sangreal's attempt to track reading in 2014

I have absolutely no problem reading up a storm every year. However, I have terrible difficulty tracking what I read. So, I decided that in 2014, I will at least make an attempt to track my reading each month.

It's very unlikely that this will be more than a series of lists, but at least it's better than anything I've done before, except tagging books read by month/year.

I wanted to at least create this post before the year begins. After that, well, we'll see!

JANUARY

Books Completed:

1. The Grey King - Susan Cooper
   
2. Silver on the Tree - Susan Cooper
   
3. Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency - Douglas Adams
   
4. The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul - Douglas Adams
   
5. The Salmon of Doubt - Douglas Adams
   

Summary: Not a very good month for me unfortunately. My job is eating up a lot of my time, leaving me too tired to even read when I get home in the evenings. I am hoping this situation improves as the year goes by.

FEBRUARY

Books Completed:

1. Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children - Ransom Riggs
   
2. Hollow City - Ransom Riggs
   
3. The Telling Room - Michael Paterniti
   
4. Criminal Minds: Sociopaths, Serial Killers, and Other Deviants - Jeff Mariotte
   
5. But I Trusted You - Ann Rule
   
6. The Winter People - Jennifer McMahon
   
7. Night of Cake and Puppets - Laini Taylor
   
8. Bury This - Andrea Portes
   

Summary: All round, a very tough and hectic month. Between DH being ill, and work and the Carnival season, I'm surprised I got this much reading done! Things have settled down a bit, except for work, so I'm looking forward to March reading.

MARCH

Books Completed:

1. Stranger in the Room - Amanda Kyle Williams
   
2. The Girl Who Disappeared Twice - Andrea Kane
   
3. The Line Between Here and Gone - Andrea Kane
   
4. The Stranger You Know - Andrea Kane
   
5. Trouble in Mind - Jeffery Deaver
   
6. Irene - Pierre Lemaitre
   
7. Divergent - Veronica Roth
   
8. Beauty - Robin McKinley
   
9. Cruel Beauty - Rosamund Hodge
   
   

Summary: Definitely a better month with more reading time. I still haven't picked up anything too intense, but that's the way I'm feeling right now, so I'll continue to go with the lighter reads until I feel for something different. Looking forward to the ReadaThing in April.

APRIL

Books Completed:

1. Rose Daughter - Robin McKinley
   
2. The 100 - Kass Morgan
   
3. Doctor Sleep - Stephen King
   
4. 11/22/63 - Stephen King
   
5. Mile 81 - Stephen King
   
6. UR - Stephen King
   
7. Umney's Last Case - Stephen King
   
8. In the Tall Grass - Stephen King
   
9. A Face in the Crowd - Stephen King and Stewart O'Nan
   
10. 20th Century Ghosts - Joe Hill
    
11. Under the Dome - Stephen King
    
    

MAY

Books Completed:

1. The Storied Life of A. J. Fikry - Gabrielle Zevin
   
2. The Word Exchange - Alena Graedon
   
3. Boy, Snow, Bird - Helen Oyeyemi
   
4. The Skin Collector - Jeffery Deaver
   
5. An Acceptable Sacrifice - Jeffery Deaver
   
6. A Textbook Case - Jeffery Deaver
   

JUNE

Books Completed:

1. The Blue Girl - Alex Grecian
   
2. The Devil's Workshop - Alex Grecian
   
3. Mr. Mercedes - Stephen King
   
4. The Purity of Vengeance - Jussi Adler-Olsen
   
5. That Night - Chevy Stevens
   
6. Ruin and Rising - Leigh Bardugo
   
7. The Too-Clever Fox - Leigh Bardugo
   
8. The Tailor - Leigh Bardugo
   
9. Scarlet - Marissa Meyer
   
10. Cress - Marissa Meyer
    
11. Glitches - Marissa Meyer
    
12. The Queen's Army - Marissa Meyer
    
13. The Little Android - Marissa Meyer
    
14. The Girl With All the Gifts - M. R. Carey
    
15. Enders - Lissa Price

JULY

Books Completed:

1. MaddAddam - Margaret Atwood
   
2. Terminal City - Linda Fairstein
   
3. The Silkworm - Robert Galbraith
   
4. Dreams of Gods and Monsters - Laini Taylor
   
5. The Casual Vacancy - J. K. Rowling
   
6. The Coroner's Lunch - Colin Cotterill
   
7. Thirty-Three Teeth - Colin Cotterill
   
8. Bones and Roses - Eileen Goudge
   
9. Disco for the Departed - Colin Cotterill
   
10. Anarchy and Old Dogs - Colin Cotterill
    

AUGUST

Books Completed:

1. Curse of the Pogo Stick - Colin Cotterill
   
2. Diary of a Wimpy Kid - Jeff Kinney
   
3. Roderick Rules - Jeff Kinney
   
4. The Last Straw - Jeff Kinney
   
5. Gilded - Christina L. Farley
   
6. As Red as Blood - Salla Simukka
   
7. Night Film - Marisha Pessl
   
8. The Merry Misogynist - Colin Cotterill
   
9. Slash and Burn - Colin Coterill
   
10. Love Songs From a Shallow Grave - Colin Cotterill
    
11. The Woman Who Wouldn't Die - Colin Cotterill
    
12. The Good Girl - Mary Kubica
    
13. Don't Talk to Strangers - Amanda Kyle Williams
    
14. Tenth of December - George Saunders
    
15. Swamp Bones - Kathy Reichs
    
16. The Giver - Lois Lowry
    
17. Gathering Blue - Lois Lowry
    
18. Messenger - Lois Lowry

SEPTEMBER

Books Completed:

1. Son - Lois Lowry

OCTOBER

Books Completed: Not a single one!

NOVEMBER

Books Completed:

1. Bones Never Lie - Kathy Reichs
   
2. The Secret Place - Tana French
   
3. The Marco Effect - Jussi Adler-Olsen
   

DECEMBER

Books Completed:

1. Revival - Stephen King
   
2. California - Edan Lepucki
   
3. Raging Heat - Richard Castle
   
4. A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
   
5. Little Women - Louisa May Alcott
   
6. Good Wives - Louisa May Alcott

I finished off 2013 with Greenwitch by Susan Cooper, the third book in The Dark is Rising Sequence, so 2014 begins with The Grey King.

good luck with your plan. we'll be lurking and watching and probably getting hit by book bullets

Good luck, sangreal. I am hiding here in the long grass with @majkia. We will be watching. :-)

The Dark is Rising series is a good way to finish one year and start another!

> 15 & 16 - Thank you very much for the encouragement, majkia and pgmcc! Hope you guys have found yourselves a comfortable spot there in the grass :))

> 17 - Yes, it really is! I can hardly believe I've somehow never gotten around to reading these before. I'm really enjoying the series. They're a quick read, and manage to take me back to the feeling of fascination that characterized my childhood reading - always a plus.

The dark is rising series is one of my favourites, and has been since childhood. Glad you are enjoying them!

Looking forward to following your reading this year!

Looking forward to watching your progress sangreal. I love looking back at my reading threads and remembering where I've been during the year, hope you find the same pleasure. :)

I have you starred!

> 19 & 21 - Thank you Sakerfalcon and jillmwo.

> 20 - Thanks MrsLee. That's exactly the reason I wanted to try this ... using tags only just doesn't give me any kind of context when I look back. Here's hoping it works.

20, 22: I started mine last year to be a reminder of my reactions to the books I read. The scintillating conversation turned out to be an added bonus!

Best of luck, sangreal. I'll be dropping by, as well.

Thanks clamairy!

*Joning majkia and pgmcc in the long grass. I brought binoculars!

> 26 - Nice move there, LunaticDruid! Hope someone thought to bring some snacks :)

So it is just pouring rain in my little corner of the world tonight, and I'm sitting here wrapped in blankets, with a hot cup of tea and my book. Two solid hours of reading lie ahead, before I have to get some sleep. Heaven!

Rain? That would be that stuff that falls from the sky when the temperature rises above the freezing point, right? Weird.

Sylvia, I'm totally missing a "like" button for that comment!

Gently dropping a star here...

> 29 - Well ... not exactly. Although if you look at my location, it says Miami, that's not quite right. I work for a company whose head office is in Miami, and that's my mailing address for everything.

However, I live and work in a beautiful little twin island country in the Caribbean, Trinidad and Tobago. Right now, we are having some very, very rainy days, when we're supposed to be in our "dry season". Makes for inconvenient travelling to work, but lovely for curling up under blankets and reading!

Overall though, our temperatures are between 24 - 32 degrees C (75 - 90 F).

So I'm off to a slow, but satisfactory start. It took me 8 days to complete the last two books in The Dark is Rising sequence. Work was mostly to blame, but hopefully things will get easier and my reading time will increase.

I absolutely adored this series. It's as good as everyone had been telling me, and in some ways even better. My favourites are The Dark is Rising and The Grey King, both for the same primary reasons - I love Will's character, and what the elements of fantasy and magic did to the mood/tone of the books was just amazing.

Over Sea, Under Stone definitely felt more like a younger children's adventure (which it originally was, I suppose), and Greenwitch felt similar as well, despite Will's involvement.

Silver on the Tree was a great read, and wrapped up the series well, but I found the end came on a little too suddenly and pretty much caught me off guard. The ending reminded me of the end of The Lord of the Rings trilogy, with some of the characters leaving this world, and others staying.

I'm on to the first of my SantaThing books now - The Salmon of Doubt by Douglas Adams, and was laughing myself silly from the very first page. Since that's just the "Introduction to the introduction to the New Edition" and wasn't even written by Adams, I'd say we're off to a rousing start!

I'm glad you liked The Dark is Rising series. Adult first-time readers sometimes aren't particularly impressed. I first read it when I was right in the target age range (back when the series was new), and just loved it. I've found that it has held up very well over the years. My favourites are The Dark is Rising, Greenwitch, and Silver on the Tree.

I'm joining the crew in the long grass - I've got a picnic blanket and an umbrella just in case ;)

The Dark is Rising has been a favourite since I was a kid. I think I read several completely out of sequence (I started with The Grey King!), but then my Mum bought me an omnibus edition and I was able to go back and read them as you have - wonderful stuff. Like you, it was Will's story that I loved and I still think about The day of the dead / when the year too dies each Hallowe'en. I haven't revisited these in years - I'm tempted now!

Looking forward to more book bullets from you over the year :)

I used to have the poems memorized!

I am one who came to the series as an adult, and I found I don't appreciate it as much as others who'd read it at an earlier age. Aw well. That balances out the many other great books I've discovered through LT and the GD.

I've brought a blanket as well so we can all lie comfortably on the grass.

> SylviaC, I can imagine how wonderful it must have been to read the series when it was new! I'm pretty sure if I'd read them around that age, I'd totally have memorized the poems too.

> sandragon, I have had that experience with other books, and yes, I quite agree that all the other fantastic recommendations does balance things out when that happens.

> imyril, welcome! You're going to be very comfortable, though I don't know how much help the umbrella will be with the inevitable book bullets :) And you should give them a re-read, at least your favourites.

Well, I have experienced a first in my reading:

I was happily making my way through The Salmon of Doubt, when I got to the section with the 10 chapters from the unfinished book that might or might not have been either the next Hitchhiker or the next Dirk Gently novel.

Then it occurred to me that I've never read the first two Dirk Gently books. I mean, I knew I hadn't read them, but now it just seems as though I should have read them before reading the unfinished book. So now I've stopped three quarters of the way through TSOD, to read the two DG books. I've never done this before!

In the last few days, I've finished the two Dirk Gently books, as well as my SantaThing book, The Salmon of Doubt.

I really enjoyed the Dirk Gently books. The style is similar to the Hitchhiker books, but the form differs quite a bit. In the Dirk Gently books, everything seems totally disconnected in the beginning, but once you have the patience to stick with them, not to mention the ability to suspend belief, the end result is a really clever, funny, truly entertaining read.

I also loved The Salmon of Doubt. More than anything, every essay showed how loved and admired Adams was by all who knew him. The chapters of his unfinished novel underscored how many stories he probably had left to tell.

Now I want to read Wish You Were Here , but I don't know when I'll get a copy. Well, on the wishlist it goes!

On to The Telling Room, my outstanding Early Reviewers book.

Still slowly making my way through The Telling Room. I had last week off, but didn't do very much reading. Instead I spent a lot of time with DH, and generally loafed off.

During my read of The Salmon of Doubt, I came across two books recommended by Adams, which I really, really wanted. They were The Blind Watchmaker by Richard Dawkins and Man on Earth by John Reader. I could only buy one now, so I went with Man on Earth. Got it yesterday, and can't wait to get into it. I probably won't read it cover to cover, but instead dip into it, and read a little at a time.

Oh, what a good idea! I like to track what I've read. I use a blog (http://booksfinished.blogspot.com/), mostly so I can access it from any place. I've had it since 2008.

PS: How did you enjoy the Susan Cooper books?

> 41 - Your blog is very interesting ... I never even thought of tracking my reading using a blog. That's definitely an idea for the future.

As to the Dark is Rising Sequence, I really loved them. The Dark is Rising and The Grey King were my favourites, but the others were enjoyable as well.

Well January is over, and I have only completed five books. The count itself doesn't matter to me, but it does clearly show how little time I have had to devote to reading.

I've put a little summary at the end of my January list, so that when I look back, I will remember what my thinking/situation was at the time.

I'm still reading The Telling Room, which is interesting, but not particularly gripping, so it's been a bit too easy to put down.

At the same time, I'm re-reading Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children as a prelude to reading Hollow City with my nephew sometime soon. He's also reading the first book, so I'm trying to remind myself of the details.

Miss Peregrine is on my Tbr stack. I do mean to read it this year ...

>44 Sakerfalcon: - I think you would really enjoy it. I'm loving it even more the second time around, and can't wait to get to Hollow City.

Amazing what happens when you're motivated! In three days, I have finished both Miss Peregrine and Hollow City. Nephew has more reading time than I do, and was in a hurry to talk about the books, so I played serious catch up.

Hollow City was equally as good as the first book, and ended at such an interesting point that I wish I had the next book now.

Needless to say, The Telling Room is still languishing. Read a few pages of it during my commute this morning though.

How was the Ransom Riggs' book. I've heard everything from it's horrible to it's the best book ever. Your thoughts? ~ L

Does anyone know if the Miss Peregrine and Hollow City are part of a trilogy? Or is this more of a series? You make it sound like Hollow City is a cliffhanger.

> 48 - A NY Times article in Dec 2013 refers to Peculiar Children as 'a planned trilogy'.

And yes, Hollow City definitely ends with a cliffhanger ... and a very interesting one at that! It left me not only wanting to know what happens next, but something occurred at the end there which has me wondering "does that mean what I think it means??", and which would be very cool if it plays out that way.

>47 empress8411: - empress8411: For me, both books are really, really good reads, for many reasons. They're books which can be enjoyed by children to adults, being not too difficult for the former, and not talking down to the latter. They're both easy reads, but do not feel childish at all.

Additionally, the conceit of telling the story using 'found pictures' adds a unique and fascinating angle to the books. For the most part it works well. There were one or two instances where I felt that a situation/story was introduced only because it fit with a photo the author wanted to use, but wasn't really necessary to the story. Also, there were a couple of interesting photos introduced in the first book that haven't actually panned out into the rest of the story. Still, while I noticed both these things, I'm more than willing to overlook them as curiosities, as they did not impact my enjoyment of the stories in any real way.

One of the things I really love about these books is how solidly 'real' the characters seem to me. While Peculiar Children introduces all the characters, the story only focuses on a few of them until almost the end. Hollow City picks up right at the end of the first book, and at that point, it really becomes an ensemble cast. All of them have different parts to play as the book progresses, and new characters are also introduced. Even so, every one of them is firmly individualized in my mind, and at no point do they blur into each other. Part of the reason for this is obviously the accompanying photographs, but it also speaks to how well, and how distinctively, each one is written. I would note however, that Book 1 doesn't work that well in terms of character - the development really comes in Book 2.

There were some noticeable gaps in logic as well, especially in the second book, with a few slips in continuity as well, but it was not enough to make me stop reading at any point. Overall, the negatives were minor irritations for me, but I could see where they might be deal-breakers for other readers.

I read both of these as e-books, but I'm definitely going to purchase them in hardcover. I'm pretty certain that I'll re-read both of these once the third book is published, but they're also very nice-looking books!

Ah, that makes sense. Thank you for the review! I found a hard-copy of Book 1 at a used book sale for pennies, and bought it, but was waffling about reading it or donating it. I think I shall give it a whirl.

Thanks again! ~ L

>51 empress8411: - empress8411, you're most welcome, and I'd love to know what you think when you do!

I really need to finish that Susan Cooper series. I enjoyed The Dark in Rising much more than the first one. But I stopped there.

Let us know how you like that John Reader book.

53> At least read The Grey King. Greenwitch is better than Over Sea Under Stone (a lot better), but it's not a patch on The Grey King. I may just have a preference for the stories focused on Will rather than timeshares with the Drew family :)

I actually prefer Greenwitch to The Grey King. But really, you won't go too far wrong with any of them. Over Sea, Under Stone was written almost 20 years before The Dark is Rising, and really doesn't fit into the series well.

SylviaC - I didn't know that. That explains a lot about the disconnect. I thought maybe it was just something the author did. ~ L

> 53 - I agree with imyril; at least read The Grey King. I also have a preference for the Will-centric stories.

Hopefully, I can dip into the John Reader book soon, and I'll post my thoughts on it. I'm still trying to finish The Telling Room. My overall impression is still "interesting, but terribly long-winded".

> 55 - SylviaC, it almost feels as though Over Sea, Under Stone was written for a different audience too; that it was targeted to a younger age group than the other books when she picked up the series again. Do you know if that was the case?

It does seem targeted to a younger audience. It was written as a self contained book, Cooper's life went on, then she decided to write the rest of the series. Those four books were planned out together, right down to the closing words of the last book. She talks about her books in an interview on her website: http://www.thelostland.com/about/interview.html.

> 59 - SylviaC, I just spent a very pleasant half an hour reading that interview, and other bits of the website. Thanks very much :)

I found that interview quite interesting, especially when she talks about the influences of her life experiences on her writing.

I was very surprised when I first discovered she had been married to Hume Cronyn. But not as surprised as when I learned that Robin McKinley is married to Peter Dickinson

> 61 - I quite have to agree with you on that last bit! I had very similar reactions.

I have finally - finally - finished The Telling Room, and that statement alone says much about how I feel about it. I need to organize my thoughts to do a proper review, as it is an ER book, however, my overall impressions are - the author was long-winded, and the book tedious. Not a great combination at all.

Paterniti had a point he wanted to portray, and a mood he wanted to evoke, but I really didn't need to be beaten over the head with it for 350-plus pages. I'm mostly irritated by the fact that it was an interesting story that he utterly buried in page after page of tedium.

I'll add a link to the review when I finish it.

Should be moving on to Divergent now, in preparation for seeing the movie with my nephew, but instead I picked up this: Criminal Minds: Sociopaths, Serial Killers, and Other Deviants by Jeff Mariotte, and I was instantly hooked.

It sounds weird to say I'm fascinated by deviant behavior, especially in terms of serial killers and murder on the whole, but well, there's really no other way to put it. Although, if I'd had the opportunities when they counted, I most probably would have gone into forensics.

So far, this book is just an overview of many cases I'm already familiar with, and as an official tie-in to the TV series, I don't expect it to go in-depth anywhere. Also, the author appears to be treating the material seriously, which I appreciate. I'm just about 50 pages in, but it's a good read thus far.

Wait, what? Susan Cooper was married to Hume Cronyn? Was this before or after Jessica Tandy? Must run off an google this.

Okay, got all the info I needed. I never knew this, though I do remember hearing he remarried.

Just did a quick update to my February Books completed post. I managed four books in eight days, which is nothing short of amazing, considering all the other stuff that's been going on!

Still have my review of The Telling Room to write, which I hope to get to this coming weekend.

I really enjoyed The Winter People - Jennifer McMahon, which was totally, utterly creepy ... and I just loved every bit of it! I've read all her books so far, except her YA, and enjoyed them all.

On to Bury This - Andrea Portes - and I have no idea why I decided on this one. I was just browsing through books on my Note8, came across this, and started it last night.

#55 by @SylviaC> that's interesting that Over Sea, Under Stone doesn't fit the rest of the series. I've put off reading The Dark is Rising having not been particularly impressed with the other. Perhaps I'll reconsider...

>67 majkia:
You definitely shouldn't judge the rest of the series based on Over Sea, Under Stone. Cooper's writing changed significantly between the publication of the first two books. The first seems like generic children's fantasy, whereas The Dark is Rising has a more distinctive style and story.

Thirding the recommendation for The Dark is Rising...

And The Winter People is now on my wishlist...

>67 majkia: - I can't recommend The Dark is Rising enough. I really don't think you'd regret reading it at all.

> 69 - Marissa, I'd love to hear what you think of The Winter People when you read it. McMahon is one of the authors whose books I always buy, and this is my favourite after Dismantled.

Adding my encouragement for Majkia to read The dark is rising ... ;-)

I rounded out February with Bury This, which turned out to be a decent - though not particularly original - story buried in pretty awful writing. A kind of wannabe stream-of-consciousness style that was mostly annoying, especially as it was used for every single character. It defies belief that all your characters' internal thought processes are exactly alike.

I really only finished it because I wanted to see if I was right about who the killer was, and because I wanted to know why it happened. Doubtful I'd ever pick up another book by this author.

March started with Stranger in the Room - Amanda Kyle Williams. I really enjoyed her previous book featuring Keye Street, and was looking forward to this book. Not particularly complex stories, and somewhat obvious "good guys" and "bad guys", but I really like Keye. I'll continue reading this series to see how she continues to develop.

I haven't read much SciFi or Fantasy as yet this year, and I seem to be on a mystery kick right now, but it's not deliberate. I'm just picking up whatever seems interesting (and somewhat easy) most of the time, as everything else is so hectic at the moment.

Just begun The Girl Who Disappeared Twice - Andrea Kane.

I'm reading Verne's classic 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. It's very interesting, but all the talk of seafood feasts makes me hungry!

>73 empress8411: - empress8411 - I can see how that would happen!

I've totally breezed through the three books in the Forensic Instincts series by Andrea Kane in five days. I read the first one, and thoroughly enjoyed it, and just snapped up the other two and read them one after the other.

All of the books are very easy reads, and not exactly the most believable scenarios either. The characters are almost too perfect to be true, with all the advantages they need (money, technology, training) to form a perfect investigative organization. Additionally, it's pretty clear who are the "bad guys" from very early on, so there's not much surprise involved.

However, that said, I quite liked the characters, and the stories were better plotted over the course of the three books. They were just the book candy I needed right now. I would definitely read more books by her, although I would stick to her suspense books.

Still reading in mystery/thriller vein; moving on to Trouble in Mind - Jeffrey Deaver

Finished up Trouble in Mind on Sunday, and started Irene - Pierre LeMaitre (no touchstone for the book coming up)

I was somewhat busy yesterday, so didn't make any comments on Trouble in Mind. Jeffery Deaver is one of my favourite authors, and I love both the Lincoln Rhyme and Katherine Dance novels.

Some of these stories were published previously, but somehow I've never read any of them before. I enjoyed most of the stories, some of which I found had clever twists. There was one that was rather predictable, but I still liked it. There was one character, Talbot Simms, a statistician in the story "Forever", who I would really love to see in a longer novel.

I finished Pierre LeMaitre's Irene in two days, and it was as fantastic as the previous novel Alex (can't get touchstone for this one either).

Both books were fascinating, though the stories were very different. My biggest problem with the second book, Irene, is that having read the first book, I already knew something very critical about what was going to happen, and this coloured my reading all the way through. From the very first page, knowing that Irene was going to die, and that Camille was heading for the worst failure, knowing so much affected how I felt about getting further and further into the book. I believe I would have had a much better reading experience had Irene been published before Alex. Nevertheless, I will be snapping up book three as soon as it is available.

Started Divergent last night, and read some more during lunch. Fast read so far, and I'm interested to see where it goes. Liking what I've seen of the characters to this point, especially Tris. It will be at least a week after it opens that I go to see the movie - enough time to debate with nephew what we hope to see. We're both avoiding looking for stills etc. online.

Just sailed through Divergent last night ... lost about two hours of sleep doing it too, but I just could not put it down. Just all round great story. Loved it, and looking forward to the movie. Decided that I won't move on to Insurgent or Allegiant until I've seen the movie.

Picked up Beauty - Robin McKinley almost by accident ... it was just there, and I started it over breakfast this morning.

I'm just about to start Divergent so seeing this makes me hope I'm in for an enjoyable read!

Well Beauty was certainly a fast read! Finished it last night. For the most part, I enjoyed it. McKinley mostly stuck to the major outline of the fairy tale, and the things she added/changed enhanced the story. However, the ending felt really rushed and didn't seem to fit with the rest of the book. It really threw me off, and sadly, that's the bit that stuck with me.

Reading that however, led me to Cruel Beauty - Rosamund Hodge which was a friend's recommendation. Only got a few pages into it last night before bed, but I already like Nyx, the main character.

>81 Peace2: I definitely think you are! I'd love to hear what you think of it when you're done.

Beauty was one of my favourites as a teenager. I still like it a lot, but you are right about the end being rushed. Everything suddenly gets resolved in a sudden whoosh of magic. But then, I guess that's what a fairytale ending is.

>84 SylviaC: You're right, but then why re-write it at all if you're not going to give the entire thing the same treatment? I think that's what irritated me the most - so much interesting differences from the fairy tale during the story, then bam, right back to the old ending. The typical fairy tale ending didn't fit the rest of the story McKinley was trying to tell.

>84 SylviaC:, >85 sangreal: McKinley seems to have thought the same thing, as she retold the tale again some years later as Rose daughter. I think she may have a page about the two books on her website, explaining her reasons for the two versions.

>86 Sakerfalcon: Oh, that's just brilliant! I have that book as well, but I never realized it was a re-telling of the same story. I thought it was a different story altogether, and figured I'd read it somewhere down the road. Needless to say, it's going to get read sometime very soon.

Going to check out the website. Thanks Claire!

You're welcome! Check out Robin's blog while you're there, if you haven't seen it before. It's a fun read once you get used to her footnotes!

>88 Sakerfalcon: I've just spent the last half hour of my lunch break doing exactly that! She is absolutely hilarious ... and I don't mind the footnotes at all. I read some of the other stuff on her site as well, including the "Author as Bitch from Hell ..." essay, and laughed myself silly.

I'm going to bookmark her blog on my Tab, so I can quickly dip in whenever I need a laugh, plus she has an entire serial story on there which needs to be read. Such fun!

I haven't read Rose Daughter, because I've heard that it's darker, and I was afraid that it would affect my enjoyment of Beauty. I followed the blog for awhile, but finally decided that I just don't have enough hours in my day to really do it justice.

>83 sangreal: I've started Divergent and am finding it fascinating and am wishing I could read more at a time (I have one of those colds that make one headachy and give streaming eyes which too much reading seems to be exacerbating unfortunately). I'm approaching the halfway point and there are lots of bits that are making me go...'Oooh, I wonder if that means....' or 'Hmmm, interesting, why are we being told that?' which is always promising. Lots of thoroughly unpleasant people as counterbalance to the 'goodness' of the main characters (even when they're not being good by our standards!). It's an interesting premise so far.

>90 SylviaC: I totally understand what you mean. Rose Daughter does appear to be darker and more 'real' than Beauty. Interestingly enough, that's why I do want to read it.

I'm not a particularly good follower ... of anything, not just blogs. I'd never have enough hours in my day either! My usual method is to bookmark it, and just dip in when I'm in the mood.

>91 Peace2: Oh, I do hope you get over that cold quickly! I can just imagine how awful you must be feeling, especially if reading makes it worse :(

Yes, I did do a fair bit of the "Ooh, I wonder if ..." etc, while I was reading, and quite a few of those thoughts ended up playing out. I also do like the balance between the 'good' and 'bad' characters, but even more than that, I loved the balance within the individual characters themselves ... most are neither fully 'good' or fully 'bad'. Roth does a good job of making them seem like real people with real choices to make, and then the consequences to deal with afterward.

>90 SylviaC:, >92 sangreal: Compared to Beauty, Rose daughter is darker, but it is a bright summer's day compared to Deerskin so I wouldn't let that put you off!

@sangreal, I'm so glad you've enjoyed the blog! She is extremely entertaining, and not shy about expressing her feelings ... Also, I adore the hellcritters!

>93 sangreal: With regular breaks I made it through the rest of Divergent and have moved straight on to Insurgent (I just couldn't resist knowing it was there on the shelf all ready and waiting to be read). I know what you mean about the balance within the individual characters (but I'd just been reading about Peter when I wrote about the 'bad' characters and both he and Jeanine have little to redeem them so far!) Within the others though, it's interesting to see that balance and also to see Tris' rationalisations (or attempts at rationalising) what she sees in herself particularly. I got a couple of chapters into Insurgent and decided I had to have Allegiant ready to read immediately afterwards. So I stopped by Amazon to order it! (It won't be as cheap as the two I picked up in charity shops but hopefully it'll be worth it).

I think most of my 'I wonder if' moments ended up being right, but it will be interesting to see if my predictive pattern continues into the next book.

Are you intending going to see the movie? It's not out here for another couple of weeks at least, so I'd be interested if you do see it on whether it will be worth it or whether it can't live up to the book.

Thanks for the good wishes with regard to the cold. I think I'm on the mend, although a long day at work put me back a little to how I woke up, but overall - definitely improving :D

>94 Sakerfalcon: Yes, I thought hellcritters was a particularly appropriate name, after I considered the shenanigans mine get up to! Has me laughing every time I read about them.

>95 Peace2: I wasn't so much looking for a balance between 'good' and 'bad' characteristics within the characters, but more a balance in terms of the existence of the characters. By that I mean that while Peter and Jeanine really don't have much to redeem them, Roth doesn't have 'evil' characters just because she needed a villain. Instead, Peter could very easily have a clinical diagnosis we are familiar with, and some of those persons would naturally gravitate to the Dauntless lifestyle, and Jeanine really believes that what she is doing is the means to a necessary end.

I definitely want to see the movie - in fact, I picked up the book in the first place in preparation to seeing it with my nephew when it does come out (not for a few weeks for me either). We can definitely discuss it when we both have seen it.

I'm saving Insurgent and Allegiant for after I see the movie. Once I have seen it though, I know I'll just rip through both books - or at least I hope so, if they're as good.

Glad to know you're on the mend :)

I finished Cruel Beauty this morning: I read during my commute to work, and had just ten pages left, so of course I had to read them when I got into the office.

This one took me a while, and although that was partly because I had no time to read at all this past weekend, I will say - don't expect this one to be a quick, easy, YA fairy-tale re-telling. It's a much more complex telling of the Beauty and the Beast story, and while there are many familiar elements, a lot of the character motivations get completely turned on their heads. I'd consider this one more of a fantasy with a young protagonist, rather than fantasy aimed at the YA market.

The characters are rounded, complicated people (or demons!), with resentment, anger, selfishness and pettiness balanced against the desire to do good, the willingness to be dutiful, kindness and concern. That, along with the layered world development and storyline makes it a book to which you have to dedicate some mental energy. It's totally worth it though. The writing is just beautiful, approaching pure poetry in some parts.

As long as you don't go into it expecting an easy read, and you like some substance to your fantasy, you're definitely going to enjoy this one.

Now I think I'm going straight to Rose Daughter, because I feel that Cruel Beauty was a definitive enough break from Beauty, so I won't automatically be comparing the two McKinley books, but I'm still in the Beauty and the Beast mindset.

>98 sangreal: Comparing Rose Daughter and Beauty is a unique thing, being that both are written by the same author about the same fairy tale, just 20 years apart. Beauty was Robin McKinley's first book. Have you read her Deerskin? I agree with a previous comment - it's a dark novel, but fabulous. One of my favorites by her, next to The Blue Sword.

If you like McKinley, you will probably enjoy Dealing with Dragons by Patricia C. Wrede. It's not dark at all. It's hilarious! The whole series is good, but the first two are the best!

Just a quick update - finished Rose Daughter, and while I enjoyed it, I prefer Beauty. It felt to me that Rose Daughter lost some of the magic in the retelling. The one thing I really liked was that the Beast did not change back, and Beauty had the choice to make that happen or not.

>99 empress8411: I will definitely add Deerskin to my wishlist, as I've had several recommendations for it. I've also read all of Patricia C. Wrede's Enchanted Forest chronicles, and yes, laughed my way all through them! Cimorene is one of my favourite characters ever!

On to The 100 now, and listening to Doctor Sleep during my commute. Not too happy about it so far, and I may just stop and pick up the book itself, but more about that later on.

Well clearly, I had a fun birthday, seeing that I can't manage to finish Doctor Sleep as yet!! Truthfully, work has been getting in the way quite a bit this week. My manager's away, and that just puts a lot more pressure on the rest of us. I've been trying to read a little every day for the ReadaThing, but haven't been able to get in more than an hour or two each day, and I'm finding Doctor Sleep somewhat slow going.

Part of the reason for that is that I just gave up on the audiobook. I just hated the narrator's voice; he sounded as though he has a 10-pack-a-day cigarette habit! Just awful. As a result, I ended up buying the ebook, and starting again from the beginning. Now that I can read at my own pace, and everyone sounds better in my head, I'm enjoying it so much more.

Finally finished Doctor Sleep yesterday, and overall I enjoyed it. I deliberately didn't go into it with expectations of it having the same effect on me that The Shining did, especially considering both author and reader were totally different people for each book.

The beginning is very slow, and it took me quite a while to get through it - I found some of it could have been condensed. However, by the time I got to the second third it really started to move, and I pretty much sailed through it after that. Loved the creepiness and the continual rise in tension. The ending was somewhat telegraphed, but not too badly, and there were a couple of scary spots there toward the end, so all in all, I was very satisfied. Loved all the characters, especially adult Dan, and Abra most of all.

This was my first Stephen King in a long time, and it reminded me why I've always loved his books. I started 11/22/63 last night, and also realized I've never read Under the Dome. I may move to that one afterward, depending on how I feel.

I had to wait for Under the Dome to become available, but in the meantime, I realized I had a few short novels/stories by Stephen King that I hadn't read yet. I totally binged on them, reading them all out in about four days, after finishing 11/22/63, which I loved, by the way! Under the Dome still isn't available yet, so I've moved on to 20th Century Ghosts - Joe Hill.

Yikes! It's certainly been a while since I've updated ... April is gone, and May begun. I blame the happy occasions of my dad's birthday in late April, and my 5th Anniversary on 3rd May. I definitely did not read at all this past weekend, as we were out for the majority of it. Well, I had a lot of fun, that's for sure.

I finished both 20th Century Ghosts and Under the Dome in April, but read nothing else. I'm considering a re-read of The Dark Tower series, but haven't quite made up my mind ... not sure why.

After a couple of days had passed and I hadn't yet started The Gunslinger - or anything else for that matter - I realized I wasn't in the mood to read it, so I moved on to something else.

I've read The Storied Life of A. J. Fikry - Gabrielle Zevin, and absolutely loved it! I've enjoyed her writing style before, but I loved her characters in this one much more than her YA characters that I've encountered.

Just started The Word Exchange - Alena Graedon, and finding myself hauling out the dictionary a time or two - something that does not often happen to me. So far, I'm liking it a lot - a very interesting blend of mystery, the technological future, character and language. Hopefully, it lives up to the start.

Almost the end of the month, and very little reading done! It's just been one of those months. Finished The Word Exchange, and also Boy, Snow, Bird - Helen Oyeyemi, but that's pretty much it for this month. Don't know if I'll get another one in by the weekend.

Wrapped up May with three Jeffery Deaver books - the new full-length Lincoln Rhyme, The Skin Collector, plus two short ones, A Textbook Case and An Acceptable Sacrifice. Those were courtesy of the three-day weekend I had at the end of the month.

On to The Blue Girl and The Devil's Workshop, both by Alex Grecian. Nice start to June.

As usual, I must plead work! Only finished The Devil's Workshop on Sunday 8th, and started Mr. Mercedes then as well ... I've only got about about 50 pages in. Had a migraine start yesterday too, so that's curtailed my reading. Hopefully, today will be better, work-wise, headache-wise and reading-wise!

I had a bumper reading weekend. We had a four-day holiday weekend, beginning last Thursday. I'd finished Mr. Mercedes on Wednesday, and started and finished The Purity of Vengeance on Thursday. This was just as good as the previous books in the series. My only complaint is that the characters haven't really developed as much as I would have liked by this point. There's some backstory on Rose, but only more hints about Assad, and just a little development of the story involving Carl and his previous partners. Makes me anxious for the next one though!

I went on to That Night - Chevy Stevens. I've read all of her previous books, and thought this one was by far the weakest. Good story, but fairly typical ... sort of 'been there, done that'. Even the twist at the end was not all that surprising. At least in Stevens' hands, it was still a good read.

Afterwards, I decided to work my way through Leigh Bardugo's Ruin and Rising, along with two of her short stories, then Scarlet and Cress by Marissa Meyer, plus three of the short stories from that series. Loved the previous books in both series, and these were no disappointment. Bardugo's Grisha series had a very satisfying ending for me (though I was a little reminded of the end of Mockingjay there. I'm anxiously looking forward to both Fairest and Winter (can't find touchstone) from Meyer next year.

It was a marvelous weekend!! Sadly, back to work today, and slowing right down again, I'm certain :(

I also bought the entire Harry Potter series on audio from Pottermore, and have started listening to them during my daily commute. Jim Dale is just so amazing!

Wowsa! Sounds like a wonderful reading immersion weekend. Hmm, Harry Potter on audio? That could be a lot of fun.

Oh yes, Mrs. Lee, it was truly wonderful. It's been more than a year since I've had a weekend like that, and I relished it!

The Harry Potter audio is more than fun. I would recommend it to anyone. I've only got about an hour commute in total each day, and I'm happily anticipating that the series could last me at least a couple of months!

I added The Girl With All the Gifts - M. R. Carey and Enders - Lissa Price to my June list, as I finished both of them in the last few days.

Enders was quite a disappointment after the first in the series, Starters. I'd really enjoyed that one, and was hoping the sequel would have been just as good, but it definitely wasn't. It felt very disjointed, and neither the action nor characters were particular memorable.

The Girl With All the Gifts was a much more interesting take on a zombie-novel. Considering that's a category that I generally avoid, I surprised myself by taking this one on, but I was glad I did. Melanie was a fascinating character, and the varying factors competing to control her life, while she is focused on just understanding what is going on around her, make for compelling reading. I didn't anticipate the end, but it made a lot of sense, and came full circle as well.

Moved on to MaddAddam - Margaret Atwood, which is turning out not be as enticing as the first two in the series, but that might probably be because I was expecting something of a progression but instead this book seems to be mostly backstory, which while fascinating, isn't really doing much to advance the story - to my mind anyway. I'm about two-thirds of the way through, so we shall see whether that changes.

I like Mike Carey's Felix Castor series so will eventually be picking up The Girl with all the Gifts at some point. Always nice to see confirmation that it's good though.

The Girl With All the Gifts sounds very intriguing. I hadn't heard of it before. Onto the wishlist it goes.

>114 sandragon: Glad I could help with that :))

Well heck. I'm an easy mark :D
But it does sound good.

I have heard so many good things about The girl with all the gifts that I bought it yesterday rather than wait to see if the library gets it. The clerk who rang up the sale then told me what a great book it was too. Now I just need to fit it into my reading schedule.

>116 sandragon: LOL ... so am I, so I do understand.

>117 Sakerfalcon: Do let me know what you think when you've read it.

Finished MaddAddam last night, and overall my disappointment remained. Oryx and Crake remains the best book of the trilogy, and while I enjoyed The Year of the Flood, with the different perspectives of the same events, this last book just seemed to plod along, with a bunch of backstory that I didn't really care about.

My biggest problem is that nothing much happened, and when there were things that happened, they did so off-screen; for example the final fight with the Painballers, Jimmy's death, Zeb's death, Toby's death ... and oh yeah, they all died. The Craker-human babies was interesting, but didn't have the impact for me that it probably should have.

I think she could safely have stopped after Oryx and Crake.

I've moved on to Terminal City - Linda Fairstein. I've read very little SciFi or Fantasy so far for the year. Maybe I can change that in the second half of the year, but I'm just reading where my mind takes me, so we'll see.

OH! I was notified that I won The Girl with All the Gifts in the Early Reviewer program. I didn't remember requesting it, or what it was about or anything, now I'm glad. :)

>114 sandragon: If you want to wait until it arrives and I finish it, I would be happy to send it on to you, but I don't know how long that will be. I always read my ER books right away, but it can take a long time for them to arrive.

>120 MrsLee: Nice! I hope you enjoy it.

>120 MrsLee: Thank you! That's very kind of you, and would be lovely. I'd be happy to receive it at any time, no worries about how long it might take. I have many books to keep me company in the meantime :)

Finished Terminal City over the weekend, and promptly started The Silkworm - Robert Galbraith. So much for moving to fantasy/scifi!

Finished The Silkworm, which I quite enjoyed. Started Dreams of Gods and Monsters - Laini Taylor.

Probably going to have a lot of shorter messages for a while - both work and personal stuff are getting more hectic. What free time I have, I'm spending it reading.

Couldn't sleep last night, so used the time well - finishing Dreams of Gods and Monsters. Somehow, I didn't quite enjoy this as much as the first two, and I still think the first book was the best of the series, but it was still enjoyable.

Won't have much reading time in the next two weeks; birthdays abound! DH, Mom and two nephews!

I picked up The Casual Vacancy - J. K. Rowling last Friday night, and finished it last night. Definitely a slow read for me, but had nothing to do with the book, even at around 900 pages, and everything to do with not having enough reading time.

Many of the complaints I've seen about this book had at their core an expectation that the tone would be similar to the Harry Potter books, even if the story wasn't. I didn't go in expecting that at all, and was actually hoping for something very different, which in essence, I got. While some of the characters were somewhat stereotypical - the Sikh doctor, the council-estate prostitute/heroin addict trying to keep her children, etc. - the way the story was crafted was more than sufficient to excuse these. In fact, I'm thinking now that Rowling may have used those stereotypical characters quite deliberately, because they weren't, for the most part, flat characters.

What I enjoyed most was the effect of layers of emotion, motivation, history and action that were peeled away bit by bit, each time exposing one more link in an interesting chain. As each new connection was revealed, the reader had a sense that everything was building to some very specific conclusion, which in fact, it did.

My biggest disappointment was that the book ended where it did. I got to the last page to be quite surprised that I was at the end of the book. There were many things left unresolved, leaving the reader to think about how some of the occurrences in the last few chapters would have changed the persons involved, and thus change (or not) the motivations that were driving them. I think I got so caught up in the life of Pagford, that I could have spent many more days finding out exactly how each person dealt with the changes. Ah well, it couldn't last forever :)

I'm not quite sure what I'm in the mood to move to right now, so I will review my TBR lists and see if something catches my eye.

After a few books started and stopped, because I just wasn't feeling them at the moment, I almost accidentally picked up The Coroner's Lunch - Colin Cotterill, and found myself reading it out in two nights. I completely enjoyed this one. Lots of unique characters, and I loved the faintly gentle mocking tone of the entire thing.

I've read (or listened to) his Jimm Juree series, and enjoyed the humor in those, but there's a more serious tone to the Paiboun series, and I found the different culture perspective very fascinating.

I've already moved on to book 2, Thirty-Three Teeth, and am enjoying it as much as the first. I'll probably work my way quite greedily through the entire series.

Finished Thirty-Three Teeth, and after a small interlude to read Bones and Roses - Eileen Goudge, which I received from the author's publicist and have to review, I have once more sunk into 1970's Laos with Disco for the Departed. I am really, really loving this series!!

I rounded out July with one more Cotterill - Anarchy and Old Dogs, which was just as good as the previous ones. I've also finished the next in the series Curse of the Pogo Stick, and I've noticed that as the books progress, they are leaning more and more towards the supernatural and less of the mystery, but the characters are carrying the books for me.

I've also had a quick read of Books 1 to 3 in the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series, as I always pre-read what I give the little ones in my life to read. These went to my seven-year-old cousin.

It was a long weekend for me, so I had ample time to read. I finished Gilded and As Red as Blood, both from the KindleFirst program. Both were good, and I'd probably read the next in each series, but neither was fantastic for me, although the mythology in Gilded was rather a fresh take.

From Wednesday, I will be on vacation for two whole weeks, and will be going across to Tobago for ten days. Sun, sand and books! Nothing could be better :)

Wow! It has been three and a half MONTHS! since I've added anything to this thread. Yikes. In short, vacation happened, then the return to work which was tough as we had two people leave the section.

Then my husband contracted a serious virus that's making the rounds of the Caribbean at the moment. Just when he started to feel better, I pulled a muscle in my back and was flat in bed for three weeks. Tomorrow I will be heading back out to work.

In between all of that, Divali was on October 23rd this year, and being Hindu, that means a busy but wonderful time was had by all.

On the whole, a very hectic three and a half months. Not that things are going to slow down any, because I'm going back to an office two people short and Christmas is almost upon us. I did manage to find some time to read in the last three weeks, but not that much because I was either awake and in pain, or asleep.

I've added the few books read to my lists above.

>130 sangreal: You have had a hectic time. I hope all the unplanned problems are behind you now and that you can get back to your primary purpose: Reading.
;-)
Keep well.

(Apologies for the unintended, but difficult to avoid, puns.)

>131 pgmcc: Oh please, never apologize for puns! I can never get enough of them :)

Thanks for the good wishes ... my primary purpose is a-calling my name!

The rest of the year has come and gone without me adding anything to this thread, but it's time to wrap this one up and move on to 2015.

Lots of reasons why I didn't read as much as I wanted to this year, and definitely didn't keep up with this thread as I would have liked, but the real reason was to keep track of what I read all in one place, and that I definitely achieved, so all in all, I'm satisfied.

I read 92 books this year. Mostly new reads, just a few re-reads, but also mostly easy reads. Hopefully I can increase the number of challenging books in 2015, but I'm not going to worry about it, because I read to relax and detox my brain, so if the need for the easy reads is there, I'll be good with that.

On to 2015!

>133 sangreal: Happy New Year!

Thank you very much, and a very Happy New Year to you as well, full of wonderful reading, and all you wish for yourself!