Souloftherose's 75 Book Challenge

Hello everyone




January 2010

#1 Artemis Fowl by Eoin Colfer (280 pages) Mooched
#2 Bad Science by Ben Goldacre (342 pages) Gift
#3 Unseen Academicals by Terry Pratchett (400 pages) Library
#4 The Magician's Guild by Trudi Canavan (465 pages) Library
#5 Daughter of the Empire by Raymond E. Feist and Janny Wurts (421 pages) Mooched
#6 The Novice by Trudi Canavan (577 pages) Library
#7 The Earth Hums in B Flat by Mari Strachan (327 pages) Library
#8 Shakespeare: The World as a Stage by Bill Bryson (195 pages) Library
#9 The Year of the Flood by Margaret Atwood (431 pages) Library
#10 Soulless By Gail Carriger (357 pages) Mooched
#11 Eragon by Christopher Paolini (497 pages) Library
#12 Shades of Grey by Jasper FForde (432 pages) Gift
#13 Fatherland by Robert Harris (383 pages) Off the Shelf

February 2010
#14 The Book of Lost Things by John Connolly (348 pages) Library
#15 Cry, the Beloved Country by Alan Paton (236 pages) Off the Shelf
#16 The Giver by Lois Lowry (179 pages) Mooched
#17 Mr Standfast by John Buchan (287 pages) Off the Shelf
#18 The Golden One by Elizabeth Peters (385 pages) Bought
#19 The New Testament and the People of God by N. T. Wright (476 pages) Off the shelf
#20 Shadows and Strongholds by Elizabeth Chadwick (568 pages) Mooched
#21 The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman ) (295 pages) Library
#22 Nervous Conditions by Tsitsi Dangarembga (204 pages) Off the Shelf
#23 Lord Foul's Bane by Stephen Donaldson (438 pages) Off the Shelf
#24 Stardust by Neil Gaiman (214 pages) Library
#25 The Time of the Ghost by Diana Wynne Jones (222 pages) Library
#26 Still Life by Louise Penny (402 pages) Library
#27 The Anubis Gates by Tim Powers (464 pages) Bought
#28 Traitor's Purse by Margery Allingham (208 pages) Library
#29 A Wrinkle in Time by Madelein L'Engle (190 pages) Mooched
#30 The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood (324 pages) Library
#31 The World According to Bertie by Alexander McCall Smith (343 pages) Bought

March 2010
#32 The High Lord by Trudi Canavan (642 pages)
#33 Girl Genius Volume 1: Agatha Heterodyne and the Beetleburg Clank by Phil and Kaja Foglio (96 pages)
#34 Girl Genius Volume 2: Agatha Heterodyne and the Airship City by Phil and Kaja Foglio (112 pages)
#35 Girl Genius Volume 3: Agatha Heterodyne and the Monster Engine by Phil and Kaja Foglio (128 pages)
#36 Girl Genius Volume 4: Agatha Heterodyne and the Circus of Dreams by Phil and Kaja Foglio (128 pages)
#37 Girl Genius Volume 5: Agatha Heterodyne and the Clockwork Princess by Phil and Kaja Foglio (112 pages)
#38 Girl Genius Volume 6: Agatha Heterodyne and the Golden Trilobite by Phil and Kaja Foglio (150 pages)
#39 The Sandman: Preludes & Nocturnes by Neil Gaiman (239 pages)
#40 Girl Genius Volume 7: Agatha Heterodyne & The Voice of the Castle
by Phil and Kaja Foglio (128 pages)
#41 The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Volume 1 by Alan Moore (192 pages)
#42 The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Volume 2 by Alan Moore (228 pages)
#43 Fables Volume 5: The Mean Seasons by Bill Wallingham (166 pages)
#44 Fables Volume 6: Homelands by Bill Wallingham (190 pages)
#45 Temeraire by Naomi Novik (439 pages)
#46 Girl Genius Volume 8: Agatha Heterodyne & The Chapel of Bones by Phil and Kaja Foglio (144 pages)
#47 To Ride Hell's Chasm by Janny Wurts (681 pages)
#48 Mystery Mile by Margery Allingham (222 pages)
#49 Throne of Jade by Naomi Novik (391 pages)
#50 Mistborn: The Final Empire by Brandon Sanderson (647 pages)
#51 Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie (647 pages)
#52 Airborn by Kenneth Oppel

April 2010
#53 The Long Way Home by Joss Whedon (136 pages)
#54 The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas (630 pages)
#55 Fables: Legends in Exile by Bill Willingham (127 pages)
#56 Once in a Blue Moon by Leanna Ellis (308 pages)
#57 The Affinity Bridge by George Mann (350 pages)
#58 Howl's Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones (302 pages)
#59 Bluebeard's Egg and Other Stories by Margaret Atwood (281 pages)
#60 The Weirdstone of Brisingamen by Alan Garner
#61 The Well of Ascension by Brandon Sanderson
#62 The Unadulterated Cat by Terry Pratchett
#63 The Unbearable Lightness of Scones by Alexander McCall Smith
#64 The Broken Sword by Poul Anderson
#65 Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel
#66 The Moon of Gomrath by Alan Garner
#67 The Owl Service by Alan Garner
#68 Timoleon Vieta Come Home by Dan Rhodes

welcome have fun!

#1 for 2010 was Artemis Fowl by Eoin Colfer. This was actually the second book I started in 2010 as I'd already started Bad Science by Ben Goldacre which my hubby got for Christmas but I felt rather coldy today and needed something a bit less brain heavy.

I enjoyed Artemis Fowl. I'd heard of the series and decided to try it out.

Welcome!

Welcome souloftherose! I've driven through Tring ;o)

I am irresistibly compelled to star all UK-dwelling 75ers. Welcome, and looking forward to following your reading! My son read all the Artemis Fowl books late last year, but I haven't tried them. Do you think you'll carry on with the series?

Glad to have you with us!

Hello everyone - thank you!

>5 flissp: I'm always very excited to meet people who have heard of Tring, let alone been there (even briefly)!

>6 FlossieT: I'd like to carry on with the series to see what happens - the first book was a fun book to read. I'm trying not to buy new books so I'll see if I can get hold of a copy from the library or wait until one turns up on bookmooch or in the second hand bookshop near me. Although I think I end up getting more books from bookmooch than I ever previously bought from Amazon so I'm not sure how well this particular strategy works but I think it works out cheaper!

Love the Artemis Fowl series! They're definitely worth the time spent, I find them a lot of fun.

I'm just about to start the 5th book in the Artemis Fowl series! Lots of fun.

Hope you are feeling better.

Book #2 was Bad Science by Ben Goldacre.



This is a tricky book to review. It's written by a UK medical doctor, Ben Goldacre, who also writes a column for one of the UK broadsheet papers, The Guardian.

The copy I read was the 2nd edition of this book which had been updated to include a new chapter 'The Doctor Will Sue You Now' about vitamin pill salesman Matthias Rath. This chapter can be found free on Ben Goldacre's website here:

http://www.badscience.net/2009/04/matthias-rath-steal-this-chapter/

The book is about how we and the media misunderstand and misinterpret science, especially medical science, (hence the bad science of the title) and the consequences this can have, some fairly trivial (the latest diet fads, alternative therapies) and some horrifyingly scary (South Africa's treatment of the AIDs crisis, the UK MMR scare). The book is well written and humourous but also very unsettling in places. I'm left feeling like I want to take action against something but I'm not sure what...

A very interesting read overall, I gave it 4.5 stars but I'm wondering if I should change it to 4 as I'm still not sure what his main aim was.

If anyone else has read the book and has any helpful comments please let me know!

I tend to read quite a few books at once so that I can decide which to read depending on my mood.

Currently reading and lined up to read are the following:

Unseen Academicals
The New Testament and the People of God
Daughter of the Empire
The Magician's Guild
The Book of Lost Things

I've also ordered The Earth Hums in B Flat from my local library so will hopefully get that soon. I've had it on my wishlist for a while and Tui's review here (http://www.librarything.com/work/7568645/reviews/52777633) inspired me to order it!

I also ordered Wolf Hall but the library has a waitlist of 226 for this book so it might be a while!

#3 was Unseen Academicals by Terry Pratchett.



I thought this book was absolutely brilliant :-)

My husband got a copy of Unseen Academicals for his birthday in November, somehow I haven't managed to steal it away and read it yet... soon!

> 14 I really, really enjoyed Unseen Academicals and as soon as I'd finished it I rushed over to read the Unseen Academicals thread in the Pratchett Fans group (http://www.librarything.com/topic/74863). It seems to have provoked mixed reactions.

I've just finished The Magician's Guild by Trudi Canavan - review coming soon.

ETA: I'm a bit worried that the books I'm reading are increasing in size....

#11 Interesting review - I've seen this reviewed elsewhere (Nature I think) with another one: Am I Making Myself Clear by Cornelia Dean (on my wishlist) - which, from the review, sounded even better (I'll see if I can find the review for you're interested).

This is one of my bug-bear subjects - it infuriates me the way scientific research is sometimes so badly reported - the scare arising from that terrible MMR/autism paper is still showing ripple effects - I had a very intelligent friend tell me that the MMR vaccine is dangerous just last summer. I still have thoughts about going into Science Communication one of these days (put off because I'm not really articulate enough!)

I also had mixed feelings about Unseen Academicals, but thought it was much better than Making Money - even one of the less good Terry Pratchett book is still fun to read anyway!

#4 The Magician's Guild by Trudi Canavan



I'd been aware of this fantasy series for a few years and picked this up from the local library. When I flicked through the book in the library the first paragraph captivated me and made me decide to read it:

"It is said, in Imardin, that the wind has a soul, and that it wails through the narrow city streets because it is grieved by what it finds there. On the day of the Purge it whistled amongst the swaying masts in the Marina, rushed through the Western Gates and screamed between the buildings. Then, as if appalled by the ragged souls it met there, it quietened to a whimper."

The story focuses on a slum girl called Sonea who accidentally discovers she has magical powers. In Imardin it is forbidden for an untrained magician to be loose in the city so the Magicians' Guild must track her down and either train her as a magician or block her powers so she cannot use them. However, the Magicians' Guild is traditionally made up of members from the ruling classes of Imardin and there are many who do not want to see a slum dweller become part of the Guild.

Trudi Canavan, in her first novel, has managed to create an intriguing fantasy world complete with intrigue, rival guilds and an exciting plot hook at the end of the novel to anticipate the rest of the trilogy. I particularly liked the characters she has created; some fantasy authors seem to write characters so annoying that they set my teeth on edge but the characters in The Magicians' Guild were wonderful. One reviewer wrote that they wanted one character (Rothen) to be real so that they could meet him and I completely agree.

I gave this book four stars and immediately went back to my library to grab the next in the series.

Edited for grapplings with html and to add that this was an author's debut work for the Take It or Leave It challenge (http://www.librarything.com/topic/80417)

I was also going to review Daughter of the Empire but I'm too tired to think and am going to retire to the sofa with a book and some tea instead. Brain, where have you gone?

The Magicians Guild sounds like something I might really like... I've never heard of Trudi Caravan before! I'm off to my local library tonight, so I'll have to see if it's there...

>19 dk_phoenix: I'm always really excited to think I've discovered a new author I'm going to enjoy and I was pleased to see that my library seems to stock most of Trudi Canavan's books :-) As well as The Black Magician Trilogy I think she has also written another series called The Age of the Five of which the first book is Priestess of the White.

Hope you manage to find a copy!

#5 Daughter of the Empire by Raymond E. Feist and Janny Wurts



This is the first book of a trilogy co-authored by Raymond E. Feist and Janny
Wurts. It is set in Kelewan which is part of the setting of Raymond Feist's
Riftwar saga. I've read the Riftwar Saga and a couple of other books by Feist
but I haven't read anything by Janny Wurts before (although I have To Ride
Hell's Chasm on my TBR shelf).

Before I properly review this book I have to admit that I absolutely loved
Feist's debut novel, Magician, but ever since I have been slightly disappointed
by the other books of his I've read. He also has a couple of annoying writing
habits (well I find them annoying, anyway) which really bug me:

1) Every chapter starts with a short (three - six words) sentence as the
opening paragraph. ("The storm had broken") I can sort of understand why he
does this. It's short, it's pithy, it draws you in. But several chapters into a
book it starts to get irritating and when he does it for every chapter of every
book it makes me want to scream!

2) Character descriptions. Particularly at the beginning of his novels, when he
spends time setting the characters up Feist seems to describe his characters'
personality by using descriptive passages. I prefer writers who let you
discover their characters' personalities based on how they act in the book or
interact with other characters rather than having it explicitly spelled out for
me. I find it slightly patronising and it reminds me that I'm reading a book
rather than being completely immersed in the world of the characters in the
novel.

These habits are again present in Daughter of the Empire. I've assumed they're
Feist's habits rather than Janny Wurts' and I'm starting to think that all
Feist novels will have these traits.

Rant over.

This story is based exclusively in the world of Kelewan rather than Midkemia
which was the setting for most of the Riftwar Saga. Although this is a world
where magic is possible there is actually very little magic in this story,
rather the focus of the book is on politics and intrigue.

The main character, Mara Acoma, is unexpectedly called away from her future as
a novice in a religious order on the death of her father and elder brother. She
becomes the leading lady of their house and must learn quickly to survive
amidst the intrigues of Kelewan society; a society where assassination and
murder are considered socially acceptable and even admirable as long as they
are done within the complex rules of Kelewan honour and 'The Game of the
Council'.

This book was slow to start with but I quickly became fascinated by the complex
plots and intrigued by Mara's plans to overcome her family's foes and ensure
the prosperity of House Acoma.

Four stars.

glad to see that you enjoyed The Magician's Guild, I read it about 4 years ago and enjoyed it too the oher two are much better then the first!

>22 BBGirl55: Thanks, I'm looking forward to them - in fact I'm about to head to bed with The Novice now.

I added a ticker to mine profile, for 100 books this year .. my 7yr old girl Dani ask me what I was doing when i told her she said i can do 50 so we started one for her on my profile also she is doing really well.
She is even writing her own reviews when she is done with them. She is having a great time with this .. she told the library teacher at her school and one of our local librarians.

#17: That one looks pretty good. I am trying to expand my science fiction/fantasy reading, so I will see if I can locate a copy. Thanks for the recommendation!

Saw your comments on another thread and had to come over and star you. I loved Unseen Academicals too, and also Daughter of the Empire and its sequels. Not as wild about The Magician's Guild but if the books improve after that one, may need to give it another try.

Enjoying your thread so far! Happy reading for 2010...

ditto what elliepotten said!

ditto - I'm starring your thread as everything you've read so far appeals to me. I'm a Eoin Colfer fan - do try his non-Artemis Fowl books as well - The supernaturalist, The wish list, The legend of Spud Murphy and I've only heard good things about Airman.
I've finally started my first Terry Prachett book - I'm listening to The colour of magic and after a few rough starts as I'm not really into audio books, I've finally got the gist of it and finding it fun.

#29- a lot of people say that they didn't enjoy The colour of magic, but if you stick with it, he only gets better. Not to put you off, but there are over thirty books in the Discworld series, and some of them are so good that you can pick one up a year after you've read it and just read it again. Or come across a quote and *have* to read it again. PTerry is a genius!!

>27 elliepotten:,28,29 Thank you!

>29 avatiakh:&30 I agree with PrincessT, I actually think the first two Discworld books (The Colour of Magic and The Light Fantastic) are his weakest (although still a lot of fun) and the books just get better and better after that. Thanks for the Eoin Colfer tips - I'll look out for those!

#6 The Novice by Trudi Canavan



This is the follow-up to The Magician's Guild. Again, I really enjoyed this book. It's slightly more Harry Potter-esque (no bad thing) than the first book as most of the story focuses on Sonea as she begins her studies as a novice at the Guild and has to deal with bullying from her classmates. Four stars.

#7 The Earth Hums in B Flat by Mari Strachan



This is the debut novel by Mari Strachan which I read as part of the Take it or Leave it Challenge (and also because it's been on my wishlist for ages and I finally managed to get hold of a copy).

This is such a beautiful book. It's set in a small Welsh village in the 1950s and the Welsh names and nicknames are beautiful. The minister of the local Methodist church is always referred to as 'The Voice of God' even by the adults and one lady of a slightly dubious reputation is called Nanw Lipstick by the whole village.

I don't think I can do a better review than Tiffin's review on the book page but I really recommend this book, I gave it 4.5 stars.

>33 souloftherose:: Yes, Tiffin's (along with some others) review was excellent, but your comments covinced me to get off the fence and add The Earth Hums in B Flat. I've enjoyed your thead and am starring it so I can keep up with your reading.

#32: I checked The Magician's Guild out of the library the other day. I am trying to expand my science fiction and fantasy reading.

#33: That one was already in the BlackHole before Tui's comments, so I really must find a copy :)

Hi! I just found your thread, and I've got you starred now. The Magician's Guild sounds really good, and it's going on my wishlist.

#34, 35 & 36 Glad I have helped add to the growing wishlists/black holes! I may manage to read 75 books this year but I think by joining the group I will have added at least twice that number of books to my wishlist from everyone's recommendations!

#8 Shakespeare: The World as a Stage by Bill Bryson



This was a good, fun read. I picked this up, more because it was written by Bill Bryson than because it was about Shakespeare. It surprised me how little we actually know about Shakespeare and his life and as a result the book is mainly about Elizabethan life at the time of Shakespeare and accounts of various Shakespeare scholars' attempts to discover Shakespeare.

I really enjoy Bill Bryson's books and this was another 'laugh-out-loud' book from him. At the end of the book I did feel slightly disappointed but I think this is mainly because the book is so short (less than 200 pages) and I still feel that I don't know much about Shakespeare.

I'd still recommend this book though, it's a very entertaining introduction to Shakespeare and I now want to read more history type books this year. I have Andrew Marr's A History of Modern Britain out of the library so I will hopefully get to that soon.

Four stars.

#9 The Year of the Flood by Margaret Atwood



I loved this book! Before reading this I had only read The Blind Assassin by the same author (which I also loved). This is a post-apocalyptic type novel, set at an unspecified point in the future where a natural disaster (referred to as 'The Flood' in the book) has obliterated most of the human life on the planet. The story follows two survivors and moves back and forth between their lives pre and post-flood. I was completely hooked from the first chapter.

I tried to think of reasons not to give this book five stars, but I couldn't think of any. I loved it and I didn't want the book to end.

This book features many characters from Atwood's earlier novel, Oryx and Crake which I think I will need to order from the library, but I don't think you need to have read Oryx and Crake to enjoy or understand this book.

Five stars

I really like Bryson's works, but I don't think I knew about this one. Adding it to the list. Thanks for the great review!

#39: I actually preferred Oryx and Crake to The Year of the Flood, but I know I am in the minority on that. I thought they were both terrific.

#41 I will really look forward to Oryx and Crake then!

#42: I hope you enjoy it.

#10 Soulless by Gail Carriger



I was so excited when this book arrived and it came just when I needed it too! This book is fantastic, funny, silly and I loved it! I think I saw it described somewhere as Jane Austen meets P G Wodehouse and that seems pretty accurate although I'd also throw in some Georgette Heyer. The next book in the series is out in April and I'm really looking forward to it! I also read this as part of the Take It Or Leave It Challenge.

Five stars

#11 Eragon by Christopher Paolini



I really wanted to like this book. The author was only 15 when he wrote the first draft and it was self-published a couple of years later before being picked up by the current publisher. It's a massive bestseller, won awards, there's been a film and I really like fantasy books (you may have noticed). I was expecting Harry Potter with more dragons.

The opening chapter seemed a little stilted, but by chapter three I was hooked. For the first third of the book I wanted to give it four stars. Then things started to drag a little through the middle section of the book, there were whole chapters that could have been completely cut out with no loss of plot or storyline. For the last third of the book I really wanted the book to end which is the opposite to how I normally feel with books.

The book's too long; I don't have a problem with long books in themselves, I was actually excited to pick up a YA book that was so chunky, but there's just not enough happening to justify the length. A lot of people have commented that the book is very derivative of other fantasy novels; I agree there's not a lot of originality in the book but that wouldn't bother me so much if it was better written.

I gave this three stars, although I think if you take into account the age of the author then it should get a better rating. It is absolutely amazing that Christopher Paolini could write this at such a young age. But compared to the other fantasy and YA books out there it's just not that good.

I can't decide whether I want to read the sequels to this book, some of the reviews to the sequels make me think that I will have the same problems with those books. However I'd love to see what Paolini can write in 10 or 20 years time once he's matured as a writer.

I understand your feelings about Eragon, the next books have the same problem, but I still enjoyed them and rated them all 3 1/2 stars.

So it's up to you ;-)

Yay, I'm so glad you liked Soulless! I'm really looking forward to the sequel, and there's supposed to be a third one coming out in the fall as well.

You've also made me want to read some Margaret Atwood. I've never read anything of hers, but I have a few lined up that I'm hoping to read sometime this year.

#44: I hope I can get my hands on a copy of Soulless soon! It looks terrific.

#45 Thanks for your comments, I think on reflection I probably will read the rest of the series but they will be books to get out of the library rather than purchase. I've been left with a fondness for the characters in Eragon.

#46 The Year of the Flood was only the second Atwood I have read but I really want to read more now. I just got a copy of Alias Grace which looks interesting too.

#46&47 Soulless was so much fun! I hope you can get a copy soon Stasia.

Have just added The Year of the Flood to my wishlist thanks to your review.

I read and enjoyed Oryx and Crake a few years ago, and also have The Blind Assassin lurking on my shelf. I think I may have read Cat's Eye too, but can't remember much about it.

#12 Shades of Grey by Jasper Fforde



I am a massive Jasper Fforde fan and I was so excited when my husband got me this book for my birthday (although he tried to blindside me by telling me he wasn't sure if I'd like my present!)

This was a longer and slightly more serious read than Fforde's other works but if anything I think this book is even better than his others. It's as if his writing has stepped up a level.

For some reason my brain has not been functioning over the last few days and I don't think I am going to be able to do a proper review but there are lots of good reviews on the book page so I will refer you to those instead!

I loved this book, even after I'd finished it I found my mind returning to the world and characters Fforde had created (my husband says I was talking about it in my sleep!)

Five stars

ETA: And I love the UK cover - it's beautiful!

#50: I brought that one home from the library the other day. I hope I enjoy it as much as you (and a lot of others in the group) did!

#13 Fatherland by Robert Harris



Finally managed to read a book from my TBR list rather than the library or a book just acquired!

This was Robert Harris' debut novel which I read as part of the TIOLI challenge (and finished with only a day to spare!). It's set in Berlin in 1964 in an alternate history where Hitler won WWII and the German Reich covers most of Central and Eastern Europe and a good chunk of Russia.

Part crime story, part thriller this was an interesting read. I quite like Robert Harris as although thrillers are not normally my thing, his books are quite good historical reads. Although this novel was based in an alternate history a lot of the characters and the plot are based on real characters and events from WWII. There is an author's note at the end of the book to tell you what really happened to the characters in the real world.

Four stars.

ETA: typos - doh!

#52: That one looks interesting and right up my alley! Thanks for the recommendation, Heather.

Enigma by Robert Harris is also good WWII based mystery/thriller/historical fiction. He's also written a couple set in Ancient Rome but I haven't read those yet.

I will look for Enigma as well. Thanks for the mention, Heather.

January Summary

13 books read, a lot more than I expected but I have been off work all month. Only one from my TBR pile though and the rest all library copies or new books...

For February I am going to alternate between TBR books (book acquired before 2010) and new books whether mooched, borrowed, bought or libraried. Hubby as been roped in to make me stick to it!

Planned reads for Feb are:

Take It or Leave It Challenge Feb 2010- red covers
The Book of Lost Things by John Connolly Library
Utterly Monkey by Nick Laird Off the Shelf
Cry, the Beloved Country by Alan Paton Off the Shelf

Take It or Leave It Challenge Feb 2010- Newbery Award
The Giver by Lois Lowry Mooched

Other
The New Testament and the People of God by NT Wright - about 1/2 way through now
Finding Sanctuary by Christopher Jamison
Mr Standfast by John Buchan - paused since Dec

Group Reads
The Anubis Gates by Tim Powers
The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas

Hmm, am I overcommitted?

Hi Souloftherose:

Thanks again for angeling for me - now I've got another new friend on LT!

I'm thinking of joining Anubis Gates read too.

Looks like you've got a great start to 2010. I love the Bryson Shakespeare book and everything I've read by him.

I'm on the 75 book challenge too. karenmarie's 2010 75 book challenge

I'm really looking forward to Shades of Grey! I've heard so many things about it. But for now, must refrain from purchasing new hardcover....

I think you're only a bit over-committed for the month, not nearly as bad as me! I've already planned out about ten books books that I want to read, and I only got through four this month, so that isn't a good precedent....

I'm glad you're reading The Giver! That's one of my all-time favourites.

#57 Hi Karen. I have been lurking on your thread but popped over just now to delurk by posting. I keep forgetting that people won't know I am reading their threads and enjoying the discussions unless I chime in every now and then!

#58 I'm looking forward to The Giver, it's been recommended by so many people. I've made headway into The Book of Lost Things this afternoon and I only need to read 15 chapters of The Count of Monte Cristo for the group read so maybe it's doable. If not, I guess I need to remind myself that it doesn't really matter - I'm a genius at beating myself up about stuff and sadly perfectly capable of feeling guilty for not doing something that I didn't really need to do anyway (does that make sense? not sure)

Finished books 14 and 15, The Book of Lost Things and Cry, the Beloved Country. Not feeling great today but will post my thoughts soon.

Hope you feel better soon, Heather.

I liked The Year of the Flood better than Oryx and Crake - O&C was very well done but I found the lack of other people in the present a bit hard to take.

I wonder if any of my libraries has The Earth Hums in B Flat - I'm reading a collection of writings by Welsh women at the moment and this sounds really good, I see several group members on the review page.

Personally, I enjoyed The Book of Lost Things very much, but at the same time was a little disappointed as I expected something a bit more from it. Looking forward to your thoughts on it - and hope you feel better soon!

I'm really looking forward to Shades of Grey especially after reading your comments - if anything I think this book is even better than his others. It's as if his writing has stepped up a level.

I have a pile of Robert Harris books to read, he's Nick Hornby's brother-in-law so often gets a favourable mention when Hornby writes about books and reading.

I had no idea Nick Hornby and Robert Harris were (semi) related - well there you go.

Heather.

I hope you are feeling better today. I know you, like me, are an admirer of J.W. Waterhouse and his pre-raphaelite works. When I'm not feeling well, I sit quietly and page through some of the pre-raphaelite books I have. Soul of the Rose is one of my favorites, and I also love Miranda and The Tempest and Circe.

You are reading such great books. I'm enjoying your comments!

#65 Me either!

#61, #66 Thank you both, I am feeling better today. I find reading is my best medicine when I am feeling unwell. I have been signed off work at the moment so am enjoyable occupying myself with LibraryThing and reading!

And now some reviewing should be done..

#14 The Book of Lost Things by John Connolly

Library



I picked this up in the library because I am strangely, yet irresistibly drawn towards books with the word 'book' in the title.

John Connolly has written his own fairy tale/fable partly based on the fairytales we all know but with slight changes to the familiar stories. The result is that the book feels familiar when reading it in the way that fairy stories do. I guessed the ending before we got there but I don't feel that detracted from the book. It doesn't feel like the book is written to try and make the ending a surprise, in fact, the ending felt like it fitted, in the same way that the endings of other fairytales just fit.

The story itself is about 350 pages and the author has added a further 100-odd pages at the end of my edition containing the original fairytales he references in the book (mainly The Brothers Grimm versions) and brief notes about the origins of these fairytales and the meanings he thinks they have.

The story itself is set during WWII in Britain and follows a 12 year old boy, David, as he struggles to come to terms with the death of his mother and his father's subsequent marriage and new baby stepbrother. David has always loved books and as he becomes more unhappy with his family life he begins to hear the books whispering to him. One night, David hears his dead mother calling to him and as he follows this voice through his garden he finds himself in strange new land where myths and stories are real but strangely changed from the stories he knows. His only way to return to his own land is to seek the king of this strange world, who is known to keep his secrets in a mysterious book, the Book of Lost Things.

This is a beautiful book, and feels wonderfully familiar when reading because of all the fairytales. Despite the fact that I've never read the book before it felt almost as if I were rereading a childhood favourite. It also reminded me a lot of two films, The Labyrinth and Pan's Labyrinth. It had a certain dark quality similar to Pan's Labyrinth.

4.5 stars

ETA: I read this as part of the Take It or Leave It challenge for February because it had a red cover TIOLI February Thread

And the opening quote (because I love it):

Once upon a time - for that is how all stories should begin - there was a boy who lost his mother

"Once upon a time..." That is a great way to begin a book about fairy tales. I'm going to get in touch with my inner child and add this one to my wish notebook.

I love fairy tale retellings, and that one sounds right up my alley. Just went frantically looking for it in my library but it is not on the shelf :(
If you enjoy books like that you might also like Mercedes Lackey's The Fire Rose and her The Black Swan.

THe Book of Lost Things has been sitting in my TBR pile since last summer. I have read mixed reviews of it, but yours makes me move it up near the top of the pile. I should definitely fit it into my Off the Shelf challenge.

#15 Cry, the Beloved Country



Off the Shelf

This has been on my shelf for months after we were given it as a wedding present and I'm so glad I finally read it! It also falls into the TIOLI challenge for February as my cope has a red cover (see post 69 above for the link).

This was such a beautiful book. The story is set in South Africa in 1948 and follows a black Anglican minister from the country as he travels to Johannesburg in search of his son and sister who he hasn't heard from in some time. This is the first time he has travelled to the city and we see Johannesburg through his eyes as he struggles to understand the changes to the native African culture that the city has brought about.

The book is beautifully written, almost like poetry. Repetition of certain phrases give it a very rhythmic feel and Paton has included some Zulu words in the text (with a glossary at the back for explanation) so it feels very African. It's also a very sad story, South Africa as a land and a nation has certainly suffered a great deal in the last century but there's a lot of hope in this book and I came away feeling uplifted (although teary) rather than depressed - the full title of the book is Cry, the Beloved Country: A Story of Comfort in Desolation.

Beautiful is simply the best adjective I can think of to describe the book.

A quote:

Cry, the beloved country, for the unborn child that is the inheritor of our fear. Let him not love the earth too deeply. Let him not laugh too gladly when the water runs through his fingers, nor stand too silent when the setting sun makes red the veld with fire. Let him not be too moved when the birds of his land are singing, nor give too much of his heart to a mountain or a valley. For fear will rob him of all if he gives too much.

I know it's early in the month but I think this has to be my top read for February - I can't imagine what could top this. As soon as I'd finished the book I went on to bookmooch and grabbed pretty much everything I could find by the same author. It was wonderful.

I feel like I should take this as a lesson not to ignore the unread books on my shelves in favour of (supposedly) more exciting books from the library.

My husband has spent quite a bit of time in Africa over the last decade and we have quite a lot of African literature on our shelves and I really want to continue the theme later this month.

Can't recommend enough - 5 stars

#16 The Giver by Lois Lowry



Mooched

This has been reviewed a lot by other people in the thread so I'm not going to go into lots of detail. I enjoyed this book although I did feel slightly disappointed with it - I think partly because I was expecting so much and also partly because as a YA book it's quite short (179 pages). I wanted more exploration of the world Lowry had created. But it was really good and she's written other books in the series so I'll let her off.

It's a young adult, utopia novel and everyone is happy. But is everything as perfect as it seems?

Four stars

>73 souloftherose:: Cry, the Beloved Country is one of my favorites, also. You now might want to try his Too Late the Phalarope.

Hi, thanks for the review of The Book of Lost Things - it came into the shop a while a ago and I've been picking it up and putting it down ever since, trying to decide if I'd like it or not. I'll have to give it a go soon!

You echo my exact feelings on The Giver. I too found myself slightly disappointed when I finished. I definitely liked it but like you,I think I had heard so much about it and everyone told me how much they loved it that I expected to be blown away.

I also loved The Year of the Flood. I read Oryx and Crake just before the aforementioned and desperately disliked it. I almost did not read The Year of the Flood because I assumed that it would be same as O&C. I was pleasantly surprised. But most people I know who read it loved it, I am the exception.

Heather..What a great review of Cry, the Beloved Country! I need to re-read this book.

Great reviews of some great recent reading, Heather!

You got a BOOK as a wedding present??? I'm green with envy...
We got lots of great gifts but no books!!

you read the book of lost things! good for you! I Still have not got round to shades of grey but hope too in the next month!

thank you for the reviews!

Only just found you despite the fact you've been lurking around my thread for a while. At least I've got you now :)

Heather
Because you recently finished The Giver, I think you might be interested in Looking Back: A Books of Memories. (Touchstone not working, so here is the link:)
http://www.librarything.com/work/book/56225107

Lowry talks about how her life influenced her writing and she quotes passages from The Giver throughout.

#80 We got about 4 books as presents actually, I was cheeky enough to put 3 on our wedding list and they were the first to go! (Our friends know us well). Cry, the Beloved Country was the one not on the list and the only fiction book (the others were mainly big reference type books).

#83 Linda, just for you I have added Looking Back to my wishlist! :-P

I don't think you will be disappointed.

#17 Mr Standfast by John Buchan

Off the shelf



This is the third book in the series of adventure stories featuring Richard Hannay which began with The Thirty-Nine Steps. I didn't enjoy this one quite as much as I enjoyed the first two in the series but it was still a good read. The book is set during WWI and Richard Hannay has to infiltrate an enemy spy ring by going undercover as a South African pacifist in the UK in 1917.

I think the main problem I had with the book is it's depiction of trench warfare which takes up the last third of the story. John Buchan makes it all sound rather jolly in a very British way.

3.5 stars

I did not realize that The Thirty-Nine Steps was in a series. I want to read that book this year.

#87 Yep, it's one of five and then there's some short stories. The first two in the series are really good, I haven't read anything past book 3 yet.

I will have to see if I can get hold of the entire series. I only have the first book.

Grrr, I just reviewed The Golden One and lost it. Will rewrite tomorrow....

#18 The Golden One by Elizabeth Peters

New book



This is the 14th book in Elizabeth Peters' Amelia Peabody series and I think my reading of this book suffered due to my not having read any of the preceding books.

Peters has written an adventure story set in and around Egypt during WWI. Amelia Peabody and her family of archaeologists are occupied with trying to discover a lost Egyptian tomb, tracking down some grave robbers and some undercover espionage for the British government. For an adventure story there seemed to be parts of the book where very little was happening though and these parts dragged a bit. The writing seems slightly tongue-in-cheek and reminded me a bit of Soulless although the writing seemed to be of slightly lower quality than Soulless.

Reading other people's reviews (both on LT and amazon) this seems to be one of the weaker books in the series. I think the other books also have more of a murder mystery element which was what I was expecting from this book. My copy says it's an Egyptian murder mystery on the cover. It's not; I'm not even sure there is a murder in the book.

I gave this book three stars but I think there's the potential for the series to be a fairly fun, light-hearted murder mystery series, hopefully it's just that this book is slightly sub-par.

The first book in the series is Crocodile on the Sandbank which I'm going to continue to keep an eye out for.

ETA: To get touchstones to work

>>18 souloftherose: - I'm sorry you started with this title. The Amelia Peabody series is one of our family favorites (our daughter is named Amelia and our dog is named Peabody - not solely because of the book, though (we're not freaks)). In our opinion, this was the least successful of the series. Oddly enough, because this one was set EARLIER than the previous book, you weren't entirely out of order. Her newest one comes out this spring, and my wife just finished reading the galley. She said it's better, but it also jumps back in the timeline of the series.

Definitely keep an eye out for earlier ones. We started with The Hippopotamus Pool which was enjoyable enough on its own (we needed a really long audiobook for a drive to/from Chicago and Detroit) but the family developments are definitely worth it to keep them in order.

Thanks for the recommendation pbadeer, the characters in this book did grow on me so I'd be interested in reading them in the right order. I expect I would have given the book a higher rating if I'd read the others so I think it's probably my fault for trying to dive in half way through!

Do the other books have more of a murder mystery plot?

oh yes, people are dying left and right. All of the early ones take place primarily in Egypt and have some kind of archaeology angle, but the mysteries are contemporary deaths. The family is followed, attacked, their digs are sabotaged, the books have it all. Sometimes the focus is on solving the murder, sometimes it's more on why they are being followed, etc.

If I remember correctly, The Golden One was told more through the son's perspective - which is the first time she did that - they are usually primarily narrated through Amelia's voice - and it was a little more "political". As much as I hate to say it, but I think the series should have ended two books ago. Her next one comes out this spring, and it also goes back in the timeline of the series. My wife just finished the Galley of the new one. She said it was better than The Golden One, but not as good as the early ones.

I have finally finished book number 19, The New Testament and the People of God by N. T. Wright (started 4th Jan) and I'm writing a review.....

#19 The New Testament and The People of God by N.T. Wright

Off the Shelf



I think this book might be of more limited interest than the other books I’ve read so far this year. I won’t be offended by people skipping my rather wordy review!

Background:

N. T. Wright is a New Testament scholar and currently the Bishop of Durham in the UK. The New Testament and the People of God is the first book in Wright’s multi-volume work, Christian Origins and the Question of God. The purpose of this series is to answer two questions:

1) How did Christianity begin, and why did it take the shape it did?
2) What does Christianity believe and does it make sense?

This volume serves as an introduction to the series, an exploration of the methodology Wright will use and a brief study of the historical context of the first century AD. Volume 2, Jesus and the Victory of God focuses on Jesus, Volume 3, The Resurrection of the Son of God focuses on the resurrection and later volumes are planned to look at Paul, the gospels and then a final volume for a conclusion.

Review:

I actually read the second volume in this series first and I’m now trying to read through the series in order. Because this volume was more of an introduction and methodology I thought I would struggle more to read and understand it but I think Wright is very good at giving enough background to the subjects he’s discussing to allow a novice to understand it and I found the book much more readable than I feared. It is a read that requires some concentration though and I did have to switch to lighter books when it all got a bit much for my poor brain!

On the methodology side Wright looks at the problems of how we read a text, how we ‘do’ history and whether history and theology can be separated. The he moves on to a study of Judaism in the first century and finally to a brief study of the early Christian church up to AD 150. All this is laying the groundwork for his later in-depth studies of Jesus, Paul and the gospels. I would love to be able to summarise his arguments here but I would need to read the book several more times before I could do that.

Rating:

I find it very difficult to rate non-fiction books. I simply do not know enough about this subject to know whether Wright is drawing the correct conclusions on his subject. However, the fact that he has been able to write a work aimed at scholars which is also accessible to a non-theology graduate lay person is, I think, wonderful. Although I probably didn’t understand everything in this book I enjoyed reading it immensely and feel so much more aware of how much more there is to know and understand on this subject and keen to read more. Because of this, I’ve given the book five stars.

five stars= a book I will add to the tbr pile. Thanks for your excellent review!

#96 I would add it to the wishlist, were it not there already. I really like Tom Wright's books, and I agree that he's very good at making scholarly stuff very accessible.

#96: Adding it to the BlackHole. Thanks for the recommendation, Heather!

>96 souloftherose: Also love the review, Heather. I will add this to my wishlist as well. I read John P. Meier's three volumes on the historical Jesus (A Marginal Jew: Rethinking the historical Jesus) several years ago, and he had a lot about the methodology you mention as well. Have you read them? I'm wondering how similar they are since they seem to cover the same subject matter. Nonetheless, this is an area where I am always glad to read more--currently I am working on Armstrong's The Case for God.

Thank you so much for the review compliments! I have been so wowed by other people's reviews on this site and I would really like to be able to write such good reviews so I am trying to practise - thank you for the encouragement!

#97, 99 I hope you find it interesting, it wasn't a quick read for me but it was definitely enjoyable and provoked lots of thought (which is always good).

#98 Hooray! Another Tom Wright fan. Two very good friends introduced me to his books, other than this series the only other books of his I have actually read are some of his New Testament commentaries from the For Everyone series. Everything else is on the wishlist though...
A
#100 I haven't read any John P. Meier, but the series looks very interesting, I'll definitely look out for them. And I'll be interested to know what you think of the Armstrong.

Heather
Congratulations on your hot review!

Thankyou :-) (does happy dance)

Felt extremely tired this weekend but it did mean I got lots of reading done!

#20 Shadows and Strongholds by Elizabeth Chadwick

Mooched



I haven't read much historical fiction before but I had heard good things about Elizabeth Chadwick in this group so thought I would give this a try.

The book is set in England during the 12th century when the country has almost been drawn into civil war due to Stephen of Blois and the Empress Matilda both claiming the throne of England. During the book Henry II (Matilda's son) becomes King of England which leads to further upheaval.

Amidst all this turmoil Brunin FitzWarin is sent by his father to be fostered in the household of Joscelin de Dinan, the Lord of Ludlow, to be trained by Joscelin as a knight to try and protect him from the bullying he receives from his grandmother and younger brothers. The book follows the stories of the Fitzwarin and de Dinan families.

Elizabeth Chadwick does a good job of including historical detail within this novel without it feeling like a history lesson. There are no real surprises in the plot but Chadwick's real strength is in the characters she draws. You see Brunin, who at 10 is initially very shy and diffident, grow up and become more confident and at ease with himself. My favourite female character was Hawise de Dinan who is an excellent tomboy heroine. Her first appearance finds her playing at 'sieges' with her sisters, insisting on playing the knight defending the castle rather than the lady of the keep who has to sit around and wait to be rescued.

Four stars.

#104

Glad you liked your first experience of Chadwick. I have a soft spot for her books and read them when I'm tired or low. Some are better than others but none are a wasted read.

#21 The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman



This is exactly the sort of book I'd have loved when I was a child and I still loved reading it now. I'm not sure what age range it would be most appropriate for though as the first chapter could certainly be quite scary.

In the first chapter of this book, a young toddler's family are killed by a mysterious and definitely very creepy assassin identified only as 'the man Jack'. The toddler, however escapes and toddles to the graveyard at the end of his street. The ghosts there agree to take the boy in and protect him from the assassin until he is older. They call the boy 'Nobody' or 'Bod' for short and as he grows up he is cared for and taught by the ghosts but all the time the man Jack is searching for the child who escaped him.

The book itself is completely magical, perfect escapism and beautifully illustrated. I will be feeling very sad to have to return this one to the library.

Five stars.

I also included this in the Take it Or Leave it Challenge as it won the Newbery Medal in 2009.

And #22 Nervous Conditions by Tsitsi Dangarembga

Off the Shelf



This is the first novel written by Tsitsi Dangarembga and it won The Commonwealth Writers' Prize. According to wikipedia it was the first novel written in English by a black Zimbabwean woman.

The novel is partly auto-biographical in nature. The story is set in Zimbabwe and told from the perspective of a young Shona girl, Tambudzai (Tambu). Tambu lives with her parents on their small homestead but when her only brother dies she is sent to live with her wealthy uncle to become educated so that she can support her family.

Throughout the book, Tambu longs to be educated like her uncle Babamukuru. Babamukuru is the hero of the family, providing the goat and other food for them to eat at Christmas, providing school fees for her brother and taking responsibility for any family decisions which have to be made. However, when Tambu goes to live with her uncle we start to see his flaws, how he struggles to control his own daughter, Nyasha, who grow up in England and is struggling to adjust to the different culture of Zimbabwe, how he works too hard and is often very stressed and how is wife, who is viewed with envy by the other women of the family is actually quite unhappy and frustrated.

Tambu’s father is a lazy man who will say the right thing in front of her uncle but do nothing about it when her uncle is absent. Her mother has become ground down with weariness following the death of her brother and all the work she does on the farm. Tambu’s father appears to do nothing.

Nyasha, Tambu’s cousin, struggles to adapt to Zimbabwean Shona culture. She has seen a different way of living in England and doesn’t see why she should revert back to the traditional Shona ways of (to her) mindless obedience to her father.

Maiguru, Tambu’s aunt, studied for a higher degree in England. But now she is back in Zimbabwe, she is expected to take care of all the cooking and cleaning at family gatherings.

And Tambu copes by outwardly being diligent and respectful to her uncle, the perfect young lady.

In many ways, this book was an uncomfortable read because I felt very strongly the unfairness of the situations the women in the novel found themselves in. It also felt like the book ends very suddenly. There is a sequel which I really want to read to find out what happens.

Four and a half stars.

What happened to your internet connection? Hope you managed to come back soon and tell us what you think of Nervous Conditions. I first read it over 20 years ago and believe it was one of the books I reviewed for the student union newspaper. Then last year I found a sequel The Book of Not in the library and borrowed it, but reread Nervous Conditions first.

I behind, but I wanted to let you know that The Book of Lost Things finally got pushed onto my wishlist by your review, and Cry, the Beloved Country has been added as well. Great reviews!

#108 I'd really like to read the sequel. It felt like Nervous Conditions ended quite suddenly. I was really caught up in what was happening to the characters and expected a bit more resolution (although I appreciate life doesn't happen that way). What's The Book of Not like? And I really want to find out more about the author herself but wikipedia doesn't offer much information. Why did it take her so long to write a sequel?

#109 Hi Katie. Thank you! Hope you enjoy them both. I realised I haven't posted on your thread but I have been following it! Must learn to delurk more....

I found Nervous Conditions and The Book of Not often made me quite cross, and the sequel is more uncomfortable reading than the first - I would recommend it but it's not the most cheerful book.

#111 Yes, I would agree with the crossness! I will make sure I have some comfort books lined up for when I read the sequel then.

I found a link to an interview with her published online a while ago:

http://www.africanwomenincinema.org/AFWC/Dangarembga.html

She wrote plays before and after writing the novel as well, but then moved into film screenwriting and production - she mentions needing to make a living.

It also seems like the autobiographical elements of her novels are not as straightforward as I thought - she spent some of her childhood in England and perhaps it's the heroine's cousin who is based on her...

Hi, souloftherose! I've been doing the "75 books" since last year, and I'm trying to check in with more challenge participants.

I've added Cry the Beloved Country to my TBRsoon list--it sounds great. I'm so glad I stopped in. I'll be back!

Karen O.

Hi Karen! I think I have wishlisted a few books from your thread so far so I am just returning the favour really :-) Hope you enjoy it!

#106 Ah ha, here are your comments the persuaded me to read The Graveyard Book. I'm so glad I did. Thanks!

Hi Laura - I'm so glad you are enjoying it!

Your post reminded me to have a look at your wiki page - the books you're planning to read look really interesting and quite a few of them are also in my TBR pile so I will watch out for your thoughts on those.

I'm also so impressed you are already planning your 2011 reading!!

Thank you for your review of The Book of Lost Things! I have a similar feeling about books with the word "book" in the title, and I've added it to my wishlist/tbr list!

In that spirit, have you ever encountered The Book of Flying? It's pure escapism, and the author's style is elegant, flowy, and occasionally over-indulgent in a way that I loved. It's set in a different world, but somehow, all it made me want to do was sit in a Parisian cafe and read.

One other recommendation, based on the note on your profile about merging your library with your husband's (congratulations!): Ex Libris by Anne Fadiman has (amongst other things), a wonderful essay called "Marrying Libraries" which talks about her experience with the same thing! The book is a collection of essays about different aspects of the author's lifelong bibliophilia, and is probably my current favorite.

#110: Hehe, remembering to delurk is a problem I have too...

#118: Wow, the Book of Flying looks great! Thanks for the suggestion, I'd never heard of it!

#118: I loved The Book of Flying. I am glad to see it has another fan.

>117 souloftherose: - I'm enjoying the wiki page. It's fun to see so much of it all in one place.

Yes, one way to convince myself not to feel bad about the books I'm not getting to yet is to list them out in plans for the future. Apparently I've been craving mysteries lately so while I'm reading other books between my mysteries I played around with turning 2011 into a mystery year. We'll see if it happens. But I felt better seeing it all listed out.

I'm about 1/2 way through Cry, the Beloved Country and really enjoying the read, the story is heartbreaking in so many ways.

I've seen quite a few people have read Cry,... lately. I thought of the book while watching the movie, Area 19, a troubling and violent story about a new form of apartheid. I'm sure it was no accident that it took place in Johannesburg.

#118 Thanks Alexandra. The Book of Flying sounds really good - thanks for the recommendations. I have added both books to my wishlist.

#122 I think a few of us have been reading Cry as part of February's Take it Or Leave It challenge. One of the challenges was to read a book with the word 'love' in the title in honour of Valentine's Day and it was decided that Cry, the Beloved Country would count.

#23 Lord Foul's Bane by Stephen R. Donaldson

Off the Shelf



This one was a reread as I have books two and three in this series on my shelf and wanted to remind myself of the story before reading them.

This is an epic fantasy novel similar in some ways to Tolkien's Lord of the Rings. Thomas Covenant is an author, happily married with a young son and his first published novel is an acclaimed bestseller. But then, horrifyingly, Covenant discovers he has contracted leprosy, a disease which will slowly cause him to lose feeling over his whole body and become susceptible to injury and infection as he will no longer be able to feel pain. His wife leaves him, fearing for the health of their child and Covenant is left alone. Once his neighbours find out what is happening he is completely ostracised by the local community to the extent that his bills are paid for him and groceries are left at his door to prevent him even coming into town. To survive amidst all this Covenant has become increasingly bitter and angry, relying on this bitterness and anger to give him the energy he needs to keep going instead of giving in to despair.

As Covenant makes one defiant journey into town he is a given a mysterious message by an old beggar: At the time this note seems meaningless but with hindsight it summarises the problems faced by Covenant in the rest of the book. After this, Covenant is knocked down by a car whilst crossing the road and when he awakes he is in the Land, facing Lord Foul, who gives him a message to take to the Lords of the Land.

The rest of the book is taken up with Covenant's journey to the Lords to deliver his message and their subsequent journey and battle to retrieve the Staff of the Law from the cavewight, Drool Rockworm. The Land Covenant finds himself in is one of beauty and healing and Covenant discovers that the feeling has come back to his fingers and toes, that in fact the leprosy seems to be reversing, a thing which the doctors told him was impossible. Covenant cannot believe this is happening; he feels that if he believed this to be true it would prove him to be mad and all hope would be lost. His only alternative is to insist that his entire experience in the Land is nothing more than a dream and he sticks to this philosophy throughout almost the whole book.

’He could not bear the alternative. If he were dreaming, he might still be able to save his sanity, survive, endure. But if the Land were real, actual – ah, then the long anguish of his leprosy was a dream, and he was mad already, beyond hope.’

It was very interesting to read a fantasy novel where the hero is not really very heroic. Covenant is best described as an anti-hero in this book. However, it did make it very difficult to sympathise with or like this character. His anger and bitterness rarely relents, the characters he meets in the Land are generally sympathetic towards him although they seem to completely misunderstand him most of the time (I imagine it’s hard to understand someone who persists in believing that you’re nothing more than a hallucination!), yet one of Covenant’s first actions in the Land is to rape the first character who helps him, an act which he refuses to face the consequences of for most of the book as, of course, it didn’t really happen. Towards the end of the book Covenant does begin to accept that his actions in the Land impact the people who live there and begins to appreciate the consequences of his actions more.

I think the similarity to The Lord of the Rings mentioned above comes from the depth Donaldson has attempted to give the book by giving glimpses of an ancient history underlying all the events in the Land, through the stories and songs told to Covenant on his travels. I didn’t feel this worked quite as well as Tolkien managed it but I’ve only read one book in this series so far, it might just be that I’m much more familiar with Tolkien’s world.

To conclude, I wouldn’t recommend this book to someone new to the fantasy genre but it is a well written fantasy novel with some interesting ideas though it was sometimes a bit of a slog to read. I’m going to continue onto books two and three shortly as I’m interested to see where Donaldson goes with these ideas.

Three and a half stars.

I have tried to get into the Thomas Covenant series a couple of times and just cannot. I am glad you got more enjoyment from the book than I have been able to, Heather.

#125 I can understand that! I tried picking up book two and decided I couldn't face any more of Mr Covenant for a while. I want to read the next two so I can get rid of them all if I don't like them and reclaim the shelf space!

I have decided that Donaldson is just not a writer for me. Oh, well, it is not like there are not any other writers out there that are for me!

Well, this month I was supposed to be alternating new books with books that have been sitting on my shelves for a while, but I am returning to work on Monday having been signed off sick for a few weeks and I have been feeling a little nervous and in need of some comfort reading so I hit the library...

#24 Stardust by Neil Gaiman

Library



I didn't realise until after I'd read this that this was originally released as a graphic novel (http://www.librarything.com/work/6983924). The edition I read was text only.

This one was another fairy tale/fantasy novel from Neil Gaiman. This one is an adult novel rather than young adult (there's one four letter swear word and a mild sex scene). I didn't enjoy this as much as The Graveyard Book but this was still a very good read and I think I can say that I am now definitely a fan of Neil Gaiman.

Four stars.

#25 The Time of the Ghost by Diana Wynne Jones

Library



This is one of Diana Wynne Jones' books for older children. A ghost turns up one day convinced there's been an accident but she's unable to remember who she is or what happened. She finds her way home and realises she must be one of four sisters but which one? As she struggles to find out which sister she is and what has happened to her she realises that there is a malevolent power that her sisters are unaware of and she must somehow warn them... A good slightly spooky mystery (I am a wuss when it comes to spooky books so slightly spooky is all I can handle).

Four stars.

#128: I am a wuss when it comes to spooky books so slightly spooky is all I can handle.

Me, too. Horror is the one genre I just flat out will not read.

#26 Still Life by Louise Penny

Library



Well, I have now joined the hordes of LibraryThingers wanting to make a permanent move to Three Pines. This has been read and reviewed by so many other people in this group that I finally ordered it from the library and I'm so glad I did!

This is the first book in Louise Penny's Three Pines or Inspector Gamache series and it's a wonderfully cozy murder mystery. I'm used to Agatha Christie novels where often the murder victim is a nasty piece of work, absolutely everyone else in the novel has a motive for murdering them and no-one is really sorry that they're dead, so it was a nice surprise to find that the victim in this book seemed a genuinely nice person and I felt Penny did a fantastic job of making me feel the grief the small community felt over this death. In particular I found this passage about the victim's dog Lucy particularly moving:

Everyday for Lucy's entire dog life Jane had sliced a banana for breakfast and had miraculously dropped one of the perfect disks on to the floor where it sat for an instant before being gobbled up. Every morning Lucy's prayers were answered, confirming her belief that God was old and clumsy and smelt like roses and lived in the kitchen.

But no more.

Lucy knew her God was dead. And now she knew the miracle wasn't the banana, it was the hand that offered the banana.

Five stars and I am primed to go back to the library to get the next four books.

And lastly, #27 The Anubis Gates by Tim Powers

Bought



This was read for the steampunk group read so I won't review it until everyone else has finished. But this was a great book! Four and a half stars.

And let this be a lesson to me not to leave updating my thread for so long.....

Hmmm, some great reads. I'm halfway through The Anubis Gates but it's a 4th-time reread for me, so I remembered some key plot points that are real surprises initially. Looking forward to the discussion.

I read the entire first Covenant trilogy, because it was back in the days when I read everything. When you finish the next two books, we can have a discussion as to why I didn't go on, and won't ever reread them. ;-)

Had to go look at my Jones books because the plot line for The Time of the Ghost didn't sound familiar--but I have it, in a fairly new edition, so have only read it once. I do enjoy DWJ's writing!

Don't be a stranger here!

At one point in the last couple of months I was half way through The Time of the Ghost but I've now misplaced it somewhere so it will have to wait until I unearth it!

I bought The Anubis Gates for my birthday but I doubt I'm going to get to it soon so I won't be joining the discussion but I'm looking forward to it.

And I have the Donaldson sitting on my tbr shelves.......where it has been for longer than I care to imagine! I'll get round to it at some point :)

Nice recent reading from you!

#133 I wasn't sure what to expect from The Anubis Gates and I had no idea where Tim Powers was going to take the story as I was reading which was fun! I'm looking forward to the discussion thread starting next week.

Hmm, your comments don't bode well for the next Thomas Covenant books but I am going to try and read them if only so I can then get rid of them! I'll look forward to future discussions :-)

#134 Hi Jenny. Can I wish you a belated happy birthday on the wrong thread? I also bought The Anubis Gates with my birthday money! (Although my birthday was a while ago now). I really enjoyed it. Not sure I can recommend the Donaldson though.. I'm still undecided.

#28 Traitor's Purse by Margery Allingham

Library


A man wakes up in a hospital bed unable to remember who he is or how he got there. As he listens to the hospital staff talking he realises they believe he has killed a policeman in a fight. He panics and runs from the hospital. As he tries to piece together his identity whilst on the run from the police he realises there is a massive catastrophe about to overwhelm Greta Britain and that he is the only possible person who can prevent it. If only he could remember what the catastrophe was...

This is one of Margery Allingham's Albert Campion mysteries. Very 1940s, very good.

Four stars.

#29 A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle



This was a sweet little children's/young adult book. Meg, along with her brother Charles Wallace and friend Calvin, sets off to rescue her father who is fighting an evil force on another planet. The book reminded me a bit of Out of the Silent Planet and its sequels by C.S. Lewis.

I enjoyed the book but I didn't love it as much as many other LT members seem to. I felt quite sad that I hadn't read this as a child as I'm sure I would have loved it then.

Four stars

ETA: Also read as part of February's Take It or Leave It Challenge as a Newbery Award winner

#137: I am glad you enjoyed A Wrinkle in Time, Heather. I am one of the LTers who has loved it since childhood, and I still rank it as one of my all-time favorite books.

Interesting hear that many of you also found the Thomas Covenant books a slog. I can no longer remember whether I actually read the series or not, because my prevailing memory is of having to make 4 or 5 concerted attempts before I finished the first one. It rings the same sorts of bells in my head as Terry Goodkind's Wizard's First Rule, which I read at the beginning of 2008(? I think it was that far back) and also found difficult to get through. All sort of very bleak, dark, muddy books.

Love The Time of the Ghost. I am also a total wimp about scary books but this was just perfect. I think the business about her not knowing which sister she is is SO well done. Interesting biographical note: I gather that the parents are based on DWJ's own mother & father.

The Anubis Gates looks interesting - I won't be joining the group read so hope you'll post a brief sum-up of your thoughts elsewhere.

Rachael! Welcome back!

I don't think I would read the sequels to Lord Foul's Bane unless they were already on my shelf... I found Wizard's First Rule more readable until the horrendous torture section but I still managed to read the next three sequels until I got fed up of things never resolving for Kahlan and Richard.

I will try and remember to post proper thoughts on The Anubis Gates later. Discussions start tomorrow - yay!

#30 The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood



I love Margaret Atwood's novels. I love the way she draws me in by slowly revealing more details of the characters and how they got into this situation. I never want to put the book down because I know that the next chapter will reveal a little bit more of the story for me.

The Handmaid’s Tale is set in a future American state called The Republic of Gilead. The story is told in the first person perspective by a handmaid called Offred. At the beginning of the book it’s unclear why or how Gilead arose or what Offred’s rule in this new society is and Atwood slowly allows Offred to reveal details of her current life mixed with flashbacks to her old life and the events leading up to her current position.

Offred is a handmaid; her only function is to breed. Her name has been changed to reflect her master’s name (of Fred). We never find out what her real name was. In a society where many people are infertile and only 1 in 4 babies are born without defects, Offred’s role is sacred and protected but at the same time she is owned by her master and has no choice in the role she has to perform. If she deviates from this role or fails to conceive, she knows she will be classed as an unwoman and sent to the colonies with the other female dissenters to die of radiation sickness. Her only escape lies in a successful pregnancy.

Another beautifully created and thought-provoking dystopian future from Margaret Atwood.

Four and a half stars.

Also read as part of February's Take It or Leave It Challenge as the 2002 Canada Reads book

Glad to see you loved The Handmaid's Tale. It remains the only book I ever enjoyed studying at school because dissecting it piece by piece actually added to the experience instead of ruining it for me. It's also the only 'mandatory' book that I have reread since :)

#31 The World According to Bertie by Alexander McCall Smith



I was very excited to pick this up as a hardback in very good condition in my local library sale for 25p!! (Which works out as $0.38 according to google)

This is the fourth in Alexander McCall Smith's 44 Scotland Street series and I would recommend reading them in order if possible. The books were originally published as serials in The Scotsman and focus on the lives of the various people living in 44 Scotland Street in Edinburgh. McCall Smith is also the author of The No.1 Ladies Detective Agency series.

This series is a lovely gentle read. In this book the narcissistic Bruce finally meets his match and the gentle Matthew finds love in an unlikely place. All the other characters also feature. Bertie, the 6 year old child prodify, takes up most of the story. His horrible mother Irene is still impossibly pushy and he still has to go to yoga classes, practise for his grade 8 saxophone exam, learn Italian and go to psychotherapy where he is invariably misunderstood by Doctor Fairburn. He also has a new baby brother called Ulysses and there is an amusing incident when Ulysses gets mislaid...

I'm still holding out hope for poor Bertie somehow escaping from his mother in a later book.

Four stars

February Summary
Books read = 18
Pages read = 5,783
Ratio of male to female authors = 9:9
Books of the shelf = 5

February Books of the Month
Fiction:Cry, the Beloved Country by Alan Paton msg 73
Non-fiction:The New Testament and the People of God by N. T. Wright msg 96

Heather, would you post your books of the month on the Best Reads of the Year thread please? I would appreciate it!

You can find the thread here: http://www.librarything.com/topic/85887

Hi Heather.

And now I'm delurking in kind to say that A Wrinkle In Time is already on my TBR list for March, you've reminded me that I really need to finish Time of the Ghost and a couple of other Jones books that I've been hoarding, and A Handmaid's Tale is the only Atwood I've read but I've been meaning to pick up more for years and will eventually do so.

Also, I am excited to see what you'll read next. These forums are so crazy addictive.

#145 Thanks for the reminder Stasia - done!

#146 Welcome! Flissp and jbeast had a long conversation about Diana Wynne Jones' books which inspired me to read some of her books.

If you enjoyed The Handmaid's Tale I'd recommend her new book The Year of the Flood if you can get hold of it. Oryx and Crake is a sort of prequel to The Year of the Flood which I've heard good things about but haven't read yet. But so far I've really enjoyed all the Atwood's I've read, I think she's a great writer. :-)

I am very far behind in reading the posts. This morning, I'm spending concentrated time trying to catch up. You read some great stuff!

I read a lot of historical fiction and thus I'm adding Shadows and Strongholds to the list of tbr. I have a copy of Still Life Three Pines Mystery and need to read it in the next two weeks. I don't think I've heard a negative comment about this book. I'm also going to read Traitor's Purse...your description is intriguing.

Thanks for such great books to add to the ever growing mound!

Oh, I'm glad to hear all these wonderful things about The Handmaid's Tale. Shockingly, I've never read any Margaret Atwood - but I'm planning on changing that during the 'Atwood in April' group read. I bought The Handmaid's Tale to be my first leap into her writing because I'd heard such good things!

#147: Thanks, Heather!

Hmm, well my second week of being back at work and despite only having worked two full days I am completely exhausted. So I have been mainly comfort reading I'm afraid which means lots of fantasy books coming up. Finished Trudi Canavan's Magician's Guild series with The High Lord and discovered a great steampunk webcomic online (also been published in print). So far I have read Volumes 1-4 online and it is just what I need :-)

The touchstones for the published comics/graphic novels are:

Girl Genius Volume 1: Agatha Heterodyne and the Beetleburg Clank
Girl Genius Volume 2: Agatha Heterodyne and the Airship City
Girl Genius Volume 3: Agatha Heterodyne and the Monster Engine
Girl Genius Volume 4: Agatha Heterodyne and the Circus of Dreams

Online here. Volumes 5-10 still to be enjoyed!

Reviews and thoughts for all the above will follow when I get some energy back!

#151: I hope you can squeeze some rest into your schedule somewhere!

I have read the first book in the Canavan trilogy and have the second home from the library now although it will be weeks before I actually get to it. How would you rate the trilogy overall?

#152 I cancelled some things today and have a fairly clear weekend, I think I am feeling a bit better thanks.

I enjoyed Canavan's Magician's Guild series, she writes fairly well and manages to avoid a lot of the things that can make fantasy novels so cringeworthy (unpronounceable names, overly flowery language and the feeling that the storyline is basically a Lord of the Rings rehash). I also liked the fact that main character was female and that this wasn't a big issue. I thought the third book was the best of the series although I think there were still some issues with pacing.

I turn to fantasy novels for my comfort reading and the series was a good read but I think if you're not a fantasy fan already then these books won't change your mind. I can't decide if I'd want to reread them or not. So, nothing special but fairly solid reads I suppose? I wondered if they'd make quite good YA reads.

In the past year or so, I have begun reacquainting myself with the fantasy and science fiction genres (it has been 30+ years since I read any seriously), so a lot of the standard fantasy tropes are still unknown to me. I guess as I go along I will be more familiar with such things.

Okay, let's get some reviews up!

#32 The High Lord by Trudi Canavan



This is the third and final book in Trudi Canavan’s Magicians’ Guild trilogy. The story carries on directly from the first two books so it is practically impossible for me to say anything about the plot without giving away spoilers for anyone who hasn’t read the first two books. In brief, there’s a big bad threatening Kyralia and the Guild in particular and it's up to Sonea to try and save everyone.

I thought this book was the best of the series so far and whilst I was reading it I was really gripped and couldn’t put the book down. However, when I’d finished the book I felt a little unsatisfied with certain elements of it. In the end I’ve rated it 4 stars (the same as the first two in the series) rather than my initial 4.5 stars.

This book contained more of a romance storyline than the preceding books. Overall I thought this was well done and didn’t take over from the main story yet I never felt completely convinced about the male romantic lead. He seemed rather too distant for my liking and I never felt we really knew how he felt about it all. He was quite a bit older than the main character though so perhaps this was intended to help us feel her uncertainty about his feelings? I wasn't sure if Canavan was aiming for him to be a dark and brooding romantic hero, something like Mr. Rochester, but it didn't quite work for me.

At an earlier point in the series we were introduced to certain magic rings which when worn, allow the owner of the ring to hear the wearer’s thoughts and see through the wearer’s eyes. At one point Sonea and her romantic other (I can’t mention his name because that would be a major spoiler so I’m going to refer to him as ‘Fred’ from now on) realise they need to split up and the only way to stay in contact so that they can defeat the enemy is to exchange these rings and wear them. Fred cautions that this may not be a pleasant experience:

“Sometimes, hearing and knowing exactly how another person regards you can be an unpleasant experience. It can end friendships, turn love to resentment, and destroy self-regard.”

After reading this I was really wondering what impact wearing these rings would have on Sonea and Fred’s relationship and how Canavan would handle this. So, they put them on. And nothing seems to happen. The rings work but there’s no further detail on the effect this has on them other than the fact that they can now communicate telepathically, necessary for the advancement of the plot.

Similarly, there’s a fairly detailed subplot involving a couple of characters from the earlier books. I like these characters and I enjoyed the subplot but as far as I can see it had absolutely no bearing on the main storyline in the book. If every mention of these characters and the subplot had been removed the storyline would have held together fine. Now, given that this first book was about 100 pages longer than either of the first two, I almost feel it should either have been snipped by the editor or somehow worked into the main storyline so that the actions of these characters had some bearing on the rest of the book. As it was, it felt like a convenient device to get them in place for the big showdown where, again, they didn’t do anything that impacted the final battle.

So, rant over. I don’t know why this book got to me so much because I did really enjoy reading it and this is a nice gentle fantasy series without the graphic torture scenes some authors feel they need to include. But it felt like a bit of extra work on the final book could have made it so much better.

I will still be looking out for Trudi Canavan's later books (this was her first series). There is a new series coming out set in the same world as The Magician's Guild but some years later which starts with The Ambassador's Mission (although as a warning don't read the book summary on amazon, it has a major spoiler for The Magician's Guild series) and there is an entirely separate series which starts with Priestess of the White.

Books #33-38 & #40

The Girl Genius Series



Adventure, Romance, MAD SCIENCE!

Agatha Heterodyne and the Beetleburg Clank
Agatha Heterodyne and the Airship City
Agatha Heterodyne and the Monster Engine
Agatha Heterodyne and the Circus of Dreams
Agatha Heterodyne and the Clockwork Princess
Agatha Heterodyne and the Golden Trilobite
Agatha Heterodyne and the Voice of the Castle

Well, I have now read Volumes 1-7 of this steampunk/gaslamp comic/graphic novel online and I'm hooked!

The complete series is available online here. There is a storyline with characters growing, changing and occasionally dying so I'd recommend you start at the beginning with Agatha Heterodyne and the Beetleburg Clank and work your way through.

A lot of the printed books are currently out of print, although there is a plan to rerelease them. Volume 1 is the only volume released in black and white although there is a special colour edition planned shortly. Of all the volumes I've read so far, Volume 1 is the weakest as it's mainly setting things up for Volumes 2 onwards. Once you're past the first volume the action is fast, funny and fairly madcap. The comic is currently published a page at a time online and each episode usually ends with a mini cliffhanger and each volume so far has also ended with a cliffhanger. I've been finding it very hard to stop reading!

I'd rate the whole series so far as 4.5 stars. It might be fluff but it's good fluff and I love it!

And to bring me up to date

#39 The Sandman Volume 1:Preludes and Nocturnes by Neil Gaiman



So after enjoying quite a few of Neil Gaiman's later books I have finally got around to trying his earlier graphic novel series, The Sandman.

This was a fairly dark read for adults/older readers rather than young adults. The book is made up of 5/6 separate stories but each one follows on from the preceding story. The book focuses on the Sandman, also called Dream who was imprisoned by a magic sect for 70 years. When he finally breaks free, after exacting his revenge on his captors, he realises that the tools of his trade have been lost and he needs to track them down.

The style of the different stories varies a lot. In the afterword at the end, Gaiman states that he wanted to explore the different genres available in this volume and the stories range from straight horror to dark fantasy to one (to me) incredibly disturbing story which I could really have done without reading. I should say at this point that I really can't cope with horror stories generally.

The last story was the one I liked best and also the one in which Gaiman said he felt he was beginning to find his own voice so I'm going to continue with the series to see how it develops and hope it doesn't contain more stories that I find quite so harrowing.

3.5 stars

And due to my recent Agatha Heterodyne session I'm really behind on my planned reading this month (which I think was over-ambitious anyway).

So this week I need to try and read:

Part 1 of Midnight's Children
First 15 chapters of The Count of Monte Cristo
Chapters 21-35 of The Three Musketeers
Mrs Dalloway for Richard's group read - but I think this might be the one that doesn't get done..
Part 2 of Midnight's Children

I need to turn into Stasia!

#158: I need to turn into Stasia!

Believe me when I say that one of me is probably too many :)

Glad to hear that the Canavan trilogy is worth the read. I have the second book home from the library now.

I will be checking out the online edition of the Girl Genius series. It looks fun. Thanks for the recommendation, Heather.

Heather, I really like your goal-setting (e.g. msg 158). I've just tried some reading goal setting of my own, and I think it will be very helpful in keeping my focused. I have too much of a tendency to dabble in a lot of books. Which is not a bad thing, necessarily, but I would like to wind more of them up, and have fewer "on the line."

Good reading!

Karen O.

#157

Your review of Preludes and Nocturnes exactly mirrors my feelings. I wasn't liking it as much as I thought I should until the last chapter, and indeed decided to keep reading because of Neil Gaiman's comments about finding his voice.

I'm looking forward to a lot of fantasy reading as I love talking fantasy with people. Even though you're reading it because you're tired!

#160 Hi Karen! Unfortunately I do not keep to my reading goals but instead get lured by the siren calls of the library, bookmooch and charity bookshop into picking up other books and reading them first. There seems to be something fundamental in my brain that says 'Newer books are more interesting'.

This week I have lots of group read deadlines and so I am actually having to be strict so I don't get left behind...

#162 Hi Jenny. I'm hoping the later Sandman books are more like the last story. I've not read graphic novels before and I still feel a bit unsure what to make of them. Currently my tired brain is on a graphic novel craze when I'm not reading the weighty tomes for my group reads.

Currently reading The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen series and have a couple from the Fables series to read which I picked up during my latest library splurge. Then on to Temeraire and To Ride Hell's Chasm for the Take It Or Leave It Challenge this month and I also picked up Legend and The Broken Sword as part of my library haul.

Clearly these are not all going to get read in time and I will have completely torpedoed any attempt to read any books that have been sitting on my shelves for yonks. Why do I do this to myself? Thank goodness for library renewals and the ability to declare afresh that next month will be the month of the TBR shelf!

#162

I'm half way through the second one but seem to have got diverted by other books. I find graphic novels extremely taxing on my brain which is intriguing, given that there are less words!

What is a "graphic" novel. I feel ignorant.

#164 I'm still not completely sure myself! To me, it's basically a comic strip made into a book. I think the official distinction between a graphic novel and a comic or cartoon (don't know if I'm using the UK dialect rather than the US one) is that a graphic novel should have a overall storyline or plot whereas a book of cartoons could all be read individually.

So, I think Asterix is a graphic novel but The Far Side is just a collection of cartoons.

Does that help any?

Yeah, I think graphic novel is a new grown-up word for comic-book. :-)
Or a way to justify such a long comic-book - hey it's a novel!

We have a large graphic novel section which includes manga and even some bound superhero comic books. A few that I highly recommend are:

The Arrival doesn't have a single word in it but it tells an amazing story.
The Invention of Hugo Cabret is as much text as illustration with beautiful pencil drawings. There is a two page illustration of a library that took my breath away the first time I saw it.
Stitches is a tough book about the author's childhood.
Caliber has stunning artwork. It went missing from my library which is a tragedy because we can't afford a replacement.

Anyone interested in this genre should ask their library if they have a section devoted to it and try a couple. The Dewey number is 741.5 but they also might be shelved with the fiction. If you have kids, ask if their school library has any and get them to check some out for you. (Oh, Mo-om!)

I have read some terrific graphic novels since I discovered them through LT: Maus and Maus II, Asterios Polyp, Britten and Brulightly. I would highly recommend any of those.

#166 My thoughts exactly! Actually, Neil Gaiman (big in the graphic novel/comic world) always refers to them as comics - he wrote about it in his blog somewhere...

#167 & 8 Seconded re The Arrival - I "read" it not long after I first joined the 75 Challenge - loved it... - and also re Maus - which is my book of the year to date...

If you can get your hands on it, The Rabbi's Cat by Joann Sfar is also an .. interesting read!

#170: That one has been in the BlackHole for a while now, but unfortunately my local library still does not have it.

#167-170 Thank you for all the recommendations! I think my library has copies of Maus, The Arrival and The Invention of Hugo Cabret so I shall try those.

#172: Another couple of good ones are Persepolis and Persepolis 2, Heather.

#173 Also available from the library - thanks Stasia!

No problem.

Time for some reviews:

#41 The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Volume 1 by Alan Moore
#42 The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Volume 2 by Alan Moore



I had mixed feelings about these comics/graphic novels (whatever it is we decide to call them).

Reasons I liked them: The premise of the books are that all the famous characters from Victorian literature co-exist and Alan Moore et al have obviously had great fun inserting as many references as possible to the stories and characters from this time. The main characters featured/referenced are from Victorian adventure stories such as Sherlock and Mycroft Homes by Arthur Conan Doyle, Allan Quartermain from King Solomon's Mines and sequels, Dr. Jekyll/Mr Hyde from Jekyll and Hyde, many characters from stories by H. G. Wells and Jules Verne.

I loved all the original Victorian books when I read them and so it was great fun spotting the references as I read and each time I finished a volume I would head over to the wikipedia page to find some of the references I missed. Both books are quite action-packed and it was only really in Volume 2 that I started to feel there was some real character development.

Reasons I didn't like them: Possibly I'm just not used to graphic novels/adult comics but I found the books quite dark. There are several attempted rapes and an actual rape scene (attempted rapes female, actual rape male) which I did find very disturbing. There's also some fairly graphically drawn sex scenes and I found the style of the drawings made these something I could have done without. Maybe I'm a prude but it really wasn't attractive.

A lot of the reviews I read said that these comics improve on second reading but I don't really want to read them again. I gave them both 3.5 stars but if you are less of a wuss than me and can cope with more adult themes I think they would probably be a great read.

#176: I think I will pass on those.

#43 Fables Volume 5: The Mean Seasons by Bill Willingham
#44 Fables Volume 6: Homelands by Bill Willigham



Another pair of graphic novels, this series is currently on volume 13 and I started with volumes 5 and 6.

There's a handy summary of the characters and the story so far at the front of each volume so it is quite easy to pick up the story without having read all the earlier volumes.

The Fables series is based on the premise that various fairy tale characters for reasons that I'm not entirely clear on, not having read the first books in the series, are exiled from fairy land and living in New York. Those that can't pass as human have to live on a farm out in the countryside as the normal humans must not be allowed to know the fairy tale folk are in their world.

These books seemed to be more about the stories and the characters than The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen books which seemed more about being clever. I really enjoyed these two and now I know I like them I'll order the first book from the library.

Four stars

Stopping by to say hi.

45 books thus far! This is incredible!

#179 Thanks Linda. But in March, all but 2 have been graphic novels/comics so mostly pictures!

I got the first of the Fables books in the other day, Heather. I hope I enjoy it as much as you have enjoyed the series.

When I read League of Extraordinary Gentlemen years ago, they left a bad taste in my mouth for the exact same reason -- excessive sexual content (and violent sexual content -- the rape is really unnecessary) and the art style just made it worse, for some reason. Like you say, I'm not a prude either, but LXG was just... UGH. I've tried to block the experience from my memory... sigh.

#181 Hope you enjoy it Stasia, I need to read the first few having started midway in!

#182 Really glad it wasn't just me! Thanks for dropping by Faith.

And time for some more reviews:

#45 & 49 Temeraire and Throne of Jade by Naomi Novik




These are books 1 & 2 in a series by Naomi Novik, a LibrayThing author which I read as part of this month's Take It Or Leave It Challenge

An alternate history/historical fantasy series set during the Napoleonic wars where dragons exist and are used in battle. A lot of people have compared these books to Patrick O'Brien's Master and Commander books (although I can't not having read them), they're more historical than fantastical, other than the addition of dragons there's no magic in these books.

The story follows Temeraire and his captain, Laurence. The relationship between these two was, for me, the best thing about the books. I think the books also do a good job of raising some interesting issues that exist in this alternate world. For example, the dragons are intelligent (some more so than others) and yet in Britain, they are used in service in the same way as horses were, seemingly without any real say in the matter. It was interesting to see this developed further in the second book and I'm looking forward to reading the rest in the series (book 6 is released in the UK in July) to see how the story develops.

4.5/4 stars

#46 Agatha Heterodyne and the Chapel of Bones by Phil and Kaja Foglio

Book 8 in the series - more cartoonish steampunk fun!

#47 To Ride Hell's Chasm by Janny Wurts



Another read by a LibrayThing author.

Review to follow.

#48 Mystery Mile by Margery Allingham



This is the second book in her Albert Campion mystery series which I have been reading out of order (my previous read was #11, Traitor's Purse).

The writing and the character of Albert Campion felt very different from Traitor's Purse. Albert was more comic and the book had a touch of farce about it, it felt rather like reading a P.G. Wodehouse.

A quote:

'Shocking!' agreed Campion. 'I don't know what my wife would say.'
Marlowe stared at him, 'Good Lord, you haven't a wife, have you?' he said.
'No,' said Mr. Campion. 'That's why I don't know what she'd say.'

The plot is more mystery that crime novel. Judge Crowdy Lobbett has evidence pointing to the identity of a criminal mastermind. After several attempts have been made on his life he seeks the help of Albert Campion who takes him to a house deep in the English countryside called Mystery Mile.

A fun read but not as good as Traitor's Purse. I'm looking forward to seeing how Campion's character develops across the series.
3.5 stars

I've been wondering where you were (although I saw tracks in other threads) and it is now obvious you've been READING! I read the first 3 Novik books, enjoyed the first two and not so much the third, and stopped there.

Is the Wurts part of a series or a stand-alone? I enjoyed her first trilogy a lot, the second never got through the first book, because I don't do treachery well, but I like her writing.

Temeraire sounds interesting. I'm going to look for it. Thanks.

Hey there, I hope you're mostly enjoying the world of graphic novels/comics. I read quite a few when I was an undergraduate because my college had a comic book library--that's where I was introduced to The Sandman among others. Sadly, I don't retain much from my reading--V for Victory is a complete blank, as is The Watchmen, both cult classics from back in the day. The Sandman was originally published as individual monthly comic books; the graphic novels are compilation reprints.

I too rely on fantasy quite often as comfort reading. I look forward to reading more of your reviews. I'm impressed with the monthly planning and summaries. I fear commitment, so I only list books once I'm done with them. Cheers.

#187 I know, I've had this strange reluctance to post on my own thread this week!

I think I will carry on with the series, someone on this thread had some very enthusiastic comments about book 4 (I think it was cyderry) so it might be worth trying that one.

To Ride Hell's Chasm was a stand-alone book. One of the things I really liked about the book was how well she built up the world and its mythology in just one book. I understand that it's a completely different setting to any of her other novels.

The only other books I've read by Janny Wurts is book 1 of the series she co-authored with Raymond E. Feist. Is Janny Wurts' first trilogy The Cycle of Fire? I might try those.

I don't think To Ride Hell's Chasm had treachery in. I really need to sort out what I think of this book and write a review!

#188 Hope you enjoy Temeraire mamzel! In the US I think it was published as His Majesty's Dragon.

#189 Hi Chris! I think my main problem with graphic novels is that I am a wuss and can cope with disturbing things less well when they're in pictures! I'm definitely going to try more of The Sandman series, I might leave Alan Moore alone for a while though.

I think my monthly planning is a rather futile attempt to exert some discipline over my reading and try and stop myself getting distracted my shiny new books from the library and bookmooch (shiny new to me anyway). It hasn't worked.

And hooray for fantasy comfort reading!

And on that note, this week I will finish Midnight's Children. Only 7 chapters to go! (I need a good round chorus from The Little Engine That Could, "I think I can, I think I can"!)

And I'm very excited about Mistborn: The Final Empire which I finally managed to snag from the library and if I manage all that, then I also managed to snag a copy of American Gods from bookmooch!!!!

@190: I can certainly understand not wanting to experience some of the sex and violence in full color. I'm afraid that the comics industry suffers from a certain amount of misogyny, and there's still lots of room for improvement. Please note that The Sandman has some continuing violent themes.

I was very fond of the Daughter of Empire series. I enjoyed it when I read it, but eventually let the books go. The plots and character development were generally quite predictable, but it all worked quite well, and I still haven't read many fantasies firmly entrenched in Asian cultural origins, so that made a nice change from the same old, same old. I also liked the Magician series, though I don't remember the dissatisfaction you felt. It's been a great many years though.

I think American Gods deserved the Hugo it received. It is a complex work. And it features a couple of venues in Wisconsin!

> 191
Yes, you can do it!
Yes, you can do it!

I am currently enjoying Temeraire (the title of His Majesty's Dragon in Dutch translation).

Go for it!!

I liked the Daughter of the Empire series. The Cycle of Fire series was her first work and I liked that as well. I bounced off the first book in the Wars of Light and Shadow. I think I'll look for To Ride Hell's Chasm since you like it.

Heather
My but you are reading at a fast clip...and such interesting books as well.

Congratulations.

>186 souloftherose: Oh, dear. Another series that sounds interesting. Do you have any idea how long my series list is getting? And there are 19 of these! And my library only has 4 of them, and of course, none of the first ones, except on cassette tape (!). So I'll have to buy them or mooch them. Sigh. You, Heather, are determined to corrupt me.

I will be reading His Majesty's Dragon for the TIOLI challenge as well. I hope I enjoy that series as much as you and several others in the group have.

#192 I really enjoyed Magician and I did enjoy the two sequels, Silverthorn and A Darkness at Sethanon although I thought they weren't quite as good.

I thought Prince of the Blood was fairly dreadful and I can't decide whether to continue with rest of the Riftwar series or cut my losses. I think I will finish the Empire trilogy and then decide..

Thanks everyone for the encouragement! I read two chapters of Midnight's Children last night. The book keeps getting more and more surreal.

#196 Sorry Terri! I have been completely unable to find the first book in the series at any of the libraries near me! My library also has about 4 of the books and I'm hoping to mooch the rest - we may be in competition!

#197 I do hope you enjoy it Stasia. Sorry to hear your library doesn't have the rest in the series though

#199: I finished up the book in the wee hours this morning and thoroughly enjoyed it, Heather.

Re: Feist, I read Magician's Apprentice, Magician: Master, Silverthorn and A Darkness at Sethanon. They were pretty good for the times. Read the Daughter of the Empire series. Better. Then read The Prince of the Blood and The King's Buccaneer. Starting to get old. Bought Shadow of a Dark Queen. It's still sitting in my TBR pile after 15 years. Haven't read any Feist since. Not that I'm adamantly opposed to doing so, just haven't seen anything that seems worth the investment.

I love Magician by Feist, it's a definite comfort read for me.

Heather.

I thought of you when I discovered a museum located about two hours from my house. See link below. This gem contains the largest collection of Pre-Raphaelite art in the United States. I will be visiting there at the end of April.

http://www.preraph.org/

Re: Feist - I had the same experience. Liked the same ones, so so about the others, and haven't gone out of my way to pick up any other books by him.

Good to see we have a lot of Magician fans!

#203 Thanks for the link Linda, the pictures look beautiful. I hope you enjoy your visit.

#50 Mistborn: The Final Empire by Brandon Sanderson



Review here

What if the prophesied hero had failed? What if the Dark Lord had won?

The Lord Ruler has ruled over The Final Empire for over a thousand years. Every uprising has been crushed. The Lord Ruler has survived every attempt to kill him.

For over a thousand years the Skaa have lived as slaves in the cities and on the plantations of the noblemen.

Mistborn: The Final Empire follows a group of thieves as they attempt to instigate a Skaa rebellion, overthrow the nobility and ultimately defeat the Lord Ruler himself.

I loved this book; I can’t remember the last time I read a fantasy novel I enjoyed so much. I’d heard lots of good things about this series and when I finally managed to get hold of a copy I was worried that the book wouldn’t quite live up to the hype and I tried to prepare myself to be slightly disappointed; I needn’t have worried.

In his second novel and the first of a trilogy, Sanderson has created a fantastic and unique new world. The characters are believable, flawed but still likeable and the bad guys are appropriately terrifying yet their ultimate defeat doesn’t feel contrived. The pacing is fairly consistent throughout the book (no mean feat in a book over 600 pages long) and I found this story very hard to put down when real life had to interfere with my reading!

Particular mention should go to the magic system that Sanderson has come up with for this world. Allomancy is an ability which allows people to ‘burn’ metals they have ingested to give them particular abilities. Most people in the Final Empire do not have the ability to burn any metals, some have the ability to burn one specific metal and a very rare few are able to burn all the allomantic metals. These few are known as the Mistborn.

Fights between allomancers and Mistborn in the book have been well thought out. Using allomancy successfully requires great skill as well as the power itself. Burning tin, for example, heightens your senses so that you can see and hear better. However, being more sensitive to noise and light can have its downsides, you can be more easily blinded or deafened by a clever opponent. It’s a mark of how well thought out the magic system is that the outcomes of the battles in the story are rarely decided by who is the most powerful. Rather they are decided by who uses their abilities in the most unexpected and imaginative way. And this means the battles themselves are also interesting to read about.

Another thing I particularly liked about this book were the small paragraphs at the beginning of each chapter which give hints about how the Lord Ruler came to power all those years ago. Here, as well as elsewhere in the story, Sanderson manages to give enough background to his world without having to slow the story down to include pages of scene setting and explanation.

For the first volume in a trilogy the book finished well. There was sufficient resolution of plotlines to give a satisfying ending and just enough of a glimmer of where book 2 could go to act as a hook rather than a frustrating cliff hanger.

Brandon Sanderson should also get huge amounts of kudos for the efforts he’s put into his website. There are annotations to every chapter of this book available, as well as deleted scenes.

I would strongly recommend this book and I’m eagerly looking forward to getting hold of volume 2 in the series, The Well of Ascension.

Five stars.

ETA: I read this as part of the March TIOLI challenge

#206: Congratulations on hitting 50 books for the year, Heather!

I am going to get to Sanderson's Mistborn series one of these centuries.

#207 Thank you! I never thought I'd read so many books this year - I blame this group!

I am itching to read more Sanderson now but so far the Mistborn series is all I can find in the UK. Although his latest novel Warbreaker is available on his website as a free ebook (pdf format) so I will try reading that from the PC.

#208: I blame this group!

I am sure we will take all the blame (and credit!) for it.

As far as the Sanderson books go, you might check www.bookdepository.com. I found Elantris listed there.

Wow, congratulations on reaching 50!

I'm glad you're enjoying Brandon Sanderson. His Alcatraz books are also a lot of fun, and they seem to be available on BookDepository too.

Wow - 50 already!

...and you've just reminded me to bump Mistborn up my wishlist...

Don't you love the annotations on the website? Sanderson has to be my new favorite author... excellent writing, original stories, and I get a real sense that he cares about his fanbase, and has a good head on his shoulders too!

#212 The annotations are fantastic. I love his website, the only other author I can think of who has put so much effort into extra features like this is Jasper Fforde although his website is probably more wacky than Sanderson's.

@206: You've written a very convincing review, Heather. I'll add it to my list.

Add my congratulations to those who are very impressed that you've read 50 books already this year!

#214 Oh, the pressure! Hope you like it Chris!

#215 Thank you Linda - I didn't expect to have read so many myself.

And my last two books from March:

#51 Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie



Read for the group read kindly organised by Mark (msf59)

What a book! The writing was amazing, I can see why this book won so many awards (Booker prize and Booker of Bookers twice), but I struggled to get through it, found reading it exhausting and even having read the spark notes and joined in the group discussions, I still don't understand it! I found the magical realism aspect a lot stranger than I thought I would given that I enjoy fantasy books so much; large sections of this book felt really surreal.

So, I'm really glad I've read it but I'm pretty sure I won't read it again and I don't think I'll be trying anything else by Rushdie for a while.

I'd give the book 5 stars for its writing because it is juts amazing but 3.5 stars for how much I actually enjoyed reading it.

'Guardedly recommended' to borrow Stasia's phrase.

#52 Airborn by Kenneth Oppel



An excellent young adult/children's novel and just what I needed after Midnight's Children. Matt Cruse is a cabin boy on the luxury airship the Aurora. With airships, pirates and becoming shipwrecked on a tropical island how could I not like this book? It's book one in a series and I will definitely read the sequel, Skybreaker. Made me seriously consider a career change to cabin boy (girl?) on an airship. If only we had airships...

4.5 stars

#216: I am glad you enjoyed Airborn. I have Skybreaker home from the library now and I really hope it lives up to its predecessor.

I completely understand about wanting to be a cabin person(?) on an airship!

#217 I'll look forward to your thoughts on Skybreaker!

March summary

Books read = 21
Of which 13 were graphic novels, 6 were fantasy, 1 crime/mystery and 1 literary fiction? (No idea how you classify Midnight's Children!)
Books read for TIOLI challenge = 4
Pages read = 6,115
Ratio of male to female authors = 16:13
Books I own = 2
Library/borrowed = 19 (Aaargh!)
Books I own acquired before 2010 = 0 (shameful)
Books entering house in March = 22 (oh dear)

And April is not off to a good start as 4 books arrived from bookmooch yesterday.

March book of the month

Fiction: Mistborn: The Final Empire

Library/borrowed = 19 (Aaargh!)

To me, that is not such a bad number :)

It's more the fact that I acquired 22 books (mostly from bookmooch or the charity shop) but still felt the need to check out 19 library books!

Oh, I am a champion acquirer too. I am just not a champion reader of the acquired.

Only 22 acquistions? And at least you read that many of your library books. I don't know how many books I got out in March and some will go back quite quickly because I can't renew (other reservations) so I have to read them in the original loan period - but I have to take books back before I can borrow any others.

Oooh, Airborn sounds like a good one!

As for magical realism, I am not a fan at all. I think one difference compared to fantasy is that the magic in fantasy worlds is still supposed to follow certain rules, while magical realism always seems (to me, at least) to have a sort of anything-goes approach where things just don't have to make sense. But of course, I'm by no means an expert on magical realism since I avoid it whenever possible.

Library/borrowed = 19 (Aaargh!)
Books I own acquired before 2010 = 0 (shameful)
Books entering house in March = 22 (oh dear)

I'm sorry to say, this really made me laugh. Your comments more than the actual situation, which is far too familiar to me.

#222 I just checked your profile and saw your books acquired in 2010 collection. Fair point, I bow to your superior addiction!

#223 That's a good point about magical realism. I think during the discussions about Midnight's Children someone (can't remember who) said that they normally liked magical realism but didn't like it in this book. It's the first time I'd heard the phrase but looking at book tags I've enjoyed other books which were tagged as magical realism (Life of Pi and Love in the Time of Cholera) although they were a lot less surreal than Midnight's Children.

Right, April plans.

Due to the aforementioned book acquisitions and lack of reading books I own I have a self-imposed book acquisition cull until I have read 20 books I own of which 5 must have been acquired before 2010 before I can get any new books.

Of course, books I have already ordered (paperback copy of The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets' Nest and pending mooches (12?!?) are excluded. But I'm not allowed to mooch any more books until I've read my 20.

April plans

Group reads
The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas
The Affinity Bridge by George Mann
The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas (only 15 chapters)

Current library loans
12 library books on loan and due back this month (I have read 2 graphic novels already).

Early Reviewer Books
Timoleon Vieta Come Home by Dan Rhodes
Once in a Blue Moon by Leanna Ellis
I've started both of these but not enjoying them that much so far. Need to get them finished.

April Take It Or Leave It Challenges
Short stories: Bluebeard's Egg by Margaret Atwood
Book with a city in the title: Winter in Madrid by C. J. Sansom
2010 Orange longlist: Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel
There are quite a few others I could read for the various challenges but will have to see how far I get!

Heather, were you able to mooch that first Allingham book? I got a note that someone had one, but by the time I got there, it was gone. So I gave up and ordered my own copy. If you don't get it, let me know & I'll pass mine on to you when I finish it!

#225: Nice planning, Heather. I hope it works out for you.

Just saying hello Heather - I don't know why I hadn't starred your thread before. I've just skimmed through some of the previous posts - that's an impressive amount of books read so far this year, even if some of them are graphic novels.

I've got Wolf Hall near the top of my TBR pile too - but I have never been one for planning ahead what I will read next - I just go for what I fancy from the pile. As I've been ill for a few months and only gradually getting back to work, I've been tending mainly to go for easier reads (like the Margery Allingham's and some YA fantasy. So not sure when I shall get round to Wolf Hall.

>226 tloeffler: I think Heather mooched Traitor's Purse from me - I've been busy acquiring and reading as many of Allingham's as possible this year, and ended up with some duplicates as i'm trying to get all of mine in the same Penguin Classic Crime edition, but some of my Ebay purchases were different editions. So I may have more to mooch as I add to my collection.

Heather, I'm impressed that you are using the library so much, even if also acquiring new books - I must get myself more organised to use my local library more - the few times I have, I have ended up with major fines because I forget to read the books and forget to return them!

sorry I'm behind catching up! glad you liked fables, its on volume 14 now and there is a prequil and a noval all by Willingham.

#226 Hi Terri. No I didn't get it. If you don't want to keep your copy that would be fantastic, or I could post it back when I'm finished?

#227 Thankyou - me too!

#228 Hi Genny. I completely understand about needing easier reads sometimes. I've actually been off work sick this year as well and have just got back to full time hours the last couple of weeks, so I have spent the last few months reading mostly what I feel like when I feel like it. I'm not sure whether I'll manage Wolf Hall this month but as other people are also planning to read it I thought I'd give it a go!

For some reason I quite like planning what I'm going to read each month even if I don't always stick to it all that well.

Hope you continue to feel better and Easter doesn't take too much out of you.

#229 Hi Bryony. I've been really enjoying the Fables series. I'll be slowly working my way through them when I can get them from the library. Have you read all of them?

Some more reads:

#53 The Long way Home by Joss Whedon



I am a big fan of the TV series of Buffy the Vampire Slayer (and other Joss Whedon programmes) but the few Buffy novels I've read I found to be nowhere near the quality of the TV show. This graphic novel is slightly different; it's written by Joss Whedon and it picks up the story where Season 7 of the TV show ended. I was pleasantly surprised to find that the graphic novel manges to capture the wit and humour of the TV series and I really enjoyed it. It was very fast-moving and felt a little confusing due to so many story threads being introduced. I probably need to reread it.

Because the book references so much of the earlier seasons of Buffy, it wouldn't make sense to read it until you've watched those, so probably one for fans of the TV series only.

4.5 stars

#54 The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas



This was a reread for the 1010 group read. The Three Musketeers is one of my favourite books and I enjoyed reading it again for the nth time. It's a great adventure story and a really fun read. I'm actually finding it a really hard book to review because it's so familiar to me. Definitely recommended.

5 stars

#55 Fables: Legends in Exile by Bill Willingham



Another graphic novel in the Fables series, the first one in the series this time. I enjoyed the characters and crime/mystery storyline.

Four stars

#56 Once in a Blue Moon by Leanna Ellis



This was my March Early Reviewer book and I also read it as part of this month's Take It Or Leave It Challenge.

I found the premise of this story intriguing. Bryn Seymour is a reporter and obituary writer whose mother died in mysterious circumstances on the same day Apollo 11 made its historic moon landing when she was only 9 years old.

On an assignment to write about the 40th anniversary of the first moon-walk, Bryn meets Howard Walker, an ex-NASA employee full of conspiracy theories who she discovers knew her mother. Does Howard hold the key to discovering what really happened to Bryn's mother all those years ago?

It took me quite a while to get into this book, it wasn't until about 120 pages in that I actually started to care about what happened and if this hadn't been an Early Reviewer book I would probably have given up.

The suspense/mystery side of the book didn't really work for me; I didn't find myself gripped by the conspiracy theories. The romance between two of the characters also struck me as quite cheesy and not particularly believable. The book is also Christian fiction and includes various conversations between one Christian character and one of the non-Christian characters. I am a Christian myself, but these conversations seemed to have been taken straight from a 'How to Evangelize' book, there were no surprises or insights in these conversations.

Overall, there wasn't anything dire about this book, but there also wasn't really anything original or particularly good either. In trying to write a quirky, unusual story it feels like Ellis has spread herself too thin over the different genres and ended up with a book that doesn't quite have enough romance or enough mystery or enough suspense to be a satisfying read.

The best bits of this book and the only bits I really engaged with were the sections dealing with Bryn's relationships with her mother and grandmother, her feelings over her mother's death and how this has affected her. These sections really moved me but they were too infrequent to redeem the book for me.

2.5 stars

#231: Not a Buffy fan, so I will pass on that book.

I may re-read that one after I finish up The Count of Monte Cristo.

I just read Fables myself and have already picked up Volume 2, Fables: Animal Farm.

Too bad about the last one, Heather. It sounds like it could have been very good.

#231 I *am* a Buffy fan, and indeed I have that book - for similar reasons to you I avoided the book spin-offs but thought I'd try the graphic novel as Joss Whedon had written it. I never finished reading it though - I am not used to graphic novels and found it a bit confusing. Perhaps I should try again - it is still by my bedside under other books currently being read...

Big buffy fan and as you all know I'm parcial to a graphic novel so long way home is and was a good match for me. I get this in comic book form every month the current story is called Twilght and not to be confused with edward.

must read The Three Musketeers...

I've read 8 of the fabels graphic novels next time I go to london I will pick up number 9.

sorry about this read.

#232 I think, of the two, The Count of Monte Cristo is my favourite but The Three Musketeers is such good fun!

#233 I also found it a little confusing. Some characters were very easy to recognise but others were less clear and the plot seemed to move so fast!

#234 Re Fables, I think I saw that Vol 12 (Fables: The Dark Ages was nominated for a Hugo award. I definitely want to read the rest of the series now.

Three books have entered the house so far this week, all ordered before my book-acquiring moratorium. And they all look really exciting

The Girl Who Kicked The Hornets' Nest by Stieg Larsson - ostensibly for my husband but I get to read it too!
The Drawing of the Dark by Tim Powers
Virtual Light by William Gibson

And I'm halfway through about four books and can't get into any of them - grrrr.

I am sooooo jealous of you being able to get The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets' Nest - it won't be published in the US until May 25th. Lucky you!!!

I've never been interested in the idea of Buffy books, but The Long Way Home sounds like fun - if nothing more than to see what the characters did after the end of season 7.

Finally caught up with your thread (I'd gotten over 100 posts behind! Oops...). I enjoyed all the talk about graphic novels and magical realism (separately, but ooh, the combination of those two would be pretty frightening...). I've been meaning to try some graphic novels but I'm always put off by how expensive they are (I like to own the books I read... and I'm in library school, bad librarian!) - Fables sounds very interesting though, so I'll have to find that one. This is not quite the same, but I think you might enjoy it: have you read Erfworld? It's a webcomic/graphic novel, and book one is one of the best things of that kind that I've read (it's currently in book 2 and has kind of stalled, IMO, but book 1 is great). It's got a kind of gamer/fantasy premise, but you only really need a passing familiarity with gamer-ness (that's all I have!) to go on with, and the visual and verbal allusions are what makes it.

Re: magical realism. I'm sorry you didn't enjoy Midnight's Children more. I haven't read it yet, but I loved The Satanic Verses and I also really like Gunter Grass, who I know has a similar style. I like your point about the difference between fantasy and magical realism. It reminds me of a point that Frazer makes in The Golden Bough that magic is just like science that hasn't been verified (i.e. it follows rules), whereas religion makes no guarantees. Substitute magical realism for religion and there you go! I quite like magical realism, but your right that it's very disorienting if you're used to fantasy: the whole point, more or less, is to reinforce the postmodern point about being unsure of what's real.

Anyway, I'll stop hijacking your thread now. Looks like you've had some good reads so far!

I like magical realism and I didn't like Midnight's Children. I didn't finish it. I think for me, part of the problem was that I have read a lot of magical realism, including stuff that was probably influenced by Rushdie, and so by the time I read his book it seemed like he wrote it with a definition in hand: this is what magical realism is supposed to look like.

#236 Hi Karen - sorry! It probably won't help to hear that hubby says it's fantastic then will it? There's always the book depository but I don't know how fast their shipping is.

#237 Hi Katie I've got all my graphic novels from the library so far. They are expensive to buy, especially considering how much less time it takes me to read them than a 'normal' book.

I will check out Erfworld - thanks for the link!

#237/238 Midnight's Children was the first magical realism book I've read as well as my first by Rushdie so I don't know if it's magical realism I don't like or Salman Rushdie or just Midnight's Children!

#57 The Affinity Bridge by George Mann



I read this for the steampunk group read.

I love the cover of this book! This book fit my preconceptions of a steampunk book, better than The Anubis Gates (our last group read). There were steam-powered carriages, airships and automatons (automata?).

The book is a fantasy/detective novel set in an alternate Victorian England. Sir Maurice Newbury and his assistant, Miss Veronica Hobbes,Investigators for the Crown are asked to look into a spate of mysterious murders as well as an airship crash. Initially, of course, the two investigations seem completely unconnected but inevitably there is a dark purpose behind both incidents..

This was a fun and fast-paced read. I did have a couple of niggles though. Sir Maurice came close to death in one too many fights - I actually started to find the action sequences rather tiresome after a while. And the connection between the two investigations didn't quite work for me. There's an epilogue with an intriguing hook for the next book though (this is the first in a series) and as my library has a copy of book 2 I will probably get it at some point.

One to borrow rather than buy.

3.5 stars

#58 Howl's Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones



This was a fun YA read recommended by many other LibrayThingers.

Four stars.

#59 Bluebeard's Egg and Other Stories by Margaret Atwood



I normally love Margaret Atwood's novels so I was looking forward to this book but I was slightly disappointed. This is a collection of short stories by Atwood, some are autobiographical and I think these were the ones I enjoyed the most. The rest were well written but often ended abruptly and left me feeling clueless about what that particular story was about. I don't know whether I just don't like the short story format or whether these were too literary for me but I was left feeling like Atwood was trying to make some point that I just wasn't getting. I felt quite dim which is not a feeling I enjoy! :-(

3.5 stars - probably only recommended if you're a short story fan
I read this book for the April Take It Or Leave It Challenge which was to read a book of short stories.

#240: I will be curious to see how you like The Osiris Ritual, Heather. My local library does not have it yet.

I'll be interested in your thoughts on The Osiris Ritual too; I haven't yet decided whether I'll continue with the series.

240: Glad to hear you liked Howl's Moving Castle!

#239 Souloftherose - I'm glad he liked it! Someone else reminded me about the Book Depository, but they were out - and even then I want to get the US edition so I'll have all 3 books in US hardcover. I frequently don't mind having different types of books - hardcover, trade paper, mass market - but for some reason I really want to have these three all be the same.

I didn't realize that the sequel to Affinity Bridge had already been published! I though Affinity Bridge itself was new.

#244 I always like it when I manage to get matching covers for book series.

I'm surprised it's only just coming out in hardback in the US! It's just come out in paperback here and I remember feeling slightly annoyed last summer when we were in France and saw all three books in French paperbacks when the UK hardback of the third book had only just come out. And even more annoyed when I found out that the translator from Swedish to English had translated all three books by the time the first was released in English. I guess it was a publishing decision to stagger them in some countries?

#245 I think this is another difference in publishing schedules between the US and the UK. The Affinity Bridge was published in the UK in 2008, The Osiris Ritual in Summer 2009 and according to amazon.co.uk there is a third book, The Immorality Engine due for release in September this year.

But it works both ways! I keep hearing about books and authors on here who have books released in the US but not officially released in the UK. I never thought publishing schedules would be so different between two countries who speak the same language (for the most part!)

Some more reads:

#60 The Weirdstone of Brisingamen by Alan Garner

this article on the Guardian books blog celebrating the 50th anniversary of The Weirdstone of Brisingamen.

So I picked a copy of this book up the next time I went to the library and it was brilliant.

This is a children's fantasy story very much in the style of Susan Cooper's The Dark is Rising Sequence (more on that later). Susan and Colin arrive in the village of Alderley and almost immediately strange events begin to occur, seemingly linked to the bracelet Susan wears.

Whilst still keeping the book as entirely suitable for children, Alan Garner has also managed to make this quite a scary book. I think because the world Garner creates is so normal and safe that when magic intrudes into this world it seems more terrifying than, for example, the world of Harry Potter where magic is more 'normal'.

I gave the book 5 stars and think this will definitely be one of my top reads for the month.

When searching my library catalogue for other books by Alan Garner, I came across a book called Four British Fantasists: Place and Culture in the Children's Fantasies of Penelope Lively, Alan Garner, Diana Wynne Jones and Susan Cooper which of course I grabbed and am planning to read after I've read the other three Alan Garner books I retrieved from the library's children's section.

Does anyone else ever feel slightly guilty for checking out children's books (as in my case they're not going to be read by a child)?

#61 The Well of Ascension by Brandon Sanderson



This is the second book in Brandon Sanderson's Mistborn trilogy (I reviewed the first in msg 206 above.

I find it very hard to comment on books in a series without giving spoilers! I enjoyed this a lot although not quite as much as the first book. I've put in a request for my library to get a copy of the third book but if they don't I can see myself putting in a Brandon Sanderson order at the book depository..

4.5 stars

#62 The Unadulterated Cat by Terry Pratchett



I picked this little book up some time ago, only because it was written by the great Mr Pratchett. I am (gasp!) actually more of a dog person..

I read it because it has been sitting around on my shelves for absolutely ages, it fit the Take It Or Leave It Challenge for this month of reading a book with an animal in the title and at 157 pages, it was very short!

I enjoyed this a lot more than I thought I would. This is a book about real cats "with faces that look as though they have been put in a vice and hit repeatedly by a hammer with a sock around it". The book was very funny and had several laugh out loud moments. Recommended.

4 stars

Other reading:

I found a couple of short stories by George Mann online which fit into his Newbury and Hobbes series. These two are both set between The Affinity Bridge and The Osiris Ritual (book two in the series).

Both these short stories are available from George Mann's website.

The Hambleton Affair - This one reminded me of a Sherlock Holmes story but with a darker twist. Newbury recounts an adventure he's had to Sir Charles Bainbridge - a good mystery story with a dose of steampunk - 4 stars.

The Shattered Teacup - Another mystery story but the solution annoyed me. I reread the story and there was absolutely no way that the reader was able to work out what had happened which spoiled it a bit for me - 3 stars.

ETA: Can't get the touchstones to work :-(

#248: Thanks for letting me know about the short stories. It looks like it will be a bit before I can get hold of The Osiris Ritual, so the short stories can tide me over.

>247 souloftherose: re Alan Garner, he is one of my favourite writers. Don't feel guilty about reading children's books - I think we are too obsessed with classifying books and putting them into genres: if a book is well written and a story well told, it is worth reading at any age. Alan Garner himself has some interesting things to say about this issue, as I recall, in a book of essays of his, also worth checking out if you are exploring him The Voice that Thunders (I agree heartily with the one review of that posted on LT). His first few books are perhaps more clearly 'children's', by the time he gets to The Owl Service and then even more so Red Shift you might say 'young adult' but the themes are certainly quite dark and adult even though some of the protagonists are teenagers. His latest stories Strandloper and Thursbitch are definitely more adult. He increasingly uses a story telling technique which is mostly dialogue not narrative, which sometimes makes him quite hard to follow; in some ways he has been becoming more poetic in his later books.

Look forward to hearing what you make of the next few, and glad you enjoyed the Weirdstone so much!

As a dog *and* cat person, and Pratchett lover, I must look out for the unadulterated cat! Especially as I'm actually allergic to cats so can't keep one though I love them.

#250 Thanks for the recommendations! I've got The Moon of Gomrath, A Bag of Moondust and The Owl Service out of the library at the moment but I will look out for the others you mentioned.

I have The Voice That Thunders wishlisted after reading about it on his wikipedia page. I will order it from the library but I like reading an author's books before reading autobiographical/biographical works. I think this is at least partly because Agatha Christie's autobiography contained a major spoiler for The Murder of Roger Ackroyd which I was rather annoyed about at the time!

#251 I hope you enjoy The Unadulterated Cat. My husband is a cat person so we have agreed to get both at some point - I know there are dog breeds which are supposed to be ok for allergy sufferers, I don't know if there are cat breeds like that?

#252 The thing with cats is that I build up an immunity over time - we had one when I was little and I was ok with her, until I went away to university and lost my immunity due to lack of regular exposure. So I guess that if I got a cat of my own now, I would eventually be ok with it - but I don't know how many months of asthmatic wheezing and itching it would take before I built up the immunity, and so I haven't dared risk it!

I have to admit that Weirdstone and The Moon of Gomrath are my favorites of Garner's books. Haven't tried the adult ones. I did find Four British Fantasists at my library last year and read it, since the latter three were favorites of mine. A little dry in spots, but very interesting!

And I picked up The Unadulterated Cat last year, as both a cat person and a Pratchett fan, and enjoyed it a lot.

I will get to Sanderson's series eventually. I have one of them, the first of the trilogy, here in my TBR pile.

I love the sound of Four British Fantasists - must see if any of my libraries have that one.

Thanks for mentioning those Mann short stories.

And I should really get around to reading The Weirdstone of Brisingamen one of these days.

One of these days I'm going to get us a copy of The Unadulterated Cat... it's one of the few Pratchett books we don't have, and yet I think I'd love it...!

Hi Heather-- I found you! The Bryson Shakespeare is next in line in my NF pile. An interesting mystery is that Mistborn turned up in my fantasy TBR shelf the other day and I have no idea how it got there. Uh oh! But I think I'll read that next!

Heather..I'm thinking of you because I'm currently reading a book called Mortal Love by Elizabeth Hand. The author is weaving a magical tale re. the Pre-Raphaelites and fairy paintings. I'm only 20 pages into the book so far, but I'm hooked.

I completely agree with what gennyt says about children's fiction and classifying fiction... That said, there's always a little part of me that feels guilty if I read too much (children's fiction) in one go, no matter how much I love my favourites like Diana Wynne Jones...

...speaking of whom, I've had Four British Fantasists on my Amazon wishlist for ages now (as I love/loved all the authors), but I keep postponing the purchase for one reason or another - I'll be very interested to hear what you think about it when you get to it...

#253 That's a shame :-(

#254 I did feel a moment of doubt when I picked up Four British Fantasists at the library and saw how small the print was! I'm not sure I can handle really heavy reading at the moment so I will probably allow myself to skim the bits I find dry.

#255, 256, 257 All the books you have added to my wishlist are repaid!

#258 Hi Lucy - welcome :-) The Bryson Shakespeare book was a fun read. Hope you enjoy Mistborn.

#259 Hi Linda - thank you for the thoughts :-) Mortal Love sounds interesting - I'll look out for your review.

#260 My husband jokes that there is rarely a time when I'm not feeling guilty about something - I may think about these things too much! There are certain types of children's fiction I find soo comforting. I think I need to remind myself it's probably good for me to read them.

I looked at Four British Fantasists on amazon and it was quite pricey! I think it's priced as an academic textbook rather than at normal book prices so I was really pleased when my library had a copy I could request. My friend who lives in Cambridge told me that there's no charge for inter-library loan requests in Cambridge libraries (of which I am rather jealous). My copy came from one of Herts' libraries so you could request it after I've finished (if you want a copy to read rather than own that is)

On the DWJ front I am definitely going to get the sequels to Howl's Moving Castle next time I go to the big library. And the film has gone on my DVD rental list - is it good?

#260, 261 - despite what I said earlier, I too tend to feel guilty if reading lots of children's fiction - or lots of 'genre' fiction of any kind. I have a colleague who only seems to read 'serious' adult fiction, classics or non-fiction, including all the interesting-sounding theology books which I get as far as buying but never reading. I guess she makes me feel defensive about what I am reading; however, I don't feel that at all on LT so I think this is a good place to help us learn not to feel guilty but to enjoy our reading choices while being open to all kinds of new suggestions.

Heather, you are so close to your 75 challenge target already! What are you going to do for the rest of the year?

#262 Mmm, well said!

#263 I'm supposed to stop when I reach 75!?! I should have paced myself better :-P

You could try and read another 75 - I reached 75 and almost 250 posts at the same time so started a 2nd thread for 76 on.

Most of us just keep going and keep recording our reading!

Heather.
Congratulations on reading so many books thus far!

Congratulations on reaching 75. Looking forward to your future reads;-)

I've caused confusion by mentioning that Heather is getting close to the 75 target - she's not quite there yet but will certainly get there well before me at this rate!

Of course we don't expect you to stop when you get to 75 :) look forward to hearing about even more, and getting more ideas for our own TBR piles!

#261 Yep, no charge. I love the Cambridgeshire library system, although sometimes my eyes are a bit bigger than my brain ;o)

Re DWJ/Howl's Moving Castle. For me, Castle in the Air (the first sequel) is one of her weaker books (which means I still enjoyed it, but I've only re-read it once, even though it's been out some time now). House of Many Ways however, was, I felt, back on form, although not quite as good as Howl's Moving Castle and it's one of those with a truly disturbing (to me anyway) character in...

Re the film. Well I enjoyed it very much and I've yet to come across someone who didn't like it, however, it bears very little relation to the plot of the book, so don't expect the same thing... In my opinion, he's over sentimentalised the Howl character, however the Witch of the Waste is fantastic...

#264 Personally, I always keep on going beyond the 75 mark and I think pretty much everyone else who gets there does too. I use my thread principally as a reading diary, for me, the 75 mark is incidental - there's a 100 book challenge too, but this is such a nice, friendly group, I prefer to stick here!

#261: I liked both of the sequels to Howl's Moving Castle, but neither quite as much as the original.

The film, however, I thought was quite wonderful. The plot is simplified quite a bit, and it's tailored very much to Miyazaki's style, but the characters are still fantastic. Howl was indeed more sentimentalized in this film, but it fits well with other changes made to the plot. In some ways, I actually prefer the film's Howl (and not just because he's voiced by Christian Bale!), as his internal struggle comes to a cleaner resolution. I agree that the Witch of the Waste is very well-done, though, and I loved the young and old Sophies!

This is Heather's husband here. I'm a bit offended by everyone thinking my wife is turning 75. She's not. Not even the big three oh yet. What is this?

Right, sorry about that.

Thank you for all the encouragement - I am not quite there yet (and definitely going to carry on in this group even when I am!)

I will definitely try Castle in the Air and the film of Howl's Moving Castle at some point then.

Meanwhile I have done some reading!

#63 The Unbearable Lightness of Scones by Alexander McCall Smith



More from the inhabitants of 44 Scotland Street in the fifth book in the series. If you've read any of the other books you'll know what to expect. This one features a wedding, a man who is rescued by dolphins from drowning and the return of the true king of Scotland. 4 stars.

#64 The Broken Sword by Poul Anderson



This was an unusual (to me anyway) fantasy novel I picked up. Drawing on Norse mythology this a well-written but ultimately tragic story. It was good but probably not the best choice when I was feeling a bit depressed! Four stars though.

I haven't read anything else by Poul Anderson - is it all this bleak?

#65 Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel



I feel like there should be a fanfare announcing this one! Everyone on this group has said how great this book is but after my last Booker Prize read (Midnight's Children) I wasn't expecting to enjoy reading this as much as I did - but it was superb!

There are so many great reviews of this book from other group members on the book page that I can only repeat things other people have said. Mantel does a fantastic job of making the period come alive and made me want to find out more about the Henry, the wives, Cromwell and everyone else. I went and got David Starkey's Six Wives: The Queens of Henry VIII out of the library as soon as I'd finished Wolf Hall.

Mantel is writing a sequel which I will be snapping up as soon as it's out. Five stars - read it!

I've got Wolf Hall lurking near the top of my TBR pile - will move it up a bit with your encouragement!

Sorry to hear you're feeling low, & not helped by book no 64. I don't know any Poul Anderson so can't comment on whether that was typical of his.

No, Poul Anderson is NOT typically bleak, and some of his work is quite humorous.

#274: I am currently reading Wolf Hall and thoroughly enjoying it too, Heather. I am glad to see you liked it!

I like the sound of the Poul Anderson. I'll have to track down a copy.

Yeah, I don't think I've read that Anderson book. Or if I did it's hidden amongst decades of mental debris.

Into the pit it goes!

"is it all this bleak?"

Not exactly. Much of his work,even the science fiction, does have this sort of Viking-epic feel that Ragnarok is on its way: that civilization can't last and it's only a matter of time before the barbarian horde plunges us all back into the Long Night.

This is the sort of thing that Dominic Flandry contemplates whilst getting drunk between spectacular adventures. Mostly, it's just good fun.

Heather

Historical fiction is a wonderful world of British history.
Years ago I read one book re. Anne Boleyn and since then I'm consumed with the Tudors, with Mary Queen of Scots, with James I.....................

I also had an incredible professor who brought history to life.

Here are but a few recommendations from my library:
http://www.librarything.com/work/126145/book/28190936
http://www.librarything.com/work/409614/book/25717846
http://www.librarything.com/work/409614/book/25717846
http://www.librarything.com/work/237856/book/26014812
http://www.librarything.com/work/22700/book/25743264

I didn't realize that there WERE sequels to Howl's. Now I have something to look forward to.

Thanks for the comments, I will try some more Poul Anderson at some point then.

#281 Thank you for the links, Linda. I thought of you after I'd finished Wolf Hall and did a trawl through your catalogue for other Tudor books!

I have read some more books this week and have one left to finish tomorrow but I am extremely sleepy now so I am going to bed. Updates at the weekend (and maybe I should think about a new thread?)

Yes, on the new thread!

Sleep? what is that?

I've just found your thread - I'm not all the way through yet (and the kids are about to wake up) but wow you are reading some great books! I loved Wolf Hall too, like really really really loved it. (OK, now I sound like an American teenage girl. I'm not.)

Also saw that you have Anderw Marr's book out and got excited because I haven't seen much talk about it on here. Are you still reading it? I have it, and read the first 100-odd pages last year, then my husband "put it away somewhere" and didn't know where. I found it at the bottom of a box (we've just moved from NZ to Switzerland) but have forgotten everything, so will be starting it again soon.

#284 Well I've slept and I'm finishing off April's reading on this thread and starting a new one for May.

#285 Hi Cushla! I got about 20 pages into the Andrew Marr book and then took it back to the library. I haven't been feeling much like reading non-fiction lately but I would like to check it out again to read at some point. Let me know when you're going to read it - maybe that will inspire me to keep going with it next time!

#66 The Moon of Gomrath by Alan Garner



The sequel to The Weirdstone of Brisingamen with the same characters and setting. I didn't think this was quite as good as the first one although I'm not sure why. Still very enjoyable. 4.5 stars

#67 The Owl Service by Alan Garner



A standalone young adult novel. The Owl Service in the title refers to a dinner service with an owl pattern on. I know that doesn't sound remotely scary (or even interesting) but this was a really creepy book with great tension between the teenage characters. Garner writes mainly through dialogue rather than descriptive passages which added to the feeling of not really understanding what was going on. This could have been annoying but I think it was intentional. Similarly, the ending is also slightly mysterious and left me trying to figure out what exactly happened.

This won the Carnegie Medal (sort of UK equivalent of the Newbery Medal?) when it was released in 1967 and seems to have a bit of cult following as the book as its own web page (as well as Alan Garner's webpage) here.

Highly recommended. 5 stars

ETA: I included The Owl Service in this month's TIOLI challenge as a book with an animal in the title.

#287: I have the first book in the series in the BlackHole already. I certainly hope I like it because the second book looks terrific!

#288 I messed up my html for the first post and it missed out my comments for The Moon of Gomrath and the picture of The Owl Service making it look like my comments for The Owl Service were for The Moon of Gomrath. Confused? I was.

I thought the Moon of Gomrath was very good but The Owl Service was excellent. Stick it in the Blackhole!

#68 Timoleon Vieta Come Home by Dan Rhodes



This was an Early Reviewer book (also read for the TIOLI challenge). I won it back in February and it's taken me so long to finish it because I hated it. I would have discarded it if I hadn't promised to write a review.

Review coming shortly but not at all recommended.

#289: I am sorry you did not like the book more, Heather. Hopefully your next read is much better for you.

BTW - I had one ER book I just could not make myself finish. I was 85 pages into the book and finally gave up - and I put that into my review. Just because it is an ER book does not mean you have to finish it. You are just obligated to do a review. I flat refuse to finish an unreadable (to me) book.

Review for Timoleon Vieta here. Even writing the review has left me feeling depressed again. Horrible, horrible book.

April Summary

Books read = 16
Books read for TIOLI challenge = 6
Pages read = 5,356
Ratio of male to female authors = 12:4
Books I own = 6 (woo!)
Library/borrowed = 10 (getting better)
Books I own acquired before 2010 = 1 (double woo!)
Books entering house in April = 13 but 6 of those were my husband's so it's really only 7!

April books of the month

Fiction: Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel

Young adult: (well, everyone else is counting it as a separate category this month)
The Weirdstone of Brisingamen by Alan Garner
The Owl Service by Alan Garner

Non-fiction: The Unadulterated Cat by Terry Pratchett

Second thread here.

Am sneaking in a quick response to your posts re April reading on this old thread. Have starred the new one already...

#289 I saw your unedited post with the blend of Moon of Gomrath and Owl Service - glad you managed to fix it quickly: I would have been confused if I didn't know both books so I guessed what had happened. I'm so glad you enjoyed the Owl Service so much - I agree it is very good, and that ambiguous ending and dialogue-led story telling (which he increasingly uses in subsequent novels) make you have to concentrate hard but are a very effective way of telling the story.

Timoleon sounds very unpleasant - here's to more palatable books in May!