Caty M's 2010 Reading - Chapter 2

Continued from my first thread.

I'm making good progress towards finishing the whole of Terry Pratchett's Discworld series and I've read 58 books for my 1010 challenge , but I'm not doing so well on my other targets for the year:
~finish Trollope's Barsetshire series (started the year with two books to go and still have two books to go)
~read at least 4 plays (none read yet)
~take at least 50% of my reading from my TBR (I'm working on this, but I've given up on the attempt to get the TBR under 300: the total is going up rather than down.)
~read at least one volume of In Search of Lost Time (there's plenty of time for that yet)
~have at least 10% of my recreational reading be non-fiction (I've read some non-fiction, but mostly for study)

I don't think I said anything on the introductions thread that isn't in my profile, but for the curious my post is here.

*Adopts TV announcer voice*

PREVIOUSLY, ON THIS THREAD...

January
1. The Bride and the Beast - Teresa Medeiros
2. Framley Parsonage - Anthony Trollope
3. Night Shift - Nora Roberts
4. The Wee Free Men - Terry Pratchett
5. When a Lady Misbehaves - Michelle Marcos
6. The Picture of Dorian Gray - Oscar Wilde
7. Ukridge - PG Wodehouse
8. The Accidental Countess - Michelle Willingham
9. Tulip Fever - Deborah Moggach
10. The Medieval Papacy - Geoffrey Barraclough
11. Duke Most Wanted - Celeste Bradley
12. Poetic Lives: Shelley - Daniel Hahn
13. The Tiger in the Smoke - Margery Allingham

February
14. The Cinderella Deal - Jennifer Crusie
15. The Catholic Church from 1648 to 1870 - Friedrich Heyer
16. Wyrd Sisters - Terry Pratchett
17. Maskerade - Terry Pratchett
18. Going Postal - Terry Pratchett
19. Powder and Patch - Georgette Heyer
20. The Mistress of Hanover Square - Anne Herries
21. A Hat Full of Sky - Terry Pratchett
22. The Three Evangelists - Fred Vargas
23. Bad Boys Online - Erin McCarthy
24. Innocent III: Leader of Europe - Jane Sayers
25. Accidentally Yours - Susan Mallery
26. Witches Abroad - Terry Pratchett
27. The Faithful Bride - Rebecca Winters
28. Discovering Daisy - Betty Neels
29. How to Engage an Earl - Kathryn Caskie
30. A Short History of the Papacy in the Middle Ages - Walter Ullmann
31. Holy Disorders - Edmund Crispin
32. Island of the Heart - Sara Craven
33. Husband for Hire - Susan Wiggs

March
34. The Anubis Gates - Tim Powers
35. Miss Buncle's Book - DE Stevenson
36. Doomsday Book - Connie Willis
37. Sam the Sudden - PG Wodehouse
38. Evil and the Justice of God - NT Wright
39. A Bride for Jericho Bravo - Christine Rimmer
40. An Unsuitable Attachment - Barbara Pym
41. The House at Pooh Corner - AA Milne
42. Brat Farrar - Josephine Tey
43. Thief of Time - Terry Pratchett
44. What the Librarian Did - Karina Bliss
45. Out of Control - Julie Miller
46. Gone with the Nerd - Vicki Lewis Thompson
47. Simply Scandalous - Carly Phillips
48. Fantasy Lover - Sherrilyn Kenyon
49. Reaper Man - Terry Pratchett
50. The Widow's Tale - Mick Jackson
51. Jar City - Arnaldur Indriðason

April
52. Friday Dreaming - Elizabeth Bailey
53. The Case of the Gilded Fly - Edmund Crispin
54. As She Climbed Across the Table - Jonathan Lethem
55. The Last Hero - Terry Pratchett/Paul Kidby
56. Barmy in Wonderland - PG Wodehouse
57. Instant Attraction - Jill Shalvis
58. Wesley for Armchair Theologians - William J. Abraham
59. Instant Gratification - Jill Shalvis
60. Instant Temptation - Jill Shalvis
61. Catholicism for Dummies - John Trigilio and Kenneth Brighenti

May

62. Eric - Terry Pratchett
63. Major Pettigrew's Last Stand - Helen Simonson
64. Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone - JK Rowling
65. Fludd - Hilary Mantel
66. The Pothunters - PG Wodehouse
67. Mrs McVinnie's London Season - Carla Kelly
68. How to be a Bad Birdwatcher - Simon Barnes
69. Rooms - James L. Rubart
70. Cheerful Weather for the Wedding - Julia Strachey

June

71. Frozen Assets - PG Wodehouse
72. Wintersmith - Terry Pratchett
73. Ten Things I Love About You - Julia Quinn
74. The Man in the Picture - Susan Hill
75. Thomas Aquinas: A Very Short Introduction - Fergus Kerr
76. Are Women Human? - Dorothy L. Sayers
77. Purple Hibiscus - Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
78. Psmith, Journalist - PG Wodehouse

July
79. Alone of All Her Sex: The myth and cult of the Virgin Mary - Marina Warner
80. The End of Mr. Y - Scarlett Thomas
81. Soul Music - Terry Pratchett
82. The Uncommon Reader - Alan Bennett
83. Sonnets from the Portuguese and Other Poems - Elizabeth Barrett Browning
84. Murder with Peacocks - Donna Andrews
85. Swan Song - Edmund Crispin
86. A Guide to the Birds of East Africa - Nicholas Drayson
87. Murder with Puffins - Donna Andrews

August
88. Her Royal Spyness - Rhys Bowen
89. The Last Continent - Terry Pratchett
90. The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie - Alan Bradley
91. The Lacuna - Barbara Kingsolver

Targets for May:

April's unfinished TIOLI books:
Major Pettigrew's Last Stand - Helen Simonson (in progress)
English Country House Murders - ed. Godfrey (in progress)

May TIOLI books:
Possession - AS Byatt
Neverwhere - Neil Gaiman
Eric - Terry Pratchett (finished 1/5/10 - a good start to the month :))
Fludd - Hilary Mantell
Rooms - James Rubart (EARLY REVIEWERS)
The Brontes Went to Woolworths - Rachel Ferguson
Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone - JK Rowling

There are some other books I'd like to get to:
~ I have a stack of books with one word titles for the TIOLI challenge, but I don't know which (if any) I'll get to in addition to those listed above.
~ I have a newly-arrived ER book to read and review - coincidentally, yet another book with a one-word title.
~ I have a huge pile of textbooks/academic tomes which may or may not get listed: it depends what proportion of each book gets read. (If I read 2 chapters of an 18-chapter book for an assignment, I shan't list it. If I read 16 chapters out of 18, I quite possibly will.)
~ I have the second and third Harry Potter books in the TBR. If I like the first one even half as much as everyone keeps telling me I will, I'll probably dive straight into the next two.
~ At least one Terry Pratchett (Wintersmith is in the TBR)
~ Given my goals for the year, I ought to try to get to The Small House at Allington or Swann's Way, but I'm listing them more in hope than expectation.
~ I ought to read a play as well. I don't think I can cope with Greek Tragedy or Shakespeare this month, but I might manage The Rivals or Cyrano de Bergerac.

Morning, Caty!

Morning, Stasia!

62. Eric - Terry Pratchett

Genre: Fantasy
Published: 1990
Pages: 155
Acquired: Second-hand, March 2010
Why I read it now: Terry Pratchett books never linger in the TBR for long: I gobble them up. I'd probably have got to it about now even if I hadn't been able to work into the May TIOLI challenge.

Rating: 4.5/5

Plot in one sentence: Rincewind is mistaken for a devil by an amateur demonologist, who insists on having his three wishes granted.

Comments: This hat-tip to Faust and Dante's Inferno (via the Trojan Wars, Creation and management techniques) is probably my favourite Rincewind story, although the reviews and ratings on the work page suggest that's not the majority opinion. There are some wonderful cameos from Death and some superb one-liners, and although it doesn't have the depth of some of his longer works it is very funny.

Current TBR:non-TBR ratio = 19:43

Morning - found you! Good luck with the goals for this month.

Hi Genny! Thanks.

Nice selection for the TIOLI. Good luck with your goals.

Nice goals! Looking forward to cheering you on to reach them :D Good luck!

New thread link is definitely working again now.

#12 Good!

63. Major Pettigrew's Last Stand - Helen Simonson

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

Rating: 4/5

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

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

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

Current TBR:non-TBR ratio = 19:44

#13: I loved that one, Caty, and am sorry it did not quite work for you. I know what you mean about not being able to put your finger on exactly what it was that did not work for you in a book - it happens to me frequently :)

Hey, Caty, found your new thread, and yes, the link is working well now.

Hi Caty! Found and starred!

*waves hello to calm, Faith, Roni, profiler and anyone else I've missed*

Caty, am I understanding you correctly? Are you getting ready to read Harry Potter for the very first time? I'm very anxious for your reaction - I also predict that you will love it.

here at last :)

found you and starred your thread.

Congrats on reading so many books thus far.

Are you getting ready to read Harry Potter for the very first time?

Yes. (Although I have seen bits and pieces of a couple of the films. Not sure which ones, though.)

I shall be sure to post my thoughts. :)

#19, 20 *waves hello*

(Thanks, Whisper.)

64. Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone - JK Rowling

Genre: YA Fantasy
Published: 1997
Pages: 309
Acquired: via BookMooch March 2010
Why I read it now: For my TIOLI challenge

Rating: 4/5

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

Current TBR:non-TBR ratio = 19:45

I haven't read HP in a while, and now can't remember which ones I read and didn't....but the grand babe is approaching 10 and reading like a 30 year old, so I'm going to suggest we read them together, and chat online (she does email now too-----SIGH) about them.

#24 That sounds like a great idea!

My favorite remains HP and the Prisoner of Azkabhan. I started re-reading the series this year and got off track (imagine that!), so I guess I should start back up again.

65. Fludd - Hilary Mantel

Genre: Fiction/Historical Fiction
Published: 1989
Pages: 186
Acquired: Bought in March - from Waterstones, I think - after various recommendations.
Why I read it now: For the TIOLI challenge.

Rating: 3.5

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

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

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

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

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

Current TBR:non-TBR ratio = 19:46

I will definitely be looking out for that one.

#27: I just finished Fludd this past week for the TIOLI challenge, and I did not care for it as much as you liked it Caty. I just did not get it. I am glad you enjoyed it more than I did.

#27 I was planning to read Fludd this month for the TIOLI challenge but I'm not sure whether I will make it in time! Sounds interesting though, I'm looking forward to reading more Mantel.

#28, 30 - I hope you both enjoy it!

#29 It's a shame you didn't enjoy it, Stasia. At least you had plenty of reads you did enjoy last week. :)

66. The Pothunters - PG Wodehouse

Genre: Fiction Misc/Humour
Published: 1902
Pages: 156
Acquired: May 6, from Waterstones.
Why I read it now: Heavy study load at the moment and needed some light relief.

Rating: 4/5

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

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

I rather liked this exchange:

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

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

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

Current TBR:non-TBR ratio = 19:47

I am sorry to say that I have never yet got round to Wodehouse, though I'm pretty sure I will enjoy him very much when I do. Where would you recommend to start?

#33 I personally think any of the Jeeves stories are good to start with, and I love The Mating Season and Joy in the Morning. The Inimitable Jeeves contains short stories and is also excellent (I particularly love The Great Sermon Handicap, which I suspect might entertain you too.)

Or some of the early Blandings books like Something Fresh, Leave it to Psmith or Summer Lightning. Hot Water and Money for Nothing are also good, and not part of a any series.

#32 Hooray for Wodehouse!

#33 You must! I second all Caty's recommendations and especially Leave it to Psmith. It's the first Wodehouse I read and still my favourite.

ETA: Hope the study load eases up soon Caty - do you have an end of term?

#35 Not exactly an end of term - but if I don't have the assignments finished and submitted in the in the next three weeks I shall be in deep trouble with my tutor.

(My tutor is actually very nice, and she is absolutely right when she tells me to stop procrastinating and just get the work finished and submitted.)

#34, 35 - Thank you for the recommendations. I'll add Leave it to Psmith and some of the others to the wishlist and make a start! Great Sermon Handicap does sound entertaining. My youth worker has taken about 15 of our young people away for a weekend in the Lake District and she is planning to take them to the local little village church, but tells me she is going to forearm them with "Sermon Bingo" to help keep their attention during the service. I presume this means a list of random words for them to listen out for - I don't know whether she intends them to shout out 'Bingo!' during the service if they get a full house!

#36 Good luck with fighting procrastination. It is my besetting sin. Your tutor is of course right, but I know it is not easy to just get the work finished. But I hope you can get it all done and then you can enjoy the sense of burden lifted over the summer.

#37 'Amen' for a line and 'Hallelujah' for the full card?

#38 That sounds more appropriate - but would probably still startle the rest of the congregation!

When I was co-leading our youth group we somehow ended up with 'Praise the Lord' as our phrase to be used when we went off on a tangent during a Bible study (at least once every 5 minutes). Needless to say, it soon started to sound like a revival meeting....

Amen to that, sister!

LOL

Caty, Hope you're able to wrap up the assignments quickly and to your satisfaction!

#32 Loved the quote. Somehow, I've never got round to reading any P. G. Wodehouse, although as a family, we all used to love the BBC series with Stephen Fry and Hugh Laurie. I really must give Jeeves a go one of these days...

Re the procrastination, I definitely sympathise - it's a bad habit of mine too. Hope you manage to hit your flow with the assignments, so that they disappapear nice and quickly for you!

#30 *grin*

#40 LOL

#41 Thanks

#42 Thanks - and definitely try Jeeves some time.

67. Mrs McVinnie's London Season - Carla Kelly

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

Rating: 3.5/5

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

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

68. How to Be a Bad Birdwatcher - Simon Barnes

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

Rating: 4.5/5

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

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

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

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

Current TBR:non-TBR ratio = 19:49

And a DNF: Memoirs are made of this by Swan Adamson.

Supposedly 'modern' and 'witty', but the kind of bilge that made me want to don rubber gloves, pick it up with tongs and drop it in the nearest bin.

Dilemma: do I list on Bookmooch, or would it be a kindness to the world to go with my original inclination?

Thanks for making me laugh! I recently read Diary of a Whimpy: The Last Straw...What a terrible, terrible follow up to the previous book that was so funny. Perhaps we can have a book burning ceremony.

#47: I would list it on Bookmooch because as much as you disliked it, someone else will come along who likes it that much!

#46: Adding that one to the BlackHole.

#46 That one sounds interesting and may make a good Father's Day present - thanks!

#47 List it, one person's bilge is another person's favourite book.

And I've started Fludd and given the long weekend I think I may finish it in time! I l like it so far although I think it's going to be one of those books where I'm never sure I've really understood it.

#50: I l like it so far although I think it's going to be one of those books where I'm never sure I've really understood it.

That was my problem with Fludd too, Heather. I am glad to know I am not the only one!

The bilge has been listen on BookMooch, along with another couple of really bad romances. Stasia and Heather, you're right: someone will love it.

Re. Fludd, I think either it has some major element that I completely missed, or it's deliberately ambiguous. While the former is certainly possible, I'm leaning towards the latter, especially after reading the interview with the author in the back of the book.

I've finished book #69: Rooms by James Rubart, which I received from Early Reviewers. Christian fiction, somewhere around the 3/5 mark; review to come.

And I had a nice surprise last night with the arrival of a late birthday present: a book that had been ordered for me by my mother but was out of stock, and wasn't sent out by Amazon until this week: Bricks and Mortar. I'd forgotten it was still on the way. :D

69. Rooms - James L Rubart

Christian fiction
382 pages
Received April 29 via March Early Reviewers

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

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

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

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

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

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

3.5 out of 5.

ETA Missing word

#53: I have seen several reviews of that one, so it is already in the BlackHole. I just need to get my hands on a copy. Thanks for the review, Caty.

#54 You're welcome. :)

70. Cheerful Weather for the Wedding - Julia Strachey

Genre: Fiction/Literature
Published: 1932; 2009 Persephone edition
Pages: 118
Acquired: Birthday present, Spring 2010

Rating: 4/5

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

53: I know what you mean when it comes to pages and pages of glowing reviews posted at the beginning of books. I usually just skip over them now, just as I refuse to read blurbs on back covers. They seem to have the opposite effect on me, the more positive the blurb the more likely I am to be critical of something. =/

#56 I find it really hard to skip past them completely, although usually I manage to limit myself to skimming them. I actually started with this book by just skimming them, and notice a couple of references to The Screwtape Letters and Pilgrim's Progress, and saw how gushing the reviews were, and went back and actually read them all because they just seemed so over-the-top.

When I see this kind of thing, I also find myself cynically wondering how many review copies the publishers sent out in order to get all those positive reviews: how many negative reviews went unquoted, and how many review copies never resulted in a review? It triggers the 'major marketing push' alert in my brain, and makes me want to resist buying or liking what they're trying so hard to sell me.

It being now technically June by UK time, I ought to post the May Summary:

Success/failure on planned reads:
Major Pettigrew's Last Stand - COMPLETED
English Country House Murders - No progress, still ongoing
Possession - In progress and moved to June TIOLI
Neverwhere - Didn't get to this one
Eric - COMPLETED
Fludd - COMPLETED
Rooms - COMPLETED
The Brontes Went to Woolworths - Didn't get to this one either
Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone - COMPLETED

Lots of study done, but all periodical articles and odd chapters from books that I didn’t read enough of to want to count them here.

I didn't make any progress on my more general targets: no Trollope, Proust or plays. Maybe next month.

The unplanned reads were The Pothunters by PG Wodehouse, Mrs McVinnie's London Season by Carla Kelly, How to be a Bad Birdwatcher by Simon Barnes and Cheerful Weather for the Wedding by Julia Strachey, which all went into the 101010 challenge.

Total May books: 9
Total May pages: 2138
Mean pages/book: 238

Highest rating: 4.5 (Eric, How to be a Bad Birdwatcher)
Mean rating: 3.89
Lowest rating: 0.5 (Memoirs are made of this - a DNF)

Total Fiction: 8
Total Non-fiction: 1

Books by men: 4
Books by women: 5

Books by UK authors: 7
Books by US authors: 2
Books by authors of other nationalities: 0 (really must do something about this!)

Books from the TBR stack: 0 (really must do something about this, too!)

First published longest ago: 1902 - The Pothunters
Newest publication: April 2010 - Rooms (just beating Major Pettigrew's Last Stand, published in March 2010)

I need to complete another 34 books to finish my 101010 challenge.

Targets for June:

TIOLI challenge:
Frozen Assets - PG Wodehouse (Problem in the Title)
Purple Hibiscus - Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (Book about Africa)
Possession IN PROGRESS (Recommended for Alias Grace)
Are Women Human - Dorothy L Sayers (Beginning with A)
The Christian Atheist (Opposites Attract)
Snow Flower and the Secret Fan - Lisa See (Meant for someone else)
Corduroy Mansions - Alexander McCall Smith (3-part-name author)

I've listed about 50 other possibles on my wiki page, but frankly if I reach double figures on my recreational reading in June I'll be surprised.

Other books to read/finish:
The Holly Tree Inn - Charles Dickens (short stories, April ER)
The Victorian Governess - Kathryn Hughes
Earth: An Intimate History - Richard Fortey (If I can remember where I left it, because it's not on the shelf I thought it was on. Whoops.)
About 14 academic tomes

#59: Nice set of goals for June, Caty! Good luck.

Oh it is June, isn't it. Happy June.

Found an English bookstore here, as in UK. Bought the first Jeeves. And while I've chuckled out loud (once), I'm wondering if I'm not British enough to enjoy it fully. Maybe they improve as the series goes on? LOL

I would have thrown the bilge in the bin. I did do that with two books... one a piece of victorian era porn which I thought was a regency LOL And one other which happily remains buried in my thoughts.

#61 I think some of the later ones are generally considered slightly better, but all the Jeeves books are considered among Wodehouse's best. The Wodehouse humour and style are pretty distinctive, and consistent through his books, so if his humour just doesn't match yours then you probably just won't enjoy him as a writer.

Some of his books are set in America and/or seem more tailored to an American audience, so maybe you might get on with some of them a bit better? The Adventures of Sally comes to mind.

Someone on BM has requested the bilge, so it will be in the post in the next day or two.

And having extolled the qualities of How to be a bad birdwatcher, I am (as usual at this time of year) having great fun watching the BBC Springwatch webcams, which are populated by lots of small, fluffy, feathery things.

I distinctly remember in years past being glued to live footage of an owl nest when I was meant to be finishing off sermon notes on a Saturday night. No owls yet this year, though, so I am having to make do with the blue tits and avocet.

71 Frozen Assets - PG Wodehouse

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

Rating: 4.5/5

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

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

Current TBR:non-TBR ratio = 19:52

I must get round to some Wodehouse - sounds like just the thing for lifting a low mood or escaping from work stress!

72. Wintersmith - Terrry Pratchett

Genre: YA Fantasy
Published: 2006
Pages: 400
Acquired: Christmas 2009
Why I read it now: I'd been meaning to get to it for a while, and this conversation on Stasia's last thread reminded me that it had been on the shelf for nearly six months.

Rating: 4/5

Plot in one sentence: Thirteen-year-old Tiffany Aching decides to dance when she was just supposed to be watching, but since it's the dance between winter and summer she's interrupted, and since the spirit of winter has fallen in love with her, the end result is both chaotic and somewhat chilly.

Comments: Not the best of the Tiffany Aching books. I gave it the same rating I gave to A Hat Full of Sky (compared to 5/5 for The Wee Free Men) although I think A Hat Full has slightly the edge over this one.

It's pretty entertaining, though. Tiffany is convincing as a thirteen-year-old (I think - it's been a while since I was thirteen but it seems about right) and Nanny Ogg, Granny Weatherwax and their usual selves. Annagramma and Roland make a good supporting cast, and the story is pretty zippy and has lots of references to mythology.

Current TBR:non-TBR ratio = 20:52

#65 Yes, I find Wodehouse is an excellent antidote to stress and to feeling a bit down in the dumps. :)

#67 I have put lots of Wodehouse on my Bookmooch wishlist, but am trying to resist the temptation to buy other books even cheaply on eBay at present. Including more Pratchett - I've probably read about 2/3 of his but none of the Tiffany Aching ones yet... But must read more of what I've already got first!

At least one or two more.

#68 But must read more of what I've already got first!

I think that could be a contender for the group's motto. (That and "Oooh, that sounds interesting, I must read it!")

#69: I think it's a toss up!

73. Ten Things I Love About You - Julia Quinn

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

Rating: 3½ out of 5

Comments:

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

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

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

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

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

Current TBR:non-TBR ratio = 20:53

#71: I will probably buy that one despite your reservation about it, Caty. Both my Catey and I enjoy reading Quinn's books.

#72 Oh, don't get me wrong - I liked it. I just didn't love it, and I didn't think it was one of her best. If you're Quinn fans, you'll both enjoy it.

Although perhaps it's because I'm also a Quinn fan that I got a bit nitpicky: I know her writing can be excellent, and I was a bit disappointed that it was only good. :)

#73: I understand. I tend to get nitpicky with my favorite authors too.

>64 Eat_Read_Knit: Great Wodehouse review, Caty! I've added Frozen Assets to my PGW wishlist. I'm currently reading Uncle Dynamite - a very entertaining little diversion from the Jeeves & Wooster and Blandings series :)

#63 Oh Caty, thank you for that link! It's wonderful! ...and I shall now be watching it for the rest of the day...

#69 "#68 But must read more of what I've already got first!

I think that could be a contender for the group's motto. (That and "Oooh, that sounds interesting, I must read it!")" YES.

#75 I haven't got round to Uncle Dynamite yet, but it looks like fun. Hope you enjoy Frozen Assets.

#76 You're welcome!

I was looking through some photos earlier, and then remembered that today is the 15th anniversary of my grandad's death (you know how sometimes you know things like that but they don't quite register?) so I thought I'd post this picture of the two of us together fifteen years before that:

Lovely photo!

What a great picture, Caty!

#79, 80 Thanks. :)

Oh it is a lovely photo!

Beautiful photo!

It will have been a year ago that my own grandfather died in about 2 weeks.

#82, 83 Thanks.

Stephen, I'm sorry to hear that: I hope the anniversary won't be too rough on you. :(

74. The Man in the Picture - Susan Hill

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

Rating: 4/5

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

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

I was going to put this back on BookMooch, but seeing as several people in the group expressed an interest when Terri reviewed it, I'll give people here first refusal. If anyone would like to have my copy, let me know. {Goes into BM condition notes mode} It's a small hardback in very good condition, but with pencil markings and a sticker on the title page and a bookcrossing sticker inside the front cover.

And it's got a new home. That didn't take long!

I'm glad that you got to have some time to know your grandfather. How old are you in that picture?

#86 Thanks. I was twenty-eight months, according to the date on the photo.

#78 That's a lovely photo of you and your grandad Caty. I've sort of deliberately not remembered the anniversary of my nan's death (it was Feb last year). I know I can find it out if I want to but I don't want that to be a date I hold in my mind - I don't know if that makes any sense.

#85 Sounds good, onto the wishlist it goes!

#88 Yes, that makes sense.

I don't know the exact date of my other grandfather's death - he died when I was five - and I've never felt the need to find out. I think the way we way we remember people who've been significant in our lives (whether for good or for bad) is very subjective, very individual to us and to them; the way we choose to commemorate those we've lost is equally so.

And I hope you enjoy The Man in the Picture. :)

75. Thomas Aquinas: A Very Short Introduction – Fergus Kerr

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

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


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

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

Rating: 5/5

Comments:

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

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

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

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

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

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

Current TBR:non-TBR ratio = 20:56

#90: I cannot pass up anything by Dorothy Sayers, so into the BlackHole goes Are Women Human? Thanks for the recommendation, Caty!

You're welcome. :)

#90 I've added Are Women Human? too and thumbed your review. That last quote made me chuckle :-)

Ditto what Heather said! I love DLS and have read quite a bit of her other writings as well as the detective stories - but this one has escaped me till now. Must find a copy...

90-94: Me, too! Are Women Human? sounds great. Thanks for the review!

Karen O.

#93, 94, 95 Hope you all enjoy it.

I've never read anything by Dorothy L. Sayers = given those quotes, I may have to - she sounds like my kind of person!

#97 Go for it!

77. Purple Hibiscus - Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Genre: Contemporary Fiction
Published: 2004
Pages: 307
Acquired: May 2010, Waterstones
Why I read it now: TIOLI 'book about Africa' challenge

Rating: 4.5/5

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

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

ETA a little bit of clarity re. plot

#99 That does indeed sound good, Caty, which is usually not the same thing as nice, so it makes perfect sense. Another one to add to the list! And thanks for your message.

#100 You're welcome. And I'm glad to hear I made sense. :)

You make sense and it's good to see some positive comments on Purple Hibiscus after a spate of negative ones.

#90: I was introduced to Are women human in a women's studies class when our professor read parts of it aloud in class - it was highly entertaining.

#99: I listend to Purple hibiscus on tape a year or two ago, and thoroughly enjoyed it, although the end of the book was not pleasant. Reminds me I want to read Half of a yellow sun.

#102 Thanks :)

#103 Even though I'm familiar with Sayers' writing, I didn't expect Are Women Human to be as laugh-out-loud funny as they were. Did you read the whole thing or just stick with the extracts?

78. Psmith, Journalist - PG Wodehouse

Genre: Humour/General Fiction
Published: First published 1915. I read a 2008 Everyman edition.
Pages: 221
Acquired: Purchased April 2010
Why I read it now: (a) Wodehouse never stays in the TBR long, (b) TIOLI Challenge

Rating: 2.5/5

Plot in one sentence: Psmith spends the Long Vacation in New York, where his outrage at slum conditions and the actions of landlords leads him to get entangled in crusading journalist and boxing promotion, and to fall foul of gang warfare.

Comments: Social commentary is unusual in a Wodehouse novel, and while it's intriguing it's definitely not his forte. The plot is reasonably coherent, but the ending is somewhat trite. Psmith's mannerisms irritated me a lot - much more in this book than in Psmith in the City or Leave it to Psmith - and none of the other characters appealed much to me either.

There are some good comic moments - Psmith's sangfroid when he gets a bullet through the hat and the cat-loving gangster are two which come to mind - and Wodehouse's turn of phrase is always entertaining.

For the modern reader, however, one disturbing thing about this book is the regular use of derogatory racial/ethnic terms. Numerically, most of the slurs are directed at those of Italian extraction, but some of the worst "Whoa, what did that say?!" moments were references to African-Americans. No doubt the language and its usage was entirely unexceptional in the context being portrayed, and it would be grossly unfair to Wodehouse to impose the norms of today on a work published 95 years ago; nevertheless, both the language and the assumptions behind it are unpalatable today. The use of some terms not only in dialogue (which could, I imagine, be said to accurately represent the hostility between various ethnic groups in New York in 1915) but also in the narrative (which cannot be so excused, except perhaps as an attempt to portray atmosphere) made me exceedingly uncomfortable. They also surprised me, because this is not something I've come across in Wodehouse before.

I think this is the first Wodehouse novel that I have not enjoyed reading, and the first that I would not recommend.

Current TBR:non-TBR ratio = 20:58

>71 Eat_Read_Knit: LOL subgenre: frothy. LOL

Love, just adore, the pic of you and your grandpa.

And on Are Women Human, you said, The wit, delivery and argument are all superb: I started to mark quotable passages but gave up after the first thirty-eight. that's a rec indeed. Also made me chuckle.

June Summary

8 books
6 fiction, 2 non-fiction

Books from TBR pile: 1
Books purchased new: 6 (ouch!)
Books purchased second-hand: 1
Books received as gifts: 1 (the TBR pile book - it was a Christmas present)

1866 pages
Mean pages/book = 233
It must be time for some giant tomes: this stat is getting noticeably lower month by month at the moment:



4 books by men, 4 books by women
6 books by UK authors, 1 US and 1 Nigerian

TIOLI Challenge:
Frozen Assets (Problem in the title)
Purple Hibiscus (Book about Africa)
Psmith, Journalist (Occupation in the title)
Are Women Human? (Beginning with A)
The Man in the Picture (Second-hand)

1010 Challenge:
6 books read this month
2 Categories completed overall
28 books to go

And out my my planned reads:

Frozen Assets - PG Wodehouse COMPLETED!
Purple Hibiscus - Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie COMPLETED!
Possession - AS Byatt Still in progress, not much read this month
Are Women Human - Dorothy L Sayers COMPLETED!
The Christian Atheist - Craig Groeschel Didn't get to it
Snow Flower and the Secret Fan - Lisa See Didn't get to it
Corduroy Mansions - Alexander McCall Smith Didn't get to it
The Holly Tree Inn - Charles Dickens Still in progress, not much read this month
The Victorian Governess - Didn't get to it this month
Earth: An Intimate History - Richard Fortey Didn't read any, but have now found it again.

July Plans

Group read: Swann's Way - Marcel Proust

TIOLI
Remarkable Creatures - Tracy Chevalier (978 0007 178384)
Soul Music - Terry Pratchett (978 0552 140294)
Minaret - Leila Aboulela (Orange Longlist 2006)
Wolf Hall - Hilary Mantel (978 0007 2302004; Orange shortlist 2010)
Alias Grace - Margaret Atwood (Orange shortlist 1997)
The Help - Kathryn Stockett (Orange Longlist 2010)
The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon (Book about books)
Their Eyes Were Watching God - Zora Neale Hurston (Body part)
The Man who was Thursday - GK Chesterton (Day/Night)
Dark Night of the Soul - St John of the Cross (Day/Night)
The Miracle at Speedy Motors - Alexander McCall Smith (PI)
Swan Song - Edmund Crispin (Alliterative Title)
The End of Mr Y - Scarlett Thomas (Book about books)

That's more than I'll be able to get to, and there are another 21 books that I'd love to read ASAP which fit the TIOLI challenge, so I expect to do a lot of switching around this month.

A package from Amazon which included The Lacuna and Night Train to Lisbon arrived this morning (hooray!) , so I might try to work those in.

Ongoing:
Possession - will probably give up on this and try again another time, but might give it one more go
The Crimson Petal and the White - ditto
Encounters with God - Sister Wendy Beckett - might get to it
The Victorian Governess - might get to it
The Earth: An Intimate History - Richard Fortey - might get to it
The Holly Tree Inn - This is an ER book, so I do need to finish it.

>106 suslyn: Thanks, Susan!

To use the venacular: GF you are just too organized. I actually keep these same kindsa lists in a spreadsheet, but don't have the guts to open myself to so much embarrassment about all the ones that I just can't seem to get to because I keep getting new ones to add to the list.

>110 tututhefirst: Part of me is hoping that posting this stuff will actually make me read the stuff I intended to read, and part of me has reached the point where I'm beyond being embarrassed about my expanding TBR pile and my failure to complete books and I'm just determined to brazen it out.

111: I totally feel your pain, but you have some great books listed. I may have to go seek out this Proust group read...I would need lots of motivation to get through him, but have always wanted to do so.

(By the way, I hope you do get to Shadow of the Wind. It's awesome!)

104 - My recollection is I read the entire book, though the two essays on men's & women's roles were the funniest by far. The rest of it is kind of vauge in my mind.

Ohh! I love all the stats, and the graph! :) I always wait until the end of the year, but you're making me want to keep track of monthly stats too...

It must be time for some giant tomes: this stat is getting noticeably lower month by month at the moment:

Ah, yea...I cheat I think. I get thrillers/easy reads in paperback that are 375-400 pages but read like 250 pagers. :P

#112 Re the Proust - go for it! And re. The Shadow of the Wind - I'm determined to get to it, because so many people said how good it is. Trouble is, they say that about lots of the others, too.

#113 Ah. That probably explains why those essays have been republished recently and the rest haven't.

#114 Thanks, Stephen. And that's not cheating: it's tactics.

I love the June summary and the July plans. I've not been recording details like number of pages read, or average pages/book - that's another angle to consider! I hope that posting the plans with such openness has the desired effect of encouraging you in the planned reading.

When does your TBR pile officially stop and become newly acquired books instead? Is TBR anything acquired before 2010, or do more recent acquisitions count also?

Well, it was supposed to be 'before 2010', but at the moment the criterion is three months. Ideally, I'd prefer it to be six months, but setting it at three will depress me less.

I was aiming for 50% from the TBR, but at the moment I'll be happy if I can keep it over 25%.

#117 Hmm, I've been buying/mooching books at such an accelerated rate this year since being active on LT that I think I am probably under 25% myself of older TBR books read. Dare I work it out?

#107 Nice summary and plans! It feels like I'm reading lots of my older books but when I look back at each month I have only read 1 or 2! Mind you, even if I'm reading books I bought this year that's reducing next year's TBR pile right?

That's a brilliant theory, Heather. I'm surprised by how many of my recent acquisitions I've read - 66 of the books I've read this year were acquired this year, though more than half of those are review books so reading them was a condition of acquisition.

I too am ready Lisa See's book. The culture is soooo dissimilar and the material, for me at least, so emotionally packed that I can only handle very small doses. However, I think it is fascinating and really well done. In otherwords, I enjoy the bits and pieces I'm reading even though I can't keep going for very long. :)

#118 It might be safer not to.

#119 Right!

#120 Review books definitely shouldn't count in the equation, since they really should be read quickly. (*blows dust off April ER book and vows to get back to it quickly*)

#121 I still haven't got to that one yet, but since I failed to get to it in June it's stayed right at the top of the TBR. Any day now...

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

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

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

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

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

#123: That one sounds interesting. Thanks for the recommendation, Caty. I checked and the local college library has it.

80. The End of Mr. Y - Scarlett Thomas

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

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

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

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

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

Edited slightly for clarity

#125: Hmm. I have that one in the BlackHole. Perhaps I shall just take it right back out again . . . Not that my local library has the book any way :)

#126 Stasia, I don't think it's the kind of thing to rush to get hold of, or make any special effort to find, or lay out money for - but I don't think it's so bad that I'd recommend taking it out of the Black Hole completely. I'd put it in the 'one to consider trying if you happen across a copy' category.

#127: OK, thanks Caty.

#123 - I'm glad you enjoyed Alone of All Her Sex. I did too, when I read it probably 20 years ago - as a medievalist but not a Roman Catholic I too found it an informative, thorough and balanced exploration of what Mary has meant and why she has been/is important. When a few years later I was doing a paper on Christian Feminism as part of my theology degree, we had to write an essay on "Is the Virgin Mary a suitable role model for women?" and I certainly found Warner helpful in addressing that question.

Hmm, without the discipline of studying for a degree, I'm no longer making myself read interesting books like this which would actually provide much stimulation, even sometimes inspiration. I think I should use this group to give myself more of a challenge to read my theology/history TBR pile. I do in fact have a 'books off the shelf' thread, in which I said I would read one theology book per month - but I have yet to complete one book in about four months (apart from one short grove booklet).

Caty---thanks for the review of Alone of All her Sex. I always try to include some 'feminist' reading in my annual Lenten pile, and this one sounds fascinating. I like that you think it is balanced, because i find myself dropping anything that sounds "preach-y" no matter which side of an argument it propounds. I've a shelf full of thelogical/religion subject books (in fact I decided to make them a collection). My kids call it the "God" shelf. I helps keep me grounded just knowing they're there, even if I never get to read all of them. In fact, I think about 40% of them have bookmarks at about the 1/2 point-either I'd read enough to get the point, they weren't interesting enough, or I couldn't handle the proselytizing.

Alone of All Her Sex sounds very interesting... I've added it to my neverending wishlist.

#129 That's a very interesting essay title, and I think one of the good things about the book is that Warner does consider both the 'theoretical' history and theology and that kind of applied aspect too.

#130 You're welcome. I think (hope!) you'll probably get quite a bit out of reading this one.

#131 I hope you enjoy it when (if?) you get to it!

81. Soul Music - Terry Pratchett

Genre: Fantasy
Published: 1994
Pages: 380
Acquired: Birthday present
Why I read it now: Part of my ongoing attempt to complete the whole Discworld series

Rating: 4/5

From the back cover:

Other children get given xylophones. Susan just had to ask her grandfather to take his vest off.

Yes. There's a Death in the family.

It's hard to grow up normally when Grandfather rides a white horse and wields a scythe - especially when you have to take over the family business, and everyone mistakes you for the Tooth Fairy.

And especially when you have to face the new and addictive music that has entered Discworld.

It's lawless. It changes people. It's called Music with Rocks In. it's got a beat and you can dance to it, but... It's alive. And it won't fade away.

Comments: I wasn't as taken with this one as I was with some of Terry Pratchett's other books, or with the new/peripheral characters, but the regulars are on good form, there are some excellent puns and one-liners, and the story zips along pretty quickly. Having typed up the text from the cover, I'm wondering whether my attention drifted, because I don't remember anyone mistaking Susan for the Tooth Fairy. Fairy godmother, yes. Tooth fairy, no.

Current TBR:non-TBR ratio = 21:60

Caty I very much enjoyed your review of The End of Mr Y - sounds like we had a similar response to it - but you sum it up much better than I did! A thumb from me anyway... While I was reading, I couldn't help wondering if Scarlett Thomas was using Ariel to work out some of her own issues...

#134 Thanks, Fliss. That's an interesting thought. Either Thomas was working out some of her own issues and did a very good job of deconstructing them and working them into a character, or she put together a remarkably complex character from scratch. Either way, I think Ariel is one of the stronger parts of the book.

I agree, but wasn't she unpleasant? ;o)

Not so much unpleasant as in need of the services of a good psychiatrist, I thought.

Alone of All Her Sex: the Myth and Cult of the Virgin Mary sounds interesting and my local library has it;)

#138 Hope you enjoy it.

I was *supposed* to be studying this afternoon, but I kind of ... wasn't.

Oops.

I pulled some books off the shelf to put aside for the charity shop ... and had to re-shelve some others ... and had The Uncommon Reader in my hand ... and kind of, um, re-read it while in the process of re-shelving it.

Did I say 'oops' already?

Sigh.

If they awarded degrees in procrastination, I'd be well up near the top of the class.

So...

82. The Uncommon Reader - Alan Bennett

Still as funny as it was when I read it 18 months ago. And it counts for the TIOLI challenge. And it only took an hour, so I still had time to study. Eventually.

139 If they awarded degrees in procrastination, I'd be well up near the top of the class. Well I'd definitely merit a doctorate! Glad your procrastination was entertaining, and that you eventually got some study done too...

Nice to see a re-read within 18 months :) I feel validated LOL

#139: LOL! That sounds so like me :)

#125 The End of Mr Y was definitely the weirdest and most unpleasant of all the Scarlett Thomas' books I've read. Her latest book (Our Tragic Universe) has a similar autobiographical feel to the heroine although she seems much nicer than April.

#139 Chuckle - I should probably read The Uncommon Reader then!

Oh, Caty, that for me is the best thing about my recent retirement. After years of procrastinating until the last minute to work on my reports (as a school psychologist, I loved working with kids, both counseling and assessment, because the latter was like being a mental detective. But after each of those assessments, I needed to produce a report for the IEP meeting ON A TIMELINE, which meant I was working late at home the night before), I no longer have to meet anyone else's timeline. How lovely! Someday you will be there too.

Roni....I agree about the freedom from schedules being one of the better parts of retirement. If I want to stay up until 3AM reading, and then sleep until noon, noone is beating down my door (well the cats are usually making known their need to be fed). If I want to eat icecream for breakfast and omelets for dinner....who cares? It's wonderful. I'm also blessed to have a spouse who has the same loose attitude toward schedules. So Caty, hang in there....retirement is fun and something to look forward to.

#145: I do all that stuff already, lol.

Maybe I am retired and just do not know it yet! (oh, yeah, that 40 hours a week I work says no I am not)

#143 I don't know, I had very little patience with Ariel or Meg ;o)

Retirement? That'll be in about 35 years, then. I refuse to think far ahead.

Most of the time I absolutely *love* the studying that I'm doing, but somehow I still find myself putting it off.

I am something of a night owl, so if I don't have to be up early in the morning I generally sleep from about 2-3am to about 10am. The trouble comes when I've been doing that for several days and can't get to sleep before 2 - and then I have to get up at 7. I'm half asleep until the third cup of coffee kicks in at about lunchtime.

Let us all have a moment of silence in respect for the humble but absolutely necessary cup of coffee. I know I could never become a total regionarian (or whatever they call people who only eat food that is grown/produced within 100 miles of where you live) because coffee doesn't grow here. So Caty, just keep drinking that coffee, and ignore all the studies -- you'll live to a ripe old age like Tutu who still consumes 4-6 cups a day.

You guys can have a moment of silence for coffee - I am saving mine for tea :) I cannot abide coffee.

Me, too, Stasia. I like it very strong and thoroughly iced. No sugar or lemon, please.

Caty, here's another night-owl/procrastinator to say that I wish I could tell you something that would be the magic key to fitting in with the rest of the world. Sadly, though, I can't. I remember one job I had that was introducing flex-time - where we each got to set our own start and stop times. I proposed working 10-7, so that I would be in the office at the same time as the Corporate Headquarters, 2 time zones west of here. They said no. The biggest downside to being self-employed now is that I must provide my own motivation to get tasks completed on deadline. Like you, I love my work, but I find it hard to sit down and get started on it. I don't think it's very nice of Tutu to flaunt her retirement in our faces, do you? ;-)

Speaking of putting off getting started on work...

#151 When I worked from home with no fixed hours and regular evening meetings, I usually worked afternoons and evenings. On the whole it worked really well for me - although let's just say it was not unusual for me to arrive at the 9am Monday morning staff meetings at 9.05 with wet hair clipped back and not having had any breakfast... Sigh. I had an understanding boss, but I must have tried his patience.

Anyway...

Another short read.

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

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

Rating: 4

Comments: Very nice.

Current TBR:non-TBR ratio = 22:61

Edited for typo. Why do I never see these things straight away? And why can't I just let them be?

Just caught up with your thread. I love the format of your book posts!

There's some interesting reading here. I may take a look at Alone of All Her Sex; I too am interested because you say the book is balanced and critical in the best sense of the word.

#153 Thanks. If you do read the Warner book, I hope you enjoy it.

84. Murder with Peacocks - Donna Andrews

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

Rating: 4/5

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

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

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

Current TBR:non-TBR ratio = 22:62

Edited to re-number

#155: I am glad you liked that one, Caty! I find Andrews' books great fun.

Yes, I can't remember who first recommended them to me, but that one was fun.

Meanwhile I'm chuckling at a phishing email I had just received, purporting to come from a bank (and one I do not bank with). As I deleted it, I noticed that the sender's address was showing as suspiciousemails@... . Talk about brazen.

Oh brother!

85. Swan Song - Edmund Crispin

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

Rating: 4.5/5

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

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

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

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

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

Current TBR:non-TBR ratio = 23:62

edited to re-number

#159: I have only read one of Crispin's books but keep meaning to read more. I will have to look for that one! Thanks for the recommendation, Caty.

You're welcome, Stasia.

I am procrastinating again, although this time it is the Proms concert on BBC4 and some Ben & Jerry's chocolate brownie ice cream keeping me from my essay. I am a bad person.

Love Crispin. He seems to be a Love Him or Hate Him type of author around here, though.

#161: Procrastinating does not make you a bad person! Eating Ben & Jerry's chocolate brownie ice cream does though :)

#163 Stasia, I disagree. Eating Ben & Jerry's chocolate brownie ice cream doesn't make you a bad person, but eating too much of it will make you a BIG person! Sounds delicious.

#159 Glad you enjoyed that one. I read Buried for Pleasure by Crispin earlier this year and thought it was ok but I have The Moving Toyshop in my TBR pile so I am going to see if I enjoy that one more.

#161 Sounds good to me!

Hi CatyM! Can't believe this is my first visit to your newer thread, but you were right on top of my first 5 threads this morning soooooo here I am! Lucky me! I like your month end graphs, is there a simple way to add that to a thread, if it's complicated, I don't need to know. I like that you add your course books occasionaly too. Now I'll go back up to the top and add a view to the ole wishlist. Have a great week!

#162 Hi Tad. Thanks for dropping by.

#163/164 The ice cream is all gone now, so problem is over. The tub lasted nearly a week, which I think is evidence of great restraint on my part.

#165 I've not read Buried for Pleasure yet, although I have a copy in the TBR. I wasn't keen on The Moving Toyshop when I read it, although I'm planning to give it another go. Holy Disorders has been my favourite so far.

#166 It depends what you mean by complicated! I have an Excel spreadsheet set up to work these things out and make charts, so all I have to do is save the chart as an image and upload it the same as any other picture. Setting up the spreadsheet in the first place wasn't a quick job, though.

#159, 168 I've not read any Edmund Crispin - Swan Song sounds fun, and although I hadn't heard of Mrs Bradley (there's yet another series) I was amused to see the reference to Campion there.

Perhaps I'll add that and Holy Disorders to the wishlist...

Great restraint indeed for a tub of ice cream to last nearly a week!

#169 I think you'll like Edmund Crispin, Genny. I hope you do!

In the last few days, I have tried either to start or to make progress through Possession, The Lacuna, A Guide to the Birds of East Africa, Perrault's Fairy Tales, La Dame aux Caméllias and The Breeze of the Centuries - and failed to get through more than a handful of pages on each and every attempt. :(

I even tried a fluff romance that was lying around, but gave up on that too because it was dull, egregious tripe with a completely implausible plot and annoying characters. I was actually relieved that I wanted to throw it out the window, because it made a change from the complete lack of interest in any other book.

#161 mmmmmm Ben & Jerry's Chocolate Fudge Brownie ice cream.... I was at their Summer Sundae Festival on Sunday - free ice cream - yay!

#167 "The tub lasted nearly a week, which I think is evidence of great restraint on my part. " - definitely! ;o)

#170 Oh no, sounds like a bad book funk! I hate those :-(

Just dropping by to say Hi...

I have an Edmund Crispin here on the overstuffed shelves - I'm actually very excited to try his writing, but other books seem to keep pushing ahead!

#171 Free ice cream? I am very jealous!

172. Me, too. But I've made it to the end of a book now, so hopefully this funk won't be a bad one.

#173 Hi Angela. I hope you enjoy Crispin when you do finally get to him!

We have progress.

I made it to the end of a book.

86. A Guide to the Birds of East Africa - Nicholas Drayson

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

Rating: 4/5

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

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

Current TBR:non-TBR ratio = 23:63

Nooooo!

I just wandered over to Amazon to look up the release date of a DVD. What did I see?

Books Summer Sale 65% off.

I have only ordered five.

Five is restrained, isn't it? Please tell me five is restrained.

Yes Caty, five is restrained (hmmmm).

#174 Strangely, I never seem to take full advantage of the free ice cream when I go to their festival. Maybe it's to do with the queues...

Thank you for humouring me, fliss!

And continuing the unintentional ornithological theme...

87. Murder with Puffins - Donna Andrews

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

Rating: 3.5/5

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

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

Current TBR:non-TBR ratio = 23:64

#175 Hooray for the end of the book funk! Glad you enjoyed that one.

#176 Worse, when I went to the Amazon website (I was just going to have a look you understand) I saw their big advert for the new Kindle 3 which is only £109 if you go for the non-3G version. I'd been successfully persuading myself that I didn't want an e-reader but now I dooooo!

So, what were the books?

>179 souloftherose:. Argh, you just had to tell us that, didn't you? My finger's hovering over the buy button for the Kindle, and so I blame you if my bank account suddenly dips £109 tonight! :D

Glad to see you out of your book funk, Caty!

I haven't tried Donna Andrews yet, and I really want to. The series looks like fun!

#179/181 I'm glad it's over, too. :) Even just that single week when I couldn't get into any books at all was annoying.

£109? That's pretty impressive! Fortunately (for my bank account at least) I have yet to succumb to the lure of the ereader, and I'm sticking with my dead tree books. If it gets down into two figures it might be tempting, though. All those free public domain classics...

#182 It definitely is fun! Zippy and entertaining, even if there's not necessarily much substance to the plot.

Heather, the five I ordered were:

Women of the Silk - Gail Tsukiyama (which I spotted in a charity shop and liked the look of, but didn't buy because it wasn't in great condition and then regretted it afterwards)
The Boy Next Door - Irene Sabbatini (which everyone around here seems to have been reading)
Mr Rosenblum's List - Natasha Solomons (which someone in the group read and reviewed recently, but I can't remember who)
The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie - Alan Bradley (which is another one that every one else seems to have read)
Let the Northern Lights Erase Your Name - Vendela Vita (which caught my eye when Richard recommended it to Darryl the other day)

Total cost: £24.06. Let the Northern Lights was 'only' 38% off, but all the others were half price.

And not two minutes after I posted that list, there was a knock at the door... and now I have all five books in my hot little hands! Hurray!

#184/185: Nice haul, Caty!

Mr. Rosenblum's List was recently read by Ceri (cerievans).

Thanks, Stasia! I normally jot who recommended books I'm interested in, but I overlooked that one.

*heads off to add a note to her catalogue before she forgets again*

No problem!

Nice haul indeed! I'd just seen the title Let the Northern Lights Erase Your Name on someone else's profile too. Wonderful title. I'll investigate that one further.

I'm *not* going to look at Amazon's sale. I'm *not* going to look at Amazon's sale. I'm *not* going to look at Amazon's sale....

Trying not to spoil a month of being quite restrained in terms of purchasing new books - that restraint was only possible because at least 10 new-to-me books have arrived via Bookmooch to distract me!

That's the spirit, Genny! Stand firm in the face of temptation. (In another couple of days, it'll be a new month and you'll be able to toast your restraint with a couple of celebratory book purchases.)

#184 Nice haul!

#189 It looks like the Amazon sale might have finished Genny so you might be safe! Not sure if that's good news or not...

Okay, time for a July Summary:

Total books: 9
Books from TBR pile: 3

Total pages: 2443
Total pages for 2010: 24,099
Mean pages/book = 271 (mean for the year = 277)

Mean rating: 4 (mean for the year = 3.79)

Books by male authors: 3
Books by female authors:6 (5 different authors)
(Year so far: 39 books by male authors, 48 by female)

Author nationality:
UK: 7
US: 2

Genres:
Christianity/Church history: 1
Crime: 3
Fantasy: 2
Humour: 1
General Fiction: 1
Poetry: 1

July planned and completed:

Swann's Way - Marcel Proust (group read) - making some slow progress, but way behind schedule

TIOLI:
13 possibles identified, of which three completed:
Soul Music - Terry Pratchett
The End of Mr Y - Scarlett Thomas
Swan Song - Edmund Crispin
Two more read:
The Uncommon Reader - Alan Bennett
A Guide to the Birds of East Africa - Nicholas Drayson

Ongoing from June:
Possession - AS Byatt - had another go but still not making much progress
The Crimson Petal and the White - Michael Faber - haven't touched it this month
Encounters with God - Sister Wendy Beckett - read another couple of pages
The Victorian Governess - Hathryn Hughes - haven't touched it this month
The Earth: An Intimate History - Richard Fortey - haven't touched it this month
The Holly Tree Inn - Charles Dickens - made some progress but really, *really* need to get on with it

Added to which, I'm now also reading:
The Lacuna - Barbara Kingsolver (making good progress)
La Dame aux Camélias - Alexandre Dumas fils (making slow progress)
The Complete Fairy Tales - Charles Perrault (finished the introduction but not started the stories)

And for August Plans

1. Swann's Way - Marcel Proust - hopefully complete, but at least make progress
2. The Holly Tree Inn - Charles Dickens - Complete and review ASAP
3. The Earth: An Intimate History - Richard Fortey - hopefully complete, but at least make progress
4. The Lacuna - Barbara Kingsolver - complete

TIOLI
5. Daughter of Fortune - Isabel Allende
6. My Name is Red - Orhan Pamuk
7. The Last Continent - Terry Pratchett
8. Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
9. The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
10. Snow Flower and the Secret Fan - Lisa See
11. Arctic Chill - Arnaldur Indriðason
12. Her Royal Spyness - Rhys Bowen
13. Revelation - CJ Sansom
14. La Dame aux Camélias - Alexandre Dumas fils
15. Hard Times - Charles Dickens
16. Krakatoa: The Day the World Exploded - Simon Winchester

I don't really expect to get through more than about half of them, but we shall see. I definitely want to get through some non-UK/US books.

Nice summary as usual, Caty. I hope your August plans work out for you!

#194 Well, I've made a decent start!

88. Her Royal Spyness - Rhys Bowen

Genre: Cosy Mystery
Published: 2007
Pages: 324
Acquired: Charity shop, April 2010
Why I read it now: TIOLI challenge - historical mystery

Rating: 2.5/5

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

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

Current TBR:non-TBR ratio = 24:64

#195: Sorry your month is not off to a better start for you! Hopefully your next read will be more to your liking.

#190 "That's the spirit, Genny! Stand firm in the face of temptation. (In another couple of days, it'll be a new month and you'll be able to toast your restraint with a couple of celebratory book purchases.)" - that's just pure evil! ;o)

#196 Thanks, Stasia

#197 *Sniggers like Muttley*

I like the way you set reading goals. I should really try to do that and see if it helps.

Up to this point, the only reading goals I have is to keep up with the group reads I'm in, and review ER books in a somewhat timely manner!

The group read and ER book are the things I'm having most trouble with at the moment, and the main reason I'm setting monthly targets. I could never stick to a detailed schedule.

If you try it, Angela, I hope it helps you.

#190, 197 - Evil indeed! But I think the toasting of my restraint with new purchases will wait until the end of this month - I'll be out of reach of affordable books while on holiday for a fortnight, but over the bank holiday weekend I'll be attending a festival with lots of interesting speakers and a big booktent, and I usually end up buying copies of books by the speakers I've heard if they were good, and also by the ones I missed so I can catch up on what they were saying.

#192,193 I do like your summaries and plans - I would like to do something similar, but I'm too busy trying to get ready for holiday and tie up loose ends of work. But I will need to plan August to the extent of deciding what books to take on holiday at least.

Aaarh, plans and reading-lists... they keep me busy, only to find ways to get around them :-). I always keep my eyes on the book that pops up behind the one I was meant to be reading, so in the end, I'll have read them all but the next one... Hm, does this make sense?
Btw, I'm always enjoying your thread, Caty.

#201 I hope you enjoy the holiday and the festival, Genny. Greenbelt?

#202 It makes sense. :) And thanks.

#203 - Yes, Greenbelt. Looking forward to it. That's after I get back from the main holiday, and spend a week back at work catching up. I then head off again down to Cheltenham race course, catching up with a few friends and relatives on the way down and back.

Have you ever been to Greenbelt?/Are you going?

I've never been, and I'm not going this year, but I'd like to go. I keep thinking 'maybe next year...'

I'm feeling very competent and virtuous for finishing another planned read, although now that I've abandoned The Lacuna for three days I'm worrying that I'll have trouble picking it up again.

89. The Last Continent - Terry Pratchett

Genre: Fantasy
Published: 1998
Pages: 412
Acquired: Birthday present, this spring
Why I read it now: TIOLI challenge/trying to complete Discworld series

Rating: 3.5/5

Plot in one sentence: When the wizards climb through a window into another dimension (the one where creation is happening) and accidentally close the window behind them, and Rincewind gets stranded in drought-stricken FourEcks, all sorts of chaos ensues.

Comments: Not my favourite Discworld book, and didn't seem to be saying as much as some of the others, but nonetheless passably entertaining and readable.

Current TBR:non-TBR ratio = 24:65

#205 I think you'd enjoy it. Great diversity of talks, music, drama, fairtrade stalls etc. If you do next year, perhaps we can meet up - I go most years.

#207 I'll remember that.


I'm not counting this one, but I'll make a note of it: Dead Until Dark - Charlaine Harris. I gave it 70 pages, and flipped through a fair bit of the rest, but it comes in somewhere between meh and ewww. I can't even muster up enough effort to discover who the killer is. 1.5/5 and a DNF. Sorry, Sookie Stackhouse fans.

Hi - just dropping by your thread. You've got a lot going on! I've snaffled Cheerful Weather for the Wedding for my wishlist.

Hi Kirsty! Hope you enjoy Cheerful weather. :)

Found you; starred you!

Hi Peggy! Nice to see you. :)

Caty, I'm not sure how I lost your post, but I have you starred now.

I did the exact same thing with Dead Until Dark. Definitely not my cup of tea. I am about halfway thru Her Royal Spyness and there is no mystery yet, just a lot of backstory. I am not caring much for most of the characters.

Hi, Darryl. *waves*

Hi, chinquapin. I'll be interested to hear what you think of Her Royal Spyness after you reach the end.

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

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

Rating: 3½ out of 5

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

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

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

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

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

Current TBR:non-TBR ratio = 24:66

#216: I am going to read that one this month too. I am glad you enjoyed it, Caty.

Agree with you about Flavia (#90)-I just had a hard time with that little brat, and I don't know who you even got 50 pages read of Sookie---those are definitely not for me. Nice to find a kindred spirit.

#217 I'll look forward to hearing what you think of it, Stasia.

#218 I was willing to give Charlaine Harris a fair try because of quite a few positive recommendations, especially after a couple of "they're my guilty pleasure" recommendations from people who read lots of classics and literary fiction. Just couldn't stick it, though.

Having had several books on the go simultaneously for the last week, I'm now about three-quarters of the way through The Lacuna. I read about 200 pages in one sitting this afternoon, and now I think I'll be sticking exclusively with it until it's done.

#219: The Lacuna is terrific! I hope you continue to enjoy it, Caty.

Caty
I had the same type of reaction as you did regarding Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie

I'm catching up on your thread once again and agree with your sentiments on the Sookie Stackhouse book. I only got about 20 pages down before giving up.
I read The Lacuna last week for Orange July and ended up loving it, though I found it easy to put down and walk away from through the first half. Hope it turens out to be a good read for you too.

#220 Thanks: it's looking good so far. :)

#221 That's good to know: different opinions about books are good, but so is knowing that you haven't imagined or missed things!

#222 I found it easier to put down at the beginning, too, although I did enjoy it. I'm a lot more wrapped up in it now that I'm further through, though, and on present evidence I'll end up by loving it.

Everyone else seems to be doing this quiz again, so I might as well. Using this year's reads so far...

Describe yourself: The Uncommon Reader
How do you feel? Out of Control
Describe where you currently live: The House at Pooh Corner
If you could go anywhere...? The Last Continent
Favourite form of transportation: As She Climbed Across the Table
Best friend is: Eric
You and your friends are: Wyrd Sisters
What's the weather like…? Cheerful Weather for the Wedding
You fear: The Tiger in the Smoke
Best advice: How to be a Bad Birdwatcher
Thought for the day: Are Women Human?
How I would like to die: Tulip Fever
My soul's present condition: Friday Dreaming

"Favourite form of transportation: As She Climbed Across the Table" ;o)

That was one of the tricky ones to answer.

It's probably a bad sign that I was looking at some of my TBR stack thinking, 'that would make a good answer to the question - I could read that soon and then use it to re-do the quiz at the end of the year'.

Night Train to Lisbon, Bricks and Mortar, Independent People...

And since I've done that quiz, I might as well do this one too:

Do you snack while you read? If so, favourite reading snack?
No, I don't - but I do sometimes read while I'm eating meals.

What is your favourite drink while reading?
I don't have a particular favourite, but if I'm drinking anything it's most probably water (possibly flavoured or with squash) or coffee (milk, no sugar).

Do you tend to mark your books as you read, or does the idea of writing in books horrify you?
If I'm studying something, and it's my book, I tend to highlight liberally and make lots of marginal notes. If it's a library book, I'll make copious notes and wish it was my book so I could just highlight the passage. I still have all my university textbooks, because they're so heavily marked and annotated they are unsaleable, and I can't bring myself to throw them away. (Plus, you never know when they might come in useful…)

If I'm reading for pleasure, I'm unlikely to mark the book, but that's because I don't feel the need to do so rather than because I object to marking the book.

How do you keep your place while reading a book? Bookmark? Dog-ear? Laying the book flat open?
I never dog-ear. I often lay books flat open, but I also use bookmarks - which I do depends on whether I have a bookmark (or paper scrap, or pen, or other appropriate bookmark-substitute) handy, and when I expect to pick the book back up.

Fiction, non-fiction or Both?
Both. But mostly fiction.

Are you a person who tends to read to the end of a chapter, or can you stop anywhere?
I can stop anywhere, but I often do read to the end of the chapter. (Or, more accurately, I often intend to read to the end of the chapter, realised a while later that I've passed it, and read to the end of the next chapter. Or possibly the chapter after that…)

Are you the type of person to throw a book across the room or on the floor if the author irritates you?
It has been known. Rarely, but it has been known.

If you come across an unfamiliar word, do you stop and look it up right away?
It depends what I'm reading. If I'm studying or can't get the gist from the context, and assuming I have a dictionary handy, I stop and look it up. If I don't have a dictionary handy (rare - there's always one around at home) then I make a mental note to look it up later, and then usually forget.

What are you currently reading?
I tend to have lots of books on the go at a time - 15 at the moment - so let's go for 'actively reading': books I'm currently in the middle of AND have been reading within the last week or two. The Lacuna by Barbara Kingsolver and La Dame aux Camélias by Alexandre Dumas fils. I'm reading the Dumas in French to brush up my much-neglected French language skills, so it's slow going.

I'm supposed to be reading Swann's Way as well, but (guilty confession time) I haven't picked it up at all this month.

What is the last book you bought?
I can't remember without looking it up which is technically the most recent, but in the last few days I have bought, ordered or requested via BookMooch:
In this House of Brede - Rumer Godden - thanks to a gift voucher from a wonderful LT friend; it should drop through my letterbox in about 10 days' time
Snow Falling on Cedars - David Guterson - via BookMooch; arrived today
Reflections on the Name of the Rose - Umberto Eco - via BookMooch; still to come
Victoria in the Wings and The Captive of Kensington Palace - Jean Plaidy - charity shop
Walden - Thoreau - charity shop
A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry - charity shop

Are you the type of person that reads one book at a time, or can you read more than one?
Since I've already admitted to being in the middle of 15 books, I think the answer to this one is obvious. But I'm not actually that good at keeping up with lots of books at once, and some of those 15 haven't been opened in three or four months. I do, however, usually have two or three active reads in progress, as well as several that I am dipping into or have put on hold for a few weeks.

Do you have a favourite time/place to read?
I can and do read almost anywhere and at any time, but my favourite time to read is snuggled up in bed late at night.

Do you prefer series books or stand-alones?
I like to read a mixture of the two, although stand-alones predominate. Sometimes I want to revisit old friends, other times I want something new. These days, when I do read series I'm quite picky about which ones: I don't want series to continue for the sake of continuing the series.

I like Alexander McCall Smith's various series, and Terry Pratchett's Discworld books, but mostly if I read series they tend to be trilogies and short series, and loosely connected series that don't have to be read in order. I like books that make sense as stand-alones even if they are part of a series. I have, however, recently started (or am intending to start) several mystery series: I blame the 75ers who keep making them sound so good.

Is there a specific book or author you find yourself recommending over and over?
Terry Pratchett, Georgette Heyer and Dorothy L. Sayers. A Thousand Splendid Suns. Barchester Towers. Richard Fortey and Barbara Pym. 84, Charing Cross Road. Arthur and George. Middlesex. Evelyn Waugh. The Archivist's Story. Will that do for now?

How do you organize your books? (by genre, title, author's last name etc)?
In theory like this:
Firstly by genre - bookcases for fiction, theology, history/archaeology, miscellaneous.
Fiction bookcases: by genre (classics, crime, romance, humour, historical fiction, fantasy/sci-fi and general) then alphabetically
Theology bookcase: by theme/subject
History bookcase: by historical period from human evolution and prehistory through classical and medieval to reformation/renaissance, early modern, modern and twentieth century, then by geographical area and/or theme (religious, political, social history) as necessary
Miscellaneous bookcase: by subject (science, biography, reference, foreign languages, overflow history, overflow theology, music, other)

In practice, however will enable me to get the most books on a shelf. At a bookcase level, as above; beyond that, things are getting very jumbled.

And anything acquired in the last six months: if bought new, on top of the bookcase; if second-hand, piled on the floor next to the bookcase.

224: Love it! :)

Hi Stephen!

Hello! Don't mind me, I'm just tiptoeing through and trying not to break anything. ;)

Loved your answer to the question about recommended books. I plan to read (or have read) almost all of the works you mention!
whines..."I wanna read what Caty reads!!!" :D

*Glances around for breakables and whisks a photo frame onto a higher shelf*

We'll risk the coffee mugs. I'm not the china ornament type, so there's not much around to damage.

Angela, now I'm curious about which you're not interested in. I hope you enjoy the ones you do read. (Please don't blame me if you don't! ;) )

Finally got this one finished:

91. The Lacuna - Barbara Kingsolver

Genre: Historical Fiction
Published: 2009
Pages: 670
Acquired: June 2010 via Amazon
Why I read it now: Left over from July TIOLI

Rating: 5/5

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

Current TBR:non-TBR ratio = 24:67

#233: I am glad you enjoyed that one, Caty. So did I!

232...okay...here goes...

I love Dorothy Sayers and plan to read the rest of her books...I plan to read Heyer. I plan to read Barchester Towers. I love Barbara Pym and plan to read the rest of her books. I definitely will read 84 Charing Cross Road. I might try Evelyn Waugh at some point.

Not sure if Pratchett is for me. I witnessed Stasia's attempts at Pratchett and I suspect that I will react the same way. I haven't given much thought to Arthur and George, Middlesex, and The Archivist's Story.

I appreciate any guidance you have to offer. :)

Angela, I think you might like Arthur and George, which a fictionalised account of Arthur Conan Doyle's real-life attempt to solve a mystery. It's very focused on the characters and I thought it was very well written. If you were to try Waugh, then I think Brideshead Revisited might be the place to start.

I think you will enjoy Heyer; good ones to start with might be Frederica, Venetia, The Talisman Ring, The Reluctant Widow or Cotillion. I think you will like Barchester Towers, too. It might be worth reading The Warden first: it's not necessary, but it does set the scene (and it is quite short). I am very confident you will love 84 Charing Cross Road!

I suspect that Middlesex and The Archivist's story might not be your cup of tea. I have given up trying to gauge whether particular people might like Pratchett - his writing is quite distinctive and whether people like it seems to depend quite a lot on whether his style and humour chime with theirs.

I'm glad that you also enjoyed The Lacuna, Caty. I'll get to my review of it in the next few days.

#237 I shall look forward to reading your review, Darryl. I confess that I wimped out of writing a proper review for that one because I just couldn't come up with anything to say that I felt accurately conveyed what they book was like or how much I got caught up in it.

It was still filling my mind this morning - leading to a rather irate driver behind me leaning on his horn when I drifted off to thinking about it and didn't notice the traffic light had turned green.

Well, next up was going to be Cloud Atlas, but I went on just a tiny spree in Waterstones today. I wandered in for a bit of book-buying therapy to offset the huge bill I was expecting from the garage for servicing my car and getting it through its MOT*: if my wallet was destined to go into shock, I was darned well going to get something interesting out of it. Fiction paperbacks were all three-for-two, so obviously I had to buy three: The Palace of Illusions, Small Island and Suite Française. I read the first three chapters of The Palace of Illusions while I was waiting for the bus to go and collect the car, and I'm quite enjoying it, so Cloud Atlas will have to wait a few days.

*The bill turned out to be twice what I was expecting. Over £500. (I blame the speed bumps: the suspension seems to be permanently knackered these days.) I almost went back to Waterstones for more book therapy on the way home...

236- *wishlist explodes*
No, seriously, I just ordered Arthur and George from paperbackswap. It sounds so good! As if I really NEED more books to read right now...
AND I just checked one out of the library...sigh...

I wishlisted The Warden and Brideshead Revisited.

Thanks for the advice. Sorry to hear about your car. I can sympathize. I just had a minor accident and had to pay $500 unexpectedly for repairs. And in September I have to get the car inspected and I suspect it will need new tires and new brakes - ouch!!

#240 Ouch indeed on the tyres and brakes. Not what you want after the unexpected bill. :(

Yow! I'm really sorry about the car. We get along fine except for the unexpected.... oh dear.
I loved your answers to the questions, especially the ones from your books. I might like to die of tulip fever too!
I also agree with most of your recommendations: Terry Pratchett has never struck me as particularly funny, I'm sorry to say, and I usually love to laugh. I don't know Richard Fortey or *Archivist* so now I have two avenues for exploration. I also enjoyed most of your latest purchases except the Jean Plaidy ones which I haven't read if they are later than about 1975.
This was fun, Caty!

#242 Thanks, Peggy.

Stasia posted this Jane Austen quiz, so I thought I would try it. Sadly, there doesn't seem to be a parallel quiz for the men.

Take the Quiz here!

You are Anne Elliot of Persuasion! Let's face it; you're easily persuaded, particularly when friends and relatives try to use "the Elliot way" against you. But this doesn't mean that you don't have conviction. Actually, your sense of duty is overwhelming. And though you won't stick your neck out too often, you have learned to speak up when it counts. To boot, you know how to handle sticky situations. You love deeply and constantly.

Since Persuasion is my favourite Jane Austen novel, I am not displeased by this. From the questions, I think it was probably pretty close between this result and Elinor Dashwood.

#243: Glad you had fun with it, Caty!

Just took the quiz...apparently I'm Anne Elliot too! Although I think my answers touched on a little of every heroine - they were all over the place. :)

Caty, I was just like you. Most of my answers were either Anne or Elinor, and I came out as Anne as well.

#233 Glad you enjoyed The Lacuna. I bought it a few months ago and just haven't felt like picking it up for some reason.

#239 Eeek for the car bill. This was the first year my car passed its MOT without needing extra work after I took it to a different garage. I don't know if I was being taken for a ride (no pun intended) before or whether it's a coincidence or whether the new garage missed something but the car has been ok so far!

#243 Persuasion is my favourite too and Anne Elliott my favourite character! I was slightly disappointed to find out I was Elinor Dashwood rather than Anne. I wonder why we've all been Anne or Elinor so far?

It is amazing how many Annes and Elinors we've got. I did see a Catherine Morland and one of two Elizabeth Bennetts, but I can't remember who they were now. I always thought of Anne and Elinor as very 'average' women, while some of the others have very distinct personality quirks; maybe that's just because they seem normal to me, while characters like Marianne seem very over-excitable and reckless. It might explain why so many of us are Elinors and Annes, but don't think that interpretation is particularly complimentary to any of us!

Heather, you should definitely try to get to The Lacuna: it's really is excellent. (I'm glad your car passed!)

Time for a new thread, I think. Here it is.