the book.

Comments: The first, and longest section, of Seven Sisters is a computer diary written by an almost-60 year old woman who has been discarded by her family--her husband has divorced her for a more youthful woman, her grown daughters all have their own lives, and her own mother is fading away in a care home. Candida leaves small town Suffolk and moves to a liminal area of London. This section has some interesting bits about loneliness, frugality, and friendship. Candida runs into some money, everything looks brighter, and she's off with a group of friends to take an educational vacation retracing the steps of the Aeneid. The second section of the book covers the vacation, and interestingly the narrative now switches to the third person. There are a third and fourth section too, but this is where the novel goes off in an odd direction and I can't even begin to explain what the author is doing.

Yes, in the end the Seven Sisters leaves me with a few big questions. However, there is something about Margaret Drabble's writing that I just adore--the has a subtle cleverness that I think rewards the reader who is paying attention. Throughout reading this, I really did like this very much, even when it got sort of strange. This is the third Drabble I've read, and none of them have been the favourite of critics. I've liked them all and just look forward to reading more by her.

Rating: A very comfortable 4 stars.

Recommended for: not sure who the Drabble reader is, but if you like details and subtleties, you should try her.

Why I Read This Now: I have many books by this author in my tbr pile, so it was time.

Wonderful review. I read this some years ago and felt much the same way as you, but now I can feel myself about to slip this onto the TBR pile again.

19. A Northern Line Minute: The Northern Line (Penguin Underground Lines) , William Leith, 2013


Cover comments: This sat on my counter yesterday and my daughter and husband separately both picked it up and said, "What an ugly cover!". I actually think the blurred picture of the roundel (that's the official name of that red and blue circle, btw) effectively expresses the author's existential angst.

Comments: Q: What IS a "Northern Line Minute"? A: When you're standing on the platform and the screen says that the next train will arrive in one minute, it invariably takes longer. The author uses this phrase throughout the book to refer to something that you expect to take a minute but in reality takes longer. Or something that takes longer than it should. This is a phrase that I think I might find useful.

William Leith, or the narrator of this book named William Leith, is a trembling mass of anxiety. When it comes to transportation, he's afraid of all forms of it, but in particular he's afraid of the London Underground. As you can imagine, this makes life cumbersome for someone who lives in London. In the opening we see the narrator tackling his fear and taking the Tube. As the doors of the carriage close, he smells smoke and launches himself into a stream of consciousness anxious monologue just to get himself through this journey. On the way from Belsize Park to Camden Town (that's two stops if you're not familiar with the Northern Line), he goes off on all sorts of tangents in an effort to distract himself. But he keeps coming back to the burning smell. Is it all in his head?

This 73 page book, which is pretty much one long paragraph, was fairly humorous and for the most part, interesting. Although it won't make my Top Five List for the year, I know that it will stay with me, and that the next time I'm in London and inevitably on the Northern Line, I will remember this book in detail.

Recommended for: it's very short and not much of a reading commitment. If you think it sounds like it might have potential, give it a try.

Why I Read It Now: I have a small stack of this series, and they don't read themselves, you know.

A very good reason to read them!

20. Slammerkin, Emma Donoghue, 2000


Cover comments: I like it, don't love it.

Comments: Mary Saunders is a poor girl living in London in the mid-1700s who aspires to a finer life. In her quest for this, she makes a fatefully bad decision and ends up at the age of 14 pregnant and alone. She soon falls into a life of prostitution, but manages to escape . . . for a while. Donoghue created this story based on scant details of a real Mary Saunders who was executed in Monmouth in 1764.

I read Part I (to p 156) of this book in early January, but had to put it aside due to other commitments. This weekend I finally made myself pick it up again to finish the last 271 pages. At first I considered just abandoning it, but then I decided to try to finish it and see why I didn't really care about the book or the story. But in this process, I started liking it more and more, and by the last 100 pages I was enjoying it very much indeed. Maybe I just needed to be in the right time and place, and have the time to get involved with it.

However . . . Slammerkin seems like the type of book that I would really love, and I don't. As RebeccaNYC pointed out elsewhere on LT, there is something about it that feels manipulative. Also, for most of the book, I didn't care one way or another for any of the characters. And the story includes one of my literary pet peeves -- I don't know how many books I've read where a virgin has sex for the first time and gets pregnant. Of course it could happen, but the odds of getting pregnant on any single sexual act are somewhere between 3% and 11% (I looked it up, cause this is really bugging me). But if you were to go by the books I've read over the past couple of years, it's 100%. Just stop.

Recommended for: Slammerklin is a novel that I think would appeal to most fans of historical fiction (unless by historical fiction you only want to read about ladies and gentlemen living a genteel life).

Why I Read This Now: I don't remember anymore--I think it was just one that I kept meaning to read.

I like Emma Donoghue's books. So I have to go and get a copy of the translation of this one. Thanks Joyce!

21. Country Girls, Edna O’Brien, 1960


Cover comments: I have no opinion on this cover one way or another.

Comments Set in 1950s Ireland, The Country Girls is a short novel that feels like a memoir. Teenage Caithleen and her supposed best friend Baba are about 14, and attend school together in a rural community. The story follows them through a convent boarding school where the nuns are one part stupid and the other part inhumane, and then ends up with Cait and Baba sharing a room in a Dublin boarding house where they finally get to let down their hair a little.
Edna O’Brien is a deceptively subtle writer, fooling readers with her seemingly simple sentence structure. Cait is a naive narrator whose innocent observations illuminate the restrained society of mid-century Ireland.

Rating: I would have raved about his novel but for one thing that irritated me throughout—the character of Baba. From the beginning, she is clearly the second Country Girl, and is described bas the best friend. But she is rarely a friend, and is consistently a nasty bully. She’s a selfish, unlikable character from age 14 through 18, and hardly friend material for my enemy’s dog. But I guess there wasn’t’ much to choose from in Ciat’s small community, so Baba gets the position from being in the vicinity. She’s an interesting character, but in most novels she’d be the antagonist. Here I just wanted Cait to stand up to her and verbally smack her down.

Why I Read This Now: I was looking for something in my tbr stack from the 1001 books list.

Recommended for O’Brien is the reigning queen of Irish lit, the Catholic Church banned this book . . . what else do you need?

22. Mennonites Don't Dance, Darcie Friesen Hossack, 2010


"The Suicide" by Madalina Iordache-Levay -- I love this cover! I'm sure it will be one of my favourite covers of the books I read this year.

Comments: The title Mennonites Don't Dance comes from the name of one of the short stories in this collection. Not all the stories are about Mennonites, but most are, and all the stories revolved around conflict between rural and town life or modernity, and conflicts between children and their parents.

I laughed when I first heard the title for this book, because my mom, who grew up in the 30s and 40s, wasn't allowed to dance. Or swim, roller skate, or ice skate. Because they all lead to sex, of course. My dad, raised in the same general culture, wasn't allowed to dance either, but all those other things were okay. Which brings me to one of my favourite Mennonite jokes:
Why don't Mennonites have sex standing up?
Because it might lead to dancing.

Hossack is a gifted writer and this collection was recognized with a nomination for the Commonwealth Writers' Prize: Caribbean and Canada, First Book. Both professional and reader reviews are positive. While I recognize the quality writing, something about this didn't really click with me. I found all the stories very isolated and the difficulty to place them within recognizable time frames and culture made me constantly question what I was reading. For example, in the title story, the main character talks about their new washing machine, which is a wringer model. So I think "okay, we're in the 1930s or 40s here." But then a while later the character uses a microwave oven, and then later talks about the C-Train in Calgary, which was built in the early 1980s. It was all a little off for me. Secondly, I'm always searching for a book that conveys Mennonite culture, and in that regard, it didn't work for me either (it's a silly quest anyway--finding the one perfect Mennonite book makes as much sense as finding the one perfect Jewish book). I would say that the first story, "Luna," is the weakest and the last story, "Poor Nella Pea" is the strongest.

Recommended for: readers who like slightly dark stories set in lonely rural settings.

23. A Short History of England: the complete story of our nation in a single volume, Simon Jenkins, 2012


Cover comments: I love this cover. It's very simple, but the typeface is lovely and the woodcut tree is also lovely, and just so English.

Comments It appears this book was originally published with the subtitle "the Glorious Story of a Rowdy Nation," which is rather fun and I wonder why they changed it. I originally learned of this book while browsing the featured books table at Waterstones in Leadenhall Market, but due to space restrictions, I waited until I got home to Canada to order it. So I almost bought it in England. Anyway . . . this book raises a couple of questions:

How do you fit the history of England into 295 pages (plus 3 lists and an index)? Jenkins does it by sticking to the subject of the title, England, and not the other countries that make up the British Isles. This means the book starts at the "Saxon Dawn" around 410 AD. And then the author focuses on what happened to make England an actual country or nation state, so lots of politics, not so much about culture.

I studied British history at university, and have been reading about it my whole life. Did I really need to read a book about this? No, I didn't need to. But I found it very interesting, and I learned lots. By making this a short history, he summarizes and links things in a way I hadn't thought about before. I read this with a pencil in hand, and underlined anything I found new or interesting, and I underlined important characters. That way I can use it as a reference book in the future when I'm reading fiction and am wondering about the background of some event or character. There are some areas of English history that I have down quite well (I'm looking at you, Henry VIII) but others that always confuse me (the War of the Roses, the Hanoverians).

Here's an interesting thing I noted while reading this: it is common for monarchs to marry non-British spouses. This book didn't outline it exactly, so I did some research on my own. There have been 41 monarchs since the Battle of Hastings. Of those, 28 married someone from Europe. Of those 28, three had more than one foreign spouse. The monarchy has a reputation of being such a very English institution (everyone seems to ignore the Normans and Hanoverians), but they really aren't. Just a meaningless piece of trivia I like to find to clutter my brain.

Recommended for anyone interested in English history who just wants the highlights. This book is very readable, and rarely dry. It has the blessing of the National Trust.

Why I Read This Now: I'm trying to have one fiction and one non-fiction book going at all times, and this was physically at the top of my non-fiction tbr stack. Plus I've always loved English history.

Ooh, that sounds like a great book! Will have to keep an eye out for it. I like the idea of a short, readable reference.

Before I Go to Sleep, SJ Watson, 2011


Cover comments: I don't mind this. Not my style, but it's okay for a best seller type book I guess.

Comments: This was a fun read. A woman awakes in a strange bed, lying next to a man she doesn't recognize. He has some grey hair and is wearing a wedding ring. "Ack," she thinks, "I shagged some old married guy." She sneaks into the bathroom to see in the mirror that she isn't in her 20s, as she assumed, but closer to 50. She also sees pictures of her and the man, who is now identified as her husband Ben, and notices that she too is wearing a wedding ring. It turns out that she has amnesia, caused by head trauma many years ago. She is unable to remember her past, and anything she learns during the day is erased overnight when she sleeps. Ben gently explains everything to her and then goes off to work. During her day she discovers snippets of her life, culminating in a journal where she has written "Don't trust Ben." I was hooked.

Generally I'm very suspicious of the amnesia storylines--they're really a cliche minefield. With Before I Go to Sleep though I suspended disbelief and just went along for the ride. Not a perfect book, but I enjoyed it very much.

Recommended for: Many people loved this book, a few despised it. I think this is a good summer read.

Why I Read This Now: the movie, starring Nicole Kidman and Colin Firth, is due to come out this year and I wanted to read the book first.

Good to know there is a movie on its way!

25. Before I Wake, Robert J Wiersema, 2006


Cover comments: It's okay, I guess but doesn't tell you what the book is about. I think it's misleading, actually.

Comments: Simon and Karen's three year old daughter is struck by a hit and run driver and is deemed brain dead. But when they take her off life support, she starts breathing on her own. They take her home, where it is slowly discovered that the little girl appears to have powers to miraculously heal others, including people with terminal illness. A shadowy character, Father Peter, appears to threaten their lives. There is a strong supernatural element to the novel. The story is told in short first-person narratives by a wide number of characters. This technique keeps the story moving, but I'm not 100% sold on this approach.

The blurb on the back cover, and the first quarter of the story, make Before I Wake seem like the story of a tragic life event. But then the book takes an unexpected turn. And another. And another. It definitely kept me guessing--and most of my guesses turned out to be wrong.

Why I Read This Now: it's been in my TBR for a while, and I recently read Before I Go to Sleep. As I always confused these two books, I thought I'd read them both so I could get them straight. Both titles make perfect sense in the context of their stories.

Rating: This was a good read. 4 stars.

Recommended for: As with Before I Go to Sleep, the reader must be willing to suspend disbelief in order to enjoy this book. If you can do that, then I recommend it. The book is set in Victoria, BC, and has a strong sense of place, so read Before I Wake if you're a fan of that city.

Halfway through the year, and I'm right on target to meet my 2014 goal of 50 books.

26. Deceived With Kindness: A Bloomsbury Childhood, Angelica Garnett, 1984, updated 1995


Cover comments: the more I look at this, the uglier I find it.

Comments: Angelica Garnett was the daughter of painters Vanessa Bell and Duncan Grant, but she grew up assuming her mother's husband, Clive Bell was her father. Although I knew this fact, I did not know the circumstances. Garnett explains:

"But Vanessa knew exactly what she wanted. She persuaded Duncan to give her a child, prepared to take the responsibility on herself provided he remained close to her. For her he was a genius, his offspring destined to be exceptional."

Except Angelica's life actually didn't turn out to be that exceptional--odd, yes, but not exceptional. This memoir seems to me to be her way of chasing down and dealing with the demons that came from growing up in Bloomsbury, surrounded by unusual but very intelligent adults and very few children. Vanessa Bell loved her own children, but didn't provide much guidance, as according to Garnett, her goal in life was to be unconventional. Written at the age of 66, this memoir expresses Garnett's feelings of being raised with a lack of real parenting.

Deceived With Kindness is an uneven book--some sections were dull, but some absolutely sparkled. I could see the influence of her Aunt Virginia's literary flair. She writes some beautiful passages about Christmases at the Bell family estate, boring winters in London, and annual spring trips in France. I was looking forward to hearing her explain how at the age of 19 she married 48 year old David (Bunny) Garnett, who had once been Duncan Grant's lover, but I found this part completely unsatisfying.

I love this picture of Angelica and her aunt, Virginia Woolf, 1932


Recommended for: Readers who are interested in Bloomsbury, figures in modernism, or bohemian English life from the 1920s through the 1950s. This memoir won the 1985 JR Ackerley Prize for Autobiography, so I'd also recommend it to people who enjoy reading memoirs.

Why I Read This Now: I'm not sure what made me pick this out of the TBR pile.

27. Women Without Men: A Novel of Modern Iran, Shahrnush Parsipur, translated by Faridoun Farrokh, 1989


Cover comments: I suppose this is a movie tie-in cover, and I don't like it. There was so much evocative imagery in this book--I think they could have done much better.

Comments: The powers that be in Iran were not happy with Shahrnush Parsipur when she published this novella so they banned this book and threw her in prison. Using a heavy dose of magical realism, Parsipur depicts the lives of five abused women who find themselves alternatives to the traditional gender roles for Iranian women. Eventually they all meet in a walled garden from where they reinvent themselves.

It is unfortunate that I found the narrative voice flat and dry, and couldn't warm up to it. Women Without Men would have been a fabulous book to study at university, and if I'd had that opportunity, I'm sure I would have loved this. This would also make for great discussion at a book club (if all the members could get copies). I will definitely look for the film (here is the trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0CGxQlcrlYw)

Recommended for:: obviously for readers interested in gender rights and Iranian culture, as well as fans of magical realism and banned books. Although Women Without Men won't make my favourite books list, I highly recommend it for its uniqueness (it's only 113 pages, so not much of a risk).

Why I Read This Now: it was time for something completely different.

The Swallows of Kabul, Yasmina Khadra, 2002, translated from French


cover comments: suits the book well

Comments: This short novel is about a small group of people who are trying to carry on with life despite the oppression of the Taliban in Afghanistan.

Why I Read This Now: It seemed like something I might be in the mood for.

Recommended for: readers who want to take a literary journey to Afghanistan.

I Capture the Castle, Dodie Smith, 1948


Cover comments: I think my copy is a North American first edition, however, it is in terrible shape (there is actually a hole punched through the hardback front cover). Design-wise, well, no one would make a cover like this now days, but it has a certain mid-century charm to it.

Comments: Seventeen year old Cassandra lives with her eccentric family in genteel poverty in a rented crumbling castle in Suffolk. Set in the 1930s, one day the heirs to the property arrive from the US, and there are two rich, handsome sons. One for her, and one for her sister. Or maybe not. Her abusive father is a famous writer, but he's a one-hit wonder and has had writer's block for a decade. I think the strength of this novel comes from the charming and distinct narrative voice, although I'm not sure the hybrid journal-novel structure works.

I have mixed feelings on this one. It has been in my TBR pile since at least 2001, and this summer I finally forced myself to read it. On the downside, I found it was often tedious and I found myself sighing and wondering how long it was going to drag on. But then there were parts that were rather brilliant and so much fun to read. Smith does an amazing job of capturing the atmosphere of the long dusk and dawn of an English summer, and I adored the scene where Cassandra and Neil swim around the moat, under the stars and through the swans. Pure magic. I also really enjoyed the zany stepmother, Topaz.

Recommended for: I Capture the Castle is highly acclaimed and makes many must read lists. Give it a try. I often hear that it's a wonderful book to discover when one is 13 years old, but I'm not sure my teenage self would have liked this or not.

Rating: some parts are 2 stars, some parts are 5. But even as I write this, the boring parts are fading away and I'm remembering the sparkling evocative bits.

Why I Read This Now: it was one of the older books on my TBR, and somehow I knew it would be a lovely summer read (with all the twilights and moat swimming and all).

And now I'm off to fire up Netflix and watch the film version . . .

30. Murder City: Ciudad Juarez and the Global Economy's New Killing Fields, Charles Bowden, 2010


Cover comments: not very inventive, but it suits the book.

Comments: US Journalist Bowden explores the Mexican border city of Juarez during the year it becomes the world's murder capital (2008). Many people dismiss the problems of Juarez as simply wars between the drug cartels, but Bowden attempts to show that this is only part of the picture. Of course drugs are a huge part of the problem, but when he considers that the leaders of the drug cartels aren't the people being murdered, he figures there is more going on--namely corruption at every level, including the elected government, the police, and the army. And on top of that, grinding poverty, which he sees as an effect of NAFTA.

All very interesting, except I really disliked Bowden's writing style. I think it's supposed to be artistic, but I just found it cold, choppy, and repetitive. I have to admit that I didn't quite finish this book, as I accidentally left it in my doctor's office, and decided it wasn't worth going back for. I already figured that it was over long, and the author hadn't said anything new in 100 pages, so I'm counting this one as complete.

In 2009, there were 2,656 murders in Ciudad Juarex, and in 2010 there were 3,100. Bowden shows this place to be the ultimate failed city. How is it possible that I could find this book so boring?


Chiudad Juarez, where according to the author, violent crime affects the lives of every single person.

Why I Read This Now: I buy a lot of non-fiction books about serious and disturbing subjects, but then they usually languish in my TBR forever. This year I resolved to pull some of them out and read them. I picked this one now because of the current child refugee crisis on the southern US border. Hearing about it, I wondered how bad their lives must be that these children and teens would choose to travel through such an extremely dangerous place in search of safety. It reminded me that I owned Murder City and that perhaps I should read it.

Recommendations & Rating: I was disappointed with this one. If anything about this book sounds interesting to you, I encourage you to read the other reviews here at LT, or even over at Amazon, because I think other people say it better. Most other readers like it better than I did too.

31. Every Day Was Summer: Childhood Memories of Edwardian Days in a Small Welsh Town, Oliver Wynne Hughes, 1989, revised 2006


Cover comments: I like the painting in the middle of this cover--not sure who the artist is, but it reminds me of the Edwardian beach art of Frank W Benson (if anyone recognizes this piece and knows the artist, please speak up).

Comments: This is a collection of vignettes and photos of the author's mother and her two sisters, and their childhood years growing up in Harlech, Wales. Rather than a chronological story, the author clusters the anecdotes by subject -- schooldays, the beach, golf, the English in Harlech, life in service, etc. He ends the book with short biographies of the boys from the village who served in WWI.

During the Edwardian period, Harlech was a popular vacation spot with some upper class English families, including Robert Graves and Denys Finch-Hatton (of Out of Africa and West with the Night fame). They were drawn to the village by the beach and Royal St David's Golf Club. I found the contrast between their lives and the lives of the poor townspeople to be most interesting.

I think this book is an important piece of documentation of an era.


The dunes leading to the beach at Harlech


The 13th century Harlech Castle (built by Edward I)

Recommended for: people interested in social history

Why I Read This Now: the Edwardian era is my favourite

You've done an impressive variety of reading. :)

>64 Nickelini: Perhaps this is a stupid quesiton, but do you happen to know if they let that author out of jail? So sad...

#69 - She's been to prison several times, but I don't think since the early 1990s. She lives in the US now and travels extensively through Europe too.

Good! I am relieved to know that. Thanks!

32. The Birds on the Trees, Nina Bawden, 1970


Cover comments: at first glance, I find this Virago Modern Classics cover very attractive, with its watery foresty colours and silhouettes. But then when I look closely, it kind of falls apart for me, and yes, there is that stereotypical mysterious figure walking away . . .

Comments: Apparently Toby is a troubled teen (I think somewhere in the book it says he's 19, but then why is he getting kicked out of school at that old age?). His parents, Maggie and Charlie, don't really know what to do with him, but they get all sorts of comments and suggestions from their friends and family. This short novel is told from a variety of different character's points of view, but we never hear from Toby himself.

This novel started out very strong, but then fizzled into I don't know what. There are some well written and interesting bits, but overall it seemed rather pointless. Everyone is worried about Toby, but I couldn't see him actually doing anything extreme. I know lots of people who were asked to leave school and who smoked pot but still went on to become tax paying law abiding citizens with jobs and mortgages and children. And unlike Toby, none of them ended up in the psych ward of a hospital being treated for suspected schizophrenia that had been brought on by experimentation with marijuana and LSD.

In 2008, the people at the Booker Prize came up with an award called the Lost Booker so that they could honour some books published in 1970 that had missed out due to a rule change at that time. The Birds on the Trees was one of those Lost Booker nominees. I can't understand why, as I think it's dated, and not in a good Jane Austen-Virginia Woolf sort of way.

Rating A solid 3 star book.

Recommended for: people studying middle class British life around the year 1970.

Why I Read This Now: I wanted to read something by Bawden and I like to try Booker nominated books.

Love your category: Why I read this now!

33. England, England, Julian Barnes, 1998


Cover comments: Finally! A cover I can love. First, blue (just adore blue covers). And a map, because I'm a fool for maps. In the graphics arts sense, it's just a pleasing cover. But that's not all--it's actually meaningful! Highly symbolic of the first part of the novel, and also touches on the last part. Kudos to the designer, Bill Gregory.

Comments: There were parts of England, England that I adored--brilliant observations, fabulous writing, interesting events and characters; and then there were parts that were just too much--too many bits trying to make a whole, too preachy, too many ideas, too much zaniness, too much cleverness (much of which went over my head, I admit). England, England is a humorous novel that satirizes English nationalism, capitalism, tourism, intellectualism, and I'm sure if I think about it a bit more, a whole slew of other -isms.

It is divided into three sections. The first, "England", follows the recent past of Martha, who grew up in a somewhat idealized English village. The main part of the novel is "England, England" where we find Martha a 39 year old career woman starting her high-powered job working for crazy industrialist Sir Jack Pitman. Pitman is launching his plan to take over the Isle of Wight and make it a condensed version of all that attracts tourists to England. He is so successful that the real England goes into a state of decline. The short final section, "Anglia", finds Martha retiring to a future version of England, which has basically collapsed and has reinvented itself as an isolationist rural pre-industrial society.

I very much enjoyed the first and last sections, and parts of the main section were good too, but overall the "England, England" part was too loud and over-the-top for my tastes, and some of his tangents were nothing less than irritating. Barnes tackles a lot here, and some of it works quite well, while other ideas fall flat.

England, England was shortlisted for the Booker Prize.

Rating: 4 stars

Why I Read This Now: I was in a hurry packing for a holiday and it was physically at the top of my TBR pile.

Recommended for: This is not a novel for everyone. For starters, the reader must be interested in satirizing 1990s English society. And even more, the reader must be fairly erudite--Barnes references and alludes to a wide-range of things and ideas constantly, and if you're not extremely well-read, it won't mean anything. I have to admit that he definitely lost me in places and then I stopped caring. I guess if I was really up on late-90s Britain, I'd have liked it better. That said, all the stuff he alluded to that I did understand was fun to read.

34. Written on the Body, Jeanette Winterson, 1992


cover comments: I didn't have an opinion of this cover at first, but the more I look at it the more I find it bland and aesthetically choppy. The typeface for the title is nice, but otherwise, it's sort of an ugly yawn.

Comments: An unnamed narrator with an ambiguous gender, but who reads female to me, tells of her sexual past and love life, and how it led to her one true love, the beautiful Louise.

Some parts of this novel were story, and some parts were poetic musings about her adoration for her lover.

Rating: this is one of those books that people seem to love or hate. I fell somewhere in the middle. Let's just say I'm glad it was under 200 pages.

Why I Read This Now: It's one of the older books in my 1001 books TBR pile.

Recommended for: not sure. Not recommended for those who want a strong plot and who are bothered by bisexuality.

35. The Leopard, Giuseppe di Lampedusa, 1958, translated from Italian by Archibald Colquhoun


Cover comments: yeah, whatever

Comments: The Leopard is set during the Risorgimento of Italy in the 1860s, and follows Prince Fabrizio and his family's decline from aristocracy to discarded relics.

The author wrote The Leopard--his only novel-- over the last 12 or so years of his life, and it was published posthumously. Thus he never knew the high praise and critical acclaim it received, including being called the Greatest Italian Novel of All Time. The English translation by Colquhoun has also been met with high praise.

Although I can see the literary merit in it, and there are many magical passages, overall the book just didn't work for me. It's only 320 pages, but it took me 24 days to read it because I could only follow it if I put my complete focus on exactly what was being said. When I read normally, I'd realize that my thoughts had wandered off and I had no idea what I'd just read, and I'd have to go back and refocus. What is the exact opposite of a compelling read? Whatever the term, that's what The Leopard is. Also, there was sexist thread going through it that was beyond what I'd expect to find in an Italian novel about the 19th century. For example, at an aristocratic ball, the females in attendance are described as inbred, although somehow the males there aren't. There was too much of that sort of thing. Females are silly, females are dumb, females are like monkeys. No thanks.

Recommended for: The Leopard regularly makes all the lists of top novels, so if you're wondering why, go ahead and read it and don't take my comments into consideration.

Why I Read This Now:: It's one of the older books in my TBR pile.

36. Bluebeard's Egg, Margaret Atwood, 1983


Cover comments: There are elements to this Vintage edition cover that I really like. The typeface used for the author's name is interesting and attractive, and the purplish-greyish blue colour is fabulous. The best part, I think, is the key, with its creepy hands and egg-shaped lock. Not sure if the arrangement of the pieces works though, so I'll give this a solid "B".

Comments: This is a collection of 13 short stories, mostly about women and their relationships with men, daughters and their aging parents. There were some great characters and lovely writing, but overall I found the structure of the stories lacking. Especially for stories that were to be a response of sorts to fairy tales, I personally need a bit more actual story telling. My favourite story was "Two Stories About Emma," and I think I liked it because Emma actually did something, unlike too many of the other protagonists who seems to merely exist.

Rating: Rate me "disappointed." I expect more from Atwood. I know there is a lot of depth to these stories that I'm missing, but it's because the author didn't make me care.

Why I Read This Now: I had 8 Margaret Atwood books in my tbr pile, and I decided on this one because I thought it might relate to my 2014 fairy tale project (which it sort of did, I suppose)

Recommended for: Most of the reviews here at LT are similarly "meh" like mine, but over at Goodreads there are many rave reviews. If you think short stories by Atwood are worth checking out, don't let me dissuade you. But if you've never read Atwood before, don't start here!

37. Bear, Marian Engel, 1976 (afterword by Aretha Van Herk)



Cover comments: These New Canadian Library editions don’t stand out very much on their own, but when you bring several of them together, I think they are very attractive. More cover comments to follow at the bottom of this post.

Comments: My challenge is how to describe Bear in one paragraph without sounding silly or missing the important bits. Not sure it can be done, but here goes:

In the opening paragraph of Bear, archivist Lou is described as mole-like. The historical institute she works for has recently been bequeathed a small island, with a house and a substantial 19th century library. Lou’s job is to spend the summer there, cataloguing its contents and determining the potential value to the institute. Just by the act of leaving the cold, grey city, Lou begins her transformation (check off CanLit trope). Arriving on the island, Lou learns that the house comes with a bear, who she finds chained up behind the house. Over the summer, Lou forms a sort of friendship with the bear, and yada yada yada, bear porn. Yes, you read that right.

Bear is one of those chewy literary books that you can read straight up, or pull apart and explore the layers and symbolism. The author started this when the Writer’s Union of Canada put out a call to established authors to write a piece of pornography (a project that was abandoned when the submissions that came in were dreadfully unpublishable). But Engels ran with the idea. As Margaret Atwood says in her blurb for the book (and I note that something about this reminds me of Atwood’s own book Surfacing), the bear sex is “as plausible as kitchens,” and the short novel is indeed written in a realistic style. But there are a thousand other things going on too. The main one is how Engels plays with and subverts the CanLit canon with its ubiquitous themes of the transformative powers of wilderness, the savage, nature, man against the wilderness, etc and so on. Then there’s the whole second wave feminist sexual awakening trope. But the one that I keep coming back to is—despite the realism—a fabulist feel. Is Bear a play on “Beauty and the Beast”? Or “Snow White and Rose Red”? Or with the lonely octagonal house as one of the characters, is it Gothic? It’s all of these.

My edition had a nice afterword written by university professor Aretha Van Herk that goes over some of the deeper meanings for those readers who got stuck on the sexy bear stuff.

Bear was awarded the Governor General’s Award for Literature, in a year when the jury included Mordecai Richler, Margaret Laurence, and Alice Munro. In places, the writing is absolutely gorgeous, and I can’t stop thinking about this book (and it’s not the bear porn that’s sticking in my mind).

Recommended for: It’s only 115 pages, so if you think it sounds interesting, give it a try. It’s definitely a not-to-be-missed book for anyone who is serious about reading CanLit. I wish I could have studied this at university—it would have been so much fun.

Why I Read This Now: Bear has been in my TBR pile for a while, but I thought to suggest it to my book club after discussion of it went viral on the internet this summer*. In my book club, we vote on the books we will read, and every single member voted to read Bear. I look forward to the upcoming discussion.

*More on this to follow in a later post.

Rating: Great writing + interesting story + librarian hero + humour + bravery of writing erotica + CanLit playfulness + literary influences = 4.5 stars.

I commented in my post that discussion of Marian Engel's 1976 book Bear went viral on the internet this summer.

It all started here: "What the Actual Fuck, Canada?" http://imgur.com/gallery/uf3YE

Which was instigated by this cover:



Discussion on CBC: "Bearotica: Why the 1976 Novel Bear is Actually a Good Read" http://www.cbc.ca/q/blog/2014/08/18/bear-1976-retro-racey/

And for those of you who like to discuss cover art for novels, the publisher has this: "Bear Re-Imagined" http://penguinrandomhouse.ca/hazlitt/feature/bear-re-imagined

And also this interesting article: "There's More to Bear than Bear Sex" http://penguinrandomhouse.ca/hazlitt/feature/theres-more-bear-bear-sex

>79 Nickelini: Painfully snorting coffee... I love that cover.

Just am trying to imagine bear sex.............

38. The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox, Maggie O'Farrell, 2006


Cover comments: Although it's not exactly bad (a woman's face!, nice typeface), this looks like a cover for the type of book I wouldn't like. But not so fast . . .

Comments: Finally! I compelling read. This is a difficult book to describe without giving too much away.

Iris Lockhart lives with her big dog in Edinburgh and runs a vintage clothing shop. She's juggling an odd relationship with her step brother and another with a married lover when her attention is taken away by the discovery that she has a long lost relative. And that she is the next of kin to this great aunt Esme, who is about to be released after 60 years in a mental hospital. This novel jumps between two Scottish girls, Kitty and Esme, growing up in India and then moving to Scotland, of Iris's grandmother Kitty who is now in a care home with Alzheimer's, and of Iris's discoveries about her family.

What I Liked: I found a lot to like here. The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox is full of family secrets, which I think make some of the best stories. It is told from multiple viewpoints--Iris, Esme as a child, Esme today, and part way through the book we start to hear the rambling Alzheimer memories of Iris's grandmother. I found it horrifyingly fascinating how easy it was for young women to get locked up forever for off-beat behaviour. And finally, I really enjoyed both the plotting and found some lovely writing. This was a book I didn't want to put down and couldn't wait to pick up again.

What I Didn't Like: As many have noted in the reviews, the ending comes at a great rush, and many things are unresolved. I'm not so bothered at the unresolved as I am that the ending just sort of crashed down on the readers. It seems to me that the author was setting up for a possible sequel. And secondly, this novel committed the most annoying sin and pet peeve of mine: a woman getting pregnant the first time she has sex. I complained about this in Slammerkin earlier4 this year. Scientific statistics show the chances of getting pregnant in any single sexual act are 3-11%, but in novels it's around 100%. Stop. Please stop. This is a cliche. Find some other way to move your plot forward. Also, I didn't see what the relationship with the step brother had to do with the story. Even though I know it wasn't incestuous, it still bordered on creepy.

Also, there is a scene very early in the novel that is set at a formal lunch, and Esme is tied to a chair so can't misbehave. Suddenly she is left alone when some event happens to cause everyone to panic and rush out of the room--but the narrator doesn't say why, and this scene is never revisited. I'm surmising it was an earthquake but I don't really know. I really enjoyed the scene and would like to know exactly what happened.

Recommended for: The negative reviews here on LT usually comment that the reader didn't like the changes in narrator and jumping through time. They were not marked in anyway, so I agree that you have to pay attention. Also, some objected to the unresolved ending. If those sorts of things don't bother you, then give this a go. Also, some brought expectations to this book and then faulted it when it didn't meet what they wanted. I really didn't know what to expect, so I thought it was a good read.

Rating: 4 stars for the book itself + .5 star for keeping me reading = 4.5 stars.

Why I Read This Now: I've wanted to read this for several years and it bubbled up to the top of my tbr pile.

39. How to Find Fulfilling Work, Roman Krznaric, 2012


Cover comments: this is part of the extensive "School of Live" series, and together I think they are fun and attractive.

Comments and recommended for: One of the prominent tags for this book here at LT is self-help, which I guess it is, maybe, but to me it's more philosophy and psychology. I guess reading it might help one find fulfilling work, so maybe it really is self help. Anyway! For anyone contemplating changing careers, this may help you figure out what you want and give you a few pointers on how to go about it. Quite interesting, although it's not leaving me feeling any clearer than when I started it.

Why I Read it Now: I need to embark on a new career and feeling stuck.

Hmmm, I may need to read this too.

Buddha, Karen Armstrong, 2001


Cover comments: I find this attractive

Comments: This is part of the Penguin Lives series, and so is a biography and not a book about the religion of Buddhism, exactly. It took me months and months to get through this 187 page book, and I almost chucked it a few times. But I did appreciate learning a few things that I wouldn't know without the book, so I stuck it out. To be fair, it's not all the author's fault--this subject involves a wealth of unfamiliar nouns--names of people and places, as well as many concepts.

I read another Armstrong (A Short History of Myth) earlier this year, and I have now deleted all her other books from my wishlist. She writes about topics that I find interesting, but she has a gift of making those topics boring.

Why I Read This Now: I don't know much about non-Abrahamic religions, and wanted to change that.

Recommended for: if you don't know anything about Buddha and want to know a little, go read Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse.

Rating: not good.

I love your reviews - there are a few here I might add to my wish list...

41. Nothing to Envy, Barbara Demick, 2009


Cover comments: Fits the book perfectly

Comments: Demick, a journalist, follows the lives of six North Koreans and intermixes their stories with a chronological history of Korea. An utterly fascinating book that I couldn't put down. The stories of the details of their lives are horrific, maddening, and amazing. I did have a general idea of the dystopia that North Koreans live under, but that didn't make this book any less interesting, and of course I learned a lot.

Here are two tidbits of detail that really struck me: First, the government (which controls all), inserts their propaganda into every possible corner of life. On page 120, Demick shows some examples of first grade school texts:

"A girl is acting as a messenger to our patriotic troops during the war against the Japanese occupation. She carries messages in a basket containing five apples, but is stopped by a Japanese soldier at a checkpoint. He steals two of her apples. How many are left?"

"Three soldiers from the Korean People's Army killed thirty American soldiers. How many American soldiers were killed by each of them if they all killed an equal number of enemy soldiers?"

And a poem:

"Where have we gone? /We have gone to the forest. /where are we going? /We are going over the hills. / What are we going to do? / We are going to kill the Japanese soldiers. "

And finally, a song:

"Our enemies are the American bastards / Who are trying to take over our beautiful fatherland. / With guns that I make with my own hands / I will shoot them. BANG, BANG, BANG. "

Grade one!

The second tidbit that really struck me is when Jun-sang, after years of disillusionment, is covertly listening to South Korean TV and he hears Kim Jong-il's voice for the first time--all his life, announcers had read the great leader's words in an awed and quivering voice, and the people never got to hear the leader's voice for themselves. Evilishly creepy.

Recommended for: I guess if you have no interest in North Korea, then skip this one. But really, how can someone not be interested? Therefore, everyone should read this book.

Why I Read This Now it was physically at the top of my non-fiction TBR pile. I think I had put it there because the book has so many rave reviews on LT (and no bad reviews).

Wow, that's definitely going on my wishlist! Sounds absolutely fascinating.

42. The Wolves of Willoughby Chase, Joan Aiken, 1962


Cover comments: I absolutely love this Vintage Classics edition cover. Just perfect.

Comments: Oh how I would have loved this book when I was eleven. How is it possible that I missed it back then?

This novel is set in an alternate Victorian England (although the forward note says the reigning monarch is Good King James III), when packs of ravenous wolves roamed the countryside. Apparently, this occurred because "at this time, the Channel Tunnel from Dover to Calais having been recently completed, a great many wolves, driven by severe winters, had migrated through the tunnel from Europe and Russia to the British Isles". Wow, what a setting.

This is the story of Bonnie and Sylvia, and they do fight off wolves, but the most threatening wolf of all is the new governess who has made the parents disappear and is aggressively trying to turn the girls into workhouse orphans.

My edition says that Aiken wrote The Wolves of Willoughby Chase as a one-off spoof of the Victorian Gothic adventure stories she had read as a child. She isn't shy about using big words and sophisticated language, and there is a short glossary in the back to describe Victorian objects such as antimacassars, blunderbusses, and oubliettes.

I also found it interesting that Aiken foresaw the Chunnel when she wrote this in 1962, and of course that set me off to investigate, and I learned that engineers were proposing the crossing back in the early-mid 1800s when this book is set. So yes, I learned something from a children's book.

Recommended for: 11 year olds, and anyone who wants to read a book that they would have loved back when they were 11.

Why I Read This Now: Not sure how this bubbled to the top of my TBR. The portrayal of wolves in literature and art is one of my interests. I'm also interested in wolves in the British Isles.

Sounds like a lovely book/read!

Ooooh, you've read two of my favorite books in a row! Nothing to Envy was absolutely fascinating, and it spurred me on to read a couple of other books about N Korea. It's an amazing place, and I mean amazing as in a "can't believe it still exists like this" kind of way. And Wolves of Willoughby Chase was a great book, wasn't it? So atmospheric! I missed it as a youngster too, unfortunately, but I still loved it in my 30's! And, my Mom is halfway through the series now (she's 70) and loves the books too!

Have you read anything else by Joan Aiken? I tried to read one of her other books, can't remember which one, but I couldn't get into it so I returned it unread. Hmph.

When I was a kid my sister and I read the whole series. Wonderful stuff!

43. Classic Victorian and Edwardian Ghost Stories, selected by Rex Collings


Cover comments: good cover for a book of old ghost stories

Comments: Short ghost stories, arrranged in chronological order, starting with the wholly pre-Victorian Sir Walter Scott, through Edgar Allan Poe, Elizabeth Gaskell, Thackeray, Dickens, Wilkie Collins, Edith Nesbit, Oscar Wilde, and Saki (with many others in between). Nothing much to inspire my imagination here. Overall, I found this collection tedious.

I'm doing better with stories from 50 of the Scariest Short Stories of All Time, found at: http://flavorwire.com/483530/50-of-the-scariest-short-stories-of-all-time/7

Why I Read This Now: I'm always on the look out for a good creepy ghost story. I rarely find one.

Rating: 2 stars

Recommended for: Lovers of 19th century short stories.

Have you read anything else by Joan Aiken? I tried to read one of her other books, can't remember which one, but I couldn't get into it so I returned it unread.

I can't imagine that I got through my childhood without having read something by her, but looking at the list of titles, nothing stands out.

That seems to be the consensus, I think. Her stuff seems so familiar, but then when you start reading descriptions nothing jumps up and says "Hi! You've read me before!", you know? Oh well. I have a couple of her other, non-Wolves series, books on my shelves here. Guess I'll just have to try one of those and see how it goes!

Happy weekend to you!

44. Broken Things, Padrika Tarrant, 2007


Cover comments: I like it, and it really suits the book.

Comments: This is a short collection of very short pieces, all which are about women who are somehow off, and some, rather psychotic. The writing is wonderful at times, with great use of detail and imagination.

I really liked Broken Things, although it took me a long time to read for a book so short. The stories are strange and dark, and it's difficult to read more than one or two at a time, even though they are so short. It's tiring to introduce my brain to a whole new world, new characters, and new story every four or five pages, especially since they were all so odd.

Blurbers on the back cover compare the stories told in Broken Things to Angela Carter, Maurice Sendak, Edward Gorey, Neil Gaiman, and Jan Svankmajer.

Rating: 4 stars

Recommended for: readers who like dark, disturbing short stories.

Why I Read This Now: it bubbled up through my TBR pile.

45. Three Day Road, Joseph Boyden, 2005


Cover comments: entirely suitable for the story

Why I Read This Now: After not enjoying the same author's The Orenda this past winter, I hadn't planned on reading any more of his books for a while, but this was my book club's November book so I pulled it out from the depths of the TBR pile.

Comments: Joseph Boyden's debut novel is about two Cree young men, Xavier and Elijah, who become snipers on the Western Front of WWI. Their story is interspersed with stories from the life of Xavier's aunt, Niska, who takes care of the wounded and morphine addicted Xavier at the end of the war.

Three Day Road has won awards and earned critical acclaim, and it is highly esteemed by readers. The writing is good, the story is interesting, it has a pleasing narrative flow (something that has been lacking in too many books I've read this year), and the WWI setting is one I usually like reading about. Despite all that, I did not enjoy this book. I think it comes down to simply not wanting to spend time in the world he created. And every time I picked it up I thought how much I'd rather be reading something else.

Recommended for: everyone, since I seem to be the only person who didn't like Three Day Road.

46. The Edwardians, Vita Sackville-West, 1930


Cover comments: I like this Virago Modern Classics cover with it's purplish tone (I also like to say purplish)

Comments: Sackville-West wrote this novel for fun and to make money. It was a financial success, and 85 years later, it's still fun. She says in the author's note in the front, "No character in this book is wholly fictitious." Nor are the settings, including Chevron, the country estate of the novel that Sackville-West modelled in great detail after her ancestral home of Knole.

As with probably most books about the Edwardian era that were written afterwards, this novel is a critique of the foolishness and decadence of the upper classes who blindly waltzed themselves into an unexpected horrific end. I suppose that The Edwardians doesn't really have anything shocking or new to say--but it's an insider's look at a world that I find fascinating. I loved the settings, and the story line, and the characters. And I have to admit I have a bit of a crush on Sebastian, the dashing, moody, conflicted hero of the story.

Why I Read This Now: I'd set off to read a bunch of Edwardian era books this year but haven't really done that. Now I remember why I wanted to. Also, I visited Knole House in 2013, so it's fun to read a book set there.

Rating: This isn't a stunning piece of literature or anything, but I really enjoyed it. A solid 4 stars, if not more. The book has an excellent introduction by Victoria Glendinning.

Recommended for: Anglophiles, Virago fans, readers interested in the Edwardian time period.


My daughters in front of Knole House in 2013

Looks and sounds lovely!

47. The Cambridge Companion to Pride and Prejudice, Janet Todd, editor, 2013


Cover comments: Follows the pattern for all the recent Cambridge Classics. Nice background art, peevish Mr Darcy = all good.

Comments: This is a collection of 15 of the bestest most recent academic articles on Pride and Prejudice. They cover a broad range of topics and my favourites included "Narrative," "Character," "The Economic Context," "Austen's Minimalism," and "The Cult of Pride and Prejudice and its author" (all written by various scholars). But my favourite essay was by the editor herself. I prepared myself to have a little Darcy fan girl moment when I started "The Romantic Hero," but although she doesn't come out and say it, I don't think Janet Todd likes Mr Darcy one bit. And all her points about how awful he really is are all completely valid. Which, of course, just makes Mr Darcy an even more interesting character.

Recommended for: Austen students, readers who want to understand P&P on a deeper level, people who can't get enough of Pride and Prejudice.

Why I Read This Now: I can't get enough Pride and Prejudice?

Rating: 4.5 stars

A++ smirking from Mr Darcy there! :)

Can't get enough P&P, eh? You poor woman!

Can't get enough P&P, eh? You poor woman!*

Thank you for your empathy. Last year when I read P&P I realized it was probably the most perfectly constructed novel I've ever read. Today I was thinking about what a mediocre year of reading I've had in 2014, and thinking about P&P, and I realized what I'm missing. Some of the things that I require in order to love a novel is a strong narrative, layers and depth of meaning, strong characters, and a bit of an intellectual challenge. P&P delivers all of that, and more--but so do lots of novels. What I haven't been able to find this year--the thing I'm missing -- is a combination of all of that plus the sparkle and energy of P&P.

I think I'm clearly resigned to just read P&P. Funny, last year this time when I finished reading it, I declared that I was ruined for any other book and all I wanted to do was reread it over and over forever. I've read almost 70 books this year, and all of them are pale, grey shadows compared to P&P.

*unless by "poor woman" you mean "P&P is a stupid book and you need to get a life." In that case, never mind.

LOL, I most certainly did not mean P&P is a stupid book and you need to get a life! There is a long history with me and P&P (or any Austen work). My girlfriends all love P&P and said I must read it! I started it 3-4 times and could not finish it.....they forced me! I can honestly say it was one of the most boring books I had ever read. They told me I obviously must not have "got" it because it was the greatest book of all time! I told them I will stick with my Heathcliff (Wuthering Heights) and they can stick with P&P. I'm glad you "got" P&P!

#104 - Wuthering Heights is another one that's dear to me, but I like it for entirely different reasons. Heathcliff is fascinating, but he's a psychopath. Lots of depth and layers in that character too. It's all good stuff.

48. Scar Tissue, Michael Ignatieff, 1993


Cover comments: a truly hideous movie tie-in cover

Comments: This short novel about a philosophy professor's struggles with his parents' deaths was deep, layered, and interesting.

Scar Tissue was shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 1993. From 2008 through 2011, Michael Ignatieff was the Leader of the Official Opposition and he ran for Prime Minister of Canada in 2011. I just find it interesting that we had a prominent political leader who was also a Booker Prize nominee. That's quite a combination of skill sets.

Recommended for: people who want to read novels about Alzheimer's, people who like novels with a philosophical angle, people who want to read Booker Prize nominees.

Why I Read This Now: needed one more book for my 2014 "Ugly Covers" challenge.

Hi Joyce. Just stopping by and waving. I'm trying to catch up with threads but that is impossible!

>106 Nickelini: Yes, that is truly an ugly cover! Maybe we should have a thread for the ugliest covers on all our shelves--although I'm such a snob, I've jettisoned some of mine, especially if I have reasonable access to a better one.

#108 - Whenever I find a nicer copy of a book that I already have in my TBR pile and it's cheap or free, I too jettison those ugly books! I'm an unabashed cover snob, and not afraid to say so.

#107 - Hi, Connie!

49. The War of the Worlds, HG Wells, 1898


Cover comments: really ugly, however, I think that may be somewhat intentional. It looks like this was originally a B&W illustration from the 1906 edition of the book and has been colourized in a sort of tongue in cheek way. Ugly but I sort of like it because it fits the book. This picture is blurry, but on my cover I like the people fighting giant aliens from horseback.

Comments: It's 1894 and Martians attack London. Most of the city is destroyed and very few people survive. There is no gallant British defence against the alien invaders, and the nameless narrator spends most of the book running from the Martians.

This year I've complained about the lack of narrative in the books I've chosen. I can't say that this book suffers from that, but I still didn't find it very interesting. The thing that bothered me the most was the absolute lack of characters or personality in the people in these pages. It's closer to straight reportage than telling a story.

Why I Read This Now: Anyone who knows my reading tastes would predict that I wouldn't like this, so why did I even bother? Well, I like to venture out of my comfort zone now and again, and I also like to read the seminal works of important literary trends. It's on the Guardian 1000 and the 1001 Books lists. But I read it now because it showed up when I searched "Edwardian" and I needed one more book this year for that challenge. Written a few years before the Edwardian era, it's questionable whether or not it qualifies.

I'm going to say "yes," because it reveals something important about the Edwardian age that I didn't realize. I thought that the Edwardian were happily partying through their time, completely oblivious to the future they were creating. But now I learn that the fear of invasion was a major tension of the time. The War of the Worlds is part of a body of work now called "invasion literature" that spoke to this fear. The genre started with The Battle of Dorking in 1871, which was about a German invasion of Britain. I was also interested in how HG Wells foresaw both mass mechanized destruction, and poison gas--two things that were not yet known. So WWI wasn't quite the shock that I had thought it was (although the severity obviously was).

Recommended for: readers who are interested in the roots of sci-fi and Martian literature.

A very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year, Joyce.

Ta da! Done. I figured 50 books was the right number to stretch this out to make it a challenge for the whole year.

The Cement Garden, Ian McEwan, 1978


Cover comments: not very inspiring

Comments: a short, dark, disturbing early McEwan. Off to take a shower now.

Why I Read This Now: it's been at the top of my TBR for a few years.

Recommended for: Ian McEwan completists.

Congrats on meeting your goal!

A belated Merry Christmas, a hearty CONGRATULATIONS for finishing your challenge, and a wish for an outstandingly wonderful 2015!