AlisonY - from 5 Annually to 50 in 2015? Part II

Starting off part II of my thread with a bit of shameless promotion of N. Ireland. This is the beautiful 'Dark Hedges' drive.

2015 Reading Track

January
1. On Chesil Beach - read (4.5 stars)
2. Fathomless Riches: Or How I Went from Pop to Pulpit - read (4.5 stars)
3. Miss Smilla's Feeling for Snow - read (3.5 stars)
4. The Hours - read (5 stars)
5. The Major of Casterbridge - read (5 stars)
6. The Idea of Perfection - read (4 stars)
7. If nobody speaks of remarkable things by Jon McGregor - read (2.5 stars)

February
8. The Blind Assassin - read (4 stars)
9. Oranges are Not the Only Fruit by Jeanette Winterson - read (4 stars)
10. On the Road - read (2.5 stars)
11. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society by Mary Ann Shaffer - read (4.5 stars)
12. The Woman in White - read (4 stars)
13. To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf - read (5 stars)
14. Night by Elie Wiesel - read (5 stars)
15. Dress your Family in Corduroy and Denim by David Sedaris - read (4 stars)

March
16. Someone at a Distance by Dorothy Whipple - read (4.5 stars)
17. Disgrace by J. M. Coetzee - read (3.5 stars)
18. The Stone Diaries by Carol Shields - read (3.5 stars)
19. The Reader by Bernhard Schlink - read (4.5 stars)
20. The Sense of an Ending - read (3.5 stars)
21. The Easter Parade by Richard Yates - read (5 stars)
22. The Go-Between - read (3 stars)
23. Stranger's Child - read (4 stars)
24. Between the Acts by Virginia Woolf - read (4.5 stars)

April
25. This is the Country by William Wall - read (4.5 stars)
26. The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield - read (4 stars)
27. Let me Go by Helga Schneider - read (3.5 stars)
28. Felicia's Journey by William Trevor - read (4 stars)
29. The Shock of the Fall - read (3.5 stars)
30. Hotel du Lac by Anita Brookner - read (5 stars)
31. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button by F. Scott Fitzgerald - read (4 stars)
32. Brooklyn by Colin Toibin - read (5 stars)
33. Bastard Out of Carolina by Dorothy Allison - read (5 stars)
34. As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner - read (4 stars)
35. Julius Winsome: A Novel by Gerard Donovan - read (3.5 stars)

May
36. The Book of Negroes by Lawrence Hill - read (4 stars)
37. A Death in the Family: My Struggle Book 1 by Karl Ove Knausgaard - read (4.5 stars)
38. Outpost of Occupation by Barry Turner - read (3 stars)
39. Nothing to Envy: Real Lives in North Korea by Barbara Demick - read (4 stars)
40. Hotel Iris by Yoko Ogawa- read (4 stars)
41. Death in Venice and Other Stories by Thomas Mann - read (3 stars)

June

42. Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte - read (3.5 stars)
43. The Man Who Mistook his Wife for a Hat - read (4 stars)
44. Plainsong by Kent Haruf - read (5 stars)
45. HHhH by Laurent Binet - read (5 stars)
46. Cold Spring Harbor by Richard Yates - read (3.5 stars)
47. Villages by John Updike - read (4 stars)

July

48. The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen - read (4.5 stars)
49. On the Night Plain by J. Robert Lennon - read (3.5 stars)
50. Girl with a Pearl Earring by Tracy Chevalier - read (5 stars)
51. Stolen Lives: Twenty Years in a Desert Jail by Malika Oufkir - read (5 stars)
52. The Wasp Factory by Iain Banks - in progress

If you added Spanish moss to those trees, it would look like some of the roads in low country South Carolina.

But you have a lot more sunshine to filter through your trees! :)

What a fabulous photo header! And a great idea to promote Northern Ireland.

>5 VivienneR: thanks Vivienne. I'm building up to getting everyone over for the first Club Read party ;)

>6 AlisonY: Count me in!

>6 AlisonY:
The mood in the picture is wonderful. With the sun the tree limbs shelter people on the road, but on a dark, windy night they would be quite frighting as they whipped above their head.

>8 pmarshall: I agree. I love that about trees - love the whole atmospherics of them.

>1 AlisonY: Gorgeous picture. I could look at that all day! Coming back down to earth, do you happen to know what kind of trees those are?

They're beech trees, Suzanne, thought to be around 300 years old. They even have their own ghost:

This beautiful avenue of beech trees was planted by the Stuart family in the eighteenth century. It was intended as a compelling landscape feature to impress visitors as they approached the entrance to their Georgian mansion, Gracehill House. Two centuries later, the trees remain a magnificent sight and have become one of the most photographed natural phenomena in Northern Ireland.

However, many visitors are unaware of the supernatural 'Grey Lady' who appears at dusk among the trees. She silently glides along the roadside and vanishes as she passes the last beech tree. Some say the mysterious spectre is the ghost of a maid from the nearby house who died in mysterious circumstances centuries ago. Others believe that she is a lost spirit from an abandoned graveyard that is thought to lie hidden in the fields nearby. On Hallowe'en night, the forgotten graves are said to open and the Grey Lady is joined on her walk by the tormented souls of those who were buried beside her.

Thanks, Alison! I can believe there is a Grey Lady lurking there!

Your review on your old thread has bumped Bastard Out of Carolina way further up my to read list. I read the first chapter a long time ago, but it was my sister's book and she took it back to school with her.

>13 mabith: I thought it was a fantastic piece of writing. Borrow it back from her!

>1 AlisonY: So Beautiful - it looks like a painting by David Hockney

>15 baswood: it's very calming, isn't it?

Great review of Bastard Out of Carolina from your previous thread, Alison. I'll be on the lookout for it soon.

34. Review - As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner

This was my first Faulkner book; I'd expected it to be fairly arduous, but once I got into the swing of the language and his style of prose I really enjoyed it.

Written in a modernist stream of consciousness style, the story is about the death and burial of Addie Bundren, as observed by her children, husband, and other characters from the surrounding area. It's one of those books where nothing much happens and yet everything happens. At the beginning of the book we learn about the perceived natures of each of the family members through different narrator perspectives, and as the journey to bury Addie progresses we see their true colours emerge, concluding with different opinions of them than was originally presented to us.

There were many moments of black humour throughout, often to do with poor deceased Mrs Bundren in her homemade coffin as the final journey to her hometown continually got derailed.

Faulkner's method of narration left a bit of work for the reader at times, so I read the online Sparknotes for the book as I went to make sure my understanding was staying on the right track.

4 stars for a very different and worthwhile read.

>17 kidzdoc: thanks. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

I keep promising myself I'll get back to Faulkner and not doing it. Maybe this year!

And I'd never heard of Bastard Out of Carolina, but it sounds like I should have. On the TBR list it goes.

>21 AlisonY: I hadn't heard of BOOC before either. It was written in the 1990s, but is set (very successfully) in the 1950s.

I swear that I'm sure I read BOOC many years ago, but I don't show it in my library. I probably read it when it first came out in paperback. Your enthusiasm is making me think of reading again at some point.

>22 NanaCC: I always feel a nervousness that I'll bang on about how great a book is and then other people will read it on my recommendation and hate it.

I feel a responsibility to forewarn anyone interested in reading BOOC that child abuse is a key part of the storyline, hence why it makes for very difficult reading in some parts.

35. Review - Julius Winsome: A Novel by Gerard Donovan

A definite page-turner, this is the story of a man who lives a reclusive but contented life in a cabin in the woods in Maine. One afternoon his dog is deliberately shot at close range, and his grief and anger for the senseless killing of his faithful companion pushes him over the edge into an erratic and violent quest for justice.

This protagonist (Julius Winsome) is quite limited in his depth of emotion, or at least in his ability to understand his emotions, so there is a certain starkness that prevails throughout the narrative. Written in the first person, his interactions with other characters is limited, so coupled with his own social and emotional limitations this perhaps restricts the connection that the reader could make with the story and with him as a character. I felt like an interested observer to the narrative, but wasn't fully pulled into it by my heart strings.

That said, there was a good amount of suspense that kept me turning the pages long after I should have gone to bed, although I felt that Donovan perhaps could have built the suspense up a little more at the beginning before launching into the main stream of events.

3.5 stars - an enjoyable, read on a plane for a few hours type of quick read.

Good review of As I Lay Dying. Especially interesting for me because my bookclub has chosen Faulkner's The Sound and the Fury to read.

>25 baswood: will be interested to hear what you think of The Sound and the Fury as I dithered between choosing that and As I Lay Dying for my first Faulkner. I really did find the online Sparknotes useful to refer to regularly, as there were a few subtle but important points that I'd missed when reading by myself.

As the year goes on I get further and further behind everyone. So, lots to comment on:

>24 AlisonY: Do you learn the deeper reason of Julius Winsome's (losesome?) discontent? Or was it just the dog? Sorry, just being silly.

That's great you read As I Lay Dying. I still haven't read Faulkner (although I own several, and although two authors I have focused on have been described as Faulknerian - Cormac McCarthy and Toni Morrison)

And noting your enthusiasm for Bastard Out of Carolina.

>23 AlisonY: "I always feel a nervousness that I'll bang on about how great a book is and then other people will read it on my recommendation and hate it. "

Sometimes we love books so much that we tell everyone about them. But we have very personal relationships with these books. So, odds are, any person who follows the recommendation won't like as much. But I get a lot of *hearing* about your experiences with them. And now I have a place in memory to store the title, even if I don't read it.

Love that picture in the OP.

The picture in >1 AlisonY: is really wonderful. Imagining it as a book cover.

>18 AlisonY: - Glad to hear you liked As I Lay Dying. I haven't read anything by Faulkner yet, but that one is on the shelf.

>27 dchaikin: hey Dan. Yes, you do get some additional reason for Julius Winsome's discontent, but quite a lot of it was triggered by the dog! Essentially he'd just been living on his own for way too long.

>27 dchaikin: >28 DieFledermaus: interested to hear what you think about As I Lay Dying if you get around to reading it.

>18 AlisonY: Thank you for the review of As I lay Dying. I haven't read any Faulkner yet, and I had a completely different image of this book from the title. Makes me want to start with this one maybe, instead on The Sound and the Fury which was already on my wishlist (and I also have no idea what it's about).

>30 FlorenceArt: I quite fancy The Sound and the Fury, but he's one of those authors I need a definite gap in between books!

36. Review - The Book of Negroes by Lawrence Hill

A true epic, The Book of Negroes chronicles the life of an African girl sold into slavery in the 1700s and the heartbreaking events which took her across a number of continents over the decades.

This was very much a plot driven book, which took me a good 100 pages or so to get properly into. The first person narrative felt limiting in places - I didn't often get to connect with the true emotions of the protagonist, and at the beginning it felt quite like an averagely written chronicling of events. The plot saved it for me, though, and the harrowing story of both her slavery and difficult conditions under freedom kept it gripping.

This book was initially sold under Someone Knows my Name in other countries, as the publishers felt The Book of Negroes was too contentious a title in some regions. However, this refers to a real historical document which detailed the coloured people, both free and indentured, who sailed in desperation from New York - where they feared they would be recaptured into slavery - to become part of the first settlers of the then British colony of Nova Scotia.

A powerful and heartbreaking story of a desperate period in history, this was an enjoyable book but not my favourite style of writing.

4 stars though for a very poignant historical epic.

>32 AlisonY: Great review! I'm really happy my library has this one.

>32 AlisonY: Lawrence Hill later published a very short book Dear Sir, I intend to burn your book about a letter he received from Holland. It was a very interesting piece about race relations and censorship. My review is here if you are interested.

Really interesting review, Vivienne. I'd never heard of that essay. It's a shame the Dutch letter writer didn't have the foresight to at least read The Book of Negroes before he got on his soapbox about the title.

>35 AlisonY: Thanks Alison. Yes, it was a sad business all round. Now I have to admit that The Book of Negroes is still on my tbr list. But I do intend to read it.

37. Review - A Death in the Family: My Struggle Book 1 by Karl Ove Knausgaard

If you haven't heard of Karl Ove Knausgaard before, he is something of a national obsession in his native Norway on the back of this book and the subsequent 5 other volumes he has published about his life. He looks like the bad boy of literature - all messed up hair and cigarettes, mad and faintly dangerous in a compelling sort of way. He rocks that homeless man crossed with Bob Geldof kind of look.

I had read so much hype about this series of books I was almost afraid to start this hefty first volume in case it disappointed, but it was utterly captivating. I will not be able to do this book justice in whatever I review here, but I will have a go.

It is a memoir written as a novel - no doubt with a fair bit of fictional padding, and indeed it's sold as a work of fiction - but it's so cleverly done. I haven't read Proust, but this series of work has been compared to it in just about every review I've read. He writes in very long paragraphs with no chapters and few obvious places to stop reading, and much of it is in stream of consciousness style.

The first part of the book mainly reflects back on his childhood up to around the age of 16, particularly his relationship with his loving but mainly absent mum and his distant and difficult to please father. From time to time it skips back to present times, and in those parts Knausgaard does slip into arrogant self-obsessed philosophising and ruminating. I couldn't have read an entire book of this, but limited as it was his razor sharp observances were poignant and fascinating.

On the surface there is nothing particularly fascinating in his childhood to support a main plot line, but Knausgaard is such a skilful writer you are totally drawn into the story, unable to stop turning the pages. He pays such attention to the most minor of details that you are sucked right into that town in Norway, getting cold feet in the snowy streets with him, sitting beside him in school, feeling the acute discomfort of sitting in the kitchen in silence with his father.

The second part of the book focuses on the difficult few days in the immediate aftermath of his father's death (no spoiler - you're made aware that this is coming early on), returning to his home town to plan the funeral whilst trying to come to terms with the shocking level of self-destruction his dad's life had spiralled into. It is an acute account of the unexpected way in which his grief manifests itself, and again his observances are so pin sharp he touches every sense.

I loved this book. It is a magnifying glass inside someone's head, and he touches the little things that resonate so strongly with all of us (many of which we'd rather not admit to). He has deliberately set out to write an acclaimed work of literature, and in places it runs away with itself (or rather he disappears too far inside his own mind), but mostly it's immensely readable.

I will need a break before I delve into book 2 of the series, but I'm drawn to his writing and his life like a moth to a flame.

4.5 stars.

I am very interested in Knausgaard, an author I had not heard of. I've just started delving into scandinavian writers over the past few years (my mother's side of the family is of Norwegian descent) and I've really loved discovering these authors. I've put this book on hold at my library. It doesn't necessarily sound like something I'd usually read, but I'm willing to give it a try!

THanks for the great review!

I have been totally avoiding Knausgaard (although I have several of his books from before I stopped my Archipelago subscription), both because I feared he would be too self-obsessed for me and because it really really irks me that he called the series My Struggle which was what Hitler's book was called. I understand it has a different title in Germany.

>39 rebeccanyc: it is self-obsessed, but still a work of great writing. I know there was a lot of controversy over the title - I think he's talked about that in quite a few interviews.

>38 japaul22: interested to hear what you think when you get to reading it. The first part I felt like I was labouring through it a little, but he quickly gets into the telling of his childhood which was when the book really got going for me.

Great review of My Struggle: Book One, Alison. I own three of the four books in this series that have been released in the US, and I'll probably get to this book in July.

>41 kidzdoc: thank you! I hope you enjoy the series. I really fancy reading Book 2 soon, but it's an even heftier tome than Book 1 so I think I need a breather first.

Massively struggling to get into The Secret History on this my third attempt. I've only covered 50 pages in 4 days. I feel like I should stick with it as it can't be this popular for nothing, but....

I ended up pretty ambivalent about The Secret History and it has made me avoid reading The Goldfinch. I was pretty annoyed by The Secret History all the way through, but two years later I still remember parts vividly which I do think says something about the quality of the writing. It is a big time investment, though, for an ambiguous reward!

Hmmmm. I'm still reading away at it but it's definitely not engaging me yet. I'm finding it a little dull.

>44 japaul22:. I've never read The Secret History, but I thought that The Goldfinch was excellent.

>46 NanaCC: Colleen, I remember how much you and Kay liked a The Goldfinch. I bought it for my kindle based on your reviews but I haven't made the time for it yet because of my ambivalence about The Secret History. Some day I'll probably try it.

>43 AlisonY: I loved The Secret History, couldn't read The Little Friend (can't stand that feeling of dread and impending doom) and bought The Goldfinch several months ago but I'm a bit afraid to start reading it.

I admire you for giving the book three tries, but I think I would have stopped on the first. If you don't like it, you don't like it. I think it's important to remember that none of us will ever read all the books that are worth reading. So better accept that there has to be a choice, no matter how irrational and biased, and just enjoy the ones you do read. Just my opinion of course...

Florence - I'm coming to the same conclusion. I know I could read on and find it OK, but somehow that doesn't seem good enough when there are other books I'm itching to read.

I have parked it for now...

That's a good idea. I've loved Donna Tartt's books, but I can clearly see that they are not something everything would like and they are also very, very long. There are plenty of authors that I didn't appreciate, but since there are so many others, it's not like I feel compelled to keep trying. We won't run out of things to read!

I just saw on the "what are you reading" thread that you are reading a non-fiction book about the Nazi occupation of the Channel Islands. Have you ever read The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society? (Fiction) The book was very good, and I hadn't known about the Nazi occupation of those islands until I read that book.

>51 NanaCC: Hi Colleen - yes, it was reading The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society book that made me seek out a non-fiction book about the Occupation, as I too was very ignorant about this point in history. It's very interesting, and a lot of the detail from that fictional book is historically accurate, even down to the potato peel pie!

I've visited both occupation museums on Jersey and Guernsey. The former is housed in the underground hospital built by the Nazis using slave labour.

Both are very powerful.

There's a nice British mini-series set during the Channel Islands' occupation, Island at War. It's quite good.

That must have been fascinating. They were in such a unique and difficult situation, cut off from anywhere. I've never been to the Islands, but would like to some day.

Yay for abandoning average books. (Which I'm unwilling to do for my bookclub, sigh).

Enjoyed your reviews of My Struggle and The Book of Negroes. I hadn't connected the title My Struggle to Mein Kampf. But you have made we want to read this Norwegian and hopefully not so terrible My Struggle.

I admire all of you that are in book clubs, Dan, as I would totally struggle to read books that aren't my cup of tea.

38. Review - Outpost of Occupation by Barry Turner

I sought out this book after reading the fictional book The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society. Up to that point I'd been ignorant about the Channel Islands occupation by Germany during WWII, and was interested in learning more.

This was an interesting and detailed account of the 5 year occupation, although I felt it could have been much shorter. Of particular interest was learning how Churchill blamed the islanders for not trying harder to fight back against the Nazis, even though Britain had demilitarised the islands and left them unable to defend themselves.

3 stars

About The secret history: I think you were right to give up on it if you didn't like it. I just wanted to say that I found it rather different from The little friend and The goldfinch. So don't let that prevent you from trying one of these two other books if you feel like it!

I have not been around here for quite a bit but I discovered many gems in your new thread. Thank you especially for that fantastic picture. It's a great header.
I share your thoughts on Faulkner. The language does indeed take some getting used to but it is definitely worthwhile as you say.

>59 chlorine: I think you're right. It wasn't really Tartt's writing that was putting me off - I was more the characters and where the plot was going. Mind you, it's still parked rather than shelved in my head - I might come back to it!

>60 OscarWilde87: thank you, and glad you appreciated my blatant bit of Northern Ireland marketing! ;)

39. Review - Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea by Barbara Demick

I've been desperate to get my hands on this book having read some brilliant reviews by others on Club Read, and you were all right - it was terrific. Unfortunately my library copy was not the latest version with the 2014 epilogue, but nonetheless it brought us up to 2010. At that stage Kim Jong-Un wasn't in power, but was being groomed for takeover. In the week that I started this book, Kim Jong-Un was in the news for executing his defence minister with an anti-aircraft gun for falling asleep during a military ceremony, so North Korea was poignantly on my mind.

I thought I knew a little about what life was like in North Korea before reading this. I'd seen years ago photos of a super highway with no cars on it, and a poster advertising the government permitted hairstyles. I had no idea that this was merely scratching the surface, and that most of the country remains in abject poverty. Like the years of the famine in the 1990s (2 million people died - I had no idea), as of 2010 people were still hiking out to the countryside to find grass and weeds to eat, with most people living in a constant state of starvation.

Having finished the book, my head is still trying to get around this, and moreover that the Western world allows this to go on. I wonder would things be different if it was a country rich in oil reserves...

North Korea, the ultimate closed state, was always going to be an interesting read, but I think Barbara Demick did a fantastic job with this book. By taking the lives of 6 defectors, she brought a human narrative to a non-fiction subject, and these 6 people became fascinating real life protagonists, with love stories and personal tragedies.

It's sad there's no happy ending to this book, and that if anything the country is declining further backwards.

4 stars for a fascinating and shocking read.

That book made a huge impression on me as well. I read it when it came out and still remember a lot of the details.

Having finished the book, my head is still trying to get around this

Still trying 4 years later!

Nothing to Envy has gone on my wishlist. I see my local library has a copy so I'll place a hold.

It's jaw-dropping in many places, Vivienne. Definitely worth a read.

40. Review - Hotel Iris by Yoko Ogawa

This is a very interesting little book which is tricky to sum up. Take 50 Shades of Grey, set it in a Japanese seaside resort, replace the bad writing with immense literary aplomb, and replace Jamie Dornan with a creepily seductive, balding Japanese sadist approaching his 70s.

I actually really liked this book. It's very evocative, from the second rate physical location of the Hotel Iris to the regimented, foreboding island home of the Russian translator. Despite the hot summer setting it feels bleak, dark, brutal and yet compelling, like a foreign art-house movie.

Ogawa writes beautifully on a dangerous subject - pleasure and pain, enjoyment and fear, innocence and knowing, love and cruelty.

I still have a bit of a 'I'm not sure what I just read there' feeling about this book, which makes me like it all the more.

4 stars. (And probably don't lend it to your grandmother).

Alison, I think I'll give this one a miss, although The Housekeeper and the Professor by the same author looks interesting.

Just wanted to stop in and tell you that I've been lurking along with your threads all year long, I just rarely comment. But I do really want to get around to reading the Knausgard books.

>67 VivienneR: I'm certainly interested in reading some more by this author, Vivienne. I think her other books are quite different.

>68 ursula: you are welcome to lurk any time, Ursula! I was just looking at the other 2 Knausgard books last night that have been translated into English so far. I have a feeling book 2 seems to be the weakest of the 3. I hope not, as it's also the longest!

Just catching up to say I was very impressed by Nothing to Envy too.

>70 rebeccanyc:: it's a book that you keep thinking about afterwards, isn't it?

41. Review - Death in Venice and Other Stories by Thomas Mann

This edition was a collection of 7 of Mann's short stories, of which Death in Venice was the last. The others were 'Little Herr Freidemann', 'The Joker', 'The Road to the Churchyard', 'Gladius Dei', 'Tristan', and 'Tonio Kroeger'.

I started off with very high hopes - I loved the first story 'Little Herr Friedemann', about a disabled young man whose unrequited love for the wife of the town's new lieutenant-colonel ends tragically. It was beautifully written and very compelling.

Unfortunately, as I worked my way through the stories I grew more and more disenchanted with them. The majority of the stories felt like they were building up to a great twist which never happened. More often than not they ended with the inner turmoil and wrangling of the protagonist about either his own soul or that of society in general. Mann was heavily influenced by Freud and Neitzsche, and in many stories there was a lot of psychological introspection and classical allusions which grew tiring after a while.

As 'Death in Venice' is the most well known of Mann's short stories, I expected that the best had been kept till last, but alas by the time I'd got to it I was worn down by the ever decreasing circles of the previous stories and found it over-hyped. His obsession with the young boy in Venice didn't engage me - I again felt there was too much psycho-babble which distracted from the story and the emotions of the protagonist.

Perhaps if I'd read the story 'Death in Venice' in isolation I'd have enjoyed it more, but I just felt there was too much repetition of the same theme throughout most of the stories. I almost feel disappointed that this is my conclusion; there is no doubt that Mann can be an exquisite writer, and each story started with a fantastically imaginative setting. I just wish that he'd concentrated more on the plot and less on the philosophising.

I can see how many would enjoy his work, but this just wasn't for me.

3 stars

I read Death in Venice with my bookclub a year ago and was also disappointed with it.

>73 chlorine: frustratingly disappointing - it could have been great.

Sorry to hear that you didn't enjoy all of the Thomas Mann short stories. I have not read them, but was wondering if our modern tastes expect too much from short story writers from a bygone era. We are so used to the dramatic twist or the story that keeps us guessing almost right to the last sentence that when these things don't happen we get disappointed.

>75 baswood: it's a good question. I'm not a short story lover full stop, which probably didn't help. I do normally really enjoy period writing, though - I honestly feel the stories had great potential but he just took them all in the same direction at the end.

I read a different version of Death in Venice and Other Tales a few years ago, and I found them grim and claustrophobic. I'm glad I read Mann's novels first, because the short stories would not have inspired me to read more by Mann.

>75 baswood: baswood: Actually I read Death in Venice by itself, and I think it could qualify as a novella, so I'm not sure the comparison with today's short stories hold for this one.
To be fair though, I have to say I'm not a fan of short stories in general.

Well Kudos for getting through the Mann collection. I've only read The Magic Mountain, which is a novel of ideas - hence the plot is secondary. Based on that one book, what you describe doesn't exactly surprise me. (I loved The Magic Mountain.)

From the synopsis I've read of The Magic Mountain, Dan, it sounds like there was a lot of philosophising behind it. Great that you loved it - I'm afraid it would probably melt my brain after a while.

Just on an off-chance that any of you can help me with a techie problem, I'm trying unsuccessfully to download books from my library onto my Kindle using Overdrive. I can view books and borrow them, but can't download them. It only seems to show epub formats and not any option to read in Kindle (which is supposedly what I'm supposed to see according to Overdrive help).

Anyway, probably something I need to sort out with my library directly, but in the meantime I thought I'd throw it out there in case any of you have had a similar problem and resolved it.

I tried to authorise from scratch again signing in with an Adobe user ID as I'd read somewhere that I needed that on the Kindle to read epub books with Overdrive, but I'm still just getting a blank screen when I try to download.

Unfortunately, not all books are available in Kindle format. My experience is limited, because my library's selection is limited, but you may have to go back and see if they carry it in Kindle format. If not, you may be out of luck. Someone else may have a different opinion, but my daughter just told me the same thing, and she uses it a lot.

Thanks Colleen. That's a shame - I had expected that most of them would have been in Kindle format, it being the original e-reader. It was confusing me as if I sorted by Kindle as the preferred format, it still brought up the same books, but only with the e-pub option.

Looks like Overdrive isn't going to be as useful to me as I thought... :(

Actually no, Kindle is not the original e-reader :-) Plus they are using a proprietary format and not the industry standard ePub. But I understand your frustration. E-books are great, but paper was simpler.

And here was me just starting to get into reading on the Kindle as well, lol!!

You can download programs that will allow you to read epub books on your Kindle, though I don't know how easy it is or if that's a totally wrong and illegal thing to do. But it can be done, if you are so inclined and have someone to help you out with it.

Thanks Ursula - will check it out.

>81 AlisonY: Florence is correct about other e-readers pre-dating Kindle, even worse Amazon for many years refused to play along with public libraries and it wasn't until after Barnes&Noble came out with the library-compatible Nook that they changed their tune.

I spent two minutes on a website for NI libraries and did not see any kindle options.

For example, A Tale of Two Cities. On the top right under "available formats" kindle is not listed:
http://librariesniuk.lib.overdrive.com/E8A3A27F-A0F6-46BD-900C-D14041221765/10/5...

Compared with the Brooklyn Public Library:
http://digitalbooks.brooklynpubliclibrary.org/872A1006-3F55-4444-89AE-C28FB643DA...

Experienced kindle users can probably tell you how to search Amazon effectively for free, decent ebooks.

Another alternative is inkmesh.com:
http://inkmesh.com/ebooks/a-tale-of-two-cities-charles-dickens-ebook/?qs=a+tale+...

My favorite public-domain ebooks are from Feedbooks or ManyBooks (I like their formatting much better than project gutenberg):
http://www.feedbooks.com/book/81
http://manybooks.net/titles/dickenscetext942city12.html

Liz - that's so kind of you to go to the trouble of looking into this for me. I'm going to grill my local library as they told me it is somehow possible to download for a Kindle, so I'm not giving up yet!

I hadn't heard of those other sites before which seem to have some good free e-books, so cheers for the steer on that.

Typical Northern Ireland - nothing is ever straightforward...

Alison, my local library put out a bookmark with clear instructions to get Overdrive to work with various devices. I hope yours has a similar guide available.

Hope you can work out the epubs on the Kindle. Calibre is a conversion program, but I'm not sure it would work with library books (since they have the expiration built in, though generally if you don't connect your Kindle to the internet you can still read it post expiration date).

My library has a lot available in the Kindle format, but really, Project Gutenberg is what I use. There's so much in the public domain. I would always use it over the versions of public domains books on Amazon, as the formatting is usually better via Gutenberg and with way fewer typos.

Thanks - going to check this all out.

42. Review - Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte

I have finally cast aside my own stubbornness and read my first e-book. Woo hoo!!

What I liked - the built in dictionary

What I didn't like - (i) a book that was about 270 print pages being 620 e-pages long. I think it would drive me crazy trying to read a book equivalent to 500 print pages on an e-reader; (ii) the terrible temptation to flick from the book over to Facebook every time I heard a ping notifying me of a new message; (iii) even without it's cover, I found my Kindle Fire a bit heavy and awkward to settle into a comfortable reading position with.

Moans aside, I got on with it well enough. I'm definitely a print girl, but I'll happily take my Kindle with me on holiday now, and would be happy to download the odd book every now and again if I can't wait to get my hands on a print version.

Anyway, I digress. Wuthering Heights.

I was in the very lucky position of not having a clue what this book was about prior to reading it (I know - my head's been buried in sand these past 40-something years...). I've not seen the film, nor heard anyone discuss the plot. All I knew was of a great love on the moors between Heathcliff and Cathy that Kate Bush sang rather beautifully about.

This was an enjoyable Gothic story, with strong characterisation and a fitting setting on the bleak moors, the rest of the world almost non-existent outside of the two houses and two families the novel centres around.

It's not my favourite of the Gothic novels I've read from around this period - the plot was fairly obvious after a few pages in, and I didn't fall in love with any of the characters enough to champion their cause in the midst of all the gloom. That being said, the characters were very memorable (I shan't forget Heathcliff and his demons in a hurry), and the story was very cleverly crafted.

3.5 stars - good while it lasted, but I'm glad to move on now.

Btw, my Kindle / Overdrive wrangling latest is that I have now randomly managed to download 2 books (that I didn't want). These were in the e-pub format, so I remain totally perplexed as to why I could download these but not others. The only difference was that these 2 were mass market fiction titles, but the format was the same as the ones I do want to download but can't.

My library is clueless but is on the case. I remain in hope. :)

Apparently the root cause of all the hassle is horrible Amazon, who have refused to grant the UK a licence to read direct to Kindle from Overdrive, so we don't have the option of that button that you get in the US & Canada.

43. Review - The Man Who Mistook his Wife for a Hat by Oliver Sacks

This best-selling book by the neurologist / writer Sacks was simply fascinating. This is neurology for the layman, split up into easily absorbed bite-sized case studies from Sack's patient files.

The first section centres on losses - some patients suffer from disorders which affect the memory, others have lost the ability to undertake normal motor functions, and some have phantom limbs where amputations have occurred. All of the cases are tragic and yet fascinating in equal measure.

The second part focuses on excesses, looking at specific cases of patients with Tourettes, a patient with sudden lack of inhibition brought on by syphilis contracted 70 years previously, and a man considered a riot to all around him, who confabulates in a hilarious manner yet sadly has no true understanding of self remaining.

In 'Transports', Sacks talks about fascinating cases such as the woman who suddenly starts hearing Irish music continuously for months on end, and has previously inaccessible childhood memories awakened by the music. Perhaps my favourite was the case of the man who, after taking mind-bending drugs, had a super heightened sense of smell for a year, to the point where he could sniff out people like a dog.

The final section, 'The World of the Simple', exemplifies just how amazingly complex the human brain is. In many of the cases cited, despite the patients being scientifically considered retarded with very low IQs, they had amazing cognitive abilities, such as the ability to learn 2,000 operas in their entirety, or to instantaneously perform complex mathematical computations. These heightened abilities of siloed intelligence are juxtaposed with their general neurological limitations, and Sacks explains how many such patients can be 'reached' by vehicles such as music, drama, nature and numbers.

With all of the cases Sacks addresses in this book, the brain injuries or conditions are never cut and dry tales of limitations; the immense power and mystery of the human brain (and strength of character) consistently prevails, totally absorbing you as a reader.

Captivating, bizarre and thought-provoking, this is a fabulous insight into the enigma of the human brain. Our health is our wealth - we have much to be thankful for.

4 stars

>95 AlisonY: a lovely review, and I completely agree with you that Oliver Sacks' book is fabulous.

>96 reva8: - thank you. I'm quite tempted to get hold of a copy of his new autobiography On the Move: A Life. I think it would be fascinating, and believe he's quite a character.

>95 AlisonY: Oliver Sacks' book sounds fascinating. My daughter has it, so I may borrow it at some point.

>66 AlisonY: - Glad to read your good review of Hotel Iris - I have that one on the pile. I really like the other books by Ogawa that I read - The Housekeeper and the Professor is wonderful and is a pretty upbeat read compared to her other books which are a bit creepy and disturbing. Revenge and The Diving Pool were also good, if creepy, reads.

Sorry to hear the Mann stories didn't work for you. I do love his stuff, but I think I like all the philosophical rambling - for example, I didn't like Buddenbrooks as much as The Magic Mountain or Doctor Faustus because there wasn't enough philosophical rambling.

The Sacks books certainly sounds interesting - might have to look for that one after I finish Musicophilia which is on the pile.

Sorry to hear about your Kindle troubles.

Great review of the Oliver Sacks book. Definitely one for the wishlist!

Sorry (but not surprised) that amazon won't let you check books out. At least you can still download out of copyright classics free of charge.

Hi Colleen / Vivienne / DieF - I think you'd definitely enjoy Sacks' book. I think he pitches it just right - enough science to explain the neurology behind the conditions without getting too entrenched in it. And many of the cases are sadly amusing as well.

DieF - I'm going to check out those other Ogawa books and put them on my wish list. Although Hotel Iris was a little creepy it was very cleverly done, and I enjoyed the sparseness of her writing.

I envy your ability to enjoy Mann's philosophical rambling - I can see his writing is wonderful, but alas my brain isn't wired that way.

Kay - yes, I believe Amazon weren't keen on the whole idea of people downloading for free from the library in the UK. Obviously there must have been some different commercial deal in N. America that sweetened it for them. But at least I can download some modern books, and as you say the classics. I can still see a pile of printed books being thrown into the suitcase though in a few weeks!

The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat was one of the first books my wife lent me to read (along with a Terry Pratchett, Small Gods). I have fond memories of it but can't remember any of the actual content. Glad you enjoyed.

I wonder if part of the issue with Amazon and Kindle library lending was over the fact that from US libraries (at least from two state systems I've used), you're sent to Amazon to complete the download. It's very annoying. Maybe in the UK they were set on the patrons staying on the library's site?

>95 AlisonY: I've been intending to read this, and some of his other books, for years. Your review reminds me to try and get to it soon!

>104 mabith: There's a good chance it's Amazon stopping it rather than the libraries. There's a lot of restrictions on Kindle in the UK compared to the US. You can't lend Kindle books to other people like you can in America and you can't even purchase books as a gift for someone else. Can't think of any good reason for the limitations, especially for gift purchases.

>103 dchaikin:: thanks Dan. I think it's impossible for anyone to not be fascinated by the mysteries of the brain.

>104 mabith:, >105 valkyrdeath:: I get the impression it was Amazon taking the hard line in the UK, not the libraries. I didn't realise you can't buy someone a Kindle death - blimey, that is restrictive.

44. Review - Plainsong by Kent Haruf

I may just have fallen in love with a new author... A beautiful, pared back and emotional read, I thought this was a fantastic book, executed with a quiet brilliance that pulls hard on the heartstrings.

Set in Holt, Colarado, two main stories are interwoven throughout the novel; Tom Guthrie, a teacher and father of two good kids, is struggling with the breakdown of his marriage and some problems at school, whilst the boys are increasingly lonely and missing the security of a stable home life. At the same school, a young student Victoria Roubideaux finds herself pregnant and cast adrift, reliant on the kindness and generosity of another school teacher and two farming brothers to help her build a plan for a new life.

This novel has a simple plot of everyday hardship, but Haruf's plainspoken and unsentimental prose builds an outstanding story of emotional tension, developing multifaceted characters that you sympathise with, worry about, get angry with, and plain just fall in love with. If they were all in front of me now I'd have to gather them all together for a major group hug before settling them down for a few beers and a barbecue.

Perfect is a pretty strong word to use, but try as I might I really can't find too much wrong with this novel.

5 stars from beginning to end. I really hope Haruf's other books are equally mesmerising (I may have a terrible case of the 'Richard Yates' developing - like with Revolutionary Road, I enjoyed this so much I'm a little bit scared in case his other books don't measure up).

I have this book and the next, Eventide, sitting in my shelf waiting to be read. I've read so many glowing reviews that I'm not sure what I'm waiting for!

Great review!

>108 japaul22:: my Christmases have all come at once - I never realised this was a trilogy! I know what I'm going to be reading on holiday....

I think you'll enjoy it Jennifer - you read a lot of similar books to me.

>107 AlisonY: There is a Kent Haruf thread in the 75ers group as a tribute to him since he passed away last year. The link is here http://www.librarything.com/topic/191598.

>110 Tara1Reads: thanks - that's an interesting thread.

So sad that he died last year, and with not that many books to his name. I definitely think he deserves more widespread recognition than he's had.

Like with Richard Yates, I'm going to have to try to ration myself on his books so I don't finish them all too soon. Mind you, as I start another Yates novel only a few months after I finished the last one, that's not working out too well!

>111 AlisonY: Hey if you like something, you like something! No point in torturing yourself. Reading is supposed to be enjoyable. ;-)

I sadly haven't read any Kent Haruf. He is another author on my long list of Authors I Need to Try.

Enjoyed your review of Plainsong.

>107 AlisonY: I too enjoyed your review of Kent Haruf's Plainsong, and I now have a name for this feeling: a case of the 'Richard Yates' (loved Revolutionary Road).

Also, apropos your Oliver Sacks review, I read online that he was diagnosed with terminal sadness this year. ..he wrote this very moving article about it.
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/19/opinion/oliver-sacks-on-learning-he-has-termin...

>112 Tara1Reads: Ah, but you see, I can never read a book twice, no matter how much I loved it, therefore I'll torture myself all the more once I finish reading all the masterpieces from these 2 great writers.

>113 dchaikin: Why thank you, Dan.

>114 reva8: Thanks so much for that link. What a great article - in the face of terminal illness, Sacks still manages to be upbeat, positive and utterly charming. And despite being over 80, he still sounds so youthful in his outlook. Amazing character.

>115 AlisonY: Oh I have the same problem. I can never get interested in cracking open a book again once I already know how it ends.

45. Review - HHhH by Laurent Binet

Whilst part of the way through reading HHhH, my husband enquired what the point of the book was. After thinking hard for a moment I struggled to give him a clear answer. Is it the story of a writer's experience of writing an historical novel? Is it an historical factual account, or a fictional account of a historical event? Is it an alternative account of the Third Reich during WWII, told from the specific viewpoint of the Czechs? Is it a biography of the rise and fall of Heydrich, the Blonde Beast, Hangman of Europe, Butcher of Prague? Is it a critique of the traditional techniques employed in writing historical texts? Is it simply a thrilling spy novel?

Now that I've finished the book, I would say that it's all these things and more. This book is nothing short of a total game changer, turning literary history completely on its head and creating a new genre of its own.

It's brave, it's audacious (Binet has no fear in head-on negatively critiquing his successful literary predecessors), it's thrilling, it's unique, it's page-turning, and above all its eminently readable.

HHhH is written in the story within a story format, with Binet narrating his struggles to do justice to the story of an assassination attempt on Reinhard Heidrich by a Czech and Slovak parachuted in from London. So many story lines are interwoven within the narrative - the accession of Heidrich through the ranks of the Third Reich, the lead up to the Final Solution, the political divisions within Czechoslovakia, the Czech Resistance movement, the increasing expansion of the Third Reich within Europe, and Binet's analysis of the right and wrong ways to write a book about a key historical event.

This story could have ended up like so many other non-fiction history books - either jam-packed full of endless detail that becomes tedious and impossible to remember, or else with facts sacrificed where it suits to create a more thrilling fictional account. Binet eyeballs both alternatives and decides to create a third option instead: he increases the tension with fictionalised firsthand detail on occasion, but then immediately admits to the reader where he's 'padded', and he also bins most of the factual detail that's irrelevant to his ultimate storyline, however tempting it may be to cram in all those facts he's meticulously researched.

It all sounds a bit barmy - and it is - but it's a format that totally works. He includes just the right amount of detail and literary brilliance to put you right there as a fly on the wall of every scene. I was gripped from the first page to the last, and every part of my brain feels like it's had a workout. I'm now informed about part of WWII that I didn't know much about previously, I'm emotionally exhausted from feeling like I was standing on the sidelines of a James Bond-esque mission of heroic daring, and I can't stop thinking about how it's still possible for someone to take such a hugely new approach to writing.

The whole time I was reading this amazing book I kept thinking "THIS is how we should be teaching history to our children". I am consistently frustrated by my inability to remember historical facts, yet Binet's writing style is so enveloping I feel confident there are many facts from this corner of history that are now indelibly imprinted in my mind. Binet is the cool, funky, history teacher you never had - but you have now.

5 stars (which astounds me - I don't even really like historical or thriller genres)

>117 AlisonY:. I have HHhH on my wishlist. You make me want to get to it soon.

Oh do, Colleen. It was on my long-list but it cried out to me when I passed it in the library last week.

>117 AlisonY: Great review. I feel torn, as this book seems to be everything I don't like (fictionalized history, spy thriller, horrible historical events), but so many people seem to love it, and your review especially makes me want to give it a try.

Florence, I felt exactly the same. On paper, this book should be everything I don't enjoy reading.

I would say that the vast majority is not fictionalised history, and where he does pad (and then comes clean) it's only very minor details, like imagining what a character might have said to someone, or whether they travelled by bus or train or wore a coat or not. So he's not bending the truth in a way that distorts the historical facts, but just adds a bit of literary detail here and there to enhance the setting.

Despite the harrowing circumstances in which the book is set, Binet somehow manages to make it enjoyable, without at all making light of the immense sacrifices people made for their patriotism.

I have HHhH on my bedside table now. I just have a few books to finish first. I'm so eager to read this.

>122 RidgewayGirl: enjoy!!

Fun review! I read this last year and really enjoyed it. It really is kind of all those things and really is enjoyable without being disrespectful or light.

Yours was one of the reviews that persuaded me to try it, Dan. Good call!

46. Review - Cold Spring Harbor by Richard Yates

Cold Spring Harbor was Yates' final novel, written in 1986 but set between the two World Wars.

Evan Shepard, a young man with a 'busy' past, meets the Drakes when his car breaks down outside their house in Manhattan. Falling in love with young Rachel Drake, he anticipates that their marriage will herald a new start in his life, but when they move back to his home town of Cold Spring Harbor the pressures of sharing a home with his wife's family begin to take their toll.

This novel lacked some of the poignancy and raw emotion of Revolutionary Road and Easter Parade, and I didn't fall in love with characters as much as I have in Yates' other books, but it was still a novel that I didn't want to put down from page one.

3.5 stars - a good read, but by Yates' own standard, not a great read.

Fascinating review of HHhH, which I've been avoiding for all the reasons you and Florence articulated. May have to rethink my avoidance!

And I loved Revolutionary Road, but haven't read anything else by Yates.

You never know, Rebecca - HHhH might just surprise you!

47. Review - Villages by John Updike

Villages was one of Updike's later novels, released in 2005. Like many of his earlier novels, it's based around a story of middle class adultery in average-town America, with the main character looking back in his old age at the sex and love which has been indelibly weaved throughout his life's story.

With the historical narrative set mainly in the 1950s - 1970s, the protagonist, Owen Mackenzie - an MIT graduate and early pioneer of computer technology - lives comfortably in various 'villages' around the east coast of the States. He is the kind of man who has always been enthralled by the smallest details of the women who have crossed his path, seeing beauty in all the differences of their physique and character. Not surprisingly, this appreciation leads to him being easily persuaded to loosen the moral tethers that bind his marriage, from which point there is no going back.

Selfish, self-centred, amoral, most of the characters echo the stereotypes from the Rabbit Angstrom novels, with the familiar theme of middle-age boredom setting in amongst the weekend cocktail party set. That being said, this novel is much more focused on Mackenzie's emotional connections (or lack of) to his sexual affairs, and as such is probably most similar to his earlier Couples novel.

The sexual reminiscing is fairly unerotic, but as usual Updike manages to make the lives of weak, morally bankrupt characters totally engaging.

I'm a big Updike fan, and as always was blown away by the utter skill of his narrative. Not my favourite of his books so far, but enjoyable nonetheless.

4 stars

I am an Updike fan as well (so unfashionable). I have not read many of his later novels, but lapped up the early stuff. It's good to know he can still write.

The guy was a genius, and thankfully he's left us with plenty of novels to work our way through.

>129 AlisonY: This is a great review of Updike's Villages. I'm almost tempted to give him another try.

>132 reva8: I can understand why he's not everyone's cup of tea. Which of his other books did you try? I imagine that Terrorist and The Witches of Eastwick are quite different compared to his other work, but if you've tried the Rabbit series and didn't enjoy them then you probably wouldn't feel that differently about Villages.

Hi Alison. Just catching up finally. Have enjoyed reading about your reading. Won't attempt to comment on everything, but I was interested in your thoughts about Death in Venice and Other Stories. I recently read a collection of Mann's stories, most of which were different except for Tonio Kroger and Death in Venice. I agree with Barry that our modern expectations can interfere with understanding and enjoying what a writer from an earlier era was actually trying to get across. Mann is coming from a philosophical point of view, and that is an uncommon approach in modern stories. Sorry you didn't like these stories better. Death in Venice makes more sense when considered as a companion piece to Magic Mountain. There is a certain amount of irony that comes through when the two are seen together.

Also enjoyed your review of Wuthering Heights. Been a long time since I read it and you are making me think I should read it again one of these days!

By the way, if I can interject at this late date, Amazon's main problem outside the US is the difference in copyright laws. They are somewhat hamstrung by stringent limitations placed on them outside the US, not the other way around. I do commiserate, however. It would be nice if copyright laws were more receptive to modern technology! From where I sit inside the US, it appears that Amazon has done its best to protect authors. For instance, it is impossible to copy anything from the Kindle software, which I believe is the main fear. Someday, maybe . . .

Enjoyed reading so many interesting reviews of books I probably won't read. So many books . . .

Haven't read Updike or Yates, so enjoyed your comments on them...although the unerotic sexual reminiscing does not make me want to read Updike.

>117 AlisonY: Binet's book has been on my wishlist for such a long time. Your excellent review gives me a push to get it sooner rather than later.

>134 Poquette: good to see you back, Suzanne. Interesting - I didn't realise that it was the UK copyright laws that were the issue. I take it all back Amazon! I thought I'd made progress with Overdrive the other day when I got very excited about managing to download 4 books I actually want to read. But now I can't manage to open and read them, so I'm no further forward. Think my luggage will just have to have a few kilos of books next week!

>135 dchaikin: Dan, I wouldn't let my comment about the unerotic sex in Villages put you off Updike. I don't think his purpose was to be in any way erotic in his descriptions, and in some places his descriptions are very literary and quite beautiful. There's just a lot more of it compared to his other books that I've read. If you've not tried Updike I would start with the Rabbit tetralogy rather than this book anyway.

>136 VivienneR: thanks Vivienne. Hope you enjoy HHhH when you get to it.

This made me giggle...

As my library requests seemed to be coming in too late for my holiday I picked 5 off the shelf last week. Then my requests DID come in, and the 4 e-titles I'd been trying to download off Overdrive finally downloaded properly to my Kindle. So now I'm coming down with books!

Here's what I'm going to be working my way through after I finish The Corrections:

What you will be busy for some time I guess! Enjoy.

Looks like an interesting stack of books! I've been in that state lately - a ton of digital holds coming in from the library along with physical book holds. It's pretty overwhelming!

48. Review - The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen

This is a book I've been wanting to read for a while but was nervous about picking up, as other reviews seemed so polarised. At 653 pages it's a weighty tome, and not one I relished dragging my way through.

As it turned out I really enjoyed this book, and the 600-odd pages flew by (which was very surprising, as I often turn into a page-watcher with books this long). Essentially it's the story of a dysfunctional family of 3 grown up children and their parents. Alfred, the father, has Parkinson's and increasing dementia. His wife Enid is the type of mother who can't help picking faults with her children when they visit - all of her life's unhappiness rests at the feet of everyone in the family but herself. Strained with her difficult life at home with Alfred, the only thing that keeps her going is living in the future, looking forward to holidays and family get-togethers, and she desperately wants the family to all get together at home for one last Christmas.

The 3 children each have their own significant issues going on in their lives, and Franzen inter-weaves their lives with the story of the early years in the Lambert family, and the different relationships that each child has with both parents and with each other.

If I have one criticism, it is that Franzen got a little too fantastical with Chip's story, as if he had too many ideas but couldn't face holding any of them off for a later book. I felt his particular story ended up being too far-fetched against the realism of the rest of the family's lives, but this part was fairly short and so didn't affect my overall enjoyment of the novel.

Corrections isn't a jolly read, but I felt that Franzen captured very acutely the realities of family life as we get older: the inevitable frictions that arise when parents cannot accept that their children are old enough to make their own choices and mistakes; the different ways that each parent responds to each child; the struggles at holiday time of juggling your own family's wants (when you have children of your own) with those of your parents; the difficulties of dealing with a parent in his physical and mental decline.

The characters were all ultimately flawed, and none of them were necessarily that likeable, but they were very well developed, and by the end of the book I cared enough to want things to work out well for each of them.

I think it has to be 4.5 stars.

I've read The Corrections twice now and loved it each time. Franzen has admitted to loving Enid the most.

She was a great character. I think we've all known mums, grannies and wives like her.

Another on the long list of books I really should have read by now...although I didn't realize it was so long. Encouraging review.

It doesn't feel long though, Dan. Usually with books this length I'm continually flicking to see how much further I have to go, but this one flew by.

49. Review - On the Night Plain by J. Robert Lennon

This is the story of a young man who leaves his family's backwater ranch and tragic past to start properly living life, only to find himself coming full circle and returning to his bleak and barren homeland where nothing will ever be the same again.

The first quarter of this book I really struggled with. I am all for prose over plot, and the writing was beautiful in places, but it was dull as ditchwater, with the main protagonist meeting too many irrelevant people. The story seemed to be going nowhere, I couldn't connect with the main character, and if I wasn't limited to the small stack of books I'd taken on holiday with me I'd probably have given up.

BUT... I'm glad I didn't. The part that I struggled with was Lennon describing Grant's travels away from the family sheep ranch, but once the character returned to the homestead the story became beautiful, evocative and heart-wrenching. I understand why Lennon needed Grant to go on his journey for the rest of the story to make sense, but it's a shame it resulted in such a poor start to the novel.

I ended up really enjoying this book. The characters on the ranch were fantastically executed, the western setting was enthralling, and the plot had me gripped. I've been interested in this author for a while, and look forward to reading some more of his work.

This could easily have been 4 stars +, but the very slow start let it down. 3.5 stars, but one to recommend nonetheless.

50. Review - Girl With a Pearl Earring by Tracy Chevalier

This was the perfect holiday read - I absolutely loved this novel. I think most people are familiar with the fictionalised story of the Dutch maid who became a muse to the painter Vermeer, leading to the famous 'Girl with a Pearl Earring' painting, but despite already knowing the story I still thoroughly enjoyed this historical novel.

Chevalier's writing is so vivid I could picture so clearly every aspect of the house Griet served in, the counter at the meat market she frequented, the studio Vermeer painted in, her bedroom in the attic where she helped to grind the colours for the paint. And such memorable characters, from Griet and Vermeer themselves, to her blind father, Vermeer's difficult wife, his strict but fair mother-in-law, the wealthy but sleazy art buyer, the jealous housemaid, and the scheming daughter.

A wonderfully gripping book - pick it up and be prepared to lose yourself in it for a day.

Easily 5 stars.

51. Review - Stolen Lives: Twenty Years in a Desert Jail by Malika Oufkir

Intriguing as books about long stints in prison are, I normally avoid them as I feel I've had my fill of those kind of trauma books. But the blurb on the back cover of this book piqued my interest when I came across it on a hotel 'borrow / take' bookshelf, and it turned out to be fascinating, haunting and thought-provoking in equal measure because of the unique background of the story teller.

Malika Oufkir led a very privileged life in Morocco. Born to a wealthy heiress who thought nothing of selling an apartment block to fund a new couture collection, and a powerful army general who was the king's closest aide, the king demanded that her parents let him adopt her at the age of 5 to become a companion to his own daughter of the same age.

For 11 years she lived inside the king's world, and her account of this closed world of concubines, palaces the size of cities, and extreme opulence was utterly fascinating. This on it's own would have been enough to fill a novel, but when her father led a failed military coup in 1972 and was executed, she and her mother and 6 siblings plus 2 members of staff were banished, becoming part of the network of 'disappeared' political prisoners.

This book is a moving account of the 20 year imprisonment of the family in various desert prisons, where they are held in horrifying conditions whilst the regime waits for them to eventually die. How this imprisonment comes to an end is the stuff of Hollywood movies (no spoilers), yet for the family their ordeal can never truly be in the past. After 20 years they came out of prison as adults in their 20s and 30s, yet essentially they were still locked in the mental age they were when they were taken, not having had the opportunity to mature in the way normal adults do, yet enduring way beyond what most people ever have to face.

Traumatic as the family's story is, this is an amazing story of resilience, hope and courage. The setting in Morocco was fascinating, the insight into the royal lives enthralling, and the plot more extraordinary than anything fictional.

I couldn't put it down - 5 stars.

>148 AlisonY: I loved Girl with a Pearl Earring too. The details were fascinating. I found a website with images and descriptions of Vermeer's paintings. I referred to it often as I read the book which made it all the more interesting.

Definitely searching out Stolen Lives. Great review!

>151 mabith: I love the randomness of those kind of 'book borrow' shelves at hotels. I'd never have come across this book otherwise. I hope you enjoy it when you get to it.

Terrific review of Stolen Lives. Not sure why that one stuck out of your latest three, but for me it did.

Thanks Dan. It was the one I read most recently while I was away - I had a bit of holiday induced amnesia about the other 2,

For the first time ever I have achieved one of my New Year's resolutions. Yay!!!

After a couple of decades of very poor reading quantities (5-15 per year), I set myself the target of reading 50 books this year, which was a massive challenge for me. Just over halfway through the year, I can't believe I'm now at book #51.

A HUGE thank you to you all - you have spurred me on with your interaction in my thread, educated me hugely with your own threads, taken me down literary roads I would never have found on my own, delighted me with tales of your home towns, and added a zillion books to my wish list.

I couldn't have done it without you.

Now get back to your reading!

Congratulations on 50 books! I've enjoyed following your reading and look forward to the next 50!

Congrats on hitting your goal, and hitting it so early! Being in such frequent contact with loads of other readers is such a great way to get us excited to read more.

Congratulations Alison! It was just as much fun to follow along with you! You chose some great books.

Excellent! It is such a great feeling to reach the goals. You are going to have a fabulous reading year if you keep up this pace. I'll be peeking in to follow along.

Great news, congratulations!

Congratulations! And I agree with >157 mabith: Meredith about the contact with other readers. It has spurred my reading too.

That is a huge jump! Congratulations are clearly due. Well done, you! And I'm enjoying your reviews - I hope that you're planning to continue on with your thread.

Cheers all. Not sure I'll be able to keep to this pace as work's going to be busy for a while, but as long as I'm reading something no matter how slowly I'm happy enough.

Congrats Alison and horay for CR and LT.

Congratulations! It's nice to see someone who's really picked up the pace this year. It feels like a lot of people (including me) have been reading less this year than usual. But it may seem that way partially because I'm part of that group. Anyway, nice work and cheers to however many more you add in the second half of the year!

Cheers Dan and Ursula!

Congratulations! :)
Thank you for keeping us posted on your reading, I liked reading your reviews and you have contributed to help me keep my own thread updated. I'm looking forwards to see what you read during the rest of the year!

Edited to add: I love your Thank You made of books!

Cheers Clémence. Trudging through a mediocre book at the moment - looking forward to finishing it and getting back to some goodies.

Review - Shotgun Lovesongs by Nickolas Butler

I gave this book 2 weeks of my life and I almost got halfway through, but I just can't face reading any more.

This is a first novel, and boy does it show. The basic storyline is about 4 guys from a small town in Wisconsin who are now grown up and leading very different lives. One has stayed a small town boy and is a farmer with a sickeningly perfect wife and 2 perfect children. A second made his fortune in trading and has come back to restore an old mill to deliver a new place of energy to the town. A third has become a global rock star but is greatly troubled by his new life (yeah, sure). The fourth was a rodeo star, but had some accident so dull I now can't remember what it was - he now apparently has brain damage, although when he's leading the narration his thoughts are totally lucid and self-aware.

It's too much - I can't read another paragraph full of cliches and similes, simpering narrations, and unbelievable characters. It's one of those books where you're continuously conscious of what the writer was trying to achieve but couldn't pull off. With a great book, I almost forget there even is a writer behind it. This was like all the worst aspects from a Creative Writing course thrown into one book. You could tell he had some awful future Hollywood movie in mind as he was writing, and the dialogue in particular was cringeworthy.

The only positive I can take from this book is if this guy can get published to minor critical success, then there's hope for us all.

You've got your priorities straight! That's a good thing. :)

I'm surprised you gave it two weeks!

I know - it only really lasted 2 weeks because I was busy with work and thought I could stick it as a few pages of light reading every night, but I've reached my limit!

Great review Alison! Too bad the book wasn't so good.

I so agree that books like that give hope to aspiring authors everywhere!

Fun review. I'm also impressed you kept at it two weeks.

>173 VivienneR:, >174 RidgewayGirl:, >175 dchaikin: well the upside is I'm now REALLY appreciating reading some good writing!

School holidays and a new work contract have massively slowed up my reading progress. Whoever thought up the bright idea of a 9 week school summer holiday obviously wasn't a working parent.

I'm enjoying the warped but brilliant The Wasp Factory, but keep falling asleep when trying to read it at night. Review to follow shortly (hopefully!), and apologies for only getting time to lurk and not comment on many of your threads.