Caty M's 2009 Reading - Volume 2

The year so far, continued from this thread:

January
1. The Uncommon Reader - Alan Bennett (999/V Books to make me laugh; 121 pages; rated 4½)
2. Everything and the Moon - Julia Quinn (999/IV Romance; 372pp; rated 3½)
3. Raven Black - Ann Cleeves (999/VI Crime, Thriller & Mystery; 376pp; rated 5)
4. The Food of Love - Anthony Capella (999/IV Romance; 310pp; rated 4½)
5. Service with a Smile - PG Wodehouse (999/V Books to make me laugh; 224pp; rated 4)
6. Lord of Scandal - Nicola Cornick (999/IV Romance; 377pp; rated 3½)
7. The China Governess - Margery Allingham (999/VI Crime, Thriller & Mystery; 267pp; rated 3½)
8. People of the Book - Geraldine Brooks (999/IX Other TBR; 372pp; rated 4½)
9. Miss Verey's Proposal - Nicola Cornick (999/IV Romance; 299pp; rated 4½)
10. The Convenient Marriage - Georgette Heyer (999/IV Romance; 272pp; rated 5)

11. The Temptation of Rory Monahan - Elizabeth Bevarly (185pp; rated 4)
12. When Jayne met Erik - Elizabeth Bevarly (184pp; rated 4)
13. Mrs Pollifax Pursued - Dorothy Gilman (999/VI Crime, Thriller & Mystery; 232pp; rated 3½)
14. Secret Cinderella - Dani Sinclair (250pp; rated 2)
15. Decent Exposure - Phillipa Ashley (277pp; rated 4)
16. If on a Winter's Night a Traveller - Italo Calvino (999/VIII Repeated recommendations; 260pp; rated 3½)
17. A Civil Contract - Georgette Heyer (999/IV Romance; 375pp; rated 5/5)
18. Jingo - Terry Pratchett (999/V Books to make me laugh; 461pp; rated 4/5)
19. Dry Store Room No. 1: The Secret Life of the Natural History Museum - Richard Fortey (318pp; rated 5/5)
20. The Discovery of Chocolate - James Runcie (999/IX Books from my TBR; 247pp; rated 2½)
5779 pages (of which 204 c/f from 2008 >> 5575 in 1/2009)

February
21. The Eyre Affair - Jasper Fforde (999/V Books to make me laugh; 373pp; rated 4)
22. The Heir and the Spare - Maya Rodale (293pp, rated 3)
23. Dark Fire - C J Sansom (999/VI Crime, Thriller & Mystery; 579pp; rated 4½)
24. Slightly Scandalous - Mary Balogh (374pp; rated 4)
25. You've Got Male - Elizabeth Bevarly (379pp; rated 4)
26. Marrying the Captain - Carla Kelly (275pp; rated 4½)
27. My Lord Footman - Claire Thornton (298pp; rated 4½)
28. To Deceive a Duke - Amanda McCabe (299pp; rated 3½)
29. Housemaid Heiress - Elizabeth Beacon (296pp; rated 3½)
30. The Good Neighbor - Sharon Mignerey (217pp; rated 3½)

31. Slightly Wicked - Mary Balogh (342pp; rated 4½)
32. The Sassy Girl's Checklist to Living, Loving and Overcoming - Michelle McKinney Hammond (999/1 Christian Spirituality and Theology; 182pp; rated 3½)
33. My Nerdy Valentine - Vicki Lewis Thompson (339pp; rated 4)
34. Talk Nerdy To Me - Vicki Lewis Thompson (355pp; rated 2½)
35. A Comfortable Wife - Stephanie Laurens (297pp; rated 3)
36. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society - Mary Ann Shaffer (999/VIII Repeated recommendations; 240pp; rated 4½)
37. Speed Dating - Nancy Warren (253pp; rated 1)
38. Slow Hands - Leslie Kelly (210pp; rated 2½)
39. Once a Cowboy - Linda Warren (246pp; rated 4)
40. Irresistible Forces - Brenda Jackson (249pp; rated 1)

41. Crime Scene at Cardwell Ranch - BJ Daniels (250pp; rated 3½)
42. Kiss Me Deadly - Michele Hauf (272pp; rated ½)
43. Stranded with a Spy - Merline Lovelace (244pp; rated 4½)
44. The Luck of the Bodkins - PG Wodehouse (385 pp; rated 4)
45. The Marriage Bed - Laura Lee Guhrke (374pp; rated 4)
46. Slightly Married - Mary Balogh (342pp; rated 5)
47. Simply Unforgettable - Mary Balogh (999/IV Romance; 343pp; rated 4)
48. The Bride's Baby - Liz Fielding (187pp; rated 3½)
49. Price of Passion - Susan Napier (187pp; rated 2)
50. Snowbound - Janice Kay Johnson (276pp; rated 4)

51. Baby Bonanza - Maureen Child (175pp; rated 2)
52. A Very Special Delivery - Linda Goondight (250pp; rated 3)
53. 44 Scotland Street - Alexander McCall Smith (326pp; rated 5)
9707 pages, making a total of 15282 pages so far in 2009

March
54. Hide in Plain Sight - Marta Perry (247pp; rated 3)
55. The Suspicions of Mr Whicher - Kate Summerscale (999/II Non-fiction; 314pp + notes; rated 4)
56. Heart of the Sea - Nora Roberts (999/IV Romance; 369pp; rated 3½)
57. Dancing in the Moonlight - RaeAnne Thayne (250pp; rated 4)
58. Simply Love - Mary Balogh (373pp; rated 5)
59. Simply Magic - Mary Balogh (326pp; rated 4)

60. Pale Moon Rider - Marsha Canham (422pp; rated 2)
61. Espresso Tales - Alexander McCall Smith (342pp; rated 4½)
62. Love Over Scotland - Alexander McCall Smith (999/IX TBR books; 355pp; rated 5)
63. Slightly Dangerous - Mary Balogh (393pp; rated 4½)
64. Simply Perfect - Mary Balogh (343p; rated 4½)
65. Seducing Mr Darcy - Gwyn Cready (374pp; rated 1)
66. Unmasked - Nicola Cornick (374pp; rated 5)
67. The Hollow Chocolate Bunnies of the Apocalypse - Robert Rankin (999/V Humour; 343pp; rated 4)
68. Friends, Lovers, Chocolate - Alexander McCall Smith (277pp; rated 3½)
69. Slightly Tempted - Mary Balogh (386pp; rated 4½)
70. Slightly Sinful - Mary Balogh (378pp; rated 5)

71. Friday's Child - Georgette Heyer (999/VIII Group; 376pp; rated 5)
72. The Money Man's Seduction - Leslie LaFoy (174pp; rated 4½)
73. The Right Attitude to Rain - Alexander McCall Smith (999/IX TBR; 314pp; rated 5)
74. The Careful Use of Compliments - Alexander McCall Smith (999/IV Mystery; 246pp; rated 5)
75. Hot Water - PG Wodehouse (999/V; 294pp; rated 5)
76. Pistols for Two - Georgette Heyer (205pp; rated 5)
77. Carpe Jugulum - Terry Pratchett (999/V; 411pp; rated 3)
78. A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian - Marina Lewycka (324pp; rated 4)
79. Approaching Easter - Jane Williams (999/I; 126pp; rated 4)
80. The Cellist of Sarajevo - Steven Galloway (999/VIII; 223pp; rated 3)
8559 pages, making a total of 23,841 pages so far in 2009

April
81. The Bad Quarto - Jill Paton Walsh (999/VI, 269pp; rated 4)
82. The World According to Bertie - Alexander McCall Smith (329pp; rated 5)
83. Great Expectations - Charles Dickens (999/VII; 443pp; rated 4)
84. Inferno - Dante Alighieri (trans. Dorothy L. Sayers) (999/VII; 289pp; rated 5)
85. Blest Atheist - Elizabeth Mahlou (999/II; 255pp; rated 2½)
86. Money for Nothing - PG Wodehouse (999/V; 307pp; rated 5)
87. The Warden - Anthony Trollope (999/VII; 284pp; rated 4½)
88. Beyond Heaving Bosoms - Sarah Wendell and Candy Tan (999/II; 291pp; rated 4½)
89. The Adventures of Sally - PG Wodehouse (295pp; rated 5)
90. The Gargoyle - Andrew Davidson (999/IX, 499pp; rated 3½)

91. Decline and Fall - Evelyn Waugh (185pp; rated 4½)
92. The Sweetheart Season - Karen Joy Fowler (352pp; rated 3½)
93. Dogs and Goddesses - Jennifer Crusie, Anne Stuart & Lani Diane Rich (372pp; rated 3½)
94. Barchester Towers - Anthony Trollope (999/VII, 526pp; rated 5)
95. Scandalous Lord, Rebellious Miss - Deb Marlowe (297pp; rated 2½)
96. Things Fall Apart - Chinua Achebe (152pp; rated 4)
5145 pages, making a total of 28,986 for the year so far in 2009.

May
97. The Fifth Elephant - Terry Pratchett (370pp; rated 4½)
98. Married by Mistake - Abby Gaines (354pp; rated 3)
99. Julius Caesar - William Shakespeare (108pp; rated 4½)
100. The Mind Readers - Margery Allingham (256pp; rated 3½)

101. Keep the Aspidistra Flying - George Orwell (257pp; rated 5)
102. A Radical Encounter with God - Greg Haslam (158pp; rated 4)
103. The Major and the Country Miss - Dorothy Elbury (297pp, rated 3)
104. His Lady Mistress - Elizabeth Rolls (299pp; rated 5)
105. Lord Braybrook's Penniless Bride - Elizabeth Rolls (296pp; rated 5)
106. A Country Miss in Hanover Square - Anne Herries (298pp; rated 3)
107. A Compromised Lady - Elizabeth Rolls (296pp; rated 5)
108. The Duke's Cinderella Bride - Carole Mortimer (296pp; rated 2)
109. The Billionaire Next Door - Jessica Bird (242pp; rated 4½)
110. Good Omens - Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman (398pp; rated 4½)

111. Till We Have Faces - C S Lewis (309pp; rated 4½)
112. The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett (221pp; rated 4)
113. The Archivist's Story - Travis Holland (241pp; rated 3½)
114. Suddenly You - Lisa Kleypas (375pp; rated 3)
115. Dr Thorne - Anthony Trollope (566pp; rated 5)
116. Mr Impossible - Loretta Chase (312pp; rated 4)
117. Lord Libertine - Gail Ranstrom (296pp; rated 2)
118. Three Men in a Boat - Jerome K. Jerome (186pp; rated 5)
6428 pages, making a total of 35,414 so far in 2009

June
119. Lord of Scoundrels - Loretta Chase (357pp; rated 5)
120. Summer Moonshine - PG Wodehouse (318pp; rated 4)

121. Miss Smilla's Feeling for Snow - Peter Høeg (410pp; rated 3½)
122. The Last Hellion - Loretta Chase (379pp; rated 4½)
123. Gift from the Sea - Ann Schmidt (272pp; rated 3½)
124. The Book Thief - Markus Zusak (554pp; rated 5)
125. The Birds our Teachers - John Stott (96pp; rated 4)
126. Middlesex - Jeffrey Eugenides (529pp; rated 5)
127. The Big Sleep - Raymond Chandler (164pp; rated 4)
128. A Prudent Match - Laura Matthews (216pp; rated 2)
129. Express Male - Elizabeth Bevarly (370pp; rated 4)
130. Mistress of the Art of Death - Ariana Franklin (507pp; rated 5)

131. The Good Husband of Zebra Drive - Alexander McCall Smith (212pp; rated 4½)
4384 pages in June, making 39798 pages read so far in 2009.

July
132. 1984 - George Orwell (326pp; rated 4½)
133. The Devil and Miss Prym - Paulo Coelho (201pp; rated 3)
134. Arthur and George - Julian Barnes (505pp; rated 5)
135. The Dig - John Preston (231pp; rated 4)
136. The Case of the Late Pig - Margery Allingham (138pp; rated 4)
137. Listen Up: A practical guide to listening to sermons - Christopher Ash (32pp; rated 4½)
138. Dear Fatty - Dawn French (366pp; rated 4)
139. Stuck in Shangri-La - Kasey Michaels (379pp; rated 3)
140. Mr Mulliner Speaking - PG Wodehouse (231pp; rated 3½)

141. Mrs Dalloway - Virginia Woolf (172pp; rated 3)
142. Flaubert's Parrot - Julian Barnes (229pp; rated 4½)
143. What Happens in London - Julia Quinn (328pp; rated 4)
144. Try To Resist Me - Janet Dailey (323pp; rated ½)
145. The Lady Chosen - Stephanie Laurens (430pp; rated 3½)
146. Lords and Ladies - Terry Pratchett (395pp, rated 5)
147. Western Weddings - Gillian Hart, Kate Bridges, Charlene Sands (298pp, rated 2.5)
148. Dangerous Lord, Innocent Governess - Christine Merrill (297pp, rated 3.5)
4,896 pages for July, total 44,694 for 2009

August
149. Private Confessions - Lori Borrill (244pp; rated 4)
150. The Maverick Preacher - Victoria Bylin (268pp; rated 4.5)

151. Sharpe's Company - Bernard Cornwell (343pp; rated 4.5)
152. The Fashion in Shrouds - Margery Allingham (288pp; rated 4)
153. Excellent Woman - Barbara Pym (288pp; rated 5)
154. Lord of Fire - Gaelen Foley (407pp rated 3)
155. Hogfather - Terry Pratchett (445pp; rated 4)
156. The Fleeing Heiress - Gayle Buck (216pp; rated 3½)
157. The Eligible Miss Elliot - Victoria Hinshaw (221pp; rated 3½)
158. The Surgeon - Kate Bridges (298pp; rated 4)
159. The Rake's Defiant Mistress (297pp; rated 3)
160. The Wicked Lord Rasenby (298pp; rated 2)

161. Desperately Seeking a Duke - Celeste Bradley (332pp; rated 3)
162. Lord of Ice - Gaelen Foley (325pp; rated 2½)
163. A Most Unconventional Courtship - Louise Allen (297pp; rated 3½)
164. The Wedding Officer - Anthony Capella (426pp; rated 4½)
165. Overture to Death - Ngaio Marsh (319pp; rated 4)
166. Marrying the Mistress - Juliet Landon (296pp; rated 3½)
167. Talk of the Town - Beverly Barton (186pp; rated 2½)
168. Letting Loose! - Mara Fox (243pp; rated 2)
169. Death in Holy Orders - PD James (548pp; rated 3)
170. Jane and Prudence - Barbara Pym (240pp; rated 4½)

171. Gods Behaving Badly - Marie Phillips (277pp; rated 4)
172. Arousing Suspicions - Marianne Stillings (372pp; rated 4½)
173. Satisfaction - Marianne Stillings (373pp; rated 4)
174. Killer Charms - Marianne Stillings (377pp; rated 4)
175. A Concise Chinese-English Dictionary for Lovers - Xiaolu Guo (354pp; rated 3)
176. Galahad at Blandings - PG Wodehouse (222pp; rated 4)
177. Midnight Madness - Karen Kendall (250pp;rated 4)
178. Equal Rites - Terry Pratchett (282pp; rated 3)
179. Just Like a Man - Elizabeth Bevarly (352pp; rated 3)
180. Beau Crusoe - Carla Kelly (297pp; rated 4)

181. Love Letters from a Duke - Elizabeth Boyle (353pp; rated 2)
182. The Duke Next Door - Celeste Bradley (332pp; rated 3)
183. The Knowledge of the Holy - A W Tozer (144pp; rated 5)
10,823 pages in August, making a total of 55,517 so far in 2009

September
184. The Templar's Penance - Michael Jecks (364pp; rated 2.5)
185. Mort - Terry Pratchett (317pp; rated 3)
186. An Innocent Debutante in Hanover Square - Anne Herries (299pp; rated 2½)
187. Runaway Lady - Claire Thornton (296pp; rated 4)
188. The Scandal of the Season - Sophie Gee (289pp; rated 3)
189. Wild and Hexy - Vicki Lewis Thompson (315pp; rated 3½)
190. Casual Hex - Vicki Lewis Thompson (315pp; rated 3½)

191. The Earl's Untouched Bride - Annie Burrows (276pp; rated 4)
192. The Raven Prince - Elizabeth Hoyt (356pp; rated 3½)
193. The Leopard Prince - Elizabeth Hoyt (345pp; rated 3½)
194. Beth and the Bachelor - Susan Mallery (251pp; rated 4½)
195. The Moving Toyshop - Edmund Crispin (205pp; rated 3)
196. The Homeless Heiress - Anne Herries (297pp; rated 2½)
197. The Honeymoon That Wasn't - Debbi Rawlins (248pp; rated 3)
198. Feet of Clay - Terry Pratchett (415pp; rated 4½)
199. Thud! - Terry Pratchett (439pp; rated 4½)
200. Mistress: Hires for the Billionaire's Pleasure - India Grey (162pp; rated 3.5)

201. The Unexpected Mrs Poillifax - Dorothy Gilman (204pp; rated 3.5)
202. The Colour of Magic - Terry Pratchett (285pp; rated 3)
203. Vision in White - Nora Roberts (325pp; rated 4.5)
204. The Millionaire's Inexperienced Love Slave (184pp; rated 3) (because how can anyone see that title on a book and not (a) laugh and (b) read it just to see how bad it could be?)
205. The Light Fantastic - Terry Pratchett (285pp; rated 4½)
206. Interesting Times - Terry Pratchett (430pp; rated 4½)

97. The Fifth Elephant - Terry Pratchett

Commander Vimes is sent on diplomatic duties to Überwald, and gets caught up in all manner of chaos - as do those trying to run the Watch without him.

Very funny. Fantastic characters, a plot that's so big and lively it's practically exploding out of the book, and razor-sharp satire. I'm coming to the conclusion that I prefer the Discworld novels set in Ankh-Morpork to the other sub-series. Although I shall have to do much more extensive reading of Terry Pratchett's work to come to a definitive conclusion. What a terrible prospect. Still, if I must, I must.

4½ out of 5.

What a great list of books! 97 so far this year is phenomenal. It looks like you will have no problem reaching and surpassing your 200 book goal.

Found you again, Caty!

98. Married by Mistake - Abby Gaines

Category romance. I picked this up because it was recommended on a thread in the romance group. I'm pretty much off categories these days, but I thought I'd give this a try because it's from one of the lines which has a larger word-count, and which therefore generally has more substantial plots and subplots.

I thought it was okay. It was a standard, average category romance: light and entertaining, but nothing outstanding. There were likeable characters (even the mother-in-law, who I thought I was going to loathe) and there was just about enough plot to keep the pace up. The book touched on a few serious issues, but I thought that more could have been made of them; in particular, the resolution of one of them in the epilogue struck me as something of a cop-out.

3 out of 5.



99. Julius Caesar - William Shakespeare

I very rarely read plays, and I haven't read any Shakespeare since I sat GCSE English fifteen years ago. I remember doing Macbeth, The Tempest and Romeo and Juliet at school, but my exposure to Shakespeare since then has been strictly through films. Had you asked me back in January whether I would read any Shakespeare in the coming year, the answer would have been both pithy and distinctly impolite. However, this play is quoted repeatedly and to great comic effect in PG Wodehouse's Money for Nothing, which I read recently, and on a whim I decided to read it.

It was a *lot* easier to read than I remember Shakespeare being. I had absolutely no trouble with the language, and appreciated both the writing and the dramatic impact of what was happening. At school, Shakespeare was a chore; this I actually enjoyed. And with it being such a famous play, I was able to enjoy playing Shakespeare bingo: "I recognise that phrase!"

4½ out of 5

>4 loriephillips: Thanks!

Congrats on the new thread. Shakespeare... hmmm. :) Reading plays just isn't my thing, but you've piqued my curiousity... maybe I'll give it another whirl.

>8 suslyn: Thanks

100. The Mind Readers - Margery Allingham

Not the best book by Allingham that I've read, but still a decent read. This is a tense Cold War mystery, with some mild thriller-ish leanings. Albert Campion is trying to establish who invented a device which enables ESP, and who has stolen it - a task which starts out by being merely confusing but soon seems likely to become deadly. Solid characters, good writing and a decent plot. 3½ out of 5.

I shall allow myself a brief moment of celebration at hitting 100 before I move on to George Orwell's Keep the Aspidistra Flying.

#9 By all means celebrate - that is a wonderful milestone - congratulations!

Congratulations, Caty! You are flying along.

Woo Hoo! 100 books!!

:)

Woo-Hoo. Way to go!

100 books is quite an accomplishment. Congratulations!

Congratulations on reaching 100.

WOW!! Well done on your 100 books - very impressive.

Wowz0rs, 100 books! *bows*

Congrats!

101. Keep the Aspidistra Flying - George Orwell

(I didn't spot the irony of having an Orwell that I really like in the 101 spot until I was adding it here.)

I've always liked the film adaptation of this book, although I've only now got around to reading the original. However, I've never liked the lead character, Gordon Comstock, and I disliked him even more in the book than I did in the film. Comstock is whiny and irritating, but a fascinating character. An advertising copywriter who throws in his respectable job to write poetry, he becomes increasingly consumed by his self-inflicted poverty and decreasingly able to write. He eventually pulls himself together - much to the relief of girlfriend Rosemary, sister Julia, friend Ravelston and roughly 98% of the readers who ever picked up the book.

5/5.

Edited to change a 'but' to an 'although', because my bad grammar was haunting me.

# 10 - 19

Thanks, everyone!

#20 I never knew there was a film I will have to check it out. I think the book though is one of my least favourite Orwell's partly because of the main character!

>22 clfisha: The film is from 1997 with Richard E. Grant and Helena Bonham Carter. It's been a couple of years since I saw it, but I seem to recall that it's pretty faithful to the book.

102. A Radical Encounter with God: seeing the God that Isaiah saw - Greg Haslam

This book began, the author explains in his introduction, as a series of sermons. It shows. It shows in the style and the passion of the writing, in the exhortations to encounter God fully, and in the pattern of exposition and anecdote. (This is a good thing.)

The theology underpinning this book could I think best be described as conservative evangelical with a charismatic twist. In UK usage of the terms, anyway. (The author is Senior Pastor at Westminster Chapel, London, which gives some indication about the perspective from which he writes.) There were some aspects of the theology and application with which I disagreed, but I could get behind the main thrust of the message and also engage with those parts with which I disagreed. (I'm not from a charismatic tradition, and my evangelicalism is significantly less conservative than Haslam's.)

In this book, Greg Haslam examines Isaiah 6:1-10 from a number of different perspectives. His writing is engaging, and his call to see God as He really is and to respond accordingly is powerful. When I could ignore my major peeve (see below), I really enjoyed reading it. I found it challenging and inspiring, and got a great deal out of it.

Unfortunately, the book's sermonic origins were also the basis (I think) for the one thing about this book that drove me demented, and meant I could only read one chapter at a time without running the risk of hurling the book out of the nearest open window. Or possibly through the nearest closed one.

The referencing in this book is completely inadequate. I know that it's 'popular' theology rather than academic, but quotes still need to be referenced. You can get away with omitting references in a sermon. In fact, you have to omit references. You can’t say in a sermon, “…as X said on page 212 of his book Y, published by Z in 1963…” each time you quote someone. Not without sending half your congregation to sleep and the other half running for the door, anyway. In a book, you need to put proper references. "As J I Packer/A W Tozer/Martin Luther/one of the early church fathers once commented/said/wrote..." doesn't cut it. It just doesn't. And when there are instances on practically every page of either this, or unsubstantiated assertions, or statistics with no source cited at all, it's extraordinarily annoying as well as poor practice. I concede that some anecdotes, quotations and statistics that have been ferreted out and put into sermons will elude every attempt ever to trace them again. I've been there. But those are few and far between, especially if you put your sermon notes together in a way which will enable you yourself to track down references should you need them again, which I find it hard to believe an experienced preacher doesn't.

There was a wonderful quote on preaching from J I Packer on page 144. What was the context? What else did he say? I wanted to know more! So which book by Packer did I need to find? He wrote many. But it didn't say. Nothing in the text, no footnote. Not a word. As it turned out, it wasn't hard to find: I tracked it down in about 14 seconds on Google. It was Packer's Truth and Power, on page 120 of the 1999 edition. It was fortunate that that particular book had been (legitimately) reproduced online. But I shouldn't have had to go looking.

This was in many ways a good book - the sermons were probably fantastic to listen to - but it drove me mad. And I'm stuck with it, because now it has "REFERENCE?!" or "SOURCE?!" scribbled in bright blue ink on approximately every other page.

Despite the rant, and after docking half a point for crummy referencing, I'm giving it 4 out of 5.

LOL I love the rant! Too true. Sloppy work.

Caty, it's so true... one must always reference the source for a quotation - or verse of Scripture - regardless of the context. I'm actually in the midst of editing a document right now that was written as an inspirational brochure to supplement someone's speaking ministry, and they must have about 50 quotations in the space of 35 pages... and NO REFERENCES. It's driving me absolutely batty, having to look them all up... not to mention that the Scripture verses used are all from different translations... *sigh* I can't believe the book above got through the editor without forcing Haslam to go back and clean up his work!

The really annoying thing was that some things *were* properly referenced. There are four or five footnotes at the end of every chapter. I'd just sit there and think, 'I know you can footnote properly - you've done that quote at the top of the page. So why haven't you done these three further down?!'

>26 dk_phoenix: You have my sympathy.

#24: I would be nutso by the end of that book. I think I will give it a pass - I am nutso enough as it is.

103. The Major and the Country Miss - Dorothy Elbury

Passable historical romance. The hero is on a quest to find a long-lost relative when he unexpectedly comes across several former army colleagues and ends up falling for the cousin of one of them.

The book has a slightly silly heroine, a bizarre tangent involving highwaymen that never really goes anywhere, and an apparently intelligent and well-rounded hero who has managed to keep his head sufficiently to survive several nasty battles but who has reached the age of 28 without working out that if you really want to know whether an attractive girl is engaged to one of your friends then you could always try asking one of them. Still, Dorothy Elbury's writing style is entertaining, she's constructed a gentle yet interesting plot, and her characters do have definite personalities. It's a little sugary and lacking in substance - but it's likeable enough, and a decent couple of hours' mind candy. 3/5.

104. His Lady Mistress - Elizabeth Rolls

Very good historical romance, which deals with some serious issues very well. It's not perfect - I have a few tiny quibbles with minor points where it falls back on some tired plot elements - but it's exceptionally well written and very powerful. In 1817, an ex-soldier pays a visit to his former Colonel, only to discover that the Colonel had committed suicide hours earlier, leaving his teenage daughter destitute and alone in the world but for an estranged aunt. He helps the daughter, but soon leaves. When he meets her again years later, he doesn't recognise her: she is a domestic drudge in her aunt's household, and after years of being exploited, defrauded and abused by her family she is willing to become his mistress in order to escape her desperate situation. All is going according to plan, until he realises who she is...

This is one of the free ebooks that Harlequin are giving away as part of their anniversary celebrations. I'd held off on reading it because (a) I was distinctly underwhelmed by the quality of some of the books on offer, and (b) I'm not overly keen on ebooks anyway. Unlike (IMO) some of the books that fall under (a), this book was category romance at its best. And because I'm not budging on (b), by page 60 I was scouring the internet for second-hand copies. Anyone who wants it on paper rather than via the link to the ebook may have to fight me for it.

5/5. (I'd have dropped it to 4½ for the occasional use of tired plots elements, but it made me cry twice so I'm adding the ½ mark back on for emotional punch. I'm soft like that.)

CatyM
Who were the historical characters portrayed in the book?

>31 Whisper1: I assume you mean book 104? When I copied my comments here, I had a feeling I'd left something out... Oops. I've added the detail back in where it was supposed to go.

105. Lord Braybrook's Penniless Bride - Elizabeth Rolls

This historical (1820s) romance is very strongly focused on the internal conflict within and between the main protagonists, a viscount and his sisters' governess. As with the previous book, it deals with some issues (in this case the status of and attitudes to children conceived outside marriage and to their mothers) and packs a considerable emotional punch. It's well paced, well written and has a cast of interesting and well-rounded characters. 5/5.

106. A Country Miss in Hanover Square - Anne Herries

Another regency romance, in which the young Susannah Hampton comes into enough money for one London season. She catches the eye of the wealthy, prominent and somewhat older Lord Pendleton, who worries that he is too old and boring for her. (Hmm. Early 30s. Yes, positively ancient.)

The writing was good, and the characters were well written. Susannah is convincing as a woman of 19 or 20, and the relationship between her and Lord Pendleton does convincingly reflect the differences in their ages and status. The interaction between Susannah and her slightly older friends is also nice. However, there was a lot of space given over to setting things up for the remaining books in the trilogy - and often with scenarios that were vague rather than tantalising. Although I shall be looking out for the remaining books when they are published, I think this book would have been better if it had remained more focused on the story it was telling.

107. A Compromised Lady - Elizabeth Rolls

Yet another historical romance. Did I mention that I revert to reading vast volumes of romance novels when I'm stressed?

The plot: Miss Winslow returns to town after eight years' absence, and her old friend Mr Ravenhurst can tell that something dreadful has happened to her in the meantime. They begin to fall in love - but can they get past 'the past' to build a future together?

This book is the second in a series; His Lady Mistress comes before it (and I think it probably helps a lot to read it before A Compromised Lady) and Lord Braybrook's Penniless Bride comes after it. Elizabeth Rolls is merciless to her characters, and puts them thoroughly through the wringer before allowing them anything approaching a happy ending, but the story avoids melodrama and remains believable. The writing is good, and the tension is both built and maintained well. 5/5.

LOL Can I relate, or what? Someone asked what was going on, I told them, and they said, 'no wonder you're reading a tons of regencies!' Hope life eases up for you soon!

Congratulations on reading 107 books thus far in 2009! That is an awesome feat!

>37 Whisper1: Thanks!

108. The Duke's Cinderella Bride - Carole Mortimer

Guess what? Another historical romance.

It wasn't awful. It was passably entertaining. But I'm struggling to find positive things to say about it.

There wasn't really much in the way of plot - poor relative runs away from/is sent away from home and is taken up by visiting Duke - and the book just meandered along. Nothing wrong with it so far, but nothing special.

This wasn't convincing as a historical novel. It was a Harlequin Presents in long dresses - which, given that the author has had a long and successful career writing those books, is not entirely surprising. The technical details were mostly fine, but the personalities and attitudes and behaviour weren't convincing. If the heroine is supposed to be respectable, she needs a chaperon; if she's not, the hero shouldn't be introducing her to his sister. If the rakish neighbour is unexceptional company for the sister, then he's unexceptional company for any young female. And the heroine wasn't illegitimate, no matter who her biological father was.

Jane Smith, the heroine, is ditzy and irrational. The Duke of Stourbridge, the hero, goes from supercilious to passion-crazed to angry and back again so fast and so often that he probably ought to have treatment for some sort of personality disorder. The villains are suitably unpleasant - but also somewhat irrational. Why after a dozen years does Jane's guardian suddenly turn on her? Why after ordering Jane out of the house does she falsely accuse her of theft?

There was too much of the stereotypical 'romance' language - it was all lambent eyes and silken skin and there was probably a heaving bosom in there somewhere too. There were also quite a few icily glittering gazes, which brings me to the issue of adverbs - and more specifically to the superabundance of them.

Adverbs are the linguistic equivalent of sugar. They add sweetness and flavour to prose which might otherwise have been bland, stark and unpalatable. Add too many, however, and the text becomes sickly and cloying. After 296 pages of:

... encouraged huskily... stood up impatiently... protested vehemently... looked searchingly... added quietly... assured warmly... excused softly... prompted huskily... cast my eye uninterestedly... instructed breathlessly... frowned darkly... groaned hollowly... pressed forcefully... informed him dully... (is this beginning to annoy you now?) ... echoed disgustedly... sighed heavily... grated harshly... replied carefully... interjected harshly... looked at him compellingly... grated forcefully... broke emotionally... murmured frowningly*... looked at her hungrily... told him breathlessly... repeated forcefully... smiled shakily... confirmed breathlessly... (how about now?) ...continued softly... breathed chillingly... prompted sharply... repeated dazedly... prompted teasingly... said evenly... continued frostily... supplied cautiously... nodded coolly... cut in hardly... rose languidly... rasped dismissively**... cut in icily...

... I found myself thankful to reach the end before I ended up in a state of adverb-induced acute hyperglycaemia. Nobody ever does or says anything without an adverb. (Okay, I exaggerate slightly.*** But only slightly.)

I swear, it's enough to make me go and read some Hemingway.

2/5.

*Is that even a real word?
**I have never known anyone outside a Harlequin Mills & Boon to 'rasp' anything, dismissively or otherwise. And if they did, I'd have thought a rasp would be desperate, indicative of strong emotion, rather than dismissive.
***Oh, heck, it's catching.

Loved your adverbial commentary! And yes, I'll stay away from this book.

Bwa-hahahaha! Oh man... Stephen King would have a hernia - he has an "adverbs do not belong in you writing unless absolutely necessary" policy. LOL.

your review was hilarious - keep it up! :)

109. The Billionaire Next Door - Jessica Bird

I'd been keeping my eyes peeled for a copy of this book since reading this review on the Dear Author site, and one finally came up on BookMooch the other day.

This is a very good contemporary romance, and I'm quite peeved that the other two books in the series have apparently not even been written yet. *Sulks* The Dear Author review and subsequent discussion is pretty extensive, so I don't see any point in rehashing it all. 4½ out of 5.

110. Good Omens - Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman

From the blurb:
According to The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch (the world's only completely accurate book of prophecies, written in 1655, before she exploded), the world will end on a Saturday. Next Saturday, in fact. Just before dinner.

So the armies of Good and Evil are amassing, Atlantis is rising, frogs are falling, tempers are flaring. Everything appears to be going according to Divine Plan. Except a somewhat fussy angel and a fast-living demon—both of whom have lived amongst Earth's mortals since The Beginning and have grown rather fond of the lifestyle—are not actually looking forward to the coming Rapture.

And someone seems to have misplaced the Antichrist . . .

Definitely very funny, and ingenious, and entertaining. I wasn't as gripped by it as I expected to be, however, and my attention wandered on more than one occasion. Excellent in many places, but perhaps a little underdeveloped in some places and slow or repetitive in others.

4/5.

111. Till We Have Faces - C S Lewis

A group read, so I'll hold off detailed comments for the time being. However, I will say that I really enjoyed it, and found it powerful and complex. There are parts that I'm still trying to get my head around. 4½ out of 5.

#38: Loved the review! I am also like that with books that make me so angry... I start noting down every stupid thing, even if it takes way more effort than it should!

I also go to DearAuthor for romance recs, but I'm trying to narrow down which reviewer gels with my taste. BTW, did you read that haiku for Passions by Lisa Valdez (couldn't find a touchstone). It was "haiku seppuku"

>45 Cauterize: I hadn't read it, but I have now. When I stopped laughing, my one thought was: 'if I'm that grossed out by the review, I'm going nowhere near the book!"

#46: Yeah, it made me feel all yuckie inside... But I almost want to see if I can borrow a copy or check it out at the store, just to see if it IS that bad! Like watching Waterworld or something.

112. The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett

I haven't read this in years - but when it was was chosen for an online book group I've sometimes participated in, I couldn't resist having another look at it.

In some ways, it was like revisiting an old friend. The story was very familiar, and I enjoyed the unfolding of the familiar, and knowing what was about to happen. In some ways, though, it was almost like reading a completely different book: I interpreted some things - and some characters - very differently now that I'm 20 years older. It wasn't the same book I remember, because I'm not the same reader. It was great to read it again, though. 4/5.

It wasn't the same book I remember, because I'm not the same reader. too true!

113. The Archivist's Story - Travis Holland

A tense and atmospheric tale set in Stalinist Russia, where a former teacher of literature is working as an archivist and must destroy the manuscripts of writers condemned by the regime. The period is well portrayed and the characters are interesting and well written. A good book, and a powerful book - but it didn't quite do it for me. 3½ out of 5.

I'm adding The Archivist's Story to my tbr list. It's a subject I'm very interested in, and sounds like a good book (even if it wasn't quite your cup of tea). Thanks for the review.

114. Suddenly You - Lisa Kleypas

Historical Romance. Entertaining enough, but nothing special. Some of the deeper elements were dealt with rather quickly and superficially, while the book lingered longer on the lighter things. I wasn't entirely convinced by the characters, and whenever there was an issue to be dealt with they just went to bed and - hey presto! - everything was fine again. Not convincing. I've heard a lot of glowing comments about Kleypas' writing, but there was nothing in this make her writing stand out from other authors in the genre. 3/5

Edited to add in a missing word. It was annoying me.

#50: That one bears looking at for me. Thanks for the mention!

115. Dr Thorne - Anthony Trollope

Frank loves Mary. Mary loves Frank. Frank's father is broke and aristocratic. Frank needs to marry money, and lots of it. Mary is broke and illegitimate. Frank's mother refuses to have Mary in the house. Mary's uncle is rich and dying and holds the mortgage on Frank's father's estate. But no-one knows that he is Mary's uncle. Least of all Mary.

The plot is straightforward, but that doesn't matter. There are numerous tiny twists and turns wending sinuously through the book, keeping it moving along. The characters are wonderful, and the sub-plots are wonderful. (I was laughing aloud at the account of the Barchester election, the feud between Drs Thorne and Fillgrave, and at the unfortunate Miss Gushing turning Methodist.) The writing is wonderful. In fact, the whole book is wonderful and now my review is going to pot because I am gushing. Bring on Framley Parsonage.

5/5.

#54: Framley Parsonage is next up for me on my Trollope trail, too.

116. Mr Impossible - Loretta Chase

Light and entertaining historical romance. Enjoyable, well written, good characters. 4½ out of 5.

I finally picked up this book together with Chase's Lord of Scoundrels after about three hundred recommendations after they were mentioned in this discussion on the Smart Bitches, Trashy Books site, although I haven't got to Lord of Scoundrels yet.

LOL what a name for a site!

117. Lord Libertine - Gail Ranstrom

Quite a dark historical romantic suspense. Bella O'Rourke's sister is murdered, and she is determined that the killer shall be found. Andrew Hunter is recruited by his friend at the Home Office to help with the investigation, because his dubious activities bring him into contact with some depraved and insalubrious elements on the fringes of the ton, and also give him contacts in London's underworld.

The suspense part isn't bad: even when I was pretty sure I knew who the villain was, I was never absolutely sure. There are some odd happenings and unanswered questions, though: how did Bella's sister met the villain in the first place? Why wasn't Hunter told who the other agent was? (Yes, it provided another candidate for the villain, but it was illogical; telling him would have made solving the case much easier.)

I thought in the beginning that Bella's family were going to be significant, but we just ended up with one too-stupid-to-live sister and the mother wandering around in a Laudanum-induced haze oblivious to what her daughters were up to. And Bella wasn't much more sensible than her sister.

I wasn't convinced by the relationship between Bella and Andrew, either. Attraction, yes; relationship, no. Despite his quotation from Shakespeare I'm not convinced that he's acting out of love rather than a sense of responsibility. And the solicitor's letter which appears in one paragraph of their final conversation, with no explanation or resolution, is a bit odd. On the whole, I thought the ending was underdeveloped.

However, the period aspect isn't bad, and the characters (even if somewhat annoying) are well-developed. The book gives a couple of hours' passable entertainment; I don't begrudge the two hours I spent reading it, but I do wish I'd got it from the library instead of paying for it.

2/5.

118. Three Men in a Boat - Jerome K Jerome

Bored with the city, three friends (and Montmorency the dog) take a boat up the Thames. Part travelogue, part humorous fiction. Very, very funny. 5/5.

I think I will pass on Lord Libertine thank you very much, Caty!

As far as Three Men in a Boat goes, I listened to it on audio and was laughing uproariously through much of it. I am glad you enjoyed it as much as I did!

So are you now going to read To Say Nothing of the Dog?

#60 Probably. At some point. It's on my wishlist, but then so are 400 other books.

119. Lord of Scoundrels - Loretta Chase

So following on from #116 above and this discussion on the Smart Bitches, Trashy Books site, I've now read it. And yes, it was as good as everyone said it was going to be. And I can see why people who don't normally read romance novels would also like it. The characters are just amazing. 5/5.

120. Summer Moonshine - PG Wodehouse

Pretty standard Wodehouse fare, and good entertainment. 4/5.

121. Miss Smilla's Feeling for Snow - Peter Høeg

I really enjoyed the first two-thirds of the book. The plot was interesting and well put together, the characters were really well written, and the writing was excellent. It was a very good literary mystery. And then it all went a bit wrong not long after the titular Smilla ended up on the boat to Greenland: the atmosphere evaporated, the characters lost the plot and the whole thing started trying to morph into a sci-fi thriller. It was like being in Calvino's If on a winter's night a traveller at the point where the reader suddenly realises the book he's reading is actually the first half of one one book and the second half of a different one.

And this is not a book for people who like a nice, neat ending with everything resolved.

I'd give the first two-thirds of the book 4, maybe 4½, out of 5, and I'd give the last third 2 out of 5 - so I'm giving it an overall 3½ out of 5.

>121 Eat_Read_Knit:: My reaction exactly! It was my first read this year.

#64 I started this book a couple of months ago. I'd been looking forward to it for quite a while, and was excited to finally get it. I only got about half way through it before I simply lost interest. I thought maybe the fault was mine (I still think it might be), but now I'm willing to accept that the book wasn't as wonderful as I was expecting it to be. Haven't decided yet whether to give it another go.

122. The Last Hellion - Loretta Chase

Similar to, and almost as good as, Lord of Scoundrels, but the plot got a bit loose near the end. 4½ out of 5.

123. Gift from the Sea - Anna Schmidt

Christian historical romance.

Stefan Witte is a German sailor who washes up on the American coast early in 1918; as Maggie Hunter nurses him through frostbite and pneumonia, a relationship begins to develop between them. But is Stefan a spy? Or a traitor? Or a patriot? Will he be arrested as a prisoner of war? Is the information he claims to have for the American government genuine? Will he live long enough to deliver it? And can these two people whose countries are enemies ever have a future together?

This is a pretty decent story, although sometimes the relationship between Stefan and Maggie is pushed to the background by the various war-related parts of the plot. This doesn't make it a bad book, and it wouldn't be a problem in a longer book or something that wasn't intended as a romance novel, but in a 272 page romance novel it can occasionally leave you feeling a bit short-changed.

One of the things which really annoys me about some Christian fiction is that every Christian character is (unless they're secretly the villain) a devout and well-adjusted paragon of the Christian community. It drives me mad, and makes me reluctant to read the genre even though I know that not all books are this two-dimensional. However, there are a couple of characters in this book who are pillars of the local church community but who are also so sanctimonious, interfering, tactless and gossipy that had I been Maggie I would have been sorely tempted to extend the right fist of Christian fellowship in their direction. *cough* Purely in Christian love, of course. *cough* They are very well-written, and superbly annoying, and provide a wonderful and realistic counterbalance to the nicer Christian characters.

If Christian historical romance is your thing, I think you'll like this book. 4/5

124. The Book Thief - Markus Zusak

I found the first 150 pages of this book hard to get into. I wasn't keen on the writing style and the extensive use of very short paragraphs irritated me. But this was still extraordinarily powerful and one of the best books I've read this year. The characters are remarkable, and the book is saturated in suspense and in atmosphere, brilliantly capturing the capacity of ordinary human beings both to love and to commit unspeakable acts of hatred, and to display an enormous and complex range of emotions and actions in between.

5/5.

I'm glad you enjoyed The Book Thief. It was a memorable read for me last year.

125. The Birds our Teachers: Biblical lessons from a lifelong bird watcher - John Stott

A nice little devotional book (just 96 pages) which takes its starting point and illustrations from the theme of birds and birdwatching. Stott's passion for ornithology clearly comes close to his great passion for theology, and his enthusiasm for both topics saturates the book. The book also has a lot of Stott's own (very good) photographs, and the little DVD about Stott's trip to the Falklands which accompanies the Collector's Edition is also quite interesting. 4/5.

126. Middlesex - Jeffrey Eugenides

I picked this book up in a charity shop for 50p. Had it been priced higher I probably wouldn't have bothered: although I'd had recommendations to read it, and despite its regular appearance on any number of 'books everyone should read' lists, I was fairly sure I wouldn't like it. And having bought it, I was pretty sure it would take me a long time to plough through it.

I was wrong on both counts. I loved this book, and I neglected all sorts of important tasks while I devoured it in less than 48 hours.

Right from this stark and startling opening sentence, this remarkable book surprises and moves the reader. It is the story of Greek-American Cal Stephanides, and of his family and genetic heritage and the circumstances which mean that he spends his early years as a little girl.

It is an immensely powerful story, thought-provoking and it is beautifully told. I rather wished that we'd heard a little more of how Callie/Cal the subject became Cal the narrator, but on the other hand there is something very satisfying about the way that the book ends with a new beginning.

The various strands of the story are interwoven in a way which engages interest and moves the narrative along in a lively manner. The historical and regional detail and atmosphere are beautiful, and the characters are very believable and human.

5/5

Middlesex has been recommended to me many times over the years and I have always resisted it. After reading your review I have decided to give it a go. Thanks

Thanks for the great review of Middlesex. I always see copies of this in the used bookstore that I frequent, but haven't ever picked it up. I'll definitely grab a copy the next time I see it.

I read it when it first came out, after going to a book-signing and listening to Eugenides reading a section of it. I couldn't put it down. A great book.

Ok, I'm adding Middlesex to the wishlist!

Gosh. Surprised by such a glowing review!! I found The Virgin Suicides so completely meh that I've been put off Eugenides, possibly for life...

I've never read The Virgin Suicides so I don't know how they compare. I was never tempted to read it before, but having loved Middlesex when I didn't expect to, I'm strongly tempted to read The Virgin Suicides now.

Well, just to add my two cents, I love The Virgin Suicides, and have had Middlesex on my TBR for a long while. Thanks for your review!

I just bought The Virgin Suicides and now I am very curious to read the book. I will have to move it to the TBR pile. I will have to look at Middlesex next time I am at the book store.

127. The Big Sleep - Raymond Chandler

I thought that this was a very good book, but I didn't like it a great deal. Does that makes sense? I mean, I didn't hate it, and I could certainly appreciate why it has the classic status that it does, but I found it too stark and hopeless and depressing to be really enjoyable. It earns high scores for both technical merit and artistic impression, but it's just not to my taste. A grudging 4 out of 5.

I have an edition which includes not only The Big Sleep but also Farewell my Lovely and The Long Goodbye; I shall read the other two because I have them, but I shan't read them just yet, and if I didn't already have them I probably wouldn't bother acquiring them.

Finally catching up on some threads, found some books to add to my TBR (LOL-there's a surprise!), and want to add my thumbs up for Middlesex and thanks for reminding me I had downloaded copies of the Harlequin books--need to start reading them now.

128. A Prudent Match - Laura Matthews

I took a bit of a break from Trollope and Dickens to read this historical romance.

I liked the beginning and the basic premise: it's the story of a couple who enter a marriage of convenience, and it begins with their wedding and then explores how their marriage changes - and changes them. However, there were too many anachronisms - vanity for dressing table was a basic error that irritated me - and the plot was overstretched. It might have made a decent novella but it couldn't adequately fill 200 pages, and especially not when most of it was bunched up at the end.

***SPOILERS FOLLOW***

There were also plot elements that didn't seem to have any purpose in being there, particularly at the beginning. It was as if the her-relationship-with-her-family plot and the dead fiancé plot were abandoned half way through when the idea of a mysterious-organist-who-may-be-his-half-brother plot occurred to the author, but the book was never rewritten to focus on set of plots or the other.

The characters were mostly well-defined and developed, but sometimes they seemed to lose consistency. And it seemed as though the writer was a little uncomfortable with the dealing with sexual aspects of the story - which, when one of the major plot points involves the couple discussing at length how that aspect of their marriage should be dealt with and dealing with the fallout from that discussion, makes for a lot of awkwardness.

I've read worse, but it wasn't great. 2/5.

129. Express Male - Elizabeth Bevarly

A fast-paced story that sits on the border between contemporary romance and romantic suspense. The characters are well-written and the tone is entertaining and a little humorous; the main sub-plot is strong, and woven into the story well. There's good chemistry between the romantic leads.

I just have one gripe: the whole premise of the book is that the heroine is mistaken by a top-secret all-knowing and quite frankly somewhat alarming department of the US government for one of its agents, who has disappeared. The explanation is simple, but it takes this intelligence agency rather a long time to catch on. Fair enough, you might say: the joke about government intelligence being an oxymoron is an old one. But given how much the agency knows about its agent, and the steps that it has taken to hide parts of her own past from her, and the steps it is taking to find her again, it's completely inconsistent for said agency to not only not know who the heroine was but also to not even think of the possibility for quite a few chapters. For me this was not so much a plot hole a whacking great plot chasm. There were also a few other small holes in the plot, but I suspect that most of these are actually parts of the overarching 4-book series plot and will be resolved in the next and final instalment.

Plot chasms aside, however, this was a pretty entertaining read. 4/5.

130. Mistress of the Art of Death - Ariana Franklin

A highly entertaining and very well written medieval mystery. 5/5.

131. The Good Husband of Zebra Drive - Alexander McCall Smith

Have I mentioned that I'm hopelessly addicted to Alexander McCall Smith's books? For years I quite liked them, and then a few months back I went on a bit of a spree and now I'm thoroughly addicted.

This is the eighth in the No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency series; I've read them all in order, so now I have to go out and get number 9. And possibly number 10, too, because I know I've seen it lurking on the shelves at the library.

I love the way McCall Smith writes his characters: they have distinct, consistent and complete personalities. And the geographical setting is almost another character, whether it is Bostwana, as here, or Edinburgh as in the Scotland Street and Sunday Philosophy Club series. There's a wonderful sense of people and place, and of people embedded in place.

In this book, Mma Ramotswe has to deal with thefts, suspicious deaths, Mma Makutsi's restlessness, Mr J.L.B Matekoni's ambitions - and with the Agency running out of red bush tea.

Lovely. 4½ out of 5.

>86 Eat_Read_Knit: I read book number two a few months ago. I loved it. Have you seen the BBC series? I only managed to see three of them. I was hooked, kust loved the characters and the accents.

~ TT

>88 TheTortoise: I didn't manage to see all of the BBC series - mostly I caught the second half of the programme after getting back from church and only remembered every other week to watch the rest on iPlayer - but what I did see I really enjoyed. As I was reading it, I could hear the voices from the TV series in my head.

132. 1984 - George Orwell

I've been getting round to reading 1984 since about 1984. Okay, slight exaggeration. Since about 1994. It's one of those books that you feel you know, even if you haven't read it, because the concepts and terminology are so much a part of popular culture and consciousness - so when I finally did read it I wasn't surprised to find that there were no surprises.

Orwell's portrayal of the mechanics of totalitarianism is masterly, and, particularly regarding the way the media was and continues to be used by governments, creepily so. Sixty years after it was written, it's plausible enough to be disconcerting, even frightening. It is a work of genius, although I couldn't help thinking it needed a little more oomph or action or something in places to be as great a novel as it is political statement and cultural icon.

4½ out of 5

(And I admit to chuckling at the statement "THE AUTHORITATIVE TEXT" at the foot of the blurb on this Penguin Modern Classics edition. Oh, the irony.)

133. The Devil and Miss Prym - Paulo Coelho

An interesting take on the battle between good and evil. I found the first half difficult to get into, and very slow moving, although once things really began to get moving I got more into the book.

3/5

134. Arthur and George - Julian Barnes

A Booker short-listed book that I actually liked. Wonders will never cease.

Arthur, the son of an alcoholic, has a difficult childhood and grows up to become a doctor; George, the son of a vicar, has a different kind of difficult childhood and grows up to become a solicitor. Arthur is torn between his duty to his invalid wife and his love for another woman; George is torn between his loyalty to his family and his desire to leave his parents' home and to marry. Arthur ends up doing more writing than doctoring; George ends up being suspected of mutilating farm animals - and it's this pair of circumstances that bring them together. Their acquaintance is short, but it has a profound effect on the lives of both men.

I adored the writing, and the vividness of the characters. The slow revelation of the story and the build-up of layers of characterisation was impressive. The tension was well-sustained and there were some very poignant moments towards the end.

Very highly recommended. 5/5.

135. The Dig - John Preston

A nice enough piece of historical fiction about the excavations at Sutton Hoo in 1939, told from the first-person perspectives of the landowner and two of the archaeologists. There's lots of period atmosphere and masses of archaeological detail, and the characters are well-rounded and well-explored, but I couldn't help feeling that sort of petered out rather than ending properly. It's pleasant and understated, and perhaps the kind of book that might appeal to those who liked The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society.

4/5

136. The Case of the Late Pig - Margery Allingham

A short but very entertaining whodunnit: amateur sleuth Albert Campion is rather surprised to come across the freshly-murdered corpse of a man whose funeral he attended several months before (well, you would be, wouldn't you?) and sets out to investigate. The writing is tight and well-paced, the characterisation solid, and the denouement a mixture of the blindingly obvious and the wholly unexpected.

4/5

Edited because I do actually know which number is one higher than 134.

#92: I am also a fan of Arthur and George, especially since I found out that it was based on a real-life incident. I did not know it was short-listed for the Booker prize - like you I am thinking that wonders will never cease!

Since I loved Guernsey, I will have to check into The Dig. Thanks for the recommendation, Caty.

#92 Arthur and George looks like a good book. onto the TBR mountain it goes.

>93 alcottacre: According to the book's cover, it was short-listed in 2005.

137. Listen Up: A practical guide to listening to sermons - Christopher Ash

I wondered whether to include this little 32-page booklet in my list, and decided that I might as well add it. There's no touchstone, though.

A practical and down-to-earth guide to getting the most out of listening to sermons. This little booklet is well presented and written in a friendly manner, and would be useful for anyone who regularly listens to (or for that matter delivers) sermons. 4½ out of 5

138. Dear Fatty - Dawn French

A regular blog meme a week or two back asked about celebrity memoirs and whether people read them. My answer was a resounding no. It also asked whether there were any celebrity memoirs that people wanted to read. My answer was again no - until I had a second thought and decided that if I was reading about a person because of their significant personal and professional achievement then it didn't really matter whether they were famous or worked in entertainment.

And I cited this book as one I wouldn't mind reading.

And because I have no self-control I lasted about three days before I went out and acquired a copy.

I really like the style of this memoir, which Dawn French has written as a series of letters to the important people in her life. Some are as offbeat and funny as you would expect; others, including many of those to her late father, are poignant and powerful. Dawn French's personality comes through strongly in the writing, and her memoir is a very entertaining read.

4/5.

Great review, its a book I really enjoyed as well. Such a funny woman.

139. Stuck in Shangri-La - Kasey Michaels

I read this contemporary romance about 14 months ago, but as it has been picked as the monthly group-read by the romance group I thought I'd pull it out and re-read it. I liked it a little better this time than last time.

Both the lead characters behave stupidly and get themselves into a mess that would never have happened if they just talked to one another, but they do acknowledge this and resolve it. The whole will-house-cat-ghost plot is beyond silly, but it's pretty entertaining. The book is well paced, and a nice piece of escapist fluff.

Rating revised from 2/5 to 3/5.

Then We Came to the End - Joshua Ferris

I abandoned this one after 70 pages. It wasn't going anywhere, and I had no interest in the characters. It wasn't awful, but I found it very repetitive, thought the characters were irritating, and then got to the point where I just didn't care any more. If I'd paid for the book, rather than borrowed it from the library, I might have gritted my teeth and stuck it out a bit longer - but having flicked through some of the later sections I'm pretty sure I'm not missing anything.

140. Mr Mulliner Speaking - PG Wodehouse

A collection of short stories, including The Man Who Gave Up Smoking, Those in Peril on the Tee, and three stories featuring the egregious Bobbie Wickham, whose antics give womankind a bad name. Some stories are funnier than others, but all are straight out of the usual Wodehouse mould. This is probably one for serious Wodehouse fans rather than the casual dipper-in to his work. 3½ out of 5.

I'd concur with "not missing anything" on Joshua Ferris, Caty. I read all the way to the end (ho ho) and kind of wish I hadn't. The clever-clever narration gimmick really annoyed me. The only thing I'd say is, it might be worth finding the central section, which is narrated by the boss character who has possible SPOILER WARNING breast cancer end SPOILER (can't remember her name, can't check as I sent my copy to Japan thanks to BookMooch) and reading that - it was the best bit of the whole book. Direct and powerful, not at all gimmicky.

Joshua Ferris' cover quote on Eleanor Catton's The Rehearsal very nearly put me off reading it. Which was a narrow escape as it's brilliant.

Some great reading recently!

Ditto what Flossie said about Then We Came to the End. The middle was the best part. The boss's name is Lynn. Didn't bond with the other characters, though.

I abandoned Then We Came to the End (which did not end nearly soon enough for me) at about the 50 page point. I know a lot of people liked the book, I am just not one of them.

LOL! For Then We Came to the End, it looks like NO ONE has come to the End!

Sorry, just struck me as pretty funny as I read the posts. Carry on.

141. Mrs Dalloway - Virginia Woolf

In a corner of London, political wife Clarissa Dalloway plans and hosts a party. Meanwhile, her family, friends, acquaintances and neighbours are all going about their daily lives - some cheerfully, others in anguish.

Although I only gave this book a rating of 3/5, I didn't think it was a bad book. I think it is a Marmite kind of book - you either love it or hate it. I pretty much hated it - on pure personal enjoyment, I'd probably give it a 1/5 - but I did think that it was very well written. The realism of the characters and the lyricism of the prose is wonderful, and it's fascinating to see into the characters' every thought - but I really didn't get on with the stream of consciousness style in which the book is written. I didn't dislike the writing - many of the sentences were beautiful - but I could put it down very easily, and regularly felt bored. I could read a page, and at the end have no memory of what was in it. So it gets a rating of three on the basis that it is a piece of great writing but, subjectively, not necessarily great reading.

142. Flaubert's Parrot - Julian Barnes

This book is a strange amalgam of fictionalised biography, literary criticism and novel, with a light sprinkling of authorial philosophising. It is also considerably more entertaining than I expected.

However, it almost seems unable to decide what it wants to be, and some of the comments by the narrator about his own history seem intrusive and out of place. The format of the book is somewhat unorthodox, and I couldn't decide whether it was a success in experimental literature or whether the author was trying to be bold and experimental and just ended up coming across as pretentious. I can't decide what I think about the book - but I shall certainly continue to think about the book even now that I've finished it.

4½ out of 5.

#105: The only book of Barnes that I have read is Arthur and George, which I really enjoyed, so I will have to find this one, too. Thanks for the recommendation, Caty.

>106 alcottacre: Stasia, the two Barnes books are very different, but I did enjoy them both. It was Booker shortlisted as well (1984), and to my mind it is more of a typical Booker book than Arthur and George. Despite that, I think the overall tone (do I mean tone? voice, maybe? linguistic style?) remains similar, so I'd definitely recommend it if you enjoyed the other one.

OK, thanks Caty.

>105 Eat_Read_Knit: Caty, Flaubert's Parrot keeps calling to me from the bookshelves. I have read Arthur and George which is excellent, and although I know that Flibertigibbet's Parrot is different I just have to read it. Thanks for jogging my memory.

~ TT

>109 TheTortoise: You're welcome. Now get the book down and read it!

143. What Happens in London - Julia Quinn

An enjoyable and frivolous historical romance. I don't think it's Quinn's best book, but it's pretty good. The characters veer a bit close to being cardboard cutouts at times, but most of the time they're pretty well rounded and there are some great comic moments. There's not a lot of plot but since most of the book is firmly centred on the characters' personalities it all jogs along nicely enough - which makes the whole Deadly Peril at the Russian Embassy section near the end seem somewhat dissonant.

Although I'm not entirely convinced that the hero and heroine are as much in love and as committed to one another as they claim to be by the end of the book, I can see them heading firmly in that direction, and I do think they're well suited to one another.

All in all, a nice, light read. 4/5.

Julian Barnes's History of the World in 10 1/2 Chapters is hilarious. I highly recommend it. He starts with Noah's Ark (and an unwanted passenger) and proceeds from there.

>111 arubabookwoman: Oh, that one looks great! It's gone straight on the wishlist!

144. Try To Resist Me - Janet Dailey
Contains the stories Giant of Mesabi and The Thawing of Mara.

Well, that's three hours of my life I'm never getting back. Despite the evident attempt to revamp these stories, the multitude of comments about ipods, google and blogs do nothing to update them. The two stories in this book very definitely remain old school romance and feel very dated.

In the first story, a dictatorial and manipulative 30-something bastard attempts to seduce a very naive and immature 21-year-old student who just happens to be his younger brother's girlfriend. In the second story, a dictatorial and workaholic 30-if-not-40-something attempts to seduce an angry and unwilling 22 year old. Neither relationship has any kind of parity between the leads whatsoever, and the first is emotionally abusive. In both stories all four leads seem to think it a great virtue in the men that although they repeatedly make unwelcome sexual advances which the women try to repulse, they don't actually rape the heroines. Strangely enough, that doesn't strike me as a great virtue in a man. It's more like, you know, the bare minimum of legal and moral behaviour, and falling far short of any kind of actual ethical or romantic behaviour.

The characters are caricatures and pretty much interchangeable; the 'heroes' are about as rounded as triangles, and they pretty much lack any backstory, although there is a vague reference to a long-dead wife in the second story.

I know perfectly well that the tropes and conventions in these books were mainstream and commonplace when they were originally written - 1978 and 1980 respectively. Had these been the originals I'd probably not have touched them with a barge pole, but the fact that they had been revised made me think they'd actually, um, been revised. The 2006 rewrites have done nothing to alter the essence of stories. In fact the revisions makes them worse, because the style of book and the characters' behaviour really don't fit at all with the 21st century technology, brands and setting that is being asserted.

Never, ever again.

0.5 out of 5.

#113: Yikes! I hope the next one is better for you, Caty.

Looks like a shocker. Will steer clear of it. Thanks.

I haven't read anything by Janet Dailey in about 30 years. And after your review, I don't think I'll be re-visiting any of her books any time soon! I hope your next book is better.

145. The Lady Chosen - Stephanie Laurens

Average-to-good historical romance. At 430 pages it feels a bit over-long, but the suspense plot is well paced and well maintained, which keeps things interesting. The romance is a bit lacklustre and overly reliant on bedroom activity (although mercifully not in explicit detail each time) but the characters are well enough written and the fact that it's introducing a series, while evident, is not particularly intrusive.

3½ out of 5.

#117: I really like Stephanie Laurens' Bar Cynster series, but the sexual contortions do get to be a bit much. I think I counted 11 pages in one of them, lol. I guess I am jaded to them now since when I reread the series, I just skip them all :)

146. Lords and Ladies Terry Pratchett

I'd been putting this off for a while because I'd read several less-than-enthusiastic reviews, and also found that I didn't enjoy the Witches books as much as some of the other Discword sub-series.

When I finally read this book, I adored it. I read straight through it in a single afternoon, and collapsed in uncontrollable laughter several times. I think I missed a lot of the Midsummer Night's Dream references - I've never read the play (note to self: must get around to that one) - but I caught enough to appreciate how cleverly it's done.

Pratchett's characters are as well-written as usual, and the book is brimming over with humour and intelligence. I wasn't conscious of pages passing, and I was very surprised when I got to the end to realise the book was very nearly 400 pages: it felt sharp and concise and moved along swiftly.

This is now one of my favourite Pratchett books. 5/5.

I've been lax in updating this thread.

147. Western Weddings - Jillian Hart, Kate Bridges, Charlene Sands
Three historical romance novellas set in the Old West. Unusually, they are all passable-average: none stands out above the others or crashes badly. They're also all pretty implausible and superficial. I won't be enthusiastically recommending this book, but neither do I begrudge the 25p it cost me second hand, or the hour and a half I spent reading it at the end of a stressful week. 2½ out of 5.

148. Dangerous Lord, Innocent Governess - Christine Merrill
Historical Romance (what else could it be with a title like that? Who comes up with these?) Again not fantastic, but decently entertaining and, if not precisely plausible, less implausible than quite a few books in the genre. A spoiled débutante masquerades (very badly) as governess to her cousin's children to find out whether said cousin was murdered by her husband. A very intriguing premise, well-maintained suspense element and decently convincing characters. 3½ out of 5.

149. Private Confessions - Lori Borrill
Much more explicit than the romances I usually read, and I never can take anything with astrology in it seriously, but I quite enjoyed this book. It's pretty much a spiced-up, modernised version of the Jimmy Stewart film The Shop Around the Corner (and I guess You've Got Mail, but I prefer the Jimmy Stewart original). The characters were convincing and consistent, and the plot managed to stay just the right side of silly. There was a strong sub-plot and the result was a decent blend of substance and frivolity. 4/5.

I was reading these while making serious headway with Bleak House (which I'm really enjoying) and trying to get into Faulkner's The Sound and the Fury. At this point I gave up on the Faulkner and returned it to the library having managed in several attempts to get through only twenty or thirty pages. I couldn't get on with it at all, but I have put it down on my 'have another go at this one in a couple of years' time' list.

150. The Maverick Preacher - Victoria Bylin
Another Old West historical romance, but this time a Christian one. The titular preacher is searching for his sister, who he kicked out of the house when she got pregnant, having had a major change of heart and realised that he's not perfect either. The trail leads to Denver, where the preacher ends up staying in a boarding house run by a woman whose adopted son may or may not be his nephew. Some of the subplots and supporting characters are better than others, but on the whole this is a very strong story with very deep and likeable lead characters. The Christian element is very strong, far stronger I think than to romance element; I can recommend this book to fans of Christian fiction. 4½ out of 5.

And time for a significant change of genre:

151. Sharpe's Company - Bernard Cornwell
This was my first Sharpe novel, although I'm very familiar with the TV adaptation: so familiar that I could hear Sean Bean and Daragh O'Malley delivering the dialogue. Immaculate research (with a detailed historical note explaining the liberties the author has taken with historical fact), engaging writing and wonderful characters make this a highly entertaining read. 4½ out of 5.

Now back to Bleak House, and to Margery Allingham's The Fashion in Shrouds.

152. The Fashion in Shrouds - Margery Allingham

I quite like Margery Allingham's books, but I do think they feel more dated than some of the other, similar books being written at the same time. There were quite a few comments and attitudes in this book about race and about sexual violence which would have been pretty unremarkable for the 1930s, but which now feel unpleasantly like having a bucket of icy water poured over your head. You blink and think, "I can't believe I just read that!" I don't find I get jerked out of the story by horrible moments in this way when reading (for example) Dorothy L. Sayers's books.

Despite that, this was a decent and suspenseful mystery, well plotted and with solid (if in several cases very unpleasant) characters. 4/5.

153. Excellent Women - Barbara Pym

I can't remember who recommended this to me, but I definitely found out about it here on LT. And I'm grateful to whoever it was, because I adored this book.

Mildred Lathbury is a middle class, thirty-something spinster in post-war London. Her time is spent working with elderly and distressed gentlewomen and at her parish church. The book follows the twists and turns of her relationships with (among others) Father Malory the vicar and his sister, her new neighbours Mr and Mrs Napier, and the newly arrived clergyman's widow Mrs Gray.

The subtle satire, the gentle, dry, self-deprecating humour of Miss Lathbury and the phenomenal character sketches absolutely made this book. The writing is beautiful, the plot twists are tiny but significant, the profound commentary on human nature is deftly slipped in to telling effect - and the cumulative effect is that a story about the ordinary becomes something extraordinary.

I hadn't even finished reading this library book before I'd ordered a copy for my own bookshelf, and added several more titles by Barbara Pym to my wishlist.

5/5.

> 121 I enjoyed your comments re The Fashion in Shrouds.

Several LTers are reading Pym this year, myself included, so you could have found out about her on a number of threads, Caty. I recommend you read her Quartet in Autumn, too. It is excellent.

I still haven't read any Barbara Pym but I've a feeling I'm going to love her when I do... I have a couple on my shelves, borrowed or charity-shop-purchased. My mother-in-law LOVES her too and she generally has good taste in books - though we do occasionally disagree wildly. Hopefully going together to hear Douglas Coupland talk about Generation X in September at the Guardian Book Club.

154. Lord of Fire - Gaelen Foley

Historical Romance. The period setting and atmosphere are about as convincing a portrayal of early nineteenth century England as would be Constable's famed Hay Wain with the vehicle being pulled by a John Deere tractor - but in all other respects this book is cracking good entertainment. It's fast paced, the characters are strong, the prose is vivid and the plot is well constructed. Implausible, but well constructed. To describe it as James Bond meets Jane Austen might be a tad flippant and inaccurate, but not wildly far off the mark. 3/5.

154 books thus far in 2009! WOW, that is incredible! Congratulations!

>127 Whisper1: Thanks!

155. Hogfather - Terry Pratchett

Not my favourite Pratchett, and felt a little stretched and strained in the last sections, but still some excellent moments. 4/5.

156. The Fleeing Heiress - Gayle Buck

Passable regency romance. A bit repetitive in places, but well enough written: there's a fairly plausible plot, a pleasant and sensible lead couple, and an entertaining cast of minor characters. 3½ out of 5.

157. The Eligible Miss Elliot - Victoria Hinshaw

Another regency romance. Entertaining enough, and heading for a solid 4 until the ending went wrong and a previous sensible hero turned hysterical at the thought of people thinking he married the heroine for her money. Some very strong minor characters, good pacing and appealing prose redeem it. 3.5/5

158. The Surgeon - Kate Bridges

More historical romance, this time 1880s Canada. Solid sub-plots, solid characters, solid book. There isn't really enough of the romance plot to fill the book, but the sub-plots do keep the book interesting. 4/5.

I'm having a bad week, so there'll probably be a lot more fluff reading to come.

So what's wrong with fluff? Everyone needs a bit every now and again, I think. I need LOTS of it myself!

More fluff, as expected. Fluff is good every now and then - but there's been rather a lot of it around here lately. At some point, I might get to something a bit more substantial - hopefully I can weigh the thread down a bit before it floats away trailing wisps of crepe paper and candy floss, or explodes in a shower of pink feathers, or gets overrun by bunnies.

159. The Rake's Defiant Mistress - Mary Brendan

I hate, loathe and despise these ludicrous titles with a passion. Ironically, this book does have a rake's defiant mistress in it: she's a bit-part villain. The heroine is a respectable widow who gets mildly stroppy with the rake in question, but doesn't sleep with him until the epilogue, by which time they're engaged, and even then it only happens off-screen (as it were). Standard, cardboard-cutout romance-novel characters, a nondescript formula plot and so-so writing make this a passable couple of hours' fluff reading, but it's pretty forgettable. 3/5.

160. The Wicked Lord Rasenby - Marguerite Kaye

Despite being a 2009 publication, this reads rather old-school. It also reads like a low-rent version of Georgette Heyer's Devil's Cub, with the occasional bit borrowed from The Unknown Ajax. A bit like what might have happened had Mary Challoner been almost as much of an unconscionable trollop as her sister, and Dominic had been off doing a little bit of smuggling on the side. Even the 'respectable relative who paid for her education and turns out be a friend of his family' is in there.

An overbearing hero whose understanding of the word 'no' is heavily impaired is never going to make me sympathetic to the book, and a too-stupid-to-live heroine who remains as idiotic on page 277 as she was on page 16 doesn't help either. How she survived to the age of 24 without being, I don't know, eaten by polar bears or captured by an unknown tribe from the Amazon basin when she accidentally ended up on the other side of the globe because the nice man helping her turned out not to be quite so nice after all, and all without the icebergs/sea/rainforest even making her think that the Bath-London road was looking a bit different from usual, is beyond me. 2/5.

You just need some better fluff, Caty. That way you can feel good about reading it, lol.

WOW! 160 books! That is an incredible accomplishment!

> 132 re: book titles. I always check out the series romance section just to read the titles. I'm not sure what the publishers hope to accomplish with some of these titles. Some really good books hide under some of the stupidest-sounding titles. Also, congrats on your impressive number of books!

161. Desperately Seeking a Duke - Celeste Bradley

I can't decide whether this is better fluff or not. The book was positively riddled with basic errors concerning titles, property and matrimonial law, and the prevailing customs of Regency aristocrats - stuff that can be clarified in about ten minutes with google. This was a shame, because in many other ways it was pretty good. The characters are well-written and the writing is strong. The plot is mostly strong, but with some very silly moments.

The story centres on Phoebe, a country vicar's daughter who, under the terms of her grandfather's (or possibly great-grandfather's) will, needs to marry a duke in order to inherit a substantial sum of money. She becomes engaged to a duke's heir by mistake (anyone who accepts a written proposal from someone they've met once, and whose full name they don't know, shouldn't really be surprised when things don't turn out quite they way they expected) but really she prefers his brother.

It's all very silly and improbable - but it's also highly entertaining. I'm giving it a medium-ish rating, with the clarification that it's a great fluff read if you can suspend disbelief far enough and don't get irritated by mistakes and anachronisms. 3 out of 5.

(And please, historical romance writers (especially American ones writing about Regency England), please do us all a favour and actually look up the details of Hardwicke's Marriage Act of 1753 (26 Geo II c33). And properly, not just on Wikipedia. And look up how aristocratic titles work at the same time. Please?)

oooh my so much to catch up on!!
let's see:
I still haven't gotten around to 1984. Someday, I probably will. And you'll find a review somehwre starting with "I've been getting round to reading 1984 since about 1984."
Agreed completely with your review on Mrs. Dalloway. Was bored way too many times during the book and forgot what I had just read just as often.
Smilla's Sense of Snow...didn't think the atmosphere evaporated in Greenland: loved the scenery there too. But, yeah, it did get a bit too James Bond-y in its finale.

Enjoy your next read!!

>133 alcottacre: - I'm trying! (And I've ordered another couple of Barbara Pym books, which will help with the general standard of reading material.)

>134 Whisper1:, 137 - Thanks.

162. Lord of Ice - Gaelen Foley

As with Lord of Fire, this was not even remotely convincing as a piece of historical fiction - the tone, atmosphere and mores were wrong and the characters' speech bounced around from eighteenth century to nineteenth to contemporary. James Bond meets Jane Austen again, except that there was less spy stuff and more violence.

Still, the characters were consistent within themselves, and the plot was okay. The fact that two of the three sex scenes are pretty bad (I'm pretty sure I wasn't meant to laugh, or to forget the existence of one scene completely) is offset by some good stuff about the hero's post-Peninsular War PTSD. The ending (the Battle of Waterloo: to fight or not to fight, that is the question...) either needed to be developed more or left out completely rather than tacked on to the end.

Much in the manner of my rating of #161, I'm giving this a medium-low rating with the clarification that it's better than that if you don't mind the fact that unconvincing as historical fiction. 2½ out of 5.

Edited, because being able to forget that the scene where the protagonists in a romance novel consummate their relationship is actually in the book *isn't* a shining recommendation of said book.

163. A Most Unconventional Courtship - Louise Allen

Historical Romance. Average. Stylish at times, but has a tendency to descend into silliness. 3½ out of 5.

I'm fed up with trying to find interesting things to say about barely-distinguishable books. Must read something different.

164. The Wedding Officer - Anthony Capella

Historical Fiction. Kind of a romance, but much broader and much darker than using that term would suggest.

Naples, 1944: Captain James Gould arrives in a city battered by war. He is the wedding officer, and his job is to assess the claims of local women and British soldiers who want to marry. Inept and inexperienced - not to mention determined to avoid any hint of corruption - he struggles to adapt to his role.

Thanks to the war, Livia Pertini is a wife without a husband and a cook without a kitchen: her husband has been sent to the Russian front and may or may not still be alive, and she and her compatriots are not far from starvation. When she is forced to leave her village and seek work in Naples, she ends up as cook to Captain Gould and his fellow officers.

The horror of war is not at the forefront of this book, but it is always there in the background, and it regularly intrudes into James and Livia's lives and story. The descriptions of Livia's wonderful food can almost be tasted and smelt. There's a strong cast of supporting characters - Livia's family, James's fellow officers - and they all have a good mix of flaws and strengths. Well, almost all - James's rival for Livia's affections is a seriously nasty piece of work, as they find out when Vesuvius erupts and the whole area is plunged into chaos.

Both James and Livia change a great deal through the course of the book, as does the way that they relate to and think of one another, and this powerful character development is one of the real strengths of the book.

4½ out of 5.

>140 Eat_Read_Knit:: I read The Wedding Officer earlier this year and enjoyed it.

Have you tried his The Food of Love? I liked it, as well.

>141 TadAD: Yes, I read The Food of Love earlier this year and loved that one too. Those books make me feel hungry - and inadequate as a cook!

I haven't read Various Flavours of Coffee yet, but I would like to get to that one too.

>142 Eat_Read_Knit:: I have it waiting to be read. Friends who have read all three say this one will make you less hungry as food (other than coffee) is not an integral part of the story.

165. Overture to Death - Ngaio Marsh

I was fairly sure I'd read at some Ngaio Marsh books before, but none of them look familiar so this might have been the first. It won't be the last. I really enjoyed this whodunnit, which had some very interesting characters. I was pretty sure I knew whodiddit, and I turned out to be right, but I was never sure and was kept guessing. There were some interesting sub-plots, and the English Village atmosphere came through very strongly. 4/5.

Having long loved the work of Agatha Christie and Dorothy L. Sayers, I've more recently been working though some Margery Allingham (having also unaccountably overlooked her in the past); now I'm going to have to get hold of some more Marsh as well, and round off the quartet. It's a hard life.

>137 girlunderglass: girlunderglass, you have left it too late to read 1984 you should have read it in 1948! :)

~TT

166. Marrying the Mistress - Juliet Landon

I can't decide what I think about this one. It's a plot I would expect to dislike, with characters I'd expect to dislike. And it's written (very unusually for an Harlequin/Mills & Boon Historical) in the first person, which is not my preference. Yet somehow it works.

Helene is a single mother in Regency York. She's struggling financially after the death of her lover, possibly in trouble with the law, and not particularly happy with the fact that her dead lover's brother is now seriously pursuing her. Her son is growing up to look alarmingly like his biological father and not the man everyone thought was his father - and Helen's circumstances and all the family relationships are complicated further by several other things too spoilerish to go into.

Helene has a strong personality, which gives her narrative a very strong voice, and I think this carries the book: the story feels as though it shouldn't work - yet it kind of does, in a way that I don't think third person narration would. I certainly wouldn't have been as sympathetic to Helene's circumstances and choices had the book been written in the third person.

There were some things I didn't like about this book - I wasn't particularly keen on the hero, although I was a little more sympathetic to him by the end, and I wouldn't have expected Helene to be as accepted by and have as much interaction with her son's titled grandparents as she does - but on the whole I liked it more than I expected to.

3½ out of 5.

#145--girlunderglass was probably born sometime around 1984. :)

167. Talk of the Town - Beverly Barton 2.5/5
168. Letting Loose! - Mara Fox 2/5

I picked these two contemporary romances up second-hand on a whim and wasn't terribly impressed with either. The first had more character development and plot than the second, but I didn't find either very involving or convincing.

169. Death in Holy Orders - PD James
I don't know why I wasn't keen on this one. It seemed a bit stretched out and over-long and, while it was reasonably interesting, I never really felt properly involved in the story. I think I just wasn't in the mood for it, or it wasn't my style of crime fiction, rather than there being any fault with the book. 3/5.

170. Jane and Prudence - Barbara Pym

Very good comedy of manners laced with humour and some penetrating insights into human nature. Intelligent, sharp and entertaining. 4½ out of 5.

171. Gods Behaving Badly - Marie Phillips

Entertaining and very clever - but the crudeness and vitriol from some of the characters got a little overpowering once or twice. It might just have been me being a bit over-sensitive to this, but there also seemed to be definite hostility to Christianity in there too. I wavered between 3 and 4, but finally went for 4 out of 5.

172. Arousing Suspicions - Marianne Stillings
173. Satisfaction - Marianne Stillings
174. Killer Charms - Marianne Stillings

An enjoyable trilogy of romantic suspense. They're linked books - each focuses on one of a set of siblings - but they stand alone. The humour, romance and suspense are well-balanced and the characters and pacing are good. They're improbable but vastly entertaining. Rated 4½, 4 and 4 out of 5 respectively, with the second being slightly stronger than the third.

175. A Concise Chinese-English Dictionary for Lovers - Xiaolu Guo

Clever and well-written, but didn't really appeal to me. I never felt I understood the main character at all, and the boyfriend gave me the creeps. 3/5.

#150: The Stillings trilogy looks like something I would enjoy, so I am putting it on Planet TBR.

The Guo book is already there, but your comment about the boyfriend is giving me pause. I will give it a shot, I think, but if he gives me the creeps, too, will ditch it, lol.

>151 alcottacre: I've read a lot of very positive reviews about the Guo book, so I'd definitely recommend leaving it on the planet and giving it a go.

176. Galahad at Blandings - PG Wodehouse

A likeable story out of the usual Wodehouse mould. Neither as chaotic nor as frenetic as his best works, but solidly entertaining with plenty of dotty and surreal moments. The Empress has some nice scenes, especially after a flask of whisky finds its way into her feed. 4/5.

177. Midnight Madness - Karen Kendall
Contemporary romance. The plot - high-flying politician falls in love at first sight with his hairdresser and tries to convince her that he's actually serious - actually comes across as less silly and more convincing than it originally sounds. There's more focus on the emotional relationship and less on the physical than I expected from a book in this line (Harlequin/M&B Blaze), which was a pleasant surprise. 4/5.

178. Equal Rites - Terry Pratchett
A wizard passes on his powers to the eighth son of an eight son - but unfortunately overlooks the fact that the son is in fact a daughter. I was less keen on this book than I've been on some of the other Discworld books I've read recently, but even so I quite enjoyed it. 3/5.

179. Just Like a Man - Elizabeth Bevarly
Romantic suspense/contemporary romance. Very silly and distinctly unconvincing, but Bevarly has a way of keeping things zipping along so you don't notice the insanity or the plot holes until afterwards. A hard-working school director teams up with the single father of one of her students when she finds out he's a spy investigating one of her colleagues. Where does she find the time? And the tacked-on subplot with the billionaire and the teacher with four (seriously? four? how? does she inhabit a parallel universe with 600-hour-long weeks?) additional jobs? She certainly doesn't have the time. And I know I've said it before, but the elite government intelligence agency in this series really is a bizarre mix of omniscience and incompetence. 3/5.

180. Beau Crusoe - Carla Kelly
Historical Romance. An dark and interesting story about a shipwrecked sailor coming to terms with his appalling experience, and a young widow with tragedy in her own past. Slightly surreal in places (why the toucans? seriously. why?) and possibly not one for the squeamish, but on the whole very well written. 4/5.

181. Love Letters from a Duke - Elizabeth Boyle
Historical romance. Completely unconvincing as historical fiction. A dragged-out, gimmicky and somewhat inane plot sees a duke mistaken for the new footman when he turns up at the home of his sort-of fiancée. 1.5/5.

182. The Duke Next Door - Celeste Bradley
Historical romance. Annoying autocratic lord marries annoying female for no apparent reason, and after annoying each other and everyone else for a few hundred pages they finally manage to create a functioning marriage. Weak sub-plots and twee moments with his daughter from his first marriage don't help. 2.5/5.

183. The Knowledge of the Holy - A W Tozer
A powerful and profound work of devotional theology, considering the attributes of God. Tozer argues fervently for the need to see God as He is, and to respond accordingly. He decries the tendency to consider God as being answerable to people, rather than vice versa, and does a very good job of showing something of God's majesty and pre-eminence, all the while reminding us that we can never fully know or comprehend Him.

I found the chapters on the self-existence, immutability, justice, love and holiness of God particularly inspiring and thought-provoking, and this is a book that I will return to and meditate upon time and again. 5/5.

Beau Crusoe looks really good... I've added a whole bunch more to my wishlist, too. I'm glad you read so many romances, Caty, because I can read your reviews and skip right to the good ones!

I'm sorry you didn't like the Guo! It's one of my favorites of all-time, and her Twenty Fragments of a Ravenous Youth was one of my favorites last year.

#154: I have that one home from the library now. I hope I get as much out of it as you did. Thanks for the recommendation.

> 149 Caty, have you read anything else by Barbara Pym? I have heard good things about her books and I have just ordered Quartet in Autumn from the library.

The Knowledge of the Holy sounds good. It is also recommended in 50 People Every Christian should Know together with Tozer's other books: The Pursuit of God and The Divine Conquest. Unfortunately, my library does not have any of these books so I will have to find the one you recommend on BookFinder.

~ TT

>157 TheTortoise: So far I've only read Excellent Women and Jane and Prudence, both of which I loved, but I also have a copy of Some Tame Gazelle waiting here to be read. I've heard good things about Quartet in Autumn, and I'm hoping to be able to get hold of that and some of her other books sooner rather than later.

I've got Tozer's Pursuit of God in my TBR pile as well, and after Knowledge of the Holy I'm hoping to get to it fairly soon.

184. The Templar's Penance - Michael Jecks

In the summer of 1323, Baldwin Furnshill and Simon Puttock are on pilgrimage in Santiago de Compostela when a young woman is murdered. As they work with the local authorities to find the killer, the bodies begin to pile up.

I don't know whether I just wasn't in the mood for this medieval mystery, or whether it's actually dull. I nearly didn't bother finishing it, but I thought I ought to find out who did it as a matter of general principle, even though by the half way mark I didn't care. There was lots of period detail but not much plot, and the personalities of the sleuths didn't really come through very much. There was more gore than I generally like, as well. 2.5/5

185. Mort - Terry Pratchett

Death takes on an apprentice (who learns the hard way what happens when the scythe hits the wrong person) and goes off to find out what it's like to be human.

This was one of my least favourite Discworld books so far - I didn't think that the plot, the characters or the humour/satire were Pratchett at his best - but Death is very entertaining and I think it still merits a 3/5.

#160 I just don't get the Discworld books - my husband and sons all love them. Hubby gets them on audio from the library and listens to them in the car on long trips. He has recently been travelling a lot, and I got him about a half dozen audio books to choose from - all were new to him except one of the discworld books (not this one - maybe Guards Guards). The first one he picked up was the Pratchett of course, and he came in the house at the end of the trip after he'd been driving for hours, still chuckling from the story! The "boys" will start talking about the series at the dinner table or someplace and laughing and doing the "remember that part" thing and my daughter and I just look at each other and roll our eyes. I've tried to read them, and would like to enjoy them just so I can join in the conversation, but can't quite manage to get through even one book!

>161 sjmccreary:: You definitely have to enjoy a certain type of humor to like them.

...would like to enjoy them just so I can join in the conversation...

I don't know which ones you've tried. The Discworld books are broken up into a few series. They share locale but focus on different characters. Many readers like some series and others not so much. For example, I rather dislike the Rincewind series (e.g. The Colour of Magic) and probably wouldn't bother to buy it if he wrote another. On the other hand, I love the Guards series (e.g. Night Watch).

Or, you might try her series that targeted at slightly younger audiences (first book The Wee Free Men); they have a slightly different "feel" to them while still having a lot of the wacky humor.

I don't think I've read enough of them to know for sure which series I prefer (only about 10 so far), but I think I'm developing a bit of a preference towards the Guards and the Industrial series, and I'm finding I'm less keen on the Witches. I seem to recall a lot of people recommending the Guards books as an accessible place to start.

#162 I'm usually pretty particular about reading a series in the "correct" order - it makes me crazy that this doesn't seem to be an issue with these books - is that right? I think maybe it was Night Watch that he had this week - he loves the character Grimes - would that be right? So where does one start with the Guards series?

>163 Eat_Read_Knit:: The Witches series is strange for me: I love the characters but the stories are not my favorites. I much prefer their appearances in the Tiffany Aching series. The Watch books are my clear favorites, however.

>164 sjmccreary::

"...he loves the character Grimes - would that be right?...

Perhaps you mean Vimes? He's a guard...my favorite character in Discworld, actually. I doubt he'll ever surpass Night Watch for my tastes.

"...it makes me crazy that this doesn't seem to be an issue with these books...So where does one start with the Guards series?

The series taken as a whole doesn't have a specific order but each sub-series does.

Here's the standard guide. It's missing Making Money (follows Going Postal) but is otherwise complete. So the starting point for that sub-series is Guards! Guards!.

#165 Tad, what a great chart! I think the books I've attempted were all in the Rincewind line. Hubby likes Vimes (sorry about that - he has to correct me every time, too) best, so I'll try Pratchett again, but start there this time.

I am exploring the world of Pratchett for the first time, as well, and need that chart to help me out! I'm getting Equal Rites and the next Death, Reaper Man, out from the library right now :)

I'm feeling pleased with myself because I've managed to pick up a good condition second-hand copy of Thud! - although I still need to go back and read some of the early Watch books. Not sure when I'll get round to reading it, though.

186. An Innocent Debutante in Hanover Square - Anne Herries
So-so historical romance. Read it at the end of last week and can't remember what it was about, but it was passably entertaining at the time. 2½ out of 5.

187. Runaway Lady - Claire Thornton
Historical Romance set in the late 17th century. Entertaining and unusual: interesting characters, well written and still tense and engaging despite the fact that we know the villains' identities from the start. 4 out of 5.

188. The Scandal of the Season - Sophie Gee
Historical fiction centred on Alexander Pope and the story behind The Rape of the Lock. I know some people have loved it, but I wasn't keen. I thought the prose was pedestrian and the characterisation bland; it seemed to be trying to be literary fiction, but the writing wasn't able to carry the lack of plot. The historical feel of the book was good - there was a firm sense of period without it being overwhelming - and the topic was interesting, but on the whole I didn't think it lived up to its promise. 3 out of 5.

189. Wild and Hexy - Vicki Lewis Thompson
A former beauty queen turned journalist goes back to her home town for her sister's wedding and bumps into a man who's held a torch for her since high school.

190. Casual Hex - Vicki Lewis Thompson
A shy florist plays host to a visiting academic: romance ensues, but will the academic lose out to the ambitions of a fairy prince?

These are Books 2 and 3 of a series of humorous, light-paranormal romances. I picked these up because I quite enjoyed book 1, Over Hexed, when I read it least year. I quite enjoyed these, too, but they did feel a bit overdone. The witch-and-wizard matchmaking team felt a bit caricatured here, where they amused me in book 1. The dragons and fairies and lake monsters felt a bit much here, where it amused me in book 1. These weren't bad, but in both cases I felt that the romance storyline was taking a back seat to some of the humorous paranormal elements, and that this left the final product a bit unbalanced. In both books, also, the sexual content was somewhat overdone and repetitive.

These weren't bad books - the characters were mostly well written and the plots were well paced - but they weren't as good as I was expecting, and they were too similar both to one another and to the first book in the series. 3.5/5 each.

hope your next reads are even better!

> 169 Isn't this the same author who wrote the "Nerd" books? I have enjoyed a couple of those, but have one on my shelf now that is falling flat. I didn't know she had another series out.

>171 profilerSR: Yes, it is. I've read some of the Nerd books, and thought they varied from okay to good, but there are several I've not read yet. There are only these three of the Hex series out, but I think that there are another couple due to come out next year. At the moment I'm undecided on whether I'll bother with them. I'm not that keen on paranormal romance, and I prefer the sexual aspects to be understated; I'd probably cautiously recommend these books to people who took the opposite views on both these points, but they're beginning to hit my 'not for me' button.

>168 Eat_Read_Knit: I picked up a copy of the Sophie Gee from a charity shop last year on a whim - because I love the Pope poem, spot the English graduate - so a bit sad to hear it's only 3 stars. Oh well. I like to look on it as a donation to charity accompanied by a free book, so it doesn't feel like money wasted :-)

>173 FlossieT: I think my disappointment was not because it was bad - I didn't think it was - but because I'd heard very good things about it and it wasn't as good as I expected. It might be that someone who is more familiar with the poem than I am would get more out of it. I don't think you'll have wasted your money.

Another four romances for me.

191. The Earl's Untouched Bride - Annie Burrows
Historical Romance. The usual: decent characters, well enough paced, plausible plot, egregious title. When the titular earl gets dumped by his fiancée, the fiancée's sister persuades him to marry her so she doesn't have to marry the horrible person her family are after her to marry. Lots of miscommunication and Big Misunderstandings, but they're pretty plausible and things don't get too silly. Above average for the genre. 4/5

192. The Raven Prince - Elizabeth Hoyt
193. The Leopard Prince - Elizabeth Hoyt
Historical Romance. More silliness than plausibility, but the bawdiness is not out of place in the mid-eighteenth century setting. I slightly preferred the third book in the trilogy, The Serpent Prince, which I read last year, to these two, but all were decent entertainment. The books have more sexual content than I prefer, but that aspect will be a plus for some readers. 3½ out of 5 each.

194. Beth and the Bachelor - Susan Mallery
I read this contemporary romance years ago and liked it, so when I spotted a second-hand copy this week I thought I'd re-read it. I had some reservations - I find romance re-reads are often a let down, because my tastes have changed so much - but I really enjoyed reading this one again. In fact, I probably appreciated it more now than I did nine years ago.

Beth is in her late thirties, the mother of two teenagers, and still getting over the death of husband in a car accident 18 months earlier. Her friends go to a charity auction and buy her a date with a local celebrity playboy - and she is seriously unimpressed with both them and him. I can believe in Beth as someone who is torn between her attraction to this man, and her love for and loyalty to her dead husband. I can believe her insecurities about herself and about dating again after a 20-year relationship. I can believe in her hero as a playboy who is finally growing up. I can believe in their relationship because they have flaws and make mistakes - and try to fix these things for their own and each others' good. Plus, the teenage children are present and involved without being annoying or intrusive. A strong 4½ out of 5.



I will get around to reading some non-fluff sometime soon. I will, I WILL.

The Susan Mallery book sounds good... I'll have to see if my paperback bookstore has it in there vast shelves! Is it a category or a standalone?

>175 allthesedarnbooks: It's an old Silhouette Special Edition from 2000. I don't know whether it's been re-released at any point since.

Okay, thanks! My local used paperback store has rooms full of old Harlequin's and Silhouette's, so there's a good chance I can find it there! I remember reading one of her books years ago and enjoying it, though for the life of me I can't remember the title.

195. The Moving Toyshop - Edmund Crispin

Not even remotely plausible, and ridiculously convoluted. I disliked Gervase Fen immensely. To some extent, it was redeemed by the the high standard of the prose and some of the literary allusions, although on the latter point it sometimes seemed to be trying too hard. I'd heard good things about this author, but I won't be trying any of his other books: back to Allingham and Marsh, I think. 3/5

196. The Homeless Heiress - Anne Herries

Historical Romance. Nothing wrong with it, barring slightly stilted prose and a somewhat implausible plot, but nothing especially good about it either. One of those take it or leave it, meh books. 2.5/5

197. The Honeymoon That Wasn't - Debbi Rawlins

Contemporary Romance. Nothing wrong with this one either, but nothing especially good about it. Another take it or leave it meh book. 3/5

Can someone please give me a swift kick in the direction of my literature shelf? Or better yet, hide the contents of the romance shelf from me? I am getting into bad fluff-reading habits again. I'm gorging on romance novels like a small child eating enough candy floss to make itself sick - and even though I know it, I can't stop myself.

Sorry the last two were meh! And I understand about the romance overload. I read so many of them in high school, I had to take a break for the next several years! Btw, I picked up Beth and the Bachelor at the bookstore yesterday. I'm waiting to read it when I need some quality romance; thanks for the rec!

>180 allthesedarnbooks: I'm glad you managed to track it down - I hope you enjoy it as much as I did!

Pinched from Stasia's thread (amongst others):

Using only books you have read this year (2009), answer these questions. Try not to repeat a book title.

Describe yourself:
Simply Perfect - of course ;)

How do you feel:
Things Fall Apart (although it'll all look better in the morning!)

Describe where you currently live:
44 Scotland Street (what? you think I'm going to give out personal information here?)

If you could go anywhere, where would you go:
What happens in London

Your favourite form of transportation:
Three Men in a Boat

Your best friend is:
The Good Neighbor

You and your friends are:
People of the Book

What’s the weather like:
Summer Moonshine - with a bit of cloud

You fear:
The Hollow Chocolate Bunnies of the Apocalypse

What is the best advice you have to give:
Keep the Aspidistra Flying

Thought for the day:
The Right Attitude to Rain - always carry an umbrella

How I would like to die:
Mistress of the Art of Death

My soul’s present condition:
Slightly Sinful - but me and God are working on it

Caty! Go read a good book!

(you will just have to imagine the kick)

I've done this quiz before, but I'm allowed to do it again, yes?

>183 tloeffler: Thank you!

198. Feet of Clay - Terry Pratchett

Someone's poisoning the Patrician, the golems are revolting and to top it all off a dwarf has joined the Watch. A dwarf who's acting (shock, horror!) like a girl! Vimes is in a flap, Carrot is imperturbable, Nobbs is (much to his dismay) in the aristocracy, and Colon is neck-deep in something distinctly smelly that probably shouldn't be mentioned in polite company.

Yes, I'm definitely developing a preference for the Discworld Watch books.

4½ out of 5.

199. Thud! - Terry Pratchett

Tensions between Anhk-Morpork's dwarves and the trolls threatens to erupt into rioting, possibly war, and the City Watch must once more keep the peace. As if that wasn't enough of a species-relations problem, the new vampire on the Watch is making things difficult for Angua, who is having the kind of bad hair day only a werewolf can.

Commander Sam Vimes's attempts to make it home for six o'clock to read his son a bedtime story are touchingly entertaining; Lady Sybil's dragon-breeding programme and talent for art come in unexpectedly useful; and the Imp organiser (Mark 5 - "the Gooseberry™") finally gets to organise something.

This contribution to the Discworld series is very funny - but also has a lot of serious comment on multiculturalism and issues of race and community relations.

4½ out of 5

200. Mistress: Hired for the Billionaire's Pleasure - India Grey

(You have permission to laugh at the title. I did.) This is one of the free ebooks available to celebrate the first anniversary of Mills & Boon's ebook programme. I would never have bought this book: I don't read romances from this line, and I would never have been able to buy a paper copy without dying of embarrassment over the title. But actually, it wasn't bad. Ridiculous, yes. Implausible, certainly. But not bad.

The hero Orlando (oh, please - how am I expected to take him seriously with that name) has been forced to give up his career as a military pilot because he is losing his sight. The heroine, whose name I have forgotten (so it must have been fairly normal), is a concert pianist who has been browbeaten by her domineering mother into marrying an abusive conductor. She's also been sheltered and petted her whole life and has no idea how to function in normal life. After bumping into Orlando at his brother's grave when she goes outside for fresh air at the wedding rehearsal (melodrama, much?!) decides to stop being a doormat, runs out on her wedding and accidentally ends up at his house, where his party planner has come down with flu and left him in the lurch and his ex has turned up with a baby she says is his. All while his defence consultancy business is trying to sort out a major international incident. (Okay, you have permission to laugh at the plot too. I did.)

Heroine-with-a-forgettable-name fixes the party, looks after the baby and learns to be a functioning adult human being, all while Orlando saves the world. (Well, what did you expect?). Throw in a bit of blackmail from his ex, Shocking Revelations about his dead brother, Shocking Behaviour by her jilted ex and a few other bouts of melodrama, and you have a plot. (Yes, that's what I expected, too.)

Silly as the entire thing was, it was also very entertaining. Admittedly, I was interested as much (if not more) in how Orlando coped with losing his sight as in the relationship between him and Heroine-with-a-forgettable-name, but I don't think that was a bad thing. There were strongly defined characters and some very good character development in this story, which made up for the improbability and over-the-top-ness of the plot. The plot was well paced, too, although there were some elements (her broken engagement, for example) that were never really dealt with properly.

Quite entertaining if you don't take it seriously, and recommended for fans of Harlequin Presents/Mills & Boon Modern. 3½ out of 5.

201. The Unexpected Mrs Pollifax - Dorothy Gilman

Cosy mystery, I suppose, although a spy story rather than a whodunnit. Silly and amusing, and an entertaining tale of a widowed grandmother who decides to join the CIA because her life is dull and meaningless. Good characters, decent plot, surprisingly undated (other than the identity of the Other Side(s)) given that it was first published in the 60s - but it left me feeling a little dissatisfied. I have no particular gripes, or faults to find; I think it was just a 'not quite for me' book. I'm giving it 3½ out of 5, but I think that it would rate higher for many.

This was my second Mrs Pollifax story, and I had a similar reaction to the first one; I don't think I'll be making an effort to look out for any of the others, but if I stumble across them at the library when I'm in the mood for a cosy mystery I might dip into the series further.

Thanks for the link to the free Mills & Boon ebooks, Caty! I had downloaded all the free ebooks Harlequin had offered for their anniversary (although I haven't actually read any of them yet...), even the ones from the lines I don't read. If it's free, I will take it. And I may eventually even read it! Lol.

I've never actually read a Harlequin Presents... the titles always scare me off.

>188 allthesedarnbooks: I loathe the titles: they always seem to be produced by formula, and bear no resemblance to the content of the book. And the Historicals are starting to go that way, too.

(In fact, I become ever more convinced that they actually use something like this to produce the titles.)

I know! It makes zero sense to me why they persist... I don't think readers would be turned away by relevant titles that actually had to do with the contents of the book. In fact, I think more would read the books!

ROFL over the Random Romance Title Generator! I can actually see someone pulling up one of those titles and writing a book based on it. I almost did!

Thanks so much for the link to the hilarious Random Romance Title Generator!! LOL! I enjoy reading the romance novel titles at the store more than I actually read the books. I go through spells though.

Haahahaha... the name generator is hilarious, what a perfect way to start a Monday morning... thanks for the laugh :)

Yea, but I really want to read this one: The Parisian Dragon Emperor's Bodacious Lady.

What a hoot!

I couldn't resist posting the link. I could almost swear to having seen The Celtic Duke's Gold-Digging Bride and The Nordic Thane's Quiet Maiden in the shops. If I ever do see The Viking Deputy Undersecretary for Homeland Security's Sleep-Deprived Personal Trainer, I'm buying it.

Anyway...

202. The Colour of Magic - Terry Pratchett

The first Discworld book, and very different to the others. Rincewind the failed wizard and Twoflower the Discworld's first tourist, together with the Luggage, battle fire and dragons and try not to fall over the Rim of the disc.

It's all much less developed than the later books, and being essentially a collection of shorter stories it's also pretty unstructured. Had I read this one first I'd probably never have bothered picking up the others. It's not bad, it's just nothing special. 3/5.

203. Vision in White - Nora Roberts

An entertaining contemporary romance in the chick-lit style, the first in a series about four friends who run a wedding planning business.

Wedding photographer Mackenzie has a job she loves and the mother from hell. Carter is the brother of one of Mackenzie's brides, and despite the fact he's not her usual type there's an undeniable connection between them.

This is very much a character driven story, and Mackenzie and Carter are both very well-developed and well-written characters. Mackenzie's mother is also a highly developed and superbly drawn character. Horrible, but superbly drawn. At times, the focus lies rather too much on the relationships between Mackenzie and her three colleagues/friends, but on the whole the relationships between the main characters and their friends and relatives form a positive and interesting part of the story. The relationship between Carter and Mackenzie is pretty convincing, and the academic, slightly nervous Carter makes an appealing hero with unexpected strength and depth.

4.5 out of 5.

Thanks for the links to the free ebooks, Caty! I picked Silent in the Grave because it seems to be one of the very few that doesn't feature a pregnancy plot that's mentioned in the title. I hate pregnancy plots, which is why I rarely pick up a category romance. Well see how it goes...

#196: I will have to check that one out. Looks pretty good. Thanks for the recommendation.

After the random title generator, I *so* have to share this.

In the charity shop today I spotted a copy of The Millionaire's Inexperienced Love-Slave. I burst out laughing. Then I bought it. How can you NOT buy a book with that title? It's too daft to be true. If the story turns out to be rubbish, I may just frame the book and keep it for the entertainment value.

204. The Millionaire's Inexperienced Love-Slave.

And now I've read it. It's exceedingly silly - so ludicrous it's entertaining. Taken seriously, it would rate about a -2 out of 5, if that. But I don't for one moment think it was meant to be taken seriously. The characters are caricatures, and the plot is ridiculous, with holes big enough for the QE2 to sail through. This bears absolutely no resemblance to real life - and for sheer entertainment value, it gets a 3. Just don't make the mistake of taking it seriously.

Love the title.

205. The Light Fantastic - Terry Pratchett

I liked this one more than The Colour of Magic. I enjoyed the plot and some of the subsidiary characters, and I love the Luggage, but Rincewind is still less appealing to me than some of the other characters. 4/5.

206. Interesting Times - Terry Pratchett

Rincewind is sent to the Counterweight Continent, where war and a very polite revolution are brewing. Probably the best of the Rincewind books I've read so far. This had a lot of plot, and a lot of political satire as well as comment on legend and war. I still love the Luggage, and I liked Rincewind here more than previously. 4½ out of 5.

> 200 I had to click on the title, just to check that there really was a book with that title. I saw your "Worst Title Contender" tag, and enjoyed reading through the nominees. Some funny stuff!
My personal favorites I've seen in bookstores:
Virgin Without a Memory
The Virgin Bride Said "Wow!"

I have not read these, however.

>204 profilerSR: If I'd first seen that title as a link rather than printed on a book, I don't think I'd have believed it was real.

I actually have read The Virgin Bride said "Wow!". Like most of the romance novels with the really bad names, the title and the story bear little if any resemblance to one another. I seem to recall that one being a fairly bland marriage-of-convenience story.

Seeing as this thread has passed the 200-post mark and we're 3/4 of the way through the year, it seems like time for a new thread.

The list continues here.