Still reducing Mt TBR, Peace2 reads in 2019 Part 2

In honour of the second half of 2019 having been reached, I have elected to split my thread and so I welcome you all to the new thread with wine, cheese, PGGBs for those who'd like one and feel free to browse the shelves and make me recommendations as to what I should pick from my shelves next.

My main goal for the year was to make sure that my TBR pile was 50 books less high by the end of the year than it was at the beginning - in theory I have already achieved this (providing that I don't spoil it all by buying more than I read in the second half of the year!). So thinking positively I am going to aim for a further reduction of 25 making 75 for the year.

I had earmarked 50 books to be read before the end of this year, but haven't been giving that specific list enough focus, so while I will still plod away at those books, I'm now overly concerned by it and will go with the other books that have been attracting me more.

My trackers for the year -

I feel that I should add a clarifying note to the above - my principal purpose is to reduce the size of the TBR pile. This does not automatically mean that I am aiming to get rid of the books, however, there will be some culling of unsuitable books as I progress as I aim for quality rather than quantity - books that I enjoy rather than books that I haven't got around to spending any time with yet. If I don't like it enough (and am not hanging on to it out of a sense of completionism where it is part of a set), the book will be passed along so that others may try it out.

Of course the upside of this is a hopefully less cluttered environment and potentially space for new purchases in the long term (once I've got on top of the fact that at a rate of reducing the TBR pile by 50 books per year it will as of today take me a mere 15.6 years to get to the bottom of it! Down from 16.66 years on January 1st.

I wish you good luck on this honourable quest.

My return to the land of more active reading has led to the acquisition of even more paper books, inspired by all of you here at the pub.
Prior to my return I had managed to get rid of a number of books that I didn't expect to ever get around to read, but the extra shelf-room gained has since been reclaimed by L-space.

If only getting my TBR pile down to 50 was a realistic goal! Good luck with your endeavour; I hope it will lead you to many happy reading discoveries.

>4 Sakerfalcon: I'm hoping to reduce by 50 a year not to 50 in a year - it's going to take me over 15 years to get to the bottom at that rate. Who knows if I've ever achieve it!

July Book #1 Last Woman Standing by Amy Gentry

An audio loan from the library. Dana Diaz is a stand up comic. It's a hard profession for a woman, dominated by men on stage, in the powers behind the stage and in the audience. She's heckled and harassed in all areas of her life. It's a timely piece in the light of the #MeToo revelations that have swept across so many arenas in recent times.

After one show, she is approached by a woman who has worked in the tech industry and faced similar issues.

What follows is a tale of obsession, revenge and coercion as the two women make a pact to help one another. It's a dark piece, but I rarely felt any degree of surprise (some disbelief at some of the things that were done in the name of revenge), didn't feel on edge and overall didn't enjoy the book at all.

July Book #2 Torchwood: Trace Memory by David Llewellyn

An explosion on a dock in the 1950s leads to a man who flits uncontrolled through time. Modern day Torchwood need to investigate. Who is the Traveller? Who are his other pursuers? And just what was it that exploded?

Fairly flew through this one. The characters seemed in keeping with the show, but without anything particularly new or revealing about them - probably relied more on the reader's already knowing the characters than some. Looking at how I've rated this, it may have benefitted from having had a couple of poor scores ahead of it and a DNF on the same day...

>5 Peace2: Ah, that sound more like the position I'm in! Best of luck with your goal!

July Book #3 The Wolves of Leninsky Prospekt by Sarah Armstrong

This was an audio loan from the library. The story is set in the 1970s. After being made to leave university on account of her protests, Martha marries Kit, a childhood friend and gay man who is about to move to Moscow to work in the British Embassy. Out in Moscow, she finds herself unsure who to trust, warned against sharing information with the wrong people and listening to and doing the wrong things, she finds herself constantly on edge and feeling isolated. Gradually she grows to love the city, despite the feeling of being watched and judged. Over time she grows interested in certain individuals she comes across and finds herself drawn into the intrigues of their lives, but not everything is as it seems.

Although I found it an interesting book, the atmosphere of threat is pervasive and grew on me as reader/listener, it was still a little confusing - trying to follow how many different parties and what their aims were and who was actually under threat. I wonder if perhaps some of that comes about from my listening rather than reading it, that I missed something along the way.

July Book #4 Equal Rites by Terry Pratchett

Granny Weatherwax finds herself with a bit of a problem when a wizard turns out and passes his staff and magic onto the eighth son of an eighth son who actually wasn't a son at all. Eskarina (Esk) poses Granny more problems as she grows and it becomes clear that she isn't just a witch and her magic training needs something more than Granny can provide.

A great fun read and part of my plan to visit all of Terry Pratchett's work over the time to come. I've decided that I will tackle them in order of writing. Although I originally began reading them as they came out, eventually it was only the Watch ones that I pursued. This will be a slow process given my goal of reducing the overall size of the TBR pile, but every now and then I shall reward my progress with another addition...

July Book #6 Murder on Amsterdam Avenue by Victoria Thompson

The problem with borrowing audio books from the library is that they often give no indication when a book is part of a series and rarely have other copies in the series if they do. So when I came to enter it on here, I discovered that this book is actually the seventeenth in a series entitled Gaslight Mysteries... Fortunately the mystery itself is a standalone and the story around the investigators was sufficiently easy to pick up without needing to know all of the details (slight query of how one character went from policeman to multimillionaire but it didn't stop me following this book).

Sarah and her mother visit a family whose adult son has just died to pay their respects. Just before they leave, the father speaks to them privately at which point he requests that Sarah's fiance, the former policeman Frank Malloy, help investigate the death. What follows is Frank and Sarah, along with his friend, Gino and Sarah's maid, Maeve, working to find out the truth about the death.

As a background to this, are Sarah's and Frank's own lives, their children, the renovation of the house Frank now owns and plans to get married.

This was a listenable piece, a gentle mystery, that despite the deaths doesn't dwell too much on the gruesome. If I came across another in the series, I'd be happy to listen to it.

July Book #7 Torchwood: Believe by Guy Adams

Torchwood investigate the Church of the Outsiders who believe that the future lies in space. Each member of the team follows a different strand of the search for the truth of who the church and its leaders are and just what the goal of some of its more extreme members is.

I liked this because it gave a bit of time for each of the main characters to be centre-stage. Overall it was a good listen, although the plot felt a bit familiar - the idea of infiltrating a unorthodox religious community to find out what's really at its heart.

July Book #8 The Miracle of Lemons by Dr Penny Stanway

Another title in the series of how to use familiar things for their health, eating and home cleaning reasons. I liked this one, more than the garlic one, although the 'evidence' for many of the health benefits veered more to the 'because there is evidence that x is good for dealing with this, then we guess lemons would be good for it too' rather than being based on hard factual results from research.

By contrast lots of the ideas for using lemons or lemon oil for cleaning or to ward of insects seem much more reliable. I have one final title in this series to go and plan to get to it shortly - The Miracle of Olive Oil.

July Book #10 A Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking

This was an audio book borrow from the library. It was interesting and I have added to my knowledge/understanding, but I think I only brushed the surface of what the book was explaining and that more went over my head than into it. I think I've commented before that perhaps I process scientific information better by seeing rather than purely listening. Or maybe it's just that my own prerequisite knowledge is insufficient to grasp even half of what books like this have to offer.

July Book #11 Torchwood: We Always Get Out Alive by Guy Adams

Sometimes there is a book that tests my sense of completionism - this is one. Gwen and Rhys stuck in a car, with something effecting their ability to get to their destination. I'd lost interest in this one long before the end (and it wasn't even an hour long) and am sorely tempted to not waste the shelf space on keeping it despite the fact that I have been growing the set on the shelf from the beginning of the series (it isn't complete as there are at least another 16 that have been released that I don't have yet, and new ones are coming out all the time - it may be more than 16 out already, that's just what has already been listed on LT).

>14 Peace2: It is not you, it's him. I first tried reading this book when it first came out, and I was fresh from doing post-graduate research in theoretical physics. I found Hawking's explanations very bad. In an attempt to reduce the amount of mathematics that is on the book (and which would normally be used liberally in any discussion of this topic), he cuts corners in the reasoning, jumping from statements to conclusions without demonstrating the reasoning behind them. It was a frustrating DNF for me.

>16 -pilgrim-: That reassures me that it isn't just me if you've found that with a much more scientific background (I scraped a pass in O'Level Physics back in the 1980s but that's my lot). I was kind of hoping that it would make it understandable to an ordinary person in the street, but really that's a bit of an unfair expectation of a very complex subject. Still I'm glad I gave it a try - if only because it's good to step outside the normal comfort zone and try to expand one's knowledge and education. Didn't somebody significant once say something about the day there's nothing left to learn is the day one should die?

>17 Peace2: I agree with you totally that the topic itself is fascinating. I found quantum mechanics and general relativity to be some of the most fascinating courses that I took.

Doing theoretical physics always made me feel a little like Alice in Wonderland - the necessity of being able to "believe 7 impossible things before breakfast". But having one's mind properly boggled on a regular basis is good for it, I think.

And real physics is far more fascinating than what is taught in schools.

Have you read George Gamow"s ,Mr. Thompson books?

>16 -pilgrim-: & >18 -pilgrim-: My daughter studied Theoretical Physics at college. Her husband studied Experimental Physics. One might say they have a balanced relationship.

Like @Peace2, >14 Peace2: & >17 Peace2:, I found A Brief History of Time a bit too much from my limited Physics. Also, I too am reassured by your comments.

>18 -pilgrim-: I've not heard of George Gamow - I just tried to see if the local library had anything by him and the answer was no, unfortunately. Are they ones I should be looking out for?

>19 pgmcc: Carry on like this and we could form a club.

>20 Peace2: George Gamow died in 1968, so obviously his writings do not cover modern developments. As a theoretical physicist, his contribution was immense - Gamow radiation, quantum tunneling etc.
https://www.sciencenews.org/blog/context/george-gamow-physicist-science-populari...
But in his Mr. Thompkins books (sorry about the spelling mistake yesterday) he wrote short stories that explain explain quantum physics concepts by having his character visit worlds where one factor (e.g. Planck"s constant) differs from our universe, showing the consequences.

He was a theoretical physicist who really knew what he was writing about, and his books are the best I have seen at trying to explain theoretical physics without recourse to large amounts of mathematics.

For a lot of my contemporaries, they were the motivation to go beyond the largely mechanistic physics taught at school, and continue studying physics.

I don't know the extent of your science reading so far, @Peace2, so you may be already familiar with the topics covered. I also don't know whether you have the mathematical background to tackle a more technical (I.e. mathematical) text. But if your physics stopped at "O"-level and you want to explore theoretical physics and cosmology further, you might find them worth a look.

>19 pgmcc: I started a PhD in experimental physics before transferring to theoretical.

Does this mean that I am now a completely balanced individual? ;-)

>23 -pilgrim-: I think your indecision is final.

July Book #13 The Storm: The world economic crisis and what it means by Vince Cable

I was looking for something a bit different on the audiobook loans from the library again while I waited for the books that I had on hold to come in (still waiting and don't you just know for a fact that they're both going to come in on the same day and knowing my luck while I'm out of the region for downloading to the app!). I decided to give this a go.

Points to note - this book was published in 2009, so is about 10 years old. Vince Cable is Sir John Vincent Cable a British politician who steps down as leader of the Liberal Democrat Party in the next few days. Over his working life, roles he has undertaken include economic advisor to the Government of Kenya and the Commonwealth Secretary-General. He has been advisor to companies such as Shell, and to a previous Trade Secretary and to the World Trade Board. This is not his first book on economics or global trade issues (but it is the first one I've read).

Again (as with the physics above) this a subject for which my knowledge is limited. I am the kind of person who invests money (what little I ever have) with a high street bank and hopes to get as much as interest as I can in the time the money is there. I do not have the money to make risky deals that might jeopardise the little I've saved and so it's something that I've taken relatively little interest in. The last few years though have shown that even high street banks aren't as safe as I've always liked to think and I figured that somewhat belatedly it was maybe time that I tried to understand what was actually going on.

This book is interesting, it goes someway to explain how the crisis arose, the history of previous economic crises and ones in a variety of countries, the risks that banks were taking, the change in the way they were operating in making high risk loans, borrowing money from other sources and how they had encouraged people to commit to borrowing beyond their means. He discusses some of the ethics of governments intervening in both governing bank behaviour and in stepping in when banks are going under and ordinary people are in danger of losing all their savings and the situations of outgoing CEOs of some of those broken banks being able to claim huge 'performance bonuses' while their customers are still wondering if they can get their own money back. The book also goes beyond the banks though, and looks at global trade both in actual import/export but also in buying currency or investing in companies in other countries. I wouldn't for an instant suggest that I understood everything in the book, but I got a picture and an understanding greater than I had at the start. The book was also interesting in that the author suggests some of the possible reactions of governments in the years that follow and what some of those effects would or could be... sitting ten years later, it's also interesting to see how accurately he predicted some of those outcomes.

>24 pgmcc:

Absolutely!

July Book #14 Torchwood: Goodbye Piccadilly by James Goss

And thus my faith in the series is restored. This entry features Sgt Andy Price and Norton Folgate in a time travel to 1950s London. Lots of humour amidst the solving of crime and alien difficulties - if only Andy could keep his clothes on for long enough to get anything done.

July Book #16 Torchwood: Instant Karma by David Llewellyn, James Goss and James Morrison

A solo Toshiko outing. Set shortly after the TV episode Greeks Bearing Gifts, Toshiko is still feeling hurt and betrayed by what she unwittingly learned during that episode, and so is determined to solve a mystery she has happened across alone. None of the fun and humour of the previous one, but still the story holds together better than the one before. Plus I love the character of Toshiko, she's quietly determined, focussed and she ultimately tries to look at the bigger picture than just her own needs/wants etc.

July Book #15 A Mindfulness Guide for the Frazzled by Ruby Wax

This was an audio loan from the library read by the author. Ruby Wax is well known for her career as a stand up comedienne. This book though reflects rather her own battle with depression and her search for a scientifically researched way to limit the effects of the condition on her every day life. She returned to university where she gained a Master's degree in mindfulness-based cognitive therapy. One point she makes in the book is that she is not touting this method as an alternative to drug therapy. She does say that she was seeking for herself a way to recognise when her body was threatening an imminent bout of depression, that she hoped to find a way to reduce the need for medication.

The book was an interesting mix of real life experience, scientific research and suggested ways to introduce the practice of mindfulness into the reader's life. There is humour in the book as well. It suggests a six week program to introduce elements to the reader. There are also chapters on using Mindfulness techniques with babies, young children and teens. It outlines some of the scientific findings discovered.

I enjoyed this as an introduction to Mindfulness and intend looking further into the subject. I myself am more familiar with Chinese Meditation techniques but some of her struggles rang very familiar bells with my own mind 'busy-ness' when meditating. It encouraged my belief that the switching off from the stresses and demands on our lives and attention, if only for a few minutes, is good for one's health and is a sound discipline to develop. It's interesting to see that there is scientific research done to evaluate the real benefits, rather than just anecdotal evidence of 'believers'. I shall be looking for further information on the subject (and I really ought to find the meditation book that I have on the shelf somewhere and have a proper read of that).

July Books #16 and #19

Torchwood: Instant Karma - a Toshiko centric story. Tosh finds herself joining a support group, but not all is as it at first seems and at least one person in the group has a more sinister motive. I liked this one.

Torchwood: Deadbeat Escape - a man stops for the night at a hotel and is checked in by Bilis Manger. The rest of the residents seem strange and he struggles to get any kind of reaction from them. This book is suitably creepy for anything involving Bilis Manger.

July Book #18 Sleep by C.L. Taylor

A woman retreats to the Isle of Rum (the Inner Hebrides) in Scotland following a car accident. She was one of two survivors from her car and the driver. The driver of the truck also survived. Deciding she cannot cope with life after the accident she gives up her marketing job and heads to the remote island to work in a hotel. The hotel is cut off even from the rest of the island when a storm hits a few days after she arrives and she finds herself trapped alone with the guests, one of whom seems to have a potentially murderous streak and she believes they are gunning for her. She spends all her time trying to work out who it might be and what the connection to the accident victims would be.

Meanwhile someone else connected to a victim is planning murder.

It sounds like an Agatha Christie novel but there is something harsher about it. I found it hard to get into and actually wanted more characters to be done away with and finding the final resolution of who was plotting and scheming and the why/wherefore/how to be a push well past the bounds of reason.

July Book #20 Siege: Trump Under Fire by Michael Wolff

Written by the same author as Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House this is another expose of the problems faced within the US administration with changing advisors and liaisons and special counsel investigations during this first tenure of the Trump presidency. Lots of the events have been broadly shared in the media, but this potentially (if 'sources say' correctly) gives a bit more background to some of what the public is aware of - I guess it depends which news station you listen to or media sources you've read. I shan't go into anything further.

This month I have also been re-reading both the Black Butler series by Yana Toboso and the No.6 series by Atsuko Asano.

In the case of the BB series, I am re-reading because there is a new volume out later this year and I decided to revisit the series from the beginning - I've finished the first two this month, but am not going to re-review them.

In the case of No. 6 I am reading a translation of the original Japanese novel by Atsuko Asano and decided it would be interesting to see how closely the manga series followed the essence of the plot, so have been interspersing these with the book but ensuring that I don't get ahead of the novel. I shall comment further on the novel and the closeness of the two versions when I have completed my reading (the novel is over 700 pages long so it is taking me a while, but I do hope to finish it this month).

July Round Up

Total Number of Books Read : 20
Books Retained After Reading : 11

Books on Shelf Prior to 1st Oct 2016 : 6
Books on Shelf Prior to 1st Jan 2019 : 6

Books Abandoned : 9 (+20 others given away most of which follow on from one I’ve read recently and don’t wish to continue the series or from 1 I’ve abandoned)
Series Finished as far as I intend reading or Completed : 7 (all of these were among the abandoned ones)

Non-Fiction Reads : 5
Fiction Reads : 15

Male Authors (first time to read that author this year): 4 (52.2% of total first time authors for the year)
Female Authors (first time to read that author this year): 4 (47.8% of total first time authors for the year)

Books by Male Authors : 10 (48.8% of all books read)
Books by Female Authors :5 (42.1% of all books read)
Books by Collaboration : 5 (9.1% of all books read)

Books acquired : 10 (not great but an improvement on last month

Goal to read 18000 pages from Mt. TBR by the end of the year : 1,158 pages read this month (12,009 pages read so far)

My original list of 50 books to read in 2019 is still 37 books long.

Mount TBR is now 770 books high.

End of July update on Walking to Mordor : 3,389.874 miles completed so far (just over 14 miles to reach Bag End).

A somewhat delayed start to my recounting of books read in August but I guess better late than never.

August Book #2 and #4 Human Resource Practice by Malcolm Martin and Fiona Whiting and Human Resource Management in Organizations (UK Higher Education Business Human Resourcing) by Izabella Mary Robinson

These two were among those I've read/dipped into as part of my CIPD training. The first was actually designed as a course set text, so is good for an overview and contains a good starting point to lots of the areas that are encompassed under the HR umbrella. The second provided good insights into performance management, reward, talent progression and the like both the theory and the practice and was interesting and readable - I didn't feel bored or bogged down by the technical.

August Book #3 The Hunting Party by Lucy Foley

An audio book borrowed from the library. A party of friends journey to a remote area of Scotland to celebrate New Year and do a spot of hunting. The story skips between people with different perspectives and as a murder is revealed, so the reader is left to wonder who and why as different story lines of a bunch of people who despite claiming to be friends actually don't like one another very much at all gradually reveal the tensions and background to the events of their short break while cut off from the police and the rest of society by bad weather. The end reasoning was somewhat far-fetched.

I didn't love it and to be fair it probably wasn't helped by the fact that I'd finish Sleep by C L Taylor which is set on a remote Scottish island and involves a group of people (not friends) trapped together by bad weather with death around them. To be fair, the isolation part of the plot and the need to figure out who/why are the only similarities rather than the actual reason behind what happens.

August Book #5 Mrs Frisby and the Rats of NIMH by Robert C O'Brien

A children's book in which Mrs Frisby, a mouse, is forced to venture out in search of help when her son falls ill. By helping others and revealing who she is, the widow of Jonathan Frisby, she gets a lot more help than she had expected, eventually leading to a meeting with the Rats.

The Rats are not evil, but they aren't ordinary either. As the Rats agree to help Mrs Frisby's family keep safe, so they share with her their and her husband's story.

It's a good read. I know I had a copy of this when I was younger but I didn't actually remember the story at all.

>36 Peace2: I’m glad you liked it! I haven’t read it as an adult, but it was one of my childhood favorites. I read it repeatedly as a child and watched the movie once or twice also, and still remember the story quite well today.

>36 Peace2: Oh wow, that brings back memories. I read that book so many times as a kid. Good to hear it's still enjoyable as an adult.

>36 Peace2: We had a Green Dragon group read of Mrs Frisby a few years ago, which is when I read it for the first time. It is such a good book!

ETA The discussion thread is still accessible from the book's page.

>37 YouKneeK:, >38 Narilka:, >39 Sakerfalcon: I'm glad I read (or possibly re-read?) it. :) If I get a bit of spare time I might go look at the discussion thread.

August Book #6 The Dying Wish by Courttia Newland

A private detective is asked to investigate a death by assisted suicide and uncovers a much bigger plot.

I didn't enjoy this. I felt like the detective was fairly incompetent, happening across clues and events more by chance than design and the people around him were providing quick solutions to his problems. Disappointing.

August Book #8 Mao's Great Famine: The History of China's Most Devastating Catastrophe 1958-1962 by Frank Dikotter

The book discusses how Mao's plan for The Great Leap Forward brought about a man-made disaster of unprecedented proportions as the country fell under the effects of famine brought about by mismanagement on both a country-wide and a local level. The author had access to newly accessible (at the time of writing) governmental documents shedding more light on the real history, although he acknowledges that so many of the facts and figures would have been inflated (or deflated to improve their chances of approval by Mao) so few truly accurate records exist (and some of those may still be closed to researchers).

Incompetence and corruption were among the biggest factors in the disastrous policies and the desperate goal to compete on a global stage, outreaching other countries without proper consideration to the internal effect of the attempts to do so. Not an easy book to sit with, horrifying events but a real insight into how it came about.

August Book #9 The Pool of Fire by John Christopher

The final part of the original Tripods trilogy aims towards a resolution with the free men living in the White Mountains coming up with a plan to use the information they had gained from Will's time in the Masters' City in the previous book to overthrow the Masters. The book again follows Will as the initial stages of the plan are put into action. Plans have to be adapted in order to achieve their ultimate goal.

I know I've commented on the previous books lack of positive female role models - there are absolutely no women at all in this book whatsoever (let alone a positive role model one!). This also differs from more modern YA fiction in that the writing style is far more terse and direct - a mere 200 pages (about 1/2 the size of one of the Hunger Games books for instance). A lot happens with very little detail about each individual event - for instance Will and Fritz trek around most of Europe and the Middle East - there is a purpose to their trek but more words were spent describing a horse dying than dwelling on that purpose.

This is my least favourite of the original trilogy, but I still prefer it to the later prequel addition.

August Book #10 Hello? Is Anybody There? by Jostein Gaarder

A children's book - Joe is waiting at home after his mother goes into hospital to give birth to his baby brother. While there he finds a small person hanging upside down from a tree in the garden. The two begin to talk and he finds out that Mika is from another planet and the two of them discuss all sorts of philosophical questions (e.g. When leaving a planet and heading for another you head up, but when you land on the next planet you come down - so when does up become down?)

Joe attempts to explain life on Earth to Mika, while Mika explains life on his planet - evolution, senses, the concept of time are all compared. It prompts the need to ask questions, to encourage children to ask questions, to find out more. A lesson worth carrying forward in life - always strive to learn and find out more.

>42 Peace2: I'm not sure I could make it through that one. But it does sound fascinating... and depressing.

>45 clamairy: Yes, you're absolutely right in both of those assessments. Awful to think about on an individual level and some parts of the book are horribly detailed, but at the end I felt like I had a greater understanding of a period of history that I had only a cursory knowledge of beforehand and some of the events that had allowed it to happen.

>42 Peace2:, Yeah, what >45 clamairy: said.

August Book #13 Sweet Little Lies by Caz Frear

A debut novel, a police procedural focusing on DC Cat Kinsella, member of the murder squad. A woman is found murdered not far from her father's pub and when Cat begins to investigate with her colleagues they soon find out that not all is at seemed. Alice, the murder victim, had left her home and husband weeks previously, but when they investigate further, they find that Alice used to be Maryanne Doyle missing presumed dead for the previous twenty years.

What follows is a book with a plot that twists and turns, bringing together people's pasts and intertwining them to create modern murder. Cat is torn between her job future and being honest about what she thinks she knows - for she has always believed that her father was involved in Maryanne's original disappearance.

Aspects of the book were interesting as I tried to 'solve the case' ahead of the revelations, but some of the slow reveal, in particular Cat's own with her conviction in her father's involvement, but she makes life awkward and difficult for her whole family in particular her father, yet as a police officer and believing her father involved in the murder, I just couldn't fathom the slowness of her revealing what she believed and the point at which she chooses to do so.

Because of the pull between the family drama aspect of the plot and the police investigation part, the pace is uneven and the delivery feels convoluted. Overall, it's not terrible but I didn't love it either.

August Book #16 No. 6 by Atsuko Asano

This is a translation of a set of Japanese novels. A couple of years ago, I read a manga series by the same title by Atsuko Asano and Hinoki Kino. A little research showed that the manga series was Hinoki Kino's work based on the original set of novels by Atsuko Asano. This was a combined volume.

So the story concept is that No. 6 is a utopian city, where its inhabitants can live a perfect life, no violence, no poverty, however, all is not as it seems - firstly there are signs of a potentially deadly plague coming to light in the city, life is not quite so perfect for all its citizens as there are societal levels within the city, total loyalty to the city government is needed, no questions asked or citizens can find themselves at best moved to 'Lost Town' a poor area within the city which is not only less affluent but also has less access to medical services etc and at worst sent to the Correctional Facility.

Shion and his mother begin the story living in the Elite area of the city, but on the night of his 12th birthday, Shion helps an escaped prisoner, a young boy not much different in age to himself by patching up an injury and then allowing him to escape rather than turning him in to the authorities. The result is they find their privileges taken away and themselves living in Lost Town.

Four years later, Shion is working as a park-keeper in charge of maintenance robots, when he first discovers a dead body, and then sees his co-worker die of what appears to be the same thing. The authorities accuse him of murder and arrest him, preparing to take him to the Correctional Facility, but on the way he is rescued by Nezumi/Rat, the boy he himself has helped four years earlier.

Shion then has to adapt to life outside the city in the West Block, where life is a constant struggle for food and clothing and survival.

Shion is an 'innocent', naive to the truth about No. 6 and trusting of the people around him, and Nezumi is a more grounded and hardened character, who's been looking after himself and finding a way to survive, with a burning hatred for everything that No. 6 stands for, but also a deep sense of owing Shion for saving him when they first met.

Overall, I enjoyed the story idea, although there are parts where certain people's motives of what they are trying to achieve are unclear or sections where a character acts in a particular way supposedly at the behest of another character, but the pre-planning didn't get a mention.

In terms of the actual edition I read, there were a number of points that were less than ideal - some of these may have been because this was a combination of several shorter novels, but no indication was given as to when one finished and the next began, although chapters were identified. Certain key facts were repeated numerous times - this may not have been as noticeable if it was originally published as shorter installments. In my specific edition, there were some spelling mistakes, characters' whose names were said to be the same but weren't (perhaps this is a translation issue from Japanese to English?). Also as the cast of characters expanded, the story would flit from one group to another, but there was no break to indicate the change so I could be two or three paragraphs into being confused before I realised that it was supposed to be a different character to the one I'd started out reading about. Sometimes these changes were clear with a set of asterisks between one section and the next, other times it wasn't, which makes me think it's more of an editing for this edition problem than a definite 'the author wrote it that way'.

In some respects, the ending was a little disappointing, in that it felt a bit rushed but also as if it was the start of the next step, but then maybe that is a better place to leave it, with the how to move on left to the reader's imagination. The two principal characters have developed, both becoming more layered, or perhaps having more of their layers exposed - Shion can no longer be naive after all he has seen and experienced, but at heart, he still believes in the potential goodness of other people, Nezumi is still the realist, but he has also exposed some of his own vulnerabilities and suffering and has learned that it is possible to find someone to lean on and trust - that he doesn't have to be entirely self-sufficient.

I am also re-reading the manga series and although I'm making mentions of them in my thread, I'm leaving my main impression as what I originally thought when I read it back in 2016, but when I finish them all, I might make a bit of a comment on how it compares to this novel. Apparently having taken a quick look at a few other comments, there was also an anime series based on the novels - this I haven't seen.

August Book #17 Cruel Acts by Jane Casey

A man is released from jail, where he had been locked up for the murder of two young women, after one of the jurors releases a book in which he discusses the trial and says that contrary to the judge's instructions, he had googled the accused and decided ahead of time that the man was guilty based on past unrelated crimes and had gone on to convince the other jurors of the same and their decision had not been based on the evidence they were given at all.

The police re-open the investigation and attempt to find new evidence for a re-trial. DS Maeve Kerrigan is part of the investigating team, but after getting herself into trouble by meeting with the accused man's son, she is removed from the main investigation and is left to look further into the death of a third young woman at about the same time. There was always a question as to whether this woman had been killed by the same person, but without enough evidence, a case was never brought for her murder.

Initially this got my interest with the set up of the main crime investigation and although the somewhat strange behaviour of the senior officers (sending Maeve into meet with the accused when he requests an interview with her, pushing her out of the investigation without being willing to listen to why or how she had met with his son) was somewhat disconcerting, I was generally 'happy' with my reading. However, shortly before the end of the book, there is a complete out of nowhere revelation that solves all of the mysteries but actually just reeked of how appalling the previous investigation and the current one had been, followed by a scene that became increasingly almost ridiculous with Maeve climbing out of a bathroom window to escape a potential murderer before he's taken out by snipers. Adding into that the fact that Maeve is being set up by a more junior female member of the team who thinks she should have Maeve's opportunities despite the fact that she is less experienced, apparently made some appalling mistake previously which Maeve had covered up for her and is even upset by the fact that the very unsavory suspected murderer doesn't pay her as much attention as he pays Maeve, none of which helped my tolerance level at this point. By the end I was disillusioned with the whole thing.

August Book #18 I will Marry George Clooney (By Christmas) by Tracy Bloom

A gem hidden on my bookshelf. Michelle is a single mum, a trained chef who actually works in a chicken factory because she gave up on her plans when she got pregnant. She lives in the shadow of her dead sister who in her mum's eyes could do nothing wrong. Her daughter is now 15, and a teenager in all the worst ways. In a desperate attempt to reconnect with her daughter (and stop her sleeping with her boyfriend as she is threatening to do on her fast approaching 16th birthday), Michelle concocts a desperate plan to get the attention of George Clooney, the only man her daughter has ever asked to have as her father. Aided in particular by Gina and Daz, her friends since school, she embarks on her plan.

This was passed to me a couple of years ago by a friend who said I would enjoy it and I popped it on the shelf thinking I would probably get to it sometime. Well it was a real treat after some of the other recent reads, for how light it was and the humour in it - that's not to say there aren't some more emotional scenes, but overall I really enjoyed it. So much so that after a disastrous pick from the library audio section, I saw another book by Tracy Bloom in the collection No-one ever has Sex on a Tuesday and have borrowed that now.

August Book #19 Malamander by Thomas Taylor

This was another audio loan from the library. Herbie Lemon works as a Lost-and-Founder at the Grand Nautilus Hotel and when he meets up with Violet who is searching for her parents, he finds himself caught up in being a detective as he tries to find clues to help her. There are some great ideas in the book (I liked the idea of the Book Dispensary - where you are prescribed the book you need!).

It's a children's book (I hadn't realised that when I borrowed it as it was listed in the Fantasy section alongside Elantris and Red Rising and the like), so is quite quick paced. As a children's book it works, it's got a bit of drama and thrill and some interesting characters. I won't particularly be looking for any more by the author (unless he's got some adult books as well) but wouldn't have any qualms at recommending this to Fantasy loving children (so long as they don't mind the odd scary character too).

>52 Peace2: Re your 'book dispensary': how about this one: https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/amman-jordan-24-hour-bookstore:

A fourth-generation book owner, Hamzeh describes his work as a calling. “I run an emergency room for the mind,” he explains, while sipping coffee near the entrance of the shop late one morning. He wants to ensure there is always a place in Jordan where one can access the healing power of books, no matter the hour or the price.

>53 haydninvienna: Sounds like a wonderful place and a fascinating person running it.

>53 haydninvienna: Thank you for that link. Do you know whether he managed to keep his bookshop open?

>55 -pilgrim-: It's still on Google Maps, and I can look at the location in Street View, but my non-existent Arabic isn't up to reading the signs. He has a blog. On the blog I found this book.

ETA: I moderate the Bookstore Tourism group and I've just posted a link to that article in that group. Is anyone travelling to Jordan in the near future?

>56 haydninvienna: Richard, I have a problem. I clicked on your link to the Bookstore Tourism group and was informed that it "does not exist or has been deleted". Please advise.

>57 hfglen: That's interesting. I can still see it ... Simple answer: I accidentally munged the link when I pasted it in. Try this: https://www.librarything.com/groups/bookstoretourism.

I've now fixed the link for the benefit of anyone else who happens to click it.

>58 haydninvienna: That's better! I visited the group and posted a comment.

>59 hfglen: Thanks, we need the traffic (apart from the interest of the post itself, of course). I took the group over after a long hiatus, it having apparently been started back in 2013 or thereabouts to send some traffic to the creator's blog. As you might have noticed, I travel and visit bookshops.

>60 haydninvienna: I've stopped by the group and will follow along as some of the photos of wonderful bookshops are amazing. You never know I might even be able to find one or two to visit if I get off the rock here at some point, by looking at people's suggestions.

>61 Peace2: Please do! Welcome to the group BTW--your name wasn't there yet when I posted the welcome message a while ago.

August Books #22 - 25 The following are all children's books that I collected over my years as a primary school teacher and overseeing the library - as I no longer do that and am in need of space, I am having to look quite seriously at the books that are remaining on my shelf. These were all books of which I was fond, but that I have decided to pass on to local children rather than retain when they'll just sit and gather dust.

22. The Jolly Christmas Postman by Janet Ahlberg and Allan Ahlberg
This is a lovely little book which has extras that can be pulled out of envelopes as the Jolly Postman delivers Christmas cards to fairy tale characters (everyone from Little Red Riding Hood and Goldilocks to the Three Bears and the not quite so Big Bad Wolf).

23. The Whales' Song by Dyan Sheldon
A little girl is told a story by her grandmother of the song the whales sang when she was a child. One night the girl hears the song herself and sees the whales off the coast.

24. Albert Le Blanc by Nick Butterworth (apparently this is also known as Albert the Bear)
I was a big fan of Nick Butterworth when I taught younger children, and in particular loved his Percy the Park-keeper books and Amanda's Butterfly. This is a more recent addition, Albert Le Blanc is a toy bear who looks rather glum, the other toys decide they will do everything they can to cheer him up, not realising that he isn't sad, it's just the way he was made. A mishap with a dancing hippopotamus leads to Albert getting a lipstick smile.

25. QPootle5 by Nick Butterworth
QPootle5 is on the way to his friend's birthday party in his spaceship, when he crash lands on Earth and needs a new rocket booster. The Earthlings he meets first aren't able to help (some crows and a frog) but then along comes a cat eating his dinner from a tin with a spoon, and the tin is perfect as a replacement (once the cat has finished its contents).

I have to say that Nick Butterworth was popular with the children too, and one year all the children in my class wrote letters to him telling him which of his books they enjoyed the most and which characters they loved (I had to do a 'letter writing' exercise with them and this seemed to give a more worthy purpose to the exercise than just ticking boxes for an authority figure!). A real gentleman, he sent a postcard back with pictures from his soon to be released (then) book The Whisperer, thanking the children for their letters. Years later, and no longer reading his books because they were all reading longer chapter books, the children would still talk about the note he had sent, and I credit both his books and his response with making so many of them avid readers - some of them went on to write to other authors when they'd enjoyed books and they would often come to me and say, 'Their books are good, but they're not as nice as Nick Butterworth because they never replied'. (I felt almost guilty because I'm sure many popular children's authors receive far more letters than they have time to respond to!)

August Book #26 The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms by N.K. Jemisin

I bought this a while ago in audio and wow! I wish I'd got to it sooner. I really enjoyed it. I loved the world-building, the interesting characters and plot.

Unfortunately, I went looking for the next in the series in audio and it appears to be out of print, and I can't currently find a second hand copy. That means that while I will earmark it as a book to get at some point, it will be a while until I get to it because I'm making myself tackle the current waiting to be read piles/boxes/mountains (and that's not considering the ones stashed on my ipad!). I shall keep a look out for an audio book version as this I would get to much sooner than a paper or digital copy.

August Book #27 Atticus The Storyteller: 100 Greek Myths by Lucy Coats

So I had read lots of the stories in this book previously, but on this occasion I actually read it from cover to cover rather than dipping in. Atticus wants to enter a competition as a storyteller and so makes a journey from his home in Crete to Troy, along the way he visits some of the sites of famous myths and as he goes he tells the people he meets some of the stories - featuring Midas, Odysseus, Heracles, Theseus and many other familiar names and stories.

The book is aimed at young children (5-8), so the stories are short and pacy, the illustrations lively and eye-catching. It's a good introduction to the myths, but none of the stories last more than about 5 - 10 minutes of reading, so there are far more elaborate and detailed versions of the myths available if that's what is needed.

In other news, I have just received confirmation that I have passed the final assignment for the training I began at the beginning of the year for work - so I now hold an HR qualification. I just need some kind of formal notification so that I can let work know! Hopefully this will mean that I have a bit more time to spend on some of my other projects now and start making progress on them.

>66 Peace2: Congratulations!

>67 haydninvienna: Thank you - it's a relief I have to say. While I've never stopped trying to learn things, going back to the stage of needing to write assignments at my age was a shock to the system (particularly as I struggled with the opposite problem to when I was at uni many moons ago - this time I struggled to confine myself to the number of words whereas if memory serves I always had the opposite problem when I was younger!)

>67 haydninvienna: Congratulations indeed. As someone who completed an arts degree a few decades after my science one, I can confirm that it is never to late!

>68 Peace2: >69 -pilgrim-: I seem to recall there was a fellow in Oz a few years ago who did a PhD in his 90s. He already had at least one other doctorate.

>70 haydninvienna: Can't quite match that, but one of my "mentors" as an undergraduate was an old gent who got his PhD (on the relationship between Highveld vegetation and geology) in his 70s. At the age of 81 he had the frequently confirmed reputation that he could out-walk any 18-year-old member of the students' Biological Society. I wonder how many of my contemporaries remember his rallying cry of "PICK 'EM UP THERE!!".

>69 -pilgrim-: Thank you!

August Book #28 The Nowhere Emporium by Ross Mackenzie

A fantasy book for children (9+). Orphan Daniel finds himself in a magical shop and there he meets Lucien Silver who recruits him as an apprentice. Adventures and excitement, thrills, mysteries and danger follow before the story reaches its conclusion. I enjoyed this, it's a good read.

August Book #30 Illustrated Treasury of Myths and Legends by James Riordan and Brenda Ralph Lewis

A collection of myths and legends from around the world. I found this one disappointing. While it is aimed at older children, I didn't find it particularly riveting and the stories often felt disjointed as they were often excerpts of a bigger story and seemed to start and finish abruptly. There was little real character or world building even taking into account that these are short stories. Personally I wasn't keen on the illustrations either. I've had this on the shelf a long time - probably not long after it was published in 1991, but this is the first time I've read it cover to cover.

August Book #31 No-one ever has sex on a Tuesday by Tracy Bloom

Having read the I will Marry George Clooney by Christmas book earlier in the month, I thought I would give this by the same author a try in audio from the library after a couple of bad choices from the library and from my own shelves.

In this Katy is an independent woman working in marketing, determined not to have anything more than fleeting relationships as she no longer believes in 'the one'. At the outset of the book, she is seeing Ben, a somewhat younger PE teacher, but when she attends her school reunion and hooks up with her ex from her school days, things take a bit of a turn. Particularly when she finds out she's pregnant.

Matthew has turned his life around since he left university, met and eventually married his wife. But since they began to struggle through the difficulties of trying to get pregnant, he's become somewhat disillusioned with how things stand, so when a friend talks him into attending his school reunion, he reluctantly agrees.

Matthew and Katy don't see each other again after their one night stand, until the both begin antenatal classes on the same evening and realise the implications of Katy's due date and the possibility of their respective partners meeting.

I'll leave you to imagine where the rest of the story heads, but overall I didn't like this as much as the George Clooney title, but I did finish it.

Also read this month

1 and 12 Black Butler vol 3 and Black Butler Vol 4 by Yana Toboso

These are a revisit - for comments see my thread from 2016 which is when I originally read them

6, 14 and 20 No 6 vol 3, No 6 vol 4 and No 6 vol 5 by Hinoki Kino and Atsuko Asano

I'm continuing my re-reading of the manga series that was a retelling of the original novels by Atsuko Asano.

10, 13, 19 and 29 Torchwood: Night of the Fendahl, Torchwood: The Green Mile, Torchwood: Sync and Torchwood: Sargasso

All of these are audio dramatisations in the series I've been following for Torchwood.

Night of the Fendahl - Gwen is the centre of the story, which starts with a film producer who selects young women to appear in his movies and end up dead - didn't like this story.

The Green Mile - Captain Jack aids an environmentalist on a trek through caves with threatening larvae. Not my favourite, but better than the one mentioned before.

Sync: Suzie teams up somewhat unwilling with Margaret Blaine, mayor of Cardiff who is also an alien to deal with the threat of another unwanted alien visited. This one was quite fun.

Sargasso: For some reason, Rhys is on a container ship stuck in a sea that is full of debris. This was another that I didn't really like.

It felt almost like the writers were trying to be 'current' or touch on news issues with several of these - from the 'Me too' movement in the first (although it isn't referenced directly, it is about the abuse of young female actresses), the search for meat alternatives and environmental solutions to global warming in the second, and the excess of waste plastic and the damage being done to our oceans. in the last. This seems to be a bit hit and miss in terms of how good the stories are and in how 'Torchwood' they feel.

August Round Up

Total Number of Books Read : 31
Books Retained After Reading : 13

Books on Shelf Prior to 1st Oct 2016 : 15
Books on Shelf Prior to 1st Jan 2019 : 18

Books Abandoned : 6 (+30 others given away most of which follow on from one I’ve read recently and don’t wish to continue the series or from 1 I’ve abandoned)
Series Finished as far as I intend reading or Completed : 8

Non-Fiction Reads : 3
Fiction Reads : 28

Male Authors (first time to read that author this year): 9 (53.9% of total first time authors for the year)
Female Authors (first time to read that author this year): 9 (46.1% of total first time authors for the year)

Books by Male Authors : 12 (47.0% of all books read)
Books by Female Authors : 13 (42.5% of all books read)
Books by Collaboration : 6 (10.5% of all books read)

Books acquired : 4

Goal to read 18000 pages from Mt. TBR by the end of the year : 4,782 pages read this month (16,791 pages read so far which leaves me 1,209 pages left to read this year)

My original list of 50 books to read in 2019 is 32 books long – a better reduction than I expected.

Mount TBR is now 752 books high.

End of August update on Walking to Mordor : I reached Bag End on the 4th August and have now walked 3,473.35 miles which means I expect to reach Grey Havens sometime in November if all goes well.

September Book #1 A Long Way Down by Nick Hornby

I was expecting to like this, having enjoyed the film High Fidelity and thought that About a Boy (also the film version) was okay. This is a story of four people who find themselves on the roof of the same high rise block on New Year's Eve with the intention of killing themselves. What follows is them dealing with that and helping each other (not always with the forethought of intending to do so or as a reflection of liking or caring for each other).

I actually found this a bit tedious - neither finding a lighter touch to bring real humour to the fact that they've all chosen to turn up at the same place and time (and one of them brought pizza) and the conversations that ensue, nor making the characters sufficiently engaging to feel the sadness of a life that has led them to a point at which they would consider ending their lives.

September Book #2 Mistborn: The Final Empire by Brandon Sanderson

Loved this. It has taken me forever to read it because I had it on my phone and so it only gets read intermittently on the bus etc. but as the pace picked up, so I spent more and more time reading it, regardless of what else I had on the go. Engaging, exciting, loved the world-building and the character building and really want to continue on with the series (I do already have the next one in large paperback, so hope that it won't have to be too long before I get to it).

September Book #3 The Sending by Isobelle Carmody

This is the sixth part of the Obernewtyn Chronicles (depending where in the world you are). At this point, I officially quit. I loved this story when I read the first few, but between the time between each volume coming out and the repetition and lack of progress, I've run the course thus far and am giving up before the final hurdle - because I don't want this to be a hurdle, I wanted to enjoy it. The first of the series came out in 1987 - this volume was released in 2011 - I listed the final volume on my wishlist here in 2014 at which point it still wasn't out! (I believe it was finally released last year).

My friend and I had difficulties as the series didn't seem to get a UK release, so we had to rely on Amazon (not always the most accurate with the information it provides), which sold both the Australian and the US versions but with different titles (I bought 'The Stone Key' and 'Dreamtrails' which at the time I bought them had different descriptions were listed as book 5 and 6 - but actually turned out to be the same story with slightly different language used - so I'm presuming one was US and the other Australian). The local bookshop couldn't even find her books listed as possibilities for them ordering for me.

Because of the large gap between each volume being released, the story ends up doing a lot of repeating what has gone on in the previous stories (presumably because with a several year gap, the author and publisher were expecting the reader to have forgotten so much of what had gone before). The pace of the books slowed, I got tired of the Elspeth has a destiny and it has to be kept secret and the future tellers know things everyone else doesn't so they're going to pack a load of inappropriate clothing in a bag for the journey she's supposed to be making because she's actually going on a journey somewhere else where she will need these things!

I also got tired of Elspeth, the main character, and found her increasingly irritating.

So, I give up. Sad thing is that it actually spoilt my enjoyment of the first books.

September Book #5 Whoops! Why Everyone owes Everyone and No one Can Pay by John Lanchester

Another take on the causes of the recession, credit crash etc with a little personal experience and humour thrown in - who was to blame, how it started, what governments did to help (and to make things worse) and what happens now.

This is less formal than the Vince Cable book I read a few weeks ago, but still informative. It does prompt the question "Why is the library adding these to its audio lists now given they were both written 9 or 10 years ago?"

September Book #6 Abney Park's Wrath of Fate by Robert Brown

Abney Park are a band a friend in Seattle introduced to their music a while ago - steam punk style to their costumes, and to the songs. The albums often have a story feel to them, like they are links in a chain that build to a bigger picture. A dystopian feel with airships and pirates.

So this book, the first of the Airship Chronicles, gives a background of sorts to the music. A current day band collides with an Airship time travelling from the past and then journey with the airship's crew through history changing events for the better - stopping the slave trade, changing the life of a significant figure in WW2 history amongst others - only to find when they return to the 'present' that life there has changed dramatically. After some of the events, there are extracts from some of the band's songs, as if the Captain is writing them in the light of the story.

I was a bit disappointed in it both in terms of the content - no real depth, characters were largely superficial, events were changed with ease and often in just a few paragraphs, where I felt there ought to be more to it - and in terms of production - I had an ibook copy with a lot of typos etc.

Shame, I wanted to like it as much as I like the couple of albums I'm familiar with, but I didn't.

September Book #8 Neither Here Nor There: Travels in Europe by Bill Bryson

Bill Bryson travels through Europe, sampling the hotels, the food, commenting on the areas and people he visited etc. All with humour (how many sex shops can one man find on a tour of Europe - unless he was actually looking for them!) - however, the book was originally published in 1992, so I do have some reservations - some of the humour and attitudes are dated - and would be far less acceptable now - and obviously some of the information is dated - bearing in mind this is pre-Euro for example, so each country has its own currency (some of which were harder to obtain than others). Some of it has a feeling of 'them there forriners do things strange and not proper like us', and some of it has a feel of stereotypes that maybe aren't as typical of the places he's referring to.

>80 Peace2: You got further with the series than I did! I put The keeping place down several years ago and never felt drawn to pick it up again. I felt that, although Elspeth is the first-person narrator, she was very opaque and you couldn't really tell what she thought or felt - the narrative was all telling and no showing. I agree that she became very irritating too, with new powers manifesting conveniently when required. It's a shame because the first couple of books were so good. I've kept my copies though because I bought them in Australia so there are good memories attached to them.

>84 Sakerfalcon: My first two - one was bought in Beijing and the other in Australia. Have you read any of her other series?

I've read Darkfall and liked it a lot, but haven't had time to dive into the enormous tome that is book 2; I'm also put off by the fact that there is no sign of book 3. I liked some of her stand-alones, especially Alyzon Whitestarr and I have the two volumes that she edited, Tales from the tower which I have yet to read (the story of my life!).

>86 Sakerfalcon: I might give her others a miss unless I happen across a standalone - I don't want to end up in the same situation with another series!

September Book #10 The Planets by Andrew Cohen and Professor Brian Cox

This was an audio loan from the library - could wish it had been an actual book with photographs. A journey through our solar system explaining the origin, make up and current 'life' of each of the planets, some of the moons and some of the other areas and phenomena of the space around us. Descriptions of some of the expeditions that have given us the information we have about the rest of our solar system. In the context of what makes Earth the ideal spot for life to have evolved, the book also looks at the rest of the bodies in this area of space - what they search for - potential futures for actual life to evolve as time continues and the sun ages - billions of years in the future the sun will become too hot for Earth to be habitable, but looking at whether other planets/moons might become holders of life by that time.

September Book #11 Fallen by Lauren Kate

This is the first in a series and has been on my shelf for quite a while (4 years). Luce begins the story joining a reform school following the death of her boyfriend. She has no memory of the event and how she survived or what happened but is sent to Swords and Cross. There she struggles to fit in at first, finding friends and enemies and herself drawn to Daniel, who at first seems intent on ignoring her. She tries to figure out why Daniel seems so familiar.

As the story progresses, it becomes clear that the rest of the characters (or most of them) know things that Luce doesn't about life and destiny and it isn't until almost the end of the book that they begin to reveal some of what's really going on. In some respects, it's a typical teenage love story, one girl, two guys and who should she choose, but in other ways not - there is a reason why Daniel seems so familiar.

All in all though, I wasn't gripped and I kept wanting to jump forward and get the book over with, so I won't be out looking for more.

September Book #12 The Twilight Streets by Gary Russell

A Torchwood book in which the team try to find out why there is an area of the city into which Jack cannot venture and whenever he tries, he becomes ill. The team set out each to investigate a different aspect of the case - the history, possible technological reasons for the difficulties, what's happening there now.

The story had some good moments for each of the team to feature as an individual, it linked in with some of the events in the series, bringing back Bilis Manger from the end of series one. Some good moments of team interaction (some showing conflict as well as the team work).

Overall I enjoyed it.

>89 Peace2: I read Fallen, lured in by the atmospheric cover, but was very disappointed to find it's another "Girl falls for mysterious boy who treats her like crap" romance.

September Book #13 I Know Who You Are by Alice Feeney

At the point the story begins, Aimee's husband has gone missing, their joint account has been closed (supposedly by her) and when she reports her husband's disappearance to the police, she doesn't get the reaction she is expecting.

The story is told in two timelines - Aimee the adult, wife and upcoming actress and Aimee the child with a turbulent and disturbing childhood.

I struggled to make it through this one and at the end of the book there is a 'twist' that really just pushed the boundaries too far. This, for me, wasn't a suspense filled psychological thriller, but a tedious slog through characters being abusive with little to redeem it. Definitely not my thing.

September Book #14 You Do You by Sarah Knight

A friend had enthused about The Life-Changing Magic of not giving a F*ck by the same author and so when I saw this when I was looking for something to listen to while waiting for a hold to come in from the library, I thought I'd give it a try.

Based on what the author explains during the book, this takes a slightly different tack to her other books (I can't compare as I haven't read anything else) and is about Mental Decluttering - it's about focussing on your own priorities and not giving in to pressures of living up to other people's expectations. It's about in her words being 'Self-ish' rather than 'selfish' - looking at your own needs and how they can be met, standing up to other people who make unreasonable demands upon you as opposed to wanting your own way at other people's expense. She talks about this from her own experience and from fictional but potential examples of other people's lives and some of her examples are relateable.

My first reservation is in the language used - while I'm not overly offended by words like that in the title of the book, I don't feel the need to liberally sprinkle my conversation with them - I would advise avoiding this book, if you are offended.

Sarah Knight is correct in some of the things she talks about (e.g. if your and your partner's life goals do not include having children, you shouldn't be pressured by or have other members of your circle - family and friends - trying to change your mind; if you're unhappy in your job, it is reasonable to look for an alternate that will make you happier as two examples). She is right in saying that we shouldn't live our lives purely to fit in with other people's expectations, and there are aspects of this that I wish I had known or even known it was okay to think/feel when I was younger, that perhaps I wouldn't have followed certain paths because I thought I had to - having said that I've also made decisions that other people have disagreed with and carried them through (generally reasonably successfully, although it has cost some friendships along the way with people who couldn't accept my decision). I also think that it's not always as easy to be different as she implies - workplace rules, how self-ish can you be in a family situation before you become selfish, not everyone has the confidence to stand out from the crowd for being different or to fight for themselves and so they have to compromise their own needs to a point that they do feel they can stand up for. It is also true that we should be less judgmental in how we look at others, while we might think their choices are 'odd' because they're not what we would want, doesn't actual make them wrong.

September Book #15 Doctor Who: The Lives of Captain Jack Volume 2

A set of three short stories, each one dealing with a different 'life' led by Jack Harkness - in one he poses as the sixth Doctor (with Colin Baker posing as Captain Jack) as the Doctor recovers after regeneration, in another he is at Gallipoli saving the life of an enemy soldier as something other than soldiers hunts in the trenches, and in the third he poses as a driver and bodyguard for a newsreader, Trinity Wells.

A very different feel to each one, they make an interesting mix.

September Book #16 Year of the Griffin by Diana Wynne Jones

The sequel to Dark Lord of Derkholm, this book sees Elda (one of Derk's griffin daughters) head to the University to train to be a wizard. There she meets and makes friends with a strange combination of characters, from princes in waiting to runaway dwarves and each has a problem with their own ability to do magic. Meanwhile the University is falling apart, the teaching and teachers are terrible, parts of the building are in disrepair etc. The current head of the University has picked his students in advance for the potential to get more money out of the parents/guardians/clans by sending them a letter requesting donations, but he has misread the situation and all of his select group have run away to be there without permission - so while Derk comes around to the situation and visits Elda giving her suggestions of what she should be reading and studying (as opposed to the diluted curriculum being delivered), some of the other letters bring assassins and armies marching down on the University.

It isn't until towards the end of the book that Blade and Kit (Elda's brothers) and Calette (her sister) make an appearance, bringing their own difficulties with them.

Although a 'sequel', it isn't directly connected - the earlier book is focuses much more on Derk and his family against the background of the Wizard tours - all of that is in the past and this book is almost a stand alone in terms of the plot. The first book provides the set up for the University being in such dire financial straits and for some of the political situations but the story itself doesn't pursue the same points (I think there has been about 7 or 8 years between the events in the two books) and as mentioned before apart from Elda, the rest of the characters from the earlier book barely feature until towards the end. None of that make it a bad book - these are observations, rather than criticisms (unless you want a direct sequel - which is kind of what I was expecting). I enjoyed my reading of it but I'm glad it had been a good while since I'd read the previous one as if I'd been reading it immediately afterwards, I might have been more disappointed by that aspect.

September Book #17 Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery

Anne is an orphan, taken in at first a little begrudgingly by Matthew and Marilla, an older brother and sister living on a farm in Avonlea on Prince Edward Island, Canada. The book was published in about 1908. Anne is a 'character', she daydreams about how she'd like her life to be, she is dramatic, throwing herself on the bed to wither away when 'disaster' strikes. Over the course of the book, Anne grows from being a young girl, to a young woman and as such her character matures, she grows on the people around her and she learns what is really important to her. Matthew and Marilla learn too, coming out of their own well meaning but very defined roles in life to grow in their own ways with what they learn from Anne.

I never actually read this as a child, but am glad I've done so now although I don't see me continuing with the series.

September Book #18 The Mad Sculptor: The Maniac, The Model and the Murder that Shook the Nation by Harold Schechter

Based on real events of a triple murder that took place in the 1930s in New York. Bob Irwin was a talented sculptor with a difficult upbringing and mental illness, that brought him to the point of committing a triple murder.

I struggled with this one - the story was convoluted and confusing - the author introduces various cases that the lawyer had worked on prior to working for Bob Irwin and how he built his reputation. He also details Bob and his family and discusses some of the things Bob had done that indicated his quite desperate condition, how much of a danger he was to his own physical health as a result of his mental illness.

Following the murder, prior to Bob becoming a suspect, one of the victim's own father and the tabloid press manage to completely destroy her reputation, little short of saying she was to blame for her own death and that of the other two victims. The press played a large role in the progress of the case.

It's a difficult book to read, the subject matter is harrowing, but the actual presentation had shortcomings and perhaps lacked efficient editing to refine its delivery.

September Book #20 Hutchinson's Treasury of Children's Literature edited by Alison Sage

A collection of short stories, poems and extracts from longer children's/early teens stories. It's a real varied bunch - from books like The Velveteen Rabbit and Dr Xargle's Book of Earthlets to extracts from Jungle Book and The Wind in the Willows. The book spans stories that would take a few minutes with a very younger reader (or listener) to things that would suit an early teen (although these tended to be extracts from 'classics' rather than anything more modern - even taking account of the fact that I probably acquired the book prior to 2011 - can't remember exactly when I picked it up).

Some of the stories chosen are great, but others were far less appealing - I know this is a personal thing and it is in some respects the strength of the book. My overall impression at the end was that the first three sections of the book were generally good but that the final section aimed at the more independent readers fell short in not having as enticing stories because it relied too heavily on classic books (most of which were as old or older than me) - not that these shouldn't have been there, but that as with the earlier sections, they should have been balanced with a few more 'modern' extracts as well.

>98 Peace2: The editors may have been very subtle in the last section, relying on somebody relaying Dorothy Parker's dictum that "this is not a book to put down lightly; it should be thrown with great force" to the teens, after which they should go and find their own reading matter.

>93 Peace2: I'm glad you took the time to review this one; I've been curious about it. It seems to be a polarizing selection - reviews are mostly very high or very low, so it's nice that yours is objective and relevant.

>99 hfglen: It's almost big enough to pin them in place while they read something else! Or maybe one could hide their technology convincingly beneath it.

>100 Darth-Heather: Glad my comments were of interest to you. I hadn't looked at other comments about it, but in a way it doesn't really surprise me that people's opinions are polarized.

September Book #21 The Last Widow by Karin Slaughter

This book features recurring characters Will Trent and Sara Linton. I have not read all of Karin Slaughter's books but was familiar with them. I almost gave up on this audio book. Part of my problem with it was I thought I had accidentally rewound it several times in the early stages, because events would rewind and replay from a different person's perspective - as the storylines became more dispersed in the events that were happening, I began to settle into listening.

Early in the story, Sara and Will rush to a car accident in the road outside, only to find themselves caught up in something far bigger than they expect. What follows is a tale of abduction, domestic terrorism and abuse with both of the characters at the centre of the action, but not together for most of it.

September Book #22 The Long Way to A Small Angry Planet by Becky Chambers

How has it taken me so long to get to this? Actually I know the answer to that - I've had it on the ereader for a while but was making a determined effort to read actual physical books to reduce the piles of books that need dealing with around the house, so it's been sitting there for a good long while.

So I tend to have a book that I can access from my phone for when I'm stuck in queues or on bus journeys etc and this was the book I picked up last Thursday as I'd finished the previous one. I only made it through a chapter on Thursday, but by Friday it had taken my attention in a fierce hold and any sense of priorities had gone out of the window. With appalling weather over the weekend, I spent a large amount of time with my eyes firmly fixed on the screen until I managed to finish the last few pages when I got home from work on Monday evening.

I guess that means I really liked it - not really what I was expecting. It's a hard book to quantify in some respects - far more of it is about the crew as individuals and a group and how they interact than about the actual plot with any 'small angry planet' involvement. I love the diversity of the crew in their personalities and beliefs, in the way some of them get on really well and others not so much, but none of that stops them being a crew at the end of the day.

There are some fascinating ideas within it.

All I can say at this point is that I hope the rest of the series is as good because I would love to continue reading - the next one is being put on my wishlist as soon as I've finished writing this.

September Book #23 Celtic Fairy Tales retold by Philip Wilson

Another children's collection. There was some interesting stories in this mixture. Overall I didn't feel the story telling was as a high a standard as some of the stories held potential for, and some of them felt unnaturally abbreviated as if just the beginning of the story was told - although there was nothing to indicate in the listings etc that that might be the case.

September Round Up

Total Number of Books Read : 22
Books Retained After Reading : 7

Books on Shelf Prior to 1st Oct 2016 : 11
Books on Shelf Prior to 1st Jan 2019 : 14

Books Abandoned : 6 (+18 others given away most of which follow on from one I’ve read recently and don’t wish to continue the series or from 1 I’ve abandoned or sets which I’ve decided I’m not going to read again)
Series Finished as far as I intend reading or Completed : 6

Non-Fiction Reads : 5
Fiction Reads : 17

Male Authors (first time to read that author this year): 7 (53.5% of total first time authors for the year)
Female Authors (first time to read that author this year): 6 (46.5% of total first time authors for the year)

Books by Male Authors : 8 (45.2% of all books read)
Books by Female Authors : 8 (41.8% of all books read)
Books by Collaboration : 6 (13% of all books read)

Books acquired : 11

Goal to read 18000 pages from Mt. TBR by the end of the year : 4,886 pages read this month (21,869 pages read so far which means I have past the goal by 3,869 pages)

My original list of 50 books to read in 2019 is 31 books long.

Mount TBR is now 734 books high.

End of September update on Walking to Mordor : I reached Bag End on the 4th August and have now walked 3,551.79 miles which means I expect to reach Grey Havens sometime in November if all goes well.

October Book #1 No. 6 volume 9 by Atsuko Asano and Hinoki Kino

The final part of the manga series that I originally read in 2016. I'm impressed overall at how true to the original novels the series has been and again I love the artwork.

October Book #2 The Witness Wore Red by Rebecca Musser and M Bridget Cook

I'm putting the whole comment under a spoiler cut as the book is an autobiography of a former member of the Fundamentalist Church of the Latter Day Saints - obviously religion plays a significant part in the book - my comments outline the content of the book and offers an opinion of its presentation. The book is not a light read given the events it describes.

The autobiography of Rebecca Musser who was born into the FLDS (Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter Day Saints) as during the time when it was led by Rulon Jeffs and subsequently his son, Warren Jeffs. She gives details of her childhood and how the church changed over the time she was a member. She explains how she left the church and later became involved with the authorities as they investigated and then worked to safely break up the church removing its leaders without endangering its other members before detailing the trials and her part in them and how that affected her life. She explains briefly some of the differences between the FLDS and more mainstream Mormonism.

The book is fairly pragmatic in its presentation of her experiences, but does touch on some horrifying subjects - non-consensual polygamy, child abuse, marriage of underage girls to much older men, domestic abuse and others.

October Book #4 Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak

A final read of this before I donate it to a local school. The story of a little boy who gets sent to his bedroom without his tea because he's being 'wild' and he goes on a journey to the land where the wild things live.

October Book #5 Gobbolino the Witch's Cat by Ursula Moray Williams

Gobbolino and his twin sister are the kittens of Grimalkin, a witch's cat. But unlike his sister, Gobbolino just isn't a natural witch's cat - his eyes are the wrong colour, one paw is white and that's only the beginning of his problems. Gobbolino just doesn't want to help cast spells to hurt people and so he runs away. What happens then is a series of adventures as he travels and joins various people to become part of their family, looking for his perfect home.

October Book #6 Dinosaurumpus! by Tony Mitton

A children's book with big bold pictures - the dinosaurs are getting ready to party. A fun read for early readers.

October Book #7 Hansel and Gretel by Jane Ray

A retelling of the Grimm's tale of Hansel and Gretel with illustrations by Jane Ray. I love Jane Ray's art but have to say the witch in this story really does give me a chill.

October Book #8 Orchard Book of Mythical Birds and Beasts by Margaret Mayo with illustrations by Jane Ray

A lovely collection of tales from around the world includes Pegasus the flying horse, The Chimera, The Minotaur, The Unicorn, The Naga Princess and The Phoenix. A great book with beautiful illustrations by Jane Ray.

If you aren't familiar with Jane Ray's art, I do recommend taking a peek at some of her illustrations for children's stories - she has a beautiful Noah's Ark and The Story of Christmas as well. Although she does a mean line in ugly for the wicked characters like the Witch in Hansel and Gretel.

Being woefully behind on events, but congrats for passing that final assignment back in August (>66 Peace2:)!

On >79 Peace2: (Mistborn) I loved that one, but was less enamored with especially the last part of the trilogy, which I found disappointing. I know I'm rather alone in that, though. Several other pub goers didn't have the issues that I had with it, and I'm positive that you'll enjoy the lot of it once you get there.

>111 Busifer: Thank you for the congratulations.

It will be a while before I get to the rest of the trilogy so I shall keep my hopes up for a while yet. So many books that I want to read, so little time!

Has anyone else been having a problem with touchstones working? I posted the other day and none of the touchstones worked - I've 'edited' and resaved the same posts today (no actual changes - just trying to activate the touchstones) and the books now work, but not the authors. Strange!

October book #9 Mountains of the Pharaohs by Zahi Hawass

A bit of a history of the pyramids - how they were built, where, why, beliefs at the time, why some had to be hurried or plans changed etc and also some of the details about the actual builders. Interesting but not the best book I've come across on a historical topic - I will probably try and find something else about Egypt at some point as I do find Ancient Civilisations fascinating.

October Books #10 and #11 The Twelve Dancing Princesses based on the original by Jacob Grimmand Arion and the Dolphin by Vikram Seth both illustrated by Jane Ray

Two more children's books chosen originally for their illustrations. I do still love Jane Ray's art but have again decided to pass these on to tempt more children into becoming readers. The 12 Dancing Princesses is a retelling of the Grimm Fairy Tale and Arion and the Dolphin is based originally on a Greek myth. Be prepared that the latter is sad.

October Books #13 and #14 The Bold Boy by Malachy Doyle and The King of Capri by Jeanette Winterson again both are illustrated by Jane Ray

The Bold Boy is a simple tale of a young boy who tricks people into giving him something better than he has at the time - he starts with a seed that he asks a woman to look after him and when her hen eats the seed, he insists he has the right to the hen - until eventually the other characters turn the tables on him. A simple story to appeal to young children.

The King of Capri is a tale of greed, lessons learned and new life. The King of Capri is greedy and selfish until the day he loses everything. In desperation he travels and finds a different way of living where those with riches share and he sees how much happier all of the people are.

October Book #15 The Never Game by Jeffrey Deaver

This is the start of a new series by Jeffrey Deaver introducing a new character Colter Shaw.

When a young woman vanishes in Silicon Valley, Colter arrives to investigate and try to rescue her in exchange for the reward her father offers. The case widens, even as Colter makes progress, when a second kidnapping occurs. The case involves some 'gaming' content - with the marketing and the plot of certain computer games being key to the events (these are explained so for someone like me with little actual knowledge of gaming this wasn't a hindrance to understanding - Colter is also not a gamer so needs things explaining).

The investigator himself is an unusual character and a lot of the book is also spent looking at his own upbringing and unusual aspects of that upbringing that led to the skills he now has to apply to his investigating. It also leaves open a thread to carry over into the next book with an explanation still sought for elements of his past.

Not a bad book, if I come across the next book when it is released I'll give it a go. I like the fact that Jeffrey Deaver's lead investigating characters are not all cookie cutout typical detectives but have their own stories and their own backgrounds.

October Book #16 The Orchard Book of Magical Tales by Margaret Mayo and illustrated by Jane Ray

Another book of interesting children's stories from around the world - The Lemon Princess to Baba Yaga - retold by Margaret Mayo with illustrations by Jane Ray. I still love the illustrations (even the scary ones!)

October Book #17 JFK's Last Hundred Days: The Transformation of a Man and the Emergence of a Great President by Thurston Clarke

A book chock full of things I didn't know about the American President - in fact I came to the conclusion, that apart from the manner of his death, I really didn't know much at all - about the good or the bad. The man had died several years before I was born, but if I had to name more than one or two presidents, his name would be one. He was President during a turbulent time, with many key events happening world wide and the American role in them being significant. The key thing that seemed to come across in this is that he wasn't a man who believed he knew everything, but he was a man who was willing to listen, learn, evolve - he also wasn't perfect and the book doesn't skirt some of his flaws.

Although it says it's about his last 100 days, the book explains things from before that time period and how the position he held by then came about, how he'd learned, who had helped influence or educate, how his opinions changed or grew.

For someone more or less new to the subject, I found this an interesting audio book to listen to. One other key thing is that it doesn't deal with the events after his death, with the who or why and the many discussions - this is a book about his life in the days before his death (and I'm pretty sure that I have another audio on a shelf/in a box somewhere that is about the events afterwards - so I will get to that at some point).

October Book #20 Don't Turn Around by Amanda Brooke

Ten years before the book begins, a young woman, Meg, committed suicide in her parents' garage. Her cousin, Jen, friends and family all put the blame for her suicide on her boyfriend at the time, accusing him of domestic violence. Her mother set up a domestic violence helpline. Ten years on, the helpline is about to close, her parents are planning to move away to be closer to her brother and his young children, when the boyfriend reappears.

Still fighting for justice, Jen and Meg's mother are still trying to find the truth of the events and they believe Meg's ex may be doing the same again. As they pursue the truth, they eventually discover something they never expected.

Interesting, disturbing in multiple ways that I can go into detail about without giving away too much of the plot.

October Book #21 Undead and Unfinished by MaryJanice Davidson

Betsy, Queen of the Vampires, finds herself on a trip to Hell with her sister, Laura (also known as the Antichrist). I'm losing my enthusiasm for this series and I don't think it's just that I've left it so long between volumes - I think that's happening because I've reached a point of not particularly wanting to continue. I think I have one more left on the shelf which contains short stories related to this series and others but I won't be pursuing any further titles.

October Book #22 Those People by Louise Candlish

What happens when the perfect neighbourhood is destroyed by the new neighbours from hell? What lengths will the neighbours go to to try and restore their lives?

A quiet street in a London suburb is ruined when a couple move in and play music at all hours, decide to do house improvements themselves irrespective of nighttime and sleeping children and run an illegal car sales business from their yard. Early in the story, the reader is party to the police investigation of a death on the street, but doesn't know who died or how, so as plots are uncovered to try and rid the street of the new neighbours, the reader must piece together, who did what, when and what was the result.

It's quite a good twist on the awful neighbour idea and actually reveals that perhaps under all the quiet perfection the rest of the neighbourhood wasn't quite so nice either! Personally I didn't love the book, almost no likeable characters, but it was an interesting idea.

October Book #23 The Ex by Alafair Burke

Olivia, a criminal defence lawyer, receives a phone call from the teenage daughter of her ex-boyfriend of many years previously asking for help as her father has been arrested on suspicion of committing a triple murder. Guilt for how their relationship ended means that Olivia gets reluctantly drawn in, after all there is no way the Jack she knew could have committed murder. He was too much of a good guy, and not only that but he'd never put his daughter's love on the line, after all she means everything to him.

As the case proceeds and the evidence stacks up, Olivia begins to have her doubts about Jack's innocence, but is there something she's missing.

I actually enjoyed a lot more than I expected to, it was quite interesting and kept a good pace. If I happen across any others by this author, I would give them a go. This was copy was a 'free book of the week' on the IPad - I download way more of those than I stand any chance of ever reading!

October Book #25 The Nuns of Sant'Ambrogio: The True Story of a Convent in Scandal by Hubert Wolf

This is an account of real events that took place in a convent in the mid 1800s based on records from the Vatican archives. Princess Katherina von Hohenzollern, recently inducted into the convent of Sant'Ambrogio, suddenly sent a frantic letter to her cousin asking for help to rescue her from abuse and potentially death.

An Inquisition into the circumstances at the convent uncovered a web of deceit, murder, heresy, sex all the under the watchful eye of the Catholic Church

I listened to this as an audio. I found it a little hard to follow - in part because of the narrator's reading of the names of people and places - the vast majority of names were German or Italian and the author seemed to overenunciate them which made it feel laboured and broke the flow of the text. I'm not saying things were mispronunced but in the same way I would struggle to pronounce names I wasn't familiar with, the narrator was clearly having to work to keep his words clear so it did not flow as might usually be expected.

The author attempts to explain the events in the context of both the history of the Catholic Church and society at the time - what expectations and beliefs would have been, how much education/experience some of the individuals involved would have had and how they would have been influenced, also how the Church Inquisition would have researched and judged the evidence.

Shocking, almost unbelievable that some of the individuals could have strayed so far from the doctrine of the time and had so much influence within what should have been a strict regime of what was and wasn't acceptable. I'm surprised that the Church would have allowed the documents to be released that gave the author the information he needed to begin his research into the matter. The author also reveals what happened to the key people involved as a result of the Inquisition inquiry.

October Books probably #18, 21 and 23 but I may have messed up the numbering in trying to miss them out and write about them all together Seraph of the End volumes 1 - 3 by Takaya Kagami

Vampires have invaded and overcome large amounts of the human populace. The Imperial Demon Army are trying to fight back. The story focuses on a group of young people determined to make it into the Imperial Demon Army so that they can obtain the Cursed Gear needed to fight back against the vampires. Each one has a history leading to their fight and to their isolation - teamwork isn't easy.

It's not a bad series, but I'm not going to continue with it because I didn't absolutely love it. Art is pretty good, but I found some of the story elements choppy. Looking for something better to try instead.

October Book #27 The Miracle of Olive Oil by Dr Penny Stanway

This is the final part of the set I had which gave 'practical tips for health, home and beauty' - how to keep, choose and use your olive oil, what's in Olive oil that makes it good for you, useful etc.

Maybe it's because olive oil is so integral to general cooking use and I've come across information previously about comparison with other oils, that I found this one less interesting than the others.

October Book #29 The Girl Who Drank the Moon by Kelly Barnhill

Unexpectedly this was a older child/young adult audio book. I borrowed it as a Fantasy with no indication in the library listing that it was aimed at a younger audience. I almost gave up on it early on, but persisted and grew to really enjoy it. Luna is sacrificed in an annual ritual by her village, left in the woods for 'the witch'. Xan, a good witch, each year travels to collect the sacrificed children, unable to understand why the village keeps leaving the children, but determined to protect them so she takes them to the villages on the other side of the forest to find them a new happy and safe home. With Luna though, she makes an error and feeds her moonlight rather than just starlight, leading to her becoming magical and so instead Xan becomes her grandmother and brings her up with the help of Glerk the swamp monster and Fyrian the Dragon.

A good read once I'd got into it and by the end I loved the characters of Xan, Fyrian, Glerk and Luna.

October Book #30 Playing with Fire by Tess Gerritsen

I found this very different to anything else that I had read by the author before - no Rizzoli and Isles type crime story here. Instead it focuses on two timelines. Julia is a modern day musician, violinist in a quartet who buys a book of music on a visit to Rome and brings it home to the US with her. Inside she finds a piece of music called 'Incendio', a disturbing piece that intrigues her. A series of mishaps at home leave her frightened of her daughter and believing that she is trying to hurt her.

In the other timeline, the composer is introduced, Lorenzo, a young Italian Jew, during World War 2.

Over the course of the book, we discover who Lorenzo was and what happened to him, and we ultimately what comes out of the re-discovery of the music.

End of October - there were two other Torchwood audio dramatisations read this month (the first two parts of a trilogy) I shall comment once I've finished the final part hopefully in November.

October Round Up

Total Number of Books Read : 30
Books Retained After Reading : 5

Books on Shelf Prior to 1st Oct 2016 : 15
Books on Shelf Prior to 1st Jan 2019 : 18

Books Abandoned : 12 (+22 others given away most of which follow on from one I’ve read recently and don’t wish to continue the series or from 1 I’ve abandoned or sets which I’ve decided I’m not going to read again)
Series Finished as far as I intend reading or Completed : 4

Non-Fiction Reads : 5
Fiction Reads : 25

Male Authors (first time to read that author this year): 5 (52.2% of total first time authors for the year)
Female Authors (first time to read that author this year): 7 (47.8% of total first time authors for the year)

Books by Male Authors : 8 (42.6% of all books read)
Books by Female Authors : 9 (41.2% of all books read)
Books by Collaboration : 13 (16.2% of all books read)

Books acquired : 13 (and it looked like I was doing so well!)

Goal to read 18000 pages from Mt. TBR by the end of the year : 2,130 pages read this month (23,807 pages read so far which means I have past the goal by 5,807 pages)

My original list of 50 books to read in 2019 is 30 books long (well it’s one less than last month and I did get through a lot of others!)

Mount TBR is now 713 books high.

End of October update on Walking to Mordor : I reached Bag End on the 4th August and have now walked 3,638.21 miles which means I expect to reach Grey Havens sometime in November if all goes well.

>122 Peace2: A friend gave me a copy of The girl who drank the moon saying she'd really enjoyed it. I did too. It was a far more thoughtful book than the fairy tale it appeared from the cover and blurb.

>124 Sakerfalcon: Definitely one worth reading - glad you enjoyed it too.

November Book #1 Kitchens of the Great Midwest by J. Ryan Stradal

The book follows the life of Eva from being a baby through to adulthood as a very successful chef. Her life goes through periods of darkness and tragedy and periods of success. All her life is guided by a relationship with food - from her father wanting to introduce her to new foods to her growing her own chillies to learning about cooking from professional chefs to become one herself. Each chapter is told from the perspective of a different character and at times Eva seems to be merely a person on the edge of the story.

The book is strange, different to anything else that I have read, quirky might be a better word than strange, but interesting nonetheless.

Overall I enjoyed it.

November Book #2 A Shiver of Snow and Sky by Lisa Lueddecke

Osa was born seventeen years ago in Skane, just as the sky turned red and plague descended on her village. Seventeen years later and Osa is used to the villagers cautious watching of the sky for warnings whether it be storms on the way or the more ominous red that would signal a return of the plague.

When the first warning signs appear, Osa and her friend Ivar are determined that this time they will find a better solution for their village rather than either running away or waiting and hoping to be spared. The two embark on separate journeys with Osa heading for where they believe the Goddess may be, Ivar to try and encourage the villages to band together.

It's a fantasy, set in a harsh polar landscape, a quest and a fight for survival. There was some great world building, but at times the pace flagged. Overall, I'm glad I read it but I didn't love it.

November Book #3 and #5 The Once and Future King and The Book of Merlyn by T.H. White

I ended up really disappointed with these. The first was a compilation of the first four books in the series The Sword in the Stone, Witch in the Wood, The Ill-Made Knight and The Candle in the Wind with the latter being the conclusion.

At first I found myself interested in Wart's life as he's introduced to Merlyn and begins lessons with him, however, as the books continued it felt more like a treatise on different systems of power/rule and political beliefs and not the fantastical story that I had been looking for - this may be more a fault of not being what I was looking for at the time (or expecting) than the fault of the book.

Not for me.

November Book #4 Golden Bats and Pink Pigeons by Gerald Durrell

A retelling of Gerald Durrell's first trip to Mauritius in order to observe and capture some of the Pink Pigeons, Round Island Skinks, Telfair's Skinks, Fruit Bats and other animals that were endangered some of them critically - at least one of the species he described as having at most 40 remaining in the wild at the time. This was not an original, but has an additional foreword and afterword written by his wife and one of the experts from the Durrell Preservation Trust, which gives the chance to add to his initial forays into capturing with the hope of securing the future of the various species, to an update of their status today - many of them are 'saved' from imminent extinction bringing some from critically endangered to 'vulnerable' or 'threatened' (both of which indicate considerably more security than the starting point). Knowing several of the species from my visits to the Trust over the years, it was fascinating to hear about them in the wild and to know that not only have the breeding programmes been successful here, but that they've also been able to work in Mauritius directly to have similar success there and to work with the Government there to create protected areas. His writing is interesting, challenging (both dictionary and internet got considerable use to enlighten me!) and has plenty of amusing anecdotes to cheer me along the way.

I'm celebrating - on the 13th November, I made it to Mordor! It's taken 1,164 days.

Started over on the 14th to see if I can beat my time next round.

>128 Peace2: Congrats!

>128 Peace2: Most Excellent! Hope you have a terrific Hobbit meal, or something. :D

Woohoo! Well done, that's a great achievement! I hope you do something special to celebrate.

I agree; a celebration is in order. Something involving mushrooms, perhaps?

I may have to spend some time (probably next weekend now) starting on the Hobbit movies, or maybe a do nothing but read day would be in order... Decisions, decisions!

November Book #6 A Single Thread by Tracy Chevalier

I borrowed this one from the library. The story follows Violet, a 38 year old woman in the 1930s. Her fiancee died during the war and now she is one of many women who are likely never to marry. As her mother becomes more overbearing, she decides to move away and gain a little independence. What follows is the story of her life in Winchester where she works as a typist and joins the Cathedral Broderers. The story highlights the struggles she and other women face in a society where women were expected to marry, expected to have children, where work was something they did until they married. She is faced with other people's prejudices, both those they show towards older single women, and she sees the prejudice some of her friends face when the people around them realise they are lesbians.

It was an interesting book, quietly understated in a way, women moving forward with their lives with quiet determination, facing the obstacles society put in their path, rather than being a loud protest.

November Book #8 The Valley of the Horses by Jean M Auel

The sequel to The Cave of the Clan Bear which I read about 15 - 20 years ago and this has probably been on my shelf since round about then. In this Ayla has moved on from where she lived with the Clan, cast out and alone. She survives using the skills she has learned and eventually she settles in a cave for the winter intending to move on the following year. After accidentally acquiring a foal and later a lion cub, she ends up staying a lot longer. Both animals grow to trust her and will follow her lead.

A second thread of the story follows Jondalar and his brother who are undertaking a journey, travelling from where they live to explore, meet other clans. Eventually their paths cross and their stories intertwine.

I didn't love this, but I did finish it. There were some highly improbable situations and outcomes and overall I was glad to get to the end and pass it on. Not for me.

>134 Peace2: I really liked the first two Auel books, but after that it goes off the rails too much for me. I don't recommend continuing with the rest if you didn't like the second one.

>135 Darth-Heather: Thanks for the advice - it's good to know when it's not worth continuing with a series rather than my just assuming that I might prefer the next to this one - particularly as I didn't hate it, I was just not massively keen.

November Book #9 The Visitor by Zoe Miller

Izzie's husband, Sam, died a few months ago and now she's facing Christmas. She's told her family she's going to a yoga retreat, but really she's planning to stay alone in her flat and wait for the festive season to be over. Her plans are scuppered when Eli, her husband's best friend turns up unexpectedly supposedly caught by the bad weather and unable to continue his flight back to the US.

Not all is at it seems, however, and before long Izzie's life is in danger, but after she's told everyone to leave her alone, will anyone come to the rescue?

I found this repeatedly unlikely and rather than being 'edge of the seat thrilling' as suggested on Amazon, I just wanted it to be over. The forays out into the lives of her neighbours and their insights into the things they want to change or that are going the way they want over Christmas/life actually just seemed increasingly irrelevant as they bore no actual relevance to the main thread but equally weren't going to develop into a thread of their own.

Overall a disappointment.

November Book #11 Talon by Julie Kagawa

This one caught me a bit by surprise. It took me quite a time to get into it but then I found myself increasingly drawn into the events. The story centres around Ember, a dragon hatchling, living as a human in a beachside community for the first time. In the morning, she trains with her Talon trainer, in the afternoon, she goes surfing and hangs out with her teenage friends.

She meets Riley, a young man her friends think is handsome but a drifter as he never hangs around for long. Ember recognises that he too is a dragon, but there is something more, something other about him, something of which Talon wouldn't approve.

She also meets Garrett, another young man, new to the town, fiercely protective and somewhat shyer than the other teenage boys she's met. Garrett too has a secret, one that could have disastrous consequences in the long term.

Attraction, friendship, changing loyalties, rebellion, broken trust, secrets hidden and secrets revealed, but what's the truth really. This is the first in a series and I actually found myself more interested than I at first expected. I'm not sure whether I'm committing to the series as a whole, but I will at least read the second as I already have a copy and I think this series has potential. It's a young adult book.

Has anyone read Shadow of Night by Deborah Harkness? Is it worth sticking with it? I'm struggling to get into it at the moment and am not sure whether to persist or move on. Any advice?

November book #12 Socials Skills: Top 10 mistakes that destroy your charisma ... and how to avoid them by Stuart Killon

A short ebook that focussed a lot on how negative self-talk affects a person and encouraging positive thinking and positive self-talk.

November book #13 The Very First Damned Thing by Jodi Taylor

This is a prequel to the Chronicles of St. Mary series which I haven’t read. It was interesting and curious but I do wonder if it would have been better to read after trying some of the rest of the series. It was only a short story and as I didn’t know what the series was about I wasn’t familiar with the world in which it was set. Still I enjoyed it enough that if I come across the actual books at some point I may give them a try ( when the TBR is smaller... how often do I say that!)

November book #15 The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger

I finally gave this a try having had a copy on the shelf since 2015 and managing to do a very good job of ignoring it on all my school reading lists back in the day until my sister expressed her shock that I’d never read it. All I can say is it must be an acquired taste as I really didn’t enjoy it at all and despite getting through it quickly was almost continually tempted to give up on it. It escapes me why this is seen as “essential reading” - underage drinking, dropping out of school (or getting kicked out), teenage angst by the bucketload. Was this book supposed to put kids off all of that? I really ought to find out whether my sister actually liked it or whether her shock was just that I hadn’t read it which is a possibility. She seemed to think that because I was always reading in my teens that I must have read everything on the reading lists school were continually giving us... clearly I wasn’t...

November book #16 Genghis Khan : A life from beginning to end by Henry Freeman

A short ebook that gives a very brief look at some of the key episodes in the life of Genghis Khan. Might have been good for someone with little or no background knowledge but as I have already read more thorough biographical works this was for me a disappointment. Would suggest that it is of value to people who don’t have any real prior knowledge of Mongolia’s or Genghis Khan’s history.

>140 Peace2: That was almost my exact reaction/experience with The Catcher in the Rye. I read it in my 30s or 40s, because I hadn't read it in school and it is a book "everyone should read." Huh, I thought, "why?" Perhaps because we didn't have a literary professor to guide us to its supposed genius? Oh well.

>140 Peace2: >141 MrsLee: Thank you, Ladies, for sparing me the effort. The world has enough crummy books without declaring another to be a "must read". Fortunately it was banned in South Africa when I wur a lad -- which probably improved its sales and prestige significantly.

>140 Peace2: >142 hfglen: I suggested it to my elder daughter when she was a teen, after one of her friends enjoyed it. She hated it. I've not read it myself, not do I particularly intend to.

>141 MrsLee:, >142 hfglen:, >143 haydninvienna:. I’m almost inclined to think my sister was having a laugh at my expense! I left it in the hotel I was staying in and didn’t waste the energy lugging it back home again!

>140 Peace2: I read Catcher In The Rye as a teen, so maybe my perception was affected by my age at the time. I felt so sorry for Holden as he struggles to find meaning in the world around him and come to terms with the death of his brother. The poor kid is having a nervous breakdown and it didn't seem like anyone around him realized that he needed help. I guess I took it as a cautionary tale to notice when someone is behaving oddly after a shock.

that being said, I don't really know why it has become a book that is so often recommended as a "must read". It is on so many recommended-reading lists, but is certainly not appealing to a lot of tastes.

>145 Darth-Heather: The age we first read things, I find can change our experience of it. I loved. Wuthering Heights in my teens but was far less enamoured when I read it again a couple of years ago, whereas my tolerance for Jane Austen has significantly increased.

November book #17 For the Record by David Cameron

This was an audio loan from the library read by the author. David Cameron is a former British Prime Minister and this is his autobiography. Below a cut for content - I’ve explained some of what is in the book without offering a political opinion on it In it he explains both his own background, his own political life and family life. He talks about some of his significant political achievements and some of the failures. As the Prime Minister who lead the Conservative party at the time of the Brexit referendum, he discusses some of his thinking at the time and some of his expectations along with the hurdles he faced politically both at home and in Europe dealing with the EU.

November book #19 The Girl with all the Gifts by M. R. Carey

A fungus has infected much of the world’s population, a few uninfected people remain in a compound, along with a group of child detainees. The children are infected but for an unknown reason the infection is working differently for/on them. The story focuses on Melanie an infected subject, Helen Justineau is a teacher, Dr Caldwell, a scientist studying the subjects and trying to determine both the reasons for the differences between child and adulthood, a cure and the origin. Parks and Gallagher are a senior and junior soldier. The book highlights the differences in how the scientist, the civilian and the soldier look upon Melanie and how they will behave because of that. It is also about Melanie learning about the world and the different types of people in it. Think Zombie Apocalypse in a way, which is not my usual fare although dystopian futures are more often a temptation.

I liked the book more than I initially thought I would. It’s an interesting premise (and frightening) - there is apparently a fungus which can infect ants in the way the fungus in this book affects humans (which is kind of terrifying actually!)

>147 Peace2: re: the fungus. Don't even begin to look into the microbiomes in our bodies...

>148 MrsLee: I'll take your word on that one and steer well clear - I'm easily terrified!

November Book #19 Find Me by J.S. Monroe

This was an audio loan from the library. Jar's university girlfriend disappeared five years ago while staying with an aunt and uncle, an apparent suicide, but he never believed that was what had happened and has continued to try and work it out. Five years down the line and he imagines she's still alive, that he sees her in the crowd and so he continues to search for the truth of what happened.

Now it may have been how full of other concerns my mind was at the time of listening or maybe that the way the narrative jumps between narrators (Jar, Rosa (the girlfriend), etc) and time frames doesn't lend itself to audio, but I spent a good portion of the book completely confused rather than trying to puzzle out the mystery. It did, however, all come to a conclusion (that I did mostly understand). Can't say I loved it - very dark themes at times - but if another pops up at the library I might give it a try as I'm not sure whether the problem was purely mine or that the author is not a good fit for me.

November Books #7 Pack Animals by Peter Anghelides, #10 Torchwood: Aliens Among Us Part 3, #17 Torchwood One: Before the Fall and #20 Torchwood One: Machines

The first of these was a novel focusing on the team and what happens when a set of gaming cards bring alien monsters into our reality. They have to solve the mystery of where the cards are coming from, where the monsters are coming from (while also trying to deal with the monsters and any resultant damage) and figure out why. Not a bad book at all - a fun quick read.

The second was the final part of an audio story - overall this was a satisfactory resolution to the arc and better than some of its earlier parts. (Each part is made up of three of four mini stories written by different people)

The third and fourth were the first two parts of an audio story (the final part was released last weekend so I'm waiting to receive my copy) based around Torchwood One - Yvonne Hartman and Ianto feature heavily. I enjoyed them quite a lot and have high hopes for the final part (or what I assume at the moment is the final part - guess I'll need to listen to it first to make sure!)

That concludes my successfully finished books for November so I will be back later with my stats before moving on to my December reads.

November Round Up

Total Number of Books Read : 20
Books Retained After Reading : 5

Books on Shelf Prior to 1st Oct 2016 : 5
Books on Shelf Prior to 1st Jan 2019 : 8

Books Abandoned : 1 (+16 others given away most of which follow on from one I’ve read recently and don’t wish to continue the series or from 1 I’ve abandoned or sets which I’ve decided I’m not going to read again)
Series Finished as far as I intend reading or Completed : 4

Non-Fiction Reads : 4
Fiction Reads : 16

Male Authors (first time to read that author this year): 8 (52.8% of total first time authors for the year)
Female Authors (first time to read that author this year): 6 (47.2% of total first time authors for the year)

Books by Male Authors :11 (43.3% of all books read)
Books by Female Authors : 6 (40.2% of all books read)
Books by Collaboration : 3 (16.5% of all books read)

Books acquired : 1 (haven’t I been good this month!)

Goal to read 18000 pages from Mt. TBR by the end of the year : 3,484 pages read this month (27,291 pages read so far which means I have past the goal by 9,291 pages)

My original list of 50 books to read in 2019 is 30 books long (no progress on this list this month)

Mount TBR is now 704 books high.

End of November update on Walking to Mordor : I reached the end of my journey on the 13th November having taken 1,164 days to complete it. I started a new journey on the 14th November in the slight hope that I can improve on that journey length over the coming days… As of end of November, I have completed 58.5 miles.

I have actually finished some books in December, I just haven't had time to write about them!

December Book #1 A Cool Head by Ian Rankin

This was a short audio loan from the library. A botched robbery drags in an innocent bystander when he ends up in possession of some of the haul and attempts to pass them on to where he thinks is right. Fast paced, not as complex as some of his lengthier works - I believe this is written as a 'Quick Read' - a set of books by various authors aimed at encouraging people not in the habit of reading to try it out.

It's not bad for the length and easy to read, but not a lasting memory type of book.

December Book #2 Brilliance of the Moon by Lian Hearn (also known as Gillian Rubinstein - but my edition lists the author as LH)

This is the final part of the original Otori trilogy which I began reading in New Zealand about 12 or 13 years ago if I remember correctly - passing through a backpacking hostel, I swapped the book I had just finished for a copy of Across the Nightingale Floor. When I got home again about 6 or 7 months later I ordered a boxed set of the trilogy but then didn't get around to reading from it until 2014 when I read the first two books. The final part and the prequel which I also got sometime around then have sat on my shelf ever since waiting!

So looking back to my thoughts on the second part where I thought it meandered and then finished in a rush, this has probably benefited from the distance between my finishing that (because I'd forgotten that I hadn't been entirely positive). Although I didn't love this, there was enough action and enough of a recap for me to remember the important characters and to keep me moving through it. Overall, I didn't absolutely love it, but I was glad to finish it. I'm not sure how keen I am to start the prequel (particularly as it's almost twice the size!)

December Book #3 Mummy's Favourite by Sarah Flint

This is the first in a crime series with an up and coming police detective Charlotte Stafford. Charlotte has the 'good' fortune to happen on crimes when she's out fetching milk it appears, but she also manages to memorise the faces of criminals or match victims' descriptions to real life criminals with ease. What she can't do is brush her hair, turn up on time or looking respectable as her superior is constantly sending her to smarten herself up or trying to figure out why she was late again.

The actual main crime investigation in the book begins with the disappearance of a mother and son. The police begin by investigating the father, there is a history of domestic abuse and the son who has vanished is the one who spoke out, also if he wasn't either involved in the disappearance and she hasn't run away to escape him, what good reason does he have for waiting so long before reporting her missing.

It isn't until further mothers and 'favoured' children begin to go missing that the police begin to widen their search for the culprit.

I have my reservations about this as the start of the series - crimes piled on crimes, criminals committed some ridiculous crimes as well as the ones central to the main plot. Some of the scenes are disturbing (there is a serial killer at work and his reasoning and actions are horrible), but there are also a lot of side crimes that involve the same police detective (she witnesses someone being beaten up in the street, she is the victim of an assault ...)

In some respects it was almost too much, too over the top. This is apparently the author's debut - I wonder if her next outing will be more measured.

December Book #5 Wild Jack by John Christopher

A teen dystopia written probably in the 1960s. John Christopher also wrote the Tripods trilogy (and later the prequel), The Prince in Waiting, The Death of Grass and The World in Winter to name but a few. Many of these are some sort of future dystopia, but the reason for the apocalypse differs in each - in the Tripods aliens arrive on Earth, in The Death of Grass a virus affects grass crops resulting in mass starvation, in The World in Winter, climate change turns most of Europe and higher latitudes into Arctic wastelands, with the North of Africa being the place to head for temperate weather.

In this an energy crisis lead to the breakdown of society and then the formation of insulated cities behind walls with sufficient energy. Outside the cities are wild lands inhabited by Savages, people not deemed worthy of living in the cities. Inside the cities is a two tier society, a master and slave scenario. The story follows Clive, a young teen who is falsely accused of speaking against the slavery situation and promoting other none regulated thoughts. Without warning he is arrested and taken from his school while his parents are on holiday and transferred without trial to a prison camp on an unspecified island somewhere in the English Channel. What follows is his discovery of other people who actually have stood up for various reasons to the authorities in their cities (his two camp friends are American and Japanese) and of what it means to live outside the new 'civilisation'. He also uncovers the reality behind his arrest, which is not what he had assumed.

My opinion is that of the stories I have read by John Christopher (all of those listed above), this is one of the weakest in terms of both the plot and the delivery. I was disappointed.

I'm still struggling to make progress with Shadow of the Night by Deborah Harkness and have put it down with no intention of picking it up again several times, only to feel guilty and give it another try. Anybody else had this problem?

I'm having a similar problem getting in to The Accidental Sorcerer by K.E. Mills but it hasn't exhausted my attempts just yet to the same extent as the Harkness book.

>154 Peace2: I feel your pain. Give yourself permission to DNF. I finally had to do that wit Tigana and it was so freeing even though I felt bad about it.

>155 Narilka: You are most probably right but you also now have me worried as Tigana is also on the TBR pile (LOL)

>156 Peace2: FWIW, I'm in the minority. Most people love Tigana based on reviews.

>157 Narilka: Well it will be a while before I get to it (pretty sure it's in a box in the loft at this point!) so I won't waste too much time worrying. :D

Shadow of Night has travelled from the bedside table to the box for donations downstairs so that could well be the decision made (although there is still time for me to retrieve it I guess...)

December Book #7 All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr

The book focuses mostly on two children, one a German orphan boy and the other a young French girl who loses her sight young. They grow up before and during World War II and we see a section after the war. The story encompasses how they were brought up, their lives with the people closest to them and how they were effected by the events in the war. The book was an interesting read for me, parts were heartbreaking and harrowing, but overall, I felt the book showed that there may have been two sides of the conflict, but it didn't make every individual on the 'wrong' side a bad person. It also shows that strength comes to people at different times and in different circumstances and that we learn from our experiences even when we can't influence them.

If I hadn't borrowed it from the library, it would have been a keeper - but the library frowns on that kind of thing!

December Books #4, 6 and 8 The Vigil by Lou Morgan, Skypoint by Phil Ford and Torchwood One: Latter Days by Gareth David-Lloyd, Matt Fitton and Tim Foley

The first and last of these were written as audio stories, while the middle was a novel. The Vigil was Tosh-centric. The story shows Tosh joining Torchwood and working with Sebastian Vaughn (an original character). Up to now, I've enjoyed the Tosh stories in the series, but I found this one a disappointment.

Skypoint has the whole team investigating disappearances from a new deluxe apartment block. Whilst there is a sinister gangster type character living there, he can't account for people vanishing seemingly without trace through the walls or out of lifts. The story gave Tosh and Owen the chance to go undercover as a married couple (even though it's set after Owen's 'death' in the TV series), but it features all of the team in part. Overall I enjoyed this one.

Latter Days was set in the Torchwood One series, featuring Ianto and Yvonne Hartman - it takes a look at 'retirement plans' and life after Torchwood - if there ever is such a thing. Three different stories based around three different characters. In the first, Tommy has been planning to submerse himself into a VR type world and asks Ianto to see what he's done so that he can maintain the system from the outside. In the second, a locker in Torchwood One is losing containment, but no one knows what's in there and in fact the only person who might know retired several years previously and is now suffering from something resembling dementia and living in a care home. In the third, Yvonne Hartman's mother has retired to the countryside. Yvonne has thoughts on that and is determined to keep her mother active and working for her. Hints in this story of things to come in the Dr Who episodes that deal with Torchwood One. I enjoyed this set, good engaging stories and interesting original characters, while making good use of familiar ones and keeping them true to their origins.

December Book #9 Sister of Mine by Laurie Petrou

An audio loan from the library. Two sisters in a small town, their lives inextricably linked. In childhood, their father had abandoned them and their mother, leaving them to face scandal and isolation in the town. Later the older sister marries, leaving the mother and younger daughter in her childhood home. Events continue to pile up, each one leading to another not necessarily immediately, sometimes years down the line, a bad choice at one point, pressure applied to convince one another to do something specific, but the long term consequences can't be foretold. The climax of the story is brought about by the culmination of aftereffects of big and small choices earlier and the emotions that drove the choices and came from them - resentments, obligations.

I finished the book, wasn't particularly going to give up on it, but also didn't really enjoy or feel overly engaged with it - I was listening to it as much because it was what I had to hand as because I wanted to find out what happened in the end.

December Book #10 Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi

A young adult fantasy, the start of a series. The book is set in an Africa-type society with magic and with creatures that are like animals we know but big enough to be ridden (panthenaires, lionaires and the like). The story centres around four young people, two pairs of brothers and sisters. Zelie is a Diviner, daughter of a maji, when she came of age she should have come into her magic, but the current King of Orisha killed all the adult magic users and destroyed the temples and the people's contact with the gods that gave them magic. Tzain, her brother, is a trainee warrior. They both suffer under the current regime, both due to the loss of their mother, the grieving of their father and constant taxes and tariffs applied to families like theirs. Amari is princess, daughter of the King of Orisha, but she is unhappy and trapped, her only friend a slave girl who serves her. Inan is her brother. Close when they were younger, their relationship is tested by their father's continual hunt for a way to make sure the magic using class is destroyed forever along with all possibility of the return of magic.

After the death of her friend, Amari flees the palace with a scroll and meets Zelie and Tzain and what ensues is a quest to recover magic for everyone. Loyalties are tested, bravery and wisdom are tried.

I enjoyed this book overall and would be keen to continue reading the series. There were one or two points where I was frustrated by events or actions (the 'no, don't do that, you know that's just going to mean X will happen' type of thing). Overall - a winner!

December Book #11 Social Anxiety: 7 Easy Ways to overcome Your Inferiority Complex Today by Stuart Killian

I got a set of books by Stuart Killian - all of them deal with overcoming social anxiety, negative thinking, becoming more confident in social situations and holding conversations. I've now read two of them - they are short, the writing leaves somewhat to be desired in terms of composition, grammar etc. The ideas in the books simplistic - this was not an in-depth study of how or why some people develop inferiority complexes - it just explains what he believes one is and gives seven ideas for overcoming it. Nothing earth shattering - but it was only about 36 pages long (including contents and acknowledgements etc). I got the books free, I wouldn't want to have bought them.

And so ends my finished books for 2019.

December Round Up

Total Number of Books Read : 11
Books Retained After Reading : 4

Books on Shelf Prior to 1st Oct 2016 : 2
Books on Shelf Prior to 1st Jan 2019 : 3

Books Abandoned : 1 (+4 others given away most of which follow on from one I’ve read recently and don’t wish to continue the series or from 1 I’ve abandoned or sets which I’ve decided I’m not going to read again)
Series Finished as far as I intend reading or Completed : 1

Non-Fiction Reads : 1
Fiction Reads : 10

Male Authors (first time to read that author this year): 3 (51.9% of total first time authors for the year)
Female Authors (first time to read that author this year): 5 (48.1% of total first time authors for the year)

Books by Male Authors :5 (43.4% of all books read)
Books by Female Authors : 5 (40.4% of all books read)
Books by Collaboration : 1 (16.2% of all books read)

Books acquired : 7 (haven’t I been good this month!)

Goal to read 18000 pages from Mt. TBR by the end of the year : 1,071 pages read this month (28,362 pages read so far which means I have past the goal by 10,362 pages)

My original list of 50 books to read in 2019 is 29 books long (I’ve read lots this year, but this list didn’t fair well in the progress)

Mount TBR is now 703 books high.

End of December update on Walking to Mordor (new journey started of 14/11/19): 144.63 miles so far.

End of Year Statistics

Total number of books read: 238 books
Books from my shelf (or Ipad): 123
Audio Books from my shelf: 54
Library Books: 58
Progress on reducing the TBR pile: reduced by 130 books
If I reduce Mount TBR by 50 books per year, it will now take : 14.06 years to reach the bottom of the Mountain (ha ha ha – is there ever a bottom to the Mountain or is it like the ever elusive end of the rainbow).

5 star books: 7
4 ½ star books: 19
4 star books: 38
3 ½ star books: 58
3 star books: 60
2 ½ star books: 27
2 star books: 14
1 ½ star books: 11
1 star books: 3
½ star books: 1