Zozette's 2013 Challenge - Reading my Books

I thought I would start a new thread for my actually read because my old thread is all over the place and I was a little confused about what books I had decided on. I also needed to determine which of my chosen books could by used for the Awards CAT.

My categories are (and number of books read)

Category 1 - 42 Degrees South - 9/13
Category 2 - 42 Degrees North - 7/13
Category 3 - Selections from “1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die" -4/13 Category dropped 11/8
Category 4 - Mysteries -18/13
Category 5 - Books about books 12/13

HALF CATEGORIES
Category 6 - Land of Ice and Fire - 6/7
Category 7 - Sickness, Death and ??? - 2/7 category halved to 4 books 11/8
Category 8 - Biographies and Memoirs -7/7
Category 9 - Science Fiction/Fantasy - 7/7
Category 10 - Animals - 3/6 Category halved to three books 11/8
Category 11 - Famous Feuds - 4/6
Category 12 - Bombs and Boomerangs - 2/6 Category halved to three books 11/8
Category 13 - Potpourri - NO SET NUMBER - 5 read

Category 1 - 42 Degrees South (13/13 selected) (10/13 read)

Books set in Tasmania

1) Dr Wooreddy's Prescription for Enduring the Ending of the World by Mudrooroo (Colin Johnson) - FINISHED
2) Bay of Fires by Poppy Gee FINISHED
3) Freycinet - Melanie Calvert - FINISHED
4) Past the Shallows - Favel Parrett FINISHED
5) A Long Way Home by Saroo Brierley FINISHED

Books set South Island, New Zealand

6) The Spanish Helmet - Greg Scowen - FINISHED
7) Cemetery Lake - Paul CleaveFINISHED
8) The Cleaner - Paul Cleave FINISHED
9) Magnitude 7.1 and 6.3 by Debbie Roome (no touchstone) FINISHED

Books set in Patagonia

10) Welsh Song Over Patagonia - William Casnodyn Rhys (no touchstone))
11) Night Flight by Antoine de Saint-Exupery
12) The Killer’s Tears by Anne-Laure Bondoux - FINISHED
13) Who will remember the people - Jean Raspail

I will also try to fit in In Patagonia by Bruce Chatwin

Category 2 - 42 Degrees North 10/13 selected 7/13 read

1) The Silent Steppe - Mukhamet Shayakhmetov (Kazakhstan)
2 )The Railway - Hamid Ismailov (Uzbekistan)
3) East of the West - Miroslav Penkov (Bulgaria) FINISHED
4) The Shadow Walker - Mike Walters (Mongolia) - FINISHED
5) The Donnellys Must Die - Orlo Miller (Canada - Ontario) - FINISHED
6) A Corpse in the Koryo - James Church (North Korea) - FINISHED
7) Abandon: Love and Communism in Central Asia (Kyrgyzstan) (no touchstone) - FINISHED
8) 13940050:: A Fado for the River - Geoffrey Wells (Portugal) FINISHED
9) Broken April - Ismail Kadare (Albania) FINISHED
10) Wolf Totem - Jiang Rong (China - Inner Mongolia)
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Category 3 - Selections from 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die - 13 books selected 4/13 read CATEGORY DROPPED

1) The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga FINISHED
2) The Busconductor Hines by James Kelman
3) Untouchable by Mulk Raj Anand - FINISHED
4) The Book About Blanche and Marie by Tiina Nunnally
5) If on a Winter's Night a Traveller By Italo Calvino
6) No One Writes to the Colonel by Gabriel Garcia Marquez - FINISHED
7) The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao - Junot Diaz
8) The Dark Child by Camara Laye
9) Rickshaw Boy by Lao She FINISHED
10) Independent People by Halldor Laxness
11) Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbon
12) Tess of the Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy
13) Remembering Babylon by David Malouf

Category 4 - Books About Books 13/13 selected 11/13 read

1) The Library: An Illustrated History by Stuart AP Murray FINISHED
2) Lost Classics: Writers on Books Loved and Lost, Overlooked, Under-read, Unavailable, Stolen, Extinct, or Otherwise Out of Commission by Michael Ondaatje - FINISHED
3) The Library Book - Anita Anand et alFINISHED
4) The Library by Zoran Zivkovic - FINISHED
5) Miss Zukas and the Library Murders by Jo Dereske - FINISHED
6) Unpacking My Library: Writers and Their Books by Leah Price FINISHED
7) The Well of Lost Plots by Jasper Fforde FINISHED
8) The Book Thief by Markus Zusak FINISHED
9) Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Book Store by Robin Sloan FINISHED
10) If on a Winter's Night a Traveler by Italo Calvino (also in 1001 category)
11) Miss Tamara, the Reader by Zoran Zivkovic FINISHED
12)Dewey, the Library Cat vby Vicki Myron FINISHED
13) The Professor and the Madman by Simon WinchesterFINISHED

Category 5 - Mysteries 13/13 selected 19/13 Finished

1) The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle - FINISHED
2) The Woman Who Wouldn't Die by Colin Cotterill FINISHED
3) Miss Zukas and the Library Murders by Jo Dereske (also in Books about Books Cat) - FINISHED
4) House of Evidence by Viktor Arnar Ingolfsson - FINISHED
5) Freycinet - Melanie Calvert (also in my 42 Degrees South Cat) FINISHED
6) The Anteater of Death by Betty Webb - FINISHED
7) Someone to Watch Over Me by Yrsa Siguardardottir FINISHED
8) The Cleaner by Paul Cleave FINISHED
9) The Shadow Walker by Mike Walters (also in my 42 Degrees North Cat) - FINISHED
10) A Corpse in the Koryo - James Church (also in my 42 degrees North Cat) - FINISHED
11) I Can See in the Dark - Karin Fossum FINISHED
12) Bay of Fires - Poppy Gee FINISHED
13) The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie - Alan Bradley FINISHED

extra

14) The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle FINISHED
15) The Return of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle FINISHED
16) His Last Bow by Arthur Conan Doyle FINISHED
17) The Casebook of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan DoyleFINISHED
18) The Sands of Windee by Arthur Upfield FINISHED
19) Cemetery Lake by Paul CleaveFINISHED

Category 6 -Books set in Iceland or by Icelandic authors - 6/7 selected 5/7 read

1) House of Evidence by Viktor Arnar Ingolfsson (also in my Mysteriy Cat) - FINISHED
2) Someone to Watch Over Me by Yrsa Sigurdardottir FINISHED
3) I Remember You by Yrsa Sigurdarsdottir FINISHED
4) Burial Rites by Hannah KentFINISHED
5) Seal Woman by Solveig Eggerz
6) Twice in a Lifetime by Agust Borgor Sverrisson FINISHED
7) Strange Shores by Arnaldur Indridason FINISHED

Category 7 - Sickness, Death and ??? 7/7 selected 2/7 finished Reduced to 4 books 2/4 read

??? means what happens after death

1) Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers by Mary Roach
2) Spook: Science Tackles the Afterlife by Mary Roach
3) The Ghost Map: The Story of London's Most Terrifying Epidemic-and How it Changed Science, Cities and the Modern World by Steven Johnson FINISHED
4) Sum: Forty Tales from the Afterlives by David Eagleman - FINISHED
5) 28: Stories of AIDS in Africa by Stephenie Nolen
6) Smallpox- the Death of a Disease: The Inside Story of Eradicating a Worldwide Killer by DA Henderson
7) Dream of Ding Village - Yan Lianke (Independent Foreign Fiction Prize - Award CAT)

Category 8 - Biographies and Memoirs 7/7 selected 7/7 read

1) In Our Hearts We Were Giants by Yehuda Koren and Eliat Negev FINISHED
2) Newton and the Counterfeiter by Thomas Levenson - FINISHED
3) The Professor and the Madman by Simon Winchester FINISHED
4) Ned Wynkoop and the Lonely Road from Sand Creek by Louis Kraft (Spur- Award CAT) - FINISHED
5) The Latehomecomer; A Hmong Family Memoir by Kao Kalia Yang FINISHED
6) Banished: Surviving My Years in the Westboro Batist Church by Lauren Drain FINISHED
7) A Long Way Home by Saroo Brierley FINISHED

Science Fiction and Fantasy 7/7 selected 7/7 read

1) The Library by Zoran Zivkovic - FINISHED
2) The Quiet Earth by Craig Harrison FINISHED
3) Fragile Things by Neill Gaiman FINISHED
4) Anansi Boys by Neill GaimanFINISHED
5) The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman FINISHED
6) The Man in the High Castle by Philip K Dick FINISHED
7) Gathering Blue by Lois Lowry FINISHED

Category 10 - Animals 6/6 selected 1/6 read reduced to 3 books 3/3 read

1) The Secret Life of Lobsters: How Fishermen and Scientists Are Unraveling the Mysteries of Our Favorite Crustacean - Trevor Corson
2) Tall Blondes: A Book About Giraffes - Lynn Sherr - FINISHED
3) Poseidon's Steed : The Story of Seahorses, from Myth to Reality - Helen Scales
4) Dewey, the Library Cat by Vicki Myron FINISHED
5) The Hedgehog's Dilemma: A Tale of Obsession, Nostalgia, and the World's Most Charming Mammal - Hugh Warwick
6) Hyena - Mikita Brottman FINISHED

Category 11 - Feuds 6/6 selected 4/6 read

1) The Donnellys Must Die - Orlo Miller - FINISHED
2) The Feud - Thomas Berger (fiction)
3) Days of Darkness: The Feuds of Eastern Kentucky - John Ed Pearce FINISHED
4) Ancient Animosity: The Appin Murder and the End of Scottish Rebellion - Lee Holcolme
5) Great Feuds in Science: Ten of the Liveliest Disputes Ever - Hal Hellman FINISHED
6) Broken April by Ismail Kadare - FINISHED

Category 12 - BOMBS and Boomerangs 6/6 selected reduced to 3 books 2/3 read

BOMBS (books of my bookshelf - that I have owned for at least two years without reading and can't be fit into another category)

1) The Cat's Table - Michael Ondaatjee (Scotiabank Giller Prize CAT)
2) The Return of Little Big Man by Thomas Berger
3) The Power of Babel by John McWhorter

Boomerangs (books I have read before but want to return to

4) Sherlock Holmes's War of the Worlds by Manly Wade Wellman
5) Seven Little Australians - Ethel Turner FINISHED
6) The Sands of Windee by Arthur Upfield FINISHED

Category 13 - Potpourri (books that don't fit into other categories)
including Group reads and AWARD books that don't fit into other categories NO SET NUMBER - 5 read

1) Swamplandia by Karen Russell (group read) (Orange Longlist - Award CAT) - FINISHED
2) In Other Rooms, Other Wonders - Daniyal Mueenuddin (The Pulitzer Prize - Awards CAT)
3) In The Shadow of Wounded Knee - Roger Di Silvestro (group read) FINISHED
4) Last Stand: George Bird Grinnell, the Battle to Save the Buffalo, and the Birth of the New West - Michael Punke (National Outdoor Book Award CAT)
5) "The Devils of Amber Street" by Paul Starkey FINISHED
6) The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark by Carl Sagan FINISHED
7) Seven Touches of Music by Zoran Zivkovic FINISHED
8) On the Origin of Species by Charles Darwin FINSIHED

My first book read this year was Dr wooreddy's Prescription for Enduring the Ending of the World by Mudrooroo (Colin Johnson).

This historical novel tells the story of the devastating impact British colonisation had on the Tasmanian Aboriginals. The story centers on Wooreddy and his wife Trugernanner (Truganini) who are members of a Bruny Island tribe (Bruny Island is located off the south-east Tasmanian mainland).

Wooreddy sees his people fall to disease, murder, kidnapping and near extinction. I thought this was a very moving story and I especially like the depictions of the culture of the First Tasmanians. 4.5/5

I am now reading Tall Blondes" A Book about Giraffes by Lynn Sherr.

Leaving a comment on this thread so that I don't miss out!

I'm interested in what you have to say about Tall Blondes. That sounds interesting. Giraffes are fascinating creatures.

I haven't read much of it yet because yesterday was the hottest day ever in Hobart - 41.8C (107F) and I don't have air conditioning and the heat totally exhausted me. Bushfires were burning around the state and I kept checking up on news reports etc to see what was happening.

I will try to get into the book today and hopefully finish it tomorrow.

Oh my! With temperatures like that, it would indeed be difficult to concentrate on reading. Stay safe and keep cool!

That sounds awful. I've never been exposed to temperatures that high and don't think I'd fare well in it. I like heat but unfortunately my body doesn't handle it very well (I often get heatstrokes during hot summers).

Hope it cools down so you can focus on your reading.

It is a lot cooler today (22C at the moment, it is 2pm). The cooler conditions have helped the fire flighters. The fires have destroyed more than 100 homes. The two people I knew who lived in the region affected by the fires are safe.

Checking in - glad to see that the temps have dropped somewhat. Here is hoping the weather continues to assist the fire fighters.

I have just finished Tall Blondes: A Book about Giraffes by Lynn Sherr.

Much of this book was about Mankind's opinions about and interaction with giraffes more than the giraffes themselves. Sherr does this mainly by just reprinting what other people have said about giraffes in letters, newspaper articles and other documents and at times the book is a little repetitive. It also covered the topics of giraffes in art and literature.

There chapters I enjoyed the most were "Famous Giraffes in History", "Tall Tales" and the "Urban Giraffe". The chapter "Hunting the Giraffe" upset me. 3.5/5

I haven't decided what to read next.

23 - Much of this book was about Mankind's opinions about and interaction with giraffes more than the giraffes themselves.

Too bad. This book would be more tempting if it had equal amounts of both.

I think I will buy the Reaktion book Giraffe and see if it is more to my likely. I already have Reaktion's Hyena and Moose though I haven't read either yet (I will be reading Hyena next month).

I have ordered the DVD of Tall Blondes. Maybe I will like it more than the book.

Just finished Miss Zukas and the Library Murders by Jo Dereske.

I couldn't warm to Miss Zukas at all. I found her an annoying character. I doubt I will read any more in this series. 2.5/5

The best thing about this book is it fits two of my categories and the ALPHA cat as well.

Thanks for taking a bullet for us. Annoying characters certainly can ruin a good read.

I love Miss Zukas. She's pretty close to the stereotypical librarian in many ways, and I find her Lithuanian ancestry interesting.

It might because I don't particularly like the stereotype. I was a library technician and I can't say I knew any librarians/lib techs who fitted the stereotype.

I don't know many who fit the stereotype either, and as a librarian, I wasn't offended by the stereotype. I guess I like the idea of a librarian sleuth better than most though!

I have finished reading Sum: Forty Tales from the Afterlives by David Eagleman 4/5

Intriguing vignettes of possible afterlives. Many of these afterlives were quite interesting but not many were afterlives I would like to endure. I think I would find immortality of any sort unbearable.

I have Sum on the wishlist - very nice to see such a high rating! I'll pass on immortality too, I think. :)

Thanks for visiting me! I'll be very interested in your reads in books about books, SF/Fantasy, and animals categories. It looks like we might share a couple reads over the year.

Loved Sum!! One of the most interesting afterlifes was the one where you relived your life but with like things grouped together. Also liked the one where your soul stayed around as long as people mentioned you.

Finished reading Swamplandia by Karen Russell. It is added to my Potpourri category.

A bit too slow moving for me to enjoy as much as a wanted to. 3/5.

also a fan of sum, he did a great TED talk too http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LENqnjZGX0A

Just finished read Untouchable by Mulk Raj Anand. Added to 1001 Books category.

It is a short novel (162 pages) that relates one day in the life of Bakhi, a young Untouchable, and the injustices that he has to endure because of his lowly status. 4/5

Finished reading

Abandon: Love and Communism in Central Asia - David Gallagher (available as paperback and on the Kindle) (no touchstone)

Short novel set in Kyrgyzstan during the transistion from communism to democracy. The author spent two years as a Peace Corps volunteer teaching English in small villages in this country.

The novel is about a boy called Tashtan and a girl called Kerez. Both were abandoned as babies. Tashtan was adopted into a poor family, Kerez into a rich one. They are drawn together because they were both foundlings but Kerez's father is against any relationship between the two because he wants a good brideprice for his daughter.

I knew little about life in Kyrgyzstan. Most of the year Tashtan lives in a yurt looking after his family's flocks (helping his uncles, aunt and grandparents). Winter is spent in the family house in the village which is kept by his mother. The novel mentions different crafts, food dishes etc that are found in Kyrgyzstan. I am giving the book 4/5 but .5 of that is for the novelty factor of it being set in a land I knew next to nothing about.

added Ned Wynkoop and the Lonely Road from Sand Creek by Lois Kraft to my Biographies category.

Ned Wynkoop was an army officer, and later an Indian agent, who desparately tried to get the army and the government to take a more humanitarian stand towards the Plains Indians. A courageous and compassionate man who suffered dearly because of the stand he took. 4.5/5

added The Library by Zoran Zivkovic to my "Books about Books" and to my Sci-fi/Fantasy categories.

6 excellent short stories which all have a book and a supernatural theme. Winner of the 2003 World Fantasy Award. 4.5/5

This author is new to me and I love the book so much that I have ordered another of his book (one with a musical theme)

added The Spanish Helmet by Greg Scowen to my 42 Degrees South category. The action in this novel takes part on both the North and South Island of New Zealand.

The novel is based on the 'Spanish" helmet that was dredge from Wellington Harbour sometime before 1904. This helmet is currently on display at the Te Papa Museum. Its is a 16th century helmet but how it got to New Zealand is uncertain. Some people believe that is proof that the Spanish reach New Zealand at an earlier date that Abel Tasman.

In this novel, two stories are interwoven. The first is a story of an archeologist/historian searching for the origins of the helmet, the second is the story of the voyage of the Spanish ship San Lesmes that was lost in the Pacific, never to be seen again.

The writing is a bit clunky but over-all an enjoyable, interesting read. 4/5.

Finished Broken April by Ismail Kadare. It fits both into my 42 degrees North and Feud categories.

Set in Albania before WW2, it tells the story of Gjorg, a young man is forced to kill his brother's killer because he lives in a region which is governed by the Code of Kanun (traditional Albanian law). Under the Code, Gjorg is allowed a month of grace before his victim's family are allowed to kill him. The story tells how Gjorg spends that month. 4/5.

Just finished House of Evidence by Viktor Arnar Ingolfsson. This novel fits into both my Icelandic and Mysteries category.

I enjoyed this book. It is a police procedural set in 1973 but events from 1910 to 1945 are also covered by diary excerpts. 4/5.

I have finshed Newton and the Counterfeiter By Thomas Levenson.

I found the first third of the book a little tedious because what it covered I had read in previous bios of Newton. Once it got into recounting the years he was Warder of the Mint, and delving into lifeand skills of Chalenor (the counterfeiter) it became more interesting. 3.5/5.

Added The Donnellys Must Die to my books that have been finished in my Feuds, and to my 42 Degrees North categories.

Tells of a longstanding feud that took place in Biddulph, Ontario during the the 19th century and which the most horrific event was the massacre one evening of 5 members of the Donnelly family. Chapter one of the book starts with the murders and then returns to look up what led to them and then looks at the trials and aftermath.

The author seems to be slightly biased in favour of the Donnellys though he does admit that at some of the Donnellys boys did cause significant amounts of trouble. The authors seems to be trying to correct past accounts that showed the Connelly in far worse light than the author believed they deserved. 3.5/5

edited to add - I dowmloaded this as a Kindle book but it doesn't seem to be available any more (at least not to Australians).

added The Killer’s Tears by Anne-Laure Bondoux to my 42 Degrees South category.

It is a young adult novel set in Patagonia. It tells the story of Paolo who lives on a very isolated farm with his parents. One day a stranger, Angel, arrives and murders both of Paolo's parents but cannot bring himself to kill a child and he decides to care for the child.

The only problem I have with this book is understanding the child's behaviour at times. However I have tried to rationalise this by saying a) even the child doesn't know his real age b) we do not know much about his relationship with his parents c) he is traumatised by events. 4/5.

Finished reading The Shadow Walker by Michael Walters which belogs in both my Mysteries and 42 Degrees North categories.

A series of gruesome murders occur in Ulan Bataar, the capital of Mongolia. When one of the victims turns out to be a British citizen the Mongolian authorities decide, more for reasons of courtesy, to ask for the help of a British police detective.

I did like the descrptions of Mongolia, and I also liked both of the Mongolian policemen. What I didn't like is that the Western characters got more time in the book than the Mongolians did. 3/5.

Just finished reading Miss Tamara, the Reader by Zoran Zivkovic. which I have put in my Books about Books category. I have decided not to put it into my Sci-fi/Fantasy category because it is less 'fantastical' than "The Library" by the same author.

I didn't like this as much as "The Library". I found Miss Tamara to be impatienert and grouchy at least until I got to know her better. I enjoyed the latter stories the most. 3.5/5

Have finished reading No One Writes to the Colonel and other stories by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. Added to books that have been finished in my 1001 Books category. 4.5.

I hadn't read anythin by García Marquez before but after reading these short stories I will try to read one of his novels later in the year, it will probably be a choice between "One Hundred Years of Solitude" or "Love in the Time of Cholera".

Those are two very different reads, but both wonderful in their own ways! If you want something more firmly in the realm of the strange, and his so well known version of magical realism, go with One Hundred Years of Solitude. But, if you want something Slightly more traditional, go with Love in the Time of Cholera...one of my most favorite books, I have to admit.

Added The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle to my mystery category.

This is the first audio book I have listened to all the way through. Because I do have a slight hearing problem I thought I would select a book that I had in written form as well so that if I had trouble understanding something that was said I could read the written version. I found that the woman reading it spoke quite clearly and I only had to resort to reading once in a while. I found listening to q book quite relaxing.

Added The Woman Who Wouldn't Die by Colin Cotterill to my Mysteries catagory.

9th and newest Dr Siri adventure. Another delightful romp through 1970s Laos with the eccentric old coroner (recently retired) and his quirky friends. 4.5/5.

Right, I clearly need to get back to Dr. Siri asap! He's so much fun.

Finished Lost Classics: Writers on Books Loved and Lost, Overlooked, Under-read, Unavailable, Stolen, Extinct, or Otherwise Out of Commission edited by Michael Ondaatje to my Books about Books.

Contains short essays by some of the world's best writers about books which inspired them but which the writers claim are either no longer available or else hard to get.

This book was published in 2000 and it would seem that since then many of these books, thanks to online bookstores and e-books have become easier to find than they once were. I was able to located at least 90% of the books, most of them for under about $20 and some either cheap or free aat the Kindle store.

Next year I plan to read at least 6 of the books listed in this book. This will include The Tenants of Moonbloom, Bringing Tony Home and The Greenlanders.

While I was reading this I did something I don't normally do - I wrote notes in it, details of where a book could be located and whether I thought I would like to read it.

added "The Devils of Amber Street" by Paul Starkey to my Potpourri category. 3.5/5

This is a 99c Kindle book that the author has self-published. The author is a member of a message board I belong to and that is why I downloaded the book.

The book consists of a novella and 3 short stories. When I started reading the novella I thought it was going to be an possessed house story, a subgenre I don't really like, but it actually took off in a different direction.

Of the three short stories I like The Bonaventure the most. It was an Elizabethan mystery.

Added Twice in a Lifetime by Agust Borgor Sverrisson to my Icelandic category.

A collection of short stories, all set in Iceland. I felt that the stories could have been set in almost any European country, this book didn't really have that Icelandic flavour that I enjoy. 3/5.

added I Remember You by Yrsa Sigurdardottir to my Icelandic category.

Two young boys go missing more than 50 years apart. Are their disappearances connected in any way?

I didn't list this novel in my mystery category as it is more of a ghost story though there is certainly a mystery to be solved. 4/5.

I've only read Sigurðardóttir's books about Thóra Gudmundsdóttir, but I like them well enough to put this one on the wishlist. Sounds creepy, though. :)

Just finished Rickshaw Boy by Lao She for my "1001 Books You must Read Before You Die" category.

It is the story of Xiangzi, a poor man who believes that he can better himself if he saves up enough money to buy his own rickshaw. 4/5

Added The Anteater of Death: A Zoo Mystery by Betty Webb to my Mystery Category.

An enjoyable cozy mystery. Zookeeper Theodora (Teddy) Bentley decides to do her own investigation when a man is found dead at the zoo. a fun read and I hope, that eventually, I will get around to reading the other two books in this series.

A favourite character was Lucy the Giant Anteater. 3.5/5

Finished The Ghost Map: The Story of London's Most Terrifying Epidemic-and How it Changed Science, Cities and the Modern World by Steven Johnson in my Sickness, Death and ??? category.

THis book is about the cholera outbreak of 1854 and Dr John Snow's investigation of what caused it. I found this book interesting, informative and well researched. 4/5.

Finished The Latehomecomer; A Hmong Family Memoir by Kao Kalia Yang which fits into by biography category.

This warm, and beautiful story is about an extended familiy's flight from war-torn Laos, into the refugee camps of Thailand (where the author was born and spent the first few years of her life), to their arrival in America and the problems they had settling into a country so different from their own.

I love that the author explained so much about Hmong culture and also that she was able to convey the great love and respect she felt for her family especially for her grandmother. 4.5/5.

My internet was down for a couple of days so I was able to get through 2 books rather quickly. they were

Freycinet by Melanie Calvert. Murder mystery set on the east coast of Tasmania. I din't like the first few chapters of this book probably because I didn't like the way Tasmania was being portrayed but then I realised that this was only the opinion of the main character (the book is written in the first person). As the book progressed i enjoyed it more. 3.5/5.

Unpacking My Library: Writers and Their Books - Leah Price (editor). This book looks of the collections of the following writers

Alison Bechdel, Stephen Carter, Junot Diaz, Rebecca Goldstein and Steven Pinker, Lev Grossman and Sophie Gee, Jonathan Lethem, Claire Messus and James Wood, Philip Pullman, Gary Shteyngart, Edmund White.

The writers answer questions about their collections, and pick their 10 favourite books. About half the book is photos of the writers' bookshelves. 3.5/5

Added Banished: Surviving my Years in the Westboro Baptist Church by Lauren Drain.

Moving autobiography about the seven years Lauren spent in this cult.

Most people know who the WBC are - they are the hate-filled group that picket funerals with signs declaring "God Hates Fags", "God Hates America" "God Hates Dead Soldiers" etc.

Lauren was only 14 when her father decided to make a documentary about the WBC. However while making the film he started to convert to their way of thinking and before long he moved his family to Kansas to join the cult. For the next seven years Lauren was brainwashed by the cult and finally at the age of 21, when she had started to question the meanings of certain passasges in the Bible as well as exhibiting other quite normal behaviour which was seen as 'immoral' by the Church she was banished from the Church and from her family. 4/5.

That sounds really interesting - it's so hard to imagine how someone can be breainwashed like that but obviously it happens. It's sad really.

Last night I finsihed reading A Corpse in the Koryo by James Church which fits into my Mystery category and my 42 Degrees North category.

It is a murder mystery set in in North Korea. It is claimed that the author is a former US intelligence officer with expert knowledge of Asia inluding North Korea. Because he can't publish under his real name he has to use a pseudonym.

I really like the detective, Inspector O. He is rebellious by nature but under such a repressive regime he can only rebel in little ways.

I like the setting and the fact that it portrays most North Koreans as ordinary people having to cope with a brutal regime.

I found the actual mystery a little ordinary and the weakest element of the novel. However I will be reading further Inspector ) books. 3.5/5.

Added East of the West: A Country in Stories by Miroslav Penkov to my finished books in my Penkov. The majority of these stories are set in Bulgaria but the last story is about a Bulgarian immigrant living in the USA. 4/5.

Added Great Feuds in Science to my Feud category. This book was an easy, enjoyable read though I knew many facts about most of the disputes from other reads. It might have been better if I had read one of the other books in the series (maybe Great Feuds in Technology which is an area I have knowledge of so far). 3.5/5

Finished reading Daybreak by Viktor Arnar Ingolfsson. Added it to my Icelandic and Mystery categories.

Third, and best book, I have read by this author. I really like detective Birkir and I hope that this might be the first book in a series. 4/5.

I have read three more books since I last posted -

Someone to Watch Over Me by Yrsa Sigurdardottir. Added to my Mystery and Icelandic catagories. Years have past since a young Down's Syndrome man was found to be responsible for a fire that killed 5 people but lawyer Thóra Gudmundsdóttir is hired to prove that he was innocent. 4/5.

The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark by Carl Sagan 4/5

Magnitude 7.1 and 6.3: The People of Christchurch, Cantebury and Beyond Tell Their Stories by Debbie Roome. I found the stories told by the children the most interesting. 3/5.

I have added The Cleaner by Paul Cleave to both my 42 Degree South and my Mystery categories.

The Christchurch Carver is a serial killer who has been credited with 7 murders but Joe know that the Carver didn't commit one of these murder because Joe is the Carver. He decides to investigates to see who the copycat killer really is. This is quite a violent novel, maybe not for the faint of heart. 3.5/5

I have removed Eva's Eye by Karin Fossum from my mystery list. I have found out that it is the same novel as "In the Darkness" which I read last year.

I have finished two more books.

The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga. Added to my 1001 Books category. Excellent novel that tells what it is like to be poor servant in India and how their lives compare to that of their employers. 4.5/5.

The Man in the High Castle by Philip K Dick. Added to my Science Fiction category. I really want to like this novel as I have read many of PKD's works before and enjoyed them. However I last PKD in the 1990s so maybe my tastes have changed this then as I didn't enjoy this book. The premise was interesting and I found the concept of the alternative history novel (The Grasshopper Lies Heavy) within this alternative history novel to be interesting but overall I found the novel and its characters boring. 2.5/5.

added A Fado for the River by Geoffrey Wells to my 42 Degrees North category as some of this book is set in Portugal.

Book description from Amazon -

At a film festival in Portugal an American TV executive is accused of murdering a young woman in 1974 while on vacation in Mozambique. He cannot prove his innocence because he helped her fake her death. Pursued by the three warring factions in the colony, they fled the country, but they never meant to lose track of each other. Now, years later, here in Lisbon, the nostalgic shadow songs of the Fado, the traditional songs of Portugal, haunt his memory of their love and he decides to investigate her past.

I liked the part of the book set in Mozambique the most. 3/5.

Finished

Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Book Store by Robin Sloan to my Books About Books category.

Once I got over what I considered a rather blatant product placement (i.e. Google) I started to really enjoy this book 4/5.

Past the Shallows by Favel Parrett. A novel about three brothers and their abusive father. Set in Tasmania in the 1980s. I really enjoyed this book especially as I know the setting so well - we used to go down to this part of Tasmania during the holidays when I was younger. This is the author's first novel and she has done a very good job of capturing the ruggedness of the setting. I had some minor problems with how she describe the weather as this novel was set in February which is summertime here and I think she made it a lot cooler than it is. 4.5/5.

Getting caught up with all the reading you have been doing. I have never heard of the Great Feuds series and it sounds like something that I would find interesting reading. The White Tiger sits on my TBR bookcase and one I really need to read at some point. I did have a good chuckle at your comment about Mr. Penumbra's.... you either have to love Google or are able, like you said, to get over the product placement and just enjoy the story build around it.

Added The Library: An Illustrated History By Stuart AP Murray to my Books about Books . 3/5. Not as good a book as I hoped for. It was too repentitive and jumped all over the place at times.

Added In Our Hearts We Were Giants to my Biography category.

This book tells the story of the Ovitz family. Of the 10 children in the family 7 were dwarfs. In 1944, most of the members of the family were sent to Auschwitz where the escaped the gas chambers after coming to the attention of Dr Josef Mengele who decided to keep all members of the family alive so that he coudl experiment on them. Members of 2 other unrelated families from their village were passed off as cousins in order to keep them alive. Heart-warming story of a loving and close-knit family. 4.5/5.

Added Gathering Blue by Lois Lowry to my Scifi/Fantasy category. Easy, enjoyable read. 4/5.

Added A Long Way Home by Saroo Brierley to my 42 Degrees South (Tasmania) and my Biography categories. At the moment I think this is only available as an e-book but I know a paperback version is to be released and there is talk of a movie being made.

Saroo Brierley was born into a very poor family in India. One day, when he was about 5 years old, he went with his older brother to try and make some money at the train station. He fell asleep on the platform. When he awoke he couldn't see his brother but saw a train nearby. Thinking his brother might be sweeping the train he went aboard still half asleep. He fell asleep on the train and when he awoke this time he found that he was locked in the carriage and it was hurtling away from his home. He ended up in Kolkata, hundreds of miles away.

After a few weeks he was placed in an orphanage but because of his age he couldn't give enough details of his family for them to be found. He was put up for adoption and was adopted by a Tasmanian couple.

Years later,while working for the family business he decided to look for his Indian family. He had memories of the train station for where he started, a couple of ideas what the placename might be, so he started using Google Earth to try and locate the station. It was to be a very long search. Very moving story 4/5.

Added The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie by Alan Bradley to my Mysteries category. 3.5/5. I quite liked Flavia De Luce, the bright 11 year old who decides to investigates a murder.

Added Days of Darkness: The Feuds of Eastern Kentucky by John Ed Pearce to my Feuds category. Interesting book but I found the sheer amount of people mentioned to be slightly confusing. 3.5/5.

I've enjoyed all of Flavia's books. Will you be continuing with the series?

I have bought the second book in the series, I am not sure when I will get around to reading it as my TBR pile is rather large.

All the Flavia De Luce books are good. I hope you get a chance to continue with the series.

I'm another one who enjoys the Flavia-books - they are, as mentioned above, all good.

Added I can See in the Dark by Karin Fossum to my mystery category. Once again Karin has created an very interesting character, this time it is Riktor. 4/5.

Added Bay of Fires by Poppy Gee to my 42 Degrees South category and also to my mystery category. I hated this novel. I didn't like a single character. I thought the story was boring, repetitive and in some areas inaccurate. 1.5/5.

Because of illness I have fallen way behind in this challenge. Therefore I have dropped the rest of the 1001 bookcategory and also halved three of my smaller categories. This means about 18 less books and makes my challenge doable.

Sorry to learn you have been ill. I hope you are feeling much better.

Sorry to hear about your illness - hope you're feeling better!

added Strange Shores by Arnaldur Indridason to my Iceland catagory. It could have also fitted into my mystery category but that one is already finished.

9th and, in my opinion, the best book in the Reykjavik Murder series. Inspector Erlendur, who was absent from the last two books, returns in this one. He has returned to his boyhood home and starts to unofficially investigate the years-old disappearance of a woman while at the same time confronting the most tragic event of his childhood. 5/5.

Ooh, really looking forward to Strange Shores! Still have to read Black Skies though.

I should add this is the 9th book in the series that has been translated into English. The first two books in the series (Sons of Dust and Silent Kill) have never been translated. I wish they would be. If they ever are I will start with them and read the whole series again.

added The Quiet Earth to my Scifi/Fantasy category.

This is a book I have wanted to read since I saw the movie that was based on the novel. Luckily the book was republished last month for the first time since 1986. I have been trying to get a copy for years but second-hand copies were so sought after that they were seilling for between $400 and $2000 a copy. I really enjoyed though it was quite different from the movie. 4/5.

Adding Seven Touches of Music by Zoran Zivkovic to my Potpourri category.

Another wonderful collection of short stories by Zivkovic. 4/5.

added The Satin Man by Alan Whiticker.

The author presents a new suspect in the decades-long mystery of what happened to the three Beaumont children who disappeared from a South Australian beach in 1966. In the 47 years since their disappearance no trace has ever been found of Jane ( aged 9) , Arnna (7) and Grant (4).

I just finished reading Hyena by Mikita Brottman and have added it to my animal category.

A fascinating look at hyenas, a book packed with information about a misunderstood animal 4/5.

Added Time Gifts by Zoran Zivkovic to my Potpourri category.

I really love this author. This is the 4th book by him I have read this year. This time it deals with the nature of time. Only 4 short stories, the last story brings the previous three together.

I just finished reading The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle. I have added it to my Mystery Category even though I have already finished that category.

Just finished The Return of Sherlock Holmes. My Mystery Category will probably be well and truly overflowing by the end of the year. No matter how much I mean to read more of other genres I can't keep away from mysteries.

Mysteries are pretty addictive! One of these days I will finish reading the Sherlock Holmes canon...

Added The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman to my Scifi/Fantasy category. I thought this was a marvelous read. I wish I could forget and read it all over again. 4.5/5

Added His Last Bow by Arthur Conan Doyle to my Mystery Category. My least favourite Sherlock Holmes short story collection.

>98 Zozette: I wish I could forget and read it all over again. When you're my age this is frequently possible!

I sometimes forget who did the murder in a mystery novel I have read before but on the whole I remember most details of a book I love.

Added Dewey, the Library Cat to my Books about Books category and also to my Animal category. I am a cat lover so I enjoyed this book, at times it bought tears to my eyes.

Added The Professor and the Madman (The Surgeon of Crowthorne) by Simon Winchester to my Books about Books category and the Biography Category.

The biography of the Oxford English Dictionary editor James Murray and of Dr William Chester Minor, the criminally insane American physician who contributed tens of thousands of quotations to the Dictionary. 4/5.

added Fragile Things by Neil Gaiman to my Fantasy/Sci-fi category.

I really loved a few of the stories (A Study in Emerald, October in the Chair and a some others) but there were other stories I didn't like much at all. 3.5/.

I also got a copy of Quiet Earth, I loved the movie. I haven't read the book yet but really love that Text Publishing also include NZ writers in this imprint. I didn't realise that the used copies were going for so much.

added The Casebook of Sherlock Holmes to my Mysteries category. I have now read all of the Sherlock Holmes canon.

->104 Zozette:
That's quite an achievement - congrats!!

I am giving a presentation today about how books can be found in different formats. It's astounding how many iterations of Sherlock there are! On TV there are the series with Jeremy Brett (the best), Benedict Cumberbatch (the coolest), and that other one, movies with Robert Downing Jr., book series with young SH, SH's sister, SH's protege, graphic novels, etc.

There's a series with Sherlock's sister? Interesting.

#106 Sherlock is said to be portrayed literary human character in movie and TV which is quite believable.

#107 The Enola Holmes Mysteries by Nancy Springer. A young adult series. Enola is 14 years old. This series is on my very, long list of Sherlock patishes that I hope to read one day.

>107 rabbitprincess: It's written for middle school level readers but they are cute nonetheless.

Added Seven Little Australians to my Bombs and Boomerang category.

This book was a boomerang. I had previously read it back in 1973 when I was 15 years old. I had watched the excellent Australian mini-series which had followed the book very closely. I loved the mini-series so much that I bought the book after saving my allowance for two or three weeks. After reading it I received request from girls in class to borrow it and I think it ended up never being returned to me.

Last year I was pleased to find the DVD of the mini-series on Amazon. I purchased it immediately but when it arrived I was quite upset to discover that the US version of the mini-series had left off the last two episodes. I imagine this was done to have the series end at a good feel moment rather than include the tragic events of the last two episodes (and the last three chapters of the book).

Seven Little Australians was first published in 1894 and in 1994 it became the first novel by an Australian born author to be in continuous print for 100 years. 4.5/5

edited to add - it is, of course, in the public domain, so is available free both as an ebook and an audio book.

I just download a free version of Seven Little Australians, thanks for bringing this one to my attention.

added Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman to my Scifi/Fantasy category. This is my third Gaiman book this year and I really enjoyed it especially because I listened to it as an audio book and Lenny Henry reading of the novel was excellent 4/5.

I have Anansi Boys on Mt. TBR, but Lenny Henry as a reader will most likely make me pick it up on audio as well - thanks for that heads-up!

Added On the Origin of Species by Charles Darwin to my Potpourri category. It was about time I finally got around to reading it. Great book but a bit repetitive (maybe that was down to the era he wrote in?) 4/5.

Added The Well of Lost Plots by Jasper Fforde to my Books about Books category. I didn't like it as much as the two previous novels in the series. 3.5/5.

added The Sands of Windee by Arthur Upfield to my Mysteries category, and to my Bombs and Boomerangs category (as a boomerang as it is a book I have read before).

I hadn't read this book for at least 30 to 35 years. It is the second in the Detective Inspector Napoleon Bonaparte series. Bony is half-aboiginal, half-white detective.

When I first read these books all those years ago I didn't really notice how un-PC they are but read through today's eyes the racism in them can be clearly noticed. This is very unfortunate as Bony is one of literature's great detectives equal to the likes of Poirot.

The 29 Bony books were written between 1929 and the mid-1960s and show the attitudes towards aboriginals that existed at the time. As a result I find them hard to rate. They are well written, the mysteries within are interesting and well though out, but I am very uncomfortable with the racist overtones.

Added The Library Book to my Book About Books category. A collection of library theme essays and writings by various authors including China Miéville (from Un Lun Dun), Stephen Fry, Karin Slaughter, Zadie Smith and Anne Cleeves. 3.5/5

added In the Shadow of Wounded Knee by Roger Di Silvestro to my Potpourri category.

Interesting story about the trial of a Lakota man, Plenty Horses, who was tried for murder for killing an army officer shortly after the Massacre at Wounded Knee. 4/5.

added Cemetery Lake by Paul Cleave to my 42 Degrees South and my Mysteries categories.

Murder mystery set in Christchurch, New Zealand 4/5

Added Burial Rites by Hannah Kent to my Iceland category.

Beautifully written novel about Agnes Magnusdottir, the last person to be executed in Iceland. 5/5

Burial Rites is on my TBR list. It sounds really good! Glad to hear you liked it.

Added The Book Thief by Markus Zusak to by Books about Books category.

The best book I have read this year 5/5

I am thrilled you loved TBT. I hope you have a chance to see the movie, too!