FlossieT's 75 for 2008

Having joined the 50 Book Challenge group a few months back, I didn't get around to posting my list until today - and discovered once I counted them that I needed a new challenge... so 75 is a good start! Here's where I'm up to in 2008.

1. The Uncommon Reader - Alan Bennett

2. Suite Francaise - Irene Nemirovsky (although strictly speaking only finished this year)

3. Mirrorscape - Mike Wilks

4. A Tale Etched in Blood and Hard Black Pencil - Christopher Brookmyre

5. Wizard's First Rule - Terry Goodkind

6. A Swift Pure Cry - Siobhan Dowd

7. The Poisonwood Bible - Barbara Kingsolver

8. Mapp and Lucia - EF Benson

9. The Broken Places - Susan Perabo

10. The Good Life - Jay McInerney

11. Then We Came To The End - Joshua Ferris

12. The Testament of Gideon Mack - James Robertson

13. This Book Will Save Your Life - AM Homes

14. Conrad's Fate - Diana Wynne Jones

15. Holes - Louis Sachar

16. Master Georgie - Beryl Bainbridge

17. Arlington Park - Rachel Cusk

18. On Cape Three Points - Christopher Wakling

19. What Are You Like? - Anne Enright

20. The Boy In The Striped Pyjamas - John Boyne

21. The Devil Wears Prada - Lauren Weisberger

22. Christine Falls - Benjamin Black

23. Sharp Objects - Gillian Flynn

24. Case Histories - Kate Atkinson

25. The Stone Diaries - Carol Shields

26. The Minotaur Takes a Cigarette Break - Steven Sherrill

27. Paris to the Moon - Adam Gopnik

28. Death Message - Mark Billingham

29. Self-Help - Lorrie Moore

30. Being Emily - Anne Donovan

31. Set Up, Joke, Set Up, Joke - Rob Long

32. The Book of Lost Things - John Connolly

33. This is the Day - Daniel Blythe

34. In the Fold - Rachel Cusk

35. The British Museum is Falling Down - David Lodge

36. How Far Can You Go? - David Lodge

37. Changing Places - David Lodge

38. Little Earthquakes - Jennifer Weiner

39. Birds of America - Lorrie Moore

40. The Mathematics of Love - Emma Darwin

41. The Stones of Florence - Mary McCarthy

42. Brunelleschi's Dome - Ross King

43. The Observations - Jane Harris

44. A Rich Full Death - Michael Dibdin

45. Before I Die - Jenny Downham

46. Steal You Away - Niccolo Ammaniti

47. The Rain Before it Falls - Jonathan Coe

48. The Medici Seal - Theresa Breslin

49. The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket - Edgar Allen Poe

50. Fall on your Knees – Anne-Marie MacDonald

51. A Special Relationship - Douglas Kennedy

52. The Landscape of Love - Sally Beauman

53. Nevermore - Linda Newbery

54. Morality Tale - Sylvia Brownrigg

55. Man in the Dark - Paul Auster

56. The Secret Scripture - Sebastian Barry

Welcome!

What did you think of The Boy In The Striped Pyjamas? It looks interesting.

Hi there - I was a bit disappointed TBH.

It relies for a lot of its power on the gap between the perception of its narrator and our understanding of what is going on. I'm not sure it would be possible to really engage with it without also knowing some of the historical background, but the language and premise were a bit simplistic for adult readers.

So I guess the ideal reader would be an older child who had done a WWII topic with an emphasis on the Holocaust.

Hm... It's also on my list of TBR. I think I'll still try to read it, maybe just not as a 1st priority.

welcome to the 75 books challenge :-)

I read Holes by Louis Sachar this year too and loved it. What did you think of it?

Oh, I did enjoy that - it was a fun read. Cracking plot. I did find the habit of writing in very. short. sentences. all the time. a bit annoying. I think it's probably a great book to give to boys who think they don't like reading!

I did read it in Dutch translation and I did not notice the use of short sentences. It was`one of the two new books this year I immediatly re-red, because I did not want to put it away ;-)

Holidays mean time for reading! Though not as much as I would have liked...

57. The Clothes on Their Backs

58. A Case of Exploding Mangoes

59. The Nanny Diaries (I know, I know... but I really needed to read trash!)

I don't think that No 59 is the lowest level of trashy lit. It's not a masterpiece, but it's quite ok for this kind of lit. At least that's my private opinion after reading it ;)

And I always have some "light" lit around me - just to balance reading :D

It was kind of fun - The Devil Wears Prada for the mummy set. I just don't quite gel with the privileged-New-Yorker genre - also didn't especially enjoy Jay McInerney's The Good Life. I can read it, but I have to read it fast and I always feel a little bit queasy afterwards, as if I've eaten a whole box of chocs in a single sitting....

60. The Position - Meg Wolitzer

61. From A to X - John Berger

I'm insanely persisting with Booker longlist reading even though I have only managed 4 and the shortlist announcement is on Tuesday... The White Tiger is up next.

Hey Flossie, welcome to the group :)

What was your take on The devil wears Prada? I saw the movie and found it amusing after watching it many times. On the first few viewings, I could not understand what everyone was going on about(I still don't) but I learnt to be amused over time. I just found the idea that a college educated , half way savy person would join the workforce with such an unprepared attitude. How does one apply to one of the most pretigous fashion magazines in the world and then be so unprepared in their mindset and dress code? I really don't mean to suck the fun out of the movie but the originating premise just did not hold true for me. But I wonder if the book was different in the way it presents that idea.

Welcome to the group. You will find us to be a well read, friendly bunch.

Your list is a very interesting one.

Hello Trish and Whisper - thanks for the welcome :-)

It is a rather odd list.... I was really surprised at how many YA/kids books seem to be on there when I typed it all up. I don't think of that as forming a major part of my reading but it obviously has this year. I have a 9YO who is really beginning to get into reading so I find I often read the children's book reviews and note down stuff that seems interesting.

I'm really looking forward to browsing other people's lists and seeing what people are reading.

The Devil Wears Prada - I actually thought this was quite well written, if somewhat preposterous.

I can't remember quite how, but the author did convince me that it was plausible for this character to hang out in this utterly, utterly awful job: she set the scene quite well for the lead character, made a reasonable case for her getting hired and then sticking with it as long as she did. It was a fun read.

I still haven't seen the film, actually - have been given a copy on DVD but I find it really hard to find time to watch TV/films. Useful as a background activity for folding laundry to!

Welcome, FlossieT, nice set of books you've got there:-)

This is the first year I've kept a book log with comments. It's been very interesting. This group has really helped me log all my reading (ok, I don't include magazines and the backs of cereal boxes)and encouraged me to add comments (I don't like to call them reviews, that's not what I aim for).

Thanks, avaland :) As I say, it's quite a peculiar set of books... dominated at the moment by Booker longlist (it does now, amazingly, seem it might be possible that I might get more than halfway through the Booker dozen before Tuesday!).

Am going to try adding a few comments from now on.

62. Falling Man - Don DeLillo

I thought this was amazing - really powerful, and saying so much about the impact of 9/11. I thought the terrorist sections were a little formulaic though, but it was a minor thing really. His use of pronouns is really impressive: so perfectly mimetic of the emotional dislocation experienced by the characters.

Having tried and failed miserably to read Underworld a few years back, I'm inclined to give DeLillo a second chance after this.

63. The Lost Dog - Michelle de Kretser

Another fantastic book, poorly served IMHO by its publishers (at least they had the wit to send it to the Booker panel). The jacket design is horrible, the title is stupid, the premise as summarised in the copy blurb seems contrived and artificial, but this book was a thing of beauty. de Kretser has a special talent for new and surprising metaphor and simile, without letting the text swell into unnecessary purpling. I wanted to turn to the first page and start all over again.

I vowed against another DeLillo after finishing Underworld. In fact, he and Norman Mailer's Harlot's Ghost had me institute my 50 page rule. Was Falling Man really that dissimilar in style?

Completely different. Have read other reviews that said they just didn't care about the characters etc. etc., and while I can see where they're coming from, the drama of the opening section really grabbed me and kept me wanting to read, even though it's definitely not the kind of book that makes you want to cosy up to the characters long after you've finished reading.

I made a very happy discovery yesterday: now that I am a grown-up (ha ha) I no longer seem to get car-sick if I read on the move. We had a 2.5-hour drive to Winchester and the same back again, so I finished two books and started a third. Bliss!

64. The Northern Clemency - Philip Hensher

I really really wanted to like this. I used to live very near Sheffield, where the book is set, so it has that special frisson that literature set in locations you know well always has; it was a monster 700+ pages, which I always admire - not just the writing of it, but the effort that must have gone into getting it published and promoted; and the fact that I always really enjoy Philip Hensher's reviews for the Guardian, and usually agree with his opinion.

But in the end, I have to say I didn't. It did feel baggy, like it could have lost about a third of the length without damaging it; and some of the characterisation was frustratingly opaque - two or three very odd, very selfish characters who you just seem to bounce off rather than really getting to grips with what they are about, several characters that seemed to have come straight from Central Casting, and for all that it has been praised for looking at the politics around the miners' strike, I really didn't feel it got into that deeply enough - the one genuine miner in the book is a conscientious objector who is more interested in the Argentinian tango.

65. First Among Sequels - Jasper Fforde

Also disappointing. I like the Thursday Next books a lot better than the Nursery Crimes ones, but this just wasn't anything like as pacy, or as clever, as the first four. As ever, a few flashes of brilliance, but it really seemed to drag, and it got too bogged down in its own technical details. I remember feeling really relieved when one character asked another for an explanation about how a particular piece of "technology" worked and the answer was, "That's never explained".

Have now started The White Tiger, which is promising - but I don't think it will be exactly what you would call an enjoyable read. Clever, but bleak. (But that's only just over 50 pages in).

I still have some growing up to do I guess. ;( It is just wasted time for me in a car...but I can read while on trains!

FlossieT--the more YA and "trash" fiction, the more you can appreciate the longer, more complicated stuff. At least that's what my parents always said about reading--so I find that I can only take "culture" to a certain point and then I digress into both People magazine and maybe some Chick Lit. I loved Holes and if your 9YO is interested and hasn't discovered Harry Potter, you can try that. It was my then 15 year old daughter who convinced her 9YO brother to try it. He was only into sports bios. Period. After Harry, he started reading again. You can also try Gary Paulson's works (Hatchet).

I also recently rediscovered Jules Verne (Journey to the Center of the Earth), and I'd have recommended that to my son rather than Wells because the story moves much, much faster than say, The Time Machine (which, incidentally, both my children despised for its lack of action).

I'm going to check out several of your recommendations as well. Thanks for the tips.

#22: thanks, Prop2gether! My 9YO is currently devouring the way-too-grown-up-for-him Cherub books by Robert Muchamore. I hadn't thought about passing Holes on to him - actually put my copy on Bookmooch already... he is very into spy stuff at the moment so I might see what he thinks of the young Bond books. He tried Alex Rider a few months back and wasn't keen, but it might just have been a timing thing.

66. The White Tiger - Aravind Adiga

If I thought this was bleak after 50 pages, I didn't know how lucky I was.... very, very dark. This has similarities with Rohinton Mistry's A Fine Balance, but is much more desolate; Mistry's book is tragic but its central characters retain some personal dignity even through the disasters that befall them. This novel is more about showing the complete distortion of character that arises from grinding poverty and a rigid class system. I didn't enjoy it, but I still haven't really made my mind up whether it's not a good book - although I'm not sure I can bear to re-read it to establish an opinion!!

Sea of Poppies has now come into the library so I'm hoping to pick that up tomorrow, and am definitely hoping to read The Wasted Vigil soon too. I knew practically nothing about the political and social history of the Indian subcontinent post-Empire a couple of months ago and quite by chance have ended up reading several novels that engage with that. Guess I'd better find a good non-fiction version to follow up with....

Nice book list-thanks for visiting my book thread! Sometimes I find that discovering new books on LT dips into my reading time-resulting in a very big TBR list!

Edited to correct Palin title and fix the touchstone

67. Sea of Poppies - Amitav Ghosh

I didn't much enjoy this to be honest. The last 50 pages or so were really exciting, but the rest of the book (all 420 pages!) is soooo slow: mainly setting up backstories and bringing together the central cast of characters. I have been struggling to understand why this annoyed me when the same sort of style in Middlemarch, say, didn't, but I haven't figured it out yet. If I had to guess, I would say it was overuse of the pluperfect (um, if I've remembered correctly that that's the tense which uses "had" all the time!!) and not enough moving the action forward.

68. Diaries 1969-1979: The Python Years - Michael Palin

Have been reading this on and off for a couple of months in between other books, but it was too big to carry around! A nice read, and he comes across as a very likeable chap, if somewhat self-obsessed (but I suppose that's inevitable when you're reading someone's diaries!). Entertaining.

Hi FlossieT

My husband read Diaries 1970-1979 recently and enjoyed it.

It is nice to read your posts...

Thank you, Whisper :-) I am really loving this group - my husband is not a big reader and it's just soooo refreshing to talk about books and reading - any books, any reading - "amongst friends". Although I might manage to get a bit more reading done if I spent a little less time on the internet... hmm.

I know what you mean...posting takes time away from reading, but I really do enjoy this group and it is relaxing for me...so I try to find a balance.

I see LT as a little like moving up the ladder of addictions. If you compare our universal addiction to reading as something like marijuana, getting hooked on LT is like getting introduced and hooked on cocaine!!! It's hard to power down and pick up the book. And if you do, the computer haunts you, beckoning, taunting you with the knowledge that all of your addicted friends are getting high without you!!!

:-) It has all the hallmarks: mood-altering, compulsive, irritability on withdrawal....

69. One Good Turn - Kate Atkinson

I really enjoyed this, much more than Case Histories which I found a bit uneven and just too far-fetched. Here, Atkinson's love of coincidence seems nicely judged - and as Brodie says, "There are no coincidences, only explanations waiting to happen." Enjoyed enough to make me request When Will There Be Good News? from the library, even though I'd promised myself no more library requests until I'd made a dent in the unread books already on the shelf....

Time for a bit of Lemony Snicket...

Hi

I'm glad to read your positive post on a Case Histories by Kate Atkinson. Earlier this year I read Behind the Scenes at the Museum and I know I'm in the minority, but did not care for that book.

So, I'll give Case Histories a try.

And, I can relate to library requests and check out books vs the huge pile awaiting on the book shelf. I find libraries so soothing after a long day at work and naturally cannot only visit the library, I have to have something in my hand when I leave.

oh my...looks like I need a cup of stronger coffee...I mis read your post....I'll read One Good Turn instead of Case Histories Off to the coffee pot I go....

Hi Whisper - give Case Histories a go first, as One Good Turn does give away some of the plot of the former. I just found it a bit OTT - it basically has what appear to be three completely separate stories that it tangles up in a great big mess. I know that real life can often be surprisingly coincidental, but I think the art of coincidence in a novel is to not make it seem coincidental!

Interested to hear you didn't like Behind the Scenes though - what bugged you about it? I read it a loooooong time ago now, but remember really enjoying it; in fact I realise that I have read practically everything Kate Atkinson has written apart from the short stories and the one that's just been published!!

Hi Flossie

Regarding Behind the Scenes at the Museum, it simply seemed to me that the author was making a stab at british humor and missed the mark. It was a book wherein so many pages contained yet one more crisis. I found it a gloomy (not funny) book.

Interesting, Whisper - does make me want to go back and re-read because that's not my memory! (But see also 'The Depressing Math' and the impossibility of progressing if one re-reads...)

70. The Unauthorized Autobiography - Lemony Snicket

The children have had a bit of a love affair with Lemony Snicket over the last 18 months or so and we've had the audiobooks on almost permanently in the car, so I thought I'd pick this up. A quick bit of light fun with a few good jokes, but the Unfortunate Events themselves remain the best for me - I'd still like to read them "properly".

Hi Flossie

At a recent book club meeting I was very aware that the group of twelve people each had unique and differing persepectives on the same book.

I think that is one of the most fascinating parts of LT. We get to share our books lists AND our impressions.

I enjoy reading your posts and it is great to have you on board the 75 book challenge group.

Take care
Linda

Thank you, Linda - so lovely of you to say so! This group is such a great place to 'hang out' (virtually speaking).

71. The Other Hand - Chris Cleave

I had this on my wishlist almost as soon as I heard it was going to be published! Chris Cleave's first novel was about a terrorist attack, Incendiary, and very unfortunately was published on 7 July 2005 (the day of the tube bombings in London). Although I now have a copy, I still haven't read it, but what I have read are his columns for the UK Guardian, which make me laugh like a drain - he writes incredibly well.

It's a bit uneven at the start - the novel is narrated by two women, and it takes him a good 50 pages to settle into a 'voice' that feels convincing - but once you've got past that, this was completely gripping. It's set mainly in the UK, but with episodes in Nigeria against the background of the oil wars: and for me, therefore, another novel that illuminated a political episode in the recent past that I clearly failed to understand properly at the time.

He's not very good at writing about relationships of the man-woman husband-wife kind - those epsiodes in the book strike a bit of a false, soap-opera note somehow - and occasionally the voice of the Nigerian narrator seems a little bit contrived (she is a refugee who teaches herself excellent English over the course of her two-year stay in a detention centre) and trite. But if you can mentally gloss over these imperfections, it is really worth it. Compelling and moving.

Hi Flossie

Hang in there, you are getting very close to the 75 goal.

Hey FlossieT, so close! Keep it up!

Believe me I am ;-) I have #72 to post soon - but not tonight - it's my birthday and I should have been asleep about 3 hours ago...

Happy Birthday FlossieT !!!

Many happy returns!!!

Happy Happy Birthday! I hope it was a great day for you!

Hope you got lots of books!!!

Thank you for all the lovely birthday wishes! I had a lovely day - took day off work, went to spa, went for coffee.... not enough reading though.

Surprisingly few books... in fact just my brother (The Rest is Noise which I've been wanting to read for aaaaaages). Two book tokens though (friend and son), one of which I have already spent :-) We are saving up to visit family in Boston and most people gave me cheques to put in the fund.

72. These Foolish Things - Deborah Moggach

A nice gentle read, about a retirement home set up in a fading guest-house in Bangalore by an expat Indian, his wife and his cousin, to take in hard-up English pensioners.

It was interesting to have read this after The White Tiger as they share a location. It's not that this novel was idealistic about Bangalore - it still mentioned the poverty, the dirt, the effects of economic development etc. etc. - but it was definitely from an outsider's perspective. Where The White Tiger was seething with rage, this was more accepting, almost - less crusading.

73. The Brontes Went to Woolworths - Rachel Ferguson

Not really sure what to make of this... very much of its era. Said some very interesting things about the nature of reality and the stories we tell to keep our lives together (and about loving books too! How about this:

"How could one tell her that books are like having a bath or sleeping, or eating bread - absolute necessities which one never thinks of in terms of appreciation.").

I actually found all the supernatural stuff a bit too spooky, and in the end the tone did begin to grate a little - I think the second governess who is all "ripping" and "killing" was the final straw really... if the book hadn't ended soon after the advent of Miss Ainslie I may never have finished it!!

Good fun though.

Now, a dilemma. I know what I'm reading next as I'm picking it up from the library tomorrow (the last of the Man Booker shortlist). But then what shall I read for the momentous #75?? I have managed to buy *four* new books this week, and yet I'm not even sure it should be one of those... decisions, decisions. Maybe I need to go for the "pick a random number" approach.

What books did you just buy? Maybe I can choose for you :)

I have:

How to Live Dangerously - Warwick Cairns
Books v Cigarettes - George Orwell
The Baby in the Mirror - Charles Fernyhough
The Silver Swan - Benjamin Black

but then there are so many more that have been on the shelves for months unread!! And also most are non-fiction and I am not sure I'm in a non-fiction place right now.

hmm.

Hi Flossie, wish you a belated happy birthday!

Ooh, I saw the new edition of Books v Cigarettes (online, since it hasn't been published in the U.S. yet) and the cover is very old-school. I can't wait for it to go on sale here. And yes, the cover is largely responsible for my enthusiasm.

I second Books v Cigarettes! I love Orwell and had never heard of this one before. I just read the description though and am definitely going to get it.

...and I third Books v Cigarettes - but for purely selfish reasons - I keep seeing it around, but I want to read it, but I have a self imposed book-buying-ban at the moment (my TBR pile is just _toooo_ large and I need to save money for my sister's hen do) - I'd be very interested in what you think!

Oooh, and belated happy birthday!

OK, Books v Cigarettes it is :-) I think it's really a cunning Penguin re-issue as the contents list includes several pieces I've heard of before. It feels slightly like cheating for #75 though as it's such a slender little thing!

flissp, I'll lend it to you when I'm done ;-)

Really enjoying #74 at the moment - A Fraction of the Whole by Steve Toltz. but it is rather hefty... 700+ pages!! Fewer long books next year.

flissp
Ok, I have to ask...What is a "hen do?"

FlossieT - that's very kind of you - I'd definitely like to take you up on that, if you don't mind - I promise to be very kind to it - I'll have to buy you that Snowman pint in exchange!

Whisper1 - it's the female version of a stag do - a pre-wedding, usually girls only celebration, ususally organised by the bridesmaids etc. Some of us are going to a spa during the afternoon, then more people are joining us for food, then drinks in the evening, which is probably fairly typical.

They can be very OTT (I think we'll be much more civilized!), but it's actually a very good way to get to know other guests you mightn't meet until the wedding otherwise - it gets people mingling better on the day. Obviously, as the sister of the bride, I know most of the girls going, but I've definitely been to wedding's where there have been very few other people I'd have known otherwise and, while I always enjoy meeting new people, people do tend to gravitate towards their friendship groups at weddings, so it's really great to be able to go along and recognise people (particularly if you don't have another half, like me)...

Oooohhhh, Benjamin Black! Let me know how it is...

Seriously, never heard of Books v Cigarettes!
But if its a George Orwell piece, I guess there is no option but to read it!
Even then, can someone please post a review of the same (non spoiler please)!

flissp, leave me a private message with your address and I'll drop Books v Cigarettes round when I'm done. Enjoying so far - it's a collection of essays that have been published elsewhere previously (in magazines mostly, I think). The first few have a book-related theme, but it looks like the second half of the book is a bit more political. Will try to post some comments when I'm done.

Don't the Americans call hen dos "bachelorette parties"? Or is that only in the movies?

74. A Fraction of the Whole - Steve Toltz

This is the last of my Man Booker reading (at least for now - I may at some point get the insane idea to catch up on the longlisted books that I hadn't already read when the shortlist was announced, but it's unlikely to be before Christmas). It's over 700 pages, but it really didn't feel like it - very pacy and plotty - unlike The Northern Clemency, which was shorter but felt about 4 times as long (and took me nearly that much longer to read too).

It's basically an Australian father-and-son story, the conceit being that Jasper, the son, is writing down his father Martin's biography, which in turn is composed of several different "manuscripts", with Jasper's words knitting together a purported transcript of his father's oral history, his father's notebooks, and a few chapters from his father's attempt at an autobiography.

It's really clever writing, and very funny in places, although another of those books that pulls off the trick of making an essentially sad story sound not particularly sad. A colleague who read it recently thought it could have been about 200 pages long and still as successful. I'm not sure I agree - I can't easily think of which sections and episodes could be cut, and part of what's important about the writing is the slightly rambling quality to it, which seems entirely right and appropriate for its rather unhinged characters.

I did feel that the voices weren't clearly defined or consistent enough to be entirely convincing. It could be argued that this confusion supports one of the central themes, of the fear of turning into one's father and how that plays out in your life, and it's a minor thing really. I would definitely recommend this.

one more to go!

Well, it feels a bit like cheating to post this as it was so short (only just over 120 small pages), it really ought to be 74.5, but....

75. Books v. Cigarettes - George Orwell

This is a funny little book - a collection of essays published elsewhere (presumably previously uncollected?), and without really a defining collective theme. It opens with what I considered the best pieces in the book, 'Books v. Cigarettes', 'Bookshop Memories' and 'Confessions of a Book Reviewer', all very enjoyable, about reading and books. The first stacks up what Orwell calculates to be the cost of his reading over a year against the amount some factory workers he's been told of spend on drink and cigarettes while claiming they can't afford to read. The second would be recognisable to most people who work in bookshops today, while the third debunks the dreamy idea many of us must have had that it must be nice to be paid to read books and write about them.

'The Prevention of Literature' then discusses what happens to prose literature under a totalitarian state (but manages to insinuate that perceived wisdom and the desire to adhere to it makes everywhere a totalitarian state, which I don't particularly agree with). Had a couple of interesting things to say that are of relevance in today's media-dominated age (cf Nick Davies' Flat Earth News).

After this, there's a rather confused piece on patriotism, 'My Country Right or Left', a report on his stay in a public hospital in France, 'How the Poor Die', before the collection closes with the longest piece in the book, a lengthy rumination on his time at public school, scenes in which reminded me very strongly indeed of Molesworth - the school is even called 'St Cyprian's', which is not a world away from St Custard's (apologies to the Americans who may not have had the joy of making Nigel Molesworth's acquaintance!).

The overwhelming impression I took away from this was how dated it felt - the bigotry and snobbery both discussed and unspoken behind the words, an awful lot of talking about money and social class, what is considered socially acceptable - in the first essay, he early on estimates his reading expenses at £25 a year, then goes on to say:

"Forty pounds a year would just about pay for a packet of Woodbines every day and half a pint of mild six days a week - not a magnificent allowance."

I guess I'm maybe the wrong reader for this as I have never been that fond of Orwell - disliked Animal Farm, couldn't finish 1984 - so this is one of those occasions where I was definitely swayed by the packaging! The concept of the first essay, which gave the book its title, coupled with the fantastic jacket design, was all I needed to convince me to buy it. I'm not sorry I read it, but I don't think I shall be seeking out much more Orwell in future.

Going on to Incendiary - Chris Cleave - which I've had for over a year and have been really keen to read; I read somewhere it's being released as a film in a couple of weeks so I want to get through it before my vision is tainted by advertising :-)

Congrats! You made it!

Woo! Well done!

Thanks FlossieT, shall send you a messge - do let me know if you'd like to borrow anything of mine in exchange... Also interesting to read you're comments - I think I'll read it back to front!

F

Congrats FlossieT on reaching 75 :-)

Oh Flossie, I agree with you about 1984 and Animal Farm. I read the former at my mother's urging and just HATED it. Winston and his icky leg ulcers - a picture I'll never get out of my head - and the other was not much better for me. (Congrats on the 75.)

1984 still has the church rhyme which has been running through my head for years! An interesting film version was made in 1984, in London, and was Richard Burton's last film. It's awfully close to the storyline, but I found seeing it worked well for me as opposed to rereading the novel.

Congratulations, you really 't'ee'd off on the challenge!

Thank you all for the congrats - even those with puns in them ;-) (especially as so many of you leave me in awe at your ability to squish in so many extra books!)

76. Incendiary - Chris Cleave

Oh, this was fantastic. I've had this on my shelf for ages but not got round to picking it up. Then read it was going to be released as a film in a couple of weeks' time, and thought I'd better read it quick before the advertising tainted my vision ;-) I'm not sure how well it will 'travel' as quite a lot of it is quite specifically about English culture, and London in particular, but it does that really well.

I find it really interesting that both of this author's novels published so far have female first-person narrators. I actually felt he pulled it off much better in this book than in The Other Hand, which is interesting since he is an Oxford grad in psychology and hence rather removed from the narrator's working-class tower block.

This was incredibly moving, totally gripping, and one of those books I found myself putting down not because I wanted to but because otherwise it would be over too quickly.

Disclaimer: I am not in any way affiliated with Chris Cleave, but I think I am in danger of sending him my first ever piece of "fan mail" as I have really enjoyed both his novels and his Guardian column makes me laugh until I cry.

77. What Was Lost - Catherine O'Flynn

This was good, and clever, and well-written, although perhaps not quite as amazing as I was expecting given some of the reviews I'd read. Initially packaged as a YA book in the UK, it's just been re-jacketed and relaunched to capitalise on its success (and possibly because of several high-profile comments about its horrible original jacket!) - although the strength of the language did make me quite surprised it had been sold as a YA book.

The story centres around a young girl of about 10 who goes missing. The narrative is set in two time periods - 1984, following Kate's story (the missing girl), and 2004, following the stories of two employees at a nearby shopping mall, the brother of one of whom was the prime suspect for Kate's murder (but never charged as her body was never found).

As with quite a bit of what I've read this year, it was really only the ending that let it down - it was too obvious and not delicately enough done; I kept thinking of Kate in The Child In Time and how well the ambiguity of her fate is handled in that story. But the rest of the book is quite special: the ghostly elements (for there are some) are very nicely done; the central characters are beautifully drawn; the importance of the nature of the shopping centre itself is really well picked out, with several monologues from unnamed people with some connection with the centre (whether that's as a worker, a shopper, or someone who sneaks onto the roof to sniff glue) punctuating the narrative.

Again, it may not 'travel' well as there are quite a lot of UK-specific cultural references - but that would be a real pity, as it's a beautiful book.

I'll definitely be looking out for Catherine O'Flynn's work in future.

Congratulations FlossieT.
You have done an amazing job with your list of 75...now 77 books!

OK, both books 76 & 77 are going on Continent TBR, you have convinced me. Thanks for the recommendations! I will look for Cleave's other book as well.

Good Job, FlossieT! A ton of excellent choices, and more to add to my TBR!

Thirded - will definitely be checking out no. 76 at some point!

Enjoyed your review of What was Lost, FlossieT - have been thinking of reading it for a while, but wondering whether it would live up to the hype. I like what you say about it, so I'll give it a go - thanks!

rachbxl, not sure about "live up to the hype", but it is a very good book - and actually I notice I didn't say, very funny in places. Overall very well-balanced. I just wish the ending had been better managed. You do see it coming from a little way off, but the scene is still played as if it is a real revelation; it will probably work really well on-screen, but in a book, where you're that bit more intimately entwined with what's happening, it is a little bit - well - annoying.

flissp, I can swap you Incendiary for the Orwell if you like :-)

78. Two in a Boat - Gwyneth Lewis

It's a bit difficult to talk about this one without "spoilers" but I'll have a go... this is a memoir of what happened when Lewis, the national poet of Wales, decided to put out to sea for a year with her husband (20+ years her senior). It's primarily a travelogue of the journey, including lots of interesting titibits about the history of sailing and the technical details of actually doing it, plus lots of nice vignettes of the places they visit. Overlaid on this story is the tale of how Lewis's relationship with her husband is affected by the journey.

Lewis's 'day job' as a poet shines through beautifully in places, with some gorgeous descriptive writing, and pinpoint-accurate metaphors. Some of the marital/maritime metaphors did feel a little bit overblown, and there is a 'twist' in the story very near the end that requires you to evaluate most of what has gone before in a very new light - but in a way, that's life - her point is to try to tell the story as she experienced it, which this does very well.

I didn't quite get what I was hoping for out of it, but it was a nice read and brought back some happy Swallows and Amazons memories with all the sailing stuff :-)

I have added Two in a Boat to my ever-expanding Continent TBR. Thanks for the recommendation!

Flossie

You read such interesting books!

Thank you FlossieT, that's very kind and I'm sorely tempted by Incendiary - I shall probably like to borrow it at some point if that's OK - but I think I should probably work my way through a few of the books I've bought recently first!

A very belated Happy Birthday, Flossie. I hope your year holds wonderful things for you.

#76: alcottacre, I keep seeing your Continent on these threads... you're going to need a whole other planet soon for all those TBRs!!

#77: thank you, Linda - it's funny you should say that as recently I've been a bit frustrated by my apparent inability to discover new stuff that is a little bit "off the beaten track". I had a long run of books that were a bit of a disappointment. In better territory recently though, it must be said.

#78: flissp, you're hardly far off so welcome to borrow whenever (or indeed, whatever!). Still looking out for the snowman.... ;-)

#79: thank you, avaland - very thoughtful of you. I'm hoping this coming year turns out better than the last one as 2008 has been a bit of a pig.

and now...

Book no. 79. When Will There Be Good News? - Kate Atkinson

I've read all three of the Jackson Brodie books this year, and this is definitely the best so far. Although the coincidences are possibly the most outlandish of all three of these books to date, Atkinson in most cases works hard not to circle them in flashing neon "LOOK! A RIDICULOUS COINCIDENCE!" lights. And anyway, those who complain of her over-fondness of coincidence need to go away and read the collected works of Barbara Trapido in order to re-calibrate.

Her characterisation is also improving by leaps and bounds - there are still stock characters, but more care has been taken to fill in the outlines a little.

I don't want to describe too much about the plot as the opening 'flashback' scene will almost certainly be diminished if I explain too much - although the jacket blurb has not done the same kindness, so avoid that too if you really want to get the most out of this. Basically, the classic device of "respectable middle-class woman is haunted/suprised by demons of the past" is at the heart of the book. The lady vanishes... and various different elements who want to know why this is converge on each other, and ultimately join forces in her pursuit.

Logically, the plot has some holes: I have had to fight the Sherlock Holmes temptation to get out the train timetables with an exasperated, "But surely if she was there THEN, then she can't have been HERE by THEN??", quite hard. But the emotional force of the writing is considerable. I'm thinking in particular of some of the passages on maternal love, and the terrifyingly vivid description of being in a train crash (OK, the latter may have been helped by the fact that I read it last night and then was involved in a train incident this morning...)

Atkinson is also coming to terms with leaving loose ends. After being sorely disappointed by The Secret Scripture's letting-down of its beautiful meditation on the malleable nature of truth and history with an almost Mozartian-ly neat ending, I have developed a hankering for books that manage to both deny and satisfy the reader's search for narrative resolution: allowing ambiguity to remain, but in a manner that manages somehow to satisfy (The Lost Dog did this beautifully). So acknowledging that it is possible for a novel to leave loose ends and still be a complete piece was greatly appreciated.

----

Now on to The Fire Gospel, which I have been really looking forward to - Canongate is fast becoming my favourite publisher for so many reasons (not sure who publishes this in the US - or even if you guys have any independent publishers left - how do things work out there?).

Also made dangerous discovery this week: book sections of the local charity shops. Nearly-new and a pound apiece.... some of them even run enterprising 3-for-2s! My husband is not pleased.

FlossieT: Forget Continent TBR and Planet TBR - I think I will just move on to Universe TBR very soon!

80. The Fire Gospel - Michel Faber

Oh, I hate it when a book I was really looking forward to disappoints me :-( Flashes of very clever satire, especially on the publishing industry (the section on Amazon reviews really is very funny), but otherwise it felt 'phoned in'...

Brief plot summary: Theo Griepenkerl is a Canadian academic who finds a set of scrolls that tell the story of Jesus's last days from the point of view of a previously unknown hanger-on (not a disciple) named Malchus. Despite having effectively looted the scrolls from a museum in Iraq, smuggling them out when a bomb goes off in the street outside, killing the curator, he decides he has to publish them. Cue massive media explosion, shock etc. etc.

This is one of the Canongate Myths series, and is meant to be Prometheus, with Malchus's "gospel" supposedly representing the fire. But the allegory is poorly thought through, and elements of the book are gratuitously anti-Christian.

Beautifully produced, but I was hoping for something much more clever and insightful rather than adolescent.

Sigh. At least it was very short and finished quickly.

Too bad about The Fire Gospel. The premise sounds very good. I hate when an author does not deliver on what started out as promising. I only know Faber's work from The Crimson Petal and the White, but I would have thought based on the writing in that book that he would be able to get Prometheus across.

It just came across like he was using the idea to bash Christianity rather than actually say anything particularly insightful - I was hoping for so much more from this.

I have The Crimson Petal and the White on my shelf as yet unread - The Fire Gospel hasn't put me off picking that up, as Faber does write really well at the level of the sentence.

81. Little Face - Sophie Hannah

I actually picked up an entirely different book yesterday (Here Lies Arthur, which I have out from the library), but put it down again after a few pages as I realised I completely wasn't in a fantasy-history sort of mood. Ended up finishing this in one gulp last night even though I was shattered (and then regretted it when my daughter woke me up umpteen times in the night demanding her blankie, a drink, cuddles etc etc...)

The characterisation is a bit uneven, but it's an interesting concept: after a couple of hours away from her two-week-old baby for the first time since her birth, Alice Fancourt returns to her house and insists the baby in the cot is not her daughter Florence. Her husband is just as convinced that she *is*, and Alice has to try to convince the police that her daughter has been swapped for another baby even though no one believes her.

Hannah keeps the tension going nicely and the last 50 pages or so are cracking, if a bit wordy. Must admit I did see the "twist" coming, but it didn't spoil the ending at all. Probably not for the keep-and-reread collection, but a great piece of escapism.

Sounds like one I will give a try. One to Continent TBR Little Face goes. Thanks for the recommendation.

82. The Point of Rescue - Sophie Hannah

Picked this up from a charity shop last week and I seem to be in crime fiction mode at the moment. A similar sort of 'difference of perception' idea to Little Face: Sally, mother of two and a workaholic with two part-time jobs outside the home, decides when a work trip is cancelled that she is going to secretly spend a week away in order to buy herself some breathing space. During that week she meets a man, they have a fling, they go their separate ways. Fast-forward a year and the same man is on the TV news, under suspicion of having murdered his wife and daughter - only it's not the same man: the biographical details are the same, the face is not.

I think what keeps me reading these is the same sort of thing as I find with Jasper Fforde - the plot becomes ever more complex, preposterous and confusing, and just when you are literally at the point of throwing the book down because you are beginning to despair of ever understanding exactly what is going on, Hannah begins to unpick the knot for you. So I'm finding her characters annoying - slightly caricatured, not quite believable as 'real people' - but am nonetheless totally caught up in the (fairly improbable) plots.

Analysed from a cold critical perspective, I would probably not consider these 'good' books, but I still can't put them down :) Off to look for a copy of Hurting Distance to complete the set.

ok Flossie...I'll add The Point of Rescue to my tbr pile but won't put it at the top of the list.....
It sounds like you did enjoy the book....

Linda, I definitely enjoyed both this and Little Face - but if I am completely honest, I have to say it was "in spite of" the not-always-terribly-brilliant writing. I have a soft spot for Sophie Hannah as she used to live in the same block of flats as me (not that we ever met) and wrote one of my all-time favourite poems:

I've got the will
And I've got the stamina
I'm going to kill
The external examiner.

(My bachelors degree was downgraded on the basis of the "external examiner"'s verdict so that has a certain personal meaning for me!!)

As I say - she can really spin a plot, but I'm not so convinced by her characters.

83. The Thirteenth Tale - Diane Setterfield

I know that reactions to this on LT, and amongst my 'reading' friends, have been mixed, but I really liked it - I thought it got the nineteenth-century-Gothic thing down SO well. I was really impressed by the way she captured the narrator's voice so skilfully - the narration is clearly modern, but it is very hard to date the period, so what is foregrounded is the whole "intertextuality" of the book.

Brief plot synopsis in case there is anyone left that doesn't know: Margaret Lea is the daughter of an antiquarian bookseller, and an amateur biographer. Unexpectedly, she receives an invitation to write the biography of a very successful modern novelist, whose background is somewhat murky as a result of her bottomless propensity to lie to the press about her past when she is interviewed. The book is both Miss Winter's story, and the story of Margaret's involvement with Miss Winter.

Although I can just about see why others haven't liked this, I thought it was great - before the plot gets a bit silly, Setterfield maintains the creepiness of the atmosphere beautifully. And I love all the stuff about books. Great fun.

I should probably read a "serious" book sometime soon, shouldn't I....

Edited to insert a crucial comma. Shame on me for missing it first time round.

84. The Emperor's Children - Claire Messud

I have to start by saying I found this book intensely irritating. It just didn't seem to be saying anything worthwhile at all that I could identify: I have stuck many irate Post-it scraps on pages containing quotes encapsulating its shallow self-absorption, but possibly the best summary:

"Look at these people. Do we really want to be like this? All smarmy and self-congratulatory?"

This line is spoken by one of, arguably, the book's only two sympathetic characters, Danielle. At least, I infer that she is meant to be sympathetic as she BOTH (a) has her own apartment (b) has a job she takes seriously and works hard at. (Note: it is possible to be a character in this book with one or other of these attributes, but unless you've got both, you're nowhere).

Phew. Sorry about that - I know it's really not done to *start* in that way but I REALLY needed to get it out of my system!!

The Emperor's Children is a Big New York Novel, following three thirty-somethings and their various connections through the 8 months from March to November 2001.

Plus points: beautiful portrait of the city. Messud can write beautifully when she doesn't get carried away. Some neat observations.

In the end, though, I wanted to slap most of the characters. I know it's not good form to equate unsympathetic characters with a bad book, but the blankly reflective narration offers the reader no choice but to take the characters as they see themselves: for the most part, self-absorbed (even self-obsessed) and narcissistic.

Not quite bad enough for me to begrudge the time I spent reading it - the writing at the level of the sentence was at least good enough for me to want to put some thought into why I found it so annoying - but not one I intend to re-read.

On the plus side, "serious" literature now looks appealing again, even necessary, so I think I'm up to tackling The Wasted Vigil...

Flossie, thanks for the pointer from TrishNYC's thread. I agree with a lot of what you wrote; in addition, I felt the characters acted like they just got out of college instead of being 30-somethings, and I really felt the whole 9/11 denouement was completely gratuitous. Plus, I have to say -- BIG SPOILER ALERT -- how can an apparently intelligent person NOT think it's going to create problems if she has an affair with her best friend's father??????

rebecca, that is an excellent point - they do all act as if they are much younger than their calendar ages. Had forgotten about that in my irritation!

I also thought that that affair felt a bit like Messud had changed her mind about the plot halfway through - I was all set for some sort of sparks-fly relationship between Danielle and Ludo, then it all just fizzled out. Which in itself is a further reflection on the style of the novel - I was convinced because Danielle was convinced, and she was convinced because at heart, she's still pretty much as self-centered as the others.

The 9/11 denouement - I don't think I've really quite settled on what I thought of this. The disappearance of the obnoxious Bootie was quite an interesting route to take; on the other hand, the way it seems to end up twisted into a further opportunity for the characters to navel-gaze seems in very bad taste now that I'm a day or two away from it.

It did make me think, at least (and remind myself that I can only really read this sort of novel 2 or 3 times a year!! So I guess Brightness Falls will have to wait for 2009)

Oh boy Flossie, I think I will give The Emperor's Children a skip. It seems like a book that would irritate more than it would entertain me. But I liked your review. I think you give anyone who has not read it a good measure on which to judge the book.

I am also definitely skipping The Emperor's Children based on the reviews I have seen. Like TrishNYC, it sounds more like it would annoy than entertain me. There are just too many other books out there.

I would definitely recommend skipping it. I think it's a real pity because mostly the 'bad' books I've read this year have been, in essence, just uneven - good bits, but badly put together. This was stylistically consistent and accomplished, but the plot and characterisation - well - sucked. Don't like that term, but I can't think of a more succinct (ho ho) way of putting it.

85. The Wasted Vigil - Nadeem Aslam

I'm going to have to come back here to really do this book justice as it has sprouted a complete forest of scraps of paper, marking particularly breathtaking bits of writing. I will say now that it is really quite graphically gruesome in places, but given the subject matter (jihad and Afghanistan) it does not feel gratuitous or out of place, but a fundamental part of the narrative action; I thought I ought to warn the more squeamish amongst you, though, since I'm aware I have posted enthusiastically about this book on several threads in the last few days.

Proper write-up will definitely follow, but right now I'm very tired plus! really enjoying my next book, major bonus after a couple of quite disappointing reads.... so I need to spend less time posting and more time reading!!

eagerly looking forward to your "proper" write-up of book 85...

Me, too, although I have already added it to Continent TBR based on your comments.

OK, my slightly more ordered thoughts on The Wasted Vigil.

I am beginning to feel a bit like the proverbial stuck record banging on about this, but it really was an incredible book. The story is set sometime after the end of 2001, and centres on a house near the town of Usha (meaning Teardrop) in Afghanistan, owned by an expatriate Englishman named Marcus Caldwell who married an Afghan, converted to Islam and stayed in the country.

To his house come Lara, a Russian woman trying to uncover the truth about her brother, once a soldier in the Soviet army, but missing for many years; David, an American ex-CIA man who was in love with Marcus's daughter Zameen, and with Marcus is still searching for Zameen's missing son Bihzad; Casa, a devout young Muslim intent on laying down his life for the cause of jihad; Dunia, a schoolteacher who stands accused of immoral behaviour and is seeking refuge; and James, son of one of David's fellow CIA men. Over the course of the book, which begins with Lara's quest and ends with Casa's, the fractured history of this group of characters is gradually revealed.

This is an incredibly visual book, full of striking and unusual images: the six-roomed house whose ceilings are covered in books with nails driven through their middles, to save them from burning by the Taliban; the giant Buddha's head uncovered in the perfume factory that Marcus set up; the television set inextricably entangled in tree roots, one of many forbidden objects buried around the house; the bright embroidery silks that spill down the stairs and bring about David's first meeting with Zameen. These scenes are never overwritten or allowed to hold back the momentum of the plot, told in a few economical but precisely-chosen words, and always with real impact.

The story itself is, as I said above, very gruesome - as you might expect from something that covers the Soviet war in Afghanistan, refugee camps, jihadi bombings and Taliban 'justice', amongst others. What is interesting is that it doesn't really 'take sides'. The flaws of both the Western attitudes to Afghanistan, and the jihadis' views of the West, are scrutinised, but also their rationale. The characters are carefully drawn, making it frighteningly clear how it is possible for fundamentally decent impulses to become submerged and drowned in dogma.

Highly, highly recommended, and even an easy - though not in any way light! - read, owing to Aslam's elegant prose. It has really made me want to read and learn more about Afghanistan too.

86. The Earth Hums in B Flat - Mari Strachan

This was an ARC from Canongate, and is half a century and a world away from the previous read - in place and time rather than quality, I should stress, as while not as blow-you-away amazing as the Aslam, this was a very accomplished book. Strong echoes for me of Kate Thompon's The New Policeman, and of Siobhan Dowd's A Swift Pure Cry and, I feel, a whole host of others that are on the tip of my tongue but I can't quite put a name to...

Gwenni Morgan is a nearly-thirteen year old girl growing up in a Welsh town near Penrhyn - or rather, even though she wouldn't admit it to herself, trying desperately not to grow up (and she's actually twelve and a half, she is at pains to point out). The father of a pair of little girls who she occasionally looks after goes missing, setting in motion a chain of events that will eventually reveal many secrets about Gwenni's family, and others in the village.

I began this convinced that once again, I was going to be annoyed by a writer who, while capturing the tone of a child perfectly in the first person narration, had got the age completely wrong. Gwenni's first few pages to me felt like the words of a girl significantly younger than twelve and a half, and a key element of the plot hinges on her mistaken literal understanding of a figurative expression (to say more would probably be a spoiler). But then, children grow up faster nowadays and this novel is set in the 1950s.

As the story goes on, it becomes clear that the childish outlook is crucial. Strachan shows beautifully a central element of growing up - the shift from merely observing, however detailed that observation may be, to becoming curious about what those observations may be revealing - and demonstrates how ultimately, self-deception can become as important as truth and understanding in how we grow towards adulthood. The truth of what has happened in the trigger disappearance of Ifan Evans is fairly clear to the reader from very early on, but it takes Gwenni two-thirds of the book to realise; and as she begins to uncover the difficult truths in her own family as a result of this discovery, she admits, "I can guess, can't I? But.... I don't want to know." (caveat: since this quote is from an uncorrected proof it may not appear in the final version, but it so neatly sums up the key development that I can't not use it.)

This is another novel in which bad things happen: murders, suicides, betrayals and illegitimate children are all involved somewhere along the way. But Strachan weaves these elements into the plot with a very light touch, with the device of the child narrator allowing her to focus on the little details and avoid steeping the narrative too deeply in misery.

This is a lovely book, beautifully observed and very impressive for a first novel. Definitely recommended. Interesting that it's not been marketed as a crossover book also, as I think it would definitely suit the older end of the YA spectrum also.

FlossieT - Thanks so much for the great review of The Wasted Vigil. It is on my TBR list. Have you read any of Aslam's other books? I think Maps for Lost Lovers sounds interesting too.

Wow! Sounds like a couple of great recent reads. I already have The Wasted Vigil on Continent TBR, but I will add the other book as well. Thanks for posting your reviews!

porch_reader, this is my first Aslam. I did nearly get a copy of Maps for Lost Lovers from a book swap a couple of weeks ago, but changed my mind at the last minute as the Amazon reviews were wildly divergent (most gave it either 4-5 stars or 1-2!). I wouldn't normally let Amazon influence my decision but for once the bad reviews seemed quite thoughtfully compiled.

alcottacre, it's been nice to read a couple of really good books - I feel like I've been mired in reads that are either really disappointing, or "just" three-star, of late.

Makes you all the more appreciative of those truly glorious finds, doesn't it?

Flossie, thanks for your thoughts on The Wasted Vigil, it's now in my wish list. this is digressing a bit, but if you like films, there are 2 very good ones about Afghanistan which i can recommend. one is Osama by Siddiq Barmak (2003), the first Afghan film produced after the fall of the Taliban -- a moving story of a young girl during the Taliban regime who disguises as a boy in order for her family to survive. the other is a film which i just saw in an international documentary festival recently, The Stone Silence by Krzysztof Kopczynski, a Polish filmmaker. it's a disturbing and powerful account of the stoning of a 29-yr old woman for adultery in a remote village in 2005, a story which caused quite a stir in the international media.

deebee, thanks so much for the suggestions. I'm not really a film buff (all my "movie-watching time" is usually allocated to reading!), but the films you mention sound excellent. I'll have to look out for them.

87. The Magic Toyshop - Angela Carter

My first nudge from the Book Nudgers. Melanie is 15 and has discovered that she is growing into a woman. Sent to live with the grotesque Uncle Philip in his toyshop, with his dumb (literally not figuratively) wife and her two brothers, she has to come to terms with who she is growing into against a backdrop of grime and sinister secrets.

Quite interesting to read this after The Earth Hums in B Flat, actually, just for a different take on the growing-into-a-teenager theme, this was a very dark and sinister book, with some very striking imagery. Also an interesting example of one of those books stuffed with largely unsympathetic characters that still holds your attention. I can't exactly say I "enjoyed" this, but it was an interesting read. The blurb on the back claims it "explores and extends the nature of boundaries of love" but I didn't find much about love in it myself - more about the cobbled-together things that masquerade as love, and the events that drive people together into something that resembles love, but is more like desperation.

I think I need to go on to something a little lighter next.

(edit to add something that occurred to me as I hit the 'submit' button - doh - and then again to close the tag - double doh - thanks alcottacre!!)

Hi FlossieT, I'm getting the impression that you quite like The Wasted Vigil, is that right?! ;) Clearly something to give a go at some point...

I read The Magic Toyshop a few years ago - and, although my memory of it is fairly hazy, it's interesting to see that we have similar impressions of it, it was definitely a book that left me feeling undecided.

Incidently, I'm sorry, I've still got your Orwell book - I've managed to lose/delete your email with your address, so I couldn't remember where to drop it off - don't suppose you could send it to me again, could you, I'm feeling a bit guilty for hanging on to it for so long!

Well, I wouldn't want to over-egg the pudding.

Sorry re. Orwell book - got your email, my inbox has completely escaped from my control and that was one of the many I managed to open, read and then run out of time to actually reply to! Will do so now... but no guilt re hanging on, I'm not likely to re-read it just yet.

88. Mrs Palfrey at the Claremont - Elizabeth Taylor

I loved this. So precisely observed, complete clarity of insight but written with such sympathy.

The eponymous Mrs Palfrey has taken up residence at a hotel in Cromwell Road in London (near all the museums). "We aren't allowed to die there," she tells Ludo, the young man who picks her up after a nasty fall and ends up posing as her grandson.

I found this a perfect blend of wistful melancholy, sharp social observation leavened by a forgiving awareness of human frailty. I'd never read any Elizabeth Taylor before and I'd like to read some more now.

Flossie - I've never read Elizabeth Taylor either, but I'm definitely adding this one to my TBR list. Thanks for the recommendation. Unfortunately, my library doesn't have the book, but they do have the movie. Have you seen it?

#88 Flossie: Sounds like something I would like as well. Thanks for the recommendation!

Hi Flossie
I'm going to see if my local library has Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont. Thanks for your recommendation

I realised when I came back to this thread that it's quite a cryptic review!! Must plead extreme exhaustion - I have actually just defaulted on a 30th birthday invite this evening which I am feeling very very guilty about, but I was just way too tired to trek down to London and be vibrant and interesting to a lot of people I don't know.

What I should have said is that there are several other old people in the novel in similar situations to Mrs Palfrey, also in residence at the Claremont, and the book, as well as being a very carefully-drawn portrait of said Mrs Palfrey, is a perfectly-observed depiction both of the way the old people behave towards each other, and (I imagine) the sorts of things that might occupy one's mind in that sort of situation.

It was published in 1971, and Elizabeth Taylor, I see from the back of the lovely Virago copy I picked up, died in 1975, so the issues addressed in the book about ageing and loneliness must have been looming quite large for her. For a book published in the 70s (technically at least) it has a lot of the 1930s about it.

P.S. porch_reader: no, haven't seen the movie, but I would be really interested to do so! Very little of consequence, really, seems to happen, so it intrigues me what might have been chosen to by the director to play out on the screen. Who's in it?

Flossie - The DVD was released in December 2006. It stars a number of people with whom I'm not familiar, including:

Joan Plowright; Rupert Friend; Zoe Tapper; Anna Massey; Robert Lang (II); Marcia Warren; Georgina Hale; Millicent Martin; Michael Culkin; Anna Carteret; Lorcan O'Toole; Timothy Bateson; Clare Higgins; Emma Pike; Carl Proctor; Sophie Linfield; Olivia Caffrey

The Amazon.com ratings are very good. It's unrated, so maybe it was a made-for-TV movie? I'm not sure. I don't remember it coming out, but I'm not always that aware of movies - except for the animated ones!

Somewhere in the back of my mind, it runs that maybe Mrs. Palfrey was done for PBS? I could be entirely wrong about that, though.

Oh goodness, when you see the DVD, you will certainly be reminded who Joan Plowright, Anna Massey, Millicent Martin, and Timothy Bateson are because you'll have seen them in something else. The cast alone is recommendation for the show. (Plowright was Olivier's widow, but she was a terrific actress in her own right.) They are terrific.

And Rupert Friend was Wickham in the 2005 film version of Pride and Prejudice.

FlossieT, that's really quite spooky, I did exactly the same thing at the weekend (namely wimp out on a 30th birthday do in Camden) - the birthday victim didn't happen to be called Vicky?! ;)

I certainly can reccomend the Mrs. Palfrey movie. My aunt and I saw it last winter and both loved it. Plowright did a bang-up job and Rupert Friend was quite a find. Am now expecting his career to take off.

>114 porch_reader:-117, 119: gosh, thanks for the recommendations! Now I have something to ask for for Christmas :-)

>118 flissp:: flissp - it was actually in Camden! (Technically anyway - New Oxford Street). But the celebrants were my mate Simon and one of his workmates. Still feeling a bit guilty about not going, although given I was in bed by 10.30 on Saturday, I wasn't exactly the life and soul and would probably have had a miserable time!! Lots of photos on Facebook to make me feel a bit envious though (costume party - dress as nostalgic kids TV)

Ahem. Excuse the digression. I don't seem to be doing very much reading at the moment. Having given up reading the Saturday paper for a while in the grip of Booker fever, I have now resumed and I think that has swallowed a huge chunk of my book time. Plus I'm now reading The Kite Runner and to be honest not completely absorbed by it. Ah well.

a much belated congrats on 75 ;-> looks like you might hit it twice this year!

I would recommend the movie, as well. It made me want to read the book!

Haven't been on LT much the last few days - manic weekend - and it has taken me a little while to catch up on all the threads!

89. The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini

I was a bit underwhelmed by this TBH. If I hadn't already fallen in love with The Book I Read Recently That I Shall Not Name Because I Have Already Bored Everyone To Tears With How Much I Loved It, which I thought dealt with Afghanistan in a much better manner, I might have enjoyed this a little bit more - but not a lot. I wanted to read on to find out what happened, but there was an awful lot of telling rather than showing, and very clunky foreshadowing of certain pivot points in the narrative - very contrived.

Still going to give the Thousand Splendid Suns a go at some point.

90. How to Live Dangerously - Warwick Cairns

I've been meaning to read this for ages, having bought it for myself for my birthday - all about how we are to careful nowadays, too worried about the safety of our children and our health, and our overcaution is actually hazardous to our health and to that of our kids.

Very entertainingly written, with some interesting titbits, and I have folded down a fair few corners in order to remind myself of some of the reports and articles he references that sound worth looking at.

However, I didn't always feel his reasoning held water. And I think he also failed to address properly something that is a huge factor in the UK in trying to teach kids independence, and teaching them how to take risks "safely": the propensity of all and sundry to try to tell you how to bring your kids up, and the likelihood that allowing your children the sort of independence that was totally normal even 30 years ago is, in the 21st century, liable to see you investigated by social services. Still, it was a fun (and quick) read.

100 by 2009 is looking to be in jeopardy! I've slowed down a lot lately - things have been a bit hectic.

Flossie

Thanks for your description of your most recent read.

And, by the way, I too have slowed down a lot lately in my reading. Work has been overwhelming and I'm tired. Plus, the holidays are here and I am spending more time with family.

I'm simply glad I reached the 75 challenge as I didn't think this was possible.....

Flossie

I finished The Kite Runner yesterday night only and found it decent enough and have rated it 3.5 on a scale of 5. But then, I haven't read the "You know who" book which I sincerely hope you will tell me the name of...Like you, I also would give A Thousand Splendid Suns a try next year.

Piyush, I'd still give it 3 stars, but I just wasn't as blown away by it as many people seem to have been. Plus I found the narrator infuriating! I'm realising that generally I am less likely to enjoy books with a first-person narrator unless they're very skilfully done.

The other book I mentioned is Nadeem Aslam - The Wasted Vigil. I wasn't mentioning it by name, as I loved it so much while I was reading it that I burbled on and on about it all over several of the 75 threads, and figured most people were sick to the back teeth of my enthusiasm! So apologies to anyone that applies to....

>124 Whisper1:: Linda, yay the holidays are here!! I still have just under 4 weeks to go... and counting!!! I hope that helps with the tiredness. My reading usually speeds up during the hols as I can spend time during the day doing the sorts of chore things that usually clog my evenings, and reclaim the evenings for my books.

Hadn't heard of The Wasted Vigil, added to my next year TBR.

91. One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich - Alexander Solzhenitsyn

OK, so I finally cracked after rachbxl's fervent recommendations of this book :)

It's very hard to describe: the one-sentence description is: "One day in the life of a prisoner 8 years into his ten-year sentence in the Gulag, as he goes about building walls in minus-20 temperatures". Which doesn't exactly sound like a fun read. But it is really compelling: only a few pages in and I found myself completely hooked into Shukhov's experiences.

One minor quibble: I didn't particularly like the translation I was reading (Penguin Modern Classics) - one of those that substitutes English colloquialisms for, presumably, Russian ones, and ends up feeling a little out of joint as the expressions are just completely out of place amid the snow and howling gales (reminding me why I don't read as much literature in translation as I probably should do). I quite want to go off to that group someone mentioned recently on one of the 75 threads (about translation geeks) and see if I can find an alternative.

Thanks to rachbxl in particular, but others too, for promoting this so enthusiastically. And of course, it has the happy side-effect of making the minor trials and tribulations of my everyday life seem really quite feeble compared to deciding when to eat how much of 200g of bread in order to keep your stomach happiest for the longest possible length of time.

A couple of you have been reading Cancer Ward too recently, haven't you - is this worth a look? I nearly bought a copy today but thought I'd get a second opinion (eurgh, sorry, bad pun) first.

Flossie, i read Cancer Ward a couple of weeks ago. my thoughts are over at my thread, if you're interested.

Oh, thank you, deebee - I knew I'd read a proper review.... It really does sound good (actually I think my husband would love it, given it blends two of his most passionate interests, medicine and politics).

Will put it on the list, although it may be a little while before I get to it - I think I'm going to be attempting some lighter reads as we wind down towards Christmas. Am partway through The Golden Notebook right now (as a result of the online project, which I think looks very cool indeed!), which looks like it might be quite intense.

No. 91 sounds fascinating - may have to go on my list of Christmas books...

I'm intrigued by the online project/The Golden Notebook - what is this?

flissp, it's at http://thegoldennotebook.org and is an interactive reading project. Seven women (mostly writers) who've never read it before are reading it online and commenting 'in the margins'. The whole of the text has been made available on the website so the public can read along too, and there is a public forum also (although only the seven can comment directly on the main text). I did start reading on the site, but found it quite wearing, particularly as it begins with a preface Lessing wrote to a later edition, which it's quite hard to take in onscreen.

Actually having picked up the book, I've barely gone back to the site!! But I thought it was a really interesting idea.

oooh, that sounds interesting - i shall have to take a look (but maybe over the holidays!)

Nothing new for weeks as I have been struggling through...

92. The Golden Notebook - Doris Lessing

This is one of those books that I put on my list a long while ago because the Grauniad did it as one of their 'book club' books and I found the commentaries really interesting. Plus it sounded "seminal", "important", "political" and all those other things I keep thinking I ought to read more of. Then when the online project started (and waterstones.com had it half-price...) I decided the time was right. I was soooo wrong....

This book is a lot about its own structure. Its basis is a short-ish novel entitled 'Free Women', about a thirty-ish single mother, Anna, living in London in the mid-1950s, and dealing with, amongst other things, her increasing disillusionment with Communism and mental breakdown. Interleaved with the sections of the novel are extracts from the notebooks that the central character, a writer, keeps, each different-coloured notebook supposedly containing a single strand of her thought - her writing life, her political life, her emotional life, and so on. The "golden notebook" of the title only enters the narrative very near the end, in a bizarre inversion uniting the strands that she has hitherto kept segregated in her notebooks at the point at which she seems closest to complete collapse.

I have to admit that I really struggled through this, for several reasons. One, it's REALLY long. I admit this does sound feeble, but I have read several 'long' books this year without being made quite so conscious of their length, so it's not a general inability to cope with expansiveness. Two, I found it really hard to engage with the particular problems of the central characters, who are all part of a 'progressive' group who have a lot of casual relationships. Lessing wrote in the notes afterwards something about "young people" finding it fantastical, but that being how it was at the time - but it just seemed to me that it was speaking only to a very specific group of people. I also felt that the Anna's relationship with her daughter was never properly fleshed out - Janet often appeared merely a plot device, a useful point around which to reorientate the story.

There's much in the writing to admire, and it's obviously very important. I just didn't really enjoy it, and should have put it down weeks ago and tried something else, leaving it for a time when I was more 'in the mood'.

I'm also going to count:

93. Silverfin - Charlie Higson

I've been reading this out loud intermittently to my eldest as part of my bid to get him to read something different other than the same books in his favourite series over and over and over again... we had a deal that I would buy him the latest in the Cressida Cowell Hiccup Horrendous Haddock series if he would agree to read something different. Silverfin sat unread for the whole of its first library loan period, and when I nudged my son about it, he explained seriously, "Mum, my teacher was telling us how when you're writing a story it's important to find a 'hook' to draw the reader in - and Silverfin just doesn't!" So I offered to read the first couple of chapters with him. And boy was he right. The copy we were reading was 360 pages long, and it didn't get really interesting until about page 300; even worse, about the first 100 pages were detailed backstory about the young James Bond's time settling into Eton, apart from the opening token exciting scene - which wasn't all that exciting as it involved a stupefyingly high level of technical vocabulary about fishing.

I'm not sorry I read this, as it was really lovely to read something out loud with the eldest - we don't do it so often now he's big enough to read for himself. But boy, it was tedious. His classmates tell him that the others in the series are better, but I think I'll leave him to find that out for himself....

Now moving on to Inkheart, which looks like it will slip down rather easier than either of those! The film is just out over here, and I have poached the copy of aforementioned eldest in anticipation of being hassled to go and see it.

I've added a bunch of your recent reads to my "wishlist". Haven't heard of any of the authors (Aslam, Strachan, and Taylor), which makes it even more exciting! Its like discovering a new planet, or something.

>135 alaskabookworm:: thanks, alaska! Mairi Strachan is a first-time novelist. I was hearing dire things at work today about the number of publishers that aren't buying any new books because of the financial crisis, and I'm really glad this one sneaked in before that.

I had heard of Elizabeth Taylor, but never read anything by her before - am definitely going to seek out more. Nadeem Aslam completely new to me but I think that was definitely my best book of the year. Has really sparked off an interest in Afghanistan for me - although after not being so taken with The Kite Runner, I'm thinking I'm going to try to read some non-fiction. Just got The Sewing Circles of Herat from Bookmooch and am looking forward to it.

I wasn't so thrilled with The Kite Runner either. But I loved his second book. I look forward to Aslam.

Message #134
Flossie
Doris Lessing writes some pretty deep stuff eh?
I think I'll stay away from The Golden Notebook
I'm curious why certain writers seem to get stuck in a grove of heaviness. For awhile I stayed away from Joyce Carol Oates because she seemed to write about heavy, heavy topics.

#136: Rachael, I think I am with Whisper on this one. If I slog through that many pages, I want it to at least be something that I enjoyed slogging through!

>138 Whisper1: and >139 alcottacre:: indeed! When I got to about page 250 and made a whimpering noise about not enjoying it but feeling that having invested that much time in it, I had to finish, my husband did try gently to remind me of the old adage about not throwing good money after bad....

The structural elements are really very interesting, and it is one of those books that has a lot of intriguing ideas about the relationships between fiction and autobiography, which given Lessing's fiction is meant to be highly autobiographical, I did appreciate. But it was just too much. A good book to read, I think, when you are reading around that period of the 20th century, and have a bit of space to think about it and cross-reference more.

>139 alcottacre: RE: Slogging through a long book.

I am currently reading Shantaram which weighs in at a massive 933 pages.

I have reached page 275 and even though the writing is excellent, the characters interesting and I want to know what happens next, I find that I am restless. I have already read two other books while reading this one. There is nothing wrong with the book exactly but after listening to one voice for any length of time I feel the need for a change of pace, tone, focus, or something! Is anyone else affected this way while reading a long book?

- TT

I am. I intersperse longer books with shorter ones. I will read 50 pages or so of the longer book and then break it up with a chapter or two (depending on their length) from a shorter one. I think this method really helps me get through some of the longer tomes.

TT
I stopped reading Michener a long time ago for the exact reasons you mentioned.

>141 TheTortoise: & >142 alcottacre:: I did think about doing that, but was finding it so hard to keep a grip on the narrative that I was worried I'd lose the thread completely and end up re-reading loads! Thinking about it, of the other long books I read this year, they were either of the ensemble-cast, Middlemarch style, with some variety of plot and character to keep you from numbing up, or they had a more entertaining tone. The Golden Notebook wasn't especially 'plotty', and was very much bound up in the central character, so this didn't help. Interesting perspective there!

LOL I received Michener's Caravans and have wondered if I wanna go there. TT sometimes I feel that way, but othere times I'm too gripped to notice, even with the same author or eries. Recently read Curse of the Mistwraiths (660+) and kept putting it down. I had parties to plan and other brain work and Curse just required to much attention. But then, perhaps because the deadlines were over?, I inhaled book 2, Ships of Merior at (770). Her writing is so artful -- that helps a lot.

>143 Whisper1: I remember reading Michener's Hawaii and absolutely loved it. I have tried other Michener's but without success! Strange though, the only thing I can remember about Hawaii is Pineapples! Oh yes and the beautiful Hawaian/Chinese girls!

>144 FlossieT: Flossie, I thought Middlemarch was brill, but again at the end I felt it was just too long. The exhaustion factor kicks in and it just makes you long for the end to come so you can get relief.

I think I may give up trying to read long books, I would rather read three books of 300 pages than one of 900 pages.

On the other hand see my review of Heart of Darkness a novella that I couldn't even finish!

Maybe I'm just a shallow Tortoise!

- TT

TT - I had to take a couple breaks while reading Don Quixote. It took me like six weeks to read it - an almost unprecedented amount of time for me to get through a book. It was worth it though. My biggest fear with setting a long book aside "temporarily" is that I won't ever pick it back up again (like I did with Embracing Defeat, which I still haven't finished - again, an almost unprecedented occurance.)

>147 alaskabookworm: So are you embracing defeat on the book you've set aside?

>147 alaskabookworm:: LOL at 'Embracing Defeat'!!

I loved (and love) Middlemarch. So many beautiful vignettes in that sprawling plot: "We would die of that roar that lies just the other side of silence." Sigh. Would that there were life enough to reread it... when I retire. Or win the lottery - no, wait: to do that I have to buy a ticket, don't I....

>148 suslyn: suslyn: that's funny. I'd never actually made that connection before. But no, actually, I'm not really embracing my inability to finish a book. My sleepless nights are haunted.

I've wanted to read Middlemarch for a long time. I loved Silas Marner but that's the only Eliot I've read.

-- jokes don't always translate well :) I loved watching Silas Marner ... maybe I'll read that for one of my classics. Thanks for provoking the thought.

>149 FlossieT: love, love Middlemarch also. So much in there. I think some have trouble getting into it, but it's worth the effort (imo, of course).

>150 alaskabookworm: Alaska, if you loved Silas Marner which is an inferior book then you will absolutely die for Middlemarch which is practically perfect in every way! Don't let the length put you off, it will not disappoint, I promise!

149 Flossie, it is definately a re-read for retirement!

- TT

...or a Christmas read?! ;) I loved it too - although it did take a little getting in to for me - I persevered because it's my sister's favourite book and we have fairly similar tastes and I was very glad I did!

I do know what you all mean about getting itchy feet with particularly long books - does depend a bit on the book (had _no_ problems with The Count of Monte Cristo, but that's probably because it's action from beginning to end), but doesn't seem to relate to how enjoyable it is. I think it helps if you've got a break long enough to read nonstop - haven't had much time for that this year!

>154 flissp:: nah, too many other things to read over Christmas!! That Francine Prose book, Reading like a Writer, just leaped onto the counter in the bookstore as I was paying the other day. I tried to make myself feel better by telling my husband he could give it me for Christmas....

94. Inkheart - Cornelia Funke

This was lovely - shelved as YA in our library, but in 9-12 on the bookshop and I think that's where it belongs, really - the heroine is quite a young 12, and it's not quite dark enough to deter the younger reader.

I loved all the bookish stuff, especially the quotes at the beginning of her chapters (which have inevitably led to me adding to my TBR list a couple of books previously unknown to me by writers I once knew and loved - Eva Ibbotson, Michael Ende). The translation is excellent - Anthea Bell is a complete genius; not that I speak German, I just mean the whole thing flows so well, and you are only very, very rarely aware that you are reading a translated book.

Now I can go watch the film with my son with a clear conscience.

And it's slightly cheating to count this as it's so short it's more of a pamhplet than a book, but what the hell - I feel I've earned it after the wretched Notebook:

95. Christmas is Coming - Do Nothing - Stephen Cottrell

An impulse buy with my bookshop loyalty points, and one I wish I'd picked up earlier in December. Aimed really at the non-Christian, the basic idea is that there is a short sort of 'meditation' for each day of December, followed by some suggested actions, all aimed at taking a step back, breathing, finding some space etc. etc. I liked it because I never have enough time to read the real productivity/decluttering/etc. books that I probably need to, but 25 days with 2 short pages per day seems manageable. Nice.

Yep, I know what you mean - I had all sorts of plans for my Christmas reading, then realised that it would involve reading at least 2 books a day, one of which was War and Peace, which I'm positive will take more than 1 - somehow, even with an unusually un-busy Christmas this year, I don't think that that's going to happen!!

Inkheart worth a read then, you say?

You could always take Woody Allen's approach: "I took the speed reading course and read 'War and Peace' in twenty minutes. It's about Russia."

>156 flissp:: flissp, yes, I would definitely recommend it. Quite a bit of the YA fiction I've read this year has been a little disappointing because it's just a little bit sloppy - feels a bit like, "oh, they won't notice, they're only children..." This felt very well-wrought, if you like. Some of the to-ing and fro-ing of the plot got a bit irritating (lots of escaping and then being captured again, or choosing to go back), and personally I didn't find the villain quite as terrifying as he was probably supposed to be. But I can't help but love a book that is based around loving books :) Also, it slips down really easily - it's over 500 pages, but quite large print, in multiple short chapters, and just trots along very nicely.

I've still never read War and Peace. It was on my terrifyingly long pre-university reading list, most of which I never made it through.

>158 FlossieT:: FlossieT, have you read The Thief Lord by Funke? I found it OK, not great and wondered how Inkheart compared.

>159 TadAD:: afraid I haven't, Tad - sorry I can't offer a comparison! My son actually got me started on them - I bought him a copy of Inkheart in a charity shop, knowing next to nothing about it but thinking it looked quite fun, as part of my clearly doomed campaign to broaden his reading. Then they started reading Dragon Rider at school; he bought himself a copy in another charity shop, finished it ahead of the class, and liked it so much it convinced him to pick up Inkheart. (And then I thought I'd better read it to get ahead of the film.)

Thanks Rachel - I'll try to give it a go next year - although I was starting to summarise the books I've read this year last night and I seem to have read even more children's fiction than usual - not necessarily a bad thing, but I'd like to try to be a bit more balanced next year! ...ah, who am I kidding - I love the escapism of children's books!

Incidently, I'm not sure how old your son is, but my (nearly) 11 year old (male) cousin who normally has a very short attention span and used to never read absolutely adored The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy 'trilogy' (as did I a few years older - and still do)...

Re War and Peace, my dad gave me a lovely edition of it for Christmas last year (partly because I'd been enjoying loads of Russian authors at the time) and I'm feeling guilty for never quite getting around to it!

Happy Christmas, all - hope you have all had an opportunity to put your feet up and indulge in just a few more pages over the mince pies and whatever!

96. A Complicated Kindness - Miriam Toews

I got this from BookMooch months and months ago but somehow never got round to reading it, but with a copy of The Flying Troutmans due from Early Reviewers I thought I'd better read something else she's written. Nomi is a disaffected teenager living in a Mennonite town in Manitoba. The novel opens a few years after her mother and elder sister have left the town.

Some of the reviews have compared Nomi to Holden Caufield (sp.?), and I can certainly see where that comes from - the disaffected voice, rebellious behaviour etc. etc. The book is really well put together, and the voice is very well realised, but by the end the distanced numbness began to get to me a little: Nomi seems somehow to be experiencing everything at arm's length, and without much curiosity about her own behaviour. To be fair, probably a pinpoint accurate picture of being a teenager, but it just began to grate slightly. A good read, though.

97. The Bookshop - Penelope Fitzgerald

My first Fitzgerald. Florence Green is a widowed middle-aged woman who decides to set up a bookshop in the small Suffolk town in which she lives, in the face of opposition from local notables.

Tbh I was a little bit underwhelmed by this. It's only a tiny slim thing, but I had real trouble getting into it, and kept having to reread chapters early on because I forgot it all as soon as I put it down. Also, I have to admit to being too much of an idealist to really enjoy books in which an enthusiastic and hopeful person is crushed by the myopia of small-town society. I will look out for more by Penelope Fitzgerald, though, as I think I was more put off by the plot than the writing.

98. 24 for 3 - Jennie Walker

Another short one, from my Christmas stocking :-) Over the course of the five days of a test cricket match between England and India, a woman's relationships with her husband, lover and 16-year-old stepson come to a head, against the background of her attempting to understand the rules of cricket.

This is, as one of the jacket blurbs says, "a little gem". Beautifully structured and put together, and to my mind (MINOR SPOILER) the absolute best capturing of a female voice by a male writer (Jennie Walker is a pen name) that I have ever read - I didn't read the jacket biog until the end of the book and was completely astonished.

Yay for holidays.

I hope you had a wonderful holiday, too, Rachael!

As for Penelope Fitzgerald, I heartily recommend The Blue Flower. Give it a try and see what you think.

24 for 3 sounds very good, and I will add it to Continent TBR. I really like little gems!

I was underwhelmed by The Bookshop also but may take a look at The Blue Flower.

>163 alcottacre:: thanks, Stasia - it was touch and go on Christmas morning, with late-rising (counting my blessings) but very grumpy and hence warring children.... then we fed the eldest several toasted English muffins. hey presto, all is well. It scares me how sensitive his mood is to his blood sugar levels. Hope you had a good one too?

I'd noted down Innocence and The Gate of Angels to try, but will put The Blue Flower on the list also - thanks.

flissp

Douglas Adams is indeed an absolute delight, loved the five books (still known as trilogy for some reason) in The Hitchhiker's Guide to Galaxy, still The Long Dark Teatime of the Soul is my single most favourite Douglas Adams book.

Have big plans for War and Peace next year, hoping that I wont give up on it, was able to finish Anna Karenina this year without much ado.

It's a trilogy because Douglas Adams declared it to be a trilogy:

Mostly Harmless: the fifth in the increasingly inaccurately named Hitchhiker's trilogy

>166 PiyushC: and >167 TadAD:, my husband gave me a copy of Don't Panic for Christmas (which I originally discovered on flissp's list!) - unfortunately not being a reader, he bought the original, "vintage" (as he described it) edition of 1987, which doesn't cover Mostly Harmless.

Has spurred me to order the 2003 edition from the library - and here I was toying with the idea that I would not buy or order any new books this year in order to erode the unread stacks... maybe some kind of quota system? Or can I count this as not a "new" order since I kind of have a copy already? hmm.

#165: Yes, I have a very nice Christmas (except for working that night). Luckily, my girls are older so no squabbling or any of that rot.

>169 alcottacre:: I look forward eagerly to days of no squabbling!!

99. The Loudest Sound and Nothing - Clare Wigfall

This short story collection was in our booksellers' Christmas selection, and having picked it up and then virtuously put it down again several times in the shop, I put it on my Christmas list. I have tried to slow down my reading of it by picking up other things, because I wanted it to last as long as possible, but just kept turning back to it and now it's all gone (sob).

I'm going to get my criticisms out of the way first: one, the way she writes about motherhood is unconvincing. There are babies in several of these stories, but they are written about with such little care and attention that they seem like mere accessories, serving as useful plot devices and decoration, but not provoking much approaching real emotion in the characters. In the one story in which it is necessary that a mother be very concerned for the safety of her child, the emotion is fear rather than love. I'm looking forward to future writing when perhaps she might have a little more experience to tackle this subject properly. Two, I found some of the speech/dialogue awkward - strangely, given she is English by birth, especially the English characters, where the attempts at regional accent seemed very caricatured, which, for me, slightly spoiled the impact of those stories that do include direct speech.

These minor points aside, this is an incredibly accomplished collection. The settings and styles of the stories are very varied: Carver-esque in places, near science fiction in others, many varying points of view, characters, voices and settings. Wigfall favours the in media res approach, and most of these stories feel like they are glimpses of a much larger story, a scene excerpted from the life. What she doesn't tell you is as interesting as what she does. I particularly enjoyed her 're-tellings': Bonnie and Clyde from Clyde's point of view was particularly enjoyable, and there's an entertaining Adam and Eve story. Susan Hill's quote on the cover hails her as the next Helen Simpson, but (although I love Helen Simpson), Wigfall's range is far wider than Simpson's. I would recommend this highly to anyone that enjoys short stories.

100. Alcatraz Versus the Evil Librarians - Brandon Sanderson

I know I got this YA off another 75er's list... but so far have been unable to track it down!! (Edit: found it - I have ronincats to 'blame'!) Anyway, whoever you are, thanks - this was a fun and quick read. Did suffer a bit from having its hero start the book unaware of his particular powers as there was a lot of explaining to be done - personally I prefer the explanations to unfold more subtly along with the action in this sort of thing - but there were lots of very nice touches. I think the monsters made from bad romance novels were possibly my favourite.

Probably won't read on to the rest of the series, tbh, but it was very amusing and well-paced; I also really liked all of the self-referential stuff about authorial technique, which also makes me think my son will like it; he has decided he's going to be a writer and is currently composing his third "novel" (the last one was even too thick to be bound with our home stapler, although he did print it out in 15-point Times New Roman...)

I wasn't sure I'd make 100 so it's really nice to have done so. I must say that's one thing I like lots about the 75-book target: I have a distinct tendency to push myself too hard in all the rest of my life, and it's rather lovely to have a personal goal that I feel is achievable without too much in the way of sweat and tears and other unpleasantries.

I had 100 in mind as a sort of unofficial target, so am very pleased to have got there - and particularly because it has allowed me to get to "know" such a great bunch of other readers. I'm really looking forward to starting 2009 with you all.

congratulations on reaching your unofficial target ;-)

FlossieT - Congratulations on reaching 100! And tell your son that I hope that his book will by on my 75 Book Challenge in 20XX!

Rachael
Congratulations on reaching 100 books in 2008!

regarding your message 171 and trying to track down who recommended a book.

A few months ago I started to tag books as follows:

TO BE READ, found on Fam's list
TO BE READ, found on Alcottacre's list
TO BE READ, found on FlossieT's list

Whenever I added a book, I noted via the Tag, the person who posted about it.

It has helped me a lot.

I am going to read Alcatraz versus the Evil Librarians sometime in 2009, I think, despite the fact that I know that there can never be such a person as an evil librarian :)

ETA: I forgot to add my Woo Hoo! for your making the 100 book mark. Congratulations!

Congratulations for reaching three figures!

Well done, Rachael!

Congrats

>174 Whisper1: I use something like 'report to Stasia' so I know who recommended the book and wants to know how I found it -- we'll see how/if it works for me later as I haven't made it to any of these books yet.

>174 Whisper1: & >178 suslyn:: Linda/Susan, for some reason I haven't yet taken the step of keeping my wishlist on LT (with the exception of one or two that I tagged that way experimentally). I quite happily add books to my library that I have only borrowed (whether from the public library or friends), but somehow adding ones I haven't read, or even "acquired" yet, isn't something I'm comfortable with. Baby steps.... correctly giving credit where it's due could be the impetus I need!

>175 alcottacre:: Stasia, that's just what they want you to think. In fact librarians rule the world (both the bits we know about and the bits we don't). But I won't say any more in case I spoil it :)

Thank you for all the congratulations too. I'm still hoping to make it 101 for 2008...

I don't add anything I haven't read (or started and given up on) to my LT library because I don't think it's right to count them in my library totals, so I keep them over on Amazon. However, I've often wished I remembered who recommended various things. For 2009, I'm going to keep track of it in my 75er thread, I think.

The way I found Alcatraz in the end was to go to the 'work' entry on LT, then click the 'Conversations' link over on the left and look for the 75 threads. As long as it's been 'touchstoned', it pops up :)

101. Reading Like a Writer - Francine Prose

I'd read mixed opinions on this here on LT but I really enjoyed this. An exhortation to revive the practice of close reading, which I appreciated, firstly for its likely value in helping me explain here why I did or didn't like a book, secondly because of my boss's dissection of the opening section of The Wings of the Dove earlier this year with the dismissive comment, "No one writes like this any more." :) (really, Nicky, people do...)

I didn't always agree with Prose's opinions on a text, or choice of examples, but I particularly loved the chapter on Chekhov, and it has added several writers to my TBR list, plus given me a resolution to tackle some of the great Russian classics in 2009.

I didn't want to admit that 2008 was really out until tomorrow, but it occurs to me that as DH is working tomorrow, I'm going to be in sole charge of the munchkins and unlikely to have a leisurely period of time to reflect on a year of reading. So... I'll grab the five minutes while they're in the bath this evening!!

I have really loved this group this year. Like others, I've tried to read all the posts, even on threads on which I haven't actually posted, and it is amazing the ground we've covered between us. I've been an avid reader since the age of 5, but am truly humbled by the mileage ("page-age"?) you guys manage - particularly around jobs, family and some significant life crises.

I didn't really start the year intending to track what I read, but I started absentmindedly logging the books I was reading in a Facebook app somewhere around the middle of last year. Things were therefore made much easier for me when I finally got around to joining this group. It seems strange to think that I've never formally kept a record before now.

Lots of discussion has been had about the target 75. I don't think that it has driven me to read more - but sharing my thoughts here, and participating in discussion about other books, has definitely spurred me on.

I feel very, very blessed to have discovered LT and the 75ers, and am looking forward to joining you in 2009.

Happy New Year!

(better go now, shouts of "stop it!" and "HELP!!" from the bathroom suggest that either imminent flooding or inhaled water are next on the munchkins' agenda...)

FlossieT - I have only one kid in the bath right now (the other is watching a bowl game), so I think it is safe for me to jot a quick Happy New Year to you. I've really enjoyed following your thread this year and look forward to seeing what you read in 2009.

Happy New Year!

Thanks, Amy - and likewise! I'm being a bit superstitious about starting my 2009 thread but this time tomorrow I'll be there...

I had really intended my last post to be my wrap-up for the year but then I finished a book yesterday which immediately made me want to revisit an old friend, so...

102. Vanishing Cornwall - Daphne du Maurier

This is a little bit hard to classify - I guess it's closest to a history, but it's not the rigorous sort: it skips about a lot and misses out big chunks. It also covers myths and folklore, and famous Cornish themes such as smuggling ("fair-trading", apparently) and tin-mining, all tied together by elements of a sort of travelogue following du Maurier and her son as they travel about the region collecting snippets (and photos) for the book. I found out some lovely little interesting snippets, and there is a great chapter on the Brontes (their mother came from Cornwall and moved to Yorkshire when she married, as did the aunt who followed to care for them when she died).

Nice little aside on Jamaica Inn too, which is now just off one of the main routes down through Cornwall and hence a busy tourist stop:

"As a motorist I pass by with some embarrassment, feeling myself to blame, for out of that November evening long ago came a novel which proved popular, passing, as fiction does, into the folk-lore of the district. As the author I am flattered, but as a one-time wanderer dismayed."

Then with a head full of Cornwall, I was suddenly mad keen to re-read:

103. Greenwitch - Susan Cooper

Wondering if I can find a way to persuade my eldest to read this series as they are just sooooo good. It's not just the plots, but the writing itself. The scene in which Jane watches the making of the Greenwitch, and the whole sense of her growing up over the course of this book, is just so perfectly captured. I love it just as much now as when I first read it (aged about 10, if the stamp in the front of the book which notes my class at the time is anything to go by).

And I REALLY think I'll be struggling to get any more in this year - will see you all over in 2009 tomorrow.

I hope you have a wonder New Year, Rachael!!

>182 FlossieT: Flossie, I have a Russian Writers category for 2009 (see my profile).
They have been sitting on my bookshelf for years and so I decided to make a category of them.

We can compare notes in 2009.

- TT

Rachael
I have enjoyed your posts and I want to thank you for the books you have sent to me in 2008! I've learned a lot through you and I am blessed.

Rachel - congratulations on beating 100!

re >168 FlossieT:, Don't Panic, I think that you can count it as an extension of the first one ;) - the new edition only adds a couple of chapters anyway...