Cauterize's Reading in 2010

Well, this will be a sort of placeholder for now, where I'll put the master list of my books for 2010. I read approx. 121 books in 2009 and really enjoyed all the conversations I had with everyone on my and their threads! Hope this year will be even better!

My old 2009 Thread is HERE and I'm still finishing my reviews up.

CLICK ON TITLES TO JUMP TO THE REVIEW:

January:
1. Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel ★★★★1/2
2. The Guinea Pig Diaries: My Life as an Experiment by A.J. Jacobs ★★1/2
3. Angel Lane by Shelia Roberts ★★★1/2
4. Murder on the Brighton Express by Edward Marston ★★★
5. Lullabies for Little Criminals by Heather O'Neill ★★★★1/2
6. The Colour of Magic by Terry Pratchett ★★★
7. Les Liasons Dangereuses by Pierre Choderlos de Laclos ★★★★1/2

February:
8. Be Careful What You Wish For by Alexandra Potter ★★1/2
9. Carnival by Elizabeth Bear ★★
10. Evil at Heart by Chelsea Cain ★★★1/2
11. The Jade Peony by Wayson Choy
12. Beguiled by Deeanne Gist and J. Mark Bertrand
13. Handsome Devil by Melanie George
14. Twilight by Stephanie Meyer
15. Kitchen Knife Skills by Marianne Lumb

March:
16. Tempt Me at Twilight by Lisa Kleypas
17. The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami
18. The Queen of Attolia by Megan Whalen Turner
19. The Dispossessed by Ursula K. Le Guin
20. The Disappeared by Kim Echlin
21. Seduce Me at Sunrise by Lisa Kleypas
22. The Time Traveller's Guide to Medieval England by Ian Mortimer

April:
23. Hush, Hush by Becca Fitzpatrick (DNF)

Currently Reading:
The Queen's Gambit by Diane A.S. Stuckart
Soul Music by Terry Brooks

Rating system:
★ - HATE. I chucked it or wanted to.
★★ - BAD. Probably had a couple decent elements.
★★★ - DECENT. Worth the read, but wouldn't re-read.
★★★★ - GREAT. Must read.
★★★★★ - FANTASTIC. My faves.

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My best three and worst three of 2009::
Best:
1. The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
2. Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See
3. Like No Other Lover by Julie Anne Long

Worst:
1. Suite Fantasy by Janice Maynard
2. Dark Harvest by Lynda Hilburn (a DNF)
3. Elementary Particles by Michel Houellebecq

Glad you are here!

It's good to see a worst books list- to avoid them

Heh. And here I thought Elementary Particles was, um, about elementary particles. You know, like quarks and leptons and such. 8^}

Hi There!

And, like Stasia, I am glad you are here!

Starred! I might do an all-Canadian reads for July again this year. You should join in again - there are lots of sequels to Anne of Green Gables!

Starred you! Can't wait to see what you read this year.

I haven't read Elementary particles, but my husband LOVED it and kept reading books by Houellebecq.

I'm with Cauterize--Elementary Particles falls into the worst books category for me.

Hey guys! *Waves to all* I've starred you guys as well, and can't wait to steal recommendations from your threads.

Elementary Particles was definitely an extreme love or extreme hate book. I think why it made my worst list, is that I didn't know that it would be such an extreme book, and I kept slogging through it trying to get to the 'cool' part. It definitely had one of the worst effort vs. reward ratios of the year.

Right now I'm reading Wolf Hall, which will be my first review of the year, along with Angel Lane, an ER book. Amazingly, I managed to score ER books from Sept to Dec (If Tad reads this, he'll probably roll his eyes). Otherwise, I'm still finishing up my 2009 reviews on my old thread, HERE, since I'll probably not have much to say on my thread until the long Wolf Hall is done.

Wow, you were busy at the end of 2009! Good job with all the reviews. Got'cha starred for 2010.

Atomised (as Elementary Particles was published as in the UK) made my honourable mentions for last year. It was bleak, and the coda didn't quite convince me. But I thought the writing was extremely good, and I plan to read more Houellebecq.

Found you and starred, of course.

I really think you need to get your act together, Caut - most of us have had our threads for 2010 set up for weeks!! Some are looking to a second thread, they've been so busy!

OK, OK - so you're only 2 days off the New Year. Not trying to spark any more bets!

Glad to see you are here again. Thanks for posting your best and worst.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Enjoyed your "best and worst"--especially since I have Hunger Games waiting in the wings for this year--I hope the third one will be published soon so I can start the series.

Looking forward to what you read this year.

@8: FAMeulstee, if you read Elementary Particles, I'd totally be interested to see if your opinion matches mine or your husband's. I don't think it's unfair to say that it's a harder book for a woman to get through... it's got some unflattering things the main character says about women. It's definitely a book that forms strong opinions in its readers.

@13: LOL Karen... weeks?? I am totally out of the loop. I thought everyone would start their threads at the start of the year... which is why I thought I wasn't too behind starting mine on the second :D. Second thread? I never even got to a second thread on my 2009 one (I probably need one now since I've been posting tons of reviews like a mad fiend), but I plan on making at least two threads this year!

@14: MusicMom, Hunger Games wasn't the most intellectual or edifying thing I read in 2009, but when I came down to my list... it was the book that I still constantly think about, will certainly buy when it comes in paperback, and the #1 book that I have been shoving down other people's throats... so that is why I thought it was deserving of the top spot. Hope you get to read it soon, I think the release date for the third book is in August.

Hallelujah, got you, thank you very much for the link on my thread. I was failing miserably at finding everyone I wanted to.

1. Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel
Rating:
Genre: Historical Fiction, Man Booker Winner

What to say about Wolf Hall? It was pretty intense, and after I finished I let it percolate in my brain for a couple of weeks. At first I thought it was merely good, but then I kept thinking about specific parts of the novel, so I moved it up to great.

The book focuses on Thomas Cromwell as he rises up from his humble beginnings to become Cardinal Wosley's man, his fall when Wosley fell, and then eventually becoming King Henry's right-hand man. This is all set with the background of the perilous, back-stabbing court of Henry VIII where everyone has their public face, as well as their private conniving, vicious ones.

Yes, as many others have said, this book is tough to read... Mantel never uses "said Cromwell". Instead, it is always "he said", so oftentimes you have to go back through the dialogue and figure out which he said what. But, this sets the reader up to get used to the fact that you have to really think while reading this book. Even though it is written in third person, the narrator never tells you what Cromwell is thinking or his motivations. Instead, the reader has to puzzle through what he says and what he does to guess at his motives. Often, scenes are not shown, but the characters will subtly discuss them and the aware reader must fill-in-the-blanks. It makes you work, but that was refreshing to be more of an active reader than a passive one. For me, this technique made me more involved with the story.

I liked how the secondary characters were richly drawn. Mantel makes Henry VIII seem more of a nuanced personality rather than a petulant, love-sick fool, as he is often portrayed. Anne Boleyn is cunning and full of avarice, and the author writes her dialogue that underlines the charisma that she surely must have had. The Duke of Norfolk was a hoot, and I never thought that the schemer could be written to make me laugh. The novel delves into to the push and pull between Cromwell, Thomas More and Stephen Gardiner - characters I often did not care about in other Tudor novels that focused more on the Henry/Anne/Katherine triangle. This was refreshing, as I felt I learned more about this period through learning about these secondary players in the Tudor court.

What I didn't like about this book, is that I did feel it dragged a bit for the first quarter when Cromwell was working for Wosley. I felt the book really flew once Cromwell worked his way to Court. Also, I was surprised where it ended, I was expecting the novel to follow Cromwell's whole life, but it doesn't. Supposedly Mantel might write a sequel. However, I guess that device adds to the ominous overall tone of the book, since many readers know from history what happens to Cromwell in the end.

#17

Nice review. I'm glad you enjoyed it so much, and I had very similar feelings about it to you :)

My wife is reading this. It's interesting to watch her reactions as she goes (she's about half-way through right now). She also thought it dragged a bit at the beginning. She's loving Cromwell, not so much the secondary characters. We'll see.

2. The Guinea Pig Diaries: My Life as an Experiment by A.J. Jacobs
Rating:
Genre: Non-Fiction, Humour, Memoir

I loved A.J. Jacob's first novel, The Know-it-All: One Man's Humble Quest to become the Smartest Person in the World, where he reads the entire Encyclopedia Britannica in one year. I found it hilarious and would read it again. I liked, but not loved The Year of Living Biblically, which chronicled his attempts to follow all the rules of the Bible. Therefore I had high hopes for his newest novel, and sadly it fell way short.

In The Guinea Pig Diaries, Jacob's keeps to his M.O. of "experience journalism". He pretends to be his female nanny and tries online dating, single-tasking as a statement against multi-tasking, posing naked for a magazine, etc. And they were still pretty funny. But what really got my goat was that at least two of the stories I've read before (the Radical Honesty and Outsourcing his Life stories). Online, for free. I read them probably a year ago as archives on Esquire Magazine's website (Jacob's is a writer for them and had written about these experiments for them as one of his regular columns). I admit it, I felt gyped even though I only borrowed this book, not bought it. Nowhere on the front and back cover does it say that parts of this book are republished material (I'm not sure about the flaps though), and I kept thinking about how if I had purchased this book, I would have immediately returned it for a refund because I felt this a cop-out from writing, and living, whole new material.

If you haven't read any of his work, then I'd recommend this book. Jacobs is truly a funny writer with good insights, and I really enjoyed the story where he follows all of his wife's orders for a whole month. However, I just felt as a fan who has been following his work, using at least two old stories - out of nine - was lazy.

#20: Too bad about that one. I also enjoyed the other books of Jacobs that I have read. I think I will give this one a pass.

I have Jacobs book on my TBR pile - honestly I put it off 'cos the title is, well IMVH opinion, egotistical. Will have to pull it out, now.

Great review of Wolf Hall - I know for a fact that Mantel is writing a sequel to 'finish off' Cromwell's life. She wrote an engaging review about Alison Weir's new book about Ann Boleyn in the London Review of Book last issue- cripes is she knowledgeable about that period in history.

Great review of Wolf Hall, I finished it a couple of weeks ago and found the court politics fascinating.

@19: Tad, I'm eagerly awaiting to see what you think of Wolf Hall. I read your thread and know that you're sharing a copy with your wife on your kindles!

@22: Karen, The Guinea Pig Diaries wasn't bad, by any means, but I was just so upset that he was, IMHO, duping people into paying hardcover prices for partly republished material that you can legally get online for free. For example, if I were to get a Dave Barry book, the book cover would probably say that they were a collection of some of his columns, so no surprises there. If you were to keep any Jacobs book on your TBR, I'd choose The Know-it-All, it has the best surprises and trivia in it.

@23: Avatiakh, I'm pretty sure I read (well, skimmed) your review, and it made me hunger to start Wolf Hall as my first book this year. All the 75-ers reviews, I sorta skimmed so I wouldn't get any spoilers but I will go back and read yours!

3. Angel Lane by Shelia Roberts
Rating: For Me:, For Intended Audience:
Genre: Contemporary Romance, Chicklit, Early Reviewers

I finally received a copy of this book for Early Reviewers, and I admit I wasn't too eager to read it after seeing some of the other reviews, and my own personal history of hating ER books. However, I was pleasantly surprised to find Angel Lane was written fairly well, and was the first ER book in which I closed the book and felt it was what it promised to be.

One of the three main characters loves the movie, It's a Wonderful Life, and this book does its darnedest to follow the plotline and tone of that movie. Three women friends - Emily, Jamie and Sarah - live in the small town of Heart Lake and they all are own stores on Angel Lane. For various reasons, they bemoan the fact that their little town is growing and becoming less neighbourly. They decide to start a campaign, "Keep the Heart in Heart Lake" where they encourage the residents to do one kindness each day. Ups and downs occur in each of personal and professional lives of the women.

The book seems to be marketed as a romance, but honestly, the romances were secondary and not fully developed. Instead, Angel Lane is a feel-good, light-hearted book, just like It's a Wonderful Life is a feel-good movie. It's also very, very G-rated, to keep the movie analogy. The book cover is sweet and light, and makes it obvious what to expect from the pages. It doesn't pretend to be something its not, and I appreciated that. It's an easy, predictable, straight-forward book for women. The kind of book you give to give your grandmother who loves Hallmark movies. If you think I'm deriding this genre, I'm not. Even though this book didn't match my taste because it was fluff, it was competently written fluff, which is applaudable in any genre of books.

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Stuff that isn't going to be included in the public review:
I almost died laughing during one part when I read this book. One of the characters was mad at teenage girls running the the town's four-way intersection. So she yelled, "Beatches!" I paused in my reading and was puzzling over that phrase... Beat-ches? What is Beatches? Do you say it like 'Beaches'? Then I realized that the author was trying to be a bit hip by saying Bee-OTCH-es. Anyways, I found that really hilarious, I don't know why... and the author used it a few more times in the book.

Nice review, Steph. Very unbiased even though it was not necessarily to your taste. Thanks!

ETA: Please post your review to the book page so I can give it a 'thumbs up.'

@26: LOL, Stasia!! Give me two secs to fix all my mistakes first! As one of my quirks, I can't see most of my typos until I post... and there you are responding within two minutes :D But I did put the review up now.

But yes, even though when I closed the book, I was like "I'll never read this again", I was pleasantly surprised to immediately go, "...But it wasn't bad, which was nice... no plot holes, or terrible sentences, or places where I'd tear my hair out". It was Frank Capra fluff and even though I wouldn't buy it (and that's the key, I'm probably not the intended demographic) I'd recommend it to my mom. All she reads is light-hearted romances, she loves Hallmark/Lifetime movies and isn't a serious reader.

#27: It sounds like one I can recommend to Catey, too. She reads light-hearted romances, which is just fine at her age.

And no, you may not have 2 seconds :)

@28: OMG, Stasia... I go to read your thread, which I haven't for only two days and I'm 78 messages behind. And it's all book-relevant talk too! Argh... I foresee a Murakami trend in the next month because of you. I have Wind-Up Bird Chronicle myself, which I need to finish. I got a 1/3 of the way through, misplaced the book, then put it back on my TBR shelves.

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Hmm... maybe I will put some of my reading goals for this year while I think about it.

So far, when thinking of what I want to read this year, I was tempted to join the 1010 Challenge, but knew I'd feel too constrained because I tend to pick book based on mood, or by a cycle. For example, I generally don't read two of the same genre of books in a row. So, I have some informal goals.

I'd like to:
1. Read a bit more non-fiction. Perhaps more non-England history books
2. Less YA and holocaust fiction. Last year's YA was a particularly strong year for the genre, but I felt it took a bit more of the pie than I want. Less holocaust fiction because I'm getting over-stuffed on it.
3. Continue restricting paranormal reads
4. Try to read more debut novels
5. Try to read more books published within 2010.
6. Pick up another book by authors where I loved a book of theirs, but never got around to reading a second one
7. Be a little more strict on the 50-70 page rule

Regarding #4 and #5, I've noticed that a lot of group members are feeling bad about their TBR shelves and trying to clear them off before buying more books. I'm actually feeling the opposite motivation. I have only maybe 30ish fiction TBRs and another 30 that I'm not realistically going to dent (stuff like the Theogony or The Art of War. In fact, I want to encourage group members to buy more new books if they can. I've been reading quite a bit about the state of new authors, the publishing industry, royalties and how difficult it is to make a living writing books - mostly because I have a friend who is trying to get published. Last year, most of my books were library borrows and most of the books I purchased were heavily discounted or used.

So, I've got some new personal buying goals as well. I'm attempting to not necessarily spend more on books, but try to help struggling authors and booksellers a bit better:
1. Less buying of extreme best sellers (sorry Nora Roberts) - I can wait for the library
2. If I read CanLit, try to buy it.
3. If it's a debut book, try to buy it
4. Try to read more 2010 published books and spread the word if they are good - so that others might purchase them
5. Try to buy more from independent booksellers (I am terrible for this)

Really, my goal is to be a bit smarter/helpful for the industry with my few book-buying dollars even if it means the total number of books I buy is diminished, I have to library borrow more, but that the author will get my royalty.

{/Ramble off}

I could really learn to hate you, Steph:) Only 30is TBRs! I have 800+!

>24 Cauterize:: It's going to be a while before I get to Wolf Hall. I'm in the middle of War and Peace and one very large tome at a time is it for me right now. Work is just keeping me too fragmented.

@30: Stasia, for the sake of your marriage, I think you're the only exception from my book-buying encouragement ;) I know from reading your thread how many unread purchased books you have and how many library books you rotate through your house (btw, you're crazy). But yes, only around 30 unread fiction books in my condo, I generally can't buy a book without feeling the immediate compulsion to read it. It will sit there... and glare at me... and go, "you were interested enough to pay 10+ dollars for me! Read me!" My TBR List however, is growing crazy fast from being in this group. But, I find that a guilt-free pleasure!

#32: I am not crazy - only slightly off-center, lol.

@33: LOL, there you are with your two minute responses again :D Hmm.. maybe I should say your ability to organize is crazy! Your spreadsheets to keep track of what has to go back and be renewed and knowing where everything is and the BlackHole... boggles my mind. Last year, my big organizational effort was managing to get my butt moving and put those 30 unreads on the same shelf. Yup. That's it. Should give an indication of how terribly messy I am.

#34: Believe me, I can probably tie you for the sloppiness award!

Steph - I really like your message about supporting writers and independent book stores.

I was having a debate at home last night - the whole kindle, e-books thing and the demise of the hard book form. We were also debating the ethics of internet piracy for art - books, videos etc, which I oppose and my kids tried hard to justify. The kids made a point that internet 'freedom of content' is here to stay and suggested that the bookstore and books were a thing of the past - all will be computer generated for our grandchildren, perhaps? Hubbie thought libraries will eventually go the way of the dinosaur - which I very much hope is not the future, being rather a library addict.

I love to support new writers and Canlit, Steph. However, I cannot find independent bookstores to support anymore. They have mostly closed down in the high cost retail environment of Vancouver.

How many 'unreads' on my shelves? Too many to count. It is quite embarrassing, really.

@36: Karen, I'll work on a response to your post... it's going to take quite a bit of rambling to write out my whole feelings about the copyright issue. I have quite a bit of conflicting feelings about it, being of a young generation, being pretty internet-savvy and using those pirating sources but also knowing quite a bit about the law of copyright and why we have it. But I side with you, justifying is nothing but a way to feel guiltless when one is doing a harm, and it is easy to identify who is being harmed. I'm on the end that says, if you're going to steal, at least admit that you're stealing. Calling a spade a spade and all that.

But yes, I was quite ignorant until recently how little author royalties are per book, and the fact that the customers of publishers are distributors (ie. stores), and not the readers. Just reading about the discount rates 40-60% and allowing for the big stores to do returns... it's pretty crazy. I dislike Amazon for some of their practices, but I am interested in their experiment to give authors 35-70% royalties of their eBooks (obviously with some conditions).

Anyways, this is all feeding into my goals to support new writers and independents. If those new writers don't meet selling expectations within the first year or two, they'll be dropped since there is less room for publishing houses to develop writers. Buying their books used isn't going to help them. There are only a couple independent booksellers in Calgary that sell new books and I almost always buy something when I walk by them if I'm already there (they're mostly in trendy street shopping areas), but I definitely don't plan a trip around it - which I need to change. I make plans to go to Chapters, so I should just go that extra distance to Pages.

4. Murder on the Brighton Express by Edward Marsten
Rating:

Genre: Mystery

There has been a horrendous train derailing on the Brighton Express and the famous "Railway Detective", Inspector Robert Colbeck, is called in to give his expert opinion. He quickly deduces that it was not an accident, but instead there is a murderer running loose. He must capture the madman before it's too late.

This book is set in Victorian England, right when trains were exciting, feared and new. It fit right in with my newly-sparked interest of this time period. Colbeck is very Holmes-ian, he even has a competent sidekick in Sargeant Lemming, and uses logic and deduction to find his man. He's a little more balanced, personality-wise, than Holmes though. However, I wasn't quite pulled into the mystery; once I finished the book, I felt there wasn't much of a mystery plot twist. It was pedestrian and I tend to rate mysteries on how innovative their twist is. If you're a mystery fan, or you like reading about the Victorian train era, then you might enjoy this book more than I did.

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5. Lullabies for Little Criminals by Heather O'Neill
Rating:

Genre: CanLit, Canada Reads Winner

Great book about Baby, a 12 year old teenager who grows up in the low-income areas of Montreal, raised by a heroin-addicted, neglectful father. Written in first-person and the effectiveness of the book is emphasizing how a kid growing up in such a volatile environment can think that this life is normal and even worth defending against outsiders. All Baby wants is her father to love her more than the drugs, she's smart enough to realize that probably isn't going to happen, but young enough to still have the hope that it will.

The book is engrossing, all the way through. The author is adept in drawing in the reader by showing the hidden charms of being a street kid, and the charismatic, unorthodox people and the friendships that form. When things start spiraling-down and out of control for Baby, you still stick with her and the endure the dark places she must go because the reader is already so involved in Baby's world and mindset.

What I didn't like with the book is that I felt the ending was a bit abrupt, and a certain character's motivation is left unclear (in my opinion) when it should have been, at least, broadly sketched. Also, there was a significant "get to know the author" section at the back, where you learn how the author describes in her own words how she grow up as a semi-street kid in Montreal. For me, I dislike knowing how much an author's messed-up life mirrors her character's; I hate wondering whether some of the fictional sordid scenes were true-to-life for the author. I find this lessens the impact of what I just read. However, I understand how other readers might feel the opposite - that knowing the author has that basis of understanding, they feel that the story could be true and therefore it's more interesting.

But I'd highly recommend it; it was well-written and funnier than I expected.

Side discussion: (mild spoilers)
The back cover says: "(Baby) will ultimately realize that the power of salvation rests in her hands alone." I didn't think that happened at all. More like, the whims of fate got Baby out of the bad situations she found herself in. I think that the blurb misleads the reader that this book is one of those stories that is going to show how a person finds redemption through self-awareness, brains and grit. I don't think this book ended that way with Baby taking control of her life.

Also wanted to let any other ladies who read my thread to go get the North and South BBC miniseries, ASAP! Mr. Thornton is the new Victorian Mr. Darcy! We've been gushing over at ElliePotten's thread, and I want to thank her eternally for getting me to watch that series after watching the Dorian Gray movie. So, I have priority TBR on Elizabeth Gaskell's book, which the miniseries is based on, so I will read that novel sometime this year.

So far, I'm quite proud of myself for only being 4 reviews behind and I am also not falling behind on reading the threads of group members I follow. A good start for this year.

Currently reading:
The Jade Peony for the February TIOLI challenge
Beguiled - an ER book

Great review of Little Criminals, which is somewhere in the 'pile'. (Thumbs up from me).

Your comments on the book industry are well taken. The whole e-book phenomenon could be a boon for the writers if the industry is not too quickly monopolized?

I loved the North and South production also. Richard Armitage was quite lovely, although I don't think he has the charisma of Firth and is a bit more wooden in style. He is also the latest big Spook/Spy in the BBC production M15 or Spooks.

I loved Little Criminals when I read it early last year and think that your review is insightful particularly when you note that "bootstraps" did not play much of a role in Baby's redemption (if, in fact, she had one) Thumbs up from me.

I also read Little Criminals last year and, while it was a difficult subject mater, I remember giving it five stars in my review.

Thumbs up for your great review!

I read North and South after seeing some of the miniseries - will have to dig out the DVD and watch the whole thing again properly.

I heard of Little Criminals on a bookswap site and then found a library copy last year.

I think it's good to spend some new book money in independent stores, I used to do that a lot but most of my indie shops have long gone, here in London! Also since I had kids it's hard not to rely on Amazon, as I don't have time for wandering round everywhere.

I also think that using libraries is a good way of supporting authors, and trying to borrow or even request new authors is an alternative if you don't have the money to buy. After all, if a book is borrowed a lot, it might encourage the library system to buy more copies of the author's next book, so by borrowing from libraries you can contribute quite a lot to the author's sales - libraries buy more books than even a maniac like me or Darryl.

@40: Karen, I have to admit that after all the hype about Firth coming out of the water, I didn't get all hot and bothered over that scene when I watched it! I liked when they fought over womens' accomplishments better. I did like the BBC adaptation, but I also think that why it's always at the top is that there so much more to get to know him with 6 episodes. I tend to like verbal sparring scenes the best, like in Brannagh's Much Ado about Nothing.

@41: Nancy, I'm glad that someone else noticed that Lullabies for Little Criminals wasn't really a "bootstraps" book, like the back cover said it would be. I think that, added to the abruptness of the ending, diminished from the book. Otherwise I might have given it a 5 star rating.

@42: Linda, thanks for the thumbs up! I was surprised to get a hot review for the book, so thanks to everyone for clicking the little hand.

@43: Elkiedee, I'm almost scared to read North and south after watching the DVD. I would hate it if my Mr.Thorton fantasies were diminished ;) I think also that libraries are great at supporting authors. I know my library is very responsive to borrower interest. They had originally only 10 copies of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, but when it became very popular they ordered another 30 copies right away. Also, libraries are very conscious (at least mine is) of buying books from local authors, so that always helps. I'm actually really proud of my library; I just found out that it is the 2nd biggest in Canada even though it is 21st in per capita funding. I never realized that I was taking advantage of the fact that almost everything I could ever want, I've been able to borrow from the library (including one of their 13 copies of the North and South DVD!)

Hi, Steph!
I finally got all caught up on your thread and love your reviews. (I think that I am just going to have to read Wolf Hall!) Also, I enjoyed your reading goals. I think that I need some reading goals! I did join the 1010 challenge but made it smaller for me this year. I am doing a step-challenge. But next year, I might just stick with this 75 book one only. It is much more flexible. And the recommendations on everyone's threads are so wide-ranging! Hope you are having a great day!
--BJ

>38 Cauterize:: I've only read the first of Marston's Robert Colbeck series, The Railway Detective and was fair-but-not-great about it. Have you read the others in the series or just Murder on the Brighton Express? How does the rest of the series stack up?

All this talk about North and South - I saw Ellie's review of the book back when she first posted it and my reaction was surprise that it wasn't about the American civil war. Now I'm seeing your comments about the miniseries by BBC and that your library has it. So I went to my library's catalog to find it. Searching for title North and South in format DVD, I got one hit - for John Jakes' civil war novel, North and South! Arg! I guess I'll just read the book and use my imagination for that coming out of the water scene you mentioned! ;-)

OK, the Olympics here in Canada caused a bit of a holiday from LT for me. We re-activated our cable, which I haven't missed in the months since we had cut it off, mostly because I got a Netflix-type service so I just rent TV dvds (BTW, Dexter is awesome!) However, we turned it on for the Olympics and I got sucked back into watching Curling and Hockey and the History Channel again. Argh.

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6. The Colour of Magic by Terry Pratchett
Rating:
Genre: Fantasy, Humour, TIOLI January

I read this book as my January Take It or Leave It Challenge, "A Book that has a Colour in the Title".

This is the first Discworld novel, and it introduces the failed wizard, Rincewind. He decides to chaperone the first-ever tourist to Ankh-Morpork, the clueless Twoflower, through the perils of the city. They end up barely surving one scrape after another as they adventure around the Disc.

This wasn't my favourite trip to the Discworld, there wasn't very many trademarked Pratchett footnotes, and Rincewind's frantic surliness is sometimes irritating. However, I did find it interesting how much of the world-building of the Discworld is established in this novel. Pratchett really had everything in his head when he started this first novel of the series.

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7. Les Liasions Dangereuses by Pierre Choderlos de Laclos
Rating:
Genre: Epistolary novel, French

I read this book as my January Take It or Leave It Challenge, "A Debut Book".

Other than the end of the book finishing a bit abruptly, I really loved this novel. I am not a reader who jumps at reading epistolary novels (even though I did like The Perks of Being a Wallflower), because I tend to find them boring. My feelings towards the format is probably the primary reason for why I yawned my way through Dracula and The Historian. But what I do like to read about is novels of intrigue and masters of manipulation.

The Marquise de Merteuil and Vicomte de Valmont are secret correspondents who write each other about their exploits to manipulate and humiliate those around them. Valmont, being a man, doesn’t have to pretend respectability and is known as a rake; he sets out to seduce the married and virtuous Madame de Tourvel. Meanwhile, Merteuil is planning her revenge on an ex-lover by ruining his future bride, the teenage Cécile de Volanges. This seems harder, as Merteuil is seen by Society as being the ideal virtuous woman. They see each challenge, and each other, as a conquest and use sex as a weapon in their games.

We are given the letters between these two players, plus many of the secondary characters of the novel. However, the true gem of the novel is reading the letters that Merteuil and Valmont are able to write. They are a tour de force in engrossing and seductive writing. It was surprising how action-packed they could make the novel seem, even though the reader is only reading correspondence. For me, the pinnacle was Letter LXXXI, when Merteuil describes how she self-made her identity and her realization that she was “born to avenge her sex and dominate {men}”.

The letter format made it fun to see how different people interpreted the same event. For instance, Valmont sets up a fake charitable activity for the benefit of getting into Tourvel’s good graces. He sends his manservant the day before to find a suitably needy family in the nearby town. His letter to Merteuil describes his diabolical plan and how he knows his prey will fall for the ruse. However, in a letter from Madame de Tourvel to another, we find that she had a spy also saw the servant doing this duty but Tourvel interprets the same facts differently – that Valmont is such a philanthropist, he must have sent the servant the day before because he helps the poor incessantly. Delicious!

I particularly enjoyed noticing that the author is trying to make the point that sticking girls in convents to make them virtuous and protect them from immoral people seems to make them more vulnerable to be eaten by the wolves. Both Madame de Tourvel and Cécile de Volanges are raised in convents, and they both appear to be unable to see the duplicity of the real world and thus, the opposite occurs – because they have no knowledge of depravity and manipulation, they are unable to defend themselves from it.

I had seen the Dangerous Liaisons movie, starring Glenn Close and John Malkovich and loved it. What I realize now after reading the novel is how close that movie kept to the book. After looking up on Wikipedia how many adaptations of Choderlos de Laclos’s book, I rented Valmont and was completely shocked how much it strayed from the source material. I don’t think it took a single line from the novel, nor kept to the plot. If I hadn’t seen the other movie or read the book, I might have liked it, but instead I almost despise it for (sorry Colin Firth!) not using such wonderfully written lines and re-writing the ending.

Side Notes:
This was my first experience reading a Everyman’s Library edition and I was really impressed. It had one of those bookmark silk strings that was really helpful since there aren’t any chapter designations for this book. Also, the introduction was long and very helpful as a primer on the author’s life, the historical background of the book, and how various literary schools interpreted the work. I thought it was really beneficial for reading a classic and I will try to get these editions whenever I can.

January Round-Up

7 Books
6 Fiction; 1 Non-Fiction
1 CanLit; 3 International
2 Award-Winners
2 TIOLI
0 TBR Shelves
2 Recommended
3 Books published in 2009-2010
5 Borrowed; 1 Bought; 1 Early Reviewer

Not bad... somewhat keeping within my above-mentioned reading/buying goals!

I have The Colour of Magic home from the library now to read as I am just starting on the Discworld journey (although I did read Guards! Guards! last year, completely out of order.)

@45: Good to see you, Billie Jean! I love your thread too and all the book and non-book conversations that pop-up on there (though I can't participate much in the football ones!) I did notice that you halved the 2010 challenge, which seems wise... reading 120 books would be quite the feat.

@46: Tad, I only read the one Robert Colbeck book, and I agreed with you... decent but not great. I enjoyed Murder on the Brighton Express for the day it took me to read it, and I didn't dislike it, but it didn't wow me on any level. I think that a reader just has to really love that era and trains to try another book from the series.

@47: Sandy, I had the same problem looking for North and South on my library! I kept getting that civil war thing, so I just had to put Gaskell's name or BBC as a search term. I still will highly recommend getting your hands on the DVDs... it was so good! Oh... and actually the rising from the water scene is from the BBC Pride and Prejudice, but watching Richard Armitage walking through the cotton factory is just as thrilling! :)

@50: My late-night partner! I am surprised that you are a late starter to the Discworld with the amount and variety you read. I've only read 3 now, but so far Mort is my favourite. I have Equal Rites coming in on ILL, so I can't wait for that. BTW, I am keeping to my word and I am reading Wind-Up Bird Chronicle off my TBR shelves because of your thread :)

Cool! What are you thinking of the Murakami book so far, Steph?

8. Be Careful What you Wish For by Alexandra Potter
Rating:

Genre: ChickLit

A paint-by-numbers ChickLit book.

Heather is constantly making wishes in her head. She can’t help it, and so far it has done nothing to improve her drab life as an assistant to a wedding photographer in London nor her non-existent love life. A gypsy on the street gives her a lucky heather sprig, and all of a sudden it seems that all her wishes come true. She gets impossible parking spots, the last pair of shoes in her size at a sample sale, her crush on her hot lawyer neighbour is reciprocated, and she finds an attractive American flatmate who becomes a good guy friend.

Obviously, this is a story about getting exactly what Heather wishes for is wrong and going to make her realize what she really needs to make her happy. I don’t think that’s giving away a spoiler – just reading the cover blurb should clue you in that this is where the story is going to go – and this inability to innovate makes this book really mediocre. This story has been done a million times before, it’s a cliché. I kept hoping that plot was going to move in a direction that I didn’t expect, but it never did.

#54: I can safely skip that one!

Stasia, I'm about six chapters in, I'm anxiously awaiting to see how some elements are going to tie together. How Noboru Wataya the cat and Noboru Wataya the brother-in-law are related... anytime 'water' imagery is mentioned, I'm trying to decide if that's what Toru is supposed to avoid... what the cat's disappearance is supposed to foreshadow... it's all very intriguing and mysterious right now. It's very interesting because I'm wondering how reliable Toru is as a narrator and there's all these crazy elements happening. A mysterious phone call, a weird fortuneteller - I'm hoping this good beginning isn't going to lead to a disappointing end!

#56: I'm hoping this good beginning isn't going to lead to a disappointing end!

Well, I did not think so, but that is just me.

@57: LOL, I think I always feel this way at this stage of a book I'm enjoying. 'Hoping' that it's not to screw up and make me angry by the end. All the feedback about it is making me lay bets that it's not going to be a disappointment, but it's still a risk! It's going to take awhile to finish, though. I'm alternating between it and The Disappeared by Kim Echlin for a book club I just joined, so it's a very literary March I'm starting. Plus I'm behind on threads, which is just so disappointing because I was on top of them a couple weeks ago!

/Steph signing off for the night

9. Carnival by Elizabeth Bear
Rating:

Genre: SF

I honestly don’t know what to say about this book. It was my first Elizabeth Bear science fiction novel and I didn’t like it, but I wouldn’t give it a bad recommendation.

Vincent Katherinessen and Michelangelo Kusangi-Jones are reunited as partners and lovers again for a diplomatic/spying mission to New Amazonia. They represent the interests of the Coalition, a tyrannical governing body that rules over most of the Earth colonies except for rogue worlds like New Amazonia. The Coalition has forced them apart for years, because they are seen as deviants, but the New Amazonians will only deal with ‘gentle males’. For on New Amazonia, women are the rulers, citizens and marriage partners and men are nothing but studs or ‘gentle’. Everyone has several different agendas, and this tale where the reader slowly uncovers where each person’s allegiances lie.

The world-building was fairly interesting. I did like how the author made the New Amazonian society very Golden Age Spanish where the women were members of Houses and they fought gun duels over every slight to their honour. Also, old Earth had fallen due to overpopulation and a ‘governor’ system was created to make sure that humans never over-taxed their ecological systems again, and it is very spine-chilling how they enforce such a balance.

However, I’m starting to think that I don’t like very intense political machination plots. Everybody was working for a political body (and probably secretly for a couple opposing ones) and I think I get bored with the fact that people who are supposed to trust each other… if they just said what they felt for each other, so much pain and stupidity could be avoided (I feel this way about romances a lot, too). I can see how others really loved this book, and I think my dislike of the book has everything to do with me and nothing to do with the quality of the book.

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Side Note:
I’d highly recommend this to justchris because I think this is a book that she would love.

#59: I can tell you flat that I do not like political machination plots, intense or otherwise. I will pass on the Bear book. Thanks for the warning, Steph.

Edited for spelling

Les Liasions Dangereuses is on my TBR in the Everyman format also - do we go to the same bookstore? I grudgingly have to admit your reviews are fabulous!

I also picked up that Potter book in the bargain bin for $1 but will not be reading it after your review -sounds like a waste of paper.

You must have seen the Gold medal game (US vs Canada) last Sunday. What a nail-biter. I gave up watching in OT until I heard the goal was scored - and then I rewound the whole OT portion and watched it without forgoing all my nails and testing my cardiac reserve. Crosby was very lucky to redeem himself!

I hope you had a lovely hike today, Steph!

Actually, we didn't go! I got woken up this morning by somebody saying they were too sore (yesterday he had trudged up and down a river while flyfishing). I was just relieved that I could sleep in. We're going to go next weekend with my Mom (who couldn't come today), instead. As an alternative, we went to the biggest dog park and had a long stroll. It was a more relaxing day than I thought.

10. Evil at Heart by Chelsea Cain
Published: 2009
Rating:
Genre: Thriller

*Mild Spoilers if you haven’t read the previous books in the series*

Third book in the Beauty Killer series by Chelsea Cain. Gretchen, the serial killer, is still missing and Archie has been checked into the psych ward for quite some time. Gretchen had been keeping to her promise not to kill anymore if Archie did not commit suicide, but once Archie start regaining his balance, gruesome murders occur with Gretchen’s signature all over them. Archie makes the decision to leave his asylum and track her down, but the others on the police force worry that he’s not ready. The reporter, Susan, is still trying to make her name by getting the ‘big story’ and so she’s still trying to cling to Archie’s coattails to make her fame and fortune.

I quite enjoy this series and was glad to see the author write another strong entry within a year of releasing Sweetheart. I never know how Chelsea Cain is going to advance Archie and Gretchen’s twisted relationship, and this book was no exception. This is probably the strongest aspect of Cain’s writing… that she is able to build up tension and anticipation of when Gretchen and Archie would finally meet again, and the conclusion wasn’t one the reader is able to foresee. However, my main gripe is that I always think Susan’s story is the weakest – she’s just not interesting enough, or strong enough of a character, to compete with Archie and Gretchen for equal space in the novel. She’s your archetypal dogged young journalist, but there’s nothing different about her… not even her multi-coloured hair.

Otherwise, another gripping book by Chelsea Cain. Recommended.

#64: I have the first book in the series in the BlackHole, so I am ignoring your review for the moment.

@61: Karen, you meanie... 'grudgingly'?? lol!! I am sure we do shop at the same bookstore (Chapters) but actually I got that copy from the library. But I really did like the quality of it and the introduction. It was way more comprehensive than if I did a quick search on wikipedia. I tried to look at the Calgary Public Library website to see what other Everyman books they have, but they don't seem to keep track of the type of editions they shelve, so that's pretty disappointing. I'll have to pester the librarian the next time I go in. But it definitely has put them on my radar now... whenever I get a house with a real library with real shelves, I am seriously considering getting the 100 book classic set for 2k.

I can't remember why I picked up Potter's Be Careful What You Wish For. I know it was recommended somehow - but not from anyone on LT - but yes, it is very disappointing when you can guess the whole plot from reading the title.

Oh, and I am quite proud of myself lately. I got a new paperback copy of Kim Echlin's The Disappeared and I bought it from a small independent bookstore. That's like, my trifecta! CanLit, published in the last year AND bought independently! I'll bask in that glow until I cave and buy the newest J.D. Robb or something.

And yes, I did watch the game at home, of course! I didn't want to start drinking at a pub by 10am to get a seat... But I was FREAKING OUT at the last 24 seconds in the third period. Let's say things were being kicked. Crosby did redeem himself, I guess, but it's a bit galling because I am so not a Sid the Kid fan. Now he's getting all the glory even though he was not producing during the rest of the important games during the tournament. Blah.

ETA the hockey stuff.

#66: Congratulations on the trifecta, Steph!

I am still waiting for the newest J.D. Robb myself and unfortunately, there is no independent bookstore close to me.

@67: They're such a dying breed. From my research, there's only two independent bookstores that sell new books in Calgary... which has a million people, mind you! And me, who is born and raised here, has only been to one of them because it's in a trendy shopping district! I have plans to go look at the other one the next time I need a book. It's not much of a hit for me, since Chapters only gives frequent buyers a 10% discount (if they purchase a $25 yearly membership - so you need to buy $250 in books to break even), and I never seem to buy books that are 30% bestseller discounted, anyways. For instance, the book I just bought was $18.00, so do I really need to save that $1.80? Meh.

Independent bookstores are a dying breed, unfortunately, especially with the proliferation of book selling on the internet (and I freely admit to using it!) and the chains. I really dislike the chain stores, so I generally buy everything over the internet. I use ABEBooks.com a lot and they have many independent bookstores listed there, so I do not feel nearly as guilty as I would if I bought from Amazon all the time.

I'm weird in the way that I don't actively buy used books. Only if I'm wandering by a store, or the huge yearly sale in Calgary that benefits children's literacy, or if the book I want is out-of-print. Otherwise, I have the buy new compulsion... I don't know why. But with 16 Chapters-affiliated locations in my city, or my library's huge collection, generally if I need a book, I can get it ASAP, and this is why I don't buy off the internet much. Also, it's annoying when you live in Canada and you want to buy stuff and the shipping costs are arbitrarily so much higher. I hate going through all the work of finding a seller off a site like eBay or abebooks and then you see the fine print that they won't ship to Canada or they charge an exorbitant shipping price to make more of a profit.

#70: Yeah, but on ABEBooks you can narrow the sellers down to just Canada. Surely someone in Canada would have the book you like?

I do not mind buying used books at all, as long as they do not reek of cigarette smoke or perfume, both of which I am allergic to. I do have a nice used bookstore here that I frequent on occasion.

@71: Oh probably there are worthwhile sellers that are just Canada. I just associate internet buying with work and not just with books. But If I were to look at some used books, often times there will be multiple sellers and I'd have to go through each entry to find out which one plus shipping is the cheapest (and it's often not the one that has the cheapest book price). For me, online buying is a very omigod, I need to HAVE it and I can't get it anywhere else sort of activity. I avoid sites like esty.com like the plague so I don't create the need... the dangerous need!

#72: I have no idea what esty.com is - and it sounds like I better never find out!

@73: Honestly, DON'T start looking. It's very dangerous!! :) Especially since I know you do a lot of online shopping for gifts. But basically, it's a site where people can sell their homemade crafts. I only found out about it since Mr. Steph's friend started selling her jewelry on it and she sent me a link. ARGH.

#74: OK, I am forewarned. Never going to esty.com.

@75: LOL, yeah it's scary how it creates desire for things you never thought about needing. I was looking at really pretty handmade crinolines last time. But I don't need crinolines! I'd say, if there was a specific crafty thing you wanted maybe try it. For example, that friend makes Tudor-themed earrings and necklaces. So if you had a friend who you wanted to get something for someone who was a huge period fan, the site is really useful with keyword searches to find her store. She's making some nice coin too. She's been doing it for about half a year as pocket money for grad school and she told me she's making about 200 bucks a month right now.

#76: You are going to have to give me her name now, you know that, right? I do know a couple of someone's who would like the earrings and necklaces.

Noooo! Resist! Remember I warned you... But here: http://www.etsy.com/shop/Etherealcreation is the link to her page. Just don't start browsing the site unless you've got some good self control :)

I have very good self-control. I also have a daughter whose birthday is upcoming.

@79: LOL, well apparently I don't have much. I just saw this cool "vampire-hoodie" that I want. ooookay... time to back away from the shopping cart button and go to bed *closes the esty site*

#80: 'Night, Steph. Very good self-control there.

@81: Goodnight Stasia and good reading! I'll probably see you tomorrow :)

Thanks for the link. When I lose at least 30 pounds, I have a vision of wearing dresses and nice jewelry....So, I'm bookmarking this site for future use....

Gah, I just looked at the website and there are a couple of pendants I really really want! Especially the one with the ancient horse on it.

*sigh* I shall gaze longingly at it and plot what I can cut out of my life in order to afford it. Food perhaps?? lol

...etsy, the bane of my existence... I should say, my bank account. But it's so much nicer than eBay -- these people handmake their items, so they actually *care* about customer service... I've had nothing but excellent purchasing experiences through etsy. Unfortunately, that just means I keep going back for more...!

Hey Steph! I'm even more of a slowpoke than you, since the first quarter is almost over before I even figure out where your thread is. Sigh. Excellent reviews, but not many I would pursue right now.

I hadn't realized how spoiled I am with several independent bookstores in a fairly small town, reflecting various specialties as well as just general new and used: all used, mysteries, women's/feminist, and so on. The science fiction/fantasy one folded many years ago, though. Unfortunately, most of them are located downtown where parking is difficult and usually outside of my orbit, so I confess to shopping more at a regional chain that's a mix of new and used. We also have Borders and Barnes & Nobles for big chains, but I very rarely go to either of those. Then there are the various friends of libraries book sales. And I tend to purchase online only those books that are unlikely to be found locally, which is to say the usual obscure items to feed my esoteric research interests.