Caty M's 101010 Challenge

I've enjoyed doing the 999 Challenge, so I'm definitely going to do this.

I've picked some categories, many of which are the same as or related to my 999 categories. Unlike with the 999 challenge, however, I'm not going to pick specific books in advance. I know I've got books in the TBR that'll go a long way to filling these categories, but if I write them on a list I shan't want to read them: it feels too much like an assignment.

Categories are:
I: Christian Books - Christian fiction, theology, spirituality…
II: Non-fiction Books
III: Old Books - books bought second-hand
IV: Victorian Books - Trollope, Dickens, Hardy, the Brontë sisters, Elizabeth Gaskell and others: any fiction by British authors first published between 1837 and 1901.
V: Pratchett Books - books from the pen of Sir Terry
VI: English Books - Quintessentially English fiction
VII: Overseas Books - books by non-British authors
VIII: Recommended Books - Books other people have told me I ought to read
IX: Puzzling Books - crime, thriller, mystery…
X: Just Books - because there are more types of book than there are categories.

I'll only be listing books once I've actually finished them (because I have a bad habit of putting them to one side, meaning to get back to them, and never picking them up again), and because I'm British the completion dates will be dd/mm/yy format.

I: Christian Books
Christian fiction, theology, spirituality…

1. Five Impossible Things to Believe Before Christmas - Kevin Scully - Popular theology/advent devotional (20/12/09; rated 2)
2. Evil and the Justice of God - NT Wright - Theology (10/3/10; rated 4.5)
3. Wesley for Armchair Theologians - William J. Abraham - Theology/Historical Theology (sort of)
4. Catholicism for Dummies - John Trigilio and Kenneth Brighenti
5. Rooms - James L Rubart - Christian Fiction
6. The Gladiator - Carla Capshaw - Christian fiction
7. Letters to a Diminished Church - Dorothy L Sayers
8. Reformation: Europe's House Divided 1490-1700 - Diarmaid MacCulloch
9. On the Incarnation - St Athanasius
10. The Shack - W Paul Young (Christian Fiction; rated 2/5)

Category completed 14/12/10

II: Non-fiction Books

1. The Medieval Papacy - Geoffrey Barraclough (24/1/10)
2. Poetic Lives: Shelley - Daniel Hahn (27/1/10)
3. The Catholic Church from 1648 to 1780 - Freidrich Heyer (4/2/10)
4. Innocent III: Leader of Europe - Jane Sayers
5. A Short History of the Papacy in the Middle Ages - Walter Ullmann
6. How to be a Bad Birdwatcher - Simon Barnes
7. Thomas Aquinas: A Very Short Introduction - Fergus Kerr
8. Are Women Human? - Dorothy L. Sayers
9. Empress and Handmaid: Nature and Gender in the Cult of the Virgin Mary - Sarah Jane Boss
10. The Diving Bell and the Butterfly - Jean-Dominique Bauby

Category Completed 20/9/10

III: Old Books
Books bought second-hand

1. Died in the Wool - Ngaio Marsh - via BookMooch (21/11/09; rated 4½)
2. The Bride and the Beast - Teresa Medeiros - via BookMooch (1/1/10; rated 3)
3. When a Lady Misbehaves - Michelle Marcos - from a charity shop (16/1/10; rated 1)
4. The Faithful Bride - Rebecca Winters
5. The House at Pooh Corner - AA Milne
6. Mrs McVinnie's London Season - Carla Kelly
7. Alone of All Her Sex - Marina Warner
8. The End of Mr. Y - Scarlett Thomas
9. Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
10. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban - JK Rowling

Category completed 1/9/10

IV: Victorian Books
Trollope, Dickens, Hardy, the Brontë sisters, Elizabeth Gaskell and others: any fiction by British authors first published between 1837 and 1901.

1. A Study in Scarlet - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle - first published 1887 (28/11/09; rated 3)
2. The Sign of the Four - Arthur Conan Doyle - first published 1890 (30/12/09, rated 3)
3. Framley Parsonage - Anthony Trollope - first published 1861 (5/1/10, rated 4½)
4. The Picture of Dorian Gray - Oscar Wilde - first published 1891 (20/1/10; rated 5)
5. Sonnets from the Portuguese and Other Poems - Elizabeth Barrett Browning (poems originally published between 1838 and 1862) (19/7/10)
6. The Holly Tree Inn - Charles Dickens and others (1855)
7. An Unprotected Female at the Pyramids - Anthony Trollope
8. A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens (1843)
9. Mudfog and Other Sketches - Charles Dickens (Short stories originally published 1837-8, as collection 1880)
10. The Parson's Daughter of Oxney Colne - Anthony Trollope (1861)

Category Completed 17/12/10

V: Pratchett Books
From the pen of Sir Terry

1. Unseen Academicals - Terry Pratchett (14/11/09; rated 5)
2. Monstrous Regiment - Terry Pratchett (13/12/09; rated 5)
3. Wyrd Sisters - Terry Pratchett (5/2/10; rated 5)
4. Maskerade - Terry Pratchett (7/2/10; rated 4.5)
5. Witches Abroad - Terry Pratchett
6. Thief of Time - Terry Pratchett
7. The Wee Free Men - Terry Pratchett (11/1/10; rated 5)
8. A Hat Full of Sky - Terry Pratchett
9. Reaper Man - Terry Pratchett
10. The Last Hero - Terry Pratchett/Paul Kidby

Category Completed 16/4/10

VI: English Books
Quintessentially English writing

1. Cocktail Time - PG Wodehouse (19/12/09; rated 4)
2. Ukridge - PG Wodehouse (22/1/10; rated 3)
3. Sam the Sudden - PG Wodehouse
4. Miss Buncle's Book - DE Stevenson (5/3/10; rated 5)
5. Crampton Hodnett - Barbara Pym (17/11/09; rated 4)
6. An Unsuitable Attachment - Barbara Pym
7. Barmy in Wonderland - PG Wodehouse
8. The Pothunters - PG Wodehouse
9. Cheerful Weather for the Wedding - Julia Strachey
10. Frozen Assets - PG Wodehouse

Category Completed 4/6/10

VII: Overseas Books
Books by non-British authors

1. Bonjour Tristesse - Françoise Sagan (France) (15/11/09; rated 4)
2. Night Shift - Nora Roberts (USA) (9/1/10; rated 4)
3. The Three Evangelists - Fred Vargas (France) (15/2/10; rated 3)
4. What the Librarian Did - Karina Bliss (New Zealand)
5. Jar City - Arnaldur Indriðason (Iceland) (31/3/10; rated 4)
6. Purple Hibiscus - Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (Nigeria) (23/6/10; rated 4.5)
7. Palace of Illusions - Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni (India/USA)
8. When the Emperor was Divine - Julie Otsuka (USA)
9. Let the Northern Lights Erase Your Name - Vendela Vida (USA)
10. Room - Emma Donoghue (Ireland/Canada)

Category completed 9/11/10

VIII: Recommended Books
Books other people have told me I ought to read
(I have dozens of these queueing up, thanks to various people on LT and in real life who keep leading me astray. You know who you are.)

1. The Franchise Affair - Josephine Tey (17/12/09; rated 4½)
2. The Anubis Gates - Tim Powers (4/3/10; rated 4)
3. Doomsday Book - Connie Willis (6/3/10; rated 4)
4. A Bride for Jericho Bravo - Christine Rimmer (Romance, 11/3/10; rated 3)
5. Fantasy Lover - Sherrilyn Kenyon (Paranormal Romance, 27/3/10; rated 3.5)
6. As She Climbed Across the Table - Jonathan Lethem
7. Instant Attraction - Jill Shalvis (Contemporary Romance)
8. Major Pettigrew's Last Stand - Helen Simonson
9. Fludd - Hilary Mantel
10. A Guide to the Birds of East Africa - Nicholas Drayson

Category Completed 28/7/10

IX: Puzzling Books
Crime, thriller, mystery…

1. White Nights - Ann Cleeves (13/11/09; rated 4)
2. Tiger in the Smoke - Margery Allingham (30/1/10; rated 4.5)
3. Holy Disorders - Edmund Crispin
4. Brat Farrar - Josephine Tey
5. The Case of the Gilded Fly - Edmund Crispin
6. Murder with Peacocks - Donna Andrews
7. Swan Song - Edmund Crispin
8. Murder with Puffins - Donna Andrews
9. Her Royal Spyness - Rhys Bowen
10. The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie - Alan Bradley

Category completed 5/8/10

X: Just Books
Because there are more types of book than there are categories and spaces

1. The Unbearable Lightness of Scones - Alexander McCall Smith (30/11/09; rated 5)
2. Tulip Fever - Deborah Moggach (23/1/10)
3. The Cinderella Deal - Jennifer Crusie
4. How to Engage an Earl - Kathryn Caskie
5. Out of Control - Julie Miller
6. The Widow's Tale - Mick Jackson
7. Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone - JK Rowling
8. Ten Things I Love About You - Julia Quinn
9. The Man in the Picture - Susan Hill
10. The Lacuna - Barbara Kingsolver

Category Completed 12/8/10

You have some great categories. I will be checking what you read in your 6,7 & 9 sections especially.

Just out of curiosity: why 1837-1901 especially. Reign of Queen Victoria, publication of key work or what?

>13 GingerbreadMan: Reign of Queen Victoria. I have a big stack of Trollope and also some Hardy, Gaskell and Brontë sat on my shelf waiting to be read. This seemed like a logical category to cover them and also allow me a bit of flexibility to choose other things.

I love your Victorians category! Your challenge in general looks really fun.

You could always stick a little Sherlock Holmes in with the Victorian category too.

Great categories. Looking forward to seeing how you fill them up.

I was going to wait until January 1 to start this challenge - but I have some of the books I want to count for the challenge near the top of the TBR, and I really want to read them right now. So I'm going to start my challenge ... 3 ... 2 ... 1 ... NOW. I'm not launching a major campaign to fill spaces, but I'm going to allow myself to include any books that I start after this point.

(Posting this will probably kill stone dead any desire to read said books this side of Christmas - but seeing as that would create one of life's smaller dilemmas/paradoxes, I'm not going to worry about it.)

>18 Eat_Read_Knit: Wow. It's like you're my long lost unknown twin.

Welcome to the "active" group. That was exactly why I started in October, and I'm having a great time!

#19, 20: *grins* Thanks.

Just a little one to start:

1. Bonjour Tristesse - Françoise Sagan

Category: 5 - 1001 Books
Completed: 15/11/09
Rated: 4
Comments: Very beautiful, very sad and very French.

And working backwards:

2. Unseen Academicals - Terry Pratchett

Category: 6 - Funny Books
Completed: 14/11/09
Rated: 5
Comments:I was determined to wait until this came out in paperback to buy a copy but - as usual when it comes to waiting for books - I failed spectacularly. And I don't regret it.

A lot of people have commented that this is very different from a lot of the Discworld novels; I agree. It's softer, for a start. The biting satire of some books shows a little less fang here, but I don't think the story is weaker for that. The satire and wit are still there, they're just ... better-natured. More cheerful. Amused. There were fewer lines in the book which provoked hysterical laughter, but more which provoked broad smiles.

The new characters of Glenda and Nutt were excellent - classic Pratchett characters - as were the supporting cast of wizards and associated university staff. I also liked seeing a more relaxed side to the Patrician, and thought his character was very well developed. It's not necessary to know much about football in order to appreciate this book - at worst you'll miss a couple of jokes about the offside rule and half-time pies - but the football parts are pretty entertaining. The academic rivalry with Brazeneck, the invention of micromail, the candle vats and the thugs all add the expected detail and richness to the story, and the Academicals' first match is nothing if not eventful.

The Discworld books set in Ankh-Morpork are my favourites, and this was no exception.

3. White Nights - Ann Cleeves

Category: 9 - Puzzling Books
Completed: 13/11/09
Rated: 4
Comments: I didn't like this mystery as much as the first of Cleeves's Shetland stories (Raven Black which I adored and rated at 5/5), but it was still pretty entertaining. I was absolutely certain I knew who the killer was, and why - and I was completely wrong. Cleeves's characters are well-rounded individuals and the Shetland setting is wonderfully evoked, and you can feel the difference in atmosphere when the protagonists are on the mainland. I definitely intend to get hold of the next book in the series, Red Bones.

I couldn't decide whether to put this under Victorian (first published 1887) or Crime; I may yet move it.

4. A Study in Scarlet - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

Category: 9 - Puzzling Books
Completed: 27/11/09
Rated: 3/5
Comments: The first Sherlock Holmes story. I enjoyed it, but the structure was a little disconcerting. I have a pile of other Sherlock Holmes stories waiting; on the whole I like Doyle's writing, but I'm hoping the others in the TBR are less structurally confusing.

5. The Unbearable Lightness of Scones - Alexander McCall Smith

Category: 10 - Just Books
Completed 30/11/09
Rated: 5/5
Comments: I love the 44 Scotland Street stories, and this instalment was no exception. I like the gentle humour and the vividness and reality of the characters. I liked the character development in this volume, which is probably only fully appreciated by reading all the others first: only then do the sheer magnitude of Stuart's rebellion and Bruce's volte-face become apparent.

6. Monstrous Regiment - Terry Pratchett

Category: 6 - Funny Books
Completed 13/12/09
Rated: 5/5
Comments: War, Discworld style. Polly Perks needs to find her brother, Paul. But Paul is a soldier - unless he's a prisoner or a casualty - so Polly pretends to be a boy and joins the army. Polly doesn't know a lot about the army, but even she can work out that her fellow recruits (not to mention the sergeant) are quite ... unusual. And Polly doesn't know the half of it.

Very funny, very clever and very powerful. One of the best Discworld novels, and strongly recommended. 5/5.

7. The Franchise Affair - Josephine Tey

Category: 8 - Recommended Books
Completed 17/12/09
Rated: 4½ /5
Comments: When Marion Sharpe and her mother are accused of kidnapping and beating a young girl, they call in country lawyer Robert Blair. Blair is certain the Sharpes are innocent, and they claim they have never seen the girl before - but the girl, Betty Kane, recounts details of the house and grounds that she could not otherwise have known. Just where was Betty Kane for those weeks, and how did she acquire those bruises?

A very well-written mystery, with strong characters and plenty of atmosphere. The ending is a bit obvious, but the deus ex machina is acknowledged as such and it's so well put together that it doesn't seem contrived.

8. Cocktail Time - PG Wodehouse

Category: 6 - Funny Books
Completed 19/12/09
Rated: 4/5
Comments: Several parties who all want to get hold of an incriminating letter, a godson in urgent need of a few bob, a disgruntled swan and a butler suffering terrible pangs of unrequited love make life very interesting for the Earl of Ickenham, but he has just the scheme to sort everything out...

A very entertaining offering from Wodehouse, with all the usual elements, but not one of my real favourites. It's slightly unusual in being recognisably set in the 1950s, with references to television and certain characters having served together in the Home Guard.

9. Five Impossible Things to Believe Before Christmas - Kevin Scully

Category: 1 - Christian Books
Completed 20/12/09
Rated: 2/5
Comments: A vaguely devotional advent book, of fairly indeterminate theological provenance with the occasional slide into Anglo-Catholicism. Of the five chapters, I found only the one on John 1 and the incarnation particularly interesting. The writing is apt to meander and there are a lot of vague asides, rather as if it were a set of transcripts of sermons that had rather got away from the preacher. It's concise enough, though, and might appeal to someone coming at the subject with significant interest but little knowledge.

And a couple I missed out before:

10. Died in the Wool - Ngaio Marsh

Category: 3 - Old Books (BookMooch)
Completed: 21/11/09
Rated: 3½
Comments: A passable whodunnit, but I found it a bit drawn out and repetitive. I've read better by this author.

11. Crampton Hodnett - Barbara Pym

Category: 10 - Just Books
Completed: 17/11/09
Rated: 4
Comments: The usual Pym fare. A little less polished than some of the others - not unexpected for an early work - but there are some wonderful moments. The proposal scene made me laugh, and the girl who was annoyed about her unrequited love being requited and thus ruined was a great character.

12. The Sign of the Four - Arthur Conan Doyle

Category: 4 - Victorian Books (first published 1890)
Completed: 30/12/09
Rated: 3
Comments: Entertaining in parts, but dragged towards the end. A classic of crime fiction, and Sherlock Holmes is always entertaining, but this wasn't for me a great read.

13. The Bride and the Beast - Teresa Medeiros

Category: 3 - Old Books (via BookMooch)
Completed: 1/1/10
Rated: 3
Comments: Superstitious villagers sacrifice maiden to dragon, who turns out to be long-lost tortured hero seeking revenge.

It was entertaining - but it wasn't much more than that. The plot, the characters and the historical setting all felt a bit underdeveloped: there wasn't anything wrong with them, they just weren't quite all that they could be. I didn't feel the pain of the tortured hero, or the fear of the villagers, or the determination of the heroine. And while there was some humour, it wasn't light and comic in the style of (for example) Julia Quinn.

What I did like a great deal was the way the relationship between the hero and heroine developed - and the fact that the author showed this without peppering the book liberally with interminable descriptions of bedroom gymnastics, as is becoming ubiquitous in the genre.

Recommended for fans of historical romance - it is entertaining - but probably not a genre-transcending book.

14. Framley Parsonage - Anthony Trollope

Category: 4 - Victorian Books (first published 1861)
Completed: 5/1/10
Rated: 4½
Comments: An ambitious young clergyman with no head for finance finds himself, his family and his friends enmeshed in a tangled web of political and romantic alliances.

As with all Trollope's Barsetshire book, this is really not a book which lends itself to a quick plot summary - there are several dozen tightly interwoven plots, and the network of relationships between characters is complicated. This is the sort of thing Trollope does well, and why I love reading his books. Reading the book is like living in the community: seeing people forming and breaking relationships, experiencing crises and taking bad advice, looking after their friends and bringing up their children, getting ill, fixing problems, arguing with the neighbours and just getting on with life.

I love the insights Trollope gives into human nature through his characters. I find his prose style entertaining and easy to read. I like the way he chats to his readers. (He does this a lot, so be warned if you find this irritating.)

I don't think this is as good as Barchester Towers, but it's still excellent. And although I'll be taking a bit of a break before I get start The Small House at Allington - I don't want to start it until I've cleared some of the other books I'm currently reading - I am going to get to it pretty soon.

Framley Parsonage sounds good. I'm enjoying The Eustace Diamonds right now. And I'll have to add Crampton Hodnett to the TBR list.

#30 probably not a genre-transcending book I LOVE IT! What a nice way to put it. I may steal that one some time in the future.

#32 I'm intending to read the Palliser novels once I've finished the Barsetshire series: I'm glad to hear The Eustace Diamonds is a good one.

#33 Steal away!

15. Night Shift - Nora Roberts

Category: 7 - Overseas Books (USA)
Completed: 9/1/10
Rated: 4
Comments: Late-night DJ receives a series of chilling on-air death threats from an anonymous stalker and tries hard to (a) stay alive and (b) not fall for the police officer assigned to her case.

I read this (and the rest of the series) years ago, and I weeded my copy at least five years back. When I spotted a copy in a charity shop earlier in the week I got a bit nostalgic and wanted to re-read it. Yesterday I gave in and bought it, and I lasted about six hours before I started reading.

It wasn't quite as good as I remembered, but it was still a very good story of romantic suspense. I worked out who the stalker was, but I'm not sure whether that was because of clues in the story or because it was tucked away in the back of my memory somewhere. Or both, most likely. The lead characters are strong people, well written and believable, and the plot is tight. Three of the minor characters have their own stories later in the series, but at no time does it feel as if they are being introduced to set up later books.

Did I enjoy re-reading this? Yes. Did I enjoy the whole series when I first read them? Yes. Do I wish I'd kept all the books instead of weeding them? Hmmm, yes, to some degree. Will I make an effort to track down the other books and re-read them? No. But if I happen to see them in the charity shop I might consider buying them.

A very interesting analysis of Nora Roberts, Caty!

I, too, read many of her books years ago. This one doesn't ring a bell, but then I'd be hard pressed to tell you the plot of almost all of them.

And I, too, have weeded out some of them. However, I know there are a number of her books in the boxes in my garage -- the halfway point between keeping and donating. Maybe I should reconsider, though I don't feel any urge to re-read them.

I am reading Sign of the Four right now and I agree with your comments. I just finished A Study In Scarlett and enjoyed that much more.

16. When a Lady Misbehaves - Michelle Marcos

Category: 3 - Old Books (charity shop)
Completed: 16/1/10
Rated: 1/5
Comments: Irritating kitchen maid decides blackmailing half the House of Lords is the only sensible way to avoid being forced into prostitution, and (not surprisingly) comes a cropper.

I want to complain that I'll never get those two hours of my life back - but the truth is that although I seriously considered abandoning the book after the first sixty-odd pages, it had that car-crash aspect to it that makes you keep going even though you can't quite believe what you're reading. With each new plot development, I could only shake my head and wonder why the impressive mélange of implausible characters were all doing such bizarre things.

I still resent having surrendered real cash for it, though.

I hate books like that.

I've read books that are so unbelieveably bad that I continue to read sure that there's a punchline somewhere!

In fairness, I ought to add that the prose style and pacing are readable, though nothing special. It was just(!) the plot and the characters I couldn't stand.

Forgot to post this one.

17. The Wee Free Men - Terry Pratchett

Category: 8 - Recommended Books (recommended by at least a dozen people).
Completed: 11/1/10
Rated: 5/5
Comments: Tiffany Aching wants to be a witch when she grows up - but in the meantime she puts her incipient skills to good use rescuing her small and very sticky brother from the clutches of The Queen, aided only by a toad, a frying pan and a band of tiny, blue-skinned barbarian pictsies.

I wasn't sure whether I'd like the Tiffany Aching books, given that I don't read a lot of YA lit. Beyond the fact that the main protagonists (well, the human ones) are children and the relative simplicity of the verbal puns, there's not a lot of difference between this and the adult Discworld books.

Tiffany is an excellent character whose self-awareness grows a lot through the course of the book. I adored the Nac Mac Feegle, who hurtle with riotous abandon through the pages leaving chaos (but nothing that isn't nailed down) being them.

A gloriously effervescent story, which has me really looking forward to A Hat Full of Sky and Wintersmith.

17. The Picture of Dorian Gray - Oscar Wilde

Genre: Literature
Published: 1890 in instalments, 1891 in single volume (mine is a Penguin Classics paperback with notes, 1985 edition)
Pages: 251
Acquired: 14 April 1998, for the full RRP of the princely sum of £2.50
Why I read it now: The 1010 challenge group read prompted my to dig it out of my TBR pile, where it has been languishing for very nearly 12 years.

Rating: 5/5

Plot in one sentence: Dorian Gray mourns that he will lose his youth while his portrait remains unchanged and wishes for the portrait to age instead of him, little suspecting that his wish will come true and that the portrait will display the ravages of his depravity and hedonism.

Comments: This is a story of horrible people doing horrible things and becoming even more horrible. By rights, that ought to make it a horrible story. It isn't. It's magnificent.

***SPOILERS***

Normally, I have to sympathise with at least some of the characters to feel that I have got something out of a book - but the characters on parade here were universally irritating or loathsome. I'm not particularly keen on Oscar Wilde's writings generally. I don't like the self-conscious witticisms that are trying to be aphoristic but merely sound pretentious. I didn’t have much patience for the comments on art and I don't much admire Wilde's style. And yet, other than a couple of places where I faltered, I found the book compelling. The way in which the book commented on wrongdoing, hedonism and conscience - and the way in which it prompted me to think about those things - was mind-blowing.

Wilde doesn't describe the details of Dorian Gray's lifestyle. He alludes to it - we see hints of relationships ended badly and abuse of opiates - but we never see details. And I think this makes it more powerful. The actual acts don’t matter so much as the fact that they stem from selfishness, and the damage they do the person who commits them. The reader can never feel superior for not having lived as Dorian lived, or argue over whether a particular action or choice is actually wrong at all, but instead is provoked into considering the root causes of Dorian Gray's situation and asking, 'am I - how am I - trying to hide the damage I am doing to my own soul by my own bad choices?'

The picture itself is a fascinating plot device. It strikes me as being as much a metaphor for conscience as for sin. The things which Dorian Gray does affect the picture in the same way they affect his soul. He becomes twisted and callous, and the portrait shows that. To begin with, he isn’t indifferent to the effect of his behaviour on others. Not at first. He feels some guilt over Sibyl Vane, although later his concerns over what he does to Basil are entirely selfish. He becomes gradually more and more calloused - less and less attuned to the feelings of others, less and less able to feel the damage he is doing.

He understands that the picture represents his soul, his state of sin, and he knows that each selfish action will cause more damage. In that way, the picture is a kind of external conscience, telling him incontrovertibly that he has done wrong. And yet despite that, he does not change. He hides the picture away and refuses to allow the world to see what his soul is like, and broods over it until the obsession leads him to the final act of self-destruction.

Our consciences can never be physically seen, by us or by anyone else. Yet we still hide away things that we have done which we know or believe to be wrong. For most of us they are little things, but they are things we don’t want others to know about. Human beings have an astonishing capacity to disregard the damage they are doing to themselves and others - physically, emotionally, spiritually - and instead to seek short-term pleasure. Dorian Gray's hedonism and refusal to consider the consequences of what he does is an extreme example - people generally have the capacity for great love and kindness and well as acts of selfishness - but it seems to me that it's designed to be (and ought to be) a prompt for the reader to consider what a picture reflecting their own soul would look like.

Exactly how we as readers unpack this is going to depend to some extent on our worldview: whether we believe people are fundamentally good, evil or good-but-flawed, and the extent to which we believe we make our own destiny or are affected by outside influences. For me, it was impacted very strongly by the Bible verse, 'If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.' (1 John 1:8). None of us is perfect, all of us do things wrong from time to time. Dorian Gray refused to face his own flaws, hiding the evidence of them away. He refused to face the consequences of his actions, or to use those experiences and their consequences to become a better person. He brooded on the picture and the state of his own soul, and was concerned only with them and not with the people he had hurt. He looked at the visible manifestation of his own conscience and refused to accept or act on what it was showing him. When we're faced with the consequences of our own misjudgements, selfish actions, poor lifestyle choices - sins - we can ignore the evidence and mire ourselves deeper as Dorian Gray does, or choose to act on the warning and turn things around.

Current TBR:non-TBR ratio = 3:3 (I wonder if books that have been in the TBR for more than a decade should count double?)

What a magnificient review! It got my thumbs up .

Congrats on the Hot Review!

#44 Thank you.

18. Ukridge - PG Wodehouse

Genre: Humour - Short Stories (category 6)
Published: 1924 (2008 paperback)
Pages: 270
Acquired: July 2008
Why I read it now: I've been dipping into it for months and decided I needed to get it finished.

Rating: 3/5

Plot in one sentence: Ukridge is broke yet again, and has another dodgy scheme to raise funds. Repeat ad infinitum.

Comments: The first short story was okay, the second was passable but much the same as the first, and all the others were more of the same. Ukridge is not a likeable character, and watching him bilk his friends and get involved in shady schemes over and over again gets very tedious very quickly.

Wodehouse's characteristic humour is not on top form in these stories, although neither is it absent. All in all, this is a book for Wodehouse aficionados to dip into, rather than one for the casual reader or for cover-to-cover reading.

Current TBR:non-TBR ratio = 4:3

19. Tulip Fever - Deborah Moggach

X - Just Books

Genre: Historical Fiction (Amsterdam, 1636)/Literary Fiction
Published: 1999 (2000 Paperback edition)
Pages: 259

Rating: 4/5

Plot in one sentence: At the height of Holland's tulip-mania, a young wife is attracted to the painter her elderly husband commissions to paint their family portrait.

Comments: Very atmospheric:

"She stands there, motionless. She is suspended, caught between past and present. She is colour, waiting to be mixed; a painting, ready to be brushed into life. She is a moment, waiting to be fixed for ever under a shiny varnish. Is this a moment of decision? Will she tear up the letter or will she steal away, through the silent rooms, and slip out of the house? Her face, caught in profile, betrays nothing." (p. 46)

It is good, but it's not great. As well as a sound (if somewhat depressing) plot, a strong sense of time and place and fairly strong characters, there are some comic moments and some excellent writing. The characters consistently exhibit flawed judgement, and as a study of the stupid things people do it's quite interesting.

20. The Medieval Papacy - Geoffrey Barraclough

II - Non-fiction

Genre: History (Academic)
Published: 1968 (1975 paperback)
Why I read it now: Recommended reading for an assignment*

Rating: 4/5

Comments: A comprehensive account of the medieval papacy, and still one of the key texts on this subject after 40 years. It is an overview of the subject, though, and does lack some detail on some of the big topics. It can also be a bit dry - although it does have more pictures than you'd expect. A book for those with a serious historical interest, best tackled once a familiarity with at least some of the material has been obtained.

*I'm not going to be listing every textbook I read, but I did read this from one cover to cover so I'm darned well counting it.

21. Poetic Lives: Shelley - Daniel Hahn

Category: 2 - Non-Fiction
Completed: 27/1/10
Rated: 4
Comments: I always found poetry quite hard to get into, but in the last few years I've been trying to read more of it. When this book, along with a twin book about Coleridge, came up in Early Reviewers it seemed like a good idea to request them. This was the one I was fortunate enough to receive.

This is not a book for the serious poetry afficionado or the lover of serious biography. It aims to be an introduction to the life and the poetry of Shelley, and this is precisely what it is. The biography is interesting but not detailed, and there is a liberal scattering of Shelley's poetry throughout; Hahn has done a good job of using the poetry and biography to complement one another.

As someone with a general interest in the subject but who prior to reading the book was familiar with a grand total of ONE of Shelley's poems, and whose knowledge of his life could be summarised as 'he was a contemporary of Byron and Keats', I enjoyed this book. Someone who picked this up expecting a detailed analysis of Shelley's poetry or a standard biography would be disappointed.

I could wish Hahn had started fewer of his paragraphs with and or but, that he had made less enthusiastic use of the ellipsis, and that he had included more historical background, but on the whole this is an interesting short introduction to the life and poetry of Shelley.

22. The Tiger in the Smoke - Margery Allingham

Genre: Crime (category 9)
Published: 1952 (Mine is a 1961 penguin edition)
Pages: 244
Acquired: via BookMooch, September 2009
Why I read it now: I wanted to get it read so I could make some space on my crime fiction shelf. Sadly, it turned out to be a keeper.

Rating: 4.5 out of 5

Plot in one sentence three questions: Is the mysterious man in the photograph really the late Major Elginbrodde, believed killed in the war? How is he connected to the knife-wielding escaped convict terrorising fog-bound London? And just where has Mrs Elginbrodde's fiancé gone?

Comments: Tense and atmospheric. No, strike that. Very tense and very atmospheric. It's impossible to say much without giving away parts of the plot, but this really is a classic mystery and it unfolds magnificently. Allingham's timing is superb, and the prose is excellent. Campion is rather in the background in this story, which means that it stands alone well for those who don't want to tread the whole series.

23. The Cinderella Deal - Jennifer Crusie

Category: 10 - Just Books (This one's a romance)
Completed: 3/2/10
Rated: 4
Comments: When a starchy academic persuades chaotic artist to pose as his fiancée in order to help him get a job, neither of them expect the pretence to go for quite so long, or become quite so real.

This reads like a Crusie, but definitely like an early Crusie. The trademark characterisation and humour are there, but less developed than in her more recent books. This is a straight romance so it doesn't have the complexity of her more recent books either, but there are some excellent supporting characters. It's not a Bet Me or a Welcome to Temptation, but it's warm, it's got soul and it's a good read.

I pre-ordered this from Amazon months ago, as soon as I found out some of Crusie's early works were being republished, and I'm really pleased to have been able to read it at last - and to discover that it was worth the wait!

24. The Catholic Church from 1648 to 1870 - Friedrich Heyer

Category: 2 - Non-Fiction (Academic History)
Completed: 4/2/10
Rated: 3
Comments: Informative rather than inspiring: a useful textbook, but not one to read for pleasure.

I love The Tiger in the Smoke - very suspenseful right up to the very end.

25. Wyrd Sisters - Terry Pratchett

Category: 6 - Funny Books
Completed: 5/2/10
Rated: 5
Comments: Classic Pratchett, with lots of Shakespeare references. Brilliantly plotted and absolutely hilarious.

ETA - #53 yes, it is, isn't it? Amazing how the tension keep up.

26. Maskerade - Terry Pratchett

Genre: Fantasy/Humour (category 6 - funny books)
Published: 1995
Pages: 381
Acquired: Christmas 2009
Why I read it now: Being the only unread Witches book on my shelf, it followed on nicely from the last book.

Rating: 4.5 out of 5

Plot in one sentence: Agnes Nitt doesn't want to be a witch - she'd rather be an opera singer - but with some very strange goings on at the opera house and Granny Weatherwax in the audience Agnes's first steps in her chosen career don't go exactly the way she hoped.

Comments: Extremely clever and exceedingly funny - especially if you have at least a passing familiarity with a bit of opera and some stage musicals. And having read Gaston Leroux can't hurt. I wasn't as keen on Pratchett's witches books as on some of the other Discworld sub-series, but with the exception of Equal Rites I now love them too.

Must stop reading quite so much Terry Pratchett: my categories are starting to look distinctly unbalanced.

I'm LOL....I can't stand Terry Pratchett and was just about to go back to the top of your thread to see if you had a whole category so I could tell when you'd be finished....

There's bound to be more Pratchett to come, but you're safe for a little while, Tina.

27. The Three Evangelists - Fred Vargas

Genre: Crime Fiction (category 7 - overseas books)
Published: 1995
Pages: 292
Acquired: Second-hand book shop, November 2009
Why I read it now: As a change from all the Terry Pratchett

Rating: 3/5

Plot in one sentence: Having already begun to investigate the bizarre appearance of a tree in their neighbour's garden, historians Mathias, Marc and Lucien (together with Marc's ex-cop uncle) naturally take an interest when the neighbour in question vanishes without trace.

Comments: I liked the historians as characters. They had - how can I put it? - personality. I wasn't as keen on some of the other characters, but they were all well written. The plot dragged a bit, although the ending was tense and full of twists.

The atmosphere is very French, and I think the translator has done a good job capturing that whilst also rendering what was no doubt very idiomatic French into idiomatic English. The book is less cosy than it sounds: it's a strange blend of the cosy's amateur detectives with some grittier, almost noir elements.

I wouldn't say I liked it, but it definitely had a certain something. I think it might well appeal to fans of the current crop of slightly dark Scandinavian crime fiction.

Current TBR:non-TBR ratio = 13:9

Edited to switch category from crime to overseas books

Category 2: Innocent III: Leader of Europe - Jane Sayers
Biography of the medieval Pope (1198-1216). Readable, interesting and on the border between popular and academic history. 4.5/5

Category 6: Witches Abroad - Terry Pratchett (sorry, Tina!)
Granny Weatherwax, Nanny Ogg and Magrat have to make sure Emberella doesn't marry the Prince. This means a journey to Genua (leading to speculation over the possibilities of the commercial broomstick: serving food and telling the passengers what how to crash if the magic fails would be straightforward, but would it be better to fly under the banner Three Witches Airborne, Pan Air or - in Magrat's case - Virgin?), battles with foreign food and languages (Cwuissses dee Grenolly and banananana dakry, anyone?) and funny business with fairy tales.

Excellent. Hysterical. Go and read it. 5/5.

Category 3: The Faithful Bride - Rebecca Winters
The Big Misunderstanding trope has always been a mainstay of the romance genre; if you can stomach those stories without flinging the book across the room and shouting, "FOR THE LOVE OF PETE, JUST TALK TO ONE ANOTHER!!" then you might think more of this than I did. 2/5.

Category 10: How to Engage an Earl - Kathryn Caskie
An historical Romance with annoying characters and a plot like Emmental cheese. And as for the Earl and the respectable regency miss from Cornwall who are given to regular utterance of 'Gorblimey!'? Head, meet wall. FOR PITY'S SAKE, MS CASKIE, DO SOME RESEARCH.

(*imagines the scene in Pride and Prejudice*

"Oh! where, where is my uncle?" cried Elizabeth, darting from her seat as she finished the letter, in eagerness to follow him, without losing a moment of the time so precious; but as she reached the door it was opened by a servant, and Mr. Darcy appeared. Her pale face and impetuous manner made him start, and before he could recover himself to speak, she, in whose mind every idea was superseded by Lydia's situation, hastily exclaimed, "I beg your pardon, but I must leave you. I must find Mr. Gardiner this moment, on business that cannot be delayed; I have not an instant to lose."

"Gorblimey! what is the matter?" cried he, with more feeling than politeness; then recollecting himself, "I will not detain you a minute; but let me, or let the servant go after Mr. and Mrs. Gardiner. You are not well enough; you cannot go yourself."

*falls about laughing*)

I’m sorry, but there’s not even train-wreck value in this one. 1/5.

Category 2: A Short History of the Papacy in the Middle Ages - Walter Ullmann
Most of the comments about Barraclough's book on the same subject also apply here. It's a bit drier and has no pictures; on the other hand it's probably more comprehensive. The two books are quite different in style, and are definitely complementary. 4/5

Category 9: Holy Disorders - Edmund Crispin
An absolutely superb mystery: beautifully plotted, and hysterically funny. I laughed like a drain at just about every other page, and after the raven's appearance in chapter 8 I just have to go and read some Edgar Allan Poe.

Excellent. Hysterical. Go and read it. 5/5.

That makes a total of 33 books for the challenge so far.

@59 :: Hahaha -- that re-write of P&P had me laughing and shuddering at the same time!

Also, Holy Disorders really looks good...is it part of a series though? I was under the impression that it was, and if so, I'd like to start with the first one.

Holy Disorders is the second of the Gervase Fen mysteries; The Case of the Gilded Fly is the first one, but I haven't read that yet.

I read The Moving Toyshop (number 3 in the series) last year and didn't like it so much - I didn't think it was bad, I just didn't think it was fantastic - but having loved this one so much I've decided to work through the rest of the series.

@59 Very funny! You never know, Pride & Prejudice & Corny exclamations might be an instant hit. It's as scary as zombies in my book at least.

@61 :: Thanks CatyM!

I absolutely loved Holy Disorders. I think I almost peed my pants when I read that part, I was laughing so hard.

34. The Anubis Gates - Tim Powers

Genre: Fantasy/Steampunk (category 8 - recommended reads)
Published: 1983
Pages: 464
Acquired: I spotted it on the shelf in Waterstones last week, remembered that there was a group read going on, and added it to the pile on a whim.
Why I read it now: Group read

Rating: 3.5/5

Plot in one sentence: After agreeing to act as a time-travelling tour guide to an 1810 lecture by Coleridge, academic Brendan Doyle is marooned in the past - and captures the interest of some distinctly odd characters.

Comments: A great thriller, with splendidly grotesque characters, manic pacing and a surprising and complex plot. By the end it seemed to be getting a bit repetitive, though: the ending was good but the last third of the book seemed a little too drawn out. Very readable, very clever and very macabre. A bit like a Tom Clancy thriller crossed with an Umberto Eco novel and something hallucinogenic.

Current TBR:non-TBR ratio = 14:20 (Ouch.)

35. Miss Buncle's Book - DE Stevenson

Genre: Fiction (category 8 - recommended reads)
Published: 1934 (2008 Persephone Edition)
Pages: 332
Acquired: February 2010
Why I read it now: It was being recommended right, left and centre by people with either sound judgement, similar taste in books to mine - or both.

Rating: 5/5

Plot in one three sentences: When Miss Buncle wrote her book, she wrote about what (or rather who) she knew. Everyone loved it. Except her neighbours.

Comments: You were all right. Absolutely superb. Plot, characters, phrasing, humour, the lot. Glorious. Splendid. Perfect.

Current TBR:non-TBR ratio = 14:21

>66 Eat_Read_Knit: That was one of my mother's favorite books! I'm thinking about reading it for my books & authors category for the challenge. I bought a used copy for my mother either for Christmas or for her birthday a few years before she died, and it's now in my library.

36. Doomsday Book - Connie Willis

Genre: Science Fiction
Published: 1992
Pages: 578
Acquired: BookMooch, January 2010
Why I read it now: I was in the mood for it. Plus, I thought I remembered it being an acquisition from last autumn that I could count for my Off the Shelves challenge, but when I checked it turned out to be a January mooch. :(

Rating: 4/5

Plot in one sentence: In 2054, Oxford historians send an eager student back in time to conduct field research in 1320, but the routine research trip goes badly wrong when virulent epidemics strike at both ends of the experiment.

Comments: I didn't think this was a great book, but I did think it was a great story. The early chapters were slow to get going, the book was very repetitive, and at times the Oxford of 2054 sounded more like the Oxford of 1954 but with time travel. Some of the characters were very irritating and most of them were one trick ponies. Over and over again they bleated their irritating refrain: "You can't; I want; I won't let you; let me leave".

Despite that - and despite the book being very nearly 600 pages long - I read it straight through in about 12 hours. I read straight through 600 pages of irritating characters because Willis made me care and she made me think. She made me care about the characters, and about whether they lived or died. She made me think about what it means to give and to live and to serve, and about what we're really here for. She made me feel Kivrin's pain and Colin's excitement and Dunworthy's anxiety. She made me grieve for a fictional character.

The book has flaws - but the storytelling is extraordinary.

Current TBR:non-TBR ratio = 14:22 (Doomed. We're all doomed. Well, my good intentions of reading from the TBR are, anyway.)

#67 It's a wonderful book and I would definitely recommend it. You mother had good taste. :) I'm sorry you don't have her with you any longer, but I do love the way that reading books we inherit from people we love can make us feel closer to them, just like pictures and photos and special memories.

I love Miss Buncle. Such a fun story - her best book, I think. The Doomsday Book is on my TBR list, but I haven't gotten there yet! It sounds like it will be really good.

>67 cbl_tn:, 68

(Doomed. We're all doomed. Well, my good intentions of reading from the TBR are, anyway.)

And your two latest reviews aren't helping!!!!! Damn, I really was hoping to get something off that TBR pile in the next week or two.

37. Sam the Sudden - PG Wodehouse

Genre: Humour (category 6)
Published: 1925
Pages: 314
Acquired: January 2010 - bought with book tokens from Christmas 2009
Why I read it now: I love PG Wodehouse and I can't ever leave his books unread for long.

Rating: 4.5

Plot in one sentence: Exuberant Sam Shotter finds that his career in publishing and his pursuit of the Unattainable Goddess living next door are considerably enlivened by the stolen millions hidden somewhere in his nondescript suburban semi and the presence in his home of a slightly insane hound named Amy.

Comments:

'He kissed you! What did you do?'

'I hit him very hard with a book I was taking to read to Mrs Bates. It was the Rev. Aubrey Jerningham's Is There A Hell? and I'll bet Claude thought there was. Until then I had always rather disliked Mrs Bates' taste in literature, which shows how foolish I was. If she had preferred magazines, where would I have been? There were about six hundred pages of Aubrey Jerningham, bound in stiff cloth, and he blacked Claude's eye like a scholar and a gentleman.'

...

A deep thrill of gratitude to the Rev. Aubrey Jerningham passed through Kay. How many a time, wearied by his duties about the parish, must that excellent cleric have been tempted to scamp his work and shirk the labour of adding that extra couple of thousand words which just make all the difference to literature when considered in the light of a missile. But he had been strong. He had completed his full six hundred pages and seen to it that his binding had been heavy and hard and sharp about the edges. For a moment, as she sat there, Rev. Aubrey Jerningham seemed to Kay the one bright spot in a black world. (pp. 108-9)

Classic Wodehouse. Not his best - it can be a bit rambling compared to the sharpness of his best works - but still excellent. Loveable characters, superb prose, entertainment all the way.

38. Evil and the Justice of God - NT Wright

Genre: Theology
Published: 2006
Pages: 117
Acquired: February 2010
Why I read it now: Some of the later conversations between Kivrin and Father Roche in Doomsday Book set me to thinking about the theology of natural disasters: why does God allow such things as pandemics and earthquakes and where is he when all that suffering is happening? I already had this in the TBR, so I pulled it out.

Rating: 4.5 out of 5

Comments: Although Wright refers to natural disasters - most notably the 2004 tsunami - in his introduction, I was disappointed that he doesn't really come back to that issue in any depth later in the book. I would have liked him to address that sort of thing - non-human-inflicted suffering, let us say - alongside the human-inflicted suffering that is his primary theme. That quibble aside, though, I thought this was a very good book.

Wright starts with a general discussion of what evil is and the various ways we think about it. He discusses the polarised viewpoints and the trends in thinking over the past few hundred years, before moving on to consider what the Old Testament and then the New Testament have to say on the subject. From there, he moves to considering the theological and practical application: how ought Christians to treat the real problem of evil in the light of Biblical teaching? What should Christians do or try to do about corrupt governments, genocide crime, personal squabbles and the myriad manifestations of evil in society? How should government and criminal justice actually work? What does it really mean to forgive those who do wrong?

Wright has a way of making complex theology very accessible, and he did this well here. His arguments were coherent and he explained clearly and concisely how his various points fitted together; his writing was lucid and his illustrations well chosen.

Recommended.

Current TBR:non-TBR ratio = 14:24 (I'm going to give up trying in a minute. My TBR has 407 books that I acquired before the end of 2009. Why is it so hard to make myself read them?)

39. A Bride for Jericho Bravo - Christine Rimmer

Genre: Contemporary Romance
Published: 2010
Pages: 214
Acquired: Ordered it after reading this review at the Dear Author review blog.
Why I read it now: I wanted something quick and short.

Rating: 3/5

Plot in one sentence: After being dumped by her boyfriend, Marnie treks hundreds of miles to take refuge with her sister, and meets her brother-in-law's brother, who is even more of a black sheep than Marnie is, but could be just what she needs to get over her ex.

Comments: Dear Author's review is pretty fair, I think. I couldn't really accept the speed with which Marnie got over the break-up of her relationship with a man she'd been living with for five years and committed to someone she'd known for only a few weeks. Otherwise, a decent hour-and-a-half's mind candy.

Current TBR:non-TBR ratio = 14:25

40. An Unsuitable Attachment - Barbara Pym

Genre: Fiction (Misc)
Published: 1982 (originally written 1963)
Pages: 256
Acquired: Purchased September 2009
Why I read it now: I was determined to read something from the TBR shelf

Rating: 4.5 out of 5

From the back cover: "Set in Basil's, an undistinguished north London parish, [this book] is full of the high comedy for which [Pym] is famed. Among the quirky, quintessentially English characters are vicar Mark Ainger, his wife Sophia and her cat, 'I feel sometimes that I can't reach Faustina as I've reached other cats', as well as Rupert Stonebird, anthropologist and eligible bachelor. At the library, under the critical eye of sharp-tongued Marvyn Cantrell, well-bred Ianthe Broom forms an unsuitable attachment to a young man."

Comments: A well-written book with beautiful characters. There's a lot of uncertainty and you're never quite sure who - if anyone - Ianthe and Rupert are going to end up with, which makes the ending pleasing. Some of the scenes in Rome satirising the British abroad are positively wicked. There's a distinctive 1960s feel to the book, but it doesn't feel at all dated; in fact, it feels so vibrant that I fully expected to look up from the book and find myself surround by beehives, miniskirts, Vespas and middle-aged spinsters complaining about the early Beatles music.

Current TBR:non-TBR ratio = 15:25

41. The House at Pooh Corner - AA Milne

Genre: Children's Literature
Published: 1928 (mine is a beautiful 1965 Methuen paperback that has plainly never been near a child)
Pages: 176
Acquired: Charity shop, July 2009
Why I read it now:
1. It was in the TBR.
2. It was on the top of (one of) the TBR pile(s)
3. I knew the stories, but I had NEVER actually read this book. Shocking, I know.

Rating: 5/5

Plot in one sentence: Adventures from the Hundred Acre Wood, including the arrival of Tigger, the invention of Poohsticks and Pooh's narrow escape from Heffalumps.

Comments: The original, unDisneyfied Pooh is rightly an icon of children's literature. I don't think I've ever read Winnie-the-Pooh either, so I'll have to do that soon.

Current TBR:non-TBR ratio = 16:25

42. Brat Farrar - Josephine Tey

Genre: Mystery (category 9)
Published: 1949
Pages:275
Acquired: Bought - October 2009
Why I read it now: Group Read.

Rating: 4.5 out of 5

Comments:Foundling Brat Farrar has been carefully coached to impersonate twenty-year-old Patrick Ashby, the heir to a significant fortune who has been missing, presumed dead, for eight years. But who is he really? If he's not Patrick, why does he look so much like Simon Ashby, Patrick's surviving twin? And what really happened on the cliffs eight years before?

A superbly-drawn set of characters and a wonderful story of suspense. Not a mystery in the standard mould, but a very entertaining puzzle with a very tense denouement. Only the slight hints of soppiness and cliché in the last couple of chapters stop it from scoring a perfect 5.

Current TBR:non-TBR ratio = 17:25 (More progress!)

@77 :: Thanks for this review - Brat Farrar is on my TBR list, and I'm starting to get anxious to get to it! :)

#78 I think you'll enjoy it.

(BTW, the group read is in the 75 Challenge group, but absolutely everyone is welcome to join in and discussion starts next Monday.)

43 Thief of Time - Terry Pratchett

Genre: Fantasy - category 6
Published: 2001
Pages: 430
Acquired: Christmas 2009
Why I read it now: It seemed like time for another Pratchett book.

Rating: 5/5

Plot in one sentence: The Monks of History make sure that there's enough time in the places where it's needed - and when Jeremy Clockson starts making a clock which will keep time with the universe (and thus stop time), it's down to Lu Tze and his apprentice Lobsang Ludd leave the monastery, find the clock and stop it before it starts.

Comments: Incredibly funny and incredibly profound. Any description will barely scratch the surface of this book - but any novel that seamlessly mixes quantum mechanics, eastern philosophy and death by chocolate has to be a winner.

Current TBR:non-TBR ratio = 18:25

44. What the Librarian Did - Karina Bliss

Category: Overseas books (Okay, this wasn't quite the kind of world literature I had in mind when I decided on the category, but the author is a New Zealander and this category is lagging behind.)
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Published: 2010
Pages: 249
Acquired: Purchased March 2010 after reading this Dear Author review
Why I read it now: It arrived (and I have no self-control)

Rating: 4.5/5

Plot in one two sentences: University librarian Rachel has her world shaken up by the arrival of two new students: one is an egotistical, bad-boy former rock star who is attracted by her refusal to worship at his feet, and the other is the teenage son she gave up for adoption when she was seventeen. And when the wild rocker takes the shy teenager under his wing, things start to get distinctly complicated

Comments: This was a great story. Not perfect - I thought some of the ends were tied up a little too pat - but definitely great. There's a lot of humour in the book, and some great one-liners. The characters are really well written, and the various parent-child relationships and themes related to 'doing the right thing' are very strong. It's not great literature, it is a romance novel - but it's definitely much more than just a romance novel. And it's a darn good read.

The Dear Author review is excellent. And the book gets extra points for having a title and cover art that actually reflects the content of the book. (Gasp! Hold the front page!)

Current TBR:non-TBR ratio = 18:26

I've done some category rearranging.

I've scrapped the 1001 books category. I wasn't making much progress in either that category or the Victorian books category, and neither was looking very appealing, so at least one had to go. The Picture of Dorian Gray has moved from the 1001 books category to the Victorian category, so that helps on both counts.

The other book I had down for 1001 was Bonjour Tristesse; that's gone into Overseas books. I have two down for France and I was hoping to keep it to one per country, but that's the best place for the book.

In the place of 1001 books there's now a Terry Pratchett category. All the Pratchett books from other categories have gone into that one, plus A Hat Full of Sky which wasn't down for the challenge. I read that one in February. I'll post the review below.

The category that was humour has broadened out. It actually still only has books that fit the original definition, but that may change. It's now for quintessentially English books. Wodehouse has stayed there, and been joined by DE Stevenson and Barbara Pym.

I'm not going to bother going through each post and amending category numbers in the reviews.

I haven't taken out any books that were in there before, and the only new one is A Hat Full of Sky, but I think the categories are numerically better balanced and will be easier for me to fill. On the flip side, there's a little less breadth in the challenge--but I'm not prepared to take books from the TBR that don't appeal at that moment just to fill slots, and have to slog through stuff I don't want to be reading.

From February 14:

21. A Hat Full of Sky - Terry Pratchett

Genre: Fantasy/Humour/YA
Published: 2004
Pages: 351
Acquired: Christmas 2009
Why I read it now: It's a Pratchett: who needs a reason? (The the fact that it follows on from The Wee Free Men might have had a bit of influence.)

Rating: 4/5

Plot in one sentence: When trainee witch Tiffany Aching steps out of her body and leaves it empty, there is a Thing just waiting to take it over - and if Tiffany wants to regain sole possession of her body and mind then she's going to need all the help the Nac Mac Feegle and Granny Weatherwax can give her.

Comments: I didn't enjoy this one as much as The Wee Free Men, and there was a moment two-thirds of the way through where the plot spluttered a bit and almost stalled. It didn't stall, and the last third of the book was better than I was expecting. The character development was excellent, and overall the plot was fairly strong. Granny Weatherwax has some great moments - as usual - and some really profound observations. Recommended, but not as strongly as some of the others.

45. Out of Control - Julie Miller
A fast-paced and gripping romantic suspense. Strong characters with a lot of depth make this a good read, and the author does a good job of showing when and why her characters are acting out of character. It's quite dark in places, and very emotional in others. It's also pretty tame for a Harlequin Blaze, which means that it's definitely not dominated by sex. 4.5/5

46. Fantasy Lover - Sherrilyn Kenyon
I picked this up after reading a recommendation that said it was a good paranormal romance for people who don't like paranormal romance (if that makes sense). I don't do fangs or fur, but seeing as the paranormal elements in this were were described as Greek mythology I thought I'd try it.

And yes, I enjoyed it. The character development was pretty strong, but the plot was somewhat strained at times. I didn't have any real trouble suspending disbelief. But I probably won't be reading any of the others in the series. 3.5/5

47. Reaper Man - Terry Pratchett

Genre: Fantasy
Published: 1991
Pages: 186
Acquired: Via Amazon, February 2010
Why I read it now: No particular reason

Rating: 3/5

Plot in one sentence: When Death is forced by a higher power (yes, there is one) to take early retirement, all the excess life building up on the Discworld starts bursting out in some surprising and chaos-inducing ways.

Comments: I didn't like this one so much, although I'm not sure why. It just didn't hit the spot, which is unusual for me with Pratchett's books. Not dire, just not scratching where it itches.

50. The Widow's Tale - Mick Jackson

Genre: General Fiction
Published: 2010
Pages: 223
Acquired: Early Reviewers (January 2010 batch, ARC)
Why I read it now: The outstanding review was starting to nag at my conscience

Rating: 4.5 out of 5

Review: I liked this book a lot. There was something about this unnamed character that really got under my skin. She is hard to figure out at first - her character is so mired in grief and depression that very little else comes through. Gradually, though, more and more of the widow's story, situation and personality begin to appear. As she reveals more of her past and present, the reader can see the ways she is healing - and the ways she is not.

The first person, stream of consciousness style works extremely well, and the experience of depression and near-breakdown that it shows is heartbreaking, immediate and (so far as my personal experience allows me to assess) accurate.

At times it almost feels as if the writer has lost the sense of his character - but then the story unfolds a little further and the character comes back into focus, and you realise that it's the complexity of the character and her situation telling a really well-written unreliable-narrator story.

Mick Jackson does an excellent job of keeping the reader's interest and tying up the elements of the plot: every time I wondered, 'what happened with this character/plot element?' and thought he'd dropped a thread, it was picked up and answered.

The blurb describes the book as 'by turns elegiac and highly comical'; elegiac it certainly is, and very powerfully so. Highly comical it's not, but there is a wry and subtle humour to it that is very engaging.

Highly Recommended.

Current TBR:non-TBR ratio = Don't ask. Just don't ask.

...

You had to ask, didn't you?

Okay, it's 18:31.

*Hides head in shame*.

51. Jar City - Arnaldur Indriðason

Genre: Crime (category 7: overseas books)
Published: 2000, English translation 2004
Pages: 338
Acquired: March 2010
Why I read it now: I've been after a copy for ages and spotted it on the shelves in Waterstones the other week.

Rating: 4/5

Plot in one sentence: A body is found in a Reykjavik flat, accompanied by a cryptic note and a photograph which force Detective Erlendur to use considerable ingenuity in working out what happened and why.

Comments: Much darker, bleaker and more graphic than the crime fiction I usually read, but at least I knew that going in. It's an absolutely gripping story, but dear heavens is it depressing. And it's not for the squeamish. Strongly recommended for lovers of crime fiction who are also possessed of strong stomachs.

Current TBR:non-TBR ratio = 18:32 (sob)

Why I've manged to miss out on this wonderful thread since mid-august I'll never know. Worth a starring for your hilarious epic struggle with the TBR-Non-TBR ratio alone! Your "Why I read it now" is also an ingenious idea.

#87 Thanks and welcome.

I'd almost swear that the new books are bouncing up and down squealing, "Look at me! Look at me! Read Me! Read Me! READ ME!!" and the TBR stack is nestling into a corner and will at any moment announce in a really bad accent, "I vant to be ahlone." I am definitely losing the battle.

@85 I picked up and really liked Jackson's Ten sorry tales a few years ago. Haven't seen any other titles by him since. Will definitely keep an eye out for The widow's tale!

I think the UK publication date for The Widow's Tale is April 1, but I don't know about elsewhere.

I've never come across his work before, but I shall definitely keep an eye out for it in future.

The Case of the Gilded Fly - Edmund Crispin

Genre: Crime (IX)
Published: 1944
Pages: 208
Acquired: Book Depository, March 2010
Why I read it now: I wasn't keen on The Moving Toyshop but I loved Holy Disorders, so I decide to give Crispin another go.

Rating: 4/5

Plot in one sentence: When a universally-loathed actress is found murdered in his Oxford college in a room no-one could possibly have entered, Professor Gervase Fen investigates.

Comments: I Liked it more than The Moving Toyshop and less than Holy Disorders. I'll keep up with the series, though, and I might re-read The Moving Toyshop now that I have a better idea of Crispin's style and humour. I think I might appreciate it more now.

As She Climbed Across the Table - Jonathan Lethem

Genre: Science Fiction/Speculative Fiction (VIII - Recommended books: recommended by someone on LT - but that was months ago and I can't remember who it was.)
Published: 1997
Pages: 198
Acquired: BookMooch, April 2010
Why I read it now: I started flicking through it when it arrived and then kept reading.

Rating: 3.5 /5

Plot in one sentence: Philip loves Alice, but Alice has forsaken Philip and fallen in love with a hole in the universe created when her physics experiment went a tad awry; Philip wants Alice back - but how do you compete with Nothing?

Comments: A bizarre book. Weird but compelling. Amusing and peculiarly (in both senses of the word) entertaining. I had a similar reaction after I finished reading this to when I read If on a winter's night a traveler: not being able to decide whether or not I liked it, not being able to stop thinking about it, and mentally giving it a firm prod and a thorough shake to see if I could make sense of it, and finally giving up all of the above and just letting it percolate around my brain.

Current TBR:non-TBR ratio = 18:35

It's funny how many fantasy/sci-fans agree on Pratchett - but disagree on which ones. Reaper Man and Mort are my all time favorites, followed by the Tiffany Aching ones. I have Interesting Times up next for me.

Love the running total of TBR vs. non-TBR. Hate to rub it in, but do you realize you've been at 18 TBR for almost a MONTH??? (heh, heh, heh)

Actually, I'm having the same problem and have now returned all but one library book (the Presidential history I'm on) and am going to force myself to pull from the pile, that group that I just HAD to have NOW to read - until they got put on the TBR table. Hmmm. Maybe the PILE is what's wrong. That's the trick: I should just scatter them around the house so I notice them now and then. Although it won't be quite so easy with the Kindle books that ended up on the 2nd, 3rd or 4th page....

#93 I know. And it shows no sign of changing. It could be worse: at least most of the new acquisitions (although not necessarily those that have shown up here yet) are books that have been on the wishlist for months if not years. There are some completely spontaneous acquisitions, but not a lot.

And speaking of new acquisitions of books that have been on the wishlist for months:

The Last Hero - Terry Pratchett/Paul Kidby

Genre: Fantasy (Graphic Novel) - Terry Pratchett category
Published: 2001
Pages: 160
Acquired: Charity Shop: hardback, good condition, under £2. How could I possibly NOT buy it?
Why I read it now: See above.

Rating: 4.5/5

Plot in one sentence: Having run out of lands to conquer and having got bored with ruling, Cohen the Barbarian and the Silver Horde decide to go out with a bang--but will Captain Carrot, Rincewind and Leonard da Quirm be able to stop them destroying the Discworld as they go?

Comments: Requires/assumes a lot of previous knowledge of Discworld, and doesn't have anything approaching the complexity of even the Tiffany Aching books, let alone the adult novels (it's essentially a novella). However, the pictures are wonderful (even if Captain Carrot looks nothing like that in my head) and it's very funny and very clever.

Current TBR:non-TBR ratio for 2010 = 18:37*

*Not sure where the error in counting came in, but this is now correct for the total of 55 books this year.

Barmy in Wonderland - PG Wodehouse (Category 6: quintessentially British)
One of Wodehouse's less famous works, but still extremely entertaining. Cyril 'Barmy' Fotheringay-Phipps is talked into investing his entire net worth in a very dubious Broadway show. 4/5

Instant Attraction - Jill Shalvis (Category 8: recommended books)
Contemporary Romance. He's an ex-Olympic athlete whose career was dramatically cut short by injury; she's recently survived a bridge collapse and has survivor's guilt and a new determination to seize the moment. She's hired by his brother as temporary office manager in his family's business. Strong characters, lots of atmosphere. 4/5

Wesley for Armchair Theologians – William J Abraham

Genre: Theology
Published: 2005
Pages: 195
Acquired: From the church bookstall a couple of months ago
Why I read it now: Ties in with a study project

Rating: 4/5

Comments: This is intended as a basic introduction to John Wesley’s theology, and it does that job well. It’s not comprehensive or flawless, but it does the job. It’s not dull, and I’ve got some ideas for further reading from it. I wish the footnotes specified the particular sermon (or whatever) that the quotes were from, rather simply than a volume number and page reference to the collected works, but that’s nit-picking.

Catholicism for Dummies – John Trigilio and Kenneth Brighenti
Genre: Theology/Christian Doctrine
Published: 2003
Pages: 414
Acquired: Bought in 2008 for reference
Why I read it now: Some of the stuff I’m studying requires an understanding of several areas of Roman Catholic doctrine. I’m a Methodist. I needed help.

Rating: 4/5

Comments: It’s a basic introduction to the subject. It doesn’t claim to be anything more, and it does its job well. It could do with updating, but it’s pretty comprehensive and it does what is says on the tin. I found the clear, concise explanations of the theology of peculiarly Roman Catholic practices and doctrines - prayer to the saints and the Immaculate Conception, for example - extremely helpful.

My main quibble is that when it gets off the subject of ‘what Catholics do/believe’ and starts making comparisons with other Christian denominations, it has a tendency to be a bit dismissive and to make generalisations about both ‘what Protestants believe’ and ‘what Protestants think Catholics believe’. Maybe this Protestant is a bit touchy - or possibly it’s just a question of what many Catholics think most Protestants think all Catholics believe. In which case, they’re probably right. At least, they are if I’ve managed to keep track of all the sub-clauses in that sentence and say what I meant to say.

Edited to add positive comments about what was helpful in the second book.

What an eclectic mix of reading this month..the "Dummies" book looks interesting...I'd love to see if us catholics have the same reaction you have. It's going onto the TBR pile.

#97 I'll be interested to see what you think when you get to it.

Major Pettigrew's Last Stand - Helen Simonson

Genre: Fiction Misc
Published: 2010
Pages: 355
Acquired: April 2010 from Amazon - I'd read dozens of positive comments on LT and finally cracked
Why I read it now: It was supposed to be an April read for the 75ers Take It or Leave It challenge, but I didn't finish it in time.

Rating: 4/5

Comments: Well written, I thought, but something didn't quite work for me. The major and the main characters were incredibly well written, I liked the humour, and the writing was very strong. The tension and irony work well, and the gentle plot is well constructed.

The author has done an excellent job of showing the disconnection between characters' thoughts and actions, between what they think and what they want other people to think that they think. The unspoken nuances of character and thought are very well portrayed, and in this it reminded me of the writing of Barbara Pym.

Somehow, though, it just didn't quite work perfectly, and the whole was less than the sum of its parts. I thought it was good, but not superb, and it's annoying me that I can't work out what disappointed me.

Current TBR:non-TBR ratio = 19:44

Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone - JK Rowling

Genre: YA Fantasy (category 10: Just Books)
Published: 1997
Pages: 309
Acquired: via BookMooch March 2010
Why I read it now: For my TIOLI challenge

Rating: 4/5

Comments: Quite entertaining, I liked it - but I didn't love it. I have the next two books in the series and I'll read them at some point, but I'm not inclined to pick them up right now. I can at least now say I've read it.

Current TBR:non-TBR ratio = 19:45

Fludd - Hilary Mantel

Genre: Fiction/Historical Fiction (categroy 8 - recommended books)
Published: 1989
Pages: 186
Acquired: Bought in March - from Waterstones, I think - after various recommendations.
Why I read it now: For the TIOLI challenge in the 75ers group.

Rating: 3.5

Comments: In the bleak Northern mill village of Fetherhoughton, the population trudge grimly through life, surrounded by poverty and the tight grip of the Catholic Church. Old Ma Purpit - Mother Perpetua, mother superior and headmistress - terrorises the children and the nuns alike.

Father Angwin, the parish priest, doesn't believe in God or in change, and since his job requires the former and his bishop the latter he's begun to put his faith in the whisky decanter.

Into this village comes Fludd: the new curate, it stands to reason, and sent by the bishop. Except there's something odd about Fludd - and some odd things are happening in the village.

The picture of northern grimness seemed a bit caricatured at the start of the book, like the apogee of one of those deprivation one-upmanship conversations that just gets silly: "When I were a lad, we lived ten of us in one room and me brothers an' me 'ad one pair o' shoes between the six of us." "That's nothing! When I were a lad, we slept seventeen to a bed, and there were that many 'oles in the roof we 'ad to shelter under the whippet to keep the rain off." So also the picture of the Catholic Church: very bleak and wholly negative. But as the book continues these pictures begin to work. Not literally - the village never quite works as a real place - but as symbols of downtrodden lives, of oppressive institutional religion and of looking with new perspectives at the same old things.

I didn't love this book, but I did like it, and it did stimulate my thoughts about faith and change. Worth reading, I think, but perhaps the kind of book to borrow from the library rather than to rush out and buy.

Current TBR:non-TBR ratio = 19:46

The Pothunters - PG Wodehouse

Genre: Fiction Misc/Humour
Category: VI - English Books
Published: 1902 (Serialised beginning in January 1902, drat it, so just misses the Victorian category)
Pages: 156
Acquired: May 6, from Waterstones.
Why I read it now: Heavy study load at the moment and needed some light relief.

Rating: 4/5

Plot in one sentence: When two silver cups go missing from the cricket pavilion just before sports day the are rumours of it being an inside job - but surely no English public schoolboy would stoop so low...?

Comments: This is notable for being the first of PG Wodehouse's published books. Despite being only an adumbration of the genius revealed in some of his later tales, it is nevertheless charming, and, for a school story from 1902, remarkably undated.

I rather liked this exchange:

'Good opportunity for a chap to go for a stroll if he wanted to. Shall we, by the way?'
'Not for me, thanks. I'm in the middle of a rather special book. Ever read Great Expectations? Dickens, you know.'
'I know. Haven't read it, though. Always rather funk starting on a classic, somehow. Good?'
'My dear chap! Good's not the word.'
'Well, after you. Exit Livy, then. And a good job, too. You might pass us the great Sherlock. Thanks.'
He plunged with the great detective into the mystery of the speckled band, while Vaughan opened Great Expectations at the place where he had left off the night before. And a silence fell upon the study.

At the time of publication, it was a mere 41 years since the first instalment of Great Expectations had appeared, and Sherlock Holmes was still considered to have perished in the Reichenbach Falls, with his return in print only coming a year later.

Not recommended as an introduction to Wodehouse, but definitely recommended for Wodehouse fans and lovers of school stories.

Current TBR:non-TBR ratio = 19:47

67. Mrs McVinnie's London Season - Carla Kelly

Genre: Regency Romance (Category 3 - second-hand books)
Published: 1990
Pages: 286
Acquired: via BookMooch, some time in the last few weeks
Why I read it now: John Wesley and Thomas Aquinas were making my brain hurt.

Rating: 3.5/5

Plot in one sentence: Young widow Mrs McVinnie is persuaded to act as companion to a spoiled brat by the brat's despairing uncle, a naval officer who wants nothing more than to escape the London season and head back to his ship and his war for a bit of peace and quiet.

Comments: Not bad, but the plot was too - what's the word I want? - too visible. It felt as though events in the story happened in order to show Mrs M's compassion, or grief, or pragmatism, or feelings for her late husband/father-in-law/employer. Which they always do in every book, of course, but here it was too close to the surface. Individually the elements are all fine, but somehow the whole is not entirely convincing. This is one of the author's earliest works, and is noticeably less polished than more recent titles. It is, however, entertaining for fans of the genre.

68. How to Be a Bad Birdwatcher - Simon Barnes

Genre: Non-Fiction - Natural History
Published: 2004
Pages: 198
Acquired: Started flicking through it in the second-hand bookshop on Monday, then started reading in earnest, and finally had to buy it in order to read the rest.
Why I read it now: See above.

Rating: 4.5/5

Comments:
Instructions for being a bad birdwatcher: "Look out of the window. See a bird. Enjoy it. Congratulations. You are now a bad birdwatcher."

This is a book about watching and enjoying birds. Not 'learning all about birds', or 'learning all about birdwatching'. Just enjoying birds. It's a book about the elemental struggle between that robin and the earthworm it's trying to pull out of the ground, about grinning with glee over fluffy ducklings and about the life and death drama of the suburban bird-table.

Filled with humour, reminiscences and slightly offbeat observations, Barnes eschews technical jargon and the exotic delights of obscure species in favour of analogies with football and the obvious importance of interacting with our surroundings and our furred and feathered neighbours.

This is a book that made me really observe and appreciate the crow that hopped down the road this morning in search of discarded chips.

Current TBR:non-TBR ratio = 19:49

#103 These both sound like wonderful antidotes for Wesley and Aquinas overload.

#104 Yup. :)

69. Rooms - James L Rubart

Christian fiction
382 pages
Received April 29 via March Early Reviewers

When I open a book and the first thing I see is three or four pages of gushing quotes praising the work in question, my hackles rise: if the book is really as good as all those reviews claim, then quoting all those reviews is surely superfluous. Three-and-a-bit pages of gushing before I got to the title page predisposed me to dislike this book. In fact, by the time I got to the final quote—which described it as ‘a modern day Pilgrim’s Progress but so much more’—I was sharpening my red pencil and getting ready to savage it.

Those three pages do the book a disservice: they make it out be something it’s not. I don’t think that Rooms will be considered a beloved spiritual classic in seventy years’ time like The Screwtape Letters (to which it is also compared), and I certainly don’t think that in 300 years’ time it will be considered one of the most significant works in the canon of English literature like The Pilgrim’s Progress. (And if it is, well, you can track me down in the hereafter and I'll admit I was wrong.) Simply covering similar themes to Screwtape and Pilgrim’s Progress doesn’t make it like them. Rooms is popular fiction, and to pretend it is something else is to do it a great disservice.

This is the story of Micah Taylor: twenty-nine, a software tycoon with a penthouse apartment and a BMW, who has a new and promising personal relationship with his business partner Julie and an appalling relationship with his father. When he inherits a mansion on the beach from his great-uncle, he intends to sell it for a decent chunk of cash and carry on as before. The house comes with an intriguing letter from his benefactor, and when he goes to visit it things get even odder. Things in Micah’s life start changing, strange things happen in the house, and Micah’s enigmatic new friend and neighbour Rick only adds to the puzzle.

It’s an entertaining story and a Christian allegory with some interesting, possibly valuable, comment on the need to allow God into every part of you and to allow Him to change you, and on the insidious dangers of thinking it’s possible to have a strong relationship with God and at the same time to keep everything else as it would be were He not there. The theology underpinning the allegory is orthodox but with a strong emphasis on experiential aspects of faith, and the book certainly has the capacity to be spiritually helpful and encouraging.

Rubart’s plotting shows a lot of imagination, and is highly creative. The pace is generally good, although a bit slow at the start, and the characters and geographical setting are well drawn. The writing is satisfactory: the prose is utilitarian rather than lyrical or graceful, and the author’s habit of dropping brand names into his descriptions is occasionally irritating and intrusive, but there's nothing objectionable about it.

This is not a spiritual classic or a literary work of great beauty, but it is an intriguing piece of Christian fiction for the popular market that, if you’re a Christian or seriously (and I do mean seriously) exploring Christianity, might just have something to say to you about your relationship with God.

3.5 out of 5.

ETA Missing word

>105 Eat_Read_Knit: Very nice review, Caty, though I think I'll pass on the book.

#106 Thanks. :)

70. Cheerful Weather for the Wedding - Julia Strachey

Genre: Fiction/Literature (Category 6 - English books)
Published: 1932; 2009 Persephone edition
Pages: 118
Acquired: Birthday present, Spring 2010

Rating: 4/5

Comments: A beautifully written novella, satirical and populated by a cast of eccentric characters, describing the trials of young bride Dolly as she goes through her wedding day surrounded by squabbling siblings, a bitter rejected suitor and a dotty mother. Elegant and humorous.

@108 :: Looks like fun! :) I'll definitely be on the lookout for this.

@106 I second that! It's funny, I always feel sort of obligated to wallow through those pages of endless thumbs up, as if they were a part of the book I was about to read. I'm often left with a kind of feeling there are some writers who do nothing all fay but write up other people's work (in a sweeping, general "I loved it to bits!" sort of way).

#109 Hope you enjoy it!

#110 I know what you mean, Anders. I find those pages very intrusive, in the sense that I have a hard time making myself not read them but instead go straight to the book itself. (I'm one of those weird people who reads prologues and introductions, as well.) I also find myself cynically wondering how many review copies the publishers sent out in order to have received so many positive reviews, how many negative reviews went unquoted, and how many review copies never resulted in a review. It triggers the 'major marketing push' alert, and makes me want to resist the product they're trying so hard to sell me.

#111 makes me want to resist the product they're trying so hard to sell me I have exactly the same reaction.

Regarding Rooms, usually, I avoid Christian fiction - I don't like the feeling of being preached at that I've gotten from most of the books I've read in the genre. However, you make the book sound intriguing. I see that my library has ordered it - I will take a closer look when it gets here.

Cheerful Weather for the Wedding sounds promising, though.

You read such an interesting mix of genres and subjects - and always have such insightful and interesting comments. This is one of my favorite threads.

71 Frozen Assets - PG Wodehouse

Genre: Fiction/Humour (Completes English books category)
Published: 1964
Pages: 224
Acquired: Spring 2010
Why I read it now: (a) Wodehouse novels never hang around long unread, and (b) for the June TIOLI trouble-in-the-title challenge

Rating: 4.5/5

Plot: Biff Christopher will inherit his godfather's millions on his 30th birthday, provided he manage to refrain from getting arrested before that date. A simple condition to meet, you would think. But the godfather's brother is none too pleased at being disinherited and he'd quite like to get his own hands on the cash. Let's face is, even newspaper tycoons with a peerages can make good use of a few extra bob. And if contesting the will won't do it then his lordship just might have to resort to underhand tactics involving copious quantities of alcohol and an unsuspecting constable. Will Biff's sister and her faithful swain succeed in keeping him out of the clink? Will the villain succeed in gaining the cash - or will the distractions of a glamorous secretary and the theft of his trousers foil his dastardly plans?

Comments: An exceedingly well executed and entertaining story, with plenty of high-jinks before everything gets wrapped up neatly at the end.

Current TBR:non-TBR ratio = 19:52

Caty, you've done it to me again. I already had Cheerful Weather on the wishlist as it turns out, but I've added Frozen Assets today.

#114 It Frozen Assets was originally published in the US as Biffen's Millions - you might find it easier to track down under that title.

I know it's very subjective, but Rooms didn't make me feel preached at; it is however at the religious end of Christian fiction. I see the reviews for it are very mixed, so if you do read it I'll be interested to hear what you think of it.

I'm glad you're enjoying the thread - and since you already had Cheerful Weather on your wishlist I shan't feel too bad about inflating your TBR. :)

You make me want to read Woodhouse again!

Ten Things I Love About You - Julia Quinn

Category: X - Just Books
Genre: Historical Romance (sub-genre: frothy)
Published: 2010
Pages: 377
Acquired: Amazon (I pre-ordered it a few months ago)
Why I read it now: It was published.

Rating: 3½ out of 5

Comments:

Annabel Winslow, fresh from the country, is spending a season under her grandparents' sponsorship and hoping to acquire a husband who can rescue her extensive family from penury. Her foremost suitor is not exactly a catch, being old enough to be her grandfather and possessed of some distinctly unpleasant habits. He is, however, an earl, and possessed of serious cash. ("'And he'll die soon', her grandmother continued. 'You couldn't hope for more.'") Annabel, far from enthusiastic, is resigned to her fate.

All that changes when she meets Sebastian Grey - an impecunious charmer with something of a reputation with the ladies, who also happens to be the nephew and heir presumptive of her elderly suitor. And nephew and uncle loathed one another even before they became rivals for Annabel's affection. Annabel and Sebastian share an instant attraction - but any day now the earl is going to be asking for her hand. If she chooses Sebastian, what will her family live on? Will Sebastian even give her that option? After all, she's only known him a few days...

There's a fine line between 'this author has a distinctive style' and 'I feel like I've read this book before', and in both manner and turn of phrase this book strays too often from the former to the latter. That said, though, it's a solid offering. The character of Sebastian Grey has a lot more depth than in his previous cameo appearances, and Annabel Winslow is reasonably sensible. There is the usual supporting cast of good friends and slightly dotty relatives, and the villainous uncle is appropriately unpleasant rather than strikingly evil. There's comic banter and the plot flows well.

I can't decide whether I agree with Quinn's decision to reveal Sebastian's alter ego in the prologue: the suspense that was built up in the previous book evaporates before this one starts, but on the other hand knowing what he does for a living does enrich the story in some ways.

Were it not for one thing, this would be an entertaining read scraping a respectable 4/5. And that one thing is the infernal lists that crop up all over the place. They're twee, they're irritating, they're intrusive and they're plainly an authorial affectation rather than a part of the book. When Quinn had the character of Olivia in What Happens in London make lists, it worked: it was part of the character. When it's part of the narration, when several characters are making numbered lists in their internal monologues, it is annoying in the extreme.

Current TBR:non-TBR ratio = 20:53

74. The Man in the Picture - Susan Hill

Genre: Gothic Fiction/Horror
Published: 2007
Pages: 145
Acquired: BookMooch, May 2010
Why I read it now: I mooched it after reading Terri's review and the conversation on her thread back in march

Rating: 4/5

Comments: Oliver's former tutor tells him the story of a strange painting hanging on his wall - a scene of the Venice carnival, cursed by a former owner and still exerting a powerful influence over all who have contact with it.

This is a subtly spooky gothic novella, eerie and atmospheric, and very well written. Thoroughly recommended (although possibly not for reading late at night or shortly before a trip to Venice).

The Man in the Picture sounds like it's worth tracking down. And I *love* Wodehouse, so I'll have to find Frozen Assets.

#119 I hope you enjoy them both!

A couple more for the non-fiction category:

Thomas Aquinas: A Very Short Introduction – Fergus Kerr

Genre: Theology/Philosophy
Published: 2009
Pages: 127
Acquired: June 2010

Comments: Short, concise, a comprehensive overview – yes. Useful for its intended purpose – yes. Easy to read – no. It’s very well written, but there’s no mistaking either the complexity of the material under discussion or the fact that the author is an academic. (I’d love to know the average number of syllables per word.)


Are Women Human? Astute and witty essays on the role of women in society – Dorothy L. Sayers

Genre: Essays, feminism, philosophy...
Published: 2005 (previously published 1971 in this format, essays previously published 1947)
Pages:69
Acquired: May 2010
Why I read it now: TIOLI ‘beginning with A’ challenge

Rating: 5/5

Comments:

Are Women Human was an address given by Dorothy L. Sayers to a women’s society in 1938. You would think that, 72 years later, it would seem dated and irrelevant. Not a bit. (Well, okay, a tiny bit. But no more than that.) Sayers’ argument uses some examples that are not directly relevant today, but the thrust of her argument is as fresh now as when it was written: men and women are all human beings, and, while there are some differences between the sexes, to see them as ontologically different is incorrect, unhelpful and unfair.

‘“What,” men have asked distractedly from the beginning of time, “what on earth do women want?” I do not know that women, as women, want anything in particular, but as human beings they want, my good man, exactly what you want yourselves: interesting occupation, reasonable freedom for their pleasures, and a sufficient emotional outlet. What form the occupation, the pleasures and the emotion may take, depends entirely upon the individual.’ (p. 44)

The wit, delivery and argument are all superb: I started to mark quotable passages but gave up after the first thirty-eight.

The second essay in this volume, The Human-Not-Quite-Human was presumably written a little later (it refers explicitly to the use of women’s labour in wartime), and is a little angrier in tone. Nevertheless, it, like the first essay, contains a lot of humour and a lot of sense. The book also contains an excellent introduction by Mary McDermott Shideler, which puts Sayers’ essays into the context of her wider work. Don't be put off by the theology tag: Sayers' ideas are informed by her Christian faith, but God only puts in a very brief appearance on the last couple of pages.

I thoroughly recommend this book – to men and women – but for the last word I’m going to let Miss Sayers speak for herself:

‘I am occasionally desired by ... the editors of magazines to say something about the writing of detective fiction “from the woman’s point of view.” To such demands, one can only say, “Go away and don’t be silly. You might as well ask what is the female angle on an equilateral triangle.”’ (p. 41)

Current TBR:non-TBR ratio = 20:56

(Edited for typo)

Love the quote...I'm just getting acquainted with D. Sayers and must say I'm finding her quite enjoyable. Just wish I had more time.

<121 Are Women Human sounds delightful and will go on the wishlist immediately!

Great review, and the essays sound good. I've only read one book of Sayers, and even though puzzle mysteries aren't my staple food, her style appeals to me. Perhaps this could be good "second starting point" so to speak.

Edited: I had my head on backwards and mistook Dorothy Sayers for Dorothy Parker

#122 I've been a fan of hers for years - I'm glad you're enjoying her!

#123 I hope you enjoy it.

#124 Thanks. It's short - just 69 pages - so it might indeed be a good one to try.

Purple Hibiscus - Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Category: Overseas books (Nigeria)
Genre: Contemporary Fiction
Published: 2004
Pages: 307
Acquired: May 2010, Waterstones

Rating: 4.5/5

Plot in one two sentences: Fifteen-year-old Kambili is the daughter of a well-respected and wealthy Catholic factory owner whose public generosity masks the violence and repression he inflicts on his family in the name of discipline and godliness. When she and her brother go to stay with their aunt, whose family is exuberant and whose faith is joyful, things begin to change throughout the family.

Comments: Simultaneously depressing, vivid and powerful. Not a nice read, but a good read. (Does that make sense?)

Caty, I've read Adichie's Half a Yellow Sun and enjoyed it very much. I thought I had already put Purple Hibiscus on the wishlist, but just discovered that I hadn't. Thanks for bringing to my attention - it looks like a good book (even if it isn't nice - and, yes, that does make sense). I'm looking forward to it.

#127 You're welcome. I put Half a Yellow Sun straight on the wishlist after I finished this one, so I'm glad to hear you enjoyed it.

Two more for the 'second-hand books' category:

Alone of All Her Sex: the Myth and Cult of the Virgin Mary - Marina Warner

I don't usually list my course books, but I read every page of this one - and made notes - and it's pretty readable, so it can go in.

This study of the cult of the Virgin Mary is a little dated (first published 1976) but still one of the key books on the topic and widely referenced in more recent publications. Through an analysis of the various ways in which Mary has been regarded, Warner traces the development of the her cult from New Testament times to the modern day. There is an inevitable focuses on the Middle Ages, when the cult was at its height, but other periods are not ignored.

The book is sympathetic but uncompromising, critical in the best sense of the word, and Warner presents her case cogently and without becoming strident. Given the gushing adoration and anti-Catholic invective I've encountered reading about the topic, the tone of this book was very welcome.

Recommended for those with a particular interest in the topic - although the very fervent supporter of Mary and the very fervent opponent of Catholicism might both feel that it's too sympathetic to the other side of the debate.

The End of Mr. Y - Scarlett Thomas

PhD student Ariel Manto finds a copy of a supposedly cursed book by an eccentric Victorian scientist which leads her into an exploration of time travel and metaphysics.

This story veers between intriguing, bizarre and just plain dull. Some parts are very well written, and the whole thing is exceedingly clever. Ariel is a strong and well-constructed character, but she's also irritating and damaged. While I can see why the author chose first person present tense for the narrative, and I concur with that decision, Ariel's inner monologue doesn't always serve the story well.

There were a number of passages which struck me as crude for the sake of being crude, as though the author were trying to be shocking and edgy because that's how good literature is supposed to be. Well, it isn't. Good literature can be crude and shocking, but it doesn't have to be - and this isn't either truly shocking or good literature.

Some of the philosophical stuff is very interesting, and some of it is just plain dull - tacked on, because as well as being shocking good literature needs to have metaphysical discourse. The escaping-the-bad-guys subplot appears and disappears from the story; sometimes it's strong and interesting, sometimes it's repetitive, and ultimately it just peters out into nothing and you rather wonder what the point of it was.

All in all, a mixed bag of good and dull bits, and could probably have been improved by cutting out about a hundred pages.

I've finally managed to add another one to the Victorian category, but only by cheating slightly with a short volume of poetry.

83. Sonnets from the Portuguese and Other Poems - Elizabeth Barrett Browning

Genre: Poetry
Published: Poems originally published between 1838 and 1862
Pages: 51
Acquired: February 2009
Why I read it now: (1) 1010 Victorians category, (2) it's short, (3) from the TBR, (4) I haven't read any poetry yet this tear

Rating: 4

Comments: Very nice.

Current TBR:non-TBR ratio = 22:61

83. Murder with Peacocks - Donna Andrews

Genre: Cosy Mystery (category 9)
Published: 1999
Pages: 296
Acquired: BookMooch, July 2010
Why I read it now: I'd had it on my BookMooch wishlist for a while, and finally managed to get hold of a copy.

Rating: 4/5

Plot in one sentence: When Meg Langslow heads home for the summer to organise three - count 'em, three - family weddings, she rightly anticipates chaos, but several murders and quite a few near misses bring more disturbance than even she expected.

Comments: I liked Meg, and her family and the townsfolk are great (if insane) characters. There's a lot of humour, and while I'd worked out who did it, and a rough approximation of why, pretty early on, getting to the denouement was pretty entertaining.

I've requested the next in the series via BookMooch, and I have number three sat here waiting already, and I'm looking forward to them.

Current TBR:non-TBR ratio = 22:62

Swan Song - Edmund Crispin

Genre: Crime/Mystery (category 9)
Published: 1947 (Vintage 2009 edition)
Pages: 201
Acquired: Purchased March 2010
Why I read it now: 75 challenge group TIOLI challenge - book with an alliterative title

Rating: 4.5/5

Comments: Plenty of the cast and hangers-on of the first post-war production of Wagner's Die Meistersinger had good motives for murdering the lead bass-baritone - and his brother wasn't too fond of him either. But how could any of them possibly have managed to kill him in own locked dressing room? Gervase Fen investigates.

An excellent locked-room mystery with strong characters, a robust plot and a very ingenious solution. The immediate post-war context is obvious, and the German and Jewish characters add to the story, although the latter is occasionally a bit of an unfortunate caricature. There's a very entertaining scene with some Young Intellectuals discussing Wagner's influence on Hitler, and it gets quite serious on a couple of occasions.

One of the things I like about the Gervase Fen books is that, while they are exceedingly frivolous, they don't trivialise the crimes that take place within them. Crispin goes from silliness to gravity in the blink of an eye and to great effect

There are a lot of literary references - and not only to serious literature: I laughed out loud when the crime writer asking Fen for an interview about his amateur sleuthing comments that she also proposes to interview Mrs Bradley and Albert Campion.

I am *very* glad that I decided to continue with this series.

Current TBR:non-TBR ratio = 23:62

I have the first Gervase Fen mystery on my TBR list -- it sounds like a fun series!

Christina, I'm really enjoying it, and I definitely recommend it. The first one I read was The Moving Toyshop, and I thought it was awful: pretentious, unbelievable and not at all funny. But I was persuaded to give Holy Disorders a go, and loved it, as I also did The Case of the Gilded Fly. I think I shall have to give The Moving Toyshop another go now that I'm more familiar with Crispin's humour and style.

I've got two more in the TBR, and I have high hopes for them.

I love the Meg Langslowe series. The first one is the best, but my other favorite is We'll Always Have Parrots, which is set at a sci-fi convention. Hilarious.

#135 That one sounds good! I expect I shall work through the entire series.

A Guide to the Birds of East Africa - Nicholas Drayson

Genre: General Fiction (category: recommended books)
Published: 2008
Pages: 202
Acquired: May 2010, after a recommendation from richardderus
Why I read it now: I seem to have tried to read every other book I possess in the last few days, so I thought I might as well try this one. (Okay, I exaggerate. But after several books failed to catch my interest I went through a pile of TBRs looking for something that appealed, and this did.)

Rating: 4/5

Comments: Sedate widower Mr Malik is secretly in love with widowed Mrs Mbikwa, leader of the regular Tuesday morning bird walks. When brash Harry Khan also sets his sights on the lady, there is only one way to settle the rivalry: a birdwatching duel. (All strictly regulated by the committee of the gentleman's club, of course. Binoculars at the ready... En garde!)

This is a nice, gentle story with strong, well-drawn characters and the occasional foray into the more serious aspects of life. It's written in an engaging, conversational style, and the light humour is very appealing. Recommended.

Current TBR:non-TBR ratio = 23:63

I think this puts me at 78 books read for the challenge, with three categories completed.

Continuing the (unintentional) ornithological theme...

Murder with Puffins - Donna Andrews

Genre: Cosy Mystery (category 9 - crime/mystery)
Published: 2000
Pages:296
Acquired: Via BookMooch, arrived this morning.
Why I read it now: I was sufficiently intrigued by the taster for this book in the back of Murder with Peacocks that when this one arrived I dove straight in.

Rating: 3.5/5

Plot in one sentence: Meg and boyfriend Michael set off for New England hoping for a romantic break - but the romance is somewhat impeded by the presence not only of much of Meg's family, but also of a fresh corpse floating about in a rockpool...

Comments: Not as good as Murder with Peacocks, but pretty entertaining. I already have the next in the series, and I'll be keeping an eye out for the rest.

Current TBR:non-TBR ratio = 23:64

Her Royal Spyness - Rhys Bowen

Genre: Cosy Mystery (category 9)
Published: 2007
Pages: 324
Acquired: Charity shop, April 2010
Why I read it now: 75 books group TIOLI challenge

Rating: 2.5/5

Plot in one sentence: It's 1932, and Lady Georgiana (a very broke, very minor royal) finds her efforts to earn some money while avoiding marriage to an obnoxious Hungarian prince are somewhat complicated by the presence of a body in her bathtub and the disappearance of her brother.

Comments: I tried to like this one, really I did. I concede that there were some very humorous moments and some interesting characters. For the most part, however, I found it tedious, predictable and unconvincing, and if I hadn't wanted to get it read for the TIOLI challenge I would probably not have bothered to finish it.

Current TBR:non-TBR ratio = 24:64

90. The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie - Alan Bradley

Genre: Mystery (category 9)
Published: 2009
Pages: 358
Acquired: Amazon, last month, in the sale.
Why I read it now: (1) I have no patience, (2) 75 challenge group TIOLI historical mystery challenge

Rating: 3½ out of 5

Plot in one sentence: When she finds a body in the garden, eleven year old Flavia de Luce puts her passion for chemistry and the tricks she's learned outwitting her sisters to good use in her attempt to untangle the mystery.

Comments: I have slightly mixed feelings about this one. I wasn't convinced by the character of Flavia across the whole book… but sometime she was completely believable as a bratty child playing tricks on her sisters and thinking she knew better than all the grown-ups.

I didn't find the setting in 1950s England convincing… but the entertainment value of the story was pretty good, and the writing was engaging.

I wasn't thrilled with the deus ex machina ending… but I think I'd have found any other ending even harder to swallow - and at least this did show that no matter how clever and resourceful Flavia was, she was also vulnerable.

I'm struggling to decide whether to rate it at 3½ or at 4. I think I'm going with a 3½ for the moment, but I may change it to 4 later.

Current TBR:non-TBR ratio = 24:66

The Lacuna - Barbara Kingsolver

Genre: Historical Fiction (category 10, catch-all)
Published: 2009
Pages: 670
Acquired: June 2010 via Amazon
Why I read it now: Left over from July TIOLI

Rating: 5/5

Comments: Wonderful. Very vivid, with amazing breadth and depth. Simultaneously entertaining and profound. Harrison Shepherd is a very strong, though very subtle character, and there wasn't a single character who didn't feel real. Also very atmospheric, with both the Mexican and American settings and situations captured beautifully.

Current TBR:non-TBR ratio = 24:67

The Lacuna is probably the best book I've read all year!

The Gladiator - Carla Capshaw (Category 1)
Christian Fiction/Historical Romance. Set in Rome, c. 80AD. I picked this up after reading this review last year at the Dear Author blog; I don't have much to say that wasn't in that review. Decent Christian historical romance, for those that like that sort of thing, although let down a bit by the ending. I suspect I'd have loved it five years ago, but my tastes have shifted away from these shorter romance novels. 3/5.

Empress and Handmaid: Nature and Gender in the Cult of the Virgin Mary - Sarah Jane Boss (Category 2 - Non-fiction)
I had to study a couple of chapters of this, and then I decided to go back and read the rest. I didn't agree with all the conclusions, but it was interesting. However, it's adapted from a doctoral thesis, and it reads like it, so it's really one for those with a serious interest in sociology, gender studies and/or Mariology rather than the casually interested. 4/5

Palace of Illusions - Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni

Genre: General Fiction/Mythology/Historical Fiction/Literary Fiction (Non-UK writers category)
Published: 2008
Pages: 360
Acquired: Last Friday, Waterstones
Why I read it now: Started it last Friday while waiting for the bus home - shiny and new, and quite literally straight from the shop - and just had to keep going.

Rating: 4.5/5

Plot in one sentence: A retelling of the Mahabharat from the perspective of Draupadi/Panchaali, the wife of the five Pandavas brothers.

Comments: I'd been intending to read this for a while - long enough for one recommendation to become at least four, from Richard, Stasia, Caroline and Luxx. (I expect there were others, but those are the four I have jotted down.)

I can't decide whether my complete unfamiliarity with the Mahabharata hampered my reading of the book or not: on the one hand, I doubtless missed a lot of nuances, on the other, I came to it without any expectations or presuppositions. In any event, it was better for me to come to the book with no background understanding than not to come to it at all.

The storytelling, prose, characterisation and atmosphere were all extremely vivid, and although I needed sometimes to refer to the family trees, and occasionally to look up some details about the original, as I was going along, I never felt out of my depth. There was a - how to put it? - a universality to the story, requiring experience of nothing more than being human to appreciate it. Panchaali is not a sympathetic character - she is vengeful and petty - but she is sympathetically wrought, and her story is fascinating.

Current TBR:non-TBR ratio = 27:69

98. Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell

Genre: General/Literary Fiction
Published: 2004
Pages: 529
Acquired: Charity Shop, July 2010
Why I read it now: TIOLI 'weather' Challenge in the 75 books group

Rating: 5/5

Comments: Cloud Atlas presents six lives in six nested narratives, each distinct and yet all linked. Each has its own literary style, each has a very strong protagonist, each is superbly written, and each supports the others to create a magnificent whole.

In the nineteenth century, Adam Ewing fills his journal with detail of his time in Polynesia and his voyage home. In the 1930s, the louche, opportunistic and cynical musician Robert Frobisher writes letters from Belgium to his friend Sixsmith in England - and in 1975 the scientist Sixsmith appears in a thriller as the author of a report on a nuclear facility which looks likely to get journalist Luisa Rey and others killed as they try to bring the story of its suppression to the public gaze.

The manuscript for the thriller falls into the hands of publisher Timothy Cavendish, whose unfortunate experience of incarceration is eventually made into a film, which is watched by the genetically altered 'fabricant' Somni after her escape from slavery in a dystopian future. And generations from then , Somni is worshipped as a deity and become a figure of hope to a post-apocalyptic society over whom the spectre of despair and slavery hangs.

The themes of truth and falsehood, freedom and slavery, hope and despair, and what precisely makes one person different from (and the same as) another, appear and disappear from the narrative - interweaving, foreshadowing, echoing through the stories.

Not one of these threads is dropped, not one of these narratives is weak, not one of these characters is anything but convincing. The use of six different narrative styles is effective - each works individually, none becomes a stereotype, and the whole becomes more than the sum of the parts. The interweaving of themes and motifs is subtle and highly effective, and the nesting of the stories one inside another supports this beautifully.

Very highly recommended.

Current TBR:non-TBR ratio = 27:71

I was already sort of convinced I need to read this book, but that review hammered resolve home. Thank you kindly! (Now, can I fit it into my 11 in 11 anywhere, grmblll???)

Yes, your review of Cloud Atlas has finally made me succumb to its irresistable call.... I don't think it is going to fit into my categories either.

#146/147 I hope you both enjoy it, even if doesn't fit your categories.

>145 Eat_Read_Knit: Excellent review of an excellent book, Caty!

Thanks, ivy

Yes a great review. You know for the first half of the book I was sure he just could not pull it off and that it would all tumble down into a failed experiment.

I think my favourite story oddly was of publisher Timothy Cavendish, I loved is character.

Timothy Cavendish's story amused me by its similarity to the Great Escape/Escape from Colditz prisoner of war stories from world war 2.

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban - JK Rowling

Genre: YA Fantasy
Category: Second-hand books
Published: 1999
Pages: 435
Acquired: BookMoch, March 2010
From the (3 month+) TBR pile? Yes
Why I read it now: recently completed book 2

Rating: 4/5

Plot in one sentence: After accidentally blowing up a visitor, Harry runs away from the Dursleys - but his own escape coincides with that of a dangerous convict from the wizards' prison of Azkaban, a murderer who the Ministry of Magic expect will come hunting for Harry...

Comments: I wasn't as keen on this as book 2 - the characters were as strong, I enjoyed all the backstory, and it wasn't dull - but it seemed to lack something of the zip of book 2. It felt too long and drawn out. I'll definitely carry on with the series at some point.

Current TBR:non-TBR ratio = 31:71

>153 Eat_Read_Knit: Someone (could it have been Stephen King?) said that it was in Book 3 that Rowling stopped writing just for children and started writing for a general audience. I think Book 4 and especially Book 5 were my favorites.

#154 Having now read number 4 as well, I can definitely sense the difference - progression? - to writing more for a general audience than for children in the middle books of the series.

The Diving Bell and the Butterfly - Jean-Dominique Bauby

Genre: memoir - completes non-fiction category
Published: 1996
Pages: 139
Acquired: Borrowed
From the (3 month+) TBR pile? No
Why I read it now: I was bored. It was there, it was short, and it has been on my wishlist for years but I've never worked up the enthusiasm to buy it.

Rating: 4/5

What's it about?The memoir of a man who was left with locked-in syndrome after a brain stem stroke at the age of 43. He dictated the book to an amanuensis by blinking when the correct letter of the alphabet was read out.

Comments: Interesting, but not gripping. The language is poetic - probably too much so for some, but I liked it. I also liked the focus on the experiences and emotions rather than medical detail. It was definitely worth reading, but not the massively inspirational experience that some people led me to expect.

Current TBR:non-TBR ratio = 32:77

And now I can stop feeling quite so guilty about my unread Early Reviewers books.

The Holly-Tree Inn - Charles Dickens and others

Genre: Fiction, Short Stories (category 6, Victorian books)
Published: 1855 (2009 Hesperus Edition)
Pages: 129
Acquired: Early Reviewers, April 2010 batch
From the (3 month+) TBR pile? Yes
Why I read it now: I'd been part way through for months, having ground to a halt after Dickens' somewhat tedious introductory tale, and was struggling to get interested again. The guilt of having an un-reviewed ER book from April was finally more than I could bear.

Rating: 4/5

ER Review: This collection of short stories was the 1855 Christmas edition of Dickens' Household Words. The seven stories by five different authors (Dickens contributed three) are presented as stories recounted to a snowbound traveller, whose own tale bookends the selection.

As you would expect, the collection encompasses a variety of themes and styles - there is a typically Gothic tale from Wilkie Collins and a piece in verse by Adelaide Anne Proctor - yet all are quintessentially Victorian stories. Some are better than others (I thought the contributions by Wilkie Collins and William Howitt were the strongest, and found Dickens' introductory tale a little tedious) but all are pleasant to read and they sit well together.

The 2009 Hesperus Press edition helpfully includes a short introduction, notes, and brief biographies of the contributors. It's also an attractive, high-quality edition, making a nice winter read for fans of Victorian writing.

Current TBR:non-TBR ratio = 38:79

Letters to a Diminished Church – Dorothy L. Sayers

Genre: Category 1 - Christianity (Essays, Theology, Apologetics, Philosophy, Literary Theory)
Published: 2004 collection of essays originally published in/around 1940
Pages: 280
Acquired: Amazon, July 2010
From the (3 month+) TBR pile? Yes (just)
Why I read it now: Why not?

Rating: 4½ out of 5

Comments:

This is the writing of Dorothy L Sayers, so it comes as no surprise that it is both eloquent and erudite. Her style, humour and forthright approach to conveying her message are there in full. The collection of 16 essays is put together well: for the most part, the essays are in an order which promotes connection and flow of ideas from one to the next. Whether that was an original publication order determined by Sayers, or the decision of the editor, it is impossible to tell from the text: no original publication dates are given, which is a great shame.

All the essays date from the period around 1940, and the wartime context comes through clearly. There is a poignancy to reading Sayers’ criticism of Hitler knowing that worse was to come in the years immediately following. Sayers’ optimism about—and fears for—the post-war period also come through strongly: she hopes that the world will be better, but fears that many of the errors of the inter-war period will be repeated.

Some of the essays are better than others; some are long and some are short; some are very explicitly about Christian doctrine and the church, and others merely touch upon those topics. Most remain relevant and interesting to today’s reader, despite the passage of seventy years. Even where ideas in theology have moved on, there is a great deal which is still of interest.

The collection opens with The Greatest Drama Ever Staged, a short but intensely passionate apologia for the truth and relevance of Christian doctrine. She laments the fact that dogma is seen as dull and irrelevant: “If this is dull,” she asks, “then what, in Heaven’s name, is worthy to be called exciting?” (p. 4) She bewails the lack of understanding of what Christian doctrine actually is: “Nobody is compelled to believe a single word of this remarkable story. God … has created us perfectly free to disbelieve in him as much as we choose. … All the same, if we are going to disbelieve a thing, it seems on the whole desirable that we should first find out what, exactly, we are disbelieving.” (p. 6)

In What do we believe?, she moves on to offer some brief comments on creedal statements, and in The Dogma is the Drama she considers some of the common misconceptions about and stereotypes of Christian doctrine and of Christians. The Image of God is a fascinating exploration of analogy, metaphor and creativity in the context of humankind’s relationship with God. It is followed by Creative Mind, which explores the nature of creativity and of poetic, as opposed to scientific, truth.

Creed or Chaos? returns to the theme of why doctrine matters, and considers it at greater length. Sayers considers not only what dogma is, but also its practical relevance to the average Christian. She reiterates her conviction that it is “a grave mistake to present Christianity as something charming and unpopular with no offence in it” (p. 58) before moving on to a consider Christian dogma regarding God, man, sin, judgement, matter, work and society. These are all themes that recur throughout the collection.

Strong Meat briefly considers Christianity as grown-up religion and religion for the grown-up, and is followed by The Other Six Deadly Sins, which reflects on the common error of equating sin with ‘proscribed sexual behaviour’ and then considers all seven of the traditional deadly sins . This is a fascinating study, made all the more so by its wartime context. The theme is continued in Christian Morality, in which Sayers pithily observes that “Disreputable people who knew they were disreputable were gently told {by Jesus} to go and sin no more; the really unparliamentary language was reserved for those thrifty, respectable and sabbatarian citizens who enjoyed Caesar’s approval and their own.” (p. 112) This essay is particularly interesting for its comment on the relationship between church and state in the matter of public morality, and on the church’s failure to condemn overproduction, acquisitiveness and systemic waste in society in the same way it condemns profligate living in the individual.

In The Triumph of Easter , Sayers turns her attention to free will, evil and judgement, and in Why Work? she returns to the issue of what Christianity has to say about work, productivity and macroeconomics. Again, this is very interesting for its historical context: Sayers comments on the profligacy and materialism of the 30s and the war economy. This is highly pertinent to today’s context, and were Sayers here today I think she would be fully entitled to look at the economic chaos of the last couple of years and say, ‘I told you so.’ I am not wholly convinced by all of Sayers’ conclusions regarding serving the community, but on the value of work and the nature of secular vocation I cannot fault her.

The next essay, Toward a Christian Aesthetic, is one of the more speculative pieces, and considers at some length the relationship between Christianity and the Arts. (It was also the nadir of one of the more irritating editorial decisions regarding this work: the adoption of American English spelling throughout. If Sayers did indeed write concerning ‘esthetic’ matters then I shall gladly take back this criticism, but I cannot for one moment imagine that she did so. The offence of ‘offense’ I could overlook, ‘theater’ I could just about tolerate, but the systematic deletion of the letter a from this essay drove me mad. Why must an Englishwoman’s magnificent prose be mutilated for an American audience? British English is perfectly comprehensible. )

The Faust Legend and the Idea of the Devil is interesting, but focuses more on literature than theology, as does The Writing and Reading of Allegory. Both of these are longer essays, and are likely to be of most interest to those with a background in literature. Interposed between these two, however, is a midget gem of an essay: A Vote of Thanks to Cyrus addresses the tendency to put Bible stories in a box and not to relate them to the rest of history. This is perhaps one of the more outdated essays, insofar as textual criticism and research into Persian history have moved on over the last 70 years, but the mock literary review of John’s gospel is exceedingly funny.

The final essay, The Problem Picture returns to earlier themes: scientific and poetic truth, creativity, sin and redemption, literature, and how to address social problems. Sayers begins with the assertion that, “It has become abundantly clear of late years that something has gone seriously wrong with our conception of the humanity and of humanity’s proper attitude to the universe.” (p. 241) She argues that the root problem is a misunderstanding of how the world works: we have started to think that “all human experience may be presented in terms of a problem having a predictable, finite, complete and sole possible solution” (p. 248), and when we cannot find that solution we become angry and disappointed. Sayers posits that people try to treat life like a detective novel, without appreciating that the author has set up the novel in such a way as to be able to solve all the problems within it, and life is not like that. We cannot ‘solve’ death: we can merely postpone it and view it from a different perspective, she argues. We cannot resolve the tension between individual liberty and social order through a mathematical formula, but only by compromise. We cannot ‘solve’ unemployment until we readjust our thinking about the nature of work and the real value of money. We have been unable to ‘solve’ international conflict “because we looked at peace and security as a problem to be solved and not as a work to be made.” (p. 266)

This is a collection of essays that offers much food for thought. Some of the ideas Sayers puts forward are now outdated, but most remain as interesting, inspiring and relevant now as they were seventy years ago. It is subtitled ‘Passionate Arguments for the Relevance of Christian Doctrine’; it certainly includes that, but also offers a great deal more.

Recommended for those who like CS Lewis’s writings on Christianity, those who think it matters what Christians believe – and those who think it doesn’t matter what Christians believe.

@157 -- This book sounds wonderful! Thanks so much for the review!

And the challenge is completed - even if I have resorted to first novellas and then short stories in order to finish the Victorian category.

At least The Parson's Daughter of Oxney Colne is substantial as short stories go, being about 11,500 words. And there are some tomes in there to compensate.

Congratulations, Caty!

Congratulations on completing your challenge.

Congratulations!

I'm impressed. Large round of applause.

Congratulations on finishing your challenge!

Just dropped by to add my congratulations - well done!

Thanks, everyone. :)