fmgee's 2012 adventure

This is the first time I have done this challenge and my goal is a very simple one book from each category as I have no idea where my reading will go this year.

1: Garage Sale Books (yep those magical finds from early Saturday mornings and it has to be found in 2012, I'll even list the price)

2: Books off the shelf (the ones that have been waiting there a little too long)

3: Canadian Books (It would be good to finish my Canada reading challenge so this may help) http://www.librarything.com/topic/98797

4: Australia Books (Inpired by the Canadian challenge which I have loved I started in Australian States challenge group so I really need to get reading!) http://www.librarything.com/topic/121936

5: Bird Books (My other hobby so this won't be hard but might be obscure)

6: Kid Books (The books I never read growing up and those special ones I read with my kids)

7: World Reading (part of my global reading challenge) http://www.librarything.com/topic/96067

8: John Steinbeck (I was on a kick years ago but only read some of his works. It is time to add some more)

9: Farley Mowat (I only just started reading Farley a couple of years ago and there are few better story tellers so I want to work through many of his books)

10: The Novel 100 (Okay so I found it in the bargain books sections of my local book store but it is fascinating reading and this category is for books listed in here)

11: Buddhism

12: Open for anything that does not fit in anywhere else

1: Garage Sale Books

1: The Mysterious Affair at Styles by Agatha Christie, 196 pages, finished Feb 23rd (3.5 stars). Okay this was not a garage sale book but I paid $2.25 for this copy, a hardcover from The Agatha Christie Mystery Collection published by Bantam, so it can be my goal to add cheaper books over time.
2: And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie, 194pg, finished Feb 28th (4 stars). Same deal as above!
3: The Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Agatha Christie, 212pg, finished March 21st (3.5 stars). Same deal again.
4: The thirty-nine steps by John Buchan, 120pg, finished April 1st (4 stars). $1.00 for a lovely hardcover!
5: The Murder on the links Agatha Christie, 220pg, finished May 1st (4 stars) 75 cents so best value so far!
Ideas: who knows but I love a 10 cents great read so lets wait and see what the season brings

2: Books off the shelf

1: Love in the time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, 348pg, finished June 19th (3.5 stars)

Ideas:
Love in the time of Cholera

3: Canadian Books

1: I Never Liked You by Chester Brown 185pg finished Jan 1st (2.5 stars)
2: Louis Riel by Chester Brown , 260 pg finished Feb 9th (3.5 stars)
3: The Sisters Brothers by Patrick DeWitt , 330pg finished Mar 24th (4 stars)
4: Inukshuk by Gregory Spatz, 220pg finished June 18th (5 stars)
5: Half Blood Blues by Esi Edugyan, 309pg finished June 26th (4 stars)
6: The Cat's Table by Michael Ondaatje, 270pg finished July7th (4 stars)
7: Bachelor Brothers Bed and Breakfast by Bill Richardson, 152pg finished August 15th (4.5 stars)
8: Border Songs by Jim Lynch, 291pg finished Sept 10th (4.5 stars)
Ideas:
Mercy Among Children which is in progress
Half Blood Blues
Mrs Mike
The Book of Negroes

4: Australia Books

1: Cocaine Blues by Kerry Greenwood, 175pg, completed Jan 1st (3 stars)
2: The Barrakee Mystery by Arthur Upfield, 262pg, completed April 8th (4.5 stars)
3: The Sands of Windee by Arthur Upfield, 291pg, completed May 30th (5 stars)
4: Wings Above the Diamantina by Arthur Upfield, 236pg, completed June 5th (5 stars)
5: Murder Must Wait by Arthur Upfield, 190pg, completed Oct 7th (4.5 stars)
6: Mr Jelly's Business by Arthur Upfield, 226pg, completed Oct 20th (4 stars)
7: The Getting of Wisdom by Henry Handel Richardson, 233pg, completed Nov 2nd (4 stars)

Ideas:
One wet season
Clean Straw for Nothing after reading My Brother Jack last year which is one of the best books I have ever read, I think I need to consider the sequel soon.
something by Patrick White as I just joined the Patrick White 100th Anniversary challenge http://www.librarything.com/groups/patrickwhite100thann

5: Bird Books

1: For the Birds The Life of Roger Tory Peterson by Peggy Thomas,40pg completed April 11 (3.5 stars)

Ideas
Arrivals and Rivals A Birding Oddity: A Year of Competitive Twitching
The Biggest Twitch
Wild America

6: Kid Books

1: Diary of a Wimpy Kid Cabin Fever by Jeff Kinney, 217pg completed Jan 23rd (3.5 stars)
2: Sun on the Stubble by Colin Thiele, 172pg, completed April 1st (3.5 stars)
3: Storm Boy by Colin Thiele, 60pg, completed July 7th (3.5 stars)
4: Star Wars: The Wrath of Darth Maul by Ryder Windham, 216 pages, completed August 25th (1.5 stars)

Ideas
A wrinkle in time
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

7: World Reading

1: Mister Pip by Lloyd Jones, 256pg, completed Jan 15th (5 stars)
2: Return to Tibet by Heinrich Harrer, 192pg, completed Feb 20th (3.5 stars)
3: The Templar Salvation by Raymond Khoury, 573pg completed March 4th (2 stars)
4: The Sheltering Desert by Henno Martin, 203pg completed April 16th (3.5 stars)
5: The Romanovs and Mr Gibbes by Frances Welch, 140pg completed June 8th (3.5 stars)
6: The Cricket Match by Hugh De Selencourt, 194pg completed June 21st (4 stars)

Ideas
Return to Tibet

8: John Steinbeck

1: The Pearl by John Steinbeck, 122pg completed Sept 16th (3 stars)

Ideas:
To a God Unknown
The Pastures of Heaven
The Pearl

9: Farley Mowat

1: Born Naked Farley Mowat, 256 pg, completed July 18th (3 stars)

Ideas:
The Dog who wouldn't be
Curse of the Viking Grave

10: The Novel 100

1: Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy, 838pg completed Jan 28th (5 stars) (number 13 in the Novel 100)
2: Great Expectations by Charles Dickens, 432pg completed Feb 15th (4.5 stars) (number 16 in the Novel 100)
3: Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe, 209pg completed July 18th (5 stars) (number 56 in the Novel 10
4: The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway, 247pg completed July 25th (4 stars) (second hundred honourable mention)
5: As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner, 261pg completed August 4th (3.5 stars) (second hundred honourable mention)
6: Middlemarch by George Eliot, 853pg completed Oct 24th (4 stars) (number 8 in the Novel 100)

11: Buddhism

1: Kim by Rudyard Kipling, 306pg completed March 17th (3 stars)
2: Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse, 160pg completed July 15th (3.5 stars)
3: The Buddha's Diamonds by Carolyn Marsden, 106pg, completed August 24th (3.5 stars)
4: How to Practice The Way to a Meaningful Life by the Dalai Lama, 226pg, completed Sept 16th (2.5 stars)

Ideas
In the Buddha's Words
The Heart of Buddha's Teaching

12: Open

1: Breakfast at Tiffany's by Truman Capote, 161 pg, completed Jan 8th (4.5 stars)
2: The Salon by Nick Bertozzi, 180pg, completed Feb 2nd (4 stars)
3: Motel Art Improvement Service by Jason Little, 202pg completed Feb 18th (3 stars)
4: Freeway by Mark Kalesniko, 416pg completed March 20th (4 stars)
5: The Jefferson Key by Steve Berry, 456pg, completed April 24th (3.5 stars)
6: Poirot Investigates by Agatha Christie, audio, completed July 18th (3 stars)
7: Baseball Yesterday & Today by Josh Leventhal, 146pg, completed August 6th (3 stars)
8: Calico Joe by John Grisham, 198pg, completed August 17th (4 stars)
9: Bonk: The curious coupling of science and sex by Mary Roach, audio book, completed Sept 6th (3.5 stars)
10: I'm warning you Horse by Murray Ball, completed in Sept (3 stars)
11: I am half sick of shadows by Alan Bradley, 271pg, completed Oct 2nd (3.5 stars)
12: Sappho: A New Translation by Sappho, 114pg, completed Oct 20th (3 stars)
13: Wherever I wind up by RA Dickey, 340pg, completed OCt 27th (2.5 stars)
14: The Private patient by PD James, 395pg, completed Nov 8th (3.5 stars)
15: The Last of the Bird People by John Hanson Mitchell, 179pg, completed Nov 12th (2.5 Stars)
16: The Catcher in the Rye by JD Salinger, 214pg, completed Dec 2nd (2.5 stars)

Great to see you here! Have fun with your challenge... it can be surprising where your reading can take you - and feel free to tweak your challenge over the year if you want to... that it totally allowed!

Mrs. Mike is well worth the read! I hope you read it and enjoy it!

I keep meaning to read more from Farley Mowat but never get round to picking another one up. I've only read Never Cry Wolf so far and really enjoyed it. Maybe your reading will be the push I seem to need to grab hold of another. Good luck with your challenge.

Great topics! Looking forward to following your progress in 2012! :)

>6 fmgee: The Big Year by Mark Obmascik would fit your bird category if you haven't read it. It was a fun read and they are making it into a movie.

I am so pleased to see you are reading Mowat's books. I had a little chuckle this morning when I was reading Margaret Atwood's The Year of the Flood. She gave Mowat a nod by referring to a saint called "Saint Farley of the Wolves". His Never Cry Wolf is one of my favorites. Then I remembered they were both Canadians.

14: Thanks lkernagh
15: I have heard a lot about Mrs Mike so I am excited to start it.
16, and 19: There is something in the fact that Farley never let the truth get in the way of a good story which I love. I was introduced to him through The Boat that wouldn't float which is laugh out loud funny. In 2011 I read The Regiment, And no birds sang, and Aftermath: Travels in a Post-War World.
17: Thanks!
18: I read this soon after it came out and went to enjoy the movie earlier this year. The movie is not as good as the book but I am picky about getting the birds correct! There is an Australian Book called The Big Twitch which is similar and very funny for this kind of book

>Yes, Mrs. Mike was good. These posts reminded me I had read the book awhile back. I've always felt I had an adventurous nature, but these women who ventured into true wilderness were quite amazing.

Thanks for the mention of The Big Twitch. I will put it on the ever increasing TBR list.

As you have a Steinbeck category check out the Steinbeck in September group read thread (when there is one)

thanks psutto, I am looking forward to that. I need to sit down and remember what I have read and what I need to read.

I'm planning on reading Half Blood Blues once it's available here in the States (some time in February).

I like your Steinbeck category. I read East of Eden in 2010 and plan to read Grapes of Wrath this year. Happy New Year - still waiting for it here on this side of the world :)

Well I finished Cocaine Blues this morning so it becomes book number one.

It is a light mystery set in the 1920. The first of a long series of Phryne Fisher mysteries set in Melbourne, Australia. Given that it is only 175 pages long the amount of time spent describing garments was disappointing but I did like the over the top characters and story. (3 stars)

Book 2: I Never Liked You by Chester Brown.

I actually did not meant to read this book. A library hold management malfunction on my part caused a huge number of books to arrive for me at the library just before Christmas. This was one of them. I though I would just take a look and see if I needed to get it back on my hold list before returning it to the library and started reading it. A while later I finished it.

Late last year I read Chester Brown's Paying for it which was his memoir of his time using prostitutes and arguing about long term relationships being a bad thing. I had seen some reviews that suggested the book was interesting and I am just starting to explore the idea of the graphic novel. So I found Paying for it very thought provoking, not because of all the arguments about prostitution and legalizing or decriminalizing it but because of how open Chester Brown was about his emotions (or lack of them) and it made me wonder how did he end up the way he is. I really do not think this was the point of the book but I found Chester to be flawed somehow and this kind of thing typically has a dark background. It was by far the best graphic novel I have read so decided to track down more of his work.

I never liked you was not particularly good but reading it after Paying for it told me a lot about why Chester is such a complicated person. The book is set when Chester is a child and deals with his friends and early relationships with girls and his mother when he was in school.

Whether you love or hate Chester Brown's work I give him a huge amount of credit for opening up and putting it all out there. I will be tracking down more of his works in the future.

A library hold management malfunction on my part caused a huge number of books to arrive for me at the library just before Christmas.

I can relate to that. My excuse when that happens is "end user error" ;-)

Great categories! I found and starred your new thread. I hope you will love The Book of Negroes as much as I did. I am hoping to get to Mrs. Mike sometime this year, but am not certain if I will get to it or not.

I also love the Farley Mowat books in your wishlist. I just *loved* Lost in the Barrens, and I think I have most of his books buried in mount TBR... I may have to unbury some sooner than later, so do let me know how you enjoy them! :)

Thanks Janice. Reading your 11 in 11 inspired me to give it a go this year. I am not sure which Mowat book I will read this year but I agree with you that Lost int he Barrens was wonderful. I look forward to following your thread again this year

Book 3: Breakfast at Tiffany's by Truman Capote. I have to confess to not even knowing that this was a book (this does happen to me an aweful lot lately). I have not seen the movie but was aware of it and had previously read In Cold Blood by Truman Capote which was a good book but did not exactly inspire me to read more of his work. So when I found out he had written Breakfast at Tiffany's I knew I had to give it a try as the gore levels should be kept in check and I could just enjoy the writing.

I really enjoyed the book. The character of Holly Golightly would annoy me greatly in real life but somehow she is you cannot help but like her and want to know more about her as was the case with all the male characters in the book. We never really learn a lot about who she is and always wonder if what we know is true. For such a short novel I was impressed at how much was in there and how engrossed I became.

The three short stories at the end were all very different but each one was a pleasure to read.

You review has reminded me it has been a number of years since i last read Breakfast at Tiffany's. Long overdue for a re-read!

Book number 4: Mister Pip by LLoyd Jones.

I knew nothing about this book when I found it at the used bookstore but somehow it made it onto the counter with a few others and I started reading it that night. Now three days later I think I am going to miss it as I had trouble putting it down.

The book tells the story of Matilda, a young girl living in Bougainville, Papua New Guinea and her teacher the only remaining white man in the war ravaged region. The teacher reads the class Great Expectations by Charles Dickens as "life" in this small village goes on.

This book reminds me of The Secret River by Kate Grenville as it has some suck in your breath moments. Jones does a wonderful job of putting you in a place that is unfamiliar but easy to imagine. I don't want to give away anything so will just say that I greatly enjoyed this book and recommend it to everyone.

I read Mister Pip a couple of years ago, and it is definitely a book that stays with you!

Book number 5: Diary of a Wimpy Kid Cabin Fever by Jeff Kinney

This was a Christmas gift to my 7 year old daughter. She is a fanatical reader and has been hooked on various series like Rainbow Fairies and Geronimo Stilton. I quickly grew weary of reading essentially the same book to her over and over again but now she reads more and more to herself and a steady supply from the library is giving her lots of choice. I had yet to read on of the Wimpy Kid books that I have seen her with and I was pleasantly surprised that I did enjoy this one.

Book number 6: Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy.

I started this book in late December with the intention of not rushing and trying to enjoy it. I was amazed at how readable it was and how I really got into the characters. The descriptions were amazing. It seems to be a slice of life from 19th century Russia without anything over the top and so much of the internal struggles of the characters are not restricted to any time period.

I certainly wish to read more of Tolstoy... War and Peace??? hmm I'll have to see about that.

I love Anna Karenina as well. It's one of my favorites and I'm planning to reread it this year. I've read War and Peace and enjoyed it too, but it's not as easy to read as AK. It has more of what I consider diversions about the war and those sections took me a long time to get through. It's definitely worth the time though - just not as readable as AK.

I can completely imagine a reread of Anna Karenina. I tried to not know much of the story going in and I got a little worried at various stages of the book wondering what would happen. With a reread I can imagine enjoying the story unfold even more and really enjoying the descriptions.

Thanks for your view on War and Peace. That description is what I imagined it to be but it is good to know it is worth it. I might have to get a copy of the Pevear/ Volokhonsky translation in the house

Inspired by lkernagh's summary for January I thought I would try one. Plus it helps me figure out this html stuff

I read 6 books in January which is higher than a normal month but it is winter and many of the books were short.
3 library books
1 new to me Used book
1 book borrowed from my daughter
1 from my TBR pile

1832 pages or 59 pages a day which is totally helped by the above mentioned.

The six books went into six different categories

1: Garage Sale Books
still waiting for those sales to start
2: Books off the shelf
3: Canadian Books
~ I Never Liked you
4: Australia Books
5: Bird Books
6: Kid Books
~ Diary of a wimpy kid Cabin Fever
7: World Reading
~ Mister Pip
8: John Steinbeck
9: Farley Mowat
10: The Novel 100
~ Anna Karenina
11: Buddhism
12: Open for anything that does not fit in anywhere else
~ Breakfast at Tiffany's

I stared the challenge committing to only a single book per category. I am now willing to say that I plan to read more as these categories cover pretty much everything that I do read. Some of them will end with only one book while others may have many.

Nice summary, great reading for the month of January and I think you are getting the htlm stuff quite nicely! ;-)

woohoo I just managed to find a used copy of War and Peace in the Pevear and Volokhonsky translation for $5.07


now can I find the time to read it this year?

Book number 7 The Salon by Nick Bertozzi



A graphic novel murder mystery set around the modernist movement in the art world staring people like Picasso. This book was a little quirky but I really enjoyed it. I enjoyed the art work and simple use of colour. The story was fun even though it was outlandish.

Aww! So glad you are particpating this year! I have been very very bad in keeping up with my reviews, will try to correct that. Having a great time reading your reviews... I guess I should not be surprised we are the two people with Wimpy Kid books tagged :P

Mr. Pip sounds fantastic (especially given I just read Great Expectations) so thank you for your review! It is also part of the What is Stephen Harper Reading reading list that I am working through, so I will be reading it eventually. Hopefully sooner rather than later. :) I keep meaning to re-read Anna Karenina as I read it in high school, but I haven't had the time yet... I have a kindle version buried in mount TBR :P

Great thread!

ps- If you are thinking of reading Year of the Flood by Atwood, I recommend it... In it is a sort of back to nature religious cult (God's Gardeners) who have made saints of various environmental figures... several Canadian names feature, how does Saint Mowat of the Wolves strike you? ;)

42: Hey great to see you active again. That is hilarious about the Wimpy Kid books. My daughter keeps wanting me to read more of them. I told her after she does a book report on War and Peace like Charlie Brown I would consider it. I think Mr Pip is a must read. It is the only reason I decided to pick up Great Expectations. Classics seem to be featuring heavily for me this year and I am enjoying the fact that they are far less daunting in the reading compared to the anticipation of reading them.

I have only read one Atwood and it did not got well but it was years ago. I just read your reviews and I have never been more tempted to try again. I might have to see if I can find a copy of one of them somewhere.

I suggest you go for it! :) Glad you are joining us for Great Expectations... this is the group read that might just make me a dickens fan :P

Book number 8: Louis Riel by Chester Brown.



What an interesting format for a biography. I really did enjoy it and learned a lot about a part of Canadian history that I knew nothing. However, I am also left wanting to know more. I am not sure that I got enough from this one book. Of course there are limitations to what a picture can tell and Chester Brown did a good job of expressing emotions of individuals given the contraints.

I have that book buried in mount TBR for the What is Stephen Harper Reading? reading challenge. I was lucky enough to snap up a damaged copy at the library sale. I actually have an uncle who played Riel in the play in Regina several years in a row. Still very big in Saskatchewan.

Wow that is a good find at a library sale. I am not sure how people buy book that can be read so quickly at full price! Still they are nice books

Book Number 9: Great Expectations by Charles Dickens



Well what can be said about this book. I was scared to start it as I was worried about the language but that was not a problem at all. I only considered this book after finishing Mister Pip earlier this year and then as there was a group read this month it jumped to the top of my pile. I enjoyed the first half of the book. Dickens does a wonderful job creating characters and has excellent names for them all. I found the book slowed a little before a wonderful third volume with all the pace and excitement you would expect in a modern day novel. I really do not want to give anything away to people who have not read this book. If you have not picked it up and tried it I think you should!

Book Number 10: Motel Art Improvement Service by Jason Little



Another graphic novel that tells the story of Bee a quirky, young, adventure seeking adult who finds herself mixed up with a fame shunning artist and a whole lot of drugs. The artwork was good and I like how Bee was drawn but the whole story was a little off.

I really should have considered a graphic novel category. I only just started to read them last year and have had a fairly mixed experience with the ones I have grabbed from the library. Still it is always fun to try something new.

Book Number 11: Return to Tibet by Heinrich Harrer



I read Seven Years in Tibet last year and did not know a second book existed until recently. Harrer's writing is not as well organised as it could be but the subject is so fascinating that it is okay. Return to Tibet is about Harrer travelling back to Lhasa as a tourist 30 years after fleeing the invading Chinese. The descriptions of destruction of very old monasteries and suppression of the Tibetan people and their culture was quite sad. The book is a great addition to the first, I wish there were another one written in the last few years.

Book Number 12: The Mysterious Affair at Styles by Agatha Christie

Well how can you describe a murder mystery without giving something away? I think I will take the safe route and just say that I had a lot of fun reading this book over the last few days. This is the first of many Hercule Poirot books written by Agatha Christie. I have enjoyed watching some of the TV adaptions of this character and read Murder on the Orient Express a couple of years ago. After starting this one I raced back to the bookstore and made sure that I picked up some more so I can always have one at hand.

Book Number 13: And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie

Wow this was a good one. Like many murder mysteries you have no idea who is the murderer till the end and there are really no clues that give it away. This was a fast read but still a lot of fun

Feb Summary:

Okay so 7 books in a month is getting a little over the top for me. As three of them were graphic novels and two were short mysteries it makes some sense. Still I will not be keeping up this pace for the rest of the year!

4 books from the library
2 new to me used books
1 from my TBR pile.

Actually the last one only made it onto the pile in mid January so it could almost go in the previous category. So much for books off the shelf I just keep filling it up!

1659 pages for the month or 57 pages a day.

1: Garage Sale Books
The Mysterious Affair at Styles
And Then There Were None
2: Books off the shelf
3: Canadian Books
Louis Riel
4: Australia Books
5: Bird Books
6: Kid Books
7: World Reading
Return to Tibet
8: John Steinbeck
9: Farley Mowat
10: The Novel 100
Great Expectations
11: Buddhism
12: Open for anything that does not fit in anywhere else
The Salon
Motel Art Improvement Service

Books that are underway for March
The Templar Salvation
Kim as part of the group read
Storm Boy an Aussie classic I need to reread

Oh I love the book covers banner in your round up! I am planning to read Great Expectations this year but I am very nervous as I don't think I will enjoy it all, still at least I will know for sure that I dislike Dickens when I have actually read something by him :)

The graphic novels can help with book numbers.... and there are some really good graphic novels out there! For some reason this year I keep getting sucked into the big tomes. Glad to see you enjoyed Great Expectations.... Dickens can tell a story! I am going to have to go re-read your review of Return to Tibet..... your monthly round up reminded me.

Book Number 14: The Templar Salvation by Raymond Khoury

Well this was the least impressive book I have read this year. I had a couple of days away where I knew there would be a lot of reading so I wanted to pick a real page turner. I had read the first book in the series The Last Templar back in 2006 and thought the next in the series should be sufficiently light and fluffy for my tastes. This book was a little disappointing as there was no additional character development in the main characters. That and the plot was very very similar to the first. I enjoy theses kinds of novels from time and time next time I think I should stick with an unread Steve Berry.

clfisha: Dickens must be tried (says I who just tried him!). What I found was not what I expected so I highly recommend giving him a try. I will certainly be back for more.

lkernagh: Return to Tibet was good and depressing at the same time but I am glad to have read it.

Book number 15: Kim by Rudyard Kipling

I finished Kim this morning and have very mixed feelings about it. I don't usually get lost in books but found myself getting lost in this one and often several times per page! It was a slow read for me as I had to keep rereading sections, referring to the notes at the back of the book and struggling over parts of the language and what it all meant.

Apart from all that I did like the story and some of the characters, in particular Kim and the Lama.

I am pleased to be done the book as it did drag and I am sure I could have gotten a lot more from the book but it might take more knowledge of the time and place.

Would I recommend it to others? Perhaps with a warning or two before a gentle nudge.

Congrats on making it through Kim! I tried to read it last year, got about 60 pages in, and gave up. Maybe I should try again sometime.

59: Thanks. There were times I thought I might give it up but realised I might regret that later on.

I plan to read it next year...

Book Number 16: Freeway by Mark Kalesniko.

Moving almost seamlessly back and forth in time this book shows the cartoon production industry and how it has changed. With very few words I found this book to be convey emotion very well. I greatly enjoyed reading it.

Book Number 17: The Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Agatha Christie

My third Agatha Christie for the year and just as much fun as the others. I really did not see the ending coming (not that you ever really can tell but I was surprised none the less).

Book Number 18: The Sisters Brothers by Patrick DeWitt

Well I was planning on reading this book when I traveled to Seattle. Problem is I don't leave till tomorrow and I am already done. I managed to know very little about this book before reading it apart from the fact that it was very popular. I really did enjoy it even though it was not what I had expected. Something made it hard too put down. I gave it 4 stars

March Summary:

Certainly more of a standard month with 5 books. I think I added many more books to my pile than I read this month!

2 books from the library
3 new to me used books

1837 pages for the month or 59 pages a day.

1: Garage Sale Books
The Murder of Roger Ackroyd
2: Books off the shelf
3: Canadian Books
The Sisters Brothers
4: Australia Books
5: Bird Books
6: Kid Books
7: World Reading
The Templar Salvation
8: John Steinbeck
9: Farley Mowat
10: The Novel 100
11: Buddhism
Kim
12: Open for anything that does not fit in anywhere else
Freeway

Books that are underway for April
Storm Boy an Aussie classic I need to reread
The 39 Steps
Sun on the Stubble

I am still continuing Don Quixote as part of the year long group read but have fallen a little behind this month.

I still have three untouched categories and as Spring is here (or at least the birds are migrating) I need to start getting inspired for my trip to Point Pelee in May this year so I will try and read something birdy this month as well.

Book number 19: The Thirty-Nine Steps by John Buchan

I first read this book when I was travelling through Scotland back in 1999. I just found a lovely hardcover for $1.00 at my local used bookstore and decided it might be fun to reread as I could not remember very much about apart from enjoying it. For a book that is only 120 pages long I feel like a lot happened. The central character (Richard Hannay) seems so real even though all of the events are over the top. I was not aware that this was the first is a series of books with Richard Hannay as the central character so I will be sure to track down another one. I gave it 4 stars.

Book Number 20: Sun on the Stubble by Colin Thiele,

Growing up Storm Boy was a well known kids book by Colin Thiele. I was unaware of his other work until I stumbled on this book here in Canada. Set between the two world wars Bruno, a young boy, lives with his large family on a farm near a fictional town in South Australia. The book describes farming, boyhood adventures, the German immigrants who populated this area and the sense of what is the Australian rural character very well. Each chapter is almost independent without everything always being resolved but with plenty of humour and adventure I found this to be a great book (3.5 Stars).

Great summary as always. I have discovered that no matter how hard I try to balance my category reading, there are always categories that appear 'neglected' during the first part of the year.

Book Number21: The Barrakee Mystery

This is the first book I have read on an ereader which I borrowed from my local library. I have been very against it up until I found some books online that I cannot for the life of me track down in paper but now I can see the advantages of an ereader.

This is the first of the Bony mystery series by Arthur Upfield. It is very clear that this book was written a long time ago (1929) as many of the things written could no longer be printed. That being said I really enjoyed the book. The similarities with Agatha Christies character Poirot are surprising but it is these eccentricities that makes the central character so interesting. Although this could not be written as is now given the racism it is a time in Australia's not so distant past that was being written about as it was happening using the language in use at the time. I like that authenticity.

The story centres around the sheep station of Barrakee in far western New South Wales. Owned by the Thorntons, who have a much beloved son returning from college a murder of a local aboriginal sparks little interest in the white residents. However, the half aboriginal half white detective inspector Napoleon Bonaparte (Bony) is called in to help solve the murder after local police cannot find any clues.

The cover of this book is odd in that the large green letters spell Boney when throughout the book the name is spelled Bony... whoops!

I look forward to reading more Bony mysteries in the near future.

I'm glad you enjoyed this Arthur Upfield mystery. I have read quite a few of these mysteries and really enjoyed them, discounting as you say, the language of the time. They have very good descriptions of the land as well as interesting characters. This book Madman's Bend was especially interesting as it was set during a flood on the Darling River.

That misspelling on the cover is so odd! To think that no one noticed!

70: I look forward to reading more of them. This was only my second.

71: I know, it was also a standard cover so others in the series published here have the same mistake.

Book Number 22: For the Birds The Life of Roger Tory Peterson

I found this book in the library as my kids were choosing their books and neither of them were interested in me reading it with them so I just put it in the basket to bring home so I could read it to myself!

This very colourful book tells the story of Roger Tory Peterson from early childhood when he got interested in birdwatching through his development as an artist and his new way to recognise birds quickly that led to the development his famous field guide to birds (and now many others). I am very familiar with his story and I have to say I was expecting a lot from this book. The story was comprehensive, perhaps too much so. The illustrations were bold and brights and mostly full page, while they are nice I felt they lacked the simplicity of what Peterson himself worked at. I think that a picture book on the life of this very interesting man could have been a wonderful introduction to the magic and beauty of nature by telling his story and encouraging kids to get out in nature and look and draw and experience everything that is there. While this book is full of information, is big, bright and beautiful I think it missed the mark (3.5 stars).

Book Number 23: The Sheltering Desert by Henno Martin

This fascinating book tells the tale of two German geologists who hid in the desert of Namibia during WWII to avoid being put in jail for their nationality. The elements, food, the nature of human life and evolution were all discussed. I found they had a very Lamarkian view of evolution and found these discussions a little dull but how I really enjoyed reading about how they managed to fit into the desert environment, learning to read the signs and live from what they found there. (3.5 stars)

This book is free from the Internet Archives and is where I got my copy because it is impossible to find a print copy!

If it's so hard to find a copy, how on earth did you learn about this book?

75: It was mentioned in The Tiger by John Valliant and somehow made it on my list of book to track down.

Book Number 24: The Jefferson Key by Steve Berry

Yet another book in the Cotton Malone series. The "retired" agent who always comes back to save the day. What great fluff. I did enjoy this one and oddly it was not set in Europe but was entirely in the USA and Canada which is off for this series (3.5 stars)

April roundup

Five books for the month and one kids book that I felt I wanted to put in.

Two books from the shelf (but new to the shelf this year), two from the library and my first ever ebook (followed by another)

1253 pages for the month or 41 pages a day.

The weather is slow to improve on the west coast this year but it is slowly getting there and as it happens I always read less.

1: Garage Sale Books
The thirty-nine steps
2: Books off the shelf
3: Canadian Books
4: Australia Books
The Barrakee Mystery
5: Bird Books
For the Birds The Life of Roger Tory Peterson
6: Kid Books
Sun on the stubble
7: World Reading
The Sheltering Desert
8: John Steinbeck
9: Farley Mowat
10: The Novel 100
11: Buddhism
12: Open for anything that does not fit in anywhere else
The Jefferson Key

May involves some travel for me and not a lot of reading (Its bird migration time so there is more looking out the window than at the page!). I hope to try the group read Love in the time of Cholera and have a number of books that would be good to finish.

Nice roundup and thanks for the reminder of the group read for Love in the time of Cholera. I agree, it hasn't been a great spring this year on the west coast..... *sighs*

Book Number 25:

The Murder on the Links by Agatha Christie.

This is the second Poirot book and I really liked this one. He had a real attitude at times which I have not seen in any of the other books I have read so far.

Book Number 26: The Sands of Windee by Arthur Upfield
This is book two of the Napoleon Bonaparte series and was much better than the first book. Bony decides to investigate the disappearance of a man in far western New South Wales believing it to be a murder. We spend the whole book with Bony this time and get a much deeper look at who he is and how he works. Plenty of social stereotypes are used in this novel but it does a wonderful job of describing the time and place. I gave it five stars

,

ahh yes what to say about my May reading... umm the dog ate it I guess. Actually May was a very busy month for me and as can be seen had very little reading. I had hoped to get through Love in the Time of Cholera but that did not happen as I am only about 130 pages in.

I'll wait and see what June holds.

I am guessing you have had a busy May. Here is hoping your June allows for more reading time, but if not, there is always July! I am rather behind in my group reading so I am taking the position that if I finish it sometime this year, that is a good accomplishment!

;-)

Book Number 27: Wings Above The Diamantina by Arthur Upfield

Book three of the Bony series. Set in the south western corner of Queensland this mystery involves a stolen airplane and a mysterious posinoning. I enjoyed the variety of characters in this book and it took a while to really figure out who was a good guy and who was a bad guy. The central character is becoming more defined and human as the books progress and I would even say that the books are less racist as I had no moment of suck your breath and wonder 'how this was published'. This insight into the Australian outback its chracter and their views on life really makes these book a pleasure to experience. (5 stars)

83: I like the way you look at it Lori, I feel a little behind on a couple of books but I know that one of these months (or years) I will finish them!

Book Number 28: The Romanovs and Mr Gibbes by Frances Welch.

What an interesting little book this was. At only 140 pages I was not sure how much I would learn about this Mr Gibbes who taught the children of the last Tsar of Russia for ten years. Given that there seems to have not been a large amout of information to go on I found the text was well put together and very readable. I have read other books on the Romanovs and their tragic end and I found this one offers a unique perspective of the final months. Overall an enjoyable biography (3.5 stars)

Book number 29: Inukshuk by Gregory Spatz

Inukshuk tells tells the story of John Franklin a high school teacher and poet and his son Thomas who is obsessed with the more famous John Franklin and his attempt to discover the northwest passage. I really did not know what to expect when I started to read this book but it really drew me in as time went by. More than anything I found this book to be the parallel struggles of a 15 year old boy with self esteem issues searching for his identity and his father who appears to have lost his sense of identity and has only realised that with the breakdown of his marraige. At only 220 pages there is a lot of emotional content in the book. The writing was wonderful, very descriptive and did not shy away from any content which allowed it to capture the sense of the son at 15 and his father. I highly recommend this book. (5 stars)

Book Number 30: Love in the time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

This was a slow read for me as I found myself unable to read more than a few pages at a time. In the long run I did enjoy it but no where near as much as One Hundred Years in Solitude.

I am a little worried this this is the first book in my "Books of the Shelf" category... I have added 82 book to my library this year and only read one... hmm time to build another bookshelf I guess.

Well, very happy to learn you enjoyed One Hundred Years of Solitude over Love in the Time of Cholera..... it provides me with hope for when I get around to tackling that one which is currently resting on my TBR bookcase!

Book Number 31: The Cricket Match by Hugh De Selincourt

An interesting book whose front cover painting by Claude Muncaster drew me towards it at a basement sale at a local used bookstore. It tells the story of a small rural country town in England between the world wars and the cricket match between this town (Tillingford) and a rival team (Raveley). We are introduced to the characters one by one and how they feel about the game in the morning of the match followed by what happens during the afternoon match. You do not have to like cricket to get something from this book. Anyone could recognise the ups and downs and tension known from any local sporting event. I really enjoyed the simplicity of the time portrayed and the how the whole book was structured. (4 stars)

Book Number 32: Half Blood Blues by Esi Edugyan.

Considering the hype around this book and The Sisters Brothers I knew I wanted to read both of them this year. The Sisters Brothers did not disappoint. I had a hard time getting into this book but I think that was only because of the voice of the narrator. I basically had to get my ear in! After that it really did take off and I enjoyed how it unfolded and moved back and forth in time. I was a little disappointed with the ending but overall found it well worth reading (4 stars).

June roundup

Six books for the month one of which was finally from my books off the shelf category!

1447 pages for the month or 48 pages a day.

1: Garage Sale Books
2: Books off the shelf
Love in the time of Cholera
3: Canadian Books
Inukshuk
Half Blood Blues
4: Australia Books
Wings Above the Diamantina
5: Bird Books
6: Kid Books
7: World Reading
The Romanovs and Mr Gibbes
The Cricket Match
8: John Steinbeck
9: Farley Mowat
10: The Novel 100
11: Buddhism
12: Open for anything that does not fit in anywhere else

July has very few reading plans right now but I would like to include a Farley Mowat to get a book in that category.

Getting caught up, great reviews! We both recieved Inukshuk through the early reviewers, and has similar thoughts on it.

I have also recently recieved the Agatha Christie bug this year... :P
I did have a hard time making it through Kim. I am proud that I made it through, but it is not a book that I will be re-reading. Like you I had to read and re-read sections.

Bcteagirl: Thanks for stopping by. Inukshuk really grew on me which was a huge surprise. I am glad that you had a chance to read it as well. The Agatha Christie bug is highly contagious... not such a bad thing to catch really as it is always a pleasure to read one of her books. I'll catch up on your reading soon as you always give me some great ideas to add to my pile of books I need to read!

Book Number 33: The Cat's Table by Michael Ondaatje

This is my first book by this author and I think I would have avoided him completely except that this was a gift. When the book was in house I had to at least take a look at it and somehow it managed to capture me from the start. I found it slowed a little in the middle where it switched from the ship when he was a boy to times in the future but over all I found it a very good read (4 stars).

Book Number 34: Storm Boy by Colin Thiele

This is a book I was forced to read in school (yes I came to the reading bug later in life and all reading prior to that was a forced situation, overtime I find myself revisiting these early books to get a fresh perspective). This a tale that is somehow more far fetched now then when it was originally published more than 40 years ago. Boys just do not get to grow up on the beach anymore in Australia no matter how much they would like to. This is an enchanting tale about a boy, his father and a pelican (3.5 stars)

Book Number 35: Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse

Here is a book I that I need to read again... and again! There is clearly so much more that I could get from it. I found myself often trying to guess where the book was going and what was Hindu vs Buddhist. Know that I know the story I think I might be able to focus more on the ideas present in the book. I can see why this was such a popular book and I imagine with a reread my rating may increase (at the moment 3.5 stars)

Book Number 36:Poirot Investigates by Agatha Christie

This is the third book in the Poirot series and is made up of 11 short tales involving Poirot. I downloaded the book from the library and listened to it at the park/ beach etc watching my kids play. It was read by David Suchet so Poirot sounded just as I have come to know him from the tv. None of the stories were all that brilliant but it was wonderful to have something like this to listen to (3 stars)

Book Number 37: Born Naked by Farley Mowat

It has taken me more than half a year to put a book in my Farley Mowat category. Born Naked tells the tale of Farley from birth in 1921 to the age of 16. As is typical of his books a good tale never gets in the way of the truth and his memory of these times seems perfect and he somehow managed to hang on to all his paperwork from the time as well. Even with all this I have always liked how Farley tells a story and he does not disappoint here. Growing up in Ontario and moving to Saskatoon the adventures are fun to read about (3 stars).

Book Number 38: Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe

So I am a few months late for the group read but a review by lkernagh helped me get it from the library. Once I started I had trouble putting it down. A few days after finishing it I find that I am still thinking about it. What a powerful book. I really liked the look at the Ibo culture vs the missionaries. The flaws of both are presented but without any judgement. For such a remarkably short book it packs a huge punch.

I am very pleased to have learned something about the Ibo culture as other books set in similar circumstances are often only from the missionary point of view and there is not the wonderful descriptions of life before their influence. Mind you books like The Poisonwood Bible set in the Belgian Congo were truly powerful as well (5 stars).

Book Number 39: The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway

This is my first Hemingway and I found it difficult to follow what was happening to start with. After a while I started to really enjoy it. Amazingly very little actually happens in the book it is more about the interactions (conversation more than anything) among some rich and essentially permanently drunk American and English living in Paris. The book grew on me with time and the events of the bull fighting in Spain were an interesting backdrop to the drama happening to the characters (4 stars).

July roundup

Seven books for the month

1202 pages for the month (plus one audio book) or 39 pages a day.

1: Garage Sale Books
2: Books off the shelf
3: Canadian Books
The Cat's Table
4: Australia Books
5: Bird Books
6: Kid Books
Storm Boy
7: World Reading
8: John Steinbeck
9: Farley Mowat
Born Naked
10: The Novel 100
Things Fall Apart
The Sun Also Rises
11: Buddhism
Siddhartha
12: Open for anything that does not fit in anywhere else
Poirot Investigates

It was a diverse month and I am pleased to have read two move books from The Novel 100 and been intorduced to a couple of authors I am interested to read more from (Hemingway and Achebe). I am also keen to reread Siddhartha. I never like to know what is going to happen in a book the first time I read it and for the most part I only read a book once but some books deserve a reread and this is one of them.

I am currently reading As I lay dying as an introduction to Faulkner and I hope to read Middlemarch as part of the group read. Something tells me that is going to take more than the month of August!

Looks like you have had a very productive reading month..... and as for Middlemarch, I agree, that is a bit of a tome! Looking forward to lurking on the group read thread as I haven't read this one. As for Ondaatje, he is one of our esteemed writers I have yet to read. I had to make a quick skim of my TBR bookcase to make sure I didn't have anything languishing there by him - nope - but I probably should get around to picking up one of his books sometime soon. I am embarrassed to admit that while I have watched ever tv/film adaptation of Christie's works that I have come across, she is another author I have yet to read. Given how proliferate a write she was, I am sure I can find something by her that I haven't seen!

Hope you are enjoying your summer!

I loved Middlemarch! It's a big book, but for me it read pretty quickly. On the other hand, I was definitely not a fan of As I Lay Dying, but hopefully your mileage will vary!

Middlemarch is one of my faves as well! I hope you like it.
I'll be interested to see how you feel about As I Lay Dying -- I haven't read much Faulkner and was thinking about picking it up next year.

I love Middlemarch as well. In fact, I took advantage of the August group read of Middlemarch to reread it. If you like that era and style of writing, I think it reads pretty quickly.

I am pleased to see so many people enjoyed Middlemarch. I just finished Book One and I am enjoying it so far.

Book Number 40: As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner

As I Lay Dying does not have a single happy, lighthearted moment. It is pretty heavy going and as the story is told from the perspective of a number of different people it often took me a while to figure out what what going on, checking who was talking at the time, and rereading plenty of sections. Even then sometimes you just have to guess what might be happening or have happened. The basic story is death of Addie Bundren and the promise of her husband and children to bury her where she grew up. You get to know some of the characters better than others (or perhaps I think I understood them more) but you never get to know any of them really well. It is certainly an intriguing book... just take a deep breath before you begin. (3.5 stars)

Faulkner is another author I have yet to attempt but I will get around to doing so some day. Sounds like it was worth reading which is good to know!

Book Number 41: Baseball Yesterday & Today by Josh Leventhal

My kids were taking a long time deciding what type of new imaginary dog they were going to pick as they looked at every pet book in the library. This gave me plenty of time to browse the sports section across the aisle which is how I found this book. It is a coffee table book with big glossy pictures and between 2 and 4 pages dedicated to a comparison of early baseball to how the game is now. I found it to be quite good reading and enjoyed learning more about the history of the game and some of the famous names I have heard of but knew nothing about why they were such a big deal. Perhaps there is nothing to learn for a big baseball fan but as I grew up in the southern hemisphere and am new to the game I picked up a lot (3 stars)

Book Number 42: Bachelor Brothers Bed and Breakfast by Bill Richardson

What a charming little book. Anyone who likes reading will love this book. I want to move there for a year at least (4.5 stars)

Book Number 43: Calico Joe by John Grisham

Well clearly I should have considered a "baseball" category given that this is the second relevant book this month. Calico Joe is Grisham's first novel where baseball is central. Given his previous novels about football it is not surprising that he gave this a go as well. The story centres around the son of a major league pitcher and his the sons view of his farther and a favourite rookie Joe Castle. I enjoyed the book as much as I did his previous sporting novels. Things seemed a little far fetched in terms of baseball stats but that is the fun of fiction. (4 stars)

Book Number 44: The Buddha's Diamonds by Carolyn Marsden

This kids book tells the story of Tinh, a young Vietnamese boy from a poor fishing village, and the events of a cyclone. It is very short but is a wonderful story as we see Tinh react to a difficult and scary time. (3.5 stars)

Book Number 45: Star Wars: The Wrath of Darth Maul by Ryder Windham

Ahh... yes, hmm. My kids have been bit by the Star Wars bug but have come at it from the side of computer games and books so unlike me who grew up with the first set of movies and had a good time watching the latest ones they seem to already know everything. This is one of the many books that entered the house so I decided to give it a try (1.5 stars) enough said!

The Buddha's Diamonds looks interesting.

August roundup

I have dabbled in many different books this month and finished six books

1079 pages for the month (plus one audio book) or 39 pages a day.

1: Garage Sale Books
2: Books off the shelf
3: Canadian Books
Bachelor Brothers Bed and Breakfast
4: Australia Books
5: Bird Books
6: Kid Books
Star Wars: The Wrath of Darth Maul
7: World Reading
8: John Steinbeck
9: Farley Mowat
10: The Novel 100
As I Lay Dying
11: Buddhism
The Buddha's Diamonds
12: Open for anything that does not fit in anywhere else
Baseball Yesterday & Today
Calico Joe

The beginning of the month made some progress on Middlemarch but then I went camping and decided to leave it at home. I have only just picked it up again and finished the second book so I am basically only a quarter done. I am going to stick with it as I have a feeling it will be a book I am glad that I have read even though the reading itself can be a little difficult or tiresome (I think Kim was in the category but I look back fondly on the story now)

September will hold a Steinbeck but I am not sure which one. I am also half way through some Hemingway short stories that I am enjoying and a poetry book from a local poet that is wonderful.

Book Number 46: Bonk: The curious coupling of science and sex by Mary Roach.

This was a very funny book. It may have helped that I listened to the audio version. I listened to most of it while my kids played at parks this summer and sometimes I laughed out loud (good thing my kids don't like busy parks!).

The book covers the gamut of researchers into all aspects of sex and it was eye opening what was learned, how they went about it and what crazy assumptions slowed down or tainted certain research. You need to be open minded to read (or listen) to the book but it is well worth it (3.5 stars).

Book Number 47: Border Songs by Jim Lynch.

Here is a wonderful novel set on the border between British Columbia (Canada) and Washington (USA). The story deals with everything from dairy cows, birds, cross border relations, illegal immigrants and drug smuggling. It centres around Brandon Vanderkool a towering man who is not like everyone else. He is a truly wonderful character and the whole book was wonderfully put together, a real pleasure to read. (4.5 stars)

I LOVED Border Songs when I read it! It is eery how parts of this fictional tale ring true in reality! ;-) It was such a breath of fresh air to read so I am happy to see you enjoyed it!

Book Number 48: How to Practice The way to a meaningful life by the Dalai Lama

I read a lot of this book near the start of the year and then it has sat next to my bed until I picked it up and finished it today. There are some gems in the books but mostly I found it to be very hard core. I am dabbling in Buddhist philosophy and there are many other books that seem like a better place to start than this one. I do like that the passion of the Dalai Lama come through the writing. Perhaps it is just that Tibetan Buddhism is a little too extreme for my western mind at this time (2.5 stars)

Book Number 49: The Pearl by John Steinbeck

First I better jump for joy as I finally have one book in every category! Whoo hoo.

It has been a long time since I have read any Steinbeck and I found that this one seemed to have a pretty jovial start which was odd. Don't worry though it turned out pretty terrible in the end. There is something amazing about Steinbeck writing style. It is wonderful to see how much he gets out of so few words. The Pearl may be a little dark for me but I guess it is a good allegory for the way people often reach for that next big thing (money, house, boat, extra car) with the mistaken idea that is will make things better than they already are (3 stars)

Jovial? You did have me worried for a second. I'm not sure if I'm going to squeeze any Steinbeck in this September, but I'm loving all the reviews.

Book Number 50: I'm warning you Horse by Murray Ball

One of the many books from the Footrot Flats comic series. Set in New Zealand and centred around a farm dog and his owner Wal. The stories are always very simple and focus a lot on the insecurities of the dog (who by the way is called Dog). I grew up reading a lot of these comics and when I found this at the local Value Village I had to grab it for my daughter to try. She has yet to read it but it too me back to my youth (3 stars)

, ,,,

Well I am a little behind with my September round up...

Five books this month and another chunk of Middlemarch. I am beginning to wonder if Middlemarch ever ends of if it is a little like Groundhog day?

Border Songs was the highlight of the month. It is a little wacky but is a memorable read.

Book Number 51: I am half sick of shadows by Alan Bradley

The fourth installment of the Flavia De Luce mystery series. These are fun little reads. In this a surge of people at Christmas fills Buckshore (the ancestral house of the De Luce family) and the mystery is completely within the grounds. I enjoyed this but not as much as some of the past Flavia mystery. (3.5 stars)

Book Number 52: Murder Must Wait by Arthur Upfield

This is my fifth Inspector Napoleon Bonaparte mystery and it differs from the other quite a lot. Firstly Bony, a detective inspector, often goes "undercover" to slowly figure out what happened with a murder. This time, as the title suggests, solving the murder is less important than finding out what happened to young babies that have been stolen in the small NSW town of Mitford. This series is interesting for many reasons, the mysteries and solving them are as complicated and fun as any series I have read but Bony mysteries are always set in rural or outback Australia. Considering when they were written and where they are set the racism, sexism and every other politically incorrect idea is firmly rooted in the pages which I have to say I am enjoying. In Murder must wait Bony calls in help in the form of a police woman, Alice McGorr, to aid him in finding the missing babies because Bony feels he needs a woman's eye to help solve the mystery. (4.5 stars)

I am glad that so many of these books were written as I really enjoy them.

They sound good but unfortunately they are not available through my library system. Which is probably just as well since I need another wonderful series like another hole in my head. ;-) I'm happy you can find them and enjoy them.

Murder Must Wait does look fun, but it also looks hard to find. We'll see.

Book Number 53: The Casual Vacancy by J K Rowling

I was surprised at all the negative press I had seen about this book. I enjoyed the Harry Potter series. Parts of the books drove me mad but it was part of who the characters were so I could accept it. I tried to go into The Casual Vacancy with an open mind.

This book is a long way from Harry Potter. The themes are certainly not for kids. Centred around a fictional town in rural England we get to know a number of the characters in great detail. Most of the characters are larger than life but nothing is too over the top as to make them unbelievable. I don't want to give anything away by giving a plot outline. This book is worth reading. Sure it is not a literary masterpiece but it is wonderfully put together and I could not put it down (4.5 stars)

A selling feature in a review for me is comments like this one from your review:

it is wonderfully put together and I could not put it down

Looks like I may get around to reading one of Rowling's books after all!

Rowling appeared on Jon Stewart last night. Here is a link to the show.
She comes on at the half-way point of the show.

130: Glad I could sway you.

131: I wish I could have seen what is at the link but as I am in Canada I had IP issues. I will have to try and get it another way

Book Number 54: Mr Jelly's Business by Arthur Upfield

Oh yes another Bony mystery. This is the fourth in the series and the first set in Western Australia. I enjoy this series and am glad that there are 29 in total! (4 stars)

Book Number 55: Sappho: A New Translation by Sappho

This is a very interesting little book of poetry and it is amazing how little has changed in a couple of thousand years! (3 stars)

Book number 56: Middlemarch by George Eliot

I am some what amazed that I actually made it to the end of the book! So many times I put it aside and did not pick it up for days. Slowly I was more and more drawn into it and I am certainly pleased to have found out what happens at the end.

Part way through the book I doubt I could have recommend it to anyone but now that it is done I have a different view. Time to read it slowly is key, I struggled getting into the flow of the book and dealing with the language but having it written in any other style would seem odd.

I have read a couple of reviews and comments on it since finishing which has been good to remind me of all that happened in the book. It certainly has a wide scope and a large number of characters that you get to know well. It is also clear that different readers become attached or sympathetic to different characters in the book which is really a testament to it being a novel about real people with good and bad sides. I doubt I will pick up another book by George Eliot but I am glad to have read this (4 stars).

Kudos for finishing Middlemarch! Another tome that I may get around to sometime but not in the next few years that is for sure.

Book number 57: Wherever I wind up by R. A. Dickey

This is my first baseball autobiography. I had read a review that raved about the book in a sports magazine. Perhaps that should have been my first clue, it was in a sports magazine. While I appreciate how RA Dickey opened up and shared his harrowing experiences as a child and difficulty making it through the baseball minor leagues to the big time I feel like this book would be so much different if it were written in 20 years time instead of now. Sure no one will buy it then but I think he would really have something to offer once he is out of the game of baseball for a while. (2.5 stars)

136: Yes I am only good for a tomb or perhaps two in a year. I pleased that there was a group read on Middlemarch or else I am not sure I ever would have pick it up and I keep thinking about it as the days go by.

Middlemarch is definitely a good book for a group read. I'm a little daunted by it, but it seems most people are really impressed by it if they give it the time. Someday I'll get to it. ... Someyear...

,, , , , ,

A busy October with some wonderful and some not so wonderful books. Middlemarch is the one that will stick with me for a while.

Book Number 58: The Getting of Wisdom by Henry Handel Richardson

First published over 100 years ago the story follows Laura as she attends a ladies college in Melbourne Australia. Given the age of the book I found it very readable and greatly enjoyed Laura and what she got up to. I am glad schools have changed a little since then. This is a great piece from that time (4 stars).

Book Number 59: The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway

I found this to be a wonderful book. I enjoyed the simplicity of the story and was impressed with how much came from so few words. (4.5 stars)

Book Number 60: The Private Patient by PD James

I enjoyed this but it was lacking something from the other Adam Dalgliesh mysteries I have read (3.5 stars)

Book Number 61: The Last of the Bird People by John Hanson Mitchell

This book tells the story of a group of hunter gatherer people who live in the Swift River Valley. Due to the planned formation of the Quabbin reservoir the people are forced to flee. The book tells the tale of this search for a new home.

I had some trouble with the book, it was a little weak on the history of the people which I found very confusing and wanted answers to. I found the story of the travel easy enough to follow but there seemed to be a few too many things unsaid. (2.5 stars)

Book Number 62: The Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger

I read this book at school and recall that I liked it at lot but could remember very little of the content. Reading it again now I was not so impressed. Oh so much complaining! (2.5 stars)

LOL - I wonder what I'd think about The Catcher in the Rye now too. I liked it in school, but yes, much complaining. Walter Mosley takes a shot at it in Blonde Faith. He has an African-American reading it, shaking her head over it and thinking Holden doesn't know what real trouble is.

146: That is so true. Holden needs a good swift kick up the backside. Some parental attention would help as well. I have started to wonder if there are any other books I read a school that I need to revisit. Perhaps one of the ones I really disliked. Maybe it has gotten better overtime!

:) I probably could do some revisiting too, but the ones I hated still make me shiver when I hear the names. Billy Budd, Johnny Tremain, Shane. ... Possibly I could make peace with Shane now.

Perhaps the last book I will finish this year. I am in the middle of many book. One of which A Suitable Boy has a very large middle!

I could not help but pick up A Christmas Carol this season. It is only the second time I have read it and I enjoyed it far more this year than last (4 stars).