bell7's 2010 Book List Part 4

I think this is the fastest I have ever needed a new thread. I read only thirty in that last one! Seriously, though, I love chatter whether book-related or otherwise, so pull up a chair and a cup of coffee, tea, or hot chocolate and feel free to comment.

Here are my previous threads of 2010:
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3

I'll be keeping a running tally of books and manga on the same thread, but separate counts, as well as monthly tallies of what I've read and brief commentary on favorites, number of abandoned books, etc.

Here are my threads in the challenge groups I'm participating in this year for a slightly different perspective of what I'm reading this year:
1010 Category Challenge
Dewey Decimal Challenge
Reading Globally
Books off the Shelf Challenge and
75 Picture Books

Here are the number of books read this year:

Found you again. Glad you are safe from the Thread Police!

ETA: Yes, I would bail you out, if I could get licensed in Massachusetts, that is!

Here are my notes (all the way back on thread 3 for me, lol) on the Hoover book:

49. The Man Who Loved Books Too Much by Allison Bartlett Hoover - nonfiction; I wish I could rate this book higher, but I really did not feel that it was as tightly written as it could have been - I really wished she had concentrated less on Gilkey and more on the investigations and investigators - personally, I think The Island of Lost Maps, which does not deal with books rather than maps, is better written and it deals with many of the same issues that book dealers do; guardedly recommended, for the subject matter rather than the writing style

Hi Mary, I'll be following you once again on your book journey. I love the idea of your new picture book thread. As the grandmother of four I'm always looking for new books for the kiddos!

>2 alcottacre: I agree that it could have been more tightly written. I found Gilkey fascinating, so I kind of wanted more on the psychology of what makes people do that (rather than her repetitive questions regarding the same, with no real answers). But like I mentioned, I think I was a little more forgiving of its flaws because I'd been struggling with the last book I'd been reading before I picked it up.

>3 Donna828: Hi Donna! Glad to have you along for the ride. :) I just added a bunch of updates to my picture book thread, too (see, Stasia, I really did do it over the long weekend!), though I'm not quite caught up now that I think about it...It's been fun educating myself about the wide variety of choices out there!

#4: It is not the weekend yet! Now I cannot pick on you for the next 3 days. Ruin all my fine, will you?

>5 alcottacre: Hey, it's the weekend as far as I'm concerned! I have today off for working tomorrow (to get my hours worked out right). I'm sure you can find something else to pick on me for. :P

So, I was looking over the old BBC list of 100 Books and figured it would be fun to update what I'd read. Bold is for read, italics is for started but not completed:

1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien
3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
4 Harry Potter series - JK Rowling
5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
6 The Bible
7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
8 Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell
9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
11 Little Women - Louisa M Alcott
12 Tess of the D’Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
13 Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
14 Complete Works of Shakespeare
15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien
17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulk
18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger
19 The Time Traveller’s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
20 Middlemarch - George Eliot
21 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell
22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald
23 Bleak House - Charles Dickens
24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
25 The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
26 Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame
31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
33 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis
34 Emma - Jane Austen
35 Persuasion - Jane Austen
36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe
37 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
38 Captain Corelli’s Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres
39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
40 Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne
41 Animal Farm - George Orwell
42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44 A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving
45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
46 Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery
47 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
48 The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood
49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding
50 Atonement - Ian McEwan
51 Life of Pi - Yann Martel
52 Dune - Frank Herbert
53 Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
54 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
55 A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
56 The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57 A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
58 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
60 Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
63 The Secret History - Donna Tartt
64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
65 Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
66 On The Road - Jack Kerouac
67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
68 Bridget Jones’s Diary - Helen Fielding
69 Midnight’s Children - Salman Rushdie
70 Moby Dick - Herman Melville
71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
72 Dracula - Bram Stoker
73 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett
74 Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson
75 Ulysses - James Joyce
76 The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
77 Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
78 Germinal - Emile Zola
79 Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray
80 Possession - AS Byatt.
81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
82 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
83 The Color Purple - Alice Walker
84 The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
85 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
86 A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
87 Charlotte’s Web - EB White
88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom
89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
90 The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton
91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
92 The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery
93 The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
94 Watership Down - Richard Adams
95 A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
96 A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
98 Hamlet - William Shakespeare
99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl
100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo

In April, 2009 I'd read 37.
As of November, 2009 I'd read 44.
As of today, I've read 46.

There are still a few on there I'd like to get to someday...

I like #96 myself. I really enjoy Shute as a novelist. He knows how to tell a story well. His On the Beach is one of my all-time favorites.

>8 alcottacre: What's really sad is how many of those I have in my personal library:

War and Peace by Tolstoy
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (which I can't for the life of me remember if I read as a teenager or not, but I have as part of a larger volume of The Original Illustrated Sherlock Holmes)
The Count of Monte Cristo and
Persuasion

I haven't read any books by Shute myself, I will have to look into him.

#7 That looks fun! I also haven't read any Shute so I should add him to the long wishlist.

#9 War and Peace has been on my TBR pile for over 10 years! One day I will read it... The Count of Monte Cristo and Persuasion are two of my favourites. I finished rereading The Count on holiday (still need to update on my thread) and it was just as gripping the 3rd/4th time round.

#9: I read War and Peace last year with a group read. It was not nearly as difficult as I thought it would be, so I encourage you to give it a go, Mary!

I will be doing an 'Austenothon' next year for her 6 major novels. Maybe you can join in when we get to Persuasion.

Found you and starred you...

I must say, this group has certainly helped me tackle those long 'classic' chunksters that I was afraid to start on my own. (Like Tolstoy!) And there's still so many more I want to read. I'm hoping to join the group read of Middlemarch in November.

Hi Mary

I found your new thread and want to wish you a happy weekend.

>10 souloftherose: and 11 - I'm hoping to read Persuasion by the end of this year, maybe this month, maybe not. Heck, maybe not even this year, as you can tell if you've been reading my listed books the titles I read don't always (often?) match up with my plans.

>12 BookAngel_a: Hi Angela! I would agree with you about the group helping tackle more intimidating reads. I read Crime and Punishment earlier this year with some encouragement, and it will be on my list of favorites for the year, I do believe. I'm hoping to join in on the Middlemarch group read, too. (I better get some of these books finished up this month to clear my plate a little, and this group is to blame for a good bunch of those too!)

>13 Whisper1: Thanks, Linda! Hope you have a good weekend too!

Man, I turn my head for one second and I'm already posting message number 15! :)

Back to your last thread...I've thought about making a similar promise to myself about fiction, but like you, who am I kidding? LOL! I know I'll get through a non-fiction book when the subjects grabs me...otherwise, why stress about it?

Very cool list by the way, I'm going to have to steal it and see what I've done so far.

Happy Friday!

Fast work going on here! I'm going to do the Middlemarch read as well. The only George Eliot I've ever read was Silas Marner in high school.

>15 RosyLibrarian: Hi, Marie! Glad you found the new thread. By the way, if you're interested I lifted the list from this thread. Yeah, the only promise I make to myself is to make an effort to read some nonfiction, but like I said it's much easier for me to choose books in narrow subject areas. Oh well...

>Hey Roni! I have never read any George Eliot, so November should be interesting. It's a good month for a long classic, though, don't you think?

>7 bell7:: I have a weakness for lists like this, though I remember thinking this was an odd one when I first read it, (both for some of the choices and for the inconsistent way it listed series and books from series.)
I do like reading them though, and counting up my books, and seeing what other people have read. The BBC's contention that most people have only read 6 of those definitely doesn't hold up around here! (I've read 42, and have 21 more sitting on my shelves. :)

>18 madhatter22: I think I remember reading that the list is based on readers' favorites, which accounts for the overlap of series/individual titles. You'd think they would've had a way to deal with part/whole issues though, no? What does hold up about typical reading around here, anyway? I know most of my friends might finish one book a year, which is much more typical of the American adult, yet on LT my 100+ titles are par for the course. :)

#18 The list is based on a survey carried out by the BBC in the UK in 2003. This wikipedia article has some more information. The top 21 books were then put forward for further voting, on the provision that only one book per author was permitted in the top 21 and there was a TV programme broadcast for each book in the top 21 with someone famous explaining why it was their favourite and why you should vote for it.

I think the controversy wikipedia mentions was because The Lord of the Rings came top over Austen, Bronte etc. There's also a Guardian article

>20 souloftherose: Thanks for the link, Heather, that's interesting! I'm surprised by the differences in the list, however, do you know what accounted for it? Just curious...

Hi! It took me a bit to get around to it, but I've found (and starred) your new thread!

#21 Hmm, I didn't even notice that when I posted the link. Wikipedia and the LT award page both agree to the BBC website so possibly there is an error in the original thread?

Also the LT award page only lists 199 books and I can't see which one is missing!

Wait - found it! It was Animal Farm. Now there are 200 again.

>22 tymfos: Hi Terri! Glad you found me!

>23 souloftherose: Oh great, another list to check up on. ;) I'm such a sucker for lists and seeing how many I've read (even if I don't plan on reading the rest...).

Count me in as another sucker for lists like this, especially when I've read 80% of them. What's the one book that seems most out of place there? I'm not talking about what book you think is the worst, just the one you never would have guessed would be there? My vote is for the Wasp Factory.

>26 bonniebooks: Hmm...a book out of place....I don't know much about The Wasp Factory, so I can't really say about that one. I think I would go with either Ulysses because it seems to me one of those books that everybody feels they *should* read and not one that's really many people's favorites... Five People You Meet in Heaven because (and having not read it, this is just my impression) it seems rather quirky in the midst of pop fiction and classics, or Notes from a Small Island because, if I'm not mistaken, it's the only nonfiction there.

I finished a book! *Does happy dance*
It's been, what, a week?

106. The Eagle of the Ninth by Rosemary Sutcliff

Thirty years ago the Ninth Hispana, a legion in the Roman army in Britain in the 2nd century AD, went to the north country and disappeared. Now, Marcus Aquila, a Cohort Centurion, requests Britain as his first assignment because his father was among that legion and he would like the opportunity to solve the mystery of their disappearance. Perhaps he can even recover the Eagle, the symbol of the legion and the lack of which has meant the Ninth never reformed. But an injury leaves Marcus with little choice but to leave the legion, unsure that his purpose in coming can ever be fulfilled.

I've said before that I tend to be more analytical with stories that I'm not fully immersed in. Well, with this book I was analyzing throughout, but as I think about it more, I wonder if it's like the chicken and the egg problem - what came first, my analyzing keeping me from getting thoroughly immersed or my lack of immersion causing me to keep my interest by analysis? You see, I went into this book ripe for analyzing on so many fronts: What makes Rosemary Sutcliff's historical fiction so compelling to her fans? Will her influence on future authors like Megan Whalen Turner be apparent? How will the ring show up? Why is this classified as children's literature? After reading, I don't know the answers to all these questions, but they were what I was wondering as I read. This historical fiction is the first in a series, and set in a time I was unfamiliar with - the Roman occupation of Britain around 130 AD. Sutcliff's writing is full of rich descriptions and slowly unfolds her plot. The dialog between characters seemed a little stilted to me, and I wasn't sure if it was because she was trying to suit the time period with a touch of old-fashioned speech or because of the time she was writing in (1950s - and there was a reference to "making love" in the old-fashioned sense that made me laugh). Because of descriptive writing and lack of a fast-paced beginning, the age of the characters, and the exploration of what motivates Marcus to look for the Eagle, I am still shaking my head over its characterization as a children's book. I have a hard time coming up with a young audience for this book (not that this would be the first time that I'm wrong). Though there is no language or sex or even much violence to put parents off, I would more likely recommend it to teens or adults that enjoy historical fiction with a rich sense of place. 3.5 stars.

So....I think this book had it tough. Like I said above, I was all geared up to analyze before I even picked it up. Even though I rated it a little low for continuing the series (usually I want at least a 4 to keep going), I am planning on continuing at least until I get to The Lantern Bearers, which I own from SantaThing from (I think) 2 years ago. At the moment, I'm planning on reading the series in the order it was published, and I kind of expect that as the series goes on I'll tend to analyze less and enjoy more, especially now that I have an idea of what her writing style is like.

#28: Well, I can dodge that particular Book Bullet as I have already read that one. I never thought of it as a children's book though - I always thought of it as young adult. That could be just me though.

>29 alcottacre: I was going mostly by the tags which have both, and the library I borrowed it from classified it as "j" rather than "YA" (though it could be they have no young adult section or limit to to high school books). Even teen...I'm hard-pressed to think of many teens, other than older teens and those who have patience for classics, that would let the story unfold as it does instead of wanting instant, action-packed beginning. My sister, for example, likes her plots to start off with a bang and stay moving. She wouldn't have the patience for it at all (though she's 12, so maybe not the audience for this one in any case).

#30: I would have been the perfect audience for it when I was about 15 or so. I loved historical fiction, reading a lot of Jean Plaidy's books when I was about that age.

BTW - Just out of curiosity, I checked to see where it is catalogued at my local library (which is where I borrowed it from when I read it.) The library has it as 'young adult.'

>31 alcottacre: It's almost 50/50 in our library system: out of 12 copies, five were classified as juv and 7 as YA. I wonder if I would've liked it as a teen? It's one of those unanswerable questions, I suppose; though I did love (and still do love) historical fiction, I had much more of a tendency to choose books set during the American Civil War or World War 2.

#32: I am the same way regarding the Civil War and WWII, although these days, I much prefer nonfiction history to historical fiction. I suspect that had I not loved historical fiction as a teen though, I would probably not be the history buff that I am now.

I have been trying in recent years to expand my history reading beyond 1861-1865 and WWII.

>33 alcottacre: But there was so much going on in both those periods, I think I could read about them from now to the end of my life and still feel like there was more to learn! I hear you, though. I would like to read more nonfiction history about a variety of periods. I certainly enjoy it when I get to it (which is what I can say about a lot of nonfiction, really! I realized not too long ago that I've only read 10 or 11 nonfiction books this year...). Reading historical fiction as a teen is what made me realize in the first place that there was so much more going on than the summary in the textbook!

#34: Oh, I completely agree about being able to read either the Civil War period or WWII until the end of my life and still not knowing everything there is to know about either.

I am not sure how many nonfiction books I have read this year - somewhere around 100 or so I think, which is my goal every year. I have not done as much reading about either the Civil Rights era or the Vietnam War as I wanted to though.

ETA: As of today, 133 nonfiction (I just counted) for the year. More than I expected, and I am in a rather nonfiction groove again at the moment.

107. The Unusual Suspects by Michael Buckley

Sisters Sabrina and Daphne Grimm have been living with their grandmother for three weeks. In that time, they fought off a giant, learned the secret of Ferryport Landing, and have been researching how to free their parents by consulting the vast number of fairy tales collected by their families. Yes, they are descendants of Jakob and Wilhelm Grimm, and now they have to begin the most annoying mission of all: going to school.

As in the first book, the prologue takes an exciting moment of the climax, suddenly stopping to start the story from the beginning until that portion of the story makes sense and it is repeated nearly word for word - only now we understand its significance. The series is a fun blend of fantasy and mystery, with some odd characters thrown in for good measure. The girls' social worker really gets me, though, she's downright abusive at times and her entire discussion with the grandmother about school seemed forced and not actually legal, I think. A bit extreme. But once the story got going, and I started meeting some of the new fantasy characters - it's always fun trying to recognize old characters with a new spin on them - I really enjoyed the story and the humor. In the end, I liked it even better than the first book, and I'm looking forward to starting The Problem Child soon. 4.5 stars.

108. Cranford by Elizabeth Gaskell

A young visitor recounts her adventures with some of the older ladies - primarily spinsters and widows - of Cranford as they live their lives in a charming small town.

My idea of Elizabeth Gaskell's writings was completely different from reality. I had read a couple of short stories as an English major, confused them, and had this image of Gaskell as the John Steinbeck of the Victorian Era. I overcame some reluctance to even add Cranford to my TBR list. And am I glad I did! This book is a delightful, episodic tale of a small town and its inhabitants. The narrator often stays with Miss Matty while visiting the town, so many of the events involve this lady in some way or another. As I think about the book, I'm realizing that very little actually happens by way of plot, but the characters are by turns sweet, funny, and quirky. The story gives a picture of small town life in general as well as the class distinctions of its time period in an amusing, rather than depressing, way. Cranford has definitely convinced me to try more by this author. 4.5 stars.

Notes:
I did come up with the short story by Elizabeth Gaskell that I read - it was "The Grey Woman." I think I confused it with another short story in a Norton Anthology or something like that that had to do with...I want to say a kolb woman. Something about coal or mining.... People working in a mine? found this figure of a woman made out of kolb? or whatever they were mining. If anyone comes up with it, I'd love to know what I actually read and who the author was!

What put Cranford on the TBR list was the quote Stasia put up on her thread. Not sure I would've given it a chance otherwise, but I really loved that description of someone's library! North and South also made its way onto the TBR list thanks to Ellie.

#37: Glad you liked Cranford, Mary! North and South is another great one by her!

>38 alcottacre: Stasia, I'm sure hoping to get to it sometime, as well as some of her other stories. The sad state of my TBR pile, however, is that I seem to add about 10 books for every book that I finish. :)

109. Savvy by Ingrid Law

The Beaumont family is special. They each have a savvy - kind of like a knack for something, though in a big way, like Fish's ability to conjure up storms when water's nearby - that generally comes to them on their thirteenth birthday party. Mibs is about to turn thirteen, and she can't wait to find out what her savvy is. Then her father gets in a car accident, her mother and brother Rocket go to the hospital in Salina, and her birthday appears to be ruined. Running away from her unwanted birthday party at the church, Mibs ducks into a bus that has Salina written on it, figuring she'll make her way to the hospital to her father to help him with her new savvy. But a few extra passengers and a travel detour derail her plans.

In some ways, this story reminded me of tall tales. Everyone has a certain knack for something or a quirkiness to them, but in the Beaumont family, it's just one step beyond - yet not quite far enough to make the story a fantasy. Mibs is an engaging narrator, with every inventive adjective, alliteration and internal rhyme adding to the storytelling sound of the book. She was a fun heroine to cheer for as she came to know herself and, through her savvy, her family and new-found friends, Bobbi and Will. I'm just a teensy bit disappointed that the next book in the series, Scumble, is about her cousin. 4.5 stars.

37: Cranford has been on my shelf for maybe five years and I have yet to get to it. Loved your review - makes me want to bump it up on the TBR pile. :)

#40: I have that one in the BlackHole already. I have to bump it up some!

I still need to read my first Gaskell novel...

>41 RosyLibrarian: Thanks, Marie, I hope you enjoy it when you get to it!

>42 alcottacre: I hope you enjoy it, Stasia. The sequel is checked out at my local library, which is probably a good thing as it's forcing me to read the books I already have checked out (plus a couple of ER books that I need to get to...)

>43 BookAngel_a: Hi Angela! Hope you enjoy Gaskell's novels. I kind of want to check out her short stories now that I realize I had her confused with someone else. :)

110. Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson

Over the summer, something happened to Melinda. Her friends won't talk to her because she called the cops during a party. Her grades are slipping; art is alright, but she's failing almost every other subject. Her parents are barely there, and when they're present, they're arguing. She doesn't talk more than she has to. Will Melinda be crushed, or be able to speak?

It's always a challenge to read a book that has so much buzz, expectation, both positive and negative comments surrounding it. Plus, Speak has been around long enough that I've meant to read it for years and I already knew what happened to Melinda. When I started reading, I was a little afraid that the book couldn't live up to my expectations or that knowing the crux of the plot would ruin its impact, but Melinda's voice pulled me in. I cared about her, I wanted to help her, but could only sit back and read and hope her character's change and growth meant that she could be healed. Over ten years after its printing, it is still powerful and a book I highly recommend. 4.5 stars.

**spoilers** One of the reasons I checked it out from the library when I did was all the publicity surrounding the recent challenge by someone who called the rape scene "soft porn." So I read it with that in mind, too, and frankly I find that characterization ridiculous. The scene was one of the least-descriptive I've ever read, much more about the emotion of the character than any details, either grisly or titillating. (Not that I've read many - I'm comparing it with Just Listen and a rape scene in a book by Bodie Thoene, a Christian author who had much more detail included, though it was an adult book.) This is the type of book that, if I had gone through some of the same stuff as Melinda, I would have wanted to read as a teen to see that I was not alone.

#45: That is a book that, although it has gotten multiple good reviews here in the group, I just cannot read. I am glad you liked the book though, Mary!

45: I enjoyed your review and will have to find that book when I'm in the right mood. It looks like one of those heavy books you have to brace yourself for.

>46 alcottacre: I could certainly see how it would not be a book for everyone, Stasia. I think it might be even harder for parents to read than teens/young adults, because they don't have the added thought of "this could be my daughter."

>47 RosyLibrarian: It's not light by any means, but it was more hopeful than I expected. Hope you enjoy it, Marie!

111. The Shape of Water by Andrea Camilleri

Two garbage collectors find a dead politician in a car parked on the notorious Pasture, the local place where people go to find a prostitute. Signor Lubarello died of a heart attack, but the situation surrounding his death suggests to Inspector Montalbano that all is not as it appears. He convinces the judge to let him continue his investigation, even though the death is apparently natural and all Montalbano has to go on is a hunch.

I never would have heard of this Italian police procedural if it hadn't been for Richardderus's recommendation based on my enjoyment of the Three Pines series. I don't read a lot of mysteries; I like them cozy, and I'm picky about it. Well, the Inspector Montalbano series is rougher around the edges than a cozy without going quite so far as the characters in The Maltese Falcon (whom I despised). Montalbano's informants are seedy people but trustworthy in their own fashion. Montalbano himself is not a saint, though he lives by his own code of ethics. Politics are dirty, allegiances are complicated, and it can be a little difficult to follow when you're as completely unfamiliar with Italian police and politics as I am. Even so, I was surprised that the seediness of some people and places didn't bother me more than it did. Interactions between characters are believable and often humorous. The plot is fast-paced, keeping me reading late into the night to get just that much closer to the end, and intrigued me enough to want to continue the series. 4 stars.

I have to try that one soon. It's right here on my shelf, too!

You didn't like The Maltese Falcon either? Whew! And I thought it was just me...
I did however, like Raymond Chandler's series, which I tried right after my attempt at Hammett.

>50 BookAngel_a: Nope, I was not a fan of The Maltese Falcon. It did have a complicated plot going for it (so I think I gave it 2 stars as a result), but I had already seen the movie so "who done it" wasn't a mystery to me, and I did not like any of the characters. I don't say this often, but I liked the movie better.

Since you liked Raymond Chandler's series, that gives me some hope that I might like some classic noir, so I won't dismiss it entirely without trying at least one again. :)

51- For what it's worth, it took until Book #2 in the Phillip Marlowe series for me to really start to enjoy Chandler. But even book #1 was better than my attempt at Hammett, lol...

I will have to watch The Maltese Falcon - never saw the movie. I will probably enjoy it better than the book, as you did.

#52: Two of my favorite words in the English language: Humphrey Bogart. Enough said regarding The Maltese Falcon. If you watch any other version than his, you are making a grave mistake.

53- Duly noted! :)

#54: Good! (or I might not ever speak to you again! Wait a second, I am not sure that is a threat, lol)

I didn't know there was any other version of the movie. That was one I watched as a preteen when my parents were pretty strict about movie-watching and only let me watch G-rated ones without clearing it with them. I used to go over the particular friend's house, and the way we would choose movies using my parents' guidelines was to watch older, unrated movies, and that was our choice one time.

#56: There are at least 3 film versions of The Maltese Falcon of which I am aware, Mary. There may be more, I do not know.

>57 alcottacre: Huh. Well, glad we picked the right one, then! :)

#58: Definitely!

Hi Mary, I am very behind but really enjoyed your thoughts on Eagle of the Ninth (msg 28). I was also surprised it was a children's book, though not because the book contained anything unsuitable for children. It doesn't seem to fit with what else I think of as children's books today. Perhaps children of the 1950s were used to a different sort of children's book?

I have definitely decided I want to read lots of Sutcliff and have another 3 of her books in my TBR piles which I managed to pick up secondhand. One of them is The Silver Branch which I think is the next book in the series so let me know when you decide to read it and I will join you!

55- Haha...I don't think I WANT to be ignored by Stasia, so I will definitely pick the Bogart version! :)

#61: lol!

>60 souloftherose: Heather, you hit the nail on the head with my thoughts on how "children's" book didn't quite seem to fit. I would be willing to let my sister (who's twelve) read it, but I don't think she'd sit still long enough for the story to unfold. I haven't decided yet whether I should read in publication or chronological order in the Dolphin Ring series.... does anyone know/ have an opinion of what makes the most sense for it? If I go chronologically, The Silver Branch is next, and I'll let you know when I have it in hand. It would be fun to read it together!

112. The Search for Joyful by Benedict and Nancy Freedman

Kathy Forquet, whose Indian name is Oh-Be-Joyful's Daughter, grew up as the foster daughter of Kathy and Mike Flannigan. She remembers Mama Kathy's instructions to the twins, Georges and Connie - "Kathy must be included" - and knows that she feels out of place, an Indian who doesn't know much about her heritage but who is left out in so many ways of a white world that just sees the color of her skin. Then, with World War 2 beginning and her foster brother Georges joining the army, Kathy has an opportunity to become a nurse. The war opens up many opportunities, but will Kathy be able to find herself, Oh-Be-Joyful's Daughter?

Life is hard on sequels. When you read the first book, going into it you may have some anticipation of the story based on what you've heard, but it's easier to go in to it fresh, without the weight of expectations already to bear on what you're about to read. Picking up a sequel, you've either got low hopes, perhaps with some wariness based on an earlier book that you didn't enjoy as much as you'd hoped, or high hopes that the story will wow you just as much as the first - or something in between. Well, I had fairly high hopes as Mrs. Mike was a romance that still had a depth to it, an interesting historical fiction about a place I don't think about too much. So Kathy Forquet and her search for Oh-Be-Joyful's Daughter - herself - had a lot to live up to. The plot felt forced at times, events piling on each other in a way that made me feel pulled back and forth by its whims. I liked the characters, so I kept reading, but some of their choices left me scratching my head and unconvinced that it was a believable way for them to act. The writing didn't impress me either, giving me a litany of facts without describing the smells, the sounds, the textures of Montreal, the hospital, or of war. For every element I enjoyed, there was another that fell flat, at least partly based on the expectations set by the first book. 3 stars.

I'm not sure if I want to read the next book, unless someone wants to convince me that it's worth a try. :)

#64: I only ever read the first book, Mary, so I cannot tell you whether the next book is any better. Sorry.

>65 alcottacre: Ah, well. I'll keep Kathy Little Bird on the TBR list for now, but it's pretty low priority.

113. Barefoot in Baghdad by Manal M. Omar

Manal Omar is a Palestinian-American, a Muslim and a woman. When she was given the opportunity to work in Baghdad for an agency dedicated to providing women with training to allow them to be more financially independent and put their war-torn lives together, she felt uniquely qualified to do the job. Omar's story focuses primarily on her thoughts, feelings, interactions, and a few "outside" cases working for Women for Women International, a non-governmental agency (NGO) starting a branch in Iraq in 2003. As she spends time in Iraq, she finds herself attempting to negotiate between distinct worlds, and making compromises she never expected.

The memoir could have used more stringent editing, as there was some repetition of thought (even within the same paragraph), some awkward sentences, and sometimes minimal connection between the chapter headings and content. Despite this, Omar presents a broad spectrum of women in Iraq, from the elite and well-off to the poorer women she was drawn to help. She is up front with her political leanings, and stubborn to a fault about certain things. I sometimes wished that she would include facts or statistics to back up some of her broader, opinionated claims. Since I was expecting a story about her work for the international aid organization, I was surprised at the tight focus on Omar herself. I did not learn much about her regular work; instead, she focuses on interactions she has with staff, friends, and U.S. military in Iraq, as well as detailing a few of the cases considered outside the purview of her position. Towards the end of the memoir, however, I realized that this is more a reflection of her time in Iraq and the memories that haunt her rather than an enumeration of success stories. 3.5 stars.

Edited to add - forgot to say, I received this through Early Reviewers (just one more to go before I'm all caught up!).

#67: Nice review, Mary. I already have that one in the BlackHole, just waiting for the library to get a copy.

Sounds like you are doing much better with the ER books than I am. I still have 3 sitting around here to be reviewed :)

>68 alcottacre: Thanks, Stasia. It was a tough review to write in a balanced way, because I had a some issues with it (and really struggled through the first half) but felt that it still had some important things to say. I'm not really familiar with women's rights and issues in Islamic countries, nor the branches of thought regarding this, and the book really highlighted my ignorance for me. I've got a couple of books from the library to maybe read up a little on the subject...

#69: Have you read Azar Nafisi's Reading Lolita in Tehran, Mary? You might give it a try.

>70 alcottacre: I did, but several years ago. If I went back to it, I'd probably get more out of it now.

#71: I think so too. I just re-read it (again) this year and know I got more out of it this time around.

Edited for spelling

114. History of the English Language, a series of lectures by Seth Lerer

From Indo-European to modern scientific language, this is an overview of the English language, with particular focus on England, the United States, and examples from literature that show not only the language itself, but attitudes about proper usage and grammar.

I cannot pretend to be an expert, but I enjoy popular works on language, and this audio lecture series was no exception. Professor Lerer presents 36 college-level lectures. His delivery is smooth without sounding stilted or droning. Some audience response is also audible, making you feel like you're really sitting in on a lecture. I found the lectures extremely accessible, and found little overlap between the information presented and the Intro to Linguistics class that I took in college several years ago. I especially enjoyed the way in which Prof. Lerer uses literature to back up his points, quoting from such works as The Canterbury Tales, Shakespeare, the King James Bible, and Moby Dick. In fact, I was a little surprised to find that, yet again, reading leads to more reading and my TBR list has grown as a result. 4.5 stars.

115. Persuasion by Jane Austen

Though the Elliot family has a decent social standing, they are much reduced when Sir Walter, through profligate spending after his wife's death, must let his house and move to smaller accommodations in Bath. Anne Elliot, the middle daughter whose wishes are usually not sought and less regarding by her elder sister and father, stays behind for a time with her good friend and surrogate mother, Lady Russell. Several years ago, Lady Russell had counseled Anne to break an engagement with a young navy officer. Now, it appears that their acquaintance may be renewed when his sister and her husband begin renting the Elliot home, Kellynch Hall.

For some time, at least since I first picked up Pride and Prejudice at age 14, I have been planning on reading all of Jane Austen's novels. Of her completed novels, I only had Persuasion left. I was a little concerned that the very last of Austen's novels would be a bit of a disappointment, especially considering my attachment - by this time a sentimental one borne of many rereadings - to Pride and Prejudice. Anne's story is very hard to compare to Elizabeth's. She is older and less decided, perhaps, in her opinions. If I had to pick two words to describe Anne, it would be "constant," followed closely by "longsuffering" to put up with her sisters and father as she does. While Elizabeth would have made pointed and witty comments regarding the foibles of some of Anne's friends and family, the narrator must make these remarks and leave Anne to being polite even while she internally groans at their behavior. My prior reading had already familiarized me with the primary events of the plot, but as always the wry and witty narrative voice carries the most attraction for me, perhaps even above that of the cast of characters. While I cannot yet say that Persuasion supersedes Pride and Prejudice as my favorite of Jane Austen's novels, I surmise that a few rereadings will bring the two books closer together in my estimation. 4.5 stars.

A different format for my monthly review - I will compare what I actually read with my planned TIOLI challenges. Strikeouts are for those books that I did not get to:

Planned on:
Death Benefits by Sarah N. Harvey (Challenge #7)
A non-horror book by Stephen King (Challenge #2)
Savvy by Ingrid Law (Challenge #4)
Barefoot in Baghdad by Manal Omar (Challenge #7 and LTER)
The Man Who Loved Books Too Much by Allison Hoover Bartlett (Challenge #9)
Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson (Challenge #9)
Cranford by Elizabeth Gaskell (Challenge #13)
Eagle of the Ninth by Rosemary Sutcliff (Challenge #14)

Possibilities I had in mind -
The Sovereignty and Goodness of God by Mary Rowlandson (Challenge #1)
Dracula by Bram Stoker (Challenge #2)
The Color Purple by Alice Walker (Challenge #3, Fiction Pulitzer in 1983)

Non-pre-planned reads -
Persuasion by Jane Austen (Challenge #16)
The Search for Joyful by Benedict and Nancy Freedman (Challenge #7)
The Unusual Suspects by Michael Buckley (Challenge #7) (audio)
The Shape of Water by Andrea Camillieri (Challenge #8)

Non-TIOLI reads:
Mrs. Mike by Benedict and Nancy Freedman
The History of the English Language by Seth Lerer, Ph.D. (audio)
Summer of My German Soldier by Betty Greene

Huh. That was much closer to my plan than I expected it would turn out to be. Maybe the differences just loomed larger because I "left" my own challenge.

Books read - 12
Audiobooks listed to - 2
Standouts - Mrs. Mike, Speak, Savvy, Persuasion
Most sorry I didn't get to - Dracula (maybe next year!)

Looks like you did a pretty good job of getting to most of your planned reads, Mary!

I'm looking forward to re-reading Persuasion soon. Glad you liked it. :)

I hope you do get to Dracula next year. I read that one this month and it was really good. Looks like you knocked out a lot of your challenges though!

Speak is an outstanding YA book and one that I think all teenagers should read. P & P is still my favorite Austen, but the last time I read it, I wasn't as much in love with the last part.

>76 alcottacre: Yeah, I ended up being much closer than I thought, Stasia! I was surprised to find out that I only dropped one from the original list.

>77 BookAngel_a: Thanks, Angela. I've now read all of Austen's completed novels, which is kind of neat and sad at the same time.

>78 RosyLibrarian: I did read it several years ago for school, Marie, but I'd like to reread it again sometime soon.

>79 bonniebooks: Bonnie, Pride and Prejudice has long been a favorite of mine. I was really impressed with Speak. I like all of Laurie Halse Anderson's books, there's often a lot of intensity and such real characters! I have Forge (the sequel to Chains) out from the library, and hopefully will get to it soon.

Caught up! Glad you enjoyed Persuasion. It's actually my favourite but P&P is second favourite so I will let you off!

I haven't read anything by Laurie Anderson yet but I have a couple of her books on my wishlist. I think I will add Chains and Speak too.

>81 souloftherose: Well, guess we just have our two favorites swapped, Heather! Persuasion was really excellent, I think it has a shot of becoming my favorite after a few rereadings. Definitely bump one of Laurie Halse Anderson's book on your wishlist - they're well worth reading!

116. The Lost Hero by Rick Riordan

Jason wakes up on a bus with a girl, Piper, and a boy, Leo. They say they're his friends, and have very clear memories of him being with them, but Jason can't remember anything about them, or about himself. While he's trying to make sense of it all, storm spirits disrupt a school trip to the Grand Canyon, and a team led by Annabeth take Jason, Piper, and Leo to Camp Half-Blood. Their quest may just be the key to Jason's lost memories.

Readers of Percy Jackson and the Olympians may be a little disappointed to discover early on that Percy is missing. Give it a chance, though, and you'll find three more compelling demigods to cheer for. Though told in third person, the narrative switches among the points of view of Jason, Piper, and Leo. I rather wish that the chapters had not been named for the character whose point of view we were following at a given moment - unlike first-person narration, it wasn't hard to remember who was interpreting events at any given moment. Plus, the chapter titles were one of my favorite parts of the Percy Jackson series. But though there are a few one liners, this story is a little more serious in tone than the earlier Camp Half-Blood books, which makes sense since the characters we're following are a little older, too. This fast-paced read is one I would recommend without hesitation, and I'm looking forward to the rest of the series. 4.5 stars.

#83: I downloaded that book to my Nook a few weeks ago. I will have to get to it. Thanks for the reminder, Mary.

edited for spelling

>84 alcottacre: Hope you enjoy it, Stasia!

117. Freak the Mighty by Rodman Philbrick

Max describes himself as just a butthead before Kevin moved down the street. He lives with his grandparents in a room in a basement, or the "Down Under," keeps growing like crazy, and goes to LD classes. Then Kevin moves in. Max remembers him as "Freak" from daycare, a brilliant boy who's crippled by a body which grows on the inside, and not out. When these two boys begin a friendship, they become "Freak the Mighty."

When the audiobook I was listening to stopped working in my car CD player, I needed to find a fast replacement. This book had been on my radar since many of the kids in town were reading it for school over the summer, so when I saw it available at the library where I work, I nabbed it. The reader is Elden Henson, whose name might sound familiar either from the Mighty Ducks movies or from the movie based on this book, "The Mighty." Max's voice will always sound like his in my head now. It took a little getting used to, but the narration was pitch-perfect for Max and his point of view. I enjoyed the characters, Max and Kevin, as the two very different boys grow to be friends and go on "quests." It's not a story to give to kids impatient for stories to start off with a bang, but if they don't mind one that unfolds a bit slower, it's hugely rewarding. 4.5 stars.

#86: I loved that book when I read it earlier this year. I got a copy for my very own in fact. I am glad you enjoyed it, Mary!

#86 That one's already on the wishlist from Stasia's recommendation but I will add yours and bump it up.

Sorry your other audio book stopped working though - is it fixable?

>87 alcottacre: Thanks, Stasia. Yep, it was a goody. Definitely bumped up on the TBR due to your recommendation, too.

>88 souloftherose: Hi Heather! The other audiobook (Where the Mountain Meets the Moon) is fine, at least, it works fine when I put it in my computer and listen to it on iTunes. I think my car CD player is just a little more sensitive to things like scratches and cold weather. I've got the last CD ready to go, and will probably finish it by Monday at the latest.

118. Solomon's Oak by Jo-Ann Mapson

There was no other tree like it in California, yet estimates suggested the tree was 200 years old. Here, Glory took in dogs from the shelter and trained them for new homes. Here she and her husband, Dan, had taken in foster sons. Here Dan had built a chapel. Now, Dan is gone, and Glory is left alone until the day the pirates had a wedding in her chapel. On that day, the social worker, Caroline, brings her a lonely teenage girl, Juniper. The wedding seems to be going smoothly, until a sword fight brings an ex-cop onto the scene, and Glory asks him to take photographs. All three - Glory, Juniper, and Joseph - have been battling their demons, and slowly begin to form relationships with each other.

I haven't read this sort of fiction in awhile, but it has all the elements I loved in stories as a teenager - especially a foster child and grieving characters. There are no easy answers for any of them, but they each have to deal with tragedy in their own way and decide if and how to move on. As their relationships grow and more of their back stories are revealed, I grew to care very much about what happened to the Glory, Juniper and Joseph. Though it may seem at first glance to be a run-of-the-mill contemporary fiction, questions about loss and closure and what God thinks of human tragedy (if he exists) give you food for thought. 4 stars.

119. Where the Mountain Meets the Moon by Grace Lin

Minli and her parents live in a poor village by Fruitless Mountain. Though her parents, Ma and Ba, work hard, they only make enough to have just enough rice for themselves. Minli's father tells her stories, but her mother doesn't think that the stories do anything but fill Minli's head with fanciful thinking. Then, Minli runs away to see if she can find the Old Man in the Moon - just like her father's stories say she can to change her fortune.

This story felt like one of those dolls that have a smaller one inside, on and on, until the very smallest is revealed at the center. In this tale, story after story after story is revealed in such a way that the reader slowly sees the connections. Despite Ma's feeling, this is truly a celebration of stories and their power. Minli's quest has a mythical feel to it, just like the stories Ba tells his family. 4 stars.

#90: I already have that one in the BlackHole.

#91: I wish you would have had the print version of this particular book, Mary. The cover and illustrations added much. I am glad you still enjoyed it though.

>92 alcottacre: I didn't realize there were illustrations until I went back over Linda's review today, or I would've read it instead. Ah well, perhaps I will reread it in book format sometime in the future.

#93: I hope you get a chance to read it. I think you will bump your rating up just because of the illustrations.

>94 alcottacre: Very likely. I never felt like I was "into" the story on audio (for no particular reason...), which is why I rated it as I did, and almost bumped it up as I was thinking about the story writing the review.

Edited to fix the number. :)

I'm planning to read that one this month, fortunately in paper form.

(Stasia, aren't you supposed to be asleep? ;))

Mary

I think Stasia had the same reaction as you did regarding Where the Mountain Meets the Moon. I love this book! I thought the cover, the graphics and the fonts all added to the beauty of the story line.

The next time you are in a library or book store you might want to take a minute and look at the beauty of the hard copy.

I hope all is well with you! I'm sorry to be so far behind on your thread.

>94 alcottacre: Stasia, did you ever end up getting to bed last night? :)

>96 _Zoe_: Hope you enjoy it, Zoe!

>97 Whisper1: Hey there, Linda! I hope you're feeling good today. Don't you feel bad about being behind on threads! Glad to "see" you here, though. :) I will definitely take the time to look at the illustrations.

Now I'm off, and you probably won't see much of me for a bit because it looks like the adapter to my laptop quit on me last night and I may have to buy a replacement...but the good news is, I think I can get one on Amazon for a little over 3 bucks, plus shipping.

Yes, I finally went to bed. Claudia started hassling me about it :)

>99 alcottacre: LOL, that's the danger of admitting something like that on your own thread, suddenly everyone knows. :)

Oh, and good news - I was able to get a new AC adapter, though it was quite a bit more than I'd hoped (try $80). And my battery is not charging. But I'm fairly confident that I can ask the tech guy at one of my libraries how to fix that, and if not I'll return it and try again...

Good luck with the AC adapter, Mary. I hope it fixes your problem.

I know not everyone reads my thread. Good thing too or I would have everyone telling me to go to bed :)

Thanks, Stasia, I hope so too.
I meant "everyone" is a sort of figurative way, not literally. ;) But it does seem that once something's mentioned on your thread it's pretty widely known. It's practically a second kitchen! :)

Edited to correct my grammar.

120. All Clear by Connie Willis

The second half of the story begun in Blackout continues with Polly, Michael, and Eileen still stuck in London in 1940. As the Blitz continues, Polly and Michael start wondering if they've been changing events, something that they were taught historians couldn't do without endangering the space-time continuum. But what else might be keeping them from getting back to their own time?

Every time I sat down with this book I had to make sure that I had a good hour so I could get immersed in it, turning pages to find out more about the characters, see if I could understand their situation, piece together incidents from 1940-41, 1944, and 2060 in a sensible way. As I told my sister, it's not the sort of book you can multitask with because it's not told linearly. Polly constantly reminds Eileen - and the reader - this is time travel, so the order of things get complicated. Despite the repetition, I really enjoyed spending time with these characters and finding out what happens in this historical fiction-science fiction hybrid. 4.5 stars.

I really enjoyed All Clear too, Mary. Sped through it in 24 hours and found it (obviously) really engrossing. At the book signing, Connie said she initially wrote each character's strand linearly, then went back and broke them up into the structure the book ended up with.

>104 ronincats: That's really interesting, Roni! Definitely explains how she was able to keep it all straight. :) I really liked how the structure allowed her to reveal things in a different way, it would have been less rewarding (and wouldn't have worked, really) if it had been strictly chronological.

#103: I am looking forward to reading that one!

I really like Connie Willis too, although by the third book, didn't care that much about the sections that explained the time travel.

#103 I am hoping to get All Clear and Blackout when All Clear is released in paperback or when the rumoured UK editions are released. Spent most of today reading Doomsday Book and really enjoying it.

>106 alcottacre: Hope you enjoy it when you get to it, Stasia!

>107 bonniebooks: Yeah, I've definitely enjoyed all I've read so far, but I wouldn't recommend reading them one on top of the other because the repetition of the explanation does get irritating. On the other hand, it makes each book in the series accessible because you don't have to read the first to get what's going on.

>108 souloftherose: Hope you enjoy them when you get to them, Heather! I loved Doomsday Book when I read it earlier this year, and really want a reread of To Say Nothing of the Dog now.

Hi Mary

Thanks for your comments regarding All Clear. It is now on my tbr list.

>110 Whisper1: Linda! So nice to see you! I hope you enjoy All Clear, just make sure you read Blackout first, as it's the first half of the story. :) I hope you're enjoying your Aunt Dimity book; I confess I've never read the series.

Thanks Mary. I'll be sure to read Blackout first.

I hope all is well with you!

:) Just would hate to let you miss half the story.
I'm doing well. The Giants lost to the Cowboys today so I'm in semi-mourning, but I'm sure I'll bounce back, and if that's the worst thing going for me I think I've got a good life. I hope you're doing well and your healing is progressing.

121. Running the Books: The Adventures of an Accidental Prison Librarian by Avi Steinberg

The last thing Avi expected to become was a prison librarian. This former Orthodox Jew without an MLS applied for the job because, well why not? It was full time and came with benefits, which was more than he could say for writing obits. But the job came with much more than the description in the ad could entail.

As a librarian in a public library, I usually skip over books that are about working at a library. It feels too much like bringing work home. This memoir intrigued me, however, reminding me of a class I look en route to my MLS on serving underserved populations. Our class even visited a prison library as a field trip. And, I figured, his job was different enough from mine not to feel like bringing work home.

Well, soon after starting this book I realized how much of an understatement that was. At first I was put off by his casual use of swear words and his attitude towards the religious life he left behind. After he got the job, however, I became fascinated with some of the details of his interactions with inmates, his struggles with "the right thing to do" in various situations, and what his job entailed. It's about as different as a job in the same field can possibly be; we both work with books and try to have materials on the shelves that interest our patrons, but that's about as far as the similarities go. The high stress of his job and the constant battle between serving the inmates and keeping the guards happy gets to him after awhile. The descriptions of prison life and the lifestyle and choice of the men and women who were in that prison are not pretty, and drained me just reading the book. By the time I got to the end, the book started to feel disjointed and hard to follow. I wasn't sure if I ran out of steam or the author did. Still, this is a profession that doesn't get a lot of notice, and I enjoyed this look into an aspect of librarianship that is often fraught with difficulty. 3.5 stars.

#114: I already have that one in the BlackHole. It sounds like an interesting read.

114: This one does look really interesting. I've never thought about prison libraries actually having librarians, but now I realize that's kind of silly. :)

>115 alcottacre: Hope you enjoy it when you get to it, Stasia.

>116 RosyLibrarian: Marie, if it hadn't been for the class I took, I guess I wouldn't really think about prisons having libraries at all. I wonder if that's what's behind some of the interest in the book (it's showing a modest number of holds in my library system), just a profession nobody's really thought about much...

122. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J.K. Rowling

The fourth book in the Harry Potter series starts out as most of them do: Harry is at the Dursleys waiting for summer to end so he can go back to Hogwarts' School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. This time, the Weasleys take him to the World Cup before his return to school, and the behavior of some old Death Eaters and the reappearance of the Dark mark, not to mention weird dreams and pain in Harry's scar, point to yet another year of fighting against Voldemort's return.

Whenever I try to reread this series, I always started from the beginning and ran out of steam around books 2 or 3. So with the movie coming out yesterday (and yes, I went to the midnight showing), I decided to start my reread with the books I hadn't read as often. In fact, I was shocked to find out that I had not read The Goblet of Fire in over four years. These books are practically iconic for my generation and those a little younger than me that it's quite impossible to come up with anything new to add. Suffice it to say that I was always in the group that wholeheartedly enjoyed this books. I'm always surprised in revisiting each one with the details that I hadn't remembered, and the wonderful way in which seemingly passing references to characters or events would show up again in future stories. If you enjoy audiobooks, be sure to check out Jim Dale's performance - which I was listening to on my commute to work even while reading the book at home - which is truly superb.

Hi Mary

Happy Almost Thanksgiving to you!

I second the Jim Dale recommendation. He's the best. Have you seen the movie yet?

#118 I've been trying to reread the HP books and for some reason got bogged down at the beginning of book 3. I was hoping to reread the whole series before watching the latest film so I need to get a move on!

>119 Whisper1: to you too, Linda! Thank you. :)

>120 RosyLibrarian: I went to see the midnight showing...and went again yesterday evening! How about you, Marie?

>121 souloftherose: You surely do, Heather, if you're going to finish them on time! :) I'm going to go pretty slowly, I think, so I don't get too tired of the series before I get through. Audiobooks slow me down significantly (but they're great for the commute and while I knit), so my goal is to finish sometime before the 2nd part of Deathly Hallows comes out. If I go at my current rate, I'll probably be done sometime in early February, but we'll see if I keep that or slow down.

123. The Great Divorce by C.S. Lewis

In this novella, C.S. Lewis investigates the eternal choice between Heaven and Hell, joy and despair. He structures the story as a dream: the soul of a man takes a journey, stopping at a place where there is a lot of empty space, where houses can be literally dreamed out of the ground and as people get into arguments they move farther and farther away from each other. Souls can choose to stay in this increasing wasteland or travel away from it. As the journey continues, the soul is met by George MacDonald, who becomes his teacher and explains more of what is going on.

I generally love C.S. Lewis. He has an interesting mind, and an interesting way of explaining things. I have loved the Chronicles of Narnia since I was a kid; I loved his more grown-up story Till We Have Faces when I read it for the first time two years ago. Just about any time I have a chance to buy one of his books, I do, so when I came across this in the bargain books several years ago, I snatched it. The Great Divorce, though short and easy to read, was a heady trip. I liked, but did not love it; I'm not sure I understood half of it. I had a similar reaction to this story in its entirety that I did to the end of Perelandra - the points he were making became so philosophical and over my head that I lost track of the argument and what I even thought about it. Still, it passed an afternoon pleasantly. 4 stars.

I understand what you mean about Lewis going over your head. I have the same problem at times.

I wish I could understand better sometimes. Lewis certainly has an interesting way of thinking, though I think often different from the way I put information together.

122: I went to see it on Sunday. So good! Very dark, but so was the book. It was strange that we never saw Hogwarts in this one. What did you think?

124. Christmas at The Mysterious Bookshop edited by Otto Penzler

Otto Penzler, real-life proprietor of The Mysterious Bookshop in New York, has a unique way of celebrating Christmas. Every year, he asks a well-known crime author to write a short story that he makes into a booklet to give to his customers with their purchases during the season. This book collects seventeen of these stories, from 1993 to 2009, into book form for the first time. Including authors of a wide scope, from Donald Westlake to Mary Higgins Clark, what these stories have in common are three things: a mystery, The Mysterious Bookshop (at least mentioned if not a part of the story itself), and the holiday season as a setting.

What follows are stories as unique as the individual writers themselves, an excellent sampling of the mystery genre's variety. Though of course each reader will enjoy some stories more than others and these authors, for the most part, are novel writers whose stories often don't read like traditional short stories, there are really no complete misses in the bunch. Before reading this collection, I had heard of some of the authors but read none, so I really have no way of knowing how typical these selections are. Still, I liked some enough - my favorites were "Give Till It Hurts" by Donald Westlake, "The Grift of the Magi" by S.J. Rozan and "The Killer Christian" by Andrew Klavan - to look up more of the authors' oeuvres. 4.5 stars.

Hi, Mary! Agree wholeheartedly about the Lewis.

>126 RosyLibrarian: I really like it! I've been to see it twice already, once at midnight and again on Saturday (that time with my brother and sister, who hadn't seen it yet). It was dark, but I was really surprised by how humorous it was, too. Though it's been a few years since I read the book and this might be my faulty memory talking, I understood and was fairly happy with most of the changes made (though *possible spoiler* I didn't get why the horcrux made Harry and Hermoine naked, I found that a rather unnecessary deviation from the book). I think they captured the spirit of the book well.

>128 tymfos: Hi Terri! I wondered if part of my problem was reading the book in one day (only two sittings, really), but I'm not sure that particular book could really have been broken up a lot and still pick up the thread of the story. It was the "time" aspect that really got me on that one. I understood the various choices each soul is making/made, but when they started discussing being in time, out of time...it made my head hurt.

#127: I already have that one in the BlackHole. I need to see if it is back in at the local library yet. Thanks for the reminder, Mary!

#127 I was wondering how Christmas at the Mysterious Bookshop is. I figured that a collection edited by Otto Penzler is a "can't miss." I'm definitely reading this one, after I finish my 1010.

129: Uh, maybe because naked sells? (What's the emoticon for wry smile?)

Happy Thanksgiving all!

>130 alcottacre: Hope you enjoy it when you get to it, Stasia!

>131 lindapanzo: It was good, though I'm not much of a mystery reader so it will be interesting to see what aficionados of the genre think. There were a few typos, but overall, it was good.

>132 bonniebooks: Well yes, but.... still. Like Harry Potter needs naked to sell. :) Speaking of deviations from the book (we were, weren't we?), another one occurs to me. In the movie, Harry starts referring to Voldemort as You-Know-Who kinda out of nowhere. Wasn't it kind of a major point in the books that he was never afraid enough to not use the name? Just sayin'.

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Actually, in the book (which I just HAD to reread after seeing the movie) after Voldemort's followers take over the ministry, they DO set it up so that using his name immediately triggers an alarm and sends Death whatevers to wherever the name was spoken. That is something Ron explicitly explains when he returns, and Harry's forgetting and using it is what reveals them to Fenris, etal., when they are captured. To me, the fact that they use the Invisibility Cloak so much in the book and don't use it at ALL in the movie is confusing considering its status!

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>134 ronincats: I completely forgot about that...

That's what I get for not rereading, right? :) Oh well, I'm up to disc 5 (of 23) in my reread/listen to Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. Oddly enough, it's my least favorite of the books but one of my favorite movies.

125. The Silver Branch by Rosemary Sutcliff

When Justin, a Surgeon in the Eagles of Rome, is sent to Britain, he doesn't know what to expect. He soon finds a kinsman, Flavius, with whom he becomes fast friends. They uncover a possible plot against the Caesar Carausius, and attempting to warn him changes their lives forever.

This is the second of Rosemary Sutcliff's books that I've read, the second chronologically and third published in the Dolphin Ring series. Justin and Flavius are both related to a character from the previous book, and a key symbol from the first book returns as well. Sutcliff uses descriptive prose to carefully include historical details that add to the realistic feel of the book without ever packing in her research in a heavy-handed manner. The plot is impossible to describe; you get the feeling reading that she won't show you all her cards to the end, and then you'll know what it's all about. I do wish that I could have better understood the characters and their motivations, and I became annoyed with how often various occurrences or items in the story were referred to as "the thing." As in The Eagle of the Ninth, I felt that the dialog was a bit stilted. But when the book was in my hands, I still wanted to see where the story was going and kept reading to find out what would happen to Justin and Flavius. 4 stars.

#136: I still need to get to that one! Thanks for the reminder, Mary.

>137 alcottacre: Hello, Stasia! How was your trip to Joplin? I wish I could've gone, but I think I will stick to trips a little closer to home until I get paid vacation days. :) I hope you enjoy The Silver Branch when you get to it. I'm trying to read through the series at least 'til I get to the point when I can read the book I own - The Lantern Bearers, which is number 4 in the series whether it's read in published or chronological order.

Loved the Joplin trip! I do not get paid vacation days either which was why the meet up was scheduled for a Tuesday. I hope you can make some of the future meet ups, Mary.

I hope so, too! I'm sure one of them will work out someday!

126. Reckless by Cornelia Funke

Ever since his father's disappearance, Jacob Reckless has looked out for his mother and younger brother, Will. One day while searching his father's office, young Jacob finds a mirror that brings him into a world where fairy tales are real - but much like those of another pair of brothers, the world can be dark and deadly. Twelve years later, Will follows his brother into the Mirrorworld, where he is attacked by the Goyl and begins turning into one of them, his skin becoming jade. Prophecies of the Jade Goyl say that he will make their king invincible, but Jacob will do everything in his power to save his brother from becoming one of them.

Ever since I read The Thief Lord, Cornelia Funke has been one of my go-to authors. Her worlds are sometimes dark but always compelling. The Mirrorworld has everything fearful from fairy tales, but the machinations, jealousy, and love of its characters make it seem as real as our own. The ending leaves an opening for more books to come, and I hope that's the case. 4.5 stars.

#141: I have never heard of Funke's Reckless. Thanks for bringing it to my attention. I will see if I can locate a copy.

#141 Cornelia Funke is on my list of 'authors I need to read one day'. Glad you enjoyed that one (and I have made a mental note to bump her up the list).

>142 alcottacre: Stasia, I think it just came out in October. Have you read her other books?

>143 souloftherose: Yup, move her up on the list, Heather! :) The Thief Lord is probably still my favorite, though probably the most different from the rest of her books, too.

127. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix by J.K. Rowling

Lord Voldemort has returned. Cedric Diggory died. Harry is left at the Dursleys again this summer, and no one in telling him anything of importance. He's whisked away to the headquarters of the Order of the Phoenix - a group of adult wizards trying to defeat Voldemort - and finds out that no one else is particularly sure what's going on, either. Voldemort's been keeping quiet, apparently after something that he didn't have last time he was in power; meanwhile, the Ministry refuses to believe Harry and Dumbledore's report of Voldemort's return and has started a smear campaign to discredit them.

This has always been my least favorite of the series, and one that I have not reread as often as the first four. Usually, I get annoyed with Harry and his attitude and his downright whiny behavior, especially in the first half of the book. But this time was different. Maybe it was the fact that I was listening to the audio. Jim Dale's narration really brings out each of the characters and their emotions, and I zone out a little sometimes with stories I'm familiar with. I don't think that's the whole story, though, as I was more prone to stop what I was doing to listen to or read the story. No, I think it was because this was the first time rereading it after I finished the series. Some of the explanations to come made a huge difference in how I interpreted Harry's actions, and I found myself listening for clues to that later revelation. Now I'm really looking forward to going on in the series. A 5-star sentimental favorite.

#144: I read the first couple books in her Inkheart trilogy, but that is it.

ETA: Thanks for the reminder about The Thief Lord too. I still need to get to that one!

:) Hope you enjoy it when you get to it, Stasia. Too many books, too little time, no?

Hi Mary.

I hope all is well with you!

#47: Oh, definitely. If the technology ever exists so that I can live on Venus, I am moving!

>148 Whisper1: Hi Linda! I'm doing fine, how are you?

>149 alcottacre: LOL! If that happens, you'll have a lot of LTers that would want to move too...which would kind of defeat the purpose, in the end. :)

So I slowed way down when I started reading The Ring of Solomon. I loved the Bartimaeus trilogy, but so far this prequel is not living up to that (admittedly very high) standard. I'm about halfway through and it's picking up a bit, but it's missing something... I also started The Mischief of the Mistletoe to help make up for my exceptionally slow reading in a book I expected to finish in two or three days. Oh well...

I was going to watch the NY Giants today...but the Metrodome ceiling caved in under the snow, so they won't be playing 'til tomorrow - in Detroit. If any of you are out there, they're giving out free general admission tickets for a 7:20 kickoff. Meanwhile, I'm working 'til 8 and deciding whether or not to meet my brother and dad at a sports bar after work or going home to listen on the radio. Decisions....

Mary
Both options seem like good ones!

#150: which would kind of defeat the purpose, in the end. :)

No, it wouldn't - the days on Venus are much longer than they are here on Earth!

Hi, Mary! *waves*

Wasn't that something about the Metrodome roof collapse?

>151 Whisper1: Yeah, I ended up going out with my brothers and dad after all. We had fun!

>152 alcottacre: Ah, hadn't factored that in! :)

>153 tymfos: Oh, wasn't it though? I couldn't believe it when I found out the game had been postponed and they had to go to Detroit. Turned out well for my guys, though! :)

Alrighty, at least one book review forthcoming. I only finished one book in the last week, more's the pity, but wow what busyness it has been this holiday season. I still have shopping left and it's looking like I won't get out 'til Saturday along with the rest of the crowd. Ugh. I really miss being able to finish my Christmas shopping before December, but that hasn't happened in a very long time!

128. Bink and Gollie by Kate DiCamillo and Alison McGhee, illustrated by Tony Fucile

This is the story of two friends, Bink and Gollie. Each of them are quite individual, and they don't always agree, but in the end what matters most is their friendship and what they have in common.

Rather unusually for me, I've been sitting on this one for a week, unsure of how to review it. I've always liked-but-not-loved Kate DiCamillo's books, and as I'm not entirely sure why there's just a smidgen of a miss, I was afraid I wouldn't quite be able to convey why this isn't a 4.5 - 5 star read for me. Then there's the fact that there are very few words. Though not a picture book, the story is told as much through illustrations as the wordsm which are primarily used to convey the characters' speech. I like how individual Bink and Gollie are in both looks and temperament, and I like the way the sort of disagreements that friends have is conveyed in a realistic way without coming across as patronizing to the children for whom these spats are very real and very important. 4 stars.

129. The Ring of Solomon by Jonathan Stroud

Before he was summoned by a magician hoping to get revenge in an alternate England, Bartimaeus served one of the many magicians working for King Solomon. Yes, that King Solomon known far and wide for his wisdom and his many wives. But this King Solomon is also known for the ring he possesses, a ring that gives him much power to make demands and to rule over powerful magicians too afraid to cross him. Over in Sheba, young Asmira serves her Queen and country. When Solomon demands that the queen marry him or pay tribute, Queen Balkis sends Asmira on an assassination mission.

Though billed as the prequel to the Bartimaeus Trilogy, this story could absolutely stand on its own. A few characters reappear including, of course, Bartimaeus himself, but this recognition is not necessary at all to the enjoyment of the story. If you have read The Bartimaeus Trilogy, some of the storytelling devices may sound familiar. We are given two characters whose points of view we move between: Bartimaeus and a human. Bartimaeus is his wise-cracking, sarcastic self, and his first-person narration is complete with footnotes. Asmira's side of the story is told in third-person, so we are a little more distanced from her while still understanding her motivations and desires. Unlike The Bartimaeus Trilogy, I wasn't hooked right away. At first the story didn't grip me, and the humor felt forced. But once I hit the halfway point, I felt like something gave. The plot started moving faster, the jokes made me chuckle, and I wanted to devote reading time to seeing what happened. Once again, Bartimaeus won me over. 4 stars.

#156 - Oh good, I've got that up to read in the next week or so.

I'm also in the 'like don't love Kate DiCamillo's books' camp. I feel several of her books are appealing to adults reading children's books than for children themselves.

>157 avatiakh: Yes, I think that's true. I read The Tale of Despereaux and liked it alright while I was reading it, but my pervading memory of it is my thought on her explanation of "perfidy": "If I was a kid reading a book that told me to look up a word in a dictionary, I would've put it down right then!"

I'm one who loves Kate DiCamillo's books. I recently read The Magician's Elephant and was swept away.

I'm adding Bink And Gollie to the tbr pile.

#156: You remind me that I need to get back to the Bartimaeus trilogy. I have only read the first book thus far.

>159 Whisper1: Hope you enjoy it, Linda!

>160 alcottacre: Yes, do get back to it, Stasia, those books are great! In fact, it's been awhile since I read them and I've been thinking of rereading them soon.

#161: I picked up book 2 at the library so I will be reading it soon.

drive-by *smooch*

ETA D'oh! I completely forgot why I came here in the first place! Have you made your 2011 thread yet? The forum's up!

>162 alcottacre: Oh goody, can't wait to see what you think, Stasia!

>163 richardderus: *smooch* back at'cha, and thanks for the reminder. I have joined the 2011 group but haven't set up a thread yet. I will by the 1st at the latest. :) Life's been busy lately, so no promises.

K

>165 richardderus: :) 'Course I have nothing on some other folks in the group. This just happens to be the first Christmas season that I've been working full-time hours (between two part-time jobs), so I'm trying to both get ready for going over to my parents for the holidays and housesitting for a family friend, and finding all the prep overwhelming.

All this to say I might set up a thread sooner than January 1st, and I'll make sure to include a link when I do! :)

130. The Mischief of the Mistletoe by Lauren Willig

The daughter of a vicar, Arabella had been the companion of a rich aunt, but when said aunt married a young man that had once appeared interested in Arabella herself, she was sent home in disgrace. Despite her friend Jane Austen's urging to the contrary, Arabella decides to become a teacher at a girl's finishing school, hoping that her position will allow her younger sisters to attend. Then she meets Turnip Fitzhugh - or rather, he bowls her over. Add to this a rather mysterious Christmas pudding that unexpectedly brings her and Turnip together once again, and let the shenanigans begin.

A co-worker recommended this to me saying I might enjoy the witty repartee between characters. I did, though it was far to witty and a little silly to be realistic. It's light fun, perfect for the week before Christmas craziness of a moment to read here and there between errands and after work and when I generally didn't want a taxing read. Though not without faults, such as the sometimes ridiculous dialogue exchanges between characters, I enjoyed it enough to look up the rest of the series. 4 stars. Read for the Christmas TIOLI challenge.

Alright, I caved and did it early. :)

Here's my first 2011 Thread.

But I'll still be posting finished books here through the end of the year, of course! :)

131. The Christmas Chronicles: The Legend of Santa Claus by Tim Slover

One day, a man drives up into the Colorado Rockies to collect boughs for Christmas decorations. His car gets stuck, and as he's trudging along he smells the scent of peppermint and sees a man in a sleigh pulled by a reindeer, Ranulf. A grey fog chases them, but can't quite catch them as they manage to get onto a road that appears out of nowhere, leaving behind a green book. Though engulfed by the fog and momentarily despairing, the man manages to grab the book and take it home. Perusing it that night, he finds the true story of Klaus, a carpenter in a small village, who carves toys and gifts them to children in his village after it is decimated by the Black Plague.

This holiday story reads quickly, taking me a mere three sittings to finish it. It's a cute story, playing on the conventions of Santa Claus and giving a different spin or explanation for many of the legends surrounding the Jolly Old Elf, sometimes to humorous effect. Even so, I found it overly treacly, like it was trying too hard to be inspirational (and this is coming from someone who reads A Christmas Carol every year). Cute and sweet, but not very challenging, The Legend of Santa Claus is a story I enjoyed alright while I read it but it won't stay in my mind long. 3 stars.

Of course! So will I.

Well that's good, especially if you carry out your threat not to start a new one until the middle of January! I think many of us would go through a Sunday book withdrawal, as much as we complain about your adding to our TBR piles. :)

#171: Nope, not starting a thread until mid-January. Then I can really pile it on everyone with my first Sunday report of the year, lol.

>172 alcottacre: :) Looking forward to it, even if I groan about the additions to my TBR list.

#173: Well, at the rate my reading is going right now, it is pretty much an empty threat. Too much else going on now to get much reading done!

>174 alcottacre: Yes, the next few days will be much the same for me. I finished a book last night, and I think I can fit in A Christmas Carol today, but that will most likely be the extent of books I finish until after the weekend.

Edited to add - Well, I was going to add something but now I don't know what...

#175: We will just have to read tons next week to make up for it!

132. An Assembly Such as This by Pamela Aidan

If you know Pride and Prejudice, you already know the "what" of this story and the sequels to follow. As this is the story from Darcy's point of view, however, you may not be acquainted with the "how." Instead of following the Bennets through their mother's machinations, dinner conversations, trips to dances and London, we follow Darcy and Bingley.

While this story may be retreading familiar ground, I thoroughly enjoyed it. Aidan clearly loves Austen, and her familiarity with Pride and Prejudice comes through strongly in her use of particular scenes and her reinterpretation of them. Sometimes the dialogue is straight from the original, and other times the conversation is subtly changed, as if each party had remembered the incident with a slightly different emphasis or wording. Her characters ring true to me, and I enjoyed her explanation of Darcy's thoughts behind some of his statements. As this is the first story in the trilogy, the book only goes as far as Darcy and Bingley's retreat to London, the section that I personally found to be the weakest. Even so, it was a delightful story and I look forward to reading the rest of the trilogy. 4.5 stars.

A Merry Christmas everyone! (Or take the holiday of your choice if you don't happen to celebrate Christmas.) Hope your holidays are truly special! I'll be awfully busy over the next few days between family stuff and the Giants' game (oh wait, that counts as family stuff) so if you don't see hide nor hair of me 'til the 27th, you know why!

Have a wonderful Christmas yourself, Mary!

Merry Christmas Mary! I hope you enjoy the time with your family.

#172 Well your first thread of 2011 will get filled up with people posting 'hellos' anyway I suppose :-P

#132 I've always been put off any Jane Austen sequels but I may try that one at some point.

Wishing you a Merry Christmas Mary!

Thanks, Stasia and Marie!

One more book in before Christmas...

133. A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens

My yearly reread for at least the last five years now, this is one of my all-time favorite Christmas stories. I like just about every adaptation I've seen of it, including (maybe especially) the Muppets. Because of all those rereads and wide variety of movies I've since seen, I'm not really sure what attracts me to it anymore, except perhaps its ultimately hopeful redemption story as old Ebenezer Scrooge changes from old, lonely miser to a caring human being. Then there's the fact of its very familiarity, the comfort of a reread and result that nothing says "Christmas" to me like returning to this tale. 5 stars for a sentimental favorite.

>181 souloftherose: Whoops, and a hi Heather, too! Didn't see your post before. Hope you enjoy it if you do read it. I think sequels are tough, because readers/rabid fans of the author (who, me?) can be very critical of any differing interpretation of the characters and story, but this one stood up well, at least to my own interpretations. :)

Hope everyone had a great Christmas/holiday season.
I can't believe it's almost the New Year!

134. Surprised by Joy by C.S. Lewis

In his introduction, Lewis makes it clear that he is not writing your normal autobiography, but is writing specifically about the events leading up to his conversion to Christianity. In some ways, I found it to be the autobiography of a mind and heart, from his early days in boarding school, his interests in mythology, and his growing dissatisfaction with the philosophies he once adhered to.

I have difficulty conceiving of anyone enjoying the book unless they agreed with either his particular scholar's mind or his belief in the God of Christianity. I happen to be in the latter camp, and confess that at times his mind eluded me. Whole passages referring either to the books that most moved him or schools of modern thought of his times completely eluded my grasp, and I can only conclude that my mind must work very differently from his or that I must have a longer time on this earth before I can fully grasp his reflections on childhood, boyhood, and young adulthood. Yet then a sentence, a thought, would break through and give me pause or move me to tears. This is a book that I would reread not so much because of any initial enjoyment but because my appreciation would increase, perhaps once I read another biography or some of the classics which molded his thought. 4.5 stars.

That's one of Lewis' books I have yet to read, but I hope to someday. Thanks for your reflections. :)

I enjoy Surprised by Joy very much. It is probably my favorite of Lewis' books. I really need to read it again.

>185 dk_phoenix: You're welcome, Faith, hope you enjoy the book when you get to it!

>186 alcottacre: Surprised by Joy kind of grew on me, Stasia. It was an interesting experience, since I often read (fiction or nonfiction) wanting to connect with the characters and sympathize with them. For the most part, I didn't feel like I *got* Lewis' thought processes as he explains them but I still ended up rather fascinated and wanting to understand. I think if I were to read, say, a biography of him and go back to the first volume of his letters, I would understand that much more if I were to reread.

Speaking of his letters, that was actually why I decided to read Surprised by Joy now. Well, it's been on my TBR longlist for years, but I finally bought it in January after starting the first volume of his letters. The footnotes kept referencing Surprised by Joy and I finally decided I did not want to read the synopsis of the book in footnotes. So now I'm free to go back to the letters and have that much more of a richer understanding of them having read his autobiography.

135. I Shall Wear Midnight by Terry Pratchett

The fourth and last of the Tiffany Aching series begins with Tiffany set apart from the rest of the town. She is a witch. Roland will barely acknowledge that they were once friends, and the townspeople look on her with distrust. They need her, and they don't like that they need their witch. She soon realizes, however, that something much more dark and sinister than the townspeople is behind their distrust.

I really enjoyed returning to Tiffany Aching's Discworld. This book was the most connected to the larger series, with references to the wizarding university, Ankh-Morpork, and other characters familiar to series readers. Yet it works as a standalone as well. It had been four years since I read Wintersmith, but had no trouble following the story line and appreciated the short references that reminded me of Tiffany's past advantages adventures without devolving into paragraphs of exposition. While a few elements left me scratching my head, the story moves along at a steady pace and I read it in a day. 4 stars.

Note - I'm realizing as I write this how much my rating system has changed over the last couple of years. I remember Wintersmith as not being as good as the first two books in the series, but looking back in my notebook I gave it a check plus (the equivalent of 4.5 to 5 stars), which in the past hasn't just meant a book I would reread, but one that was ultimately a satisfying reading experience. That rating has been "demoted" so to speak, to 4 stars in the last few years. So as far as I remember it, I actually liked I Shall Wear Midnight better than Wintersmith, but the ratings they have in my library don't actually reflect that. Oh well. I can't very well go back and change a book that I read four years ago, I don't trust my memory that much. :)

Edited to correct my spelling (advantages, adventures, what's the diff?)

#188: My local library does not have I Shall Wear Midnight yet, so I am kind of holding off on reading Wintersmith until it does.

#184 I still haven't read that one. I did try to read Mere Christianity and found the beginning of that very offputting. It felt like he was addressing himself to someone of a particular class and with a particular background that most people (in the UK at least) wouldn't have. I think part of that is the time in which he was writing. I need to try and read that one again but your description of Surprised by Joy reminded me a little of my feelings trying to read Mere Christianity.

>189 alcottacre: Stasia, you don't tend to enjoy Terry Pratchett's humor, do you? What did you think of the first two Tiffany Aching books?

>190 souloftherose: I read Mere Christianity years ago and remember it taking awhile and being rather difficult for such a short book. One thing that was rather interesting about Surprised by Joy was Lewis' comments about his schooling and his reactions to some of the books he read. I was thinking it might be interesting to make a list between that and his letters to try to, I don't know, understand how his mind works a little better. I love C.S. Lewis (Till We Have Faces is one of my all-time favorites, not to mention The Chronicles of Narnia which I've read and reread since I was a child), but sometimes I feel like our ways of thinking miss each other, as much as I tend to agree with his conclusions.

Hi Mary!

Happy New Year to you! One of my highlights of '10 was meeting you at Richard's party.

Linda! Richard's party and meeting all you great people was one of the highlights of 2010 for me, too. Best wishes for the new year!

#189: I liked the first two books in the Tiffany Aching series, Mary. My local library does not have the last book in the series yet, and I am holding off on reading book 3, so that I can read them together.

>194 alcottacre: Hope you enjoy them when you get to them, Stasia! I look forward to seeing your thoughts.

So when I get the end-of-the-year cleaning bug, instead of actually tidying up my place, what do I do? Clean up my old threads and redirect to the new...

Here's the last reading wrap-ups:

November
116. The Lost Hero by Rick Riordan
117. Freak the Mighty by Rodman Philbrick (audio)
118. Solomon's Oak by Jo-Ann Mapson
119. Where the Mountain Meets the Moon by Grace Lin (audio)
120. All Clear by Connie Willis
121. Running the Books: The Adventures of an Accidental Prison Librarian by Avi Steinberg
122. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J.K. Rowling (1/2 audio, 1/2 read)
123. The Great Divorce by C.S. Lewis
124. Christmas at the Mysterious Bookshop by Otto Penzler
125. The Silver Branch by Rosemary Sutcliff

Books read - 7.5
Audiobooks listened to - 2.5
Standouts - Freak the Mighty and All Clear

December
126. Reckless by Cornelia Funke
127. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix by J.K. Rowling (audio)
128. Bink and Gollie by Kate DiCamillo
129. The Ring of Solomon by Jonathan Stroud
130. The Mischief of the Mistletoe by Lauren Willig
131. The Christmas Chronicles: The Legend of Santa Claus by Tim Slover
132. An Assembly Such as This by Pamela Aidan
133. A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens
134. Surprised by Joy by C.S. Lewis
135. I Shall Wear Midnight by Terry Pratchett

Books read - 9
Audiobooks listened to - 1
Standouts - Surprised by Joy, if only because it gave me a lot to think about; for pure enjoyment, An Assemby Such as This

BEST OF 2010
Completely subjective and sadly could not contain all the books I wanted to. I had to stop somewhere.

Fiction:
Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky
Doomsday Book by Connie Willis
Major Pettigrew's Last Stand by Helen Simonson
The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
Bury Your Dead by Louise Penny - actually, reading this entire series is a standout in the year to me, but this one even more so than the rest
Savvy by Ingrid Law
Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson
Persuasion by Jane Austen

Nonfiction:
The Lexicographer's Dilemma by Jack Lynch
At Large and at Small by Anne Fadiman
Essays of E.B. White by E.B. White
The Library at Night by Alberto Manguel

Poetry:
Native Guard by Natasha Trethewey

BECAUSE I WANT TO AWARDS:
Most memorable but not best loved - Montana 1948
Left me most impatient for the next book - Incarceron by Catherine Fisher
Most surpassed by expectations - Cranford by Elizabeth Gaskell
Most fun to recommend - Soulless by Gail Carriger

Hope to see you all in 2011! As I don't expect to be finishing any more books this year, I'm officially moving house to my 75 Books in 2011 thread.

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year, Mary! I am so grateful for the opportunity to meet you this year. Maybe we can do it again sometime :)

Happy New Year Mary! Great best of list :-)

>198 alcottacre: I would love that, Stasia! Happy New Year to you as well!

>199 souloftherose: Thanks, Heather, and a Happy New Year to you too!

Yeah, I really need to figure out a way I can visit that part of the country on a regular basis. Not only do I have family up that way, I also now have a ton of 75ers friends up there as well!

>201 alcottacre: We should definitely have another meet-up in the New England/New York area. :) Not that I wouldn't want to visit folks in other places, but right now my budget rather limits my traveling options.

haha...apparently so excited to post my review of a book, I neglected to check what year I was posting it to...moving it to my 2011 thread!

#202: I understand that problem completely!

LOL Stasia, I can just imagine how much trouble I'd have if my threads ever proliferated at the rate yours do! :)

I have figured out the way to keep them from proliferating - do not have one! :)