Sitting dizzily atop the heights of Mt TBR, Peace2 reads in 2017 Part 2

Figured now was probably a good time to start a new topic - I'm going to be struggling to make enough posts to be able to link this one to a new one for 2018 as it is! If I leave it any later, I'll have no chance!

Feel free to leave as many comments as you like to start filling this up so I'm ready for a new one by the end of the year *grin*

Figured now was probably a good time to start a new topic - I'm going to be struggling to make enough posts to be able to link this one to a new one for 2018 as it is! If I leave it any later, I'll have no chance!

Feel free to leave as many comments as you like to start filling this up so I'm ready for a new one by the end of the year *grin*

That was an accidental posting of the first comment twice - I have zero idea how I managed it!

Anyway September Book #6 Here We Lie by Sophie McKenzie - Gosh, it's difficult to write about this without spoiling the events.

I borrowed this from the library and I'm glad I didn't buy it as I repeatedly almost gave up on it. The story has several different timelines. The initial one provides the background for three of the main characters. The subsequent ones are more closely tied. The story begins it seems from Rose's point of view - the oldest sibling of three, preparing for university by working and saving money. Events lead to a drastic change in direction for Rose and her younger siblings and we are supposed later to understand that it is these events that lead to the actions of various characters later on.

The majority of the story is then told by Emily, the youngest of the three siblings, and is set about 10-15 years later, once Emily is grown, through university and working as a primary school teacher. Another storyline is told by DeeDee, the daughter and youngest child of Emily's boyfriend/fiance.

DeeDee's storyline is told as interspersed intervals shedding light on the person she is and the secrets she keeps - these are 'flashbacks'.

At times Emily also retells things from the past, along with a brief piece with Rose and Martin (their brother) which goes back to a period between the initial opening and the main story line and only really serves to try and 'muddy the waters' although it doesn't really do even that. After a while, Emily began to grate on my nerves - her switching allegiances and her beliefs and allegations of who and why someone may be after her were at times ludicrous. Everyone annoyed me in their treatment of DeeDee, although I didn't warm to her as a character particularly anyway.

The ending became something like a Shakespearean tragedy with dead bodies and culprits piling up and people not behaving appropriately and so much built on misreading of a situation - a situation which was arrived at because of manipulation. Although I had surmised correctly on two parts of the final resolution, the other bits were thrown in it felt without warning - several characters who behaved in ways that we had no prior information for and we were supposed to believe that this was how they'd been all along.

I gave it one star but ... maybe it's just not my thing.

>1 Peace2: & >2 Peace2: Well, that's one way to fill up the thread! ;)

I've got a pizza and a milkshake to watch the proceedings from here

Looking forward to following more of your reading adventures!

>3 Peace2: Exactly why I started my part 3 when I did!

I think LT duplicates the first post in a new thread automatically, especially when it's being s-l-o-w. It's done it to me at least twice.

You're all very welcome here - thank you for stopping by - do come again - hopefully there'll be muffins at the weekend! At least the double post as @MrsLee says gets me off to a determined start for the new thread ... hmmm, I should probably bring forward my trackers as well.

So this is just to bring forward and summarise my year's reading trackers and goals.

In relative brief - I didn't want to restrict my reading by making stricter goals than last year but I did want to tackle the too big pile of books on the TBR pile. Knowing that my reading slowed down last June when I changed jobs and that I needed to start tackling more of the larger books on the shelves I decided to set the goal of 12,000 pages from the TBR pile over the course of the year, which worked out at an average of 1,000 pages per month. On current evidence I seem to either have a really good month and get through 2 or even 3 thousand pages or None! At some point I seem to have upped the goal to 20,000 pages from the TBR pile - which is okay as this month has taken me to over 13,000 (almost 14,000 already). I didn't specify how many actual books that would be

The TBR pile classes as anything in the house on 1st October 2016 (there is a reason why this is not 31 Dec 2016 - I'm doing another challenge which involves reading more books than I buy between 1st October 2016 and 29 June 2019 and also reading at least 100 books from the TBR pile that existed on 1st October 2016 in the same period)

I'm still aiming for a rough balance of male/female writers and a proportion of non-fiction to my fiction but no specific goal in mind, although I will track the figures on a spreadsheet and will likely write a monthly summary. Currently 52.9% of different authors were female, 47.1% male. In terms of actual books read, 48.9% were written by female authors, 10% by collaborations and 41.1% by male authors - this includes multiple books by the same author, whereas the first figure represents each author only once and disregards books written by collaborative partnerships of any kind. I seem to have failed abysmally on the non-fiction reading this year and have only completed 7 actual non-fiction books. This is a lot less than the 37 non-fiction I read last year, but as I'm only tracking out of interest, I'm surprised rather than upset. I'm sure it will change again at some point - although I can't see me reading non-fiction all the way to the end of the year to try and catch up! Mind you I've also read about half as many actual books which would also have played a part in that drop.

And finally - the trackers

Number of Books read in 2017




Number of Pages read in 2017

September Book #7 Captain America: Castaway in Dimension Z Book 2 by Rick Remender

So this was better for me than the first part of the run - I found the story easier to follow and the artwork was apt for the story. While it still isn't going to be a favoured run, it does follow through to a logical conclusion and there are some sad (but fairly predictable) sides to what's happened. I've already started looking to locate the next titles in this series (although I'm not allowed to even consider buying them until the middle of next month!).

In other news I went to the one of the local theatres last night to see "Nunsense" and while I was there I saw that Kristina Stephenson is coming over as part of the local Festival of Words. Kristina Stephenson is the author of the Sir Charlie Stinky Socks books and she is doing a spot on the 1st October performing and presenting her new book Sir Charlie Stinky Socks: The Dinosaur's Return - so I've booked seats to take my niece (aged 6) to that. Will have to head to the library and try to borrow a couple of the earlier books beforehand to share with her. Hopefully it'll be good! Lauren Child is also coming over (author of Charlie and Lola, Hubert Horatio Bartle Bobton-Trent (one of my niece's favourite books) and Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Book? but her presentation is aimed at 8+ and is about the writing process rather than presenting a story or performance of a story, so I think Kristina Stephenson this time will hopefully be the one to go for!

>10 Peace2: You are a terrific auntie!

>11 MrsLee: Thank you - but as a lover of books and reading, I'll try anything to pass that love on - Plus it sounds like fun!

September Book #8 Warlock Holmes: A Study in Brimstone by G.S. Denning

I borrowed this one in audio from the library. This is the first of what is I believe becoming a series - a fantastical pseudo-Sherlock Holmes. The story begins with John Watson moving to live with Warlock Holmes where he begins to discover some very interesting events. Warlock Holmes is often called to help Vladislav Lestrade and Torg Groggson, rather unpopular members of the police force (due to their success rates - their fellow officers are unhappy). There is a definite comedic tilt to these along with the fantastical supernatural elements. I can't say I was as engrossed by all of the stories equally but overall it was a fun way to pass the time and should the library get any of the subsequent titles I shall definitely borrow them too. The dynamic is somewhat different to your usual Sherlock fare and Watson is far better at deduction than I seem to remember him being in the original books.

September Book #9 The Kind Worth Killing by Peter Swanson

Lots of plot twists and just when you think you know what's going to happen next, things change. The story begins with a man and a woman meeting in an airport bar when their flight is delayed. They share a drink and chat. The man begins to tell the woman about himself and his unhappy marriage to his wife and from there things progress. Murder is planned but then something unexpected happens. I quite enjoyed this as an idea - with each turn and twist, it isn't too difficult to work out where the plot is heading next, but then another spanner is thrown into the works to leave you thinking again. The characters aren't likeable individuals, but enough of them are interesting. The story is told from different characters' perspectives - beginning with the two characters in the airport, each consecutive chapter changes viewpoint (although each is clearly labelled as to who's viewpoint is the focus), this does mean that at times there is a repetition of an event but from a different character's perspective and also that at times you back track to see what someone else was doing at the same time as something already described. If you were to ask me, I'd say it was worth a try. This was a Christmas gift the year before last, glad I've finally got to it.

September Book #10 False Nine by Philip Kerr

Very disappointed by this one. I read a book by Philip Kerr earlier in the year called March Violets which followed a detective Bernie Gunther set in 1936 Germany and was keen to try something further by the same author. While I had further titles in that series, I had been unable to locate books 2,3 and 4 (the library doesn't start until book 9, I've got 5,6 and 11). So when I happened across this, I was hopeful... and now I'm disappointed. Scott Manson was a former football manager who due to some controversy is currently out of work. His agent sends him to China to manage a club there however it's all a hoax and so instead he finds himself investigating the disappearance of a major league player who has vanished despite playing for FC Barcelona and Paris St Germain. Now to be fair, I'm not a huge soccer fan (the football in this is soccer, not American Football). Having said that, it still left plenty of room for me to find this book okay - after all the focus isn't on the football, but rather on the detective work... except now, a good portion of the time, the focus is actually on Scott Manson's appreciation of women and determination to bed as many as possible during the course of the book. When I got to the end of the book, I did wonder why he'd made such as fuss with the Chinese escort about his girlfriend and how he didn't sleep around as he certainly didn't seem to have too many doubts about various other women he happens across in the book.

When it came down to it, the mystery was second rate, and I can't say there was much to make this worth the time it took me to get through it. I'm hoping that the Bernie Gunther series when I do finally get to continue it, lives up to my initial expectation and not my experience with this.

DNF Arctic & Safari Adventure by Willard Price

So I'm finishing the month with a DNF - this was a re-issue of two books one written in about 1967 if I remember correctly and the other in 1980. In the first of the stories in the book, the main characters are two brothers, one 20, the younger 15, who have been sent to the Arctic to catch particular animals for their father who sells them to zoos and private collectors. For some reason, the first book in the edition, is actually the more recent and when I looked at the 'series' information here on LT it also comes later in the series. Anyway, more relevantly, I found myself annoyed and frustrated by this book. It is a children's/early teen book. The two boys have been sent alone to the Arctic - I know it's an adventure story and young people in adventure stories get to do unlikely things, but maybe it's the adult in me that just thought what kind of parent sends two young men without any real guidance into the wild reaches of the Arctic to catch wild animals - everything from polar bears and wolverines to large seals and whales!! Needless to say they succeed, more or less every time, escaping death miraculously from various escapades. What grated even more was the equanimity with which the boys capture and dispatch the animals to their father - even the 'it's for a zoo' line, as opposed to 'it's for a private collector' made me itch with frustration. It smacked of 'show' and 'entertainment' - the whale they wanted to catch was going to be trained to perform. I'm not completely anti-zoo - I personally believe that some zoos can do a lot of good both as part of breeding programmes and educationally, but even though this was the more recent of the two books, the attitudes to zoos felt old and misinformed - animals as entertainment. I know that for different people, there are different viewpoints on this subject and I'm not going to waffle further - for me, the attitudes didn't work and so I couldn't finish the first book - and I had no inclination to start the second. It terms of the actual writing, while at times it felt like the author was trying to inform the reader, at others it felt heavy handed and as if he was repeating himself time and again more because he knew something than because it needed to be said again.

All in all - not for me.

>16 Peace2: It really doesn't sound like these have aged well! I remember seeing the series in the children's library when I was growing up but even though (or perhaps because) I loved animals I never wanted to read them. Based on your response I doubt I'd have liked them even back then. (Your opinion of zoos seems to match mine pretty closely.)

>17 Sakerfalcon: I have a recollection of seeing them and them not appealing when I was younger. I've been pondering some more on them and thought about some other books that I read more recently by Jan Burchett and Sara Vogler which are about two children who stop poachers or rescue animals in danger - more about keeping endangered animals safe. If I were to suggest any to anyone else, I'd go with those (although they're aimed a little younger I would say).

>18 Peace2: They definitely sound more to my taste! I'll try and remember the authors' names for when my goddaughters are older.

>16 Peace2: - I very much loved the series as a child, 16 books in all I think. And have no wish to re-visit the series. They were a product of their time, attitudes to zoos and animal collections have changed a lot, and only quite recently since they were first written! Attitudes to parenting are quite different too. At the time they were inspiring stories of what you could do when I was only a little bit older.

>20 reading_fox: I think you're right about the changing attitudes and sometimes I can bear with that and take it as a 'period' piece.

On an aside, it's funny because a few weeks ago I read Lois Duncan's I Know What You Did Last Summer, in which she described having updated that and a number of her other books to stop them becoming dated and I was pondering whether it was the right thing to do... Should books be updated when they're re-released to reflect the changing times? I still don't know the answer to that. In the case of Willard Price's books the answer is they shouldn't because he's no longer alive to do it, but I'm still not sure if it's being done by the actual author if it's right.

October Book #1 The Wishing Spell by Chris Colfer

An interesting kids book. I enjoyed this a lot more than I expected to. It is the first in the series and I don't particularly plan on reading further, but did think this was a great idea and a good read for the age. For the story to work, the reader needs a fairly sound grasp of traditional fairy tales - Snow White, Cinderella, Rapunzel, Little Red Riding Hood etc. The story of a pair of twins, Alex and Connor from our world, who are having a hard time following the death of their father, their mother is having to work almost constantly to keep a roof on their heads, Connor is constantly in trouble at school for not completing work and falling asleep in class, while his sister, Alex, is a hard worker, constantly top of the class, but isolated with no friends.

For their birthday, they are given a familiar book of fairy tales, that was a family heirloom. Events occur and the two end up inside the world of the book, seeking the Wishing Spell of the title to get back out to their mother and grandmother.

I enjoyed the children's adventures, the meeting between them and the well known characters - all is not always as it seems from the original tales. A happy ending - the book ends with 'an end' and rounds off to a point that you don't need to read the best of the series to find out how they resolved their problems, but it also leaves plenty of potential for other forays into the world again. Definitely worth a go for those who are about 9+, with a decent working knowledge of fairy tales and a love of magic and adventure.

I am still plodding through Gone with the Wind and finding it interesting but I don't seem to be getting far fast, a little over half way through.

>21 Peace2: - good question! I think my preference would be to leave them be, and perhaps write a new piece re-visiting the theme in a more enlightened way - somewhat like Le Guin manages in the later Earthsea books, but better perhaps to use a different series/character/plot to do so. I dislike 'retconning' where previous events are blatently twisted out of their prior meaning in order for an author to achieve some semblance of series continuity.

October Books #2 and #4 Winnie-the-Pooh and Now We Are Six by A.A. Milne
These two have been on my shelf for... years and although the stories in the first were familiar I think it was more from having seen the early Disney films. Some of the poems in the second also seemed familiar.

Anyway, I love the tales of the adventures of Winnie the Pooh and his friends and Christopher Robin coming to the rescue and there is a lovely feeling of a parent making up the stories for his own child and wrapping his stories around the imaginative world of the child's play building it up to something more.

I also liked the poetry collection, with some of the poems really hitting the spot and being ones I'd love to come back to and read again, while others were fine but didn't hit the spot for me so well. Both of these are definite keepers though. A Real Treat and I'm so pleased I did get to read the originals.

October Book #3 Cathar by Christopher Bland

I was a bit disappointed by this to be honest. A few years back, I visited Carcassonne and the area around it and had my interest piqued with regard to the History of the Cathars, their beliefs and the crusades against them, but had never really pursued that interest as much as I intended due to time and the amount of books I've already got to read on the shelves. So I happened across this in audio format at the local library and decided to give it a try, even though it was fiction hoping to begin to get a feel for the period and the people.

Since finishing I've poked around the internet a little to see how accurate to life this might have been and the thing is that elements of it are based around actual events but not events that were necessarily close enough in time for people to experience all of them in the way the main characters did (they would have needed to be very young for some, or very old for others - not middle aged for both).

One of my difficulties with the book was possibly in part due to listening to the audio. The story is told in the first person, but from several different points of views but there was only one male and one female narrator which meant that at times I found myself double taking trying to work out 'who' they were being at the time. It also made the story feel quite laborious and repetitive as one person would relate an event and then a second would relate overlapping and recapping before moving forward. It made the pace quite slow.

I think the other thing that sort of niggled for me, and this may be unfair to the book, was that to me it came across as a series of events, not a plot building to a culmination. Given as I said this was loosely based around actual events, this may be a somewhat unfair judgement to make, but in the end I felt a bit of 'and then we did this... and then we did this... and then we did this. The end'. Real life doesn't have a plot building to a culmination and this was probably more of a slice of 'pseudo-real life' in Cathar times.

So overall not so terrible that I gave up, but I didn't come away having loved it.

And 2 DNFs came next

The Dragons of Ordinary Farm by Tad Williams and Deborah Beale
A book for older children/early teens but I'm sorry to say that it didn't do it for me. I was hopeful given that it was written as a joint venture by Tad Williams of Dragonbone Chair authorship. It's slow paced which was part of my problem, too slow paced. Also I didn't like the characters. The story begins with an unknown 'uncle' inviting two children to spend the summer on his farm with him. He's supposed to be their mother's great uncle if I remember correctly, but she doesn't know him. So, because she wants to go on a singles holiday, she sends the children off across the country on a train alone with no extra money or anything to stay with him. That kind of set up to a story often annoys me, because I can't believe that most parents would do that on the basis of a single letter!

When the children arrive they are met by coldness from the farm's higher staff and their uncle doesn't make an appearance until after they've already broken the rules and discovered the first dragon. But why invite them to the farm if they're going to be shut in their rooms? The following day, they are taken out to see further animals (I won't detail any further so as not to spoil for anyone who does want to read) and again get into trouble because they make a mistake - despite them not having been told anything about the animal they are being shown.

The fact that I read somewhere this was going to be the first in a 5 part series and when I looked on LT only two have been published, (this in 2009 and the next in 2011) was just a final push to not struggle on in the hope of becoming invested in it.

The next DNF was The Book of Human Skin by Michelle Lovric
The title probably gives an inkling to why this wasn't working for me. A lot of nasty characters, some planning of gruesome events. To be honest, I didn't get very far into this one at all - I was listening to the audio format and the way some of the characters spoke was too grating, combined with what they were speaking about. I probably didn't get far enough for this to be a fair assessment of the book as a whole but I got far enough to know it didn't suit me.

>27 Peace2: When I saw the title The Book of Human Skin, I thought, "That could be an interesting science or medical book." Then I read on and realized it was fiction. Ick, no!

>27 Peace2: I read The dragons of Ordinary Farm a few years ago and also found it very disappointing. The farm was a great concept but the story and characters just never came alive. Also, the prose felt as though Williams and Beale were consciously "writing for children" so the narrative felt quite condescending compared to, say, Terry Pratchett's books for younger readers. You didn't miss anything by not finishing.

>29 Sakerfalcon: Given how difficult I find it to stop reading even books that I'm not loving but not completely hating, that is so reassuring!

October Book #5 When the Tripods Came by John Christopher

This one is likely to be my last finish of the month. This is a prequel to John Christopher's Tripods trilogy. It was written about 20 years after the original trilogy (late '80s whereas the others were published in 1967 and 1968). There was a short introduction by John Christopher which referenced the TV show made by the BBC in the mid-80s of the first two books (loosely), in it he referenced listening to another science fiction author who criticised the books based on his viewing of the series - how did Earth and humans ever fall under the power of the Tripods when the Tripods are so badly designed and have nothing more extravagant than a white searchlight - they didn't even have infra red. He points out that the books were written before the advent of infra-red into daily life as remote controls and the like and that one of the difficulties of writing science fiction is you don't know where real life is going to go.

This attempts to address some of those issues by showing an initial fight back and then an infiltration attack that people don't recognise until things begin to change for the worse. It follows one family as they attempt to escape the increasing influence of the Tripods.

My impression - I didn't enjoy this as much as I did the trilogy when I was younger - I intend reading those shortly to see if they have stood up to the test of time. In some respects they are typical of John Christopher's writing - central male characters who drive the action, although this actually in some ways seemed to make more of an effort to have significant and strong women (not overly successfully - they are still of secondary importance and give way to men when things are critical, but probably more so than other things I have read). They are also more succinct than you would expect of a young adult book written today (the original trilogy would be roughly the same length as one part of the Divergent trilogy). In some respects, it felt forced as if he had to come up with a reason for the Tripods to have achieved the power in the later books - my feelings are that sometimes you don't have to know the entirety of a past history, it was enough to know that they did overcome humans and come to power without needing to trying and tell that story as well.

>31 Peace2: I loved the original trilogy when I was a kid. I have no desire to reread them now, as I'm almost certain that the suck fairy will have visited them. I will be interested to see what you think when you reread them.

>32 SylviaC: I'm taking the risk!

November Book #1 The Dry by Jane Harper

The book begins with a man, Aaron, returning to the town he'd left in his teens for the funeral of his former friend, his friend's wife and son. At first appearance, the man had killed his wife and son before driving away and committing suicide, but one or two people begin to question the truth behind that and so they begin to look into the dead man's situation to find out what might have triggered the events and along with that the past begins to be resurrected. That past involved the death of a teenage girl, a death that both the returning friend and the now dead man had been investigated for. The book is set in an Australian town, in a dry and arid area where all the farms are struggling because of the drought. This book was recommended to me in the local bookshop when I was browsing for either Easter or Father's Day looking for a gift for my Dad and he passed it to me saying it was a great choice. It was. I enjoyed it. It was interesting seeing the truths of two stories untwine and resolve and by the end all of the deaths have been explained (current and past). It's a shame Jane Harper's next book isn't out in paperback until next July or that would definitely be on the Christmas list as either a request or a gift!

November Book #2 The White Mountains by John Christopher

This is the first of the original trilogy mentioned above in >31 Peace2:. I read this and watched the TV series in my teens at which point the TV show was new, but the book had been published before I was born in 1967. Reading it in the light of having read the prequel and John Christopher's introduction to that made it interesting and drew my attention to some of the comments that he'd made. As mentioned above, he wrote the prequel because of the backlash of certain people to the developments that society had made between the late sixties and the eighties (when the TV series came out) and the comments that people had made about how the trilogy didn't reflect human technological ability to fight back.

The thing is the story begins after the Tripods have been in control for conceivably hundreds of years (no definite is ever given). When the boys in the story come across remnants of technology, in many cases, there is no concept of what it referred to or how it would have been used. Society has reverted to a semi-feudal state, people farm by hand - no powered vehicles, no machinery to transport things or make jobs either. Books are limited, natural medicine is used. No one remembers a time before the Tripods and once they are Capped, they are not interested in how or why they live as they do.

It strikes me that the style of writing gives away when it was written- it's to the point (only about 180 pages, as opposed to the modern written trilogies for young adults that would be 300+), it focuses very firmly on the three male characters and the story is told by the central of those, Will. John Christopher's books rarely show positive female role models, but while I would expect different of a book today, I don't have the same issue with it in his books. His main character is flawed, he learns from his mistakes, improving, but not entirely losing his faults in one fell swoop - Will is self-centred, jealous, and he'll make decisions because of his self-centredness and his jealousy, but he'll also recognise when he's wrong and while he might not apologise, he'll recognise his own need for change and he'll begin to mature through that - not in one go, but more by attempting to behave better and to look outside himself gradually.

This is the first part of Will's journey, as he first questions his future, then leaves home in pursuit of answers and alternatives. By the end of the book, the first stage is complete, but there are still answers that he needs and that we as audience need. I enjoyed this, not quite in the same way as I did in my teens (being honest, I seem to remember having quite the crush on Will - probably aided by the TV series actor John Shackley! Is it worrying that after all these years I still remember his name despite having never seen him in anything else?), but let's just say the book is going on my 'to keep' shelf and I'll be reading the rest of the series at some point.

Oh, and in relation to the comments that the book didn't reflect human technological ability to fight back, to me it doesn't not reflect that either - this is set long after the arrival of the Tripods and their domination of Earth, it's never made clear what level mankind had reached before their arrival - it's stated indirectly that there had been electricity and trains, also the Paris metro system, but it's never made clear just what man's actual potential prior to the Tripods' arrival had been. Because of the reversion to the pre-electrical stage, the Tripods don't have to show off their true potential either, mankind is beaten and subjugated already. Even when there is a sign of mankind fighting back, the Tripods have control over their response, they come out in force to face the threat, by they don't raze the land. I guess what I'm saying is I don't think the prequel was needed.

>35 Peace2: I'm glad that turned out well for you!

>36 SylviaC: It was only the first of the trilogy - there are still two more that could disappoint - but I'm feeling hopeful right now.

November Book #3 The Fifth Gospel by Ian Caldwell

This was a great find on the audio book shelves at the library. The story centers around an attempt to solve a murder. The murdered man was about to open a new exhibition at the Vatican based around the Diatessoran, a Fifth Gospel, and linking with the Shroud of Turin. The story is told by a friend and associate of the murdered man, a Greek Catholic priest, Alex, who lives with his son in Vatican City. The book is more than just a simple murder mystery, it also explores the differences between Greek and Roman Catholics and between the Eastern Orthodox church, how some of those differences came about historically, it examines some of the differences in the portrayal of Jesus between the existing gospels and why those might historically be there - what each of the gospel writers was trying to achieve through their individual portrayals. In some respects, I found this book almost as interesting for its portrayal and explanation of Catholic belief and faith as for the murder story. It made me curious about the religious history of Catholicism and Orthodoxy - things I may well read further on at some point.

DNF x 3

I abandoned three books today - two of them aren't even real abandons as I barely even started them.

The first of the three Midnight for Charlie Bone by Jenny Nimmo - there wasn't anything really wrong with this, but I just couldn't get interested enough in it to want to continue. It's a children's book, and is about a boy with a newly discovered skill of hearing people in photos talk.

The next two I gave up on before I'd got through or much further than the first chapter - Monster Mission by Eva Ibbotson and The Earth Giant by Melvin Burgess. Both were also children's books but I just couldn't get into them. I don't think I'm missing anything too important by giving up on them so quickly and as I have so many more to read I doubt very much that I'll come to regret that.

Oh, just realised I actually had another abandon earlier in the month Prelude by Madeleine L'Engle. I got several chapters into this one before again giving up because I just wasn't sufficiently invested so that should actually be DNF x 4... oh dear and there I was thinking I was doing so well. I still have Madeleine L'Engle's A Wrinkle in Time to try and hope that I get on better with that when I get to it. Mind you thinking about it, I'm pretty sure there's still more Eva Ibbotson's on a shelf somewhere.

November Book #4 Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell

Initially I found this quite difficult to get into, but the further I managed to get the more interested I became. It has to be said, it's not at all the book that I was expecting (at this point I shall admit to never having watched the film either). I honestly thought it was going to be a romance. In hindsight it reminds me somewhat of Wuthering Heights - central characters who are not likeable and are pretty awful to each other, despite their 'love' for each other. Coming to the end of the book, I'm pleased I did make it through, but still don't like Scarlett or Rhett (Scarlett even less than Rhett). The portrayal of the era, the events of the Civil War, the relationships between the different groups were interesting, provided a different view to other things that I had read in the past. So end result - an interesting book, that I'm pleased I read but I didn't love it.

>40 Peace2: Your comparison to Wuthering Heights never occurred to me, but that is exactly right. I didn't care for either book. :)

>41 MrsLee: I liked Wuthering Heights a lot more when I read it in my teens and early twenties than I did on a recent re-read!

>40 Peace2: I think Gone With The Wind can be problematic on a lot of levels. I read it in my very early teens as one of those forbidden titles; my mother thought I was too young to read it so I read it behind her back. I can see where it might well disappoint if you were expecting more of a romance and I like your drawing of a parallel to Wuthering Heights. That said, I remember crying over the scene in Atlanta where the families learn of the casualties at Gettysburg. I was furious when I saw the movie that they'd reduced that chapter to such a very short sequence.

That said, it's been years since I last re-read it.

Isn’t Wuthering Heights a quintessential novel of adolescent feeling, full of passion and fury, ineluctable emotion, and a shortage of reason and self-possession? Not to dismiss it: it’s well realized in these respects. But it’s not a book of midlife.

>43 jillmwo: There were parts that I found moving, parts that were interesting - and it's probably because of those that I kept reading, at least at first.

>44 stellarexplorer: Do you mean adolescent feeling on the part of the reader or the characters? So it's because I'm no longer a teen that I can't relate (I don't remember being quite so tormented! LOL!) Although I didn't like it like I had when I was younger there were still aspects of it that appealed - the tormented setting... some of the language - but not enough to make me want to read it again any time soon.

Scarlett is still in her teens at the outset of Gone with the Wind - but so much of her attitude is selfish and egotistical - I don't think she truly cares for any one of her suitors or her husbands except in how they provide what she wants. Although at the end she professes to have realised she loves Rhett, I'm not convinced that she's really changed. I think she's determined and focused (to her credit) and that's what her family relied on to provide for them during and after the War, but she isn't really looking outside her own needs. I think she's sees other people mostly in terms of how useful they are to her. The motivations behind the behaviour are probably different between the two books, but the way the principal characters treat each other strike me as similar.

Has anyone read South of the Border, West of the Sun or Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami? I'm struggling and about to give up on the former and am wondering whether I'm missing something or whether if I should give the second away at the same time because they aren't a good fit for me.

I gave up in 2015 on Colourless Tsukuru Tazaki and his years of pilgrimage and struggled through After Dark prior to that, so am beginning to think I'm just not the right person for his work.

>46 Peace2: I'veve read South of the border, west of the sun but don't really remember it, which probably says it all. I didn't like either Norwegian Wood or After dark. But Murakami's more surreal novels - A wild sheep chase, The wind-up bird chronicle, Hard-boiled wonderland and Kafka on the shore are among my very favourite books. I'm not sure if that is helpful to you or not. I think I'm saying that there's still a chance you may like something by him even though you've bounced off everything so far. But I would not blame you if you decided to move on; after all, there is never enough time to read to spend much of it taking chances on authors you're not sure you'll like.

>46 Peace2: I've not read South of the Border either but have Norwegian Wood and wasn't wholly impressed. Like @Sakerfalcon, I think I prefer his more overt forays into magical realism such as Kafka and Hard-boiled Wonderland. I wasn't in a good place when I read The Wind-up bird Chronicle and this will need a re-read at some point so can't comment on that one. The only other of this particular Murakami that I've read is Sputnik Sweetheart which I found to be quite similar to Norwegian Wood but enjoyed it just a little more.

>47 Sakerfalcon: and >48 AHS-Wolfy: Thank you both for your comments. I'm feeling a little less worried about giving up on South of the Border, West of the Sun now, but will give Norwegian Wood a quick try at some point and see if it works for me. If I do come across any more Murakami, I'll try to make sure to give one of the ones that you've suggested a go if they're different.

I think what was bothering me most was the I'd heard lots of rave reviews about his work and I was afraid I was missing out on something by giving up. Still even if the others don't suit when I do eventually get to them, I've most definitely given him a solid try and maybe he just isn't writing for me.

November Book #5 Everything to Lose by Andrew Gross

The story begins with a woman fighting to keep her son, who has Asperger's, in a school where he is making tremendous progress after losing her job and her ex husband stops paying support. She stops at the scene of a road traffic accident to try and help the driver of the car and is faced with the fact the driver is already dead and on the seat next to him is a bag with over 100k of dollars.

Well, there was a story so you can guess what she did, so the rest of the story is about the repercussions of her actions. For me, I was actually reasonably interested as the story went along but even that small enthusiasm had waned by the end. Some of the whys and wherefores of actions had me sighing and overall it just about managed to scrape 2 1/2 stars (which it turns out was the same as the previous one by this author that I'd read). I won't be seeking anything more by him, but there isn't anything so wrong with it that I'd give up before the end, it just somehow isn't enough for me. Then again maybe it's just my to read pile is too big...

>46 Peace2: I am a great fan of Murakami's work but I would also be the first person to say his work is not something that everyone would love. He is one of those authors that I see people either loving or hating. I had heard of Kafka on the Shore when it won a literary award and was interested in reading it because I like Kafka's work and I wondered how Murakami's book related to Kafka and at that time I had not read anything by Murakami. Before I got to it I spotted 1Q84 and was taken by the cover. I admit it, the cover was the first thing to attract me to it. I loved the book and have enjoyed all the Murakami I have read since.

You should not feel bad about giving up on a book that is doing nothing for you. Murakami's books do tend to require a particular state of mind to be enjoyed.

>51 pgmcc: Thank you for the reassurance. I guess the worry is that it's a personal failing to give up on something that isn't working that seems so widely popular, and that if I tried again at a different time, it would work better for me. I've tried South of the Border a couple of times now, so I'm more sure it's not for me. I guess it wouldn't be the first time that something popular hasn't worked for me really either. Knowing that he has different kinds of books, markedly different, reassures me that I can try again with a different title later and my response might be different.

November Book #6 Thrice the Brinded Cat Hath Mew'd by Alan Bradley

The eighth in the Flavia De Luce series and I continue to enjoy my time with Flavia. There were certain reservations about this book, in that it seemed Flavia, despite her return from Canada, was even more isolated. I had hoped for more of a return of old familiar characters, but each got only a very tiny amount of 'screen time' as it were. I liked the mystery is this book less than previous ones, but loved the time spent with Flavia and her associates. Saddened by the end, but looking forward to reading the next one (hope it won't be too long before it's available through the library). I also need to commend the narrator - same one as in previous titles, Sophie Aldred she is a brilliant Flavia.

I love this series so much that I've bought a friend The Sweetness At The Bottom of the Pie for Christmas and have to hope that she too falls for Flavia.

>53 Peace2: Those titles stand out as poetic, eh? Love 'em.

>53 Peace2: I don't think I've read that one, even though it is on my Kindle. Perhaps my new year resolution should be to catch up on the multiple series which I haven't completed. Sometimes I save my beloved series books like candy, but it's no good when you stash the candy and forget you have it!

>54 2wonderY: The titles are wonderful.

>55 MrsLee: There's no best before date so at least you don't have to throw them out if you forget they're there for a while!

November Book #7 Three Days and a Life by Pierre Lemaitre

I read this book in English (translated from French). Set in a small French village, the story centres around Antoine. Antoine is 12 at the beginning of the story and probably the first half of the book deals with the events that occur then. Remi, a six year old neighbour of Antoine vanishes and the village looks but doesn't find him. I'm not sure this is a thriller as such, in that the reader knows what happened to Remi and is watching to see what will happen to the people around him. The story then jumps forward twelve years, again following Antoine's life and experiences, when he has returned to the small village. The story ends with a somewhat unexpected twist and cause of twist. Overall, I can't say that I enjoyed it. Despite being short it was a bit dry and tedious. I should have taken note when LT said the likelihood was high that I wouldn't enjoy it - I didn't hate it, I just bore with it.

December Book #1 A Snow Garden and other stories by Rachel Joyce

A set of slightly related short stories set loosely around Christmas time. Speaking personally I'm hoping this isn't typical of the author's writing as I found it tedious and didn't really enjoy it at all, but I still have two other books by the same author on the shelf The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry and The Love Song of Miss Queenie Hennessy.

To give an idea of the stories - most of them seemed to be about people who were unhappy for a variety of reasons with their lives and Christmas was to an extent making it worse. There was some resolution and happiness for individual characters but overall I found it a somewhat depressing read personally.

December Book #2 Face by Benjamin Zephaniah

Interesting book but I didn't love the writing style. So this book begins with a group of teens finishing up the term at school and planning what they will do over the holiday. It uses the first few chapters to begin to define the characters, in particular that of Martin. Martin is an extrovert, a bit of a class clown, centre of attention - the centre of his gang of friends. The following is not really a spoiler, in the sense that it is the main theme of the book and as such is described on the cover but I've put it under a spoiler alert in case anyone does pick their books without reading the blurb. Part way through the book, an event occurs which leaves Martin with a facial disfigurement. The rest of the book is about how Martin and others deal with that change, which other parts of his personality change as a result, how his interactions with other people also change because of it, both on their part and on his own.

I found the subject matter interesting - it's written for young people, so it doesn't get bogged down in the medical side of things, but does touch on the fact that some procedures do take place, but also on the support that can be provided by a psychiatrist. It focuses more on Martin's own strength in dealing with his changed situation, reflecting both his anger, his sadness but also the strength and positivity of character that has him moving forward quickly. Other people's actions/reactions are also examined and considered - the negative and the positive - and how they affect Martin's own reactions. Support doesn't necessarily come from where he expected it.

The style of writing - particularly in the way the characters speak - is probably fairly indicative of the area and time it was written (approximately 20 years ago and it's set in London) and the age of the principal characters. The rest of the style of writing is fairly sparse and succinct. It's a relatively short book (only a little over 200 pages) so it doesn't delve too deeply into anything and things move quickly forward. Overall, I found it interesting, thought provoking (making me think how I would deal both if I were in a similar position to Martin and how I would react if dealing closely with someone else in a similar position), but I didn't love it.

The author is also a poet and the book ends with a poem which again is thought provoking and worth the time to read and consider for its reflection of human perception and reaction to what we expect to see and what we do see when looking at other people. Glad I did read it, as I almost gave it away in a clear out without giving it the time it deserved. It's also made me pause before giving away another by the same author - Refugee Boy - as I know intend giving this a try too.

December Book #3 Three Men in a Boat by Jerome K Jerome

The story of three lazy men taking a trip up the river with their dog. Funny in parts, but after a while (and it's only short) I began to feel that the humour was repetitious. Some apt observations of people's natures but an accessible read - this is not a highfalutin classic which is a struggle to decipher. I didn't love it but perhaps that was a combination of the lack of actual plot and the fact that it soon felt (to me) as though I'd already read what the author was saying because they'd said something similar before. Glad I've read it, but also happy to let it go.

>60 Peace2: As I recall, the underlying problem from reading Three Men in a Boat a l-o-n-g time ago is that in general Victorian humour doesn't age gracefully -- rather like structural concrete, which it much resembles at times. This impression is reinforced by innumerable very early "humour" recordings (1900s to '20s) which very rarely rise above being dire.

>61 hfglen: I have to say that I was somewhat surprised at the numerous enthusiastic reviews on here about the humour. Mind you, in life in general, I find humour is of very personal taste - one only needs to look at people's reactions to TV comedies and comedians to draw a wealth of both love and hate for each. Isn't there a saying somewhere about one man's meat...

December Book #4 If You're Reading This, It's Too Late by Pseudonymous Bosch

A children's book (9 -12 age I would say), this is the second in the Terces Society series. It's an unusual style with a lot of narrator/author direct dialogue to the reader, but very much continues in theme and style from the first book. Max-Ernest and Cassie are still trying to become full members of the Terces Society while also saving the world from imminent disaster at the hands of the Midnight Sun. Humorous sections, mysteries being solved, dangers being faced. A good adventure mystery book.

I won't be continuing with the series but think it's a great series for the relevant age.

December Book #5 Boys don't knit by T.S. Easton

The copy I had acquired of this was actual a proof copy (so I guess I'm hoping some of the errors in it were corrected before the actual printing). So overall the book was lightly amusing, but only if you can put aside some of the unlikely events or misinformation about knitting (and I think probation probably as well).

Ben is a likeable enough kid, who had been bullied at school prior to the arrival of a new kid who formed a bit of a gang which included Ben. He's a reasonable student, but he gets dragged into some of the stupid things his friends do, the end result of which is him ending up in court for an incident involving Ben, a lollipop lady and a couple of cars. Following this, he is given probation. There are several criteria for the probation - 1. he has to keep a journal (that's what becomes the book), 2. he has to attend a class that will give him a hobby (hence the knitting - there are multiple reasons for that, but I won't spoil the story by going into that) 3. He has to give something back (he has to go do odd jobs for a person in the community).

So obviously 2 and 3 are the source of most of the humour, Ben's initial difficulties in being able to do the required item, his attempts to keep it secret, other people finding out about it. The bullying recurs on and off, conveniently when it's needed to prompt something else - Ben retaliates, but rather than be in trouble himself (or give an apparent punishment to the bully) Ben is coerced into acting on behalf of someone else and the bully and friends are allowed to set up another incident.

There is also a romantic interest, which Ben has difficulty navigating and some problems at home.

The book is aimed at 12+ year olds - now I'm going to go by my nephew in making this comment who is in that target range and a friend's daughter also in that age band but this may vary according to maturity (the two of them seem similar in some respects but that's all I have to go on and younger, with regard to how they would react). Firstly there are a lot of double entendres, amusing, but overplayed. Now the two 12 year olds I know are both keen to spot puns etc, but I'm not sure that sexual double entendres to this extent would really register with either of them except in that Ben points them out (to be fair they make the character uncomfortable). The knitting and romance aspect even though the main character is a boy, make me think that this would still fall into being a 'girly' book (and I hate to classify books that way - I used to say to kids when I worked in a primary school that there were no such thing as a 'book for girls' or a 'book for boys' no matter what the cover said e.g. War Stories for boys or War Stories for girls - one with battles and fighting, the other with nurses or land girls *sigh* but the reality is that as a whole some types of books do seem to appeal more to the masses of one gender) I think if you've got boys who love reading and are willing to try anything, they could enjoy it, but I'm not sure that you'd get boys who aren't avid readers to go with it.

One of the characters is writing a book entitled 'Fifty Shades of Graham' - would the namesake and what's it's about really be on the radar of a 12 year old? With references to a female character being tied to a pool table . . . Again, I'm not sure that's right for a 12 year old, another couple of years and maybe. There is no graphic sex, it is all about illusion, impression and innuendo.

With regard to the knitting, Ben picks it up, loves it and is soon set on a path to young entrepreneurship - which is great but... he's entering competitions and as a beginner he's being expected to design his own patterns and to speed knit. He can also apparently read a pattern, visualise it and then knit it almost without stopping without going back to the pattern. Quite an achievement in only a few lessons!

Overall, I gave the book 3 stars, despite its flaws (and I hoped they picked up on the name change of Ben's dad part way through the book before the book was published for general consumption), because it did make me smile.

Wishing all who celebrate Christmas a fantastic day, and to all who see this I wish you love, happiness and many happy reads. Good wishes to all. xx

I've opened my Santathing parcel - awesome! Hopefully wonderful picks - My Grandmother sends her Regards and Apologises by Fredrick Backman (author of A Man Called Ove), The Girl with all the Gifts by M.R. Carey and The Golem and the Djinni by Helene Wecker. Looking forward to trying these - I feel so fortunate to have a Santa who made such great choices!

>45 Peace2: Yes, I wouldn’t be surprised if that’s right!

>46 Peace2: The only Murakami I’ve read is Kafka on the Shore and it was ok, but didn’t inspire me to read more. I ended up puzzled at what the fuss was about Murakami, although I realize many like his work very much. Maybe what’s good for the goose isn’t always good for the gander (to tweak a metaphor)?

>67 stellarexplorer: I think you may be right with regard to Murakami - certainly in the ones I've tried so far don't suit me. Norwegian Wood is still sitting on the shelf glaring at me to give it a try but... I'm tempted just so I can get rid of it if it too doesn't suit! I need the space for the stuff that fits me better (or at least the stuff that is still waiting to be read so I can find out whether it fits me or not!)

It may be a good time to reflect on how many wonderful and as yet unread books there are...

I got some more books for Christmas (not Santathing but gifts from family) - Caraval by Stephanie Garber and The Roanoke Girls by Amy Engel. More interesting reads, I hope!

I have decided to have today as a DANBR day (do almost nothing but read) with a view to attempting to reduce the TBR pile so that I don't need to feel at all guilty about the wonderful books that I got for Christmas!

As I do in honesty have some other things that need to be done, I have audio books lined up too.

So far I've read a bit of Norwegian Wood, two chapters of The House at Pooh Corner and am now listening to Disc 5 of Ghastly Business as I prepare to tackle an area of re-organisation and tidying that needs to be done. I'm hoping to get most of the tidying done by the end of the disc which will enable me to sit down and finish THAPC and make progress on something else as well.

Have given up on Norwegian Wood and it is joining South of the Border, West of the Sun in the to go box. Any future attempt at Haruki Marukami books will be with books borrowed from the library.

December Book #6 The House at Pooh Corner by A.A. Milne

Pooh and friends' adventures in the Hundred Acre Wood. Events include Rabbit's plans to rid Tigger of his bounce, the invention of Poohsticks, Pooh and Piglet's efforts to build a house for Eeyore and the need for Owl to find a new home.

Lovely stories, that make me feel warm and homely.

December Book #7 Ghastly Business by Louise Levene

The title pretty much sums it up to be honest. Set in 1929 in London, Theodora Strang begins a job as 'filing clerk' for a pathologist. The story tells of her life at the house where she boards and her landlady who takes pride in how far she can eke her ingredients when serving meals and of her interactions with the pathologist and his colleagues with plenty of details about the post mortems and the causes of death.

I didn't enjoy it, if I hadn't have already been over halfway through the audio version before deciding that really I wasn't warming to it at all, I'd probably have given up earlier. Glad to see the back of it to be honest.

Now spending some time reading Lord Sunday the final part of the Keys to the Kingdom series by Garth Nix. May also read a bit of something else shortly.

In what is likely my final stint of the day (or at least the last reported one), I finished up Iron Man: Extremis a six volume compilation of the comics and read another chapter of Lord Sunday. I need to up my game somewhat on that if I'm to finish it before year's end which is what I'm hoping to do.

December Book #8 Iron Man: Extremis by Warren Ellis and team

This is the first comic selection that I've read with Iron Man as the central character - my previous reads have focused on Captain America, Bucky Barnes or Hawkeye (in part because they're all so expensive to acquire now!).
Without wishing to come down on the opposite side of the Avengers divide from any one else who follows films or comics, I will admit upfront that I'm more of a Team Cap supporter to date. I find Tony Stark fascinating in the films and so one of the things I find interesting about this is seeing which aspects of the stories were brought forward into the films and how closely the characters tie together.

Artistically I loved the full Iron Man depiction in this collection, although some of the other elements I liked less, and the story is easy to follow (sometimes I find that you need to have either other information from another run or a parallel run, or the frames jump in such a way that I find myself getting lost).

I found the characters of Maya and Aldritch Killian far less interesting in this than in the film and the trip to visit an old friend somewhat of a 'why was that in there?'

There is just the barest acknowledgement of the wider Marvel universe, no one else appears, but Tony refers in conversation to the Avengers several times. Tony in some respects almost feels like a 'Stark-lite' version of himself - he's true to character, but feels somewhat less convincing in his interactions and continual internal monologue and reminiscing. This is still a Tony Stark who acts in what he has decided is the best interests of everyone else and rushes through his decisions, certain of himself..

All in all, I'll look out for more passing Iron Man titles but I'll go back to hunting down the missing Cap and Bucky ones first.

PANIC!!!! I've just realised my Thingaversary is only 15 days away!!!

This is terrible news (in a way). Can I count my Santathing books or the books I got for Christmas from family towards the total?? I mean it was just me being super prepared for such a special day, wasn't it???

>78 Peace2:

According to the Rules, purchases must be made specifically for Thingaversary.

>78 Peace2: There is a little known codicil which allows this if there is no money left for food. You have to have a good pair of cheaters to find it.

December Book #9 The Wrong Girl by C.J. Archer

I enjoyed this, the first part of a trilogy set in the late 1800s, which I happened across a year and some months ago as a free book of the week in the I-Store. Hannah lives with her friend Lady Violet in the attic of a manor house. The two of them are kept confined away from the public eye. Hannah believes this is because of Lady Violet's unfortunate fire-starting ability which comes about when she is concerned for Hannah's welfare, as Hannah herself suffers from sudden inexplicable bouts of narcolepsy.

Hannah is kidnapped from the grounds one day and whisked away to Frakingham Hall, also known as Freak House. There she meets Jack and Sylvia and their uncle. Only at first sight, she's the wrong girl, and although she keeps it secret, Hannah believes they actually intended to take Violet.

The story progresses with elaboration of both Jack and Hannah's situation and the book ends with many more questions still to be answered and more characters thrown into the mix.

I'd be interested in continuing with this story over the next book at least to see where it's going and what happens to the individuals concerned. I liked it more than I expected to, and am curious to find out where some of the unusual talent comes from.

December Book #9 The Wrong Girl by C.J. Archer

I enjoyed this, the first part of a trilogy set in the late 1800s, which I happened across a year and some months ago as a free book of the week in the I-Store. Hannah lives with her friend Lady Violet in the attic of a manor house. The two of them are kept confined away from the public eye. Hannah believes this is because of Lady Violet's unfortunate fire-starting ability which comes about when she is concerned for Hannah's welfare, as Hannah herself suffers from sudden inexplicable bouts of narcolepsy.

Hannah is kidnapped from the grounds one day and whisked away to Frakingham Hall, also known as Freak House. There she meets Jack and Sylvia and their uncle. Only at first sight, she's the wrong girl, and although she keeps it secret, Hannah believes they actually intended to take Violet.

The story progresses with elaboration of both Jack and Hannah's situation and the book ends with many more questions still to be answered and more characters thrown into the mix.

I'd be interested in continuing with this story over the next book at least to see where it's going and what happens to the individuals concerned. I liked it more than I expected to, and am curious to find out where some of the unusual talent comes from.

December Book #10 Dare Me by Megan Abbott

This book is a story about cheerleaders. Now the first thing to admit is the only thing I knew about cheerleaders and cheer in advance of reading this is from films and TV shows, similarly American high schools. The second thing is that if I had a daughter, the last thing I'd want her involved in, having read this, is cheer (if I take this as in any way real).

The story is told by Addy Hanlon, one of the cheerleading squad. She's the 'lieutenant' to Beth's captain. At the beginning of the book, the team get a new coach and the team dynamic changes. The new coach doesn't think there needs to be a team captain and has a whole new way of working than her predecessor. Beth and she clash and there begins the real story. What will Beth do to get her own back and how will the dynamic change between the Coach and the rest of the team and Beth and the team as a result? Where will it lead?

The team are gradually sucked into the new Coach's way of doing things and their game improves and they begin to talk about making it to Regionals - but their internal relationships and dynamics are also changing.

Things that I found horrifying about this book - the weight loss and dietary issues and Coach's role in encouraging that, the way the girls would hang out with Coach at home, the amount of drinking and driving home afterwards, the fact that the girls are coming and going from their own homes at all hours of the night without any parental intervention, prescription and OTC drug usage. There are a couple of others but I can't really mention them without giving away actual story events.

In many respects, this is a terrifying look at the worst of adolescent girlhood - the jealousy, aggression and negative competitiveness. These are not glittery made up girls, following in the wake of the football squad, waiting for the boys to show them some attention. These are hardened glittery made up warriors, who fight each other and themselves, who try to use the men and boys around them, but the problem is they aren't as together inside as they like to make it appear and they aren't necessarily as hardened as they themselves would like to think.

Overall, I felt just engaged enough with the story and with checking out how a certain event actually came to pass to keep reading, but not enough to really say that I enjoyed this or that I would want to tackle anything by the author again. And if this is really what it's like to be involved in cheer - with the dietary issues, the drinking and prescription drug use, let alone the attitudes towards each other - then I think the whole system of high schools' role in encouraging it should be re-evaluated nationally. I think the aspect of which these are not just dumb showy attention seeking girls, but honed sportspeople, is important - the amount of training and physicality and when it goes well the collective team ownership is a potential for a real positive.

DNF The White Giraffe by Lauren St John

In as far as I got with this, there wasn't anything terribly wrong with it, but it's one of the children's books that I'd bought for my old job and I just couldn't get into it enough to make it worth the time now. This is less a reflection on the book and more on my life change. Although I did read enough to question why in both of the series that I've read (or in this case started) by Lauren St John, the main character needs to be orphaned.

From the bit I read, I'm sure this would be a great book for animal loving readers of the upper primary sort of age range. It begins with Martine losing her parents and being sent to live with her maternal grandmother on a game reserve in South Africa.

I shall donate this, along with its sequels to a local school where I am sure there will be a suitable audience to enjoy it.

December Book #11 A Guide to the Dolmens of Jersey by Peter Hunt

Although this is going back on to the shelf, it was actually a disappointment. On the positive side, if it works, I'll be able to find a couple of dolmens and other neolithic sites that we've not been able to track down before. The books was disappointing as I was hoping it would have more information about the period they were built (even hypothetical), when they were re-discovered and how they were excavated - I knew given the length of the book that it wasn't going to be huge amounts, but in actual fact this was more a list of road directions with only minimal information about the actual locations or what is known about the history of them. The directions would be of minimal use to people arriving in the Island now, but I've been here more than long enough to know the original location of some places and to remember where other things were before that have been used to give directions (e.g continue north on x road until you pass y hotel - where y hotel no longer exists and so on)

Happy New Year to all!

And a Happy New Year to you!

And that concludes my reading for 2017 - now just to tally up what I've read... Back in a little while.

Tracker of amount of Books Read in 2017




I'd set this to mark when I read one hundred books for convenience - I hadn't set that kind of strict goal this year. Rather I was aiming to read 12,000 pages from books that were already on the TBR pile and to reduce the overall size of the TBR pile by reading more than I bought. I passed the 12,000 mark earlier in the year and had upped it to 20,000 pages but did not reach that.

Total Number of Books Read : 115
Books Retained : 24

Books on Shelf prior to 1st October 2016 : 63
Borrowed from Library (but not to match existing titles on shelf) : 31

Books Acquired: 66

Total Number of Books Read by Male Authors : 55
Number of Different Male Authors : 42

Total Number of Books By a Collaboration: 10

Total Number of Books by Female Authors: 50
Number of Different Female Authors: 42

Total Number of Fiction : 107
Total Number of Non-Fiction: 8
Total DNF number:22 (approx. 16% of total books attempted)
Actual books: 67
E-books: 6
Audio books: 11
Borrowed from library: 36 finished of which 29 were audio and 7 were actual books (and as the totals don't match the other 5 were returned unfinished – these would be included in the DNF total above).

Today is a Do Nothing but... day. So no work, no cleaning etc.

I intend to read, watch TV, maybe do a jigsaw (or a bit of one) possibly do a bit of crafting or colour in one of the books that I have stashed - basically RELAX before heading back to work tomorrow. I shall keep a log of the reading part of that here for my own purposes to see how I'm getting on.

There will be a further post (or possibly more) when I've further analysed (makes it sound important) last year's reading accomplishments.

So I've done really badly on the reading part of today as I had visitors arrive and stay for a couple of very pleasant hours. It's four o'clock already and I'm just about to start a bit of reading.

I've been thinking forward and trying to decide what to do about my thingaversary books...

Good that you had friends in! The books will be there.

Looks like 2017 was a great year of reading. Happy reading in 2018 :)

Just realised I've managed to do it again - I had this problem at the beginning of last year that I wasn't ready to start a new thread and link it to the previous year because I didn't have enough posts *sigh*. For now I'm just going to post here and not start my new thread until I've got myself ready (not that I've finished a book yet so that's not too much of a problem yet).

In terms of last year's reads...

I didn't get any five star reads which is a bit of a shame.

I had three 4 1/2 star reads - The Color Purple by Alice Walker, The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater and Thrice the Brinded Cat hath mew'd by Alan Bradley

15 were four star reads, 16 were three and a half star reads, 38 three star reads, and 43 that were lower than that.

Of the books that I've read only, 23 have stayed on my shelves - and unfortunately only one of the 4 1/2 star reads were part of that because the other two were borrowed from the library.

We could blow your thread up like happened for jillmwo, if you want us to. Rabbit trails are our specialty!

>97 MrsLee: I’m always happy to engage in authorized mayhem. :)

>97 MrsLee: coffee ...

>99 hfglen: LOL, you all are hilarious. :)

Cake... biscuits.... chocolate.... what would you like to accompany the coffee? Multiple selections of cheese, with grapes and crackers.... Cheese fondue... wine? Just let me know. I'm happy to host.

Hmm. Tea and cucumber sandwiches would be lurvely. Either that or nachos.

>102 Marissa_Doyle: On the way.

My major success of last year (given the accommodation difficulties) is that Mount TBR is now smaller than it was on the 1st January last year.... by 57 books. This has been achieved by reducing the quantity coming into the house (because I certainly haven't increased my reading - that if anything has decreased due to the change in jobs half way through 2016 and this year involved several periods of overtime - and exhaustion).

This makes me happy because I am very slowly reclaiming my living space (much as I love books, when life becomes hindered by the books it can't be good) and also because too many of the books on the shelves were unread. Now I'm getting rid of ones that aren't worth the space they're taking up - but any that I like I still hang onto.

As you should. (Just doing my bit to help usher your thread into 2018...)

You can always post the link if you don't wish to wait.

Coffee

Milk and sugar? r would you like a dash of something more interesting in it?

The spouse is watching "Criminal Minds" and I just heard this quote:

"Light thinks it travels faster than anything but it is wrong. No matter how fast light travels it finds the darkness has always got there first, and is waiting for it." – Terry Pratchett

I'm always impressed by people who can make a dent in their TBR. Seems I acquire just about as much as I read so my TBR number doesn't change very much though the items on the list itself updates a lot.

>107 suitable1: donut

>104 Peace2:, >110 Narilka: Out of curiosity, I went and counted my book purchases in 2017 to compare against my reading. I bought 78 books and read 84 books, resulting in an over-all reduction of 6. Out of the actual list of 78 books I bought, I read 55 based on my quick count, with one more in progress and two more slotted for this month.

So I guess it went down a little… not very much, though! 57 is much more impressive.

I should probably add (and conveniently take up another post in so doing!) that my purchases were all digital, and the only physical books I read came from the library. So it also doesn't have quite the same impact as reducing stacks of physical books.

Overflowing bookshelves was a large impetus behind my original decision to try e-books, although I stuck with them for different reasons. At the time, I lived in a small, one-bedroom apartment, had three bookcases which was about two too many for the space, and I was starting to stack books in closets because I was out of room on the shelves.

>112 YouKneeK: Any reduction is impressive, even 6. I started keeping a box of "trade ins" for when I want to make my semi annual trip to McKay's in Chattanooga. As much as I enjoy my Kindle I never see myself getting rid of all my physical books. And there are some I want in both digital and physical formats.

I should probably confess (do I need to?) that included in my reduction were the DNFs for the year of which there were a disturbing amount - that accounted for 22 of them, but then I suppose looking at that another way, it allows for a little bit of a return for all the library books that I borrowed instead of reading things I'd already got! (In particular in March when I was doing the Library Reading Challenge by way of supporting the library and showing its worth the funding because people use it! - which had me reading one book for each decade from the 1920's forward)

As I get a lot of my usual books from charity shops, I don't pay full price and tend to pay less for them than I would for the ebook equivalent.

I still like the physicality of actual books but am seeing the benefit of ebooks when reading heavy tomes or when I need bigger type (Gone with the Wind was an awful lot lighter on my phone than the actual book). The other thing I like about ebooks is being able to poke at words and look up their meaning when I don't know them or when they're being used in a different way to I'm used to hearing them.

Speaking of ebooks - I've given away my copy of Anna Karenina and replaced it with an ebook - yay! I've now started reading it - I may be there a while (after all Gone with the Wind ended up taking me something like 5 months to get through) - maybe I should log my progress through it like I log my journey to Mordor :D

Speaking of which - on my journey to Mordor, I've now covered 1,841.86 miles - I've reached Mount Doom and am now journeying wearily between Minas Tirath and Isengard given the inclement weather and dark evenings. Currently listening to The Two Towers which seems appropriate at this stage of the journey.

>117 Peace2: I haven't added up in a long time. Due to an injured hamstring (I think), pRogers us slow.

>115 Peace2: At least you’re good about not pushing through something you aren’t enjoying! I have always had some trouble with that, even while knowing it would be more logical to move on to something I’ll enjoy more so I can make better use of my time.

>115 Peace2: That word-poking is one of my favorite aspects of the Kindle.

>118 MrsLee: This was typed on my phone late last night, and I can't for the life of me think what I was trying to say at the end, but my phone interpreted as "pRogers us slow."

I always start a new thread at the beginning of the year, and just put a link at the end of my old one. You lose the automatic starring for anyone who had it starred, but then, it also becomes accessible to anyone who might have X-ed it.

>122 SylviaC:

Who would X your thread?

>121 MrsLee: As somebody who gets frequent cryptic e-mails from people typing on their phone, my interpretation was that you were trying to say, “progress is slow”. :) (And I’m sorry about the injury!)

>119 YouKneeK: That's something I'm getting better at - I've been practising this year :D

>121 MrsLee: I did wonder what you meant, but didn't like to say too much in case it was obvious to everyone else! mind you I often wonder what logic the phone uses when it auto corrects.... why for instance would mine continually auto correct mum to nun - which my old one did every time I wrote it - I doubt I've ever needed the word nun in a text, however mum is a regular one.

I hope the hamstring is recovering.

>123 suitable1: I have, on rare occasions, x’d a thread by mistake. Usually when clicking (or attempting to click) “next” at the bottom of the Talk widget on my Home page. The ‘x’ for the last post on the list is just a teensy bit above it.

Every now and then I double check to make sure I’m not accidentally ignoring threads so I can unignore them if I am. :)

>122 SylviaC: >123 suitable1: I figure if someone Xed my thread they probably don't want to see the new one either - I could be wrong on that though. Who knows?

>127 YouKneeK: I hadn't thought of that happening.

I must be so far behind on what's possible. It never occurred to me to (a) avoid someone's thread by hiding it or (b) check whether one could actually "x" a thread so it wouldn't appear.

>115 Peace2: I returned to print when I began to see a difference in my retention of what I read when I was reading mostly ebooks. I was perfectly happy with using an e-reader when I was commuting simply because (as you note) one gets tired of carrying the weight of some very good titles.

>130 jillmwo: I sometimes find that with the audios that I listen to, that I can barely remember them after finishing.

>131 Peace2: Audios are much more difficult for me. Both in terms of retention and with simply paying attention to the narrator in the first place.

I’ve never noticed a difference in my reading retention with Kindle versus physical books. However, I have noticed lower retention when I read on my phone. In my case, I think it’s more environmental than anything. I only read on my phone if I'm in a public place and have some unexpected downtime while I wait for something. I don’t carry my Kindle around normally, but my phone is always with me, so it can be convenient to sync it up to my Kindle e-book and continue reading versus sitting around bored. I’m easily distracted by the people and things around me if I read in a public place, though, which means I'm pretty much always distracted when I read on my phone.

Happy New Year! I hope 2018 is a great year for you. Your 2017 statistics look good. You are away ahead of me on the number of books read. You also appear managed the trick of reading more books that you acquired. I have yet to manage that. :-)

>128 Peace2: When I first joined the Green Dragon, I was also a member of a couple of other large LT groups, and in order to keep things manageable, I X-ed a bunch of threads. It wasn't long before I decided that this was where I belonged, and that I wanted to read ALL the journals, so I had to go find them all to un-X them. And as >127 YouKneeK: said, accidental X-ings have been known to occur.

>124 YouKneeK: Let's go with that! :D

>134 SylviaC: Be careful when you mention the occurrence of "accidental X-ings" in the Green Dragon. Some folks are a bit sensitive to the activities of the Roombas and the STINGING COBRAS. Not to mention those oh-so-not-innocent Smurfs.

>135 MrsLee: Which do we need to watch out for most the Cobras or the Smurfs?

I've been giving some thought to my Thingaversary situation... I shall maybe work on my completionism by ordering some missing titles from series that I'm part way through reading.

>131 Peace2: and >132 YouKneeK: I just want to bring a free book to your attention that's relevant to the discussion. Reading in a Digital Age is part of my professional reading this week. There's no working touchstone for it, but it's freely accessible here: https://quod.lib.umich.edu/c/cb/mpub9944117/--reading-in-a-digital-age?view=toc. It's really short but seems solidly researched.

Based on current research, our retention as it pertains to reading from the one or the other (print vs. digital) would appear to chiefly be a response to individual conditioning. more in terms of how one prefers to take in information than really being a universal effect on all brains.

>138 jillmwo: Sounds interesting. I think my retention personally, is about how much attention I was paying at the time to it - it's all very well being able to multitask but without full commitment to it I sometimes don't take in as much of the information as I think I do - I know that's my biggest problem with the audio books - I'm generally doing something else - at the least walking somewhere, but possibly housework or crafting. Also I find my mind sometimes wanders when the input I should be focusing on is the audio - visual sources, probably because of the effort it takes to hold the book and track the words, means I automatically focus more on that task. I haven't noticed a big difference in how I retain the information between ebooks and paper books, although I think I agree with >132 YouKneeK: about reading in a public place on the phone - it's more about the place and the distractions than the format.

I may well have to give the book a try to see what it has to say on the matter :D

>138 jillmwo: That does sound interesting. And it does make sense to me that individual conditioning would play the main role in print vs digital retention. I’ve been reading things on computers for about 32 years now, so that may play some role in my case.

>139 Peace2: Good point about the multi-tasking probably affecting retention on audiobooks. Even if it’s something fairly mindless, it’s still divided attention. Maybe part of it is that I tend to listen to them during activities for which I’m used to allowing my mind to wander. Commuting, for example, is one of the few times when I’m not intently focused on something and my mind is just wandering free. My mind still wants to wander even if some audiobook narrator is trying to talk to me. Maybe if I'd been in the habit of listening to audiobooks from an earlier age, it would come more naturally. (Similar to the print vs digital individual conditioning.)

9 more posts after this one and you'll finally have your continuation link. :)

>142 YouKneeK: LOL :D ( 8 now!)

7!

No wait, 6!

I mean 5!

Crap!! 4!!

Let this be a lesson Peace2...

you need to post more! :-)

Kiss an irishman and

get the gift of the gab...

...or was that a leprechaun?

BAM!

Happy New Year - I shall start my new thread when I get home from work tonight (have to go and battle high winds and high tides in order to reach a day at the office - yippee!) Thank you all for your help!

Nice job >147 Narilka: and >153 BookstoogeLT:! :)

>154 Peace2: I hope your commute went safely. It was nice chatting with you and everybody else while we worked toward the magic thread continuation number.

>147 Narilka: and >153 BookstoogeLT: and >155 YouKneeK: You all are clearly such professionals at this! I applaud the outcome.

>155 YouKneeK: & >156 jillmwo: When it comes to blabbing, I can do it with the best of them.