avatiakh's 11 in 11

My categories are subject to change as I'm still figuring out what I want to focus on this coming year.

1) Science Fiction/Fantasy 11/11
2) Spotlight: Bernice Rubens 11/11
3) Conflict 11/11
4) Young at Heart 11/11
5) Jewish writers 11/11
6) Wanderlust 11/11
7) The Grand Tour 11/11
8) LT Challenges, Group & Theme Reads 11/11
9) Meandering 11/11
10) Down Under 11/11
11) Magic in the Air 11/11

1) Science Fiction/Fantasy
I read a mix of YA and adult novels, probably this year I'll be concentrating on clearing a backlog of YA fantasy.

1: The Chrysalids by John Wyndham - finished 22 Jan
2: The Heir of Night Bk1 Wall of Night by Helen Lowe - finished 30 Jan
3: The Marbury Lens by Andrew Smith - finished 06 Feb
4: The Curse of Chalion by Lois McMaster Bujold (recommended by ronincats/Fantasy Feb) - finished 07 Feb
5: Native Tongue by Suzette Haden Elgin (Group read) - finished 12 Feb
6: Behemoth by Scott Westerfeld - finished 21 Feb
7: To Say Nothing of the Dog: How We Found the Bishop's Bird Stump at Last by Connie Willis - finished 22 Feb
8: A Game of Thrones by George RR Martin - finished 31 Mar
9: Perdido Street Station by China Mieville - finished 22 Apr
10: Rivers of London by Ben Aaronovich - finished 22 May
11: The Borribles: across the dark metropolis by Michael De Larrabeiti - finished 07 Jun
12: The Dark lord of Derkholm by Diana Wynne Jones - finished 13 Jun
13: Clash of Kings by George RR Martin - finished 21 Jun
14: WWW.Wonder by Robert J. Sawyer - finished 29 Jun
15: Moon over Soho by Ben Aaronovich - finished Jun
16: A Storm of Swords by George R.R. Martin - finished Aug
17: Chasm City by Alastair Reynolds - finished
18: Revelation Space by Alastair Reynolds - finished Nov
19: Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor - finished 20 Nov
20: The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern - finished 25 Nov
21: Redemption Ark by Alastair Reynolds - finished 16 Dec

Possibles:
1: The Sending Obernewtyn Chronicles Bk 6 by Isobelle Carmody (Penguin Australia have May 2011 as date of publication finally - now November 2011)
2: Clariel: The Lost Abhorsen by Garth Nix (2011)
3: Bartimaeus: The Ring of Solomon by Jonathan Stroud Bk 1 (2010) new series
4: The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi - santathing present

2) Spotlight on Bernice Rubens
BERNICE RUBENS (26 July 1928 – 13 October 2004) was one of Britain’s most successful postwar novelists. Her The Elected Member was awarded the Booker Prize for Fiction in 1970.
1: The Elected Member - finished 05Jan
2: Mr Wakefield's Crusade - finished 09 Feb
3: Sunday Best - finished 21 Mar
4: The Ponsonby Post - finished 14Apr
5: Brothers - finished 12 Jul
6: I, Dreyfus - finished 12 Aug
7: I sent a letter to my love - finished 07 Sep
8: Nine Lives - finished 23 Sep
9: Madame Sousatzka - finished 03 Oct
10: A Five Year Sentence - finished 4 Nov
11: When I grow up: a memoir - finished 27 Nov

3) Conflict - Books about conflict, war, survival

1: A Thread of Grace by Mary Doria Russell - finished 16Jan
2: The People by Jean Raspail - finished May
3: Slaughterhouse 5: the children's crusade by Kurt Vonnegut - finished 04 Oct
4: Imperial Woman by Pearl S. Buck - finished 08Oct
5: A Moment of War by Laurie Lee - finished 15Oct
6: The Outsiders of Uskoken Castle by Kurt Held - finished 18Oct
7: Götz and Meyer by David Albahari - finished 21Oct
8: After the war by Carol Matas - finished 12 Nov
9: Goliath by Scott Westerfeld - finished 13 Nov
10: An infamous army by Georgette Heyer finished 28 Nov
11: The Brigade by Harold Blum - finished 10 Dec

Possibles:
Islands of Silence by Martin Booth
Nice day for a war by Chris Slane
Alone in Berlin by Hans Fallada

4) Young at Heart - YA and Children's fiction

1: Alone on a wide wide sea by Michael Morpurgo - finished 15 Jan
2: The Various Bk 1 Touchstone Trilogy by Steve Augarde - finished 27 Jan
3: The double life of Cassiel Roadnight by Jenny Valentine - finished 13 Feb
4: Plain Kate by Erin Bow - finished 18 Jan
5: Please ignore Vera Dietz by A.S. King finished 19 Jan
6: The Rainbow Bridge by Aubrey Flegg
7: Dash and Lily's book of dares by Rachel Cohn and David Levithan finished 20 Jan
8: Flora Segunda by Ysabeau S. Wilce - finished 8 Jan
9: The Undrowned Child by Michelle Lovric - finished Jan
10: The Death Collector by Justin Richards - finished Jan
11: Letters to anyone, letters to everyone by Toon Tellegen - fninished Jan
12: One Crazy Summer by Rita Garcia-Williams - finished 2 Feb
13: Bloody Jack; Being an Account of the Curious Adventures of Mary "Jacky" Faber, Ship's Boy by L.A. Meyer (2002) - finished 3 Feb
14: Sophie's Misfortunes Fleurville Trilogy Bk1 by Comtesse De Ségur - finished 14 Feb
15: The Last Dragonslayer by Jasper Fforde - finished - 21 Feb
16: Fall-out by Gudrun Pausewang - finished 27 Feb
17: Dealing with Dragons by Patricia Wrede - finished 20 Mar
18: Dust by Arthur Slade
19: Billionaire Boy by David Wallaims
20: My sister lives on the mantelpiece by Annabel Pitcher - finished 02 Jul
21: No and Me by Dalphine de Vigan - finished 12 Jul
22: White Crow by Marcus Sedgwick - finished 12 Jul
23: Witch Hill by Marcus Sedgwick - finished Jul
24: A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness - finished Jul
25: Jeremy Visick by David Wiseman - finished Sep
26: Memoirs of a Teenage Amnesiac by Gabrielle Zevin - finished Sep
27: The Devil Walks by Anne Fine - finished 30 Sep
28: There is no Dog by Meg Rosoff - finished 10 Oct
29: The Seeing Stone by Kevin Crossley-Holland - finished 25Oct

plus more that I haven't listed

5) Jewish writers

1: Suite française by Irène Némirovsky - May group read - finished 21 May
2: Fatelessness by Imre Kertész - finished 29 Jan
3: How to understand Israel in 60 days or less by Sarah Glidden - finished 30 Jan
4: Hush by Eishes Chayil finished 19 Feb
5: The Contract with God trilogy: Life on Dropsie Avenue by Will Eisner - finished 11 Jun
6: The Lead Soldiers by Uri Orlev - finished 15 Aug
7: Mr Rosenblum's List by Natasha Solomons - finished 20 Aug
8: The Periodic Table by Primo Levi - finished 31 Aug
9: All-of-a-kind Family by Sydney Taylor - finished 5 Sep
10: The Slave by Isaac Bashevis Singer - finished 25 Sep
11: Minotaur by Benjamin Tammuz - finished 29 Sep

Possibles:
Paul Auster
Kafka
Great House by Nicole Krauss

6) Wanderlust

1: Just as well I'm leaving:To the Orient with Hans Christian Andersen by Michael Booth - finished 17 Feb
2: As I walked out one midsummer morning by Laurie Lee - finished 21Apr
3: Monsignor Quixote by Graham Greene - finished Sep
4: Lunch in Paris: a love story with recipes by Elizabeth Bard - finished 09Oct
5: Sydney: haunted city by Delia Falconer - finished 25 Oct
6: The Coldest Winter: a stringer in Europe by Paula Fox - finished 28 Oct
7: A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson - finished 30 Oct
8: The Songlines by Bruce Chatwin - finished 09 Nov
9: A Rose for Winter by Laurie Lee - finished 09 Nov
10: The Road by Jack London - finished 19 Nov
11: The tomb in Seville by Norman Lewis - finished 03 Dec

Possibles:

A Dragon Apparent:Travels in Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam by Norman Lewis
Golden Earth: Travels in Burma by Norman Lewis
A Goddess in the Stones: Travels in India by Norman Lewis
Bad Blood: A Walk Along the Irish Border by Colm Toibin
A Time of Gifts:On Foot to Constantinople: From the Hook of Holland to the Middle Danube by Patrick Leigh Fermor
Mani: Travels in the Southern Peloponnese by Patrick Leigh Fermor
From the Holy Mountain: A Journey in the Shadow of Byzantium by William Dalrymple

7) The Grand Tour
Books set on the European continent

1: Les Miserables by Victor Hugo (France) - finished 21 Mar
2: Under the Frog by Tibor Fischer (Hungary) - finished 22Jan
3: The Vanishing of Katharina Linden by Helen Grant (Germany) - finished 23Feb
4: The glass-blowers by Daphne du Maurier (France) - finished 20Apr
5: Nemesis by Jo Nesbø (Norway) - finished Apr
6: Montenegro by Starling Lawrence (Serbia) - finished May 01
7: The Leopard by Giuseppe Tomasi Di Lampedusa (Italy) - finished May
8: Visitation by Jenny Erpenbeck (Germany) - finished 31 May
9: A Room with a View by E M Forster (Italy/UK) - finished 23 Jun
10: Jean de Florette and Manon des Sources by Marcel Pagnol (France) - finished 27 Jun
11: From the Land of the Moon by Milena Agus (Italy) - finished 02 Jul

Bonus:

12: Pereira Maintains by Antonio Tabucchi (Portugal)- finished Aug
13: August Heat by Andrea Camilleri (Sicily) - finished 26 Sep
14: The Redbreast by Jo Nesbø (Norway) - finished Jul
15: Wings of the Sphinx by Andrea Camilleri (Sicily) - finished 22 Oct
16: The track of sand by Andrea Camilleri (Sicily) - finished Nov
17: The Potter's Field by Andrea Camilleri (Sicily) - finished Nov
18: Snowdrops by AD Miller (Russia) - finished 25 Nov
19: The Paper Moon by Andrea Camilleri (Sicily) - finished 08 Jan

8) LT Challenges, Group & Theme Reads

1: The Siege by Helen Dunmore - Orange January - finished 22 Jan
2: Beowulf by Seamus Heaney - 75 Book Challenge group read - finished 28 Jan
3: The Return of the Soldier by Rebecca West - TIOLI Feb embedded word challenge - finished Feb
4: In a strange room by Damon Galgut - Journeys theme (Reading Globally group) - finished 16 Feb
5: Daughter of Time by Josephine Tey - TIOLI Mar 17 letter title challenge - finished 17Mar
6: The General in his Labyrinth by Gabriel García Márquez -Journeys theme (Reading Globally group) - finished 22 Mar
7: Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell - TIOLI TBR pile challenge - finished 08 May
8: Hotel Bemelmans by Ludwig Bemelmans - TIOLI Workplace challenge - finished 09 Jun
9: Just my type: a book about fonts by Simon Garfield - TIOLI Fiction/NonFiction challenge - finished 17 Jun
10: The Long Song by Andrea Levy - TIOLI Caribbean Heritage Month challenge - finished 30 Jun
11: Granta 113: The Best of Young Spanish Novelists ed John Freeman - TIOLI Typography on cover - finished July

Possibilities & Probabilities
1: Journey to the end of the night by Louis-Ferdinand Céline - Reading Globally
2: Black Swan Green by David Mitchell
3: The Sheltering Sky by Paul Bowles - Reading Globally

9) Meandering Reads
Books that I have discovered from blogs, LT, other books, writers etc

1: Snared Nightingale by Geoffrey Trease (Farah Mendlesohn's The Trease Project) - finished 23 Jan
2: The Buenos Aires Quintet by Manuel Vázquez Montalbán (Andrea Camilleri's inspiration for Inspector Montalbano) - finished April
3: Brighton Rock by Graham Greene (referenced in King Dork) - finished May 04
4: Travel Light by Naomi Mitchison (acknowledged by Kevin Crossley-Holland in Bracelet of Bones) - finished July
5: Falling Angel by William Hjortsberg (rec by Carlos Ruiz Zafon) - finished 12 Sep
6: On elegance while sleeping by Viscount Lascano Tegui (found while browsing net) - finished Aug
7: Wings over Delft by Aubrey Flegg (found on Irish publishers website - finished Sep
8: Anya's Ghost by Vera Brosgol (found on a blog) - finished Sep
9: A Method Actor's Guide to Jekyll and Hyde by Kevin MacNeil (found at the library) - finished Sep
10: The Pendragon Legend by Antal Szerb (LTer recommendation) - finished 17 Oct
11: The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes (Booker Prize hype) - finished 21 Oct

Possibles:
Riddley Walker by Russell Hoban (Patrick Ness interview)
The unusual Life of Tristan Smith by Peter Carey (Patrick Ness interview)
The Dress Lodger by Sheri Holman (mentioned in graphic novel Alice in Sunderland)
The Dig by John Preston (gaskella - blog)

10) Down Under - Australian and New Zealand fiction
A catchall for all Australian and New Zealand fiction published in the past 50 years,
this was going to be just for children's and YA fiction, but I've decided to open it up.

1: August by Bernard Beckett (NZ) - finished Mar - YA
2: The Bone Tiki by David Hair (NZ) - finished 18 Mar - YA
3: Guardian of the Dead by Karen Healey (NZ) - finished Apr - YA
4: Electric by Chad Taylor (NZ) - finished Apr
5: Just Jack by Adele Broadbent (NZ) - finished 17 May - children's
6: Sorry by Gail Jones (Australia) - finished 23 May
7: The Conductor by Sarah Quigley (NZ) - finished 28 May
8: Departure Lounge by Chad Taylor (NZ) - finished 22 Jun
9: The Wednesday Wizard by Sherryl Jordan (NZ) - finished 25 Jun
10: A Man Melting by Craig Cliff (NZ) - finished 26 Jun
11: Wulf by Hamish Clayton (NZ) - finished 18 Jul
12: The Mangrove Summer by Jack Lasenby (NZ) - children's - finished 18Sep
13: Dark Souls by Paula Morris (NZ)

Possibles:
Again the bugles blow by Ron Bacon (NZ) - children's
An older kind of magic by Patricia Wrightson (Aust) - children's

Oscar and Lucinda by Peter Carey (Aust)
Quinine by Kelly Ana Morey (NZ)

11) Magic in the Air: Folklore, fairytale, myths: retellings, anthologies, academic etc

1: There Once Lived A Woman Who Tried To Kill Her Neighbor's Baby: scary fairy tales by Ludmilla Petrushevskaya - finished 20 Mar
2: Lips Touch by Laini Taylor - finished 4 Jun
3: Cloaked by Alex Finn - finished 3 Jul
4: The Door in the Hedge by Robin McKinley - finished 26 Jul
5: Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman - finished 13 Aug
6: Little Black Book of Stories by A.S. Byatt - finished 24 Aug
7: Once upon a time in Aotearoa by Tina Makereti - finished 24Sep
8: Sweetly by Jackson Pearce - finished 11Oct
9: A Tale Dark and Grimm by Adam Gidwitz - finished 16 Jan
10: The Bloody Chamber by Angela Carter - finished 31 October
11: My mother she killed me, my father he ate me ed. Kate Bernheimer - finished 03 Dec

I like your catagories - what is TIOLI? Don't belong to the 75 books group - though might for next year as I have already read that many this year

Hi Sally - it's the Take it or Leave it challenge. We set up themed challenges each month within the group, most of us try to choose books from our tbr piles. Squeakychu started it and always sets the first & main challenge, then others add challenges too. It's been very addictive and lots of fun, leading to shared reads etc etc. You are welcome to try it out. Here's the link to our current wiki & current thread to get an idea.

Yay! Good to see you here!

Lots of categories of interest in this thread. I'll be looking forward to seeing how they get filled up.

Are you keeping a separate 75-book-thread as well, or just taking part in the TIOLI?

Following this thread and debating how many challenges I'm willing to do in 2011...

ETA: I should just quit all the other challenges and watch to see which of the two, Eva or Kerry, read the most Israeli fiction this year. That alone would keep me hopping! ;)

#15,16> Hi Victoria & Dave - I'll be adding titles but really need to get back to finishing the 1010.
#17> I like having the 75 challenge thread as I read so much that doesn't fit my category challenges (I've read over 125 books so far this year and am still struggling to finish the 1010). The TIOLI part of the group has been an enjoyable diversion, and I do try to choose books from my tbr pile that also fit into the 1010 challenge.
#18> Madeline - I'm following in Eva's footsteps at the moment as all her Israeli reads sound so compelling. Btw I just brought home Joe Sacco's hefty Footnotes in Gaza to have a browse through. I just can't resist doing the planning for this challenge, it's the reading part where I tend to fall down.

->19 avatiakh:

Good point about the 75, maybe I'll do that too next year...

So I should only read Israeli books that are available at your library, right?! :)

I caved. I also set up an 11 in 11 thread...and it's only September 2010. :O

->21 SqueakyChu:

It's addictive... :)

Poor Madeline - well it's easy if you choose the categories mentioned on Darryl's 75 thread

edit: fix link

Ha!

Oh, yea! I'm sure I'll build my NZ wishlist off your reviews!

I've redone quite a few of my categories since first posting, I now have an LT Challenges & Theme Reads category as I'm in the Reading Globally group, Author Theme Reads group and then there are all the ongoing challenges and group reads over on the 75 book group.

I thought Lips Touch was a collection of 3 YA "mundane" romances. Are they supernatural? That "three times" should have clued me in to a fairytale influence.

I've seen lots of good reviews for it and it was a finalist in the National Book Awards last year. The first story is influenced by Christina Rosetti's Goblin Market poem. Here's a blog description...'Lips Touch offers a trio of fairy-tale-esque stories, centered around the power of a kiss......Reading Lips Touch is like slipping into a dark fantasy, one where the lines between truth and fiction blur and magic taints every breath.'
Laini's husband did lots of illustrations for the book including the cover art.

Love your photos (especially "Meandering Reads"!).

Hi Kerry, I loved the pictures so much that I copied your idea on my thread. Looking forward to following your categories.

Fateless is written in a very interesting way. I'll be looking for your reaction to that book.

Just dropping by to say hi as Madeline suggested I look up your thread to see how it's done. I'll be checking back in asap.

Your 2011 list looks fascinating so far! I also need to read the Bujold one for "Books I've been putting off reading" :D

Mind if I take your category #3? I'm really in the mood to read some war books and I just got one through SantaThing too!

I've read Fateless in Hungarian, IIRC there are two English translations and I think the newer one is supposed to be better?

prezzey> That's the same Bujold book I've been putting off too. We almost have enough people for a group read.

#31 - Madeline, that's sounds intriguing. I've seen the film, not realising at the time that it was based on a book.

#32 - Hi Ilana, I've got your thread starred. I find the 11 in 11 is a great way to focus your reading goals.

#33 - Prezzey, I'll be reading the Bujold fairly soon, though I've already got a huge pile of books lined up for January. Ronincats has also recommended Native Tongue, a dystopian scifi by a feminist linguistics expert and I'll be participating in a group read in February.
Regarding Fateless, I have the newer translation, which has the correct translation of the title, Fatelessness.
Have you read Hereville: how Mirka got her sword, (yet another troll-fighting 11-year old Orthodox Jewish Girl)? I've just got a copy to read but I see that there is a shorter webcomic version available online.

The Elected Member by Bernice Rubens (1969)
Bernice Rubens category

This year as part of my 11 in 11 challenge I'm focusing on reading Bernice Ruben’s works and hope to complete one novel each month, plus read her memoir When I grow up. The Elected Member won the second Booker Prize in 1970 and I found it an absorbing read. Ruben creates really interesting flawed characters, and the individuals in this traditional Jewish family are no exception. Living in London in the 1960s, each family member has failed to make a success of their life, their actions influencing the life of the others to create one big tangled mess.
Norman is in his 40s and verging on insanity, brought on by his addiction to pills that have him imagining his bedroom overrun with silverfish. He’s taken to an asylum, and as his father and sister visit him, we revisit the past through their guilt and begin to understand how it all came to be. The other inhabitants of the asylum are also of interest and this section of the book makes great reading. The sad and dark moments are lifted by wonderful hints of humour throughout.

Kerry - your review of The Elected Member was fascinating - not just for the story, which does sound good, but because I didn't realize the Man Booker Prize went back that far. I now know it goes back to 1968, which is a year I won't forget ;-)

Hi Kerry, nice review - not an author I'm familiar with, looks interesting.

A thread of grace by Mary Doria Russell (2005)
Conflict category

This didn't engage me as well as I thought it would, I think there were just too many characters in the story. It's based on true events of how the Italian rural communities in Piedmont and Liguria hid the many Jewish refugees who arrived over the French Alps as well as the local Jewish families. Russell was inspired by a story, The priest, the rabbi and the paratrooper in Benevolence and Betrayal: Five Italian Jewish Families Under Fascism and these characters all appear in the novel.
The beginning has similarities to the start of Le Clezio's Wandering Star and I loved the writing so much in that book especially the story of the Alps crossing that even 12 months later I just couldn't help comparing the two different approaches to storytelling. Le Clezio gives you everything from one perspective, whereas with Russell you are darting from one character to the next and I was constantly flipping to the (greatly needed and much used) character list at the front of the book.
But overall this is well worth reading, once I realised that the priest and the rabbi were based on real people I found it more 'enjoyable' (hard to say 'enjoyable' when the book is full of fighting, injury and death). The book also covers the infighting between the various partisan groups, the fascists, the communists etc etc. The help given to the Jewish families by the religious orders is also covered really well in the story. I hadn't read much about the German occupation of Italy before apart from Donna Jo Napoli's excellent YA book Stones in the water and the sequel Fire in the Hills which is based on partisan resistance.

I've had to add Benevolence and Betrayal to my tbr list as well.

Possibly my reading experience suffered from my habit of having several books on the go at the same time. If I was only reading ATOG, I probably would have remembered all the characters.

Alone on a wide wide sea by Michael Morpurgo (2006)
Young at Heart category: children & YA

I've been interested in the subject of the forced migration of children since attending the book launch of Stefania's Dancing Slippers a few years ago and hearing about the journey hundreds of Polish children were forced to make to Siberia, then to Iran and finally to New Zealand during World War 2, many ended up as orphans and stayed on in New Zealand after the war, others were finally reunited with family.
This book is based on the UK Home Child policy of sending poor or orphaned children to British settler colonies. Many of these home children were treated as little more than slaves and struggled in the harshest of conditions in Canada and Australia especially. Beginning in 1618 with a a group of 100 vagrant children sent to the US Virginia colony, the last shipment of children to Australia was as late as the 1960s. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Home_Children

Morpurgo's book follows the journey of six year old Arthur Hobhouse, sent out to Australia in 1947. All he has to link him to his past is a key, a parting gift from his sister, Kitty, who he now can't remember at all and wonders if he ever had a family. The key becomes a symbol of hope and remembering as life in Australia descends into the harshest of conditions. The group of boys on Cooper's Station are treated like slaves by a religious bully. They can't run away, there is nowhere to run to.
The second part of the book is about Arthur's daughter, Allie, who sails to England on their boat, Kitty Four.
Morpurgo is a master storyteller and once again has us in the grips of a great story where all the threads tie in beautifully. I so enjoyed both parts to this book. I especially liked that we get to see Arthur's struggles as an adult, how he can't settle, never fits in anywhere as home children were second class citizens in the country they ended up in - they have no family, no knowledge of who they are, no birth certificate, no self esteem and found it almost impossible to form lasting relationships etc etc and were often discriminated against by the local community who considered them to be the dregs of British society.

Young at Heart category: children & YA

A Tale Dark and Grimm by Adam Gridwitz (2010)

Once upon a time, fairy tales were awesome.
I know, I know. You don't believe me. I don't blame you. A couple of years ago, I wouldn't have believed it myself. Little girls in red caps skipping around the forest? Awesome? I don't think so.
But then I started to read them. The real ones. The ones from that dusty, clothbound book way off in a neglected corner of the library. Those are darker. Very few little girls in red caps in those.
Well, there's one. But she gets eaten.
This book was awesome. AG takes Hansel and Gretel and puts them in the starring role of eight more Grimm tales linking the stories to make a dark narrative full of blood and gore but with lashings of humour supplied by an interjecting narrator, in the style of Lemony Snicket (not up to the master’s standard though), with numerous warnings, I told you soes and cries for a babysitter for the younger readers etc etc throughout. Very clever and quite riveting reading that kept me going through the darkest hours of the first 24 hr readathon.
This will make you keen to pull out the original Grimm and read some more dark and bloody folktales.

The Undrowned Child by Michelle Lovric (2009)

First, I have to say I love this book cover.
This didn’t get off to a great start for me, I’ve had it out of the library a couple of times, really wanting to read it but needing to finish other books, and so when I started reading I only read a few pages at a time and wasn’t getting drawn into the story. That problem was soon solved once I gave the book my full attention and I was soon wrapped up in the story and loving every minute of this YA fantasy which is set in an alternative 1890s Venice.
Lovric has written several nonfiction books about Venice as well as setting a couple of novels there. She brings her knowledge to the fore here, bringing alive the spirit of one of Venice’s most notorious villains, the traitor Bajamonte Tiepolo. This is a rich literary adventure in a world full of ghosts, winged lions, mermaids (ooh the mermaids) and their printing presses, ghosts seeking redemption, Syrian cats, political intrigue, saints, statues, the children of Venice, an island cemetery, the plague, masks, vampire eels, floods etc etc. There is a strong environmental element too as adopted Teo arrives in Venice with her scientist parents who are attending a conservation conference.
The book comes with two informative glossaries:
1) Places & things from the book you can still see in Venice
2) What is true and what is made up

The sequel, The Mourning Emporium, is set in London just after the death of Queen Victoria.

The Death Collector by Justin Richards (2006)

JR is a Dr Who writer and has written the Invisible Detective series which I’d like to have a look at now I’ve read this book.
This is an entertaining caper with liberal doses of gothic scifi, mystery, and adventure set in a foggy Victorian London. The action opens with widowed Mrs Sykes answering a knock on the door to have her newly dead husband walk in. In another part of London our three young protagonists come together to solve a mystery that threatens their very lives. George, a horologist at the British Museum has thwarted a break in that ends in his workmate's death. Eddie, a streetsmart pickpocket, sees a monster in the grounds of a mansion, and Elizabeth, a fan of the theatre, is able to reunite George with his stolen wallet and the item that a mysterious industrialist is keen to own.

Flora Segunda : Being the Magickal Mishaps of a Girl of Spirit, Her Glass-Gazing Sidekick, Two Ominous Butlers (One Blue), a House with Eleven Thousand Rooms, and a Red Dog by Ysabeau S. Wilce (2007)

I picked this up from a recommendation on Laini Taylor's blog. It took me ages to get going and when I compare the difference in covers I can see why it didn't appeal to me so much.
My UK edition has a young childish cover that doesn't convey the darkness in the story at all
I read most of the book during one of the recent readathons, and have to say it's a highly enjoyable story, I loved the original world she created, along with the humour and the enchantment.
Impetuous Flora lives in an enchanted castle of 11,000 rooms, the decaying Crackpot Hall. But for some reason the family is crammed into just a few rooms. Her mother is a General and away a lot of the time on army business. Her father is a raving loony locked up in one of the house's towers. Flora is left to care for the house, the dogs, her father, as well as prepare for her graduation, her coming of age ceremony and upcoming army service. Then a forbidden trip in the house's elevator takes her to a dusty library where she finds their house spirit, a sort of magical Butler, who has been marooned there for the past few years. Should she help him? Will he help her? Flora is impetuous, her friend, Udo, should know better, together they have some great fun, a few narrow escapes and one big dark dark adventure.
Book 2: Flora's Dare: How a Girl of Spirit Gambles All to Expand Her Vocabulary, Confront a Bouncing Boy Terror, and Try to Save Califa from a Shaky Doom (Despite Being Confined to Her Room) is already available and book 3 is due out in September. I'll be reading both.

Plain Kate by Erin Bow (2010)

A highly enjoyable fantasy with interesting magic set in an alternative medieval world where witches are burned, a plague is falling on the land and people are suspicious of anything different. Plain Kate is a wood carver, taught from a young age by her late father, but ousted from her home and business on his death by the strict rules of the wood guild, she is now on her own. The local people sense something magical about her carving ability and she is forced to enter a pact with a stranger who wants her shadow. In return her cat receives the ability of speech and together they leave the town and enter a dark adventure.

Letters to anyone and everyone by Toon Tellegen (1996) (2009 English edition)
children's fiction, Holland

This is a delightful little book, it would make a perfect gift for an emerging child reader, one to be treasured alongside Winnie the Pooh and suchlike.
Here are letters written by squirrel to ant, ant to squirrel, elephant to squirrel and mole's letters to himself etc. They are all delivered by the wind, arriving to where they are needed in no time at all.
What makes this Boxer Books edition particularly charming are the lovely illustrations by Jessica Ahlberg, daughter of the marvellous children's writer Alan Ahlberg & illustrator, Janet Ahlberg. (Jessica is the baby featured in her parent's classic book Peepo! which I just bought for my new grandniece). I wonder how the Dutch editions look, the book is a classic in Holland and Tellegen is a wellknown poet and writer.

There are at least three more books in this series: The Squirrel's Birthday and Other Parties, Far Away Across the Sea, A Great and Complicated Adventure.

Please ignore Vera Dietz by A.S. King (2010)
YA fiction
This was recommended highly by Stormraven who usually reads scifi/fantasy and it picked up a Michael L. Printz Honor Award recently as well.
A book with really excellent characterisation, one that makes you really care for the main character, a lot. This was another book that I stayed up all night reading, the writing is excellent.
The narrative is quite unusual, we start at the funeral for Vera's ex-bestfriend and neighbour Charlie. Going into the future and exploring the past with occasional kickins from Vera's Dad and Charlie, the plot gives the deterioration in the friendship as Charlie spirals into the bad crowd and also how Vera is dealing in the aftermath (not so well at times). The most interesting part is possibly Vera's relationship with her father and his conviction that she mustn't turn out like he did, or pregnant at 18 like her mother, who is now out of the picture.
Life at home is sad and lonely but Vera is also a worker, her job in pizza delivery and her dealings with co-workers is really spot on and I wasn't surprised to see that King has done a stint of this work herself.

Dash & Lily's Book of Dares by Rachel Cohn & David Levithan (2010)

Another combo writing effort from Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist duo Cohn & Levithan. This is a fun lightweight read about two bored New York teens who manage to wrangle a parent-free Christmas. They meet through a notebook with a dare in it, that Lily places between some Salinger books in the Strand Bookshop. And so the red moleskin notebook to's and fro's between them before they finally get to meet. Both step a little out of their comfort zones as they are dared by the other to pick up the book from unlikely NY venues/people etc. They also get to know each other through their writing and love for literature - basically they are soul mates.
This book celebrates good literature, love for words and also features the Strand Bookshop and its staff prominently. What more do you need for a romantic geeky teen read.

The Siege by Helen Dunmore (2001)
LT Challenges, Group & Theme Reads category

Read for Orange January & TIOLI .
There's been lots of discussion on this book and its sequel The Betrayal over the past few months so I knew that I'd be reading this one for the Orange January reading challenge.
The Siege tells the story of first winter of the Leningrad Blockade in 1941, as German troops surrounded the city, and with the food, fuel & other supplies to the civilian population cut, the population were forced to survive on the barest of rations leaving most starving and freezing through a harsh winter. Dunmore focuses on one family's fight to survive.
This was a much quieter story than I expected, as the fighting and bombardment don't play a prominent part, just the ongoing story of desperate survival, where every crumb of bread is going to count. Wonderful story.

Under the Frog by Tibor Fischer (1992)
The Grand Tour category - books set on the European Continent

wikipedia: a Rabelaisian yarn about a Hungarian basketball player surviving Communism. The title is derived from a Hungarian saying, that the worst possible place to be is under a frog's arse down a coal mine.

This was shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 1993 and I found it a great read. It's based loosely on the experiences of Fischer's father, growing up in Budapest during WW2 and his life under Stalin. Gyuri is part of a semi-pro basketball team that travels around Hungary playing against other teams put forward by various industries and he leaves Hungary in the aftermath of the 1956 uprising.
There is a lot of humour in this book, it's full of adolescent pranks and cocky behaviour in the face of the bleak life they can expect under communism. It looks back on the last days of war when the civilian population was caught between the Nazis and the invading Russian troops, who stripped down anything that could be moved out of the homes. An early highlight is the eating competition in a remote hamlet between a Jesuit and a local communist heavy. Highly recommended for lovers of black comedy.
The powerful depiction of a young man lost in a big revolution makes Gyuri in Budapest, in 1956, appear as the literary descendant of Frederic Moreau in Paris, in 1848, in Flaubert's Sentimental Education. NYT review

My apologies to anyone visiting from the 75 book challenge thread, but i'm just doing a cut & paste of my reviews from my thread there. Life's too short.

Under the Frog looks like an excellent candidate for the Hungarian slot on my Europe category. Thanks avatiakh.

You need not apologize my dear, I don't think anyone expects you to write up different reviews on your different threads. Besides, I do the very same! Alone on a Wide Wide Sea had me intrigued the first time around. I'll look it up.

I've been meaning to pickup Grimm's original fairytales but haven't got round to it yet. Maybe the Adam Gidwitz book would be a good stopgap in the meantime. Thanks for your review.

Hi Kerri,

I'm guessing that you're reading Fatelessness now. The way in which it was written was so interesting. I'm eager to hear your response to it. I have Kertesz' book Liquidation here at home, but didn't try to tackle it because I'm trying to read 8 books (or something like that - I've lost count) now. It's a book I hope to get to sooner rather than later as I was intrigued by the way Kertesz handled Fateless (Fatelessness).

Another really interesting "take" on the Holocaust story is a book called Gotz and Meyer by David Albahari. I think you'd like the experience of reading it, if you haven't already. I found it intriguing because it talked about the area of the former Republic of Yugoslavia (now Croatia) where my mom's family used to live during the war. Sadly, many of my family perished. Nevertheless, I found that book a very worthwhile read.

You've been very busy! Since I noticed that the 75-group is too incredibly active for me to follow along, I'm very happy you post the reviews over here!!

And, thank you for finding books that interest me and can be found at my local library! Definitely picking up A Tale Dark and Grimm!! I noticed I have a book by Justin Richards in my library, but, alas, it's a Doctor Who-book, so I'll get The Death Collector from the library as well. or maybe I should just read the books I already have...?! :)

Gosh you have some excellent book choices here, I am trying to keep my blinders on but "A Tale Dark and Grim"* and "The Undrowned Child"* both caught my attention. There would have been more but they are already on my list!

I also repeat my reviews here and on the 75 thread, but it's fun getting different comments on both threads.

* Can't get the touchstones to respond.

Snared Nightingale by Geoffrey Trease (1957)
Meandering category: fiction - probably YA

I came across this on Farah Mendlesohn's The Trease Project where she is commenting on all his work for a biography she is writing on Trease. Snared Nightingale is hard to come by but well worth reading if you can find a copy.
The story begins in Renaissance Italy, where Nicholas, a young scholar, has been brought up in Florence by his English mother & Italian stepfather, his father having died in Italy many years before. He is living in the Duke of Urbino's household when he is sought out as the lost heir to an earldom in England. The modern and civilised young man travels to his backwater estate near the Welsh borders in order to secure the inheritance. Once there he meets a rival, a distant relative, Lady Marcle, who covets the earldom for her grandson and sees Nicholas as an imposter. She plays a hard game, but Nicholas is up to it, numerous plots are uncovered and dealt with by the wily Nicholas. When he falls in love and wants to marry he finds himself yet again embroiled in intrigue.

Trease slows the pace of the novel allowing us to enjoy Nicholas as he acclimatises to the very different English world and finds himself gradually charmed with life in the countryside, earns loyal friends and works on his plan to bring European culture to his corner of England. The action then ramps right up for the last third of the novel leading to a thoroughly enjoyable climax. I will be reading more of Trease's work.

The snared nightingale, symbol of desire in Boccaccio’s bawdy Decameron, becomes the signature for a suave, witty tale of romance, intrigue and culture-clash set in Renaissance Italy and the England of Yorkist king Edward IV...A rare Trease adult novel, Snared Nightingale is a gem, full of romantic contretemps, double-dealing and wonderful characters, a masterpiece of sly humour well worth tracking down. Historical Novels Info

#44> pamelad - other Hungary books I'm reading or planning to read include: Fatelessness, The Swimmer, and Prague: a novel (it is set in Budapest despite the title).

#45> Ilana - thanks, last year I didn't add that many library books to the challenge, but this time I've decided not to worry about my tbr books and just enjoy my categories.

#46> AHS-Wolfy - I enjoyed it, it's for children but still lots of fun.

#47> Madeline - I'm into Fatelessness right now, we've just arrived at the camp. I saw the movie a couple of years ago so know the storyline, and I'm enjoying the narrative style.
Gotz and Meyer looks good too - I'm never going to stop acquiring books am I?

#48> Eva - both those are children's books so are quite good to squeeze between two 'heavier' reads. The Richards one is probably not as memorable, though I liked it. The 75 book group is indeed very active, I'm keeping up with very few threads over there at the moment, relying on the group talk threads to stay in touch. I've been participating in a few of the readathons which have been lots of fun and quite social.

#49> DeltaQueen> yes, different pace in this group and I find it's easier to keep up with some 75ers over here than there! Both those books were good reads. I intend to read some of Lovric's adult books at some later date.

I'm currently reading and enjoying The Heir of Night, an absorbing fantasy. Also on the go is Les Miserables which I hope to finish in March - taking it slowly, 100 pgs per week.

Snared Nightingale sounds really good! I'll be on the lookout for it.

Snared Nightingale sounds like my kind of book! Sadly my library doesn't have a copy of it - but they do have a copy of 22 of his other books, so it looks like I can easily give him a shot!

23) The Various by Steve Augarde (2003)
Book 1 Touchstone Trilogy
Young at Heart category

This has been on my tbr pile since it first came out and I have kept ignoring it despite reading many good reviews. So why did I wait so long for such a great magical story.
Midge comes to stay at her Uncle's farm, it's been in the family for generations though it's no longer economically viable. In the nearby forest are the Various, the various tribes of faerie who are also finding it harder to survive. For fans of The Spiderwick Chronicles.


24) Beowulf translated by Seamus Heaney (2008)
LT Challenges, Group & Theme Reads category

Group Read in the 75 Books Challenge group.
The tale of the heroic Beowulf and his fights against legendary beasts and demons was a riveting read. Full of mythic elements, Beowulf appears to be our first superhero, one who fights a demon with his bare hands. Throughout the verse are stories of older heroes, brave warriors who also faced fearsome enemies with courage and might. Epic and awesome. I expected to read this with difficulty as it is an ancient poem, but the lines just flowed.
Here is the
link to some Lynd Ward illustrations from a 1939 edition of Beowulf.



25) Fatelessness by Imre Kertész (1975) (2004 Eng ed)
Jewish Writers category

This autobiographical novel is about Kertész's own experience of concentration camps during World War 2. I saw the movie of this novel a couple of years ago and found the images in it to be very powerful and these images almost overpowered the novel for me. I'm really keen to read more work by Kertész, probably his Kaddish for a Child Not Born which looks at his adult decision not to bring a child into this world, a decision affected by his experiences of the Holocaust.


26) The Heir of Night by Helen Lowe (2010)
Science Fiction/Fantasy category
.
I loved the darkness of the world that Lowe created for this fantasy that hints at scifi. Malian is the Heir of Night, a warrior family steeped in tradition. They guard the Wall of Night against the blackswarm, their age-old enemy. The attack when it comes is vicious, deadly and targeted directly at Malian. Lots of magical elements, mythical lore and great powers at play. This is the first of a new series, book 2 will come out later this year.


27) How to Understand Israel in 60 days or less by Sarah Glidden (2010)
Jewish Writers category

This graphic novel is about New Yorker Glidden's Birthright tour of Israel, a tour that gives young Jewish people from around the world a chance to experience Israel in the company of other young Jewish people. Glidden went with a negative view of Israeli politics but found herself confused and constantly questioning her ideals throughout the trip as she sees the country and its people for herself. This is a very honest look at one person's experience. The artwork is excellent, full of detail and colour.

@54

I remember we were talking about How to Understand Israel in 60 Days or Less not being available in NZ when it first came out - glad to see it made it! Is it a "to-buy" book? I've been eyeing it, but have been on a no-book-buying-diet since my vacation, but I really want this one!

I was planning on reading Kaddish for a Child Not Born for this year's challenge, but I may go for Fatelessness instead. I didn't know there was a movie, but I'll read the book first if the imagery is so strong.

I'll bet the group read for Beowulf was good. I missed it in college, but now that there's a Heaney translation, I'm interested. I'll never read 75 books this year, but I'll have to start watching that group for group reads.

#55> I think you should maybe read a library copy first as there is much to like about the book and quite a bit that's sort of naive almost.
The movie is Hungarian and I was very taken with it.

#56> Katie, the 75 book group has a wiki that lists the group reads, there are a lot happening all the time. I know that Leviathan has just started as part of our Fantasy February theme reads. I'm just starting Native Tongue as part of our Future Women: Explorations and Aspirations group reads which is a year long readfest based on women in the future.

Thanks for the wiki! I'll keep my eye on it!

57 To me the detatched writing style was what made Fateless so powerful. It's events are so horrid they carry themselves. The numb acceptance of the narrator comes across as a survival strategy. Also, some moments in that book gave me completely new insight into the holocaust, even after reading many books on it. Like the instant he, after the war,in a Budapest he no longer recognizes, finds himself homesick for the camp. Chilling stuff -one of the best reads of last year for me.

#59> Anders, I agree with you about Fatelessness, though my reading of it was tempered by having seen the film, which had left such a strong impression on me that those haunting images still echoed over 12 months later when I picked up the book. It is one of the best Holocaust books I've read (alongside Primo Levi), I just felt a little too influenced by the movie to give a succint review. I'm definitely looking for more of his work and yes, I'll be watching the film again. I'm sure this will be one of my memorable reads of the year.

And I wasn't clear in post #57, I was referring to How to understand Israel in 60 days or less when I described parts as almost naive.

Well, I've finished my first category - Young at Heart: children's and YA fiction. Not too hard for me to do considering my interest in children's literature. I'll keep plugging away at this category and try to make it 11 books from my own collection.

One Crazy Summer by Rita Williams-Garcia (2010)
children's fiction

Another impressive book from Williams-Garcia, this has recently been awarded a Newbery Honour Book Award and the Coretta Scott King Award. Set in 1968, this one shows us the people involved in the Black Panther Movement through the eyes of Delphine and her two young sisters. They have flown across the US to spend a summer in Oakland with their estranged mother. She soon makes them aware of how unwelcome they are.
I loved the dynamics between the sisters and how Delphine slowly finds out about her mother.
I also recommend her No Laughter Here which deals with the subject of female circumcision.

Bloody Jack; Being an Account of the Curious Adventures of Mary "Jacky" Faber, Ship's Boy by L.A. Meyer (2002)
Bloody Jack Adventures (Bk1)
YA fiction

A girl's own adventure. Street urchin, Mary (Jacky) Faber, poses as a boy and gets taken on by the British Navy as one of six new ship's boys. Vivid tale of life on board ship in the early 19th century as the HMS Dolphin chases pirates across the Mediterranean and then the Caribbean. I loved this, Mary is a great heroine, showing bravery, daring and resourcefulness. I'll continue with this series, but do need to think about finishing a few others first.
There are touches of romance in this, but overall the story is strong on adventure, maybe a little 'overthetop' plotwise but entertaining and fun. The descriptions of life on board ship are interesting and I presume authentic.
The narrator was excellent, though I switched to a hard copy of the book for the last 70 or so pages. Audiobooks are so slow and I have several to get through due to my over-enthusiastic borrowing of e-audio from the library.

I'm starting to hear a lot about One Crazy Summer. Looks like I'll have to track it down.

@60

LOL - I was a bit confused that you would refer to Kertész' book as "sort of naive," so I figured out which one you meant. Hopefully, my usually brilliant library will get a copy. :)

57

And, I just got back from the library, where the beautiful staff was just putting their stickers on it! Someone else has it on hold, but I'm next!

A Walk In the Woods is one of the funniest books I think I've ever read. I have a large family and it got passed from person to person and everyone thought it was a hit.

> 65

The part about the bear...

I was listening to the audio version of A Walk in the Woods in my car. I was laughing so hard that I had to pull over and stop my car. That part was hilarious!!

>66 SqueakyChu: I can believe you. This book could be deadly as an audiobook in a car. His others are pretty funny too, my second favorite being the one where he decides to go to only small towns throughout the USA. That was laugh-out-loud as well.

The Return of the Soldier by Rebecca West (1918)
Challenges category

This met the TIOLI embedded word challenge (there) as I was delighted to discover once I'd finished listening to it. I downloaded the free LibriVox audio of the book. The narrator, Elizabeth Klett, was very good, so I've downloaded a few more classics read by her.

The Return of the Soldier is an enchanting love story. It is a short novel brimming with beautiful descriptions. The soldier, Chris, an officer in the trenches returns home suffering selective memory loss caused by shell shock. He spends his days reliving his early life and his first love, unable to acknowledge his wife and their beautiful home.The novel echoes the lost youth of the young men who won't return from the trenches. The story is narrated by his cousin who observes everything in meticulous detail. Just wonderful.

The Marbury Lens by Andrew Smith (2010)
Scifi/fantasy category

16 year old Jack is a few days away from a trip to the UK when he gets drunk and starts to walk home from a party. He gets abducted and wakes to find himself chained to a bed in a small room. His abductor starts to play a few mind games but luckily Jack is able to escape.
When he arrives in London, a stranger gives him a pair of glasses with strange purple lenses. When he wears them he is transported to a world full of horror, Marbury.
This book pulls some interesting mind games on the reader, you don't know what is happening, where or what. The tension builds, the visits to Marbury become addictive. You want to know why this is happening to Jack, is it because of what happened before his trip? Is Jack just buckling under psychological pressure or are the ghosts and strangers really there.
Roll, tap tap.
Great reading for older teens especially boys. NOT for the squeamish or prudish reader.

The Curse of Chalion by Lois McMaster Bujold (2001)
scifi/fantasy category

I also read this for Fantasy February over on the 75 books challenge group. Thanks to Ronincats for recommending this for my first Bujold.
This is a great fantasy, and I enjoyed a story with an older adult protaganist as I'm usually reading YA coming of age fantasy. It was sheer delight to follow Cazaril's progress from broken man to the hero of the story, his body broken from years as a galley slave, he returns home and is shunted directly into political intrigue, magic and romance. I have the sequel lined up to read in the next couple of months.

Mr Wakefield's Crusade by Bernice Rubens (1985)
Bernice Rubens category

I'm so pleased I decided to focus on Bernice Rubens this year, this story was such fun and clever, I never guessed the twist in the tail of this story. Luke Wakefield, a failure in life and slightly paranoid, is participating in his weekly highlight of standing in the Post Office queue on benefit day looking for some chitchat with his fellow queuers when the man in front of him keels over and dies. Luke's hand sneaks out and grabs the letter the man was about to post, and so starts his 'crusade', a search to find justice and the truth about the mysterious disappearance of a woman.
I'm almost certain I have read this before but only a small part of the book felt familiar, when Luke is convinced the police have him under surveillance. Rubens is great at writing the paranoid slightly 'off key' personality. Recommended.

Native Tongue by Suzette Haden Elgin (1984)
scifi/fantasy

I'm participating in the Future Women in scifi group read of this book over on the 75 book challenge group where there is a fascinating ongoing discussion. I finished the book because I didn't want to draw out the next couple of weeks reading it when I wasn't enjoying it and it was starting to affect my other reading. Overall I'm pleased to have read it, mainly due to the group's discussions about linguistics and the depiction of men/women in the novel.
Set two hundred years in the future when women have lost their fight for equality and the most powerful families are those with unusual linguistic abilities, capable of communicating with aliens.

The Double Life of Cassiel Roadnight by Jenny Valentine (2010)
Young at Heart category

I loved this and am now looking forward to discovering more of Jenny Valentine's work. A homeless teen turns up at a youth shelter in London, seeking for food and rest. A social worker thinks he's Cassiel Roadnight, a boy who went missing two years earlier, he looks just like him. Here's a chance to be part of a family, to finally be someone and to get off the streets and away from the gang that's after him. But all is not as easy as it first appears. A thrilling read.
Valentine acknowledges that a Josephine Tey novel was the inspiration for this.

The Song of the Whales by Uri Orlev (1997), (2010 English trans)
Young at Heart category, Israel

This is an unusual story almost a fable. Mikha'el comes to live in Jerusalem from New York as his parents want to be near his grandfather who is old and possibly under the influence of his housekeeper which could upset their inheritance. Mikha'el is lonely and soon forms a strong friendship with his grandfather and even begins to warm to the housekeeper. Eventually the grandfather shares with Mikha'el his secret - his ability to share dreams and together they have many adventures in the dreams, but then the dreams start to get darker in context and reality and dream begin to mix a little.
I really like Orlev's semi-autobiographical novels such as The island on Bird Street and The Man from the Other Side but this little fantasy has a weirdness to it that just doesn't quite gel. Its magical elements are really interesting but I think I'd find it hard to recommend to children, I see it more as something fable-like that adults could enjoy.

Sophie's Misfortunes by Comtess de Ségur (1859) (2010 English trans)
The Fleurville Trilogy Bk1
Young at Heart category

Recently translated French classic for children, apparently Les malheurs de Sophie is a popular read for younger students of French. Young Sophie is only 4 years old and is a bundle of naughtiness, never listening to her mother or Nanny's advice, never following the example of her cousin Paul, never learning from her mistakes. The trouble she gets up to would never pass in a children's book of today, I was skeptical at first but gradually came to adore little Sophie and her irrepressible temper...though I did feel sorry for any animals in her care.
Little escapades such as eating the horses' bread or cutting her eyebrows off are mild in comparison to when she tries to keep a pet squirrel, or what happens to the poor donkey. Quite a few escapades revolve around her appetite for special treats.
This is in the 1001 children's books you must read before you grow up.
The author wrote this for one of her granddaughters. Here is the wikipedia info on Comtess de Ségur

In a strange room by Damon Galgut (2010)
Challenges category

I also read this for the Reading Globally's Journey theme. In a strange room was one of the shortlisted books for last year's Booker Prize.
This contemporary novel about three different journeys taken over several years is quite something. Each journey is separate from the other, in the first the narrator goes trekking in Lesotho with a German he doesn't know that well and like the other two stories it doesn't end well. The third story, set in India, was the highlight for me, I found it riveting reading with his companion spiraling out of control and descending into some form of insanity far from home. The stories feel very real, it's like reading nonfiction. The narrator jumps between first and third person narration, even within the same sentence, and it works. Recommended.

A journey is a gesture inscribed in space, it vanishes even as it's made. You go from one place to another place, and on to somewhere else again, and already behind you there is no trace that you were ever there. The roads you went down yesterday are full of different people now, none of them knows who you are. Dust covers over your footprints, the marks of your fingers are wiped off the door, from the floor and table the bits and pieces of evidence that you might have dropped are swept up and thrown away and they never come back again. The very air closes behind you like water and soon your presence, which felt so weighty and permanent, has completely gone. Things happen once only and are never repeated, never return. Except in memory. pg123

Just as Well I'm leaving: to the Orient with Hans Christian Andersen by Michael Booth (2006)
Getting Around category

When journalist Michael Booth married a Danish actress, he moved from his comfortable London world to Copenhagen and had to adjust to life in Denmark. While learning Danish he discovered the stories of Hans Christian Andersen in their original form, vastly different to the censored Victorian era translations we are all used to, not to mention the sanitised Disney versions. He finds Andersen to be an interesting, intriguing personality and also discovered his travel writing. To get away from Denmark for a time he decides to travel the same path that Andersen took in 1841 in The Poet's Bazaar on his journey through German, Italy, Malta, Greece, Turkey and back along the Danube River.
Along the way Booth discusses all sorts of interesting aspects of Andersen and his writing, his inspirations, quirks etc. Quite fascinating, at times Booth is a bit much, he gets a bit obsessed at the start with the question of Andersen's sexuality (over which there has been much debate to give Booth his due) but is also funny and laughs at his own predicaments. Overall this book just makes you appreciate and want to read everything Andersen has written and has been written about him. It's an interesting travel narrative as we are visiting these places in the 21st century with Booth, but also seeing them through Andersen's 1841 eyes from A Poet's Bazaar. I enjoyed this, Andersen was a complex character and I think Booth does a great job of impressing on us the 'greatness' of the man and his legacy.
I also have Journey in Blue:a novel about Hans Christian Andersen by Danish writer Stig Dalager on my to-read list.

That Michael Booth book sounds very interesting, especially since I (obviously) grew up with HC Andersen's stories. The unsanitized versions...! :)

Nice quote from In a Strange Room. I'm still considering reading it for my South Africa category. My only reservation is it sounds like it spends a lot of time other places.

#72 - Most of it is set outside South Africa, but he is a South African writer. Maybe you should consider his The Good Doctor.

#73 Thanks for the recommendation! The Good Doctor looks perfect. I looked at the book page and it's gotten lots of good ratings. I'm going to add it to my 11 11 plan!

Putting Mr. Wakefield's Crusade on the to read list. Man, there is almost nothing better than reading through these threads to find books that you will like. My reading this year has had many fewer duds than usual.

I'm going to see if I can get a copy of Les malheurs de Sophie for a friend who teaches French (well, mostly for the students) -- that sounds like a delightful book!

The Last Dragonslayer by Jasper Fforde (2010)
Young at Heart Category Bonus Read

I found this a trifle hard to get into but persevered as I'm a Fforde fan. Overall the story turned out to be quite fun and I liked the heroine, Jennifer Strange. The story is slightly over the top like the Thursday Next books but just a bit of slog at the start, probably to do with the world building or just me being slightly off-mood when I started it.
Jennifer Strange lives in an alternate world UK, where the only undeveloped land left is in a 350sq mile protected park where lives the last dragon. Protected by magic, only a dragonslayer and their apprentice can pass through.

Hush by Eishes Chayil (2010)
YA fiction - Jewish Writers category

Set in an ultra orthodox Jewish community in modern day New York, the book transports you to a world of prayer, ritual, innocence, purity, arranged marriages, closeknit family and tradition. In this closed world it is possible to hush down scandalous events and pretend they haven't taken place. For 18 year old Gittel about to enter marriage, those hushed memories from 9 years earlier resurface and she dreams of her long lost friend, Devory, who took her own life.
Eishes Chayil is a pseudonym and means Woman of Valour, the book was written to expose the abuse that the author also observed as a young girl. Recommended.

Behemoth by Scott Westerfeld (2010)
YA steampunk - Scifi/fantasy Category

This is the second in the series and continues to be an exciting read. It's YA but at the lower end. Not as engaging as Philip Reeve's Hungry Cities series but nevertheless a good introduction to steampunk, with the action taking place in Istanbul.

#71> Eva, Booth can be irritating at times but overall it was a good look at Andersen and his legacy from an unusual angle.
#75> I agree, I've come across some great reads here on LT.
#76> Hope you can track down a copy. Smiler69/Ilana found over 50 different editions (French & English) listed in the library system in Montreal.

To Say Nothing of the Dog: How We Found the Bishop's Bird Stump at Last by Connie Willis (1997)
scifi/fantasy category
I listened to this on my iPod, it was narrated rather well by Steven Crossley. Last year I listened to Three Men in a Boat (To Say Nothing of the Dog) in preparation for this. I really liked the characters, the plot was lots of fun and I want a dog like Cyril. I'll be picking up her Doomsday Book in the near future.

@78 -- I absolutely loved To Say Nothing of the Dog! Doomsday Book is good too, but be warned that it's very different in tone -- much more serious and somber!

I'm really, really hoping you were just not in the mood for The Last Dragonslayer - I was so looking forward to that! :)

Hush seems very interesting, but is it a difficult one to read, emotionally? I have a hard time with that topic.

#79> I've been warned that her other books are more serious and take note again. To Say Nothing about the Dog was just so good!! I'm pleased I started with that one.

#80> Eva - The Last Dragonslayer is a YA book, it took me a good 80-100 pages to start liking it, which I thought was a bit long for grabbing & keeping kids' attention, so could never be a 5 star read for me. Still I hope you get into it faster.
What I liked about Hush was that a lot of the story revolved around Gittel's life in the community, and you learn how sheltered the lives of the young people are. The story is well told, not at all graphic and not too emotional because it's told from Gittel's POV. She doesn't understand what she saw and Devory's death is immediately hushed up and never spoken of. You know from page one that Devory has died.

@81

Absolutely, YA needs to grab the reader much quicker than that, I agree. I'll consider myself warned about the Ffordes book! :)

Hush might be OK for me to read then. Sounds like an interesting POW.

Hush sounds good to me. It's going on the wish list. & I loved To Say Nothing of the Dog too, but haven't read any of her other books, although I do own Bellwether.

The Vanishing of Katharina Linden by Helen Grant (2009)
The Grand Tour category - books set on the European Continent
YA fiction

I've wanted to read this for a while since seeing it mentioned on a few blogs and it was also shortlisted for the Carnegie Medal last year. The story's setting is Bad Münstereifel, where Grant lived for several years, a small picturesque town in Germany. Pia, the young narrator, is the last person to see Katharina before she disappears during one of the town's festivals. Pia has been ostracised by most of her schoolmates since her grandmother suffered an unfortunate fate and is forced to befriend the only one who will still speak to her, StinkStefan.
Inspired by local folktales of Grimm and gothic nature, they try to solve the mystery of the missing girl and then girls. What shines through in this story is the town itself, Grant uses her local knowledge to great advantage creating a truly sinister setting in such a picture postcard place (I googled images of the town and it looks totally delightful). Pia is an unhappy child, her parents' marriage is crumbling, girls are disappearing, her grandmother has died, she is an outsider at school and might have to move to England with her English mother.
Sprinkled throughout are words and short phrases in German which adds to the book's appeal.
This book has been marketed in the US as an adult book but reads as a scary YA.

First sentence: My life might have been so different had I not been known as the girl whose grandmother exploded.

#82> Eva - Here is a blog by LT's Gaskella about a Jasper Fforde event for the latest Thursday Next novel. And here is her review of The Last Dragonslayer which she awarded 9/10. I've followed her blog for a couple of years.

85

Thanks for those links!!

The Vanishing of Katharina Linden by Helen Grant (2009)
Grand Tour category
YA fiction

I've wanted to read this for a while since seeing it mentioned on a few blogs and it was also shortlisted for the Carnegie Medal last year. The story's setting is Bad Münstereifel, where Grant lived for several years, a small picturesque town in Germany. Pia, the young narrator, is the last person to see Katharina before she disappears during one of the town's festivals. Pia has been ostracised by most of her schoolmates since her grandmother suffered an unfortunate fate and is forced to befriend the only one who will still speak to her, StinkStefan. Inpired by local folktales of Grimm and gothic nature, they try to solve the mystery of the missing girl and then girls.
What shines through in this story is the town itself, Grant uses her local knowledge to great advantage creating a truly sinister setting in such a picture postcard place (I googled the town and it looks totally delightful). Pia is an unhappy child, her parents' marriage is crumbling, girls are disappearing, her grandmother has died, she is an outsider at school and might have to move to England with her English mother.
Sprinkled throughout are words and short phrases in German which adds to the book's appeal.
This book has been marketed in the US as an adult book but reads as a scary YA.

First sentence: My life might have been so different had I not been known as the girl whose grandmother exploded.

Great first sentence!

Could it be a nod to Iain Banks' The Crow Road? :) Its first sentence is ''It was the day my grandmother exploded.'' Probably just a coincidence.

Note to self: Need to read Crow road! It's my main Banks gap.

#89&90> Interesting. I've only read his The Wasp Factory and a couple of scifi ones, I need to get to The Crow Road as well.

August by Bernard Beckett (2011)
Down Under category

This is New Zealand writer Bernard Beckett's latest offering. He has a new publisher and it's being marketed as adult, but there are teaching notes for upper secondary on the publisher's website. I think it's a crossover novel that will appeal to mature teens. It follows on from his YA novel Genesis and explores similar themes and would be an interesting novel to use in the classroom.
A teenage boy and girl have just crashed in a car and are suspended upside down over a slope, both are badly injured, and as they wait for the night to pass and hopefully help to come they tell each other their life stories and the events leading to their being in the car that night. This is set in a sort of dystopian future with a repressed society dominated by the religion of St Augustine. Tristan has been the subject of an experiment in free will by the monks in his repressive school inside the walled city and is still grappling with philosophical questions. Grace, an orphan has had a hard life, is much more practical in her outlook having been forced to survive outside the city walls.
Well crafted and intelligent, this one deserves a reread later in the year.

I've also read another YA
Gudrun Pausewang's Fall-out (1987) English 1994)
Young at Heart Bonus Read

I've enjoyed all the books that I've read by Gudrun Pausewang and this was no exception. It was recommended by LTer PersephonesLibrary as a memorable read in its original German, Die Wolke (The Cloud). It's included in 1001 children's books you must read before you grow up. Pausewang wrote this in response to the Chernobyl disaster of 1986.
An accident at a nuclear power station a few kilometres from the town where 14 yr old Janna lives sends the whole region into panic. Janna's not sure what to do, her parents are on a business trip, so she must take charge of her young brother and decide whether to flee like everyone else or stay put in the family's cellar. They decide to flee on their bikes, an attempt to outrun the radioactive cloud that is blowing towards their town.The story continues with the aftermath of the disaster and how the state treats the survivors.

Funny - from what I can tell, Genesis is marketed as an adult novel in the US - filed under SciFi at my library. Those labels are just so deceptive sometimes. :) And, the cover of August is just brilliant!

I really liked Genesis, especially thought it was an awesome books for teens because it is intelligent and thought provoking. It's won a sleuth of awards and honours, all at the YA level. He originally wrote it as a play as he's a highschool drama teacher.

I'm going to have to snag it from the library next time I'm there - regardless if it's filed in SciFi rather than Teen Center. :)

OK, so now that we're talking scifi, I just have to ask if you've ever read Peter Dickinson's Eva?

OMG! Big LOL from over here - I'm going to have to read that!!!

The Daughter of Time by Josephine Tey (1951)
Challenge, group reads etc category

Inspector Grant is laid up in hospital with a broken leg and investigates the story of Richard III and the mystery behind the princes in the tower. Really well done and gives me a hankering to read some historical fiction. Sharon Penman's The Sunne in Splendour has been suggested to me.


48) The Bone Tiki by David Hair (2009)
Down Under category
young adult fiction.

David Hair has written an exceptionally thrilling adventure that takes us in and out of the mythical world of Aotearoa/New Zealand. I really enjoyed this and revel in the thought that there are at least two more books to read - The Taniwha's Tear and The Lost Tohunga. A great debut and Hair, who now lives in India, has also got a new series based on Indian mythology on the go too, first book has just come out - Pyre of Queens.


49) There Once Lived a Woman Who Tried to Kill Her Neighbor's Baby: scary fairy tales by Ludmilla Petrushevskaya (2009)
Magic in the Air category
short stories, Russia

I really enjoyed these stories, quite refreshingly surreal. I had to take the book straight back to the library as it was overdue so can't talk specifics on particular stories.
I won't comment further but will link to Tim Jones' excellent review in the December edition of Belletrista. And if you've always been looking for a more contemporary Nikolai Gogol, or a less rococo Angela Carter, then you should definitely bother. Tim has a thread over on Club Reads and if you follow his thread you soon realise that he has a passion for Russian literature.

For those that read here and don't know - Belletrista is an online literature review site (celebrating women writers from around the world) that was started by LT's avaland and most of the reviewers come from the LT community.

Ah! I love Angela Carter, but a bit less rococo wouldn't hurt. I'll have to wish list your #49.

#98> I think you'll enjoy that one. It's my 49th book for the year over on the 75 book challenge, I forgot to remove my numbering for here.

I've added There Once Lived a Woman Who Tried to Kill Her Neighbor's Baby to my WL, and wouldn't you know it, they have it at the library! What a wonderful title eh?

Yes, the title grabs your attention and was one of the reasons I read it now rather than languishing on my tbr list.

Ooh, I love dark fairly tales!

The two of you need to stop reading so that I can stop adding books to Mt. TBR!! :)

#102 lol. Well it looks like Kerry will be taking a break for a few weeks, so that should help you out some.

eta: and me too for that matter, I think Kerry is the one LTer who does the most damage to my own Mt. TBR.

Yes, I'll be away from LT for 5-6 weeks from the end of March, though I will continue reading books just not posting for a while. Anyway I get a lot of recommendations from the two of you as well so it works both ways!

In 5-6 weeks, I could do some damage to Mt. TBR! But then you'll just add a bunch when you come back... :) Yeah, I think we're all guilty of entrapment! :)

Hope you're doing something fun, Kerry!!

Yes, it will be fun, we will be spending a couple of weeks in Buenos Aires as well as a few days in Rio & Uruguay. We've been to BA a few times, it's a great place to spend time in.

Oh, that's brilliant!!! Serious, serious envy going on over here right now! One of my brothers worked in Rio for a while and then in Brasília, but I never got my act together enough to go visit. Stoopid-stoopid-stoopid. Hope you have a fantastic time - we'll miss you!!!!!!!!!!

Very very envious here too! Have a great time!

Sunday Best by Bernice Rubens (1971)
Bernice Rubens category

Another good read from Rubens, this one possibly not as strong as the previous two of hers I've read this year. Rubens has a wicked sense of humour, and this story features another twisted main character. George lives an ordinary little life, he's a teacher, has an unexciting marriage, and lives in one of those streets with neighbours peering out through the net curtains. But George has a delicious secret, one that his wife tolerates - on Sundays, he dresses up in his wife's discarded dresses and spends the day in his study enjoying his subterfuge. He blames it all on his long dead father.

Les Miserables by Victor Hugo (1862)
The Grand Tour category

What a wonderful wonderful story at the heart of this weighty tome. Hugo's story of ex-convict Jean Valjean and his redemption is masterful. Hugo packs in a heap of social commentary, that is at times a bit hard going, but I set a daily page limit to my reading so I never felt overwhelmed. The story at the heart of the book is worth every page spent on the Battle of Waterloo, the history of sewers etc etc.. I confess to shedding a few tears on the last pages.
I read the Penguin Classics edition, but did not read the intro essay or the appendix. After failing to read this last year I'm pleased that I was disciplined enough to tackle it early on this year.

I'm really looking forward to the trip, I've been a few times but BA is a wonderful city to hang out in. I was in Rio last year but with an injured ankle and walking was painful so I can't say that I got the most out of it.
Eva - you should still go.

The General in his Labyrinth by Gabriel García Márquez (1989)

Read for the Journey theme of Reading Globally Group.
Well I must confess I read this book badly. When I came across the book I was really keen to read it, a re-imagining of Simon Bolivar's last journey into exile and written by a great author. But I just didn't do the book justice, kept on putting it down and only reading a few pages at a time. I also didn't have the knowledge of the events and need to read more South American history.
We follow the great liberator as he takes his final journey along the Magdalena River to Cartegena where he is to board a ship to Europe and exile. He is in poor health and as he travels he steps in and out of the past. We see what a great man he was, his legacy and the tragic downtrodden ending of his life, the slow deterioration just like his dream of a unified America.
Wikipedia: Simón Bolívar is regarded in Hispanic America as a hero, visionary, revolutionary, and liberator. During his lifetime, he led Bolivia, Colombia, Peru, Ecuador, Panama, and Venezuela to independence, and helped lay the foundations for democratic ideology in much of Hispanic America.

My latest reading catchup - I'll add in the categories as I work them out. I lost my first post and so have been reduced to making short comments.

The People by Jean Raspail (1986)
Conflict
A fascinating story of the Kaweskar people, who inhabited the southernmost tip of Tierra del Fuego, and how they fared with the arrival of the European. Very well imagined. Strongly recommended and a memorable read for the year.
wikipedia: Raspail is a French writer....During the first twenty years of his career, he traveled the world to discover populations threatened by the confrontation with modernity. Raspail's seminal work is The Camp of the Saints (1973). In it, he predicted the overwhelming of Western civilization in a 'tidal wave' of Third World immigration. The book evoke a huge controversy leading some of his critics to accuse him of right-wing extremism on the basis of the views expressed in the book

The Buenos Aires Quintet by Manuel Vázquez Montalbán (1997) (2003 Eng)
Meanderings

This is the 22nd Pepe Carvellho book, and Pepe is usually to be found doing his detective work in Barcelona, but here he sets off to Buenos Aires to find a lost cousin. Set 20 years after the military dictatorship this novel examines the consequences of those times. What sort of life can you live if your loved ones disappeared? Great writing... a little different but in a good way.
I picked this one up because of the Buenos Aires setting, but also to read a Montalban book as his Cavellho was the inspiration for Camilleri's Inspector Montalbano books.

Doctor Brodie's Report by Jorge Luis Borges (1970)
short stories
My first entry into the world of Borges and I'll definitely be back for more. I have his Collected Fictions on my shelves, just need more hours in the day.


Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad (1902)

A dark look at the European lust for the rich resources of Africa and their shabby treatment of the native peoples. A riverboat captain tells of his trip deep down the Congo RIver and what was found there. A psychological mind trip - I loved it. And now I must watch Apocolypse Now again.

The Leopard by Giuseppe Tomasi Di Lampedusa (1958)
The Grand Tour
Another great read. A look at the end of an era in Sicily as the traditions and privileges of the aristocratic lifestyle comes to a close with the unification of Italy and politics change society forever. My old Penguin edition had photos of the film starring Burt Lancaster and Claudia Cardinale, another movie i'd like to see.

The Ponsonby Post by Bernice Rubens (1977)
Bernice Rubens
Another good one from Rubens. This is set in Java and looks at Western meddling via UN and other agencies in the Third World. Do we make a difference or does our 'progress' upset the balance that generations of traditional village and rural life has managed to attain.
A new and enthusiastic liaison officer is appointed much to the dismay of the Europeans already ensconced in Djogjakarta.


The glass-blowers by Daphne du Maurier (1963)
The Grand Tour
Du Maurier writes a story based on her own family background. Set during the French Revolution years we follow the changing political landscape through the fortunes and misfortunes of a rural family of glass-blowers. Wonderful. While mostly set in the French countryside, there are several sections set in Paris. I enjoyed this and felt it complemented my recent reading of Les Miserables.

Dissolution by CJ Sansom (2003)

I read Sovereign a few years ago and always meant to read more Shardlake. Very enjoyable and i'll be reading more.

Nemesis by Jo Nesbo (2003) (2008 Eng)
The Grand Tour
My first Harry Hole and unfortunately an out of sequence read. A series I'll continue with. Harry definitely grows on you.

65) Electric by Chad Taylor (2002)
Down Under
A moody evocative piece set during the crippling power cuts that Auckland suffered through in 1998. Taylor has used the disturbances of the cuts to unbalance his characters.


As I walked out one midsummer's morning by Laurie Lee (1958).
travel

In 1934 poet, Laurie Lee, walked and busked his way through Spain and saw the country as it sat on the cusp of civil war. This was an unexpected pleasure, I loved the style of writing and I have to track down a copy of Lee's experiences of fighting in the Civil War - A Moment of War.

Montenegro by Starling Lawrence (1997)
The Grand Tour
Set in the pre World War 1 Balkan region, the story was hampered by too many interfering sex scenes which added nothing to the story. A young Englishman is sent into Montenegro to spy on the Austrian and Turkish interests in the region.

Game of Thrones by George Martin (1996)
fantasy
Finally read this and really enjoyed it. I'll be reading the rest of the series. Again, please give me a few more hours each day reading time!

Perdido Street Station by China Mieville (2000)
fantasy
This won't be for everyone, but I loved it and will be lining up more of his work in later months.
Weird, grotesque and riveting.

Pompeii by Robert Harris (2003)
The Grand Tour
Lighter fare but still interesting. The Vesuvius eruption as seen from the POV of an aqueduct engineer. I learnt quite a bit about aqueducts and water flow too. Enjoyable.

Guardian of the Dead by Karen Healey (2010)
Down Under
Healey's debut novel is an interesting mix of darker elements from Maori mythology and urban fantasy which starts off in a New Zealand boarding school setting.

Pyre of Queens by David Hair (2011)
Down Under
First in a new series based on stories about Ravanna, the demon king from India's Ramayana. This is an action-packed adventure story with three modern Indian teenagers finding that they have common history from previous reincarnations that go back almost to mythological times and Ravanna is after revenge. Exciting with dabs of horror.

Brighton Rock by Graham Greene (1938)
Meanderings
This novel has the best first and last sentences I've come across in a long time. Anyway, a re-read for me as it's been a long time and I was intrigued when reading King Dorkwhere it was mentioned several times.
It's very good, very black and has just been made into a movie for the second time and I have won tickets to see it. I'll also be looking up the original film from the 1940s.

Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell (2004)
Challenges
My first David Mitchell book finally, finally. I liked it though I find it hard to comment on.
A book in six parts with very loose links between the different characters. I enjoyed the structure leading away from the first story and then back towards it, with an Orwellian tone at the heart of the novel.

The Night Villa by Carol Goodman (2008)

I didn't really engaged with this one. The plot revolves around a bunch of Texan academics, survivors of a campus shooting incident, on an archaeological dig of a particular Roman villa in South Italy. They stay in a replica of the villa, owned by the philanthropist millionaire who is funding the dig. The modern story is juxtaposed with the diary readings telling of life and intrigue in the villa in the days leading up to the eruption of Vesuvius. Soon all turns into a sort of murder/thriller as a cult tries to grab precious scrolls in the tunnels under the excavation.
It's better than it sounds but not great.

Just Jack by Adele Broadbent (2011)
Down Under

Jack's first job in a stable as an apprentice jockey is not going according to his daydreams. His boss does not let him ride the horses. There are unexplained tensions in the house where he boards alongside his boss and the other apprentice.Set in the early 1930s around the time of the Napier earthquake. Overall a satisfying read.

You've done very well!! Quite a few of my all-time favorites in there too. Welcome back - hope you had a great trip!

Whew! Quite a list!

Some excellent books in there. Glad that you enjoyed the majority of them.

Holy crap, that's a lot of books! Way to go, Kerry!

Welcome back!
I hadn't heard of The Glass Blowers by du Maurier, but I've enjoyed the few of hers I've read, so that goes onto the wishlist. I can also highly recommend the rest of George RR Martins A Song Of Fire And Ice series, although it's a long time between books!

Welcome back! Gee, what a graet list of reading! I'm just a little anxious to know: did you bring all those books with you to South America?

Wow! Quite a few interesting books. Which ones to wishlist? & how was your trip?

Suite Francaise by Irène Némirovsky (2004)
Jewish writer category

Némirovsky, a published writer, wrote this during the Nazi occupation of France, before she was arrested and sent to Auschwitz where she died. The work is unfinished, only 2 novellas of a proposed 4 or 5 and her manuscript languished in her daughters' possession for many years before they realised the significance of the writing.
The first novella concerns Parisians fleeing Paris as the Nazis advance to occupy the city and the ensuing chaos as cars run out of petrol, food is scarce and accommodation in villages and small towns nonexistent. The second novella looks at life under occupation in a small rural village where the local people must billet German soldiers for several months. Characters from the first novella link into the second.
I thought this was a great piece of writing and if Némirovsky had been able to finish the project it would have become a significant work. I read her David Golder a couple of years ago and loved that as well.

Rivers of London by Ben Aaronovitch (2010)
fantasy category
Peter Grant Bk 1

Loved this fantasy caper. Peter Grant is a probationary constable in London who meets up with a ghost at the scene of a murder. This encounter ends up with Peter apprenticed to Inspector Nightingale, the last wizard in England.

Billionaire Boy by David Walliams; illustrated by Tony Ross (2010)
Young at Heart category

Having a Dad who suddenly made a fortune out of a new type of toilet paper presents a new set of problems for Joe, such as how to make a real friend. At times hilariously silly, this is also a heartwarming tale.
David Walliams is better known as one of the stars of the tv series Little Britain. This is his third children's book, I really enjoyed his first one, The boy in the dress.

Sorry by Gail Jones (2007)
Down Under category - iPod audiobook

I attended a couple of sessions at the Auckland Writers Festival that featured Gail Jones and I must confess I became a fan without even having read any of her work. She is so intelligent and thoughtful and I later discovered she was even born in the same small town in Western Australia as my father - so even more reasons to become a fan. I bought a copy of Black Mirror and have her Five Bells out from the library. But first I just had to listen to Sorry as she read the opening passage at one of the sessions.
This is the story of the child, Perdita, her relationship with her mother and her friendships with an aboriginal girl, Mary and Billy a deafmute boy. It starts with powerful imagery as a tragedy is unfolding, the death of her father. The book then voyages into the past and the future as we follow the hows and whys and watch Perdita's life unfold. At the heart of the story is silence, an inability to speak and here Jones is subtly hinting at the treatment the aboriginal people suffered from at the hands of the Australian government policy, especially their lost children. The writing is quite magical in it's elegant and poetic style. I loved listening to this and yet there were passages where I longed to revisit the written word, so I now have a copy of the book out from the library.

By the time I was ten, when I began seriously to read - so that silent words, not utterance, would be my form of expression - half the front room was crowded by books....I would fall asleep watching my parents read at the kitchen table, and if I woke in the night I found myself in this peculiar, librarian city, the massive architectonics of other people's words. Terraces, ziggurats, prominences and voids. In the darkness the pillars of books seemed to tilt and arch over me, yet I fancied not collapse, but a kind of shelter, the roof-shaped protection of open volumes.....Because we were stranded together, and because I stuttered, we read. There is no refuge so private, no asylum more sane.

Thanks for the welcome back - I had a great time and now feel like I haven't been away at all!
If anyone is interested, I posted a link to my photos over on my 75 books challenge thread.

#117> Yes, I have the other three George Martin books and the latest has been pre-ordered. My son keeps asking me when I'm starting Clash of Kings . I noticed on the library website that they put in an order for A Dance of Dragons in 2007.
The Glass-blowers was very good, I have a few more du Mauriers to get through.

#118> Anders - yes, I hauled all those books and a few more with me on my trip. My family are now familiar with me starting out with a 'heavy as' suitcase that eventually lightens as a trip progresses! I usually search through my tbr piles for old paperbacks that I can throw away. This time I took a few chunkier reads that I'd been putting off for months such as Perdido St Station and Game of Thrones. We weren't moving around too much and spent two wonderful weeks in Buenos Aires at the end. We've been a few times over the years, I have a particular love for BA.

Love, love, love the pics!! Looks like such a fun trip. I especially love the BA-pics - I can tell that you've been several times, it's only then that people's photos get especially interesting (i.e. when you skip the "touristy" stuff and go straight for local color). Thanks for linking to them! *still envious* :)

You're making me interested in Suite Francaise. The title sounds like a romance so that was putting mo off. Clearly, it is a deeper piece than I thought.

#123> I had it on my tbr pile for several years. Do pick it up, there is a bittersweet love story in the second part but the book is just so much more than that. The story behind the book is also fascinating.

#122> Thanks - I do like my 'local colour' and BA is a very photogenic city.

Lovely photos indeed, and thanks for the reviews and reminder that I need to read the other 2 of Walliams' books. (I also read and enjoyed The Boy in the Dress.) I just pulled Suite Francaise off of my shelf and am hoping to start it over the weekend, fingers crossed.

The Conductor by Sarah Quigley (2011)
Down Under category

I saw this book at the Auckland Writers & Readers festival bookstore and just had to have it. Unfortunately I couldn't get to the session with Sarah Quigley but I have enjoyed this book to the nth degree. Quigley is a New Zealander who has lived in Berlin since winning the inaugural Creative NZ Berlin Writers' Residency in 2000.

Quigley blends fact with fiction to create a wonderful story set in 1941 Leningrad. Shostakovich writes his symphony amid the hardship of the Leningrad siege. We also follow the fortunes of shy, introspective, Karl Eliasberg, conductor of the second-rate Radio Orchestra and Nikolai Nikolayev, violinist and friend of Shostokovich, who suffers from the unknown fate of his talented daughter, one of thousands of children evacuated from the city.
I found this to be a riveting story and could hardly put the book down at times. Quigley manages to maintain a narrative drive through the force of Shostakovich's creative genius and the ongoing hardship of the siege as the city stumbles towards that harsh winter without food supplies. She has created a remarkable fictional personality for Eliasberg, the conductor who was charged to bring the symphony to life for its premiere in Leningrad in August 1942.

Bonus feature: the book comes with a Naxos CD of the Russian Philharmonic Orchestra recording of the Leningrad symphony tucked into the back flap. I'm listening to it as I type and reliving the trials and tribulations of Shostakovich and also Eliasberg as both struggled to bring the music to life.

Wikipedia: Dmitri Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 7 in C major, Op. 60 dedicated to the city of Leningrad was completed on 27 December 1941. In its time, the symphony was extremely popular in both Russia and the West as a symbol of resistance and defiance to Nazi totalitarianism and militarism...
...When Eliasberg was asked to conduct the Leningrad premiere only 15 members of the orchestra were still available; the others had either starved to death or left to fight the enemy. The concert was given on 9 August 1942 in the Lenigrad Bolshoy Philharmonic Hall under the baton of Eliasberg, the second conductor with any people who could be gathered from the main orchestra, the reserve orchestra and military bands, and was heard over the radio and lifted the spirits of the survivors.

Ooohhh... The Conductor looks fascinating! On the TBR pile it goes! Great review!

This book sounds like its right up my alley! Onto the wishlist it goes! For something similar, I'd recommend An Equal Music by Vikram Seth - it's the one book that seems to get the experience of playing in an orchestra bang-on, and there's a 2 CD set (that you buy separately, unfortunately) of all of the music talked about and performed in the book. It's brilliant!

Love the idea of accompanying CD - there are quite a lot of books that could use one.

#128: Laura - that sounds excellent. I read somewhere that Quigley considered becoming a professional musician when she was younger(she was/is a cellist). Definitely adds to the brilliance of the book. It might not be available in the US/UK for a while as its just been released here in New Zealand.

I'll add An equal music to my tbr list - we have a large collection of classical music so I could make a playlist for my iPod.

#129: Eva - I'd like a cd of Rebus' favourites.

You're not kidding about Rebus' music - I had to stop reading so many times just to go to youtube and rock out for a bit!! :)

I have a copy of An Equal Music that I was about to put on Bookmooch - I'll reserve it for you if you want. I also have The Dawning of the Day that I just saw is on your wishlist - would you be interested in that one as well?

Eva - I can pick up a really cheap copy of Equal Music on a local trading site, but I would love the Sabato book.

Cool - I'll go over and reserve it for you now.

I'm glad that you enjoyed the terrific Suite Franciase. Now run to go get Fire in the Blood, another Némirovsky novel which both I and my husband enjoyed reading.

I'll add my vote to Madeline's for Fire in the Blood, and also suggest The Courilof Affair. I read them last year and enjoyed them both.

Visitation by Jenny Erpenbeck (2008) (2010 Eng)
fiction, germany
The Grand Tour category

An original piece of writing, well executed, that I enjoyed but didn't love. Erpenbeck takes us on a journey through the 20th century Germany by giving us glimpses into the lives of the various residents of a house situated in the countryside near Berlin. This definitely deserves the high praises and acclaim that it has garnered. Just thinking about it again to write this makes me like it a little more.


Lips Touch: three times by Laini Taylor (2009)
illustrated by Jim di Bartolo
YA fantasy
Magic in the Air category

I loved this and can't believe how long it sat on my tbr pile. Three stories all about the consequences of a first kiss, all based on folklore, beautifully romantic but with darker edges. Sumptous, rich and let's not forget di Bartolo's evocative illustrations that precede each story giving a glimpse of what's to come - lovely stuff. Jim di Bartolo is Taylor's husband and this is their second collaboration. I've enjoyed reading Laini's blog for several years but have been remiss in reading her books which have languished on my tbr pile. I did start her Blackbringer a couple of times. Her latest book due out in September is being heavily promoted by both her US and UK publishers - Daughter of Smoke and Bone looks to have a really interesting plot set in some inspiring cities.






The Borribles: across the dark metropolis by Michael de Larrabeiti (1986)
YA Fantasy - Book 3 of The Borribles trilogy
Science Fiction/Fantasy category

'There are books we like, and books we love, and books we need. And then there are books that mean so much to us that they embed themselves in us, irresistibly, and become permanent parts of our mental landscape. Ever since I first read it, The Borribles has been such a book for me' - China Miéville
Do I need to add anything more? The omnibus edition has an introduction by Miéville.


85) Hotel Bemelmans by Ludwig Bemelmans (1956)
nonfiction
Challenges category

Read for the TIOLI Workplace challenge. An, at times, hilarious account of Bemelmans' experiences working as a banqueting manager at New York's Hotel Splendide (a disguised Ritz Carlton) during the 1920s & 30s. My edition came with an interesting introduction by Anthony Bourdain. Bemelmans is best known for his wonderful Madeline books.

Definitely putting Lips Touch: three times on my wishlist! Could you stop now, please; my wishlist already far exceeds the time I have left on this earth. :)

I have the three Borrible books, but I had no idea they were favorites of Miéville's - must push them higher up in Mt. TBR!!

Also adding Hotel Bemelmans to the wishlist - see my comment for Lips Touch above... :)

My apologies, I'll start reading some mathematics texts or similar.

That'd be great - appreciate it!! :-)

ETA: Maybe next year, I'll just have a "Kerry Recommends" category....

Knowing you, you'd find the only interesting math textbook out there. I've only heard good things about Lips Touch. I'm starting to get curious about it.

Well, actually there is this maths book I picked up on the library discard table one day - mixes myth, astronomy and math if I remember correctly.

That does sound like an interesting math book - darn it!

->142 LauraBrook:
Would it be Kerry if it didn't? LOL!

The Dark Lord of Derkholm by Diana Wynne Jones (1998)
fantasy - bonus read

Loved this. So pleased to keep finding books by Diana Wynne Jones that I haven't read, and this has a sequel that I have to look out for at some point. A magical world has been forced for many years through blackmail to accept tour groups on fantasy quests organised by a Mr Chesney from a non-magical world. His list of demands each year grows more and more outrageous and the various factions are fed up with him turning their world into a glorified theme park. One faction in particular is determined to make this the last season of questing.

The Contract with God trilogy: Life on Dropsie Avenue by Will Eisner (2006)
graphic novel (497pgs)
Jewish writers category

An omnibus of several publications from 1978 through to 1995.
I picked up a few of Eisner's graphic novels after reading a review of Minor Miracles by Madeline (squeakychu). This was my favourite, it's a collection of various work that Eisner did exploring the idea of man's relationship with God. He also tells stories from the various occupants of a New York tenement building in Dropsie Avenue based on his childhood memories of growing up in a similar building. Very recommended, I read this in one long sitting.

Minor Miracles by Will Eisner (2000)
graphic novel (110pgs)
Not quite as good as the other two, but nontheless a good read. Several stories with strange twists.

Will Eisner's New York Life in the Big City (2006)
graphic novel (422pgs)
Jewish Writers category
An omnibus of several publications from 1981 through to 1993
This was another great read, Eisner really captures a lost flavour of New York here. in the early pages he focuses on ordinary aspects of city life such as windows, garbage, stoops, lamp posts, the subway, privacy etc etc and grows his ideas from there. Another very recommended book.

Bracelet of Bones by Kevin Crossley-Holland (2011)
Viking Sagas book 1
Young at Heart - bonus read
This at times reminded me of his wonderful Gatty's Tale which also features a journey at its heart. This time Crossley-Holland goes back to Viking days and has his heroine Solveig, a resourceful girl/young woman, travel from Trondheim in Norway to Constantinople (Micklegard) following in the steps of her father who has gone to join the palace guard where his hero Harald Sigurdsson (Harald Hardrada) serves. The first of a planned sequence of books. Recommended.

I was interested in Bracelet of Bones and went to my library's site to see if they had it. Unfortunately, they don't but I did add Gatty's Tale and some others by him to my future reading list. Perhaps they will eventually get Bracelet of Bones in.

Yes, it's very new, just recently published in the UK. His Norse Myths is a good read.

I've read A Contract with God and Other Tenement Stories and think Eisner's NY drawings are fantastic!

Gotta love them Vikings, so Bracelet of Bones goes on the wishlist as well.

I haven't read any Diana Wynne Jones, but The Dark Lord of Derkholm sounds like a hoot. Fortunately, my library system has it -- I just don't know when I'll get around to reading it!

Thanks for the review.

Moon over Soho by Ben Aaronovitch (2011)
Peter Grant Bk 2
fantasy bonus read

This is my favourite new series that I'll be reading as each book gets published. It's fun, entertaining and with enough supernatural happenings to keep a person happy. Maybe a tad too much sex, but then that adds a bit of spice to the mix.
This story has Grant investigating murders of promising jazz musicians among other mysteries.
One comment - the US covers are not anywhere as inviting as the gorgeous UK covers... and a warning - this story could make men squirm at times.

Just my Type: a book about fonts by Simon Garfield (2010)
Challenges category

Fascinating look at fonts and how they've been developed for our modern world. Garfield has covered a large playing field of fonts, print history, graphic design etc and made it an interesting read for the layman. He mentions several youtube clips, some I'd seen before but I got my daughter to watch them too and we had fun watching the font fight and the font conference. And Mrs Eaves takes some beating for bizarre font behaviour.

I'm planning to pick up the Ben Aaronovitch books when they're available in paperback which should be soon for the first one. Good to hear that you like them so much.

I'm a sucker for fonts and I got them to order Just My Type for the library at work. Hopefully, I'll be the first one to snag it when it comes in!

A Room with a View by E.M. Forster (1908)
The Grand Tour category
I studied Forster's A Passage to India at high school which put me off reading anything by him for a long time. I've always meant to read the book after the film adaption came out in 1985, so finally I have. I going to have to read more of his work, I found this to be just as perfect as the movie was.

A Man Melting by Craig Cliff (2010)
Down Under category
short stories, new zealand
Cliff's short story collection took away the Commonwealth Writers Prize for Best First Book in May. He is one of many writers I became interested in after attending sessions at the Auckland Writers and Readers Festival in May and I've been dipping into his collection since then. Modern and masculine, the stories come with lashings of Reginald Perrin-type behaviour. Some are laugh out loud funny, others verge on the absurd. Can't wait to see what he does next.

The Wednesday Wizard by Sherryl Jordan (1991)
Denzil Bk 1
Down Under category
children's fiction, new zealand
This book about Denzil, an apprentice wizard, was awarded the Gaelyn Gordon Award for a much-loved book last year. A revised edition came out in 2006 along with a fourth book in the series and as it has sat on my tbr pile for several years I was happy to pick it up. What a blast, Denzil is an adorable imp who has to be read to be believed. Parents give your children a taste of Denzil - he is irresistible!
Denzil, an apprentice wizard in medieval times, suddenly finds himself 720 years in the future when a complicated spell goes wrong. Luckily Sam and her oddball family are there to help/hinder him.

Jean de Florette & Manon des Sources by Marcel Pagnol (1964)
The Grand Tour category
fiction, france
I saw the two movies made from these books a year or so ago and really looked forward to reading this omnibus. A wonderfully entertaining story set in the rural Provence region of France. Jean de Florette is a stranger to the village but has inherited a small landholding coveted by 2 peasants. Before he arrives they block the little spring that runs through his property and then wait while he struggles with his wife and child to run the farm with no secure water supply. Highly recommended.

www Wonder by Robert J. Sawyer (2011)
Bk 3 of the WWW trilogy
Scifi/Fantasy bonus
The last instalment in the ongoing story about Caitlin, the blind girl who regains sight thanks to experimental wireless technology and also makes contact with a developing artificial intelligence that is growing in the dark recesses of the internet. Sawyer turns this last one into a thriller with lashings of politics. He's Canadian and likes to reference the many differences with the USA too often but overall there are so many interesting ideas in his trilogy that you can forgive this and the at times didactic approach.

The Long Song by Andrea Levy (2010)
LT Challenges category
Read for June's TIOLI Challenge: Read a book for National Caribbean American Heritage Month
I'm officially not a fan of Levy's fiction after this. I thought Small Island was ok not great, but this one left me fairly cold. I didn't like any of her characters and like many other readers found her layering of the story within the story continually stopped the momentum of the narrative. The plot was fairly weak and the main characters placed on the sidelines of historical happenings just weren't driven enough to appeal.

My sister lives on the mantelpiece by Annabel Pitcher (2011)
Young at Heart Bonus read
children's fiction

I loved this. Picked it up as it was an overdue library book and I'd seen quite a few reviewers saying they couldn't put it down once started. As I began I thought not another dysfunctional family story, and then after 50 pages I couldn't put it down till I finished it and I cried...a lot...
This debut novel is about Jamie, he's just turning 10 and hasn't cried for 5 years. His mother has just walked out, the father is an alcoholic and his 15 year old sister, Jas, is rebellion with multiple piercings. The family has been a complete mess since Rose, the twin of Jas, was killed in a terrorist bombing in London five years earlier. When his father relocates them to the Lake District Jamie hopes that life will improve and he might even make a friend.
Wonderful wonderful debut novel.

From the land of the moon by Milena Agus (2006)
The Grand Tour category
fiction, italy
Recommended by LT's Tad in January and his review was in Belletrista soon after. A short powerful novel narrated by a young woman telling the story of her grandmother who grew up in a small village in Sardinia and marries an evacuee, a widower, from a nearby town during World War Two. A really interesting read, enchanting and haunting.

Cloaked by Alex Finn (2011)
Magic in the Air category
YA fantasy
I can't totally recommend this one but have to say that Flinn manages to put together quite an interesting number of fairy tales into one book.
Johnny works in his mother's shoe repair kiosk in an upmarket Miami resort hotel, they are barely making ends meet and his mother holds out hope that his father will turn up again one day, he disappeared on a fishing trip years back. When a beautiful young princess arrives with all her entourage life starts to take an enchanting turn.

Thanks for all the great reviews! I just finished Sawyer's finale to the WWW trilogy recently too. I'd been wondering if non-Canadians would find all the Canadian references annoying. (I did, and I'm Canadian!) I agree with you, though, that the books are full of interesting ideas.

ACK! Hit by so many book bullets - A Man Melting, The Wednesday Wizard, Jean de Florette & Manon des Sources, My Sister Lives on the Mantelpiece, From the Land of the Moon, and Cloaked - that I might need hospitalization! Hope you've enjoyed your weekend!

Love the reviews! A Man Melting definitely caught my eye, especially your comment about Reginald Perrin-type behaviour! As for Levy, I have heard from others that The Long Song is not all that great a book. I am currently reading Small Island as part of my Orange July reading and not far enough into it to comment except that its not a gripping page turner for me, I keep putting it down for the other book I am currently reading.

Too bad about Levy. I'm looking for Carribean authors for my 12 in 2012. My Sister Lives on the Mantelpiece though sounds like a wishlist candidate.

A Room with a View is such a beautiful book, isn't it! Maurice is another one that's a favorite of mine, the film of which is also a Merchant Ivory production and quite as beautiful as their version of A Room with a View.

I haven't read Forster yet, but I do have Maurice on my shelves (er, um, actually it's in a pile on the dog crate but don't tell anyone.) Glad to know it's a good one.

So many comments - wow.
#153: mathgirl - I just found those Canadian shoutouts noticeable enough to slightly annoy - he does a diservice to his writing by including them all the time as I first noticed this in another of his books I've read. I think this series, especially the first book, would be a great stimulus for a high school class discussion - so many ideas about the technology and social networking that we currently use and how it could be abused.

#154: Laurabrook - sorry, but I collect bookbullets too. I do need to visit more threads on this challenge more often, I'm usually stuck in the 75book challenge group. Small Island is a favourite of many but I just didn't get any wow factor.

#155: Ikernagh - A Man Melting is hard to sum up and I don't like to do long drawn out reviews of books but here is what the Commonwealth Writers Prize Judges said: 'The judges chose this highly entertaining and thought provoking collection of short stories for their ambition, creativity and craftsmanship. Confidently blending ideas that frequently weave outlandish concepts with everyday incidents, the prose is skilfully peppered with social observations that define the world we live in. The eighteen short stories are truly insightful and amplify many of the absurdities around us, reflecting our own expectations, fears and paranoia on the big questions in life. This book is of the moment, and is rightly at home on a global platform. Cliff is a talent to watch and set to take the literary world by storm.

A similar collection though probably more bizarre is Love Songs for the shy and cynical and/or Tiny Deaths by Robert Shearman. I mention him because his work might be easier to get hold of.

#156: cammykitty - we just did a Caribbean Heritage month challenge over on the 75 book challenge group - lots of ideas on this thread.

#157: Eva - I loved A Room with a View. My mother bought me a complete collection of his works back in the 1980s and this is the first of them I've read. I've got the dvds of Maurice and Howards End, so I should move on to those books next.

Thanks! I'll check that thread out & wishlist away!

Howards End is another Merchant Ivory production and is, as expected, fantastic. I haven't read the book, though - looking forward to hearing what you think.

Wulf by Hamish Clayton (2011)
Down Under category
Hamish Clayton appeared on a session of emerging New Zealand writers at the Auckland Writers Festival back in May. When he’s not writing books he’s busy working on his PhD in English literature.
Wulf created a real stir here when it was published earlier this year, a debut novel that is so accomplished, so different , so so…. good. He uses dreamy poetic language, heaps of imagery to weave an Old English poem, 'Wulf' or 'Wulf and Eadwacer' onto the legendary story of the early 19th century Maori chief, Te Rauparaha. A sailor on board the trader ship Elizabeth, weaves the legend of the merciless Wulf (Te Rauparaha), to his shipmates as they sail down the coastline of New Zealand to Wulf’s lair on Kapiti Island. They want to trade guns for flax but it’s 1831, and Te Rauparaha, known as the Napoleon of the South, is about to commit his most notorious deed, the Banks Peninsula massacre, a deed that involves their ship.
This will be one of my favourite reads for the year. There is so much to be said about Clayton’s use of language in this book, and, though at times the story is lost in the prose, overall the effect is mesmerising.
Warning alert: there is more than one instance of cannibalism in this book.
I’ve read several accomplished reviews of this book, and love this little snippet from a blog review:

The New Zealand described in the novel is all dark greens and blacks––impenetrable, unknowable, and completely foreign to the English––splashed occasionally with the violent red of flame, blood, and pohutakawa. Clayton’s colour palette, like every detail in Wulf, is well thought out and contributes to the general sense of unease and uncertainty. This is not quite the New Zealand we know, but one which is filtered through foreign eyes seeing it for the first time and desperately trying to make sense of the place.

A short Q&A with the author talking about his book here

Granta 113: The Best of Young Spanish Novelists ed John Freeman (2010)
Challenges category
Read for the TIOLI Typography on cover challenge.
There’s a lot to like in this collection of short stories, extracts from recent novels and works in progress. Featuring up and coming writers from the Latin world, several have not been translated before. There were only a few pieces that I didn’t enjoy so much. The most memorable story was ‘The Coming Flood’ by Spanish writer, Andres Barba, mainly because I’m haunted by the idea of any woman wanting to graft a horn onto her forehead.
The standout story for me was probably Mexican writer, Antonio Ortuno’s Small Mouth, Thin Lips - a standoff between a prisoner and his jailer told through observation and letters.

Brothers by Bernice Rubens (1983)

Rubens considered this family saga that follows four generations of Jewish brothers to be her best work.
While I really enjoyed it, I love her shorter contemporary novels with their offbeat characters even more. That said there is lots to like and admire in this epic, I thought the first part, set in 19th century Russia was particularly good with such a heartbreaking finale that I put the book aside for a couple of weeks before continuing on to the next set of brothers. The book follows the Bindel family through the pogroms of Czarist Russia, to a small town in Wales, World War 2 Germany and then finally modern Russia. Each generation pits one brother’s ideals against the other.
I plan to also read The Family Moskat for my Jewish Writers category this year, but will bump it to November or December as I think it covers similar ground.
I’ve just started Ruben’s I, Dreyfuswhich already looks to be another good read.

Feed by Mira Grant
Bonus Read for my scifi category

This book about a presidential campaign set post zombie apocolypse went down well though I felt that the conspiracy theory could have gone a bit deeper as the ‘baddie’ was just too obvious. Hopefully the sequel explores this further. The world is really well drawn and I liked the cast of characters. This worked well as an audiobook, and I must look out for more scifi to listen too.
Shortlisted for the Hugo Award which is announced later this month.

129) Daytripper by Fabio Moon & Gabriel Bá (2011)
graphic novel - hmm still thinking of a category to place this one

Brasilian twin brothers Moon & Ba have produced a very thought provoking work here. I’m definitely looking out for more of their work.
The premise: as we live life, are we paying attention?
We follow protagonist, Bras de Oliva Domingos, son of a famous Brasilian writer, as he experiences his own death over and over again at different points of his life. Each time one ponders how much of his life he has left unlived, all those lost opportunities, the unsaid words. Daytripper won the Eisner Award for Best Limited Series a couple of weeks ago.
Samples of their work can be found on their blog: http://fabioandgabriel.blogspot.com/

Fabio Moon & Gabriel Bá

I read a lot of YA and children's books in July as there was a focus theme read over on the 75 group, so these are bonus reads for my 'Young at Heart' category.


123) No and Me by Delphine de Vigan (2007) (2010 English)
YA fiction, france

This is a sublime read. Lou is a young girl with a super high IQ, but limited social skills. She’s in a class with older students, including the popular Lucas, who befriends her. Lou’s mother is grieving, barely notices Lou and never leaves the home. Lou’s father is coping, just . And then Lou befriends No, a teenage girl living on the streets.


124) The Bad Karma Diaries by Bridget Hourican (2011)
YA fiction, Ireland
This was another fun and entertaining read. Denise and Anna try their hands at party planning, blogging and running an anti-bully business at school. Children’s birthday parties are harder work than they first thought, the blog attracts weird but funny commentors and the anti-bully thing is a failure, in fact, they are in big trouble…trouble that rebounds.


125) Will Work for Prom Dress by Aimee Ferris (2011)
YA fiction
Light and frothy with a little romance, I was attracted by the cover and loved having the book around to keep admiring it. Quigley is quite an interesting protagonist but most of the other characters were two dimensional and the plot is 'very' unrealistic but still….


126a) The Hundred Dresses by Eleanor Estes (1944)
Children’s fiction
Read for the TIOLI Newbery Challenge. I joined the shared read of this and found it charming though dated.


126b) The Midwife’s Apprentice by Karen Cushman (1995)
Children’s fiction
Read for the TIOLI Newbery Challenge. Spurred on by my previous Newbery read, I grabbed this one and downed it in a couple of hours as well. An utter medieval delight, foundling Brat is taken in by the village’s midwife and earns her place as an apprentice as well as several new names.

127) Travel Light by Naomi Mitchison (1952)
Meandering category
I came across mention of this book in the acknowledgements of Kevin Crossley-Holland’s Bracelet of Bones and decided that I had to read it as we do. This is a fairytale telling about the girl, Halla, a Norse princess whose stepmother sends her when a baby into the woods. Her nurse turns into a bear to protect her. She passes into the care of dragons and then with her ability to talk to animals, she travels to Micklegard (Constantinople) to petition the Emperor. I thought it was quite magical and interesting. I have lined up more of Mitchison’s work to read as she was quite the interesting person including being a good friend of Tolkien and an early proofreader of his Lord of the Rings books.


128) The Door in the Hedge by Robin McKinley
Fairytale retellings
There were two retellings and two new fairy tales. All were enjoyable reads and I suspect that I’ve read her Twelve Dancing Princesses story in another anthology or one very similar to that.

More bonus reads:


117) The Travelling Restaurant: Jasper’s voyage in three parts by Barbara Else (2011)
children’s fiction
Barbara Else, a New Zealand writer and editor, is best known for her first novel The Warrior Queen, an adult novel, which I still haven’t read yet own two copies of. I must read it, because this children’s novel is really really good. 12 year old Jasper has ended up on a mysterious ship, the Travelling Restaurant. He’s seeking his parents and baby sister who left on another ship, and his Uncle who managed to bungle their departure. There’s no magic in this kingdom of Fontania…or is there.
A well rounded magical adventure story, all the characters are interesting, delightful, menacing etc etc. Recommended but probably only available to New Zealand readers at present.


118) The Dark Deeps by Arthur Slade (2010)
The Hunchback Assignments Bk2
children’s fiction
This second instalment was not as good as the first but still fairly exciting and innovative. There is one new character who you don’t ‘see’ a lot of but is to be expected. A lot of the action is underwater. Book 3 is ready for me to pick up so I’ll probably keep reading this series.


119) When the cat’s away by Jackie Rutherford (2011)
YA fiction
This debut was another unexpectedly entertaining read. With their parents away for several weeks visiting Europe, siblings Jodi, Nathan and Bianca end up on their own when the housekeeping arrangements fall through. One disastrous party later, they realize that the money won’t last and won’t cover the cost of the damage to the house. They start to appreciate each other as they work together to raise the money to fix their house before the parents return. This is an easy read that even preteens would enjoy. I especially enjoyed the character of Bianca, the youngest, who narrates the story.


120) The Kissing Game by Aidan Chambers (2011)
short stories, YA
I’m a fan of Aidan Chambers work and really enjoyed some of the stories in this collection, especially the title story. He includes some examples of flash fiction - a style of fictional literature or fiction of extreme brevity. The title & cover are deceptive as the stories are not at all as romantic as you would think. If you haven’t read his work then try Postcards from No Man’s Land, very excellent.


121) White Crow by Marcus Sedgwick (2010)
YA fiction

I read my first book by him a couple of years or so ago and fell under the spell of his My Swordhand is singing set in 17th-century Romania. White Crow is set in the modern day but also deals with an old story from the 19th century and this really does have you believing the old line that truth is stranger than fiction. Sedgwick has found a little known experiment from these times and built a terrific edgy story around two girls. Not for the squeamish.


122) A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness (2011)
children’s fiction
Ness was asked by the publishers to consider writing this based on notes by the late Siobhan Dowd, who died a few years ago from cancer just as her writing career was establishing her as a leading light.
The hardcover book is itself an object of beauty jammed full of the most evocative black ink illustrations by Jim Kay in the style of Charles Keeping. My response to the story was personal, deep and heartfelt, I lost my father to cancer in my late teens and this book really hits the right note on how that feels as you are living through those last weeks.
Here is a boy in pain, his mother has cancer. He has no one else in the world except for the monster, an ancient yew tree, that visits him in his dreams.
Another heartstring puller is Ways to live forever by Sally Nicholls.

111) Octagon Magic by Andre Norton (1968)
children’s fiction, Magic series bk2
I was captivated by this story. Lorrie, a lonely orphan, now lives with her aunt as her beloved grandmother can no longer care for her. One day she discovers that the so-called witch’s house in a nearby neglected property is able to provide her with the refuge she needs. This is an old fashioned magic story but there is so much more going on of historical significance, very well woven together in a gentle plot. This was my first Andre Norton book that I can remember reading, though I must have read something of hers as a child, surely. I’m looking out for more in this series


112) The Game of the Goose by Ursula Dubosarsky (2000)
children’s fiction
Up till now I’ve only read Dubosarky’s picturebook stories such as The Plop and have had her award winning YA fiction book The Red Shoe on my tbr pile for too long. I saw an Australian children’s lit friend give her latest book The Golden Day a high rating so thought it was about time I read her work. The title of this appealed and the story is a sort of Jumanji type one, where an old boardgame is more than what it seems. On a visit to an Oxfam shop, Fred finds an old board game in a beautiful box and talks her two friends into pooling their money to buy it. The story gets quite dark before it resolves, in some ways it has echoes of Tove Jansson's The Brother's Lionheart.
Dubosarky's The Word Spy looks excellent too, it‘s an illustrated journey through the English language for children. I’ve just spent time on her website and now need to read most of her books.

Quick bio: Ursula Dubosarsky was born in Sydney, Australia, third child in a family of writers. From the time she was first able to read, at age six, she wanted to be a writer. Among her favourite books as a child were Biquette the White Goat by Francoise, Gone is Gone by Wanda Gag, and Snugglepot and Cuddlepie by May Gibbs. After finishing school, Ursula went to Sydney University to study English and languages, including Old Icelandic and Latin. She has completed a PhD in English literature at Macquarie University, concentrating on the work of Rumer Godden and Mary Norton - Post-war place and displacement in Rumer Godden's The Doll's house and Mary Norton's The Borrowers


113) Mob Princess by Todd Stausser (2007)
YA fiction
Pretty much forgettable for me. This is the first in a series based on a teen girl, Kate Blessing, who ends up taking over from her mother as the ‘brains’ of the family’s mafia operation. Very lightweight and I didn’t like the way women were portrayed in this, though the men were fairly cardboard as well.
NB: Not related to the movie of the same name.


114) The Tygrine Cat by Inbali Iserles (2007)
children’s fiction
Mati, a special cat, the last of his kind, is sent on a long voyage far from home. He ends up in a small town in England and joins a gang of feral cats. Soon an assassin from his ancient homeland finds him, seeking to destroy all the cats. This was an enjoyable read, a mix of animal story with ancient mythology. There is a sequel that I might try The Tygrine cat on the run. I did have another of her books home from the library, The Bloodstone Bird, but ran out of time.


115) Parliament of Blood by Justin Richards (2008)
YA fiction, Department of Unclassified Artefacts series bk 2
I read book 1, The Death Collector earlier this year and picked up a copy of book 3, so felt the need to get book 2 out of the way. These books are based around George, who works at the British Museum for the obscure Department of Unclassified Artefacts, and his friends Liz and Eddie. This one features vampires and an attempt to revive an old Egyptian vampire god and take over the British Parliament. Steampunky horror for younger teens, I find them rather fun.
Richards has written several Dr Who scripts and books.


116) Midnight Palace by Carlos Ruiz Zafón (1994) (2011 English)
Long before Zafon found fame with The Shadow of the Wind, he wrote his Niebla series of YA novels. Each one is a stand alone story and comes with that wonderful creepy gothic atmosphere he writes so well. The latest to be translated to English, The Midnight Palace is set in early 20th century Calcutta. Zafon writes about fire and phantom trains to great effect in this book, truly menacing.
Marcus Sedgwick wrote a good review of this recently in The Guardian.

The Kitten with no name by Vivian French
children’s fiction

I saw this at the library and noticed that it was illustrated by talented Selina Young who took her own life 5 years ago. I’ve always enjoyed her illustrative work so brought it home. It’s a cute little story for emergent readers about a strayed mother cat and her kitten and how they find their home. The illustrations are charming. Selina Young illustrated Margaret Mahy’s A Summery Saturday Morning which is now a classic New Zealand picturebook. Her last book was All about me: A Hundred Things That Happened to Me Between 0 and 3.
Vivian French has written lots of children’s books and I have her Robe of Skulls the first in her Tales from the Five Kingdoms series which I should read.


The General by Janet Charters (1961) (2010 new edition)
picturebook
I love Michael Foreman’s illiustration style, and he illustrates many of Michael Morpurgo’s books. I found this special 50th anniversary edition of his first book at the library the other day. Fellow artschool student, Janet Charters’ naïve story about peace, loving the flowers and not making war is quite moving .
Other books written and illustrated by Michael Foreman that I recommend are:
War Boy: a wartime childhood
Mia’s Story: a sketchbook of hopes and dreams
There’s a good Guardian article about Foreman here

And a more general article about children’s book illustration

Here are some of his images from Terry Jones’ The Saga of Erik the Viking.


The Bear and the Wildcat by Kazumi Yumoto, illustrated by Komako Sakai (2008) (2011 English)
children’s picturebook
One of Gecko Press’s latest, this is another one of their beautiful publications that brings another writer and illustrator to the attention of the English speaking world. When a young bear’s friend, Bird, dies Bear needs to process his feelings. The subdued illustrations (could be a fuzzy wood cut print) are black with occasional dashes of red printed on a quality flecked beige paper.
Another excellent Gecko book about death and grief is Duck, Death and the Tulip by Wolf Erlbruch, originally published in German.

The Lemonade War by Jacqueline Davies (2007)
children’s fiction
Fairly mundane read for me but a good book for a class study on money, business etc. I reviewed it for a themed booklist. When Evan hears that his younger sister, Jessie, is skipping a year and will be in his class next year, he isn’t happy and doesn’t know how to express his concerns that she’ll show him up. So it isn’t surprising when Jessie’s idea of running a lemonade stand together soon turns into out and out war. As I wasn’t taken with the ending, I was happy to see that there is a sequel, The Lemonade Crime, which should resolve that particular issue.

The Firefly Letters : A Suffragette's Journey to Cuba by Margarita Engle (2010)
YA prose novel

I enjoyed reading Engle’s Tropical Secrets : Holocaust Refugees in Cuba last year so when I saw this with its beautiful cover at the library a week or so ago I thought why not. I kept thinking back to my recent read of The Long Song while reading this as this was also set on a plantation, but on Cuba not Jamaica. The colonizers are Spanish not English but the actions/movements of Levy’s women seem so unrestrained compared to the restrictions on the white women in this story.
Engle has based her story on the factual visit to Cuba in 1851 of one of the world’s earliest feminist activists, Fredrika Bremer of Sweden. Bremer stays several weeks or months with a Spanish family on a plantation and the story of her visit is told from the perspective of Bremer herself, Cecila, a young slave woman and the young daughter of the house, Elena.
Little fact I gleamed from Wikipedia: In the novel, Little Women by Louisa May Alcott, Mrs. March reads from Fredrika Bremer to her four daughters.


109)The Mitochondrial Curiosities of Marcels 1-19 by Jocelyn Brown (2008)
YA fiction, Canada
This was quite a quirky read and I really liked the main character, Dree. The book opens on her 15th birthday and instead of escaping dreary Edmonton and her family for a new independent life in Toronto, Dree is attending her father’s funeral. She now has to deal with a lot of family issues just when her mindspace is geared for the challenge of leaving it all behind, all wrapped up in public treasurehunts, mental hospitals and crafts such as the sock puppets, Marcel 1-19.


110) Johnny Swanson by Eleanor Updale (2010)
children’s fiction
I didn’t expect anything much from this one and was pleasantly mistaken, I couldn’t put this historical mystery down in the end. Never thought vaccines in the late 1920s could be so exciting but Updale manages it. After squandering a few hard-earned shillings sending away for the secret of how to get taller, Johnny decides that he too can make money with his own scam advertising. Then with the disappearance of the local doctor and his wife, his mother is suddenly on trial for murder. Recommended.

Catching up on your thread. So many interesting reads! I like your reviews on Aussie and Kiwi writers - those seldom find their way to Swedish translation. I'm making not of A man melting and Wulf especially. Thanks!

Wow - some interesting reading in July! I was intrigued by your reviews for Wulf, No and Me, The Kissing Game and Midnight Palace. I am happy to report that my local library has the Zafon book and have placed a hold! Will need to figure out how to get my hands on the others.

Wow is right! You have a lot of interesting books here. My poor wishlist is getting too long! Wulf looks really good. Does the Granta, young Spanish authors edition have the original Spanish as well as translations in it?

Ditto, my poor WL! Some really intriguing-looking books... I'll have to check if my library has them.

Only Johnny Swanson and No and me are available at my library. Boo.

#172: Anders - one book that you would probably like is NZer Eleanor Catton's The Rehearsal as part of it is based on first year drama students. It was longlisted for a few awards including the Orange Prize and won a few others. I read it a couple of years ago and have a spare copy if you can't find it over there - I'm always happy to send NZ writers (well their books at least!) to other parts of the world. (LT's FlossieT did a great interview with her for Belletrista here).

I'm hoping that Wulf gets picked up and published elsewhere because it is good. My copy is signed so I'm hanging on to it and will probably reread it after I've read a bit of nonfiction set in those times. I think I appreciated it a bit more because I read & listened to Seamus Heaney's Beowulf earlier this year. But one thing the Vikings lack is the cannabalism ( Grendel notwithstanding) and, boy, does that get an outing in this book.

#173: Lori: I hope you enjoy the Zafon.

#174: Katie - There were two editions of the Granta published, one was in Spanish and the other in English. I saw the Spanish edition on sale in Buenos Aires so looked out for an English edition when I got home as I thought the cover was quite clever.

#175: paruline - those two are both good.

I'm off to a slow start reading this month and should read more for the neglected categories in my challenge rather than the more enticing scifi/fantasy and YA books I have filled my tbr with. That said I'm tending towards more time with A Storm of Swords rather than Life: a user's manual.
Just started listening to Lenny Henry reading Neil Gaiman's Anansi Boys today and feel like going for a long drive just to hear some more.

Hmmm: Decisions, decisions. I still need "training wheels" for my Spanish. If I got both editions of Granta, it would be like having a side-by-side text. & most of the side-by-side stuff available has stories in them that are at least 20 years old, but more often closer to 40.

Maybe try some children's books maybe, something that you can get at a reasonable price in both languages like Harry Potter or Esperanza Rising.

Ah, those I can get at the library. It just takes coordination. Thanks for the idea.

@177 Catton's book has actually just got translated into Swedish, came out this spring. And "Pocket shop", a chain of paperback bookstores have been fronting the book in english for a long time before that. I haven't bought it yet, but always thought it sounded like something for me. Thanks for the push, I'll make room for it in 2012!

Dangerous place here. Thanks for all of the Book Bullets!

->182 LauraBrook:
This is always a dangerous place!! :)

->162 avatiakh:
Wulf sounds great - hope it becomes available here too soon! Got to try the Zafón book as well!

Pereira Maintains by Antonio Tabucchi (1994)
The Grand Tour
I put this on my tbr list a year or so ago when Darryl (kidzdoc) first read it.
Tabucchi, an Italian professor of Portuguese literature, sets this book in late 1930s Lisbon. I thoroughly enjoyed this book especially the continued use of the phrase 'Peraira maintains' throughout, as though the narrative is some kind of statement or affidavit. Pereira is our unlikely hero, a lonely figure who leads a solitary life. He works alone on the culture pages of a second-rate newspaper translating French literature for his readers and given to one-sided conversations with a photograph of his late wife. An uneventful life concerned mainly with his health and eating habits, that is awakened when he takes on an assistant who is engaged in fighting the dictatorship.

The Last Summoner by Sherryl Jordan (2011)
children's fiction, new zealand
A good children's fantasy featuring dragons that respond to the call of the Summoner, who himself answers to the king. Ari, the granddaughter of the Last Summoner desperately wants to be a summoner but also wants the dragons to be free.
Jordan's imagination got working when she read about a new invention, a telescope with a unique mirror made from dust taken from the moon. 'I wondered if an astronomer or magician from another time could ever make such a mirror, and what it would be used for...'

Stopping for a Spell by Diana Wynne Jones (1975)
children's fiction
Three magical stories from DWJ - an old chair turns into a person, creating chaos and mayhem for a few days. Four grannies turn up to babysit and need to be kept busy. And Angus Flint, an unwanted house guest, is finally chased out of the house by the furniture. Fun.


I, Dreyfus by Bernice Rubens (1999)


Mr Rosenblum’s List by Natasha Solomons (2010)
Jewish Writers
I feel that I need to review these two books together as they cover common ground but in very different ways. Both are about assimilation and European Jewish immigrants/refugees seeking village life in the English countryside in the postwar years. I chose to read both this month as they fit TIOLI challenges. Solomons’ book is described as whimsical and indeed it does have plenty of humour and silliness with the main character setting out to build a golf course on a piece of land so he can be considered the epitome of an English gentleman. But, he is building a golf course because as a Jew he has been turned down by all the golfclubs that he has sought membership to.
Rubens’ main character is the grown son of Jewish refugees, a scared couple, seeking to distance themselves from memories of the war. They have hidden all traces of their Jewishness and brought up their two boys as English as can be. But now the son is imprisoned for a crime he did not commit, who is only guilty of denying his Jewish identity. I really love Rubens ability to shape a story, and here, the story is built around a publishing deal for the accused. The present is told from the point of view of his sympathetic agent, Sam Temple, and the back story is from the slowly emerging manuscript. Overall her aim is a tad moralizing here but the unfolding narration is compulsive.
Solomons manages a delightful debut that is much lighter in tone to Rubens. I’m keen to read her Novel in the viola as it’s been getting several good reviews here on LT, but felt that I should read this one first as it’s been on my bookshelf for at least a year now. This has the feel of one of the Bloomsbury Group books with a touch of magic and nostalgia for the ‘perfect’ country/village life of the 1950s.
Mr Rosenblum’s wife makes a memory cake:
Sadie stroked the battered volume. The spine was coming away and the cloth loose, and she glanced through the index, neatly inscribed in her mother's curling hand and smudged with mixtures from a hundred meal times, until she found the one she wanted: 'Baumtorte'- part of a category called 'cakes to help you remember'. Unlike Jack, Sadie preferred German to English because she like the literal meanings of the words; they were put together like tiny building blocks and felt good in her mouth as she said them. 'Baumtorte' was a good word, meaning tree (Baum) cake (Torte), since it is made of layers like the rings of a tree, Sadie, like her mother and grandmother before her, had baked a Baumtorte whenever she needed to remember………It was time for tea and Sadie went to her Baumtorte, which rested on a makeshift table, bowing under its weight. She cut slices for each of them with a huge knife - the thinnest that she could manage. The women ate, and it was the most remarkable cake that they had ever tasted. It was sweet and perfectly moist with a hint of lemon but, as her mouth filled with deliciousness, each woman was overwhelmed with sadness. Each tasted Sadie's memories, her loss and unhappiness and whilst they ate Sadie was, for once, not alone in her sorrow. (page 144)
And here’s the recipe from her blog: Whip together a batter made of eggs, the right amount of sugar, sufficient flour, the zest of enough lemons and the perfect quantity of vanilla. Oil a tin and heat up the grill until it is the correct heat, spread a thin layer over the bottom of the pan and grill until it is done. Ladle on layer after layer and grill until the side of the cake looks like the rings of a tree. Bake a layer for everyone you need to remember. Decorate with sugared lemon and orange peel, or in spring, frosted violets.


Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman (2006)
Magic in the Air
I listened to the audio version narrated superbly by Lenny Henry. I just can’t rate this listening experience highly enough, one of my all time favourite audiobooks.
When in Florida for his father’s funeral Fat Charlie discovers two things: 1) his father was a god; 2) he has a brother. When his brother turns up in London Fat Charlie soon wishes he had never met him. This was fun, Gaiman is a great storyteller.


The Lead Soldiers by Uri Orlev (1956)
Jewish Writers
This autobiographical first novel is about the survival of two boys who lose their mother and whose father is a prisoner in Russia for the duration of the war. Young brothers (Yurik 8yrs & Kalik 6yrs), brought up Polish rather than Jewish, inevitably become caught up in the tragedy of war. What is effectively captured here are the insignificant details that interest children and occupy their time even when living through daily tragedy. When Yurik is in hiding with his younger brother, they squabble, daydream and play war with their toy soldiers, dreaming up ceremonies, parades and official dinners, making at times enough noise that they could be found out by neighbours. When the war is over, they search through empty cottages for toys rather than utensils, tools and food. These small boys survive through the efforts of their aunt who remains intensely strong and loyal throughout. From a comfortable middleclass life in a suburb of Warsaw, they move with their mother to their father’s consulting rooms in the city and then into the ghetto. As the Nazis empty the ghetto they are smuggled out and taken into hiding with local families and finally sent to Bergen Belsen camp.
There is honesty in Orlev’s writing, and that intensifies the narrative. I have very much enjoyed reading all his novels. Another book that comes to mind is Magda Denes’s Castles Burning: A Child's Life in War which is a memoir of a precocious child. Once you get her mindset this is riveting reading.
I loved finding this photo of Orlev arriving in Palestine in 1945. He was reunited with his father in 1954.


The Deserter by Peadar Ó Guilin (2011)
scifi bonus
Bk 2 of the Bone World trilogy. I loved the first book, The Inferior, where we first met Stopmouth. His is a harsh world of tribal survival amidst strange species whose sole intent is to kill and eat flesh. Great worldbuilding with interesting technology. I won’t say anything more except that if you liked the Hunger Games you’ll probably like this.


Dracula adapted by Nicky Raven (2009)
illustrated YA ficton
This is an adaption of the classic Dracula, written for younger readers. My daughter recently read the novel and we both followed up the experience by reading this adaption. I had seen it on display at the library and thought she might like to at least look at the illustrations. Raven has spun a few plot changes such as making Lucy a newly wed (she wanted her to experience some happiness), and leaving the Harkers to wait a bit longer for their own wedded bliss. Her Dracula is much younger looking, blonde and handsome. She also gives a larger role to the gypsies, using their folklore to make them guardians of the myth. Anne Yvonne Gilbert’s illustrations are suitably gothic, and I just love the cover. Overall I prefer the epistolary form of the original.

The Library by Sarah Stewart (1995)
picturebook
After reading a few reviews of books by David Small, I thought I’d sneak another look at this picturebook written by his wife and illustrated by Small.
This is a delightful story of a booklover whose collection of books grows to the point that she donates her home and books to the town to be a free library. This is a large size picturebook, the illustrations are confident, watercolour and ink, and given the space they deserve. I especially loved the frame borders (see below) so that there are objects, usually books, outside and inside the frame. The text is simple just expressing the essence of book love and the life of Elizabeth Brown, leaving the pictures to also tell the story.

There’s an interesting article about the couple and their work here

I should just get a copy of everything DWJ has written - it's all good, isn't it?!

I have a paper copy of Anansi Boys, but it looks like my library has the audioversion, so I'm definitely going for that one instead! I'm a huge fan of Lenny Henry's, but I've never heard him as a reader, so that'll be interesting.

Oh, Kerry, yours is definitely the most dangerous thread to visit lately! I'm glad you enjoyed Anansi Boys--I love that book.

Little Black Book of Stories by A.S. Byatt (2003)
Magic in the Air

Before this I'd only read Byatt's Possession which had been on my tbr pile forever and a day before I finally tackled it and since then I've been meaning to try more of her work. I also have her The Children's Book on my tbr pile but thought I'd read this shorter fable-like collection for my Retellings category.
Byatt's stories are dark, almost grotesque but brilliant too. My favourite is probably The Stone Woman, where a grieving woman finds herself turning slowly to stone. She meets a sympathetic sculptor who understands the mythological properties of stone and takes her to his homeland, Iceland.
I have to admit that at one point I started getting one of these stories, Raw Material, wrapped up into Kate Atkinson's Case Histories which I've been listening to at the same time. It's about a creative writing class and for some reason I was picturing Atkinson's characters as the students!?!
I enjoyed this and must make a place for The Children's Book in my reading for next year, also have decided to focus on short story collections in 2012.

#185> Eva - Yes, have yet to be disappointed by DWJ, even these sillier stories have that slightly menacing edge to them. I've got a copy of the recently published Earwig and the Witch to read but it seems to be aimed at younger readers, around 6-8 yrs.
The Lenny Henry audio is really good. I try to have an audiobook on the go for listening in the car and at the gym so get through about 12-14 per year - this is excellent, I kept trying to make excuses to use the car!

#186> *waves to Roni and shares the Neil Gaiman/Anansi Boys love*

"I was picturing Atkinson's characters as the students"
What an interesting class that would have been - could you imagine what those people would write and read out loud for the class! :)

I used to get through about the same in audiobooks when I was commuting to work - sometime I would be late because I would have to sit in the parking structure to hear the end of a chapter! My commute now is about 10 minutes, and, although I do NOT miss the drive, I do miss listening to books. I've tried listening while doing chores at home, but I find myself doing very little actual work and mainly stand staring into space concentrating on the story. :)

I've read A.S. Byatt's collections Elementals and The Djinn in the Nightingale's Eye and found I liked them better than Possession. Especially Elementals is as you say, fairytale like, dark and grotesque. It's deceptive to call them fairytale like though, because they are far more complex than any fairytale.

I have a few of Byatt's books, I started looking after finishing Possession. You are right about the 'fairytale' tag, these were richly layered tales.

I just noticed a link on a blog to photos of these beautiful paper sculptures being mysteriously left around the Edinburgh literary world these past few weeks.

Thanks for the link - what beautiful creations!!!!

>191 avatiakh: - What a marvellous mystery. Those sculptures are really beautiful, obviously done with great care and creativity.

Oh, that's brilliant! I love whoever made those - and that they're keeping their identity a mystery!!

192,`93&194: I also thought it rather fun, so much work went into the sculptures so it's great to see how appreciative the recipient organisations have been.

A Storm of Swords by George R.R. Martin (2000)
fantasy bonus read
Book 3 of the Fire and Ice series.
This book is also available split into two separate books, understandable as it reigns in at 1140 odd pages. Apart from a case of wrist strain, I really enjoyed immersing myself once again into the story of the Seven Kingdoms and the riveting political turmoil. I can't say more as anything could be a potential spoiler, the book ends with lots of closure on certain events but with many more openings, this is truly epic. I feel like jumping straight into Feast of Crows just to find out what happens next and at 854pgs looks almost like a novella.

Case Histories by Kate Atkinson (2004)
fiction, iPod audiobook
bonus read
I listened to the unabridged audiobook narrated by Susan Jameson, and felt she did a very fine job. I had come across Brodie before when I listened to One Good Turn, which was one of my first attempts at listening to an audiobook a couple of years ago. I've also read Behind the Scenes at the Museum. I really enjoyed this, probably more than One Good Turn which I felt was rather flat at the end, I liked this bunch of characters much much more especially the two sisters, Amelia and Julia. Brodie's relationship with his ex-wife was also rather fun.

Now I need to get back to some of my neglected categories instead of reading outside the challenge. Hopefully September will prove a more 'on task' month for my reading.

I haven't read the Fire and Ice-books yet, but they are definitely on the list. "a case of wrist strain", though, I think is another vote for getting an ereader... :)

The whole Land family is full of characters - Amelia and Julia are such a great combo!

Yes, I was almost fretting while I waited to load up the second half of the audiobook, I really wanted to get back to those sisters.

On elegance while sleeping by Viscount Lascano Tegui (1925) (2010 English ed)
Meandering category

Found through a library search using "Argentina" & "fiction". Told in diary form this is a series of vignettes taking us through the formative years of a young Frenchman. Darkly surreal and disturbingly provocative, it has received high praise in various reviews and has become something of a cult novel in Argentina, it won't appeal to every reader for sure.

The Periodic Table by Primo Levi (1975)
Jewish writers category
Levi was a chemist and has based each chapter on an element from the Periodic Table, telling an episode of his life story that concerns that particular element. It is cleverly done, slowly one builds up a picture of Levi and his life both before and after the war. Some stories are concerned more with chemistry and his work than others. He also leaves the period covered by his other books If this is man and The Truce alone. I found this fascinating.

One dog and his boy by Eva Ibbotson (2011)
another bonus read for Young at Heart category

This is Ibbotson's last book, she died late last year, a few weeks after completing this, at the age of 85 years. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this story about a young boy, Hal, who dearly wants to have a dog. His rich, money-focused parents can only think of the mess a dog will bring to their 'perfect' lifestyle and so trick him by hiring a dog, Fleck, for the weekend from Easy Pets. Not surprisingly they lose Hal's trust and what follows is a runaway journey from London to Northumberland as Hal, his new friend Pippa and five dogs from Easy Pets make their way to his grandparents' house. As they travel each of the four other dogs find their true home and must decide if to stay or continue with the journey to ensure Hal and Fleck arrive to where they'll be safe and loved. A perfect children's book, heartwarming with great splashes of humour.

Have spacesuit...will travel by Robert Heinlein (1958)
bonus for scifi/fantasy category

I should have read this for an August shared read but only was halfway through at the end of the month and wasn't particularly enjoying it. I picked it up to try another chapter and the story got quite a bit more interesting so I kept on.
Kip wins the consolation prize of an authentic used NASA spacesuit in a soap slogan contest, not first prize of a trip to the moon he was after though. He fixes up the suit, wearing it in his backyard and sending himself radio messages, but one night there's contact with a real spacecraft.


The Tale of Tsar Saltan by Alexander Pushkin (1905)
illustrated story

I saw the artist Ivan Bilibin (1876-1942) mentioned on a blog and was intrigued enough to look out some of his work. He designed extremely stunning opera sets & costumes in Russia as well as illustrating Russian folktales including this one by Pushkin. Bilibin's illustrations are directly inspired by Slavic folkart, traditional Japanese prints as well as medieval manuscripts. The story was adapted for opera by Rimsky-Korsakov and includes the well known 'Flight of the Bumblebee'.
A story about a king who marries the youngest of three sisters who bears him a son. Her two older sisters and mother conspire against her while the king is away fighting and have her and her son sealed in a barrel and tossed into the sea.
A couple of illustrations from the book below:




There is another (1996) edition of this tale illustrated by Gennady Spirin, whose work I'll have to investigate as well.

Wings over Delft by Aubrey Flegg (2004)
Meandering category

I was visiting the website of an Irish publisher and came across mention of the Louise trilogy by Aubrey Flegg and as it's about a painting I thought it worth checking out. Each book is set in a different time period and the first is set in 17th century Holland, in Delft. The story unfolds over the summer that Louise sits for her portrait as she considers a possible betrothal that would benefit her father's business. Her growing friendship with the painter's apprentice gives her a new perspective on how she could live her life. The story manages to include lots of detail about the times though perhaps Louise has a little more freedom to wander Delft than young women actually had in those times.
I'm looking forward to the other two books, one is set in late 18th century France and the other during WW2.

Act of Faith by Kelly Gardiner (2011)
bonus for the Downunder category

Kelly Gardiner had her first books, the popular children's Swashbuckler trilogy, published in New Zealand before moving back to Australia. So when I saw this gorgeous cover and realised who the writer was I just had to give it a try.
It's 1640 and Isabella, a 16yr old girl, has spent most of her life helping her father with his writing and correspondence on radical political ideas. Forced into exile from Cromwell's grasp, Isabella loses her father and ends up living with a Jewish printer in Amsterdam. Master de Aquila prints forbidden books such as the Hebrew bible, philosophical ideas & maps which must all remain secret especially from the Church because of the resurgence of the Inquisition. This has an interesting plot though the dialogue gets a little modern at times. The last part of the book involves a mad dash from Venice to Sevilla and while exciting is fairly unbelievable.
The author notes at the end of the book are interesting too.

Hood by Stephen Lawhead (2006)
bonus read for scifi/fantasy category
King Raven trilogy Book 1

This is a retelling of the Robin Hood story, steeped in Celtic mythology. Lawhead did quite a bit of research and concluded that the story of Robin Hood derived from earlier times than the popular Sherwood Forest version. Our 'Robin' is now Bran ap Brychan, heir to Elfael on the Welsh borders in the time of the Norman invasion. I thoroughly enjoyed this and will continue to read the other two books as well as his Pendragon books.

I sent a letter to my love by Bernice Rubens (1988)
SPotlight on Bernice Rubens category

Continuing on my Bernice Rubens reading binge for the year. Amy Evans is an older woman, a spinster who looks after her crippled older brother. Her life has been a disappointment, she has always been unloved and misunderstood. On a sudden whim she advertises in the personal columns and begins a highly charged correspondence, her last chance at happiness. Acutely sharp character studies of two lonely unlovable people, you have to admire Rubens' ability to spin a great story out of this.

All-of-a-kind family by Sydney Taylor (1951)
Jewish Writer category/ children's fiction

The first in a series of books about an immigrant Jewish family living in New York in the early 1900s. There are five adorable young sisters, a patient mother and hardworking father. Quite an educational read for children unfamiliar with the Jewish religion, and overall a delight to read.

Worth dying for by Lee Child (2010)
bonus read for Challenges category

Read for TIOLI challenge #9: Read a book where the Librarything work number ends with a 9 & September series n sequels. Another exciting installment in the Jack Reacher series. I'm still enjoying an annual plunge into his world and am in the library queue for book #16.

Off the Wall: The World of WearableArt by WOW (World of WearableArt) (2011)
photography/bonus read

This is a collection of beautiful photographs, a sample of the wonderful sculptured garments that have been created over the years for the WearableArt Awards and show. Only a few of the costumes have accompanying text detailing the inspiration of the artist. A lot of the garments are made from ingenious use of recycled materials.

Catherine Anderton burst onto the scene in 2009 with her eerie piece, Lagarus Ovatus En Masse. The garment was made from over 2,000 Lagarus Ovatus – more commonly known as cotton tails, bunny tails or pussy willows – handpicked from an Otaki beach and then individually wired onto florists’ wire to form a dramatic cloak that was worn by a sinister-looking rabbit.
“I was inspired by my love of gardening and love of plants,” says Catherine, who used to work wardrobe in the film and television industry before having her two children. “When I saw these Lagarus Ovatus en masse, I liked their soft colours and the way the light went through them. They were beautiful.”
Catherine devised Lagarus Ovatus En Masse last January following a visit to Otaki. She worked consistently on it until the show’s June deadline. Throughout that time, she also fashioned the rabbit – a creature whose subtext is multilayered and was born out of her interest in Darwinism and rabbit mythology.
“I’m fascinated by how plant life and animal life mimic each other. For example, how similar the scales of an armadillo are to those on a pine cone. My rabbit was somewhat complex and multilayered,” explains Catherine. “He was a sinister creature – not something you would want to meet on a morning walk – and goes back to old European tales; the old nursery tales about foxes and bears that were created to warn little children away. In this instance, he’s on the ground and is perfectly camouflaged. But is he the hunter or the hunted?”

Lady of the Wood

Valkyrie War Maiden - made from recycled tea bags among other items

There is a Bizarre Bra Award

158) Falling Angel by William Hjortsberg (1978)
Meandering Category

This came to my notice when reading an article by Carlos Ruiz Zafon, who mentioned it as one of his favourite reads. A very dark noir that stars Harry Angel, a PI in 1950s New York, who is asked to find a missing person, the once famous singer Johnny Valentine who hasn't been seen since being injured in WW2. We get to see a very seedy, gritty side of New York, delve into voodoo and satanism, very much a walk on the dark side. Really good if you like this sort of read.


159) Sweet Tooth Vol.1: Out of the Woods by Jeff Lernire (2009)
bonus read/graphic novel
I saw this mentioned on other people's threads so decided to read it. Interesting dystopian story, though I'll probably not continue reading the series.


160) Anya's Ghost by Vera Brosgol (2011)
Meandering category/graphic novel

Loved this one. Anya is a Russian born American, now mostly assimilated and attending high school. She has a crush, an annoying best friend and a typical Russian mum. One day she falls down a well and makes friends with the ghost she finds down there. The artwork is good and Anya is a great character. Brosgol is a Russian born American.
Found out about this on a blog post that discussed the artwork.

Such a dangerous thread to visit! Unfortunately, the Ibbotson isn't available in the States yet.

Love the wearable art photos.

Just catching up on threads, lots of interesting books here. I loved the wearable art photos too, although the bizarre bra frightens me!

Should be captioned "Jaws." I think it's meant to frighten!

Yes, I'm always quite taken with the bra section. There's a good gallery of Wearable Art images on the website.

Once upon a time in Aotearoa by Tina Makereti (2010)
short stories / Magic in the Air category

Tina Makereti was one of the emerging New Zealand writers that I heard talk at the Writers Festival back in May. I've now read all three writers' books, A Man Melting by Craig Cliff, and Wulf by Hamish Clayton, were the other two.
This collection of short stories all have contemporary settings usually urban, but most have echoes of Maori myth and folklore to them. Just flicking through the book again makes me realise how good they all are. The longest story, 'blink', is possibly the strangest. A young woman in a new relationship with a man, who while perfect in almost every way, seems to have rather odd behaviour and there's something strange about his eyes, like he has a third eyelid or something....

The Slave by Isaac Bashevis Singer (1962)
Jewish Writers category

This is a beautiful love story set in 17th century Poland in the aftermath of the Chmielnicki massacres. Jacob, a Jewish scholar, has lost everyone and everything and been taken as a slave to a mountainous region far away where he works for a peasant farmer. He falls in love with the widowed daughter, Wanda, who loves him too, but their love is dangerous, conversion being forbidden, unlawful. Jacob is too pious, his religion is all he has and so he refuses to act, years pass as their passion slowly builds. A great story built around superstitions, folklore and a love of God.

August Heat by Andrea Camilleri (2006)
Bonus read for my Grand Tour category
This is installment #10 of Inspector Montalbano and another worthwhile read. I've already requested #11 from the library.

173) Memoirs of a teenage amnesiac by Gabrielle Zevin (2007)
Bonus Young at Heart read
YA fiction, iPod audiobook

I started off really liking the premise of this story. 16 yr old Naomi falls down the school steps, knocks her head and ends up losing her memory of the past four years. She wakes up feeling quite different, having to reassess her likes, dislikes, boyfriend, friends, how she looks. She finds out that her parents have divorced, she lives in a new home etc etc
But but while the old Naomi sounds shallow and selfish, the new one isn't really that interesting or improved anyway. I had a few problems with the plot, and with the issues surrounding James, the boy that Naomi becomes interested in post-accident.
I'll eventually get round to reading Zevin's Elsewhere which rates higher with a lot of readers

Mangrove Summer by Jack Lasenby (1988)
children's fiction / Bonus Down Under category read
This is an award winning New Zealand children's book (Esther Glenn Medal, 1989) that I still had not read and I'm quite a fan of Jack Lasenby, who I heard recently described as NZ's Richard Peck. Anyway this was an interesting look at life during WW2 in New Zealand after the Japanese had entered the war. With news that their father is injured and interred in a POW camp in Germany, the family and their 2 cousins travel to the remote Coromandel for the summer. This is where their mother grew up and the home of their aunt. There is much talk of a possible invasion by the Japanese and as all the men are away in Europe fighting, there is not much chance of defending the shores. 14 yr old Jill, the oldest, is full of anti-Japanese propaganda from her Girl Guides activities and is convinced that the adults aren't taking the threat seriously enough. She takes all the children away from the coast and up river to a secluded glade amongst the mangroves where they hide for a few weeks from not only the Japs (who they are convinced have landed) but also the adults who are searching for them.
A really good survival story that also at times reminded me of Swallows and Amazons.

A Method Actor's Guide to Jekyll and Hyde by Kevin MacNeil (2010)
Meandering category

I was attracted by the cover and title (yes, I'm a magpie!) when I saw this book on the New Books display at the library and on reading the flap thought it would be worth taking home.
A bit of a case of an unreliable narrator, but boy, does he take you on a joyride around Edinburgh. Robert Lewis, lead actor in an adaption of Jekyll and Hyde, crashes from his bike on the way to rehearsal, and wakes to find everything quite changed and much much darker. Nothing seems to be going his way anymore, obstacles are everywhere. Robert's personality is borderline almost manic, his actions are totally weird, setting himself up for ridicule - we spend our time with him, following his thoughts and hoping it will all work out in the end but this hole he is digging himself into is getting fairly deep.
Overall not brilliant but definitely thought provoking and mind twisting. I noticed MacNeil shared a stint at the Edinburgh Book Festival with Richard T Kelly whose novel The Possessions of Doctor Forrest looks pretty interesting.
"If gothic fiction is usually associated with the 19th century, then two British authors have brought the genre bang up to date. Richard T Kelly's novel The Possessions of Doctor Forrest and Kevin MacNeil's A Method Actor's Guide to Jekyll and Hyde use the classic gothic rejection of rationality to craft contemporary stories that are paranoid, deliciously dark, sometimes erotically charged and often downright terrifying."

Jeremy Visick by David Wiseman (1981)
children's fiction / Bonus for Young at Heart category

Quite an exciting supernatural read for children, this is set in Cornwall and the old copper mines.
Matthew is drawn to a gravestone in the nearby cemetery while on a homework task for his history teacher. The Visick tombstone is for a father and 2 sons killed in a mine accident in 1852, also mentioned is their younger brother, Jeremy Visick aged 12 yrs, whose body was never found from the same accident. Matthew starts sleepwalking and having visions, being urged by Jeremy to find his body so it can be laid to rest.

Nine Lives by Bernice Rubens (2002)
Bernice Rubens category

This is rather a crafty 'whydunit', where the convicted prisoner is already convicted and we get to share each of his kills in between prison visits by his wife, following the progress of the police inspector on the case of the serial murderer as well as vignettes of the bodies being discovered. Slowly we work our way to finding out the several 'whys' of the crimes. Intense and highly readable.
I love the cover, which shows the killer in all his disguises as well as his weapon of choice.

All I ever wanted by Vikki Wakefield (2011)
YA fiction / Bonus Down Under category read

This debut YA novel has been getting a bit of buzz over in Australia since it came out so I had to see what the fuss was about. What I liked with this realistic novel is the gritty setting and interesting bunch of characters. Mim (Jemima) is about to turn 17, her two older brothers are in provisional detention and her dealer Mum needs someone to do a 'pickup' from their supplier. The dreamboat boy that she has been secretly enthralled with finally speaks with her, only to swipe the 'box' that she is carrying home. Mim decides to try and get it back without her Mum finding out. In the process she finds new but unlikely friends in her street and the truth behind a few things from the past. The ending (for me, anyway) is unexpected, perhaps slightly unrealistic but quite fitting.

Lots of good reads here, as usual... The photos from World of WearableArt are fantastic! Anya's Ghost keeps getting recommended to me, so it goes on the wishlist!

Thanks for your review of The Slave, it sounds interesting to me.

Monsignor Quixote by Graham Greene (1982)
fiction / Wanderlust category
This was an extremely enjoyable read that riffs off Cervantes' Don Quixote. I loved these two characters - Father Quixote, newly promoted to Monsignor, who takes off on a road trip with his friend, Sancho Panza, the village's ex-Mayor, a passionate Communist. Their travels, fueled by debate on religion, communism, and philosophy along with much drinking of wine, are punctuated by the whims of the Father's ancient automobile, the sometimes reliable Rocinante. Their stops and starts and various drinking antics arouse the suspicion of the Guardia Civil who are soon in pursuit of the 'terrorist suspects'. While exceedingly funny the novel also gives insight into the complexity of 20thC Spanish culture with it's interplay of communism, religion and fascism.

The Green Book by Jill Paton Walsh (1982)
children's scifi / Bonus for Young at Heart category
There is quite an old fashioned feel to this scifi story, it's almost like a fairytale. A group of families leave a dying Planet Earth and settle on a fairly inhospitable planet.

Chasm City by Alastair Reynolds (2001)
Bonus scifi category/ Revelation Space series Bk 2

Another great audiobook experience. This was my first Alastair Reynolds book, and I took to it like a duck to water. Three storylines string along as we follow security expert, Tanner Mirabel, on a mission of revenge to Chasm City on the planet Yellowstone. He's come from Sky's Edge, and flashbacks slowly piece together the background for his mission, and along the way he's picked up an "indoctrination virus" which implants memories, giving him dreams about the original colonising spaceflight out to settle Sky's Edge.
Overall, I really enjoyed it and though the plot weakens from time to time, I was still wrapped up enough in the story to forgive it.

#206: Yes, WearableArt does showcase some amazing work. Entries now pour in from all around the world.
I'm realising the year is slipping away on me and I still have a few categories to work on, so I'm going to try not to be too distracted and read from my categories instead of the shiny new ones I read about on LT.

#207: I enjoyed The Slave, my copy was old and the print rather small, so I took it slowly. That was my first book by Singer and I'll be reading others.

I need to catch up on lots of threads in this group and start planning my 12in12.

City of Bones by Cassandra Clare (2008)
YA fantasy / Bonus for Young at Heart

This is book one of The Mortal Instruments series, and has been very popular since it came out. I always meant to read it to find out what the buzz was about and when Cassandra Clare was part of a panel on fantasy at the Auckland Writers and Readers Festival back in May I was more inclined to read the book after hearing her speak.
Clary enters a world of shadowhunters and demons when she stumbles across a situation at a New York nightclub. The pace is quite good, the plot is fairly weak and the characters not great but they are good looking. Apparently the series gets better, but there is nothing here that makes me inclined to pick up the next book just yet. My 14 yr old daughter also read it and wasn't taken by it. She had attended a fantasy talk by Margo Lanagan and Cassandra Clare at the Wordy Day Out back in May so wanted to read something by both of these writers.

I felt about the same regarding City of Bones.

Will you have a YA category for the 12-12? I made room for one. There are so many candidates out there!

Yes, I'll be doing the YA/children's category again. I'm involved with a children's literature group here in New Zealand, less involved than a couple of years ago but still on a few committees and need to keep up with what's getting published etc etc.

I already have most categories lined up for next year, but I'm sure to change my mind so am holding off on posting a bit longer.

@ 211

the characters not great but they are good looking

That totally made me laugh. Seems to be true of a lot of YA books these days!

"the characters not great but they are good looking" got a laugh from me too!! :)

Ah, the shinies. I'm trying to figure out how to convince myself to read exclusively (or as near as possible to) from Mt. TBR for the 12-in-12.

Holy cow, look at your plowing through the books! I'm uber-impressed. :)

Yes, good looking! Funny, I have City of Bones on my TBR but haven't gotten to it for years. I remember a YA panel at a con I go to where we discussed it, and David's comment was he was tired of all the discussion of clothes. I thought he was just being a guy about it, but now it's sounding like a valid criticism.

I'd agree about the clothes talk.

Minotaur by Benjamin Tammuz (1980)
Jewish writers category

I found this unusual story of obsessive love quite captivating. A secret agent falls in love with a young woman he sees on a London bus, he’s always carried an image of her in his heart, and he starts sending her anonymous letters declaring his love. The book is divided into four parts, the first from the girl’s viewpoint, the other three are the stories of the men in her life.
My copy came from the library stacks but it is also published by Europa Editions.

The Devil Walks by Anne Fine (2011)
Young at heart bonus read

I’m a fan of Anne Fine’s books and especially enjoyed The Tulip Touch, this one is similarly creepy though probably aimed at a younger reader. A suitably gothic setup with young Daniel, who has till now spent all his life as an invalid, hidden from others and under the lonely care of his protective mother. When he is finally discovered and fostered by the local doctor and his family, his mother ends up in the local mental asylum crying and screaming that she was protecting him from evil. The only clue to his family’s past is an intricate doll’s house, an exact replica of his mother’s childhood home of High Gates. Creepy and sinister pageturner.

Dark Souls by Paula Morris (2011)
Down Under category bonus read
YA fiction

This is a great ghost story set in present day York. Miranda has been able to see ghosts since she and her brother were involved in a traumatic car accident a few months earlier that took the life of her best friend. Now they are visiting York with their parents for a short holiday and ghosts are everywhere. Morris has written an engaging ghost mystery that reveals the history and culture of York. I enjoyed it as much for the chance to relive my own short visits to York as for the story itself.
The title ‘Dark Souls’ is from a quote by John Milton:
But he that hides a dark soul and foul thoughts benighted walks under the mid-day sun; Himself is his own dungeon.

The Devil walks sounds fascinating. Can you give an idea of which the intended age group is?

Probably 10-12yrs is the ideal age group for this, there's quite a bit of malice and sinister happenings, so I wouldn't advise it for less mature children no matter how good a reader they are. Another truly spooky read for this age group has to be Chris Priestley's The Dead of Winter.

I've been looking through a few picturebooks lately:


Grandpa Green by Lane Smith (2011)
picturebook, USA

From the popular It's a book writer/illustrator here's a topiary themed book about a grandfather and the memories of his life. There's lots to point to and share with a young child here and the colour is suitably green with lots of white background.


Hairy Nose Itchy Butt by Elizabeth Frankel, illustrated by Garry Duncan (2011)
picturebook, Australia

Part of the proceeds from the sale of this book will support wombat conservation. There is a stilted conservation message in this story of lost habitat, but what a struggle to read and I dislike these books that push the cruder elements of behaviour into the title - I know children enjoy toilet humour but well....
The bold artwork is quite cool though. For those wanting a classic wombat story try Diary of a wombat by Jackie French.


Tarantula Boo! by Lucy Davey, illustrated by Philip Webb (2011)
picturebook, new zealand

A lonely tarantula spider at the zoo would love to find someone to play his tarantula boo! game with, and a cracked glass pane on his enclosure gives him the chance to explore. The rhyme almost makes it, and with an ending that ties everything in nicely this isn't so bad. This was launched at the recent Storylines Festival and Lucy was part of the speed-date-a-writer area I helped run, she is a delightful person (with an impressive resume) and I always enjoy Philip Webb's illustrations.


The Bear with the sword by Davide Cali, illustrated by Gianluca Foli (2010 Eng) (2008 Italy)
picturebook, italy

This fable like story is delightful. A bear has a sword that can cut through anything and he cuts down all the trees in the forest to prove it. When water starts coming into his fortress, he sets off on a journey to find the cause. What he finds is that his actions in a long roundabout way have caused the problem as well as upsetting the habitats of numerous other creatures. Interesting illustrations with lots of white background. This book was included in the White Raven's Selection of the International Youth Library.


The Sea King's Daughter: a Russian Legend retold by Aaron Shepard, illustrated by Gennady Spirin (1997)
illustrated story
I got this mainly to look at Spirin's illustration style. Very beautiful, sumptuous images, lots of detail and nothing like the Bilibin illustrations I looked at last month. The story was good too, a retelling of the Sadko legend. Shepard's noted at the back of the book were interesting and tied the story to my recent reads of Bracelet of Bones and Travel Light.

More of Spirin's images can be seen here.

Gennady Spirin was born in the small town of Orekhove-Zuyevo, near Moscow, on December 25, 1948. His artistic talent was identified at an early age. He graduated from Surikov School of Fine Art at the Academy of Arts in Moscow and Moscow Stroganov Institute of Art. Over the years he developed his own unique style, combining traditional Russian contemporary art technique with the great traditions of the Renaissance.


Vampyre by Margaret Wild, illustrated by Andrew Yeo (2011)
sophisticated picturebook, australia

I am Vampyre.
I live in darkness.
I long for light.

This has been getting lots of praise in the press/blogosphere lately. A young Vampyre boy rejects his heritage and strives to live in the light. Very few words are paired with emotive and at times stunning acrylic illustrations to create a fairly impressive book that should be used with older readers. I love how the colouring moves from moody blue to muted orange through the book. I still prefer Wild's other picturebooks including her Fox, Our Granny, Pocket Dogs, There's a Sea in my Bedroom, Let the Celebrations Begin etc etc...

I still have a few fantastic ones by Peter Sis to post and one by Květa Pacovská, both are from the Czech Republic though Sis now lives in the USA. Now I can't wait for Pacovská's The Little Match Girl to come from the library.

Madame Sousatzka by Bernice Rubens (1982)
Bernice Rubens category 9/11
I saw the movie starring Shirley MacLaine years ago and finding out that Rubens wrote the original novel was one of the reasons I decided to focus on her books this year. This story about a child musical prodigy is based loosely around Rubens' own brother, as was The Elected Member. Sousatzka is a piano teacher who specialises in teaching gifted young pianists with her special method. She lives in a dilapidated old London home with three eccentric tenants, they all grow to love Marcus but gradually the love and hold they have on him comes up against his mother and the need for him to perform in public and grow as an artist. Just wonderful, Rubens again excels with her characters.
I'll be reading her Kingdom Come and memoir When I grow up before the end of the year.

Slaughterhouse Five or The Children's Crusade: A Duty-Dance with Death by Kurt Vonnegut, , a Fourth-Generation German-American Now Living in Easy Circumstances on Cape Cod and Smoking Too Much, Who, as an American Infantry Scout Hors de Combat, as a Prisoner of War, Witnessed the Fire Bombing of Dresden, Germany, ‘The Florence of the Elbe,’ a Long Time Ago, and Survived to Tell the Tale. This Is a Novel Somewhat in the Telegraphic Schizophrenic Manner of Tales of the Planet Tralfamadore, Where the Flying Saucers Come From. Peace. (1969)
Conflict category

Based on Vonnegut's experiences as a POW in Dresden when during February 1945 it was destroyed by Allied bombing. This is a fairly inspiring reading experience with the narrator telling the story of Billy Pilgrim, who experiences his time as a POW inbetween time travel to the future and the past as well as episodes off-planet when he is kidnapped by green aliens. Weird but it sort of works, the story winds in and out of itself.

From wikipedia because I don't feel like reinventing the wheel tonight: The story continually employs the refrain "So it goes." when death, dying, and mortality occur, as a narrative transition to another subject, as a memento mori, as comic relief, and to explain the unexplained. It appears 106 times. Slaughterhouse-Five explores fate, free will, and the illogical nature of human beings.

wikipedia: The Bombing of Dresden was a military bombing by the British Royal Air Force (RAF) and the United States Army Air Force (USAAF) and as part of the Allied forces between 13 February and 15 February 1945 in the Second World War. In four raids, altogether 3,600 planes, of which 1,300 were heavy bombers, dropped as many as 650,000 incendiaries, together with 8,000 lb. high-explosive bombs and hundreds of 4,000-pounders. In all more than 3,900 tons of high-explosive bombs and incendiary devices were dropped on the city, the Baroque capital of the German state of Saxony. The resulting firestorm destroyed 15 square miles (39 square kilometres) of the city centre.
In March 1945, the Nazi regime ordered its press to publish a death toll of 200,000 for the Dresden raids. Death toll estimates as high as 500,000 have been given. An independent investigation commissioned by the city council in 2010 reported a maximum of 25,000 victims. Dresden was not the only city destroyed by the Allies. The bombing of the larger city of Hamburg in 1943 created one of the greatest firestorms raised by the RAF and United States Army Air Force, killing roughly 50,000 civilians in Hamburg and practically destroying the entire city.

I also read this for Banned Books Week

Buenos Aires Style ed. Angelika Taschen
Bonus read - photography/style

Just a beautiful small book of photographs showcasing interiors and exteriors of desirable buildings and residences from the province of BA. My eye was drawn to a duet of paintings in one photograph of a luxurious salon, they were by an Italian surrealist artist, Fabrizio Clerici, whose work I had not come across before.

The Rainbow Bridge by Aubrey Flegg (2004)
Louise trilogy Bk 2
Young at Heart bonus read

This is set in the late 18th century when a young French soldier, Gaston, rescues the portrait of Louise from falling into a canal. The story follows the political fallout from the French Revolution and how it affects the lives of those living in Gaston's home village. Louise's spirit lives on in the portrait and she appears to those few characters who have a certain empathy with her. I ended up enjoying this one more than I thought I would, and I'll definitely read the last book in the trilogy though I have to return the books to the library and re-request book 3.
Flegg mentions a number of books that referenced his writing, including Hilary Mantel's A place of greater safety, The adventures of Brigadier General by Conan Doyle, The memoirs of Madame de la Tour du Pin and Vintage: the Story of Wine by Hugh Johnson

Lunch in Paris: a love story with recipes by Elizabeth Bard (2010)
Wanderlust category

This won the 2010 Gourmand World Cookbook Award for Best First Cookbook (USA) though I read it more for the Paris content than the recipes. Bard has lunch with a Frenchman, falls in love and eventually ends up living in Paris. Her Paris is not one that dreams are made of, she struggles to sort out her priorities in life, adjusting from the career/success oriented goals of New York to the joie de vivre attitude of her husband. Mixed in with all this is her love of food, cooking and her daily shopping at food markets. While I wasn't that taken with the memoir, it held my interest in parts. The recipes at the end of each chapter range from simple to quite classical French, with some Moroccan and Jewish ones. Bard has a blog and has moved to Provence since writing the book.

There is no dog by Meg Rosoff (2011)
YA fiction - Young at Heart bonus read

Read for Banned Books Week as Rosoff was uninvited from a school in the UK because of this, her latest book. I found this rather a fun read. Imagine that the universe is looked after by a large motley crew of gods (think Greek), and when Earth's number comes up, the job to be it's god creator ends up being won in a poker match. The winner gives it to her teenage son, Bob, who is accompanied by a No.2, the guy who should have been given the god job. So a few thousand years after creation, Bob, still a teenage slob, falls for Lucy, a gorgeous girl, the most beautiful on earth. While he lusts after her, earth suffers from famine, storms, floods...can No.2 bring Bob back on task.
I haven't always enjoyed Rosoff's books but this one hits all the right notes for me.

Sweetly by Jackson Pearce (2011)
YA fiction - Young at Heart bonus read

Read for the Halloween theme read over in the 75 books challenge group. This is the second book in Pearce's Sisters Red series, but is a standalone read, a retelling of Hansel and Gretel. I wasn't that impressed, though I'm not the target audience. It turned into a bit of a paranormal romance sort of read that just didn't agree with me. Say no more, I'm hoping the other YAs I have lined up will be better, I'll still read her Sisters Red just not straight away.

Imperial Woman by Pearl S. Buck (1956)
Conflict category

Read for Paul's Nobel Prize Winners theme over in the 75 books challenge group and I reckon it can find a place on my Conflict category as there is a lot of politics/warfare in the book. I listened to an audiobook narrated by Kirsten Potter and enjoyed this marathon telling of the life of Tzu Hsi (1835-1908), the last Empress in China. From the day she is taken alongside sixty other Manchu girls to the Forbidden City to be chosen as a concubine for the sickly Emperor to her old age, Buck tells in vivid detail the life of the court as well as the political history of China as the country enters the modern world. There is a fictional love story at the centre of the plot, I'm not sure how much is based on fact but it helps humanise the character of Tzu Hsi.

Binky the space cat by Ashley Spires (2009)
junior graphic novel - Bonus for the Young at Heart category

Recommended for catlovers by fannyprice over in the Club Reads group. This is one of 3 Binky GNs for young readers that will appeal to everyone in a warped sort of way.

I'm moving a few books from the Young at Heart and Fantasy category to my Magic in the Air category as I realise that they are retellings of fairytales and it all helps me complete the challenge before the year comes to an end.

I've read Binky. He's pretty funny. Interesting reviews, especially Madame Sousatzka and Slaughterhouse Five.

Slaughterhouse Five has been on Mt. TBR for EVER. I am hoping to get to it next year, but then again, that's been the case for quite a few years. :)

Kim by Rudyard Kipling (1901)
Fiction/ Bonus read
Read for Paul's Nobel Prize winners theme over on the 75 books challenge group. This had been lurking on Mt tbr for a while, probably since I read Kipling’s Choice, the fantastic YA novel about Kipling’s son. I listened to an audiobook narrated by Simon Vance and really enjoyed the story. Now that I’m finished I can see how this wonderful adventure story has been mentioned as a favourite childhood book by so many.
Kim is an orphan growing up on the streets in India in the late 19thC, but he’s not Indian, he’s British. His big adventure begins when he decides to accompany a Tibetan Lama who is on a quest to find a hidden river. What a great cast of characters. This has to be one of my best reads of the year.

A moment of war by Laurie Lee (1991)
memoir / Conflict category

Earlier this year I read the second book in Lee’s memoir quartet, As I walked out one midsummer morning which was about his time walking and working his way around Spain in 1934. This third book covers the months in 1937 when Lee travels to Spain to join the International Brigade.
I can’t say better than this: "He writes like an angel, and conveys the pride and vitality of the humblest Spanish life with unfailing sharpness zest and humour."
‘He has a nightingale inside him, a capacity for sensuous, lyrical precision’

Loitering with Intent by Muriel Spark (1981)
fiction / bonus read

I listened to the audiobook narrated by Jilly Bond. I enjoyed this Booker prize shortlisted novel, sort of a black comedy. A young would-be novelist takes a job as secretary for the strange Autobiographical Association, but finds that the members actions seem to be imitating her work-in-progress. Written in the style of a memoir.

The Pendragon Legend by Antal Szerb (1934)
fiction, hungary
Meandering category

First I love my Pushkin Press edition of this book, with it’s compact size and beautiful thick paper, it was an act of love to read it. This is a wonderful play on the gothic novel, with mysterious occult happenings in derelict castle ruins in the wild depths of Wales. A London-based Hungarian academic is invited to Pendragon Castle by the reclusive Earl and quickly finds himself in the middle of a number of intrigues.
Antal Szerb was an assimilated Jew who died in a workcamp in 1945 at the age of 43. He was a noted Hungarian scholar and writer. He is recognized as one of the major Hungarian literary personalities of the 20th century.

The Outsiders of Uskoken Castle by Kurt Held (1941)
YA fiction, Germany
Conflict category

This is included in 1001 children’s books you must read before you grow up and it is a timeless classic.
This is about a group of homeless children who form a gang, the Uskoken (after a band of pirates from 16th C Senj). They are forced to be scavengers who have to fend for themselves especially as most of the townsfolk are set against them. The setting is the Adriatic town of Senj in Croatia. Led by redheaded Zora, the children (Branko, Nicola, Duro and Pavle) live in a ruined castle tower above the town. Held based it on a real life group of street children he met when travelling in Yugoslavia in 1940.
This is a great children’s story with lots of action and adventure.

From Wikipedia: Kurt Kläber was a German Jewish communist living in exile in Switzerland after his arrest for suspicion of involvement with the Reichstag Fire in 1933. Kläber devoted himself to writing, the conditions of his exile prohibited him from publishing under his own name, so he adopted the pseudonym Kurt Held. He wanted to take Branko and Zora back to Switzerland with him, but his refugee status made that impossible. Instead he wrote the story of the children with the intention of making the book a political tool to call attention to marginalized people in Europe. He saw children as the true victims of war, class struggle and injustice. His books portrayed children realistically and conveyed messages of morality.

Ling and Ting: not exactly the same by Grace Lin (2011)
children's fiction / beginner reader
This was a (Theodor Seuss) Geisel Award Honour Book which is an annual award for the most distinguished American book for beginning readers published in English in the United States. Lin wrote Where the mountain meets the moon which was one of my favourite reads last year so I was interested in looking at how she'd write for this specific audience. It's 6 very short stories about twin sisters using very simple language and humour with the illustrations giving helpful clues to the action. The winner of the award was Kate deCamillo's Bink and Gollie.

Götz and Meyer by David Albahari (1998)
fiction, serbia
Conflict category

This was a Madeline recommendation and I have to admit that it's a really good novel but as I started it around my reading of Slaughterhouse-five I found it heavy going and the 157pgs were a fair slog for me. The main character is a teacher of literature in a Belgrade university, a solitary man. He begins to investigate his family background, most of his relatives died in the Holocaust and he discovers that most were incarcerated in a camp in the fairgrounds of the city, and in just a few weeks were killed by carbon monoxide poisoning in a truck that was driven into the nearby forest where the bodies were buried. He starts to dwell on statistics, specifications and all the specific details of the past, especially on the two German soldiers, Götz and Meyer, whose job was to drive the truck. Incredibly interesting narrative but also very sad.

The sense of an ending by Julian Barnes (2011)
fiction / Meandering category

How could I not read this when it just won the Booker Prize and I had it home from the library. The copy I purchased is lost in transit somewhere between the UK and New Zealand and should have arrived 2-3 weeks ago.
Anyway, I read this little gem over two afternoons, delighting in this story of memory, of looking back into the hazy past to reread events in new lights. I haven't read any other books from the longlist or shortlist but am delighted that Barnes won.

The wings of the sphinx by Andrea Camilleri (2006)
Inspector Montalbano #11
fiction, italy / Bonus read

Wow, I can't believe I've already read 11 of these books already and I picked up his latest one, The Potter's Field yesterday, so have that to look forward to. Nothing to say about this, either you are a fan or you aren't.

Jamilti and other stories by Ruti Moden (2009)
graphic novel, Israel
Bonus read

This is a quirky collection of Modan’s early work from before the publication of Exit Wounds which won her much acclaim. I enjoyed all the stories in the collection, she is very talented.

#224: Eva - it spent a long time on my tbr pile too.

You're doing really well in this year's reads! Congrats!

I have Jamilti and Other Stories on Mt. TBR, but haven't gotten around to reading it yet. Good to hear it was good, she is very talented indeed!

Thanks Eva, I have about 12-15 books left to finish, but they are in categories I seem to have avoided all year! Travel books, conflict, fairytale retellings and 2 more for Bernice Rubens. Another year when what I plan to read is slowly taken over by fresh whims, I'm not going to worry too much if I complete all the categories or not.

I read the Jamilti book in an hour or so.

"what I plan to read is slowly taken over by fresh whims"

That's always the case, isn't it?! :)

I have 20 left to finish but a few of those I know will be fast reads. I'm not going to worry hugely about finishing or not either. I do have a fairly even spread in my categories, though, which is rare - normally a few categories are finished by March and I struggle with the others. :)

The Seeing Stone by Kevin Crossley-Holland (2000)
Arthur trilogy Bk 1 / children's fiction
Bonus read

I got this trilogy when it first came out for one of my sons and I've always meant to read it as well. I loved the companion novel Gatty's Tale which I picked up in Hay-on-Wye a couple of years ago.
It's 1199 and 13 yr old 13 yr old Arthur, the younger son of Lord Caldicot is facing decisions about his future. He wants to be a knight, but his father seems to be favouring other options. He's been given an obsidian seeing stone by Merlin, who lives on his father's estate and through the 'magic' of the stone he is seeing events in the life of another boy called Arthur being played out. Quite a neat plot device and we are also given a realistic look into life on the Welsh Borders around the time of the Fourth Crusade. And we get to meet the irrepressible Gatty.

Sydney: haunted city by Delia Falconer (2010)
Wanderlust category / audiobook

This is described as part memoir part travel guide and was just brilliant. I listened to it on my iPod and thought the narrator, Jane Nolan was excellent. It's part of the Cities series by NSW University Press and so far they have also published Hobart, Brisbane, and Melbourne, each a series of essays by a local writer.
I learnt so much about Sydney's history both aboriginal, colonial beginnings and the postwar years of Falconer's childhood and adolescence. I ended up getting the actual book out from the library as well as there were so many references to writers, books, artists and episodes in the history that I need to flick through the hard copy and note a few things down. For anyone looking for a slice of what makes Sydney tick, you could do no better than this one. As with Gail Jones' novel Five Bells, Falconer uses Kevin Slessor's haunting poem Five Bells to introduce us to the city:

I looked out my window in the dark
At waves with diamond quills and combs of light
That arched their mackerel-backs and smacked the sand
In the moon's drench, that straight enormous glaze,
And ships far off asleep, and Harbour-buoys
Tossing their fireballs wearily each to each,
And tried to hear your voice, but all I heard
Was a boat's whistle, and the scraping squeal
Of seabirds' voices far away, and bells,
Five bells. Five bells coldly ringing out.
Five bells.

Sydney was shortlisted for the 2011 Australian Prime Minister Awards:
Falconer wanders the streets and suburbs of the past and present, in her imagination and in those of others. She variously calls upon the writing and lives of such quintessential Sydney figures as Kenneth Slessor, Ruth Park, Arthur Stace, Lt Dawes, Patrick White and even Dr Geoffrey Edelsten, to bear witness to the place she ambivalently loves. Most poignant and central to Falconer’s reckoning is one who is now no longer famous, but should be: Rev William Branwhite Clarke. He sailed into Sydney in 1839 “with his wife and two surviving children” (what vivid grief is contained in those last three words) and the author’s gentle yet clear-eyed recounting of his part in the city’s story is one of the finest parts of a consistently fine and absorbing book.

The melancholy, joy, secrets, beauty and ugliness of Sydney’s 200-plus years have never been better celebrated nor so unsentimentally dissected.

Franny and Zooey by J.D. Salinger (1961)
bonus read
Two vignettes featuring Franny and Zooey, the youngest members of the Glass family. Franny is suffering from some sort of emotional upset and in the first sketch, we see her on a date with her boyfriend. In the longer second story, Mrs Glass, their mother, is imploring Zooey to find out what's up with Franny. Salinger gives us detail on detail of Zooey taking a bath, reading a letter, talking with his mother, all of which backgrounds the family, their upbringing and slowly builds towards the conversation between Zooey and Franny.
I found the second story quite a slow read, I could only handle very few pages at a time, so it took at least a week before Zooey left the bathroom. I'll read Nine Stories which is also about the Glass family.

"It's everybody, I mean. Everything everybody does is so--I don't know--not wrong, or even mean, or even stupid, necessarily. But just so tiny and meaningless--and sad-making. And the worst part is, if you go bohemian or something crazy like that, you're conforming just as much as everybody else, only in a different way."
- Franny and Zooey

The Coldest Winter: a stringer in liberated Europe by Paula Fox (2005)
Wanderlust category

US writer Paula Fox spent a year in London and Europe just after WW2 when she was 23. She travelled to Paris, Poland and Spain as a stringer for an obscure newspaper in London and wrote general interest articles. The blurbs on the back of the book are so positive, but I found it quite uninteresting and only finished the book because it was a short read.
I will read her childhood memoir, Borrowed Finery, her childhood sounds unusual to say the least.

Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O'Dell (1960)
children's fiction / audiobook
Bonus read

I kept imagining Brooke Shields and that Blue Lagoon movie whenever I came across this title, but eventually I succumbed and decided to listen to it so I could finally take it off my iPod. This Newbery Award winner is NOT the Blue Lagoon story but a survival story based on a true story. I really enjoyed it.
Set on the Channel Islands just off the Californian coastline, a small community of native people live simply on a fairly inhospitable island until a party of Aleuts, led by a Russian sea captain arrive hunting sea otter. A disagreement over payment leads to a deadly fight as the Aleuts leave. When the surviving islanders are rescued and taken by sailing ship to California Karana and her younger brother are left behind and have to fend for themselves.

A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson (1998)
Wanderlust category
Several years ago I read an article in National Geographic about the Appalachian Trail, so once I knew this book was about hiking the AT I was interested. I haven't read Bryson before and liked his laidback commentary which comes with a wealth of extra bits of info. Once he decides to tackle the Trail which is over 2000 miles of hiking, Bryson looks around for someone to do it with, and finally at the last minute he's joined by an old friend he hasn't seen for years. It's a huge undertaking, it sounds like you really don't know what you are in for until you get underway. I enjoyed this and will probably pick up another of his books.

The Bloody Chamber by Angela Carter (1979)
Magic in the Air category

These deliciously dark stories are retellings of well known fairytales. Carter's prose sparkles on the page, these are not the watered down versions of the tales that we heard as children, but sensual, romantic adult versions. I have been meaning to read her work for a few years now and am so glad I started with this collection. The title story, The Bloody Chamber, is a particularly intense retelling of Bluebeard:

“When I saw him look at me with lust, I dropped my eyes but, in glancing away from him, I caught sight of myself in the mirror. And I saw myself, suddenly, as he saw me, my pale face, the way the muscles in my neck stuck out like thin wire. I saw how much that cruel necklace became me. And, for the first time in my innocent and confined life, I sensed in myself a potentiality for corruption that took my breath away.”

I think the Bloody Chamber is the best thing I have read from Angela Carter (great review btw) and I love that quote. I would recommend Nights at the Circus next, although I have only read three of her novels, it was the best one.

I read Borrowed Finery. Her childhood is very unusual. She was handed off like a pet dog. Oddly though, it isn't a tense read. The style is very understated, almost as though she could never fully admit the rage she felt toward her mother. (Who totally deserved her rage.)

I love Angela Carter!!! I've been dipping into The Bloody Chamber from time to time, but have kept myself from bolting it whole. I'm sure it will be one of my 12 12 books.

#231: I'll probably read more Carter next year, I have acquired several of her books over the years but never read them - good intentions don't come anywhere near tackling my Mt Tbr. I'm fairly sure Nights at the Circus is in there somewhere.

#232: From reading The Coldest Winter I had the impression that her 'family' background was very socialist if not communist too. Did you know that she is the grandmother of Courtney Love?

I just finished another Bernice Rubens book, only one more to go to sign off that category. I'm also on my last book for the Magic in the Air category but am reading a story every few days out of My mother she killed me, my father he ate me so I'll be at it for a while as there are 40 retellings to get through.

@233 I had no idea she was related to Courtney Love. How odd, but in a way not. Her Dad was very active in Hollywood. I'd think it's fair to say she had a socialist/communist background of sorts - Cuban - but using "family" to describe her background is more of a stretch.

A Five Year Sentence by Bernice Rubens (1978)
Bernice Rubens focus category
This was shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 1978. I was going to read Rubens' Kingdom Come next but after reading a synopsis of the plot for this decided to track down a copy. Another great black comedy by Rubens with a despicable set of characters, even the lamentable main character Miss Hawkins. You do start out with some sympathy for her, though that does not last.
We meet Miss Hawkins on her retirement day, she intends to go home and 'do herself in'. After a life following orders she has no intentions of living without direction, however her co-workers' gift of a five-year diary gives her the obligation of continuing her life for at least five more years.

A Rose for Winter by Laurie Lee (1955)
Wanderlust category
In this book Laurie Lee returns to Spain a few years after WW2 has finished and spends several months travelling around Andalusia, revisiting the towns that he first traveled through in the 1930s as the country was on the brink of civil war. Lee and his wife live very simply and mix with the less fortunate in these communities and truly experience the real Spain. They are welcomed into many extended family groups and it makes rewarding reading.
I've now read his three books about travelling in Spain and plan to read his childhood memoir Cider with Rosie which I've owned for a few decades and can't remember if I've ever read it.

The Songlines by Bruce Chatwin (1987)
Wanderlust category
Took me a while to get through this one though it covers some fascinating material. Chatwin travels to the interior of Australia, to find out more about the songlines of the aborigine. These ancient tracks are part of creation myth of the various tribal groups and the land must continue to be 'sung' to keep it alive. When stranded in a tiny settlement for some days, Chatwin pulls out his notebooks from previous travels and starts to consider aspects of human nature, attachment theory, the nomadic lifestyle and what it all means. This is quite hard to read as it is in the form of many pages of quotes and thoughts from different travels - a potpourri of ideas and themes that needs time to assimilate.

Catching up on your thread! I really need to read more Angela Carter. So far I've only read The passion of new Eve which I found a deliciously queer post-apocalypse, if a bit uncomplished. Your review makes The bloody chamber a likely next read of hers!

Scenes from Village Life by Amos Oz (2011)
Jewish fiction - Bonus

A series of stories roughly interlinked set in a small village somewhere in the north of Israel. Each one deals in some way with loss or strife and overall the tone is quite melancholy, but as usual with Oz, the writing is excellent. The stories don't end with full resolution leaving a discordant note and an unsettled feeling. The last story is a total contrast to the others, it really does feel like a cuckoo in the nest, increasing the discord felt throughout the collection.
'Relations' has an anxious aunt waiting and wondering about the non-arrival of her nephew, her escalating worry and hidden panic, along with reminiscing about when he was a young child. So effectively portrayed.

I want my hat back by Jon Klissen (2011)
picturebook/ bonus read

An especially excellent picturebook with a surprise ending that will appeal to the child in everyone. No review from me but Elizabeth Bird, NYPL children's librarian extraordinaire does a sublime review here:
If I were to sum up this picture book in one word I think I would go with this: Deadpan. And deadpan picture books are rare beasts indeed. They can be done (Edward Gorey’s work comes to mind) but pulling them off so that they’re as appealing to children as they are to adults is no small feat. I think Klassen got away with it here, though. It’ll be the wry child that takes to I Want My Hat Back but the world is full of wry youth. So equally consider both the five-year-old in your life as well as the irony-filled college grad when looking for the right gift. Klassen is straddling the market and we end up the winners.

Revelation Space by Alastair Reynolds (2000)
scifi, audiobook/ bonus read

I listened to Chasm City a few months ago which is part of this series but can be read at any time. Revelation Space is officially book #1 and I'm enjoying listening to these as the narrator is really good. This is a truly big space story and at the end there are really big ideas about time, space, black holes, aliens etc etc that I could barely grapple with but the plot is interesting & exciting. I enjoyed the two main female characters, Ana Khouri and Volyova.
Next up is #2 Redemption Ark

After the War by Carol Matas (1996)
Conflict category
children's fiction

At the end of the war, Ruth is alone, her family has been wiped out in the camps and there are still brutal acts against returning Jews in Poland. She is encouraged to join the underground Brichah movement and travel with a group of young children across Europe so they can be smuggled into Palestine. Based on true accounts.
A quick, exciting read along the lines of The Silver Sword and I am David.

Goliath by Scott Westerfeld (2011)
Conflict category
children's fiction

This is the last of Westerfeld's steampunk trilogy for young readers that everyone is enjoying reading. Quite a good finale, I did get a bit bored from time to time, though that was more me than the book - it is over 500 pgs long and is chock full of interesting tidbits from history.
I've added it to my Conflict category as it's set during an alternative World War One and I'm trying to finish the challenge.

These Old Shades by Georgette Heyer (1926)
(Alastair Trilogy Book 1)
fiction, audiobook/ Bonus Read

My mother is a huge GH fan and has a big collection of her books, most of which I read as a teenager so thought it might be time for a re-read. In the end I went for the audiobook option as my library has all three of the trilogy available as digital downloads. This was fun, I couldn't remember the plot at all, and I just loved getting back into the world of Regency romance.

Devil's Cub by Georgette Heyer (1932)
(Alastair Trilogy Book 2)
fiction, audiobook / Bonus Read

Added to TIOLI Recommended by Oct review by LT5er (Delta Queen50). Again I flew through this audiobook which has another delightful heroine and a tangled set of circumstances to work through before the inevitable ending. Charming.

I was able to download book 3 An Infamous Army last night, so will be listening to it asap. It will be a suitable candidate for my Conflict category.

The Track of Sand by Andrea Camilleri (2007)
Inspector Montalbano #12
Bonus Read
Waking from a strange dream, Montalbano finds the body of a dead racehorse on the beach just outside his home. Possibly a little weaker than other outings, still enjoyable.

The Potter's Field by Andrea Camilleri (2008)
Inspector Montalbano #13
Bonus Read

This instalment felt like vintage Montalbano, with Salvo truly landing himself feet first into several funny predicaments.

#237: Yes, in the intervening days I've managed to pick up some more of her essays etc. I am suffering from major book acquisition fever at present.

Wow, you have been busy reading! A Five Year Sentence sounds interesting, nice to see another good review of Scenes from Village Life and glad to see you overall enjoyed Goliath.

I thought something similar of Goliath; great as a finish to the trilogy, but not a riveting stand-alone. All in all a great series, though. Scenes from Village Life is obviously on the wishlist.

Fallen Grace by Mary Hooper (2010)
YA fiction, bonus read

This was another excellent audiobook experience for me, I've read a few of Hooper's historical YA books and thought they were pretty good. This one is probably the best so far. It has a Dickensian feel to it, as it focuses on Victorian working class and Charles Dickens even makes a brief appearance. What I liked is that Hooper has given the main character, Grace, the difficulty of having an older but simple-minded sister that she must look after, the two girls are orphans and barely making a living by selling cress on the streets. She also notes the Victorian's love of advertising notices in the daily newspapers to great effect.
There is a great range of loveable characters, rogues and despicable villains in this story, I also learnt a lot about Victorian funerals and mourning customs. The story starts with impoverished Grace travelling to a cemetery for a funeral, her baby is a stillborn and the midwife has advised how she can avoid a pauper's burial.

I see she has another Victorian era book just out, Velvet.

The Road by Jack London (1907)
Wanderlust category
essays/memoir

Brilliant selection of essays by London about his youthful days spent as a hobo, travelling around the US and Canada catching trains, cadging meals, sleeping rough etc etc. He was 16 or 17 when he hit the road and while life could be harsh it was also a big adventure.

Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor (2011)
YA fantasy / bonus read

This is a really well crafted fantasy involving ....angels and chimaera in a fantasy world of conflict that sits just a portal away from our own world. Karou is just not your average art student in Prague, she's been raised by Brimstone, an otherworldly chimaera, and still runs errands for him. On one such errand she meets an angel looking for revenge. At the heart of the story is a wonderful tale of forbidden love...and there will be a sequel or more.
I know there are a lot of angel paranormal romances out on the market at present, I haven't read any of them. My last angel story was probably Elizabeth Knox's The Vintner's Luck and before that L'Engle's Many Waters. This was highly enjoyable escapism, conjuring a world that I'm already looking forward to re-entering.

Lori & Eva: Yes, Rubens does a very good black comedy, my overall favourite would be Mr Wakefield's Crusade.
Goliath had its moments and overall I think it was a great series but more for the younger set than a crossover read. I do like his writing and I think I'll try his adult scifi next, I have The Risen Empire somewhere.
Scenes from Village Life has been getting some great comments over in the 75 challenge group. I have Oz as a favourite writer on my profile, but I haven't read that many of his books.

I'm currently reading The night circus for a group read over in the 75 group, which will only be a bonus read here.
My 11in11 is almost complete, I just need to focus on a couple more books instead of being constantly distracted. I have at least two library books I want to read, Memento mori and Miss Peregrine's home for peculiar children, before my final push.

1) Science Fiction/Fantasy 11/11
2) Spotlight: Bernice Rubens 10/11 - When I grow up: a memoir READING
3) Conflict 9/11 - An infamous army & The Brigade READING
4) Young at Heart 11/11
5) Jewish writers 11/11
6) Wanderlust 10/11
7) The Grand Tour 11/11
8) LT Challenges, Group & Theme Reads 11/11
9) Meandering 11/11
10) Down Under 11/11
11) Magic in the Air 10/11 - My mother she killed me my father he ate me READING slowly, and at the halfway point

I'm almost finished Scenes From Village Life (two more stories to go) and, boy, is that a good book! Those are the kind of stories that have to be read one at a time and just savored before moving on to the next one.

Plus .... I can't believe I beat Eva in reading this! :)

I must say that it was Darryl who pushed me to read it this month. We had both mentioned getting a copy a couple of months ago but it would still be on my tbr pile if not for him. I loved the stories and found I could easily picture the village from my own experiences in Israel.

I just finished the last two stories tonight. Why was that last weird story included in this collection? What are your thoughts as to what it meant? Did your book have something that looked like a gray dripping on the last pages? If so, what was that all about?

I actually ordered the book from the library since so many people were reading it as a shared TIOLI challenge book this month. Plus, I knew it was rather short. It was a great read.

I didn't have much luck with trying to do the Night Circus as a group read. It was due back at the library with no renewal after I read about a third of it. I'm still number 200-and-something on the library queue for that book. By the time I get it back, I'll have to start from the beginning again as I'll have forgotten all of the characters. :(

My copy of the Oz book is from the UK, I bought it as a treat from an indie here in Auckland, and doesn't seem to have the grayness you mentioned. Yes, the last story was quite weird and really didn't go with the others, I felt it was to heighten that discordant feel that each story ended with. I read a few online articles and some reviewers felt the book was a fable on current Israel/Palestine politics and so the last story echoes an unhappy future...but I can't read that much into it.

Re: The Night Circus, I bought my own copy from BookDepository as I also find it hard to read popular books by their due date and my library copy was due back long before the group read began. I'm already starting to squirm on a few due dates of other books, and will be dedicating next year to reading my own books and hopefully much much less from the library. It's a lovely story with an underlying menace that is sure to surface soon, I'm about 2/3 through.

I have My Russian Grandmother and her American Vacuum Cleaner: a memoir by Meir Shalev on my tbr. Have you seen it?

Never seen My Russian Grandmother, but it's a great title! I'll look forward to your review.

->244 SqueakyChu:

LOL!! I don't even have a copy yet. You are making me eager though, especially to see what that last story is about. :)

When I grow up: a memoir by Bernice Rubens (2005)

This completes my 11in11 Bernice Rubens focus category. I've read 10 of her novels this year and now her memoir which was completed just before she died in 2004. Rubens tells of her girlhood growing up Jewish in Wales, the war years, her musical family and her eventual move to London where she lived most of her years. Fairly standard stuff though we meet up with a few characters from her novels and from her work as a documentary maker and her travels for the UN and women's rights you can see how she developed the ideas for The Ponsonby Post and the Soviet refusenik section of her novel Brothers.

One interesting anecdote - Elias Canetti long overstayed his welcome at their home, I think he rented a room from them. Rubens found him insufferable, boastful etc etc and couldn't wait for him to be gone.

I have a few more of her novels on Mt tbr and can't wait to get to them, Kingdom Come and The Waiting Game are next in line.

An Infamous Army by Georgette Heyer (1937)
Alastair family trilogy bk 3 & Worth family sequel
Conflict category 10/11

An iPod audiobook listening experience.
The third Alastair family novel following on from These Old Shades and Devil's Cub and the one that I was looking forward to as a complement to Victor Hugo's account of the Battle of Waterloo in his epic Les miserables. I found out after finishing this that Regency Buck could also be considered a prequel to this.
This is at heart a romance but a lot of the book is taken up with an outstanding account of the Battle of Waterloo. petermc recommended it last year but it took a while for me to get to it.
The novel opens in 1815 Brussels, on the verge of war. Napoleon has escaped from Elba and is assembling an army in France and advancing to the border. Brussells is full of English aristocracy, the social life of balls and theatre is in full swing. When dashing Colonel Worth, aide-de-camp to the Duke of Wellington, arrives from Vienna he falls for Lady Barbara Childe, an Alastair and a young widow with a reputation for the risque.
I really enjoyed this and then had to go on to listen to Regency Buck to get the backstory on the Worths.

Newsflash: I finished my 11in11 challenge yesterday but am many reviews behind so the last book won't show up for a while yet.

Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs (2011)
Bonus read: fantasy

I wasn't as enraptured with this novel as I thought I'd be, I found it a little too weird. Riggs has incorporated a number of bizarre antique photographs into the book and based characters and events around them. While some people have been enamoured with this idea I found it at times awkward and contrived.
When Jacob's grandfather dies in bizarre circumstances, Jacob becomes obsessed with finding out the truth about his stories. This leads him and his father to a desolate island off the coast of Wales. The story keeps changing direction and there is a horror element just waiting offstage ready to pounce. Don't be put off by my reaction to the book, it's one we have to all try for ourselves.
You need the real book for this, I was saved by reading @bookoholic13 's review just a day or so before I was going to listen to the audio version. The photographs are fairly integral to your understanding of the plot and add to the element of unease and peculiarity.

Memento Mori by Muriel Spark (1959)
Bonus Read: challenges category

Read for November's TIOLI Challenge #9: Read a book Reviewed and Recommended by a Fellow 75r (smiler69)
An enjoyable romp of a story about old age, death, blackmail and the past catching up with you. Lots of memorable characters. Who is the mystery phone caller with his unwelcome message, always the same, Remember you must die.

My mother she killed me, my father he ate me: forty new fairy tales edited by Kate Bernheimer (2011)
anthology

Completes my Magic in the Air 11 in 11 category.
This took me a few weeks to get through. Some of the stories I really loved, others were a bit bizarre and some I just didn't enjoy, but overall I thought this was quite inspiring. The most memorable story for me was I'm Here by Ludmilla Petrushevskaya, and I must read more of her work. Each writer took an original folktale as their inspiration for a new story and the collection is arranged globally starting in East Europe and working through to the Americas. Several have me interested in reading the original tale or more folktales from that region, I'm especially keen to read more Japanese folklore.
Other writers I'm now looking to read more of: Karen Joy Fowler, Kelly Link and Joyce Carol Oates.

The Tomb in Seville by Norman Lewis (2003)
nonfiction

Completes my Wanderlust 11in11 category.
In 1934 Norman Lewis and his Sicilian brother-in-law, Eugene Corvaja travel to Seville to locate the Corvaja family tomb. The day after they arrive in northern Spain the borders are closed and the country shuts down, they are forced to walk across country, sleep in caves and after finally catching a train to Madrid arrive in the middle of a gun battle...they still have to find a way further south.
Lewis recounts all this several decades later and it is a great snapshot again of Spain (and a taste of Portugal) during these years.
I had intended to read several of his travel books this year but have only managed this one, his last. I'm definitely moving a few more up my tbr pile for next year.

Regency Buck by Georgette Heyer (1935)
Bonus Read

I had to followup my reading of An Infamous Army with this as I noticed on wikipedia that is is a prequel of sorts. Here we find out how Peregrine (Perry) and his sister Judith Tavener get on with their guardian and find their future spouses. Quite a bit of fun, mystery and even a few thrills.

After finishing this, and 'vowing' to leave the Heyers alone for a good long time, I talked to my mother who is a lifelong Heyer fan, and she talked me into reading at some future point The Spanish Bride and then convinced me that I have to listen to the audio of A convenient marriage as the heroine has a stutter. She remembered listening to the serialised radio broadcast of the story back in the good ol' days and how fun it was.

I've moved back to the world of scifi and am now listening to Alastair Reynold's Redemption Ark narrated by John Lee.

No one noticed the cat by Anne McCaffrey (1996)
Bonus Read: fantasy

Read for TIOLI challenge #3. Read a book by Anne McCaffrey
I read this for the Anne McCaffrey tribute as she died last month. I loved the Pern books but am not ready for a reread but remembered that I had this story sitting around needing to be read and what an entertaining little story it turned out to be. Handsome princes, beautiful princesses, poisoning queens and a wise & crafty cat.

I've requested another, an Arthurian story, Black Horses for the King to read this month.

People's Republic (Cherub) by Robert Muchamore (2011)
Bonus: YA fiction

This is the 13th Cherub book, but is #1 of the spinoff Aramov series and introduces a whole new set of characters. If you haven't read any you have to start back at Cherub #1 The Recruit. Wonderful wonderful reading for boys, lots of action and adventure.
The storyline follows two young people - 14 yr old Cherub, Ryan, he's passed basic training and waiting for his first mission. Across the globe, there's Ning, an 11 yr old adopted Chinese girl whose world is about to turn upside down. Throw in drug smugglers, illegal immigrants and human trafficking masterminded by a Kyrgyzstan mafia clan, the Aramovs and start the action.

The Sleeping Army by Francesca Simon (2011)
Bonus: children's fiction

Great reading for children.
Freya's England is like ours but slightly different, Christianity never made the cut, the masses still worship the Viking gods.
Freya's parents have split up and now she's stuck at the museum with her night watchman father who forgot the days she was with him. When she blows on an old horn, she 'wakes up' some old chess pieces, they end up in Ragnorak before being sent on a mission that must succeed for the gods to regain their powers.
This is a really fun introduction to Norse mythology and Simon has also based the story on the ancient Lewis chess pieces which were uncovered in 1831 on a remote Outer Hebrides island.

Greater than Angels by Carol Matas (1998)
Bonus: YA fiction

The title is a biblical quote that is mentioned in a discussion in the book. Carol Matas is a Canadian writer who has based several of her books on real life stories that she has come across when interviewing Holocaust survivors. Here she describes the story of a group of Jewish teenagers who come under the protection of the villagers in the southern French village of Le Chambon. An interesting slice of history.

From wikipedia:
André Trocmé and his wife Magda are a couple of French Righteous Among the Nations. For 15 years, André served as a pastor in the French town of Le Chambon-sur-Lignon in south-central France. He had been sent to this rather remote parish because of his pacifist positions which were not well received by the French Protestant Church. In his preaching he spoke out against discrimination as the Nazis were gaining power in neighboring Germany and urged his Protestant Huguenot congregation to hide Jewish refugees from the Holocaust of the Second World War.
Trocmé and his church members helped their town develop ways of resisting the dominant evil they faced. Together they established first one, and then a number of "safe houses" where Jewish and other refugees seeking to escape the Nazis could hide. These houses received contributions from the Quakers, the Salvation Army, the American Congregational Church, the pacifist movement Fellowship of Reconciliation, Jewish and Christian ecumenical groups, the French Protestant student organization CIMADE and the Swiss Help to Children in order to house and buy food supplies for the fleeing refugees.

War & Peace and Sonya by Judith Armstrong (2011)
Bonus Read: Down Under
fiction

Behind every great man there is a woman, so they say. Leo Tolstoy was 34 when he married 18 yr old Sonya after an engagement lasting one week. There have been a few books written about this marriage, the title of one biography, Love and Hatred: The Troubled Marriage of Leo and Sonya Tolstoy gives you an idea of what sort of marriage it was.

Armstrong has decided to tell the story of the marriage from Sonya's point of view in a fiction form. Unfortunately her academic roots show through, especially at the start and of course the story must follow the arduous course of a rather tortured marriage. However, I found most of it riveting reading - we follow Sonya who was her husband's copy editor and publisher as well as mother of his tribe of children, as she discerns his use of their own relationship in his writing. She is particularly tortured by sections of Anna Karenina as she reads her marriage into the pages and tries to understand her husband from his narrative of the characters Kitty and Levin on the pages. Tolstoy gives away his wealth and the rights to his publications and constantly battles with Sonya over these issues, while she is always trying to protect their income for their large family and to manage the estate.
I came away not really sure of how I felt about Sonya or Leo Tolstoy or their children, just glad that I'm not married to any of them. And to be fair to Armstrong, in the end I'd say she had a hard job to make this work as much as it does, she has sourced much of her material from Sonya's diary entries in such a way that we get right inside her head. I finished feeling that I needed to know more about Tolstoy himself.
I've got The Last Station dvd home from the library to watch and I'll probably read the Shirer biography of the marriage at a later date. I've read both Anna Karenina and War and Peace but so long ago that I should reread them.
I have a copy of Armstrong's first novel, The French Tutor which I hope to read next year, gunung wrote a great review of it on her ANZ LitLovers LitBlog.

From her publisher's page: Judith Armstrong taught Russian, French, European studies and Literary Theory at Melbourne University, and is currently a Fellow of the Contemporary European Research Centre. Armstrong left full-time teaching in 1996 to lead tours in Eastern Europe and write full time.

Congratulations on completing your challenge, Kerry.

Thanks and here is my last book for the challenge, only bonus reads after this!!!

The Brigade: An Epic Story of Vengeance, Salvation, and WWII by Harold Blum
Conflict category 11/11

This was my final book for my 11in11 challenge.

Blum tells the story of the Jewish Brigade's participation in World War 2 and about their brief time on the war front in northern Italy. By focusing on the individual stories of three soldiers he brings us a truly riveting story of the war and its aftermath. How with ingenuity and chutzpah they used their position in the British army firstly to seek vengeance against former SS and Gestapo officers and then to help with the illegal migration of Jewish DPs to Israel.
Excellent reading.

Congratulations!

Congratulations Kerry.

Congrats on reaching the finish line!

Congratulations!

Such a shame about Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children, isn't it. I was disappointed at how he seemed to just let the story follow the photos rather than the other way around.

I've never read anything by Bernice Rubens, but you've whetted my appetite this year to say the least!

And, of course, a huge congrats on finishing!!!!!! Have fun with your leisure-reads for the rest of the year! :)

Congratulations on finishing the challenge! Interesting and refreshing with a different perspective on MIss Peregrine... Have seen nothing but love gushed on it so far!

Thanks for all the congratulations - it is a fine feeling to have accomplished the challenge for the third year.

I think that my reaction to Miss Peregrine was also influenced by other books I had just read or was in the process of reading. I found myself wondering if he'd used his imagination instead of the photographs would he have come up with more interesting characters.

I entered the world of Bernice Rubens on a whim and I'm so glad that I did.

Velvet by Mary Hooper (2011)
Bonus Read: YA fiction
After recently listening to Hooper's Fallen Grace set in the Victorian world of the funeral business, I thought I'd read her latest book which was available at the library. Velvet is thrilled to be offered a position in the household of the young and beautiful Madame Savoya, as she has just lost her job at a steam laundry. She enters the world of spiritualism, seances and mediums with the utmost belief in her new employer's ability to commune with the spirit world. Doubts soon creep in. I preferred Fallen Grace on this one, but still an entertaining and romance-tinged read set in the early 1900s.

232) What the family needed by Steven Amsterdam (2011)
Bonus Read: Down Under
short stories, australia

I couldn't wait to read Amsterdam's latest collection as his Things we didn't see coming was one of my memorable reads last year. Here, he again gives us a series of interlinked stories, this time each one is narrated by a different member of an extended family group over a time line of thirty years. The stories are quite internal, each narrator showing how they are coping with their relationships with others, the common thread seems to be the oddball Alek, who is aged about 12yrs in the first story. What makes this collection different from the usual introspective stuff is that Amsterdam has his characters discover that they suddenly have a power, and that power is just what they need to cope with what is going on in their lives at that point in time. So we start with the power of invisibility go on to flight and end up with....
I adore this style of storytelling, I'm officially a fan.

Steve Amsterdam bio from his website: Lives in Melbourne. Is a writer and a palliative care nurse. Was born and raised by New Yorkers in Manhattan. Wrote his first story about a hamster whose family was starving. Was educated at Bronx Science, University of Chicago, and University of Melbourne. Wrote speeches about the Nissan forklift for the 1988 Tokyo Auto Show. Climbed Mount Fuji twice, which makes him a fool. Helped sell Soul Train to Japan. Edited travel maps. Edited travel guides. Got incredibly sick and thought he might die in a small village on Sulawesi. Designed book jackets. Once made a three-tiered wedding cake with four dozen roses in between the tiers. It was an almond pound cake with raspberry filling. Escaped New York during the first Bush Administration with mileage points on United Airlines...

The universe may be speaking to me! Only this morning I read this blogpost (it's in Swedish, sorry) and put What the Family Needed on my wishlist. The blogger-person wasn't enamored, but I know from before that when she is lukewarm about a book, I usually like it. :)

Lol Eva, the universe speaks! Look out for his first collection, I think I might have liked it slightly more because of the apocalyptic setting.

Apocalyptic setting works for me. And, only Things We Didn't See Coming is available in the US currently, so that choice was easy! :)

Farm 54 by Gilad & Galit Seliktar (2011)
Bonus Read: Jewish Writers
graphic novel

Galit Seliktar is a short story writer and her younger brother, Gilad, is the illustrator. He has taken three of her semi-autobiographical stories and reinterpreted them in the graphic novel form. He has written about the adaption fairly in depth at the end of the book and included some photographs of buildings etc he referenced while doing the artwork. I appreciated this extra information, and would love to be able to read some of Galit's work as the prose has been edited down here with the pictures telling much of the story. Gilad was keen to work on Galit's stories as he was so familiar with the settings and I believe they are collaborating on more projects.

Three stories, two episodes set on a small farm and one based on Galit's first day on duty when doing military service in 1989. Gilad's artwork is very simple b&w line work with the addition of rosepink to define both darkness and when needed for emphasis. He zooms in for closeups and sometimes only gives you a glimpse through an open door at action within. He never feels obliged to fill all the white space in a panel. An interesting GN to look through.

There's a good interview with the siblings here at Graphic Novel Reporter.

I probably don't need to tell you I'm putting it on ye olde wishlist. :)

Why else do I read these books!


Redemption Ark by Alastair Reynolds (2002)
Bonus Read: scifi / iPod audio

This is the second in the Revelation Space trilogy, though I've also listened to Chasm City, which needs to be read alongside the trilogy. Truly exciting space yarn that keeps on giving.
John Lee, the narrator is excellent and I'm really happy to have a couple more of these to listen to. I can't wait to jump back into the story but have to take a break for a couple of days to tackle another Georgette Heyer romance, The Convenient Marriage, which is proving to have a charming and enterprising heroine.

I've got to finish Habibi tonight as I'll be racking up a library fine if I don't.

I'll be interested in hearing what you think of Habibi! I've seen some excerpts that seem to take place in some Arabian Nights harem and some that seem to take place in modern-day (insert Middle Eastern city here) so I'm a bit confused when/what it is about.

@ 270 -- The Convenient Marriage was my first Heyer, and therefore The Book that Started It All. Glad you're enjoying it!

Habibi by Craig Thompson (2011)
Bonus read: graphic novel

This is an obsessive orgy of art, set in a timeless Middle East says Michael Faber in The Guardian
This is quite a mammoth read at 666pgs considering it's a graphic novel. The illustrations throughout are consistently spectacular and the narrative is extremely ambitious.
At the heart, it is the tale of Dorada and Zam two impoverished children who lose and find each other over a backdrop of deserts, harems, exploitation, and poverty. Throughout the book Thompson weaves in shared stories of the prophets from both the Quran and the old testament, principles of mathematics as it applies to arabic script, myth and design, an Arabian Nights storyline, a lesson on the exploitation of women and lots of erotic imagery.
You do wonder where he is going with this and why. I wonder at what motivated him to explore religion in this way, at times I just wasn't sure how to take it all, but for all that I loved going along for the ride.

The Conference of the Birds illustrated by Peter Sis (2011)
based on a medieval Persian poem by Farid al-Din Attar
Illustrated storybook

I read this a while back and have been remiss in doing a post on Peter Sis but will cover his other books tomorrow. This one is due back at the library and I'm definitely in the market for my own copy.
This is just gorgeous, printed on high quality linen paper so feels almost like you are handling a manuscript. The epic 12th century Sufi poem is about a flight of birds searching for their true king. The Sis illustrations are beautiful and intricate as usual.

The Art of Reading: Forty Illustrators Celebrate RIF's 40th Anniversary by Reading is Fundamental (RIF) (2005)
nonfiction
Lovely to browse through this, each illustrator reflects on favourite childhood books, and how they first switched on to reading and /or becoming a writer illustrator. This is followed by a full page reimagining illustration of their favourite book or scene from their childhood. Patricia Polacco's illustration is of herself, sharing a sofa with Horton and reading Horton hatches the egg.

I've commented on a number of sophisticated picture books over on my 75 books thread, I won't reproduce the posts here as there are too many images but you are welcome to click over to my other thread for a peek.

Hi Kerry - Love your recent reviews. The illustrations are amazing and I have now added The Conference of the Birds as a candidate for my Poetry category for the 12 in 12!

Abandon the old in Tokyo by Yoshihiro Tatsumi (1970) (2006 English)
graphic novel

I came across Tatsumi when folowing up on the Seliktar siblings after reading Farm 54. He is a manga artist who probably started the gekiga style of alternative comics in Japan. His early work has been released to the Western audience in 3 volumes. This is vol 2 of his work but I liked the title so requested it. I've now got a request in for the other two along with his autobiography A Drifting Life.
The stories are urban featuring different 'everyman' main characters in 1960s Tokyo. There is one story, 'Unpaid', that does give a bit of an unexpected shock, but the characters are so convincingly drawn that I glossed over this unexpected twist.

You can read the book online at mangareader.

From wikipedia: Gekiga is Japanese for "dramatic pictures." The term was coined by Yoshihiro Tatsumi and adopted by other more serious Japanese cartoonists who did not want their trade to be known as manga or "irresponsible pictures." It's akin to Will Eisner who started calling his comics "graphic novels" as opposed to "comic books" for the same reason.
Tatsumi began publishing "gekiga" in 1957. Gekiga was vastly different from most manga at the time, which were aimed at children. These "dramatic pictures" emerged not from the mainstream manga publications in Tokyo headed by Osamu Tezuka but from the lending libraries based out of Osaka. The lending library industry tolerated more experimental and offensive works to be published than the mainstream "Tezuka camp" during this time period.

Happily making note of Steve Amsterdam! Which was great because my TBR was really getting thin. (No, not really)

I keeping up Habibi again and again in book stores, its just so luscious. So very glad to see a good review preparing me with what's inside.

and the Conference of Birds looks simply stunning!

Some further reading:

Northwood by Brian Falkner (2011)
children's fiction, new zealand
A good children's fantasy for younger readers with a heroine named Cecilia Undergarment. Cecilia's father owns a balloon factory and she lives with him and their housekeeper in a six storied architect-designed balloon house. Nearby is a dark forest, Northwood, those who enter never return. The trouble begins when Cecelia's plan to rescue a neglected dog that lives next door goes awry.

The Convenient Marriage by Georgette Heyer (1934)
fiction/audiobook
Hilarious, predictable and romantic. I had a lot of fun listening to this one. When the Earl of Rule asks for the hand of the eldest Winwood sister, Elizabeth, in a marriage of convenience, the youngest sister, Horatia takes matters into her own hands and suggests he marries her instead as Elizabeth already has a beau, a handsome soldier with limited prospects.

The Novel in the Viola by Natasha Solomons (2011)
fiction
This turned out to be a struggle to read. I loved her first book, Mr Rosenblum's List, it had a little bit of magic in it and made me nostalgic for those 1950s English books such as Bloomsbury are publishing under their classics label. Anyway this was a much lighter read centering round a romance that did nothing for me, and I didn't care for any of the characters. Solomons did draw my attention to Tyneford, Dorset, the coastal village that she set her story around and I found the short author's note interesting to read.
Elise, a young Austrian Jew from a privileged family is sent to England to become a maid in a grand English home on the Dorset coast just as WW2 begins.

The Affair by Lee Child (2011)
fiction
Wow, I've read 16 Jack Reacher books and while the 'magic' has dissipated considerably for me, I'll still keep reading them as a nice piece of escapism. This book takes us back to Reacher's last week in the army and the last job he is sent to do in a small southern town with a nearby army base. A railroad runs through the town, one train a day, a midnight express that roars through at full speed. To know why I mention the train...well, you'll have to read the book.

The inquisitor's Apprentice by Chris Moriarty (2011)
YA fiction
Step into a magical New York where Wall Street Wizards rule the stock market, cops hand out magic tickets instead of parking tickets, the lady next door bakes hexes into her hamentaschen, and Thomas Edison has just accused Harry Houdini of committing un-American sorcery…. from the book's website which includes some of the real history of New York.
I found this to be highly enjoyable though the plot seemed to get a little scrambled towards the end. It's set in an alternative world New York, rich in turn of the century immigrant life and steeped in magic, Moriarty got the setting so right. New technology is being invented and there is a fortune to be made by blocking the use of magic and replacing it with machines. There's as Inquisitor of Magic who works in the NYPD and he's just taken on two new apprentices, Sacha a young boy from a poor immigrant Jewish family and Lily, from one of the leading social families in New York. This is the first in a new series.

A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens (1843)
fiction, audiobook
I listened to the Jim Dale narration of this Christmas story and found it quite delightful. Followed up the audio with the dvd episode of Blackadder's Christmas Carol which always gets a laugh.

The Freedom Maze by Delia Sherman (2011)
YA fiction, ER book
This is a highly enjoyable timeslip/coming of age novel set in Louisiana. At first I found it a little hard to get into as Sophie's character and relationship first with her mother, then the other family members is being established and it is all a little dysfunctional. Once the timeslip occurred I became quite engrossed in the narrative and couldn't turn the pages fast enough.

It's 1960 and 14 year old Sophie is to stay the summer with her aunt and grandmother who live in an old cottage, all that remains of the vast plantation estate that the family owned over 100 years ago. A trickster spirit slips Sophie 100 years into the past, to 1860. With her tanned skin and family resemblance she is accepted as the newly arrived illegitimate biracial daughter of the owner's New Orleans based son. At first she is put to work as a servant in the household, living among the other slaves and over the weeks that follow Sophie learns much about privilege and freedom.

This was my first Early Reviewer book.

Black horses for the king by Anne McCaffrey (1996)
YA fiction
Read for TIOLI Anne McCaffrey tribute.
An Arthurian tale focusing on the story behind the large black horses that formed the backbone of the cavalry, King Arthur''s secret weapon against his Saxon enemy. Note that this is historical fiction with no fantasy elements.
Highly enjoyable especially recommended for horse lovers.

Reading Highlights for 2011:

I've just skimmed through all my threads over on the 75 group challenge and have to say that I read a lot of great books over the year, I'm trying to narrow it down to a few standouts but it's hard as so many are saying 'pick me'.

Fiction:
The Elected Member by Bernice Rubens + the other 10 books
Under the Frog by Tibor Fischer (1992)
The Daughter of Time by Josephine Tey
Kim by Rudyard Kipling
War & Peace and Sonya by Judith Armstrong
A Room with a View by E.M. Forster
The glass-blowers by Daphne du Maurier
Sorry by Gail Jones
Mr Rosenblum’s List by Natasha Solomons
The Tiger's Wife by Téa Obreht

Translated Fiction:
Les Miserables by Victor Hugo
Fatelessness by Imre Kertész
Jean de Florette & Manon des Sources by Marcel Pagnol
The People by Jean Raspail
The Slave by Isaac Bashevis Singer
Pereira Maintains by Antonio Tabucchi
Scenes from Village Life by Amos Oz

Fantasy/scifi
Perdido Street Station by China Mieville
Game of Thrones by George Martin
Rivers of London by Ben Aaronovitch - debut
The Bloody Chamber by Angela Carter
Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor
Lips Touch: three times by Laini Taylor
Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman
Chasm City by Alastair Reynolds

Best Homegrown (New Zealand) fiction
The Conductor by Sarah Quigley
Wulf by Hamish Clayton - debut

Nonfiction Highlights:
The Brigade: An Epic Story of Vengeance, Salvation, and WWII by Harold Blum
Sydney: haunted city by Delia Falconer
The Periodic Table by Primo Levi

Children’s & YA Books:
here's a small selection from many great reads
Layla Queen of Hearts by Glenda Millard
A tale dark and Grimm by Adam Gidwitz
One Crazy Summer by Rita Williams-Garcia
Dealing with Dragons by Patricia Wrede
Fall-out by Gudrun Pausewang
My sister lives on the mantelpiece by Annabel Pitcher
Midget by Tim Bowler
The Travelling Restaurant: Jasper’s voyage in three parts by Barbara Else
A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness
One dog and his boy by Eva Ibbotson
The Outsiders of Uskoken Castle by Kurt Held
The Three Golden Keys by Peter Sis

Graphic novels:
Will Eisner's New York
Habibi by Craig Thompson

Best Reread:
Brighton Rock by Graham Greene

Best Audio Experience:
Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman, narrated by Lenny Henry

Best Title:
(and a very fine read)
There Once Lived a Woman Who Tried to Kill Her Neighbor's Baby: scary fairy tales by Ludmilla Petrushevskaya

Most Promising Debut:
Wulf by Hamish Clayton
The Tiger's Wife by Téa Obreht


My Book of the Year:
A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness

As expected, more adds to the wishlist... :) I love that you followed up Dickens with Blackadder - great combo! Hope you have a great new years!!

"Baldrick, you wouldn't recognize a subtle plan if it painted itself purple and danced naked on a harpsicord singing 'subtle plans are here again".

LOL!!!!!!!! That's a fantastic quote! I love him.

That's a lot of highlights! Congratulations on having such a great year. Hope the next one is just as good or even better for you.

Thanks everyone - this thread is officially closed, please meet me in the 12in12 challenge here: http://www.librarything.com/topic/126660